A few months has past since Spike the young dragon found love in the most unlikely of places, in our goddess of the night princess Luna and he could never be happier. Now he wants to share his happiness with his best friends the elements of harmony and Luna's sister princess Celestia but he is also faced with a choking reality. A dragon pony relationship has never been heard of on Equis let alone Equestria. Will the ponies he has been close to for so long, accept his new found love or will they be judgmental and think harshly of him for his choice. This is the thought that worries him, but sometime love is worth even the greatest of threats.
also for those who may have noticed, i changed the cover photo because the original photo i had for it disappeared and i could no longer find it. so i had to switch it to this one because it was the best one i could find related to the topic.
Spike was sitting on the porch looking up at the stars searching for something, and then he found it, the moon sitting in a sea of darkness with twinkling lights surrounding it. This was the second most beautiful sight he had ever seen and it only reminded him of someone who meant everything to him. When he looked up at the moon every night he did not see a glowing white orb, no when he stared at it he only saw one thing, a mare. This mare was the love of his life, the object of his interest and affection, a mare who stole his heart only a few months ago. In the moon he saw Princess Luna the love of his life, this was an optical illusion that he asked her to make happen to him, so he would always be able to look up in the night sky and see her face.
He pulled a small gem out of his scales that he kept tucked away. This gem was no ordinary gem however, no this gem even though it seemed normal on the outside, contained a magical spell that only the two being’s love could produce, a magical mind connection spell. This spell made it so that no matter how far they were from each other, the gem would bring him and his love together. Spike looked at the gem and marveled at how their love had created such a piece of art. The gem had been crafted by a magic forger, who carved it into the shape of a heart and harnesses concentrated love magic, one that Spike and Luna could wield together. He held it to his head and into it he poured all of his love, then a magical field enveloped him, a few second after that the field dissipated and he was gone.
Luna was sitting in her room thinking she was lucky, for her it was a free day. There was no court to be held tonight, because there simply was nothing to discuss or approve, her sister was taking care of the little work that needed to be done that day anyway. Luna sat there at her desk writing a letter that she was having difficulty writing. It was to her sister and the Elements of Harmony, it was about something that she dreads to tell anypony, for she thought they would shun her. She finished it finally, and read it out loud so that she made sure she didn’t miss a detail.
Dear Celly There is something I wish to discuss with you tomorrow. I am holding a picnic and you are all invited. The reason that I am inviting you on such short notice is because it is about a matter that is dear to my heart, something I cannot tell you in a letter. It is something I must tell you in person and it is probably the biggest decision I will ever have to make. Please come to this picnic as this matter affects you all and I need to at least tell you first before I make this public. I look forward to seeing you all there.
Sincerely the goddess of the moon and stars, Princess Luna
“Wow that will surely get their attention.” Luna recognized that masculine voice; it belonged to her love, “SPIKE!" Luna turned around and jumped at the young dragon embracing him in a hug which he affectionately returned by nuzzling her and rubbing her mane.
"I missed you so much Spike, with all my princess duties, we haven’t been able to see each other in two weeks, I am so sorry.” Spike let go of Luna and gave her a comforting smile.
“Luna you know that I will always forgive you, after all you are my love and you know what, I have a feeling that they will support us in our decision.”
“Spike I know you believe that, and I want to as well but, you know how some ponies can be, what if they don’t except our relationship Spike, I don’t know if I could take that kind of blow.” Luna was sitting there panicking and spike had grown use to her random panic attacks. Spike did the one thing he knew would stop her dead, he pulled her face into his and their lips mashed together in a kiss that could only be described as harmonious. A few minutes later Spike broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.
“Luna in all your years of living have you ever known your sister to be that shallow, let alone the Elements of Harmony.” “Cadence found out and she accepted our relationship, so I’m sure they will do the same.” Luna thought back on that particular day when the goddess of love had found out about her unique relationship with her dragon lover. It was a day like any other for Cadence or so she would think; she woke up, took a shower and got ready for the day. After slipping on her regalia she went and woke up her husband.
"Honey, it's time to wake up, you have to get ready for work.” Shining Armor stirred in their bed and lifted his head up so he could look at his wife.
“Sweetie I thought I told that I hired an assistant to do my paper work so I could spend more time with you.”
“Well I don’t want you getting lazy and fat so you’re going to do your work.” “I have already sent the mare home and had her transfer to a job that I know she wants, which leaves you to do your job like you’re supposed to, and not be a lazy bum.” Shining Armor groaned and got out of bed, he went and took a shower then got into his special armor, which he’d received after his promotion to commander. “Now would you look at that, don’t you look like a sexy solider in that uniform.” Cadence gave a seductive wink and headed out the door with her husband following close behind. Once they had reached their destination Shining Armor gave his wife a kiss and headed into his office. Cadence continued on to Canterlot Castle and to get started on her duties as well. Cadence recently became princess of the Crystal Empire and so she had the responsibility to take care of her subjects, which she would commit to after learning about them through their history books. She reached the castle and went into the main hallway. As she navigated the corridors to her office, she past the kitchen promptly turning to look and then froze, she turned around slowly and peaked into the kitchen that she just past. What she saw shocked her on so many levels but she continued to watch anyway. Inside the kitchen were a mare and a dragon that she quickly recognized as Spike and Luna, but what they were doing is what baffled her. They were feeding breakfast to each other, like lovers in a restaurant. Cadence saw the looks on their faces and knew that those were the faces of two ponies dumbstruck by love.
“Luna would you like another strip of French Toast, or maybe a Strawberry perhaps?”
“Both those sound yummy but I think I am in the mood for some of my sugar dragon” and then she planted one right on his lips. She stuck her tongue through and he granted her entry. This was always exciting for her when they kissed because she liked to trace over the edge of his jagged teeth. They continued like this for a few minutes then she broke it. “Yep that definitely tastes better, and I wouldn’t mind a little more.” She was about to go further with this, but somepony made a cough sound when they were in mid kiss.
“AHEM, well this is the last thing I expected to see on my way to work.” The two turned to look at the amused Cadence at the kitchen entrance. Luna was in too much shock to speak, so Spike was left to speak for them both.
“Ummm Cadence, hi h-how are you d-doing this morning?" Spike had a somewhat scared look on his face but he was trying to cover that up by being at least somewhat formal.
“Let’s just cut to the chase, I know what you guys were doing, I saw the whole thing.” The two lovers gulped in unison and started to get extremely nervous. “Why didn’t you guys tell me you were dating? I’ve been waiting a long time for Aunty Luna to get a love life, although I didn’t expect you to be that sompony Spike, still it is great to see you both in love.” The two fell out of their chairs in a deadpan motion but quickly recovered.
“Wait so you’re not mad? you’re not going to protest and say this is wrong like every other pony would?”
“Why would I go and do a thing like that Spike, I am the goddess of love and as such it is my duty to promote true love no matter who the subjects, and that includes you two. It’s clearly obvious that you two truly love each other but if I may ask, when did this happen.” The dragon explained what had happen and how they had met.
“Well it kind of happened at the Grand Galloping Gala a few months ago. Princess Luna was roaming the halls alone, I stumbled upon her and we started talking. I introduced myself and for a while she got me to believe that her name was Princess Selena. We talked about each other for a while then we ended up back at the Gala. We pranked a few of those snobby high class ponies, because they bullied a waiter. After that she showed me the top of the Lunar Tower. She then explained to me who she truly was and I got scared at first. I did a dumb thing and couldn’t see past my own fear of Nightmare Moon for a few minutes, she started to cry and that made me feel like a real ass. How could I have been so careless not to see that she wasn’t Nightmare Moon anymore. I did the only thing I could to fix the situation, I kissed her and that’s when I realized, I love her.” Cadence sat there taking in all this information, processing what she heard from Spike then she looked to Luna for confirmation, she then explained it from her view. They sat there for the better part of a few hours going over every moment leading up till the current timeline, when they finished they waited for Cadences response. She sat there for a minute then spoke.
“Wow that is really something, and a memorable night I'm sure but how did the others take this news.”
“We haven’t told them yet, we are waiting for the right moment, so please don’t tell them. We need you to keep this a secret till were ready to do so, Luna said calmly.”
“I will keep this secret for you but, might I suggest revealing it soon because if it was some random pony that found you two here instead of me, they could have started a bunch of slandering rumors that would do some real damage.” They both nodded to Cadence in agreement. “Oh by the way I’m really proud of both of you, you two deserve each other.” Cadence proceeded out of the kitchen leaving Spike and Luna in a state of relief knowing that Cadence was ok with their relationship.
“Well I guess your right Spike thank you for doing that, you always know the right words to say.”
“Well considering Twilight goes through panic attacks like a foal does candy, I think I’ve had enough experience to know how to handle situations like this. So what spot did you pick to hold the picnic?”
“I thought that the Canterlot Garden would be a good place as any to tell them.”
“I think that’s a great spot, and like I said I’m sure they will be just as happy for us as Cadence, after all they are our friends so they are just going to have to except this. Now how about you give me that note and I can send the invitations out.” Luna hoofed over the letters she wrote for each of the ponies in question and Spike blow a green plume of smoke around them sending each one to all their friends. “Now that that is done, we are all alone, in your room, and you have no work to do, so what do you think we should do to pass the time.” “I got several ideas my dragon pie, and some of them I’m sure you will like.” For the next few hours they were alone and if any ponies were to pass by they would hear some rather strange noises coming from the princesses’ bedroom.
Twilight Sparkle was in the Golden Oak library organizing her books; she had just gotten a new shipment of books including the newest chapter in the Daring Do series.
“I can’t wait to show this to Rainbow Dash, the look on her face is going to be pric-“Twilight was interrupted by a green plume of smoke and then a letter dropped right on her head. “Hhhmmm Spike sent me a letter, wonder how he’s doing over in Canterlot right now.” Twilight picked up the letter and started to read.
Dear Twilight I’m sending you this letter because I have some major important news, and I want you to join me on a picnic in Canterlot Garden tomorrow. I have already sent letters to the rest of our friends and Princess Celestia, because they will be joining us as well. This news affects all of you and I need to tell you guys. This is important to me, and I need to at least let you guys know, you deserve that much after all because you are all my family.
Sincerely Spike
"What could have him so shaken; this must be important news if he is being this serious." Twilight went to her room to start packing her saddle bag. Over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was busy bucking apples as usual when she got her letter.
“Wow I guess Spike really needs me to go on this here picnic then.” She finished up bucking the apple trees in the east section, and headed back to the farm house to tell Granny Smith, that she was going to be gone for a couple of days. Over at Carousel Boutique Rarity was just finishing up another order of dresses.
“Finally that order has been filled, now I can get to work on that new dress I’ve been making for a while now.” POOF, (cough cough cough) “what in the name of Celestia was that.” Rarity looked down and saw a letter; she quickly scooped it up in her magical aura and began reading. “Well I do say that this sounds pretty serious, I better start packing if I’m going to be in Canterlot for a few days.” Rarity walked to her room in a slow fashion to get ready for the trip. At Fluttershy’s cottage, Fluttershy had just finished feeding her animals their lunch, when her letter arrived and she jumped almost immediately at the loud POOF that came with it. She peeked up and saw the parchment sitting there.
“Oh it’s just a letter, I wonder who sent it. She picked it up and scanned the contents of the letter. “Oh Spike sounds stressed, I wonder what could be getting him so worked up about. Hey, Angel Bunny can you come here.” Angel Bunny hopped on over while munching on a carrot. Angel Bunny, I’m going to Canterlot for a couple of days and I’m going to need you to keep the other animals in line and feed them while I’m away, ok? Angel Bunny stood completely straight, with the carrot balanced in one paw rested it against his shoulder and a military hat on, then proceeded to salute her. I knew I could count on you, my little Angel.” She gave him a hug then went inside to pack something’s for the picnic. In a field a little bit a ways from Fluttershys cottage the speedster, everyone’s favorite rainbow manned Pegasus Rainbow Dash was practicing some new flying maneuvers, she had been wanting to work on for a while now when a letter poofed up right in her face causing her to stumble in mid-flight.
“What the heck, where did this letter come from? Rainbow Dash quickly looked over the piece of paper. I wonder what’s got Spikes scales in a bunch all of a sudden." Rainbow took off in a quick flight back to her house to get ready for the next few days.
Over in Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was baking a cake for a wedding that Mr. and Mrs. Cakes were going to take it to. “Oooohhh this cake is going to be the best I have ever baked, after all its not every day two ponies get married!" A letter poofed into the room and landed right on Pinkie Pie’s head. “Oh a letter from Spike about a picnic with all of us and Princess Celestia tomorrow in the Canterlot Garden. I think he’s finally going to tell everyone that he’s dating Princess Luna.” Pinkie took the unopened letter up to her room and tossed it in the garbage, then proceeded to get ready for the stay in Canterlot. Princess Celestia was in the throne room massaging her temples after a frustrating session with the nobles.
“The nobles can be so infuriating, why can’t they agree on anything? And why does Blueblood have to stir up trouble every time he’s at these sessions?" A green trail of smoke came into the room and went up to Celestia then poofed away but left behind a letter. “Hhhmmm what is this?, it has my sister’s seal on it but it looks like Spike sent it.” She opened the letter and began reading the page.
Dear Celly I sent you this letter because I am having a picnic tomorrow in the garden and I want you to come. I have already had Spike send a message to the elements because this news will affect you all and it is imperative that you keep an open mind when you are there. I look forward to having you and our friends and hope that you will be happy once you have heard what I have to say.
Your loving sister Lulu
“Wow it seems that my sister is perplexed about something, I wonder what could possibly get her to say something like that.” “Pen Point, come here,” a young stallion walked over and kneeled before her.
“Yes princess, did you need my notes from today?" Pen point was the royal record keeper and kept note of pretty much everything that went on in the sessions between her and the nobles.
“No not right now, no what I need you to do is to clear my schedule for tomorrow I don’t want anything on my to do list.”
“If I may be so bold to ask, why is it that you need your schedule cleared tomorrow Princess?"
“I’m going on a picnic with my sister, she apparently thinks that I need a day off and she wants to discuss some things with me in private. I would like you to make sure we are not disturbed by any of the nobles especially prince Blueblood , so please tell commander Armor to assign however many troops he feels is sufficient to keep him and any other bothersome nobles out, alright.”
“Yes princess I will head their now, good day to you princess.”
“Have a nice day Pen Point and be sure you take tomorrow off as well, you look like you could use it after all the work you’ve been doing.” “Thank you princess,” he said graciously, and with that the brown unicorn teleported out of the throne room. Celestia sat there for a few minutes more, contemplating on what could possibly have made Luna to just have a picnic on such short notice. Luna usually notified her a few days in advance if she was planning any outings with her.
“Oh sister, what could possibly be on your mind that troubles you.” Celestia got up and walked out of the throne room and proceeded down the hall to the tower of the sun, because it would soon be time for her to lower the sun. It was dark in Princess Luna’s room she had a great day. She slept peacefully after her exciting little session with her favorite dragon. She looked over to see the purple dragon in question sleeping next to her with his arm wrapped around her neck in a hug.
“You are so adorable my little dragon, sleep well and have pleasant dreams.” Luna touched her horn to the dragon’s forehead then kissed him on the cheek. She got up after sitting there for a few more minutes, and proceeded to get ready for the night. She stepped over to her wardrobe and put on her regalia then headed out of the room. She headed to the moon tower to raise the moon. When she reached the tower she saw the sun setting and looks over to see her sister in concentration as she used her powers to lower the sun for the day. After she was done Celestia looked over at her sister for a few minutes and then headed inside. Luna then proceeded to raise the moon. Ponies knew that she controlled the moon but what they didn’t know is that the moon was a living entity of its own and she often conversed with it. She consulted the moon about her dilemma in the past but now all she wanted was a simple answer. The moon seemed to glow brighter than usual but only for the briefest of moments and then dimmed back down. Luna stared up at the moon with a smile and said “thank you”, then proceeded inside for the beginning of night court. Light peaked into Luna’s bedroom and it woke up Spike who up until that point was having a very pleasing dream. He rose up from the bed and yawned.
“That was a lot of fire rubies and they were all so delicious, why did the dream have to end right in the middle of me enjoying one?" Spike then noticed the emptiness in the bed and looked over to see Luna was gone. Looks like its night time and I have nothing to do for the next seven hours, what to do?" Spike paced around the room thinking of things to do while waiting. Unfortunately he would usually always have something to do at Twilight’s library, whether it was organizing books or other chores but here in this room he had absolutely nothing to do and he realized one thing, he hated it. He was always used to being busy and now that he had nothing to do he felt annoyed to no end by it, but then he thought of something. “Maybe the library in the castle needs organizing.” The dragon proceeded through the door and headed towards the library, where he remembered he spent most of his early life with Twilight studying. When he finally reached the library he noticed the older unicorn sitting at the desk checking books back in. The pony looked and noticed the familiar purple dragon standing there.
"Why hello there Spike! I haven’t seen you in a while, what brings you to Canterlot?."
"I’m just visiting, I’m actually staying for a couple of days and I am incredibly bored, do you think I could possibly organize your library to keep myself busy?" The librarian was actually relieved because she had a long night of organizing ahead and she didn’t feel like doing it all herself.
"Thank you Spike that would be wonderful, I could actually use the help."
"It’s no problem I’m just helping you out besides; Twilight has me reorganize her library ten to eleven times a week so this should be easy." The librarian and the dragon went to work organizing the room. Several long hours later, the dragon and librarian thought they had sufficiently reorganized the room.
"Thank you Spike you were an amazing help today, this would have taken me all night to do if you hadn’t come along."
"You’re welcome and really it’s no big deal, you actually helped me by allowing me to help, otherwise I would still be in my room ripping my scales out with boredom. Spike yawned then looked at the clock hung up on the wall next to the desk; it said 5:00 am. Well would you look at the time I think I should get back to sleeping, I have a big day later and I’m going to need it, good bye Ms. Swift Page."
"Thanks again and have a nice day my little helper." Spike ran out of the library and headed back to Luna’s room; once he got there he jumped into bed and looked up at the moon. "Please allow today to go as planned." Spike crawled under the covers and went to sleep unaware that the moon heard his plea and granted it.
Celestia laid in her chambers reliving happy memories from her long distant past in her sleep. Something started pulling at her horn and she was woken up because of it. She slowly got up, stretching like a freakishly huge cat. She proceeded to look out the window to the source of the tugging. The sun was at the horizon waiting patiently for Its celestial user to raise it up into the sky.
"Cant it wait five more minutes, so comfy right now. I wonder if I can convince Lulu to change the time of when my sun has to rise, maybe at seven o' clock instead of six. That would give her a longer night for her job. I guess that will have to wait for right now. I cant wait to hear what she has to say today at the picnic," and on that note she headed out of her room to the top of the tower to raise the sun. Luna just got done lowering the moon and was really anxious to get back to her room so she could have more time with her dragonfriend. When she reached her room, she walked up to the door and slowly stalked inside. Luna slowly stalked up to her bed and on three, leaped on to the sleeping form under the covers. Spike was sleeping peacefully, dreaming about lying in a field of gems eating tasty rubies and sapphires when he heard rumbling. He turned around to see the gems had formed a huge pile and bigger gems started rolling down the newly formed steep hill. Spike started running down the hill to get away from the giant gems before they crushed him. He bobbed and weaved dodging many falling gem boulder until he found a safe spot to hide under. After about five minutes the gemslide stopped allowing him to get out of cover.
"Whew that was a close one, for a second there I thought I was going to be squished for sure." He was then stunned in terror by a sight he could hardly believe was happening. A single gem about the size of a house was hurdling towards him at high speed. Spike prepared himself for the inevitable impact and then he woke up. Spike lurched up yelling in pain as he found the source of it. His lover had land on most of his lower and upper body which now hurt like hell. "Oooooooowwwwwwww ow ow ow ow get off!" he screamed through pain filled voice.
"Oh, I’m sorry honey, I didn't think that was going hurt that bad."
"It, did though, why did you jump on me anyway?" Spike asked while speaking through pain filled gasps?
"Well I just got done with my duties for the night. I thought that maybe I would spend a little bit of the beautiful morning with my little dragon muffin. Luna then got a sly idea, but if I have hurt you I'm sorry. I guess I will just leave you to attend to your wound," she walked slowly towards the balcony door for dramatic effect.
"Wait, don't go my blue moon", Spike said because he genuinely cared for his marefriend. He didn't mean to make her feel bad for hurting him.
"Yes Spike, what is it," she knew that her idea had worked at this point.
"I'm sorry Luna I didn't mean to yell at you. It just hurt real bad, but maybe you can make it up to me?"
"Oh really, what did you have in mind?."
"Well I'm completely awake, it’s a great looking morning. I have the most beautiful mare in existence right in front of me, I think you know what I want."
"Well you just want to go straight at it then, you don't waste any time. By the way, I was only kidding."
Oh yeah, well," spike quickly tackled her with a kiss. Both lovers started kissing passionately. BANG BANG BANG. The two turned to face the door which somepony was knocking on.
"Princess Luna, we heard a shout. Did something happen," One of her bat pony guards called through the door? Spike sat there in fear not knowing what to do. He could potentially be caught and that would ruin everything he’d did to make his intricate marriage plan work.
"Spike get out of here, you can’t be caught with me, not yet anyway. I will see you later at the picnic lover. Uuuummm everything's fine I just tripped and hit my head on the dresser. I'm fine now thank you!" Spike ran for the balcony but looked back giving a kiss goodbye then jumped over the railing, and took flight. Yes, you heard it right, Spike was flying.
near the end of their third month dating, Princess Luna had taken him flying high above Canterlot during one of her beautiful nights. There was a full moon in the sky and the stars were brightly visible to all. He really did love the night sky and everything about it. To both their surprise she accidentally flew into a thunder cloud that came out of nowhere and it shocked her wings stiff. Princess Luna started spiraling toward the ground below. Spike was tossed to a nearby cloud landing softly on to the white puffiness. He got up and ran over to the side of the cloud in fear. He kept asking himself, why she toss him onto the cloud, leaving herself to fall. Spike was scared for her because he knew the truth. Contrary to popular belief the Alicorn sisters could theoretically still die. They may be immortal but that didn't make them invulnerable to harm. She had explained this to him one night.
"Spike we may be immortal but that does not make us indestructible."
"Wait I thought it meant you lived forever?
"Yes and no, you see immortality allows eternal youth and health. We can’t become ill, and it protects us from poison but we are not invulnerable to death such as falling, vaporization, or being blown to bits." Spike now understood why the princess felt the need to have their own personal protection squad. This is how it stands currently, Spike sitting on the edge of a cloud watching as his marefriend fell to her doom.
"Please let this work, please help me save her," Spike chanted then proceeded to get up. He went to the other side of the cloud then ran forward and jumped. He started feeling a tingling sensation throughout his entire body then a sharp pain. Energy started to form over the pain, located directly in his shoulder blades. Wings of energy sprouted from his back and then condensed into physical form. He began to fly towards Princess Luna hoping with all his being that he could make it to her in time. Luna felt herself falling for what seemed like forever but, then felt nothing. She felt weightless and wondered if this was what death felt like. When she opened her eyes she saw the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. Spike was now slightly larger being just half a hoof shorter than her. His spikes were now sharper and the color of his scales looked more like amethyst. That is when she finally noticed his new appendages. The limbs that made up the wings were a more lighter shade of purple than the rest of his body. The webbing's that made up the flaps coming out of the limbs were almost translucent. What really caught her eye was when the light hit them. They seemed to glow by the color of whatever light was touching it. It was a full moon and his webbing's were glowing really bright blue.
"You noticed them huh?
"H-how?"
"I prayed for a way to save you and these guys sprung out. I guess my will to want you in my life brought them out of me," to emphasized this Spike flapped his wings a couple of times.
"They are amazing,"
"Why thank you my lovely maiden, now shall I take you back to your castle?"
"Please do my knight in shining scales," Luna proceeded to hug him sliding into his embrace. She was fully content being with the only being she would ever love this way. That memory for Spike was his favorite because it proved to him that their love was powerful enough to make it through any of life’s obstacles. Spike flew to the balcony of his room and dropped in. Walking into it, he realized he had not actually been in his room since he arrived. He had taken to sleeping in Luna's room the entire stay. The room he was in was a quaint little room that Celestia offered him to stay in, while he was here. He walked over to the bed and laid down to get some more sleep. The picnic was truly going to be stressful for him.
Twilight and her friend’s would be arriving at Canterlot in a few moments. She could see the cliff side city outside the window.
"So Twi, did Spike say why he was hosting this picnic for all of us and the Princesses?," Rainbow Dash asked with curiosity.
"indeed, it’s quite odd for dear little Spike to do something like this. Its normally done by you," Rarity stated matter o factly.
"I don't know girls, I'm just as in the dark about this as you are. I can tell you this, whatever it is, it’s got Spike really on edge. Didn't you girls see that in the letters he gave each of you,” Twilight replied?
"I checked with the other girls and we noticed the oddness of his letter too. He was vague and weird," Applejack said with a befuddled look on her face.
"What about you, Pinkie, what do you think of this? Twilight asked wanting to hear her opinion.
"My Pinkie Sense told me that something we would never expect is going to happen today," Pinkie Pie said with excitement bursting out. Now everpony in the carriage was anxious because the last time Pinkie got that feeling from her Pinkie Sense, Twilight chose to believe in something illogical. So what was going to happen this time, they all thought in unison. The train finally pulled into the Canterlot train station. Once the train stopped ponies started filing out of the train carriage's doors. The elements of harmony headed out of the train station and straight to the castle. When they arrived two guards immediately called for them.
"We will show you to your rooms then escort you to the garden for the picnic Princess Luna is hosting." This caught the girls off guard they thought Spike was the one who had planned the picnic. After showing Twilight and her friends their rooms, the guards than took them down the gardens where the picnic was, except that Spike and Luna were not there, only Princess Celestia, Cadence and oddly enough Shining Armor were.
"Let me guess you girls were given letters too, Cadence said with a sigh of boredom. It was painfully obvious they had been sitting there for a while before they arrived.
"Yes we did, I didn't expect you here though," Twilight said while pointing a hoof at Shining Armor. The pony in question just shrugged his shoulders, it was clear that even he did not know why he was summoned. Princess Luna chose this moment to walk into the garden.
"Hello everypony, thank you all for attending. I'm glad you all came because what I'm about to tell you may shock all of you. Before we begin we are still missing one other friend. Oh here he comes now!" In the sky everyone looked up to see Spike descending to the garden. Everyone was shocked to see him looking completely different from the last time any of the girls had seen him. Even Celestia was clearly surprised by the sudden change. Princess Luna just stood up and walked over to Spike nuzzling him affectionately. Now everyone did a double take back at this unexpected action. Spike simply stood there blushing.
"Hey everypony I know you have questions and of course me and Luna will try to answer those them as best we can." He began.
"Well, I think I can say the first question that's on all our minds. How, and when," Celestia asked with surprise still evident?
"We have been dating for almost five months now and it began at the Gala." Spike began to explain that night in great detail to his friends not leaving out a single moment. After the story was finished the couple waited to hear the response of their friends and family.
"Well that certainly does answer most of our questions. I have one that I would like to ask. When did you get those wings, Twilight asked with interest?"
"Yes they are very pretty," Fluttershy stated with wonder in her voice as she was drawn in by the strange light they gave off.
"They are super cool, oh my gosh, now I have a new flying buddy. This is totally awesome," Rainbow Dash said with much vigor as she hoof pumped in the air.
"Thank you but may I answer her question now," Spike asked nicely. When everypony stopped talking, Spike continued by telling them the story about that day. After retelling the memory exactly how it played out, he waited for them to speak again.
"So your wings glow a certain color when that color of light hits the webbings of your wings, that don't make a lick of sense" Applejack said in a confused manner.
"I really don't know how it works I just know that they can do that," Spike stated with the same confusion.
"I will have to take a look at them when we go back to Ponyville. I can run a proper test there ," Twilight said with much interest as she couldn't wait to start learning more about them.
"Why did you wait till now to tell us this, what made you decide it was time?" Twilight asked wanting to know the reason. The moon goddess touched Spike letting him know that she would continue from here.
"He told you because I asked him to. I felt it was time for you to know the truth. You are our best friends and family and I thought that you deserved to know." The ponies present gave the couple a group hug.
"It’s like you said we are family, so if this is your decision than you have my support." Twilight said with only love for her brother.
"Luna is a smart pony, and more important to me than anypony can know. I support her decision whatever it may be," princess Celestia said wholeheartedly.
"yea, you are so gosh darn cute together and deserve this so you have my support," Applejack said with pure honesty.
"You know that you’ve got my support Princess, you too dude," Rainbow Dash stated with confidence.
"I am the love goddess and support love no matter who the two creatures are, so you don't have to even ask, I'm with you two always" Cadence said to her sister and brother.
"I think my wife is right so I will follow you as well" Shining stated simply.
"I think it would be nice to see your love bloom," Fluttershy got the courage to finally speak up.
"Well darlings, I think it is great that you two both found love, and I would be delighted to do your wedding gown and tuxedo!" Rarity squealed with excitement at the prospect of all the designs that she could put together.
"Whoa you’re getting a little ahead of yourself now Rarity, Thank you, all of you; it’s good to have your support Spike said happily." Now all we have to do is convince the rest of Equestria Spike thought with a shudder." The rest of the day was spent telling some of the lover’s happy memories together during their relationship.
It was a great morning for nine friends to sit outside, at a large golden table and enjoy a nice breakfast together. The table was surrounded by a beautiful garden that glowed in the morning sun making the place look so serene. For Spike the dragon, it was a semblance of peace on his heavy heart. He and his love Princess Luna told their friends and family about the relationship they have together. Spike was deep in thought about his whole dilemma.
"SPIKE!"
Huh? What? Did you say something?" Spike said to no one in particular, since he didn't know who had said his name. Pinkie Pie spoke up, again.
"Sooo, what are you and Luna going to do now?" Spike knew that question was coming, it scared him like hell but he knew that he would have to confront it, if he wanted his dream to come true.
"Well Pinkie, this was just the beginning, now I'm going to announce it with Luna to the rest of Equestria." He replied.
"WWWWHHHAAAT?-" the girls said in unison, they were stunned by this turn of events.
"Spike, let’s hold back on that darling, that could be a disaster, not to mention you might get more than a few ponies angry at you!," Rarity said with worry.
"I know that but I must do this, if I want to continue dating Luna, the citizens must know that she is in a relationship, besides I-" Luna touched his shoulder, picking that moment to cut in.
"Because I made him promise, that we would tell everypony before this relationship could ever get serious. This will undoubtedly cause a few glares but it doesn't matter, because I love him. I told him he will be protected by one of my Batpony guards until such time that my subjects accept our status. Don't worry he will be safe, I will make sure of it, although we could use your help getting all the precautions in place and everything else ready for the announcement."
"If you feel this is the best course of action my sister, then you have my support and approval," Celestia stated wholeheartedly
Me two," Rainbow Dash said with confidence,
Me three," Pinkie Pie said ecstatically,
"What the heck, I'm game," Applejack said with vigor,
"I'll cheer for you if that's ok," Fluttershy said meekly,
"I support it dears," Rarity said happily,
"I will take care of the precautions needed before you make your announcement! said Twilight already thinking up everything needed to make it safe and secure.
"Thank you my little ponies, it feels relieving to know that, now if you will excuse me I'm exhausted and will retire to my chambers." Luna got up and started out of the garden towards her chambers.
"I'll be out a little longer," Spike called to her, he then turned towards the rest of the group. "I've got some stuff I need to do, I will only be a little while," however before anypony could ask what that was; he was zipping out of there like a blur.
"Well I'm going to start planning for the Princess Luna and Spike announced their relationship to Equestria party," they all felt excited about that, after all everypony enjoyed Pinkies parties because they were simply the best.
"Well I look forward to that however my little ponies it seems that I must take my leave, day court must be done." Princess Celestia bid them adue and headed to the throne room.
"We should get started with those preparations, starting with the locations security," Rainbow Dash said ready to tackle the job.
"Did any of y'all notice how odd Spike was acting, why did he run off in such a hurry? Without Princess Luna I might add, from what they told us, the two are almost inseparable every time he's here," Applejack asked questioningly.
"I don't think we should worry about it, I mean he does seem a little odd, but wouldn't you be acting the same way? He is about to announce to the whole country that he's dating one of its Princesses, that would make anypony nervous," Twilight stated with certainty.
"I guess you got a point, I just wonder why he wouldn't tell us where he's going, we are his friends after all," Replied Applejack.
"Yeah me too, but right now we got to make sure everything goes according to plan, nothing can go wrong if we have to do this correctly." The girls began coming up with ideas for the event, and splitting up the jobs. Spike was walking around Canterlot, thinking over his plans for tomorrow.
"Alright first Celestia gathers the crowd, then the two of us step out, Luna announces our relationship and that's when I make my move, I will ask her to marry me. That will be something they would never expect to happen next." Spike feels a slight tap on his back but when he turned around no pony in the streets was near him. Reaching behind him, he took hold of a letter on his back and opened it to read the message.
Dear Spike
First let me say you are one hard dragon to track down, you gave us quite the chase, anyway down to business. I know about your secret relationship with Princess Luna and quite frankly I'm disgusted with the fact that you have been sleeping in the same bed together you degenerate lizard freak.Yyour kind doesn't Deserve to exist, but I'm going to give you this one chance to do the right thing since I am in a good mood. You will say good bye to your marefriend and you will leave Equestria forever, oh don't get any ideas about coming back, because I will have hitponies keeping an eye on you. You better take my offer Spike because the wrong choice might just get you killed. Oh and don't even think about telling anypony about this letter because we will know.
Sincerely the pony who wants you gone
"Holy Celestia," Spike was really scared now, somepony actually wanted him dead, and the only way he comes out of this situation alive is if he does what the pony told him to do. "But I couldn't leave her, there’s no way I will ever leave her, I will just have to risk it. She is the world to me and I will not give that up." This still was a bad day for him indeed; but that would not stop him. I will not leave because of this jerkoff, i will do this and no pony is going to stop me, Spike said with renewed courage. Well, I need to get the ring design to the jeweler pony so he can make the ring. He started looking for the shop; it only took him ten minutes before he found it. When he went inside, the place was sparkling. The floors tiles were made out of crystal and reflected the sun’s light, making the place look like a diamond. "Hello is anypony here?"
"Yes, what can I do-" the jeweller pony looked over ready to serve the customer when he saw the dragon standing there; he thought some gentlecolt was looking to be a customer. "I’m sorry but I think you’re in the wrong place, this isn't a for you to hang around, there is a recreation center down the street," the pony stated bluntly.
"I knew that, this isn't my first time in Canterlot! No, I'm here to get a ring made sir," Spike retorted with a blank expression.
Oh, uh,"
What, you don't serve dragons?" Spike said angrily.
"I didn't mean anything like that, of course I will fill your order but, I'm just a little surprised, I've never had a dragon in here before. What will your order be sir. Spike showed him the design of the ring on the paper that he drew. Wow someone has a talent in jewellery, yes I can definitely make this but this going to cost quite a few bits, can you cover it?"
"Yes I can, now one thing before you get the order started, I want the diamond to be able to reflect blue like the moon under the day time sky, if that is not too much trouble?"
"Oh not at all, in fact its rather easy to enchant a gem for looks, you have quite the taste for one so young. So who is the lucky one that has caught your eye?"
"Well-“ Spike didn't know how to answer that question, but in few seconds he had an idea come to him that he thought would suffice. "If things go as planned you will know soon enough. Just engrave this on the ring, My heart belongs to you my beautiful moon, now and forever."
"That is definitely one of the most romantic things i have ever heard somepony ask to put on a ring, I'm sure she will love it." Spike paid the pony then the jeweler went to work leaving, Spike to show himself out. Walking out of the shop, he started down the street cautiously enjoying his day. He now had that task completed and now all he wanted to do was go to Pony Joes’ Doughnut Shop to enjoy a nice pastry. When Spike reached Pony Joes, he noticed the lit up sign of a doughnut saying the shop was opened. Spike went into the shop and was hit with the sweet smell of baked pastries, but noticed the building did not have any ponies in it except for Joe, who was cleaning the seats.
"Oh hey Spike I haven't seen you in a few days, why don't you take a seat and I will be right with ya."
"Thanks Joey, you will not believe the day I have had," Spike stated stressfully.
"Well why don't you tell me what's up," Pony Joe was kind of like an uncle to Spike, since he use to come in here a lot when he was younger and talk a lot.
"I finally told my friends about my relationship," Spike would confide to Pony Joe from time to time and he would give Spike advice, so consequently Joe was told about the relationship status Spike had.
"I’m glad that you were finally able to tell your friends and I hope the rest of it goes well, but what's bothering you."
"Well, don't say anything about this but, I'm going to propose to Luna at the announcement, in front of everyone."
"Way to go Spike, that will really surprise everypony, but that's not all is it?" Joe could read Spike pretty well and it didn't help that Spike had a lousy poker face.
"Well I have some terrible news," Spike looked around and out the window to make sure nobody was listening. After confirming the seclusion he leaned in close.
"I think somepony wants me dead," Pony Joe looked at him with surprise.
"There's no way, how do you know and why would somepony want you dead?" Spike proceeded to show him the letter. Joe grabbed the letter and began reading. After reading the letter Joe gave the paper back to Spike which he promptly stuck back in one of his scales. "Well it looks like you’re in a pretty serious predicament; this is a racist hate crime so why haven't you reported this to anyone?"
"Yea like I’m going to do that, whoever it is said he would kill me, and if he has the resources to find out about something that only me you and Luna knew before last night, than I’m sure he could have me killed, I’m taking a huge risk just telling you."
"Apparently, I think all it comes down to is, what do you want, will you take the risk and do what your heart tells you, or are you going to bow to a lousy pony, who hides behind words and threats to try and scare you out of the country? You can’t let fear control you, that will just ruin everything in your life," Joe said encouragingly.
"Yeah, I guess you’re right, I can do this, thanks Joey. Now, I will have a topaz Sprinkled maple bar."
"Order coming right up, what's up with that order, for the past two weeks that you've been coming here you keep ordering that particular one, we do have tons of other choices up here."
"Well I kind of like the flavor, its real good," Spike said liking his lips. The flavor seemed to mimic that special cider Applejack kept stashed away in a secret spot in her barn, except without the aching headache he receives the next from drinking it, boy did he hate those. After receiving his doughnut Spike gave Pony Joe four bits and began eating. Once he had finished, he said thanks and good bye then left the shop. Spike had now confirmed his decision. He wasn't going to leave just because somepony told him to, no, Princess Luna was his marefriend and no pony was going to tell him what to do about it. Spike knew what he had to do now.
"After the announcement I’m going to find whoever sent that letter and bring them to justice, this guy will show me respect and he will deal with the fact that princess Luna is mine. They are all just going to have to, because it’s not their decision. I will always be here with her and with my family." Spike yawned and decided to go back to the castle. He had a big day ahead and a decision to make, one that would affect the rest of his life.
The sun was setting and Princess Luna sat there at her window with a nice view of it. However it did not hold the same serenity for her today. Her mind would not let her see its beauty for she had something troubling her mind to no end. She recently came to terms with the fact that Spike was hiding something from her and she didn't know what. At first she thought it was nothing, just chalked it up to being under the weather but was trying to act tough and hide it. Today she could not shake the feeling and it was agonizing for her. The feeling was not new to her, after all no pony truly forgets the feeling of mistrust the first time it happens. She remembered that day well, because it was the day she turned into Nightmare Moon. That day one thousand and three years ago, she had lost so much trust in her sister. Princess Celestia had refused her proposals to move the ponies far away during the beginning of their ruling. She said it would divide the healing kingdom forever. Instead she turned towards the Crystal Ponies of the Crystal Empire for help. She asked them to use their Crystal Tower and the Crystal Heart to spread harmony all over the area. In doing so would project harmony all over Equestria. The plan worked of course, but Luna felt betrayed by her own family who she thought she could trust and vice versa. Her own sister however decided to follow her own ideas instead of what she suggest, without even a second thought. After that Luna just got angrier and angrier at Celestia. That of course led to the darkness taking her over and turning her into Nightmare Moon. That led to the battle between her Lunar Republic army and her sisters Solar Empire legion. Luna promised herself something after she got sent to the moon. That once she got out, those feeling would never again plague her mind and yet here it was. The worst part is she did not know why it was so. Spike was literally putting his life in danger by telling the rest of Equestria the news just so they could be together. What more did he need to prove.
"Maybe Celestia will know what to do, she was in a relationship once herself." Princess Luna leaned over and kissed Spike on the cheek and his face flushed a deep red. The sight brought a smile to her face, knowing that she could make him blush even in his dreams. It even made her laugh a little. Heading out of the room she went down several corridors pausing at the entrance to the throne room for a second before opening it. The sun goddess sat upon her throne pillow reading a rather long piece of parchment, probably a list of requests from the nobles of Canterlot.
"This is ridiculous, why do they continue bothering me with their trivial matters and incessant whining, cant they solve these problems on their own or are they so spoon fed they need me to do everything for them, and they cant seriously expect me to enforce this," Celestia said with just a hint of annoyance. She then noticed her sisters presences.
"What have the Nobles asked you to do this time, punish a common pony for being in the same room, make tolls for anypony that's not rich," these were often the ridiculous demands that those snob nobles would create. Certain rules made things difficult for Luna to deal with them. She could not use her usual methods that she had when ever a pony demanded something from the princesses. Unfortunately putting a pony in a cage and allowing other ponies to throw rotten vegetables at them was frowned upon in Equestrian society today, things had definitely changed in the long time she had been gone.
"This one has demanded that I take away some families house and everything they own just because their daughter and this nobles son were friends. His exact words were, she has corrupted my son with her poorness and he may become one of them if they are not removed. Oh and don't get me started on this other request to block off Canterlot to anypony that cant pay the rich ponies toll to get in which by the way is also ridiculous, one thousand bits each." Luna grabbed the parchment to see for herself and sure enough the demands were numerous and probably a mile long.
"Just who do those ponies think they are, well I got a solution to fix the problem, she took the parchment her telekinetic hold and incinerated the entire thing, making it disappear. Now sister I have a troubling matter that is a real problem."
"Please tell me what troubles you Lulu," Celestia said now interested in what Luna had to say.
"Well I feel like Spike is not telling me something and I cant figure out what, I don't like feeling this mistrust but I don't know what else to do. We tell each other everything and have never kept secrets from one another. now I get the feeling that hes trying to distant himself from me and I don't know why," Luna said with worry.
"Now Lulu, I'm sure there are something's about you that you haven't told him. You cant expect him not too as well. I'm not telling you what to do since its your relationship but, when he feels ready to tell you he will. Until then, just leave it alone. I found out a long time ago that stallions, or in your case dragons want to figure certain things out on their own and will keep it to themselves. Just wait and see what he does." Celestia knew males preferred to do that over asking for help but she could never figure out why. In the two life long relationships she had, they were hard working and virtuous. The first was when she was young, maybe fifty years old and the second one when she was three hundred years old. She was the only pony who remembered the first and there was little documentation left from the second. Of course time usually washes away most history. She had told Luna about the second one because that's the bloodline Prince Blueblood came from. That was hard enough to explain so she never mentioned the other to anyone. She believed Luna would figure this out. After all, she is expected to have at least one thousand years of happy memories with Spike. Celestia was glad she would experience a long relationship before Spikes passing.
"Thank you sister, I guess I have been worried over nothing, most likely, anyway so how are things going for tomorrow."
"Well the girls have been all over that the entire day, or at least until they fell asleep from exhaustion, and some of the plans they came up with are fool proof, nothing will be able to happen to you while you and Spike speak at the announcement."
"I will thank them at a more appropriate time then. For now I guess we got to do our celestial duties," she emphasized this by pointing at the window. Celestia promptly looked towards it seeing the sun at the horizons edge wanting to set for the day. She gave a chuckle and followed her sister to the unified Celestial Tower which had recently been finished in its construction. The tower stood as a symbol of the sisters old bond remade. The tower itself was a magnificent work of ingenuity. It stood four hundred feet from the base of the mountain up to twenty feet above the castle. It was connected to a bridge that led to a new built in section of the castle. As the princesses approached they could sense the magic imbueded into every brick making it virtually indestructible to natural disasters or warring attack. When they reached the top, the view could not be described, (but I will try to do my best anyways). The sisters could actually see Manehatten, Grand Pony Bay, and Ponyville as if they were right in front of them. The many forests that littered the valley, and the many mountains nearby. The most amazing view however was not that, it was the view of the sunset over the ocean. It was made perfect by a scene of twilight as the sun sat on the threshold of the horizon. The sisters took stance as Celestia began glowing and raising her horn to the sky. She proceeded moving it down till the sun was gone from sight. Luna took stance soon after and repeated the same process making her moon rise. She began pulsating brightly with a blue light as stars began appearing into sight. Once she was done the sisters looked at her work. The sky was clear and many of the constellations were now visible. A new pattern also dotted the night. A star formation that was shaped into a picture of Spike. Celestia felt a tear fall from her eye. This was a tear of pure joy for her sister.
"Lulu I'm proud of what your doing, you are following your heart and I'm sure you will be happy with him. There is no one more perfect for you than him and I"m sure he feels the same," the two sisters nuzzled and hugged each other. After the whole conversation was done, Celestia bid her goodnight and she headed to her room while Luna headed to the throne for night court. In a distant abandon building, three forms enter it while in the blanket of night as to not be seen by other ponies. The lead pony led the other two to a room that was dark except for the small candle in the middle.
"Greetings, hitponies I'm glad you have come, I trust you were not followed." The three ponies one by one removed their hoods to reveal their faces. First the leader, he had a gruff look with a scar over his left eye and a short spiky orange-ish red color mane style. The second had a more indifferent look with a scar going down his lips and a mane with long brown banes that covered his eyes from sight. lastly the third who had an oblivious look with a cut ear and a medium sized black mane.
"I was surprised when I got your call, usually ponies just send a letter with the assignment attached. It doesn't matter though, I will take a job where ever there is one. By the way my name is Dumb Bell and these are my associate, Black Eye has the long mane and Brute Force has the dumb look on his face. So what is the assignment boss pony, my crew is ready to get to work," the leader said blankly.
"My, my always an eager pony, that is why I hired your group," the pony said from the shadows. He tossed a dossier at the group and Dumb Bell opened it. "Inside you will find a list of the targets hangout points, what his schedule is for tomorrow and the location on where you should lure him to on his route. He will be headed to the Canterlot district to pick up an item, that is your best time to take out the target." The three looked over the information and saw the difference from their usual targets right away.
"Alright we will do it, and I'm certain you will have the payment ready like we agreed," the hitpony said ready to tackle the job, "after all tracking down the right weapon wont be cheap."
"Yes your payment of eighty thousand bits each will be given to you after the missions completed, and by the way, when your done I want you to air drop the body to this location, but you better be quick about it."
"Hey what's the targets name anyway, it doesn't say on this here piece of paper," Brute Force said with a deep childish voice. The pony now stepped out of the shadows showing his face. The colt was definitely part of the Equestrian Military by the looks of his armor, and a high ranking one at that. He had a pair of stars on his uniform with many medals decorating the front.
"Your targets name is Spike the Dragon, now lets get started," the three hitponies smiled and began discussing the plan with him as well as a location on where they should receive the bits after the jobs completion. Once finished, the three left to begin their work, and the general backed up into the shadows while laughing maniacally, everything was falling into place. After picking up the candle, he took it over to a desk that had a map of Canterlot with red strings all over and pictures of Spike and Princess Luna together next to the strings. "I should get a front row seat, wouldn't want to miss the grand finale," the general said before tipping the candle over setting the desk on fire. "Can't have anypony finding out now can I," and with that he ran out of the building and away from the area leaving things to be handled by the burning inferno and the job with his group for hire.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Spike woke up to a warmth enveloping his entire body. He looked over to see Princess Luna with a wing over him and his body in her embrace. He knew she liked to cuddle up next to him. His body was like a perfectly set furnace and she really liked that. By looking out the window he could tell it was around ten o' clock in the morning. That meant he had about two hours till the announcement they were giving. Plenty of time to get down to the jewelers shop to get the ring. That was if he could get out of Luna's vice grip hug. Spike tried to lift her hoof off but that only made her squeeze a bit harder. He tried to wiggle at first with no success. He eventually was able to wiggle down and out from under her. He got off the bed and sneaked over to the door before taking one last look back and closing the door shortly after. Once he was out of the castle he began his trek to the shop ready to get this done, he felt his tummy rumbling at the thought of gems.
"Well looks like I'm going to need to stop by Pony Joe's Doughnut Shop first, cant do all this on an empty stomach after all." He took a right turn instead of a left so he could get some food. This simple task however took an hour to complete as the line to the shop was massive this morning. After finally getting up to the counter, paying for his doughnut, and enjoying it thoroughly, he walked the rest of the way to the jewelers shop in no time at all, but it felt like something ominous was following him. He went in like yesterday and rang the bell which in response the same pony came out again.
"Well if it isn't my latest customer, my you are chipper this morning. I think you will be pleased with the results it just got finished so your ring is ready, and I'm certain your bride will like it too." The jeweler went to the back of the shop and came out with a box that was stunning by itself. The box was made of Indigo colored velvet, the rim was made with gold trimming, and when he opened it a bright blue light shined out. "
Thank you sir, I promise to send an invitation to you in the mail. After all, I want my wife to meet the pony who made her beautiful wedding ring." After tossing him the sac full of bits and exchanging goodbyes. Spike put the box in one of his nifty scale pockets and ran out the door. He took an immediate right up the stone path heading back to the castle. A little bit up the path, Spike saw two ponies shoving another pony into an alleyway quite roughly. Spike ran into the alley to see what was going on, thinking the two ponies were going to beat up the other one. When he darted into the alley, the ponies were gone with no sign of them anywhere. Spike who was now confused turned around to see the entrance blocked by the same two ponies who he saw not but a few seconds ago. He thought about taking them on in a fight but he didn't have time to beat up two ponies. He was late for a very important date. Spike turned around and ran for a few feet before seeing two more ponies. One he recognized as the pony the other two were shoving down the alley. The other he could not tell. He was now trapped he only had one option now and that was to fight. Quickly turning around, he uppercut the first pony and did a haymaker to the second one knocking them to the ground. Right after that, one of the other two ponies ran up an close lined Spike knocking him over for a brief moment. Quickly getting back up as the other two did, Spike performed a spinning twist into a rolling drop kick smashing down on the first pony. He promptly jumped up and did a whirlwind strike (something that he'd have to thank Rainbow Dash for teaching him) and kicked the second pony down. Spike turned around and was bucked in the face and sent flying backwards. The other two got up again and immediately pounced on Spike. they started beating the crap out of him. After about half a minute of this the two just held him down while the other two approach. The fourth pony stopped the third pony and showed his face.
"Hello little abomination, you have been a naughty dragon haven't you, going around dating ponies like you think your on the same level as us." Spike was still coughing but he protested anyway.
"From what I can see here, I have done nothing illegal or wrong so I don't see how I deserve this," Spike said with confidence, something that was immediately silenced by a sharp stabbing pain in his left arm. He was about to scream but was silenced by a balled up rag being stuffed in his mouth.
"You are not even on the same level as us you disgusting lizard, you are beneath ponies, something that should be a slave. You have no rights, not even to talk to a pony much less date one, of our princesses no less." Spike blew fire into the wadded up ball making it disappear.
"I was birthed and raised by a pony and not just anypony, princess Celestia's star pupil Twilight Sparkle. They both raised me so I ask again, what gives you the right to do this to me," Spike said smiling. He would regret this however as the third pony stabbed him again but this time in his stomach. He got another rag stuffed in his mouth, then the fourth pony approached again.
"You do not speak to me you worm, and that is one of the biggest mistakes she ever made. One day I will make her pay for that, but I cant have a dragon protecting her. We certainly cant have you defiling the night princess with your impure dragon essence. You will die Spike and do you want to know something. Ponies aren't going to be looking towards me because I will have the blame planted on one of your friends. Ponies will never figure out what transpired here today. I will also make sure each one of your friends suffers because of this, including your pony mother. I will tell you my name so that when you are in the next life you will always remember the name of the pony that killed you. My name is Thunderfrost, descendant of Commander Hurricane, now you die." The pony pulled out the dagger and stabbed him again but in the heart this time. The three Pegasi left the unicorn general and began the air drop. Spike felt the life leaving him, he figured he would be dead soon but that's not the reason why tears were falling from his eyes. He was crying because now everypony he ever considered a friend was going to suffer simply because they were friends with him. The worst part of it was, that he would never see Luna again or see her loving smile or the smiles of his family again. Spikes eyes grew heavy and eventually it was to hard to keep them open. They soon closed as his last breath slipped away.
The day of the announcement was big, ponies from many different cities had been brought to Canterlot for a big speech from the princesses. Everypony knew something big was going on, but they couldn't figure out what. Meanwhile up at the balconies anti chamber, Princess Luna was pacing back and forth almost to the point of wearing a whole in the floor. Spike had not shown up yet and she was starting to freak out. Her friends had tried calming her down but to no avail, so they got Celestia up there to support her but still had no effect.
"Luna please calm down now, I'm sure Spike is just fine and running an errand or something, I have already sent out several guards to look for him so please, just calm down," Celestia said in a motherly tone. Luna looked to her and visible calmed down some.
"But that doesn't change the fact that he wasn't here on time like we agreed, and even more so when he left my chambers this morning without even waking me. He could have at least left a note on where he was going."
"I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation and I'm sure that he will explain once he gets here, but you have exactly five minutes before you have to go out there. You need to calm down and get in the mindset, now I will go out there talk for a bit then introduce you so you can speak to the crowd."
"Okay sister, I'm ready," Luna said nodding her head as the solar princess exited onto the balcony. The crowd was silenced by a unicorn who shot a small light in the sky and everypony turned to attention.
"Dear subjects, ponies from all around, you have been called here because my sister Princess Luna has some news for all of Equestria. She has come to me with it and I have agreed with her and have supported her decision on this and it is my hope that you will too. She believes its time for you to know, without further delay," Celestia held out a hoof and pointed it towards the balcony door. Princess Luna walked out and over to the edge, the entire time with her eyes looking for Spike to appear but couldn't find him anywhere.
"Hello my faithful subjects, something happened to me a few months ago that I didn't even expect, I fell in love with someone," the crowd gasped at this truly interested now in this public speaking they listened for intently. "I fell in love with him and he has been very kind and chivalrous to me ever since. He loves me and we figure its time that you should know, his name is Spike the dragon," this got even louder gasps but Celestia was quickly by her side with her wings spread out.
"They love each other and I couldn't ever be happier, and I wish her many years of happiness, I hope you all will do the same." The crowd was silent for a minute not saying a word, it became almost deafening. Soon murmurs started to spread and began to rise in volume, everypony started to cheer and stomp their Whooves which finally put Luna at ease. It was at this moment however that she saw a black speck off in the distance. That speck got bigger and bigger until it got close enough to be seen. It was one of the Pegasus guards that Celestia had sent out to find Spike. The pony landed on the balcony breathing heavily. Celestia gave him a glass of water and he gulp it down in seconds. "Lieutenant Ironwing what happened, did you find Spike," Celestia asked with unease?
"We found the dragon but," the Pegasus was speechless for a second, "its to shocking to describe, and it was in a public area too."
"WHAT HAPPENED," Luna asked in a panicked yell?
"I don't know much seeing as I'm not a doctor, but from what we could gather, a pair of ponies or more got the drop on him somehow and they beat him up before stabbing him repeatedly with a dagger. He was then flown over to the old forge tower that is in the west district and I think somepony even got photos." Luna was in a shocked state, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Is that all Lieutenant," Celestia said with a cracking voice.
"We cant find anything further yet on evidence but we suggest you hurry up and get over to the hospital, he is in surgery and the doctors say you should get over there since you are his family." Luna immediately took flight off towards the Tenderheart Care Hospital leaving Celestia to catch up. The hospital was in a panic and nurses were scrambling all over the place. The lead surgeons had requested every nurse available to find everything on dragon anatomy and bring it to them. The guards had brought in a dragon today that had been severely injured and on the verge of death. Doctors had been unprepared for something like this and knew little about dragons, which made surgery very dangerous. The surgeons proceeded anyway to try and save the creatures life. The doors to the front of the hospital flung open, almost flying off its hinges and standing there was a indigo colored Alicorn that was crying in a scared state.
"Uh Princess Luna may I help you with something," a nurse nearby asked?
"Where is the head surgeon? I must speak with him," Luna was almost inaudible from all her crying?
"I will go tell him your here, but he's still in surgery," the nurse went through another pair of double doors. Luna then sat down with her wings wrapped around her body while her tears continued to flow like rivers. She soon felt another wing touch her side and she looked up to see her older sister with a comforting face. Luna grabbed Celestia and gave her a long crying hug. She sat there simply stroking her back and saying soothing words. After about three hours the girls arrived. The surgeon came through the double doors a few minutes after and headed over to the princesses.
"Are you his immediate family," the colt asked while wiping his face of sweat. Luna got up and went over to him and asked the question she dreaded most.
"Are you his immediate family," the lead surgeon asked the ponies in front of him while wiping some sweat from his brow. Luna stepped forward with Celestia next to her.
"Yes, is he alright," Luna asked on the verge of an emotional break down? The doctor motioned for Celestia Twilight, and Luna to follow her to another room. the room they went into was empty save for the two hospital beds.
"What is with the secrecy Doctor Stitches," Celestia asked confused? The doctor had a serious look on him, like he was playing poker.
"I will answer everything first," he turned to address Princess Luna. "I want to assure you that he is fine, it was touch and go for a while. Thanks to some very complex healing magic and the skilled work of my surgeons he pulled through. I must say, his will is strong. I have never had a more determined patient than Spike. He has shown amazing strength pulling through this injury. Unfortunately I must speak to you on another matter," the doctor said with a more somber attitude.
"What is the matter, what have you discovered," Twilight asked with her fear now returning?
"As you know, dragons posses a natural hide that cannot be broken by any ordinary steel weapon on this planet. The only thing that can hurt a dragon is a weapon that is enchanted with magic," the doctor explained as he stated the fact.
"I don't think what your suggesting is possible Doctor Stitches, my sister and I gathered up and destroyed all enchanted weapons after we made peace with the dragons a long time ago. We even had the spell destroyed so no pony could ever use it again," Celestia said now even more confused than before.
"I found this note in his scale pocket and its a pretty confident threat towards him. All I can tell you though is that the weapon that was used on the attempted murder of Spike, was in fact enchanted and jagged by the looks of his wounds." Doctor Stitches showed the princesses and Twilight what he found during the procedure. The three read over the note with complete shock.
"This doesn't make any sense. The only ponies who knew this particular spell of enchantment were me, Celestia, and a few ancient spell casters who are long dead," Luna said now thoroughly confused and more scared thanks to the gruesome message.
"Is it possible that one of them taught their children," the doctor asked, making a suggestion?
"Not possible, we made sure that none of them had children, we could not risk that knowledge getting out so we made all of them infertile," the elder princess said solemnly.
"Well obviously this situation, is telling the contrary. I hope you can figure this out and I will update you on his health as it progresses, but we have another problem at hand," the doctor stated.
"What is it doctor," Luna asked, not wanting to have more bad news told to her.
"This pony who committed the crime probably believes that Spike is dead. even though he's stable, he is still in a coma. If word gets out to the contrary, I'm sure the assailant will attempt it again. And in the state the little dragons in, he will surely succeed," the doctor said finishing what he had to say.
"What can we do, I'm in an impossible situation and I don't know what to do, I don't want to lose Spike, I love him to much, what do we do sister," Luna asked Celestia in a panic.
"Here is what we will do, doctor, I want you to pronounce him dead, tell only your most trusted nurses the real story," Celestia said with the tinniest bit of anger present. The doctor immediately went out of the room to do the job assigned to him.
"Luna I promise you that no matter what, we will find the culprit and bring this pony to justice. Spike will not die if I have anything to say about it," Celestia said with energy. Luna stood up and turned to Celestia while exhaling. Luna knew that her sister could not pursue this endeavor as she had more important matters. Matters that could not be postponed
"I'm going have to figure this out myself Celly," Luna said with a reserved sadness from the solemn mood
"What do you mean Lulu, he is my responsibility since I'm his Aunt," Celestia said questioningly.
"The kingdom needs to be run and you cant do both of these at the same time. That's to much, even for you Celly. I will conduct this investigation. I will even put together a team if that suits you," Luna said adamantly. Celestia finally gave in.
"All right then, you can do this on one condition. I want Twilight to be on this team, you assemble. She may come in handy," Celestia said before leaving the room.
"So who are we going to put in this team of ours," Twilight asked generally curious?
"I have a few calls in mind, I must send a few letters. I will need you to go pick up a few things while I do this," Princess Luna said then summoned a list of things handing it to Twilight. Twilight then ran out to complete the task. Making sure that no pony was looking, Princess Luna teleport to another room in the hospital. Looking around she immediately spotted what she was looking for. Laying in the hospital bed clinging on to life was her lover Spike. She walked up to the bed and took his hand in her hooves with the gentlest touch as if any more pressure would make him shatter.
"My love, how could anypony do this to you. I'm so scared," Luna said with nothing but love in her voice. "I promise you Spike, with every ounce of power I have. I will find out who did this to you," Luna than gave a most terrifying glare, directed at no pony in particular. "I will trap them on the moon for all eternity for their crimes," Luna awakened a seemingly infinite source of resolve within. Leaning over she planted a kiss on his forehead and held it there for a few seconds before removing her lips from him. The princess stood there looking at him for what seemed like a long time, then teleported out of the hospital and into her room at the castle. Taking a few scrolls of paper, she began writing on them. After an hour she was done, she then charged up her horn and the papers disappeared to wherever their destinations were. Twilight came galloping through the door with the items Luna had requested.
"Here Princess Luna, I got what you asked for,' Twilight said after catching her breath and composing herself.
"Good, its about time to begin the hunt," Luna stated simply. "Tomorrow the rest of the team will arrive and then we will begin tracking down the bastard pony that did this to Spike," Luna stated with a fierce energy. "Twilight, I must train you in more realistic combat spells if you are to truly be ready for battle. we will begin with elemental spell," Luna said levitating out some rather old books. "These books contain the many combat spells that was used during times of war. You may want to study up on these," Luna explained as she hoofed over the books to Twilight.
"I will begin studying immediately," Twilight said as she ran to one area of the room, sat down, and began reading. The Princess and the unicorn trained through out the night, only stopping when it was late into the morning to catch some sleep before the gathering begins.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The next night, Luna and Twilight were waiting on top of the Lunar Tower for the rest of the party to arrive. In just one day Twilight had managed to read every book that Princess Luna gave her which shocked the Alicorn. She had a hard time just finishing one book inside a day, her mind always was more the adventurous type.
"Well it looks like we are ready to begin," Luna said as a group of shadows were flying towards them. When the unknown things finally landed, Twilight was able to figure what they looked like. The first was a griffon, rather large in size who carried heavy armor and quite an arsenal of weaponry. The next was a Pegasus, he had a dark blue coat with a black mane and tail. He carried razors on his wings that were sharp as any blade a pony could forge. The next was an dragon, not big but very lengthy. She had what could only be described as reflective scales that if looked at a certain way would look invisible. The last member was an earth pony that jumped off the dragon. She was carrying several pouches and had a mask on her face.
"that's quite a group you got there," Twilight said a little nervously.
"Twilight I would like you to meet the elite special forces squad, they are trained in a long line of mercenaries that date back to the founding of Equestria. This is my sisters apprentice everyone, please introduce yourselves to her," Luna said stepping aside so they could proceed.
"I'm Grondar, an expert of all fighting styles and master weapons user," the griffon stated with a flex of his talons.
"I am Shadowfoot, I'm a master thief and an expert in potion making," the earth pony said stomping her hooves on the ground.
"I'm Abbadon, I'm a master in espionage and stealth," the dragon said with no expression of interest.
"I'm Ashcloud, I specialize in tracking and interrogation," the Pegasus said flapping his wings.
"They all can handle themselves pretty well in any situation," Luna turned to face her group. "Since you are probably wondering why your here, I will be brief. My dragonfriend, Spike, was recently attacked by an unknown pony who is racist and somehow possess an enchanted dagger. I'm going to assume that based off the information we have so far that the pony is a unicorn. Most likely a descendant of one of the original spell casters from the pony dragon wars. This pony may or may not have supporters. We need to figure this out and if so, how large it is, that is why I called you. Each of you has a gift or skill that makes you uniquely equipped for each stage of this investigation. We will begin at the scene of the crime," Princess Luna said before turning to take flight. Abbadon approached Twilight.
"You may ride with me, get on," The she-dragon said to Twilight lowering her wing to allow her access. The unicorn slowly got on her back and the rest took flight with the Princess. The group flew to the building in which Spike was roped to. Landing, the group began searching for clues to the culprit.
"The report says the murder was attempted elsewhere. The amount of blood loss was to much for the quantity at this location. Begin looking for anything that can point us to that location," Princess Luna stated before picking a section and started searching. The rest of the group began looking as well. Abbadon and Twilight chose to search around the front of the building. Grondar and Ashcloud searched the rooftop, which left Luna and Shadowfoot to search around the sidewalk and streets. Shadowfoot was searching the street for a few minutes before she noticed something in the storm drain nearby. Walking over to get a closer look, she discovered it was a bright green feather with a bit grease on it.
"I think I found something," Shadowfoot said as she called the group over to her. Ashcloud took the feather in his hoof and looked at it for a few seconds.
"Which way was it laying," the Pegasus asked giving it back to the earth pony. She laid it down with the stem of the feather facing north towards the Restaurant District. they all got back into the air as they followed the Pegasus to an ally way behind the building, Red Ponies. Luna lit up her horn to illuminate the dark area and they immediately saw huge amounts of blood all over a piece of the wall and a dumpster. Twilight had to turn away to keep herself from vomiting at the sight.
"A little squeamish are we," Grondar said in with a bit of amusement in his voice.
"I've never seen so much blood at one time, it sickens me that somepony could do this to my brother," Twilight said with a bit of sadness in her voice. Luna went to comfort her while Ashcloud searched the crime scene. Ashcloud returned with a receipt in his hoof.
"This receipt is to a very popular bar in the south district of this fine city, its called the Grey Stallion," the Pegasus said as he looked over the paper. "Its a very popular place for criminal organization members to hang out. This receipt belongs to a pony named Blackstone," Ashcloud said finishing his analysis of the paper.
"Well, it looks like they will have to make an exception this once for a princess," Luna said as she glared angrily off into the distant south end of the city.
The south end of canterlot was less than pleasing to the eye. there were many bars, night clubs, and some other less than respectable building. Princess Luna and her squad were headed towards the Grey Pegasus, a bar for the lowest of the low in the criminal society. most of the group was uninterested in the many illegal activities going on around them however Twilight was just downright disgusted. there were drunk ponies moving about the streets in a disorderly manner and other ponies buying what she could only assume as illegal substances. as they were walking around the corner, she thought she could see a mare on her knees performing acts on a stallion that she would be able to get out of her mind.
"Princess, how could all these things be happening. The stuff that these ponies are doing are against the law, shouldn't we tell the guards," Twilight said as she got more nervous every second she was in this dreadful place.
"Unfortunately Twilight, not every single crime that is committed can be stopped, we simply do not have the officers nor the resources to combat all these illicit activities so we let some go about what there doing. Some of these ponies are only doing it because it keeps them fed and give them a place to stay. Not every city you come across in your life will be as sweet and innocent as Ponyville," Princess Luna explained to the worried unicorn.
"I'll just be glad when we can leave this area, its so disturbing," Twilight said with anxiety present in her voice. The group continued on until they finally came to their destination. As they approached the building they could see several big burley guards outside letting only specific ones in. There was a neon sign that showed a Pegasus gulping down a pint of Angry Orchard sweet cider ale. Ashcloud held his hoof in front of Luna then proceeded to go on alone. He went up to the guards and said something in a low voice that the group could not hear. He proceeded to wave over the group and headed in. When the group caught up, Ashcloud was by the receptionist getting them a booth. The receptionist showed them to an available booth that was secluded and had a view of the entire room.
"So you mind telling us how you managed all this and with little effort I might add," Abbadon said with a smirk on her face.
"It is simple, the guys outside were some old friends of mine from way back, I've beded the receptionist twice, and I have a club pass here," Ashcloud said as he leaned back in his seat.
"So where is our target suppose to be anyway," Twilight asked as to move the conversation in a different direction?
"The guard said he's been coming around every day at the exact same time for the past three days. He should be here in a few minutes," Ashcloud explained as he received a flagon of ale from the waitress passing by. He downed it and began scanning the crowd for the target. After searching for a few minutes he found the target.
"Well, is he here yet," Twilight said getting anxious and wanting to get this done as quick as possible.
"He's right there," Ashcloud said as he pointed towards the door. Twilight went over the ponies appearance. Blackstone is a stallion Pegasus with a dark grey body and a black mane. He wore full leather armor and a ton of knives strapped on his suit. He headed over to a staircase that leads to the second floor.
"Damn, he went to the VIP floor, how are we going to get him now," Grondar said with a bit of annoyance present.
"Oh hush, I can get this done," Shadowfoot said as he headed over to the staircase.
"I will follow," Abbadon said as she went invisible. Shadowfoot approached the staircase but was blocked by a guard.
"Sir your not allowed-"
"Don't assume I'm not allowed anywhere," Shadowfoot said as he hoofed out a clear plastic card with a hologram that said VIP.
"Sorry sir, you may pass," the guard said as he moved out of the way. Shadowfoot proceeded in casually.
"how the hell did you do that," Grondar said a bit flabbergasted.
"He stole that ponies pass card," Ashcloud said pointing at a particular pony who was dancing a bit wilder than needed. Luna decided to follow as she turned into a shadow then slid past the guard. As soon as security was out of view she rematerialized and went over to Shadowfoot.
"So where is he," Luna asked which Shadowfoot simply responded by pointing to a door ten feet away on the right. They headed over to it and Shadowfoot picked the lock. They opened the door slightly and peeked inside. Blackstone was making out furiously with a earth pony mare in bed. Luna noticed that he had no armor on and took her chance. Turning into a shadow again, Luna slid over to the back of the room then rematerialized. The prostitute eventually took notice of the added presence in the room and jumped up.
"You never said anything about adding in another mare for the evening," the prostitute said to Blackstone as she pointed to Princess Luna.
"Get out," Luna said before she picked up the mare with her magic and moved her out allowing her two companions to enter.
"What is going on, you are not allowed up here. get out now before I call security," Blackstone demanded before getting knocked back on the bed flat.
"Don't you dare speak to me like that, I am your Princess and you will answer my questions," Luna said now showing her anger.
"I don't need to tell you anything, and you cant touch me unless you want bad things to happen," Blackstone said threatening the trio.
"You are not in a position to be making threats, now you will answer me or I will break you. oh, and there are many ways I can hurt you without ever leaving a mark," Luna said darkly sending chills down Blackstones spine.
"I seriously doubt that," he said with a fake braveness added in to his voice, it didn't work.
"Then let us begin," Luna said as she gagged him. Her eyes became bright lights as she touched his chest. She began torturing him by boiling his blood. He started screaming into the gag painfully. After doing this for several minutes she stopped and pulled the gag out.
"You think this torture will make me say anything. you have nothing and there's nothing you can do," Blackstone said taunting her.
"Oh, I think there is a lot I can do. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like for your brain to literally explode, well let find out shall we, Luna said as she stuffed the gag back in his mouth. She repeated her process as before except this time she put her hoofs on his temples. All of a sudden he could feel a headache coming on.. It started to get more painful until it felt like his brain was on fire. He screamed more intensely and closed his eyes as tears began flowing. After a couple more minutes Luna stopped and pulled the gag out again.
"Aaaaahhhhhh stop, stop, please stop I cant take it. I'll tell you anything just stoop," Blackstone said as he finally broke down crying.
"Alright, tell me who hire you to kill the dragon yesterday," Luna said with satisfaction in her voice.
"That dragon, really, that's what you wanted to know about. Wait, you, your his marefriend aren't you," he said with shock.
"Yes and you're trying my patience, tell me who hired you," Luna demanded angrily.
"I don't know who hired me, all I know is that my boss received an assignment from an anonymous source to assemble a team and meet up with an informant in the east section in that exclusive restaurant. We were to receive our assignment from a pony who goes by shadow. I was going to leave soon after I was done with the prostitute. I didn't even hurt him I just held him down, it was just a job," Blackstone said wimpering.
"JUST A JOB, That dragon was the love of my life and you think of him as a job," Luna yelled angrily before teleporting him to the castle dungeon. At some point Shadowfoot left the room to stand guard and Abbadon had dropped her camouflage to simply watch the scene before her. Luna teleported outside with the group in tow. "Lets go, we have a new location to visit", Luna said as a few stray tears ran down her face.
"Where are we headed to now Princess," Grondar asked after figuring out what happened.
"Were going to a restaurant called Neigh Meurice, its in the east district," Luna said before she silently cried to herself. To think that some pony could kill a living creature just for some bits, it disgusted her.
"Are you ok Luna, your crying," Twilight said being the observant one as usual. Luna's only response was a lingering glance that showed only raw sadness and pain. The look almost caused Twilight to break down and cry with her. She knew the Princess had been through so much heartache and pain in her long life and one of the few times something wonderful had happened to her, it was almost taken away. This only sparked a fire of determination within her to make Luna smile again.
"Whoa, I almost sounded like Pinkie Pie there," Twilight said to herself quietly. The thought lightening her mood but not by much. The group soon reached the restaurant and slowly approached it.
"Let me handle it this time," Luna said before walking up to the receptionist. He was shocked when he saw Luna approach.
"Oh Princess, I wasn't expecting you to show up, I didn't know you made a reservation," the stallion said nervously as he looked through his list.
"I didn't and I'm not here for the nice cuisine, I need information about somepony. Several stallions with armor came in yesterday to meet another pony, can you tell me who it was they were meeting," Luna asked patiently waiting for him to check his lists.
"Uuuuhhhh, yes there was a pony who came in here but he was in town on business. he didn't say where he was from but by his accent I'd say he was from Manehatten," the stallion finished then gave her a page with a name.
"Thanks for the information, I will not keep you from your job, Luna said as she walked away.
"Do come back anytime, ill have a table reserved for you when ever you like," he yelled to her before she was completely out of earshot.
"So what did he say," Twilight asked curiously.
"They didn't have much, the target was pretty elusive but he did manage to get a name and a possible lead on where to start looking. If you will excuse me, I must to go get a few train tickets, for tomorrow we head to the city that never sleeps," Luna said cryptically before flying off to the train station. The rest of the group decided it was time to get some shut eye so they headed back to the castle for a long nights sleep.
The ride to Manehatten was quite long, and Twilight couldn't think of anything to say the entire ride. She was feeling so helpless and out of place on this mission. If you wanted to ask her a question about magic or the history of Equestria, she could help you figure it out in a snap. However Twilight was out of her element tracking down underground mob ponies, or interrogating somepony for information. From what she could see, Luna definitely had enough of a group to do this without her. So why was she even here, it just didn't make sense to her. On top of that, she was worried about Spike. She thought her skills would be better suited helping the doctors at Tender Heart Hospital. Twilight knew quite a number of healing and restoration spells, anyone of them might be able to heal him. Regardless though, her mentor requested this of her and on Faust holy name herself, she would get it done. She looked back to Luna only to receive a brief glance before she got up from her seat.
"Get ready everyone, we will be departing soon," Twilight said as Luna went to stand in front of the door at the far end of the cart. Twilight wondered what was going on in her cousins mind, but she would have to deal with that later. They needed to go scout the land to find their next target. Once the group got out of the train station, Luna teleported the group to a taxi that was not in use.
"Taxi, take us to the Gritz Hotel," Princess Luna ordered driver before entering the cab. The others quickly followed suit and the taxi got to rolling. The ride was less then smooth but they reached their hotel well enough. the group headed in and the hotel manager was their waiting for them.
"Ah, hello mademoiselle's, it is great to have you here. Your room is prepared and your package is already up there waiting for you," the manager stated while bowing to the Princess.
"Thank you sir Delmont, if I require anything else I will notify you. have a good day sir," Luna wished to the manager as she teleported her group to the royal suite. The group looked at the different ornate paintings and items that lined the wall as they approached an intricately carved wood door. Shadowfoot opened the door and the group craned their necks in at the enormity of the room. It must have taken up most of the building floor, the rest belonging to the hallway leading to the room. Princess Luna was the only one to walk past as if it was normal, even Twilight seemed shocked by the size. Soon the group got pass their shock and went in to set their stuff in their respective rooms. After getting everything in and put away, the group went back to the main room to go over their agenda.
"I had my pony advisors compile information into a short dossier. The target is an earth pony who goes by the name of Fire Sash. He lives somewhere in the north district and he wont be alone. The target is paranoid and has been known to travel with guards especially in big cities. The muscle is usually hired gun but he has always been known to have some extras hidden nearby. This makes it dangerous since they will probably be dressed like civilians, so be carful," Princess Luna said as she and the group headed out to go acquire their target. Manehatten was a pretty big city full of shops, hotels and all sorts of other buildings used for different purposes. The city was pretty diverse in many cultures as well as different groups and gang affiliations all around the place. It was disgusting that such vile and criminalization could be found it such a great city. The princess wished their was something they could do but it was beyond even her power to remove. Searching for the bad guys wasn't that difficult, surprisingly. Many actually knew the location and were more than willing to give him up. A lot of civilians wanted him gone and had many things to say about him. This Stallion didn't seem have very many ponies that like him. Following street, it lead to an old neighborhood that had obviously seen better days. The house at the end on the left side was where they were headed. When they got halfway there, everypony went into stealth mode and snuck up close to the location. They went through a back alley from the next to the location and around into the backyard. Climbing over a fence and a couple of bushes, they came through another alley leading up to the side of the building. Climbing up onto the fire escape rails, they scaled to the top of the building and looked through each window searching for their target. When they got to the fifth floor, Ashcloud saw a group of mob ponies and several gangsters in the room with the target. He signaled to the others and they climbed back down to talk about a plan.
"Okay so what do we do, he's got a bunch of mob ponies all of which are probably armed to the teeth," Ashcloud pointing out the somewhat obvious obstacles.
"I say we go in there and smash them to bit, they cant be that strong and I could use a challenge," Grondar said as he pulled out his signature giant mace with sharp spikes on the head.
"You are correct Grondar, we could go in there take them down and interrogate the target, but there are more subtle routes we could take in this situation. We could distract the mob ponies and take Fire Sash without them ever knowing," Luna stated with certainty.
"You could sneak in to turn out the lights, and I'll go invisible and grab Fire Sash in the confusion. If anything goes wrong, we can always fall back on Grondar to come in and take them out," Abbadon said suggesting a plan.
"That could work, they wouldn't be able to see us in the darkness and they certainly wouldn't be able to fight. Either way we still get the target, i like it and I think we should try it," Shadowfoot said grinning at the high rate of success. They all nodded in agreement to the plan and began the task. Luna turned into a shadow and went through the front door to begin her task. Abbadon went invisible and went in with her to get into position. Grondar climbed up to the window and pulled his weapon out, ready to beat down the mob group at a moments notice. The rest ran to the bushes next to the front door as to pick off any stragglers to come out of the building. Luna searched around the house for several minutes before she found a small door that lead down to a dark and damp cellar. The humidity in the air was pretty thick, and cold, enough so to send a chill down your spine. She had no trouble seeing since she was use to seeing in the darkness of night. The room was not to big and so it didn't take her long to find the breaker at the other end of the room. Flipping the switch, she was met with the mechanical noise of everything in the house shutting down. Quickly retreating back to the front door, she rejoined with Abbadon and went up to the room waiting for their chance. The wait was brief as two thugs came out the door unaware of the entities next to them as they walked down the hall. Heading into the room they crawled along the ceiling immediately spotting Fire Sash in a large chair near the window. Luna slipped out the room and cast a distraction spell in another room nearby quickly sliding back into the target room. As she suspected, three more mob ponies left the room splitting up most of the group amongst the house. Abbadon quickly knocked out the target while Luna did a mind spell on the rest of the ponies in the room. To their eyes Fire Sash was still sipping on his scotch while reading the newspaper. Abbadon slipped out through the window and Luna slid through the house, out to the back alley where they came in with the rest of the group.
"They'll be figuring out soon enough that there boss isn't there, we better take this interrogation somewhere more private. I have a small warehouse in a location not to far from here," Shadowfoot said as he waved the rest of the group to follow. Luna picked up the knocked out fat Fire Sash and followed her team mate. After an hour of walking they came upon a small factory that was relatively inactive. A few lights were on but other than that, there wasn't much else. Going into the factory, you could see that it was mostly gone. Machines had been torn down and removed and it was barren of anything worth salvaging. The group went through an entrance leading into an underground basement of the complex where the scene completely changed. There was a couple of small metal forging station running with a work bench next to it. In another area, there was a refrigerator and a dining area that was shaped to look like a retro diner. The last area had an enchanting station and a potion making station, both of which were ready for use.
"Wow, where did you learn to make weaponized gem," Ashcloud asked Shadowfoot as he pointed at the store case above the enchanting station?
"From a gem maker that I met on one of my foreign jobs. He had some tricks that I thought would improve my stealth skills and stuff I could use just in case I need to get quick away from the locals if caught. Stealing is an art form my friend and one that takes years to perfect," Shadowfoot said as he stepped down on a trigger panel. A hatch in the middle of the room opened up, lifting out a board with chain cuffs and restraints on it.
"I'm a bit shocked, why do you have this," Abbadon asked as she stared at the large board?
"I keep this in case I have a target of interest I need to, chat with for long periods of time. You'd be surprise how long it takes to get information out of some races on this planet. Some have a higher resistances to my method but I find a way usually," Shadowfoot said as he helped Luna hook Fire Sash up to the board. Shadowfoot laid out a bunch of torture tools that were sterile but they had a lot of wear marks on them. This was an indicator that they had seen a lot of use. This notion sent a shiver up Twilights spine, as well as several others in the group. Luna grabbed the electrical wires nearby and hooked it up to the table.
"Twilight please stand back and Abbadon, Grondar, and Ashcloud, go stand guard outside to make sure no one comes near this building. Shadowfoot do you have a bucket of water, Luna asked the thief pony. His response was pulling a chain and a smale pale of water landing next to her. She picked up the pale with her magic and tossed the contents at Fire Sash's face causing him to jolt forward in shock. The stallion looked around noticing the two in front of him and a third off to the right. she however was a dark figure in the bright light that was pointed at him.
"What is going on, who are you, I demand to know where you have taken me," Fire Sash said spouting out command as if it was his place to be giving them. Luna pulled a chain switch and waited. The clouds started to float down above the building forming one singular mass. Electricity shot onto a rod attached to the top of the building. The massive jolt was sent down through a series of cables into the table, sending millions of volts of electricity into Fire Sash. He screamed in agony as his nerves seared with pain from the shock. His muscles were convulsing and the veins were slowly increasing into a noticeable size. After a few more seconds Luna pulled the chain again and the surge stopped. Fire Sash collapsed into a relaxed hanging state from the board, breathing shallow from the intense pain.
you will not ask the questions I will, and you will answer them correctly. If you lie I will know, and that will earn you another shock. We will continue this session until you've answered all my questions. When we are done, I will determine whether or not you will be allowed to live," Princess Luna said as her anger showed for a brief moment.
"Ha I doubt that but if your going to try, good luck. I give it about five minutes before you give up and go home," the arrogant Fire Sash said to the ponies he still couldn't see fully.
"Let us begin then," Luna said as she pulled the chain starting the process up again. The electricity soon came back like before and went into the rod, ending up at the table. The electricity surged through Fire Sash, sending him into another full body spasm. The prisoner screamed as his eyes started bulging out of their sockets. This continued for another fifteen second before she turned off the current. The prisoner collapsed in pain, but the chains held him up.
"Who told you to send a pony to hire some assassins in Canterlot," Shadowfoot said asking the first question?
"Whats in it for me, i should get something out of this if i turn over my employer," the prisoner said attempting to negotiate for his information? That earned him another thirty seconds of electricity coursing through him. When the shock was done he was in more incredible pain.
"You don't get anything, you answer the questions and if you answer correctly i might let you live. Now tells us, or do i have to shock you again," the princess hinted as she reached for the chain.
"NO, no, no, I will answer the question just don't do that again. one day I was working and my boss told me to hire a couple of ponies and kill a specified target. I was a bit tired and didn't feel like doing it so I sent one of my guys to go and do it for me. my bosses name is Evergreen and I would really like it if you didn't tell him I gave you this information," fire Sash pleaded for them not to.
"Next, where might we be able to find him," Luna continued, not even bothering to answer him?
"He runs a major operation in Hoofington which is his turf," he said not wanting to piss his captors off.
"What does he do, and how can I find him," Luna asked not wanting to waste time?
"He's a pimp, he has hundreds of mares who work for him. He can usually be found at Bue'vont, a high class restaurant/bar that he owns," Fire Sash said trying to be descriptive of the place.
"see, that wasn't so difficult now was it. Shadowfoot write down this information," Luna whispered to the thief pony as he began jotting it all down.
"So are we done now, are you going to release me," Fire Sash asked since he thought this meant he would be given his freedom?
"No, unfortunately for you, I have a lot more questions to ask," the princess said as her magic aura began to glow its familiar midnight blue. her eyes glowed a menacing white and she gazed at him as he realized he was in for a world of pain.
From a large abandoned airship factory, screams could be heard everywhere in the surrounding area. That however would require that somepony be around to hear it. Nopony was around for a good mile and a half, so the screams were of little consequence. The screams came from inside the structure which was barren, apart from a few dimly flickering lights in the night. Fire Sash was crying like a big blubbering baby as he received more and more painful forms of torture. It ranged from surgical cutting tools to electrical cables that administered a nasty shock when applied. The stallion was tortured for only a couple of hours before he screamed for mercy. Princess Luna was surprised that he had survived this long since he wasn't exactly in the best of shape. This weak form of a male pony was a bit overweight an probably never saw much action since he hid behind mob guards all the time. Luna wasn't satisfied but she had to continue her mission and so they took him down and bound his hooves. The group sat him up on an old wooden chair and pointed a bright light at his face to blur his vision. The darkness of the room hid most of her companions from sight and they needed it to remain that way. As far as she knew, the only one the stallion recognized was her. The rest of the group sat back as Luna approached Fire Sash to begin the questioning.
"Tell me, do you remember the most recent job you were assigned to take care of," the Princess asked with a glare of hatred at the stallion. the stallion coward in fear not able to look at her angry eyes.
"Yes I remember, I was suppose to hire a hitpony to take out some young dragon in Canterlot," he said hoping the answer would suffice. She then slapped him across the face which he responded with screams of absolute fear.
"Tell me, who it was that gave you this job and are there other involved," the angry mare asked as she took satisfaction in the pain she caused the bad stallion.
"I never got to meet him, the pony I dealt with was a representative. He said he was part of an organization that has deep roots in Equestria and that he needed someone killed. they paid a lot of bits so I didn't ask to many questions," Fire Sash responded with as much as he could remember about that day.
"Who was the pony you met with? Did he have any distinct features or things about him that would stand out? Also was anypony else with him," Luna bombarded Fire sash with more questions to put pressure on him?
"All I remember is that he wore some sort of cloak with symbols of wings on fire adorning either side of it. Many ponies are apart of it and they assured me that they would get the job done with or without my help. I didn't want to lose the bits so I took the job without hesitation. That's all I know, please let me go," the stallion said as he begged for his life. It would do him little good however as her eyes began to glow a bright white and she stared deep into his eyes. Fire Sash began screaming in agony but it was only for a minute or two before he stopped and slumped in his chair. Luna returned to normal and walked towards a pillow to sit down on, sighing with frustration. This group had been smart to hid themselves in shadow so to not be recognized. The only thing she had to go on now was a symbol that could be from one of any number of organizations that has risen and fallen since the founding of Equestria. It was not much to go on and she figured it might require a bit of research to figure it out. Twilight was the perfect pony for this kind of job as the princess walked over to her.
"Twilight, I'm afraid we are stuck and you are the only one who can figure this out," the Princess asked hesitant to request the studious mares help. Twilight could tell this was hard for her and she knew why. Princess Celestia had told her before when Luna first came back that her sister was a bit head strong. She liked being able to do things herself and It annoyed the lunar goddess to no end when she had to ask for help. It was a part of her nature to know what to do and how to do it. Twilight smiled at her cousin to reassure her before speaking.
"Don't you worry Princess, I will figure this out. We are here to support you and I'll do my best, Twilight said hugging the Princess. Luna liked that they would share even more relations after she finished this and finally married Spike. The night princess loved the idea of having another sister to talk to even though they were cousins already. After the hug ended, Twilight ran off to the nearest library she could find to begin her research. Shadowfoot took this moment to ask a much needed question.
"So what are we going to do with him? Is he even alive," the thief asked pointing at the husk of a pony slumped in the chair?
"Oh he is very much alive and unharmed. I placed him in a never ending nightmare of his worst fears that he will never wake up from. I healed his physical wounds as to not rouse suspicion when we drop him off at the Canterlot insane asylum for his recent lose of sanity. He was so heart broken when a family member died that he just couldn't handle it and went mad," Luna said in a fake show of care for the none existent loss.
"You know, I'm actually kind of scared of you right now," Ashcloud said, shocked at how dark Luna was being right now. Luna just smirked and teleported Fire Sash to his new and permanent place of residence along with a note for the doctors to read. When she was done, Luna cleaned everything up with her magic then teleported the group to their hotel room. Now all that was left to do was to wait for Twilights return and hopefully with the information they needed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It had been several hours since Twilight had arrived at the local library and still she was no closer to figuring out the puzzle set before her. She was incredibly smart, so smart in fact that she could read an entire book in half an hour or less. It didn't matter how complex it was, if it was a book she could read it. She also remembered everything she ever read thanks to her eidetic memory. However none of this was helping her and so she was stumped on what to do. She would search this library all night if she had to but she found nothing so far on the symbol. Twilight had read many books on ancient symbols over the years and knew quite a few but this one was a complete mystery in itself. So far none of the books she had picked up told her anything about the symbol. It popped up at the founding of Equestria and then disappearing shortly after but that was it. No book explain why or how it came to happen only that it was brief. Twilight thought maybe Celestia would know something about it but she was incredibly busy with her and her sisters royal duties. Twilight didn't want to bother her so she sent a letter to Celestia room and she could just check it when she had a chance. She kept searching, hoping that she might find something but was doubtful. Even a name would be great progress at this point. She was searching through the shelves alphabetically looking for anything that might be related material to the case. When she looked up at the clock she realized that the sun would be coming up in an hour. She had already read most of the books and was on the last cabinet in the section that she was suppose to check. She had little hope at this point on finding anything about the symbol but didn't want to give up until she had read all the books in the section. As Twilight put a book back she noticed a dusty old book that looked like it had never been lifted from the cabinet.
"Who would put a book here but never read it, that's just a waste of knowledge," Twilight said with puffed out cheeks. She didn't like it when ponies wasted knowledge that might be for something important. She pulled the book down and blew the dust off it, coughing as the air is filled with dust now. Once the dust cleared, she turn it to look at the cover. it was a clothe bound book that's at least 300 years old. She was now confused as to why this was in the wrong section. She got the urge to open the book anyway and when she did, she saw a series of numbers on the first page. She looked at the numbers for a few minutes before it dawned on her. These numbers to a three series lock combination. Twilight memorized the numbers and as she put the book back she saw something attached to the shelves next to it. On the under side of the shelf, she found a turn dial combo lock and quickly realized the combination went to this lock. She dialed in the combo and as it clicked she sigh with relief and pulled it open. A leather case falls out and she pull it out to examine the content. There were many sheets of papers inside with the same symbol as the one she was looking for. Twilight jumped up and pumped her hoof in the air as she completed her assignment. She always took pride in completing a hard challenge. It just proved that she was the pony to ask for when it came to finding information on any subject. She put all the stuff in her bag and teleported back to the hotel room, jump scaring the group inside. Everyone got up and went over to the lavender unicorn.
"So did you find anything," Grondar said hoping they had a new lead so he wasn't just sitting around wasting time.
"Yes, I found a pack of notes hidden in a secret compartment. They had placed clues for one of there own to find It, but I found it first. somepony went through a bit of effort to hide this. It even has the same symbol that I was looking for on it," Twilight said as she passed them to Luna. Luna began reading the contents of the notes.
Name, ranks, and status of past, and current members of the Order of Purity,
Past Commander Hurricane: founding member, status: Dead Lieutenant Speed Break: Maester, status: Dead Lieutenant Commander Alpha Storm: Maester, status: Dead Admiral Fast Strike: Maester, status: Dead Colonel Hook Stack: Maester, status: Dead Master Sargent Point Blank: Maester, status: Dead LT. Colonel Shard Hide: Maester, status: Dead Captain Hard Blast: Maester, status: Dead Major Strong Hoof: Maester, status: Dead Captain Long Shot: Maester, status: Dead
Present Unknown: Maester, status: Active Pawn Top: Second in Command, status: Active Crystal Shine: First Lieutenant, status: Missing Whisper Light: Second Lieutenant: status: Active Knock Lock: Third Lieutenant: status: Active Fire Sash: Fourth Lieutenant: status: Active Dumbbell: Grunt, status: Standby Brick Smash: Grunt, status: Standby Hard Head: Grunt, status: Standby
When Luna finished reading, she turned to the group with a look of confidence. It was covering up the anger that was barely noticeable.
"We have work to do everyone, and each will be given a task. There are several targets on this list and we need to find and question all of them. We will split into teams of two an go after three targets at a time. Each group will be given two names to go after. Shadowfoot, Grondar, you will go after Hard Head and Knock Lock. Ashcloud, Abbadon, you will go after Brick Smash and Crystal Shine. Twilight and I will go after Dumbbell and Pawn Top. The plan is to investigate the ponies on this list and figure out their movements. Gather information, find out their day to day activities and capture them when you've gathered enough to do so. Once you have the target, interrogate them and figure out all they know. Once you have completed your tasks you will place these stones on them and they will be teleported to the castle dungeon and await their sentencing. Everyone understand their tasks, Luna asked like she was expecting a quick answer. They all answered back with individual yeses from each one after the other. The group gathered up their individual things and took off to complete the missions set before each team. Luna and Twilight were the last to leave the hotel. Luna quickly cast a spell on Twilight and she flinches in response. She looked back afterwards to see she had the same butterfly wings she gave to Rarity back during the Young Flyers Competition. that was the same day when Rainbow Dash Had performed the Sonic Rainboom for everypony.
"Why do I need these," Twilight asked wondering what the need for wings was.
"I need you to keep up and I can't keep teleporting us from city to city to complete our tasks. It takes quite a bit of magic to jump extremely long distances. Anyway, we need to go to the Canterlot archives to check for pony births with that name, Luna said as she took off quickly. Twilight flapped her new wings and slowly rose off the ground. With a little trouble, she began to fly after the Princess awkwardly. Twilight tried to keep up all the while with a single thought going through the back of her mind. Why would somepony go through the trouble to commit such a crime as murder.
Flying is a great way of travel for a lot of different creatures. You can get from place to place fairly easily and it saves time instead of traveling by carriage. However that is over a short to medium ranged distance. When it comes to long distance travel however, everypony in Equestria relied heavily on zeppelins to get around. Flying over a long distance with wings was considered next to impossible unless you are a well trained, athletic Pegasus. When Twilight thought of this she thought of Rainbow Dash or the Wonderbolts, not herself. She was not the athletic type, she didn't have toned muscles and she was not that strong physically. She was a student of knowledge so she didn't get out much to be involved in anything physical strenuous. Twilight was also a unicorn not a Pegasus, she knew next to nothing about flight. When Princess Luna gave her wings and asked her to fly, she knew that she would be slow. It took over half a days journey to get to Canterlot and Twilight felt exhausted afterwards. Unfortunately they didn't have time to say hello to their friends as they made their way to the castle filing room. Twilight felt bad not being able to but they were only going to be there for as long as they needed to. When they reached the castles filing room, they began checking records of all the registered citizens that lived in Equestria. all ponies had files detailing many things about them like name, occupation, and place of residents. There were tons of records and even with Twilight being a fast reader, it took them many hours to comb through the archives. They found information for several of the ponies on the list and sent them to the corresponding team members hunting them. Unfortunately there was no information found on the Maester or the first lieutenant. they also couldn't find very much on Pawntop, but Twilight and Luna did manage to find plenty on Dumbbell Evergreen at least.
"Well we have all we can find on our targets. So which one do you want to go after," Twilight inquired about to Luna.
"Since we got more on Dumbbell right now, lets go after him. He may be able to provide us with more on Pawntop. Maybe then we will be able to locate him," Luna said as she picked up the file on the new target. It says that the Bue'vont is in the Cascade District in Hoofington. He is basically the owner and probably runs the prostitution on the side. Luna summoned her saddle bag and put the file in it before making it disappear again. They cleaned up and organized everything into its proper place before leaving the castle again. They headed towards the stable and got their transportation prepped for departure to Hoofington. Luna called a couple of bat ponies down and got them hooked up before the the two mares climbed into the carriages cabin. The transport was dull looking as the two did not want to draw unnecessary attention while hunting the targets down. As the carriage took off Luna looked out the window at the vast land that surrounded her home. Hoofington could be seen far off into the distance from Canterlots high view point. It was a fair city and a relatively big one too. It took a couple of days but they eventually reached the city with as little a stop time as possible. When they arrived, Luna had the bat ponies land in a secluded area as its imperative they not draw unwanted attention.
"Alright, the file says its to the east of the hot air balloon docking station. Once we hit the Cascade District, we need to be on the lookout for the Bue'vont. His room is on the Apartment floor," Luna stated as she began walking in that direction. As Twilight followed her she couldn't help but ponder what they were going to do to the Pegasus. She knew that these ponies they were after had committed a major crime and possibly other as well. Punishment was only logical, they brought it upon themselves and needed to be brought to justice. Torturing them, then warping their minds and sending the broken pony to an insane asylum was not what she had in mind. Twilight continued following as she thought more on what to do about the situation. When they reached the location Twilight immediately noticed how nice it was. The Bue'vont was three floors tall and had a very big sign on the front letting every pony in the general vicinity know that this was the place to go. They entered the lobby, she noticed the elegant carpets that lined the floor and the ornate pictures that hung on the walls. Some of them were of the owners and others were of important Pegasi told about in history books. One even depicted Commander Hurricane fighting off a hydra in the battle of Heliopolis. The Pegasi were very proud of their history and they displayed it everywhere. The two walked up to the front desk and sitting at it was a very formal looking Pegasus mare. She was writing down something in a book when she noticed them. She went wide and dropped everything she was doing at the sight of princess Luna.
"W-well how do you do Princess Luna, I was not aware you were going to grace us at our fine establishment. Are you looking for a booth? I can get you a secluded booth that has a great view of the starry night sky," the desk mare said as she pulled out what appeared to be a log book for checking in customers.
"No thank you, I have a new friend that I'm visiting. He stays here most of the time, his name is Dumbbell. Do you know where he may be," Luna said acting as if she were delighted to be here.
"I can send a pony up to get him right away," She said as she clopped her hoofs together and a waiter showed up within seconds.
"No no that's alright, I would prefer to surprise him. He likes surprises," Luna said as she smiled at the desk mare. She waved the waiter away and bent down to grab a key. she hoofed it over to the Princess.
"That's a spare key to his room, he is up there right now. He's either counting money or he's drunk as a skunk having "fun". Also if you need anything else Ill be right here all night. By the way, my name is Aqua Dos," the mare said before going back to looking through books on her desk. Princess Luna and Twilight headed over to the stair and climbed to the third floor where his room was. They walked down the hallway until they found the door. Luna took the key and stuck it in to the key hole, opening the door. They sneaked in quietly, Twilight closing the door behind them. The room was decent sized and equipped with the standard amenities. The main room consisted of a couch and coffee table as well as a desk with a nice chair behind it. The Bedroom had a queen sized bed, and a walk in closet. The kitchen was small but workable, and their was a bathroom. The shower was running so they figured Dumbbell was probably in there.
"Twilight, I need you to look through the closet and see if you can find anything that would indicate his involvement. At the very least he should have something on the whereabouts of another member of their doomed order. Ill deal with him when he comes out," Luna said as she turned into mist form. She proceeded t faze into the shadows caste by the lamp nearby. Twilight went into the closet and noticed many things strewn about it. Apparently Dumbbell was a slob and didn't know how to clean up after himself. Twilight started rummaging through the clothes disgusted by the odor coming from them. The bathroom door opened and the Dumbbell came walking out with a towel wrapped around him and a comb in his hair. He walked over to the small fridge he had and pulled out a container of milk. He opted to drink out of the carton instead of pouring it in to a cup. He chugged some of it and then put it back into the fridge. He then proceeded to pull out a bottle of hard apple cider and pop it open. Dumbbell took a swig of it while walking towards the closet. He was then picked up by an unknown aura to him and slammed onto his bed. The bottle smashed against the floor and shattered, making a mess. Dumbbell was then restrained by his hooves and could no longer move. Luna became visible and stalked over to the stallion as he looked at her with fright. She got up onto the bed and waved her horn in an arching motion. This cause the magic restraints to deliver a sudden shock to his body. He yelled for help but it wouldn't do him any good as the room was sound proof by the night princess.
"Shut up scum, you've been quite a rude owner. You got public intoxication, harassing of the other citizens and hard working employee. You have also been running a prostitution ring from what Firesash said before he was "disposed of". That alone is bad enough, but the one crime you will ultimately pay for is your part in the death of Spike the dragon. You have two choices, you can tell me everything you know about the organization you work for. Or you can be sent to the moon immediately and without trial. Decide now which its going to be," Luna stated as her eyes began to glow white.
"I refuse to share that with you, you don't scare me. Your wasting your time," Dumbbell said with a stone cold face.
"Well if you are not, then you soon will be. Lets see how you like it when there is one million volts coursing through your body," Luna says in a cold tone. She cast a spell upon her hoof and they began to crackle with electrical energy. She put her hooves on his chest and he began to scream in pain. The one million volts coursing through him caused his body to seize and convulse in a sporadic manner. Dumbbell couldn't control his body much less move as the pain became incredible. After another minute of this Luna stopped and the spell dissipated with it.
"Your wasting your time, torture is no good. You wont get anywhere with this foreplay. Just let me go," he said with a pant of breath.
"No, you will either take the deal or this will continue. Now make a choice," Luna stated again.
"I will not betray my bosses for a deal that is not worth it. I know who you are and why your here. I will however make some amendments to that deal. Do your torture you have planned for me, and my organization targets your sister next when I don't make the next scheduled contact. Or you can let me go, give me a pardon of all charges and I will give you all the information I have on my fellow associates. Even you have to be smart enough to see this is the best deal your going to get this evening," Dumbbell said with satisfaction on his face. Princess Luna was a bit taken back by the threat. Could they really get to her sister. They had gotten to Spike though he was in a vulnerable position as he had no guards with him at the time. Celestia was never without a guard, she was protected at all times.
"That's an empty threat, my sister is guarded twenty-four hours a day. You would never be able to get her alone, this is just a bunch of excuses to hold back on your torture. Your a coward and that's all there is to it. Quit lying to me and tell me what i want to know," Luna said more angry then ever.
"Do you really think we can't do that, your guards are not incorruptible. Also, who's to say we don't already have some pony on the inside waiting to receive the necessary notifications. The organization is everywhere, we have our hooves in everything. That includes the Royal Guard and the Equestrian Military. Did you believe we would go into this unless we were absolutely sure of victory? We are not fools and we have also been around just as long as you or your sister have. We will not be taken down so easily unless one of us gives the others up," Dumbbell said with all the satisfaction a corrupt pony could have. Luna was backed into a corner, she could not be sure of the stallions claim and she did not want to take that risk.
"Alright, i will except your deal. I will give you the full pardon and let you go once you tell me what i need to know. So how do we find Pawntop and do you know who your leader is," Luna asked reluctantly at first.
"I don't know what our leaders name is, only his second in command knows the full details about him. What I can do is give you the location of his second and maybe he can tell you the rest. I don't know where he normal is but he's recently taken up residence in some hotel off in Cloudsdale. I heard that he is there on a hunt. Apparently a member defected from the organization and now Pawntop is leading the hunt for this pony. It's probably something important cause I have never seen such activity. The name of the hotel is-" before he could get out another word, an arrow came flying through the window and hit Dumbbell directly in the head. It killed him instantly as his body went limp and fell onto the bed. Another arrow came flying through and Luna barely managed to dodge it before it hit the wall on the other end of the room. Luna ducked behind the wall and leaned over to look out the window. She scanned the entire rooftop of the building from her viewpoint and could see nothing. Whoever it was, they did not want Dumbbell Evergreen giving out everything he knew. This was definitely a shadow organization that was not to be taken on lightly. Princess Luna assumed they would do everything they could to make sure she didn't get any further. Twilight came running out of the closet when she heard the noise. She immediately noticed the dead Dumbbell in his bed and the arrow in the wall.
"What happened, why is he dead, and who shot that arrow," Twilight asked shocked by the whole scene before her?
"Dumbbell was killed because he was about to give up highly sensitive information that nopony in the or wants us to know. We are definitely on the right track, these ponies are trying to cover there loose ends so we never find their leader. We have a chance to bring down their entire operation here in Equestria. Apparently they have a defector and Pawntop is in Cloudsdale looking for the pony. We have a window of opportunity, we need to either find Pawntop or this defector. If we can get a hold of at least one of them we might be able to figure out who we are finally dealing with. We must get to Cloudsdale as quickly as possible," Princess Luna said as she teleported Dumbbells body away. She proceeded to teleport Twilight and herself to the chariots and Twilight quickly hopped in. Luna told the Batponies where to go next before she quickly got into the carriage. Soon they were off to Cloudsdale not knowing what await them. They however would follow the leads all over Equestria if they had to, to find the culprit behind it all.
The flight from Hoofington to Cloudsdale took several hours so it didn't surprise Luna that Twilight fell asleep. She had been up for many hours and had not rested much during their hunt of the shadow organization. Luna pondered on what they would do next. They needed to find the next target but they didn't have much information to go on. On top of that she began to wonder, how big was this organization she was hunting. The previous ponies gave up information without much resistance but the last one was tougher than the rest. She also though about what he said, you don't know how deep it goes or how big we really are. What did he mean by that? How wide spread and entangled into Equestrian society was the Order of Purity. How could it have gone on for so long without anypony learning a thing about it. How powerful could they actually be? The last thing he said really sent it home with her worrying. They can take your sister out if they wanted to. Could they really do that? She needed to be on the trail hunting for Spikes assassin but she also needed to protect Celestia. She couldn't be in two places at once and this presented her with a big dilemma. She glanced over at Twilight and then a thought occurred to her. If Twilight and the rest of her friends were to stay at the castle, they could protect her sister from harm. They would have the power of the elements at their disposal and Twilight was the most powerful unicorn she knew. If anypony could keep Celestia safe, they could. Luna leaned over and shook said pony which cause her to stir and wake from a pleasant dream.
"wha, what going on," Twilight asked as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes?
"Twilight, you have been a major help and I cant thank you enough for all that you have contributed to the investigation so far. However I may need you to go back to Canterlot," Luna said as she locked eye contact with Twilight.
"Why, aren't you going to need help finding the targets on the list? I don't understand," Twilight said with a confused expression present.
"I will take your help for now but there are other matters far more important that need to be addressed too. Once we find the next target, I'm going to send you back to the castle. I need you to gather your friends there and protect my sister for the remainder of the investigation. The Order of Purity said that if we don't stop investigating right now, they might just severely injure or even kill her to get me to stop. I cant be doing both and I cant stop the investigation. I need you to do this for me twilight. Promise me you will keep her safe," Luna asked with pleading eyes. Twilight could feel the lunar princesses worry and fear and knew all to well how it felt.
"Okay Luna, I will do my best to keep her safe. You need to be careful as well," Twilight said displaying concern. She tried to relax back into her seat as Luna opted to continue looking out the window. After another hour they finally arrived in Cloudsdale airspace and were making their way to the Carriage landing zone. When they landed the two quickly stepped out and Luna told them to secure the vehicle and wait by it by until they returned. The bat ponies saluted and Luna caught up to Twilight at the exiting station to the landing area. They quickly made their way to the main district of Cloudsdale.
"Alright, there are two districts that we need to search. We have the Sky District where most of the upper echelon take residence. Then there's the Cloud District which is where the main residence and market district are. I don't know how much time we have before they find their defector so we have to be quick about this. You take the Cloud District and search for that defector, maybe she can help us. I'll go look in the Sky District and try to find Pawntop. If you find the defector, bring her to the carriage and I'll meet you there once I have obtained what the second in command knows. Good luck," Princess Luna said to twilight as she turned around to go toward the sky district.
"Good luck," Luna heard Twilight shout as the princess made her way to the Sky District. She quickly transformed into a Pegasus and started searching everywhere. She began by looking in the less populated sections and slowly made her way to the main area of the district. After searching for an hour and a half she had so far seen nothing out of the ordinary, minus a few illicit activities that she wished she hadn't seen. After another ten minutes, she ended up in the hotel and restaurant area. As she scanned the immediate vicinity she spotted only a few ponies walking about. Most were in the various buildings strewn about and were either sleeping or chatting away as they ate dinner. She passed by a particular building when she saw something out of place. In an alleyway next to the building, she saw a hooded pony heading into it. The pony was following a mostly faded painted arrow down the space between. She watched the pony as it made its way down the narrow area and all of a sudden disappear into a wall. The princess was shocked at first but then headed down the same way. As she made it to where she last saw the pony she could feel magic radiating nearby. She felt around with her own magic and soon found an invisible spell screen right next to a wall. She pushed against it and came through to the other side finding herself in what looked like an abandon cellar. The place had dust and cobwebs from not being used in some time by the looks of it. She saw an old door at the other end and put her ear up against it to listen for movement on the other side. When she did she started hearing low voices like they were trying to stay quiet. She couldn't make out what they were saying and she couldn't slip in to find out because there was no shadows for her to merge into. She decided to open the door a crack to see if she could hear better. It helped somewhat as she could now at least make out words.
"I did as you asked, Dumbbell wont be saying anything ever again. I shot him just in the nick of time too. Any longer and he would have exposed you to the princess and and the Element of Magic. Are you going to pay me now or what," the hooded pony demanded as he held out a hoof expecting payment? Luna could tell it was male by the voice. There was some slight illumination in the room thanks to a couple of small candles burning away on top of the desk they just lit. Another pony sat in the shadows in front of the hooded pony with most of his face not in view.
"Here, you are one greedy pony and that's going to get the better of you if you don't handle it." The pony in the shadows tossed the other one a heavy bag that jingled with bits inside.
"A pleasure doing business with you. Is there anything else that you need me to accomplish this evening," the pony asked? He was probably hoping to get more bits for work.
"As a matter of fact I do, there is a defector in this city. We had our agent break into the Canterlot hospital to grabbed some medical reports. they were on the dragon we assassinated a few days ago. We sent her out the day after and she hasn't returned. The boss needs those documents to confirm the dragons death so we can move ahead with our plans. We have determined that she is a traitor and is somewhere in the Cloud District, probably holding up in a motel somewhere. We need you to go find her and bring her back here so that I can begin interrogating her. Go find the agent and bring her back here. When you do I will have your last payment or this evening waiting," the pony said as he hoofed the other hooded one a map. Luna saw part of it and it had marked lines she was convinced might lead her to the defectors location. Luna saw this as her opportunity and blew the door off its hinges before walking through and locking the ponies in place with her magic. The ponies struggled to get free before they turned to the princess. She pulled the map out of the hood ponies pocket and levitated it over to her.
"I'll be taking that, thank you very much and I am far from done here. I have some business with your boss so tell me where he is," Luna asked as her eye glowed white with her rage clearly evident? The pony in the shadows was the first to speak.
"You may have that map but I will not give you what you want. Go ahead and do what you want but you are not getting anywhere near the Maester. In fact, I would be running if I were you. You obviously have no idea who your dealing with," the pony said as he gave an evil grin that could be seen even from the shadow of his hood. She was about to make a retort when she felt something collide with the back of her head hard. This knock her magic fields out of focus and the two ponies dropped to the ground. She turned to see who it was but got hit again before she could even make out a face. This time she slumped to the ground, knocked out cold.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Good luck," Twilight yelled back as the princess slowly got further away. Twilight turned around and went to the Cloud District to begin her search. When she arrived she noticed that the place was winding down from its daily activities. There were still quite a few ponies in some of the clubs but mostly they were walking home to their individual houses. Twilight began searching all around the place for anything suspicious. As she went section by sections and combed through each place, she didn't have much luck finding anything. When she finally circled back around she had found nothing and was about to give up. That was when she noticed a pony who was wearing a cloak and trying to look inconspicuous by blending in with the other pony groups. The pony looked to be moving in a pattern slowly to not draw suspicion but wasn't hanging in one spot for more than a brief moment. The only reason Twilight noticed this was that the rest of the denizens were being far more social. The pony headed down a lonely street as she pursued the target while maintaining a safe distance from sight. She followed down the street and onto a corner but she disappeared into a particularly dark residence. There was barely any illumination of the building except for a street lamp and a candle light inside. The structure was dark and decrepit, as it was probably an old building. Twilight went up to the door and was about to open the door quietly when she touched the knob and felt the magic coming from it. Something in the back of her mind told her the door was enchanted in some way. Possibly warded to keep out trespassers like her. Twilight didn't want to set off the charged door so she began investigating for another way in. She circled around the house, searching it for an entry ways. She found a window that was cracked open the slightest bit. Twilight went up to the window and opened it before climbing in. She found herself in a kitchen that was old and barren but looked like it seen use once a long time ago. it was practically empty apart from a table in the middle and a small fridge box that was unused. She turned around to close the window and put it in the exact same position. Quickly making her way over to the adjacent room next to the kitchen, Twilight slowly peaked through the arch way. The next room was the living room although it could use some serious cleaning. It was dusty everywhere in the room and the floor was fairly dirty. The weirdest part was that there was barely any furniture in the room apart from an old chair that was probably left there by the previous owners. She did notice a makeshift desk with the candle she saw through the window on it partially melted. She headed up a staircase in the hallway that led to a second floor and a couple of rooms with one door partially open. Twilight peeked inside and saw the pony from earlier packing up what could only be her belonging. She looked to be in a hurry by the way she was moving. Twilight quickly ducked behind the door as it opened and the pony ran down the flight of stairs. Twilight followed as silently as she could but couldn't help that one of the steps squeak in response to her stepping on it. The pony turned around and lunged at her, knocking her over and landing on her back. Twilight then felt a blade being held against her chest and her heart started beating faster.
"What are you doing here, why are you following me? Are you working for The Order, did they send you here to kill me? Speak quickly before I slice your throat open," the pony demanded in a aggressive, angry tone. Twilight coward back a little in response but the blade only got closer to her jugular.
"I'm not who you think I am, please don't hurt me. I'm just trying to avenge my brother and your the only one who can help," Twilight stated in a scared response. She turned her face away trying not to panic in the moment but was having a hard time not doing so.
"Who is your brother, and what could I possibly do to help you," the still cloaked pony asked in almost sarcastic tone. The pony made it clear that she did not believe her.
"You can tell me where the Orders of Purity's headquarters is and the true identity of the Maester," Twilight stated in hope this would plead her case. Almost suddenly, she could feel the knife moving away from her. She looked up to see the pony stepping back as if shocked. after the pony regained composure, it removed the hood. The pony turned out to be a mare and a Pegasus from the looks of it. Her mane was a crimson red and her coat was a honey like color. Her irises were a shining topaz color and had a necklace on but twilight could make out if she it had a pendant. The mare looked at Twilight with the slightest look of confusion and interest.
"How do you know about them, what did they do to you," the pony asked out of curiosity?
"They severely injured my brother and he died while the doctors tried to save him. I want to put a stop to the Order Of Purity and make them pay for their crimes against my family. Can you help me," Twilight responded telling her tale and asking for the mares help?
"Your the dragons sister, that explains a few things. I told them that taking out such an important target was dangerous. They didn't listen nor realize the repercussions from their actions. They sent me on an assignment afterward to retrieve the dragons medical records but I left the order the first chance I got. I've been hiding since they performed the assassination and my assignment. Look, I'm sorry for your loss but I don't know how I can help you. I don't know who the Maester is, I only received my contracts from his second in command," the Pegasus explained.
"Can you at least come with me and tell Princess Luna where the headquarters is. If you could do even that, it would be a tremendous help," Twilight pleaded with the Pegasus to help her. The pony thought for a few seconds and then sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell your princess where their main base is but after that I'm leaving. I cant stay here and the order is relentlessly pursuing me. Where is your princess?
"She will meet us at the chariot parking station. She had to go take care of the second in command and find out what he knows. She should return soon so we should leave now if we want to meet her back there before she finishes," Twilight explained.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don't think she will be returning anytime soon," the mare said. she gave her a worried look. Twilight soon looked worried as well.
"What do you mean by that, why wouldn't she be returning soon? Princess Luna can handle any pony thrown her way," Twilight stated now confused as well.
"Yeah, but I doubt that she ever faced an Elemental Golem," she looked at Twilight doubtingly.
"What do you mean, I've never heard of that? What is a Golem and how is it that i have never come across it in any records that exist," Twilight questioned?
"The Elemental Golem was created by a spell from a bygone age. Unicorns were experimenting with new ways to create soldiers. They did this during the time when the three pony nations were at war with each other. Pretty much all the tests failed apart from one but they never got a chance to use it. The princesses came in, quickly restored order and brokered a treaty between the three nations. The princesses would take on the duties of raising the sun and moon from now on and lead them. In return they had to give up their weapons and to structure a new military made up of all three races. The unicorns were also told to give up any attack spells they had produced for the war to go on record. They gave up most of them, but a few spell scrolls went missing and found its way into the hands of the order after it was formed by the first Maester. After that, they used the spell to create the Golem to protect the line of Maesters. Since then it has been their guardian and that is why nopony has nor can take down the organization. They designed the creature to be impervious to any attack spells and can only be stopped by a release spell. Only the Maesters knows what it is though. If your princess has gone to kill Pawntop than she may already be captured. They probably wont kill her because of her duty to the moon. They may however try to use her for some other means," the Pegasus explained in great detail. Twilight was shocked to hear all of this and now feared for her step sister.
"We need to save her before they can do any of that. We need to find her, where would they keep her," Twilight asked now trying to hurry as fast as possible?
"She will probably be held in the lower basement to a facility that they have here in the city. It is invisible and protected due to warding spells. Now that the princess has tried an attempt on Pawntops life, they will have doubled their security. We can get passed those but we cant possibly content with the Golem and they will most likely set him to guard the princess. We will have to be quick about it if we even hope to have a chance at rescuing her. If we are going to do it we also need to do it now. Lets move," the Pegasus said as they made their way out of the building. They ducked through the backs of building to stay out of sight.
"By the way, my name is Twilight. whats yours," the unicorn asked curiously?
