Twilight sat upon the floor of her basement. The floor was a hardwood of mysterious origins, and It was relatively empty at the moment. The room's furniture sat around the edge of the room, and Twilight's position in the room's center gave her plenty of space. She looked thoughtful and worried.
Small swirls of magic surrounded the young Alicorn’s horn as she grew more and more thoughtful in appearance. Her face even began to scrunch up in deep thought as the swirls began to rotate faster and faster around her horn. Something big was coming.
Twilight’s eyes flew open as the spell ripped from her horn, and then she blinked wildly as the spell let out blinding light. All at once she could feel magic itself ripple around her. Then, just as she thought it safe to open her eyes again, a wave of wild uncontrolled magic surged into her. Her body twisted and turned as she fought desperately to expunge the strange energy from her horn.
Seconds later the magic rolled away like a tide.
Then… nothing.
Her eyes opened wide before another surge could hit, and her mind rolled over as her physical senses were confronted with something even stranger than the wild magic from before. A sleeping human!
Twilight's organized, if manic, mind automatically brought forth her memory of that one page in that one book she had seen the word human in. Much to her chagrin it was the “Compendium of Lesser Races,” an ancient tome older than Celestia. It was the most comprehensive reference source of basic information on sentient species, but it was the decidedly most bigotted book in the whole of the Royal Library. * Her first instinct passed and she looked the being over closely. She categorically examined each of the resting human's limbs, confirming that she had guessed correctly.
Twilight called forth the book using a spell Celestia had shared with her a week after the coronation, and then double checked its description against her memory. After filtering out all of the obvious bigotry and cruel racism, she was sure beyond a doubt that this was in fact a female human.
Twilight considered the situation for a moment and pulled out her "Xenoanalysis checklist." After blowing the dust off she examined her first step.
"Consider the being's physical characteristics against similar known species." Twilight read out loud softly. She turned back to the mare or "women" as the book labeled them.
The Compendium of Lesser Races had labeled it as a "talkative monkey." While further use of the word revealed it to be demeaning in its intended use, this being did bear strong resemblances to the monkeys of the southern sectors of Equis. Closer examination of its jaw showed the first real difference between the insentient primates and humans, it had much smaller jaw muscles. This small difference would likely increase the brain cavity by a significant amount. A quick scan confirmed this and she was further impressed by its thin skull. This species had the brain to body ratio needed for intelligence on a significant level.
It had some hair on the top of its skull and right above its eyes, all of it a bright red. It was otherwise hairless.
Twilight pulled apart the female's lips just a little. The book had been right about them being omnivores, but the bad breath it ranted about for two paragraphs was noticeably absent. Its breath was almost minty, and its teeth were white. Closing them revealed that the soft blue of the human's lips was actually a lipstick.
Twilight frowned in renewed disapproval of the author, and then she measured the human's temperature. It was nearly 100 degrees! Twilight began to panic as she recalled primate's average temperature, but then calmed when she looked it over again. It was supposed to be hairless for the most part, and its breathing was regular. After examining the insulating property of its clothes, Twilight marked it down as a warm blooded dweller of colder climates.
With a small telekinetic flick Twilight lowered the temperature to better suit the poor thing.
After carefully redressing it, Twilight looked at the next object on her list.
"After establishing defining biological and anatomical characteristics, examine its decorations and styling." Twilight read a little louder. The poor human was obviously deep asleep.
Twilight approached the human and slowly examined it from all angles. It wore a gold necklace and one or two rings, but it was otherwise undecorated by metals or gems. Next she re-removed the creature’s clothes and examined them from a societal point of view. She had already concluded it to be cold dwelling, but there were three levels of clothing, and only 2 seemed logical. The outer clothes were a rough and thick wooly, the next layer were two soft satin garments covering shoulder to thighs and hips to ankles, two sock like pieces of clothing covered the rest of the ankle and covering the feet, and shoes protecting the whole of the two soft feet. It was the very bottom layer that confused Twilight. Underneath the rest of the garments were two soft pieces of cloth covering reproductive organs. The bottom pair covered what were normally covered by tails for ponies, so maybe sex was both pleasure and mating for them too. Closer examination of the breasts revealed pleasure related nerves to be present. That confirmed Twilight's recreational intercourse theory, and her growing hypothesis that their two species held similar mating incentives.
Twilight frowned as she examined the last piece. The strange stick that had been on the female's side it appeared to be a metal walking stick wrapped in leather, but it was far too short for the upright posture its anatomy dictated. Twilight gave the leather on one side a tug. She was rewarded with a "shhh" sound punctuated with a "ing" as the leather came off.
With an almost infatuated expression, Twilight examined what she now knew to be a sword. The craftsmareship of the metal was stunning for a magic free species. They obviously used tools and lived long enough to accrue mastery in skills. Perhaps it was a black smith?
Twilight stopped as she realized the lack of a cutie mark. Every sentient species had a cutie mark! The dragons and griffons might not bear obvious ones like ponies, but she couldn't even see the magical imprint of destiny!
How could any species completely escape the inherit magic of the planet like that? Twilight shivered as she considered the few dark ways she knew of, but the creature bore no scars that would result from that sort of dark magic. She was forced to postpone further examination along those lines till proper facilities could be used.
Twilight stepped back and examined the human as a whole. It was intelligent, dexterous, and armed, but it had no magic or armor. It was capable of violence, but obviously didn't protect or hurt others regularly enough to fear for its life. It had clean smooth skin, and a clean mouth. It was unscarred, with the exception of a small scratch on its cheek.
It was young too. A quick scan indicated that her mammary glands were still growing, but it was sexually capable. Twilight wrote down, “Young Adult” on her growing scroll of notes.
Twilight frowned as she wondered upon its occupation. It had to be a daughter of an upper-class family. The rings had seals, so it was a noble family, but the sword... the sword made it something else. A noble family wouldn't let any armed member go without training them, and training left scars. The sword was usable, but decorative. A sword bearing noble daughter that wasn't trained...
Twilight brought the sword back under her examination again. The beautiful metal revealed more each time she looked at it. A scan revealed almost scientifically exact composition, but no gilding or decoration that would make the sword just a status symbol.
Twilight brought it under her eye and slowly looked it over from tip to grip. It was smaller in the middle of the blade, and the blade had been nicked and repaired. So it had been used. She examined the strange perpendicular piece of steel that was between the blade and grip. It was flat and bore small intricately carved knotwork on the top. Nothing too flashy.
The grip had strong dyed leather. It looked worn, but well kept. At the very end was another piece of metal Twilight suspected acted as a counterweight to the blade. It was shaped like a gem, but Twilight blinked as a previously missed detail caught her attention. On one facet of the weight was a small impression of a V, two small axes, and a crown.
Twilight blinked as she considered it and the rest of her notes, and gulped as realization struck.
She had just kidnapped a princess.
"If I could send myself a message about that day with only one word, it would be "sword." No other single feature about that person I could examine in those first minutes would give me nearly the depth of information on humanity. It is truly the symbol of what I would soon come to fear and love."- Twilight Sparkle's "Piercing The Shroud."
Twilight sat, and let her analytical mind assemble the logically divided snippets of information. Then her mind reeled as the first and more important piece of information hit her like one of Celestia's high level training spells.
Twilight's heart rate literally tripled. She had kidnapped somepony! This was even worse than brain washing all of Ponyville. She had literally snatched up a living thinking being against its will! She had snatched up a sentient creature!
Twilight considered just admitting that it was an accident, but her mind reeled from the logical reaction as more and more serious and improbable outcomes filled her mind. In the matter moments her mind blazed with interplanetary wars and genocide, but before she could begin building a super spell grade grade bomb shelter the human shifted sleepily. The small action snapped Twilight's attention back to the moment and the slowly waking human.
It wasn't much, but it was enough to anchor Twilight back to the present.
With her duties in mind, Twilight tied up the human, placed a sound blocking spell, and yelled.
"Spike!" Her small purple assistant came down the steps a few moments later. He had an uncertain walk. He suspected something mundane, but he easily imagined a hundred different apocalypses that would cause Twilight to call his name.
Sadly, Spike's imagination couldn't conjure up the scenario that confronted him.
"T-twilight?!" He asked uncertain.
"Spike it's time to write Celestia.
~Equestrian Secret Service Base 001- location: CLASSIFIED~
Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Discord sat behind the one sided glass that lined the walls of the observation chamber. Most of the inside had been redecorated to replicate the look of a upper class filly's bedroom, but other spots had illusions to cover the glass.
The human had been kept under for days as scientists and politicians argued back and forth. It had taken a huge group of doctors protesting the treatment to force any consensus out of the body. Then there were the few days of setup on a unheard of scale. Everything had been for one moment.
All four princesses froze as a stirring was heard through the room's monitoring microphones. The human was waking up! Alarms blared throughout the facility, and all over agents occupied their battle stations and service carts.
Celestia made a complicated hoof motion, and with trained precision a earthpony in a maid uniform stepped into the chamber. She was in fact the best trained interrogator and spy in all of Equestria, but who better to discover the most about the xeno? The young mare had even been a diplomat, or at least a spy dressed up as a diplomat on occasion.
The human rose slowly and didn't even give the earthpony a second look. The alarms about the facility changed colors, and Twilight's mind raced with the possibilities. How could the human not be surprised by an earthpony? could it be from Equiss?! some undiscovered species? No, Celestia had met with every nation on the face of Equiss at some point or the other. If she said she had never met one, then how could it be on Equiss? It had enough sun in it's skin to live in a above ground home, and there wasn't a unaccounted for inch of Equiss' surface. Twilight turned to the other princesses and blanched at their own startled looks. It was obvious all around that this had taken everyprincess by surprise.
Perhaps earthponies were on other planets than just Equiss? That very concept boggled Twilight's mind, but it quickly replaced the idea that Celestia would not know of a species that managed to fill a position of nobility. Especially one with that sword.
"Why aren't you smiling?" All of the princesses froze as the human spoke for the first time. The voice was soft, feminine. I had a quality reminiscent of Fluttershy, but with less of a quiver. She was staring right at the Earthpony agent in maid's clothing. A agent who was remarkably calm considering the situation.
"I'm sorry your highness, but I've had a long morning." The agent ad-libed with ease. The plan had been to break it to the human that she was on another world slowly, by mixing what they assumed what was familiar and some Equestrian elements, but the agent had flawlessly capitalized on the human's lack of confusion. The better to discover why an earthpony didn't surprise her.
~Inside the observation room~
Was this the room Shade had prepared for her? Skissa looked about at the soft blue and grays. It certainly matched Shade's tastes.
If she had fallen asleep back on the airship Shade might be rather upset at her. She tended to be that way when frustrated. Yndig almost had to stifle a laugh. She could remember Fade's face from the first time she had fainted in the middle of one passionate night not to long ago.
But if that was so, why wasn't fade here? Fade had teased her for almost two days after the second time it happened. Surely fade would be in her bedroom waiting with feathers and rope.
Skissa would normally shiver in delight at the thought, but there was something wrong with this situation. The maid's uniform was the wrong colors! Skissa jolted as this realization struck her. Any servant of Fade's wore black and purple. This servant was in the black and white of the province of Everwinter, but that made no sense. Everwinter was to the far north Western side of Vinland. What could Duke Corvun possibly gain by kidnapping her?! How had her kidnapped her when she and fade were over the sea?!
Skissa slowly but surely emerged from the bed. If she had indeed been kidnapped, then this maid was probably armed.
Skissa looked around hoping her captors had been foolish enough to leaver her her sword to maintain the illusion of this being fade's castle, but alas they were smarter than that. This definitely wasn't Stormvangr Castle. With little hesitation Skissa reviewed the three steps to escaping capture by hostile forces.
'1) If the enemy is trying to hide the fact you have been kidnapped, PLAY ALONG!' Skissa winced as she remembered her tutor's rather insistent yell. She stopped and tried to remember what she would first do in the morning, what her captors would expect.
Of course!
"Where is Shade?" Skissa asked with a eager tone in her voice. She had been on a airship with Shade, they would expect her to ask after Shade right away. Skissa tried to feign the other form of eagerness by remembering some of her and Shade's finer moments. The intimacy between her and Shade was regular tabloid fodder. Kidnappers would expect that of course.
The maid slowly set down the teapot and gave Skissa a odd look. "My name is soft touch, do you know where you are?" Ah, so they weren't trying to hide their kidnapping, just avoid harsher punishment if things went south. This treatment was leniency insurance. Best to admit she knew where she was, it was a good sign if they were looking for leniency.
"I assume this is one of the lower rooms of Everwinter Castle." Skissa had to bite off a harsh tone. They were being nice right now, no reason to return the favor.
"I'm sorry miss, but this isn't Everwinter. We are in Canterlot castle, and you appeared in the nearby village of Ponyville yesterday." Skissa stared dumbfounded at the maid. What did she mean by Canterlot? This wasn't a kidnapping?
~Outside the Observation room.~
Twilight tensed as the maid broke the news to the human. The human hadn't freaked out yet, but with the whole earthpony thing not freaking her either that wasn't a real indicator of stability.
"w-where the heck is Canterlot, is it one of the new villages on the suthrisle?" The human asked with a anxious look in her eyes.
The maid looked remarkably calm as she answered. "Equestria."
The human went wide eyed and very stiff. It had recognized the word! How had it known of Equestria? Maybe the other world theory had been hasty. If Twilight's many years training to be a princess taught her anything, it was that no princess was or could be perfect, but then Twilight's mind reeled as she tried to imagine a empty spot on the maps.
All of the princesses went stiff as the human backed away rapidly from the maid. Why was the human scared? What was it about what the maid had said that scared it? It didn't look evil, in fact it was rather cute. Why would it be scared of Equestria?
The room took on a unequiisly chill as the sound of steel being drawn reverberated throughout the room. The human was armed!
Twilight stared dumbfounded at the blade in the human's hands. How had it done that?! The blade had been under three different enchantments!
All of Twilight's thoughts were tossed away as the human nestled itself in a corner and held the blade in a protective stance. From her side she could hear Celestia whisper into a microphone.
"Gas the chamber."
almost immediately the room took on a ugly green tint as sleeping gas flooded the room. The human and the earthpony agent both collapsed.
Shade tiredly paced the deck of her vessel. Each hoof fall clinked against the metal. Each heartbeat amplified in her small chambers. With a anxious express she stopped and glanced at the clock. **
-T Minus 3 Minutes-
Shade stared out at the expanse of stars outside of her window. So little time. She had trained almost since birth to be her nation's protector, to watch the veil, but what could prepare her for this? There was a whole griffon ship out there in her seas! To make things worse, the ships captain was probably looking for his father.
The father...
It had been easy convincing the father not to leave. All they had to do was wave a hot griffoness under his nose and sweeten the deal by adding in some tech. That was win win, the griffoness got a nice caring husband, Vinland got a intrepid scientist, and the griffon got to study more than he ever thought he would. That had been easy, but this was a whole ship! There was no way a whole ship would agree to stay inside the veil forever.
Shade thought wistfully back to her days in the academy. Those had been simpler days. No griffons, no parades, not having to worry about the security of the veil, easier days overall. Then Shade remembered Skissa, the sweet little thing that gave fade's life have meaning. Then Shade remembered how much Skissa squirmed when... Shade desperately stopped thinking.
It wouldn't do to be stiff winged in front of the ship' screw.
Shade glanced back at the clock.
-T Minus 40 Seconds-
Shade blinked as she realized how little time she had before the mission. With a robotic efficiency she secured the claw boots on her forehooves. It took a moment, but eventually the thin enchanted metal talons came to life and responded to the natural thaumatic field around her hooves. She flexed them each while counting up.
"One, two, three, and four." And then the next one. "One, two, three, four." That was working.
With some work Shade managed to secure her chest armor with her claws and slide on her helmet. Technically, there were servants to do that sort of thing, but Shade preferred doing it herself.
It was now that fade tapped the crystal pack. It's dutifull battery began to glow as intended. Three more taps brought forth the glow from the backup crystals. Everything appeared to be functioning as intended, and Shade trusted the craftship of the gentle hands that made this unique battery. What the pack showed was what it was.
Shade slipped the pack on between her wings. It's power flowed through the contacts placed there. From those connections it traveled through the crystals in her wings and the back of her legs. Steady and certain, Shade rose to her rear hooves and took her rifle in her right claw. With this she exited from the ready room and onto the bridge.
It was well lit and crewed. Pegasi, rock ponies, and humans all turned from their workstations to salute her. Behind them was the reddened glow of the plasma shielded viewports keeping the air inside and the deathly vacuum of space out. In just one corner of the window Jerorheim Colony sat and rotated in it's oddly short day and night cycle.
One human in red and white stepped forward, Shade's Flag Captain/First Officer. "Orders your Ladyship?" Shade have the poor man a smile. He was nervous, everyone was. It was understandable. The gryphons were beginning to notice their missing crews, they were starting to notice the gaps in the map. The Veil was at risk.
"Signal the fleet, we Rift back to Homeworld immediately."
Where am I?
I move, and for the first time I feel the sheets that cocoon everything but my head. I move again and the sheets come off. Slowly, I sit up. I use each sensation of touch to discover what shape I am.
What am I?
I can feel ten toes on two feet, two legs, one hip, two breasts, two arms, two wings, a neck, a head, and two ears that rub sensitively against my pillow as my head rises up. In fact, everything feels sensitive. Maybe the sheets are silk?
Most of my body feels hairless except the top of my head and my ears. I realize that there are hairs on the edge of my eyelids. I realize that I have eyes.
I open my eyes. Light hurts them at first, but eventually they adapt. I discover myself in a small room. The walls are whit, the ceiling is speckled white, and the floor is off blue. It's a nice enough room.
It's the first room I've ever seen. Is that weird? Something about that feels wrong. Maybe there is something wrong with me?
I hear a click, and an unnoticed brown piece of wood pivots, revealing a strange blue creature. It has four legs that end in hooves. We are not alike. I don't trust it.
"Hello deary, sorry if I awoke you! I just came in to see if you were okay." The creature spoke! Can I do that too? I move my mouth, but nothing comes out. I have a mouth?
"Are you okay deary? Do you need a glass of water?" Water! I recognize that word. Water is something I need to survive! I don't realize it quite away, but my head is moving up and down.
"A water coming right up then!" I get it! Moving my head up and down means yes! I hear a rumbling from below and my stomach shakes a tiny amount. I feel... empty, but in a physical way.
Was there any other way to be empty? I confronted the idea in its entirety. I knew the answer was yes. There was another kind of empty I had been, but then I found her. Who her was, I wasn't sure.
I had to know! That empty slot where "her" used to be scared me. It wasn't supposed to be empty! I needed her. She completed me somehow.
The one who called me deary entered into my field of view, the top right to be precise. In front of her hung a strange, slightly transparent, container. It had what I suspected to be water in it.
I wasn't sure what was holding the glass up, if it was an glass. I wasn't sure what a glass was yet. With some anxiousness I took the glass in what I suspected to be a hand.
I froze as some strange primal thought drove me to put the glass against my lips. Instinctively I drank. I knew deep inside that what Is just drank was water, beyond that nothing.
I stopped to look back at the one who called me deary. She had an expectant look. She held that look for a short while, but eventually she dropped it for a confused look.
"Is something wrong deary?" I couldn't talk, I couldn't remember, and I felt physically hungry. Yes something was wrong. I tried moving my head up and down again.
"Umm... let me go get one of the doctors. He can probably help." She left.
I sat in the now empty room and gave it a closer examination. It held dozens of things, but I only could remember a few of them. Eventually I gave up trying to remember and laid back down. Sleep came, almost.
-————
Twilight stared horrified into the faux hospital room. The evidence was irrefutable. The scans had been right.
"Celestia, we're monsters." Celestia grimaced at the lack of formality. She had wanted Twilight to get over her stiffness, but she heard the sadness and anger behind Twilight's current speech. She had broken something precious. Twilight might never trust her again.
"Twilight, we never could have-" Celestia began.
"WE DESTROYED MOST OF HER MEMORIES!" Twilight screamed in anguish at the wall. "I-I approved the spells in the gas. I should've-" but this time Celestia cut her off."
"Twilight there was no way to know it would react so violently to such a common spell." Celestia used a hoof to steady Twilight, and she wiped away Twilight's tears with a telekinetic stroke. "There was no way to have known." That last line was more directed to herself.
Twilight looked up to Celestia. Yes, their old relationship was destroyed, but deep behind those eyes was something new. Celestia's heart hurt and healed as she considered that look and what had caused it.
There was a tapping at the window. The human was there.
——————————————————————————————
I stared at the two four leggers behind the strange wavy cloud. Four leggers is what I called them now, the ones with hooves. They were like the one who said "deary" a lot, but they had wings on their sides and sticks on their heads. Something about those sticks made me think "horn," but something about the word horn made me feel uncomfortable every time I thought about it. Thus, I called them sticks. I had seen them right as I began to sleep, and it had awoken me instantly.
-—————
Twilight stared at the girl, at the girls eyes. They were so curious, so unafraid. Normally this idea brought her warmth, but it was, she knew, just that the poor thing remembered nothing to be afraid of. It was defenseless.
——————
The purple one looked into my eyes and began to cry. She was saddened by my face, my eyes. This confused me. Perhaps my difference made her cry, or perhaps she knew something that I didn't. I stepped forward, forgetting the fog in my strange idea.
The creature looked sad, but cute. It looked hurt.
————
Twilight stared in confusion as the changed human simply walked through the wall. She couldn't even react as it came forward and hugged her tightly. She felt pain deep in her heart as the poor human she had whisked away and accidently hurt treated her so kindly.
It confused her further when it used its fresh and weak wings to envelope her. That had been the other side effect, the ears and the wings. Twilight felt sadness at this raw reminder of her mistake, but thrusting into her mind was the wonder of how the creature had the instincts to use Pegasi wings.
*(It was only the fourth most bigoted book in Equestria. The first three most bigoted books in Equestria resided in the personal library of KING DONKEY HATER IV of the Westboro Batp*ss Butthole).
**(The clock was an old oak and gold silver antique, not the traditional quantum electronic clock.)
2: Decisiveness and Death (Part 1 of 5)(needs editor)
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2: Decisiveness and Death (Part 1 of 5)(needs editor)
(Dyrrdalr-Doorvalley)
What was with things just disappearing?! It was as if every thing Shade wanted to see disappeared before she could lay her eyes on it!
A whole Gryphon ship vanished in the Cold Bay, and Shade's fiance literally disappeared during her return trip back to The City while in transit over the very same bay! Maybe the bay was cursed? Spacers did seem to hate the water in a strange twisted way. They called it "Hel's Bussom," and detested its currents and sea life.
Then again, it wouldn't be the first time Princess Skissa disappeared on a random quest to find a sea dragon, or a long lost island. The fact that she had found success in both endeavors made them no less silly. As much as Shade loved her, even she was perplexed by Skissa's behavior at times, and Shade was no less worried when her antics left everyone else clueless.
That happened all to often, but it had its rewards. Like that one time that Skissa had appeared in Shade's bedroom tied and gagged. Shade had stopped questioning it...
Shade shook that out of her head, she had gryphons to find.
Twilight held the poor human close as she poured several cups of tea. She felt remarkably calm in the situation, Twilight that is. She and Celestia had been exploring the human's abilities and been astounded at every turn. The human had walked through walls, levitated its sword, (though Twilight discovered a strange crystal formation in the metal that might explain it.) and seemed to possess the innate ability to lighten up the otherwise stoic guards. It had even began talking in a strange foreign tongue.
This was why Twilight was alone with the human. Celestia and her agreed that one alicorn would be enough, and Twilight was left with the job while Celestia went for a translation spell.
Right now the human was smiling as she explored the portrait hall's rather... unique pieces. Mainly those painted by Ricardo The Mad. They were very modern. They were so modern you couldn't even tell what he had painted was a pony, but at the same time the paintings all gave of the vibe of being your dry typical portrait. The magic of perspective was one lost to time, but...
Twilight froze with a sudden realization. The human had walked through walls as if they weren't there. As if, she hadn't even noticed! Twilight brought up her few vague notes on perspective magic and studied them with an almost manic intensity.
EUREKA! The humans could use perspective magic, they didn't have regular magic that would give them too many sensory inputs. They were blind enough to see! If this magic was real, then humans would be an excellent fit. Blind enough to see...
Twilight pulled out her "Being a Princess" notes and wrote that down. That was an excellent, if vague, answer. Ponies would love that, hopefully.
Twilight looked back to the human. How would she test that? How could she test that? Perception magic had supposedly died out three thousand years ago, back in the time of the Oligarchy of Pony Tribes. It wasn't the only class of magic that had been lost back then, and to Twilight's knowledge only Starswirl had rediscovered any of those magicks.
Twilight paused to look back to the human, and then she froze. The human appeared to be changing the painting with its bear hands. It looked like it was literally pulling the colors into a new shape, but for some reason Twilight felt that it wasn't actually doing this. Every examination she made of it came with an subconscious adjective. It looked, it felt, it seemed, it wasn't actually doing it.
So what was it doing?
Shade settled down at a table brimming with brains. Not literal brains, that would be gross. At this table were the geniuses and Con-men who maintained the Veil's "Notice Me Not" spell. The ones who kept Vinland's homeland safe and hidden. The biggest nerds in the world, and they looked with grim faces too Shade.
She was used to grim faces, the death of Princess Skissa Aurorian's parents brought that kind of face, the death of Queen Tostygg brought out those kind of faces, the Gibbous StarPirate raid that destroyed the second colony created those kinds of faces, but these were Shade's friends making those faces, and that scared Shade.
It was Bjork who spoke first, he had always been the bravest of the bunch. His muscled shoulders twisted in fear as his soft brown eyebrows rose and his mouth opened to speak.
"Your Highness, we've found Lady Skissa." He was using titles. That was a grave sign.
"Where?!" Shade asked immediately, both anxious and worried.
"Her signature was located minutes ago by the perspectrograph tower. We weren't sure if we should believe it at first, but..." He was too scared to say.
"WHERE?!" Shade insisted, feeling dread lap at her own soul.
"Canterlot, your Highness." The one on the left answered. She was a new veil keeper, and Shade didn't remember her name. She was a unicorn, one of three of her kind in Vinland. How strange...
Then it registered, she had said Canterlot. Alarms went off in Shade's mind, red alarms, the kind of alarms that made hard asses crap their pants and iron balled generals wet themselves.
"Are y-you sure?" Shade asked with a slight stutter. She never stuttered.
The unicorn nodded, her soft gray mane bouncing with her head. Shade almost fainted.
"I must go inform the All-thing. Prepare for contingency Gamma Orionos." The unicorn and her cohorts visibly paled, but all bowed to the order. Despite that plans dangers, no soldier disobeyed the Princess of War.
