Chapter 1: The Silver Eagle
Tom’s POV, 1,203 years ago
A yawn escaped my lips as I stretched in the back seat of the truck we were driving left the Interstate onto the streets below. We passed through the traffic slowly as we neared the convention center. There were a large amount of people dressed in costumes. The arrival of Comic Con had brought many nerds and geeks out of hiding and into one city. Everywhere we looked there were cosplayers left, right, and center. We saw many people in cool looking costume. Some of the more notable ones we saw were a guy dressed as Solaire of Astora from Dark Souls, a guy as Corvo from Dishonored, and even someone is a cool looking steampunk outfit. As we finally arrived at a parking spot we stepped out of the car and I stretched hearing my back crack a bit before standing straight again and fixing my outfit.
I stood next to my twin sister Beckii as I finished straightening my tie. We had finally gotten through into the convention center with two of our friends who were dressed as Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite. We had decided to come together as a group to Comic Con and with a lot of arguing we managed to decide on all going as people from BioShock Infinite. So now with both me and my twin dressed as the Lutece twins.
Some time later we walked through the dealer room spending money on various props we could find. Spotting two boxes I nudged my twin and we both walked over and picked them up before turning to our companions.
“Bird?” I asked James, who's cosplaying Booker
“Or the Cage?” Beckii asked as we both held out the boxes revealing the two pendants from the game.
“Or perhaps the Bird.” I replied to my twin.
“Nothing beats the cage.” She replied.
Our actions brought a laugh from James and Sarah, the girl cosplaying Elizabeth, before they chose the bird. Smiling we bought the pendant before heading off deeper into the dealer room.
Near the end of the Dealer Room I was elbowed by Beckii who said to me, “Tom, look over there.” Turning to where she was pointing I saw that she had found a stand with a large Silver Eagle coin in a plastic case. Realizing what my twin was thinking I walked up to the old man running the stand.
“How much for the Silver Eagle?” I asked him. He looked up at me with an analyzing look. An amused smile grew on his face when he saw me.
“It’s forty normally,” The old man said to me “but with your group I’ll lower it to twenty-five.” I smiled at him while fishing out my wallet. Handing him the money he gave me the coin. Thanking him my sister grabbed it from my hand and started looking at it from every angle.
“This is really well done.” She said as she tossed it over to James and Sarah who both started looking at it too.
“Hey guys, something’s happening.” Sarah said as the coin started to glow the colors of the rainbow in her hands.
“Let go of it.” Both Beckii and I said as we tried to slap the coin out of her hands. A sudden explosion of color blinded us before everything went to black.
Luna’s POV, present time
"Now Luna, it’s a simple choice.” The redheaded man said to me as he tossed a silver coin to me. “Heads?”
“Or Tails?” His twin finished as they both looked at me. Looking down at the coin I saw a sword, key, and scroll on one side and on the other a winged version of the twin’s species wielding a sword, holding a scroll, and carrying a key around its neck.
I looked back at the duo eyeing them carefully. “Why dost thou wish for us to flip thy’s coin?” I asked them.
“Heads.”
“Or Tails.” They repeated to my annoyance.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, I took one last look at the coin and said “Heads.” Before flipping it with my magic.
My eyes shot open as I woke drenched in sweat with my eyes wide. “It’s just a dream. Just a dream.” I repeated to myself as I worked to calm myself. Climbing out of bed, I moved to the bathroom. Entering I turned the tap and splashed cold water onto my face. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I used my magic to levitate my royal regalia onto myself before I turned to the door and walked out towards the throne room.
Celestia sat on her throne answering the last ponies in the evening court. The nobles in the court had been growing more and more irritable since the recent changeling invasion. The amount of damaged property had not gone unnoticed to the big headed idiots. I watched her send the last one of the day away and announce that the court was now closed as I neared.
“Good morning sister. Did you sleep well?” She asked me with a kind smile. I paused for a moment remembering my dream before I answered.
“Sister we-I mean I- had a dream last night.” I said to her. She looked inquisitively at me as she asked.
“Oh, what was it about Luna?”
“It was about...them sister. The twins.” I told her watching her happy face fell and became more concerned.
“Luna they haven’t been seen in centuries. The last time we saw them, they were digging their own graves, literally. “ Celestia told me. I knew that she was remembering everything they had done. They had always known what would happen a long time before it did and even caused more troublesome events to happen.
“It’s not that we haven’t been seen in centuries.” A male voice spoke, causing both Celestia's and my own eyes to widen.
“It’s just that we didn’t want to be seen.” A female voice finished. Both my sister and I turned around and looked at the Lutece twins that stood casually in the hallway. The guards that were stationed there jumped in surprise at their sudden appearance.
“Hello Celestia.” Rosaline Lutece said to Celestia
“Hello Luna. Long time-” Robert Lutece said to me.
“-no see.” Rosaline finished her brother.
Author's Note
Well, here is my entry into the LHAV universe. Hopefully you all like it. I shall be trying to make the next chapters longer.
Beckii’s POV, 1,203 years ago
My eyes shot open only to be momentarily blinded by the sun overhead. Shielding my eyes with my arm I blinked a few times to regain my sight before looking around. Gone were the convention center and the cosplayers. Instead, I saw that I was lying on rough, uneven stone. Sitting up I saw Tom lying face down a few feet away. I scrambled to my feet and rushed over to my brother, flipping him onto his back.
“Tom? Tom wake up!” I said to him as I started shaking him trying to wake him. “WAKE UP!!” I shouted hitting his chest with my fist. I heard him let out a groan much to my relief.
“Five more minutes Becks.” He muttered, rolling onto his side facing away from me. I smiled at his actions for a moment before frowning again.
“Tom get your ass up NOW! It’s important.” I shouted in his ear, causing him to flinch and sit up before looking over at me.
“Did you have to...shout?” He asked me before he realized that we weren’t at the convention center. He stared at our surroundings for a while before asking me. “Beckii, where the hell are we?”
“I honestly have no clue. Definitely not the convention.” I said to him. He immediately turned and gave me a look that said ‘No, really.’
“Ignoring the obvious, what happened? Were we kidnapped?” He asked. I didn’t respond immediately. What if we had been kidnapped? My hands immediately began to rummage through my pockets, checking to see if anything was taken. To my surprise, I found that my wallet and phone was still in my pockets along with other stuff I had shoved into my pockets both before and during the convention, mainly food. (Don’t look at me like that. You try and buy snacks during a convention. The prices they charge are crazy.)
“I don’t think we were kidnapped. I still have my wallet and phone. You missing anything?” He rifled through his pockets before pulling out his wallet, phone, and...A Silver Eagle. We both stared at the coin as Tom turned it around inspecting every detail of it. He finally turned to be with confusion across his face.
“How did? Why is? WHY WAS THIS IN MY POCKET!?” He shouted, causing me to back up a step. Slowly moving towards my twin I placed my hands on his shoulders and kneeled down to look in his eyes.
“Tom. Tom look at me. Please.” I asked him. After a moment he complied staring at me with confusion and fear in his eyes. “You have to calm down. Panicking won’t help us one bit right now.” He continued to have a panic attack before I did something that usually brought him back to his senses. I slapped him. The hit sent him sprawling back onto the ground clutching his face. Rubbing it while muttering obscenities he shut his eyes and taking a few deep breaths, then opening them again.
“Thanks Becks, I needed that.” He said, smiling softly. I patted his shoulder before pulling him up.
“Come on, we need to find out where the hell we are?”
We walked for hours that day trying to reach the bottom of the mountain the both of them had woken on. It was a difficult enough to navigate our way through the boulders, but, it seemed, that nature didn’t want us to have an easy walk down. It started to rain. “Well, this is perfect.” I heard Tom complain from behind me.
“Shut up and help me find shelter.” I said to him before slipping on a slick rock and fell on my back. I sat up and began rubbing my back before I heard Tom’s voice over the rain.
“Beckii I found a cave. We can stay in there ‘till the rain dies down.” He called. I began crawling my way to my feet and moving towards the sounds of his voice. It worked well enough until I hit my head on a bit of outcropping rock. Cursing under my breath I felt a hand on my shoulder and instinctively elbowed the person.
“Ahh! Dammit Becks. What was that for?” Tom asked me as I turned to see him gripping his chest obviously winded.
“Oh, sorry Tom. I didn’t know it was you.” I apologized as I moved over towards him, but he waved my hands away.
“The cave’s a bit further. Here.” My twin said to me as we arrived at a hole on the rock face that stretched deep into the mountain if the darkness was anything to go by. Something in the back of my mind was telling me not to go into the cave. It never reached my mouth as I saw Tom walk into the cave and started after him.
“Tom, are you sure this place is safe?” I asked him as I neared where I thought he was. I heard a deep chuckle in the dark and a voice that definitely didn’t belong to my twin.
“This place very safe. You not.” I felt something hit the back of my head. After that I don’t know if I fell unconscious or the darkness of the cave became more intense. But the last thing I remember was hearing a more intelligent voice than the other say. “Search them for anything of value, then put them with others. They’ll start working when they wake.”
Celestia’s POV, Present time
I stared in shock at the Lutece twins who just stood there. The other ponies in the room, guards mainly, were in similar states of shock. Rosalind frowned before breaking the silence that nopony else would. "Well, this is starting to become rather awkward." Those words broke the silence that held the ponies in the room captive. Guards shot forward surrounding the twins with their spears pointed at their chests.
“Halt trespassers, in the name of the princesses.” One of the guards said to the twins.
“But we have halted.” Robert Lutece said to the guard, causing a look of confusion to cross his face. “We stopped moving ages ago.” This caused the guard’s face to turn red in anger. His horn lit with an orange glow and a bolt of magic shot at the Lutece and passed right through him.
“You missed.” Rosalind said, pointing out the obvious. The guard stared in confusion before firing off blast after blast at the twins none of which connected. I snapped out of my trance after one of the blasts sailed past Luna and me.
“Corporal, stand down.” My voice rang out causing the soldier to stop in place. He opened his mouth to retort, but, raising my hoof, he stayed silent. Turning back to face the twins, I didn’t bother to beat around the bush. “What are you two doing here?”
Author's Note
Well, this chapter is shorter than I would like, but in order to keep up with my deadline of today I guess it will have to do. Anyways, I am looking for an Editor to help me with grammar that Ginger, a program I use, misses and help me with other things. Interested comment below.
EDIT: Revised the chapter and extended the section in the past so that it is over 1k words and actually expands on the plot. Hopefully it is better.
