Royal Business

Chapters

Chapter 1: A Summons To Canterlot
Chapter 2: The Two Royal Alicorn Sisters
Chapter 3: Attuning With Luna
Chapter 4: Testing the Bonds

Chapter 1: A Summons To Canterlot

Twilight Sparkle

"Wait," said Twilight Sparkle. "She just wants you this time?"

She sat in her study and held the scroll before her face, rotating it various ways in her aura as if the message might somehow change if she looked at it from a different angle.

"That's what it says," replied Spike the Dragon, standing upright before her. His purple face grinned smugly, his green spikes twitched with excitement at having received a personal Royal Summons. "Guess she's finally realized just who is the Number One Dragon around here!" He patted his yellowish lamellar ventral plates by way of emphasis.

"Spike," Twilight chuckled, "you're the only Dragon around Ponyville."

"And thus the Number One," he replied with impeccable logic.

Twilight smiled fondly at him. He was her assistant, her friend, her adoptive baby brother. He seemed so obviously smart and so capable to her that at times she forgot he needed reassurance of his importance in her world, being as he was the only Dragon in a civilization of Ponies. She would not deny him that comfort.

"You're always Number One in my book," she told him. "Ah well. I guess you're right -- Princess Celestia has some important job to do, and she's noticed how hard you've worked to help me with my work. You're getting appreciated by others too, Spike. Congratulations." She smiled warmly at the small purple Dragon.

"Thanks," said Spike, smiling back. "I'm going to work hard and do a really good job for her," he promised. "I know what I do reflects on you too. I won't let you down!"

Twilight's eyes misted slightly as she recognized the attitude. It was her own, the ethos of a young member of the elite scholar-gentry of Canterlot. It was the culture she had absorbed as a small filly from her parents and her big brother, and now Spike had learned the same lessons from her. Be smart. Be honorable. Be diligent. Never let your family down. It made her so proud to see the wonderful stallion -- well, drake, to be precise -- that her little brother was becoming, that she felt as if she might cry from happiness.

"I know you won't," she said softly, hoping that she had successfully concealed her emotion. Expressions of strong emotions embarrassed her, even when her little brother was her only audience.

"I feel bad about leaving you alone, though," said Spike. "Will you need somepony's help tonight?"

"Naah," replied Twilight. "There's going to be a big storm coming through here tonight -- the Weather Patrol was really thrown off balance by the need to divert rain to the White Tails to clean up the mess Red Haze made all over the eastern part of the mountains. They called for some rain, and got more than they bargained for out of the Everfree, according to Rainbow Dash. I'm just going to bolt all the shutters, curl up with a good book, and go to sleep tonight. No excitement," she predicted.

"Well, at least I'm not gonna miss out on any fun," said Spike. "Sorry you're gonna be bored."

"Bored?" asked Twilight. "I just got a new shipment of books in yesterday. Need to reshelve some of them. I have a new theory as to how to classify social history I want to try out in practice. Hey, you're the one who's missing out on the real action!" She grinned happily. She was half-joking. But only half.

There was a flapping of wings, a gust of air, a ripple in the paramagnetic fields Twilight could feel through her horn, the familiar sound of a Royal Chariot descending.

"Timed it close," Twilight commented. "Guess Princess Celestia really wants your company." She stepped forward, gave her baby brother a bump and nuzzle, then swept him protesting into a hug.

"It's not like I'm still a little child," Spike grumbled as she did so. But he returned the hug anyway.

"Have a nice time, Spike," she said to him as he walked to the door. "Be good."

"Heh," said Spike. "I'll be so good the Royal Palace won't know what hit it!"

He practically swaggered out the door, and Twilight looked fondly after him.

They grow up so fast, she thought. Well, I think he's growing up fast. For a Dragon.

There were key facts she did not yet know about the life cycle of a Dragon. That was part of the purpose of the research project she had set herself the day she had somehow managed to magically hatch him.

It got difficult though. When one came to love him as a brother. None of her books on organizing such research projects had ever covered that topic

She wondered if they'd ever figured it out, either. She had a sneaking suspicion that the asnwer was "no."

Spike the Dragon

"Hi, Pavo," Spike said as he got onto the Daylight Chariot. The leader of the two-Pegasus team was an old friend of Twilight and himself, youngest brother of Captain Aquilinus of the Day Guard.

"Hi, Spike," Pavo replied His partner was somepony new, rather lightly-built by the standards of a Guards stallion, and Spike didn't know him. "This is Private Cloud Gust, still learning the ropes. Lucky he's got me to teach him, eh?"

"You're one of the best," Spike said, not entirely honestly. In fact Pavo himself had only been in the Guard a few years -- Spike actually remembered when he'd come to the Palace, despite the fact that Spike had only celebrated his tenth birthday four months ago. But it never hurt to say something nice to a nice Pony, and Pavo was the nicest one of all four of those brothers.

The Daylight Chariot rose into the air and described a wide circle around Ponyville as it climbed for its cruising altitude. Spike looked down with some interest -- he knew that as a Dragon he'd probably grow wings and be able to fly himself some day -- but he couldn't fly on his own yet, and rather envied Pegasi that ability.

He could see the town spread below. The streets looked mostly deserted. Most of the townsfolk had already taken shelter from the oncoming storm, bolted their shutters and doors and were safe inside their homes. There were some still out and about, including some he recognized.

The little pink Pony with the magenta mane walking slowly toward Sugarcube Corner with a load on her back was unmistakeable. "Hey, Pinkie!" he called down, hoping that one of his friends would see him riding in the beautiful golden chariot. He wondered if Pinkie could hear him.

She did, and turned her head up to look at Spike. Her face rather shocked him. He hadn't seen much of her in the last few days, and looking at her with his excellent Dragon vision, he could tell why.

Pinkie Pie looked ill. Her normally plump cheeks were hollowed and her usually-enthusiastic smile was a ghost of its normal self. Her mouth moved, and he thought she might be saying "Hi, Spike," but he couldn't be sure -- for once, Pinkie seemed too tired to yell.

She looks half-dead, Spike thought, and shivered for some reason. He'd heard she got hurt fighting Red Haze, but that had been a week ago -- surely she should be mostly better by now? He hoped she would stay inside during the storm, and not push herself too hard. In his short acquaintance with Pinkie Pie, Spike had already noticed that she tended to overdo things.

He hoped she didn't make herself sicker. It would be sad if Pinkie had to stay in bed and miss the Running of the Leaves. He'd heard they had a pretty cool party afterward in Ponyville, and she'd hate to miss it.

In the park, not far from the library, he suddenly saw a familiar marshmallow mare, looking strange and small from this altitude, glance up at the golden chariot. He called and waved frantically, but he was not sure that Rarity had even noticed that he was riding in the Daylight Chariot. Ponies had very poor distance vision, by his standards. Aww .... he thought. It would have been perfect if she saw that I was being treated like somepony important. He felt obscurely cheated.

"Hey, little guy," came a familiar voice from beside, and he turned to see Rainbow Dash pacing them, grinning at him. "Looks like you're traveling in style!" There was no trace of mockery, only admiration, in her rough but perky voice.

"Hi," said Fluttershy, popping up from below and beside her. She smiled at him too. Fluttershy had never been shy with him at all; instead, she'd always been really interested by him.

"Yeah," said Spike proudly. "I've been summoned to Canterlot on important royal business. By the Princess. Because it's important." He had kind of run out of things to say on the topic, but still liked that sound of his own voice saying them.

"Way cool!" said Rainbow, and gave him a hoof-bump over the side of the Chariot. "Wish I could join you, but I've got a Weather Team to lead, a town to save -- just another day made of awesome for the heroine they call 'Rainbow Dash!'"

"Because it's her name," added Fluttershy, smiling fondly at her friend. Rainbow gave her an odd look and Fluttershy got an apologetic expression on her face. As soon as Rainbow looked away, that expression vanished and Fluttershy actually winked at Spike, eyes twinkling mischievously.

Fluttershy's sure looking happy, Spike thought. Guess standing up to Red Haze made her feel a lot better about herself.

"Well, gotta go," said Rainbow Dash. "Have a good time at Canterlot."

"Bye," said Fluttershy.

They banked and winged away, returning to a group of pegasi who were now dropping below. Spike vaguely recognized a couple of them -- Cloud Kicker and Derpy Hooves being the most obvious from a distance.

And now Ponyville was falling away below and behind them, as the Daylight Chariot made swift flight toward Canterlot.

***

Princess Celestia

"I feel strange doing this," said Luna, looking at her feet and scraping the floor with one hoof, a sign of nervousness Luna had always possessed in equine form. She'd done it back when she'd been an Earth Pony named Moondreamer over four thousand years ago, and she'd done it as a little filly at Paradise Estate fifteen hundred years later.

"You're not unfamiliar with Dragons," Celestia pointed out to her Sister. "You befriended one, fought another, just a week ago. I would think that to you this would be an entirely normal interview."

"In truth I fought both of them," Luna pointed out. "Defeated them both, too."

"Yes," said Celestia, "but you were only playing with Fischfootur. You wanted to make friends with him the moment he stood up to you -- you're like that. You recognized him as a fellow-spirit. The other one, Blue Blazer -- now that was a serious fight."

"Well, to some extent," Luna admitted. "I didn't kill him, after all."

"Because I told you not to kill any of them," Celestia said. "And you don't really like to kill Dragons. You're merciful."

"Now you make me sound soft," Luna complained, almost automatically.

"You're a good Pony." Celestia smiled at her fondly. "And a brave one. And if you can defeat and befriend an adolescent lava-drake; then put down a full-grown lightning drake without killing him, then surely you can have a nice normal meeting with a pre-adolescent mage drake who is already Our friend."

"It is -- it is different," pointed out Luna.

"Yes," said Celestia. "Spike won't be trying to blast you to bits. That should make the meeting more relaxing, not less, even for a confirmed thrill-seeker like yourself."

"It's not that," Luna said. "It's just awkward."

"Oh, for our Mother's sake," replied Celestia, becoming exasperated. "You've even met Spike before. Twice. Remember? When you first returned to Ponyville, and then again at the celebration of your freedom from the Nightmare."

"The first time, I was Nightmare Moon," pointed out Luna. "He fainted. The second time, I was weak and dazed and I didn't really get to talk to him much -- or at all, really."

Celestia remembered Luna at that party. She'd been disoriented, extremely shy even for her normal self, and spent most of the party staring dazedly at Twilight Sparkle. The only Pony she remembered Luna actually talking with at length was that nice big red stallion -- Applejack's older brother Big Mac -- Celestia knew his name because he was one of the backup Element Bearers. And both of them had seemed unreasonably shy during that conversation.

"Well then," Celestia said. "You can talk to Spike now, and at length."

"Surely he will want to return to his mistress ..." Luna began.

"Adoptive older sister, actually," said Celestia, "and if you say 'mistress' that way these days, you'll give other Ponies entirely the wrong idea about their relationship."

Luna flushed slightly. Celestia knew that her younger sister had realized that once again the deceptive similarities between late 5th and late 15th century Equestrian had betrayed her. Words shifted connotation over time, and what had once simply meant "female in charge" now meant what Luna would have used "leman" to describe, namely a female with whom a male was in a love affair.

"And no," continued Celestia. "There's a storm out of the Everfree coming in on Ponyville tonight. Spike will stay overnight at the Palace. You'll have plenty of time to chat with him to your heart's content."

Luna looked down again. "Yes, well, but on what excuse?"

"Luna!" said Celestia, mane streaming with her annoyance. "You're a Ruling Princess. You don't need an excuse. Just say that you want his report on recent events in Ponyville, on business of the Realm. Which is the truth."

Luna was silent.

"Sister ..." continued Celestia more gently, stepping over to her and bumping cheeks with her. Their manes mingled, the rainbow and the dark blue stars. "You want to know how Twilight Sparkle is doing. She saved your life -- your very soul -- from the Shadows. You want to be her friend. There is nothing shameful in this."

"But ..." said Luna helplessly., "I'm still so lost."

"You certainly found your way well enough when you kicked out those interloping Dragons," pointed out Celestia. "I knew then that I really had my old partner back. My Lady of War. My little sister." She smiled warmly at Luna, and Luna smiled back.

"But what if I make a fool of myself?" Luna asked. "I don't know this new world -- my speech is archaic, my understanding of a thousand little things imperfect, and if I play the fool Spike will tell her."

"Oh," said Celestia. "You're nervous about what this new born Dusk will think of you."

"Yes," admitted Luna. "Am I a fool to care?"

"No, of course not," said Celestia. "But ... Luna ... " She paused for a moment, tried to think of how to say it. "Twilight Sparkle is a scholar. And a gentlemare. She is familiar with cultural differences. And she is polite. And she's a very good Pony.

"I know Twilight Sparkle very well. And she is not at all likely to look for reasons to despise you. This would be true even were you not my beloved sister, and you are my beloved sister.

"As for Spike, he is a good and cheerful child. He has been raised by Twilight's family as her younger brother, as a young gentlecolt, and he is also a kind and friendly creature. Neither of them are looking to pounce upon your weaknesses.

"Just be friendly," finished Celestia. "Be the friendly, merry mare that I know you are truly, and in Spike you will simply make another friend."

"Haply I may," said Luna. "Or at least not play the fool complete." She breathed hard, thought for a moment. "Very well, Sister," she said. "I shall try."

"That's my baby sister!" said Celestia, hugging Luna.

Luna grumbled slightly at the appellation. But she returned the hug.

When all was said and done, they would always be sisters.

Author's Note

Pavo and his brother Aquilinus are from Ask Aquilinus. Aquilinus and his family may be taken as existing in my fanon, though I do not believe his claims regarding Princess Celestia. In my fanon, consider Aquilinus' blog as his private journal, which includes many interpretations of events the way he wished they had happened or would happen.

Pinkie Pie is, indeed, not feeling well.

The "Mother" (capitalized) by whom Celestia sometimes swears isn't Mimic, the mother of their current Avatars, though Celestia loved Mimic truly and well as a mother. It's the Mother of their Cosmic Selves. Fauna Luster.

Chapter 2: The Two Royal Alicorn Sisters

Spike

The Daylight Chariot was swift, and soon the white fairy spires of Canterlot, all alabaster and marble and gold, sprang from the mountainside before them. Spike took the capital city for granted: he'd been hatched and raised there. The most beautiful part of the city, the great Royal Palace at Canterlot, was the scene of many memories for him. He had come here many times with Twilight Sparkle, run through its great corridors as a hatchling (sometimes with Twilight and the Royal Guards in pursuit), explored its nooks and crannies as a child.

The great structure was well over a thousand years old, and Spike knew many of its secrets. The public Palace, the one that the tourists got to see, he of course knew intimately, wide white halls arranged in a rational grid pattern, at once upheld and decorated by their pointed arches and ribbing, with light often provided through elaborate stained-glass windows which illustrated episodes in the history of Equestria and its predecssors. There were vast audience and dining halls which could have held the populations of whole small towns -- and sometimes did, when Celestia arranged a sufficiently-major event. There were private conference chambers, from which Celestia and her ministers ruled a Realm which stretched over most of the North Amareican continent. There were halls and halls of suites, bedrooms, rooms, dormitories and barracks for royals, nobles, visitors, staff and garrison. The Palace permanently housed many hundreds of Ponies and could guest thousands in comfort, a hundred or more thousand in an emegency. It was itself a small town.

Spike was familiar with the private palace. Small and spunky, obviously a child and known to be the boon companion of Twilight Sparkle, the favorite of the Ruling Princess, he had been treated fairly well in every quarter to which he had penetrated. Even when he attempted to go into places to which access was very restricted, the Guards had been gentle in their denials of his passage. He had friends and acquaintances among all the denizens of the immense mansion, from the highest royalty to the lowliest scullery maids. Spike always had a talent for making himself liked -- despite his odd appearance, he was much better at making friends than was his adoptive sister.

He was even familiar with the secret palace.

Some of the secrets seemed to be secret due to simple neglect. For instance, Celestia had a huge, beautiful bath house (at least that's what Spike assumed its function to be) behind one of the back gardens., complete with an Equestria-Games sized swimming pool and numerous retiring rooms, which was filled with statuary, mosaics and other decorations, a very high proportion of them of a distinctly erotic nature. The building had been unused for the whole period Spike had explored the Palace. It had also been locked, but a small creature with strong sharp claws can scale walls nothing with hooves could be expected to climb, and slip through half-open chained doors designed to bar the admission of full-grown Pegasi, which is why Spike was well-appraised of its contents. The interior was under a preservation spell, occasionally cleaned and maintained, but apparently never used for any purpose.

Spike appropriated it as his own private relaxation chambers, and would have been rather shocked had he known that it was officially the Royal Seraglio -- though he would have required an explanation of the function of such a building, before he would have known enough to realize why he should have been shocked. Spike got into a lot of strange places in his explorations, and saw some strange sights -- in some ways, he was considerably less innocent than Twilight Sparkle imagined -- in other ways, considerably more so.

He never told Celestia he was using the secret bath-house, which was just as well -- the admission would have embarrassed both of them. Even immortals sometimes play with some very bad ideas, and though the structure had never been put to its designed purpose, Celestia did not care to remember the mood of lonely black despair she had been in when she had built it -- nor admit to herself why she'd kept the building intact and well-maintained -- just in case she decided that she needed it after all.

The walls of the Royal Palace looked light and airy, but were actually quite thick in many places, designed to shed the projectiles from non-explosive siege artillery, and provide considerable resistance to even cannon shells. They reached or exceeded their specified strength everywhere, but in some places had been built of stronger materials than in the public plans. Thus they could be and were honeycombed with mazes of secret passages, some of whose entrances and exits looked as if they were designed by a super-intelligent Pony with a really bizarre sense of humor. Spike would have been suprised to discover that the Pony in question was the very same cool and regal being who had tutored his sister daily in advanced magics.

Spike had explored the secret passages, but given their convoluted nature he could not claim that he had explored them fully. Some led to chambers in use, which was how he had seen some unusual sights. Some to disused store-rooms, where supplies laid down centuries ago rotted or gathered dust. And some led to old mines beneath the palace, which looked as if they had once held gems. The tastier crystals had long since played out, but the ancient miners had missed a few here and there. Spike sometimes went down there to gather snacks -- in the process ruining his sister's careful monitoring and study of his metabolic processes.

Many Equestrians were intimidated by the immortal Sun Princess and her vast Palace, despite all that Celestia did to make herself an accessible and friendly monarch. Spike was not: the Palace had been the background to most of his life; and the sovereign of most of a good-sized continent was to him a familiar and reassuring presence. He admired and respected her greatly; he even had a better idea than most of what she was capable; but he knew that she was kind and good, and he felt entirely safe in her presence.

So it was with a cheerful smile that Spike sauntered through the main doors, nodding at the guards in front. He stepped right up to the Royal Usher, who conveyed him, via the grand public corridors and a door that looked as if it led to a storage chamber, to a large and well-appointed but cozy chamber, whose floor was covered in thick rugs and where blazed a cheerful hearth-fire, where there were a set of large backless setees around an equally-large low table.

Upon the table was coffee, tea and cakes both large and small. Upon one setee was the great figure of the Ruling Princess of the Day, Celestia Solaria Invicta, who raised her lovely head and smiled benignly at the small Dragon. "Welcome, Spike," she said in a mellifluous voice. "I trust you had a pleasant flight?"

Spike performed a quick but complete proskynesis, which was not at all uncomfortable upon the well-carpeted floor.

"You may rise, dear Spike," said the Princess of the Sun. She said this almost automatically, which was unsurprising, because it was a necessary first command, unless she wished to merely watch him lie stretched face-down upon the rug, which would have been a rather strange purpose for which to summon him to her presence. The "dear" made it personal, and reminded Spike of why he was not merely loyal to, but also loved, his sovereign. In his earliest years she had helped raise him, almost like a mother, but extreme formality was almost second nature to Spike in certain circumstances, and he saw nothing odd about performing a full formal bow to an entity for whom he also felt filial devotion.

Spike rose to his hind legs, and looked fearlessly upon the face of his liege lady, the mare whose personal magics were mighty enough to annihilate armies, who was the sovereign of the most powerful nation on Earth. Her great purple eyes looked benignly back at him, beautiful face under its golden tiara, framed in her long rainbow mane. As she moved her head, Spike could see the hair of her mane ripple, slightly out of synchronization with her movements, as if it obeyed laws of motion not entirely of this simple tri-dimensioned world, and lights like little suns flickered from its depths.

Celestia smiled warmly at him. "We need not stand upon ceremony; we are all friends here." She nodded her head at the third occupant of the room, then back at Spike. "Or shall soon be."

Spike had of course noted the existence of this third occupant. It was difficult to miss any Alicorn, even a smaller one. It was just that, when in the presence of Celestia, even if one knew her very well, all other lights were dimmed by the comparison.

This was a situation with which that third occupant was, perhaps, all too sadly familiar.

"You have of course previously met my sister, Luna Selena Nyx, Ruling Princess of Equestria, Sovereign of the Moon and of the Night, my High Lady of War, in whom I place the uttermost trust, upon two prior occasions," explained Celestia, running off her sister's titles quite smoothly. "But upon the first meeting she was not quite herself, and on the second she was perhaps a trifle exhausted from her journey. She remembers you from that second meeting."

Spike nodded, and looked at Princess Luna, with respect but also some curiosity. She was larger than she had been since he saw her last. Nowhere near as large as Nightmare Moon -- the possessed Luna had been almost the size of her Sister -- but about as big as a normal stallion. Her features had firmed as well; she now looked like an adolescent mare, instead of a small filly. Those features were fair to behold -- she had not the blazing beauty of her Sister, but rather a cool nocturnal loveliness entirely her own. The musculature which had seemed wasted, the motions wobbly in her immediately after her liberation from Nightmare, was now filled out, and she was gracefully rounded. Her mane, which had been a wan blue and no more than that of any mare, now shimmered with all the complex shades of a moonlit night sky, and rippled with a motion not imparted to it by any mere inertia; within it starlight sparkled.

Great blue eyes -- innocent as evening's gentle fall, wise as the secrets of the stars, dangerous as the darkest deeds done under cloak of night -- gazed at the young Dragon. There was nothing unfriendly in that regard, only an equal curiosity, mingled with a certain shyness Spike found strange, given What she was, but nevertheless he shivered slightly. For in her eyes it was obvious a great Power had returned to the mortal world.

"Greetings," Princess Luna said in a cool, even voice, and "well come thou art to Our Palace, Kenbroth Gilspotten Heathspike the Seventh, Squire to the Element Bearer, Lady Twilight Sparkle." Her blue eyes seemed to be looking into his soul, and Spike wondered why he found her so frightening. Princess Celestia had the same sort of depth to her gaze, yet Celestia's always seemed warming.

Luna's appeared to him cold -- almost inequine -- and he had a brief terrifying memory of the slitted aquamarine pupils of Nightmare Moon. That shouldn't have scared him -- his own were similar slits -- but it had looked so wrong to see it on a Pony. He was used to the much softer and rounder pupils of the species which had raised him.

And, there had been the whole "evil monster bringing Night Everlasting and destroying the world" thing going on back then, also. That had to count for something.

But this wasn't Nightmare Moon. She was bigger and more intimidating than she had been at the party after Twilight and her new friends had saved the world, but she was still Princess Luna. Sister of the Pony he almost considered a mother. He could look at her as sort of an agathic figure. A big, scary, slightly crazy super-powerful aunt, granted, but still like an aunt. Yeah. That calms me down a bit.

He straightened up, gazed back fearlessly. He saw a flicker of something in her eyes at that -- he devoutly hoped it was "approval" -- and that heartened him somewhat.

"I am honored to meet you, Your Highness," he said, executing a brisk little bow. He had already performed the proskynesis, which was about the most formal reverence he could display short of utter toadying, and one thing Princess Celestia had taught both him and Twilight Sparkle was the difference between politeness and unctuousness. "I am glad to see the extent of your recovery." He took refuge in the routine formalities; they saved him from having to think too hard about the Power behind those eyes.

"I am gladder," the Moon Princess said, and smiled at him. The moonlight seemed to break from behind a cloud, and for a moment Spike forgot his fears in that silver radiance. "And pleased to behold thee once more, foster-brother to Dame Twilight Sparkle."

"She was knighted?" Spike asked in astonishment. The term Princess Luna had used meant a mare who either had been knighted or had married a knight, but neither was true of Twilight Sparkle. As a respectable gentlemare, she was entitled at most to be referred to as "The Honorable," a form of address which was increasingly seen as archaic, and thus avoided by most of Twilight's generation.

"Yes, Spike," Princess Celestia explained: "When I officially chartered the Element Bearers as My official Champions, Twilight found herself the leader of a fighting order, though a new and small one. As such, she acquired knightly status."

"And well she deserved the honor," Princess Luna added, nodding. "She and her Companions performed a valiant deed in the face of great peril."

"Twilight is really good and brave," Spike agreed, stroking his chin. "I wonder why she never told me she'd been knighted, though?"

"Because she is modest," replied Celestia. "Almost to a fault."

"As always," commented Luna, sighing, her face assuming an expression somewhere between exasperation and ... admiration?

Spike supposed that the Moon Princess was the sort of Pony who could admire somepony who defeated her, with no hard feelings. He liked that thought. Then another thought occurred to him.

"Wait," he asked, "if she's a knight, what does that make me?"

"Twilight still considers you her 'Number One Assistant,' is that not the case?" said Celestia.

Spike nodded.

"In that case then you, too, are a member of the Order of the Element Bearers, as an assistant," explained Princess Celestia, in a voice as if she were rendering a judgement. "Which would make you her squire. You are thus entitled to refer to yourself as 'Esquire' -- which would already have been the case from your adoption into the Twilight gens upon the attainment of your 21st year -- and may also rightfully claim to be a Squire of the Element Bearers, that retroactive to June the 22nd, the 1500th Year of Harmony."

"Wow," said Spike, puffing himself up a bit, his spines rising happily. "Rarity's going to -- I mean, I'm sure everypony who knows me will be proud of my elevation."

"The same is of course true of the other Element Bearers," Celestia added. Though some might rightly claim higher titles." She smirked a little to herself, as if savoring a secret joke, and glanced aside to Luna, who smiled back at her.

Spike was confused for a moment, but then remembered -- wasn't Fluttershy's family name Wind? Maybe she really was one of those Winds -- in which case she would be have been an Honorable already, at the very least.

"But enough of this empty discussion of knighthoods," said Celestia. "Let refreshments be brought." Her horn flickered briefly, and somewhere a silver bell tinkled. A Pony came in wheeling a tea-tray, upon which was a great elaborately-worked samovar that looked to be quite old, and heaps of sweet baked goods of every description, from slices of frosted cake to cupcakes, from breads to cookies, from complex little pastries to thin dry biscuits.

"Ah yes," said Luna, grinning cheerfully, "Tasty treats and tea fill thirsty throats!" She did not so much say this as declaim it in iambic pentameter.

Celestia looked at her sister. "I'm not sure how well that scans," she commented mildly

"And mine alliteration is not perfect, I know. Be it my fault that the North-Ponies had few kennings for tea-parties? Now, if we were quaffing ale ..." Luna took a big gulp of tea and instantly refilled her cup.

Spike had discovered to his delight that some of the cupcakes and cookies were glazed with small crystals. He selected one cookie which sparked with purple glints, sniffed it, bit into it experimentally. Amethyst in honey, his nose and tongue told him, on a sugar oatmeal based cookie, flavored with orange peel. Spike was a skilled amateur cook, a skill he had necessarily acquired because Twilight sometimes forgot to eat, let alone cook, when in the grip of an intellectual obsession. He savored the sandy ferrous taste of the amethyst, which had a hint of something else -- chromium? -- in its composition.

"This is delicious," Spike said aloud, and enthusiastically, as he munched on the cookie.

"I shall have to let Sweet Cream know you said that," replied Celestia, with a smile.

Spike remembered he'd have to return one of Sweet Cream's knives to her someday. He'd come back from one of his cookie raids a half-year ago with it sticking in one of his dorsal scales -- hadn't noticed it until it poked him when he tried to sit down. He figured she'd thrown it at him. Sweet Cream could be a bit ... excitable. Especially if you tried to steal cookies from her kitchen. He'd kept meaning to give it back, but one thing came after another, and then he moved to Ponyville. The knife was somewhere in his and Twilight's old quarters -- maybe he could get it later this night.

Spike saw something glistening yellow on a lemon-frosted cupcake. Mm, zoisite. That was a slightly rare mineral, though not all that precious. Its taste was rather basic -- silicates with calcium and aluminum -- but Spike did not believe at scoffing at the fundamental foods. He liked the lemon cupcake, too -- it was made from sweet wheatcake with some lemon juice for tang. This was really thoughtful of Princess Celestia. She had all this baked for me. Theoretically, any Dragon would have enjoyed this, but there were very few Dragons who visited Canterlot, and he was the only one of those small enough to appreciate this repast.

He dug into the proffered snacks happily. This was hardly rude, as Celestia and Luna were doing the same thing. Celestia's appetite for cakes was legendary. It did not surprise Spike that Luna shared her Sister's general tastes, with the difference that Celestia went more for vanilla and lemon and berry-flavored treats, while Luna clearly loved chocolate. As he already knew from previous tea-party audiences with Princess Celestia, the Sun Princess had a very healthy appetite; now he saw that her younger Sister matched her in this regard, though since she was smaller, Luna had to take about three bites to Celestia's two to match her pace.

Spike, for his part, upheld the honor of Dragonkind as best he could, though he knew better than to match either Alicorn by volume. Instead, he ate all the gemmed pastries, reasonably assuming that they had meant them for his consumption. He was a bit disappointed that the amount of gems was not greater; but he was far too mannerly to complain, as he knew that the Palace kitchen had done their best. They probably did not often bake for Dragons.

Anyway, he liked ordinary sweet baked grains well enough.

Gradually, the pastry orgy ended. They fell into a discussion of other kinds and sources of baked goods they had enjoyed in the past. Spike's experience of the matter was limited by the fact that he had only hatched a decade or so ago; his memories were fairly mundane: Wax Paper's little deli-bakery around the corner from the Twilight residence; Joe's Donut Shop; Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville, where they had some nice specialty cupcakes.

Celestia and Luna remembered more exotic treats. Celestia spoke wistfully of something called Crystal Snow Cakes, which had apparently been one of the baked delicacies of the vanished North-Realm. Luna allowed that Lith, though its Ponies had been dreary-boring, had made nice spice-cookies, and both sisters went into raptures over their memories of Lithian Sedimentary Sludge Pies. That led to a discussion of how they compared with the fruit pies of the Northlands and the really hot spice cookies of Olmecoatl.

Hearing all this made Spike's mouth water, but he doubted he'd ever get to taste any of these. He had heard of the North-Realm, and according to a poem it had "fallen out of the air breathed by mortal mare" over a thousand years ago; in the epic, a mare called The Lady Of War, and who sounded very much like Princess Luna, had been fighting by Celestia's side against "its black Shadow King." Lith figured in an old moralistic tale about a city that had defied the Twister and whose people had somehow been turned to stone, and that had been set "before the Harmony," which meant over fifteen hundred years ago. He'd read both poems against his sister's wishes: she'd scorned them as "superstitious nonsense," but he'd thought that they were cool.

Olmecoatl -- until just now he hadn't even been sure that place was real. It had figured prominently in a Daring Do novel, and in that tale was a long-ruined city, built by winged snake-demons (probably inspired by the real coatls) who had emerged from Xibalba after the Earth had been wrenched in the Cataclysm -- an event both considered mythical by modern Equestrians, and which if real would have taken place some four thousand years ago. It was said in the book to have existed for over fifteen hundred years, until it somehow aroused the ire of the Twister, who destroyed it and scattered its inhabitants.

Spike somehow didn't think that the bakeries of any of these lost cities were still delivering.

It might have been intimidating to take tea and cakes with two mares whose shared memories of pastries antedated the current Age of the World, did he not already count one as close a friend as possible, given her vastly-higher station, and did he not know the other to be her Sister. And he was always aware that he was Spike the Dragon, with a certain pride of Kindred to keep up, even if he still hadn't totally figured out what being a Dragon entailed.

Besides, they were both being so nice to him. They made every effort to include him in the conversation, and they listened to his tales of Joe's or Sugar Cube Corner as if they were as fascinating as Olmecoatl or Lith.

Finally, Princess Celestia summoned back the servant, who removed the empty plates and most of the tea-things, leaving only a single fresh pot and some teacups from which the Princesses and their honored guests might quaff their refreshments. When the servant had gone, she leaned forward and regarded him.

"We have greatly enjoyed your company at tea," Celestia said, "but now we must to serious business. My Sister has resumed her duties as my Lady of War ..."

Luna nodded with a small smile.

"... and so it becomes important that Twilight Sparkle be able to communicate with both of us rapidly, at need. Someday, the fate of the Realm might depend upon this," Celestia continued. "You understand, I trust, what I request of you?"

"My magefire?" Spike asked.

"Yes," said Celestia, nodding.

As always, the fall of her rainbow mane was beautiful. Until a few months ago, Spike would have sworn that he had never seen any lovelier -- and that other mane, for all its elegant indigo charms, was still made of mundane hair, unlike Celestia's magical efflorescence.

"My magefire is at your disposal, Your Highness," Spike said, saluting her. He wasn't totally sure what sort of salute was proper of a Squire in a Fighting Order toward a Ruling Princess, especially one who he had known almost from the moment of hatching, but he thought it a credible attempt.

Princess Celestia must have thought it credible as well, for she smiled warmly at him.

"Very well, my little Dragon," she said. "Long ago, I attuned your magefire to myself, setting up a teleport linkage between you and I. Now, you shall be attuned to Princess Luna as well. Are you ready for this?" she asked him.

"Ready, willing and able," Spike said.

He hoped that this wouldn't hurt.

Author's Note

The Royal Seraglio was created by Sev. In my verse, Celestia built it in a fit of hedonism (and despairing loneliness) centuries ago, but rarely, if ever, has put it to its designed purpose. The being with whom she would most like to share it lives in another worldline, anyway.

Both Celestia and Luna are, in my opinion, literally "awesome" -- they are the incarnations of beings of tremendous age and power, and even these incarnations have tremendous age and power in their own rights. They're quite capable of being cute and sweet and friendly -- in fact they both greatly prefer to deal nicely with others -- but they are not in any way trivial or helpless.

Sweet Cream is the royal executive pastry chef for the Palace at Canterlot. She's arguably crazy -- but a really good cook. The Royal Guards both love and fear her.

Oh, and Spike's a Dragon. Dragons are tough.

The North-Realm is of course the Crystal Empire: Spike won't behold its wondrous City for real for another two and three-quarters years. Lith comes from Cold in Gardez's marvelous Lost Cities. (Derecho in was not known for its pastries, and the Heartspire did not admit the Alicorn Sisters during their times of wandering, due to an unsettling prophecy). Olmecoatl is of my own creation, but is inspired by a story arc from Sev's Stories From the Front (generally very NSFW).

Chapter 3: Attuning With Luna

They repaired to a ritual room.

Spike was quite familiar with Celestia's main chamber of thaumaturgy. It was at the top of one of the Palace's southern towers, so positioned that from it one could see the Sun in its whole course any day of the year. The room was flagged in white marble and the circle inscribed in gold, and around it were planted all manner of greenery, so that it was like a small meadow at a great altitude, refreshed by the mountain breezes and scented with the flowers that sprang all about. On the great central stone was set the device of a golden-rayed Sun, Celestia's own, same as the Mark she bore on her body.

That was not the ritual room to which they went.

This room was high in a northern tower, and it was flagged in black and gray marble from the mountains of Gorgia in southeastern Equestria, set with clear rock crystal quartz, of a variety which Spike recognized as coming from the vanished North-Realm, hard to come by for the last millennium. The circle was inscribed in silver, the vegetation hardy Northern evergreens, and the blooms of the flowers tight-closed in the rays of the lowering Sun. On the great central stone was set the device of a silver crescent Moon. Spike needed merely to look at the hip of the smaller of the Two Sisters to know whose Mark that was -- not that he had ever had any doubt about its owner.

Celestia answered his unspoken question.

"It is my Sister to whom you must attune," she said, looking at the low-hanging Sun. "This is best done in her place of Power, and during her Time."

Celestia's horn glowed, a complex golden radiance fading out to a light blue the edges, like sunlight through sky. The Sun dipped toward the horizon. As always, her action seemed smooth and effortless, the more awesome because of the ease with which she executed magic far beyond the might of any Unicorn.

Standing this close to her, Spike could feel the paramagnetism, resonating with his spikes and as a disturbance in his pyrogastrum. He noticed a brief irregularity in the Sun's motion, and Celestia's own brief increase in output to overcome the hitch, followed by an immediate reduction as she succeeded. It was very subtle; no one save an astronomer, or a being with an inherent mage sense standing right next to her at the time would have noticed, but it was apparent to Spike. It was almost as if some vast, far-off machinery had jammed, requiring a firm shove to get it moving once more.

The Sun set. Darkness fell. The aura faded around Celestia's horn. She glanced briefly at her sister.

The Moon Princess nodded, and her own horn flouresced. Her aura was a dark blue, like that of the evening sky, and Spike could sense her paramagnetism as he had that of her big sister. Luna felt different: higher-frequency, more intense, less stable and yet less energetic.

There were really no words in normal Equestrian to describe what Spike really felt through his spikes; he borrowed terms from thaumology to arrive at a rough approximation, but in truth these terms were inadequate. He knew that what he was feeling was an intensification of what he had felt earlier from her in Celestia's sitting room, and that it was an emanation of the smaller Alicorn's soul.

Celestia smiled at Spike, but her eyes were grave.

"Please stand in the center of the circle, within the inner wards," said the Sun Princess.

Spike looked down, and gulped -- but did as he had been told. His trepidation was due to his quick analysis of the protective circle inscribed in copper, silver, gold and moonsilver all around him. The circle was elaborate, sophisticated and thick -- it looked able to handle some mighty-hairy thaumic loads. Something serious was about to be unleashed, something which Spike strongly suspected that, going wrong, could easily hurt even himself, Dragon though he was.

Not that Spike really believed that kindly Princess Celestia, who had helped care for him after his hatching, who was the trusted teacher of his foster sister Twilight Sparkle, had invited him to Canterlot with the intent of annihilating him. Nor that she was about to do anything to him which would seriously risk his life. Princess Celestia wasn't callous like that.

But it did remind Spike, very personally, of just how powerful was Princess Celestia, and by extension her strange sister Luna, whom Twilight Sparkle had liberated from madness. The Luna who Spike was meeting today didn't seem to be at all cruel, just nervous and a bit shy, which seemed odd in a beautiful, immortal and incredibly-powerful Alicorn, and she'd warmed considerably to him during that epic tea party. By the end, she'd been positively cheerful. Maybe she was still recovering from her long Lunar exile?

Celestia took her place at the circumference of the complex pattern, at the end of a gold ray inscribed onto the floor. Luna took her own position at the end of a silver one. Spike noticed that Luna's ray led southeast -- the direction from which the Moon should rise.

Luna gathered herself, and her horn flared slightly.

The Moon rose behind her, pale and silvery-white, huge and awesome, until from Spike's perspective it seemed almost to be impaled upon the tip of Luna's long lovely horn.

"Spike," said Luna. Her voice was cool, but not unfriendly. "Relax, look into mine eyes, and open thine own self to me. Be not afraid -- I shall not harm thee."

Spike looked into Luna's eyes. They were big and blue, and even deeper than he remembered from before the tea party. Eyes rich with all the experience of many centuries of life on Earth; guileless with the innocence of a very direct nature, welcoming as a cool summer night, dangerous as a midnight winter storm. She was fascinating, both because he had never been able to simply feel a soul like this before in his memory -- he had been far too young to remember anything from when Celestia had attuned with him as a hatchling, and that process had been much slower and subtler. He could feel Luna's soul now, and he supposed she could feel his. He hoped she liked it -- he thought he was a pretty nice Dragon, though he had few standards of comparison.

Moonlight flowed past Luna, drenched her, struck strange shimmers in her starry mane. His mind went deeper into Luna's own. Random flashes of memory flickered before him ...

... dusty gray plains and rolling hills under an ebon star-filled sky, night-dark even as sunlight bathed the land, a great blue moon riding high above, terrible rage and hate and pain ...

... stormy seas under a cloudy gray sky, cold winds whipping through the sails of the longship as her brave crew took up bows and spears and blades, ready to descend on the unsuspecting Chaos Reavers. "Monasdrommir!" the crew all shouted, and the battle was on ...

... a shining crystal city, like nothing Spike had ever seen, converging on the single great shining spire of the Palace; nearby was the greatest Library in all the world; young filly Luna gaped at it in awe, her best friend at her side, he shapeless under an all-concealing cloak ...

... the City and Library again, Luna now a mare full-grown, eagerly climbing the steps of the Library, her love awaiting her within ..

... Flying above a castle, overlooking a walled city surrounded by thick woods; hurling bolts of energy at the white Alicorn who infuriatingly weaves and dodges out of the way. These bolts bend the very light around them to become lines of darkness; they shear through thick stone fortress and wooden walls of town houses alike as if they are but papier-mâché; what they do to Pony flesh and bone is horrible. Her Sister screaming at her to stop; cries of pain and terror sounding from below, columns of smoke rising from the rubble of the stricken city, but Luna does not listen, there is nothing but hatred in her heart ...

... Mother smiling down at her, a beautiful Unicorn with dark green eyes shining in her light green face, long mane streaming in green and red and purple, less like a Pony than some great exotic bird. Those eyes were full of love, and she raised a hoof to gently stroke her younger foal, the light glinting off her golden horseshoes which hummed with subtle energies. "Lulu," she says warmly. Sister squirms and cuddles into her, and around a corner peeps the head of a little colt, one who looks like some strange amalgam of Pony and Dragon and other things, grinning at her. He looks fun. Lulu is happy and full of milk and surrounded by love, and she falls asleep, for she is as yet only a baby Alicorn.

... Twilight Sparkle, meeting her gaze with defiance, and suddenly Luna knows just who she is, her heart leaping with happiness and long-forgotten joy as her soul cries "DUSK!!!" and Love erupts from within, melting her mind-bonds like frost in sunfire ...

Suddenly the image shook and focus shifted. Confused, Spike started to break out of the meld. As he did, he slipped even deeper, and saw, in a flicker of images too vast and strange to comprehend...

... Everything is just beginning ...

... She isn't born yet but she tugs and tugs on everything, but everything flies apart despite all she can do ...

... Things happen everywhere to everything and they are so far apart that parts would be both yes and no and that can't be so the Universe makes sure that it isn't with a web of tunnels telling one part about the others very fast, and the web forms nodes, one node struggles with another and then an alliance of nodes wins and she is born, but one thought in her nascent mind: "GRAVITY." And her Sister wakes too, and says "FUSION." And they Love ...

... She draws everything together, her Sister changes everything and blows it all apart, in what is not battle but dance. The stars shine, glorious across the Universe ...

Spike staggered, and the meld broke for real. The earlier memories had been strange -- full of Ponies and places he'd never seen, save for Celestia and that last oddly-intense image of Twilight Sparkle -- but the last memory had been almost incomprehensible. In some ways it had been incredibly complex, in others very simple, and it all seemed gigantic, as if Spike had been but a microbe spying on the doings of giants. He wasn't even sure that Luna and Celestia had been Ponies in that one, and terms like "tugging" and "changing" and "blowing apart" were the only way he could describe processes that corresponded to nothing any Pony, or any Dragon, had ever done to his knowledge.

Returning to mundane reality, Spike blinked and rubbed his scaly scalp. His head didn't actually hurt -- it was more as if his mind hurt. He looked up to see that Luna was gazing with him with an expression of some concern, her wings flared in emotional agitation.

"I beg thy pardon, Master Spike," Luna said. "I fear I didst draw thee too deep into my mind, deeper than I did intend. Art thou well and whole?"

"Huh?" asked Spike. "Oh, no. I'm okay, Princess. Just a little surprised. I mean -- whoa, you've got some strange stuff in there. Um, no offense meant. Your Highness."

Luna laughed -- a merry tinkle, that sounded lovely in her clear voice -- and smiled at Spike. "No offense taken, dear Dragon. I am but pleased to find thee unharm-ed." She emphasized the last syllable of that word in a way to which Spike was becoming accustomed.

"Me too!" blurted Spike, and Luna laughed again.

"Let us perform some simple tests to see if the attuning was successful," said Celestia. "And then you, dear Sister, should entertain young Spike to make up for giving him such a turn." She smiled at both of them, but especially Luna.

"Of course," said Luna quickly. "'Tis the least I would do to be a good host."

Spike shrugged and nodded.

"Sure!" he said, grinning at Luna. "I'd be honored, Your Highness."

Author's Note

Spike knows geology and gemology fairly well. You would, too, if you ate rocks.

Dragons are magic-resistant. Celestia and Luna can cast on Spike this easily and precisely only because they've prepared the ritual, and he trusts them. In battle, as we see in All The Way Back, Luna relies on gross physical effects, and telekinesed weapons, to fight Dragons. She can also project gravity lances, but then she wants to attune with Spike, not shred him to pieces.

And in that vision you see what I mean by Luna's "gravity lances." They emit beams of intensely focused gravity, essentially a short-lived incredibly-thin linear micro-singularity, that can penetrate and cut through any normal matter, and can only be to some extent resisted by powerful magic or enchantments. They don't have the area-effect of Celestia's full-powered sunfire beam (if Celestia had struck the Foreverfree City with those, she would have been leaving steaming craters under roiling mushroom clouds, surrounded by firestorms), but they can wreak fearsome damage, especially if she slightly swings the beam as she generates it to create a less-penetrating shearing plane that can still cut through almost all normal matter rather quickly. And they penetrate better than does Celestia's sunfire.

Hi, Mimic.

Spike has never seen Discord before as anything but a strange statue in Celestia's garden. He doesn't recognize Discord later from this brief glimpse in Luna's memories because it is just a brief glimpse, and it's of foal-Dissy rather than adult-Discord. Likewise, he doesn't realize what the vision of Twilight really meant, because he's still only around 10-11 when he sees it, and Luna deliberately tried to push him away from that one.

As for the last vision, Twilight might have understood it better than did Spike. Though at this point, she knows nothing of the Cosmic Concepts, and probably would have been almost equally confused. Those were some very early memories, from the first half-million years of the Universe, when even the oldest Concepts were still very young and simple.

No, that wasn't incestuous sex. That was an interaction incomprehensible in carnal mental terms, but whose affect was highly positive. It did involve both trust and the transfer of intimate information, though, so there are ways in which it was sex-like. Or friend-like. Or sororal. Even Luna and Celestia, in their current forms, couldn't explain it to you any better.

Chapter 4: Testing the Bonds

They went by spiral stairs and a long corridor to a part of Luna's wing where there were exercise rooms, some occupied by Night Guards practicing with various weapons or executing gymnastic and martial forms. This sort of place was quite familiar to Spike: his brother Shining Armor had spent much time in the Day Guard training chambers, during his Reserve Officer years, and of course as a Guard Cadet. The armies of Equestria in that day were thoroughly professional, and here was one of the places where they learned their profession of arms.

This being the Night Guard, of course, many of the Guards were Nocturnae: Ponies of the bat-winged, cat-eyed variant Pegasus stock that had served Princess Luna since the early centuries of the Realm, and who according to sacred Traditions Luna herself had somehow made from neglected foals left orphaned by the chaos of the early Time of Thrones. Some of those Traditions were common lore, some sacred secrets written down in the Books of the Traditions. Spike, who had already made friends all through Canterlot and its Palace in his short life, knew some of the secrets of the Thestral Traditions, and also knew better than to casually speak of them to outsiders.

Spike knew that the Night Pegasi practically worshiped Princess Luna as their sacred Mother Night, who had created them and charged them with protecting Equestria from evil daring to rise during the hours of darkness. In past centuries, there had been times when almost all Thestral stallions -- and many of the mares -- had been Night Guards. Under the more peaceful circumstances of the modern age, most Nocturnae instead pursued civilian careers -- their rather conservative and restrained ways making them excellent bankers and scholars -- but they still revered Luna, and in time of crisis were ready to flock to the Moon-Banner.

Such was their Tradition, and Spike for the first time now saw the effects in practice. Where ever Luna walked, her progress was followed by slitted eyes, shining in the dim magelight that illumed Luna's wing of the Palace, the light reflecting from the tapeta behind those eyes. Pointed, tufted ears swivelled to monitor her no less intently. The effect would have been sinister, were it not for the intense and obvious adoration that shone from each pair of great lambent eyes as they looked upon their incarnate goddess. It was obvious to Spike that exposure to the reality of Princess Luna had made them only all the more loyal to her.

Princess Celestia noticed this as well.

They would all willingly die for you, Sister, she murmured into Luna's mind.

I hope and pray that they shall never again have the cause, replied Luna in like wise. Her mind-speech was tinged with guilt and sorrow. Too many good Night-Ponies died, fighting for mine own selfish desires, a thousand years and more agone.

You know, perhaps better than I, that a time approaches in which they will have to fight for the survival of all Equestria, Celestia replied. And some shall surely fall in this battle.

Then they shall fight for a better cause this time than before, Luna said soberly. And I shall do my utmost to so arm and train and lead them that as few shall fall as is needful for victory. Passion thickened her mind-voice. I shall not betray the trust of my Children. Not this time.

Celestia felt a surge of love and admiration for her Sister.

Luna regarded her questioningly. What? she asked Celestia.

Oh, nothing, replied Celestia. Just wondering where you're keeping that dashing young Pumpernickel?

Luna flashed her a look of annoyance. Captain Pumpernickel, she said rather formally, is detached on recruiting duty, in accordance with our plans to expand the Night Guard.

Oh, Captain Pumpernickel? asked Celestia, though she full well knew the answer. I take it the lad's diligence has been rewarded? Her lovely purple eyes danced with mischief.

In point of fact, it has, replied Luna, raising her delicate muzzle high. Captain Pumpernickel is a loyal and competent officer. I wish all the Guard were his equal. Her eyes suddenly widened in dismay, as if she had made some tactical error.

Apparently she had, for Celestia smiled broadly. Oh, I imagine you do!

Thou hast a very dirty mind, Luna said, pouting at her. And Pumpernickel is a good Pony. Thou demeanest him with thine insinuations. In truth, Sister, I do mean this. He has never been aught but a good and loyal friend, one who comforted me in a very dark time of my life, when I had just come back, and felt utterly lost. I had but few friends, then -- all my old friends were almost a millennium dead and gone. She looked sad. In truth I still have not so many friends that they deserve to be scorned, for caring about mine own unworthy self. She drooped her head, letting her starlight mane cover her face.

Celestia's expression softened, and she put a wing around Luna, pressed against her side as they walked on together. Forgive me, dear Sister, I did but make merry with you. I have in fact received good report of Captain Pumpernickel, and for his loyalty to and love for you, he has my most sincere gratitude. He shall find in me a friend as well, for he has been naught but a friend to both our House and our Realm.

Nor, Celestia added, do I blame him for his earlier excess of loyalty to you, at the expense of his loyalty to me. It is but the consequence of his high heart, and race-pride. Pumpernickel is no trimmer, to bend his wings to every chance breeze of politics. His loyalty, once won, is firm and golden. I shall forever remember this, and the good turn he did my Sister when she needed, above all, an honest friend.

Spike could hear that whole conversation, though he was not certain why. He supposed that it was due to some side-effect of his recent Attunement, and his close proximity to the Sisters. It might have been accidental, or on purpose. If on purpose, he was uncertain of Celestia's motivations.

He had learned another secret, to add to the many he hoarded about Celestia and Luna and the Palace at Canterlot. It was in the nature of a Dragon to hoard, and to greatly value what he hoarded, and the value of a secret was much-reduced if generally-known. So Spike chose to say nothing.

When Celestia made that protracted declaration regarding Pumpernickel, Spike could see the effect it had on Luna by the change in the smaller Alicorn's expression. At the end, Luna was smiling happily at her Sister, and Celestia returning her warm regard.

Spike, brought up in the Palace, had understood more of that conversation than would have most Pony colts his age: both regarding Celestia's teasing accusation and the reason why Luna had defended Pumpernickel against it. He knew the selfish reasons why a stallion might pretend to love a mare of higher birth, why a mare would be ill-advised to accept such a counterfeit of love, and why Luna had been so insistent that such had not been the case with Pumpernickel. Spike, himself, would never have lied about loving somepony, but even at ten he knew that others might. One cannot grow up around a Royal Court and retain anything like perfect innocence.

Spike had not understood all of it, of course. But then, neither would have have any other being then in the Palace, save perhaps a certain statue in the gardens, two of whose occupants had known the Royal Pony Sisters all their very long lives, even before they had been royal.

One thing was certain. It made Spike see Luna in a different light. Not so much a better or worse one as a more equine one. If Luna could be lonely, and get a crush on one of her own Guard officers, a feeling which embarrassed her because she knew him an unsuitable match, and yet still found the friendship comforting and defended her friend when teased on it by her big sister, well ...

It let Spike see Luna as more a mare, somepony not that different in some ways from Twilight, or her old group of friends from the Academy, or the new group of friends they were making at Ponyville; and less a monster or goddess or inconceivable Cosmic Being. Somepony who might be lonely, and seek love or friendship from another Pony. Somepony who might, perhaps, someday be his friend.

Now that was a strange thought. Strange, but mostly reassuring. If Luna were his potential friend, it meant that she was less likely to inflict some terrible fate upon him with her mysterious super-equine magecraft. It meant that their relationship might be a social one, and Spike knew that he was actually pretty good at making fillies accept him socially, at least as a friend. He had gotten along better wth Twilght's Academy friends than had Twilight herself.

Spike felt suddenly safer and more confident, more willing to open up to Princess Luna.

And it did not occur to him until much, much later that this may have been exactly what Princess Celestia had intended by letting him listen in to their conversation.

Luna led the way to a large exercise room, in which waited plenty of paper, pens and ink. Each of the three participants stood in a different corner, equipped with an ample supply of writing materials. And they sent each other messages.

That was most of the testing, but then that was the best way to test a message-sending spell -- by sending messages. The practice was quite useful, especially for Spike. This was the first time that he had been attuned to more than one Pony at a time, which meant that when he sent a message he had to focus on the Princess to whom he meant to send the message.

Celestia and Luna also produced their own version of the magefire. The three sent messages to each other. The Princesses were better at this than was Spike, and better at distinguishing between recipients. Especially on the early tries, Spike sometimes sent to the wrong Sister, while they made not one mistake of that sort.

"You have the harder task," Celestia explained, smiling kindly. "We must merely distinguish between Alicorn and Dragon, while you must tell apart not merely two Alicorns, but two full sisters. My psyche is much more similar to that of Luna than either of ours is to yours, Spike."

Spike understood and even agreed with Celestia's point -- the Sisters radiated a sort of cool ageless power that he had never sensed from anypony else, not even from Cadance, whose emanations smelled -- newer. By comparison, Celestia and Luna were unlike any other Ponies, and far more different from anypony else than they were from one another. So he had an excuse for his errors.

But Spike knew that mastering this skill would make him much more useful to the Realm -- and to Twilight Sparkle. So he persevered, refusing offers of rest.

And in the end, his persistence was rewarded. His ability to sense the souls of the Sisters sharpened as he focused on it, and he could smell the difference between them. It was difficult to put into ordinary terms -- it was as if Celestia were a hot creative efflorescence, a living furnace forming new things from the old; while Luna was a cool attractor, drawing old things into new and beautiful alignments and courses. Spike did not fully understand this but he sensed its truth.

When he grasped this, it became easy to tell them apart.

"Very good!" Celestia said, when he explained to her what he was doing. "Now, I think, you can scent us truly every time!" She beamed at the Dragon.

"The young drake is determined," Luna agreed, smiling slightly at Spike. "Such determination will take thee far and serve thee well," she said directly to him.

"Eh, it's easy when you notice it," said Spike. "Why, you two are as different as Night and Day!"

Celestia and Luna both laughed: Luna's a high and merry giggle.

"Well chosen words," said Celestia. "Now, we make the game more difficult."

Now each of the moved to a different exercise rom, so that each was out of sight of and hundreds of lengths away from the others. They sent messages back and forth, at first merely to the apropriate recipient, as before. Then they began lying about who had sent them, so that the recipient had to identify the sender by soul-scent alone.

It was only when he had mastered this that Celestia and Luna alike judged the training complete.

Word of Celestia's decision came to Spike in the form of a magefire message.

The scroll said:

Dear Spike,

My congratulations upon your successful attunement with my Sister. I wish I could feast you in celebration of your achievement, but business of the Realm now demands my undivided attention elsewhere.

The storm has already begun to lash Ponyville; it would be hazardous to return you by sky chariot. Please, do accept my hospitality at the Royal Palace of Canterlot, for at least this night.

Since I am currently unable to entertain you in person, Princess Luna desires to feast you instead. I hope that my Sister will prove an adequate substitute. She would be pleased to dine with you.

Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia Sola Inivicta of Equestria

It was an offer which Spike almost couldn't refuse. Certainly, he didn't want to refuse it. Both common courtesy, and loyalty to the Crown, practically demanded his assent. Spike prided himself on being both courteous, and loyal.

Besides, Spike was curious about Princess Luna. The regal and polite Princess with whom he had attuned seemed very different from the angry and menacing Nightmare Moon he had met a few months ago at the Ponyville Town Hall. Which was the real mare? Luna seemed safe enough for ordinary social conversation -- at least now.

Princess Luna stepped into the exercise room. She was calm and composed, though Spike noticed a certain strange tension underlying her manner.

Why is she nervous? Spike wondered. Surely she knows I'm no threat to her.

"Master Spike," she said, "Allow me to conduct you to my dining chamber, that we may sup and converse together."

Spike smiled broadly, and bowed deeply at her. "I am at your service, Princess Luna."

Luna nodded in reply. "Then I shall lead on to the feast."

He followed her, out of the exercise room, and deeper into the Night Wing of the Palace.

Author's Note

On the origins of the Nocturnae, I assume that they were made from these children.

"Children of the Night" is slighly inconsistent with my world in that it assumes that the suffering of Equestria was caused by the ravages of Discord, implying also that Discord's reign was brief, whereas in the Shadow Wars Story Verse, of course, following the model of the Pony POVerse I have the Age of Discord last a thousand years.

Of course Equestria (which had never been anything more than a geographic concept until the Sisters unified the Realm) had adapted to a thousand years of Discord's misrule. Discord reserved his real hostility for multi-city empires and kingdoms; he mostly left alone or only occasionally interfered with single small cities or towns or villages. A lot of his major efforts were devoted to wearing down large-scale enemies such as the Crystal Empire, the Hegemony of Lith and the Heartspire of the White Queen; or fighting major foes of Ponykind such as the Dragons or the Windigoes. (Discord always conceived of the Ponies as being "his own kind" in a way he never felt about any of the other sapient beings of the Earth, due to his upbringing at Paradise Estate).

Ironically, it was the removal of Discord that created the real problems after the end of the Age of Discord. Without Discord to protect Ponykind from external foes and to prevent wars between the numerous small Pony polities, such foes attacked and such wars erupted. Doubtless, Discord, from his stone housing, laughed at the Sisters as they frantically flew about from point to point attempting to mitigate the effects of an anarchy more violent than that which the Draconequus himself had generally permitted.

It is actually this general condition of civil war in Equestria, rather than the ravages of Discord per se, which caused the existence of numerous neglected children from which Luna recruited some of the most intelligent and potentially-talented to become her Nocturnae. The song popular among the Nocturnae themselves, from which comes the video, is of course very favorable to Princess Luna, toward whom the Nocturnae have always been loyal.

Luna's specific method of recruiting the Nocturnae was very ill-chosen -- though she had to be surreptitious in order to avoid being stopped by Celestia. Equestrians in general only knew that Luna passed, and children disappeared: they did not stop to consider that the only children who disappeared were unwanted ones. Her Colony was hidden -- as far as most Ponies knew, Luna was carrying the foals off to eat them, a calumny which became the nucleus of the later concept of Nightmare Moon as a literal ogre embodied in Nightmare Night.

My concept of the Nocturnae and their Traditions comes straight from Georg, who is also the creator of Pumpernickel and Laminia.

An interesting and major question I haven't answered in my own mind at the point of writing Royal Business is this ...

... what about the non-Pegasus Nocturnae?

"Children of the Night" is, after all, narrated by one of them.