The Virtues Of Obscurity: Chapter Zero: Prologue
It was an average, beautiful day in Ponyville for Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Of Friendship. The sun was singing, the clouds were nonexistent, and she had just about no reason to be unhappy. From her bedroom window, she was gazing done on Ponyville. Right when she thought "Nothing could possibly go wrong today", Spike rushed into her room caring a letter. Spike read out his letter to Twilight.
Princess Twilight Sparkle you're help is needed here in the Desert.
Go to the DESERT JUNCTION station and talk to the stationmaster. He'll give you hotel keys and the direction of the hotel. In the hotel you'll meet me. I can't say who I am, just in case this mail gets intercepted. Yes, it's possible to intercept Dragon Mail. You'll know who I am when you'll see me. This will be your first contact with me, but not your last.
-You'll meet me later.
"Spike, let's go," said Twilight.
"But what if the letter was a liar?" Asked Spike.
"We need to check it out anyway."
"Should I get the others?"
"No. This seems like it should stay secret."
"Okay. You're always right."
They packed their bags. Twilight's bag contains a hairbrush, a sack of bits, a few books (some Horsewell (she especially remembered to bring 19Neighty4, it was one of her favorite dystopian novels; a rare glimpse into what the world might be like without Celestia) and some Starswirl; best to juxtapose your magical fiction with magical fact), as well as a map and a camera. She looked just like any other tourist, except for her wings and horn, so she hid her horn with a charm. She disguised her mane by styling it backwards into a point, Wonderbolts-style. She used a charm on Spike as well, disguising him as a purple and green Pegasus foal. She changed her Cutie Mark to a brilliant raspberry lightning bolt. She gave Spike a cloud as his new Cuite Mark. (She can change Cutie Marks with her alicorn magic; she just doesn't do so most of the time because that would be wrong.) The two of them would now blend in almost anywhere. They had become perfect background ponies. Twilight's new name was Lightwave Rider and Spike's was Cloud Dream. They were a mother and her son. They would be undetectable. Nopony really paid attention to the ponies around each other any more, unless they new them personally. It was a sad state of affairs, but it made it easy for one to hide.
The two teleported out of the castle with their bags to behind a tree near the station where none could see them in a flash of raspberry light. Luckily nopony noticed them. Bright magical flashes were kind of ordinary and didn't usually attract much attention, even if the one teleporting appeared to be a pegasus. (And if someone noticed, they usually blamed it on Discord.) The two of them went to the train stop. They bought their tickets and waited. They waited nearly two ours for the train. The train was pretty empty, even though it was about noon, a common time for ponies to travel during on the weekends, it was a train to the desert. Very fewponies wanted to go to the desert. It was where the bandits and outlaws were, as well as the newly established city of Desert Junction. Celestia hoped it would become an important trading post, despite it being located in the middle of nowhere. For such a wise and benevolent ruler, she really could be stupid sometimes. Twilight mentally berated herself for thinking such an ill thought of Celestia. She was Twilight's mentor and best confidante, even more so than Spike.
She was more like a mother to Twilight than Twilight's actual mother was. Twilight barely knew her actual mother, and she knew so much more about Celestia. Her own mother was cold and distant, and hadn't even bothered to show up to either the Royal Wedding or her coronation. Her mother could be such a bitch sometimes. But Twilight couldn't blame her too much; she was a direct descendant of Princess Platinum after all, and almost all of her descendants were horrible ponies, it was clearly a genetic trait of sorts. The House Of Platinum was quite wealthy, famous, and well-known, but it also had a very ill reputation. (Upon her ascension, one of the first things Celestia did was to downplay the fact that Twilight was also one of them, by emphasizing her father's much more reputable lineage.) The cruel and vile things the House was rumored to do outweighed the meager good they did.
And even though Twilight had been taken away from them -- saved -- by Celestia, she had witnessed some rather dark things while with them. She knew that the rumors were true, and that the rumors only scratched the tip of the iceberg of disgust and sheer disregard for law, ethics, and the lives of others. In fact, she even knew the true origin of the house, a secret that only the most vile were normally permitted to learn. She had managed to get her hands on Starswirl's journal. She knew what Platinum had done to him. She had it in graphic detail. No wonder the house was so corrupt.
She had begged Celestia to bring vengeance upon them, but she couldn't. Celestia couldn't harm them; they were her subjects and she was not a tyrant; she was pure. And Twilight's testimony was hardly proof to the police. (Twilight also suspected that they had bribed the police.) Worst of all, her brother was involved. He was one of them, as dark and foul as the rest, but much better at hiding it. Her words of longing to be reunited were lies; fabrications intended to distract her friends, keep them from wondering why she had never mentioned him, or any of her family at all. She had no idea about Cadance though; her sister-in-law could be just another bad apple, or she could be an oblivious bystander. Or best of all, a double agent hoping to destroy them from the inside. Twilight hoped -- no, longed for the last option to be true, but in all likelihood, it was probably the second that was true. Cadance was not really the double agent type, nor did she seem complicit. Hopefully, she would eventually be given some sort of signal from her sister-in-law, something that would allow her to know where her allegiance fell. But Twilight could not concentrate on this too much; she had almost forgotten that she was supposed to be undercover, that she was supposed to be Lightwave, not Twilight.
The train reached Desert Junction, and Lightwave (reject Wonderbolt and successful mother), got off the train. She went to the stationmaster, an elderly stallion and showed him the message (and briefly removed her charm, to prove that she had not intercepted the message and was in fact Princess Twilight Sparkle). He gave her the keys and told her which hotel.
"The hotel you want, it's the Desert Rose," he whispered. "Go into the city and turn left on Horseshoe Avenue. It should be right around there."
Lightwave thanked him and continued on her way.
Chapter One: The Desert Rose
The Virtues Of Obscurity: Chapter Two: The Desert Rose
It wasn't exactly a low-grade hotel, but it wasn't exactly the creme de la creme either. It was kind of an average hotel. It wouldn't look out of place in Ponyville. In fact, aside from all the sand and the scorching weather (the pegasi didn't have it quite under control yet), the entire town wouldn't be too out of place inside of Ponyville (except for the fact that there were a few cloud houses mixed in with the regular ones, that is). Almost all the buildings were simple and unadorned, nothing like the skyscrapers Celestia eventually wanted to build in this city. It was barely a city at all, honestly, it was more like a medium-sized town. It was only a little bit bigger than Ponyville.
Lightwave and Cloud entered the hotel. Aside from the receptionist, nopony was in the lobby. The receptionist clearly wasn't the pony they were supposed to be meeting. She looked completely disinterested in anything, much less Lightwave's arrival. Lightwave went up the stairs to the fourth floor, and found her room. She entered. There was a pony waiting for her, on her bed. She closed the door. She was a grey pony with an empty, silver birdcage as her cutie mark. Lightwave didn't want to know what that symbolized. Quietly, the pony whispered to her.
"You can drop the charm. I know you're Twilight Sparkle. I was the one who sent you that message."
Twilight did so, unhiding her horn. Spike was also returned to his natural appearance as a baby dragon.
"Great. I was getting sick of having to walk around on all fours," said Spike enthusiastically.
"Why did you bring us here?"
"I brought you here because I thought you might be able to help. We need you. You might be the only one who can help us."
"Help you do what?" Spike interrupted impatiently.
"Save Equestria from its most dangerous threat yet: itself."
"What do you mean? Our country's better off than ever! Our economy is booming and Celestia's never stopped being a great ruler--"
"Ugh. I can't believe you actually believe that load of manure. I thought you might be smarter than that."
Clearly, this pony's crazy. Twilight thought.
"While Celestia might be a decent ruler, she's not the one in control. It's the House Of Platinum. They manipulate even her and lie to everyone. Legend is that she's not even a pony at all, but a spirit they bound to serve them."
Okay, she might not be completely crazy. This lies perfectly in line with a lot of my own observations. Even the last bit. Celestia's nothing like any other pony I've ever known, not even the similarly immortal Luna and Cadance.
"I'm with you." Twilight found herself saying. "I know firsthand how horrible the House is. And secondhand as well."
She showed the pony Starswirl's journal.
"Wow... a book that's escaped their influence. That's rare these days."
The pony read the pages that Twilight indicated to her to read.
"That's disgusting. How did she get away with it?"
"I don't know."
"Wait, what did she do?" Interrupted a confused Spike. He had never read Starswirl's journal.
"I'll read it to you."
Pinkie Pie had been the first to notice Twilight's disappearance. She had run out of flour (she went through it quite quickly) and had went over to Twilight's to borrow some (she'd be sure to give it back when she was done with it). Twilight was gone, as was Spike. No friendship problems appeared on the map to explain her disappearance. However, this wasn't that unusual. Twilight was probably just at another friend's house. However, after checking all of the houses in Ponyville, Pinkie (as well as Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy) agreed that this was not the case.
As they rode the train to Canterlot (to check for Twilight there), Pinkie thought. She didn't just think, however. She also talked to her friends, but her chatter was just insipid and meaningless. It wasn't her focus. Her focus was Twilight. She was legitimately afraid for her friend; this was the first time Twilight had just disappeared like that. Nopony even saw her leave. It was scary to have a friend just disappear like that. Especially if you knew what Pinkie knew. She could tell that Twilight's smiles towards her brother were faked; that she had tried to get Cadance and Shining split not just because she could tell that this wasn't the real Cadance, but also for Cadance's sake somehow. It was all written in her face. Pinkie could read ponies' faces like Twilight would read a book. Just from their faces alone, Pinkie could tell enough about a pony to know just what would make them happy-- even if from an outsider's point of view, it looked like Pinkie was doing the opposite.
The only exceptions were Changelings and babies; the former could disguise their emotions with careful shapeshifting (though if they weren't careful, this could expose them as Changelings), and the latter she just could never understand. Babies were confusing. Their faces tended to say one thing, but their reactions something completely different from what she expected.
Of course, nopony knew that Pinkie could do this. Not even her closest friends. Not even Maud (though Pinkie suspected that Maud could do this too). She was just too afraid of what they would think of her when they found out to tell them. Plus, if she told them, then they'd be a lot less surprised when she showed them their birthday presents: exactly what they wanted, even when they were too shy to admit it to anyone. She was just that good.
"And then, the eclair jumped over the moon!" Pinkie finished the story she had been telling her friends to pass the time exactly when the train pulled into the station. They got off the train and headed towards Canterlot Castle, hoping that Celestia might have some answers.
"Until next time we meet. You know how to contact me." Birdcage said. She exited Twilight's-- no, Lightwave's --room.
They hadn't covered very much ground that Twilight didn't already know, but near the end of their chat, Birdcage had given Twilight a mission: learn as much about the House Of Platinum as she possibly could. This meant, for the first time in many years, going back home.
She wasn't prepared to do this, but she would do whatever she had to do to protect Equestria.
