Heirs

Celestia and Luna left Canterlot early in the morning to avoid being seen. It was better that the public didn't know when they were both going out at the same time. It had been hard to find a way to track where Steven had gone, but in the end they found that Cadence was able to feel where he was due to his love for Luna. Luna squinted her eyes as they flew over the Everfree Forest toward the distant desert. According to Cadence Steven was on the very edge between the forest and the desert, a fact that seemed to unnerve Princess Celestia. Luna decided to ask about it.

"So Tia, I can't help but notice you seem...nervous. Steven isn't nearly as powerful as I was, it shouldn't be a problem to get him back and I'll share my techniques for handling the Nightmare with him. It'll be okay." Celestia didn't look any more relaxed.

"That's not it Luna, I'm worried about something else. I'm the only pony who knows it: That desert is where Chrysalis and her hive reside. I'm afraid that it's the reason Steven chose to come this way." Luna frowned slightly.

"I'm co-ruler of the kingdom and you didn't think I'd want to know where a big danger to Equestria lived?" Celestia giggled a little.

"Absolutely not sister, I didn't tell you because I knew you would want to know. We don't need a war on our hoofs right now with all that's going on." Luna huffed.

"As much as it irritates me, you're right. I would definitely have sent the army there to crush them." Celestia flew a little closer to her sister and nuzzled her from above.

Once they were close they flew down and began trotting the rest of the way toward Steven. They kept their guard up not only because Steven was being influenced by the Nightmare, but also because they were close to a changeling hive. Luckily no changeling scouts were to be seen as they homed in on a clearing that seemed to be where Steven was. Princess Celestia peeked through the bushes first, just in case of the worse, but smiled back toward Luna and motioned for her to follow as she strolled into the clearing. Laying in the grass of the clearing was Steven, same midnight black color, fast asleep. Celestia spoke to her sister reassuringly.

"Seems with all it's 'power', the Nightmare didn't consider it was in a foal who would get tired." Luna nodded and approached Steven slowly as to not wake him. In one swift motion she laid down and curled herself around Steven lovingly. Steven's eyes bolted open, full of shadows.

"What are you doing?! Let go of me!" Luna held him tightly and just shhhed him. After a minute of struggling Steven stopped. "You're lucky I'm out of magic or I'd..." He didn't get to finish before Luna put her hoof over his mouth and spoke calmly.

"Steven, I know you can hear me, listen to my voice. You are strong, stronger than the Nightmare. That's why it needs you, it's weak. You don't have to listen to it, anytime it begins to talk just take deep breaths and focus on happy memories. Just think of anything besides it, distract your mind." Luna let go of his mouth and he stared at her angrily, but slowly the anger disappeared and Steven began returning to his light blue color.

"L-luna, I'm sorry." Luna nuzzled him.

"Don't worry about it, it was way worse with me. You can ask Tia." Steven looked at Princess Celestia who nodded smiling. "Now just follow those techniques and maybe develop some of your own for calming down and the Nightmare will stay away." Steven nodded and hugged Luna tightly.

The royal guard took their job seriously, so when Princess Celestia tasked them with taking care of Holo and not letting anypony else know about her, the took precautions. The entire wing of the castle the she was in was sanctioned off. This allowed Holo some room to move while the princesses were away. Their original plan had been to keep her secluded within Luna’s bedroom, but the whole guard had changed their minds after she looked at them with big eyes. She wasn’t a high maintenance pony, no, quite the opposite. She had convinced them to give her more rooms to move around in to make their jobs easier. Now she could go to the bathroom without having to have somepony escort her. As for food, the guards brought her it. Even though it really resembled a prison, it didn’t feel that way to her. She was only stuck here until the princesses returned. Hopefully they would be back soon, with Steven.

“Steven…” Her eyes watered up. She hadn’t told the princesses that she knew Steven, but they hadn’t asked. They were completely focused on finding him. He had been here for two months, that was a lot of time. She laughed. “It’s just like Steven to find his way to the top. Even the Princesses talk about him as if he’s family.”

Spike followed closely behind Twilight as she walked toward a window with her saddlebags on.

“You sure you don’t need me to come with you Twilight?”

“I’m just going to visit Steven, I’ll be fine.”

“Yea, of course. Have a good trip.” With that Twilight spread her wings and took flight. When she was a good distance from her castle she frowned. She had been woken up by a nightmare of Steven being pulled into a dark fog.

“What is it Steven, what happened?”

“Hello?” Twilight opened the doors to the private study. Empty, like the rest of the rooms.

“Twilight?” She turned around just as Cadence walked in. They hugged briefly. They both looked at each other’s saddlebags. “Let me guess, Steven in a dark fog?” Twilight nodded. “And none of the three alicorns that live here are home?” Twilight nodded again.

“Strange, I didn’t see any of the guards out front. Are they gone too?” Twilight shook her head for the first time.

“No, actually they’re all keeping everypony away from the Lunar Wing of the castle.”

“Wait what, why?”

“They wouldn’t tell me.” Cadence smiled devilishly.

“Then come on, there is obviously a reason they’re there.” They walked out the door and headed for the Lunar Wing.

“I’m sorry Princess, but we have strict orders not to let anypony in here.” The head of the guard stood firmly before Cadence.

“Really? You’re going to tell me that you can’t even let Twilight and I in?” The guard shook his head. “That’s absurd!” Twilight decided to pull Cadence out of the hall before she got too worked up.

“Thank you, we’ll be going now.” Cadence paced back and forth, frustrated at not being able to get into the wing of the castle.

“We have to get in there Twilight.” Twilight was sitting down watching Cadence.

“Hey, don’t worry, we will.” Cadence sat down and took a deep breath.

“Can we teleport into Luna’s room?” Twilight frowned.

“That wouldn’t be safe because we don’t know what’s going on in there.” Cadence wrinkled up her muzzle.

“I suppose your right. Come on, let’s go to the window outside.” With that they left the building.

Twilight and Cadence stood in the courtyard and looked up at the window above them. Twilight started making calculations in her head.

“That’s a lot higher that I thought it would be. How are we going to get up to it?” Twilight looked over at Cadence who looked back at her blankly.

“Twilight, how did you get here?”

“I flew, why?” Cadence put her hoof to her face.

“That’s exactly how we are going to get up there.” Twilight blushed from embarrassment.

“Right. Silly me.” She spread her wings and took off toward the window and Cadence went up right after her. “It…it looks perfectly normal.”

“Then let’s get inside.” With two flashes of light they both teleported into the room.

The room was dim due to the curtains on the windows only being halfway open. Twilight opened the curtains on all the windows in the room. Cadence looked around.

“If there’s nothing wrong here then why would they not let us in?” Twilight shrugged.

“The guards are blocking the whole wing, it could be somewhere else. I guess we’ll just have to wait and ask Princess Celestia and Luna when the get back from wherever they’ve gone.” Cadence agreed.

“Hey Twilight?” Twilight looked over at her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired from the flight here.” Twilight got a daredevil look on her face.

“You could take a nap on Luna's bed.” Sensing a challenge Cadence replied confidently.

“Maybe I will.” They laughed and Cadence walked up to the bed and laid down. Twilight strolled up to the bookcase that was Luna’s personal collection. Her pupils widened in excitement but she didn't get to touch a book before Cadence was back up and talking.

“Oh my goodness!” Twilight turned around to see Cadence standing next to the bed.

“What is it?” She walked over to Cadence and peered into the messy bed. She immediately knew why Cadence had been so surprised. Seemingly asleep with the covers only covering half her body was a pink alicorn. Cadence sighed.

“That explains the guards. She’s still asleep so maybe we can leave before anyone knows we were here. You know how Luna can get when ponies go through her things.” Cadence was whispering as if forgetting that she had yelled only moments before. Twilight looked carefully at the alicorn before approaching the bed. When she spoke she used her normal voice.

“You know she’s not asleep, right?” Twilight pulled the covers down the rest of the way and turned the alicorn over. She opened her eyes slowly.

“Hmmm, whas goin on?” Twilight looked at her suspiciously.

“You can drop the act. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you're Holo?” At the sound of her name Holo perked up.

“How do you know my name?” Twilight smirked.

“Steven’s first few days here he stayed with me. At night he mumbled a few words. He’s probably doesn’t anymore since he feels at home, but he said your name once or twice.” Holo looked at Twilight hopefully.

"Did he say anything about me?" The conversation was interrupted by Cadence, who had grown bored.

"You two go ahead and talk, I’m going to wait for Luna and Celestia back in the sitting room.” Twilight and Holo watched as Cadence flew out the window and down. Once she was gone Twilight sighed.

“You have to excuse her, she wants to know everything but has no patience when it comes to explaining anything.” Twilight gave a nervous smile. Holo sighed.

“This is going to be a long talk, isn’t it.”