After a long day of studies, there were few things that brought a greater feeling of contentment to Twilight than to curl up under the covers of her bed and get herself a good night's rest. And right now, that was exactly what she was experiencing, with the calm night-time of Ponyville having set in a while back, the young unicorn was lying in her bed, a smile upon her face as she rested herself after the day's activities. Things were going well for her, as she tossed and turned in her sleep, though never once looking like she was troubled or without rest as she did so. Sure, every once in a while, she'd crack open an eye, but she always managed to get back to sleep soon afterwards. However, there came a time when, during one of these brief wakes, that her eyes stayed open, and a look of confusion crossed her face, as she finally broke the silence of the night by speaking to herself.
"Huh..."
The cause of this utterance was as she took a look at the nearby curtains of her room, which, oddly enough, seemed to have a slight orange glow about them, albeit a very faint one. Though she at first tried to still any concerns she had, her mind would not let up, and soon, she lit up her horn and levitated her glasses over from their resting spot on the table beside her bed. After leaning up and placing said glasses over her eyes, she squinted at the window, realising that she had indeed seen what she'd seen.
"It...it can’t be morning already, can it?"
She turned, looking upon the clock, which was also sitting on that small table, and seeing that it was only two in the morning. Something was wrong, and as such, after looking once more to the window, she slowly hopped out of bed, beginning to approach it. But, as she did so, she could hear something. Voices in the distance. Concern began to take root in her heart, and when she'd finally reached that window, she pulled back the curtains, leading to a gasp of shock.
"No!"
She could see the source of the orange glow; a fire, which could be seen even from THIS distance. Smoke billowed out into the clear night sky, and in the streets there were already ponies gathering and talking to one another in a fearful-looking way. But, what truly concerned Twilight was the fact that, given the direction of those flames, there was only one place it could be coming from.
"The Embassy!"
Instantly, she spun around, charging out of her bedroom door and racing for the stairs. But as she did this, she halted as she saw Spike emerge from his own room, rubbing some dust from his eyes as he finally saw her.
"Wha...what's going on, Mom?" he asked.
Twilight, looking to him, knelt down, placed a hoof on his shoulder, and spoke to him with utter seriousness in her tone.
"Spike! I need you to stay here! Lock the door after I've left and don't open it for anypony until I get back! Okay?"
Though clearly distressed at what his Mother had just said, the young drake did as told, nodding dutifully just in time to see her once more resume her run downstairs. At that pace, it took little time for Twilight to reach the bottom floor, after which she practically leapt out of the door, stopping just to make sure she'd closed it behind her, before charging down the street as fast as her hooves could take her. She passed by many of her neighbours in that street on the way, none of whom seemed eager to get closer to this problem, but she had no time to dwell on that. For after turning a few corners, she halted, her eyes widening with pure horror.
"By Celestia!"
It was a truly terrible sight, as it appeared that almost a quarter of the Embassy building was in flames. Every Lunar guard she could see was busy going to every single place where there was fire, organizing water teams and doing everything in their power to put the flames out. It was chaos, though to their credit, the Lunars appeared to be maintaining their discipline and composure throughout the ordeal, even as the nearby Ponyville citizens seemed too fearful to get any closer than they were. Eventually, however, Twilight saw a familiar figure beside the Embassy, spurring her into charging forward once more.
"Captain Dash!"
Sure enough, the Lunar Captain stopped what she was doing, turned around, and looked on with surprise as Twilight ran towards her.
"Twilight?"
Finally reaching her, the unicorn mare panted slightly after her exertions, before finally asking the obvious question.
"What happened?!"
Hearing that, Aurora frowned, pointing a hoof at Twilight in an accusing manner.
"What happened is that we were just attacked...by Equestrians!"
Naturally, Twilight was aghast at hearing this, to the point of even taking a step backwards from her Lunar colleague, shaking her head.
"No...no! That's...that's not..."
But Aurora carried on.
"It's true! A bunch of masked Equestrians showed up a few minutes ago, threw a bunch of flaming bricks at our site, and before we could retaliate, we had this mess to deal with!"
Twilight looked to the still-burning building, utterly flabbergasted at what she'd just heard. Equestrians outright attacking the Lunar Embassy? It was too terrible a thought to consider. And yet, she knew just from looking that, if this fire was a deliberate act on somepony's part, that malicious intent was indeed behind it. However, before she could ask further, before she could even open her mouth, she was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice calling to her from behind.
"Twily!"
Both she and Aurora turned to see that it was her brother, Shining, galloping fast towards them with a pair of his own troops flanking him on either side. Once he'd reached them, he looked from her, to the fire and back again, before finally addressing her.
"What...?"
But this time, it was Twilight's turn to do the interrupting.
"We'll explain later! Right now, we need to get this fire under control before it spreads!"
Hearing that, Aurora looked to Twilight with a sense of indignation.
"After what's just happened, we don't need some Equestrians coming in here and..."
But Twilight spun around, looked her angrily in the eye, and just spoke as directly as possible.
"THE EMBASSY IS ON FIRE!!!"
Of course, everypony there was taken aback by how forward and aggressive Twilight had been just now, especially when she'd spent so much of her recent time in Ponyville trying to keep things cool with the Lunar ponies. Nopony was more shocked at this display than Aurora herself, and while the brash pegasus was usually the most confident and self-assured of anypony there, in this one moment, she faltered a bit. She could hear the sounds of the fire still raging behind her, and she could see the earnest desire to help in Twilight’s expression. After grappling with what had to be a great deal of pride, the Lunar Captain slowly turned to Shining, narrowing her eyes.
"...We need water...and a lot of it."
Shining, perhaps not wanting to also be on the receiving end of his sister's bad mood, immediately turned to one of his subordinates.
"Get the local weather pegasi organized! NOW!!!"
His response was swift, as both ponies saluted before darting off as past as possible. Meanwhile, Twilight was focusing on something else entirely. As she began to turn her head from her brother to look at the fire again, she stopped for a moment just as something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. She squinted through the increasingly smoke-filled environment to see that, to her shock, there was a pony of some sort sticking their head out of a nearby alleyway. And, remembering what Aurora had told her, Twilight's eyes widened when she realised that this figure was clad in a black mask. As soon as this fact sank in, she frowned, before running forward yet again, ready to chase this individual down. Shining, seeing her go off, only had a few moments before he realised what was happening.
"Twilight! No!"
But she was already off, with her brother close behind her. The figure in the alleyway soon noticed the approaching unicorns, and instantly started to run off. But Twilight was hot on their heels, following them further and further into said alleyway, through all the twists, turns and corners that pony tried to use to escape. Eventually, after turning one particular corner, Twilight noted that the figure was about to run straight past a pair of trash cans, and so lit up her horn. Mere moments later, the cans tipped over as a result of her magic, and the masked figure, perhaps not paying attention, tripped over them. This gave Twilight and Shining ample opportunity to catch up, and Shining in particular leapt forward, pinning the attacker down and, with his own magic, yanked off the mask.
"Okay, punk! Let's see who..."
But his face soon turned to one of disbelief.
"...No!"
Twilight, confused by this, walked around her brother to get a better look at who it really was under that mask. And as soon as she'd done this, she let out a gasp.
"Y...you?!"
She recognised the figure immediately. It was a pegasus stallion, white in his fur, who, until recently, had been assigned to the Guard contingent here in Ponyville. The very same Guard who had began the tavern brawl with one of the Lunar soldiers some months ago, and had subsequently been removed from his position as a result. She hadn’t seen him since, and wasn’t expecting to see him ever again, as a matter of fact. But, here he was, and with the way he looked to her, with utter vitriol, Twilight spoke softly.
"...Why?"
The stallion seethed at her question, spitting at the ground beside her hooves before giving the only answer he was willing to give.
"You're not getting anything out of me...traitor!"
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"
Ambassador Rarity, usually the very model of reserved quiet, was now utterly livid, slamming her hoof angrily on the table that separated her from her counterpart, Cadence. The mood in Ponyville's Town Hall was, understandably, a tense one, as both Rarity and Aurora glared aggressively to Cadence and Shining, the latter two looking as though, for once, they had every right to be on the receiving end of this kind of indignation. Cadence, for her part, tried her hardest to maintain an air of diplomacy, as difficult as she knew that was right now.
"Ambassador, I assure you, we had no idea that this attack was going to happen!"
Leaning back into her chair, the Lunar diplomat was, naturally, sceptical.
"With respect, Ambassador Cadence, this is no longer the domain of some local drunken tavern brawl anymore. This was a direct assault on sovereign Lunar territory! Equestrian citizens, at least five of them by our reports, coming to us, in the dead of night, and trying to set our building on fire!"
A sigh escaped Cadence at that.
"You have every right to be upset. And I assure you, the perpetrator we caught will be tried for the crimes he has committed."
At that, Aurora chimed in, snorting before doing so.
"Ha! That stallion got off easy last time. You demoted him, let him go back to Canterlot, and now look what happened! He came back, a full-on criminal, trying to attack us! Do you really think some Equestrian trial is going to be enough now?!"
In response, Shining frowned, stepping forward.
"We told you last time. We are not prepared to turn over Equestrian citizens for you to punish!"
Aurora opened her mouth to speak, only to be halted when, just then, the door of the Hall opened, causing everypony to turn towards it. There, they saw Twilight enter, shaking off the raindrops from the weather that had been brought in beforehand. It was the same rain that had been summoned for the sake of helping to put out the fire of the Embassy, and it had continued since. Closing the door behind her, she trotted further into the building, looking to Rarity in particular with a great deal of concern.
"Ambassador! Are you alright?"
Seeing the genuine worry on the young unicorn's face, the Lunar Ambassador relented somewhat, her expression softening as she responded.
"I'm fine, Twilight. Thank you for asking. Others, however..."
Her tone was a grim one, and it naturally prompted further worry for Twilight.
"Oh no! Was...was anypony...?"
Rarity knew what she was going to ask, and so raised a hoof, stopping her.
"Nopony has been killed, thankfully. Five of our staff are being treated for serious burns, however. One has even had to be sent back to the capital for better treatment."
Of course, words like that had the expected effect, as Twilight approached her Lunar colleague, looking and sounding as apologetic as possible.
"Rarity...I am so sorry that this was done to you! Please, I want you to know that we would never want something like this to have happened!"
Looking to her in silence for a time, the Ambassador soon let out a long sigh.
"I know you wouldn't, Twilight. And I appreciate your concern for us."
Sadly, this moment between them was short-lived, as Rarity's eyes narrowed as she once more turned to look to her Equestrian counterpart across the table.
"I just wish others felt as remorseful as you did."
Given the circumstances, Cadence allowed that remark without comment, even though the way Shining seethed at her side made it clear that he very much wanted to counter it. But Twilight, perhaps the one most eager to keep things friendly here, stepped to one side, standing in-between both groups on one side of the table, before addressing Rarity yet again.
"Ambassador...I promise you, we're going to do everything possible to try and stop this problem before it gets worse."
Rarity seemed sceptical at that.
"I trust you enough to know that you mean that, Twilight, but..."
Again, she turned to Cadence.
"...this problem has been going on for quite a while...hasn’t it, Ambassador?"
Confused, Twilight turned to Cadence, who, though ashamed to say it, nevertheless let out a long exhale before nodding.
"The Ambassador speaks truly, Twilight. We have known of growing anti-Lunar sentiment in our country for some time now."
Though taken aback, Twilight shook her head at that news.
"But...but...you couldn't have known about this! An attack on the Embassy?!"
In response, Cadence shook her head.
"You're right, we didn’t know. But..."
As before, shame took centre stage in her expression.
"...there have been...troubling rumours."
All eyes were upon her, Twilight's especially, and after taking a few moments to get her thoughts in order, Cadence looked to her and began to explain.
"For some months now...we've received bits and pieces of information of a more organized group. More unified than simply random local discontents. Gatherings in the night. Talk of more aggressive movements towards the Lunars. For a long time, we thought it could be ignored, that nothing would come of it. But..."
Here, Rarity interrupted her.
"But it would appear as though ignoring it was a rather irresponsible move on your part. If you don't believe me, just ask my daughter!"
To that, Twilight's head snapped in Rarity's direction, prompting her to carry on.
"Last night, she was in her room, sleeping soundly in her bed, when all of a sudden..."
Her horn lit up, and Twilight saw, to her horror, that she levitated what appeared to be a brick onto the table, one that bore all the signs of having been burning not so long ago.
"...this comes crashing through her bedroom window! Had my guards not been so close, she might have been one of those being treated for burns right now! Or worse!"
Her expression was one of utter loathing as she dwelt on that memory.
“If anything had happened to her...”
She didn’t finish, but it was obvious to everypony looking at her that trying to find a peaceful path out of this mess was going to require to most delicate of care. Of course, Twilight was utterly aghast at all of this, taking a step closer to Rarity's side of the table.
"Rarity...nothing I can say can make this right, but I want you to know that, whatever we can do to make things better...we'll try."
Though still angry, Rarity's frustration, for the moment at least, was kept in check by the earnestness of the young mare beside her. But, her attention continued to be laser-focused on Cadence, and her tone reflected the mood.
"Tell me, Ambassador...this group of anti-Lunars in your country...is there anything else you wish to tell us?"
Though clearly uncomfortable about having to say anything further on the matter, Cadence gave a nod.
"Yes...this group...the Followers of the Sun, or so we've heard them called...has been attributed to a number of anti-Lunar propaganda art that have been turning up in Canterlot of late. The Princess has tried to rein it in, but...it has persisted all the same."
Hearing that, Aurora frowned further.
"So, it's true? I heard stories of that kind of stuff showing up, but..."
Cadence nodded again.
"It is true, I'm sorry to report. Although..."
She looked away.
"...I regret to inform you that...this is not the worst part of all this."
Everypony turned to look at her, and Cadence looked as though what she was about to say was going to be the hardest thing of all. And yet, knowing that the truth was her only course of action, that was what she now gave.
"We have no official confirmation yet, but, after some eyewitness accounts...we believe that this group is being worked up, and possibly even organized by...by..."
A pause, then Cadence let out a sigh before looking Rarity right in the eye.
"...by members of the Griffonstone rebels."
A silence fell over the room, with Twilight looking completely shocked at what she'd just heard. Aurora, for her part, looked about ready to break something, and Rarity, leaning further onto the table, looked to Cadence with utter seriousness.
"...Would you care to repeat that, Ambassador?"
Much like before, Cadence sighed.
"Ambassador...we both know you heard me the first time."
Slowly, Rarity leaned back into her chair, looking like she was doing everything in her power to keep her anger under control.
"So...you're telling me...that not only have Equestrian citizens gathered to inflict deliberate acts of violence against our people...but that they’re being organized and backed by those our Kingdom have deemed enemies of the state?!"
Cadence did not reply, but gave a simple nod in response. Rarity, after taking this all this in, took a few calming breaths before speaking up again.
"Do...do you have any idea what kind of response this will foster?!"
Again, Cadence nodded.
"Ambassador...I know things look as bad as they can do...but what Twilight said is true. We are going to do everything we can to keep this situation from spiralling out any further. These rebels, and the Equestrians operating under their instructions? We'll find them. We'll stop them. You have my word."
Rarity narrowed her eyes.
"With all due respect, Ambassador...your word doesn't carry much weight with me after all this."
Naturally, Cadence seemed greatly disheartened by that. But, before she could reply, Rarity instead turned her gaze to Twilight.
"Do I have your word, Twilight Sparkle, that your people will do what they can?"
Twilight, of course, was hugely taken aback by this, and soon realised that everypony was looking at her. A great weight had just been placed on her, and everypony knew it. Yet, to her credit, she did not falter or hesitate here. instead, she took a deep breath, and then, after giving a small nod, spoke as calmly as possible.
"You have my word, Rarity."
Rarity stared at her, seeing the honesty in which she'd spoken, after which she let out as long sigh, getting up and out of her chair.
"I consider you a friend, Twilight...so I'm going to trust you on this. I will send my report back home...and advise restraint."
Twilight nodded, smiling.
"Thank you."
Rarity nodded back, turning to head towards the door of the Hall, with Aurora close behind her. However, before she reached it, the Lunar Ambassador turned around to give Twilight one final utterance.
"I’m sure you realise, Twilight...our Kingdom does not take such attacks lightly. If this should happen again..."
She didn't finish, but Twilight understood, and gave a nod to let her know that. To that, Rarity turned, lighting up her horn so that the rain outside didn't land on her or Aurora as they left. Twilight watched, seeing them both leave and closing the door behind them. As soon as they were gone, she looked to her brother, looking as serious as she had done since arriving.
"Shining...get word to the Princess. And to our Father. Tell them...we’ve just dodged a bullet."
