Servant of the Queen

The invitation looked nice enough, Psithyra thought as she stared at the computer screen. She had stayed up all night in the workshop tweaking and fiddling with this document, getting it to look just right. Computer programs weren’t quite her thing, but she considered herself at least competent.

Yawning, the elder princess reached for her mug of tea and drank some. This wasn’t going to be easy, she reflected. Humans had annoyingly long memories, especially when it came to things they didn’t like.

“Then again, so do we,” Psithyra mumbled.

There were no windows in the workshop, but the clock on the wall indicated that it was nearing sunrise. Giving the invitation one last cursory look, the changeling moved her mouse and clicked ‘print’.

As the printer in the corner began its work, Psithyra stood up and stretched. She was actually quite looking forward to this. It was as if the stars had all lined up, if you believed that kind of thing. Maybe fate had gathered all those girls together for her, maybe it was just blind luck and good genetics. Whatever the case, Psithyra was going to make the most of it.

Given that it was a Thursday, Psithyra planned to give the invites to the sirens to hand to the Rainbooms and friends. She hoped they would accept. They probably would, but humans were by nature fickle creatures, unlike changelings and sirens. Not to mention that Sunset Shimmer and her friends already thought her rather suspect thanks to the poisoned picnic lemonade she had fed them, and not to mention the whole farce with them recognizing her sister’s true identity on Halloween night.

Once the invitations were all printed, Psithyra collected them and began folding them up and putting them into envelopes. She liked to have some modicum of formality when it came to these things.

After she had finished packing all the cards, Psithyra swept them into a bag and left the workshop. An owl hooted outside. It sounded like laughter, and the changeling princess felt a flicker of fondness, having heard that same laugh all those years ago when she had lived atop this very hill.

In the second floor living room, Chrysalis was warily examining the massage chair that her daughter had purchased. She would press a button and squint at the chair as it began to move and vibrate.

“What’s the matter, Chrysalis?” Psithyra asked as she came closer. “Haven’t you seen one of those before?”

“Well of course I have. I’m a movie star.” Chrysalis took a step back from it. “I’ve just never sat in one.”

“I hear they’re quite comfortable,” Psithyra said as the chair continued to vibrate. “Anyway, I’ve prepared some invitations for those humans that I want to meet. That means the sirens will have to go to Canterlot High to deliver them to the recipients.”

“Well, they go there for school anyway.” Chrysalis placed a hand down on an armrest and began to wobble alongside the chair. “Why do you even want to meet them? There are more interesting humans in the world.”

“On the contrary,” Psithyra replied. “I think I would be hard pressed to find humans more interesting than these.”

Chrysalis blew a raspberry. “No. No way. They are but children with the power to use magic, for some reason. That’s it. I think I’d rather speak to Bullet Stopper.”

Psithyra looked unimpressed, but didn’t press the issue further. “The sirens have no more reason to go to school; they already know everything that they need to, plus they have us around. I’ll just have them go there to give these messages to the humans, and that will be the end of it.”

“What, they’re gonna stop studying?” Chrysalis clapped her hands together. “Finally. I told you they didn’t have to go.”

“It’s not just that, I want to prevent another incident like the Battle of the Bands from happening. A blood moon doesn’t happen every night, and if their pendants get broken again, I will be very cross.”

“That’s probably wise,” Chrysalis nodded seriously. “Small wonder you’re the family tactician. We’ll outlive the magic humans, and once they’re gone, it’s back to business as usual. I think I might run for president.”

“You don’t know the first thing about politics,” Psithyra sighed.

Chrysalis seemed to disagree. “Hello? I was the queen of this land before this city was even properly built. Besides, politics is easy; you just need to keep the people happy, and I know plenty of how to do that.”

I give you two weeks before you declare war on everyone else. Psithyra thought to herself. Her experiences in the past had told her that her sister much preferred lounging on thrones and eating grapes than actually running anything. She lived for the adoration of the masses, and if there was one thing that politicians were not, it was adored.

“I totally would not,” Chrysalis announced to her sister.

“Would not what?”

“Whatever it was you were thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything of the sort,” Psithyra protested impishly. “Anyway, I’m going to get a few hours of sleep before the sirens and my niece wake up. See you in a bit.”

The changeling princess left her sister to poke and prod the massage chair, heading up to her room and laying down on the mattress.

Her dreams were of friends long dead and gone, but if things went right, she might be able to see them again.

Maybe.

Adagio strode through the halls with her sisters, taking a perverse pleasure in the looks of fear that the other students were giving them, or more accurately, the red gems around their necks. Adagio felt in control, she felt good. Once again she was the wolf among the sheep.

But she had promised Psithyra that they wouldn’t stir up any more trouble here at Canterlot High. She and her sisters were just here to deliver a message.

“So, you’re back with your powers.” Rainbow Dash, who was leaning against a row of lockers, righted herself and stalked towards them. “Remember, we’ve beaten you once before. We can do it again.”

Aria huffed and crossed her arms. Sonata simply rocked back and forth on her heels and passed Adagio the satchel of invitations, all of them stacked neatly on top of one another.

“We’re not here to pick a fight,” the eldest siren drawled. “A mutual friend of ours wanted us to give these to you.”

Reaching into the bag, Adagio drew out the crisp, white envelopes and held them out for the Rainbow-haired guitarist to take.

“What mutual friend?” Rainbow asked suspiciously.

“It’s all there in the invitations,” Adagio waved the envelopes under Rainbow Dash’s nose. “Take these and give them to your friends, won’t you? Surely you can manage that.”

The faint smell of flowers and new paper drifted into Rainbow’s nose. It wasn’t a smell she overly liked; perfume and calligraphy was more Rarity or Twilight’s thing.

“Fine. I’ll take them,” Rainbow snatched the envelopes from Adagio and examined them. Each one had a different name on it, penned in cursive with deep green ink. One for each of the band members, including herself.

“Then I’ll entrust you’ll all know what to do once you’ve read them.” Adagio turned around. “With our powers back, we’ve no more reason to be here, so I’ll bid you and your school a farewell.”

“Uh. Yeah…” Rainbow watched her go, unsure of what could possibly be going on in the siren’s head.

Then she looked down at the envelopes in her hand. She figured they were about to find out.

“I’m home,” Silver Rose announced as she came back into her house after school. It had been another awkward day, with the Shadowbolts following her around discreetly and Sunny Flare smelling weird, and not the nice kind of weird.

“Welcome home,” Ivory Wings said. Silver’s aunt was seated in the lobby, polishing a long knife with a cloth carefully. “Come and sit down. I have something to discuss with you.”

Taking a seat next to her aunt on the couch, Silver placed her hands in her lap and waited for her aunt to start speaking.

“This morning, I sent the sirens to Canterlot High to give some invitations to the girls who I was using to fix the gems,” Ivory began. “If they accept, the girls will turn up here around noon on Saturday.”

“Why are you inviting them here?” Silver asked incredulously.

“Because I have things I need to tell them before they finish high school and potentially separate. I need to see them while they’re all gathered here in one place.”

“Is this still about the sirens’ pendants?” Silver still wasn’t getting it.

Ivory Wings took her knife in her hands and turned it over, staring at her reflection in the blade. “No. It isn’t. It goes much further back than that.”

“Aunt Ivory, I don’t understand,” Silver protested.

Silver’s aunt sighed. “It’s a matter from before your time. But I can try to show you why this is so important to me. Come on, sweetie; we’re going to my room.”

The elder princess put the knife back on its holder on the wall and beckoned for Silver Rose to follow. They went up two floors to the room that Chrysalis had given her sister to stay in. It had once been a painting studio and storeroom for her mother’s art, Silver remembered, before her aunt had come to live with them.

Silver had not really visited her aunt’s room much, as the elder princess seemed to prefer staying in the workshop instead, not to mention that pureblood changelings only slept for about four hours every day.

Ivory Wings opened the door and turned the lights on. Silver could smell the usual smells: dye and cosmetics, as well as paint and interestingly, freshly carved wood.

As Silver entered, her attention was drawn to the rather simple and plain looking single bed that was pushed up against the wall. It was so unlike her mother’s and her own bed, which were richly ornamented four-posters with a canopy and curtains. But her aunt’s bed was just a single mattress with plain sheets and pillows, like it had just been bought from a furniture store. There was a simple nightstand with a lamp and a small shelf of books and a desk with a laptop computer and some other little electronics like a phone charger there. All in all, very plain, almost bland.

Then she turned to look at the other end of the room.

Dominating the majority of the space was a large collection of strange objects; a long spear, some old-looking books, some glass cases with more delicate items in them. A lot of room was being occupied by some tiered shelves which held a sizeable display of dozens of magnificently crafted painted wooden dolls. Each one was about half a foot tall and was painstakingly carved to look unique. Their clothes and accessories were just as well detailed and seemed to have been chosen to emphasize what the holder was supposed to be.

“Did you make all these dolls?” Silver asked, walking up to the shelves of figures and examining the nearest one. It was a doll of a woman wearing a long, dark coat with platinum grey hair under a tricorn-like hat, holding a tiny, replica silver sword. “Is this a pirate? Were you on the seas once? I never thought of you as someone who likes to sail the seas.”

“That’s a monster hunter from Trotsylvania,” Ivory said. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you. Come here.”

“Oh, that’s the one.” Silver remembered the tales of Trotsylvania the most of all her mother’s and aunt’s journeys. “Okay, what did you want to show me?”

Ivory directed Silver's attention to a framed picture on the wall. It was roughly two feet long and one foot wide, displayed landscape wise. Upon closer inspection, Silver could see that it wasn’t a painting. It was a woven tapestry kind of thing, and depicted a large group of people of various ages standing on a grassy lawn in front of some trees. Whoever made this had done a good job; the people were distinct and very nicely detailed, right down to the facial features and their clothing.

“Who are these people?” Silver asked, peering at the tapestry. It looked kind of old, but it was kept in almost perfect condition.

“They don’t look familiar to you?” Ivory looked amused as she waited.

“Not really,” Silver said slowly, she looked closer and her eye was caught by a young woman with rainbow hair who was holding a lute. “Wait. She looks like that Rainbow Dash girl from CHS.”

“Very good,” Ivory purred. “They were also quite similar personality wise, but you couldn’t have known that.”

“Wait a minute…” Silver looked at each one of the characters on the tapestry. “That purple one reminds me of Rarity. And this blonde one of Applejack. Don’t tell me…”

“Yes?” Ivory’s smile grew wider.

“They’re immortal too?” Silver Rose finished.

Ivory Wings burst out laughing, holding her stomach in mirth. “I can see why you would think that, yes, but that’s not quite right,” she regained her composure and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes. “These people in the tapestry are the ancestors of the girls from Canterlot High School. It depicts the last day we were all together, before they all went their separate ways. After more than a thousand years, it seems that fate, or maybe just dumb luck, has gathered them all in one place for me again. This is why I want to meet them.”

“Wow. That’s really such a coincidence. And they’re all the same age. That’s insane!”

“I can’t let this chance pass me by,” Ivory said, clenching her right hand in a fist in front of her face. “I know I haven’t exactly been all that good to them until now, but they deserve to know the truth of their lineage. That they have the bloodline of heroes, and that, a thousand years ago, their ancestors helped me and your mother.”

“That’s really cool. It’s really as though the stars aligned.” Silver sat back in a chair. “Except we’re on two different sides now.”

“I hope they’ll accept my summons,” Ivory reached up to touch the glass of the frame holding the picture. “One of these people was my only real friend. I believe that over the course of last winter, I learned that she has passed on her gifts to Sunset Shimmer. I hope I’m right,” she said wistfully.

“So they’re gonna be here? Is Home Run coming?” Silver asked hopefully.

"I didn't know his ancestor," Ivory frowned. "It's just those seven girls for now. If we manage to get through a few meetings without trying to kill each other, then maybe I'll see about Home Run. I told your mother I would learn how he survived the poisoning, but I'm in no rush. Especially since after I discover why, your mother will want to murder him."

“Yeah, I’ve been curious too. But um… I’m-I’m glad he did…” Silver’s cheeks colored. “Thanks for keeping Home Run safe too, Aunt Ivory. I don’t know what I’d do if I… if I lose him. Again.”

"Mmm…" Ivory made a noise in her throat. "My sister's homicidal tendencies aside, I too would like to know how he survived your mother’s first attempt. My sister is a master alchemist, so there is no way she simply got the mixture wrong. I wonder…"

“Wh-what is it?” Judging by her aunt’s smell, she seemed to have an inkling of… something.

Ivory looked at Silver and shook her head. “Unless the boy has changeling ancestry or something, but I’m quite sure that’s not possible. I’ll figure out this riddle somehow. Why don’t we go and get something to eat, huh?”