Servant of the Queen

Ivory Wings glanced at the ornate clock that hung over the front door of the Wings Estate. It was ten past noon and she had been watching the cameras like a hawk, waiting for those who she hoped would show up.

The changeling princess felt a strange sensation she had not experienced in many years in her gut. She knew what it was, but felt a touch chagrined at herself for feeling it.

Anxiety.

This is ridiculous, Ivory thought to herself, gripping the armrest of her chair. I don’t get anxious. I’m over a thousand eight hundred years old. I’ve seen worse than this.

“Umm… Aunty Ivory, are you okay?” Moonglade’s head popped out from around the corner. “You smell weird. Kinda like… like me most of the time, I guess.”

“What about the cookies and the soy sauce?” Ivory Wings jumped and turned to Moonglade. “Oh. It’s just you, sweetie,” the elder princess adjusted her glasses and stood up. “I suppose that I am simply apprehensive of what might go on later.”

“You? Apprehensive? I’ve never seen you say anything like that.” Moonglade snickered and walked over to inspect the set up table. There was a clear view of the cameras, and as Moonglade watched, a long white car pulled up outside the gates.

“I think someone’s here,” Moonglade said.

“Oh my fangs,” Ivory breathed. “They took the bait- I mean, they accepted. I’ll just open the gates for them…” She reached out and pressed a red button, and the metal gate slid aside noiselessly on the camera display. “Only thing left to do is to get ready to greet our guests. Do you want to be here for that, sweetie?”

“Umm… ah, sure. I guess.” Moonglade shrugged. “I want to see what you have planned.”

Ivory Wings held up her left arm and flexed her hand, causing a narrow, silver blade to shoot out from her wrist. “Just act natural,” she said to her niece. “I’m sure we’re not the only ones who came here armed.” She retracted her hidden blade and walked over to the doors, straightening her collar as she did so.

Ivory Wings stepped up to the front doors and with a wave of her hands, threw them open.

On the front doorstep were seven girls in their late teens. It seemed that Adagio had managed to deliver the invites to the right people.

“Welcome to the Wings Estate!” Ivory Wings announced, putting on her most winning smile to greet her guests. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Thanks. I guess.” Sunset Shimmer stood in front, looking wary. The rest of them were arranged in a sort of triangle, with Rarity looking caught between starstruck and needing to pee, Twilight Sparkle staring hard at Ivory’s face, Applejack and Rainbow Dash trying to look tough, Fluttershy hiding behind Pinkie, who was hopping from foot to foot in excitement.

“Come in,” Ivory beckoned graciously. “I’ve got drinks in the dining room. It’s rather dry today, isn’t it?”

“Drinks?” Pinkie Pie held up two jugs of water. “It’s okay, we brought our own!”

Ivory barely blinked. “Of course you did. Well, if you’re not thirsty, I have some snacks there too.”

“Let’s go this over with,” Rainbow said and walked in.

Ivory cracked a small smile. All the same confidence of the girl who wasn't afraid to fight a dragon to help her friends.

Rarity shuffled forward. "I just wanted to say… That this is a huge honour to be allowed into the home of the legendary Ebony Wings, and even if Sunset says you're not to be trusted I think-"

"We get it, Rarity," Applejack grabbed Rarity by the arm and hauled her inside. The rest of the group cautiously followed, with Fluttershy flinching when the doors clicked shut behind them.

Ivory Wings led them through a sumptuous lobby, where the girls gawked and gasped at the various art pieces and weapons that were on display. The eyes of the painted people on the walls followed them almost as if they were alive.

“I s-swear I saw th-the painting’s eyes move…” Fluttershy pointed at one of a Prench general with a huge hat.

“You’re just imagining things, Fluttershy,” Twilight said soothingly. “They’re paintings. They can’t actually watch us.”

“You know, some of the pictures in this house were done by a powerful enchantress,” Ivory Wings turned around and smiled. “They can be very lifelike.”

The rest of the walk in was in silence, with Ivory leading the way through the halls, all the while sniffing at the air to get a gauge of what the girls were thinking. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of doubt and apprehension in the air and she didn’t blame them for not trusting her. She hadn’t exactly done anything to gain their trust. Not yet anyway.

“And this is where we’ll be spending our time.” Ivory stopped by the entryway to the ground floor living room. There was a table set up near the exit to the swimming pool, where plates of steaming finger foods sat, along with a candle between each one, each with the scent of various herbs. “Please, make yourself feel at home.”

Moonglade stood by the grand piano in the back, and not knowing what to do, she simply smiled awkwardly and waved.

Nobody moved.

“I haven’t poisoned the chairs,” Ivory sighed. “You can sit down without worrying about being drugged or the like. By the way, did you girls like the gifts my associate prepared for you the other day?”

No one said anything.

“This is going to be very dull if I’m doing all the speaking,” Ivory continued. “I didn’t invite you here out of any ill will. You can ask Sunset Shimmer to verify that for you if you like.”

Everyone looked at Sunset and she sighed. “Fine. I’ll have a look.”

She squinted her eyes and the room fell silent once again, until Moonglade yelped when her hand slipped on the piano and mashed against a handful of keys.

Eventually, she blinked a few times, then nodded to her friends. “She doesn’t mean any harm. For now.”

One by one, the seven girls took their places around the table. Ivory Wings slipped into her own chair, while Moonglade dropped into the one next to her aunt.

“U-Umm…” Moonglade decided to speak. “I-Is uh, is Home Run… o-okay? Is he doing okay?”

Sunset Shimmer stared at Moonglade with some heat. “Home Run survived Halloween night,” she said shortly. “Whoever you really are.”

“I umm… I…” Moonglade found her hands to be more interesting to look at all of a sudden.

“Well, yes, it’s good to see we all know each other,” Ivory Wings said cheerfully, picking up a macaron and examining it. “I suppose you want to know why I invited you girls here to my home. You see, I think we have a lot of things we need to talk about.” She popped the biscuit into her mouth and chewed slowly. “I’ll start, shall I? Who and what do you think I am?” Ivory propped her elbows on the tabletop and perched her chin atop her interlocked hands, smiling like a cat.

Sunset Shimmer sat up in her chair, her fists clenched at her sides. “You’re a changeling. You may have hidden your real face from us, but we have you figured out.”

“Do you?” Ivory asked simply, her Cheshire Cat smile growing wider. Moonglade watched her aunt carefully. She was in control right now, but she had never seen anyone who had pierced their disguises before.

Sunset paused, her eyes darting around. Moonglade followed her gaze; she knew Sunset was a competent sword fighter, but there were no swords within reach, only the pair of one-shot wheellock and flintlock pistols on the shelf behind her. In the meantime, there was a trio of side-swords in a glass case just to the right of Ivory’s chair, and on the left was a display of a fan of knives. Moonglade’s aunt had chosen her seat well, and that wasn’t even accounting for the fact that she had a hidden blade strapped to her wrist and her poisoned kris dagger on her somewhere. And if Chrysalis was any kind of standard for changeling agility, Moonglade’s aunt could move fast enough to intercept or dodge a bullet.

Twilight cleared her throat. “I think it’s time you stopped pretending. We have some solid evidence that you and your ‘associate’ Mist Eerie are one and the same.”

“Yeah, there ain’t no more use hidin’.” Applejack poured herself a glass of water from one of Pinkie’s pitchers. “Best ya can do now is explain why ya even need to bother hidin’.”

“Oh, don’t be such a stoic,” Ivory reached across the table and picked up a potato chip and scooped up some dip with it. “I don’t think you want to see my actual face. That’s not important anyway. What is important, is that we used to be friends.”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Us? You? Yeah right. I think I would believe it more if you said you were the lead singer of Copperrear.”

“You like Copperrear, Dashie?” Pinkie’s face was a mask of disgust. “They’re so… repetitive.”

“I didn’t say I did.”

“Why would you bring them up if you didn’t like them?” Pinkie giggled. “I like cakes, I like candy, I like being with my friends, I like airsoft guns, I like bakeries, see I mention them.”

Ivory Wings waited patiently for the girls to stop talking. She glanced at Moonglade as if to say, ‘humans, am I right?’.

“It’s the truth, though,” the elder changeling princess said. “Long ago, in a past life, we were good friends.”

“Well, that can’t be true, because we ain’t even been alive that long,” Applejack answered with a scoffing expression.

Ivory’s face softened. “Maybe not you personally, but over a thousand years ago, on this very plot of land, your ancestors and I helped to save the world. We were comrades and close companions. I have the memories to prove it.”

“What?” Rainbow leaned back and let out a single note of laughter. “Why would our ancestors help you? You’re the bad guys.”

“Good guys, bad guys, it’s all relative,” Ivory intoned boredly. “For example, Rainbow Dash, your ancestor was the squire to one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Hors. Her dream and ambition was to become a knight of the realm.”

“What, really?” Rainbow suddenly changed her look. “Did she succeed?”

“Oh, most certainly,” Ivory leaned forward eagerly. She knew she had at least one of them hooked now. “She and another squire were knighted for services to the kingdom and had many adventures together. They were even wed to each other after a few more years. You see, Rainbow Dash, you and your friends have the bloodlines of heroes.”

Rainbow smirked and looked to her friends. “I think I like where this is going.”

“Really? That’s all it took to get you on her side?” Sunset was unimpressed at her friend.

“What about me? What about me?” Pinkie waved her hand above her head like he was itching to answer a question in class. “What was my ancestor like?”

Ivory smiled at Pinkie. “Your ancestor was a royal court dancer from Saddle Arabia, one of the people in charge of making sure the royal family was suitably entertained. Of course, after saving the world, she was bumped up to chief of festivities in the capital of Saddle Arabia,” Ivory rubbed her chin. “I also believe she was the first person to come up with the idea of a popsicle.”

“Wait, Pinkie’s family came from that sandy place?” Applejack whistled. “Ah suppose maybe that’s why your family likes rocks so much.”

“She was always a joy to be around, if a touch eccentric,” Ivory recalled fondly. “But that was part of her charm, I suppose.”

“Are you all seriously buying this?” Twilight spoke up, looking irritated. “The odds of her knowing even one of our ancestors are slim already, but all of them? That’s just not possible.”

“Not plausible, certainly,” Ivory Wings nodded. “But it’s the truth. I knew all of your ancestors, with perhaps the exception of Sunset Shimmer. I believe that I was told you don’t come from this world, hence I couldn’t have met your predecessor. Not your blood-related one, in any case.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

“You inherited Emerald Edge’s gifts through Excalibur,” Ivory said. “By my standards, you are her descendant by proxy. I knew Emerald Edge when she was alive. In fact, I was probably the last person to see her alive.”

“Yes. I know this.” Sunset nodded slowly. “Psithyra. A changeling. That’s what she said. So that’s who you are.”

Ivory Wings leaned back in her seat and said nothing, but her eyes twinkled behind her glasses in a form of confirmation. Moonglade sat there, watching both her aunt and the Rainbooms, unsure of what would happen next now that names had been brought up.

“Even if what you’re saying is true,” Rarity said, having finally found her voice again. “What does this have to do with us?”

Ivory Wings turned to the fashionista. “Rarity. I believe I have crossed paths with your bloodline twice in my life. Yes… you smell very similar to that hunter from Trotsylvania. But to answer your question, this has everything to do with you; I want to tell you all about your ancestors, and hopefully, become your friend.”

“Our friend?” Sunset gawked. “You poisoned me!”

“And you tried to kill everyone else at the table with a giant fireball,” Ivory replied. “I’ve seen the videos.”

“I-” Sunset raised a finger, but then paused. “I had to earn it.”

“I’m aware,” Ivory Wings said seriously. “I wouldn’t normally do something like this, but Celestia seems to think I have it in me to make friends again. That makes one of us.”

“Celestia? Principal Celestia?” Sunset leaned closer.

“Oh. Yes. You wouldn’t have known, but a while back, I swapped places with Celestia to deal with some personal things. It was a relatively minor matter, in the grand scheme of things.”

Sunset squinted at Ivory, who poured herself a glass of lemonade. She knew Sunset was probing her with Eagle Vision, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. After all, she meant no harm to them.

“If you harmed a hair on her head-”

“She was well accommodated, that I can assure you. You can ask her if you want.” Ivory waved a hand in the air. “I’m sure she’ll tell you how good a host I was. I learnt a lot from her, you know? That’s why we’re sitting here today.”

Sunset frowned and stared hard at Ivory, but didn’t seem to be able to come up with anything to say. Rarity hesitantly raised her hand.

“If you knew all our ancestors, how come none of our stories ever mentioned you? If you were truly their friends, wouldn’t someone have made note of your presence?”

“Do you even have stories of your ancestors from medieval Canterlot?” Ivory waited for an answer.

"...No."

"I thought not," Ivory said with more than a hint of smugness. "Humans are so quick to forget things, especially events of importance."

“Hey!” Twilight protested. “We remember plenty of important things!”

“And yet nobody here has anything about their ancestry dating back to the medieval ages,” Moonglade smelled the smug aura around her aunt increase. “If I wasn’t here to tell you, you might have gone your whole lives not knowing how important your heritage is.”

“Well, that’s not-”

“Important?” Ivory cut Twilight off. “What a thing to say, Twilight Sparkle. Especially since your ancestor would have wanted you to remember her.”

Moonglade smiled at her aunt’s verbal prowess. It was nice to see her put these girls in their place.

“Human carelessness notwithstanding, I think that we could become fast friends indeed,” Ivory said happily. “If you’d like to see what your ancestors looked like, I can show you. I have a few mementos of them from the middle ages.”

“I’d like to see it,” Rainbow said. Then she looked at the others, who all had their eyes on her. “What?”

“Are you forgetting that this is the same person who almost killed me and brought the sirens back as an actual threat?” Sunset asked Rainbow. “How can you just go along with her like this?”

“For the record, I told Adagio and her sisters not to use their singing on people unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Ivory piped up. “That deserves a thank you, don’t you think?”

“And what constitutes as absolutely necessary?” Twilight frowned. “Your definition of that and ours might be very different.”

“It means that they won’t-” Ivory looked at the other end of the room. “Hello, big sister.”

Everyone turned to the doorway where the acclaimed black haired actress stood, clothed in a green dress.

“Good afternoon.” Ebony Wings’ eyes panned the room, inspecting each guest thoroughly, then stopped on her sister. “I apologize, I wasn’t informed we were having guests today. I would’ve dressed more formally.”

“E-E-E-E-Ebony Wings?” Rarity gasped. “I can scarcely believe it! Darling! Look!” She grabbed Fluttershy next to her and squealed. “Look, it’s Ebony Wings! In front of us!”

“That’s g-g-great, Rarity,” Fluttershy managed as Rarity shook her like a doll.

“Did you want something?” Ivory asked her sister. “We’re kind of busy here.”

“I’m just trying to figure out why I was not told about this.” Ebony walked around the table to stand next to her.

“I did tell you that I was inviting these girls around for a chat,” Ivory said patiently.

“Yes, but you didn’t say when,” Ebony sighed. “But I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it now.” She raised her head up and gave the Rainbooms one of her red carpet smiles. “Welcome to my humble home. If there is anything you require, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Rarity was now looking half like her birthday had come early and half constipated, holding her hands clasped under her chin with excitement. Rainbow Dash likewise was sporting a huge grin, which made her look a little bit manic. The rest of the table, minus Sunset Shimmer, was also staring at Ebony Wings as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

“You girls know what she’s done, right?” Sunset squinted at the actress. “She’s Chrysalis. In Equestria, she attempted to take over many kingdoms, even leading to the downfall of a lot of them. She’s not who you think she is.”

“Au contraire,” Ebony Wings said, placing a hand on her chest. “I have done nothing of the sort. I haven’t conquered any kingdoms, unless you count Applewood as a kingdom.” She swept her gaze over the entire group, warmly smiling at each person as if she knew them personally. “You know, something about you girls looks familiar, now that I’ve gotten a closer look at you. But what is it…?”

“Canterlot in the middle ages. You were the queen then, remember?” Ivory sighed, then said to the girls, “My sister was once the ruler of all the kingdom of Canterlot, in the final few decades of its existence. In fact, the castle once stood where this estate does today.”

"Why are you telling them all this?" Ebony asked with an edge to her voice.

Moonglade watched her mother’s body language cautiously. Ebony was a little stiff looking, but wasn't curling into attack position yet, which meant she was only a little bit miffed and not properly angry.

“Because I believe that any true friendship should start with a little bit of honesty,” Ivory purred. “Isn’t that right, Applejack?”

Applejack’s face turned red and she mumbled something.

“Well, I hope you enjoy your visit,” Ebony Wings said as she opened the door to the grounds and walked through. “I’ll go tell the cooks that we’ve guests for lunch, if you plan on staying that long. Toodles,” she then turned her head to her sister. “Oh, and Ivory? Try not to give away all our secrets. I know you want to be friends with them, but we have rules.”

“Yes, Ebony. I know.”

“Just so we’re clear,” Ebony said coolly before sweeping out of the house like an autumn wind.

Ivory sighed and turned back to the Rainbooms. “Don’t mind her. She doesn’t know you like I do, or she might have stayed longer.”

“She…” Rarity seemed to have trouble finding words. “She’s even more incredible in person than on the movie screen!”

“You do know she’s a horrible shapeshifting love-vampire, right?” Sunset deadpanned.

“We’re not horrible,” Moonglade mumbled.

“Oh? Then what word would you use to describe yourself?” Sunset asked accusingly.

“Actually, I’ve found that horribleness is all a matter of perspective,” Ivory Wings said casually with a smile. “Would you like to see your ancestors now?” Ivory chuckled. “I’m sorry, that sounded more threatening than I intended.”

“How are ya going to show us them…” Applejack eyed her suspiciously. “Because there ain’t now way ya can show ‘em to us unless we’re dead.”

“Funny thing, I actually have a picture of them upstairs, among other things. Why don’t I take you up there and you can have a look?”

“Oh, picture. Uh, sure. I guess that’s okay. Girls?” Sunset looked to her friends. Each of them had a moment of silence, then agreed. “Okay, lead the way then.”

“I thought you girls might say that.” Ivory smiled and pushed her chair back to stand up. “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, don’t you?”

“Don’t push your luck…” Applejack said.