Luna stared through slit pupiled eyes at the Thestral kneeling in front of her and considered just letting him leave again. It had long ago become a tradition that, when she met with the Thestral's dreamspeaker, she'd use their preconceptions to craft their meeting place, and while the empty walls of the obsidian cave had a certain spartan elegance, the obsidian throne was less than comfortable. But no, there'd been something on his mind the last few times they'd meet, and it was best to find out what it was.
Clearing her throat, she spoke gently. "Is there a problem I am unaware of High Pitch?"
"My Queen?"
"Something's been bothering you, and it did not begin tonight. What is it?"
The dreamspeaker looked down and shuffled his hooves awkwardly for a moment before speaking. "It's just, well," Pausing a moment, he took a deep breath and continued. "It's just that, the results of the family incentive program you had us institute a couple of years ago are starting to become worrying. With the new birthrate, it won't be long until we become unable to produce enough food for everypony."
Luna felt her eye's narrow. "Are the numbers you have been giving me inaccurate? It should be another year and a half before that becomes a problem."
"No, no," Luna barely restrained a wince at the near panic in the dreamspeaker's voice. "I'd never deceive my Queen! It just, what are we going to do when that time does come? Unlike the usurper's subjects, we can stretch things out a bit longer by actively hunting in the woods surrounding the Bracken Caverns, but I'm afraid I just don't see any way this policy is sustainable."
Luna smiled, letting just a hint of her pointed teeth show. "I know. But tell me, what do you think that rather large collection of gems that have been being infused with the caverns ambient magic for almost a millennium are for?"
High Pitch blinked, "I had always assumed you intended to draw power from them when you returned and confronted the usurper."
"No, my Sister," Luna practically spat the word, "has access to both more, and stronger, magical artifacts than I do, if they were what I was relying on I might as well have already lost. No, in nine months you are to hook them up to the rune matrices in all the greenhouses. With the increase to the speed at which the crops grow, and being able to use the greenhouses that have been empty since the Unicorns left, there should be no food shortages for at least a century. As I'll be free in less than twenty years, I doubt food shortages will end up being a problem at that point. One way or another."
The dreamspeaker sighed in relief. "Oh, I see. In that case…"
The rest of the dreamspeaker's words were lost to Luna as a new presence entered the dreaming and grabbed her attention. Of course, Ponies entered and left the dreaming all the time, and new presences appeared every time a newborn foal went to sleep for the first time, but there was something different about this one. No, not just different, it felt familiar too. She needed a little more time to truly grasp the feeling, but it was almost like. She barely restrained a snarl as the new presence's ripples faded into the background of the dreaming, she was going to have to find this new dreamer's dream before she could be sure about what she'd just felt, but if she was correct, well, some plans were going to have to change.
"I'm glad to hear that" Luna interrupted, "But I'm afraid we'll need to continue this next time, something just came up that I have to see to at once."
"Of course, my Queen." With his last word the dreamspeaker bowed his head and faded out of existence.
Holding the memory of how this new presence felt in her mind, Luna flew through the dreaming, willing it to bring her to its' newest resident. Unsurprisingly, the only thing that appeared solid in the dream bubble she'd ended up landing in front of was a small purple foal, who lay in the very center of the bubble. The rest of the dream was a mass of shifting colors and textures, shimmering and drifting around the foal. As she entered the dream, a quick thought changed the scene to that of a forest clearing with a stream running through it, and the moon shining bright overhead. The foal's head turned towards her as she approached, and as its mane shifted, she could see the bare nub of a horn.
As she settled down beside the foal and snuggled it in against her with a large black wing, a wide smile spread across her face. Now that she was within this dream, she could truly fell the magic that swirled around the foal. Two things stood out as she examined the power, the first was a potential, one she hadn't felt since the birth of a pink Pegasus over fifteen years before, and what had been a bare shadow of possibility in that Pegasus was a midnight black certainty in this unicorn. The second was achingly familiar, something she remembered one being a part of her own power.
Her mind was suddenly pulled away from her magical investigation as a faint tugging pain shot through her head. Looking down, she saw the foal had taken a mouthful of her starry mane and was chewing on it contemplatively. With a chuckle, Luna lowered her head slightly to rid herself of the tugging sensation, then simply stared at the happily masticating foal for a few moments, before altering the form of the dream again, so that a mobile now hung down from her horn. The foal giggled happily as the mobile slowly turned and brought one object after another into its view. First was a white Alicorn, wrapped in chains, second was the same Alicorn, curled up in a cage, third was the sun, with the head and neck of a unicorn emblazoned darkly upon it, and the fourth and final one was of a black Alicorn with a crown.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed the prologue. Chapter one is done and two is almost done, both will be released in the next few days. As always, I love comments and I hope you will tell me what you think.
“And with a burst of rainbow light, the three sisters brought an end to the Discordian Age.”
While many view the few surviving scraps of Sparkling Sapphire’s works as historically accurate, this excerpt from her ballad Forging the Rainbow seems to cast doubt on the validity of such and assumption. The basis for her supposed authority is widely held belief that she was once one of the Diarch’s students. However, if that had been the case, surely, she would have realized that Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna were one and the same mare. Of course, some may argue that, as there is no intact copy of Forging the Rainbow outside the one locked in the Everfree castle’s restricted section, that Celestia, Luna and Nightmare moon are not the three sisters being referred to. This, however, would simply lend credence to my argument that Sparkling Sapphire’s works can not be trusted, as there is amply confirmation that it was the royal sisters who brought an end to the Discordian Age.
A History of the Ages
Tick the Younger (B.AoS 2352)
“W is for Winnie, embedded in ice.” Luna singsonged as she hugged the foal against her with one foreleg and pointed to their progress on the Griffin made alphabet poster with the other. “X is for Xerxes, devoured by mice. Y is for Yorick, whose head was knocked in. And Z is for Zillah, who drank too much gin. As she finished, she simply held the foal and let her stare at the poster for a time.
In the year and a half since they had first met, she had not left Twilight Sparkle alone for a single night. As soon as she felt the foal’s consciousness passed into the dreaming Luna would appear beside her and keep her company until she awoke in the morning. On the night after their first meeting, she had cast a resonance spell on the foal and used it to find the dream bubbles of her family.
“Twilight Sparkle!”
When Luna had heard the name the foal’s mother had called out as she galloped to the replica Luna had formed in the mother’s dream, she’d chuckled softly, once again vowing to find the time to research the naming trances mothers went into immediately after birth. Twilight, the meeting of day and night, it was certainly appropriate for what she had in mind for the foal.
After that, her nights had been divided between those she spent playing with the foal and ones where she saw to the needs of the dreaming, and of her Thestrals. In the latter cases, she would levitate Twilight onto her back and keep wrapped her securely in her mane until they returned to the foal’s own dream. Half a year ago she had begun to spend nights on basic lessons as well. It had been a bit over a millennium since she’d last raised a foal of her own, and her memory of the proper age to start lessons was slightly hazy, but the joy twilight seemed to take in them had reassured her.
Luna enjoyed the gentle pressure of twilights little hooves wrapped around her neck as they flew through the dreaming. While she’d wrapped her mane tightly around her little star, the last thing she was going to do was tell the foal to stop hugging her. Usually she'd let instinct guide her flight in her nocturnal nightmare hunts, but tonight was different. The last three nights had led her to the same pony's dream bubble. In fact, the night before she'd had to sooth the poor foal’s dreams twice.
As she arrived in front of the sphere she was looking for, she winced, the surface already had the telltale ripples and eddies of a pony caught in a nightmare. Placing a hoof against the bubble, she let her consciousness drift inside.
Like the previous nights, she found herself in a cave network, watching a foal desperately running through a cavern. The foal, who couldn't be more than a couple of years older than Twilight, had Sweat soaking her black coat and blood ran down from a cut across her face, but what always drew Luna’s eyes was her broken stub of a horn. Jeers and mocking laughter echoed off the cave’s walls, only occasionally drowned out by a deep roar. Even if she hadn’t seen what was chasing the foal the other times she’d come, the roar of an Ursa Minor would have been immediately identifiable.
She knew what she should do, she should change the dream slowly, make the roaring and the laughter go away before slowly turning the caves into a sunny meadow, or something similar. That’s what she always did, though since this wasn’t the first time the foal had had the nightmare, she’d also act as the voice of its subconscious, speaking to her from thin air and trying to help. Until she’d returned to Equestria, it was dangerous to act more openly. After all, if word reached Celestia that she was free in the dreaming, it was quite possible her sister would try to somehow bind her here as well.
As another roar sounded the foals head turned, looking for the source, stark terror written across her face. Luna looked away, closing her eyes and preparing to make the changes to the dream, but she couldn’t help imagining a different scene, a scene where the foal was one with a lavender coat. Before she could stop herself, she strode into the dream, standing between the foal and the Ursa as the great bear came around a corner. With a quick effort of will, she reshaped the dream, banishing the bear, the laughter and the cave, replacing it with a meadow underneath a starry sky. The foals mouth fell open as she looked from the black alicorn standing in front of her to the changed scenery around her and back to the alicorn. Luna gave the foal a closed-lipped smile.
“Greetings little one. Tell me, what is your name?”
Luna lay sprawled out, her head resting on a pile of books as she watched Twilight through half-lidded eyes, a feeling of pride filling her as she listened.
“I do not like them hewe or thewe. I do not like them anywhere. I do not like gween beans and yams. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
As Twilight stretched her neck forward and turned the page with the tip of her horn, Luna’s eyes suddenly shot fully open as a few sparks shot from the end of twilights horn.
“Twilight, has that been happening while you’re awake?”
Twilight grinned proudly. “Oh yes, for a few days now. Mom said that I shouldn’t let it scawe me, that it just meant my magic was starting to bloom, and Shining told me that I should be pwoud, that blooming this early almost certainly meant that once my magic is fully developed, I will truly fowmi, fowm, vewy stwong.”
Luna grinned back. “He doesn’t know how right he is. I’ve lived a very long time and I’ve rarely seen anypony with half you’re potential. Now Twilight, I need to leave for a few minutes, but if you pick out a book or two and behave for the friend I’m going to bring back with me, I’ll read to you from one of the ones you picked before you have to wake up.”
Twilight looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, an utterly adorable look on the small face.
“Ok, but you have to read to me from two of the books I pick out.”
“Sure.” Luna turned away, then turned back as she began to let her body fade away. “But you do realize that means I’ll only be able to read half as long from either.”
Luna’s grin grew to Cheshire proportions as she watched twilights eyes go wide as she finished fading out of the dream bubble. As she flew through the dreaming, her grin faded, replaced by a pensive expression. Of course, she could simply combine her memories of a powerful mage with whatever echo of themselves they’d left in the dreaming. In fact, she intended to do just that at some point to create tutors for a number of the subjects Twilight would need know. But really, there was a better option for teaching her magic. One of her best friends had spent most of his nights, and some of his days, enchanting his dream bubble, preparing for the day he died. As a result, when the unicorn passed away, his spells had activated and enhanced his echo into a full-blown specter. As she reached the bubble she was looking for, she peeked inside, then began to laugh softly. Within, a unicorn was desperately beating at his smoldering beard as the contents of several shattered beakers and vials bubbled their way through a table.
“So, you’ve finally decided to burn off that ridicules beard of yours?”
Starswirl spun around as she entered his bubble and a wide grin spread across his face. “Of course not, it makes me look distinguished. You’re just jealous because yours didn’t look half as dashing as mine.”
“Of course, that must be what it is. Oh, and I still haven’t forgiven you for casting that spell on me in front of the entire Everfree assembly.”
“Of course you have. So,” He paused momentarily, looking her up and down, “By the way, should I be calling you Luna, or Nightmare Moon?”
Luna paused for a moment, then smiled. “Luna.”
“So, Luna, to what do I owe the honor of this royal visit? I thought we finally got those massive rune circles of yours figured out?”
“We did, which is quite fortunate considering how busy I’ve been these last three and a half years.”
Luna stared at him patiently, waiting for him to take the bait. It didn’t take long.
“Why, what could have been keeping you busy?”
“I’ve been raising a foal.”
Starswirl’s eyes widened, and he seemed to forget about the last few embers in his beard. “A what?”
“A foal, you know, those small cute things, often have trouble with their Ls and Rs. Happily, this one’s mastered the former. She’s actually why I’m here. Her magic’s just bloomed and I was hoping you’d be willing to teach her. Just the basics of how to control it for now, though if the two of you get along, I was hoping you might be willing to teach her more in the future.”
The bearded Unicorn took a few steps, until he was standing beside her, then nodded.
“Ok, lead the way. I’m curious to see what kind of foal managed to catch your interest.”
As she drew them out of his dream bubble and began to lead them back to Twilights, Starswirl shook his head. “Honestly, I’m glad to hear that you’re taking care of a foal again, no matter what she’s like. After how you reacted to what Ebony did, I was scared you’d never be willing to raise another.”
Luna blanched. “You Misunderstand!”
Pausing a moment, she continued in a far softer voice. “As much as I love My Little Star, I’m just mentoring her, not raising her as a daughter.”
“My Little Star?”
Luna turned to look at her friend for a moment, then turned away, unable to refute the commentary of his quirked brow. “Ok, maybe I am slightly fonder of her then is wise, considering my track record with foals. Still, at least she has another set of parents to teach her the lessons I am clearly incapable of teaching.”
Starswirl shook his head again, beard swishing from side to side. “And I still say you're being too harsh with both Ebony and yourself.”
Luna’s head snapped to the side, and she stared straight in the eyes. “Being too harsh? My daughter led a coup attempt, one that killed several thousand ponies, before failing. How is my disappointment in my parenting abilities harsh?”
“You raised a daughter who loved her mother, one who tried to save her from imprisonment in the moon. I hardly see that as a failure.”
Luna shook her head again. “I told her not to, told her if she tried, I would order my thestrals not to help her. Without their help, she didn’t even have even odds of success. How could she gamble so many lives like that when it was only a matter of time before I was free again.”
“Because she loved you. Because the ponies who followed her loved their lunar Diarch. And while time would have freed you in the end, Ebony was just a unicorn, if she simply waited, she’d never have seen you again.”
“Ok, maybe she had the best of intentions, but the fact remains, she was reckless and cost thousands of ponies their lives. I don’t-”
“If you want to talk about end results, look at Equestria.
“Luna paused, “What?”
“Look at Equestria. Compare it to how it was before your imprisonment began. It was the fear that the attempted coup created, and the refusal of everypony to look less than absolutely loyal to the crown that allowed your sister to gather the power she now wields. Without that power, she would never have been able to get most of the laws that changed Equestria so much past the old council of lords. Think of how many ponies used to starve in the streets every year, how many froze every winter. If you simply want to look at end results, not intentions, your daughter’s actions ended up saving all those ponies, those and so many others your sister’s laws keep safe, fed and educated. It’s not what she intended, but neither was her eventual failure.”
Luna blinked, then started walking again. “I don’t know. I think you’re skewing things to make me feel better. But then again, perhaps it is I who cannot see things straight. Either way, we are here.”
Luna turned to watch Starswirl as they walked towards the dream bubble, pausing in surprise when her old friend suddenly stopped, eye’s widening.
“Luna, what the buck?”
As her eyes widened at the harshness of the words, she turned to face the dream bubble. Once she’d confirmed that everything was how she’d left it, she turned back to face her companion and raised an eyebrow.
“You’re telling me you don’t see anything wrong inside that dream bubble?”
Luna looked at the dream again, scanning it quickly. Twilight lay in the middle of the room, a small pile of books sitting beside her, slowly turning the pages of a book, pausing to sound out a word every now and then. The walls of the oval room were made of bookshelves, while the sealing was a perfect reproduction of the night sky, down to the slow movement of the moon. Underneath the transparent floor, an army of ponies faced off against a force of minitours and griffons across a river, reenacting the battle of Buttercups Crossing. Looking back up, she paused for a moment to simply watch her little star work her way through the book in front of her, before looking back to the bearded unicorn beside her.
“Everything looks the same as when I left. Well, Twilight’s taken a few more books off the shelves, but I did promise to read to her if she behaved.”
“And what is going on under the floor?”
Luna snorted. “I know we were having more problems with the zebras in your day, but I’d think you’d be able to recognize the battle that turned the tides in the last great war against the minitours and the griffons. It was there that I stopped their invasion and was able to begin pushing them back.”
Looking back at the battle, she saw herself diving into the heart of the griffon formation, the heavily armored forms of her pretorians following her in. As the watched, three more companies dove, exploiting the chaos her attack was causing, the pegasi in the brightly colored uniforms of the Wonderbolts and the Stormdancers, a stark contrast to the solid gray uniformed thestrals of the Gray Wings.
“I wasn’t asking about the particular battle. I was asking why you were having a foal watch battle at all?”
When Luna eventually responded sorrow, tinged with an absolute determination had entered her voice. “Because I don’t want her to have to go through what Celestia and I went through. When the Age of Balance ended, and we were freed from our guided cages, we had no idea how to rule, of how to protect and guide those who followed us. Our inexperience cost lives, so very many lives. Not only is Twilight tied to the element of magic, but I can also feel the potential for ascension in her. In time, many will look to her to guide them, and when that time comes, she will be ready. I’ll do anything I need to so Twilight doesn’t end up carrying the same kind of guild Celestia and I do.”
Starswirl shook his head. “Luna, the times have changed. The Age of Strife is over. Equestria hasn’t been in a single war since the Celestial Age began. While I certainly agree that Twilight should be prepared to lead ponies if she’s going to end up ascending, I don’t think-”
“Yes Starswirl, the times have changed, but what both you and my sister are missing is that they are continuing to change. The minitours have appointed an Archon, and while he has been able to stop the invasion that came out of the storm lands, and has even started to push the yetis back, I’ve looked at his dreams, at his soul. There’s no way he intends to give up the absolute power that comes with the title of Archon and let the guild council get back to business as usual when the war ends. No, he will try to keep his power, and one of the easiest ways to do so would be to find a new enemy, preferably one that doesn’t actually pose too much of a threat and has a lot of very rich lands that would make a great addition to his Archonate.”
“Then there are the griffons. As the memories of the age of strife faded into myth and legend, they’ve begun to view ponies as spineless herbivores, little than the prey they hunt on their mountains. The diamond dog confederacy has long held their full attention, but it seems they have finally ended up with a border where neither side can effectively raid the other. While many of their most aggressive wings are currently fighting the Yetis in support of their minitour allies, when that war ends, it won’t be long before they too begin looking for a new enemy.”
“The diamond dog confederacy might not be unified enough to pose a threat to Equestria on its own, but if we end up in a war with the griffons or the minitours, they are quite likely to try and take some of the lands near their border. The only real blessing as far as threats go is that the zebras were never able to reform a nation after the night of the red moon.”
“There will soon be two new Alicorns living in Equestria. The elements of harmony are finding barriers. Nightmare Moon’s time of exile is reaching an end just as Equestria’s neighbors are growing restless, And the traitor in the north will not remain frozen forever. No, whatever is coming I’m certain the Celestial age is almost over, and I fear the next one will be far less peaceful. “
Starswirl turned to look at Twilight for a few seconds, compassion clear on his face. “Well then, let’s go and start preparing your Little Star for her destiny. If you’re right about the future, she’s going to need it.
Luna paused a moment more, looking at Twilight as her mind drifted back to the earlier conversation. Starswirl’s right, despite trying to just be your mentor, I have started to look at you as a daughter. I’m probably not the best mother you could have, and I’m unspeakably glad you have another mother and father who will raise you properly. But I promise, I will do better with you than I did with Ebony Lunamoon.
Author's Note
I am considering adding dates to the start of all scenes. If you have an opinion on that, or anything else you want to say about the chapter, I would love to hear from you.
Tia, I’m afraid the rumors were true, Coltlantis has been destroyed, utterly, not one of its shining towers still stands and the beautiful coral reef that surrounded it is dead. I’ve spent the last night using every spell I could think of to determine what happened. As far as I can tell, an entire army of minitour was given potions that let them breath and move underwater. They surrounded the entire city and, Tia, they killed everyren in it. Well, they tried to at least. It seems about half the royal guard launched a counterattack and cut a path for the crown princess and her two consorts, after which they seem to have held off the minitours long enough for those three to escape. Tia, I’ve searched and searched, but I haven’t been able to find a single survivor anywhere. As far as I can tell, there are now only three living sirens in the world.
I don’t know what inspired the minitours to do this, or why the zebras would give them the potions that let, but I intend to find out. It’s possible it was just the result of a misunderstanding over the nature of emotivors, but I fear some of father’s cultists may have been behind it, they were one of mother’s favored after all. While it’s possible that the Zebras were the driving force behind this atrocity, it seems unlikely. So, once I’m done here, I’m going to go to great axe and investigate the minitours. And Tia, please tell shade what happened, ask him to assemble a team and to join me at Great Axe. While I may not know who or what caused this yet, I swear by the moon and the stars, I will find out.
Love,
Luna
P.S. Be careful Tia, the more I look at this, the more I think Father’s cultists were behind it. And if they were, it’s possible this is only one part of a larger plan.
A letter from Princess Luna to Princess Celestia after the fall of Coltlantis
Princess Luna(B.AoB?)
Twilight stared at the unicorn who Luna had introduced her to just before she’d left to patrol the dreaming for nightmares. In the year and a half since Luna had introduced her to Starswirl, their nightly routine had changed. While their nights would still begin with a chat about what had happened to Twilight that day, followed by Luna telling her what she was going to be learning that night, at least half the time now Luna would go and fetch a tutor rather than teaching Twilight herself. Twilight would then work with whoever Luna brought her, while her night mother hunted nightmares. Later, usually about two-thirds of the way through the night, Luna would return. At that point, they’d read, play games or just talk until the dreaming started to fade and she woke up. She hated those moments when the dreaming started to fade, knowing she wouldn’t remember a thing about her dreams or her other mother until the next time she went to sleep. She’d always wrap her forelegs around one of Luna’s legs and held on tight until the last moment.
Now, looking at this night’s tutor, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Luna had said she’d be starting to learn self-defense from Shade, but she wasn’t sure what that actually meant. Would he be attacking her, lecturing her, or what? She was sure Luna wouldn’t leave her with somepony who would actually hurt her, but the idea of fighting still made her nervous.
“So, Luna told me your name, that you were once the captain of her Moonblades, and that you'd be teaching me self-defense, but that’s all.”
As Twilight paused, Shade simply nodded slightly.
“Well, I was wondering, what is a Moonblade? I’ve read about most of the ponies Luna brings to teach me in history books, they were masters of whatever field she’s teaching me about at the time, but I’ve never heard of you, or of a Moonblade.”
“That’s not surprising, Luna formed the Moonblades near the end of the Discordian age and they dissolved shortly after her banishment, along with all their records. Moonblades were, well, they were a group of highly trained ponies who were absolutely devoted to Luna. We removed problems for our Princess.”
Twilight thought for a moment. Removed problems, did he mean?
Twilight’s eye’s widened slightly. “You mean you killed Ponies for Luna?”
“Sometimes, but not usually. We were mostly used as an anti-monster force to remove anything that threatened the ponies under the royal sisters’ protection, we only rarely killed ponies.”
He paused for a moment, seemingly trying to gauge her reaction, then sighed and continued. “You have to understand; it was a different time. There was no end to the list of external threats we faced, we needed to be strong and unified, but some nobles were greedy fools. On three occasions, I killed nobles who planned to make war on their neighbor in order to increase the lands they ruled. Twice I killed those who would have sided with external enemies for promises of power. If their plans had gone unchecked, far more ponies would have died. Luna has always had to look out for ponykind as a whole, not merely the individual.”
Twilight stared at the pony in front of her. It made sense, it was logical, ensure that one or two guilty schemers died instead of hundreds, or even thousands on innocents. Still, the fact that the pony in front of her had just admitted to killing other ponies, without even a hint of remorse in his voice, made her shiver.
“Ok then.” Twilight started, hoping she’d been able to keep the quaver out of her voice. “Where will we be beginning tonight?”
Shade seemed to consider for a moment, then his horn lit and an empty-eyed and completely motionless pony appeared before them.
“To start, we are going to memorize the locations of a ponies vitals, the locations you have to protect at all costs, and the areas you can strike to disable or kill an attacker.”
Looking at the lifeless pony shade had conjured, Twilight took a deep breath. I can do this. Really, it’s just applied anatomy, and Luna started teaching me that a couple months ago. I can do this. I will be perfect, and Luna will be so proud.
“Please.”
Celestia looked at the Alicorn sitting on the other side of her tea table and suppressed a sigh. Her adopted niece was so young, too young to truly understand what she was asking for. Celestia let her eyes close for a moment as memories assaulted her. Despite the bizarre horrors that had filled it, if she was being honest with herself, Celestia would admit she’d preferred the Discordian Age to the Age of Strife. After all, almost all the horrors that had occurred then could be laid squarely at discords hooves. The atrocities in the Age of Strife had been different. She could still remember every detail of the small farming village near the griffon boarder that she and her sister had gone to visit, only to find it filled with the rotting, half-eaten bodies of several dozen mares, stallions, and foals. Still, in some ways, it was the horrors that her own little ponies had inflicted on each other that haunted her the most.
She hadn’t truly realized how much some of the things had affected her until her sister was gone, and the demons of her unconscious mind had been free to plague her dreams. Even now, almost a thousand years later, she rarely went a week without at least one nightmare about that time.
“How could you?” The accusing voices of so many of the ponies she’d been close to over the centuries, and of their families, echoed through her mind. “If you truly cared about us, why did you paint a target on our backs. You ruined our lives.”
Faces that matched the voices drifted past her closed eyes. Meadow dash’s innocently happy smile, tulip’s playful grin, Sparkling Sapphire’s ever-thoughtful stare, theirs and so many others. Faces of ponies who had been threatened or blackmailed to use the influence that being close to the Alicorn sisters brought or who had been harmed just because others knew that hurting them would hurt her or her sister. Along with those faces, there were others, bloated and distorted. She recognized those faces as well, ponies who had once been her friends, until they’d been overwhelmed by greed and had started trading on their closeness to her to gain money or power. She barely suppressed a bitter chuckle at the memories, the ironic thing had been that she would have gladly given almost any of those old friends the money or power they’d wanted if they’d simply asked her for it. of course-
“-tie. Auntie, is something wrong?”
Celestia shook her head and opened her eyes, shrugging off the memory of one of her recurring nightmares. A smile spread across her lips as she saw the concerned look on her niece’s face.
“My apologies Cadance. I was just remembering something.”
That, of course, was another point to consider. Her niece was the most loving mare she’d ever met, and spreading that love was what she did. Celestia had always known that Cadance had loved spending time with foals before her ascension, and hated her inability to do so anymore. This was the third time in as many months she’d come to ask about finding a way to spend at least some time with young or needy ponies. The first time she’d promised to think about it, the second she’d set things up for the young Alicorn to visit and talk to both of the orphanages in Canterlot. Unfortunately, it was clear Cadance wanted something more long term, and the thought scared Celestia.
She knew the Age of Strife was over, knew her little ponies were gentler and more civilized know, but that didn’t stop the fear. The last thing she wanted was for Cadance to have to go through what she and her sister had gone through back then. And even now, it was all too likely to happen if she did find a family who would let Cadance foal sit for them. If the family were noble, they would almost certainly either try to use the connection with a princess to their own advantage or be pressured by other nobles to use it for theirs. On the other hoof, if she chose a regular family, thigs could be even worse. Not only would the former concerns still be valid, the foal, or some other family member who would otherwise have gone unnoticed might end up being foalnapped in an attempt to coerce the young Princess. While she didn’t want to isolate her niece, the risks of someone getting hurt needed to be considered. She couldn’t just let, her thoughts trailed off as an idea occurred to her. Many of the same concerns applied to the ponies who made up Cadance’s personal guard, after all the disguise spells on the armor weren’t perfect, and they were some of the ponies closest to the Princess. She'd vetted those potential guards more toughly than any other ponies in over a century, if any group of ponies could be considered safe and reliable, it was those guards and their families. And if she was remembering correctly.
Her horn took on a golden glow as one of the filing cabinets at the corner of her office opened, and a folder floated to the table. Opening it, she quickly sorted through its contents until she found the set of papers she was looking for.
“Tell me Cadance, do you know lieutenant Shining Armor?”
Celestia’s eyes widened slightly, and she chuckled as she saw the faint blush that crept up around Cadance’s ears.
“My My, what’s this Cadance, do I need to tell a certain somepony that she has some competition for your affection?”
“Auntie!” Cadance had obviously picked up on the playfulness in Celestia’s tone as her outburst was merely affronted, rather than truly offended.
“I’ll admit he’s handsome and kind, I’ll even admit I sometimes enjoy watching him walk around in that armor of his, but no.” Cadance paused for a moment, and a gentle, loving smile spread across her face.
“No, she definitely doesn’t have any competition.”
“Good. But there’s a reason I brought him up. He, like two of your other guards, is from Canterlot. It says here that his mother’s a baroness and an author, and that not only is her father an astronomer, but he’s also one of the five who work at the royal observatory. While his mother might be a baroness, it’s a title without land, and apparently, the notes she takes when she’s at the Lords are as likely to be about plot details in her next book as about whatever’s being debated that day. Though, in fairness, she does apparently pay attention when anything truly important is being discussed. Politicly, she’s completely unaffiliated. The important thing, however, is that rather than living at the barracks with most of the other guards, Shining Armor still lives with these parents, apparently so as that he can help take care of a Younger sister.”
Celestia felt her smile grow as she saw the sudden look of hope on Cadance’s face.
“If you can convince Shining armor and his parents to agree, and if you agree to wear your Love Beat disguise both on the way to their house and anytime you go outside with the foal, then I see no reason you can’t foalsit,” Celestia paused for a moment to look down at her paper. “Twilight Sparkle.”
The sudden hug her niece gave her almost knocked her over.
Twilight trotted through the library, scanning the familiar shelves and trying desperately not to panic. The day had started so well, Tartarus, the entire week had been wonderful. Monday had been her seventh birthday, and for the first time in her life, she’d remembered her dream, one where she’d celebrated her birthday with Luna. With the memory had come others, memories of every dream she’d ever had. The oldest of the memories were hazy things, little more than feelings and safety, together with the impression of warm black wings and a starry mane, but those were only the oldest of them.
So many things that she had never understood when awake had suddenly made sense. The feeling that she already knew the things her family explained to her about unicorn magic, as well as most of the other things they tried to teach her. The joy she felt the nights Night Light took her with him to the observatory he worked at, as they walked through the night and looked at the moon and stars. And of course, what she’d felt during the summer sun celebrations.
The first time, a month after her fourth birthday, her family had joined the rest of the residents of Canterlot to watch Celestia raise the sun and usher in the summer in the center of capitals main square. Two years later they’d gone to Manehattan and watched as, silhouetted against the sea, the Princess had seemed to bring the sun out of the water. Both times everypony had been ecstatic, watching the sunrise in awe before cheering their hearts out for their princess, everypony but her that was. The moment she’d seen Celestia, as the princess flew into the air, she’d felt a wave of rage and terror wash over her and had quickly moved to hide behind her parents. Moments later the fear and rage would lessen as a feeling of safety washed over her, along with the almost palpable wave of Alicorn magic, but even that feeling of safety had felt somehow wrong.
Both times her parents had been confused by the whole thing, and when they’d asked her about it later, she’d been unable to explain it to them. All members of the nobility, even those who retained nothing more than their title like the Twilights, were entitled to request a personal audience with the princess up to once a year. After she’d reacted the same way the second time, her mother had even offered to introduce her to Celestia so she could see how kind a pony their princess was. She’d explained that many nobles used the privilege to introduce their children to the princess, and that Celestia always seemed to enjoy the time she spent with the foals. The very idea had left Twilight shaking in terror, and it had taken everything she’d had to talk her mother out of it.
Now, at last, she understood everything she’d felt. The fear that she would somehow let something slip and Celestia would figure out she was Luna’s student, that the princess would somehow use the knowledge to her advantage and would then succeed in keeping Luna locked away on the moon forever. The rage at the pony who was keeping the pony she had come to see as a second mother away from her, and the instinctive feeling of safety she’d felt when sensing the magic of an Alicorn, so very similar to the feeling of Luna’s magic. Now, with her memories fully restored, she’d found she knew so many things, from reading and mathematics far beyond what a filly her age would be expected to know, to self-defense spells and martial arts, some of which nopony outside the royal guard were supposed to know. Of course, all this knowledge did nothing but heighten her fear of the evening to come.
It had been during the walk to the library that her mother told her that she’d be spending the evening with a foalsitter. At first she hadn’t minded, she’d planned to just spend the evening reading, and maybe go to sleep early so she could spend more time with Luna, then her mother had told her exactly who would be foalsitting her. Since then she’d desperately been trying to hide her panic. Why is a princess coming to foalsit me? Does Celestia suspect something? Does she know? The questions plagued her, and she desperately wished one of her dream tutors had taught her a sleep spell that didn’t exclude the caster from its area of effect, as there was no way she was going to be able to fall asleep on her own.
Still, if there was one thing Luna had taught her, it was that she had to deal with a situation as it existed, rather than how she wished things were. That meant, in this case, no asking her night mother for advice until after she’d meet with Cadance. After some thought, she had decided it also meant that the last thing she should be doing was preparing for the meeting, the princess would probably be on the lookout for any unfoalish behaviors after all. Smiling slightly as she reached the bookshelf she had been making for, she lit her horn and pulled one of her favorite books from the top shelf. Yes, the thing to do is stop thinking about what’s going to happen this evening and relax. Walking to what she had long ago decided was the most comfortable couch in the library, she lay back and opened her book. Tartarus, if I get really lucky, I might get so relaxed I’ll doze off while reading, it’s happened before after all.
Cadance looked at the door in front of her and took a deep breath. Shining Armor had already told her a bit about his little sister. She felt a smile play across her lips at the memory of how her normally stalwart guard had ended up stuttering and blushing the one time he got so absorbed in telling her about Twilight, that he had accidentally referred to her as his L.S.B.F.F.. Forcing his to explain what the acronym stood for had left her smiling for an entire afternoon. Her guards truly were a pleasure to tease. Now, looking at the door, and with memories of how Shining had described his sister, she raised a wing and pressed it against the saddlebags she was wearing. Good, the secret weapon she’d brought along in case something went wrong was still nestled safely inside. Smiling broadly, she raised a hoof and knocked on the door.
Before her hoof had even returned to the ground, the door opened, and a kind-looking stallion opened his mouth, only to pause, a look of confusion spreading across his face as he saw who was standing in front of him.
“My name’s Love Beat, and unless I’ve got the wrong house, you must be Night Light. I’ve heard about Twilight from her brother, and I look forward to foalsitting her.”
The confused look vanished from the stallion’s face, and he smiled warmly. “Yes. Come in, come in.” As she accepted the invitation and entered the house, Night Light continued. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with Twilight, she’s generally a vary introverted foal, the only problem we’ve ever had with her was a rather alarming habit of climbing bookshelves to get to books she couldn’t reach, and even that’s stopped since she gained the magical control to levitate them down. Of course, all bets are off if you happen to have butterscotch cookies, or well, any kind of butterscotch with you. I swear, we can’t keep the stuff in the house, there’s not a ward she can’t crack if there’s even a drop of it on the other side.”
Cadance giggled as she dropped the illusion she’d been wearing on her flight through the city “My marefriends’ exactly the same, Celestia ended up having to put up wards in the castle kitchen just to keep the palace’s supply safe.”
Their laughter was interrupted when a mare in a dress hurried into the entryway, horn already lit, and started levitating the tuxedo-clad stallion towards the door, pausing only briefly to bow.
“I’m sorry to run out on you so quickly princess, but-”
“Don’t worry about it, lady Twilight, I quite understand. I hope you both have a wonderful evening.”
With nods and a few words of thanks, both ponies were soon out the door. Turning, she started to trot down the hall, in search of her charge. The search turned out to be a simple one as the first thing she saw when exiting the hall and entering the living room was an adorable purple filly, her muzzle buried in a book. Smile still wide on her face, she quietly removed her saddlebags and lowered them to the floor, then tiphoofed around the room until she was standing behind the filly, then she cleared her throat.
Cadance’s eyes widened at the filly’s reaction. She’d expected the book to fall to the floor, and maybe for a surprised Twilight to end up falling off the sofa she was lounging on. She certainly hadn’t expected the book in question to go flying across the room with enough force to nock a, thankfully empty, table over and with a crack in one of its legs, or for the filly’s head to shoot up, pure terror in her eyes as their gazes meet.
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry Twilight. I just meant to startle you a little, not scare you like that.”
As Twilight continued to look at her, wide-eyed, she rambled on. “I really am sorry. It’s just, my marefriend gets really engrossed in her books too, and it’s become something of a game for me to sneak up on her when I can.” Of course, when she did manage to sneak up on Sunset, she did more than simply clear her throat, but not only was the pony in front of her still a foal, she was also most emphatically not her marefriend.
“With you just sitting there like that, well-” She stopped speaking, sighing in relief when Twilight started to giggle.
“Don’t worry princess, you just startled me.” Then, as Twilight's eyes fell on the table, lying on its side and with one leg barely attached, a wheedling tone entered her voice. “Still, if you happen to know a spell that could fix that table before my parents get back?”
Cadance’s smile returned as she lit her horn, focusing on the table and watching as the broken leg fixed itself before the whole table levitated into the air, then settled back down onto its legs. Turning away from Twilight, she looked at her saddlebags. On her flight here she’s been planning out all the games the two of them could play, but now, after that moment when she’d thought she’d given the poor filly a heart attack, she changed her mind. Ok, we start with the secret weapon. If twilight gets board, well, that’s when we can try some of those games.
“Twilight, I’ve heard from your brother that you love to read.” Waiting until she received an affirming nod, she continued. “Well, on my way here I stopped to grab a book. It just came out a few days ago, but I’ve heard good things about it.”
By this time, Twilight was staring at her eagerly. “What’s it called? Who’s it by? Have I read anything else by them?”
Cadance giggled, Twilight really was like a more carefree version of Sunset. Or she thought sadly, her giggling quickly coming to an end, almost like Sunset was before Celestia started pushing her so hard. I know why aunties’ doing it, but can’t she see what it’s doing to sunset. Shaking her head, she forced herself to focus back on the filly in front of her, she could get back to worrying about her marefriend latter.
“I wouldn’t think so. The author, A. K. Yearling, hasn’t written anything before after all. As for the title, it called Daring Do and the quest for the sapphire stone.”
As twilight settled back down onto the couch, Cadance levitated the book out of her bag and opened it.
“As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle-”
Cadance closed her book, a considerably more lurid volume than the one she had spent the evening reading to Twilight, as she heard the front door open. Moments later Night Light and Twilight Velvet entered the room, both looking exhausted but with wide smiles still on their faces.
Quickly raising a wing to her lips, Cadance smiled at the pair. “I put Twilight to sleep a little over an hour ago, and she seems to be sleeping soundly.”
Both unicorns chuckled softly, and when Twilight replied, it was in an only slightly lowered voice. “Don’t worry, Twilight has always been a very sound sleeper. I trust she behaved herself.”
“Oh yes. We ended up spending most of the evening reading, though we did play a few games of hide and seek.” Cadance paused, giggling softly. “Before she’d let me put her to bed, she made me promise not to read any more of the I was reading to her until I came back to read it to her.”
A knowing smile played across Twilight’s face “And did you get her to make a similar promise to you?
Cadance felt her mouth drop open slightly. “Well no, but surely my promise implies-”
“Unless you got Twilight to explicitly agree to not read ahead either, then you’re going to half to come back soon if you don’t want her to have finished your book without you. Not that she wouldn’t still enjoy listening to you read it to her, but I’ve always found watching her reactions to plot twists quite enjoyable.”
“Well then,” Cadance replied, as she felt a grin spread across her face. “That just means I have to get back here soon.”
Storm Winds, Archon of the minitours, slowly wiped the blood from his axe as he looked at the corpses that lay scattered across the grand council chamber. Some of his most loyal troops were already carrying in yeti bodies, dropping them among the former guild council members even as the sound of screams and collapsing stone drifted into the room.
Really, this was probably for the best. To actually agree to a temporary cease-fire and welcome a delegation from the Stormlands just as summer arrived and it became warm enough for this year’s campaign to begin. So what if they’re willing to discuss peace, we’ve already retaken all the lands they stole, so there are no cities that could be freed by negotiation, and we finally have a foothold in the Stormlands. All I need is three more summers, five at the outside we’ll have all of the Stormlands, there’s nothing they can offer now that we won’t have then. They really were as foolish as they were weak.
His thoughts broke off as he looked down at the minitour who lay in front of him, the one who’s blood he’d just finished wiping off his axe. Well, as weak as most of them were. When the soldiers, who had been sitting in the up in the gallery, dressed as ordinary citizens there to watch their archon meet with the council, had pulled crossbows out from under their robes and begun to fire, there had been one councilor who didn’t run for the door or dive for the grand table, to lay whimpering underneath until soldiers came to drag them out. The chairman, Indomitable Will, had grabbed his ceremonial axe of office and charged the Archon. Despite the pair of crossbow bolts that had hit him, he’d managed to cross the chamber and cut down both of the Archons guards before Storm Winds had taken his head off with a blow from his own axe.
Looking away from the former chairmen’s body, he shook his head and made for the door. While the councilors had made things easy be all living in the same district as the council hall, an exclusive area on the edge of the city, walled off from the common rabble, he still needed to go and make sure everything went smoothly. Even before this meeting, he’d checked the pair of ships that lay beached a couple dozen miles from the city. It should be obvious to whoever found them that they had been the ships the Yeti’s had come on, and that they’d followed the much smaller vessel that had brought the Stormlands delegation. After all, it wasn’t like two of the Archon’s most trusted captains would have had any reason to sail a pair of ships filled with ice and minitour bodies all the way to Great axe, just to beach them a few miles away from the capital. No, it was far more likely they belonged to the raiders who had swarmed over the outer wall and into this district. The ones who had killed not just the guild council members, but also all of their families as they looted their lavish mansions.
Really, it was a tragedy, all those great families wiped out in a single treacherous act. Still, at least he’d be able to rally the forces he’d brought with him in time to make sure not one treacherous Yeti made it out alive. Once this was done, all he’d have to do was spread the story far and wide and not only would any talk of peace with the perfidious Stormlanders be silenced, the number of Minitours volunteering to join the army would skyrocket. With this, he had no doubt he’d have the manpower fully conquer the Stormlands. And then, well, once he’d consolidated his power, he’d have the time to look at gaining some lands, lands that weren’t eternally coated in snow.
