A Meeting at the Legion of Doom
Author's Note
Wow, it has been a while.
With the end-of-the-year~~decade!~~ business, as well as my... formal? book project, I haven't had much time to do this when it's been on my mind, but here I am!
Expect a solo Claire story soon enough!
In the meantime, enjoy this little chat between some friends around a series finale-spoiling location.
A Meeting at the Legion of Doom
Chrystalis, Cozy Glow and Tirek Statue, Canterlot
Claire was sitting in a small plaza around a statue that depicted three villains who were encased in stone over a decade ago.
"What is it with Equestria and encasing their most powerful foes in stone to be displayed?" She thought. After all, the last time that had been done, it was with Discord and he was released by three fillies arguing over it.
But either way, it was there and so far nothing had come of it. And perhaps nothing would for another thousand years or so. That's how long it took last time. and maybe the trend is good in the long run, as Discord was eventually reformed enough to win over Celestia.
But that was all just busying herself. She had come to the statue to relax in her free time. And since the 20-year anniversary of her mother and her friends was only a few weeks away, she opted to relax before all that happened and eventually become one of the more impactful events in her life. But of course, she didn't know what would happen that day.
But as she sat there, contemplating the possible outcomes of that statue, she saw two other ponies, who she didn't expect to see in Canterlot at this time, walking into the plaza.
"Annie? Amber? What brings you two to Canterlot?" She asked as the two mares walked towards her.
"Oh, hi Claire. Yeah, my mom is just visiting Canterlot for a few days because of some animal expo. So we decided to just walk around the city in the meantime," Annie explained.
"And since Fluttershy didn't want Annie to just wander around alone in the meantime, I was asked to come along," Amber explained.
"Oh yeah, I've heard about that expo recently. Is that tomorrow or is Fluttershy giving herself two days to catch up with Rarity?"
"I think it was supposed to be today, but something must have happened so yes, it's delayed until tomorrow," Annie explained as she sat down on the bench across from Claire.
"And I'm also going to assume that this meetup wasn't planned? Since I would assume that Fluttershy would tell my mom in advance if you two were visiting."
"Yeah, we didn't plan to do much else in Canterlot but the expo and maybe some other stuff on the other side of town. We didn't actually expect to have enough time to come over and actually visit you for more than a few minutes. And that's also the reason I met up with Amber, that wasn't planned either."
"Oh, so you live in Canterlot now, Amber?"
"Yep. I've been here for about two months now. I didn't even know they were coming up until the two of them knocked on my door last evening."
"So this was a surprise to all of us. Did anypony hear about you coming up, Annie?"
"Besides the pony selling us the tickets to the expo, I don't think my mom told anyone else," Annie explained.
"Ah, I see how it is. So Flutters planned to hide in the shadows from anypony she recognized?" Amber joked with a smirk.
Annie chuckled at the remark. "Well, maybe. I might have seen her packing ominous black robes so we aren't recognized darting between streetlamps."
Claire remarked, "Eventually I'm sure you two would have been caught by the castle guard and brought before above-average height Twilight Sparkle."
"I was going to remark how the castle guard wouldn't be in town... But I realized that the entire city is a castle."
"It's true. We're all secretly prisoners of the princess," Amber joked, "Even worse, we're stuck in here with these three!" She said comically while pointing at the statue in the center of the park.
"Yeah, I never can remember the story of those three. Why is there a literal child in there?"
"Long story short," Claire explained, "It was all Discord's fault."
"Now that's one I've heard a few times. Don't you know his kid, Claire?"
"Oh yeah. We've been friends ever since he deceived me for a few seconds in kindergarten."
"I'm surprised he went to kindergarten with everypony else."
"The princesses are nothing but surprises. Twilight is literally a princess because she had a lot of friends if I heard right," Amber recalled.
"Yep, that's pretty much what happened. Celestia said 'hey kid, I've known you for a while, you've got a lot of friends. Wanna be royalty?'"
"And that's just one of the crazy things I've heard about our parents getting up to back then," Annie noted. "Literally the day they all met, they went off and got Celestia and Luna back together by way of a rainbow laser. We were born too late to see rainbow lasers!"
"Oh yeah, I remember you telling me loads of stories about their adventures. Didn't they get trapped in a comic book once while trying to renovate the castle in the Everfree Forest?" Amber asked.
"Pretty much, yeah. Spike read some fine print and suddenly, bam! They've got superpowers and were fighting a crazy lady with long hair."
"Doesn't Spike still have that book?" Claire brought up. "I think I remember my mom saying something about it one of the times we visited Twilight."
"If he does, I'd reconsider."
"Au contraire," Amber objected, probably offending Rarity from all the way here with the pronunciation. "I'd keep the thing. Think about the possibilities! You could exile ponies there as a strange torture method. Nopony's ever died while sucked in a strange comic, so we can't be sure that they wouldn't just reset."
"If you wanna make it extra strange... And even a little unsettling, that also means you could just die in real life," Annie proposed.
"I'd be willing to take that bet."
"I wonder where you'd even get a comic like that..." Claire pondered. "We certainly have no shortage of strange and unexplored oddities around here."
"That is true. But all the cool stuff only happens every thousand years," Annie pointed out.
"Well, it's time to get on time travel then and have some adventures!"
"I mean, Starlight already sorta did it... Granted, it entirely screwed up Equestria and made about a billion different timelines," Amber recalled.
"All that tells me is that it needs some work. A little rewrite here, a few safety measures there, maybe an entire rewrite from the ground up. You know, little things."
"You have a point, I'll give you that," Annie... Gave.
Right after that, the Canterlot belltower rang six times.
"Six O' Clock? Already? How time flies," Amber remarked.
"Oh darn, I didn't think the hour would pass that quickly. I gotta go back to the place we're staying now. Claire, I'll see you in a few weeks my mom said?"
"Yep. For that anniversary thing they're doing."
"Great. And Amber, I suppose whenever one of us comes to the other's town?"
"Unless we both go somewhere else, of course."
"Alright. Well, it was great to see you two again. We'll have to arrange something soon, Amber. You've already been out of Ponyville for too long."
"I know. But that's how it goes. I'll see you soon."
