Canterlot Palace, Day 2
8:00AM
Dusk Light

“Alright, just remember what we told you.” One of the attendants said as she made a final pass on my hair. “For right now, just try to smile and wave a bit.”

“And don’t worry about questions right now, those can come later.” Another attendant pointed out. “Your focus needs to be on the Leader’s Summit.”

“Well you both certainly know how to preach to the choir.” I retorted.

That resulted in the first attendant smacking me upside the back of my head. “Listen here, do you realize the crash preparations that we’ve had to make? Don’t sass us! Right now you need to look the part of being a member of the Royal Family, not just another noble. Stick to the plan, and you’ll get through today fine.”

“Then what about the next week? The next month?” I countered. “You say appearances are everything, right? Well I hate to break it to you, but my military service is public record. And so is the incident with Winterfell. Believe me when I say there’s probably enough ponies in this city that already know what type of pony I am, and no amount of spit and polish is going to easily help them accept the fact that I’m royalty. And you’re also forgetting the public knowledge of my daughter’s existence. There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”

“Do you think none of us know that?” The second attendant pointed out. “Believe me when I say we were all given the briefing on who Dawn is and why she is the way she is. And given time the public will understand that. But until that epiphany comes in the collective consciousness of the ponies, we’re stuck dealing with the shock that comes with it.”

Suddenly an orange pony’s stepped into the room. “Alright, we’re ready to go out there.” Captain Sentry said, doing one last check to ensure his dress-grade armor was straight. “Everypony in here set?”

“Essentially.” The attendant seeing to my father said.

I took one glance around the room. Matching pearl white suits with gold trim decked myself and my father, and a dress and shawl accompanied my wife. But Dawn? She was a totally different case. A black and gold sleeveless long coat, with long gloves up her arms. She wore a necklace with the royal seal and a canary diamond set in its center. Beyond that, no crown. All that the jewelers had time to assemble was the necklace, but it would have to do. “Alright Flash, kick the door.” I said.

The Captain nodded and threw the doors to the suite. “Presenting Lord Meteor Shower, Duke of Canterlot, Prince Dusk Light of Canterlot, Lady Dart, and Princess Dawn!”

Before we could even file out of the suite into the long hallway, flash bulbs were already going off trying to catch every move. Dart hung back with Dawn, as had been planned, while I took my place at my father’s side for the long walk down the hall to the throne room.

“Prince Dusk, a word?” A reporter asked from the sidelines as we walked past. Glancing over at one of the attendants, it almost looked like the mare was going to murder the reporter. But I recognized the colt. Four years hadn’t changed him much, aside from a more kempt appearance.

I looked over at my father and motioned for him to keep moving. That must’ve really pissed the attendants off, because I felt a sharp jab to my spine as one passed me. “Headline, right?” I asked.

The pony nodded. “It’s not every day that a pony I report on makes a splash quite like this.” He observed.

“Admittedly I wasn’t planning on making one.” I said, gesturing at the packed hall. “Admittedly I don’t have time for many questions, so if you want to talk later, take this.” I said, fishing a card out of my jacket. “That’s basically a backstage pass. If the staff give you any trouble just show them that. If things calm down today I’d be happy to answer some questions.”

The colt’s eyes just went wide, as if he had been given the world. “I’ll take you up on that, but can I get a statement? With all of the events of the last twenty-four hours, what’s keeping you going right now?”

“Because Equestria needs something to look to.” I said without hesitation. “I get it, I’m probably the last pony that anypony would guess would be in this situation, but right now my own personal life needs to take a back seat. We’re at war, and to say there’s a lot of fear out there is probably an understatement. So if I can stand tall after what the last few years have thrown at me and my family, then maybe that’s a beacon of hope that all can look to.” I shook the reporter’s hand and started back down the hallway.

My father had caught onto what I was doing and immediately began shaking hands wherever he could to slow things down for as long as he could. Crossing the twenty feet to the head of the procession tool all but a few moments and we started moving again. “You enjoyed that.” He whispered.

“Was I not supposed to?” I whispered back.

A wry smile crossed my father’s face. “The royal attendants are going to want your head on a pike by dinner time.”

“Yeah, well they’ll just have to live with it.” I replied. As we walked into the main hall, it didn’t take long to note that all of the major foreign representatives had arrived. Dragons, Hippogriffs, Changelings, Kirin, Minotaurs, Yaks and Zebras were all present in the hall. “Looks like they all made it…”

“At least their representatives did, but the current Changeling leaders made a point of being here.” Dad said, pointing out Thorax and his brother, Pharynx. Most of the others were caught off guard by the Imperial offensive that they’re trying to ensure that their domestic defenses are prepared in case the Griffons go after them.”

“Then what’s different with the Changelings?” I asked.

“From what your mother told me, Pharynx views it as a matter of honor, while his brother believes that their defenses will be best served through seeing what they can do to offer assistance.”

“So Pharynx is pissed off because we got hit by a veritable sneak attack, and that’s a red letter in his book. And Thorax is basically playing the offense is the best defense card?” I observed.

“That’s about the size of it.” My father replied.

I nodded and noticed a blond mane making it’s way towards us through the crowd. “You think Blueblood had any trouble convincing anypony to show up?”

“Thanks to your daughter’s work, it wasn’t that difficult.” Blueblood said as he finally cleared through the crowd. “I just had to dangle the fact that De Witt was alive, and most came running because they want the rest.”

“Just most?” Dad asked.

“Apparently the Changelings long suspected De Witt’s survival based off of cursory information recovered from Chrysalis’ private files. But they never found anything but a passing mention, and their own attempts to ascertain his survival were fruitless until last night when I sent them the news. Then this morning when they arrived, Thorax handed Princess Sparkle a data crystal with all of the information that the Changeling’s own intelligence sources have gathered on his criminal organization, and the internal workings of the Imperial High Command. We’ve even got all of their battle plans and contingencies for the assault on Equestria, now that they’ve managed to authenticate the information based on what we’ve encountered on the ground so far.”

“They couldn’t have given us the information sooner?” I asked.

“They tried, but when our agents went to their hive to review the intelligence regarding the battle plans, we had significant issues corroborating it.” Blueblood explained. “Celestia told them to hold onto everything they gathered anyway before she stepped down, on the off chance that we could confirm the authenticity at a later date. It’s a good thing that they did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have much to work with.” At that moment though, Blueblood seemed to look past me, a look of confusion crossing his face. “What’s Dawn doing?”

I turned around and saw that she had taken to a bench by the door, leaned back against the wall and had closed her eyes. And the tips of her fingers were glowing ever so slightly. It took a few moments to navigate the crowd without raising attention to reach Dawn. “You OK kiddo?” I asked.

Dawn’s eyes immediately snapped open. “Something’s wrong.” She said.

Obviously this wasn’t something to joke about, Dawn looked rather concerned. “What is it?”

“Dark magic…” She whispered. “Since I woke up this morning I could just feel the barest of traces, just at the edge of what I can sense. It’s slowly been getting more noticeable, but I can’t place where it’s coming from.”

Flash was at my side with Blueblood, and they must’ve exchanged worried glances. “I’ll see about having a sweep of the palace done.” I heard Flash say.

“It’s not going to do you any good.” Dawn replied as she rose to her feet. “I’ve been trained to detect the presence of dark magic, frankly to a sensitivity that even your best detection magics wouldn’t even touch. And what I’m feeling now is still well below those thresholds.”

“So what do we do? We can’t just send everypony home.” Blueblood pointed out.

“I wouldn’t expect you to.” Said Dawn. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we’re being watched by ponies unknown.”

“Dark magic would rule out the press…” Flash observed. “Maybe something is down in the catacombs?”

But Dawn shook her head. “I doubt it. Those crystals don’t block dark magic for shit. At the very least we need to keep our eyes open. Keep some detector spells running anyway throughout the palace in case something spikes into their range of detection. At least that way we might get some sort of warning.”

As all of this was going on, some thoughts crossed my mind. Looking around the room, I saw Celestia, but didn’t make the midnight sky mane of her sister. “Where’s Luna?” I asked.

But the Captain shrugged. “Separate security tasking that she’s personally overseeing. I don’t have a clue who she’s using.”

I thought back long and hard for a few moments, but nothing came to mind of all the separate crises that had occurred since Luna’s return where she personally oversaw a separate anything. But knowing how Luna was a fan of the cloak and dagger, three ponies and a Griffon half-breed immediately sprang to mind. “Captain, give me your radio.”

Flash cocked an eyebrow, but disconnected the radio from the wire that ran under his armor and up to his helmet, and handed it to me. A quick local soundproofing bubble spell would make sure that no other pony would eavesdrop. “Strider, Blackout. Respond.” A soft static came back for a few seconds before I pressed in against the transmit button again. “Strider, respond.”

I almost expected the radio to remain silent, but a burst of static signaled that somepony heard the call. “Blackout, Tempest. Can you read?”

“Five by five Tempest.”

“Initiate emergency continency Nightfall. Repeat, Nightfall. Perimeter breeched through the catacombs by hostile entities. RS2 in hostile custody, remaining Polaris assets are unaccounted for.”

“Did he just say-”

Before Flash could finish processing what the group of us had heard, I killed the soundproof spell and whistled as loud as I could. “Nightfall response, now!” I screamed. Obviously the dignitaries had no clue what the code phrase meant, but every guard in the hall immediately began to clear the doors to the palace garden.

A flash of light blinded me for a moment before my mother stood towering over me. “What the hell are you-”

I ignored her and gave the radio back to the Captain of the Guard. “Clear the palace of civilians, and get the dignitaries off the mountain. Have all city-bound guards lock down the city, and get the catacomb entrances locked down.”

“What the hell is Nightfall?” Dawn asked.

“It means Luna has been taken captive by corrupted entities.” I explained. “Remind me to thank you later.” I said as I gave my daughter a quick peck on the cheek. “Now can somepony get me some weapons?!”

My mother was obviously confused, but one of the guards immediately stepped past, and handed me a silver pistol and a pouch of magazines from her belt. “What else do you need Your Highness?”

“Explosives.” I said. “We need to blow the floor and get down into the catacombs now.”

“I’ll get the emergency demo charges.” The mare said before she popped out of sight with a teleport.

Dawn grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face her. “So am I supposed to just sit around?”

“Hell no, you’re coming with me.” I said. “Could a Sombric Rune emit dark magic?”

“Yeah, but from what I’ve been feeling it must be depleted.” Dawn replied.

“Can you still track it?”

“If it’s this weak that I can’t place it… No, as we get closer I can probably pin it down.”

I just nodded. “You’re my compass then.”

“Can you hold on for one minute?!” My mother yelled, almost slipping into the famed ‘Canterlot voice’. “You can’t just go off half cocked like this!”

“No, I think it’s my damn right to go off half cocked exactly like this.” I retorted. “Just keep the ponies up here safe. We’ll worry about Luna.” Suddenly the female guard teleported back, a large satchel in her hands. I opened it and pulled out one of the four demolition charges. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.

Author's Note

Well, sorry about the delay. A colleague I work with came down with 'rona, and I've been pinch hitting to cover for them over the last week. In that I forgot to hit publish on this last chapter. My apologies!