The Night's Shining Armour

Chapters

2: Pony Town
3: Pony Capital
5: Soapy Troubles
6: Return Home
7: Pony Party
8: Forest Wandering
9: Night Court
10: Galloping Gala
11: Infiltration
12: Double Agent
13: Carriage Rides
14: Welcoming Committee
15: Cleaning the Mess
16: An Average Dinner
17: Experiments
19: Lost Dreams
20: Just Your Average Morning
21: Broken Garden Ornament
22: Distractions are the Worst
23: An empty dream
24: Paperwork
25: Minor Embarrassment
26: Disguise
27: Shopping
28: Weight Loss
29: Sleepover
30: Learning to Walk
31: Sun Themed Party
32: Court Interruptions
33: To the Border
35: Collecting the Sun
36: Dealing With Bull Headedness
37: A Sand Floor
38: Stuck in Goo
1: Awakening
4: Griffon Diplomacy
18: Learning to Fly
34: Border Issues

2: Pony Town

Chapter 2

Upon breaking through the treeline, a beautiful sight met my lack of eyes. Lying before me in the early morning sun was a town. A proper real, hopefully occupied town. No ruins like the castle I awoke within. Every home was in fact very well-kept with even the lawns being mowed and weeded. The only real issue was that there wasn’t anyone out and about. That does make sense, seeing as it’s so early. Well, that just gives me an opportunity to explore before I meet the locals. With that thought, I happily tapped my fore shoes together, before making my way into the quaint village.

As I walked through the town, its interesting architecture stood out to me. Many of the homes had been built with a very old-fashioned design, consisting of wooden walls and possibly even thatch roofs. Then there were the more modern homes consisting of bricks with tile roofs. Those seemed the most familiar to me. Then there were the complete outliers from the town’s rustic aesthetic, like one built in to a carousel and another that was carved into a tree.

Evidently, those last few houses were where the crazies probably lived, but that doesn’t matter. Being crazy people still means they are people, so I’ll get my friendly face on and introduce myself. Once they get out of bed anyways.

At that, a delightful sound met my earless helmet. A door to one of the particularly strange homes, the one made of sweets, swung open allowing its occupant to exit. I stood to attention, ready to great my hopefully first new acquaintance and then paused in surprise. What exited the building was not what I was expecting. A pink horse, around half my height, just casually bounced outwards while shouting behind it, “don’t worry Mr Cake, I’ll get some more flour.”

I was so surprised by the talking animal, that my attempt at greeting her faltered causing me to stand in place as she happily bounced past me, minding her own business. Really should have known this place had sapient horses just from the look of myself. As I finished my thought, the unmistakable sound of a car’s brakes screeching occurred behind me.

There was just enough time for me to turn around and have a look before my vision was filled with pink and a loud bubbly voice began. “Hey tall dark and scary, what ya doing? Are you looking for friends? Ooo look at all that smoke. How do you stay up? Are you hiding? Why are you so tall? Are you related to the Princesses? Do you like parties?” The horse then stood in front of me clearly resisting the urge to bounce in place excitedly.

During the entire exchange, I tried and failed to say hi and only really caught the first sentence. Not knowing what to say I just sort of stared at her for a minute, while trying to figure out how not to be rude. Probably not the best course of action. Anyway, the horse creature clearly started to become impatient with me, as she started to poke my shoe with a hoof. “Earth to smoky, there is somepony in there, right? Somepony new?” once she finished, she could no longer contain her excitement and started to bounce up and down in front of me.

Okay, I’ve got this. “Yes, small horse, I’m new… erm, hi.” There, that was pretty good right? Okay, what next? Maybe I should ask how her days going?

As I mused on what to say, the small horse’s pupils shrunk down to tiny pinpricks before her mouth opened wide allowing her to take a huge gulp of air. Is that normal? Once her gasp ended, she suddenly rocketed away from me down the road. Right, I probably freaked her out. Maybe it’s my voice? It doesn’t really sound like a horse’s, its got a bit too much reverb to it. That constant changing pitch probably didn’t sound too good either.

Well, she wasn’t freaked out until I spoke, so that was a learning experience. Let’s say that was a neutral encounter, the next ones will be better for it, possibly.

Once the small horse had escaped my presence, the sound of yet more activity met me from all directions. Seems these horses all wake up around the same time, as within moments the street started to fill with a variety of brightly coloured horses. Each one with there own colouring and unique glow. Some of them even possessed some more interesting traits like a horn or even a set of wings. It does seem to check out that magical horse land would have many different types of magical horses.

As I sat off to the side watching the creatures milling about, many who walked past casually glanced up at me before continuing on with their day. I would love to talk to some of these people, but, how weird is it to just have a random stranger stop you and say hi? Not to mention one that is almost double your height, lacking a face and sounds like a busted record.

There has to be some way to start a natural conversation. A little way down the path, I spied a few small horses setting up stalls on streets and starting to pedal various goods. Ah, that’s perfect, I can just act as a shopper myself. The perfect reason for a natural social interaction. Nothing can go wrong. Except for the lack of any money.

Once I left my perch, a few voices of the passing horses became apparent to me.

*Gasp*

“That statue just moved.”

“Who built that thing anyway?”

“Probably Twilight again.”

“Is that a pony?”

I tried my best not to pry into their conversations and set my eyes upon my target. A friendly looking crème coloured horse with red hair was manning a nice little flower stall. That’s probably the perfect target.

Upon reaching the stall, a few horses politely moved out of my way, so I didn’t even have to que. Right here goes. Putting on the friendliest voice possible I asked, “so, how much for a set of roses?” That still sounded wonky, it was way too high pitched for my liking. Next time I’ll try it a little lower.

The horse in question looked up to me with a bright smile and started to say, “that would be ten… bits.” Her pupils then shrank similarly to the first horse I met, which wasn’t the best sign.

Okay, try and be friendlier. Smiling isn’t really a possibility so let’s just… I don’t know, make eye contact, that’s respectful. “Ah, that might be a little pricy for me. Would you be up for providing me some directions? I’m, erm, new to the area.” That was a little better, probably a little deep at the end. To be honest my voice kind of sounds a little musical. Maybe, that’ll be a good thing.

Apparently, it wasn’t, as the mare decided the appropriate reaction was to scream at the top of her lungs. Not only that, but she immediately turned and ran, haphazardly knocking over her nice flour stall in the process. That’s a pretty bad way for a conversation to go to be honest. What made it worse was the sudden amount of staring I was receiving from the other present horses. Each stare going steadily from that of inquisitive, to terrified, before each of their owners reacted in the same way. Wow, this is probably the worst conversation anyone has ever had in the history of ever.

“Erm, it’s fine, I’m just a horse like you guys,” I said in a pointless attempt to calm the panicking herd animals. As was expected, my words fell on deaf ears as they continued to flee. “I’m really sorry, I’m not dangerous. Could I maybe try again?” They were probably to far away to even have a chance of hearing that last part.

Seeing them run away from me like that sure was disheartening. It really felt like they were running for their lives. It’d probably be best for me to leave this place, don’t wanna cause them any more trouble than I already have. Maybe there’ll be another town near by that will have a better reaction?

As I began walking towards what was hopefully the towns closest exit, a sudden gust of wind over my head displaced some of my mist. The cause of said gust, suddenly halted mid air right in the centre of my path. A blue winged horse with a rainbow mane. From the look on her face, I’m pretty sure she’s a bit cross.

Okay, attempt number two. Let’s not screw this up. “Hey small horse, erm, how’s it going?”

My words seemed to confuse the creature for a moment before it’s anger returned full force, “What’s the big idea scaring everypony like that?”

“It was kind of an accident.” What else could I have done? I was as polite as physically possible.

“An accident? Everypony is practically galloping for their lives! You must have done something,” the irritable horse said in reply.

Her words caused me to look down in shame, “I can see that, it’s pretty clear. My appearance doesn’t seem to agree with them.” Hey, this one doesn’t seem afraid. Maybe that’ll work in my favour?

The winged horse seemed to look me over for a second. Her eyes lingering upon the mist flowing around me. “A Nightmare wannabee’s looks would do that,” she said sternly.

“Nightmare?” Is she saying I’m a bad dream?

“Do you live under a rock or something?” the horse said, while idly flying side to side in front of me.

No, I’ve been living in a dark hole called the void for however long. Things may have occurred without me noticing. Rather than say all that, I simply said, “sort of.”

The rainbow horse was confused for a second, before appearing to roll up imaginary sleaves. “Welp, seems I’d better get you out of town until Twilight can figure out what to do.” Hmm, Twilight? That must be their leader.

“That’s fair, I was already leaving. Should I follow you?” I said happy that some progress may have been made.

Sadly for me, the horse didn’t seem to have paid attention to my final words as she had begun psyching herself up for something. “Okay, removing a tin can is nothing for Equestria’s fastest flyer. You look pretty light anyway.”

Looking down at my metallic form caused me to feel some doubt about that. Wait, is she going to try and pick me up? A sigh escaped me at the thought. At least it’ll show how safe I am. “Okay, I’m ready.”

What happened next was a bit too fast for my conscious thought. One moment I was looking up at the hovering horse. The next, I felt a hard collision with my chest piece and the horse was laying on the floor in front of me quietly groaning. It would seem metal chest plate beats soft horsy head.

“Erm, horse? Are you okay?” I awkwardly said, while standing over her prone form. Clearly, she wasn’t doing to great, seeing as she wasn’t moving very much. Okay, this is bad. Maybe one of the other horses can help her? They can’t have gone too far.

As I reached down to pick up the unconscious horse, a loud shout echoed from behind me. “Rainbow!” the shout was followed by incredibly rapid hoof beats.

Upon turning around, I saw an orange pony with a cowboy hat running towards me at a terrifying speed. Just before she reached me, I managed to get out, “this isn’t what it looks like.” The horse was sadly on a mission to save its distressed friend and chose to continue its plan.

Upon reaching me, it spun around so it’s rear was facing me, which is a pretty weird thing to do. Before I could say anything else, I found myself suddenly experiencing flight. Let’s just say flight as the result of being kicked by a terrified horse is not the best experience. Nor is the landing that occurred a few seconds later. I think my leg might have fallen off. Wish that winged horse managed to lift me.

As I laid out on the ground looking back at the horse who’d launched me, a third one appeared. A white unicorn no less with a purple mane and tail. She ran straight to the downed pegasus and started shaking her, “Rainbow Dash! What has that ruffian done to you? Please, say anything.”

Thankfully the Rainbow horse garbled back, “did anyone get the number of that carriage?” Seems she’s going to be okay.

As I started to stand up, the orange horse took position between me and the other two, quickly shouting, “get Rainbow to safety, I’ll hold this thing off.”

Behind her, I could see a bright blue aura surround the pegasus, before she floated into the air and was deposited carefully onto the unicorn’s back. That was a neat trick. That glowy stuff looks pretty interesting.

The unicorn then started to run down the street in the opposite direction to me, “I’ll be back with help.” Okay, more horses are going to be coming. That is either good or bad, let’s go with bad for now.

With the retreat of the unicorn, I was left alone with the orange horse. Said horse appeared to be getting ready to attack me from the way she was hunched forwards. Right, let’s just disarm this situation. “So, erm, is that blue horse going to be okay?”

In response, the cowboy scraped the floor with a hoof and narrowed her eyes. “No thanks to you ya varmint.”

Okay, this feels like a repeat of last time, except somethings off. Oh, that’s it. To my side lay one of my forelegs. That kick really was strong. With nothing better to do I used my other fore shoe to pick it up. This caused my assailant to wince in apparent sympathy. Hmm, maybe this can get us talking. “Don’t worry, you didn’t hurt me.” To prove my statement, I then returned my leg to its rightful place. “See?”

That seemed to mollify the horse slightly as she returned to her aggressive stance. Simply staring at me, waiting for something to happen. Is she waiting for me to attack her? Suppose she thinks I attacked her friend. At least she isn’t charging in. That’s better than last time.

“Sooo, little horse, what’s your name?” well, let’s take this opportunity to get to know each other.

The horse just blinked for a second at that and said, “Did you just call me… a horse?!”

Have I said something wrong? “Erm, yeah?”

That earned me a slight eye narrow but at least gained me a name. “The names Applejack. What’s yours?” Oh whoops.

I took the opportunity to take a few steps towards the horse as we spoke. “It’s nice to meet you Applejack. Erm funny story, I would tell you mine, but, I can’t actually remember it.”

“Take off the helmet,” the apple horse suddenly said, causing me to stop my approach just a couple of metres away.

“W-why?”

“I don’t trust a pony who can’t say his name while looking me in the eye,” Applejack said plainly.

That’s fair enough. If a stranger won’t tell you their name it’s pretty suspect. That’s a shame. Well, maybe being honest will get me through this situation. “Okay, I’ll lift the helmet. Please don’t freak out.”

“Why, would I…” the horse began before being interrupted by my helmet raise. “What in tarnation!?” She then started to look a little nervously at my hollow insides with her mouth threatening to fall open. “You’re no pony.”

“I guess not.” It’s pretty obvious considering my leg fell off. I used her stupefied state to allow me to close the remainder of the distance, while letting my helmet return to its rightful spot. Standing beside her, I was almost double her height, allowing me to tower over her. This is probably pretty intimidating to the little creature. “Still, it doesn’t mean I’m a threat to a little horse like you.” She could just kick me again.

“Could ya’ll quit calling me a horse, it just ain’t neighbourly,” the small horse said in exasperation, while looking up at me, still ready to pounce.

What’s wrong with that? “Aren’t you… one though?” she has four hooves, a mane and well… other horse traits. What’s the best way to describe a horse?

A hoof went to the not horses face before she sighed in irritation, “no I ain’t. We’re ponies, got that?” That’s a small horse, right?

I decided to look at her a little closer causing her to take half a step back. Pretty sure that’s just a small horse. Rather than arguing with the pony I simply said, “okay then,” before sitting down to wait for whatever was going to happen. That at least got the Apple pony to relax her stance a little. Small victories.

As the time ticked on, Applejack periodically stopped her watching of me to look behind her. Clearly hoping for a swift arrival of her reinforcements. Her unease was clearly increasing. In an attempt to reduce it I said, “just so you know, that flying pony hurt herself. She can tell you when she wakes up.”

The response I gained was a curt, “uhuh.” Not sure if she believes what I said or not, but at least she isn’t calling me a liar.

The seconds of waiting turned into minutes and I became increasingly aware of ponies looking out of their windows in fear. “Erm, Apple, how long till your friends get here?”

“They will be here,” was the slightly defensive reply.

These constant fearful looks are really starting to get to me. Maybe we should wait for the others outside of town? At least then the ponies won’t feel the need to hide. With that thought I stood up and started to continue my earlier trip out of town.

Sadly, my walk didn’t take me very far. One moment I was walking, the next I had an incredible weight on my back pinning me to the ground. “Where do ya think ya’ll are going?” came my new restraint. It would seem the Apple pony had taken a dislike to my attempt to walk away, causing her to literally leap into action straight onto my back.

“I was just going to the edge of town. I don’t want those ponies to be afraid.” Really should have said something before moving. Maybe she’ll walk with me.

Rather than choose to let me up, Applejack decided to remain seated upon my back, holding my fore shoes to the ground. “Be patient, Twilight will be here soon, ya hear? Then we’ll sort this mess out.”

“Fine.” Well, laying here is only a little bit uncomfortable and I tried my best not to scare anyone. With my new position underneath the pony, I noticed something interesting about her. She had an orange glow in her chest similar to that of those wooden wolves. It kind of made me, a little, I don’t know, hungry?

With nothing better to do, I used some of my mist to investigate the glow. Upon touching it, a noticeable shiver shot down my riders back, but apart from that nothing else occurred. She just kept waiting for her friends. As I kept investigating the glow, I started to feel slightly less hungry.

“Something don’t feel quite right.” Came some slightly weak words from Apple, before she suddenly collapsed on top of me. That immediately caused me to stop whatever I was doing to her. The glow had diminished quite considerably from it’s original brightness, but was at least still present. Oh no, this is bad.

With nothing better to do, I rolled the pony off of me and stood up to investigate. She was thankfully still breathing and her dim light had started to steadily increase in intensity. Hopefully that means nothing permanent occurred. The worst part about this one, is that it was my fault entirely, she didn’t bash her head into my chest like someone else.

Well, this looks really bad for when the cavalry arrives. Should I run away? That could make it worse. Maybe I can wake her up. With that, I started to gently shake the small pony. “Come on Apple, work with me.”

“APPLEJACK!” came the sound of a brand-new voice from behind me. Almost immediately after, a small object hit me lightly on my back. Okay, let’s try for the third time. Upon turning around, there was the same white unicorn from before with two newcomers. One nervously shaking pegasus off to the side and in the middle was a purple one with a tastily glowing horn. “Step away from Applejack, we can still handle this peacefully.” The purple newcomer said.

Peacefully, I like the sound of that. In the interest of said peace, I immediately moved away from the collapsed pony. “Now I know how this looks, but she just, erm, fainted.”

“We’ll figure out what went on when the Princesses get here. For now, your better off asleep.” Asleep? I’ve been asleep forever. Not sure I can just do that on a whim. A moment later, a purple light shot from the pony’s horn and collided with my helmet. Huh, that must have been what hit me before.

Seeing me still stood up didn’t sit to well with the three ponies, especially the middle one who started to bite her lip. Well, enough is enough. I know how to get through to them. With that I began walking towards the group, who seemed to slightly panic. “Hey, stop, I won’t let you harm our town.” She then quietly said something to the other two ponies prompting them to run in different directions. She then resumed shouting at me with the occasional light show, but became confused at my next action. “I’m warning you; Princess Celestia is on her way and if you don’t surrender, you’ll be sorry?”

The last part was said as a question due, to my sudden falling over and laying on the ground. She didn’t move and kept her horn alight until I said, “I surrender.”

“Excuse me?” she stuttered in slight disbelief.

“I said I surrender,” do quadrupedal animals roll over if they surrender? I’m sure I’ve heard of dogs doing something like that. And so, the big scary metal smoke monster that I am, rolled onto its back and stuck its legs in the air. “See? Purple, I surrender.”

“Okay?” the unicorn said in a slightly confused tone before immediately regretting it and saying, “I mean, remain where you are until the guards arrive.”

“That’s fair enough.” As I finished my sentence, a purple dome formed around me. When I poked it with a shoe, I found it to resist my passage like some sort of barrier. With nothing left to do I again attempted to start that long awaited conversation. “So, Purple, how’s your day been? Mine has been relatively interesting.”

“It was okay until a few minutes ago. Could you just be quiet until the Princesses get here? I need to concentrate,” she said with a strained look on her face. She then quickly added, “please,” at the end.

“Okay purple, I was just hoping to pass the time and maybe fix some of the damage,” I murmured from my glowing prison. Behind me I could hear the sound of galloping hooves and upon looking, the sight of the two other ponies attending to Apple met me. They must have planned to distract me in order to rescue their friend. That would have been a good plan if they were dealing with some mindless monster.

Right, time for my best showing of remorse. “Hey Rarity, sorry about earlier.” Maybe remembering her name will score me brownie points?

Her horn was currently glowing and somehow interacting with the prone pony. My words seemed to distract her from whatever healing or scanning ability she was trying to use. “Why did you have to be such a brute? You didn’t have to hurt anypony.”

“I know, but to be clear I never did anything to the first pony, she crashed into me. I wish you lot would stop blaming me for that.” This is really getting old. Can’t believe this started because I just wanted to meet some people to talk with.

“I believe you,” came a quiet sound from the other pegasus. She was the exact opposite of the previous boisterous one. She’s so quiet I’m not even sure anyone heard what she said.

“Well, we only have your word on that. So you’ll have to stay in there for now.” Clearly, the purple pony hadn’t heard her but she was much further away. “Spike’s already sent a letter to the Princesses before we got here, so they’ll be here soon.”

Hope that Spike is a fast mail man. Wait a second, when they say Princesses, do they really mean royalty? Can’t believe this has gone so bad that the ruler’s kids have to be sent out. Well, hopefully once I’ve been arrested, I can plead my case more effectively. “Okay, I’m going to promise right now I won’t try and escape.”

A whisper seemed to echo on the wind towards me in a familiar jovial tone. “You should Pinkie promise, ooo spooky.”

“Pinkie promise?” I said while looking around for the energetic pony from earlier. None of the other ponies seemed to notice. Well, okay then. “Hey, I’ll even Pinkie promise.” That got everyone’s attention, maybe they’ll think it’s funny? “Okay so erm, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I won’t try to harm anyone here, or escape unless someone means to harm me. Is that acceptable, maybe?”

As I spoke and looked between the various ponies, each had a different reaction. Rarity looked a little disturbed, the yellow one was hiding behind her mane and the purple one just had a slightly strained smile. Huh, probably just weirded them out a bit more.

Oh well, nothing better to do but wait for the leadership. During the wait, Apple’s glow returned to its full vibrance accompanying her thankful return to consciousness. I also continued to try and make small talk. Now the small talk was a little bit one sided on my part, but actually talking to real people was still making my day, it probably made my past few centuries. The void is pretty lonely.

Even if they barely talked back, I still managed to get through a few topics. Like how the weather was nice today, how the yellow pony’s mane was pretty and how their town had an interesting design. Hopefully my ramblings made me seem a little less like a scary monster and more like a lost idiot.

Eventually, after a lot of silent unsure staring aimed in my direction. A large carriage arrived, pulled by four armoured white pegasi. Out of the carriage emerged two big horses from the skies. When I say horses this time, I mean horses as the bigger white one of the two almost matched my height, while the other blue one was just a head shorter. Both of them possessed determined facial expressions ready to face the incalculable evil of me.

“Fear not dearest subjects, thy Princesses are here to aid thee!” bellowed the navy blue… pegacorn, “this monster shall be dealt with post haste.

With that declaration, she started to take hoof steps towards my prone position, before turning to the purple pony. “Twilight, thy shield is most impressive, managing to capture and contain such a mighty beast such as this cannot have been an easy task!” Wow, she sure has a set of lungs on her.

Just behind the blue pegacorn, the white one was beaming with pride. “Come now sister, you know my personal student and her fellow Element bearers have handled far greater threats than this,” she said while gesturing to me with a hoof, “but still, a congratulations is in order for the lack of collateral damage.” She then patted the increasingly embarrassed purple unicorn on the back with a wing.

“Ol Twi sure came through in the end,” chimed in the recently lucid Apple mare, “but I say if she hadn’t put up that shield, I’d of managed to hog tie that varmint. When I regained my breath anyways.” Well, that’s a clear misinterpretation of events. Applejack was unconscious in the first five minutes. Hope they don’t realize it was my fault.

“Actually, I didn’t defeat it,” Twilight replied while looking over to me, “it just, kinda surrendered after I found my magic didn’t affect it. Then it rolled onto its back for some reason.” Ah, ponies don’t roll over to surrender, it did seem to do the trick though. Maybe I should roll back over?

That seemed to intrigue the bigger pegacorn, causing her to approach the barrier with a raised eyebrow. “Did it now? For what reason I wonder?” she said while looking through the barrier into where my eyes should be.

Right, attempt number four I think or five? I’ve lost count. “To show I mean no harm?” I then made an attempt to smile, which due my lack of a face ended in failure. My vocalization did have an interesting result causing the white pegacorn to blink at me in surprise.

The blue one had a slightly stronger reaction. “Twilight, thy message never stated this creature was sapient.” That pegacorn really loves her ye olde English. “This makes it even more dangerous than We first thought.” That isn’t the reaction I want to hear.

“Sister, did you not hear its words? This being has surrendered. Maybe a misunderstanding has occurred?” Thank goodness for the pegacorns. Hopefully this gets the ball rolling on my freedom.

“Celestia,” came the shocked reply. “Regardless of whether or not it meant it, harm has come to our dear subjects and this creature must be taken to account for its actions.” Ah, dammit, why did I have to try and eat Applejack?

“I agree Luna, we shall take this creature back to Canterlot to get a full account of what has occurred here,” Celestia said before turning to me with a serene smile, “I shall, in the name of friendship, hold an optimistic outlook for the result.”

This seemed like my que to stop sticking my legs in the air, so I steadily rolled over before standing giving my best attempt to bow at my saviour. This was met with limited success. Note to self, keep at least three shoes on the ground at all times. “Thank you for the chance to prove myself your majesty.” That’s hopefully the right way to talk to them. Maybe I won’t be beheaded after all? Saying that, removing my helmet before didn’t seem to affect me.

With that, Twilight nervously dropped her shield, while her friends all gathered together. Likely to defend themselves if I was bluffing. Those ponies really don’t trust me. Ah well, if I can win over the royals, it’ll all work out. With a bright golden glow, Celestia opened the door to her carriage and requested I climb aboard.

Author's Note

I kinda forgot about Pinkie's party planning.

Rewritten 04/08/22 : This chapter was starting to annoy me so its earned itself a rewrite. It gained a whole 2000 words, so hopefully there is some improvement. Shame Pinkie still never got to throw that party. :)

3: Pony Capital

Chapter 3

So, today has been eventful, got to give it that. One moment you’re running from horrible wolf monsters in a dark forest. The next, you’re the monster terrorising tiny ponies. Life really is all swings and roundabouts. Now another turn has met me, as I’m now onboard a carriage. Not just any carriage I might add, but one pulled by four white, armoured pegasi that’s flying through the air. There was even two fellow passengers to enjoy the flight with me. Luna, the angry pegacorn and Celestia, the reasonable one.

It probably would have been more enjoyable had I not been trapped behind a permanent golden shield. As well as the fact that my two companions seemed determined to converse without me. “Celestia, what should be done with such a creature? It is my belief it should be sent to Tartarus for its crimes,” Luna declared, while eyeing me suspiciously.

Is that like Greek hell?

The older sister then looked to her companion, “nay sister, We must be more diplomatic in our approach. Sometimes efforts must be made to understand beings different from ourselves.” She is pretty reasonable. “By the way, how are your friendship lessons going Lulu? Think of this as a potential test.” Now that is a pretty weird thing to have to learn, like something you’d teach a child or something.

“They go, slow…We struggle to understand the ponies of this modern age, but We shall endeavour to gain their trust as thou hast, We promise.” Poor grumpy Luna seems to be having issues to.

Looking around the carriage, there isn’t much else to see. Everything is tinted gold by the shield, but I’m also fairly certain this things frame is made of gold. Now that’s flashy and certainly means these guys can waste some money where it isn’t needed. I mean apart from that, the carriage is fairly bare bones. No roof, no sides and as a result no windows which means if I wasn’t within this shield, I might be slightly terrified of falling overboard. Aside from that, the view is amazing. If you ever get the opportunity to fly by Pegasus carriage with my safety shield, I highly recommend it.

As the flight seems to be taking a while, might as well do something interesting like find out what that barrier is made of. It kinda reminds me a little of those bolts the little purple unicorn was firing my way. Wonder if all of these creatures have similar abilities? Those wolves certainly had some sort of power within keeping them together. It was actually pretty tasty. Wonder if this shield tastes similar?

As soon as I let my misty form touch the barrier both the mares turned to look at me. One with a look of anger, “What dost thou think thou art doing?”

The other with a look of surprise and then intense concentration, “It’s weakening my barrier. It's taking almost everything to hold it together.”

Wow I might actually be hurting her, better stop my poking. “Oh, sorry just was wondering what this gold barrier was all about,” I apologised before attempting to look as non-threatening as possible, Which I’m starting to realize is really difficult having no real way of conveying emotions other than waving my legs around. “It’s pretty tasty.”

At that the white mare stares at me before the shield winks out of existence. The blue pegacorn then piped up, “Sister, dost thou think it wise to release this individual just after a potential attack?” I said I was sorry what more does she want?

“I do Lulu. The shield is clearly just a token gesture at this point if this being can consume it at will,” she then turned to me, “you must promise to behave or you will be restrained by physical means.”

“As you wish your majesty, and I must say that city upon the mountainside ahead looks most impressive,” at my comment both the pegacorns turned around to view their home which as I said is very impressive. It clearly disobeys some sort of law of physics, as all that weight balanced on nothing can’t be possible. It also seems like such a terrible strategic choice. Set some bombs in the right place and bye bye city. Anyways the achievement of such structures, not to mention that massive castle is just amazing.

“Ah yes, fiend it has taken our ponies many centuries to build such a wonderous place, thou shalt feel honoured to visit,” the blue furball of pride commented. It became quite obvious at this point we were heading straight for the castles gate house, where what appeared to be at least twenty armoured and armed ponies were waiting. “Now then We have arrived. Please disembark in an orderly fashion with no attempts at escape. Thou would not enjoy the end result.” She said with a stern grin.

I suppose that’s my que to disembark. As soon as I stepped off the carriage, and expertly made landfall, every guard took up what can only be assumed to be a pony battle position where they poised to charge at me. Many of them were also pointing spears in my direction. “Hi guys,” I said while getting to my hooves and beginning to wave. It seemed like the best way to clear the newly formed tension.

“Relax my ponies the current situation is well in hoof,” the sunny pony said while she expertly disembarked without face planting. Before she began walking towards the open gates.

I then heard a slight giggle as the smaller pegacorn followed in her wake. “Thou art not the most agile of beings.”

“I’m just not really used to this whole existing thing.”

“What does thou mean?” she said curiously.

At this point the older pony turned to us, “come on you two. This discussion seems more deserving of the throne room.”

I couldn’t help but act out a gulp. I’m going to be potentially meeting their king or queen soon, perhaps even both. Well, wish I’d thought of something to say, rather than just staring mindlessly out of the carriage. At least the view was nice.

I just had to ask some questions, “so is the queen nice?” Maybe then I can come up with some idea of what to say to prevent my potential execution or more likely imprisonment.

The Moon princess then gave me a strange look, as we walked through some big doors to a massive open room, “hast thou no knowledge of our lands?” Wonder how that was so obvious?

“Well, who knows what a countries ruler is truly like until they’ve met them?”

That seemed to strike a cord with the pony as she seemed to turn away with a slight melancholic look, “Thou art correct. It is difficult for us to express ourselves to our subjects,” she then visibly brightened before looking at me, “however our nation possesses no King or Queen, just two Princesses who rule with the utmost kindness.” Before she took a seat next to her sister upon a large chair I had failed to notice earlier.

“Oh erm… that means this countries rulers are nice?” don’t I feel foolish.

Celestia then politely stated, “Yes young one,” before gaining a more serious tone, “now we are in a more official setting, we can appropriately deal with this situation.”

“Indeed sister", Luna began before turning towards me, "thou can start with where dost thou hail from? Thine origins are clearly not Equestrian.”

Straight to the point eh? “That’s quite a difficult question for me to answer your majesty.”

That gave me some confused looks. “Just try and explain it in a manner that makes as much sense as possible.”

Well here goes, “so, I think it was last night, I woke up in a ruined castle in some spooky woods after time in what I can only assume is the void.” That promptly got me to put a hoof to my chin in thought. “I then tried to flee the woods towards whatever civilization I could find in hope of help.” Guilt started to well up at the next part, “when I came across that pony town, I was so happy to see real people I just tried to greet them but I suppose I might be a bit intimidating.” At this I gestures to my smoky self and both princesses nodded. “The ponies immediately reacted with fear and fled while some attacked me. Regrettably some of the ones who attacked harmed themselves in the process, really sorry about that by the way, please believe me.” From the looks on their faces they just might. “Finally, I decided to surrender to this purple pony I think was called Twilight, before you arrived and you know the rest.”

“That tale does make sense armoured one,” Celestia commented with a hoof on her chin, “However going back to the start of this story, when you arrived in the castle. How did you get there?”

The moon pony also chimed in, “yes and what was meant by thy time spent within the void? Such a place is unknown to us.”

Now this is getting really tricky to think about. I don’t even know what the void really is, it was just black, hmm. “Well princesses before awakening in that castle, I spent a very long time within an unknown place I’m calling the void. It was just a place of eternal blackness containing absolutely nothing but, I suppose me I was there, but not as erm, material.”

“So, pray tell how long did thou spend in this void?” Luna cautiously questioned.

“Don’t really know your majesty. Kind of lost count after a few centuries alone.” Wow really should see a therapist or something. People probably get messed up after that kinda stuff. Oh well.

At that the moon pony’s ears flattened to her head in what I can only assume was a gesture of empathy, “We are sorry to hear that. We too have experienced a similar upheaval in the past.” Huh that was unexpected. Maybe we can share a therapist?

Celestia brought the conversation back on track, “so are you aware of how you escaped this void and if you weren’t material how did you end up with this metallic form?”

Hmm escaped not really sure that’s how it went. “One moment I was in the void the next I was staring up at the most beautiful sight of just things and colours around me. Could even see the moon, which dare I say made the whole experience that much better.” Thought that would get Lunas ears perking. “As for my current form, I think I made it somehow instinctually.”

Celestia then cocked her head slightly in interest, “do you care to demonstrate this method?”

“Oh, sister it’s obvious where twilight gets it from,” Luna commented.

Huh it seems Twilight might be related to these two. Anyway, how to demonstrate? I did change my form to look like a fuller pony back in that castle. Hmmm. Looking at Celestia, she is pretty much the same size as me, wonder if I can mimic her?

So, while staring intently at the solar diarch, which may or may not of made her a bit uncomfortable, my form began to change. I started by focusing upon the legs, which had to be slightly extend while at the same time making them much more slender. I then tried my hoof at mimicking the princesses hoof shoes which were much smaller than my current ones and much fancier. The main body was fairly easy to imitate as it was just that little bit slimmer than what I currently possessed. Her chest piece was the only part of the torso I had trouble with as it had some fancy engraving that I’m pretty sure were impossible to copy. Her crown was then copied and applied directly to the top of my head that had now took on a smaller frame. Fairly certain I look pretty feminine right now. For the final touch, wing guards needed to be added, which I never possessed before resulting in metal skeleton wings with a misty membrane. Wow that’s quite a tiring process. Well, what goes for tiring for me anyways.

Once my changes were complete, I just had to give the wings a couple of test flaps and found they indeed displaced a large quantity of air. In my haste to do this I failed to notice the solar mare had approached me to within almost an inch, so I tried my best to simultaneously bow and back off resulting in a quick comment. “Wait, that transformation was most impressive,” she then looked between her chest piece and me before smiling, “But I must say black isn’t really my colour.”

Huh is that a challenge I hear from the Princess? Changing my forms dimensions was pretty easy why not colour? So, with an extreme amount of focus I found my black plated body changing to one of apparent gold. This is amazing, no longer do I have to look like some sort of evil demon to these ponies. Well, if I can find a way to hide the black mist the rest of me is made of.

Luna chimed in, “this is a most impressive display, but be careful sister she may still have ulterior motives.” She seems to warming up to me so excellent progress. Wait, did she say she?

“Don’t worry sister, in the name of friendship we must remove our prejudices, and the easiest way to remove them is to learn about that which we do not know.” She then began lighting her horn which spread a golden field around me that kinda reminded me of the shield. It tasted pretty similar anyway. Almost as soon as the field started it stopped which was a shame because I was really starting to enjoy it. “It appears your form is incredibly magic resistant”.

Wow she seems really tired all of a sudden. I then confirmed, “When Twilight attacked me, her magic did seem to have little effect.” It’s probably more I eat the magic more than resist it, but that’s just splitting hairs.

Celestia then raised one of her forehooves towards me and requested, “May I?”

Pretty sure she wants to touch me, which if I remember rightly ended pretty badly for one cowboy hat wearing mare. “You may, but I just want you to know that the last pony to touch me fainted, I’ll try my best not to harm you.” I hesitantly reminded.

“I will be careful.”

she then began sliding her hoof along the outside of my chest piece and then moving it along my wing. “That kind of tickles.” At that she smiled and walked a full circle around me. I’ve never felt so naked before even though I’m technically fully clothed. She then eyed the smoke coming from between my wing membrane and decided for some reason to push her hoof through it. Let me tell you that having something push through your personnel space like that is extremely weird, especially when you had to resist consuming the golden light emanating from them. “Okay, now that is a really weird experience,” I stated in a slightly strained voice.

Celestia quickly removed her hoof, “I’m sorry, just trying to complete an examination. I didn’t mean to cause any discomfort.”

“It didn’t hurt it was just…different.” I tried to reassure, “you can continue if that’s what you need to do.” Pretty sure these ponies throw their own safety out the window when it comes to these things.

“Oh good,” the solar princess said with a relieved sigh, “I would hate to cause undue harm.”

After watching from the side-lines Luna made an observation, “So thou art a being constructed entirely out of metal and thou art completely immaterial upon the inside. Art thou truly a suit of sentient armour?” I could only shrug my brand new and most favourite new wings in admission of my ignorance.

Celestia seemed to get an idea and began removing her right fore shoe. I don’t like where that’s going. Neither did Luna apparently, “May We ask what thou art doing sister?”

“It’s quite simple my dear Luna,” she said as she stepped next to me with one shoeless leg, “I wish to test the theory with your permission of course…erm what did you say your name was again?” Oh, dear a name now that’s probably something high on everybody’s list to have.

“I didn’t, it’s been so long since anyone’s called me anything, I suppose my names just faded away.” That is pretty disappointing. My comment seemed to earn me a pang of sympathy from both mares. “Anyway, you can give it a try, but only for a second. The idea of something being inside my leg just... doesn’t seem right.” While suppressing a shudder I held out my right foreleg to the sun princess, before slightly retracting the metal leg braces, “Be gentle.”

Celestia quickly took hold of my presented limb and easily pulled it away from my main body before inspecting it. There was a special slit down the back of it which allowed her to push her limb inside. Now having another person leg inside yours is a strange experience. Especially when they start taking steps around the room, causing the rest of your body to be dragged behind them.

“Hmm Luna this armour is quite interesting,” Celestia said talking as if I wasn’t there again, “it fits incredibly well.” To Luna’s amusement, Celestia continued walking around the room with me stumbling about behind her. “There’s something else as well, like maybe some energy transfer from the armour to me.” I do feel like something’s draining. Celestia then cast a magic barrier in the centre of the room that was A mix between dark blue and gold. “Most interesting it appears to act as a magical battery, sister could you attempt to break my barrier?”

“Wo wo easy now,” what happens if I run out of energy?

“With pleasure dear sister.” At that Luna retrieved a gosh darn halberd from behind her throne and began charging at the barrier. I can’t watch. While trying to cover my face Celestia ended up with her own leg jammed over her eyes causing her to lose balance and hit the deck.

What followed can only be described as what happens when you put a fork in a blender as the younger pegacorn began screaming her loudest while battering Celestias shield. I could definitely feel a drain now. Not wanting to empty my tank I calmly asked, “STOP! YOUR DRAINING ME DRY!”

That got both pegacorns attentions including the older sister who was trying to pull her hoof away from her face.

“Sorry my friend, we just wanted to establish thous limits and see if we could overcome them.” Ouch.

“Indeed, we are and dare I say it, they are quite extreme. My sister’s halberd is magickly enchanted to assist in the breaking of shields like the one I just created.” She then smiled at me, “could you please remove my hoof from my face?”

Woops, at that I put Celestia hoof on the ground again, “Okay, you’ve had your fun, can I have my shoe back please?”

“Of course,” Celestia then went about removing my shoe which immediately magnetted back to its appropriate location, “It looks like we shall have to call this meeting here as my sister and I have another engagement to attend. Sister would you be so kind as to escort our guest here to their room, before meeting us at the carriages?”

“Of course, Celly,” she then turned to me, “Thou must follow me to thy accommodation.” With that we bid Celestia farewell and I followed Luna to my new room, which hopefully wasn't a prison cell. She was walking like a mare on a mission clearly in a hurry. “Could you wait up? I’m not good at the whole moving thing.”

Sadly the blue mare was in to much of a hurry to care for my plight, “Apologies, but thou must hurry if we are to be ready for our departure.”

We kept going at the same pace until we were about to walk past a room with a very fancy moon styled door.

“One moment let us come into this room first.” I just blindly followed her. It doesn’t matter to me where we go, as long as its somewhere interesting, which this room was with all of its night themed furniture. Clearly somebody loves the moon a bit too much.

“Now we are alone, We have a request for thou.” Oh, this’ll be good. “We wish for thou to do the same for us as thou did for my sister.”

“Make an armoured copy? I can do that,” This time was a lot less effort as the only real change was the length of the legs and armour colour. “Ta da,” I tried my best to do a little flourish with my new proportions. Luna even gave me a slight applause.

“Now for the second part of the request,” okay, where could this be going? “We wish to try thou the same way as my sister but in full, We shalt not let her hold this over us.” Well, this seems rather childish.

“Look your majesty,” I said while Luna kicked off her shoes and threw her regalia onto her bed. “Celestia said you were in a hurry and I can’t be the cause of your lateness. Why not get a guard to show me the rest of the way? and maybe I’ll let you later…maybe.”

“Thou art arguing with thy Princess?" The Luna began in a surprised tone, before becoming more jovial, "besides, it only took thou a moment to adorn our sister, this will take no longer.” She then started to stalk towards me with a smile. I'm not her subject, so technically she isn't my Princess.

For goodness’ sake, why is this happening again within 10minutes of the last time. “Fine but only for a second.”

At my admitting defeat, the moon pony uncharacteristically clapped her hooves together, before excitedly saying, "Wonderful." She then waited for me to prepare myself.

Once I was ready, Luna attempted to pull me over with her magic horn, which just felt kinda tingly. After some mild frustration, she walked up to me and began carefully pulling on my helmet. As it turns out, I'm quite difficult to pull apart when not in the mood. Knowing this situation was inevitable, I focused on releasing my hold. This had the unfortunate by product of my form collapsing to the floor in a pile. Well, that’s a new experience.

“Are you alright armoured one?” Luna questioned, while picking up my helmet in an attempt to look me in the eyes. At least she cared a little bit.

“Yes, yes just get it over with,” The sooner this was over, the sooner I could climb into bed. Existing is so exhausting.

“Ah, thou hast acquired the appropriate spirit,” she said with a wink, “thou will see, we are just as powerful as our sister." Whatever Luna.

With no more words, she slid my helmet easily over her head letting her horn poke out the top and began collecting my other parts. Being how the armour was designed to perfectly fit her form, she found the entire process incredibly easy. Well, apart from the wing armour. To be fair it didn’t seem like any of the pegasus guards had any, so it may be an alien concept.

Once I was fully donned, I was again presented with the strange phenomenon of my limbs moving on their own accord, except this time it was my entire body. Quickly finding my head moving to inspect myself.

“Oh my,” Luna quickly walked us to a mirror before admiring herself further pulling what I imagine are various combat poses. She’s making me feel a bit silly here, “Now, dost thou not think we look rather fetching together?” Looking at her armoured form surrounded by my misty self.

“You look very nice Luna,” to be honest the feeling of being worn was pretty nice, as I could feel my energy reserves beginning to gradually refill again. The feeling of a fluffy animal is also quite agreeable. I should get a dog. That would surely let me pet it, right? “Can you take me off now?”

To my surprise, Luna said, “wait, We wish to show our sister,” before heading back for the door. I couldn’t have this, making a princess late to an important meeting? No way. That's going to look bad on my record. With that in mind, I tried to hold her in place. “Thy joints are impeding our movement. Perhaps thou requires maintenance?” Luna surmised, while easily over powering my attempt to halt her progress.

“Look, I think it's best you take me off. Otherwise you're going to be late.” With each slow step the pegacorn took towards the door, I put more strength into trying to stop her, until eventually something gave and all resistance from her seemed to stop. “Ha, I knew you’d see it my way,” I said triumphantly, as I walked us back to the mirror, “you can take me off now…Luna?” Looking into the mirror Luna's eyes were staring straight forward and her face was wearing a gradually falling smile.

Oh this is bad, Luna doesn’t seem to be home. Looking in the mirror, there wasn’t any mist circling us like last time and when I removed the helmet, it quickly changed back into mist before floating into Luna's ears.

“Oh no, Oh no,” this was when I noticed I was speaking in Luna’s voice. Okay, stay calm just gotta cover for this until you can figure out what’s wrong. Okay, I’ll just look like Luna’s regalia so no one notices and then steadily figure out how to escape before anyone notices, brilliant. Not like Luna could come looking for revenge or anything, right?

As soon as I made my change Celestia burst into the room, “Luna are you ready yet?”

“Erm... yes. Actually, no wait. Could we put that meeting on hold? Don’t think I can make it today," I said, trying to get Luna out of this important meeting.

“Nonsense sister. Come along, the griffins are itching to meet you,” Celestia said with a laugh, before dragging me out of the room.

Author's Note

Whoops published this before it was ready. Oh well.

5: Soapy Troubles

Chapter 5

Sleeping is a very similar experience for everyone. You’d think so anyway. For me when sleep finally came, it was a return to a place I thought I'd escaped earlier that day, but alas surrounded once again by the dark void. I hate to admit it but this place has really started to terrify me.

Just one day in the real world that’s just not fair. Well, if you can call it the real world, with its magical talking animals. Was the world just a dream and this my true reality? Still if it was just a dream, I preferred it over this nothingness. Non-existence might have been comfortable after I’d gotten used to it but now, I wanted more of well anything.

After what could have been another hundred years of staring into the void I managed to calm down and take stock of the situation. This place was pretty similar to my past home but with a key difference that filled me with hope. There was another familiar presence in this place close by. It was only a small light in the dark but anything would do. With the sight of my hope in the distance I floated my immaterial form through the black towards salvation.

This salvation turned out to be a very out of place object in the nothingness. A door floating in the emptiness. What A strange object to find in my little abyss, but it would serve as my companion for a while if it was the only thing here. Out of curiosity of my inanimate friend, I decided to open said door that led to nowhere.

What resulted was a surprise, as on the other side of this door lay a room. Not just any but a very familiar one with way too many moon themed items. An interesting find to be sure, but not as interesting as the little moon pony sitting in the rooms centre, watching images upon a mirror. She appeared to be enjoying some popcorn, while watching the events of the day.

“Nay armoured one not the Griffonian breakfast!” She said while throwing popcorn at the screen.

What was wrong with the breakfast? “Luna?” I questioned before rushing over to her for a maybe hug. This place won’t be as lonely with her around. As she turned around to see me a smile graced her face before she faded away. Well, that was disheartening. At least now I felt more at peace as Luna’s presence hadn’t completely faded away. In fact, it felt closer than ever. Light even seemed to be breaking through the room's windows straight towards me, trying to get me to act. Wow really don’t like being pressured into doing things.

This is when I realized. Man, I’m pretty tired let’s just stay here in the dark room a few more minutes. It’s safe here. I’m always safe in the dark. How could I forget? After a few more moments, a prodding sensation was felt upon my forehead. Go away will you. Trying to swipe at nothing in an empty room. What else is here?

The prodding continued and I continued trying to shake it away, until the sense of something material met me. Fine annoying jabbing thing have it your way. Moving towards this feeling returned me to that alien place called existence.

I could once again feel my full body and it felt good. You have to learn to appreciate the little things when you’ve been in the void as long as me. The strange thing about what I felt upon returning to the material realm, was the complete lack of the comfortable bedding I had lied down in. Another weird thing was that I was already standing. As well as that I wasn’t stood on all fours but on 3 while one of my own hooves jabbed me repeatedly in the face.

“Will thou awaken already,” a familiar irritable voice said, “Thou art worse than a foal on attending their first lecture.”

Staring straight at me through a mirror, was one slightly dishevelled pegacorn who was repeatedly poking her tiara. Upon seeing this sight she suddenly gained a glad expression before saying, “Luna your awake?” Well, I should say I said it using Luna’s mouth, woops.

“Yes, mine friend it is thou who would not awaken,” she said while ceasing to prod me and then gaining her own smirk, “Thou hast had an interesting day, dost thou not agree?”

Got to admit that’s got me feeling a little guilty, but hey it was Luna’s fault. “Sorry about yesterday your highness,” I said using my own voice this time, “I tried my best to free you.” Well here comes the punishment.

Luna walked us over to a chair before pouring a drink for herself, “Ah no need to fret my friend, We are not going to scold thee,” This got me to look back at the mirror. “Nay, far from it. We are going to congratulate thee.” Before she took a drink of orange juice. That tastes pretty good.

What? Clearly some wires have been crossed here, “erm, what?”

She put down her drink before continuing, “Thine actions were all honourable and to the benefit of Equestria. Not to mention your heroics at the dinner table. Thou deserves a medal of honour that will be awarded by yours truly.”

That’ll blow my cover! “But Celestia will find out,” I couldn’t help but start to pace around the room a bit at that.

“Calm thy mind, Celestia has always been the calm and collected one of us.” She said as I walked back to the mirror. “she will accept thine act of valour for what it was and will reward thou in kind.” She then cleared her throat, “could thou refrain from jerking thine head so much? Thou art making us dizzy.”

“Sorry about that but could you please keep this to yourself,” I said before letting out the big guns, “Friends keep secrets for each other don’t they?”

“Thou consider us a friend?” she questioned before doing a happy hop, “Huzzah! We told Celestia We were ready for friendship.” When she calmed down, she continued, “okay my friend we will keep thy secret.”

“Erm, one more thing.”

“Anything my friend.”

“Can you take me off now, please?”

At that Luna grew hesitant, “thou seems happy enough, why bother?”

“Well, I just don’t want what happened before to happen again.”

“Dost thou believe that the same mistake will be repeated?”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Then We shalt trust thou. Anyway, thou only sent us to the dream realm, it was a triviality to escape once We were oriented,” Luna assured me.

“Princess, I think it would be best for us to separate, someone of your importance can’t have someone like me affecting them.” I Reasoned; it really doesn’t make sense for her to want to wear me any longer. You’d think being possessed would be quite a distressing ordeal.

“For starters call us Luna, and secondly We have a counter proposal for thou,” this is gonna involve me staying in place isn’t it. “We are new to this land and thus require an advisor of sorts to aid in matters such as this. We believe that thou would make an excellent advisor.”

“Luna, I don’t have any qualifications in anything. You’re asking a creature that knows nothing at all about this world to help you.” This is absurd why would she want my help?

“Thy qualifications are irrelevant,” She then stood all high and mighty with her hoof on her chest, “We are a Princess lest thou forget, and can award them to thou at our leisure.”

“I still want you to remove me,” Some times you just have to put your hoof down, “It doesn’t mean we aren’t friends if you aren’t wearing me.”

“That is true my friend,” Luna said solemnly before saying in a small voice, “We have no spare regalia to wear for the remainder of the day without thou.” She then with a sad smile looked into the mirror, “Please don’t make us go to our diplomatic function underdressed.” Damn those puppy dog eyes.

I just had to relent, “Fine, but drink some more orange juice first,” to which she obliged, “ah that hit the spot. I think you also need a shower.”

“Dost thou believe that our smell is unpleasant?” Luna offendedly said while giving me a stare down.

She is a little sweaty not to mention still has some egg yolk on her chin. “Everyone needs a shower to wake up.”

“Thou art correct,” she said while sniffing under her wing before heading to the ensuite bathroom.

“Wait a second, aren’t you forgetting something?” I said while stopping her opening the door.

“What dost thou mean?” she asked quizzically.

“You can’t bring me in their,” I protested, “you’re going to be naked.”

“Thou hast seen us unclothed before,” she said in an amused fashion before again trying to open the door, “Technically We are currently naked underneath thou.” Alright I’ll try not to think about that.

“It’s different in the bathroom,” you have to stand firm on these things.

“Very well my friend,” she said as she kicked off my shoes and placed my regalia in a neat pile. She then patted me on the head as I reformed myself and said, “thou really needs a name for us to call.”

I haven’t really thought about this hmmm, “How about Dave?”

Just before closing the door to the bathroom, she gave me a slightly disappointed look, “thou dost not have to decide just yet.” What’s wrong with that? Maybe John or something then?

With some time to myself again, I decided to have a slight pace around the room. Not having another person in your personal space is quite freeing really. I’m able to easily walk anywhere in this room without any issues and my head doesn’t just move in a random direction at an unspecified moment. Ah the joys. Still, I do feel a bit empty like something is missing. Probably the lack of blood flow and breathing.

There's also this feeling of hunger cropping up. Maybe I need to eat something without using Luna's mouth? The only edible thing in the room was the orange juice so let’s give it ago. Picking up the glass I poured it into where my mouth would be and quickly spilled it onto the floor. Dammit. No, one’ll notice, I’m sure. Ah well, suppose it's best to just wait for the Princess. The bed looks pretty comfy.

After 5 minutes of twiddling my shoes around a bit, there was a knock at the door. Okay, panic stations what to do in this situation, ooo I know. With my best attempt at stealth, I rolled off the bed to hide from the invader. *thunk*. Wish there was space to hide underneath.

With no more time to debate the door was opened and I could see some taloned feet and paws from under the bed. Okay, somebodies here to see Luna. Best not be another assassin. Come on Luna hurry up. How come girls take so long in the bathroom?

The first set of lower appendages entered the room and were swiftly followed by a second. “Tisk, these royals are awfully messy. Look Tidy Feather she’s even spilled her drink,” a female voice complained.

“That’s why we have a job green claw,” another voice chimed in. Before they both started to walk around the room, I assume doing cleaning things.

What do I do? They’re gonna see me for sure. Okay, stay calm, just gotta act like clothes, that’s all. Quickly dropping all my limbs to the floor and hiding my smoke was easy. I just wish I’d managed the neat pile Luna had placed me in.

As the two griffon maids made the bed one caught sight of me, “look at that, she’s just tossed her regalia so haphazardly,” Tidy said. It was a rush job, sorry Luna.

“Don’t let her hear that she might eat you.” Green responded. Before moving to more neatly position me. I find it highly unlikely the pony is going to eat the griffon. Green then looked up towards the bathroom as she picked me up, “It looks like her majesty is bathing herself, we’d best wash these or she’ll just be wasting her time.” Hey that’s Luna’s sweat, I don’t smell of anything, probably and what the heck this is stealing. Luna you’d better hurry up because I’m in a washing basket. LUNA! LUNA!! Dammit, why are you still in there? As the maids left the room my silent cry for help went unanswered.

“The emperors going to be so impressed with us,” Green said as they walked down a corridor I’d never seen.

“Why?” Tidy questioned while Luna’s door disappeared around a corner.

“Well Luna saved his life and we’re providing her a peak service,” Green happily announced. They’d better bring me back.

“I think the Princesses will expect us to do our jobs as a minimum Green,” Tidy responded. Just hurry up Luna's gonna think I’ve ran off.

“I still think the emperor is going to thank us as, keep this on the downlow, but some of the guards are saying he has the hots for her.” Green whispered the last part.

“Green, that’s treason. Stay quiet about that.”

“Oh ok.” Finally.

After the agonising journey, we ended up in a strange room that looked like no laundrette I’d ever seen, which was non. It was more like a blacksmiths than anything else. Suppose that makes sense seeing as I’m made of metal. The maids placed the washing basket down and tried to remove me piece by piece which didn’t really work to well on account of my magnetized limbs.

“Huh look at this the armours enchanted,” Green said amazed “Luna must be an amazing enchanter.”

“Well, yeah it’s an alicorn princesses stuff, of course it is.” Hey I’m my own armour dammit. “Just put it in the oil together.” Oil? That doesn’t sound too good for me. While thinking this, gravity suddenly took me from the basket into a large barrel as the maids tipped me out. Well, this is just rude. Warm oil then started to pour into the barrel. Ok, am I going to be alright here? The maids didn’t answer my soundless question and just kept pouring until I was completely submerged. So, am I going to drown or what? After a few minutes of sitting at the bottom, that answer was a clear no. Maybe this won’t be so bad? They are just cleaning me after all.

After another minute, I felt some sort of metal instrument grip me and pull me to the surface, before I was laid out on a table. Ah that was quite refreshing actually. Each maid then grabbed a shoe and began to scrub the oil off both the inside and out along with whatever imagined stains they’d seen. This wasn’t uncomfortable in the slightest and in fact It was quite enjoyable. Its always nice to be spoilt I suppose.

Once each of the shoes and chest piece were oiled, they moved onto my tiara. For this they took out some silver polish and began carefully working around the gems. Don’t forget behind the ears, if I had any anyways. I’d be smiling if I could.

“No need for the oily sand Green, it appears there’s no rust present,” Tidy then said. Oily sand is used to clean armour? Who knew? The polishing of the remainder of my armour was all that was left and let me tell you having someone polish the inside of your hoof is incredibly ticklish. With that I couldn’t help occasionally moving around. “These enchantments are a bit of a pain”. Tidy complained pining my hoof to the table with a claw. Okay ha I think your done ahah, please. Oh, they’ve stopped. Damn 5 more minutes.

“You think that enchantment can be recharged with a storm crystal?” What’s that?

“That’s what the emperors personal guard use, so why not?” What’s this crystal thing?

To answer my question the griffon known as Tidy carried a small sparking crystal to me. Wow that thing has an incredibly bright aura. Way brighter than any of the ponies I’ve seen.

“How would we charge it?”

“Just press it against the central gem, that usually works.”

The griffon maid then pressed the gem to my tiara forehead and wow that is a lot of food in one go. It's like someone’s tried to shove a full cake into my mouth in one go. Don’t really care though, I want it all.

“Okay Green that’s enough.” No wait. The griffon then began moving the crystal away from me. Almost without thinking my shoe shot forward and grabbed the crystal, so I could continue consuming that glorious magic.

“What the? Hey that’s mine,” My actions may have startled the birdos, woops ah well. As suddenly as the giant cake went into my metaphorical mouth it was nothing more than a crumb. It seems the cake that burns twice as bright gets eaten twice as fast or something like that. “Oh griffon feathers, that was supposed to last the week, stupid pony enchantment.” Hey I didn’t call you stupid, or did I?

After they completed the job, they carefully placed me upon an armour stand. “Okay, let’s get started on the emperor’s office before that important meeting.” Hang on are you two going to leave me here? What about Luna’s clothes? she needs those. The two maids then as imperceptive as ever left me alone in the room. Well, I’m sure they’ll be back. Wonder if Luna will be impressed? All things considered this was a good day.

Ten minutes later and I’m still stuck on this armour stand. What is taking them so long? Maybe Luna will come rescue me? Well, it looks like matters may need to be taken into my own shoes. This damn armour stand is a real pain, how do people get off of these things? After an attempt at removing myself from the stationary ponyequin, I tried a little more force which sort of splintered and split the wood. Well, it made my extraction easier and I’m sure the maids will clean up the mess.

Now then let’s take stock only one entrance and guards can clearly be seen patrolling the corridors out there, so that’s a no go. There's a window however so here’s the plan. Jump out the window, fly around to Luna’s room and show off my new cleaned state, Job done. Surely this will go to plan? So sitting on the edge of the window there was nothing more to do but jump. How do ponies fly again? Also, where’s my wings? Oh, yeah I had to get rid. Well, who’s the stupid one now then? I wish we were on the ground floor. *THUNK*.

After my most embarrassing moment since coming back into existence, I quickly magnetted myself back together and took stock. Well, that fall wasn’t too bad, no scratches or dents so hopefully Luna will still be impressed. Apart from the flying part this is fine.

“Aaaah!” oh no! Gotta hide Quick, bush, yes, success. Few that sounded like it came from that cleaning room. “The princesses Regalia’s gone!” Figures the moment I jump out the window the help returns. Wish I could roll my eyes. “What do we do? Luna will eat us for sure!”

“Calm yourself Green. We’ll report this thievery to the emperor.”

You can’t steal yourself. This isn’t fair. Okay, stick to the plan. Just steadily creep around the castle wall until you reach Luna’s room. No biggy. At that, I kept as low to the ground as possible, while trying to stick to the shadows. This was going to be a cake walk. Now where was Luna’s room again? Oh dear. Well best shoe forward and all that.

After a good twenty minutes of inching around the castle walls a bell started to ring out. That’s probably trouble. Sure, enough numerous griffon guards began to circle the skies above and some even landed on clouds starting to search for something using binoculars. I’m fairly certain that something is me. Okay outside the castle is a no go, looks like I’m going to have to pick a window. The closest window to me happened to be a good Twelve feet up. Great. Okay, no biggie I’ve climbed up a cliff before, just got to jump as high as I can before climbing the rest of the way.

After waiting for another flying patrol to pass, I squatted my non-existent legs and jumped. Twelve feet isn’t as far as you'd think turns out. My jump not only took me straight up to the window but straight through it as well. That would have been a great success, had I not also smashed straight through the top of the window frame and destroyed the floor boards in the room. Stealth should be my middle name. Or first name, whatever.

The strange room I found myself in, was filled with rows upon rows of books on shelves. Apart from the destroyed window it looked perfectly empty of life. Maybe no one noticed?

“I heard something in the library. Griffons on me!” Ah that makes sense this room clearly has a load of books. I should ask Luna if Canterlot castle has got one.

Anyway at the shout, I bravely trotted further into the room and hid behind one of the larger book cases. The sound of company joining me in the room was pretty noticeable. From the sound of it, some had come in through the door while some others were entering the destroyed window.

“We know your in here, come out with your claws up and we’ll be merciful,” shouted the same deep voice as before, “we have you surrounded.”

Okay, this seems bad. I surrendered before and that went okay and technically I haven’t done anything wrong. Besides breaking and entering anyway. If the situation is properly explained, they’ll probably return me to Luna with a few questions. But then Celestia will find out. Oh no, that can’t happen. Who knows what she could do to me?

With my decision I decided to heroically remain hidden in the shadows.

“That birdie isn’t budging sir.”

“I can see that private. If you won’t come out, we’re coming in!”

Okay, this is bad, I’ve just got to move to a more hidden position. A few clunks of my shoe steps later.

“Sir! I think he’s near the west wall.”

Damn these shoes! They’re so loud. All I can hear is ting ting as they hit the floor.

“Right, Swift you flank left, Talon flank right, I’ll go up the middle. We’ll corner this thief.”

The sound of their claws clacking on floorboards started to steadily get closer. Okay this is fine, they’re still a few book cases away. Just have to make myself quieter some how. I lifted my shoe and stared at the bottom. Maybe I can change to a softer material? With that thought I concentrated and the base of my shoe subtly changed. Doesn’t seem any different as I tested it on the ground. Hmm no sound, perfect.

Now to the next problem. The guards were coming at all angles a normal pony could traverse, however I’m not a normal pony. Underneath the book cases was a gap of about four inches. I can probably fit through with my shoes and mostly immaterial body. I might need to flatten my chest piece a little though. With my quick change done I pushed under the first bookcase just as the griffons rounded the corner.

“Sarge, we’ve lost sight of them.” Ha you lot never saw me.

“I can see that private, fan out! They won’t get far. ”

After popping out the other side of the bookshelf I quickly got to my hoofs and started to walk slowly for the door in the hopes they wouldn’t notice. It seemed luck was turning in my favour, as the guards had left the door open. Okay, just walk super casual no one can see me, I’m invisible on the other side of that bookcase la la la. As the guards thought they had cornered me, they’d neglected to post someone at the door and I just walked straight out into an empty corridor.

Well, this corridor doesn’t ring any bells. With only one option I decided to follow the corridor as close to the outside wall as possible. Luna’s room had to be along that way. Hopefully most of the guards were outside looking for someone fleeing from the castle, rather than guarding the inside. Needless to say, I didn’t just walk in the middle of the corridor no sir. I stuck as close to the wall as possible darting from pillar to cupboard to cabinet and so on. No throwing caution the wind no sir.

After a painful amount of time, I came across a room with bars on the outside and a lot of shouting. Dare I say it, curiosity got the better of me, causing me to poke my head in for a nose. Inside the room were two guards shouting and beating another griffon. That same griffon who tried to assassinate the emperor. Well he deserves that.

“Who are you working for?”

“How did you get past the guards?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember. one moment I’m at home, the next you’re beating me up.” The badly beaten griffon responded. It's funny he isn’t all green and glowy now. “Please believe me, wwwhhhyyy!” Well he’s clearly crazy.

“A likely story, hey what’s that.” One of the guards said with his head pointed at the door. Okay, I’ve clearly overstayed my welcome its probably time for me to be off.

“It’s the thief, she’s got the Princesses gear,” oh dear, at those words I’d already started running and wasn’t surprised when the barred door suddenly slammed open behind me. Okay, just gotta keep running down this corridor.

“She’s running down towards the east wing!” Is that where Luna is?

“Carful lads, she’s using magic,” That’s probably because of the mist and was that more voices?

A quick look over my shoulder revealed at least 5 guards behind me.

“Halt or we will fire upon you,” I didn’t see any ranged weapons, they’re bluffing.

“Okay lads, just try to stun,” uh oh. Well, turns out they don’t need any, as lightning bolts suddenly started to follow after me. One of them struck my rear shoe and I couldn’t help but let out a slight yelp. Ooo that really smarted I mean it fed me a little but ouch. Wonder if that pain means its damaging me? No sense worrying about that just got to keep running.

“They’re not slowing down.”

“She’s running on borrowed time, we’ll have lads coming up in front soon enough.” Oh bother.

Okay, this way does seem pretty familiar. Wait, I see it, the promised land. Luna’s room straight ahead. She’d better not be taking a shower still.

“She’s heading for the Princess, hurry or we might end up with a hostage situation.” I’d never hold a hostage, probably.

Upon reaching the room I immediately threw open the door and slammed it shut behind myself. Within the room sitting reading a book was a pretty miffed Luna.

“Where hast thou been all day? We have had to complete the negotiations in thine absence.”

“No time to explain save me Luna,” I begged before collapsing in a pile in front of her.

At my words Luna immediately closed her book and jumped to her hooves, “What is the matter my friend?”

At her words, five griffon guards burst through the door and prepared to pounce, before immediately backing down at the sight of Luna.

“Your majesty,” the lead guard started, “We are in pursuit of a dangerous thief. For your own protection we must search your room.”

“No need sergeant,” she said after glancing at his helmet, “Our regalia has been returned to us and the thief dealt with, good job soldier.” She then saluted him before picking up my tiara and putting it on.

“Dealt with?” he said before looking at me on the floor, “oh I see, sorry for intruding we’ll just get out of your mane. Come on lads.” The griffons then each left the room with their tails between their legs, before the sergeant carefully closed the door.

“She really ate that thief!”

“Stow it Swift.”

“Sorry sir.”

Luna then sighed, before starting to put the rest of ‘her’ regalia on.

“We hope thou art happy, We were forced to go fully unclothed to the meeting with Thunder Wing,” she said while putting on her chest piece, “it sent him all the wrong messages.”

“I’m really sorry Princess. I was taken to be cleaned up by the maids,” wow feeling a bit guilty now, “I didn’t mean to break my promise, I just made a bad decision in trying to come back myself, it can’t have been all bad.”

“Yes, We have seen the effects of thy decision making and nay it was not all bad as thou says,” she said after slipping on my shoes. “The negotiations were a complete success.”

“There ya go. You didn’t even need me,” That’s a relief, but what could have been the mixed messages? “What issues could my absence cause?”

Luna quickly cleared her throat before looking in the mirror, “well you see my friend, the emperor believed We may have been interested in forming an alliance, in the way that would potentially lead to hippogriff airs to both Equestria and Griffonia.”

That took me a few moments to process but when it went through, I couldn’t help but laugh and stomp Lunas’s hoof which resulted in her face heating up.

“Wow that’s amazing, he probably would have suggested it anyway after you saved his life,” I said once my composure returned.

“Thou saved his life, besides if thou hadn’t been so forward during the negotiations offering our hoof for him to kiss,” she then stuck out her tongue.

“Hey I’ve never been a pony before, that’s not my fault.”

“On that note, thou clearly hast no concept of a ponies diet let alone a royal one.” She said while pointing a hoof accusingly at the mirror.

“What makes you say that?”

“Though the food thou chose tasted quite agreeable at the time, in thine absence the after taste was quite revolting,” that makes sense. She then said with a smile, “No pony would willingly eat meat my friend.”

Welp, another thing to feel guilty about, “but you had sharp teeth and other predator stuff?”

Putting a hoof to her chin Luna mused, “That is likely something to do with thine presence within us at the time, thy own nature must be that of a predator and if it surfaces again, We may be open to consuming a small portion of meat.”

Yes! I couldn’t help the slight happy jig. Bacon is just the best.

“Only occasionally though.”

After our conversation we headed down towards the carriage to meet up with Celestia, who was waiting quite impatiently.

“Ah sister there you are, we’ve been waiting for a while,” she said while tapping an imaginary watch.

“Celestia, We had some business to complete before leaving,” Luna said while boarding the carriage.

Her sister following close behind, “Yes sister let me say that on this trip you’ve made me proud. Managing to get the griffons to commit to such a deal on our first visit is momentous.”

Luna seemed to deflate a little at that comment. Huh I wonder what’s eating her. “Thank you Celly, but it wasn’t all me," she said looking down.

“Nonsense sister, I myself played little part in the success of this negotiation,” Celestia not sensing the mood there. She then continued on with a slight smirk, “I do hope to one day become an aunt.”

I felt Luna heat up underneath me at that, “Sister please.”

“I wonder whether the foals would have bird heads and pony bodies or pony heads and cat bodies?” Celestia mused.

Luna, filled with embarrassment, decided outside the carriage was very interesting and I have to admit the view was pretty nice.

Author's Note

I think I need to slow this down a bit.

6: Return Home

Chapter 6

Ah, it’s good to be home or sort of home, if canterlot castle counts as such a thing. As the carriage came in to land, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of a burden lifting. Soon I can just be myself again and no one will care.

“Lulu, wake up we’re about to arrive,” Celestia said while poking us. It’ll be good not to be stuck staring at the floor of a carriage as well.

Sadly, Luna had other ideas, laying out on the bench beside Celestia, her wings barely twitched at the sensation, “five more minutes,” she complained before attempting to cover her head with a hoof. Well can’t have this I’ll be stuck here all day, not to mention it might make Luna look bad in front of the guards. With that thought I turned Luna’s attempt to shield her eyes from the sun, to a bop upon her head. “Wah! We are awake sister.”

Celestia, just let out a melodious laugh at that, “Oh sister, your so clumsy when you’re tired.”

“It is not our fault Celly,” the younger sister whined, while sitting up and stretching her wings, “All the interesting action occurs during thy sunlit day. That is the time that calls us to sleep.” Huh, it seems our night Princess is nocturnal. Guess that does make sense.

Once the carriage had landed, and Luna had quickly made herself look presentable with some sort of magic, the two diarchs disembarked the carriage. Waiting for them was a number of guards and servant staff. Huh that one at the front seems more important with its adorable purple armour.

“Ah shining Armor, is there much to report?” Celestia asked the pony with less shiny armour than me.

The pony in question gave a salute before saying, “nothing major of note your highness,” before putting a hoof to his chin, “well apart from Prince Blueblood being well, Blueblood but we can’t help that.” Celestia giggled at that. Huh wonder who this Blueblood is? Ah, just hurry up I’m getting antsy standing here.

“Ah excellent captain, what of our spooky guest?” Celestia nonchalantly asked to my horror.

Luna chimed in, “We should expect that our new friend has been upon their best behaviour.” Well at least she’s got my back.

“Well Princess, that things been pretty quiet,” he said while scratching the back of his head, “We haven’t heard a peep from it the entire time you’ve been gone.” I’m not a thing, I’m a person. Well, I guess a person is a thing, but that’s still pretty rude.

Celestia, started to look a little worried, “So let me get this straight, you’ve left our guest in a room by themselves for two days and no one has checked on them?”

Shining Armor seemed to be getting a bit nervous, “that would appear to be what we did.” Well, that was incredibly lucky.

Celestia then stepped closer to the unicorn. Wow she really towers over him. “Did no one even deliver any food for them?”

While looking down, the captain said, “no your highness. The servants were too afraid to approach without your presence.”

The look of disappointment upon Celestias face was probably the worst thing that guard could experience. I just had to save him from it “Sister, if the armoured spirit wanted some food or companionship surely it would have at least attempted to leave the room?” I said through Luna, which surprised her enough to flinch slightly.

At my words Celestia turned to Luna, “sister, that creature came with us in good confidence and we repaid it's actions by making it our prisoner,” she then started to walk into the castle, “come sister we have a wrong to fix.” Well, this is terrible. If she goes to my room I’m not going to be there. Why must someone being a good person cause me problems?

“Sister would it be possible for us to freshen up while thou prepare to meet with our guest?” Luna coming to the rescue again, “we can then go to see the armoured one together,” she said with a smile.

Celestia just sighed again, “okay sister, have it your way, our guest has been alone so long what’s another thirty minutes.”

“Thirty minutes! That’s not even enough time to dry our fur!” 30 minutes is plenty, let’s just go. At that I started walking us past Celestia towards Luna's room. “Other way my friend,” Luna whispered before turning and walking the other way down the corridor.

At our antics, Celestia just shook her head and started to talk with some brown-haired unicorn with glasses.

All I could think was, that went well as Luna took over walking us to her room. Thirty minutes to get ready and meet ponies as myself, hurray. This feels rather daunting all of a sudden. People are actually going to start judging me on my actions. Upon walking through a door to a room, I couldn’t help but notice we had entered one Luna pegacorns room and not my guest room, wherever that was.

“Erm Luna this isn’t a guest room,” I said as she closed the door.

“We are well aware of that friend,” Luna responded as she carefully removed me and placed my pieces upon the ground in front of her.

Reforming and standing up on my own felt pretty good after being stuck on a sleeping Luna so long. Ya know what I might as well reform my armour back into the full pegacorn set, So I set about extending my leg armour, recreating my helmet and finally recreated my wings. “Ah wings, how I missed you so,” I then turned to Luna, “well Luna, I really need to be within my own room for your sister not to notice.” As I said that Luna had picked up her regalia from the bed where she left it, “erm don’t the maids clean those for you?”

“Nay friend,” she said while casting what I imagine is a cleaning spell, “The help are too afraid to enter our residence, so We do our own cleaning.” Well, that doesn’t seem right. We must have passed a dozen maids on the way here.

“It’s their jobs to clean this castle,” I pointed out while Luna straightened her tiara, “Their fear is irrelevant.” Looks like some firing and replacing will need to be done.

“Oh, armoured one,” she said in a sombre tone, “we would not wish to burden our people so. Besides with our magical skill our property can be cleaned most efficiently,” she finished with a slight smile. “Anyway, We cannot continue to call thou the armoured one so pray tell, hast thou thought of a name?”

Well talk about putting someone on the spot, “so does that mean Dave wasn’t to your liking?”

“My friend, We know thou knows little of pony society, but that is not even a word,” she sighed.

“Well, I like it. How about John?” Names are hard.

At that one Luna rolled her eyes, before responding sarcastically, “ah here comes the almighty Princess of the night Luna, along with her friend…John” before she returned to her usual tone, “my friend, these names are hardly impressive.”

“Okay have it your way, Dave the conqueror!” I said with a flourish of my wings.

That caused Luna to scrunch up her muzzle, “is thou coming up with terrible names on purpose?” ouch, “That will clearly intimidate the ponies thou art attempting to befriend.”

“Fine, have you got any ideas?” I asked while gesturing to her with a misty wing.

At that she immediately brightened up. Oh no she’s clearly been working on some for a while. “Well my friend, We have been working on a name that accurately describes thy nature and could be part of an impressive title. What dost thou think of... Eclipse?”

“Erm Luna with respect, that’s not a name. It’s just a thing that happens, and in what way does that sound impressive?” Honestly Dave is way cooler.

Luna gained a mock shocked expression at that, “We do not expect thee to fully understand the reason this name is inspiring, but We believe it accurately describes thou. Also, the Luna Eclipse Duo sounds much more impressive nay?” she started to look at me hopefully.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” she smiled at that. Damn puppy dog pony eyes. Suppose I should try and keep my only friend happy, “So Luna, should we return to my room?”

“Well then Eclipse, We have thought of a most splendid idea,” she said over emphasizing the name. She isn’t going to let that name go, is she? “We propose that thou would take residence within our domicile.” What’s that supposed to mean? “You have been such a good friend to us in the previous days We believe it only fitting to offer the best.”

“Erm by your domicile do you mean your room?” okay, feeling a little nervous now.

“But of course, armoured one,” Well, there’s clearly only one bed in here, so where does she expect me to sleep?

“Not to sound ungrateful Princess,” I started.

“Eclipse, thou refers to us as Luna,” The moon pony interrupted seriously, while approaching me.

“Yes sorry. Luna Not to sound ungrateful, but where would I be sleeping?”

“Ah friend, We have the perfect place for thou,” at this Luna gripped my helmet with a hoof and turned it slowly to the right.

“Luna you’ve got to be kidding me,” Where she’d directed me was to a very ornate looking armour stand. Really wish these ponies didn’t just see a suit of armour.

“We are not providing any young goats my friend,” Luna said quizzically, her head tilted in an adorable state of confusion.

I just sighed at that, “Luna I meant, are you joking?”

“Oh apologies, We are still acclimatizing to the modern vernacular,” She said with a giggle. I knew she was mocking me, “Is it not to thy specifications?” The PTSD flashbacks of the griffonian armour stand went through my helmet.

“That armour stand is quite magnificent Luna,” it’s a terrible armour prison from which there is no escape.

“Then what is the problem? Thou may try it out if comfort is a concern.” Wow she really thinks I'd try to sleep on that thing.

“Its just that I’m not really built for something like that,” I said gesturing to the armour torture device, “I’m more like you. Meaning a bed would be preferable really.”

At that Luna seemed to become deep in thought, “thou did like our bed in the Griffonian guest room.”

“Exactly and as Princess of the night, you know how important a good night’s sleep is.” Now we are getting somewhere.

At that, the blue fluffball looked shocked, “Thou art correct my friend. How could We deprive thou of such a basic necessity?” She then gained a mischievous grin, “If thou wishes to utilize a bed, ours is available.”

Say what now? “Erm Luna, I really don’t think there’s enough room,” I couldn't help taking a step back.

Her eyes then suddenly became half lidded as she approached me like a cat hunting her prey. “That night was also very comfortable for us as well Eclipse, would thou consider a position as the royal sleeping apparel?”

“Er, wuh, buh,” really don’t know what to say to this. Really should just refuse, there’s nothing forcing me to do this other than a request from Luna. My only friend. This isn’t something I should even consider its such a strange request. But then what if she gets upset. Wow that would be terrible. Maybe I could try it out just to make her happy? With that thought I looked up at Luna to see a barely restrained smile.

“Oh dammit Luna. I thought you were serious for second,” yep that was embarrassing as Luna started to laugh at my expense. “Can’t believe I was actually considering saying yes.”

“Thou would consider it?” she seems surprised. Oh no just put my shoe in it haven't I? “then maybe…”

“Luna can we go to the guest room,” I interrupted, “If Celestia doesn’t find me there, she’s gonna flip her lid.”

“We highly doubt that my sister would ‘Flip her lid’ as thou says,” Luna began using air quotes, “We still believe honesty would not only have no ill consequences, but could result in a reward from our beloved sister. Thou was very heroic and should not be giving us thy credit.” She then pointed at us judgmentally, “It makes us feel dirty, taking credit for the deeds of others and taking thy deserved praise.”

She was involved in those heroics too, just to a lesser extent. “Luna, can we go.” I'd already started walking to the door.

Luna just sighed and followed. “Thou wouldst have made fine night ware,” she said under her breath. Before she walked past me and opened the door. Turns out we weren’t going very far, as the guest room was located directly opposite that of the moon pony's.

“Here we are.” She stated while opening the doors, “This room is meant for the personal guests of one princess of the night. Thou wilt be the first to utilize it in over one thousand years.” I can't believe this castle has managed to stand for one thousand years. This room must be really special if no one alive has ever used it.

“Huh, what an honour,” I suppose. The room feels pretty empty at the moment really. Don’t get me wrong it has all the requirements for an impressive bedroom including a wardrobe, some draws, a desk, some bookshelves, an ensuite and even a bed. The room just lacks little stuff like things in those draws and, on that bookshelf, well apart from a few Luna plushies and all the dust from over one thousand years of stagnation. “It’s pretty interesting that so much dust could be present in one room.”

“What really?” Luna spun around to examine the room. “Why has it been forsaken? Have our subjects truly forgotten everything about us?” Ooo sensing some potential depression here.

All I could really think to do was put a shoe on Luna’s shoulder in some miniscule attempt to comfort her, “Luna the room seems pretty cosy to me, thanks for letting me stay.”

Another voice from behind the two of us suddenly rang out, startling us both, “Ah armoured one I’m glad that you appreciate the significance meant by the room we’ve generously provided.” Said a very out of breath sun horse, who was leaning against the door for support.

“Sister, did thou gallop here by chance?” Luna asked while stepping closer to Celestia.

“What no no. I was totally prepared for you to go and see our new friend without me and was already enroute,” The alabaster mare said so convincingly, “I never had to receive a message from Raven, telling me you weren’t going to wait for me like we planned, no no no.” Celestia then stopped to catch her breath.

“Oh yes sister, We may have slightly forgotten about that part,” Luna uttered while blushing slightly. That was not my fault for getting Luna to rush, no sir.

“No matter Lulu,” Celestia then started regaining her composure, “what matters is that you were willing to provide for our new friend and ensure they were welcome with this… honour.” She said that last part while looking through the dusty room. She then turned to me with a worried look, “Have you been staying in all this dust for two days?”

Okay stay calm, she won’t figure it out. Not that this dust hasn’t been disturbed at all, no sir. “Yes, Princess I was trying my best to prove how reliable I am.” It’s a good job I don’t have a face or she might catch me here. “It’s been nice and quiet while I’ve waited for you.”

At my response, Luna gave me a judgemental look, while Celestia shouted some maids, “Duster, Bucket would you two be so kind as to clean my sisters guest room.” She said with a strained smile.

“At once princess,” the little ponies responded, before barging past me and Luna like we weren’t even there to begin cleaning the room. Wow these ponies are desperate to impress sunny. They didn't even show an ounce of fear towards me.

“Well, my armoured friend, you must be famished,” Celestia asked, “would you like to join us for breakfast?”

Hmm I could do with a slight bite, but that isn’t really new, “sure thing Princess, I could have a little.”

Luna just had to chime in, “We are sure thou hast a ravenous appetite.” It was one time, granted it was my only opportunity but still.

At that, Celestia led the way to a fancy dining room with a long table. Each sister then went and sat at opposite ends. Okay, where to sit? Next to Luna seems obvious but it might seem rude to the sun over there. Hmm decisions decisions. Ah well, the middle is the safe bet, so I decided to sit equal distance between them both.

Luna then asked, “so Eclipse, what is thine stomachs desire?”

Well, I couldn’t drink the orange juice and haven’t ever eaten solid food without help soooo, better choose something light, “Toast please.”

“Waiter did thou catch that,” the waiter nodded to Luna, “Then be off and bring our guest their meal.” That seemed a bit rude.

“Just toast my friend?” Celestia asked, “It's okay for you to order more, going for so long without food isn’t good for anypony.” She looked down at that last part. Ah the sting of guilt, how I’ve missed you. The feeling wasn’t really helped by Luna’s occasional looks.

“It's okay I don’t really feel that hungry,” I then waved my misty legs around, “there isn’t any meat on my boneless body, see?”

Celestia brightened at that before changing the subject, “did I hear correct that you remembered your name?”

“What Eclipse?” She better not start calling me that, “No, that’s just what Luna calls me.”

“Hark, is it not pleasant to one’s ears?” Luna likes that name way to much.

“It does seem to suit you armoured one,” Celestia smiled. “So Eclipse, how have you liked Canterlot so far?” This name might not be going away.

“I’ve yet to witness much your majesty, just what was on the route here and to the throne room,” Technically I’ve seen about as much as I would have from that room, so not a lie. “It looks nice so far, could do with a clean in some areas though.”

“Did you not see another pony when we left you?”

“No Princess there wasn’t anypony to see.” Just a lot of griffons.

By this point the friendly sun ponies ears had drooped completely, “let it be known that as a representative of the ponies of Canterlot, we are all very sorry if you felt we’d forgotten about you.”

“Don’t worry I’m fine with it,” what does someone say to that. I’m just the worst kind of person. I really have to say something but what?

“That’s probably because the void's given you such low standards, but know hence forth life will hopefully be less lonely, I promise,” Celestia really is a good person and seems to actually care about me. Guilt is increasing.

“We are curious what did thou do to entertain thyself?” Luna mischievously asked.

Dammit Luna, well theirs only one thing I can think of, “Well Princess, I spent my time erm, playing with those toys in the room,” well this is embarrassing.

Celestia looked surprised at that, “You mean those little plushies of Luna?”

Kill me now. “Yes, they were very interesting compared to the void.” Technically true and to be honest, if I was trapped in that room, I probably would have tried to converse with the inanimate objects.

Luna started to laugh at that, while Celestia just smile at me, “That would have been quite entertaining to watch your imaginary adventures with Luna.”

“Indeed, We wonder what heroics thou got up to.” Luna, please stop making references to things. Bet she's trying to get me caught on purpose.

After the newest worst moment of my existence ended, the breakfast arrived. Cereal for the princesses and four slices of toast for me.

“Well, my friend I hope you enjoy your long-awaited meal," Celestia said before digging into her own cereal.

Okay, well this didn’t work to well last time, but second times the charm and all that. Carefully I picked up a slice of toast with a shoe and held it in my metaphorical mouth. Hmm now what? There’s toast inside my head with no obvious way to go. I couldn’t help looking over at Luna enjoying her breakfast. Damn wouldn’t it be good to have a mouth right about now. Luna then caught my eye and casually removed her tiara while patting her head. Now she’s just rubbing it in, we can’t do that in front of Celly, the most understanding person I’ve met.

At that thought, I looked over to Celestia who appeared to also be staring at me with a look of interest. Wonder what she wants? “What’s up?”

Celestia then finished chewing her cereal and swallowed, “so what are you going to do with that toast?”

Well, this is embarrassing, “I’m just copying what you’re doing, food goes in the face, right?”

“So, you’re trying to be like us?”

Well, couldn’t help but sigh at that, “yeah.”

“My friend, it appears physical food may not be for you.” Celestia mused. Well at least she'll be happier thinking I wouldn't have starved.

“Just give me a minute, I can figure this out, the toast will go.” Wish this toast had some magic in it.

At that a slight giggle escaped the solar princess, “You don’t have to try and be like us my friend, our differences should be known and accepted to forge a better base for a friendship to blossom.” Does Celestia think of me as a friend? We just met the other day.

Luna then spoke up having finished her cereal, “We can consume thy toast for thou if that is thy desire.” At that I slid the plate of wasted deliciousness over to the awaiting moon princess causing her face to fall. “That is not what We meant.”

“I know what you meant,” Its nice Luna is willing to let me use her to eat, but I’m just not in the mood. Besides, I’ve still got one slice of toast, which appears to just be floating in my face now my shoe let go.

“You appear to have something on your face,” Celestia commented as helpful as always.

Thanks Celestia, it wasn’t obvious that an object was stuck in my personal space. Wonder how its staying up? With a bit of thought the toast seems to be easily moved around within my mist. Seems I can carry things without my shoes, neat. After a few moments of experimenting, the toast eventually ended up In front of me carried by my mist. “Look at this. I’m levitating something like a unicorn.” Isn't this a momentous moment.

“That isn’t levitation,” Celestia calmly shot me down. “Eclipse, levitation works by grasping an object within a magic aura separate from oneself. That toast is clearly still within your physical grasp.”

“Seems the same to me,” as I made the toast do a loop around my helmet, “the toast still floats.”

At my words Celestia seemed to get a familiar gleam in her eye before getting to her hoofs and approaching my chair. “If you would like I can demonstrate the difference.”

“Hey, our armoured friend isn’t thy student sister,” Luna complained through a mouthful of toast.

“I always enjoy helping others learn something new, whether it be my personnel student or a dear friend.” Celestia said to us both.

The chance to learn something legitimate about magic? yes please! “Sure, go ahead.”

At that Celestia lit her horn, ooo I’m excited now. What happened next was a bit of a surprise so much as to the fact that if I knew it was going to happen, this lesson would have definitely been rejected. With her now lit horn, Celestia ran it through my mist connected to the toast, severing it, causing the toast to fall to the table. Internal screaming starts now. Whhhhyyyyy!?

Ignorant of my complaints, Celestia started her lesson, “So eclipse did you see how your magical grasp could be severed with a magical weapon?” All I could manage was a nod as to not cry out in pain. Who just cuts off a piece of someone? You’ve got to at least ask permission first. It’s like someone’s just hit me with a flaming iron.

The severed mist still floated in place where the toast once was. Huh at least its not gone in fact I can still feel it. With a little concentration the mist flew back into my face and the pain lessened dramatically. Okay, magic weapons really dangerous to my misty parts, lesson learned.

Celestia, with her continued ignorance then lit her horn again causing me to flinch back in my chair, “Now see the toast my friend?”

The toast had gained the suns golden aura of death, “yeah I see it.”

“Good, now see how it levitates without a direct connection to me?” The toast then left the table and floated directly in front of my face, “Levitation in this manner can only be stopped by directly being dispelled.”

At her words I decided to reach for it with a shoe and grasped the toast. It was incredibly difficult to move with Celestia clearly pulling against me but I had something to teach her as well. Using my ability to consume magic I basically ate her aura. This had the desired effect of ending the levitation, giving me a small snack and one undesirable effect.

“Ow,” Celestia calmly said while poking her now smoking horn. “It appears your already adept at dispelling magic.”

A laugh could be heard from the other side of the table.

“Well, I’m going to try real levitation then,” okay, I have no idea how to do this, but Celestia said its just creating an aura separate to yourself, peace of cake. In a similar but less traumatic way then Celestia, I cut a piece of myself off and floated it to the toast before carefully floating it into the air. Huh its kind of like I’m the toast.

“Ah well done, true levitation can take years for young unicorns to master,” Celestia seems pleased with me.

I’m cheating but oh well, “do all your lessons hurt so much?”

“It wasn’t my intention to cause harm my friend,” Celestia said with a smile, “It’s easy to get a little carried away.”

The laugh from before came again but louder. Dammit Luna. Well, I have my weaponized toast here so, eat this. With that I floated the toast at high-speed hitting Luna in the end of the muzzle. At that she laughed a final time, before swallowing the toast whole. Hey I’m in that! Okay, no biggy. When I recalled the mist Luna went slightly cross-eyed before it flew out of her nose.

“Ha, thou art full of surprises.”

“Wasn’t really expecting you to eat me, anyway would it be possible to learn more magic?” That would be so useful, “oh and not forgetting flight as well.” Wait if I learn these things, they might see me as a threat. Okay just got to play it cool and get my convincing face on.

“Oh yes, I would be happy to teach a being such as you,” Celestia responded, “Think of the things we could both learn. You pony magic and me about your kind.” Huh, that was easier than expected.

Luna suddenly stood up knocking over her chair, “Nay thou already have a student. We are an expert on creatures of the night, thine education should be with us.”

Does she want to teach me as well? “Your both up for teaching me?”

“Well, when I have free time, I would love to learn more about you,” Celestia began.

“With us, thou will be able to learn during thy work hours,” Luna quickly followed up taking it as a competition.

“Sister, what employment does our dear suit of armour have?” I’m pretty curious about that as well. We both looked at Luna expectantly.

After her outburst Luna went to sit back down before realizing she’d knocked over her chair. She ended up just standing in place pawing the ground for a minute while deep in thought. “Well, We have yet to think of the title thou deserves.”

“A job does sound nice. It would really help me find my place in this world,” having a job is just one step closer to a stable life.

“Thou will take the job?” Luna asked hopefully.

“Kinda depends upon what I’d be doing really.” I’m not just going to accept a mystery job, ol moony could ask me to do anything. Saying that she is a Princess, it’s probably within her power to ask anyone to do anything. At my question Luna sat on the floor again deep in thought. I took a quick glance over to Celestia during the wait and she just shrugged her wings at me.

“Aha, We have found the title friend,” the night pony proudly proclaimed before pointing a hoof at me, “thou shalt be mine confidant and protector. It is a most brilliant task for one such as thou.”

What’s a confidant? “Is that like an advisor?”

“Exactly,” She seems pretty pleased with herself.

“Okay, well is the pay any good?” It is a job, I really should be getting something out of it.

“How much would thou desire? Thy wish may be granted,” the excited pony replied.

Celestia wasn’t the happiest with that idea it turned out, “Sister that isn’t a question to ask our guest. Due to their recent arrival in our world, they likely have limited experience with Equestria's currency.”

“As long as its enough to live comfortably I’m game,” That’s all anyone really needs in a job. Don’t really have high aspirations at the moment above continuing to exist.

The sun princess seemed happy enough with that, “Well Equestria endeavours to provide all who do their share of labour with a fair wage. Yours shall be no different.” She then became a bit sombre, “Luna you know that you don’t need to hire our friend here as a confidant. You’ve got me.” Hey, I need this job.

Luna wasn’t really paying attention anymore, “ah it will be nice for us to have our own staff again.”

“Lulu you have the night guard to yourself. Are the servants and maids we share not enough?” Celestia probably thinks the maids are cleaning Luna's room.

“Well sister they would be if they actually entered our areas of the castle, We have had to clean our own domicile for some time.”

“I see,” Celestia said quietly while looking at a maid. Huh I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony so terrified since Pony town. “That is something we shall have to rectify. Eclipse thank you for your time today, but I have some matters that require our attention.” She then gestured to the door, “you may explore the castle grounds at your leisure.”

“We shalt enjoy giving thou the tour,” Luna said happily, “Canterlots gardens are most wonderful this time of year.” Spending some time with a friend in a less stressful place would be nice.

“Sister, you have duties to attend as well, lest you forget the trade deal we need to organise.” Celestia announced while walking towards the door. Well looks like I'll be spending the day alone. No big deal, I've been alone for thousands of years and in that time there wasn't any interesting sights.

It seemed Luna wasn’t expecting that, “Celly please, that is so boring for first thing in the morning.” This is what happens when your important.

“Boring you say? It didn’t seem so boring to you last night.” Sunny said with a knowing smile.

At Celestia's comment I received a glare from the moon as she followed her sister, “We don’t know what to tell thou. It was almost like We were a different person.” Well, she isn’t used to having responsibilities. Just before leaving Luna turned to someone out of sight, “Crescent Wing, guard Eclipse while We are away.” From somewhere above that I couldn’t see, a vampire pony dropped next to me and saluted the leaving princess. Where was she hiding? The rooms almost perfectly lit.

Once the princess had left, I couldn’t help staring at my new companion. She had full on bat wings and fangs if that doesn’t scream vampire, I don’t know what does. That must be what Luna meant when she said she ruled creatures of the night. After a minute of my staring, the vampire pony in question must have been getting a tad uncomfortable, as a hoof suddenly tapped my faceplate knocking me out of my musings.

“Hello is there anypony in there?” The guard asked inquisitively, with that adorable head tilt ponies do.

At the tap, I couldn’t help but back pedal a little, “Sorry yes yes. I was just curious, I’ve never seen anything like you.”

“You think I’m interesting? Has the talking suit of armour never seen a pony before?” well this is embarrassing.

At that I cleared my non-existent throat, “so would you be up for providing a castle tour?” The vampire in question just saluted and began walking to the door.

Wow this is going to be one long tour with miss talkative, “ya don’t have to be in soldier mode the entire time, do you?” If so, maybe I should go alone.

“I need to represent my lady to other ponies to the best of my ability,” the vampire said with a smile, “That does include you.”

“Well Crescent, I’m Princess Luna’s official confidant, so such treatment will not be required,” at my haughty words the bat pony just smiled, before gesturing with a hoof for me to follow.

The tour itself was fairly uneventful. Crescent showed me to various important places in the castle like the library and Celestia's room. There was also a lot of boring offices, workshops and a pretty large room which wasn’t currently in use. The most interesting part was as Luna suggested earlier, the castle garden.

Canterlot's garden did have a wide variety of plants I’d never seen which was amazing, however it was nothing compared to the weird statues dotted around. Especially the one of the weird hybrid creature.

“So, what's that thing supposed to be?” I asked my bored escort, while approaching the statue.

Crescent just lazily looked over to the statue in question, “That? That’s discord, Equestria’s greatest enemy. This statue was built to commemorate his defeat at the hooves of our beloved princesses.”

“Huh, well this guy must have been strong to cause issues for an entire country,” After giving the statue a poke I found a seemingly endless supply of magic. Wonder if it would be okay to take a little due to skipping breakfast? I'm sure no one will notice due to the amount.

“He must have been, I’m just glad I wasn’t alive to see his rule,” she said while looking at the horrifying visage.

“Huh your younger than you look,” I expected this pony to be in her thirties.

At that the vampire gave me a dissatisfied look, “well I’m certainly younger than one thousand years.”

That doesn’t make sense. How could Luna have defeated this thing one thousand years ago, “But you said the pony sisters defeated him.”

The bat pony gave me a smug look before simply saying, “yup.”

Well, it appears the Princesses might actually be as old as me. Who knew? Should probably stop draining this things magic now. Its amazing really, a seemingly never-ending supply and the flavour just keeps changing. I’ll have to keep coming back to this when it's recharged.

“Well, think I might just go and read in the library now, sorry if it’s a bit boring,” I really want to learn more about this world.

“It’s okay, I’ve baby sat before.”

That interrupted my stride, “heeeeey.”

Author's Note

This chapter was a real pain. I'm still not happy with it.

7: Pony Party

Chapter 7

What a great day its turned out to be. First Celestia didn’t catch my stupidity, then I discovered an endless supply of magic and now I’m reading a book in the library. Things couldn’t have turned out better.

There are so many interesting books in this place, I had to start with something small and familiar like the everfree bestiary. Just so many interesting magical creatures, not just those timber wolves as I’ve found they're called, but hydras and manticores as well. This world is amazing.

After getting a bit to absorbed in the book of treats, an unwelcome interruption entered the room, coming in the form of a maid. “Oh, I thought the library was empty?” a timid voice rang out, “is it okay if I clean around you?” At the voice, I couldn’t help but look up to see a unicorn with white fur and a black mane.

“Sure, if your not scared of the big bad smoke monster,” she’s the first one not to run out upon seeing me. “I don’t mind.”

“Okay thanks,” she happily said, while beginning to dust some shelves, “It must be nice to get the whole library to yourself?” Huh, maybe things are looking up, another pony who’s not afraid to be near me.

“Oh, I’m not alone,” at my words the maid tensed up. I just pointed up to the bookshelf behind me, where one crescent vampire pony was hanging fast asleep. “she’s guarding me.”

“Erm, shouldn’t she be awake?” the maid said, while dusting the area around my slumbering protector. That is probably an important quality in a guard.

“Well, she’s a bat pony and looked really bored, so I said I’d wake her when something happened,” I said while looking up at her dangling by her tale happily snoring away.

At my words a feather duster hit me upon the head. Before a stern word followed, “Thestral.”

“Excuse me?” What’s she talking about? She doesn’t look very happy with me.

“They're called thestrals, bat pony is a bit derogatory,” oh okay, I wouldn’t want to offend anyone least of all a potential friend of Luna’s.

“Thanks, er,” oh no, hope she didn’t tell me her name.

“Swift clean.”

“Er yeah, Swift Clean,” Well she didn’t seem mad about that, so successful conversation is still a go.

“It’s surprising you’re willing to sit with your back to her like that,” what’s that supposed to mean? “Most ponies are scared thestrals might try to steal their blood or something.”

“Well, I don’t think that,” Those tiny fangs are kinda adorable too, I mean what’s she gonna do to your neck with those? “Plus, it’s nice she trusts me enough to sleep nearby.”

“That’s very open minded of you,” swift said with a smile, while dusting another shelf. “It’s a shame more ponies don’t see other species that way.” This maid has something weirdly familiar about her, I just can’t put my shoe on it. It’s something to do with her magic aura, it’s so much bigger than the other ponies I’ve met. Seems to be almost similar to the green aura that griffon assassin had. Really wish I knew more about magic. That’ll be the next book on the list.

“Well hopefully with me around as Luna's confidant, it may put strange creatures in a more positive light,” Clean must be some sort of equal rights activist or something. It’s a shame in a place as happy as this, things like speciesism exist. This conversation is another point for today being the greatest day of my existence.

At that thought two familiar pegacorns entered, to potentially ruin everything. Okay, I shouldn’t think like that, they’ve always appeared to have my best interests at heart.

“Ah armoured one there you are, Raven said you had hidden away in the library,” sunny said interrupting my musings. “Having fun, I trust?”

“Yes, I was just enjoying a conversation with Clean… here,” as I looked back to the dusted shelves the maid was nowhere to be seen, “she’s one of the maids. She must have found somewhere else to clean.” Wow she was off like a bolt of lightning, they don’t call her swift for nothing.

“We are glad to hear of thy success with the help Eclipse,” Luna chimed in, “We have come to deliver thou a most urgent message from Ponyville.” Urgent dammit, what could possibly have gone wrong now?

Celestia just laughed at my shock, “Sister, don’t be so melodramatic. Twilight simply asked about the wellbeing of our dear friend here.” Thank goodness. “I trust you would like me to tell her you are settling in fine.” She finished with a smile.

“Yeah and tell her thanks for asking,” Today can’t stop improving.

“Excellent, before I send a reply, might I ask if you would be willing to make a return visit for a better impression?” Wow sunny looks like she really wants me to go but, there isn’t just Twilight there.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, I wouldn’t want to disturb the peace again,” It’s easy to understand why ponies would be scared of a weird armour spirit.

“Fear not my friend, for We shalt accompany thou to help put our ponies’ hearts at ease,” Luna proudly proclaimed. Doesn’t she have work to do with diplomacy and all that. I know your game you’re just trying to get out of it.

“Okay Luna, if you’re willing to come with me, I’ll go,” Don’t worry moony, I’ve got your back.

“Excellent, We cannot wait to see our precious friends once again. It has been too long,” Luna seemed pretty happy about that, she even flapped her wings a little. Well, seems like She likes the ponies of Ponyville.

“Well, if that is the case I shall send the message to my student,” Celestia said before burning a piece of paper she was holding in her magical grip. Wonder what that was for? Does burning the message cause it to teleport or something? That’s pretty cool, I’ve gotta learn that trick, it could get me out of a bind. Celestia then turned to her sister, “Please say hi to Twilight for me and tell me all about it.”

It’s a shame I can’t get both of them out of work. Just before leaving, she said one final thing to me with a sad look in her eyes, “I hope that the ponies opinion of you improves after today and hopefully your opinion of me.” she then left the library to attend to some paper work or something like that.

“What did she mean by that last part?”

When I turned to look at her, Luna became quite sheepish. “That may be our doing my friend.”

Oh no, “Luna please tell me you didn’t,” she’s told her sister our secret hasn’t she.

“Yes friend, We have informed her of thy presence within Griffonia,” She’s starting to look pleased with herself for some reason, “Worry not, for our sister was very understanding to thy situation and was only upset with thy lack of faith in her character. Saying that, We neglected to inform her of thy possession of our form.”

Okay, this is why I should of came up with an evacuation plan. What’s sunny gonna do to me? Luna how could you betray me like this? Okay, this is fine, Celestia seemed ok, maybe it was just an act to get my guard down. Hope that her feelings weren’t hurt, now that would be terrible. It’s probably a good thing Luna said something really, I never would have had the guts. I’ll apologise for being so afraid of her next time. Really don’t know why she seems so scary.

At the end of my internal meltdown, I looked up to Luna and simply said, “okay, let’s get going.”

At my words Luna stopped holding her breath in anticipation, “Marvellous, We were worried thou may hast been upset with us.” Before she beckoned me with a hoof to follow, “Come along Eclipse, Ponyville awaits.”

Just before leaving Luna seemed to remember something, “Wait a moment where is thy guard? We shall need to inform her of thine absence.”

She’s still sleeping above our heads, “She’s just patrolling the perimeter, don’t worry I’m sure the other guards will tell her what’s up.

After our brief stay in the library, the two of us set off for the pony express, which was peaceful apart from the occasional comments of pony nobles we passed.

“What is that thing?

“Is that a minion of nightmare moon?”

“Keep clear nightmares on her way.”

Apart from that, there weren’t any significant issues. Who is nightmare moon anyway? Upon arriving at the station, we boarded a very impressive carriage ,which turned out to be fully reserved for our use.

“Luna it's impressive we can have a carriage all to ourselves,” There’s so much room and the view of the countryside’s just amazing.

“Is it not my friend? We had a special royal carriage commissioned should either Celestia or myself deign to travel to ponyville.” Well, she may be proud of that decision, but that’s made this a lot less impressive. A whole carriage of space wasted just for the potential that one of the princesses may one day go to ponyville. That’s not to mention the wasted fuel on dragging about a giant slab of metal.

“Maybe the carriage could serve other purposes when you’re not using it?”

“Maybe my friend,” She’s just ignoring me on that.

Upon arrival at Ponyville, Luna immediately rejoiced, “ah the grand return, how We have missed such a quaint town.” I just followed her out of the door and hoped for dear life not to see ponies running with their tails between their legs.

Walking through this town again feels different to the first time. There isn’t any sounds at all. No little stalls set up for a market and no happy ponies going about their day. It’s basically a ghost town. Really hoping this isn’t because Celestia warned them of my approach.

“Does the town seem strangely quiet to thou? We were hoping for more fan fair upon our arrival.” At least my companion thinks it’s weird as well.

“It’s definitely quieter than last time,” there was quite a lot more screaming last time.

Undeterred by the lack of anyone, we continued to our destination, which Luna hasn’t actually told me. It appears as though that giant tree house is getting closer. “Erm Luna, are we going to that tree looking house?”

“Yes, fine observation armoured one, that is the home of our dear friend Twilight,” oh good, I’m glad this walk through emptyville is nearly complete. Luna then continued, “Twilight’s home is ingenious, is it not? the creation of a house from a growing tree is a marvel of modern magic.”

“Cool,” to be fair all magic is a marvel as far as I’m concerned.

Upon reaching the living wood home, I couldn’t help but feel something was wrong. I can see them through the windows, dozens of ponies hiding in the dark room. Okay, what does this mean? Are we about to be ambushed again? Or could it be something worse? Like the ponies seeking shelter with their hero Twilight, who protected them from the big bad smoke monster?

Upon reaching the home, Luna reached up and went to turn the handle. She was clearly unaware of the dangers within, so I had to grab her hoof with my shoe. “Luna something isn’t right.” At that, she stopped and raised an eyebrow at me, “there’s a lot of ponies in that room. I think we should message Twilight again just to be safe.”

At my words, Luna just gave me A knowing smile, “Hark my armoured friend, there is nothing to be afraid of, We are fully aware of the events about to transpire, now come along.”

“I’m not so sure about this,” my warning went unheeded as Luna playfully rolled her eyes and opened the door. Now once Luna stepped in, I just had to follow to present a united front against the potential threat within. In the darkness at least 30 ponies were hiding around the room staring in our direction and faint whispers could be heard. Do they think they’re invisible? “Okay, now what?”

As soon as the words left my non-existent lips the lights flashed on and a deafening cry of, “SURPRISE!” rang out. In a moment of bravery, I valiantly jumped behind Luna to ensure her rear was guarded from the surprise attack. What happened next was strange, as all the ponies remained quiet watching me and the Princess I was supporting from the rear.

Luna suddenly laughed and stepped aside putting me in full view of the attackers, “Eclipse thou will make a fine protector of thy charge.” Hey, I’m good when it counts. Okay so the ponies where just having a little fun at our expense, that’s ok. It shows they aren’t too scared, I can work with this. At that I took a few steps into the room allowing a pink pony to close the door behind us.

The pink pony in question, suddenly charged forward to within a hairs breadth of my faceplate before letting loose a tirade, “Hiya smoky do you like it? Huh huh? I’ve been working on getting everyone together for two days. It took so long. They all were like smokys gonna get us, and I was like no he won’t. Then they thought the princesses had sent you away, and I knew they wouldn’t be so mean so I kept baking cakes, and now you’re here and everyone was super ready, when Twilight said the princesses had redeemed you, which isn’t true because you were always super nice just ask Luna, she knows it. So, did ya get surprised?”

“Yes, erm thanks for inviting me,” that’s all I could say before the crazy party pony sped off into the crowd shouting about how more frosting was required. Well now that’s over I’m a bit lost, “So Luna, what do we do at this party?”

Luna just gave me a smile, “Enjoy thyself Eclipse, the ponies art welcoming thou into their home. Feel free to mingle it may help improve thy image.” At that last word my one and only comrade in arms abandoned me to go and converse with the purple maned pony I believe is called Rarity. Well, no time like the present, just have to find a pony to talk to about stuff and things. No problem, how do you start a conversation with a stranger?

In the distance, I caught sight of a potential conversational target. While most of the ponies turned back to their own private conversations the rainbow maned one continued to stare at me. Well locked on target, so let’s go. She appeared to be talking to that farm pony, Applejack I think her name was. Well, that’s two ponies with one stone if I can get them to accept an apology for knocking them both out, it’ll be a load off my plate.

With that in mind, I began heading over trying to ignore a few pony’s comments.

“I’m glad Luna has that things leash.”

“Do you think they used the elements on it?”

Those random ponies weren’t my target, so it doesn’t matter. Upon closing the gap to the two pony heroes, I overheard the end of their conversation.

“Come on Rainbow let’s give this fella a chance, everyone deserves one,” The farm pony said after finishing a mouthful of cake. “We gave Luna one.”

The response from the Pegasus was a little less positive, “Well I don’t trust a creepy looking dude like that, remember what he did the first time?” okay, so there’s a chance this could go slightly south, but gotta stay optimistic.

Now how do you announce your presence to ponies? I contemplated that while standing behind the oblivious Applejack. Well, let’s just dive in, “Hey ponies, what’s up?” At my words Applejack jumped back and spun 180 to look at me, “aside from you of course.” Okay, that might have broken the ice, maybe.

“What in tarnation are ya doing? Y’all coulda received another buck if I wasn’t prepared.” She said while calming down. Really need some pony etiquette training. “Y’all are pretty quiet on them their metal hooves of yours.” She finished with a slight smile.

I couldn’t help but scratch my helmet at that, “Sorry that’s more of a recent development,” it worked a treat against those griffons, “Just thought I’d say hi.” Maybe I should change my shoes back to their sturdier form?

“Well ain’t that sweet, me and Rainbow here had something we wanted to say to y’all,” Applejack said while gesturing to her staring friend, “We would like to apologise for the cold welcome you received, it just wasn’t very neighbourly of us, right Dash?” As no words came from her chromatic friend, the apple pony gave her companion a quick poke.

Looks like Apples gonna force an apology out of her friend, that’s just as good as her saying nothing really. “Listen closely smoky, I don’t trust you. You may have tricked the princesses with your goody four shoes act, but I’m on to you,” with each word she hovered slightly more into the air while aggressively pointing a hoof at me, “I’m watching you buster,” before she flew off leaving me wishing she never said anything at all.

“Ah shucks,” Apple couldn’t help but awkwardly laugh at that “Well she means well.”

“It's fine,” It was unrealistic to expect anything else really.

“Look ponies aren’t used to seeing fellas as different from a pony as you,” well that’s disappointing.

“I know what ponies are like in that regard,” the maids in Canterlot taught me that.

Sensing the drop in my mood the apple farmer changed the subject, “so smoky how’d ya like the party so far?” Its only just started.

Looking around I can see a lot of ponies just enjoying themselves dancing and eating cake its quite nice. “I like seeing people happy, it’s nice,” at least the other ponies are tolerating my presence, to a degree anyway.

Applejack just smiled at that, “Yeah Pinkie pie throws the best parties, there was no way anypony would miss it.” She then put down her cake and raised her hooves to me before shadow boxing, “at some point me an you are gonna hav ta go for round two, that first time took me by surprise.”

“What do you mean by that?” we haven’t done any rounds of anything.

She just rolled her eyes, “our wrestling match last time ya came. Just hit me up when y’all are available to tussle.”

“Oh,” I was starting to think she might like me; ah doesn’t matter being civil is all I need.

“Ah come on big guy, wrestling’s a way to build character there’s no need to be any negative stuff involved,” So is she saying she wants to play with me? That’s weird but ok. “I’d of easy beatn y’all if the princesses hadn’t shown up and saved ya behind.” Well, she seems pretty confident in her skill. I suppose if we were play fighting, I wouldn’t drain her magic so maybe she could win.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her words, “That kick you gave was pretty strong.” It’s hard to believe that a kick from such a small pony could launch me so far.

“Well, that’s what ya git from a famous apple bucker,” wonder what kind of job that is? “Ya’ll should see me bucking my trees.” Does she kick the trees down? That’s an interesting farming method if not a bit wasteful.

Well at least it went okay with one of those two, I’m glad Celestia suggested this. “Hey thanks for being so understanding Applejack, about the other day.”

“Aw shucks no need to worry about that,” she waved me off with a hoof.

“Well thanks for your time, I’m under the Princess’s orders to mingle, so I’m going to try and meet some others,” well that went well. Wonder who I could talk to next?

“Just one more thing,” huh oh it’s probably a bit rude of me to just walk out of a conversation, woops.

“Oh, what’s up?”

“I like to think I give everypony a fair chance, which to be frank we all failed at on your first day,” Is that all, another apology? Well, she was just trying to keep her town safe.

“It's fine.”

She suddenly gave me a serious look, “I’m not quite finished partner. If you ever hurt any of my friends or break the princesses trust again, I will come for you. Ya here me?” well that came from nowhere. I could only stare at the sudden change in temperament. What do you say to something like that? As suddenly as it had come the ice in Apple’s tone melted and she began to smile at me, “Now git, this party ain’t waiting around.”

Okay, that didn’t go as well as I thought, hmm. Still, it wasn’t entirely negative, she’s just looking out for her friends. I can respect that. Now who to talk to next? All these ponies seem to be in their own private conversations. It probably wouldn’t be nice to repeat it the same way as with Apple, but what other way is there?

At the other side of the room, I spied my next target. A very familiar crème coloured mare with red hair. That’s a wrong that needs putting right if ever I’ve seen one, so without delay I walked over with my shoes returned to their original fully solid form, in an attempt to announce my presence.

The pony in question, was talking with two other mares who upon my approach both casually wandered off. Okay, that’s not a good sign, but I’ll persevere. She is at a party for me after all.

“Hey guys where’re you going,” she said as I stood a metre behind her. As if sensing my presence, she immediately froze in place and slowly turned her head to look up at me. This is bad, abort mission. I immediately took a few steps back to try and calm the clearly panicking mare.

“Oh erm hello again, please don’t be freaked out or anything,” Well an attempt was made. The mare in question just stared at me wide eyed starting to steadily back away from me. “So, how’s the flower selling business going? Your selection seemed interesting.” At my final attempt at mending bridges, the pony lit a figurative fire on the foundations and legged it after her friends.

Well, that was weird, why don’t the other ponies act as scared as that? It would just be my luck to walk into the most skittish pony in town the first time I arrive.

“Did you guys see that? That thing just scared Rose.”

“Is it harassing Rose again?”

“I hope she’s ok.”

“Do you think it’s going back to its old ways?”

I can’t believe it. Rose, you are the catalyst of my downfall. Looking around the room, many of the ponies that were before enjoying their time together had started to give me sideways glances. I really don’t want to be a bother. Better head back to Luna.

On the way over, I kept hearing snipped bits of ponies talking about my potential vile deeds. It was pretty disheartening. They were also moving out of my path which, while admittedly making it easier to reach my friend, made it even more clear the initial welcoming atmosphere had started to ware off. Maybe more ponies have a similar level of fear to Rose?

When I neared my safe harbour, Luna dragged me into a riveting conversation. “Hey Eclipse, Rarity is just explaining how one would don a corset in this day and age.” Ponies wear corsets? Don’t think I’ve seen any wearing anything besides work uniforms and hats.

“Darling, corsets haven’t been in fashion for at least one hundred years,” the posh pony replied with her nose in the air. Damn I still can’t believe Luna’s over one thousand years old.

“Pray tell, what else doth ponies wear to the gala if not a corset and gown?” Luna asked in confusion.

“Princess gowns are very much still in fashion, but ponies also wear extravagant dresses as well,” Rarity suddenly became a little embarrassed, “I’m actually working on some designs for my friends.”

“Is that so? We would love to see thine work,” Luna said ecstatically. That’s a great idea, if we go and see her designs I don’t have to stay here and ruin the party.

“Oh no your majesty, I don’t believe my dresses would be fit for a Princess to see.” Hey Rarity don’t ruin this for me, we need to get out of here.

“I’d like to see your designs to. You sound like you know a lot about clothes and stuff.” Come on I need this escape.

Rarity then looked at me wide eyed and started to look a tad worried, “I never took one such as you to be interested in clothes.” Hey I can like things. Granted I don’t care about clothes, but still.

Luna quickly supported me in the worst way, “Come now my little pony dost thou not see what stands before thee. Our companion is a suit of armour, that practically is clothes.” I’m more than just clothes. Wish Luna thought a bit more highly of me. “Rarity, if thy designs are exquisite enough, We may commission a gown from thee.”

At the mention of a potential royal commission, the purple maned pony’s eyes practically flashed bits, “Of course Princess if you both accompany me, I can show my designs. Lets go right now.” She then gave a strained smile as she walked to the trees entrance. Excellent, freedom from the staring eyes.

Just as I was about to follow along, a pink blur occurred in front of my faceplate, brandishing a slice of cake. “Hey smoky, you weren’t gonna go without trying my scrumptious cakes were ya, huh huh?” where did that pink pony even come from? One moment it was just air, the next cake.

Well, I can’t eat so its going to be a no from me. “Pinkie thanks for the offer, but maybe someone else…” as I looked into the party pony’s happy hopeful eyes it felt like I was messing with something sacred. I can’t ruin Pinkie’s day, she’s clearly trying her best to make me feel welcome. Oh, what to do.

Okay, I’ve got it. To appease the party pony, I reached forward and took the admittedly amazing looking cake with a shoe. The next step was to give the cake a sniff to show interest. Hmm strawberry’s, I think. Well, there’s nothing for it now, with a few over exaggerated movements I lifted my helmet and pushed the cake, plate and all in before covering it over to hide it from sight. “That was nice thanks.” I said while tapping my chest plate.

At my actions the mare began bouncing on the spot, “Wowee I’ve never seen a pony so desperate for cake, well toodles,” and then she just bounced back into the crowd from whence she came.

My two party escape assistants were both stood by the door waiting for me. Rarity had her mouth open in shock while Luna was just smiling at me. “Eclipse, hast thou had thy fill of cake?” I just nodded at that, “Then let us be off,” Luna said before opening the door. Dammit, now I have to carry this cake around with me.

The walk to Rarity’s home was a short one, as this town was fairly small so it wasn’t long before Rarity announced, “Welcome to my humble abode.” Gesturing for us to enter with a hoof. This place is anything but humble is all I could think, looking at the massive carousel building. It’s a bit ostentatious really, but who am I to judge pony architecture.

Once inside Rarity immediately directed Luna’s attention to some dresses, “so your majesty these here are dresses I’ve designed for the day to day life in Canterlot.” At Rarity’s words, I couldn’t help but realize a major problem. I really don’t care about clothes. Well at least I’m away from the party.

“Thy selection is quite diverse, dost thou do many custom jobs?” with Luna firmly distracting the seamstress, it seemed like a great idea to wander around the store a little on my own. There might be something interesting for me to buy, you never know.

Wandering to the other side of the shop, seemed to yield many other different styles of clothes, which I knew nothing about. Well maybe I could get some tips for my own armour designs? With that thought I heard a thumping coming from my side, which led me to a set of stairs. Descending said stairs, was a smaller than average pony. About a third of the height to be exact.

“Rarity your back,” was all she said before clocking eyes on me and stopping half way down. That’s probably Rarity’s sister, she sure is short for a pony. Just like how Luna's shorter than Celestia.

Using all of the social experience I’d gained from the party, I waved at the even tinier pony, “Hello, I’m here to look at Rarity’s clothes, wait where are you going?” well she’s changed her mind about coming down stairs.

With a sigh I began heading over to my two companions. Really thought that once I’d escaped the party there’d be no ponies to scare.

“Thy standard design's art quite impressive, however they are not what we have come to see, where art thy gala designs?”

“Over here Princess, but please don’t judge me on them alone.” Rarity sounded pretty nervous there.

Those two are still talking about dresses. Well, these clothes seem different here, almost like suits. She must make clothes for stallions as well. Looking at the suit gave me an idea. Wonder if I can mimic one of these? They might be less threatening.

With that thought, I stared at the closest suit and began to change my form. It was pretty strange changing from solid metal to cloth, but not a difficult process. My chest piece easily changed into that of a suit jacket with long sleeves. The lack of any trousers to go with the suit was irritating leaving me to make my own. For the final piece I formed a top hat to replace my helmet. Well, that was fun.

“Rarity, these designs seem rather unorthodox, if thou dost not mind me saying.”

Well, this form has a pretty major drawback. The lack of solid material really hampers standing up. Okay this is fine, seem to be relying much more heavily on my mist to hold me up, but I can deal. Walking up to the two distracted ponies, one large blue one looking confused at a dress. The other small white one seeming to be about to burst into tears for whatever reason.

“Hey guys, look at me.” Okay, now to pull my best nobles pose. Right all legs straight as possible dammit, why doesn’t cloth stay still? The ponies in question both turned to look at me and both reacted with varying levels of shock. You can guess which one was more surprised.

Rarity took the lead, “Dear Faust, have you possessed one of my suits.” What? Did you make any trousers? No.

Luna was a bit more reserved, “Huh, We were unaware thou had such capabilities.”

“Hey, I didn’t possess your stuff. I can change my form at will, with some effort anyway.” Hey I had to do something to occupy myself, “so how do I look?”

“Well darling you look quite erm, handsome?” Rarity didn’t sound too confident there. She then got a wistful look on her face, “Wow, one set of clothes that can be anything you want. I’d never have to sew again. Luna, you're so lucky.” Hey I’m not Luna’s property.

“Yes, We art lucky to have such a good friend as Eclipse,” See Luna knows what’s up. My best friend suddenly gained a very happy expression, “Rarity thou may not need to craft us a gala dress.” Oh no, that’s not what I want to hear. “Eclipse would thou do us a favour for a moment?”

Five minutes later and I’m beginning to hate existing again. “Darling could you extend the hem down about half an inch?”

“Sure,” It took the two ponies a disappointingly short amount of time to get me on board with this. Upon agreeing the two of them started to give me various instruction on how to change myself, leading to my current form. A black ball gown with dark blue accents and high heels. Due to the two of them neglecting to design a headpiece, I reformed my original helmet, so there was something to use.

“We think thou needs a moon symbol closer to the rear,” Luna suggested, while poking my fabric behind.

“Okay, Rarity, get those scissors away from me.”

After another five minutes, I’d flipped my opinion of the situation once again. Its kind of nice to be wanted for my abilities and they're both taking a keen interest in me. The embarrassment never left me though.

“Okay darling, I think your finished. Would you stop lifting the rear off the ground? Its meant to drag along behind you.” Rarity said while trying to pin the hem to the ground with a hoof.

“That’s quite uncomfortable for me to be honest.” Do you drag your rear along the ground? I should think not.

“Don’t worry Eclipse, We believe that thy floating appearance gives off a very otherworldly appeal, would thou not agree?” she finished up pointing to Rarity.

“Okay I see your point. They do look like they're stuck out in the wind though.” Hey you try to keeping mist still.

“Okay guys how do I look?” well hope they had fun.

“Thou looks quite, erm beautiful my friend,” Luna started off with a slightly red face. Well, this is embarrassing.

“Yes, you look quite radiant. It could even be said that you were a dress fit for a Princess,” okay, well suppose those are nice things to say to someone.

“Well thanks for the advice. If I ever need to be a dress, I’ll use this one,” I say while looking down at my flowing form, “Okay, think I want to explore Ponyville a bit while the parties distracting everyone.”

Rarity didn’t seem too happy about that idea, “Oh do be careful, there’s an awful lot of mud outside.”

That made me laugh a bit, “Don’t worry, I’m machine washable.”

“Ah, We shall accompany thou,” Luna said, the redness only just dying down from her adorable face.

“Weren’t you going to review Rarity’s gala dresses?” That’ll distract them.

Luna seemed lost in thought for a moment before acknowledging what was said, “Oh yes, please explain the reasons for these strange styles.”

Just before I closed the stores door I heard a slightly pained cry from Rarity, “These aren’t my new designs! They’re hideous. Luna, you have to help me, please.” I’m sure Luna can handle that.

While wondering around the outskirts of town, I reformed my original armour due to almost collapsing a few times. Don’t think regular clothes will ever be my thing, armour all the way. Once complete, I realized I was stood right at the spot I'd entered town from the Everfree the first time.

Well, the ponies don’t really want me in town and according to that book, there’s a few interesting things to find. Maybe even more wolves to eat. That first one sure was tasty. Ah screw it, I easily found my way out the first time. I’ll only be gone an hour, so, onwards. With that, I walked back into the welcoming dark forest.

Author's Note

I know nothing about dresses.

8: Forest Wandering

Chapter 8

This place sure gets dark quickly, was all I could think looking up at the light choking canopy. Only a five minute walk into the forest and the light levels were almost that of a cave. To avoid getting lost like last time, I made sure to stick to clear pony made paths.

It’s not like it matters either way, even if I went missing no pony would care, besides Luna. Some of the ponies actually seemed afraid of her as well and I’ve just ditched her with one of Rarity’s problems. Well, I’m sure she understands. She was okay when I went missing in Griffonia. Well, she wasn’t to upset.

As I followed the winding path, I spied an interesting sight. There in an opening in the canopy was a small patch of blue flowers. That got me thinking, Luna’s a mare and they like flowers, right? Maybe if I get her one of these blue ones, she’ll be less angry with me. I’ll just say how I saw them and they reminded me of her coat or something like that.

Upon picking a flower at the edge of the field I began to feel a mild magical effect. That’s strange, well free food and all that. Continuing to hold the flower I consumed the tiny amount of present magic causing it to droop slightly. If these’ll grow in a pot, I could farm my own food. No need to go searching.

While distracted by the blue grove, I missed out on the soft sounds of movement through the brush beside me. Right up until it was just a meter away. As I turned to look hoping to see a timbre wolf for dinner, I was met with a different result. A strange lion with wings and a scorpion’s tale.

“I can only assume you’re a manticore,” that’s how the book described them anyway. It also said they were aggressive so I got into a ready position. Basically, just turning to face it. I really need some combat training.

Seeing how its ambush had been foiled, the creature stalked steadily towards me staring me straight in the eye holes. Right up until it was just half a meter away it suddenly stopped and gave me a quizzical look.

“What are you waiting for? Come at me then.” I’m sure this’ll be fine it’s just a big cat. Wonder how much magic it has?

The lion hybrid paid my words no mind and instead began sniffing the air around me. Okay, this is strange. As it stepped close enough for me to touch it, I put my shoes up ready to intercept, but it was just content with the sniffing. Okay diplomacy time, with the cat that matched my size sniffing my chest plate I patted it on the head.

I winced slightly after my action, but the manticore didn’t care and began to paw lightly at my chest. Huh, this thing really is just a big cat. At my continued petting it began to lean into my shoe for more. This is nice, wonder if ponies like to be pet? They have soft fur like this too, wish I had fur. I’ll test it on Luna sometime.

After a few minutes of petting, the manticore seemed to have it's fill and walked back into the brush with just a slight look back over its shoulder. “Bye,” I said while giving a wave. Ah I needed that. Wonder if those things are friendly with ponies?

Okay, well distraction over, onwards and all that. Let’s see what else the forest has to offer. Just before continuing I picked up my drained flower and popped it through my helmets horn hole as not to lose it.

As the path continued to twist and bend, I eventually came upon a very familiar area. The location of my legendary battle with the timbre wolves. Evidence of destroyed trees and crushed plants still remained after my two-day absence. Those other wolves could still be nearby. Looking around for some sort of lead came up empty. There were plenty of deep shoe prints from my clumsy self, but not really any signs of the doggos.

Looking at the shoe prints made me realize just how clumsy I was just a short time ago. Suppose you need to learn fast when you think your lives on the line.

Back to the wolves, it’s probably not right for me to hunt them, when there’s an all you can eat buffet just a little way into the forest. Might as well think of some other way to wait out that party.

Thinking of that party really sours my mood. Maybe I could just sleep somewhere? The creatures don’t seem to mind my presence.

Heading further down the path I reached a gentle stream pouring into a small lake. This’ll be perfect. Finding a spot of nice soft grass on the streams edge, I lied down with my helmet on my shoes. Listening to that water flow sure is relaxing.

After I don’t know how long, my sense of time sucks, a loud splash from the lake disturbed me. Okay, now what? Opening my non-existent eyes. How does that work anyway? I looked up from my position to see four sets of very large eyes. Not wolf eyes but reptilian ones. Oh no, a damn hydra.

The beast’s heads all surrounded my lazing form. They appeared to each be examining me. One of them even slightly nudged my rear. Okay, just not going to move. After what felt like an eternity the hydra seemed to lose interest and sank back into the water.

Okay I get it now, my form resembles a pony so things want to eat me, but when they get close enough, they realize a problem. There isn’t any meat on my bones, in fact there isn’t any bones at all. Couldn’t help but laugh at that. Those timbre wolves must have just been so stupid or ravenous, they never noticed.

I could so easily live the rest of my life here. Infinite food from the flowers, no creatures that want to harm me and I’ll be far enough away from ponies that I won’t bother them, win win. The lack of conversation partners would be lonely though. Wonder if I could move here and Luna would visit? She’d probably prefer me to come back to the castle. With that thought I laid my head back down.

What felt like almost the exact moment when I started feeling comfortable, another rude interruption occurred. This time from far above me in the trees. It sounded almost like, voices?

“It's still down there get ready.”

“I’m ready, are you?”

“We’ll only get one chance to impress Rainbow.”

Looking up into the canopy I couldn’t see the source of the voices and that made me nervous. “Hey who’s up there!?” Hopefully some ponies haven’t come looking for me. With my shout the voices stopped their debating and silence rained for a good minute.

“Okay if you’re not coming out, I’m just going to sleep,” I said while putting my head back down still staring up at the canopy. If they attack, I’ll be ready.

After what felt like forever the inevitable happened, “Now,” and three pint sized ponies fell down from above, landing on all sides of me, a net between them. I probably should have done more than just look up.

“We caught it, we did it, rainbow will be so proud,” a bright orange fun size pony shouted.

The three ponies then started jumping around, high hoofing before simultaneously shouting, “Cutiemark crusaders Ghostbusters yay.” They then went on to check each other’s flanks in a strange ritual.

Once whatever they were after never occurred, they collectively sighed before one with a light purple mane complained, “I was so sure that this was the one.”

I’m sure I’ve seen her before. That’s it, Rarity’s sister maybe, “Hey I’ve seen you before,” all three ponies turned to me, “aren’t you Rarity’s sister?”

“I know you thought you were being so clever haunting our home right under our noses,” I was only there for an hour tops, “Rarity will be pleased when we tell her the Ghost of the Everfree’s been contained.” She stood on her hindlegs at those last few words. Seems this is a big moment for them.

Hey I’m not a ghost either. Ghosts are dead people, I’m alive. You’d probably count me as a spirit. Wonder if there was a time when I was flesh and blood? It makes sense as I liked having a body before. Don’t really remember ever having my own though. Maybe that’s what it’s like to be dead?

Anyway, back to the ponies, “Rarity’s more likely to be disappointed you came into the Everfree, it’s not safe,” that pulled the wind from her sails.

The red maned pony piped up next, “It’s a might bit safer without a fella like you runnin around.” Huh, she sounds a bit like Applejack.

“Look tiny ponies, you know Rarity invited me into her home as well as the Princess,” she probably never even noticed Luna downstairs.

“That’s a likely story ye varmint,” the miniature applejack retorted.

“Yeah,” her back up joined in. This is getting old.

“Rainbow told us how you were bad news for the town,” the orange Pegasus chimed in. Is each of these related to one of the heroes? Do they all have a fun sized version? It makes sense that the mini-Rainbow wouldn’t like me.

“Makes sense, so now what?” we can’t just sit here forever can we? Saying that, I could just go back to sleep.

At my question the three ponies formed a quick huddle to discuss their next move. Maybe I should just stand up, they’ve only covered me with a net. Not like it's nailed down or anything. Even then it’s not a solid sheet, if I messed about enough with my form, I could probably pass through it.

After a short recess the mini ponies still looked confused. Rarity’s sister finally said something audible, “I’ve got to admit we never thought this far ahead.”

“Sweetie, the jobs clearly not finished, we can still earn our cutiemarks,” orange said. What’s a cutiemark anyway?

“Yeah, I reckon we need ta get him back to town,” the miniature apple reckoned.

The voice of reason, Sweetie then piped up, “How are we supposed to do that? he’s huge.” Compared to you guys maybe, I’m only twice as big as a normal pony.

“I’ll help you with that, I can just walk back to town. Luna’s probably waiting for me anyway,” don’t think I’m quite ready to see Ponyville again, but needs must. This forest is probably pretty dangerous for ponies of their stature.

“That would be mighty kind of you,” at least Apple has some manners. At her confirmation I nodded and got up on my shoes.

The second I did so another shout rang out from one orange pony, “Jail breach, action stations!” this prompted the three ponies to jump onto the net. This apparent attempt to pin me down after asking me to walk back, resulted in the three dangling around my chest plate.

Sweetie then voiced what everyone was thinking, “I don’t think we’ve got him.”

The other two just looked at her, “ya think?”

These tiny ponies are more annoying than the regular ones. Looking down at the group I simply said, “shall we go?” This prompted the three of them to let go one by one.

“Okay, you can walk back but no funny business,” orange said with eyes narrowed. She really is a mini Rainbow.

I couldn’t help but let out a light laugh “okay let’s… go.” Just as I dropped the net on the ground a familiar splashing sound occurred behind. Oh, damn I forgot about that thing. Coming out of the water behind us once more, was a familiar four headed Lizard. This time I don’t think my lack of edible parts are going to help.

“It’s coming to free the ghost! We have to stop it,” the mini stupid pony said in a panicked voice.

“Scoots don’t be silly, let’s get out of here!” Ah sweetie you’re my favourite of the fun sized brigade.

“You three get back to Ponytown I’ll distract it.” I said without turning away from the hydra.

“Be careful mister,” Okay, maybe Apple is a bit more polite.

At any rate the three ponies began running the wrong way down the path leading them further into the forest. It’s just my luck to get stuck with them. Even though I was standing directly in the hydras path it was staring straight over my head at their retreating forms.

“Okay snaky, there’s no need to do anything rash, just go back to sleep and it’ll all be the way it was.” My attempts at talking down a wild animal fell on four pairs of deaf ears and the hydra attempted to charge straight through me.

Somehow, I just knew there was no way my proportionally tiny body could stop the charging monster so, in a feat of extreme genius, or panic I jumped. Not out of the way mind you, which was the smart and cowardly thing but straight into the air, which was the brave and stupid option. How was it brave? Well, my jump landed me squarely upon the back of the charging beast between its middle heads. Completely on purpose and no one can say otherwise.

The overgrown lizard paid my landing no mind and began chasing my former captors further into the forest smashing through bushes, trees and boulders. My only solace came from the fact it was so large and cumbersome it lacked the agility to immediately catch up to the little nuisances.

For my part in this, all I could do was hold on for dear life hoping not to be thrown off before enacting my plan. Okay, I’m on its back, so magic drain time. It’s the one thing I know how to do reliably and it hasn’t failed me yet. “Don’t worry ponies I’ve got this.” Best to let them know how it’s going.

The ponies didn’t really react like they heard what I said, continuing to sprint through the trees with practiced ease. At least they seem to know where they’re going.

With the crusaders unfaltering pace and my magic draining, the hydra steadily slowed down. Clearly it was tiring and knew such spry prey would no longer be worth the effort. The three of them together were barely a mouthful. With its original targets lost the four heads turned to me.

At this moment the thoughts going through my head were pretty mixed. The first one was, yay heroism successful. Sadly, it was mostly drowned out by the second one. Wow this thing looks mad.

“Hey erm, ya know it’s, ahem wrong to hurt innocent people? Heh heh.” The creature continued to stare at the tiny metal bug stuck to its back, “You know they’ve escaped now, so we might as well be civil, right?”

The hydra was so convinced by my sincere words that it opened the jaws of two of its mouths and grabbed both of my rear shoes before beginning to pull. Ok, just keep draining, it’ll go down, won’t it? Whatever I do I can’t let go.

With the best will in the world I gripped onto the hydras scaly hide but with each passing second, I could feel my entire body being stretched out further and further. When I looked back it kind of looked like I was a spring being pulled to its limits and the hydra wanted this spring to snap, and oh boy it did.

Pain similar to Celestias demonstration rang through me only hundreds of times worse as my legs were pulled clear from me. Just gotta hold on, its fine. Who am I kidding? yeah right. Even if I wanted to let go right now I probably couldn’t with the amount of fire coursing through my mist. Losing entire limbs is so much worse than just a small amount of smoke.

Okay, just need to shut out the pain it’ll be okay, I can just magnet back together, its fine. Looking up at the menacing eyes I came to a realization, “Don’t do it, please I need those.” With a great amount of glee the lizard swallowed my legs whole. “That’s not even food for you!”

This thing apparently didn’t care and was clearly irritated by my continued existence, so again tried its best to rectify it. This time the attempt game from a roll onto its back. Now I did see this coming but if I were to jump off, what would I do next, hmm? Anyway, upon pressing its full weight upon me the only result was a me shaped whole in the ground before it again stood up.

With it's enemy now covered in dirt, the lizard began to roar at me. It would have intimidated me if a familiar feeling hadn’t returned. My legs, I could feel them again. They must have gotten close enough to me while inside the creature’s neck. Still feeling the agony of separation, I tried to magnet them back to me which had a most peculiar effect.

Two of the heads immediately stopped their psychological warfare and instead began to wheeze and gasp. The unaffected heads began to look concerned and began biting at the area I assumed my legs were at. Yeah just try and clear that blockage, “give me back my legs!”

Blinded by panic, Snaky clearly wasn’t thinking straight and began whipping its head around smashing the trees around us. The pointless tantrum would probably have continued indefinitely if it wasn’t for the smashing of a small glass bottle. Said bottle released a green gas that covered not only me, but the entire hydra.

Okay, what now? I can barely see. The effects upon the hydra were rather more pronounced. It's heads steadily stopped whipping around and eventually its body tumbled down to the ground. Oh, I win? Well time to get my legs back.

Still within the smoke, I got to work. Dragging myself along the beast’s necks probably would have looked pretty awkward, but it was the only way to easily bring my legs to an exit point. Upon reaching the beasts mouth, both limbs magnetted back to their original positions and almost all was well. Oh dammit, it’s in my shoes, it’s in my legs, it’s in so many places, bleh.

While scraping out as much of the hydra innards as possible, I couldn’t miss the sound of light hoof steps upon the path. The bringer of smoke themselves I presume? Before me stood a strange black and white pony with a brown cloak. When I say they were black and white, I don’t mean black mane white fur but full-on alternating stripes covered what I could see.

Upon noticing my staring, the strange pony seemed surprised, “I expected you to be asleep, and counting sheep.” Okay, is this mare trying to help me or harm me?

“Gas won’t work on me, I don’t need to breath.” Well best stand ready incase she’s got anything else in that bag of tricks. She seems to have a stick as well, is that a weapon?

“How strange, you make for an interesting change.” think some parts of my brain went missing inside that hydra, because she sounds really weird for some reason.

“So, are you here to attack me as well? Just know that hydra was right where I wanted it,” did that come off as a threat? Well, it’s a pony so off course it did.

“No need to fret, for I am no threat,” huh, well maybe it’s my lucky day. Maybe she saw the tiny ones.

“Well, if you aren’t hunting me, maybe you could help me out,” At that point the hydra wheezed slightly. I reacted in a calm and dignified manor resulting in a minor yelp and a slight defiance of gravity, “More than you already have I mean, heh.”

As if sensing my intent, the stripy pony responded, “Stranger, the foals are out of danger.”

“Foals, you mean the fun sized ponies?” the mare just looked up at me giving a confused nod, before I dropped from my branch, “oh thank goodness, Rarity would have killed me if something happened to her sister.” Also, the other two matter, even the orange one.

Well, I’d better catch up to them no telling what could happen, “Wait you must halt your gait.”

“What why?” I said while starting to walk past her.

“All will be Fine if you do not pass this battle line,” she said while stepping in front of me and giving me an analytical stare.

Dammit I knew she was bad news. She’s probably kidnapped those ponies. At that I attempted to run past her receiving a quick tap to my foreleg for my trouble, causing me to unbalance and trip. “Hey I’ve messed with bigger things than you.” At my words she tapped me upon the helm. This strike again knocked me off balance, she’s really good at the. “What do you want?” I said while getting to my shoes a second time.

“For what reason, does your head bare poison?” what’s she talking about. She then raised her stick once more and lightly taped the flower I’d picked for Luna.

“It’s just a flower, I erm picked it for a friend,” well that’s embarrassing. I then tried my best to cover it with a hoof for better protection. It survived the hydra, so I’m sure it’ll be fine but the thought still counts.

“An ill present you have chosen, for a flower of poison you have taken,” after expelling her warning she seemed to somehow relax.

“It’s okay, I’ll warn her of the effects,” I’ll tell her not to eat it, job done. I’d hate to make Luna sick. “Anyway, if the flowers poison is magical, I’ve dealt with that.”

After that, Stripe pulled a pair of tongs from her bag and expertly removed the flower from my helmet, before examining it with a critical eye, “It appears any magic fragment, seems to be absent.” She seemed quite surprised at the revelation. Maybe these flowers are pretty dangerous?

Before I could respond the mare expertly replaced the blue beauty, “Hollow now you must follow, the foals worry for your soul.” Hollow? I may be empty, but I have spirit thank you very much.

Just before setting off, there was one final thing bothering me, “erm pony, why aren’t you afraid of me?” at that she just seemed confused, “Not that I’m complaining or anything it’s just, well I just want to understand something.” Maybe I can figure out how to better introduce myself to others.

“Why would I fear, someone so sincere?” huh she just thinks I’m a good person, is that it? She knows I wanted to help the fun sized foals. “It is a shame you must ask such a question, and my name is Zecora.” She said with a coy smile.

Oh whoops, “Oh yeah, nice to meet you,” I forgot to ask her name again. She looked at me expectantly for a moment like she wanted me to say more. “Oh, erm please lead the way.” The pony just shook her head and started walking down the path.

After a short walk along the winding path, we came across a really strange tree. It kinda reminded me of Twilight's, but with a much creepier vibe. Okay I’m certain she’s not some psycho who eats people. She’s just your average stripy pony, who wears a dark cloak and lives in a deadly forest.

Upon opening the door, my fears soon fled at the response.

“Zecora you’re ok.”

“We were a might bit worried about ya’ll.”

“Did ya get the ghost?”

Few, at least the girls are ok. Maybe I should just leave now? Zecora didn’t give me that option, for as soon as she stepped inside, she greeted the ponies, “Greetings friends I’ve returned from my quest,” Before pointing me out, “and I have brought a new guest.”

Oh ok, well best shoe forward and all that, “Hi tiny ones, I’m glad nothing happened to you.” With that I braced for their inevitable response.

Rarity’s sister was the first to act, by approaching me and giving my right foreshoe a light hug, “Thanks for stopping the hydra, I really didn’t know what we would have done.”

The miniature apple followed on with, “Oh mister, ya’ll don’t need to worry about us, we know this here forest like the back of our hoof.” Before giving a bright smile. Oh well that’s a nice surprise.

Finnally game Rainbows clone, “Don’t touch that thing, what if its just biding its time?” Well two out of three isn’t bad.

With what happened next you could say I’d shown three out four. Once I’d wiped my shoes, Zecora calmly closed the door behind us, before turning to the orange pony with disappointment, “Scootaloo, do not treat your hero like a zero.” Technically Zecora did everything but ok.

“But Zecora, Rainbow said…” the tiny pony wilted under the striped ponies gaze, “Okay erm ghost, thanks… I guess.” She then looked up at me filled with determination, “but I’m watching you buster.” Is this her playing nice?

“May I offer a drink since we are no longer on the brink?” Zecora asked before I could start arguing with the orange filly.

“Oh, yeah that would be great,” I could do with a pick me up. The three fillies also gave confirmation of their desire. Zecora then went to a pot and began boiling some water. Looks like a hot drink is on the menu.

While the fillies were distracted with the tea making process, I took my chance to survey the tree house. It was quite unique compared to the other pony homes so far, which isn’t saying much as all the ponies seem to be snowflakes.

Anyway, the entire room was filled with various jars and pots upon tons of shelves, each with a different ingredient label. There were also a number of creepy masks hung up. Zecora had some weird tastes in décor. The final peace DE resistance, was a cauldron bubbling away in the centre of the room. This cauldron gave off a distinct smell similar to that of the sleeping gas. Well, that’s the potions origin then.

With my snooping completed, I couldn’t help but become painfully aware of the three small pairs of eyes staring at me. The three ponies clearly wanted to say something, but just didn’t know how to start. I couldn’t help but sigh, todays a long day.

At my apparent acknowledgment of their presence, the apple pony ended the painful moment, “so mister, what’s with that there flower?” while gesturing to my helmet.

Huh oh yeah I forgot about that, “this? it’s a present for a friend of mine.” Wonder if she’s looking for me?

“Ya know its cursed right?” She looks a little concerned. Is this plant really that bad?

“Don’t worry, Zecora said I’ve drained the magic,” I then pointed to the pony for her to reinforce my point. She just gave slight smile and tilted her head side to side in a gesture of non-commitment, “See.”

All three of the mini clones gave me a sideways glance before the horrifying silence returned. Maybe I’ve been here long enough to leave. Why did I accept the tea? It’s holding me prisoner.

Rarity’s sister was next to break the silence’s hold upon us, “So what's it like being the ghost of the Everfree?”

Wo what? I’m not a ghost. I’m not even related to the Everfree. “Look I don’t think you lot are interested in what its like to be me.” At that moment my striped saviour arrived with hot beverages.

“Oo oo, zebrican tea my favourite.” Sweetie clearly was looking forward to the escape from this conversation as well.

Zecora just smiled at sweetie as she began downing the tea before hoofing me a cup, “I did not wish to pry. Please don't take this to imply disinterest. In us would you be willing to intrust?” she said while looking into my eye holes.

Dammit Zecora, you were supposed to save me from this, not continue it further. Looking over at the fun sized ponies, I couldn’t help but notice the interested looks on their faces. Even Scoots lacked her perpetual angry glare.

Sighing again, I tried to think of what being a spirit is like. I have had a physical body briefly when I ‘borrowed’ Luna’s, so maybe I can tell the difference.

“Okay fine if you’re all interested.” What’s interesting about me? “Well for a starters I can fit through really small spaces with my mist if I shrink my armour down.” Is that interesting?

“So, you can’t faze through walls?” why would Sweetie think that? “How’d you invade our home then?”

Oh she still thinks I’m haunting them, “Rarity invited me in.”

Sweetie just looked a bit surprised, “So you know my sister? She gets involved with the weirdest people.” Okay at least she thinks I’m a person.

“So, I can change my form,” Okay just a quick demonstration what to take? With a quick look at the masks in the room I decided to try an armour with a similar design, while also Shrinking down to regular pony size. This resulted in a floating tribal mask along with plant patterned metal armour.

Well, this looks pretty good. The massive amount of mist surrounding me wasn’t the best though. Seems a smaller form has less room for my smoke.

“That additional armour looks very traditional.” Well at least zecora finds that impressive.

“Wo, that looks like it was made for Zecora,” even Scoots likes it.

“Well being my nature, I can be worn by others like a suit of armour, to I suppose protect them and stuff,” at that proclamation my audience just stared at me, “Not that I’m offering myself up or anything.” The foals all made a sound of disappointment and with my untrained eye it seemed like even Zecora was. “Maybe one day.”

Quickly returning to my original form I really struggled to think of anything else to say. Well, there was one more thing. “Ponies don’t really like my kind.” Not receiving any response, I continued, “Most ponies are afraid of me, the ones that aren’t barely tolerate me and I’m getting scared that the ones who like me don’t respect me.”

My audience started giving me strange looks. This is why you don’t talk about this stuff. “I’m actually thinking about leaving pony society, I could quite easily become this ghost of the Everfree you keep calling me.” I really hope Luna would forgive me.

At the conclusion of my words, the third stifling silence set in and I couldn’t help but stare at my fore shoe holding Zecora's tea.

After a moment a small hoof tapped my shoe. Upon looking up, only slightly these ponies are tiny, I saw a genuine look of concern. Of all the ponies to approach me, the little orange one had.

“We know ponies might not like you at first,” that’s blatantly obvious, “But you know ponies used to be afraid of Zecora for being a zebra.” Is that different to a pony?

“But she looks like a pony, the same as you,” Saying that, they were afraid of Crescent that thestral guard and she looked like a pony too. “Okay, I get why.”

“Hollow do not wallow,” Zecora just giggled giving a knowing smile before pointing at the fillies, “they are slow to trust, but in the end they must, for friendship is just.”

That couldn’t help but remind me of my first contact with the pony princesses. Even Luna was cold towards me at first, but her sister suggested friendship and others began to warm up. Friendship really is important to these people. “I suppose you're right.”

“Yeah she is, and you can’t leave Equestria. You have to come back so we can say we caught you,” Scootaloo said with a determined expression.

Do I have to? They clearly don’t want me. Suppose someone needs to escort these little ones out of the forest. “Don’t worry I’ll come quietly,” I said while raising a placating shoe. “Thanks for the, you know, just thanks.” I’m so bad at this.

“Hey ghostly, don’t forget to drink that there tea,” oh dammit Apple I’d forgotten I couldn’t eat stuff.

The cake still nestled in my chest piece should have been enough for that. Well, I can’t just give it back that would be rude. Just gotta do the same trick as with the cake. Extending my mist down into the cup I began pulling the tea into my helmet. Hmm the warmth is quite pleasant. Shame about the lack of taste.

“He’s using a straw!” Scootaloo began laughing at me

“Hollow how do you swallow?” Zecora began looking at me curiously.

“Not really sure to be honest, suppose it’s one of my many talents,” What sort of question is that? Zecora just smiled at my improving mood.

“We still haven’t found our darn special talents but one day,” Apple seemed to be day dreaming at her words.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little, “You all seem pretty talented, you managed to track me down and capture me.” This cheering up is a two-way street.

Two of the little ones began to laugh a bit, but old grumpy faced scoots wasn’t happy again, “You know it’s not nice to laugh at someone, who can’t find their cutiemark.” Cutiemark? Is that like their CV?

“Well Scoot I’ve never heard of such a thing and to be honest likely don’t have one.” Luna did say she would write me up some qualifications.

At my proclamation, the three fillies gasped and all at once let off a tirade, “All ponies have cutie marks, it shows who they are!” While scoots gestured to zecora's rear.

Are they talking about those pictures? I’ve seen so many pictures of apples, sparkles, weapons and tools. Do these marks have a meaning? Celestia and Luna's are just the sun and moon. What could that mean? Luna did say she ruled creatures of the night. “So, if I wanted to fit in better, I’d need one of these marks?”

The three little ones all nodded exuberantly before Zecora stepped in, “Not every species has a mark, yet they all contain a spark.”

That does make sense. The griffons I’ve seen didn’t have any marks and they seem fine. It doesn’t matter very much though, if I’m surrounded only by ponies. I really should get one.

These pictures show off who you are. Maybe a picture of armour? That’s a bit boring, maybe a shield would be better. I do work for Luna and her mark was pretty interesting. Okay, I’ve got it.

Using my ability to modify myself I set about emblazoning my own branding upon my rear. “So, girls what do you think?”

The three fillies all rushed to my behind, Well that’s a little weird. Upon my flank was the mark of a shield with a copy of Luna’s mark in the centre.

“Wow you can just choose your cutiemark? That’s so unfair.” Sweetie pouted.

“Well, it is within my nature,” I went to smile but instead just stared at the little pony.

“Hate to burst your bubble, but its in the wrong place,” Scoot helpfully pointed out.

“Erm woops.” With the little one standing on her hind legs she guided me to the appropriate positioning and my mark smoothly moved over to near my misty tail. “Thanks.”

“Can you give us our marks like that?” She looked up at me with hope.

Oh, dear time to crush some dreams, “As far as I’m aware I can only change myself. Sorry little one.”

The crusaders all became downcast at that, before Sweetie noticed something, “It’s getting super late we need to get back before my sister finds out.”

Well, looks like the return to the unwelcoming town is nigh. With that the four of us bid Zecora goodbye.

“Farewell friends ensure you do not forget to dispel, lest you trigger an alarm bell.” That is a weird goodbye.

It turned out Zecora’s hut wasn’t far from the town and the three fillies knew the exact route to take. They must visit her often. As a result, the colourful unfriendly town appeared through the trees much faster than I would have liked.

Upon breaching the treeline, a most peculiar event happened. A rainbow blur sped towards us at what could have been the speed of sound, before instantly stopping in the air a meter in front of us. What floated before us was a slightly irritated Rainbow dash, wearing a peculiar suit of rainbow armour.

“Where have you three been?” She said to the fillies before pointing to me, “and why are you with that?” Okay she’s in a bad mood.

“We were just trying to get our ghost hunting cutie marks,” Scoots proudly proclaimed before giving Rainbow a raised eyebrow, “erm Dash what are you wearing?”

The floating pony seemed to go slightly red, “Never mind what I’m wearing,” She then looked over to me.

Okay, she clearly wants to know what I’ve been up to, “I was just wondering through the woods and the girls found me. Walking them back seemed like the right thing to do.” Hoping for some brownie points here.

“As long as you guys are safe,” the regular sized pony then pointed at me, “Don’t think you’ve heard the end of this, Luna’s been worried sick.”

At least she isn’t accusing me of kidnapping or anything, “Okay well I’ll head over to her, have you seen her?”

“She’s just leaving the fashion show, come on.” At that the rainbow mare flew off at high speed.

Well, there’s no way anyone’s catching up with her. As if to punctuate my point the three fillies started to run after the Pegasus at an equivalent snail’s pace. Well, I’m not running.

I can’t believe Rarity managed to talk about clothes all day. Poor Luna must be sick to death. Still glad I managed to avoid it. Okay, there’s a lot of ponies outside now and is that a stage? Pinkies parties are truly crazy. Welp the crowds where Rainbow went.

Upon closing the distance, it was clear the party had come to its end and the ponies were leaving whatever event pinkie had put on.

“Eclipse!” a familiar shout rang out from the crowd and a familiar tall, radiant, blue, pegacorn came galloping in my direction. Upon reaching me she immediately hugged me resulting in an aww sound from the crowd. “Thy actions were foolish friend; we were so worried when Rainbow told us of thy exploration.” She then stepped back and looked into my eyes, “Whatever possessed thou to enter such a place?”

I would have responded if not for a slight distraction, “He’s ruining Luna’s coat!” Damn Rarity can shout. Looking down at the best princess’s blue fur I couldn’t help but notice the mud that had rubbed off.

Really wish I had a fur coat like that, “Luna, I’m so sorry.”

“Friend it is fine we do not mind thy transgression as long as thou art ok,” She then looked me over, “Thou will require time with the armourer nay?” she couldn’t help but smile.

“Fine, as long as there isn’t an armour stand involved.” Those armour prisons are a curse I tell you. “What happened with Rarity’s problem anyway?”

“Nothing much, we just told her friends the truth after a demonstration,” she seems quite pleased with herself. “Rarity was so happy she invited us to a communal sleep over.”

“Well, if that’s all it was, are we heading back home now?” If it’s getting late, we might miss our train.

When I turned towards the train station the best princes suddenly stopped me, “Eclipse, thou hast received a mark it appears…” upon getting a better view she immediately blushed.

“Oh, yeah these ponies calling themselves crusaders taught me their significance,” they seemed to think that the world revolved around them, “I thought since I work for you and your my best friend, I should have a similar one.” It’s the first time I’ve seen the princes speechless. “Oh yeah I also found this,” I then hovered over the blue flower, “Thought you might like it, careful though it normally has a poisonous magical effect.”

The flower knocked Luna out of her state of shock. “We shall treasure such a gift my friend,” she said before taking the depoisoned joke in her magic, “About thy mark, we art honoured thou would make such a choice.” Is this mark a bigger deal than I thought?

With that the two of us headed off towards the train together, after the crowd of ponies stopped watching our display of friendship. Well, I’m really glad I didn’t run off now.

“Would thou be willing to attend the Gala as our plus one in a few days,” what? Another party?

“Only if you stay nearby to protect me from the angry ponies,” That last party went so wrong the moment I wondered off.

She just gave me a knowing smile, “Of course my dear Eclipse, we hope thou will stay as close to us as is possible.” Good I’d hate to scare more ponies

“On a side note, do you think Celestia would like my slice of cake?” I said while holding the still pristine cake from Pinkies party.

Author's Note

Rhyming's hard.
You won't believe how much was cut out of this chapter.

9: Night Court

Chapter 9

Whelp, glad todays over and done with, was all I could think while looking back at the steadily shrinking town. Don’t get me wrong, visiting Ponyville had some good points, like meeting Pinkie the energetic pony, Rarity the fashion addict and Applejack the crazy apple farmer. Not to mention Zecora and the crusaders.

The only problem was the other ponies. The ones who never spoke to me. They were clearly still afraid of me. It just goes to show that when I get to know people, they could potentially like me. Hopefully more will come around to tolerate me as much as Luna.

At that thought I looked to my right to see a large blue wing, while to the left sat the pegacorn in question happily looking out of the train's window. Well, she clearly more than tolerates me if she wants to keep her wing around me like that. It’s just a shame about the mud I’m getting on her. I was going to tell her to stop, but it’s quite a nice way to sit really. The only thing stopping me returning the gesture was the dirt upon my left smoky wing.

Upon arriving back in the city of Canterlot, the two of us calmly made our way back to my friend’s castle home. Suppose it’s my home too come to think of it. This walk, likely due to the later hour, was much more peaceful, with quite a few less ponies out on the streets. Not one negative comment flew in our direction. That’s the way it should always be.

Everything was so calm right up until the arrival at the castle gates. How does Celestia always know where we are? Celestia was just sitting calmly in the gatehouse sipping a cup of tea like she owned the place, which she does.

“Ah sister, Eclipse, how was your excursion to Ponyville?” She said while casually looking up from her hot treat. Looking at the blissful substance, reminded me of the Zebrican tea I still had swirling around my head.

Luna wasn’t surprised at all by her sister’s appearance, clearly used to Celestia’s antics and immediately began to excitedly explain, “It was a most delightful gathering Celly, seeing all of our friends again was marvellous.” She then placed her hoof upon my pauldron, “Eclipse even managed to befriend one of the element bearers. There was a point when the element of generosity could not stop talking about them.”

“When was that?” Rarity has an official title? Wonder if all the heroes have one?

“It was after thou had left for thy explorations of the landscape,” she then winked at me. Exploring the Everfree wasn’t that much of a bad idea. I escaped the ponies and made some friends, maybe.

The aurora maned pony gained a wistful look, “Ponyville is such a wonderful town this time of year, I wish I could have joined you.” Yes, you would have loved the manticores, hydras and fun sized assassins.

After our interruption, Luna quickly returned to her apparently interesting story, “Yes, Ponyville looked lovely, nevertheless there was a problem to solve for dear Rarity.” Luna then paused for effect for some reason. “Sister we took part in one of the elements fabled friendship quandaries.” The Princess then just sat with a large smile. Seems she wants some praise.

“Wow sister, it seems I may need to request you to write out a friendship report,” Celestia said with a cocky smile.

The strange thing was, that the excitable blue fluffball seemed to pause and genuinely consider her sisters stupid comment, “Celly, that is not actually a bad idea. Such a report may assist us in future endeavours.” Really Luna, don’t you have important work to do?

Celestia just raised an eyebrow at her sister, before looking over to me, “So Eclipse, did you happen to experience any friendship epiphanies on the level of Lulu?”

Me? Ponies don’t like me? Being alone is nice? I put a hoof to my helmet in thought. It wasn’t all bad. Ah friendship is hard. When I got to know the mini ones, they stopped hating me. Yeah that’s the one. In the end all I said was, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?”

Celestia didn’t seem too impressed with my answer, “erm well yes those are wise words.” Hey that took me thirty seconds to think up. After her initial distaste at my cliché lesson, Celestia appeared to brighten, “So how was Twilight? According to her letter she was really looking forward to meeting you properly.”

Oops. Bailing on that party may not have been the greatest of my ideas, and that’s saying a lot. Was Twilight somewhere in the back looking for me? She wasn’t at that stage.

Luckily for me, Moony knew exactly where Twilight had been, “Ah sister it would have warmed our heart to see Twilight once again, however thy student had locked herself within her lab, before our arrival.” Few, at least it wasn’t my fault, completely.

As Luna spoke, the snowy pegacorn’s face steadily fell, “I had hoped my student had lost much of her neurosis. Twilight will always be Twilight in the end.” Celestia seemed to lose herself in a memory for a second before remembering we were standing before her, “Well as long as the ponies welcomed the two of you with open hooves.”

“That they did sister,” not all of them, “They even created the most delectable of treats for us to sample.” My best friend began to lick her lips at the thought. Almost mimicking her actions, the tallest pony did a miniscule lick. Clearly, she’s tried Pinkies cakes before.

Before Celestia could become too jealous of the shorter pony, I enacted my plan. A plan called, get Celestia to forgive my lies and not execute me. Not the catchiest of titles, but it would serve it's purpose.

Carefully, I floated my immaculate piece of cake in front of the solar mare. The pony in question immediately smelled the delightful treat and I could clearly see her mouth begin to water. “Here Princess. Luna and I saved you a slice.”

“Yes, we know how thou appreciate thy sweet delights,” the moon quickly joined in after giving me a raised eyebrow. What? Brownie points for both of us.

The offered piece was quickly enveloped in a golden aura, which I made sure not to drain, before being dragged straight into the suns awaiting mouth. One moment delicious cake, the next, gone into the abyss. “Thank you friends, it’s good to be remembered,” the giant filly said, while spitting out several crumbs. Wish I could have tried that cake.

“I thought maybe the cake could serve as an apology for this morning,” at my words the cake filled pony gave a confused smile, “I mean when I, ahem didn’t sort of tell the whole truth that one time.” The only thing I could do to show regret was lower my head. Not having a face sucks.

Upon finishing her cake, the Princess immediately straightened up and approached me. Even with a clearly jovial expression upon her face I couldn’t help being a little intimidated. “My armoured friend, what am I going to do with you?” she continued to smile at me. “There’s no need to worry about such a trivial thing.” Sunny seemed like she was about to give me a wing hug before noticing my mud/hydra insides coated state, “Eclipse, did you fall into a ditch or something?”

“We too are curious how thou achieved such a state,” both mares gave me a critical eye. I’m not here you can’t see me. At my silence Luna quickly became impatient, “Nay, how thy current appearance occurred is no longer a concern. Thou must accompany us to the armoury.” Her tone brokered no argument as she beckoned me to follow. “Sister we shall greet thee in the morning.”

“Okay Lulu. It was nice to catch up.” Celestia’s quickly shrinking form responded, as I was led back into Canterlot castle.

Upon reaching the destination, flash backs of Griffonia's armoury began to flow. The only real differences between the two was the lack of gauntlets clearly meant for griffon talons.

Luna made her way to the middle of the room before inspecting the area, “Now Eclipse thou shalt be returned to thy original state. Now, where is the armourer?”

Maybe he’s gone to bed? “Erm Luna, it’s getting pretty late. I can wait until tomorrow.” The maids may need to wash my bed, but that’s their job.

Moony seemed slightly distressed at my words, “Nay my friend, that’s not good enough,” she began quickly searching the room, “If our armour expert has abandoned their post, we shall have to ensure thy health. Prepare thyself.” She quickly opened the taps on the rooms sink.

Not really sure if she knows anything about armour. She is royalty so there is potential. “Luna its fine… ‘bleh’.” Before I managed to finish speaking, the over enthusiastic mare had lit her horn and caused a jet of water to propel towards me. “Luna stop!” was all I could scream as the blast of water continued.

“Nay, we need to remove the thick of thy dirt,” She began angling the water towards my rear legs, which I imagine started to remove a lot of gunk. Sadly, I found it pretty difficult to tell as the wet floor had made me slip over onto my back.

“Please, mercy.” The blast didn’t actually hurt or anything, it was just really annoying and I can say this without a shadow of a doubt. Those griffon maids, were way better at this.

“It is only a small quantity of water armoured one. Thou shalt pony up and bear it.” The mirth that Luna was displaying, clearly played no part in her desire to continue blasting me. She next began to blast my faceplate, removing any trace of the Zebrican tea. I was going to offer that to someone later dammit. Well now I might as well just do as my friend suggested, grin and bear it.

So, for the next ten minutes I was continually assaulted by Luna’s makeshift jet washer. Upon the conclusion of the wash, my form lacked any of the mud. The armoury clearly wasn’t meant to handle such a method of cleansing seeing the floor, walls and ceiling all had a not too inconsiderable amount of muck plastered across them. The poor blacksmith.

“Okay, are we done?” I said while carefully lifting up my shoes and pouring out the trapped water. If my body had a fur coat, I’d look like a drowned rat. When Luna only grinned and nodded I was hit with a moment of realization. “If that was all you were going to do, why bother with the armoury at all?”

“While a simple bath would have sufficed for a being such as thou, we wanted the full authentic armour cleaning experience, it was most exhilarating friend.” Well, she at least seems happy about it. She then lit her horn once again. “Let us complete our hoofwork.”

Expecting another blast of pressurised water, I braced. To my pleasant surprise, all that I experienced was a warm jet of air. Wow magic really is amazing, when it isn’t blasting me across the room. “Ah Luna this part’s a major improvement.”

At my happier tone Luna stopped laughing at my expense, “We art glad thou like it, we are willing to assist thou in future if thou require it.”

“Not if you’re going to blast me like that,” I’m pretty sure I know how to run a bath.

“Well, thou could join us in the communal baths in the near future if thou wishes.” A swimming pool? That would let me know if I can swim or not.

“Okay, swimming might be interesting.” When Luna completed her magical blow drying, I quickly inspected myself, “Huh you’ve done a good job Princess, thanks.” Your method may be terrible, but it was effective.

Looking out the window I could see the light shrinking, “Well I suppose it’s about time to say good night.”

Moony seemed shocked at the mention of her nights soon approach, “Oh thank thou, we were almost late for Celestia's sunset.” She then provided me with an immense show as her horn’s aura glowed incredibly bright. At the exact same moment, it became possible to see the moon rapidly rising through the window.

Luna then gave me an expectant look, “So what did thou think?”

That the moon moves very quickly? “That was an incredible light show. It might have been the most magic I’ve seen in a single moment.” She probably isn’t ruler for nothing. It’s strange how the moon seems to have stopped right in the centre of the window. “Shouldn’t the moon be higher?”

“We delayed it's rise so thou could get a good look.” She seriously just moved the moon? I’ve heard of rulers pretending to bring the day and night, is that what she’s doing?

“You stopped the moon for me?” she only gave a slight smile. There’s no way that she stopped the moon for a laugh. With another almighty glow the moon continued on its path. Okay, well there’s only one thing for it. I gave my best bow to the moon Goddess. “I’m truly honoured that I could receive such a gift.”

At my words the navy mare blushed slightly, “We believed thou deserved to see the event in pony.”

“Well, it was very spectacular.” Wonder if Celestia does the same with the sun? “Well now that it's night I suppose we should bid each other good night.”

Luna seemed surprised, “Dost thou not wish to remain by our side?”

“We’ve been out all day, there isn’t really anything left for us to do.” Luna must be tired as well, right?

I couldn’t help but feel I’d offended my friend somehow. “That is where thou art wrong. Crescent!!” The sudden shout that left Luna’s lips would likely awaken the entire castle, let alone me.

“Yes Princess?” with the sudden appearance of the thestral guard, I couldn’t help but jump back.

“Today is the day that we shall be commencing night court, let us begin preparations.” The thestral saluted and sped down the corridor. Is this all spur of the moment? “Eclipse, art thou coming?”

What? but I’m tired, I think. Well, I want to go to bed so that’s tired. “Luna what about the mud on your coat?” Ha successfully derailed.

With a quick flash of her horn, Luna’s once dirt smeared coat was refreshed. If she could clean herself that quickly, why was she in the shower for thirty minutes in Griffonia? Her eyes continued to pierce my form, “Okay sure, I'm your confidant so of course I’ll join you.”

“Huzzah,” with that Luna began to merrily trot out of the room towards the throne room used for my previous interrogation.

“Wait for me.” having to trot is so annoying.

Upon reaching the door to the throne room, my friend lowered her pace and started to walk in a fashion that could be considered royal. If this is going to be some important official work, I’m not sure I’m prepared. Just before opening the door the regal mare hesitated. Maybe she’s not ready either? “Luna maybe it would be best to organise this for tomorrow.”

She looked back to me with a pleasant smile, “Nay our subjects have gone without the night’s comforts for too long.” At her statement, the moon’s confidence returned and she quickly pushed open the door, before walking inside.

Not sure of my place, I just followed behind her hooves towards the throne. Upon reaching her throne, Luna immediately sat facing the door, before double checking if her tiara was straight. Still nervous I see. As there was only one chair present, I just ended up sitting on the floor to Moony’s side facing the same way.

Luna gave me a quick look over, “Art thou ready?”

Ready as I’ll ever be, “Sure, is there anything you need me to do?”

“Nay, we are just glad thou art with us for this.” With my question the moon seemed even more confident. She quickly moved her gaze to the far side of the room, where a single thestral was standing by a closed door. “Crescent, send in the petitioners.”

“Yes PrincesS,” was the only reply as the thestral pushed open the door. I tried my best to brace for the inevitable stares of countless unknown ponies. What happened instead should probably only have been partly surprising due to the lack of prep.

“Erm Princess,” I said after five minutes of sitting as straight as I could beside the moon Goddess.

“Yes Eclipse,” The constant smile never left her face even when glancing away from the open door.

“I’m a little confused. Isn’t something supposed to be, y know, happening?” I’m fairly certain there’s more to this job, than simply sitting looking pretty for an audience of non.

The Princess’s smiling façade cracked slightly at that, “Our subjects should be queuing outside awaiting our judgement.” Our lone guard sensing the unasked question poked her head out of the room. Upon her return she only shook her head causing Luna’s wings to sag. “We hope they have not forgotten.”

This is what happens when you do things last minute. How are the ponies supposed to know about this court, if it’s never happened before? Still, I could sense my friend’s disappointment, so due to the laws of friendship actions needed to be taken.

Carefully I unfurled a wing and put it across the dissatisfied ponies back. This prompted her to look up in my direction. “Come on Luna, they haven’t forgotten, you just haven’t given them a chance to prepare.”

“Thou art correct,” the ponies mood improved, “They will likely arrive later tonight. Once word has spread, our subjects are sure to arrive.”

“I’m not sure that’s what I meant.” It’s going to take ponies days to prepare for this thing.

“We shall happily wait for them. Our time shall be spent willingly.” Oh, does that mean I have to wait up all night until someone shows up? I could only sigh and lower my head. Please, anyone, free us from our bonds.

After a good thirty minutes, my prayers were answered by a fancily dressed unicorn barging through the throne room entrance. This immediately impelled Luna to sit up and regain her regal composure. The hints of a happy smile danced on her face. “Subject, thou may approach us and make thy proposition.” After this she spread her wings in, I guess in a welcoming gesture.

The pony in question, didn’t hesitate and immediately approached his Princess. As he approached it was pretty clear he’d rushed over from bed, seeing as his eyes had the darkest rings I’ve ever seen. This guy’s desperate then.

Upon getting close enough to the throne, said pony immediately bowed. “Your highness, thank you for seeing me on this wonderful night.”

“The pleasure is all ours.” Well, she clearly likes this guy’s appreciation of the night, “Please inform thy Princess of thy troubles.”

“As you wish your majesty.” The pony then pulled out a large piece of paper, “My name is Duke Jackpot and I’ve a plan to bring in a large quantity of bits to Equestria’s economy.” He’s clearly practiced this.

“So, thy plan is for a new business venture?” The majestic princess’s head dipped slightly. “Jackpot, continue and explain how thy plans will aid Equestria.” Maybe she was hoping to help someone less fortunate?

“You are correct your highness, it has come to our company’s attention that the smoky mountains are heavily under utilized for mining,” the unicorn then held up the paperwork he’d brought, “This is a contract detailing the provision of land to us, so we can begin mining operations. This will bring in a large sum of bits to the economy, provide employment to lesser ponies and make use of wasted potential.” Lesser ponies? Wow, this guy.

Jackpot's paperwork gained a blue aura before Luna carefully levitated it over and began giving it a scrutinizing eye. It was pretty clear she was trying to ignore the unicorn’s comments in favour of the idea’s potential.

After a few minutes of reading and me staring at a tired unicorn, Luna hoofed me the papers surprising the pony. Did he think I was a statue? Anyway, time to go to work I suppose.

While reading the contract for myself, the princess filled in Jackpot, “Well Duke Jackpot thy venture does appear to have merits,” this caused the pony to begin smiling, Luna then raised a hoof to lower his expectations, “however we are unfamiliar with the current status of said mountains. We shall sadly need to convene with our sister, before signing off on such a deal.”

This did not sit well with her little pony, it was clear to see the gears turning in his head, “But surely the newly recrowned Princess of the night can handle this without her sister?” At those words Luna’s eyes narrowed, “this undertaking will greatly benefit Equestria on the whole, don’t you think Princess Celestia would be proud of such an expert display of administration?”

“We shall see what our advisors think,” I haven’t met any of Luna’s advisors. Wonder what those idiots will come up with? “Eclipse, what dost thou think of this proposition?” Oh yeah, that’s me, number one idiot. Even the unicorn seemed surprised when the Princess turned to me.

Okay well here goes, “Well your majesty, for starters I don’t see any problem with waiting until morning for Celestia to awaken. It is always smart to utilize all our resources.” Clearly the other ponies in the room weren’t happy with that idea.

“Was this statue commissioned so Celestia can keep an eye on you?” This guy is really clutching at straws.

“Eclipse, please continue with thy findings,” is that a vein I can see on Luna’s forehead? Okay, hope Luna’s head doesn’t explode.

Ignoring the stares, I tried to continue as professionally as possible, from the small amount I’d managed to read. “Apart from the worrying implications that this pony doesn’t want Celestia to see this contract, there are two other potential problems with it.” Jackpot's stare seemed to just scream shut up, “The first is the mention of rights to displace all potential obstacles from the area. It seems a bit too vague and open ended on what could be seen as a lot of power.”

My royal friend smiled at me, “Yes that is partly why we wished to speak to our sister of the area, to ensure no harm could be caused.”

The Duke decided to continue defending his plan, “This is preposterous, nothing of value will be destroyed or removed from that area.”

“Well, what obstacles are present? Maybe to make this simpler, we should add to the contract no displacement of ponies or equivalent… sentients from the area without royal permission.” Can’t forget about the griffons.

Jackpot’s mouth started to hang open for a second before he fired back, “The area is infested with mud pony squatters. They have no claim to the land and by rights should be displaced by the crown.” I’ve never heard of a mud pony before. Do they have control of earth or something?

“Thou expect us to remove ponies from their homes, upon thy words alone?” Lunas clearly going to reject this guy now. “Before we make our final judgement, Eclipse what is thy second issue?”

Well, this one was pretty simple, “The name on the contract isn’t Duke Jackpot, but someone called Blueblood. It’s a little strange that you’re attempting to pass this off as your idea.”

“You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you? You think after you come back and threaten us with eternal night, that you can just walk all over the nobility?” The idiot took a breath, “We have every right to that land and it isn’t the right for some piece of metal to tell us what to do.” Well ouch, also eternal night? We’re talking about paperwork not the void.

After the halfwit finished, Luna fired back in what must have been the loudest voice I’ve ever heard. “Duke Jackpot, night court is for ponies who are in need of help or have ways to help improve their communities!” Luna educated, “It is not for greedy individuals such as thyself to line their own pockets with bits at the expense of others! Get out of our sight, before the guards throw thou out!”

“Celestia shall hear of this.”

“NOW!” At that final word, Luna burned the paperwork I was still trying to read through, before Jackpot immediately galloped out of the door.

As soon as the pony was out of sight my friend deflated in her throne, “sorry armoured one, we had forgotten how infuriating the nobility could be at times. We hope thine ears are ok.”

This is where the lack of a physical body really helps out. Yes, all I could hear was Luna’s bellows for a time, but the lack of anything to damage in the first place protected me. Wonder how I hear things without ears? “It’s okay Luna, I don’t need ears.” That brought some life back to the blue pony.

Looking across the throne room, our lone thestral guard was currently laid out covering her ears with her hoofs. That poor mare, I bet half of Canterlot was woken with that shout. “Are we going to call it a night after that disaster?”

“Nay my friend, the initial proposition we received may have been a flop, but we may be able to modify it. It could still bring profits to Equestria without harming anypony should we act carefully.” Well at least she got something out of it, “If we retire now, we may miss out on another important innovation. We must await our subjects.” Even Luna’s ears drooped at her final words. Clearly, she was tired of this as well.

“If that’s what you want.” Maybe I could go to sleep and she wouldn’t notice? How could anyone tell if a suit of armour was sleeping? Ah better not, all I can really do is wait for that door to open again. Man, this night is going to drag.

After a few minutes Luna had even curled up on her throne. The waiting for some random pony who may, or may not show up finally getting to her. She was barely keeping her eyes open. It kind of looked adorable. So much so that it reminded me of something I thought in the Everfree. Wonder if a pony would let me pet them? That manticore seemed to like it and that’s a furry thing.

With that thought I raised my shoe and brought it to the side of Luna's throne. She didn’t even acknowledge my movement. She seems pretty out of it. With the lack of response, I decided to press on and slowly moved my shoe over to her head. She's my friend, so I’m sure she’ll appreciate it. Right at the last moment Luna flicked her ears causing me to jerk back in surprise.

A slight laugh was audible from the other side of the room. Dammit Crescent, that guards just watching my awkwardness. Clearly there isn’t anything else in this room to look at besides me, so I had her full attention. All I could think to do was awkwardly wave, which the amused Thestral returned.

Ignoring her I decided to go for round two. Luna hadn’t moved after the exchange I’d shared with the guard, so she clearly wasn’t rejecting anything. Again, I made my attempt and this time struck gold, when my shoe met soft pony fur and I began mimicking the same motion as when I pet the manticore.

Luna’s response to my shoe was to immediately flatten her ears and make a slight humming sound. Is that a good thing? The smile on her face seems to mean yes. Due to the lack of complaint, I continued for a little longer petting her behind her soft blue furry ears.

A sudden head tilt from my friend caused me to immediately stop my petting. Okay that’s the signal. Her head then slowly turned to point at me and tired eyes stared at me questioningly. Right so what to say, “Erm I was just, and you were there, and stuff with the fur and… ahem sorry.” Wow this is embarrassing. What was worse was the continued stare the moon princess gave me.

“Why dost thou stop thy attention?” okay wasn’t expecting that.

“Erm, I got nervous?” What else can I say? Really should have asked permission.

Another slight giggle came from the front door which was quickly silenced by a look from my friend. She then sighed before returning her head to her hoofs, “Thou may continue if that is thy wish.”

Well now that a veiled request had been made I kind of had to, so for the next few minutes I continued carefully rubbing the top of the blue furballs head. This was met by a few pleased humming noises as the moon’s eyes steadily closed and she went off to sleep. Now what? Should I carry her to bed?

My decision was made for me, when the doors off to the side of the room opened and a tired Celestia entered. Oh, dear can’t have Luna sleeping on the job, only one thing for it. Having my shoe already in position I quickly started to tap Luna’s nose in an effort to rouse her. Sorry about this.

At my assault Luna sneezed and immediately sat up, “Nay Eclipse, thou must be more tender when attending to thy companion's needs.” Before she looked at Celestia approaching and blushed for some reason.

“Ah sister how goes the night court, I thought I heard some issues.” Celestia clearly referenced Luna’s earlier outburst. That’s probably why she’s awake at all.

“There are no issues Celly, we are just enjoying a lull in activity.” Well, that’s a lie, there’s only been one guy and he was a twit.

I just thought it best to be honest due to earlier, “It's going ok, there just hasn’t been many ponies coming by.”

Luna quickly gave me a light push with a wing, “We believe our ponies are unsure of where to find their Princess.”

“Give it time Lulu, word will surely spread that night court is back and fully functional,” Celestia gave her sister a thoughtful look, “Maybe it would be best to call it a night for now. We could do something together as we both have no responsibilities left for the day.” Celestia really looks like she should go to bed, she’s practically swaying.

“Sister, thou would expect us to abandon our subjects needs?” Well Luna really wants this to work. How long is night court anyways?

At some unseen prompting from Celestia, Crescent opened the front door and looked out, “Princess there isn’t anypony waiting.”

“Crescent that is irrelevant. 'Tis our solemn duty to attend to the needs of our ponies and we shall do so.” Even with those powerful words Luna still looked down. She clearly didn’t believe in them.

“I fully understand sister,” Celestia seemed only mildly disappointed with the result, before turning to me, “Eclipse it is getting late, what time do you expect to need to retire?” Clearly, she’s concerned for my health.

Looking over to Luna, I could see the slight want in her eyes. Why does she want me to stay? Sighing again I said, “If Luna’s going to stay, I believe it best if I stay as well. Maybe you’d like to join us? Not much is going on at the moment.”

Without missing a beat, Celestia responded, “I would love to.” Before making her way to sit on Luna’s other side. Much to the irritation of the smaller pegacorn. Sorry Loony, but Celestia wants to spend some time with you.

What followed was more bored waiting, but with the addition of one slightly less bored, talkative pegacorn. “So, Lulu I heard that Rarity created you a dress for the gala.”

Luna gave me a quick look. “Yes, she is a most generous individual,” huh Rarity works fast. “Why? Art thou interested?”

Celestia looked at her own regalia, “I was just going to go in my standard affair, but next to you I may be a tad underdressed. Think she’d be willing to make one for me?” If you pay for it, sure.

Luna laughed, “Thou will definitely look underdressed compared to us, even with one of Rarity’s designs. Still yes, we believe she would love the publicity.”

“Excellent, I’ll message Twilight to let her know of my arrival tomorrow.” The taller mare then began writing a letter before setting it on fire. I have to learn that.

The next thirty minutes, consisted of more inane chatter between the two sisters, with only small inputs from myself. This lasted right up until the older of the two began to tire. “Sister, thou dost not need to stay if thou art too tired.”

“No Lulu, I’m not that tired and this is fun. It’s nice catching up without the servants getting in the way.” She’s probably worried about Luna’s outburst earlier.

As I thought that, I realized Celestia was looking at me, clearly contemplating something. “What’s up Princess?”

Celestia then gave a tired smile “So, Eclipse. I’m curious about something.”

“Ok?” What does she want?

“Can I give you a test run?” That was not what I was expecting.

“What now?” what if someone walks in? Ah who am I kidding, no ones coming, it's probably midnight. I need a watch.

“It’s for an experiment,” I really don’t know what to say to that. Looking into Celestia’s eyes she seemed to be almost begging me for some reason.

“Okay fine, only for a minute.” At that I stood up and walked in front of the seated Celestia, before modifying my form to the golden form I had used before. Luna didn’t look best pleased, but neglected to say anything. “Well, I’m ready when you are.” The mare in question just looked up at me. “Are you going to erm… put me on then?”

“Well, it’s been a long day, would you be willing to put yourself on?” she said quietly while removing her shoes and chest piece.

“Aren’t you going to put some effort in?” the alabaster mare only gave me a cheeky tired grin. “Well okay then, I’ll try my best. Can you at least stand up off your throne?” She at least contributed that far.

Well, how best to do this. Okay chest piece. Carefully as I could, I positioned myself behind the princess before carefully climbing on top of her back. This allowed me to carefully slide my chest piece over the top of the mare. Sadly, the increased weight caused Celestias legs to buckle. She really must be tired.

“Seriously sister,” the shortest pegacorn clearly disapproves, “There’s no way thou art as tired as that.”

Celestia just laughed, “maybe I think our friendly suit of armour needs a challenge. Fine I’ll help a little,” she quickly pushed her wings through the gaps on the back of my chest piece “There, now over to you armoured one.” Okay, the wings would have been tricky, so at least that’s out of the way.

Now carrying the weight of one tired pony, I had to pick up each foreleg, before inserting them into the opposite shoe. I then did the same with the rear using Celestias own forelegs to do it. The final piece came when I carefully slid my helmet over Celestias head, trying my best not to knock her horn to much. Its really difficult to manoeuvre around something occupying the same spot as you.

Once Celestia had fully donned me, she immediately jumped to her hooves, “Wow, now that is better than five cups of tea.” She began walking over to her throne almost as if she’d had a power nap. Makes sense with the amount of magic I can feel draining out of me.

Wow nothings better than tea. “Actually, tea is the greatest,” I said using Celestia mouth. That got a jump out of her.

“I was unaware you could do that,” Celestia replied now walking a little more cautiously.

“Yeah, I’ve been learning a few things about myself,” well this was interesting and all but now what?

“Sister thou looks very impressive,” It was strange Luna appeared almost jealous, “Now thou hast had thy fill, maybe thou should remove our armoured friend before our ponies arrive.” I’m not against that.

Celestia put a hoof to her chin for a moment before replying, “Luna I think we should do something, maybe play a game?” Do immortal ponies really play games.

“Sister, dost not be silly, we are busy,” Okay so they don’t play games judging from how unimpressed Lulu is.

Celestias reply really confused me. “Oh yes, Eclipse it has been so long since we played together, a game is a brilliant idea,” is she trying to play this off as my idea? She just learned of my ability to speak through someone and now she’s using it against me.

The navy mare gave the two of us a curious glance, “Eclipse, thou wishes to play with us?”

I could practically feel Celestias desire for me to go along with it, “Apparently, yes I do,” you owe me sunny.

“Oh, okay if that is thy wish.” The smile that my best friend gained made it worth playing along. Huh maybe I should have offered to play a game with her in the past. “But what could we play within court?”

“How about chess? I have a set in my room.” Celestia does look like someone who enjoys chess.

“Really sister, chess?” From Luna’s unimpressed look she clearly doesn’t find it as interesting. That’s a shame I might have liked that. Maybe I could play against Celestia myself?

“What’s wrong with chess? We always used to play before.” The alabaster mare tilted our head.

“Exactly, we wish for a different kind of experience,” moony waved a hoof for emphasis.

I decided to make a suggestion, “Like a game of cards?” Now that could be fun. Might be difficult to hide my hand from my wearer though.

“Nay we wish for something with more physical activity,” Well Celestia can barely stand even with me keeping her awake, so good luck. Luna’s horn started to glow blue and a box materialized in front of her. “Pinkie Pie assured me this was fun for the whole family.”

“Twister sister?” Celestia didn’t sound convinced about this one. Frankly I agree that chess is a better choice for a court room. “If that’s what you want to play, I’m all for it.” Wait you weren’t meant to agree.

“Excellent we shall set it up and shall prove why we are the superior Alicorn.” The younger pegacorn quickly opened the box and laid out a mat and spinner.

“Well sister, I have the advantage of our metallic friend’s aid,” does this mean she’s not taking me off?

Now for the uninformed, twister is a very simple game consisting of a mat with a 6 by 4 grid of coloured dots. Each pony, or suit of armour, must take it in turns to place a designated limb on a particular-coloured dot. This results in many embarrassing moments and dangerous falls due to the awkward positioning. I immediately knew this was going to be terrible.

“Okay Princess Luna, Right forehoof green,” said one particularly amused thestral we’d conscripted to be the games master. Crescent clearly loved to see her Princesses suffer.

The game started out kind of interesting but, after five minutes of play the two sisters had ended up in a very tangled mess upon the throne room floor with me in the middle. What made it worse was just how seriously Luna took the game.

“Ha that distance is but a triviality.” As she steadily forced her hoof to stretch to its limit before expertly reaching her goal. “Huzzah, it seems the eclipsed Celestia, is no match for the night.”

“Right then, Princess Celestia right rear leg green,” I’m sure Crescent is doing it on purpose.

“Come on eclipse the dots only there,” The strain in her voice was evident. “My legs are longer; we have the advantage.”

There comes the curse of Celestia. She clearly didn’t spend as much time exercising as her younger sister giving the younger pegacorn the true advantage. “I’m trying, your leg won’t bend any further without breaking.” I’d easy win this if I was by myself.

“Admit it sister thou cannot defeat us,” came a jab from behind us. Come on I managed the last few just have to lower a bit more to the ground.

“Well Lulu do you admire our rear in your face,” is Celestia going to help me or what. Feels like I’ve been playing on a team by myself.

“We are not staring at thy rear sister and it should be known thou bears our mark currently,” that doesn’t mean I’m going to let her win.

Celestia only giggled in response, “I know exactly who’s rear you are viewing.”

I think I’ve got it, “Ha Luna, I told you I could… wo oh no.” I call sabotage, if Celestia hadn’t moved her forelegs I wouldn’t of fell on top of my friend. “Sorry Luna, you ok,” looking around I had planted Celestias rear firmly on top of her sister’s muzzle, thankfully avoiding the horn.

Luna for some reason had gone bright red before regaining her composure, “Huzzah the night has reigned victorious over the day once more. Erm Eclipse, please remove Our sister's rear from Our face.”

“Sorry again,” Upon standing up I heard a sound coming from the throne room entrance. Another annoying noble? No, what entered was quite a surprise. A pint-sized pony had walked in through the front door.

Almost as soon as Celestia’s eyes locked on to the child I found myself propelled towards it, apparently Celestia had been holding out on me. I knew she was just lazy. The reasoning behind Celestia's actions soon became clear at the state of the foal. She should have been a white furred regular pony, however her fur had clear bits of grime and some appeared to be missing.

“Hello little one, are you lost?” came Celestias careful words. Maybe she was worried about frightening the little thing.

“Erm hello Princess… I heard a shout from here,” the pony began in a quiet voice, “it said night court was for ponies in need. Is that true?” The foal’s eyes were full of hope.

Behind us came the sound of rapid hoof steps as the younger alicorn approached. “Yes child, this is true. Please tell us of thy problem so the night can render aid.” Well, this might just be the kind of case Luna needed.

“I’m from a New hope orphanage in the city. It’s an okay place but miss Strawberry can’t afford to keep it running, she already had to cut back on food.” The foal began to tear up, “She tried to ask for help in day court but couldn’t get through. If something doesn’t happen soon, we’ll be homeless. Can you help like you did with my nightmares?” After those final words the tears began to flow.

Well, it’s a good job it isn’t just me here, because what on earth is the correct response to this? Luna seemed to know what to do as she carefully hugged the foal with her wings before humming some soothing tune.

When the foal’s tears started to die down my best friend demonstrated why she deserves the position. Getting down to the foal’s level she calmly spoke, “We shall look into this orphanage young one, if it is as troubled as thou say, we shall endeavour to ensure it is brought back to it's former splendour.”

The foal immediately jumped forward and held on to Lunas’s foreleg, “Thank you princess. Please end this nightmare,” She didn’t seem to want to let go of her hope.

“Don’t worry little one, rest now,” Luna’s horn began to glow and the foals grip loosened, “When thou awakens thy bed will welcome thou.” She then carefully levitated the foal onto her back, “Sister we must return this filly before investigating further, a grant may need to be issued by tomorrow morning.” She then began heading out the door. “She is lighter than she should be.”

“Okay sister I’ll help push the paperwork through.” I went to follow but felt some resistance from my wearer. I just tilted her head questioningly and Celestia responded, “Eclipse its almost 2am, I’m a bit tired to continue on.”

Oh, is that all, “It's okay Princess, I can carry you.” It seems you don’t have to tell the lazy mare twice as she went from being a minor irritation to a complete dead weight. Wasn’t expecting it to be that difficult. Might as well try and catch up to Luna.

“Thank you, my friend,” came Celestia's tired reply, as I trotted after the younger sister. Hope she knows where she’s going.

After a walk from the castle through the streets, the two sisters reached a building in a state of disrepair. “Well, this is the place, we had witnessed it once from the dreamscape.” Luna said quietly, “We never realized it was real.” Her horn then glowed before the Princess’s form vanished leaving me and Celestia outside. A tell tale blue flash came from one of the windows.

“You know Eclipse, you’re quite the luxurious means of travel,” Celestia's attempt at small talk there.

“I’m not really a taxi service, I’m sleepy to ya know,” it would have been much easier if I’d just possessed her body, then she could have done some walking. Celestia just let out a light chuckle at my response.

“I’ve missed this,” Celestia seems to be coming over all melancholic.

“Standing in front of a dilapidated building?”

“Don’t be silly,” the princess chuckled, “Seeing Luna happy.” Well, that’s a nice sentiment.

A moment later A blue flash symbolled the blue pegacorn's return. “We will ensure this establishment gets the attention it needs.” Despite the glaring issue, Luna seemed pretty happy with herself, “We are glad we waited up. We told thou it wasn’t a waste of time.”

Fine she did tell me, “Okay, but you have to admit the chances were pretty slim after the second hour. You’re going to need to put some advertisements in the paper or something to prevent a repeat. Say something like only the needy welcome.” Luna only nodded in response.

“Sister maybe it would be best if we returned to the castle now,” Celestia said while supressing a yawn. At Celestia’s prompting the three of us began heading back through the sleeping city.

“It is a shame the little ponies aren’t still out and about,” Luna commented while viewing the empty streets.

“They’re going to be in bed Luna its pretty dark, it's safer in the light if not quite as fun,” saying that you’d think there’d be some thestrals wandering around.

“We just wish they appreciated the night like that sweet foal.” Does Luna think the pony’s opinion of the night is the same as their opinion of her?

“Sister the little ones love your night. The only reason they sleep, is because even you yourself advertise the night as the time for dreams.” Is that the way to make Luna feel better? Telling her it's her fault they’re like this?

“Luna just think of it this way, without anyone else to disturb us, we get to the sky all to ourselves. There isn’t even a cloud in the sky.” Its pretty amazing how clear the skies are around here. I can’t think of a time I’ve seen it rain.

“Eclipse thine idea is wonderful,” Luna then grabbed Celestias hoof before dragging us to the city square. “The view is much clearer from here. Dost thou see those stars? They commemorate our defeat of Discord.” So, is this how the rest of the night’s going to go? Well at least it’s pretty interesting.

Part way through Luna’s exposition, Celestia whispered a barely audible sound, “Eclipse, thanks for helping me spend time with my sister.”

“No problem.”

Author's Note

I might take a break over Christmas, still have cards to buy and presents to wrap.
Merry Christmas everyone reading this. :)

10: Galloping Gala

Chapter 10

Ah sleep, what a great time. Once I was afraid of it dragging me back to the void but now, I know it’s just a safe and quite place for me to be alone with my thoughts. There isn’t any reason to be afraid, as the morning always come to bring about another interesting day in this brand-new world.

I’ve been in this world for just over a week now, and it’s getting to the point where I can settle into a nice routine. The days always start with waking up, followed by a quick scrub of any dirt. Luna will then come a knocking and bring me down for breakfast. When that’s complete there’s second breakfast from the weird statue outside, followed by reading in the library. Dinner with the princesses comes next with an occasional spattering of terrifying the help. The grand finale is night court with my good friend. When it doesn’t run long its way less irritating. Which it did last night unfortunately.

Things are going swell. I’ve even received my first pay check. Today, like any other day of continued existence, is going to be great. At that thought a loud bang occurred within my room, as the door was kicked open immediately dragging me from the comforting void.

“Eclipse art thou deaf? We have been banging on thy door for ages.” She seems a bit stressed out there. It’s not my fault sleeps so good.

Barely lifting my head from my comfortable pillow, I looked at my agitated friend before turning to the clock. “Luna its 9am, I thought you’d be asleep.” Night court ran long again last night.

“We have no need for sleep at this moment my friend,” She began, approaching until she stood beside my bed.

“Did you manage to get any sleep at all?” I’m sure it ran till 3am. When does Luna actually sleep? She always seems to be doing something.

“Nay we could not, we were just too excited!” She is way too excitable for how little sleep we’ve had.

“Well, that’s nice,” putting my head back onto the waiting pillow and closing my non-existent eyes seems like the logical choice.

“Art, thou looking forward to the gala?”

“That’s today?” Luna nodded enthusiastically. Oh no, not another party, looking at the blue fluffball’s eyes it was obvious she wanted a positive response. “Sure.”

The feeling of a weight being present upon my bed began. Luna had reared up onto my bed, and placed her face right next to my helmet. She then began in a careful voice, “Thou did promise to accompany us.” I could sense the smile in those words.

“Just give me ten more minutes,” Ponies might be willing to go without rest, but I can sleep for thousands of years. Let me go back to my quite place for just a little while longer.

“Nay now,” at her sharp words, she immediately jumped off the bed and began tipping it over, “we know how lazy thou can be.” No, my bed covers! Dammit, I like those.

Unwilling to give in, I kept hold of my pillow while simultaneously gripping the mattress. “Just give me a minute.”

Seeing how her attempts were met with failure, the Princess let out a very unladylike snort, before I felt magic trying and failing to lift me out of bed. It gave me quite a nice snack though. “Eclipse thou will rise at once. We are aware of how difficult thou can be to rouse.” Seeing no other option, Moony levitated my bed into the air, before flipping it upside down.

Seeing how desperate my friend was for me to leave the comforts of my safe space, I let go of the mattress. My pillow had fallen off anyway. Upon my less than graceful landing, I looked up to see a very cocky pegacorn staring down at me. “Hey,” was all she said in a playful tone, before offering a wing to help me stand up.

All I could do was sigh, before taking the offer to help. Today is really going to suck. It’s not even going to be regular ponies judging me, but all these posh noble twits. Well time for a morning stretch.

While I began my morning stretch, Luna seemed happy with her success, “Art thou awake now?” I’m clearly standing up.

“Yeah Loony, let’s just head over to breakfast,” wonder if I can get Luna to wear my helmet while eating bacon again?

“Nay my friend, we have not got the time,” but bacon, “We need to get ready now, our sister is already making preparations.”

At her words, I stood up straight and cast a quick look over myself for any dirt. Huh, clean enough, “I was ready the moment you charged in.”

“Thou dost not appear ready,” my friend cast a critical eye over my form. What’s wrong with me? Double checking my wings and shoes, nothing appeared to be out of place, “Dost thou not remember what we agreed upon last night?”

“It appears I’ve forgotten,” it was six hours ago. Who keeps track of that? “Please remind me of my promise.” This is why you don’t make promises at 3am.

Luna gave me a smile, “Thy Princess is ready for her dress now.” She then raised a hoof and bowed her head to me.

Well, that explains why she’s naked. I’m not sure what’s going to be worse, attending this party at all, or being forced into a position where everyone’s looking at me. “Erm Luna, about the gala. Don’t really think I want to be the centre of attention. Ahem, I’m not sure if it’s really for me in the first place.”

Luna seemed surprised by my response, “Eclipse, please accompany us, it will be so boring alone. We were not going to attend until thou agreed to come with us.” Really? I would have thought the Princesses always went to these things. “Thou dost not need to talk to anyone, thy presence can be our little secret.” She finished with a hopeful smile.

I’m not one to abandon my friends so, “Okay fine, I suppose they’ll only be looking at the pretty Princess and not question her dress.” Luna tinged red slightly as I changed my form to the one Rarity had taught me. Such a complicated form, fabric freely moving about. Solid metal works so much better.

The moon Princess then repeated her bow, before grasping me with her hooves and putting me on. Wow that is a tight fit. Rarity really didn’t leave much tolerances in this design. Once fully donned, Luna looked in the mirror.

My rear easily covered Luna's, draping down to the point where the hem should drape the floor, if it wasn’t floating in my mist. With the skirt floating slightly, it left my high heeled shoes visible. Suppose that was intentional. Coming up to the chest, the material was tightly pressed against Luna's sides leaving only small slits for her wings. Moon and star patterns adorned the chest as well. Too many I would say, but I’m not a Princess of the night. To finish I’d reformed my head into a larger tiara.

“Eclipse, thou art beautiful.” She admired while making a quick twirl. “We have been looking forward to this since Ponyville.”

“I think you’re the pretty one, I’m just here to help bring that out.” I then lifted Luna’s forehoof before making her blow a kiss at herself. The pegacorn giggled in response. There was still a minor concern, “Is this tightness not a bit restricting?”

“Nay, we like thy touch.” She then shook her leg back and forth, “Thou art very flexible and breathable. The design is exactly what we need.” She then turned and walked us out of the room back to her own quarters, in Luna’s typical royal way.

“Where are we going?” Not that I’m complaining. Avoiding the gala for as long as possible, sounds like a great idea.

“We are making the finishing touches to accentuate our combined radiance.” Upon entering her room, the Princess wondered up to a dressing table, before looking at various different make ups.

“Oh, I’ll help,” Quickly picking up some mascara in my mist, I held it in front of Luna’s eye. “Okay hold still.”

My friend's hoof immediately shot up to grab the offending item, “Tis okay my friend, thou dost not have to help in all things.” She then flipped over the tool before utilizing it. Well, how was I supposed to know it was upside down?

Once the mysterious Princess had applied her makeup, she began styling her mane in a way I had yet to see. Making it appear much shorter and fall down beside her head. “Now for our finishing touch.” She then carefully levitated the blue flower I’d found and pushed it into her mane. “Now we are ready for the gala.” Well, you are. “Dost thou not think?”

“I think your face looks erm, very radiant,” Really can’t tell the difference, her face just seems more coloured in. “You know, I think you look good without makeup as well.”

“We are just trying something new,” as long as the other ponies can tell. She then smiled at our reflection, “Thank you for sharing thy beauty with us.”

Welp not quite sure what to say now, “what time are we needed to arrive again?”

At my words, my wearers ears shot up, before she immediately turned around and hurried for the door. “We are almost late as it is, thanks to somepony.” Not my fault, “we shall need to hurry.”

Upon opening the door, Moony came to a screeching halt at the presence of one solar Princess who by the raised hoof, was clearly about to knock. “Ah Luna Eclipse, don’t you two look lovely together.” How did she know? “When the maids informed me of the noise, I was worried there may have been an altercation, so I rushed down.” That’s probably the throwing around of my bed, dammit Luna stop giggling.

“How’d you know I was here?” she’s way to smart.

She cocked an eyebrow at us, “aside from the other worldly wind you appear to be floating in?” Luna stifled a laugh. All I could do was nod Luna’s head. Maybe ponies have enchanted clothing. “Well, that’s easy. Since you slept in for breakfast, Luna had been rubbing it in my face how her sapient dress was superior.” Can’t believe they had breakfast without me, better not have been bacon.

At the admission of Luna’s betrayal, heat began to build upon her face. All I could do was sigh. I just can’t catch a break.

“You know the two of you look quite funny like that,” Celestia commented, “simultaneously disappointed and embarrassed.” Moony’s face probably looks pretty weird right now.

“Sister, did thou get thy dress from Rarity?” Was Sunny wearing that dress the whole time? Really need to pay more attention. The design looked pretty similar to mine with just a slightly brighter colour pallet and lack of otherworldliness, as the ponies described me.

“Yes, when she got over her initial shock of my order, the element of generosity proved herself quite adept at dress making.” Well hopefully she gets some good advertisement out of today. Celestia then grinned at the two of us, “Did you know Rarity has a designated fainting couch?” Why would we know that?

“Sister she didn’t,” was Luna’s shocked response. It seems a royal order may have been a bit much for the fashion pony.

“The moment she answered the door,” the two sister both began to laugh together. Poor Rarity. At least Luna’s happy I suppose.

Once the laughing died down, the alabaster mare regained her composure, “Come along you two, we need to get Cadance.” Who’s Cadance?

My question was answered when a little way down the Corridor a short pink pegacorn was waiting for us. So, that’s Cadance. She just earned herself the title of shortest pegacorn. Wonder what God like thing she has control over?

“Morning aunties,” Huh its one big family, “You could have told me we were supposed to wear dresses to this thing.” She looks fine really, her standard regalia is probably still fancy enough.

Luna was the first to respond, “Niece, we would have informed thou, but we were not aware that thou would be accompanying us.”

“Well, I did change my mind last minute. If Luna’s going, then I’m going,” She stated proudly. Luna must have changed her mind at the last second as well. Not my fault.

“Well Cadance, the nobles will love to have the entire royal family present,” Celestia said. I couldn’t help but notice the slight frown Celestia had, when she mentioned the nobles. Are they all jerks?

“Speaking of love, wow Luna you really love your dress,” that’s a weird thing to say.

Luna began blushing again, “Well Rarity is an expert designer.”

“True but it’s strange, the dress seems to like you as well,” What’s up with this pony? Can she see friendship or something? Is that her gimmick?

My wearers eyes lit up at that, before she spluttered “How much! If thou dost not mind us asking?” Cadance knows I’m here, doesn’t she? Dammit Luna. Have you told the whole castle?

To my delight the sun saved me from this weird moment, “We need to hurry up you two, our little ponies are waiting.”

“Of course sister. Cadance we shall discuss more on this later, let us go.” The four of us then walked to the castle ballroom, before the three princesses entered and went straight to designated seats right by the entrance. They must be waiting to greet the guests.

As Luna observed the room, I could see many ponies working diligently to put out food and apply the final touches to the decorations. This set off my party related PTSD a little, causing me to fidget nervously. Why did I have to come again?

A slight giggle left the lips of my friend before she patted my tiara, “Worry not our friend, today is going to be fun.” She then giggled a little more until I stopped fidgeting. Woops didn’t mean to tickle her.

“Luna, you remember how these things usually go right?” Celestia didn’t seem as enthusiastic, having just the slightest of frowns. Luna just gave celly a sideways glance, prompting the oldest pegacorn to sigh.

Cadance appeared to be giving Luna a curious look, probably because she was talking to herself but meh. Before she turned back to Celestia, “I just can’t wait to see Twilight again, it’s been so long. A shame really that Shiny had to work through this.” Seems the mini pegacorn is good friends with our guard captain.

After a few minutes, the ponies completed their preparations and hurried over to what was clearly preassigned positions. Some of them approached the large main doors and together, began to heave them open.

With the doors now opening, a long que of fancily dressed ponies became visible. At the sight, Celestia immediately straightened and gained a warm smile, “Well let’s get this over with.” Now that fake smile is impressive. Really hope she doesn’t do that when she’s talking to me. I don’t think sunny would trick me like that, would she?

Once the doors were completely open, the waiting que took that as their notification to approach the throne. The first pair to approach was a white unicorn stallion in a black suit and a pink unicorn mare. Celestia immediately greeted the two, “Fleur de Lis, Fancy Pants, welcome to this year’s galloping gala.” She then raised a hoof gesturing to the entire room. That guy isn’t wearing pants.

The two ponies in question immediately bowed before Fancy responded, “Thank you Princess for welcoming us to your gala."

The pink mare with the strange name then piped up, “Might I say that your dresses are lovely, Princess Luna how did you get such an enchantment?”

“Oh, this old thing? We just paid a visit to our good friend Rarity.” The blue fluff ball appeared to beam with pride. At the same time, I really wanted to sink into an abyss. Centre of attention, right where I don’t want to be.

“Rarity yes, we bumped into her early in the week. Her designs seem most impressive.” Fancy said, “Well Princesses hope to speak to you later on.” The two ponies then bowed again before heading off into the gala.

“Yes, I will catch up to you later,” Celestia responded before looking back at the que, “it is always nice to speak to Fancy.” Must be a friend of hers.

“He seems like an interesting Stallion,” Cadance chipped in.

“We are glad his mare friend has good taste,” Moony stated while looking at the ponies’ retreating forms. Seeing how the first ponies we met instantly noticed me, this doesn’t bode well for my remaining hidden. That thought caused me sag down to the floor. “Eclipse liven up more guests are approaching.”

“Sorry.”

The next hour played out with much the same experience. With varying greetings from the Princesses.

“We are glad thou could attend.”

“Welcome to this year’s galloping gala.”

“I hope you love your time here.”

Followed by the guests bowing and giving a friendly reply with the occasional compliment directed to the three. From how monotonous it was, I could tell why Celestia wasn’t looking forward to it. At least Moony was loving it. Every complement seemed to make her ego that much bigger. If anything, that makes coming here worth it.

That was right up until one very specific stallion approached. This white furred, blond maned unicorn approached like the many others before and was immediately greeted by Celestia as normal, “Prince Blueblood welcome to the Gala.” Another royal, is that Cadence’s brother?

“Greeting’s auntie, Princess Cadance I see you allowed the nightmare to join you,” Wow for Celestia to be your aunt, so must Luna ya jerk.

At his words, Luna immediately bristled, “What dost thou mean by these words?”

“It’s only that it’s a surprise that my aunt, would allow one who nearly ended our kingdom to sit beside her. It boggles the mind.” The posh twit replied while inspecting a hoof.

“Blueblood, continue to talk to thy Princess in such a manner and thou will not only be excluded from the gala, but thou may end up spending the night in a cell.” I could clearly feel Luna’s desire to stand up, probably to throttle him. To be fair if you’re accusing someone of being a terrible ruler at their own gala you deserve your rear being kicked.

“See that auntie? She’s threatening me again like she threatened my associate at night court. If you don’t do something soon, the nightmare will steal even your crown out from under you.” Ah that’s this guy’s beef. He’s probably mad Luna gave the contract to some ponies who wouldn’t damage that nearby town.

Celestia then jumped in to defend her sister, “Prince Blueblood, you should not speak to your aunt in such a way. She has every right to make such decisions, as do I. When you came to me with that proposal it was also dismissed. Move along now nephew, you’re holding the line.” She then gestured to the que of impatient ponies. Seeing that, the posh twit bid his farewell, before leaving to do whatever it is nobles do at a party.

“Sister, we are tired of these greetings, we shall see thou after thine duty is complete.” My friend then immediately stood up and stomped away from the other two Princesses. Just before Luna left, I could see Celestia stand as if she was going to follow before being interrupted by the next ponies in the que.

Once Luna had distanced herself from her family, her angry stomps subsided and she began to regain her royal posture before heading to a bowl of juice. She then began quietly drinking, while watching the surrounding nobles. That punch tastes pretty good.

After patting the best pony’s shoulder with a sleeve I said, “So Luna, I was wondering something.” Seeing as she was alone, I decided to sate my curiosity about some of Bluebloods comments.

At my words Luna turned to a silver tray to smile at her reflection, “What is it my friend?”

“Well, that idiot pony called you Nightmare,” with that statement my friends face fell slightly.

“What about it?” she replied nervously, before quickly downing her drink. Maybe this is too much of a touchy subject.

“It’s just, other people have called you Nightmare Moon as well,” Moony immediately looked away from her reflection. “I was just wondering, who is Nightmare Moon?” Maybe it’s an insult people came up with for her.

“We shall tell thou, but not here,” the blue pegacorn put down her cup, before heading towards a door at the far side of the room. Not wanting to miss out on the juice I quickly grabbed a cup full in my mist.

Upon passing through the door, we found ourselves in the mostly empty castle gardens. There were just a few animals milling around eating the grass, probably private enough for ol Lulu. “It’s pretty peaceful out here.” I quite like spending my morning after breakfast sitting by the discord statue around here.

“Yes, it is,” Luna then sighed, “Okay Eclipse, thou wishes to know of whom the dastardly individual Blue blood compared us to was?”

“Erm, only if it isn’t too personal,” At least it’s not actually Luna.

“Thou art our faithful confidant, there is nothing to confidential of mine that thou cannot know,” Oh no that’s way too much responsibility. I want a new job. “The Nightmare was a very selfish individual who wished for the love of her subjects.”

“I suppose that’s understandable; everyone wants to be valued,” Its okay so far. Is this the kind of evil where she stole all the pies in the land, or something stupid like that? Ponies don’t seem to have a very good grasp on what evil actually is.

My friend started to close her eyes and point her head at the grass, “Yes well, this individual became so jealous of her sister’s cherished day,” oh dammit, it was Luna, “That she decided ponies should be forced to enjoy her night.”

“How can someone do that? Did she change a lot of shifts to night shifts?” I suppose it would be pretty irritating if you weren’t used to it.

The down pegacorn then gulped, “She decided to make the night last forever and force our sister, we mean her sister out of the lime light.” Okay now that is pretty terrible.

“Wouldn’t eternal night kill all the plants?” There’s no way my favourite furball would willingly kill the world.

“We were only going to keep it for a week so our ponies could see what they missed, but with the fear we caused, our sister had to act,” Giving up on pretending it was someone else I see. Okay what did Celestia do? Fights between family are never good. “She decided to use the elements of harmony, our weapon of righteousness to stop me. They worked entirely as intended and defeated us without anypony coming to harm.”

“Well at least there weren’t too many negative repercussions, eh?”

“Eclipse we were banished to our precious moon for onw thousand years.” Ouch, all things considered I’m surprised ponies even remember it happening. With those final words spoken, a few stray tears left my friend's eyes.

Okay, I have this job whether I want it or not, now how to fix what I caused. The first step was to try and wipe away my friend's tears with my sleeves. Ew, being damp is not enjoyable. Right next step as the tears aren’t stopping, pets I think. With that I started to use my tiara to scratch my friend behind her ears. That got a slight smile.

“You know I get why you changed your name,” Luna looked up at that, “Nightmare moon is pretty fierce and intimidating. It’s bound to be ear catching.” My friend looked down, “I’m glad you changed it back to Luna, I much prefer it.”

“What dost thou like about it?”

Oh well I put my shoe in it there. “Well Luna is a lot prettier, isn’t it? It sounds so friendly and it still so clearly ties you to the moon.”

“Well, we like thy name also,” she actually began to smile slightly.

I couldn’t help but laugh at that, “Of course you like my name, you chose it.” She went a bit red at that. Ha, embarrassment is better than depression. Okay now for the killer move, “here I grabbed you some more punch.” Entirely for Luna and not for selfish reasons.

“Thanks,” she then immediately started to drink the punch.

“Ah that’s right, keep the good stuff coming,” that prompted my friend to laugh. We both decided to sit for a bit and watch the gardens animals, which while we were distracted appeared to have been chased away by a yellow Pegasus.

After a few minutes of watching the crazy Pegasus chase the animals, Luna was clearly back to her old self. I was about to suggest we blow off the gala and investigate this pony when the doors behind us opened, admitting one purple unicorn into the garden.

“Ah Twilight, tis nice to see thee. What brings thou to our garden?” Well, Moony’s happy to see her so, so am I.

“Princess there you are, Celestia asked me to check up on you,” ah the older sister worrying again. “So, erm… how’s it going.” Great Twi, I can see you’ve got plenty to talk about.

“We are well friend,” Luna happily responded, “We were worried about thine absence from our last visit to Ponyville.” She locked herself in her lab for some reason. I see no reason to worry about that.

“Yeeeah,” At those words, the unicorn became slightly embarrassed. “I was hoping to get a close a look at that enchanted armour,” wait a second, “I was busy planning all the different tests we could run. There’s just so much we could learn about enchanting from it, that I may have lost track of time a little.” The little pony’s ears drooped slightly, “Sorry Princess.”

My friend put a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder, “Don’t worry my friend, we know that thou would not avoid us on purpose like some others.” Ah Lulu going from being cheered up, to cheering up a random pony in ten minutes. That’s why she’s great.

The purple pony then suddenly sprang back up as if nothing was wrong in the first place, “Now that I’ve found you Princess, could you arrange time for the armour to be analysed in my lab?” should have known she had an ulterior motive.

“No,” I quickly made Luna say causing her to put a hoof to her mouth. I’m not risking moony volunteering me for some unknown tests.

“Why not? Celestia said you basically own the armour now,” Hey I own myself. “Couldn’t you spare it for one day? Pleeeease.” The unicorn practically started to beg, giving Luna the biggest puppy dog eyes. Luna do not break, you’re on my team remember. I was just thinking about how great you were.

“Twilight, we cannot force our new friend to undergo such examinations without their permission,” Luna carefully explained, “Thou shalt need to ask them and if they give their permission, then thou hast our blessing to administer thy tests.” Ah Lulu that was expertly done. She may have false hope, but it’ll get her off our backs.

“Oh, thank you Princess,” she didn’t give permission. Twilight immediately got back to her hooves, “Where can I find the armour, I’ll ask it now.”

At the unicorn’s words Luna’s eyes looked up as high as they could. Is she trying to point at my tiara? Don’t give the game away, oh I know, “I don’t know, it’s not at the gala.” Luna sighed at my putting words in her mouth. I want to find out more about this pony before I just surrender myself, thank you.

“We believe Eclipse will be available for thou to speak to after the gala has concluded. Thou may find them within our guest room,” Luna reassured the pony.

“Ah, it responds to Eclipse. That’ll be useful in helping convince it.” She then started heading for the door at a quick trot, “Thanks Princess, I’m going to see if I can find it now. Oh, and glad you’re okay.” She finished, just before the door closed behind her.

“Thou should really hast told her thy decision, instead of sending her on a goose chase,” Luna said, while watching the door close behind her. I wasn’t ready to deal with a crazy pony. Before I could respond Moony shook her head, “No matter, what is done is done. We may as well return to the gala.”

With that concluded, Luna walked us back to gala doors. Well that’s a shame, I really wanted to wait out here and watch that crazy Pegasus try to catch rabbits.

Upon returning to pony Nobel central, my wearer decided to go and get some cake, which I will agree is a brilliant decision. “So dost thou prefer chocolate gateau or jam sponge?”

Ooo I get to choose. Well, I really don’t know. “Just pick your favourite, cake is cake.”

“Chocolate gateau it is,” dammit, now I want the other one.

While Luna picked up the cake, I spotted a familiar green glow in the corner of my lack of eyes. Swift Clean, that maid I was trying to befriend, was helping serve food. “Luna, can we go talk to that mare with the green glow?” I haven’t seen her in ages.

“Which one?” Luna looked around puzzled. I quickly raised a sleeve to point out Swift. “The help? She has no glow which we can see.”

“I think it would make her day if we went over,” a Princess taking the time out of her day to talk to you, would brighten up anyones day.

“What is this glow thou speaks of?” Lulu said, before taking a bite out of the cake.

“That cake was a good choice. Sorry, I can see ponies magic auras and hers kinda stood out to me the first time we met.”

“Oh, pray tell the reason. Thou dost not have the hots for her magic dost thee?” she said jovially.

“What? Her magic just reminded me of something.” I'm not attracted to her magic, but I suppose it might be pretty tasty.

“Oh good, what was familiar about it then?” She seemed relieved, before taking another bite out of her cake.

“Well, her magic is basically exactly the same as that griffon assassin we stopped,” ah that was an interesting day. My first day back in reality.

At the mention of the assassin, the graceful princess of the moon spat gateau across a metre radius. “Wow, I was enjoying that.”

“Eclipse, the cake is no longer important,” she quickly put her plate with what was left back on the table. It’s so close yet so far away. “Why did thou not think to inform us of this sooner?” From the change in Luna’s heart rate, this has really bothered her.

“No one asked, can’t you see magic?” well I suppose having the same magic as an attempted murderer, is a subject for alarm bells.

“Nay, we can only see actively channelled magic from a unicorn’s horn.” My friend then started quickly walking towards the maid. “She will need to be taken in for questioning, to ensure the safety of both our citizens and the royalty.”

Okay, this hasn’t turned out like I expected. “Erm Luna, I don’t really want to talk to her anymore.” She looks so happy, we can’t ruin her day.

“We are sorry Eclipse, but thy desire matters not in this scenario,” I really hope she doesn’t go all nightmare, “we shall do the talking and thou can learn how to approach such situations.”

Right, how do I get out of this situation. Could try and slow Luna down. Nope, that would just make her angry at me and last time I did that someone got possessed. Oh, I know. A few metres from our path stood a bored Celestia talking to some random noble. “Luna look, Celestia’s finished with the greetings.” I casually turned her head in her sister’s direction.

“Excellent idea, she will know what to do.” Luna then slightly adjusted our trajectory to end up in the middle of Celestias boring conversation. Okay, this is better than before. “Sister, we have a matter of grave importance for thou to attend.”

A smile graced the sunny mare’s lips, before she turned back to the nobles, “You’re views on the modern pony use for saddles is inspired. We shall have to continue this conversation another time.” She then slightly bowed her head to the perturbed noble, before speed walking away alongside us. “Thank Faust you came over Luna Eclipse, there’s only so long I can talk about different saddles.” She then stuck her tongue out in disgust.

Luna giggled slightly before becoming serious, “Yes we both are glad to come to thy aid, however the national emergency is quite real and concerns a potential assassin in our midst.” Oh Lulu, you’re making her sound terrible.

Celestia seemed surprised at the words, before becoming just as serious as her sister, “If that is the case, we’ll need to deal with this quickly before any harm comes to our ponies.” Okay, looks like Celestia isn’t going to have her friendliest face on.

“Sister, we shall take the lead with questioning the subject and Eclipse pick thyself up before thou makes us trip,” Once I’d stopped drooping, this is disappointing ok, Luna increased her speed while approaching swift clean, who was currently mopping up a spilt drink facing the other direction.

Loony led with, “Greetings young one,” causing the little maid to immediately jump and drop her mop. “A little jumpy we see.”

“Princess Luna, Princess Celestia!” Swift said panickily before bowing, “I was just cleaning this spill, how can I serve you today?” She then smiled nervously.

“Now my little pony, there is no reason to be nervous when I say this, as we have an innocent until proven guilty policy.” At Celestias words the maids face fell, “It has just been reported that you may be somehow related to a certain criminal. We would like to take you in for questioning.” Celly then gave a disarming smile, or an attempt at one considering how the maid started to shake with a look of extreme terror growing on her face. I’m so sorry, Luna please send me home.

At that moment, a golden statue of Celestia collapsed in the centre of the room drawing the attention of both pegacorns. Huh, Rainbows pretty strong to catch that. Okay and my attention. The sudden sound of galloping hooves then occurred and by the time Luna looked back, the maid had fled through the doors. Dammit Swift, not again.

My wearer then immediately gave chase, “Sister we must not allow her to escape, her fear is clear admission of guilt.” I’m not so sure of that, wouldn’t most people be afraid if the law of the land came and accused them of a crime? Still it’s no excuse to run. Celestia did a pretty good job I thought.

The two pegacorns rapidly gave chase after the maid and thanks to their longer legs easily made ground, so much that they clearly saw her retreat into a quest room. What they didn’t see however, was another interesting pony running the other way who also possessed the same green glow.

“Erm, Luna”

“Yes, we know where she went, sister with us,” Moony interrupted before entering the room behind the maid. “Swift halt immediately, or thou shalt receive punitive measures.”

The maid in question was quickly looking around the room for an exit that did not exist. Why not just break a window? Upon finding no escape, the terrified pony fell to her haunches in the centre of the room before looking up at Luna, “Why me?”

“Thou hast a strange magic aura surrounding thy body,” my wearer informed, her horn glowing clearly ready to cast a spell. Hopefully a stun one.

The maid’s eyes widened, “But I haven’t done anything wrong. Haven’t I served you faithfully for years now?”

Celestia started to approach the mare, “We are only taking you in as a precaution. There isn’t going to be any charges given to you without evidence.” She then smiled down at the little pony, “We can hardly charge you for a crime with just circumstantial evidence. We’ll just find out the origin of this aura and you can be on your way.”

Instead of comforting Swift like Celestia intended, this had the opposite effect. “Oh no oh no oh no,” her panicked tirade ended with the pony laying on the floor with her hooves covering her eyes. She then quietly whispered, “please let me go.”

Both of my friends stood surprised by what they had seen, and just looked at one another. This is one of those moments that makes me wish I hadn’t left the void. She clearly isn’t some assassin.

“We promise that no harm will come to thou…” Luna started before being interrupted by the room door opening and a group of ponies starting to walk in. “We are busy in here, please come back at a later time.”

The ponies in question ignored my best friend’s words, and continued to funnel into the room until there was ten total. They then split up so there was five on each side of us. All of them were unicorns of various colours with clearly varying jobs from maids, to nobles and even a guard. The one thing they all had in common was the green glow that surrounded them. Slightly weaker than the maid, but still present. Oh dear.

My two pegacorn friends eyed the newcomers nervously. Really hope Swift didn’t purposefully lead us into a trap.

“Luna, they have that same green aura” I tried my best to stealthily warn at least Luna. Her eyes went wide.

“Now clearly you all intend to do something you may regret,” Celestia started clearly aware of the situation. “It is still possible for us to talk this through like rational adults.” The two pegacorns both turned to the separate groups, waiting for something to happen.

In the corner of my eye, I could see the maid had looked up at the other ponies in the room. She was still lying down but was clearly comforted by their presence, so much so that she said something in a normal tone. “Stun spells only.” Dammit Swift, I trusted you.

With that statement, the five unicorns in front of Moony all lit their horns with a green glow. Clearly about to fire a spell, hopefully a stun one, which prompted both princesses into action. Celestia opted for the defensive option of projecting a golden barrier. “I see you’ve chosen the path of violence.”

Luna however, went for a different approach, “Have at thee!” she yelled before jumping towards the nearest pony and punching him so hard he flew through the wall. That seemed to surprise everyone including Luna herself, “woops, ha surrender knaves.” The sudden jump caused the four readied spells to harmless blast the empty space behind us. For my part, I just started changing back to a suit of armour. A dress isn’t really much good for combat I’d assume.

Behind us clear flashes of gold and green occurred. “Luna, can we have a shield too?” Her response to that was less verbal and more a growl as she darted towards the increasingly nervous unicorns.

Our adversaries were clearly trying to separate out, but Luna’s aggressive style kept us on track for two of them. One of the unicorns in front fired another bolt, which I managed to block with one of my reformed armoured fore shoes. This may have put my friend of balance, but she still managed to fire her own dark blue bolt back which slammed squarely into the offending stallions face. Resulting in a pretty large green fire ball.

Wow, Lulu just incinerated a guy. For what it was worth, she was just as surprised as I was. Especially when the smoke cleared and instead of a unicorn stallion, laid a strange black bug like creature that resembled a pony at a passing glance. “We have never laid eyes upon such a beast.”

“Keep alert Luna!” I all but shouted into her ear as I used her rear high heeled shoes to buck an incoming unicorn. Ooo, those high heels should be labelled as deadly weapons, was all I could think thanks to the two puncture wounds being visible upon the downed attacker.

For the second unicorn, I used what was left of my dress to grapple its head and pin it to the ground. Green flames again surrounded this one revealing the bug underneath and a very jagged horn that is not a fan of fabric, seeing as it ripped straight through. I couldn’t help the cry of pain that left me. Having parts of yourself damaged is never fun.

Moony did not respond well to the sound, “Thou hast the gall to harm our beloved friend!” Her horn lit once more enveloping the bug and slamming it's head into the ground repeatedly before casually tossing it at the last of our five. The two bugs ended up in a groaning tangled mess but Luna had other things on her mind, “Eclipse art thou well? Rarity can fix you.” She said while trying to put the torn material back together.

“It's fine, I’ll just reform.” Never being a dress again, armours just better in every situation.

After our short exchange, it was obvious that the golden flashes had also ceased marking the end of the second encounter. Sadly, as we looked over it was not with a favourable outcome. 3 of the bugs were thankfully on the ground, however our faithful ally was also out for the count.

That did not agree with Moony, “SISTER!” After a deafening bellow, a shockwave emitted from the tip of my friends horn casually tossing both attackers aside. The heroic pony then jumped over her downed sister and readied herself for the fight. “Are any of thou still capable of challenging us?”

She then glanced over to the one pony we had all forgotten about. The maid was nowhere to be seen, but in her place was a fully conscious Celestia with a nervous smile. “Sister? We thought…” At those words Loony turned her head away from the green glowing Celestia clone and looked behind us. In that moment I tried to raise a hoof for defence but a green blast much faster than the previous flew towards us, impacting my friend’s still unarmoured neck. Thus, causing us to collapse to the ground.

Well, this isn’t the greatest turn of events. Upon seeing us collapse, the Celestia clone burst into flames revealing the maid, for some reason still looking nervous. Of the other bugs, six were up and moving while three were unconscious and one was in another room. Right, what’s the game plan. Just play dead for now until an opportunity arises, I suppose.

“Hey skitter, nice shots, didn’t think you had it in you to take them both out,” One of the bugs called to ‘Swift Clean.’ “Wish you’d done it before the nightmare bucked me.” The bug in question began rubbing its chest.

“Well, I was distracted by the silencing spell, would you have wanted more guards showing up?” She then walked toward Luna, “I had to do something they could have killed us.” The maid looked down at that, is that shame I see. I hope so you jerk. “We need to get out of here before someone notices. Grab the injured.”

The four unconscious bugs were gradually brought over to the window and two of the bugs collected them before breaking it and leaving. Well, if they all leave, it's probably best for me to do nothing. No chance of getting Luna killed then. “What about the Princesses? They’ve seen us, we can’t break the masquerade.” One of the bugs pointed out to my horror. Okay really need a plan.

“We’ll have to take them with us,” Clean looked at us thoughtfully, “Hopefully the queen can cast a memory spell on them.” Right, we are not going with them. “Chitter, Nat, grab Celestia. Shade, Spy, grab Luna.”

Two of the bugs started to float Celestia over to the window while the other two struggled to move Luna an inch, thanks to me. “Erm Princess. There’s something wrong with this pony.”

“Let me have a look,” ‘Clean’ began approaching us with her horn lit. “Was she always wearing armour?” Okay now or never.

As soon as the traitor got within grasping range, I sprang to Luna’s hooves, grabbing Skitter by the neck with my shoes. The other two changelings attempted to move away, so I used my mist to again grab them and bring them in close. “Drop Celestia or I’ll break this one’s neck,” I Held up the struggling maid, “followed by the other two.” Might as well drain their magic as well.

One of the bugs fired a stun bolt towards me which bounced off Luna’s now armoured head. “What should we do?” one of the bugs questioned.

“Don’t leave us!” shouted the desperate weakening bug in my grasp. Okay this is working.

The second bug holding Celestia stared at me for a long moment, “The nightmare can’t be trusted, sorry Princess.” With that the two bugs jumped out of the window, bringing my second-best friend with them. I went to follow, even going as far as to extend Luna’s wings before I realized I’ve never flown before. What to do?

The last thing ‘Clean’ said before she fell unconscious kind of confused me, “Please don’t eat me.” Fine I’ll stop draining you.

Dropping the three now unconscious bugs I had one avenue left. “GUARDS ATTEND YOUR PRINCESS AT ONCE, SHE’S UNDER ATTACK BY ASSASSINS.” Hope that silencing spells stopped.

After a few painful moments, the room filled with at least twenty ponies including Shining Armour and Twilight. The only ones I had eyes for were the four pegasi. “Princess Celestia’s been taken by these bug creatures,” I gestured to the ones on the ground, “Pursue them and report back where they take her. Don’t get spotted.”

“At your word Princess,” The four pegasi guards bowed, before immediately taking wing in the direction I pointed. Hopefully they can keep track of my friend.
“The rest of you, guard this room,” looking through the guards one of them had that same green glow, “and arrest that unicorn, he’s one of these shapeshifters.” After the guards dogpiled the lone bug and filtered out to their positions I was left alone with Twilight, Shining and the 3 drained bugs. Wow I feel knackered, Luna really did a work out, or maybe that’s the stun spell?

“How could they take Celestia?” A very distraught Twilight asked me, while I decided to lay on the floor, “Princess what do we do?” She really looks up to Celestia huh?

“Princess, should I ready the guard to mobilize once the scouts return?” Well at least the captain seems to know what to do.

“Well, the two of you need to help me with something first,” I gulped, this is going to be awkward, “Do either of you know a spell that can counteract a stun spell?”

“Of course, it's taught during basic training,” Shining looked at me or I suppose Luna curiously. “Do you wish to question the prisoners?”

“Maybe, but we need to get this out of the way.” I braced for a negative reaction “I’m not Luna. She’s been incapacitated by one of these bugs. I’m Eclipse that armour guy.”

“What and you’ve possessed her? How does that work?” Twilight asked while standing over me. “Is it like a backup consciousness in case the host is incapacitated? That’s a pretty useful feature.” I’m not an enchanted object.

“Twilight if you wake Luna up right now, I will let you try and figure that out, we have a Princess to save,” Just hurry Celestia’s attackers are getting away.

Twilight again began to panic, once I reminded her of her tutor’s peril, leaving it to shining armour to reawaken Luna. He pressed his horn against her forehead and let loose a spell. Huh I could quite easily block this, good to know.

Since I let the spell occur, Luna awakened with an explosion of activity. Going from lying on the floor to on all fours and running towards the window in an instant. “They’ve taken my sister, we must find them!”

“We’ve sent out some scouts they’ll tell us… on no” Luna likely didn’t pay attention to my words, as she jumped out the window and spread her wings. Okay we are flying now and we’re getting higher and higher. This is so much worse than the carriage.

“Eclipse, which way did they take her?” Really wished you asked before you started circling the castle at Mach ten.

“They went that way,” I said while pointing a shoe. “How are you not throwing up right now?” Please put me down. This is why being worn is the worst.

My wearer then attempted to pursue the changelings. After a few minutes of flying in a direction, her hot headed panic subsided causing her to bank back towards Canterlot. “Luna, what’s happening?”

“We shall need a plan to find her my friend.” She said while coming in for a landing. She’s probably going to question the other bugs. Upon re-entry to the room, she wondered over to the three unconscious bugs and reviewed the one that used to be Swift Clean.

Unlike the other bugs, this one was taller with a proper mane and tale, but what my wearer was focusing upon was the royal regalia she wore. “Eclipse, dost thou think thee could mimic such garments?” Oh no, that’s a terrible plan.

Author's Note

Another chapter finally.
Not sure if to much happens but it was fun to write.

11: Infiltration

Chapter 11

“This is a terrible idea,” I reiterated for the fourth time.

“Yes Eclipse, we are all well acquainted with thy views on our plan.” Luna said while looking me over. It does rely heavily on me, so my complaints are justified.

“With respect Princess, maybe another plan would be more suitable.” Shining Armor interrupted. Ah the voice of reason. I’ve always liked him. “Who’s to say the armour would be capable enough?” Ouch but fair.

Wonder if Celestia is ok? “Have those scouts come back yet?” Shining just shuck his head at me. Really hope I haven’t gotten them killed.

“Silence everypony,” Luna said looking at the two other conscious occupants of the room, “Now Eclipse, thou remembers the plan, yes?”

I couldn’t help but sigh, “yeah, there isn’t much to remember.” Speaks to how bad this plan is.

“Well enlighten us as to the steps,” she began, gesturing with a hoof.

“Okay, I’m going to go to the bugs home, undercover, worn by this one,” Gesturing to the ex-maid I was currently adorned to, “Once I’ve arrived in their home. I will locate Celestia, free her and fight my way out.” A terrible plan.

From the look on 'Cleans' face, Luna could see what I thought. “Do not forget, that we shall be accompanying thee,” she smiled sympathetically. “Dost thou not remember that thy previous actions saved Our royal behind?” That doesn’t affect this plan in the slightest.

Twilight decided to voice some of her concerns, “Princess, how’s your armour supposed to find the bugs home? Does it have inbuilt tracking spells?” I’m not a piece of equipment.

“We are not so sure about that young one, but the solution is quite simple,” Luna paused for effect clearly thinking her plan a masterpiece, “We shall awaken the bug and it will carry Eclipse to their destination.”

“But if the bugs awake, how are you supposed to tag along?” Shining seemed to be getting increasingly concerned.

“Well Captain, we shall be asleep and she will capture us the same way she ensured the capture of our lovable sister.” At the mention of her sister, Luna’s eyes hardened.

I put a holed hoof on her shoulder, “Look Loony, we’ll try our best to find your sister, she’ll be returned to you good as new.” Just not with this plan.

At my touch, she initially flinched back, “Sorry Eclipse, tis strange being comforted by the being responsible for our sister’s disappearance.” I can understand that. After she shook off the initial shock, she put a wing around me, “We know that thou will see our sister home.”

“Okay, well I still have worries about this idea,” it relies too heavily on my acting for one.

“Fine, it would be foolish of us not to address the concerns of my chief advisor,” she then gestured for me to speak. I’m sure my role isn’t chief advisor.

Somehow, I doubt this is going to go my way, “Ok, first problem. Once I’m in, how do I find Celestia?”

“Easily, this creature shall lead thou to the prisons when she attempts to incarcerate our royal form.” Moony spread her wings at the last word, trying to seem impressive. Admittedly she does look pretty cool.

“Right ok, maybe the bug does lead me to the right place. What happens if there are too many guards? I can guarantee that there will be more than ten bugs.” Get your way out of that one.

The moon pony giggled in response, “We believe that the standard insect soldiers will be no match for our combined power!” That’s a bit too much ego. At the continued giggling I realized something. Oh, she’s joking, “Without any magical restrictions, we should be able to easily teleport out once our sister is found.” Ok, if teleporting is that good, we might be fine.

There was only one final chink in this plan’s armour I could exploit. “What happens if she shapeshifts while wearing me? Her normal regalia changed to the maids outfit.” Get out of that one Moony.

With my trump card lade, my friend tilted her head in thought, before quietly saying, “Thou will just have to try and mimic the new form.” Oh, I suck at changing under pressure. The earlier fight should be evidence enough. With no final flaws in the plan to point out, I went silent, “We trust thy misgivings have been addressed?” I just stared at my friend. “Then we should get ready to begin.”

Twilight at this point decided to chip in. “Princess can I come to? Celestia needs our help and I would never forgive myself for abandoning her.” How can she possibly come? The bugs would never think a unicorn just happened to wonder in and knock themselves out.

Luckily for me, Shining Armor was the voice of reason again. Putting a hoof on the distraught unicorn's shoulder he said, “Twily your clearly emotionally compromised. The Princess knows what she’s doing, you have no reason to worry.” Yeah, save your friend from the emotionally compromised pegacorn why don’t you. That armour can just fend for it's self.

Moony cleared her throat, “If everypony is quite finished, could the two of thou leave us to our plan.” She then gestured to the door with a wing.

Shining armour bowed in response, before walking past me, “Please keep her safe.” I’m going to try my best; I’d never let anything bad happen to my blue fluffball. The two smaller ponies then left the room before closing the doors.

“Now metal one, thou must assume the correct form.” I knew that. Looking at the light blue chitinous regalia on the floor before me, I steadily mimicked it's structure, becoming much lighter and thinner than my standard metallic one.

The end result was pretty different to the Princess of the nights standard regalia. Rather than just having a small chest piece, the bugs royal wear stretched the entire length of her body. There were also large openings on the top to allow her elytra to open and release her wings. No symbols were adorned upon this chest piece, which was a stark contrast to the ponies I’d seen. Probably due to no rear end marks. Her hoof shoes were pretty standard, apart from the fact they had holes that mirrored those of the legs. For what purpose, who could say? The final piece was the headdress, which seemed like a mixture between a crown and a helmet. Clearly this bug was kitted out for a fight.

After my transformation was completed, Luna gave me the once over, “Hmm, dost though have use of the wings? They appear much different to a pony’s.”

At her words I attempted to open the bugs shell, which felt entirely alien, before flapping the wings a few times. “I can make them move a bit if that’s what you’re asking.”

That did not seem to please the Princess, “Yet another set back,” she said under her breath. Doesn’t she believe in the plan? That fills me with confidence. “Well my friend, assume the position and we shall put our plan into action.”

Okay, she was laying somewhere over here I think a little way from the window. Well let’s get uncomfortable. After I arranged myself on the floor in as sprawled out a position as possible, Luna put her horn to my head, or the bug's, and cast a spell. She then took a few steps back from me and laid down herself. “Do not worry thyself armoured one, we shall see thou on arrival.” She then cast another spell and her own eyes drifted closed.

Nothing to do now but retract my mist and wait I suppose. This waiting is going to be pretty tense. Just have to make sure I don’t move at all, easy. Maybe Shining Armor should come in and stop this. We still have time. Okay, just remain calm, Luna sort of believes in you, once the bug wakes up it’ll all be fine.

After an agonizing five minute wait, the first signs of life occurred, when the bugs wings buzzed on their own accord. Right battle stations super relaxed, play it cool. With the passage of another minute the bug let out a slight groan and rubbed her forehead with my shoe. She then struggled to open her eyes, before inspecting the room. Looks like she doesn’t remember where she is.

She seemed pretty calm and luckily, clearly hadn’t noticed the change in her apparel. Well, the plan hasn’t immediately failed. A high-pitched squeak suddenly occurred and I found myself being rapidly ran to the other side of the room. Ah welp the bugs seen Moony, heh.

Seeing no immediate escape, the bug laid out as she had before hoof and began shouting, “I surrender! Don’t hurt us.” Well at least she isn’t so tough without her backup. After a few moments of hearing nothing but the bugs panicked whimpers, she started to steadily quieten down and take a look at my friend. This creature isn’t very observant if it's only just noticed her sleeping.

'Calm' gradually got to her hooves, before making a slow and steady approach towards the terrifying sleeping blue fluff ball, only occasionally stopping at any potential sign of life. Once she was close enough, the shaking bug raised a hoof before lightly poking my friend’s furry body. As soon as contact was made, Swift immediately backed up out of the pegacorns reach. Come on, Lulu isn’t going to bite, probably not anyway.

“What happened?” you got what you deserved, that’s what. Clearly seeing Luna unconscious was an unexpected victory for the bug. One she was not quite sure how to deal with. “Shade, Spy! Are you two ok?” At least she cared about the other bugs, I suppose. Really shouldn’t have forgotten about them.

After a few moments of shaking her comrades, my unknowing wearer's heart rate began to increase. Is she afraid? They’re only unconscious. She then looked to my friend. It felt like the bug might even shed a tear, “How could you do this to us?” What? you attacked us, self-defence isn’t wrong. With that I started to feel a pretty minor energy drain as a pink mist left the bug's mouth and floated into her two comrades. Is this how they reverse a stun spell?

Once a perceived acceptable amount of pink magic stuff had been transferred to her comrades, the bug just sat and waited. The wait didn’t take long, as mere moments after the mist stopped both bugs sprang to their hooves as if wide awake. “Did we win?” the darker one said, while the other just turned to me, I mean 'Swift', “Princess, are you ok? what did she do to us?”

“Everything’s fine, I’m just glad that you two are ok.” Skitter said happily, she then took on a more solemn tone before gesturing to my Princess. “She tried to drain us of our love reserves.” Love reserves? “It seems with you two she was successful. Something must have gone wrong when she got to me. I’m fuller than I’ve ever been.” By full does she mean with my magic? “I’ve got so much love I even managed to fill you both to the brim.” She finished with a slight smile.

“Huh, so this is what it feels like to be full.” The darker bug said, “Feels kind of nice.” Do these guys need magic to live more than ponies? My bad, I wasn’t really trying to kill them.

“Shade, it might feel good but don’t lose focus of our situation,” said the one, who by deduction must be spy. “What are your orders Princess?”

“We need to get out of here before any ponies come by,” Skitter said, while looking back to the door. “There isn't a moment to lose.” She then started to walk towards the broken window. Hey aren’t you forgetting something.

“Princess what about the pony monarch? She knows about the masquerade.” Thank you Shade. If I don’t have her, there isn’t any teleporting escape plan. “She seems too dangerous to bring back to the hive. Maybe we should just euthanize her?”

“NO! we can’t just kill the pony’s ruler. They’ll come looking for revenge,” Oh thank you buggy. You may have betrayed us, but at least you won’t go that far. She then seemed to debate for a moment before saying, “We’ll keep the same plan. Take her back, erase her memories and let her go. Simple plan and no one need be harmed.” To be fair on the bug, that isn’t really an evil plan. Maybe I misjudged her.

“Okay no need to bite my head off, it was just a suggestion.” Shade the most hated bug said. It’s a good job she felt as strongly about sparing Luna as I did, almost gave the game away there. “We’ll carry the Princess just in case she awakens, that’ll give you chance to escape.”

Skitter just smiled back at her underlings before buzzing her wings. Really wish we were carrying Loony. I’d ensure she wasn’t dropped. With my friend collected, the three bugs with their two passengers flew out of the broken window. I thought flying was bad with Luna. It’s so much worse when someone you don’t trust is behind the wheel.

The flight took a lot longer than I was expecting, taking us across so many different parts of Equestria. Eventually taking us so far that the luxuriously green grass transformed into barren dead land. Resisting the urge to look at the new sights was awful. Our buggy would probably notice somethings up if her head started turning on its own. Luna would let me look at things whenever I wanted, this sucks. Luckily for me being a dead land meant not much changed, meaning staring into the distance let me see enough to sate even the most curious mind.

That was until a massive structure loomed in the distance. A tall spikey structure that didn’t appear natural. Covering the outside of this so-called building, were many holes and jagged walls. As the bugs were beelining towards it, it was obviously important to them. Have they built their home to resemble themselves?

Once we were close enough, a fresh hole opened up to welcome the three bugs, allowing them to enter the structure. After they entered, the hole began sealing itself behind us. Okay, this is bad. “Princess, I’m so glad you’re ok.” Came a buggy voice ahead of us. “Chitter said the nightmare had eaten you.” The offending armoured bug waiting for us approached, and immediately pointed a spear at Loony. Easy with the pointy end buggy.

“Yes, well no thanks to him,” Skitter said indignantly. From her point of view, he did leave her to die. “Anyway, we managed to capture the Luna diarch. She needs to be taken to the Queen immediately for a memory wipe.” Oh dear, well a memory wipe isn’t so bad. Wait, what if they wipe away more than just the bugs? Could they ruin Luna’s mind? Hope they haven’t already done Celestia.

Fortunately, or unfortunately the bugs had other plans. “That won’t be necessary Princess, the Queen’s orders are for us to incarcerate this pony along with the larger one and for you to give an immediate report.”

“Oh ok,” Skitter started to seem nervous again as her companions began carrying Luna away, “Be careful with her ok.” We need to go that way to find Celestia, come on Skitter work with me. To my dismay she then turned around and followed the bug guard. Right, I could possess her but that guard might notice. Hmm, I’ll just have to remember where to go.

Trying my best to remember the corridors I would need to take seemed almost fruitless. Numerous times during the journey, walls warped and created new pathways while old ones were sealed off. How could anyone navigate this place? It’s like it's alive. The only important bit of information I could gather, was the sheer number of bugs we walked past. All of them appearing busy with various tasks none of which I had chance to inspect, thanks to my wearer's lack of attention. She’s likely seen it all before. At least the bugs seemed happy to see us.

At the end of our stroll through bug central, we reached a set of large black doors flanked by yet more armoured guards. Right, so is that where the queen is? My question was answered by our escort, “Princess would you require any love before this meeting?” These guys really care about the feelings.

My wearer just smiled back to the guard, “It's okay Slice, Equestria is just bursting with love. I’m so full that I have some spare for you.” She then repeated the same action she performed with her two companions in Canterlot, again draining a small amount of magic from me to produce that pink mist. Just an all you can eat buffet over here.

The guard seemed surprised and immediately bowed, “Th-thank you Princess it is my honour to receive such a gift.” He then regained his senses, “Please let me get the door for you.” A green glow enveloped the large black door, before it began creaking open. Why make these doors so big? The ponies did it, now the bugs. Seems to cause more difficulties than they’re worth.

With the doors fully open, my wearer nodded to Slice the guard before entering the large intimidating room. Green is a really weird colour to use for all your lights. It makes this place seem so creepy. Seems it’s so creepy that even the royal bug was slightly intimidated by it. Or it could have been the bug in the centre of the room who clearly stood a head taller than Celestia. That’s probably it.

Said giant bug appeared to be busy talking with a bunch of other smaller, but equally intimidating bugs before we walked in. All eyes had immediately turned to us, including that of what I can only assume is the Queen. She immediately began to bare her teeth at us, or is that a smile? Before commanding her current companions, “Leave us at once.” The other bugs all bowed and bid a hasty retreat, while my bug and queeny stared each other down. Clearly the bigger bug was winning this staring contest.

Once the other occupants of the room had left, the Queen took a breath before gaining a pointy toothed smile. “Skitter, it’s good to see you after so long.” Okay I was expecting something else.

Skitter started to look down, “It’s good to see you mother, I…I just wish it was under better circumstances.” Makes sense that the Princess would be the Queens daughter. Makes me wonder where Equestria’s Queen is.

“Yes indeed, don’t be shy, you may approach the throne,” the way my wearer reacted to the gentle request, it may as well have been a command. From how she quickly walked forward to stand just a metre from the oversized black chitinous chair. “I’m afraid for now we must skip the pleasantries and discuss recent events. You are aware of why the masquerade exists, hmm?” The queen cocked her head as she asked the question.

“Yes mother,” Wow, Skitters been a bad little bug it would seem.

“Please enlighten me, as to the reason then,” the bigger bug horse commanded.

“To keep the changelings safe,” So, these guys are called changelings, makes sense.
Skitter seemed to gain a moment of bravery, and looked up to her disappointed mother, “But it wasn’t my fault, we didn’t have a choice the ponies…”

“I don’t care for your mistakes child,” the queen interrupted, “I’m just glad you can take advantage of the situations they put you in.” She then smiled at the confusion Skitter was clearly showing.

“Huh, what do you mean?” well you did screw up, but at the same time captured us so that’s why she’s not as mad. Doesn’t take a genius.

“Taking down the rulers of Equestria completely underprepared, I couldn’t be prouder,” the Queen then stepped down from her throne and hugged us. Wow her skin is solid, she probably doesn’t need armour to stop swords. “Your blunder has presented us with a unique opportunity in a time of crisis.”

“Crisis my Queen?” my wearer's heart rate increased rapidly. Not sure if that’s from hearing of the crisis or the fact the Queen that could crush her head like a grape is hugging her.

The Queen released her vice like grip and looked away, “The Griffonian empire has become increasingly organised as of late thanks to their blasted emperor.” Chrysalis then looked back at us, “after our most recent failure to remove him from office, their security has increased and many of our safe houses have had to be abandoned.” Well at least Luna was right that they were behind that assassination attempt. Hope she doesn’t say I told you so.

After a moment the Queen brightened, “That’s where your acquisition of the pony monarchs comes in, Equestria will destabilize without them and we will be free to enact our plans to end changeling hunger forever.” Queeny then threw her head back and let out a pretty maniacal laugh.

“But mother, if we wipe the Princesses' memories, we could continue to harvest love as before.” Skitter said hopefully, “If we antagonise the ponies in this way, they may be more dangerous than the Griffons.” Yeah, you tell her. Apparently, I’m on team Skitter now.

Chrysalis just tutted before saying, “Griffons are highly territorial predators bent upon hunting our harvesters,” She raised one hoof for emphasis, before then raising the other. “Ponies are placid herbivores, terrified of their own shadows; how could they be worse?” Hey some of them are brave enough to charge a weird suit of armour for no reason.

Skitter looked her Queen straight in the eyes, “The ponies have learned how to see changeling magic.”

This caused the imposing bug monster’s mouth to drop open. I never thought I’d see queeny speechless. After a moment she regained her composure, “Are you certain of this? If they are aware of the masquerade, we may have a larger problem than I thought.” She seemed to be almost pleading the smaller royal to be wrong.

“It’s confirmed. Princess Luna herself, erm I mean the Nightmare, outright told me of our strange magic. That’s how I was discovered.” She then smiled slightly in an attempt to reassure her parent, “When I was questioned, they didn’t know of changelings, just of a strange magical signature.”

“Be that as it may, how were you able to remain undetected for so many years?” Wow, Skitter really worked in Canterlot for that long. “Your infiltration skills must have improved considerably.”

My wearer began to perk up more at the veiled complement, “I just avoided being in the presence of anyone I thought would notice me. It worked out most of the time and even when the pony Princesses saw me, they weren’t suspicious.” This prompted the bug to scratch her chin with my shoe, “Their magic detection seems to be a more recent development.”

“Any idea of where these puny creatures came up with such a powerful spell? They clearly could not have come up with such on their own.” The dark queen questioned. You’re clearly underestimating the ponies here; they’ve built so many interesting things. Like buildings that make sense.

Skitter frowned at the comment clearly agreeing with me before sighing, “There were two obvious changes before my discovery, the first was the Princess sending off her private student, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, to do field research.” Now it makes sense as to why that unicorn locked herself in her lab, it's literally her job.

“And what of the other?” the queen goaded her daughter to continue.

“Last week the ponies found a strange enchanted artifact in Ponyville.” Is that me? “So far, apart from it being sapient and a suit of armour, it's capabilities are unknown, but the princesses seemed very interested in it.” I suppose I’m pretty mysterious to an outsider looking in.

“I’ll need to organise for this Twilight to be captured and questioned, if she came up with the spell, she may know how to counter it.” Hey leave that little pony alone, it’s me you want. Chrysalis then smiled to herself, “Now, for that enchanted armour, if the Princesses are so interested, we can likely make use of it ourselves to help bolster our army. Do you think a changeling could wield it?” Alright you can have Twilight she was pretty annoying anyway, just leave me out of it. Just kidding.

“Not sure it’s possible to wield it mother,” Skitter said with a bowed head, “Should I prepare to return to Equestria? Maybe I could find out about the spell?”

“No, with that spells presence it will be far too dangerous.” The large bug then placed a hoof on our shoulder, “I would prefer it if you remained by my side where I know your safe.”

My wearer seemed surprised by the response before quickly saying, “but I know Canterlot so well, I think many of my friends there would be able to help me.” Wonder how many other infiltrators are present in my home. I’ll have to do a full sweep when I get back.

Queeny gave us quite an ill-deserved condescending look, “Skitter, you really shouldn’t forget ponies are our prey, you shouldn’t befriend those that you hunt.” Did she really want to be friends with me back in the library? “Now it’s been nice to see you again, but I have work to get to, sorting out this mess. I suggest you get some rest after your ordeal with the Nightmare.”

“Yes, my Queen.” She replied sullenly before walking in a sulking fashion towards the door. Guess ponies can get along with anyone. Suppose I’m proof enough of that.

After we pushed through the doors, that same bug guard was waiting. “So, how’d it go?” after a moment of looking our way the changeling gained a sympathetic look, “do you want to talk about it?” Is Skitter really sulking that much?

Skitter shook her head, “No Slice its fine, I’m just a little tired,” my wearer then started to walk down the opposite corridor to where we came from. That’s the wrong way to Luna dammit. “I think my bed is calling to me.”

“Would you like me to walk with you?” Seems this guy might be a good friend of our bug.

“No, it’s okay, I’ll come see you later.” At that she continued sulking down the corridor leaving behind a pretty disappointed friend.

After the recent events I’d witnessed, a little internal debate took place. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty clear that this Princess is firmly in the ponies are friends not food camp. It might even be possible to reason with her. She seems to like ponies more than the Queen anyways. Having her on my side would be good as she could show me where Luna is kept. Shame she likely wouldn’t trust me. She’d probably call out for help the moment I revealed myself.

With that final thought, I made my decision that a move needed to be made. As she turned another corner and was out of the sight lines of any guards it was now or never. Immediately, I locked ever joint before releasing my smoke to further hold the bug in place.

“Wha-whats happen...” She tried to say before I held her jaw closed with my mist. From Skitters point of view it, probably went from a casual slightly mopey walk to her room, to being completely restrained by her own garments.

Feeling a little guilt at the clearly rising panic from the little bug, I tried to at least comfort her a little, “Really sorry about this, but I’m just going to borrow you for a bit.” You can probably bet how little comfort that was. Immediately I could feel attempts to cast unknown spells, which I blocked before the bug settled for beating her wings as hard as she could, resulting in an incredibly loud buzz.

Okay so, I’ve only done this once before with an awake pony by accident. All I did was try to walk around against my wearer so here goes. At that I attempted to walk the bug further down the corridor causing my mist to fill the spaces between my armour. That resulted in my mist occupying the same space as the terrified bug. Once that occurred poor Skitters wings stopped beating and her muffled voice went silent, hopefully before anyone noticed.

“Did it work?” Ah success, wow Skitters wings are killing me. That’s hopefully the worst thing I’m ever going to do in my entire life. Still the sudden ability to breathe again is amazing. Wonder what it tastes like to eat as a changeling? Wait focus, have to save Luna… and Celestia, not forgetting her. Some Pegasus guards as well.

With those final thoughts I set off back down the way Skitter had come.

Author's Note

I felt real bad writing that chapter end. :)

Also sorry about the longer wait for the chapter. I've been struggling to get chance to write due to my shift pattern.

12: Double Agent

Chapter 12

Okay, so this has gone better than expected. I may have been separated from my Loony, but at least the changelings aren’t aware of me, thanks to Skitter. It was hard not to think about the bug, as I used her legs to carry me back down the corridor. This can’t be allowed to distract me; I’ll just apologise later.

As casually as possible, I walked back through the corridor Skitter had brought me down. Eventually making it to the two large doors, that lead towards the terrifying bug monarch. Okay just stay calm, she can’t see me and even if she did, I’m her daughter. She’d probably just tell me to go to bed or something.

Just as I was walking past the imposing doors the flanking guards both saluted me which did surprise me, but not as much as the large scream that was emitted from behind them. “I don’t want to hear any excuses; I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT RESULTS!” Wow, Chrysalis has a set of lungs that might even put Luna to shame.

At that sudden outburst, I couldn’t help my in-built reaction. Going from a casual walking pace to a full gallop, in an attempt to make as much distance from the disgruntled royal as possible. Swear I heard one of the guards laugh as they disappeared into the distance.

After a minute of galloping and another sharp turn, I ran straight into an obstacle. This caused me to trip and land upon Skitter's back. May have lost my cool there for a moment, I thought while scratching my helmet.

“Anybug get the number of that carriage?” came a familiar voice I’d heard moments ago. Sprawled out in front of me was none other than Skitter's friendly guard. What’s his name? He didn’t look injured but was still clearly laying down.

Seeing his state, I quickly jumped to Skitter's hooves. Okay, what to do? Run off and leave him or stay and apologise? Leaving him may be the best solution to remain hidden, but he might come after me. With that my decision was made. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” This seems like the correct response.

He steadily shook his head, and looked up at my offered holed hoof. “Princess? Are you ok?” you’re the one on the ground. He then grabbed the limb before heaving himself up.

“Yeah, just was in a bit of a rush,” I said sheepishly. What was this guy’s name again? I’m sure I heard it before.

Whatever his name was, casually brushed himself down before smiling at me, “Ha, I’ll say. Never seen you in such a panic before.”

Okay, this guy knows the Princess a bit too well me thinks, “Well something made me jump okay.”

The guard raised a knowing eyebrow, “that wouldn’t so happen to have resulted from a shout from our glorious Queen capable of shaking the entire hive, hmm?”
Queeny is definitely louder than Luna. Saying that, my fluffball managed to wake up a foal half way across Canterlot with her shout. Maybe they are about even? At this moment I realized the changeling was still looking at me for a reply, so in a panic I just nodded vigorously.

A laugh was the response at Skitters apparent admission, before a hoof was placed upon my shoulder, “You’ll get used to that again after a few days.” The bug then stepped back and gave me a curious look, “You seem to have perked up slightly, weren’t you going to bed?”

Right, why would Skitter be wondering around? “I just thought a walk might do me some good,” that’s as good of an excuse as any.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. It’ll help clear your head from that… experience.” At those last words the bugs ears started to droop slightly. Is that a look of pity? Doesn’t matter, he still bought my excuse.

“Well anyway, it was nice seeing you again. I’m going to… continue my walk, erm yeah,” With that, I tried my best genuine smile and walked past the concerned changeling. Now to try and find the correct route. I’m still positive it was down here.

After a few more steps I began to notice the steady clopping of shoes other than my own. Turning around I found the same guard following behind. He smiled back at me when we made eye contact. Okay this is bad, why’s he following me? Is he suspicious?

Something must have shown on Skitters face as the guard responded, “Would it be rude to request I join your walk Princess?” He then without waiting for an answer increased his pace to walk beside me, “I am assigned to see to your wellbeing after all.” Does this guy have the same job as I do in relation to Luna?

Regardless of his job, I really don’t want this bug with me. He’s probably going to rat me out immediately. While giving a half-hearted smile I said, “I was hoping for a quiet walk to be honest.” So go away.

“No worries here,” at that rather than taking the hint, the bug in question just ran his hoof over his lips before continuing to walk beside me.

I couldn’t help sighing out of exasperation. This looks like the best I’m going to get. As long as we aren’t talking, he can just stay out of my way. “Fine let’s go,” maybe I can ditch the bug later. Now I’m sure this is the right way.

After a few minutes of walking down the potentially correct route, I began to notice something about my current companion. Every so often he would look in my direction and try to catch my eye. One time I made the mistake of looking at him and he started smiling before I turned away. It really feels like he wants to start a conversation. Are guards supposed to act like that? That made me wonder something else. Skitter gave this guard some magic, and only gave magic to the other bugs that were dying. Really hope that doesn’t mean this guy is more than a close friend. It would suck to ruin someone’s relationship. Oh well.

While trying my best to ignore my irritating follower, I came across my second obstacle. A solid wall. Fairly certain that there wasn’t a wall here before. Pretty sure it just opened when we approached. Okay don’t panic, I can get through this. In an attempt to inspect the wall, I carefully ran Skitter's hoof across the surface. Okay that is most definitely a wall. Is there some sort of command or something? Open sesame maybe? This can’t be the end of the journey, what would Luna think?

After a few moments of wondering, a light tap was placed upon my shoulder, “Ahem.”

At the sudden stimulus, I couldn’t help knocking away the offending appendage. “What are you doing? I’m thinking.” It was then that I noticed the wall had opened a little way over from where I was standing, and a smug bug was standing in my way. “Oh”

“Princesses first,” the bug said with a bow, never once losing the smug look.

At seeing my obstacle so easily removed I couldn’t help hugging the guard. Luna I’m still on my way. This is going way better than I thought, only a few more doors and it's home time. It was then I realized I was still holding a struggling bug. “Oh, sorry about that. Thanks…” oh no, what was his name? Stab or something… maybe cut. This is embarrassing.

After I released the bug, he suddenly started gasping for breath before responding, “It's ok… Princess, I can tell something’s on your mind.” He then regained his senses and fell into step next to me once again. “Shall we continue?”

“Of course,” at that, I made my way into the middle of the next corridor and immediately paused. Right the way is open and there’s two directions to go. Was it left, or right? Is this even the same corridor? This place is a damn maze, how do the bugs find their way around?

“Princess? You really seem to have lost touch with this place.” My faithful companion eyed me, while I bit my shoe in idle thought.

“It has been a long time.” A long time meaning I’ve never been here before. Maybe I should just pick one and if its wrong double back? For all intents and purposes a walk to clear your head has no destination, right?

“If I may be so bold Princess,” the armoured bug continued, “Maybe you should follow me. I think I know where you want to go.” He then pointed to the right and started to walk further ahead.

There is no way this guy knows I want to find some ponies; how could that be the right way? Well, there isn’t any harm I suppose, as he can open all the doors I need. “Okay lead the way my friend.” My unwitting ally only smiled in response, and turned to walk down the corridor. Okay whatever your name is, lead me to my fluffy ponies. With a final bit of hesitation, I began following the bug’s path.

Following the changeling made the journey a lot easier. Not needing to worry about which way you’re going or having to open any random walls is pretty nice. If he actually leads me where I want to go, I’ll have to find a way to thank him.

After a short walk through many walls and past many guards, my personnel guard stopped, “Okay Princess we’re here.” He then pointed to a particularly armoured door with flanking guards. The bug really came through? Who’d have thought.

I smiled back to him, “Thanks for the guidance,” before heading over to the door. Both guards began to give me appraising looks. Alright you’re their Princess so hopefully in charge, this’ll be easy. “Could you two open the door for me please?” That’s probably how Skitter would talk right? She seemed polite in the library. Maybe that was just an act?

At my words both guards reacted by quickly bowing their heads and the closest responded, “We would never impede you from this your majesty.” Were these guys expecting me to do something? They then began opening the large doors with their glowing horns. “They’ve been waiting for you.”

“Thank you,” was all I could say before walking past the two into the room. At least they didn’t react like I was out of character. Once the two of us had passed the threshold, both guards resealed the massive doors behind us.

Inside, the room was incredibly bright compared to the rest of the hives dingy lighting. It was also a fairly large space with clearly enough room for many prison cells. Sadly for me however, it appeared almost bare. Off to one side was a few small containers, and at the other was a large number of small holes in the wall. The only other thing or person of note, was a lone changeling with a white hat who appeared very happy to see me.

Well, this definitely isn’t a cell block. I then turned to my betrayer who smiled innocently at me. Thanks for nothing. The white hatted bug began to beckon me over. Right new problem to deal with. “Princess you’re here,” she excitedly exclaimed. “We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow after we'd heard about today’s fiasco.”

Ah and there’s my out, “Well, if you’re not ready for me, I’ll just come back tomorrow.” Really don’t want to have to do whatever job you have for me.

This led to a pretty surprising reaction from the bug who’d rushed over to me, “No no no Princess, we are always happy for you to come whenever you please.” She then pointed over to the holes behind her, “It’s always a wonderful surprise for the little ones when you visit.”

“Huh?” Little ones? I couldn’t help cocking my head at that. What is this place?

“I’ll just go and get them,” My wordless question went unanswered, as the hat wearing bug wondered over to the openings and made a strange chirping sound before looking back at me. Is that supposed to be a word? Hope they don’t expect me to speak like that.

In response to the weird chirp, multiple quieter chittering sounds began emanating from the holed wall alongside small ominous glows coming from each hole. She better not be summoning some sort of demon on me. I am not too proud to admit, that I retreated back to the safety of my guard.

After a few more seconds, something a little smaller and less intimidating than what I expected jumped out, or fell out, of one the holes. The little creature appeared to be a miniature version of the bugs around me, with an even shorter stature than that of the crusaders. That was when it dawned on me, it’s worse than a demon. It’s a changeling foal!

Upon landing on the floor, the tiny bug rolled around for a minute before finally managing to get to it's hooves. All the while making the same chittering noises and occasionally buzzing its wings. After gaining it's bearings, it began scanning the room with its eyes until they rested upon its target. Which apparently was me.

As soon as the tiny thing locked onto me it immediately let out a high-pitched squeak before bounding over to me. It's attacking? I’m sure its tiny size makes it perfectly puntable. Before I got the chance the tiny insect pounced and gripped firmly to my foreleg, which I’d raised in self-defence.

I was about to start trying to shake the bug off, when the hatted bug intervened, “Aww she’s so happy to see you.” Once I’d gotten a good look at the little bugger, she was pretty cute. The entire time she held my leg she hadn’t stopped chirping and rubbing her muzzle against me. Clearly, she knows Skitter then. “Scarlet would’ve been just a grub when last you were here,” came the answer to my unasked question.

“She’s a friendly little thing,” I couldn’t help petting the small bugs head with a hoof. This caused the happy chirping to increase.

“Missed you,” came a small voice. Wah, it talks! Forgot she was a person for a second there. The surprise made me stop my petting and realize something else. There’s quite a lot more chirping than just the one little bug’s.

Looking up from my newest passenger, I could see a small herd of the fun sized bugs approaching me. Each of them had a similar look of excitement on their face. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but let Skitter’s ears go flat in concern. Really hope I’m not supposed to know all, how many? Eight of their names.

Sitting down, I tried my best to seem welcoming. Okay stay calm, these little guys are no threat. Just deal with the situation calmly and nothing bad will happen.

Sitting down may have been a mistake, as it allowed a couple of the bugs to climb up onto my back where they began gripping Skitter’s wing covers. Is it okay for them to do that? Another bug which was smaller than the first, hugged my other foreleg but pushed its hooves through my newly acquired leg holes. Now that definitely doesn’t seem ok, it feels weird. My time spent with pony foals proves I’m bad at this. How am I supposed to know what’s normal?

Wonder how my observers are taking this display. At that, I casually looked over to the two larger adult bugs, who were still smaller than me. My first target was the loyal guard. He looked pretty impassive, just casually watching each of the foals. Well, that isn’t the most helpful, at least he isn’t obviously weirded out. Sneaking a look at the nanny bug put my mind more at ease. She had a pretty clear, warm smile upon her face. Guess this is how it always goes down.

After the squirming bugs started to get settled and the chirping quietened, the initial bug, erm Scarlet spoke once again. “Princess, have you brought snacks?” At her words I just gave her a look. If I’d known we were coming to meet these lot maybe I would have. What snacks would a little bug want anyway? Do they like biscuits? Don’t think I’ve ever given snacks to anyone. Well, apart from that cake one time.

“Snacks?” The chittering sound soon returned after my vocalization. Some of the others also started chanting for snacks, while also bouncing up and down. Really don’t know what to say here. Before I could respond I suddenly felt a pull of magic come from my foreleg. The smallest bug had started to drain my magic in a way that felt much more like an external attack, than that of Skitters earlier drain. Well, I’d better stop that.

“The Princess has had a long day little ones,” came the voice of my saviour, “some dastardly ponies tried to harm her.” We were only defending ourselves guys. Not our fault our attackers were harmed.

After my guard’s words the fun sized bugs all gasped, and some even stepped back. The one feeding didn’t seem to notice or care however and needed to be stopped by the nanny.

“Don’t worry kids, all the changelings with me are fine now,” need to do some damage control here, “the ponies weren’t interest in trying to kill us.”

This confused the foals. “What were they doing then?” came the shy response of a bug perched upon my shoulder.

What is the most diplomatic way to describe what happened? There is no way a changeling would blame herself for the pony’s attack. “They were trying to defend themselves. Just the same way we were. Sometimes things just go wrong.” Trying my best to channel Celestia there.

My words caused the foals to once again calm down, and prompted the caretaker to comment, “Don’t worry about the ponies little grubs. Our queen prevents any of the prey from harming us.” She wasn’t there during the fight. How could she possibly of helped? Propaganda for the young that was.

Once the wave of worry had fully passed over the grubs, their focus firmly shifted back to their earlier desire. “So, is there no snacks today?” one of the bugs sadly said, which was followed by a chorus of “awwww.” Seems they were looking forward to a meal.

“They have quite a one-track mind,” I said to the caretaker, while patting the littlest bug. Their disappointment is kinda making them more adorable.

The caretaker laughed slightly in response, “What can you expect from the young? You were like them too once you know.”

Looking across the little forms I couldn’t help thinking, these guys are all pretty skinny, so much so that you could almost see the ribs. Maybe feeding them won’t be that bad. Three full grown bugs have already had their fill and I’m still doing fine. I should definitely have enough magic to feed their tiny bellies and rescue the ponies. “Maybe they can all at least take some mag… love?”

The caretaker raised her hoof to get my attention, “Princess I must protest, while your desire to feed them is admirable, it wouldn’t…” She hesitated for a moment clearly nervous about reprimanding a royal. “It wouldn’t be wise as they don’t know when to stop.” So, the little ones might drain someone to death by accident? For future reference, don’t let them near ponies.

“They’ll stop when full right?” Please don’t say they’ll over eat themselves to death.

Her response was to tilt her head at me, “Well yes, but that would take an astounding amount of love.” What just to have a meal big enough to fill them up? These guys are big eaters. How could they possibly feed everyone?

With that thought in mind, I decided to be a little cautious and looked to the first miniature changeling. “Hey erm, Scarlet,” I whispered prompting the bug hugging my leg to become a bit shy and hide her face at Skitters apparent sole attention. “Hey little one, could would you like to get some food?” the bug immediately looked up and nodded eagerly, “Well eat up, but make sure you’re not too greedy.”

At that, Scarlet immediately began feeding once again, likely not paying attention to anything after eat. The energy drain was actually pretty mild like I was expecting despite the pink light show. “This is actually fine.” Might have sounded a bit too surprised for the watching bugs there.

To my side, the caretaker looked on with a look of increasing worry prompting my noble guard into action. “Honey, don’t worry. Our Princess is one of the wisest of our kind, that’s why she’s a royal. If she says she can handle one grub then she can.” Yep, I totally know that my magic was enough for this. There was no guessing about it, honest.

“Yeah Honey its fine, I’ve had a large harvest from Equestria.” My words started to put the now named Honey at ease. That was until my next action. With the confidence I’d gained from feeding the first bug, as well as the hungry looks the other bugs were giving me, I decided to open the flood gates. “Okay everyone, I think it’s okay for you all to get involved.”

Immediately seven more pink streams joined the first, as each bug didn’t even bother to hesitate once permission was granted.

“Slice! You have to do something.” Honey cried out in desperation before her mouth fell open. That pink cloud is probably pretty big for a reason. Maybe mistakes have been made. After a few moments I actually started to feel something. This is kind of reminding me of when Luna tried to break a shield I was fuelling. Maybe I should say something?

Before I could say anything, the last of the pink streams cut out. Huh, piece of cake. Probably going to need an extra-large snack when I get home. Still, it was worth it just seeing each of the content little faces stop paying attention to me. Each of the little bugs gradually let go and dropped to the floor. Hopefully from full bellies and not over eating.
Looking over to the two adults, I could see two very different reactions. The first from Honey was one of pure shock, “I thought the royals could hold a lot of love, but that’s just insane. How can you be willing to give up so much for some random 'lings?” Maybe really over did it there. Hopefully that statue has enough to refill me.

Erm okay think of something, “they’re the future of the hive. We want them to be strong.” That sounds about right.

“I guess but filling eight grubs. They take so much more love than an adult. It’s just amazing.” Honey then began removing the two bugs that had fallen asleep on my back. Forgot about those two. If what she says is true, I wonder how much magic I actually lost? I always feel hungry for more regardless of how much I’ve eaten. No use worrying about that. Seems now might be the perfect time to leave.

Over to the side, I saw my loyal guard in an apparent day dream with his mouth open and drool steadily spilling out. Upon noticing my sideways glance, the guard immediately stopped and stood to attention. “Sorry Princess. Just can’t wait till we can get a bigger piece of Equestria for the hive.”

I stood up at his words, “You know, Equestria might be willing to trade their love to us without any need for us to take it.” Maybe, depending on whether or not the bugs harm what they feed on. Those foals could easily kill a pony, thinking back to when I fed on Applejack.

My guard looked away slightly, “If only.”

Enough of this distraction, there’s a Princess to save, “Slice would you be so kind as to escort me to our latest prisoner?” Should have done this from the start. At least I know his name now.

Slice responded by bowing his head and saying, “by your will,” before moving over to the room’s door and opening it with his magic.

Just before following the guard, I turned back to Honey who was busy putting the miniature bugs back in their holes. “Honey, thanks for having us. I’d love to stay but we need to leave for another engagement.” Can’t help feeling a little guilty there. Would they normally have spent more time with the Princess? Suppose it’s not really important.

“You know you’re always welcome Princess,” she responded while placing the one I think was Scarlet back to bed. Those little guys all look the same to me. “Especially when you bring us such precious gifts.” At that I gave my best smile before following Slice out the door.

Once the two of us had made our way further down the corridor, away from any other changelings my guard began to voice some concerns. “Do you think it’s a good idea to meet these creatures again so soon after your conflict? Maybe you should have that nap you were talking about, come back tomorrow with a clearer head.” Okay still no suspicion. Just have to remain calm. The bug is just showing some worry for Skitter, that’s all.

“Slice, there’s no need to worry,” I couldn’t help hesitating. Okay, why does Skitter want to see the prisoners? “I just want to check something.” Ah dammit. Really should have hesitated more, that’s not a great reason.

My armoured comrade just sighed at my response and continued to lead the way. As long as he’s not questioning me, its fine.

After many twists and turns through random walls, we eventually came upon a similar armoured door. The only real difference to the nursery being the six guards instead of two. That’s probably more like it for the changeling's most wanted.

Just as we approached the doors and I was debating what to say to allow my entry, the doors glowed green and opened from within. From the doors came a bug I’d seen once before, carrying Celestia away across the sky. What’s this jerk’s name again? If he’d surrendered, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

“Chitter!” came a bitter voice from my side. At the sudden vocalization from my guard, the distracted bug almost jumped out of his skin. Seems Slice doesn’t like this guy either. Probably due to the fact that from their point of view he left their Princess to die.

Once the bug had regained it's breath it turned to us, “Hey! Slice you nearly gave me a heart attack.” It was then he noticed that there was two of us stood in front of him. “P-P-Princess! It's so good to see you,” he stuttered out before immediately bowing. His bow was so deep that he practically laid on the floor in front of me. “So, no hard feelings about, erm well you know? Heh.”

You are the source of all my current problems. I wish I’d managed to drain your magic like the others.

“What are you doing here?” Slice asked before I could start berating the bug. That’s probably a good thing, regardless of what I feel about this guy. Feigned forgiveness is likely the path of least resistance to reaching my goal.

In response to slice’s question, the bug looked up, “I just wanted to see the ponies who almost bested our Princess.” He then steadily got back to his hooves and looked straight into my eyes, “The white one is supposed to be the most powerful pony to exist and we beat her easily.”

It wasn’t that easy, there was like ten of you. Not to mention the fact that we were surprised and surrounded on a day meant for celebration not fighting. In the end all I said was, “We did cheat.”

Those words were met with a chorus of laughter from not just my guard but the six guarding the room as well. Once the laughter started to die down, Slice simply stated with a smile, “but of course, that’s what changelings do best.” Well, no honour among thieves and all that.

“Anyway, I brought along a few love crystals just to see how many these so-called mighty creatures could fill,” Chitter continued, while starting to hold out a few pink glowing rocks.

Filling love crystals? Does that mean they’re draining my friends magic? Are they hurting them? Without hesitating I immediately pushed past the offending bug and entered the room. None of the guards even attempted to halt my entry and a couple even stepped aside. Perks of being the Princess.

The sight that lay before me was quite undesirable I can say that much. You’d think I’d be happy to be met with the sight of both Luna and Celestia, but well there was a slight problem. Not only were they both unconscious, which makes teleporting out a problem, but they were both encased in some kind of green, gooey container. That does not look comfortable. Especially since they were both upside down.

I couldn’t help letting Skitter's mouth fall open at their condition. Okay no emotions just continue the charade until you think of something. “So, h-how many did you fill?” I stammered slightly. Keeping your cools hard.

Chitter responded in a tone almost as nervous as mine, “I did get permission first you know.” He then held the crystals out once again, “Just two your highness. The regular ponies were so much more efficient in Equestria when they were genuinely happy.”

That last statement piqued my curiosity, “So how many of those crystals could you fill if they were conscious?”

The bug just looked at me for a moment, “Erm non princess, I’d be too busy avoiding being turned into glue.”

I couldn’t help rolling Skitter’s eyes at that. Really wish I could roll my eyes all the time. It’s such a good way to get your irritation across. Saying that, if I convinced Luna to let me do that, she’d likely never see straight again. “Chitter, just humour me.”

This caused my nemesis to pause and look thoughtfully at the crystals within his grasp. “Well back in Equestria I could fill ten a day from all the normal ponies I met without anyone noticing.” He then looked back to the Princesses, “If I could stay around them for long enough maybe they could each fill eight each, before they noticed something was up.” That’s probably how these guys have been getting food for ages.

While attempting to show as much interest in the bugs story as possible, I approached my friend’s pod things and placed a hoof on Luna’s. I’m here don’t worry. Wish they could hear me, there’s so many guards. Looking around the room I could see another four guards patrolling as well as a few other pods containing a few winged ponies. At least I never got any ponies killed during the kidnapping.

Right, what’s my next action? Eleven guards total and one spy, that’s worse odds than last time. At the same time both Luna and Celestia are incapacitated. It does seem possible to tear these with Skitter’s horn, but would releasing them even wake them up? Celestia is likely still under the changeling’s spell and Luna might have been placed under one without my presence. Well, it’s pretty obvious there’s no way to disable all eleven bugs before one raises the alarm all by myself.

At my growing nervousness, a voice piped up from behind me, “Don’t worry Princess, these ponies won’t be harming any changelings anymore.” Slice was smiling at me from behind. That’s the worst part about this situation, I have to force Skitter to betray her family. Now that is something I really don’t want to be responsible for. This sucks. I really need a new plan.

“So Princess, do you think the hive will manage to get enough love without our Canterlot harvesters this year?” Came Chitter's voice from my other side. That prompted me to look at the crystals in his grasp once again.

“I hope so,” I really meant that, “How many of those crystals does it take to feed the average changeling?” Maybe the changeling’s food shortage is the solution.

“Well, the standard ration has always been one crystal for two days Princess,” came the confused response. I suppose Skitter should be familiar with that.

Anyway, the bugs are short of food and depend on the pony’s magic to live. They clearly are planning to steal more magic than they already have. It’s likely our discovery of their hive has accelerated these plans. Maybe if I could convince the Princesses to sell some magic, the bugs would just let them go. We don’t need to be the villain of the changeling’s story.

Right, I know what to do. Turning to the closest guard I said, “I wish to converse with one of the Princesses.”

Immediately I had the full attention of every 'ling in the room and a couple of guards even peaked in through the doors. They all appeared shocked by my statement and just looked at me for a short time, clearly unsure of what to say. After a moment one of them gained the confidence to speak up, “With respect Princess, you are aware how dangerous these creatures are? They may just be ponies but they are capable of moving the sun and moon.”

Slice then gave his two bits, “I can tell you want to prove you're brave, but facing down the Nightmare again isn’t really necessary.”

I’m not trying to show off here, “Slice I have an idea that could help improve the quantity of food for the hive, we just need to speak to the ponies to see if it might work.”

“How could waking them up improve our food supplies? They feel no love for our true form.” Came the words of Chitter. Do the emotions of others really affect the food they receive? Wonder how much food I could give to a bug I actually like? “Anyway, we can’t wake them up without permission from the Queen. Her word is above all others. Including your own.”

“Well then, I’d best go and see the Queen once again.” I simply stated before quickly tapping Luna’s pod and turning to leave the room. “Slice, there isn’t a moment to lose!”

The bug who was previously giving me a worried sideways glance, immediately stood to attention attempting to mask his surprise at my tone, “Yes Princess.”

“Are you ready to escort your Princess to the Queens throne?” I followed up. This is probably the only way I can get us out of this. More diplomacy than I think Luna wanted, but hey, if it works.

After my request the guard spun 180 and started to walk out of the room. I followed hot on his hooves. After that ordeal I took a few deep breaths. Didn’t realize I was holding Skitter's breath there. Could I cause her to suffocate? That’s a terrible thought.

Once we left the room, I went to trot back down the route we had previously taken. Think I’m getting the hang of this place. My pace however, was immediately slowed when I realized my escort had started to head another direction. All he said was, “This way's faster Princess.”

“I know that, I’m just in a bit of a rush,” Why is this place so poorly designed? I bet it’s to throw off invading soldiers or something.

Slice only laughed at that before asking, “So what's with the sudden change?”

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.” Okay cracks are really forming now. I really have no idea what a bug’s regular day would have consisted of. Probably not annoying the Queen twice in one day though.

“It’s just you normally try to avoid the Queen’s audiences for as long as possible,” My guard simply stated as we made our way to the throne room.

“Some things are just too important to put off,” is the Queen really so intimidating that her own daughter won’t even speak to her? This is starting to seem like a bad idea. When are they ever good?

The guard didn’t respond to that and we made our way at a steady pace back towards the throne room. Upon reaching the familiar large doors, I was for the first time stopped by the flanking guards.

“Queen Chrysalis is busy at the moment,” one of the guards stated while holding up a hoof to block my path, “It might be best if you come back later Princess.”

Well, this is another chink in the armour. I suppose the Queen does have responsibilities to attend to. The longer this takes the more likely my discovery will be.

“It’s ok, this is quite important. I’ll just wait till she’s finished.” With that I parked my rear off to the side of the hallway, and began thinking of what I would actually say to the giant insect.

After forever of waiting, the doors opened steadily and out came a stream of changelings. About twenty in total. As each one past I tried to get their attention until finally I caught the last bug. “Hey, has my mother finished her meeting?” Gotta play the Princess card whenever possible.

The bug in question seemed surprised by my interception and quickly responded, “Our Queen has almost completed her meeting.”
“Cool,” with that confirmation, I decided to quickly head into the room before the door swung closed.

“I said almost!” came a panicked cry from behind me as the doors swung shut. Whoops, might have gotten a little bull headed. No turning back now.

What met me on the other side of the door made me wish I’d paid more attention. Around the large once empty room, were many changelings. So many in fact, I had no idea how those previous bugs would have possibly fit in, it’s so cramped. Maybe they flew above? Each of the individual bugs were all too busy staring in the same direction to notice my intrusion.

That was all except for one. This bug was facing the opposite way to the rest while sitting upon her oversized chair. Her only hint of noticing my presence was a slight glance and a raised brow before she continued speaking.

“Commander Strike will be ensuring all participating changelings have enough food for the event. This will likely mean an increase in rationing until the day is upon us. Any more questions?” came the words of the Queen. Her question was met with a large gap of silence. “Excellent, your training will be hard but once the promised day arrives, no 'ling will ever need suffer starvation again. I swear this to you as your Queen!”

Once the speech appeared to conclude, the various bugs around me began stamping their hooves, buzzing their wings and raising their voices. I assume that’s supposed to be cheering.

That however was short lived with the Queen's next vocalization, “Now get back to work!”

Immediately the excitement died down, and each of the unarmoured bugs began filtering out towards the exit I was standing in front of. I was so distracted dumbly staring at the Queen that I had to quickly jump out of the way of the incoming tide. “Sorry,” was all I could think to say to the leading bug. They only looked at me for a moment before continuing past.

Okay, well now it’s time for my mission to end, hopefully. Well once this massive que of bugs disappears, there might as well have been a solid wall of chitin blocking my path. This left me twiddling Skitter's hooves, while having to endure the periodic glances of the Queen. She is clearly aware that I’m here to see her. The anticipation is going to kill me.

The periodic smiles I was getting off the leaving bugs weren’t really helping my nerves. Looks like they all know who I’m supposed to be. Even as the tide thinned out to a dribble, I still didn’t approach the throne. Electing to wait until the very last moment to initiate my plans.

“Ah, Skitter, thank you for waiting so patiently,” came the voice of Chrysalis. It seems the regular 'lings have all left now.

At the apparent summons I glanced up to the Queen and began my approach. I couldn’t help but gulp at the sight. She is really tall compared to me and does she really need all those guards? Okay, just have to appear strong and like I know what I’m talking about.

Queeny then spoke again before I could make a start, “By waiting patiently I mean, why have you barged into the middle of our meeting?” She had a pretty sinister smile upon her face to go along with those words. Is she actually angry or is that just how she looks permanently?

Okay time for me to try for an Oscar. Looking directly into the Queen's slitted eyes I began, “Sorry mother but what I know couldn’t wait.”

“So important, that you had to skip out on the rest I suggested you take?” Chrysalis responded, while leaning slightly forward. At least she seems interested.

“My Queen, I know of a way we can easily increase our much-needed food supply,” As long as she’s willing to make a deal with the ponies. Hey, if they eat magic maybe they could feed on my statue or even farm that joke plant I found in the Everfree.

In response the Queen stood up from her throne and placed a hoof upon my shoulder. “Skitter, we already have a plan.” Hey a good ruler should listen to all their options. Queeny then sighed before continuing, “Soon there is an upcoming event within pony society that will make the ponies even more vulnerable than normal. At that point we shall make our move, conquering Equestria and ensuring our people are fed. Can you imagine it? No 'ling going hungry again.” She then sneered or maybe smiled at me.

I couldn’t help but recoil from the Queens touch. Hey maybe that’ll help sell Skitters distaste for her plan, “Mother, surely there’s a better way than conquest.” Okay, here goes my recently learned knowledge of changelings, “If we attack the ponies their fear of us will taint the love, it’ll make our harvest so inefficient.”

“That doesn’t matter. The loves quality may reduce but the quantity, it will be uncountable.” Chrysalis stated while standing to her full height.

“Surely we can do better than what we’ve been doing in Griffonia? We shouldn’t aim to be the villains in other country’s stories.” Okay, that might have been a mistake to bring up.

“This is completely different to what’s been happening in their territory. In the end it will be better for all.” She really wants me to agree with her before even hearing my suggestion. I suppose you want your family to agree with your methods.

“How is conquest any better than attempted assassinations? If anything, it won’t just hurt Equestria but many of our own people in the process.” I tried to take a step forward to emphasize my words, but my legs refused to move any closer to the being who could squash me flat.

My words still had some of the desired effect, granted not for the reason I wanted. “None of our assassination attempts went on record.” She said while taking a step back, “How did you come by this information?”

Thought that was common knowledge dammit! Suppose remove from office doesn’t necessarily mean assassination. “Well, you see, the ponies had detected our magic on the assassin,” That makes sense, right? “Which means the ponies likely already have something in place to locate our forces.” Ha come back from that.

“The assassination of that blasted pigeon was necessary to secure the future of our hive, just like our newest strategy will also secure our future.” Chrysalis then came down eye level with me, “What does it matter if our food has to suffer for the changeling’s prosperity?!”

Okay, this isn’t getting anywhere fast. Let’s just try and force the issue of my plan. “Equestria is a very different place to Griffonia. In the time I’ve spent there, we’ve managed to collect so much love without a single pony finding out let alone being harmed.”

“Yes, it is true that the harvests from Equestria are well above the records from any other nation.” She began while scratching her chin. Now we are getting somewhere. “That’s why we need to control this food source before its lost to us forever.” Why is she arguing with me? Clearly, she isn’t used to people talking back to her.

“Mother the pony’s new abilities will likely make an attack difficult regardless of the method,” I reasoned, “I’m just trying to come up with another solution that could help prevent bloodshed on both sides.” How can you reason with the unreasonable?

Chrysalis gave me a sceptical look, “I can see no peaceful path that leads to a positive outcome for us.” She then hesitated for a moment and decided to prove my initial assessment wrong, “Nevertheless we shall hear out your suggestion.”

Now we are getting somewhere, “Well to start with this plan will work best if we can get the pony monarchs to cooperate.”

“Hmm, Blade go and fetch our high value trophies,” the Queen gestured to one of her armoured guards, who immediately set off, hopefully to fetch my friends. She then turned back to me, “If your plan requires cooperation, I’m sure we can ensure that with or without their consent.” Okay, that doesn’t sound ideal.

“Ahem, well my plan relies on the fact that we were able to harvest love without harming anyone,” including no coercion of ponies, “If we can come up with a beneficial deal for the ponies, they hopefully will allow us to harvest as much food as we need.”

“Your idea sounds too optimistic for my liking,” the large insect began while shaking her head, “For it to gain any traction the masquerade would have to fall. That is something we cannot allow to happen.”

“Don’t you think the masquerade may have already fallen?” She should be aware that the ponies know something’s up thanks to their missing leadership.

At my words the Queen stamped her hoof as if to reinforce hers, “That is why we must act fast, too much is at risk.”

Doesn’t this masquerade of theirs involve them remaining completely undetected by any other species? “Your idea to attack the ponies will not only drop the masquerade sooner, but reveal the changelings to the rest of the world’s nations in a negative light. How could we possibly cover up the seizure of an entire nation?”

That last part seemed to finally catch onto something in the Queens head as she rather quietly responded while beginning to look down, “It’s the only chance we have.”

I tried to give the her the most understanding smile Skitter’s face could manage. Now we are getting somewhere. Especially since the guards have carried in my friend’s gross containers. Why do they have to be so gooey?

At the containers arrival Chrysalis continued to appear slightly melancholic for a moment before returning to her very angry state, “Guards, open the white ponies pod! She’s too weak to resist us.” She isn’t weak, she was just hit on the head from behind. I bet she could win a rematch.

“What about the other one?” the guard asked. Yeah, Luna shouldn’t have to endure that weird slime prison.

“Leave it be. We don’t know what the nightmare is capable of,” she then leaned in closer to me before whispering, “Don’t worry, I won’t let the Nightmare harm your plans.” Well, I can’t think of any reasonable argument to get Luna out of there. Looks like she’s going to have to endure confinement a moment longer. It’s probably for the best anyway, she might have been a bit hot headed.

With the Queen's instructions, the unnamed guard approached my friend’s container and sliced it open using his jagged horn. Man, those things are sharp. This resulted in the pod unceremoniously dumping its contents across the floor, and leaving me with a very disappointing sight.

In front of me lay a very bewildered Celestia, who was clearly awake due to the blinking and funny sounds she was making. She was completely soaked with her mane and tail in a completely disastrous state. After a moment she rolled onto her front before blearily looking around the room. “What happened? Luna are you there? Wh-where am I?” Oh no poor pony.

Before the confused pegacorn could get her bearings the Queen loomed over her, “Where are you? At our mercy of course.” Way to be diplomatic.

To her credit Celestia only looked up at the giant sneering bug and without a waver in her voice asked, “What is it that you want with me?”

“What I want... is for your precious cattle to continue feeding my subjects ravenous hunger,” Chrysalis replied in a superior voice. She then pointed at me, “My daughter wishes to go over the proposition for us.” Thanks for the worst introduction, ever. The Queen then looked to me while tilting her head towards her prisoner.

With that Celestia’s gaze fell to me and I noticed a hint of recognition in her eyes. Sadly, not at my presence but at the identity of Skitter. “You’re the one from the gala, aren’t you?” Now she’s looking nervous. Really wish I could say I’m on your team.

Well here goes. With only the slightest bit of hesitation, honest, I began, “Erm, yes that was me, so anyway despite your attack on our people we have a gracious one time offer available to you.” That sounds like what a changeling would say right?

My acting may have been a little too good as Celestia reacted to my accidental accusation with wide eyes and a pretty loud interruption, “We never intended to enter conflict with you! We were just interested in talking over some perceived issues.” She then attempted to reason.

“Do not raise your voice in my presence!!” Chrysalis responded while also pushing Celestia lower to the ground with a hoof.

I really wish she didn’t do that, “Thank you mother. Look Celestia, we are presenting you with a deal that could put those issues you mentioned to rest.” She probably doesn’t know how bad those issues really were for her ponies.

At my words, the Princess's face brightened as much as a drenched ponies could, “Equestria is up for anything that can help improve the bonds of friendship between nations.” She then made the mistake of smiling at my diplomatic partner.

Celestia’s smile was met with a disapproving laugh and the shake of my wearer’s Queen’s head. She probably thinks showing the desire for peace is weakness or something stupid like that. This luckily caused my second favourite pony to look back in my, likely more amenable direction.

“So, we are suggesting a sort of trade deal along the lines of the one you made with the Griffonian empire.” Wait a second, she doesn’t know the bugs knew about that. Ah she probably already worked out who was behind the assassination attempt anyway.

Rather than mention anything concerning the changeling’s infiltration, she instead raised an eyebrow at me and simply said, “Do you not think that your measures were a bit extreme for a simple trade deal?”

Ah dammit. I couldn’t help but scratch my chin at that. This feels embarrassing and it wasn’t even me who did the kidnapping, “We’d prefer it if you’d forget about the previous unfortunate events. Now the deal will go as follows; your people will allow our changelings to freely harvest love without intervention and we shall promise to never harm a pony again.” When I say it like that it sounds pretty terrible.

“Do you not think that deal is pretty one sided?” Celestia asked apprehensively. Yeah I should have seen that coming. What could the changelings possibly offer?

Chrysalis was all too happy to come up with another offer, “It’s that or you and your precious sister can spend the rest of your miserably long lives in a pod dreaming of happier times.” I think Chrisy would prefer that option really.

My friend seemed to fade out of the conversation for a moment, “Chess with Luna forever?” she muttered under her breath. She then remembered where she was and after shaking her head she reiterated her point, “It’s just, if you were to provide something of worth to my people, the deal will be more likely to work long term.”

“The changelings will never bow to the demands of our lesser!” the worst negotiator ever responded. I’m really glad Luna is sleeping through this.

Okay, I need to try and take control of this situation, “Mother the pony can’t harm us with her suggestion. Maybe it’ll be something that costs us little?”

My ‘Mother’ only grumbled slightly at me, before gesturing to the dishevelled pony laying on the floor, “Come on, out with it then.”

Celestia met my gaze for a moment, “Thank you. Princess Skitter.” To which I nodded in return before she returned her focus to the irritable bug, “I believe if my ponies were to receive something in return for their, erm love was it? They will be more willing to part with it.” Suppose she doesn’t know the bugs harvest magic from ponies.

Chrysalis replied with an offhand, I mean offhoof comment, “Letting them live isn’t enough?” Dammit stop trying to be the big bad guy.

Celestia started to awkwardly giggle at that, “erm, ahem well it both is and isn’t.” She then appeared to look around the room for an appropriate response. “Letting someone live is just basic common decency in Equestria. I was thinking that if the bugs were willing to do jobs for us, we could pay them more.”

“You expect me, to release my people into your slave labour force? You are either joking, stupid or insane! Well, which is it!?” Wow, I think Chrysalis has far more powerful lungs than Luna due to the newfound ringing of my ears.

Okay more damage control again. “So how about this Princess. You are aware that before your people accosted me, I was a maid in your castle, yes?”

I could see the white mare resist rolling her eyes at my comment, “Yes, but we didn’t mean ...”

“Well, it just so happens I was doing that job while also harvesting love for the hive,” I quickly interrupted my pony friend before she could anger the Queen again. “If you could allow for the same arrangement for other changelings with assurances, they will not be accosted like myself. Things could go back to the way they were, no harm done. An official agreement would do wonders to ease any issues my people have with your unprovoked attack.” Really sorry about making you the bad guy.

Celestia seemed to consider my words for a momen,t before a smile steadily grew on her face, “I understand what’s wrong now. Your people have always been present out of our sight and we have accidentally broken the peace between us.”

Well, no it seems like the changelings were just scouting Equestria for the past few years. Nevertheless I nodded in response.

“We would be glad to officially recognise the peace we have shared.” Result!! “Do changelings harvest more love from those they befriend?”

“We have spent many years observing your kind pony,” Chrysalis chimed in, in an attempt to ruin everything, “They view all other species as terrifying monsters. They would never willingly befriend beings such as us.” Seems Chrysalis might be a bit bitter about something.

Wait I can use Skitters own words, “Mother remember when I first returned? I mentioned I’d made friends with ponies in Canterlot.”

The rolling of her eyes showed me what she thought of that.

Okay now to plan my own escape as well, “If I return with the ponies, I could prove that ponies and changelings can get along. Then you’ll see how much love I can bring back.” Then the Princesses will just have to deal with a confused Skitter when we get back.

“We would gladly accept you as a diplomat on behalf of your people Skitter,” came the warm response from Celestia, who’d taken the time to finally stand up.

Chrysalis on the other hand seemed to be almost horrified at my idea, “You’d place yourself into such a dangerous position, willingly? What happens if they try to use you as a hostage?”

Yeah, I don’t think Skitter would volunteer for this, but I need to get home. We can deal with the fall out later. I just turned to look at the Queen with as much confidence as I could, “Then you can just continue with your other plans.” I’m sure they’d just add a rescue mission in as part of their invasion, which they won’t need to do.

The dark bug seemed to forget Celestia’s presence for a moment and fully turned to me, “Skitter, do you seriously believe that if the ponies find out who you really are they wouldn’t reject you?”

Wow, she really wants me to say no here. I had to stop myself from immediately saying yes and instead settled for saying, “I’m not sure, but it’s my belief that ponies will, given time befriend anything." My belief anyways, not Skitter’s. I’m living proof of that. “I won’t let you down.” Should I go in for a hug? I have no idea what a changeling would do here. Best just let the bigger bug make the move.

Rather than moving in for a hug, the Queen stepped back a little before looking over to Celestia who was currently wringing out her mane. “Okay Princess, you have a deal. Blade release the other one.” Ha seems Chrysalis might actually be trying to show some respect.

At that instruction, the guard repeated the same motion as with Celestia's pod, and to my delight, Luna tumbled out. However, unlike with Celestia she began coughing and bounced to her hooves immediately, before crying out, “Face us Knaves!”

Oh no, please don’t ruin this. With my silent cry ignored Luna ignited her horn and tiny blue sparks sputtered out of the end. Upon noticing her dilemma, she looked up at her horn before four spears pointed at her from all sides. Please don’t get yourself killed metres from the finish line.

Thankfully, Luna saw the futility of the situation giving Chrysalis a chance to defuse it in her own special way, “Celestia please keep a leash on your pet. You wouldn’t want us to euthanize it would you?” She really has a way with people.

“Who art thou referring to cretin? we shal… wah!” came Luna’s interrupted response, as Celestia quickly grabbed her by the ear. Before whispering something, I couldn’t quite make out. Whatever was said caused Luna to slump her shoulders and lose her bravado. Well seems she knows when to play nice at least.

“Such methods will not be required Queen Chrysalis; my sister is perfectly capable of listening to reason,” Celestia said before making a request, “Will it be possible for us to now leave your home? Spending time with you has been great, but we have a gala to return to.”

Her brave joke was met with a for once not unpleasant laugh from the changeling monarch, “yes yes, I’ll have a carriage prepared for you. My guards shall take you home. You’ll find pony flight magic quite ineffective here.” Hmm does that also include horn magic? Because I’m pretty sure Luna usually has more magic success than sparks.

Chrysalis then gestured to the guards escorting her guests, “Take them to a chariot, make sure the windows are blacked out. We wouldn’t want them coming back uninvited.” Welp, I didn’t think she’d magically trust the ponies.

As the princesses were escorted a way, I swear I heard Luna ask one where her armour had gone. She really wants to give the game away it would seem. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad she’s thinking about me, but there’s a time and a place.

Once the two were out of ear shot my ally in diplomacy deflated a little and turned to me, “Skitter, I hate this plan. If it wasn’t your idea, I never would have gone along with it.”

Like that wasn’t obvious, “I know mother, I won’t let you down.”

Just before I set off after the ponies, the Queen had one last thing to say, “Skitter, if they harm you in anyway, we will be ready. Operation wedding fall may have fallen through, but we have other plans that we will keep in the works to ensure your safety.”

I wish you wouldn’t plan to betray us like that, “Well I think that’s the smart thing to do.”

Chrisy only smiled at that, “I know. That’s why I’ve kept their guard’s hostage as insurance as well.”

Oh dammit, I forgot about them. That final statement left me lost for words. All I could manage was, “Good bye for now.” Before I headed off after my salvation.

Upon reaching the carriages, I could see a regular wooden carriage pulled by four pegasi preparing to leave. Seems the bugs are taking us back undercover.

When I boarded the carriage, I was immediately met with a tired but happy Celestia and a very concerned Luna.

“Princess Skitter, I’m so glad you saw the truth of our situation. Hopefully in the future, this deal will lead to a much more beneficial relationship between our two peoples.” She then gave me the broadest smile which I returned.

Luna on the other hand grabbed my shoulder with a hoof and asked, “Where hast thou left our Eclipse?”

Can those bugs hear us up front? I hope not. Trying my best spy communication I said, “Where you left him.” That response seemed to slightly calm my friend. Hopefully she knows I’m here.

Hearing my name being thrown around Celestia became curious, “Wait Eclipse? Sister they were with you before the…situation in Canterlot. Where have they gone?”

Okay, here goes, “hey Celestia long time no see,” I said, while waving Skitter’s hoof in her face.

She seemed to immediately grasp the situation at that, as she began to frown before saying, “well, this doesn’t bode well for our future relationship with the changelings.”

As I tried to look through the blacked-out window, I could only hope that she was wrong.

Author's Note

I was gonna upload this tomorrow, but well it was ready today so, enjoy. :)

13: Carriage Rides

Chapter 13

Thank goodness today is coming to an end. It felt like it was taking forever. Starting out with that terrible party Gala thing. I’m just glad my friends were there to keep me company.

At that I looked over to my favourite blue fluffball, who was having a debate with my favourite white pegacorn across from her. She was seated next to me in our loaned carriage. It’s a shame my observations got her and her sister kidnapped.

Looking over to the irritable Celestia, helped remind me how our combined actions may have prevented a terrible war. That helped a smile form upon my loaned face for a few seconds. Still, wish I’d never made Luna give those guards the order to scout. Those poor ponies are gonna be in peril for so long.

After a few more moments of self-loathing, I decided to tune into the Princesses debate like a good advisor.

“I am just saying, in all my years have I never seen such a terrible plan,” Came Celestia’s reply to whatever Luna had just said. To be honest I do agree with her on that. Pretty sure everyone else at the meeting thought it was bad as well. Apart from Twilight anyways.

Luna sat opposite her sister with the smuggest look, only saying, “It worked, did it not?” Well, the initial part did.

The smugness of the reply seemed to only irritate the tallest mare I’ve met further, causing her to scoff, “You know that is besides the point sister. Your actions could have not only gotten yourself killed, but your dear friend as well.” As she finished, she emphasized her point by pointing at me with a wing. To be fair, I probably could of came up with some other ideas if I’d really tried. It was just a stressful situation and those are just so difficult.

Celestia’s increasing irritation did not deter my best friend’s jovial attitude, “Yes, but instead, we not only managed to rescue thou sister, but our timely intervention helped put an end to a quarrel Equestria was yet to face.” She then attempted to raise her wings in the carriages confined space in likely a show of celebration.

With those final words the alabaster coated mare seemed to lose her irritation and slightly glanced in my direction, “Potentially ended sister.” Before going quiet, likely contemplating something. After those words I realized she wasn’t looking at me but my unfortunate changeling wearer. Poor bug, we’ve basically kidnapped her now.

Seems Celestia doesn’t have enough strength left to continue arguing. Who can blame her really, after being kept in that weird suspended animation pod? Those things looked pretty disgusting. Bet that gunk she’s coated in would gum up my joints, like those hydra innards. I couldn’t help the slight shudder that went through me. I know how horrible that feels.

Looking at the probably uncomfortable mare just reminded me of how worn out this day’s made me. A few minutes of shut eye would probably do me and my borrowed form good. At that, I leaned Skitters body as comfortably as I could against the carriage’s cushions, and tried my best to drift off before the sisters began arguing again. Having a wearer really is pretty comfortable for sleep.

Ah the sweet embrace of the void, how I’ve missed you. No more Ponies to complain at me and no more bugs to hide from. This place is really growing on me again. Just a little while ago the thought of being trapped here terrified me but now well, it's my own little haven. I am from this place after all.

Wait a second. It’s that feeling again. Like there’s someone else here. That has to be the bug, she’s probably been trapped here like Luna was. That puts fire to the no more bugs to hide from thought. Should I go say hi? Maybe it would be for the best, she’s been stuck in this place for hours.

Looking around my own personnel void space I easily came across the bug's door. It’s pretty obvious to be honest, being the only physical object here. It’s pretty clearly of changeling origin due to the design matching that of the hives armoured doors. These rooms probably match where you feel the safest hence the metal door. Luna had the exact same sort of experience, but with her bedroom door instead. Maybe I should knock first, it would be polite. How do you knock in this place?

Ah screw it. Without a material form I opted to just push the door open and apologise for the intrusion. She’s my prisoner anyway, so it’s probably fine.

Upon entering the room, what I saw came as quite a surprise really. Instead of seeing the expected weird ever-changing architecture of the changeling hive, I was met with something entirely more, well pony and familiar.

Familiar because it was the exact same room our little bug had fled to when she tried to escape the Princesses. I really don’t know how she thought this room would save her. Still, it must be important to her if it's where her mind goes. She even remembers it with all the furniture still intact. Maybe this is the room she had while infiltrating Equestria? Maybe I should just ask her?

As I was reviewing the rooms simplistic furniture, I laid eyes upon my unwilling wearer. She was sitting opposite a familiar mirror that showed the events that unfolded in the real world, watching it intently. Rather than donning me, she had imagined herself wearing a resized maid’s uniform to fit her increased royal changeling frame. Wonder why no royal armour?

It would have looked pretty funny if it wasn’t for the makeup that had ran down from her eyes. She’d probably been crying to herself at some point. That’s probably from after my initial ambush. I can’t imagine many people would handle that very well.

Ok, so how to start this. She hasn’t noticed me yet, so maybe I can make myself more presentable than a ball of gas. With some minor thought my regular armour materialised around my misty form. Well, that was just too easy. Now then, to start the conversation. Should I say something like, hey I possessed you, soz? Damn I’m terrible at this. This might take a while.

After a longer period of time than I’m willing to admit, I just decided to wing it. It’s really lucky she’s so focused on the mirror to realise I’m here. There’s no way this’ll go well, so let’s just rip off the band aid.

“Hello Swift.” I started in the friendliest tone possible. The fact my tone was polite didn’t do any wonders for the bugs nerves, as she immediately did a 180 while jumping into the air. Quite impressive really. Welp, best continue, “Or should I say Princess Skitter?”

Skitter's response was to stare at me wide eyed, while backing up until her rear met the mirror. Seems I’ve cornered her inside her head. Suppose you can’t escape your own mind. After a moment the bug began to take a few deep breaths and lost her look of abject terror. Yay success.

Instead, she began looking me over warily before finally saying, “s-so, how did you manage to get me?” Seems she’s trying to be brave, eh? She was plenty brave when she shot Luna in the back.

“When we had our little altercation, you actually lost to Luna. You were wearing me from the moment you woke up in Canterlot,” I’m pretty sure she’s well aware of her current situation.

Her only response to that was to look down at the floor before sadly saying, “I’ve failed the hive more than I thought.” Well, she was the means used for her hive to get its current trade deal so… not really a failure in my book. More unintentional success.

Once her words left her lips, the imaginary room settled into silence. Should I do something? She’s seeming more depressed than afraid. With that understanding I decided to steadily approach the bug.

When touching distance was achieved, I reached out a shoe in an attempt to comfort my unwilling wearer, but before I could reach, she finally spoke in a sombre tone. “What are you going to do to me?” She then looked up into my eye holes with what I could almost describe as hope for some reason.

Well, this question had an obvious answer really so while casually scratching the bottom of my helmet I simply said, “Nothing.” Why would I need anything from her?

From the head tilt I received it was clear the pseudo maid was after more information, “So your… not going to steal my body?” Ah that’s pretty important information.

To be honest, I couldn’t help but balk at that idea. How cruel would it be to lock someone in a place like this and steal their life out from under them? “Heavens no! I wouldn’t have even borrowed you in the first place if there was any other choice.” Okay so now’s the time for the comforting shoe on the shoulder, “Look once my friends are proven to be safe, you’ll be free to remove me. I promise.”

She sighed and a ghost of a smile actually started to form on the wayward bugs face at that. Maybe I’m better at this than I thought. “From what I’ve seen, I didn’t think you would.” So, does she know everything I got up to in her shoes? “I was starting to believe you’d come to make a deal for my soul.”

Seriously? I couldn’t help the light laugh I let out, “I’m not a demon, even if people think I look like one. No deals from me I’m afraid.” At least I hope I’m not one. What if I am? That’s not important right now.

Skitters next words actually surprised me, “Well that’s a shame.” What?! I actually took a step back for second and let my shoe fall from her shoulder. Why would anyone want to make a deal with the devil? Before I could question the bug, she elaborated, “I really liked the deal you made with my mother.” Oh, minor over reaction. Wish I could do that calming breath exercise.

Instead of continuing my stupid thought process, I just inquired into Skitters meaning, “To peacefully trade with the ponies?”

Her response was a very slow nod. Does she think the deal was a lie? That’s only slightly true. I may have made the deal to ensure my friends escape, but they truly completed the deal with the bug’s Queen. I’m not sure if the paperwork has been signed yet, but I’m sure we can honour a verbal deal for now.

“Look Skitter, it’s cool that I call you that?” I quickly shook my head, that’s not important right now, “Anyway look, that deal can still happen as long as you play the role we cast you in. Sorry about that by the way.” We’ve really forced her into an awkward position here.

For a moment the bug looked at me hopefully, before she started to look away. A slight tear at the corner of her eye, “It won’t work, I know what ponies are like. They’ll drive us away out of fear.”

Now, how best to respond? She seems pretty upset. I would try to argue against her, but she’s known ponies’ way longer than me. She may have even corrected me on a few cultural faux pas with them. Due to this, I watched her return to staring at her hooves for a few minutes. Damn I suck.

It took me so long to think of what to say that my chance to comfort her was lost, “so when do you plan on letting me go?” She was looking up at me again with the slightest of smiles. At least my awkwardness can help cheer people up I suppose.

“Well Luna will wake you when we arrive,” she apparently has powers over sleep. She’d probably enjoy getting to use them for once.

Mentioning my good friend seemed to sour Skitters mood further, “You mean the Nightmare?”

Now that’s insulting. I’m pretty sure she respected my friend before, “Look, Princess Luna is a very nice pony now. You should know, you’ve worked for her for ages.”

“I thought I did,” she began twirling a hoof debating on what to say next, “but you should have seen her during our communications breakdown.”

Well, I was there, right on the front line in fact. “It was a bit of a scuffle,” I said in an attempted jovial way. Gotta ease the worries somehow.

“Eclipse, she tried to eat me!” she almost shouted. Woops, how was I supposed to know draining changeling magic was a huge no no.

“She didn’t mean to harm you, ya know.” I tried my best to convince the distrustful bug, “She was just attempting to defend herself.” Really should tell her it was me. Wish I wasn’t so much of a coward.

The sadness the bug was feeling seemed to have dissipated and been replaced with a hint of worry, “Would you… protect me from the ponies? I know they’re your friends, they’ll listen to you.”

“Of course I will, but you have to keep the deal going. Is that fair?” Agreeing to keep a foreign diplomat safe is good for diplomacy, right?

“I never dared dream my mother would agree to this, or I would have approached her myself.” Skitter declared. Seems everything’s working out in our favour then. That is if she isn’t lying. These bugs seem to like the whole cloak and dagger routine.

“Does that mean you have no hard feelings about the whole, body stealing incident?” Just need to know where she stands on this. It's eating me up inside a little.

“As long as you let me go,” she then gained a larger smile, “If you keep the ponies from starting a war, I’ll keep Chrysalis from doing the same.”

“Two nobodies trying to prevent a national Crisis. This seems like a lot of responsibility.”

“Speak for yourself armour, we are a Princess of the changelings,” she said jovially at my inadvertent insult.

“Didn’t mean to offend there.” Really need to watch what I say. That being said my job is so much easier. For all their fear towards others, the pony leadership is way more into peace than the bug Queen.

After a few more moments of keeping the bug company, I decided it was best to return to the waking world. Who knows how long it’s been out there? “Well, I think I’ll head back to the carriage. It was nice talking to you Skitter.” The door will surely lead me back to reality.

“Only my friends call me Skitter you know. Most call me Princess,” she said with a coy smile. Before I could apologise for my next faux pas she continued, “You can call me that if you want.”

“You had me worried for a second,” hmm another friend. How many is that now? Like four or something? With her declaration of my friend status, I decided to take a bit of a leap of faith, “Erm, would you be up for coming back to the carriage with me?”

The bug immediately stood at that and wondered over to the door, “If it’s possible.” Well, she seems eager. It probably isn’t very nice having your body puppeted around while your trapped in here.

“Just follow me out the door,” I’ve never actually woken up my wearer on my own before. Maybe this’ll work. With that, the two of us wondered out of the door into the dark void, while I kept a shoe on her shoulder, just to be safe. Wouldn’t want to lose someone to the void.

Darkness enveloped us both for only a moment before the world changed into the bright light of a familiar carriage where my friends were waiting. Wonder if the Princess woke up with me. There doesn’t really seem to be any difference. Seems Loony may need to rescue her.

As I awoke, Celestia immediately took notice of me, “Ah Eclipse, welcome back to the land of the living.” A tired smile graced her lips. She clearly was just as sick of today as me.

“Thanks, did much happen while I was out?” I said while returning the smile. With my words spoken my head twitched slightly. Hope that was Skitter.

My friend's smile dropped a little at the innocent question, “No not really. This journey has just been rather uninteresting.” That makes sense seeing as the windows are all blacked out. The bugs could really be taking us anywhere and we would never know.

The other occupant of our vehicle immediately sat up at Celestias tired words, “Yes Eclipse, nothing at all occurred apart from our dearest sister pointing out the many flaws in our Rescue mission.” She seems a little bitter, and what’s that weird taste? It seems almost sour but I’m not eating? Strange.

Celestia immediately perked up and began to stare down the blue pegacorn, “Luna, your plan never even got off the ground. If it wasn’t for Eclipse’s improvisation of a new one, we both would have been captured and potentially declared a war in the process!” Wow that came out of nowhere. Should really of noticed the tension in the air. Tastes a bit spicy really. This is weird.

At the harsh words Luna avoided eye contact with her sister long enough for Celestia to turn back to me with a much softer emotion, “Look my friend, we should never have forced you into such a position. Hopefully our diplomats could have negotiated our release instead, but what’s done is done.”

“We knew our faithful suit of armour would be capable enough to complete our mission.” Luna came back with a triumphant look once again. Really can’t believe I’ve reignited this argument. Wonder how long the flame had been burning down before I added some fuel?

Clearly not wanting to continue the circle of the argument the snowy mare sighed, “That may be true, and Eclipse's efforts should be rewarded. However, they have still left the issue of what to do with the changeling Princess who, if you are not aware, is currently here against her will.”

“Well dear sister we have multiple solutions to thy worries,” my best friend began, “the first is to simply convince this being to abide by our most generous plan.” Luna said while poking Skitter’s shoulder. She then looked directly into my eyes, “or a rather more difficult solution would be to have Eclipse continue their perfect acting skills.” Is she suggesting I steal Skitter’s body? Not happening.

Celestia appeared to share my sentiment, “Luna! We cannot be seen to condone such actions. Depriving the innocent of freedom is against everything Equestria stands for.” The witty reply of the moon goddess was to simply stick out her tongue, which got a sigh of defeat from her sister. Seems Luna is forever the linguistic master.

During the debate about what to do about our captive bug a strange sensation occurred. After Luna’s proclamation I found myself starting to shiver almost uncontrollably. Am I cold? Never had a body while cold before. To be honest it kinda feels warm in here. Strange.

Seeing my shivering state, my fluffy blue pony leaned over and put a feathery wing around me. seems she’s cleaned off that changeling goo, “aww is wearing that changeling making thou feel cold?” She then proceeded to nuzzle the side of my helmet. Huh something tastes really good. Whatever it is, it’s making my mouth water.

Not sure if this is fair to my wearer really, “erm, Luna maybe you should wait until I’m removed before doing that sort of thing.” Another strange sensation occurred at my words. The sensation of my shoe moving to block my mouth, while at the same time the shaking ceased. Well guess Skitters awake. She clearly doesn’t like someone else using her mouth.

“Well, my dear armour. We believe thou needs warming up,” came Luna’s response as she continued to hold me and my wearer in her wing. Huh that taste is getting stronger. Am I getting magic out of this? Wait, I get it. Skitter is feeding on Loony.

After a moment Skitters mouth moved on its own accord, “I really don’t mind this closeness with you, it’s really quite refreshing.” Before I suddenly was forced to lean in closer to my friend. Well, I suppose she is pretty hungry after the long day.

With those words, the guardian of the night went almost silent and quietly pulled her wing tighter around me and the hungry bug. Well, this is kinda nice I suppose. Out of curiosity I looked up at my friend to see her face had started to tint red. Her sister was content to sit opposite us with the most genuine smile she’s had the entire journey.

Over the next thirty minutes of travelling, Luna had steadily pulled us into an embrace in her hooves and had lost her red tinted face. She actually seemed pretty content. Skitter on the other hand seemed to be getting pretty tired with all the magic she was consuming. Really hope this isn’t harming Lulu.

Celestia eventually broke the silence, “So I see you two are both getting to know each other.” I feel like I know Luna pretty well already really. Being her confidant, she tells me a lot about what’s gone on in her life, both good and bad.

The mare in question just let out a content sigh, “This feels right, dost thou not agree?” Well, it does taste pretty good. Pony fur is also pretty comfortable.

A very unexpected nervous reply came from my wearer, “So erm Princess, we can do this more often if you want to.” She even finished with a nervous laugh. Seems she really wants Luna to be a stable source of food.

With those words Luna smiled, "We would very much like to be closer to thou." Before giving Skitter a slight nuzzle. Well it seems She's onboard.

Celestia just raised a curious eyebrow, “Seriously Eclipse? After what you were saying earlier.”

Wait a second. This looks like I’m doing it without Skitter's consent. What’s worse is I’m probably stealing half the love she's trying to harvest, “Skitter, in future it would probably be best to do this without me.” There, now everyone’s on the same page. Even if I have to miss out on Loony's soft fur.

The sound of my real voice brought Luna out of her musings, “What dost thou mean?” She seemed perplexed for a moment before her eyes opened wide in realization. She then gently pushed us away with a wing before moving to sit next to Celestia in a huff. Well, that didn’t go as I expected.

For her part, Celestias' reaction was a little more reserved, “ah Princess Skitter your awake.” She said while trying her best to hold back laughter with a hoof. “Glad to see your willing to go the extra mile to improve pony changeling relations.”

After her feeding attempt had been foiled, the bug bowed her head to Celestia in respect, “I’ll do anything to help ensure the peace between our two peoples.” she began just after she burped. Yeah right, she’ll do anything to get a large meal. Is this what it feels like to have a bloated stomach?

“While thine intentions may be pure, thou should refrain from playing with a pony’s feelings in such a way.” Luna began in irritation before looking away sadly, “It is needlessly cruel.” Now I wish we were still hugging.

The bug seemed genuinely hurt by Luna’s accusations and stuttered a response, “It really seemed like I was just doing what you wanted. I…I’m, sorry.”

Ah, awkward silence how I missed you. At least the heated debate about Luna’s plan is over. With those thoughts in mind a very large shudder went through the carriage. Hopefully now we’re back in Canterlot and not in some bug execution pit.

Author's Note

This chapter was going to be longer but I've been having a little writers block. Its all good now, the next chapters coming along.

14: Welcoming Committee

Chapter 14

With the carriage's landing taking her mind off previous events, Luna spoke in a slightly lighter tone, “Well at least we can return to the joyous gala.” That party is so dead.

That thought seemed to ruin Celestia’s thoughts of a victorious return to safety, “Hopefully it will have concluded without our presence sister.” It did seem to be taking a turn for the worse before we left with all that destruction and mayhem. Everyone seemed to be running for their lives, not just us.

Luna just stuck her nose slightly into the air, “We shall best hope not.” She began before gesturing to Skitter, “We were most enjoying showing our beloved dress to the nobles.” Wait that’s me. Arg, do I really have to be the dress again. What if we get ambushed? The protection is subpar at best.

Once the moon made her harrowing proclamation, she cast a quick spell to make herself seem more presentable. It probably wasn’t the best for their fur being inside those weird pod things. At least her magic is clearly working now. She then opened the carriage door and stepped outside. The moment she did so, whatever lay before her caused my friend to freeze in place. “Hark friends, it appears yet more issues plague us this day.” Hope it’s the end of the gala.

Distant muffled shouting could be heard which likely meant the gala was a lost cause. It also implied an even bigger headache which Celestia seemed to be suffering from, “Will today ever end?” She then turned to me and Skitter, “Well my dear little changeling. It is time for Equestria to meet the real you. Come along.” She then disembarked to witness whatever irritated Loony, “Are all of you serious right now?”

When I attempted to follow my friends off of the mobile coffin a large amount of resistance was felt from my wearer. She seemed pretty reluctant to remove her rear from the carriage’s cushioned seats. “Erm Skitter, it’s time to go.”

“Eclipse can’t you see something's happening out there?” came the reply, “It's best if I don’t get involved so your rulers can smooth it out.” Seems someone’s afraid to meet the ponies.

Still there is clearly a problem out there, “I can see that but what if they need my help? How can we protect them from in here?” See, I can make valid points too, little bug. What if they get hurt again? I’d never forgive myself.

“They are royals present in their own home. What could possibly harm them?” Well, the smart-arsed bug had me there. Still there does seem to be quite a lot of rushing hoof steps outside. That can only be bad for business.

After what felt like forever I had finally had enough of Skitters attempts to hide from the action. It took me long enough to remember a certain griffon was almost assassinated at his dinner table. “Look Princess, I know what you said but we really need to know what’s going on so, erm sorry.”

“What for? I’m not going out there.” With Skitter’s last words of nervous defiance I decided to try and look outside. “Wait,” to which my wearer wasn’t really a fan. Luckily for me, she wasn’t all that prepared to resist a push from my angle.

All that was required was for me to stick my helmet out the door to see what was going, so that was what I did. Peering through the opening allowed me to see a very familiar and unexpected picture. Rows of day guard were lined up pointing various weapons not just in the carriage’s direction but at Celestia and Luna as well. Aren’t those jerks on our team? They never aren’t pointing weapons at me.

With my curiosity peaked Skitter immediately pulled us back into the carriage while making a very strange squeak sound. “Sorry about that,” still the view gave me some important information. Namely we were screwed, again.

The worst part was that Skitter’s threatening squeak signalled our presence to the vigilant guards, “There’s another one of them bugs!” came the shout of an unfamiliar voice.

“Come out or we will fire upon you and your associates!” came another aggressive voice. Are they really going to shoot the princesses?

For all intense and purposes, I think Skitter reacted pretty well, “Oh no, Oh no. no no no. This isn’t happening,” came her initial reaction that I’m not referring to. After a few moments though she repeated her breathing exercise from the void world. This seemed to calm her down to the point where she began looking in a mirror and attempting to straighten my helmet.

The royal bug then asked an unexpected question, “so Eclipse, do you think I look intimidating?”

Pretty sure that meek smile and general placid attitude won’t have any ponies running for the hills. Saying that, the fangs and slitted eyes might prompt a crossbow misfire. “You don’t scare me if that helps.” Well seeing as I’m a weird spirit armour thing, it probably doesn’t.

A soft sigh left the bug, “Okay then, time to represent changelings everywhere.” With that declaration the royal bug stepped out of the carriage with as much confidence as possible.

Immediately, it felt like the eyes of every single guard had fallen upon us. Not to mention the sheer number of crossbows. Seems we are public enemy number 1. In an attempt to appear visibly unfazed, Skitter just started to casually wander over towards my two friends. Safety in numbers and all that.

Speaking of them Celestia seemed to be standing pretty impassively waiting patiently for whatever was going to happen. On the other hand, Luna was clearly incredibly angry from the way she periodically snorted and stamped the ground.

“So, what now?” I quietly asked my navy-blue friend.

With a quick flick of her tail in frustration, Luna disappointingly stated, “Rather perturbingly, we must wait for our guard captain to arrive. He will return order to this mess.” She then began staring down the nearest guard with murderous intent. The poor stallion appeared to be quickly mouthing sorry repeatedly.

After the exchange Skitter decided to take a seat next to Celestia upon the cold hard ground. This prompted my other friend to give the bug a quick look with a slight droop to her ears, “Once this situation is sorted out Princess, rest assured the ponies will welcome you with open hooves.” Looking at our welcoming party, I somehow doubt that.

“Hope so, that anger is really hurting my head,” Skitter said while rubbing her horn. It’s just spicy, I actually think it tastes quite nice. Wonder if you could hurt a changeling with emotions? Spice is technically a poison to stop you eating a plant.

Celestia just turned back to her sister and sighed, “Why do our guards threaten every non pony guest? It is getting quite absurd.” To be fair to them this time, the changelings did kidnap you earlier today. In fact, the main culprit is standing right before them.

My wearer did seem quite put off by their anger though. She even started to look back to the carriage we came in. Really hope she doesn’t plan to run for it. Thankfully the royal bug had a more noble thought, “er, Princess Celestia, would it be possible for me to dismiss our carriage. I’d really like my fellow 'lings to be out of harm’s way.” Ok, getting rid of your means of escape is pretty much the opposite of running. Well done, points for bravery.

Sadly, Celestia had to burst our chitinous friends bubble with an understanding smile, “It would be best to wait until Captain Armor intervenes. We wouldn’t want to spook the guards with our actions.” To her credit, Skitter only looked back to the carriage once more before accepting the decision. Her disguised guards were just standing diligently watching the 4 of us, probably waiting for orders to attack or flee.

Speaking of the devil, a familiar white unicorn with a blue mane appeared galloping from the gatehouse. He could really have arrived sooner. You would have thought news of the Princesses rescue would travel faster. We’ve been stuck here for ages.

Celestia was the first of our little group to recognise Armor’s presence. “Ah, Captain. It’s good to see you. We’ve returned with news of new found friends,” She loudly declared to everyone present. Friendship really is a big deal to her, and I’m not too sure the changelings count as friends yet. More not enemies that could still stab you in the back.

The unicorn in question stopped a distance from our group and gave a cursory look over each of us before responding, “Princess we are glad to see you safe and happier to hear your good news.” I’m sensing a but here. “However, in light of recent events we still need to take precautions for the welfare of the kingdom. I’m sure you understand.”

That didn’t seem to sit well with my slightly agitated friend, “What precautions pray tell have the royal guard threatening those they have sworn to protect?” Pretty sure the angers clouding her mind a little bit there. The potential enemy are shapeshifters after all.

Shining just gave an apologetic look to Lulu, “Look Princess Luna, if that is who you are, is well aware that those who attacked us can take the form of other individuals at will. I’m sure if you are the real Princess you can bear with us while we figure out how to confirm your identity.”

My friend then turned her angry glare upon me or more likely Skitter, “One of those creatures did take the form of Celestia once.” Skitter for her part just tried to look anywhere but at Luna. She seemed to be finding the side of Celestia’s head very interesting. With the constantly moving aurora mane I couldn’t help but agree. One day I’ll have to sit and watch Celestia’s mane like I do Luna's during night court.

Forever the mare of reason Celestia had an apparently clear idea of how to confirm our identity, “Captain, there isn’t any need to fret. I have all the proof you need.” She then began walking towards the stalwart stallion with an amused grin. What’s making her so happy?

Sadly, it would seem an amused look is quite suspicious according to the on-edge unicorn, because moments after she began walking forwards a pink shield enveloped the entire area including our escort. That thing sure contains a lot of magic. To Skitter’s displeasure, It’s kinda making my borrowed mouth water a little. “Regretfully princess, we cannot allow you to approach. If you’re an imposter you could be trying to take out the leadership.”

Seriously, is this guy that high up in the government? Wouldn’t a General or Colonel be more important? Hang on, isn’t Cadance a Princess too? I bet she’d be way more amenable.

My newest friend decided now was the time to speak up, “These ponies are really suspicious. They seem like they’d be very effective in preventing infiltration.” Despite her attempt at complementing the guard’s skill, Shining Armor still shot her such a scathing stare that the love bug couldn’t help but tactically retreat behind Celestia. Wow and she was being nice pretending they hadn’t easily infiltrated Canterlot years ago and probably have again.

Seeing the clear anti diplomacy coming from our own guards, a random disguised changeling from our carriage began to loudly hiss. He then spoke in a familiar voice, “Do you seriously believe we’d be stupid enough to allow our Princess into your presence undisguised without some sort of deal? She could have just walked in from the city and you would never have noticed.”

If the barbed comment had affected our buzz kill of a captain, his face never twitched. In fact, he was just staring at our group clearly contemplating his next move.

With the continued deafening silence Skitter took her chance to smile and wave at the disguised Slice. I wondered where he’d gotten to. It made me feel a little bit guilty abandoning her friend without any warning. Glad she’ll get her chance to catch up, well if she doesn’t send him home that is.

Okay, there’s one piece of proof the bugs could never fake, probably. So, here goes, “What about your armoured friend? Changelings can’t disguise as inanimate objects, so how could they imitate him.” I had to speak through Skitter to hide my presence from the other bugs. She didn’t act so surprised this time.

The question seemed to give the unicorn pause as his eyes inspected me. While he did so I carefully removed one of my shoes from Skitter's hoof and tried to stealthily wave. My friend then caught my shoe and carefully put it back on once she believed Shinning had seen me. That kinda proves she’s on my side, right?

Sadly, even though the unicorn witnessed my presence he still had a pretty unfounded concern, “The enchanted armour came to us so recently that we have very little information on it.” He then took a breath. Is he going to say the changelings planted me as a spy or something? “We don’t know if being an enchantment means its allegiance could be easily changed by interfering with its spell matrix.”

“Our Eclipse would never betray their oath to us,” came some quite defensive venom tipped words from Moony who punctuated them with a stamp. Careful of the flooring, taxes pay for that.

Really wasn’t expecting to be written off as an artifact now of all times, “Look captain, Eclipse is more than an enchantment.” I hope.

“That isn’t what Twilight believes, so I’m sorry Eclipse, but we still have to take precautions.” There might have actually been a hint of pity from the insulting jerk just then.

Wow, well this sucks. I’ll just have to hope that the resident magic expert of Equestria is wrong about that. What would happen to me if someone modified me? Would I die? Betray my friends? Do I only like Luna because she wore me that one time? Could you use that same magic on a pony as well? So many unimportant questions without answers.

My deliberations must have been giving off some negative vibes as not only did skitter start to pat my chest piece, but Luna also put a wing around me while providing a reassuring smile. She even resisted giving a death stare to Shining. Having friends is the best.

While my little pity party was occurring Celestia sat as close the shields edge as she could and continued to give her Captain a cheeky smile, “Well Captain, the proof that I possess is of quite a sensitive nature and pertains to one Twilight Sparkle.” She then raised an eyebrow at the now slightly sweating unicorn, “Do you really want me to blurt this out in front of everypony when I could just whisper it to you?” Yeah, you tell him.

Shining had lost his calm calculating demeanour by this point and had to supress a gulp, “Sadly this is a risk I will have to take on behalf of all Equestria. Twi will just need an apology later.” Wow you are one terrible friend. Still Sparkle must be important to him if knowing something about her personal life is possible proof.

Having had her bluff called, my aurora maned friend lost her smile and sighed, “Okay then, Armor, if there is no other way.” She then paused for a moment apparently thinking of a way out of the situation. I couldn’t help leaning Skitter in closer. This is bound to be interesting.

“Right then, so this particular situation pertains to a very specific magic lesson involving love related magic that both you and Cadance volunteered for.” Skitters ears popped up at that. Shining Armor started to go red, “When my faithful student attempted said spell, she made a slight error resulting in both her and…”

Before another word could come out of the horse’s mouth, a loud shout echoed from behind the guards, “STOOOOOOOOP!” Along with a certain pink pegacorn, who was galloping as fast as her little legs would carry her. She could of ran in before Shining caused my newest existential crisis.

The now very out of breath pony began trying to explain between massive gasps, “Can’t you see their love for our people?” No, I assume only changelings can do that. Wonder if I have any visible love for these ponies? I’ll have to ask Skitter. It would be nice to know I’m a real person with real emotions.

The clearly relieved guard captain, just slowly shook his head back and forth. In an attempt at helping my wearer spoke up, “I can see that she cares about everypony here. Including the guards pointing crossbows at her.” Like I thought, changeling.

Some of the guards started to lower their crossbows a bit and many had clear looks of unease. They probably don’t want to take the threatening defenceless love bugs word for it.

Eventually Cadance embraced the obstacle to my bed, before whispering something into his ear. Whatever it was prompted the pony’s horn to lose its glow causing his manly pink shield to wink out of existence. Shame I never got the chance to eat that. Meh, I’ve probably had my fill of magic from Luna’s love anyways.

Armor then decided to casually approach our group as if nothing had happened before looking to the Princesses, “You know it was for the good of the kingdom, Right?” He then seemed to droop his head in a submissive manner, “I’m in trouble for this, aren’t I?” From the unimpressed glare Luna was providing, it only seems like the answer was certainly yes. What I don’t get, is why he just let us out on a gut feeling from the lowest ranked royal. I get that they’re good friends, but come on, Celestia’s story seemed miles more compelling.

Before appropriate judgment could be passed out by my first friend, a white wing blocked her sight line, “Ah Captain, both my sister and I are very impressed with your strict measures in our absence. It warms my heart to know my little ponies could keep the kingdom safe in our absence.” Safe from an enemy that walks in the front door and doesn’t try to fight back.

After Celestia’s words, many guards who’d moments ago appeared incredibly nervous and despondent at inconveniencing their lord and saviour, now stood tall and bursting with pride. Maybe she’s just trying to give her guards a win. It might actually make them perform better with positive reinforcement. Still, they did threaten a foreign dignitary. They need a minor slap on the hoof at minimum.

The almost glowing mare had a large smile as she looked at each of her guards now standing to attention. Her gaze settled upon the slightly dishevelled pink pegacorn besides Shining. Wonder what happened to her? Maybe she’s just really unfit. One reason having a metal body is better than a meat one I suppose.

With a slightly strained smile she gave the highest-ranking ponies an order, “You’d better keep that story to yourself.” Celestia just smiled at that.

My wearer on the other hoof decided the story was too interesting to let up, “I think a story of this nature would help cement bonds between our peoples. Learning about your kind's love magic could be a great boon to us.” Well, that was polite.

“Yeah and I think it sounds pretty compelling. What actually happened to Twilight?” One of my wearers hooves immediately covered her mouth at that. What? Like she doesn’t care about that part. Is she really expecting to get an answer anyway?

Celestia just let out a melodious laugh at our combined comments which immediately stopped after Cadance's gaze became a little more aggressive. She’s trying to compete with Luna here. “It pains me to say this but some secrets must be kept between a student and her teacher.”

On the larger mare’s other side, her smaller sister began trying to whisper in her ear, which caused Celestia to smile again. Sensing a threat to confidentiality, Cadance turned her gaze upon the blue pegacorn. “I can see how you lost access to the element of loyalty auntie, if you’re willing to go against Twily like this.” Wow, it’s just a bit of gossip. Not like she’s trying to betray her friend.

“Ok, okay we shan’t ask our sister. We are sorry for the offence.” Luna quickly responded while back peddling.

Wow, note to self, don’t mess with Twilight when Cadance is around.

Author's Note

Here's part 2 of the previous chapter :)
Elden Ring has just come out and I'm not gonna lie, its probably going to be distracting me quite a bit. Praise the sun or whatever the new equivalent is.

15: Cleaning the Mess

Chapter 15

Once clear confirmation of confidentiality was achieved, the love pony lost her angry glare and even had a slight tear fall from her eye. “Aunties, I was so worried about you.” She said before she tried her best to embrace both larger mares with her wings. A gesture both ponies returned gladly.

At the display both Skitter and I had slightly different reactions that resulted in the same outcome. Skitter just slightly licked her lips while I thought about how happy they looked. The end result was the alien desire to be part of that hug for once. Ah well they are a family.

In likely a bid to both help improve the standing of the bugs and ease Cadance’s worries, Celestia spoke up, “Cadance, there was no need to worry for us. It was all just a little misunderstanding.”

I’m pretty sure the 'lings were well aware of what they were doing. They were probably trying to cover up their involvement with the Griffonian assassination attempt. Well, that’s the past now. I hope they don’t try again. Those griffons are on our side after all.

While still covering the smaller pegacorn in a wing Celestia then turned to the watching guards, “My little ponies, I’m going to reiterate that we have returned with new found friends in the Changelings. They are to be treated as guests to our kingdom and we are to make them feel welcome.” She then gestured to me with her other wing, “This is Princess Skitter, and she will be acting as their diplomat. Now you know this means that she must be given the utmost respect.” At the end of her speech, I caught a glimpse of Loony rolling her eyes.

With the impromptu speech concluded, Shining Armor saluted, followed by the surrounding guards who’d fallen into a position of attention. He then turned to his guards and said, “Okay ponies, it appears that our moment to shine is over. You are all dismissed back to your regular duties.”

With that, the ground-bound guards began marching off in various directions, while the pegasi flew away. It appears many of them weren’t heading back to the castle. Huh, seems like Shining had pulled out all the stops for a potential invasion. Better to be safe than sorry.

Despite the feigned looks of respect the guards showed us as they wondered past, it was easy to tell it would take them a while to warm up to our newest bug. To be fair she has lived here for years so she isn’t new, more newly discovered.

Once the display was over and the majority of guards had left our vicinity, Luna turned away from her fellow pegacorns and gestured to Skitter. “Come along Eclipse, the gala may still be transpiring.” Somehow, I doubt that and if it is still on, it’s just another obstacle between me and my bed.

Skitter seemed a bit apprehensive to follow the blue horse, but after a moment she looked back to her waiting 'lings, “Please tell our Queen I’ve made official contact with the ponies.” Without hesitation, the disguised bugs bowed before taking the carriage off into the air. More likely to hide somewhere in the city than return to the hive. After that, she moved over to the ponies who’d begun walking into the castle.

Behind us the only male voice of our group chirped up, “Princess, I have a question.” At that, all four mares turned to the stallion. After an awkward cough, shining continued, “I meant for Princess Skitter.” With that Celestia and Cadance decided to continue catching up behind us. They really need to stop this whole Princess thing, it’s getting ridiculous. At least he was showing some respect, but still.

The 'ling simply tilted her head to the stallion in curiosity, “Sure, what’s wrong?”

Quickly shaking his head, the lone stallion continued, “Nothing, it’s just out of curiosity. How did it go from you kidnapping the highest in our land, to a peace treaty in less than a day?”

At that the royal bug just tilted her head for a moment in thought before casually saying, “It was a pretty complicated situation back home.” It’s probably best to keep the whole being forced into peace talks by a possessing enchantment spirt thing to as few people as possible. “Eclipse was quite effective at convincing me.”

Due to the stallion’s dissatisfaction with the answer I decided to elaborate, “Look Shining, you really needed to be there.” Well, I wasn’t gonna blow my cover.

After that, the captain simply decided to drop the subject, muttering something about, "Crazy bug ponies," and we continued down the corridor.

As the distance to the room the gala took place in decreased, Luna cleared her throat, “So, Princess Skitter.”

“You can call me Skitter, Princess.” Came the curt reply from the smiling bug. Oh, thank goodness, please end the agony of constant title use for all.

“Yes, well Skitter then. When dost thou believe thine clothes will need to be changed?” She said in the politest tone she’s ever used with the bug. Seems she really wants us to separate.

With Luna’s words, my newest friend's smile faded slightly and turned away from the slightly larger pegacorn, “I think I’m okay for the moment.” She said quietly. The bug appears to still want my protection. It’s nice to be wanted.

“Mayhaps thou art fine, but we were thinking of somepony else,” Luna said flatly. Aww she’s thinking about what I want. Really hope it isn’t because she wants her dress back. That’s what it is, isn’t it?

For a moment the bug seemed to debate something before simply saying, “Oh… ok.” She then began removing her helmet. She almost seemed to start to shiver again.

Before she could pull off my helmet, I stopped her hoof which seemed to confuse the 'ling, “Luna, don’t you think it would be okay to wait the day?”

“We were only looking out for thy best interests,” the moon pony responded while looking at my chest piece. Suppose that’s a good way to tell who she’s speaking to.

“I know and I really appreciate it,” That got a smile from my friend, which she immediately lost after I continued. “But, you remember when you had to do diplomacy without your regalia?”

Luna seemed to go a little rigid at that and kept her voice steady. Probably trying to hide her irritation, “Yes friend, and whose fault pray tell was that?” That was ages ago, really hope she’s forgiven me for that.

“Exactly, it would be negligent of me to do the same thing to another,” I’ve gotten her there.

That seemed to catch the fussing pony slightly off guard. “As long as thou art comfortable we are happy.” She then seemed to slightly grumble to herself as we continued. She might not be happy but at least she’s letting me make the decision.

After the decision was made, Skitter let out a breath and perked up a little. Seems I’m actually pretty good at making the younger diplomat feel safe. Luna probably should’ve employed me for something related to diplomacy rather than as an advisor. Wait, I’m working beyond the scope of my job right now. Wonder if they’ll pay me extra? Then I can go about not buying anything with the extra money.

Upon reaching the hall where the gala took place, I was finally met with a welcome surprise. The doors to the room were already open, due to lacking hinges, allowing me to see the devastation our absence had triggered. Each table, once covered in food, had been turned over, spilling their contents across the floor. Random animals wandered around, eating said food, and a number of statues alongside supporting columns had been knocked over.

Seems like the nobles had one heck of a party without us; with the added side effect of killing the gala. Loony will be disappointed. Oh well. Bed time it is then. Can’t wait.

Celestia immediately reacted to the view with what could have been a small amount of panic, as she quickly trotted ahead of us. She then held her wings open across the doorway, only slightly blocking our view.

Is she really trying to hide this from the bug? We’ve just been forgiven for kidnapping her. Skitter's opinion likely can’t be negatively impacted by a dishevelled room. Suppose it may make the ponies look like disorganised crazies, but she probably already thinks that’s true about them anyways.

Once the Princess had had a moment to think, she made a suggestion, “Skitter would you like to enjoy a meal with us in our private dining area? I imagine you're quite hungry after the excitement we’ve had and we would be remis as hosts to allow you to go hungry.” She then gave us a polite smile. That’s a pretty good excuse to turn around.

“It’s fine Princess. After that hug your sister gave me, I could probably go for the rest of the week without a bite.” Came the bug's response while she casually stepped to the side of the large pony. Huh, seems being genuine friends gives a lot more energy. Wonder how many love gems that’ll be?

A sigh left the pegacorn after her hopes were dashed, “It is surprising what transpired in our absence, isn’t it?” she said to no one in particular. Hey at least the gala is over. Really thought she’d be happy about that.

My wearer appeared not to hear Celestia’s complaint and just turned to the mare with a request, “Princess, I’d like to return to my maid duties so I can assist with the gala clean up.” She then gave the ruined room another look. Please don’t, the longer this takes the longer this day will last.

The pegacorn appeared not to be sure of how to react and settled for shaking her head, “I cannot allow you to clean up our mess. You’re a diplomat and having you complete mundane tasks on our behalf will reflect negatively upon us. However, we are all honoured by your offer to assist.” Thank you Celestia, your reasonable words save me again.

“It could serve as thy penance for ruining a perfectly joyous occasion,” Came the muttered words of my blue friend behind us.

The side eye Celestia gave her sister said exactly what she thought of that, “the deal we have formed is enough.” Yeah, no slave labour required.

As if desiring to prove me wrong, Skitter turned her full body to the pegacorn before proudly stating, “The deal you formed between Equestria and our hive clearly states that ponies will not intervene in jobs changelings have attained for the purpose of acquiring love.” There has to be some sort of loop hole to get us out of this. Can’t believe I promised to let her wear me for the rest of the day. At least the day is nearing its end.

My friend simply stared at the changeling for a moment causing the bug to lose a little confidence in her statement. However, after a few moments of the staring contest, it was Celestia who somehow lost. She even started to appear a little embarrassed, “That may be true, yet we were hoping that you specifically would be acting as a diplomat while other changelings continued their jobs.” The pegacorn then started to get worried, “You are considering to do both then?”

How bad would that be, if no one came to ensure the deal was signed? The ponies could just go back on their promise. Deals by word of mouth are pretty unreliable. Saying that, I’m not actually sure why a signed piece of paper is more significant. Maybe its due to being physical evidence of the deal?

“I’ll be sure to attend all diplomatic functions,” came the bug’s formal reply. “It’s just everyling outside the hive has a duty to provide what they can.” Pretty sure the Queen would have excluded her from that duty. Diplomacy is probably more important than what one bug can harvest.

It seems I’d backed the wrong horse in this situation as Celestia just looked back at the wrecked hall, “Well as the deal states, I can’t stop you. Please don’t work too hard, we will have much to discuss tomorrow.”

“Really?” came a disbelieving, happy reply. Seems our bug didn’t think the ponies would let her continue her old life. Neither did I, to be honest.

With permission granted, no warning was given before a large green fire ball engulfed us. This prompted Celestia to slightly step back from the unexpected display, while Luna moved to almost grab us. “What about Eclipse?”

What about Eclipse indeed. This green fire is trying to do something to me, I can only hazard a guess as to what. Well, it’s probably best just to eat it before it does any harm. Sorry Skitter. As the fire burned, my form suddenly felt quite a lot less support and to be honest it felt almost empty. Pretty sure the bug didn’t just spontaneously combust.

When the fire had burnt out, after what felt like several minutes later, I found myself lying on the floor with a worried Luna crouched over me. “Eclipse art thou well?”

“I’m fine, I think. All of me is still here.”

After quickly looking over myself, the unmistakable sound of a higher pitched Skitter groaning rang out from within my helmet. She’s turned back into that light grey unicorn, Swift Clean. Suppose it would be easier to help clean up when all your comrades aren’t terrified of you. It’s a shame she collapsed under my weight.

Once the newly formed pony regained her bearings, she tried to stand. This, however, had an unintended consequence. “Wow sister, doth this not remind thou of a foal trying on their parent’s garments?” sniggered my once concerned friend.

Clearly, my shoes were now a few sizes too big and the only thing preventing my helmet falling over her eyes was me holding it up. I’m not sure why, but this feels really embarrassing. So much so that it’s even making Swift's face turn red. My bad.

Celestia showed a little more concern for the grumbling bug. Managing to supress her laughter at our plight, “Princess are you ok?”

Once the grumbling had died down, Swift started to complain verbally, “I’m fine, the armour was supposed to change as well.” She then lifted up her hoof causing my shoe to fall off.

“Hey! Don’t go blaming me. I was worried about what your spell might do.” For all we know, it could have erased me from existence. Then everyone would have been left with some mundane clothes or something. Bet my death would put a spanner in the diplomatic talks. At least I can prevent magical effects like that.

The newly formed average sized unicorn attempted to take another step, to the amusement of the princesses, before giving up, “Well this is just impossible.” She is pretty small now.

“If you want, you can take me off.” A loop hole in our agreement has been found and shall be exploited.

“What? But...” came the stuttered reply before she steeled herself, “Wait, I can try.”

Is she really that worried the ponies will pounce on her the second I’m out of the way? A sigh escaped me; swore I’d never be a dress again dammit. “Look, don’t worry. I’ll sort this out for you.” The things I do for my friends. Ok, so what do maids dress up like? Now isn’t that the question? Black and white dress, then what? Bleh, wish one of those maids were visible through the door.

Well, best guess all the way. First, my colour scheme changed to the aforementioned black and white, before I morphed the solid metal into cloth. I then extended the sleeves down each of the pseudo maid’s legs as tightly as possible, leaving white frills at the top of the front. For the rear, a simple skirt was created that went down to her knees. To finish up, I gave the now blushing pony silver shoes and a silver tiara. One pony maid, with clothes that actually fit, served and ready for duty.

Upon viewing the dress, my best friend immediately lost her expression of humour. “What? Doesn’t this look ok?” Maybe it’s a little too out there. Just to be sure, I did a little twirl and had Skitter stand on her hind legs to better show off to the irritable Luna. “It looks ok, right?” Where’s Rarity when you need her?

“Please don’t parade me around like that,” came the even redder pony’s response. At that, I returned to a seated position, allowing the disguised bug to examine herself. “Erm, as for your choice, it’s really fine. Probably too good for a maid really.” She then started pulling on her sleeves. “Did you have to be so skin-tight?”

“Yes, mine friend, we too are curious as to why? You leave little to the imagination.” Luna quickly spoke up while pointing an accusatory hoof, “And why, pray tell, is thy tiara so familiar?”

All I could really do was shrug, “There’s only really one design in my brain, erm mist.” It’s hard to come up with ideas on the spot. “Also, you guys have no idea how embarrassing it was not to fit properly.” Not sure why, though it probably wasn’t helped by the princesses laughing at me.

After a moment Swift decided to pat her chest, probably sensing something wrong with my style. This resulted in a metallic clang. “Don’t think I’ve ever had a maid’s uniform with built in plate armour.”

“What happens if we’re ambushed again? My last dress was definitely not fit for that purpose.” It was like Rarity never considered an assassination attempt.

Luna frowned slightly at that, “Thou need not always worry about others coming to harm thee. In times of peace thy form should be allowed to reflect that.” She then continued, “We hope thou will still be willing to accompany us to future events such as the gala.”

“Of course, it’s just we need to prepare for these things.” My words caused the dark mare to smile at my chest piece before giving an envious stare to my wearer.

Once my best friend was given her desired answer the pseudo maid decided to thank me in a slightly embarrassed tone, “Thanks for doing this for me. You might be a tad bit revealing, but this should be more than fine.” How am I revealing? This form covers her in more places than my copy of her armour. Most ponies are naked anyways.

Just to prove my newest friend right, one of the servants wandered out of the main hall and started to walk past us. He mustn’t have noticed the Princesses because when he spotted Skitter, he immediately let out a strange whistle, “Hey Clean, is that the new uniform?”

Swift swiftly replied, “It’s just a prototype.”

The unnamed servant continued on his way with one last remark, “Well hope it becomes standard, could really spice things up around here.”

As our group watched the oblivious servant wander off, I couldn’t help but comment, “That felt highly inappropriate for the work place.” That got a chuckle from the tallest alicorn who I sense was taking a note of that particular stallion’s behaviour.

My wearer just ignored the comment saying, “Don’t worry about it,” and started to walk towards the door, “Now if you will excuse me, there is a gala to clean up.”

“Wait,” came a shout from Loony causing the bug to wince. “Thou must be careful with thy horn,” She then rubbed her hoof down my sleeve, “Eclipse is quite easily damaged in such a form.”

It did hurt when that changeling tore me before, but I don’t think it’s something a unicorn could do by accident. Their horns are nowhere near as jagged. It’s like comparing a rapier to a long sword. More for stabbing than slicing.

Skitter just shuffled about on her hooves for a moment, eager to leave, before responding, “Don’t worry Princess, she is in great hooves. I can even have her washed before returning her to you.” I can wash myself thank you very much. When Luna didn’t immediately reply, my wearer started to become a little more antsy, “Can I go?”

The pegacorn only nodded slowly in response, which caused Swift to live up to her disguises name as she sped through the door. She’s clearly trying to prevent anymore setbacks.

Behind us, Luna immediately started to complain to her sister, “That changeling is clearly using our faithful armour to get her way.”

“Come on sister, we need to ensure everything is still running smoothly,” came Celestia’s reply having clearly ignored the disgruntled pegacorn.

“We wish to ensure nothing happens to our only advisor,” Luna shot back. Surely, she has more staff now.

The older sister clearly started to listen once Luna started to be so sharp and decided to put her worries at ease. “You know from experience they can look after themselves. Hey, they even did a good job looking after us. There is nothing to worry about.”

Just before the 2 became impossible to hear over the distance Luna made one final complaint, “We do not so easily trust the one that ensured thy capture.”

Well, I’m sure Celestia will help cheer up Loony. That’s what sisters are for right? What I’m more worried about is the fact that I’m stuck cleaning up this terrible party instead of being in bed. Not only that, but I’m pretty sure these ponies will be freaked out if my mist floats about. Woe is me and all that.

With the two sisters out of ear shot, Clean started to walk at a more leisurely pace towards the biggest eye sore of the room. A large golden statue of Celestia was on the ground currently surrounded by a servant and a few maids. Those maid uniforms are pretty plain. Ah doesn’t matter, I’m not changing now.

Anyways, the gathered ponies were all clearly bickering over what to do with the, likely heavy, solid gold pegacorn. Swift herself only stood and looked at the sculpture. A small “Hmmm” was all that escaped her lips.

Well seems helping with that’s our first job. “Er, Clean. Are we gonna help those ponies?” I quietly whispered into her ear.

At that my wearer just tilted her head before lightly poking her horn, “Pretty sure that’s beyond everypony here.”

“Well, they had to get it up somehow. Besides, this time they have a changeling princess to help,” She still didn’t appear convinced, “Hey I’ll try to help too.”

With my final proclamation, Swift actually seemed to become thoughtful, “Ok, we did sign up for this.” Well, she did.

“That’s the spirit,” I bet they have a cart to move this thing. All we need to do is get someone to bring the cart and maybe get some sort of lifting system set up. It’s going to be a pain but that’s life.

However, my buggy wearer seemed to have her own idea on how we were going to sort out the statue. “Okay then Eclipse, let’s see what you can do,” she said through gritted teeth while her horn lit up. Oh no, she isn’t really gonna try and lift that thing by herself, right?

Ignorant of my exasperation, the light grey maid’s aura surrounded the golden statue. Said aura was an incredibly dark green. Darker than any of the changeling’s auras I’d seen within the hive. After a moment the, probably very heavy, statue casually floated into the air, much to the surprise of the surrounding staff who just stared and gasped.

“Er, Skitter, this is all well and good, but where are we gonna take that?” As if to answer my question, she returned the ruined masterpiece to its stand before finally relaxing. Well, that doesn’t really achieve much. That statue needs to be out of the room, right? At least it’s not a tripping hazard anymore.

She seemed pretty happy with the move anyways, “I have to say your armour is impressive. Didn’t even really feel anything when we lifted that.” She said jovially, she then looked at my sleeve, “Did that affect you at all?”

Huh, now that I think about it, was there really even a drain? It was so small it wasn’t even worth noting, “Not really.” Wonder if I could lift it by myself? Real levitation has to be at the top of my list to learn. Seems like I could be good at it. “And the armour does have a name you know."

“Sorry I didn’t mean…” Seeing the other occupants of the room take notice of us Clean made one final reply, “Seems the ponies had a lucky find in you.” Before she awaited her fellow cleaning staff. Welp, radio silence from now on I suppose.

The first pony to approach us was a white earth pony maid. From the way she galloped, and subsequently latched onto our side, something was worrying her. “Swift! Where’ve you been? We thought something terrible happened,” yep, it was my keen observation that noticed this pony’s distress, “Bucket even said you were kidnapped by giant bugs.” That’s not quite true. Seems Cadance didn’t keep the entire thing under wraps while we were away.

Another maid approached, this time an orange pegasus, presumably Bucket, who immediately rejected the comment, “Did not! That was you over reacting.” She then pointed an accusing wing at our captor.

For her part, Skitter just happily returned the distressed mare’s hug. Hm something's tasting good again. These ponies are probably the bug's regular food source, maybe even her friends.

From behind the two, a more masculine voice came from a unicorn servant, “The last sight seen of you was of a terrified pony apparently running for dear life away from our fair Princesses. They seemed quite eager to catch you. Was something wrong?” He then gestured to the gathered staff, “We have all been trying to surmise the reason as you may have guessed.”

While continuing to hold her snack, Skitter just smiled, “it wasn’t really a big deal, nothing bad was happening.”

“See Duster, told you there wasn’t any giant spiders or whatever,” came the sarcastic words of Bucket.

“My husband swore he saw a giant bug and he’s in the guard,” was the panicked response. Seems the guards have loose lips around here. We’d only been gone a few hours.

Those words caused my wearer to tense up for a moment. I actually thought she might tell her comrades in cleaning the truth. “There was just an important job the princesses entrusted to me that they needed keeping quiet. I may have gotten a little nervous at first but it’s all sorted now.” Well, she is an infiltrator, lying is probably second nature.

Her words caused the surrounding ponies to relax a little. All of them except for the one within our personal space. She immediately stepped back from us and asked excitedly, “ooo, what was it they wanted you to do? Was it to help clean out the giant bug’s nest or something? I won’t tell anypony.” That’s probably what she said to the guard before telling everyone.

Instead of answering the world’s biggest gossip’s question, Skitter instead asked one of her own. “So, what happened after I left?” She began gesturing around the room with a hoof before pointing at herself, “Could the gala not stand without me?” It is a pretty legitimate question. This place looks like a bomb has gone off.

Duster was only too happy to change the subject. “Swift, you should have seen it. Almost all at once everything just seemed to go wrong,” she began with a faraway look in her eyes, “The moment the Princesses began running we all knew something was going to happen.” Seems she needs some therapy.

After a moment of silence, the servant decided to continue Duster’s story, “Yes, well once the Princesses had left to recruit you for their mission, that repugnant Prince Blueblood managed to knock over Celestia’s precious statue. Apparently, the stallion was retreating from one of the element bearers I suspect he’d wronged.” Well, that explains the statue.

Seeing as her original question went unanswered, Bucket seized her chance to talk about some other gossip, “I saw a rainbow maned pegasus catch it though.” Yeah, I saw that. Wonder how it ended up broken then? “She was pretty impressive before it became too heavy. If it were me, I’d probably have dropped it before smashing it against all the columns.” She said that last part with a curious smile. At the mare’s words I pointed Clean’s head at the roof and saw some open sky. Ok, so that’s why the ceiling is starting to cave in. Not sure if we can fix that. Probably above a maids pay grade anyway. Definitely above mine, or maybe its below. Who knows?

“That was nothing compared to the animals and that crazy yellow Pegasus,” Duster spoke up once more, “She just charged in with so many animals and screamed at the top of her lungs how we were going to love her. I can still remember that evil stare.” So, there’s a crazy Pegasus somewhere. That’s great, hopefully she’s been arrested. Seeing as there was still various animals in the room, it seems possible she may have escaped.

Skitter then asked a stupid question with a coy smile, “Did the ponies shouts cause anyone to love her?” It’s all about methods of gaining food with this one. Maybe that makes sense seeing as her people are starving.

“Of course not, everyone ran away in terror leading to the remaining devastation,” the distressed maid spoke up again pointing to the numerous flipped over tables and food strewn across the floors. At least the animals probably ate some of the mess.

After the quick briefing, my wearer wasted no time in rallying her troops, “Okay here’s what we are going to do. Duster and Bucket will start collecting up the wasted food and disposing of it.” She pointed to the two maids. “Dapper and I will commence the removal of the tables and chairs.” She pointed at the newly named servant. “Once that’s done the four of us will work together to slowly herd the animals out of the room. Make sense?” The three other ponies saluted before getting to work. Seems they’d never get any work done without the royal bug.

It didn’t take us long to remove the tables and chairs from the room and with the maids' aid, the animals were easily corralled and caught by Clean's and Dapper’s magic. It was actually pretty interesting working as a team to catch the little rabbits and deer. Much more entertaining than how I usually spend my off time anyways.

With the assigned tasks complete our group began focusing on the smaller tasks of collecting up discarded or smashed cups and plates. At one point we even found a smashed glass slipper. It’s crazy that these nobles would wear such dangerous hoof wear.

Once the room was absent of any workable mess, the rubble was declared someone else’s problem, the 3 shattered ponies and 1 happy changeling decided to call it a day.

After goodbyes had been said we left the other serving staff to go about their business and began heading down a corridor. Wonder where we are going?

A sigh escaped my wearer before she spoke up to no one in particular, “Glad I got to see them again.”

I decided to speak up for the first time in over an hour, “Those ponies did seem pretty interesting. It was nice to actually speak to the ones cleaning my room.” They always hide from me when they see me coming. Maybe I’ll try to talk to them again. At my sudden words, Skitter for a moment appeared to almost jump out of her shell. “Is something wrong?”

The heavily breathing mare stood holding her chest for a moment before regaining her stride, “Sorry about that. It’s really weird to think that this is you.” She then used her rear hoof to knock my skirt. No need to kick me.

“Oh, ok. Well, where are we going anyway?” I’ve been down this route before. Maybe we are going to the library? I’d much prefer to go to bed but a good book would be fine.

“I’m heading to my room,” the mare said happily while continuing to walk.

“It might be best for you to see Celestia or Luna first to ensure they’ve assigned you one. The guest rooms are quite nice.” It probably would be best to ask Celestia seeing as Luna’s guest rooms are probably full of dust. Saying that I really should go and visit Loony, she seemed pretty down before we left her.

Skitter laughed lightly to herself before responding, “I already have a room sorted out.”

“You mean from when you were a maid?”

“Still am,” came the response, while she casually pointed to me. She really wants to just be a servant. Why? From the fight with us, she seemed pretty take charge.

Welp if she’s going to her old room, seems my escort mission is almost complete. Meaning once I’ve seen to Loony, I can go to bed. Just can’t wait.

As if in an attempt to ruin my plans, a familiar irritating voice rang out from behind us, “Maid, halt immediately. I have something that requires your attention.”

Oh no, not him. Please. Let it be anyone but this stupid stallion. Skitter just stopped in her tracks, turned to Blueblood and with a casual smile and simply asked, “What’s wrong?”

“A major issue has occurred within my quarters and I require one of the lower ponies to deal with it,” the stallion stated pompously while tilting his head towards a nearby room, “You don’t seem to be doing anything important, so you best get to it.” But my bed.

Deciding to intervene in this situation I quietly whispered to my wearer, “You should just drop your disguise. That’ll get rid of him and changelings are allowed in here now.” There is no way I’m helping this jerk with anything.

Sadly, the maid within my wearer raised its ugly head, resulting in a light sigh before she went to say, “I’ll get right to…”

Thankfully she was interrupted by my favourite bat pony, I mean thestral, who casually dropped between us from the ceiling. Really need to find out how she does that. I’m going to focus on finding her aura from now on. This caused Blueblood to yell out and jump back while my wearer only took a slight step away.

Crescent immediately commented, “Prince Blueblood, this isn’t just a simple low born pony. She’s actually a foreign diplomat who’s taken a disguise for her own perceived safety.”

Once the idiotic unicorn had regained what little composure he had, he began looking over Skitters form with a sceptical look. “Really?”

The disguised buggy princess didn’t seem too happy about the reveal and simply looked down while quietly replying, “apparently yes.” Seems she doesn’t want any regular ponies finding out about her origin. There is no way that Blueblood will believe us without Skitter losing the disguise.

To my surprise, the air headed fool immediately changed his tone, “Good heavens I must apologise. I should have known from your attire. It is clearly not suited for one meant for menial work.” He then gave a light bow. Wonder if they’ve told people that we’re negotiating with shapeshifters.

This actually caused the bug to look up at our adversary and give a genuine smile, “It’s ok, the disguise is meant to throw ponies off, so I don’t mind.”

“I should think not,” Blueblood stated before looking us in the eye and asking, “May I ask why you picked that particularly troublesome form?”

With those words, Skitter started to look herself over. “What’s wrong with it?” she said tersely.

“My dear ambassador, it would be far easier for me to state what is right due to how vast the list of wrongs is.” Ouch. This guy really can’t help being a jerk.

The princess just folded her ears back at that, “But ponies look like this. I’ve checked.” He’s probably trying to irritate you on purpose.

The white stallion simply leaned in close before asking, “Well do they though?” Then instead of waiting for an answer he continued, “The individual you’ve picked is probably on the lower tier of pony society for looks, mannerisms and social status being just a maid.”

“What’s wrong with the mannerisms? They’ve been acceptable for years.” Seems the bug doesn’t like people questioning her infiltration skills.

The pony opposite us simply put his nose into the air, “Let’s just say that this particular maid was always in a bad mood while wearing a false smile. It was truly revolting. But what makes her worse is that she reported me of all ponies to pony resources for my royal behaviour.” Wonder why?

We ended up just staring at the irritating unicorn for a second before Skitter simply said, “I think I’m needed for a diplomatic meeting of some sort.” I really hope that makes this guy disappear.

Sure, enough the stallion started to make tracks to walk away but not before making one final remark, “But of course. Just remember to at least change your face. Nopony takes an ugly mug seriously.”

As the stallion disappeared down the corridor Skitter turned to the night guard and quietly said, “I based this on myself.” Now that she mentions it, her two forms look pretty similar just one is decidedly taller with no fur whatsoever.

I decided to try and put my newest friend at ease, “You know I think your pony form looks perfectly passable, so must everyone else if you’ve lived here as long as you say.” To be honest I don’t really know what counts as good looking in the pony world. They all seem pretty similar. Well, the ones with the fangs are slightly more adorable.

Rather than continuing the self-deprecating line of thought, Clean decided to question our saviour from pointless work, “Where did you come from?”

Said thestral was still scowling adorably while baring her tiny fangs at the retreating noble and finally decided to take notice of us. “I was ordered by Luna to protect Eclipse from all threats to his well-being. Blueblood was counted as one of these threats.” She is very good at her job. Keeping me away from that guy will earn you many brownie points from me.

“Don’t you mean protect the foreign diplomat?” I said that with the intent of making Skitter feel a little safer. Bat mare is probably a good pony to have at your back.

Crescent just chuckled at that and slightly shook her head, “Don’t worry tin head, I’ll continue babysitting you.” She then began wandering off to probably crawl onto the ceiling out of sight. I really hate it when she says that. “Oh, and before I forget, Princess Skitter, your room hasn’t been prepared yet.” With that message passed on she left us apparently for real. I will locate her little hidey hole at some point.

Once the distraction was over, the royal bug continued on her way, “Does Luna have her follow you everywhere?”

I really hope not, “Probably.” She could be hiding within any shadow, I swear.

As we continued further toward our destination, Skitter began zeroing in on a room that seemed pretty familiar for whatever reason. “Well, here we are. Home sweet home.”

When my wearer reached up to open the door, I decided to slow her hoof to protect her from the horror I suspected within, “Erm, Skitter, maybe we should go and wait for your new room.” That room is familiar for one terrible reason.

Rather than accepting my warning and waiting, the royal just decided to open the door with her magic instead. She probably thought I was just a little restrictive dammit. “Why? I’ve had this room for… ages.” The bug slowly finished her sentence as the destroyed internals came into view, “Oh right, this is where it happened.”

Oooh. I really need to take her mind of this, “So this is the room from your dream?” Her ruined safe place.

The only word that escaped the bug was a “yep,” as she steadily walked into her old room. She then wondered over to a set of drawers and began digging through a number of maid uniforms.

Why would she need so many? Does she even wear any clothes other than her armour? She can just create anything from thin air, “Erm, if you’re looking for your armour, Luna had it collected by the guard. I’ll make sure they return it all to you.”

“Oh, yeah thanks. Mother would have been a tad cross if I’d lost that,” Skitter said absently while continuing to look through the uniforms. Eventually she found what she was looking for, a small bag filled with rocks. “At least my love crystals weren’t damaged.” She smiled lightly at her words and absently appeared to pour pink mist into some of them. That must have been the left overs from Loony. She doesn’t really feel quite as bloated anymore.

Once the bag was secured, she collected a few of the maid uniforms and placed them upon her back before wondering over to her ruined bed. After a few light pokes with her hoof, it seemed the bed was no longer satisfactory. “Look Skitter, I’m really sorry for what happened to your room. We were just defending ourselves.”

A sigh escaped my wearer as she walked out of the room with her tail between her legs, “So were we.” Once the room was vacated the mare carefully closed the door behind us before sitting down to stare at nothing in particular.

Ok, we have one unhappy ambassador/friend. It is my job to fix this apparently. I’m sure there’s a spare room somewhere. Maybe Luna would know? She hadn’t sorted a room yet like and she clearly doesn’t enjoy Skitter’s presence. Oh! I know a room she can use. Let it be known that Eclipse, the possibly enchanted spirit armour, never abandoned a friend in need. “Hey, if you want, you can stay in my room until I get Luna to sort one out.” That’ll probably get Luna working to get the 'ling out of her guest room.

Skitter looked up at no one, ears pricked up, “are you sure that would be ok?”

“Yeah it’ll be fine,” I responded before standing her up and trotting down towards my room.

“Woah, steady on,” came a slightly panicked reply, “I can walk myself.”

“I know where my room is and you can use a rest,” to be honest it’s nice to move under my own power and if we go at her sad dawdle, I’ll never get to sleep.

Upon reaching my room I opened the door and raised a hoof into the air, “Welcome to casa Eclipse.” Before I allowed her to wander in.

After entering my room, she casually looked over my small collection of things. I’d only really picked up a few books from the library. Still hadn’t actually finished that book on the everfree to be honest. Seriously it’s so thick.

“What’s with the blue plant?” came an expected question.

The only other item of note was an object I’d retrieved from the Everfree, “That’s just an enchanted flower I took from the Everfree. Luna let me go to ponyville with a pot to see if I could make a little mana farm for myself. Don’t touch it, its poisonous.”

“I’ll make sure not to,” my newest resident decided to put her spare uniforms into my closet, “Why is this place so empty? You really need to get shopping.” Hey I do have bits, it’s just difficult to buy things inside the castle.

At her remark I took the chance to make a joke, “Well I could sleep in the closet but the hangars aren’t as comfortable as the bed.” My wearer just looked into my mirror at that, “You know, because I’m currently a dress.” Well, my joke died.

Rather than respond to my terrible attempt at humour. The bug put away her clothes and inspected my bed. This left me with one final opportunity to ask her a question before I went looking for Luna, “So Skitter, I’m curious about something. Why did you come and see me that time in the library?”

While answering the question the bug decided to test out my bed, “Well, I would like to say it was to scout out the pony’s newest weapon,” I kinda felt myself droop a little at that, “But if I’m honest, I just thought you were going to be interesting.”

“Huh, well I hope I was interesting.” was all I could think to say. Hopefully I don’t bore her out of her mind. That’s probably a terrible quality in a friend.

“I would say you are,” Were Skitter's final words before she closed her eyes.

“I’m glad,” I’m a bit of a sucker for complements apparently. “Hey Skitter are you going to take me off?” After a few moments a light snore originated from the mare, “Seriously? You haven’t just gone to sleep that quick.” Denying reality all I want doesn’t really change things. I’ve tried many times in the past.

What I don’t get is, don’t ponies need to get washed and naked before bed? Ah it doesn’t matter changeling standards are probably different. She probably also likes to sleep near others like those changeling foals. I’m just the sentient security blanket. Suppose sleeping on a pony is as comfortable a place as any. I’ll go see Luna in the morning, she won't mind.

Author's Note

If anyone's curious chapter 13,14 and 15 were all one chapter in my notes. Really need to sort out my pacing.

Edited by Sebastian99.

16: An Average Dinner

Chapter 16

Another day, another interesting meal with my friends.

Currently, I’m enjoying the culinary designs of Canterlot’s chefs, thanks to my good friend Loony. She thought I deserved a treat, so she ordered some vegetarian sausages and agreed to wear my helmet during dinner. Real meat would have been preferable, but I'm lucky she was willing to indulge me. With that, I had my friend lick her lips after her most recent mouthful, prompting a small giggle in response.

It’s also nice that the dinner table is a little busier than usual now.

Celestia, sitting across from us, continued her conversation by adding, “Skitter, I was hoping to thank you again for negotiating the release of the first of my captured guards.” She had a broad smile while looking at the bug half way down the table.

“The pleasure was all mine,” came the 'lings warm reply. “It was easy seeing as you’d agreed to provide twenty clean identities, as well as homes to our infiltrators. My queen was quite pleased with the potential for a secure increase in our love yield.”

The clean identities only really consisted of a passport and papers describing how they were immigrants to the country, which was true. As for the homes, they were just rented houses which the 'lings had to pay for with their own money. To be honest, the changelings were well within their rights to just move in using this method without Celestia's intervention. They probably just don’t understand that.

Clearly Celestia was taking full advantage of their ignorance, as she thoughtfully hummed before speaking, “Well it’s my hope that a similar arrangement can be made multiple times.” Well, the trick might work to get a few more prisoners released, but Chrysalis isn’t going to want to lose what she perceives as leverage. She’s just too paranoid. Living in the shadows all your life probably does that.

“If it works out in the long term, I’m sure we can think of something,” Skitter replied before returning to reading a book she’d borrowed.

This action didn’t please the alabaster host who frowned slightly while looking at the bugs empty plate, “Princess, you know there is more food available. I would hate for you to go hungry.” She finished with a brief look of concern.

Skitter lowered her book slightly at that and gave a disarming smile, “the food that your chefs provided was easily enough. Changelings don’t need much physical food.” Her eyes drifted over to the other pegacorn in the room, who was happily munching away, “the ambient love in the room is more than enough.” Ah, the love for sausages is almost as good as the sausages themselves. Shame they’re vegetarian.

After a moment, I realized the bug had started to glance in my direction with the occasional smile. “What’s up? Something on my helmet?” She’s probably pretty bored having nothing to eat, wait that’s why she has the book.

Our newest resident just let out a mild laugh at that. “That’s pretty funny,” when I cocked Luna’s head she elaborated. “Just seeing your headless body next to Princess Luna.” Ah she probably thought I was making a joke about my head.

Currently, my remaining armour was seated right next to the moon princess. There wasn’t really any need for me to be worn fully, so why bother? As I responded I patted a plated, misty wing on my friend’s side, “Luna was nice enough to volunteer her mouth for my use.”

In response to my words, Loony ate another sausage while looking at the changeling. Probably to emphasize her giving nature.

This also brought Celestia's focus to the false meat, where she proceeded to wince slightly, “I really do not know where you have gotten this recent obsession with meat. It is very off putting.” It’s not even real.

Luna, with her mouthful of food, finally decided to speak up, “It is Eclipse's fault.” I feel framed. “Their presence appears to somehow modify our taste buds.” She then quickly swallowed, “Nevertheless, these new foods are quite delightful.”

“Well Luna, if you think this is good, you’ll be amazed by the real thing.” Hopefully my words will encourage her to try some real meat one day.

My friend just looked down slightly at her plate in response, before patting my pauldron, “We are aware thou enjoy consuming the flesh of other creatures, but we are not quite up for it ourself.” Suppose it could be quite distressing for a vegetarian species to eat real meat.

“Well sister, you appeared to indulge in quite a large quantity of meat when we visited our allies,” Celestia stated, while leaning forward over her cake.

Loony covered her face with a hoof and sighed in response, “Please don’t remind us of that event.”

Deciding to ignore her sisters request, Celestia’s eyes narrowed slightly and her lips formed a whisper of a smile, “I knew you only did it to earn the affection of the Griffonian Emperor.” Oh dear, another session of teasing.

The moon princess responded to her sister's jab by raising her muzzle into the air, “He was a very nice bird, however, we did not consider Emperor Thunder Wing to be to our tastes.” Wonder why not? He seemed decent enough.

Casually my friends hoof began scratching the bottom part of my helmet. I couldn’t really help the happy hum that came out. Is that what it’s like to be pet? I’d return the favour but its dinner time. That’s probably why she didn’t react so strongly to Celestia’s jab.

With the matter of Luna’s eating habits settled, Celestia quietly returned to her cake for dinner. An act Luna took note of with gusto. “Sister, we are becoming concerned about thy choices in diet as well. They are starting to lead to your proportions becoming quite… generous.” Well, Sadly, it seems this is the moment Loony has decided to comment on the sun's eating habits instead.

While finishing a bite of cake, Celestia just stared at my helmet’s wearer before exclaiming, “are you implying that I am fat?” Please say no.

“Sister we would never suggest such a heinous thing,” Loony replied diplomatically while shaking her head. Good, Celestia isn’t fat anyway, she’s just taller than most mares. She probably does weigh a lot more than the average pony as a result though.

“I should think not, sister,” she began eyeing her sister warily.

“We were just thinking that a diet of less sugary foods may be helpful,” came the nonchalant words of Luna.

Welp, we did it. Argument time at the dinner table. Before the argument could kick off, I decided to make one thing clear, “Luna’s using the royal we by the way. Just saying.” Really don’t want to be in Celly's bad books. With those final words, the argument had begun.

“Well sister, you’re just a wannabe predator.”

“Without thy patronage, Canterlot's cake shops would all go out of business.”

In a vain attempt to stop the argument, I used my mist to hover a not sausage up to Loony. She kind of took offense to that and batted it away before continuing the argument. Well, seems like no more not meat for me today.

With that, I increased my helmets size and easily removed it from my friend’s head. A new trick I’d learned a few days ago to quickly escape a dreaded mannequin, or sleeping changeling.

While the argument continued, our guest just looked between the two before turning to me and quietly asking, “Do they always do this?”

Might as well try and make light of the situation. “Only when they’re awake.” They are normally so composed, why is it always the little things? This is probably the whole siblings thing. If I had a sister, maybe we’d argue the same way? Who would know? There isn’t anyone else like me.

“Well sister, you should not have flirted with the Griffonian Emperor. He is going to be left despondent when you turn him down,” was the final barb thrown, before the creaking of the dining room doors paralysed everyone into silence. Oh, wouldn’t it be terrible if someone saw this display.

All at once, the occupants of our table turned to the opening to see a familiar purple unicorn poking her head into the room. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything. Princess Celestia told me to come at this time,” came her less than confident words.

“Nonsense Twilight, your timing is beyond perfect,” Celestia warmly responded to her daughter, before the two sisters exchanged a look that just screamed this isn’t over. The ingrained malice seemed to evaporate all at once, as she turned her attention towards me. “Ah Eclipse, it appears today is the day you agreed to allow my faithful student to examine you.”

Today? I didn’t see that on the schedule. Pretty sure the plan was to make sure the bugs okay, followed by the usual large quantities of free time until Luna asks me to follow her around and do random tasks, like judge her choice of room décor, or walk around the gardens. “With respect, Celestia, I’m not aware of any sort of agreement taking place between us.” Immediately both Twilight and Celly gave me a disappointed look. Well, life is disappointing sometimes.

Seeing as the puppy dog stare of the small pony wasn’t working for once, Luna decided to intervene, “Dost thou not remember thy words when we were in peril? Thou said that if Twilight could save thine charge, she could complete her examinations. This is true, is it not?”

“I may have said something along those lines,” I began while shrugging my misty wings, “however, if memory serves me well, Shining Armor was the one to awaken you, Loony.” If I could smile at my victory, there would be the largest one possible plastered across my helmet.

However, it was just my luck that Celestia had decided to team up with Luna against me, seeing as she’d already gotten her hoof in the door, “Well Eclipse, you are aware that Captain Armor is the brother of Twilight. If requested, it would be likely he would also wish for you to be examined.” Really need to divide and conquer next time, get them talking about griffons again.

“I don’t see the resemblance,” I mean, he is bigger than Twilight and completely white aside from the mane. Maybe he looks more like Celestia though, more than Twilight does anyways.

After my blatant denial of Twilight's family ties, the three pony occupants of the room again resorted to the puppy dog stare. Thought this was proven ineffective. You lot should give up. How long have they been staring for now? A good three seconds, at least.

“Okay, fine.” Ah, peer pressure, why do you always win? “I suppose it would benefit me to know more about myself.” Maybe they can prove I’m more than a magical artifact.

With that, Luna clapped her forehooves together and stood from her chair while grabbing me with a wing, “Huzzah, we really wanted to know more of our favoured apparel.” It’s nice to be wanted, but I’m not just a jacket.

“So Twilight, is everything prepared in the lab?” Celestia asked. The ponies have a real lab?

Seeing she had Celestias attention, the unicorn quickly pulled out a clipboard and approached her mother, “Of course, Princess, I went over everything twice before coming here.” These two are a really formal family.

Once the sun had reviewed Twilight’s paperwork, she returned the clipboard. “Everything appears to be in order. I hope you have fun.”

“Aren’t you going to be accompanying us, Princess?” came the slightly disappointed reply of the unicorn, “You sounded really excited yesterday.” I knew Celestia organised this without telling me.

“Yes, I was, but it appears duty calls,” the radiant mare said with a half-smile, “I’m too busy organising a new deal to gain the safe return of our lost ponies.”

Oh well, seems it’ll just be the three of us. Might as well get this over with as quickly as possible. With that thought, I left my seat and headed over to the room's exit. Luna was quick to accompany me and I spied her eating that last fake sausage without me. Now I’m jealous again.

“Are you sure you really want me to go through with this?” I put all of the dejectedness that I could muster, from the lack of food, into my voice. Maybe she’ll get me out of this and we can go do something important, like reading a book or something.

Sadly, it appeared my furry friend had legitimate interest in these examinations. “It would make us very happy to know how to properly maintain thy health. We wish for thou to last a very long time.” Way too often, I put all my money on her. Really need to back another horse.

“Fine,” was all I ended up saying. This is going to suck.

Clearly, Loony could tell my mood was souring. As she calmly brushed a wing against my side and spoke gently to my not-ears, “There is nothing to be afraid about. We shall be accompanying thou for the express purpose of ensuring thy safety and comfort.”

I ended up meeting her gaze, “Okay, sure, that makes it a little better.” To be honest it makes it way better. She has nothing but the best intentions and here I am being all self-centred. Still won’t enjoy it, but I’ll make sure to get through it. The warm smile I received went some way to proving me wrong.

Before the two of us could accompany the pony wizard, a quiet buggy voice quietly asked a question, “Celestia, would it be possible for me to accompany them? I’m pretty sure it’ll be easier to plan for future negotiations without me watching you.” Skitter appeared pretty hopeful to join us. Maybe spying on her ally’s plans is too boring for her?

“Well, I don’t see why not,” Celestia’s response caused the bug princess to immediately stand and provide a light bow. Seems she really does find me interesting. Sadly, Sunny decided she would ruin the moment by asking her own question, “Twilight, one more participant won’t hurt your concentration, will it?”

My newest friend turned her puppy dog eyes onto the smallest pony in the room. “Of course, she can come. This is going to be so amazing. First, I get to learn how Luna’s new armour works and now I can study changeling shapeshifting all in one day.” The excited pony decided to immediately gallop out of the room at that. “Some new tools will need calibrating,” were the final words I caught escaping her mouth. At least she isn’t freaked out by the giant bug.

From the way the 'lings face fell it was pretty clear she wasn’t keen on being a test subject herself. “Celestia, I was thinking that you may like some more insight into the economic systems of our hive. It may help you facilitate a beneficial deal for both our peoples.” Woooow, she sure changed her tune. What’s the matter princess, don’t ya want to be an experiment like me?

“I’ve got this covered,” Celestia absently said without even looking at her.

Not to be deterred from her escape attempt Skitter continued, “But Celestia, I’d just be a distraction from the real prize.” She gestured to me with a hoof, “Twilight can’t possibly find anything of worth if there’s two completely different research subjects.” She then smiled awkwardly showing way too much fang for a pony’s liking.

To the dismay of the expert diplomat, my good friend Loony had taken a sudden interest in her attendance. “Oh nonsense, thou shalt love Twilight’s experiments,” Luna began before her magic aura surrounded the 'ling, “Thou would not wish to disappoint her with thy absence, nay?”

Without wasting anytime, my friend proceeded to wander after Twilight with a wide grin. “Come along Eclipse, we are awaited.” Fine I’m coming.

Celestias only response to our exit was a quick wave of the hoof before returning to her cake.

Author's Note

I didn't really have much free time to write, so it's a short chapter today. :)

Thanks Sebastian99 for editing this chapter.

17: Experiments

Chapter 17

“This is going to suck,” I couldn’t help grumbling out while plodding to my dreaded destination. Who would want to be poked and prodded? It’s against the natural order of things.

“I hear you,” came the glum agreement from the bug hovering slightly in front of me. She was currently floating against her will, surrounded by a blue aura of magic presumably to prevent her escape. Her holed legs kind off just hung below her, while her wings periodically buzzed pointlessly. Pretty sure she has the magic to escape that if she tried.

A few hoofsteps behind, Loony was just casually smiling at the defeated bug’s plight. Really wish these two would get along.

As we progressed further down the corridor, we started to pass various staff members and I’m pleased to say, only a few had the standard negative reaction. That being servants changing directions and guards becoming, well more guarded. Maybe after all this time ponies are starting to get used to me? They might even all be used to me and are just freaked out by the floating changeling.

Speaking of the changeling, she kind of appears a little more impassive about being carried by my friend, now that the regular ponies can see her. She even nodded to a few that held her gaze. “So, Skitter, are you enjoying your current method of travel?” Maybe a conversation would dull my growing concern for these tests.

For a moment, the floating bug appeared not to hear me, while she continued looking at the passing ponies. I was thinking about asking the question again, before she turned to me with a ghost of a smile, “not particularly, but I do have to represent changelings in a positive light. That means making some attempt to appear dignified.” She then turned to her captor and gave a quick wink, “Equestria is treating me to the height of luxury, as well; having one of their Princesses carry me where ever I need to go. Equestria sure is progressive.” At least she has a sense of humour.

However, the joke was not appreciated by the moon pony, who matched the smile but also narrowed her eyes, “'Tis our pleasure to ferry thou to thy destination, as it allows us to ensure thine arrival occurs in good time.”

Skitter just looked down slightly at that before returning to her smile and wave routine.

A short while later on our journey, a couple of ponies Skitter was very familiar walked past, not really minding their own business. “I told everyone there was giant bugs about, and did anypony believe me? Noooo.” Duster loudly proclaimed to her friend.

The other maid, Bucket, I think, replied in a quieter tone that was much more difficult to hear, “You sure did. Maybe you can convince Swift to tell you about her so-called secret mission.” These ponies are pretty nosy. Suppose it’s only natural to wonder where the weird creature came from.

“Every time I’ve asked her, she just changes the subject to something boring. It’s so annoying,” the earth pony continued complaining.

“Some ponies actually take their duties to the Princesses seriously,” the pegasus responded with a shrug of her wings.

“Hey! I’m a really hard worker,” were the final words I could make out, before the two were too far down the corridor behind us.

Skitter's reaction to the pair passing by was pretty interesting. She quickly covered her face with her hooves and tried to point her head away as best she could. Seeing as her disguise is modelled after her actual self, she’s probably worried her friends might recognise her. Maybe one day she’ll actually tell them who she is? Would that cause the ponies to reject her? I really hope not.

Eventually, the three of us made it to a part of the castle I had yet to visit. Really need to explore this place some more. Within this new corridor, there was just one room with a door that looked like any other from the outside.

“Here we are,” Luna proclaimed suddenly, “Eclipse will thou do the honours? We are currently laden.” As if to emphasize the point, the buggy cargo was bobbed up and down a couple of times. I’m fairly certain Loony can levitate multiple things at the same time.

The bug in question finally decided to show a little indignation and flayed her legs around a little, “I could have walked you know.”

In response Loony leaned in close to the changeling, “Thou may hast attempted to abandon our joint venture.” She then tilted her head in my direction, “We believe that would have immensely disappointed our precious advisor.”

I’m fairly certain she’s just trying to irritate Skitter as much as ponily possible. Nevertheless, I’m actually pretty happy the love bug came, even if it was against her will. The more friend back up, the better.

My only outward response was a light sigh before moving to open the mundane door. Wonder if this is just a more extensive library?

After swinging the door open with my mist, I was greeted with an unexpected sight. An unnaturally advanced lab with various machines, each individually buzzing and whirring away. Wow! Why do the ponies have such simple homes if they’re this advanced? Maybe they just like the simple life. On instinct, I let out a whistle of appreciation. Not knowing I could do that, I said, “Well this seems interesting.” I've got to show them how cool their tech is to me, somehow.

Once I’d taken a few steps inside, the unmistakable sound of four hooves simultaneously hitting the ground occurred to my left. From the way my newly freed ally looked around the room and focused upon some pointy needles, it was pretty clear what she thought, “This isn’t some form of pony torture chamber, by chance?” She said with the slightest bit of forced mirth. Suppose it’s best to pretend you aren’t scared.

Luna responded from my right with a slight laugh, “Alas, nay, We wish that our sister would allow for such a room, but apparently 'tis too barbaric.” She emphasized the final words using her hooves for air quotes. Those kinds of complaints sometimes make me worry about her.

With Luna’s apparently reassuring words, the bug took one final look at the door, which Luna happened to be slowly closing behind us, before deciding to just bear with the situation and sit at one of the tables positioned within the room’s centre. The blue pony gave me a sly wink before walking over to take a seat near the changeling.

I just decided to avoid whatever Luna was going to do to further annoy the bug and wandered over to have a look at some of the fancy lab equipment. Among the equipment was a large assortment of various bottles with interesting labels like Sodium Hydroxide and Peroxide. Really hope Twilight isn’t going to use any of these chemicals on me.

After poking a few more bottles, something occurred to me. “Erm, wasn’t Twilight supposed to be here already?” I asked the rooms occupants, who both quickly looked at each other. Seeing their confused looks gave me an idea, “If she’s not ready, maybe we can go and do something else?” Maybe we can escape and it’ll be everybody’s fault no experiments were done.

Seeing her own get out of jail free card, Skitter decided to assist me, “It does seem like she has a lot of work on her plate. Maybe she forgot about us?” There is no way she would forget, but here’s hoping.

It was pretty clear from Luna’s expression that she didn’t believe either of our suggestions, “This does not make any sense. From our experience, the Element of Magic is always punctual to events such as this.”

At the conclusion of Luna’s words, a loud crash was heard from a storage chamber at the back of the room. “Ah, We believe We know where she has gone,” Luna spoke gleefully. Hopefully that was just a large mouse. From the wilting ears of my fellow test subject, the outcome was not looking good.

Upon opening the door, we could all clearly see a fairly interesting sight. A purple unicorn was franticly trying to pick up a large quantity of broken glass with her magic. From the way she was sticking out her tongue and staring intently, it probably took a large amount of concentration. Concentration which immediately broke when the door fully opened and banged into the wall.

“Oh, Princess! You're early,” Twilight exclaimed, while dropping the glass to floor, immediately forgotten. “I was just trying to ensure everything was perfect for your arrival.” It was then that she looked back at her large mess, quickly thought through her options and apparently decided the best thing to do was leave the store room and close the door.

Luna just seemed happy to see the unicorn was present and casually replied, “Everything does appear to be in order.” Well, if we can’t see it, the mess doesn’t exist.

The purple pony seemed to take Loony’s words as a complement, and decided to show off a clipboard with numerous ticked off points. “I was just trying to triple check everything, just in case.” Really wish she’d gotten distracted for another ten minutes, I’d have been so out of here.

“Thy thoroughness and attention to detail are very impressive. We are certain that our friend is in perfectly safe hooves.” She said that last part while looking directly at me. I get the message, you think Twi won’t melt me with acid. There is no need to spell it out.

Not noticing Luna’s apparently subtle message, Twilight appeared to blush slightly before quickly pulling out a second clipboard from one of the shelves. How many of them does she have? She then went on to say, “Since my prep sheet has already been filled in twice, I guess it’s time to move on to the experiment checklist.”

With that, she began to read through her new checklist. Luna and I exchanged a look, before deciding to take a seat to better view the studious unicorn's eyes as they raced back and forth across the page.

Once an apparently acceptable amount of the checklist had been read through, Twilight nodded to herself before wandering up to a chalk board positioned in front of our tables. She cleared her throat, “Before we begin testing, I shall be informing you all of the reasons for these tests.” She then turned around and grabbed a piece of chalk. Is this like a presentation to a school class or something? Suppose we are hoping to learn stuff, but this feels a little condescending.

Before Celestia’s faithful student-turned-teacher continued, Luna leaned over to me, “Eclipse, isn’t this exciting?” She must have loved school, I really thought Celestia was the academic one. It might be that she’s only interested in the subject matter, who could tell?

In response to her question, the politest thing I could think to say that wasn’t a lie, was “Maybe.” Internally, I was wishing we’d gone back for a second dinner.

Luna just cocked her head at that, but luckily before she could question my meaning, Twilight continued her presentation, “Okay, so today we will be conducting tests for the following reasons.” She began pointing her chalk at the words she’d written, “To find out what the armour’s made of, understand how it works, if it can be replicated, how to defeat it’s threatening abilities and what possible applications it could be useful.” She then turned to us and gestured to our group with the chalk, “Any questions?”

I have one burning question, “So did Celestia ask you to test for all those options?” Really couldn’t help looking at the last three. It would suck if Celestia planned to make more of me to use as tools for her guards, and does she really want to find my weaknesses?

Our teacher just blinked at me for a moment and held the chalk to her chin before slowly saying, “Not in so many words.” She then began looking at her checklist. Well, that’s a terrible answer. I suppose it’s every presenter’s nightmare to have someone ask a question at this point.

My blue furred friend decided to clarify Twilight's words with a warm smile and a wing over my back, “All our sister said was to see what she could find out about our newest friend.” Well, that’s a relief. If I could smile back at her, I would. Not having a face sucks.

A gasp suddenly left the purple unicorn, distracting me from my friend, “I almost forgot.” At that a sheet of paper shot out from her clipboard and floated within hoofs reach of Loony.

Seeing this as a prompt, Luna grabbed the sheet in her hooves before appearing puzzled, “Pray tell, what is this?”

After Luna began reading the paperwork, Twilight let out a breath, before explaining, “Celestia said I needed ensure I had your consent for my experiments. So, I’ve wrote out a contract for you to sign.” Well, this doesn’t seem fair.

Luna seemed to agree with my sentiment as her warm smile she’d been wearing since Twilight started to look strained, “We believe thou meant for Eclipse's consent.” She then purposefully hoofed me the document.

“Thanks Loony,” was all I could think to say before taking the paper in my mist and beginning to read. Really glad someone thinks I matter.

So, let’s see ‘permission to carry out all required forms of NDT’, that seems fine non-destructive testing never hurt anyone. ‘Permission to take minor samples’ doesn’t bode too well, it wouldn’t be great if a piece of me went missing. Oh dear, this last one is just her get out of jail free card. ‘Twilight Sparkle is not liable in the case of any permanent damage or impairment of the armour’.

“Erm, Twilight, I have concerns about the 107th point,” I began while placing the contract on the table. From her immediate reaction, it was obvious she knew what I was going to say, “Could the tests really damage me in such a way?”

The pony in question stared in my direction for a moment, clearly thinking of a response, “That’s just in there as a technicality. My tests should be perfectly safe.”

Skitter finally decided to say something about this awful contract, “Huh, emphasis on the should.” Ha! this is why you kidnap your friends!

Seeing the potential for no signature, the purple unicorn looked to Luna with the special pony puppy dog eyes, “Princess, you’re okay with my testing methods, aren’t you?” Hey! I’m the one signing this. Besides, Luna should be immune to your charms, she’s one of you.

At that we all turned to look at Luna. Seeing as she’s a princess, she was perfectly fine with suddenly becoming the centre of attention, quickly deciding to allay everyone’s concerns, “Now, now, young Twilight is our sister’s resident expert on both magic and friendship. She would never do anything that would lead to the harm of another being.” So, turning traitor I see. Her traitorous, disarming face kind of just bore into me.

Well, both my friends will look after me so, “Okay, if Luna wants me, to sign the papers, I will.” With my proclamation, Twilight began taking notes on her clipboard while I had a new problem, “erm, Twilight, can I have a pen?”

The pony in question blatantly ignored me while using a feather to write her notes and muttering, “Follows owners orders.” Dammit Twilight.

“Art thou searching for a writing implement?” Luna asked with an inquisitive look upon her face.

“Yeah,” I responded promptly. Maybe there’s some in one of the drawers?

Luckily, it seemed that Luna had my back, as after a moment of thought she lit up, “Oh, We shall provide thee with a quill. One moment.” Huh, its handy that she carries a pen. Where would she keep that?

In answer to my question, my blue furred friend ignited her horn, while simultaneously extending one of her wings. After a moment, she made a slight grunt of pain and an individual dark blue feather appeared in front of her. Are those supposed to come out? Seems Skitter was wincing at the action. Loony probably knows what she’s doing, so I’d best not interfere. She appeared to concentrate on her removed part for a moment and a slight flash occurred, likely meaning a spell was cast, before the feather floated in front of my faceplate.

“Here thou art,” my friend stated, breaking me out of my stupor long enough to grab her severed appendage in my mist.

I couldn’t help giving the feather a cursory examination, half expecting some blood to be leaking out of it. Do feathers have blood inside? How do birds, I mean ponies work?

Somehow, my puzzlement must have come through to my friend, as she decided to clear the air, “We have enchanted this quill for thy purposes.”

Does that mean this produces its own ink? Eager to try out the new toy, despite its horrific origin, I applied it to the page and, to my delight, ink began to flow. Well, nothing more to do now than sign the name Loony gave me. That’s a nice thought.

Once my first ever effort in penmanship with mist had been successful, I looked back to my friend who appeared to be licking the spot she’d damaged. Using my mist, I levitated over the feather. Hopefully she can just put this back.

When my slightly inconvenienced friend noticed me looking, she immediately folded her wing away and looked slightly embarrassed. That entertaining face however didn’t remain long when she saw me trying to return her lost part.

At her apparent newfound sadness, my mist quickly pulled the feather back to me and I looked to the room for advice.

Twilight still appeared to be taking notes, “Doesn’t understand pony concepts of gift giving and ownership.” Hey, I know how to give gifts. Ask Celestia about that cake. They also pay me real money, I think. Never actually spent any now that I think about it.

Seeing as she was no help, I turned to the hopefully much more reliable source of Skitter. She appeared very interested in my awkward social interaction, having both her ears fully pricked in my direction. Once she had my attention, the ‘ling tried to whisper aid, “Eclipse that’s supposed to go behind your ear.”

With that I inspected the feather again. Why would a feather go behind the ear? And come to think of it, that’s a bit of a problem. “Erm, I don’t have any ears.”

My buggy friend just rolled her slitted eyes at that and pushed the feather to the side of my helmet with a hoof, “Then make a way to hold it.” With my mist? Okay, I get it, it’s obvious what she wants to do. Quickly a discreet slot appeared on the side of my helmet allowing me to slot the feather without a risk of it falling out. If Loony wants me to wear it, then I will.

Well, best acknowledge the gift I have no concept that I now own, “Cheers Loony.”

Upon seeing my new adornment, my friend rewarded me with a friendly nuzzle, before, for the first time ever, giving a genuine smile and a nod to the bug in the room. Seems our whispering wasn’t very private. It was pretty blatant really; Loony is sat next to me. Skitter just happily returned the nod and both beings returned their attention to the room’s smallest occupant.

Luna then cleared her throat to get the annoyance's attention, “Twilight, it does appear that our resident armour is prepared to receive thy tests.” Oh Luna, did you have to reawaken the beast. I’d almost forgotten what the feather was used to sign.

The pony in question finally stopped taking notes on my social faux pas and eagerly levitated the contract to herself. After reviewing my signature with a critical eye, she checked a box on her checklist, “That should keep the Princess happy.” She then moved to sit directly opposite me with a bright smile, “Let’s start out with the most straight forward test. Simply questioning the subject. Okay, so, first question. Eclipse, what is it that you consume?”

Okay, this doesn't seem so bad, "Well, I like a lot of the foods I've tried around here, but my favourite is probably meat related food, like bacon. I’ve been pretty lucky that Luna has been willing to share with me.” Gotta mention your friend's contributions.

When I’d finished Twilight cast a questioning eye to Luna, which caused her to quite loudly respond, “We only consumed fake meat produced for foreign diplomats.” Well except for that one time in Griffonia.

“Okay. Back to your method of sustaining yourself. Do you depend on others to eat food?” Came the next question directed towards me.

“Well, eating food is more kind of just for entertainment I suppose. Magic is what keeps me running and I don’t really need anyone else for that.” Thanks to my statue and poison Joke farm. After a moment’s thought I added, “In fact, I tend to give magic to my wearer when they need it.”

From my right, Skitter decided to ask a question of her own, “So are you willing to share food with any of your friends?”

She’s probably referring to herself there. Heh, why wouldn’t I be willing to share with her? Her emotion feeding actually gives me magic and, not to mention, tastes pretty good. “Yeah, of course, and yeah, you are included in that.”

Twilight definitely isn’t though, as she began taking more notes. “Armour may have multiple users, answers questions when prompted to the best of its ability.” This is getting old real fast.

With just a slight bit of hesitation, the bug smiled and slightly opened her mouth, causing a thin pink mist to separate from my form. Huh, was not expecting that. After just a second, the flow stopped and Skitter smiled, “I’m glad to see you care.” Thought she said she wasn’t hungry at dinner?

Off to my left, Loony just looked between the two of us with minor concern, “We are not sure Eclipse meant for thou to eat a part of them.”

Before the royal bug could start looking too guilty, I opened my metaphorical mouth, “It's fine, really, I didn’t actually feel anything.” Wonder if that’s what it’s like for everyone she takes love from? More importantly, does that mean I actually produce love? If so, I’m happy for any points towards being a real person.

My positive reaction seemed to lift the bug's spirits and she even casually put a hoof on my pauldron, “It would probably mean a lot to my people if you came back to our hive. Your presence might actually solve a lot of our food related problems.” Is she trying to convince me to move in? Her fellow changelings might actually eat me whole.

The Night did not seem to appreciate that idea and casually pushed Skitter’s hoof away with a wing before pulling my chair slightly closer, “We believe they are happy with their current living arrangement.”

Luna seemed to bore her pretty light blue eyes into the changeling after that, causing the bug to turn away from me, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep my bounds.”

To alleviate my furred friend’s possible worries, I said, “Doubt it would be possible for me to feed thousands of bugs I barely know anyway.” They might actually eat me in totality. Not to mention how their Queen wanted to use me as a weapon. No, going there isn’t the greatest idea.

Once a few more notes had been taken, a hmmm sound escaped the purple irritant, “That makes me curious of the armour's magical capacity.” She began tapping her quill on her face, “Maybe determining it’s composition will enlighten us.” The unicorn then looked to Skitter, “We could determine if it could feed your entire race or just one bug.” With new found excitement she jumped from her chair and rushed to a machine immediately starting to fiddle with its various dials, “Eclipse, could you come over here?”

Things are moving a little fast for me, weren’t we at the asking questions parts? I’ve only been asked one. With that thought, I left the safety of my friend sandwich and approached Twilights very nasty looking machine. Does it really need all those sharp needles and drill like parts?

“Just before we move away from the questions, I have one based on my earlier observations,” the purple pony said while fiddling with some sort of clamp.

“Well shoot,” I’m up for more questions if it means delaying that mechanical monstrosity.

“You seem very loyal to Princess Luna. Is that because she’s your designated master?” She asked without looking in my direction.

My only reaction was to shrug my misty wings, “Well she is the Princess of this nation and she gave me a job, so, technically?” This is playing off of the, ‘follows orders’ thing she wrote earlier, isn’t it? I’m not a robot Twilight.

After a moment, the nuisance finished fiddling with the machine and made one final note, “I thought that was true. Wonder how she was assigned?” Because she hired me. “Anyway, let’s move on to the material test. Eclipse, could you place your right fore shoe onto the circular platform?” She said that with a bright smile, clearly hiding her evil intent.

There was a small pedestal in the centre of the pony torture machine, surrounded by the pointy components. Oh joy, I can’t wait to see what’s about to happen. With the lack of complaints from my friends, I decided to follow Twilight’s instructions, carefully placing my shoe where she directed. “Like this?” The nervous tone my voice had taken couldn’t really be helped. Especially with that point just centimetres above my shoe.

My potential torturer inspected my shoe's position and nodded, before turning a crank that clamped it in place. She then began flicking some switches causing the machine to make a whirring sound.

“Erm, this isn’t going to hurt, is it?” I really want nothing more than to rip my shoe out of this thing. If it wasn’t clamped down my reflexes probably would have already removed it.

Seeing my apprehension, Luna again decided to try and placate my worries, “Thou must understand that our sister’s faithful student would never bring undue harm to anypony. Right Twilight?” She said that last part while gesturing to the fastidiously working pony.

The pony in question actually stopped her ministrations and thought for a moment, “To be honest, I don’t know. The armour could react in a number of ways from our sampling.” Oh, that last word doesn’t sound good. Is she going to cut bits of me off? A slight creaking sound started to come from the clamp as I began failing to move my shoe.

Before I could voice my not so new found concern, Loony changed her tune and calmly said, “Maybe a less intrusive form of testing would be pertinent? Eclipse doesn’t appear comfortable with thy plans.”

I’m grateful she’s on my team, honest, but it would help if she spoke up thirty seconds earlier. She only really voiced her concerns right at the moment Twilights implement of torture descended. Said spike pressed firmly against my shoe before I felt a crack.

Immediately, there was an incredible spike of pain not too dissimilar in quality to the time Celestia cut off a piece of my mist. It was just about five times as severe, so in other words it smarted quite a bit. The moment it occurred, I wanted nothing more than to throw this terrible machine at my tormentor and scream at the top of my not lungs. Luckily for her, the sensation only lasted for a split second, resulting in the much more controlled outward reaction of me merely saying, “Ow.”

When I looked back to my blue furred friend, she appeared to be trying to force a smile and spoke through gritted teeth, “See, that wasn’t so bad was it?”

“Well, I won’t be volunteering for that again,” was all I could think to say. When Luna’s ears began to wilt, I decided to try and cheer her up, “Suppose it was just like a bee sting for you.” From a very angry bee the size of your head. That at least improved her reaction to failing to stop my defacement.

Off to the side of the machine, Twilight blissfully unaware of our conversation was reviewing whatever data was gathered from stabbing me. “Hmm, the material has quite a significant hardness. The only comparable metal appears to be adamantium, but it’s much lighter.” She spoke to no one in particular.

After another button press from the pony, a light lit up on the machine and I felt the gentle presence of ambient magic flowing into me. Well, this tastes pretty bland.

Whatever she was doing seemed to satisfy her as she turned off the machine before taking more notes mentioning, “The armour appears to absorb magic at an incredible rate. Even higher than any known equivalent magic storing materials. That probably makes sense due to the enchantability.”

She then turned to the audience, putting her back to me. “Well, this material's discovery could be revolutionary. At first, I thought it was going to be an alloy of Runite and maybe titanium, but that material’s traits would likely never match up to this. It’s entirely likely that we are dealing with a completely undiscovered material.”

Twilight then turned to her machine a little dejected and continued, “Way more extensive tests will be needed to try and replicate it, sadly we probably don’t have the equipment ready for that.”

Thank goodness for that. I decided to ask, “Erm, Twilight, can my shoe be removed yet?” Hopefully the test is over now.

The moment I spoke, she spun around and just stared at me for a moment. It kinda felt like she’d forgotten my presence behind her. After she looked at my shoe on the machine she nonchalantly said, “Of course, I finished the last test a few minutes ago.” So, I’ve just been stood awkwardly like a lemon for no reason? Great. At least she had the decency to untighten the crank, thus allowing me to easily remove my shoe.

As soon as freedom was gained, I decided to review the damage, holding up my shoe. Through the centre, a very clear hole about the size of a bit had been punched. Wow that’s quite big, at least the metal looks like it’s healing. Black mist was coming from the edges around the hole and gradually replacing what was lost.

While being a relief for me at lacking permanent damage, it was another exciting discovery for the purple menace. “Luna, look at that! Its self-repairing. That’s impossible, unless…” With that she moved over and stared straight through the hole, probably watching the process. It was pretty disconcerting for me, watching her eye disappear through my shoe.

Once the hole had completely disappeared, she decided to announce her newest theory, “It might be composed entirely of magic. Imagine being able to construct incredibly durable tools, without having to mine for materials.” Well, this is concerning. I don’t really want to be made of something so sought after, people might try to kidnap me. Hopefully, no one finds out who shouldn’t.

Speaking of people who probably shouldn’t find out about this, Skitter had a question about the test, “So does that mean her hoof's going to be ok?”

With that I held my shoe for her to more easily see. Before saying, “Good as new.” I think.

“Still looked like that hurt.”

After the changeling, who would never tell the other changelings about me spoke, Luna appeared to frown for some reason. Probably due to the fact they aren’t yet getting on. She then looked to me awkwardly before asking her own question, “Eclipse, We are curious about something if thou dost not mind us asking.”

“Sure, now seems like the time to ask me questions,” I quickly responded. My friends can ask me anything. It hurts way less than stabbing me.

When I answered in the affirmative, Luna appeared to become a little embarrassed and her face started to redden. “We were just curious about what thou art in terms of, ahem, appropriate pronouns?” she finished with an awkward smile.

In response I just tilted my head. Appropriate pronouns? What’s that supposed to mean? Whatever it means, it appears to be an awkward subject for the pegacorn.

After a moment of becoming even redder at my confusion, she coughed into a hoof lightly and then found her words again, “Well thou must see that a being such as thou hast certain qualities that make ascertaining thy, erm, gender difficult.” Suppose my voice is pretty weird.

Before I could answer the given question, Twilight nonchalantly interrupted, “Well Princess, you can clearly see the armour lacks any sense of flesh and blood. Not only that but the armour was likely produced by some ancient expert artisan meaning it can’t reproduce on it’s own. This means that its clearly neither.” Does she have to butt in on this?

Seeing how the question was apparently directed to the floor, Skitter gave her two bits, “Surely she’s a she. Just look at that form, she’s clearly built for a mare.” At least she didn’t say it, like somebody.

At her words I began looking over myself. Hmmm, maybe modifying myself to fit Luna wasn’t the best idea. It might be best to take a closer look at a few stallions. Maybe Shining Armor would be up for it? But then I wouldn’t fit Loony properly and she does kinda like using me.

With that I simply looked down before sighing, “Look, I don’t have any equipment down there, so just call me whatever you thinks best. As long as it isn’t 'it'. 'It' just feels degrading.” Sadly, if I tell people to call me, he, they’ll still probably get confused.

Luna just smiled at that before politely saying, “We believe that he would suit thou.” Heh, at least Loony gets me.

As soon as Luna finished, Skitter quickly blurted, “Seriously, they look nothing like a he. Besides would you really want your armour to be considered male?”

Before an argument could sprout between the two mares, our class room teacher/torturer intervened, “This seems like an irrelevant line of questioning. We already know the facts, so we should move on to something productive. I’m willing to take your contributions, hmm.”

After our teacher laid down the law, silence reigned long enough to allow a palpable tension that no one wanted to break to form. Seems no one really had anything else productive to add, or maybe the irritable Twilight even made one of Equestria’s rulers nervous. who could say?

The tension was finally broken by the bug in the room, who’d came up with what she probably thought was a productive question to ask me, “So, Eclipse, can you take other forms than armour?”

Well, this has a pretty obvious answer seeing as she saw me change, but it's better than being stuck in silence any longer. So, instead of responding sarcastically, I responded politely, "Well, I've done a suit and two dresses, if that's what you're after."

Sensing the waning tension, Luna suddenly brightened up and asked, “We believe she is asking thou, if thy form can be moulded into other objects of a completely different nature.” She then started to look around the room, as if looking for inspiration for what to say before continuing, “Like maybe a sword or something?”

Huh, and I thought the ‘ling was just clutching at straws. “That seems pretty simple, give me a second,” I said while again lifting my once damaged shoe Infront of me. A sword is just a flat piece of sharp metal, right? This should be easy if it’s possible.

With that thought, a line of black mist shot out of my raised shoe and steadily formed into said piece of metal. Steadily I made it thinner and pointier, until what I would consider a standard one meter sword, having no knowledge of the weapon whatsoever, was sticking out of the end of my shoe.

Before I could turn to Luna and ask about the sword's quality, the sound of rapid hoof beats put me muzzle to faceplate with a fiercely grinning Loony. “Erm, how’s this?” Was all I could think to say.

She longingly looked at my new weapon for a moment before asking, “Can I give it a try?”

Why wouldn’t I let her swing around a sharp implement that she could hurt herself or others with? After failing to come up with a reason to deny my friend, I held up my bladed shoe before saying, “Sure, don’t poke yourself though.”

This answer rewarded me with a happy squeaking sound that likely no living pony has ever witnessed the Moon produce, as she quickly threw her own right fore shoe away in favour of my improved one. Once the blade was equipped, she marvelled for a moment before settling to swinging the blade in what I assume are practiced poses. Due to her excitement, she even cut a few chairs in half.

After a few swings, the gap between the two of us began to increase, leading to the familiar sensation of being dragged across the room. Rather than complain, I decided to just follow along behind her in order to allow her fun to continue, much to the chagrin of the other occupants, who’d settled on hiding behind their tables. Ah well, my blue fluffball will tire herself out eventually.

With another few swings, Loony nodded to herself before removing my shoe and hoofing it back. She then decided to review my performance, “We believe thy sword smithing skills require some minor work to balance the blade as it feels almost weightless, but 'tis clearly unmatched in terms of cutting and durability.”

“Hey, it was my first try,” was my response. It’s pretty unfair to review someone’s ability at something they’ve never done before. After reshaping the blade back into mist, I continued, “Next time I’ll copy an actual sword.”

“Huzzah! Thou can copy our royal armament,”

From the furious scribbling going on behind our path of destruction, Twilight found my sword manufacturing acceptable. “Amazing! The armour can actually be used to make any number of tools it understands the form of. This could be amazing! It’s, I mean they’re, practically an all-purpose tool when the proper instructions are given.” That is a pretty interesting observation. Wonder what else I can make?

In answer to that thought, my buggy friend poked her head up from behind a somehow overturned table. After steadily straightening her helmet, she decided to clarify her earlier question, “Well, that was a pretty, erm explosive display, but not what I had in mind. I meant; can you turn into a pony?”

“To be honest, I’ve only really tried to make a new form for myself once,” I considered. Back in that ruined castle, when I’d never seen a pony before. That was kind of where the full plate armour came from. “Maybe it’s worth a try?” I asked myself more than those present.

“We would love to see what thou comes up with,” Luna responded, “Thine designs have been most agreeable so far.”

Seeing nods of affirmation from everyone inspired me to give it a try. With that, I subconsciously stared at Loony in attempt to more accurately gauge what a pony should look like. She appeared to understand what I was doing, giving me a quick wink before turning her head and saying, “Be sure to get our good side.” Well, this isn’t going to be as good as a camera Loony. I’m only after the vague shape.

Ok, so let’s just get started. Ponies have a lot of fur, so let’s try and copy that first. This resulted in many thin strands appearing across my plates. Wow, that’s a lot of tiny details, now skin maybe? How did I make the cloth again? It’s just the same right? As the thin sheet surrounded me, I began to lose structural integrity, like when I became the dress. Okay, soft material needs support, like bones, duh. It’s a real shame I can’t see underneath Luna’s skin. Maybe she’d let me check with my mist in future? Having no clue as to a pony's Skeletal structure, I hazarded the best guess I could. Hopefully it wouldn’t matter. Oh, this is a nightmare, I haven’t even gotten to the horrible squishy organs and eyeballs yet.

Seeing as this was taking me a while, I decided to take a look at what my audience was doing, which sadly was a mistake. Luna’s beautiful blue fur appeared to be turning very pale, while Twilight had gone very green and appeared pretty sick.

The only one seemingly unaffected was the bug, who was staring at me with rapt attention. When I caught her eye, she decided to make a comment on behalf of the other two, “You know, in all my years in Equestria, I’m proud to say I’ve never seen a pony turned inside out before.”

Seeing the broken silence, Twilight looked away with her hooves covering her eyes and wailed, “I’m going to be seeing this in my sleep for weeks.”

“We shall ensure thy dreams are not upsetting Twilight,” The now light blue pony reassured.

Skitter then decided to make her own request, “Would you be able to visit mine as well?” Resulting in the changeling gaining an unexpected nod from the pegacorn.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, causing me to break from my concentration and review my creation. What I beheld was nothing less than some sort of demon with skin missing in many places leaving clear sight lines to the bones. Seems there’s just too many moving small complicated details. I still decided to pointlessly ask, “Is it really that bad?” What am I saying? Of course it is.

“We believe it would be best for thou to return to thine original form. It is much more palatable,” Luna finished diplomatically. Basically, meaning that I’m normally not as ugly. Well, I don’t need to be told twice. With that, my normal metallic self reformed as fast as I could, to the likely welcome delight of all.

“It’ll probably make you all happy to know I’m never going to do that again, ever,” I said dejectedly. Ruining my friend’s, and Twilight’s, evening isn’t really a part of my ideal activity.

Skitter decided to try reassuring me, “Look, you don’t need to give up. You just need to practice copying a pony’s magic signature.” Magic signature? Is that the glowing aura everyone emits? Before I could give voice to my question the bug said, “Just watch.”

Flames gathered around her form, quickly washing it away to leave behind a glowing green copy of Luna. The green glow really ruins the disguise, but I get it. She then began moving her fore hooves around flamboyantly, gesturing to the sky as she spoke, “We decree that all ponies bed times shall be extended by two hours so they can enjoy the big rock We created.” The disguised bug then turned to Loony with a smile. It’s a shame she didn’t find the impression as amusing as me.

Rather than voice outrage like expected, Loony instead began complementing Skitter’s skills, “Thy disguise is quite impressive.” Seems Luna is actually trying to get on the bug’s good side. “However, We believe thine acting requires work. We would never refer to our moon as some benign rock. 'Tis also untrue that We created the moon. It existed long before We became its warden,” Luna continued, professionally reviewing the disguise before making a final suggestion with a wide grin, “Mayhaps thou would consider practicing thine acting with Eclipse? He has proven quite adept at fooling those closest to his disguises.”

“I’ll be sure to take notes,” Luna’s duplicate responded more half-heartedly than expected.

Really don’t think my two times wearing a disguise count for much. Wait a second, is she suggesting I hang out with Skitter more often? Well, I’m glad they are warming up to each other.

Before I could confirm my desire to practice with the shapeshifter, Twilight decided to worsen someone else’s mood for a change, “Those changeling abilities sure are impressive. Once I’ve finished with the armour, you can demonstrate them under lab conditions.”

At Twilights comment, Luna’s clone visibly gulped before the room was again lit up by green flame, resulting in a resigned bug once again joining us.

After ruining my friend’s mood, the pest turned back to me with a glowing horn, “So, Eclipse, I’m going to try and find your enchantment. It may be possible for me to draw a copy.” With that the unicorn’s purple aura descended upon me. Wish she’d at least ask before doing whatever she likes.

“We believe thou art very enchanting, my armoured friend,” Luna said in a low voice, while giving me a wink. She then started to laugh to herself.

I couldn’t help but respond sharply to that, “I may have enchanted both you and Skitter in the past, but I’m more than just a mere enchantment.” Really hoped she thought more of me than that.

Luna appeared to blanch at my response before stuttering, “It-it was supposed to be a compliment.” I’d prefer it if she saw me as a person. Well, maybe after Twilight’s test, everyone will.

Instead of continuing my conversation with the apologetic pegacorn, I turned my attention to the unicorn’s test. Whatever she was doing appeared to be causing her quite a bit of strain, considering her scrunched up eyes and brightly glowing horn. At least it’s giving me a tasty snack.

After a minute of providing me a snack, Twilight’s horn winked out and she let out a few gasps for breath, “Phew, this is going to be more difficult than I thought. That inbuilt magic absorption sure is effective.”

“At least your magic taste’s pretty good,” I said with undisguised mirth.

“Oh, that was my pleasure, but could you not eat my spell please?” she began in a strained tone, “While you’re at it, can you stand still? That should make this muuuch easier.”

I just nodded in response. Getting a little revenge on the unicorn was fun, but the sooner she finishes, the sooner everyone can be on their way.

With my affirmation, the unicorn's horn relit once again. This time I focused on not eating the delicious magic and instead allowed it to wash over me. Immediately, the nice taste was replaced with a strange itching sensation that permeated not just my armour, but the entirety of my mist. Huh, never had an itch without flesh and blood before.
After a few more moments, the itching started to give way to a sort of ominous pressure pushing in from all sides. “Erm, Twilight, I’m not sure if I like this.” I said calmly.

“It’s just a scan, just think about something else,” said Twilight using her best bed side manner.

“It feels wrong letting magic affect me.”

As the scan continued, so did the pressure increase until it became almost impossible to move. Not only my armoured limbs but my mist had become almost frozen in the air. When I attempted to again voice my concerns, instead of hearing my ethereal voice, I was met with a strange metallic scraping sound. Hopefully that fixes itself when she gives up.

Sadly, Twilight didn’t give up and discovered something I hoped she wouldn’t, “hmmm, I think I might have found the enchantment. Huh, never seen anything like this before. Just stay still while I examine it.” Like I have any other choice and I really hope that she’s mistaken about me being an enchantment.

Okay, this is actually starting to ache a bit now. Are you nearly finished or what? In the corner of my eye holes, I could see the unicorn taking more notes, same as before. Great, she can take notes and keep the spell going. That’s just wonderful.

After watching the studious unicorn take notes for what felt like hours, a holed hoof suddenly appeared in front of me and began waving up and down, before a familiar voice started, “Are they ok? She hasn’t moved or said anything in ages.” Huh, I never heard Skitter wander over.

Twilight barely looked up from her notes before saying, “What? Of course they are, it’s just a scan. Remember I asked them to stand still.”

Skitter’s head suddenly came into view from the side peering directly into my faceplate, “Well they’re taking this whole statue thing to a whole other level.”

“Ok, that’s everything a scan alone can teach me,” Twilight finally said. Oh, finally it’s over. “The next step would be to attempt to extract the matrix.” Awww, not more samples.

“We must protest thy plans. If proper measures aren’t taken, permanent damage could occur to our friend’s mind,” came Luna’s words from off to my side somewhere. Wait really? Is the matrix an important part of enchantments?

“Princess, I know what I’m doing. We could potentially put the armour’s matrix back better than before.” Twilight insisted.

Loony appeared to become agitate, “That’s it, Twilight, We are putting our hoof down. As thy Princess, We forbid the action of extracting Eclipse's matrix. He has sat through enough of thy tests for one day and is deserving of a break.”

Pretty sure the words of the Princess would be enough to convince anyone to stop what they were doing. Sadly, the pressure was starting to get to me a little bit and I reacted before the unicorn could stop. I never lashed out or anything, just consumed all the magic around me as fast as possible, while instinctively hiding the entirety of my mist within my metal shell. The relief was amazing. Sadly, it also resulted in quite a large clanking sound, as I suddenly collapsed to the floor shocking everyone present.

“Huh, this is strange. I can’t seem to find the enchantment anymore,” Twilight said sounding slightly puzzled. At least her continued scanning is providing a snack again.

From somewhere in the room, I heard a chair fall over quickly followed up by some very rapid hoofsteps, “What dost thou mean, thou cannot find them?” The apparently worried pegacorn then began to nudge my helmet with the end of her muzzle.

“It’s just strange, the enchantment seemed to be spread throughout the entire armour and now there isn’t any trace,” Twilight reviewed with a confused look on her face. She then looked to Luna whose expression appeared to panic the smaller unicorn, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to break it.” Is she going to finish this scan soon or what?

“Break it!” Luna sounds pretty upset. Sadly, this caused her to ignite her own horn and begin scanning me. Oh no please don’t join in. Ah well, I prefer Luna’s magic to Twilight's anyway. The familiar taste is just that little more pleasant.

“When you say you’ve broken them, are you saying they’re…dead?” came Skitters worried words. I’m not dead, just hiding from way too much magic. Seems that if I don’t consume it all, it can be quite hazardous.

“Don’t worry, we still have the armour. I’m sure, given enough time, I can remake the enchantment,” Twilight said while backing away from the Moon Princess. Really can’t believe I’m just an enchantment.

At this point, Luna had picked up my helmet and was looking at my faceplate, “Well, that probably would not be the same individual, would it?” She said calmy without looking away. With that her horn finally winked out and the constant stream of magic stopped.

Does that mean it’s safe again? Well, no time like the present. “Hello, ah finally.” I said more to myself as my mist reformed.

The hooves holding my helmet suddenly unleashed quite a substantial crushing force, that probably wouldn’t be too healthy for a pony. “Thou art ok!?” Came my assaulter's delighted words.

“Well yeah, I was just hiding my mist from that magical assault. In the future, I'm just going to eat all of the magic that tries to affect me. That was awful.” Was my muffled response. “Erm, Loony, could you let go of my helmet.”

The crushing pressure suddenly relented, allowing my helmet to shoot back to my reassembling form. “Sorry friend, We were most concerned about thy wellbeing,” Luna said with some mild embarrassment.

“Well, this is another interesting discovery. When the mist is within its shell the enchantment is completely undetectable. Maybe that means the mist itself contains the entire enchantment? I’ve never seen a non-physical enchantment before,” Twilight appeared quite relieved at the prospect of taking notes once more and possibly avoiding Luna’s ire. Luna only gave the unicorn a mild look of irritation before returning to looking me over.

“So, is that the last test?” I asked hopefully.

“We believe it was. Thou need not go through anymore torments today,” Luna said, while looking at the half paying attention unicorn.

Once she’d realized what had been said, Twilight immediately complained, “What! But I never got to test the armour's functions.” This seemed to gather further irritation in my friends. Seems I’m going to be free. She has no power here.

“Out of curiosity, what functions did you want to test?” I couldn’t help making air quotes with my shoes at the word functions.

With that prompt, Twilight began reviewing her checklist, “There are so many things. For starters, how do we turn your enchantment on or off? You can clearly do that on your own.” Ooo, I wouldn’t want someone to put me to sleep. “How could somepony use your abilities without having to ask?” I prefer people to ask permission. “How to ensure your loyalty?” Provide a bed and periodic bacon. “What pony abilities can you manifest on your own? There’s just so many things I’ve yet to learn.” That last one has me curious.

“That list is pretty extensive. What makes you think I have any pony abilities at all?” I decided to ask, against my better judgment.

“Well, you do have wings and being an enchantment means unicorn magic might be built-in,” Twilight quickly said likely hoping for me to agree to more tests.

“From experience, We are aware our armour cannot fly,” Loony simply stated.

Well, this is embarrassing, “I’ve never had chance to learn. Maybe I can?” Or maybe my wings are just for show?

Needing no further prompting, Twilight quickly jumped at the opportunity, “I could do another test to see if it’s possible.” That grin is terrifying.

In response, I took the sensible measure of quickly moving behind Luna and gently requesting, “Don’t zap me again!!” Probably a little too loudly, but as long as my point was made.

Luckily for me, my pony shield was on my side, “Twilight, We have decreed no further testing is to be performed on Eclipse.”

“But we haven’t even figured out how to make them safe for you to use,” came Twilights desperate response. “What if it tries to possess you again? If we don’t figure out how to suppress it's unwanted abilities, who knows what could happen?”

“We believe thou hast no reason to mistrust our armour,” Luna calmly said before turning to me, “Eclipse, would thou be interested in attempting to learn with us, how to use thy wings?”

“Erm, sure.” I responded in an unsure tone. Hopefully she doesn’t mean right now, I’d prefer it if we went back to the library.

Likely feeling forgotten, Twilight continued clutching at straws, “I’ve prepared so many tests, what am I supposed to do now?” Sad pony eyes don’t work on other ponies.

Luna just grinned at that and tilted her head to the watching bug, “Thou hast another test subject that appears ready for thy probes.” Maybe we should just ban Twilight from her tests. I wouldn’t wish them on anyone, especially one of my friends.

At Luna’s suggestion, the unicorn’s eyes lit up with renewed hope as she turned her full attention to the bug in the room. In comparison, I’ve never seen someone’s face fall as quickly as Skitter's just did.

Seeing our adversary was now distracted with Luna’s sacrifice, my friend grabbed my chest plate in her forehooves and extended her wings.

“What are you doing?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“Why going flying of course,” Luna half laughed, while taking to the air within the lab and quickly darting out of the nearest window.

As I looked back through the window, I saw the panicked bug attempt to run for the window before it was shut with purple magic.

“Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made,” was all Loony said as we began flying higher into the air.

Author's Note

These are the fruits of my labour while infected with covid. Enjoy. :)

Thanks Sebastion99 for editing.

19: Lost Dreams

Chapter 19

Welp, glad night court is finally over. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with Loony, but that last stallion really could talk your helmet off about grain yields. There’s only so much of that an armour spirit can take before needing a lie-down.

As I opened my room’s door, I silently hoped my little bug problem had solved itself. Ah, of course it hasn’t. Sadly, as I looked at my bed, a familiar royal bug was splayed out under my favourite bed sheet. If she wasn’t in her buggy form, there’d definitely be enough room for me, but as it stands, she appeared to be spread out to take up as much of my bed as possible.

After sighing at my latest woe, I approached the bed and gently shook the bug. “Hey Skitter. Could you budge over?”

In response, her wings only lightly buzzed, before she continued to ignore me in her blissfully sleeping state. Can’t believe the Princesses haven’t sorted her a room yet. Wasn’t it Loony’s job to organise it?

“Come on love bug, you don’t want me to sleep on the floor, hmm?” I tried to pointlessly reason with the unconscious bug one final time.

Well, I’m not sleeping on the floor. With that thought, I turned away from Skitter and exited my own, personally assigned room, meant for my use only.

Walking with purpose, I crossed the hallway, and knocked probably a bit too harshly upon my favoured pegacorns door. I’m tired okay, everybody gets irritable when their sleep time is being interrupted. Especially me.

A loud thumping sound occurred immediately after my knocking, shortly followed up with some rapid hoof steps. Wonder what she’s doing?

After a quiet clinking sound and some muffled cursing, the moon pony’s door cracked open revealing a very stern expression. “Who dares disturb our…” Loony began in an irritable tone, before noticing me casually sitting outside. It seems I may have interrupted her own attempts at sleep. Whoops.

Upon seeing me, she let out a calming breath, “We thought thou were retiring for the remainder of the night?” Before she swung open the door, revealing the rest of her form. All she was wearing was one fore shoe on the leg she’d opened the door with and her crown. Peering past her revealed the rest of her regalia knocked wildly across the floor and her bed covers hanging off the bed. Seems Loony got ready in a hurry.

Seeing the annoyance I’d caused my friend, reduced the righteous irritation my earlier experience had brought out. “Sorry to disturb you Loony, but well, I’ve got a bit of a problem. I was hoping you could, maybe, help me out.” Maybe I should just go to sleep in my cupboard or something? Annoying her at breakfast might be better.

Rather than getting the polite refusal I was expecting, Loony stepped to the side of the rooms entrance and gestured inward with a wing. “What can We do for thee? Soothing thine issues is a priority of ours,” she asked in a considerably more welcoming tone than her initial greeting.

Taking the invitation, I hesitantly walked into my friends moon themed room, allowing Loony to close the door behind me. She then wondered back over to her bed and pounced back onto it, before looking in my direction.

Okay, time for the awkward question, “So Loony, ahem. Have you by chance, gotten around to sorting out Princess Skitter’s accommodation?” Well here goes accusing her of not doing her job.

In response, Loony groaned slightly, before resting her head on her pillow, “We will admit to have been putting it off slightly.” I thought she was. The for once tired night pony then yawned, “worry not, We will ensure our first insect friend will have a private room by tomorrow night. She has earned a reward after the aid she provided today.”

Pretty sure she means after being a valiant sacrifice. Still doesn’t solve my current issue. “That sounds all well and good for her, but, well she’s currently occupying my bed. Do you think it might be possible to speed along the process?”

That got my friend to lift up her head in curiosity, “Where hast thou been sleeping?”

“I may have let her borrow my bed last night by mistake. This led to me sleeping beside her maid self. She ended up with my duvet and pillow though.” It probably would have been best to complain to Skitty earlier when she was awake. She’d probably feel pretty guilty.

“That just won’t do. We are sorry our inaction led to such an occurrence,” Loony guiltily responded.

Well can’t leave her with droopy ears like that, “It was alright for one night. I just used one of your plushies as a pillow.”

“Aww, We forgot thou had them,” came the smiling response, before Loony put her one shoed hoof to her face in thought, “We shall provide thou with alternate housing.” She then noticed the shoe and casually dropped it off her bed with a clink. Suppose that’s just something for the maids to pick up in the morning, now they are finally doing their job anyway.

“Thanks Loony. I knew you’d sort me out.” Wonder if I’ll end up in the servant’s quarters? Hey, a bed’s a bed.

My friend then smiled lazily, before gesturing with one of her rear hooves. To my dismay, where she pointed, was the dreaded armour stand she suggested on my first night here.

“Seriously?” I’m not getting on that armour prison.

At my words Loony gave me a confused look, before looking at the source of my distaste, “Hmmm? Don’t be silly Eclipse, We were just stretching. We are well aware of thine aversion to such things.”

“Oh, good.” Was really worried for a moment. My armour had even started to droop towards the ground.

“Nay, we wish to offer a place upon our bed for thee. ‘Tis quite an honour, as We have yet to offer it to anypony else.” Loony said in a hopeful tone before lifting a wing in a welcoming gesture.

My first instinct was to say no. It wouldn’t really be fair for me to disturb my friend’s sleep like that. But then I hesitated. Last time I slept on a pony was pretty comfy and Loony’s fur is just the best. Won’t it be awkward though?

In the end I made my decision, “Sure, I can try sleeping on you if you’re up for it.”

“Yes, there is plenty of room for both our…” Loony began before realizing what I said, “Really? Thou art up for that? Huzzah! Beat that Celestia.” She raised a fore hoof with her proclamation.

Wait, is there enough room for us both? Her bed does seem pretty spacious and I can be quite small. “Maybe it would better for me to sleep beside you? There does seem to be plenty of room.” Just hope she doesn’t hog the duvet.

Loony just waved a hoof in front of her muzzle, “Nay, no takesy baksys. Thou appear to be much desired sleeping apparel.”

No takesy baksys? “You’ve been talking to Pinkie, haven’t you?”

She rolled her eyes playfully at that, before beckoning me over, “Come now, We know thou art up for this. There is no reason in delaying thy precious sleep any further. It could be fun to try this the one time.” She then shook her head to dislodge her tiara, before holding out her forelegs towards me.

Well, I was after a bed. Maybe this is an upgrade? With that I carefully placed myself upon my friends proffered form. Ah, she is quite fluffy.

With me fully donned, Loony decided to hug herself with her wings before tiredly saying, “thy form feels quite familiar to us now. We shall treasure this moment.”

Seeing as Loony had apparently made herself comfortable already, I used my mist to collect her dropped duvet and attempted to wrap her up snug like a familiar bug. The thought that my metallic form may be a bit uncomfortable for her did linger, but Loony didn’t appear to mind.

Once the duvet was applied, Loony sighed contently, “goodnight Eclipse. We shall hopefully greet thou in the dream realm.”

“Goodnight to you too. I’m here if you need me.” I returned the goodbye before Loony’s final comment made me wonder, “Erm Loony, what’s the dream realm?”

Sadly, no answer came, due to the night Princess’s incredible ability to fall asleep. Ah doesn’t matter, it can wait until morning. With that I nestled into my new pillows soft fur and attempted to go off to the void.

It took me a few pleasant minutes to escape from reality and enter my peaceful void. That isn’t quite as good as the master of sleep, but at least I can still feel her nearby.

Now that I think about it, it doesn’t just feel like one pegacorn is around here. In fact, the void feels way busier than normal. Steadily, it felt like my non-existent eyes were coming into focus, materialising a strange long corridor. This corridor was even stranger, because it didn’t just have one door for Loony, but many doors stretching as far as the eye holes could see.

So, is Loony behind one of these doors? The closest was a pink door with a picture of balloons in it’s centre. Quickly reforming my armour, I approached the door in question. Maybe all these doors represent a different part of Luna’s mind? I’ve never slept on a willing wearer before. Wait, scratch that. I slept on Skitter when she first arrived.

“Loony!” I decided to call out down the corridor just in case she could respond. After a minute of silence, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to open the weird pink door. Loony probably won’t mind a little peek.

Inside the door was an unexpected scene. Rather than there being anything recognizably Luna related, there was a large group of ponies within what appeared to be a cake store. I’ve definitely seen some of these ponies before. Curiosity again got the better of me and I steadily entered the strange void shop.

Not too long after I’d past the door’s threshold, a distant familiar voice began calling out, “Eclipse! Be careful! The dream realm is dangerous to the inexperienced!”

“Loony?” Immediately I spun around in an attempt to great my friend. What met me, was the closed door of the shop. Not to be deterred, I wandered over and used a shoe to carefully open the door. What was on the other side of the door however, was a strange blurry version of a pony town. The Pony Town if I’m not mistaken.

Well, this is disconcerting. With no apparent return to Loony possible I closed the door and returned to the slightly realer cake store. So, is Luna dreaming about having cake? Maybe she likes it as much as Celestia?

Looking at each of the present ponies was a bit of a creepy prospect. Each of them had a vaguely agitated expression and they were all staring in the same direction, towards the counter of the shop. Soooo, is something going to happen?

Without warning, a door behind the till opened and a familiar pink party pony emerged. Ah, this is because I mentioned Pinkie before bed. That caused me to laugh a little. My laughter was short lived however, because sadly for Luna’s dream Pinkie, the moment she entered the room, every pony that was previously standing idle began shouting and screaming.

“I’ve been waiting for my baker’s dozen of cupcakes for hours!”

“Where’s my éclair?!”

“My foals are starving for gello!”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is crazy. It’s practically a war zone! It’s supposed to be bed time!

“It’s okay, everypony will get their desserts. That’s why I pinkie promised.” Came a desperate cry from the deflated party pony. Her hair was a shadow of its cotton candy curls, instead being completely straight, making her appear way less bubbly than usual. Her persistent smile also appeared to be lacking.

Why would Loony dream about ponies bullying Pinkie? Maybe she’s like an analogue for Luna swearing off cake. Whatever she is, this is pretty depressing. Seeing the happy pony that welcomed me to Ponytown, being tormented for no reason is just awful.

Despite my disappointment, the crowd continued to harass the lovable pony, until she passed a cake to a mare near the front and ran back through the same door. Once she’d left the room, the rabble surrounding me, all at once went silent and stood waiting for Pinkie to return.

Wow, this creepiness is on another level. Waving a hoof in front of the nearest pony’s face gave no reaction what so ever. Seems there all just robots or something? They definitely aren’t real people. Okay, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what I need to do next.

After a short debate escape seemed like the best option. There was a slight problem with this plan however. The door behind me led to nowhere town and the only other door was completely blocked by the weird dream ponies. Against my better judgement, I did attempt to ask them to move, gaining me the result I expected. Didly squat.

I was starting to run out of ideas, when the pink pony returned to her harassment podium. Well, nothing better to do, might as well ask dream Pinkie, “Pinkie! Do you know the way out?!”

Part of me thought she wouldn’t respond, but she instantly noticed me and shouted back, “I’ll be with you as soon as I’ve served the others.”

Served the others? That’s going to take forever. Especially if she keeps doing what she’s doing. Before she went back through the door, she hoofed the same cake over to the same mare. It’s like an infinite loop.

Maybe her words are a clue on how to end the dream? The other ponies are clearly never going to be served, and they just ignore me. So, well, might as well just get rid.

With that, I used my mist to pick up the closest pony, which surprisingly was practically weightless, before moving towards the cake shops entrance. Once there, I opened the door with a shoe and with no effort at all, threw them out.

The pony in question didn’t land with any sound. In fact, he didn’t land at all, because the moment he left the dream cake shop, his form immediately started to fade away. This left no trace of the once dream pony.

Now I really hope that guy wasn’t real. Well, no use worrying about that, the plan seems sound. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the next closest phantom pony and repeated my previous action. Just twenty-eight more to go.

It took me a bit of time to work through the zombie ponies, so much time in fact that they managed to get three more attempts to dishearten the dreams star. The star in question, didn’t appear to notice the thinning herd, until the final time she left the doors, when not a single pony was present.

Upon bursting out the final time, she appeared confused and scanned her shop before resting her eyes upon me. “Oh, Eclipse. Did you happen to see where Bon Bon went? Her cakes ready.”

Is that the name of the pony that kept getting the same cake? “Don’t worry about her Pinkie, you’ve already served her.” At the continued look of confusion, probably due to the missing crowd, I elaborated, “the other ponies have all left with her, fully satisfied by your, erm, culinary delights.”

“Really?” came the hopeful reply. A slight tear came to the party pony’s eye, as her hair started to steadily regain it’s cotton candy state. “I was so worried I’d fail to keep my 100% cake satisfaction rating.”

Sure, whatever that means? “So, Pinkie, now that you’re not too busy. I was wondering if you could help me out?”

“Oki doki,” came the enthusiastic reply as the party pony bounced nearer to me, “anything for a friend in need, and here, have this complimentary dream improving cup cake.” The mare then held out Bon Bon’s probable hundredth cupcake.

There’s the Pinkie I’ve met briefly. In order to keep her spirits up, I gladly took the offered imaginary treat under my helmet, “Thanks, so erm, you wouldn’t happen to know how to leave this place by chance?” Come on dream Pinkie, you’re my only hope.

The pseudo-Pinkie just giggled in response, “wow, you spirits really are silly. Not used to solid walls and stuff?” Hey, I’m probably not a ghost. That is preferable to being an enchantment though.

Before I could vocalize my complaint, Pinkie began bouncing towards the rear door that likely led towards the Kitchens. Upon opening the door however, what I saw beyond was the same familiar corridor Loony called to me from earlier.

“Ta daaaa, thank you for visiting sugar cube corner,” The party pony vocalized as if serving a pleased customer.

I started to wander over to the door and awkwardly climbed over the counter, before stopping beside my rescuer. “I don’t know how you did that, but thanks.”

“No problemo.” Was the instant reply, before the pony’s eyes lit up due to some apparent recollection, “oo, oo, oo, did the Princess enjoy her slice of cake?”

That threw me for a loop, halting me at the exit. “Of course, how’d you know?”

Pinkie just tapped the side of her muzzle like it was a big secret, “Pinkie sense, anyways, it’s a shame you never got to try it.”

“Huh,” was the only response I could manage, before deciding to make good on my escape. Oh, I get it, Loony saw me give the cake to Celestia. That’s how this Pinkie knows. It’s obvious.

Once I was clear of the threshold, the dream pony said one final remark, “You know your metal butt is always welcome.” Before closing the door and leaving me in the strange corridor the void had become.

Well, that happened. At least I’m back in the sort of void. Okay, so now what? Looking up and down the long corridor, left me with a large quantity of differently marked doors. Wonder if Loony is still around here? “Loony!... Loony!”

Ten minutes of no response later left me a little befuddled on what to do. The first idea was to do nothing. I wanted to sleep, so why not just wait until morning? That idea didn’t last long however. The corridor was incredibly bright and gave the jarring feeling that there were many strangers nearby. This was a stark contrast to how it usually was. Dark and comforting, with just me or sometimes my wearer. Maybe that jarring feeling is from being deep within Loony’s mind? Yeah, hopefully that means it’s safe to rest.

Sadly, rest never came, prompting me to wander along the corridor’s infinite length. Loony probably won’t mind me having just a little explore.

Upon commencing my little adventure through Loony’s mind, I decided to inspect each separate door I passed. They all had a marking pertaining to specific ponies that I assume exist. There was one for Rainbow Dash, that nice fashion pony Rarity and even the dreaded Twilight Sparkle. Now that’s a door that shall never be opened. The doors must be ponies Loony’s met before.

One door that struck me as odd, due to my theory, was one marked with a very familiar rose. Is Luna aware of what happened between us? The memory of our first meeting caused a shudder to ripple through my form. Glad those days are mostly behind me.

But still, what would Loony think about Rose? Before I realized what I was doing, the door had been pushed open, allowing me to peer inside.

Huh, Pony Town again, but this time not so blurry. The town looked almost exactly how I’d seen it previously, except for the excessive darkness. Not like Luna’s night dark, but like the darkness of the Everfree. Real Pony Town probably never sees darkness like this.

A few more minutes of inspecting the slightly darker than normal town, left me with much to be desired. Well, this was a bust. Really thought Loony would have some thoughts on Rose. Just before I let the door swing closed and returned to my pilgrimage, a familiar scream echoed from behind a building. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Without entering the dark town door, I tried my best to locate the source of the scream. It didn’t take long for a familiar, terrified crème coloured mare to come galloping from around a building. For once, the mare didn’t appear to be running away from me, but instead straight at me. I started to think the dream pony might actually try to come into my corridor, but she instead continued to gallop to some unseen place behind it.

Well, this is something interesting to watch. Waiting without baited breath, I stared at the tree Rose emerged from behind. What evil could terrify such a stalwart being? Heh.

Sadly, my private joke only amused me for a moment, as the sound of the pursuer’s hoofsteps began to echo down the street. When I say hoofsteps, what I really meant was shoesteps, as the unmistakable sound of heavy metal hitting stone street echoed. Oh dammit. Well, I can definitely guess what’s going to come around that corner.

A few more heavy shoes steps later, a vaguely familiar shoe came into view. I couldn’t help attempting to roll my not eyes and vocalizing my irritation, “figures.”

Despite my words, I couldn’t quite believe what actually emerged from behind, is that Twilight’s library? Anyway, upon taking another large step, the beings form was revealed to be similar, but at the same time drastically different to my own. It was definitely a walking smoke filled tin can like myself, but that was the only familiar trait.

For starters, the creature stood way over my height, in fact almost matching the height of the regular pony homes it was passing. The other noticeable difference was the sharp claws that appeared to adorn each of it’s shoes. A final major difference was the helmet, which possessed a set of red glowing eyes that just oozed malevolence.

Did ponies really see me like that when I first arrived? Damn, I really need to work on my PR.

After stepping around the evil pony’s library, my nightmarish copy appeared to stare straight past me, before opening a hidden hinged mouth filled with serrated metal teeth. Huh. Maybe I should make myself a mouth? A moment later, a loud distorted bellow escaped the spirit, before it began advancing on it’s prey.

Curious as to where it was going, I took a quick glance behind my door. This allowed me to see the little dream rose pony, cowering behind her flower stand. Unable to take her eyes off her pursuer and for some reason, too afraid to continue running for her continued existence.

Well, this should be interesting. At first, I decided to just wait and see what was going to happen, while debating on the reasoning for it. It appeared that Loony may be dreaming about my apparent dislike for Rose. There was also the chance she thinks I have a pretty low opinion of Ponytown in general. That might be why those dream ponies didn’t like one of the only ponies I befriended, Pinkie. Either way, this is a little disappointing.

A sudden panicked scream, brought me back to the scene at shoe, “Somepony please! Help!” The fake pony appeared to be desperately looking around at the other pony homes, probably wondering if their occupants were just going to watch her get eaten. Thinking about that for a second, why would the fake me need a mouth? Wouldn’t it just eat her magic by touching her? That doesn’t matter, it isn’t real. That’s why no one’s going to come save her.

Ah, that doesn’t feel too great. Even if she isn’t real, it probably isn’t right to let Luna’s psyche murder her on my behalf. I did help out Pinkie and to be honest, that did feel pretty good. Okay, time to prove to Luna, I don’t hate Rose.

“Hey you! Erm, stop!” the hulking copy appeared unfazed by my incredibly brave shouts and continued its steady march toward rose. It didn’t even turn it’s helmet to look in my direction upon stepping past my entry way. Okay this is just like before; the fake ponies don’t even notice me. This should make things easier.

With new found confidence at the armoured behemoths harmlessness, to me, I made an attempt to grab for it, in the hopes of pulling it through my door to it’s oblivion. In the end, I only just managed to grab it’s tail as the limb swung back and forth. It’s tail was pretty cool, unlike mine consisting of only mist, it’s was a long metallic cord with a blade at the end. Before I could think about how good of an idea that was, the offending appendage pulled taught, yanking me clear of my safe entrance to the void.

Well, that was a mistake. My actions didn’t even slow the jerk’s pace in the slightest and my shoes began to quickly scrape along the stone road. This is probably not going to be as easy as last time. Those ponies sure were light statues.

Huh, there’s an idea. They all froze when Pinkie wasn’t looking at them. It could be that the only reason this caricature can keep moving, is because Rose is just staring at it. It’s like she’s fixated. Suppose I would be if my source of unstoppable death was approaching. Might as well try.

“Rose! You have to look away!” Initial results weren’t too promising, as my shout got the terrified pony’s eyes to lock on to me. The behemoth was still continuing forward, but some progress may have been made.

“WH-what!?” came the panicked reply. For some reason, seeing me being dragged along appeared to panic her even more. Maybe she thought I was working with the beast?

“Just do it. What have you got to lose?” I replied, before realizing pointing out her bleak situation may not have been ideal.

However terrible my moral boosting was, she still complied. Immediately she covered her eyes with her hooves and dropped behind her little stall.

At first this had no apparent effect on my reflection, as it continued to walk unabated towards it’s target. Without anything better to do I just held on for dear life, hoping to maybe distract it at the last moment. Luckily, I didn’t have to, because once it reached the counter it immediately stopped and stared at the cowering pony. It then began stamping its fore shoes and periodically snapping it’s massive jaw.

Even with this threatening behaviour, it still never advanced any further. Thus, allowing me to release the metal cord of a tail and wander to the creature’s side. Okay, so the plan may be working a little, as it seems to want her attention before attacking. That probably wasn’t going to happen anytime soon due to the blind panic Rose was currently going through, clearly visible cowering behind her stall.

So, how do I get rid of this thing? Maybe Rose is still the key? Wish I’d just walked back out of the door. Well, too late now.

With the situation somewhat stable, I casually strolled over towards the terrified dream pony, while trying my best to ignore the continuous threats the other me was giving. I’m okay, he can’t hurt me.

After making the nervous journey to the distraught mare, I was left a little lost with what to do. She continued to cower and likely wasn’t even aware of my presence. It also occurred to me that no matter what I did with Rose, the demonic armour would follow.

Hmmm, it’s like a puzzle I need to solve. Nothings at stake and I have all the time in the world. Probably shouldn’t use all the time in the world, Loony probably wants me to wake up in the morning.

After using likely, quite a bit of the worlds time, I came up with a possible solution. Maybe if she thinks we can beat the monster it’ll disappear? Worth a little try.

Okay, step one attempt to calm the pony, so using my calmest voice I began, “hey, Rose, don’t worry, I’m here to help you.”

This had the undesirable effect of causing the shivering pony to look up, but luckily this didn’t provoke the armour to attack. Sadly, it caused her shivering to increase and she immediately looked back down. “Pl-please, don’t hurt me,” came a tearful response.

Well, this is surprising. Does she honestly think that I’m in league with that thing ominously staring at us? Doesn’t matter, just need to persevere. “Don’t worry, I promise not to harm you. I’m actually here to help, for some reason.”

As the shaking didn’t decrease, it became clear more advanced methods were needed. To that end, I raised a foreshoe and gently placed it upon the terrified mares head, before attempting to scratch behind her ear. This usually makes Loony feel better, especially after a longer than average night court.

The initial reaction wasn’t promising, as Rose rather suddenly flinched away from the unexpected contact, but after a few moments the shaking started to reduce. It was so successful in fact that she decided to ask a question, “What do you want with me?”

Now that’s a weird question, so weird in fact it took me a second to respond. “Well, I don’t know really. It just looked like you needed some help.”

My slightly confused tone seemed to slightly embolden the pony, as she began to sit up and began looking at me. “Could you… please stop touching me?” She shakily said.

In response my shoe immediately left her ear alone, “Sorry, I was just trying to cheer you up.”

“It’s fine,” Rose said with for the first time ever, a slight smile aimed at me. She then gestured to her stall, “I’m just a simple flower salespony. There isn’t much I can help you with.”

Does she really think I want something from her at a time like this? Well suppose I could try and buy a rose. “How much for the roses?” This is definitely keeping her mind off of her impending death.

The pony seemed surprised by my request for a moment, before settling in to her polite salespony routine, “It’s ten bits for a standard bouquet, or thirty bits for some of the larger ones.”

“Huh, well I’ll take one of the larger ones.” Might as well splash out, seeing as though this isn’t real.

“Excellent, I’ll prepare a box for you,” came the more than happy response, as she immediately began picking flowers from her stall and placing them within a little box, which allowed the roses to poke out of the top. It’s a shame Loony won’t get to have some, she’d probably like the taste of these. Once complete, she happily hoofed over the flowers in exchange for my imaginary bits. My first financial transaction and it isn’t even real. “Alright…erm… sir? Please come by again if you’d like some more.”

“Wow, really wish it went this well in real life.” Shame the real Rose is probably still having nightmares about my visit.

That gained me a confused head tilt, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you know. Aside from the weird monster, this went way better than when I visited last time.” As I mentioned the evil copy, I decided to hazard a look in it’s direction. Strangely, it appeared to have completely vanished, leaving no trace.

My words caused the timid pony’s ears to wilt once more, “Oh, right, sorry about that. Sometimes I get a little jumpy around new comers.” A little jumpy? Pretty sure they thought I was going to kill them all. After a moment, the mare lost the apologetic look and raised a hoof to me, “Well can we start over? My name’s Rose, Ponyville’s resident flower sales pony.”

Well, this is nice. Raising a shoe in return, I grasped her hoof, “Hi Rose, my name’s Eclipse, advisor to Princess Luna of Equestria.”

That caused the dream pony’s jaw to drop, “You work for the Princesses?”

Wow, Luna thinks ponies have a high opinion of her. Good for her, she seemed to think they didn’t like her before. “Of course, I’m with her right now.”

This caused Rose to look around in a panic, “Those roses aren’t for her, are they?”

“Of course. Anyway, thanks,” I said before walking back to my door, which thankfully hadn’t disappeared. “See you around.”

“Erm, bye. If she likes them, please tell her where you bought them.” Was the last thing I heard, before closing the door behind me.

Well, that was a bitter sweet experience. On the one shoe, I got to see what it was like for Rose to forgive me, but on the other, it probably wouldn’t work out like that in real life. That caused my armour to droop a little.

Ah doesn’t matter, at least Loony’s imagination has given me some interesting ideas. With that, I began messing around with my mist in an effort to mimic my evil twin’s tail. After numerous failed attempts and one success that probably made me look pretty evil, I finally made my own metallic corded tail. This time lacking the bladed tip, though if trouble does break out it wouldn’t take much to bring it back.

The other idea was the hinged mouth. This was substantially easier, needing me to only create a split between the faceplate and the rest of my helmet. A few rapid tings were the result of my labours, as the new jaw was tested out. Hopefully it’ll be easier to express myself with this? Maybe not, my jaw only moves up and down and lacks any lips. Well, Loony can review the changes in the morning.

That caused me to grown slightly. My changes aren’t even real. I’ll have to figure it out again in reality, bleh.

After who knows how long of twiddling with my new tail, boredom started to settle in once again. This newest change to the void seemed a little interesting at first with all it’s doors and light, but I’m basically fully awake. Who goes to bed with the intention of staying awake and engaging in physical activities? Besides dreaming of course. It seems exhausting.

Whelp, nothing for it but to start wandering again. At least that’ll hopefully pass the time and who knows? Maybe Loony is somewhere up ahead? With that, I continued my steady pace down the corridor, leaving Rose’s door behind.

Another few hundred paces down the corridor were spent inspecting the pony marked doors. Not one of them really caught my eye for the longest time, until one just seemed to jump out at me causing my pace to faulter. This door had a very familiar mark, as it belonged to likely my second-best friend. The golden sun had my interest peeked. Wonder what Loony thinks about her sister?

With that thought, I forgot to contemplate on Loony’s privacy once again and attempted to open the door. This door however, didn’t open so easily. It was a surprise that didn’t really deter me, as I turned the handle with a little more force, providing an eventual satisfying click. Success!

Once the handle was turned, the door easily swung open with a light push from my shoe, revealing a wide-open sunny garden. Well, this seems tasteful. If it’s anything like Canterlot’s garden, it might be pretty cool to explore until the morning. Without any further delay, I casually entered the door.

Following along a nice slate path, I made steady progress through the dream garden. All the while, drinking in every sight and the occasional sound of birds tweeting. The garden in Canterlot has nothing on this place.

My blissful walk ended with a welcome interruption, as I spotted this door’s dream pony, Princess Celestia. She was sitting at a purpose-built chess table, playing an intense match against a pony who I couldn’t quite make out, which felt pretty strange seeing as though I was only a few metres away. Well, best say hello.

Before I could raise my voice in greetings, the bright sun pony’s ears pricked up and she turned her head towards me with a small smile, “Oh, Eclipse. How is your day going?” She must have heard my shoe steps. Maybe I should make them silent again?

Rather than set about modifying my shoes, I paid attention to Celestia’s double, “Well, it’s been quite a strange one to be honest.” Might as well attempt to make conversation to pass the time and test out my new mouth. My attempt at returning a smile was a complete failure, as no movement occurred upon my faceplate. Dammit, should have known a flat piece of metal wouldn’t work for a real mouth.

“Strange hmm,” Celestia responded with a tilt of her head. Her eyes then seemed to trail behind me, “does it have something to do with your new look perhaps?”

To reply I just nodded my helmet. Welp, glad she noticed the new tail and wasn’t instantly horrified.

“So, what is the special occasion that has my metallic friend wearing flowers upon their back?” Celly asked in a curious tone, while fully turning away from her blurry chess opponent.

Oh, I forgot about them. Maybe Loony would want them? It doesn’t seem likely I’ll find her anytime soon though. “Well, Celly, I heard you were over here in the… erm… this garden and I thought I’d bring you some.”

My words appeared to take the pegacorn aback due to the raised eye brows, “really? What is the occasion?”

Ah dammit, now it’s my turn to be surprised. Why would you give someone flowers? Well, this is awkward. After a second staring at the waiting Princess, whatever counts for my brain reminded me of the fact she wasn’t real. There’s no reason to be nervous about insulting a fake person and it could be practice for the real thing. “Well, it’s just a thank you for how you and your sister have helped me out these past few weeks.”

“There is no need to pay us back,” Celestia responded with her usual smile, before igniting her horn and levitating the flowers over to her muzzle. “Still, these smell lovely Eclipse and I shall endeavour to appreciate them.” Okay, practice thank you is a success. Really should thank her tomorrow. She’d probably be happy, even if my thank you sucked.

“Well, I hope they taste as good as they smell,” I said, while watching the snowy pegacorn place the roses beside her chess table.

When she turned back to me, she had quite a puzzled look, which quickly disappeared with a slight laugh and shake of her head. “Have you gotten any for Lulu? She would probably be even more excited to, ahem, taste your choice of flowers.”

“Oh yeah, she was given a blue one I found in the Everfree.” She still has that flower actually. It’s surprising how long they can last. Maybe Loony enchanted it or something?

Something in Celestia’s eyes seemed to change at the mention of the Everfree, “So, am I to assume that is the flower she sometimes keeps in her mane?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. I had to drain its magic before giving her it.”

After finishing my sentence, Celestia appeared to let out a relieved breath, “It does complement her coat quite nicely. Pray tell, are the flowers you keep in your room also from that forest?”

Has she spying on me? Oh wait, she knows everything Luna knows. “Yeah, those ones are for me to feed off of before bed. They produce quite a bit of magic.”

“I am well aware of that. It may be best to put up a few warnings for the maids, just so nopony ends up being enchanted,” Celestia began in an even tone, before going back to her usual light hearted self. “Though it might be funny to see it happen once or twice.”

No, it wouldn’t’! I’d be devastated if something bad happened to someone just for cleaning my stuff. A warning sign is going straight up in the morning.

Seeing as I’d provided no response, the dream pegacorn decided to change the subject, “Eclipse, would you be interested in joining me for a spot of chess? It is very nice out today.” She then swept her wing in the direction of the seat opposite to emphasize the invitation.

“What about your current…” I started to say, before noticing the seat was empty. Empty apart from a layer of dust. Huh, that kind of reminds me of my guest room.

Upon looking back to the pegacorn, her smile seemed to have lost some of it’s energy as she stared at the empty chair. “They left me a very long time ago.”

Pretty sure someone was sitting there a few seconds ago. Oh well, their loss. “Sure, I’ll give you a game. I’ve been meaning to ask you ever since you brought it up at night court. It’s just, you’re normally quite busy.”

“Oh, I know. It is rare for me to have simple moments like this with a friend,” the alabaster mare began with a hint of exasperation.

While Celestia reset the table, I quickly cleaned the dust from the offered chair and hopped onto it. Upon completion of the setup, my new found opponent asked, “do you have any familiarity with this game, or would you need me to teach you?”

“Of course, for example white goes first.” I said while simultaneously moving a white pawn forward. You’d think she’d want to be white so the colours matched our own. Maybe she’s trying to give me the advantage?

At my proclamation, Celly appeared to deflate for a moment. Seems she wanted to teach me how to play. Before saying almost to herself, “I wonder how you would know?”

For the next few minutes, the two of us engaged in the simulated combat of chess, with the occasional idle chatter. Really wasn’t expecting the fake dream pony to be this good, maybe I can distract her with something?

Looking around the unreal garden, I took notice of a line of strange pony statues a few metres from us. They started out as incredibly detailed works of art at the right, but the more left you looked the more distorted they became, until you reached the end where there was just an empty pedestal. Huh, that’s a weird arrangement. Ah dammit, just lost another bishop because of that distraction.

“There’re some nice statues around here, don’t you think?” Might as well still try for the distraction.

My opponent glanced slightly in the stone pony’s direction with that same melancholic smile, “These statues were commissioned to represent my departed friends.” She then sighed before gesturing to furthest away pedestals, “Some of them left so long ago.”

Is she saying they represent some of her dead friends? Guessing those weird ones towards the end are supposed to signify her failing memory. Okay, what to say to get us back on track for a relaxing game? This is the gladdest I’ve ever been for this to just be a dream. I’m really not fit for comforting someone over such a heavy topic. In the end I settled for saying, “Seems you’ve had a lot of friends over the years.”

This statue distraction was very ill advised, as it not only distracted us both from the game, but was increasingly degrading my fake friend’s mood. Her smile was now completely absent and her eyes sullen, “Each and everyone always leaves in the end, as they have no choice. Part of me is terrified of the day my newest student, Twilight will leave me.”

It’d probably be in bad taste for me to point out how annoying her daughter is. Shouldn’t she be immortal if Celestia is? Oh, that’s an idea, “Well, your sister seems like she’ll be around for the long haul. She seems to be a good friend of yours.” That’s one other confirmed immortal she knows.

The words seemed to break through to the pegacorn, cheering her up ever so slightly, “yes, now that Lulu is back, I know neither of us will be alone again.” She then turned back to the chess game, “that’s check by the way.”

Damn, where’d that knight come from. That one is such a tricky piece. After moving my king out of danger, I responded, “You know, for what it’s worth, I consider you one of my friends as well. It seems likely that I’ll be sticking around for quite a while longer, probably.”

Celestia nodded in response to my attempt at comfort, “We both hope you will be around for a while yet. You seem to make Lulu very happy.” She then moved her rook forward with a wry smile, “and that is check mate. That was well played.”

“What? Can’t be. Best two out of three.” Can she read my mind? Loony probably thinks Celestia is unbeatable at chess, that’s why she’s so good. Stupid dream logic.

A melodious laugh met my whining words, “Of course, it is pretty obvious you are just a bit rusty. One day you will have to tell me who you last played against.” She then set about resetting the game, this time with her as the white and me as the black.

That’s a funny thought. I really have no idea where I learned to play. As I watched her levitating each piece to its appropriate location, a thought occurred to me. Luna’s representation of Celestia is pretty smart. Wonder if she understands what’s actually happening?

As the game progressed, I decided to test my theory, “Sunny?”

“Yeees,” Celestia said, while moving a pawn. Hmm, maybe my rook should go here?

“Would you mind helping me out with something?”

“Of course. I always have time for you my friend,” she smiled back, while moving her queen to safety. Well, this game is going way more in my favour.

“I know. It’s just, I’m a little confused as to where we are.” Wonder if the real Celestia is this nice to everyone?

The pegacorn just tilted head at my apparently weird comment, “We are quite clearly both seated within Canterlot castle’s garden. Why?”

“Well, pretty sure I’ve never visited this part of the garden and I like to explore it most days.” I said, while gesturing to our surroundings with my wings.

Celestia’s brow furrowed slightly, “maybe you should explore the garden a little more, this is my favourite part.” She then started to look a little uncertain, finishing with, “I think?”

So, she can tell somethings off. “Well, how did we get here?” That should ruffle her feathers a little. To be honest, no matter how nice this place is, that corridor is still a little alarming.

“Isn’t it obvious? You walked over to me,” Celestia started confidently, before steadily coming to a realization, “when I was… sitting… here… with…” At the last word, she dropped the bishop she was going to move. Pretty sure that move would mean I win in two turns. She then started to appear quite alarmed, as both her ears pricked up, “I just remember being in this chair. Is something happening?” She then started rapidly turning her head to look at the area around us. Seems I’ve ruined the mood.

“To be honest, I’m not quite sure. Maybe I’m just in the standard void and Loony will come get me in the morning, or maybe I’ll be stuck in some small part of it for a long time. Who knows?” I said plainly. Pretty sure Loony will rescue me if it turns out this was a one-way trip. That warning she shouted probably had a good reason though.

The dream Celestia appeared to calm down, “If you were trapped in that horrible place, I certainly would not be there. Have you thought of that?” She then gestured to our surroundings, “from the way you described it, I doubt it is as nice as this.” She then finished with a tentative smile, in likely an attempt to reassure me.

“That would be true, if you were the real Sunny, which sadly, you are not.” For one thing, I wouldn’t dare call the real Celestia “Sunny” out loud. She might not appreciate it.

Celestia’s clone seemed a little lost for words for a moment, before deciding to change strategy, “if you like, I can prove that at least I’m real. Luna would not be pleased with me, if you started to believe reality was not real on my watch.” Maybe ruining this illusions day wasn’t the nicest thing to do.

“Go ahead if you think that’s best,” I said while waving a shoe in her direction, “It was really nice to spend some time with you. I’ll have to challenge the real Celestia tomorrow, after Loony gets me out of here. Maybe she won’t be too busy?”

The now obviously nervous pony just stared at me for a moment before lighting her horn. After just a minute of concentration, she suddenly appeared incredibly relieved and looked straight into my eye holes. “Oh, I see.”

“What is it?” Did she really find something?

She opened her mouth as if about to say something, but before a single sound was uttered, everything disappeared and was replaced with the pitch-black void.

“Celestia! You still there!” I shouted into the darkness, but was only met by silence. Well, at least I’m back in the real void. Shame about that game though, really thought I was going to win.

A short distance away, a door formed that most likely led back into the never-ending corridor of Loony’s mind. Rather than approach it, I decided to remain where I was. That final dream with Celestia was pretty nice before I ruined it. It’s probably better for me to finish the night where it’s comfortable to rest.

After an indeterminate amount of time, seeing as I was in my usual location for relaxing, a loud rhythmic banging began on the door. At first, I tried to ignore it, but eventually it’s persistence annoyed me so much it just had to be opened.

With that I floated through the void towards the door and easily opened it. What met me beyond was not only the expected hallway, but a smiling navy blue pegacorn. “How art thou Eclipse? Been on many adventures?” she said jovially.

Seeing her standing outside the door caused my irritation to fade away. “I wasn’t expecting to see you after we were separated. Did you know where I was?” Oh dear, she’s probably talking about my snooping through her brain.

“That We did. When we were first separated, We will admit to being a tad concerned,” she began evenly before switching to a more animated tone, “but upon trying to follow thy path, ‘twas so difficult for us to keep up with thee. We admit to being pleasantly surprised.”

Pleasantly surprised? “So, you’re not mad at me?”

Loony appeared a little confused, “Nay, why would We be mad with you? Thy natural giftedness in the dream realm is a blessing for not just us both, but the ponies you helped on your travels.”

The ones on my travels? Is she saying that those ponies were real? Oh, please no. I just had to ruin Celestia’s sleep. Wonder if that fade to black was her waking up? Right, in the morning, the music really needs to be faced.

While trying to sound as casual as possible, I said, “So, you’re saying, those things I experienced were from real pony dreams?”

“But of course. Where else would thou have been but the dream realm?” That hallway just feels like a slightly noisy version of the void to me.

“Well, seeing as you’re wearing me, I thought that corridor represented… erm… your brain. I was getting worried you might have thought some really weird stuff.” I finished in a slightly embarrassed tone.

Thankfully, Loony just laughed in response, “Nay, We are a very well-adjusted individual, of that We can assure thee.” I’m not too sure if the one referring to themselves in the plural, is entirely fit to judge sanity. After finishing her jovial statement, Loony stepped to the side of the door and beckoned me through, “Would thou be interested in joining us for the remainder of thy travels tonight?”

Travelling the dream realm with Loony could be fun. It’s probably a better use of my time than sitting in the void, but still there is rest time to consider. Ah, might as well inquire. “Does that mean we’ll be travelling through different pony’s dreams? Sounds fun.”

The moon pony nodded in response, “That it does. We were just about to save young Twilight from her nightmare. It could be fun to modify her dream together.”

Twilight? Don’t think I’m ready for her yet. “Oh, you know, I’d love to, but that last dream has really taken it out of me. It’d probably be better for you to deal with her, while I have a rest.”

In response, Loony’s face fell a little, “We understand, breaking into my sisters dream is a feat even We struggle with.” She then gave me a slight smile with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, “We shall great Twilight on thy behalf. She still needs to be paid back for her, ahem, performance today.” Does she have to mention me? It would be preferable if that pony just forgot I existed.

“Okay, well, you enjoy your time helping her Loony,” I said, while giving her a quick wing hug.

“Yes, and We hope thou enjoys thy time within this… strange absent dream,” Loony replied, while reviewing the void around me. She then turned away from me and appeared to become very agitated, walking down the corridor in an extremely purposeful manner. Seems like she’s in a hurry to help purple.

As the blue pegacorn disappeared from view, I closed the door and settled down to finish off resting in the void. It’s weird how Loony said this place was a dream. Wonder if that means the void and the dream realm are somehow related?

Author's Note

This chapter was way more fun to write than the previous one. It's probably my favourite so far, apart from night court.

20: Just Your Average Morning

Chapter 20

Ah, that was a weirdly decent night’s sleep. Don’t get me wrong, the start of it was pretty disconcerting, with all the weird dream exploration. It’s just now, upon waking up, I feel like I’m for once well rested. Normally after night court finishes, I go to bed around 2am and have to get up for breakfast at eight.

With that in mind, I sat up slightly and yawned in a distinctly feminine tone. Oh right, Loony’s here. “Morning Loony, sleep well?” I had Luna say to herself.

After a moment of waiting and feeling no movement from my wearer, it became clear I'd woken up before my friend. Well, this is a first. Normally Loony wakes me up for breakfast. Should I interrupt her sleep? What time is it anyway?

Turning Luna’s head towards the window, the moon was still clearly visible. That makes sense, seeing as its guardian has yet to rise. Maybe I should just wait for her? There’s no way the so-called Luna Goddess would allow herself to sleep in, right? Laying our shared head back on the pillow, I caught sight of a moon themed clock showing 6am.

Wow, that is early. So early in fact, that I’m pretty sure more sleep is needed to ensure my survival through todays insanity. With that, I gave a quick affectionate scratch of Luna’s ears, before trying my best to wrap our wings around us. “See you in a couple hours.” I said to pretty much no one.

Sadly, it seemed that I’d be seeing a lot more of the comatose pony, as sleep just refused to return. It was nice and cosy for the first five minutes, but after that it really started to drag. After rolling over for the third time, I decided to sit up once again. This doesn’t make any sense; I’ve only had four hours. Everyone knows you need a good six to start the day. Or preferably fourteen, if the ponies would let me.

A feminine sigh escaped my borrowed lips, followed by a frustrated swing of one extra appendage I’d forgotten about. This resulted in the accidental dislodgement of my wearers duvet and caused me to direct my attention to the offending limb.

Oh, I didn’t think that would actually exist. Before my light blue eyes, was my brand-new metal cord of a tail, intertwined with that of the moon pony’s. Waging it around a little in experimentation, caused Luna’s treasured duvet to fall the rest of the way to the cruel floor.

Wonder how this actually looks? Celestia didn’t seem to mind in that dream. Thinking of how I ruined the sun ponies dream soured my mood a little, until Luna’s eyes fell back on my tail. Sunny’s apology is a problem for breakfast time, just try not to think about that. Maybe messing around with my tail will be a decent distraction. Loony won’t mind.

With that, I somehow willingly rose from Luna’s luxurious mattress and took a few steps. After the first couple, I decided to do my habitual morning stretch and I can safely say having flesh and bones makes the experience much more enjoyable. Probably a lot more worthwhile too. The cat like stretch I achieved, resulted in a couple of cracking sounds which, while at first slightly worrying, appeared to relieve some undiscovered stiffness in Luna’s spine. Huh, maybe ponies have to do that every morning?

After the for once worthwhile exercise, I made my way over to the rooms ensuite in search of the fabled mirror, in a vain pursuit to review my new appearance. Ha, success. Like in my own room, my prize was situated above the sink. When I approached, my armoured form could clearly be seen, obscuring the fluffy navy-blue Princess within.

My looks are still pretty normal really. Well, normal for me being a ghostly suit of armour anyway. At least with Loony present, I don’t have that creepy hollow look.

Quickly turning to my side, an eye was again cast upon my new tail. Hmm, seems to fit pretty well. Moving it around doesn’t look that weird, unless it’s weird for a pony to move their tail. They are supposed to just be hair after all. Due to how intertwined my tail was with the moon ponies, it was actually possible for me to easily move Luna’s as if it were my own. That could be useful, maybe? It’s probably best not to overdo it though. Loony might not appreciate that tugging sensation. She also probably wouldn’t be too happy about the whole staring at her rear end thing.

With Loony’s face starting to heat up, my attention immediately left my tail and turned to my armours standard design. While it did seem pretty effective at protecting my wearer from the front; from the sides, the back of Loony’s legs are clearly visible. Not only that, but her wings only had a sliver of metal to protect them, with her feathers only slightly obscured by my mist. Maybe a redesign is needed? That metal feather design could be suitable. Although most of the guards seem to favour a more open design. Do the pegasus guards even wear wing armour? Bah, I’ll ask Loony when she wakes up.

At least her head is full protected. Looking back at my reflection’s faceplate reminded me of my second dream crafted modification. Wonder if I can actually smile now? After a period of leering at my reflection like a waste of space, the only success I had was that of my faceplate mouth opening slightly. While a failure, it did still reveal my inner treasure.

Upon witnessing it briefly, I fully opened my faceplate revealing the smiling pegacorn within. “Hello beautiful,” I said in a playful tone. Really wish I could smile back at her like this. As the thought took hold, the smile Luna had gained fell into a sharp frown. Nope, can’t sully Luna’s face like that. After a little effort, a more neutral look graced my friends features. Well, it’s better than a frown. No, don’t you frown again!

After passing some time staring at our reflection, it became clear that it wasn’t really the way to go. There had to be something else to do, right? Looking around the moon themed bathroom didn’t really give much inspiration. That was until my borrowed eyes fell upon a little brush, adorned with a tiny moon symbol. Suppose the least I could do is brush her teeth. Pretty sure I know how to do this.

Rearing up ready on the sink, the brush was placed facing upwards ready to receive paste. I then grasped the toothpaste tube in a shoe and attempted to apply it to the brush. Applying pressure to the tube with a single shoe proved tricky, so I had to settle for squeezing it between two. This was marginally successful, as the minty fluid easily escaped the tube and coated the brush. It also coated parts of the sink, the mirror and on further inspection, parts of Luna’s face. What a great start. In hind sight, my mist would probably have been better for this. Oh, well.

The next steps of applying water to the brush and then brushing the teeth were fairly straight forward. Just turn on the tap, stick the brush in Luna’s mouth, avoid the annoying tongue and jobs a gooden, minty freshness.

Once I’d deemed the level of brushing sufficient, I put the lid back on the toothpaste tube and returned the brush to its rightful place. Hmm, well that wasn’t so bad. Probably means I should move on to the mouth wash.

The fluid in question was bright green in an appropriately labelled bottle, so it was hard to miss. Learning from past mistakes, I removed the cap with my mist and then used a shoe to bring it up to Loony’s lips. Then, without dribbling, I poured some of the contents into the awaiting mouth.

Now this stuff tasted way too strong for its intended purpose, but once I’d started there was no going back. This meant I had to try to swirl the vile liquid around my borrowed mouth, which apparently takes more skill than a mouthless armour spirit possesses, not to lose some in the sink. Nevertheless, the task was completed and upon conclusion I immediately swallowed the mouthwash. Another mistake.

As soon as the green, apparently poisonous, mouth wash went down, Luna erupted in to a few coughs. These were quickly followed by the sticking out of her tongue. “Why would you do that to yourself?” I couldn’t help asking my reflection.

Luckily, upon reading the bottles instructions, it turned out not to be poisonous allowing me to sigh in relief, while returning said bottle to its home. I then set about cleaning the toothpaste from the room, Luna’s face and my metallic form, using a handy small towel, with yet another moon emblazoned upon it.

Well, that was eventful. Is there anything else I can do in here? Maybe take a shower? Nah, Loony can just use that spell of hers. It was then that I looked upon the room’s porcelain throne. Does she need to go? Even if she does, that’s a bit to personnel for my liking. With that I left the room no worse for wear than when I had first entered, with new found minty freshness. Success.

Now that had to have killed some time, right? Moving back to the comfy bed, I tried my best to neatly make it, before sitting on top of it and reviewing the clock. 6:15? A disappointed sigh once again escaped. Suppose brushing teeth doesn’t take that long. Maybe I should tuck Loony into bed and go to the library for a couple hours. That’ll give me time to read and make it back for breakfast. She wouldn’t think I’d ditched her, right?

Another sigh was threatening to emerge, until I had another thought. Maybe Loony has a book for me to read? Thus, I turned to the nearest end table for a quick rummage with my mist. After just a moment, I struck gold and recovered a blue book. Once again, like everything Luna seems to own, it had a picture of Luna’s identifying mark. Why would she read a book about herself? Maybe she was trying to see what the historians had gotten right?

Anyways, a regular book is interesting, but a book about Loony herself? Now that is bound to be a page turner. With that I happily stretched out on top of the bed covers, while attempting to open the treasure. Sadly, to my frustration, the book appeared to be locked. No matter how hard I tried to carefully open it and receive the treasured knowledge within, it just wouldn’t budge. In the end I gave up and stared at the books cover. “Let me in dammit.”

At my words, a blue flash occurred over Luna’s mark and the book’s simultaneously. To my surprise, this resulted in the book flipping open to Loony’s book mark. Huh, must have been a magical lock. Having nothing better to do, I decided to continue reading from the final page Loony had reached.

“Tonight, was a most worthwhile endeavour. We actually managed to teach our metallic companion a new skill that they clearly enjoy. While the method for attaining it was unconventional, Eclipse clearly shows a great aptitude for flight. ‘Tis our hope, that our assisting with their education, will encourage him to forgive our earlier failure to act on his behalf. Not only that, but also potentially lead to a future event where he will wish to accompany us for a few nights of leisurely flight. We can only hope for this eventuality, as Eclipse displays little interest…”

A moment of realization hit me and I quickly slammed the book closed, before returning it to where it was found. Should have known something was off, with the weird spell lock and fancy hoof written text. Hope she doesn’t mind me reading a bit of her memoirs.

With the thought of Loony potentially berating me, I flopped back onto the bed a little disappointed. Ah, she won’t find out, if she wasn’t watching that is.

Looking off the side of my bastion, Luna’s eyes spotted her earlier discarded regalia. Maybe I could tidy up a little? I’ve already made the bed. The discarded royal garments were quickly gathered within my misty grasp, while I scanned the room for their desired place of rest.

It was but a moment, before I realized the armour stand she always joked about me using, was their likely home. Leaving the safe haven of the bed once more, I approached the wooden pony and carefully dressed it in the regalia. This armour stand, to my pleasant surprise was way better than the one the griffons had me use. For one, its limbs could articulate. Not just at the shoulders but at the head, knees and even hooves. This made it very easy to slide each of Luna’s shoes onto the faux form.

Stepping back and looking at the newly adorned ponyequin gave me a thought. That thing really has that uncanny valley look. I bet with a few modifications, ponies would could actually mistake it for a flesh and blood pony. Just speaks to the craftsponyship of the thing.

Once the distraction of the ponyequin had past, I reviewed the remainder of the room and settled for tidying up the only other slight dishevelment. This was the moon pony’s dressing table. She had clearly used it in haste at some point, probably just before answering the door to me last night and either didn’t have chance, or more likely didn’t bother, to put away her various tools.

Thus, I sat my borrowed rear upon the chair facing said table and began trying to surmise where each of the different powders and tools should go. I was about half way through returning a moon endowed hair brush, before another idea struck me. Maybe I could sort this out for her like the tooth brush? It would certainly pass the time.

Instead of returning the tool, I looked into the smaller mirror and began running the brush through the starry mane. It was going well for a while, until the brush started to get caught on apparently nothing, eliciting a small amount of pain from Loony’s scalp. For fear of potentially damaging the nights sky, I skipped past the parts that would catch and finished up the brushing.

A quick review of my shoe work, showed a lack of what could be considered bed mane, but also a lack of the usual style Loony would choose. Well, it’s a slight improvement. Luna, can just make the finishing touches herself.

With that out of the way, I moved on to the makeup. Picking up the mascara reminded me of Loony’s words at the galloping gala. She did tell me I didn’t have to help her with this sort of thing if I didn’t want to, but turns out making her day easier is exactly the kind of thing I want to do.

Opening my faceplate, I began applying the small brush to the tiny eyelashes. The fluid that coated them started to worry me slightly, so I used my mist to ensure non could enter her eyes. It took almost no time at all to apply and it wasn’t long until the brush was returned to its container. This is going to be a piece of cake.

Ten minutes later, I had just finished returning my wearers lipstick to the table and started to review my completed work. Well, this doesn’t look quite right, maybe if she was wearing her normal regalia? I then closed Luna’s eyes and transformed myself into her standard regalia, while hiding my mist for a better comparison.

What met my eyes was a horrified Loony. My efforts with one of the pad things had made her look a bit like a ghost and the combination of the lipstick had likened her to a clown. Not to mention the eyeshadow, that gave off the impression that the mare of the night had an entirely different meaning. Luna’s features quickly mirrored my disappointment at having to rewash her face. At least it was fun for a while.

That thought quickly dissipated, when a hoof started to tap on Loony’s bedroom door. Oh no! no one can see this nightmare! I almost automatically let out a shrill scream much louder than was probably needed, “Don’t come in. I’m indecent!”

The knocking stopped at that, causing me to briefly sigh in palpable relief. The relief I felt didn’t last long, as the door handle began to turn of its own accord, followed by a familiar jovial voice, “Sister, I have seen it all before. I really need to speak with you.”

In a state of slight panic, I attempted to gallop towards the safety of the restroom. Sadly, my attempt only resulted in me falling backwards on Loony’s chair, before the door swung open to admit a familiar sun pony. The only thing I could think to do, was duck Loony’s defaced face behind the upturned piece of furniture and begin trying to rub off my mistakes.

“Sister, last night I had a peculiar dream about Eclipse. They seemed like they may have been in trouble and aren’t in their room,” Celestia said informatively, while I remained behind the chair. My attempts at removing the chemicals, seemed to be smearing it upon my shoes and Loony’s forelegs. Not good.

After a moment of silence, where I continued attempting to remove the chemicals from Loony’s face, only worsening my condition. Celestia spoke up in a slightly confused tone, “may I ask what you are doing down there? Are you okay?” The tell tall clop of her hooves signified her approach.

I can’t have this; her proximity will render the chair shield ineffective! “I’m fine Celestia. Don’t come any closer,” was all I could think to say, while debating my next move. Simply wiping off the makeup is a no go. There’s probably some sort of removal stuff on the table. Wish I’d thought to check.

My words succeeded in getting the eldest pony to halt her advance but resulted in more confusion, “Okay? Please enlighten me as to why you are hiding akin to a child?”

A sigh escaped me, “You’ve kind of caught me in a little bit of a bind.” This is going to embarrass Luna for sure. Should I just admit what I’ve done? That would remove, or at least reduce the chances of sibling mockery. Celestia wouldn’t be mad at me, right? She seems to be here because of me in the first place.

Celestia again started to approach, likely worried by my words. While raising a hoof in her direction to forestall her, I said with a slight gulp, “just let me explain first and, could you close the door?”

It was the alabaster pegacorn’s time to sigh, as the patented sound of her magic began, before being quickly followed up by the careful closing of Loony’s bedroom door. “Okay Sister, I am ready to hear about this, ahem severe issue,” Celestia began, while emphasizing severe. She doesn’t know what’s wrong, Loony could have hurt herself or something. The sun then continued in a more serious tone, “you know, that right now our newest friend may be having an existential crisis in the dream realm.” This is because I said she wasn’t real, isn’t it? That was in the void, cut me some slack.

I’m just going to have to come out and say it, aren’t I? Rip off the band aide and all that. “Erm, well Celestia. It’s nice that you’re worried about me, but, erm, you see. Luna is still sleeping.” Nailed it. In bizarro world anyway.

“Eclipse?” Was all Celestia said.

“That’s right,” I said in a deflated tone. Hope she isn’t too mad. She could make some terrible assumptions about my intent.

Contrary to what I was expecting, Celestia didn’t sound angry in the slightest. Her next words actually sounded relieved. “Your disappearance had me worried for a minute.” She also appeared to take my admission, as permission to once again approach. Not only that, but before I had chance to say anything, my protective chair was levitated from between us. This gave me just enough time to unfurl Loony’s wings and hide her head beneath them.

Sunny’s hoofsteps stopped abruptly, just outside of my feathery barrier and Celestia’s voice began in a calm tone, from right beside our head, “There is no need to be afraid to face me, we are friends after all. I understand that you may have had a terrifying experience in your sleep.”

Why does her niceness always have to bite me in the rear? “I’m not afraid of you,” came my muffled reply. I’m just a bit freaked out is all. Mainly due to the screwed-up face painting job. With that thought, I again tried to remove more of the blasted face tarnish with a shoe.

Apparently not convinced by my obscured reply, Celestia continued in the same tone, “something is clearly upsetting you. Is it the fact that you are currently using my sister’s body by chance?

“I can explain!” came out a little more forcefully than I would have liked.

A gentle patting sensation started on Loony’s wings directly above our head. “I know you can, so as I said before, there is nothing to worry about.” Celestia said in a friendly tone, likely hoping to get me to stand up. Doesn’t seem like that’s likely to happen. Maybe I should ask her to step outside for a few minutes? As the dreaded silence that fell continued, Celestia hummed, before saying, “maybe if you were to explain, it would help resolve your issue?”

After a taking a moment to gulp, I carefully said, “well, there isn’t much to the whole body borrowing thing really. Luna just wore me to bed and I woke up first.”

My friend then happily said, “See, now that so hard?”

“No.” Mainly because I’m more worried about her discovering past mistakes. I’d probably prefer her to be mad at me, then to embarrass Loony.

“Good, can you get up now? I wanted to speak with you.” The sun pony firmly said.

Clearly, she no longer thought I had any reason to hide. Maybe there isn’t? “Fine. There’s erm, just one more, small thing…”

“We have until the sun needs to rise my friend.”

Okay, honesty is the best policy, or so I’ve been told. “Because I woke up first, it seemed like a good idea to help Luna’s morning along. It seemed to be going okay, until the… makeup.” The quiver to Luna’s voice made me sound way more upset than I felt. Luna was right not to trust me to help with this stuff.

The pony towering over me took a moment to process my words. “Soooo, the reason you are hiding, is an attempt at protecting my sister’s dignity? You have nothing to fear in that regard, as being Luna’s sister, I have seen all manner of embarrassing moments. Even engineered a few.” She finished with a hint of mirth.

Not sure I like the sound of that. Celestia might take great pride in embarrassing my Loony. Still, her words had gotten through to me enough to lower a wing just enough to reveal a single eye. The sun goddess, in all her glory, was standing ready with a clear look of anticipation on her face. She really wants to see how I’ve messed up. “Look, I’m going to lower my wings now and you’re not going to laugh or take any pictures. Please.” I barely remembered to add the last part.

A strange clicking sound came from the golden pony’s direction, before Celestia spoke up, “I promise to try my best not to laugh at your misfortune.” She better not have taken a picture just then. Do ponies even have cameras?

That’s probably the best assurance I’m going to get. “Okay then,” I said while standing up and furling Loony’s wings.

For a moment, the elegant Princess stood calmly, reviewing my partially rubbed off disaster. She stood just long enough for my hopes to rise enough to be dashed a moment later. Her face gradually started to turn red and a smile began creeping onto her face. Eventually she couldn’t hold it anymore and put a hoof to her mouth. “That was…pretty…unexpected,” she said through barely escaping snickers. Her wings shaking slightly in amusement.

At least she’s making an effort I suppose. Loony, I’m so sorry.

After a while the gradually growing snickers began to subside, as she again looked in my direction with a large smile. “Oh, come on Lulu it is not so bad,” she said, while stooping down to Luna’s level and looking into my eyes, “You know, Luna’s pout looks adorable on you.” Aw dammit, her trying to cheer me up is making this somehow worse. At least she’s hiding the amusement a little better.

“I know the level of defacement I’ve caused,” I began while looking back to the mirror. “Also, it’s Eclipse,” I continued with a poke to my tiara head. Really need to ensure she can’t hold this over Loony. If that ship hasn’t already sailed anyway.

As we stood staring at one another, Celestia’s horn lit up and the sound of the ensuite’s door opening followed by running water began. A moment later, a damp towel with a gold glow began rubbing my face. The sudden wet thing in my face caused me to stumble back in surprise, but Celestia continued her assault. “I know, you just brought me back a little. Now hold still I need to clean Lulu’s legs. Honestly how did you manage that?” Celestia said, as my face was freed of obscurance.

“Hey! You try removing that stuff with nothing to shoe,” I said, eliciting a quiet giggle from my new attendant. Upon completion, I looked back into the mirror and was happy to witness a lack of clownishness, if that’s a word. “So, how do we look?” I asked with my best attempt at a smile. Really need to practice that more. Meh, don’t have a face most of the time so who cares, other than me anyway.

“You look like you just left your bed,” Celestia said, while standing up the chair and simultaneously dashing my hope of giving Loony an easier morning.

With a sigh, I hopped back onto the chair and gave the mirror a grin, before trying to be an optimist for once, “at least she doesn’t have to brush her teeth, right?” As the words left me, the grin once again became a frown. Hmm, having a face kind of makes you an open book. How does Celestia do it?

Upon that thought, I looked at her reflection to see a strange yearning look that wasn’t present before. Not only that, Celestia appeared a little more awkward than her usual relaxed self, even appearing to be debating her next move.

After taking a slight breath, the monarch appeared to make up her mind. “You know, it is still possible for you to provide that head start.”

“How so?” The borrowed face in the mirror, gained an incredulous eyebrow raise.

When I looked back to the sun, she had regained her usual smile, before saying, “Well it should be obvious. I can help you.” She appeared to be casually investigating Luna’s misused tools, abandoned in front of me.

Maybe we should just put Loony to bed and she can worry about it herself? That being said, Sunny is here and it could mean an earlier breakfast. With a newfound smile I turned back to the table, “hmmm, I suppose you need the same sort of maintenance, being a pony and all that. This could work.”

In response, Celestia uncharacteristically clapped her forehooves together and leaned over to pick up the discarded hair brush. “Excellent, just face forward and watch what I do. That way Lulu can enjoy your help in future.” Wonder if Loony would let me practice a bit?

With the brush in hoof and me in position, Celestia began Luna’s morning maintenance. “You know, I’ve already brushed her mane.” I said quietly.

“Now when brushing a pony’s mane, you must first ensure it isn’t tangled,” Celestia said educationally, completely ignoring me. That’s probably due to how bad of a job I’d done. Anyway, how can you tell if it’s tangled? Luna’s mane just seems to float around. “Now it’s easiest to do this by starting at the ends and working back.”

The instrument of torture I had once used myself, became quite pleasant in the hooves of an expert. Not once did it seem to catch and no pain was felt. I couldn’t help letting out a few hums of pleasure and barely noticed when Celestia had finished. “Huh, that’s interesting. I’ve never seen Luna’s mane like that.” I said, while admiring the style. Celestia had given Loony’s mane a part in the centre, allowing it to flow down equally on either side of her face.

My pamperer just looked into the mirror with a smile and offhoofedly said, “Well Lulu has always gone for the same look. I thought she might appreciate a slight change in style. Anyway, we can see her face this was.” True enough, Loony’s smiling face was looking back at me. It is quite nicely framed.

Sunny must have taken my Cheshire smile as acceptance, as the dreaded makeup began to float into her grasp, while the brush put itself away. I stopped a few of the tools with my mist, while reluctantly saying, “maybe we should hold off on this part. I’ve already been a part of one disaster.”

“Do you doubt my skills?” came a mock hurt reply, while the sun gave her best impression of a model attempting to show off her own adornment.

“Wellll no, you’ve done a good job of your own,” I said awkwardly. To be honest, the only thing I can really tell she does is colour in her eyelids a bit. She probably looks nice enough without it, same as Loony really. “Loony doesn’t really need any, does she?”

“That is nice of you, but I think she would enjoy our attention,” Celestia began, before hesitating for a moment, “besides… I would appreciate it if you would let me help.” That strange yearning looks back again.

I couldn’t help but sigh, “Fine. Just don’t engineer any embarrassment.”

A melodious laugh met my ears at that, “You could say, we have both grown up quite a bit since those times.” Those times didn’t happen to be over a thousand years ago, did they?

Rather than interrupt the happy pegacorns face colouring in, I decided to keep quiet and allow her to work.

After a few minutes, Celestia was finishing applying a lipstick that might as well have matched Luna’s coat perfectly. So perfectly that it was probably pointless. “Now, just remember when applying lipstick, you should always pick a colour that complements the mare’s fur,” Celestia educated.

“Okay, that makes sense.” I’m never putting makeup on anyone ever again, unless they specifically ask for it. It could have been a real nightmare if a maid had walked in.

“Aaaand done. Do you think Lulu looks pretty enough?” the professional face painter said, while putting away her glorified pen.

On inspection, Loony just looked normal to be honest. Makeup’s purpose will forever be lost on me. “Yeah of course. She always does.”

“Yes, I think she will be pleased with our efforts,” Celestia said happily, before letting out a content sigh, “I always used to love playing with Luna like this when we were younger. Hopefully she will be up for returning the favour, like old times.”

“So, why’d you stop?” I asked out of curiosity. Aside from the aforementioned thousand-year hiatus on your relationship.

Celestia seemed to take a moment to think on my question, before looking sadly at her reflection, “That’s a long story my friend. There were a few factors that led to it, but it mainly boils down to us growing apart overtime.”

Part of me thought another awkward silence was going to rein, until Celestia suddenly laughed to herself, “Besides, it is not really the done thing for adult ponies if I am to be completely honest.” Really hope we haven’t just committed some major breach of trust. She then began heading towards the door and said, “Now come along, we should finish off that game of chess. I believe you were about to win.”

I was about to follow her, until remembering how I was currently dressed. “Okay, should I just put Luna to bed?” Would my absence worry her? Probably not, she is the ruler of a country after all.

To my surprise, Celestia simply said “Why? She will be waking up soon to lower the moon. Besides, I assume you would not want to mess up her lovely mane.” Well, that’s true.

“But, I can’t go out in public like this,” I said, while pointing a shaky hoof at my borrowed face. “What if I mess up?” Again.

“The walk to my quarters is only a short one. Nopony will notice the difference. You carry yourself rather well,” Celestia explained, before opening the door and stepping into the corridor.

Is she being difficult on purpose? It wouldn’t be that hard to put Loony back to bed. Maybe there would be some way to protect her mane, like a spell or something? Suppose she will be getting up in a few minutes. Fine, just gotta keep my cool, like in Griffonia. What a disaster that was.

Huh, while I’d been debating, Celestia had already started her journey. That meant hurrying up. As I left the room, I was about to shout for her to slow down, when the sight of a bat pony guard reminded me, the corridors were filled with real ponies. Unlike that of the void.

While my hesitation saved me from shouting for my apparent sister, it did leave me staring at said guard who appeared to be getting quite nervous. Well can’t leave him worrying like that. “Hi, erm, keep up the good work.” That got the guard to tilt his head in confusion and another to poke their head around a pillar.

Running out of things to say, I thought it best to just speed walk after Sunny and escape that situation. It turned out she was waiting for me around the corner and from the mirth she was showing, she had thoroughly enjoyed my display. “Ha ha, yes yes, really funny,” I said cynically, as the sunny mare fell into step beside me.

Paying my complaint no mind, Celestia led the way towards her room and upon reaching it, ushered me inside. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been inside your room before,” I let out, while passing the entryway.

“Oh really? I could have sworn you brought me here before.” Celestia said disbelievingly. I only carried her to the door. “Well, now you have seen it, what do you think?” She said, while walking over to a familiar standalone chess table.

It’s very sun themed, which isn’t much of surprise considering Luna’s room. “It does suit you.” I said, while gazing at one of the many sun laden items of furniture.

“Thank you,” Celestia began before seeming to smile knowingly at me, “sometimes it feels like there are too many images of my cutiemark.” She is definitely right about that. Wonder if it was Loony’s idea to design their rooms like this?

As I joined the sun at her table, I realized just how familiar it was. Every piece matched exactly where it had been in our little dream battle. Not that I could remember it entirely, just the main details. It does still seem like my original strategy will win me the game. Then again, if Celestia remembered all this, she might actually have come up with some possible way of defeating me.

“Are you ready?” Celestia’s cheerful words broke me from my musings.

“Of course,” I said as confidently as possible, in order to hide my suspicions of a coming defeat.

Three moves later and my victory was somehow assured. “So, is that check mate?” Did she really set this up with no way to win? We might as well have started a new game.

“It does seem like my Prince has nowhere to go,” Celestia said, while nudging over her King. “Excellent strategy.”

“I’m surprised you took the effort to set that up. That was probably more trouble than it was worth.”

“Do you not think so? I thought it could help you with whatever trauma you were experiencing last night,” my opponent said warmly. Does that mean she did let me win?

“Oh, well, thanks then. Last night was a bit of a strange one.” It’s kind of weird that she’s just doing this for me. Doesn’t she have more important things to worry about, like maybe a country or something?

“Glad to hear it was only strange,” Sunny said, while setting up the board for another game.

Maybe this is the time to apologise for ruining her sleep. The worry I’ve caused probably wasn’t the most pleasant thing to experience.

Before I could give voice to my apology, Celestia’s friendly gaze caused me to hesitate. This was enough for her to speak first, “By the way, thank you for the visit last night. It was a welcome distraction.”

“Huh?” I couldn’t help tilting Loony’s head at that. “You’re welcome, I guess? But I didn’t really do anything.” Anything good anyway.

Sunny then looked down at the chess board. “Well, you did not really have to. Let us just leave it as, I was feeling a little alone.”

“Oh, well, anytime.” I suppose keeping her company, might have taken her mind off of the past a little. Still, I’m probably not the best option for her. Hopefully she has quite a few other friends in the castle. I bet everyone around here is desperate to be her friend and they know way more about pony problems than me.

“I know. Now then, let us focus on more light hearted subjects,” she said, while moving a pawn. “Your move Luna Eclipse.”

Part way through the second chess game, Celestia decided to raise another conversation topic. “So, something you said earlier has me curious.” As the words left her mouth, she castled her king.

Oh dammit, why is that a move in this game? Now that Rooks a problem. “Hm?” I said absently, while debating my next move. Maybe that could give me an advantage?

“You do think quite highly of my little sister. I was just wondering; do you really think she is pretty?” Sunny asked, distracting herself from the game.

Her question had me raise a borrowed eyebrow. “Sure.” So, if I move my rook here, Sunny might take the bait and lose her Queen.

To my satisfaction, she moved her Queen in preparation to take the bait. “Well, if you do not mind me asking. What is it you like about her?”

Huh? Now she’s distracting me. “I don’t know really? Maybe that she was one of the first to respect me.” There’s probably lots of reasons to like Loony. She’s great.

That gained me a light laugh. “While that is good to hear. I was more interested in whether or not you were capable of appreciating the pony form. Seeing as we are… a little different from yourself.”

That earned Sunny a head tilt. “I… think so?” Ponies can be quite adorable sometimes. Even the taller ones.

The sun started to lean more on her fore hooves in interest, “Come now. You can indulge one of your friend’s desires for knowledge. Hmm?” She does like learning things.

I brought one of Loony’s hooves to her chin in thought. Okay, what do I like about Loony’s physical features? Hmmm. I like the way her ears move about when she thinks about things. It’s kinda cute. Maybe that happy hoof raise she does when things go her way? Huzzah and all that good stuff. That’s more a thing she does than her physical traits. While scratching her fluffy chin, the answer came to me. “Well, physical trait wise, my favourite part is her fur.”

My answer seemed to surprise Sunny. “Her fur? Really?”

Is that a weird answer? “Well, it’s just so nice and soft. Nothing else is really like it.” Some damage control might be needed. “Erm, I also like her happy face as well. That’s a physical trait, right?” If I could smile when looking at it, I would. That gained me a smile from the pegacorn. Looks like a bullet may have just been dodged. “Look, I like a lot about her. That’s why we’re friends.”

“Not just superficial friends as well. That is nice to hear.” What’s that supposed to mean? Apparently sensing my confusion, Celestia clarified, “it is nice that you like her for what is on the inside.” Doesn’t everybody? Suppose not, seeing as many ponies don’t like my appearance. Saying that, they probably wouldn’t like what was found inside my head either. Anyway, now to spring my trap.

Before I could lift a hoof, Loony’s eyes started to become incredibly heavy and even started to close on their own. Is that Loony? I should probably let Sunny know. “Celestia, I think Loony is waking up,” came only partially out of Loony’s mouth.

“Ah, right on time. By the way, you can call me Sunny if you like.” Aw dammit. I forgot I said that out loud.

After a moment my borrowed limbs stretched out on their own accord. Then in a more fatigued tone then earlier, Luna’s voice said, “Morning Eclipse,” while her wings tightly hugged us both.

The hugging however, abruptly ended when the amused voice of the sun chimed in, “morning sister. Did you sleep well?”

Loony’s wings rapidly returned to our side at that and we suddenly sat up a little straighter. “What happened?” Loony said, while starting to quickly take in our foreign environment. That rapid turning of the head is pretty annoying, but I suppose it’s only natural when you don’t wake up where you went to sleep. After my wearer gained her bearings, she looked at my shoe and simply said, “Eclipse?”

Before I could awkwardly cry out, I can explain, Celestia beat me to it. “Oh, you know how it is sister. Eclipse and I had a little chess game to finish and we thought you would like to come along.” She said coolly. Well, that is true and probably way better than my explanation.

“Really?” my wearer asked, while once again looking more closely at my shoe.

Is she not sure if I’m here? Suppose my form is different at the moment. Well better rectify that, “Yeah, I didn’t want you to think you’d been abandoned.”

The pleasant feeling of a smile graced my wearers face, before she looked towards our game. She then almost screamed in panic, “Eclipse! Thy rook is in peril!” Before immediately moving said piece to the side. That was supposed to be bait! She then looked up towards her sister who had gained a wide grin. Did she know I’d set that up? “Sister, we had best start the day for our little ponies.”

“Ready when you are Lulu.” Came the warm reply. Hopefully this means an early breakfast. I could use quite a bit of magic snacking, after last night’s training montage.

Without warning, we suddenly stood up from our seat and began walking to a door we hadn’t entered through. Loony then spoke in a slightly strained manner, “We shall just attend to something first.”

“Erm, Loony, where are we going? Don’t you need to lower the moon and all that?” Part of me still can’t believe she can do that.

“Of course, We will. We just need to use the restroom first,” was the horrifying reply.

“Take me off first!!!”

A barely suppressed laugh could be heard from behind us.

Author's Note

This chapter was originally supposed to end with Celestia walking in and laughing at Eclipse. Somehow it just kept getting longer.

There may be a delay for the next chapter, as the one I was planning to be next might not fit.
45

21: Broken Garden Ornament

Chapter 21

Sadly, today is turning out to be pretty dull.

This morning, both Loony and Sunny had their breakfast interrupted by some paperwork that apparently just couldn’t wait. I offered to help, but Loony insisted I have a decent meal.

That left me alone with only Skitter as a meal time partner, which is fine. I do enjoy Skitter's company, but her limited need for real food, meant I had no one to eat for me.

This is what led me to abandoning the breakfast table, in search of said decent meal.

"So, does Eclipse always do this?" Came the words of the nosy bug who'd followed me. Not all the time, sometimes my flowers are enough.

"Pretty much," confirmed Crescent, the thestral guard Loony keeps ordering to follow me around. Sometimes it makes me worry she doesn’t trust me. It’s been so long, that she should know I’m not going to do anything stupid. The night pony then gave me a waning smile, “everypony has their eccentric side.”

“Hey, that’s not true. Sometimes I like to just go straight to laying in the sun.” I said a little defensively. To be honest, I’ve been feeding on this statue less and less since my little poison joke farm has been coming along. It’s just nice to every now and then, go back to such a filling snack. The taste is pretty unique as well.

“Well can you hurry up. That statue is giving off some really strange vibes,” Skitter said, as a shudder ran through her body.

“It’s just a statue, why does it matter if they like to jab it with a shoe?” My guard asked the disturbed bug. Huh, did this statue always have that crack? A crack appeared to have formed since last I’d fed, running all the way from the weird pony snake’s right dragon leg, all the way up it’s snakey body and concluding at it’s neck.

“I’m not really sure why it bothers me. It just feels like the statue is somehow… I don’t know, anticipating something? You know, like it’s feeling emotions.” Skitty said, while scratching the back of her head. Does this thing’s magic aura look clearer than last time? Do the garden ponies charge it up? I’ve got to get me one of their chargers.

“This should probably be reported to Princess Luna,” Crescent said in thought, before I suddenly felt a pull on my corded tail. “You should probably stop poking that thing.”

Aww, but I was almost finished. Anyway, hooves off the tail. “Yeah okay, I shouldn’t be too greedy.”

My statement for some reason further disturbed the love bug. “Wait, are you feeding on that thing?”

“What else would I be doing?” I asked, before turning to look at her. Seeing her steadily increasing apprehension, I asked, “What’s wrong? I always do this, remember?” Ergo, everything is fine. Suppose changelings can be a bit sensitive to different things than ponies. Maybe they don’t like stuff that contains a lot of magic?

A gleeful masculine voice, suddenly came from the statue’s direction, “that’s right. Why should you stop on their account? You know what you want.”

That immediately got me to look back at the buffet I’ve enjoyed for the past few months. “Erm, Skitter, are you trying to freak me out?” Is she trying to prank me? When I turned to look back at her, the royal bug had gone very white and was just staring at the statue. “Guess not.” It was a long shot.

A steady cracking sound began to emit from the statue, as it’s aura started to become piercingly bright. Okay, this isn’t my fault, that doesn’t matter right now anyway. “Maybe we should leave?” I asked my companions, just as Crescent decided to move closer with her wings up. Guess she’s not.

Sadly, before Skitter could agree to join me in fleeing to Loony, the statue burst, showering us all in little pieces of stone. Oh well, glad that’s over with. Now I just need to get my story straight. Some foals were having a fight and knocked it over. There’s no way Crescent isn’t telling Loony what really happened.

While trying to come up with an excuse for my accidental vandalism, I noticed movement coming from where the statue once stood. To probably everyone’s horror, a flesh and blood replica of the statue was in it’s place. It was currently stretching out it’s mismatched limbs, probably to work out one of those cricks fleshies can get. Hmm, fleshies seems a bit insulting. Not important right now.

“Sleeping in stone really messes with your circulation, doesn’t it?” the strange chimera asked, showing apparent awareness of our presence.

From there, two things happened. The first was that Skitter slowly stepped backwards, while Crescent began bearing her adorable fangs and approached the creature. “By order of the Night’s guard, you are to be detained. If you resist, I will be forced to incapacitate you,” the bat aggressively informed the newcomer. Maybe he isn’t dangerous and will come quietly? You never know.

Sadly, the weird, snakey pony looked down at my aggressive guard and smiled, before saying, “ol Moony still has it out for little old me? Sending out her toy soldiers. I’m touched.” So, Loony knows this guy. Wait, this can’t seriously be that Discord guy Crescent told me about, can it? Wouldn’t a guy like that be kept somewhere more secure or, I don’t know, be executed for his crimes?

A second later, the ex-statue proved his identity by the incredible amount of magic I sensed building up within him. He then raised his taloned hand and snapped, releasing said magic. One moment, my bat winged protector was standing before us, the next there was a small plastic toy replica, which Discord proceeded to pick up.

“Isn’t it fun playing with toy soldiers,” he said in a wistful tone.

In response, I attempted to mimic Crescent’s combat stance as best I could, while simultaneously trying to figure out how to get me and Skitter away from one of Equestria’s most powerful villains. My first idea for escape was probably patented by Celestia. Diplomacy one oh one, commence conversation. “Where’ve you sent my guard?”

Discord casually lifted the toy in his paw before posing it’s forelimb to wave at me. “She’s right here my boy. I thought you’d enjoy some freedom from your handler.” Okay, we need to get that toy off of him, before we escape. Maybe we can convince him to shoe it over?

Skitter clearly wasn’t working down the same train of thought as me, as a sudden blast of green energy flew past my helmet. It would have collided with the lizard pony’s head, if it hadn’t once again clicked it’s talon causing it to disappear. The creature’s disappearance left behind the word “POOF” hanging in the air as tangible letters, which did exactly what they said once the magical blast collided with them.

Thankfully, Skitter’s actions met us with some success, as Crescent’s toy form had been dropped in the creature’s panic. Wasting no time, I immediately galloped up to the toy and picked her up. Really hope this isn’t the real Crescent.

I then looked back to the shoot first, ask questions later bug. She appeared to be a little out of breath and her horn even had a wisp of smoke pouring out. Skitty was clearly looking around to see where Discord could have gone. “Skitter, we need to find the Princesses.”

She only looked at me for a moment before continuing to look at our surroundings, “Keep your guard up. That thing’s probably going to ambush us.” That’s probably the right call. It’s probably best if we stand together and wait for a little bit. Better to be stabbed in the front and all that.

It only took a few seconds of us standing back-to-back for the hybrid to make his move. Said move was a little confusing, as he first announced his presence by saying, “Wow, your pet bug is really unruly.” This was quickly followed up by his reappearance with a fly swatter in front of Skitty, which he promptly hit her with.

Seeing as this was some all-powerful being, I panicked at what this apparently harmless weapon could do and leapt at the aggressor. Thankfully, it seemed Skitter was completely unharmed by the attack, as she also did the same, mouth agape in an attempt to bite her aggressor. Suppose they have fangs for a reason.

Our simultaneous attack was met with failure, due to the creatures irritating ability to teleport, leaving us both staring up at him in the sky above. We could both clearly see him bending the swatter, as if inspecting it for possible reasons why it was ineffective.

“Look Discord, She’s my friend not my pet. Anyway, you know we can’t stop you teleporting away? Why not just leave in peace?” I called up to him, before whispering to Skitty, “get behind me, he might try something else if we engage.” The gesture was pretty much just a courtesy, as this guy could apparently teleport anywhere. Wait, maybe I should put myself on Skitter? Magic doesn’t really work all that well against me.

Skitter, however ignored my call and again fired another blast at our attacker, while rubbing a newly formed bump on her head. She then shakily said, “don’t worry about me, I can keep him back.”

Discord seemed to ignore our exchange and responded to my initial statement. “Not with that attitude my friend,” he said in a schooling tone, while slithering around the green energy bolt. Those blasts contain, so much magic. Wish I’d eaten more today.

The gathering of yet another huge quantity of magic made me feel even hungrier and alerted me to what was going to happen next. In an attempt to halt the effects, I moved straight in front of Skitty, before a loud snap was heard.

Did I stop it? No magic seemed to hit me. Looking over my pauldron showed just how ineffective I’d been. Where the royal bug had previously been standing in all her glory, was now a tiny bug pony with large antenna and incredibly fast beating wings. I’d have said she was pretty cute if the situation wasn’t so dire. So, this guy’s magic just instantly happens to the target? How’d you beat that?

She seemed to shake her head in a daze, before Discords swatter appeared next to her. “See now, she’s the perfect size.” Discord laughed out from above.

An eep escaped the now tiny bug pony, who immediately darted towards me, likely hoping for safe harbour. I attempted to let her land on my back, but she had other plans, flying straight through one of my eye holes. That was pretty disconcerting, but under the circumstances I’m okay with it.

From inside my helmet, a tiny voice said, “Okay, I’ll hide with you.” Really should have put myself on her before she was shrunk.

Well, seeing as everyone else is out of action, it’s diplomacy time. “Okay Discord, there’s no need to do anything to us. you can just leave freely.” I repeated once again. If he leaves, I can go and warn the Princesses. If he get’s close, maybe I can grab him? This is going to go badly.

Another snap had the strange hybrid appear Infront of my faceplate with a megaphone. “That’s the best part, no reason is required to do anything when chaos is involved.” The creature then cast an eye on my toyified guard, before winking at me and speaking in a mocking tone, “but, if you really want a reason. Celestia always said to help out one’s friends.”

He then popped into the sky above me. “Well anyway, ta ta for now and all that. I’ve got a date with some irritable royalty.” A poof later and the lizard pony thing was gone.

Oh, thank goodness. Really thought I was a goner. While pretending to let out a breath, I tapped my helmet with a shoe. “Skitter, he’s gone. You alright in there?”

A slight scratching sensation began after my question, followed by Skitty suddenly filling my vision. She’d apparently decided to stick her head and forelegs out of my eye hole to survey our surroundings. Upon deciding the threat had past, the little bug sagged and said, “This is the worst. Why did I have to come with you?” Suppose that’s what friends do.

Above us, the once clear sky started to darken as clouds started to form. Huh, thought it wasn’t going to rain until tomorrow? Ah the weather forecast is never right. “Erm Skitty, you’re a shapeshifter? Can’t you just change back?” I said with a small amount of hope. Maybe she can fix Crescent as well?

“Hmph, don’t you think I’ve tried?” Was the squeaky offended response, followed by an irritating wing buzz. Welp that’s that idea ruined. I could try draining the magic, but it doesn’t look like there’s a clear gap between their own and the weird stuff. Maybe given time?

While I mused on what to do, the rain began to fall. Coating me in a strange brown liquid instead of water. Well, this is disgusting. Better get Crescent into shelter. With a quiet, “hey” from Skitter, I pushed her back through my eye and opened my faceplate. This allowed me to more easily carry them both.

“Sorry Skitty, just needed to get Crescent into storage,” I said while starting to trot back to the castle. As an afterthought I added, “could you avoid poking out of my eye? It’s really distracting.”

A muffled “Fine” ensured Skitter would behave herself, while I went in search of Loony.

“Don’t worry, Luna will have you right as rain in no time.” Just not this rain. Wait are those clouds pink?

More strange things continued to occur as my journey continued, not least of which was the path suddenly changing to soap. The unexpected change, caused one of my four shoes to slip out from under me, resulting in a quick tumble to the ground. This did not end my journey. In fact, far from it as the fall somehow accelerated me down the path faster than was intended. The journey only slowed when the bottom of the stairs to Canterlot castle where reached. My speed allowed me to roll right to the top dumping me upon the carpeted inside.

A disorientated, “think I’m going to be sick,” came from my internal passenger.

In a panic I quickly opened my faceplate ready for the little bug. “Just aim outside.” All that rolling probably wasn’t the best for her. At least Crescent isn’t feeling sick, if she’s feeling anything at all. Don’t think about that, I’m sure she’s fine.

After no mess occurred, I closed my faceplate and looked around the castle corridors. Many of the staff appeared to be sprinting around in random directions, likely running from or to something. This really doesn’t look good. Might as well keep going, Loony’s supposed to be in her office at the moment.

With that in mind, I continued to my goal, while occasionally trying to ask a panicked pony what was going on. Aside from replies of, “the end of days,” nothing much of importance seemed to be known.

It didn’t take long to see why the ponies where panicking so much. At the next bend, I was met with the first of many major alterations to the castle's structure. A large staircase. Now, a staircase on it’s own isn’t something to be too scared of, but this one, that had previously never existed, was so tall it should have clearly pierced the castle’s roof. I would have turned around to find another way, but the start of the corridor leading to my destination was clearly visible at the top. So, with some trepidation, I galloped up the stairs.

Upon reaching the top of the monolithic stair case, my joints were slightly aching making me glad to lack the fragile muscles of a pony. They would probably have had to rest half way up, or of just outright collapsed. Looking ahead, it was clear I’d arrived upon the castle first floor, after travelling more than ten times that distance. Okay, don’t question it. Loony knows what to do, hopefully.

Progressing forward into the corridor, I nearly tripped over a few strange hazards now welded into the floor. After accidentally smashing one of these strange objects, it turned out they were light fittings and upon looking up, the ceiling was now carpeted. So, this guy’s flipped the room upside down? That’s probably fine, just ignore the maids running away on the ceiling. They’re probably fine. They seem to be navigating this place pretty well, seeing how they’re managing to run down a corridor that was constantly narrowing. That weird chair running after them is a bit worrying though.

More hazards had started to present themselves on my floor/ceiling, in the form of random ceiling beams, which I had to clamber over and upside-down doorways I had to jump through. At least no furniture had come to life on the floor/ceiling. Am I the one on the ceiling then?

A few more strange occurrences stood out to me. Starting with how many of the room’s doors had shrunk so small not even Skitter could fit. Another hallway leading to the throne room, was entirely blocked by a green jelly like substance. That made me think of the changeling hive and how it had nothing on the castle’s new impossible geometry. That was a thought I neglected to voice, for fear of offending my little passenger.

Regardless of these hazards, I heroically ran with my tail between my legs, straight towards Loony’s office. The tiny hope that she would know what to do fuelling my actions.

Upon reaching her office, it became evident from the crashing sounds, that some commotion was going on inside. Okay, it seems Loony needs help. Right, I’ve got this. Kicking the ceiling door open before charging in, had me immediately fall heroically onto my head from the now celling. As I regained my bearings from having my world literally turned upside down, I saw a curious sight.

Loony was currently having a literal fight with the previous night courts paperwork. “Loony!” I shouted just to inform her of my appearance, before forming a blade to strike at the threatening paper enemy. Slicing the first sheet that came near enough only resulted in two sheets of paper now flying irritatingly into my face. Help! The papers getting me.

A moment later, a spell originated from Loony’s direction engulfing the paperwork in flames. That was way more effective than my sword attack. Well, it’s the thought that counts. The two little bits of paper attacking me where then easily dispatched by a quick application of magic absorption.

Loony seemed to eye the smouldering papers with a hint of disappointment. “We had just finished filing those documents,” she said before greeting me, “ah, Eclipse, thou must be aware of the on-going issue by now, yes?”

“Yeah, that Discord statue in the garden has smashed… somehow.” She doesn’t need to know it was my fault... yet.

Apparently, from the way her eyes became pinpricks, the pegacorn wasn’t aware of that fact. “Discord is free? This is worse than We feared.” She then regained her resolve, “Come, we must find Our sister. She will assist us.” Wasting no time, we both bolted out of the room towards the throne room, where hopefully Celestia resided. This time, thankfully, going via the floor.

I was about to warn her that the quickest route was blocked by a giant piece of jelly, but Loony didn’t seem to care. Without even slowing down, she ignited her horn and sent a lance of energy through the gelatinous barrier, clearing our path most efficiently. Really need to figure out if I can do that sort of stuff.

As we galloped past various ponies, Loony occasionally called out, “guards regroup in the courtyard, wait for Shining Armour.” Or in cases of the general staff, “Go to thy designated safe areas. We have this under control.” They really need a PA system. There was also the occasional blasting of furniture, that had come to life and started harassing the ponies. It’s probably good to show the average Joe that the Princess is fighting for them.

Upon reaching the throne room’s rear entrance, Loony halted for a moment to straighten her crown, before opening the door, letting us both in. Hopefully Celestia is here and has already started coming up with a plan.

From the look of things, that was exactly what had happened. Sunny, was not the only pony present inside. Six other familiar ponies were gathered together in mid conversation with her.

“Twists and turns? That’s it! I bet Discord hid the elements in the palace labyrinth,” Twilight said, in answer to a question I must have missed. Wait a second, Discord has the elements! Aren’t they the weapon that was used to defeat Loony last time? Hope he doesn’t know how to use them, he’s already powerful enough.

In response to Twilight’s remark, her mother unexpectedly bowed towards her and said in a dire tone, “good luck my little ponies, the fate of Equestria rests in your hooves.” Seriously, just those six ponies? We need to marshal the entire guard.

Ignorant to the weight Celestia had placed on her, Twilight unwaveringly said, “Thanks Princess, we won’t let you down.” The six regular, civilian ponies then ran in a group out of the throne rooms front door.

With the conversation concluded, the Moon and I wandered over to the Sun. “Sister, dost thou truly believe the element bearers will be able to thwart Discord’s cruelty?” Loony asked. Of course she doesn’t. Sunny has clearly got some sort of amazing plan. She always has a plan.

Celestia decided it would be best to dash my hopes immediately. She turned to her sister, put a hoof on her shoulder and without looking her in the eye said, “you know as well as I do, that without the elements there is no hope of defeating him.”

Oh damn. At least they don’t need me to do anything. Does that make it worse? Knowing something terrible is going to happen and you have no way to affect the outcome. To distract myself from the distressing thoughts, I began reviewing the redecorated throne room. Almost every single window, once baring some image of pony folk lore, now possessed an image of that chimera. He can do so much without ever being present. Well, this has further worsened my mood.

“We cannot leave the bearers to their fate sister. There has to be a way for us to help,” Loony spoke up heroically.

“Yeah, I’ll help as well,” I followed up, taking a step forward in support of Loony. Even if some of those ponies are quite annoying. When the countries at stake, you sometimes have to suck it up.

That caused Loony to turn to me with a thankful expression before saying, “thy help would be perfect. Thou may make all the difference.”

Really wish I could gulp right about now. That creature just batted aside Skitter and Crescent like they weren’t even there. I couldn’t do anything to help them, I’m no secret weapon. “I’ll try my best.”

“We know thou will,” she replied, before biting her lip and then bowing her head towards me, “per chance would thou do us the honour, of allowing us to don thee for this event?” That’s probably a good idea, less chance I can mess up if Loony’s leading me around.

“Sure, just hang on a sec. Just gotta drop off some cargo.” That gained me a curious look from both the sisters. They were pretty surprised when my faceplate opened up, revealing my tiny passengers. “Come on Princess, you’re going to have to come out.”

The one passenger who could move, took a quick nervous glance around, before reluctantly collecting the toy soldier and flying into the air. “I’d have helped too, if I wasn’t so tiny.”

Celestia was the first to recover from her surprise and smiled down at the disappointed bug, “We appreciate any offer to help from our valued allies. I am certain you would help if you were able.” The sunny mare then pointed to her throne, “for the moment, I would prefer it if you remained where it is safe and easy for us to find you. Your new, adorable breezy form may be difficult to locate when this is over.” That’s Sunny, always looking at the big picture.

Skitter licked her lips quickly, likely savouring a quick meal of Sunny’s sympathy, before complying by heading towards the large chair. “Thanks Princess. Wish I could just change back. It feels like a part of me is missing.” Skitty complained mid-flight.

“I am sorry, but you will have to experience this for a little longer. Discord’s heinous magic is quite difficult to break. When my student returns, the elements will return you to your former glory.” Sunny said sympathetically, still apparently believing Twilight would save the day.

Now free of my cargo, the Lunar diarch began the process of donning me, which is pretty quick now to be honest. I practically put myself onto her as she moved her limbs around. Just as I moved my helmet over her head she thanked me, “We art glad thou trusts us enough to take thee into battle.” Huh, to be honest more trust is probably needed the other way around. She kind of has to trust I won’t possess her.

Her words then led me to another thought. So, are we going to be leading an army against this guy? Maybe if he has a lot of targets his magic isn’t as effective? Still, he can so easily target individuals. The army will probably be beheaded instantly.

“I’d probably follow you anywhere,” I said in an attempt to boost her moral. The only time we’ve ever fought anything, was against some changelings that were probably only just strong enough to harm her and she almost lost.

With the donning complete, Loony wandered over to her sister and reviewed the tiny bug on the throne. “Thy new form is very fetching, perhaps thou should keep it. It would work wonders for diplomacy,” she finished with a laugh.

Skitter’s only response was to appear embarrassed, while moving to hide behind said throne with her toy companion.

I closed my faceplate at that. “Erm, I don’t think we should poke fun at our comrades in a time like this.” Even if she is adorable right now.

“Thou art correct,” Loony began in a chided tone, before changing her tune, “this insult to our allies will be paid for in blood.” Maybe that’s a bit too much in the other direction. Ah, it’s probably fine.

“So Sunny, what’s the plan?” I asked while turning our shared head in her direction. Come on chess master, how do we stop Discord?

The pony in question stopped to visibly think before saying, “it is likely Discord is trying his best to distract the element bearers from their goal. Therefore, the best thing for us to do, is to ensure his attempts are unsuccessful. Thus, giving my student and her friends the time they need. Slowing him down should not be too difficult.” From the resolved way she was standing, it appeared she didn’t quite like her idea of standing in front of Discord’s gun. Why would she? It’s a terrible idea.

“Is there really no better options than just distracting him?” I asked. Hopefully Loony has a better idea.

True to form, she was quick to answer, “fret not, together we are more than capable of striking down the fiend when we find him. He shall be no match for the three of us.” She finished with a hoof stamp to emphasize her words.

Sunny appeared to almost roll her eyes at Luna’s statement. “That is effectively the same plan. We will of course try to subdue him, but it may be better to just drag the fight out.” Celestia then sighed before asking, “are you two ready?” Sunny took Loony’s nodding of our shared head as both our confirmations. “Okay then, we haven’t a moment to lose,” she continued, before speaking in a voice normally reserved for an angry moon pony, “WE SHALL PUT A STOP TO THAT DISCORDANT CREATURE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! WE SHALL JUST HAVE TO FIND HIM FIRST!”

“Wait! can we call the guard?” I cried out, after the call that would shatter any flesh and blood pony’s ear drums. Well, if that shout was for why I think it was, there likely isn’t time. Still, having the numerical advantage would have counted for something, right? He couldn’t take us all down and even then, what a distraction that would cause.

“I cannot place my little ponies in harm’s way like that,” Celestia said determinedly, before both sisters moved to the throne rooms centre to await the apparently inevitable. Aren’t we risking the element bearer’s lives at the moment?

A few minutes of silence passed at a snail’s pace. “Erm, do you really think this guy will show up?” I couldn’t help but ask. If he knows the elements are the only threat, why would he even come here?

Celestia looked in our direction a little, before again scanning the surroundings, “of course he will. Discord will likely take great pride in taking down those whom have apparently wronged him.” From the way she spoke, she seemed a little uncertain in her assumption. She’s probably wondering if he’s already taken out Twilight.

A moment later, a frighteningly familiar laugh started to echo around the large room. This was quickly followed up by a familiar cruelly energetic voice, that seemed to come from all directions. “Oh Celly, did you ever think about what would happen if I found you first, spoil sport?” Well, seems he heard Sunny’s distraction.

Off to my side, Sunny had a brief look of triumph from her plan’s undesirable success, before standing back-to-back with us, waiting for the chimera to show himself. Seems she knows this bad guy pretty well. Everything’s going to be fine. The two big pegacorns are going to get rid of the mean chimera. Wish life was that easy.

The vindictive voice started up again, “Oh look, you went and found your sister. How was the family reunion? Was it explosive?” This time it originated from one of the many stained-glass depictions of the creature. The depiction had apparently come to life and was now waving at us. So, plan distraction is a go?

A quiet, “this again,” emanated from our side, while Loony looked around for our enemy. I turned our head towards him, just to give a slight helping shoe.

Once Loony had identified which window housed the aberration, she immediately opened fire with numerous small blasts of dark blue magic. Each one shattered a single window, resulting in Discord just moving to another. As he passed through a window, he created a number of different strange depictions. Including but not limited to, Celestia eating thirty cakes, Luna’s moon being made of cheese and a few heroic looking ponies having their armour changed to pots and pans.

This is probably pretty distracting, but from the cacophonous laughter it likely isn’t doing anything but wasting her magic. Maybe it would be best to see how long we can distract him with words? That way, when the battle of magic attrition occurs, we can last a little longer. No way will my batteries outlast that guy’s.

Upon finishing my thought, Luna halted her magical attacks, leaving just one final window intact. Said window, contained the smug serpent pony’s form. Ah, I get it. It’s so we know where he is.

“Ah yes, I can imagine it now,” the stained-glass creature began pensively, with a thought bubble appearing above it’s head. “Ol moony comes in and breaks everything, so Celly has to go and clean up her mess.” The thought bubble formed a scene of a foal Luna, accidentally breaking a vase and an adult Celestia fixing it, while ponies yelled at her.

“Our situation has improved quite considerably since the elements found us,” Luna stated resolutely. She then looked to her sister for a moment, “We are glad our sister managed to get through to us.” Celestia returned the look with a smile, before re-joining us in staring at the threat.

“Oh yes, when the sun used the elements to make the moon exactly how she wanted,” Discord said cruelly. His stained-glass window’s image morphed into that of a golden pegacorn connecting puppet strings to a happy dark blue one.

Hope Loony doesn’t think that’s the truth. From the way her stance faltered slightly, a nerve had clearly been touched. In an attempt to minimise the damage, I whispered, “You know your sister doesn’t manipulate you. Most nights we do what you think’s best.” Most of the time when Celestia comes to see Loony, it’s just to gossip about random things. Luna’s the one most interested in talking shop (Even if she seems to hate it way more).

As my words tickled Luna’s ears she shouted back, “’twas not like that. We know now that eternal night could never be allowed to happen.” That’s why education is important. On a side note, this distraction is going perfectly. If he only hurt’s our feelings, it’s a small price to pay for victory.

A cruel laugh was suddenly emitted from the puppeteering pegacorn. “No? why not? Suppose it would have been incredibly dull if the world was left lifeless and all that. Chaos doesn’t even matter without life. But, that sense of freedom you would have had. It’s not surprising you couldn’t give it up without the elements altering your mind.” Wow, really hope that’s not how the elements work. Weren’t they used against Discord before? He seems like he’s still our enemy.

In retaliation for the perceived slights against Loony, Sunny sent a single blast of golden energy through the final window. With her horn still smoking she simply said, “the elements of harmony are a benevolent force. Their use only showed my sister the folly of her actions.” She then took a step closer to us. “Your Discordant words cannot divide us. I know my sister would never turn on me and even if we did disagree again, the elements would never be needed.”

A faded laugh echoed across the throne room. “That’s what you’d like to think, isn’t it?” seemed to drift in on the rooms new found draft.

The Princesses failed to reply to the chimera’s fading remark and both stood ready for his next move. Rather worryingly, no move appeared to be materializing, as once again a good few minutes passed without any hint of chaos. “Did you get him?” I decided to nervously ask, with a miniscule amount of hope that it was true.

Loony gently tapped my chest piece, while destroying my hope, “’tis unlikely simply breaking a window could harm the draconequus.”

“Then… where is he then?” I asked, while looking over to a slightly perturbed Sunny.

She had started to tapping a hoof on the ground, while glancing through what remained of the same window Twilight was earlier. “Discord was never an easy being to comprehend at the best of times,” was all she chose to say.

It seemed he hadn’t gone too far, as a sudden alarm clock went off just outside that same window. The draconequus then appeared, holding an excessively large pocket watch. “Well, would you look at that?” Discord said, while putting said watch in an invisible pocket. “It appears the element bearers have failed my little game. Seems like I get to spread even more fun.”

Celestia appeared to look worryingly past discord, towards the aforementioned hedge maze. As if on cue for us all to be looking at it, the hedge maze appeared to dissolve into nothing.

Sooo, does that mean the element bearers are dead? Hopefully not, as apparently that was our one hope. Plus, some of those ponies were quite nice. Rarity had actually invited me over to hers again.

I felt Loony’s concealed mouth drop open at the sight, before both sisters looked at each other and resolutely nodded. Upon turning back to Discord, Celestia lowered her gaze to the ground, while Loony slightly lowered her posture. They can’t be giving up? Seriously?

As if to compound my fear, Discord appeared just as surprised, before returning to his flippant behaviour. He began flipping a coin, which landed displaying a white flag. “Surrender? I wouldn’t have bet on that if I was encased in stone for a thousand years.”

There has to be a way out of this.

Author's Note

Discord is so hard to write.

22: Distractions are the Worst

Chapter 22

Well, never thought my day was going to go like this. Not only has some weird pony lizard deer thing, just randomly appeared to ruin everything, but he seems like he’s going to get away with it.

At first, it seemed like Sunny and Loony had a plan to stop this jerk. It was bare bones, but still a plan, relying on a few civilians with skill sets seemingly unrelated to the task. However, from my current position, being forced to stare at the floor by my precious Loony, it feels like it may have been a complete failure. Shocking, I know.

It took me a large amount of effort to tilt my helmet up towards the chimera, Loony still apparently unwilling to look at him. What I saw was quite puzzling. Discord, the omnipotent chaos being, from the look on his face appeared to be almost disappointed. However, he did still have that malevolent smile. “Wow… if I’d known how much of a slacker you two had become, I’d of spent more time with your little friends.” Oooo, too soon.

Off to my side, Sunny still held her stoic expression. The only sign Discord’s remark had affected her, was a slight flick of her right ear. Is she trying to think of a plan? I hope so.

Relaxing my pull, Luna again returned to looking downwards similarly to her sister. Wonder if she looks as resigned? Maybe I can check somehow. With little else to do, thanks to this weird stalemate, I focused on looking inward. Upon success it was pretty shocking to be staring into Loony’s eyes. They didn’t look stoic; they didn’t even look resigned. They actually appeared to be filled with a fury I’ve never seen before. Should have known from the heat of her face something was up.

Thinking about the look on her face got me to pay more attention to the rest of her. While she may have outwardly appeared submissive, her muscles felt tightly coiled as if preparing to do something, especially those in her wings. Okay, it’s probably a good thing I’m concealing Loony’s form so much, otherwise Discord might have continued to egg us until Loony did something reckless.

After paying a little too much attention to my wearer, I returned to viewing the outside world and the apocalyptic threat it held. Said threat, appeared to be playing with a yoyo apparently waiting for something to happen the same as me. Wish this was how our distraction played out, then we’d have won for sure.

Sadly, all good things come to an end and Discord decided enough was enough, raising a paw in our direction with a tired expression. “Well little princesses, it appears time grows short and my disloyal subjects need some one-on-one time with me. If you’re done, maybe you can serve as my new gardens first ornaments?”

At the statement, a subtle shift occurred in Loony’s posture, causing her legs to bend even more. She then slightly tilted her head towards Celestia who quickly looked back. In unison, both sisters nodded at one another, before staring turning back to the dragon thing.

It took me a moment to connect the dots, but when I did, I put every bit of effort into helping Loony with her next move. At once, she violently lifted her wings, while I tried to jump as high I could. Loony’s follow up flap had us rocket straight through the already teleported chimera’s position and continuing towards his new one outside the castle.

From Discord’s slightly widened eye’s, it appeared he was actually taken by surprise, but not as much as when a solid blast of golden light collided with his chest.

After a slight tumble, the chimera snapped causing a large sign with an 8.5 to appear within his grip. “Well Princesses. You get an 8.5 for that attack. The cooperation was exceptional, but the results were a bit lacking,” Discord laughed out. The crazy weirdo is probably ecstatic we’re attacking him. This does not bode well.

Celestia quickly flew up to join us, as determined as when she faced the changelings. Already lighting her horn for another attack.

Loony didn’t turn to greet her sister and instead simply said two words, “Eclipse, boost.” Oh damn, that’s me having to do things. Okay, just like we practiced. With admittedly a small amount of hesitation, I began sending magic into the pegacorns wings. For a moment, I felt a smile grace her lips as we were propelled towards our enemy.

This time, the lizard couldn’t quite click fast enough, seeing as we probably breached the sound barrier, allowing my shoes to smash into his stomach and knock the wind out of him. Loony wasn’t done however and continued flying in a straight line for a good twenty seconds. All to the tune of Discord’s laughter.

I was about to suggest we do something a little more effective, when the moon suddenly shouted, “halt!” Give me some warning! The moment my magic stopped flowing, Loony let go of the creature and focused on bringing us to a safe stop. Discord however maintained his momentum and hurtled towards the ground. To likely everyone’s disappointment, instead of smashing straight into it, he hit a cake shaped like a tree which bent unnaturally before flicking back up, launching him into the air like a catapult.

When Discord came to a stop he whistled in an impressed manner, before waving at us. “Now isn’t this more fun?” Well, at least Loony managed to get us out of the city. No ponies are going to be collateral damage, no matter what happens. Still, he looks completely unscathed and we’ve left Celestia behind.

In response to my worry, a golden flash occurred to our right, followed up by a sudden intensifying of the sun. Sunny had teleported to us with her horn already ablaze and was doing something with her celestial object. To be honest, I really wished she hadn’t cast whatever spell she had, as it took a monumental effort for me to just hide my mist from it’s burning touch. That being said, the effect it had on me was mild compared to the effect it had on the area below Discord. The grass appeared to die while the trees just immediately combusted. Wow, Celestia could really ruin me if she wanted.

Discord on the other shoe was a different story. Simply putting on a pair of sun glasses seemed to suffice in preventing the expected third-degree burns.

“Erm Sunny, can you try something else?” I shouted. This is probably helping him against me more than anything else so far.

To my surprise, it was Discord who responded first quickly snapping his talons, while saying, “it is a tad bright out today isn’t? Don’t worry, I’ve heard it’s going to rain soon.” As he spoke, pink clouds began to form above us, blocking the sun in it’s entirety. That would have been great if they hadn’t started raining that same sticky brown liquid as before, drenching both princesses in the stuff. Well, this is disgusting, or it would have been if Loony hadn’t decided to lick a few drops that had dripped through my helmet. Mmm, sweet stuff.

From across the way Discord shouted, “does that sweeten your disposition?” Before casually grabbing a pink cloud to munch on. He really thinks we’re just a joke.

With the newfound cloud cover, Celestia’s horn winked out before she looked apologetically in our direction. She then quietly said, “the longer we distract him, the less chaos our little ponies shall have to endure.” Hold on, is the plan still to hope the elements somehow come through? Wow, we are so screwed. At least we now have his full attention, until he turns us into something anyway.

In contrast to the hopelessness I felt for the situation, Luna valiantly shouted, “’tis over fiend, thou cannot defeat our harmony.” Well, you’ve got to give Loony credit for doing her best in a bad situation.

“Defeat you? Why would I want to do that?” Discord replied in mock surprise. “It’s been so long since we’ve danced.”

To highlight that fact, he snapped causing a black tux to appear upon his form before doing a couple dance moves in the air. These dance moves just so happened to coincide with a simultaneous blast from the sister’s horns, causing both beams to miss their intended target.

“Honestly, why do I bother? You two are just so boring and predictable. You’ve even dragged my new friend into your little crew,” he said, while shaking his head disapprovingly. The chimera then rolled up his new found sleeves, before saying, “seems like I’ll have to step up our game a little quicker if you’re just going to spoil it.”

For the first time since the fight began, Loony had a shiver run down her spine, before again bravely charging forward. It was well warranted, as the hybrid lifted a claw in our direction and snapped. Let me tell you, there is a lot of magic in those snaps. When his strange spell hit me, and by extension Loony, I couldn’t help jerking my limbs in an attempt to push it away, while losing almost all focus on anything but the attack. There was so much magic, it took me a good few seconds to absorb it all and when I returned to the land of the living, Loony’s flight had lost a good few metres of height. Not only that, but almost my entire external surface was now covered in black flames. Seems I couldn’t absorb it all in one go.

“Eclipse! What art thou doing?” Luna was basically repeating in a panic. Probably due to the fact she could only now once again use her wings and was partially on fire.

“Sorry, I’m trying my best.” I complained, before turning our head around in search of the fiend. “Did we get him?” Really should stop asking that, of course we didn’t. Loony was to busy avoiding hitting the dirt.

A familiar cruel laugh echoed behind us, prompting Loony to spin around. There was Discord floating outside of a giant golden bird cage in the sky. “Aww, look at the little canary,” Discord goaded a clearly irritated trapped Celestia.

“You have not defeated us yet,” Celestia said back, while charging her horn.

Seeing her sister in trouble, Loony began flying back towards the two with her hooves outstretched. “Eclipse, thou must pull thyself together. Our sister needs us.” In the process she eyed the fire curiously. I’m so glad this isn’t burning her. Maybe I can angle them? Just before we reached our enemy, the layer of flames that coated my form was easily moved to my fore shoes. There, hopefully that’s useful. That fireball might be a tad overdone.

“Oh, these birds have such a beautiful singing voice. I wonder if the other one is just a pret…,” Discord didn’t get chance to finish his sentence, as our inferno engulfed him. For the first time the snake cried out in pain, as Loony held onto him. He then responded as he had to most other threats and snapped. This time with him in such close proximity, I managed to absorb some of the magic. When I say some, I mean some, which was enough to prevent the teleport, but the backlash caused us to lose hold of the creature. As we spun apart, I started to absorb the remaining flames into myself. Can’t let magic go to waste now.

“That… hurt. Lulu, that wasn’t very polite,” Discord said, in a more strained version of his jovial voice. It was the first time Discord had actually appeared to see us as a threat. That probably isn’t good. Another snap had the lizard wearing a fireman’s outfit with a water hose in his grip. “It seems someone needs to call the fire brigade,” he said, while unleashing the water hose upon us.

Seeing how close he was to us, there was no way Loony could dodge and there wasn’t time for a shield. Thus, we were blown out of the sky and propelled at full speed into the ground, landing awkwardly on Luna’s side. An audible crunch with a spike of pain, enlightened me as to a negative impact on Loony’s health. That and the scream she let out. That was quite the giveaway.

As the pain seemed to be distracting my friend, I quickly stood us up and readied for another assault. In the process, I found Loony’s left wing was hanging limply at my side, dragging along the ground as I stepped. Seeing that as a problem, I grabbed her wing with more mist and folded it within my chest piece. That gained me another cry of pain from the pegacorn. “Sorry, Loony.”

“Nay, ‘tis necessary. Our wing would have been a hinderance,” Loony said reassuringly, while attempting to rub her now concealed ruined wing. Seeing as we were now a wing down, I reformed my misty wings into the metallic feathered ones in the hope of better protecting the remaining flesh one. Wish I’d done that earlier. One day I’ll have to ask Loony to train me for these situations.

A loud pop signified the arrival of our enemy and he appeared much more irritable than earlier. “Where’s your cage? I designed it special to be all night themed and everything. No matter, let’s try again.”

Another snap followed quicker than I could react, once again dropping me into my little pit of magical torment. This time I only spasmed a little, producing a smaller quantity of flame and Loony even managed to keep us pointed defiantly at the attacker. Discord’s eyes narrowed at our continued freedom followed by yet another snap, followed by another and another.

The continuous magical assault was too much for me and I couldn’t help seizing up and convulsing with each additional snap. Part way through one, I was sure I heard Loony call out my name, while attempting to blast Discord. It was hard to tell, as by that point we were now on the floor, while I had to fight off this insane barrage.

“Please, do not fall now,” Loony cried out, while struggling to stand back up.

“It hurts Loony,” was all that escaped my mouthless helmet.

“We are sorry. Thou hast to hold on, We cannot do this without thine assistance,” She followed up remorsefully.

At one point, it seemed almost better to give up, but mercifully the flow of magic stopped, allowing me to once again experience the outside world in all its horrifying clarity. “Oh, thank goodness, it’s over.”

“We shall both make it through this,” Loony said, while standing ready to again assault the overgrown lizard.

Said lizard, was by now positively livid at the apparent lack of his magic’s effectiveness and had begun poking accusations at us. “Well, I can’t believe this. First you stop my fun and now you cower behind my good chum. Do you alicorns have any honour at all?” Hey, the only cowering has been done by me, leave Loony out of it.

“Eclipse is our loyal protector. He would gladly stand by our side, as I would his, against any who threaten us. He would never befriend one such as you,” Loony shouted in response through what felt like teary eyes. It seems my spasming didn’t really help her injured wing all that much.

In response, Discord raised his claw in our direction once again, causing me to cower brace in fear preparation. At the last moment he lowered his claw before saying, “Is that so?” The creature then decided to spin around us, while giving us an appraising look, even taking a picture. “Well, your new armour is positively dashing. You’ve set a new fashion trend today and I think I might just pick up something similarly protective. Can’t have you upstaging me. I’ll be right back.” He then clicked, causing a golden zipper to appear in his grip, before flying up into the sky.

I would have gladly fallen over at this point and watched that chimera fly away if it wasn’t for Loony’s determination. As he flew, she began galloping as fast as she could, trying to keep below his position. Mid gallop she desperately asked, “Eclipse, hast thou recovered?”

No, “a little. Maybe you should take a few minutes to recover, while he does his eccentric thing?” I replied. If the lizard wants to help us waste time doing a wardrobe change, that’s fine by me.

“Nay We cannot, our sister is in peril,” Luna said with apprehension. As she spoke, her head was not pointed at Discord, but his destination. The golden cage that housed Celestia. Oh, damn it. Give us a brake man. “Dost thou have the strength to get us up there? We know Discord has injured thou.”

Maybe? “Sure, I think I’ve got this.” With my confidence lacking remark, we left the ground and began steadily floating towards our comrade.

“Thou can do this. Our sister is counting on us,” Loony encouraged, all the while continuing to kick her legs, probably in the blind hope that it would somehow help. Who am I to rob her of hope?

In the distance, the golden cage started to steadily get larger faster, while Discord got smaller. He was able to float way faster than me. To be fair, he’s been floating a lot longer than me. His increased speed, resulted in the snake reaching the cage first, which rewarded him with the chance to dodge numerous arrows of golden light. This only delayed Discord for a moment, as he expertly serpentined between each shot, before opening the cage to likely attack one of the few friends I had.

An impressive jet of flame rushed out of Discord’s entry point, rapidly followed by a call from Celestia, “Lulu! I need you!”

The sound of Celestia’s peril and the continued encouragement from Loony, actually seemed to help me get to a decent speed. As a result, it wasn’t long before the two of us reached the cage’s door. What we found made me wish I’d decided to pass out on the dirt when it was possibly an option.

“Sister we are here for thou,” Luna shouted with determination, before also faltering at the scene.

The cage held no sign of Discord and only had Celestia, which you would think would be a comfort, seeing as the goal was to save her from the beast. The reason why this wasn’t comforting in the slightest, could have had something to do with the familiar golden zipper Celestia was casually zipping up, present upon her back.

“Sister?” Loony asked cautiously, while slowly stepping forward. My shoes tinging lightly on the metal cage with each step.

In response, Celestia turned around to face us wearing a disturbing smile. What’s more, her usual kind, purple eyes had taken a sinister red colour with a sickly yellow tinge instead of white. She then stood up and stretched, while Loony for the first time took a nervous step back. It was Loony’s hesitance that finally summoned Sunny to speak in an entirely uncharacteristic tone, “What’s the matter dearest sister? Fairs fair, isn’t it? You cannot hit me and I cannot hit you.”

The realization that Discord had somehow possessed Sunny, seemed to stupefy my wearer into inaction. To be honest, I wouldn’t really have known what to do either. Anyway, Celesticord took full advantage of Loony’s surprise, by lighting her horn and firing a golden blast, which Loony only attempted to dodge at the very last minute. Seeing as it was definitely going to hit us, I unfurled a metallic wing and held it in front of us, deflecting the blast away. The usual pleasant taste of Sunny’s magic, was sadly marred by what can only be described as having my tongue severely burned. Needless to say, but ouch.

Celesticord’s act of aggression, was enough to break Loony from her funk, causing her to cry out, “leave her alone!” Before we started to gallop straight for her, or is it him? Anyway, seems Loony is perfectly willing to fight the serpent currently donning her sisters form, despite Discord’s assumptions.

Rather than repeat Sunny’s patented Solar blast once more, Celesticord reared up on her hind legs and clapped her front hooves together. A familiar powerful magic rippled out across the golden cage, incidentally causing the surface we were running on to disappear.

For a moment, Loony continued galloping in the air like something from a cartoon, before gravity decided it once again existed. We only managed to drop a couple metres, before I got my act together, preventing any further descent.

Above us, Celesticord had put on a pair of sunglasses, before asking with her horn a glow, “So Lulu, doth thou wish for a free sun tan?” After her statement, Celesticord’s horn went out and she stood fully upright in a manner completely unpony like. That’s got to kill her back legs. The possessed pony started clearing her throat, “sorry, got out of character for a minute. How does it go again? Oh yes, friendship, harmony, sharing things. Sister, would you like a free sun tan? Ha, see that? I was born to play this role.”

Loony, once again stared at the display and cheerlessly said, “Discord, this is not a game.”

To help reinforce her words I followed up with, “look, your actions are actually hurting people. Doesn’t that matter to you?”

“Sure it is. All of life’s a game. My little ponies are just too boring to see that,” Celesticord said, while conveniently ignoring my words. Her constant malicious grin suddenly seemed to increase as a thought crossed her mind, “Say, how about a real game to remind you of old times?” With that, she once again tapped her hooves together causing a wide flat surface of black and white checkerboards to appear.

Now this looks familiar. It’s almost like that chess board from Sunny’s room. Not only that, but we appear to be standing in the king’s position. Is he going to make us play life sized chess? Suppose that’ll be a pretty long distraction. Hopefully taking the king doesn’t result in death. This will be one of the parts I highlight to Sunny when explaining how terrible being the distraction is in combat, if she’s okay anyway.

Rather than joining me and Loony on the board, Celesticord chose to float further upwards, landing upon a sun lounger that just happened to be floating there. “Ah just like old times, ey?” she shouted down to us. “You know, I always wanted to spend more time with you,” casually revealing Celestia’s desires.

Instead of willingly playing Discord’s game, Luna asked, “Is it possible for thou to get us up there?”

“Sure.” I made it to the weird bird cage in the sky, so why not a floating chair? That is if I don’t get shot at or something. To my dismay, it wasn’t shots fired from Celesticord that halted my progress, but the strange properties of the board. As we gained more than two metres of distance, the board began to rise with me, while Discord’s chair floated higher. This kept me perpetually within reach of the board and out of our prey’s. “Erm, sorry,” I said while awkwardly landing.

“It cannot be helped,” Luna bitterly said, as she began taking a few steps forward across the board.

“Ah, ah, ah. Lulu, have you forgotten the first rule of chess? The white pieces move first,” Discord admonished after sipping a cocktail she just so happened to be holding.

“There aren’t any other pieces,” I shouted back.

“Oh, my mistake,” Celesticord said, clicking her hooves together thanks to my big lack of a mouth. A line of statue pawns appeared that resembled the day guard occupying the opposite side. They then each started to advance on our position.

“Thou art breaking thy own rules Discord,” Loony shouted “Thy pieces are taking more than one move and we have none of our own.”

Celesticord just laid back on her chair at that and casually said, “Well the rules might need mixing up a little. Chess isn’t very realistic. Now, you two have fun, while I catch up on my tan.” The sun’s brightness seemed to slightly increase with that final declaration, which really made me want my own sunglasses for everywhere.

“Loony, what should we do?” I asked. The only idea I could come up with, was to jump off the side of the board. That could possibly get us away from the death game, but wouldn’t save our precious Sunny.

“For now,” Loony said, while pawing the ground, “We play the game.” Well, this is just great, how do you play chess with one piece anyway?

Luna seemed to know, as she immediately began galloping across the eight square wide board towards our enemy. Simultaneously her horn lit up and fired a beam through the centre two pieces vaporising the faux guards in their entirety.

In response, each of the advancing pawns started firing small blasts from their stationary heads. Now this is a major rule change.

The ranged attacks of the pieces might have taken me by surprise, but they didn’t Loony, who easily dodged around the slow-moving, tiny bolts before smashing into the left most group of pawns. This action shattered the middle of the three and gave me a chance to shine. Unfurling both metallic wings, I swung out at both pawns, cutting each in half. Whoops, may have made those feathers sharper than I thought.

Across the way from us, three pawns remained. Each one was steadily making their way towards our starting edge, while continuing to fire upon us.

If some of the old rules remain, they might level up! “Don’t let them reach the end!” I called, while blocking a stray low power shot. “Huh, these projectiles taste pretty good.”

Luna probably didn’t really need my encouragement, as she’d already started traversing the distance. Upon reaching them she neglected to slow down, crashing into the closest pawn and using her momentum to push all three off the board’s edge.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I couldn’t help saying, as Loony peered over the edge at the plummeting pawns.

“’Tis likely not the end of Discord’s game,” Luna stated, as a distant snap was heard. Me and my big lack of a mouth, ruining the moment again.

This time only two chess statues appeared, one in each opposing corner. The first resembled a very determined apple pony and the second an excited party one holding a balloon. Seems they’re mimicking the value Celestia has for real ponies. Does that mean the elements are way better than her actual military forces?

My form suddenly violently dived to the side, breaking me from my musings. The two apparent rooks, had begun rapidly moving across the board in our direction and Loony had only just managed to avoid a hit. As she recovered from dodging the Pinkie, she fired a beam at the charging Applejack. This met its target, succeeding in causing it to change direction and chipping it slightly. We weren’t hit, so that’s a victory in my book.

“It does appear that our adversary has stepped up their efforts,” Loony observed, once again narrowly dodging the caricature of Pinkie. Taking the opportunity, I decided to try and damage the next rook by holding my tail in its path. As Luna expertly dodged the Applejack my tail caught it and I managed to wrap around it once.

The moment I had hold; Loony was suddenly violently pulled backwards to the sound of scraping metal. It’s a good job her own tail wasn’t involved or she might have been a bit cross with the sudden hair loss. Instead of being cross, Luna tried her best to anchor us in place, while I simultaneously constricted and drained the chess piece. Cracks quickly started to form on Applejacks likeness and it wasn’t too long before it’s attempts to move away resulted in its top half shearing from the bottom, thus rendering it inert.

“Excellent work,” Luna congratulated, while watching our remaining adversary move into position ready to charge. “Prepare thyself for a second round.”

“Righto,” I said getting ready along with Loony. Hopefully these things are pretty dumb.

Luckily, Pinkie’s likeness appeared not to learn from Applejack’s demise and continued to charge towards us. This time Luna decided to ignite her horn, producing and icy path in front of the piece simultaneously to her last-minute dodge. This meant when my tail caught the statue, rather than having it drag us backwards, I was able to pull the Pinkie piece over. The moment it hit the ground; Loony decided to stamp the statue into dust, rather than wait for me to slowly crush it like last time. Each to their own.

She then turned to look back at my now free tail, which prompted me to wag it at her in acknowledgment. That gained me a half-hearted smile, before we again turned to the opposing board edge. “We believe ‘tis now time for bishops, yes?” Luna then said, while giving Celesticord’s chair the side eye.

Celesticord had apparently gotten board of our game and was now playing an apparent solo game of table tennis, somehow using the sun as the ball. Celestia must be hating this.

Anyway, Luna’s assumption was proven true, as two more chess pieces materialized. One of Twilight reading a book and the other of Rarity pointing a dangerous tiny sewing needle.

“Should we try the same strategy?” These pieces don’t behave that differently to the previous on a real chess board. They both move in straight lines, just one moves diagonal while the other moves vertical.

“Only if their actions permit it. A creation of Discord could do anything,” Loony replied, while this time waiting for the bishops to make their move and make a move they did. Same as with the rooks, they moved across the board rapidly, just diagonally, but what was puzzling was how they didn’t move towards us. In fact, they both moved to opposite corners of the board, as far from us as possible.

Before I could wonder as to what the animate objects were thinking, both statue’s horns lit blue and purple, before firing individual projectiles at us. I lifted a wing as before, but Loony was already ready and dived forward, dodging both bolts in the process.

“See Eclipse? ‘Tis always best never to assume when it comes to combat,” my wearer schooled while heading towards the Twilight piece. I’m pretty sure she was working off of an assumption a few seconds ago. Suppose it doesn’t change the fact she was right.

While I internally debated if Loony was applying the mid combat education she had provided me, she’d almost closed the gap between the Twilight statue. I felt a familiar charge of magic in her hooves as we were about to enter striking distance, which immediately dissipated when the bishop sped off in the opposite direction.

A frustrated yell followed the fleeing piece along with a dark blue blast, which bounced off of a newly formed purple shield.

“Can thou drain magic from a distance?” Luna asked, again dodging a volley of large blasts from the two distant pieces.

“I’d have to touch them, I think.” She probably wants me to disable their shields. Shame I have no way of increasing my range. Wait a second, maybe I can? A quick look to my metallic wings gave me an idea. “Just try to get as close as possible, I’ll give it a shot.”

Getting near these things is a feat easier said than done. The high-powered projectiles they periodically fired, coupled with their tendency to retreat will probably make for slow progress. Nevertheless, Loony, after dodging a volley, immediately bolted towards the nearest of the two statues, which just so happened to be Twilight.

As she ran, I readied my makeshift idea, loosening the connections between some of my outer most metallic feathers. You’d think it would be pretty difficult to do at a dead sprint, but I technically wasn’t doing anything allowing my work to complete by the time we were three spaces from Twilight. The irritating pony’s statue, as previous, sensed our threatening closeness and made an attempt at escape.

Just as it started to move, I unfurled my left wing and violently flicked it forward while disconnecting my feathers. This resulted in effectively a shotgun blast of about twenty metal projectiles that went every which way. Twilight’s bishop put up a shield as it did to block Luna’s magic, but this time it was markedly less effective. Seeing as half the ones that collided with it passed straight through embedding in the piece bringing it to a halt, while the other half bounced off after shattering it.

Luna wasted no time rushing the piece, as I debated the attacks effectiveness. Huh, that was pretty good, four on target. Probably shouldn’t use that when collateral damage is a thing. Then again, most of the feathers that missed are just floating five metres away. What a terrible range.

“Is thy wing salvageable?” Loony asked after dispatching what remained of Twilight. It was then I realized my vision had been filled with my now mostly bare wing. Seems she thinks I damaged myself.

“Yeah,” I said while pulling my floating feathers back to me. I then presented my fully reformed wing, which immediately took a light blue energy blast. “Owww. See good as new.” That smarts, probably should refrain from distracting Loony like that.

At the moment the projectile made contact, my wearer turned to our one remaining aggressor and this time made a steadier approach. This allowed her to more easily dodge the identical shots. Once we were within four meters of our target, Loony stopped and stood ready. Seems the statue only starts to retreat at three meters. Well, there Luna goes, winning with assumptions once again. Taking our stationary position as my que, my left wing once again flicked out throwing the same projectiles.

With the stationary position, a whole five of my feathers made contact disabling the chess piece. Before Luna could again inflict retribution upon the thing, my fifteen floating feathers gave me an idea. Do they have to fly back to me? A further Four direct hits into the statue’s back answered that.

Rather than pulverizing it like the first, Loony just pushed the now inert piece off the board’s edge. “Who would have thought, our bejewelled wings held such useful tools,” Loony said once again moving to the boards centre. “Can We also use thy throwing knives?”

“I’d need some warning.” Then again, if they were already loose maybe she could throw them similarly? “We’d probably need to practice a bit.” There isn’t really time to do that now, the final representations of the element bearers are already materializing.

These two statues consisted of a mid-flight Rainbow and a Fluttershy hiding behind an angry rabbit. “These magical constructs are quite frustrating,” Luna said under her breath, as both took to the air, moving two spaces before slamming down with a magical blast. As with the previous bishops, the knight’s blasts seemed to contain an even larger concentration of magic.

After witnessing another move from the pieces, Luna decided to make a move towards them. “Erm, Loony. These ones only seem dangerous up close, maybe staying back is the best idea?” I tried to advise. That is my actual job after all.

Rather than following my idea, Loony moved us to within four spaces of the closest piece. “These creations have a simplistic attack pattern,” Luna began, as the Rainbow Pegasus flew into the air. “Prepare thyself, We shall need to be quick.” Wait, what’s the plan again? I must have missed something.

Once the statue landed, causing a blast wave ending just beyond our position, Loony jumped forward and gripped onto the piece. “Eclipse, drain this creation!” she commanded.

“Okay!” no need to yell, I was already doing it the moment we made contact. The welcome snack was abruptly cut off, when my wearer decided to jump off of the piece a moment later. I would have protested, if the second piece hadn’t immediately landed on top of it a moment later, crushing it flat.

Without a pause, I suddenly found myself tightly gripping onto the second statue, wait sixth statue. Consuming Fluttershy’s magic became my new focus. “Hurry Eclipse,” Luna said breathlessly, as it began lifting into the air.

“I’m trying my best. Maybe we should jump?” We could just jump back on the thing after it lands after all. No point risking being blown apart. That probably wouldn’t be too bad for me, but Loony is probably a lot harder to glue back together.

It seemed my worries were unfounded, as the constructs excessive magical supply seemed to suddenly stop. Thus, causing the piece to fall, with us still attached, to the board below. When it made contact instead of causing a blast, it shattered. Really felt like that thing had more magic than that. Above us, Celisticord had taken a moment to stop playing around with the sun to look at us. I swear she winked at us, before returning to her messing with sun, now changing the glowing orb to various different colours.

“Just the prince and princess to go,” Loony said, gasping for breath. All this running is probably taking a toll.

“Yay,” I responded dryly, while reviewing her plight. Maybe more magic would help? Sending her an increased level of magic seemed to noticeably reduce her exhaustion, aiding her in preparing for the finale. Well, the finale of this part of Discord’s games.

The next materialized piece immediately offended my wearer. “That does not look anything like us,” she growled at the lone chess piece. What appeared was a much taller version of Loony, with dagger sharp teeth and slitted eyes, wearing what I would say is inferior armour. Just saying. Suppose Discord is trying to mock us a little bit.

A distant voice called down to us, “Well Loony, maybe you should look in a mirror.”

What’s that supposed to mean? Before I could vocalize the thought, our doppelganger opened fire with a wide blue beam as dark as Loony’s had become. Despite her irritation, my wearer was still on the ball and dived to the side of the blast. This only delayed the inevitable, as the beam was constant and only took a slight alignment change to collide with my wing barrier.

As it continued to burn against my wing, I tried to instinctively move out of the source of pains way. This was met with the same failure as Luna’s dodge and only succeeded in putting Loony off balance. She did however try to rectify my situation by igniting her horn and producing a blue shield, blocking the attack.

“Thanks Loony,” I couldn’t help saying in newfound relief.

“Do not thank us yet,” she responded through gritted teeth. Her shield began to crack under the persistent barrage.

“Oh, sorry.” Really should continue to help. Ignoring the blistering pain in my side’s, I began feeding more magic to her horn specifically. Glad I’ve had so many chances to snack.

Immediately, her shields colour darkened, followed by the cracks steadily receding. Best of all, Luna seemed to stop straining to maintain the shield. For some reason she even started to laugh in quite a worrying way. She then stopped smiling and began pulling more of my magic herself, causing the shield to push in the construct’s direction. “Have at thee, swine. We detest thy appearance.” Luna remarked, as the shield met the constructs own. The two shields seemed to battle it out before the enemies finally failed. With nothing stopping it, our shield pressed further until Luna’s faux mirror image fell from the platform.

“Huzzah, we are victorious,” Luna shouted happily as her horn winked out. Maybe all that magic’s going to her head? We clearly haven’t won anything.

The sound of hooves clapping together interrupted Loony’s revelry. For some reason, Celesticord was applauding our victory. “Well done Lulu, now for your reward. Let’s make it night time,” the possessed mare grandly proclaimed. A large dial suddenly appeared next to her, which she carefully adjusted. As it clicked down, the suns position rapidly shifted from midday, to afternoon until finally it ended at midnight. “Ah, now you get to gloat about getting what you want,” Celesticord finished, while leaning back on her chair. Let’s hope they stay up there until the hopefully still living Twilight returns.

“Thou should not mess with our moon in such a way. The scheduled day is sacred,” Loony shouted up to her not sister. Good thing she probably wasn’t paying attention to what was happening to the sun earlier.

At my wearer’s shout, Celesticord sat up in mock shock and said, “by jove, your right. How can we raise the moon if you haven’t even won the game?” I’ve got a bad feeling coming on. “I mean, what’s a game of chess without the king?” Please don’t come down here.

Paying no heed to my silent pleading, Celesticord jumped from her cloud and landed gracefully upon the board. “So Luna, do you think you can checkmate me?” Celesticord said, as she attempted to pose similarly to the previous chess pieces.

Luna’s horn started to glow dark blue for a few seconds, gathering a large quantity of my magic, before it suddenly went out once more. The overwhelming return of my borrowed magic was a bit of a surprise, but not as big as what Loony said next. “We cannot possibly fight our sister, she would not wish to harm us,” Luna said a little shakily. Seems the reality of the situation might be dawning on her.

Seeing her distress I tried a little pep talk, “you know as well as I do, that she’d want you to do whatever was necessary to save your people.” She’s probably thinking there’s no way we can knock out Discord. To be honest, I don’t really have any idea how we are going to pull this off.

Looking to her sort of sister, Luna asked, “what would it take for thou to let Our sister go?”

Luna’s question caused our adversary to pause and put a hoof on her chin in thought. “Hmm, I’m not sure. As with all my unplanned acts, this little spell of mine has so many fun opportunities. I mean, whos’ going to question the words of the almighty sun horse?” She then smiled at us before charging her horn, “Anyway, does this bring back memories of the good old days, when the two of us didn’t quite see eye to eye?”

After narrowly dodging the sun, Loony shouted, “thou hast never been an ally of ours.”

A mock tear fell down Celesticord’s cheek, “Are you trying to hurt my feelings? We were getting on so well.” This guy really wants to get under Loony’s skin. A stamp of a hoof summoned a wall of fire behind us, before abruptly following the Moon, forcing us to run.

There has to be a way we can attack Discord directly. My magic absorption might do something, but he’s probably got so much spare I’d need to hold on for an age. That’s time Loony clearly doesn’t have, made clear by another wall of fire coming from the other direction. Maybe I could try to get myself onto Celesticord somehow? I made a sigh escape my wearer at my terrible plan. Well, it’s worth a shot.

“Oh Lulu, I thought you were fitter than this,” Celesticord laughed at my wearer’s plight.

Without breaking her stride Loony shouted back, “it takes a while to get back into the swing of things.”

As Luna was being herded around, I formed a hinge down the back of my chest piece and a seem on the front. That should make my removal easier. Now how to get Luna near to my corrupted friend without the plan being revealed? Luckily, it seemed the fire walls were on my side in that regard as Loony was being steadily forced to approach the jester in Queen’s clothing.

“Eclipse, dost thou have any ideas?” Luna called desperately as we neared our foe. Her horn was ignited in preparation for a spell.

“Just the one.” And it’s the new dumbest idea I’ve ever come up with. Even worse than that time I jumped out the window in Griffonia. Okay, I can do this. It won’t go horribly wrong.

Just as we got into what was hopefully range for my attack, Luna let loose one of her own that collided directly with Sunny’s forehead. All it did was cause the pony to squint for a moment before yawning slightly, “a sleep spell? Come on Lulu, you even said it yourself. The day isn’t over yet.”

With Celesticord hopefully slightly debilitated, I had my chest piece spring open before throwing it in her direction. She didn’t even try to move as it clamped over the top of her own. In fact, Celesticord gained an incredibly large grin.

“What art thou doing!?” Luna shouted into my helmet, as my leg armour accidentally tripped her over. Seems she was going for a drive by sleep spell. “We beseech thee not to abandon us!?” she continued as I removed my leg armour. Once her legs were free, Loony attempted to hold onto my helmet with her hooves. “Discord shall not take thee as well.”

“Loony it’s part of the plan,” I said, while trying to pull off my helmet. Hmm probably need to stop Celesticord removing my chest piece. Removing the hinges seemed like the best way to do that. To be honest though, it was entirely unnecessary.

Celesticord, in her infinite wisdom, decided to remove her own shoes and casually put mine on. “Oh Luna, forever the Loony from the moon. Did you really think ol Eclipse didn’t want the freedom I can offer?” she gloated as I began draining her strange mix of magic. Hopefully I can avoid stealing Celestia’s.

On hearing my new wearer’s words, Loony loosened her grip on my helmet, allowing it to return to me. It also gave me a decent view of her, which was both disheartening and interesting. Disheartening because her wing once again hung limply at her side and her now red slitted eyes seemed on the verge of tears. The interesting part was the rest of her form. Not to mention the eyes, her fur had changed to almost jet black, while her height had increased to above that of Celestia’s. Whoops, seems Discord had a reason for saying we needed a mirror.

For a moment, she looked pretty defeated before managing to pull herself together and bare her fanged teeth at my wearer. An act that didn’t really seem to intimidate Celesticord in the slightest, as she smugly approached Loony. Wow, I thought Luna was strong, but I can’t even slow this guy down. Is this how Celestia feels right now?

“So, dearest sister, would you like to join me as well?” Celesticord asked while emphasizing dearest sister. “I’ll even let you keep the moon up as long as you like, provided I can do the same with the sun. Can’t have chaos without witnesses after all.” As Luna took a step back, she continued, “Come on, wanna be my Queen? Now that would confuse everyone.”

“How dost thou propose We could be Our sister’s Queen?” Luna asked, clearly biding for time.

“Oh yes silly me. How can you have two Queens on one chess board?” My wearer said as if it were an afterthought. She then sat back and raised her front hooves, “it’s okay ol sissy will sort it out for you.”

Okay, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m not ready. The clapping of her hooves caused that same massive build up in energy, which I tried my best to absorb. The incredible sum of summoned power, though slightly less than earlier, still overwhelmed me and probably would have had Loony collapse under my involuntary twitching. Celesticord on the other shoe, didn’t even notice. Well, she did notice when nothing, but a small poof of confetti left her hooves.

She then quickly looked at her forelegs before a feeling of warmth occurred on her face. “Ahem, well that usually works,” She began in an embarrassed tone, before becoming apologetic, “seems you can’t live out your fantasy of dating prince Solaris.”

I’m a little ashamed to admit it was a little amusing to see Loony stick out her tongue in disgust. She’s probably having some horrible images in her brain right now. Whatever was crossing her mind seemed to pass quickly, as she suddenly rallied. “We may have lost those closest to us due to thy wickedness, but We shall never stop fighting for them,” she proudly proclaimed, once more preparing for Discord’s next move.

“Wooow, is that because you’re so used to them abandoning you that it no longer hurts?” Celesticord began in mock sympathy. “As your apparent friends would say, Luna you really are a Loony.” This is really ruining my nickname. It was supposed to be endearing not insulting.

I couldn’t wallow in guilt for very long, due to the sudden build-up of magic within Celestia’s horn. Right, battle stations. This time the magic tasted like Celestia’s own and was much easier to consume. Really hope Sunny has some magic left after this. Luna for her part, barely flinched as a small puff of smoke escaped my wearer’s horn. She even started to smile slightly. Hopefully that means she knows I’m trying my best.

Celesticord was the only person who seemed surprised and even then, it was only a little. “Celestia really is a temperamental pony. Sometimes she’s this all powerful being capable of anything, other times it’s like poof, nothing. It’s almost like she’s only as powerful as the plot demands,” she began musing to herself. She then turned back to Luna while raising her hooves, “no matter, you’ve lost your little hostage so…”

At the clapping of her hooves, Lulu again winced as another burst of magic was sent through me. This time, there wasn’t any outward sign at all that magic was cast. Seems I’m getting a little better at this, or hopefully Discord’s magic is decreasing. There’s still a constant stream of it coming in thou. I’d be afraid of getting fat if that were possible.

Seeing the confused look on her sister’s face, Lulu taunted her, “Whatever is the matter Discord? Dost thou not enjoy the feeling of thine mortality?”

“Oh boy, you trixie alicorn. You’ve gone and got some other macguffin haven’t you? What is it, the elements of nature? The one ring, no not that one. ooo ooo I know, is it a set of ruby slippers? Come on, you have to satisfy the curiosity of an old draconequus,” Celesticord rattled off in an amused tone. This really is a big joke to him. He doesn’t even care when things don’t seem to be going his way.

“’Tis nothing special,” Lulu began while inspecting a hoof, “We are just utilizing our greatest weapon.” Hope she doesn’t think I’m that good at this.

“Well, it is really something, but it does seem to be causing you some issues,” my wearer pointed out. This was when I noticed the chess board we were standing on, high in the sky, had started to crumble. Oh no, this isn’t good. Should I stop draining his magic? If I do that, he might get stronger again. What to do, what to do? Wish I could just possess this guy, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Celesticord waited for Lulu to inspect her damaged wing and laughed the moment she uselessly flopped it about. “Oh Loony, seems your plans are crumbling beneath your hooves.”

Luna took a moment to review her options, before looking at us in trepidation. I really don’t know how to help. Luckily, Luna knew exactly how to use my help. Just as the crumbling chess board reached her hooves, she leaped forward and grasped us around the neck. This resulted in the three, I mean four, of us floating in mid-air under my power. Fearful Discord would throw Luna to her death, I floated as fast as my mist could carry us to the surface, for an approximation of a landing.

It seemed however; I needn’t have worried about Celesticord murdering my best friend. She didn’t just let Lulu hold on, but actually held onto her as well. Seems he isn’t that evil.

Once we neared the ground, Lulu pushed out of our grip causing me to lose focus and drop myself onto my back unintentionally atop a giant cake. “You know Eclipse, you’re quite the handy fellow to have around when things go wrong,” Celesticord began, while picking up a slice of the cake. “However, you aren’t half restricting, especially around the rear. Is that how Loony likes it?” she finished while easily kicking her legs in the air against my will.

Okay, how to play this? “Oh, I’m really sorry. I was designed with a smaller pegacorn in mind.” There is no way he’s going to buy me just changing sides.

“Ha, pegacorn,” Celesticord began, before standing on her rear legs and reviewing her stomach. “Hmmm, it does appear, I’ve been packing away the cake, doesn’t it? Oh well, no sense in stopping now.” The slice of cake she’d picked up quickly disappeared into her mouth before being spat out as wood chips. “Seems this cake isn’t quite done. Meh, I’ll never get what ponies see in plants.” Celesticord continued dropping the once cake, tree branch to the ground below.

Our once stable cake platform soon followed the slices lead, returning to that of a regular tree. As my wearer was apparently too distracted with the cake, she failed to regain her hoofing causing us to promptly fall to the ground below.

After brushing us down, Celesticord looked up to the waiting Lulu with a slight gulp. “Well, it seems I’d best be leaving. It’s been fun Loony,” she said while starting to casually walk away, “but I must be off. Say hi to my subjects for me. Hey Eclipse, what do ya think we should do later?”

A sudden weight upon my back caught Celesticord’s attention and prevented my reply. “Thou will not take our family. Celestia has suffered thy transgressions long enough,” our newest passenger shouted into our ear.

She remained our passenger for all of a few seconds, as Discord’s superior strength practically shrugged her off. Still, she’d made it obvious that she wasn’t going to give up. “Hey, I may look like it, but I’m no beast of burden,” Celesticord complained before sighing, “seems we’ll have to handle this the old pony way. Put em up.” She then began shadow boxing the air in front of my friend.

For the longest time, Luna just watched us fight the air in front of her face. Clearly the wild swings at nothing were pretty confusing. Maybe she’s waiting to see if I take Discord out myself?

That assessment proved wrong, as Loony suddenly lunged out when she perceived an opening. Allowing her to immediately knock us onto our rear. Forever the drama queen, Celesticord then rolled onto her back letting her tongue flop out, before declaring, “oh no, I’ve been slain!”

“Thou may think this is funny, but thy defeat has already occurred,” Luna sighed out, “if Our sister is freed, We may be more lenient in thy sentencing.” Huh, offering an olive branch? Suppose she’s trying to follow in Sunny’s hoof steps as well.

A distant sound had Celesticord’s ears prick up and a large grin began to form on her face. “The game isn’t over yet. There’re still more players.”

“Told you guys the Princesses were over here,” came the call of a familiar Rainbow maned pegasus. Behind her five more familiar mares were running to catch up. Well, look who it is. The cavalry, shame they’re way too late. At least they aren’t dead I suppose.

“Princess, we’ve got the elements, where’s… Discord,” Twilight said in a more and more unsure tone as she took in the scene. Oh dear, this doesn’t look great. To her, Celestia has been beaten up and Luna’s got some weird magic affecting her. Saying that, her fur has started to lighten up a bit more, I’m glad that isn’t permanent.

Before Luna could great the element bearers, Celesticord jumped to her hooves, “Excellent work my faithful student. Now quickly, you must banish my sister. Discord’s magic has corrupted her.”

“WHAT!!! The nave lies, she is the one taken by Discord. Do not use the elements,” Lulu said in desperation. She started taking steps towards the newcomers, but they started to back away in fear.

“That varmint has probably cast a spell on em both, the same as he did us. Twi, whats the plan?” the orange farm pony asked urgently. This does look pretty bad. Not to mention Celesticord’s attempts to make it look worse.

“Woe is me that my sister, my own flesh and blood, falling to the dark once more. You were supposed to destroy chaos not join it. Bring harmony to our ponies, not leave them in discordance. Loony, you are my sister and I love you, so it pains me greatly to ask the elements to banish you,” Celesticord rattled off. During the entire speech, her eyes never left the strange crown Twilight was now wearing.

The group of our apparent saviours just looked between the two bedraggled sisters in confusion before gathering into a group huddle. They’re probably discussing who’s the real princess.

As they began discussing, Celesticord turned to Luna, who was glaring daggers in our direction and winked. “Do not try it,” Lulu warned the desperate draconequus.

The warning fell upon deaf ears, as I was suddenly launched at the group of ponies. Straight towards Twilight’s head. We would have made it if it wasn’t for Luna somehow managing to get in between us and bucking my helmet with some force. Really hope that didn’t get through to Celestia. Brain damage isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.

Twilight’s huddle quickly dispersed, as her mother landed once more on the ground and refused to get back up. “Wow Loony. I was starting to think you didn’t have it in you,” was the last thing Celesticord said before resting her head on the ground.

“We are sorry sister, but thy ordeal is almost over,” Luna said remorsefully, while approaching our prone form.

“Celestia! Luna, you can’t do this,” Twilight cried out, while her comrades gathered together, “I know this isn’t you, we’ll help you.” It was then that I became aware of the new jewellery each of the other mare sported begin glowing.

“Wait, We are not corrupted. See for thyselves,” Luna pleaded with the mares.

Okay this is worth a shot. “Twilight wait, I’m the one Discord has taken. Let me try and escape.” I managed to speak through Celestia. The confusion again returned, but the elements quickly pointed at me instead.

Right, maybe we can save Celestia now? Discord does seem incapacitated. To the surprise of the watching mares, I carefully removed my chess piece and fore limbs from Celestia revealing the golden zipper. Hopefully this works like any other zip. Using my mist, I grabbed it and pulled, creating an opening within my friends back within which a brown furry body could be seen. To surprised gasps, I managed to pull out the hidden draconequus within.

“Awww, that was fun while it lasted, but to be honest I could do with another thousand-year nap,” came the now tired voice of Discord.

After a moment of stunned silence, Twilight tilted her head and simply said, “Eclipse?” Obviously, who else is a suit of armour?

“Twilight, Celestia still needs help.” I called to her. If they are Equestria’s elite, they can arrest this guy.

“Right, girls you know what to do.”

The seconds steadily ticked by as the girls charged up their gem weapon. Is this going to send Discord back to prison then? In answer, a strange bright light emitted from the six of them and hit my prisoner. It took quite a lot of effort not to try and eat it, as the magic within looked amazing and for some reason, weirdly familiar. When the blinding magic had finished and I’d only eaten a small amount, the draconequus was once again trapped in stone.

“Is… is it over,” came the quite words of my wearer, “I can’t move my rear legs.”

“That’s because you have a statue in them,” I said while struggling to free my wearer. “Glad to see you’re okay Sunny.”

“Yes, though if even Discord is going to call me fat, I may have to consider that diet Luna wants me on,” Celestia said tiredly, before turning to her daughter, “Thanks girls. Without your brave actions, Equestria would have been doomed to an eternity of Chaos.” I like to think I helped too. A throat clear from Lulu showed she felt the same way. Still, she got Celestia’s attention, “Sister, what happened to you?”

Luna at this point had dropped to the floor in exhaustion, likely due to carrying our entire offensive against that chaos spirit. “We are just tired Celly; our wing will be fine.”

“Not that, your fur, it is like when, when you first left me,” Celestia said in a quivering tone. Seems having a chaos spirit mess with your head is what it takes to break Celestia’s composure.

In response, Luna looked over her now just slightly darker fur and appeared to run her tongue over her teeth. She then eyed my helmet for a moment before looking down at Celestia. “Do not worry sister, the discordant magic effecting us appears to be wearing off,” She replied. Ah, at least she doesn’t blame me for that. “Now we must take thou to the hospital.”

“And you, your wings broken after all,” I interrupted, before she tried to stand up.

Author's Note

This took way too long. I had way so many ideas that couldn't coexist, that quite a bit of this chapter needed to be rewritten or deleted entirely. Especially the different ideas I had for Celestia and the Element bearers.

Hopefully this version of events is decent enough and everyone can just wonder about the parallel realities where this chapter was completely different.

23: An empty dream

Chapter 23

So, who would have thought that a random statue, would turn out to be one of the most powerful villains Equestria had ever seen? Certainly not me.

That stupid dragon pony guy caused so many problems in so little time, that everyone is still picking up the pieces. It’s not fair to just appear after a thousand years and ruin everything. I never did that.

“’Tis not fair,” came the irritable voice of one such pegacorn who’s day had been ruined. “We see no reason why We must rest, while our subjects deal with the fallout.”

As we walked down the corridor, I observed Luna’s left wing. It was still in a cast from the hospital visit and they assured us it was very broken. Not only that, but with every step Loony was clearly making an effort not to drag her hooves with how exhausted she was. I offered to carry her, but she still insists she’s fine.

“Well, it’s doctor’s orders I’m afraid. Don’t worry, you’ll be out before you know it,” I said sympathetically. They said she would be fully flight worthy in a couple weeks, which is pretty incredible. I’d always thought bones took months to heal up.

As we neared her domicile, the Pegacorn attempted to clutch at another straw. “What of our sister? She suffered a way less dignified fate than Us.”

Poor Celestia. I’d dread to think what that experience was like for her. Still, now that the statue was removed, she can fully move about unaided. The only real fallout she received, aside from the psychological, was a pretty bad case of magic exhaustion. Sadly, that appeared to be almost entirely my fault, since some armour accidentally drained her along with Discord.

“You know she has no severe injuries. Besides, Sunny is already resting,” I once again reminded the pegacorn. Sunny would probably be in charge of organising things around here if she was up to it. Luckily, we have Shining Armor and Cadence to take over for a little while. It’s a good job Equestria has people like them.

Once we reached Loony’s room, I opened the door for her and encouraged her to walk past me. Luna had made it very clear at the hospital that if she wasn’t escorted by someone she wouldn’t shout at, she would be galivanting off to the throne room. That being said, the walk had clearly taken a further toll on her and her demeanour had gradually softened. Hopefully that means she can be trusted to rest.

“Okay Loony, I hope you have a nice rest,” I said, while making to close the door.

It was then that the injured pegacorn decided to play up the kicked puppy image, as she turned to me with a slightly distressed look, “Thou art going to abandon us in our time of need?”

“What? Of course not. I thought you wanted me to help out the captain?” I couldn’t help the surprise leaking into my tone. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to be that far away.”

“That may have been Our initial plan, but…” Luna began before stopping to think for a moment. Once she’d found the words she continued, “We think thy company could assist our recovery.” How would that work? Maybe if she gets more magic she’ll heal faster?

After debating for a moment, I decided to fall back on the doctor’s orders. “But I might keep you awake. The doctor said you need rest.”

“Rest does not necessarily mean sleep Eclipse,” Loony said with a small smile. “I know, I would be happier if thy comforting form was nearby.”

Well, it’s nice that she wants me around. I was so warmed by her words that she made me cave. “Okay fine,” I said while taking a few steps into the room and closing the door. “You win.” The rational part of my empty helmet reasoned that my presence would stop Loony sneaking off to who knows where.

“Excellent, We appreciate this,” Luna said, while looking considerably less like the kicked puppy she was a moment ago.

“Sooo, what do you think constitutes resting?” I decided to ask.

A few minutes later, we’d settled into Luna’s routine of enforced rest time.

“How’s the tea? Warm enough?” I asked, as the pegacorn levitated the cup to her lips.

“It is very nice, thank you,” she replied. “Thou dost make an excellent pot. We may have been expecting thou to get help from the staff.”

“It’s just hot water and leaves, give me some credit,” I said in an attempt at humour. To be honest, I did have to ask where to get the decaf stuff from.

My attempt rewarded me with a smile, “Well, ‘tis just that thou hast never had it thyself.” I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Besides, that tea looks great to me. If Loony wasn’t injured, I’d ask her to wear my helmet.

Instead of making the request, I settled into a seated position besides her bed, while she contently sipped again. After a few minutes of awkwardly watching her, I ended up inquiring, “Need anything else?”

“Thou art not our servant Eclipse,” Luna began, while putting her tea on a table, “however, if thou insist, We would like another of thy patented head massages.”

After just a moment’s hesitation, I reared upon her bed and began petting ears as she likes during night court. A few minutes after receiving my attention, Luna happily sighed, before pulling out a familiar book and commencing writing.

That’s her personnel memoire again. It took a monumental force of will, not to look over her shoulder. She could be writing about me again. Maybe she’s okay with me reading it? I am right here.

Rather than give in to my curiosity, I decided to ask, “what’re you writing about? You know you’re supposed to be resting.”

Loony looked up at me for a second, biting the end of her quill before calmly saying, “this is relaxing. We are just filling in the events of the day. ‘Tis fun to record what went on, so We can look back in future.”

“Huh, that’s an interesting idea.” It seems like a lot of work. Can’t you just remember? Saying that, I don’t remember a lot from before I was here. Maybe I should get one? Out of interest, I decided to pry into the book, “do I feature in it much?”

She actually closed the book at that and started tinting red. She then calmly said, “just a little.”

“Can I see?” From her earlier reaction, this is going to be a no.

As expected, Loony responded in the negative. “Oh no, the diary of a Princess is for her eyes only. It is a very personal thing. We even keep a locking enchantment on it, in order to prevent Our sister reading it.”

Whoops, maybe I should let her know it needs a better lock so someone can’t possess her and read it? That might be a little suspicious. “Okay, I won’t pry.”

“We know thou would never betray Our trust. That is why thou art Our confidant,” Luna said in a praising tone, before returning to her page.

To prevent my increasingly hard to resist curiosity getting the better of me, I ceased my affections towards Loony’s ears and moved to the closest chair. “I’ll be over here if you need me.”

My ward simply nodded in reply, while continuing her writing. Seeing as she was content, I tried my best to curl up on the chair and sleep, while simultaneously hoping Shining Armor didn’t want my help. I’d probably just get in his way anyway.

After a period of failing to sleep, Loony called out to me, “Eeeeclipse.” Once I’d lifted my helmet she continued. “Our bed is a much more comfortable rest spot than that chair. Would thou not agree?” From her own lazing posture, she had clearly drunk her tea and completed her note taking.

“I was just trying to give you space. You know, due to the wing and all that.”

“Our bed is welcoming thou. We do not bite.” She finished playfully.

She doesn’t have to tell me twice, that chairs terrible for sleep. “If you’re okay with it.” With the invite accepted, I quickly stood up from my awful perch and approached Loony’s luxurious bed. Once close enough, I carefully climbed on top of the bed and tried to leave the injured pony as much space as possible. “So, is that enough space?” I asked just to make sure.

In response, Loony decided to close the gap I’d left between us, nuzzle my helmet and wrap her forelegs around my chest piece. “Of course there is. Our bed was designed by specialists.”

Okay, what now? Is she really comfortable lying down like this? What’s the rules in this sort of social situation? In the end I went for returning the gesture with my shoes and took extra care not to nudge her wing. As an afterthought I decided to ask, “erm, is this comfortable? My armour isn’t too cold, is it?”

“We have never been uncomfortable in thy grasp and nay; thy armour radiates such a wonderous magical warmth.” She finished with a content sigh. Does that mean I’m wasting my magic? She then proceeded to look into my eyeless sockets with half lidded eyes, before placing her head upon my pauldron.

After a few minutes laying there, Loony’s breathing seemed to calm as she drifted off to sleep. Well, that’s mission success. Doctor’s orders carried out and all that. Should I leave her here? She did say she wanted me close by. Besides, her hooves don’t seem to want to let go. Suppose I could help her out in the dream corridor. With that, I set about joining Loony in her hopefully peaceful sleep.

Upon opening my absent eyes, the dream corridor was already surrounding me. No slow fade in like the previous time. A sigh escaped me at the sight. A small part of me was hoping to be in the void. It’s just so quiet and relaxing, no one else there to bother me. Saying that, this corridor seems pretty empty today.

Along the starry walls, lay no doors whatsoever. Not only that, but that strange feeling of many people being nearby didn’t manifest. Good, that’s the way I like it, nice and peaceful.

Hang on, where’s Loony? She should be here, right? Last time, it did take her a bit of time to catch up. I probably just have to wait. Commence staring at walls montage.

Right on que (five minutes later) a single door appeared, bearing A very familiar moon. Finally, this place was just starting to get old.

Just as I was about to open the new door, it opened on its own accord, admitting one navy pegacorn to the dream corridor. As she stepped through, she gave me a nod in greeting, before saying, “thy natural skill is quite astounding. We are surprised thou made it here ahead of us.”

That’s strange. Doesn’t it just take walking through a door to get here? “Is it difficult for ponies to use those doors?”

“Only for the unskilled,” Luna began before looking back at her own door, “they only look like doors to us because that’s how we perceive an entrance. To the average pony they see nothing but their dream.”

“Huh.” Then how did Pinkie know where the door was? Rather than voicing the pointless question, I reviewed the dream corridor. “Well, I’m not perceiving many entrances today.”

For a moment, Loony appeared disheartened and said, “Our ponies, will all be out playing in Our sister’s sun.”

In an attempt to improve her mood, I said, “more like working. I don’t think many ponies spend the day playing around. That’s for later on.” Maybe they do, who knows? Probably Loony.

Loony seemed like she was about to reply, before becoming confused by our surroundings. “Eclipse, where is thine own doorway?”

I just shrugged my wings and said, “I just sort of appeared right in this spot.” Well, a few steps away anyway.

That gained me an incredulous eye. “Thou started, in here?”

Nodding seemed like the best response. That isn’t weird, is it?

“Dost thou really not sleep in thine own mindscape? We wish thou had told us sooner. A creature of the dream realm must have explored many a Pony’s dream,” Luna said, in barely veiled excitement. She’d probably love to have some sort of dream creature as a friend. Sadly, I don’t think that’s a very good description of me.

“Not really, I’ve only ever been here with you.”

Luna’s excitement dimmed slightly at that, “Oh, so thou hast dreams of thine own?”

What counts as a dream? Is this a dream right now? Is the void a dream? Is the pony land a dream? I feel pretty lucid most of the time. In the end I settled for saying, “not really.”

My answer only served to ferment more confusion in my favourite pegacorn. “If thou dost not mind, where dost thy sleep leave thou?” She decided to ask, while scratching her chin.

“Just the void.” Or an absent dream, as Luna called it before.

That seemed to surprise Loony and further extinguish her earlier excitement. “That horrible place. Does it still haunt thou?” Does she think I’m having nightmares about it?

“Not anymore. It’s actually kinda nice to be honest.” It sort of feels like home.

Recollection suddenly burned in Loony’s eyes. “Wait, is this void where we discovered thou after thy last excursion?”

I nodded in confirmation. To be fair, it was what was left of Celestia’s dream. The real void could be different.

“So, thou have yet to experience the joys of thine own dreams?” Luna asked, while putting a hoof on my pauldron. Don’t feel sorry for me!

“Equestria is pretty much a dream come true for me.” Hopefully not literally.

Thankfully, Loony started to smile at that and even clapped her forehooves together. “This could be a red-letter day for thou. We could try and create thy first dream. Oh, this is most exciting.”

Huh, wonder what it’s like to dream? “Sure, maybe it’ll teach me more about ponies and stuff.”

As I was replying, Loony had already turned away and had begun running her hoof along the starry walls. I sat watching her display for a few minutes, wondering what she was doing and how best I could help. It didn’t dawn on me to ask until she had started to get a bit frustrated. “Erm, what are you doing?”

“Looking for thy empty dream. It should be close by,” came the slightly irritated response. Pretty sure she called it an absent dream last time. “It was quite clear to us last time.” That might have been because I was in Celestia’s dream last time.

“So, we are looking for a gap in the wall?”

“Not exactly,” Luna corrected, “the barrier thou perceive as the edge of the dream realm is less a wall and more just the end of what exists here. The doors we see, are connections to dreams formed by sleeping ponies. Without the dream there is nothing to open up to. Thy dream should have a connection, however slight, for thou to be here.” Does that mean you can’t just go through the wall into a waking pony’s head? No connection, so no door.

“Okay.” So, we are looking for a gap in the wall. Well, if rubbing the wall is the tried and tested method, it can’t be that hard.

To my surprise, when my shoe met the wall, it slightly compressed in a manner similar to a cloud. The surface was also not as uniform as it appeared on first observation, with parts that stuck out and could easily be grabbed. Upon grabbing the strange substance, I found, with a slight magic drain, it could be moved around. Thus, leading me to my breakthrough moment.

This breakthrough was quite literal, as a small black hole formed near where I’d pulled. Hmm, seems I may have gotten lucky. Right then, how to make this into a door? With nothing better to do, I grasped both sides of the opening with my shoes and steadily pulled them apart. It almost felt like it was tearing apart. Once the opening matched my size I let go and to my delight it did not close off. Ha, success.

As I turned around, I attempted to get Loony’s attention, “Loony look at this.” It turned out, Loony was already staring in my direction and had carefully started to approach, without taking her eyes off my creation. When she was within shoes reach of the hole, she stopped and just stared into the black that lay beyond.

Without looking away from the opening she said with a hint of awe, “Eclipse, did thou, just rip a hole in reality?”

“Possibly.” It doesn’t quite look like a door. Still, it does look like the void. Not just a room with the light switched off.

After staring for a few more seconds, Luna decided to hesitantly poke a hoof through. Upon passing the threshold, she immediately pulled it back. “There are no dreams through there. Perhaps it would be best to close this for now?” So not an absent dream?

Well, Luna understands this stuff better than me. “If you think that’s best,” I said, while joining Loony in her staring contest with the apparent abyss. Wait, how would we set about doing that? Just grab the edges and pull? Well, nothing better to do.

As I leaned towards the hole, Luna gently halted my shoe with a hoof. “Wait a moment. This looks strikingly similar to thine absent dream,” she said, while evidently still contemplating my act of vandalism. “Maybe… maybe We could see what thy home is like for ourself?”

“Erm, Loony. I don’t live outside of reality.” That would mean leaving Equestria every time I slept.

In response I received a kind smile, “Did thou not say, the void was thy home for many years?”

She has me there. “Well, sort of, yeah.” Is that why I was stuck in the void for so long? It’s a different reality altogether. Then how did I get out in the first place?

“Then let us have a quick explore,” Luna said with a wink, as she stepped through the threshold. Really hope this is safe for her. Is there even going to be anything to breath? Wait, is there anything to breath in the dream corridor? Do ponies need to breath in their dreams at all?

Once on the other side, Loony immediately began floating. “This is most peculiar. Is it always like this?” she decided to ask while wobbling her now unladen legs.

“Pretty much.” The amusing sight calmed my, hopefully pointless, worries and I quickly followed after her, easily floating to her side.

Watching her unusual lack of finesse in this place, was actually quite funny. Especially when she accidentally rolled upside down and remained that way. “It appears the void lacks an up and down,” she said, with a hint of her own amusement. Glad she’s getting something out of this. The novelty will soon wear off.

“There isn’t much of anything to be honest.” Wonder if it’s possible to find waking pony’s doors if you go far enough?

I was broken from my musings by a light shove from the blue pegacorn. This resulted in both of us spinning away from the opening. “Careful,” I admonished the now laughing pegacorn. This place could still be dangerous.

As Loony’s laughter diminished, she started to squint back in my direction. “’Tis quite hard to see thou in this place. Our entrance is the only source of light,” she observed.

“Sorry about that.” Huh, her blue aura makes Loony a shining beacon to me. I’d probably be able to see her from miles away. That light does raise a question though. “What is that light anyway?”

The opportunity to further educate me seemed to further elevate the pegacorns mood. “That light is due to the ambient magic connecting all the creatures of Equestria,” She schooled, while lazily floating sideways towards me.

Really? That must mean the griffons are included. Wait, are primitive animals and pets included? What would a dog dream about? Fetching a stick? In response to Luna’s information, I simply said, “cool.”

“Yes, the dream realm is an amazing place, connecting every being together,” Loony finished wistfully. Well, it’s a shame I’m not really a part of it then. At least it doesn’t reject me. In fact, it seems to be quite easy for me to navigate.

Looking around the void, made me think of how strange it was that I lived, for so long, so close to, so many and yet so far away. All by myself.

At least I have my friends now. Looking back to Loony flailing her now apparently fine wings to right herself, would have made me smile if I could. That was until I noticed something strange about her aura. It appeared to be moving away from her into a patch of darkness off to her side.

“Ah, this place could have great effects on the future of dream magic.” From her happy mood it appeared not to bother her, but it still bothered me. That blackness near her, it seems different somehow. Like it’s moving, which is weird, because I definitely can’t see anything. It’s almost like, I can sense it or something. Something that’s blending in perfectly.

The moment of realization took me a little too long, but I got there in the end. Quick as my mist could carry me, I floated towards Loony and with a shoe batted at the darkness. As I thought, my shoe collided with some not quite solid object. Okay, what was that thing?

“Eclipse, did thou hear us? We could start work on a whole new school of dream magic together. Isn’t it exciting?” Loony continued in apparent blissful ignorance, with a blue aura that wasn’t quite as bright as before.

“Loony! Didn’t you see that?” I said in a panic.

“See what?” Loony asked. Apparently taken off guard by my tone, she began looking around.

A moment later, I could again see a strange shape moving towards us. This time, when I lashed out, it was with much more violent intent. This thing couldn’t be allowed to hurt my Loony. This again sent the thing away, but also gave me the sense of pain. Not mine, but something else. I hurt something!

“What art thou doing?” Loony said with some worried confusion.

“There’s something here in the dark.” Trying my best to focus on our surroundings allowed me to see the same black shape. It also allowed me to see a few others steadily closing in from all sides. “It’s attacking us! We have to get out!” They’re going to kill Loony!

“Ha, do not fret. There are no beings here besides us. We can sense all in the dream realm.” Loony decided to incorrectly reassure me, as I once again batted another shape away.

“Can’t you see what’s happening?! We’re in danger.”

Loony appeared slightly exasperated by my remark. “We shall say again how difficult it is for us to see anything in this place. One moment.” Following her statement, an extremely bright light emitted from the end of her horn, the likes of which has probably never been witnessed in the void.

The moment Loony’s light began, it could be seen clear as day, or night, the numerus black shapes around us. Not only that, but a few strangled shrieks occurred simultaneously to the shapes retreating to an apparent safe distance. This was sadly just a few metres away, where they began to circle us.

“Ah, it appears we should be leaving.” Loony said a little too calmly for my liking. She then asked, “What are they?”

How am I supposed to know? “Aren’t you the dream expert.”

“Yes, that is not an expert of the void.” As she spoke, three of the shapes decided to brave her light. I only managed to intercept two of them before they reached their destination. Loony took a swing at the third, but her hoof just past straight through it and became encircled by the mass. The sight of Loony’s aura being drained began once again, before being interrupted by a magical blast from her horn. Sending the creature away, slightly large than before.

“What are they doing?” A slight tinge of fear had started to infect her courageous voice.

“Trying to eat you!” I stated, while grabbing Loony’s hoof and floating as fast as my mist could carry us back to salvation. On the way, I hit a few more of the approaching… shadows? Before deciding to throw Loony to safety. My throw might have been a bit too hard, as she not only flew through the hole, but collided with the opposite wall with a dull thud.

Thankfully, the shadow creatures appeared to gather at the entrance without passing through. Thank goodness she’s safe. I don’t know what I’d have done. Oh wait, I’m still in danger! To my pleasant surprise, it appeared that was not only incorrect, but the creatures I approached all immediately fled my presence. Huh, lucky me.

“Eclipse! Where art thou?” came a shout from the safety hole, followed by a blast of intense blue light that scattered the majority of the shadows. On the edge of the hole stood one panicking, but alive pegacorn, that looked like she was about to jump back into peril.

“Wait there! I’m coming!” I finished, in an attempt to placate my friend’s fears.

“Hurry! We shall attempt to keep them off of thou,” Luna shouted back.

That light does work pretty well against these things, but not as well as their fear of me. “Don’t worry Loony. They can’t harm me.”

Now that things had calmed down, I carefully moved towards the opening. During the trip one of the shadows lingered a little close to me. Curiosity got the better of me, leading to my shoe reaching out to grab it. I could feel it writhe in its attempts to escape my grasp, which felt completely futile. After looking over the creature for a moment, almost on instinct, I consumed it. Hmm, now that tasted familiar. Not like magic, but it was definitely good. Wait, did I just do that?

“Eclipse? Art thou still present?” Came a more nervous voice. Evidently, she couldn’t see me through the opening, regardless of her shining light. I best hurry up, hopefully that thing didn’t distract me too long.

Upon emerging from the opening, I was immediately surrounded by Loony’s fluffy embrace. “We worried thou had been taken for a moment.”

“I’m fine, those things apparently ignore me. You seemed to be their target.” Looking back to the opening, none of the creatures were visible. They’d probably fled when I went past them.

Upon hearing I was fine, Loony promptly broke the hug and once again joined me in staring at the hole. “That likely means thy void was not as empty as thou first thought.”

“Guess not.” It’s probably hard to notice something that’s hiding from you, then again… I must have eaten them before.

Before I could fall into the rabbit hole of my past, Loony said, “would thou be so kind as to close this opening? Who knows what harm they could do if they find a way through?”

“I’ll try.” As probably should have been done earlier, I grabbed both edges of the hole and steadily forced them together. When the two sides met, they appeared to heal in such a way that no evidence of damage remained. “That was easier than I expected.” Wait, can they get through the doors I open?

Loony decided to interrupt my thought by flapping her wings and taking flight for a moment. When she again landed beside me, my look must have been inquisitive enough for her to say, “We were just ensuring things are as they should be. Our wings did not seem to function properly in that place.”

Good job I dragged her out then. “They’re working better than in real life,” I said jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Yes, We are aware,” the pegacorn said with a sigh.

Whoops, that was not the reaction I was going for. There has to be a way to fix that. “Hey, you know… if you want, I can be your wings until yours are repaired.”

That gained me a smile and hopefully took her mind off of recent events. “If thou art still up for exploring a dream, thou could explore ours instead. That will hopefully be more relaxing.” Oh yeah, we are here for Loony to rest.

“Sure thing,” I said while opening Loony’s dream door. “Mares first.”

As I opened Loony’s door, she gave me a slight look of apprehension before quickly hiding it with a smile. “Thank you, Eclipse. No one has ever opened our door for us before.”

“You’re welcome.”

With a quick look back at the once damaged wall, Loony said, “’tis lucky those creatures could not pass the threshold. Now come along, We wish to show thou a safe adventure.” She then wandered into her own mind.

Just before following her, I looked at my own mist and wondered, what if one did?

Author's Note

Hey everyone, just wanted to say thanks for the 500 likes and comments. :)

When I first started writing this I was hoping a few people would enjoy my dumb imagination. It never occurred to me that so many would spend their valuable time enjoying my work.

You've all made me feel quite happy these past 8 months. Thank you for all the support.

24: Paperwork

Chapter 24

Sometimes it’s nice to just have a nice relaxing day. The past few days have been devoid of crazy dragon, bird ponies and annoying unicorns. This has given me plenty of time to get back into reading a few books. When I get to the library, I’m going to pick up a book about the elements. It would be nice to know how our nations super weapon actually works.

A sudden familiar shout put pay to that idea. “ECLIPSE, THY PRINCESS REQUIRES AID!”

The shout was so abrupt, that it took me a moment to realize Lulu might be in trouble. She barely ever calls for me like this… that much. Without wasting anytime, I altered course from the library and began galloping down the corridor.

While galloping down the corridor, I passed many ponies who were casually going about their work day. The guards were even still at their posts, trying their best to look stoic. I was starting to wonder if I’d heard the shout in the first place, but ignored the rogue thought. If Luna needs me, I’ll be there and if not… well, I’ll just say hello and ask her to recommend a book.

Upon seeing my target, Luna’s office door, I started to slow down and only slightly barged through. “Luna, I’m here. What’s wrong?”

A few minutes later, I asked, “Erm, Lulu, this document says something about Equestria not respecting the land claims of somewhere called Taurus.” When no response came, I tried to look at the pegacorn to my side. I say tried because she currently had her head buried in a pile of paperwork considerable larger than herself. “Luna, this seems important.”

The only response I received was a dissatisfied grumble from beneath the pile. “I’ll just put this in the “to look at later” pile.” Carefully I added the sheet to a collection of paperwork I’d dubbed too important for me.

Ever since the battle with Discord, many ponies have been hailing Loony as the hero who single hoofedly defeated him and averted Equestria’s destruction. Alongside Celestia’s extended bed rest, this has led to a considerable increase in ponies attending night court. At first, she was quite excited with the new flow of ponies to her domain, taking each of their requests with gusto.

However now? Looking at her current dishevelled state, it’s pretty clear the novelty has firmly worn off. Having so many ponies suddenly respect you is apparently a double-edged sword. It’s actually making me a little glad that most ponies are too wary to give me work directly. Yep, I only need my small group of maybe four friends. Five if Rarity counts.

Looking over to Loony again, I grabbed another piece of paperwork off the top of her head. Hmm, another request for the crown to forcibly remove individuals squatting in the Smoky mountains. Well, that’s denied.

After a good hour of solid work, Luna’s office started to look more like a place of work and less like a child’s attempt at a den. The rooms other occupant had also started to perk up a little, thanks in part to the delivery of a nice cup of tea. “Thanks for the help,” a now visible Loony said, after sipping the life-giving tea.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t help you out, I think?” To be fair, once I got into the rhythm of removing the documents from Luna’s head and organising them according to their association, it became pretty interesting. Does that make me a nerd? Who wouldn’t find attempts at getting a 1% tax relief for steel production interesting?

“Be that as it may, We still appreciate the assistance. It is unclear to me how Our sister can deal with all this,” Luna said warmly, while glancing at her small pile of now organised documents and putting down her cup. Heh, I’d always try my best to help out Loony. That’s not even for the potential reward of her sharing her tea with me. Really hope she offers to share that with me. Maybe I should ask?

A methodical knock at the office door beat me to my request. That better not be more paperwork, we’re barely halfway as it is. “Wonder who that could be?” Luna asked with a knowing smile, as her aura surrounded the door handle. Hmm, was she expecting someone?

When Lulu swung open the door, I couldn’t help wishing for more paperwork. Instead of paperwork, there, in all her purple glory, was the annoyance Twilight. “Afternoon Princess,” she said in her usual upbeat tone, before looking to me and giving a quick wave and a quieter, “Eclipse.”

In response I looked over to her for a moment and said, “hey” before returning to my work. She isn’t here to see me, so I might as well continue sorting this out. We’ve probably got hours of work ahead of us and that’s without any distractions.

“Welcome Twilight, please come in,” Luna said in a more welcoming tone, while gesturing her forward with a hoof. The small unicorn smiled at that and closed the door behind herself. My friend then pointed at a tea pot, “would thou like any tea? Eclipse hast just made a pot.” Aww, I wish I had some right now. Hope she doesn’t take it all.

Thankfully, Twilight didn’t appear to be here to steal what was left of the tea. “Oh, no thank you Princess. I’m just here to explain a few more of my findings,” she crowed while holding up a hoof. That got me to lower my current paperwork, so I could see her. Okay, she might have something important to say, so I just have to look like I’m paying attention. Hmm, this pony wants permission to build homes on a farmer’s land. He’s seeking permission from the crown because the farmer is refusing to sell. Ha, another easy one, denied. With that, I formed my shoe into a stamp and stamped Luna’s denying signature.

As I reached for the next document an excited statement from Luna piqued my interest. “Really, thou hast managed to learn more of Eclipse? How?”

In response, the purple unicorn produced a small glass vial from somewhere. Its contents, causing me to ignore the next document entirely. “With this of course,” she said holding it in a hoof for us both to see. Within the bottle was a small, black piece of metal that appeared to be shaking about.

“Is that, what I think it is?” I asked hesitantly.

That caused the unicorn to frown slightly. “Yes, I thought you might want it back before we get to far into this,” she said while removing the vials lid. Almost immediately, the small shard left the bottle and flew towards my right foreshoe. Upon colliding with me, with some force, the shard seemed to cease to exist while simultaneously filling a hole I never knew existed.

While I carefully inspected my shoe for the shard, Loony piped up, “Ah, thou must feel good to be whole again.”

“I suppose, I do feel better now, maybe?” I said to Loony before turning to Twilight, “Erm, thanks I guess.” For returning the part you stole. I then proceeded to shake the newly whole shoe, due to a slight sore sensation that started to creep in.

My response caused the purple unicorn to awkwardly turn away for a moment, before her eyes perked up with what I assume was the desire to spread knowledge. A clipboard suddenly appeared next to her surrounded by a purple aura. “That shard was the key to gaining a deeper understanding of you, as it possesses many of your traits without any sapience,” she began reading off in a practiced fashion.

After the irritating feeling subsided, I started to pay more attention to our invader. “If it was so useful to your research, why did you change your mind and give it back?” With a slight pause I added, “not that I’m complaining or anything.”

For the briefest of moments, Twilight’s eyes shifted to Loony before meeting my eyeless gaze. “The shard was starting to become inert causing me to worry it might run out of magic. In an attempt to preserve it, I channelled some magic into it.” She took a quick breath before continuing, “The end result was the shards immediate attempts to move in a singular direction. From its behaviour just now, it was clearly attempting to return to you.”

“Huh, normally pieces of me can’t get that far away.” Wonder if I could have manipulated it if I’d known of its existence. Oh well, I’ll never know.

After my interruption, the unicorn continued in a slightly embarrassed tone, “The charging process did have some slight unintended side effects.” Don’t tell me something was broken. “As soon as the shard gained a little magic, it immediately began taking magic from everything around it, which included me and my close friends.”

That had me tensing up a little. “At least it didn’t kill you.” Wow, that is really lucky. When I’ve fed off ponies before it would have been all too easy for me to keep going until they had nothing left. Suppose the shard has a lower capacity than me.

Twilight then said something unexpected in a grateful tone, “I know. Thanks for that by the way.”

“Huh?” Thanks for what, draining your magic? That didn’t sound like sarcasm.

At my questioning tone, the unicorn elaborated, “from the experiments I’d been doing, it’s clear that the shard should have drained all of the magic it could find. Instead, it left everypony with just enough magic to survive. We all lost consciousness like Applejack did in your fight. It took just over 24hours for our magic to return to normal levels. Rainbow handled it the worst as she couldn’t fly all day.” So, I’ve got an angry Rainbow to watch out for? That’s nothing new.

Due to my silent contemplation, Loony decided to ask a question, “Is thou suggesting, Eclipse subconsciously chose to spare thou and thy friends?” No way, I had no idea that shard existed.

A nod from the scientist had me questioning that. “It’s the only explanation.” Does that mean every part of me is alive? Nooo, if it was me, I wouldn’t have eaten any of their magic. Well, I’d have tried not to. Hmm.

“Did you find anything else?” I asked with my voice betraying my new found intrigue.

That got me an enthusiastic nod in reply. “I managed to figure out what it isn’t made out of.” That doesn’t sound very impressive. Heedless of my sudden waning interest, the purple mare continued, “The material is quite like magic and can even form more of itself through its consumption, however once the magic is converted into that strange miasma, it is permanently changed into another state. A state our science currently does not understand.”

“That means I’m not an enchantment then, right?” You know, that’s some of the best news I’ve heard today. Heh, it’s the best news I’ve heard all year. No pony maker for me, hopefully. “How’d you figure that out from that little piece?”

In response the purple unicorn gave me a look like it was obvious, “to be honest, my theory is proven right just by looking at you.” She then pointed a hoof at me.

Her action prompted me to review myself. Erm four shoes, chess piece and smokiness. Yep, there’s nothing sticking out. “I’m the same size as I’ve always been.”

“That’s just not true,” Twilight began dismissing my remark, “your miasma is clearly darker and denser than before your erm, defeat of Discord. Don’t even get me started on your eyes increased glow.”

Miasma is such an ugly word; smoke is just more appealing for whatever reason. Wait a second, “you know, my eyes don’t glow right?” I don’t even have eyes.

Before the encyclopaedia could again dismiss me, Loony casually interrupted, “actually, they do.”

“What, since when?” Is there a mirror in here? It’s difficult to look at your own eyes. Especially when you didn’t know they existed in the first place. Maybe I can go cross eyed? The attempt left me staring into the darkness of my own helmet. An act that most people would likely find unsettling, me included.

When my vision returned to normal, a small hand mirror was hovering in front of me surrounded by a pleasant blue glow. Rather than question where the helpful pegacorn retrieved the implement from, I began staring into my eye sockets. It was difficult to make out, but upon leering for long enough, two faint red glowing orbs could be seen. If I wasn’t looking for them, I would never have noticed. Huh, that glow looks like the glow Loony’s eyes had when she last wore me.

Still, that begs the question how anyone else could see them. “That glow is barely anything, how’d you even notice?”

“We like to think we pay attention to all our friends changes in appearance,” Lulu said with a smile.

I suppose if anyone would notice it would be my best friend. Not even going to ask how Twilight noticed. She was probably watching me sleep or summit. Luna’s word gave me another pause, “So, the glow is definitely new then?”

“We believe that thy increase in magic from Discord has allowed thine eyes to shine brighter than ever,” Luna said warmly before somehow looking more deeply into my orbs with half lidded eyes, similarly to when we shared a bed. “We think thine eyes are quite charming.” Is she still tired? I suppose that’s to be expected. Even if she was showing signs of fatigue, the look she gave me was quite pleasant. It even encouraged me to keep looking back.

After however long it was staring at my friend, I started to wish Loony had told me of my new condition earlier. If Twilight noticed it, then other ponies might have as well. The staff are probably going to be all freaked out again at the demon walking around. Ah well, what’s done is done.

The stray thought broke me from the strangely entrancing gaze of the night’s warden and reminded me of another individual present in the room. Twilight was standing awkwardly, clearly waiting for our unspoken conversation to end. Whoops, to be fair it wasn’t my fault. It’s so easy to get lost in those two pretty light blue pools. Hope Loony doesn’t think that was weird.

When it became obvious my staring was complete, Loony also turned to our uninvited guest and cleared her throat. “Ahem, is that all thou came to tell us about Twilight?”

The use of her name caused the unicorn to jump slightly, “Oh yeah, I mean no, heh.” She then started to look at her clipboard again, while occasionally glancing up my direction. She’s going to ask me to take part in more experiments again, isn’t she?

Instead of that, Twilight began doing a calming breathing exercise before lower her clipboard and turning to me. This is going to be good. “Erm, Eclipse, I’m here to thank you for saving Celestia. I-I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t dealt with Discord.”

Well, I didn’t really do all that much, Luna and Celestia did quite a bit of work. In fact, Loony probably carried us all by herself. If anyone needs a thank you it’s her. Rather than complaining, I simply said, “You’d probably have blasted him with the elements and turned that snake to stone.”

“We would have tried our best, but Discord’s magic was very effective against my friends,” Twilight said trying to give me more credit than was deserved. For a moment her eyes looked down to her clipboard before she continued, “another thing, I wanted to thank you for dealing with the changelings.”

Has she got this thank you written down? Why now of all times? “I just wanted to help my friends. Don’t worry about it.”

That seemed to take the wind from her metaphorical wings, as she immediately looked down and scratched the floor with a hoof. “Yeah… right,” she said before looking over to Luna.

In the corner of my apparent eye, I could see the moon pegacorn make some sort of gesture towards me. Upon turning to look at her she made an attempt to smile as innocently as possible. Okay, something’s definitely up and Loony is a part of it. The weird atmosphere that was forming prompted me to ask the two, “is something wrong?”

While Luna’s smile became a little strained, Twilight became resolved and sighed before steeling herself, “I’m just going to come out and say this. Eclipse… I’ve been a terrible friend.” She then stood there and let the words hang in the air.

“That’s a shame, but I’m not really the person to give advice on that area.” Why bother the Princess with this? Suppose Loony is her aunt, but still.

“To you,” Twilight blurted out the moment I stopped talking.

To me? Since when have we been friends? This is probably the first time we’ve ever had a real conversation. We’re more like casual acquittances that would prefer to occupy different rooms. “Okay?” was all I ended up saying in an unsure tone.

The confusion in my response seemed to spur the unicorn on, “it’s been made clear to me that when Celestia requested me to learn more about you, I didn’t treat you with the respect you deserved.” Oh, I get it now. Her mother has given her a telling off and now she’s been told to make amends. Celestia did mention how Twilight was desperate for her approval.

Twilight then raised a hoof in Loony’s direction. “Luna has been pretty good at helping me see how I made you feel.” That got me to look in the smiling pegacorn’s direction with a slight head tilt. How would she know what I felt about Twilight? I don’t think we’ve ever spoken about her. To be honest, I normally avoid talking about her all together. Maybe that’s how she noticed?

Rather than ask Luna how she knew, I simply asked, “When did you two have chance to talk about this?”

That gained me a non-comital shrug of Luna’s good wing, “We may have visited young Twilight once or twice.” She then turned to Twilight with a grin, “We had some very productive chats.” A shiver seemed to course through the unicorn’s body at those words. She then started to scratch her hoof absently.

If I could, I’d have given Loony an incredulous look for that. As it was, my blank expression left Loony sitting there, innocently smiling away.

Before any further questions could be asked, Twilight bravely said, “It’s my hope that you can forgive my past actions so we can start over.” That got me to look back at the sad unicorn. Wonder how long she was writing down that speech for?

Loony was still smiling in my direction trying her best not to subtly nod at me. She clearly wants me to forgive Twilight. Huh, she’s probably the one who told her to come here today. A fresh start could make my life easier; she might even leave if I forgive her. This paperwork isn’t going to do itself.

After a pseudo breath of mist, I inevitably said, “Okay Twilight, I’ll forgive you. This once.” Off to my side, Loony clearly had to stop herself from raising her hoof and calling out in victory. Yeah, just this once Lulu.

A much realer breath was also released by the room’s youngest occupant, who’d even put a hoof to her chest in relief. “Oh, thank you. That’s been eating at me for weeks,” she said with the widest smile a pony could ever do. Except for Pinkie, but I’m not sure if she’s really a pony.

Wait a second, did she say weeks? That would mean… “Luna, did you seriously go and talk to Twilight the day after those experiments?”

She blinked at me in apparent surprise. “But of course,” she said like it was obvious, “We, ahem, I was just trying to look out for thy best interests.”

That brought Twilights awkward hoof rubbing to the forefront of my mind. The same forehoof as my once damaged foreshoe. “Loony, did you…”

A moment of silent past causing my best friend to curiously tilt her head and ask, “Did We what?”

Looking at Loony’s curious innocent face answered my question for me. There is no way she did anything to that little unicorn. That hoof rubs probably some sort of nervous tick. Asking the question will probably be insulting, so what should I say? Oh, I know. “Thanks Loony, I’m glad you’re looking out for me.”

That had a desirable effect upon the navy pegacorn, causing her to once again give me that strange half lidded stare, while her cheeks reddened slightly. “I will always look out for thou, my closest confidant.” I’m glad she’s there to look out for me. Anything could have happened if the sisters didn’t take me in. They really are benevolent people.

Luna’s look lasted for just a moment before she addressed the room, “We will be glad to put all of this nasty business behind us.” She then turned to the magic unicorn in the room, “many thanks for coming all this way. Thy promptness is most appreciated.”

“You know I was waiting for any opportunity Princess,” Twilight said with her newfound smile, before turning to the suit of armour in the room, “I know it’s a longshot, but I was wondering… if you would be interest in further study?”

That earned her a stare that hopefully can burn a hole through concrete. Really, can’t you wait five minutes? Luna seemed to agree with my internal assessment becoming slightly guarded. “We believe Eclipse will approach thou when he is ready. For now, We are both quite busy.”

Looking at the small pile of paper in front of Loony and the cup of tea she was neglecting, before taking a peek at my own mountain almost made me laugh. Some of us have. Nope, don’t complain, it was my choice to organise it like this.

“I can’t say that was unexpected,” Twilight began slightly downcast, “but just so you know, I’d be taking every safety precaution possible.” She then sighed for a moment before continuing. “I specialize in learning new magics, I was hoping maybe it could be a part of my apology to help you learn more about yourself,” she finished off with a weak smile.

Wow, looking at the deflated unicorn is actually making feel bad for her. Who’d have thought that? Maybe I should throw her a bone? Or some hay, heh. “What do you think I could get out of further tests?” Aside from a pain in the shoe.

Seeing the slightest chance to convince me to take part, caused the unicorn to hesitate for a moment before she looked back to her clip board. Once her checklist was reviewed, she more confidently said, “maybe we could discover where you came from? Hopefully it will benefit you to know more about your makers, wait, I mean parents.” She began biting her lip after that.

Hmm, learning about my origin should probably be high on my priority list, but do I want to be in this particular unicorn’s hooves again? It wasn’t the best experience. Saying that, she does seem pretty repentant and Luna clearly believes in her. The final nail in the coffin was the thought that Celestia would probably want me to get along with her daughter. Fine, let’s take that extended olive branch and hope it isn’t full of thorns.

When I returned my attention to Twilight, she was awkwardly fidgeting again, while trying her best to look anywhere but at me. Probably shouldn’t have been staring at her the entire time I was thinking. My lifeless gaze probably isn’t the nicest experience. Oh well, let’s just get this over with. A simple reply of, “okay, let’s give it a shot,” was all that was needed to once again make the unicorns day.

She immediately lit up and appeared to start a little happy jig before remembering her audience. Flush with embarrassment she calmly said, “ahem, thanks for not discounting me.”

“B-but thou remembers what happened last time, yes?” Loony suddenly piped up to my surprise. With my decision she’d lost her happy smile and was now radiating concern. Really thought she’d want me to go for it. Before I could confirm her question, she spoke again, “We believe ‘twould be safer if thy origin is left between the two of us.”

Well, we don’t know it yet and I’m pretty sure we never had any plans to investigate it. From the pleading look she’s giving me, it’s obvious she doesn’t trust her niece as much as she wants me to believe. Oh, I know how to fix this. With a quick nod to Loony, I turned to the discount scientist, “to keep Luna happy, I’d like some conditions to be met before any experimentation.”

“That’s fair enough,” Twilight remarked as a quill appeared above her clipboard poised ready to write.

Okay, these conditions probably require a lot of thought. Ah, I can probably just add more when I think of them. We can get the obvious stuff out of the way right now. “Right Twi,” I began, while scratching the bottom of my helmet, “for the first and probably most important rule, I’d like assurances that there will be no unnecessary pain. If it gets to the point where, hypothetically, you want another sample, I’ll decide if you can have one.”

The scribbling of Twilight’s quill followed my every word, before she said with an apparently reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, I’ve done every test I could think of on the piece you donated.” Yeah, donated.

Putting that aside, I continued listing off various rules for Twilight to follow, managing to somehow fill an entire page. The rules that I came up with didn’t seem to improve Loony’s mood until I finally said, “I would like you to provide any pertinent information for a test to both me and Luna the day before it is carried out. Oh, and lastly, I’d like Luna to come with me. If she wants to that is?” That last one is just for a bit of morale support.

My final request caused a blue feathery appendage to wrap around me and gently pull me to Loony’s side. “We would not allow these tests any other way,” she said slightly defensively. Maybe this was a mistake.

Not seeming to hear Luna’s tone, Twilight finished noting her new rules before happily saying, “most of these are easily done. Would you be up for a quick test or two today? Luna can look over my notes before we head to the lab.”

Sensing Luna’s unease, thanks to her healthy wing now crushing me into her side, I tilted my head towards the pile of paperwork and said, “I’m a little busy.” That immediately gained me some freedom from my fluffy prison, allowing me to reach a shoe to grab from my pile. “See?”

For the first time, the purple unicorn seemed to realize that she was interrupting our work. With wide eyes she quickly turned and started walking towards the door. “Oh, that’s okay, I’ll just get out of your manes. Not that you have a mane which isn’t a bad thing, unless that mist counts as one, anyway I’m going now,” was quickly rambled off as a purple aura gripped the door handle.

Before she could escape, Loony decided to prove she had no ill feelings towards twilight by saying, “Thou were not in our way Twilight, far from it, in fact thy presence was a breath of fresh air from the monotony We have been experiencing.” Huh, for a second, I thought she was harbouring some resentment. As if to prove my next thought wrong Loony continued, “if thou wishes, thy assistance would be much appreciated.” Oh, offloading your work on a novice, eh? We don’t need her; I like doing this myself.

Sadly, from the new found sparkle in Sparkle’s eyes, it was clear what her answer was going. “You want me to help with your royal duty’s?” she said in disbelief. With a nod from Luna, the unicorns horn went out and she quickly hopped onto one of the spare chairs. “What do you need? I’m ready for anything.”

With a sigh, I floated some paperwork from the central pile over. “These are some of the minor issues the nobles have brought up. Just separate them into important and to ignore piles.”

A light tap on my helmet signalled some disapproval from my back warmer’s owner. “Thou said those were important for us to look at next,” she said playfully.

“Well, I was just trying to ease you back in. You seemed a little overwhelmed to begin with.” That came out a little more defensively than I would have liked. Still, it made sense to give her the simple stuff first, seeing as the major issues literally buried her. Looking to her side She still hadn’t even glanced at the small pile of too important for me paperwork. Hopefully Twilight’s help will allow her to start reviewing that sooner rather than later. Those issues probably won’t go away on their own.

The nature of my reply caused my friend to giggle out “I know” as she raised a teapot and poured some tea for the now distracted unicorn. That was supposed to be my share. Really should have asked for some.

As if my internal complaint had been vocalized, Luna carefully picked up my helmet and put it on for a quick sip of her own tea. “Ah, thanks Loony.” A final thought struck me, before I returned to my work. Luna is way too nice to have done anything harsh to Twilight.

Author's Note

This chapter was meant to be longer, but I've been distracting myself rewriting chapter 2. If anyone's interested, its gained about 2000words on the original. That being said, the events that take place are all identical to the original chapter, so nothing will be missed if you don't reread it.

25: Minor Embarrassment

Chapter 25

Welp, it’s taken all morning, but between the three of us, we’ve finally reduced the Everest sized paperwork mountain to just a few mole hills.

On the opposite side of the desk to me, Twilight’s eyes were yet again darting across another piece of paper work. I will admit that I wasn’t sure about having her help us out, but the little unicorn works really efficiently. She worked through her share almost twice as fast as me and Luna combined, before moving onto my own stack. She really should get a job in an office somewhere; she’s wasted as the Pony town librarian.

While thinking that, I raised a cup of tea to my helmet’s wearer’s lips. She then began absently sipping it for me, as she pretended to concentrate on her own pile. Turns out, even with the two of us helping her, Loony still hates paperwork. To be fair, a country’s ruler really shouldn’t have to deal with such minor problems, as a pay-out for a pony’s fence blowing down. They keep distracting her from the more important documents, which I really wish she’d look at.

Everything was proceeding pretty smoothly for the three of us, until our new intern suddenly gasped out, “Oh no! I’m late!”

That brought Loony back from her probable day dreaming. “Is something wrong?” A hint of concern tinting her voice.

The unicorn had already jumped up from her seat while exclaiming, “I’m supposed to be meeting my parents today! This work was just too absorbing. My mum isn’t going to be happy.” She then looked over to Loony and asked, “I’m free to leave, right?”

Luna smiled and nodded in response, “of course, thy help has been a great boon to us both. Go and see thy family.”

“Thank you Princess,” Twilight said as she bowed to Loony. She then turned to my helmetless body and genuinely said, “thanks again for earlier, it means a lot.” Her horn then started to glow, while she began concentrating.

Before whatever spell the small unicorn was casting could occur, Luna made a sudden request, “Twilight, wait a moment.” While raising a hoof towards her.

Luna’s distraction ended the rooms newfound purple glow as suddenly as it began, leaving us with a slightly impatient unicorn, who probably wanted to teleport away. “What is it, Princess? Do you want me to describe how the requests have been categorized?” she said, while her eyes quickly darted to the rooms clock. “That might be a little time consuming. Eclipse seems to understand the system well enough.” That’s because I coined it a couple of hours ago.

To the annoyances surprise, Loony casually shook her head, “Nay, We just wished to ask if Eclipse could come to thy night celebration next week?” Night celebration? Is that at a night club? Wait, when did they organise a night out? More stealth communicating with Twilight I presume.

This was probably a pretty unexpected question for the unicorn, due to the way her eyes quickly flicked to my helmetless torso and then back to Loony. “Erm,” she began before licking her lip in a conflicted manner, “sure… I don’t see why not.” She seems a little tense. “That is if you want to spend some more time with my friends.” Oh, now that makes sense.

Before I could deny the clearly placating question, Loony removed my helmet and flipped it around to look me in the eyes. “Thou would love to go to a party with Us, nay?” Wow those eyes are really full of hope.

Does she really want me to spend the night with a group of ponies who flat out don’t like me? Let’s see, we have Rainbow who openly dislikes me and there’s Apple who distrusts me, but is polite about it. Fluttershy is a bit of a wild card, the only times I’ve seen her were during a few disasters. The other two seem okay with me. Pinkie and Rarity are pretty nice. Rarity has actually asked me to come visit again. Yeah, seeing them again would be nice but apart from that, it’d be a tense evening.

Refusal is clearly the best option, if I didn’t have those pony eyes burning into me so deeply. Dammit Luna, at least I can hide in the crowd or something. “Sure, I’ll go to a night club with you. Someone has to stop you getting too drunk,” I said in an attempt to show willing.

“We are perfectly capable of holding our alcohol thank thou,” Loony said playfully before continuing, “besides, We have been led to believe there will be no such beverage present within Twilight’s abode.” She then released my helmet allowing it to float back into its proper place.

Wait, I thought we were going to a night club? As if to answer my unasked question, Twilight sighed and said, “the slumber party guide doesn’t mention any alcohol being involved.” Wait, this is a sleepover? Oh, this gets worse. “Okay, I’ll let the girls know you’re coming along. Everything will work out. I’m certain.” The way her eye twitched a little didn’t fill me with hope. She’d even started taking notes of some sort. Probably plans to stop Rainbow assaulting me during the night.

Seems I’ve got to kill some dreams. “Huzzah, We cannot wait to see how modern ponies celebrate our night,” the dream holder said, while happily bobbing her head.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.” Dammit, my will is too weak. Wait a second, didn’t Twilight need to be somewhere? “Erm, Twi, don’t you have somewhere to be?” A little nudge should give us some peace and quiet.

With that, the unicorn’s once worried eyes shrunk to pinpricks, before her horn again started to glow. “SorryPrincessIhavetogo,” escaped her in a sudden burst just before she winked out of existence. Knew that was a teleport, unless she just disintegrated. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Not seeming to notice Twilight’s exit, Luna turned to me and giddily asked, “dost thou think Celestia would wish to join us? Our sister used to love our late-night games.” At least she’s looking forward to going.

“Sure,” is all I could say, while trying not to laugh at the thought. Don’t think many girls would want their parents to attend their sleep over. At least she doesn’t have to go far to visit them. Celestia’s room’s right down the corridor. That teleport was probably over doing it a little.

Wait a minute, she said parents, didn’t she? Parents suggests there’s a dad involved in the visit. Hmm, that makes me wonder who Celestia is married to. Shame Twilight isn’t here to ask.

“It will be fun to engage in some family fun like that, dost thou not agree?” said Twilight’s aunt who probably also knows Celestia’s husband.

“Yeah, it’ll be great,” I replied before formulating my question, “erm, Luna, I’m curious. Who’s Twilight’s dad anyway? I’ve never met him.” Who better to ask than the sister-in-law?

“Twilight’s father?” Loony said inquisitively, clearly taken off guard by the question. She then tilted her head in thought and began scratching her chin, “hmm, We believe Our sister once said his name was Light of the Night or something similar. We approved of his name regardless.”

“Yeah, it’s very erm, night themed.” Wow, I really can’t believe Celestia hasn’t introduced her husband to her sister yet. She seems to at least talk about him though. “So where does he live? He doesn’t seem to live in the castle.” Otherwise, I’d have met him.

My line of enquiry seemed to pique the pegacorns interest as she asked, “Why would he live in the castle?”

“Tooo be near Celestia?” I said no longer sure of myself. It seems like an obvious reason to me.

From the way Luna immediately forgot about her paperwork, a pretty easy thing for her to forget, I was clearly missing something. “Why would he wish to be near Our sister?” Loony said a little to carefully, no longer full of her earlier glee. Oh no, they’re divorced, aren’t they? Wow, that was a landmine just waiting for me. Ah, it’s better I stand on it with Luna than Celestia. It would probably have soured Sunny’s day.

If my theory was correct, Loony’s next line made little sense, “Granted many stallions would love to be near Our sister. Many of them seem to think the day is quite pretty to behold.” Her ears then steadily folded down in maybe fear or worry before she said, “Is this an attempt at displaying thy feelings towards her?”

Okay, who laid this mine field? Everything was fine until Twilight showed up. Bet it was her. “Erm, I think Celestia is a, erm, lovely mare. She’s one of my closest friends.” For some reason, that made Loony’s shoulders sag, giving me a strange sinking feeling in my hollow stomach. Okay, my favourite pony is having her day flipped upside down. “But erm, she isn’t errmmm well…” okay I don’t know what to say. I need to say something, that’s obvious. Okay here goes, “Look, the day can’t rival the night in beauty.” There, that makes sense, right? There’s so much more going on in the night sky.

From the way Luna just stared at me, I was starting to think a third land mine had been triggered. Way to go Eclipse, ruining your friend’s day after it was turning around. I was going to say something else, when she ended her motionlessness. She slowly moved towards me and gently nuzzled the end of my helmets muzzle before moving back. A familiar Rosey colouring to her cheeks.

In response I put a shoe to my helmet. Huh, that was unexpected. “For a second there, I thought you were going to be mad at me.”

For a long moment, my favourite pegacorn started to look back at her paperwork, pretending to read through the same sheet she had for the past half an hour. Hopefully it’s an important one. After a moment to recompose herself, she coughed into a hoof before asking, “so… why dost thou wish to know about young Twilight’s father?” The colouration to her face steadily fading back to dark blue.

Alright, don’t say anything to ruin it again. “Well, I’ve never met Celestia’s husband. I was starting to wonder if she was hiding him or something.”

A strange sound, similar to a squeak, escaped Loony’s lips before she held her mouth shut in a steadily expanding smile. When her smile stopped holding her mouth hostage, she said, “So, thou art wondering who Our sister’s husband… Twilight’s father is?” The strange smile threatened to enlarge with every word.

As I wasn’t quite sure what was wrong, I said, “yeaaah… that’s not a stupid question is it?”

Another similar higher pitched squeak followed my question. Something definitely isn’t right. Is it the phrasing? In an apparent attempt to reassure me, Loony said, “of course not… why would Twilight’s mother not live with Twilight’s father?” She then snorted and put a hoof to her muzzle.

“You know, your words say one thing and yet your face says another,” I said in an attempt to point out her failed effort to conceal my possible stupidity. One thing’s pretty clear, I’m getting better at reading ponies.

Unable to hold it in any longer, my best friend burst out laughing. Even going so far as to bang her hoof on the desk. All I could do was sit and watch the display of amusement happening before me. At least I can make her happy. I’m not sure what I did, but still.

After the laughing began to subside, Loony wiped a tear from her eyes before looking back in my direction. “Thou may have to ask Our sister about him. She is the expert on her own marriage,” Loony said with a smirk.

The way she’s saying it has me a little worried. “Hmmm, I’m starting to think this is a touchy subject. They’re not divorced, are they?” She’s probably trying to prank Celestia.

Loony immediately shook her head, “Nay, Our sister has never been divorced in her entire long life. Neither have I for that matter, or been married. We are both in fact quite single.”

Now that is confusing. “Single? How could Twilight have been made if Celestia has never been married? Unless…” It’s one of two options isn’t it. Either Celestia did some naughty things out of wedlock or… she isn’t Twilight’s mother at all.

Looking at the laugh once again threatening to explode out of the pegacorn caused me to groan. “Okay, I get it.” This opened the flood gates, once again allowing melodious laughter to fill the room. If it was any louder it would be shaking. Wonder what the guards thinks going on? “Please don’t tell anyone about this.” It’s embarrassing enough with just Loony laughing at me.

As the laughter began to die for hopefully the final time, Luna ran a hoof across her muzzle. “Fear not, Our lips are sealed.” Thank goodness.

A light sigh escaped me. “Well, this is one of the most embarrassing moments I’ve had in Equestria.” I’m just glad I can’t blush.

“Do not worry thyself,” Luna began warmly “Twilight and my sister have always been very close. We can see how thou would make such an assumption.”

She’s saying that because I’m a dumb cloud of mist that doesn’t know how fleshies work. Ah well, what’s done is done. “Can we please change the subject now?”

“Of course, we can. What would thou wish to converse about?” Luna replied after a graceful nod.

How about getting back to the paperwork, so we aren’t stuck in this office for too long? That’s never going to happen at this rate. Ah well, at least she isn’t going to mock me for this. What can we talk about? Oh, I know. “Erm, so, do you think I should organise a day of research with Twilight?” She didn’t seem too optimistic about it before.

From the way the warm atmosphere faded slightly, her opinion was likely unchanged. The pegacorn considered my question before saying, “Look, We do not think it would be such a grand idea.”

“But… you were the one who wanted me to make up with her.” This doesn’t make any sense. Luna definitely likes the little nuisance; she’s even going to a slumber party with her.

“Yes, and We are glad that thy makeup was a success,” Luna said genuinely.

“Do you think she’ll harm me?” That’s the only explanation. Suppose it is a genuine concern. Ah well, seems like Luna will be pulling the plug on the experiments. That’s fine by me. Still wish I knew what those shadow things were.

“We believe none of Twilight’s further experiments will harm thou in anyway. Twilight Sparkle is one of the most honourable mares We know. She will certainly keep her word.” Luna informed me in a neutral tone.

“Then, what’s wrong?” If there is no negative to the research, maybe a little research would do some good.

Rather than answering immediately, Luna paused and clearly thought about how best to word her misgivings. “‘tis Our belief… that even though Twilight has the best of intentions, having other ponies find out thine origin, could cause thou some unneeded strife.” The pegacorn then smiled after successfully passing on her worries about me.

“Why? Do you think there might be something, wrong with me?” I couldn’t help but let my tone fall at the end.

My question caused her ears to flop back in sympathy, “Nay, thou art clearly a sweet and loving individual. We would prefer no other being to be by Our side.”

“Buuuut?” Maybe I don’t want this answer.

With a quick throat clear Loony said, “’tis apparent that some things may be best kept between the two of us. Right up until We know they are safe for public knowledge. Everypony has secrets that they keep to themselves. We have the contents of Our diary, Our sister has hers and even thou. Granted thy memory hides those secrets even from thou, but those secrets still exist.”

Looking away from my friend I said, “but you were fine with Twilight trying to find my origin before.”

“Yes, We were,” Luna said evenly, “however, that was before certain aspects of thine origin were revealed to us. If not given in the correct context, thine origin could cause the little ones to fear thou even more.”

Still looking away from my friend I asked, “Where do you think I’m from?” Does she think my origin is so terrible?

Without skipping a beat, she simply said, “the void.” That’s where I always say I’m from. For some reason when she says it, it makes me feel a little… off. She doesn’t think I’m one of those crazy ghosts that tried to kill her too, does she? I don’t want to hurt anyone.

After a few seconds of staring at the desk in thought, a gentle hoof was placed upon my pauldron. “We preferred the earlier conversation. Thou remembers, yes? The one where I was single and Twilight was Celestia’s daughter.” Came the accompanying warming voice.

“Me too.”

“Do not worry thyself. When we find thy true origin, it will be a great day regardless of the result,” Loony continued prompting me to look up at her. What met me was a very welcome kind smile. At least she doesn’t seem to think any less of me.

Before anything else could happen, a golden aura surrounded the rooms door knob, thankfully interrupting the heavy atmosphere that plagued the room. Said aura swung open the door, admitting a familiar giant pony to the room,

Luna wasted no time in greeting her, “ah, sister, We are glad to see that thou art out of bed.” Thank you, Sunny. She may have arrived a little late to interrupt the gloomy atmosphere, but this’ll be a nice distraction from the left overs.

“Hey Sunny, nice to see you.” I said, my voice still containing a slight taint of gloom.

Thankfully Celestia clearly didn’t notice, as she held her usual warming smile, “thank you, it is good to be back. A little bed rest is good for you, but my legs were starting to get a little stiff.” She then followed up by stretching one of her rear legs behind herself.

Poor Sunny, it can’t have been nice for her being confined to bed for the past few days like that. Hopefully she isn’t traumatized by her experience with Discord.

Luna seemed happy to capitalize on the change of pace Celestia’s presence could bring. With a cheeky smile, she asked, “hast thou come to join us? We have nearly finished and could move on to preparing thy schedule for tonight.” Tonight? Nothing’s going on tonight.

With a curious tilt of her head, Celestia said, “I am not quite sure as to what you are referring to sister.” Clearly, she’s in the dark just as much as me.

Luna’s smile only widened as both her ears stood to attention, “are We sure sister? Thou dost not remember thy promise? Why else would thou have come here so quickly, after escaping thy prison?”

A moment of realization seemed to dawn on the sun pony as she only just held back a cringe, before clearing her throat, “ahem, no no, I am here to borrow your favoured advisor for something quite important.”

Why would she possibly want me. “Me? Sure, what’s up?”

“I am currently working on something and I believe your opinion would be invaluable.” The sun pony explained, while avoiding Luna’s gaze.

“Okay, I can take a quick look.” This paperwork can wait another ten minutes. It’s already been waiting since Twilight left.

Celestia seemed to brighten slightly as she half turned back towards the doors. “Excellent, I believe it will only take a few hours of your time.” A few hours! I can’t just ditch Luna like that. She hates paperwork too much to be left to its mercy.

Surprisingly, Luna only flicked her ear in thought before saying, “a few hours? If thou wishes to foalnap Our advisor for that long, thou will definitely have to come tonight for reparations.” As she finished, her cocky smile returned.

On the other shoe, Celestia only sighed before looking to me with a thoughtful expression. “Okay, that is fair enough. So, Eclipse, what do you say?”

Is she really asking me? She’s in charge and can probably just order me to come. Welp, if Luna is okay with it, there isn’t any reason to refuse. I just hope she gets through all the important paperwork. “Sure,” was all I said before standing up. “I’ll see you later Loony.”

“Excellent,” the sun horse said, before turning and gesturing for me to follow with a wing. “Sister, we shall see you later.”

“Oh yes, tonight will be most enjoyable.” Loony said while waving a wing. She then turned to me and said, “Eclipse, thou will not wish to miss the show tonight.”

That caused Celestia to misstep slightly, as I followed her out of the room. Wonder what they’ve got planned?

As the door clicked closed behind us, I began following Sunny to her quarters and asked, “So, what am I going to be reviewing? I’ve gotten pretty good with paperwork.”

“It will be something much more intere…sting,” Celestia started to say, before pausing for a second when she looked at me. She stopped walking just long enough to rub a hoof on the end of my helmet. “Huh, I did not think you were the type of pony for wearing blue lipstick.” She said with her patented smile, before continuing along our path.

Author's Note

This was meant to be the end of the previous chapter, but I never got around to it.

PS: It's a sad day as my kettle died today. I can't help thinking I over worked the poor thing. The worst part is no cup of tea with breakfast. How can people live like that. :(

26: Disguise

Chapter 26

“So Sunny, what work are we going to be doing?” I asked the alabaster pegacorn walking to my side. During the short walk to her room, I couldn’t help wondering why she could possibly need me of all people. She has so many ponies who wait upon her hoof and wing, that it just boggles the mind.

As we reached the door to Celestia’s residence, she turned to me and cryptically said, “the kind of work I think you will regard with the highest import.” I’m not qualified for anything too important. There hasn’t been a single official training day or anything. Why do ponies think I possess some sort of innate competence?

Waiting for us with a clipboard in hoof, was a familiar white earth pony wearing glasses. “Ah, Raven,” Celestia greeted before issuing a command, “could you ensure I am not disturbed for the remainder of the day. There is an important task I must see completed.” I knew that was her name, honest.

The mare in question only slightly looked up from her clipboard, while making a note and said, “Princess, your schedule is already empty on account of your health. No one will disturb you, however may I recommend you follow your doctor’s instruction and return to your bed rest.”

Celestia looked down a little at the fact she wasn’t needed before saying, “Oh yes, I will get some rest once we have accomplished our task. Thank you, Raven.” She then quietly mumbled, “that is if Luna lets me.” Likely without intending anyone else to hear her.

“It is my pleasure Princess,” the earth pony assured, while a guard flanking the door opened the way for us.

My friend nodded in thanks, before gesturing me inside with a wing. Once we crossed the threshold, the door was gently closed behind us with a small click, leaving me and Celestia alone. Still without answering my question, Sunny casually walked over to her dresser, before beginning to dig through various drawers with her magic. This left me standing behind her, still in the dark as to our objective.

“Sooo, when you say we are doing something important, what exactly does that involve?” She kind of has to tell me if she wants any sort of help. From the way she’s searching those drawers, it’s making me think she wants me to find something she’s lost. Hopefully it’s nothing more important than a hair brush.

“Well, now there are no prying eyes I can tell-” Celestia started to say before striking gold, “ah, there it is. Knew it would be at the bottom.” She then turned around holding a strange golden shield shaped medallion. “Sorry, Lulu’s birthday is coming up soon and I was thinking you might wish to accompany me to buy a gift.”

Oh dear, if I could start hyperventilating I would. This is not important at all, but at the same time should be made my highest priority. Why did I never think of that? Of course Loony has a birthday! What would she have thought if I didn’t get her anything? As the panicked thoughts rattled around within my metallic skull, my only outward act was to freeze even my mist in place and stare at Celestia dumbly.

She at first, didn’t seem to notice my predicament, as she seemed preoccupied ensuring the medallion sat comfortably around her neck. However, once the medallion was properly positioned, she looked up and gave me a knowing smile. “So, would you like to accompany me? I know Luna would love a present from her favourite vapour.”

That brought me back to reality, causing my mist to flow once more and my voice to blurt out, “yes-yes of course. I’ll go get my bits.” With that, I turned and galloped towards the door, using my mist to push it open and begin the short gallop past the bewildered guard to my room. In the back of my helmet, I swear there was a light giggle.

Upon entering my thankfully empty room, I made for my own safe space for valuables. My mostly empty chest of drawers and began collecting my hard-earned bits. Once a hopefully sufficient amount was collected, I formed a set of saddle bags and deposited them inside, before making a more measured retreat back to Sunny. Thanks mainly to the fading of whatever counts as adrenalin within me, I merely trotted back as to prevent any more of a scene from occurring. The idea of finally using my money for something giving me a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest piece.

Just as I reached the entrance to Sunny’s abode, a thought that ruined the warmth made me pause. Where are we going to go shopping? I can’t go into town; I’ll ruin the atmosphere. The ponies in Pony town know about me, but they still don’t want to be nearby. Anywhere else and it’ll just be a repeat of when I first arrived. Ponies running in all directions after the weird metal monster walks in.

“Is everything alright sir?” The guard flanking the door asked, interrupting my thoughts with a confused expression upon his face.

“Oh yes, sorry I was just thinking,” I said quickly to put the stallion at ease, before opening the door and trapsing inside. At least the ponies here have sort of warmed up to me a little. That could be because they’ve been ordered to, but still, it’s nice.

As I stepped through the door, Celestia was in the process of kicking off her last shoe. Her ears swivelled towards me, as the door clicked closed and she asked, “are you ready to go?”

Okay, I need to tell her I can’t make it. She’ll surely understand the problem. Maybe she’ll be willing to get Loony something on my behalf? That does mean thinking of it right now though. Oh, what would she even want? I really have no idea. Royals are so hard to buy for. If they want something, they’re surely going to have bought it.

Before I could correlate what to say, Celestia gave me a look of concern and asked, “is something the matter? You seemed so excitable before.”

“How can you tell?” My faceplate is as blank as it’s always been.

As if reading my mind, she simply said, “Just because you lack a face, does not mean you lack body language. When you left your mist was floating freely, now it is hanging low to the ground and barely moving.”

A quick peek down at myself revealed her observations to be entirely true. Suppose it makes sense for someone who deals with other species as much as Sunny to notice these things. With a sigh, I began reorganising my mist, as my friend approached me.

“What is the matter? Can you not think of a present?” she asked with a hint of curiosity.

No, I can’t, but that’s not the issue. Right just get out there and say it. It’s Celestia, the most understanding pony around... apart from Luna. “No, it’s not that. It’s just, I don’t think the ponies would want something like me around them.”

That gave my friend pause for moment, before her ears wilted slightly. She then said in a sympathetic tone, “the ponies of Equestria will most certainly enjoy your presence once they get to know you.” Well, that really doesn’t help me to be honest. They won’t get to know me just walking past them on the street. All they’ll see is this spooky shadow monster that may or may not eat them.

Without skipping a beat, Celestia continued, “besides, at this moment in time, I cannot walk among my little ponies without making a scene. That is where this comes in.” she finished by pointing a hoof at her new medallion.

As I looked at the strange accessory, Sunny lit her horn in golden light, causing the necklace to follow suit. After a few seconds of this glow, a golden flame enveloped the entirety of Celestia’s form, starting from her hooves and leading to the tip of her horn. I’d have been worried, but something about the fire was very familiar, leading to only one obvious purpose.

When the flames finally subsided, there was no trace of the elegant pegacorn I was just speaking to. In her place stood a much shorter but equally elegant pegasus. This pegasus had some slight similarities to Celestia, mainly being her fur colour and face. There was however the glaring difference of her plain pink mane, instead of the flowing aurora she usually had.

“I find using this form useful from time to time,” the newly formed pegasus said, in a slightly higher pitched voice than usual.

Celestia’s transformation was quite interesting, even prompting me to step a little closer to look at it. Upon further examination, it possessed a very similar flaw to that of a changeling’s transformation. Within her chest, the familiar golden aura of Sunny’s magic could clearly be seen, easily pointing her out to me from a crowd. “Huh, I can still see you in there.”

The pegasus just flicked her ear before saying, “it does not need to work on you, my friend.”

“Do you have another one? I’m guessing Loony used to accompany you on these adventures.” If these amulets work on me, it wouldn’t just solve today’s problem, but many future ones as well. Then again, no magic seems to work on me.

Sadly, Celestia said, “I am afraid not. This artifact was recovered a long time ago by a good friend of mine. We never encountered its makers.” Well, that’s us back to square one. With an innocent smile the small pegasus said, “by the way, I would appreciate you not telling Lulu about my use of this artifact.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “Is this some sort of forbidden evil artifact? It just looks like something the changelings made to me.” It even has a changeling horn carved into the top.

Sunny looked down at the amulet in thought, “It does possess similar attributes. I will have to ask Princess Skitter about it. As for the artifact being evil? That depends on how it is used. Let me say, that in the past, this artifact has caused my family a couple of issues.”

Wonder what happened? Did it used to belong to a spy or something? Anything could have happened in the thousands of years the sisters have been alive. Still, even if the artifact is safe for Sunny to use, I’m at square one with no way to hide my smoky form. “That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t really provide me with a disguise.”

“Does it not?” Celestia said in surprise, while looking herself over. “Well, it appears the amulet has not provided me with a full disguise either.” She then looked in my direction with her ears flopped in a downcast way. Her eyes did seem to betray some mischief though.

“Okay?” She looks fine to me.

“Really?” came the dead pan reply, before the mare started to pace in front of me. “It is a shame I have nothing to wear. Oh, woe is me.”

“Oh.” Fine I get it. It’s been spelled out enough. “So, do you have any preferences?”

“Preferences?” Sunny said with more mock surprise. “Wait, are you offering to serve as my garment? Not only that, but a garment that can be anything I choose? How wonderful.” Her tone became more playful as she continued to speak.

I just sighed before saying, “okay, you can knock it off. It’s obvious this was always the plan.”

“You do have to admit, that of all people, you can easily hide with another.” Sunny said in her normal voice. Suppose I can, but putting myself on someone isn’t really second nature to me. With her mild teasing complete, Celestia went back to the matter at shoe. “As for what I would like to wear? Whatever you find the most comfortable, as long as there are some saddle bags. Think of it as a quick game of pony dress up.” She then struck a quick pose with her head pointing in the air. Probably attempting to imitate a fashion model or something.

Well, while it’s nice she’s thinking of me, she’s taking a real risk here. I know almost nothing about pony fashion. Not even what colours they think go best together. Let’s think, she still has white fur and she always puts gold with that. Maybe something yellow, that’s similar to gold, right? But then what else to be? Maybe something a little different would be interesting.

After much internal debate and enduring the patient but boring gaze of my friend, I finally came to a decision. The easiest was to form my chest piece into the desired saddle bags, settling for a softer yellow fabric rather than solid metal. The bags had connecting material that went around Sunny’s front partially concealing her medallion. The interesting part for me was forming my helmet into a sun hat, with built in sun glasses, followed by a set of golden sun earrings. For the shoes, it seemed easiest to just shrink my usual and changed the colour. No high heels unless specifically requested. They suck.

Upon my transformation’s completion, I looked to my friend to get her opinion. Sadly, she only seemed to be squinting in my direction. “Eclipse, it does seem to be a little darker in here,” she said, while looking at where her horn usually was. “Quite misty.”

Oh, I forgot. Converting more of my form to mist had caused more to billow out from me. So much more that it basically filled the entire room from wall to wall. It actually makes the room feel small for some reason. “Sorry, it wasn’t this bad last time. I’ll just sort it out.” With a concerted effort, my mist withdrew to its normal limits, leaving me feeling even more confined due to its density. “How’s that?” That wasn’t too bad and judging from Sunny’s appraising look, she doesn’t think too badly of me.

“Much better and I see someone has been paying attention to today’s weather forecast. Very nice decision,” Sunny said in approval. I really should have taken a look at what the weather was like today. She then tilted her head to the side and pointed a hoof at one of the bags. “Hmm, would you be against losing my sister’s cutie mark? I know you like it, but I do not think it would suit me.”

“Huh?” looking to my right saddle bag, emblazoned for all the world to see was Luna’s mark. With a modicum of embarrassment, I crossed my non-existent legs and bowed my hat a little. “Sorry about that. I’m getting a bit too used to putting that on my different forms.” It took just a moment for the crescent moon to fade away to nothing. The last time I’d been without that mark was during the changeling’s hive infiltration. Wow, that was such a long time ago.

“It is nice that you wish to bare her mark, she really appreciates it,” Celestia praised with a warm smile, before raising her forehooves into the air. “Now come, you need to wear your disguise.”

“Alright, give me a second.” The donning process was fairly simple, seeing as I had less parts than usual. My bag was easily placed over Sunny’s barrel, while my hat sat snugly on top of her head allowing her ears to poke out of the top. My only real issue came from the earrings, which I ended up having to hold against Sunny’s ears. How would a pony even wear these things?

Celestia turned to her mirror, as she raised each rear hoof in turn for my shoes and slightly lowered my sunglasses down her muzzle. “Hmm,” was the only sound uttered as she looked us over.

The lack of commentary as she glanced at the mirror and turned to the side for different views made me feel a little antsy. “So… do you like it, or should I try something else?” It won’t hurt my feelings if she says it’s not her style. I know nothing of this stuff.

Thankfully, she smiled at our reflection and said, “Oh yes, you have just reignited the debate of whether or not I should have my ears pierced.” She then highlighted the thought by giving the jewellery a quick flick with a hoof.

“I wouldn’t, it isn’t the best experience having a hole punched through you.” I should know.

“It would only be a small hole,” Sunny said before sighing, “the main issue is that the little ones would likely not approve.”

“Does that matter?” she’s in charge. Sunny can basically do whatever she wants. Other ponies would probably even copy off her.

“I suppose not,” the Sun said, as her smile went back to its usual state. It was then that Sunny turned from her mirror and went back to her bottom drawer, before pulling out a small purse of her own. As she turned to place the coins within my bag, it became apparent that She possessed a strange adornment upon her back. A golden strip that stretched from the base of her skull, all the way to her tail bone. That’s Discord’s zipper, isn’t it? Can’t believe the elements never removed it. Probably due to the fact Discord was still inside when they were used. It doesn’t seem to have any of his magic in it. Nothing for me to consume anyway. Maybe if I consume Celestia’s magic around it’ll disappear? Should I just try?

Unaware of my internal debate, Sunny closed my saddle bag and glanced back to the mirror. “Ready to go?”

“Sure, it’ll be nice seeing the town again.” I’ll ask her when we get back. Don’t want to put a downer on the days start.

“Oh, it will, our little ponies can be quite interesting when they are not distracted by my status.” Celestia assured as she headed towards the door. They are probably more interesting when they aren’t running away from me as well.

Upon walking through the door, we passed the same day guard from earlier. He turned to salute his expected charge, before pausing in confusion. Well, we can just tell him who we are. The day guards should keep the secret, confidentiality must be part of their day job.

Celestia apparently thought differently, as she simply said, “morning Bright Wing,” before turning and walking further down the corridor.

“Morning ma’am,” the guard said, becoming even more confused, before looking back into Celestia’s room. Upon finding no one, he simply shrugged his wings, closed the door and returned to his position. Suppose his job is to stop people getting in, not going out. Still, why wouldn’t you question the random pony leaving your ruler’s room? Maybe knowing his name was enough to disarm him?

As I debated upon whether or not the guard was an idiot, Sunny had made her way through the castle’s corridors. It took the unexpected appearance of a certain dark blue pegacorn to return me to reality.

She was currently involved in a conversation with one of her loyal night guards. “Princess we’ve managed to get one ton of stone slabs set up in the courtyard,” the guard said flatly. He sounded pretty tired.

“Nay, ’tis not enough. We will require a further ton as a minimum, if tonight is to be worthwhile,” the Night said, while pointing a hoof down the corridor.

In response to the scene that befell us, Celestia just sighed while continuing her walk as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Okay, just act natural, you can do this Sunny.

Luckily, Celestia’s lack of breaking step and clear confidence of her destination made her seem like she belonged, which obviously she does, even if an unknown civilian pegasus should draw the eye. Really wish I was this good at being inconspicuous. Every time I’ve tried, all eyes just seem drawn to me. Probably due to using royalty as a disguise, but still.

As the thought finished marinading in my sun hat, Celestia turned around to look at her distracted sister and started to whistle in the most conspicuous manner physically possible. It was so bad that it felt like something out of a movie. A bad movie. I quickly shut her mouth gaining me a disapproving “hmm?” but the damage was already done.

Loony had already turned away from her guard and was now looking in our direction. As Sunny attempted to continue walking, the inevitable happened. “Excuse Us miss, but what art thou doing in this area?”

In her best impression of a defenceless rabbit, Celestia turned around and nervously said, “Oh Princess Luna! I was just leaving.” She then unexpectedly bowed to her sister.

That caused the pegacorn, who currently towered over us, to approach with narrowed eyes. Think the only time Loony’s ever looked at me like that was when we first met. “Thou art aware that this section of the castle is for Our loyal staff only… and thou art clearly not among them.” It wasn’t the best experience having those eyes judge me. I was pretty sure that I might have ended up in a cell. That might actually be on the cards today at this rate. Suppose it’ll be a funny story that we’ll laugh about in future.

A quick shake of Celestia’s head, that was almost enough to dislodge my hat, followed. “No Princess, I was only exploring. I am so very sorry.” That nervous tone probably won’t sit well with Loony. She doesn’t like ponies to be afraid of her either.

It seemed as if I was half right, because Luna’s withering stare started to soften. She instead sighed and shook her head in irritation. “Our sister’s day guard always seem to drop the ball,” came out under her breath.

I felt Sunny tense up at that, “I am sure they are doing their best.” Seems she doesn’t like her guards being insulted.

Another sigh followed as Luna gave us a tired smile, “that is entirely the problem.”

Please don’t turn this into one of those sisterly arguments. I could feel Celestia’s jaw stiffen as she prepared her next remark, prompting me to hold it closed. Really can’t let this happen right now. We’re supposed to be sneaking out.

Luckily for me, the night guard defused the situation. “Actually Princess, I think most of the day guard are out searching for your requested materials. It’s quite possible they are short hooved for their regular duties.” Nice, now we can leave without an argument as Sunny seems pacified. I even let her open her mouth into a grin.

Loony on the other shoe, had started turning a little red and slowly turned towards the guard before irritably saying, “thanks for that, sergeant.”

Seeming not to notice the Night’s tone, the thestral simply saluted as if he’d received some outstanding praise.

Turning back to us, my slightly embarrassed friend clicked her tongue, before saying, “if there were no guards to stop thine entrance, then We will not halt thine exit. Sergeant, escort this mare to the gate and then go and find Crescent. We wish to know where Celestia has taken Our precious Eclipse.” Is Crescent spying on me right now? Welp, hopefully she can keep a secret.

The guard saluted one final time, before stepping up next to us. “Ma’am would you please follow me?” he said with a pleasant fanged smile.

“Certainly,” Celestia said, while preparing to follow along. I had her pause for just a second to say one final thing to Loony, “thank you Princess. You’re as generous as they say.” Before allowing Celestia to continue us on our journey. Hopefully that’ll bring out Loony’s smile.

The thousands of years old pegacorn, who probably knew this castle like the back of her hoof, was then politely guided by the probably twenty to forty odd year old thestral towards the gate house. That’s probably a strange experience for her. This is probably the third time I’ve had these guards take me somewhere against my will. Technically we do want to leave, so it probably doesn’t count.

Upon reaching the gate house, the thestral gestured us forward with a wing. “Here we are ma’am, try to keep yourself out of trouble.”

“Thank you, officer,” Celestia said politely before again trying to have some fun. “Good bye Spectre, hope you find your rocks.”

Rather than question how we somehow knew his name, the guard’s ears drooped as he said, “I really don’t.” He then stepped out of the gatehouse ahead of us, spread his wings and flew off to either find Crescent or some big stones for whatever reason.

“You let us get caught on purpose, didn’t you?” I whispered into my wearers ear.

This elicited a mild chuckle. “Me? I would never try to prank my sister,” Sunny said loudly in a mock hurt tone, thus causing a couple of ponies to look at the mare who’s randomly talking to herself.

She then set off out of the gate as I simply said, “uhuh.”

Author's Note

I'm debating on adding the romance tag and maybe removing random. I'm not quite sure if it makes sense though, seeing as most of the story doesn't involve any romance and it is pretty random.

Also, for all those who were concerned. I have a new Kettle. It is functioning at a rate sufficient for me to continue writing with minimum delay. :)

27: Shopping

Chapter 27

Well, this is a bit of a novelty. Actually leaving Canterlot castle for once, and entering the city. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve left before with the Princesses, but that was at two in the morning. There wasn’t a single pony to be seen. Not to mention the fact I was distracted by a lost foal. Now? Now, there’s going to be so many amazing sights to see.

As we approached the stairs leading down to the city proper, I wanted to pause and savour the moment. When would I ever get to go down them again? There was one small issue with my desire. My wearer didn’t quite share it and so, when we reached the stairs, she just casually continued to trot to our unknown destination without a care in the world. Probably a good thing, seeing as we have a mission to complete. Loony’s birthday present must be acquired at all reasonable costs.

As the two of us travelled through the city we passed many regular ponies, going about their business. Many of them were dressed in a variety of ways, with the minimum level of clothing being just a hat, while others had their own shoes and coats. The occasional royal guard, probably meant for keeping the peace, was also seen. I like the look of this, it means my usual form might not be as out of place. The mist would still be a problem though.

My wearer just walked past the multitude of mostly unicorns with a happy smile. Occasionally she would smile and wave at a random pony who glanced at us. The majority of the time they’d wave back and continue about their own business, heedless of the knowledge that their ruler just past them by. After we waved at the twelfth random pony, it started to seem like Sunny might be after someone to interact with. Well, I’m here.

“It sure is busy out here,” I said directly into my wearer’s ear, in the hope of starting a conversation.

This prompted my wearer to pause and do a quick scan of the bustling streets around us. “Of course it is, Canterlot is a city full of life. Each of our ponies have their own unique reasonings for being here.” That’s true, some of them are clearly working, running stores and cleaning the streets. Others were like us, clearly seeking to buy things from the multitude of stores. Celestia then continued on her way saying, “as do we.”

“Oh yeah, I know.” Loony’s present needs to be the highest priority. I can enjoy the sites afterwards. Maybe Sunny would even be willing to bring me down here again. Maybe Luna would want to come. Now that could be fun. I bet a lot has changed since the last time she had a proper explore.

After another few shoe steps, a fancy building slightly on its own caught my eye. It was decorated with stars and a large golden plaque. Through its windows, groups of children could be seen sitting at desks. Hmm, that must be one of the city’s schools.

My thoughts on the building were interrupted, as my vision was turned away from it followed by a familiar laugh. “Oh sorry, some of these buildings are quite interesting in the light.” In my distracted state, I’d forced the disguised pegacorn to stare at the distinct building. Probably not the most helpful, as she couldn’t see where she was going.

“I am glad you enjoy our fair city’s aesthetics,” Sunny replied in her warm tone, before stopping to look at the building. “That my metallic friend, is the school for gifted unicorns. Many of our brightest ponies graduated from that institution,” she educated, while ignoring the confused glances she was getting. Giving a tour to someone they can’t see probably looks a little strange.

“Cool,” was my response, while I wondered if there was an equivalent school for gifted pegasi/ground ponies. It’s a little strange to raise ponies separate like that. It could stop them integrating properly. Saying that, ponies do seem to get on quite well.

At my continued interest, Celestia started to make her way towards the building. “Would you like to take a closer look?”

“Not right now,” I said hastily. If it’s a school, there’ll be a lot of kids in there. It would be a little creepy for a random pegasus to take a look. Especially one that keeps talking to herself.

That gained me a shrug of Sunny’s now smaller wings, “your loss. You would probably prefer our city’s library anyway.”

Now that had me interested. “Is it bigger than the castle’s?”

“Well, it is an entire building dedicated to books,” The disguised pegacorn said slyly. When we’re finished present hunting, that place has to be our next stop. There’s no way she’d bring that up without giving me the option to visit, right? Maybe I could convince someone to take me for an entire day out?

Celestia’s next statement broke me from my daydream of books. “Hmm, maybe we should start here,” she suddenly said absently. She had stopped outside of an apparently random store called Spire Designs. “Luna might appreciate something like this from you.”

What does that place even sell? The store front gives no indication and aren’t spires big, tall towers or something? Maybe they’re an interior decorator or something. “Sure,” I said to the pegacorn who had already started pushing the door open, eliciting the sound of a small bell.

“What does this place… oh.” From the numerous racks of clothing, it was quite clearly some sort of clothes store. “Yeah, this is a great idea.” For royalty, Luna doesn’t seem to own many clothes at all. The only outfits she really seems to wear, are her standard regalia and well… me.

“Since that time she wore you to the gala, I have been thinking Lulu’s wardrobe needs improving,” Celestia divulged, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. She then took a precursory look around the room. “Does anything catch your eye?”

Oh no, decisions. Does she think I know things about this stuff? Well, it makes sense that the one getting the present has to pick. Maybe Celestia should get the clothes and I’ll pick something else? Well, I’ll give it a go first. “Not yet I’ll have to take a quick look.”

“Okay, I think there are some nice dresses over there,” Celestia said while pointing a hoof. As she didn’t walk over, I took that as permission to wander over myself. She didn’t even acknowledge my actions as I started carefully shoeing through the dresses she pointed out.

Now then, Loony seems to wear black and blue most of the time, but she also seemed to like silver. Hmmm, well she doesn’t own much silver stuff, so that’s probably the best place to start. Upon moving over to a collection of silver emblazoned dresses, I became aware of a pleasant tune coming from nearby. So close that you could say it was almost directly below my hat. Seems Sunny has started humming to preoccupy herself. It’s probably pretty boring to be walked around a shop like a puppet. Well, everyone likes a little music while they shop, especially when it’s as melodious as this. I’m not going to distract her.

Aided by my wearers tune, my searching eventually narrowed to a selection of four dresses. These dresses were much thinner than Loony’s previous, lacking the extended skirt that dragged along the ground. That length constantly rubbing across the ground was pretty annoying for me. Good for letting me pick things up though and to throw a changeling or two around.

Anyway, ignoring the shorter length, the four dresses only had the fact they were silver in common. Everything else about their style was completely different and being the uncultured ball of gas I am, there’s no way to distinguish which is best. Maybe material is an important quality to review? How to go about checking that?

With that thought, I glanced at the furry forelegs I currently had access to. Oh right, that makes sense. Lifting up one of my wearer’s legs, I began rubbing it on a random dress to see how nice the material was. It didn’t feel impressive to be honest. There was nothing wrong with it per say, as it wasn’t rough and didn’t catch. It’s just something you would hardly notice. Maybe that’s a good thing? Wonder how I feel to ponies?

While inspecting the various dresses, it suddenly dawned on me that the pleasant sound resounding through my hat had ceased. Celestia had stopped humming. That thought made me freeze in place, like I’d been caught with my shoe against the Discord statue again. I’m doing a weird thing aren’t I?

“What are you doing?” came the expected confused words, as the disguised pegacorn looked at her raised foreleg.

Okay, I just need to own my actions and it’ll all be fine. “Just trying to test them out. Does that material feel okay to you?” Right, that response hopefully nailed it.

Thankfully, my words elicited a light giggle from my wearer, “sure, it feels fine. That is a pretty unusual method for testing clothing. Normally ponies would try them on.” Well, I can’t try on clothes thank you very much.

She then moved her foreleg over to another dress and picked up its hanger. “I kind of like this one.”

Moving my sunglasses down Celestia’s muzzle, I gave the garment a closer look. “Might be a little plain for Loony.” One solid colour without any patterns? Loony deserves better than that.

That gained me a head tilt, “plain does not have to mean bad. Many ponies like a less extravagant style.”

As Sunny finished speaking, a haughty laugh echoed from behind us. “Oh, my dear, that dress doesn’t match your divine coat in the slighted. One moment and I shall show you the way,” an unknown pony said.

By the time Celestia turned to speak to her, the light blue unicorn had already made her way to the other side of the shop and began searching through another rack. “It is okay, I am here to buy for somepony else,” Celestia said politely, while we watched the mare continue her search.

The mare in question seemed to completely ignore my wearer’s words and continued to diligently search, leaving our eyeline when she walked behind another set of displays. I could only sigh when Sunny decided the best thing to do, was put her selection back and politely wait for the shop assistant to return. In an attempt to reassure me she for once whispered, “do not worry, we can politely refuse her when she gets back.” She’s wasting our precious time to get Loony’s present. Maybe we should tell her to go away? That’s probably a bit rude.

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long for the mare to return, cargo in tow. Said cargo, was a very expensive looking bright golden dress. The kind of golden dress that a certain Sun pegacorn might want to wear. “Voila, this one should help accentuate that precious coat of yours. It’ll even go with those golden shoes marvellously,” our anchor explained. Do my shoes really look that expensive? This mare probably thinks we’re easy marks.

Luckily for me, Celestia had her eye on the true prize. “That is very nice but…” she started to say before hesitating. Her eyes started to wander over the fiery trim of the dress.

Simultaneously, I noticed a knowing gleam enter the sales pony’s eyes, “yes, yes, I see it now. This should fit your sunny disposition spectacularly.” The dress then hovered ever closer to Celestia’s intrigued face. Seems I wasn’t so lucky after all.

With a slight ear flick, Sunny raised a hoof to touch the dress. “That dress truly looks lovely, but…” she started to say before looking down at my shoes. She then, without looking away from me, asked “Can I try it on?” Seriously, what happened to polite refusal?

Before I could answer, the unnamed mare nodded in response, while hovering the dress over Sunny’s back. “But of course you can,” she said, while waving a hoof for us to follow, “there are some changing rooms over here. I’ll be right outside to see how dashing you’ll look.”

Sunny just politely nodded, before carrying the dress inside and closing the door. Once we were obscured from view, Sunny’s ears folded back while her head drooped in an apparently guilty expression. She then carefully said, “do you think this dress looks nice with your shoes?”

“Erm, sure,” I said while mirroring her tone. Does she think I’m going to be mad at her for getting something for herself?

“Would you mind if I take you off for a minute? I will be quick,” she said while looking over to the slightly garish outfit.

An unsure “Yes?” escaped my lipless hat. “You don’t have to ask permission for that.” How weird would it be if I forced my friends to wear me?

Sunny seemed to brighten back up at that and after saying “thank you” began removing my bags, earrings, hat and sunglasses. She then folded me into a neat pile on top of a provided bench, making sure to place my sunglasses on top so I could still see.

As I watched her dress herself a thought struck me. If she were to leave me here, I’d have no means of disguise, effectively leaving me helpless to the stares of passing ponies. Sunny probably asked permission because of that. That was nice of her.

Once her slightly less sentient attire was donned, Sunny did a little spin in the manner of a dog chasing its tail, before letting her gaze settle on my resting sunglasses. “So, it looks good, right?” the pseudo pegasus asked, the usual smile once again upon her face.

“Yes, I like the… erm… patterns?” Please don’t ask me of all people about these things. My opinion has got to be the least qualified.

Luckily, my terrible disaster of a compliment didn’t appear to dampen Celestia’s mood. Probably because she expected it. She only slightly shook her head before opening the door to the awaiting shop assistant.

“Oh my, a fiery dress for a fiery mare,” the unicorn said, her mouth open in forced awe, as she gestured my friend forward. “Come come, get a feel for it. You know what they say? The dress chooses the wearer.” My friend chose to obey the irritating sales pony’s words and walked out of the room, leaving me behind. Unexpectedly, the sales pony took the time to have a quick scan through the changing rooms interior with a confused expression, before closing the door. She might have heard me talking there. Oh well, she can think Sunny’s talking to a ghost as much as she wants.

With the door closed, I could only really make out a few muffled words, as the two ponies moved away from the room. The only thing left for me to do was to sigh and wait alone in the box. This really does suck, without Celestia I really am stuck with nothing to do but twiddle my shoes. Wait a second, where are my shoes? They were right here, right?

It was then that I noticed the light pressure that comes with a pony walking in shoe steps. This was quickly followed by a light pull in the door’s direction, causing my hat and glasses to fall off the bench. Oh, dammit Sunny. I should have known after she said she liked how it went with my shoes. Okay, it’s fine. She’ll be back soon.

From the way the pull lessened and increased sporadically, it was clear she was walking up and down an aisle. That made it ever so more irritating. While there was a period where I could relax, it came without warning where I was suddenly pulled towards the changing room door. How longs she going to be? It’s already been ten seconds over my limit.

With a groan, I debated my options. Option one, cut my shoes off from myself. I’ve done it before with a small amount of mist, I can do it again. The only problem is that it kinda hurts. Option two, drag Celestia back in here. That’s the less painful option and she’ll understand, she’s the most understanding pony I’ve met.

The answer was pretty obvious to be honest, so concentrating on the walking pattern, I halted the pegacorns little patrol and turned her around. It was then easy to start marching her back to my little prison. As she neared, I could hear the shop assistant’s voice sounding slightly confused while Celestia continued to speak normally. Suppose my blind shoe steps might have looked a little janky.

When she got close enough, I caught the final part of their conversation. “I think I will purchase this, it is lovely. Right after I open this door,” came the barely audible words of my shoe’s wearer, right as an audible thunk occurred on the doors outside. Uh-oh.

That sound probably didn’t mean anything good. The accompanying, “are you okay?” from the shop assistant helped reinforce that idea. Probably should have let her finish the journey herself. Trying to prove a point wasn’t worth it.

A moment after I let Celestia move, the door swung open admitting one pegasus who was gently rubbing the end of her muzzle. “Do not worry, this dresses’ beauty had me lost in thought,” she said to the apparently concerned shop assistant before she stepped right on top of me and closed the door.

Apparently, feeling my sunglasses press down to the floor with the slightest crunch wasn’t a pleasant feeling for the pegacorn. It wasn’t for me either to be honest. Her response was immediate, in that she winced before very slowly raising her hoof. When she finally brought herself to look down, she let out a breath in relief. “Oh, thank goodness, I thought I had broken you there,” she said after putting my glasses back on the bench. Well, she had, but I just fixed it. It turns out not to be too difficult really.

“It’s fine. I might have deserved it for walking you into the door.” At least she’s forgotten to be mad at me for that. If she ever was.

“No pony deserves their eyes to be destroyed,” the sun pony said while removing her garment. “Besides, Lulu would probably have had my head if it was on purpose.”

“That’s a little bit of an over exaggeration.” From the way Sunny bobbed her head side to side, it seemed she didn’t agree with me.

As she once again donned my form, Celestia decided to move the conversation along. “Sorry I forgot about your shoes. They go so nicely with my coat.”

“Thanks, I made them myself.”

“You know, if it were possible, I would love to commission a set from you,” the sun pony added with a smile before moving to open the door. Her dress draped across our back.

“Clothes designed by clothes? That could take off,” I said jokingly. Then again, maybe I could make some for her? That shard Twilight had was separate for such a long time and I never noticed. I’d just have to stop them trying to get back to me. Hmm, maybe that could be an idea for Luna’s present?

Once Celestia opened the door, we were met with the curious waiting shop assistant. “Is everything okay?” she asked, a slight hint of concern tinting her voice. She probably thinks Sunny’s crazy. Suppose it doesn’t really matter, seeing as this pegasus won’t exist after today.

“Oh, I am fine. The world got away from me for a little bit. Sorry about knocking over those racks,” Sunny replied while scratching the back of her head. Behind the shop assistant, an entire line of racks had been carelessly knocked aside. Whoops, seems walking blind is a terrible idea. She then used a wing to hold up her dress, “I think I am quite ready to make this purchase.”

“Excellent, I’ll get that rung up for you Mrs,” the nameless shop assistant said without a trace of her earlier concern. Clearly, she was only interested in making the sale.

As the unicorn rushed off towards the till, I decided to ask, “are you really going to buy that thing? It won’t fit you.”

“Of course. You said it yourself, this looks quite nice on Sunny Skies,” she said a little too loudly. Starting to think she wants the shop assistant to think she’s crazy. It is partially my fault, maybe I should have kept quiet so she didn’t feel the need to reply?

If she overheard our conversation, she didn’t show it, as she happily entered the sale into her till and took Celes… Sunny Skies’ money. She’s using my nickname for her disguise. Well at least she appreciates it.

“That’s gone through. Are you interested in anything else?” our sales pony asked, probably in the hopes of selling something else expensive to the easy mark.

Celestia started to say, “hmm ye…”

Before I interrupted her in her own voice, “No, thank you. I’ve got what I came for.”

That earned me the slightest of frowns from the pegacorn. “Well, if I am not interested in buying anything else, I will see you another time.” She then turned and went to leave the store, a disappointed sale’s pony waving behind us, probably wondering if she could have gotten more money out of the crazy mare.

The moment the door closed behind us, Sunny looked down at me questioningly, “what about Lulu’s present? Do you not like clothes shopping?” She actually sounded pretty disappointed.

“As far as I can recall, this is my first-time shopping for anything, it was fine. My main concern is that those dresses are going to be way too small for you in your regular form.” Normal ponies sure are tiny, then again, so am I right now. It really does feel cramped in this form. Wonder if Celestia feels the same way?

That gained me a slight pout, “they can easily be resized.” Really? Is that with magic or someone physically adding material? Suppose it makes more sense as to why she bought that dress now. Wait a second, she didn’t think I was calling her fat just then, did she? No matter how hard Luna tries to convince everyone, Sunny isn’t fat. Just heavier than the average pony.

Deciding to skim over my potential insult, I said, “none of those dresses seemed to suit her anyway.”

“Hmm, what would you have had in mind?” Sunny asked curiously as she began making her way down the road.

After a slight pause to think about it I came up with a groundbreaking response. “Something different.” Yep, that’s helpful.

“Different huh,” from the way she said that, she saw my words as equally ‘helpful’.

“Okay erm, how about more patterns, more mystique. Something that reflects her magical nature, you know?” That’s a better response.

“Sounds like somepony is describing themselves,” my wearer teased with a knowing smile. “I am sure she would love for you to be her dress again.” That’s not what I meant.

“I wasn’t quite thinking that, but you did give me some ideas before.” If I can make something for Loony, it could be the best kind of present. If I get good at it, Celestia could even end up with those shoes she asked for. She is probably my second-best friend after Loony.

“Well, we can continue looking around town for now, to see if you get any more,” Sunny said while looking back at the clothes store with a hint of disappointment. Wonder if she wanted to spend the full time in there? Clothes shopping can’t be that high up on her to do list. Ponies are naked most of the time anyway.

“If you like, I can mimic your new dress,” I offered, in an attempt to make her forget about the shop.

“No thank you, it is not really suitable for out here,” she supposed without breaking her stride. “Anyway, I am not sure what it is, but your material is a lot nicer than the real thing. You might end up making me jealous of Lulu.”

“Fair enough.” Seems I actually do a good job.

After meandering down Canterlot’s streets for a while, it became clear Celestia didn’t actually have any further destinations in mind. She probably planned for us to get Loony’s present there and then just explore the rest of the time. I mean we are still exploring, just with a slight goal in mind. The view around here is quite nice, they’ve got some pretty interesting statues out here. I bet none of them will come to life.

Eventually, we made it to a familiar wide-open space. Familiar because it was where Luna took us to star gaze after helping out that foal. That was a good night. It’s pretty different during the day. For one thing, it is a little on the busy side. Still, the fountains in the middle are nicer in the day light. Sunny seemed to appreciate the area too as she had, to my delight, stopped to take in the view.

There’s also a strange beeping sound drifting on the wind. Instead of turning my wearers head to look, I just slightly tilted my sunglasses. Sunny’s interest was quite clearly on something else in the opposite direction. What lay before my tinted lenses almost made me double take. Flashing lights were adorned to a building labelled as ‘the arcade’, the clear origin of the sound being that of actual real pony video games.

I’d have made Sunny’s mouth fall open, if it hadn’t filled up with saliva first. Wow, what is she looking at to almost cause her to drool? The answer was a large cake store with ponies sitting outside enjoying deserts. Well, that makes sense. Wait, that gives me an idea.

“Erm, Sunny have you seen that arcade over there?”

That brought my friend back to reality. She stealthily swallowed her saliva before saying, “hmm, oh yes. That place contains something referred to as electronic games. They are a relatively new invention that the young ponies seem to enjoy.” After her quick glance at the building, she immediately looked back to the cake store.

“Can we go in? It might be fun,” I suggested, attempting to lay the groundwork for my plan.

“We should probably get a gift for Lulu first,” the disguised pegacorn said, predictably shooting down the idea.

“Come on, it’ll only take a second. Then we could go and get a cake or something.” There, that should increase my chances. She was probably going to get one anyway, but this way we both get a thing.

Happily, the pegacorn took the bait and started to walk towards the building. “That is a great idea, this can count as our break,” Celestia reasoned with herself.

In my slight excitement, I made Celestia increase her pace to a light trot which from the laughter did not go unnoticed. “I’m just really interested in what ponies do for fun, okay? I haven’t seen that much,” I defended my actions as much as possible.

“It is fine, it might be good to see what keeps the little ones entertained.”

Upon entering the structure, the noise increased tenfold due to the large number of ponies enjoying the games. Many of them were fun sized, but quite a few were clearly adults. There were even ponies with marks that denoted joy sticks and CDs. That is the kind of mark I can get behind.

The closest game to the door, involved two pixel ponies dressed in various garb fighting. If I only get one go on something, that’s the game for me. Shame it’s already in use. A further shame, because Celestia had walked us over to a cabinet containing a large number of stuffed toys with a claw at the top. Clearly, we have slightly different interests. Luna would probably want to try the fighting game.

Off to our side, a pint size pony was operating a similar machine with a small joystick and failing to get a teddy bear. It took the little guy three tries before he gave up. That’ll be us soon.

“There is quite a large selection of rewards within this machine,” the oblivious pegacorn pointed out, still focused on the machine before us.

“Yeah, but no one ever wins any.” These things are always rigged; besides I have enough plushies.

Heedless of my words, Sunny pulled out a single bit, “the two of us are likely more skilled than a couple of foals.”

“Somehow, I doubt that.” These kids have probably spent way more time in here.

That caused a smile to crack on Sunny’s face, as she gestured to a particular prize. “Look, you have to win that. It is almost fate.”

Inside the machine were numerous toys, including replicas of the Princesses themselves. Not only that, but there was one particular one that stood out from the rest. It was a stuffed toy of Luna, similar to the ones in my room except for one aspect. The toy was wearing an okay replica of me. That’s probably come from the pictures of Loony after Discord’s defeat. Those newspaper articles were pretty interesting.

“I think Lulu would love that; do you not agree?” Sunny said knowingly, while hovering her bit around the machine’s coin slot. Luna might actually enjoy the sentiment of that thing. Yeah, this is a good idea, as it can go on my shelf if she doesn’t want it.

“Okay, you’ve got me,” I sighed out in mock irritation, while simultaneously using a shoe to push the bit into the machine. One try can’t hurt.

Cut to thirty seconds later, on my third attempt the claw actually gripped the toy. Celestia had even started to congratulate me, just as the claw decided to let it go, dropping it the inch it had risen back into the cabinet. I couldn’t help the growl that escaped my wearer. “Stupid rigged piece of rubbish.” They’re using my image; can’t I get a free one?

“Can I have a try? I think I see the method,” Sunny asked as a curtesy, already putting another of her bits into the machine.

“Sure.”

Her first attempt was awful, completely missing the stupid toy by half a shoe. That kind of set the tone for the next ten attempts, where each time she got ever so slightly closer. It does make sense that she wouldn’t be good at this, she’s probably never seen anything like it in her life.

“Maybe we should give up? They might sell it somewhere.”

My suggestion seemed to irritate the regal pony. “No no, I can do this. Luna needs this.” This thing is going to bankrupt the kingdom before we get that toy. Looks like whoever made this is getting some increased taxes.

Saying that, Celestia’s concentration is kind of insane. She’s even started to bite her tongue absently. On the whatever it was attempt, the claw actually gripped the miniature Luna and rose it into the air. “Hah, see, it is all about patience,” the smug pegacorn began just as the wind was robbed from her wings when the toy fell back into the machine, inches from the prize bin. “Oh,” was all that she uttered in a slightly defeated tone, while her wings dropped by our sides. That’s as close as we are ever going to get.

“Can’t you just magic the thing out?” I suggested, in a simultaneous attempt at sympathy and to bring an end to this situation. Come to think of it, how could a machine exist like this? Almost everyone is a unicorn, why wouldn’t they just float out the thing they want?

With my suggestion, Sunny started to review the machine. Looking at various parts in an attempt to discern something. “Though nothing is visible, the machine is likely tamper proof,” she surmised, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. She then rubbed a hoof upon her forehead where a certain appendage was missing. “Even if it is not, my capabilities are a little reduced right now.”

“Well, maybe I can get it out?” If this thing has some sort of magical method of stopping ponies stealing, it shouldn’t be able to affect my unique nature. I can probably just eat whatever tries to stop me.

“That is cheating,” the pegacorn said matter-of-factly.

“Only a little.” Suppose breaking the law in front of the nation’s ruler isn’t the best move.

To my surprise, Sunny relented. “Fine, go ahead. This device has already cost me 50 bits. It is clearly cheating us in some way,” she assented, with a small amount of distain for the machine’s creator. 50 bits! I’ll have to reimburse her for that. This is supposed to be from me after all.

Looking at the machine, it was clear the only point of access was the prize bin at the bottom. It had a little swinging door clearly designed to prevent anyone pushing a leg into the machine, with a noticeable amount of magic surrounding it.

Well, it may stop a pony, but I’m a bit more slippery than that. With Celestia opening the door, I released a small amount of mist out of a shoe and poured it into the prize bin. When enough was through, Celestia let the door close intending to clear my way through to the prizes. It did work partially as intended, granting me the required access we were after. It also showed me why the door had an enchantment on it.

As soon as the door closed, the magic enchantment meant to block a unicorn’s magic, snipped the mist extending from my shoe. Immediately making me pull my shoe back and shake it as if I’d been burned. This is the second time Sunny has seen this happen. At least she doesn’t seem to have noticed.

My wearer had her face practically glued to the glass, as she watched my now small quantity of mist float around with some anticipation. She was probably desperate for this situation to end so she could get her cake. Oh well, this isn’t a problem, I can still move the mist.

Once the mist had gotten its bearings, floating down towards the toy was a sinch and grabbing on was way easier than using the claw. An issue however did present itself. The toy was apparently too heavy for the small quantity of mist I had managed to infiltrate with. It could only lift the toy a short distance before having to let go, just like the damn claw. Wow, this is a problem I’ve never really had before. Seems that piece doesn’t actually have much magic left. Makes sense, seeing as I’m mostly outside the magic box.

Feeling my wearer getting inpatient I continued my attempts to move the toy. Okay, maybe it’s just a matter of grip. Maybe I could put my mist inside the toy? I’ve done it with a slice of toast before. Absorbing my mist into the toy was not a difficult task and did allow me to move it more easily. In fact, I could fill up the entire space inside and move it like a miniature puppet.

The moment I had the toy stand up, Celestia steadily murmured, “Eclipse, are you… the toy?”

In response, the toy was easily manipulated to turn its stuffed head in Sunny’s direction and then give a small wave with its tiny forelegs. Not quite sure what to make of it, my wearer waved back.

“Only partially, I’m mostly out here. Give me a second to get it out.” I chimed into Sunny’s ears, while I attempted to have the toy climb up to its salvation.

“You are quite adorable in there,” Sunny chortled, while I failed to grip the top of the plastic shield.

Even with the thing mobile, Luna’s mini me isn’t going anywhere. Hmm, unless… “Sunny, you should try the claw game again. You might have a chance this time.”

She didn’t need asking twice as a bit was already ready in her hoof, ready to play another round. This time, the claw hovered over the toy and descended like normal. Its target then moved into position perfectly below it, before looking up at the metallic claw above, in apparent inquisitiveness. As the claw gripped on, I had the toy flail its legs in pretend panic, before having it hold on for dear life. The moment it was over the prize bin, I let the toy fall where it landed with a light thud. Ha, perfect, one present for Loony, sorted.

The toy didn’t remain within the prize bin for long, as Sunny quickly opened the door and held it up with both fore hooves. A large smile forming upon her face. As it was quite close to her face, I had it gently boop the end of her nose, earning the toy a warm hug from my wearer.

“Aww, this little angel is perfect. Luna will love it,” Sunny cooed, while the toy was squashed to her chest fluff. Maybe leaving the mist inside could be part of the present? It is separate from me. Then again, that shard didn’t like being left with Twilight.

During my internal debate, Celestia noticed a spy off to our side, causing her to smile mischievously at the puppet. “Princess, it seems like it is your time to shine.” Before I could question what she had in mind, the little Luna was deposited upon the ground in front of a very similar sized flesh and blood unicorn. Said unicorn, was watching the toy intently and even raised a hoof to prod it. Oh no, don’t have me interact with children. That never ends well. Curse you, Sunny.

A light hoof poked the side of the toys head causing me to move it back slightly. The child took another step forward before looking up to Sunny, “is that thing alive or something?”

“Of course, it has the magic of our fair Princess,” Sunny proclaimed, while pushing the toy closer. “She has always cared for foals.”

Not really sure what to do, I had the toy raise a stuffed hoof and prod the pony gently in the chest, eliciting a light giggle. Well, maybe I won’t cause this kid to run away in fear. You’d think that everyone would see a possessed toy as bad news.

After a round of the two small beings nudging each other, the foal started to lose interest in the, I hesitate to call it, game, “can she do anything else?”

“I am not quite sure, she might be a little nervous,” Celestia said warmly, while scratching her chin.

Fine, I’ll try a little harder. There’s not much a tiny stuffed toy can do. It can’t fly or do magic, well it probably could if I put more mist into it. It does contain a part of me, maybe I can speak through it? Where does my voice actually come from? I don’t have a real mouth. Don’t think about that, just concentrate on the toy for now.

Focusing on the small quantity of mist within the toy, actually led to a slightly more interesting development. A slight red glow came to its eye before a new point of view became available to me. One that was very close to the ground and filled with the now normal sized pony. Having the toy look up, I could see my now giant friend towering over me, more focused upon the kid than her littlest sister. Simultaneously, I could see the toy staring straight back at me. Seeing from two places is weird.

Okay, here goes. Test one two three, nah, just go for it. “Hello,” escaped the toys stitched mouth in my usual musical tone, causing the foal to jump back in surprise. Suppose Loony doesn’t sound like some other worldly spirit.

To the delight of my wearer, the small disturbance attracted the attention of a few more foals who came over to investigate. One of them eagerly asked her, “where did you get it? It’s kinda cute.”

In turn, Sunny pointed at the claw machine. “From one of these fine machines behind me. She sort of jumped out at me, so I had to have her.”

“But nopony wins those things,” a foal complained from the side.

In an attempt to placate the kids, I made a slightly better effort with my voice. This time it emerged as an autotuned Loony, which might actually be passable. “I am the Princess of the night’s little sister. I require one gentle hug to, erm, I don’t know, lift my curse or something.” It needs to be gently so the toy survives until Loony’s birthday.

Only one of the foals stepped forward, probably because the others were so creeped out by the talking toy. She immediately gripped onto the toy and squished it flat against her chest. I made the toy try its best to escape, but its tiny spongy limbs weren’t very effective. Much to the amusement of the gathered foals. “Sunny, help! The night is in danger of suffocation.”

“Oh no, what ever will you do,” came the mock horrified reply. She then continued to happily watch the foals gather round the struggling toy.

Okay, fun time’s over. This thing’s a present for Loony. Seeing as Celestia wasn’t going to help on her own, I used her hooves to grab a hold of the toy. “I think Luna is tired now little one.” I had her say, prompting the foal to release my smaller self.

A chorus of awws rang out at the toy’s removal, prompting Celestia to sigh before depositing the toy upon her back. She then lit up once again, while gesturing to the machine, “you know, you could have your own if you manage to win. If you’re lucky it might be as magical as this.” Somehow, I doubt that. They should save their pocket money for the real games.

Sunny then turned from the group of foals and started to walk away. As she walked, I had the toy turn and wave back, prompting a few of them to try their luck at the game.

It was then that I became aware we were heading for the arcade’s exit. “Erm, Sunny, could we try that fighting game?” I asked directly into her ears. That’s way more my speed than a rigged claw game.

“Hmm, I think we have too much attention to stay here any longer,” Sunny began, while looking at a few foals who were still eyeing up my present. She then pushed opened the arcade’s door and looked across the square. “Plus, I seem to remember the promise of a cake.”

With a light sigh I relented, “that’s fair enough.” It’s probably overstepping my bounds to try and convince her to stay.

As we walked, Sunny used a wing to hold the toy in front of herself, “do you think you could continue talking through the toy? It would be fun and maybe you could actually practice talking to regular ponies.”

My voice sounded pretty good to me, if only I didn’t have that reverb. With only the slightest sigh, I had the toy look up at Sunny, before squeakily saying, “okay, but just so you know, this thing is basically just a shoe puppet for me. I’m mostly on you.”

My words didn’t seem to stop the bright smile Sunny was sporting. “Well, you could probably fit more of yourself inside if you wanted. From the foal’s reaction, I say it would make a great way to ingratiate yourself to ponies.” That was true, I was practically acting on my own and they weren’t terrified. Maybe that does have merit for the future. Then again, it’s probably possible for me to copy this thing using my mist, no toy required.

Seeing our destination fast approaching, Sunny once again deposited the toy on her back, before licking her lips. “Anyway, onwards to the cake store. I really need one final chance to savour these culinary delights, before Lulu torments me.”

Hang on. “What was that last part?”

Author's Note

Another chapter down.
You'll be happy to know, I ended up cutting the cake store. It felt a bit too long.

28: Weight Loss

Chapter 28

Well, this is a day of firsts. The first time I’ve ever had a day out in Canterlot and the first time I’ve ever had to sneak back in. Hmm, maybe the second time for that last one.

Anyway, it turns out to be a lot easier than you would think to sneak into the castle. All I had to do was change my form into that of regular day guard armour. Then a certain disguised pegacorn that I was adorned to, only had to casually fly up to her balcony. Not a single pony stopped us. You’d think that would worry Celestia, but she just casually fluttered in through her balcony’s doors without a care in the world. Happily munching on one of her many cream filled doughnuts.

That’s another thing, for a guard, we have saddlebags pretty heavily laden with cakes. Maybe that improves the disguise, seeing as it’s Celestia’s room? Back at that cake store, she sure could put the sweets away. I think she had something like four doughnuts, a full sponge cake, two ginger bread ponies not to mention the boxes of cakes she’d stuffed into my saddlebags. I can’t complain, they tasted pretty good.

“Ah, what a successful trip,” the disguised pegacorn proclaimed, after swallowing the last of her sweet. “The two of us really should organise another day out.”

“Yeah, sure. Next time, we should bring Loony.” I’m sure she’d be up for playing in that arcade. If we can get her a disguise anyway.

“Of course,” Sunny nodded as she began opening a secret hatch in the floor next to her bed. Woah, is this like some crazy secret government thing I shouldn’t be seeing? In answer to my unvoiced question, the disguised pegacorn said, “don’t tell Lulu about this.”

Oh no, a secret even from the other half of the government. I hate that. “Sure, erm, do you think it’s a good idea showing this to me?”

Just after I finished, she removed the cake boxes from my bags and carefully placed them inside. “I was thinking you could store your present here as well,” Sunny said nonchalantly.

Seriously, that place is just for her personal affects? Suppose Loony has a magical lock on her diary. In response, I had the mini-Loony toy hop off of our back and look into the opening. As I expected, it was full of more snacks, as well as a couple books. Probably her diaries from the many years she’s lived. “Huh, this is actually pretty cool. Yeah, Loony probably won’t find it down there.”

Almost immediately upon landing, the toy was grabbed by a giant pair of hooves and brought up to my wearers face, where she booped it with her nose. She then smiled at the toy and said, “excellent, I can tell you Lulu will love your newest form.”

“I hope so.” It is kinda cute, but it isn’t really my form though. It’s just a sort of container for my mist. This does bring up a good point though, can I actually leave my mist inside it, far from my actual self? It might just get sucked back to me. Hmm, experiment time I think. Just as Celestia began lowering the toy into her storage box, I used my shoes to flow a larger portion of myself inside, before again cutting my main self-off. Hmm, that’s probably about 25% of me. Hopefully that will serve as a better sample size.

When Sunny closed the door, the hidden storage area was swallowed by darkness. Seeing as I don’t really have eyes, the toy could still see its surroundings perfectly clearly. Huh, doesn’t seem to be anything else present worthy down here. It’s a shame we couldn’t find a second present for Celestia to buy. Cake is quite distracting. “Say, Sunny, what are you thinking of getting Loony anyway?”

“Ah well, that is a secret,” Celestia began, before gaining a cheeky smile, “what I will say, is that it is something Cadance is helping me with, and something Lulu desperately wants.”

Well, she probably has me beat there. Though, she does have the unfair advantage of being Loony’s sister. “I can’t wait to see it.” For some reason, that gained me a laugh out of the Pegacorn.

Welp, better get undressed. Loony’s guards are probably still looking for me. She seemed to want to see me. Hopefully she won’t be too curious as to what I’ve been up to. Ah, if Crescent hasn’t dropped me in it, she’ll probably believe I’m in the library or something.

The moment my guard helmet floated off of Sunny’s head, she cleared her throat, “erm Eclipse, would you be willing to do me another favour? I know you already did one, but this one is a lot more selfish on my part.”

That made me put a pause to my disrobing of the pegacorn. What’s she on about? Today was hardly a favour for her. If anything, she was the one who helped me out. Turning my helmet around to look her in the eyes, I asked, “what’s wrong?” Helping her out is a small price to pay for getting Loony a present.

“Well, you see, oh hang on a second,” Celestia interrupted herself as she attempted to levitate something without her horn. Putting a hoof to her amulet, the golden flames once again surrounded her, causing the alicorn’s form to regrow to its original size. This sort of forced me to increase my own size. Seeing as if I didn’t, Celestia would have one very crushed rib cage. If she was wearing my helmet, her horn probably wouldn’t have fared too well either. Seeing as there wasn’t a hole for it.

Now back to her usual self, Sunny took a quick glance at her restored reflection, which turned into an intimidating glare, “the day guard would probably love to see me like this. I bet some of them have interesting dreams about it.”

“You look like you’d fit in.” Suppose they would think it was interesting to see her dressed as one of them. She does look quite impressive; however, the day guard armour isn’t really all that imposing. Her increased height probably would be enough to intimidate most other guards. Saying that, don’t the Princesses both have armour of their own? It would make sense if they have to lead armies and stuff. We’re getting off topic here. “Erm, so back to the favour?”

Once she stopped playing royal guard, Sunny returned to the matter of her apparently selfish favour. While using her horn to pull out her dresser’s chair, she turned to the rooms clock and gravely said, “in a few moments, I will be setting the sun.”

A pretty amazing feat. “Okay.”

“At that time, my sister will know I have returned,” Celestia said matter-of-factly.

“And, that’s a bad thing?” I’m not liking where this is going.

A sigh escaped the Sun. “No, it means that her guard will be able to retrieve me for our planned nightly activities.”

“What sort of activities?” This is related to her complaining about torment, isn’t it? Loony would never do that. Well, nothing to severe anyway. They do occasionally butt heads.

“The start of my exercise regime,” she continued with closed eyes. “I did promise her I would lose some weight.”

Lowering my helmet down, I took a quick review of Sunny’s form, causing her face to tint slightly. Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Sunny truly embarrassed. Maybe she doesn’t like that I’m judging her? “You don’t look fat to me.”

“That is very kind, however, I do weigh a lot more than the average pony,” she said while eyeing a set of scales in the rooms corner. A set clearly not wide enough to fit the entire pegacorn.

“Probably because you’re over twice their size.” If she were the same height, she’d probably be underweight come to think of it. Alicorns do seem to be pretty lithe in comparison to regular ponies.

Another sigh escaped my friend. “That is not good enough for Lulu.” She then raised a hoof to forestall my next attempt at confidence building. “Anyway, I wish to ask for your help with the exercise.”

In response, I said, “I know nothing about working out. I don’t have any muscles.” To help prove that fact, I produced some mist to lift a random hair brush from her dresser.

My words seemed to bring a little life back to my friend. “If you remain at my side, it should be possible for you to help with my sister none the wiser. That will show her I am not so unfit.”

This does sound like cheating. Ah, without Sunny I’d have disappointed Loony for sure. These friendships really need a bit of give and take. “Well, I’ll try my best.”

With my help secured, the pegacorn began to relax on her seat, before patting my helmet. “Thank you, my friend. You truly are a loyal companion. It is quite clear to see what my sister sees in you.”

“Okay, so, how are we going to do this?” Guard armour probably isn’t going to cut it.

That caused a twinkle to enter the Sun’s eyes. “Oh, I have the perfect thing.”

A few minutes later, the actual sun had been set and I found myself entering the castle court yard still adorned to my alabaster friend. Ahead of us, Loony was clearly distracted. She seemed to be overseeing some guards on the construction of some sort of large pully machine.

Upon seeing her, my wearer casually approached until she was but a shoe step behind, before nudging her side with a wing. “Sister, I am here.”

This, to Sunny’s visible delight, caused the busy pegacorn to jump slightly, before spinning around to meet us. Loony then attempted to veil her surprise with a greeting, “ah, sister. We were worried thou would attempt to escape thy promise again.” The Night then put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Mayhaps thou art braver than We thought.”

“Nonsense sister, you know fine well I would never abandon something as important as this,” Sunny said in probable mock shock. “I have even come prepared.” As she finished, she did another pose in front of Luna. This time crossing her forelegs with her wings extended, while looking up into the sky. That’s probably something pony models do. Does it highlight what she’s wearing?

What she was wearing, was a matching set of gym shorts and top, which is kinda strange seeing as ponies rarely wear trousers. She also had me make a set of sweat bands for her four ankles, her forehead and one for each wing. She probably looks like someone from the eighties. In my opinion, it looks quite funny, but if she says it makes sense then sure. It probably makes more sense to be naked, but then her plan wouldn’t work.

After taking in our ridiculous appearance, Luna actually whistled before saying, “wow we are impressed sister, however…” She then paused to rub Sunny’s upper lip, while a large grin started to form. Her hoof coming away with some white frosting. “Thou should do better to hide thy last-minute snacking.”

Without faltering, Sunny said, “that was to provide me with some much-needed energy for the coming events.”

At Sunny’s words Loony’s tone seem to warm up, “We are glad thou shares our enthusiasm for this.”

“Well, I know how important this is to you,” Sunny finished with a warm smile of her own. So glad they aren’t going to be bickering the entire time.

With their initial combative exchange over, Loony tilted her head to the side, before asking, “hast thou seen Our confidant? He was last seen at thy side.” Is she wondering where Sunny got her new outfit from? Oh dear, our covers blown immediately.

Luckily, Sunny already had an excuse for us. “Eclipse? Once he filed away my day court reports, he said he wanted to enjoy some time reading in the library.” Hey, that excuse implies I was avoiding going back to Loony’s office. Saying that, Loony did seem to ditch doing her paperwork as soon as I left.

“Ah, excellent. We shall retrieve him before we begin,” Loony mentioned as her horn started to glow blue. A moment later, it winked out leaving the pegacorn with a slightly smoking horn. She went cross eyed to look at it, before turning a questioning eye upon my wearer, who’s own horn was currently glowing gold.

“Sister, I believe it would be best if we leave him to relax a bit. He has been working hard all day after all,” came Celestia’s words, as she was clearly ready with all the excuses in the world. At least this one paints me a little better. Still, a real break in the library would have been nice. I haven’t actually had chance to go there today.

“That may be so, however We believe he would really enjoy our routine. Plus, his presence will make it all the more lively,” Luna replied, with a decent reason to come get me. Well, if it’s going to be fun, I already have a front row seat.

A sigh escaped my wearer at those words. Seems she’s going to break out the big guns. “Look, could we please keep this first session between as few ponies as possible? It is a little embarrassing even having some of your guard here.”

That caused my dark blue friend to laugh out, “We doubt he would do anything to intentionally embarrass thou. Besides, We wish for his shiny company.” I didn’t think she’d be that interested in me coming down.

The next carefully crafted response that the herald of sun came up with, was to just stare into Luna’s eyes.

“Thou art aware, that Our dear Eclipse is not a pony, yes?” Loony said a little pleadingly. That is an astute observation.

Celestia continued to gaze into Luna’s eyes without saying anything.

Somehow, that act alone broke Luna’s will, as she threw her hooves into the air and scoffed, “fine, We shall see him later. Hopefully he will share our bed again tonight.” Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had the pony, puppy dog eyes used from my perspective. It seems way too powerful. Wonder if I can do that? Make a pony give themselves the stare on my behalf?

With her manipulation successful, Sunny regained her usual smile and said, “thank you sister.” She is way too good at manipulating people. She clearly has no feelings of embarrassment towards my presence in the slightest. Bet that used to cause Loony a headache when they were younger.

The smile that she’d gained, died with Loony’s next words. “So, that means thou art eager to begin. Dost thou remember thy stretches?”

“Yes, I remember the basics,” Celestia said, before stretching her fore hooves forward and pushing her rear into the air like a cat. The accompanying clicks that occurred felt pretty good.

As Sunny stretched, Loony observed for a minute before doing her own impression of a cat, which from the outside does look incredibly adorable. I really love it when she does that. Shame she normally won’t do it in public. The two also continued to do other stretches involving their wings and pushing their legs into other awkward positions.

With nothing better to do than watch, I took mental notes on their technique. Luna might want a helping shoe some time. Hmm, would that count as a massage? Maybe the library has a book on it.

After a certain amount of stretching occurred, Loony decided her muscles were prepared for the coming events and stood up in front of a much less ready Sunny. Ignoring the fact that Sunny was still stretching, probably trying to delay the inevitable, Loony looked to her strange machine and said, “while the guards finish preparing our weights, it will be good to start with some cardio. Sister we shall begin with 100 laps of the courtyard.” Bleh, 100 laps! How far is that?

In response, Celestia steadily stood up before saying, “you know, that will be foal’s play.” She then walked towards a white line drawn upon the ground, trying her best to hide the slightest shake in her muscles. Seems she doesn’t quite believe she can do this. Hopefully pegacorns are okay with this sort of thing.

Loony followed close behind us, suppressing a laugh as she muttered, “We shall see.” A moment later, she lifted a whistle from around her neck and blew loud enough to possibly wake Pony town. Seriously? Loony, you’re right next to us.

After a few seconds of us waiting on the start line, Loony blew her whistle a second time before spitting it out to say, “sister, that means go.” She’s probably deaf after that.

For her part, Sunny just turned to look at her sister. “I do follow,” she said before tapping a hoof on the ground, “I am ready for a light trot.”

Almost overlapping the word trot, Loony admonished, “canter.”

With a small gulp Sunny corrected herself, “Yes, canter.” Before she lightly tugged on one of my sweat bands. “Just reassuring myself. Come on, time to start.”

Oh wait, she wants me to get us started? “Sorry, I was a bit lost in the moment,” I whispered into my wearers ear, before taking off at a light trot.

Shortly after, the sound of a second set of hooves came slightly from our left. “Faster sister, you call this a canter?” Loony encouraged, while keeping my pace.

“Don’t we just need to be consistent?” I had Sunny ask. Isn’t that how people go for runs? You set a steady pace or something. Wish I’d asked Sunny how Ponies do this. Oh well, if this is how ponies do it, that’s fair enough. With that thought, I started to ramp up towards a respectable canter.

The pace of a canter still seemed too slow for my Loony, as she only seemed to accept my efforts when our speed surpassed for what counts as a canter and became more of a gallop. At that point, she called out in between breaths, “that is it sister. Hold it there, do not be so quick to outpace thyself.”

“Do not worry about me Lulu. You should worry more about yourself,” Celestia said, still breathing as if she was at rest. To be honest, she practically is.

Loony rolled her eyes at that. “This is not a competition sister. We are doing this to help thou.”

“Please don’t make it a competition. Especially since you’re cheating,” I also chided into Sunny’s ear.

That caused her to sigh lightly, before saying, “when my fitness improves, I will be sure to challenge you to a proper race.”

“Ha, that is the spirit, but thou will never surpass Us,” Loony said with a laugh. A moment later the white line we’d started at crossed under our hooves. “Huzzah, just 99 left to go.” Oh joy, I could have been in the library.

After ten laps of monotony, Celestia proclaimed, “this is too easy sister.”

Off to our side, the moon was starting to show some minor signs of deterioration as she heavily said, “yes, Our earth pony magic is doing well.”

I could probably keep this up all night, but at this rate, Celestia isn’t going to lose any weight and poor Loony is going to be wasting her time. Really wish Sunny was actually trying to run, she isn’t helping in the slightest. Maybe it’ll help if I let a little of my mist into her legs? Similar to in the past, I let my mist flow into my wearer, hoping not to put too much in as to possess her fully, but just enough to make her run.

Almost immediately, Sunny’s muscles worked at my command and the run became so much easier. Rather than lugging around the dead weight of the pegacorn, she was actually helping me. There, she can do half the work.

When another ten laps had past us by, Celestia had started to breath far more heavily than Loony. Even though she’d only technically had to put half the effort into half the laps. She really is unfit. Well, compared to Loony anyways.

“Ha, feeling it now, are we not?” our slightly less tired compatriot joked.

“I cannot feel any, phew, anything,” Sunny tried to say amidst our 21st rotation.

Oh dear, 80 to go. This is not the way anyone should want to spend their night. I can’t even really talk to anyone. It would probably be more interesting if Loony knew I was here. Well, a promise is a promise. Just wish there was something more engaging than the same monotonous circle on repeat. Hmm, wonder how that little shard’s doing?

It only took the lightest of thoughts about my separated piece to bring me complete awareness of the dark little chamber it was stored in. With only the slightest effort the shard had its plushie vessel sitting up, allowing me to make out the vast amount of cake stored around it. In the absence of my attention, the shard had formed a very fitting little metal skeleton within the toy. This made it much easier to use than it was earlier today.

Well, seems I’ve found something to entertain myself with. Celestia will be fine, it isn’t that hard putting one hoof in front of the other. Wow, how I’ve grown. From hardly being able to walk, to walking in two places at once. How times change.

So, with the shards newfound ability to move independent of me, I set about engineering a mini jail break. The first step was to unlock the door, which was easily done by using my mist to pick the lock. Actually opening the now unlocked door required just a modicum of the shards effort. All that was required; was for the toy to push its tiny, metal reinforced hooves against the door to be met with resounding success. So resounding, that my fluffy vessel all but flopped out of the hidden drawer, before landing with a light plonk on Celestia’s bedroom floor. The room, still shrouded in darkness from when she shut off the lights.

Ah, success, but now what? I’ve still got 75 laps of time to fill. Looking across the darkened room, I could see Sunny’s dresser with its gargantuan mirror. Maybe I could take a closer look at this thing? Steadily shuffling over with the tiniest hooves, I made my way to the accompanying chair and began to climb. With the increased amount of mist, it wasn’t too long before I’d managed to heave my mini self’s container onto the chair. Obviously, the chair wasn’t a high enough vantage so with a little more climbing I took a seat upon the dresser table itself, letting me more easily see my present.

It's kinda cute, in a weird doll of your best friend sort of way. It even has a mimic of Luna’s smiling face under the helmet. That’s some attention to detail. It hasn’t quite got the right proportions for Luna though. Her legs are longer, this thing’s are more like a regular pony’s legs. Suppose these toys aren’t meant to be anatomically correct. Maybe one I make could be better? It might be good practice for making a pony form? Ah, this one is a bit more permanent, seeing as it exists without me.

After thoroughly checking out the toy to ensure it was up to snuff, I was left with another 50 laps of time to fill. Seriously, 100 laps is way too long. Well, let’s just use the time I’ve got to get a bit of practice moving in two places at once.

With that, I had the toy hop off the dresser and begin making laps of its own around the room. The thundering hoof steps of the toy causing the lightest of shuffling sounds to fill the area. Upon completing its own set of 50 laps, I had the shard jump onto the Everest sized bed. It wasn’t actually that hard when the effort was put into it. Hmm wonder if this thing can float? The mist alone probably can.

A sudden voice from close by broke me from my musings. “Sister, thou can stop now. Thou hast proven thy point,” came the tired words of one of my co-runners.

Oh yeah, I started to zone out of that jog a little. With that, I had Celestia steadily slow down to a walk and began moving towards the source of the sound. A light, “thank Faust,” escaped my wearer’s lips as we walked.

The source of the sound was one heavily panting Luna, who was currently laying down in a patch of grass, while two night guards fanned her. It took a monumental amount of effort not to laugh out loud at the sight. The icing on the cake was when one of them poured a bucket of water over her head, to her visible delight. Poor Loony, seems she over estimated her abilities. “Thy will is quite impressive sister,” she begrudgingly admitted as we approached.

Once we arrived at the recovering pegacorns side, I let go of my grip on Sunny’s legs. It’s probably not the nicest experience, not being able to move when you want. This had the unforeseen result of causing Celestia to immediately collapse the ground, where she immediately dragged her legs close to her body. “My legs are on fire. Please make it end,” she quietly complained to someone in the floor.

The light chuckle from her sister didn’t even perk up Sunny’s ears. “Oh Celly, where hast thy bravado gone now, hmm?” Loony jested, while directing one of her guards to start fanning Sunny instead. Suppose it has gotten a little warmer, the fans might be a little much though. The bucket of water that Sunny dunked her head in definitely was. Saying that, these sweat bands are holding on to an awful lot of sweat. Ringing them out on to the grass was quite unpleasant. I’m probably going to smell of Sunny’s sweat for days.

After a few minutes of laying almost motionless, while Loony relished the sight of her ruined sister. I tried a little experiment. Steadily I lifted one of Sunnys forelegs off the ground, before letting go. In response, it immediately flopped back to the soft grass without a care in the world. Whoops, maybe I should have paid a little more attention.

Seeing the slightest sign of life from her sister, Loony sat up and said, “We really did not think thou would complete the full 100. Not even We could keep up with that.”

“Really wish you had said that earlier,” Sunny complained more coherently, “I would have stopped if I could, but something inside would not let me.” Sorry about that. I bet her secretary would kill me if she found out about this.

“Do not fret, thine efforts were commendable,” Loony encouraged once more, before she stood up to inspect the strange pully system her guard had been setting up. “We are uncertain if this will be too much for thee after that start.” Can’t believe how well she’s recovered compared to Sunny. Saying that, she might have given up a lot sooner.

With the potential sign that the exercise would end, Sunny rolled onto her front and tried not to sound to delighted when she weakly said, “if you think that is the best. You are the expert.” Poor pony, maybe I can fix this somehow? With limited options, I decided to try and feed more magic into my wearer. Hopefully that will do something to help her recover. It helped Loony last time.

Loony continued inspecting the machine and with one final scratch of her chin came to a decision. “Well, we can only try our best. It might upset the guards if their hard work goes to waste.”

A groan escaped my wearer as her hopes were dashed. She then steadily sat up and looked at the monstrous creation Loony had commissioned, with its massive weights connected to large heavy-duty chains. It looks like some sort of torture device. At least her limbs no longer feel like lead weights, so swings and roundabouts.

Off to our side, a knew voice chirped up, “with respect, it’s probably healthier to ease into this sort of thing. None of us could have done what you’ve achieved.” The thestral guard then bowed once he’d finished speaking.

“Thou art correct,” Loony said as she turned to her unnamed guard, causing him to smile. The guard then immediately lost this smile when she continued speaking. “We shall begin with the lighter weights and progress from there.” Pretty sure that guy wanted us to call it a night.

Regardless of what the assisting guards thought of the situation, Sunny dragged herself to her now lighter hooves and walked towards the death machine. In her ears I whispered, “maybe you should have a longer break, take another five minutes and have a drink or something?”

As I made the suggestion, one of the guards was already offering the two princesses a drink, which they both greedily drank. Once she thanked them, Sunny smiled and said to everyone, “I am feeling a lot better now. This should not be as bad as the run.”

“That is the spirit sister. Would thou wish to go first?” Loony asked while gesturing to the chair that no one should ever want to occupy.

“Just as a test run. If it is too difficult, you may need to take over,” Sunny said, a little more cautiously than when we first began. Upon taking her seat, she gripped the chains with her fore hooves and gave a light pull, causing the stones to wobble slightly. Seems like I may need to do much more of the work here. There’s no way anyone can be expected to lift these crazy weights. Wait, how’s Loony going to do it without my help?

With only a muscle twitch as a warning, Sunny began pulling on the chains. With so little warning I raced to assist, causing the stones to rocket skyward before Sunny let them fall rapidly to the ground with a crash. For her part Sunny just winced slightly, while everyone else’s mouths just fell open. Even Loony looked surprised.

When she returned to her senses Loony quickly said, “easy up a little. This is the warm up.” She then set about halving the weight on the chain’s ends. So, was that set up wrong? It seemed like we just lifted over a ton of stone.

With the weights now half what they used to be, Celestia easily completed her set and started taking it in turns with Loony, who seemed to mirror Sunny’s strength. Upon completion of the basics, Loony began taking us through various techniques she was apparently well-versed in. I say apparently, because a couple of times, I did spy her asking a few guards about them. Probably because techniques have advanced in the last thousand years without her knowledge.

As Celestia seemed to be quite happy with how her weight training was going, seeing as even without my help she could have potentially lifted the ton, I decided to go back to my little shard. Currently, the shard was having its vessel pace up and down upon Celestia’s bed. Seeing as the two sisters were currently engaged in weight training, it seemed only appropriate that Loony’s mini me could join in on the action.

And so, a montage ensued where the two pony sisters gradually increased the weights they were lifting, while at the same time a little toy did the same. Starting out with a book, moving to the chair and finally settling upon the corner of the bed itself. It seems my mist is still pretty strong on its own. For its size anyway. Anyone could lift those things.

Once the heaviest thing in the room had been tried, I focused my attention back upon my friends, who had apparently also completed their own training. This time they were both in decidedly better shape than after the run. Suppose that’s what happens when a spirit isn’t forcing you to perform. Loony was probably just trying to keep up out of pride. Anyway, the two sisters had settled into a friendly chat during what Luna referred to as their final rest period.

“So Celly, dost thou wish to come to a late-night party with Eclipse and I,” Loony asked nonchalantly. It was pretty clear she really wanted Sunny to come.

“Of course, I would never miss a party with you sister,” Celestia said happily. Probably eager to participate in a social event with much less physical activity.

“Huzzah, thy student will be pleased,” Loony called out.

“Erm, is Twilight going to be there?” Sunny asked curiously.

“Why would she not be? ‘Tis her party after all.”

Upon hearing the news, Celestia tapped the floor nervously, before finally saying, “I am sure it will be fine. Twilight would probably like me to come.” She sounded a little uncertain at the end.

“Of course she will. Now then, art thou ready to begin working those wings?”

Without any prompting, Sunny extended her wings and gave a quick flap. “I will admit to being a little tired, but I am sure it will be possible to complete whatever you have in mind,” she said while gazing at the clouds.

“Ah perfect, the guard have already set up a course for us,” Loony said following Celestia’s gaze. Above us in the night’s sky, was a number of cloud rings the guard must have created during the distraction of the run. They’re really pulling out all the stops with this. When Loony was teaching me to fly, we just jumped off a cloud on repeat. Suppose flying through a course takes a bit more experience.

Seemingly more eager to fly than run, Sunny took off and made for the starting ring. Not even asking for any assistance, probably dreading a repeat of my earlier form of help. Once she arrived at the start alone, I cautiously asked, “do you still want me to help with this? I’ll make sure to stop when you ask me.”

“Of course,” came Sunny’s distracted response as she looked back down at her sister still on the ground. Loony was currently removing a few supporting bandages from her left wing and wincing repeatedly. “Sister! Are you okay down there?” Sunny shouted to the ground bound pegacorn.

“Do not worry, We shall be joining thou soon,” came the frustrated reply, as she awkwardly flapped her still recovering wing. Even Celestia winced when Loony let out a pained squeak.

Seeing this, to the pleasant surprise of my wearer, I floated us rapidly back to my friend. I then placed a borrowed hoof on her shoulder and said, “maybe we should call it a night? This has been a great work out already.” Celestia clearly agreed with my words, going so far as to show sympathy on my behalf.

“’Tis okay sister, do not let Us hold thou back. Enjoy thy victory lap,” Loony said with poorly veiled disappointment, while looking jealously at Celestia’s unharmed wings.

Celestia also looked to her wings, before her eyes rested upon the small pieces of fabric I was currently disguised as. “You know, Eclipse would probably be able to help you.”

“We are aware,” came the sighing response, “he would have likely jumped at the chance to aid Us.” I really didn’t expect my absence to be a problem.

“Okay, sounds like you want me to go and retrieve your knight,” Sunny said warmly before turning to walk away. Seems she wants to pretend I wasn’t here all along. Maybe it would be better to reveal me and run the risk of angering the pegacorn. It would be better than leaving her so disappointed.

Sadly, a hoof gripped our shoulder, preventing our quick exit. “Nay, he is likely asleep by now,” the now smiling pegacorn said, “he is quite the lazy one for a spirit of the night.” Hey, I just like a bit of a lie down.

A chuckle of agreement escaped the sun, “I agree, he does need to get out more.” Wow, you really can’t talk to me about that. This whole thing is your fault due to your laziness.

The appearance of a cloud at ground level interrupted the Princesses bashing of my sleep cycle. “Thanks Spectre,” Loony said to a lone guard, before taking a seat on the newly provided ramshackle transport. “Go sister, I expect 50 laps this time.”

That earned her a sigh of resignation, before I was carried up into the sky once more and suddenly running the cloud ring gauntlet. All the while, Loony’s cloud was sitting in the middle so she could more closely watch Sunny’s progress. Are we really giving up on helping Loony? She’s the one who wants to do this the most.

It was then I had an idea. There’s another part of me just sitting in place waiting for something to happen. Maybe it could help?

Back in Sunny’s abode, the little stuffed toy steadily floated off of the bed and into the air. Ha, I did it. Saying that, the toy is much lighter than Loony, the small quantity of mist may not be able to lift the much larger mare into the air. More magic would probably help.

My brain storming was quite abruptly interrupted, when the door to the absent royal’s room swung open, followed by two sets of hooves making their way inside. As I turned to look at the owners of these hooves, a fearful gasp was heard. Right, who’s invading Celestia’s bedroom.

It turned out to be two maids, one glowing a very familiar green. They were currently both paralysed with fear staring at the smoky floating toy. Okay, probably should ease their minds a little, I have spoken to the maids before. “Erm, hello. How are you two doing?” There, I’m so much better at this now.

One of them, the regular pegasus, began steadily backing away towards the door. Probably deciding it best to clean another room until after I was gone.

The other one, currently disguised as a unicorn, just tilted her head in curiosity. “That voice sounds familiar… Eclipse?” she asked uncertainly. Thank goodness it was Skitter, she’s probably one of the only people who wouldn’t freak out.

“Yep, that’s me,” I said while bringing the toy to her eye level. “Just trying to sort stuff out.”

“Swift, you seriously know the possessed doll?” the second, no longer fleeing maid incredulously asked. I think her name’s Bucket. She seemed to be one of Skitter’s friends. Well, her disguise’s friends anyway.

“It’s Eclipse, you know,” she said with some surprise, before becoming unsure herself, “Princess Luna’s erm… second in command?” ooo, the changelings seem to think highly of me.

Recognition seemed to dawn on Bucket’s face, “you mean the tin can that always follows her around?”

“Heeey.” That’s kinda rude, I don’t go around calling ponies meat bags. Then again, I did call one a fleshy one time. Not to their face though.

Glossing over the hopefully unintentional insult, Skitter said, “that’s the one.” She then turned to my floating toy, “so, what are you doing here anyway?”

I don’t really have a good explanation. “Just trying to… do my job. Anyway, what are you two doing here?” Yeah, let’s turn this around, I have a pegacorn to help out.

“We’re here to see if Princess Celestia needs anything before, she goes to bed,” Bucket said in a well-practiced manner. I knew these ponies waited on her hoof and wing.

Once Bucket finished, Skitter immediately piped up, “unofficially, we were asked to make sure Celestia is getting enough rest.” Well, she is getting the opposite of that currently. The night guard probably haven’t told anyone what Luna had planned. I mean, I didn’t even know until two minutes before shoe.

“I don’t think we were supposed to let the Princess find out about that,” Bucket said in a loud whisper.

“Relax, keeping an eye on them is basically Eclipse’s Day job,” the disguised royal bug reminded her cleaning comrade. Suppose that’s true for Loony. I am her confidante after all. “Besides, if you can’t trust your stuffed toys, who can you trust?”

“Yeah, but at the moment, they look like something out of a horror movie. The next thing that’ll happen is that they’ll ask to play with our soul or something,” the pegasus said warily, while waving her wings around. They have movies? I’ll have to see if Luna would want to go see one with me. She probably hasn’t seen any before.

As she folded her wings and Skitter laughed at her, an idea formed in my head. It might be a good idea to test if I can actually lift a pony like this. Helping a pegasus fly can’t be too different to aiding a pegacorn. “Erm, Bucket, would you be up for doing me a favour? It would help out Sun… Princess Celestia.”

The pegasus began to look unsure again, as she looked into the toys glowing red eyes. “It really depends on what it is.”

Welp, time to make the request. Floating the toy closer to her face, causing her to take a couple steps back, I asked, “would you wear me for a couple minutes? I need to see if there’s enough of me for flight.” I punctuated the final words by pointing to her wings, which for some reason became clasped more tightly to her sides.

“Cleeean, I think it wants to possess me,” the maid whined. “This really is the half way point of the horror movie.”

“Don’t be such a foal, I’ve worn Eclipse before and it was fine,” Skitter said with a smile. Thanks Skitter. “She’s quite a nice mare when you get to know her.” Dammit Skitter.

“Wait, they were that dress you wore after coming back from that bug place,” realization displayed clear as day upon her face. “Okay, go on then. Make me look as good as Clean did.”

“I don’t think there’s enough of me for that,” I said, as my mist left the toy, allowing it to fall to the ground. It then steadily surrounded the maid’s wings and formed into black metallic feathers, coating her primary feathers completely. “Okay, how’s that?”

The maid immediately extended her wings to review me and seemed quite impressed. “Huh, these go quite nicely, was kinda hoping for a knew uniform though.” She immediately changed her tune when I flapped her wings and suspended her in the room, with some difficulty. “You said it wasn’t possession!”

It wasn’t really supposed to be, there isn’t really enough of me to float her on my own. This is a problem; I need more magic. Lucky there’s a decent supply in my room. Gently placing the mare on the ground, I attempted to reform my armour, creating a version of me a head shorter than a pony. Looking up at the two mares, who were both now giving me adoring looks I said, “could you hide the toy for me? It’s a present for Loony.”

That earned me a salute from the disguised changeling, “of course, I’ll just put it in our room.” My room! She really has to stop using ‘my’ room.

“Oh, and keep it a secret, please.” I added while starting to make for my bedroom.

“Count yourself lucky Duster didn’t see you; this would have been all over the castle in seconds,” Bucket joked as she steadily folded her now bare wings.

“She isn’t that bad,” Skitter chided.

The last thing I heard as I left the room was Bucket saying, “I don’t see you trusting her with your royal bug secrets.” Huh, it’s nice to see the changelings trusting ponies a little more.

After making a quick stop off in my bedroom to fully drain my poison joke farm, I managed to increase my size to that of my usual stature. It did take leaving out much of the material my usual form had, like full leg armour, but hopefully that will be enough. Loony is looking more and more disappointed by the second on that cloud.

With all the messing around practicing with my second form, Celestia had already completed ten laps of her course before I could reach the courtyard. Above me, the two pegacorns were still very much engaged by Sunny’s monotonous laps. Loony was so engaged that she failed to notice my second form steadily floating up behind her. “Come on Celly, thou art flying almost as badly as Eclipse,” she shouted in her sister’s direction. Ouch, saying that. Almost as badly means my flying has improved. Hmm, Sunny is helping quite a lot though. Ah, she’s probably still tired.

“It has been some time since my last proper flight sister,” Sunny called back. “Did you really have to set such extensive goals?”

“Hey Loony, what’s going on?” I interrupted. Just play it cool, she doesn’t know I was here. She won’t notice that I’m half my mass. Please don’t notice.

My words slightly surprised the dark blue pegacorn, who immediately spun around upon her cloud to look at me, a wide smile on her face. “Eclipse, what art thou doing out here?”

Off to the side, flying at a leisurely pace, Sunny had a much bigger reaction. She quite clearly winced and turned her head to look at the two of us with some panic, before becoming confused. Seems she might have thought she was rumbled for a minute. She was so confused by my presence, that she even tugged on one of my sweat bands, probably testing if I was still there.

Ignoring Sunny’s plight, I said, “one of the maids said you two were having fun out here and I was wondering if I could join. I’m not intruding, am I?”

“Thou can never be intruding upon us,” Loony said warmly before looking to her sister, “however, Our sister is just finishing up her flight and then we are done for the day.” From the outside, Celestia appeared to be quite lazily flying through the rings. Clearly without me and Loony pushing her, she had almost had enough. The sight made Loony look back to her injured wing and sigh.

Okay, this is it. “Well, would you like me to take you up there? I did say I’d be your wings.”

That caused the pegacorn to brighten up nicely. “If thou art offering thyself to Us, I would be a fool to reject thou.”

Rather than adorning myself to Loony in the usual method, I morphed my entire second form into just the chest plate and a large metallic set of wings. Lacking something for a head and legs felt strange until Loony placed my chest piece over her head. Allowing me to feel her own limbs as my own. My wings then fitted to their required positions. One worn across her good wing, the other placed above her injured one. As she moved her good wing, I had the alternate mirror the movement to the best of my ability.

“Thou would make a fine prosthetic,” Loony said as she brought our wings in front of herself. “I really do appreciate what thou does for Us.” She said while using a forehoof to give them a gentle rub, before jumping off the cloud’s edge. It took quite a large amount of effort to keep her afloat, but using her own magic to help, I managed it, allowing Loony to glide over to her watching sister.

Upon reaching her she used the tip of her good wing to playfully jostle her mid-flight sister about. For her part Celestia only laughed out, “glad to see you could join me.”

“Thanks to Eclipse, is he not the sweetest?” Luna said, while pointing to her wings. Her opinion might be different if she knew I’d been helping her sister.

“He is a nice pony,” Sunny admitted with a nod. Not really a pony, but I’ll take the complement.

Once we had settled into a steady rhythm alongside Sunny, Loony had an idea. “Hey, dost thou wish for a race? We wish to see who can win, the alicorn of the night with one wing behind her back, or the sun at her peak.”

“Except for the fact I have been flying for the past hour?” Celestia quipped before becoming more serious, “I will try not to beat you by too much.”

Oh great, how long am I going to have to race against myself? Well, however long it takes, sorry Sunny, but Loony’s gonna win.

Author's Note

This chapter was fun to write. It was only meant to be a few thousand words, but it just kept going and going.

In comparison, the next chapter is really hurting my head. I can barely think about how I want it to start, let alone the contents of it. Hopefully it won't destroy my brain. Maybe, I'll just cut it, but then the chapter after that would have to go and then the one after that would need to start different. Would it even make sense? But the current 29 doesn't make sense.

Oh no, Twilight level freak out!

If it doesn't go well, there may be a large gap between this chapter and the next.

29: Sleepover

Chapter 29

How can this possibly be happening? At the start of today, I never thought I’d end up here without causing a major issue for everyone involved.

Off to my side, a familiar dark blue foreleg reached forward to spin a plain plastic bottle. “’Tis Our turn now, fear Our wrath,” Luna laughed out. The bottle spun in the centre of a familiar group of ponies, before settling upon a smiling Sunny Mare.

As it pointed towards her, Celestia’s smile diminished slightly. Probably out of fear from what punishment her sister would cause. “Hmm, I think truth this time Lulu,” Sunny said, hiding her worry well with a grin.

Matching the Sun’s smile, the Moon boldly asked, “did thou, or did thou not, with the bottle as Our witness, read my most private diary? Somepony opened it, and it was not Us.” Oh dear. I think that was me.

After a quick glance at our fellow players, under the bottle’s duress Celestia admitted, “only a few pages. I did miss you.” That’s a good reason to read someone’s diary. Reading it because you haven’t seen them for a thousand years. Shame Loony probably won’t see it like that.

“So, thou admits it? See Twilight, thy role model is not perfect,” Loony professed, while pointing a hoof at the purple unicorn sitting across from her.

From the group of six regular ponies playing with us, Twilight started to say, “I don’t think that Princ-.” Before she was quickly interrupted by the sun clearing her throat. “I mean, Celestia is just incredibly wise.”

Yep, didn’t think I’d be playing spin the bottle with the elements today. Just a few hours ago, I was getting ready for my usual nightly routine of night court with Loony.

It basically started with me finding Loony in her room, still applying her makeup, rather than sitting on her throne. “Erm, Loony, wasn’t night court supposed to start an hour ago?” I was quite confused at the time, as to why she was still getting ready.

She did enlighten me though. “Eclipse, dost thou not recall our plans for this evening?” she said, while finishing off her eyeshadow. “Night court is cancelled for us to attend the party young Twilight is hosting.”

The largest sigh I’ve ever made, escaped me at that news. “Bleh, I can’t believe this is tonight.”

Tidying away her makeup, the dark blue mare turned to me with sceptical eyes. “Whatever dost thou mean? We discussed this at length during last night’s activities.”

“I may have been a bit distracted last night.” I was too busy flying two pegacorns around for over an hour.

With a shake of her head, she continued blaming me for my ignorance, “thou had plenty of opportunities to find out.” The only reason she’s finally told me, was because I asked about night court. How was that plenty of notice?

My next reply only consisted of a low grumble, that could probably have been mistaken for thunder. Those ponies are going to hate me coming along. Why did I have to agree to this?

“Please do not be like this. It will not be as fun without thou,” Loony said, inadvertently reminding me of the one reason I agreed to come.

With that, I just sighed in defeat.

That at least earned me a pretty victorious smile from the pegacorn. “We are glad thou still wishes to accompany us.”

“Only for you. Most of those ponies don’t like me you know.” I was Pretty sure Rainbow might even assault me the moment we walked through the door.

That earned me a light nuzzle. “We will ensure our friends treat thou with the respect thou art due,” she reassured, before nudging me with a wing, “now get ready. A carriage is already being prepared.”

What could I have possibly done to get ready? My form is always like this. The only thing I could possibly have needed was a clean. The combined sweat of two hard working pegacorns that permeated my form last night did take a while to remove, but that was sorted by Loony straight after my smaller self, went back to my room. That thought gave me an idea on how to improve my odds of surviving the coming party. “Okay, I’ll just sort some stuff out.”

“Do not be over long, our friends will be waiting,” Loony informed, while collecting her regalia.

About half an hour later, the two of us headed to our transport. Luna almost skipping along, with me trailing behind, my corded tail between my legs.

Said transport, was Loony’s usual Batmobile with an unusual pulling team, which consisted of three thestrals and three pegasi. That was probably due to the third member of our group, who was uncharacteristically nervous, waiting by the carriage door. “Ah, you are both finally here,” Celestia said in a slightly relieved tone, “where have you been? I have been waiting for five minutes.” She might as well have expected us to be late. I don’t think we’ve ever made a rendezvous with Sunny on time.

“Sorry we are late, Eclipse wished to prepare something in his room before our departure,” Loony apologised, while casually throwing me under the bus.

It wasn’t my fault; it took me a while to find an interesting book. “Look, Loony wanted me at my best, so blame her.”

Rather than acknowledge my attempt to pass the buck back onto her, Loony leaned slightly into my side and said, “thou art as regal as usual. We are sure the elements will be glad of thine attempts.”

“Thanks, still probably not as regal as a diarch.” What could possibly be regal about a slab of metal? Then again, their regalia is made of metal.

Loony just smiled in response, while using a wing to gesture to the carriage looming behind Sunny. That caused the solar pegacorn to shuffle her hooves slightly. “Sister, do you really think this is a good idea?” Wow, even she thinks I shouldn’t be coming. That’s fine by me. Two votes against one.

Loony just cocked her head in confusion. “Why would it not be? A get together with Our friends should be a momentous occasion.”

Undeterred by my blue pegacorns words, Sunny simply said, “I worry our appearance might affect the enjoyment of our little ponies.”

After she gave me a quick look, Loony walked behind her sister. “Nonsense, the elements are some of our closest friends, now come on,” she said, before using her head to shove Sunny head first through the carriage door.

The shove may have surprised her, but Sunny took it like a champ and used it to involuntarily reach her seat. “Sister, I was not finished,” Celestia said with her eyes narrowed.

Without acknowledging her sister’s complaint, the Moon climbed in after the now irritated Sun and held out a hoof to help me aboard. “Come now, let us make haste. Twilight may be getting worried.” Seeing no way to escape, I gingerly accepted the assistance and followed the two pegacorns aboard. Upon entering, the door immediately closed behind me, allowing the waiting guards to get the carriage moving.

During the flight, Sunny’s earlier comment about ruining the party was expanded upon immensely. Her worries actually quite surprised me. Rather than being concerned that the spooky ghost armour would cause the issues, she in fact thought it was her and her alone. That was simultaneously a positive and negative revelation for me. Positive, because Sunny thinks the ponies won’t mind my attendance. Negative, because it highlights some potential issues of Celestia’s.

The main worry was that Twilight would take issue with her mentors’ attendance. Loony finally managed to quash some of these worries by saying, “thou art invited to this get together. Sister, it would be rude for thou not to attend.”

Those final words finally got the sun horse to relent. “I suppose you are right,” she admitted before starting to smile, “I will admit to have been wanting to spend more time with my student.”

“Ah, young Twilight does seem to be almost like a daughter to thou,” Loony quipped, while trying not to look in my direction. The beginnings of a smirk forming on her face. Seems she’s going to hold that earlier revelation over me for quite some time.

The joke, thankfully, went over Celestia’s head. All she did was cock a brow, while saying, “not quite, I see her as my student and hopefully, a friend.”

As our carriage descended towards the sleeping Pony town, I couldn’t help thinking of Celestia as a kindred spirit for this party. We both had a very similar reason not to want to go. Not wanting to ruin the party. Granted, she thought she’d ruin it due to her status as Equstria’s ruler, while I Knew I’d ruin it due to being seen as a demon. Hopefully Rainbow’s eased up a little.

There was no acknowledgment of our presence from the town as we landed, due to the late hour, allowing us to disembark in peace. Exactly how I was hoping. The only real sound was that of our three pairs of shoes tinking upon the cobblestone path.

“Okay sergeant, please return for us once Our sister sends thou a message,” Luna said to dismiss the guards. The six winged ponies each saluted, before immediately taking off, carriage in tow back to whence they came.

Sunny’s gaze seemed to linger on the escaping carriage for a few moments, before she began making her way towards Twilight’s tree. “Come along you two, the girls will be waiting for us,” she said in a more upbeat tone that expected. Suppose if she can put on a brave face, so can I.

Loony, quickly hurried to her sister’s side to complete the journey, while I trailed a little behind, still not really wanting to reach our destination. Sadly for me, our destination was only a few metres away. It seems our taxi was quite good at making deliveries. Damn them for being so accommodating.

It wasn’t long before the three of us were standing at the trees candle lit door. From inside, the sound of happy ponies could be heard. Welp, lets prepare for that to end.

The wait outside however, seemed to last a little longer than expected. Sunny had her hoof raised ready to knock but wasn’t. Instead, she was going through a variety of different facial expressions, all the way from a flat expression, right the way up to a wide grin.

Luna also noticed this and began to laugh, “honestly, this is not like the first time we met the Griffonian ambassador. No pony will be stabbed if a mistake is made.” Well, you might not get stabbed.

In her defence, Celestia said, “the first impression will set the tone. We need to appear warm and prepared for fun.” She then made a couple more practice attempts.

“Oh, We have an idea how to do that perfectly,” Loony beamed, as her own hoof raised up to the door and knocked loudly against it, instantly interrupting the laughter escaping the building.

For her part, Sunny just looked at her sister who was staring at the door. The look lasted for just a moment, before both sisters laughed. Welp, better put my own face on. Annnnd done. Guess not having a face does have a few benefits. Saying that, using that stuffed toy would probably have been an improvement. Wish it wasn’t a secret.

Without any further warning, the library’s door swung open, revealing the expected purple unicorn. “Princess, Eclipse you’re final…” Twilight began in a welcoming tone before noticing the third member of our group. “Princess Celestia? You wanted to come?” I was wondering when Twilight had asked Sunny. Turns out it was never.

“Really? Luna assured me you requested my presence,” Sunny said, slightly downtrodden. “Do not worry, I can just see these two off and come collect them at the end.” Wait a second, is she really going to escape from this?

Quickly back tracking from her surprise, Twilight rapidly shook her horned head, “no no no, you’re always welcome Princess. Oh dear, I don’t have any tea ready.” She then disappeared from view in a cloud of smoke, leaving the doorway empty.

Since the two pegacorns were just looking at the space the unicorn once occupied, I decided to ask, “should we follow her inside or just wait here?”

That seemed to shake them to their senses, causing the duo to look to me and then back to each other. Luna just guiltily said “whoops” as Celestia shook her head and wandered inside the library. Loony then turned to me while scratching her head, “We really thought she was invited.”

Before I could respond, Celestia could be heard saying, “good evening my little ponies, hope the party is going well.”

Well, seems Sunny wants to face her problems head on. Turning to my friend I reluctantly said, “we should probably back her up in there.” The two of us then made our way inside to what I was expecting to be the ruining of a pleasant party.

After a few minutes passed, the worries Sunny had once possessed, seemed to have almost completely faded. Getting straight into the ongoing game of spin the bottle, was probably the best thing she could have had us do. Seems the ancient horse knows what she’s doing.

Back in the present, Celestia turned to her student, who had already served the tea, and said, “thank you Twilight. It is nice to receive a genuine compliment.” As it was now her turn to play, she reached a hoof forward and spun the bottle. Each of the present ponies winced as it passed over them, clearly worried about what their ruler might ask of them.

That was all except for one, who the bottle in fact landed upon. “Ha, bring on the dare Princess, there ain’t nothing you can throw at me,” the overconfident rainbow maned mare declared. From the way she stood, it appeared like she was preparing to run a race.

For her part, Sunny just eyed the pegasus and hmm’d slightly. Clearly, she had many ideas going through her head. Luckily for Rainbow Dash, she began by saying, “well then, let me start off small. I would not want to break you straight away.” Her gaze was then turned to the window, “I know Rainbow, why don’t you go to the library’s roof and howl like a timber wolf for, hmmm, thirty seconds?” The way she said that, it actually sounded like a serious question, rather than a question of someone’s sanity.

The Pegasus in question saluted her diarch, before taking to the air. “Ha, consider it done,” she called out before disappearing with a smoke trail leading to the closest window. The awful sounds of a wailing pony soon followed.

“You show em sugar cube,” the orange mundane pony called after her. Hmmm, mundane sounds a little insulting. I should probably call her something better, seeing as she's seen fit not to assault me. She’d probably see it as unneighbourly or something. Then again, she does still keep giving me that suspicious look. Maybe that’s just how her face looks?

Speaking of being unneighbourly, a soft giggle off to Loony’s left, regained the groups attention. “That should wake the neighbours,” Sunny said without bothering to suppress her delight.

For the next thirty seconds, the remaining eight of us just sat listening to the racket. Each with varying reactions. Clearly the awful sound was affecting Rarity the most. She’d lost the good-natured smile she had when we first greeted her, and was now scrunching up her face in apparent pain. Suppose it does sound a little bit like nails on a chalk board. “Not that I’m questioning your royal decisions, but don't you think thirty seconds was a bit long?” she said questioning the sun. Poor pony, she probably didn’t sign up for this either. Still, it’s nice to see her again.

As the howling continued, Rarity complained numerous times finally saying, “maybe it should be called off. Somepony might get upset.” A sly hoof was simultaneously being pointed at the shy butter pegasus to her side.

The apparently timid pegasus, was having nowhere near as strong a reaction. She just ignored the obvious pointing and said, “she isn’t doing any harm, she’s just greeting the local dogs. It’ll be quite nice for them.” Hmm, there does seem to be more than just one howl going on out there.

It’s strange seeing Fluttershy this up close. Every other time I’ve seen her was from a great distance, either running away from me, or some other unfathomable evil. Here she’s just sitting calmly, taking part in the game with her friends. Saying that, I haven’t noticed her looking in my direction even once. Hopefully she isn’t that freaked out. Feels like everyone’s tried to ignore the armour in the room at least once. Apart from my friends, obviously.

For the first time, Twilight was the voice of reason. “I agree with Rarity, other ponies might get a little stressed out, seeing as it is quite late.” She said that while looking between the two princesses, one of which was smiling innocently, while the other just rolled her eyes.

As if on que for the thirty seconds to end, an unknown voice called out from outside, “will you shut up, for Celestia’s sake.” Pretty sure that’s the exact reaction Sunny wanted.

After that, the sounds of howling swiftly stopped, as the Rainbow pegasus shouted back, “why on Equis do you think I’m doing this?” Her form soon darted back in through the open window, returning to her place beside the bottle. “And there you have it, one royal dare complete,” she seemed to swell with pride as she spoke. “Next time, make it an actual challenge.” Don’t poke the beast.

“Oh, do not worry Rainbow. I will,” Sunny assured, while lowering her head down to the dwarf pony’s eye level. That actually made the pegasus gulp for a moment, before she regained her composure and reached for the bottle.

This is actually going rather well. Not only do the elements not seem to care too much that I’m here, but they aren’t panicking over the presence of the royals. It’s even more surprising considering how badly I messed up when the game started.

Just thirty minutes earlier, Pinkie made a loud declaration to the three of us. “Okay everypony, you may be royalty or nobility, but you all have to complete this part to begin,” the pink pony said in an unusually serious way, while pacing in front of our newly arrived group. “All participants will be required to complete one Pinkie promise. One that says they’ll follow every dare, or truth, to the letter.” The pink pony then lightened up a bit, “this’ll be so fun. I always wondered what the princesses’ favourite cakes were.”

Still reeling from being compared to nobility, I simultaneously began the same mantra as my friends. That was probably the cause of my mistake. “Okay, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I’ll play the game properly,” I said without really thinking.

A few seconds passed and it suddenly dawned on me that everyone was staring in my direction. Well, everyone except for Fluttershy. Even Loony was trying her best not to look at me awkwardly. “Is something wrong?” I queried, while looking over the judgmental ponies. That’s a Pinkie promise right? We all even spoke in the exact same rhythm. Then again, it did sound like Sunny said something about cupcakes. Maybe that’s just because she likes cake?

It didn’t take too long for Applejack to voice what apparently everyone else was thinking. “That don’t mean obey the rules or die now does it?”

“Errrrm, noooo?” Pretty sure this has gone wrong somehow.

“No way I’m letting anypony play a death game!” Rainbow all but shouted in my direction. She seemed a lot more surprised than angry at least. That’s a nice change I suppose.

“They’re just words.” Really should have asked what I was supposed to do.

Luckily, Celestia latched onto my words, “exactly, words cannot harm you. There is nothing to fear my little ponies.”

That probably would have been the end of it, if it hadn’t been for a ghostly voice on the air. A ghostly voice that sounded strangely like Pinkie. All it whispered was, “forever,” causing everyone to turn to the pink horse.

Her only response was to smile and say, “that isn’t ominous or anything.” Thank you for that one.

While four of the gathered ponies were trying to hold in a freakout and my friends tried to contain the fire, Twilight had put on her researcher’s hat. “That promise you made, it was the same one you made when we first met, wasn’t it?”

Glad for any social life line, I tuned out the rest of the room and attempted to engage the friendly conversation. “Yeah.” It wasn’t the best attempt.

Luckily it was all that was needed to steer the conversation away from death games. “Hmm, I’m curious where you learned it. You obviously knew it before you met anypony,” Twilight said while scratching her chin.

Before I could tell her how it just seemed right, Loony chimed in, “no more talks of magical research during game time. We wish to play this spinning bottle Pinkie has suggested, it sounds most enjoyable. Erm, may We go first? We have yet to experience this game.” Thank goodness those two had my back.

Back in the present moment, my thought process and Rainbow’s turn on the bottle was interrupted by our games all seeing deity. “Cake break!” Pinkie exclaimed, while placing a large sponge cake in the circles centre.

Much to the chagrin of a certain Rainbow pony. “Hey! It was my go.”

After being almost silent since the whole Pinkie promise debacle, I finally decided to speak up. “Can we just have a quick break? We’ve been doing this for ages.” Well maybe about half an hour.

“Oh yeah, you’d just love that Spooky, wouldn’t you? You haven’t even had a dare yet,” the irritable pegasus jibed while giving me a smirk. That’s probably the politest thing she’s ever said to me. To be fair, she doesn’t even look like she wants to murder me. Maybe the Discord fight was better PR than I thought.

Sounding a little more defensive than I’d like, I said, “I take up almost twice the amount of circle as you.” The Princesses do as well.

Twilight chimed in with a slight grumble, “I know, it’s an absolute travesty.” She emphasized her feelings on the matter by rubbing her eyes and grumbling to herself. That’s probably because she’s already had four separate dares. Her last one was actually pretty great. Having her burp pie was ingenious, granted Pinkie probably didn’t mean the number from the way she held an apple pie in confusion. It was still great though.

“Don’t worry, my time will come… eventually.” No matter how long it takes, it’ll happen. There’s nothing I can do to put it off.

My favourite pegacorn let out a light giggle at that. “We are looking forward to it.” A dare from Luna is basically my everyday life. She tells me to do a thing, I try to do the thing. The bottle makes almost no difference.

The next to comment was Rarity, who had a slight glint in her eyes. “Oh yes, I hope it’s me who gets the first shot.” From the way her gaze slowly listed to the side, it was clear she was daydreaming of what she would have me do. She probably wants to make another dress out of me. As much as I respect her, I’d rather that not happen today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see if she wants a visit.

Before the cake took everyone’s attention, Applejack finished by saying, “seems we all have some questions we wanna have answered.” She was eyeing me with that same suspicion she felt for me at my first party. Seems she thinks everyone wants me to take truth. Shame there isn’t anything interesting for me to say. Still, if she gets me, I’ll be sure to throw her a bone. Saying that, she’d probably prefer some hay.

Seeing as it was her party, Twilight began cutting the cake and hovering out the slices. “If we get through the cake, maybe we’ll actually catch them,” she said, while attempting to offer a slice to the Sun. I say attempting, because of Loony’s reaction.

The moment Celestia leaned forward to take the plate into her hooves, Loony’s magic lashed out and gripped the floating desert. Not only that, but the cake flew straight to her mouth where a huge chunk immediately disappeared. Celestia just stared impassively at the pony currently enjoying her treat, waiting for an explanation.

The response she got was probably not what she was after. “No, cake, for, you… remember your diet,” Loony said with a grin. She also punctuated each word by poking her sisters muzzle with the now empty plate. A few crumbs flew across the room, as Pinkie laughed with her mouth still full, adding insult to injury.

Poor Twilight, had frozen in the process of cutting another slice and was just nervously looking between the two sisters. One of which was looking way too pleased with herself.

After taking her sisters words on bored, Sunny turned back to the nervous unicorn and sweetly asked, “Twilight, could you pass me a smaller slice, please?” The honeyed words served to increase Twilight’s nervousness tenfold, but she shakily obeyed, cutting a slice and transferring said slice steadily to her teacher. All the while, trying her best not to look at the smug Moon pony enjoying her own cake.

When the cake finally arrived at its destination, Celestia’s eyes snapped to Luna who was still smiling before thanking the relieved Twilight. Seems Loony just felt the need to inform everyone of Sunny’s diet. I’m sure that’s going to go down well later on.

Once everyone had a slice, including me, Twilight sat to enjoy the last remaining piece. With nothing better to do, I watched each of them steadily finish their treats, while mine went uneaten. The first to notice the continued existence of my slice, was none other than the hungry sun. As she savoured the last bite of her half slice, she licked her lips and asked, “so Eclipse, are you not going to eat that?” She already knows I can’t eat on my own.

Snapping my useless metal jaw for effect, I said, “I don’t really have a proper mouth. Would anyone like mine?” Rather than just presenting the question to Sunny, I asked the surrounding ponies. Each of which perked up. Apart from Fluttershy, who receded a little. Snapping my jaw might not have been the best thing for her, seeing as her eyes had now become glued to her own plate.

A wing gently nudged my side, followed by Loony starting to say, “thou may borrow ours if thou wi…”

Before the words finished leaving her borrowable mouth, a certain pink pony leaned forward and swallowed the slice whole. As she sat there chewing away, her eyes closed due to the apparently amazing tasting treat, Loony gave her a dead pan stare. Just to make it worse, Pinkie quickly swallowed it before licking her lips and saying, “Thanks smoky.”

“Don’t mention it,” was all I could think to say, while glancing back to the now irritated Moon. Really don’t mention it. On her other side, I caught sight of Celestia puffing up a little, apparently happy her sister didn’t get any more cake.

Seeing the last slice be consumed, Rainbow impatiently said, “everypony’s finished, right? Can I spin or what?”

The greedy pink pony sat for a moment, clearly contemplating the idea. Apparently, it was an important thing to consider. “Hmmm, more spin the bottle,” she said to herself while tapping her chin. After making dash wait another ten seconds she suddenly said, “oki doki.”

The moment the first syllable escaped Pinkie, Rainbow pounced upon the idle bottle and spun it with all her might. “Ha, you lot better prepare yourselves, I’ve got a real doozy for you,” she boasted as the bottle began to slow down. Her bravado seemed to evaporate when the bottle slowed to a stop at the rooms only other pegasus.

For her part, Fluttershy sat up a little and nervously said, “I suppose… I’ll choose dare.”

“You know you don’t have to, right?” Rainbow said, sounding a little unsure. Wow, she doesn’t want to dare the poor defenceless Fluttershy.

Fluttershy just seemed to steel herself and said, “don’t worry, I'll be fine.” A ghost of a smile on her face.

Before going any further, the spectrum coloured pegasus looked to each of us, even having her gaze settle on me for a moment. Not sure what she’s hoping to find doing that, I have no answers. Seeing as none of us were going to assist, she sighed before attempting to come up with a, most likely, new dare. “Erm, okay, Shy… you gotta erm. You haaave to…” She paused for a moment to tap her muzzle. With each tap, the butter pegasus seemed to shrink back ever so slightly, while everyone else appeared to lean in with anticipation.

Eventually, Rainbow’s eyes settled upon something, giving her an apparently brilliant idea. Raising a hoof to point behind Pinkie, she regained her usual bravado and said, “I have the perfect thing. Shy, you gotta pop one of those balloons.”

“My balloons!” Pinkie cried out before happily bopping one in Shy’s direction. “Here ya go. There’s loads more where they came from.”

A soft squeak met my earless helmet, as Fluttershy attempted to duck out of its way. “D-do I have to?” She then started to gently nudge the balloon away with her hoof, like it was a bomb waiting to go off. Can’t believe she’s one of Equestria’s greatest heroes.

Seeing the result her dare caused, Rainbow immediately started to perk up even more. “You know the rules. Get popping.”

Now, I feel like everyone watching was expecting a bit of nervous knocking about, before Fluttershy either gave up, or used her hooves to squash it flat. What we were sadly treated to, was a period of Fluttershy gently poking the balloon and frowning at the fact it still existed. This would have been fine, but she refused to give up on it. Even an ageless being like me has limits.

In the interest of preserving everyone’s sanity, including my own, I eventually decided to step in. “Er, Shy. I have something to help you out.” For the first time of the night, she actually looked up at me, as I formed a small quantity of my mist into a needle and floated it towards her. That should do it.

She did take the small needle in her hoof, but ended up sat staring at it, eyes steadily widening. Hmm, welp, I tried my best. When she eventually looked up, she looked at each of us until her gaze settled on a bored white pegacorn. Said pegacorn, decided to casually raise a hoof to one of her eyes and then wink at the little pegasus, for some reason.

That reason became apparent, when Fluttershy started to hyperventilate before screaming out, “don’t take my eyes!” as she thrust the pin into the balloon. Not finished, she then attempted to throw the pin across the room, while simultaneously hiding from our sight.

Seeing as the pin was still attached to me by mist, I just had it revert to its usual gaseous form, before attempting to console the apparently traumatized pony. “Hey, you know that thing I said earlier doesn’t apply to you guys?” That at least got her to look up.

Ignoring my comment, Rainbow let out a laugh and said, “awesome death-defying stunt.”

Sunny seemed to be radiating some pride for the little pegasus as well. "Congratulations on defeating your adversary. I always knew the element bearers were well chosen.” A light titter did escape her as she looked to her less impressed sister. Loony on the other shoe, didn’t seem amused in the slightest and actually seemed to be hiding her disappointment. Probably at the fact that one of her nation's greatest warriors was afraid of a balloon.

Rarity had clearly made a similar assessment of the situation. “Don’t you think everypony’s being a little… melodramatic?”

After giving the fashion pony an eyebrow raise, Applejack turned to her victorious friend. “Hey partner, ya’ll went and did it. That means you get a turn.”

With the comforting words of her companions, Fluttershy finally sat up and triumphantly said, “Yeah, I did.” She immediately followed up by giving the bottle a light flick, causing it to complete almost half a rotation, before it sadly settled upon me. Still on her victory high, she looked at me and quietly said, “erm, hi.”

Before I could make a choice, Rainbow had a slight complain, “why couldn’t that have been my go!?” Just going to ignore that.

Okay, don’t ruin this moment, she’s actually looking at me, just be polite. “You know, seeing your display has inspired me to pick dare.” Hopefully that’ll encourage her.

“Knew they wouldn’t pick truth,” came a barely audible mumble from the cowpony. Seems I can’t please everyone. Pretty sure she’s a lost cause for me. It doesn’t matter, from the sea of inquisitive faces, everyone else seems to be pretty interested in my dare.

They were so interested, that a chorus of groans came from all parties when Fluttershy decided to politely ask, “so, what would you like to do?”

That sounds like a truth to me. “Probably read a book and then go to bed.” Jokes on them, because back in my bed room, a one-foot-tall copy of me has been reading this entire time. Reading about pony grooming techniques is quite interesting by the way. The wings have some pretty complicated stuff going on.

Back in the library, Rarity was busy saying, “Fluttershy, I’m not quite sure taking Eclipse out of the party like that is in the spirit of things.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to,” the nervous pony tried to backtrack. For what it was worth, I only shrugged. Sitting off to the side of the game reading would probably be a blessing. No potentially embarrassing dares to contend with, while simultaneously getting to watch the show.

Sunny decided to help me out as well with her rules lawyering, “technically, the rules don’t say the dare can’t extend the full length of the game, or even further beyond. Right Pinkie?” She finished by directing everyone’s attention towards the pony in charge of all things party.

For her part, Pinkie just agreed, “sure, get them to read a book while we party.” Her eyes then shrunk to pin priks as some realization dawned upon her. “What a horrifying punishment!”

Oh yeah, I’m actually going to get away with this, was a short-lived thought that permeated my helmet. Who’d have thought Twilight would try to talk the dare down. “It doesn’t need to be as ‘bad’ as that,” she said with almost solid air quotes.

Fluttershy seemed to take the horrifying punishment seriously and attempted to rectify her shocking dare with, what she thought, was something a little milder. “I-I have another idea, it’ll let Eclipse keep playing,” she said that with the faintest of smiles in my direction.

But I wanna be non-maliciously kicked out by my own idea. Looks like that isn’t going to happen. “Okay, shoot.”

With my direct response, Fluttershy’s smile increased. “Would you like to, dance?”

Dance? Not particularly, but then again, it doesn’t seem to be the most difficult dare. All I’d need to do is wave my shoes about a bit. “Alright.”

Seeing me easily agree, had Fluttershy let out a relieved sigh. Is she really that worried about a little dare? It seemed she was, as she immediately ducked her head again when the rainbow pegasus complained, “dance, seriously? That’s hardly a challenge for that tin can.”

Off to my side, Celestia nudged Luna’s side with a wing and coyly said, “having him shake his rear could be quite entertaining, right Lulu?” For her part, Loony just ducked her head slightly and subtly attempted to avoid eye contact with me for a few seconds. Why would I have to shake my rear? Is that part of pony dancing?

Seeing as Loony was choosing the right to remain silent over answering Sunny, Rainbow immediately threw hers away again, “yeah, for a little while, but there’s nothing to it.” That’s why it’s a good idea.

The parties purple host swiftly agreed with her companion, “I agree, they need a timer at a minimum, otherwise they’ll probably stop immediately. Let’s say five minutes to make it fair.” No Twilight! How am I supposed to fill that length of time? Tap fore shoes, tap rear shoes and ‘apparently’ shake rear twice was the whole plan.

As the dare was still clearly insufficient; Rainbow, the current bane of my existence, said, “that’s a good start, but there’s a way we can make this a little more interesting.” She rubbed her forehooves together a little menacingly, before turning to me. “So, Twilight says ponies can wear you, is that true?”

Oh no, I don’t like where this is going. “If I let them.”

“Perfect, why don’t we add to the dare that he has to dance, while somepony is wearing him,” Rainbow announced like it was the greatest idea ever. Which it wasn’t. The initial dare was to dance. These ponies are unfairly high jacking Shy’s dare.

Seeing the blatant unfairness of the situation, Luna heroically ended her silence. “Thou should not make such requests. They could be seen as demeaning to those involved.”

“Come now sister, lighten up. It is just a bit of fun,” Celestia said diplomatically. “Everypony else has completed their dares without much complaint.”

“Thou better hope We do not dare thee. We will remember thy words,” Loony smirked, before becoming thoughtful. After a moment she then said, “We believe this dare will be unfair on the pony who is chosen.” Is she acting like this is a political debate? At least she’s on my team. Saying that, she probably still wants me to dance.

Continuing with the diplomacy, Sunny made a suggestion, “how about we choose the pony at random, spin the bottle style? That would be fair and in keeping with the game.”

Seeing as this debate could last all night, I intervened. “Look, it’s not up to you lot anyway. Some of you might be Princesses, but the bottle says Fluttershy chooses.”

That unwittingly caused all the gathered ponies to stare at the shy pegasus, eager for a decision. As expected, she shut down a little and actually tried to shield her head with her hooves. Not before squeaking out, “just do what’s best, I’m sorry.” Maybe she shouldn’t be playing this game, you can’t keep everyone happy all the time.

Seeing as she didn’t add anything to the dare, I nervously said, “so… just dance for however long, yeah?”

Everyone shared a look, before letting out an almost unanimous nah. This was followed up by Rainbow spinning the dreaded instrument of pony, and spirit, torment. Seems there isn’t going to be an escape from this. Wonder who the unlucky sucker is going to be. Part of me hopes it’s Luna and part of me hopes it’s anyone else.

As the bottle began losing speed, something became apparent. The slightest of golden light was surrounding it, seemingly affecting the speed at which it slowed down. Looking over to the impassive Sunny, the tip of her horn also had the faintest of glows. Is she trying to stealthily choose the unlucky pony? She was the one suggesting fairness earlier.

When the inevitable happened and the bottle stopped moving, Sunny clearly suppressed a grin, while the victim immediately lost her happy demeanour. The first major reaction came from the Apple pony, who appeared to almost fall over due to her laughter. “Ha, Rainbow, you dug your own grave with that one.”

After shaking off the slightest of pouts, Rainbow immediately stood up to take on this apparent challenge. “I refuse to be beaten by anything,” she then flitted in front of me. “Come on then smoky, let’s get this over with. At least I’m gonna look awesome doing this.” Pretty sure that was a complement at the end there.

Anyway, I’d better get to modifying myself. My current form is a bit big for the tiny pegasus. This would be much easier if she didn’t move around so much. The Pegasus in question had started flying around my form, still bearing her look of determination. Eventually, she began gripping onto my helmet and pulling on it with some force. When she was unsuccessful in removing it, she moved to my shoes. She only managed to lift one from the ground before giving up separating my pieces. Seems I can hold myself together pretty well nowadays. “Could you please stop that.”

At my remark, her irritated face filled my vision. “Are we doing this or what?”

On my terms, yes. With only the smallest sigh I said, “just give me a second to get ready.” This caused the pegasus to float a couple shoe steps away from me and stare at me impatiently.

Okay, now I can actually see what makes her up, this should be easy enough. The first step was to reduce my size by converting my metal to mist. A further step of shortening my legs was then needed, seeing as regular ponies have smaller legs in proportion to their bodies. That’s probably why they look so young. The longer legs pegacorn’s have, like Loony, makes them look so much more majestic than regular ponies. Along with her proportionally slender neck and regal wings, Loony has one of the more impressive forms when it comes to ponies.

Whoops, getting distracted a bit. So back to Rainbows form. She does have quite large wings compared to other pegasi. Maybe some flare on my armour would be appreciated? Mimicking the shape of her wings, I added some Rainbow highlights to my plated feathers. There, that should add to her awesome opinion of my appearance.

With my transformation into armour fitted for the pegasus, she immediately clapped her forehooves together and said, “yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.”

“Glad you think so, just hold still for a second.” Now to put myself on I suppose.

“Why, don’t you need me to pu-, bleh hey!” escaped Rainbow as I wrapped some mist around her barrel to hold her in place.

As I held her stationary in mid-air, I began sliding my form over her own. The chest piece was easy enough to position, slipping neatly over her head and resting snuggly on her chest. My greaves and shoes on the other shoe, were another matter entirely. Due to some unforeseen alarm, the energetic pegasus refused to remain still. Avidly kicking her legs at every opportunity. Thus, she forced me to use my mist to hold each leg in place as my appropriate armour piece was applied. It did get easier once each piece was applied as I could use Rainbows own limbs to assist me.

“This is so creepy you guys,” Rainbow called out to her surrounding friends, before admonishing me, “you know I know how to put armour on, right?”

Ignoring her complaints, I pulled her tail out of my rear armour causing the pegasus’s eyes to bulge out for a moment and her back legs to kick the air a few times. “Could you please stop twitching so much? You’re making this more awkward than it has to be.”

“I’m making this more awkward! You’re the one getting all hoovsy,” she again complained. She at least decided to give me a helping shoe, by putting on my wing guards. That left just my helmet to apply, which she allowed to glide over her head. A little more gently this time, I pulled her mane out the back, making it visible to her friends.

After the apparently awful ordeal I put her through, Rainbow made a quick loop around the group and said, “look at me, loyal knight of Equestria.” Her jovial face fully visible due to the absence of my faceplate.

“Be careful with that fella,” the Apple pony shouted at her revolving friend. Not sure if she’s nervous Rainbow is going to harm me or I’m going to harm Rainbow. It’s the second one, isn’t it?

Once the third loop had been completed, I closed her wings dropping us to my four shoes.

“Hey! What gives?” The now ground bound pegasus complained for the millionth time.

“Can we please get this over with.” She was the one who wanted this over and done with. Now she’s the one dragging it out.

Seeming to realize what she’d been doing; Rainbow tapped the ground a couple times with a hoof. “Right, erm. There’s no putting this off, is there?” she asked the room. A number of smiling, shaking heads met her gaze. “Okay, just don’t go to overboard with this.” Oh, I get it. I hate being forced to do stuff too.

“I’ll just stick to the dare,” I said sympathetically, before walking over to the circle’s centre. Okay, so there’s no music. That’s probably a good thing, no beat to follow and all that. Actually, it’s probably a really good thing. I could just make my own beat maybe. The tinking of my shoes could make it sound like tap dancing or something. Who am I kidding? This is going to be a disaster.

“Eclipse, We are all waiting,” Loony’s voice sang out everyone’s opinion.

“Alright, here goes.” Starting out slow; I began tapping my fore shoes steadily to the beat of left, right, right, left, right, right and repeat. Okay, this isn’t too hard, no one’s laughing yet anyway. After about ten seconds of that, I got my rear shoes involved and mimicked the same pattern. The tapping of pony hooves around me drew my attention to Loony who’d started tapping her fore hooves in the same pattern.

Well, that’s encouraging. Still, there has to be a way I can make this more interesting. Five minutes is a long time. Tap dancers wear clothes, right? Of course they do. Steadily as I tapped Rainbows hooves, I began adjusting my form once again. This time changing from my usual metallic armour to that of a stiff fabric. My helmet was changed into a top hat, where my chest piece was changed into more of a tailored suit. To finish off I modified my rear greaves into that of a short skirt. That didn’t go over too well.

“I can’t believe this. You said you’d stick to the dare,” Rainbow complained as she attempted to reach back and grip the skirt. I say tried, because her hooves were too busy following my simplistic beat. “This isn’t what I signed up for.”

The spectators clearly didn’t agree, as they continued to enjoy the show. One with a particular eye for fashion even said, “marvellous Eclipse, I’ve been trying to get her into a dress forever.” All that resulted in, was the gradual heating up of my wearers face as she attempted to grin a bear the situation.

After the one-minute mark passed, the tune started to feel stale, even to me and I’ve spent eons in a soundless void. Right, need to spice this up a little. I know what to do, my balance has improved quite a bit since my arrival, ha I can even levitate. After the next round of the beat, I had Rainbow rear back onto her hind hooves and continued the dance with just her hind legs. That’ll hopefully look impressive, a pony dancing on two legs.

It did seem to surprise everyone, including my wearer, who just shrugged at her spectating friends. All the while, still attempting to reach her forehooves to my skirt. That brings up a good point, what to do with my fore shoes? They’re just sort of flailing in the air now. Don’t tap dancer’s use a cane or something? Maybe, maybe not, but it’ll give me something to do. Forming a black cane with my mist was easy enough, it’s just a pole, giving me instant access to something to spin around with my fore shoes.

I will admit to getting a bit lost in the moment, especially due to the cheering of the spectators, because the next thing I realized Rainbow was letting out the worlds loudest sigh. “It has to be five minutes by now, right guys?” she almost seemed to plead.

“It has been nearly ten. We did not wish to interrupt Eclipse when he was so clearly enjoying himself,” Luna said with a cheeky smile.

Loony’s words caused me to immediately dematerialise the cane and flop back onto all fours. That gained me an aww and the slightest of applauses from those around me, led by my two best friends. What a confidence booster this has been. “Sorry everyone, I just got distracted trying to keep it interesting.”

In my haste to apologise, I may have inadvertently used a certain someone’s mouth to talk. That immediately elicited a shiver from the now free to move pegasus, before she stuck her tongue out and said, “bleh, get out of my mouth. I wanted it to end as soon as it began.”

“Sorry about that.” Seeing that Rainbow was still embarrassed by the situation, I began quickly undressing myself from her form. An act that she clearly appreciated, as she began quite forcefully assisting me. If I’d not been made of sterner stuff, she’d probably have torn me. Once I was stood to her side, I held one of my shoes forward in the hopes she would take it. “It was just a bit of fun, right?”

Happily for me, she accepted the shoe shake and said, “yeah it’s cool. I’ve got some good dares for you lined up.” Oh great.

As we returned to our seats, Loony tapped my side with a wing. “Thou will have to dance with us one time like that. We would love thou to be our dancing partner.”

Sooo, does she mean as her clothes or another dancer? I think I’d prefer the second option. Doing some dancing with Loony leading could be fun. Well, when I’m not the centre of attention anyway. Trying to think of what to do was distracting enough, but if we plan it out, I’m going to be thinking about those stranger’s eyes on me.

Before I could answer in the affirmative, Sunny beat me to it, “I am certain Eclipse would love to be your partner. He practically already is.” She finished off by giving her sister a couple of eye brow raises. This caused Loony to blush slightly, before she used a hoof to lightly jab her sister. In response Sunny only smiled before winking at me.

Okay, they can have their weird sisterly in jokes. “Sure Loony, but erm, could we try to avoid being the centre of attention.” Something quite difficult for a Princess and an animated suit of armour. Oh yeah, I should probably change back from this suit, dress combo thing.

As I returned to my usual form, Loony attempted to reassure me, “We would attempt to keep thou out of any uncomfortable situations.”

Sure, she will. Loony seems to want me to go everywhere she does. That means unavoidable awkward moments almost every day. “I’m sure you’ll try your best.”

Back with the elements; Applejack and Rarity had clearly been embarrassing Rainbow, while we were talking. Applejack on purpose and Rarity seemed to be trying to convince the colourful pegasus she would look beautiful in a dress. The fashion pony’s honest opinion, is probably twisting the knife way more than the farmer.

Catching the tail end of the conversation, Rainbow finished by saying, “at least the Wonderbolts didn’t see me.” Her cherry red face had almost completely returned to its usual blue, marking hopefully the end of her embarrassment.

In an attempt to get further into the Elements good books, I decided to ask, “who’s Wonderbolt?” Showing an interest in the pony she values is bound to get me some brownie points.

The reaction was almost immediate. “Seriously, you haven’t heard of the Wonderbolts? They’re only the best flyers in Equestria. They keep our skies safe from the bad guys,” Rainbow quickly rattled off.

Pretty sure they’ve missed every problem I’ve witnessed, and that includes my own arrival. Suppose none of it did involve flight. Well, except for the whole Discord situation. Rather than point out how little work they seem to do, I instead tried my best to be polite. “They sound pretty interesting.”

“You bet they are, one day I’ll be joining up and getting myself one of those flight suits,” she pridefully said with a hoof to her chest. Seems like they really are heroes. Weird that I’ve never heard of them.

“Thou should mimic a flight suit someday. Thy abilities would put the Wonderbolts true uniforms to shame,” Loony said joining in the conversation.

“I’ll think about it.” If they’re interesting, I could give it a go.

Rainbow’s eyes appeared to light up at the mention of my abilities. “Wha-t sort of abilities?”

“Baring his form has given Us access to many benefits,” Luna warmly began, before pulling me to her side with her good wing. “Eclipse is quite impressive in many areas, but the one thou would likely value the most is the increased speed.”

“It’s not that good.” If I could blush, I would.

My words earned me a light nosing from the night Princess, as Rainbow watched on. “I’ll have to get one for myself.” Well, that’s a bit of dampener. No one has me.

As I was distracted with my internal complaint, Rainbow reached forward and flicked the bottle. Wait a second, that was my go. Heedless of my desire, the bottle chose to obey Rainbows hoof and began rapidly spinning, regaining the attention of the distracted ponies.

It took but a moment to slow down and finally settle upon my fluffy prison. “We choose dare,” she said while staring her challenger down.

That should be me being stared at. “Hey, the rules say it’s my go.”

“What do you mean? That was way worse for me, I have to see these guys every day,” Rainbow said, while punctuating her remark by pointing at Twilight.

“Well, I did all the hard work.” Kinda feels like my rewards being stolen here. If I have to play the stupid game, I wanna dare someone.

“We agree that Eclipse was the original barer of the dare. Thou were pulled into it through thine own intervention,” Luna said, thankfully siding with me.

“Oh yeah, of course you’d side with the tin can,” Rainbow said while getting to her hoofs. She then gained a devious smile. “Well, since you love him so much, why don’t you give him a big old smooch?” You can’t just include someone else to be a part of your dare. We spun the bottle again for the dance. There are rules, right?

The wing across my back promptly disappeared as Loony eyed the pegasus. “Is that thy dare?” she cautiously asked.

Rainbow steadily nodded in response, never once losing her grin.

I’ve got to put a stop to this. “Hey, this isn’t fair. Pinkie, we need a rules lawyer in here.”

Said party pony just shrugged at me, while looking between the two darers in a confused manner. “But the bottle landed on both of you, who’s dare would it be?” she asked herself before putting a hoof to her muzzle in thought. Well, that’s helpful.

This is so unfair; I haven’t dared anyone yet, not to mention how uncomfortable that dares made Loony look. She looks so conflicted right now.

Seeing my attempt to reclaim my rightful dare, Rainbow mockingly said, “what; is the tall, dark and scary slab of metal afraid of a mare?”

“Of course not, Luna’s the best,” I said in defence of the best pony. Wow, this is getting a little cruel. Do ponies really not know how she feels about people fearing her? Suppose not.

“We shall be brave for the both of us,” Loony declared, causing me to turn to her.

“You don’t have to do her dare just because she insulted you.” This game sucks.

It was then that Loony decided to complete the dare, irrespective of the insult she had just received. This resulted in the Moon slightly tilting her head to the side and placing her warm lips against the tip of my faceplate for a few seconds. She’d even closed her eyes for the exchange. Seems Rainbow won the dare then. Still, it’s nice that Loony’s willing to do that. It seems to be taking a while though.

After, I’m not sure how many seconds, Loony pulled back with a half-smile and asked, “how was that?”

Erm, I’m not really sure. Receiving a kiss is supposed to be a good thing though. As I thought about the kiss, Loony appeared to become increasingly nervous, she even made to take a slight step back. Probably because of the blank stare I always have giving away none of my thoughts. In order to placate her nerves and not having any frame of reference to go off, I said, “you’re good at that. It was… nice?”

At my admission, Loony, happily leaned forward with her ears flopped forward and nuzzled me. As she did so she quietly said, “well, if thou art lucky, We shall do so again.” She then returned to her cushion beside me, the slightest of red to her pleased face, and looked to the surrounding ponies.

Apparently, they’d all been stunned to silence during the dare and were just now escaping their stupor. Pinkie was the first to comment saying, “wowee, you really went to town Princess.” It didn’t seem like it was that difficult.

Her sister then turned to the group and with a slight giggle said, “well, it is not the first time my sister has tried such advances.”

That elicited an “ooooo” from the assembled ponies.

Loony just took it on the chin, cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Ah, who’s turn is it? Oh yes, ‘tis ours.” She then leaned forward and spun the bottle. So, do I not get to dare anyone then? Fine, Loony can have my go. She was forced to kiss me after all. Looking across at the smug Rainbow, I couldn’t help wishing I’d gotten to dare her to kiss Applejack or something.

As the bottle spun, there was the familiar sight of magic affecting its spin. This time however, the magic was that of the navy pegacorn. Seems Sunny isn’t the only one willing to cheat at this. The bottle still put up a good show of spinning fairly, but inevitably landed exactly where my friend desired it. Right upon her sister. This is probably revenge for her earlier comments.

Celestia, just raised an eyebrow knowingly before saying, “Dare.”

At that, Loony opened her mouth, but hesitated at the very last second. She was probably hoping for truth or something.

Another light giggle escaped Sunny before she said, “come on sister, you clearly want to dare me.” That’s probably to highlight her knowledge of Luna’s cheating.

“Thine earlier words gave Us an idea, buuut it seems a little too… outlandish,” Luna admitted. she’s probably been holding onto this one for a while then. You’d think she’d have just gone straight for it. Suppose Rainbow’s dare does seem to have left her in a bit of a funny mood.

Rather unexpectedly Sunny began mimicking Luna’s speech in reply, “Sister, thine puny dares could do nothing to affect Our royal person in the past.” Celestia might have actually spoke like that 1000years ago. Wonder what I spoke like back then?

The light mocking of her speech patterns, caused the Moon Princess to lose her indecision and immediately straighten up upon her cushion. “Now thou have done it sister. We hope thou art prepared for something earth shattering.”

“Thou cannot shake Us sister,” Sunny said, continuing her good-natured teasing.

Loony didn’t seem to think so, as she began narrowing her eyes. “Can we not? Then how about this, a dare for thou to complete tomorrow.” Wait, Sunny did say something about dares lasting more than a day, didn’t she?

Sunny seemed to lose some of her assuredness, but did not back down. “If it interferes with my duties, you would have to step in.” At least she’s stopped mimicking Loony’s accent.

“That shall be fine,” Loony said swiftly agreeing to the terms, before extending her wings and almost shouting, “We decree, that thou shalt allow Pinkie pie to… use Discord’s zipper on thou for a few hours tomorrow day.”

The response was immediate. Each and every being, including myself, cried out, “What!”

Twilight, the still being the voice of reason, then overshadowed the rest of us by saying, “I haven’t had time to figure out how dangerous that thing is. It could have any number of side effects on both ponies.” This is one of those moments where things have gone way too far. There must be some sort of veto system in this game, otherwise you could dare people to commit crimes or even murders.

Everyone present was clearly horrified, all except for one. “Lulu, it seems you will have to cover day court, because you, are, on,” Sunny declared before turning to the group with a smile, “I would not want to lose an eye or anything.” I’m never going to live that down.

Without even pausing to take a breath, Sunny then flicked the bottle. The two sisters both shared a knowing look, as the bottle spun with the slightest of golden glows. To everyone’s surprise, but mine, Luna’s and Celestia’s, the bottle landed upon the navy pegacorn.

Without leaving eye contact with her sister, Loony firmly said, “Dare.” I really don’t like where this is going.

“Tit for tat,” Celestia began before leaning closer to her sister, “your dare, will be to eat some poison joke. Eclipse has plenty within his bedroom.” You can’t make her eat poison!

For the second time, to everyone’s surprise Loony said, “foals play, We accept thy pitiful challenge.” She then without skipping a beat flicked the bottle, which immediately landed on Celestia. Something tells me this is going to end with the two of them rolling around on the floor. Would that count as a civil war?

Before the nation could be torn in two, Twilight rapidly clopped her forehooves together and said, “okay, okay, we should probably put an end to the game before it gets out of hoof. No sense going crazy, right? Heh.” She finished by looking nervously between the two diarchs, who were both still staring at each other.

Gradually, the stares started to soften and a light chuckle could be heard from the two. Celestia then broke the impromptu staring contest and turned to her student. “What do you have in mind, my faithful student?”

Seeing the now calm demeanour the pegacorns now possessed, the little unicorn took a calming breath, before reaching for a small book. “Well, we’d completed most of the events Slumber 101 talks about before you arrived.” She winced a little at the admission. Not sure why though, we were pretty late. She quickly recovered however when she started flicking through the pages. “The only thing left is, well, a pillow fight. We should probably skip that one.” I think that’s for the best.

Sadly, one particular pegasus didn’t pay attention to the end of Twilight’s words. “Oh yeah, Let’s go,” Rainbow called out while taking to the air with her pillow in tow. A moment later, said pillow was bouncing off of my helmet and landing just in front of me. “Ha, ten points.”

That sort of opened the flood gates really. Each pony took their own pillow and scattered to the far sides of the library, probably hoping to avoid instantly losing the game. On that note, I looked over to Rainbows expended munition. Welp, there’s only one thing for it. “Oh no, I’m dead,” I announced while simultaneously falling to pieces upon both my pillow and the spare. Now I don’t have to do anything but watch, perfect.

A loud “Noooo,” echoed from behind my prone form. Almost at the same time, a glowing blue pillow, flew overhead and collided with Rainbows stomach, knocking the wind out of her. “Thy honour hast been avenged,” Loony proudly declared before again wielding her weapon in the rooms centre. “Come all who dare face the wrath of the night.” Well, this is hardly fair. She did face down Discord.

For how impressively ‘the night’ was standing, it was a little anticlimactic what happened next. From directly behind her, a fluffy pink pillow flew and impaled itself upon her horn. The remnants of a golden aura quickly fading from it. With the slightest groan of disappointment, Loony laid on the ground beside me and said, “wo is me, We are also slain.”

Standing over Luna’s now prone form, was her victorious sister, who only let out a light giggle, before galloping after her fearful student.

Seeing as the two of us were now out of the fight, I quietly said, “at least we got to die together,” while pushing my spare pillow under Loony’s head.

She only smiled back and said, “indeed,” before continuing to watch the unfolding chaos.

Said chaos, involved the remaining elements rallying together and teaming up against their all-powerful ruler. It wasn’t long before they managed to lay low the sun beast, as they each possessed a pillow, the kryptonite of everyone here. The moment she fell, the remaining Elements started to celebrate their victory together, right up until a certain party pony wapped Twilight in the face and called out, “let anarchy reign!”

By the end of the chaos, only one pony remained standing, that being Applejack. She went to start celebrating, before being lightly tapped from behind by the last pony anyone expected to be an assassin, Fluttershy. The last act of the ground pony, was to stare in disbelief, before begrudgingly rolling over and sticking her legs in the air. That sort of proves that it’s always the quiet ones who get ya. At least now all the running about is over.

With the game over, everyone rolled back to their hooves and congratulated Fluttershy for her super cheap victory. At least with her victory, we can bring this party to a close. As if almost hearing my thoughts, Twilight then turned to the group and said, “excellent effort everypony, let’s have another round.” Her words were met by a chorus of cheers as I could only sigh. It all brings home time.

We ended up playing another three rounds. For the first, I teamed up with Loony and made a real good go of it, right up until she decided it would be funny to betray me. The second, where I immediately gunned for Loony and we both took each other out. Then there was the final, which was my proudest moment of cheating.

In each round, the horned members of our group would try to catch pillows and sometimes even produce magical shields. Well, my idea was to form as many pillows from my mist as possible, and try to throw them like a comfortable cluster bomb. My plan ended the round almost immediately, penetrating all defences and taking out everyone, (including myself).

As the round was declared a draw, Sunny popped up from under the pile of maybe five pillows, and looked at the collapsed ponies around her. “It appears everypony is quite tired. Twilight, that marks your slumber party as a great success.” I probably should get rid of all of these pillows.

The official host of the party, now no longer obscured by pillows, nodded in agreement before smiling to her friends. “It went a little smoother than the last one.”

Both Rarity and Applejack seemed to nod emphatically at that. Seems they don’t have the most luck with these sorts of parties.

As they continued to laugh and joke amongst themselves, an important question came to my mind. “Sooo, was that the last thing we had to endu- enjoy?”

The tired gazes of each of the ponies clearly aligned with my point that the party had reached its natural conclusion. For a moment I thought something else was going to extend this event when Twilight reached for her book. Thankfully, she flipped to the final page and said, “yes that’s it. All that’s left is to complete the slumber part of the party. Okay girls, get out your sleeping bags.”

With that, each of the ponies moved over to various bags they’d brought and began getting out various supplies meant for sleeping. Even the two royals had some, with sun and moon patterns on because of course they did.

As each of them began rolling out their respective sleeping cocoons, it steadily dawned upon me that I didn’t have one, because why would I? “Erm, Twilight, you wouldn’t happen to have a large spare I could borrow?”

From her position by her friends, the little unicorn looked up at me in slight confusion. “Did Princess Luna not tell you to bring one.”

A slight distance away, Loony bit her lip, before getting into her own bag. Seems she forgot to mention another thing. As she made herself comfortable, she looked at the other ponies, snuggling into their own makeshift beds and beckoned me over with a hoof. “It does not matter, Our sleeping bag is plenty large enough for thou to squeeze in.” That does seem to be true, her bag seems to be even larger than Sunny’s. Still, it would probably be tight.

The flipping of pages in another book drew my attention. “Hmm, maybe a duplication spell wo…” Twilight began, before suddenly stopping mid-sentence. A golden aura surrounding her mouth. If I could have raised an eyebrow, I would have.

Seeing as no other solution presented itself, Loony again tried to advertise her makeshift sleeping arrangement. “Come, there is plenty of room.” The way she looked at me while saying that was a little strange. She had a nice smile, but her eyes had a strange affect to them. All she’d done was partially close them, but it felt like she was trying to communicate a sort of desire towards me.

“Well, if you’re okay with it, sure.” Seems she really wants to be the one to help me out. Suppose that’s what friends are for.

This did however leave me with a slight conundrum. Loony was already within the bag, pocking her head and forehooves out the top expectantly. Said appendages were kind of blocking my access. “Is there any way you can budge up?”

“Mmm, sadly no,” the pegacorn said while appearing to stretch out further for a second. Seems she wants this to be as difficult as possible. Oh well, she asked for it I suppose. Turning my rear to the bags entrance, I carefully inserted both of my rear shoes and gracelessly started to back into the bag. The shoes slid in almost no problem, but the rest of me was still pretty large, forcing me to have to awkwardly worm each piece individual piece past Luna’s lightly giggling head.

It was practically impossible not to bump into her each time a piece of me entered and when my form joined hers within the bag, we were practically pressed together. Pressed so close in fact, that my chest piece slightly engulfed her chest. She seemed to welcome the contact and even wormed her own wings around me, shrouding me in a second cocoon of soft feathers.

As we were both stuck facing each other, she looked into my eyes and basically stated, “Cozy?” like it was impossible for it to be untrue.

To be honest, it really is nice and warm in here with her. Not to mention the fact I basically have free reign to touch her soft fur. With that in mind, I gently petted Luna’s side before saying, “Sure.” The happy hum my shoes elicited would have brought a smile to my blank faceplate.

In between the humming, Loony turned to the other ponies in the room, who’d long since gotten comfortable and said, “We will ensure thy dreams are most sweet tonight, even thy own sister. Will we not Eclipse?” She then nuzzled me to prompt my response.

“Oh erm, I’ll try my best.” Is she talking about dream walking again?

Rather than explain further, Luna leaned forward and began using my helmet as a makeshift pillow, before whispering, “of that, We have no doubt.”

Author's Note

This chapter caused my brain so much pain.
I was actually looking forward to writing it, until I realized how difficult nine characters in one space was to write. Hopefully not going to do that again. Wait, chapter 31! Arg, that has to change.
Not only that, but I wanted to try out some mini flash backs and I'm not sure if they break the chapters pacing.
Sorry if it was a bit jarring.

PS. If you are curious about the dancing part. I didn't look up how tap dancers dress, so if It's inaccurate, that's just how Eclipse thinks they dress.
PPS. I may have also written another short story while I was brainstorming ideas. Here it is if you're curious: Benefits of Being a Hippogriff

30: Learning to Walk

Chapter 30

Welp, never thought I’d be admitting this, but Twilight’s slumber party was actually quite tolerable. Not only was it pretty interesting, but it kinda proved that most of the Elements don’t actually hate me anymore. Apart from Applejack, but I’m not sure if she just distrusts everyone she doesn’t really know.

The only real bad part, was when the dares went a little too far towards the end. Loony and Sunny seem to love pushing each other’s buttons sometimes. It just comes out of nowhere.

Speaking of Loony, it was nice of her to lend me her bed once again. It’s always comfortable sleeping at her side, no matter how cramped. Not to mention the slightly more interesting dimension she brings me to. Her presence is exactly why I’m currently sitting in a glowing corridor, surrounded by steadily increasing numbers of doors. This is both a blessing and a curse to be honest. A blessing, because Loony is going to appear soon and want to do something with me. A curse, because that thing doesn’t involve resting. I could just wander off and find a place to rest alone, but that would probably be considered impolite. Especially because she likely wants to catch up with me.

That reason alone was why I was sitting exactly where I appeared, staring at a blank space in the wall, waiting for my Loony’s door to inevitably appear. After the average waiting time of around ten minutes, her usual door appeared.

The moment I could make out her familiar mark, I couldn’t help standing up in anticipation of her arrival. I know she’s going to be really active and want me to do things, but I’m still eager to spend a bit of time alone with her. All those other ponies were a bit much.

Without much fanfare; the door swung open, admitting one dark blue pegacorn to the vast corridor. She immediately locked eyes with my eye sockets and smiled. “Ah Eclipse, punctual as always.”

Due to lacking a true mouth, I just nodded and said, “yeah, I guess.” Really wish I could smile back.

As our initial greeting concluded, Loony began scanning both ways down the corridor. After a light hmm, she surmised, “it seems there are many dreams for us to attend to tonight.”

Following her gaze, I too eyed the many doors filling out the space. “There are a few doors around here.” Huh, suppose that means she’ll be a little too busy to do stuff with me. I’m actually a little disappointed. Oh well, there’s probably a good corner around here somewhere to laze in. Just wish this place wasn’t so bright all the time. “Well, I’ll wish you luck then.”

Just as I finished speaking, Loony turned back to me with a metaphorical light bulb above her head. “Hmm, thou can easily traverse dreams, can thou not?” she started to ask.

“Yeees.” uh-oh, she’s gonna give me a job to do. I don’t know anything about this place. Other than it contains dreams, obviously.

With the mostly rhetorical question answered, Loony took a step towards me and held out a hoof. “Well then, would thou be interested in learning more about Our nightly activities?”

“You look at dreams and stuff, right?” From the way Loony slightly frowned, it was clear she did a little more than that. Seeking to mitigate any damage, I continued on to say, “well, I’m sure there’s much to learn.”

“Indeed, there is,” Loony agreed, latching on to my second statement. “Not only do We observe Our subjects’ dreams, but We actively affect them to improve their general wellbeing.” As she spoke, she started to sound increasingly proud of her work, going so far as to puff up her chest. She then turned and walked over to a nearby door. “Now then, come, We shall demonstrate to thee on one of thy close friends.”

The door in question held a familiar pattern, one of three blue gems. Huh, Rarity. Wonder what she dreams about? Clothes most probably.

As she reached the door, Loony stopped and patiently gestured in its direction. “After thou.” Heh, shouldn’t it be mare’s first?

Following her invitation, I approached the waiting entrance, shoe raised ready to pull the handle. Right at the last moment, I couldn’t help a slight feeling of wrongness creeping into my chest piece, causing me to hesitate.

Loony cocked a brow at my pause and commented uncertainly, asking, “Is something the matter?”

“Is it really okay for me to see her dreams? Isn’t this stuff sort of… private?” I know I’ve been in pony dreams before, but at the time, I didn’t realize they represented actual real pony’s psyches.

Loony just smiled kindly at me and said, “Our subjects trust us to watch over the night in all things. We believe they be willing to trust one as close to Us as thou.”

After hesitantly tapping the blank dream floor with a fore shoe, I relented and began opening the doorway to Rarity’s brain. “Okay, you know ponies better than me.” I mean that’s a given. Saying that, she has been a bit out of the public domain for the past thousand years.

Ignoring that final niggling thought, I began observing the familiar room that lay before us. The inside of one carousel, if I wasn’t mistaken. That was pretty expected to be honest, but at the same time there isn’t anything extraordinary around. Just the store and a slight humming sound. “Hm, I was expecting something a little more… dream-like in here.” Other dreams I’ve been to, all had something that made them slightly unreal. This just seems… normal.

That earned me a light titter from my close friend. “Not all Our subject’s dreams are so surreal. Many are mundane with only slight hints of fantasy.” She then decided to begin gently nudging me through the door with her muzzle. “Now come along, this dream will be perfect for thy practice.”

“Okay, okay.” Taking the hint, I entered the familiar door, closely followed by the eager to start pegacorn. “Sooo… now what?” We’re practically just in Rarity’s shop now.

“Now? Now we find the dreamer. That is always the way to start,” Loony said, beginning my lesson. Her ears then pricked up to the sound of the earlier humming, prompting her to walk in its direction. Upon making her way past a couple of racks, she turned to me and gestured with a wing. “Now, there is our glamourous dreamer.”

Once I made it to Loony’s side, the seamstress came into view. Rarity was happily humming, while working away upon a new dress design she was probably thinking about in real life. She was clearly in a state of heavy concentration, as she expertly cut unwanted material and sewed on extra finishing touches. Hopefully, that means this is a good dream if she’s dreaming about her job. Clothing is something she seems to like.

As the two of us sat spying on the unaware pony, Rarity suddenly said, “lift please,” to no one in particular seeing as she was, by her knowledge, alone. Something a bit more interesting than the creation of a new dress was clearly going on, when the dress lifted up one of its short sleeves by itself, for the fashion pony to access underneath. Upon adding a small amount of stitching, she said, “ah, this is looking lovely.”

The fashion pony then took a step back as another unexpectedly familiar voice said, “Thanks Rares.” The dress then moved unassisted from the podium, walked straight past me on some fancy shoes and waved its thrills at Rarity, before walking out the door like it was the norm. That scene left me a little bit stunned to be honest. Is she dreaming about me? I’m not sure if I should be flattered or concerned.

Heedless of my newfound interest in her dream, Rarity began looking at a checklist, ticked off something and eyed the next on the list. “Guise, I’m ready for you,” she called out to someone waiting in another room.

In response to the call, a suit fitted for a stallion seemed to limp in, before greeting her. It then held out one of its sleeves, which on further inspection was clearly torn. “Oh, you poor thing. I can fix that right up for you,” Rarity said in a sympathetic tone, before using her magic to bring over her tools. So, is she like… a doctor for clothes or something?

As I debated the madness I was witnessing, my fellow dream walker inadvertently gained my attention with a light giggle. Loony, was only taking brief glances at the display and appeared to be mainly staring at me with a wide grin. “What is it? Something on my helmet?”

“Nay, nay, We have never seen thou so enraptured in something. Thy reaction is quite entertaining,” she said without losing her smile. Yes, my blank expression must be amazing to watch.

Hoping to simultaneously impress Loony and hide my interest, I decided to give the amused pegacorn my theory on the dream.

“She is sort of dreaming about me.” Saying those words, caused a whole new well of embarrassment to form.

“Not quite dreaming about thou,” Loony began in her schooling tone. “It appears she is imagining a world where thy kind are a more prevalent feature. A world of clothes, is likely a dream come true for a seamstress such as her.”

“Well, I’m flattered. It would be interesting to have others like me around,” I said while looking back over to the seamstress helping ‘Guise’. Maybe I should visit her more often? She has given me a bit of an open invitation. Yeah, it might be interesting to hang around with someone who likes what I am. I’m not quite clothes though.

Still watching me, Loony said, “We prefer the concept of quality over quantity.” That is a good way to think.

Seeing as I was still distracted with the scene playing out, Loony loudly clopped her hooves together, likely wanting me to stop watching the unfolding events. “Now then, for the reason we are here,” Loony said grandly. “For the demonstration and practice of some basic dream walking techniques.” For a way to gain someone’s attention, it wasn’t bad.

Once I’d managed to distance myself from the dream show, Loony reached over and picked up a random top hat from a shelf nearby. She then gestured to the headwear with her free forehoof and said, “this, is a construct from Rarity’s dream.” She proceeded to flip it upside down to give me a view from all sides.

“Okay.” It looks like any hat. Obviously, it isn’t. That’s what this training’s about. This should be fun.

“It may appear like any mundane object in all things, but its construct form gives it unique qualities We can exploit,” Loony went on to explain, while her horn began to glow. The moment the glow surrounded the item, it began to shift and change into various different forms. Going from a top hat, to a regular woolly hat, before making the more extreme change to a valuable looking gem and then a random mundane rock. In the end, it finally ceased to exist entirely.

With her show of dream manipulation complete, she grabbed another hat from the same shelf and turned to me. “We have witnessed the method thou uses to modify thy own form many times. ‘Tis our belief, that it is the same method used to modify a dream itself. After all, thou art made of the stuff of dreams,” as she finished, Loony appeared to gain a wistful smile at the idea.

The stuff of dreams eh. Seems like a big leap in logic to me. I’m pretty sure I’m made of some sort of magic. Wait, are dreams made of magic? That could make sense. In the end, I only shrugged at Luna’s theory and said, “okay, do you want me to give that a try?”

A quick nod and the hat being held out in front of me was the reply. Welp, let’s see what I can do. Taking the top hat in my fore shoe, I began to focus on its form. The desire, was to make the top hat become the same woolly hat Luna had just created. My focus did come to fruition in an unintended manner, as I managed to form an identical top hat with my mist, before changing that into the woolly hat.

My friend eyed the new hat for a moment thoughtfully, before saying, “very good. Thou hast created a fine dream construct, however ‘tis Our desire for thou to modify one that already exists.”

Looking at the newly formed hat, I couldn’t help thinking, isn’t this a part of me? Suppose that gives credence to Luna’s earlier theory. Right, round two. After reabsorbing my construct, I began to once again focus on the top hat. It took considerable effort not to just make a new one again, and I had to go as far as surrounding the hat with mist, just to keep my attention upon it.

As time passed, Loony decided to give some more advice. “It may help to consider the object as an extension of thyself.”

That does make sense, but how would I go about tricking myself like that? It’s clearly not me. Ah, I know. With an idea in mind, I used my mist to float the hat and balance it precariously on top of my helmet. “Done.” That’s sort of a part of me, right?

As my concentration wavered every so often, it did steadily dawn on me that Loony was rubbing her forehooves together in anticipation of a positive result. Seems, she has a bit of a stake in this. Welp, really can’t let her down. Still continuing to try and modify it like I would myself, nothing seemed to be happening. The object didn’t change at all. It didn’t even budge due to my own motionless state. This thing very clearly isn’t me; I can’t feel it like my helmet or shoes.

Seeing Loony off to my side filled with hopeful faith in my ability, didn’t make me feel too good and distracted my attention even further from the object. She didn’t appear to be judging me, but it was becoming evident from the way her look was changing, that her belief in my ability was steadily fading away.

Well, this kinda sucks. Wish this hat would sod off. It was then that I had a slight break through, consuming the hat in its entirety, like any regular form of magic. The dream construct even had a nice taste. Hmm, dreams are another source of food? Putting that thought aside for later, I reformed the hat upon my helmet, before changing its state to that of a woolly hat. Feeling a little happier, the next step was to switch the hats forms like Loony. The act was almost foal’s play, as the object flipped between a pair of glasses, a cup and finally a flower.

Swiftly stealing the formed flower, Loony gave it a quick sniff, before rearing up in celebration. “Huzzah, thou hast done it.” Upon landing back on all fours, she gave me a quick nudge with her wing. “Thou should believe in thyself more.”

I believed in myself, I think? It was then that I became aware of my mist raising back up from the floor. Okay, I might have been feeling a little dejected. “Well, I couldn’t do it without you,” I said while watching her put my newly created flower in her mane. Saying that, that flower is made out of me, right? It isn’t connected, but I can definitely sense it. Does that mean I didn’t modify the dream? I’m not sure what counts. At least Loony thinks I did.

As she finished with her new decoration, she smiled and said, “now then, let Us show thou what an experienced dream walker can do to benefit a dream.”

“I’m prepared to be amazed.” This should be good.

The tip of my friend’s horn flashed blue for a second, as she lightly stamped on the room’s floor. She then stood nonchalantly, still looking in my direction. Is that it? Nothing seems to have happened. In a bit of puzzlement, I tilted my helmet in Loony’s direction. Seeing my confusion, the dream master only raised a foreleg in the direction of our dream’s host.

It was then I noticed Rarity was looking a little confused. That did make sense, seeing as the suit she was working on had completely disappeared.

“I don’t see how stealing her… client is beneficial.” Wonder what Rarity’s actually thinking? Technically, this sort of thing happens in dreams all the time. Most probably, I don’t actually dream. How weird is that?

Rather than explain the purpose of her manipulation, Loony simply said, “wait and see.”

Wait and see? Fine. Turning back to the unicorn, she had shaken off her confusion and, was now reading through her clipboard once again. When her eyes reached a certain point, she smiled and turned to look straight down the corridor of racks, straight at me. “Ah Eclipse, I’ve been looking forward to your appointment all day.”

She can see me? “My appointment?” More to the point, what appointment?

Not noticing my uncertainty, she looked back down at her checklist and continued, “I know you booked yourself in for this afternoon, but I’m free at the moment. Why don’t you come over here.” She then lightly tapped the pedestal with a hoof that the two previous entities had occupied.

What is happening? Looking to Loony for clarification, she only smiled mischievously. Oh great, suppose I’m a part of her narrative now. Well, it’ll probably be fine. “Erm, okay then,” I said, before making my way to the politely directed position.

Rarity only nodded at me, before turning to look through a variety of tools, including tape measures, needles and dreaded scissors. The sight of these implements would have made me gulp if it were possible, and encouraged me to ask a very pertinent question. “So, what exactly did I book myself in for again?”

That distracted the pony from her various potential torture devices and caused her to look in my direction. An act which allowed me to use my mist to eat her scariest tools. “Well, you did say you wanted me to make you look nice for the Princess. She can’t just have a single gala dress now, can she?”

A quick glance back at the pegacorn puppet master confirmed my suspicions. Her smile had morphed from that of smile, to a wide cheeky grin. Seems I’ve fallen into her trap. Then again, I think I did talk to Loony about wanting to go see Rarity for something like this. Why am I so lazy? “Well, I did plan on asking you about that.”

“I know, and I’ve been itching to get my hooves into you as well. There are so many interesting concepts a material like yours allows,” Rarity finished before turning around to look for her now missing tools. “Where did? I swear I just had them,” she mumbled to herself while looking under her workstation. Probably thinking she dropped her scissors.

Okay, this is my opportunity to make this dream work, now let’s see. It didn’t take me long to rematerialize each of the fashion pony’s tools almost identically to how they started. They only had a couple of minor differences. The first was that each implement was entirely made by me, giving me full awareness and control over them. The second, and much more important one, was that each tool wasn’t actually sharp anymore. There, easy. To the side of the tools, rolls of material could also be seen, which I again switched out for more of myself.

In the few seconds it took me to replace the sort after items, Rarity stood back to her full height, just a little frustrated, before noticing her tools exactly where she left them. “Ah, here they are. I must need a little more sleep,” she ironically said, while shaking her head. She then turned to me and asked, “would you be able to return to your elegant dress form? Your armour is quite charming, but I can use the dress as a nice base for my work.”

After I complied by turning myself into Luna’s original gala dress; the fashion pony set to work with her measuring tape, began taking numerous notes and reviewing a large quantity of sketches. Seems she really has been planning for this for a while. Suppose these sketches are all just thoughts in reality.

Once her preliminary checks were completed, the unicorn picked up her newly formed scissors and began moving them towards my newly created hem. Just before she went ahead with her cutting, she looked up to my, currently tiara, head and reassuringly said, “think of this like a mane cut for a pony. It should be relaxing.”

Easy for her to say, normally getting bits cut off isn’t the nicest thing. Luckily for her, I had a method of making this work. When her tool met the dress, rather than cutting through, I consumed the material back into myself. From the outside it still appeared like a cut, but for me it was way more pleasant. It was so easy for me to do, that it was practically automatic and even proved Rarity right when she said it would be relaxing.

I wasn’t sure how long had gone by, when Rarity finally said, “and voila, one midi dress.” Wait, it’s over? Aww, that was kinda nice. Looking back to my barber, she was even holding a small mirror for me to get a better look at myself.

What I found in the reflection, was a very dark blue almost black dress with very limited flare. Looking to my rear, she’d shortened the hem to what would be a tall pony’s knee allowing the view of my shoes below. At the shoes was a different change, as she’d decided to add ankle high socks, which would make it easier for me to manipulate my wearer’s hooves. The final change from the gala dress was that the sleeves only stretched a little way from the shoulder, which is probably what Loony would prefer.

“It’s all very nice, so much easier to move,” I started to say, before noticing the texture of the material. “Erm Rarity, how did you change my material?” It had somehow become something much smoother and shinier than my original, without me having to do anything. Quite a major improvement over my own design. Not only that, but it still included the thin metal plates I’d hidden throughout, in order to prevent a repeat of what happened at the gala.

In response, she just pointed back to an empty roll of material I’d copied for her. That means she basically removed all of me and replaced me with that, without me evening paying attention. Dreams are impressive. “I selected velvet as something the two of you may enjoy,” Rarity said with a smile, “Is the hem low enough? I know the princess wanted it long before.”

“This length’s perfect, it makes my shoes visible.” More importantly, it stops me dragging on the ground when I’m not concentrating. “I’m sure Loony will love this. Well, if she’s ever desperate for a comfortable dress in short notice.” When has she ever really worn anything other than her royal regalia?

“Oh, you’re too kind,” Rarity began with a hint of embarrassment. “Please, let me know what she thinks. I like a little constructive criticism.”

A sudden throat clear from my side, reminded me that there was more than the two of us present. “Ahem, Eclipse, if this design is truly for Us, could We give it a try?” Loony said after her stealthy approach. I say stealthy, Rarity probably can’t even see her and she’s standing there clear as day.

With a light shrug, I said, “sure.” There’s no reason why not, except maybe time constraints. Isn’t there loads of work to do tonight? How longs it been? Dream time is weird.

Once she had my permission, Loony once again let her horn flash and tapped her hoof upon the ground. Almost immediately, my barber’s eyes went wide with surprise as her ruler was suddenly stood next to her. “Princess! I didn’t see you come in,” she blurted out while seeming to debate on whether or not to bow. As she calmed herself a little, her tone dropped to her regular welcoming one, “Eclipse and I were just talking about you.”

After enjoying the brief moment of surprise she’d caused, Loony happily greeted the fashion pony saying, “Good evening Rarity. We have come to see how thou hast been taking care of Our fine stallion.” She paused for a moment to pretend to inspect me. “It appears thou hast done a marvellous job. Thou art a credit to Ponyville.”

With the kind words dealt, Rarity finally settled on whether or not she should bow, and gave the Princess the deepest bow possible. “Oh my, this is truly an honour.”

Turning away from the now appropriately praised fashion pony, Loony continued to look me over. “Ah, thou should really not have gone to all this trouble for Us.”

I would have rolled my eyes at that if it were possible. Pretty sure she’s the one controlling this dream. Well, might as well play along. “Well, you caught me. I wanted this to be a surprise for your birthday, but I guess the jigs up.” Ha, this should be decent cover for that toy.

“Hmm, ‘tis a bit far for Our birthday,” Loony nonchalantly said, as she rubbed a hoof along my side. “But We are glad thou art preparing.”

Are we going to get this over with? Seems she wants me to mention it. “So, want a test drive?” As I spoke, I shook my shortened skirt and pulled one of my newly formed socks.

That caused our audience to lightly giggle, while my best friend blushed slightly. “Of course, We would not wish to waste dear Rarity’s work.” With her words said, she eyed Rarity for a second, causing the smaller pony to smile politely, before purposefully turning her back to us and finding an interesting spot of wall to stare at. Do ponies not like putting clothes on in front of people? Suppose that’s what the changing rooms are for. Maybe we should go find one?

The sound of a zipper being pulled put paid to my suggestion, as Loony pulled one I was not aware of upon my back, opening it up for easy access. With the opening widened, she moved her head under my dress and easily slid through my form without any resistance. She practically stepped in one smooth motion, through me and onto the pedestal. She then pushed her fore hooves through my sleeves and left them air bound for my shoes. I took the initiative and pulled them gently over each of her hooves in turn, before doing the same for her rear. The zip on the back was a little awkward for her to reach, so I zipped it up pulling me snuggly around her form. Huh, a zip like that would probably go well on my other forms. It would stop so much unnecessary chafing.

With my form fully donned, Loony looked herself over happily and cleared her throat to get Rarity’s attention. When the fashion pony had turned away from her important duty of wall watching, she turned to my wearer with an expectant look. Probably hoping for some feedback. Something the moon goddess was willing to provide. “As expected, thy work is beyond satisfactory,” she said with a smile before raising a hoof. “One thing however is a little strange, We are curious as to why thou chose socks with this design?”

Rarity appeared to take note of the extended appendage before shrugging. “Eclipse was under the impression they would be an improvement.”

“Really?” Loony seemed to ask the air around us. That probably means me.

Really? I am, but how would she know before shoe? Mirroring my wearer’s words, I simply said, “Really.” The socks seem like a great idea. Bit more comfort and better for keeping someone warm, if pegacorns can be cold that is. Saying that, it would probably make sense for them to be longer if that was the desired effect. That’d probably look a little strange though. Maybe I could make knee high boots instead? That might look interesting. Or maybe even tights! Office workers wear them, right? That would give me more joints to play with, and I get to feel more of Loony’s fur. Win win.

Seeming to somehow be aware of my internal thoughts, Rarity scratched her chin while reviewing her notes. “He did say something about more encompassing socks, but I thought it best to refrain from designing anything that might be considered for the bedroom for a later date.” So, does that note pad have my ideas written down, or Luna’s?

Whatever the case, Rarity’s statement seemed to cause my wearer to sputter for a few seconds, before she quickly shook her head and said, “We did not mean for that.”

Bedroom clothes… hmm. “So, do you do dressing gowns?” If Loony keeps wanting me to share her bed, one might be a decent idea. Maybe with a nice set of slippers as well. I can just picture it now, finishing a long day’s work, popping on your dressing gown and relaxing around the fire with a nice cup of decaffeinated tea. A good book wouldn’t be unwelcome either.

“Of course I can. Am I sensing some interest?” Rarity asked in a singsong way.

“Erm… yeah, that’d be great.” As Loony was still flabbergasted at the apparently horrifying potential for knee high socks, I stepped us down from the pedestal. Note to self, never make socks like that, do tights instead. “Thanks for this Rarity, I’ll make sure the payment is delivered to your real home.” She will definitely get this money. She’s earned it, even if it was just a dream.

As I turned to walk us back out into the dream corridor, Rarity started to refuse the ‘princess’s’ payment, before shaking her head and saying, “thank you, and remember, tell your friends.”

“I’ll be sure to tell all the other suits of armour.” With our goodbyes completed, I made my way to the store’s entrance and thankfully found myself able to access the dream corridor. Really need to figure out a better way of locating the exit.

As I turned and watched the fashionista’s dream door close behind us, I decided to see if my friend had returned to reality. “So, was that productive for a first lesson? It felt like I learned quite a bit and you even got me a new outfit.” As I finished, I waved one of Loony’s forelegs infront of her face.

Her eyes seemed to track my shoe, as all she uttered was a hesitant, “yeah.” After a moment observing me, she took a seat and began absently rubbing her sock covered ankle. “So… was thou really trying to get her to make clothes for the, ahem, bedroom?”

I just shrugged in response, before carefully pulling down my zip as to not catch Loony’s fur. “Don’t you think that dressing gown idea sounded pretty good?” As Loony continued to be lost in thought, I casually undressed myself from the pliant pegacorn’s form, before moving to sit opposite her. “Anyway, what’s the next lesson?”

When no response came, I tilted my bejewelled tiara head, while reviewing her mood. Her ears were pointed to attention, while her eyes were scanning steadily over my form. She kept switching from an uncertain smile to that of a much blanker look. Maybe she doesn’t actually like my new look and is trying to hide it? With that in mind, I shifted back into my usual plate armour. Seeing my regular form seemed to do the trick, immediately shaking her from her funk, as she asked, “Beg thy pardon?” She really was out of it.

“What’s next?”

“Next? Oh right,” Loony began while rebooting her thought process. She began scanning the nearby doors until she noticed one apparently not like the others, and approached. This one being marked with some pink butterflies. “Dost, thou perceive the sickly magical field emanating from Fluttershy’s door?” she asked while struggling to transition to her schooling tone.

Hmm, there does seem to be a slight red glow coming through the cracks. Rarity’s door definitely didn’t have that. “I think so.”

“Ah excellent, We shall not need to teach thou the spell,” Luna said giddily, before gesturing more directly to the glow. “This magical field is a clear representation that poor young Fluttershy, is suffering in the grips of a nightmare. ‘Tis our job as wardens of the night to help ease her burden.” With her explanation finished, Loony opened the door and stepped through without waiting for a reply.

Seeing how eager she was to go and help the defenceless pony, I wasted no time in following after her. The room we found ourselves in, was a lot stranger than that of Rarity’s. For one thing, it was very blurry and ill formed, making it difficult to discern where the dream actually took place. “Now this looks more like what I expected.”

“The contents of this room have little part to play in the subject of this nightmare. It has no need to be fully formed, as the dreamer will never pay them any mind,” Loony said, while appearing to carefully observe what she could.

I get it, that’s why the area outside of Pinkie’s store was a mangled version of Pony town. She never would have gone outside. “Hang on a second, doesn’t the fact we’re here, mean that the dreamer can also see this room?”

With the slightest of head tilts in my direction, Loony said, “a curt observation.” She then began walking through the strange blurry building, a clear destination in mind. Okay, she’s taking this one a little more seriously. Time to help find Fluttershy. I’m not really sure how to do that though. There is an ever so slight yellow glow of magic in that direction though.

The direction the glow came from, just so happened to be the one Loony was taking, likely meaning she had her own slightly more sophisticated method of tracking a dreamer. Upon walking through a number of blurry rooms, we finally turned a corner leaving our target in full view. “Well, We can safely say this was unexpected, but We have seen worse,” Loony said, after taking in the scene before us.

Said scene, was that of the little friendly, butter pegasus cowering in the centre of a wide room. Her head was currently pressed to the ground, while her fore hooves were pressed tightly over her eyes. The most striking thing about the situation however, wasn’t Fluttershy herself. No, it was the hundreds of sewing needles floating in the air, not too dissimilar to the ones within Rarity’s shop. Each of them was very clearly pointing straight at the small pony’s head. If the situation wasn’t clear enough, the terrified pony periodically whimpered out, “I did the dare.”

Welp… this is my bad. The sight of the accosted pony didn’t fill me with the best feelings, as clearly, she had been more deeply affected by my earlier misspoken words than anyone could have predicted. It actually made me retreat a little further behind the true dream guardian, who casually reviewed the floating threats. “Hmm, ‘tis quite clear the source of her fear,” Loony observed, before unexpectedly turning to me. “We shall leave this in thine capable shoes to solve.”

“To me? But… I might make things worse.” I thought she was taking this more seriously. Clearly, my freaky chant has somehow led to this scenario forming.

“Every being that wishes to aid those in the dream realm must start somewhere,” Loony said, while taking a step back to my side and raising her head to my helmet. “A dream as closely tied to thee, shalt be foals play to repair. Combining that with thy empathy will assist thou immensely in helping Fluttershy see the truth.” Or, my appearance will remind her of exactly what she’s afraid of.

With a brief sigh of resignation, I caved. “Okay, I’ll try my best.”

“We know thou will,” Loony assured while giving me a brief nuzzle. “Helping those that are innocent comes natural to thou.” Not sure if that’s true. Has there ever been an incident where I’ve actual chosen to help anyone? I hope there has.

After the small internal crisis, I began with the most obvious thing first, removing the source of the problem. Stretching out with my mist, I began gathering the menacingly floating needles. Each one put up a little fight when I first attempted to move them, before immediately caving when their magic was drawn out. It took less than a minute for each of them to dematerialise.

Huh, this is going to be easier than I thought. Thanks to my lack of a brain cursing me, the previous needles decided to reappear, as if I’d done nothing at all. Figures it wouldn’t be that easy. I can only guess how unimpressed Loony is with that. At least they tasted okay.

Welp, suppose there’s only one thing for it now. With no other option, I started to carefully approach the prone pony, while attempting to keep my shoe steps as light as possible. This allowed me to get within shoes reach of her, without any outward acknowledgement of my presence.

Right, I’m here. Now what? Maybe I could start by patting her reassuringly? That could work. The moment my shoe touched her shoulder, the trembling pony immediately attempted to duck further into the floor, while uttering the quietest of squeaks in protest. Okay, part one isn’t going the best. A brief look back to Loony only elicited a slight raise of her wing, in what appeared to be an encouraging gesture. Sometimes, pony body language is beyond me.

Looking back to Fluttershy, I quickly removed my shoe and chose the tried and tested method of talking to ease her burdens. “So, hey… little pony, how are you doing… today?” That came out terrible. She’s clearly not doing great.

In response to my words, the trembling seemed to increase in intensity, and she decided to prove how founded my fears where, when she said, “you can’t take my eyes. I need them… P-please don’t.” I’d be biting my lip if I had one. If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy. I won’t.” I really don’t think anything I say is going to help this now

In contrast to what I thought, the trembling did seem to reduce slightly. Maybe she is actually taking in what I’m saying? “B-but, I made the promise.”

As she finished speaking, the familiar disembodied voice of a pink party pony echoed throughout the dream space. It said just one word, “foreeevvveeerrr.” Pretty sure I heard that in real life as well. Not sure if that one was real or not, but it still had the same affect upon the pegasus either way. She appeared to somehow get even lower down, maybe even passing through the floor, while her wings joined her hooves in defending her head.

Okay, we do seem to be going further and further backwards here. Did she even mention anything about needles? Wait, that’s it! “You know Fluttershy, I was the one who made that promise. Your promise was all about cupcakes.”

“Th-that’s true,” she said in a small voice, “but doesn’t that mean you want my eyes?” What? No. What was my promise again? Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. That doesn’t sound like I want pony’s eyes, right? Maybe it’s because I don’t have eyes?

“I can see just fine without them,” I said in the softest voice I could, which apparently is way more feminine than I’d like. “My spirit sight is much better for me.” However my vision works.

For the first time in this dream, I caught a glimpse of the cowering pony’s fear filled eyes. She had steadily removed one of her hooves and used it to gesture to the antagonistic sewing implements. “But… what about all of them?”

“Them…” I said, while deliberately slowly looking at the numerous pointy implements. “They are here for me. Just in case I don’t keep the promise I made to you. They can’t harm you.”

As the pegasus seemed to mull over my theory, each of the needles seemed to steadily change their target from the defenceless pony, to me. Pretty sure it’s impossible for me to be pin cushioned and even then, don’t think puncture wounds could actually permanently harm me.

While I took in the view of my newfound enemy, an unexpected hoof gripped one of my shoes. “I don’t want anypony to get hurt,” the owner of the hoof said meekly, while slowly looking up at me.

Huh, is she concerned about me? Well, that’s an improvement. “Don’t worry, I can deal with this.” As she watched in trepidation, I once again spread out my mist and began gathering the lazily floating needles, all the while making sure she could see each one. As she gazed at the now harmless implements, I steadily made them fade away as before. “Ah, they tasted pretty good. My compliments to the chef.” You know what, I actually meant those words. Fluttershy’s brain had really improved with the second batch.

My words seemed to confuse the prone pony, which is a major upgrade from her previous terrified state. Right then, is this finished? The needles are gone, but she is still on the floor. Okay, I think I’ve got this. How did that rhyme go? “Cross my heart and hope to… fly, stick a cupcake in my mouth. No one is after your eyes… and nothing in this place is going to harm me.” As I successfully completed the silly rhyme, I lowered myself down to Flutter’s level in an attempt to show some form of comradery.

The icing on the cake was the sudden visit of our ghostly Pinkie’s voice, who again said, “Foorreeevveerr.” In a somehow less sinister fashion.

Seeing that I’d gotten uncomfortably close to her head, Fluttershy immediately sat up and began observing the poorly formed room. As her eyes travelled along it, ever surface seemed to steadily morph into that of a cosy living room with an already lit fire at one end.

“So, they’re all gone?” she asked while still clearly looking around nervously for more needles. She even took the time to look underneath each of her hooves.

Sitting up alongside her, I simply nodded in confirmation, in the hopes that she wouldn’t make more appear. Hopefully, seeing me dispatch them so easily will stop her worrying about them. This stuff’s probably all about psychology.

Thankfully, she seemed to be cheering up and peered through a door to what seemed to be a kitchen. She then turned back to me with one eye hidden behind her mane, “erm, would you like to stay for some tea?”

Oh, I’d love a cup of tea right about now. It’d probably go great with those needles. But then again, Luna probably wants us to move on. Heh, can’t drink without a mouth anyway. “I’d best not, it’s a little busy for me tonight.”

That actual seemed to disappoint the small pony, as she started to look down before saying, “oh, okay then.” Her mood however did bounce back, as she approached in an attempt to wrap her hooves around me, a slight smile across her face. “Thank you for saving me.”

Aww, she’s kind of adorable sitting there like that. I suppose most ponies have their little adorable charms. I couldn’t quite help petting her head again, which she this time took gladly. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind helping out a little bit, if it doesn’t take much effort anyway.” It was really easy to be honest.

A carrot bouncing off the back of her head, ended the impromptu hug pretty quickly, as the pegasus released her grip and turned to face the culprit. Said attacker was one very grumpy looking rabbit, who was pointing into the kitchen at something I couldn’t see. “Angel, do you want feeding?”

Seeing as the imaginary rabbit probably meant some other dream had started to run its course, I took that as my que to leave, immediately turning back and heading towards Luna.

For her part, Loony appeared to have been watching with bated breath, a small box of popcorn gripped in one hoof, while the other was pressed to her chin. “So, how was that?” I asked, as she opened a doorway back into the dream corridor and we both made our escape.

Quickly finishing her last piece of imaginary snack, the bag disappeared as she acknowledged my efforts, “thou were easily capable of helping dear Fluttershy with her fears. We expected as such from a dream creature such as thou.” Her chest appeared to rise with pride at her statements end.

Ignoring Loony’s probably pointless snacking, I said, “I’m going to guess it won’t always be that easy.”

“Alas, they will not,” Loony confirmed, before giving me my own reassuring pat, “however, do not fear. All nightmares can be defeated when the source of the problem is known.”

“I hope they’re all as tasty as that one.” A funny thing is, if I never fixed the problem, there would have been more and more dream needles to eat. Wonder if that would serve as an endless food source? Saying that, they did taste better the second time. Somehow, there was just a bit more substance to them.

“Tasty? Eclipse, thou should make efforts not to enjoy the presence of nightmares,” Loony said in a slightly disappointed tone.

Wait, does she think I enjoyed watching Fluttershy freak out? “I didn’t mean I liked it. Eating the nightmare just tasted good.” That makes sense. Nothing wrong with eating the bad stuff, right?

A light sound of acknowledgement, seemed to show I was off the hook. “Ah, I see. Thou shalt have to accompany us more often if midnight snacking is to thy tastes.”

“Sure, I still have room for more tonight.” To be fair, I’m pretty much always hungry. If I ever found a true source of infinite food, I’d probably never stop eating.

“Well then, if thou art up for a hunt,” Loony began before gesturing down each side of the corridor with her wings. “We shall leave it to thee to track thy next prey.” Working for food? I mean, I’d have done this without the potential for a snack. The snacks just a nice bonus. A very nice bonus.

Anyway, pretty sure this is supposed to be another lesson. Find a nightmare on my own and then maybe deal with it. Looking both ways down the corridor did show me a few doors with just a hint of the red glow. However, there was one that stood out above the rest. Said door, was positioned directly behind my best friend, almost completely concealed by her wings, and I took great pride in sauntering over to it, before pointing a shoe triumphantly at its centre.

When I looked back to the mare, eager to get a confirmation of my success. Loony only seemed to be frowning at the familiarly marked door. “We did not think thou would see this one,” she said with a hint of disappointment.

Ah, I’ve made a mistake. “Really, is Twilight not having a nightmare?” The door seems to have a much larger glow than any of the others. I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise. Maybe that glow means something else?

After a moment’s hesitation, she surprisingly confirmed, “yes, thy observations are correct. Twilight is indeed having a nightmare.”

Oh good, well not good, but at least that means I’m not screwing this up. “Right then, should we get to it?” I asked eagerly, my shoe already gripping the door’s handle. There’s probably a pretty decent feast in there for all that glowing.

As I began turning the handle, a hoof lightly gripped my shoe. “Wait, this one is different,” the hoof’s owner blurted out.

With the slightest of helmet tilts, I asked, “how so?” This door clearly has the exact same red aura as the others. How could I possibly differentiate it? Welp, seems the training wheels are yet to come off.

The moment I tried to make eye contact with the night, she seemed to avert her gaze. “Twilight’s nightmare is a little… extreme.” Ah, the increased glow makes sense. So, I can differentiate them.

“This isn’t going to be some sort of major trauma type deal, is it?” I’m no psychologist, if this is something like PTSD, we really need the big guns, preferably a real doctor. Is Luna a psychologist?

“Not exactly,” Loony began while rolling her free hoof in the air, clearly trying to find the right words to explain. “Her dream was… designed.” As she uttered the last word, she bit her lip and looked back towards me.

“Okay… what does that mean?” Like a lucid dream gone wrong or something? Is she implying we can’t help her

After a light sigh, she said, “let us just go in. We must face Our demons eventually.” With her words said, Loony’s forehoof released my shoe and was gently placed on the ground beside me.

Okay, that was a little weird, let’s just get this over with. With a light shrug at Loony’s weird pony antics, I used my now free shoe to open the door and stepped through into a very familiar library. The very same library the two of us were sleeping in. I can even see the spot where the two of us are supposed to be laying together, weird. Looking back to Loony, who was slowly stepping through the door, I jokingly said, “we’re practically tripping over ourselves.”

My friend didn’t laugh, which was fair enough since the joke sucked. She only uttered a straightforward, “that is true,” before glancing across the room.

Seeing as she again wanted us to get back to the issue at shoe, I decided to follow her lead and pay attention to the dream. Following her gaze led me to the rest of our fellow party goers. They were all calmy sitting looking in one direction towards something that was very out of place. That being a majestic golden throne with a bored Celestia atop it. The majestic mare was currently reading a book, while sipping some invitingly steaming tea.

Welp, that doesn’t really fit in the library. Wait a second, Twilight isn’t even here. Not much of a nightmare if the recipient isn’t here. The sound of a door opening and a panicked shout of, “I’m here, I’m here!” queued the start of the proceedings.

“Seems the star has arrived,” I observed, while watching the flustered unicorn run up to her tutor.

Loony only nodded her head and decided to start biting her hoof a little in response. What’s gotten her so freaked out? She’s probably seen plenty of terrible nightmares.

As the gasping for breath unicorn approached her Princess, Celestia’s duplicate began slowly looking up from her engrossing book. “Ah, the librarian is finally here,” she said, before taking another quick sip of tea. The sound made me wish I’d taken some from Fluttershy’s home.

With Celestia’s words, Twilight bowed deeply, before apologetically saying, “I came as quick as I could. Spike didn’t tell me you were coming today.”

Rather than acknowledge her student’s words, Celestia quite coldly asked, “so, how far has the research upon the Pinkie sense phenomenon progressed?” Wow, is the dream going to be about Twilight failing to understand Pinkie? Hmm, not quite sure how to rectify that. That pony is an enigma.

It appeared from the newfound smile Twilight possessed, my theory was incorrect. Not to mention the blackboard that appeared in a poof of purple magic. “I’ve made numerous discoveries relating to her strange abilities,” she began while using a piece of chalk to begin writing. Well, hope this lecture isn’t going to drag.

Thankfully or disappointingly, depending on how you look at it, the lecture was incredibly short. This was due to Celestia raising a hoof to silence the young unicorn, before saying, “an explanation is not required. Hoof me the notes.”

The audible sound of Twilight’s chalk snapping echoed through the room as her thought process was interrupted. She did however rally at an impressive pace, causing a familiar clipboard to appear in her fore hoof. “Yes yes, I have numerous notes on various triggers and symptoms for the sense,” she said with a hint of pride.

Faux Celestia didn’t quite seem to pay attention to her student’s words, instead choosing to pluck the proffered clipboard out of Twilight’s grip and begin silently reading it through. All the while, Twilight stood nervously in front of her, waiting for some form of judgement.

Seeing as the dream had made some progress, I turned to my companion and shared my theory. “Okay, so her nightmare is about being ignored and judged by people she values. It doesn’t seem too bad.” Maybe this would be better for Luna to deal with. She does respect her opinion. I suppose everyone should really.

After taking the time to remove her slightly nibbled hoof from her mouth, Loony said, “’tis but a small part of it.”

“That’s all that’s happened so far.” Well, the judgement hasn’t happened yet, but it’s probably coming.

“It will get worse,” Loony said, as her ears seemed to flatten back against her skull. Her eyes never once left the scene before us.

It didn’t take long for the false Celestia to pipe up again. “Everypony, I have an announcement,” she beamed to the room full of ponies. “Thanks to my hard work and dedication, the source of the Pinkie sense has been discovered.”

Her words caused the surrounding ponies, who I’d almost forgotten about, to start cheering and congratulating the princess for completing such an impossible task. All except for one that was.

A slightly wide-eyed Twilight sat watching the display for a few moments, before steadily uttering, “b-but… I wrote that.”

With Luna’s observation proving to be correct, curiosity got the better of me. “Alright, I’ll bite. How’d you know it was going to get worse?”

“For the past few weeks, Twilight has suffered many similar nightmares,” she said, finally breaking eye contact with the scene to look at my chest piece.

Ah, that makes sense. She’s probably upset she couldn’t help her friend. Can’t believe how easily we’ve gone from happy dream wondering together, to Loony having the worst time. “Sooo, is this a sign of long running trauma?” I sincerely hope not. This dream walking is starting to seem like one of the many things that’s above my pay grade.

“Nay,” Loony began before hesitantly continuing. “This nightmare, has been specifically… tailored to teach Twilight a, ahem, lesson.” That doesn’t sound too good.

As the proffered words turned numerous imaginary cogs in my imaginary brain, I turned back to the disappointed pony. Twilight appeared to be intently watching her ruler, as she read through the provided notes. She was likely still waiting for a moment to provide her beloved teacher with any of her incites, seeing as she did do the research.

Steadily, the small unicorn’s posture became more and more sullen, as she settled into a seated position with her gaze firmly pointed at the royal’s hooves. It did appear she had almost given up hope of being acknowledged, when Celestia finally said, “librarian.”

“Yes, I’m here! What is it? Have you gotten to the weird twitches part?” Twilight began excitedly, while getting back to her hooves.

Once again ignoring Twilight’s words, the duplicate said, “come stand here and duck your head.”

Appearing a little confused by the request, Twilight steadily approached the out of place throne and stood exactly where her apparent teacher was pointing. As she crouched down a little, she hesitantly asked, “like this?”

Without any warning, the cup of tea Sunny had been drinking from was balanced upon Twilight’s head, while her notes were placed upon her back. Every other pony present in the room, seemed to return to whatever it was they were doing, while Twilight was left stunned that her role model had decided to use her as a table.

As dream Celestia settled into the notes, I decided to ask the question that had started to burn in my helmet. “Erm Loony, when you say this dream was tailored, you aren’t saying you… made this dream, right?” Really don’t like making accusations at Loony, but I’m pretty sure she’s feeling guilty for a reason.

This time when she looked back to me, her eyes momentarily flicked up from my chest piece before immediately looking away. “When Twilight treated thou so poorly, it really affected Us. We were just trying to protect thy best interests. We did not wish for it to go on this long, now the dream is self-perpetuating and due to Our, ahem, my reinforcement, ‘tis almost impossible to remove.”

I’m not really sure how to feel about this. On one side, Loony clearly had me in mind when she did this. This dream is probably the exact reason why Twilight’s been much nicer to me. On the other shoe, Twilight’s probably been losing sleep over this for weeks, she doesn’t really deserve that. How could Loony screw up like this?

I was going to voice my complaint, but upon looking at the downtrodden pegacorn, I decided against it. She’s clearly ashamed over this, why else wouldn’t she want me to see it? With that in mind, I tried my best effort to nuzzle the end of her muzzle reassuringly, gently rubbing my metallic faceplate against her soft furred cheek. With that done, I turned towards the throne and began advancing towards it.

My awful attempt at a nuzzle seemed to distract Loony from her guilt, long enough for her pretty smile to return, before my actions puzzled her. “Wh-what art thou doing?” she stuttered out behind me.

“I’m going to try my best.” It’s all I can do.

Her smile seemed to lessen slightly, but still remained. “This will be a true test of thy skill if ever there was one,” she uttered in a shadow of her earlier schooling tone. It wasn’t the best moral boost I’ve ever had from my number one cheerleader.

Okay, I’ve got this. Loony and Twilight are counting on me not to screw up. Once I arrived in front of the gaudy throne, I respectfully asked, “Erm, Princess Celestia, may I speak to you?”

Not seeming to notice my presence, the Celestia clone ripped the current page in half and floated it in front of her unicorn coffee table. “Librarian, eat this. I am finished,” she said in an authoritative tone.

“That’s my work, doesn’t it matter?” the little unicorn weakly protested with a tear in her eye, before she decided to heed her ruler’s command and took a slow small bite out of the paper. Can ponies digest paper? It does come from plants.

Once her make shift paper shredder had been utilized, Celestia’s evil twin seemed to take notice of me. “Oh, Eclipse, I did not see you there. How are you today?” She asked in her usual polite tone.

Here goes nothing. “Ahem, I’m fine. It’s just… I’m just wondering why you’re treating your student like that,” I said with only the slightest crack to my voice.

My pseudo friend just tilted her head in confusion at that. “What student? No pony has shown themselves to be capable of following in my hoofsteps.” Ouch, no progress yet.

Off to her side, a few visible tears seemed to drip down Twilight’s chin. “What about Twilight?”

“Hmm, Twilight… Twilight,” Celestia began, while scratching her chin in thought. “That name does not seem familiar.” Maybe I need to convince this Celestia of Twilight’s existence?

“You know, that pony there.” I punctuated my statement by gesturing to the unicorn turned coffee table.

The small unicorn seemed to gain a hopeful look, before Celestia let out a light giggle to bring her hopes crashing back down. “My librarian? Seriously? That is not a pony my dear Eclipse. I know it sounds a little like one, but it does not think like you or I.” This is really weird.

“You know, she does seem to be a little upset.”

With my words, the warped Celestia placed down her notes and took a closer look at Twilight’s tearful face. This prompted the smaller unicorn to put a hoof up, likely in an attempt to hide her current state. Even though she didn’t do a particularly good job, Sunny still looked back to me and inquisitively asked, “how can you tell?”

“Pretty sure tears are a good sign in ponies.” Okay, I understand the purpose of the dream now. Luna has tried to make Twilight see what she believes is my point of view. I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience that would have upset me like this. Then again, there was that time I wandered off into the Everfree. Ah, that wasn’t so bad.

A little bit lost on how to proceed, I turned to look back at Loony, who appeared to be trying to hide her disappointment. “The only solution We have found so far, is to remove Twilight from the area each night, thus ending her ridicule. The construct that mocks her, this time Our sister, cannot be altered,” she admitted, before starting to steadily approach the throne herself. So, she’s been trying to fix this almost every night? Oof.

“Well, I’ve never tried.” With those words I pressed one of my fore shoes against the faux Celestia’s muzzle and began trying to drain it away in a similar manner to the previous constructs.

What I found was much more resistance than I’d expected, causing only the slightest trickle of magic to enter me. For her part, Sunny’s duplicate only went cross eyed and stared at my shoe in what was probably a, for once, fairly accurate representation of my friend. “What are you doing?” she asked, with a coy smile.

“Trying to eat you.” I replied matter-of-factly, while maintaining the drain.

She only let out a light laugh in response showing no concern at all for my actions. She didn’t even move a single muscle as she said, “well, that is not very polite.”

From behind me, I felt a hoof being lightly placed upon my chausses as Loony said, “’tis okay, We shall fix this.”

Not willing to give up just yet, I said, “hang on a bit, I’m getting somewhere, I think.” The statement was sort of true, seeing some magic was being drained, maybe all it would take was some perseverance? With that in mind, I started trying to force more and more magic into myself, resulting in an eventual successful increase in flow that just kept ramping up. That was until the flow stopped all at once, like there was no magic to take.

For a moment I thought I’d failed, but when my concentration ceased, a curious sight met my eye holes. In front of me, there was no faux Celestia, or throne. There wasn’t even a wall, ceilings or light all together. The only things present was a single purple unicorn who was kicking her legs in a wild panic and a single navy blue pegacorn who was looking around bewildered. “I might’ve eaten too much.”

As she looked around, Loony gasped out, “the dream… ‘tis gone!” That might actually be true, this place looks an awful lot like the void. Just without the obvious dream corridor opening like last time.

“Don’t worry, I can fix it,” I said with only the slightest bit of panic. What’s there to panic about? Other than the fact I may have somehow placed us in the void, which is full of weird shadows that want to eat ponies.

With that horrifying thought in mind, I set about trying to redistribute the magic I’d eaten back into what hopefully counted as the dream. Thankfully, it didn’t really take me much effort to bring the dream back, as whatever tiny remnant of it remained, seemed to latch onto the offered magic steadily reforming the constructs. It was kind of like there was a skeleton of the dream left, and my mist was being used to fill it out. The only side effect of this was that I seemed to gain a very weird awareness of the entire dream.

Welp, this is weird, but bearable. Don’t think I’ve been able to see from so many places at once before. Letting out a simulated breath, I turned to my friend, who in all the excitement had landed upside down, and said, “told you it would be fine.” Didn’t even see a single shadow monster. They are quite hard to see though.

For her part, Loony just rolled back onto her front, before seeming to examine the rooms floor with a forehoof. Seeing as she was a bit distracted, I turned my attention to the rooms only other remaining occupant, who was panickily looking around. “What happened? Where did the Princess go? What Did you do!?” Twilight asked in rapid succession, while steadily backing away from me. This probably doesn’t count as a dream improvement to be honest.

Hmm, she has brought up a good point. Where is the Princess? The answer was of course that she had been eaten, but on examining the area the dream construct was sitting, a similar skeleton to that of the dream remained. Not only that, but the dream seemed to be steadily reforming her on its own. “I’m pretty sure she’s coming back. Don’t worry.” Or, more likely, do worry. When she comes back, it’ll probably be to ensure more misery for Twilight.

Okay, so, next job. Make sure evil Celestia isn’t evil. Approaching the steadily reforming construct, I began sending my mist into it. As with the dream room, the false Celestia greedily absorbed my mist to rebuild itself at an accelerated rate. It wasn’t long before the construct of a Sunny pegacorn was left standing before us bearing a very confused expression.

The return of her mentor, was a mixed blessing in the eyes of our little dreamer. She appeared to want to gallop towards her, before memories of the previous events stayed her hooves. Instead, Twilight shrunk back a little, even going so far as to seek shelter behind me. Probably hoping to escape the fate of being a coffee table once again.

Right, is this the same? She is sort of just standing there, looking really confused. Kind of as confused as me. Oh wait. Focusing on the construct, it was pretty clearly now an extension of myself, able to be moved as if it was one of my numerous forms. Using one of its fore legs, I had the now pacified Celestia, poke its own chest. Hmm, kinda fluffy, but at the same time it does feel hollow. No real flesh and blood at all. I suppose it is just a dream.

Looking through my usual body’s legs, the copy could easily see the unicorn trying her best not to be noticed. This should make things easier. While painting a polite smile on my borrowed face, I had it say, “Ah, my faithful student. Where’ve you been?” I’m sure that’s the usual tone Sunny uses.

“Do you mean me?” Twilight asked a little disbelievingly.

Trying my best to fain confusion, I had Sunny tilt her head. “I only have one student. Who else could I mean?”

A little taken aback, Twilight stepped out from behind my metallic form, seemed to look to it for some support, before taking a couple of hoofsteps towards my Celestia impression. “I was finishing up my research on the Pinkie sense,” she stated a little more boldly, with her head only slightly bowed towards the ground.

“Really? Were you successful?” Does that sound like she’s taking a genuine interest in her student? Hope so.

“Erm yes. I already gave you my notes,” Twilight said without looking away from my borrowed phantom hooves. A shiver seemed to run down her spine as she grit her teeth for a moment. That’ll be due to the residual taste of paper, I imagine.

Deciding it best to pretend the earlier nastiness didn’t occur, I had Celestia politely request, “would you be willing to explain it to me over a cup of tea?” I then set about pouring the unicorn her own cup to go along with Celestia’s. This time upon the throne rather than a purple unicorn.

Twilight seemed to visibly shake for a moment, making me worry she was about to have some sort of panic attack. However, it seemed the cause was a much more positive emotion. That of so much excitement she could not contain it. “Yes yes of course! Let me just get my board ready.” As Twilight settled into her, now hopefully, happy dream. I had Celestia’s copy get comfortable and take a rewarding sip of tea. Ahh, my favourite.

Back with my true form, I turned to Loony and raised my fore shoes into the air in pre-emptive triumph. For her part, Loony was still examining the various walls and ceilings of the room with an almost stunned expression.

Seeing as we might have been there all night, I attempted to get her attention by saying, “so, is this done with now?”

That immediately broke her from her apparent stupor. “Yes, thou hast done it! Our magic has been fully dispersed from this dream,” she giddily said, while almost jumping on top of me in joy. She even decided to give me a light kiss on the back of my helmet before laying partially on top of me, “Thou truly are a wonder sometimes.”

After enjoying the closeness for a few seconds, I shared a minor worry with my friend. “Cool, I was a little worried it might go back to the way it was before.”

“Nay, with the magic disrupted, Twilight’s dreams should return to their usual state,” she reassured before raising her head to observe the room once more. “That being said, ‘tis a little strange in here. The area no longer feels like that of a typical dream.”

“How so?” This is because of my mist, isn’t it?

Rather than confirming my suspicions, she shared her own ignorance, “We are unsure, however thy work has clearly been a success. Not only that, after thy little… mistake, the dream is still stable, and We are no longer in the void. However, that happened.” The moment she finished speaking, Loony once again started to observe the walls of the dream.

Seeing as this was clearly distracting her, I used a wing to flip her rear legs onto my back and began carrying her out. In response to that she only smiled before taking a quick look back at our successful dream repair.

Just before closing the door to the dream, I had Celestia say, “as expected of my daughter. Your work is truly incredible.” This caused Twilight to spit a large quantity of tea across the new table and Loony to giggle, as she used one of her rear hooves to close the door.

“Now noble stead, We have many more dreams to see to, advance,” she said before pointing a foreleg over my helmet to gesture the direction she wanted to go. She did have one final misgiving to share before I set off. “When we get there, please refrain from repeating thy consumption of the dream like that. It seems a little dangerous.”

Still with the distraction of playing Celestia in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but agree.

Author's Note

Back to business as usual. This chapter was way more fun to write than the previous.

I was going to flesh out the void bit a little, but the chapter was already pretty long.

31: Sun Themed Party

Chapter 31

Well, last night went way better than I was expecting. The dream walking lessons were amazing and the slumber party... I'll admit to not entirely hating it. It sort of proved that Equestria’s heroes don’t hate my lack of guts. Well, most of them anyway.

Still, this morning they all appeared to be in quite a hurry to get evacuate the premises, despite the party they’d all enjoyed. Upon awakening, most of them had a quick reminisce, before wanting to rush off for their own various reasons.

Rarity stayed for a little while to try and convince me to engage in her hobby, before she left to pursue some epiphanies her rest had given her. Probably something to do with repairing a sentient jacket or something.

The slightly more nervous butter pony, Fluttershy, took the time to thank me for my vanquishing of her nightmare. I did try to tell her it was my fault to begin with, but she was thankful non the less. It does seem that my intervention in dreams doesn’t go completely unnoticed. Anyway, after her brief thank you, she had to leave to feed her various animals, of which she assured me, there were many in need of new homes.

For her part, Applejack was pleasant enough, much to my surprise. She just steadily roused, thanked her friends for the party and left to go start work on her farm. The way she gave me the side eye upon leaving, gave me a pretty good impression of her opinion. Not the best, but at least she isn’t accusing me of anything out loud.

After Applejack, there was the opposite end of the sleep spectrum. That being Rainbow, who after quite a few shakes from Luna, finally roused to go and get ready for her work. As she left, she gave me no illusions that she was probably just going to go back to her own bed. Wish I could do that sometimes.

Another deep sleeper it turns out, was the small purple unicorn, Twilight. She seemed incredibly content in her sleeping state and it really pained my good friend Sunny, when she felt forced to wake her. Due to Twilight’s reaction, Loony took great pleasure in watching.

As Celestia gently poked her students muzzle with a feathered wing, she periodically grumbled, bringing a bit of mirth to the older pegacorn. Eventually though, Twilight made the mistake of saying, “not now mum.”

That earned a hearty chuckle from the sun, before she replied, “it has been a while since you called me that. Your third day of lessons I think it was?”

The much smaller unicorn bolted awake at that, her face so bright red, the purple couldn’t hide it. “Yes, I know, I didn’t mean anything by it! Nothing at all.”

After escaping the confines of her bag, she set about hurrying what remained of us out of her abode, spouting reasons of needing to clean it ready for the residents of her home town. I’m pretty sure everyone knew; she was trying to hide her embarrassment. Even Celestia, who probably had no idea of the deeper cause.

As we were kicked out, Celestia managed to say, “it was lovely to see you and your friends again. Thank you for inviting us.”

Those words did appear to calm the nervous unicorn, right up until Luna ruined it again. “Yes, as thy aunt, We really enjoyed seeing thou again.” That earned her a blank stare, followed by a slammed door in our collective faces.

Loony found that to be hilarious, while Sunny didn’t see the funny side in the slightest. I really shouldn’t have had Twilight’s dream tutor act like her mother all night.

Anyway, on to the most important member of the party for what concerns today’s events. Pinkie Pie was a bit of a special case, as we weren’t saying good bye to her and instead, were currently waiting for her outside her house made of sweets. Or hopefully, just painted to look like sweets.

As we stood waiting for the energetic pony’s return, my friend Sunny was nervously looking back over her shoulder towards the home. Her hooves shifting in a way that no living pony has probably ever seen, aside from her immortal sister of course. Speaking of Loony, in stark contrast positioned directly opposite her sister, she was sitting with the smuggest grin on her face, clearly sensing an entertaining day ahead.

After Sunny made the fifth nervous look back, the younger pegacorn finally broke the tension that’d formed since we’d left Twilight’s home. “Thou art aware that thou still hast time to back out, yes?” She wore a victorious smile as the words left her.

The words seemed to harden the Sun’s resolve for a moment, allowing a smile to grace her features. “I would not want to neglect providing you with a nice blue flower.” That poison joke better be mild. If it’s something that can make her sick, I’m going to have to step in. I wouldn’t be a very good confidant if I let my ward keel over.

In response, Loony just giggled lightly, before glancing in my direction. That actually caused me to release the disappointed sigh I’d been holding in. “Is this really necessary?”

Rather surprisingly, both the siblings turned to me and rather harmoniously said, “yes.” It really shouldn’t be this big of a deal. It was a stupid dare, made under the direction of a plastic bottle that’s probably already in a recycling bin. If ponies recycle stuff.

Their answer only brought out a deeper sigh, as we continued our wait for the pink mundane pony. Why would either of them be willing to go through those dares? Maybe it’s a matter of alicorn pride? They really do take the weirdest things seriously.

The thought of the current dare in question, caused my gaze to fall on the thin golden line still scarring Celestia’s back. An action that did not go unnoticed by my alabaster friend. That thing probably really bothers her. It would bother me, knowing I have this incredible weakness.

Seeing as my wandering eye holes had dropped me in it, I decided to try and sate a little of my curiosity about the object. “So, what was it like last time that, erm… Zipper was used?” Is it actually a zip? It seems to defy reality as I know it. Suppose that isn’t such a difficult thing in pony land.

That elicited a rare sigh from my friend, before she said, “to be honest, it is not one of my greatest memories.” As she spoke, one of her wings absently flicked the zip’s tab slightly. Seems like the understatement of the century. She was being forced to fight her sister, and me. Not a great memory for anyone involved.

The waiting pegacorn then turned to her darker sibling, before continuing, “I know very well that I was not the one to commit Discord’s actions during his escape, but, everything he did and said… at the time it truly felt like I was the one doing it. The harm he tried to make me commit… it still causes me some guilt, even to this day.”

As she spoke, her wing pulled down the zip, allowing her back to open up. This revealed an incredibly dark void within. The sight of this caused me to look away in a mock-up of a wince, also allowing me to notice Loony mimicking my action with a very real one.

Once the Night had shaken off her initial distaste at the memory, her ears flopped back in a first showing of empathy, as she spoke up, “maybe this was a little insensitive on Our part. We shall come up with a different dare if thou wishes? It will not count as Our victory.” Thank goodness. Finally, a voice of reason.

Unexpectedly, even though she’d been given an out from what was about to happen, Sunny raised a hoof and said, “no, no, I can accept my lot.” She then brightened up a little thanks to her smile. “Besides, if I pretend Pinkie isn’t there, it might be an interesting experience.” This is really some matter of honour between them, isn’t it? Then again, maybe she’s worried Luna might come up with something worse.

“If that is what thou chooses,” Loony acknowledged with a nod, before her smug grin returned, “We shall endeavour to enjoy every moment of this.”

So, is Celestia just putting on a brave face again? She does have a bit of a smile and her ears look pretty pointy, but those periodic nervous looks pretty clearly betray her true feelings. I bet she’s forcing her ears like that. They’re way floppier on a happy pony. Well, I probably shouldn’t feel as bad for her now, she had her out and threw it away.

As I was taking in her appearance, the ears I was gauging suddenly swivelled around as her shoulders hunched over. That was probably the appropriate reaction to the sound of her executioner opening the door to the sweet home.

“You guys won’t believe this, we’re out of flour again. It’s a catastrophe!” a bubbly voice said from behind the increasingly nervous pegacorn. The origin point, Pinkie, then only shrugged as she started to bounce towards us. “Heeeey, everypoooony ready?” Her excitable energy was much the same as it was last night, despite the slightly reduced amount of sleep. Possibly due to how much sugar she probably eats.

The first to great the approaching mundane pony, was Loony. “Of course We are. Right sister?” As she spoke, she gave Celestia a light poke with a wing tip.

Sunny seemed to nervously lick her lips, debating on how to respond before saying, “yes, erm Pinkie. You are aware that the words of the dare state you only need to use the zipper? That means you only need zip it up and down.” Wow, that’s why she didn’t go for a change of dare. There was a chance she could talk Pinkie out of it.

As the sun finished, she turned to look over at the pink bouncy pony with the slightest of hopeful smiles. Her approaching menace decided to dash those hopes, when she over enthusiastically said, “what! I’ve been waiting to do a sun themed party for like, forever. This is the perfect excuse.”

Those words caused the sun to look back towards me with a down trodden expression. I’m not feeling bad, stop making me feel bad, you could have gotten out of it... Oh, poor sun horse. As Sunny looked in my direction for pity, pinkie seemed to jump ever so slightly higher into the air, before shouting, “cannon ball!”

The result of this final jump, had Pinkie smoothly fly through the air and slip neatly through the opening upon my surprised friend’s back. The action caused my friend to yelp out in surprise as she stumbled forward unprepared for the impact. She then looked back over her shoulder, as we all watched a pink hoof pull the zipper closed from within, leaving no evidence that anything untoward had happened.

A low groan escaped Sunny at that, as she put a hoof to her face and quietly said, “I truly hope she remembers the rules we came up with.”

While the sun stood opposite us, I was starting to feel more and more antsy. It felt like something truly horrible was going to happen. To my right, Loony had the exact opposite reaction. She was almost bouncing on the tips of her hooves waiting for the end result.

After what felt like forever, Celestia started shift about a little awkwardly, seemingly being knocked off balance by an unseen force. Eventually, she couldn’t counteract it and tripped forward onto her stomach. “This is fine,” she said seemingly to reassure herself more than anyone else.

“You really sure about that?” If Celestia’s willing to go through this, how awful could the poison joke be that Luna has to eat?

From her position on the floor, the Sun looked up at me with an unsure smile, before rolling onto her back. A ghost of a defeated laugh escaped her as she stretched her forelegs into the air. “Do I look fine to you?” Even with that false smile, no, she does not.

As she finished speaking, she reached back towards her rear legs and gripped the left one. She then appeared to pull her leg in a rather confusing fashion, as if she was trying to put on a trouser leg. You could almost see the limb shift slightly as the action was undertaken. Upon completion, her rear hoof twitched backwards and forwards a little, as if testing the range of motion.

Her leg apparently satisfied, she repeated the action with the other before reaching towards her tail. With a quick pull, the usual majestic aura seemed to gain the consistency of a very familiar cotton candy one. Welp, seems we are about to see Pinkie again.

Now, apparently fully dressed, she rolled back to her hooves and slightly Shakely stood up. Wow, I can only imagine how scared Celestia would have been when it was Discord doing this instead. It must have been a real nightmare. Hmm, then again, does it look like this when I’m worn? I really hope not.

I was taken from my internal musings, when Sunny decided to take a few steps forward and bumped straight into my helmet. Hopefully not injuring her skull in the process. “Oh, Eclipse, my apologies. I was not paying attention,” she said as she began looking back at her now cotton candy tail.

“Erm, Sunny, do you feel… different?” I had to ask. She didn’t seem like Pinkie. Apart from the weird cloud aurora she now possessed anyway.

As I asked, her forehooves had begun probing around her neck. She didn’t pay it any mind though and curiously said, “hmm, I do not feel much like partying.” The moment those words left her, she appeared to grip the sides of her face and pulled downwards. Almost as soon as she did this, her usual aurora mane poofed into cotton candy, and her nervous smile shifted into that of a very large grin.

“Dost thou feel like partying now ‘sister’?” Loony just had to ask, placing extra emphasis on the final word, even though the answer was pretty evident.

With a very familiar smile on the wrong face, ‘Celestia’ said “absaposilutely, parties are like my whole cutiemark.” As she spoke, she turned to show us her usual sun mark, which hadn’t changed in the slightest. Upon doing so, she let out a gasp, “oh my gosh, you guys, I’ve never been this high up.” She appeared to marvel at how high she was before giggling and saying, “only joking, I’ve been upstairs before.”

So, we’re in it now. Better ease some of Celestia’s worries. “So erm… ‘Celestia’, you remember the rules for today, right?” Why do I feel so nervous.

When my question escaped, Sunny stopped looking in random directions and returned her focus to me, before raising a foreleg high into the air and shaking it around. “Ooo, ooo, I know, I know, pick me.” Another exasperated sigh escaped me at that. This might be a long day.

Taking up my slack, Loony raised a foreleg and started moving it slowly all the way from her left to her right. “Now then, let me see. Who best for Us to ask?”

As the navy shoed hoof past over her, ‘Celestia’ tried her best to stay in front of it without leaving her spot. Going so far as to attempt to stretch herself out to always be in front of it. She sort of looked like an over eager school child, not wanting any other student to steal their shot at answering. It was made all the stranger by the fact she was the only one present.

Eventually, either the shaking foreleg, the desperate cries of pick me or Luna’s wish to see a result won out, and Loony decided to point at her energetic ‘sister’. “Oh, how about thou?” Loony asked, while attempting to hide her mirth. She took a moment to look at me, before looking back to her ‘sister’. She’s probably hoping I’m enjoying this as much as her.

The over excited pegacorn took a moment to rear upon her hind legs in celebration of being chosen, before taking a seat on her rear and quieting down. With a very hearty throat clear she began what appeared to be the makings of a speech. “Okay, rule number one, ensure no pony is harmed during our game.” The way she said that honestly reminded me of the real Celestia’s tone, if she hadn’t gotten to her hooves and started shadow boxing the air anyway.

As she struggled to defeat her invisible opponent, she continued on in a very unCelestia tone. “Nopony would ever hurt somepony at my parties. They’d be a right meanie if they did.” She then paused mid swing, almost falling over if it wasn’t for one of her wings shooting out to steady her. “Well, if somepony was a meanie, I’d at least have to get out the party cannon.”

“Okay, I’m sure that’s fine, erm, can you move on to the next one?” This’s probably isn’t necessary. Pinkie is a good pony, even if she is a little… fruity. Besides, this whole situation is unnecessary, why even have rules?

With a quick salute, ‘Celestia’ said, “okidokie.” Her hoof moved swiftly from a salute, to reach directly into her cotton candy, rainbow mane in search of something. That object was revealed to be a large fancy looking scroll, which she began to look through. You’ve got to wonder how Sunny kept that thing in there. It’s almost as big as her head.

Sunny herself upon reading the scroll, seemed to lose a little of her giddiness, before asking no one in particular, “is that the real constitution?”

The pause in her overly sunny demeaner ended abruptly, when she tossed the document into the air. “Don’t make any new laws, yay!”

The paper didn’t fly through the air for long, as almost as soon as it left Sunny’s golden shoed clutches, it was surrounded by a golden aura. Said aura, then propelled the scroll in my direction, causing it to sail straight through my left eye hole, to my unwelcome surprise. Well, seems Sunny is still at home in there. She hopefully just wants me to look after this thing, and wasn’t trying to blind me.

As I gingerly pushed the document the remainder of the way through, Loony had gained a little nervous smile of her own. “It appears Our sister hast forgotten she was carrying such an important document. Thou will need to ensure the safe return of that relic to the castle’s archives.” Not sure if I like having an important responsibility thrust upon me out of nowhere. Saying that, I’m not sure Celestia likes the idea that that scroll probably just appeared in her mane. No way was she carrying that thing around all this time.

Without waiting for us to pay attention, ‘Celestia’ went on to explain the last rule. “Finally, no ordering anypony about, because nopony likes a bossy four hooves.” The moment she finished, she appeared to get onto her tippy hooves and stuck her face as close to my helmet as possible. Clearly, she was in desperate need of confirmation.

Not quite used to having such a wide-eyed Sunny invade my personal space like that, I simply said, “erm, that’s fine.”

That got her out of my face, as she fell back to the flats of her hooves. “I knew it was,” she beamed, before putting a hoof to her mouth with a light giggle.

“So, now everything is in order, ‘Sister’, what are thy plans for this fine morning?” Loony slyly asked, clearly choosing to forget the issue with the integral piece of paperwork that only just occurred. Guess I’ll be looking after it for a while.

The prying question prompted ‘Celestia’ to spring into the air for a moment, before she went off on a mini tirade. “Obviously, we’ve gotta set up a splendifourous party. So many sun themed cakes to make, so many sun streamers, sun plates, sun cups and not forgetting sun hats. Ahh, so many bright yellow things to buy.” She seemed to sigh happily at the thought of all the required decorations.

“Does everything really need a sun on it.” I know it’s Celestia, but come on.

As soon as those words left my helmet, a pair of impossibly strong hooves gripped it on both sides and pulled me faceplate to muzzle with the excitable princess. “How can Celestia set up a party without suns everywhere? Have you even seen her? She has suns on everything.” Sunny sounded almost hurt that I didn’t know her. For a few seconds, I actually felt a little bit of guilt well up. Right up until she reminded me of who I was dealing with.

Her hurt demeanour suddenly evaporated, as she released my helmet. It was replaced with one of puzzlement as if only just realizing something. “Would suns everywhere be tacky? We can’t have the princess set up a tacky party, but… she’d probably want it that way. But ponies might not like it. No no, we can do it. They expect Celestia to be a bit tacky. She’s old. Don’t tell her I said that.”

Before I could tell ‘Celestia’ that I wouldn’t tell Celestia what she said, she decided to give some confirmation herself, in her usual royal tone. “Do not worry, I did not hear a thing.” She said while still staring in my direction, her lips seeming to lightly curl up at the sides. Hopefully, that means the real Sunny is finding this a little amusing. It’s probably more likely that the zipper is making her feel Pinkie’s emotions or something.

Anyway, ignoring my dislike of the situation, Celestia suddenly celebrated, by raising her hooves and shouting, “yay!”, in royal Canterlot. Clearly, she was happy she didn’t hear what she said. Seeing no further reasons to waste any more time, the Pinkiefied sun turned down the street and blurted out, “onwards to the flour shop. Not the flower shop.” The next moment, the space in front of me was empty, and Celestia was happily pronking down the road.

A swift nudge to my side, ended my stupefied staring at the royal alicorn merrily bouncing away from me. Turning to that side, Loony was clearly holding back full-blown laughter as she jovially said, “We are loving this already. Is this not amazing?” Instead of waiting for a reply, she set off at a gallop to catch up to her estranged sister.

Not wanting to abandon the sun to her fate, I followed hot on her hooves. The main thoughts going through my head being a bit less than amazed. That Zipper is so dangerous. I really can’t believe we’re taking it so lightly. What if some random pony finds out about it? It might be too tempting a prize.

Keeping those negative thoughts to myself, I decided to instead focus on the current problem. That being the rapidly pronking pegacorn that both me and the night were struggling to catch up to. She was going so fast that her wings kept popping out in order to keep her balance. That’s probably Celestia trying to prevent a face plant.

To make matters worse, the royal Canterlot voice from earlier had clearly had an effect upon the steadily waking town. As we passed the colourful homes of Pony Town, various doors began opening as their awoken residents either left for work, or just wanted to see what was going on. Not to long after, a chorus of gasps and jaws falling open followed. Those ponies probably aren’t used to seeing their ruler bounce past like a small child. Wonder what they think of her being pursued by her sister and a ghost? Hopefully nothing bad.

Just as the night was about to catch up with the escaping day, the familiar sound of a car’s brakes screeching met my ears. This signalled the almost instantaneous stop of the pegacorn. A feat which I completely failed to replicate, resulting in quite a large amount of dirt being torn up and a buckled street light.

The familiar musical laughter of my favoured pony met my ears at that. Something that is likely to be the theme of today. She hadn’t managed to stop as fast as her sister, but she rather more majestically lowered her gait. Steadily managing to reach a walking pace nearing my catastrophic stoppage. “Eclipse, art thou okay?” she said with the slightest of concern, one or two laughs still managing to escape.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry about the light.” Looking at the light did cause me a little bit of guilt. The lamppost in question appeared to be a solid, cast-iron construction with what might have been an oil lantern at the top. That thing probably cost a decent amount of taxes. Saying that, they are probably due for an upgrade. The discovery of electricity is calling.

My demeanour appeared to have some effect, as it seemed to put pause to Loony’s joviality. She took a moment to observe the appliance and said, “could thou please stand back, We can restore this if thy magic resistance is not in the way.”

“Okay.” Scrabbling off of the broken light as fast as my shoes could carry me, I stood in wait to hopefully marvel at some impressive and useful magic. I was not disappointed, as Loony lit her horn, causing the damaged object to glow blue and somehow reverse in time. It took only a few seconds for the lamppost to return to its upright position. What’s more, it even relit. How on earth does that even work? This is probably the most amazing thing I’ll see all day.

“Now come along, Our sister needs us,” Loony said, as she basked in my marvelling of her displayed power. Seriously, that lamppost being so easily fixed will trump anything that happens with that Zip. Oh dear, hope ‘Sunny’ hasn’t run off.

It seemed that ‘Celestia’ hadn’t gotten very far since my little screw up. I’d have thought she was waiting for us, if she hadn’t have been bending her legs rapidly, causing her to bounce up and down on the spot. Once the two of us met up with the vibrating pony, her head suddenly shot in our direction. The next words that came out of her mouth were quite a surprise, thought they shouldn’t have been. “Guys, have you seen how bouncy alicorn legs are? It’s almost like I’ve got springs in my hooves.” She emphasized her thought, by doing another couple of bounces. The distant sounds of springs could almost be heard. You’ve gotta wonder how Pinkie does that.

Luna started to make a small sound of amusement, right up until ‘Sunny’ decided to grab one of her forelegs and inspect it. “Your legs aren’t as long, but I bet it’d still work. You should try bouncing with me. It’s so much more fun.”

A little unsure, Loony failed to pull her hoof from her sister’s grip and said, “maybe… it did seem quite fast. Maybe We could try during Our next workout?” Now that would be funny to watch. Wait, would that mean I’d have to do it?

Releasing her grip of iron, ‘Sunny’ nudged her sister a couple of time and said, “why not now? It’s easy.” She then turned towards the nearby general store and bounced through the door. The door that seemed to open just so the immortal sun’s bouncing wasn’t interrupted.

Seeing the action, Loony actually took a moment to look down at her hooves, experimentally bent her legs and then mimicked the jump a couple times. She then immediately halted the action and looked around, the slightest of red tinting her features. Upon seeing no one else staring, she looked back to me and asked, “how did We look? It did feel a little amusing.”

Hmm, she was a lot more elegant than what her sister had been. The way she moved was actually kind of… I don’t know, nice? It wasn’t really the same sort of bounce though. “I would say you were quite graceful, like a… erm… deer? There was more elegance than your sister’s one.” Yeah, that makes sense, it did look quite natural. Aren’t unicorns supposed to be part deer or something?

From the smile she gave me, she liked the idea of that. Still, she seemed to decide against mimicking her sister further, and steadily walked towards the shop’s door. The door which rudely didn’t open of its own accord for her.

Once we were both inside the building, it didn’t take long for my gaze to fall upon the alabaster pegacorn. She normally stands out in any room, but this time, she was making extra efforts to do so by talking animatedly at the mundane pony shop keeper.

“What’s so hard to get? I only need my usual super-duper deluxe cup cake flour with all your special extras. I also need thirty metres of yellow paper, some smiley sun stickers, yellow cups wait… make them blue with a sun on them,” the impatient pegacorn rattled off at the terrified shop keeper, before seeming to have another idea. “ooo ooo, I’m going to need some stuff with moons on as well, can’t have Luna getting left out, but then again, it is a Celestia party. But how can you have the sun without the moon? That’s like a cake without frosting, right?”

As the sun goddess’s tirade suddenly ended, the shaking shop keeper realized his princess wanted an answer. After a long period of nervous staring, he finally let out a squeaky, “Errrrmm, I have flour?” Wow, I feel bad for that guy. Just a normal day, running the store and then your ruler comes in demanding all sorts of random stuff off you. It probably isn’t helped by the fact ‘Sunny’ practically has her nose pressed up against his. Who knows, he might think this is some weird honour. Seeming to realize the Sun wanted more than just flour, he almost screamed out, “you can have anything you want!”

Luckily for him, it was too early for any other ponies to be present to witness the unusual exchange. Well, too early for all but one. “Oh my, ‘tis better than We could imagine,” Loony said while using a wing to rub a tear from her eye. “We only wish We had one of those new picture taking devices our ponies invented.” So, ponies do have cameras. That does make sense.

Just as the navy pegacorn finished rubbing the joyful tears from her eyes, ‘Celestia’ gave the poor stallion a moments respite, by rushing towards her sister and pulling an apparently gold-plated camera once again out of her mane. Loony blinked a few times at the device, as from her point of view, it probably somehow materialized in front of her. It seems Pinkie puts extra effort into making things seem to appear from nowhere.

“Here ya go,” Sunny said helpfully. “Not sure why I’ve got that. Maybe it’s in case of a group party picture emergency?” As the party princess started to walk back towards the slightly recovered shop keeper, one of her wings tried in vain to knock the device from Loony’s grip, before they were pulled out of reach by her legs.

“Oh excellent,” Loony said, after easily dodging her sister’s desperate swipe. She then took a moment to turn the expensive looking camera over, before hoofing it to me. “Erm Eclipse, could thou use Pinkie’s, ahem, Our sister’s camera to take a picture? We are not familiar with these contraptions.”

I’m pretty sure that camera actually belongs to Sunny. I was pretty sure she took a picture of Luna with my makeover. Bleh, can’t believe I did that to her while she slept. Welp, seems Loony’s going to get a little vengeance. Taking a moment to look over the vintage camera, it seemed not to work due to needing to be wound. An easy thing for me to rectify, but it apparently took long enough for Sunny to pull the shop assistant in close to her like a small foal. “Say cheese.”

“Mooooon!” came the unexpected call from the solar pegacorn, prompting me to snap the picture. There we go, one happy pegacorn, with a terrified, sweating, beat red shop keeper in a hug. Hmm, wonder how Pinkie managed to use her borrowed feathers to give him bunny ears? She pretty clearly can’t use the wings.

After taking a moment to look at the scene portrayed by the magic camera, Loony’s curiosity got the better of her. “So, pray tell ‘sister’. Is moon the norm to say when a pony capture’s thy image?” From the way her ears were perking up, it seemed Loony quite liked the sound of that.

Sadly for the intrigued Night, ‘Sunny’ had a disappointing answer. “You know how it is. The moons made of cheese, right? How else could you have lived up there so long? You must really love cheese to have it be your whole thing. There really should be cheese named after you.” With that reveal complete, Celestia turned her attention back to the steadily creeping away shop assistant. That guy can’t get a break.

With her bubble burst, Luna swivelled around to face me. “Do not listen to Our sister. Our precious moon doth not consist of a dairy product. ‘Tis made of the finest stone known to Eques.”

Seeing how this wasn’t the most important thing going on at the moment, I simply said, “Okay.” This does bring up a good point though. How did Loony survive up there for a thousand years? She clearly needs to eat and from almost personal experience, she does possess all the other bodily functions. Well, I’m pretty sure. I never did let her take me into the bathroom while she did her thing. Not for lack of her forgetting she’s wearing me mind. Three times now.

Anyway, it seemed Loony was still locked onto the whole cheese thing, as she insistently said, “’tis true, We would not lie to thou. We do not live off cheese alone.” Just the lack of air.

Seeing as her ‘sister’s’ dumb joke worried her, I ended up saying, “I believe you,” in a much more sympathetic tone.

This caused the pegacorn to sigh in relief. “Honestly, We must get to the bottom of these bizarre rumours. They put Our image as Equestria’s protector in jeopardy.” It’s not that bad, is it? Pretty sure everyone’s told their kids at some point that the moon is made of cheese.

In an attempt to try and lighten my friends worries, I decided to say, “you know, that rumour is pretty funny. A giant block of cheese in the sky? I mean, what kind of cheese would it even be, mozzarella?”

In retrospect, trying to make light of something Loony cares about was not the best idea. She responded by seeming to somehow stand a little taller and giving me an imperious stare. “’Tis, not, made, of, cheese,” she then declared, while giving me a number of light pokes with a wing.

“I know it isn’t. I’m just pointing out why it wouldn’t make sense. Heck, I’m not even sure what this world’s moon’s for.” Oh wait, I’ve put my shoe in it, haven’t I?

That I had, because after an initial bout of shocked despair, Loony decided to subject me to five minutes of all the uses for her night’s fair moon. Due to her newfound irate state, the explanation didn’t really go into my earless helmet, before ‘Celestia’ had managed to collect all the supplies she needed.

“Yes, this stuff’s amazing. We’re going to make the best cupcakes ever,” she said with her back now laden with supplies. These ranged from bags of flour bigger than a pony, all the way to a single wheel of mozzarella cheese sitting at the top of her pile.

The sight of her sister laden like a pack animal, luckily distracted the Moon from her saddened explanation. It even prompted her to grab the camera out of my shoe, wind it up and then snap another picture. Heh, seems she’s a fast learner, and fast forgetter. As she smiled at the newly frozen moment, Loony proved my thoughts wrong yet again. “We would like to explain Our night to thou one of these days,” she said in a much calmer tone. One that still didn’t broker any argument. Why would I argue about that anyway?

“Yeah, I’d like that. We’ll have to go star gazing together or something.” That’s a good excuse to leave the castle again.

Those words seemed to brighten up the pegacorn more than I’d expected. She even seemed to look a little embarrassed. “Of course, it will be a most wonderful occasion. Maybe… it could count as…” She even started to trail off a little nervously at the end. There’s that weird atmosphere again. It seems to keep happening lately.

The moment only lasted for a few seconds, as the shop’s door swung open behind us. “Bye mister Sweep, be sure to come to the party.” Those words, were our signal to restart our pursuit once again.

“Come along my knight, the day requires thy presence,” she said returning back to her former jovial tone, before rushing through the door, probably hoping to beat her sister in the return journey.

With a light shake of my helmet, I turned to the relieved shop keeper and said, “thanks for helping us out. The Princesses truly appreciated your efforts.” Before he could respond with terror due to the weird ghost thing he’d been left alone with, I made my way out of the store to catch my escaping friends.

The small thought that them leaving me behind would cause some issues with the locals did worry me for a moment. Thankfully, the two Princesses hadn’t gotten too far, as ‘Sunny’ had taken the time to stop at a small ice cream stand. Both sisters had apparently had time to purchase a cone each. Luna had gone for a single scoop of chocolate, while Celestia seemed to have gone for one of each colour.

“So, how’s the ice-cream?” I asked the pegacorns once I was in range.

Loony was the first to respond after licking a small portion of chocolate from her lip. “’Tis quite the delectable treat. We never had such things in Our original kingdom. Would thou like to try?”

Those words prompted me to look at her offered cone. One that had almost been completely exhausted of the sweet treat. “I think I’ll pass for now.” Then again, have I ever had any? I know it’s good.

That earned me a light shrug as the navy pegacorn tossed the remains of her treat into her mouth. “’Tis thy loss,” she said with a slight shrug of her wings, before turning to observe her sister’s own treat.

For her part, the alabaster mare seemed to be in a world of bliss, almost completely ignoring everything else, save for the licking of her snack. Wonder if that’s because of the diet? After numerous licks of the full stack of ice-cream, she paused and appeared to go cross eyed at her cone.

“Isn’t that ice-cream a bit excessive?” I attempted to jest. She’d managed to smear quite a large amount of it across her usually pristine muzzle.

For a moment, her eyes turned to me before shooting back to their original target. She then loudly said another of those things you’d never expect, all while keeping her tongue stuck out. “Hey eveypony! Have you feen my tongue? It’s fuper long.” As she said that she wiggled the appendage in the air, dangerously close to her treat.

Oh, she was staring at her tongue, not the sweet. Makes sense. Although, pretty sure that’s how long it should be for a pegacorn. Her head is almost twice the size of a regular pony’s. “It does seem impressive; I don’t even have one.”

“Aw tht’s a thame, no ice kream for you,” she started to say before her tongue flicked back to her treat. An action that seemed to surprise the usually stoic pony. “Do you thee tht? It even goes by itshelf!” Her accusation at her own limb seemed to cause her cheeks to tint red, but the appendage did not stop. Seems Celestia is taking the opportunity to cheat on her diet while she can.

Once the treat was complete, and Loony had taken the opportunity to snap another picture, the three of us set off once more to return to whence we came, Pinkie’s sweet house. I would like to say we immediately escaped the stares ‘Sunny’s’ shout had attracted, but our method of travel ensured we kept them. That being the pronking Sunny, and unexpectedly pronking Loony. The two sisters keeping almost neck and neck for the entire journey, while I settled for galloping behind them. They might be enjoying themselves doing that, but it would probably annoy the locals if I started smashing more holes in their road.

Part way through the race, a small purple unicorn had finally decided to leave the safety of her library, but upon seeing the commotion decided to make herself scarce and hide once again. Or maybe it was due to her still feeling embarrassed about that dream I gave her? She did seem to really enjoy giving that lecture though. Either way, the weird thing about that event, was I could have sworn I didn’t actually see her with my own eyes. Strange.

Anyway, the impromptu pronking race had the exact ending I’d expected. That being the inevitable victory of the Sun Princess. I mean come on, her current driver pronks everywhere, while Loony has only just started. To be fair it was a lot closer than you’d expect, probably due to ‘Celestia’ not realizing it was a race, but still. There was also the fact that Celestia was carrying a whole load of stuff, some of which I had to collect along the way.

When I, this time, steadily slowed down to a halt next to them, Loony was almost completely out of breath, while Sunny looked like she was ready for round two. She was still bouncing from hoof to hoof with boundless energy. “Come on Loony, you can’t tell me that wasn’t fun?” she cheerily said to her defeated sister.

As she regained her breath, Loony gave a slightly jealous look to her sister’s lack of fatigue, before saying, “We shall admit to thy way of travel having merits in entertainment, although it does waste vast amounts of energy.” When she noticed my arrival, an idea appeared to form within her mind. “How about we have another round? This time, Eclipse can help Us. ‘Tis not fair for only one of us to have assistance.” Oh come on, the race didn’t matter that much.

The sun seemed to contemplate that idea and started to say, “that seems fair enou-” before she shook her head in disagreement. “We don’t have time. This party isn’t going to set up itself.” She then seemed to reluctantly turn around, before walking towards her sweet home.

Sunny’s blatant rejection of Luna’s desire to a rematch, caused the Moon to grumble slightly to herself. In an attempt to dull this irritation, I said, “erm, I’m pretty sure your sister want’s a rematch. Maybe you could do one at your work out?”

“’Tis true. She will also lack her advantage then,” she grinned as we followed behind the Sun.

The moment Sunny crossed the threshold, she called out, “Miss Cake, Mr Cake. I’mmmm baaaack.” No response came to the sing song voice of the pegacorn, thus prompting a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “They must have gone out. Oh well, more ovens for me.” Now that’s a blessing. Imagine having your beloved ruler pop in and act exactly like your daughter. Now that would be a mind breaking moment.

Soon after, Loony followed her inside. An act that made me feel a little wrong. I mean, do we even have permission to walk into Pinkie’s house? Her parents aren’t even home to give it. How old is Pinkie anyway? Actually, how old does a pony have to be before they’re an adult? How long do they even live?

Despite these worries, my form quickly darted into the building due to the larger worry of being left outside with the local populace. Once inside, it became pretty obvious that permission wasn’t really needed, seeing as this place wasn’t really a house at all. It was in fact a very familiar cake store, one that I’d only witnessed within the dreams of a certain pink pony. Huh, her dream was completely accurate. Then again, that door at the back probably doesn’t lead to the dream realm.

The door in question actually led through to a nicely set out kitchen. A kitchen that my second-best friend was currently making herself right at home within. In a slightly awkward manner, she kicked off her fore shoes, removed her chest piece and placed her crown carefully onto a waiting hook. In almost the same motion, her hoof moved over the next hook and retrieved a white baker’s hat and apron. Items clearly designed for a much smaller mare.

Paying this no mind. Sunny squeezed the much too small apron over her head, only getting it caught on her horn a couple times. With the tiny amount of material, covering some of her chest, she successfully attempted to precariously balance the tiny hat upon her large head. After a small titter of amusement, she walked over to a set of cupboards and started retrieving some cooking utensils. A familiar content humming sound emitting from her lips, as she started her work with the slightest of dance to her movements.

“This is really weird,” escaped my helmet at the sight. We’re basically just staring at a mare as she tries to go about her usual day. If she wasn’t dressed as she was, we’d have no reason to be here. Maybe we should leave her to it?

“We know the feeling,” Loony agreed. “Tia never could bake. Maybe Pinkie will teach her something?” she continued, as Celestia cracked a couple eggs into a bowl and began whisking in a practiced motion. Pretty sure that’s not what I meant by weird. It never really crossed my mind that Celestia didn’t bake. Suppose being royalty means the two pegacorns have probably never needed to touch a stove. Saying that, have they always been royalty?

As we continued to spy on the happily working mare, she added a small amount of butter to another bowl and began looking around at the top shelves. A moment later, she’d reared up onto the tips of her hooves trying to reach for some unknown ingredient. “Longer legs, but still can’t reach,” she grumbled slightly to herself. “Don’t think Mister Cake was right about a coming growth spurt being enough.”

While the frustrated pegacorn continued to try and get one of the many unlabelled bags down from the poorly positioned shelf, Loony nudged me with a wing. Looking at what had caught her interest, it appeared there was a specially designed ladder she was likely supposed to use for the task. “Maybe we should tell her?” Have her parents not told her about that? How would she get those bags down normally? They look pretty big.

“And spoil the fun?” Loony said with another flash of her camera. She then returned her focus to her suddenly less composed sister. “Besides, she appears to have the situation well in hoof. If ‘tis not cheating a little.”

The familiar sound of magic being used, coincided with a golden glow surrounding the surprised pegacorn’s horn. “Yeah, that’s a great idea,” she applauded herself before dropping back to her four hooves. That same glow then surrounded one of the many large sacks and began bringing it down to the floor. Much to Celestia and ‘Celestia’s’ disappointment. “Hmm, I don’t think these cupcakes need potatoes.”

A moment later, the bag of potatoes was carefully placed upon the ground, before the one next to it was collected. O man, two down about thirteen to go, those bags really need a label. As the second bag began to lower, Celestia appeared to wince for a second, hiding her mouth with a hoof, “ooo careful with that one. That’s my gun powder.”

Sunny’s wince was almost immediately repeated by my friend, who was understandably unhappy with the substance’s presence. “Gun powder! What would thou ever need such a dangerous material for?”

“Gonna go out on a limb here and guess her party cannon,” I nonchalantly pointed out. This earned me a probably much desired hoof point of affirmation from the distracted Sun. As I watched this second bag be carefully lowered down and hidden under the sink, its presence brought up some more inconsistency’s about Equestria. Do ponies have real war cannons, and guns? If so, why do they only use crossbows? But then, if not, why would they call that stuff gunpowder? Wouldn’t it be like spark powder, or something firework related?

Anyway, seeing as her sister had carefully hidden the dangerous substance, Loony seemed content with my answer. She was also very content with continuing to watch her sister struggle. “Sister, art thou having some issues?” she asked sweetly, very aware of the current difficulties.

In a rather polite tone Celestia replied with, “the baking is fun. I am just a little unsure as to what I am currently after.” She then stuck out her tongue in concentration and began trying to aim her horn using her hooves. Suppose that’s one way to do it.

The act caused my friend to titter into a hoof. “Thou art aware, that horns don’t work like that?” Oh well, suppose it isn’t a way to do.

Watching the strange dual nature of the usually regal pegacorn brought another thought back to the forefront of my mind. “Erm Loony, it doesn’t look like that when people wear me, does it?” I hope not, I’ve always tried to be as comfortable and helpful as possible.

“I would not know of such things. We have only really experienced the first-pony perspective,” Loony said with a smile. She seemed quite happy with that fact. A fact which was pretty incorrect, seeing as she’d seen both Skitter and Sunny wear me before.

“’Tis quite clear that thou art a tad subtler,” she said as we watched Celestia climb onto the counter top and begin reaching for a bag with just one leg precariously holding her up. The Moon then let out a light laugh, “nay, thou could make even the most uncouth individual appear regal born. As befits one of thy position, We would not adorn ourselves with thou if it were any other way.” What even is my position anyway?

A groan of complaint interrupted the comforting conversation. “Oh, I see. Not the white bag with no label, but the other white bag with no label,” Celestia half complained, as she hopped down from the counter, a large bag in tow.

The moment her butter coated hooves hit the ground; a small tremor went through the counter, causing the pegacorn’s eyes to widen in shock. “Twitchy tail twitchy tail!” she blurted out in our direction before attempting to dive underneath one of the counters. Seeing as she was bigger than her wearer was probably used to, her rear was left sticking out into the room, with her cotton candy aurora visibly twitching behind her.

After another quick flash, this time getting a selfie as well, Luna quizzically asked, “twitchy tail? Is this some new found slang term?”

That caused me to sigh. “I don’t think so. If what Twilight says is true, then it’s something to do with the Pinkie sense.”

I suppose I did earn that incredulous look. “The Pinkie sense? We are aware of no such magic.”

“It probably isn’t magic. It’s like a sixth sense or something? Anyway, she thinks somethings going to fall.” That better be right. I had to sit through an entire night long lecture as Celestia, while also helping Loony dream walk. It was so distracting. Especially when the little unicorn thought I wasn’t paying attention.

After taking a moment to survey the room, Loony smiled and gave me a knowing look. “Well my dear Eclipse. It appears this one time, thou art incorrect. Maybe Our sister is just afraid of her own tail?”

I was about to complain that it was Sunny’s student who told me about it in a dream, when a box fell from a shelf above Luna and tried to fall upon her head. I say tried, because before it could make contact, it received a slightly too hard kick from my fore shoe. Thus, scattering hundreds of thousands of Hundreds and Thousands across the room and its occupants.

“Told you…heh.” Okay that was a little embarrassing, she probably wouldn’t have even felt the impact, now she’s covered. Hope those things aren’t sticky.

“My hero,” Luna jokingly said with a good-natured shake of her head, before using her magic to collect the small cake sprinkles from the various surfaces they had adhered to. Not least of which was her own form. Noticing a bin, she expertly tossed her assembled ball into it, neatly disposing of most of the evidence.

A good thing too, as the sound of the sprinkle ball entering the bin, caused her sister to pop out from her hiding place. Only a few tough sprinkles stuck in her candy tail. “That was a close one,” she said with palpable relief.

“’Twas indeed,” Loony replied, before taking a look through a window. It appeared like she was staring directly at the actual sun, not her sister. After a quick sigh, she said, “well sister, this experience has been most enjoyable, but all good things must come to an end.” Hmm, that’s a bit sudden.

Her sister appeared to agree, as she turned to face us baring the one thing everyone should fear, sad pony eyes. “But why? We’re having so much fun.” As she spoke her mane seemed to deflate, falling down either side of her face. It actually looked pretty interesting, like a cascading rainbow straight down. Maybe I should mention that to her? But then her mane would drag on the ground. It’s a good job it usually defies gravity.

Seeming to easily resist the affects, the other pony with gravity defying hair, a little disappointingly said, “Sadly, as per Our agreement, day court requires our attention. It will take some familiarization.” As she mentioned day court, her good wing gestured in my direction. Pretty sure Sunny already has ponies who help with that, but I’ll come if she wants.

The sad pony eyes continued, until Celestia raised a hoof to make a point, “sister, day court does not start for three more hours. I believe it could be fun to bake together.” It was a strange contrast to see her sad eyes paired with a hopeful smile.

Her actions actually caused the Moon to hesitate for a second, before she looked to me, probably for my irrelevant opinion. “It could be fun, I suppose.” It would probably make Sunny happy. She always seems to find random reasons to spend time with her sister.

“But day court is a little more compli…cated,” Loony began before making the mistake of looking into the desperate pegacorn’s pleading eyes. With a quick swallow, she looked to the rack where the sun themed regalia lay and heartily said, “Eclipse, could thou provide an apron? It appears We have some cupcakes to bake.”

Nodding in response, I used a portion of my mist to form the desired item, a light blue apron with a moon in its centre. Alongside it, I shoed over a matching chef’s hat, both items being the correct size in stark contrast to the Sun’s attire.

As Luna took the items in her hoof and began removing her regalia, Celestia reared up in celebration for something like the third time this morning. “Yay, the first party set up by the sun and moon butt duo. This is gonna be amazing.”

Don’t forget me, I’m going to be there too. I do know how to poach an egg. Hopefully that’s somehow involved in baking.

Author's Note

Welp, I've got to admit, I'm not sure how much more of a role that zipper is going to play in the story. I may not have taken it into consideration when I made some changes to my notes.

Thanks to a recent message, I did start trying to write another story where it would be centre stage though.
Discord's Golden Zipper

I'd love to know if people think I should pursue writing it. It's going to be very different to The Night's Shining Armour.

32: Court Interruptions

“’Tis one of Our finest cakes, We are quite proud of it,” the pegacorn beamed from her throne, as she held out her hoof. In said hoof, was a picture from only an hour ago. One that contained the same navy pegacorn with a similar bright smile, despite the flour she was coated in. This time however, she was holding a small cake with a miniature icing moon on the top.

Yeah, turns out setting up a party could be quite an interesting thing to do, even if one of your fellow planners wasn’t quite themselves. The thought of that party prompted me to look around the large, mostly empty throne room, before letting out a light sigh. I kinda wish we could’ve stayed to see how it’d turned out. Bet the princesses would have loved it.

As the thought ran through my helmet, another picture was held out in Loony’s hoof. This time of her sister, clearly enjoying the contents of a used cake mixing bowl with her tongue. A content sigh escaped my friend at the sight. “We believe our sister was in paradise. So much cake for one pony.”

With a slightly mischievous tone, I decided to add, “if you look at the next picture, Loony’s licking the spoon.” True to my words, the next picture was one I’d panned slightly to the left, catching a very greedy looking Moon with her spoon, jealously eyeing her sister’s now almost clean bowl. Half of the bowls contents were also now plastered across Celestia’s usually pristine white fur. Part of me thought Luna might have been tempted to lick it off, like she had some icing off of me, but she easily managed to restrain herself.

In a small attempt to defend her past self, Loony turned to me and said, “’twas good cake batter. We could not let Our sister’s newfound cooking skill go to waste.” Once she’d finished, she looked back to her sister’s happy face and pondered, “who would have thought, all it would take was borrowing Pinkiepie for one day?” I think the correct way to say that is, Pinkiepie borrowing Celestia for the day.

The mention of the pink magic pony, piqued the interest of the third member of our group, who’d been quite enraptured by our little showcase. “Sooo, was this Pinkiepie teaching you to cook? She must be good,” came the words of the royal changeling Skitter, off to Loony’s other side.

Luna turned to the slightly shorter bug with a coy smile. “In a way. Her method of teaching Tia would, most likely, be considered quite intrusive by most.”

Those words prompted me to shake my helmet, before I looked to the undisguised bug tilting her head in adorable confusion. When the two of us had signed up to cover Sunny’s day court, we were quite surprised when the love bug was already there waiting. Apparently, Celestia had been trying to encourage the fellow royal to come to day court so ponies could get used to her kind.

She’d obviously been successful, as Skitter had been meeting the sun at the same time every day to engage in the usual day court. Hopefully, that means that the two have formed a bit of a friendship, Skitter seemed to be quite nervous around her before. All I can say on the subject, is that it’s nice to see her so comfortable in her own shell for once. She’s normally a maid when I meet her.

While Sunny’s idea does seem pretty decent to me, there hasn’t really been any evidence of ponies learning much of anything about changelings at all. It would help if one actually showed up to day court today.

“So, did you catch any of Eclipse?” Skitter asked optimistically, while trying to get a look of the next picture in the pile.

“Technically, Our stallion is in all the pictures of Us,” Loony began, while gesturing to her past self’s apron, my fabric still marred by icing. “But yes, We have a few of his valiant steel.” She then set about sifting through the many pictures of the two pegacorns, before finding one of the few starring me. I was the one holding the camera most of the time, so there were a lot less of me. Who’d want to see a tin can when they could see the princesses acting so adorably together?

The moment the picture came into view, the bug princess covered her mouth in an attempt to halt clear oncoming laughter. It didn’t stop her amusement showing through her softly buzzing wings though. What was captured within the image wasn’t embarrassing per say, it only showed my usual metallic form retrieving a baking tray out of the oven. The only problem, was the bright pink oven gloves I was wearing over my shoes. Each emblazoned with patterns of colourful balloons.

“Pink- ‘Celestia’ made me wear them. She said it was for safety,” I rushed to defend my lack of choice of adornment. It was obvious I didn’t actually need them. You can’t burn metal that easily. Then again, the sun can be awfully bright sometimes. It still hasn’t burned me though. Ah, it doesn’t matter that I wore those gloves, I’d turn into most things Loony asked me to with no issue. In the past she’s had me act as her dress numerous times, same for Sunny really. Anything to keep my friends happy.

“I think you look very pretty,” Skitter said in a slightly calmer voice. Either in attempt to reduce, or increase my embarrassment, it was hard to tell. The light buzzing behind her didn’t really seem to decrease. Her tone sounded a little more encouraging, but not her words as she continued to say, “like a real house mare.” A house mare, seriously? At least she isn’t saying I look like something that would eat one.

“Our sister is a masterful prankster, is she not?” Loony pointed out, after her own laughter subsided. “We are always glad when she aims for another.”

“Wait, Celestia actually pranks people?” Skitter said, with thinly veiled surprise. “She hasn’t ever pranked me.”

“Thou have yet to make thyself a valid target, but do not worry. Thy time will come… eventually,” Loony finished a little forebodingly, causing the young bug to swallow a little nervously, before her smile returned due to the warm atmosphere. Oh no, she might get you to wear pink oven gloves… the horror. Her pranks have never really been too bad. One thing is quite funny though. The fact that people are always surprised by Sunny and Loony both enjoying a little prank now and then. Suppose everyone thinks their deities are above such mortal concerns. Saying that, Luna doesn’t really do the whole pranking thing very much. It’s normally a Celestia started it type situation when she gets involved.

Anyway, as things are probably quite evident from the current topic of conversation, today’s day court has been a very slow affair, in terms of workload anyway. This is most likely due to all the nation’s papers going out of their way to mention the all-powerful sun, hosting a party in some backwater town. Everyone most likely thinks without Celestia, day court has been cancelled. That’s fine by me, I can get behind a day of pleasant conversation with friends, while enjoying a book with my slightly smaller self. One of those rare nice and relaxing moments where nothing stressful is going on. Wonderful.

As the cursing thought finished its trip into the back of my helmet, stress decided to rear its ugly head, as it inevitably always does when a day is looking up. This stress came in the form of a loud bang on the rooms front door. A single bang that soured the enjoyable atmosphere we were all basking in.

The sudden sound caused an immediate reaction from both of my friends. Skitter stopped leaning over the pegacorn and tried to sit up straight, while supressing yet more laughter. Laughter, most likely due to Loony almost throwing the pictures into the air, before deciding to unceremoniously shove them underneath her throne cushion. Once they were hidden, she took a moment to ensure she was giving the opening door a stern look. Probably due to the unannounced entry.

My friend’s irate expression softened, once the perpetrator pushed open the door enough for us to see them. It was a lone day guard pegasus, who appeared to be busy rubbing his muzzle, while trying to bow with just three legs. Heh, seems he thought he could pass through walls. Not even a spirit can do that.

Trying her best to ignore the guard’s plight, Loony began to speak with an authoritative air, “please, approach the throne. Dost thou have an important message for Us?” Hopefully, only we could see the slight curving up of her lips. There’s no need to hurt the overzealous guard’s feelings.

Not requiring the need to be told twice, the pegasus rose from the ground, and began trying to approach the throne at the fastest walking speed possible. As he approached, it was quite clear his lungs were working overtime and he was struggling to stop his wings from flopping to the ground. The sight of his state, caused me to nudge a little closer to my pegacorn for a little comfort. He clearly had some dire news I didn’t want to hear.

Upon reaching a comfortable speaking distance from the throne, the guard hoarsely said, “there’s trouble at the Taurus border.” Hmm, Taurus? That name rings a bell for some reason.

As his condition became a little clearer, Loony stood from her throne and approached him. When she was in range, she gently placed a hoof upon his shoulder and warmly said, “please, take a moment to gather thy breath. We can wait for thou to recover, before receiving thy full report.”

The guard, who’d clearly been about to continue croaking, nodded in gratitude, before taking a seat opposite us. His laboured breaths started to steadily slow down after a few seconds at rest, but his weathered state remained. When he looked back up towards us, he found a glass of water floating within a green energy field waiting for him. A beverage which he greedily stole.

Off to the other side of the now empty throne, Skitty was smiling to herself at likely managing to help a little. I’d have helped too, if I had a glass of water ready. Or if I’d thought of it. Wait, is there any cake still stashed around here? Ah, Luna and Skitter have probably eaten it all by now.

Looking a little more prepared to speak with the highest in the land, if you don’t count Celestia being a little taller, the unnamed guard began to dole out his report. “I’m a border guard, posted to our eastern flank with taurus,” he said before taking a pause to sip a bit more of the life-giving fluid. “Normally, all we have to deal with are a couple of bandits once in a blue moon…” After finishing his sentence, the pegasus bit his lip, before nervously looking into Loony’s eyes.

As expected, Loony only flicked her ear at the odd phrase, before using a hoof to gesture for the nervous stallion to continue. I doubt she’d be offended by such a statement, even if she is the blue moon. Hey, she’s existed for a thousand years. She might even have been the one to coin the phrase.

While I debated on the effects an immortal ruler could have on the evolution of language, the guard gravely continued. “This time, it was different. This time, there were hundreds of them!” The sharp increase in volume and general threat brought my attention back to the important conversation.

“Hundreds thou says?” Loony replied in a measured tone, while lightly rubbing her chin with a wing.

“Ye-yes my princess. And they aren’t dressed like bandits either, they bare the mark of Taurus itself,” the guard hastily added, feeling the need to get back to four hooves at his reveal.

To my side, Skitter had clearly tightened up her limbs. It would take an eagle eye, or my curiosity to notice that the tips of her hooves were shaking slightly. Most likely at the chance of having to be involved in yet another dangerous situation. I felt for the little love bug, she’s never won any of the fights she’s been a part of. What’s more, her sense of the guard’s emotions probably didn’t help her own state.

In stark contrast, Loony only tilted her head in thought, before asking, “tell me young stallion, what hostile action have these soldiers taken?”

A little taken aback by the question, the guard thought for a moment. He then looked to his ruler and desperately said, “they’re lined up on our border in ranks princess. It looks like they are preparing to advance at any moment. They could have started moving while I made my way here!” It’s a real shame more ponies don’t know that message spell the princesses seem to use. Then again, a pegasus can’t use magic… I don’t think. Well, they do still have their glows, so do the mundane ones as well. Hmm, wonder what it takes to cast real spells?

Rather than be visibly alarmed by the statement, Loony actually seemed to perk up a bit. That’s why she’s in charge I suppose. Best not to show fear in front of your troops, I mean guards. “Excellent work…” Luna began praising the guard, before pausing to bite her lip for some reason.

An action that was quite confusing, until a certain insectoid advisor quietly whispered, “Flawless Strike.” How would Skitter know that guy’s name? Has he been around the castle before? Suppose she’s putting that maid knowledge to good use.

Rather than question the reason for that knowledge, Loony happily gripped onto it. “…Flawless Strike. Thine efforts have assisted Equestria immensely this day. Return to thy quarters and rest for now.” Hmm, the princesses do seem to take pride in knowing their guards’ names. She probably doesn’t know his, because he’s a day guard.

Taking the acknowledgment of a job well done, Strike almost flawlessly bowed on his tired legs, before making his way to the rooms exit. Most likely for a well-earned collapse into a comfortable mattress. Wish that was me, because we’re probably going to have to deal with this issue.

As we watched the guard make his desirable escape, I turned to the Moon and asked, “So, what now?” Could we go share your bed and wait for the guards to deal with the situation? Wish that was a possibility.

“What now, thou says?” Loony said, while turning to me with a beaming smile. “Now ‘tis time for this blue moon to take action.” Pretty sure that isn’t how you use that statement. That means Sunny probably devised it as some long-term prank.

“This is going to be bad, isn’t it?” I replied, ignoring the apparently cheery mood the life and death situation had put my friend into.

A quick shake of her head had me reconsider the fakeness of her happiness. “Nay, this shalt be another in a long line of welcome distractions this day. Come, We shall send for Shining Armor and rally some honour guards.”

Placing her good wing over my back, she began encouraging me to follow her out of the room with a light tug. “Yes, this will be a momentous occasion. Thou will see.” Oh, well she clearly understands this situation on a level I don’t. Hopefully, that means there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe this won’t actually take too long.

As I began following my best friend’s lead, a small voice rang out from behind us. “Erm, is there anything you need me to do?” The young changeling, actually appeared a little hopeful as she asked. Probably also latching onto Loony’s lack of worry.

Looking over my back, Loony paused in thought, almost appearing like she forgot Skitter was still present. She then turned to a random point upon the rooms high ceiling and called out, “Crescent, watch over Princess Skitter as she maintains Our sister’s court.”

Following her gaze, I spent a long time staring at the spot my moon was conversing with. When nothing materialized, I turned back to my pegacorn and informatively said, “I think she’s on break.”

The mare in question let out a light giggle at my response, before a familiar voice picked up from behind me. “By your will my princess.” What the? How can she be there? All it took was a slight break in my line of sight and now she’s right on top of us. Could Luna see her?

Apparently not noticing my questioning gaze, the thestral mare moved over to Skitter’s side. The bug in question also giving the bat an inquisitive look.

For once, the curiosity of how Crescent manages such a feat got the better of me. “So, I have to ask. How do you keep doing that?”

Deciding to play dumb, the wannabe vampire coyly replied with a question of her own. “Doing my job?” That’s a question I ask about myself every day.

Deciding to persist in my endeavour, I simply said, “Well, yeah.”

“Thestral magic,” was the disappointing answer. A simple question gets you a simple response, I guess. Why is ‘magic’ a pony’s answer for how everything in the world works? How does the sun set? magic. How does the weather work? Magic. How does a pegasus fly? Magic. I half expect them to say, how does a door open? Magic. Well, it would be if they used their magic, but that’s not the point.

Rather than complain to the impassive guard mare, I said, “I see.” Evidently, the thing her magic apparently stops me doing. No, she’s definitely not using magic, it would make her stand out like a Christmas tree. Changelings are actually harder for me to spot when undisguised.

Still taking in the appearance of the guard, Skitter turned back to the night and hesitantly asked, “erm, Luna, what exactly do you want me to do?”

The navy pegacorn looked at the slightly shorter bug for a moment before saying, “pony the day courts of course. We cannot allow Our ponies to think we have forsaken them.” The way she said it, made it clear to everyone she thought it was an obvious issue. To be honest, it probably isn’t. Only one pony actually visited today, and it was only to inquire as to whether or not they could attend the once in a lifetime party of the sun.

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure,” Skitter said before being engulfed in, what some would find, an alarming green fireball. Once the fire subsided, any trace of the love bug was gone and, in her place, stood an identical copy of Loony, regalia and all. She then proceeded to delicately sit upon Luna’s empty throne, before smiling back at us both. “If my mother could see me now. She’d be so proud.” Her borrowed smile faded slightly, when she noticed her newfound thestral guard giving her a funny look.

Rather than request Skitter not to impersonate her, like I’d have expected, Loony clopped her hooves together and said, “ah, an excellent idea. Now Our sister will be unable to claim We skipped out on this. Now Princess Luna, please take care of Our ponies for Us”

“We will try Our best,” the duplicate responded in her best impression of Loony’s royal tone. The slight nervous crack at the end of her speech, the only hint something was off. Oh, and the massive green glow she was emitting, but no one else ever notices that.

With the body double sorted, the two of us made Our way out of the throne room. The moment we left ear shot of the others, I decided to share one problem this double situation could potentially cause. “You know someone might actually come to her with an issue. She can’t really do anything to help them, Skitter doesn’t have any authority within Equestria.”

“She has Ours until We return,” Loony replied confidently, without breaking her stride. “If it is abused, Crescent will deal with her.” Suppose that’s fair enough.

Author's Note

Maybe I should have had a full chapter on day court shenanigans. I really prefer the slice of life stuff, and Skitter needs some time to shine. I do love a love bug.
Ah well, I've already committed to a slight issue getting in the way of that.

33: To the Border

Chapter 33

The next few events went by in a little bit of a blur to be honest. A guard was sent ahead of us to go retrieve the much-needed expertise of Captain Shining Armor. The pony in question, after some minor panic, set about rallying a large quantity of other like-minded guard ponies. By the time Luna and I had reached our carriage, Shining had managed to organise each of his guards, ensuring they were briefed, armoured, armed and had their own carriages for transport.

With that sorted out, all Luna and I had to do, was climb aboard our own carriage and have Loony command her thestrals to take us forward. You’d think it would be hard to sort out for the immortal pegacorn, but nope, that’s why you hire other ponies to do the boring leg work. We need someone who can do paperwork besides me.

Anyway, as our six carriages were baring down on the potential invasion site, my mist started to flow more and more erratically. It’s not my fault if I’m nervous, people might get hurt down there. On the other shoe, from the current conversation we were having, Loony didn’t really seem to care about the coming event all that much.

“Dost thou believe the bug will embarrass Us?” Loony asked from the seat next to me. The side of her muzzle leaning lightly against my helmet.

“Pretty sure Crescent won’t let her.” That thestral takes all things Luna related very seriously. Saying that, all the night guards seem to.

“’Tis just that, We may have left her a little suddenly. She hast had no time to prepare for her role,” Loony said with only a hint of worry, as one of her fore hooves absently rubbed my side.

A light sigh escaped me at the apparently awful realization my pegacorn was just now having. Couldn’t she have thought about this half an hour ago before we left? Right now, she should be thinking about those one hundred angry bulls that probably want to flatten us for whatever reason. Rather than voice my complaint, I tried my best to reassure my best friend by placing my own metallic ghostly wing across her back and musing, “well Skitter is a changeling. They do thrive on blending in.”

That provoked a light giggle from the distracted mare. “’Tis true. She served as Our sister’s maid for many years before We discovered her.” Her smile seemed to increase as she thought of something. “Funny how Our sister failed to notice her and We noticed upon Our first meeting.” As she spoke, her good wing pulled my form slightly closer to her barrel.

Pretty sure I was the one who saw her, no one would have noticed a thing if I hadn’t said anything. Part of me wishes that reveal hadn’t happened like that. Skitter has never mentioned it, but I bet the sudden stripping of her disguise and subsequent violence from those she respected still bother her a little. Then again, without that little scuffle, we wouldn’t have peace with the bug nation. What is their nation called anyway? No one just names their country after their species. Wait, Equestria, Griffonia, Taurus… never mind.

Rather than further distracting her with my irrelevant musings, I simply said, “I don’t know, her disguises seem pretty good to me.” For one thing, she can actually look like a pony on command. Wonder if she could help me? I’m kind of like a shapeshifter too.

My words only prompted Loony to lightly tilt her head side to side, showing her desire to agree to disagree. Fine by me. She’s the one relying on Skitty’s disguise holding up.

Eventually, a voice from the front of the carriage interrupted our nonchalant conversation. “Princess, the minotaurs are within sight,” called one of the numerous thestrals pulling the hurtling carriage.

The news prompted me to pull myself from the slightly tightened grip of Loony’s wing, so I could look at what the guard was seeing. Wow, that isn’t good. I’m fairly certain there’s a few more than a hundred minotaurs down there. It seems closer to a thousand if anything, they cover so much ground.

Following my example, the moon looked down at the mass of possible enemies and authoritatively said, “very good sergeant, take us down to the clearing opposite. Have us unite with the remaining border guard.” Huh, I can’t even see the border guard. They’re probably the little specks standing a little way from the hoard.

“As you wish,” our caddy saluted in response. As she disappeared back to the carriage’s front, our trajectory shifted, causing us to rapidly descend from the clouds towards a very bad day. To the sides of our batmobile, the numerous other carriages matched our descent vector, ensuring more people would be thrown into the life and death situation.

Once the distance started to shrink, it became easier to make out how much trouble we were about to be in. The mass of minotaurs wasn’t just a mess of random barbarians. It was a clearly organised military group, with real soldiers organised into ranks. “I don’t think those guys are on parade,” I said in an attempt to vent some of my reforming nervous energy.

Something, which my favourite pegacorn didn’t seem to notice. “Of course they are not. They are clearly organised into companies,” she said a little too enthusiastically, before returning to her seat. This is one of those moments where I wish Celestia was here. A sudden thud of wheels against grass proved that the noble sun would not reach us before whatever happens, happens.

Upon landing, it didn’t take long enough for one of the thestrals to open the door, where he then stood ready for his princess to disembark. Taking that as her que, Loony seemed to almost spring out of her seat before remembering to regally join her guards on the soft grass. “Thank you Spectre,” she said, taking note of the saluting guard before walking away from the carriage, meaning I would have to follow.

Warily, I followed in my favourite pony’s wake, almost instinctively placing my shoes in her exact hoof steps as I disembarked. Rather than follow her entirely, I took a moment to survey the scene. Around us, the numerous other carriages had all landed neatly. Each one discharging a complement of unicorns and earth ponies, hopefully ready for a fight. The pegasi who’d been pulling the carriages, were all unhitching themselves from the now dead weights and standing to attention ready for orders.

Our own carriage, once having twelve strong thestrals pulling it, had already been fully unhitched. Each of the bats already flying into the air to do whatever it is they do. That was all except for one, who waited to salute to me, just like he did Luna. A little surprised by the action, I attempted to salute back and said, “erm, thanks?” That prompted the vampire to cock his head, before nodding respectfully and flying to join his comrades.

As the lone thestral’s actions distracted me, a number of loud shouts from a familiar guard captain brought me back to reality. “You form up, get into formation. We don’t want to keep the princess waiting. What are you lot doing? Get up there.” Following the direction my cherished pony had gone, led me to see Captain Armor, disembarking his carriage already issuing orders. The ponies who were standing to attention, seemed to panic a moment, before rushing off to stand in some probably practiced locations. One of them was apparently for the pegasi to fly into the air and land on a few low clouds, crossbows at the ready. Wonder if those clouds would stop incoming crossbow bolts? They stop me putting holes in the ground, so why not?

When Shining noticed his approaching ruler, he saluted for a second, before stoically saying, “Princess, you have one hundred of our best and brightest. All of them ready and willing.” His stoic nature appeared to faulter a little when his gaze fell to one side. Mine would too, if I’d just announced how outnumbered we were. Rather than mention what everyone was thinking, he simply asked, “what are your orders?” At least he has faith in Loony. Sadly, this is one of those occasions where I find mine to be a little lacking.

Luna gave the stalwart captain a nod, before disarmingly saying, “maintain positions within our borders. Ensure nopony sets hoof within Taurus territory. We are not here to start a conflict, just to show strength.” I bet we look very strong with our tiny band.

Her words caused the smaller unicorn to look towards the border and hesitantly say, “with respect Princess, I believe the potential is great that they’re here to start one themselves.”

The knowing shake of his royal’s head seemed to avert Shining’s worries ever so slightly. “Nay, this interaction will be perfectly safe. Thy responsibility in particular, is to prove we can hold our border. From the reports We have read, it appears thy shields should be enough. There is no need to risk any of Our pony’s lives.” Suppose, if we’re going to hide behind a shield, it doesn’t matter how outnumbered we are. Then again, she did use the word should.

“That makes sense,” the captain acknowledged, before returning to his duty of shouting at his men… ponies. The main change was getting them to bunch up a little more, likely to make it easier to form a shield.

As the ponies set about digging in, I turned to look at our newest foes for the first time. The initial takeaway being their height. They stood practically eye level with me. That makes them twice as tall as the average guard, and even taller than the mighty moon herself. Granted, they are bipeds, so the size difference probably isn’t as different as it looks, but it’s probably enough to intimidate the guards.

The second major takeaway from these bulls, was the armour. It looked pretty decent to be honest, way better than that of the ponies. If you didn’t tell me there was a fleshy underneath, I’d half believe they were made of mist like me. Half believe because I could still see their orange magical cores burning away, not to dissimilarly to the average ponies. That armour and size advantage, probably means a single one of these guys would be a problem to take down, let alone an entire army.

Looking back to Luna, who was enjoying watching her guards get organised, made the armour situation seem even worse. Apart from her royal regalia, which might count for armour in a video game, she was basically naked. Clearly, I was going to be needed. Welp, if Luna’s going into danger, there’s no place I’d rather be than upon her form.

With that in mind, I approached what would possibly count as a command chariot, due to it being where the two people in charge were talking. “We will need to meet with their king to see what he is after. The minotaurs of old always knew how to send a message,” Loony said, while smiling fondly to herself. Seems she is still enjoying this a little too much. She was way angrier when we dealt with the changelings. What gives?

Seeing as she was a little distracted, I reached out a shoe and gently placed it upon her shoulder. This caused her to turn in my direction, not surprised in the least by my action. Probably because she thought I was stood there the entire time. “So erm, if you’re going to see their king… would you like some armour?” It always feels a little weird asking someone to put me on. At least Loony doesn’t think it’s strange. In fact, she usually seems to like the idea.

The reason I used the word usually, was because the navy pegacorn for once, shook her head in the negative. “Nay, if we are to avoid conflict, we must adhere to the minotaur’s code. That is, We, ahem, I must go alone.”

I will admit to being a little surprised by how much I disliked the statement. It irked me so much, that my shoe gripped my best friend’s shoulder a little too hard. Hard enough for some discomfort to show on her face. “But you will be alone. Let’s just go back into that carriage and you can come out with your armour on,” I insisted while pointing to Shining’s mode of transport. “Come on, they don’t even know I’m a person.” Them thinking I’m an object is fine by me as long as Loony is safe. Saying that, if she wears me, I could probably stop her going into danger in the first place. No, I can’t do that, what would she think of me? Then again, would it matter what she thinks if she’s safe?

In response, Loony gave me one of her strange smile’s she’d started levelling at me these past few weeks. “’Tis sweet that thou worries for Us so, but please believe Us, We will be fine. Thou can decorate Us as long as thou wishes, whenever thou wants, when We return.” She then raised a hoof and gently gripped my shoe, causing my much harsher grip to fade. “For now my knight, We wish to acknowledge thy pony hood, so please remain here. Follow Shining’s instructions, and do not set hoof across the border. It will all be fine, We have dealt with the minotaur’s style of diplomacy numerous times before. They are usually quite entertaining.” She appeared to sigh warmly at some past memory for a moment, before her attention returned to me. “Once We have completed initial greetings, We shall send for thee.” As her words left her, she gradually lowered her hoof, gently placing my shoe back upon the ground beside her own.

Tearing my view away from the now slightly blushing diplomat, and glancing once more at the unending line of metallic bulls, my worries hardly abated. There’s got to be some way I can convince her to bring me along. How will she even get to this king through all those soldiers? Oh, that’s it! Pointing to Loony’s side, I a little to proudly said, “your wing! How do you propose to get to their king without flight? I could be your wings again.” Okay, that might have been a little tactless.

“We are aware of the issue,” Loony said, sounding a little hurt. “However, there is one effective method of traversal thy presence does not aid with.”

“What other method is there?” I’ve gotten pretty good at flying, and I can run faster than most ponies. Swimming? Don’t be stupid, how would that help?

Clearly already aware of the coming question, Loony’s horn lit up with a brilliant blue light. “This one,” was all she said, as her form completely disappeared. The last thing I saw of her, was her face giving me a cheeky wink. That actually would have made me smile, if the situation wasn’t so dire. Well, if I could smile. Anyway, who’s to say I can’t teleport? We’ve never tried.

After taking an agonising moment to stare at the spot my charge once occupied, I managed to turn away and focus on the more important here and now. Watching the minotaurs is probably a good use of my time. Aside from Loony’s basic, don’t go across the invisible line, I didn’t actually have a job. So it was, that I began my watch.

Each of the bulls were standing ready, clearly waiting for something to happen, like an order to attack. None of them were conversing amongst themselves, and they all seemed laser focused upon us. After a few minutes observing, a few of the bulls stood out to have their armour’s faceplates open. Each of them appeared much calmer then their aggressive posture would imply, but that’s just going off my limited knowledge of their facial structure. If I was to be optimistic, maybe the lack of malice could symbolise the possibility of a peaceful resolution. If I was an optimist.

Taking a few shoe steps towards the invisible line had an interesting result. The moment I stood out ahead of the ponies, almost every head in view turned in my direction. A few hands were also clearly placed upon the hilts of their undrawn swords. It was then I noticed that the few heads that didn’t turn in my direction, were already looking at me. A light shiver resonated through the back of my chest plate, as the bulls gauged my presence.

It was almost enough to distract me from the tell tail sounds of hoof steps approaching from behind. Tilting my helmet, it was none other than Shining Armor who’d chosen to come and take a seat beside me, his small frame dwarfed by my own. It wasn’t often that I spent time with the stallion, but from what I’d seen of him these past few months, he seemed decent enough.

As he’d decided only to take a seat next to me, hopefully to show some sort of comradery, I decided to break the silence that had descended. “So, is there an actual plan here?”

My words seemed to trigger a slight darkening of the stallion’s face. “I know about as much about this as you do.” As he spoke, Shining’s eyes scanned the various minotaurs in front of us. He was probably looking for valuable information, like their ranks, fitness and discipline. Or he was just looking at what he thought was going to be smashing into us any minute now.

“That’s just great,” I all but sighed out, disappointed in the lack of preplanning this endeavour had. Don’t get me wrong, I think the little soldier’s done a good job getting his ponies ready. It’s just, I bet the only plans he had an hour ago, were debating on what he was going to have for dinner with Cadance.

In what appeared to be an attempt to ease my worries, Shining began looking over his assembled troops. “Look, as I understand the situation, we are only here for ceremonial purposes. Meaning, this is an attempt by Princess Luna to show we respect Taurus’s strength.” Like a good commanding officer, he’d clearly thought about Loony’s words and was using them to try and inspire his potentially wavering troops. That apparently included me, and I’m not even a member of the guard.

“So… you’re saying you don’t think they’ll attack?” I hope he’s right.

At that, the captain stopped reviewing his organised guards, and began looking at the minotaur’s with open faceplates. One of them appeared to smirk at him, when it noticed his attention. “Honestly? I’m not sure. You know the plan, we can’t really fight this many Taurus soldiers with our numbers, so if they attack, I’ll put up a shield while we wait for reinforcement from Princess Celestia.” Oh great, at least he’s prepared to do what he needs to.

One decent takeaway from this, is that the captain genuinely believes his shields are powerful enough to block an entire army. Now that’s an impressive feat. It just goes to show you don’t have to be as big as an alicorn to be strong. Speaking of alicorns. “Erm, your shield… will it protect Loony, ahem, Princess Luna?”

Shining seemed to tilt his head so he couldn’t see me for a moment. “She’s chosen to try diplomacy alone. I can’t back her up from this distance.”

“This Taurus form of diplomacy feels a little one sided, doesn’t it?” I said hoping for a little solidarity.

A simple, “yep,” from my side brought a return to the horrifying silence. A silence that let my thoughts stew. What’s she doing over their all by herself anyway? Has she met the king? Are they discussing things peacefully? The silence is killing me, it’s worse than the void.

The minutes ticked by, and our little standoff continued unabated. No word had come from my Loony, and I was feeling the ever-increasing desire to do something… anything to try and help. One such idea had me eyeing up my comrade in thought.

Shining does look pretty strong, and he probably knows some powerful combat magic. I bet I could carry him over there to rescue Luna. Me taking the hits and him casting the spells.

My wondering eyes, somehow, didn’t go unnoticed, as Armor started to shift on his hooves a little, before eventually turning to me. “Could you stop that. I’m on edge enough as it is without somepony else blankly staring at me.”

Okay, freaking out your allies is probably not the way to increase their effectiveness. “Sorry about that. But erm… I was just wondering; would you potentially be interested in a new set of armour? Just, you know, in case.” It’s still a little weird to ask someone to wear me.

Seeming to understand my meaning instantly, the captain gave me a long look before making his decision clear. He did this by taking a number of side steps away from me, before returning to a seated position and clearly pretending I never suggested anything.

“It was only a suggestion,” I said, while letting my mist sag a little. Huh, didn’t think my offer being rejected would feel that bad.

With a slight sigh, the stallion looked back in my direction. “Look, I’ll think about it, okay? The ideas just a bit weird for me, I mean, you’re standing right there, by yourself.” He then banged his chest piece with a hoof. “Besides, my armour is some of the finest Equestria can craft.”

That prompted me to review Shining Armor’s armour. It did seem a bit more ornate and colourful than a standard guard’s, but aside from that, the difference was minor. Suppose his armour does seem to glow with more magic than the other guards. Looking down, I could even see his cute little blue hooves, bare for all the swords to hit. Wonder why stallions have hooves that are a different colour to their coat? It does look interesting, but it doesn’t seem to serve a real purpose. Ah, stupid mist brain, stay focused.

Rather than voice my opinion on his lack of hoof wear, I simply said, “fair enough.” It would probably be best not to insist. He’d probably get more freaked out. Besides, I’ve never actually been worn by a stallion before, they’re muscles do seem to be built a little differently.

“Tell you what, I’ll throw you a bone. If you attend some guard training, I ‘might’, wear you for some of my training,” the stallion decided to offer. Hmm, that’s an interesting idea, learning actual combat skills. Bit late now though. Besides, I’d rather Luna wear me than him.

Before I could reply, the loud sound of a methodical drum ended the line of conversation. The sound seemed to cause every one of the guard ponies’ ears to perk up, including that of Shining. “Erm, that’s not a war drum, right?” I said while letting loose a nervous laugh.

Rather than reply, he confirmed my suspicion by calling back to his guards. “Okay ponies, this might be the moment we’ve trained for. If worse comes to worse, you know what to do.”

In response to the call, each of the visible guards saluted before standing even readier than before. The unicorn’s horns started to glow, the ones lacking extra limbs drew their weapons and the pegasi trained their crossbows. This really didn’t bode well at all. Here’s everyone getting ready, and I’m just sat here like an idiot waiting for Luna to come back. At least the minotaurs haven’t moved.

As all the ponies braced for combat, and Shining likely prepared to form a shield, the minotaurs made no obvious moves. All that happened was the continuing bang of a lone solitary drum. That was until a very familiar blue flash echoed across the heads of the minotaurs. Then another and another. It was clear I was the only one seeing this as not a single head took note. A few moments later, a large orange flash seemed to ring out in response.

“I think they’re attacking Loony!” I yelled back to the ponies.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Shining irritatingly pointed out. “Besides, we have our orders. We can’t enter their territory.”

“But… She’ll be assassinated!” Some guard you are.

“A messenger pony is already enroute to Princess Celestia. She will send help when able,” Shining attempted to reassure me, as the periodic flashes of opposing magic continued.

Okay, so they’re waiting for orders and sending for help. There has to be something I can do? Oh, maybe I can get a message home faster, I’m already there.

Miles away, in a much happier place, my mini pulled itself together from its pile on my bed. The book it had been reading, long forgotten since the carriage ride. It was greeted by the slight yelp of a familiar maid, as it sprung from the bed.

“Sorry Bucket,” I shouted as an afterthought, while my now smaller shoes carried me towards my bedroom door.

The pegasus in question gripped her chest while gasping out, “you’re going to give someone a heart attack one of these days. Just a pile of clothes sitting there, then bam, out of nowhere.”

I would have replied to her, but I was a bit busy trying to do my job. Swinging the door open with my mist, my form didn’t even slow down as it thundered through, galloping without a real direction in mind. The thought of who to actually tell burning in my brain. Cadance would probably be the best bet. She’s the only authority figure here.

Numerous stationed guards saw me run, and as I passed them, I spouted various things about Luna being in danger. This resulted in quite a few giving chase. Despite my shrunken size, my second form was still bigger than the average pony and could easily outpace them. Thanks to all the snacking.

During my travel, it finally dawned on me to set a destination, and the first one I could think of was the throne room. Maybe Cadance would be there? I have no idea where she normally hangs out.

Eventually, my gallop brought me to the desired throne room, where I charged through the already open side door. My run was then rudely interrupted by my sudden tripping over of nothing, due to a surprising sight. There on the throne was a very bored Luna, sitting with an amused Crescent to her side. The thestral happily consuming the images me and the Princesses had taken together.

“I could have gotten so much cleaning done,” Luna sighed out before noticing my crumpled form reassemble itself, now surrounded by a clown cars worth of guards. “Ah, Eclipse. What art thou doing here? Has the issues been rectified?”

I looked at the glowing green pegacorn for a few seconds and swallowed the pain it caused me, before rushing up to the ever-reliable Crescent. “Luna’s in danger! The minotaurs are attacking her and she’s been separated from us.”

The guards behind me all gave me strange looks at my declaration, before looking at their apparent diarch. The diarch in question had nervously crossed her forelegs in front of her, before seeming to blush at her expertly crafted disguise being revealed once again.

Ignoring Skitter’s plight, Crescent face became that of stone and she turned to the confused guards. “You heard the armour. Go get Princess Cadance, and send a message to the solar diarch.”

The guards took another moment to eye the glowing green pegacorn, before saluting and heading off in various directions. The glowing green pegacorn nervously waved them off, before turning to me and asking in her regular buggy voice, “do you need me to do anything?”

Seeing as my message was delivered, I said one final thing, before letting my miniature collapse to the floor. “Just help. Please.”

Back in the field where Luna was going to be butchered, I caught Shining’s attention and pathetically said, “I’ve delivered a message to Canterlot.” For what good it’ll do us.

“How?” Shining started to ask before shaking his head and half smiling. “Good work. With any luck, Celestia will teleport over.”

Yes, if Celestia comes, she’ll know what to do. Wait a second, maybe I should have flown to that party. “Celestia’s in Pony town. The message needs to travel from Canterlot. It-it’ll still take time for her to arrive.”

“It’s still faster than it would have been,” Shining pointed out, still sitting with his horn glowing.

“Wait, can you teleport over there and get her?” He’s the most powerful guard we have, right? He must be able to.

To my utter disappointment, the leader of the pony army said, “regrettably, that kind of teleportation is more my sister’s sort of thing. She’s the magic prodigy.” I actually stamped the grass at his admission, causing him to continue speaking. “Look, if she wants to, Princess Luna can always teleport back.”

“Is it not possible for them to be blocking her teleportation?”

“They’re minotaurs,” Shining seemed to deadpan, as if it was obvious that they couldn’t be. Talk about underestimating your enemy. These guys have an entire nation behind them, they aren’t bandits.

Seeing as the ponies weren’t going to do anything, I decided to approach the line of metallic bulls. This caused Shining to warily say, “don’t antagonise them.”

Without scoffing, I said, “I won’t,” without breaking my stride.

As I moved away from him, the captain took a dive to the floor. “Careful with that tail! That thing’s a weapon.” With a slight wince, I reined in my frustratedly flailing tail. Wouldn’t want to decapitate any of the ponies behind me.

Upon reaching the point just opposite one of the fancier dressed minotaurs, I paused, before pointing a shoe at him. “Let me through. The Princess needs her advisor.”

My words caused a few of the minotaurs to laugh. The one opposite me didn’t. He eyed me carefully, before steadily saying, “step back demon. You will not be allowed to interfere with the reassertion of honour.” Reassertion of honour? That sounds bad.

In the vain attempt to be polite, I asked, “what do you mean? Have we wronged you in some way? Maybe we can fix it.” Maybe we should have talked to these guys sooner.

The bull only tilted his head at that, before putting his hand on the hilt of his sword. “It is something a mere pony’s bauble could never comprehend.” Is he trying to irk me?

Taking a false breath to calm myself, I tried to speak up in a measured tone. "̶̹̺͖̀͒̾̈̕͝͝Ţ̶̛̜̮̠͔͉̿̒̎̅r̴̢̠͔̰͈̝̮̞̯͋̋̕͝͠y̸̡̤̝̝̻̘̋ ̸̩̪͔̑͌̈́̋m̴̖̊̀̊͗̾̄̔́͘ë̷͚̯̦̥͓̥̤̣͔́̌͌̏̓͋̊̚,̴̱̗̈͑̌̂̚"̷͔̩̜̳̝̄̏̄̋͌̓́̓̌̍

It came out pretty strangled to be honest. Rather than reply, the minotaur seemed to wince and even went to put a hand on his helmet in apparent pain, before resuming his stare down of me.

“Eclipse! Come back to our line. We need you over here,” came a shout from the pony in charge. Rather than move back, I decided to pace down the line of bulls, seeing as the fancy one was of no particular use. Each bull I passed was keeping a very close eye on me. Through their helmets, I was sure I could make out wariness in their eyes. My actions didn’t sit well with Shining, as he called again, with much more force, “Eclipse! Return to our lines immediately!”

That gave me pause for a second and I looked back in Shining’s direction. He was clearly trying to maintain a strong, stoic impression. It was pretty obvious that they were just going to wait for their immortal Princess to solve the problem for them. They think they can’t help Luna, which means they can’t help me. Besides, they even have their orders. To sit there and do nothing. Technically, so do I, but I’m not a part of the military.

After staring at the captain for a little longer than I probably should have, I simply said, "̶̛̠͍̟̫̈́̆̅͐̏W̶̪̟̮̞͒̄̕͝h̶̢̟̪̱́́̉̈́̒̽̂̏̔̄y̵̫̬̍̀?̸̡̽̌̓͆͋"̴̦͚̥̮̦̪͂̈̓͜

It came out with that same weird screeching sound. I think why’s a good question. They don’t need me at all. I mean, they only need Shining himself for the shield, the rest might as well go home where it’s safe.

The moment the word left me, Shining’s stoic expression broke. Not only that, but I could see numerous members of the guard start to whisper. A few giving me unsure looks. Looks that I really didn’t like.

A bark from in front of me, helped push their eyes from my helmet. “Your master is calling you. Better flee demon, wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” As the bull spoke, he emphasized his words by drawing his sword. My eye lacking helmet slowly turned to the blade. That thing probably can’t hurt me. What’s it going to do? Make me bleed to death? What it can do, is hurt Luna.

While I thought on the implications, I started walking back to the pony’s lines. To the relief of everyone, even what seemed to be the minotaurs. The only thought going through my helmet being, that Luna needed my help.

As I approached Shining, he shivered at an unexpectedly cold wind, before letting a wry smile form and said, “you know this is for the best, right? Luna herself said not to set hoof over there.”

The moment he finished his sentence, I stopped mid shoe step. Remembering Luna’s exact words. “Your right, she did say that. But… I don’t have hooves.” With that final word, I took off into the air and began flying in the direction of the flashes of magic.

Below me, shouts I couldn’t care less about immediately started from both sides. The only thing that mattered, was that I get to my little pony.

Author's Note

Not sure if I like how I made Luna come across here. Maybe she's a little too eager. Hopefully it isn't too bad.

Part of me really wishes I went down the route of the minotaurs wanting to party. That comment seemed like such a good suggestion. Oh well.

35: Collecting the Sun

Chapter 35

I think I’m starting to really hate carriage rides, even more than before. There’s nothing wrong with them in principle, it’s just that every time I’m on one, there’s this ever-present dread of reaching the destination.

For the current carriage dragging me along, there was actually two stops to worry about. The first of which being the one in Pony Town, where we were collecting Princess Celestia.

She wasn’t hard to find and it didn’t take long to get her on board. Her current demeanour one of sheer disappointment, as she stared straight ahead. One that was completely different to when we first found her waiting, surrounded by celebrating ponies.

In an attempt to ease the tension Sunny’s displeasure was causing, Loony once again tried to re-establish a friendly conversation. “So, Sister. Thou appeared to have been enjoying thyself.”

That earned my best friend a ghostly smile. “Of course, I set up one of Ponyville’s greatest parties. The little ones all seemed very appreciative and even allowed me to partake in many of their games.” She really did seem to be happy upon our arrival. She didn’t even bat an eye lid when Pinkie popped out of her Spine with a poof of confetti. The ponies around her surely did. Wonder what they must have thought? It might have been pretty interesting to deal with, if the news we were bringing wasn’t so grave.

The mood of the Sun quickly soured once again, as she too was brought back to the present. “Shame that this day had to be marred by your little adventure.”

Those words brought a little defensiveness to my navy friend, causing her to create a small barrier between the two siblings with her wings. “Thou art aware ‘twas not entirely Our fault, Yes?” I’m sensing some blame sharing here. She really seemed to have forgiven me for the forced unclothing then reclothing earlier thing. It was still an interesting talking to though.

“Oh, I know there were some factors outside of your control,” Celestia said a little sympathetically, using a hoof to gently push Luna’s wing out of the way. An act which I barely noticed, due to how Celestia briefly looked in my direction when she mentioned those outside factors. What was I supposed to do? Let those cows kill Loony? Never. They go first every time.

“We are aware. The minotaur’s challenged us to an honour duel. It would have been a betrayal of Equestria’s honour had We not accepted it,” Luna said a little too boldly for my liking. Honour doesn’t matter if it’s going to kill you. As Sunny continued to gaze at her sister with a look a mother would give a child who’d made a mistake, Loony clearly felt the need for some back up. “Eclipse, tell her there was no other way.” As she spoke, she pointed a hoof in my direction, likely to somehow ensure I agreed.

“Erm, there was no other way?” My parroting of her words only caused my friend to sigh in disappointment and Celestia to shake her head. “I mean, I didn’t really know what was going on.” What does she want from me? I’m not going to lie to Sunny, just to side with her.

“A fact that is quite evident,” Celestia reproached before sitting up to her full height, “let me enlighten you. Both of you.”

“Me? Sister, We were well aware of the situation and had it perfectly in hoof,” Loony began to protest, before being silenced by a raised hoof. That probably wouldn’t have worked if she’d been 100% certain she was correct. Instead, the usually boisterous pegacorn let out a slight murmur, before waiting for her sister to continue.

Looking steadily between the two of us, Celestia cleared her throat and evenly said, “for the past 800 years, the kingdom of Taurus has desired a small section of land belonging by right to Equestria.” That’s a pretty long time for creatures that don’t seem to live that long. Then again, maybe they have people like Celestia and Luna.

“Every 50 years or so, the current reigning monarch of their country will attempt to claim this land as a matter of ‘honour’,” Celestia continued like she was talking to a class. Besides the air quotes around the word honour.

That seemed to hit a note with my close friend. “Wait, so thou hast dealt with this matter numerous times in the past? By the very laws of Taurus, they should lose the right to challenge us,” Loony interrupted, a slight hint of anger starting to surface through her guilt.

Celestia seemed to take the interruption in stride, even nodding to confirm my friend’s statement correct. “That is true, if I were to take them up on the so-called duel for territory. However, in the past I have always sent them bits in recompense, which has been more than sufficient to settle the deed for another 50 years.” Taking a moment to scratch her chin in thought, she continued to say, “from the strangely regular time frame of each challenge, it appears to somehow have become a base part of their culture for their rulers to challenge us.” Huh, it seems Celestia might actually blame the cows at least a little then. She probably has some animosity towards their protection racket.

“Wait, so they’ve essentially black mailed Equestria for 800years?” I couldn’t help the surprise that leaked into my tone. It is pretty shocking that one of the most powerful nations in the world would let itself be blackmailed. Then again, how powerful is Equestria? Are we big or small? Our army seems quite tiny from what I’ve seen.

Rather surprisingly, my words actually caused the ancient pegacorn to laugh warmly. “No, I do not see it that way. They practically need to do it, due to how favourable the trade deals they have given us are. Without this strange ritual of theirs, Equestria would almost certainly take them for all their bits.” Suppose Sunny is a pretty decent diplomat most of the time.

“Sister, art thou saying this entire situation is a farse to gain Equestria more favourable trade deals from Taurus?” the eye brow raise was so evident in Loony’s words.

The impromptu education session seemed to be vastly improving Celestia’s mood, as she tilted her head in thought, “not a farse sister. Just letting our allies feel like they are getting something over on us for once.” This mood improvement seemed to sour ever so slightly as she turned to look at the fast-moving countryside and contemplatively said, “I wonder how actually accepting that honour duel and then interrupting it will affect things.” Probably not in a good way.

Can’t believe this had to happen the one-time Sunny wasn’t there to sort it out. It would’ve been so much better if we’d had a little warning. Wait a second, I remember a letter from Taurus coming in complaining about some land claims. I put it on Loony’s desk… while she was complaining about not wanting to do paperwork. Dammit Luna… and dammit me. Really should have made sure she looked at that. This is why people shouldn’t have a weird smoke creature as an assistant without giving them a little training first.

Before the flying death trap’s atmosphere could return to its awkward state, Loony’s horn flashed blue causing a strange portal looking thing to appear. As I stared intrigued at the magical display, she reached a hoof into the blue glow and somehow pulled out a few of the pictures we’d previously developed. “Look sister, We took some pictures of thou setting up the party,” she said in an attempt to bring about another, more pleasant, distraction.

A distraction which Sunny eagerly grabbed onto with both fore hooves and began eagerly looking through. “Oh, very nice,” she approved on viewing the three of us in aprons. A wide smile gracing her lips at the happy memory. That was until her eyes took in the entirety of her past self’s appearance. “Do I still have cake in my mane?” She uttered in a slightly worried tone, while rubbing a hoof through her mane.

“Only a little,” I said in a friendly manner, eliciting a subdued laugh from the pegacorn.

Something that was ruined by Luna casually mentioning, “sister, the cake is the least of thy appearance’s problems.”

Celestia’s head tilted at her sister’s words, before she carefully inquired, “what do you mean by that? Is there something on my face?”

Now the horrendous issue of the minotaur diplomacy wasn’t at the forefront of Celestia’s mind, it seemed Luna had decided now was the best time to point out Sunny’s current state, and she really was in a slight state as well. Well, one that was probably not going to be very good for the upcoming meeting, if the previous hot headedness of the minotaurs was anything to go by.

“Maybe I could show you? Hang on,” I said, while gathering some of my surrounding mist. Seeing as I can form pretty much any object out of myself, including the very shiny tiara of one Luna diarch, it shouldn’t be too hard to make a mirror. It’s practically the same material as the tiara, just flat to prevent a fun house effect.

As my mist coalesced into the desired object, both princesses looked upon it with interest, likely wondering what I was doing. Maybe I should have described it to them first? Ah, they’re smart enough to figure it out.

The moment the object materialised into a floating hoof mirror; Luna eagerly gripped it in her fore hoof to gaze at her own reflection. Despite the fact it was clearly made for her sister, who clearly held back a sigh when it was snatched away. “Eclipse, ‘tis a wonderful design and solid silver as well,” she remarked as she gazed at the slight flowery pattern flowing around it, apparently not actually looking at herself. “Thou art full of talents.” Well, it’s pretty easy to do that kind of thing when it’s made out of me. Thought I may as well.

A quick throat clear from the sun ended the moon’s inspection of my mirror’s design, causing her to look in the intended recipient’s direction. Celestia, with a kind smile held out a hoof and asked, “if you would be so kind, could I perchance borrow your new mirror sister?”

“Of course sister, ‘tis only fair,” Luna replied as she practically threw the mirror into her sister’s waiting hoof. The slightest tint of red to her face as a moment of realization played out in her mind.

“Thank you sister, and thank you Eclipse. Your both very… thoughtful,” the intended recipient began before once again being distracted from the goings on. This time by what my mirror revealed to her and what me and Luna had been completely ignoring. It was weirdly easy to do when it felt like so much was on the line.

The image my mirror possessed was that of a very inquisitive alicorn, who’s eyes thoroughly darted from side to side. This image revealed to Sunny the expected cake and sprinkles spread throughout her mane, but it also showed so much more. Her mane for starters was still styled in an homage to the pink pony who’d guided her through the party. The styling prompted Celestia to look behind her at her usually flowing tail, which similarly matched the stylings of Pinkie, but there was yet more. Around her tail, were numerous small pieces of tape in a variety of different colours. Tape which she began to unceremoniously peel off without explanation.

It was quite a strange display to be honest and it had me intrigued. The act also seemed to peek Luna’s interest as well. “Erm, sister. What actually happened to thou?” Literally anything could’ve happened. Pinkie Pie is an incredibly spontaneous and eccentric individual. She might have just thought it’d be funny to put tape on herself. It’s possible not even Celestia knows why.

Or maybe she did, as each piece of tape seemed to cause her to smile a little bit more. “Well sister, as I said before, the little ones let me take part in their games. One of which was pin the tail on the pony.” She said as if it explained why she was covered in tape.

“And that’s why you’re covered in tape?” I asked a little incredulously.

“Well, when the idea to play was put forward, the target they chose looked a bit like me. So, for some reason I thought it would be more entertaining to stand in for it,” Celestia said while continuing to remove the multicoloured tape. “Normally, I would never volunteer for such a thing, but Pinkie was quite erm… persuasive.” That’s one way to describe someone having complete control of your actions. “Arguably, the idea was a sound one, due to the gusto with which each pony took part. Even if it did lead to one unintentionally pulling my tail.” The final comment was uttered alongside the removal of tape from her tail’s tip.

That game sounds incredibly boring if it normally only consists of simply marking where a pony’s tail should go. Then again, from the way some of those pieces of tape are on Celestia’s legs, it seems like regular ponies might actually struggle with anatomy. Or maybe she was just too tall for them?

“We see, that does sound like an interesting method to interact with Our ponies. We are surprised they were willing to approach thy royal posterior,” Loony replied with just a hint of veiled jealousy.

“I’m sure they’d have gladly stuck tape to you if you’d suggested it.” I casually mentioned to continue lightening the mood. “Why not ask the night guard? They’d probably love to play.”

That gained me a light giggle from the royal pegacorn. “Thy suggestion is intriguing, but Our guards may think it strange if We request they touch our behind. ‘Tis not really an act We would wish to encourage either.” Hmm, maybe she just liked the idea that ponies went near Celestia of their own accord? She then leaned towards me and whispered in a joking manner, “thou on the other hoof can play such a game later if it is thy wish.”

“If you think it’d be fun. You may want to explain the rules of this game a bit though. It seems a little straight forward at the moment. I know where your tail goes,” I warmly replied. A slight worry did start to air within my helmet at this. While everyone’s mood was clearly improving, maybe we were getting a bit off topic from the upcoming travesty again. A plan of action for when we arrive may have been needed, but I didn’t want to be the one to ruin the mood. Besides, the party’s events were quite distracting to me as well.

My words seemed to cause one of Luna’s patented blushes, before she returned the matter back to Celestia’s party hangover. “Ahem, so, sister, what about thy new lipstick?” It felt strangely like she was trying to change the subject. Even if she now felt the need to pull me nearer with a wing.

Clearly too distracted to hear Luna’s whispers by the removal of one final piece of tape, Celestia turned back to my mirror, which I’d kept floating in place for her to use. Her magenta eyes gazed down at her mouth, seeming to trace the edges where a strange red substance marked her white fur. With a quick lick of her cheek, Celestia surmised, “hm, that must be from the pie eating competition.”

“Thou consumed pies… competitively?” There was a touch of amazement in my favoured pegacorns voice.

“Oh yes. Applejack had a large supply available, which I may have chosen to purchase in its entirety.” The Sun said with a small amount of embarrassment. “It was quite a strange decision, but it was quite the pleasant surprise when I… ahem Pinkie used them for the competition.”

“Sooo, Pinkie forced you to eat a large number of Apple pies? That seems like it would’ve been pretty awful.” This is why I’d never just possess someone without a very good reason. You can make them do anything no matter what they choose. That must have been terrible for Sunny, especially for her diet.

A light giggle escaped Celestia at my words. “Actually, she started slacking on the fifth pie, but I managed to keep going using my horn, despite the protests.”

“Wait, so Pinkie was the one who was practically force fed?” This still seems like a terrible situation. Poor Pinkie.

“It really was a strange experience to have my hooves try to hold the pie back, while my magic kept me going,” Celestia said in thought, clearly not thinking about my final two words. “It is hard to describe the simultaneous feeling of not wanting to do something and desperately trying your best anyway.”

“Does that mean thou were successful in thine attempts to achieve victory?” Luna said, clearly interested in the important questions.

A warm smile from Celestia’s licked cleaner face met her in response. “Of course I won. Our ponies could not keep up with the appetite of an alicorn. You should have seen their faces when I pranced onto the podium.” Well, if Pinkie could still make Celestia prance, she probably wasn’t that unhappy with the pie eating.

After a quick spell to clean up the, dragged through a party backwards pegacorn, the remainder of our trip was spent with Celestia enlightening us to the excitement that was her first successfully thrown party. She even made a further joke about her diet, by saying how she’d figured out a work around. A whole cake is just one slice, if you don’t cut it. It seemed Pinkie hadn’t really taught the Sun anything good.

At least she wasn’t stressing out over the upcoming meeting anymore. Maybe it would have been a good idea to stress a little more.

Author's Note

This is a bit of a filler chapter to be honest, while I work on the next one a bit more.

36: Dealing With Bull Headedness

Chapter 36

Turns out, it’s true what they say. All good delaying tactics must come to an end. Just like that party, the now more tolerable flight soon started to descend towards its final target. That being the capital city of the minotaur’s.

Both sisters checked themselves over and immediately seemed to appear much more like their stately selves. Me on the other shoe, I just sat there while Luna inspected me for anything apparently unbecoming of royalty. An action that was quite irrelevant, seeing as I’m not even a noble.

After only a brief inspection, Luna reached over with a hoof and gave my back a slight rub using a white tissue. Once whatever imperfection she’d found was rubbed away, Loony looked at the now slightly redder tissue, tossed it aside with a cringe, before reverting to a smile when she looked back in my direction. “Ah, now thou look as charming as always,” she said while tapping my metallic side. In the same motion as the tap, she waved a hoof through my mist, which she’d been a little surrounded by for the full journey. “But pardon Us when we say this, but thy mist may need, hmm, toning down a little. Not that we do not enjoy thy protective presence, We just believe it may spook Our hosts.”

Suppose the carriage could be considered a little harder to look around than normal, due to the high concentration of my mist surrounding its occupants. It didn’t go above the knee, but there was clearly more than anyone should have to tolerate. A sad side effect of my recent large meal, one consisting of minotaur magic and a few juicy swords. Hopefully none of those bulls miss that magic.

“I see your point.” Taking a moment to pointlessly glance around at my ghostly self, spread throughout the princesses’ personal space, in order to show my understanding, before I set about retracting it as far as possible. Pulling the majority of the fog back within my much thicker armoured casing, while compressing the rest into a smaller space around me. This resulted in the mist becoming so dense, it was impossible to make out anything behind my form. It was kinda nice relaxing like that, but oh well. It’s for the best anyway, I’d never relax like that in front of anyone else. They might blast me or something. “How’s that?”

“You look appropriately none threatening,” Celestia piped up, before her sister could reply. Her magenta eyes finally drifting from the earlier discarded tissue. “Sister, have you thoroughly read the King’s letter, this time?” The final two words were said a little louder than seemed necessary to me.

“Of course We have, this is an important occasion that We are all well prepared for,” Loony replied with an eye roll, before looking at me to confirm her words. Clearly, she thought I was ready to face the music, which, if anyone had paid attention, I’ve never been for a single day in my physical life.

The sudden familiar thump of wooden wheels on stone, halted my negative response replacing it with a slight jump. Wait, we’ve made our final approach? Oh, why do I always get so distracted?

Looking out of her window, Luna half smiled at the sight, before saying, “well now, ‘tis time for Us to face the music. Do not worry my Eclipse, We will handle most of the talking. The laws of Taurus will not trouble thee.” Something tells me that isn’t going to be true.

With what Loony believed was a comforting statement complete, her hoof moved over to the carriage’s door handle, but before she could pull it open, I decided to lightly grasp her hoof in my shoe, causing her to questioningly tilt her head at me. “This is just like earlier today, isn’t it? There’s going to be thousands of them out there.” The only real difference to last time, was the fact our allies would be even further away. Not to mention, the minotaurs probably had more of a reason to dislike us now… which wasn’t my fault.

The sound of the other door opening, brought my attention back to the Sunny pegacorn. She looked at me with a smile of her own and said, “not quite the same, you have me this time.” That’s a fact that’s immensely comforting to be honest. Celestia clearly knows how to deal with these situations from her previous dealings, I think. Her smile lessened slightly as she continued to say, “and yes, I will handle most of the talking.” Her form then gracefully excited the carriage on her side. The sound of her hooves landing upon stone soon followed, as she turned to regard whatever was waiting for us.

My best friend seemed to stare at her sister’s form irritably, even as she turned so all we could see was Celestia’s large sun blocking the opening. With Celestia now out in the open and dealing with likely a torrent of minotaur stares, I decided to voice the exact same desire I had before my little outburst. “Erm Loony, do you think you can wear me this time? Please.” It may have sounded a little pleading, but the idea of sending my friends out there in such a vulnerable state really didn’t fit well. Especially when I could provide some much-needed protection. I really don’t mind being their armour in the slightest. In fact, I really want to insist.

A light sigh escaped the navy pegacorn as her ears folded back. “Thou art aware that We would usually love to,” Luna began, before clearing her throat, “nevertheless… the minotaurs have explicitly stated their desire for thine attendance.” She smiled a little nervously at that declaration and even gulped a little as I tilted my helmet.

“Wearing me means I’m with you, right?” I fired back. Attempting to use logic, while trying to ignore my friend’s apparent nervousness at my statement. Maybe she’s still a little freaked out that I forced her to wear me before? She did say how if anyone else had pulled her regalia off she’d have hoof slapped them. My mist did wilt slightly at my guilty thought, but I continued to resolutely gaze at my friend. This is something we aren’t negotiating.

“Thy words are true, but We believe thy presence will have a much greater impact if thou were carried by thine own four shoes,” Luna said kindly. “We have a small fear that they will consider thou lesser if thy role consists only of being armour rather than Our beloved advisor.” She gave me a light tap with a wing in what she probably thought was a reassuring gesture, before making an attempt to push open the door once again. I say attempt, because as she pushed, my shoe never budged from the door, preventing it from moving an inch. Seeing this, the currently stuck pegacorn gave an understanding look straight into my eye holes. “Eclipse, We really need to join Our sister, she is alone out there.”

“We can go out there in a minute.” From the way Celestia’s sunny rear was still blocking the light from the actual sun, she was clearly fine. While she was making a logical argument, not risking her own fur would make way more sense to me. I may be ready to jump on her at a moment notice, but that small delay could let an arrow through. That would be more than enough to… to do something terrible. “You can go out when you’re dressed.”

That earned me a light sigh. “If We wear thee, their king will not see Our face, ‘it will likely be perceived negatively. We are trying to appease individuals who are already offended,” the pegacorn informed me as her gaze steadily lowered. “Art thou truly not going to allow Us to leave this carriage?” A small part of me felt really wrong about this. She is the princess, which means everyone’s supposed to do what she wants. I’m actually a little surprised she hasn’t just ordered me to let her out.

“I’m sticking by what I said,” I reiterated in the hopes to get my point across. “It isn’t safe out there, and I-I don’t know what I’d do if they hurt you. Please Loony.” As I spoke those final words, I couldn’t help letting my own gaze fall from the pegacorn.

The conversation lapsed into silence at that point. A silence that would have lasted forever if a certain Sun princess hadn’t grown in patient and stopped pointing her rear at us. “Really Eclipse? You could solve this issue by giving her part of your present early.” The words flowed out of Celestia so casually, as if it was obvious.

Her statement actually caused me to look back up at my captive. A captive who actually appeared visibly touched by my actions, right before becoming curiously excited by the prospect of an unexpected gift. “Thou hast prepared a gift for us? If it will ease thine worries, We will gladly accept post haste. Although, We may not have time to enjoy it to the fullest.”

Shooting a look back to Celestia for assistance sadly revealed the side of her head, as she gave some distant unseen individual an apologetic look. Oh great, I have no idea what she’s talking about and I’m making her look terrible. The only gift I had was the mini-Loony plushie and that’s back home. Or maybe that mirror? Luna’s sort of sneakily pinched it already though. Wait, that plushie was a mini me the last time Celestia saw it. Sunny really is a genius! Or, I’m just that dense, which should be hard to be being partially ethereal.

With a solution found, I leaned back from the door, only holding it closed with some stray mist, before saying, “I’ve been working on a few things for you.” As I spoke, the dense mist within my chest started to take form as rapidly as it could materialise. “It’ll just take a second, then we can go out.”

I could see Loony eyeing the, what she perceived to be, unblocked door, before she settled patiently into the seat next to me. Part of me expected her to be agitated at yet another further delay, but instead I received her rapt attention. Her eyes had some sort of magical twinkle in them and she appeared to be trying to lean towards me in anticipation. She didn’t say anything though, instead choosing to remain where she was. Hopefully, the wait would be worth it. Mainly for the sake of this diplomatic meeting, which I was still botching.

It didn’t take long, by my standards, for my newly thought of gift to be created. The only difficult part about it, was making it somehow better than what Loony already had. Being a princess, what she already has is probably pretty good. Anyways, the additional stylings and patterns were what took the majority of my time.

“Okay, here it is.” I said as my helmet lifted to form an opening.

Loony actually started to rub her hooves together at the sight. An act which halted when I brought forth my gift. Instead, her mouth fell open ever so slightly as she gazed at the first items. It widened even more when yet more were revealed. In the end, eleven separate gifts floated between the two of us.

“Eclipse, thou hast created us a new outfit?” She uttered as she looked between each separate piece. A hoof came forward and gripped one floating shoe allowing her to look it over. Four of the newly created items were a full set of horse shoes. The material’s texture matched the navy pegacorn’s original set, but was coloured silver instead. What’s more, even though they were metallic, they were also flexible for increased comfort. They sort of had to be as I’d designed them to cover her ankle as well.

Her head tilted to the next item she usually wore, a new chest piece. As Loony enjoyed a darker chest piece, this one matched the colour of my own metal, but had a bright shining silver moon surrounded by almost twinkling stars. The main difference between this design and Loony’s original that I cared about, was once again the extended coverage. Hopefully to ensure no heart shots could happen.

I was about to ask her if she was going to get dressed or not, when she started to remove her usual regalia of her own accord. “Thou must have been working on such things for weeks. Thy efforts are most divine,” she longingly said as she gazed at the new crown I’d created. This one larger and needing to be slotted over her horn to be worn properly. Apart from that, it was much the same aside from some extra mass to allow a helmet to form in short notice. With my mist for brains, it seemed like the perfect outfit to wear. Aesthetically, something diplomatic, while functionally armour at short notice.

It didn’t take long for her to don the parts she was familiar with, as she only slowed down to briefly review each piece. What did give her pause were the five remaining components. Four of which were basically shin protectors disguised as bracelets, while the final was an armoured skirt. From how carefully she put on the bracelets, she clearly liked them, but the skirt seemed to cause some confusion. Probably because ponies don’t seem to cover their rears for some reason.

With a quick look to me with a grateful smile, she decided to finally wear the last piece of my mini self. An act that was promptly followed by a warm hug. “Thy gifts are most welcome Eclipse, now-“ she said as her hoof opened the carriages door, this time unimpeded, “-let Us join my sister. We have kept the minotaurs waiting long enough.”

The navy alicorn actually hesitated after the door started to swing open, likely half expecting me to come up with some other reason to prevent her exit. Rather disappointingly, I couldn’t think of any further points we hadn’t already covered, so I had no further cause to halt her movements. Really wish I knew what she was walking us into, other than the obvious bad time.

“Eclipse, art thou coming?” Luna inquired the moment her four hooves had met the stone floor of the outside world.

“Yeah, hang on,” I said while practically half a shoe out of the carriage. Give me a little time, I can’t just appear out there. Especially when there’s an alicorn in the way. Suppose she can see my nervousness, but what’s the point in waiting? The moment she stepped out, she’d brought half of me with her into enemy territory. Besides, part of me is still in Canterlot. The only one who can be killed here is Loony… and her sister.

The moment she made room for me, my metallic form joined her out in the open, where our only shelter’s door suddenly slammed shut thanks to a blue aura. Luna only seemed too pleased with herself for the act, which allowed our thestral escort to more rapidly begin pulling our safe haven away into the sky.

I didn’t actually watch them take off mind. The noise alone was enough to signal their abandonment of their princesses, while my eye holes took in the oppressive sights of the minotaur’s home. Well, probably the home of a particularly important one, seeing as the average bull probably doesn’t live in a marble fortress. Same as all royalty I suppose.

The surrounding ornate marble columns did leave me a little surprised. I was expecting to see something a little more savage to be honest. Their architecture was actually quite nice to behold, that probably means they don’t entirely focus on military ideals. Then again, where the columns met the roof, the clear military ideals shone through, as positioned directly above each was a familiar loaded ballista. They weren’t angled down towards us thank goodness, but that could probably change in a matter of seconds if something went wrong.

Those thoughts kicked me into high gear, causing me to hurry after my friends, who’d already begun walking forward, through the large exposing courtyard. My shoes loudly tinging on the stone floor as my helmet twisted to look at every possible threat. Between the ballistas, there was almost an unbroken line of minotaurs, each with a crossbow slung over their shoulder. Below the roof, standing between the columns were yet more minotaurs in the familiar armour of the earlier faced soldiers.

As my form caught up to the two advancing princesses, I took a moment to try and steady my nerves, practically falling into auto pilot as my shoe steps mimicked those of my friends. Okay, this is fine, you’ve done this before in Griffonia. Those griffons had way bigger glows to them as well. This is just going to be just like that. Yeah, deep breaths… man, I wish I had lungs.

Our continuing forever journey along the provided short path, led us between some extra shiny minotaurs, who were likely there for show. Again, similar to when we approached the Griffonian capital. There was one major difference however that made me want to press closer to Loony’s side. That being the clear anger within each of the bull’s eyes as the three of us passed by.

Clearly, these people held some animosity towards us. A few of them even had the slightest tremble to their hands as we passed close by. Probably due to the desire to draw their weapons and get some unwarranted revenge. The trembling seemed to actually increase when I looked directly at those individuals. It was in the act of inspecting these soldiers, that something else became apparent. None of them were staring at the serene princesses. They were all clearly staring at me, despite the half-hearted attempts to hide it. Well, I’d prefer it if they’d attack me instead. Huh, what a strange thought. I guess it makes sense, seeing as If they attack me instead, my friends would have a chance to do something, while most of the minotaurs’ efforts would be wasted.

My accompanying marchers, didn’t seem to notice the tense atmosphere that closed in on all sides. The two of them just walked as gracefully as when we approached the Griffonian Emperor. Well, Luna was quite a bit more graceful this time, seeing as she was in charge of her own legs, but still… It felt kind of impressive for them to entirely ignore the blatant threat to our wellbeing, in favour of keeping up a strong appearance. They both clearly had their sights on their target, unlike me. To be honest, I really should be paying attention to the task at shoe as well.

With that, I finally turned my helmet towards our destination, luckily right as we began ascending a short staircase of marble. Could’ve tripped there and embarrassed everyone. Atop said staircase, was another trio of individuals. Two of these with familiar fancy armour and a third I’d yet to lay red glowing orbs upon. The duo wasn’t just familiar because of their armour, they also bore similar magical swords to the ones during our little skirmish. So similar in fact, that they were now quite dim. Seems they haven’t had a recharge yet. Even so, their presence had me move ever so slightly closer to my favourite pegacorn, while I debated upon which one had managed to harm me. Hopefully, they weren’t going to show the hard feelings they likely bore.

The third member of their group stood out as even more fancily dressed than his guards. Wearing golden plated armour over his chest and legs, while a fancy crown adorned his head. Clearly, he was the apparently important bull who’d started this whole show. Weird that he didn’t show up for the duel, but then again, his magic is somewhat familiar.

Almost the moment we crested the short staircase, my accompanying ponies both stopped side by side and ornately bowed. In Celestia’s case she bowed her head, raised one foreleg and spread her wings politely. For Loony, she did much the same, however there was some clear discomfort for her as she forced her likely aching left wing to full extension.

Poor pony, wish there was something I could do about that, my regalia self doesn’t touch her wings. Poor pony even more, when my metallic form was only halted by walking straight into her right extended wing. This prompted Loony to tilt her head in my direction with gritted teeth. All I could do was blank faced stare back at her in apology. She really didn’t need me ruining her other wing. At least that soft blue feathered appendage didn’t buckle. Those fluffy things are way stronger than they look.

Ignoring our very well organised display of respect, the largest, most ornately armoured minotaur stepped towards us. “Ah, Princess Celestia, I was hoping to meet with you. Things should progress smoothly now.”

Standing back to her full regal height, Celestia regarded the minotaur with a polite smile, before saying, “it is always good to see you King Iron Hide.” Seriously? Aren’t we almost at war with this guy? Suppose Sunny did say something about allies before. Ignorant of my thoughts, Celestia then gently gestured to her sister with a wing, who’d already recovered from my blunder. “I would like to introduce you to my sister, Princess Luna.”

At the introduction Luna gave her own regal smile. “King Iron Hide, We are honoured thou would invite Us to thy home.” That’s another thing, why do all the foreign leaders seem to outrank ours? I get that it’s probably a cultural thing, but it doesn’t seem fair.

The taller bull seemed to curiously regard the navy pegacorn for a moment, before replying, “it would seem we’ve already been introduced.” Really, when? Was he watching Loony’s duel with that behemoth? Did he actually orchestrate it in the first place?

Whatever the case, my pegacorn’s smile seemed to lessen at the statement. “Yes, We are sorry about how Our ways parted so suddenly.” Ah, she probably met him after beating his champion.

In response to Luna’s remorseful reply, the opposing King held out a hand prompting Luna to tilt her head, before raising her foreleg in response. The minotaur then leant forward and grasped my vulnerable friend at the knee in a harsh gesture, right above my gifted bracelet. One she was apparently prepared for, as she gripped his elbow with her hoof. The sudden aggressiveness of the two’s peculiar hand shake, almost had me react. Due to the prime position of the bracelet, it would have been all too easy to form a blade and sever the bull’s hand. A single thought provided just enough hesitation, to prevent even the slightest whiff of mist lashing out. Don’t ruin the peace… again.

That and the respectful gaze he was levelling Loony’s way helped. “There’s no need to be sorry about that, you actually showed some of that backbone Celestia keeps saying Equestria has.”

A light blush formed upon my pegacorn’s navy face, as the two’s respective limbs released. “Oh, We enjoyed thy display of honour as well. ‘Twas a breath of fresh air from the usual bureaucracy.” One thing me and Loony will never agree on. I quite like the quiet of our usual boring days. Maybe I could find her an interesting book sometime?

Part of me started to think the king’s temperament was boding well for us, right up until his gaze fell upon me. “It’s a shame the night’s followers haven’t proven themselves to be similarly courteous.” Wow, the mood soured so fast. I’m standing here as requested and I haven’t removed any of your limbs. What more can I do that’s courteous?

Before I could think of something relevant to dissuade the piercing gaze, Celestia cleared her throat as a white wing protruded into my vision. “Seeing as you are already well acquainted with my sister, let me introduce her most trusted advisor. Eclipse, as requested.” In the corner of my mist, I could see the alabaster’s eyes steadily moving between me and the still staring bull.

“I may not be, but my soldiers certainly are,” Iron Hide replied, without turning away from me. He was quite clearly taking the chance to inspect the weird metal thing standing before him. To be honest, I couldn’t quite blame him. Even if he was clearly levelling accusations my way. Who wouldn’t inspect what they see as the source of their troubles?

With the unbroken attention the King was providing, I finally built up the courage to say something in my defence. “There was, erm, a little… miscommunication. Heh.”

My brave stuttering caused one of Iron’s eyebrows to raise slightly, as his bull head leaned ever so slightly closer to me. “Sooo, it’s true. A sentient weapon.” His words would’ve made me wince if it were possible. Instead, I just set my centre of gravity away from his protrusion into my personal space. Well, what felt like my personal space from how we were stood quite far apart.

“Beg thy pardon, but Eclipse is not a weapon of Equestria. He is in fact, like any other of Our honourable citizens,” Luna said with the veiled defensiveness I felt.

Those words finally broke the bull from his leering, causing him to scratch his chin in thought, before his eyes targeted my pegacorn. “I see, honourable you say. Hmm, well, we will see if honour is something that truly matters to… him in due time. We’ve made every preparation to correct your construct’s earlier mistake.” That hesitation at him, really has me worried.

As, in Luna’s mind, her words seemed to be getting us somewhere, she continued to happily explain, “oh yes, Eclipse would never intentionally break thy traditions. He was sadly under the impression thou had plotted for Our assassination.” This jerk forced her to go alone to somewhere surrounded by armed and angry bulls. Then, when she was isolated, had her fight a giant monster. How is that supposed to be construed? It definitely doesn’t pass for honourable in my book.

An almost inaudible growl escaped Iron as Luna’s words concluded. His eyes began to narrow ever so slightly, as they once again regarded me. “Thinking of us like a dishonourable bug?” Hey, Skitter’s not dishonourable… I think. Wait, does this guy see the changelings as his enemy? Oh, it probably won’t turn out well if he figures out they helped rout his troops.

Before I could confirm his suspicions, Luna swallowed and continued to say, “We have had significant dealings with certain individuals thou would consider to be dishonourable in the past.” She then gestured to both me and Celestia with her wings. “Ones we have had to face together.” Loony then left a gap in her speech, as she refolded her feathery appendages. Oh, does she want me to speak up? Erm… hmm, I can’t really say it was the changeling’s fault for my reasonable paranoia. They’re supposed to be our allies.

Saving me from dropping our newest allies in it, Celestia took the opportunity to say, “yes, we believe this situation may have appeared all too similar to a previous traumatic experience. An experience our metallic friend here had to deal with all on their own. This combined with the general aggressive air, led Eclipse to assume the worst.” That gap was probably intentionally left for her anyway. Celestia did say she wanted to do most of the talking, and that analysis sounds about right to be honest.

An audible sigh escaped the king at the princess’s explanation. With a brief shake of his head, highlighting some disappointment, he turned back to Luna. “You really need to work out all the kinks before you deploy your fancy toys.” Ouch, I’m not one of Luna’s toys. Granted, I like to think my presence provides some measure of entertainment, but still.

From the way Luna ground her teeth, she agreed with the sentiment. Still, she didn’t outwardly appear that angry until she started to say, “King Iron Hide, with respect, thy assessment is-.”

A sudden nudge from a white feathery appendage caused the night Princess to interrupt herself with a grunt, before she turned to the culprit. Said culprit ignored the stare levelled in her direction before saying, “rest assured, I will be taking every appropriate measure to ensure such a gross misunderstanding is not repeated by any of our loyal subjects.” It’s quite impressive how Sunny can withstand such a glare without even blinking. Probably due to thousands of years of exposure, but still.

The hostile king seemed to agree whole heartedly with Celestia’s statement. A little too much to be honest. “It seems there isn’t any time to waste. Let’s skip the pleasantries and set about rectifying this situation,” he said to Celestia, causing her regal smile to drop, before he turned to one of his flanking guards. “Golden, ensure Eclipse is well prepared for its trial.” I knew it. I knew they’d want some sort of punishment.

Off to his right, the guard in question placed a hand upon his chest and gave a light tip of his head. “As you command.” His voice sounded strong but more importantly, familiar. Probably due to the fact it was the same voice as the first fancy guard I’d drained. It’s not my fault I couldn’t tell who he was straight away. It’s sometimes still quite hard to tell ponies who share the same fur colour apart without the voice and I’m around them all the time. Hope he doesn’t hold a grudge.

The moment he acknowledged his command, Golden went to step towards me, but was interrupted by Celestia, who was clearly trying to highlight her uncertainty about the situation. “Would it not be prudent to work on the disputed land claim? That is a major route cause for this event and it could be high time we sorted it.”

Clearly having already made up his mind, Iron begrudgingly said, “everyone already knows how that’ll go. Besides, you now have the additional costs of the collateral damage to cover.”

“Perhaps we do,” Sunny lukewarmly admitted while tapping a hoof to her chin. Clearly not defeated, she continued on to say, “however, a trial so soon after such a major altercation might exacerbate the situation. Do you not think it best to wait a day or two for cooler heads to prevail?”

Seeing as this conversation was likely to go in circles all day, I decided to step in to hopefully help solve the situation. “Don’t worry Princess, I can face up to my actions,” I attempted to say to my friend reassuringly, causing her to almost face hoof. It seems like the right thing to do and besides, with both Sunny and Loony as my lawyers it’ll be fine. If not, it’ll prevent us angering these bulls any further. Besides, what does it matter if only half of me ends up in jail? That’s a pretty good scapegoat.

From the almost face hoof, it was pretty clear Celestia didn’t agree with my analysis of the situation. Instead of becoming irritated with my statement, she looked to me with a kind smile and said, “I know you want to make this right. But I believe it is in everyone’s best interests not to cause you any further stress.” Pretty sure she didn’t mean it, but that sounded a little condescending. Hmm, maybe I deserve that for potentially ruining the immortal rulers plans.

Seeing as Sunny clearly didn’t want anything getting in the way of her diplomatic mission, I chose not to argue against her point. Instead, Loony did. “If Eclipse believes he is ready to prove his honour in a trial, then We shall support his decision.” She sounded so confident when she spoke, clearly believing I had some shred of honour within. A shame really, Sunny’s really broken my faith in the idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have put my shoe in it?

All that came out of my helmet was a slightly pathetic, “erm,” at the misplaced faith. It turns out, it’s really difficult to change your side of an argument when your friend’s trying her best to help you.

Clearly seeing the younger sibling’s argument as confirmation, King Iron clapped his hands together. “Excellent, princesses, if you’ll follow me. You will be given a perfect view of the proceedings,” he happily blathered, before gesturing with a hand for the two mares to follow him up a different set of stairs.

“Erm, are we not all staying together?” I asked with only a slight hint of the nervousness I could have experienced. Honestly, if Luna hadn’t been made to wear half of me, this would basically be an exact repeat of last time. Still, separating might mean Celestia won’t be able to act as a lawyer. She’s really needed to make sure the blame isn’t only placed upon me. Without her help, I may as well just shout guilty at the top of my mist and be done with it.

While Celestia clearly attempted to hide the fact she was begrudgingly following Iron Hide, Luna decided to wait in order to reassure me. “Thou need not worry; we will be there to witness thy achievement.” She then leaned in a little closer and said, “thou need to learn to trust Us. We will be fine in king Iron Hides care. So will thou. Celestia would not call him a friend otherwise.”

Her words may as well have sailed straight through my armour’s openings and fell out the other side, because I’d never trust someone so openly hostile as far as I could throw them. Not that he seemed easy to throw mind. For the briefest of moments, my mist went to move towards my friend, before logic pervaded. Logic and the fact that I could easily grip onto her with her chest piece. Just play it cool, we aren’t actually separating, I’ll be there the whole time. Well, lets just make sure I’m there.

“Erm Luna, could you please keep your new regalia on for this?” That request might have sounded a little pleading, but that was fine. Hopefully she likes the idea that I care. It didn’t matter anyway. It was purely academic really. From my previous experience in Griffonia, she’d never allow herself to be seen naked at a diplomatic function like this. No need to worry at all… nope.

In response, Luna lightly placed a hoof against her own chest piece and blushed lightly. “Thou need not worry, We love it so much, We may never go back to Our original set.” She followed up by giving herself a cursory glance over before tapping me with a wing. The action prompted me to give her the lightest of squeezes with my regalia self in order to provide a stealthy hug. Something that caused her eyes to narrow weirdly at me like in the dream realm, before she turned back towards the waiting pair. One very worried alabaster pegacorn, and one smirking minotaur. Not before hitting me in the helmet with her ethereal tail mind you.

As the three steadily moved away, followed by one of the fancy guards, I couldn’t help standing in place watching them. Simultaneously, I made sure to pay attention to everything that happened from my Loony’s own set of eyes. Eyes, which annoyingly didn’t seem to be paying that much attention to their surroundings.

The staring lasted such a long time, and took so much of my focus, that it was only broken when something lightly tapped my pauldron. Thus, causing my helmet to jerk in its direction. What I saw was the waiting minotaur assigned to guide me where ever that king wanted me to go. From the sudden motion of my statue like form, he’d clearly darted his hands back and had them both raised in a placating manner. “Okay… Eclipse, follow me,” the guard… Golden said in a calmer tone than how he looked.

“Right right,” was my lame response, as I took one last look at the three disappearing through a door at the staircase’s top. “I’m coming.”

The bull made a light grumbling sound at that, before setting off parallel to where my ponies went, taking a route that rather irritatingly went down instead of up.

Walking alongside my escort was a strange experience, not too long ago the two of us had been in the fight of our lives. Now, now we were quietly walking down some stairs, through narrower and narrower corridors. The entire time, the only sound being the tinking of my four shoes coinciding with the bull’s own two. Occasionally, we had to stop due to a guarded metal door, which opened swiftly enough when the guard’s saw who we were. Well, who my escort was. The sight of me caused numerous double takes and many of the bulls seemed to almost ready themselves for an attack. What was quite clear about where we were going, was that it was very secure and isolated. Suppose it makes sense to isolate the metal mist monster. Welp, they haven’t done the best job of that.

Seeing as the walk was quite quiet, apart from the periodic stops, it gave me ample opportunity to spy, ahem, watch over the princesses’ own journey. Theirs was quite a lot nicer than mine. Where I was clearly descending into some dark hole. They were ascending into a very nicely lit area with numerous wide-open windows. Good ways for them to escape, hopefully.

Another thing, was that there was somehow quite a genial conversation going on. Not between Celestia and Luna, but between Luna and Iron. “Thy home is still as impressive as ‘twas the last time We visited,” she casually complimented, while her eyes wondered over numerous features of the marble corridor.

A compliment that the king gladly accepted with a pride filled smile. “Over a thousand years ago? I’m glad we’re doing our ancestors proud.”

“Of that We are certain. Thy current traditions appear to still mirror what they once were. We wish Equestria had gone down a similar path,” Loony admitted with a small hint of jealousy. Really? Sticking with the old means progress is stagnating… right?

Seeming to agree with my sentiment, Celestia voiced her opinion. “While traditions are a good foundation for a civilization, it is still important to change with the times in order to improve.”

“Exactly, our people have strived to keep our ancestral culture strong, while also integrating the new. It makes for a much stronger nation,” the bull unexpectedly agreed with Sunny. Suppose, by integrating the new, he probably means new weapons into their armoury. I haven’t really seen anything else of their culture other than the war related stuff.

“We suppose,” Luna relented before gaining a grin. “Still, We revelled in our honour duel, and will hope for another when time allows.” Really wish she’d told me about that, then this whole situation could’ve been avoided.

While the king grinned back, Celestia only let out a light grumble. Clearly, she was a fan of how modern Equestria did things. That being the lack of violence in day-to-day life.

Before anything further could be said, my main form lightly colliding with one of the many gates brought my attention back to my own travels. At the collision I stopped to look at the barrier, before turning to my escort.

“You’ve got a hard helmet,” he said a little matter of factly, as he reviewed the gate. A slight indentation in the iron had clearly formed in the shape of my helmet.

Ignoring the looks this gate’s guard was giving me, I shrugged my metallic wings. “Sorry, I’m a little distracted.”

“Fair enough,” Golden replied, while gesturing for the now damaged gate to be opened. The two of us returned to our walk into what was probably going to be a dungeon. Nothing but silence continuing between us. Maybe I should be taking a leaf out of the princesses’ book and extend an olive branch of my own?

Seeing this as my own chance to potentially assist with the bridge mending, I started trying my best to connect with the bull in a friendly manner. There was only really one obvious path I could think of to do that. “So, you’re looking better.” Pointing out the fact I remembered him from earlier today. He was the only bull to try and reason with me, so he probably deserves a little leeway. Only a little though.

At hearing my statement, the armoured bull shrugged lightly. “Once our medics recharged my magic, there wasn’t any lasting injuries.” His voice sounded a little grumbly as he spoke. Probably due to the fact I reminded him of his earlier defeat.

In the hopes of steering the conversation down a friendly path, I said, “I’m glad no one was hurt,” while wishing a smile was on my face plate. That was completely true. Even if we’d gotten into a fight, I’d hate to think I’d actually killed anyone who didn’t deserve it. Hopefully, that’s something that’ll never happen.

“When ‘you’ invaded our land?” he said in a questioning tone, while emphasizing the you.

“I never…” came out of my mist in a defensive tone, before being followed by a heavy sigh. “Yeah, sorry about that.” Clearly, that’s how they see the narrative, and for all intents and purposes, that’s true. They just don’t see the reason why I did it.

After a few more steps down the sunlightless corridor, the bull stopped and turned to me. “Some of my comrades are still in the infirmary.” His words bit into me a little like ice. Or more accurately, excessive sunlight. Wonder if the sun in summer will cause me some issues? It is brighter and… not important.

“I genuinely tried not to,” came out a little more pathetically than my previous statements, while my mist drooped. If I wanted it to happen, all the bulls that came into contact with me would have died. It’s much easier to take every drop of magic then to stop the moment they fall unconscious. That doesn’t require me to pay anywhere near as much attention, and eating more magic is just so good.

“uhuh. So, you think a solid block of metal, colliding with somebulls skull hard enough to knock them out isn’t going to leave a mark?” he criticised, clearly thinking me to either be lying, or a stupid automaton. Rather than replying, I simply looked ahead, goading Golden to continue. “Not to mention my brother you stabbed. He would have been present to greet your rulers if you hadn’t.” That guy was most probably trying to kill me though.

Rather than point that out, I swallowed my lack of pride in the name of diplomacy, and nervously asked something that I didn’t really want the answer to. “There isn’t any… lasting injuries… right?”

“One brave soldier will take some time to recover, by and large for the eight deep cuts you gave him. Not to mention the fall from a great height. Thankfully, our apothecaries believe he’ll make a full recovery.” Huh, who did I slice up, and how? I didn’t wield a sword or anything. Clearly not listening to my internal cogs turning, Golden continued to say, “the remainder are all sleeping off a severe case of magical exhaustion. Something that should be impossible for a regular minotaur.” Well, that parts a relief. The changelings I drained in combat, all recovered after a good few hours. That was with me giving Skitter some magic to share out though… hmm.

Once he’d finished, for some reason, it took a large amount of effort for me to look him in the eyes. An effort that was probably wasted due to my lack of them. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. That’s why I volunteered for the trial.” Diplomacy is hard work; wish I didn’t have to be in the lime light.

Other than a slight nod, no other response came before Golden started to continue his march towards my doom. Somehow, the tiny action made the atmosphere feel a lot less oppressive. It’s a shame I didn’t just surrender when he gave me the chance. Then none of this would have happened. The only downside to that would have been the lack of magical snacking, but hurting less people would have been better… probably. Saying that, this would probably never have happened if Loony had given me an inkling of what was coming. Even the slightest, I’m going to have an honour duel, would have sufficed. Not even Shining knew what she was doing, honestly. He just chose to follow orders blindly.

Not liking my current train of thought, I instead chose to focus upon my slightly less stifling surroundings. The atmosphere hadn’t just improved due to Golden’s lukewarm attitude, but because of the clearly improving décor of the corridor. There were plenty ornamental suits of armour lined up in impressive stances. Each of them carrying a very fancy, but sadly non-magical, weapon. We passed so many different designs that at one point, I couldn’t help but break the lapsed silence with a comment, mostly to myself. “These are interesting decorations.”

The bull eyed me for a second, before saying, “of course. This hall was designed to aspire to the greatness of each champion who passes through.”

“Champions?” I asked inquisitively. Really sure this was supposed to lead to a dungeon. Why would Taurus’s champions be sent down here?

“Yes, you count as one of Equestria’s, right?” Golden said in more of a statement than a question.

Champion? That doesn’t sound like me. “I’m just an advisor to Princess Luna. I’ve gotten quite good with quills.” Well, the one quill Loony plucked for me. It’s still kept safely within my helmet for when a quick note is required.

For some reason, that gained me a laugh. “Ha, with shoes like those?” he punctuated his statement by lightly kicking one of my fore shoes. It made quite a metallic clatter but not much else.

“Erm, yeah?” was all I could think to say.

With a brief shake of his head, he little more respectfully said, “maybe you’re alright.” Clearly, he thought my reply was a joke. That makes sense. A metal monster like me, probably doesn’t look capable of anything good. Well, I’ll show them when a cake needs baking. I can take the tray out of the oven no problem. Well, if there was a recipe book it’d probably be fine to actually bake as well. Wonder if Luna would like it if I baked? Celestia definitely would.

Rather than mentioning the first thing I did today, it seemed better to ask, “So… what do you do then?” He seemed quite important, due to the fancy armour, maybe he was a captain like Shining or something.

Pretty surprisingly, he shrugged and evenly said, “the same,” as if it was perfectly reasonable.

“Seriously?” I said a little incredulously. He’s wearing way better armour than any other minotaur, how can he just be an advisor? Maybe a captain is an advisor?

“What? You think because I was present during the battle, I’m not one of the King’s advisors?” He sounded A little smug when he said that.

“Oh, erm, sorry I just thought… erm. You look well trained.” I’m accusing him of judging a book by its cover and here’s me doing the exact same thing. Suppose it’s easy to judge by appearances. Hmm, maybe making myself less like armour would make me more palatable. That’s sort of why these bulls all look so aggressive. Maybe trying to be a dress with armour underneath would do? Luna would probably like that.

The bull seemed to be pleased with my observation, but pretended to be humble. “All those in service to the king have to be. Just as in Equestria. You understand that?” Huh, the only real training anyone’s given me, was when Luna taught me how to fly. Even then, I’m not as good as a regular pegasus.

Rather than point out my complete incompetence to a potential enemy of my friends, I said, “yeah, the princesses like to keep us on our shoes.” Technically true, as Luna has me follow her around quite a bit to help deal with all the paperwork and stuff. Really should have some training to deal with that come to think of it, never mind the military manoeuvres.

Golden shook his head at my response, and muttered under his breath, “on their shoes.” Probably due to the fact that I’m the only one who only has shoes. Well, that isn’t true. Many of the guards wear shoes, not to mention some of the maids and even the princesses. His steps then stopped as he gestured to one final gate that barred our way. This one had the tell-tale beams of sunlight that meant it led back to the outside world. “This is the place.”

“The place where my trial’s going to happen?” The words left my helmet with a hint of trepidation, but I managed to suppress any other visible signs of fear. Well, anything he’d probably notice anyway. Not having muscles has some perks.

A swift nod highlighted his reply, “yes, this is where many have had their honour reasserted. It will ensure that everything is put back how it should be.”

“Erm, okay then. I did say I’d take any punishment to save Loo.. Princess Luna.” The words came out with a conviction that seemed to wash my fears even further away. When the gate swung open, my shoes almost automatically caried me through.

Following closely behind me, the large guard simply said, “as any loyal guard should.”

Stepping out into the area, I was met with an almost blinding light somehow feeling brighter than the usual sun. It would normally have been enough to give me pause, but a lot was riding on this, so I braved the perilous brightness and proceeded into what appeared to be a strangely open space, completely alien to the cramped corridors. What was even weirder was the floor. It wasn’t smooth stone anymore. It was much more abrasive on my shoes and felt like many tiny particulates. Doing my own version of a squint, as I wandered through the open space, it turned out the floor was entirely made out of sand without a single expensive looking stone slab to be seen.

My guiding bull didn’t seem to care about the change and continued forward at my side. That was right up until we reached the centre where his two hoofs abruptly stopped, prompting my four shoes to mirror the action. With my sight still adjusting to the overly harshness of the sun, I started to observe the surrounding area. I could see no chairs or tables, and there was a definite breeze in the air. “Erm, this doesn’t look like a place for a trial?” I said as more of a question than a statement.

I’m sure that earned me an eyebrow raise from my escort, more from what he said than from making out his face. “Where else would one take place?” From how fancy everything looked up to this point, it seemed likely we’d end up in some sort of expensive court room, not some weirdly placed sandy area.

At this point, my eyes had started to adjust to an acceptable level, allowing me to see the distanct high walls that were surrounding the sandy area we found ourselves in. Atop these walls were what appeared to be numerous seats that could be, and were, sitting an uncountable number of minotaurs. All of them looking down at the two of us. It really reminded me of some sort of ancient colosseum.

That thought had my helmet darting to take in my surroundings a little more thoroughly. Random scattered weapons, large gates on all sides and a crowd to watch. All I could think to do was nudge the sand with a shoe in protest, before letting my mist sag in disappointment. “Oh bugga.” Another thing I wish Luna had explained to me.

Author's Note

Welp, finally got this one out. A week later than intended, but it's there.

37: A Sand Floor

Chapter 37

Part of me really can’t believe it. How can this be happening as well? Welp, I guess this is just one of those days where things just keep piling up. Alongside a drawn-out sigh, my shoe continued to absently scratch at the sandy floor, in order to highlight my internal disappointment to the many watching eyes.

Turning my helmet this way and that, I tried to gather how bad my situation actually was. Seeing as we were in the middle of a colosseum it didn’t feel too great already. One problem with my attempts, was the incessant persistent brightness that just would not leave me alone. You’d think after a little bit of time out in the sun it would be fine like normal, but nope, something even brighter than usual was affecting me. It seemed to be coming from multiple locations, high up on the surrounding walls. Situated somewhere above the seated crowds, which I could make out mainly by their magic more than sight. The sound of their murmuring filling the airways.

Another sigh escaped me, as my failure at surveillance left me with no real clues as to what was going to be thrown my way. That was when I remembered the fancy, armour clad minotaur stood to my side. Surely, he knew what was going on, right? Sadly, he was just standing in place, drinking in the spying eyes of the crowds, as he stared up at some distant object. His head never once turning to engage me in conversation, like I’d hoped.

Seeing as what had transfixed his attention was likely the only thing that could grant me some insight into what was to come, I followed his gaze. It was quite hard to see, actually taking my equivalent of squinting to make out, whatever that looks like. Anyway, it was a pretty disappointing sight to be honest. A lone balcony stood out separate from the stands, with a guard stood at each edge. While it was a very nice marble balcony, it clearly wasn’t being utilized yet. Whenever that happens, I’m likely in a heap of trouble. That thought would have made me gulp if it were possible.

Welp, this sucks. The wait is killing me. Probably not literally, but that light is awful. Is there at least somewhere out of it? Taking a couple steps and scanning the flat sandy floor left me with very little choice of shelter. There was only really some scattered debris across the ground with no discernible purpose. Not only that, but when I moved those few steps, the light seemed to follow me and leave where I once stood slightly dimmer. How wonderful.

My sudden antsy movements seemed to finally draw Golden’s attention away from the balcony. If only just for a second. “It’s almost time. He’ll be here very soon, then your trial can begin.”

This feels a bit ominous. I think I preferred it when he stayed silent. Not to look a gift pony in the mouth, I decided to latch onto the potential for any form of conversation, even if it wasn’t the most ideal. “So, who’s coming?” That’s a dumb question. It’s pretty obvious who’s coming. Then again, maybe they’re preparing some monster like that giant demon to come and face me?

Rather than actually engage in further conversation, the bull simply said, “our king,” before immediately seeming to assume our conversation was concluded, and turning to look back at the balcony. Well, thanks for nothing.

Can’t believe the miscalculation I’ve made by agreeing to this. Celestia even tried to save me from it and my empty helmet just had to go and disagree. Wonder what the princesses are doing now? They’re probably still with the king.

Thinking back to the regalia I’d generously ‘gifted’ to Loony, I was already aware of my pegacorn still ascending yet more stairs, from the constant shifting upwards of weight on my/her shoes. Focusing upon her tiara however, gave me a better view of the surrounding stairwell. Said Stairwell was ornately decorated with numerous painting and tapestries, which my wearer occasionally glanced at, before looking back to the stair cases end, where bright daylight was flooding in. Sunlight that didn’t seem quite as bright as what currently tormented my true self.

Thankfully still accompanying her, Celestia was right beside her. It appeared like she was already in mid conversation about the coming event. “I really do not think this trial is a good idea for Eclipse to complete. It may be preferable to have either of us take their place,” Sunny said evenly to her fellow stair traversers. Well, it’s nice to know she’s looking out for me, even if I’d prefer her not to get in harm’s way.

The third member of Luna’s group then annoyingly shot her suggestion down. “We’ve been itching to get you to take to the field for hundreds of years. You’ll get your chance eventually,” the minotaur king prattled. Why on Earth do these guys love fighting? Is their culture really based on war? That really doesn’t fit with what this world has shown so far. Then again, the griffons clearly have a martial culture, not to mention the changelings thriving off of love raids. Are ponies really the only peaceful ones out there?

Not noticing my internal questions due to my perceived lack of presence, Celestia responded diplomatically, “yes, and I did make it perfectly clear that such events were not the way of Equestria.”

King Iron Hide, the jerk, actually laughed at that, and gave a sideways glance to Luna. “Clearly, they are now.” Please say Luna won’t try to promote this irritating behaviour back home.

In response to the bull’s acknowledgment, Luna smiled, “We have always engaged other cultures in their traditions. Thy martial culture is much to Our tastes. It reminds Us of Our triumphant past.” Loony seemed to become a little nostalgic as she finished speaking, gaining a faraway look to her eyes. Hmm, that hopefully means she doesn’t expect ponies to do this sort of thing.

A brief throat clear from Sunny, ended the navy pony’s moment in past glories. “That is all well and good sister, but we have to set a good example for our peaceful ponies. Besides, those past trials only had you or I taking part, so there was no harm to our people.” Huh, does that mean Celestia used to volunteer for this sort of stuff in the past as well? She really doesn’t seem like a fighter. Then again she did fight Discord. Well, attempted to fight him.

“Our valiant Eclipse has volunteered to take part in such a trial of his own volition. We shall support his decision in this endeavour,” Luna said, her chest fluffing up with pride due to her clear ignorance of my opinion.

Maybe not quite aware of my opinion, Celestia continued to fight in my corner. “Our friend is being extremely loyal and is clearly willing to defend ‘your’ honour to the best of their ability.” Sunny pointed hoof at her sister to highlight her words. “However, that does not mean we should allow them to put themselves in this situation.” Huh, at least she isn’t mad about the whole attacking the minotaurs thing. Or, she hides it very well.

My favourite pegacorn seemed to dismiss my second favourite’s words with the flap of a wing. “Nay, We see no negative to this. Eclipse stands only to benefit from the coming event. It will hopefully help him cool off after the travesty he experienced.” Erm, not sure how being put into a combat situation could help someone cool off. It seems more like the type of thing to get your blood pumping, or your mist flowing anyway. Wonder if my body temperature is affected by anything?

Ignoring the last part, this sentiment seemed to be slightly mirrored by my Solar friend. “You are aware that Eclipse is quite a complicated individual? From how they reacted before, it is safe to assume something similar could happen again.” Unlikely, seeing as this time Loony isn’t the one under threat of being stabbed, but still.

Luna’s mouth appeared to open with a potential response, but the minotaur king beat her to it. “That is what everybull is hoping for. To see your weapon working at its peak, and prove that it can still be laid low.” Does that mean he actually wants to kill me?

“’Tis Eclipse who will put thee in thy place.” Luna said in an unexpectedly competitive tone. I really don’t understand the stakes. It seems like something terrible is going to happen, but wouldn’t Luna care if I was in danger?

Celestia seemed to want to roll her eyes at the two’s display. “Does it really matter?” She made an admirable attempt to keep even a smidge of exasperation from leaking into her tone.

A simultaneous, “yes” from the other two beings caused Celestia to let out a breath, just as the group exited the stairs and made their way onto a familiar balcony. One my true self had never stopped staring at.

From my position of the ground, I could just about make out the three tall for their kind beings take up positions upon the balcony. The king standing at the front with his hands resting on the balcony, while my friends took up position a step back from him, side by side.

The moment just the tips of their horns became visible, the restless crowds all cheered, prompting the king to wave back. Both Celestia and Luna seemed to look down at me, which I could only tell due to being up there with them. Luna even waved a hoof at me, before glancing around the arena, providing me with some much-needed clarity of the area. Afording me a clear view of myself, the arena, the crowds and the previously illusive annoying magical spotlights highlighting my position for the spectators.

In response, I gave a brief wave of my shoe in her general direction, which for some reason caused the crowd to cheer even louder. Suppose they’re all staring at me too. It kinda felt a bit overpowering to be honest. Just like the spot lights, which felt just shy of burning me to a crisp. I mean, they were almost blinding me when we first came out here. Part of me really wondered how Golden could withstand the intensity, even though the reason was pretty obvious. One of countless benefits of being a fleshy.

My internal complaining was ended, when the king finally spoke up. “Greetings my fellow bulls and cows. Today, has so far been a sad day in our history, where a slight misunderstanding almost led to full blown conflict between us and one of our closest allies. The friendly ponies of Equestria.” As his voice carried through the coliseum, murmuring started to emit from various pockets of the crowds. He then gestured to my two friends with his hands. Luna seemed to switch from happily looking at me, to a more awkward stately smile, unlike her sister who was already smoothly settled into her patented gentle smile the moment her hooves touched the open air.

However, the forever serene Celestia’s smile did drop a little, while Luna managed to slip into her royal demeanour, when King Iron said, “do not fear my friends. Thanks to the one responsible taking responsibility for their heinous actions, today shall be remembered gloriously by all instead.” One of his hands fell back to the balcony, while the other gestured towards the coliseum’s centre with an open palm. “Before you all, stands the accused. A being the likes of which Taurus has never seen, and what it seems has yet to face an equal.” More murmuring continued from all around the stands.

A swift sigh escaped me at the speech. Huh, yet to face an equal? Pretty sure my rear has been kicked plenty of times in the past. Once by the changelings, once by Discord and once by some random hydra looking creature. Do I really look that tough? More importantly, do I ever even win any fights?

“Well, after today, I shall demonstrate the strength of our nation to this strange creation of Equestria, and prove how we still reign equal amongst our friends,” Iron continued, clearly thinking I’m some sort of super weapon. Regardless of his inaccuracy, the murmurs from the crowd started to change into that of cheers.

Celestia clearly couldn’t hide her disappointment anymore as she let out a pretty large sigh reminiscent of many of my own. Wonder if that’s because she doesn’t think friendship can be proved by having a fight? If so, I completely agree. Shame Luna seems to like the idea. She seems pretty enthralled by everything that’s going on.

Promptly ignoring Celestia’s deteriorating mood, like he had been his entire journey to the balcony, the king’s eyes rested upon me once more. “Now then, let us prepare for the coming event.” How? I’m just sitting here in a load of sand. There isn’t anything here. Suppose that’s how I approach most situations. Minus the sand part, I just sort of sit there and look at what’s happening. Really need to figure out some more proactive measures of dealing with situations.

As the words left the king’s mouth, his oversized frame casually stepped over the barrier and off the balcony. Thus, allowing him to drop ten stories to the sandy floor below as if it were nothing. I could do that too, there’d just be a bit of a crash at the end. His hard landing was met with thunderous applause, as he immediately recovered and started to stride confidently towards me. Here’s a bull who is pretty certain about what is about to happen. All I did was stare at him, and would have blanched if it was within the realm of my bodily functions.

While my newest headache gained ground on my position, numerous gates began to open, admitting more regular sized minotaurs. I was about to start pointing out how flawed their honour was if they were just going to mob me again, but instead of carrying weapons in their hands ready for battle, the bulls were working together to carry entire weapon racks. Now that was a strange thing to see heading towards you.

From my balcony eyes view on top of Loony’s head, it steadily became clearer of the racks intended destinations. One was heading towards my position, while the other was heading to a spot a little distance in front of me. As the distance closed even further, I couldn’t help letting my mist spread out a little at an unexpected sight, before immediately retracting it due to the uncompromising spotlight’s gaze. The weapons on the racks… they were all magical, just like the ones the minotaurs had on the battlefield. From the way my mist was trying to react, it almost felt like I was salivating. The feeling becoming even more intense once a rack was placed right beside me. It took a monumental amount of will not to just go and grab the closest sword and drain it dry. They were just that tasty. Like a forbidden fruit, or Discord statue. Ah, same thing.

Giving my helmet a quick shake to distract myself, I glanced up towards the bull and found that his hoofsteps had ceased a mere ten metres from my position. His own identical rack being placed beside him. The only difference being that the weapons on his rack were much bigger and heavier. So big and heavy in fact, that there was no way a single minotaur should be able to wield one effectively, not even him. Why on earth would Iron Hide want something as big as those? He’d have to be as big as that weird demon thing Luna fought.

Seeming to somehow take notice of my eyeless form inspecting him, the king made a show of looking around at the various members of the crowd, before his eyes rested upon my rack. “So… honourable challenger, have you selected a duelling implement? You are free to choose from either rack.” Yeah, like I’m going to choose a hammer as big as me.

Deciding to completely ignore the rack next to my adversary, my helmet turned to my own personnel buffet… weapons rack. Nothing really drew me to any particular weapon. They all seemed like a tasty sharp thing that you hit someone with. Basically meaning, I had no idea how to properly use any of them. Well, other than hit the other guy with the pointy end. With that in mind, it seemed like a good idea to ask my soon to be tormentor. “Do you recommend any?”

That brief question seemed to cause the bull, who was just waiting to smash me, to look a little intrigued. “Your creator chose a straight sword. Maybe that will be to your taste?” His hand then vaguely gestured at the rack, giving me absolutely no indication as to which of the weapons he was talking about.

Thanks for the lack of help. Don’t get me wrong, he eliminated the axe’s, spears and two sticks connected by chain, but that isn’t saying much when there are six different swords. Saying that, one of the swords looked vaguely familiar. One that I’d seen only a few hours ago in the hoof of my closest friend. It was easy to recognise, partially due to the intricate designs engraved into it, but mainly due to the residue of her magic it contained. I’d recognise Loony’s magic anywhere.

Using my best diplomatic attempt to ingratiate myself to the bull, I said, “that sounds like a good idea.” Without any further prompting, I raised my shoe and grasped the hilt of the fancy looking magical sword. The moment my shoe made contact; I couldn’t help letting the tiniest amount of my mist rub up against the tantalizing magic it contained. Oh, it was simultaneously amazing and torturous. I mean, it was like I could only lick an amazing medium rare steak. One that had the finest Diane sauce. The handle of the blade actually darkened with how much my mist clung to it, completely heedless of the spot light’s wrath.

It took me a little bit to regain my composure and stop staring in a stupefied fashion at my carrot on the end of a stick. My empty eye holes shot back to the minotaur who’d just been casually observing me. He probably thought I was inspecting the weapon like some expert warrior or something, because he nodded to me respectfully, before looking at his own ridiculously oversized rack. One which also contained another weapon quite reminiscent of one from Luna’s earlier duel. A weapon the strange oversized minotaur demon was wielding to fight her. From the way he was looking, Iron seemed like he might actually choose it. Something that seemed like a bad choice due to his relatively small size in comparison to the demon’s. That was really saying something as well.

Just as the hostile king’s hand began to reach forward, the earlier observed orange magic within his chest flared up without any warning. The flash of which looked very familiar for a good reason, as the bull’s size started to increase, which should really be impossible for a fleshy. I mean, where would all that extra mass come from? The air? Anyway, as his size increased and his armour grew along with him, I’m not ashamed to admit that I took a couple of hesitant shoe steps back. His size eventually stopped at what could only be the demon’s that fought Luna before. Really didn’t think he was that weird giant thing. He somehow seemed much more monstrous back then, when he was trying to stove in Luna’s cute little head.

Without pausing his movements, King Iron Hide’s now immense hand effortlessly picked up a giant axe, one that could squash a pony flat in a single blow. Wonder if that thing could squash me flat? The immense amount of magic would allow it to easily damage me. Oh, I really don’t want to risk death just for a stupid honour duel.

As the King turned to me while effortlessly swinging the axe onto his shoulder, I suddenly became aware that the regular minotaurs had already cleared off out of the arena. Even my escort Golden had walked off without so much as a wave good bye. Wait, does that mean this has started? I can’t be hit with that thing! “Erm, King Iron Hide?” I asked a little less nervously than I felt.

The now behemoth of a bull, steadily cracked his neck before regarding me. “Yes Eclipse, are you fully prepared?”

“Well… erm you see… the thing is erm…” I started to say, a little unsure of how to sort out the situation. My broken speech inspiring the bull to laugh deeply. Oh well, here goes nothing. “So, this isn’t a fight to the death, right?”

From the way his laughter died all at once in his throat, that question may have actually offended him. “Don’t be ridiculous. How can our victory be lauded over you if you’re dead?” Staring straight at his glowing implement did not make his words less comforting than they should have been. Even if this isn’t meant to be to the death, that nasty amount of magic may result in my accidental end.

“Soooo, when do we stop fighting?” The faster I lose, the less likely my death is.

In an unexpectedly dextrous manner, Iron swung the axe off his shoulder and planted it upon the ground, before casually using it to support his oversized frame. “When one of us gives up and declares the other a winner. Or when one can no longer fight. Whichever comes first.” The way he spoke made it sound like the answer was obvious.

Now, that’s the first piece of good news I’ve heard since wandering in here. I’d practically be beaming if I could. Maybe a little too enthusiastically, I went ahead and said, “oh, okay then… you win. I declare you victorious.”

Maybe, I was just a little too pleased with myself, as it took me a moment to realize the sudden silence that had descended upon not just the King, but the entire crowd. All that was needed was a couple chirping crickets to finish the scene. My now victorious adversary did another double take when I followed up by saying, “that’s in the rules, right?”

“Nay Eclipse, thou can do this. We believe in thee!” came a simultaneous distant and close by shout from my navy friend.

When I tilted my helmet in her direction, it took a little effort not to call back with, ‘I don’t care about winning.’ Instead of saying that, and making my situation any more tense, I refrained and decided to just glance at her. She was apparently so invested in this, that my sudden but inevitable surrender had caused her to rear up and place her forehooves onto the balcony’s barrier. She was practically leaning as far forward off the balcony as she could, without falling off. I’d have been a little nervous, but from her perspective, a gold clad hoof was clearly visible pinning her starry tail to the floor. Hopefully, Celestia’s sneaky intervention will prevent any thing unfortunate happening. Then again, Luna has wings, so what does it matter.

From Loony’s new regalia, the older sister could be heard saying, “this is something we should probably have seen coming.”

“Oh, maybe thou art correct. He hath always tried his best to avoid social conflict,” Luna responded in a disappointed tone as she whirled around to look at Celestia, who was already giving her a sympathetic smile. “We wish We could be down there with him. A fair duel would be no challenge for one such as Eclipse… if he tried.” Okay, didn’t think my decision was going to ruin Loony’s opinion of me.

A sisterly wing had already snuck its way across Luna’s back as she continued to fret. “Come on Lulu, the completely untrained Eclipse would probably never want to fight without some extenuating circumstances. Though they may appear to quite literally suit a military environment, I think they prefer more laid-back situations. It actually surprises me that they choose to be armour most of the time rather than something more civilian… like that dress they are for you from time to time.” Aside from the dress comment, I agree with that. Fabric just feels a bit flimsy for me to use all the time... not to mention how feminine it makes me look. That’s enough of a problem forming into armour for a lithe mare, rather than a stocky stallion. Apparently, there is a difference.

A look of guilt seemed to spread across Luna’s face, as her ears folded back. “But... he hath defended Equestria on multiple occasion by his own choice. He hath even sook out conflict alone to rescue thou from the changelings. Is this not a similar situation to the aforementioned?” Luna finished seeming to try to clutch onto anything. The head tilt her sister returned, only showed how little Celestia agreed with that sentiment, inspiring Luna to a slight change of heart. “Then, maybe we should go down and collect him? We do not wish for him to be afraid.”

“There does not seem to be any need to do that, Eclipse has already ended the situation. It may be in a way that will upset the minotaurs, but it is fair enough,” Celestia replied, her hoof reassuringly patting Loony’s side. She seemed so calm until the slightest of tremor suddenly hit her smile. One that married up with her gaze turning to me. “Besides, I am fairly certain they are not scarred. They look more annoyed from up here.” How on earth does she think she can tell what I’m thinking right now? I bet she’s just projecting her own opinion onto me or something. Should I say something? They both seem to have forgotten I’m up there with them.

The gruff voice of the less than pleased victorious minotaur interrupted that thought, bringing me back to myself. “So, after all of this, you just cave?”

Okay, I’m almost through this. Just don’t upset anyone any further. “Well, I didn’t realize I was signing up for a fight to be honest. I don’t really see any reason for anyone else to be hurt because of my mistake.” There, that’s the best I’ve got. It seems reasonable enough to me.

An unexpected laugh escaped Iron at my declaration, before he grinned at me. “Rather presumptuous aren’t you to think you could harm me?” He did say I was Equestria’s greatest weapon. Doesn’t that imply he thinks I can hurt him? Unless he truly believes that nothing in any other nation could possibly pose a threat. That’s almost as stupid as Shinning saying the minotaur’s definitely have no way to block pony magic. Besides, the main part of not wanting anyone to get hurt includes saving my own mist. He'd probably be fine. From the way he speaks, Iron’s skull has probably met plenty more blunt objects than just my shoes.

He continued to say, “do you truly not understand how this trial works? You’re meant to be the advisor to Equestria’s diarchy.” Well, how else was I supposed to respond to a phrase like that, other than to tilt my helmet and shrug my wings. That act caused the king to slowly shake his head in disapproval, before pointing to his weapon. “Look, these weapons are enchanted to cause physical pain, but also prevent any permanent wounds. You don’t need to worry about being damaged… if the almighty weapon of Equestria is truly afraid.”

Hmm, these weapons have a pretty similar glow to the ones the minotaurs were using before, maybe even more so. Not to mention they clearly have weight behind them. “They look pretty deadly to me.” How could they not? They’re weapons, tasty magic weapons at that.

Almost like he expected the response, Iron’s massive hand flew down towards the axe head of his weapon. It collided directly with the blade, resulting in a dull thrumming sound, but not the severed fingers I’d half expected. Instead, he simply shook his hand a little at the action. “Only pain metal pony. Are you really going to let your master down by taking the easy way out?”

Eyeing the minotaur with a hint of disbelief, I raised my own comparatively small weapon and inspected it. Yep, very glowy, as I suspected. Just because these things only cause pain to a fleshy, doesn’t mean they can’t harm me. What if the magic just destroys my mist like the other weapons? Well, there was one way to find out. A quite unpleasant way, but it makes sense to at least try. Releasing a small quantity of mist from the confines of my armour into the glaring spot light, I swung the blade straight through, expecting the worst. The worst that never actually came. It actually tasted pretty good; the promised pain didn’t really seem to materialise at all. That actually made me double take. Maybe, because the spell doesn’t do damage, I just instinctively eat it instead, is that what’s happening? I know I ate Discord’s spells when they were cast on me, but they still caused me problems. Why wouldn’t this have some effect? Is it the smaller quantity of magic? Can I eat more magic at once now?

That was something I wasn’t quite sure of, but to keep up appearances for the bull, I let out a small, “ow.” Just to ensure my theory was correct, another couple of follow up swings were needed, this time at my armour. Each one bounced off my helmet slightly harder than the last, each one feeling pretty good. I’d have kept doing it until the magic ran dry if the bull hadn’t been watching me. It was quite difficult not to look at him a little embarrassed at my actions. He’s probably wondering why he wants to fight the crazy spirit creature that enjoys hurting itself now. That’s not actually a bad thing, come to think of it. A little bit of psychological warfare and all that.

From the way he was looking at me, it was pretty hard to tell what he thought of my actions, right up until he let out a much heartier laugh than before. Lightly drumming his fingers upon the axe’s handle, he seemed to have developed a knowing smile. “So, do you still yield? Or will you fight for your mare’s honour?” It was pretty clear he thought my decision was obvious now. Not sure how it could be, I’ve barely moved at all.

Up above still on her balcony, I could see Luna with my shoe concealing her mouth. It seemed like she was trying to stop herself from calling out. She’s clearly itching for me to do this. Well, if it isn’t going to do any harm… “Fine, I’m only going to do this because it’s somehow for Luna’s honour and not mine.” I like to think there’s some form of honour within me, but this sort of thing is clearly irrelevant to it.

A simultaneously distant and right next to me cheer of Luna’s could be heard at my proclamation. This was swiftly followed up by the bull grasping his axe in two hands. “Excellent, let us begin. We’ve put the proceedings off long enough.” Iron said as he took one very heavy hoofstep towards me.

Well, wish we could have had a little bit more of a question answer session. I mean, is magic allowed to be used in this? Can I only use the sword, or can my shoes be used to hit him? What about my mist? It could just drain him straight away. Clearly, none of these questions were going to be answered now. Besides, it’d probably be quite difficult to use my mist effectively under these stupid lights. They’re possibly the only hazardous thing here.

The next minute sort of dragged on, as my adversary stood staring at me, clearly in a ready combat position, while I sort of stood there awkwardly. It was almost instinctive for me to tilt my helmet at the absurdity of how we were both waiting for the other to move. Seconds ticked by and the bull only tensed his grip further, not giving anything away. We managed to drag out the first minute for so long, that I made the mistake of glancing away from my opponent, curious as to if anything else was occurring around us. Maybe the two sisters were doing more than staring at the field?

Obviously, they weren’t but that momentary lapse broke our stalemate almost instantly, with the sound of rapid heavy hoof beats flying in my direction. It’s a shame my reaction time is so poor, because all I managed to do before the inevitable happened, was turn my helmet back to look at my surprisingly agile opponent, as the axe came swinging towards me filling my view.

Huh, not so bad, was the thought that went through my helmet, as I was once again granted the ability to fly without using any effort. A feeling I’ve grown quite familiar with. Sadly, it wasn’t the longest flight, causing my chest piece to scrape along the sandy floor for an additional few shoes, before my journey abruptly ended. That really wasn’t bad at all, the most annoying bit was just the landing. Hope it didn’t scuff me up. Getting hit immediately actually put me into much better spirits, as it demonstrated the incredible lack of threat I faced. It wasn’t even as bad as falling off a bridge in the Everfree.

Swiftly jumping to my shoes, still feeling a slight high from the magic I was gifted, it took me a monumental amount of will to duck under the next axe swing that came out of nowhere. Another swing, this time overhead, came slamming down, forcing me to dive to the side, or be hit by the food dispenser. It’s almost so little pain, that I want to be hit. Really need to keep that thought out of my helmet, those swings still have a lot of force behind them.

Shaking my helmet, I looked up at my opponent as he readied himself for another heavy blow, clearly placing his now immense bulk behind it. How do I actually harm this guy? He’s huge. My tooth pick isn’t going to do anything. Raising one of my wings, it took the full force of the hit, causing my four shoes to scrape sideways along the ground. This time though, no flight was attained. Still, he can’t harm me either, the worst thing is the sand getting in my shoes. That is so annoying to get out. Wouldn’t want Luna to complain about it again.

My distracted thoughts almost led to my helmet being cleanly removed from my chest piece, as Iron taunted out, “is this all the great weapon of Equestria can offer… a punching bag?”

Well, you can’t really win against a punching bag, but still, I have to try something. Only one thing for it really. After being goaded, and with not many options, it seemed right to just charge forward with my pointy treat/weapon. All that earned me was a swift kick to my chest piece from an oversized hoof. A hit that would likely have winded a pony with lungs, but only caused me to slide a few shoe steps back. I’d have went further, but liberal use of my floating abilities helped reduce the distance.

Still remaining on my shoes, I went forwards again. Then again, then again and again. The same thing played out over and over as he tried to punt me away like some annoying dog. Each time, he actually kicked a little harder, even successfully denting my chest plate on occasion. It didn’t actually damage me though and I can’t get tired, so the same events continued to play out for a little while. Maybe it would wear him down eventually? No way Iron’s stamina is infinite, he’s flesh and blood. Hmm, that is a good point now that I think of it. Is my stamina infinite? I do sleep.

Rather than waiting to find out which of us was the immovable object, Iron grunted out, “you are a tenacious one, I’ll give you that,” before deciding to change up his strategy. Probably because he was becoming aware of the same issue as me. This change up turned out to be a gross miss calculation on his part, as one fateful charge, he chose to swing his axe rather than kick me. Now the swing probably would have sent me flying a great deal further, but due to the axes large size and my small size advantage, I was able to skilfully slide under his blow. Well, trip under his blow. Anyway, this tactical decision to fall underneath his axe swing gave me just enough distance to jab my pointy tooth pick into Iron’s gargantuan armoured ankle.

My efforts were awarded immediately, by a pained reply through gritted minotaur teeth, “Ah, so the beast has a little bite. Good.” As he instinctively lifted his hoof out of my reach. I would have lunged at him again, but Iron decided to rapidly descend what I believed to be his fleeing hoof right on top of me, in what could only be described as a stamp. A stamp which compressed my limbs together as my chest piece met the sand. He couldn’t quite hold me there, as with all my strength pushing against him, I could steadily lift the weight of his armoured hoof. It didn’t really matter though, as he decided to lift his hoof of his own accord, before smashing me down once again.

“This is really annoying,” I couldn’t help but sigh out after he smashed me into the sand for the third time. This whole situation wasn’t really working out for me. He wasn’t even hitting me with his tasty axe. Really wish I could extend spikes from myself right about now; we’d see how well he’d do that with a hoof so full of holes, a changeling would get jealous. Shame all I have is this sword. Huh, that’s an idea.

On Iron’s fourth attempt to push me deeper into the sand floor, I lifted up my blade just as his gargantuan hoof came down. The force of his hoof seemed to make the blade bend ever so slightly as it collided with solid surface of his steel shoes. It was almost like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object, but from Iron’s reaction, the unstoppable force was actually quite stoppable.

He seemed to have an immediate moment of realization, as he instinctively lifted his hoof away from the source of pain, causing him to almost topple over. In fact, all it took was for me to stand up causing my helmet to collide with his raised hoof to ensure it, removing what little balance he had left. It was probably quite embarrassing for him to be knocked onto his rear by an accidental helmet butt to the hoof.

Rather than waste anytime letting him recover, I clambered forward, climbing over his legs in an attempt to maybe hit his oversized head. Hitting his head may actually have resulted in some form of victory, who knows? Aside from the minotaurs who created this inane challenge.

Rather disappointingly, my form never quite reached its target, mainly due to how easy of a target I was climbing over the bull’s front. All he had to do was slightly raise his hand from his side to grasp a hold of me. This did allow me to jab his fingers a few times, but the resulting pain I provided only seemed to fuel the power with which he threw me away. Kind of like an annoying mouse that bit his finger.

Due to having slightly more impressive abilities than an irritable field mouse, I didn’t fly anywhere near the distance Iron likely hoped, from the way he stared at me in slight disbelief as I just floated above his head. The disbelief didn’t really last long enough for me to do anything meaningful, my sword was tiny, so when I dived once more for his head, it didn’t even come close before the large axe pelted me like a cricket bat to a ball.

The pleasant feeling of the axe’s magic filling me unexpectedly distracted me a little allowing the momentum to carry me much further afield than the more mundane hits. It really made this whole thing feel more and more worth it. Each little bit of magic drained from that axe was amazing.

Still pretending to smile from the impact, I landed heavily upon my shoes leaving four miniature craters. “Now, we are getting somewhere,” my opponent laughed out apparently happy at my ability to cause him some problems.

Regardless of those problems, he still stood confidently with no sign that any trauma I’d caused was impeding him. Most probably due to the nature of both our weapons. My attempt at a smile slightly dropped at that. At this rate, without being able to drain the minotaur’s magic with my mist, this fight would drag on for the rest of the day. The periodic bursts of magic may even get old by that point. Ha, I don’t think free magic could ever get old for me.

Anyway, clearly another strategy was needed, one that could also disable my opponent. If my mist wasn’t going to be useful, how about another none lethal ability? While Iron was casually approaching me at a walking pace, I stood in what appeared to be my usual calm inactive state. However, within my hollow chest piece, my mist began to form into the familiar state of a long-coiled chain. It’d be decent enough. Wrap him up, and the links could do the draining for me, same as last time. Well, in a perfect world, that clearly, I’m not quite a part of.

The steady hoof steps towards me, suddenly accelerated similar to the fight’s start. Maybe he thought I looked distracted, which admittedly I was a little, but what little chain was already formed was enough to put a damper on his attack. Once the gap closed to within a few meters, my chain was swiftly ejected towards his rapidly moving legs. The movement of which was impeded greatly the moment my chain went taught around them. It even caused his axe swing to fall disappointingly short into the sand in front of me. At least I could reach it with a shoe to get some magic the old-fashioned way.

Almost completely stopping the bull king in his tracks made me feel pretty good. It made me feel even better as his magic started to flow into me. There was only really one problem with my plan. My metallic form wasn’t quite strong enough, even pulling with all my might, to force Iron’s legs together so he would trip. In fact, I’d only really succeeded in tethering myself to a being physically stronger than myself.

Something which Iron took full advantage of. Using his oversized hands, he held my chains in place, while stepping out from them. His hands then, to my surprise, did not let go of my chain. The continued physical contact this act afforded almost felt like a positive in my book, due to the magic continuing to flow into me. However, from the way he violently tugged on it and by extension me, it left much to be desired. He sort of started to swing me around his head like a heavy metal ball upon the end of a chain. Something that feels quite unpleasant as it turns out. Especially when the centrifugal force is trying to cause all your limbs to separate. It was a matter of course for me to purposefully split my chain off from myself.

Once again, this left me air bound for what felt like the thousandth time this fight. Suppose that’s the only thing Iron can really do to me, but still, this time was different. This time he’d been left smugly holding my chain in his hands. Something which he took great pride in from the way he held it up victoriously to the cheering crowd. He looked a lot less victorious when I had them continue my attack on him. He actually seemed surprised when they tried to bind his arms together. I mean, who wouldn’t be?

Using this momentary distraction to my advantage, I flew in for another good stab. It actually gained me several, as I managed to collide with his back and begin trying to pierce his plated armour, while holding on for dear life. The consistent contact even let me claim yet more of his much hungered for magic with my shoes, despite the blaring spotlights hampering my mist.

“Begone serpent, you’re in my way,” Iron bellowed as he angrily ripped off my chain and tossed it aside. Feeling my assault upon his spine, he then did what any giant would do, and fell onto his back in an attempt to flatten me. This was unsuccessful as all it took me was letting go to escape. Still, it got me off his weak point.

Now he was on the ground, it seemed to only make sense to continue my mostly ineffective assault. If that attack wouldn’t get him to give up, what would? Anyway, ignoring that fact, I charged forward with my chain attacking from another angle. This rewarded me with a butt to the helmet from the oversized axe and my chain stuck flailing uselessly underneath Iron’s giant hoof as he stood back up. Meh, if I’m going to be rewarded with a burst of magic for every magical weapon hit, this fight may as well drag on a little while longer. I mean, my mist would be licking the air in anticipation by now if that stupid light wasn’t throwing me off.

Any who, the fight dragged on in a similar manner for well over an hour. There was no clear sign of victory for either of us. For some reason, the fleshy just wouldn’t tire out and I couldn’t really just give up for no reason. Luna’s honour and my hunger demanded it.

An opportunity to end the never-ending fight did eventually arise, as Iron decided to do a large wind up for an overhead swing. An overhead swing which I elected not to dodge and instead use as an opportunity to get a hit in. I mean, the worst that could happen was that I’d miss and some tasty magic would be delivered to me.

Sadly, when this final swing came, I didn’t manage to achieve a counter hit and no tasty magic was delivered. Instead, my armour was squashed flat by the immense force and even a few pieces had managed to separate from me. Even the crowd seemed to universally wince at the expected pain they thought had been delivered.

You know what, that actually did hurt. But why? Looking up at the axe, its glow was all but completely gone. Oh, whoops, in my greed I’d sort of destroyed the safety enchantment. Good job I didn’t consume the one on my sword, otherwise we may have had yet another international incident on my shoes.

Everything seemed to go silent for a second as I remained motionless upon the ground debating on what to do. Iron even gained the slightest hint of concern in his eyes as he pulled back his axe to reveal a major dent into what would be my spine. This however disappeared when I steadily uttered one phrase. “I think you got me.”

“Really.” He let out an almost surprised breath at my statement, before composing himself. “Yes, what a glorious battle. It seems the title of the Night’s armour was well earned.” He said while his size began to shrink and he kneeled down in an attempt to help me up.

A hand was offered to me, which I gladly gripped with a shoe. The moment it began to pull me up, I allowed my form to reassemble and the surface damage to repair itself, much to the surprise of my defeater. “You look like you could go for another ten rounds.”

Maybe I could, but with little magic up for a grabs and concern for the wasted lives of everyone watching, what was the point? I mean, the show was good enough to satisfy everyone, right? A small lie would be needed. In an attempt to feign tiredness, my helmet was allowed to hang low, while I said, “no, you got me… I’m spent.” It turns out to be quite difficult to feign tiredness without possessing any of the usual indicators.

“I knew even a mighty construct such as yourself couldn’t hold out forever. Everything runs out of steam eventually,” Iron approved, pleased at my words. In fact, from the incessant cheering, everyone watching seemed to be pleased with my response. Well, everyone but a certain pony.

“Nay, Eclipse thou can still win,” Luna cried out only really audibly to the people nearest her balcony and my regalia. She’d been enraptured by the battle, clearly enjoying my miniscule triumphs and stressing at my numerous failures. Even going so far as to forget about a box of popcorn she somehow acquired. It would have been quite distracting if I hadn’t chosen to ignore her after my first blunder.

The alabaster mare beside her, who’d also been enjoying the show despite her misgivings, reassuringly nudged her sister with a hoof. “You know sister, your way of diplomacy may have actually had some genuine merit for dealing with the minotaurs.”

These words caused Luna’s ears to perk up slightly, but she still choked out, “but… We have allowed for Our other to be defeated.” The sadness in her voice was quite painful for me to hear, only exacerbated by how heavily she let her/my shoes hit the floor once she was done leaning over the balcony’s edge. She clearly valued my victory a lot more than me it turns out. Maybe I should have kept going?

As I debated on talking directly into her ear, Celestia continued her attempts at reassurance. “Perhaps, but Eclipse’s actions have allowed the minotaurs to think they’ve gotten something over on us for once, without any need to pay tribute.” That probably wasn’t the most reassuring thing for Luna hear, that my failure was good for Equestria, but if it’s true I’m happy with that.

Iron then reinforced Celestia’s theory by patting me on the back and saying in a loud voice more to the crowd then me, “such a worthy opponent is to be praised. You have shown the great strength our allies are capable of. Any minotaur would be happy to have someone like you at their side.”

In an attempt to help drive the point home, I tried my best to sound honourable. “The honour is all mine King Iron. I’m glad my… erm… creators, have such strong friends. Friends capable of expertly crafting weapons like these.” I punctuated the words by looking at the sword that was still gripped in my shoe. A sword that I’d just finished leaching the remaining magic out of while we spoke. “Your weapons are the tastiest I’ve experienced.”

Author's Note

25
Okay, after however many months, this chapter is finally out.

Sorry about the wait, I just really couldn't get this chapter into a state I was happy with. If I'm honest, it still isn't there, but it seemed wrong to delay any further. It turns out, fight scenes really aren't my thing.

38: Stuck in Goo

Chapter 38

Welp, that was tedious. Don’t get me wrong, King Iron Hide became weirdly amenable after my defeat, even going so far as to give me a couple compliments and tips. Each of which, were clearly meant for someone with actual muscles. The other minotaurs also seemed somehow less on guard. Probably, in part due to coming to the realization that I wasn’t some indestructible metal monster.

It was just that even without the threatening atmosphere, which I swear never fully evaporated, I had to sit in a room with my two friends listening to the minotaurs drone on and on about the disputed land claim. This was interspersed with periodic interjections from the alicorns, mainly Celestia, politely explaining how the minotaurs had absolutely no right to it. Obviously, these explanations fell on deaf ears, resulting in another tirade of honour-based rubbish being thrown in our faces.

By the end of the entire three hour back and forth, Loony was all but ready to keel over, and she would have if she hadn’t had been wearing a part of me. That was basically my only responsibility. Ensuring I held Luna in an upright posture upon her chair and stealthily flicking her fluffy ears when her eyes closed too far. She didn’t seem to notice my help, but that didn’t matter. If Luna believes she somehow managed to last through that meeting by her own will, that’s a plus in my book.

Anyway, as was expected the meeting finally concluded with, according to Celestia, half the usual payment of bits the minotaurs desired. Most likely, again according to Celestia, due to my brave but futile showing against Iron Hide. Pretty sure from the way she said it, she was fully aware that I’d probably have won a proper duel, seeing as I could easily have drained his magic or just possessed him and been done with it. Luna apparently disagreed with this belief, but chose not to elaborate until we returned home. I’d apparently been through enough today already.

She didn’t even talk about it in the carriage ride home, instead choosing to settle down against my side for a long-awaited nap. Obviously, I stopped keeping her awake at this point, as there was no need to keep the lovable fluffball from her desired rest. Celestia, despite her increased resistance to politics, didn’t take long to join my friend in her little nap, choosing to stealthily shimmy her hooves closer to the younger alicorn before mirroring the Moon’s action and laying her head upon the comfortable comatose pillow. It was quite cute to look at the two ponies. Even if this was what’s lead to my current predicament of being squashed beneath a pony pile. Ah, one of these days Celestia is probably going to try and sleep in the same bed, probably somehow using me as an excuse.

Struggling to look through the window past a feathery blockade, I let out another relieved sigh as Taurus’s capital continued steadily shrinking into the distance. Thank goodness the day’s finally over. No more dealing with obnoxious royals, just the delightful ones who matter. Obviously, it would be cruel of me to wake them, so I tried my best to act as a pillow while only periodically petting my soft pony’s fur with a gentle shoe.

It seemed like a decent idea to join the two in their blissful sleep, but an even better idea of how I could help my friends came to mind. Seeing that I exist in multiple places at once, and my smallest self is back in Canterlot, it wouldn’t take much for me to let Captain Armor know about our successful return. That’d probably help the sister’s out. They’d probably have sent a message themselves if they weren’t so tired, using one of those magic flammable scroll things.

So, being the loyal suit of mist I am, after a bit too long enjoying Loony’s content hums, I thought back to my Canterlot self… and came up kind of… wrong. It didn’t feel like I was in the direction of Canterlot at all. Not only that, but my smaller self felt so confined, like it could barely move. I suppose this is why you don’t abandon parts of your body in the middle of the throne room in front of everyone. Anyone could’ve picked me up. Rather annoyingly, it does make sense that someone would want to kidnap me. Granted, they probably think of it as stealing, but still.

My mist started to become a little agitated within the calm carriage, risking the unbearable sin of waking my beloved ponies. Okay, stay calm. This isn’t a problem. This is fine. I can figure out where I am. Not that I’ve ever tried to do that before mind. Well, apart from with that shard Twilight had taken from me. All I really did was try to draw it towards me though.

With that method in mind, I began mimicking my early attempts to draw myself together. This actually worked entirely as planned, rather than drawing my distant parts to me, it provided almost their exact direction. Now, when I say parts, I mean parts. Somehow, there were two separate pings. One of which was so incredibly weak, I could only ascertain its general location. It provided me with no other feedback, which made sense due to how the tiny shard reacted. From the direction, it seemed Twilight may still have some tiny fragments of me laying around, seeing as Ponyville was the origin.

That’s not really a problem though compared to the other place, which clearly had my miniature self within its misshapen direction. The changeling hive. Oh dear. Nope, don’t worry, I’m sure Skitter has an explanation.

Once again attempting to move my tiny self, I steadily became aware that unlike my current body, which was confined by warm fluffy pony bodies, it was instead confined inside some strange greenish goo. Not just confined, but completely submerged as well. Thank goodness I don’t need to breath, or my mini me would most certainly be dead. Not even the tiniest of air gap was left within my weird container. As it was, rather than killing me, the slime only made it incredibly difficult to move my comparatively tiny shoes.

Steadily squelching around my container, my helmet eventual came to a slightly transparent part of my prison. A transparent part that only really let through a green magical light. The only real illumination for a pony’s eyes to see by.

Okay, clearly the changelings have decided to take me somewhere for whatever reason. Maybe the princesses should hear about this? They’d know what to do. A soft nuzzle to the side of my true forms helmet, followed by a content hum put pay to that idea. Nothing bad had happened to me quite yet, so this is probably something I could deal with on my own. Better than ruining my friend’s nap. Not to mention the changeling alliance.

Seeing nothing better to do, I waded through the sludge towards the semi-transparent wall and pressed my shoes lightly against it. A little surprisingly, the wall bent outwards, almost like a flexible skin. Wait, this is one of those weird pods the princesses were trapped in before, isn’t it? Well, from how easily the changelings sliced them open with their horns, they can’t be that tough.

Forming a small blade at the end of my foreshoe, I mimicked the action of the changeling soldiers all those months ago and ran it across the strange material. The shoe blade travelled ever so slowly through the membrane, like a hot knife through custard, but it got the job done. Air bubbles started to pass through the forming opening and bubble past my helmet, while the slime dribbled out onto whatever surface lay outside. In the process, probably making a horrible mess for some unfortunate shapeshifter to have to clean up. They really should try to make their stuff less… bleh. Then again, who knows, maybe they like it?

Following in the goo river’s stead, I began pushing each part of myself through the created opening. Each part making a resounding ting, as it left confinement and dropped a small height to the ground, where a small pile of me formed.

Though the fall didn’t hurt at all, my shoe nevertheless rubbed the top of my helmet in an almost instinctual action, while my pieces reformed into my smaller self. The action only distracted me for a moment, before I took stock of my new found surroundings. Yep, pretty much what I’d expected. It looks like something from a familiar alien world.

As if on que, one of the nearby walls morphed out of existence and in walked two clearly not aliens. Even if their hard exoskeletons and buggy nature might make you think otherwise. Anyway, the two changelings appeared to have been walking quite casually right up until both their gazes firmly lasered in upon my still goop covered form.

Both bugs seemed to immediately freeze mid hoof step at my unexpected freedom, choosing to completely ignore whatever it was they were coming in to do. Probably moping up or something. Do changelings have maids?

“It’s free It’s free!” the smallest of the two bugs buzzed out in alarm, practically straight into the face of the other, who had a slightly more controlled response.

“You’re pointing out the obvious again! Go inform the Queen. I’ll keep it secure,” the second bug responded authoritatively. It didn’t really seem shaken in the slightest, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

What wasn’t a good sign, was the fact that the smaller bug didn’t really need to be told twice, before its elytra burst open and its wings rapidly carried it away, leaving me alone with the other bug. The brief amount of energy brought by the small bugs reaction seemed to ebb away into a steadily growing silence where we both stared each other down. Right in the eyes, at eye level. What a strange experience. Seems my mini self is practically regular pony size now. If that bug is pony size anyway.

Ignoring the weird foreboding feeling I was getting at my newfound situation, I waved a shoe at the lonely bug, and tried to cheerfully say, “hi.” It came out a little more forced than necessary to be honest.

So forced in fact that the apparently stalwart bug almost jumped backwards out of their shell. Seems he wasn’t as comfortable with the situation as he was pretending. Even so, after seemingly reviewing his options, the bug warily uttered, “hello,” back at me.

The horrible silence threatened to re-emerge, which I desperately tried to end with the only thing my helmet could concoct. “So, how’s it going?” Well, that felt pretty lame.

It was probably fairly anticlimactic for the bug as well, as he seemed to squint at me incredulously. Maybe he thought I’d do something terrible upon escaping? “I’m fine… for now.” Yep, definitely thinks something bad is going to happen.

In an attempt to assuage him of that perception, I gave the best diplomatic response all of my training had given me. “That’s good.” It didn’t seem to help, as the silence immediately resurfaced with a vengeance. Really need to give people something easier to respond to. Loony never has this problem with me.

With the newfound silence in place, the bug took a moment to look over his shoulder, probably praying for aid to come. Whatever aid did come to him, will hopefully not cause me too many problems. We are supposed to be allies after all.

Welp, this isn’t getting us anywhere. A quick mimic of a throat clear later had me regain the bugs attention easily enough. Part of me thought his head could’ve flown off at the rate it turned to me. My helmet might’ve if it were me. “So… you’re not going to let me go that way, are you?” I inquired while pointing a shoe into the newly revealed corridor behind the bug.

After a brief nervous lick of his lips, the bug slowly shook his head. From his temperament, it was clear how effective he thought he’d be at that. Probably just as effective as one of the random minotaur soldiers were. My helmet steadily tilted towards the ling’s jagged horn as a thought came to mind. Then again, these guys do have magical attacks… they actually tasted pretty good come to think of it. Just have to ignore the initial sting. Like spicy food.

With that idle thought, I took a few shoe steps towards the increasingly less stoic ling. His tail was clearly tucked firmly between his legs, and at each of my shoe steps forward, he mimicked the action backwards, inevitably causing him to leave the weird door wall unoccupied. Thus, allowing me to poke my helmet out into the corridor, where numerous other changelings could be seen. Each of which were standing guard at what presumably were door walls of their own. They were also clearly informed about what was unfolding, due to how they were all staring in my direction. A couple of them had their horn’s glowing with a tasty green magic, pointing vaguely in my direction.

An over exaggerated sigh escaped my helmet at this. Honestly, I can’t believe it. The debacle with the minotaurs has just been delayed and now I’ve been dragged into another, potentially worse, situation. Going out there could cause them to attack me, which could lead to them being hurt. If that happens, we can probably say goodbye to the changeling alliance I’d managed to fake into existence. Waiting for the Queen is probably the best thing to do. Not like waiting places anything else at risk.

Rather reluctantly at this realization, I briefly gave a friendly wing wave to the watching bugs, before retreating back into my enclosure. In the corner of my eye socket were a cacophony of relieved grins as the bugs seemed to congratulate themselves at scaring away the big bad suit of armour. That was all except for the one bug guarding my door who, due to some sense of duty, warily stepped back to his symbolic guard position.

Looking at the poor ling, who was desperately trying not to shiver at my eye contact, let me feel a pang of sympathy that almost kick started further attempts at conversation.

Luckily for him, the only thing my mist for brains could think to ask about was the weather, which probably wouldn’t do anything but increase the awkwardness. Clearly, the weather isn’t top of his list of priorities right now.

Pushing my failings at small talk away, I left the distressed ling to his pointless task and began exploring the alien esc room I’d self-confined myself to. The room in question, now that I’d started to look at it was quite strange. It was incredibly long, almost like a corridor. Evenly distributed along the room/corridor’s walls were numerous green glowing lights that struggled to illuminate the area below. Each one contributed to the increased dinginess of the area. If my helmet had real eyes, it’d probably have been quite difficult to see. Doubtless the changelings can probably see easily, otherwise they’d invest in proper lighting. Our thestrals would probably be fine too, due to the whole being part bat thing. Wonder if the changelings are nocturnal like thestrals, or just used to being underground?

While I contemplated this relevant issue to my current circumstances, my eye holes lazily glanced over the only other feature present within the room. That being the incredibly familiar pod I’d escaped from.

Looking the pod over, it wasn’t just familiar from the inside, but from the out as well. A mildly distressing image of my beloved Loony, and her sister being confined within identical containers irritatingly conjured itself within my mind at the sight. Almost subconsciously, the corded tail of my true form began to absently pet both freely snoozing alicorns. That wasn’t one our brightest moments.

It took a brief shake of my helmet to free myself of the saddening memory, and to once again return to exploring this small cubby of the hive’s only known feature to the fullest. By fullest, I meant the numerous other pods the room contained. Each one with a slightly differing colour of magic flowing out of the semi-transparent membranes they consisted of. Well, that doesn’t bode well.

Swallowing the worry down my lacking throat at what I’d find, my shoes carried me over to the nearest of the ten glowing pods. What my eyes perceived caused my mist to droop in disappointment. They still have those pony hostages? Bleh, I really thought the changelings were starting to trust us a bit more. Looking to the next line of pods didn’t make me feel any better. Bet the griffons are still looking for those missing birds. What are you supposed to do when one of your allies has been kidnapping not just your people, but those of your friendly nations?

There wasn’t much time to try and think of an answer, due to the sudden stamping of my guard’s hoof, followed by the uncharacteristically brave straightening of his posture. From just behind him, the sound of loud echoing hoof steps could be heard purposefully approaching. Somehow, despite the distance, being almost twice as loud as the guard’s singular stomp.

Okay, don’t worry, this’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with changelings loads of time before. Well, only really one changeling. A changeling in the form of Skitter, who for all intense and purposes is in my top five friends. Wow, that’s an impressive number of friends. Since when did I become so sociable?

Anyway, my favourable social position with one particular bug was probably irrelevant to the confident individual who brazenly stepped around the corner like she owned the place. Mostly because she did own the place. The changeling Queen’s usual sneer plastered upon her face as she halted beside her loyal guard and began levelling those predatory eyes upon me. An act that actually managed to get me to hold my non-existent breath. It was like her eyes were piercing my very soul, similar to my mist through a pony’s magic. The only thing I could really do was meet her gaze in what was hopefully not a sign of submission.

Our impromptu staring contest lasted a good minute and didn’t even end when Chrysalis broke the silence. “Slice, what has it been doing?” she inquired of her guard, with her eyes never once leaving me. Maybe I’m just that interesting to look at? Or more likely, she’s wondering what to do with me.

In response to the sudden address, the guard deeply bowed. “It said a few mundane words to me, and then stood by the nearest pony prisoner my Queen.” His words sounded much bolder, now that he perceived his Queen was here to protect him.

Bringing a hoof to her lips in a show of thought, the oversized ling audibly hmm’d before replying, “maybe it’s designed to protect the nearest pony? It seems like something Luna would put in.” Really should’ve expected that from Queen Empathy. Even the ponies closest to me used to think I was nothing more than a fancy spell. Now, is it better if she knows I’m a person, or not?

The smaller ling, Slice I think, seemed to regain some of his nervousness as the Queen smoothly delivered her theory to no one in particular. “Doesn’t that mean it could attack if we go in there?”

Chrysalis simply shrugged off the remark, seeming to somehow wordlessly dismiss the bug while her smirk only grew. A dismissal the bug was only too glad to receive. “Oh, I do believe we’ve already worked out a method of countering the current programming,” she seemingly gloated to the fleeing ling’s back without turning from her prize. Honestly, what does she want from me? Her eyes had been locked onto mine for what felt like an age, so it was almost a relief when she, with no prior warning, turned to look back into the corridor. “Come on, get over here little princess.”

Before I could ask the question on my lipless jaw, a very familiar voice chimed in from out of sight. One of my favourite pegacorn, but sounding unusually timid. “Erm, mother, I don’t think this is a good ide- eek!”

Before the unexpected voice could finish, Chrysalis rolled her slitted eyes, while her horn glowed a deep green. Almost the moment the green magic set into action, one worried Luna in her green glowing glory was gently placed ever so slightly behind the bug.

The most half-hearted, “Luna?” escaped me at the sight. ‘Somehow’, I could tell something wasn’t quite right. Not just because she was lit up like a Christmas tree with changeling magic, which was a major give away in itself. No, it was mostly because my true form was currently half buried in a combination of the real alicorn’s fluffy fur, soft feathers, silky mane and the slightest bit of drool; which has just started to steadily leak out her sleeping mouth. Honestly, the things I’ll tolerate for my Loony. Not that I don’t love the first few things, that fur is just the best. Maybe another nuzzle would be fine?

While my main form nuzzled my sleeping Princess, Chrysalis seemed to become even more pleased with herself. Most likely due to the apparent success of her deception. Okay, we can’t play this game forever and from what that duplicate said earlier, it’s pretty clear who she really is. With that my helmet tilted to regard the faux Luna, who seemed a little ashamed, before I said, “Skitter? I’m glad you’re okay after the whole minotaur thing. I was wondering what happened to you.”

My words seemed to rob the wind from underneath the Queen’s wings, causing her face to drop from that persistent look of superiority. She actually, for once, started to display what I could only describe as a hint of nervousness.

In comparison, the faux Luna seemed to look almost relieved before bursting into flames, revealing the expected love bug underneath. “Told you,” She muttered quietly, before attempting to step forward next to her mother.

I say attempted, because Chrysalis blocked her path with a dragon fly wing. Her hooves carrying her a few steps towards me, probably ensuring Skitter stayed out of harm’s way. It’s nice to see Skitter’s mother actually cares about her, but honestly, I’d never do anything to harm the little love bug.

“So, that’s how they managed it,” the Queen spoke more at me than to me.

“Erm, did what?” was all I could think to respond, while levelling a curious head tilt at my sort of captor.

That action may have mistakenly poked the bug, as she almost seemed to snarl, “don’t play coy with me construct. Your invention allowed the ponies to see us!”

Welp, at least she’s finally talking to me. She does seem pretty smart if she can figure out that much from this mostly one-way conversation. Maybe that was my bad, but I’ve never really thought to try hiding my abilities from anyone. Does it make sense to explain it? Due to indecision, I eventually just shrugged my small metallic wings noncommittally. “Sort of.”

A well-earned eye narrow was gained from that unsure remark, as Chrysalis demanded, “Explain yourself!”

Wow, she’s really confrontational. It’s been such a long time since anyone’s talked to me like this. Honestly, I can’t think of a time when anyone has yelled in my face plate, not even when they were trying to dent my armour did they spend time on that. In the hopes of lightening the mood a little, I answered the Queen’s question. “That’s more just a biproduct of what I am than what my main ability is.” Seeing magic just comes naturally to me.

“Yes, we know what you are. A conduit for magic, a far weaker one than the original,” Chrysalis muttered with a head tilt of her own. Her narrowed eyes continuing to bore into me, as if she were trying to read my mind. Maybe that’s a thing she can do. It seems like the kind of magic an alicorn esc creature like her would be capable of... If I were a fleshy anyway.

Seeing as all I could think to do was shrug once more, and whatever mind reading the Queen was attempting seemed not to be ending any time soon, another stand-off ensued. One where I couldn’t help noticing the slightly shorter Princess looking awkwardly between her defensive mother and my slightly nervous form. If my form actually appeared nervous, I couldn’t really tell.

Okay, Chrysalis is clearly waiting for me to do something. Not sure what that thing could possibly be, but it’s sort of gridlocking the conversation. At least there’s one lifeline to cling in order to end this nightmarish social situation. Tearing my gaze from the enthrallingly malicious eyes of the Queen, I focused upon my close friend to her side. “Erm, Skitter… how’d I get here anyway?” Hopefully that can lead to some sort of pleasant conversation, let alone give me some important answers.

Skitter’s gaze seemed to fall to the floor at my attempt to gain her conversational aid. “I… sort of, brought you?” came the most unsure response I’ve ever heard, almost like she didn’t quite want to say it.

“What?!” That may have come out a little louder than I’d have liked.

Reacting to my outburst, the Queen took a slight sidestep further in front of the smaller bug, only slightly obscuring her from view. “You heard her. She stole you.”

“Why?” Honestly, I was a little dumb struck by that. Why would she do that? It was almost instinct for me to try and get a better view of my potential betrayer, leading me to take a step to the side. An action that resulted in a very long and sharp glowing horn pointing at my mist. The sheer amount of tasty magic displayed, actually caused me to halt mid step. An action that Chrysalis took great pride in noticing.

As Skitter opened her mouth to answer, the Queen proudly butted in with her patented victoriousness. “Thanks to our idiotic sheep’s pointless altercation with those bull-headed morons, Princess Skitter was easily able to subvert the entire command structure of your former nation. Using this to her advantage, she stole one of Equestria’s most valuable tools, while simultaneously making a show of Luna coming to beg for help from her one and only hope.” Her monologue ended with the smuggest grin possible on a chitinous face.

That was more how than why, but it still hurts. It probably hurts more than any of those magic weapons that stabbed me. Heck, I can practically feel my mist falling heavily to the ground. It actually became quite hard to look at my friend with this revelation, my gaze only really able to look at her hooves, which seemed to be shifting awkwardly. Man, if Luna wasn’t currently hugging me right now, I think I’d be going searching for her. She wouldn’t stab me in the back… on purpose.

It sort of felt like my mind was going to go down a dark road, one which may have had me flee the situation back to my pleasant little carriage ride. Who needs three bodies anyway? That was up until Skitter’s mouth exploded out, “I didn’t mean to steal you! Honest.” That regained her my full attention, where she continued in a softer tone. “I just really wanted to help. After you came to find me and collapsed… bringing you with me seemed like the best thing to do at the time. It didn’t dawn on me that you were fine.” With every word she seemed to become less awkward, while her ears flopped back against her head. A head which was drooping steadily closer to the ground. The weirdest thing was that her eyes actually seemed to be getting a little damp, almost like she was going to shed a tear.

Poor buggy, has this been eating at her the whole day? She seems pretty sincere. From the way her mother is visibly biting her lip, it’s clear she didn’t want her to say that. It’s so hard to tell, why do changelings have to be masters at deception? In the end, it seemed better for my own sake to give Skitter the benefit of the doubt. “Thanks for looking out for me. It would’ve been really annoying if someone actually… stole me.” I’d have tried to smile comfortingly at her, but the best I could provide was a slight tilt of the helmet.

There was no immediate improvement in Skitter’s demeanour, but she did nod in acknowledgment of my words. “You did the same for me.” Her words continued in her quiet voice, as if she was sad to have to admit it. The standoffish energy really had been taken away from the situation.

“What?! When? There hasn’t been any word of previous altercations in Canterlot.” That was until Chrysalis started speaking again. Going that long without interrupting must have taken a monumental amount of will for the egomaniac. Maybe she just didn’t know what to make of our conversation? She definitely doesn’t look the surest anymore.

Taking a slight breath, my buggy friend looked to her mother before explaining, “she came to my rescue when Discord attacked Canterlot.”

Almost all at once, every ounce of arrogance Chrysalis was emanating into the room seemed to halt. “You had an altercation with that draconequus?” she carefully asked.

A slow nod was the only reply given.

“You… you never told me,” Chrysalis continued in a simultaneously concerned but disappointed tone. Suppose she probably feels like that was something she should have been told all those months ago, being Skitter’s mother and all that. Seemingly taking a second to process that information, the overside bug eventually shook it off and turned back in my direction. “So, you saved Skitter… from Discord… correct?”

With a now less hostile look levelled in my direction, I could only stand there while thinking back to that nightmarish day. I didn’t actually manage to save Skitter from Discord. He easily turned her into a breezie before wandering off to do who knows what. All I did was make sure she wasn’t stepped on by some unfortunate hoof. Rather than admit that small tit bit, I clung to the one opening for positive relations that was so generously provided, and bravely said, “erm, sure.”

“Why would you do that?”

Now that was an unexpected question to ask of your supposed ally. Especially when the lings made a show of trying to help the ponies earlier today. Wow, a lot has happened today. Can I get a break? Rather than choosing to nap, I answered to the best of my ability. “Because we’re friends?” Wow, why did that sound so unsure?

Chrysalis certainly didn’t look all that convinced, but her next of kin definitely looked a lot perkier than a minute a go. “It’s true, she even tried to help ingratiate me to the ponies when we formed our alliance. Without them it might not have worked out so well,” her voice seemed to almost lilt closer to how she spoke back in Canterlot. Right, knew she was always on my team. Never doubted Skitty for a second.

The Queen bug seemed to blink at her daughter for a few seconds, whatever she was thinking completely hidden from the room. Eventually, she clicked her serpentine tongue and shook her head, before subtly stepping to Skitter’s side. “Honestly, you can tell it was invented by a pony,” she muttered to no one in particular, before giving me a more even look. “So, you have an already established relationship with my daughter, Princess of the changelings? You must feel honoured.”

Is that her trying to be nice? She still sounds just as arrogant. One improvement though is definitely Skitter’s mood, which has gone from being a tear-filled mess, to now just partially covering her face with a hoof. From the greenish colouration of her cheeks visible through her leg holes, it was most likely from some unneeded embarrassment. “I like that she chose to be my friend. I don’t have many.” Well, five is quite a few if they all count.

At my admission, Chrysalis lowered her head down to eye level with my smaller form’s helmet and apparently sympathetically said, “that must be hard for you. No one wants to be alone.”

Now that’s a complete one eighty. Does she actually feel bad, or is she just messing with me? “That’s true.”

A light “hmm” escaped the bug alicorn before she looked at the ripped open pod behind me. I’m not going to apologise for that, they shouldn’t have put me in there. “So, seeing as the pod was not to your apparent tastes, where exactly do the Equestrians store you?”

Wait, she’s asking how to imprison me, isn’t she? Even if I’d willingly answer that question, how would you contain a weird smoke spirit creature? Suppose make an air tight room that can’t be pierced. Hmm, it’d probably have to be made out of some sort of strong material like metal. A brick room probably wouldn’t last too long if I put my cuirass into it. Then again, I’ve pierced steel armour before. Maybe if it was thick enough?

While I debated internally about how I’d build a prison for myself, Skitter decided to jump hoof first into the silence my thinking time was inadvertently creating. “Oh, we’ve been sharing a bed ever since the ponies found out about me.” Maybe she should have left it to me.

“Really? What does it gain from such an arrangement?” The incredulity Chrysalis felt was more than evident, thanks to the impressive eyebrow raise she was managing regardless of her steel like chitin.

“She sort of feeds me magic through the night. Plus, she is quite a pleasant bed warmer,” Skitty said a little too enthusiastically. At least she left out the fact that I was feeding on her excess magic as well.

“So, how did this come to pass?” the overbearing mother asked in an ever so slightly warmer tone, as her gaze slowly left the happier ling and returned to me.

“Well, it was always my bed. Just, when Skitter was asked to stay, I offered it up until Luna could find her a new room.” Honestly, Luna still hasn’t sorted that out, even though she’s promised on multiple separate occasions to deal with my housing issue. The only other bed Skitty has is her old maid bed, which she clearly has no intention of using again, if the way she’s stored her maid disguise’s uniforms in my cupboards says anything about it.

“Interesting, and you’ve taken a liking to your current arrangement?” A smile seemed to steadily be forming upon the matriarch’s face, as she felt whatever was happening was going her way.

To be honest, my main form usually uses Luna’s bed nowadays instead, so it didn’t matter that my mini me had its own sleeping companion. Does that lovable alicorn think of her room as my room as well? Maybe that’s why she never bothered to find another room? Loony does seem to enjoy hugging me while she sleeps. She’s even worn me to bed a few times. With this in mind, maybe it was actually okay that Skitter had effectively moved into my old room. Anyway, I did sort of ask the ling to look after my mini-Luna plushie. Wait, where is my mini-Luna plushie?

Stashing the issue of Luna’s missing birthday present away for later, I lightly shrugged my metallic wings, in order to ensure all of my thoughts on my sleeping arrangements, both positive and negative, were known. “It’s fine.”

At my reply, Chrysalis let a light laugh escape her, before gently nudging her daughter with a hoof. “Ah, yet again using the pony’s incompetence for your own gain. It seems the student is trying to become the master.” Why does she have to so openly show distain for my friends? I’m right in front of her, does she think she’s somehow tricking me?

From the received positive attention, the slight greenish tinge Skitter had turned seemed to increase dramatically. She actually seemed to be enjoying it before seeming to remember my presence, causing her embarrassment to rise exponentially. Her forelegs even threatened to rise again in an attempt to hide her face from view. So, is she embarrassed that she’s received affection she’s not used to, or because her mother is acting like this in front of me? Probably a little bit of both.

Seemingly ignorant of the embarrassment she was causing, Chrysalis turned back to me. “Seeing as you’ve been sharing a room with my daughter in Equestria. Would it be amenable for you to share hers here? She would love… to have you.” As she finished overemphasizing the last three words, the oversized bug seemed to lick her lips at the word love. They really do crave that love. How does that even work? Does the emotion somehow make it easier to eat magic? Does it affect the taste? Hmm, if they eat magic, it makes them a lot similar to me than the ponies are.

“Okay, so hypothetically speaking, if I was going to stay… only if there weren’t any other rooms available.” I spoke, while still clinging on to the vein hope of ending this conversation without causing some dreaded conflict.

“There isn’t,” came the sharp reply of the Queen, clearly wanting things to go a very specific way.

“Alright.” Clearly, she must have been lying. The hive is huge, but what else can I say to that? ‘You must be mistaken; you obviously have spare accommodation?’ That would just start this conversation circling back around areas I would hate to go again.

What could either of been a sneer or a smile persisted upon her face. “Excellent.”

“So… what now?” She does seem at least a little less hostile. Maybe things are looking up?

From the way the bug looked off to the side, before seeming to gently push Skitter towards me with a grin, she’d already thought of how to end our weird social encounter. “Now…? You can get acclimated to the hive, before going to your room… alongside your friend. I will decide how best to utilize you to further our goals in the coming days.”

So, she’s really going to push that I’m staying here. Not to mention the fact she thinks I now somehow work for her. There has to be some way to convince her. Oh, I know. “Erm, your offer to let me stay is a gracious one, but you don’t seem to have any magic for me to eat.” Now that is clutching at straws. I could easily take magic from the lings as much as I wanted. Besides, if there wasn’t any available, I could probably still last an extremely long time. The hypothetical thought of no food actually caused both my small form here and main form back with the alicorns to shiver. Why does food always feel like such a high priority to me?

As if somehow sensing more excuses were needed, Skitter decided to throw in her own reason for letting me leave. “Luna might get worried if little Eclipse is missing for too long.” Clearly from her words, and the way her hooves slid across the ground when pushed, Skitty wanted to let me go.

“Little Eclipse?” Chrysalis incredulously said, immediately switching from the annoyance my own statement had provided by latching onto my name.

“It’s what Luna called me. Eclipse that is.” Hmm, maybe this is an opportunity to subtly get some leverage against the forced rehousing. Turning to Skitter, I casually said, “I’m not sure anyone will notice the absence of this particular form, as they only really care about my original self.” I left a slight pause for dramatic effect, before continuing to say “… that is unless I tell them.”

With the majority of myself safely aboard a carriage, enjoying a nice cuddle with two of my favourite ponies, it would be quite difficult for them to stop me just blurting out exactly what Chrysalis is doing. Granted, I really didn’t want to start a second diplomatic incident in one day, but they didn’t need to know that.

Rather than take in the end of my statement’s intent, Chrysalis gained what I can only assume was a genuine grin and began nudging her daughter with her knee. “Look at that. Your newest loyal servant is already coming up with solutions.” Well, that couldn’t have been taken any worse. “You’d better come up with a more suitable name than Eclipse for your armour.” Or evidently it can.

Even Skitter blanched at that, instinctively starting to say, “mo- my Queen, I don’t think this is appropriate.” Damn right it isn’t. You can’t just change someone’s name, even if you’re royalty, or can you?

The laugh that elicited from the larger bug, could almost have been thought of as warm in comparison to her usual one. “Hush, lings say I never get you anything nice. Besides, your armour cannot have the same name as that pretentious moon pony’s.”

“Luna, is not pretentious,” I practically snapped at the overgrown mosquito. Okay, I shouldn’t lose my temper here. That’s how we end up in a second trial.

My, for the first time, hostile tone actually gave Chrysalis a moments pause, where she eyed me curiously. “Is she not? Then please enlighten us.” She began while sweeping a holed hoof across herself and her daughter. “What is that Nightmare to you?”

With an audible, unneeded throat clear to prevent myself correcting Luna’s name, I confidently stated, “my best friend.” After the implied insult, I had my main form give Luna a small scratch behind her left ear, even though she clearly could never have heard Chrysalis’s words. One day, people will hopefully forget about that dark time in Loony’s rule.

Seeming not to notice my forming irritation, the Queen scratched her chin in thought, before saying, mostly to herself, “hmm, a slight teething problem. I’m sure, given time, we can work that little kink out.” Now that almost caused me to growl, which is something my form has never done before. Quickly changing the subject, the growing pain in my greaves held out a placating hoof. “Now, onto the food situation. Am I to understand that the alicorns charge you with some form of arcane battery?”

Now that caught me a little wrong shoed, causing my annoyance to lessen dramatically. “No… I-I find my own magic.” My friends have never actually properly fed me. I just sort of take magic whenever I can, from anything around me. It’s probably been quite annoying for whoever maintains the various magical lights around the castle, but what else am I supposed to do? Not eat? I’ve already been banned from the statues.

An unexpectedly loud theatrical gasp escaped Chrysalis, which caused Skitter to almost jump out of her shell, while I was left wondering if it was genuine or not. “Really? Then you must be starving,” she did sound quite sincere, but the edges of her fanged mouth were definitely curling into a smile. “We can’t have that can we? Slice, bring in the thunderstone.”

Now, that got my non-existent ears perking. I haven’t seen a thunderstone in months, not since the time I accidentally possessed Luna on one of her diplomatic meetings. That thing tasted so good; it practically made my whole day. That and the fact Luna forgave me for the whole using her body without permission thing.

With poorly veiled anticipation, my helmet turned towards the door, where a familiar guard steadily strolled in with the most beautiful sight in one of his hooves. A real thunderstone. I’m not too proud to admit to taking a few unconscious shoe steps forwards at the sight. With monumental will, my shoes eventually stopped carrying me towards the most likely relieved guard. An action which Chrysalis observed with a hint of glee. “So, I was right,” she smugly stated, while for some reason gesturing for Skitter to take the treasured crystal. The beautiful glowing object never leaving my focus as it changed hooves between the two lings. “Come, take a look. We don’t bite. Well, we don’t bite metal anyway.”

After a blatant nudge from her mother, Skitter took a couple of hoof steps towards me, awkwardly holding the prize out in my direction. Almost mimicking her motions, I started to take a few shoe steps of my own towards her. If my empty mouth was capable of it, there’d probably be a trail of drool following the journey. Instead, my mist extended outwards towards the object in hopes of receiving it sooner.

As we both stopped opposite one another, a moment of clarity passed over me. Clearly, the bugs were up to something. Why else would they go through such a rigmarole? Looking up at the proffered hoof’s owner made me feel a little better. Granted, Skitter wouldn’t do anything to harm me, but why not just have the guard give it to me? Is Chrysalis trying to say she trusts me or something? That might actually be a good sign of a little head way.

With some genuine embarrassment at how desperate my mist was to claim the lightening imbued object, I respectfully asked, “Erm, S-Skitter… can I please have that?” It seemed like the right thing to do, rather than just snatching it from her hoof like some disrespectful jerk.

My buggy friend provided a light smile, before gradually raising her holed hoof to my eye level. “We did get it for you.”

Without thinking any further on those words, my mist greedily plucked the crystal from her grip and retracted straight into my open faceplate. It probably looked a little like a frog catching a fly at the speed I went. Skitter actually stood there for a moment looking a little bewildered at her now empty hoof. It was pretty hard for me to care though, as the second that glorious magical filled artifact passed the threshold of my imitation jaw, I was filled with bliss.

My entire being practically froze, as the magic was devoured without a second to waste. Even my mist that’d retreated back behind my helmet became motionless now I had what I wanted. Man, it’s been so long since I’ve tasted one of these, and this one seems to contain even more of the delectable energy source. Probably because the griffon’s stones had been used to charge up their equipment as well as me.

Off to the side of my friend, the distant smug words of Chrysalis could barely be heard over the best meal in months. “Any creature can be trained.”

With the sudden abrupt emptying of my snack, rational thought returned to me. So that’s her game, she thinks she can manipulate me like a dog? Honestly, she should be able to tell I’m a little more complex than that. Trying my best to show a little indignation at her comment, I unceremoniously opened my helmet and let the now dull object tumble out and clatter to the floor. With my irritation communicated effectively, I politely acknowledged my waiting friend and asked, “do you have anymore?” Somehow, eating more always makes me hungrier.

Skitter seemed to acknowledge the ruined gem, by nudging it with a hoof before seeming very pleased with herself. The young bug’s tail started to wag subtly, while her eyes brightened suddenly at the desire to answer my question. Clearly whatever she was going to say was going to be good. Sadly, for both me and her, Skitter never quite got the chance to spread her news.

“Empty? How on Equis...” Chrysalis rhetorically asked, while taking the empty gem from her daughter. Giving it a scrutinising eye, she surmised, “your enchantments must be extensive to be this power hungry.”

“I’m guessing that’s a no?” Seeing how surprised she was by my appetite, I decided to take that as an answer to my question. Even though Skitter’s potential good news prompted a yes. Maybe the lings have more, but they’re really expensive? I might end up eating them out of hive and home.

“Doubting the power of the changelings, are we?” Came the for some reason more than pleased supply. “Don’t worry, our resources are much vaster than that of the meagre ponies. You will have an allowance of one a week.” An exhale of disappointment originated from the Queens side, seemingly, that was what Skitter had wanted to reveal.

One a week!? I could hardly stop myself from jumping for joy. No more needing to sneakily eat the lights. No more subtly feeding off ponies. No more poison Joke farming… well, I’ll still do that. The more magic the better. Heck, at that rate, my mini me would become larger than my true self in no time. Outwardly, the only noticeable effect the revelation had, was the irresistible urge to let my corded tail swing freely. Not just on my mini self, but on my true form as well. I had to sort of hold it down with a shoe to prevent it whipping Luna’s rear.

“Ahem, that is more than enough,” I uttered in as even a manner as possible.

A response that seemed to please my two welcoming hosts. “Excellent, we may need to pay a few more small visits to our Griffonian … ‘friends’, but I believe it will be more than worth the effort.” Chrysalis said, likely already having planned for this conclusion, despite the unintended way of reaching it.

Hearing the casual mentioning of the bird nation caused me to turn back to the other still occupied pods. Some containing griffons and others ponies. “Okay, if I’m going to stay with you, I have one condition.” I’ve sort of already been bribed into staying, but maybe there is something a little less selfish I can do.

“Other than the free food that we are so generously providing your metallic hide?” Okay, she can lower that eyebrow. I may be sounding a little greedy, but Chrysalis would have me as a prisoner if she could. It makes sense to get as much out of this arrangement as possible.

Dancing a little more to my tune, Skitter politely asked, “what would you like?” Thankfully, circumventing my need to reply to her ever-narcissistic mother.

Turning my helmet so the question was mainly aimed in the more amenable bugs direction, I raised a metallic wing and gestured to the numerous other pods lining the room. “Ahem, I’d like it if you’d be kind enough to release all of these ponies and griffons… They are your allies after all.”

It may have only been in my helmet, but a deafening silence seemed to follow my request that dragged on for at least three agonizing seconds. Suppose that isn’t a long period of time, but it felt a little like life and death for these most likely innocent fleshies, so sue me.

Anyways, once the time had elapsed, two simultaneous responses came out with two different tones. The first of which was quite reasonable. “That sounds fair enough,” Skitter said with a smile before cringing and raising a holed hoof for shelter from her mother’s reverberations.

“NEVER! AH,” she growled out before seeming to notice her daughter’s reaction. Seeing your daughter cower in fear at your outbursts can’t be the most enviable state of affairs. I don’t even like it when ponies I barely know fear me. At the sight, Chrysalis seemed to rapidly cool down, going as far to aggressively bite her hoof in her fanged maw to somehow control her emotions. I’m not quite sure how potentially drawing her own blood with those pointy teeth could possibly help, but she eventually let out a controlled breath. She still didn’t look in the best of moods though. Ah, when is she ever? “These creatures are important assets for our hive. Assets that ensure the continued safety of every ‘ling here. Celestia understood that in our initial deal,” she finished by pointing an accusatory hoof in my direction.

“Erm, I can see that, but you’ve just proven to Equestria how valuable your alliance is by helping protect them from the minotaurs. Why would they betray you now?” Okay, this should’ve been expected, I’m sure the Queen of the infiltrators can be convinced to give up the people she’s taken to pointlessly black mail us. She probably isn’t that paranoid.

Seeing how the not quite loving bug just stared at me with her resting snarl, I turned to the ever-reliable love bug for help. If I had a mouth, I’d have mouthed “help me” to Skitter, but that not being the case, the blank faced look would have to do.

Luck, or Skitter, seemed to continue to be on my side, as she’d seemingly recovered from her brief spat of cowering and easily set about briefing her Queen upon the goings on of Equestria. Probably because it was her job. “Since starting that deal my Queen, quite a few of our citizens have started living quite well within the pony’s territory. Each of them managing to gather more than enough love to sustain our hive.” Thank you Skitty, I’ll let you hug me as much as you like if that works.

The words did seem to have a visible impact upon the overly emotional bug. She again raised her possibly perforated hoof, but instead of gnawing upon it, she scratched her chin in thought. “From what my scouts have witnessed, that is true. I suppose it is only eight political prisoners, hmm…” she seemed to relent.

When I say seemed to relent, it only took a quick glance at the number of magical glows each of the pods emitted to notice a fast one. “Erm, I’m fairly certain there’s ten full pods… your majesty,” I bravely corrected without a single waver in my ghostly voice.

As if not hearing a word I’d said, Chrysalis continued unperturbed. “Nevertheless, releasing these individuals will cost our hive dearly. So dearly in fact, that we may have to reduce your feedings down to just once a month.”

“Once a month? That’s just a quarter of what you said.”

What followed was a half-hearted look of sympathy, with an undercurrent of unmistakable joy. Mainly from the grin. “Oh, is that not enough, well I am terribly sorry, but you’ll have to choose. It’s hard to acquire storm crystals without a way into Griffonia,” she finished letting out the slightest of laughs. One which I’m fairly certain she wanted me to hear.

The briefest of sighs escaped both of my forms. It was so obvious that the changelings had been stealing those crystals. I mean, how else would they get them from the people whose leader they tried to assassinate? With the slightest tilt forward of my helmet, in possible shame, I muttered, “well, suppose I don’t know these people.”

“It would appear that our ‘guests’ will have to stay exactly where they are,” Chrysalis gloated clearly getting upon her high bug horse. Both her ears had perked right up, so she could hear my shameful words.

Maybe it would be fair to let the changelings hold onto them for a little longer? Who am I kidding? I could never look Loony in the eyes if I let this happen. “Fine, once a month and you free the ten prisoners… and erm... I won’t tell anyone I’m here. Deal?”

“Deal,” she stated without missing a beat, almost like she knew exactly what I’d say. After taking a moment to grin victoriously, she turned around and strode towards the door. “Now, follow your Queen.” Well, guess I’m employed now. With that decided, I began following the Queen and her daughter towards the door.

Skitter gave me a warm smile before looking up at the taller bug cheerfully. “Told you, you could catch more flies with honey.” Not quite sure those words were quite honey, but they’ll do.

That was met with the briefest of eye rolls. “Yes, but usually I find it is easier to catch more with manure.”

Author's Note

Just wanted to say sorry guys for cutting the previous chapter. It was just so boring to write and likely even more tedious to read. The only bit of fun coming from Luna's mid diplomacy nap that Eclipse had to circumvent.

Now I'm in the same boat again deciding if I want to skip the next buggy chapter and move on to some regular pony shenanigans.

1: Awakening

Chapter 1

Well today something interesting finally happened. It’s been I don’t know weeks, months, maybe even years of black nothing, but finally no more. Now it’s just slightly dim and I’m clearly within a room of some sort, on a floor rather than floating in an endless void, how wonderful. Never thought I’d actually leave that place, being probably dead an all that.

Anyways, this room is pretty huge. The ceiling is a good 2 or 3 stories and there’s a whole load of pillars holding it up. Well supposed to be holding it up. Many of them appear to have collapsed leaving large holes in the roof allowing the moon to shine in upon me.

Enough lying on the floor gaping at the mess and beauty that is existence, better get moving. As I attempted to stand it felt incredibly difficult to balance like I was top heavy, so I just sat down to examine my predicament. I mean I haven’t moved myself in God knows how long, I’m probably a walking skeleton or summit. Well, this is odd. I don’t appear to have any arms or legs really. Just these floating metal disks in front of me. They definitely move when I try to move my limbs. Well, that’s odd to say the least, not to mention the ominous black gassy stuff that’s connecting them to my main body. “Right, I need a mirror,” wow my voice is creepy now.

After once again attempting to stand on my not legs, I found it much easier to balance on all fours, which is really weird seeing as my main body just floats above those disks, but that doesn’t matter at the moment. Now come on, is there a mirror? Ah perfect, there’s a broken one by the large entrance doors. Some people may think that walking on all fours would be difficult without legs, nonetheless I nailed it. Didn’t even stumble once, “ah dammit,” or twice, “stupid invisi legs,” or even 3 times, “hello again floor,” no siree.

Anyhow, the mirror showed a very peculiar sight to my non-existent eyes. There stood before me, was what appeared to be a mostly empty suit of horse armour. Empty aside from the black smoke that filled it out in the shape of well, a horse duh. The armour itself only consisted of a helmet (my head), a chest piece (my torso) which just floated in the air and 4 hoof shoes (my whole legs). It was also coloured a nice shade of navy blue.

I mean I look kind a cool, but having no limbs is just a little irritating. Wonder if I find more armour If I can apply it to myself? As I thought that the metal from my feet, hooves, shoes dammit whatever, extended upwards to create full leg guards and my torso expanded to cover my invisible behind. Oh, cool now I just need a face. Concentrating real hard and ah here we go, a face plate formed. It had no features what so ever apart from 2 eye holes but that’s better than nothing.

Well, no sense remaining here staring into my beautiful eye sockets. Better get going. At that I began making my way out of what appears to be a dilapidated throne room. Hopefully there’ll be some people around who can guide me. Yeah right, this place has clearly been deserted for at least a few years, just look at the walls. All the paints coming off and cracks are forming on every surface. Wouldn’t be surprised if this place’s structure was completely unsound. If the collapsed pillars weren’t my first clue. That’s beside the fact that what self-respecting person is gonna help a demonic looking smoke monster.

After walking through a good 3 or 4 long hallways of broken furniture and destroyed pictures, I finally found the exit and what a sight to behold I tell ya. A massive, I can only say crevasse surrounds basically the entire castle with just a flimsy rope bridge to traverse it. Not to mention on the other side, there was nothing but the thickest, darkest most uninviting forest I have ever seen. I haven’t seen that many forests, but I’m pretty certain this one is the least friendly.

Well certain death followed by probable death and I was having such a great day of just existing. I need to come up with some sort of plan here. If I go in that forest, I could be lost for a very long time and whatever beastie I meet may just decide to make me a snack. First priority, find a direction. The easiest way for that is to get some height, so to the top of the castle. Climbing the damaged tower was pretty easy and despite the tower being half its original height I could see all the way across the forest. Arg it goes for miles, but what’s that in the distance. Clearly a light from an unnatural source is coming from that direction. Maybe it’s a town I can’t quite tell. Well, that way it is. It’s nice to have goals in life.

Now to climb back down the tower… ah damn. As I took the first step, I lost my balance for the first(hundredth) time and fell right down the stairs hitting my helmet every other step. At least I reached the bottom fast. As I checked myself other for injuries or I suppose dents it was surprising to find none whatsoever. Wow I’m pretty resilient. More resilient than the stone tiles I turned to dust anyways. So, with a happy hop to my shoes, I began traversing the safest bridge with my impressive quadrupedal motion.

After the inevitable breaking of old rotten boards and my plummet of about let me see, a million feet. I hit the bottom with quite a clang, that force was enough to cause me some slight issues in the staying alive area. The crash had scattered my limbs a good few meters apart. Ah I hate this, form can’t I have some flesh and blood please? At the complaining my body just sort of magnetised and all my limbs flew back to me. Wow flesh and blood bodies suck, they’d surely be paste right now.

Right so after the hour climb up the ravine, I finally reached the other side. Huh not even tired after that climb go weird smoke stamina. Now to head to the light of hope. All I need to do is traverse the darkest forest, no big deal. If I possessed the ability to, I probably would have gulped. No time like the present, lets press on. After standing there for a good 10 minutes listening to many animal sounds. “I said let’s press on”.

Upon entering the forest, I found the welcoming bright light of the moon severely diminished by the trees. That was creepy enough, but with the thickness of the foliage it was very difficult to maintain a straight course to my hopefully safe haven. Got to be optimistic about that. They're probably people who are really friendly, who’ll fully understand my situation. Yep totally. They’ll even meet me half way and give me directions. My attempts at distracting myself from this situation didn’t really calm my nerves. Especially when the animal sounds started getting louder and clearly closer.

*Snap!*

Oh, that’s probably just a squirrel or something nearby, I thought while increasing my pace. What in its right mind would want to eat metal anyway? Okay, that's more crinkling coming from both sides of me and, can I see a green glow? Oh, those look like eyes, at least 3 pairs. Time to run I should think.

With the prey running, these eyes started to give very rapid chase easily keeping pace with me. Once they gave up on a stealthy approach, I could clearly see them for what they are. Wooden wolves, man this world is full of weird stuff. At least my existence is more the norm now I suppose. Are wooden creatures weirder than metal ones? Anyway, got some running to do.

The wolves were chasing me for a good few hours. You’d think they’d catch me immediately but with my armoured form I could charge straight through most obstacles like bushes and even the occasional small tree, while they had to go around. The slight distance and my lack of any fatigue made me believe I could outrun them forever, but being wolves that work as a team and know the forest like the back of their paw, they had the advantage. I never realized one had broken off. This wolf managed to get around and pounce on me from the front knocking me off balance and causing me to trip.

That fall basically spelt my doom, as I felt to pairs of serrated wooden teeth start trying to tear into my limbs. That feeling alone caused me to cry out in fear. I like to think I’m not a complete coward, but I feel like believing your about to die allows you to cry out for your life. Anyway, while rolling about on the floor with 2 wolves franticly mauling every part of me that they could get their mouths to fit, I noticed the third wolf was nowhere to be seen. Not only that, but there didn't seem to be any pain from these many bites. If anything, the wolves appeared to be losing many teeth from my assault upon the inside of their mouths.

Ha, looks like metal beats wood I suppose. At this I attempted to stand while one wolf was trying to pin me by my helmet. When I put the effort in, this wolfs endeavour appeared frivolous. It also made it all too easy for me to grip its head with my hooves and squeeze. This resulted in a very loud crunching of poor wolfys skull. Ah well that caused him to let go. The second wolf continued biting at my back legs, to which I responded by doing what all horses want to do and bucking it with both shoes. This then destroyed the second and while spinning around looking for the third I realized it had already been crushed by my earlier fall.

Oh well, me three wolves nil. That green light from the eyes still seems to be present which can’t be good. Yep, just as I thought that the wolves began reforming and attacking. Every time things start to look up it just gets worse, story of my life it would seem. Maybe aiming straight for the green light might put them down for good? Otherwise this is going to be a long unstoppable force vs immovable object situation.

After what felt like an hour of me trying to grab a wolf again, I managed to get one by the neck and pin it to the ground. Well, nothing left now but to stamp it out of existence. The resulting woodchips spread over the surrounding area but the green light remained. What more do you want from me wolf? Come on just go away, leave this plane of existence. Its easy trust me.

Right, new plan, it’s been like 2 hours. Maybe if I grab the lights and keep them away from the wood they’ll dissipate. Sound strategy probably. After catching the fortieth reformed wolf I pulled it's eyes inside of my armour, which the moment they touched the smoke dissipated immediately. I also felt kinda full like I’d just had a full meal. It’s two friends also had a reaction to this. They immediately began whimpering and just ran as fast as their legs could carry them. “You better run!” If I need to eat something I suppose it’s those wolves.

With that sorted I better find my way back to the light. After doing a quick 360 turn, ah that ways got all the destroyed trees from my run so, by my deductive reasoning, I should head in the opposite direction. Onwards to safety.

After way to long, you could say a few hours, a path opened up in the trees and a path means people, so I decided to follow it. Come on town I’m almost safe. The trail wound around a bit between the trees led over a river and finally reached a break in the treeline. “Civilization please,” I couldn’t help but shout with joy. I couldn’t help but run towards it.

Author's Note

This is my first ever story so its probs gonna be bad. Anyways I hope anyone who reads this enjoys.

Edit: I really need to sort this chapter out. People seem to be able to bare it, but I can tell my original way of writing isn't the best. Why am I so lazy? Probably because this chapter would end up three times as long if I rewrite it. There feels like so many things that could happen before the armour meets anyone, not to mention fleshing out the small amount of exploration already present.

4: Griffon Diplomacy

Chapter 4

Well, it’s only been a short time and I’m back enjoying another carriage ride. This time without the shield and angry company. I’ve even got real warm blood running around me, which is pretty nice. Truly things are looking up, or they would be if I wasn’t currently stuck puppeting around a moon pony Princess.

If I didn’t have a conscience, it probably wouldn’t be so bad. Having real eyes and the ability to breath is great, but it’s just kinda wrong to steal someone’s free will like that. What makes it even worse though, is trying to hide my current predicament from the extraordinarily chatty sun pony Princess to my right.

“I do worry about Twilight sometimes,” the pony in question complained about her probable daughter, “she never did show much desire to make friends before I sent her to Ponyville.”

“Right,” That’s what the towns called?

“Its just from these friendship reports she sends me, its hard not to see that she is the cause of a lot of her own issues.”

“I see,” she has to write reports on friendship? What does that even mean?

“For example, do you remember the smarty pants incident?” She asked gesturing a hoof to me.

“Sister how could I ever forget,” Okay, I’m going out on a limb and guessing it's to do with Twilight wearing trousers one day.

“Such blatant disregard for her fellow ponies and using a want it need it spell in such a way, could have caused so much lasting harm to our little ponies, if I hadn’t of stepped in...” Celestia looked down sadly. “All because she was scared of disappointing me.”

Okay, clearly something a bit more went on then a pony wearing dorky trousers. “Come on sister, twilight has clearly improved since those days,” possibly I didn’t really see much of her, “even today she captured that nice friendly suit of armour spirit thing that scared pony town without incident.” Aside from the fact she didn’t do anything but provide me a place to surrender.

“Yes, I suppose your right sister. Thanks for listening, it’s just that I can’t help worrying about my faithful student when she’s so far from home.” It’s only natural for a mother to worry about her daughter.

Celestia, then looked up and smiled at me, or I suppose Luna. “I’ve missed spending time with you Lulu,” oh dear not a heart to heart. “I love how you’ve been so accommodating for me, but I can’t help feeling you’ve been quite withdrawn. For most of this journey you’ve just been listening to my woes, while not revealing your own.”

Okay, brain if you’re up there, it’s time to think of an excuse. “Well sister, I’m just thinking about the rapidly approaching meeting with the griffon government and what we are actually going to be doing.” Nailed it.

Celestia raised an eyebrow, “sister your always work work work. Don’t you want to think about anything else?”

“Look, I just want to be made aware of the nature of our visit, so that a plan can be better formed to deal with the Griffons.” Okay, maybe revealing a bit too much ignorance here.

“Sister we went over this yesterday evening,” Celestia said with a roll of her eyes, “I knew you weren’t paying attention when you said you were just resting your eyes.” Saved by Luna’s unprofessionalness. “Fine here’s the short of it. The griffons have a major food shortage this year, due to their grain supplies being ravaged by a major parasprite infestation. Our mission is to come up with a deal that provides the Griffons a replacement for this grain, while also improving pony griffon relations. Happy now?” Is that all? This sounds like something we should be focusing on full time, with people who are experts in farming and stuff. What would a Princess know about grain anyway?

“Thank you sister, that was all I needed,” I said with the most genuine smile possible. This is going to be a very long day if Luna doesn’t wake up. After that we had a few periods of companionable silence and a few more of Celestia either reminiscing about some past travesty, or her faithful student with me chiming in occasionally with a yes, sure or I remember that.

During one conversation things took a bit of a turn. “I still worry about what could happen should discord break free once…again.” When Celestia looked into my eyes this time she suddenly recoiled in shock. This feels a bit too much like that time with the crème pony in pony town. Okay, might be boned here.

“Is something the matter sister?” I said while tilting Luna’s head, “is there something on my face?”

“No, its fine,” Celestia assured me, “just thought I saw a ghost from our past.” A ghost from their past? Surely, she can’t mean me? I quickly searched the back of the carriage and found the object of my desire in an emergency makeup box. A small hoof held mirror. I scanned Luna’s face for any strange change that could of occurred and wouldn’t you know it, there was one glaringly obvious one staring me right in the face. Luna’s beautiful blue eyes had changed from their regular round pupils to those of a cat. Okay, there’s no way out of this one.

With the panic I felt Luna’s eyes became even more slitted and her ears stood on end “Celestia I can explain.”

“No need sister,” it’s a good job she interrupted me, because I really couldn’t. She really looked upset in the sad kind of way, not the angry one I expected. “I hope you understand Lulu that you have my complete trust,” she said while putting a hoof on Luna’s shoulder, “I know you would never go back to your old ways again.” Huh, wonder what Luna was like before? She probably thinks I’m nervous about this upcoming diplomatic meeting that could affect the fate of potentially millions of Griffons. That does make sense.

After the hours of me being Celestias sounding board, my respite came when a very impressive looking castle appeared on the horizon. This one was less impressive in terms of positioning and more in terms of military effectiveness, with numerous walls towers and gatehouses. These griffons clearly take their defence more seriously than ponies.

“Okay Lulu show time,” Celestia said with a wink as we came into land near a large group of griffon guards. Now these guys were stood at what I can only imagine is perfect attention, wearing their finest ceremonial armour to greet foreign dignitaries and they still looked more intimidating than the angry ponies. They clearly had bigger weapons, more effective armour and not to mention the natural weapons like talons and sharp beaks.

Okay, remain calm, these guys are just trying to put on a show of respect. No instant murdering is going to occur. Unless they have real poor relations with the ponies, they do look like hungry predators. As soon as we landed Celestia elegantly disembarked and began heading down the centre of the lined-up griffons. “Come Sister,” she gestured with a wing for me to follow.

At that I stepped out of the carriage, a little more forcefully then Celestia and had to supress a gulp upon approaching her. Once we were side by side, we continued walking down the line together perfectly in sync while I cast glances at the staring straight ahead griffons. Well, I say in sync but Celestia's legs are a good half a foot longer than Luna’s so I had to take many more steps to keep up. Dammit Luna this is why you eat your greens.

At the end of the two lines, waited a very poshly dressed griffon with a red robe and golden crown. He looked very impressive, apart from the fact he was the same height as the rest of the griffons, maybe even a little shorter. That probably means the griffons choose their leaders based on intellect rather than physical prowess, like the ponies obviously do. I mean both Celestia and Luna are clearly bigger than any other pony around by a large margin, well I guess it pays to have good genes.

When we approached to within two meters of the griffon prince, Celestia suddenly stopped and did a deep bow while lifting one of her hooves and spreading her wings. Obviously, I was totally prepared for this so I stopped right in front of the Prince before raising a hoof for a hoof shake. What happened next was a bit of surprise as the Prince then chose to grasp Luna’s hoof in his talon and lay a light kiss upon it. This prompted me to immediately jerk my hoof back from his grasp.

The Prince then looked to me with a kind smile and said, “Welcome honoured guests Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of Equestria.” Before following with a slight tip of his head to us.

“Greetings Emperor Thunder wing we have much to discuss,” Celestia responded.

Seems like this guy is a few ranks above the lowly Princesses.

“Indeed, we do, would you both be so kind as to follow me. Your pegasus guards will be directed to their accommodation.” He said while turning to walk into the heavily fortified castle. Celestia then decided it would be wise to walk alongside the all-powerful emperor, while her only protection was escorted away. This is just great, now like the lemming I am, I had to do the exact same thing.

During the journey to wherever we were going the tone of conversation changed, “it's good to see you again old friend,” Celestia said to the emperor.

“Yes, if only it was in less dire times.”

“Oh by the way, I’d like to introduce you to my sister,” Celestia said while poking me with a wing.

Well, this is my que “Greetings honourable emperor Thunder Wing. I’ve heard great things about your rule.” That sounds like a princessy thing to say.

“You’re to kind,” he said while looking me up and down, “I’ve heard very little about you since your return, pray tell are the rumours true?”

Now this is confusing “To which are you referring?”

Celestia then cleared her throat to interrupt us, “maybe we could discuss this in a more private setting?”

“Ah if it’s a bit of a sensitive subject I understand,” saved by Celestia, “well I have the perfect room for friendly conversation,” he said as our journey concluded at a door with two guards who proceeded to open it for us. “The two of you must be famished from your journey. The chefs have prepared a number of culinary delights for us to share.” Before heading inside and taking a seat at the head of the table.

“I was under the impression there was some sort of food related issue present?” I couldn’t help but ask, “maybe it would be best for us not to take food away from you?” at that I felt a slight magical shove on my behind pushing me towards the table. That’s a fancy trick sunny.

“Nonsense, nothing but the best for Griffonia's closest allies,” The emperor said, “please take a seat.” At that I relented, he probably thinks it's more important to ensure good relations with us than saving food for his subjects. It's like a calculated risk if he pleases us, Griffonia might get a more beneficial trade deal. I know your game. So now I just had to sit upon the clearly too small chair for Luna’s wide behind. Celestia seemed to manage fine, but to me it was incredibly uncomfortable. I hope they’ve reinforced these seats.

A menu was then brought over with many different meals, “I trust the options to be to your pallets.”

“Oh yes there’s a wide selection of pony suitable meals,” Celestia cheerfully began, “your chefs have truly out done themselves this time Thunder.”

“I agree it looks great”, Okay so what is half this stuff steamed carrots bleh. Hay fries and hay burgers is that even people food? Just look at all those different salads. There had to be something more substantial, so I flipped over the menu. On the other side their were things like Manticore wings and hydra tongue, which could really taste like anything. I wasn't aware this dinner would be such a mine field. Eventually I decided upon something called the full Griffonian. When in Rome and all that.

Celestia looked a tad surprised at my choice, “sister are you sure that’s a wise choice? Why not get the pepper salad with me?” bleh salad.

“Sister the Emperor has offered us the best his nation has to offer. The least we can do is sample the best thing on the menu, which is clearly going to be the dish that possesses the countries name’s sake.” At my apparently haughty sounding voice the emperor let out a deep laugh.

“Ah sisters will be sisters,” he said while shaking his head in amusement, “Luna your taste is indeed impeccable and if the rumours are true you will clearly enjoy it.” What are these rumours dammit.

Celestia, then became slightly more alarmed, “oh erm I’m sure Luna will love it, yes, but not because of any of that.”

“Ok so what’s the rumours then?” I asked Celestia who immediately turned to the waiter to our side.

“Can we order some refreshments for the meal?” well it doesn’t look like an answer is coming.

With our drinks of sweet apple cider delivered, I decided to ask the emperor about the upcoming negotiations. “so Emperor Thunder Wing,” I began.

“Just call me Thunder if I can call you Luna,” he interrupted.

I'm sure Luna would be okay with that, “Ok that’s probably fine. Thunder, are you fully aware of the nature of our visit?”

For a moment the emperor looked a little downcast, “Yes Luna you’re here about the ahem, slight food shortage Griffonia is having. Damn those parasprites.” Whatever those things are.

Celestia, then chose this moment to join in, “exactly we are here to provide aid in the form of food for your people,” well Celestia and Luna are, I’m just the stowaway.

At this, the emperor started to nervously tap his glass, “so what price could we be expecting for such a precious gift?” wish there was an expert on food harvesting in this room.

“A deal of this nature would help connect our two nations through deeper friendship,” Celestia proudly proclaimed, "we ask only for a renewed sense of it with your people." Wow she is a terrible negotiator.

The emperor didn’t seem to like this either, “it would appear you intend to have us be indebted to you in our time of need.”

“How about a trade for some raw resources Griffonia is still producing in abundance? like 1ton of grain for 2ton of unprocessed iron ore” That seems like a fair deal to me, but not to Celestia it seemed as she stealthily batted me on the head with a wing.

Emperor Thunder wing clearly thought the deal had some merits as he started to look quite considerate. “How much food would your people be willing to sell to us?”

Celestia then proudly proclaimed, “our earth ponies are some of the best farmers in the world. They can produce an abundance of food for your people willingly, as everypony is willing to make sacrifices in the name of friendship.” Might be patting ourselves on the back a bit much here.

Another griffon with a clip board then approached the emperor, after a slight claw sign and began whispering information to him. After clearing his throat, he began, “it would appear to help reduce the need for rationing this year we would need an additional 100,000tons of food this year.” I couldn’t help but let Luna's mouth fall open. Its just impossible for me to picture that much food.

Celestia then nonchalantly said, “That seems acceptable.” Wow Equestria can seriously just provide that much food in one go? Where’s our food expert? The griffons have one.

“I see only one flaw in this deal as it stands and that is how we plan to deliver such vast quantities of materials over the required distances.” The emperor again contemplated.

“Maybe we could set up a train line?” I suggested.

“Luna that’s an extremely work intensive task, not to mention the fact that equestrian currently only has the friendship express as its lone locomotive.” Wow that’s what they called their train.

“Sister you have been talking about improving ties between our nations. I believe a joint project of this nature would help solidify our nations bonds,” I happily suggested, “Not to mention that once the train has finished transporting goods it could also facilitate travel for our citizens to experience each other’s cultures. If that isn't friendship forming, I don’t know what is.” Feeling mighty proud at the moment, not going to lie. It's quite clear to see behind Celestias irritation she really wants this to go ahead.

Interrupting our negotiations, the food was brought forth and what a sight mine was. While Celestia had a rather large salad and the emperor had settled for what I can only assume was a manticore wing. I had the greatest gift that could possibly be left before me. Eggs, Bacon, Sausages, hash browns, Black pudding, mushrooms and even beans my favourite meal, I think. The only issue was that being a pony, I’m not sure if Luna can eat this stuff. Feeling her teeth with my tongue led to the pleasant surprise of sharp canines clearly meant for a predator.

I couldn’t help but give my breakfast a long hard sniff, “ah I’ve missed real food.” Now how do ponies eat. Looking to Celestia I could see a glowing golden field around her utensils, causing them to float into the air before expertly cutting up her food and delivering it to her mouth. Welp, that ain’t happening for me. I’ll practice that on my own time. Okay, so the emperor is picking up the utensils with his claws, that can’t be too hard. These hooves seem a bit less fit for purpose really.

With nothing else for it I pressed Luna’s hoof to the fork and found it stuck by some unknown force. Thank you magic, pony land. The task of eating came next and let me tell you I indulged as much as possible mixing the egg with the sausage. Eating bacon alongside the black pudding everything just went down so easily, I couldn’t help letting out a few moans at the intense desire I felt for the food. Once it had evaporated from my plate, I began to lick what yoke I could off the plates surface to ensure I got every scrap. During that licking, I noticed Lunas’s tongue was quite similar to a lizards with a fork in the end. Huh, who knew.

After I’d finished the gourmet meal I laid back in my undersized chair and sighed before noticing the looks I was getting off of my fellow diners. Celestia's was one of barely hidden disgust, while the emperors was one of extreme interest. Both of them had hardly touched their meals in the process, with how interesting my show must have been.

“All I can say is compliments to the chef,” I said before letting out a burp, “Excuse me.”

“So there is at least some truth to those rumours,” the emperor stated with a smile while returning to his own meal. “Its good to see a pony enjoying a proper meal.”

Celestia, looking a little woozy then said, “oh no, Luna’s just showing how anypony can appreciate fine Griffon cuisine if they want.” Before looking back at me in my almost food coma, “she wouldn’t normally choose the meat of an animal, its not really a thing pony’s can well, digest.” Woops.

Ah well, at least I got something good out of this nightmare. Deciding due to the overwhelming bulge in my stomach to lay on the table for a few minutes seemed like the next most sensible thing to do. My two fellow diners continued to converse, while I just stared at the ceiling for the next ten minutes. Existing is pretty good all thing considered.

As the meal was coming to a close, I noticed something peculiar in the ceiling beams. Up above us hiding in the rafters was a strange looking griffon dressed in black. The strangest thing about this individual, was his glowing green eyes. Without them I probably never would have noticed anything at all. This emperor didn’t really trust us as much as he says if he’s got a crossbow wielding guard hiding up there the whole time. I'ts strange though that griffon appears to be pointing his crossbow at the emperor instead of us. That prompted me to sit back up. Why would he be doing that?

Upon seeing me looking up, the emperor’s faithful guard took aim and I suddenly realized the situation. While Celestia and the emperor were discussing some inane event at something called the grand galloping gala, the Griffin loosed his shot. I had just a second to act and my choice may not have been the best but hey time was short. I attempted to jump across the table landing squarely in the middle splitting it in half. This gave me just enough reach to put Luna's hoof in the way of the shot. Simultaneously my armour spread up her foreleg causing the arrow to harmlessly bounce off. “ASSASSIN,” I then screamed at the top of Luna’s lungs before scrambling in front of the still bewildered emperor.

At my valiant scream for help, the two griffon guards outside the door rushed into the room. They then bore witness to the sight of the assassin attempting to escape out the window before they grabbed them and dragged them away kicking and screaming.

“I’m really sorry about your meals,” I then looked back, “and the table.” I couldn’t help the sheepish grin that formed. I then quickly reduced the armour back to normal on Luna’s foreleg. Don’t want to get myself into trouble or anything.

“LULU are you ok? Did it get you?” Celestia began frantically asking as she grasped a hold of me with both hooves, “I thought I’d lost you for a second there.” She then began hugging me which probably would have been nice if it didn’t squeeze out all of the life-giving air. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you like that again, okay?”

The emperor then cleared his throat at our display, “well that’s the second one this month,” he said before turning to me, “I didn’t want to be, but I suppose my dear I am in your debt, Thank you.” Second this month? Wow this guy is not popular. Well, that’s what happens when your country has some turmoil. He then again grabbed my hoof and laid a light kiss upon it. “I believe it would be best if the two of you were to retire to your rooms while we investigate this mess,” he gestured to his table. I said I was sorry. “In the morning we can discuss more about this train idea of yours. It appears to have many merits.” At that he wandered off after his guards.

A lone griffon servant then nervously approached us, “would the two of you be so kind as to follow me?” We both gave an affirmative and off we went to our rooms.

Outside the door to Luna’s room Celestia said one last thing, “Luna today you’ve made me very proud. If you weren’t here, I don’t know what would have happened.” She then gave me a light hug before entering her own room. Well, that’s just a free pass to me really, as if I wasn’t present birdy would be dead. Great success. I even had a skip in my step as I entered my room.

Okay, I might feel pretty good, but there is one final thing that could make today. “Come on Luna wake up”. After a number of attempts at returning the moon princess to her former glory, I decided to sleep in the provided bed. All that can be said about that bed is it’s a welcome sight for sore eyes, my first time ever sleeping after returning to existence, I can’t wait.

Author's Note

They love their bed almost as much as me.

18: Learning to Fly

Chapter 18

Of all the methods of flight I've used, including carriages, being worn by a panicking friend and being worn by a panicking enemy. Being carried precariously in the hooves of a rapidly rising pegacorn, is the new worst.

Granted, Loony is holding on pretty tight and I'm fairly certain she wouldn't drop me on purpose. It’s just that, well, all my limbs are being dragged behind me and my mist is barely keeping up. For flight, we'll never beat the self-contained box of a carriage.

After a few more moments of displeasure from the wind rushing through my mist, I was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of a spongey material on my shoes. Loony, was gradually lowering me to some sort of heavenly material and even appeared to ensure I was comfortable before gradually loosening her grip.

“Phew, We were worried thou may hast fallen through,” came some slightly relieved words from above me.

“Why would I have fallen?” I decided to ask, while looking up to my winged saviour. Sadly, my eye holes could only see her rear, as she rapidly flew away. Heh, she wouldn’t have let me fall. Saying that, technically I did fall over as I’m laying down, but who cares? I’m comfortable.

How did she make this weird bed stuff in the sky anyway? Oh no, it’s a cloud, isn’t it? Never knew I could stand on these. Guess if I’d seen the griffons can do it, it should have been obvious they were solid. With that discovery, I thought it would be best to sit up a little and watch Loony fly around. Wonder what she’s actually doing? She, hopefully, hasn't just left me up here as a joke.

After a little bit of flying, it appeared Loony’s target was another fluffy cloud, which she happily grabbed in her forehooves and began pushing towards me. I’m so gonna ask her if she can bring one of these things into my room. A cloud bed is probably amazing. Or, would that fill my room with water when it melts? At least it would probably fix my slight bug infestation.

Once my friend had pushed her own cloud mattress nearby, she immediately perched upon it with a look of pride, “We are here, Eclipse. We would have cometh sooner, but the weather ponies had done such an excellent job, there was only a sparse number of clouds available.”

Weather ponies? Do they make it rain on purpose? Do they manufacture clouds, or do they just move them away from their cities? This world really has some peculiar laws of physics.

Rather than bore my favourite pony with questions about her reality, I decided a "thank you" was in order. “You know Loony, I really appreciate that rescue earlier. Twilight was seriously getting on my nerves.” Does it make sense to thank her for taking me to sleep heaven as well? Clouds might be my new favourite thing, aside from dark blue pegacorns anyway.

“'Tis our pleasure, Eclipse. Thy well-being is of importance to us,” the dark blue pegacorn said, while attempting to make her wings look presentable.

“Well thanks anyway,” I replied, before steadily returning to my lazing position. It’s gone from a terrible day in Twilight’s lab, to a wonderful day, lazing on a cloud with Loony. Nothing gets better.

A few minutes of welcomed genial silence went by, until a sudden throat clear originated from my companion. This prompted me to slightly lift my helmet and provide her my attention, “Hmm?”

She was still sitting where she’d landed and was levelling a pretty heavy, curious head tilt at me, “art thou really so tired after young Twilight’s experiments?”

“Not really. I just thought we were enjoying some pleasant time together on fluffy clouds,” I said lazily, while continuing my vacant glance in her direction from cloud heaven. There is no other reason to be up here really, unless…

Loony’s sudden laughter broke me from my musings, “we can still enjoy the clouds together, friend. We were just intending for thy time to be slightly more productive, while similarly enjoyable.”

With that, I rolled onto my front, pointing myself at the amused pegacorn, before cautiously asking, “What did you have in mind?” I really hope it isn’t flight training, because I can tell that’s exactly what it’s going to be.

The blue fluffball decided to wander up to my lazing position, and put a tentative hoof on my pauldron before proving me right, “We thought thou would relish the opportunity to be taught by thy ward. Were We mistaken?”

This is really nice of her to offer, but we’re actually on a fluffy cloud. Can’t we just lay down? “Luna, I’m honoured by your offer, but…” I began, before stalling at the realization that my excuse sucked. What was worse, was the steady loss of my friend’s pretty smile. Oh, why do I suck? She gets me out of an experiment, then gives me a present…

With that, my thoughts turned to the feather sticking out of my helmet. Of course! The excuse is obvious, “Isn’t your wing hurting? It might be best for you to lay down here with me until it recovers.” Ha, nailed it. Now we’ll just have to continue with the quality relaxing time. Maybe she could be my pillow?

Sadly, it appeared my plan was unsuccessful, as Loony just rolled her eyes at that before retracting her hoof, “Come now, Eclipse. It was just one primary. Flesh and blood creatures may not be as sturdy as thou, but we alicorns can still take more punishment than that.”

Whoops, damage control. “I wasn’t trying to imply you were weak, or anything like that.” Wow, those words flew out way faster than I would have liked.

Thankfully, my friends next words proved I hadn’t caused any offense, “We are well aware, ‘tis very sweet that thou cares for our wellbeing.” She then sat back while extending her wings for me to see. “But as thou can see, our wings are still in top condition.”

Her display would have likely had a greater effect if I understood how "top condition" wings were meant to look. Which wing did the primary even come from? I can’t tell. Oooh, maybe that’s the point? From the way she was stood waiting, Loony clearly wanted some sort of response. “Your wings are very impressive.” Compliments are always a good fall back.

True to form, Loony accepted the compliment, “We are well aware of our alicorn nature.” She then folded her wings, before reaching forward with a hoof, preparing to pull on mine. “Now come, let us inspect thine own set. We must see what we are working with.”

While stifling a groan due to my failure, I relented and displayed both misty wings. Loony then wasted no time with the review, “hmmm, they look very interesting. May We touch them?” She practically is already.

“Well, apparently you’re my owner, so sure,” I decided to joke. To be honest, she doesn’t really need permission for that. We normally end up with a wing across each other at some point in the day anyway, usually during night court.

“We know thou art aware, We do not think so little of thyself,” was Loony’s nonchalant response, before she began running her hoof over my misty appendage. “Thy wings have a very interesting design. They seem to be capable of channelling incredibly large quantities of magic. A decent quality in any set.”

“Thanks, I made them myself,” I said, while sitting up fully. Might as well act like I’m up for this, which I really should be.

Loony then removed her hoof from my wing and kept it at chest height, “Art thou ready now?”

All I could do was shrug non committedly, “I’m ready if you are.” Fine, she did save my rear back there and she is sort of doing this as a gift for me. I should really stop complaining.

At my words, the pegacorn gained a cheeky knowing smile, “Excellent, hast thou ever heard of the modern phrase, thrown in at the deep end?”

That got a tilt of my head, “I’m quite familiar with modern language, so yes.” Why would she ask that?

Before the gears could finish turning within my helmet, my best friend in the whole world simply said, “good.” Then, using her already raised hoof, she pushed me off of the cloud, to the music of her laughter.

Due to how absurd the situation was, my first reaction was to think, "there is no way she just did that." This was quickly followed up about a millisecond later by a little scream of, “Looooonnyy whhhyyyyyyy?!”

Okay, okay, what do I do? Looking down below me, Canterlot Castle appeared to be rapidly approaching. Why would Loony betray me? It was this moment I realized there was a fluffy blue shape falling headfirst next to me. She appeared to just be watching me fall. Thank goodness, a lifeline. Sadly, her reaction to noticing me looking, was to stick her tongue out, which might have amused me if it was in any other situation.

Well, that’s just incredibly rude, but it doesn’t matter. “Loony, please, help!” I desperately yelled. It might have sounded a bit pathetic, but falling 10000feet isn’t on my to do list. Loony is sure to help me, forgetting the fact she caused this situation.

Luckily, my pathetic words didn’t fall on deaf ears and the blue angel decided to provide aid, of a sort. “Extent thy wings.” It wasn’t really that helpful to be honest.

“What?” Still falling.

“We said extend thy wings.”

“Huh? Oh, okay.” When she said in at the deep end, she really meant it. Following her advice, I opened my wings wide, hoping to at least slow my fall. “Now what?” My descent doesn’t feel any slower.

With that, Loony gracefully spun behind me out of view. I was about to ask her where she was going, until a sudden feeling of her hooves pulling on my wings began, “Dost thou feel a tug from the air?”

“I think so?” I can definitely feel something tugging, but I’m not quite sure if that’s just a set of hooves.

“Excellent, try to hold thy wings steady and thy form should angle into a glide,” she said entirely confident in my apparent abilities. So confident in fact she decided to let go.

“Oh, erm, okay.” Well here goes nothing. Holding my wings as steady as possible in the provided orientation, was actually fairly easy. The only problem was that the promised glide never seemed to materialise. In fact, the tug she mentioned clearly disappeared upon her release of my wings.

Everything’s fine, I’ve probably made a mistake somewhere. It’s not like Loony would let me hit the ground, right? With that thought, I decided to look at the rapidly approaching ground. Okay, that is way closer than it should be. Well seems it’s time for my inevitable rescue.

Looking up for my guardian angel caused a little bit of worry to surface. She did appear to be flying towards me with her hooves outstretched, but the ground felt like it was approaching at a much faster rate. It didn’t entirely dawn on me that she wouldn’t catch up, until I saw her face fall before scrunching up in concentration. This caused her horn to glow and some tasty magic to feed into me. Sadly, this did nothing to affect the rate of my decent.

The panic I’d felt at the initial fall returned full swing, prompting me to begin wildly flapping my wings in a vain attempt to stave off the impact. My final act of attempting to defy gravity’s wishes, was to once again call out, “LOOOOOONY!” before I inevitably collided with the castle courtyard ground. This resulted in an incredible clank as the world suddenly became very dark.

Well, that went well. At least it never hurt. It appeared the front half of my armour had become firmly wedged into the ground, with my rear legs lying a not too inconsiderable distance away. Deciding to rectify my situation as quickly as possible, I magnetted my rear legs into position before immediately heaving my helmet out of the ground. This allowed me to once again, see the sweet, sweet light.

Can’t believe she let me hit the ground, was all I could think, while scraping off the layer of dirt that now covered me. Some even needed to tipped out of my shoes. Everyone hates having a stone in their shoe.

As my bearings returned, I couldn’t help noticing the courtyard was not as devoid of life as I’d initially hoped. Numerous day and night guards appeared to have turned their attention away from whatever they were doing to view my interesting interruption. Feeling the embarrassment of their numerous eyes, I couldn’t remain silent, “erm, sorry for damaging your training area.” This prompted a few of them to review the crater my uncontrolled decent had produced.

Seeing as I had the undivided attention of the masses, it made sense to put it to use, “Have any of you seen Princess Luna by chance? We got separated up there.” I finished by pointing to the sky.

To my fortune, many of the guards raised their hooves and pointed to somewhere off to my side. A few appeared to be wearing pretty large smiles, for whatever reason. Suppose that’s a good thing, really. It means my little show didn’t scare them.

With the helpful reply, I decided to nod and say “thanks” to the guards before going to look for my traitorous friend. Sadly, I didn’t turn my helmet in the direction they pointed fast enough, as a sudden impact from a blue blur soon catapulted me back skyward. I’m not too proud to admit that the surprised sound I produced, likely wasn’t the most dignified. Especially due to the voracious laughter that faded with gained altitude. Damn those guards.

After a few moments of the terrifying rapid ascent back into the air, I found myself deposited back onto my safety cloud. When my betrayer landed next to me, I couldn’t quite help gripping it tighter.

From the disarming smile my betrayer was giving me, you wouldn’t believe she’d just thrown me from my safe haven, “Thou hast quite a terrifying battle cry for one falling uncontrolled as thou did.”

Erm, yes, a manly battle cry. She then lost some of her smile, “That being said, for thy first attempt, We shall admit it was not quite as impressive as We had first hoped.”

“You threw me off.”

Rather than pay attention to my complaint, my teacher began making a list, “For starters, We believe the angle of thy wings may have been incorrect to maintain a glide.” She put them in that angle. “Second, We believe thine uncontrolled flaps prevented any form of lift and…” Luna suddenly appeared very embarrassed before continuing, “more importantly, We are sorry for our failure to catch thou. Thy fall was akin to that of an anvil’s and We failed to predict that eventuality.”

“Can’t believe you threw me off.” My desire to complain may have distracted me from Luna's words.

Loony gave me an understanding look, “Come now, Eclipse Every pegasus learns by crashing a little.”

However, that didn’t really deter my accusations, “You threw me from a height taller than the clouds.”

The pegacorn decided to continue as if that was an everyday occurrence, “We went for the increased height to give thou more time to practice, before regrettably… meeting the ground.”

I decided to rest my helmet on the cloud, still full of disbelief, “I still can’t believe it.”

“Art thou mad at me?” She said with notes of genuine concern.

“No, it’s just I can’t…”

Her concern quickly fled after my no, resulting in a swift interruption, likely hoping to end my train of thought. “Yes, yes you cannot believe it. Dost thou not remember that We were fully informed of thy fall from the Everfree castle bridge, nay? Thou did not suffer even the most minor of scrapes, and even mentioned how it was only an inconvenience due to the required climb out. A poor pegasus would not have just found such a severe fall inconvenient, but would have likely struggled to ever rise again from such trauma. Did thou forget?”

Why do I tell people things? To be honest that last fall was nowhere near as bad as the Everfree one. For starters there wasn’t any rocks to hit on the way down. At the blue furball's apparent logic, I decided to relent, “Fine. Just wish you’d warned me.” That deep end stuff is a terrible idea. Imagine going to a child, "hey you, as an inexperienced swimmer, why not jump in that large body of water that could easily drown you?"

My final complaint gained me a pensive look, before Loony had an idea, “maybe some of the guards should be assigned to catch thou? It may make our next attempt less... stressful.”

That seems like a good idea on paper, but what if I hit one and they’re flattened? Don’t think I want an injured guard on my conscience. “Loony, it’s fine. We don’t need to bother the guards. Hitting the ground doesn’t hurt anyway.”

“If thou insist,” my friend began, before regaining her good-natured smile, “art thou ready for another try?” Well, at least she isn’t going for another surprise.

“I’m never going to be ready,” I half joked. Pretty sure nothing was learned other than how fast I can fall.

In response Loony stifled a laugh, before pointing a wing off the edge of my safety cloud.

Fine then, I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be. Steadily I got to my shoes, extended my wings and gave the encouraging pegacorn one last look, hoping for mercy. As she never stopped pointing, I just sighed before jumping to my inevitable doom.

This time, the fall was a little less daunting, as I knew Luna had likely jumped behind me, “Erm, am I doing it?”

A pull on my wings was the answer I received, as my friend attempted to hold them in position. “Thou should be gaining some lift at this angle.”

That pull is just her hooves again, isn’t it? “Not sure if I can feel anything.”

“Hmmm, it appears thy wings might not be up to the task after all. We shall take thou back to the cloud and investigate.”

After hearing Loony casually state flight was potentially impossible for me, more than a little irritation surged into my helmet. Am I too heavy? Oh, that’s just brilliant. It’s taken smashing into the ground a second time, to work out, flight might never have been on the cards. This time I’m at least going to stick that landing.

Rather than calling to Loony for aid, thus risking her safety, I decided to try and take the fall like a champ. Quickly I rotated my body, so my shoes were below me and held onto my parts as rigidly as possible. This did mean I had to close my wings, for the fat load of good they were doing me. Closing my wings did have the side effect of pulling them out of Loony’s grasp, eliciting a cry of surprise. I’m probably falling too fast for her to stop anyway.

When my form met the ground this time, I landed upon all fours, didn’t face plant and never lost a single part. The resounding clang remained, but that seemed fine to me. What made my successful landing all the sweeter, was the mild cheer from a newly formed crowd of guards, who apparently had taken great interest in my training. While bowing to said audience, I couldn’t help thinking of how I’d managed to pull off an actual super hero landing. It was still terrifying and if I had knees, they likely would have exploded, but it got the job done.

Even Luna decided to congratulate me after landing at my side, “That was a most impressive display and a most efficient method of travel might We add. Maybe We do not need to catch thou?” Probably should have told her I was aiming to land unassisted.

“Efficient in one direction,” I then mimed travelling straight down with a shoe, which made me worry for a moment, “Erm, Loony, do I have dents in my shoes?” That landing felt harder than I'd like.

My friend made a show of inspecting both of my held up foreshoes. Even slowly rubbing the bottom of one with a hoof, which, it turns out, is actually quite ticklish. Who knew? “Nay friend, thine appearance is as impeccable as always. Now come, We have another idea.” She then immediately spread her wings and moved towards me. This gave me enough time to think not again, before we once again rocketed into the sky and I was carefully dumped upon the cotton ball.

Before I could reacquaint myself with my new favourite spot, Loony explained her newest theory, “We believe thy wings are too ethereal for flight. Thou will likely need to make them more physical to more effectively catch the wind.”

That feels like a guess. It also made me think about the fundamentals of pegasus flight a bit more, “How do you fly anyway? Your wings don’t look big enough either.”

From the immediate reaction of Loony rapidly folding her wings, it was pretty clear I’d said something wrong, “Dost thou believe our proportions to be on the heavy side?”

Damage control, “Wo, I’m not calling you fat or anything. Celestia’s way bigger than you.”

“We are glad thou agree. Our sister is definitely in need of a diet,” came the thoughtful reply.

That was not what I was implying at all. “Look, I just meant when I’ve seen birds fly, their wings are much larger in comparison to the rest of their body. In contrast a pegasus has relatively small wings. Shouldn’t that make pegasus flight dependant on magic or something?”

Loony actually appeared surprised by my observation, “We are glad thou can make such observations of flesh and blood creatures. We know how different they are to thee.” Hey! I understand how other creatures exist fine.

She then followed up with her educational tone, “While magic does play a large roll in a pegasus’s flight, their wings air displacement also plays an important role. We believe thou shalt need to make thine wings more rigid.”

Well, we are already up here, so why not give it a shot? With that I pulled the feather Luna gave me out of my helmet, and gave it a quick review. This gained me a mild approving look from the pegacorn. Once my evaluation was completed, I replaced the feather and began filling out my spectral wings with silver metallic copies.

Upon completion Loony simply said, “Ooo, very fancy. Thou appear more than ready for another round.” Before once again gesturing off the edge with a wing.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't try and catch me this time, I got this,” was the last thing I said, before jumping to the inevitable.

One more failure and this time an oooo from the audience for messing up the landing later, and I found myself once again deposited upon the safety cloud.

“Okay, Loony. I think it’s probably time to give up,” This is getting more than a little frustrating now to be honest.

Sadly, my taxi service didn’t agree, “We believe thou almost had it. Did thou not notice the fall take slightly longer?”

“I’m one hundred percent certain, I fell straight down. Those craters are right next to each other.” I said with my helmet hanging off the clouds edge.

“Come now. We should go again. We could attempt to hold onto thou throughout the entire flight, if it is thy wish?” Loony gently suggested. It’s not a flight, it’s not even a glide.

“I said no Luna. You won’t have a courtyard left if we continue.”

The pegacorn decided to try clutching at straws, “The guards don’t mind. It gives our drill instructors something to yell at them for.” There is no way that that was a positive.

“Can we just relax together on this fluffy cloud. It’s over.” I pleaded while beckoning for her to lay on the cloud.

“Come on, please. We do not want thou to miss out on the joys of flight,” she then began giving me the patented pony eyes. Unluckily for her, I’m way to embarrassed by failure for them to change my mind. Seeing how her pity stare was ineffective, Loony attempted to be physically encouraging, by gliding over with her hooves outstretched, ready to pick me up, “maybe We could carry thou through the movements the entire way? We know we can carry thy weight. We shall just go slow.”

This got me to stand up in an attempt to get my point across, “No, I’ve given up.”

The pegacorn didn’t seem to like the idea that I’d entirely given up, and again tried to guilt me into continuing, “We are trying our best to help thee.”

While she was very effective in her attempts to make me feel guilty, she also needs to learn when to take no as an answer. I decided to get eye level with the flying pegacorn, by standing on my rear shoes, which was actually a lot easier than I remembered, before pathetically proclaiming, “Look Luna. I’m really sorry that I can’t fly. I know my failure is disappointing, but it’s just not in my wheel house.” Really wish it was possible.

Rather than pay attention to my sad little rant, Loony appeared to be staring at the cloud in thought. “Erm, what are you looking at?” I’ve upset her, haven’t I?

In response, she decided to land and take a closer look at my rear shoes for some reason. She even let out a slight hmmm sound, as if I’d given her another terrible idea.

“Okay, what is it?” I decided to ask, after once again returning to all fours.

“We believe thou could be correct that pegasus flight is not currently conceivable.” Glad we can finally agree. “But maybe another form of flight is available? We wish to do a quick test and then we promise, if thou wishes, to join thee on this cloud.”

Well, I knew how to answer that, “you said no more experiments on Eclipse today. We were both there and I’m sure we have two witnesses.”

My half joke rewarded me with a slight wince, before the pegacorn reverted to her teaching voice, “An experiment related to teaching. We promise that thou will not feel anything harmful happen. Besides maybe falling on the, fluffy, cloud.” She decided to place extra emphasis on the fluffy in an attempt to entice me.

This is starting to remind me of when Celestia decided to cut off a piece of my mist. Nevertheless, I remained stood upon the cloud ready and willing, “If you zap me, I’m jumping off and going to bed.”

“All thou will need to do is stand up and look straight ahead. Don’t look anywhere else.”

“Fine.”

She then put her muzzle near the side of my helmet and whispered, “Thou must try thy best not to move at all.”

“I’m feeling a little déjà vu.” If this ends up with Twilight jumping out of the woodwork to try and suck out my soul again, I swear down.

Instead of the evil horse attack I was expecting, Loony just casually picked up both of my fore shoes and pushed them against my chest piece.

“Okay, now what?” this plan of hers, seems a little strange.

Instead of answering, the moon pony began casually walking around me, “You’ll see. Just keep thy shoes still.”

This inspired me to sigh once again, “okay.” When can I look?

She then decided to repeat the same action once again with my rear shoes. Placing them both against my rear. What’s that part of armour called again?

When she walked back in front of me, her face was beaming, “Well isn’t this extraordinary?”

“Have we achieved something?” I asked cautiously. This kind of seems like a waste of time.

She appeared to become a little curious without losing the smile, “Hast thou truly not noticed any difference?”

Any difference? So, she has done something. “Hmm, it feels a little more difficult to balance. Maybe a little magic drain?” They were the only differences I could think of and they were pretty negligible.

Loony just nodded in an understanding fashion, “Ah, wonder why that is? Maybe thou should investigate?”

Okay, somethings clearly up. Upon looking down, the realization should have been obvious. It also resulted in my instant collapse onto the fluffy surface. Before I’d noticed, not a single one of my shoes were holding me off the clouds surface.

The sight must have been pretty comical, as Loony immediately laughed at my discovery, “We always wondered how thou stayed up.”

“I, I actually flew?” I said in astonishment. Well, seems Loony’s persistence might have actually paid off.

“We believe it was more along the lines of floated,” Luna analysed, before putting a hoof on her muzzle in thought, “it appears a psychological barrier is all that prevents thou from taking to the air.”

“To be honest, I never really thought I’d fly after that first failure,” I mentioned a little ashamed at the connotations. It’s probably been my negative attitude holding me back this whole time. If it wasn’t for Loony, I’d be asleep instead, probably brooding over my earlier unpleasant experiences.

The next hour was spent with Luna repeating numerous tricks to try and get me to float, and then maintain the feat once it was achieved. Most of the early attempts ended in instant failure, but at the 30-minute mark, Loony had gotten me to reliably float subconsciously, basically on command. It took the rest of the hour for me to finally figure out how to balance on nothing at will. When the feat was achieved however. Well, the feeling was practically euphoric.

Looking down below me and wiggling all four shoes in the air, actually proved our time had been well spent, “I can’t believe we actually did it.” It was a group effort after all.

“We are truly proud of thine achievement, but now, we must move onto the next step.” Luna was casually stood to my side, lowering her hooves, seeing no further need to lift me up.

Her declaration surprised me a little and with some new found enthusiasm I asked, “What’s step two?”

“We believe that should be obvious,” she calmy spoke, as she walked to the opposite side of the cloud. She then sat facing me and outstretched her hooves in my direction, “Come to us friend.” Okay, she may be acting like I’m a foal learning to walk for the first time, but I probably deserve it.

Without any further prompting, I began flapping my pseudo wings a couple of times. This only caused me to wobble around in the air until I again rebalanced. Looking up at my friend I then asked, “how?” Seeing as she clearly had all the answers.

“We shall have to learn together.”

A slight groan of disappointment escaped me. Well, that isn’t what I wanted to hear. It’s ok, I’m not going to be ungrateful. Really wish we’d call it a night.

After a few attempts at movement, where at one point I tried to push off the cloud, Loony decided it would be best to lower my safety cloud out of reach. This had the unintended consequences, of allowing me to see the long fall that awaited if my concentration lapsed for a moment. “Erm Loony? I liked that cloud.”

“Thou hast nothing to fear from the fall. Even if thy concentration should fail, all that will happen is another crater. Remember, thou hast nothing to fear from falling,” the pegacorn reassured. Another crater, or a flattened guard. Wonder if any of them are still down there? It’s been quite a while.

Numerous attempts were made to move me through the air. These included flapping wildly, which Loony found mildly irritating. Attempting to run in the air, which my friend actually encouraged and finally swimming, which Loony found the most amusing likely due to my lack of equine swimming knowledge. The only real movement I achieved, was when my friend pushed me around like one of the clouds.

I will admit to maybe giving up a little bit. Allowing my shoes to just dangle below me, while Loony flew around with the occasional word of encouragement. Really wish I had her confidence. This is basically hopeless. Just need to look on the bright side. At least I’m not stuck with Twilight.

With that thought, my gaze drifted back to the window we’d escaped from hours before. What I beheld would have taken my breath away, if I had any. Through the window I could see two Twilights. One with her patented clipboard and another glowing green copy sitting there looking bored. Poor little bug, maybe we shouldn’t have sacrificed her to the purple menace? After a word from the real pony, the Twilight clone flashed green and turned into a perfect copy of Celestia, that immediately flourished it’s wings. Oh yeah, that reminds me, she can probably blast her tormentor if needs be. She did take out both pegacorns. Now wouldn’t that be terrible?

A misheard shout from my friend, pulled me from my musings, “Sorry, what was that?”

“We said, hast thou attempted to use thy spirit mist in anyway?” Loony quickly repeated, while flying off to my side.

“Erm, I’ll give it a try now.” I said a little sheepishly. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh yeah, it’s because she’s been the ruler of a country for thousands of years, while I’m some idiot spirit that just sat on his rear within the void. Some people have all the luck. Excluding that nasty business with her banishment of course. Okay, she hasn’t been that lucky.

As soon as I figured out how to use my mist to push backwards against the air, I received a decent amount of thrust steadily propelling me forward. This gave me the idea to return my wings to their once misty form. More mist means more propellant, right? It turned out my theory was correct as I floated forward at a respectable jogging speed with a short trail of mist behind me.

With my newfound ability, I immediately began flying straight towards Loony, who was waiting for me in the air. “I’m actually doing it,” I couldn’t help exclaiming in delight. Seems hard work does pay off. Who knew?

“Impressive work for one night it would seem,” the moon pony said in congratulations.

As she was waiting in my path, I inevitably collided with her in what amounted to a slow car crash, which I decided to disguise as an intentional attempt at a hug, before apologising, “Oops, sorry Loony. For the crash and… being a terrible student. I’d love for you to teach me more.” She’s actually really patient to be putting up with my constant whining. Especially for something that only really benefits me. I might have actually put Celestia on the sick.

“Really?” Loony exclaimed happily, before gladly returning my intentional hug. She then looked to the moon she had raised half an hour ago and said in a hopeful tone, “The night is still young and there is much for thee to learn.”

It took me a monumental amount of effort to suppress a groan at that. I meant at a later date.

Before I could come up with a decent excuse for us to retire, Loony smiled warmly and leaned in closer, “Is thou interested in trying a real pair of alicorn wings?” She then casually flicked her wings a couple of times.

“Huh,” was all that came out of my helmet. That could be fun.

Que five minutes later and Luna was flying in a slightly wonky fashion, while donning me.

Without warning she suddenly said, “Okay then. Eclipse bank right.” Trying my best to follow her instructions I tucked in her legs and reangled her feathery wings. This resulted in the desired change in direction and gained me some additional praise, “Well done. We knew thou had been mimicking the correct motions first try.” Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.

“Thou appear to have basically mastered pegasus flight. Maybe we should make this more interesting? Would it be possible for thou to put more of thine magic into our wings?” The pegacorn asked coyly.

“Erm ok, I’ll give it a shot,” I replied without much confidence. I’ve sort of done it before on instinct, how hard can it be? Apparently not very as I easily pushed a large quantity of my magic into Loony’s wings. This elicited a cry of surprise from my wearer, as we suddenly accelerated.

Due to the direction we were flying, we would have smashed straight into Canterlot castle, had the surprised pegacorn not reacted quickly enough. Instead, she turned us to the right, resulting in an incredible smash into the courtyard, likely leaving a much larger crater than any previous.

Upon crashing, I immediately checked on my wearer, “Loony! Are you ok!” Before scrambling to dig us out of the ground. She could have broken her neck or anything! “I’m so sorry, the boost was just so unexpected.”

It took me a moment to realize, after removing Loony’s head from the ground, that she was laughing almost uncontrollably. Really hope that isn’t a sign of brain damage.

Luckily, Loony quickly started to put my mind at ease, “That was fantastic Eclipse! Let us try again; we should be able to breach the sound barrier with ease.”

“Does that mean you’re okay?” I asked incredulously. Not sure it’s a good idea to attempt flying like that after such a major failure.

This prompted her to giggle once again, “We are more than okay. That was most exhilarating. Come, we only have a few hours left with which to practice.”

It was impossible for me to suppress my groan of disappointment at her words, which she clearly misinterpreted. “We are sorry Eclipse, but we shall have to stop to take part in night court,” the pegacorn said sympathetically, inspiring me to groan again. Can’t we just skip night court and lay on the cloud?

As I’d already stood us up, Luna quickly spread her wings before rocketing us back into the sky, “We believe thy power boost shall prove to be most useful.”

Author's Note

This chapter really hurt my head to write, but it's finally done and sleep can commence.
Just kept thinking, I may have made Eclipse too irritable from his earlier experiences that day, but oh well.

34: Border Issues

As I made my ascent over the hoard of minotaurs, I couldn’t help debating on whether or not this was the best idea to have followed through on. In fact, it wasn’t clear if there were any real ideas going through my airy helmet besides, Luna is that way, so that’s where I need to go. Honestly, this could be the single stupidest decision an apparently loyal tin can like me could make.

Below my rapidly floating form, the organised ranks of metal clad bulls had begun rushing around and calling out to one another. Seemingly, to me, in a completely disorganised fashion. Hopefully they were realizing there was nothing the ground bound fleshies could do to prevent my passage over their territory. The place everyone told me not to go, including Loony. Best not to think about that part.

“ECLIPSE!” Rang out a loud familiar scream from Shining Armor, which brought my attention back to the Equestrian line I’d just abandoned. Turning my helmet, gave me just enough time to see a large purple dome envelope the entirety of the royal guard stationed there. A couple of thestrals could be seen bouncing off the inside of the shield as it appeared, possibly meaning they wanted to join me. Well, if they can’t get through, hopefully it means the minotaurs can’t get through either.

Looking across the wide-open field into the distance, the consistent flashes of Luna’s magic could clearly be seen, marking my destination. I couldn’t really make out her above average size pony form, but it was quite clear there was another large source of orange magic just beside her. This magic also flashed with obvious use.

The sight of these flashes helped solidify my choice to disobey my Loony. If I’d waited for reinforcements, or permission, I might not have made it before something terrible happened. If it’s nothing, Luna can be as mad with me all she wants, while I take whatever punishment deemed necessary for my actions. Yeah, hopefully that’s what’ll happen. Experiencing a few years of jail time will be well worth the risk. It would be nothing compared to the void.

Another bright flash of magic distracted me from my musings, making me curse the comparatively slow speed of my floating. Don’t get me wrong, my floating rate isn’t too bad now, but it pales in comparison to what pegasi are capable of. Wonder if one of those thestrals would have worn me? With a power boost, they could potentially have doubled my speed. Not to mention the fact that those guys have actual fighting skills, unlike me.

The ringing of deep bellows continued below me, as the bulls continued to debate on what to do with their floating intruder. A few of them were clearly pointing up at me, before continuing to shout. Their melee weapons clearly being readied. I’m at least thirty metres up, going at my full speed. These guys can’t do anything, right?

After the cursed thought finished, somewhere off in the sea of bulls, a loud mechanical twanging sound occurred. Huh, did something block out the sun? Looking in the direction of the sound, left me just enough time to see a dark shape. A dark shape which not only smashed straight into me with quite some force, but one that also wrapped around me with a tight grip.

What is this stuff, rope? A little confused by the sudden restriction, my flight still did not end even though my wings were bound. The wings are sort of there mainly for show. What did end my flight, was the feeling of something attached to the net going taught, before I was rapidly reeled in, kind of like a caught fish.

Whatever was pulling me, pulled with such force that my form plummeted towards it, resulting in an almighty crash, where wood splintered and metal bent around me. A last minute, “look out!” from whoever operated the machine, proved that they may not have intended for my forced landing to destroy whatever war machine they’d used.

Now prone and bound by thick ropes within the wreckage, I had little choice but to begin struggling to free myself. As I rolled around, cracking more of the construct, the numerous sounds of metal clad hooves approaching made me pause to take a quick peek. On all sides, minotaurs were steadily closing the distance to take a closer look at their quarry.

“Seems the pony’s monster isn’t as tough as we’ve heard,” one of the bulls said, while taking a closer look at my bindings, a few of which had already snapped.

Another voice jovially said, “what should we do with it? Smash its skull in? Well, if it has one.” It then laughed, while looking into my eye sockets.

After numerous bulls commented on my state, one gruffer one finally said, “no, we’ll keep it for the negotiations. It’ll serve as a blemish upon the pony’s pitiful honour.”

As each of the bulls spoke, my eyeless mist turned to them, making me think one thing and one thing only. Are these creatures really going to stop me saving Loony? Well, all I can do is try. With that thought process ingrained, I continued pulling on my bindings, being rewarded with yet another snapped rope.

“Stay down demon, or you’ll come to harm,” the gruff voice called to me directly. An authoritative tone to his voice, that would usually broker no argument.

Instead of backing down in a nervous heap, I tried my best to respond in kind. “Let me see the princess! Or-or…

ý̸̻̪͓̽̌́͂͗͜o̸̧̧̠̻͊̅̒̒̌̈́̉̇̚ų̵͈͙̌͌͊̍'̶̧̲̦̤̀̋̊̅͌̕l̶͓̘̐̽̊̏̇̎̔͠l̷̤̖̝͚̹̤̏̿̈̂ ̷̡̭̩̖̫̭̮̖̔̅̿̚͜b̸̩͙̤̖̘̀́̄̔̓̐́̿̚͜ȩ̷̛͚̙͚̭̯̱̪̐̔͗̉͒̂̚ ̸̧̨̦̣̬̻̩͒̊̅̊ͅh̸̢̡̗̞̺̱͖͖̩͙̃̌͝ǻ̸̡̟̜̇́̅̈͗r̷̤̗͙̃́͒̌̓͒̏͆͝m̶͖͉̈́̇ę̶͚̗̳̰̜̝̰͍̆̏̏̾͐̃̃̚͝͝d̶͇͕̽̏̾̐.” That probably sounded a little bit lame, but… I really meant it. It at least seemed to reduce the smugness of the surrounding bulls.

Another binding snapped, goading the previously mocking minotaurs into action. “You were warned,” the gruffer bull said, before hefting his mace into the air.

I managed to get out a meek, “wait,” just as it came slamming down on top of my helmet. It didn’t hurt as much as you’d expect to be honest. It only left the smallest deformation in the side of my temple. Just enough to be mildly irritating.

With his discouragement complete, the minotaur planted the head of his mace upon the ground, and leaned in closer to me. “So, are you going to stop now?” he asked, akin to how a pony might speak to a child.

My only response was to look at him, as the dent popped back out, returning my helmet to its unmarred state. This caused him to tilt his head, as my restraints continued to strain under my attempts to escape.

A few of the minotaurs actually started to look a little worried at that. One even said, “it isn’t stopping.” A slight quiver to his voice, while he stated the obvious.

“Hmm, this doesn’t seem to be discouragement enough,” the gravelly voice said, clearly considering what to do about me. After some thought, the probably highly ranked bull snapped his fingers and said, “get some torches. We can threaten to burn it. Then it’ll stop.” Oh, that doesn’t sound good.

“It’s made of metal. The fire will probably just free it,” came a response from the crowd, while other bulls set about loyally gathering their torches.

Okay, this is looking pretty dodgy. I’ve never actually been in a fire before. The light of the sun can feel a bit oppressive sometimes, what will a fire be like? Will it burn away my mist? Could it actually kill me? Whatever it does, it probably won’t be very good for me.

My struggles lessoned as I debated on my options, seeming to verify the commanding minotaur’s theory. “Look at that, it’s clearly scared of fire. Just get the torches ready.”

The brief fear induced paralysis I experienced quickly vanished, as my attempts to escape once again restarted. Ideas of what to do to assist in my escape rapidly pervading my helmet. Could I just turn into mist? I’ll be free then, but would that make me more vulnerable? It always hurts most when magic strikes me there. Maybe some more minor changes to my form would do the trick? Yeah, that makes sense, I can be practically a walking toolbox.

In the end, my distressed mist for brains settled upon a fairly crude modification to my form. One that would hopefully do the trick. Numerous serrated blades formed across my metallic body. Sticking out from my helmet, my chest piece and even my shoes. Basically, everywhere that a rope was currently attached to me. Almost all at one, I had each blade move backwards and forwards in a sawing motion across my prison, quickly causing it to fray.

It’s really strange adding so many new limbs simultaneously, but they only go backwards and forwards. I’ve managed to control entire forms at the same time, almost seamlessly. Maybe I should have more than two wandering around? Stay focused dammit! This is one of those times where every second counts.

Noticing how rapidly my restraints where failing, one of the minotaurs called out to his fellows, “it’s getting loose! Stop it, for the king!” Their fire weaponry, apparently not ready yet, the bulls had the bright idea to jump on top of me. Because that would somehow help. Due to them so willingly contacting my mist, it seemed to only make sense to consume their magic. Two of the bulls rapidly fell to my sides, while a third managed to have his unconscious form lay directly across my, soon to be free, back.

“It’s done something to sergeant Copper! Where’s the fire?” another angry voice called, while the last of the ropes lost their purchase. A warm liquid had started to flow down my back as I began to pull off the remaining rope. Hopefully that’s not flammable oil. It would be a nightmare to become a walking inferno seconds from freedom. Feeling just a little worried, I dematerialized my still trapped foreshoes, spring boarded myself into the sky with my rear ones, before reforming my foreshoes as if they’d always existed. The minotaur who’d fainted on my back, was catapulted off towards his fellows as my journey continued skyward towards the in danger pegacorn. Those bulls had managed to delay me for almost a full minute. That’s a minute too long.

More deep shouting occurred from the ever-changing ranks of minotaurs, I once again floated over the top of. This time, the shouts were also accompanied by a strange noise that might come from a horn. Not a horn on a pony’s head, but one that an individual with lungs would blow into. Saying that, aren’t horns made from dead animals like bulls? Does that mean the minotaurs are using the horns of their long dead? Probably not that important to think about. What is, is what do they mean? They didn’t blow them before.

My internal debate over the continuous bellows of horns, was cut short when I could finally make out some details of Luna, and more importantly, her situation. My pony was clearly involved in some form of altercation with a large minotaur. Not just large, gargantuan was probably a better word. He towered over her at more than three times her height. Maybe it’s some sort of taurus demon or something? That sounds familiar. In any case, seeing the situation did give me some mollification for my actions. Mollification that lasted all of a few seconds when I remembered Luna’s life was on the line.

A similar clunk that I remembered knocking me from the sky before, briefly distracted me from Loony’s predicament. A distraction that was well warranted, allowing me to alter my trajectory just enough to not be hit by whatever large projectile was targeting me. Scanning the ground below, I could see many of the angry bulls were pointing weapons at me. From the pointless swords, all the way to crossbows that possibly could affect my flight path. None of these were being used though, and the source of the large projectile completely eluded my panicked gaze.

Another flash of magic immediately brought my attention back to my goal. Said goal, was currently charging her horn with an intense blue light, clearly readying an attack. Luna’s opponent was just standing opposite her, with an axe twice Loony’s size resting on his shoulder. From the distance, it was impossible to make out either of their expressions. What was obvious, was that Luna was not only surrounded on all sides by cheering minotaurs, but she was also surrounded by makeshift wooden barriers. Everything probably put in place to make her escape more difficult.

The apparent stalemate came to an end, when the beast swiftly swung his axe off of his shoulder, slamming it into where Luna was supposed to be standing. Due to her quick reflexes, she managed to side step the blow, before unleashing a hefty beam of magic. One so hefty that I’d only seen bigger during the fight with Discord. The beam met her enemy’s chest, attempting to scorch it for a few seconds, before finally relenting.

In response, the monster appeared to laugh, before his own orange magic rose up his body. A large gout of flame then spurted forth from his face, right at my pegacorn. Her horn flashed and her form vanished similarly to when she left my side, causing her form to teleport behind the still fire vomiting brute.

Luna seemed to rematerialize with a sword I’d never seen before, and charge towards the demon’s heels, poised to strike. If she can teleport, why hasn’t she left? Probably because Loony can still hold her own in a fight, no matter the opponent. She probably doesn’t even need my help. With that thought cursing her, the taurus demon appeared to notice his quarry had disappeared, and spun around in time to land a nimble kick right to Loony’s chest. A kick that sent her careening through the air, until her involuntary flight was ended abruptly by her form smashing through the wooden palisades.

“LOOONY!!!” I couldn’t quite help calling out to my best friend. A blow like that would be more than enough to break bone if it can break wood. Contrary to my belief, the all-powerful pegacorn shakily got to her unarmoured hooves, and appeared to look in my direction. Probably due to the loud sound I’d unintentionally made.

In the moments I tried to make out if the creature had hurt her, I failed to notice one very important thing about the current situation. That being my own safety. In the intervening moments, I must have missed another clunk, because I instead only felt it when the projectile arrived. This time, with significantly more force. So much force that an immense pain shot through almost the entirety of my chest piece.

The initial blow caused me spin in a completely uncontrolled manner, but what was worse was the continuing blinding pain. It was so much, that I only regained my focus upon hitting the ground for the second time in one rescue attempt.

With the pain subsiding slightly, a steady groan escaped me. “That was worse than the net.” As I got to my four shoes within the newly formed crater, my helmet instinctively tilted down towards my lightly throbbing chest piece. A gasp would probably have escaped me if I had any lungs to speak of. Positioned right in the centre of my chest piece, was a hole over an inch in diameter. Not only that, but protruding from said hole was a thick wooden pole.

Seeing the object as the source of my discomfort, I attempted to pull it out, only to feel it grind slightly against the opening and a position upon my back. Glancing behind me, the rest of the bolt was visible. An entire meter of solid wood, tipped with a softly glowing metallic spike. Seems a lot of magic went into that thing. Hmm, that’d probably have killed my wearer if I had one. Heh, it was probably a good thing that a thestral didn’t accompany me. Wonder what Loony would say if I’d gotten a pony killed?

A panicked shout brought a quick end to my self-diagnostic. “It’s still moving!”

Another braver shout soon followed. “Look at the blood on its back!” Blood? Pretty sure I don’t have any of that.

Circling around me once again, were the seemingly endless hordes of minotaurs. Each of them with weapons drawn ready to strike. This time however, they appeared just a little more, I don’t know, cautious? They definitely didn’t approach as confidently as when I was bound.

There was only one thought that went through me, as they steadily approached my position. If Loony’s been injured, it’ll be all their fault. With that in mind, my mist flared out aggressively, causing a number of the bulls to flinch back. A little emboldened by their new found fear, I turned my attention back to the massive projectile weighing me down. Seeing as it had a magical broad arrow head, I began pushing it the rest of the way through the entry point it created. The moment the wood left the opening on my back, the wound to my chest filled with mist and steadily reformed into my usual metallic form.

Each of the minotaurs seemed to watch with differing levels of trepidation, as I attempted to indifferently drop the bolt upon the dirt floor. A light thud following it, as I hopefully proved how pointless its use was. Something that was entirely untrue, as that magical tip was really something. I’m not really certain how much damage it did, but there was definitely less mist inside me. Less mist for a little bit anyway, as I took the time to consume the small amount of magic the bolt had yet to expend.

The bulls almost seemed to halt the approach at the sight of my now unimpeded form. Instead, they chose to spread out in order to better surround me. That’s fine by me, if they don’t approach, they can’t stop me. With a final look at the minotaurs, my attention went back to Luna’s distress. She needs me, so best to waste no time here.

Bending my armour legs, I prepared to jump back into the air. An action that takes probably less than a second. That was apparently more than enough time for the bulls to put what they had been plotting into action.

“NOW! It’s going for the king!” an authoritative voice called out above the steady shuffle of minotaur hooves. Something which I chose to ignore as these soldiers were soon going to be left far behind me.

That belief was proved incorrect, as numerous objects came at me from all sides. Four of the objects impacted me, as my ascent began. I did attempt to continue my journey regardless of the objects, but found myself halting with a massive jerk to my motions. Looking behind me, one of the objects had latched on hard to a gap between my pauldron. It possessed four horrendous looking spikes and what’s more, a chain. A chain which was being steadily reeled in.

I did attempt to continue my flight, despite the presence of the grappling hook, but whatever it was anchored to was incredibly strong. Not only that, but the short length of the chain, made it possible for more of the makeshift weapons to reach me at just two metres into the sky.

“I just want to save Luna!” I called down to the attacking bulls, as they steadily reeled me in from two additional locations. Eventually bringing me to a standstill, precisely where my form left the ground. My four shoes digging into the dirt, as the force of the chains tried to pull me down further. It was pretty clear these soldiers would never listen to what I had to say.

Seeing as I was now standing and had a decent amount of purchase upon the ground, the hooks would hopefully be a little easier to deal with. Eyeing a group of six minotaurs pulling on one chain, I gripped the end with my mist and started to pull. Their armoured hooves seemed to hold in place for a moment, before ever so slightly scraping towards me. This was just enough for me to dislodge the first hook, gripping unceremoniously to my pauldron. The moment its hold failed; the six persistent bulls seemed to almost trip back as the force resisting them disappeared. A couple even landed on their rears.

“It’s getting free! Secure it,” came a hastily shouted order, causing the bulls to prepare more grapples, as I started to remove the second. This one caught upon my left greave.

As the additional grapples came at me, my attention returned to the enemy, who had steadily started approaching me from all sides. Each of them held long spears pointed in my direction while they advanced as a unit, probably to stop me rushing one of them if I escaped. It steadily dawned on me, that they were probably acting like I was some sort of rabid animal. The trapping and encircling likely a tried and tested method used against dangerous creatures.

With that in mind, I tried to make eye hole contact with as many bulls as possible and said, “if you come near me, it isn’t my fault what happens.” Hopefully that’ll remind them I’m a reasonable individual. Something these minotaurs had yet to prove of themselves.

Heedless of my words, the surrounding bulls continued their advance, only halting when spear tips almost met metal. For a long moment, everything was still. The minotaurs all looked at me, and I looked back. Then, I dislodged another grapple, which may as well have been kicking the hornets’ nest.

“For our fallen brother!” marked the start of many simultaneous spear stabs. I managed to knock away a good chunk of attacks from the front, even succeeding in damaging a few spears. From the sides however, the many stabs met my metallic hide multiple times, causing loud clunking impacts each time. It became apparent they were aiming entirely for my legs, when many hits seemed to find gaps and pass straight through my mist harmlessly. The spears clearly weren’t magical in the slightest, and lacked the heft to even dent me. They were at least highlighting some weak points I’d have to address in future. Wouldn’t want Luna to get a spear through the back of her knee. It might make me harder to take off though.

“This tin cans tough,” someone said, proving my lack of harm was clear for everyone else to see as well.

“Don’t be disheartened, it’ll go down eventually!” well, not for everyone to see.

In an attempt to increase whatever disheartening was going on, I snarled back, “just get out of the way. You can’t stop me.” From the feeling of a couple more grapples landing, the bulls were evidently going to keep trying.

The annoying speer hits, steadily lessened overtime. Partially, because of my steady breaking of their weapons, and partially because they had started to move onto what was likely the next stage of their plan. Some of the bulls had planted their spears in the ground, and begun to advance. They were armed with swords and more importantly, heavy looking maces. Those probably were going to hurt.

Due to the numerous chains sticking out of me, it was pretty difficult to manoeuvre, but I did actually manage to duck under the first mace swing at my helmet. Immediately after, numerous swords struck at my form, again going for my legs. Maybe that’s where the weak points are on a pony? One of the lucky blows, actually passed through my leg completely, as a gap mistakenly formed. It sort of felt the same as getting a stone in my shoe. That is to say, something you don’t really notice when you’re being assaulted.

In retaliation, I did what all good horses do and bucked my hind shoes at my rear assaulters. That caused two of them to fly away. If I’d had chance to look, I’d likely have seen them land on their fellows, due to the sudden slackening of one of the chains. That being said, a mace bashing off the side of my helmet, almost causing it to fly off, really held my attention. The individual who hit me, was rewarded with a few dents to my helmet, followed by a swift helmet butt to his armoured head. This thankfully caused the bull to stagger back, before collapsing to one knee. Hopefully, the fight was draining from these guys faster than it was Loony.

As my helmet once again repaired itself for the second time in two minutes, I shouted, “your weapons are useless! Let me go. Your king doesn’t matter to me.”

A burning pain in my side, was the only response that met my words. A burning pain that made an awful screech escape my lungless form. I reflexively swung an armour-plated wing in the attack’s direction, senselessly hoping to fend it off. My swing was met with minor success, as I looked upon the attack’s perpetrator, who’d nimbly dodged my retaliation. A minotaur wearing much fancier armour than the others. That didn’t matter too much to me though. What mattered, was the brightly glowing sword in his grip. Not only that, but where my side stung, a massive rent was present. It didn’t pierce all the way through, but it did seem to have damaged my mist once again.

Some more ineffective sword swings clattered off my side, as we both sized each other up. The minotaur with his sword raised ready to swing. Me, who had to struggle just to point in his direction. From this guy’s presence, one thing was clear, I had to move.

Drawing on an old trick I’d once used against the changelings, I gathered my mist and threw it out at the nearest minotaurs. Each of them stopped their ineffective strikes, and instead flailed at my approaching mist. Each of their strikes passed straight through, before my mist gripped on and began consuming their magic. The entire time I ate, my gaze never left the one danger to me. My focus was so completely on him, that I almost forgot not to eat the entirety of the lesser minotaurs’ magic. The feeling of their forms going limp managed to alert me just in time. Allowing me to drop nearly eight bulls to the ground. Part of me really wished I’d continued. More magic for me, less enemies for Equestria. Win win.

“That tasted pretty good,” I mistakenly said, as the fancy minotaur looked at his unconscious comrades, before his eyes shifted back to me. He actually appeared slightly relieved, rather than perturbed for some reason.

One of the bulls holding my chain had a slightly more expected reaction. “It really is a demon!” Well, maybe that’ll demoralise them? It would demoralise me if my friends all collapsed.

The call seemed to distract the lone warrior for a second, so I tried to seize my chance. Sending out another bout of mist, I attempted to engulf the bull like his comrades before him. This bull however, was prepared. Despite the lack of sound from my mist, the movement still caught his eye, allowing him to lift up his sword and slice straight through.

A̴̠͙͉̞̹͆͐Ą̵͙̲͙͈̖̖̝͂A̴̡̦͖̜͖̣̱̯͊̋̂Ä̴̢̨̢͎̩͕̠̮́̓͐A̶̧̹͕̺̱͍̙͍̿͂̈́͋̽͑͊̓͊̀Ả̴̡̛̪̭̻̃̍̀̌̆͠Ǻ̵̧͓̬̣̤̯͛͛͑̎̄̀̉͜A̴̧̬̤̤͙͙̥̓̃̍͛̊̏̋͑͘̚Ǎ̴̭̘͖̟̯̲͍̫͊̓͛͑̿̔͠A̴̠̭̐̓̍̅̈́̀A̴̯̭̫̩͑̿̀̽̓̐͋̕͝͝Á̷͚͉̪̖̱͙̺̼͐͐̕̕ͅA̴̧̝̪̓̿̅̈̈́̀̚͝Á̸̰̹̟̘͙̰Ä̵̛͖͓͖̭̯̫́̓͜H!

Pain ran through almost my entire mist at that hit. It was reminiscent of the time Celestia sliced it with her horn. I’m not even sure what I did in response for the next couple seconds. Most likely retreated my mist as far as possible from this guy, but I didn’t feel myself do it. It was just instinctual.

Opposite me, the minotaur was busy rubbing an ear with his hand, while his sword remained pointed in my direction. “It’s resistant to none magical weapons.” He informed his men, before looking back to me. For the first time, an understanding tone escaped the unnamed leader, “you’re clearly intelligent. Surrender and you won’t be harmed.”

“Y̵̡̟͖̺̱͉͙̲̓ŏ̴̝̾̀ù̷̞̠̳̹̩̍ ̴̢̳́͜h̷̢̰̝̃̚͠u̶̧̡͚͂͆ŕ̵̹̻̹͈̬͑̄̏̐̓̒̉̕t̶̡̩̖̪̒̊͊̄̍̚͜͝͠ ̸̢͙̝̟̥̖̥̹̳̗̚m̸̙̮͇̙͕̘̄̆͛͋̽̾͛͝ͅe̵͈͓͂͒̆ͅ?̸̧̲͕̆̎̄” was all I could think to say as the pain ebbed away.

It came out a little more bestial than I’d have liked, but maybe it was the required response. If I surrendered, Luna would still be in danger. With the pain finally dwindling to nothing, I simply said,

“̵͈͚̦̤͓͌̅̍͑̆̈́̄̅̕͝I̸̡̖̬̮̦͉̠̓́̋̽̅̿̈́͋̅͝ ̷̡̗̦̺͙̦͕͊ͅw̵̡̛̪̘̘̬͙̱̦̭̍͗̋̈̓̂͗͆͜ò̷̤̬̳̖ń̶̞̖͎̫͍͙͓̗̆̕͠'̸̧̼͇̱̲̭̼̹͒͆̃ţ̶̠̭̻̬̗͋ ̴̦̃͑̐͊l̷̯̲̾̿̽e̸͈̪̖̓̃t̴̼͔̜͈͙̣̜̘͒́͋͒̈́̉͛ ̷̹͍̭̺̮̲͎͈̉̀̋̉͊͊͆̏̃͠y̴̢̡̰̖̥͍̰̪͔͈̎͐̊̈̉͐͌͠ó̷̳̳̱̗ú̶̼͍̩̞͐ ̶̢͚̰͔̪̑̐̋͊h̷̨̟͚͔̜͍̽͂̐͘u̵̮̩͖̥̫͋̐̉̂̎͠r̷̡͙͛̃̊̾̃̐̑ţ̸̖̟̜͇̗͉̲̼̊̈́̈́̆͒̒̉̈́͝͝ ̵̧͔͔͈̰͎̫̒̔̍͋̅̚h̴̢͙̊̄̿͜e̸̛̘̘̤̥̤̺͚͓̮͈͑̄̄̆̄̀́̕r̷͈̳͎̓̐͊̉̍͌!̸͇̜̦̑̋̓͋̈́͝”

Seeming to already predict my response, the minotaur had started giving various hand signal commands to his men. To do what? I had no idea, but what was going to happen next wasn’t going to end well for him. I had to make sure of it.

Similarly to before, the elite soldier charged forward alongside numerous other thugs. This time however, I completely ignored his distracting comrades and deflected the two swings he made at me. Each one just barely being caught by my shoes. The metal still buckled and hurt, but it was nowhere near as bad as when my mist was targeted directly. Note to self, my armour protects me as well.

Following his two attacks, I attempted to lunge forward for a counter attack, which only rewarded me with barely a shoe steps distance, thanks entirely to the chains still restraining me. Simultaneously, the bull anticipated my response and deftly stepped back out of my shoes reach. Two other minotaurs continued to assault my sides, but a quick lash from both my wings had them out of the fight. The only real problem, was the restraints and this sergeant… captain… whatever he was.

After taking another shoe step in my problems direction, dragging however many minotaurs with me by their taut strong chains, an idea started to form. Clearly my mist could reach this jerk, but it was too fragile. Maybe if it took a more armour like form, I’d stand half a chance of knocking him down.

With that in mind, I absently pulled on the chains, as my mist created a mimic within my chest piece. All the while, I had to try and pay attention to the random magical sword swipes coming my way. During my distraction a couple of the attacks managed to pass my deflection attempts, leaving a couple unsightly rakes up my front. Okay, it’s fine. No mist was damaged, just keep going.

Eventually, the misty chain formed into a tightly packed coil within my chest piece, ready to strike. With the desire to prevent any further attacks, I retaliated the moment the enemy stepped a little too close. Lifting my helmet, I ejected the entire chain at the captain, letting it unravel as it went. He did attempt to jump back and even managed to land a strike upon me, damaging an individual chain link. This was not enough to prevent the chain from wrapping around the bull in front of me like an angry snake. Wrapping around his chest, then his legs and finally his arms.

Within seconds of the attack, the bull was completely immobilized and falling to the ground. His sword dropping out of reach as his magic was pulled away. He did continue to thrash though, a testament to how much magic he actually had.

“Bulls, delay it! For the king. Help will… come,” he said, in a last-ditch attempt to coordinate his hopefully less enthusiastic troops.

“You have a lot of magic within you,” I pointed out to him, as his struggling started to peter out into unconsciousness. “So does this.” My chains steadily unwrapped his unmoving body, before grasping onto his abandoned sword. The one true threat I’d faced.

The moment my chains engulfed the magical object, an unexpected feeling flooded through my chain, causing it to shudder. One of intense bliss. I hadn’t tasted anything so amazing in such a long time. Nothing else came close… well, maybe that storm crystal in Griffonia, but this sword had so much more to it. There was a sort of texture to the energy, not just formless magic. It was kind of hard to describe. The main thing to note was that I couldn’t get enough of it. Especially when it petered out to nothing, leaving me frustratedly shaking the tool in my links. The entire time, other unimportant opponents had been bouncing irrelevant, boring slabs of mundane metal off of my metallic hide. It really made me wish they all carried magical weapons like that. A wish I had to quickly crush with a shake of my helmet. These sorts of tools were the only real threat. A tasty one, but still a threat.

Taking a moment to look at each of the bulls nervously pulling the chains with all their might, a smile would have graced my face if I’d had one. They did still have some magic to give me, so they weren’t entirely pointless.

Grabbing another one who bravely charge towards me in my mist, I absently drained his magic, while focusing more on my free chain. Splitting it into two, I had both halves slither towards the two separate groups of jailers on my right. Despite the large shadows accompanying them, the minotaurs didn’t even notice as the chains made their way through the grass. The bulls still thought they could actually trap me. Even without my new chains, from their sliding hooves I could eventually win the tug of war.

Once my chains had gotten close enough to each group of four minotaurs, I had them coil up before striking forward simultaneously. The first chain managed to successfully entangle two of the minotaurs, before starting to drain their magic dry. The second had slightly more trouble. It did manage to entangle one minotaur, but the other actually had his eyes open allowing him to see the chain coming. He did make a mistake however, in attempting to assist his entangled comrade. A mistake I capitalized on by forcing his friend to punch his helper in the face as hard as he could. Needless to say, four minotaurs were taken care of quickly.

The other four holding the two chains had a for once desirable reaction. They saw what had happened to their comrades and looked upon my mist, before almost as one choosing to flee. Normally, having people be scared of me sucks, but today is a different kind of day. It almost made me laugh when I turned to the only two restraints left taut. Both on one side, so nothing stopped me approaching. Starting off at a walk, but moving quickly to a gallop, I charged towards the eight remaining bulls. The entire time hoping one would have another magical sword. None seemed to be present, but maybe I’d get lucky?

Seeing my unimpeded approach, they each dropped the chains and this time stood their ground. Likely reasoning a quadruped could gallop faster than they could run. There weapons met my heavy form full force, but did little to slow me down. My helmet contacting the middle one’s chest, and my wings catching another two didn’t really impede me either. Seeing as I had three incapacitated minotaurs in front of me, I sent tendrils of mist out to the other group of four manning the last chain. Each of them crying out as my mist brought them into the air and drained their magic.

One final bull remained, from the four my body had collided with. He shakingly looked into my eye sockets, before choosing to drop his sword. “Spare us. We’re no threat anyway,” he desperately called as he fell to his knees. What a weird thing for him to say. They’re the aggressors.

“What do you think I’ve been doing?” With those words hopefully highlighting the lack of minotaur death, I sent a tendril of mist forward to drain the surrendering minotaur into unconsciousness. No sense leaving him to stab me in the back.

With no threats left, I prepared to once again jump into the sky, only waiting for my chains to re-join me. When they approached and turned back into mist, I was left with a familiar strange feeling. I felt really confined. Like my armour wasn’t big enough. How strange is that? Standing alone, I’m already a bit taller than Celestia but it’s just too small. Upon getting back home, it was pretty obvious another mini me might need to pop up. For now though, an extra three foot on my height would do the trick. Maybe some chains hooked to my sides, they could be used to ensnare more minotaurs. Hmm, a blade for the tail could come in handy as well.

By the end of my little modification session, I was a little reminiscent of a nightmare I’d help quell many months ago. That’s probably a good thing for a combat situation. The addition of a few spikes, and a sharpening to my faceplate’s jaw didn’t really go amiss as either.

A relieved sigh escaped me at the reduced pressure, allowing me to concentrate more on the task at shoe. Rather than jumping straight back to the sky, a recent memory of how I met the ground, resurfaced, causing me to look at the remaining minotaurs who were steadily making distance from me. There has to be a ballista or something around here. If I go back up, they’ll just shoot me back down. More importantly, that thing was firing magical bolts. If I destroy it, that’s basically a buffet. It’s funny, I never realized how easy it is to come about energy. There’s just so much around.

Turning my helmet this way and that, it wasn’t long before an area with slightly higher magic was located. An area that appeared to have a number of minotaurs waiting in front of it, a perfect start. Starting to gallop in that direction, I reasoned that destroying this last strong point of magic, would not only let me help Loony, but would give the ponies a better chance in future. Such weapons can’t be that easy to make, otherwise everyone would have them.

As I galloped towards the position, draining any minotaurs unlucky enough to get within five metres, I could see the source of magic. Behind a column of bulls, who were retreating, stood another two in familiar fancy armour. Each of them with a magical sword in hand, clearly waiting for my approach.

When we were within comfortable hollering distance, I halted my shoe steps, unwilling to immediately get too close to the threat. For some reason, it seemed diplomacy might be possible with these two. The first one was a little reasonable.

“G̷̹̑I̸̤̝͂V̵͓̠̀̌E̵̢̖͉̳̖̜̻̲͉͛ͅ,̶̹̞͉͋̃͆̐͘ ̴̨̬̖̘̣͍̝̹͐̅̉̈́̅͆̇͗͜͝ͅM̵̛̩̤̿͒͂̒͐̋͂̚Ȅ̷̙͙͍̫̥̉̃͜,̷͔͓̀͊͂̿̅̊̒ ̶͚̝̣̋̄̍̃̇̽Y̸̛̛̭͈̤̯̬̌̒̒̆̚Ọ̴̄̆͛͝U̷͕͎̩͎͑̍̉͌͝Ȑ̷̛̥͔͌́̎͜,̷̘̜̈́̎̐̑̇͘ ̷͖̠̩̮̬̀̌̅̀̌̂W̷̧̨̹̎̑̃̾̓͌͐̎̓̚E̴̡̡͇̣͔̊͊̆͐̃̂͊͂̚Ä̸̧̱̺͔̰̖͕́P̴̡̺̲͉̻̙̄̃́͑̾̀͠O̷͉̓̉̃̿̃̆̓N̵͕̊̆͂̏̉̐̐͋S̴̙̄̾!̸̯͔̲͇̹̜̬̥̓̀̓̾̂̿̕” I asked… diplomatically across the battlefield.

The two bulls took a second to look at each other, before one spoke out in a deep voice, “we don’t bow to monsters like you.” At their words, I just tilted my helmet curiously. Clearly, they needed to look in the mirror. They’re the aggressors here.

“I’ll just take them from you then.” With their decision made, I extended the chains from my sides, ready to lash out, before charging towards the nearest bull. He managed to dodge out of the way of my charge, but failed to have his sword connect with me. My follow up to the charge was also met with limited success, as I attempted to collide a chain with his head, he deflected it with his sword and actually staked it to the ground.

While his actions did prevent me using the chain continuously, it also left him wide open to a different attack I’d yet to use. Yet to use because I didn’t really want to hurt anyone. That being my bladed feathers, which I threw in a fan from my wings. Three of the sharpened shards collided with the minotaur’s chest piece and unexpectedly pierced through, leaving the blades stuck into what lay beneath. My feathers, now in prime position, began steadily draining the magic from the still reeling bull, while his ally retaliated for him.

The second bull charged my position, easily deflecting the additional blades I threw his way, before his sword collided with my pauldron, tearing through an unhealthy chunk of me. A quick swing with my oversized wing in retaliation, was easily dodged by a single step back, due to the unbalanced state the pain had put me in.

These elite guys really have to go. With that in mind, I whipped my second chain around, causing the second bull to flinch back. Rather than targeting him, the chain continued around and engulfed the minotaur who was still struggling to pull out the knives. Thus, ensuring he wouldn’t be able to reengage me and providing me with the banquet of his magical sword. An item that both my chains dived upon; the moment the bull went limp.

My final obstacle stood in almost disbelief, as I gorged myself upon the second delectable treat. “Targeting the injured… have you no honour at all?”

Seriously! These bulls are real hypocrites. Rather than shout that angrily in his face, I dropped the now inert sword, before simply mentioning, “you know, Luna has a broken wing.”

With my point hopefully made, I retracted my wayward appendages and began firing more knife-like feathers at the lone warrior. As expected, he began deflecting them, so while continuing to fire, I charged him. He did notice the coming threat, but there wasn’t much that could be done, seeing as he had to continually deal with a torrent of blades. As a result, it wasn’t long before my form was upon him. A pauldron barge straight to his gut Knocking the wind out of him.

Another strike with a shoe, straight to his helmet had him collapse onto his back, where I held him to the ground. Pinning him by his shoulder with my shoes. There was a brief amount of fight left within the commanding bull, almost allowing him to throw me off. That fight however, left him quickly as his magic seeped into my hungering shoes.

Having no enemy left, I turned to his sword and eagerly grabbed it in the metallic jaw of my helmet. I couldn’t quite help pointlessly chewing it, in the hopes to somehow eat the magic faster. When the magic source finally ran out, I felt a little silly. There was no need to actually swallow anything, even if I’d managed to take a good chunk of steel out of the sword. Still, that magic was great.

With that in mind, the ruined sword was unceremoniously dropped on top of the fainting minotaurs chest, before my helmet was positioned by his head. “Do you have many more of these?”

Sadly, the bull’s consciousness finally failed him before my query could be answered, prompting me to look at his now distant comrades. They appeared to have fallen back to a defensive line, probably nearby more coveted magic items.

Stepping from my snack’s chest, my chains unfurled and began swinging in the air, as I began to approach the distant line of troops. There’s still magic over there, so hopefully that means more swords. If not, then there’s probably that ballista, can’t quite see any evidence of it though. There’ll at least be plenty of fleshies to feed off of though.

Before I could make my mind up as to whether or not it made sense to proceed, an extremely large amount of familiar magic, flashed only a metre to my right. A flash much larger than any the minotaurs had previously displayed. I reacted accordingly to the new threat, swinging my already airborne chains in its direction, hoping to simultaneously snuff out the minotaur threat and acquire the magic.

Almost matching the magic’s flash, a feminine voice called out, “Eclipse wait!” My helmet turned in the direction to see the entire reason I’d been fighting right there. Luna, my precious pony was right there.

In that moment everything seemed to slow down. She seemed to be steadily gaining a look of panic, as her horn began to relight. Not only that, but she also raised a hoof in an attempt to block my chain’s violent swing. She needn’t have bothered, as the links were easily dissolved into mist, causing her pretty face to be engulfed in darkness, rather than her skull being shattered.

How did she even get here? That minotaur seemed to have her trapped somehow. Is she hurt? Rather than ask all those questions, I simply starred at her in disbelief and said, “Loony?” Part of me couldn’t quite believe she’d saved herself.

Rather than replying straight away, my pegacorn put a hoof to her chest and appeared to almost gasp in relief. Dimming her horn, her face turned to a half-hearted smile as she began to steadily approach. “For a moment, We believed thou may have actually went through with that,” she admitted, referring to my almost spectacular blunder. Hitting her would probably have been the worst possible thing I could do. She doesn’t even really have a proper helmet, just her regalia.

Her mouth opened again to continue speaking, just as the present moment caught up with me. She’s still in danger! Minotaurs are everywhere, and what if that giant one’s followed her? All things that really shouldn’t have been forgotten by me.

Not wanting to leave her in danger any longer than was necessary, I completely missed her words and instead gripped her with my mist, bringing her towards me. An action that allowed a look of fear to resurface over her face. Those minotaurs really did a number on her, so many bruises, no wonder she’s terrified. In an attempt to ease her worries, I placatingly said, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” Can’t believe I was so distracted, who cares about magic swords? Even if they taste really good.

My words didn’t seem to have any effect upon my truest friend’s temperament, as she squirmed against my mist’s grip, making it more difficult for me to pull off her regalia. “What art thou doing, desist!” she sputtered, as I threw her chest piece aside before pulling her into my own that was a few sizes too big.

“Where’s the big one?” I asked her, as I reshrank my shoes and helmet to fit Loony’s lithe form, before making my metallic skin almost four times as thick. With her fully kitted out, I put us into a combat ready stance, she’d used when fighting Discord, before having her snarl at the minotaurs. Minotaurs who were now apparently fleeing from numerous green glowing specs in the sky.

“Their king has postponed Our duel for now to deal with… some issues,” Luna said through her bared teeth. She sounded pretty uncomfortable, especially when she said, “Eclipse, We cannot quite move… at all.”

As more and more distance was made between the minotaurs and our position, I relaxed my stature almost falling over at the emotional drain. Luna’s form prevented that eventuality as she decided to instead take a seat upon the ground, which was fine by me, as it made it much easier to hug her with my wings.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” I said as my form gently squeezed Luna’s entire body. A good deal of my mist had also disappeared, likely inside of my wearer’s body.

In response to my all over hug, my pony raised a now armoured hoof, and began gently rubbing my side. “’Tis okay, We- I am here. ‘Tis all over now. The minotaurs are no danger to us,” she began in a soothing tone. Something I was glad to here. She clearly believed everything she was saying.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.” Next time, I’ll insist she takes me with her.

“We know, We would never let anypony harm thou either,” Luna responded. Her words tinted with slight teers. Teers that I’m fairly certain weren’t her own.

“Sorry about getting my mist in your eyes.” I lamely said as one droplet escaped her eyes. I’m glad no ponies are around to see her like this.

A calming shushing sound escaped her lips, as Loony decided to lay upon the ground, all the while continuing to rub my side. “If thou wishes to cry, We do not mind being thy outlet. ‘Tis Our honour.”

With that said, Luna looked to the sky and focused on the green glowing forms in the sky. The green glow clearly matched that of changelings in pony form, accompanied by a large quantity of pegasi and thestrals. Upon the ground quite a few unicorns and mundane ponies had marched in front of us, creating a sort of barrier between the bulls and their precious princess.

The sound of large wings met my wearer’s ears, causing them to swivel to Our right, just as four hooves landed upon the dirt. “Oh, thank love you’re okay,” a slightly late out of breath glowing green Luna said. Her form suddenly burning away to Skitter’s, before her now slitted eyes went over Luna’s armoured form. Probably looking for injuries, but that would be hard to see through my, hopefully, now impenetrable armour.

Taking a moment herself to take in the friendly bugs presence, Luna smiled beneath my faceplate, before warmly saying, “Yes, thanks to thy swift intervention, less harm has been done.” When she mentioned less harm, she looked at the minotaurs retreating with their metaphorical tails between their legs. Wait, do they have tails? Not important.

Luna, clearly intrigued by the individuals encouraging the minotaurs retreat, continued to ask, “how did thou acquire such aid so quickly?” Suppose that was something to think on. There can’t have been that many changelings in Canterlot. That is if Luna knows those are changelings.

As if in answer to the question, a shadow was cast across the two of us from the direction Skitter had originated. A familiar sinister voice followed with it. One that was quite pleased with themselves. “Responsible farmers protect their cattle, my little pony.” The larger bug landed right next to us at that, before leaning her head right next to my pony’s own.

“Queen Chrysalis,” Luna began with a nod, clearly holding back an insult of her own, thanks to the gritted teeth. Instead, she begrudgingly rose to our hooves, while still rubbing our side and confidently said, “what an unexpected… honour.” The final word seemingly quite difficult for Loony to say.

Outwardly not noticing that fact, the changeling Queen lifted up her head with a wide sharp toothed smile, clearly taking in the praise. “So it should be.” Clearly, she hadn’t changed her attitude towards her new allies in the slightest.

In contrast to what I’d just been thinking, our hero decided to attempt to lay a complement upon Luna. Never once losing her smile of superiority, Chrysalis said, in a slightly sweeter tone, “that new weapon of yours seems quite interesting. It only seems fair that my changelings get to look it over, as part of our… alliance.” A small laugh accompanied the final word.

For what felt like forever, Loony and Chrysalis stared into each other’s eyes. Neither of them blinked for the longest time, before Luna finally broke the impromptu match, by looking down at her legs. An action that seemed to bring even more elation to the bug Queen. She wasn’t however looking away out of fear from Skitter’s mother, but to inspect the slight quavering her legs were doing. In my defence, I didn’t realize I’d been making Luna look so terrified. The day had been so stressful, all I wanted was to go home and lay in Luna’s bed with her.

Steadily looking up from our shaking form, Loony’s blue eyes met green once again, before she diplomatically said, “We shall endeavour to ask Eclipse once he is less overwhelmed by his experience.”

The only response my Luna gained was a sneer that wasn’t quite a hiss, before Chrysalis’s bug wings buzzed her into the air. “Come along Princess Luna. Those pathetic cows must be prevented from rallying. Our snacks will likely fail without our continued assistance,” she authoritatively said to Skitter, while glancing in our direction at the word snacks. She didn’t wait for a reply before darting off in the direction of the already routed bulls.

“Just form a permitter!” Luna called after the retreating form of the over grown bug, before looking to the more appealing one.

Skitter looked after her bolting mother, before sighing. She then gave me a gently tap on the pauldron with a holed hoof, and said, “I’ll talk to you later.” A very genuine warm expression on her face, before she followed her mother’s instructions, loyally buzzing after her, before transforming back into Luna’s duplicate mid-flight. Wonder if most of the ponies following her even know they’re here to rescue the real Luna? This is probably going to serve as some publicity stunt for Chrysalis or something.

“Cattle… snacks!” Luna said angrily under her breath, before she attempted to look at my pauldron herself. “Do not worry thyself my friend. She will not be allowed to get her holed hooves upon thee. That, is Our promise.” In all honesty, being left with Chrysalis didn’t worry me at the moment. The main worry was that I partially agreed about the snacks.

As I failed to respond, Luna started to make her way back to where Shining Armor’s shield once was, before pausing just long enough to look at the fleeing bulls. “Our sister will not be happy with Us for this,” she muttered to herself, before continuing at a light trot back towards our carriages.

Author's Note

Welp, it's the first time it has taken me over a month to publish a chapter. Sorry about that, the chapter just didn't sit right with me for a while. It still isn't quite how I want, but I think I've waited long enough.

Also, this chapter was meant to be just a couple of fight scenes. How can it be this long? Maybe I got too excited?