Dark as Ink at Night

Chapters

5 - Forgotten Past
8 - Coming Down
1 - Taking an Assignment
2 - Timid Steps
3 - Younger Objections
4 - Fellow Statesmare
6 - Group Chat
7 - Draconic Fury

5 - Forgotten Past

Raven trotted into the castle workspace. What was once rubble and disorganized areas was now neat stacks of organized stone. In the workspace in the center had been set up a group of boards with maps and diagrams. The list of materials found, the estimates of materials needed, a map of the castle in its entirety, complete and ready for the next phase of the project.

Well, nearly complete, anyway. There were a tad more estimates to go, and the labyrinthine passageways beneath the castle have remained difficult. There were considerably more than she had originally estimated, with secret passageways and trap doors. And behind them were considerably large amounts of precious and fragile artifacts. She would have to arrange for a preservation specialist very soon to deal with those.

Not to mention… that not all the artifacts were clearly safe. Some tunnels were precarious, yes, but some of them contained magical items that may be dangerous. Raven was no adventurer, she was not equipped to handle dangerous items that might shoot rays turning everypony into salamanders or causing ponies to walk on the ceiling.

But Raven was not to be daunted, if there were hidden problems then she would solve them. Or, well, find someone to solve them. This project will be finished.

To wit, it was time to try to find Luna again. If anypony knew how to deal with mysterious objects here it was her.

She scanned the area, hoping to see Luna around the construction site somewhere. Raven's horn glowed a soft blue as she levitated the list of items she had found and what she suspected the purpose of them were. "Princess?" She peeked down a hallway, but it was as empty as most. "Princess?" Another had a few workers, busily fortifying a pillar.

"I'm right here." A deep feminine voice came from just behind Raven, right in her ear.

Raven gasped, leaping in place. "Ahh! How? When? Princess Luna!" She came down facing the ruler of the night. "I'm glad to see you."

"Are you?" Luna considered Raven, with an air of detached curiosity. "I would be surprised to hear it, if that were true."

Raven settled herself back down. "Why, yes. You see, I found something while surveying the ruins for more useful materials." She floated her clipboard of items both dangerous and unidentified, which could be dangerous. "I was hoping you might review this and assist in the safe moving of those that are most certainly magical."

"Is that all?" Luna raised a brow, her expression still unamused. "Or do you have some other use for me?"

Raven blinked. "Other use?" She frowned with thought. "Should we not proceed with the step before us, Your Highness? These items could be dangerous. And if the Princess of the Night does not know what to do with them, then I must fear no creature of Equestria has that knowledge."

Luna was silent and her eyes seemed to bore through Raven, pinning her down and weighing her worth. "Twilight is a clever princess. I'm sure she could figure it out."

“O-of course she could.” Raven withered under Luna’s gaze. “Princess Twilight was–is–” She corrected herself. “--a great hero that definitely could handle dangerous magical artifacts.”

“Then why not contact Twilight Sparkle? If you believe she can, then surely it would be easy to ask.”

Raven took herself a deep breath, trying to ensure her description . “I could not ask my princess to take on this task. If she intended to help with this part of the project that would have been provided for in my instructions. If Princess Celestia needed to attend parts of the project, that would be part of the project.”

“Surely, then, Twilight must have built some kind of progress reports into the project?” Luna’s words were measured and polite, but her gaze, her posture, the deliberateness with which she delivered these words implied teeth laid behind them. “Simply tell her you are having trouble on a project.”

“No,” Raven nearly blurted, before sharply inhaling at her own conduct. But still she must justify her behavior. “This is my project, delivered to me by Princess Twilight herself. She trusted me with the project and I will sho–” Raven stopped abruptly. She had already said too much.

Luna did not speak, but her posture changed. Her gaze softened, her ears shifted forward and her eyes glittered. A change in subject, a new direction was coming. And she knew that Raven had taken notice.

Raven opened and closed her mouth a few times in aborted attempts to speak. "You've been here." Raven slumped against a wall. "You've been here and I've studied the history and I still fell for it." Her pitch became almost a moan of shame. "I am the assistant of the previous Princess of Equestria and I fell for it." She looked up to see Luna peering at her with a smirk. "I am just like another esteemed royal pony I know, desperate to be validated."

Luna walked around and put a wing over her. "No one would blame you for your eagerness." She sat down, eyeing her assistant. "So you tried to hide your difficulties from Twilight?" She snapped the wing back. "I'm certain sister dear would have had this all under control, but neither of us have her, hm?"

"We do not." Raven gathered herself to her full height. "So it falls on us to figure this out." She held up her clipboard. "Please?"

“Of course.” Luna smiled a small smile. “As Princess of the night it is my duty to protect my ponies in the dark. Whether it be the dark of night, or the dark of mystery.” She stepped back.

Raven sighed in relief. “Oh, wonderful. Do you have any material requirements for this task?” Raven looked down at her clipboard. “I will be sure to acquire what you need.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “I thought it was clear what I require. You already said it falls on ‘us’ to figure this out.”

Raven looked up at Luna, then looked back and forth, searching for the meaning she hoped those words did not mean. “I… did say that.”

“So, there is no time like the present to get started, is there? Let’s go.” Luna turned around and began officiously marching outward.

Raven laid her ears back and made her way behind her, dreading the situation to come.

Luna led the way down the winding corridors. "I've been wandering these halls, searching for things myself. I found some." She glanced back at Raven. "I imagine you and your workers have found others. There was a time each and every trinket was held by 'Tia and myself." She entered a dusty and ruined chamber. "These, however, weren't ours to guard." She knelt to pick up a small item, a glass vial of sorts, sealed with wax.

Raven squinted at the vial. She checked her clipboard quickly. "Ah." She turned it for Luna to see. "We found this room, here is a list of the items we located here."

Luna spared the clipboard a brief look. "Not much more than what anypony can see with a glance." She floated the vial to a dusty table. "If we kept a potion, it was because its effects were quite remarkable. Its seal is intact, meaning that power is likely still available."

“But since this is still sealed it will probably remain sealed?” Raven raised an eyebrow. “This means it is basically safe, right?”

“That is heavily dependent on what it does if it were accidentally broken,” Luna replied. “Quite remarkable would be either a potion that cannot be adequately created again, or has a very important use.” She looked down at the vial on the table “Or possibly it cannot be disposed of at all.”

Raven pursed her lips. “Well, which is this, then?” She leaned over. The label, as observed, was not in ponish, nor any language Raven could immediately recognize.

“Fortunately, it is simply… unique.” She levitated the potion up once more. “A very long time ago, in another country, a stone tree grew in a forest, and that tree threatened to consume the entire forest, turning every tree and denizen to stone with it.”

Raven fell silent, alternating between watching Luna and scribbling down in her notebook.

“When it began to consume the forest, one of its denizens reached out to the other nations for help, and a group of ponies answered the call.” Luna began to move broken items on the dusty table around, the dust of another era being knocked off disassembled and broken pieces of metal and ceramic. “One Unicorn held the samples as they worked to derive a serum, ensuring the terrible petrification could not spread.” Ancient cloth parts wrapped around the vial, held with Luna’s magic.

“One earth pony located the raw materials, having the knowledge about the earth to find enough doses to turn stone to plant.” Luna pieced together a ceramic base formed underneath, decorative with three sides, a wing, a plant, and a star.

“And one pegasus delivered the serum to the center, without having to touch and fall prey to the petrification curse.” Connecting the ceramic base and the held center were a series of wires, so the serum would float above the earth.

“Naturally, they did not create only one dose, but out of all the existent doses only one remains, sealed with wax in case it would be needed again.” The vial now sat, suspended above the ceramic base, on the table. “The three of them were heroes to a civilization that they would never be a part of.”

Luna turned around to look at Raven.

Raven gave the presentation her full attention, writing the names and attributes of the ponies.

Luna was clearly waiting for a question.

Raven finally looked up, the two meeting one another's gaze a moment. "Ma'am? Were you personally involved?"

Luna shook her head slowly. "I was not. But I was present. They were brave ponies, but their time passed." She clenched her teeth faintly. "Their final days, I did not see. I was, as they say, occupied, a whole world away." She leaned in closer. "At least a moon."

Raven caught the meaning with a widening of her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry." She reached for the vial. "We'll secure this properly. Even displaying it will require extensive security, assuming we even dare to do that."

Luna stood back up, saying nothing, looking at the table with the decorative stand, having fallen back to pieces without Luna holding it together.

Raven laughed a little to herself. “Fortunately, nothing is dangerous here, just precious and in need of care. If that is how all these unidentified artifacts are, then it’s all the better.” She turned around and began trotting out of the chamber. “We’ll absolutely need to figure out more about this mysterious other country, we may even have to find a history specialist for the information.”

Luna looked over to Raven, who seemed undaunted by the situation, now animated, ready to move forward, and shook her head, attempting to clear it. “Well, find a safe location for this one, because the next artifact is not safe.” Her long gait caught up to Raven very quickly. “In a nearby chamber, there is a room there is what looks like a metal dome, correct? Inside the dome is a helmet you absolutely must not put on. Even looking into the eyes of it can be dangerous, and lead to worse issues.”

Author's Note

Some heavy, but productive, chat, I think.

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8 - Coming Down

It was a frightening escape. How could it not be? But as Raven found herself floating in midair, suspended by Luna’s magic as below her, she realized it was a fairly quick thing. She was with sturdy company, a Royal Sister (Former Royal Sister?) and a dragon helped keep her safe.

Instead, she stared down at the pit, and her heart sank alongside a not-insignificant part of the castle. The cavern they found was not directly underneath the castle, at least, and so the damage was relegated to the castle entryway and the land leading up to the castle. The rope bridge that had long led to the castle, for all those years, was now at the bottom of the chasm it so recently was suspended above.

Another rumble came from below, and more of the castle collapsed underneath its weight, revealing a few shining crystal roots below it, which seemed to remain sturdy.

From far below, she could see a small blue figure at the entryway to the crystal treehouse, where a faint “what the hay?!” could be heard, the figure gesturing wildly at the hole that was nearly at the entryway to the treehouse.

Raven let out a sigh. At least the others were safe. She shook her head. It could have been worse. She turned her head to see the others were also intact. Luna was even looking at her. "I fear a mistake had been made." Luna lifted up with a powerful flap, bringing the others along. "We should—"

"Stop, don't say it. Don't say a word." Raven sighed deeply.

Luna's horn flickered slightly. "Your regret is very obvious. As is your loyalty." She focused on her flying a moment to get them closer to safe grounds. "We both erred.”

Raven looked to the ground as she was lowered. “But this is my responsibility, isn’t it? We were talking about how this was my call in the cavern specifically.”

Luna shook her head. “There was no way to know things would turn out this way, was there?”
Raven continued to look down, into the chasm. “The scroll was there this whole time, even. The caverns below must have been weakening this whole time, but the scroll kept it secure. This problem has been building, just waiting for the moment to strike.”

Brow furrowed, Luna sat down and allowed Raven to continue.

“I didn’t know this was coming, but it has been. It makes sense.” Raven laid herself down. “Putting all of my hopes on it going smoothly, having no problems… It’s the actions of a fool, isn’t it?”

Luna got back up, and held Raven under her wing. "No more so than being willing to look past one's own blindspot. You were willing to take this risk, and I encouraged it." She raised a hoof towards her chin. "We were accomplices in this foalish behavior. Perhaps, together, we may make our way out of it?"

Raven sniffed softly, before nodding slowly. "I should not have let this happen, but it has. It's happened." She pulled herself upright. "Yes. We shall proceed." She trotted toward the castle.

The dragon huffed softly. "It wasn't my fault." They gave quite the shrug. "Just so we're clear on that."

Raven monitored the damage as she headed back toward the castle. “I see the treehouse seems to be the limit of the damage. I’m not sure why that is, I will need to find a specialist on these kind of collapses, especially to be sure if there are more risks of collapse.”

“What will you do about the entryway?” Luna trotted behind her.

“I’m… not sure.” The collapse area did not look particularly safe, if it was stable at all. Rubble and earth and rocks all mixed randomly in the area. “There’s too much, probably, to fill with more earth or stone. Transporting all of that would be a major issue, and possibly be a problem with the kind of area around here.” She pursed her lips. “Replacing the ground in an area intended to be a historical preserve seems like a bad idea.”

She continued around, looking at the area. “No, the option here is that we probably should fence off this area, certainly until we are sure about its safety, then we probably go around this area for an entrance.”

Scoria looked down into the hole. “You sure it’s safe for ponies to be near a hole like this? I wouldn’t have a problem if I fell down it, but you all are squishy, right?”

“I suppose a… uh…” Raven searched. “A very significant fence, perhaps? A large wall surrounding the pit, so nopony can accidentally stumble into it.” She stared down at the pit herself. “I suppose a construction project going beyond restoration would significantly increase the cost of it, I would have to petition Princess Twili–” she stopped.

She had been sending reports to Princess Twilight Sparkle periodically. It is exactly what Twilight Sparkle would want, and Raven had no intention on disappointing. But this was… not something that a simple report would cover.

Luna nudged Raven slightly. “Twilight Sparkle will surely be understanding of this issue.”

“It’s not just that, Princess.” Raven did not meet Luna’s gaze. “So far all of the dangers have not caused any damage to the property or ponykind. In many ways, the danger was theoretical. But this was a much more significant danger and has caused property damage. We will have to be much more careful about the items now that the danger is real, and the reconstruction and renovation’s costs have just shot through the roof.”

“I’m sure that Twilight Sparkle will not give up on her goal of turning this into a public history. Twilight was not a mare to give up easily.”

“Well…” Raven bit her lip, and looked further away. “It wasn’t precisely Twilight Sparkle whose goal it was to allow for public access. She wanted someone to handle the property, to prepare it for longer-term safety and catalog the items. Some restoration.” She looked up into the sky. “It was my idea to prepare it for easy public visitation.”

Luna looked at the back of Raven.

Raven could feel the stare. "I, I thought it would be better. It would be easier, would attract less attention. After all, you can't have a bunch of ponies traipsing through an unstable ruin, now can you." She let out a little breath. "If you're going to restore an ancient ruin, what would the purpose be other than a museum to remember the past we no longer trot on?"

"Raven. It is alright." Luna reached out a wing but didn't quite touch Raven.

"But, but it is not, is it? I've been projecting onto it, hoping that I could gain something out of it. I've had my share of dealing with Twilight. And I failed, both her, and this project." She turned back to Luna. "Not very—"

Her words never finished, interrupted by Luna grabbing her in an almost smothering hug. In that moment, she was plunged into the night that was Luna's dark pelt. Her heart beat faster as she was pulled in against a surprisingly soft surface, and her eyes widened. She was certain Luna was about to say something, but she did not. She just held Raven there for a moment that felt like it went on forever.

Pulling her head back, Raven huffed heavy breaths. “I–” she began, her words hitching. She took a deep breath, then a few more. “I shouldn’t have. This was not my idea, it was not my duty to take it further. It should be about the project, not me.”

Luna smiled weakly. “We always want something from the things we do. Isn’t that just what people do? You can’t do the project without you, after all.”

“I just wanted… to show that I had more to give. That my expertise remained valuable and I could press a project like this onward…” She steaded herself, turning around. “That I could remain useful in the face of this.”

“You know that Twilight Sparkle would not discard you. Surely not after something like this, not under her control.”

“That’s what I tho–” Raven almost finished that statement. She looked up at Luna. Luna’s eyes were concerned, worried, a small smile of encouragement on her face. She was doing her best to comfort and encourage her.

Raven couldn’t possibly say what she had been thinking. It’s not something she should say to anyone, but this mare here… was possibly the worst mare to say this to in the entirety of Equestria. If Luna knew the terrible selfishness inside Raven’s thoughts… something so close… Something so unreasonable to feel.

Well, Luna wouldn’t be offering her compassion for that.

“You’re right,” Raven said, looking away from Luna.

Luna frowned.

“Let’s get going,” Raven turned to keep walking toward the castle. “There’s more to survey.”

“No, no,” Luna said, her voice sharper moving forward to block her off. “It’s been a dangerous day, it’s a fine time for a break.”

“There’s more work to do, there’s damage to track, there’s rubble to categorize, there’s areas to examine, there’s ponies and griffons and hippogryphs and dragons to inform, there is so much work, this is an emergency.”

“All of that can wait,” Luna resumed her softer tone. “We can talk to Twilight’s students, then we can come back to survey the data later, with an expert in tow.”

“... I have to be able to tell Princess Twilight something.” Raven’s uncertain eyes were replaced with something else.

There was a pause of Luna thinking. “There can be a preliminary report, but without an expert’s eyes would you be able to gather all of the information you need to tell her what you think with confidence.”

Raven looked down in thought. “No… I suppose not.” She looked back up. “Fine, I will talk with Twilight’s students. Get some basic information and a preliminary report. Come back with a specialist, give her a detailed report ASAP, so that we can convene later.”

Luna nodded. “Excellent.”

Raven was already trotting away toward the students, eager to get the taste of her own thoughts out of her mouth.

Luna sat by, watching her walk away.

“Well that was a helluva conversation,” Scoria piped in from behind. “Nobody yelled or anything but it was crazy tense. Is that how ponies have arguments?”

Luna turned to face the dragon, with a shake of her head. "Well, you could argue that it was merely a discussion."

"That's how discussions go?" Scoria narrowed her eyes. "Ponies are kinda odd." She spread her wings wide. "Well, if there's no treasure waiting for me, and nothing to dig, we're done, right?"

Luna nodded, with a soft smile. "Indeed, our mission is concluded. Your service was exemplary."

Scoria snorted. "Yeah, I guess so. Let me know when there's something exciting to do, huh?" And with a gust of air, the dragon took to the skies, in a somewhat hesitant flight, not sure what direction to head in, but quickly she disappeared.

Luna’s smile faded, a serious expression on her face instead. She saw Raven out ahead, holding a conversation with the griffon student. She was all business again, a consummate professional, even as Luna had cautioned rest. She would assuredly work herself too late on the paperwork they were talking about, burning the midnight oil.

Luna sighed herself, clearing her expression and following Raven.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, but we're still going! Things could have gone better there.

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1 - Taking an Assignment

Raven Inkwell considered her words, scrawled out busily with her floating quill, her horn glowing gently as she worked. She had the entire day worked out, one event after the other. "Your highness." She looked at Twilight Sparkle, sitting tall on the throne. "I've prepared your schedule."

Celestia would have smiled. She would have thanked Raven for her work and took the list for study. Twilight, instead, looked surprised. "I mentioned this before." Her magic easily took the note from Raven. "But I have my scheduling thoroughly prepared. Thank you for the effort, but your talents are better used elsewhere."

“Princess,” Raven watched her notes end up in the out box, “You don’t have to do that. My job is to be on top of these things for you.”

Twilight pursed her lips briefly, but smiled after. “I know, Raven, but I like to be on top of these things myself, and even for that I have my assistant,” she waved her hoof at a small dragon who was carrying a stack of papers nearly as large as himself. Spike smiled uneasily and tried to hide behind them.

Twilight took the stack of papers, pulling out a smaller package of them. “And I meant it, when I said your talents were needed elsewhere.” The package was presented to Raven. “I have a task for you.”

Raven took the package, opening it up–

—--

Raven’s hoof slipped as she stepped off of the giant log, causing her to splat down in the wet mud underneath.

While she had remained on the path Princess Twilight had suggested, the forest remained untamed. It was wet in places a pony needed to step, and sported no few dangers. "Stick to the path," she reminded herself as she pressed forward. "I'll be there shortly."

She looked ahead to where she hoped to see the top of a castle, but only trees taunted her in that dense forest of the Everfree.

Eventually, though, the trees began to thin. Small bushes turned to clumps of wildflowers, and soon Raven stood before the decaying structure she knew well: the Old Castle. The castle of the Twin Sisters. One of whom used to be her boss, her literal sun, and her reason for being.

The castle did not look good. Most of it still stood, but what parts fell into ruin had done so thoroughly. Broken spires jutted out, vines had taken hold across the walls. What windows were left were almost all shattered. But Raven took pride in her job, already thinking through what had to be repaired and in what order those would have to be done in order to see the task done. "I won't fail in this."

She made her way into the ruins proper. The interior definitely was not designed in the same way that Canterlot Castle was. The areas in it remained dark, often having corridors with small slits to let in enough light to see, but not enough light to really illuminate the surroundings.

The walls were peppered with books and tapestries, too. All valuable historical artifacts, by now, and Raven only wanted to touch them when she had something to do with them, leaving them safe for now.

And she noted passages deeper into the castle. Princess Twilight’s notes included that there were underground chambers and secret passageways, which she would have to map out more comprehensively as well.

As she explored, looking for a place with enough light to spread out, she found the significant (and possibly active) landmark of note: a glimmering crystal house that was also a crystal tree, the regrowth from the Tree of Harmony, with ties to some of the students of Twilight’s friendship school, back in Ponyville.

She peered into it, and in stark contrast to the dilapidated castle, the interior was opulent and new. But also it appeared empty, and Raven was here to fix up the castle. In fact, she would have to be sure the new layout could accommodate this tree, and potentially even accommodate it growing over time.

There were lots of ways this project could go, and each of them more complex than the last. And yet, Raven couldn't help but feel excitement. She could prove to Twilight she was worth her talents beyond scheduling. Perhaps that would help open her new ruler and boss to accept her help in scheduling?

She paused, ears pricking at a sound. Had something moved? Perhaps it was a wild beast. Raven scowled in its direction, considering her options. While hiding was a perfectly acceptable option, it felt like a dead end. She had to control the castle, not hide from part of it. She strode towards it instead. "Whatever you are, I am Raven Inkwell, and I come with royal authority." Not that a cockatrice would care too much about that.

But, coming around the corner, she saw no monster. Instead, royalty, dark furred and with a delicate frown of thought. "Princess Luna?!" Raven jumped with surprise. "I didn't expect you to be here."

Luna examined Raven for a quiet moment. "I could say much the same. But this is my castle, so I would say you are the pony in the less likely position, if we had to compare." She rose to her metal-clad hooves. "Why are you here?"

"For the restoration project, Princess Luna." Raven glanced at her papers. "I thought you had retired, with your sister. Where is she?"

Luna shook her head. "It does not matter." And she started to walk past Raven, back out the way she came. "Not here."

Raven grimaced and wheeled around, following Luna. “Well,” she removed the paperwork and hovered them in front of Luna. Luna did not take the papers like Celestia would. “I am tasked with restoring this–” She bumped against the wall, losing some distance, and trotted to try to keep up. “--historic site to a condition that might be usable again.”

Was it her imagination, or did Luna speed up? She was certainly having trouble keeping up. “And preserving the information and books within.”

Luna abruptly stopped, causing Raven to stumble in place. “But why are you here? Shouldn’t you be keeping a schedule for Twilight Sparkle? Taking notes? Making sure the Diplomats have the tea in time for them to meet with her?”

She was so large. Obviously Celestia and Luna were always large, but Celestia was always approachable. Luna was big and staring Raven down with a sour expression.

“W-well,” Raven struggled to regain her social footing, standing up. “Princess Twilight Sparkle tasked me with doing this,” She hovered the page showing that it was signed with Twilight’s seal, indicating she personally supervised the paperwork.

Luna’s sour expression deepened.

Raven got defensive. Of course it had to be Twilight who assigned this to her. She wouldn't have taken this on herself. "My normal work has been reassigned, as Twilight sees fit."

Luna waved Raven away. "And, as she orders, and my sister ordered before her, so you must do."

Raven felt stunned, smashed by those words. "O-of course?" She couldn't even comprehend an alternative. "They are my liege, and I am their humble servant. This is my job."

Luna leveled a hoof at Raven. "I am also a princess of Equestria. Will you listen to my commands?"

Raven's gut clenched. The Moon Princess had vanished for years. The idea she was giving direct commands was absurd, considering she had also retired alongside her sister.

Luna's eyes narrowed, and she bared her teeth, with fangs gleaming. "I thought not. My domain remains mine. My sister did not see to its disposition, nor did Twilight Sparkle."

"And what--" Raven stopped her question, realizing the answer. "Dreams?"

"Of course." Luna half-lidded her eyes. "What else would I speak of? Dreams, and the night. Neither of which have another ruler to take their charge. Now, I have a question for you." She nodded at the papers Raven floated along. "Do those tell you what this castle will be used for, in Twilight's mad fantasies?"

Raven tried to regain control of the situation. "It is not my place to ponder such things, but Princess Twilight Sparkle intends to use it as a museum."

Luna chuckled dryly. "A museum. My entire foalhood--" She sighed gently, turning away. "Turned into an attraction for gawkers."

“It’s not gawkers,” Raven argued “It would help this generation gain an appreciation for the events of ancient history.”

Luna turned back. “Ancient…”

Raven’s expression fell, hearing this response.

“If you hadn’t noticed, I am still here.” Luna’s expression was obscured by her facing. “I remain.”

“I’m sorry,” Raven scrambled to recover. “It was a slip, it was just… a thousand years ago.”

“A thousand years that I was not around for, you mean,” Luna said.

Raven considered her trusty clipboard and flipped through it, horn glowing with her lifting magic. "Then, may I propose, this may be of use to you as well, Your Highness."

Luna turned around, looking at Raven curiously.

Raven presented the top paper, on which were details of her current plans. "We intend to restore the castle to the glory of your youth. In this plan, we'll get to all of the old sections. As we work on this, we will, and must, explain the differences and demonstrate them, of those days, and these." She waved out over the area the castle was in, even if it was night. "Ponies must appreciate the changes, for good, or ill."

Luna was silent for a moment, before raising a hoof. "These pages indicate nothing of the sort. They're mostly about renovations to make it livable for your workers. There is not one word about preserving it. No word about leaving any of it untouched. And not even a hint that you will document or label what is different between the old ways and the new ways."

Raven adjusted her glasses with a sly smirk. "Astute, but, ma'am, this is only step one. Our first priority is to get this castle intact, so that no further damage can befall it, or its contents. Only then can we even consider what we will do with it all."

“And then where is it written that Twilight Sparkle’s intention is to use it as a museum?” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“It’s what she told me–” Raven began.

“And even if this were true, then it would be turned into one of those awful ‘tourist traps’ that I have been subjected to to show me the various histories of Equestria?” Luna began to pace. “A record of lives, robbed of their gravitas, a place for ponies to go when they need a place to amuse their foals for an afternoon?”

“I would not--” Raven was cut off again.

“Wouldn’t you?” Luna stepped up. “I saw the memorial to Commander Hurricane. And I saw a group of schoolfoals bored, trying to sneak away. I saw the ancient site where earth ponies commemorate their relationship to the land, and I saw some ponies selling an oversized hat to wear to look like a tree.

“Did those ponies believe they were honoring the past? I’m sure. But instead they either turned it stale or turned it into a place to do commerce.”

“But–” Raven began again. “This is what Princess Twilight wants.”

“I have met Twilight Sparkle before, Miss Inkwell. I do not believe she has a very realistic opinion on the use and regard of such sites.”

Raven clenched her teeth, a thousand ideas jostling in her mind, but not a single one of them coming to her lips. "You don't have all the answers." Luna turned away. "Just commands from a ruler wet behind both ears." She marched away without another word, path straight and wings tight.

Raven opened her mouth, but nothing came out. The frustration filled her up inside. She grabbed a book from the shelves and threw it in Luna's wake, sending it tumbling into a wall and crumpling to the ground. She realized a moment later the crime she had committed and grabbed the book with her magic, floating it over.

She sighed miserably as she put the book back where it belonged. "It didn't deserve that. I am better than that." She closed her eyes, doing her best to regather herself. "My mission is--" She swelled with her breath. "--unchanged."

But then, once she had a full breath in, she couldn't let it out. What was wrong with her? Why didn't she argue back with Luna? Why was she so afraid?

And she bit back a scream as she took out her quill and started writing out her schedule and observations for that day, trying to calm down.

She kept at this for several minutes, before her own actions occurred to her. She frowned deeply. She should be working on this project, not fretting about whether her princess would approve of her.

"I need to take full measure." She rose to her hooves. "I need to hire construction ponies. There are things that must be done, and I am here, feeling poorly for myself. What would Celestia think?" She cringed, realizing what she had said. "What indeed?"

Author's Note

A collab story told with RadicalDishonesty. Let's weave a tale, and you can come along, if you please?

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2 - Timid Steps

Raven did her best to focus in the coming days, approaching construction ponies in Ponyville. She got a few surprised looks when she said where the project would be. "Yes, the Everfree. There's a castle." She pointed the way. "This is a royal project."

That got some to cease their objections, but not all. Still, she had some workers and she led them to the castle, happy to have some at least. "There we are." She indicated the ruin. "Now, before you begin, I have some instructions..."

She looked back to the crew that she had assembled. It was mostly one particular working crew from Ponyville, but she had to fill the ponies who were unwilling to work in the Everfree with freelancers. This was fine, she often had to select some extra workers for projects.

But now that they were here, they were clearly on edge. The lead pony, a large bluish pony named Hard Hat, stepped up, “Right,” he barked, possibly a little too loud. “Listen up, especially you newponies. We don’t wanna be here any longer than we gotta be.”

“Now, mister Hat,” Raven trotted up toward the crew. “Ever since the regrowing of the Tree of Harmony, which you will see shortly, the general danger in the forest has gone down significantly. The dangerous creatures that once mostly populated this place no longer roam the trees.”

“No offense, miss,” said Hard Hat, a phrase that almost always meant the opposite was about to happen. “But you haven’t lived here your whole life, wonderin’ if anything nasty’s about to come outta this here forest. Even the foals know to avoid it, and I believe ya when ya say it’s safe, but old habits die hard.”

Raven adjusted her glasses a little. “Of course… well, the work you’ll be doing here involves stabilization and the cleaning of rubble in the area. Reconstruction will follow that, but first we must know how much material we have here so I know how much to order.”

“C-can we get going,” a lanky pony in the back of the crowd said. “I… wanna see the tree,” he said, not meeting anyone’s gaze.

Raven led them through the ruins to the site she had chosen for the work tent, which would be the starting point for the repairs. Once she had this set up, she could set the general order of business, and while they worked, she would work out the particulars of the project itself.

This involved walking up and down the ruined corridors. She made notes in her clipboard as she went, taking special notice of damage and where the vital structure needed to be braced or patched to keep the elements out. "All things in proper order." She took a slow breath. "This project's headmare is me. I can't just report this to anypony."

But was that true? The thought of looking to Luna drifted into her mind and refused to leave as easily as it came. "I should show her the notes and progress." Yes, that was just being polite. Filled with renewed determination, she set off in search of the night princess.

Luna had a natural talent at avoiding other ponies, it seemed. She found no trace of her in the castle, not in the upper floors that still had some glass in them, or in the basement passages that were more lit than the upper portions, and not in the chambers and bedrooms of the castle that were long abandoned, still furnished with relics of an age past.

Raven paused as she found herself in Celestia's bedroom, the biggest in the castle. This chamber was clean, but most of the furniture had been removed from it. "Or it decayed." Raven nudged at what had once been a bookshelf. "No, they moved her things, to what would become Canterlot." She smiled in memory of the city she had left to start the project. "Let's make this place just as wondrous."

"I doubt that." Raven twirled to see Luna standing in the door frame, filling it easily. "The castle has become quite a bit louder than it had been for some time. Your doing, I trust?"

Raven gathered up her composure. "I suppose, yes. And since I am supposed to be leading the project, I thought it only appropriate to seek you out to talk about what my plans for the building were." She floated up a simple diagram of the castle's exterior. "I have them examining for what is broken, how it can be fixed, and what local materials can be used for the process. Do you see any errors?" She stood with poise and dignity, ready to be praised for her good work thus far.

Luna paused, blinking at Raven. “I have indeed seen errors.”

Raven made her best effort to not be disappointed. Professional decorum must be maintained. She brought out her notepad and ink pen. Feedback from the upper was not to be ignored.

Luna’s expression turned chilly. “There are ponies in my castle.”

Raven’s confident expression froze. “Princess… Luna? There need to be ponies in the castle to do the work.”

“Yes,” Luna said. “Will you take steps to correct this problem?”

Raven was floored. “If I can get some confirmation we are on the right track I can be sure to make sure things move along as quickly as possible.”

“Oh, approval will make sure it’s done?” Luna tilted her head. “Then can I declare it done right now? Send the ponies away?”

“Princess Luna,” Raven said, trying very hard not to grit her teeth. “There is quite a bit more work to be done to restore the castle to its former beauty. Stopping the project before it is done will not get that accomplished.”

“It can get done much faster if you let me simply say it is done.” Luna’s face seemed entirely calm, like this was a completely normal thing to say.

“Even if we said it would be done, it would not be done.” Raven tried extremely hard to keep her frustration from being shown, but it was a fools errand as the immense work to stop was plainly obvious.

Luna stood still for a moment, allowing that to hang in the air. “Is this how you would deal with obstinate diplomats?” She raised an eyebrow. “I am not impressed.”

Raven sputtered. “Obstinate diplomats had a method. Send them to their room, give them fancy service, set up guards to discourage them from dodging appointments.”

“And then allow my sister to deal with it, right?”

Raven struggled to regain her footing in the conversation, floundering with her thoughts.

Luna, however, took advantage of her silence to continue. "My sister ruled the sun and moon, and she was fair, and the ponies knew that. Even as a filly I knew that my sister would listen to my problems. Because even if she could not fix it, she would always know the answer." Luna gazed upward. "She would sit us down, ask questions until the problems were solved."

Raven smiled, a forced expression. "She had, has, her talents, yes. But right now, we are dealing with you, Your Majesty, and I would like to work with you, not against you. How can we get this done while respecting what this castle was, is, and could yet be?"

The silence between them was thick enough to slice as Luna stood there, still and judging silently. "You won't leave."

"Not until it is done, Ma'am." Raven floated her clipboard a little higher. "Can we begin? I would like, if you are willing to hear it, to share a story. It involves your sister, one one of her off days, when her shine felt lackluster at best, and she staggered in view of her precious court for all to see."

Luna said nothing, but the flicking of her ears told Raven all she needed to know. She was paying attention. “This was rather a while ago now, I was fairly new at working with Celestia, but I was with her during court, so I already had some experience under my belt.”

Raven floated her clipboard down, setting it on the remains of the bookshelf. “She was serving a daily court meeting. It had been a long day already. The Summer Sun festival was approaching quickly, and a variety of businesses and contractors needed to be discussed, as well as organizing guards.

“But this also didn’t stop more personal matters from also being still considered. It was extra tasks for her schedule, and she did not delegate any of them.” She chuckled to herself. “Something that I did ultimately improve upon, in those early days neither I nor the other assistants–” she looked up at Luna, who was busily giving an unamused expression, and coughed. “Yes, anyway.

“Two ponies came to Princess Celestia with a squabble. I don't remember the specifics, and I imagine neither of them do now. But, at the time, it was a matter of dire importance. It was too much to add to an already burdened day. She was breaking." Raven inclined her head slowly. "I stepped in, escorting the ponies outside as Princess Celestia broke down, in her own way. She is, as they say, stoic."

Raven hesitated a moment. "The point being, I am certain that many ponies have seen their princess at her worst, but very few of them have come out of it as friends of the Crown, and not many more would have a chance to help the princess." She dipped her head towards Princess Luna. "I work for that chance, not for glory, but to be a supporting balance. What good is the crown if it sits on an empty throne?"

Luna smirked. "Are you suggesting I'm an empty throne?"

Raven opened her mouth, struggling to respond to that. "No, no. Of course not. But you could reside pridefully over this domain." She twirled her quill over the castle. "I work to make it ready for you."

Luna eyed the quill dubiously. "And how would you like to be rewarded?"

Raven sputtered a little, unused to that kind of question. "Rewarded?" She laughed. "I am already rewarded. The work is the reward, Your Highness. Seeing it done right, and you able to execute your duties smoothly, that is my reward."

Raven’s reward for this statement, however, was an even more dubious raised eyebrow. “I have seen many ponies in my time. Many of them would have called you a fool for saying that. They would have taken gold, jewels, power. A good number would have wanted all three, and more besides. And, you would have gotten a small portion by my sister, as she certainly had the power to make it a reality. Such is the world of nobility, Miss Inkwell."

Luna turned her gaze out the window. "So, Miss Inkwell, what do you want? What does it take for a pony like you to be happy?"

Raven inclined her head slowly. "I will be happy, ma'am, when we can advance, together. This isn't the project I requested. This isn't the project you requested either. But we are both here. Let us comport ourselves with dignity despite it."

Luna turned her gaze from the window to the room proper, looking over the remains of her sister’s former room, almost entirely devoid of furniture, and down at the smaller assistant pony, brimming with barely-concealed anxiety over her future.

Raven presented the clipboard again to Luna.

“Alright, you may proceed.” Luna’s own tone was neutral

Raven broke into a smile, lifting the clipboard closer to Luna. “So if I can get your approva–” only to stop as Luna turned around, and began walking away.

“P-Princess Luna?” Raven trotted after her. “Your approval for the project?”

“I said that you may proceed–” Luna said, her own natural walking pace being too fast to keep up with except at a trot. “--Not that I was interested in checking off a list of approvals.”

Raven stopped her own trotting, watching Luna make her way into the sometimes-labrynthine Old Everfree Castle.

“If you make any mistakes, I’ll let you know.”

Author's Note

Progress, of a sorts. A little tiny step. Still, progress, right?

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3 - Younger Objections

For a brief but wonderful time, Raven watched the workers busy themselves and only had to call out when they slowed or wandered from her meticulous plans. All was going according to plan. Looking back, that was, itself, a sign that something was coming.

"What's this?" A female dragon, a younger one, landed and looked over the construction with confusion. "This wasn't here before."

Raven emerged from the castle, moving directly for the dragon that was not at all part of her plans. "Ma'am, we're busy with an official Equestrian crown project." She stood tall, confident that the nature of her project would send the interloper scurrying.

It did not. Smolder cocked a brow at Raven. "Yeah, cool, but no." She hiked a thumb at the crystal tree there in the courtyard. "That tree-house is ours. You know that, right?"

Raven looked at the tree-house, her horn glowing as she produced her clipboard and went over the blueprints. "That's not mentioned."

"It is now." Smolder put her hands on her hips.

"I see." Raven turned the clipboard around for Smolder to examine its contents. "You will be pleased then to know that I've allowed a ten feet clearance on all sides, to ensure no harm befalls your tree-house or its contents. It is not involved in this project."

Smolder practically glared holes in the clipboard. “And what if it gets bigger?”

Raven looked back, and down at her clipboard and up to the clubhouse. “It’s… a building. How could it get bigger?”

Smolder flapped her wings into the air, hovering over Raven, her arms thrown up. “It’s a magic house grown out of a world-saving tree. A tree growing bigger is normal.”

Raven continued to flip through her sheets. She hadn’t made many assumptions it would grow larger. “Are you sure it would get larger? It grew from the tree of harmony, right?”

Smolder folded her arms, still up in the air. “That’s right. It’s kind of a big deal.”

“Didn’t… Twilight’s castle also grow out of the Tree of Harmony?” She looked up over the clipboard to the dragon above her. “Her castle hasn’t changed in shape in the years it’s been around. I see no reason to assume that this would change that much.”

Smolder frowned from her place above, starting to lose a little height.

Raven flipped the clipboard back around matter-of-factly. “With ten feet for clearance, I’m sure that’s enough to fit your tree-house, so we can get moving.”

“Well, what about getting to our treehouse. A bunch of extra walls and ponies in the way doing whatever you want them to do won’t be very good.”

“I don’t see any reason it would be much harder. The renovated paths should be relatively straightforward." Raven pointed at her own hooves and the imaginary dotted line leading to where the entrance would stand, so stately and ready to receive guests. "As residents, we will get you passes to enter during off hours, of course."

Smolder landed, hand to her face. "Wow, yeah, great. We’ll need your permission to go to our treehouse. I'm glad I just put that thought in your head. Look, whoever you are—"

"—Raven Inkwell." Raven nodded properly.

"Whatever." Smolder waved it away. "We were here first. Try to act like that matters, a little, okay? The tree got here first, and we were second. You're a distant third."

“This was a project assigned to me by Princess Twilight Sparkle herself–”

“Well it’s not hers to give away!”

Raven sucked in a little air and steeled herself. She was no stranger to having to get more harsh. She had dealt with many a Canterlotian citizen who didn’t like a project, or the timing of an event, or any decision of Princess Celestia. Having to explain what was up, and that this decision was already made and already took their situation into consideration was a somewhat unpleasant task, but was necessary.

“As princess, she in fact does have the authority to create these projects, anywhere in the kingdom.” She stood herself up, trying to look as impassive and serious as she looked Smolder in the eyes. “And I believe that the terms I am presenting are more than accommodating, given that fact. The project will continue with or without your approval, and if you will cause a problem for us it will be a problem for you.”

Smolder scowled, nearly growling. “This is ours. Not yours, not Twilight’s, not the Ponies of Equestrias’. Ours.”

The two stood there, in the grass and sun, the construction behind them, the wind blowing between them, as neither gave way.

"You go fast." Yona came stomping in, Sandbar behind her. "What race? We not do—" She came to a stop, seeing the workers busy and Smolder having a heated chat with Raven.

Sandbar accelerated towards them. "Woah, what's all this about? Don't you work for Princess Celestia? I thought she retired!"

Raven blinked at the newcomers, backing off a half step. "I work for the royal family, as is my honor, yes." She tapped her hoof, waiting for a reply, but received none. "That the royal family has exchanged ruling members does not immediately cause me to be dismissed. Now, as I was saying." She turned back to Smolder.

Smolder stepped back, her hands on her hips. “She was saying that she’s takin’ over the castle here, building up whatever around it, and going to make us get permission to come into our treehouse.”

“Wait, really?” Sandbar tilted his head. “That’s kinda messed up.”

Raven’s eyes widened only a little. These were the other ponies–er–creatures, who were involved in this tree house? Just how many were? She regained her senses, and stepped back a little so that she could address the group, to be safe. “No, that’s not correct, I said that I would make sure you would have passes to come through during off hours in the castle.”

A silence fell and it looked like both the Pony and the Yak were clearly thinking this through.

“Well… uh.” Sandbar finally piped up. “That’s pretty similar to having to ask you permission to come through.”

Raven frowned. “But I just said, you will be allowed through.”

“Through what, though? Like, guards? Will they have to check our passes?”

Raven flipped through her notes, retrieving the requisite pages. “Yes, the current plan is to have a system of passes to tell who is allowed through at what times, with people who will be paying for entrance having their own passes with dates on them.”

The three there peered at the documents, apparently reading them over. “This very confusing,” the yak finally said. “We have to go through this and show necklaces to get in every time?”

“Well… yes, there will need to be security for a site such as this,” Raven explained, “especially once it is open to the public.”

“And I bet there will be a lot of ponies coming around,” Smolder said, snorting. “Paying to see the castle, I guess. Is our treehouse an exhibit?”

“Of course not!” Raven exclaimed, folding up the notes. “If you want a copy of the notes I can give you it, but I assure you, you will be given passes to be let in, you will have a path to come in, others will not be allowed in. Everything is already provided for, and the project will proceed as planned.”

“I guess…” Sandbar rubbed the back of his head. “She does say it’ll all be in order.”

Smolder scoffed. “It sounds like a heapload of trouble as is and we don’t even know if these are actually the last plans.”

“I can assure you the plans are stable.” Raven adjusted her glasses. “Unless you have any suggestions.”

“Don’t build anything and leave us alone?” Smolder snapped to say, with a smarmy grin on her face.

“Unacceptable.” Raven said, her own expression unamused.

Another bout of silence fell across the group.

Sandbar raised a hoof. "We're getting carried away. Um, ma'am?" He looked to Raven with what he hoped was an inviting smile. "We just care about the tree. It means a lot to us."

Smolder shrugged with a huff, eyes rolling. "As if she cares about that. If Twilight didn't tell her personally, it may as well not exist."

“We go, friends.” Yona turned for the ramp leading up into the clubhouse.

“Yeah, let’s get back into the treehouse, we’ve got an assignment to do,” Sandbar replied with a defeated sigh, beginning to walk into the house proper.

“Fine, but this isn’t over.” Smolder flapped her wings, conspicuously not looking at Raven as she passed.

As the three of them made their way into the treehouse, Raven listened in to them chattering about it vaguely.

“You think we go to Twilight?” “Yes! She’ll set us right.” “I dunno, if this is really her plan, she must have a good reason for it...” as they trailed off into the castle.

Raven sighed. Another issue of somecreature not liking her project. Certainly not as important as Princess Luna’s approval, but somewhat troubling nonetheless.

Author's Note

We hit what felt like an end, so we ended that chapter there. Difficulties, how do we get past them?

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4 - Fellow Statesmare

Raven sat up in her bed. The morning light spilled through the curtains into the modest room that Raven had rented from a local in Ponyville. She gazed out the window into the countryside, watching Celestia’s sun spill over it. Except it wasn’t exactly Celestia’s sun anymore, was it? That job was now Twilight Sparkle’s job.

Raven sighed. There was nothing distinctly wrong with the job that Princess Twilight was doing, was there? Of course not. Neither was the fairly sudden decision for Celestia to leave. She had trained Twilight well, or so said the common knowledge. But Raven did wonder, for a time, why she was suddenly pushed to the side.

It wasn't like Princess Celestia didn't have the workload of the entire kingdom before, she managed it with grace and the best—

She shook her head. "Enough dour thoughts! Time to greet the day." She would get little done, thinking sour thoughts of the past. She slid to the ground and freshened herself for a new day.

Soon, Raven was trotting through the roads of Ponyville, eyes locked on her destination and ignoring the friendly faces around her. She had little time to talk to them. Her immense task wouldn't complete itself.

"Raven?" That voice made Raven pause. She turned to see a gray-maned mare looking at her with shock and a smile. "That is you! How have you been? I miss you around here." Mayor Mare trotted right to Raven's side. "You were quite the assistant when you visited before."

“Oh, Miss Mare.” Raven turned her head, stopping entirely. She of course remembered the mayor of Ponyville. She would know of this mare even if they hadn’t worked together, this was an important elected official, after all.

Mayor Mare grinned at her, the usual warm, professional, and knowing smile of a politician. "So what brings you to Ponyville today, my dear? Anything I can do to help?"

Raven straightened her posture out a little, standing tall. "Ugh."

Mayor Mare inclined her head at the sound. "Oh dear. That's the sound of a pony in a place I've been in before." She glanced aside and back at Raven. "Do you want to vent at a fellow political mare?"

Raven closed her eyes, nodding a little. "Just a little." She took a deep breath. "I am the supervisor of a major construction project, the renovation of a castle in the Everfree Forest, a project assigned to me by Princess Twilight Sparkle." She pointed the way with her horn. "So far, the material parts are simple enough. But the ponies around it are a swarm of problems that will not let me work in peace."

Mayor Mare nodded slowly. "The Everfree is quite the project, indeed. Lots of creatures that aren't used to working with ponies in there, eh?"

Raven cleared her throat. "That's putting it mildly." She cracked a faint smile. "I suppose I should be happy that I have not been assaulted by the monsters of the forest, yet. No, my latest problem comes from entitled creatures that claim a small bit of that land as their own."

Mayor Mare started at that. "Really? I can't think of anycreature that could claim any part of the Everfree, of all places. Who and why?"

Raven closed her eyes. "The young creatures that seem to live in the nearby tree house. I am unsure how they came to be there, but they are a pony, dragon, griffon, and a yak, if I recall. They are apparently also are well connected to Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Mayor Mare stroked a chin thoughtfully. "Oh, mmmm, yes. Those are students, of Twilight's school." She pointed the way. "The one she began before she became princess, of Equestria, that is." She frowned with new thoughts. "And they're in your way? How unkind of them. I thought they were such nice creatures. Why won't they let you get to work?"

Raven shook her head. "They have not damaged the work, not yet. They just are causing problems and wanting me to stop all work for them. It is as if they have no idea the consequences of their actions, or that I am trying to work in a very difficult place."

"I can scarcely imagine many harder." Mayor Mare gently nudged Raven forward, to walk along with her. "So, what is it they wanted, exactly?"

Raven waved it away. "They want free access to their tree, but it is in the courtyard of the castle. I need to repair the gate, and then to lock that gate to have any traffic control to that historical land. Giving them permission to pass didn't seem to mollify them." She did walk with Mayor Mare though, moving through Ponyville at a sedate rate.

"Well, they didn't have to before." The mayor pondered it a little. "Do you suppose that's all they want?"

"I asked for any and all problems with the project, and this is what they offered." Raven paused a moment to sigh. "A small request, but an impossible one."

Mayor Mare tapped at her chin. "Well, the tree, is it actually theirs or not?

"All my research, to my regret, agrees that the tree is rightfully theres." She considered her mayoral friend. "Why?"

"So, give it to them. You don't need that." Mayor Mare reached out a hoof and began to draw crude shapes in the dirt. "If this is the castle, and here are the gates. And here's the tree. Close enough?" Raven nodded along with the basic presentation. "Good, then, let's pretend this just isn't here." She smudged out the gates entirely. "You could secure the castle the old fashioned away, with good locks."

Raven's brows went up together. "Is it so simple?" She let out a weary sigh that turned into a short laugh, a relieved one. "Sometimes, all you need is a fresh set of eyes. The obvious answer, right in front of me, and I had been blind to it." She stood taller and smiled, genuinely, at the mayoral pony. "Thank you, Madam Mare."

"Not at all. I've been there, my dear." Mayor Mare winked at her. "And I've been able to reach out to you a few times for a proper answer to things. As I said before, we political mares need to have each other's backs. Not like the usual pony is rushing for the task, hm?" She nudged against Raven gently. "So let's give up on that gate. Leave them open, or even tear them down, and they'll have no reason to complain."

"I am available, should you have need." Raven dipped her head at Mayor Mare. "Thank you." With a revised mission secured, Raven proceeded at a trot back into the Everfree, heading towards the worksite, with a spring in her step.

Unfortunately, she found that the Spring would not last. It was not that the workers had slackened, they were still making fine progress, but the voices were already raised.

Raven picked up the pace, and she found Hard Hat being scolded by Luna herself, her voice carrying well through the old passages.

"And yet, this is still true," Luna said, "I wish to see what is being done."

Raven emerged from around the corner, hurrying towards the conflict. "Ma'am? What troubles you?"

Luna huffed, glaring at Hard Hat. "This pony won't let me see all that they have done, and are doing."

Hard Hat pointed up to his titular safety garb. "This is a hard hat only area. We don't want anypony getting hit by a falling bit of masonry, especially not a princess, ma'am. It's for your own safety.

"A rule like this is meant to keep workers and customers alike safe and healthy," Raven explained to Luna. "We must have such rules to prevent accidents. But of course, a princess would not require one." She glanced at Hard Hat and back to her. "Still, we must set a good example, ma'am. Hard Hat, do you have a spare?"

"Hm? Yeah." He reached back and drew out another hard hat. "Never leave home without a spare or two."

Raven gestured to the hat, then at Luna. "Ma'am, kindly. Put this on and the problem is resolved."

Luna bristled, wings fluffed. "I can protect myself." But she did take the hat in her magic, floating it to rest on her head. "Really."

Raven gave a curt nod. "Wonderful. Now, as you were?"

Hard Hat stiffened. "Right." He bowed to the princess. "Princess Luna, and Assistant Inkwell, if you'll follow me." He began a tour of what they had accomplished, and what they were working on. Though he was proud of his work, it mostly came to making sure the old stones were going to stay, rebuilt in places where that was impossible. "We are on schedule, so far. The outer facade should be finished within a moon. With that secured, weather damage should stop being a worry anywhere in the castle."

Raven smiled broadly. "Excellent. The princess and I shall take a look." She looked over the work. "Remember, do not rush the quality. If the work is flawed, we will have to repeat it and that will make things take longer."

Luna nodded a little. "Is this always how your projects proceed?"

"Absolutely. In Canterlot, if the royal family commissioned a piece, it could take months to be completed. As the project manager, my job was to keep everyone involved working without burning out." Raven lifted an ear. "Besides, if they had to repeat the task in a few short years, that cost Equestria more than if they had done the project correctly the first time. Unacceptable. It is my gladly accepted position to lessen the load, not increase it later."

"It seems that you enjoy talking about it," Luna observed. "Are you fond of the work? Or do you simply talk of it because you believe you must?"

Raven opened her mouth, paused, and looked at her. "Ma'am." She shuffled awkwardly, called out like that. "Both are true in part, I suppose." She coughed into a hoof gently. "Oh, Hard Hat. I apologize, but we need to discuss an alteration to our plans."

Hard Hat huffed at that. "Always the case. Big one, or small one?"

"A small one, thankfully." She led the way outside the castle where she could point at the gate. "You can keep the walls, but remove the gates themselves. This area—" She waved across the entire courtyard that contained the tree. "It is to be public space, with no access control of any kind." She turned in place to face the door they had just exited through. "That does mean this needs to be secured and securable. Is this within your means?"

"Hm." Hard Hat tapped as he turned left and right. "We're gonna have to make some adjustments. I'll inspect the walls to see what they can hold up. We may have to reinforce parts, but, yeah, sure." He shrugged with a little smile. "Me an' the boys'll get it done for ya, Miss Inkell, ma'am."

Raven smiled softly back. "Glad to hear it, Mister Hard Hat. We have a great deal of trust invested in your firm. Make us all proud, now." She looked to Luna, who seemed to be mulling over the plans. "And let me know if she gets in the way," Raven whispered far more quietly. "But be polite, please. She remains royalty, even if her sister has abdicated the throne."

Hard Hat nodded. "Not the first 'trouble' client we ever had, ma'am. Better get back to it." He dipped his head briefly and trotted off back towards the others, shouting commands as he went.

Raven stood up tall with a content smile. Satisfaction sounded from each step she made, or so it felt. "This project is moving."

Author's Note

I took the reigns of this chapter, letting up some pressure on poor Raven with some help from an old friend. It is canon that Raven has worked with Mayor Mare before.

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6 - Group Chat

A magical tree, grown from the Tree of Harmony itself, from a seed that represented hope itself. mysteries of that tree were vast and unknowable. It was also where a bunch of teenaged creatures were hosting their meeting place, one of the princesses included.

The creatures living there called themselves the 'Young Six'. Raven assumed it was a harmless title, one of their many little quirks. After all, what they did was not her problem. Unfortunately, having Luna up in the clubhouse made it part of her problems, at least, something to keep an eye on.

As such, when Raven got a visitor at her workplace, it was with a raised eyebrow that she recognized Sandbar.

The colt gave her an awkward smile. "Hi, Raven, right?"

Raven let out the faintest sigh. "Sandbar, I thought we had reached an agreeable end? The public right of way is being respected. You can come and go from your tree without opposition."

“Um, yeah!” Sandbar perked up. “And we’re very happy we got your… assurances on that.” He nodded far too enthusiastically. “But we…” He shuffled from hoof to hoof. “We’d like to invite you up to the treehouse to talk with us and Princess Luna.”

Raven tried not to show her displeasure. She had already dealt with this, hadn’t she? She gave them what they were in fact legally entitled to, as they had the legal rights to this property, and they walked away happy, right? “Of course, let’s,” she said, sure her voice was the picture of politeness.

“Alright then, come on!” Sandbar trotted away toward the clubhouse, with Raven in tow.

The time let her think. There were so many difficult ponies in Canterlot. Getting in the way of important royal projects. Like this one, naturally. Even out here she cannot be free of this.

And Princess Luna… Why was she involved? Was she still interested in disrupting the project? Raven thought they had come to an understanding, but this felt much more like she was about to undermine the project, instead.

And she still had other things to work on! The work was not done and she needed to get it do–

She bumped into a fuzzy figure in front of her, causing her to stumble and half fumble onto the ground. She didn’t hit the ground hard, but she was startled.

Sandbar looked back at her. “Are you okay, miss Inkwell?”

Yona put a hoof out to Raven, helping her up. Her mouth moved, but it took Raven a second to process it.

"Sorry, Raven, but you look worried! Need help?" She gave Raven a little smile that bordered on a smirk.

Raven shook her head, glancing at Yona as she was pulled to her hooves. "Just a bit annoyed at your friend here, I suppose." She colored faintly, realizing what she had said. "My apologies. I have plans, and they are—"

Smolder snorted from within the treehouse, watching from a balcony. "Yep, she's got some of that Twilight DNA going on."

Raven craned her head up at Smolder before shaking her head quickly. "You called me here for a reason, did you not?"

"Please enter." Luna gave a little toss of her head into the treehouse. "We should all speak, sitting. We all have things we'd rather be doing, but this is important enough to demand all our times."

Raven walked past, to the ramp up. "If we must."

Yona snorted at her side, tail twitching as she followed up after.

"Don't mind Raven, she's just wound a little tight." Sandbar put a supportive hoof against Yona. "Let's just talk this out, like grown po—creatures."

Raven entered the treehouse proper, something she had never done over the time she had with this project. She had been in a similar place, though, which was Twilight’s crystalline castle in Ponyville, and she had expected similar. This was not actually very similar. What she expected was a mystical feeling location with occasional clutter from overwork, but what she found was a very well lived in location, with objects in it that must be from all four littering the area.

But in the center there was indeed a table with a lot of seats, and already many creatures sat down at the table, a griffin, a hippogryph, and a friendly blue colored changeling. She knew the names of all these creatures, Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, but she hadn’t met any of them, and knew next to nothing about them beyond that they had a role in the creation of this house.

And they were serving tea and cakes.

Raven took a seat near the entrance, and observed as the rest of the denizens took their seats. Clearly not all of the denizens were as comfortable as Smolder seemed, Ocellus in particular looked like she was about to faint, breathing heavily. Gallus and Silverstream remained quiet and shared a glance. Smolder flitted down from upstairs, landing and pulling up her chair, a more cavalier attitude.

“Alright, I think most of us have seen Raven around, at least,” Sandbar said, “But this is Ocellus, Silverstream, and Gallus.”

Raven nodded her assent.

“Have some tea,” Silverstream said in a somewhat strained tone, pouring a teacup. Raven floated the teacup over to her, taking a sip. It was alright. Clearly not everycreature there was extremely comfortable with this.

And Luna, taking her time to walk across the table, sat down on a pillow on the ground. “Wonderful, let us begin the negotiations!”

“Negotiations?!” Ocellus blurted out, before clapping her hooves in front of her mouth.

Smolder snickered as Silverstream patted Ocellus on the back. “Way to break the ice, Princess.”

“I believe this is an accurate description of what may commence,” Luna defended herself, placing her hoof to her chest.

Raven furrowed her eyebrows and turned her head at the creatures here.

Sandbar cleared his throat and addressed Raven. "Uh, this is about the tree. We wanted to talk about the tree." He spread his arms out. "But more than just the tree. This entire place. The tree is a, uh, symbol, but so is that castle."

Silverstream shot up a hand. "I hid there once!"

Gallus snorted with a smile at that. "I think we all did that at least once."

"If we are to negotiate, I would expect that to be what we would be discussing," Luna said with a smile.

"Mhm, mhm, you're right. But, uh, it's about our history, I guess." Silverstream leaned in over the table. "This place is important to us. We want to be a part of what happens to it."

Gallus gestured to Silverstream. "That. Exactly that. You came in here with a plan and kinda bulldozed everything in the way without actually talking to anycreature."

Raven gave a somewhat unamused glare. "I fail to understand how this is in any way different."

Ocellus took a trembling stand. "We're not stopping you, um, ma'am. We want to talk, creature to creature. Adult to adult."

Luna nodded firmly. "Precisely so. This is my suggestion. While I appreciate you all, you are not of the age to be given official diplomatic positions. However, you are the caretakers of this place, and that gives you the status of a place of interest." She pressed her hooves together. "Raven, you mean well, this is not in doubt, but can they be given a seat at the table of your designs?"

Deep inside of Raven, something rankled her about this. “I’m not sure that would be… appropriate. As you said, these… youths are not of an appropriate age to be given any sort of official position.” She took another sip of the tea. “I’m also afraid that this is a very large task, and I’m sure all of you are very busy.”

The yak to her side hopped up, rearing back in an enthusiastic manner, the collision with the ground shaking the ground around her. “Yona not afraid of hard work! Yaks best at hard work.” She nodded, eyes closed.

Raven looked at her with only a minor turn of her head. “All of you are students, you are busy with studies, and the rest of your life. Meanwhile, I am spending nearly all of my waking hours worrying about this project.”

“Why not get some help then!” Gallus said, putting on a big grin. “A bunch of people who can run around and help out if you need it.”

“I am not afraid of the work.” Raven put the teacup down. “This is my job, after all, it would not be your job. Besides,” she raised an eyebrow. “I believe the offer was to have a seat at the table of my designs, not that you all would work as laborers or assistants.”

“We can do both,” Gallus insisted.

“Well, I have it under control.” She looked around, and settled on looking at Luna. “I am not sure what the benefit of these extra minds at the table would be.”

Luna hummed softly. She folded her legs into a seated position and set her forehooves down on the floor. Her wings drifted gently shut. "This castle means a great deal to these ponies. It means much to me, and, recently, it has gained meaning to you as well." She spread her wings slowly. "We all have dreams of what this place could become, and they are all wonderful. Can we not arrive at a shared vision that makes us all happy?"

Raven hopped to her hooves. "I will not see this castle reduced to a play area for eager little foals!" But rather than cowing them, all of them were gaping at her like she had said something ridiculous. Slowly, she sank back to her pillow. "What is your idea?" She tried her best to keep her voice even, as if she hadn't just had an outburst.

"Well..." Smolder started. "That castle is huge, and that's not counting the dungeons. All that space isn't even being used for anything right now." She stretched her limbs out languidly, letting out a soft sound. "Luna mentioned there were tons of artifacts hidden everywhere. We should be showing that off. The castle's great, but not many ponies will come just for the stone. If they know they get to see actual bits of the past, they'll be making a line."

Before she could retort, Sandbar also stood up. “And the forest is also interesting. There’s all kinds of interesting things very nearby, as well as locations that are around where the original tree also was.”

Almost to reply to Sandbar, Gallus spoke up, “But even the castle isn’t 100% safe. The big creatures are gone but there are still things around. The tree of harmony tends to keep them away, but the castle isn’t all in the tree. We’ve had to evade critters, and even know more about what keeps them away.”

Ocellus said very quietly. “Also we’re worried that even with a policy of not leaving, our treehouse won’t really be um… not bothered. If there are other ponies living here and working here, it’d be very nice, I think, to have them living in places that we don’t get in each other ways and so that everycreature knows who should go where and who is moving in,” she squeaked. “If that’s not too much trouble.”

“And that’s not even everything,” Silverstream nodded. “We’ve been talking about it, like, a lot.”

Raven looked around the table at all the creatures, each looking eager, or what passes for nervous eagerness, and her vision set on Princess Luna. She was smiling. It was a princess-smile, even, like her plans were coming to fruition.

Raven swallowed her complaints. They weren’t all meritless, anyway, right? Some of them were things she had considered. She sat back a little, sitting up, composing herself. “Alright, we can proceed forward with some more terms, then.”

An eruption of cheers from the other creatures could be heard in the rest of the castle.

Author's Note

Apologies for this being late, but it is a collab and other people have lives outside writing. Odd, right?

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7 - Draconic Fury

Raven trotted through the forest. Her time with the Young Six had helped her understand the young adults, but they were not what was consuming her thoughts. What consumed her was Luna. She had known, intellectually, that Luna was an intelligent pony with a talent for seeing through to the truth. But there was a difference between knowing something and being made to feel foolish.

She felt very foolish indeed. Luna had managed to trap her in an arrangement that gave these younger ponies some say in her project.

But was it an act of malice? Raven shook her head softly. "You want this to succeed." She had to remind herself. Luna was part of the project, and seemed to be behind it. Of course she would be a part of the solution.

Her musings were interrupted by a loud crash.

Raven scrambled into action, pushing through the undergrowth with her magic and coming into a clearing with a deep hole in the ground, dirt scattered about. A dragon stood atop of it, her mouth open in an angry growl.

"Why?!" The dragon roared.

"The answer is obvious." Luna walked up beside Raven. "You've dug too deep, and I assume you've found what you were looking for."

The dragon shook her head. "No! I dug correctly. It's not here!"

Raven rubbed at her head with building confusion. "Luna, Your Highness, what is going on here?" She turned to look at her with furrowed brows.

"Ah, yes, your preparations did not quite involve Raven." Luna's voice became distant as she mused. "Raven, this is Scoria, a good friend of mine, and apparently some sort of digger today."

Scoria glared at Luna. "Only because you told me to dig." The dragon shook herself off as she climbed free of the pit. "And it's not even here! You said you knew where it was."

"It is here." Luna waved a hoof out across the clearing. "The only question is how to reach it." She took a look around. "We're very close to it, in a spot that we knew very little about."

Scoria put her palm to her face. "You're kidding me." She turned her attention on Raven. "Maybe you can talk sense into her. She can't just mean 'somewhere around here.'"

Raven smirked faintly. "Unfortunately, that may well be exactly what she means. Luna has her ways. If I may ask, what is it you're looking for so eagerly?"

"A scroll," Scoria declared. "One that doesn't belong buried in a ditch!"

Luna put a hoof up to her chin. "That's not incorrect."

"A scroll?" Raven hummed softly, scanning the area. It was no great surprise that no scroll was in obvious sight. "What manner of scroll? Was it dragon in origin?"

"Nope!" Scoria grinned a toothy smile. "It was written by a pony. They called it 'The Prophecy of the Map'."

Raven frowned. "I admit my knowledge of the scriptures is weak." But she smiled just as quickly. "But if it is a scroll, of pony make, I may be able to—"

Scoria grabbed Raven with a huge smile. "You can?! Do it! Do it now!"

"Patience, new acquaintance." With firm hoof and pushing magic, she slid to the ground. "I have a spell that may assist."

She placed her ear to the ground, and began her spell. It was a simple spell, she thought, but it was immensely helpful in her work. Locating specific paperwork was of immense help. Even if the papers were organized it was often not clear where it was, and not everypony was organized.

Normally it would be a problem if she did not know the contents of the paper to locate, but she would be reasonably confident that if she found any paper–”Here!” she called out, raising her head back up, and pointing straight down.

“Good!” The teenage dragon pushed Raven aside roughly, diving at the ground with her claws first, and started digging at that area instead, tossing dirt up into the air.

As the dragon eagerly dug, Raven picked herself up off the ground and backed up, brushing off the dirt on her white coat. She wrinkled her nose. “So, what exactly is going o–” She was interrupted by a dull thunking coming from the hole.

“Found something!” Scoria’s voice came from the newly dug pit.

Luna smiled a mysterious smile. “Well, let’s not keep her waiting.” She took into the air and hopped into the pit, leaving Raven to frown. She wasn’t going into the filthy hole of mysterious danger, was she?

Hearing Luna make contact with the bottom fairly quickly, she knew the answer was yes, and Raven slid down the side of the pit into the unknown.

Which was a cave, but she had been expecting that. She lit her horn and peered around. This was not one of the areas that had been cleaned, which meant that it was relatively undisturbed by the ponies, and there was a surprising amount of dust covering all the surfaces.

Luna nodded at the unformed surroundings. "We have truly set hoof into the unknown. This predates the completion of the castle above. We could seal it away."

Scoria made a face at that. "You did not call me down here just to turn away from what you found."

“The decision hasn’t been made.” Luna turned to Raven, but only briefly. “But if it were to be made, we could make it now, before more is unearthed.”

Raven knew this was Luna prompting her to act. But… “I know next to nothing of this area, though. What is this scroll? Why is it here? How dangerous is this area.”

Luna smiled, and scanned the area. “Well, unfortunately, records about this area are fairly hard to come by. We came here because a recently discovered missive from Clover the Clever mentions that she hid this particular scroll near this area, that she knew was important to her teacher.”

“Sure, but where’s the scroll?” Scoria scoured the surroundings. “You are describing an old juicy dragon’s horde just made by someone not as cool as a dragon but nothing’s here.”

“Well, you said the scroll was straight down, right, Miss Inkwell?”

Raven nodded. “That’s right, but this chamber doesn’t appear to have it.”

“So, there must be a way down.” Luna shone her own light brightly. “Look for an exit to another chamber.”

Scoria watched as the two ponies began scouring the area, and looked straight down. “I betcha I could just…” She brandished her claws. “Keep going down.”

“No!” cried out Raven, who darted over.

“Excuse me?” Scora raised an eyebrow.

“We have no idea how stable this area is.” Raven pointed a hoof at the dragon, who, while she was not a particularly large dragon, she was realizing was still significantly larger than she was. But undaunted, she continued, “I won’t have this project jeopardized because we accidentally caused a cave in underneath the castle!”

Scoria snorted soot. “Who died and made you princess? I was asked to find the scroll, and I’m going to.”

“She is the one in charge here,” Luna’s voice rang out. “If she believes it is too dangerous to dig further, then we will find the passage.”

Scoria brought her claw back down, the edges of her lips twitching. “Fine, but don’t complain to me if we’re stuck here all day.”

The three of them did indeed succeed in finding the passage, and they began to go through a fairly winding cave, spending a while navigating the area, until the winding of the passages opened up to another larger cave. Exploring the area, there was a clear something in the center, which Scoria rushed over too. “Aww, score. There’s a chest and everything!”

It was indeed a treasure chest, although it was hardly in good shape. What was once probably a shiny bronze frame was now corroded green, and the chest itself was badly cracked and rusted, the hinges missing. It had been a long time, perhaps as long as it had been since the writing.

Raven frowned, and took a step forward. "It looks as if it could simply fall apart at any moment, and that bothers me." She curled a hoof to her chin. "Namely, I think it should have fallen apart. What is holding this together?"

Scoria rolled her eyes at the hesitation. "Who cares? Let's just grab what's inside it." She strode forward with wriggling fingers. "I'll take care of it."

Luna stepped between the dragon and the treasure chest. "Stand back. We do not know what awaits us inside."

"Aw, c'mon!" Scoria threw her hands up and stomped back a few steps.

“So, should we open it?” Luna said, lighting her horn.

“If we weren’t expecting to open it, why are we here?” Raven asked.

“Just because we’re here now doesn’t mean this is the correct or only answer.”

Raven blinked. “Fine, let’s think this through. There is a mysterious chest beneath the castle, we are probably somewhere above the original location of the tree of harmony. Inside is purported to be a scroll of… what is probable importance.” She looked over at the chest. “The fact that this has not fallen apart probably indicates the presence of magic. Magic that still exists. Can the magic be washed away in some way?”

Luna shook her head. “That is not how this works. Perhaps there may be a counter charm, but that would require access to Clover’s own notes. And there are no such counter spells in her known works. We are at one of her last unknown works.”

“That makes this a very important historical document.” Raven tapped her chin. “Can you do something to stop any dangerous kinds of traps?”

Luna nodded. “I am versed in a variety of protective magics.”

Raven nodded. “Excellent. Even if we left it here, if it had dangerous magic someone would find it sooner or later. This was also created by a good pony, and we found no warnings of dangerous Equestria threatening magics, so while there is a risk of something happening, it would probably happen sooner or later, and probably won’t curse our insides to become outsides or anything… so we should set up magic and open it up.”

Luna turned away and nodded. “That seems like a fine plan. I shall open it, and be ready for protection.

Luna approached the chest, her magic lighting up the way, and she created a dome shield around it. With her own magic she flipped it open, and light flooded out of the chest, becoming blinding in the darkness of the cavern.

Raven shielded her own eyes, flinching away. If something were to happen it would happen now, but the bright shine became a dim glow, and Luna brought up the shining object. It was a finely crafted object, to be sure, a scroll case that would be an envy of any scholar. And more importantly, it was not tarnished at all. It didn’t even appear to have dust upon it.

Scoria was the first to Luna, though. “Just look at it. It’s literally glowing. That’s the coolest hoard item that could ever exist.” She approached, her eyes glinting in the light. “Let’s open it.”

“Not yet,” Raven said, recognizing it was time for more direction. “We should wait until we’re outside. Also I must remind you this is a pony relic.”

Scoria snorted. “I know, but if I can’t have it I need to look at it.”

“Then let us go,” Luna said, lifting the Scroll case high.

As the three of them turned around, there was a small noise from behind, and Raven looked back. The treasure chest, tattered and worn after a millennium of waiting to be discovered, had fallen apart. “It’s amazing that the chest lasted this long.”

“Well, since there was no trap,” Luna mused. “Perhaps instead the magic was being used to protect the scroll, and the chest that contained it.”

“It must be..” Raven said, before there was another noise in the same area. The sound of a small pebble clattering, and a crack noise. She lit her horn brighter and leaned down. There was indeed a crack where the chest formerly was on the cave floor. Raven made a thoughtful noise, and before her eyes, the crack widened.

She stared at it a moment, gears turning in her head. A protective spell holding together the scroll and affecting the area around it. A cave she had a bad suspicion about, above other caverns in an area that was once tremendously treacherous, probably overrun once with magical roots that grew over time which are now gone…

Her eyes widened. “Oh no.”

Author's Note

Radical did most of this one, but here we are!

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