Twilight Sparkle Memory Lose

Chaper 2 - Princesses take action

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Canterlot

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Canterlot was on high alert the moment Spike sent message about what happened in the Everfree Forest.

It had only been 2 months since Twilight, her friends and Spike saved the Crystal Empire. Cadence became the ruler of the Crystal empire but her husband still had duty as Captain of the royal guards until he find suitable replacement for his position.

Shinning Armor returned to Canterlot just a week ago, and it was exactly one week ago when monsters in everfree forest started to act weirdly.

Back then no one noticed that those events could be connected, so princess Celestia decided to send Twilight and her friends to investigate, thinking that this small investigation would be a good experience for her student. She could not have been more wrong in her entire life, unless you count the time when she did not notice that Luna was in a mental crisis from loneliness and jealousy, the result being her turning into Nightmare Moon, Needless to say, Celestia didn’t want to make that sort of mistake again.

Right now, all she knew is that it was a trap set up by Queen Chrysalis and her army, and her student’s life could be in danger, she may be captured by the enemy or even dead, but Celestia quickly washed away those thoughts.

"Your Highness, on your command all captains have mobilized their regiments and are coming here to receive further instructions, Princess Luna was informed about the situation as well and is on her way here too." reported one of the guards as he bowed in front of princess Celestia.

"Very good, now join your squad and prepare yourself to move out, we have a rescue operation to perform and little time to waste." Celestia replied with serious tone, her expression neutral and no smile on her face. Princess Celestia often acted regal, but most of the time she was smiling and had a very calm motherly tone, but now by just looking at her, all the guards could see that the situation is indeed serious and no one would dare to disappoint the Sun Goddess, if only from fear that she would drop her flames of fury on them.

"Y...y…yes your H…h…highness..., right away your highness... ", said stressed guard as he made another bow and then quickly ran out of throne room, as two unicorn guards opened the doors at the last moment, just before he could crash into them, but before they managed to close it, princess Luna ran into throne room.

"Is what we hear is true, did thy faithful student Twilight Sparkle fall into thou enemies’ grasp?" said Luna as she was still running to Celestia, her voice loud and full of worry.

" I do not know sister, but we have no time to waste, I’m trying to organize our army for a full scale search and rescue, and we should be prepared for battle, for probably battle Chrysalis’s forces again, but without my connection to the Sun I won’t be at full power, so I’ll need to take some forces with me " answered Celestia with cold tone, " Night is your domain sister and I know you are a master at hiding in it, and your guards has been enhanced with those charms as well, so I would like to ask you to teleport to Everfree Forest where ... ", Celestia said with haste, but Luna cut her off.

"Teleport to Everfree Forest where there is changeling army waiting for us? Please calm thineself down sister, thou are acting too rashly, it will only lead to mistakes." Luna assured her, trying to calm her sister down. In past 3 years since the element bearers healed her, never had she seen her sister acting so coldly, and it worried her a lot.

"Mistake? Mistake?" Celestia murmured coldly. "MISTAKE!?" she yelled with Royal Canterlot Voice.

"I already made my mistake when I ignored you when you needed me, when I let you to turn into Nightmare Moon. I made my mistake when I turned myself away from Twilight Sparkle when she tried to convince us that there was something wrong with Cadence, and now I send my dear faithful student into a death trap? She may be dead, tortured or hiding at this very moment! No Luna, waiting any second longer is a mistake!" Celestia exclaimed with serious tone. Luna always knew that Twilight was very important to her, but now when Twilight’s life was in danger she realized just how important. She was not only an element bearer who kept Equestria safe from larger threats, not only a student of which every teacher could be proud, but she was almost like daughter to her, and just 8 hours ago she sent her to what may be her doom.

"But…" Luna tried to calm her sister, but she could not find any words to speak with.

The guards already informed her about what happened that Twilight Sparkle may be dead or in danger. Princess Luna did not know Twilight all that well, but she remembered her as the one who saved her from Nightmare Moon, giving her a new start after her long banishment, and she was the only one who did not fear her during Nightmare Night, doing everything to help her in her time of need.

While this was so, she could not think of her as a mere subject, and her sister spoke very highly of her, about how she and her friends defeated Discord, how she freed princess Cadence leading  to stopping the changeling invasion, about the friendship letters, and even when Luna was afraid that sending Twilight to deal with King Sombra without her help was a big mistake, Twilight and her friends still managed to turn a possible war into peaceful victory, and when she found out that Twilight was fascinated with the night sky and stars, Luna could only regret that she did not spend more time with Twilight when she had the chance.

Even if princess Celestia showed on the outside that she did not care much about Twilight’s safety, sending her into dangers and tests all the time, without much support, information or equipment, it was all because of her confidence, Celestia trusted in Twilight’s abilities so much that it never crossed her mind that she could fail no matter how dangerous the mission was. Luna always thought of this as stupid faith, to blindly expect so much from normal ponies to accomplish what would be a challenge even for powerful Alicorns like herself, but now she saw how much her sister regretted it.

"Luna, I do not expect you to go in there and fight Chrysalis and her army alone, I would never ask you to do that, especially after what happened not 8 hours ago, but unlike you, Twilight cannot hide in the night and does not have so much power to defend herself, all I want you to do is to search for Twilight from the shadows. Please sister, you are the only one who can look for her now without alerting the enemy, please!" Celestia plead to her sister. It was indeed a very strange experience, her sister just throwing away all her pride so quickly, something Luna would never expect to see in her very long life.

"Very well sister, we shall do it. If Twilight Sparkle is hiding somewhere, we will find her, but we shall not attack Chrysalis’s forces until you arrive." replied Luna with a now serious tone, watching the eyes of her sister, as she charged her horn. "Do not make me wait for you too long, Celly.”

"I promise I won’t, just please, search for Twilight, we will deal with the changelings once I arrive there with full force," replied Celestia with worry in her voice. She wanted to help her student before it was too late, but she did not want to risk losing her sister as well.

Luna just nodded her head and was gone, taking only two of her night guards with her, who managed to run to her before she teleported. Meanwhile, captain Shining Armor and all the other captains and generals entered the room. It was true that Shinning Armor was still  Captain of the royal guards, but only the royal guards, those in Canterlot. There were still generals and capitans who lead forces in other locations, and also captain of the night guards. But considering that Equestria was a peaceful nation most of the time, royal guards were not really active until Changelings invaded Canterlot, and in past 4 months more forces were mobilized both for defence and a changeling hunting program.

"Your Highness, all forces are in position and ready to move out, it should take us at most 2 hours of flying to get to the Everfree Forest for Pegasus forces, and as you ordered, Unicorn royal guards will guard Canterlot until we return," reported Shinning Armor as he made a bow, the other captains doing the same.

Princess Celestia could easily see worry and a lack of patience in Shinning Armor behind the mask of a professional and loyal captain, she knew exactly how he felt, because she felt the same, "Very good, we are moving out right now," Celestia quickly replied as she took to the air and joined her army. It made the castle staff and guards very nervous to see their princess acting that way.

After everypony left the throne room, one of the guards guarding the throne looked into eyes of guard next to him, and he did the same. After moment of awkward silence one of them spoke:" Um..... Is end of the world coming?" holding hoof on behind his neck sheepishly.

"Highly possible," replied other guard with thoughtful expression, holding his hoof on his chin," Princesses running around the castle, Celestia giving up her pride and rushing into action, mobilizing the entire military for war, yea. It’s a pretty bad omen.”

"The moment I get some time off, I’m spending more time with my family and playing with my filly, or maybe even taking my wife for a date, who knows? It may be the last time I see them." The guard nodded and started to watch floor under his hoofs, wondering how much time they had left.

...

2 hours later, Everfree Forest

...

Princess Luna and her guards were carefully searching the Everfree Forest, using the cloak of night and dark magic to evade changeling detection for over 2 hours now. But just like the changelings, she had no success in finding Twilight Sparkle or any traces from her, however, it filled her with hope that changelings were searching for her as well, it meant that Twilight may be alive, hiding somewhere.

"Your Majesty, it seems that the changelings are retreating " one of night guards reported to Luna, as Princess Celestia and her army were just minutes away from here.

"We must say it does not surprise us the she retreats from a lost fight, how disappointing that I do not know where Queen Chrysalis’s hideout is. The best course of action would be slowing her down until Celestia and her army arrives to help capture her. On the other hoof, capturing one or two drones should give us enough information," replied Luna to her guard with sly smile on her face.

As changelings retreated, no one noticed that two of those who were behind disappeared without a trace, sealed away from any way to contact others for help, and even if they did ask for assistance using the hive mind, they would still not receive help since Princess Celestia and her army were just minutes behind.

After 15 minutes Princess Celestia and her army were already in the area where the changelings set up the trap. They split up to start a full scale search, but to her disappointment the changelings were gone, as much as she would usually avoid a situation where her subjects would be hurt, today she was not her usual self and she hoped to give Chrysalis a piece of her mind.

"Your Highness," said Night Guard as he bowed in front of princess Celestia, "I wish to make my report.”

"Proceed," said princess Celestia with her unusual serious tone, Shinning Armor standing next to her, very interested about his sister’s well being.

"We and Princess Luna were searching this area for 3 hours, just as the changelings were, but it seems that they were as unsuccessful as we were, meaning that Twilight Sparkle may still be alive. Princess Luna captured two changelings when they were on the retreat and ordered us to deliver them to you," reported the Night Guard with a strong resolve as he pointed his hoof in prisoners’ direction.

Two captured changelings were struggling and hissing as they tried to escape, but were held in place. Celestia narrowed her eyes, and Shinning Armor walked over to them.

"Where is my sister? Speak all you know if you wish to live!" said Shinning Armor in a threatening tone as he pushed one of changeling prisoners to the ground. "SPEAK!".

Changeling was silent for a moment. There was a special ring on his horn not only making it impossible for him to use magic, but also blocking his connection to his hive. He was not sure how much he could say that would not hurt his hive and compromise his Queen’s plans, he was ready to die for his Queen. So of course being threatened would not make him talk.

But before Shinning Armor could hit changeling again, the other changeling prisoner started to laugh. This got his attention. "What’s so funny?" asked Shinning Armor with a lot anger and menace in his voice.

"Oh, nothing much, it’s just that you’re asking a question to which you already know the answer!" the changeling mocked him, with a sly smile that just made him even angrier.

"That’s enough " said Celestia as she spread her wings. Everypony went silent. "So she really escaped you all?" asked Celestia with hostile voice, but the changelings could taste relief in her.

"Think what you want, I would be surprised if she was still alive in her condition " replied changeling, still using that mocking tone.

The changeling could not say anything more before he was hit by Shinning Armor’s hoof. "What did you do to her? Why are you monsters targeting my sister?" screamed Shinning Armor, as he could hardly hold himself from finishing the prisoner off.

"Ouch.... you really want to know? All we wanted was revenge, revenge on you after your shield threw us away from Canterlot," replied the changeling, looking Shinning Armor in the eyes without fear.

"So you wanted to get revenge on me and my sister for ruining your invasion?" asked Shinning Armor looking into the eyes of his prisoner, anger burning in his own eyes.

"Not really. Our mission was to lure you out of Canterlot to investigate the forest, the Queen did not expect the element bearers, but your sister is still just as guilty," the changeling explained.

"Wait, you wanted to get me?" asked Shinning Armor in surprise, which just made both changelings laugh.

"Really? You didn’t figure it out? Did nopony notice that creatures from the Everfree Forest started to act odd the moment you returned from the Crystal Empire? Wow, you ponies are really dumb. Is your sister the only pony with a brain the family?" teased the changeling, which just made Shinning Armor punch him again.

"Stop it captain Armor" ordered Celestia as she walked closer to changeling prisoner. "So your Queen wanted revenge on Shinning Armor for stopping monsters like you from taking over Equestria and feeding on my little ponies, and you targeted Twilight only because she came instead of him?" asked Celestia, wanting to confirm that what she heard was the true.

"You have no right to blame ponies for defending themselves, it was monsters like and your Queen who attacked, you have no right ..." Celestia lectured with anger in her voice but was cut off.

"WE HAVE NO RIGHT!?" screamed the changeling. "Yes, we have no right to feed ourselves so that we don’t die from starvation, we have no right to try to improve our lives, we have no right to go out of hiding, we have no right to avenge hundreds of dead brothers and sisters, and you have right to banish us from Equestria! YOU have the right to hunt and kill us! Griffons have right no hunt us, dragons have right to eat us, ponies have right to let us starve!" ranted the changeling with anger, pointing out the injustice he experienced himself.

"Hu... hundreds?” questioned Shinning Armor in surprise. "What do you mean? All we did was to throw you out of Equestria.”

"Yes, it was all you and that pink princess of yours did.  Well, if you don’t count those changelings who were pushed into walls, or those whose wings were damaged and crashed to the ground, and those who did not get enough love to survive famine. No you fool, you and your love have the blood of hundreds of changelings on your hooves, and many more are dying. Do you really think we would invade Canterlot if it was not necessary for our survival? Revenge is the last thing left and you have no right to take it away from us. I bet you feel terrible after what happened to your sister, I can feel your anger, I can feel your desire to put justice into your own hoofs. Well we felt exactly the same after what you and your witch did mmm.... " yelled the  changeling with anger, right in Shinning Armor’s face until he was shut up by nearby guards.

"Take them to Canterlot dungeon," ordered princess Celestia as guards bowed and took the prisoners away.

Both princess Celestia and Shinning Armor felt unease about the situation, not so long ago they thought of changelings as invaders who stole love from ponies, replaced them and tried to take over Equestria from greed. It never occurred to them that it was hunger that forced them to do it, and they did not think about checking on the defeated changelings. There was a lot to think about before Luna returned.

"Where is princess Luna?" Celestia asked one of the night guards as the prisoners were taken away, which made the night guard feel uneasy. "Well......., she followed retreating changelings to track down their hideout." reported the night guard, fearing that it was going to make Princess Celestia angry, not to mention that she normally would already be in a bad mood about 3 hours ago, and lack of sleep did not help the matter.

"She did WHAT? Oh no no no no no!" said Celestia with a lot of worry in her voice.

"Please wait Princess, it would do you no good if you tried to find Luna, we have no idea where to search for her and you are already very tired. We should focus on what we can do," said Shinning Armor as he tried to stop his princess from doing something pointless.

It took a few moments for Celestia to calm down. After moment of silence and deep thinking she spoke: "You are right Capitan Armor, my sister can take care of herself. Twilight needs us more at the moment.”

It was already late at night and many guards, Celestia included, started to get tired and sleepy. With fruitless searching, and it took over an hour of negotiating for other captains to convince Princess Celestia to return to Canterlot to sleep and leave the search to them, as soon Night Guards would arrive and continue the search when the main military forces stopped to rest.

...

2 hours later, Canterlot

...

After another 2 hours that Princess Celestia spent sleeping in her chariot, the guards decided to carry the Princess to her chambers so as not to break the sleeping princess out of her dreams.

As both guards walked in castle halls, carrying princess Celestia on their back, they quickly stopped as they noticed a shadow figure in front of them, and weak light in the middle of the night did not helped to identify it.

"Who goes there? Identify yourself and state your business!" said one of the guards in threatening tone, as both guards put the sleeping Princess Celestia on the floor, taking defensive positions. "We won’t repeat ourselves, identify yourself or we will use lethal force.”

Both pegasai prepared themselves to attack the intruder. Once they noticed move in their direction, they considered starting the alarm or waking up Celestia. "You have been warned, now ....... P…p…p…princess Luna!" exclaimed guard in shock as he saw who stood in front of him, but his jaw dropped once he noticed in what condition the princess was.

"W... what happened to you princess?" asked guard terrified.

In front of him was Princess Luna with many injuries upon her, blood on her wounds and numerous bruises and scratches. Her facial expression did not look worried or scared, more like she was in pain. "You are injured your majesty, we need to call…mmmm." The guard’s sentence was cut off as Princess Luna put her hoof on his mouth. "We need to speak with Celestia…" Luna said in cold, weak voice.

Right away the guards rushed to Princess Celestia and tried to wake her up, but with poor results, as none guards had enough courage to use much force. "Out of the way," said Luna coldly as both guards cleared a path for her.

Luna was now standing above her sleeping sister. Celestia was sleeping like rock, and for a good reason. After all, she was awake for half of the night without any sleep; even Luna can hardly stay awake during the day for long, no matter how much she wished to do so.

Slowly, Luna ducked and put her face close to Celestia’s ear as she whispered, "Celly, time to wake up," but with no reaction. "Celly, I have important news," Luna said putting more strength into her voice, but to no avail, after which Luna took a deep breath.

"THOU SHALT WAKETH UP AND GET OFF THINE FAT FLANK NOW IF THOU WISH NOT TO HAVE NIGHTMARES FOR MANY MOONS!" Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice, not only waking up Celestia, but blasting her away a few meters like a ball.

"Whaaaaa ..." murmured Celestia, as she started to analyse her surroundings."Is this another one of your pranks sister? How many times do I have to....? “any annoyance from such a sudden and forceful waking quickly left once Celestia saw the injuries on her sister.

"Luna! What happened to you? Who did it to you? Did Chrysalis hurt you? If she did, she will pay!" said Celestia as her surprise and fear turned into anger and then to worry. "Luna, what happened?"

"Calm down, dear sister, we are fine, we just used a lot magic and got a few injuries from battle, but it is nothing serious. We can talk about it in your chambers." replied Luna with a weak voice as she walked away. "Luna, wait!" said Celestia as she ran follow her sister, leaving the two guards behind.

After moment of standing in place, the guards decided to go to their post and ask the night guards to take their shift, after all even as really well trained Pegasai, they can’t go on for hours without sleep, it would drastically reduce their effectiveness.

...

Celestia’s chambers

...

Princess Celestia was sitting next to her big bed as she watched her injured sister. Usually she had much patience in any situation, but today was not a usual day, just some hours ago her sleep was interrupted by news that her student may be dead or in grave danger, for the past few hours she and her army were searching the Everfree Forest to find Twilight Sparkle with no results, her sister tried to follow Chrysalis and find her hive only to get back injured after some sort of battle. No, today was a day on which she could simply not wait. "Luna, tell me what happened, please, tell me everything!” asked Celestia quickly with an evident lack of patience in her voice.

Luna sighed deeply and took a breath before speaking "After We failed to locate the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle and apparently the changelings failed too, We followed them hoping to find their hideout in the wastelands and to gather more information. However, as easy as it was to evade the changelings’ detection in the Everfree Forest under the shadows of our night, once in the open they somehow noticed me.”

"Did they attack you?" asked Celestia with worry in her voice as she once again looked upon Luna’s injuries.

"Yes they did sister, a group of them that We did not notice flew behind us when the rest of the swarm acted like they did not know I was behind them. They attacked from two sides by surprise, I tried to defend myself, and defeated at least three waves of those monsters with my dark magic, and they had trouble hitting me thanks to my shadows. It was going well until Queen Chrysalis arrived." explained Luna with her weak voice.

"The changeling Queen was indeed weakened and I had night on my side, in a normal duel I would have overpowered her easily, but with an army of changelings attacking me from all sides and the Queen attacking with full force I did not stand a chance. They used hit and run tactics for at last half of an hour and I was forced to retreat. Luckily for me even weakened and injured, escaping under the shadows of our night was not hard, and the changelings did not try to follow me.”

After listening to Luna’s story, and with the information she got from captured drones, she came to a conclusion. ‘Chrysalis and her changelings are indeed starving, not only are they less numerous and weaker, back 5 months ago Chrysalis could overpower me, and her army defeated my royal guards with ease; now ,all together, they had trouble in fight against my little sister and avoided direct confrontation’ thought Celestia as she tried to figure out what Chrysalis’s next move would be.

"They seem too weak to fight us anymore, but a hungry animal is even more dangerous. It was yet another mistake of mine when I asked you to go on such a risky mission. You need to go to the medical wing so they can tend to your injuries Luna." commanded Celestia with a sleepy and tired voice, as she tried her best to stay awake.

"No Celly, we still have duties to perform, but do not fear sister, our injuries are not of significance, and my responsibilities are small compared to yours. You are the one who need to take a solid rest." replied Luna with fake strong voice.

"But Luna, you are in no condition to..." Celestia tried to add but was cut off.

"Celly, we are fine, really. Thy did not make any mistake when thou sent me to search for Twilight; it was Us who took too much risk when We tried to follow that wretched Queen. We think thou should worry less about us and more about thoust student. We have no idea with what miracle she managed to escape Chrysalis and her army, but she is somewhere out there, hiding, terrified or even hurt, and we need to be strong for her." lectured Luna still trying to act strong despite her injuries.

"Now thee go to sleep which thou most sorely needs sister, we shall make sure to wake thee up when thou will need to raise the sun." said Luna with sly smile on her face with made Celestia take a step back.

Princess Celestia felt far too tired to argue with her sister, and she really needed some sleep. She was going a full day and half of a night already, and tomorrow not only she will have to do her usual duties but also search for her student too, not to mention explaining to the ponies in Canterlot why half of the Equestrian army was mobilized.

"You are right. Good night sister, but please, do not overdo it Lulu." answered Celestia with a very sleepy voice, as she went to her bed and closed her eyes. There was not much time to sleep left, so she had to use every moment of it.

"Good night sister and have a good sleep, you will be needing it." replied Luna with calm voice watching her sister, making sure she is already sleeping.

"Twilight Sparkle,  wherever you are, please do not leave us." said Luna with sad tone as she went to the balcony and started to watch Everfree Forest, as small tear fell from Luna’s eye. "This will be sad night indeed." said Luna, watching her Moon for moment before going to continue her duty.