Winds of color, book 1: Digging up the past

"I just love to impersonate people, and I impersonate people because I find them fascinating."

-Tracey Ullman

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It had been three days since they moved into their current residence. Their attempts at cooking had grown so bad that Irid and Twig had ran to the local library for a cook book and then the hardware store to get some supplies to beat down the Slowly crawling goop that Baney had created from bread and jam, it had hissed at them and attempted to escape into the kitchen sink. Twig had no such luck either, she set cereal on fire by pouring milk on it somehow and Irid made a cupcake so bad it left Baney retching for a night. As it turned out the cookbook saved them from further destruction of ingredients and kitchenware. Now they sat satisfied with making toast that wasn't on fire and drinking cups of coffee (Juice in Twig's case, both Baney and Irid agreed that Twig didn't need an energy boost with how she was) and going over what to do next.

Baney stirred her extra strong black coffee' contents around once more before taking a drink and addressing the fellow table fellows, "So what do we do about this whole slavery thing going on back where we came from?"

Irid opened her mouth but Twig beat her to it with a completely ridiculous idea that both of them could tell was going to form first thing she opened her mouth, "I say we teleport them out with a pop and collapse the caves down onto them with a Big bang of explosives making it go KABOOM!" she threw her glass into the air and imitated an explosion with her hooves falling backwards out of her seat somehow managing to catch the glass of orange juice with the flat of her hoof without spilling a single drop.

Irid responded somewhat quietly, "First... I don’t know a spell to mass teleport, teleport, or teleport things I can’t see... Secondly we don’t have explosives..." Twig made a little "oh" sound and put her free hoof to her chin in serious thought, before Twig could submit another unrealistic plan Irid continued, "Would there happen to be a court or law of government that could be alerted to this?"

Baney thought a moment before replying, with a slight tingle of something between caution and sarcasm in her tone, "You could always tell a princess about it, though they are pretty busy usually, I hear that you need a prearranged meeting just to access the night court, which is far less busy then the day court by the way. Last time I was there I heard a noble complaining he had waited a month just to talk to Princess Luna and her night court."

Twig perked up in a singsong voice adding to Baney's statements, "or you could just mention it in a social activity that the two partake in, I heard that Princess Celestia often partakes in the cake eating contests in Canterlot!"

"O-oh... So one would have to prearrange a meeting... huh..."

"Yep." were both their replies.

"H-how would one arrange a meeting?"

Baney stared at her, "By Storm claw’s beard, you actually want to do this huh?"

Irid was confused, "Why wouldn't I?"

Baney looked away as if ashamed, "no reason...didn’t think you’d want to after hearing that it takes a while to be heard by this 'great nation' that every pony, griffon, dragon, and even dog is going on about. If you visited a major city you'd see it is just like any other major city. They always have a tourist center, slums, a local gang or two. Heck I even met a tamed hydra in a town over at badlands once."

"Well... Guess I'll figure something out..."

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A few days ago

A Bright pink pony with a slightly darker pink mane was mass producing wedding party invites for her best purple unicorn friend's big brother’s wedding, she had already produced enough to burry a small town in invitations, and while she knew a majority of ponies would be unable to attend from the cost of the train or missing a day of work, she felt it was important to mail everypony at least thirty invitations each .  The overly obsessive party pony wanted to make sure everypony had spares in case it got lost in the mail service, who was officially calling her the 'mail mare bane' from the massive loads of letters she would send out daily. The look of the stallions face when he saw the huge bags of mail sent into his office was priceless however, his neat little hat falling off his head and his jaw hitting the ground in disbelief at how much mail just came out of Canterlot's own castle.

present time

This mail would be separated into seven different train cars and dropped off throughout Ponyville where each mail mares or stallions in question would make several dozen trips Just to deliver all of it. It was also the unlucky fate of a stallion called Green Lunge that would force him to fly at top speed to deliver part of his heavy mail load to the cottage several miles away from the town's next closest house. He would land tiredly and place the thick stack of invites and spam mail into the mail box before having to redo the trip again just to get back with his two hundred pound saddlebags. Green Lunge hated his job and whoever sent all these letters with a passion he had decided. It was an odd turn of fate when a lightning bolt leapt all the way from Cloudsdale and struck him  incinerating his load that finally made him quit. Leaving the majority of Applewood sadly uninvited and unaware of the wedding that was going to take place within a week at most.

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Ditzy Doo was bouncing atop the soft fluffy clouds like she always did when she had nothing to do. She had made a dozen or so batches of cupcakes. She had also talked with her doctor friend for hours on end about various things that were lurking in space and time. Even at one point she had tried to help her little sister Dinky Doo with her homework... though she somehow managed to use an superior mathematical equation to turn two plus two into a transmutation circle to summon a muffin, scavenging what was left of her assignment Dinky had declined further help with her homework, leaving her older sister with nothing better to do then jump on fluffy storm clouds. Like always she ignored when one of the clouds had suddenly erupted a bolt of lightning that went off at an unnatural angle from her landing on the cloud sending it off into the horizon to the south west. It was highly unlikely that it was going to strike anypony, she thought. Blissfully unaware of the misfortunate Green Lunge who was struck several hundred miles away.

Storm clouds it seemed, had held a grudge against the Pegasus race.

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The sound of lightning striking signaled Baney to go outside, seeing the mailbox that looked to somehow seem to be turning blue from how much was shoved into its throat, Baney relieved the mailbox of its contents with an rough yank. She threw several pieces of junk mail into a fireplace before tossing Irid the rest of the stack of identical looking letters, "Your turn to read it."

Irid sighed and opened a letter with her magic forming a small knife to cut it open; a trick she had learned after an rather dangerous attempt at cooking that ended up several knives lodged in the cieling.  She took the almost eye flinchingly fancy paper out of its holder and read aloud to both her friends, "Dear Equestrian Citizen, you are formally invited to attend the union between Captain Shining armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza in the Canterlot Throne room." she listed off a few facts such as the date and rehearsals that was supposed to go on... If she left now or tomorrow she would be able to make it in time for the rehearsal. Oddly both Baney and Twig urged her to go but didn’t want to go themselves. Baney claimed that she wasn't exactly 'popular' in Canterlot and Twig said that she was going to keep an eye on Baney (Baney smothered a laugh at the notion discreetly at this).

Though before she knew it they had packed her saddlebags including her formal attire and casual gear as well as a few days of food as well as strapped on a pair of her swords between the saddle bag and her within easy reach of her magic. She also took note that Twig had shoved a decent amount of Irid's own bits into her bag. She trotted to the train station taking Baney's advice and not using her magic and also keeping her cloak donned on as not to disturb any ponies with her strange magic. Other ponies she had noticed had wielded even rudimentary magic differently, instead carelessly wasting the natural flow of world magic around them away on basic spells that seemed rather primitive and wasteful. After boarding the train, getting her own entire section of the train car she was in, part in due to how rare it was for a pony to leave Applewood these days, and that no one else seemed to have wanted to go (though no pony was actually aware of the wedding due to prior events with a misfortunate mail stallion and lightning). It was going to be a long four day trip.

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Three days before arrival of Irid's train to canterlot

Quietly the changeling had waited. Her name was Aranea , though her current blue Pegasus disguse was known as Silent mangrove. It had taken her months to infiltrate Canterlot's elite circles. Even longer to replace Luna's most trusted Maid and servant. She was the personal child of Chrysalis; unlike the countless drones born from brood mothers back in the hive. She had followed her sister’s rather ambitious plan from the start. All the way to its now near completed finish. The Canterlot wedding was going to be the greatest day of the changeling race, where they would finally capture a large scale amount of their food source, emotion, and the means to produce it. With that the changeling race would go from a pest to a Major power among nations and all would fall in due time to their hive. Many of Luna's night guard had already been replaced or recruited and it was just icing on the cake at this point.

One thought however lingered in her subconscious, what could possibly go wrong?

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Two days before the arrival of Irid's train to Canterlot.

Pete threw yet another broken artifact against the wall; "USELESS!" he shouted for the thousandth time that night, "It’s all useless!" He kicked over a subatomic processor and threw a molecular sterilizer into the wall freeing its ancient contents as it shattered with a bang. He was infuriated that there wasn't one weapon he could use out of the entire pile of artifacts he had nicked from his previous dwellings. Lastly Pete threw a container, locked by well-worn magic and disguised to look like an average piece of technology, into a wall breaking it open spilling its dark red liquid contents.

Pete stopped momentarily; the sound of liquids splashing onto the ground had instantly halted his rage as caution overtook him. A liquid? He had been throwing solid objects... Where did this come from? He quickly grabbed a jar and scooped the dull red liquid into it, careful not to get any on himself and cleaned up the mess he made in his basement lab. Something new to study, and it wouldn’t do to study it in a room of broken technology... wait broken...

A loud frustrated yell would be heard from Pete's neighbors a few second later as he realised he had a lot of work to do that night.

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One day before arrival to Canterlot.

The intercom announced yet again on the train how long it will be until their next destination. Irid waved down a trolly when it came by to get snacks, and was getting tired of watching the hills and forests role by. After two days of just watching the window with a small break every now and then for daily needs like food and sleep. A majority of her trip had passed by in silence, with the occasional song bursting through the intercoms. Once again she found herself dozing off into another dream of memories.

This time she was in a worn down old building, A red Pegasus with a blue mane and yellow highlights was looking away from her at something outside the window, in his hooves was a strange contraption her mind registered as a trigger. What it was supposed to activate however eluded her. The strange Pegasus started counting down and Irid found her view drifting towards the window he was looking through. Outside was a literal stampede of heavily armed ponies heading right for the two of them. The Pegasus grinned darkly once a slight twinge of unease filling her mind as metal objects bounced off the magical shield she herself had been subconsciously keeping form of.

The Pegasus lifted up the timer and shouted as he brought his other hoof down onto it with a slam that would make a Minotaur wince, "Time for you guys to get jacked. DATA JA-" He was cut off as a resounding boom of expertly placed explosives went off along the cities several floors and walls even some under the floor.

Effects on the guards were instant. They easily went from a fearsome army of lethal force of their hated tyrant king to a crowd of panicking clowns as several premade spells stripped them of their armor in the most unconventional methods of spell work that she and the insane Pegasus had previously created. The entire small army was wiped out in mere seconds as the entire ceiling over them fell out in an expertly shaped square and crushed them flat like a giant stone and metal sandwich. The chunk of metal and stone that had fallen down could of easily of fit a pair of Ursa Majors on its face. and it was as wide as one too.  Vaguely Irid's memory showed her and the Pegasus having of set up the giant rig months beforehand but still she expected the plan to have failed like a majority of his plans usually did.  The Pegasus turned to her and asked, "How was that for a rebellion fight? One whacky chase through the city getting all of these royal buckers into one place and bam dead!" he laughed lowering his head a slight margin. Irid let her shield drop seeing no more point for it and hugged the crazy Pegasus in relief.

With unobstructed sight of the window, Irid saw a final guard pony round the bend and take aim. Her voice stuck in her throat, a warning would be too late. So she pushed him away instead getting shot instead. The pain was dull, almost like falling asleep. The sound of loud bangs she could hear as if through water and her eyes shut as her weariness grasped her...

Irid jolted awake with a shock and a quiet scream that wouldn’t disturb anypony. She quickly searched herself in frenzy for where the bullet hit before sighing in relief as her consciousness registered that what happened was just a dream. She quietly went to the trains nearest bathroom only a few cars down and rinsed her face to clear her mind and wake herself up. Her mind was split into two currently. The rational part had already devoted the restored memory into long term memory and was analyzing the shield spell that she had used before for future reference. The other side however... was asking and answering its own questions at rapid pace and as she registered the massive amount of ponies who had died for apparently no reason that was told of, she felt the urge to vomit.

Luckily there was a toilet next to the sink.

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The night passed by in a haze and Irid found her-self daydreaming about how to meet this "Princess Luna" or "Nightmare Moon" as some of the ponies had referred to the younger of the two co-rulers. She wasn't able to inquire why they called her that, she thought it would be considered common knowledge among the populace so she didn't bother asking, what they said about this "Nightmare Moon" quietly to themselves already formed the opinion of her. Based on the rumors, this Princess Luna would be twice her height, have big scary fangs, found it a hobby to induce nightmares into ponies’ dreams and kidnapped naughty foals in the night to gobble them up. Not exactly the kind of thing she thought would be accepted here. Well she would keep her opinion neutral until she actually met this "fearsome beast" as other ponies sometimes called Luna's dark side.

The all so familiar and annoying intercom bleeped its three depressed tones to signify an announcement and it quite calming announced, "Everypony saddle up, we will be arriving in Canterlot in ten minutes. Make sure you have packed everything. Unwelcomed invaders will be purged shortly as we pass through the barrier and please wait for the conductors to open your doors. Welcome to Canterlot and have a nice stay"

She looked outside at the ponies proceeding to their cabins before she noticed the pink wall that phased through the train wall. To her eyes she could see it scanning through everypony whereas an average earth pony or Pegasus would not. She paused as the bubble ignored her entirely as it passed through her and a startled yelp of a Pegasus behind her suddenly vanishing as the barrier passed through him made her question where the noise was. Meanwhile that Pegasus would be knocked out cold outside the train accidently reverting to his changeling form. There a small squad of guards would grab that changeling and drag him to a prison cell for interrogation.

Upon arrival Irid was amazed at the sheer amount of guards that were everywhere. Everywhere she went there was at least three guards for every civilian she could see in sight. This was rather tight security for a wedding. Maybe this nation she had arrived in wasn't quite as peaceful as she was told. Quietly she looked up towards Canterlot castle and began as close to a beeline path towards it she could, often ending up in a dead end or other and forced to retrace her steps. The atmosphere around town seemed tense; while they were friendly it seemed that even the littlest scare or surprise would have sent the entire town's civilian populace running away screaming in terror. Irid was really glad to be wearing her hooded cloak now. None of the unicorns she saw around here had a horn quite like hers, while some were sharp and some were blunt; others even longer and shorter than the norm. She had yet to see one horn that wasn't spiraled however.

Instead of taking the path up, she climbed up the steep slope oblivious to its existence until she had reached the first outcrop, or the actual road... She sighed resting and noting that sometimes the best route, wasn't one straight there. Though this route was certainly one less traveled. After shaking the dirt free she looked up towards the slowly lowering sun. Still she couldn't believe that the giant ball of fire in the sky was raised by Princess Celestia. Compared to Luna's night sky the sun was a painful thing to stare upon. The careless expense of magic to force such a giant object to move must be truly horrifying as well as impressive. Pondering the magical implications of such a feat she simply walked into the castle. No guards stopped her for she wore the invitation like a necklace; No one questioned why she was there as she moved unconsciously with a pose of reason and grace.

She stopped after a few minutes of self-pondering realizing that she was completely lost... "Who the hay made castle's this big?!"

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Princess Luna tossed aside her current story, as entertaining as it is, one could only listen to the personal journal of an old equestrian rebel for so long. She sighed, maybe it was time to visit her "Game fort" located deep within the castle walls far enough away that only her lunar guards as well as Celestia and her knew about its location. Her Game Fort was a huge theater of a room with a massive projector and a one way skylight that would portray average shingles on one side and see through glass on the other. She had the room vented regularly at colder temperatures as she liked a slight chill unlike her sisters, a sauna in heat had often resulted in Celestia’s book room though no pony was quite sure how it got that hot.

She quietly hummed as she trotted down her way towards the back of the castle; her maid had followed her like always. Luna knew she was being followed by her but was too amused with her maid’s antics to care about any diabolical plots that might be actually conspiring. She giggled as her guards stared directly at her stalker and she closed the door to her Game Fort. She had a Daring Do game disk with her name on it.

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The inside of the mountain that connected the castle to the mountain and kept it stable there was huge. While it was full of bats and other smaller friendly critters and devoid of the larger ones, it was rather dark and only the lunar guards really called it home. It was a mixture of the dark coat that Irid had and her cloak that lead them to believe nothing was amiss and dismiss her as another bat pony. They never knew how wrong they were.

Irid had no idea how the hay she ended up on the roof, It had been three hours since she entered the Canterlot castle and now there wasn't even guards anywhere. She could see a stone ceiling above her where the castle merged with the mountain and a deeper in source of light. Where there was light, there was a way out. Hurriedly she ran across the rooftop towards the light. As Irid drew closer she became aware of a tapping sound that sounded more like glass than that of the shingles that were used with the rest of the rooftops. She attempted to stop moving but the glass was slick from oil recently applied to clean it and she slid dangerously towards the edge. She let out a scream this time at a louder volume as she was barely able to catch herself with her fore hooves dangling on the edge though her grip was quickly failing on the glass like surface.

Luna pressed a button and made the game pause. Something wasn't right, she had heard several tapping and a skid and her character wasn't the reason for it. Daring Do was alone in her game, not a pony in sight on the tutorial. Her head snapped up looking at the ceiling when she heard the scream, and her eyes widened with shock as she saw a bundle of grey and black dangling from the edge of her skylight. Her mouth gapped open as the pony began to fall and she took a second to recover and capture the falling pony in a a bubble of her aura. Luna hoof opened the window with an annoyed glance at the flailing figure in her magic. She stepped outside to bring the hooded pony down to her and took her inside before dropping said pony unceremoniously onto the ground.

Unfortunately for Irid the sudden fall and dump onto the ground had gotten her cloak tangled up around her legs, it took her half a minute to get herself untangled before she could gaze upon the one who saved her. Her thought processes took in the horn noting as a unicorn, but then noticed the wings which meant she had been saved from an untimely demise by a princess. The dark blue coat marked her as Princess Luna then. She stood up and bowed to the princess who dismissed it silently with a hoof. Princess Luna wasn't as tall as she expected, closer to an adult stallions size rather than that of her elder sisters supposedly. She wasn't as terrifying as the locals had said...

Princess Luna waited for the pony to explain, when the mare had failed to respond she sighed and started the conversation with a weary sigh, "Who are you, and why were you on the roof?"

Luna watched as the strange pony before her opened and shut their mouth before stammering out, "I-I’m Irid... I got lost...in search of y-you... your h-highness..." Out of habit Luna responded quickly, "Just Luna."

Luna became curious, it was rare for ponies to seek her out of their own free will, but social wants came first in Luna's book, "Come closer and uncover yourself child, Your Princess of the night wants to know whom to which she speaks looks like."

Irid sighed, there was no avoiding this she knew, and well a princess wouldn't over react right? Right? Slowly she stepped forward taking her hood off and nodding her head down with eyes shut, "Princess... I have something to tell you about the diamond dogs of Smokey Mountain..." Luna had ignored her, Little to Irid's knowledge, Luna was staring at her horn. There was no way, absolutely no bucking way... An old equestrian?!

Luna was speechless. Irid waited for Luna to respond but at the blank wide eyed stare she was receiving she waved a hoof in front of her face, "Princess? Hello? You there?" Luna snapped out of it.

"You.... Equestrian, Old? Horn? What... no way... Is it fake or real?"

"No Idea what you’re talking about... And my horn is very real Ms. Luna..."

"Prove it."

Irid sighed and the aura flowed to her horn and dispersed her energy, Luna’s face went from mild disbelief to one of shock as various objects in the room started floating around the two. Quietly Irid placed the stuff back where it came from before getting knocked over by an excited Luna, "An actual old equestrian! Where did you come from, how does your magic come from! What mathematical difference’s does your magic needs to compensate?! why don't you have a cutie mark?"

Irid looked at the Luna that was on top of her holding her down with a confused expression on her face. Luna laughed sheepishly and backed off allowing Irid back up onto her hooves, "Oh, uh... Sorry... I'm a rather… Large... Collector of old equestrian artifacts..."

"Ah...I see...” Irid had said slowly, not wanting to get her comfort zone invaded by this strange overly friendly alicorn.

"So..." Luna started awkwardly, "You have something you wanted to tell me...?"

Irid's confidence bolstered and with a look of fire in her eyes she stomped a hoof, "I wish to tell you about an issue with the diamond dogs of Smokey Mountains... They have been enslaving ponies." With that she began to tell the princess of the night her story from when she waked up to her escape...

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Aranea was growing bored, watching the guards of Luna's "Game Fort" could only entertain herself for so long. Like all the guards they stood in their trained "Super Guard Mode" not moving a muscle not even blinking and as still as statues. Everypony had at one point or another had attempted to get a guard to break this mode and so far only philomania, Celestias pet phoenix, had succeeded. Though there were rumors that Celestia herself could easily break it in her quarters, whatever that meant. Aranea trotted off to check on the other changelings who had infiltrated the castle and to report in on her older sister who was currently disguised as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Upon arrival she went into what she called her meek mode.

Chrysalis honestly was one of those certain kinds of changelings who you'd hate to live with. Totally power hungry and complete with a superiority complex and a drive for absolute power. Some would defend her hives actions saying that they needed more love to survive, but that was a complete and utter lie. Their hive never had problems in the past; it was just Chrysalis and her lust for more power that made her and her sister drive towards this hair brained invasion plan. To be frank, she was impressed even half of her plans and tactics worked, so far there had only been two mistakes, one was the attempted assassination of Princess cadence which lead her into Canterlot and the other being the changeling arriving by train.

She was struck across the cheek as her elder sister regained her attention again, she had completely forgotten about what was going on around her and she whimpered a tone begging mercy. Chrysalis spared her a withering glare and ordered her to resume her post. She left, glad to be free of her horrid sister’s presence. She trotted away and decided to take a nap in Luna's quarters like her disguised maid usually did when waiting for the old technology crazed princess of the night. Though she wasn't allowed to move anything which limited her work to bringing Luna her breakfast and lunch and making sure her mane was properly combed and clean. Pretty boring, she also hanged around the night court but besides that it was all snoozes and bore for her. Not enough excitement to get her through the day, she had already read everything in the Canterlot library twice with all the free time she had.

Maybe it was time she tried some of that cloud cake Celestia favored so much.

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Today seemed unreal to Irid, in the same day she had went through Canterlot castle, almost died a death by falling, got saved by the princess of the night and had told her gruesome and uncensored story about Pete and his slaves that he had made only a few days train ride from here. Luna had gone from Shock to rage to sadness and then back to rage and then finally settling down for a gloomy anger that befit more of a demeanor meant for a revenge stricken overlord of evil. Irid almost felt sorry for the entire Diamond Dog race at that point but then the vengeful goddess being portrayed composition broke and the expression went to miserable; as if someone had kicked a puppy right next to her and she couldn't do a thing about it.

Irid knew she had to do something to comfort this emotionally distraught mare. Despite her instinct and rational memory yelling at her not to, she stood up from her sitting position and moved to the princess to give her a hug, "Don't worry Luna... I know we can work out how to stop it somehow..."

Luna hiccuped, a result from internal struggle at trying too hard to remain self-composed, her voice was quiet enough to make a house fly sound louder, "How could any...t-thing... enslave another sentient race to its bidding and then perform such gruesome... h-horrid... e-experiments and call it d-divine research..."

"I don't know princess... I don't know... I'm just glad I could make somepony listen to it. I have to say, your nothing like the rumors call you out to be, what exactly is all this by the way?"

Irid had simply hoped to distract the princess from the subject that she had plagued her with, the results she got however, were not what she expected. "This room is my Game Fort..." Luna began to talk, her hiccup stopping as she began her short speech on the one thing she had proudly decorated and collected herself, "It is a utopia of video games and snack foods galore! With a screen large enough to make every detail extremely refined, enough upgrades to make any hard core gamer jealous and enough sound that if it was fully on you would hear a pin needle as loud as a bell from across an entire map. Its surround sound to!"

She stopped taking in a deep breath and before Irid could respond she continued on, "I have collected every decent game ever made and several games before they are due to come out! There is a conjoining room full of different merchandise to decorate a room whenever I have an itch to do an entire series of an game and occasionally invite other hard core gamers to do some co-op with me."

Irid timidly asked, "What is a video game exactly?"

"Surely you jest!"

"No memories remember?"

A mischievous glint entered Luna’s eyes as she stared at the potential recruit before her, "Well time to form some memories then my little pony. I think we have enough spare time for a round or a hundred of several different genres before night is due to fall."

Irid knew she wasn't going to go anywhere soon now that Luna had her mind set, she sincerely hoped that whatever these "video games" were, that they were pleasant and entertaining... Though Irid didn't expect the entertainment that was modern entertainment, and the sugary snack foods that were going to turn her from a virgin gamer to a hardcore one within the space of a few hours of gameplay.

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Celestia really wished she wasn't dealing with this right now a day before the actual wedding. Everything had been going according to plan right up until the final practice before the actual event, then her ever faithful student Twilight Sparkle had barged in and ruined it denouncing her nephew cadence as a fake and threatening the same said bride into tears forcing her to run away sobbing. She had retreated to her study and was devouring a large piece of cloud cake, she had been more careful to conceal herself when she ate the cake, since somepony had embarrassed her eating under stress in the newspaper.

Again she devoured another piece of cake pondering what to do about her student, it would not be the first time Twilight had jumped to conclusions but something in her heart nagged at her that twilight was right. Luna had exempted herself from the wedding proceedings claiming she was "Too Busy" to attend, though she bet it was because Luna had a game to play with her online friends and that the last few times cadence had talked to her they clashed in verbal sparring that ended up with celestia having to cast a set of gag spells on both and ground both of them like a mother would two spoiled children. Celestia thought that the change in cadence's demeanor was from pre-marriage jitters and that she was stressing out about the near assassination a few weeks back.

She ran out of cake so she looked for the other option at her disposal that she used less frequently in order to not arouse curious interests in places they did not belong. The princess of the sun trotted off to her sauna of a bookroom and opened the secret passage within the room down into her version of the "Game Fort" that she simply dubbed, "Book Fort". It was a large circular room made out of books to the point that the only thing that wasn’t a book was a large fluffy pillow and a chandelier that provided light to read. Celestia chose a half a dozen of the newest books and twice as many of the ones she was still in progress of reading, opened them all up, and began to read all of them at once. She really wanted a distraction for her time to think over a punishment for her students harsh actions. Her book room was ironically close to Luna's game fort and she was slightly curious when she heard what sounded like metal clashing on metal followed by a dim roar of a timber wolf from the opposite wall. Luna must be playing another hack and slash, seriously her sister needed to get out more often and make more friends.

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Irid cleverly maneuvered her Pegasus archer onto a roof top and rained arrow fire down on Luna's unicorn pyromaniac. Luna's own character responded by ducking from one piece of cover to the next and throwing a Molotov cocktail over onto the house onto the rooftop Irid was staying on, Irid's character tried to flee but was crippled instead on the wing as the thing went off exploding and dealing massive damage to her character’s health. Luna's in contrast was out of mana and only medium amount hurt. Even so far, Forced to the ground and running out of arrows Irid's character swapped to a short sword while Luna’s carried a large metal rod called a quarter staff into combat. A duel of grand proportions began to take place as the two dished it out in the overly large screen before their characters were interrupted by a random occurrence of a low leveled timber wolf snapping them out of it. The poor thing didn't stand a chance against the two, Luna's character  smashed it into the air and Irid's made it stay in the air with rapid fire arrow fire long enough for Luna's character to pull out a grenade and toss it up with the poor timber wolf and make it explode. Both of their players pressed pause the game and fell over laughing at their own antics.

"That... Was.... Awesome!" giggled Irid breathlessly.

"Welcome to my world and genre of role-play." was Luna's response

"Wait....  There are other genres?"

"Yep," Luna pulled out the current game disk and exchanged it for a futuristic first person shooter called Quake, "Next off is the genre called first pony shooters" The game loaded and the gaming session began yet again, Luna felt that a lot of ponies weren't going to get a visit from the princess of the night tonight in their dreams with how preoccupied she was going to be, she sent a message to her sister in a minute with a hastily scrawled excuse to avoid her night court duty. Both had made a friend in the other it would seem and Luna was going to enjoy every second of introducing video games into this new friend of hers.

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The day of the wedding was tomorrow.  Not that Pete cared, this liquid he had found was intriguing. it moved as if alive and occasionally made a faint hissing noise. When he had poured a drop of the strange substance on a contained bunny, it had mutated and he was forced to kill the thing with a makeshift flamethrower from hairspray and a lighter. He contemplated drinking it but resisted on his own reasoning that he would instead carry the strange liquid in its jar and only drink it as a last resort. Pete found himself now going towards a local old pony ruin again in hope of finding another artifact in its depths.  He needed parts he knew, parts to construct the weapon he was attempting to produce. One weapon that would make him powerful over the various types of ponies including the unicorns and alicorns who were the primary magic users, as well as his design hopefully being stronger than his figurative bane, Baney.

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It was five in the morning before Luna noticed that her game companion had passed out from exhaustion. Luna had taken a momentary break earlier to raise the moon and now it was time for her to lower it. Giggling lightly, Irid had fell asleep in an awkward un-lady like position, asleep with a controller on her face and upside-down with her rump above her touching a wall. This companion she had found was truly an interesting mare to play with, Luna had the rare opportunity to plan with somepony who was graceful in defeat and in victory for once rather than a raging troll like most of her enemies online. Luna, who was champion of a majority of genre had maintained her title though she had found that an army style game she was almost outmatched by calm thinking. It was a combination of Desperate luck, and Irid's lack of foreknowledge of how every unit worked that had saved Luna's small empire and reversed the steamroller effect Irid's vast army had taken onto doing to each base Luna had. Otherwise, Luna had dominated this newly game crazed mare.

Her giggles ceased and she nudged Irid onto a more proper posistion before tossing a soft blanket over her. Effectively taking care of and unknowingly hiding the mare in its comfort. Lightly luna trotted away to get some breakfast for the two of them. She could have a guard bring it, but she wanted the exercise after a long night of siting and playing games. Luna quietly left the unconscious pony to her sleep as she closed the door behind her. Her guards had been taking shifts it seemed, one was asleep and the other was still at attention, she saluted the still awake guard and proceeded off to the castle kitchens alone. Unaware that her guard was in the middle of being replaced by changelings at rapid pace.

Elsewhere deep in the dungeons of Canterlot Luna's night guard and Celestia's royal guard was slowly being replaced with changelings left and right, nearly all of the castles personal guards were gone and replaced as well as its servants. The wedding was about to start and with it, the grand plan of takeover was about to come to a conclusion. Celestia could sense something was wrong but not what exactly it was; the wedding was only hours away and everything had going according to plan though there had been a small hiccup with Twilight Sparkle along the way. Her friends had assumed she had left back for ponyville though they were not sure she was their friends anymore. Though the real truth couldn't be farther from this rather well hid lie.

The wedding was due to commence in less than five hours, a fact noticed by the small stream of arriving guests and family who were coming to witness such a momentous event of an alicorn becoming a wife to the captain of the royal guard, Shining armor, who was also the older brother of the current bearer of the same element of magic who had interrupted and ruined the last practice of the wedding.  The changelings had started their plan, when Luna came back to her gaming room, sipping a milkshake she had bribed a chef for, as well as a pair of trays full of breakfast, she found her entire regiment of the Lunar guard around her room and occupying the several nearby hallways and rooms. Luna had assumed that her older sister was just being overly paranoid thinking somepony might of attempted to attack her on the wedding day so to humor her Luna let them stay where they were.

She unlocked and opened then walked into her trusty Game Fort and looked around, Irid was still undisturbed covered in the blanket Luna had put on her. Luna wondered what Irid was dreaming about, as princess of the night it was part of her job to end nightmares ponies may be having and provide a solution, but she could tell from the lack of movement that Irid wasn't having a nightmare or even an unpleasant one at that. Luna was curious but withheld on the belief that one should only intrude on another’s dreams in moments of closest intimacy or to destroy a nightmare that the pony was having. So instead Luna ate breakfast peacefully while waiting for Irid to wake up on her own clock, quietly Luna's TV clicked on and she muted the volume putting it on captions as she flipped through the channels.

Everywhere she turned, even on the kid shows and the comedy channels was talk about the incoming wedding that was taking place today, and Luna rolled her eyes at it. All this bustle and hassle over her niece's wedding. Idly, Luna flipped the channels back to HDMI two and turned on her computer which connected to the screen and started to play Trees vs. Zomponies on the large screen. Quietly she was cheering as her trees held back wave after wave of undead ponies and laughing at the badly spelled notes the last one seemed to drop every few levels. She was well into it by the time the wedding started.

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The order to begin the invasion had begun when the marriage had been interrupted by the true princess cadence and her friend Twilight sparkle, while the queen of the changelings had her way with Princess Celestia and the elements of harmony. Aranea was trotting towards Princess Luna's room to confront her, one thousand of Luna’s guard was removed and replaced with changelings, five being Luna’s generals who were on vacation to parts unspecified, and the last being princess Luna herself. As she passed, every changeling present began to revert themselves back into their normal bug like forms and converge upon the door that lead to Luna's Game Fort. Aranea knocked once and entered still disguised quietly leaving the door almost shut behind her, "Oh, Hello, whatcha need?" was Luna's response to her favored maid.

"Just one thing, my so dear princess Luna," was Aranea's response, tone full of acid and malice.

"And what’s that?" Luna said a slightly amused look to her face that Aranea had hated so much.

"You to surrender or die." she deadpanned.

"What?"

Aranea was consumed in green flames as she broke free of her disguise and shape shifted back to her full form glory and stature of a changeling princess, her mane was a swamp bluish green like her older sisters but better kempt. Her holes on her hooves were in the shape of x's rather than circles and she stomped. Hundreds of changelings bust through the doors and windows covering the room in changelings.  Luna raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, "Well that escalated quickly."

"Any last words?"

"Besides how cliché that comment is? well..." Luna finished her sentence by slamming a button on her keyboard and stood up, the game almost completed pausing and flipping through a few files on her computer for the proper sound file and activating it. A loud rave beat started to play and Luna stood up several hoof made copies of various video game weapons floating up in her grasp around her. Aranea twitched an eye at the sight of seemingly random assortment of untraditional swords around the princess, "what are you guys waiting for?" Luna taunted, "Let’s dance!"

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Irid came awake at the combination of sounds of loud rave music, a changeling standing unknowingly on her, and the sound of magical explosions and metal on chitin. She gasped and with a magical force threw the changeling off her into a crowd of his brethren knocking ten or so out at once. Luna was standing on a pile of knocked out, or dead, changelings, the conflict coming to a halt as the changelings started to refuse to suicide on the battle crazed alicorn. their leader, recognizable from the different height and stature, yelled, "you would do war against an regiment of changelings by yourself?" Irid hopped up the hill pulling her two swords out with magic.

Luna grinned and replied, "No, we will beat a regiment with TWO ponies."

Aranea shouted back, "You will war with us then? Give up and we promise a quick painless death!"

Luna replied quite calmly causing several of the changeling to visibly shiver, "This is not war, this is pest control!"

Then the fight resumed, Irid and Luna were flank to flank blades whirling and slashing, occasionally Irid would grab an changeling in her field and use him as an impromptu club against his comrades before discarding him to grab another. Luna in contrast was a whirling cloud of death with her replica swords that were every bit as sharp and real as an adamantine metal sword was. Luna weld in her mouth a buster blade that was bigger than she was with consummate ease whacking changelings into others with it as if it was a giant baseball bat. It was only time before they overwhelmed them with sheer numbers however. Eventually Aranea called for a halt again as only a quarter of her forces remained and Luna had dropped the broadsword tired of wielding the large hunk of metal. it had only been eight minutes, she realized. Aranea stepped forward, "I will take care of them myself then you idiots." she opened her mouth to give an evil monologue before partaking in combat like her older sister had instructed.

Irid launched  a sword into Aranea's front leg. Aranea fell over, crippled by the sword sticking in her leg. She hissed in pain then in shock as a large pink wall erupted into the room and launched her and all o he changelings out of the castle scattering them far and wide.

Wearily Princess Luna scanned the room before cracking open a large smile, "Well done Irid, wasn't that fun?"

Irid stared at Luna like she lost her mind and her own in the process, "That was fun? Seriously? Weren’t we just attacked by an army of bug ponies!"

Luna chuckled, "They are called Changelings, they think they are so secretive and clever disguising themselves or love, but really I can spot one a mile off from their dreams alone. I guess i get the right of telling Tia that I told her so."

"What?"

"Hm maybe I should attend the after party and ask Tia what I missed haha. But first, to clean up." Irid looked at all the mess an army of changelings had caused to the room, Luna's magic was slowly repairing the various systems and electronics that were smashed to pieces and the various gel like goop that had shattered out of each changeling killed was being tossed outside. Irid felt there was still going to be a lot of cleaning before Luna and Irid would drop by and check on "Tia"... in the meantime she would help Luna clean up her prized Game Fort.