Prologue: The Queen in Shadows
Prologue: The Queen in Shadows
Her cell was dark. The chains suspending her above the floor were cold. The straps that held down her wings were tight, they bit into her skin.
Chrysalis opened one eye. The other was swollen shut from the beating she had received as they dragged her here, the Queen of the Changelings bound in irons and thrown without ceremony into a dungeon cell.
There had been more beatings since. Apparently in this land, pain was considered the best way to loosen a tongue. The cold-eyed general who had presided over those ‘conversations’ assured her that it could have been much worse. She believed him, but that was cold comfort to her eye or to the aches and bruises on her body. They would heal in time, but for now they protested her mistreatment more bitterly than her wounded pride.
With the one eye that would open right now, Chrysalis looked around her deep, dark cell. There was no light, but changelings had excellent night vision, allowing Chrysalis to take in just how small and empty her accommodation was. They had not even left her a bucket.
She heard hoofsteps outside, steps drawing closer, and Chrysalis closed her eye and did her best to look the picture of dejected misery as she heard a key turning in the lock of the door. The hinge squealed as the door opened, and the sudden light burned through Chrysalis’ eyelid.
“This is what you wanted to show me, general?” the voice was that of a stallion, old and deep and a little weary. He sounded almost disappointed in what he saw. It stung.
“Come, come, sire,” Chrysalis recognised that voice: General Nearsight, her host for several little chats. In the presence of this ‘sire’ he sounded less in control than normal, less certain of himself. “How often does one see a changeling queen in the flesh?”
“A changeling queen?” the other pony scoffed. “Am I a foal, general, to believe in such fancies? Changelings are the stuff of old mares’ tales and childhood warnings. Be good and go to bed, or the changelings will come and gobble you up.”
“I am not a fool, majesty,” Nearsight murmured. “I would not have brought this to your attention were I not convinced of the veracity of her information. And very interesting information it is.”
Chrysalis opened her eye with studied slowness. She did not want to seem too eager, or to give the impression that she had been feigning exhaustion to better listen to their conversation. She was tired, and her legs were aching from their long suspension, but if they thought her closer to breaking than she was then it would be all the better for her.
The general and the old unicorn – for he was a unicorn, she could see that, with a wrinkled coat and deep lines upon his face. His mane had turned to grey and it was thinning at his forehead – were not alone. There were four guards with them, all unicorns, wearing gold-foiled armour and masks that looked like dragons’ heads. Behind them, two slaves – she recognised the hollow look in their eyes, similar to look on a pony’s face once she had drained the love out of them – held lanterns in their mouths to provide some yellow light in the dark chamber.
None of them were important. None of them would speak a word, or make a move during this meeting unless they were commanded. If they were commanded, then they would obey their instructions – to beat Chrysalis, to kill her, to kill one another – without hesitation. How they felt about it, if they felt anything at all, would be irrelevant. The high spoke, and the low obeyed. That, Chrysalis had already learned, was how it was in the Empire of Untarnished Light.
“This is Prince-Imperial Senex, by the grace of the sun the Steward of the Dragon Throne and Protector of the Twelve Worlds,” General Nearsight declared. Unlike the guards, the good general was dressed not in armour but in a black uniform with a high, stiff collar. His coat was white, contrasting starkly with his uniform, and he wore a set of pince-nez pushed halfway up his nose. His blue eyes held no warmth, Chrysalis had never seen him smile, and his tone was clipped and stern. “Demonstrate your abilities for his majesty, and then we will discuss what you have told me in our private meetings.”
Chrysalis throat was dry and parched, but she put a little extra hoarseness into her voice as she said, “May I please have some water?”
“You will get more bruises if you do not do as you are told!” Nearsight snapped.
“You have been breaking her in, I take it, general?” Senex asked, sounding amused.
“I wished to be sure that she had information of value before I informed your majesty,” Nearsight replied carefully. “Slave! A demonstration!”
Chrysalis took a deep breath, then her horn glowed faintly as her body became consumed with green fire. It covered her entire body for a moment, and then when it cleared she looked exactly like General Nearsight.
Senex’s eyes widened. “Impressive. I might actually believe that you are not mad, general. Very impressive.”
“The impressive part is yet to come, sire,” Nearsight murmured. He glared at Chrysalis. “Resume your form, slave.”
My name is Chrysalis, you little worm, and you will be screaming it before I’m done, Chrysalis thought, though she kept her expression inscrutable as she resumed her true form. She noticed that one of the prince’s guards was looking at her unusually intently. She looked back without appearing to do so. He kept staring. There was a flicker of green light, and for a fraction of a second his eyes turned beetle-black.
Chrysalis’ expression revealed nothing, but inside she was beaming.
“What could be more impressive than this power?” Senex asked. “If we could but learn the secret of it…”
“A world,” Chrysalis gasped. “A new world, ripe for conquest.”
Senex’s eyebrows rose. “That is interesting, to be sure, but the discovery of a new world is not so unusual. You, my dear are unique. Or am I mistaken?”
“A few bedraggled stragglers have been taken by our slavers,” Nearsight said. “A nearly defenceless rabble, a few hoof-fulls at most. They are the last of their kind. None of them approach their queen in power or knowledge.”
Or cunning, though they know well enough how to survive, perhaps thrive, whilst they wait for me, Chrysalis thought. She said, “This world, this world is not like others that you may have found. It has so much more. It has something you want that all your conquests can never give you.”
Senex leaned closer. Chrysalis felt like a fishermare, reeling in her catch. The prince asked, "And what is it that I desire?"
"Immortality," Chrysalis whispered.
Prince Senex froze. General Nearsight held his breath. Chrysalis knew that she had them. She had them all. She had the whole Empire in the palm of her hooves.
The arrogant general, as he probed at her and beat her until she spilled her secrets, he had thought that he was interrogating her. What he did not realise, as he barked his instructions and brandished threats with the subtlety of an angry buffalo, was that as he questioned her he also revealed himself: what kind of pony he was, what kind of world he lived in, what kind of masters he served. Though she had arrived in this world but a month ago she knew it well, for she had learned from those who ruled over it.
Senex's face twisted in disgust. "That is impossible. Only the Empress has attained immortal life, no other can possess it."
"And yet, in my own world, there dwell four alicorns who will live forever and never die," Chrysalis murmured. She had no idea if Cadance and Twilight Sparkle would live forever - certainly if she had her way they would both be dying rather sooner than anypony expected - but that was not really important. What was important was that Prince Senex would believe her. Because he wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe it so badly Chrysalis could taste it on him.
"You are lying," Senex murmured without conviction. "My own niece ascended to become an alicorn and she has continued to age as she did before."
"One thousand years, two of these alicorns have lived," Chrysalis whispered. "The others ascended recently, and there are others who will soon follow. Five others who will soon ascend to godhead. Is it right that they should do so when you, a great prince and lord of worlds and armies, are condemned to suffer the miseries of age and time?"
He glared at her, and for a moment she feared that she had gone too far. But his expression softened with desire, and as he turned away he growled. "What is this world? Where can it be found?"
"The name of the world is Equus, though the nation you should seek out is the one they call Equestria," Chrysalis said.
Nearsight's lip curled into a sneer. "A nation so magical, yet they have not even subjugated their own planet?"
"They are not warlike," Chrysalis said. "You have nothing to fear from them."
"A location!" Senex barked. "Where?"
"Beneath the eye of Taurus as he gazes on Orion," Chrysalis said. "That is where you will find it."
"We sent a scouting party to investigate that area a few months ago," Nearsight said quietly. "They never returned."
Because I found them, drained them of love and used their portal to reach your realm, Chrysalis thought. Unlike General Nearsight, she had learned more from her captives than they had from her.
"Prepare a second expedition," Senex commanded. "And if you have lied to me, changeling, then my wrath will be tremendous."
"I would never, ever lie to you, your majesty," Chrysalis said. "My fear, it keeps me honest."
Senex looked at her critically, and Chrysalis became aware that he was examining her for more than just her truthfulness. Is it like that, you dirty old stallion? I can use that, if I must.
"Faithful service is rewarded in this realm," Senex said. "If you speak true, your conditions will be improved. It may be that we will have cause to speak again."
"I would like that, majesty," Chrysalis murmured. "Truly, in this dark night of solitude your coming is like the sun."
Senex said nothing, but a faint smile creased his aged features.
He turned to go, Nearsight following, and the slaves and all the guards.
They left, and the door closed behind them. Chrysalis heard the key turn within the lock.
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to laugh so badly. But, in the darkness and the solitude, she contented herself with a thoroughly triumphant smirk.
Chapter 2
New Arrivals
Sunset Shimmer emerged out of the magic mirror, teetered and wobbled on her hind legs, then fell on her belly onto the floor of the Friendship Palace.
“Sunset,” Twilight said, running over from the generator to where Sunset lay. “Are you okay?”
“You should have seen me when I first came out the other side,” Sunset muttered as she climbed to her hooves. Speaking of hooves, she lifted up her right foreleg and examined it. “You never quite get used to the transformation, do you?”
“I think it gets easier,” Twilight replied. “So, Sunset, not that I’m not happy to have you visit like this, but why did you ask if you could spend a few weeks here.”
Sunset walked a little bit away from the mirror before answering. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I haven’t been thrown out for going back to my old ways. It’s summer break, that’s all.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Summer break is where-“
“I know what summer break is,” Twilight said sharply. “What I don’t understand is why it means you decided to come back to Equestria.”
“Because all my friends went to Tahiti,” Sunset said.
Twilight blinked. “Oh. They didn’t invite you? I thought you got on with them now?”
“It wasn’t like they ditched me, they just…ditched me,” Sunset said. “Okay, no they didn’t, they asked me if I wanted to go with them but I couldn’t because I don’t have a passport. Even if I could get out of the country I wouldn’t be allowed back in again.”
“Right. I see,” Twilight said quietly. “And they still just left?”
“I told them to go,” Sunset replied. “What kind of a friend would I be if I ruined their vacation plans so that I wouldn’t be lonely? Even when I was evil I was never quite that selfish.” She sat down, her back against one of the gleaming walls of the palace. “But it does mean that Canterlot has seemed a bit empty recently, and then I thought of you. So here I am, vacationing in the one place I don’t need a passport to go visit.” She sighed, her head bowing a little.
“What’s really going on?” Twilight asked.
Sunset looked up. “I just told you.”
“You didn’t tell me the whole truth,” Twilight said.
Sunset held her gaze for a moment before she looked away. “I have two years of high school left. Maybe if I started failing I could get another year out of remedial classes, but I don’t know whether I could stomach to humiliate myself that way. What do I do once I graduate? I have no ID, I have no green card; I won’t be able to get a home or a decent job. I live in a derelict house that still has running water because nobody has bothered to turn it off yet. Am I going to stay there until I’m old?” Sunset’s chin rested on her chest. “I love my friends in Canterlot High, but I don’t know how long I can stay there. I think… I think I’m going to have to come back here someday. And sooner rather than later.”
“Would that be so terrible?” Twilight asked.
“No. Yes. Maybe,” Sunset said. “I don’t know. I suppose only Celestia can tell me that. Or you, I guess, Princess of Friendship.”
Twilight felt her cheeks beginning to burn. “Well, you’re welcome here for as long as you want. And if you do decide to come back for good, then as far as I’m concerned you’re welcome to do that, too.”
“Thanks.” Sunset’s lips twisted into a sort of smile as she stood up. “So, why don’t you show me around your sweet new castle?”
Twilight smiled. “Of course! Follow me and I’ll show you the throne room…”
Fluttershy was outside in her garden, feeding some of her bird friends, when the peace and tranquillity of the summer’s day was shattered by a great roar echoing out of the Everfree Forest.
Fluttershy looked up, her birds disappearing into their birdhouses as Fluttershy herself looked towards the dark forest.
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy murmured. It had sounded like a manticore. She hoped that nopony had upset one of them, that might end badly for all concerned.
There were no other sounds, which could be either good or bad depending, and Fluttershy decided that she would have go in and see for herself what had gone on. It was the only way to be sure that nopony was in trouble, and she wouldn’t be able to rest easy if she just turned aside and ignored whatever had just happened in the forest.
Before she could so much as take a step, however, four ponies emerged from out of the woods, carrying a fifth pony in their hooves. No, not four ponies, four alicorns. Five alicorns, for their injured friend had wings and a horn as well. Fluttershy gasped at the sight of them. To see four alicorns was possible, but very rare. To see five, and not one of them known to her? It was incredible. She had never thought to see anything like it.
Then she noticed the vicious gash down the side of the fifth alicorn, and all sense of wonder was driven from Fluttershy’s mind by the sight of a pony in distress.
“Oh, you poor thing,” Fluttershy cried, fluttering over to where the four alicorns struggled with their injured comrade. “Are you alright? What am I saying of course you’re not, do you need any help.”
“Kind of you to offer, but I’ve had worse,” the injured pony muttered.
“We need somewhere to rest him,” another of the strange alicorns, a mare with a coat of purple and eyes of crimson, and a low-ranged, commanding voice. “Is that your house?”
“Oh, yes, of course, you can bring him in here,” Fluttershy said, flying to the door of her cottage and flinging it open for these ponies in need. She cleared everything off her table and onto the floor – Angel Bunny stamped his foot in protest at this, but she ignored him for the moment – as the four ponies rested their friend upon the surface.
“Do you need me to get the doctor?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t think so, but thanks for asking,” a white alicorn with a light-brown mane replied. “We just need somewhere to rest him while we bandage him up.”
The injured alicorn winced.
“It’s okay, buddy, you’re going to be just fine,” the white alicorn said.
Fluttershy kept out of their way as they wrapped their friends side in bandages until the blood had stopped showing through. The alicorn lying on the table was breathing more easily now, his eyes half-closed in restful slumber, his chest rising and falling.
The purple alicorn bowed her head. “I think he’s through the worst of it.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to get a doctor?” Fluttershy asked again.
“No, thank you,” the purple alicorn replied. “But if we could stay here for a little bit and rest, that would be very kind of you.”
“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said. “Would you all like some tea?”
The purple alicorn nodded. “Thank you.”
Fluttershy bustled off into the kitchen, returning in a little while with a tray laden with teapot, cups, milk jug and a saucer of sugar. She found the four uninjured alicorns sitting around the table, all eyes on their hurt friend, and Fluttershy found that now that the immediate crisis was over she had a chance to study the five of them more objectively than she had before.
They were all armoured, their chests, backs and shoulders covered by banded cuirasses of some dull metal that gave off no shine and their heads covered by helmets. Unlike the helmets of the Royal Guard, Fluttershy couldn’t tell what kind of metal the helmets were made of because they had covered them with what looked like a rain-proof covering of dull tan, with no crest or plume visible. They had no weapons and no protection on their legs or hindquarters.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Fluttershy murmured. “Who are you? And what happened to you in the forest?”
The purple alicorn rose to her feet, looking slightly hesitant for a moment. “Yes, we should start with the introductions. My name is Miracle. Allow me to introduce Lightning Strike, Free Verse, Starlight Silver and that’s Red Rose there on the table.”
“Hello everypony,” Fluttershy said. “I’m Fluttershy.”
Lightning Strike was the white alicorn, who had assured his injured friend that everything would be okay for him. His cutie mark was a single bolt of lightning. Starlight Silver had a coat as silver as her name, sleek and shining, with a mane of cornflower yellow and a five-pointed star for her cutie mark. Free Verse was a dark-grey stallion leaning towards portliness, his mane equally grey save for the streaks of white, with a beard colonising the area around his mouth and a mandolin slung over his back; his cutie mark was that same mandolin. Red Rose – who was, for reasons best known to himself, the only one not wearing a cuirass - his eyes now completely shut, had a red coat and a mane green as grass, and his cutie mark was a rose of a type that Fluttershy had never seen before: white on the inside, red on the outside. It was only when she looked for Miracle’s cutie mark that Fluttershy realised that she couldn’t see it; not because her flank was blank, but because Miracle had obscured it with a black velvet cape that clung to her as though she were wearing midnight.
“What happened to us?” Miracle asked rhetorically. She gave a hollow laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to know? I suppose you would, as far as it concerns you. Well, we were wandering through that forest there, we and a few friends-“
“A few friends?” Fluttershy said. “You mean there are more of you?”
“A few more, yes,” Miracle replied.
“Ah, there you are! Wondered where you’d got to,” a cheery voice called from Fluttershy’s doorway. Fluttershy looked to see two more alicorns armoured as the rest were standing there looking in. One was a light blue with a thick red mane and a charcoal pencil for a cutie mark, while the other had a chocolate brown coat and a mane white as cream, with a burning ladle adorning his flank.
“Fluttershy, this is Broad Brush and Hot Meal,” Miracle said. “Boys, this is Fluttershy.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Broad Brush said. “Thank you for taking Rosey in.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” Fluttershy said. “Anypony in Ponyville would have done the same.”
“Ponyville, is that what this place is called?” Miracle asked. “Anyway, we were wandering through the woods, with our friends, when all of a sudden we, um…well, we put one hoof in front of the other until…”
“I’faith, major, you tell it like a weather forecast,” Free Verse declared, leaping to his feet surprisingly quickly for his heavy frame, his voice rich as a chocolate pudding. “By your leave I’ll tell the tale, and it shall so amaze our new friend Fluttershy that she will be transported beyond these walls into another world.”
Lightning Strike rolled his eyes, while Miracle said, “Off you go then, but tell it straight and without deception.”
Free Verse looked affronted. “Marry, in faith, I’ll tell it with such honesty and good grace that lawyers will be thought liars by comparison, and if I do not you may hang me up by my hind legs and call me a side of beef.”
“A whole ham, surely, you are too fat to be encompassed in a single side,” Lightning muttered.
Free Verse took no notice. “Lend me your ears then for here is our tale: through the dark forbidden forest we wandered, ten brave ponies alone in a grim and hostile place-“
“Ten?” Fluttershy asked. “But there are only seven of you.”
“Hello,” a pegasus mare called out as she walked in with two more pegasi. “Have we missed the party.”
“Peace, if you love me, good friend Firefly, for I am under the muses’ spell,” Free Verse said. “As I said, friend Fluttershy, ten ponies alone in a grim and hostile place. The shadows lengthened, and the trees pressed close all around us, their faces leering and their fingers reaching out to us. Nevertheless we were not afeared, for we are ponies bold of spirit and stout of heart.”
“And stout in other things besides, in some cases,” Lightning said. “Tell me, sweet beef, when was the last time you saw your own knee?”
Free Verse looked at him. “When I was of your years, wag, I was not a griffon’s talon in width. The care of years hath blown me up like a balloon. But leave that for the nonce, where was I? Ah, yes, in that dark and perilous forest, where trees have eyes and the air whispers ‘turn back, turn back’. In that place the hearts of lesser ponies might have trembled, but not ours. We pushed on, eager to find what lay beyond those grim trees. Then, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, a dragon appeared with scales of minty green and eyes of blood red. It’s monstrous jaws gaped, and it roared as loudly and as terribly as does the sky when the storms come. It was a sight to behold, but we thirteen bold companions were nothing daunted, and we leapt to the attack.”
“Thirteen?” Fluttershy said, noticing that three unicorns had joined the gathering, so that there were, indeed, now thirteen ponies crowding into her cottage with her. Angel looked rather irate.
“Aye, thirteen. We thirteen ponies came against those two mint green dragons-“
“It was only one dragon,” Lightning said. “Did he clone himself in battle?”
“Nay, cuckoo, it was two dragons, on my life,” Free Verse. “We against these two dragons, who breathed out fire…”
And so he went on, spinning a tale of adventure and daring against an ever-increasing number of mint-green dragons, who swiftly expanded from two to eleven, and as the number of dragons increased so did the number of ponies both in the story and gathering in Fluttershy’s house; when there ceased to be room for them inside they started to wait on the grass outside, until by the time Free Verse had finished his story, a story that had long ceased to have any relevance to the question of where he and his companions had come from or how Red Rose ended up injured, there were around sixty creatures gathered around Fluttershy’s cottage. Apart from the initial seven none of them were alicorns, but were instead a mixture of earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi and a few griffons, all wearing armour and the same covered helmets as the alicorns she had first met had worn.
“So many of you,” Fluttershy murmured.
“Please forgive the deception, Miss Fluttershy,” a clipped, aristocratic voice spoke, and the ponies made way to allow another unicorn to move gracefully into the cottage. “I confess I feared that if too many of us descended upon you at once you might take fright and raise alarm against us, so I had my fellows come in dribs and drabs that would not seem so threatening.”
The most recently arrived unicorn walked as though he owned the world, and everypony else gave way before him as though they thought that as well. His coat was iron grey, his mane was crimson and his eyes were serpent green, and so sharp they seemed to pierce right into Fluttershy’s heart. His armour was more all-encompassing than any other pony’s, and richer too; his breastplate was midnight blue like a night sky, set with diamonds that sparkled like a field of stars, with a golden sun set in the centre with a corona of flames wrought with rubies leaping from the golden orb. The rest of his cuirass with also lacquered blue, with dragons wrought into the armour, dragons dancing around one another, looping over each other, all racing forwards towards the sun, mouths open, flames on their tongues. The dragon’s eyes were sapphires, their scales were emeralds, their teeth were ivory and their flames were rubies. The helmet was silver, with a crest of red that seemed to burn like fire sitting atop it.
He bowed. “Allow me to present myself, Miss Fluttershy. My name is Silver Shield, and I have the honour to be the First Spear of the Immortal Empire of Unvanquished Light. These ponies who have so trespassed on your hospitality are mine: we are explorers, and I wished to discover what kind of a place we had found. Not the kind that we expected certainly.”
Fluttershy blinked. “What do you mean?”
Silver smiled, although it did not quite meet his eyes. “A civilised place, of course. A place with tea and hospitality. One so rarely finds such things out in the wild. Fear not, Fluttershy, we shall not trouble you for long. I would merely ask one more favour: that you introduce me to the nearest personage of rank here in… Ponyville.”
“Rank?” Fluttershy murmured. “Um… I suppose that would be Twilight. She is a princess after all.”
“A princess?” Silver said, his voice lingering upon the word as though he were devouring it. “Fascinating. Major Miracle.”
“Sir?”
“Remove the company from Miss Fluttershy’s property, there seems to be plenty of unclaimed meadow to pitch camp on. I will be back as soon as I can but I cannot guarantee that negotiations will be swift.”
“Right you are, sir.”
“Carry on,” Silver said. “And now, Miss Fluttershy, if you would kindly lead the way.”
Sunset and Twilight stood in the throne room of the Friendship Palace, with Sunset lounging against Rainbow’s throne while Twilight stood in the centre of the room.
“So aside from you getting a fancy new place to live, what else is going on?” Sunset asked.
“With me? Nothing much,” Twilight said. “Though I may have to go to Canterlot soon, Princess Celestia has asked for my help.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “What’s up?”
“The caribou,” Twilight said. “They’ve occupied nearly the entire of Elaphia.”
Sunset whistled. “That’s a gutsy move of them. I wouldn’t have thought they could pull it off.”
Twilight nodded. “The deer king has fled in exile to Equestria, and is asking Princess Celestia for help. The Princess is attempting to broker a diplomatic solution, but it doesn’t help that the caribou are…”
“Raging misogynist assholes,” Sunset supplied.
“I wasn’t going to be so harsh.”
“They won’t thank you for being kind, so may as well be as harsh as they deserve,” Sunset said. “I’ll tell you what I thought when I first learned about Ranguvar in Culture and History: I’m glad there’s an ocean between us and Cervidia.”
Twilight’s face was grim. “That most of Cerva Wald they’ve occupied? That includes Eastgate. The deer say there are ships being built there.”
The deerish folk, whether they be true deer or caribou, lived mostly on the continent of Cervidia, to the west of Equestria – there were a few white-tail deer living in Equestria’s Whitetail Wood, but a mere hoof-full compared to the red-deer numbers in their own nation – a continent divided between two states. To the north, the fierce caribou in Tarandia, and to the south the deer in the woods of Elaphia. Neither was particularly welcoming to visitors, but unlike the caribou the deer did allow trade and contact out of one single port: Eastgate, which was now in Caribou hooves. If they did decide to cross the ocean… they were, by all accounts, a brutal race. That was one of the reasons there were so few accounts.
Sunset’s mouth opened a little, though for a few moments no sounds emerged. “H*ll. I picked a fine time to visit didn’t I.”
Twilight smiled. “I’m probably worrying over nothing. Don’t get too concerned over it. This isn’t your home after all.”
“Maybe not, but I was still born here,” Sunset said. “If you need my help then just ask.”
Spike came running into the room.
“Hey, Spike,” Sunset said. “I think you look better as a dog.”
Spike ignored her. “Twilight, you should come quickly. Fluttershy’s here with some armoured guy who says he wants to meet you.”
“The caribou haven’t come over already, have they?” Sunset asked.
“No, it’s a unicorn, but…” Spike threw up his hands. “Will you just come and see for yourselves?”
Twilight and Sunset followed Spike to the palace door, where Fluttershy was waiting alongside an iron grey unicorn clad in lavish armour, who bore himself with not a small degree of arrogance.
“And what are you supposed to be?” Sunset asked, amusement leaking into her tone.
The unicorn turned his steely gaze upon her. “What? Supposed to be? I am supposed to be many things: a dutiful son, a loving brother, a noble lord, a lover of life’s finer things; but as it happens I am none of them. Very disappointing. What I am, at this very moment, is an explorer and diplomat both it seems.” He turned his attention away from Sunset and bowed to Twilight. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, I presume.”
“Correctly,” Twilight murmured.
“Extraordinary,” he whispered. “An actual alicorn. If I may: were you born to this state or did you come by it in some other fashion.”
“By a girl dinner first, why don’t you?” Sunset muttered.
“Sunset, it’s okay,” Twilight said quickly. “I was born a unicorn, and only became an alicorn recently. But, if you don’t mind, I’m more interested in you, and why you want to see me.”
The unicorn smiled. “Of course. Of course. I have been most remiss in introducing myself: Silver Shield, First Spear of the Empire and, I suppose, its first envoy to this land.”
Twilight frowned. “The Empire? The only empire I know is the zebra empire, Quagga. You’re not a zebra.”
“I should hope not,” Silver Shield replied with some asperity in his voice. “Although I daresay I could wear stripes as well as any of them. No, the empire that I serve, the true Empire, the first and last Empire, is from much further away. From another world, in fact. That is why my discovery first of the courtesy of your friend Fluttershy and then of you is so astonishing to me: we so rarely find aught but barren rock or savage barbarians. To find not only a society of ponies but also an alicorn ruling over them… fascinating.”
“Another world,” Sunset said softly. “Do you walk on four legs, normally, or two?”
Silver blinked. “I fear I do not understand the jest.”
“Never mind then,” Sunset said quickly. She made no move to mention her own experience of other worlds, and Twilight decided that she would not brooch the subject if Sunset was not inclined to. It was, after all, more Sunset’s secret to keep than Twilight’s, if a secret she chose to make of it.
“I think you have misunderstood at least one thing,” Twilight said. “I do not rule. Not over Ponyville, certainly not over Equestria. I am a princess, but not a tyrant, and I do not lord my crown or palace over my friends.”
Silver tilted his head to one side. “Then who does rule, if I may ask?”
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rule together,” Twilight replied.
“Then I should like an audience, if that can be arranged,” Silver said.
Fluttershy coughed. “Um, I think it might be better if Princess Celestia came here. That way she can meet all of your friends.”
Twilight frowned. “Friends?”
“You didn’t mention that you weren’t alone,” Sunset growled.
“Did I not? What a tragic oversight,” Silver said softly. “Yes, I was accompanied on my expedition by a company of sixty troops; as I mentioned, we did not look to find a hospitable welcome here, to come alone would have been hazardous.”
“And are these sixty all soldiers like you?” Sunset demanded.
“Soldiers, when required, but not like me,” Silver replied, smiling. “There are none like me in the whole Empire.”
“Some of them are alicorns,” Fluttershy said.
“Really?” Twilight asked. “More than one?”
“You don’t need guards to meet with Princess Celestia,” Sunset said. “Now you know you’re not in danger why don’t you send them home.”
“Why don’t you learn silence in the presence of your betters?” Silver snapped.
Sunset’s eyes widened. “How about we step outside so I can show you something about betters?”
“Sunset, that’s enough,” Twilight said sharply. “And as for you, I don’t think an attitude like that will get you anywhere here. In fact I know it won’t.”
Silver was silent for a moment before he bowed again. “Forgive me, I took you for a servant.”
“You were wrong,” Sunset said flatly.
“I don’t have servants,” Twilight said. “This is my friend Sunset Shimmer.”
“Charmed,” said Sunset through gritted teeth.
“And as for your friends,” Twilight said. “I agree with Sunset, I don’t think they need to stay here for you to meet Princess Celestia.” The fact that he had not volunteered their presence did not sit well with Twilight, nor incline her to be soft on this issue.
He smiled. “If you do not rule, my lady, then how can you make such decisions?”
Twilight’s face twisted into a soft scowl. “Very well. I will write to Princess Celestia and ask her to come here.”
“You have my thanks,” Silver said. “I will await her arrival at Miss Fluttershy’s cottage.”
“I’ll go with you, Fluttershy,” Sunset said. “I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
“You do not trust me?” Silver asked.
“Explorers don’t need armour,” Sunset said. “You’re a soldier. That makes you dangerous.”
“It gives me the capacity to be dangerous, it does not mean I am,” Silver pointed out.
“You haven’t proved you’re not,” Sunset replied.
“So you fear for Fluttershy, but not for yourself?”
Sunset smirked. “Cross me and you’ll find that I’m pretty dangerous myself.”
Twilight edged closer to Sunset and began to whisper in her ear. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’m sure I don’t trust this guy,” Sunset said. “Tell Princess Celestia to hurry up.”
“I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” Twilight said. “Spike, take a letter, to the princess…”
