Her Dark Inheritance

Chapters

Her Dark Inheritance
Lord Sombra's Rise: Carbon, Part One
Carbon, Part Two
Things That Go Bump In The Night
In the Archives
Preparations

Her Dark Inheritance

Notes: This is just a oneshot for now. I may decide to continue it later, but for now, it is completed, and if I do decide to continue it, it will be published as a separate story.

Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all associated characters are property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro Inc. No copyright infringement is intended and no money or other profit is being made from the production of this fanwork. I'm just playing with the ponies (I seriously have a little Pinkie Pie right next to me as I'm typing this) in my sandbox.

Her Dark Inheritance

Luna watched, silently, as the ponies of Equestria cheered on their newest princess. Princess Twilight Sparkle. It had a nice ring to it, the night alicorn had to admit. But unlike the other members of the great nation she helped to govern, Princess Luna no Tsukimi, the Princess of the Moon and Stars, wasn't cheering.

I had hoped it wouldn't have come to this... she thought silently to herself, bitterly regretting the actions that had led to this becoming possible.

It wasn't that she wasn't happy for Twilight Sparkle. No, she was glad for her friend's good fortune.

But can I truly consider my descendent my friend?

Thinking about it filled Princess Luna with shame. Twilight Sparkle. Her great-granddaughter, give or take a generation or fifty. The final result of a long, long line of descendents borne out of an act of desperate rage and desire to be loved. The same desires that had led the night princess to seek refuge in the palace of a mad unicorn king far to the north of Equestria. King Sombra had offered the lunar princess the attention and love she so desperately desired. And in her desperation, Luna had accepted. Already well on her way to becoming Nightmare Moon, Luna had ignored the brutality her chosen consort had shown towards his own subjects, turning and looking the other way. And Sombra, for all his faults and psychosis, had at least treated her well. He made her feel like a mare, and the things they did together... well, now, free from the clutches of her own insanity, Luna regretted them deeply. But at the time, everything had felt so perfect and good. She and Sombra would rule together. They had planned to raise a family together- eventually the house of Sombra would become strong enough that it would dominate not only the Crystal Empire, but the entire world, eventually.

Sombra... did you take another wife after I was gone?

A year after Luna had come to live with the mad pony, she had a foal. As far as she knew, nopony outside of the immediate circle of Sombra's court had known about the birth of Princess Twilight Obsidian. Sombra had been thrilled. His first descendent, first in line to take the throne once he- fates forfend- passed away or was otherwise unable to rule effectively.

Those first three months with “Obsy,” as Sombra called her, had been perfect. Luna had a mate, and an adorable little filly to take care of. Due to the foal's parentage, from a few days, the filly had shown an enormous propensity towards magical ability. Closing her eyes, Luna allowed a short reminiscence of that happy time.

“Oh! Princess! Please stop! You are going to hurt yourself or somepony else!” the frantic crystal pony nursemaid begged. Tiny little Twilight Obsidian just gurgled happily, levitating object after object, flinging them around with wild abandon.

“Daaa!” the foal cried happily, giggling and clapping her tiny hooves as her nursemaid barely managed to dodge a table the tiny unicorn had flung at her.

Standing in the doorway watching the tableau were the foal's parents- a gray-and-black unicorn stallion, and a dark blue alicorn mare. The stallion chuckled at his daughter's antics. “Maybe I should intervene before she ends up destroying the entire palace,” he said, although he made no move to stop her.

“As if you won't just make our subjects fix anything that she destroys anyway,” the mare replied. King Sombra laughed at his consort's words.

“True... true...”

“Maybe we should try for a colt next?” Luna suggested. Sombra looked at her, a glint in his eye.

“Perhaps we should. Perhaps... maybe now?”

Luna shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Of course, there had never been a colt, although she and Sombra had tried- multiple times. Maybe her body was just taking longer than normal to recover from the foaling, or maybe the fates had something else in mind, knowing what would happen next... six months after the birth of Twilight Obsidian, Nightmare Moon had taken over completely. The mare that had used to be Luna left to try to take over Equestria, resulting in her being locked in the moon for a millenium.

A thousand years went by, and Luna, driven by rage and resentment, forgot all about her offspring and the life she'd had with the mad king of the Crystal Empire.

It wasn't until a year after she'd been released from her lunar prison that those memories had come back to her. It had hurt, realizing what she had done, and the extent of her mate's depravity. When she had heard that the mad stallion had been vanquished, she barely could muster up the grief to mourn, although she had felt bad, thinking that her daughter had been killed along with her father.

Imagine her surprise, when one day, she was looking through an old record book buried in the depths of Canterlot Castle, stating that a Lady Twilight Obsidian of the Crystal Empire had wed, at age sixteen, a unicorn stallion from what was now Las Pegasus named Shoreline. Their family line had continued down through the ages until it stopped with... Twilight Sparkle.

Luna had dropped the book in shock.

Twilight Sparkle, her sister's faithful student, was her great-great-great-great... granddaughter.

It made sense, in a way.

Twilight Sparkle had more power than any unicorn that Luna had ever heard of. While it wasn't impossible for a pure unicorn to contain that much power, the alicorn mare had never heard of such a thing happening.

Now it all made sense.

And she wished that it didn't.

With Twilight Sparkle now a princess, Luna knew that she would never be able to escape her past, no matter how hard she tried. The newest alicorn would always be there to remind her of her mistakes, and the life she might have had if she hadn't succumbed to madness.

Part of her wanted to run and embrace her descendent.

Part of her wanted to run screaming in the other direction.

But Luna knew that she couldn't reveal the truth to anypony, least of all Celestia or Twilight Sparkle. Celestia likely wouldn't take it well to realize that her “faithful student” was the descendent of her sister and a genocidal maniac who'd forcibly taken the throne of another kingdom.

And Twilight Sparkle? Considering she and Spike had been the ones to vanquish Sombra once and for all- Luna shuddered to think what would happen if the mare was to realize that she had essentially murdered her great-great-great-great grandfather.

As Luna watched the happy parade trot by, she schooled her features into a beatific smile, one proper for the Night Princess of Equestria.

She would look after her little ponies, including those that included her direct descendents. Even if that meant making sure the truth would never be uncovered.

/END

Author's Note

I'm sorry. I know this story is shit. I just saw the episode and had to dash out something for it. I might continue it later, or delve more into depth and backstory, but for now this is it.

Hopefully you enjoyed this fic, even though it's lousy.

Lord Sombra's Rise: Carbon, Part One

Important: Sensitive readers should take care while reading this chapter. Considering the nature of King Sombra's rise to power and Luna's fall from sanity, there are some disturbing events depicted in this story. While I do not think it is graphic enough to need a rating change, please note that there will be discussion of disturbing topics such as wartime violence(including implied sexual assault), regular garden-variety violence, and descent into madness.

Lord Sombra's Rise: Carbon, Part One

Sometimes, in order to achieve a final objective, one has to work with other individuals that one finds distateful.

That didn't mean that Lord Sombra of the Crystal Empire had to like it, though.

There had never been any being, pony or otherwise, that he had wanted to blast to smithereens more than the smarmy Diamond Dog Alpha currently grinning at him. Yes, if he was going to dethrone that blasted King Staccato, he was going to need outside help. And trying to get the Crystal Ponies on his side was, he already knew, a lost cause if there ever was one. Equestria clearly wouldn't help him, so obviously if he wanted allies, he would have to go outside of his own species. Of course, he would have preferred it wasn't Diamond Dogs. Lord Sombra had entered negotiations with both Commander Gaston Grayskies of Griffindell and Empress Mofubuki of the Penguin Nation, but both had fallen through. Commander Grayskies' wife had laid an egg, and in griffon society it was considered taboo for the father to leave a nesting mother and unhatched chick to fight. It was considered so disgraceful that if the griffon died, leaving nesting wife and unhatched chick behind, he would not be given a proper burial, and worse still, he would be denied entrance to the Holy Aerie, the griffon afterlife.

Personally, Sombra found the whole idea foolish- a Holy Aerie? As if the cosmos cared whether or not a griffon, a pony, or a dragon, or any other being was a virtuous or corrupt individual... but then again, ponies had some equally odd beliefs, so Sombra really had no room to talk. Besides, the Commander had agreed to send a contingent of troops if necessary- he just wouldn't be leading them.

As for Empress Mofubuki, the penguin monarch had in fact been very interested in forming an alliance wit the unicorn stallion. The Empress had lamented the fact that her nation of Pengin was little more than a barren, frozen wasteland, and her subjects were an uneducated, destitute people. Pengin had few natural resources other than an abundance of ice and fish, but ice was worthless for trading and most species (with the exceptions of griffons, dragons, and the few remaining tribes of sapient bears) did not eat fish. As the griffons already had plenty of their own fish, the fact that fish was considered “poverty food” by the dragons, and that the bear tribes were even more destitute than the penguins... well, they didn't have much of a chance to better their lots in life through trade.

Sombra had promised the penguin Empress that her people would be allowed free and open immigration to the Crystal Empire and the frozen lands that surrounded it, as long as the Empress provided troops to help his uprising. He also conveniently forgto to mention that under his rule, the Crystal Empire probably wouldn't be the sort of place anypony (or anyguin, as the case may be) would go to have a decent life. If the penguins managed to survive the coming war, likely they would just end up poor and cold in a whole new location.

But the Empress had apparently believed the pretty lies, and had been more than happy to acquiesce to Sombra's requests.... at least until she'd met an untimely death. The official story from her successor, her son Pirtuk, was that Empress Mofubuki had been out on a tour of one of the coastal villages, when the part of the ice shelf she'd been standing on gave way, sending her plummeting a thousand feet to her doom in the icy water below. But it wasn't exactly a secret that Pirtuk had hated his mother, and hated even more the idea of opening Pengin up to the outside world, and had likely orchestrated his mother's “accident.” Unfortunately for Sombra's plans, the new Emperor was as paranoid as the late Empress had been trusting, and had immediately scrapped the plans for the alliance, going so far as to state that if Sombra ever stepped foot in Pengin again, his life was forfeit.

This had lead Sombra to begin negotiations with a pack of Diamond Dogs that lived about fifty miles outside of the Crystal Empire. They wouldn't have been the unicorn stallion's first choice of allies- they were unstable, excessively violent, and even by Sombra's admittedly lax standards, lacked any sort of moral compass whatsoever. Sombra wasn't a good pony by any stretch of the imagination, but there was something about Brassite, the Alpha of this pack, that made his mane stand on end.

“So I understand that your people are quite fond of gems? If you join with me, I cam make sure that your pack is supplied with plenty for at least a hundred years,” Sombra said, attempting to get the Alpha's attention. “If you have any espeically intelligent dogs in your ranks, perhaps I could even teach a simple lapidomancy spell, so that you can find your own gems without too much terrible trouble.”

“Yes, gems good,” Brassite salivated, “but mares even better! Can Lord Sombra promise mares?”

Sombra's eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Excuse me?”

“Diamond Dog bitches no good for anything except puppies. Queen Dolomite was the last good bitch, but she been dead for four hundred years! Maybe mares be more fun!”

Sombra hesitated. What Brassite was proposing... yes, he was not an upstanding citizen himself, and he had already commited many crimes, but he could safely say that he had never raped anypony. The idea was actually quite revolting to him on a base level. There was something so... dishonorable about the whole idea, and if anypony had ever tried to attack his late mother in that way he would have immediately blasted them into gory chunks. However, he did need these soldiers, and it wasn't like he intended to actually leave his new allies alive anyway. Would it really hurt anything if he agreed to let Brassite and his minions have their way with the mares of the Crystal Empire if he killed them all before they had the chance? And did he even really care what they did anyway, or was he just imagining his mother in the place of those mares and reacting poorly because of it?

Deciding that he would deal with those moral questions later, Sombra gave his lukewarm agreement, if only to get to the next, more important part of the negotiation. “Fine. Now how many soliders can you send?”

Brassite thought for a moment. “My pack is 10,000 dogs strong, but about 2,000 are puppies and another 3,000 are bitches. You don't want bitches, they not worth much. Of the 5,000, I need 750 here to keep order and another 200 of those are too old. You can have the rest though.”

Sombra quickly did the calculations in his head. 4,050 troops. He could definitely work with that. “So we're agreed, then?”

Brassite grinned, a feral expression that made Sombra's latent evolutionary instinct to flee kick in. The stallion muscled his way past it, however, and stood his ground. The Diamond Dog nodded. “Agreed. Now allow me to give you my pack's hospitality, Lord Sombra!”

The pack's hospitality turned out to be a lineup of different meat-based dishes, each served by a wary-looking puppy. Sombra, out of politeness to his hosts, forced himself to take a bite of every dish, even as his stomach screamed at him in rebellion. It did not help that Brassite personally insisted on graphically describing how he killed each and every one of the creatures in each dish.

Sombra was busy trying to suppress his gag reflex at Brassite's story about how the calf in the veal dish had watched in horror as the dog had forcibly milked its mother, murdered her right in front of it, then stabbed the calf in the head, when a sudden commotion broke out not too far from where the disgusting meal was taking place. As Brassite had already told him that scuffles among Diamond Dogs were commonplace, Sombra had already turned his attention back to forcing down more of his revolting dinner when someone shouted over the din- “Touch me again and I'll bite my tongue off and choke on my own blood!”

The voice sounded more educated and genteel than any other Diamond Dog that Sombra had come across so far. The urgency, seriousness, and despair in that single statement caught the stallion's attention, and he jumped up from his seat, turning an accusing glare on the Alpha. “What's going on over there?”

Brassite looked supremely unconcerned. “Nothing to worry about, Lord Sombra. Just one of the prostitutes causing trouble.”

“That didn't sound like she was the one causing the trouble-”

“No, it is just daughter of the old Alpha. I did not kill her when I killed her father. I should have, though. Enjoy your dinner, do not worry about it- she'll be dead in a few minutes anyway, hopefully.”

It was at that moment that Sombra decided that alliance or no alliance, Brassite could get bucked. Teleporting away from the table, Sombra immediately materialized in the cluster of Diamond Dogs that surrounded the fight.

In the middle of the cheering crowd, an absolute behemoth of a Diamond Dog was ruthlessly beating a smaller one. Diamond Dogs were a bit difficult to tell apart in terms of gender, but the sleek, if somewhat shaggier than normal black coat and more delicate features of the smaller one made Sombra think that it must have been the old Alpha's daughter. Any doubt that the stallion might have had was removed when the enormous dog spoke.

“What a worthless little slut, parading around like you're still Alpha's daughter! Your place is here as a whore, but you don't get that, do you? I ought to kill you where you stand.”

“Go ahead,” the female snarled defiantly. “Unlike you-” here she uttered something that Sombra couldn't make out, but it did not sound complimentary- “I have not betrayed my Alpha, I have not violated Pack Law, I will be welcomed into the Crystal Caves by Volkan and Queen Dolomite! I will get to see my parents and brothers again! You omega backstabbers will rot in Tartarus! I will die with my honor intact!”

“What honor?” the huge dog sneered. “Whores don't have honor! Good for nothing but mating, if even that!”

“Yeah, Pyrite, show her whose the Alpha here!” someone called from within the crowd. “Show that thing its place!”

Pyrite roared in agreement, the dog's stance changing so that it was obvious to any being what his intentions were. The female got back on her feet and assumed a defensive position, but the wounds she had already sustained in the altercation affected her, causing her to stagger unsteadily. Realizing that she had no realistic way of fighting off her oversized attacker, the Diamond Dog closed her eyes and braced herself, expecting death, or something worse, to come.

Sombra had seen enough, and powered up his horn.

To Be Continued

Author's Note

I am not entirely certain what this website's policies on content warnings are- I haven't really posted anything here that needs something like that yet. I do not think it is particularly graphic, especially for a story essentially about a war that is (hopefully) realistic, but I also do not want to upset anyone.

Anyway, I know this chapter is fairly short, but if I didn't cut it off here it would probably be a lot longer before I was able to get it posted- cutting into two (possibly three) parts helped me avoid taking forever and posting a monster of a chapter anyway.

Thank you all so much for reading!

Carbon, Part Two

The first magic blast from Sombra's horn caught the gargantuan Diamond Dog off-guard, but he quickly recovered. To Sombra's somewhat misplaced sense of relief, the dog turned his attention away from the injured female, instead focusing on Sombra.

“What do you you think you're doing, pony?” the behemoth of a creature roared. “You DARE interfere with pack justice?”

“Gypsum, Lord Sombra, please calm down...” Brassite's oily voice cut through the ruckus. “I'm sure that we figure out a way to settle this... without any trouble...” Both combatants, however, just ignored him.

“Oh, so this is what you call justice, then?” Sombra sneered. “I suppose barbaric justice for a bunch of barbarians makes sense. No matter what she had done, no civilized people would attack one of their own in such a manner, nor would they likely do it to any other creature. Know your place, dog- I am offering your people the chance to have a better future, yet you throw that away through your actions. I am intending to lead a revolution, not a rabble. Now, I am giving you a choice- either you step away from that bitch or I will end you where you stand.”

Of course, all that served to do was further antagonize the hulking dog. “You can't give me orders, pony! I'll tear you apar- gyaaah!”

He never finished his threat, the sentence ending in a pained scream as another magic blast from Sombra's horn sliced through a major artery. Within seconds, the creature fell over dead. There was a murmur from the crowd- this pony had killed Gypsum! Normally such an insult would not be forgiven, an outsider attacking a high-ranking pack member, but none of the other Diamond Dogs were stupid or sucidial enough to attack the stallion, lest they suffer the same fate as Gypsum.

Cautiously, Lord Sombra approached the injured dog, struck at her appearance. Unlike most of her species, the bitch's coat was not colored in muddy earth-tones, with short fur. Instead, her coat was longer than usual for the species, and pitch-black. Her features were far more delicate than those of most of her species. If Sombra had been a Diamond Dog, he probably would have found her very beautiful. As it was, he was unable to look away from her, and he felt himself growing angrier at her treatment. A creature like this reduced to a mere prostitute? While the “oldest profession” wasn't entirely unheard of amonsgt ponies, pony courtesans were closer to highly-paid entertainers than... whatever this was.

“Can you stand?” Sombra asked. The Diamond Dog bitch just looked warily at him.

“Does it matter?” she asked, her voice a lot more well-modulated and genteel-sounding than her peers. “Why do you care?”

“Because I want to know what sorts of creatures my potential allies are before I seal the deal,” Sombra replied, “and as it stands I do not think I like what I see. What is your name, madam?”

The Diamond Dog got unsteadily to her feet, eyes hardened. “I am called Carbon Iya'Coquina, last surviving daughter of the true Alpha of this pack,” she said proudly, using an outdated, rarely-used patronymic, a further way of asserting her defiance of the current regime. Prouder than the ancient Queen Dolomite herself, she asked of Sombra, “and you are?”

“THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!” Brassite finally exploded. “You dare speak to an honored guest that way, you worthless little pup? And Lord Sombra... I am willing to overlook your actions, but you are beginning to try my patience.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sombra rolled his eyes, his horn glowing yet again with magic. The Alpha suddenly found himself unableto speak any more, the unicorn stallion having stolen his voice. “As for myself, Lady Carbon, I am Lord Sombra, the true King of the Crystal Empire. I intend to regairn my rightful place on the throne. I had come here to negotiate an alliance with this pack, but I do not think that will be happening now. I am, after all, waging a war, not commanding a barbarian horde. However, I am in need of a retainer. I had intended to seek the position amongst denizens of my empire that would need the position, but I am impressed with you, Lady Carbon. Would you be interested in the position?” The crowd of Diamond Dogs gasped in shock; Sombra ignored them.

Carbon looked skeptically at Sombra. Could she trust this unicorn? Growing up, she had heard many stories about the untrustworthiness of ponies, how they hated Diamond Dogs and would kill them on sight. And Sombra hadn't really done anything to dispel that stereotype, killing Gypsum in cold blood.

But... he had killed Gypsum, the chief of her tormentors. Unbidden memories of the evil dog came to the forefront of her mind- the pain he'd caused her, him standing over her battered body, laughing as she miscarried her first littler of puppies. HIS litter, to be precise- when she was sixteen. Even though she despised Gypsum she still wept for the pips that had never had the chance to live, three years later. Three years, she had been living in this hell of a life, and two years before that she'd watched her entire family slaughtered before her eyes in Brassite's coup. She still didn't know why he'd spared her life- she was the runt of her litter, and considered by many to be bad luck, because of her unique coloring.

And now this unicorn was offering her an outlet. She'd be able to escape the hell she'd been living in.

So she made the only choice she could.

“Yes.”

“Good,” Sombra said, freeing the silencing enchantment on Brassite. “Here is my deal, Alpha,” he said. “Either you allow me to take Carbon Iya'Coquina as my retainer and leave, or I will annhilate your entire pack... and still take Lady Carbon as my retainer. Do we have an agreement?”

“Fine, fine, she's yours, just take her!” Brassite exclaimed, terrified. Even though all Sombra had done to him was silence his voice, he had felt nothing but pure, unadulterated terror since the spell hit him, and he had no desire to repeat the experience. “Just don't kill me!”

“Pathetic,” Sombra snorted. “Very well then. I will let you live today, Brassite, but if I ever see you again you will not be so lucky.”

It only took about half an hour for Carbon to gather her meager belongings and head out with the unicorn stallion. As they walked back towards the Crystal Empire, where Sombra called home, the pony explained to the Diamond Dog the nature of his mission, and his motivatios for doing what he did.

“King Staccatto does not care about anything except throwing parties. He says he cares about his subjects and he shows it by putting on these festivals and fairs, all ostensibly to keep the ponies of the Crystal Empire happy. That's all he cares about- happiness! He doesn't notice as the world threatens to invade and destroy. Equestria would love nothing more than to invade and subjugate the Crystal Empire. Griffindell would be more than happy to pick at the bones. Zebrican warlords, if they could figure out how to get to our land, would invade in a heartbeat. The camels of Saddle Arabia want the gemstones we have. Even the impoverished nation of Pengin would have attacked, if their Empress hadn't been assassinated. He doesn't understand a thing. My goal is to take over the Crystal Empire, then attack the others before they can attack us! I will not live in subjugation to anypony or anything! I am the rightful ruler!”

In turn, Carbon spoke of her past, and how the previous five years had been nothing but misery for her. Much to Sombra's surprise, the bitch admitted to having some rudimentary magic. “Not much,” she had said. “My people do not have horns so our magic, those of us who have it, is mostly limited to small things, usually related to gemstones. I have a sort of intuition as to where the good stones are, and I can polish them by turning them over and over in my paws. It takes a long time, though..” She also spoke of being one of the few Diamond Dogs in the pack (and the only surviving one) who could actually read the Equestrian language, as well as speak it fluently without the sharp intonations and propensity to drop words as most of hre kind. Interestingly, she was also fluent and literate in Zuanshi, the “pure” form of the Diamond Dog language, mostly died out by that time, and obviously was fluent in Diamante, the dialect of Equestrian than most Diamond Dogs spoke.

“Before I miscarried, I had hoped to teach my puppies about the world,” she said sadly. “I thought maybe we could bring more understanding to my people, and to the other nations. I guess it wasn't meant to be.”

“Do not worry- once I am in power, I will make sure you can fulfill your goals,” the stallion promised. “You, with your knowledge of the world, will help me to bring about a World Power. The Crystal Empire will stretch from sea to sea, all lands will be under my control! How do you feel about the title- Imperial Counselor Carbon?”

“I would like it very much,” Carbon admitted.

All the rest of the way back to the Crystal Empire, the two daydreamed and discussesd their plans for a better tomorrow- with them at the top of the heap, of course, and with plenty of random digressions.

“I would like to see Canterlot at least once,” the Diamond Dog admitted. “I've heard it's very beautiful there.”

“Ha,” Sombra laughed. “That's nothing! Wait until you've seen the Imperial Crystal City. You have never seen anything so beautiful in your life! It makes Canterlot look like a hovel of mud huts!”

“Well, after the pack, I'm sure anything would look lovely,” Carbon said.

“Trust me,” Sombra reassured her. “This is the truth!”

Back at the Diamond Dog encampment, Brassite fumed. He'd been made a fool of by that little bitch and that arrogant pony. “He thinks he'll get away with this? I'll make him regret the day he ever even HEARD of my pack!”

TBC

Author's Note

Next chapter we introduce Princess Luna, and it will be quite a bit longer than this one.
Thanks for sticking with me!

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Celestia sighed as her internal clock, the mechanism that alerted her to the necessity of raising or lowering the sun, pinged her subconscious. “Court is done for the day. Return to thine homes and have a restful slumber. I shall see everypony in the morn when we reconvene.” As all of the various nobleponies, petitioners, and courtiers filed out of the throne room, Celestia thought back to the topics of discussion that were brought up that day. First had been the news of the death of the aggressive, bellicose Penguin Empress, Mofubuki. The leader of the Penguin Nation had been making overt, threatening displays towards not only Equestria, but many of the other nations as well, a problem that Celestia feared she would have to step in to solve. Pengin was a tiny nation, and its penguin inhabitants were woefully behind the other species in terms of advancement. Picking a fight with Equestria, or Saddle Arabia, or Griffindell would only end in tragedy and bloodshed for the flightless birds, something that the pony regent would prefer to avoid. Empress Mofubuki's demise was at least one headache averted, but now there was the matter of her successor, her son. Equestrian intelligence forces did not know enough about the new Emperor to determine whether or not he would be a threat.

Affter that, Celestia had been regaled with tales of things that happened after the sun went down. Normally that wouldn't have been her domain, as things that happened after dark were her sister's responsibility... or at least, they were supposed to be. That was the complaint that had been brought up repeatedly from various nobleponies and business owners all around Canterlot. Princess Luna had apparently been slacking off in her duties and responsibilities as Guardian of the Night. Ponies were reporting a recent upsurge in crime and other unpleasantness after the sun went down. The euphemistically-named “Flower Town” district in Canterlot seemed to be the seat of all of these activities, and Luna appeared to be neglecting her duties in regards to taking care of the problem.

Truth be told, Celestia was beginning to worry about her younger sister. She rarely, if ever, saw her sister apart from when it was time to change the day to night, or vice-versa. And on the rare occasions that the elder alicorn did see the younger outside of their duties, the younger seemed to be stuck in a constant foul temper. She did not want to talk at all with her sister. She would raise the moon and stomp off to who-knew-where until it was time for her to lower the moon. Up until now, Celestia thought that her sister had at least been doing her job of monitoring what happened in the nighttime and taking care of any problems that might arise during it. But if the criminals running amok was any indication, she wasn't doing that duty, either.

All signs were pointing to the fact that the Princess of the Day was going to have a... conversation with the Princess of the Night, something that she dreaded. Celestia knew that the younger alicorn would likely not react well at all. But when it came down to protecting her little ponies, Celestia would fight even her dear sister if it became necessary.

“Are you going to lower the sun or are you going to terrify the population of our country that something terrible has happened to their beloved Sun Princess?” Luna's voice was enough to jolt Celestia back to reality, and the white alicorn realized, rather sheepishly, that she had been standing lost in thought for a good ten minutes or so. Celestia also noticed that there was a harsh, sarcastic bite to her sister's words, but she chose to ignore it for the time being.

“Sorry, Luna,” the elder sister apologized. “I was thinking about something else.” With her horn glowing with the power of the sun itself, Celestia rose into the air and her power intensified. The sun slowly sank beyond the horizon, enveloping the world in pitch-black darkness for a few moments. Once Celestia stepped out of the way, Luna stepped up and performed a very similar ritual, only this time, the moon rose and illuminated the world with its soft light. Spreading her wings, the younger mare prepared to take off to parts unknown, as she always did, but Celestia, her mind on the petitions brought to her during the day, asked the younger to wait for a moment. Luna did as requested, a wary look on her face.

“Luna, today I heard something from one of my little ponies. Apparently there have been some problems arising at night in the Flower Town district. When other ponies are sleeping, there have been reports of others taking advantage of this to commit crimes. As Guardian of the Night, it is your duty to prevent such things from taking place.”

Celestia knew that Luna wouldn't appreciate being lectured about her duties, but the older alicorn certainly did not expect the response she got. Luna's wings clamped down violently towards her sides, and the younger sister strode purposefully towards the older, the stones of the throne room creaking under Luna's angry hoofsteps.

“And of course the beloved Sun Princess takes the word of a mortal pony without thinking that the despised Lunar Princess has her reasons for doing what she does?” Princess Luna snarled, every syllable dripping with venom. As her anger rose, she unconsciously slipped into the more formal diction that the princesses used with their subjects. “Of course thine sun-loving subjects doth have no idea that the lesser princess hath her reasons for doing what she does, oh no, they runneth to the favored royal when things doth get uncomfortable for them.”

Celestia, shocked at the vitriol her sister was spewing, tried to calm her down. “Luna, nopony thinks of you as the lesser princess-”

“THOU SHALL NOT LIE TO ME!” Luna hollered, her horn flaring with involuntary magic born of her rage. “Do not lie to me, sister. I know what they think of me. They hath never liked me, and they never shall. Thou can see it clearly in the way that they doth act. I know about the situation. I hath been watching and waiting. If I make a move too early, they shall know what I plan! But thine sunshine-loving ponies, in their ignorance, do not understandeth.”

“Luna, I-”

“Do not. Do not, sister,” the younger alicorn spat. “Next time, thou should think before you accept what the ponies doth tell you.” With that, Luna launched herself off the balcony of the throne room, soaring off to wherever it was that she spent the nights until it was time for her to lower the moon. Celestia stared off after her sister, wondering if she should follow her. There was something behind her sister's vitriol that troubled her deeply, although she couldn't quite place a hoof on it.

Luna fumed as she soared through the night sky. It was just like Celestia to jump to conclusions, believing some random mortal pony over her own sister! The fact that Celestia was actually right in this specific case didn't matter, it was the principle of the thing that upset the night alicorn so much.

Yes, Luna had been aware of the goings-on in Canterlot’s “Flower Town” district for quite some time now, but she wasn’t particularly inclined to do anything about them, unless the incidents were to suddenly increase in severity. Despite the images that most ponies had of the city as being a wealthy unicorn enclave, there were pockets of the city that were anything but. The Flower Town district was one of them. It was one of the few places in all of Equestria at that time that non-ponies could be found- they were attracted by the lucrative business market- much of it pseudo-legal or outright prohibited. The area also had a bit of a reputation of being a red-light district. Anything anypony wanted could probably be procured here, as long as they had the bits.

As her duty as the Warden of the Night, Luna had been paying attention to the supposed “crime wave” sweeping through Canterlot. Her investigation had, in fact, led her to the Flower Town, but upon closer inspection, she chose not to act.

Yes, there had been a spate of crimes, but they were mostly minor property crimes and mostly committed out of desperation. A handful of foals breaking into a local bakery, but stealing nothing but a batch of muffins and three loaves of bread. They left the money be, and Luna saw that they were starving. Their desperate act was born of necessity. Some of those youngsters looked like they were days away from death if they didn’t get something to eat. As a princess of Equestria, Luna could not in good conscience prioritize some baked goods over the lives of her little ponies.

Or, for instance, the case of the desperate young stallion robbing a wealthy unicorn in order to pay for medicine for his foal. The stallion’s child had come down with a terrible case of pegapox, and was in complete and utter misery- if the disease progressed much more, the foal’s life would be in danger. As the stallion couldn’t find work, he was reduced to committing crimes to pay for the medicine he needed. And besides, Luna found it difficult to feel sorry for the victim. That particular noblepony had made his fortune by exploiting the dwellers of areas like the Flower Town anyway- it could be argued that the stallion was just stealing his own stuff back.

There were hundreds of cases like that, none of them causing any more damage than a few stolen bits here and there or a shattered windowpane. And yet the nobleponies were making a fuss over the loss of a few bits, the equivalents of which they could probably find in their sofa cushions? And Celestia was actually listening to them? In Luna’s eyes it was a gross miscarriage of justice. But nopony noticed or cared, and the desperate ponies just kept putting their faith and trust in Celestia anyway. It made the younger alicorn hopping mad.

All things considered, though, Luna decided to spend that evening in the Flower Town- disguised, of course. There was a tavern there, run by an absolutely enormous unicorn mare- Luna hadn’t thought that normal ponies could grow to approximately the size of adult alicorns, but if Lace Parasol was any indication, they could. The light gray mare was always willing to look out for her fellow ponies, and a more generous mare Luna couldn’t imagine.

Landing in the shadows outside of Lace Parasol’s tavern, Luna applied her disguise spell. To anypony who looked at her, she would appear as simply a dark blue unicorn mare. Luna stepped into the shop, although she wasn’t prepared for what she saw.

Lace Parasol stood behind the bar, sobbing in absolute despair, while a griffoness and an Earth pony mare tried to comfort her. At first, the alicorn couldn’t figure out what was going on- had Lace Parasol’s husband died, or her son? But then she looked into the separate room, often used for private parties or gatherings, or simply when the tavern was full to capacity in the main room.

“I’m tellin’ ya, I didn’t steal no ruby!” a teenaged colt yelled. “I found it in the mountains when I was takin’ some beer to the dragon that lives up there- Sharpteeth- you can go ask him, he likes beer, and he always orders a bunch of it on Tuesdays! When Sharpteeth told me that ruby wasn’t his I brought it home cuz I thought my mom would like it! I didn’t know it was stolen from Prince Whatsizname!” Luna recognized the colt as Lace Parasol’s son, although she couldn’t remember his name. She could, however, remember the name of the stallion interrogating him- Authority Point, captain of the Royal Guard.

“Don’t lie to me, boy! You know that ruby came from the residence of Prince Pure Lineage!” Authority Point shouted. “And I know scum like you! Don’t deny, you stole it! What did you steal it for- were you planning to buy salt with it? Or something else?”

Concerned, Luna approached the sobbing mare. “What’s going on? What happened?” Lace Parasol looked up at Luna, then started to cry harder. The griffoness glared at her.

“And what business is it of yours, pony?” she snarled. The Earth pony mare placed a calming hoof on the griffoness’s hindquarters, to ground her.

“Please don’t make things worse, Gaphna…”

“No, I’ve had it with these upper-class ponies walking all over my friends!” Gaphna spat. “They don’t care about any of us! Hell, half of them would kill me on sight if it wasn’t for the fact that if word got back home, it would start a war with Griffindell! Why should I be polite to some uppity mare?”

“I can help,” Luna insisted, feeling rather insulted. Who did this griffoness think she was? “I want to help!”

“And what help would you be able to offer?” Gaphna asked sarcastically.

It was at that point that Luna remembered the disguise spell and dropped it. The other individuals’ mouths (and beak) dropped open. Indeed, Lace Parasol was so shocked that she stopped crying, and looked nervously at Gaphna as though she was afraid the griffoness would do something stupid.

“Now, will someone please tell me what in Equestria happened here?”

“I see,” the alicorn said shortly, having listened to Lace Parasol’s tale of how her son had been on a delivery when he discovered the ruby. Apparently the ruby hadn’t belonged to the grumpy old alcoholic dragon who he’d been delivering beer to (and for a dragon to deny that a piece of treasure was his or hers, that was really something), so the colt had decided to bring it home as a gift for his mother. Lace Parasol swore up and down that her son hadn’t stolen it from anypony. A simple truth spell Luna cast proved that the mare was telling the truth. And after hearing from the other mare that the ruby allegedly belonged to Prince Pure Lineage, Luna had made up her mind. The obnoxious buffoon of a unicorn was, unfortunately, distantly related to herself and Celestia, something like a fourth cousin twenty times removed, but he played up that fact and strutted around as though he was king of the world. Likely what had happened was that he’d seen Lace Parasol’s son walking past with the ruby and decided that he wanted it. So he’d sent the Royal Guard after the hapless colt. “Thank you for telling me. Believe me, madam, I will most certainly resolve this matter myself. In fact, I can guarantee you that unless there is an actual problem, the Royal Guard will not bother you, your family, or your establishment again.”

“What… what are you going to do, Your Highness?” the mare asked. Luna just smirked enigmatically.

“You’ll see…” the alicorn mare said, before striding into the separate room, where the interrogation was taking place. “THOU SHALT UNHAND THAT COLT, BY ORDER OF THINE PRINCESS!” The Royal Canterlot Voice was loud enough that it could be heard halfway across the city.

“But Princess Luna…” Authority Point began, likely to try to explain his actions. But Luna was having none of it.

“SILENCE, THOU PERNICIOUS SOLDIER OF FORTUNE!” the alicorn howled. “THOU HAST THAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THY POSITION TO HARASS AND HARM THIS COLT AND HIS MOTHER! A SIMPLE TRUTH SPELL WOULD BE ENOUGH TO DETERMINE VERACITY OF HIS CLAIMS, HAST THOU NOT PERFORMED ONE? OR HAST THOU FORGOTTEN THAT THOU ART A UNICORN?!”

Back in the main room of the tavern, the two mares plus the griffoness just looked at each other.

“Damn…” Gaphna said.

“Damn is right…” Lace Parasol agreed.

“You said it,” nodded the Earth pony mare.

TBC

Author's Note

...I like to write the Royal Canterlot Voice. It's fun.

In the Archives

Princess Twilight Sparkle had, on her third day of being a princess, decided that she was going to clean out and organize the basement of the Canterlot Royal Archives. It was one of the few places she had been denied access to when she was still simply the student of Princess Celestia. The Sun Princess had explained to her that the basement of the Archives contained knowledge too dangerous to be made available to the general public. The information stored down there included magic too dangerous for most individuals to be exposed to, as well as state secrets and classified intelligence files that were still too sensitive to be de-classified.

But now that she was a Princess of Equestria, Twilight had the right to go and absorb all of the esoteric knowledge contained in that underground room. Princess Celestia had even given her blessing, although Luna had interrupted.

“Are you certain that is wise, sister? The Archives are off-limits for a reason. Twilight is powerful, yes, but are you certain this is a good idea?”

“Twilight Sparkle is now a princess of this nation, Luna. She has the right to go where she pleases, and to read what she wishes. I would like for Princess Twilight to eventually take a more active role in governance, and allowing her access to the Royal Archives is a start.”

Luna acquiesced, but she did not look happy about it. In fact, she looked downright scared/

And not long after Twilight becan her exploration, she began to understand why. Princess Celestia had not been kidding when she said that the information contained in these archives would be extremely dangerous if accessed improperly. One of the first things she found was a spell that would force hippogriffs to take either a pony or a griffon form fully, or they would go insane and kill themselves. That is, if the excruciatingly painful transformation spell didn't kill them in the meantime. And even if they did survive it, they'd likely be insane anyway. Not long after she found that lovely, bigoted spell, she found another that allowed the user to take complete control over another's body and make them do things they would normally never do. The note at the bottom of the scroll said that the spell's creator, a unicorn stallion named Pure Lineage, had developed it in order to force his maids to engage in sexual congress with him. Twilight shuddered reading that- violent crime like rape was almost unheard-of in present pony society. And it seemed like it had always been that way to her- apparently not. Of course, it was equally disturbing when she found out, from a letter in that same box, that Pure Lineage had been murdered by an enraged bastard foal of his, upon finding out the truth of his parentage.

But apart from the disturbing spells and gruesome reminders of history, some of the other things in those archives were absolutely fascinating glimpses into other cultures, or into the past of Equestria. Twilight found a dossier containing abundant knowledge of Zebrican society from the pre-classical Era- Zecora would have loved that. There was also a magical cure for Poison Joak developed by a half-zebra, half-unicorn mare from that same time period.

Perhaps the most interesting things, however, that Twilight found were a collection of old documents and letters, as well as a few trinkets and a painting, from the Penguin Nation. A letter dated twenty years prior, coinciding with the coronation of the current Emperor of Pengin, Icefloe, sat on the top. Curiously, Twilight picked up the letter in her telekinesis and began to read it.

To the Most Honored Princess Celestia na Rae, Princess of the Sun of Equestria
In response to the questions that your Ambassador, Rootbeer Float, posed to me, I will do my best to answer, although I admit that I am unsure as to how this could be a matter of national security for the both of our nations.

While it is known that approximately at the time of both the fall of the Crystal Empire, and the Equestrian Civil War there were at least two pony refugees, as well as a Diamond Dog within the borders of Pengin, I do not know any more beyond that. I do know that it is believed that my revered ancestress, Empress Rokka, grew up with the refugees, which was what prompted her to soften her foreign policy stances. There is evidence to support this, mostly from personal accounts of the great Empress, and also from the penguins in the town in question. However, I believe that you are aware that they would have passed away almost a millenium ago, and therefore pose no threat to either Pengin or Equestria.

I hope that this begins to assuage your curiosity. If you require anything else, pleae do not hesitate to ask the ambassador in Canterlot. Tuyet may be getting up in years, but she will do everything in her power to help you. I would know, she was my old nursemaid, she's how I got to where I am today.

The Penguin Nation remains your ally.
-Emperor Herbert Icefloe I, Emperor of Pengin

It was a terse, if polite letter from the penguin Emperor, not really all that memorable in terms of political correspondence. But something didn't really add up. Equestria didn't really have many political or financial ties with Pengin. Although relationships with the country were cordial, nopony really ever went to Pengin, and noquin really ever went to Equestria. The two nations were very different, and from what Twilight had read, the very environment of Pengin would not be sustainable for ponies. It was a bleak, bitterly cold land where nothing other than seaweed and ice-flowers grew. Penguins ate fish as a staple of their diet, too, the thought of which was enough to make the newly-minted alicorn gag. But now, apparently ponies (and a Diamond Dog, it seemed) had once inhabited the frozen wasteland the penguins had claimed as their home. And Princess Celestia wanted to know more about them, for some reason.

Curiosity piqued, Twilight moved the letter aside, wanting to see what else was in that box. There was a second piece of paper right underneat the first- this time, a different letter.

Immediately, Twilight could tell that it was somewhat more informative than the previous one. The letter-writer appared to be a common penguin writing to Princess Celestia, perhaps on the request of the Emperor himself. It was clear that the penguin had been nervous about writing to the head of state of a foreign power, in a language that was not his or her mother tongue, no loess.

To the Most Honored Princess Celestia of Equestria, Bringer of the Sun which Warms the Earth, Her Majesty of the Equine Race... (the greeting continued on in this overly-florid fashion for about half a page),

My name is Frozen Feet, of the house of Rokka. I am an inhabitant of the town of Igloo, in the Penguin Nation. Two weeks ago, I received an official correspondence f rom His Majesty, Emperor Icefloe, regarding the history of my town and family, saying that Your Majesty wanted to know about my town and its inhabitants almost a thousand years ago.

The honored Empress Rokka did indeed grow up here in Igloo. What is not commonly known is that she was born into a common family- my family. The empress grew up here, amongst the everyday penguins. What is also commonly not known is that for twenty years, the honored Empress lived with ponies and a Diamond Dog, refugees from what your people know as the Crystal Empire.

My family has kept the diaries and correspondence of this time period safe. We know the basics of the story, however, we have respected the wishes of those involved, and not looked at the diaries and letters. I would normally not even think about taking them out of the family vault, but because of my Emperor's request to send it to you, I am sending a large piece of my family history via express-mail to Canterlot. I do not know what use the stories of Empress Rokka, her pony friends Andante and Princess Twilight Obsidian, and the Diamond Dog Carbon Iya'Coquina nyu Sombra will be to the national security of Equestria, but whatever it is, I am at your disposal. I will also ask around town to see if anyguin has something else that might be of use.

Your humble servant,
Frozen Feet, Igloo Township Librarian
Igloo, Pengin

Twilight set the letter down, her curiosity ignited more than ever. Now she had names. Andante and Twilight Obsidian- maybe they were crystal ponies? Frozen Feet had implied that they were refugees from the Crystal Empire. But what really interested her was the Diamond Dog- Carbon Iya'Coquina nyu Sombra. Modern Diamond Dogs spoke a corrupted version of Equestrian, but there were holdovers from their original language, Diamante, still present in their dialect. One of those was a complex hierarchical structure indicated by names. “Iya'Coquina,” if Twilight remembered correctly, meant that the bearer of that name would have been the daughter of an Alpha named Coquina. As for the “nyu Sombra...” that part was chilling. It meant that that the Diamond Dog had willingly subordinated him- or herself. This Carbon had been the subordinate of King Sombra, if she was interpreting it correctly, and that was how those ponies had ended up in Pengin in the first place. Had Sombra ordered his servant to lock the ponies in a frozen land?

Levitating the next item out of the box, Twilight realized it was a small book made from seaweed-paper. In blocky, childlike letter, the front of the book read in Equestrian, “Twilight Obsidian's Diary.” The items lying underneath that were a bundle of letter that appeared to be written in a mixture of Equestrian, Penginese, and surprisingly, Diamante. Luckily, Twilight knew a very accurate translation spell.

She planned to start reading immediately, but the voice of one of the palace maids cut through her thoughts. The mare couldn't descend into the bowels of the Archives herself, but her voice was magically amplified to catch the attention of the pony she was trying to reach.

“Princess Twilight? Are you down there? Dinner is served.”

“I will be there in a moment!” Twilight called back. “Please tell the princesses that I am on my way!”

“Yes, your highness,” the maid replied.

Twilight looked at the book and the stack of letters. She really wanted to read them, but if she came back down here after dinner, the Princesses would be worried. The next day, she planned to go to Ponyville to visit her friends. And if she left them down here, there was no guarantee she'd be able to find them again. The basement of the Canterlot Royal Archives was like a maze- once you got in, you might never get out.

Making up her mind, Twilight gently tucked the items into her saddle-bag, and sent a teleportation spell at it to transport it to her private rooms. With that finished, she trotted off to dinner, her mind blown from what she had just discovered.

To Be Continued

Author's Note

I am so, so sorry it's taken this long to get this up. I'll spare you the boring explanations, but suffice to say that this year has been an absolute mess apart from a trip to Japan over the summer. All I can say is that I'm glad 2013 is almost over.

Now that I think I've finally gotten back into the groove, expect at least one more update by the end of November, and we'll go from there, I guess.

Thanks for reading!

Preparations

Happy sounds of joyful laughter filled the air, floating into the house through an open window. Lord Sombra grimaced. He'd forgotten about the fact that the Crystal Faire would be taking place in a few days' time. That waste of time would be one of the first things to go once he got control of the throne. The Faire was a trick used by that damn King Staccato to take the minds of the Crystal Ponies off of more important things.

Sighing, Sombra put down the pen he'd been using to scribble down the list of things he needed from the market. He'd planned to go out himself and do the shopping (and maybe try to recruit potential allies while he was at it), but all the commotion coming from outside was just too much for him to bear. Even the muffled sounds he could hear inside the house were enough to give him a migraine. Fortunately, he had someone to take care of the stuff he needed to see done.

“CARBON!” he shouted. A few moments later, a delicate-featured, black-furred female Diamond Dog dressed in a simple gray cloth dress appeared in the doorway.

“Yes, sir?” she asked.

“I'm not feeling well, but there are things we need from the market. I've made a list. Go and deal with it.”

“Of course, sir,” Carbon replied, taking the shopping list and folding it into the pocket of her dress. She also caught a pouch of money that Sombra telekinetically flung at her, and slipped it into her pocket as well, next to the list. “Is there a specific time you need me to be back by?”

“No, as long as you return before nightfall,” Sombra replied. Then, with almost uncharacteristic concern, he added, “be careful, Carbon. Do not stray from the main market. That Staccato bastard... I don't trust him. You know he threw a fit about you coming on as my retainer. I don't want him to try anything.”

It was true. When, several months prior, Lord Sombra had returned home to the Crystal Empire from his travels with a Diamond Dog bitch in tow, there had been a minor uproar. Sombra suspected that King Staccato had a hoof in it, stirring up panic, althouggh he'd done well to mask it, lest he be accused of speciesism. But the neighbors hadn't been pleased in the slightest. “Diamond Dogs are all criminals! They're dangerous, mindless beasts! And they eat foals!” Carbon had been offended at the very idea.

“I do not eat ponies!” she had exclaimed, disgusted. “The civilized among my people only eat non-sapient creatures if we do eat meat! And ponies wouldn't even taste good! Too muscle-y!”

Several months later, once the population of Crystal City had calmed down enough, and realized that Carbon wasn't much of a threat to them, they stopped engaging in overt displays of bigotry towards the city's newest sapient canine inhabitant, it was clear that they were still uncomfortable with her presence. And that only served to concern Sombra. He'd become rather attached to his retainer, or at least as attached as he could be to anypony, and would be less than thrilled to find that she had come to harm while carrying out her duties to him. And to make it even more frustrating for the stallion, Carbon just laughed his concerns off.

“You saw where I come from,” she said. “Anything ponies could do to me wouldn't be worse than anything I've already been through. And the average pony doesn't even have the guts to kill a non-sapient creature, let alone another intelligent being. I'll be fine.”

But today, Carbon just smiled softly and nodded. “Yes, sir. I will be careful.”

As much as Sombra disliked the frivolous festivities of the Crystal Faire, Carbon found the atmosphere enjoyable. Her kind did not have anything even remotely comparable to the Crystal Faire, and after the living hell she'd endured for a large portion of her life, she was more than willing to just relax and enjoy the newfound freedom she had.

Of course, she would not be permitted to attend the Faire. Sombra wouldn't stand for it. He couched it terms of concern for her safety, but the Diamond Dog had a feeling it had more to do with the stallion's burning hatred for King Staccato than with any real threat to her. Not that she particularly minded- just experiencing the preparations was enough. And besides, the best part of the Faire, or so she'd heard, was the food. And they started selling the food several days before the festivities anyway. With that in mind, Carbon approached a stand selling Sapphire Soup- a special dish made of thick buckwheat noodles in a sweet blueberry broth sold only during the time of the Crystal Faire. Igoring the wince the mare operating the stand gave when she approached, Carbon sat down at the counter and asked for a bowl.

“O-of course, madam,” the mare said quickly, trying (and failing) to disguise her shock when Carbon spoke fluent Equestrian, without the habit most other Diamond Dogs had of dropping words or pronouncing things incorrectly. “It will be ready shortly.”

Carbon sat, waiting for her meal. Both advantage and disadvantage to her position was that ponies tended to assume that she was either too stupid to figure out what they were saying, or that she couldn't understand the Equestrian language, even when she had already demonstrated that she did. This was advantageous to her because ponies would speak freely in front of her and let slip information she could then relay back to Sombra. It was problematic, though, because sometimes she would overhear derogatory comments made towards her, things that nopony would ever dare to say to her face.

Today was no exception. The mare who had taken her order ducked into the kitchen, and apparently not realizing how loudly her voice carried, said to the cook- “There's a bucking Diamond Dog here! Can you believe it? It's just walking around like it owns the plcae! And it wants buckwheat noodles! I didn't know they could even eat buckwheat noodles!”

“Then you'd best serve the buckwheat noodles,” a stallion's voice growled. “Honestly, I'm surprised at you. Money from a Diamond Dog spends the same as money from anypony else. And watch your mouth- is the Diamond Dog a mare, or whatever their term for a mare is?”

“I think so.”

“Then that's Lord Sombra's housekeeper, and you'd be wise to hold your tongue. Do you want him to hear that you disrespected one of his servants? From what I've heard she speaks Equestrian better than half of us ponies do, and she'll tell him if you insult her! Who knows what Sombra will do to you?”

“True...”

“Here, now get out there and give her the damn noodles!”

There was a clattering of hooves and ceramicware, and shortly after the mare came out of the back, carrying a tray on her back. She set the bowl in front of Carbon, and tried not to look like she half expected her customer to pick her up and eat her along with the noodles.

“Thank you,” Carbon said politely. The mare barely acknowledged this, snatching the money Carbon had set out and hurrying off to the money box. Doing her best to not take offense at the behavior, the Diamond Dog took a bite of her noodles.

They were actually kind of disgusting.

The next stop on her list was a grocery. She and Sombra did need to eat, after all. But when she reached the usual shop, the place was dark. A window to the front was broken, and there were obvious signs that a struggle of some kind had taken place. Outside of the builidng, from within the shadows behind the rubbish bins, there came a small voice sobbing. Curiously, and warily, Carbon approached the structure. “Hello? Is anyone there? Are you alright?”

Two Crystal Unicorn foals, a filly and a colt, hid behind the garbage bin. The colt, who was a little older than the filly, poked his head out. Carbon recognized them vaguely as the children of the couple who owned the shop. The colt visibly blanched when he saw her and looked for a moment like he wanted to bolt, But he gathered up his courage.

“P-please, Ms. Diamond Dog! Please help us!” the colt cried out, running towards her. Fear of his situation overcame any fear he had of the Diamond Dog, and he flung himself at Carbon's feet. Her maternal instincts took over and she scooped the little pony up and cuddled him a bit.

“There, there,” she crooned softly. “It's going to be alright. It's going to be alright.” By this time, the filly had stopped crying and cautiously crept up to her brother and the Diamond Dog. “Now, can one of you tell me what happened? Where are your parents?”

“Gone... gone...” the filly said quietly. Her brother nodded.

“Gone,” he agreed. “Taken away. Daddy told us to run, so we hid out here. Now they're gone.”

“Take away?” Carbon asked, firmly banishing the memories of the day her own family was taken away. Things like that didn't happen in pony society, it was antithetical to their very natures. “What do you mean?”

“Scawee ponies came,” the filly stated.

“Scary ponies?”

“We don't know where they came from,” the colt added. “I did hear them yelling something that because our parents aren't unicorns they must have done something bad.”

Belatedly, Carbond remembered that the owners of the grocery shop were a pegasus mare and an Earth Pony stallion. And the two foals in front of her... were unicorns. And if she thought about it even more, neither foal looked particularly like either one of the parents. And if she really thought hard about it, the colt looked a bit like a young King Staccato, with a few mistakes here and their. And the filly looked remarkably like one of the palace maids Carbon had seen around, but with a shimmering burgundy-and-beige mane that, again, was remarkably similar to King Staccato's.

No. Not possible... is it?

Due to the complex hierarchical nature of Diamond Dog packs, puppies were not always raised by their biological parents, especially if the puppies' father was an Alpha. Carbon's own family had been something of an anomaly in that regard- her father had taken only one mate, her mother. But in other packs, and among lower-ranking dogs? It was very common for puppies to be raised by a different family, or by their fathers' other mates, rather than their biological mothers. In fact, if she hadn't miscarried her own litter, they likely would have been taken from her and given to other bitches to raise. After all, she had been the lowest of the low- not good enough to raise pups, only good enough to breed more pups. But ponies didn't behave like that. Their society was less hierarchical and definitely less violent and unpredictable. Ponies also didn't typically have litters. Twins, maybe triplets, but never litters. But maybe the behaviors were similar amongst higher-up ponies. What if these foals were the offspring of King Staccato and some random palace maid(s)? What if those foals' mothers had given them to a friend or relative to raise them in safety?

Swearing viciously under her breath in Diamante, Carbon turned back to the foals, making up her mind. “Well, you can't just stay here in the garbage. Come with me, I can take you somewhere you'll be safe. My employer will help you find your parents and figure out what's going on.”

“Um...” the colt said nervously. “You won't eat us?”

Most of the time, Carbon would have reacted to a question like that sarcastically, but these two were just kids, and very frightened kids at that. Instead, she just replied. “No, I won't eat you. Neither will my employer. What's your name?” she asked, and then clarified: “Both of you.”

“I'm Andante,” the colt said, “and my sister is Ruby Ring.”

Hoping that it might help put the foals at ease, Carbon introduced herself to them formally, and and asked that they follow her.

“I sent you out to get food and you come back with foals?!” Sombra exclaimed, a bit irrtated that his housekeeper had failed to do her job. “I don't know whether or not your kind eats foals or not, but I DON'T! If this is some kind of joke...”

“Is that the first place your mind goes?” Carbon retorted. “You've known me for how long now, and have you ever seen me eat a pony? I already told you, they're the foals of the owners of the only grocery stores in the whole bucking city that won't have a panic attack if I try to shop in their store. Now I can't buy anything there, since the owners were arrested. And I wasn't about to leave foals in an alleyway somewhere!”

“Tch...” Sombra snorted. “Your bleeding heart is going to get you into trouble someday, Carbon. However, I do realize that all of the work around here will be too much for you to do on your own. I was looking into hiring more servants anyway, so they can stay.”

“You are truly the picture of generosity, my lord,” Carbon replied dryly.

King Staccato cursed under his breath. This was not what he wanted to be spending his day doing- interrogating some random shopkeepers. But a few days prior, it had been brought to his attention that some of the palace maids had given their foals to other families to raise. That wouldn't be a problem in and of itself, but he had been lead to believe that those foals might have been his foals. And obviously, having Princes and Princesses of the Crystal Empire growing up as common ponies just wasn't acceptable.

So he'd had the ponies he believed to be in wrongful custody of his foals arrested. Unfortunately, they weren't talking. The stallion maintained that the foals were his- his mother had been a unicorn, he swore up and down, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that the foals were his. The mare maintained that she had actually foaled twice, although Staccato highly doubted that. He would have to get a doctor to examine her and determine the truth of her statement. Clearly the foals weren't the actual foals of this couple, but try getting them to actually admit that.

Sighing, Staccato started back to his chambers, where there would likely be a maid or two waiting for him. He really did not need the stress this week... not with the Crystal Faire coming up right around the corner.

TBC

Author's Note

I know I said I'd get this done before the end of November, and I'm really sorry about that. I hurt my arm, however, and wasn't able to type much without being in terrible pain. At least I didn't go as long between chapters as I did last time, though?

Also, yes, Andante is Cadance's great-to-some-exponent grandfather.