Eclipsed

     "I'll go talk to her about i-...you know what? Just get everything in order and we can spring it on her by surprise. Blind dates! Oooh, this'll be just like my favorite romance novel!"

     Aura looked over at her mother, thoroughly confused beyond belief. "Mom?"

     "Yes?"

     "What's a novel?"

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Two shadows, one male and one female, slid across the window. They stop and hover, presumeably by their wings, which were rather clumsy pegasus ones. The window creaked open, and the two ponies flung themselves inside, slamming shut the window as a patrol of pegasus Storm Guards swooped by.

    They chittered to each other in something definitely not Equestrian, and erupted in green flames. A moment later, two black ponies with insectoid wings and holes just about everywhere stood, surveying their room. The two chunks of black swiss cheese chittered to each other again, but this time the female spoke angrily and smacked her much less graceful or shapely looking compatriot, sending him flying into the wall.

    Luckily nothing was broken, changeling body parts or otherwise. The female strode to the door and erupted again in green flames, this time coming out as an exact copy of a female Storm Guard, armor and all. Her sidekick did the same(though he didn't become a female), and the two left towards the private halls of the younger Royal Sisters.

_______________________

       Aura looked up as her mother entered the room. "The lineup is ready, we just have to start it."

      Luna nodded, bringing in a small, thick  book. "And this, my dear, is a novel."

       "Ah."

_______________________

        "Status report." Luna ordered, setting down across from her youngest child, Andromeda. The mare in question was currently glued to a bank of screens, Prisma and Orion on either side of her. They were watching all over the palace, courtesy of Andromeda's technical genius and hacking skills.

       Aura rose from a chair, bringing with her a clipboard of notes from each of her siblings wreathed in magic. Facing her mother, she started reading from one of the three, dropping the others (plus another that she grabbed off her chair) on a table nearby.

      "Let's see....Mosely Orange, fail. Royal Riff, fail. Twilight Sparkle.....iffy. Mr. Groomsby, cancelled due to flu. Big Macintosh, cancelled to 'family issues'. Sassaflash, definitely not...."  she rattled off whatever she read on each clipboard, at last coming to her own.

       It was marked '!!!!', and with good reason: "Discord, unknown. Rari- seriously?" she stopped to glance at Prisma before clearing her throat and continuing, "ahem. Rarity,-"

      "Wait, what?" asked Luna, jumping up and stealing the clipboard. An evil smile slowly crept over her regal features. "Aura? Set this one up, please. I've got to see how this turns out."

      "'kay, mom. Good night, and happy hunting."

________________

      Three days had passed. Three confusing, filled-to-the-brim-with-trouble days. And changelings were being found in the corridors, with a frightening trend too. All that were found out were within fourteen yards from the quarters of royalty. It was a troubling time for guards indeed, when they prayed each and every day and night for an enemy that was easier to ferret out.

________________

       "Why hello, Rarity. What a pleasant surprise to see you here!" Celestia said as she slid into a luxury booth that had been reserved in their names.......it didn't take much thinking to figure out who would do something like that.

      "Likewise, Princess," Rarity replied, jumping out of her seat to bow to the regal white alicorn. Looking up, her eyes were immediately glued to Celestia's chest armor.

      "Oh my, you changed the gem in your armor!" She exclaimed, now intently studying the fine emerald that had been input into the gold armor in replacement of the normal magenta stone.

     "Yes, what do you think? Is an emerald the right stone?" Celestia inquired, aiming for Rarity's knowledge of fashion and color mixing to tell her what the normal Canterlot pony would think of the change.

     "Hmm....." Rarity muttered, regarding the stone critically for a moment, before pulling out a balloon from her saddlebag, blowing it up, and speaking into it like it was a telephone.

     Celestia sat on a chair and watched with an utterly confused expression covering the space where her regal mask used to be as she watched the odd behaviors of her apparent date.

      "Wait for it," Rarity said, snapping Celestia from confused to extremely curious, with a touch of wariness and a dash of confusion still remaining.

      Pinkie Pie burst out of the balloon with a cloud of confetti. Rarity waltzed over to her friend and began digging through the bubbly pink mare's mane, a variety of sounds coming from it as Rarity rifled around.

      She heard a trombone, some cymbals, a cow mooing, a cat hissing, and an assortment of funny, odd, and just downright disturbing noises.

      A moment later, Rarity pulled out a color chart and immediately began searching for the perfect type of gem for the princess to use. Giving a triumphant "Ah-hah!" she turned it around and pointed with her hoof at a color.

      "Deep Sapphire..." Celestia murmured, reading the name. It was an accent color, perfect; it went great with magenta and pastels, absolutely marvelous.

     "Rarity, you astound me!" she exclaimed with a gentle smile, before finishing under her breath and out of the corner of her mouth. "and you, Pinkie...doubly so......"

* * *

     Luna rolled around laughing, her mane tangled slightly as she and her children observed her sister and the Element of Generosity on their 'date'. It was hilarious!

     Especially since Rarity was Blueblood without the snobbiness and high standing.  Although, so were some Canterlot mares, though everypony in the capitol city had some degree of snootiness about them.

     "I wonder how this'll pan out..." muttered Orion, sitting in the second chair to the left.