Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8
The others had gone on talking--"planning strategy,"
Twilight had called it--but Fluttershy couldn't focus on
anything but the upcoming party at some strange stallion's
house. It made her stomach tighten, and her breath got so loud
and raggedy, Applejack had finally suggested she go lie down for
awhile.
Pinkie had volunteered to take her back to the Night
Palace, but Fluttershy hadn't wanted to be any trouble. Panic
building, trying to think of something soothing she could do
without bothering anypony, the picture and the words had just
popped into her head: "I'll just...just go out into the garden,"
she'd said.
To be honest, she'd been hoping for an excuse all day to
get outside. The palaces were very pretty, of course, but
nothing about them breathed the way a flower or a tree or a bird
did. The stones of the walls sat around tame and shaped and
settled, not like real stones, all funny and lumpy and friendly.
The buildings looked like the guard ponies, she realized as she
hurried past the two standing outside the sitting room door:
stern and kind of scary, like they didn't really want her there.
Fluttershy picked up her pace, the scent of fresh air and
growing things tugging at her; down the stairs, around some
corners, knowing the way even though she hadn't used these
corridors before, galloping now almost, blushing at the stares
of the ponies she passed in the hallways, she gave one final
burst of speed and came out into--
The sunlight of a late fall afternoon, so crisp it seemed
to rustle against her freshly-dried blankets. She breathed a
silent 'thank you' to Princess Luna for the feeling, closed her
eyes and just felt the whole day caressing her skin, a breeze as
smooth as milk and twice as tasty, damp earth somewhere ahead
calling to her. She soaked in it, her heart settling for the
first time since this had all started Saturday morning, opened
her eyes, and stepped through the little gate into the palace
gardens.
Everything had been trimmed back for the approaching
winter, of course, the loam sleepy under her hoofs, many of the
trees and bushes already with their leaves run off--though the
untrampeled ground made Fluttershy wonder if the unicorns used
magic to help the foliage get ready for its winter nap. Still,
she found herself gasping with nearly every step she took, the
aromas and the colors and lovely murmurings of the branches and
twigs as they--
"Eep!" somepony squeaked off to her left, and Fluttershy
jumped into the air, ready to head for open sky if it was--
A little unicorn filly a slightly darker yellow than
Fluttershy herself, her eyes gray, her mane and tail a purple so
deep it was almost black. No cutie mark showed on her flank,
and she seemed every bit as terrified as Fluttershy: "Please
don't throw me in jail!" she wailed.
"Jail?" Fluttershy blinked down at the filly. "Of course
not! Why would I ever do that??"
"'Cause I'm trespassing!" Tears welled up in her eyes. "I
ought to be in school right now and my brother says if the
guards or the gardeners or the princess catches me, they'll
throw me in jail for sure!"
"Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't!" Fluttershy reached a front
hoof for a leaf of the fern they were standing beside and bent
it down to the filly. "Dry your eyes. I won't tell anypony
you're here."
The filly wiped her nose on the fern leaf, then jumped back
like she'd been stung. "But you're one of the princess's
advisers or something! I saw you and the rest of them this
morning with the princess, and I've seen you somewhere before,
too! I know it!"
And as much as Fluttershy wanted to hide, she couldn't help
asking, "You mean you've been here since this morning?
But...but it's past lunchtime now!"
"I know." The filly hung her head. "I just...I just
wanted to--" She looked back up, her horn glowing with sudden
fire. "Everypony says such awful things about Princess Luna!
But I know she's not mean anymore! I can see in her eyes how
sorry she is, but my mom and my dad and my brother and at
school, they all just...they don't understand!" Her horn
sputtered out, and she sniffed. "I just wanted to...I don't
know. To tell the princess that I...that she...that she wasn't
all by herself is all. I guess..."
Fluttershy's heart beat faster, but not with fear for a
change. "That's very nice of you," she said. "And in fact--"
She settled back onto the ground. "If you don't mind too much,
may I ask your name?"
The filly blinked. "I'm Juniper Borealis, ma'am, but--"
"And can you use the magic of your horn to untie this
ribbon from my mane, Juniper?"
"Ribbon?" Juniper's eyes got even bigger. "But...you were
all wearing those ribbons! Even the princess!"
"That's right." Fluttershy smiled her gentlest smile, the
one she used when animals were hurt or scared or confused. "And
if you wear it around your horn, even if you can't get close
enough to the princess to talk to her, she'll see it. And then
she'll know you're her friend, too."
The amazement that blossomed over Juniper's face pushed the
last of her tears away. "You...you really mean it?"
"I do." Fluttershy lowered her head.
Another moment, then Juniper's horn blazed up again.
Fluttershy felt some tugging at her mane, and the ribbon came
away, Fluttershy's mane falling forward to half-cover her face
again. "Wow..." Juniper breathed out, her eyes focused upward,
the ribbon slowly wrapping her horn and tying itself into a bow.
"That's--" Her gaze came back down, and she jumped back with a
gasp. "You're Fluttershy! From the magazines! I knew I'd seen
you, but with your hair back, I wasn't sure! But it's really,
really you!"
Fluttershy forced her smile not to waver. "It is me. Now,
will you help Princess Luna by wearing your ribbon?"
"I will!" Juniper's face lit up, her every tear vanished.
But just as quickly, the wrinkles returned to her brow.
"But...what will you do for your ribbon?"
"Oh, don't worry." Fluttershy patted Juniper between the
ears. "My friend Rarity has lots of them. But you'd better get
home, Juniper, before your parents get worried."
"I will!" Juniper cried out again. "And thank you,
Fluttershy! Thank you so much!" The little unicorn reared up
on her hind legs and waved her front hoofs in the air. "I've
got a red ribbon! I've got a red ribbon!" She spun then and
dashed for the garden's gate.
***
Twilight couldn't help smiling as Fluttershy breathily told
them about her encounter in the garden. "So you're right,
Rarity!" she finished with an excitement that Twilight rarely
heard from her. "We can help the princess by being us!"
Rarity was nodding and rubbing her chin. "And the ribbons
will make lovely tokens to pass out as well." She raised her
voice. "If that's all right, Pinkie Pie?"
Pinkie had built two book towers by now and was busily
constructing a tunnel to connect them, something Twilight would
have disapproved of, but, well, the books here, she'd already
noted, were copies of old agricultural manuals used by young
unicorns to practice the techniques of magically working a quill
pen. "It's great," Pinkie said, absently waving a hoof. "Lemme
just get this flying buttress nailed down, and we can go cut
'em."
She set a few more books out, and Pinkie, Rarity and
Fluttershy left, heading for Rarity's workroom. "We'll meet
back here just before sundown for the procession to the Night
Palace," Twilight told them, then turned to Rainbow Dash, still
lounging against her cloud. "If you'd like to sit in on our
meeting with--"
The cloud vanished, Dash sitting forward and shaking her
head. "Meetings and me are allergic to each other." She stood,
stretched, flared her wings, and jumped into a hover. "I've
been wanting to take a turn around town, give it a look from the
air. I'll be back for the big parade, though!" And she shot
out the window, Applejack grabbing her hat to keep it from
blowing off.
"Allergic," Applejack muttered. She blew out a breath.
"You an' me, then, I reckon, Twilight."
The clock said twenty minutes to three, and Twilight
settled deeper into the cushion, determined not to spend the
time sunk in worry. Just because she was about to interrogate
two ponies her parents had known for years, whose houses she'd
been to, whose children had been her first playmates--but never
her friends, she realized, smiling at Applejack, dozing on her
own cushion beside the window. For all that she'd grown up with
Ory and his sisters and that whole herd of Daybreak foals, she
hadn't really known them, hadn't really known anyone till all
the events that had brought her to Ponyville two summers ago...
A light knock startled her from her thoughts; the door
opened, and one of the white and gold armored guard ponies stuck
his head in. "Minister Sparkle? Lord Daybreak and Lady
Stargazer are here."
Twilight blinked at him, looked at the clock, saw it still
showed nearly twenty minutes till three. Applejack had roused
herself by this time, and the quizzical look she gave Twilight
summed up Twilight's own thoughts. "O...K. Show them in, then,
please, lieutenant."
He bowed, pushed the door the rest of the way open, turned
to face the hallway, and the two unicorns came trotting in, Lord
Daybreak looking older than Twilight remembered, the white
streaks in his steel blue mane wider than before, but Lady
Stargazer seeming quite chipper, a sporty red shawl around her
shoulders that set off the blackish-green of her coat quite
nicely. Twilight stepped forward with a smile she only partly
felt: "Lord Daybreak, Lady Stargazer, may I present my friend
Applejack?"
Applejack had also climbed to her hoofs, gave the two a
slight bow, the open suspicion on her face ruffling Twilight's
mane a little, but "Pleased to meet'cha" was all the earth pony
said.
Lady Stargazer gave a laugh. "Oh, now, Twilight, I'm not
really Lady Stargazer anymore, so please, both of you, call me
Phillipa." She nodded toward Lord Daybreak. "Unlike poor old
Bucephalus here, I'm out of the government game now, and let me
tell you, I feel ten years younger." Her hazel-brown eyes
wrinkled with her smile. "But look at you, Twilight! Right
here at the princess's right hoof! Just like we always knew!"
A snort from Lord Daybreak. "Wrong princess, though, and a
damned nuisance this whole thing's been." But he smiled, his
eyes dark blue and his coat the deep honey-gold of a summer
dawn. "But Phil's right: it's good to see you again, girl. And
good to meet you, Minister Applejack."
So many memories washed around inside Twilight's head, she
found herself tongue-tied. Fortunately-- "Y'all're a little
early," Applejack said, waving a hoof at some of the other
cushions. "But we really 'ppreciate yer time an' hope not to
take up too much of it."
Lord Daybreak nodded and sat, Lady Stargazer--no, Twilight
corrected herself; Phillipa--Phillipa tucking herself onto the
cushion beside his. "Hard to believe," she said, shaking her
head, "that anypony would actually do something as horrible as
dropping that beam on the crowd this morning!"
"Oh, they weren't," Applejack said, taking her own seat
again.
"Weren't?" Twilight blinked at her friend. "Weren't
what?"
"Weren't droppin' it on the crowd." Applejack shrugged.
"Not really, I mean. Whoever done it knew there'd be plenty
enough unicorns in the audience to stop it from fallin' even if
Princess Luna didn't see it and stop it herself. They didn't
want nopony gettin' hurt, after all."
For the second time in as many minutes, Twilight found
herself speechless. Lord Daybreak, though, made several
sputtering noises before finally getting out: "Didn't want
anypony getting hurt?? Really, minister! You make it sound
like some sort of foalish joke!"
"That it surely weren't, sir." Applejack sounded more
serious than Twilight had ever heard her. "Can't rightly say
what our culprit had in mind, but whatever they're playin' at,
they wanted to let us know they could easily be playin' for
keeps." She leaned forward. "I was actually hopin' to get any
thoughts you two might have had 'bout all this. Seein' as how
y'all know Canterlot inside-out an' sideways an all."
Lord Daybreak nodded. "The Day Ministry is entirely
dedicated to catching whoever's behind this foul deed. An
attack on the Day Palace is an attack upon all of Equestria, and
that it should happen at such a sensitive time in our history, a
history we all thought was mere legend just over a year ago,
well, it's the gravest threat I can recall during all my years
as Day Minister! I only wish I knew a way to contact our
princess! Surely she would return then and set this whole
matter--"
"She would," came Princess Luna's voice from the other end
of the room, and Twilight leaped to her hoofs again, bowed to
the floor, the others doing the same. "And however much I would
like to call her, Minister Daybreak, I don't believe Sister
Celestia would consider that the best answer to the problem
we've had set before us."
"Set before us?" Lord Daybreak straightened from his bow
and blinked at the princess as she stepped lightly across the
carpet to settle on a cushion beside Applejack. "Forgive me,
your Highness, but you make it sound as if this were--"
"A test!" Eyes wide, Phillipa Stargazer took half a step
forward. "Of course! Oh, I was a fool not to see it before!
She needs to see how we all work together, and what better way
to do that than to rig up this whole--!"
"No!" Twilight couldn't keep her voice down. "Princess
Celestia would never do such a thing! I mean, dropping a huge
metal beam on an unsuspecting crowd?? That's...that's--!"
"That's politics," Lord Daybreak muttered.
"Politics?" Twilight blinked at him.
Phillipa turned, cocked her head at Twilight. "And if
there's one thing Princess Celestia is, it's a consomate
politician. Watching her work a crowd, getting them to do what
she wants while making them think it's their idea, pretending to
involve them in decisions she's already made: everything I know
about governing, I learned from her." She looked back at
Princess Luna. "And I think you're right, your Highness.
Calling her now would be a definite mistake."
"Quite so." Lord Daybreak gestured with a hoof. "After
all, as Minister Applejack said, there's no real danger here."
He blew out a breath. "That is quite the load off my mind, I
have to say. If this is all just a test,--"
"But it isn't!" Surprised she had the self-control not to
shout, Twilight still felt herself blush. "It can't be! I
mean, I've been Princess Celestia's student since I was old
enough to talk, and--"
"And I," Phillipa said, the kindness in her voice making
Twilight's face get even hotter, "have been her student since
your parents were young." She patted Twilight's hoof. "I know
it's hard discovering that your shining princess, the ideal of
all your thoughts and dreams, isn't really all that different
from the rest of us." She stood, bowed to Princess Luna, and
Twilight saw the princess was looking away, such sadness on her
face, Twilight almost cried out. "It's one reason I'm glad you
did away with the Night Ministry, your Highness. Your honest
insistence that you could do your job yourself got me out of the
grinder, and I thank you for that every afternoon when I'm not
girding up for another trip over here to mix it up with the rest
of the politicians."
Lord Daybreak got to his hoofs as well. "Quite a
productive meeting, Minister Applejack, Minister Sparkle, your
Highness." His smile beamed, and Twilight could almost smell
the relief rolling off him. "If we can keep up this level of
cooperation, we'll certainly show Princess Celestia she's got
nothing to worry about!" He bowed to Princess Luna, and she
gave the scarcest bob of her head in return. "So!" he
continued, looking at the clock. "Sunset in just under two
hours! See you all there!" Almost a skip in his step, he
headed for the door, Phillipa right behind him.
The only sound in the room after the door clicked shut was
the ticking of the clock, and it took Twilight several of those
ticks to find her voice. "You know Princess Celestia wouldn't
do this, your Highness!"
"It makes sense," Princess Luna said softly, still not
meeting Twilight's gaze. "She needs to know she can trust me
not to go all Nightmare again at the first little crisis. And
what better way to do that than to make up a crisis and--"
Twilight jumped the distance between herself and the
princess, slid onto her knees in front of her, grabbed her hoofs
between hers and stared up into her startled eyes. "Do you
trust me, Princess Luna?"
A few more ticks of the clock, a few blinks, and the
princess said, "Of...of course I do!"
"Then trust me on this. Princess Celestia wouldn't do this
to you. She wouldn't do it to us. And she certainly wouldn't
do it to all the ponies in Equestria."
Applejack's sigh made Twilight's ears perk. "I reckon it
that way, too, ma'am. Them ruffians Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie
caught, they don't seem to me the sort Princess Celestia'd turn
to if'n she was puttin' any sorta plan together." Twilight
turned, saw Applejack frowning at the door. "Them two as just
left, though, them I ain't too sure about."
And as much as Twilight wanted to jump up and shout that
they couldn't be involved any more than Princess Celestia was,
she found just enough doubt in her to wonder...
"Very well." Princess Luna's voice was still soft, but she
didn't sound nearly as lost any more. "Continue your
investigation, Minister Applejack, but quietly. Perhaps we can
lure the culprits out by making them think we're no longer
searching for them." Twilight looked back, found she was still
holding the princess's hoofs, the princess smiling down at her.
"And thank you, Minister Sparkle."
Twilight moved to let go, her blush back, but the princess
was bending her head, touching her horn to Twilight's, a sound
like a crystal chime sending a wave of sweet warmth running
straight out to the tip of her tail and making her catch her
breath.
Then Princess Luna was rising, turning for the door,
saying, "Four thirty, ministers, if you'd be so kind, in the
hall of the Day Palace. Sunset's at 4:44 this afternoon." And
by the time Twilight could get her hoofs back underneath her to
stand, the princess was out the door and gone.
Chapter 10
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