Luna's Command: The Wibbly-Wobbly Saga

Scorch was pretty glad to be finally out of that carriage, he had forgotten how crammed those things can be. He did a large stretch, flapping his wings a bit, before standing to one side...

Xel Unknown wrote:"What are panties?" Lunar said deeply confused, for the moment distracted from his anger as what the Hippogriff viewed as an Great Insult to The Goddess of the Moon herself.

(OOC: Remember... Ponies don't normally wear clothing! )

OOC: Okay so I got panties confused with what Rarity was wearing in the beginning of too many pinkie pies. Or maybe those are just socks. *facepalm*
OOC: Do ponies' spines crack? (As in the same way with humans, cracking knuckles and spines.)
Cobbled stretched as he exited the carriage.

"Even if we were not on a secret mission at the moment, most ponies in the castle are currently asleep."

Well, I'd like to be most ponies right now.
Cobbled yawned a great, loud yawn.
Sorry.

Lunar was still confused, but didn't ask questions, and just followed the rest of the group forward to meet with Princess Luna.

Luthier had remained silent upon their arrival. Despite having visited the capitol many times, he had never seen it from this angle- nor in the middle of the night: it was at least as beautiful and awe-inspiring as during the day. While music was generally his favorite of the arts, he had to admit that the city's architecture was magnificent on an entirely different scale. The effect was even more profound with the streets empty- nothing to distract from the scenery.

Yet he was sure it would compare nothing to meeting Luna in person. He really hoped that they all lived up to whatever her expectations of the strange group were. He saw Wandering Eye smile, probably excited as he was about meeting and working under the princess! He gave a smile back.

Like several of the others, he glared at Iggy's comment, but decided against replying, not wanting to ruin the moment, and knowing that the pegasus was just being difficult.

"So we get woken up at half past too bucking early to meet Luna while having to be quiet as to not disturb other ponies sleeping....."
Iggy's eye twitched furiously.
"Then somepony better hope I don't find something loud and fragile to break for me to accidentally bump into."

Scorch whispered once again to his unicorn companion, gritting his teeth at the pegasus' increasing annoyance. "I think I've found something loud and fragile for me to accidentally bump into."

"Alright, alright, let us all remain calm," Grizzle attempted to keep a lid on things. "If you will but follow us, we shall lead you to the Royal Meeting Room-"

"For lack of a better name," Plug interjected.

"And you shall all meet Her Majesty and she shall discuss matters with you," Grizzle ignored the outburst. With these words, the guardspony turned on his heel and began leading the group to the, for lack of a better name, Royal Meeting Room.*

---

The Royal Meeting Room was aptly named, if not catchily so. Perhaps "the war room" would have been more apt.

It was larger than your average living room, but smaller than the majority of rooms the castle had to offer. It was full of maps and important-looking books, and in the middle was a moderately large table, big enough to sit at least a dozen ponies comfortably. A tactical map of Equus as a whole was upon the table, and several figurines - not soldiers or spies, but caravans and doctors and negotiators, were upon it.

Yes, the meeting room was full of things.

Princess Luna was not one of them.

*:

Now here was a room in the castle Brilliant had never seen before. Evidently, this was where the real action happened. Luna's absence was curious. The Princess of the Night was not known for tardiness. Still, it gave her an opportunity to follow-up with Plug.

She walked around to the other side of the table as casually as possible and beckoned him over. Time to get some answers. No reason to involve Luna's guests in security matters though.

Plug halted his looking around, confused at the lack of princess anywhere, and shuffled over. "Yeah, whassup?" he said to his fellow soldier in as sotto a voice as he could manage.

Which considering his chosen profession, was pretty sotto.

Spoiler:

Brilliant glances around the room for a moment, searching for prying eyes. She's clearly not great at conspiratorial muttering...

"Is the Princess commonly late? Or ever? I'm worried. And what did you mean you've seen stranger things on patrol recently? If there's a potential threat to Canterlot here..."

Spoiler:

Lunar at noticing there was no Princess waiting for him and the rest of the group, went on high alert.

Perception check:

After Eye chuckled a little at Scorch's statement, the group finally reached the Royal Meeting Room... where they found a distinct lack of royal meetings. Well, they'd waited this much, and Wandering Eye could wait yet more.

But what was this? Shimmer was going off to a corner with a guard and... discussing something. Wandering Eye pretended to study the maps on the table (well, actually, it wasn't all pretend, he figured he'd have to familiarize himself with them sometime) but his ears were pricked for whatever the battlemage and the guard were discussing. Seems like secrets were floating about.

Wandering Eye didn't like secrets.

Spoiler:

Considering everypony was speaking or looking at maps or whatnot, Scorch made his way to the other guard, Grizzle. "So, where's the princess? I though she was waiting for us?"

Retrokinesis wrote:Brilliant glances around the room for a moment, searching for prying eyes. She's clearly not great at conspiratorial muttering...

"Is the Princess commonly late? Or ever? I'm worried. And what did you mean you've seen stranger things on patrol recently? If there's a potential threat to Canterlot here..."

Spoiler:

Plug sighed, looking serious for once. "No, not usually. She must be busy tending to something...probably having to do with your second question, if I had to guess." He rubbed his muzzle slightly with his hoof. "Need-to-know-basis on that one, by the way. Though, off the record, I suspect maybe we're all about to find out first-hoof."

Xel Unknown wrote:Lunar at noticing there was no Princess waiting for him and the rest of the group, went on high alert.

Perception check:

There's a confused sort of mumble in the back of Grizzle's throat, though on the outside he appears stoic as ever. The constellations out the window, a barest fraction of the many you have watched every night since you were a "pup", look slightly off of what should be their usual position in the sky. The nearby conversation between the two guards is incredibly obvious to your well-toned ears. You think you can hear some sort of gentle flapping of wings somewhere nearby. And down at the other end of the hallway connecting to the opposite door you came in, you can hear the soft stepping of nighttime hooves along with a nervously-muttering voice going over the same two or three phrases over and over and punctuating them with "no that will never do"s and "don't be nervous"es.

This is more impressive considering the hallway outside the second door is probably at least several dozen feet long. And the door is made of very thick wood. And the walls in here are soundproof.

Dusk Raven wrote:After Eye chuckled a little at Scorch's statement, the group finally reached the Royal Meeting Room... where they found a distinct lack of royal meetings. Well, they'd waited this much, and Wandering Eye could wait yet more.

But what was this? Shimmer was going off to a corner with a guard and... discussing something. Wandering Eye pretended to study the maps on the table (well, actually, it wasn't all pretend, he figured he'd have to familiarize himself with them sometime) but his ears were pricked for whatever the battlemage and the guard were discussing. Seems like secrets were floating about.

Wandering Eye didn't like secrets.

Spoiler:

Shimmer is apparently not very good at being quiet, unlike her companion. Also, despite his outward level of calm, you can't help but note that Grizzle is worriedly buzzing to himself under his breath.

The map is interesting enough, for what it is. Two groups of negotiators and a caravan are currently set up on the Griffon Kingdom's borders, though the fact that none of them have penetrated into the republic's actual terriotory seems to indicate that diplomatic progress is slow-going. There appears to be some sort of royal consideration you don't recognize going on at the heart of the Crystal Empire. And of course the untamed land of the dragons maintains its conspicuous and entirely-understandable complete lack of any sort of diplomatic relations, at least not ones noted.

Spoiler:

Paper Shadow wrote:Considering everypony was speaking or looking at maps or whatnot, Scorch made his way to the other guard, Grizzle. "So, where's the princess? I though she was waiting for us?"

"I...I am afraid I cannot say," Grizzle attempts to seem in-control, but is quite obviously flustered. His well-put-upon accent hasn't disappeared, nor does it even seem fake, but it seems to be breaking a little. "I...she must have been called away by some sort of royal business or something?"

Spoiler:

Scorch, not fully satisfied with the answer, simply sighed and made his way back to Wandering Eye...

Wandering Eye looked over at Scorch and Grizzle. He'd assumed the delay was intentional, but now he was starting to get worried. He looked back down at the maps, wondering if they had anything to do with their upcoming mission. Both the Griffon Kingdoms and the Crystal Empire would be interesting to visit, both with their fair share of mysteries, he imagined. He tried to take his mind off the day's events (and lack of the main event) by going over in his head what he knew about both places. Especially the Griffon Kingdoms...

"Hey, Scorch, I don't remember if I've asked you this before, but have you had much contact with Griffons?"

"Hmm, no, not really," the dragon tells his friend. "Why do you ask?"

Wandering Eye gestured at the map. "Couple things marked over there, on the Griffon Kingdom's border. I'm just preparing in case we get sent there. There's also something going on in the Crystal Empire..." He looked down at the map and frowned. "I'm sure all will be explained, in time." There was a subtle increase in volume at that - he wanted to make sure the guards heard.

Spoiler:

As soon as he got to the "Meeting room", and noticed that there was no meeting to be held, Cobbled situated himself in a corner, got nice and cozy, and dozed off.
(\I mean, if you hadn't gotten much sleep, wouldn't you take every chance possible?/)

Brilliant frowned at Plug's response. She hated being left out of the loop but, if he was right, that was about to change. She settled for nodding politely and turning towards Wandering Eye: "I'm sure the Princess is on her way as we speak. You needn't concern yourself with that."

Privately, she wasn't so sure about that. No need to worry the civilians though.

Lunar was unsure what to think after what he had heard. He just hoped that being tasked to do something would be soon... And deep down some part of him still wished that they had fought those sunsnakes... That would've been more fun then waiting around.

Retrokinesis wrote:Brilliant frowned at Plug's response. She hated being left out of the loop but, if he was right, that was about to change. She settled for nodding politely and turning towards Wandering Eye: "I'm sure the Princess is on her way as we speak. You needn't concern yourself with that."

Privately, she wasn't so sure about that. No need to worry the civilians though.

Almost as soon as Brilliant finsihed with her words, the second door of the chamber burst open with a heavy SLAM.

"GOOD EVENING, MY LOYAL SUBJECTS! I, PRINCESS LUNA, SOVEREIGN OF ALL EQUESTRIA AND THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS ABOVE, MISTRESS OF DARK DREAMING AND KNOWER OF THINGS KEPT SECRET DO BID THEE WELCOME IN MY ABODE AND WISH THEE WELL IN ALL THY ENDEAVORS, GREAT AND SMALL!”"

Spoiler:

(OOC: Is Princess Luna EVER going to drop that? I mean yeah, I can understand her being more used to such speech... But um... Just saying. How long since her trip to the Moon has it been? And she still uses the outdated syntax? And the Royal Canterlot Voice... That's even more outdated isn't it? Not saying it isn't funny to see it used. Just gotta voice these little gripes, for my own piece of mind. And yeah... I could understand her being typecasted like earier of being thought of as always using such "Old English", but only now at seeing the real deal still use it does it finally hit me how offputting the whole thing is to me. I mean isn't this like a good 100 years post show?)

Endurance check:

OOC: Now I want to see an "Immunity to Princess Luna" utility talent

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

OOC: what would it be, even? "Defect ears: You can't hear princess Luna as well as most people can, and as such, aren't affected by her loud speech."
Yeah, I'm gonna go take that utility talent now.