Luna's Command: The Wibbly-Wobbly Saga

It is a time of peace, happiness, friendship, and advancement throughout all of Equestria...and beyond.

It's 2 A.M., or thereabouts, and most everypony is asleep.

Princess Luna is returned. The Changeling empire is banished.

Most everypony. Somewhere, the gentle scrape of featherered pen on paper can be heard jotting down tiny bits of reality, or the click-clack of precisely stepping hooves rattles the pavement, accompanied by the occasional flap of wings.

Sombra is dead. Discord is redeemed.

Somewhere else, a gentle violin plays a haunting melody to the night winds, and somewhere else again a puff of absentminded breath lights the evening air ablaze.

The Elements of Harmony are reborn. The Sun and Moon hang once again balanced in the sky.

The clang of a hammer bounces gently off of metal somewhere else, but everypony still lies sleeping. They're too used to it; its absence would be more grating than its presence at this point.

Order has trounced Chaos. Love has proven superior to that which would diminish it.

The clang of a sword lies its sounded counterpoint, quieter, subtler, a weapon, not a tool. Practice for a war which would hopefully, and likely, never come.
The Crystal Empire has reemerged. Princess Cadence and Princess Sparkle have taken their gilded thrones in the heavens and upon the soil of Equus.

Silence reigns in other places, but not sleep. It almost seems a sacrilege to sleep underneath such a beautiful moon, as if not staying awake to admire its beauty was a heinous sort of sin.

Friendship is Magic.

It is 2 AM, or thereabouts. But then, it's a peculiar thing...it always seems to be 2 AM or thereabouts wherever she is around.

And a little over a century in the future, one disgruntled unicorn is very, very angry about it.

She is worried tonight. But she's the only one. Not even her sister seems to see the things she has noticed, seen, deduced.

But maybe she's imagining things.

Maybe there was nothing worth worrying about at all.

And if he has anything at all to say about it, everything is gonna change...

And maybe it was best not to take that risk.

---

The whispering of the night broke into cacophony in seven pieces as a whirlwind of darkness and stars formulated itself momentarily before an odd assortment of indiivduals, mostly rather unconnected with each other. Confusion, curiosity, fear, an assortment of apt emotions passed over an assortment of unlikely faces. But they need not have reacted at all, really. After all...

"This is a prerecorded spellsent message of greatest importance sent by her Royal Highness Princess Luna of Equestria and the Nightlit Sky," said the ehpemeral figure of a guardspony before anypony could get a word in edgewise. "Your presence is urgently required at an immediate audience with Her Highness in which the future of the Equestrian nation will be discussed, and likely laid upon your shoulders. It is your solemn duty to attend this meeting as soon as you are able."

"This is non-negotiable. You are tell no one where you are going or why. If necessary, your family will be informed of your duties to Equestria in the morning, in secret. Nothing is to stop you from coming."

"You will proceed to your briefing as soon as you have made the necessary arrangements. If necessary, food and supplies will be provided for you. You will be given a detailed explanation of the current state of physical and metaphysical affairs of Equestria and why this requires your specific attention."

"By Luna's Command," the guardspony finishes speaking, and then swirls once more into the shadows, the stars he leaves behind also swirling together into a shining portal, the blurry but unmistakable scene of a grassy hill, quite real guardsponies sitting upon it, at its other end.

Three guardsponies and a chariot big enough for eight.

Spoiler:

The Wild Hippogriff... Who was still mostly learning the ways of normal sociaty, knew all too well of The Princess of the Night and Goddess of the Moon itself... In fact Lunar's first reaction was one that he might never be able to live down... For he in his shock, had relived himself in front of the royal guardsmen...

(OOC: I'm sorry... I couldn't resist this joke.)

Luna really needed a more regular sleep schedule. Probably comes with the whole "Princess of the Night" territory. As it was, Brilliant Shimmer, battlemage of the Equestrian Royal Guard, was standing on top of some random hill at Celestia-knows-when in the morning, in full uniform, after having been flown there by two of her fellow guardsponies. That one was going to take her a few weeks to live down, but no Guard was stupid enough to refuse a direct order from Princess Luna herself.

"Who do you think we're supposed to collect out here anyway?" she wondered out-loud to her fellows. "Maybe it's a bunch of diplomats? Foreign leaders? Oh, maybe Princess Cadance!"

And then a hippogriff appeared with a loud "pop" and wet himself in shock. Brilliant sighed. "Right, not Princess Cadance". It was going to be one of those nights...

Retrokinesis wrote:Luna really needed a more regular sleep schedule. Probably comes with the whole "Princess of the Night" territory. As it was, Brilliant Shimmer, battlemage of the Equestrian Royal Guard, was standing on top of some random hill at Celestia-knows-when in the morning, in full uniform, after having been flown there by two of her fellow guardsponies. That one was going to take her a few weeks to live down, but no Guard was stupid enough to refuse a direct order from Princess Luna herself.

"Who do you think we're supposed to collect out here anyway?" she wondered out-loud to her fellows. "Maybe it's a bunch of diplomats? Foreign leaders? Oh, maybe Princess Cadance!"

"Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die," Stormthrower responded to your question prompty and with a sense of efficiency and culture. His name was always a bit ironic.

Nightbound Plug's probably wasn't. "Yeah, it's probably Cadence. Can't get away from her new empire except in secret, wantin' to visit the new princess, makes sense to me."

Retrokinesis wrote:And then a hippogriff appeared with a loud "pop" and wet himself in shock. Brilliant sighed. "Right, not Princess Cadance". It was going to be one of those nights...

"Right, like I was sayin', probably not Cadence," Plug somehow managed to stay with a straight face. Grizzle merely kept his posture, not allowing even the slightest hint of disgust to cross his stoic face.

(\Should I go first? Alright, I'll go first./)
(\ Or not. That's okay. /)
*Ahem

Cobbled is, as is normal for most ponies of his age, asleep. He means, it was 2 in the morning, for pete's sake! He hadn't gotten a decent night of sleep for a week. A noise, as if a letter had arrived, startles Cobbled awake. He was alert and ready, always eager to receive a letter, always hoping it was from mom. As he drags himself out of bed, he sees a message on his desk, and to his alarm, it started playing at him.

"This is a prerecorded spellsent message of greatest importance sent by her Royal Highness Princess Luna of Equestria and the Nightlit Sky,"
Cobbled covers his face in his hooves.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me."

The message goes on, and once it's over, cobbled sticks the message in his drawer and climbs back into bed, sobbing.

"Aaaarrrgh. WHY CAN'T I JUST GET A NIGHT'S SLEEP! It's probably just my friends pranking me...."

Another message came through the window.
This is not a joke. Report to your assigned duty immediately

"Auugh. Just... Fine. FINE. I give up. I'll go to your stupid council"

Upon closer inspection, Cobbled realizes that the image standing before him had become a large portal, a gateway.

"Well, at least I haven't got to walk the whole way."

Picking up his tools and a little stone he had been playing around with before he fell asleep, he yells out

"DAAAAD I'M LEAVING BYE"

And jumps through.
On the other side, Cobbled can see 3 ponies standing by the chariot, another pony and an embarrassed looking hippogriff

"Well then. Off to see the wizard, aren't we?"

(\Did I do my math right?/)

Lunar was ashamed of himself and put his head in his claws after what he had just done... "Um... I feel like I maybe should just head back now..."

Composed Luthier bolted up awake immediately. Having soundproofed his room to prevent midnight distractions, he was startled when another pony's voice interrupted his sleep. He sat up, sending a number of blankets and pillows flying.

"Urgent... future of the Equestrian nation... physical and metaphysical..." He reviewed the message in his head as his horn flared with light, sending a number of clothes and tools flying towards him as he tried to pull a suitcase from his closet. He couldn't make much sense of it, but it was a summons from the Princess. Luna, to be specific. He was flattered that he was being called to her service, but he couldn't imagine what for from the contents of the message. Of course, the Princess was known for being a bit dramatic at times. He had seen her participate in Nightmare Moon Night before, along with a demonstration of her signature "Royal Canterlot Voice".

As the random assortment of items he had packed finished flying into his case, he closed it up and flung it onto his back, hopping through the portal that had appeared in his room.

He nodded to the guardsponies "Pleased to meet you. Name's Composed Luthier, instrument-maker and orchestrator. I'm here for... well, I'm sure you know more than I do about what I'm here for." He eyed the chariot nervously. "Ah, I suppose we're flying somewhere? Don't suppose you all could have just popped us straight to our destination? Ignore that... silly of me to question Luna's methods..."

Luthier noticed the Hippogriff that had apparently also recently arrived. "Hello there! Never met a hippogriff before." He listened expectantly, wondering if he would sound more like a pony or a griffin. Or some combination of both, or neither.

Curunir wrote: "Ah, I suppose we're flying somewhere? Don't suppose you all could have just popped us straight to our destination? Ignore that... silly of me to question Luna's methods..."

Grizzle does indeed ignore that, almost pointedly so. Plug is a bit more eager to talk. "Added secruity measure, I'm guessin'" he shrugs a bit. A covert look down later and he stage whispers. "Might want to watch where you step."

It is this which finally causes Grizzle to break his stoicism and nudge Plug somewhat sharply in the ribs.

And Lunar just tries to bury his head in the ground at that "watch where you step" comment... He was so ashamed he could just die right now.

"What kind of donkey interrupts somebody in the middle of the night then tell a blind pony to walk into something? Somebody got to be dumber than a gas powered stick."
After fumbling around for several minutes trying to pinpoint the exact location of the portal, Iggy finally glided through it to the other side.
"Ok so by the smell I'm definitely somewhere else and also by the smell I think somepony needs to take bath, haven't you ponies ever heard of soap or maybe that's someone else I smell."
Iggy continued to try to locate the source of the smell narrowly avoiding all of the creatures near him.
"Whoever that is you must be stank as you is ugly."

In his shame.... Lunar starts to trying to slowly and quietly leave...

stealth check:

Perception Check:

"And where do you think you're going? Just cuz I can't see don't mean I can't tell when somepony trying to move away from me. You try to sneak by me and I swear by Celestia's beard that I will dropkick you so hard that it'll void your warranty."
Iggy trotted around the chariot with impatience.
"Getting disturbed in the middle of the night to go through some thingy and then have people sneak around me cause I can't see. I am handicapable you ponies don't forget that."

Wandering Eye, unlike several of his soon-to-be comrades, was already awake. It wasn’t just because of his unusual sleeping habits - it was also because he had been planning an expedition that very night.

Yes, at 2 AM. In fairness, sunlight didn't reach where he was planning to go, for he was going spelunking in the caverns beneath the town. At least, that would have been his explanation to any passers-by.

It would not explain why he was currently in a calm but determined debate with Tome Peeker, the grandfather of his childhood friend and the owner of the mansion in which he was currently staying.

At the moment the pair of unicorns, plus a teenaged dragon, were in the mansion's library. In the short leg of the L-shaped archive was a desk, a couch, a fireplace, and a grandfather clock. Wandering Eye stood before the desk, and on it were a variety of sketches and maps which Wandering Eye had gathered. They were maps - of sorts - of the little-known caverns beneath the town, some from dusty old archives in the town, others sketched by Wandering Eye himself in the past.

The debate had been going on for some time. As usual, Tome Peeker didn't want Wandering Eye searching for "the place" again. Wandering Eye asked, rhetorically, why he shouldn't. Tome Peeker replied that, for one thing, he'd gone into the caverns several times and found nothing. And so forth. To an onlooker, it was probably a dull and confusing debate.

It ended with Wandering Eye waving one of the maps in front of Tome Peeker's face. "If a route is going to be anyplace, it'll be here. See?" A large blue circle surrounded the map.

The old unicorn's eyes couldn't quite track the map fast enough as it moved back and forth. "I'm not seeing much of anything at the moment... I think I need some tea." And with that he turned and headed towards the door at the other end of the library. "Why are you even going out at two in the morning, anyway?"

"I think you know why," Wandering Eye retorted as Tome Peeker rounded the corner.

"You think I know a lot of things," Tome Peeker said from around the corner. Old he may be, but hearing was not something he'd lost with age.

"If I think I know something, odds are you know more about it." Wandering Eye turned back to the desk, placing the map back on it and glancing back at his dragon companion, Scorch, wherever he'd placed himself in the debate.

It was at that point when the message arrived.

Once Wandering Eye had recovered from the rather uncommon event of having a spectral guardspony deliver a pre-recorded message, and having a portal open in front of him, he looked over at Scorch again, then stared at the portal.

Tome Peeker's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "What's going on?" Wandering Eye looked over at the old pony, seeing a confused expression on his face. A natural reaction to seeing an open portal in one's library. It didn't break his concentration enough to spill his tea, to his credit.

"Well, Tome, I take back what I said. I know more than you for once, and all I can say is - Her Majesty calls." He looked over at the desk before him, looked down at the maps and notes, and with a sweep of his foreleg, swept them off the table. As papers flew about him, he looked over at Scorch and said, "Well, looks like we'll be leaving earlier than expected. Let's grab our stuff, don't want to keep our Princess waiting. He looked over at his saddlebags which sat near the desk, before levitating them onto his back. "I think I'm going to have to change my loadout a bit." He trotted off towards the door to the mansion's foyer, to head to the guest room to get his things.

A few minutes later, he was back, with a slightly heavier load. Tome Peeker was sitting calmly on the couch. "Don't forget to write," he said. And calmly sipped his tea, not taking his twinkling eyes off Wander. The pony could somehow communicate all sorts of messages just by sipping his tea. The message this time was, "I win."

"Of course," Wandering Eye said, smiling just a little. "By the way, I had some of your tea."

"I hope you enjoyed it. You sure you don't want to take some of the port with you?"

Wander was just at the entrance of the portal when he turned back to Tome Peeker, chuckling as he remembered the last time he'd tried his honorary grandfather's "liquid courage." "Yes, don't tempt me." And then he stepped through the portal.

He stepped out, took a deep sniff of the night air... and wound up inhaling a rather odd scent. Looking around, his eyes fell on a hippogriff, attempting, with limited success, to sneak away. At least, he assumed it was a hippogriff. He'd seen griffons, and was vaguely aware that hippogriffs existed, but he'd never seen one.

"Well, hello all," He said to the group at large, wondering if any further explanation was forthcoming. "Sorry I'm late, had to set a few things in order."

[Should I roll for the Perception check or shall we assume I take 10, so to speak? WE only needs a 6 or higher to beat Lunar's Stealth roll.]

Lunar meeps at the people who was all talking to him... He wasn't sure what to say other then "I'm sorry" and said so rabidly on repeat.

"Hey, where are you going! I was talking to you! And I think we're supposed to be going somewhere with these fine ponies!" Luthier called after the retreating Hippogriff, wondering where he was going off to when they were all supposed to hurry and go wherever it was Luna wanted them.

He then turned his attention to the blind pegasus, projecting his voice out towards him. "I suppose it is true what they say about losing one sense... Your hearing seems to be quite excellent. Of course, you said something about smell as well, so perhaps you aren't fooled by my simple trick."

Spoiler:

[I see... I'm not sure why, but I'll post a roll anyways.]

Spoiler:

Lunar just drops down and put his claws over his head... Trying to get in the biggest submissive stance he could... Feeling the worst right about now. Still muttering. "...ImsorryImsorryImsorry..."

Dusk Raven wrote:[I see... I'm not sure why, but I'll post a roll anyways.]

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Xel Unknown wrote:Lunar just drops down and put his claws over his head... Trying to get in the biggest submissive stance he could... Feeling the worst right about now. Still muttering. "...ImsorryImsorryImsorry..."

"Hey, hey, easy now, s'alright," Plug steps over and murmurs softly as he can, laying a gentle hoof on Lunar's shoulder. He looks back at his fellow guards, giving a slight tilt of the head like 'Can you believe this?'

"Err... is he okay?" Luthier asked the guards, walking towards the cowering hippogriff- realizing too late the meaning of the guard's warning to 'watch where you step', rather than being to tell him to not ask unneccesary questions about the operation being a literal warning to be careful where he put his hooves. Luthier backed away quickly and started furiously wiping his hooves in the grass.

Fairly convinced with the cleanliness of his hooves after a minute, he extended one to the newcomer. "Oh, I don't think you're late, you're the latest but not much than the rest of us so far. How many more are we expecting?" he asked one of the guards.

Spoiler:

"A singular one we are waiting upon 'fore we go streaking into the night," Grizzle says, never moving the slightest inch from his position.

Plug just rolls his eyes at this.

Brilliant shakes her head in response to Plug's glance. She hadn't the faintest idea what the Princess could possibly want with this bunch but, as Grizzle had said, it really wasn't any of their business. Although she would object to the whole "and die" part a bit.

She answers the violin-marked unicorn: "Six in total, not including us". She's attempting to be as regal as possible despite the surroundings. Maybe she could finally get some sleep after they brought this lot back to Canterlot...

Scorch had been listening to the conversation between Wandering Eye and Tome Peeker. From what he had been told, the secrets below were unsettling to say the least. He wished that Wandering Eye would stop trying so hard to get back in. However, he knew from experience that Eye would never be done until the secret was found, so he helps the unicorn however he can. That way, should something happen, Scorch can protect the stallion. Who knows, maybe Wandering Eye will learn that this is one of those times where you don't want to go too deep before it's too late...

When Wandering Eye turned to look at him, he hid his concern behind a tough demeanour. "Well," the dragon answered the look, I'm guessing you still want to do th-"

Then the spectral guard appeared and began his message. This interruption caused Scorch to snap slightly, yelling "DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" to the guard. However, the dragon calmed himself when he realised that the pony wasn't even there. When the portal opened, he shared a look with Wandering Eye, and also stared at the portal. When Eye told him to grab his things, he headed towards the guest room and donned his shackles, just in case he needs to scare somepony. The broken ankle chains rattled against the floor. He didn't really need anything else. He waited by the portal for Wandering Eye, occasionally repositioning his collar shackle to be a bit more comfortable. Instead of entering the portal at the same time Wandering Eye entered, he turned to Tome Peeker. "Let's hope whatever happens here distracts Eye from what's below. Have a good night." He gives a smile to the old stallion, and then steps inside the portal...

Within, he saw the carriage and all the ponies. He towered over all of them. He stretches his body in the night air before taking his place next to Wandering Eye...

Plug reacted...somewhat badly to Scorch's arrival. "Stars and stones," he murmured out softly. "That's a...that's a dragon. A really big...dragon. That's a dragon."

Grizzle was somewhat more composed , merely blinking once, twice, and then saying with utmost professionalism: "Right, then. Time is of the essence; we shall make our introductions along the way. Her Highness is waiting upon us."

And so he turned, nudging Plug slightly again, just a small tap to get him started up again, and began harnessing himself to the chariot once more. Plug jumped slightly, went through a very short reboot process, and followed his companion in his duties. The Nightbound whispered something under his breath.

Spoiler: