Day court: the time in Canterlot where the subjects of the crown may petition her for just about any matter of personal, financial, or public concern. Princess Celestia Del Sol would usually take four hours out of her day to personally speak with her subjects, trying not to scare them off with any number of poorly worded statements. But when everything goes right for her during court, all her subjects leave feeling pleased when their petitions are accepted— or enlightened when they are not.
Unfortunately for everypony involved today… The throne had an intern princess lacking in experience, and she was a truly special kind of inexperienced. She stood upon the throne with an apathetic look, surveying all she saw— which to be fair, wasn’t much— and daring anypony who might approach to try and make her day.
“Send in the first petitioner,” She called out to the guards at the doorway on the far end of the throne room. “I want to get through all of them before whenever you ponies have lunch.”
Luna flinched. This was already going as badly as she thought it would, and she didn’t even see anypony yet! But things were surely going to get worse over time in her opinion, because the first petitioner was being let inside already. Don’t you screw this up, Chrysalis…
The announcer called out: “Presenting the gentlepony Master Jet Set on a concern of—”
“Save it! I only need the name from you,” She replied, cutting the announcer off entirely. When the pony entered, she leaned forward. “Pony, you’re in the house of the highest court of Equestria… despite my best efforts… Now show your respect to the princesses, and kneel.” Despite Jet set’s obedience to the order, Luna took the liberty of jabbing Chrysalis in the side. “Ouch, what’d I do?!”
“You out of your mind?!” Luna hissed. “Celestia runs her court in such a way to bring about a mutual trust and respect for her and her petitioners! Demanding that your petitioners grovel is rude and proves you do not trust them.”
“Well that’s good seeing that I don’t trust any ponies in the slightest,” she hissed back. Luna jabbed her in the side again a little more forcefully, but she grit her teeth and ignored it. Who cares about what she thinks? I’m the presiding court official today, dang it! She looked down upon the pony that kneeled before her who was stealing glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Jet Set, you have five minutes to impress me. State the reason you decided to soil the courtroom with your inferior pony hooves.”
“What is wrong with you…!” squealed Luna in such a way that only she and Chrysalis heard.
Impressively, Jet set did not take offence to what she had said. Perhaps he didn’t care— or was oblivious to who was hearing his case. “I am here to make a complaint, your majesty.”
“And I can think of several. Enlighten me, little pony.”
“The school in the northern district is disturbing the peace. They create excessive noise and disrupt business carried out by the pony folk on the streets and near homesteads.”
“What kind of noise?” Chrysalis asked.
“The children are out of control, your highness! They scream all day unceasingly every hour! My wife has complained about headaches as a result of it all, and while I disagree with her that the school should be shut down, something simply must be done to bring the dignified quiet of Canterlot back again!”
For any other pony, the answer to such a petition would be refusal. The ideals the good Equestrian nation held were clear— a school running its normal business could not legally be blamed for the noise children made in periods between classes. Only an idiot would try to find a solution to the petitioner’s “problem”.
“You know what? I think your wife’s right,” Chrysalis said. “I wouldn’t normally bother with something like ‘noise’, but I can sympathize with the problem of pesky children. I’ll have the school shut down in a week or two.”
Luna shot up from her seat. “CHRYSALIS, YOU WILL NOT!!”
“Why not?” Chrysalis snorted.
“Because the law says so, that’s why! Did you even read any of those law books I gave you this morning??”
“I certainly did; they were the most dull and uninteresting things I ever skimmed through.”
And there it was; the fragile ego that the changeling queen kept fed with a vile mixture of selfishness, laziness and self-delusion. It was inarguably unpleasant, and much of the reason why she was here where her unique form of authority could be quickly corrected, and not at her own kingdom where she could continue to tear apart her and everypony else’s little slices of the world.
It would not stand. Luna put on her best fake smile, which was pretty bad even for the standards of fake smiles, in an attempt to politely demand for privacy from the gentlepony Jet Set as she set the record straight with the questionably competent intern princess. She set up a sound muffling shield without so much as waiting for a go-ahead and glared at the tiny tyrant. “So you’re telling me you skimmed?”
“Of course I did,” the tyrant snarked, “would you have read any book if it was as sorry an excuse for literature as those wastes of paper?”
“Literature—?!” Luna gaped, stammered and spluttered. “They’re—they’re not literature, they’re informational books about the law this country uses to keep it from falling into chaos, which you are subject to and the executor of and therefore should have taken the time to study in detail!”
“Ha, as if you ever read a single word off those stupid things!” Chrysalis sneered.
“After my little thousand year vacation, part of my duty to prove myself as an acceptable ruler was to read and memorize the law. I read all ten royal books of law cover to cover and passed a written law exam three months later. I gave you two abridged books, and you skimmed them.”
“Oh but your pony laws are simple Lulu; just find anything that doesn’t fit in with your silly little values of friendship guilty because you say so and throw them into a volcano.”
Luna gaped. That was offensive. Just what was she trying to do, make her angry? Because if she was doing that; it was working. “That’s a gross misinterpretation; and need I remind you just who is in charge here? Don’t call me that name.”
“Oh please, we both know you’re all bark and no bite unlike your dear big sis—” Luna did not let her finish her sentence, snaring her in her magic to be held within mere inches from her insectoid face. Chrysalis did not seem to understand why she was being admonished. Perhaps a little bit of intimidation? “…Did I go too far?” She squeaked.
“You should be asking yourself…” she replied with a withering glare, “If you really want to test my patience. I was the pony who tried to shroud the land in nighttime eternal because of a perceived slight from my sister and ponies against me and my domain. Control of a celestial body is no laughing matter; I hardly believe that you want to give me a legitimate reason to use that power against you personally. See to it that you don’t bring me to that point, is that clear?” It seemed the intimidation method had worked out as planned, leaving the ex-queen nodding her head dumbly. “Good.” That was probably going to bite her in the butt later on, but at the moment she didn’t care; the issue was solved for now. Setting down the changeling, she dissipated the sound blocking shield around the two of them. “I so very sorry Jet Set, but the law is clear on noise from school houses. Children playing are not acceptable grounds for noise complaints.”
To his credit Jet Set did not immediately turn away in a huff, but he did drop his ears in disappointment. “Oh… I suppose that something so drastic would be out of the question. But nevertheless, my wife will still be having headaches if I don’t do something.”
“I think,” Luna said, “You should invest in a sound warding spell… and a mage to make such a thing if you find yourself incapable of doing it. If your wife’s headaches continue, I do not think you’d benefit by seeing either of us instead of a doctor. Your complaint has been dismissed.” With that, Jet Set left the courtroom the way he came, mildly disappointed, but otherwise accepting of the princess of the night’s ruling; having found an alternative solution which would have been second nature to any other pony. This was the lot of the princesses in court; continuous complaints about whatever and proposals for rubbish that would certainly hurt the country as a whole in a matter of years— though those poor, brainless nobles had no idea, only seemingly being able to think into the next week ahead.
Luna sighed as the next petitioner came in after a far more reserved call from her intern princess. Why couldn’t all royals and nobles be like her beloved sister and Fancy Pants? Sure they had their bad moments, but they were the best of this blasted festering, stagnant city everypony called a capital. She checked the clock. Still four hours left of course, considering they just started this farce. She leaned over to Chrysalis speaking softly but with a considerable amount of venom behind the words. “Just so you know; we shall be talking about your poor study ethic when first break rolls around.”
---
If a pony were to ask how her court day was, Luna would probably sigh pathetically and claim that no amount of coffee would do anything to placate her misery. That was an exaggeration of course; coffee was her lifeblood, especially for staying up especially long during the day. That day’s court time was a disaster, not because the nobles were proving themselves to be insensitive or simply some manner of vile, but because Chrysalis had quite well proved how incapable she was at running court, partly because of her lack of studying and partly because she just didn’t care.
Now they sat at the table in the kitchen of the royal sisters’ private chambers. A fine, expansive enclosure, it was good for engaging in social, private meals the two (Or three whenever Cadance was around) might have with friends and family— or simply for sitting on opposite ends, because the opposing parties despised each other. Chrysalis’ nose was just barely above the table as she eyed the strangely shaped condensed love that came in that morning. “…It looks like a gummy heart.”
Luna swallowed a mouthful of her sandwich, snorting. “Cadance found it fitting, shaping condensed love into little symbols like that. If you don’t like it like that, I can tell her; but I doubt she’ll listen.”
“Right,” she mumbled. Tentatively, Chrysalis sniffed at the changeling food, licked it and finally picked it up with her forelegs before taking a small bite from the point of the candy heart. “…Doughy, sweet and warm,” she described it, “it’s like it has no depth to it, just bland, directionless affection… how disappointing.”
“My heart bleeds for you,” Luna scoffed, “but that would have never happened if you had not used your children as a means to take over my country. Still, that’s not the thing we should discuss at this point. Your ability to study leaves much to be desired, and considering that this was essential material for rulership that you failed to study, it’s eventually going to lead into a whole lot more trouble than the trouble that happened today with that first petition.”
Chrysalis’ ears drooped in an attempt at gaining sympathy (which Luna was of course no fool to be tricked by). “But they’re so booring… I could be doing stuff instead of reading textbooks…”
“A most terrible excuse; boredom does not permit you to avoid your duties— After all I spend many nights searching the dreams of my little ponies for any nightmares only to find nothing of concern. But without me on those nights were I do find nightmares, those fears and pain would come into the waking world, themselves causing pain, fear, and even in the worst cases death. Is that the sort of problem you’d want?”
Chrysalis gulped a piece of condensed love forcefully enough to be audible. “I-I’m sorry, but I just don’t see what dreams have to do with rulership.”
“A lazy ruler is an inadequate and disliked one,” Luna explained. “You refuse to study your business, you will make uninformed and selfish decisions, leading to parties being unintentionally hurt or run out of their life businesses.” She wiped her lips with a hoofkerchief. “Some have killed themselves because of such bad decisions; I have lived plenty long enough to see all sorts of cases. Again, is that the sort of problem you want?”
“…But I’ve never had that problem,” Chrysalis mumbled.
“Explain.”
“I just always told my drones what to do… and they figured out how to do it.”
Luna stared at her, genuinely stunned. “No wonder you had so much trouble running court.” She shook her head. “Never mind. The point must be made, Chrysalis, that I expect you to resume studying— and I do mean studying— before you even think of coming back to court.”
Chrysalis simply nodded her head. “…What’s next?”
Luna called over the royal aide, Raven, who handed over the agenda to her to read out. “Well aside from day court, we have—not in any particular order — a few proposals from the noble houses, a press conference regarding your presence as intern Princess of Equestria, and…” Luna frowned. “Oh dear, we’ve got the annual assessment of Tartarus.”
Chrysalis perked up, “Tartarus?”
Luna frowned deeper, “Yes, Tartarus.”
“You mean the place where the worst of the worst in your country go?”
“Yes…”
“The Tartarus where the vile, unredeemable creatures of the world are locked away to rot forever because nothing else has worked?”
“in a way…” Luna growled.
“The Tartarus where you would have put me if there wasn’t otherwise a convenient volcano to do so?”
“Yes Chrysalis, that Tartarus!” Luna yelled, tossing down the paper she held in her magic onto the table. “The very same one ponies use to describe any sort of unpleasant situation! That Tartarus! Do you still want to go prattling on because you somehow still don’t get it?!” Wisely, Chrysalis crammed the last of the condensed love into her mouth so as to not say anything else that might irk the princess— of which Luna was plenty grateful for. “…I didn’t think so. Now then, back on topic,” Luna picked up the paper once more, looking carefully at the contents.
“The annual assessment of Tartarus is an assessment of the goings on in that prison: How the prisoners are faring, if there are any upcoming hearings, what sort of problems might have occurred— anything that the warden brings up really.” Luna glanced up from the paper to answer the unspoken question. “No, Cerberus is not the warden of Tartarus, just a guard dog responsible for bringing the escapees back in. As charming he might be, somepony has to make sure everything runs smoothly, and the slobbering mutt does not have the capacity for understanding the nuances of paperwork.”
Chrysalis gulped part of her mouthful, nodding nervously.
“Chrysalis, when this assessment goes underway, I expect you to be on your very best behavior. Those who have attempted to change for the better are hardly perfect, and I have met a warden or two who have unreasonably demanded respect. These are the strongest of the worst. Any perceived slight against them will not go unnoticed, and the summoning circle they are bound inside may not save you from a magical blast.”
Chrysalis choked on the last little bit of condensed love before finally swallowing. “S—Summoning circle?! You mean that the assessment requires summoning a demon?!”
“Not in the way you think,” Luna calmly replied, “’Demon’ was only ever a title for the various guards and other staff of that place; but they do come close to that.”
Luna returned the paper to Raven. “Anyway, we should probably get this over with. I can only hope that this warden is nicer than the last.” Luna plucked the squealing changeling ex-queen up in her magic, towing her along to the courtroom despite her protests— which would most likely be dark now for the event. The Brotherhood of the Shadow of Twilight from her experience always enjoyed its theatrics when “summoning demons from the depths of darkness”.
---
Within the courtroom of Canterlot Castle, Luna had the privilege of witnessing the process of bringing forth the next warden from Tartarus for the first time since her extended vacation on—or in the moon; her memory was hazy during that time. One thing was clear though, the brotherhood changed very—very little during her absence. They walked into the dark room single-file, arranged themselves in sets of four in front of the throne and bowed deeply, right hooves forward. Seeing their faces was impossible; deep red robes concealing their identities before they even bowed in the first place.
Luna was mildly unimpressed, but Chrysalis shook in her non-existent boots. “Rise,” Luna said dully, “The crown welcomes the society ‘Brotherhood of the Shadow of Twilight’ into her presence. Let its elder step forward and be recognized.”
The elder in question—a mare, to Luna’s surprise(*)— did so, care taken in her steps to allow her robe to trail elegantly behind her. “Your majesty,” she said, “It is an absolute pleasure that you would host us for our ceremony. Our society has waited a long time for your return. Your beauty which your sister often boasted of was not done in exaggeration”
Luna scoffed, “Fflatterer. Shall we get this over with? I’m sure the warden is becoming impatient.”
“As you wish,” she said. They immediately got to work. As they gathered around in a wide circle, one among their ranks pulled out skulls, passed around to points in their circle.
“S-skulls?” Chrysalis whimpered. “Just what the hay do you ponies do behind the sweet, saccharine exterior of your country??”
“The skulls belong to deceased members,” Luna casually explained, “generously donated to the brotherhood after their deaths by natural causes.”
“And the red stick they’re using to draw with??” Chrysalis hissed, frantically pointing at the slow drawing of a pentagram on the floor.
“Easy materials to receive; a mixture of chalk, berries, bone and coagulated sheep’s blood for conductivity of magic. I’m not sure why you’re bothered by this.”
“You’re using pieces of the dead to summon demonic entities out of Tartarus! What is wrong with this picture?!”
“I seem to recall that you killed a little cat-creature in order to scare three fillies into shutting up,” Luna refuted.
“That’s different!” Chrysalis squeaked “Ponies expect me to be mean and nasty! You’re supposed to be cute and cuddly! How is this cute and cuddly?!”
Luna paid absolutely no mind to Chrysalis’ questions, staring forward as the brotherhood lit the candles inside the skulls. “It’s time Chrysalis. I expect you to keep quiet unless you’re spoken to.”
The brotherhood, satisfied with the runes and lit skulls, stomped their hooves simultaneously on the ground. The unicorns among them lit their horns and the pegasi flapped their wings creating a gale in the room. The runes started to glow, first a dull red then a hot yellow before finally bursting into flames, filling the room with a bright orange glow. The castle shook, and when the fires cleared, there was the newest, most terrible demonic entity to be bestowed the role of warden of the place where you abandon all hope should you ever enter.
Luna was sure that the lightshow was more extravagant than the last time she presided over one of these meetings. “Finally we can get started,” Luna stated nonchalantly, “I’d like to congratulate you on your new position as warden. It’s exceedingly rare to get such a position I would suppose, given how many creatures were probably admitted to such a place over the time I was absent.”
“Thank you,” said the demonic entity—which was not actually as horrible as a being Luna would have expected, “But I’d rather have been summoned at a more convenient time.”
“Why so?” Luna asked.
“Addictions are a real pain.” Luna finally looked up to see who she was speaking with. The warden this year stood tall, balanced on two feet. She was covered in a fine brown coat, but she had far more similarities to a cat than a dog like the diamond dogs ponies were more familiar with. A different set of robes from what the brotherhood wore was covering most of her waist and torso, and her cat’s eyes were baggy.
Luna formed a connection fairly quickly. “Catrina? I had thought you got over your addiction.”
“You know her?!” Chrysalis nearly yelled.
“Quiet,” Luna muttered.
“Oh I would have,” Catrina replied to Luna’s initial statement, “had it not been for the nasty withdrawal witchweed has on creatures.”
“Ah. So that’s why you…?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” the warden cut her off with a glare. “I’m here for the assessment, not to give you my life’s story which you already know.”
“Apologies,” Luna curtly replied, “Please tell me the state of the prisoners.”
“Most everything has remained the same,” she said, pulling out a scroll from beneath her robe. “The prisoners stay mostly behaved, and recent projects to one day reintegrate said prisoners into society in the distant future has dropped the rate of injury from fights breaking out.
“I say ‘mostly behaved’ because of a recent discovery sometime last year. About two years ago our guard dog Cerberus escaped, and we locked down the entire prison until such a time when he could be retrieved. After the event, we did a headcount to make sure none of the prisoners escaped then resumed normal activity. Unfortunately it turned out after my induction into the position of warden that we had miscounted that day, so I looked through the list to see who might have been missing.” She dropped the scroll to her side. “I’m afraid I have to inform you that one of the prisoners has escaped Tartarus; probably sometime during the Cerberus incident. We were hoping you could be on the lookout for that dangerous criminal in light of the previous warden’s inability to—”
“ONE OF THE TARTARUS PRISONERS HAS ESCAPED?!” Chrysalis screamed. Luna very quickly clamped the changeling’s mouth shut.
This of course did not go unnoticed by the warden. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “…Who is that?”
“That,” Luna said, pointing to her whimpering royal trainee, “Is Chrysalis, the idiot I’m trying to make into a proper princess. By all means, please continue.”
Luna had thought that her explanation was reasonable and enough to excuse her and Chrysalis; however the warden wasn’t too happy with the interruption. Her hands glowed red. “I think she needs to leave.”
Luna sighed heavily; So much for the assessment going smoothly.
---
Chrysalis seemed to have dropped into an inconsolable state. Not exactly the most productive state— Luna was planning on having her study again while she handled the proposals, but it was hardly like she had any control over the changeling “princess”’ mental faculties.
She supposed that was what she got for threatening nightmare moon on her. Now Chrysalis was laying in Luna’s bed— it was the only way she could get her to stop screaming about doom upon the entire continent— while she idly looked through the stack of proposals, signing some and vetoing most. The predicament of Chrysalis was a bizarre one. She certainly did not want anything to do with friendship, and her greatest desire was to rule the whole of Equestria with an iron hoof sucking the love of its denizens dry; and buck anypony who just happens to be in the way of her goal. But she was not an actual threat either with the rigged crown that completely cut off all her unique-to-her-race powers, including that of being able to actively consume love. It reduced her to a sad and hopeless state.
To make it clear, Luna did not like Chrysalis; the changeling did far too much for her to even think about liking her. But pity was not beyond her for Chrysalis. Yes, she had invaded Equestria trice and was completely deserving of the ire of her blood children. But she knew despair, pain and the like when things just couldn’t go one’s way no matter how hard they tried. It was what put her down the path of darkness in the first place, and if she had any possibility of returning to that… well that was why she couldn’t let it happen again, was it?
So she knew she had two things to do; one was to provide some comfort to the little pest despite how much she didn’t like her, and the other was to make sure she never forgave herself for nearly killing her beloved sister all those hundreds of years ago. And if she had to use some creative measures to do that, then—
“Hey, can you stop?” Luna jumped at the voice behind her, surprisingly polite compared to how she usually acted.
Luna turned around with a mix of irritation and surprise. “…Stop what?”
“The brooding,” Chrysalis mumbled. “I can’t consume love directly, but that doesn’t prevent me from tasting emotions… It’s like rotten fruit, please stop.”
Luna sat for a while, staring at the changeling who was occupying her bed. Perhaps she was doing something wrong herself? She shook her head. Didn’t matter, Chrysalis was more important right now. She got up to approach her, trying to hide her ire against the changeling. “…I’ll try,” she said as she reached the bedside. “But if I can’t be moody, neither can you. Any way I can help out with that?” Chrysalis grunted. “Right, we can try a glass of warm milk; helps me feel better at least.” Luna stepped away to head outside and summon a maidservant, but just as she reached for the door handle, the door opened on its own, and there was a pony already with milk in hoof. “Oh—! How long were you there, anyway?”
“Long enough!” the pony said. “A warm glass of milk, right?”
Luna quirked an eyebrow, “…Yes. And just how did you get that milk so quickly?” It was at this point that Luna took a good look at the pony on the other side of the doorframe— an earth pony dressed in the typical maidservant uniform, deep brown coat and amber color hair contrasting severely with her outfit. Her golden eyes sparkled like somepony who thought of a brilliant idea, and she stood a little too close for somepony who was supposed to be a humble servant. “…And are you new here?”
The pony giggled, nodding. “Of course, it’s my first day; and how else, your highness? I used magic!”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “You’re an earth pony.”
The pony looked cross-eyed at her forehead, and a strange clarity crossed her features. “Oh, of course! How clever your majesty! May I come in?” The pony didn’t even wait for Luna to say yes, simply walking between her legs and over to the nightstand by her bed where she set down the warm milk. Luna was starting to be very suspicious of this new maidservant. A pony somehow forgetting she had no horn was the sort of thing to do that.
Of course Luna immediately acted upon her suspicion. “I’d like to know your name.”
The pony paused. “Me? Oh no, a little pony like me doesn’t need to be on a first name basis with one like you!”
“I always get to know the names of my maidservants to more easily call for them,” she replied evenly. How the pony responded would be her final decision on the matter, as Luna was a rather impatient individual and was actively looking for some evidence that this was a crooked pony.
When the pony responded, that was all she needed. The pony looked back at her worriedly. “Honey, please; you’ll blow my cover!” she said. Luna showed her just how much she cared about the pony’s “cover” by dispelling her disguise. “…Unless that was your intention?”
Standing in front of her— rather surprised— was a changeling of a different ilk. She stood about as tall as Luna’s big sister with chitin and hair matching the same colors that she had in her imposter pony form. However she was very different to Chrysalis. A generous coat of amber fur lined her chest, shoulders, ears and the ends of her legs. Her wings, also amber, resembled more of a moth’s than a dragonfly’s, and seemed to sparkle like dust particles in the sunlight. All in all, she seemed far healthier than Chrysalis ever looked.
Luna plucked the changeling up in her magic tapping the still-despondent Chrysalis on the shoulder. “Chrysalis?”
“Go away!” She shouted.
“I just caught a changeling here, orange fur and moth-y wings; is she one of yours?”
Signs of life in the ex-queen could be found as she turned over. “What? No! any changeling like that belongs to my—” Chrysalis stared at the changeling floating in the air. Slit emerald eyes met golden ones. “…Oh, hello big sister.”
“See? This is why I didn’t want my cover blown!” said sister whined.