I found Luna in the Hall of Stories.
She was just standing there, looking at the window that showed the element bearers defeating Discord. She looked... pensive.
Something was going on.
“Luna?” I asked and moved up next to her, looking up at the window. It really was remarkable work. Whoever did these was really good.
“Page. How was your day?” she asked, turning to look at me.
I sighed. “It was good, but I have a feeling that yours was not. For one thing, it's four in the afternoon and you are awake.”
“Some events are in motion.”
“Serious?”
“Indeed.”
I simply waited for a long moment before she looked at me and I simply raised my eyebrow at her.
Luna shifted slightly, her feathers ruffling before she looked away. “...You are not letting me get away with that?”
“Nope. Are we going to war?”
“What? No!” Luna quickly exclaimed before she hesitated. “At least, I do not believe so. Not if everything goes well.”
“Luna!”
She sighed and nodded. “You really wish to know? I thought you were not interested in this kind of things?”
“I'm not. Not really. Sure, I want to know if we are about to get invaded or something, but I don't care about politics.” I said and moved closer so my side was against hers. “I care about what's bothering you.”
Luna gave my ear a small nuzzle. “The Crystal Empire has returned.”
“...Who with the what now?”
“My sister and I once defeated a unicorn. He called himself King Sombra and had taken over the Crystal Empire using dark magic. When we defeated him using the Elements of Harmony he was banished to the ice in the far North. He had a failsafe such that when he was defeated, the Crystal Empire disappeared. Completely. The empire itself, in books, pictures, even memories. Even mine and Celestia's were affected. We can barely remember the basics of it.”
Uhm... what.
“You are telling me that this Sombra guy managed to bind an entire empire to his power. Not only the empire, but the memories of the empire and when he fell, he pulled it with him?” I asked, staring up at her. “And now it has returned?”
“Indeed.”
“...Implications unpleasant.”
Luna nodded. “As you say. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor have already been dispatched to investigate.”
I frowned at that. “Alone?”
“A small force of guards accompanied them. So far.”
So far.
They were sending more troops?
I looked up at the window she had been looking at and it hit me. “The Element Bearers.”
“Celestia is sending Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Element Bearers there as a test for Twilight.” Luna explained softly. “They are expected to arrive in Canterlot later in a hour and will leave on the next train out.”
“Luna, Twilight is my friend.”
“As she is mine. But this is important for her development. Celestia believes so and I can not help but agree with her.”
Sending her into possible mortal danger as a test!? Who the fuck does that!? I thought Celestia was...
...No. Not a test. Celestia would not risk thousands, tens of thousands of ponies' lives for a test. Not even one for her personal student.
She clearly thought Twilight and the rest along with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor could handle the situation. But why not go herself or send Luna if there was a possibility that this King Sombra was back?
Why Twilight?
I glanced up at the window again. Element of Magic. Sombra was a pow... EEP!
Luna smiled and let go of my ear. “I can see your mind work, My Page.”
Flicking my ear, I nodded. “A lesson for Twilight. Show her dark magic in action, wielded by a powerful unicorn.”
“You see why I do not like it.”
I snorted in annoyance. “I don't either! Twilight is about as likely to fall to darkness as I am!”
“I am of a similar opinion. But it is my sister's decision.”
“Well, it's a stupid fucking decision and we should ignore it!” I exclaimed and stamped my hoof.
Luna smiled and raised her wings. “We should not. It is her call. Twilight is her student and she is right that they should be able to handle the matter.”
Taking a deep breath, I sighed and nodded. “... Okay.” I said before I frowned again. “...Should I go with them?”
Luna quickly shook her head, shifting her wing across my back. “No, Page. You know that is not why I have been teaching you.”
“I know, but if I could help...”
That earned me a quick nuzzle. “I suspect you could. But we need to trust in our friends. You do not think I wish to go as well?”
Leaning softly against her side, I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I need to confer with my sister. I'll see you a bit later?”
“Of course, love.”
I have to say, the fact the protagonist can constantly be affected by Luna biting his ear, similar to how a cat can be affected by grabbing the scruff of their neck, is absolutely adorable. It's a great running gag, and very dawws too.
I'm pretty sure he will be making great use of his combat training soon enough...consort to a princess is usually not really a quiet life.
6771544
Personally i like it, this has a "slice of life" tag and i think it is quite nice that while there is love the story is not over-saturated with hollywood-styled drama.
It is just life, partly written as a journal. While love and passion is there it is not overblowb and waved around like somekind of a banner to advertise it.
Unless it's a matter that need a clandestine operation, it's never really a thing of "trust" in your junior officers to send in shitloads of troops and other forces. You go in with insufficient forces, whether the leaders are inexperienced or not, you're putting the entire operation at risk.
"Trust" in your junior officers is admirable to get them needed experience--but that's the purpose of "training". Making sure your forces have a winning chance of success sometimes means sending in a little overkill.
You can "trust" in Murphy's Law--because it never fails.
You can "trust" the enemy will NOT follow YOUR plans.
You can "trust" the fact you and your operatives WILL NOT have enough of the information they need to put what's needed where it's needed WHEN it's needed.
Because there's simply no such thing as "overkill"--you either have enough of what you need to get the job done, or you don't.
Page has been benched! Hopefully he will see some action soon.
His combat experience has still yet to prepare him for hanky panky time with an alicorn. I can only imagine Luna needing to mend his pelvis back together each time. Hehehe.
Aaaah!
The good old "What is Celestia thinking?"...
It would've made more sense to send some backup. Tell the backup ponies to hold back so she can be tested and save the day if needed. Risking Cadance, Shinning Armor and the Elements on a test is risky. Very risky.
I just recently found this site and I would love to say your stories are amazing please don't stop making this masterpiece :D
What I really like about this story so far is no special empathsis has been put on him being in a relationship in Luna, he simply is. Nor has any been put on him being a famous writer. We can easily infer he is because he's copying famous books from his home world. No big empathsis on him being human, although we're reminded that he is by his mindset on changelings.
It's very cheesy in the wish fufillment department, but it doesn't actually bite into any of that cheese, instead going for a casual setting that's rather pleasant. The main character isn't pure of heart or dark and edgy. Their romance isn't dramatic nor stale.
This story simply is what it is, and I love it for that.
Onto the next chapter...
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This
6776447 sometimes it hurts to see Celestia doing such stupid stuff, no matter what reasons she had for the sake of a storyline.
However what you say would actually make much more sense, that would look like she is protected in chase something goes wrong, and still can be tested on how strong she is or whatever.
If we don't try to argue with "but Twilight is supposed to be an Alicorn later!", which Celestia didn't asked her before she just turned her into one, then it just looks stupid what she is usually doing to Twilight.
I always try to remember that this was supposed to be a kids show, and maybe would actually be different if it was meant for a more mature audience, but it still hurts to see her well act like she does in the show. "I stay at home and let Twilight do all my stuff.....simply brilliant Celestia, simply brilliant........now where is the cake?"
Honestly, the way Celestia handled the Crystal Empire's return was all kinds of stupid. It could have gone very bad.
Just one of the many examples where lazy writing was involved. Personally, I'm of the opinion that it wasn't one that the writers were all that invested in.
It was just a marketing episode to sell toys. The Talking Heads at Hasbro need to watch classic He-Man; THAT is how you sell toys.
7586145
everyone seems to forget that Sunbutt is an evil tyrant that overthrew a minimum of THREE different rulers. she is not thinking about the best interests of others, she is thinking of the best way to get rid of rivals. if defeating Sombra does the same now as it did a thousand years ago, she would not only get rid of Cadence and the Elements, she would make it so nopony could even remember them.
9093281
Keep in mind those three rulers were technically evil. I mean, look at Sombra and Discord. Granted, Discord never harmed anyone(as far as we know), but he was NOT a benevolent dictator. Sombra most like hurt and killed hundreds. Dark magic is also a corrupting influence(Nmm trying to kill everything with a lack of sunlight for instance). So yes, she is a tyrant of sorts. But evil? Nah. She is, as stated in previous chapter's, a benevolent dictator. Even then, I doubt she lets EVERYTHING go through her first. That is, if it isn't off the wall stupid. I mean, no one is afraud of her. They see her as more of a wise mother than a ruler.
To be fair... If the do Sombra like they did Nightmaremoon than they gain a huge ally!
Heh, indeed.... RIP Mordin......
Also fun fact, did you know that Mordin's head tattoo is in the shape of a Reaper? Neither did I until today.
6776447
Plus twilight didn't learn anything about dark magic in the episode. All she thought about most of the time was the test factor. It wasn't till the end she thought about the crystal ponies. She should been taught about those who fell to darkness due to magic.
I see what you did there Nick Fury…
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Twilight learns to channel dark magic, though that never comes up again later on which could just be because of the change in writting staff after S3.
Never understood why Sombra was not distracted by Luna and Celestia if Sombra was that mutch of a threat!
I plan to use all Alicorns when i get to it. Either Sombra is a real threat or not, someone like that often can't be in between. After all:
'Sombra fight Alicorns to a stand still!'
Already planning to make Sombra not worth in my stories, a shame what a joke was made in Canon after how mutch Celestia and Luna seem conservative about moving in themselves