How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.


Max was beginning to sense that gaping stupidly at the space Princess Moonstruck had previously been occupying was going to be par for the course for the immediate future. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to ponies teleporting willy nilly. Or... at all, really. Even Mother didn't do it very often.

He shook his head and looked back at the others as a strange feeling started to bubble up in his chest. It wasn't hope exactly, but an odd sort of excitement that had a bit of trepidation wrapped up with it. To be fair, most of his strong emotions had at least a little trepidation mixed in.

Lindsey gave him a flat stare, eyebrows somewhere up beneath her forelock. Wenchell was still staring at the empty space.

"What?"

"Nothin'." She grinned.

It was Max's turn for a flat stare, although his eyebrows didn't stray quite so far. "Really, what?"

"You just had the goofiest grin just now."

"No I didn't."

"You were blushing a little too."

"What? No I wasn't!" Trepidation and excitement were slipping more towards self consciousness and general confusion.

"How big of a crystal do you think she meant?" Wenchell blurted, apparently finishing whatever thought had occupied him up until this point, and inadvertently sparing Max something likely very embarrassing.

"I dunno." Lindsey shrugged. "What do you think she's going to do with it?"

"Use it as a focusing point for an ambient magical detection spell, probably." Wenchell furrowed his brow. "Its range will probably be dictated by its size... we should probably get the biggest one we can find." He spun and trotted back the way they'd come. They had a pretty decent collection of crystals tucked away in one of their smaller warehouses – some of them quite large. They couldn't really use them for the most part, but Max had always had trouble throwing away things that might prove useful someday.

Unfortunately, Wenchell leaving meant Lindsey could pick up her line of cryptic teasing again. Max sighed as she grinned cheekily at him.

"Ugh, just say it!" He huffed.

"Mmmm... nah. I'm not a hundred percent yet. Gotta do some more observation." She scowled and promptly trotted off.

Max slumped and let out a long suffering groan. Sometimes he really wished Lindsey would just stick to numbers. He also really wished he could dig out his list of magic users now, but he'd already spent too much time with the Historical Society today. He needed to go topside and keep up at least a few appearances.

Unlike Princess Moonstruck, he had to trot back to the surface. He made his way out onto the loading docks, letting Buster know he was heading out as he passed him.

"Yeah, alright. It'll be a day or two before I can get a solvent to get that stink out." Buster called after him. "It's weird stuff. I mean, we can clearly smell it, but it's not turning up in any tests we run."

"Do your best, then." Max called over his shoulder. He just caught Busters shrug out of the corner of his eye.

He didn't really want to be reminded of what happened this morning, but he grimly decided to puzzle it over as he went. The strange, fantastical, and at one point, horrifying things tucked away in the High Energy Magic Building were not what truly troubled him. No one had ever seen so many of those creatures out at once, much less during the wan daylight that the underground city possessed. Even back when they first discovered the place, and foolishly stayed past "dark" there had not been so many of them. And they were never focused. They would follow, and try to lure ponies away, but they never joined up into a massive herd like that.

So why now?

Was it the princess? Was it something about alicorn magic? Going by their lackluster reaction to Joseph, it was possible his mixed ancestry and stunted magical powers protected him somewhat from their attentions, but Moonstruck was 100% pony; fully charged, extensively trained, and of a very powerful line of alicorns.

Max was sorely tempted to send a party down to the university tomorrow to see if things went back to normal. If it truly was the princess that was drawing the creatures out, they would have to rethink their library pillaging expeditions for the immediate future. He didn't like the thought of either of those things. He much preferred to accompany search parties to the university; even with his limited abilities he was still one of the strongest magic users, and could offer the best protection. But without Moonstruck there to direct their searches, they were back to where they were before; sifting through books without the knowledge to find what they were looking for. They could have whole arsenals of useful information right in front of their noses and not know it.

He probably should send a small party down before things really got going. He had no idea when Mother would call upon Moonstruck next, and no idea when Moonstruck might drop in on them again to figure out the condition of the countries ambient magic. And there was just so much to plan! They were still working out the best escape routes, but still weren't sure how many ponies they could devote to any evacuation efforts if need be. They barely had enough to hold the tower and surrounding neighborhoods, provided the residents of the neighborhoods cooperated. Could they really spare enough ponies to deal with a disaster?

Figuring out a way to take the tower – much less the city – was proving difficult to plan as well. There were simply too many unknowns. Their most conservative plan involved taking the tower (which relied on neutralizing Mother first – the biggest unknown), and the neighborhoods immediately around it. From there they would push out over several days to take more and more of the city. He didn't even want to consider the less conservative plans – they were entirely too risky, and would stretch their forces impossibly thin.

Max blinked and slid to a stop as he realized he'd just trotted past his turn. He backpedaled then ducked off down a side passage, resuming his contemplative trot. Voices echoed up ahead, bringing him to a stop again. He realized belatedly that he'd forgotten his cloak. Panic slammed in to him and he galloped back down to the main waterway. He paused a moment to listen for the approaching ponies, then hopped down into the canal. Body low to the ground, he crept along until he found a culvert where a pipe emptied into the canal under the walkway above and hastily wriggled in to it. He was out of sight of any ponies on the walkway above him, and presumably it was too dark for any ponies on the opposite bank to spot him in here. They should really install gates on a few of these things so that he could hide in them if he needed to. He wasn't foolish enough to remove the grate entirely, they'd need it if ever it rained again.

The voices grew closer as he trembled in the cramped pipe. Soon he could hear hoofsteps as well. Thankfully the ponies turned the direction opposite the one he had taken, and were soon well away. Max heaved a sigh, awkwardly wiped a bit of sweat off his brow, then wriggled out of the culvert. Pausing to listen, he glanced around to be sure he was alone, then scrambled back up on to the walkway.

"Right, where was I?" He muttered to himself as he made his way back to the side passage. Oh yes, the plans. Plans they'd been planning for years but have never been able to pin down. Plans that really needed thousands more ponies to pull off effectively. Plans that were probably moot, since Mother will just call Father in to destroy the city, then the country, and eventually the entire world. He gritted his teeth and shook his head. He wasn't supposed to think about that last part. Pretty much everyone in the main command group had threatened to kick his rump if he brought it up again at meetings. He'd probably only gotten away with it during their meeting with the princess because she didn't know it was a real possibility.

He lifted his head a little as he realized that Moonstruck knew it was a possibility, but didn't seem particularly bothered by the prospect. Why? She didn't know how impossibly huge and powerful Magmanus was – of this he was certain. That could be it. Ignorance is bliss, after all. Then again, he'd spent his entire life thinking it was impossible to come and go from the tower undetected, but she and her companions had been doing so for weeks. Perhaps in among the things she knew that they didn't was something about dragons. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was grossly underestimating the old lizard.

He reached the next turn and took a left. Unfortunately, even with the knowledge that he could come and go from the tower via the secret passageways, he did not often have that luxury, as most of his forays down to the Historical Society had to happen when he wasn't already at home. They had a front set up at a temple devoted to Raysel - whom was generally the patron ancestor of choice for princes - for just such occasions. Royal decorum paid off for once, as he was able to restore the temple (which mother had allowed to fall into ruin as she was not one for ancestor worship, and only showed superficial devotion to Rosalina for political reasons) without question, and thus fully staff it with Historical Society members. If he was going to do any Society business, it started and ended at the temple.

Reaching the end of the passage, he turned around to listen for a moment before carefully pressing a hoof against one stone. A faint pop sounded from directly in front of him, then a stone higher up on the wall retreated inwards. He used magic to pull a lever that was hidden out of sight, which opened a narrow door just a crack. Checking once more to be sure he was alone, he pushed the door open and squeezed through. He softly shut the door behind himself, listened for the whirrs and clicks of the locking mechanism, then started up an equally narrow staircase. Three stories later he was at the sublevel of the temple.

"How'd it go?" One of the acolytes asked as he stepped out of the hidden door in the basement. They always kept someone on guard in the basement to let him know if it was safe to come out or not.

"Uh... interesting. I need to get moving, but it'll be detailed in the monthly meeting." He trotted past her to the back stairs.

"Aww. Wait, when is it again?"

Max paused at the open doorway to the stairwell and furrowed his brow. "Saturday after next."

"I have to wait that long!" The unicorn whined.

"Go ask Lindsey or Wenchell when your shift is over, they know everything already." He sighed.

"Oh, okay. That I can do." She chirped.

Max rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. Six stories later, he emerged in the innermost meditation room. It was a sacred chamber only accessible to himself, and the highest priests of the temple. It was also where he'd officially been this entire time. No one had any trouble believing he needed to spend half a day in quiet meditation after dealing with Mother on a daily basis.

He wished he had time to actually mediate. Or at least take a nap. He checked himself in a mirror behind a heavy velvet curtain at the back of the room to make sure he didn't have any sticks or anything in his mane or tail, frowned at the bags under his eyes that never seemed to go away, then let out a long sigh. It had already been a long day, but it was far from over. Steeling himself, he schooled his face in to his most aloof, and detached expression, raised his head high, and strode out into the meditation room.

Although the temple was a front, he had gone to great lengths to restore it to its former glory, and the inner meditation room was a work of art unto itself. A circular, high ceilinged room topped with a dome, and surrounded by tall, intricately carved pillars. The ceiling mosaic was an exquisite rendition of the night sky, the room was draped in dark maroon and midnight blue silks, and there was a great, rose shaped reflection pool in the very center that reflected the natural light filtering in from the high, narrow windows in soothing ripples. There was no furniture in the room, only a few thin mats upon which ponies would theoretically do their meditation to spare their rumps from the cold, hard marble floor. It was dark, it was cool, it was peaceful, and Max wished he actually got to spend time in it, instead of merely passing through it.

There was not a true door to the meditation room, just an arched entryway. He stepped through it and turned right to walk up a wide, airy hall that circled the room a quarter turn before making a sharp left. Here there was a door; dark oak carved with twinning roses at the hooves of a rearing alicorn stallion. He pushed it open, threw a quick glance at the attending priest (whom nodded faintly in turn), and continued on out in to the more public parts of the temple. His honor guard would be waiting down on the ground floor, likely bored to tears. They, at least, could get some extra sleep. He envied them a little.

Ponies touring the temple parted for him as he strode past, casting their eyes downwards. A few of the more affluent ponies attempted to strike up conversations but he dismissed them, muttering that he had important affairs to attend to. A priestess appeared with his honor guard in tow as he reached the ground floor. The guards looked groggy until they spotted him, then sprang nervously to attention.

The priestess bowed as they passed, then they were out the front doors, heading down the steps to where Max's personal shuttle was parked discreetly off to the side of the temple gardens. He let his gaze wander upwards as they descended the stairs, spotting the temple twin to this one due east on the other side of the city. Mother maintained the Temple of Rosalina, and while she hadn't let it fall into ruin as she had many of the other temples and gardens around the city, she also hadn't bothered to keep it quite to the level he maintained the Temple of Raysel. It was supposed to be bad luck to favor one twin over another, and it was always Rosalina – the more fiery and passionate of the two - whom handed down punishments.

Max often wondered what his mother was playing at, snubbing their founding ancestors in such a way. Then again, it was no secret she'd thrown in her lot with Magamanus, even though ponies and dragons have been in conflict for eons. She clearly didn't care much about what the ancestors might say about this.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, then turned left to circle the building to reach the landing pad hidden among the trees. He felt a little bad about keeping the temple grounds irrigated, but he absolutely had to keep up appearances. At least there was a good sized vegetable garden tucked away around back that they used to feed the poor patrons of the temple. It was perhaps the only charitable work he could publicly do. Temples were supposed to provide for the community, it would be weird if it didn't – even Mother couldn't argue with that.

The struggle began once he was on the shuttle en route to the Enforcer; he needed to stay awake. He had a long afternoon and evening of paperwork to do, and a few meetings to go to, but all he wanted to do was sleep. Mother would most likely finish rearranging her library sometime today, and she'd likely want to send him on some errand or another that would take him out of the city for at least a week – he'd need a full nights sleep to deal with that, but he likely wasn't going to get it. If it took longer to get back to his airship he could take a quick nap. Ten minutes wasn't really enough – and it would look odd if he was caught napping after he'd supposedly been meditating half the day.

They docked with the airship in short order. He soon found himself seated at his desk in his office going over paperwork, and counting down the minutes to his next meeting. It was amazing he ever got anything done, considering he spent most of his time carefully avoiding doing things. Mostly things his mother wanted him to do which were likely considered crimes against pony kind in the outside world.

No, he would not authorize the razing of a cluster of remote villages out in the Crystal Cut Valley for not meeting quotas. Yes, he would authorize an audit to see what the problem was. No, there would be no repercussions for the loss of two hundred pegasai from Lord Godfreys personal detail, Max knew quite well where they went and they were in a much better situation than they were before, thank you very much! No, the Baron of Pastureton cannot plow down the poorest section of the city to build himself a new golf course. If he has enough water to irrigate a golf course, he can start sending his surplus to Bridle-Dur, and other drought affected areas.

It went on and on. Stupid, selfish, overblown requests piled on top of atrocious punishments for trivial crimes. It almost made him wish Magmanus would fly down and destroy the country.

Meeting time rolled around, so he dragged himself to the big conference room to listen to reports of the various spies around the country groping for any excuse to drag some poor pony off the street and interrogate them for involvement in one of Mothers imagined conspiracies. What Mother didn't realize was that her paranoia made it impossible for any baron to attempt to undermine her, simply because her random acts of mass murder kept everyone too afraid to raise a hoof against her. The spies were desperate to cover their own rumps and nothing more. They were never able to dig up any evidence of anything, which was something of a point of pride for Max, while paradoxically being a bit of a sore spot since Mother mostly didn't suspect him of anything underhoofed because she thought he simply wasn't capable. It rankled him that it rankled him, so he generally tried not to think about it.

The meeting went on too long (as they usually do), his various commanders and spies got into various arguments that derailed the conversation (which they also usually do), and when they finally called it quits for the day, nothing much was accomplished. This was primarily why he wasn't sure what to do with his regiment; most of his commanders were somewhat incompetent. This was a deliberate move on Mothers part; any career military pony who proved too much of a fool for her tastes was moved to his forces. It certainly made things more difficult, though they were fairly grateful that they hadn't lost their heads after whatever blunder brought them to his doorstep, and were generally willing to go along with whatever dull, logical and entirely reasonable thing he had planned. A few of them were actually pretty good, once he figured out how to manage them. They weren't brilliant, by any means, but fairly reliable, and predictable enough that he could head them off at the pass if they were on track to make a particularly bad decision.

Once he finished up all the things he needed to do at the office, he took a shuttle back to the tower for a dinner meeting with upper brass. Meetings with the admirals and generals were generally about as productive as meetings with his own commanding officers, but here he couldn't ax any horrible ideas. He could only grunt and nod, and make a suggestion here and there, all while screaming silently to himself.

They finally decided they'd argued enough shortly after nine, a full two hours after the meeting should have ended. If Max could have gotten away with leaving early, he would have. He wearily wandered up to his chambers as soon as the meeting adjourned with every intention to fall into bed and sleep as late as he could, but fate had other plans.

No sooner had he finished brushing his teeth did his front door go crashing open with a loud bang. Mother appeared in his bedroom door a few stomps later, eyes ablaze.

"Maximus! I have had a brilliant idea!"

"Yes?" He asked, trying to muster up some semblance of enthusiasm and failing utterly.

"I realized while Kyrenai and I were re-cataloging my library, that the library in Quince has a complete collection of Zephyra Tidewells Arcane Obscura. I want it."

He knew where this was going, but he was too emotionally drained to go there without at least a little bit of a fight.

"I'm sure you can check it out through an inter-library loan."

"Silly colt, I want it in my collection." She grinned deviously and rubbed her hands together. "I have just the perfect space for it too."

"I'll send someone out to fetch it first thing in the morning." Max yawned, stepping past her towards his bed.

"You will send yourself, of course!" Mother huffed. "I am giving you an important task, not some random chore to pass off to an underling!"

This is exactly the sort of thing you pass off to an underling, Max thought sourly.

"Of course, Mother. I'll depart after breakfast."

"Take the Enforcer. I want you to make a show of it. Quince has been quiet up there lately, we need to remind them that we know they're there." She narrowed her eyes.

He hesitated, but decided not to push it any further as he flopped on his bed.

"Of course, Mother."

He was just about settled under the covers, when she let out an irate sigh.

"Well, aren't you going to see me out!?"

Experience told him she was not kidding. Sighing heavily, Max very reluctantly wiggled out from under the covers. "Yes, Mother. Of course, where are my manners?"

"Not present at all, lately. Do I have to send you back to etiquette class again?" She chided as he walked with her to the door. There was a new dent in the wall from where the door handle had slammed in to it, and a few brass pieces on the floor.

"That won't be necessary, I'm just tired." Max grimaced. He stopped in his doorway as Mother stepped out into the hall.

"Yes, well if you weren't up all night working you wouldn't be so tired all the time." She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him.

"I am overdue for a vacation." Max said flatly.

"Yes, yes, perhaps a holiday is in store. Have you been up to see Eira lately?"

His grimace deepened. "No, I am afraid not. Haven't had any reason to go that far north, since she has her own forces and manages by herself..."

"She does enjoy your visits."

"Yes..."

"Then again, I need you here for so many things." She frowned. "I'll have to think about it. Maybe just over to the shore for a few days respite. I haven't been to the beach house in some time..."

Max watched his mother wander up the hall, her honor guard hesitantly trailing after her as she mused aloud what was sounding more and more like her vacation, instead of his. He made sure she was well away before he stepped back and cautiously closed the door. The handle was broken, and the wall actually had a few cracks in it, in addition to the dent. Making a mental note to fix the handle in the morning before he left (he had a stash of spare handles tucked away in a closet for just such occasions), he dragged over a heavy chair. Placing it firmly in front of the door, he spun around and nearly had a heart attack.

Princess Moonstruck, Joseph and Glenda were standing in the middle of the living room, grinning like Cheshire cats.

He stifled a scream, slid back to awkwardly sit in the chair, and placed a hoof over his racing heart. "What in blazes are you doing here!?"

"We figured out how to measure dragon magic." Moonstruck giggled. "Thought you might want to see."

"How did you find my chambers!?" He wheezed.

"Followed my nose." Joseph said, raising a hand.

"Ho-how long have you been there!?"

"We were walking up to the secret door when your Mom busted the door in. Didn't come in until just now though."

Max sank down to the floor, massaging his temples with his front hooves. "I've been awake too long, can we do this tomorrow?"

"You're going to Quince tomorrow." Moonstruck grunted and produced a paper weight out of a saddlebag.

He groaned.

"It'll only take a second anyway. Behold!" Moonstruck set the paper weight on a conveniently placed end table, cast her spell, then touched it with one hoof. It glowed a bright, yellow-white.

"Pony magic!"

She lifted her hoof off of it. Joseph then dramatically reached over and touched it with one finger. It glowed dark purple.

"Dragon magic! It already worked on dragon magic, I just had to tweak it a little to enhance and classify the response." Moonstruck beamed.

That was actually pretty impressive, he was about to say as much when a horrible blast of reality reared up and kicked him in the back of the head. He bolted upright, back in panic mode.

"Wait, wait! You can't be here, Mother has spells all over this room! She'll know- !"

"No she doesn't. I checked before we came in." Moonstruck shrugged.

He gaped at her. "What?"

"No snooping spells of any sort. No mechanical listening devices either."

His sleep-deprived brain was having a hard time wrapping itself around this revelation.

"What?"

Moonstruck rolled her eyes. "There were probably all kinds of spells flying around in here at one point, but they aren't working anymore. It's the same in my apartment."

He continued to stare at her.

"Do you want to poke the paperweight or what?"

He shifted is gaze down to the weight. It was just a little brass paperweight in the shape of a swan. He did. He did want to poke it. Then he wanted to go to sleep. He shakily pushed himself off the floor and hobbled over to the end table. Lifting a leg, he gently touched a hoof to the enchanted office supply. It glowed a good solid orange with a flickering magenta corona.

"Interesting!" Moonstruck leaned in close. "Must be hybrid magic doing that!"

"Huh." He lifted his hoof away, then poked it again. Same response.

"Alrighty, we'll get outta your mane. G'night." Moonstruck grunted, canceling the spell and collecting the paperweight. She spun and trotted towards one of the secret doors.

"Get some sleep, dear." Glenda nodded to him, then followed the princess out. Joseph just grunted and nodded before doing the same. He watched them pile in to the secret passageway, close the door behind them, then felt the faintest flicker of magic as they likely teleported back to their chambers.

He turned around to make sure Mother wasn't standing behind him, listened for any indication that she was going to barge in again, then rubbed his face with his hooves. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with all these ponies popping in on him unannounced. After waiting a few minutes to be absolutely sure he was alone for the rest of the evening, he finally went to bed.


Moonstruck was not surprised to be summoned up for tea with the queen the next day. What was surprising was that Lucena seemed to have taken the beach trip idea to heart.

"And then I realized I haven't been to the beach house in ages!" Lucena laughed. "Now, I can't go leaving things to Maximus because he'll just muck things up while I'm gone, so we're taking him with us, when he gets back. I miss out on so many mares weekends because of him, you know."

She sighed, took a sip of her tea-like-product then set the cup down roughly. "I wanted to go this weekend, but he had something to do over in Quince. I swear he keeps himself so busy just to avoid spending time with me."

Moonstruck made a good show of nodding sadly. Seeing the queen in this good of a mood was a little disconcerting. "Well, he is at that age. Past it, I'd assume. It becomes a bit tedious to spend all of ones time with ones mother, once one is a stallion."

"I suppose that's true." Lucena crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I suppose it works out. Have to send word ahead to have them prep the beach house anyway. It should be in working order already, but it's as I said, we haven't been in quite some time." She scowled off into space. "Before Maximus was born, now that I think about it."

While the queen stared off into space and likely into the past, Moonstruck very cautiously focused on the teacup. She'd modified her spell so that only she could see what color it glowed, and she'd scaled its energy requirement back quite a bit just in case Lucena was sensitive enough to pick up on it, although she severely doubted it. It would only flash for a moment - instead of maintaining the color for as long as Lucena was touching the cup - then it would cancel itself. She wouldn't have time to blink.

Sure that she had just enough time, she cast her spell on the cup but held off on activating it until Lucena picked it up again. As soon as the mares fingertips touched the porcelain, Moonstruck activated it.

For the briefest of moments, the cup glowed a dark red. Lucena didn't seem to notice a thing.

Moonstruck grinned from within the folds of the voluminous skirt she was hiding under. The puppet made no response, of course. As she'd suspected, Lucena was low on power. An alicorn of her age should be off the charts, or a bright blue-white on her fire-scale at the lowest measurable color. It was probably taking everything she had to maintain that stupid bipedal form, and it was likely what was draining off most of her power and aging her. She made a mental note to ask Max about the spell when she saw him again. Considering his power level, and general lack of training, she was a little surprised he could do it. She wasn't even sure if she could pull it off, and her power level was around where it should be, although to be honest she wasn't entirely sure what her level was under normal magical conditions.

Lucena brought herself back to the present with a little shake. "I should send for Eira. I'm sure she would love a few days at the shore."

"Who doesn't?" Moonstruck made the puppet beam. She liked going to the beach as much as anypony, but when you grow up on a small island, it wasn't the event it was for ponies living further inland.

"Hmm. Maximus will just have to go without bringing any attendants, since both you and Eira will have a few assistants, I'd assume." The queen mused, swirling her tea a little.

"Just the two, for me." Moonstruck said slowly. She had assumed Joseph and Glenda would be coming along, she was just a little surprised the queen had even remembered they existed.

"Oh, that's right. It shouldn't be a problem, then. I suspect your bodyguard doesn't even sleep on a bed, or require his own space, for the most part."

"Not really, no."

"Even better! You can have the smallest suite; Maximus and Eira can take the medium sized ones. I, of course, have the largest." Lucena grinned.

Moonstruck made the puppet smile back and sincerely hoped that Lucena didn't find some way to ruin beach trips the way she ruined parties. More importantly, she hoped the trip didn't take long. Now that she had a concrete reading on Lucenas remaining power, she needed to figure out if the queen was indeed connected to Magmanus somehow, and how strong the shield was. As it stood, she could easily take Lucena in a straight out fight, but it was all for naught if they couldn't prevent her from summoning the dragon. Or at least force her to summon him in such a way that it gave Moonstruck time to take him out before he could get to the city. If she could take him out at all, that is.


"As we suspected, Lucena's power is very low." Moonstruck said a few hours later, after they had teleported down to the warehouse to update the Historical Society.

"No way, you got it already?" Lindsey gaped at her.

"Yup!"

"Low for an alicorn, or...?" Wenchell asked, brows furrowed deeply.

"Low for a spell caster in general." Moonstruck nodded. She cast the spell on his mug of hot beverage, sans her stealth modifications. She had already explained her color coding to them.

"That's the spell there, give it a whirl."

Wenchell blinked a few times, then placed his hoof on the cup. It glowed a bright red.

"Heh, you're actually a little stronger than the queen. Hers was a deeper red."

"You're kidding!?" He yelped as he slid the mug over to Lindsey, whom gave it a poke as well. Not surprisingly, it didn't react to her at all.

"Wha - where should it be?" Lindsey asked. "What's your reading?" She slid the mug across the small table. Moonstruck lifted a hoof to stop it, and watched as the mug flared yellow-white. "Brighter and hotter than that."

Wenchell whistled.

"Max is actually in pretty good shape, his power was at a good bright orange." Moonstruck canceled the spell, then slid the mug back to Wenchell.

Lindsey gave her a sly look as Wenchell stared down into his mug.

"You know, I think this means you're the most powerful pony in Roanamia right now." Wenchell grunted, looking up.

Moonstruck blinked a few times and shifted her weight. She hadn't really thought about it in those terms.

"When did you find the time to test Max?" Lindsey asked before Moonstruck could mull that over too much.

"Oh, we dropped in on him last night." Moonstruck grinned, as Glenda giggled. "Scared the snot out of 'em."

"In... his chambers?"

"Yeah. Joseph tracked 'em down."

The dragon nodded, then took a sip of whatever it was he was drinking over there. Moonstrucks herbal tea hadn't cooled down enough yet to drink.

"It's a good thing too, otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to get his power reading before he gets back from Quince." Moonstruck sniffed her tea-like-product. It actually smelled really good; Fern had said it was a mint blend without the basil so many ponies liked to add to it.

"How long is he supposed to be gone?" Wenchell asked, furrowing his brow.

"Dunno. The queen seemed to think he'd be gone a couple days at least." Moonstruck scowled. "How far away is Quince? I'd assume the airships can get there decently fast."

"About six hours north by airship. They're pretty slow, and they use up a lot of fuel. A fast pegasus can probably fly it in half that." Wenchell grunted. "And they wouldn't need to spend half a day refueling."

"Wow. And here I thought those airships were one of the cool things around these parts." Moonstruck snorted a laugh. "Though I guess that explains why it took all night to get to Bridle-Dur from the mountains."

The others nodded as Evee wandered in and plopped on a stool at the table. "What's this about fast pegasus?"

"Just telling the princess about how slow the airships are."

"Oh, yeah, those big ones just sort of putter along. The smaller ones are much faster but they burn up a lot of fuel." Evee nodded. Fern wandered back in just then with a tray loaded with tea things.

She set a steaming cup in front of Evee, then one in front of an empty seat before sitting down herself.

"Refills are on the cart." She grunted.

There were varying degrees of acknowledgments and thanks from the gathered ponies.

"Who're we missing?" Lindsey asked, looking around. "Was Buster going to join us?"

"No, he's still trying to figure out that stinky stuff." Wenchell shook his head.

"Geode?"

"Her leg was bugging her, so she went home."

"Oh. I actually had a job for her. But it can wait." Lindsey shrugged.

"Actually, we can't stick around long. I need to work out a bunch of logistics for the beach trip." Moonstruck sighed. "So fewer ponies is probably better."

She took a sip of tea, then stared down in to her cup. It was mint tea. A lightly sweetened, warm, yet cool and refreshing cup of mint tea. Possibly some of the best mint tea she'd ever had.

"This is fantastic!"

"Oh, ha ha! Thanks." Fern ducked her head and blushed.

"No really, this is amazing!" Moonstruck lifted her head to look the unicorn in the eye. "And I'm not just saying that because I haven't had a good cup of tea in ages. This is really, really, really good!"

"Aw, heh heh. I do... I mean, it's kind of silly, but I do kind of want to be a tea master some day." Fern blushed even darker. "Like, after all of this is over and the shield comes down. I've been reading books about growing and brewing tea since I was a foal and... I dunno it just... just seems like... I don't know how to describe it, really."

Moonstruck grinned. "It's not silly. I have some connections, so I can probably get you at least a VIP tour of some plantations."

"What? You don't have to do that!"

"It's nothing! I can write up some letters of recommendation. Being a princess has its perks, you know." Moonstruck laughed. "I can get ya in to all kinds of stuff. And I'm sure Roanamia will need a good cup of tea after all is said and done."

The others chuckled.

"So, anyway. We've gathered up a half dozen crystals for you." Lindsey said, sifting through a small stack of papers. "The biggest we could find. I also went ahead and grabbed the list of magic users for Max, since I knew he'd probably be busy for a few days after the queen finished her project – that's usually what happens." She slid half the stack across the table.

"Oh, cool! How big are we talking?" Moonstruck asked as she flipped through the list of names. There were three hundred and sixty eight magic users potentially strong enough to hold their own against Lucenas magic corps; most of them probably on par with Wenchell. Not as many as she had hoped, but hopefully enough to make a difference.

"Um, the biggest is about two feet tall." Wenchell drawled. "The rest are between six inches and a foot."

"Nice!" Moonstruck nodded.

"So, we're assuming you're going to use the crystals as focusing points to read Roanamias ambient magical field." Fern said.

"Yeah, pretty much. Unless you guys know of a better way to do it."

"Max would usually just kinda lurk around the Rounds equipment to get us some rough numbers to work with." Lindsey wrinkled her nose.

"Seems risky." Glenda grunted.

"It is. The queen doesn't really like him to go poking around in there, and the priestesses don't trust him."

"Oh, since you already got the queens power level, and you said Eira was going to go, can you get hers too?" Evee blurted suddenly.

"Yeah, good idea. And Kyrenai, since the queen seems to like to drag her along to stuff." Moonstruck nodded.

"Too bad we can't get all of the barons." Fern frowned. "Though I doubt they're powerful enough to cause any problems."

"Not arcanely, no." Moonstruck agreed before taking another sip of tea.

"Not even in most practical sense. At least, not the ones in the city." Fern shook her head. "The barons you have to worry about are the ones who don't spend time in Bridle-Dur. They have their own private forces, though individually they don't have enough pony power to cause problems. If they decide to join forces, they can be a real menace. Easily as bad as the queen."

"Was afraid of that. How much of the military will fall in with some of the more popular barons?" Moonstruck grumbled.

Fern crossed her eyes slightly. "Probably about seventy percent. The other thirty will probably try to enact a police state of some sort in the name of the queen. I'd say easily half of that seventy percent will run to Eira. The other half will be split between four other barons. I can get you their files, if you like."

"Sure, that might be useful." Moonstruck shrugged. "Eira only really has to worry about the queen, huh?"

"Yes. She basically manages by herself up there. As long as Lucena is in power we don't have to worry about her pulling anything, but well, we all know she's not afraid of Max." Fern grimaced. "Lucena has offed entire branches of House Rosegard to eliminate any potential heirs from other parts of the family. Frostgard is one of the few lines still going, and they're pretty inbred. Really, from Eiras point of view, marrying Max is the best bet for both the survival of her line, and her only real shot at the crown."

"I kinda figured." Moonstruck scrunched up her nose. "How closely related are they, anyway?"

"That is difficult to answer." Lindsey grimaced as well. "Max showed me his family tree once. The Frostgards basically... well, breed themselves like purebred dogs, with very little out-crossing to other branches of the Rosegard family tree. They really really want to keep their ice powers and all that in the family."

"Yikes!"

"So even though Eira is many, many, generations removed from Lucena time-wise, she's still basically a close cousin."

"Eww." Joseph grunted.

"Yeah, they don't really talk about it much, but they have a lot of issues with infertility and deafness."

"Yeah, 'cause of the white coats – which I'm sure they're also breeding for." Moonstruck gagged a little. It was weird enough to do that with animals, but ponies?

"And we're supposed to be the barbarians." Glenda muttered, eliciting a hearty laugh from the gathered ponies.

"Do they still do that out where you come from?" Evee asked.

"Good gravy, no! I mean, most alicorns are related to some extent, but we live for a really long time, so that just takes a while to work its way out of the gene pool." Moonstruck shook her head. Time to change the subject. "Anyway, I was thinking about how we're gonna deal with Magmanus earlier."

"Ugh, yeah. That's probably easier without Max around." Lindsey frowned as the others let out soft groans and slumped in their seats. "He, uh... well he doesn't think there's a way to stop him and he gets all gloom and doom and... er, we're pretty sick of hearing it."

"It shouldn't be too hard. Once we know what the ambient magic levels are, we'll know what he has to work with." Moonstruck shrugged.

The others gaped at her. Except for Joseph, whom seemed to be dozing (though he was likely listening), and Glenda whom was more curious than anything.

"What? Dragons are effected by low magic too. And if he's as big as you all say he is, he probably can't fly very well without it, much less project any sort of shield." Moonstruck furrowed her brow. "I'm not gonna go as far to say it'll be easy to take him out, but it's likely do-able."

They exchanged glances, then went back to gaping at her.

Moonstruck rolled her eyes. "I'm a dragonslayer back home. I've done this before."

"How?"Wenchell yelped.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Moonstruck chuckled. "Anyway, I think the main trick will be to take him out before we drop the shield. I have no idea how quickly the magic situation will normalize here, and I have no idea how quickly a dragon of his size, and age can recharge, so keeping him under the shield for as long as possible is key."

Jaws were on the floor. Moonstruck wasn't sure why this was all so shocking. "It also occurred to me that complete and utter chaos might work to our advantage, if we play our cards right. If Lucena is unable to summon Magmanus, most of her power is vaporized in an instant. Or if she summons him, and he can't even take off to unleash a thousand years of darkness or something, her power is instantly vaporized. Or she summons him, and I get to him first – you get the idea." She waved a hoof.

"You want to... use the shield against Lucena and Magmanus." Fern said very slowly. "You're going to weaponize the shield."

"Yeah, pretty much." Moonstruck shrugged.

"I like this." Glenda grunted, nodding.

"You also want to use the power vacuum that will result from the queens fall to our advantage." Lindsey said equally slowly.

"Yes. If everyone decides to rebel, the military will be stretched too thin to be very effective. And I'm sure the barons will be too busy fighting among themselves, or dealing with their own uprisings to cause much of a problem. At least for a little while." Moonstruck nodded. "Do you have forces in other cities?"

"I really like this." Glenda continued nodding.

"Yes, not many. Mostly our spy network." Fern exchanged glances with Evee. "Do you think we could start riots or something?"

"Probably. We'd need to move some commando cells into the area to make some surgical strikes. If we can time this right, we can take the city relatively quickly because the whole country will be so unhinged no one will be able to raise a hoof against us." Evee gasped. "And the citizens might just do our job for us in other cities."

"If we drop the shield after Lucena and Magmanus are down, Princess Moonstruck can bring in outside forces..." Fern started.

"And we can secure the whole country." Lindsey finished.

"This is absolutely insane." Wenchell grunted. "But it's way better than anything we've been able to come up with before."

"I thought Max kept saying your plans are more or less in place?" Moonstruck scratched the back of her head.

Everyone groaned again.

"Our infrastructure is, yeah. And evacuation plans. But as far as actually taking the city, nowhere near." Lindsey sighed. "Mostly it's because Max isn't willing to accept any losses. We've got everyone just about ready to go at a moments notice, but if Max isn't completely certain that a plan will ensure the safety of almost everyone, he won't give the go-ahead."

"To be fair, we haven't actually been able to challenge the queen until now." Wenchell grimaced. "Or rather, we didn't know we could. But we still couldn't do anything about Magmanus."

"I know. But still." Lindsey shook her head.

Moonstruck frowned. "I was afraid of that."

"He's too sweet natured for his own good." Glenda sighed. "The poor colt's going to have to accept there are going to be losses."

"And the losses are worth it, in the long run." Moonstruck eyed Glenda out of the corner of her eye. The old mare was always full of surprises. Joseph had mentioned she had been the leader of her clan for a while. It certainly explained a good chunk of those surprises.

"No, not worth it. Just inevitable." Glenda shook her head. "He's got the smarts to be a good leader, but he doesn't want to accept the less savory parts of it."

The others nodded.

"You're going to have to teach him that." She nudged Moonstrucks flank.

"What? Why me!?" She sputtered, half turning to face the old pegasus. "I'm a horrible leader! Ask my sister – I never do any of my paperwork and spend most of my time playing cards in a saloon with my friends!"

"Because you're an alicorn princess from the outside world." Glenda said coolly, eyeing her so intensely Moonstruck cowered a little. "He's been trying his best to be a good prince and protect everyone with what limited knowledge he has of what it is to be a kind, benevolent leader. Like it or not, you're setting an example for him."

"And don't sell yourself short, you're a good leader." She finally turned away, closing her eyes as she sniffed her tea. "You're just not, well, a princess in the traditional sense, as I understand it. You're not someone I can see leading a country, but you're a competent and cunning commander if the situation calls for it."

Moonstruck was not quite sure how to respond to all of that.

"Ha ha! Busted!" Joseph chortled.

Moonstruck casually wacked him in the back of the head with one wing. Or tried to anyway. He ducked at the last moment.

"Okay, great and wise retired clan-leader, how am I supposed to do that?" She asked, resisting the urge to teleport to bed.

"No idea." Glenda shrugged. "I'm sure you'll figure something out."

Moonstrucks skull made a hollow thud as it hit the table. Joseph burst out laughing as the historical society ponies giggled.

"She does have grandma powers!" Wenchell snorted.

"Grandma powers are the best powers!" Evee guffawed.

Moonstruck shifted so that she could see the others, only to lock gazes with Lindsey, whom wore a most disturbing grin. Deciding she didn't want to know what that was all about, Moonstruck sat up again.

"Okay, I think that's good for now. Should probably meet again after the beach trip."

The others agreed.

"Oh, and I'm gonna need a map I can scribble all over. But when we get back."

"What for?" Wenchell asked as ponies got up, scraping their stools across the floor and stretching tired limbs.

"I'm gonna make your lives a whole lot easier."


A/N: Sorry, been sick, so slight delay in posting.