Chapter 38: Nightmare Stars 3

Raven Inkwell was having a regular day.

At least, as Regular a day the most important non-noble pony in Equestria can have when the moon is still in the sky during what is supposed to be the middle of the day, but semantics.

"Blueblood is missing!" Correction, Raven Inkwell was having a regular day until exactly this moment in time, when Starlight Glimmer, criminal on parole, bodyguard to the Prince, and ex-cult leader, barged into her office and yelled those words.

Raven Inkwell was no longer having a regular day.

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"So let me get this straight?" Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, the stallion in charge of the security of the crown, said as he listened to Starlight and Raven explain the situation.

"What you're trying to tell me is that Prince Blueblood has gone missing, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna left the castle earlier today without notifying anypony, and now we need to locate the Princesses to alert them that the Prince has gone missing. Did I get that right?"

"Pretty much," Starlight nodded her head, "So can you get your men to start looking already?"

Shining Armor leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment.

Finally, something interesting was happening that didn't involve simply arresting people, he could actually do something today instead of sitting in his office all day and going over documents.

However on the other hand, Prince Blueblood is kind of annoying, he never used his name correctly, always changing it to something like Twinkling Shoulderpad or Sparkling Shield. Which while keeping his name of a form of "Shine" and a piece of "Armor" was still annoying.

But he was also a Prince of Equestria, and it was his job as the captain of the royal guard to protect him.

"Also, Celestia will actually banish us both if we don't find him." Starlight added with a straight face, causing Shining to quickly lean forward in his chair and agree to the two mares job.

"Find Princess Celestia, got it!" He said quickly, "You can count on me!"

Hearing those words, Raven couldn't help but interject.

"Like how we counted on you to protect the Prince last night?" Shining flinched back as if injured, "Or like that time we had to count on your guards to stop anything from happening during the Grand Galloping Gala?" Shining once again inched back, as if struck by a mighty blow.

"Or like how we counted on those three guards who were supposed to protect the Prince a month ago," Starlight added, and got the attention of both other ponies in the room.

"You were the one who assaulted them that time, Please keep your words relevant," Raven told her, before looking back to the captain, "But she is correct, your recent track record of doing your job is less than stellar,"

"...Yeah..." Shining Armor said sadly before standing up from his chair and going to the door of his office, "I'm... I'll go get the carriage ready," And he stepped out, leaving the two mares alone in his office.

"Welp," Starlight said, trying to lighten the awkward mood that the captain left in his wake, "At least he agreed to help, right?"

Raven stared blankly at Starlight, causing the Unicorn to chuckle awkwardly before standing up from her chair, "I'll just be taking my leave now."

"Wait." Starlight paused, turning her head to look at the Secretary of Equestria, the Right Hoof Mare of Princess Celestia, One of the most important ponies in the world.

Look away from her, trying and failing to hide the blush on her face.

"Oh no," Starlight thought to herself.

"I wanted to ask you," Raven began, And starlight started panicking as the question she was about to be asked started playing in her mind, and the Mare didn't know what to do with it.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Starlight said quickly, trying to stop the Earth Pony from embarrassing herself, "Look, I'm trying to say this as easily as I can, but you're just not my type, and I don't see you that way at all."

There, That should ease her burdens.

"..."

"..."

"...Do you think Blueblood would agree to grab a coffee with me?" Raven Inkwell squeaked out, her voice so quiet the only reason Starlight was even able to hear it was the awkward silence that filled the room.

And the two mares silently stood in Shining Armor's office, one too embarrassed that she jumped to such a wrong conclusion and ended up making the situation much more unbearable than it should be.

And the other, silently sitting in a chair, refusing to make eye contact, her entire front half flushed with embarrassment, red like a strawberry.

"Okay! So I got the carriage set, are we ready to go?" Shining Armor asked as he loudly entered his office, before pausing when he noticed the awkward silence.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked as he watched the Secretary of Equestria stand up from her chair, eyes glued to the ground, walk towards his bookshelf, Press her hoof on one of the carved branches decorating the side of the shelf, before silently entering the doorway that appeared in the wall next to it, closing the hidden passageway behind her.

Leaving Shining Armor and Starlight Glimmer staring at the wall she just entered.

"I didn't know that was there," The captain whispered to himself as he stared at the wall, no sign of a hidden passageway anywhere.

"Come on, We don't have time," Starlight said, turning back to the door and walking out, turning left at the corridor.

"The carriage is that way," Shining Armor called out to her, his head pointing to the right side of the corridor.

Starlight turned around and walked in the correct way, "I knew that,"

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"And you have no clue where she could have disappeared to?" Princess Luna asked five of the six Elements of Harmony.

"No," Twilight Sparkle said, her eyes full of worry for the safety of one of her friends, "She always tells Sweetie Belle if she's going somewhere, but this time? Nothing. It was like she just vanished,"

"And not only that!" Rainbow Dash picked up where Twilight left off, "Her cat, Opalescence, has refused to move from her bed, scratching and hissing at us as if we were going to hurt it!"

"Please, Princess, Please bring Rarity back to me," A young Unicorn Filly told the group, her friends hugging her for comfort.

Seeing all the ponies worried for the safety of their friend and sister, Luna knew that she had to do something, and if everything that happened in the last year taught her anything, it's that Rarity going Missing will somehow tie into why the moon is refusing to lower.

"Of course," Princess Luna told the filly, Sweetie Belle, "We will find your sister, there is no need to worry."

And as the group slowly calmed down, a plan for investigation slowly coming together, all of it was thrown out of the window when Fluttershy of all ponies pointed at the moon and yelped in fright.

Because imposed over the surface of the moon, looking down at them, standing over the white canvas of the moon's surface like a painting of ink and shadows, was a tall Unicorn Mare.

A Mare on the Moon.

And one whose mane was eerily similar to a currently missing Unicorn.

And as the ponies gaped in shock at the sudden turn of events, one pony piped up.

"Well, I think we found Rarity," She said, ignoring the glares that were then pointed at her.

"What? Too soon?" Pinkie Pie asked once she noticed the glares of the group, "Too soon," She nodded and turned her head back to the Mare on the Moon.

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Looking out of the window of a flying carriage carried by three Pegasi guards, Starlight Glimmer and Shining Armor stared in shock and awe as the moon seemed to slowly descend toward the earth, not like it was going to crush it, but more like it was going to build a bridge between itself and Equestria.

And it seemed to be headed straight to Ponyville.

And seeing all of this, Shining Armor, Captain of the royal guard, the pony in charge of the security of the Crown and its people, had one single thought go through his mind.

"That's where Twilight is!" And with an order to the guards flying the carriage, The Captain of the Royal Guard and the Bodyguard of Prince Blueblood both made their way to the town of Ponyville.

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Meanwhile, A certain Prince was enjoying his time.

Seeing the old and archaic architecture of the place he found himself in, He couldn't help but enjoy himself a bit.

"I give my life, not for honor, but for you," He sang, his voice unheard thanks to the illusion he cast over himself, the crude spears he made from the bars of his prison cell levitated behind him, banging against each other in a barbaric mockery of music, "Snake eater,"

"In my time, there'll be no one else," He whistled the tune.

"Crime, it's the way I fly to you, snake eater,

I'm still in a dream, snake eater"

And as he sang to himself, walking down the corridors of the castle on the moon, he came to a stop when a room caught his eye.

And the smile on his face, widened as he looked deeper into the room.

Treasure, bars of Gold and Silver, gemstones of all shapes and sizes, old tools and weapons, likely thousands of years old, all in pristine condition.

Blueblood took a look at the spears he levitated behind himself, before throwing them onto the floor, making sure that no sound left the room he was currently in.

And with an illusion over the room to make it look as if nothing was happening, The Prince took a magical bag of holding, likely sewn from the finest of cloths and enchanted by the best of magics, and dumped as much treasure into it as he could.

"HAHAHAHA! I'M RICH! HAHAHA!" He was simply enjoying himself, nothing more.

"TRADE COMPANY?! I CAN START A TRADE EMPIRE!!! HAHAHA!!!" Seriously, Prince Blueblood was simply happy to have all this treasure.

And as he cackled maniacally- Laughed regularly to himself, he spotted a gem near the back of the room.

A gem that seemed to look like a shard of a larger piece, almost like a puzzle. Red and green...

And if his previous smile was wide, his current face was that of a starving man, who after years in the desert, eating nothing but bugs, found the juiciest, richest, medium-rare slice of steak a five-star chef could cook, and it was all for him.

"Hey Cosmos," He whispered to himself, the smile not leaving his face, "You wouldn't believe what I found."

And with a flick of his horn, one of the missing body parts of the lady who lives inside the gem he keeps in his pocket went into the bag.

And after almost an hour of digging through the absolutely giant room of treasure, the Prince filled the bag of holding to the brim and levitated it above his head as he left the treasure room, his spears replaced with high-quality weapons, from Golden swords and spears to clubs and axes dotted with gemstones. 

"What a thrill, With darkness and silence through the night,"