//------------------------------// // Panic and lies at Canterlot. // Story: Reign of the shy-pony // by The_Swedish_Horror //------------------------------// A ragged, dusty creature with thorns and thistles in her coat walked alone trough the Equestrian countryside. Her pink mane was ruffled and she had bruises all over her body. It was Celestia, or rather, what was left of her. She was tired, thirsty and humiliated. Her pride had suffered a devastating blow but she didn't cry. She held her head high and walked along the railroad tracks south without any hesitation that she would accomplish her goal sooner or later. The warm summer wind played with her mane. There was still hope. She was still the rightful ruler of Equestria, no matter what others may think. There would be a long and dangerous walk to Canterlot, but she refused to change her direction. She had to face Fluttershy, with or without army. And she was not afraid. * * * Meanwhile Luna was investigating the strange cavern that she had stumbled upon. In the middle of it was a little pond with a surface blank as a mirror... Luna knew what this was. It could only be the famous Mirror Pond, a location that Celestia had specifically forbidden her to visit. "Do not go to the Mirror Pond, Luna," she had said nearly a hundred times. But that had only made Luna even more interested in the subject. Now she had finally found it. It was a pond. Big deal! A pond! Did Celestia really think that her sister was too irresponsible to be let near a pond, for Pony's sake?! She wasn't a little filly anymore! This was just a regular, underground pond and not the entrance to Xibalba! (another place that Celestia also had forbidden Luna to visit) "What is this mysterious piece of papyrus?" she asked when she found a little piece of paper with a note scribbled onto it: And into her own reflection she stared Yearning for one whose reflection she shared And solemnly sweared not to be scared At the prospect of being doubly mared On the other side of the paper she fond a pink cupcake-stain and some glitter from the topping of a cake. The text was written with crayons in a happy, ridiculous style of hoofwriting. "I find this to be a highly amusing work of poetry, although a bit lacking... Who would want be double mared? Like a some kind of monstrosity with eight legs? I have never heard such a stupid thing... Just imagine some tragic, lonesome poet reading this stupid nonsense out loud while swimming around in this pond like a fool. Oh, how I would like to be double mared! Ha!" In her most dramatic voice, Luna read the words out loud with all the mannerisms and quirks of a really bad poet. She then pretended to faint by the sheer beauty of her words, throwing her head back like she had seen Rarity do. "....of being doubly mared! Ah, what a senseless waste of good paper!" And then she tossed the letter like a crumpled little ball into the pond, where it immediately duplicated into two crumpled balls of paper! Luna quickly scoped up the balls of paper and compared them. They were identical. "It has been doubled?! What sorcery is this? A thing that somehow possesses the ability to make a copy of a written message? This is beyond belief! I have never seen anything like it! With this strange and magical pond, I can make copies of all my royal proclamations! I can write a letter to my subjects and send it with the post to tell them to join me in my glorious quest to take back the crown from Fluttershy!" Immediately Luna wrote down a most elegant letter in her finest hornwritning style on a piece of paper that she had always carried behind her gorget for a time like this; Dear citizens of Ponyville! This is a message from your Rightful, True and Honest Princess of the Night, Luna. Heed my call to join me in my Rightful and Noble revolution against the Evil reign of The Usurper of the Throne of Equestria. In this dark times we need to stand up against evil and darkness and take back our future! We need to be brave and united against the Forces of Tyranny and Flutterism that threaten Our way of life and Our freedom! I will now bow and I will not yield until Peace has been restored to our World. With love from Luna, your kind and thoughtful ruler. She said the magic rhyme once more and put the letter in the pond. It doubled as expected, but when she fished them up from the water she found that both letters had became a soggy and unreadable mess! "DRAT!" she yelled and threw the wet pieces of paper on the ground. "What a blasted idea! A magic pond for copying papers that delivers wet, useless papers! Tis absurd! All this work for nothing! Now, l shall stop this nonsense and go back to Ponyville!" * * * Meanwhile at Canterlot, princess Fluttershy was handling the situation with usual grace. She was currently hiding underneath her bed, curled into a ball and crying. Poor ponies... She never wanted anypony to die! And what would the other ponies do to her when they found out that she had "accidently" committed horrific acts of ponycide and blown up both Celestia and Cadance? The subjects must not know! Not ever! The explosion at the Friendship Express must be written off as an accident at all cost. But most of the evidence was still pointing towards her... The first thing she had done was to instantly throw both Lightning Dust and Mr Greenhooves in jail. They knew too much. She had even thought of throwing her advisor in jail too, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. The second thing that she needed to do was to remove and hide all the remaining barrels of gunpowder somewhere safe. And she knew just the spot. The same, ingenious location where she had earlier hidden away the Canterlot archives from Twilight... There was still room left and a few barrels with explosive material would fit in easily, she thought. There was a knock on the door. "Go away! I'm crying!" "Please, Fluttershy... Open the door... I just came here from Ponyville." She instantly recognized that voice! "Rarity?!" "Yes. Please let me in!" Slowly Fluttershy crawled out from underneath the bed and opened up the door, just a little, so that Rarity could enter. "Oh, Fluttershy! What a magnificent room! Oh, what lovely curtains... And the bed! The bed is to die for!" "Nopony has died! Um, I mean... yes, it's a nice bed. It's very soft." "And the wallpapers... Well, you could use a painting over there, of course, but apart from that it is a very beautiful room." "Um... yes. Yes it is." Rarity noticed the swollen eyes of her friend. "You said you were crying? What's the matter, my dearest Fluttershy? Please tell me, darling." "I... I'm just a bit frustrated, that's all. Nothing to worry about..." "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm fine." "I only want to help..." "You could do so by joining my new government!" Fluttershy said. "What?! New government? But I'm not sure that..." "I will make you minister of finance! I've always found it difficult to use numbers and stuff, but you would probably know a thing or two about monetary matters." "But... but.. please, I cannot accept the appointment! I... I don't know anything about finance and taxes! I only know about fashion and creativity! Can't you just ask Twilight instead? I'm sure she'll just love it." "No! That's out of the question!" "Why is that?" "She... um... she has the pony pox! She needs to stay in her bed and rest, that's why she can't be minister of finance." "Oh, dear Celestia... May I see her?" "No! Absoultely not! I mean... You could, if you don't mind the risk of getting the pony pox too. It's a very, very contagious disease and your body would be covered with brown, hideous, watery poxes..." "Oh... On second thought, I could just send her a card." "That would be nice. And maybe some chocolate too?" * * * Twilight Sparkle was dressed in rubber hoof boots and a little orange helmet with a light on it. She had crawled into Canterlot's vast sewer system to investigate where the stolen money was hidden. She had always thought that the sewage would run straight trough a hole in the ground and run down the mountainside like a river of filth in a fairly uncomplicated way. But since Fluttershy had taken over, she had somehow managed to clog the entire system and horribly dirty water was now standing high in the ancient tunnels that had been carved out from the rock itself. Twilight almost fainted by the terrifying stench, but by sheer willpower she managed to keep herself upright. If she had fainted, she would have fallen into the horrible muck. She took a deep breath and concentrated on breathing only trough the mouth. Slowly she continued her journey in the smelly underground of Canterlot. Long stalactites hung down from the ceiling and the walls were decorated with carvings from the time that the sewers were built, over a thousand years ago. After a while she had reached an underground river. The water was almost black and there were a few pony skeletons on the ancient quay, where the water had overflowed. She saw an old, rotten ferry moored to a big iron hoop. There was a hooded creature on it, hiding in the shadows. "H-hello?" Twilight asked while stepping closer. The creature slowly turned its head and looked at her. "E-excuse me... My name is Twilight Sparkle and... and I..." "I know who you are," the creature said. "You do?" "Yes, Twilight. For long I have wandered by your side." "Oh no! You must be Death!" Twilight cried in terror. "No! I don't want to die! Not yet! I'm still young!" She turned around and ran for all that her life was worth, splashing trough the water in full panic! But when she looked over her shoulder she saw that the hooded creature was following her at great speed, quickly gaining on her! Oh no! "You'll never take me alive, Death!" she screamed. She felt a pair of cold hooves grabbing her from behind! Then everything went black. * * * There was frantic knocking on the door to Applejack's home at Sweet Apple acres. The kind of knocking that signalled that really bad things would show up at the other side of the door. "Dear Applejack! Please open up! We have done something very, very bad!" It was the unmistakable voice of princess Luna. Applejack wondered what in the name of Celestia she could have done and why she needed her help so badly. Was it because everypony else that were connected to the Elements of Harmony were away? Most likely. But Applejack didn't mind that, she assured herself. "Ah'm coming, sugarc... Ah mean, princess!" Applejack said and went for the door. When she opened her jaw dropped. "What the hay?!" There was a big, blue mass in front of her. Maybe over one thousand of Lunas, all identical! "We found this pond... and... I... I mean we, we accidently did... this stupid thing. It is nothing that we are particularly proud of." "How many are you, princess?" "We are thousands." "Oh, buck. Bucking hay... How did... And why? Just why? For the love of Pony, why?!" "We did not really think it through..."