War of Shadows - Interlude VIII
Calm and serene the night princess made her way down the hallway. Amidst the chaos and confusion after the changeling invasion she was an island of calm. Her deliberate, measured steps carried her down the crowded hallway and gave ponies ample time to move from her path. They flowed around her like water around a stone. She was the very essence of mental and physical stability.
It was of course a complete farce. A complex set of illusions affixed to her person to give the appearance of calm. If any unicorn were to dare the heresy (and defensive enchantments upon her person) of sensing the magic placed upon the dark alicorn it would have been clear to them that she was beyond furious.
Nevertheless nearby unicorns could not help but notice the sympathetic tingle in their horn as she passed by. They assumed it was just the magical nature of the alicorn becoming more prevalent during such a stressful time. None of them noticed her guards passing by under cover of invisibility spells
A door to her right gently opened and she stepped in before closing it with her magic. Inside were ponies of note and significance from Canterlot and beyond. Two princesses and a prince, the entire command staff of the day guard, the chief steward and several other servants, and the bearers of the elements of harmony all stood before her giving the same questioning look.
Why have I been ordered here? It asked. In response Luna let the invisibility spells around her fade. No longer concealed a dozen armed night guards surrounded the room. Their deep purple armor and golden eyes had the same menacing look but the claws on their hoofs and weapons sheathed at their side gave them a lethal and malevolent look. The illusions were next.
Celestia alone understood the significance of Luna removing the mask of illusions she had developed. This was not to be a place of decorum. Courtly order and proceedings would hold no sway.
As the illusions dissolved away so did her stoic expression. An angry grimace covered her face and she was tense, her ears constantly swiveled listening for any threat, and her eyes looked darkly around the room. Her pupils now bore a slight angle at the top and bottom.
“When faced with defeat,” she began, “it is tempting to let anger rule and assign blame. That is not why I am here, but we must learn from our mistakes lest we face defeat again.”
“What defeat, we kicked their tails right off of this mountain!” Rainbow Dash said as she threw a few punches.
“Ah, Loyalty,” Luna said with a sneer that revealed fangs, “You always were the first to fight and the last to understand. Think. Changelings would be better served infiltrating Equestria, scattered across every city, every village, not invading in an army. Guile not force is where they are strongest. And we have played right into Chrysalis’s hooves. She even convinced Equestria that it had repelled the invasion, I have not faced an enemy so cunning in a dozen centuries.”
“What are you talking about? The changelings are gone,” Rainbow answered back.
“From Canterlot perhaps,” Luna said with a dark chuckle. “And gone, not dead.”
“Luna, I have to agree with Rainbow on this. The Changelings have been driven off,” Celestia said.
“They have eyes but they cannot see”, Luna muttered to herself before she spoke aloud. “Why did they attack Canterlot? Why not take the industrial centers at Manehatten or Baltimare and make us field an army without the proper equipment? Why not burn every acre of farmland they can and force us to choose whether we let our citizens starve or march an army on an empty stomach? Why would they try and take the fortified capitol that contained only a symbolic seat of power? This attack makes no sense because it was never meant to be an attack.
“It was a cover and a distribution method. Everypony was so relieved to see the changelings gone but did anypony ever stop to ask where they landed? Prince Shining may be the most accomplished shield caster of this generation and Princess Cadenza may be an alicorn but even together they could not throw an army beyond Equestria’s borders.
"And so they landed, scattered across Equestria, in every city and every village in the perfect position to bring this nation down from the inside. Make no mistake this war has just begun!”
The room exploded into a cacophony of shouts and protests. Amidst all this Celestia and Luna sat silently meeting each other’s gaze. The implications of what Luna had said went farther than anypony knew, in times of war Luna was given all authority in Equestria. The only catch was that Celestia had to agree that Equestria was at war.
So there they sat, with a single sentence Celestia could make Luna more powerful than even herself. There was a chance that Chrysalis had just been a fool to attack Canterlot but Luna seemed convinced otherwise. A single sentence and the thousand years of peace would be brought to a close. Celestia had worked hard for that peace but she hadn’t forgotten the signs of war.
Outside citizens walked in twos and threes. They peered around every corner and checked for danger. The castle stirred with motion like a disturbed anthill and the city struggled to regain a sense of normalcy. Beyond a nation was shaken and fearful at what the future may hold.
“Luna,” at a single utterance from Celestia the room fell silent. “War is…is it really necessary?”
“That is for you to decide. You know better than any other what I will do with your approval. While you are deliberating remember.
Remember when you were forced to curb your attack on Chrysalis for fear of harming your subjects, remember when you were imprisoned and helpless as those insects ran through our capitol unopposed, remember how helpless the rest of Equestria is to endure such an assault, and I think you will find that it is necessary. You may leave.”
Celestia, along with the rest of the room, rose to her hooves and started towards the door.
Luna’s voice rang out over the growing din of ponies getting up to leave, “This may be something of a public venue for me to converse with my sister, nevertheless it was her and her alone I was addressing; I am far from done with the rest of you.” Celestia slipped out of the door as Luna began unravelling the mistakes of what was coming to be called the Wedding Invasion. A last glimpse showed Celestia her subjects looking at Luna in confusion at the exchange that had taken place and at Luna’s being the sole voice of authority. Celestia closed the door and retreated through the scurrying mass of ponies to her quarters. They parted before her and her guard, retreating to the walls and bowing as she passed.
She regarded this custom with mixed feelings. She basked in the affection behind their deference, yet to impose such an inconvenience at her mere passing did not sit well with her. On a less hectic day she would return each greeting and perhaps chat with a few of her ponies in the hallway but today she had no time for such pleasantries.
She walked tall and proud through the hallway, dwarfing even her golden armored guard. She held her head high and flared her wings slightly. Luna was so proud of that image of a monster she projected to other nations but in times like this Celestia had her own image to project.
Proud and fearless, she was a monarch who saw the challenges ahead and knew she would overcome. She was one whom the old would respect and the young would fight for, would die for.
And just like that, with the soft click of her door closing behind her, her ‘war face’ fell. She hated it. The biggest lie in the history of Equestria was that in times of war she was not afraid and helpless.
She had power mind you. A few words and the nobility gave fortunes to whatever she wanted, a flick of her horn and armies turned to dust. Armies; two of them, one of her enemies and one…not.
These thoughts occupied Celestia for hours as she gazed out her window into the courtyard. Luna must have finished her meeting because she had nearly every unicorn in the guard learning Twilight’s anti-changeling spell. Twilight made a good teacher as she stood before the assembled unicorns. Within minutes Luna had dismissed her and summoned her guard’s work since the invasion.
A dozen changelings, some very roughed up, were released into the courtyard. Some immediately took on new forms to try and blend with the crowd others took to the sky. While those on the ground were revealed by spells Luna ensured that the flyers would never fly again. A look of grim concentration took over her features as she maimed the fleeing changelings.
For all her power Celestia always felt that Luna was a truer alicorn than her; Luna seemed to have a double portion of the night ponies’ gift for dealing death while Celestia had none of it. Luna seemed not to feel anything as precise spells shot out from her horn. In the few fight’s Celestia had been in she had lost herself to the heat of the moment and decimated everything around her.
Luckily nopony had been nearby to be hurt but Celestia feared what might happen if she ever tried to fight alongside an army, much less lead one. No she could only put on her brave princess face and prance around, raising money and giving pretty speeches to armies that always returned smaller. She could only sit on her plot, afraid for the ponies on the frontline and helpless to do anything about it while the war raged on.
She hated war, Sun and Stars how she hated war, but when faced with a race that wanted nothing but to feed on her ponies what could she do about it? How could she fend off these monsters but to release her own self-proclaimed monster on them?
For hours she wrestled with these thoughts, pacing restlessly in her chambers until the courtyard below cleared out and Luna alone remained with the bloody corpses of the changelings.
In a flash Celestia teleported down to her sister. Even amongst the carnage she stood tall and dignified. Her next words would set the fate of her nation for months, if not years, to come and she refused to speak them in defeat. She would speak as one who was brave and strong, one who possessed untold wisdom and knowledge. One who was worth dying for.
“It is war."
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Truer Alicorn.
Really?
Yet, I think, for Celestia, by her nature and her ethics, this is a greater defeat than that Chrysalis inflicted upon her.
My popcorn is ready.
Well this just took a dark, potentially canon-incompatible turn. A war on changelings over the height and width of Equestria, with Luna taking the reigns as the princess in sole command?
I'm also having a hard time buying Celestia not throwing a fit at what to everyone else in the room should look like Luna arresting everyone in power other than her sister:
Cause that bit right there really looks like the start of a coup. And even if Celestia didn't have a problem with it, I can't imagine that at least someone in that room (probably many someones) wouldn't be loudly unhappy, especially since they would all still be on edge from the changeling attack.
4788714
No kidding, if what amounted to 12 well armed assassins uncloaked in the room around me, I'd be scared shitless even on a normal day.
4786467 Share.
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4788714
You guys do have a point there. I really didn't think about the crowds reaction to the guards until you had brought it up. If I ever edit this chapter more than just hunting for grammar mistakes I'll address that but for now lets just say they were scared stiff, as out of character as that may be for some of them.
4785516 Truer is a word(I checked for exactly that phrase) and as awkward as it sounds I liked it better than more true. I still wish I could have come up with a better phrasing for that but nothing came to mind.
4817328 Going to have to disagree there.
Bug ponies don't look all that dangerous. You throw in twelve badass mother fuckers who are well known to curb stomp their foes even with the odds set to 40:1 and I'd be more surprised if a few of them didn't flee outright. The ones that would normally act, would be to busy warring with the Fight or Flight instincts that told them 'Hey! See those bros? Those fuckers right there take no prisoners. You SURE you wanna play this game? They will fuck you up and not even take the time to watch the life fade from your eyes if you start something...' Being scared stiff wouldn't be OOC from anyone save Celestia.
Realistically? Fluttershy is on the ground, along with Rarity. Pinkie would probably already be gone Pinkie Style. She's an actor not a thinker and it's hard for her to restrain herself. She'd run with tail 'tween her legs. Twilight has a over-charged shield around her and those remaining. Rainbow and AJ look ready to turn tail and run but haven't quite decided if they should. Loyalty being what it is and Honesty being as stubborn as it can be.
I can't help but find Luna a flawed example of an alicorn, far too ready to rush off to needless war, too ready to shed blood needlessly. She does not drive off an invasion, she destroys it. If there were a way to defeat/kill her, even the other nations would likely rush to be rid of her.
I find it kind of boring that the invasion seems glossed over. Unless these events are vastly different from canon Luna should be disturbed that Chrysalis could deceive her so easily.
5038580
They don't look dangerous, but that doesn't mean they aren't. Against the nightponies they might fail, but the royal guard would lose hard. What with being a hive mind, I don't think they could run even if they wanted to do. Honestly I don't if they even have much of a fight/flight mechanism at all. Even if they did it is likely submerged too deep to matter. Twelve bad-ass mother fuckers don't matter if they are just regular ponies. Besides no one can fight 40:1, they might manage 10:1 at any given point in time and if the enemy is serious and adequately equipped/trained it will be tough going. The reality is that when it comes to melee combat, overwhelming numbers can do the job. Take the guns and missiles and modern tech away from our military and they be struggling to fight for their lives. Especially if the enemy has serious armor. Bulletproof vests wouldn't hold up to a well made, properly sharpened sword wielded expertly.
I don't think Pinkie would run away unless she actually got injured and Fluttershy would one step from feeling the whole time. I expect that Rainbow and Applejack would stay as long as there was something to fight for and/or somepony to protect.
5262851 I'm not sure if you forgot this part, but Luna was patrolling the Equeatrian border at the time the wedding happened. She might beat herself up over not being there, but you can't see through a deception when you can't even see the person deceiving you in the first place.
So Celestia has a backbone in that immortal body of hers after all. I only hope Luna doesn't turn Equestria into a military state. Given how nothing visibly changes in Ponyville in the show throughout Season 3, I'm guessing she does not. Although Ponyville may be so far removed from the rest of Equestria that it just didn't feel the obvious effects.
comma after concealed
If Celestia can destroy two armies with a flick of her horn, why not simply leave your army at home and go fight the war on yourself, and save your nation the death/ expense of having an army!?!?
Cause the only real danger for Chrysalis was an alicorn. With the infiltration and the surprise attack on Canterlot she managed to beat two of them (with the third being in an unidentified place, but, with Celestia prisoner, Chrysalys had at least an hostage), while, after taking Manehattan or Baltimare, she had only to wait for the reaction of the more powerful threats, with their power intact, and allowing them the initiative.