A Princedom Divided - Book 1 of The Princess and Her Guard Duology

by Moonlit Novel

Chapter Twelve: The End of a Short War

Author's Note:

Chapter Eleven has been changed slightly, but also here you are the final Chapter, a lot sooner than I thought it. However, I hope you enjoyed the ride

Because it ain't over yet!

Chapter Twelve: The End of a Short War

“Do not kill them” I whispered to the two unicorn that we brought with us, “Just make them sleep, the less death we create on our way to the target, the more likely we will make it out of here alive” I said and they nodded silently as I turned to Luna and sighed quietly, “Consul, this is going to be far from an easy mission, I still think we should have worked our way to Canterlot through the battlefield, it would have taken longer, but at least then we wouldn't be sneaking around and tempting fate”

“If you wish to stop tempting fate, then quiet yourself, Moonlit, we cannot afford to alert the Solar Guard to our presence” said Luna annoyed at me for my comment...

- - -

“So the 'Loyal Traitor' shows herself! Come then traitor! You call yourself the best, let us see you prove it!” said Spitfire trying to goad Rainbow Dash into attacking her, but all she succeeded in doing was making the blue mare smirk

“I was good enough to fly circles around you and the rest of the Wonderbolt in the battle for Skyville, slowpoke” Rainbow shot back before drawing a Calvary sword and centered herself so she would not lose control of her flight in the middle of the fight. Spitfire sneered at her as she drew a short straight blade and readied herself as well...

- - -

“Steady! Steady! FIRE!!” shouted Golden Sword and the cannons let loose a roar of thunder as they rained down fire and death upon the small desert town, alerting them to the presence of the NLR troops whom were attacking under the cover of night, their eyes far more accustom to the lesser light than their Solar Empire cousins. After the first cannon volley, Golden Sword stood straighter and with a yell sounded the charge into the suddenly alert town, sweeping in and cutting down any meager resistance the town offered in their shock. “I demand your immediate surrender” said Golden Sword as he stood in front of the Solar Empire troop commander in charge of the forces in Appleloosa.

“Never! You traitors have no honor! You betrayed the rightful ruler and sent us into this war” said the commander and Golden Sword shook his head but turned to his troops

“Capture any, and all, Solar Empire troops and lock them up in the stockade, and troops that surrender are to be given full quarter, is that understood soldiers?” asked Golden Sword, and his troops grumbled but nodded knowing better than to outright voice their discontent with the General's orders, or to disobey them, the last one to disobey his orders had been locked in Solitary for a week, and was only released because the Consul ordered it.

- - -

Their blades crossed several times. However Spitfire was the one with more cuts than Rainbow Dash, as it was soon revealed, as she was wearing a lightweight mail armor under her uniform.

“Did'ya really think we were going to stay technologically frozen, Spitfire?” asked Rainbow as she saw the shocked look on Spitfire's face which served to change that look of shock into one of anger as she launched herself into another bout with the lead Shadowbolt

- - -

We were getting closer to my sister's bedchambers when two more of those creatures showed up and attacked us, and from the sounds coming from my sister's room we were not the only ones fighting.

“Get in there you two, defend my sister, these creatures are a danger to both sides!” I ordered Moonlit not move away but the two unicorns we had brought with us burs through the door only for tendrils of shadow to wrap around their necks and pull them in so sharply we all heard the necks snap and I found myself wishing that they had died as there was no cure for a broken spinal cord, even if we were already working on it.

“Consul, I need you to take care of these two, and we can worry about our fallen afterwards, we still need to talk to your sister” said Moonlit, how could he be so callus I thought but when I looked at him I saw that he was at that moment fighting for his life his shadow magicks barely holding these creatures of light back...

- - -

“Empress! Those were two of Luna's soldiers!” said Twilight as she shot a spell of light at the two shadow creatures that were advancing towards them, “Why would these creatures attack their allies?” she asked

“I do not-wait...” said Celestia as she forced the sun to rise and the moon to set in a large burst of magic, in which the shadow creatures seemed to scream in pain as they smoked in the sunlight. “Im-impossible! Twilight! See to those soldiers! We need to find out what had happened” said Celestia and just as she said that Luna came bursting into the room ready to fight, but it seemed she did not see her target and relaxed visibly.

“Hello Sister”

- - -

Blades crossed again and again and Spitfire growled angrily again, as Rainbow continued to fly circles around her.

“Just give up, after all you are the ranking officer here, all it would take for this to stop is for you to surrender” said Rainbow Spitfire just a glob of blood filled saliva at Rainbow Dash.

“I will never surrender, not to a traitor!” said Spitfire angrily, and all at once Rainbow's expression changed, gone was the smirk, gone was the mercy, all that remained was absolute hatred.

“I am sorry to hear that, I hope you find your way to Elysium” said the despondent Rainbow Dash as she was about to swing her sword and remove the head from Spitfire when the call for retreat was heard, and Rainbow looked around and saw that while she had been fighting Spitfire the NLR had pushed the rest of the SE pegasus out of Cloudsdale. This was all it took for Dash to center herself and look at Spitfire, “Go, you lost this fight, but if you attempt to keep fighting you will lose more than the city”

- - -

“Hello Sister” said Luna greeting her sister, the fact I did not hear combat going on inside the room was a boon to my spirits, but never-the-less, I was still out here fighting these creatures made of light, and now two creatures made of shadow have appeared behind me, however they do seem very cautious around my shadow magic as much as the light creatures. I was soon against a wall, my eyes shifting between the four creatures, a small smile on my face.

“So this is how I go? Well then, let's go, I am not going quietly” I said quietly and they jumped at me and my blade swung hard and cut through one, my shield bashed another back and I ducked under the third, but did not escape unscathed from the fourth as it slashed its claws at me cutting into the heavily enchanted armor I wore and my flesh screamed in pain as I struggled to catch my breath, I was by no means out of shape, and I did keep up my endurance, but... I ducked as the creature I had cut in half slashed above me, my eyes wide. This was a fight I could not win no matter what strategy I employed, I may be able to defeat the two light creatures but I would never survive the two shadow ones. Just then two beams of light tore into the shadow creatures the source of such light being Celestia and her student, Twilight Sparkle whose glare would have killed all that looked upon it, if looks could kill.

- - -

“Sister, I take it that these are not your doing then?” asked my sister and I gave her a reproachful look

“How dare you imply that I want you dead sister! You have endangered our ponies! I did exactly what you would have done in my place!” I argued and Celestia Scoffed, undeterred I continued, “Tia, we have been played against one another, can't you see it? I was nearly killed a fortnight ago, and not by any of your forces! Please Tia, all I want is peace between you and I, can we not live in peace once again?” emotions pouring out into my voice unbidden and Celestia's face softened.

“Why are we fighting? You say you are fighting to protect our ponies, and I say the same, so why exactly are we fighting?” my sister asked and I smiled softly, “Perhaps you are right and we are being played against one another, come sit-” there was a loud bang as if someone just smashed against a shield, and a groan as if someone had just been-

“MOONLIT!” I shouted and I ran out followed closely by my sister and her student who as soon as they saw my... What was he to me? My friend? Well that goes without saying, but he is so much more...

- - -

“MOONLIT!” my sister shouted and ran out of the room and I followed with my student close at my heels and I saw something that cemented what Luna had been saying, here was the one I blamed for causing the rift between my sister and I and he was fighting the creatures by himself, four of them and two of them were made of LIGHT! Oh no... Not them! Not again! A rage bubbled up in my chest as I saw this lone unicorn take on creatures that had caused so much destruction during Discord's reign, more so then Discord himself. Discord though seemed to hate them as much as they did as well so it was not likely that they were allied. So with that rage I fired a beam of pure light into the back of one of the shadow creatures another beam of light originating from my student Twilight flew into the back of the other one completely obliterating the creatures. After a moment I saw Luna's face twist into one of pure fury as she sent shadow magic into one of the light creatures causing it to scream in agony and Luna seemed to forcing just enough light into it to keep it alive while she tortured it

- - -

Seeing Luna occupy one of the remaining creatures I focused on the last one my shadow tendrils wrapping around it and slowly killing it as I had no magic powerful enough to kill it in one blow but soon I heard the screams from the one Luna had taken, it was that of a creature in pure agony...

- - -

'NOT HIM! NOT HIM!!!' I thought as I forced more and more magic into the creature intent on making it pay for every death that these creatures had caused, and for nearly costing me Moonlit, I would not lose him, not to these creatures. I love him! That thought struck me hard, I love him, I would move mountains for him, I would do anything for him, just as he swore he would for me, and he proved it, he held off these creatures as I talked to my sister, he could have died! For me, just as he told me he would! And these creatures dared to think I would let him die because of them!? They would pay for their folly!

“DIE YOU CREATURES!” I screamed with rage and soon the creature I had in my magic soon burst apart and my glare quickly turned to the remaining one and I tore into it with the same magic but then I stopped, my magic touched Moonlit's and I felt his love for me―stronger than ever―and his fear, he feared that I was losing myself. My eyes widened and I shoved pure shadow magic into the creature causing it to explode as the ones before it. “Moonlit” I said taking a more scared tone as I walked over to him, he didn't move away, nor did he even cringe as I cupped his face, the look on it was one of pure love, “I'm sorry”

- - -

“I'm sorry” said my sister, something had changed in those few moments when their magic had touched, was I wrong? Had I been mistaken about this unicorn? Did he truly care for my sister? I thought that maybe he just wanted to bed her, I mean what stallion wouldn't want the chance to sleep with one of us, I have heard many of my own guard that say as much.

“It's alright, Luna, no harm done” said the unicorn as he pulled her into an embrace and a gentle kiss. Twilight tugged at my nightgown

“Empress, wha-I mean, what is going on?” she asked me and I smiled gently

“I think that maybe soon there will be more Alicorn than before” I replied quietly before walking up to the unicorn and cleared my throat...

- - -

I heard Celestia clear her throat which made Luna and I separate, and we turned to her and received an unexpected smile.

“It is I, who must apologize, I feared that you were trying to bed my sister, that all you wanted was to, how is it? Get into her pants-”

“But Sister, I do not wear pants except when I wear armor, and I doubt they would fit him even if he tried” said Luna and I nearly facehoofed until I saw the joking smile on her face.

“Anyway, I owe both of you an apology, an apology that I never had to give before. I am sorry that I tried to come between you and my sister and I hope that you always do your best to make her happy” finished Celestia and I stood there shocked as did Luna, “Though I do not believe this is why you came here, come, let us go to the dining hall, it isn't right that we stand here uncomfortably when we could sit and talk over a meal”

“It would be a pleasure but first I need to check on our-” I started but I soon saw Twilight shake her head sadly

“They are dead, I checked on them already, they died instantly, so there was no pain” said the purple unicorn and I bit my lip and hung my head, I had served with those two for several weeks in this short war, and they proved themselves to be very resourceful, and very loyal, they would be missed.

“I am so sorry, Luna, if there was a way to save them, I-”

“Worry not, Twilight Sparkle, truly I had hoped that if their necks were truly broken that they themselves had died so that they would not have to live disabled for the rest of their lives, but I will see to it that they are remembered for their bravery” said Luna her voice firm even if everypony could tell she was breaking down on the inside.

- - -

Soon we found ourselves in a very familiar dining hall, my sister calling for the guards to wake the chef and to inform them that we were guests of honor, and would be treated as such. It seemed peace was well within our grasp.

So tell me, Luna, why did you come sneaking into the castle? If not to attack me, as it seems unlikely with how you reacted earlier.” she asked me and I sighed, straight to the politics of it then.

“The New Lunar Republic wishes to offer a cease fire, and to extend the hand of friendship, we have declared ourselves a separate entity from your rule, but do not wish to hold a grudge against our neighbor” I said with a tone of finality, this would either bring this war to a close or escalate it to a whole new level, “I would also like to offer the return of Appleloosa and Cloudsdale to the Solar Empire as an addition to this offer”

“The return of? Sister are you saying they fell to your forces?” asked Celestia and I shrugged

“It is far too early for me to know such, but before we had left plans were already drawn up, and being enacted, to take them over, and if I know my forces well enough, they have succeeded, especially with the new weapons and tactics we now use”

- - -

She comes talking of peace, and while she talks her forces are taking my cities? I start to get angry, but then I remembered the creatures, she needed leverage to call for peace if I did not listen to reason, I realized and I took a calming breath.

“Do you not wish to be one nation anymore?” I asked hoping beyond hope that maybe we could go back to a peaceful co-existence as one people.

“That is not possible sister, we saw what happens when we are one nation, first it was I who because jealous of your rule and popularity, and then you started to show signs of the same. No, we cannot rule together. However we can be allies, from now until the end of time” she said and I broke down and cried.

- - -

“Do you not wish to be one nation anymore” my sister asked and a sad look encompassed my face as I realized what I was about to do, that I was about to forever make it known that I would never live in the same castle ever again, that I had to sever the bond that we had...

“That is not possible sister, we saw what happens when we are one nation, first it was I who because jealous of your rule and popularity, and then you started to show signs of the same. No, we cannot rule together. However we can be allies, from now until the end of time” I said and my heart broke when Tai broke down and cried but in short order I saw her get control of herself once more and when she spoke with me, it was no longer with the tone of one sister talking to another, but with one dignitary talking to another...

- - -

“Do you truly wish for peace?” Celestia asked, tears still running down her face as she faced her sister, and Luna took a deep breath and nodded all the while Moonlit and Twilight kept quiet as they sat there as pillars of strength for their respective leaders. “Than from this point on, there will be no more conflict between the Solar Empire and th-the N-New Lun-Lunar Republic” said Celestia her voice breaking near the end and Luna smiled sadly.

“I love you Tai, don't forget that” said Luna and she stood up about to leave when her sister spoke up

“Where are you going? Can we at least have one last meal together in the castle that was once your home?” Luna smiled and nodded and they dined together as if there was nothing had ever changed between them, one last meal together as they finalized the Peace Treaty and defense pact with one another.

- - -
- - -
- - -

And so ends this part of the tale, but there is so much more to know and to learn about the New Lunar Republic and so much to know about the Solar Empire. What about this mysterious enemy that attempted to force them to fight each other? Could there truly be peace between them? What will happen to Luna and Moonlit? And what was Twilight doing inside Celestia's bedchambers? All these questions and more will be answered in Book two of the Princess and her Guard: The Yin and Yang Syndrome(name subject to change)

Comments

[Discospider1997]

Yay. By the way when they were going through the sewers I couldn't help but remember monty python the life of Brian when they do the same to Caesar

[Moonlit Novel]

4429671

There is going to be a small timeskip between now(the ending of this book) and the next point of the story (the beginning of the next)

but here is a small little spoiler

Shadows protect what you hold dear

May the Sun guide you far

We stand in the shadow protecting our light walking brothers and sisters

We stand in the light a strength for all to see

May you never know our strength. For we are the Evening Armada/For we are the Light of the Solar Empire

[Discospider1997]

4430722 when is the next book?

[Moonlit Novel]

I do not know, I am still writing it, I will post it as soon as I have the minimum requirements for it to be posted

[Eternal Samson]

NLR
New Lunar Republic