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

by Moonlit Novel

Chapter Six: Changes in fate, a War on The Horizon

Author's Note:

Ok the Prologue has changed, and as per the statement I said near the beginning of the story I have informed you at the top of this chapter XD expect the next few chapters to be delayed. Real life is getting busy once more and is cutting into my writing time so I am not getting as much done as I would like. "Damn my need to eat and sleep..." To paraphrase a very good writer on the site :)

Also it may seem to be a sharp change but take a look at the prologue and the first chapter again, you may get an idea bout what has happened

Chapter Six: Changes in fate, a War on The Horizon

Upon entering the throne room I saw several things wrong with the scene; one, Princess Celestia was glaring at us; two, several of the Lunar Guard were in-

“SISTER! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?” asked Luna as I got into a more ready stance, my sword hand resting on my blade. Celestia sneered at Luna as several Solar Guard converged on Luna. As her personal guard I leaped between her and them my gaze hard as I preformed a spell I had only successfully preformed once before, and my formal wear was replaced with my armor, the green brown leeching out of my fur at an exponential rate.

“You will stand down, or I will be forced to defend mine Princess” I said my blade at the ready

“Tell the traitor guard to stand down, sister it is time for you to accept the punishment for questioning me, dear Lulu” said Celestia and Luna gritted her teeth a hard glint in her eye.

“I take it if I ordered you to stand down, you wouldn't listen?” Luna asked me and I nodded not taking my eyes off of the Solar Guard that were slowly inching towards us, spreading out as to minimize my maximum effectiveness. “Good, ‘cause I wasn't going to, hold tight” she said and suddenly we were smoke. Not just her, and I, but all the captured Lunar Guard as well.

“LUNA! I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS! TRAITOR!!” yelled Celestia as we disappeared through the cracks in the wall...

As the cloud that was the Lunar Guard and Luna flew over Canterlot, several ponies also changed to smoke and joined the now growing cloud as we flew swiftly away. Soon though we ended at an abandoned castle, one that if my hunch was correct, was the former castle of the two sisters before Luna's decent into Nightmare Moon. The could that was all of us soon started to separate into individuals as they spilled onto the ground, the Lunar Pegasus having better luck at landing on their feet, Luna placed me down safely however as she separated from me last.

“Greetings my Lunar Guard” Luna said uncomfortably as the large number of ponies turned to her many of them bowing imminently after seeing whom it was, some however frowned at her. “I am sorry that I snatched you up from your normal lives, but a threat has come about, and we are the only ones that can set it right, and I fear my sister may have to be imprisoned to accomplish this...” said Luna and I frowned, if that were the case, why didn't she take us to the Elements? Wait... the Elements of Magic and Loyalty... They would be trouble...

“As some of you are undoubtedly aware what I am suggesting, if we fail, will be counted as treason, however if we succeed, than we will have saved the world from something worse than Nightmare Moon” I spoke up and several looked at me only for me to redirect their gaze to the Lunar Guard that had been captured not an hour before. “These Lunar Guardsponies were being arrested, for what reason, I do not know, however, Celestia then went on to threaten her sister, our princess Luna, and proceeded to call me a traitor” I said keeping a level voice.

“Why would Princess Celestia do that?” asked a member of the Lunar Guard, I had never gotten his name.

“I fear, that perhaps my sister has grown drunk with power over the years I was imprisoned.” said Luna and one of the Lunar Guard spoke up, this one different than the last

“How is that possible? Celestia welcomed you home happily, she also gave you a lot of time to get used to being back”

“I cannot say for certain, but perhaps for a time she was happy to have her sister back, at least until I started questioning her in private, recently she has been far more confrontational than I remember from my time as a foal, or even before I became Nightmare Moon” said Luna sadly as she looked at her guardsponies.

“What do you command Princess?” asked one of the guard that had been arrested by Luna's sister.

“Tell me, why you were being arrested?” asked Luna and the Guard shrugged at the question.

“With all due respect Princess, you tell me, I was only coming in to get ready for the evening shift”

“Provided you are telling the truth, then your sister, Princess, wants to remove the other sources of power before she solidifies her hold on Equestria, but with us free...” I said thinking hard.

“With us free, civil war is inevitable...” interrupted Luna in an uncomfortable voice as she realized the seriousness of the situation I swallowed hard knowing that the road before us would be a long hard battle, just to stay alive, let alone overthrow a tyrant.

“Yes, Princess” I said and she swallowed and spoke up again this time with authority befitting one of her station

“I need the fastest of the fliers and the earth ponies to report to me. Immediately.” at the command several pegasus and Earth ponies trotted up to her and bowed

“What do you ask of us, your highness?” said one of the pegasus, wait was that...

“Blue Star! What are you-?”

“Sir Novel! Be quiet!” came the harsh order from Luna, and my mouth snapped shut.

“I need you to decide amongst yourselves as to where each of you will go, but bear in mind the you should all be weary of my sister's Solar Guard, they have already branded themselves enemies to us, just as we did to them.” knowing that this, while a good plan, would be foolhardy if they led them back to the castle, I took a deep breath and spoke up directly to Luna.

“Princess, orders aside, I don't believe that this would be a very wise course of action, the Everfree may protect us from the casual passerby, but what if sending out these troops,” Luna looked as if she was about to speak up, and I pressed on, not giving her a chance, “what if by sending these troops, we invite more trouble than we can handle, such as trouble from the Solar Guard? I do know at the moment our numbers are the same, but we do not have the armors we normally would have. Granted given enough time, the other unicorns and myself can summon enough armors for the Lunar Guard, but at the moment only myself and 4 other Lunar Guard have their armors, and that is by luck rather than design” I said and Luna looked at me furious that I had interrupted her, but she did take a breath before saying anything.

“Thank you, Novel, for enlightening me to our situation, even though it is plainly obvious about those facts you mentioned” she said, albeit a lot nicer than I thought it would be.

“Be that as it may, it is my duty as a strategist, to inform you of all the available information I can” I said standing firm and Luna smiled softly

“So from my personal guard to my primary strategist is it?” she asked me in a kind voice and I nodded, knowing that I was one of the few within the Lunar Guard that took strategy during my training, “Than tell me what should I do? Nov-... No, What should I do, Moonlit?” she asked and I sighed

“I cannot tell you what to do, only give my suggestions and it is up to you to follow them or dismiss them, however, even though I did mention all those flaws, I have to agree with your original course of action, if it is to find out who will be loyal to us or loyal to Celestia. However, I would also implore you to personally go to Ponyville and talk to the Elements themselves. They hold a large amount of sway over the populous of Equestria, Also, we can NOT allow this war to wreak havoc on the celestial bodies, there must be a Pact formed with your sister, that neither side will hold the day nor night from progressing as normal” I said more so thinking aloud, but Luna was listening intently as were several of the other Lunar Guard.

“I agree, and I do believe, that even if I cannot convince the Elements to join us, that they will grant me safe passage to and from Canterlot to confer with Celestia...”

“You will NOT be going alone, Blue Star!” I hollered and Blue Star flew over, her wings slowly beating against her side as she hovered in place in front of me, “Blue Star, you will accompany Luna and myself to Ponyville, I rather have a Pegasus on hand than not”

“Sir” Blue Star said giving me a crisp salute, knowing that right now was not the time for jokes and games

“Moonlit, I understand not letting me go alone, but why must you go? Surely with you as our primary strategist, you are far too valuable to lose as well?” asked Luna and I smiled

“Even if I were so valuable, Princess, it is still my duty as your personal guard to go with you and protect you, Blue Star is honor bound to obey your orders, but I am honor bound to protect you, regardless of your orders” Luna just nodded before cupping my cheek with one hand before remembering where we were and with all the grace one could only have with over a millennium of experience of poise and, well grace, as she pulled it away smoothly as if she had meant to do that the entire time. “Princess, what do we call ourselves? After all, we cannot keep calling ourselves the Lunar Guard, not with a potential dramatic increase in members coming” and Luna shook her head in agreement

“No, we cannot, can we? No only my personal guards will carry that title, and you Moonlit shall be in charge of them, AND in charge of strategy for this possible upcoming war” said Luna, “To that end I leave the recruitment into the Lunar Guard to your discretion, You, Former Captain of the Guard! Step forward!” said Luna and an golden furred Earth pony stallion stepped forwards, “You are now the General of our ground forces, you will confer with myself and Moonlit before devoting any of our earth ponies or unicorns to an attack we have not already authorized. You will also pick a pegasus to be in charge of our air forces and an unicorn to be in charge of the unicorns, all Earth ponies final decisions fall to you, while all of the Unicorns' fall to the Unicorn of your choosing, however, the unicorn will be your second in command as you will be his or hers in the chain of command of the Unicorn”

“If it all the same, your highness, I would rather have Moonlit take that position, if you place enough trust in him to replace me as the Captain of the Guard, than he surely is good enough to stand as my equal” said the newly named General of the Earth ponies. I did not

“I cannot accept, I will have too much to focus on with-” I started to say before Luna laughed merrily

“Yes give Moonlit that position, he certainly could use the authority, but know that means you will have to confer with your second in command about any of your troop movements” Luna said laughter in her voice, I frowned, I was a strategist, may a tactician if the situation truly called for it, I was no general, nor did I want to be. Tartarus, I didn't even want to be the captain of the Guard, but Luna asked and so I shall. “Oh Moonlit, worry not, it wouldn't truly increase your work load any significant amount, after all, all that would change is that you would have direct control over the unicorns in my army” I sighed in defeat, it seemed I would be getting this position whether I wanted it or not.

“If I may, I would suggest either Regal Star or Blue Star for the general of the Pegasus” I said and my fellow general nodded before speaking up.

“We have never been formally introduced, I am Golden Sword” I nodded to him

“You already know me as Moonlit Novel” he nodded back and he and I attempted to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

“Well now that you have gotten yourselves introduced, you still need to pick the third general” said Luna annoyed at us for taking so long. I nodded as did Golden Sword—now you may be wondering why I didn't know my captain's name, the simple fact was I had been around for 3 captains to retire, for various reason, and Golden Sword being the most recent never bothered to introduce himself to the Lunar Guard, or rather never got the chance.

“I stand by my suggestions, but whomever you don't pick will be part of the Lunar Guard, I would trust those ponies with my life, and with the life of Princess Luna” I said calmly and Golden nodded before turning to the crowd of former Lunar Guard, now turned army.

“Evening Starbolt, front and center” said Golden and the pegasus in question walked up seldomly obviously unsure as to what was going on in the Earth Pony general's head, “Moonlit, I would like to ask that Evening Starbolt join the Lunar Guard as well, I have yet to meet a more loyal pegasus, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, but I do not believe he would do well in the front lines, he prefers to jump in head first more often than not.”

“I will think about it, but we need to choose a-”

“Regal Star” said Luna happily, interrupting us

“Your highness?” asked Golden Sword and Luna giggled into her hand, Goddesses I hate it when a mare is in heat...

“Regal Star will be the Air General” Golden Sword and I nodded knowing better than to disagree with her, albeit for different reasons.

“Yes, your highness” said Golden Sword and he turned to the rest of the room, “Regal Star, front and center, you are now in charge of the pegasus of our movement”

“Sir!” she said as she flew to and landed between us, “Greetings, Moonlit, Sir-”

“I am no longer, 'sir' to you now Regal. Moonlit, you, and I are all equals” said Golden Sword before turning to Luna, “Princess, I have a feeling that we should still follow your original course of action and spread out to see which towns would be loyal to us, and which towns are loyal to your sister”

“She is not my sister, Tia would not have done this, made an enemy of us all...” said Luna before she started to trail off...

Hours and many plans later, we had sent several Lunar Pegasus out to the many towns, villages, and cities, while Luna, my fellow generals, the few Lunar Guard that had been selected, and I, all headed to Ponyville, not one creature inside the Everfree attacked us as if they feared something about our group. The path we took winded left and right, through the trees, and over a few rivers and streams that we safely crossed. However we never said a word as if everyone thought that stealth was needed. Suddenly Blue Star spoke up.

“Your Highness, what are your orders in case the Elements decide to attack us?” she asked and I looked at her quietly knowing that very question had been racing around in my head for the last hour during the trek through the forest.

“Then we defend ourselves, but, do not attack first, that is an order, Moonlit” said Luna firmly and I nodded but knew that if there was an immediate threat I would deal with it as quickly as I could...

As we reached the edge of the forest/Ponyville, Luna decided that we would first visit the element of Kindness, Fluttershy...

“Fluttershy, it is I, Princess Luna, I request an audience, with you and your friends” said Luna as she knocked on the door.

“Princess I do not agree with this course of action, we should be going to the Town Hall and talking to the whole of the town, not just-” I started and Luna just gave me a look that quieted me down

“We will work our way in, and not sneak around like some thief in the night. That means we need to talk to the ponies on our way in, especially since this town knows me quite well.” said Luna and I bite back any retort, she was right of course, if the ponies here knew her personally, than it would be detrimental to 'sneak in' as she put it...

Comments

[thealicorngamer247]

I like the idea of celestial going crazy instead of Luna

[Moonlit Novel]

4361010 I do hope you read the edited prologue ;) it is a bit of a spoiler though