Princess Celestia sighed and looked up to the sky. The entire night sky was visible here in the deserts of Saddle Arabia unlike back in the city of Canterlot. She was on the balcony of the local town center. She was in a tiny village to the west of Red Rock Canyon. The possible sightings of Twilight here filled the princes of the day with untold amounts of hope. But there was always a chance that it wasn’t. The princess decided it was best to stop thinking and enjoy the view. The moon is a little brighter here. It was relaxing.
The princess hummed a bit and continued watching the night sky. She then chuckled a bit at a cliché question foals would ask their parents while star gazing: Do you ever think somepony else is out there?
The goddess of the sun knew the answer by heart. Yes, there is... and it is her fault. Unbeknownst to most ponies there is something their princess fears more than anything: Mankind. She never really shaken the trauma from that period in Equestrian history but she doesn’t show it outwardly... but its still there. Hidden beneath thousands of years of coping strategies and amnesia spells. But she could never truly get rid of the memory nor should she.
Because of Princess Celestia, humanity is somewhere out there among the stars. whether they’re on the verge of extinction or thriving, she never wanted to see one again. Their very nature brought up some primal fear inside of her like that of a griffon bring up the prey fear that lies dormant inside her little ponies. At one point they were her greatest ally... but when they turned on ponykind and sought world conquest, they were her greatest enemy. They left the greater half of her kingdom in ruin and slaughtered countless numbers of her subjects.
It was in their nature to be sly, conniving, and claw to their way into power. If they needed to manipulate somepony then it would be done no questions asked. And now she has one in the dungeons and yet she still fears it. She is afraid that it is the prelude to their return and needs desperately Elements of Harmony ready in case such an event should pass. That meant heinous means of information gathering were warranted. She couldn’t stand to look at the human so she couldn’t do it herself. As much as she had told Shining Armour that it was because she wouldn’t be able to contain her anger, that was a blatant lie. Celestia was afraid...
The goddess of the sun... was afraid.
Not only was she afraid of their unrivaled magical abilities... she was afraid for here kingdom... for her ponies... and for herself. Another war with man would spell doom for her kingdom today. Her subjects have grown weak and complacent over the last thousand years of peace and prosperity that Celestia had worked so hard to maintain for them. Humanity has obviously gained the upper hand in a technological sense after seeing the equipment at the humans initial arrival point. If they are anything like what they were back.. their tools for war must be numerous and absolutely terrifying.
Princess Celestia had once vowed to never let this kind of atrocity befall ponykind again. That’s a nearly impossible promise to keep but she will never break that promise. If not for her kingdom... then for herself.
The safety of the world depends upon finding Twilight Sparkle. And her body has been located unbeknownst to the solar diarch by none other than the brother of the missing pony: Shining Armour himself.
Seems right.
Can't wait for more
Body?! is she/Ashley dead, or you are suggesting Celestia knows about the body swap?
1915029 Keyword is unbeknownst. I'm referring to that Even though it is Twilight's body, it isn't Twilight who is inside of it.
1915029 Well it's kinda suspicious when a human appears who claims to be your student and acts like. And then the student disappears for no known reason. She's just putting the pieces in the right place. Either that or i have been reading when i'm über tired and got all the details wrong.
1915072
Regardless of the words used, this section is in Celestia's point of view, therefore you should either limit things to what Celestia knows, or separate that line out with a page break.
Complacent: A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy. (Not sure if it's right word entirely, though probably is, since I was going to suggest contentment or content.)
Anyway, onto this actual chapter: Well, felt more like kind of a teaser/filler than anything important. Re-reading, I did take more note we learned of why there's Celestia's hatred for humans, not to mention her actions against the human in which Twilight's mind now resides (still waiting to find out exactly how that happens). Though I'm confused about the whole human magic abilities that mentioned at one point, if forgetting something from an earlier chapter, even if may've said they no longer have such abilities like their early(?) banished ancestors.
And hoped would see Twilight's grand escape attempt or if Celestia/whomever would detain/arrest Cadence. Few errors here and there, as with most of the other chapters (not sure about all). And somehow, hoping the others will have realized what happened; particularly Spike, Rainbow, Celestia, and Shining if they took note of her uncharacteristic behavior, but seeing as haven't seen things with a time spell like Cadence probably, doubt will do so just yet. //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/eenope.png Will continue to see where this one goes, even if still not sure about it with events as they've been.
1915089
Eh, you got most of it right, but if read this chapter, may've missed the explanation about why Celestia just expressed scorn toward the human, rather than listening to her. Since she doesn't know where her student is and all of a sudden, an unknown human shows up after many years/centuries/whatever, likely going to fall back on old instincts and will probably feel like a mule, when the time comes.
1915152 Thankies. The word I think I was looking for now that I think about it was docile (Correct me if I'm wrong because I really need to fix it.). I don't mind the paragraphs either. I'm still learning as an author so please feel free to blow a hole in my stories canon if need be (like, say, a paradox of some form or logical error etc.). I'm running solo on this story so there are bound to be errors. So... yeah.
Oh and this chapter was to somewhat validate Celestia's actions and sort of quell the comment war of doom. So yeah it was a bit of a filler.
Why did I read that so quickly?
1915204
Well, I actually see that docile would be a WORSE word for the sentence in question. Docile: Ready to accept control or instruction; submissive.
Would need to reword it if wanted to use that word if you ask me, though as I said before, I think complacent would fit more, even if the ponies are MAYBE aware of danger probably having existed and still do sometimes, but in the show, tend to ignore or forget about it, mostly in favor of the 'paradise' they live in. And usually, don't know about it before time, cause Celestia tends to keep it on the down-low. //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/lolface_Celestia.png I don't know what word I would use, even if may know a lot, but not best at thinking sometimes. And errors I meant are mostly grammatical or misspelled word, nothing like what I think you meant. I only felt should point it out cause... not like chapters (for this story, anyways, dunno about your other ones) are lengthy ones, but usually under 1,000, sometimes 2.
Well Celestia's going to be guilt-ridden for all eternity when she finds out the truth...