Boiling Point
‘Everything is ready,’ thought Shadow Blade as he looked at the guards he had chosen to accompany the Princess. ‘Well, as ready as it can be, at least.’ Each one had been hoof-picked by him and chosen for their own particular set of skills. Now they all stood before their captain in a single file line, ready for action.
The first one had been Lightning Dust, whose speed was unmatched by any of the current guard. Even he had trouble keeping up with the speedy mare. Shadow was certain that if trouble occurred, then she would be able to take down several of the enemy before they had a chance to blink.
Once he had decided on Lightning Dust, Shadow had next chosen a bat pony mare with a blood red coat and a dark green mane that covered her left eye. Her name was Overkill. That wasn’t her original name, of course. The name she had been born with was Peaceful Night. However, once she got her cutie mark, a sword surrounded by dynamite, she decided to change her name to something more…fitting.
And “overkill” certainly described her weapons arsenal. Attached to the side of her armor was a large battle axe, with a bright blue blade that one needed to wield it with two hooves. Sheathed on her back were two thin looking metal sticks that resembled darts. These were her favorite weapons. Finally, she had two bandoliers full of grenades that crisscrossed the barrel of her armor.
The other two that Shadow had chosen were two earth pony twins. Both of them had what looked like the guns that were used in the laser tag battles attached to their armor. However, these were a bit more deadly if somepony got hit. They were also sporting extra armor on both of their forelegs.
“Looks like you have a good group,” noted a voice behind Shadow. The bat pony looked around to see Shining Armor walking towards him, with Red Shirt a few steps behind him who was also sporting a blaster on his back.
“Thank you,” replied Shadow before turning his attention towards the red earth pony. “Is Captain Starway ready on her end?”
“The Captain just left for the planet,” replied Red Shirt. “Since she feels that she has more than enough ponypower for her mission, she has asked that I accompany to Canterlot, so that members of all three guards will protecting the Princess.”
“I have no problem with that,” replied Shadow before turning to look at Shining. “So, who are you bringing?”
“Private Donut,” replied Shining Armor. “He’s down at the embassy right now, ready to go.”
“Then, let’s not keep him waiting,” said Shadow. The bat pony spun around, so he could address his soldiers. However, it was not to give any big speech or anything like that. They had already been briefed on what was to happen.
They would be teleporting to the Lunar Embassy in Canterlot, where they would then walk towards the castle. They were going there to protect their Princess. They would not engage the Equestrians unless they made the first move. In the end, there was only one thing Shadow had to say. “Honor Guard, let’s move out!”
As a group, the ponies began to march towards the teleporter that would send them to Equestria in complete silence. Any pony who saw them coming, quickly moved out of the way. Some even saluted them.
Then, just as they were about to reach their final destination, Shadow saw Land Share. The senator was just sitting in the hallway, while looking at the floor with his ears flat against his skull. At first, he didn’t react when the Lunar Guards approached, but as Shadow was about to pass him by, Land Share quickly stood up.
“Captain, may I have a word?” he said quickly.
Shadow nodded before motioning the others to continue without him. As Shadow turned to look at the senator, he noticed that he was shifting on his hooves. He also sweating a bit and his eyes didn’t quite meet Shadow’s. This was odd, because Land Share had never had a problem talking to Shadow before.
“Is everything alright?” asked Shadow.
“Hopefully,” replied Land Share with a sigh. “Shadow, before you go, I need you to promise me something.”
“Ok?” said Shadow slowly, not knowing where this is going. It was then that Land Share looked him in the eye with a dead serious expression on his face.
“I want you to promise me you’ll come back,” he beseeched.
“I…what?” stated a confused Shadow.
“You have to come back,” pleaded Land Share. “Twilight, when she wakes, she’s going to need you. She has already been through so much, and if she wakes and you’re not there…”
Slowly, a small smile appeared on Shadow’s face as he placed a hoof on Land Share’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” said Shadow. “We’re not going down there to start any trouble. Hopefully, Princess Celestia will work with us by hoofing over Blueblood, so we can get to the bottom of this assassination attempt. But, if something does go wrong, we will have some of the best ponies on the ground supporting each other. I’ll be back and when Twilight wakes up, the first thing she’ll see is all of our smiling faces.”
Land Share didn’t say anything. He simply gave a sad smile before he walked away.
-x-
“Listen up, those Lunar ponies have been seen approaching the castle,” said Stareye as he addressed his ranked officers, while taking another sniff of the white powder from his saddle bag. “I want all of you to make sure you inform your underlings to keep those mongrels a safe distance away from Princess Celestia. Should any of them make so much as a threatening gesture to our beloved Princess, it is the Royal Guard’s duty to remove their heads. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir,” responded most of them. One of those that didn’t respond was Hot Pants and, sadly for her, Stareye noticed this.
“Do you have a problem understanding my orders, Lieutenant?” demanded Stareye, once again snorting some of his powder.
Hot Pants did her best to hide her disgust as she answered. “No sir, I understand your orders,” she replied. “However, with all due respect, I believe we should be a bit more careful before we attack, or we might start up a war.”
Stareye’s gaze hardened, glaring at the mare. “How dare you-”
“At ease, Captain,” said the calm voice of Blueblood as he entered the room. “The new Lieutenant has a legitimate concern.”
“But she dared to question her superior,” spat Stareye. “I should have her chained and whipped for her insolence!”
“Another time, perhaps,” supposed Blueblood, then walked over to Hot Pants. He flashed her a smile that would normally melt a mare’s heart, before he spoke to her. “Now then, allow me to explain. Normally, you would be correct in holding off such aggression to something so minor.
“However, Princess Luna is a pony that cannot be trusted, given that she has shown our beloved Princess such disrespect. Why, she shot poor Princess Celestia out of a cannon and into the Archives. She then sends demands upon demands and refuses to listen to reason. I fear that she, as well as the rest of those Lunar ponies, is a bit unstable. Best not to take any chances, don’t you agree?”
“I guess,” Hot Pants relented reluctantly, though doubts still filled her thoughts. “But-”
“Splendid,” interrupted Blueblood as he took a few steps back, in order to address everypony in the room. “Soon, Princess Celestia will be meeting with Princess Luna. Should it look like our beloved Princess might be in danger, it is up to you, and those under your command, to make sure that she stays safe no matter the cost. If battle does occur, we must finish it here and now. Even if Princess Celestia orders you to stand down, we must not; not only in order to protect just her, but all that we hold dear.”
Blueblood then paused to see if his words were having any affect. From what he could see, all but the two mares seem to be nodding or showing some other form of support. That would have to do for now. “Now you all have your orders. Yes? Good. You are dismissed.”
With that, the ranked officers of the Royal Guard began to file out of the room. According to Captain Stareye, the majority of guards closest to Princess Celestia would be earth ponies, with a few unicorns here and there. The rest of the unicorns were positioned around castle, so that they could fire their magic from a safe distance. Pegasi were to remain on standby until an actual fight broke on. From there, they would serve as air support. As for the newly promoted officers, they would be safe in the castle, watching things unfold from special viewing orbs and communicating to their assigned units with their magic.
The last one to leave was Hot Pants, who kept her eye on Blueblood and Stareye. She had a look in her eye as if she had finally found the last piece of a puzzle she had been working on, and didn’t like what she saw.
“I don’t see why you had to do that,” whined Stareye after Hot Pants had left. “I had already given them my orders and all they had to do was follow them!”
“Ah, it seems you never learned to subtle art of motivation,” exclaimed Blueblood as he began to walk out a different door towards the castle entrance, with Stareye following him. “Zealous and motivated pawns are much easier to control. And once Princess Luna arrives, it will be checkmate!”
As the two continued to walk, Blueblood couldn’t help but go over his perfect plan in his head for the hundredth time that day. Right now, Luna was in check. From everything he knew about her said that she would be furious once Princess Celestia announced that they would be unable to give the Republic everything that they were demanding.
Once that anger flared, the guards would be upon her in moments, where she would then be their prisoner. Then, once they got to court, Blueblood and his allies would convince Princess Celestia that they could take over the Republic, without a drop of blood being split. After all, with no food, water, or royalty, those foolish lunar ponies would have no choice but to submit to their demands.
There was another course that the situation could take. It was unlikely, but Princess Luna might actually fall into despair when she hears the news. Then, he could step in and inform her of his idea for the Republic. Truth be told, he held little hope for that idea.
The only thing he could see ruining his plans was Princess Celestia. There was a chance that she had managed to find a way to get Luna the food and water that the Republic was demanding, without getting most of it from Equestria. If anypony could do something like that in one night, it would be his auntie. However, he felt confident that, if something like that happened, he would be in the clear until another opportunity presented itself.
As the two made their way towards the castle gate, they spotted Majesty walking down a stairway in front of them. When she saw them, she walked a little faster towards Stareye.
“Captain Stareye,” she called out as she approached them. “I was wondering if I could borrow a few of your guards.”
“Whatever for?” asked the Captain.
“My chariot driver, a pegasus stallion named Scooter, has been missing for some time now,” explained Majesty. “I haven’t seen him since he took me to Prince Blueblood’s home. At first, I thought my husband had contacted him or something of that nature, but none of my staff has seen him.”
“You want me to use my guards to look for a missing servant?” asked Stareye, rolling his eyes. “To do so would be a waste of our resources!”
“I-” began Majesty, but was cut off as Prince Blueblood raised his hoof.
“I’m afraid now isn’t the time to be looking for one missing stallion,” he said with a frown. “Perhaps he quit and left without saying anything.”
“He would never!” shouted Majesty. Her eyes then widened a bit and she took a deep breath to compose herself. “Ahem. I mean, he lives at my estate, and all of his possessions are still there, so I do not believe that is the case.”
“Still, this isn’t the work of the guard,” noted Blueblood. “Try contacting the Canterlot police. Now, if you will excuse us.” With that, the two stallions walked away from Majesty, whose head began to hang low.
-x-
“Are you sure?” Luna asked Sealed Document as they stood in front of a large computer screen within their embassy.
“I have checked all of the security cameras and, I am sorry to say, found nothing,” answered the pinto stallion with a sigh. “I have footage with Blueblood being with the Equestria delegation when embassy landed, as well as Private Doughnut giving him a cavity search for some reason, but nothing of him giving Fluttershy a parasprite.”
Luna let out a sigh. “That is…unfortunate,” she said. “I was hoping to show this to my sister as proof of his misdeeds.”
“We do still have their confessions,” Sealed pointed out. “Won’t that be enough?”
Luna thought about this for a moment. While it was true that in the Republic something like a confession under a truth light would be all the proof one needed. But, sadly, they weren’t in the Republic right now. More than likely somepony might think that they forced them to say those things, because they didn’t understand how the technology worked.
“It will have to be,” said Luna after a while. “Those confessions, as well as the footage of Applejack going to Twilight’s room, are our proof.” She then paused for a moment and shortly later gave sealed a nod. “You have done well. Double check all the footage once more, and then prepare the embassy for departure.”
With that, Princess Luna departed the security room of the embassy and made her way towards the exit. Outside, waiting for her, were her guards all standing in attention in a single straight line.
“Is everything set?” asked Princess Luna.
“Almost,” replied Shining Armor, stepping forward. “We just need every pony to do a system check before we proceed. That includes you as well, Princess.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Are sure this is necessary, Captain?”
“Now is the best time to do so,” he explained. “If a situation was to occur and somepony’s armor was to malfunction at the start, it could possibly endanger the whole group. Right now, we are near the embassy so, if there was a pony here whose armor wasn’t up to one hundred percent, he or she could easily get it replaced.”
“I see,” said Luna with a nod. “That’s a good call, Captain.”
Shining Armor allowed himself a small grin. “Just doing my job, Princess.”
Smiling back at him, Princess Luna touched the crescent moon of her regalia with her hoof, while saying “System check.” At once, her regalia began to give off a light blue glow, showing that it was getting to work at her request.
“All systems are currently working at one hundred percent efficiency,” declared a female computerized voice. “No malfunctions or irregularities to report. Power level is at one hundred percent.” Luna could hear similar things from the rest of her guards’ armors.
“Good,” said Princess Luna after they had all finished. “Now let us depart. The sooner we talk to Princess Celestia, the sooner we can leave.”
With a nod from her Guard, they all began to move out in formation. To her right was Shadow, with Shining Armor to her left. Directly behind her were the three earth ponies, and behind them were Lightning Dust as well as Overkill. Bringing up the rear was Doughnut.
“Princess,” said Shadow in a low voice, so nopony could overhear him. “While you were inside, I checked in with Captain Starway. She has made it to her destination and has begun her mission. However, if we need an emergency evacuation, it will take her ten minutes to get to Canterlot at top speed.”
Luna nodded. “That is good to hear,” she replied. “Let us hope that she will not need to come here.”
-x-
Several minutes later, Celestia stood at the front gate of the castle to greet her sister. She had done her best to get cleaned up and put on her best smile, so she could make a good impression, but that was difficult to do when she saw her new Captain of the Royal Guard.
In the short time, Captain Stareye had been standing next to her; Celestia had been repulsed by him several times. The most constant one was when the stallion reached into his saddle bags for his white powder. If she had the time, she would have removed him from his position and gotten another pony to take his place. But, sadly, there wasn’t enough time to do so before Luna arrived. Right now, all she could do was hope he didn’t make a scene.
Celestia also didn’t like the number of guards around them. She must have counted at least fifty earth ponies, clad in their golden armor with spears and shields at the ready. Standing next to her and the Captain were two unicorn guards with spears. Celestia feared that this kind of military show might make Luna feel…unease to say the least.
Still, she had hope that she could smooth all of this with her sister. Late last night, Celestia had sent several letters to her allies, explaining the situation. It was only a half hour ago that she had received an answer. It was from Emperor Eagle Eye, saying that he would be more than willing to donate a portion of his country’s rice to help Luna. He also stated that he would send his own notes to races like the horses, donkeys, and hippogriffs to help convince them to do the same.
“The Lunar ponies are approaching,” called out a guard from the distance.
Celestia took a deep breath in order to help her keep her nerves under control. Within moments, she could see Luna approaching her while being accompanied by several other ponies. Even from this distance, Celestia could see that Luna was not wearing a dress or the armor that she wore when they both met with the griffons. Instead, she was dressed in silver regalia instead of her normal black. As she drew closer, Celestia noticed that Luna’s expression was more serious than normal.
If Luna was worried about the amount of Canterlot guards, she did not show it. Her eyes seemed to be fixed on Celestia, cold and piercing. Not even when the Royal Guard moved in closer, seemingly to block their exit, did Luna’s focus waver.
“Tell your troops to back up a bit,” whisper Celestia to Stareye.
Stareye, however, gave her an annoyed look. “They seem fine to me,” he stated dismissively.
“I said-” began Celestia, trying her best to keep her composure, but stopped as Luna stopped walking, standing only a few feet away. Quickly, the sun princess cleared her throat. “Princess Luna, I welcome you to my humble kingdom once again. I only wish the situation was different.”
“I’m sure,” agreed Luna coldly, causing Celestia to shiver slightly. “However, I believe you don’t know how badly the situation has gotten.”
Celestia’s eyes widened in quick realization of what Luna was saying. Something had happened, something bad. In her head, Celestia prayed that whatever it was, Luna hadn’t done something drastic in her rage.
“Last night,” continued Luna, “my Prized Student and Assistant Director of the Science Division were assaulted. If it wasn’t for her own magical skills, she would be dead right now. The culprit was none other than one of the mares you sent, Applejack. Furthermore, we discovered that she as well as the other two mares that committed crimes in the Republic did so under orders of your crown.”
As Luna said that last sentence, she pointed a hoof at a stunned Celestia. However, when she did so, she found two spears being trusted at her. At once, her guards pulled out their weapons, ready to defend the moon princess. This in turn caused the rest of Celestia’s Royal Guard to ready their own weapons.
Seeing what was happening broke Celestia from her shock. “Stand down,” ordered Celestia gently. However, her guards kept their hardened gazes on the lunar ponies, not lowering their weapons in the slightest. “Stand. Down,” she repeated, but with more force. It worked this time, but slower than she would have wanted.
“Luna,” began Celestia as she looked at her sister. “You don’t believe that I would ever order something like that.”
“If I did, I would not be standing here right now,” said Luna, not even bothering to correct her sister for forgetting her title. “However, the situation has forced my hoof. Applejack and her friends have been tried for their crimes in our courts earlier today and were found guilty. As such, they have received the death penalty.”
“B-but, you can’t,” stammered Celestia in horror. How could Luna do something like that? Had she forgotten that those ponies were to be the bearers of the Elements of Harmony? She couldn’t kill them!
“Unacceptable!” shouted Blueblood. Celestia turned her head to look behind to see that Blueblood and several of the other nobles were standing at the castle entrance, along with more guards. Among their ranks was Lord North Star, who was staring at Blueblood with a look that said ‘shut up, you idiot’. There was also Fancy Pants, who was looking at the prince with a disapproving frown.
Sadly, they were alone with this, while all of the other nobles seemed to be nodding their heads in agreement as Blueblood continued to speak. “How dare you try our ponies in your courts without even consulting us?! This is an outrage. After we decided to give you a tenth of your ridiculous demands, this is how you act?”
Luna’s eyes narrowed at Celestia as dark clouds began to appear above the castle. “A tenth? That was all that we were going to get? Do you not understand that thousands of my little ponies will die due to dehydration and starvation, unless our supplies are refilled?! I refuse to let that happen and I will do whatever it takes to prevent that!”
The air around Luna suddenly began to chill. While it wasn’t cold enough for ice to form, it was beginning to get to the point where ponies could see their breath.
“Please Luna,” began Celestia as she took a step back, while her guards held up their weapons, ready to use them at a moment’s notice. “You have to listen to me. I was able to-”
“No, you will listen,” stated Luna loudly. “If you want there to even be a chance of getting those five back alive, you will submit to our demands. We will get all the food and water that was lost, as well as Prince Blueblood, who I believe is the true mastermind behind all of this. If you refuse, then we will take them by force. And believe me, you do not want that.”
“Outrageous!” shouted Blueblood once more before he turned to look at Celestia. “Auntie, I must implore you not to submit to these threats! They have taken your citizens, hold them against their will, and are now spinning lies in order to milk us of our resources. You must be strong and not give in, or else you might as well just hoof them the keys to the castle!”
Celestia, for a moment, stood as still as a statue before she turned her head to look at Blueblood. Her nephew looked shocked and even a little worried, as if he feared that she believed Luna rather than him. For a brief moment, Celestia wondered if it was true. That Blueblood had overstepped his authority and issued the death of Twilight.
‘No,’ she thought as she shook her head. ‘While he can be lazy and a bit of an opportunist, I can’t believe that he would ever order the death of anypony. Besides, what reason would he have to do so, especially since there is nothing to gain from her death? Luna must have made a mistake.’ With that she turned to look at her sister.
“So, what’s it going to be?” demanded Luna.
“I refuse,” Celestia declared, causing Luna’s jaw to drop slightly. Perhaps it was because she was tired from her all-nighter. Perhaps it was because she was tired of the situation. Perhaps it was simply because Luna was making these kinds of demands to her. But, whatever it was, Celestia was tired of it all. And she wasn’t going to be pushed around like this.
“You stand there, accusing my subjects as well as my nephew of serious crimes,” continued Celestia as she felt her voice becoming stronger. “Yet, all I have is your word. I will not hoof over a member of my court to your harsh system, simply because you ‘think’ he was involved. Nor will I allow you to endanger my ponies by taking their food. Now, I must insist that you release those mares you have in your custody into my care, and then we can sort this out.”
“I am not here to negotiate with you,” growled Luna. “I do not have the time to ‘sort this out’. Every second I waste brings my ponies that much closer to death. I cannot afford to draw things out the way you like to. Nor can I wait around, while you find some other pony to solve your problems!”
“And you cannot go around making these split second decisions that affect everypony,” yelled Celestia as she felt her blood begin to boil. Around her body, the air began to shimmer as if it were being heated.
“At least I make my own decisions and act upon them, rather than passing on the burdens and responsibility of my job onto others,” snapped Luna as dark clouds began to appear above the castle, caused by the hot and cold energies emitted from the two alicorns. Celestia, meanwhile, reacted like she had been struck once more.
“How dare you?” shouted Blueblood. “Princess Celestia has done more for Equestria than any other pony that has ever lived! Certainty more than you.”
“Blueblood, would you kindly shut up!” said Fancy Pants in a low voice. “You are only making things worse!”
“The only thing I am doing is defending my aunt and princess from this slander,” stated Blueblood with a bit of smug in his voice.
“Defending her or simply protecting your own flank,” growled North Star.
“How dare you…?!” roared Blueblood, turning to look at the two bickering alicorns.
“You have no right to say that after you just up and left,” said Celestia with a glare, ignoring the unicorn’s argument.
“Oh, I’m so sorry you never got the chance to say your pretty little speech about love, friendship, and so forth that would have fallen on deaf ears for the past millennium,” replied Luna in a mocking tone.
“There you go again, jumping to conclusions and not thinking of the consequences,” stated Celestia as she pointed a hoof at Luna. “You know how important those mares are! Yet, here you are, ready to kill without a second thought of how it will affect everypony else, just like back then. Just like Hoofshire, you want to strike out when you have no proof, and-”
“I HAVE PROOF!” roared Luna with lightning flashed in the background. As Luna took a step forward to point at Celestia, one of the Solar Guards thrust his spear forwards. The eyes of all ponies present widened as blood dripped down Luna’s cheek. Slowly, Luna moved her hoof to touch the blood, and brought it in front of her face.
She then narrowed her eyes and tightened her lips into an angry frown, as she brought down her bloody hoof to sharply tap center of her regalia. It then began to expand, along with her shoes and crown, before changing its form. Celestia and her guards watched in shock as it took the form of the armor she had worn when they met the griffons. Luna’s horn then glowed as she lifted her crescent shaped glaive, and her multi-bladed sword that looked like a snowflake, from the magnetic locks on her now armored flack. Both weapons let out a light blue glow, while creating a sharp humming noise.
Shadow silently cursed under his breath before looking in the direction of the other Lunar Guards and giving them a slight nod. “Armor up,” he ordered sharply.
As one, they tapped the Lunar emblem on their armor as Luna did, causing them to exit sleep mode while making a whirring noise. As light blue lines of energy began to appear on their armor, they all took out their melee weapons from their holding places.
Intimidated by this display, the Solar Guard began to back away. However, before they could take more than two steps, Blueblood spoke up.
“Ah very impressive…very, very impressive,” said the unicorn noble in a voice that was dripping in sarcasm. “I am sure that on that barren wasteland that you refer to as ‘home’, that act might scare a foal on Nightmare Night. However, you are now in Equestria! Here, epically in the daytime, your act wouldn’t scare anypony, let alone members of the Royal Guard.”
Blueblood looked around to see if his words had any effect. To his delight, he could see that the members of the Canterlot Royal Guard had regained their composure and were slowly advancing towards Luna.
“It is well past time we ended this farce,” continued Blueblood.
“First,” he began, “on the castle grounds, the number of Royal Guars outnumber you at least one hundred to one with more on the way.
“Second,” continued Blueblood. “As it stands, Equestria has the resources that your barren rock claims to desperately need or will otherwise parish. So, if anything, you should be grateful for whatever charity we nobly bestow upon you.
“Third, you come here to extort Equestria through hostages. But, the truth is that those five mares are simple commoners with no real political, economic, or ever strategic worth. When you get done to it, all of your bravado simply reeks of desperation and shows how empty your threat of execution truly is. Where-as we now stand to have the head-of-state of your wasteland, a pony who has actual worth.
“It is well past time that you accept that your little Republic is lost and that you should submit to Princess Celestia and Equestria. Cooperate and perhaps some of you might live to become vassals. If you would, Captain Stareye.”
Stareye took a step forward with a smug expression. “Royal Guard! Escort Princess Celestia to her quarters where it will be safe. Then, take these Lunar ponies into custody.” At once, Celestia’s Royal Guard leveled their spears as they slowly advanced on Luna’s group, while a few others formed ranks around Celestia.
“Belay that order! Do not-” began Celestia, but her words were cut short as a pair of spears was suddenly pointed at her. Ones held by her own golden armored soldiers.
One of the two gulped nervously before he spoke. “Please, princess,” he said softly. “For your safety and the good of Equestria, we must follow orders.”
Celestia stood there speechless, her mouth hanging open slightly. She turned her head and saw that Blueblood, as well as many of the other nobles, was nodding their head in disdainful agreement. She then looked at the ponies who were supposed to be her guards, only to find that they could not look her in the eyes. Finally, she turned to look at Luna, whose eyes were filled with contempt towards her. At that moment, Celestia felt tears threatening to escape.
It was then that Celestia noticed that ‘her’ guards were almost upon Luna’s. “No!” shouted Celestia once again. “As your princess, I order you all to stand down this instant!”
“You heard her,” said one of the earth ponies close to Luna. “Stand down, Nightmare Moon!”
A gasp escaped the Lunar’s mouths, and Shadow’s jaw dropped. As he looked over at his Princess, he saw her eyes were glowing white, while she gritted her teeth. Powerful magic began to pulse in her horn the likes none of the Lunar ponies had ever seen before. Even the nobles began to feel a bit uncomfortable standing this close to the angry moon goddess.
Celestia reached out to her sister and shouted, “Lu-”
Then, everything exploded.
Stats
Page generated in 0.057 seconds
Total duration
1,027 users online
2,163,300 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
That didn't go well. I'm guessing Discord is going to break loose next chapter. If that is what is going on. Great job. Thanks for the update.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH SHIT.
And shit just hit the fan
Slaughter, Slaughter, Slaughter. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Damn it Celestia, you just lost ALL credibility! It this point, she is little more than a figurehead, with Blueblood as the power behind the throne. That may change, but when HER personal guards hold her a spearpoint on Blueblood's orders...
...horseapples.
Kill them all!!! But anyways, there are some errors in this chapter. Might want to look over it again.
After that everything exploded again.
Wait, they were talking about Scooter. Does that mean his death had a point?!
Wow....you certinly have me in your grasp Im looking forward to more. also wonder how Celestia will take that she has basically been overthrown by her own nephew.
A bloodbath.
There's gonna one, so sayeth the Kirk:
seveninchesofyourtime.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/redshirts.jpg
5507468 Things can and will explode twice.
Fucking hell, Bluebood.
Also, I just want to say one thing: While I love the story so far, the first chapter is a major detractor from it. This story is presented as a "What if" scenario and that is perfectly fine, however, no elements from the first chapter have been addressed in the 53 following chapters. Main timeline Princess Twilight casts a spell that was supposed to let her simply observe an alternate timeline, but it goes wrong. Next chapter, we are introduced to this timeline's Twilight and the main timeline is never mentioned again.
So I have a couple of suggestions that you may feel free to disregard:
1) Rewrite the first chapter as a sort of introduction to this timeline
2) Completely remove the chapter, start the story with Chapter 2, and edit the story's description to remove mentions of Alicorn Twilight and her spell.
Of course, there is a third and much more time-consuming option: rewriting much of the story to keep that plot point relevant. For example, the story shifting back to Spike's POV after Twilight and co. fail to return, or Twilight and the rest of the Main 6 could have moments where they have the memories of their timeline and are confused by their surroundings.
Personally, I think it would be easier to simply take out Chapter 1, edit the description, and have the rest of the story shift back a chapter, but as the author, it is ultimately your call. This is just something that's been taking away from an otherwise fantastic story.
Blueblood is the Umbridge of this universe.
5508069 Scooter was the one who uncovered the plot against Celestia, but was killed before he could go to Celestia that Blueblood was plotting against Luna and such.
Also, this just goes the show the problems with Celestia's way of letting other ponies do the work an letting ponies have command, power, and authority without earning it. To just blindly believe ponies will "do as I say with little to no accountibility"
8067941 YES!
1: Changelings.
2: Asshole nobles/politicians.
3:
I have a one-way trip with your name on it.
Out of a cannon.
4: Shit, meet fan.
5: Luna is a badass and you can't say otherwise.
CELESTIA, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/540/811/e45.png
Overkill? Second story I have read where she shows up...same armament too
Well, that was a pretty damn blatant coup against TWO nations at once. I really have to hand it to Blueblood, thats the first time I've ever seen something like that attempted. Granted, he's SEVERELY overestimating the Royal Guard and underestimating the Lunar ponies. To say nothing of the fact that Luna's RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM!!!!