“And I think that the Crown have to take responsibility for the Guard's lack of ability,” Lady Starfall said, stomping one hoof against the soft carpet covering the marble floor leading up to the throne, “The budget of the Guard is clearly inflated and the Bits should instead be redirected to repair damaged property and lost profits from the invasion, as well as to restore valuable and neglected cultural treasures.”
I just stared at the white unicorn with the yellow mane like she had lost her little mind..
“Excuse me?” I asked after several long moments, “You’re saying that you want to reduce the budget of the Royal Guard? Because we were attacked?”
Lady Starfall nodded, “I and the rest of the Restoration Foundation are dedicated to the restoration of Equestria as it should be. The Guard is one of the single largest expenditures of Equestria and it’s clearly bloated beyond all sense. Did you know that Equestria has more spears than ponies?”
“No, I can’t say I did…” I said before I sighed, “We are at the brink of active war, Lady Starfall. We were just invaded, Equestria has been attacked multiple times the last few years by a number of factions and beings. Decreasing the budget of the Guard is the last thing we should be doing.”
She frowned, “And how useful has the guard been in our defense? About as much as a steel airship. We don’t need the Guard, we have the Elements of Harmony and the Princesses to keep us safe.”
“Indeed,” I said and nodded, getting a look at surprise from her as I agreed with her, “Which is why I am going to talk to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as well as Princess Cadance to increase the funding for Equestria’s and the Crystal Empire's military forces. Thank you for your opinion, Lady Starfall, but I’m afraid we have to decline your suggestion at this time.”
See, I do diplomacy.
I’m fairly sure Grey Velvet spiked my tea with something.
Lady Starfall stomped her hoof again, brushing her long white mane back with her magic as she looked at me, outraged, “Lord Page, you can not possibly be serious! Princess Celestia would never-”
“And that’s something you would need to take up with her at a later time. Right now you are dealing with me. Next plea-”
I was interrupted by the doors of the throne room banging open and a pegasus galloped inside, the wonderbolt carrying a messenger bag on her side. She came to a halt before the throne, giving me a quick salute before she dug through her satchel,
“Lord Page, message from Princess Celestia.”
Something that couldn’t wait until I met Luna in the dream realm tomorrow. She must have flown hard to get here from the meeting point at the border this quickly.
“Thank you,” I said and took it in my magic, “Go, rest. It was a long flight,” before I looked towards the gathered ponies, “Court is dismissed for today.”
Ignoring their protests and questions, I got off the throne and jumped down onto the floor, leaving through the side door into the sitting room outside before I broke the seal of the scroll, rolling it open.
I read it for a long moment, reading through the short letter three times. It was written in Celestia's neat hornwriting, long sweeping strokes that she somehow managed to also make easily readable.
I suppose a couple of thousands of years of practice helped with that.
“My Lord Blank Page,
I am glad to announce that the negotiations are proceeding well and while the finished terms have not yet been decided on, my sister has released the Storm King from your curse.
One part of the terms all parties agree on at the moment is the release of all prisoners on all sides. As a show of good faith, we are releasing our captured soldiers at once. I trust that you will execute this duty and arrange their escort to the border to the best of your abilities.
With some hope, negotiations should be over soon and we will return home.
Princess Celestia, Princess of the Sun.
PS: On a more personal note, it is nice to spend some time with my sister. It’s not something we do often enough."
I frowned at the wall and slowly rolled the scroll back up. It was the genuine thing, it had not only Celestia's private seal on it, but it had the markers of being written not only by her hoof, but being without duress.
The last sentence of the actual message has a comma in it, for example, was one of the four markings that Luna taught me were always in letters between her and her sister to guarantee that it really was from them and without being forced.
An old code from way before her banishment.
The rest were present as well.
I frowned at the scroll. Things seemed to be going well, but I can’t say I liked the contents of the scroll. Releasing all those soldiers again this early… and even worse, Luna and Celestia talking privately that much during the travel would likely give Celestia more teasing ammunition against me. She really didn’t need that much of advantage, what she had already was quite enough.
Oh well.
Still, if I agreed with it or not, I had gotten my instructions. I looked at the scroll for a moment, starting to get an idea before I looked towards Amber lounging in a chair across the room, “Could you get a message to the Captain of the Solar Guard? We need to get some things organized.”
Not that anypony is getting released before I confirm things tonight.
Amber just nodded.
Is she daft? Between Chrysalis and Tirek it has been proven that the Princesses aren't invincible.
It's only a matter of time until Murphy rears his wonderful head during the negotiations...
Prepare for the possibility. Make sure you have a big stick ready to clout someone into submission if need be. And a big FUK-OFF device at the ready.
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No, she's a NOBLEMARE. The progenitors of the politicians, her function and core values are vastly different from you and me.
Also, she's just dumber than sin.
I have feeling, that this act of good will was done too early, as Storm King without being personally endangered anymore may get ambitious again and if he manage to actually catch any alicorn, he can threat Page with their wellbeing or even live, if he try to attack him again.
Murphy's Law be like that one Jim Halpert scene from The Office.
I got $10 on Luna releasing the Storm King from his nightmares being a Bad Idea™ and now he's just going to go straight back to "Let's Invade Equestria" mode plus an extra helping of personal grudge against Page.
Friendly reminder that pretty much all canon depictions have him as pretty much irredeemable, and he's one of only 2 villains to get a Fate Worse Than Petrification.
He's confirming something.
I hope it's confirmation that there's no chance of reprisals before releasing those prisoners.
Be a real shame to return the Storm King's army to him before negotiations are finished.
I hope he replaces some of the prisoners with changelings.
Uh-oh, some alarm bells right there. It's not simply a curse giving him nightmares, that's what the Storm King might think it is but in fact it's Page using Dreamwalking.
Ok I think what's happening is the Storm King was probably watching them write this, the coded postscript implies that they haven't been captured yet and the Storm King is appearing to negotiate. But I suspect the King may be waiting for them to release his army before springing his trap and Celestia's smelling a rat already.
*glares over at something outside his office window.*
Hmmmmm...........
Trust, but verify.
Glad to see Page hasn't forgotten that little bit of wisdom.
I have a very bad feeling about this.
But let’s see what happens next, we‘re still missing Parrots, Cats and Hippogryphs.
*nervecited readernoises*
way to easy i don't trust this.
9956356
Actually, Page did a thing that lingered after he stopped being there to maintain it. The question is whether the Storm King realizes how easily it could be reapplied. It, or just going full Freddy Krueger and making sure he never wakes up at all.
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Note that irredeemability isn't about lack of good, it's about lack of intelligence. Anyone smart enough to be pragmatic realizes that playing by the rules will get the heroes off your back while still leaving plenty of room to be a totalitarian dictator. Thanks to their isolationist policies, he could have had and kept the entire rest of the world if he'd just had the sense to leave Equestria alone. He didn't and now he'll lose everything.
9956297
Dumber than sin is pretty much the definition of being daft...
9956318
I agree. The Storm King pretty much only holds to agreements if they are of immediate benefit to himself and his interests, or if it would be too much of a bother to go against the terms. He has pretty much betrayed every agreement he has ever made the moment he felt it was advantageous to do so, and he even gloats about it in the face of those he betrayed.
In fact, he probably has the Staff of Sarcanus with him during this treaty, using it as a "royal scepter" on the off chance he can maneuver four alicorns into the proper positions to square the circle as he thrusts the base of the staff into the center of a magic circle hidden beneath the carpet they are all standing on, after pretending to make some grand gesture of "peace." He's just that kind of treacherous bastard.
And, if Fizzlepop Berrytwist witnesses him doing (or even attempting) this, she's going to realize that the Storm King never intended to even try to heal her broken horn.
?????
Curse reinstated, with predjudice!!!
Dat Storm King was EEEvil! He put Sia in a cage.
I am in agreement with Page. Something smells of fish despite the distance from the sea.
They stand on a bridge between the borders. Page has found a trench coat that blows in the wind. Snow falls above them muting the sound. On the other side stands the Storm King and his crew.
“Lord Page.”
“Dumbass-I mean, Storm King.”
Time for an execution. Gotta show the storm king how we humans handle the capture of our rulers. FULL ON HELL BABY!
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Agree
Maybe other hive changeling's mind magic or other mind magic?
If you give a carefully constructed command like "Write this like if everything is completely fine with appropriate secret codes"
9956297
She could have come up with a more compelling reason than that, in one sentence I debunked the arguement.
Please tell me Page isn’t going to just let them go. I could imagine him doing something like making each of the swear an oath that they would not fight and sealing it with a spell or something. Like, if they broke the oath, they would suffer the same curse the Storm King suffer, thus rendering them useless as solders. Maybe not that, but something!
I played in a dnd campaign once where our sun priest did something like that. We captured a bunch of thugs but couldn’t hold them forever. So, our cleric forcibly converted them to his religion. By mixing a ‘warding glyph’ variant with a ‘fireball’, and a ‘continual flame’ for flare, he branded each of there forehead with his god’s symbol. If they ever broke the god’s tenets (basic good deity stuff; ironic, I know), then BOOM fireball on the face. We had the spare funds and were feeling vindictive; they killed a very friendly tavern owner. We never went back to that little town, so no idea how that worked out for them.
This was actually a very small side thing that was happening during a minor war. We, the party, were awarded for our aid in the decisive battle, mostly just to get us out of the noble’s way. The sun priest is now a count on the boarder lands and is attracting a lot of big attention: dragons, angels, other kingdoms, etc. Campaigns can get wild at higher levels.
Ditch the Storm king, WHEN IS CADANCE GOING TO GET LUNA PREGNANT!?!?
At least, I'm assuming she'd need to cast some sort of fertility magic on Lna before sexy times.
*Facepalm of death* This Pony nobels should enjoy a frontline vaccation on a activ battle to get some sence beat into em... Or some stupidity out of there head... Since a hole might cause there vaccume to fill with as least some air
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Not him... But Chrysalis Also did they forget that Ponys get screwed over badly on the wedding day? Literally forget about the death caused in the invasion?
9957680
Pretty good idea
Awww, how could you miss such a chance for:
What should have happened here:
"Guards, as of this moment, Lady Starfall and every last member of the Restoration Foundation are hereby to be stripped of all rights, titles, lands and funds, and are to placed under arrest for the crime of high treason during a time of war, and the suspicion of working for the enemy... Please escort Starfall to the dungeon."
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While all that would warrant suspicion, it's not enough for actually charging them with a very serious crime like high treason.
The stupidity of nobel ponies are redicules
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To be fair she did had a point on how usefull the guard is.
Imagine if thr US had all their expensing on the military just to have innefective soldiers when the need arrived.
At least i have, adressed the wesk military in one of my stories with other following. Seriously Celestia knows what military is for, after all this events it is clear thst the military need to be restored for at least the next decades at the very least!