Key Characters in the Soldier Series: The Princesses · 7:09pm Apr 26th, 2016
This Blog will cover more of the Key Characters from the Soldier Series with info that has either appeared in the series or that I have not figured out a way to work into the stories themselves.
This Blog will be covering The Royal Sisters.
The Princesses:
The Royal Sister are the duel monarchs that rule over the nation of Equestria in equal parts. Princess Celestia rules during the day and controls the sun in the sky while her sister Princess Luna rules at night and control the moon.
Both sisters work to ensure their nation runs smoothly and that their subjects are happy, safe and live in harmony. Though Princess Luna has only been ruling in this time of peace for a few years due to having been banished, referred to by many as her absents, to the moon when she was Nightmare Moon.
Princess Celestia: Princess Celestia is the Princess of the Sun and the day ruler of Equestria, she has over a thousand years’ experience ruling her nation and under her guidance the land has known peace throughout its boarders for the most part. A skilled diplomat Celestia prefers to try and talk out issues and use diplomacy for the most part and it is how she has foster peace across her nation as well as alliance with the other nations of Equus.
However this does not mean the Sun Princess is weak or opposed to military action. She began her rule during a dark time in Equestria when there was a vacuum of power after Discord was imprisoned in stone, ending his rule of the planet. With Chaos now retreating from the land ponies now had to learn how to live in a life that was not filled with chaos magic running repent and many wanted to carve out their own kingdoms and many did not care whether ponies wanted to be ruled by them or not.
There were many skirmishes between these groups seeking power even after Celestia and her sister took the throne and it took many years for the nation to be brought into order. This was hampered by a war with a group of ponies whose name has been lost to history but what is known was they wielded powerful magic and opposed the Sisters absolutely.
It is not known what happened to this group as they simply vanished one day but the records that have survived the year suggest a possible battle took place as records from the same time frame list a large number of the Royal Guard, enough to form a sizeable army, being listed as Missing or Killed in Action.
Once the group had vanished the sister ruled over the land they held and did their best to maintain order in a world full of untamed lands where many turned to banditry or tried to form their own kingdoms still but soon order was imposed and the land knew peace.
It was some years before the young nation of Equestria would face a major threat in the form of Nightmare Moon. (Subject will be covered later in this report)
After Nightmare Moon had been banished to the moon Celestia found herself the sole ruler of the nation and the adoration of her subjects for saving them from the wicked mare of darkness, while her subjects cheered her victory Celestia could only weep at what she had been forced to do and watch as her subjects celebrated her greatest failure as if it were a success.
Dedicating herself to the task of ensuring peace in order to make up for her failure as both a ruler and a sister Celestia began to move the country towards stability and securing the nation. Though the task was hard and took a century the land knew peace and prosperity as she worked towards gaining peace with the nation’s neighbors
The next thousand years the Sun Princess ruled the peaceful nation and her subjects soon forgot what the word war truly meant nor did they fear for their safety more than slightly when a monster were to attack on the rare occasions one did.
The Summer Sun Celebration marked both the return of Nightmare Moon as well as the Return of Celestia’s lost sister thanks to Celestia’s personal student Twilight Sparkle who was able to gather the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. With them Twilight was able to purify Nightmare Moon of the emotions that created her and Princess Luna was freed.
Now with her Sister returned to her Celestia knew true happiness once more even though she knew there was a lot of work to be done in order to integrate her sister into the new Equestria but she did not care, for her Sister had returned.
Over the years Celestia helped her sister adjust to the ways of Equestria as well as over saw many threats that returned from the past to threaten the land but the Princess had planned for this and with careful maneuvering and manipulation she saw the threats dealt with by her student and her friends.
Twilight Sparkle Vanishes: While attending court Princess Celestia received word that her student had vanished without a trace and she wasted no time in flying to Ponyville. After comforting a distraught Spike along with all of Twilight’s friends and learning what the young dragon knew Celestia mobilized the entirety of the Royal Guard in order to locate Twilight.
A search that would turn up nothing even within other nations who searched within their own boarders at her request. Celestia along with many others had begun to give up hope of ever seeing her student again.
The Return of Commander Twilight Sparkle: Once more Celestia was attending court when she received word of Twilight’s reappearance in Ponyville, however the report disturbed the Princess and she had it confirmed three separate times to be sure it was accurate. Concerned about what her student had done upon her return home the Princess sent a letter to her student inviting her to Canterlot to meet whenever she had the time.
She had expected her student to arrive soon but even with the report she had received she had not been prepared for the mare who walked into her throne room. Gone was the peaceful mare she had helped raise and in her place was battle hardened warrior ripped straight from Equestria’s early days.
The tale the mare had of what had happened to her, of her torture at the hands of an alien scientist as well as her rescue by another group of the same aliens and her eventual joining of that group’s war against their government and how she had face off against aliens wielding weapons that had never been heard of on Equus and could rival magic itself. But what was most disturbing of all was the fact her student informed her the enemy she had fought against was planning to invade Equestria in order to harvest the magic of the land for themselves. Celestia thanked her student for the information and met with her counsel as soon as her student left.
After speaking with her council for the rest of the day and the night as well Celestia sent for Twilight in order to explain to the counsel the threat facing the nation. She watched as her student tried to make the counsel see the threat but most would not however when Twilight demonstrated the power of the weapons the Federal Army had at their disposal, informing them all that this wasn’t even a fraction of what the enemy army wielded the council was willing to listen.
Even Celestia had been surprised by Twilight’s plan to raise an army trained by herself and equipped with weapons based off the ones she brought back with her in order to meet the threat when it arrived and that she would lead this army.
Seeing that her student was the only real choice to lead this army do to her experience with the enemy as well as true war Celestia granted her student’s request.
Over the next year she watched as her Student built her army, armed and trained it as well as scattered bases and garrisons across the nation to stand ready for any threat. Celestia had been surprised when the army had managed to locate the Changeling Hive within two weeks of starting a search when the Royal Guard could not locate it after months of searching. While Twilight had called for a military action Celestia had chosen to try a diplomatic route first with the army waiting in the wings just in case.
It had been a good decision to have the army on stand by for negotiations broke down before they even began and within hours the hive had surrendered and the Changeling Queen was in custody. Now came the issue of what to do with the recently captured enemy of the nation however it was her student who had a plan and requested the Hive be turned over to the army to decide their fate. Celestia gave it great thought as the nobles argued among themselves and could see her student had something planed for the hive and knew it would be good for both the nation as well as the hive and chose to grant the request.
Her suspicion had been proven correct when the hive was absorbed into the army and swelled its ranks and gave it a large workforce though Celestia had been surprised that her student named the Changeling Queen as her second in command as she thought the mare would resent the queen for what had happened at her brother’s wedding, when she spoke of this to her student she had replied with. “There is no point in resenting her, what’s done is done and she is far more useful as an asset than anything else.” This had brought a smile to the Sun Princess’ face as it showed that some of who her student used to be still existed with in the soldier she now was.
The newly formed Equestrian Defense Force proved a useful tool for dealing with many issues within the nation that would normally take the Royal Guard some time to handle however the EDF would not prove itself till and enemy Celestia hoped to never see again surfaced.
The Battle of Canterlot: As the battle of the capital city raged outside between the EDF and Tirek Celestia along with the rest of the Princesses of the nation remained within the throne room and even at the insistence of the EDF second in command that they evacuate Celestia refused as the only safe places left already housed the ponies the EDF had evacuated and she knew Tirek would follow the Princesses where ever they fled and she could not lead him to her subjects that had been saved so she would stay and face Tirek.
Once Tirek entered the throne room she watched with a face that mask her real emotions as the EDF soldiers and Royal Guard within the room engaged him in a battle that lasted mere seconds before just the EDF Major still lived. Celestia along with her sister, Cadence and the Major attacked Tirek in a battle that left a fourth of the castle in ruins and the rest of the structure heavily damaged but she soon fell with the others and her magic was stolen. In an act of cruelty for daring to fight him Celestia was forced to watch as Tirek gathered what remain of the EDF within the city who even still refused to surrender and fought in a vain attempt to rescue the princesses and protect the civilians and he took his time in killing the soldiers before Celestia was banished to Tartarus.
When Celestia’s magic returned she, along with the others, escaped from Tartarus and were greeted by the sight of what remained of Canterlot, now bathed in the light of the early morning sun. It was with a Heavy heart Celestia began to help look for survivors of the battle and much to her sadness there were very few. Many innocents had been caught in the cross fire of Tirek’s desire to destroy the EDF and the EDFs desperate attempts to protect the ponies with in the city and the resulting battle had destroyed much of the city. However hope was not lost and despite the heavy losses ponies had survived the battle with their magic intact, hidden away by the EDF before the soldiers gave their lives to draw Tirek away.
Celestia desired nothing more than to help the EDF and Royal Guard search for survivors as well as collect those that would later be called The Fallen across the nation but Equestria was a nation reeling from an event it had not faced in nearly a millennia and need it’s Rulers. For this reason alone Celestia buried her desires with in her heart and began to oversee matters of the nation as the reconstruction was seen to by others like the EDF.
With the castle nearly destroyed Celestia ran the nation from the School for Gifted Unicorns as though the building had been damaged in a brief engagement between an EDF MBT and Tirek the damage was minor. It had also been her decision to open the school as a shelter for those who had lost their homes in the battle till such time that their homes were rebuilt or they chose to secure other lodgings. It had been difficult to run the nation with so many ponies crowding the rooms and halls of the school but the idea of forcing some of the ponies out never crossed her mind as the Royal Guard did well to keep the peace while supplies were regularly delivered by the EDF.
Once the throne room had been nearly rebuilt Celestia returned to it and ran the nation once more from the castle and she ended up approving of her Student’s recommendations for additional defenses to the castle as she had seen how much trouble the EDF had had setting up defenses.
During the reconstruction and after The Fallen had been recovered and identified as best as they could be Celestia had helped oversee the construction of The Memorial to The Fallen and personally placed a preservation enchantment on both the wall and the tank that served as the simple memorial.
When the Griffin Separatists declared war against Equestria Celestia did what she could to ease the fears of her subjects as she did not believe the Separatist would go as far as they eventually did. What the Separatists did with their bombings and massacres broke Celestia’s heart as they were not simply targeting the army or the Royal Guard, they were targeting innocents who did nothing.
With the aid of her sister it had not been a difficult decision to fully mobilize the EDF to meet this threat and eliminate it, an order she had not given for a long time and never thought she would ever have to give again. It was her who negotiated with the Griffin King to allow the EDF to operate within the Griffin Kingdoms and once the Separatists base had been discover she convinced him to allow the EDF to lead the attack as she knew the EDF had lost many of their own in the massacres and bombings and to not give them the right to face the enemy who had used such cowardly tactics to kill their own would be cruel to them and cause many to distrust her leadership.
Over the years Celestia has learned how to best use the EDF as well as become more open to the military option and her student has become a sort of unofficial advisor to the Princess and she eventually figured out how to reign in her student when she gets a bit carried away though it took her some time to get used to yelling at Twilight and showing her anger but it has the same effect on the mare as being disappointed used to, she later learned it is because her student sees her as her Commanding Officer and the thought of angering her C.O. terrifies the mare.
While she has become slightly aware of the state of her students mind she does not know the full extent in which she is damaged and still trusts her to make the right decisions as she has seen the work she has done that goes beyond her duty as a soldier in how she helped her sister’s Night Court become just as used as her own Day Court.
After the death of Shinning Armor Celestia had attempted to pull her student off the task of hunting the Separatists but she realized it was better to leave the mare where she was so at least she was observed by those who could help keep her under control rather than have her slipping away and going off on her own with no supervision.
Celestia had tried to go through with her plan to ascent Twilight as she had planned but after completing Starswirled’s spell nothing more happened then she had returned her friends to how they should have been and she feared her student had lost the ability to ascend, however on the day of Rainbow Dash’s funeral Celestia had been surprised to see the Elements activate and her student vanish in a flash of light as she had planned for her years ago.
When her student returned she had succeeded in becoming an alicorn as Celestia had planned for her, though her initial reaction to becoming an alicorn was concerning to Celestia the intervention of the Major prevented her from figuring anything out, however Celestia does have suspicions there is more to her former student then she has been told.
Princess Luna: The Princess of the Moon fought alongside her sister against Discord and helped bring about his down fall before joining her sister as co-rulers of Equestria. She worked just as hard as her sister did in forging the nation from the ruins of Discord’s rein.
However unlike her sister who was praised and loved for her sun Luna’s hard work on the night was ignored by all and in some cases the night was feared. This festered within the Lunar Princess unnoticed by her older sister due to her focusing on running the young nation till it was too late.
Nightmare Moon: Princess Luna’s envy, malice and rage manifest itself one day when she refused to lower the moon and transformed herself into the mare known as Nightmare Moon.
As Nightmare Moon Luna attempted to destroy her more powerful sister and came close to succeeding do to the fact while Nightmare Moon put every ounce of her power into fighting her sister, Celestia held back, not wanting to harm her sister who was trapped within her own dark emotions. However Celestia was unable to defeat Nightmare Moon without destroying her and losing her sister forever so having no other choice Celestia harnessed the powers of the Elements of Harmony, though without Luna who controlled half the power of the elements the Elements were not strong enough to purify Nightmare Moon so Celestia did the only other option she had left and sealed her sister within the moon she once governed.
A thousand years past and Nightmare Moon was able to break free from her imprisonment and Celestia still refused to fight her and was banished into the sun as Nightmare Noon raised the moon to unleash Night Eternal so all ponies would be forced to appreciate her night.
Unknown to Nightmare Moon Celestia had prepared for her eventual return and set her plan in motion before Nightmare Moon’s escape and in the end it payed off as Twilight Sparkle was able to purified Nightmare Moon and release Princess Luna from her own out of control emotions.
Reintegration: Princess Luna had returned to Equestria; however it was not the Equestria she had been banished from as it was a land of peace and prosperity and not a fledgling nation struggling to maintain order within its own boarders while dealing with hostile neighbors.
Luna was a mare out of time from a time far different then what was a modern Equestria and she faced the daunting task of learning the ways of this new Equestria when she did not even speak the same language and often refers to other ponies by their full names and titles if they have any.
The Lunar Princess threw herself into her studies to learn all she had missed while still maintaining her duties as co-ruler of the land though many are not sure how to react to her as some still fear her as Nightmare Moon and others are used to a single ruler and the fact that when her emotions run high, either negative or positive she has a habit of slipping back into old Equestrian and she often gets excited about some of the new information or some such item that came about after her “absents” and will seek to learn everything about that one subject as possible, even accosting servants, guards or random citizens in order to ask for all they know to the subject with the excitement of a young filly.
Twilight Sparkle Vanishes and Returns: When Luna learned of Twilight Sparkle going missing Luna was agitated for the simple fact that at the time Twilight Sparkle was her closest friend and in many aspects her only friend. When the search was finally called off for Twilight after months of searching and finding no clues Luna sent her own personal guard out to continue the search.
When news arrived that Twilight had been sighted in Ponyville once more Luna was overjoyed, however the details of her friends’ return gave her pause as it was not something the mare she called friend would do and she chose to bide her time and see what happened as Celestia had sent a letter asking Twilight to come to the castle.
Luna was Present when Twilight and her friends arrived and she could hardly recognize the mare who walked through the doors to the throne room for she moved like a soldier who was all to familiar with battle and carried herself with a confidence and authority of a seasoned military leader and when she spoke it was in the manner of a soldier addressing a superior.
When Luna got her first chance to speak to the mare who had been her friend after the council meeting Luna feared her friend was gone, having been swallowed up by the soldier before her, however once the mare was told to relax she began to speak to Luna as an old friend she had not seen in some time, which based on what the mare told her was true in a sense. Though Twilight had changed Luna concluded that she was still indeed her friend and in fact Luna enjoyed speaking with her more so now then before as Luna was from a time of war and battle and do to those being such foreign concepts in modern Equestria Luna had difficulty speaking to others about things as she still knew so little, but now her friend knew of battle and understood war so could understand what Luna was speaking of though she did feel guilty at being happy for what had happened to her friend.
Once the EDF was formed Luna supported the army fully and was quick to embrace what she saw as a real army as the modern Royal Guard does not meet her standards of what a Guard should be due to having existed in such peaceful times. It should be noted she has only voiced these thoughts to her sister and Twilight.
Despite the fact Luna ran her own Night Court very few petitioners ever visited her either thinking she was not up to the task or the more common fact that no one knew there was a Night Court. She had expressed how she felt useless in her own court to Twilight and within the next month the members of the EDF began petitioning Night Court when matters were not appropriate for a standard meeting. This had the effect of making Luna feel useful as well as helping spread the word that there was a Night Court and soon half the petitioners for the Day Court had transferred to the Night Court as those who did not think Luna up to the task had their fears doused by the fact that if she can make decisions for the army and they abide by them then she must know what she is doing.
Battle of Canterlot: Luna was present during the Battle of Canterlot and waited with her sister and Cadence within the Throne Room though she desired to go out and join the soldiers in battle it was Celestia’s council that a battle between an alicorn and Tirek in the middle of the city would catch many of their subjects in the cross fire worse than they already were between the EDF and Tirek that stayed her desire. When the EDF Major had implored that the Princesses flee as the city had fallen Luna stood firm with her sister when she spoke of facing Tirek as fleeing would just lead him to the ponies that had been saved.
She watched as the EDF and Royal Guard fell to Tirek and was the first of the Princesses to launch an attack. She fought alongside the other Princesses and the EDF Major and was the last to be defeated as do to her being a mare displaced in time from a far more combat oriented time Luna was still used to battle and thus was harder for Tirek to defeat but her defeat was inevitable and she too fell. Like the others she was forced to watch as Tirek took his time killing what remained of the army in Canterlot before being banished to Tartarus and she did what she could to keep the other Princesses spirts up do to Cadence never having witnessed something as horrible as the torture of another being to death and that Celestia cared greatly for her subjects and not having witnesses such an action in centuries she had not been as prepared as she used to be for such atrocities.
Once she regained her magic Luna escaped with the others with the full intent of avenging the fallen soldiers as well as getting revenge for Tirek forcing someone like Cadence to witnesses such atrocities but she learned that Tirek had already been killed by Twilight Sparkle.
While Celestia tended to the courts and running the country as it rebuilt Luna over saw the search for the missing civilians as many had not been evacuated and some had been hidden away by EDF soldiers no longer alive to tell where they had hidden them.
It became a race against time as it was discovered that some had been hidden in buildings that eventually collapsed either partly or completely and trapped the ponies hidden with only the supplies the EDF soldiers had been able to give them which mostly consisted of their own survival kits which only had two days’ worth of food and water for a single pony and some groups were as large as twenty with only half a dozen survival kits to split between them.
Much to Luna’s dismay and despite their best efforts some of those hidden either perished when their hiding places collapsed or their supplies ran out and they were not discovered in time.
Once the EDF soldiers and Royal Guard that had been killed were recovered and identified it was Luna who suggested a memorial be erected for them and Celestia had been quick to agree with the suggestion.
Separatists War: When the Separatists war broke out Luna had not been familiar with what terrorism was as it along with the tactics had not really been a concept in the past she came from as many preferred to face their opponents head on and try to with them with superior tactics and though civilians did died at time it was rarely senseless killing.
She had learned what terrorism was and finds the act to be beyond cowardly and the Separatists were indiscriminately killing civilians to draw the Royal Guard and EDF out into the open as they did not want to face them within their bases.
She called for the extermination of the Separatists near the beginning of the conflict and as the Separatists attacks became larger and engulfed more and more innocents Luna was able to convince her sister to give the order.
She helped her sister through the emotional fall out of so many innocents dyeing and giving an order she had not given in a thousand years but Luna felt it was for the best as mercy could not be shown to ones such as the Separatists.
Over the Years Luna has been a firm supporter of the EDF and prefers the military option over most other options, this is due to her still being displaced in time as well as being close friends with the EDF Commander. It is this friendship that has led her to suspect there is something between the EDF Commander and her second in command but as of now it is merely suspicion, however she is of the belief that as long as it does not interfere in their work and she does not see any actual evidence of it then she will turn a blind eye but if she does come across evidence or the relationship is interfering with the two officers duties she will be forced to step in.
She was present when the EDF commander ascended to alicornhood and was very happy about it as she did not want to lose her oldest friend in modern Equestria as well as a mare who had helped her through her time in the modern world by helping her open up and be able to make more friends, though most of those friends are the Command Staff of the EDF.
She was only mildly concerned about the way the EDF Commander acted after her ascension and what the Major did seems to have fixed it, she does not plan to look into it because she knows if it was truly a problem then it would have been one years ago.
That's quite interesting. Nice overview of the older princesses.
3898366 Thank you, most of these details will probably never appear in the series it self but they are all driving aspects of the characters and do influence what happens in the series.