The Cost of Utopia

by Dr Freedom MLP


Chapter 12

“When you have established that one alternative is good and the other is evil, there is no justification for the choice of a mixture. There is no justification ever for choosing any part of what you know to be evil.”
- Ayn Rand

Chapter 12
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Shining Armor awoke the morning after his conversation with Freedom. His military training kicked in and he was quickly wide awake. After looking around his private quarters he stood up and stretched before heading out the door. He nodded to the guards that had kept watch over his door during the night.

“Captain Sir! Celestia requests that you meet her at ten hundred hours in the town’s main hall!” One of the guards shouted after him.

“What time is it now private?” Shining asked.

“0930 Sir!”

“I guess I’m skipping breakfast then.” With that the captain walked off.

Ten minutes later he stood before the doors to the town hall. Using magic to pull them open he walked in shutting the door behind him. It was clear that the hall had been used to house troops even though it had only been one night. The place reeked of sweat and stallions.

As he made his way through the hall he spotted Celestia. She stood patiently, awaiting his arrival. He headed over starting to talk."You wished to see me princess?" he inquired.

"Yes, I did." She paused. "Walk with me." she said while beginning to trot. The white unicorn quickly caught up and listened to what she had to say.

"Shall we assume that the resistance will try to gain supporters?"

"Resistance? Don’t you think that..."

"Yes that is a strong word but I believe it fits for the circumstances." She paused. "Commander, I believe my sister will try to overthrow me."

"Why would you ever think that?"

"She made it very clear when she was here she did not agree with most of the decisions I made while she was exiled. Now that she has decided to go against me I'm sure her plan is to overthrow."

"And you wish to stop this?"

"I do. I am trying to decide which city they will visit first. I believe they are held out in the Everfree forest. So the surrounding cities are at the most risk." As she finished her sentence they entered a room with a war map, and the only people inside were Rainbow Dash, and Dom. Shining nodded as a sort of greeting and Freedom nodded back in understanding.

"The closest places to the forest are Ponyvile, which is currently under protection, Cloudsdale, and Manehatten."

"In my opinion princess," Freedom began “I think Manehatten is at more risk than Cloudsdale. Not all 8 of them can fly and we have sources that Apple Jack has been there in the past to stay with family. We are currently checking to see if they are still there and whether she is still in contact or not."

"Given those facts Princess I would concur with him." The white unicorn stated. "We should make Manehatten our top priority."

“Not to bud in here or anything" Dash said "But I could fly up to..."

"No!" Celestia interrupted loudly, startling the other three. "I mean... I do not think it wise if we were to send you off alone. You might be captured." Rainbow was about to interject but the red unicorn cut in.

"So it's settled, I'll ready the troops with Shining to have sent out tomorrow. It'll be about a day’s travel, give or take a few hours. So by 24-hundred tomorrow we can hopefully have a presence established in the city."

"Alright then, it's settled. Everypony dismissed." Celestia adjourned. As everyone started to leave the alicorn put one of her forehoofs out to stop the military commander from leaving. After everypony else left she turned to him.

"Shining I know your sister," the stallion cringed noticeable at the mention. "Is with Luna and therefore against you, against me, against us. But I need you to swear to me you will not waver in your duties, and if you are to run into her..." Time seemed to slow down to a crawl for the scared brother. "You are to kill her and her friends on sight." Shining felt his legs getting flimsy and his stomach churning. "We don't need that scum around." The evil mare paused for effect, noticing the discomfort of the listener. "Swear to me."

"I swear princess, you need not doubt me." he said, lying through his teeth.

“Good. I shall expect you to move out with the troops tomorrow.”

“Of course princess.” He replied, bowing as he did so.

“You are dismissed.” She stated, before turning around to look at the table. Shining Armor quickly backed his way out of the room and shut the door. He then turned around to find himself muzzle to muzzle with Freedom. The blue maned pony let out a little yelp of surprise before throwing one hoof over his mouth.

“Were you listening!?” Shining whispered angrily.

“Um, a bit yes.” His counterpart replied not expecting his friend to be so angry. The prior just huffed and started to walk away. Dom quickly caught up with him, trying to start some sort of conversation. “Hey sorry man, I didn’t mean to tick ya’ off, I just wanna know what's going on.” The guard captain sighed, and tried to clear his mind. His friend didn’t mean any harm, it was just how he was. That pony always wanted to know what was going on.

“I just need some time to think.”

“Ok, I'll see you later.”

“See ya.” As Shining started walking away he began to think about what he would do next. He couldn’t stay in his current position. He might be forced to kill his sister and he couldn’t even bear thinking about that. That’s when he made the decision. He would have to join Luna.