"The time has come for us to realize that our so-called leaders have lost their ability- Nay, their rights to lead!" Buck Cheap snapped as he sweeped his gaze over all of his colleagues.
Yet again, he'd brazenly called another meeting of the council without the permission or knowledge of the alicorns, and this time the council was fully in attendance.
"The past few days have only proven their incompetence and their shortcomings," Cheap continued, "They style themselves our leaders and our protectors when they misguide us towards depending on them so that we cannot grow as a society, and leaving us woefully unprepared for when disaster strikes!
"What gives them the goddess-given right to rule us in the first place? The fact they have horns and wings? It's that sort of tribalistic narrow-minded shortsightedness that drove a schism between the three tribes so long ago!"
The rest of the council was only becoming more and more annoyed by Cheap's words.
"Yet again, the same baseless drivel," Treaty Ink groaned "You honestly believe they are incapable? Tell me, who are the ones that are actually taking the initiative to resolve this outbreak?"
"If I recall, Duchess Ink," Cheap glared at her, "was it not Duchess Cure and Duchess Burner who found the cure for the outbreak? All the alicorns have done is take credit and garner praise and adulation from the citizens!"
"Says the pony who proposes we abolish the crown and take over, and yet has no experience leading a nation!" Breadbasket remarked. "Honestly, I might have agreed with you on certain things before, but now? Now I'm starting to see you for who you are."
"Indeed, Duke Cheap," Firestorm leaned forward while narrowing his eyes, "the deepest, darkest cells of Tartarus are reserved for traitors..."
"I am not the one you should be demonizing," Cheap responded in an almost self-victimizing way, "the alicorns are the problem we face! Let us not forget that Luna and Sombra were each once villains who threatened ponykind! Who's to say they won't revert back to being Nightmare Moon or the tyrant King Sombra, and destroy all that we hold dear?"
"They were villains, but they have long since paid for their past misdeeds," Brass stated firmly.
"Amusing... Cheap snorted while giving Brass a derisive look, "a prosecutor defending the guilty."
"Because I know a guilty party when I see one," Brass responded evenly, "After all, evidence is key."
"Well it is evident that the alicorns will lead us to ruin and poverty!" Cheap snapped, "If the rest of you would stop looking upon them through rose-tinted glasses you'd see as clearly as I do."
"Then enlighten us, Duke Cheap," Pipe invited, smirking, "Show us evidence to back up your claims."
Buck Cheap suddenly didn't like the direction this was going.
"I agree. After all..." Firestorm chimed in, taking his cue. "Without evidence, we can't possibly consider turning against them."
Those words, those looks, Cheap grounded his teeth in growing ire as he suddenly roared,"I HAVE EVIDENCE! Evidence that they....."
The doors to the council room eased open and the dukes and duchesses all turned to see the arrivals of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, Prince Midnight, Spike, and the rest of the Harmonic Twelve. Celestia's eyes of thinly-veiled disgust and disapproval fell upon Cheap, who gathered himself with a dark chuckle.
"We were just talking about you."
"That's refreshing, Cheap," Midnight remarked with a slight smirk, "Usually you're screaming about us."
Cheap frowned as the dukes and duchesses all laughed a little at Midnight's words, when Brass Scales stood up.
"Ladies and gentlecolts of the council, I believe Their Majesties, along with their entourage, have something very interesting to share with us. Would you be so kind, Prince Midnight?"
"With pleasure," Midnight stepped forward, taking the floor from Cheap, who glared as he backed up but didn't leave the middle of the room. "Dukes and Duchesses of the Aristocratic Council, the outbreak is being quelled even as we speak, thanks to the efforts of Doctor Miracle Cure and Doctor Mareston Burner. However, in the course of the investigation into this mass-poisoning a conspiracy has been brought to our attention. We have a traitor in our midst, and that traitor..."
Midnight pointed the accusing hoof straight at the culprit, "...is Duke Buck Cheap of House Avarice!"
"LIES! I will not stand for such slander!" Cheap yelled, his green-coated face becoming nearly as red as his wine-red mane.
"Not slander, truth," Midnight responded coldly, "Buck Cheap planned this whole outbreak in an attempt to discredit the crown so that he could sway the council to agree upon demanding the alicorns step down as the rulers of Equestria and the council would assume rule instead.
"He paid off a lab assistant from the Department of Research and Development to acquire the chemical formula for a dangerous poison, which he mass-produced to contaminate the shipments of wheat-based foods from the Galloping Grains Agricultural Society's biggest wheat farm in the Unicorn Range."
"He did WHAT?!" Breadbasket shrieked in utter outrage.
"Not only that, he used his stamp of the Aristocratic Council's Official Seal to make sure the contaminated food would be shipped out to various cities across Equestria," Midnight continued, "A risky move at first glance, but he probably thought that even if someone looked into the Official Seal then Duchess Breadbasket would be blamed instead of him.
"What he didn't know however is that each council member's stamp, while they share the same seal, they each also have individual and very subtle differences that can identify whose stamp was used for each seal. Princess Celestia examined a form that had such a seal stamped onto it, and confirmed that it came from Cheap's stamp!"
"No, this is just another one of your tricks!" Cheap snarled, raising his wings, "Just because you alicorns say the seals are different doesn't automatically make it true!"
"But it is true, Cheap..."
Cheap turned to Treaty Ink who gave him a condemning look, "After Princess Celestia identified the seal came from your stamp, she informed the rest of us about our stamps. We were never informed about the stamps for the seal for security purposes, in case our stamps were stolen... or if we misused them."
"Not only that," Lightning Wing spoke up, "but more evidence against you has been brought to our attention thanks to the true-blue police officers of Equestria, and the ponies under your employ who share the alias 'Whistle Blower'. Not only you but your whole House Avarice is guilty of centuries of crime!!"
"The list of crimes is longer than the entirety of Canterlot!" added Firestorm.
"Which is why we won't waste any more time, and list the crimes of the now..." Midnight said solemnly, as he gave Cheap a cold unreadable look. "You stand accused of terrorism. You stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges, Son of Avarice?"
Cheap's heart was pumping as he tried to weave a lie, something to claim plausible deniability. But as he looked around at all these condemning stares, whose eyes his family had spent generations pulling the wool over, bribing and blackmailing to look the other way, something inside him... snapped.
He began to laugh. At first, it was soft and arrogant. But then his laughter grew louder, harder, barking mad!!
He threw his head back, his eyes glazed with mania, as everypony looked on, disturbed, glaring, before finally, Cheap stopped and glared straight at Celestia.
"How do I answer? I'll tell you... Because it is my RIGHT!!!!!!"
Where once there was fear and madness, now there was anger and hate, "How do you fools think Equestria has become the most prosperous nation on Earth? With harmony? With compassion? NO!! My family, House Avarice, for generation after generation, we bled, we sweat, WE bore the burden of building this country up from the cesspool of crime and social decay that resulted from the betrayal of that creature" - He pointed to Luna - "and her pathetic sister's BLEEDING HEART!!
"My ancestor, Duke Fine Print. He realized a truth that none of you ever understood, or rather what you wouldn't accept; you can't stop crime! You can only control it! Oh sure, send your police officers, your investigators, your royal guards, your 'enforcers of the law'. It doesn't matter how many drug rings you bust, how many burglaries you prevent, or how many victims you save! Sooner or later? Somepony gets greedy enough, desperate enough! And they'd rather take shortcuts for ample gratuity instead of the long road for chump change!
"That's why my family was willing to get down and dirty with the scum of the earth! We moved in and took over all of Equestria's organized crime to minimize the damage! Lower the body count. Did we exploit others to get what we want? Of course we did! Because we're entitled to it! We're what keeps this nation from coming apart at the seams, and our seat on this council was the lynch pin holding it all together! But no...! Now you want to throw all of that away, and for WHAT?!"
"A new path, a new journey for the ponies of this nation to learn and grow," answered Midnight.
"The ponies of this nation...?" Cheap snorted derisively, "They are lost little lambs in desperate need of a mark on their asses just to give them a semblance of identity! To validate their own pathetic, empty existences! And you would entrust the stability and security of our country to them?!"
"You never had a chance, did you...?"
All eyes turned to Twilight, who stepped forward while giving Cheap a look. But unlike everyone else's looks, which were condemning or disgusted, Twilight looked upon Cheap with both compassion and pity.
"And what's that supposed to mean, little princess?" Cheap narrowed his eyes at her.
"To have been born into a family that raised you to place value in all of the wrong things," Twilight answered, "never realizing that there was a better way, a happier way."
"Oh-ho-ho-ho... you mean, the 'Magic of Friendship'?" Cheap mocked, "Friendship is nothing more than a relationship of convenience for the weak! To leave yourself vulnerable to betrayal and exploitation!"
"Is that what you really think, Duke Cheap? Or is it what your family taught you?" Twilight replied, "You've never had a true friend, have you? All you've ever had were business associates, clients, customers, and employees. Never had the comfort of someone you could trust to watch your back, to help you get back up when you were down, or just enjoy sharing each other's company."
"Well whoopty-doo for you, Twilight Sparkle!" Cheap snarled, "Because who would want to be friends with me?! After all I've done? Not that it matters, because I didn't become the Lord of Lords without having the foresight to plan ahead!"
He reached into his lapel collar and pulled out a tiny gemstone, which he then immediately crushed under his hoof!
There was a ripple of light that spread throughout the room before it vanished, and everypony was immediately alarmed and confused.
"You felt that?!" Cheap sneered, "That was my signal to all my agents throughout Canterlot! By now, they're all in place, and my signal has given them the go-ahead!"
"What have you done?!" Celestia demanded, "What are your agents going to do?!"
"Just you wait and see, because now... Now, it's time for the House of Avarice to assume its rightful place as the RULING POWER OF EQUESTRIA!!!" Cheap tore away his lapel and everyone saw, around his neck, a medallion.
It was archaic yet pristine, old yet gleaming. Like polished silver with a golden sheen, with the image of an alicorn surrounding a stone as red as blood that radiated with raw power! Then... it burned with light, as scarlet shimmering vapors of energy flowed from the stone and then enshrouded Buck Cheap. His entire body was hidden in that strange cloud of vapor, his form a silhouette barely perceivable. Then, they heard the clanking of metal, metallic chinks, the sound of pieces coming together as the vapor faded away... and there stood Duke Buck Cheap.
His entire form was clad in a suit of armor awesome yet ominous. It was composed of a dark silver metal, with burning red light glowing out from between every chink and piece, covering every inch of Cheap's body. His hooves bore metal hoof-boots armed with frightening claws, his head was completely encased within a twin horned helm that bore a visor over his face, his wings spread, showing they too were concealed, with blade-like feathers and larger blades protruding from each wingtip, like the legendary Wingblayd weapons of the ancient Pegasus Empire.
And on his chest, the medallion remained, burning with the fire of war.
Everypony in the room looked on as primordial fear began to spread to every fiber of their beings, instinct on red alert, warning them that were in mortal danger and to flee for their lives!
Celestia and Luna were both utterly shocked at the sight of Cheap's form as the moon princess managed to utter out, "It can't be...!"
"What?!" Twilight looked to the Royal Sisters, "What is that?!"
"A weapon... one we've seen only once long ago," whispered Celestia in abject horror as she watched Cheap get a feel for his new shiny toy. "There was a battle over a thousand years ago, early into our reign. A corrupt lord who had refused to recognize Luna and I as the new rulers of Equestria, he tried to claim a territory of the country for himself, to dominate the ponies living there to his tyranny.
"My sister and I led a division of ten thousand soldiers to remove him from power and save the ponies under his dictatorship. When we confronted him, he wore this same suit of armor. When the battle was over... only my sister and I, along with eleven soldiers were the only ones to survive. The lord died, but somehow the armor was lost, and we'd thought perhaps it had been destroyed!"
"It wasn't..." answered Cheap, whose voice reverberated within his helm, giving it a foreboding dissonant tone, almost like two voices speaking just slightly out of synchronization.
"The medallion was not destroyed, merely lost amongst the battledfield-turned-graveyard, where it had since laid rest along with all the bones of the ponies you led to their deaths! This ancient weapon I wear... it has a name, you know. A name that struck fear into the hearts of even the mightiest warriors in ages long past. I knew with this terrible power at my command, I would be ready to rise up and rule this country no matter what direction my plans took.
"First, I am going to kill every single pony here, especially you and your fellow alicorn freaks, Celestia! Then, my agents will round up every citizen in Canterlot so they can gaze up and behold their new king, clad in the only armament worthy of my greatness, and once they hear how I triumphed over the villains that tried to cull the population they will bow to me. For I wear... the Aegis Armor!!!"
"Shit- GET EVERYPONY OUT OF HERE!!" Firestorm yelled, and immediately, the skirmish began.
As the dukes and duchesses fled towards the doors while Celestia, Luna, and Twilight ushered their friends out, Cheap lunged forward, his clawed hooves ready to tear the nearest body apart.
Showstopper tripped as she'd been getting up from her seat and cried out in terror as the claws came for her throat-
*KLZZZANG*
Only for a barrier of turquoise mana to shield her as Midnight helped her up, "Run, get out of here!"
Showstopper uttered a thank you as she fled, and just in time as Cheap reared up and smashed Midnight's barrier to pieces, much to his shock. He reached for Midnight's throat, only for Midnight's physical form to disperse into vaporous shadow and slither away.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU!!!" Cheap roared as he continued to try and attack Midnight.
The sapphire blue alicorn merely continued to disperse and reform, but Cheap was moving so fast he couldn't retaliate and attack.
"Midnight, to my side, now!" Luna called, and Midnight hurried over while Celestia cast another mana shield to halt Cheap, even for a moment. Once Midnight reformed by Luna, she said to him, "Together! Tia, lower the shield!"
Celestia did as she asked, and before Cheap could attack them again, Luna and Midnight both took a deep breath... and SCREAMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheap was nearly blown off his hooves, but the claws on them, allowed him to hold himself in place even as the powerful sonic screams devastated the council room, toppling the pillars, shattering the domed glass ceiling, and blew away the chairs and tables. Then... Cheap slowly but surely began approaching, clawing at the floor to maintain purchase, as even through his visored face, his eyes, filled with murderous fury, lit with the intensity of burning molten gold.
Before long, though, Luna and Midnight stopped, and gasped for breath, having screamed too long and hard while Cheap stood up straight and chuckled behind that helm.
"Interesting. Tell me, moon witch, how would you like your sister to die?"
"EERRRAUGH!!" Luna leapt forward, lighting up her horn to summon her armor and sword, and her blade met Cheap's claws in a spray of sparks from metal scraping against metal.
They traded more blows, but very quickly Luna felt the power behind Cheap's strikes outmatches her own. Her sword then became locked in Cheap's claws, their faces only inches apart as Cheap mocked, "Banishment was too good for you, freak... For your crimes against the life of this planet, I sentence you to DEATH!!!"
"SILENCE YOU CUR!!!"
Luna quickly teleported out of the way as a beam of burning light blasted Cheap with such power that he was blown through the throne at the back of the room, through the walls, and to the castle gardens outside.
With only a moment's respite, Celetisa summoned the armor and halberd she had not worn in centuries, having hoped that she would never again have to.
"Princess Celestia!"
She looked to see Twilight, and the rest of her friends, standing in the doorway, looking at her, Luna, and Midnight with growing fear.
"Twilight, lead your friends out to the city, find any guards you can, and protect the citizens from Cheap's agents!"
"What?! But what about you?"
"My sister and I will deal with Cheap."
"What?!" Midnight gaped at Celestia, "No, Princess, I-"
"Midnight, I need for you, your friends, and any available Hoods to protect the people, and the councilors," Celestia instructed. "It is your duty, Arbiter..."
Midnight was silent for a moment before looking to Twilight, and then back at the sun princess.
"But you're pregnant...!"
"I will act with caution," Celestia promised before stating, "But in this moment, the protection of our subjects matters most."
"Then at the very least... Luna, Twilight, with me," Midnight called, as they approached Celestia and each placed their hooves on her barrel, and lit up their horns.
Midnight's turquoise mana, Luna's cobalt, and Twilight's magenta intermingled, becoming a warm and shimmering security blanket of loving protective magic, that wrapped itself snug and tight around Celestia's barrel, offering protection to the the little life inside.
"Those are the strongest blessings and protective wards we can offer right now," Midnight said with deep concern as he looked into Celestia's pale magenta eyes.
"Regardless, please... Take no unnecessary risks."
"We know he has to be stopped, but it shouldn't mean putting your foal in danger," Twilight worried.
"Worry not, my dear young friends," Luna promised, "I will fight Cheap directly, Celestia will back me up. I'll do everything in my power to protect her."
Midnight and Twilight shared another look before regarding the Royal Sisters with deepest concern... when Celestia and Luna pulled the four of them into a big group hug, and stayed like that for but a moment... before letting go as Celestia and Luna both smiled to their younger colleagues, and Celestia said, "Protect our little ponies."
Twilight and Midnight found comfort in Celestia's voice, before they furrowed their brows and nodded with determination, and hurried off after their friends. The Royal Sisters took a deep breath, gave each other a similar look, before hoisting up their sword and halberd and following after Cheap through the holes in the walls Celestia had blown him through.
They arrived in the gardens, where already they saw him.
He was flying aloft in the air, tempestuous winds laced with electricity swirling around him, creating a menacing atmosphere. He gazed down at them and spoke, "Any last words? I'm sure you'd like to give your husband one last message before you die..."
Pointing their weapons at the traitor, Celestia and Luna both responded, "HAVE AT THEE!!!"