//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Thoughts // Story: Equestria at War: Solar Sacrifice // by White Comet //------------------------------// “Your Majesty?” “Hm?” Sunrise flicked her head around suddenly, the voice breaking her out of her trance. Blinking a few times, she realised that she was in her throne room, sitting on her throne, talking to somepony. Or rather, being spoken to by somepony... “I just asked if you approved of this plan?” The pegasus stallion in uniform asked her, holding up some blueprints of a plan to join some existing rail lines together. “Governor Inkwell is chasing me for an answer today.” Sunrise blinked as the memory flooded back to her… well, not so much a memory as she was only just told, but she only paid half an ear to the conversation. Her mind was elsewhere. “Tell her that if the Solar Empire can take up thirty percent of the slack, we can do the rest,” Sunrise instructed. The stallion nodded, folding up the blueprints and tucking them under his wing before trotting away. Sunrise just wanted to slam her face down on her desk and close her eyes. She learnt the hard way that Luna’s threat was not an empty one. But it would take more than a few school filly nightmares to break her, although she was feeling rough from running on nothing but caffeine. “Your...next Abysinnian coffee, your Highness…” Sunrise’s assistant Frost spoke meekly, appearing in front of her desk, holding a tray with a white cup of coffee on it. Sunrise simply took the new cup in her magic and replaced it with her previous cup. “Anything else on my schedule for today?” Sunrise asked. “Nothing that I have seen, your Highness,” Frost answered. “Good. Now leave, and see to it that I am not disturbed,” Sunrise commanded, pointing her hoof to the door. “Yes, your Highness,” Frost sputtered, bowing as she did, then hastily trotting towards the door to leave immediately. Something told her Sunrise wasn’t in a good mood… Sunrise rose from her desk seat, watching Frost as she left the room. When the door clicked shut, she used her magic to reach over and locked it. She turned to look at her throne, walking around her desk and trotting up the few steps to reach it, stopping just short of it. She quickly glanced over her shoulders just to make sure nopony else was there, then her horn lit up and shot out a beam of her red magic at the throne, engulfing it in its aura. The throne slowly sank down into the recess to reveal a hidden staircase. Sunrise used her magic to grab her coffee before beginning the descent down the spiral staircase. The slight dusty scent on her nose reminded her that she would have to get around to doing some spring cleaning at some point. Normally her staff would do it, but since this was her secret room, it was entirely up to her. She used her magic to raise her throne back up to cover the entrance, blocking the natural light that came with it. Luckily her horn provided ample lighting for her to walk down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, she used her magic to push through the old wooden door and flicked on the lights with her horn. Inside was pretty much a replica of what she had upstairs. Only this still resembled more of a war room, mainly because she hadn’t needed to touch it much ever since the end of the war. A giant map of the world still lay bare on the walls. Various equipment was scattered around the small room. At the back lay a large desk of equal size to her one upstairs. It still had notes and plans of a bygone era scattered around at the sides of it. A damp smell added onto the old dusty smell—something she would definitely have to address at some point. Sunrise took her seat along with a sip of her coffee before setting the cup down on her desk. She leant back with a sigh. “Well… where do I start?” she said to herself, bringing up some lined paper and a pen from a drawer by the side of the desk. She put her pen to the top of the paper… but nothing sprung to mind. “Just plotting to overthrow the God-Empress of all Equestria,” Sunrise nervously chuckled, “No biggie, right?” Realising that she was talking to herself, she preoccupied her mouth with more coffee. She released a heaved sigh, realising the mammoth task she had set herself. She looked over at the map, particularly eyeing up the continent of Griffonia. Since it hadn’t been updated since the days of the war, it still had all the old territories' borders marked out on it. She would have to correct that. “Ferdinand Dawnclaw…” Her hoof rubbed against her chin as she thought about the old griffon. She opened the metal drawers underneath her desk, making a metallic shunk as she opened them fully. She skimmed through the files until she pulled out a photo of the albino griffon, albeit an old one. He was a much older griffon now. His bright red eyes staring into the picture said a lot about the griffon, and they really stood out amongst his white feathers and fur. “You turned seventy years old this year. It must be time for your retirement soon…” Sunrise tried to think of a way she could use this to her advantage. “There must be other griffons keen on your throne...but who?” She levitated her pen up to the side of her head and started tapping it against her temple as she thought. She levitated another marker pen up, pulling the lid off, and started laying down red ink on the map. “The old Republic probably still has some of their sympathisers left…” the pen lowered itself down to another piece of the map, “And Aquilia had a successful revolution until you crushed it…” she recalled, circling the country in red ink before lowering it down even further. “I’m sure New Mareland is eager to be back under pony rule too,” she mused, circling the country. She dropped the marker on the desk in place and let out another sigh. “So many possibilities…” she rested her head on top of her forehooves on her desk. “But I wouldn’t know where to start…” she groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "And I'm talking to myself again," she identified, releasing a sigh. “I need help...but there’s nopony I trust other than Flash. And I can’t exactly go undercover…” She closed her eyes while resting her head on her forehooves, pondering the situation... Sunrise blinked. She wasn't sure where she was, but it was a dark room. She could hear faint murmurs of conversation around them. She was about to light her horn up to find out where she was, but then it dawned on her. Soft lights in the ceiling. Rows upon rows of seats that got higher between each level, all facing towards a giant screen at the end of the room. She was standing in a movie theatre. Glancing around, she saw a few ponies scattered about in the seats. The theatre was relatively empty, but it was clear several ponies were waiting for a movie to start. The way the ponies materialised out of thin air gave Sunrise the reassurance that she was dreaming. What she felt strangely drawn to was a group of five ponies sitting on a row of seats only a few steps away from her. Sunrise had already clocked that she was dreaming, but these ponies still had what seemed like an unnatural level of light coming off them, as if something was telling her to talk to them. She took a few steps and closed the distance between them. She recognised these ponies from somewhere, but she couldn't put her hoof on where. Nevertheless, something told her that she needed to speak to them. As she neared them, she was met with an almost synchronised glare from all of them. Whatever it was, they didn't seem happy to see her. She found it a strangely pleasant change from the ponies that normally cowered in the sight of the Grand Inquisitor. "Uhh, what's she doin' here?" An orange mare whispered to another, but loud enough for Sunrise to hear. "I don't know…" Replied a blue pegasus with a mane that contained every shade of the rainbow. "I must say you have some nerve to even attempt to speak to us," a white-coated unicorn with a curled purple mane replied elegantly but with force, then flicked her head to look away. "I don't--" "Don't wanna hear," the blue pegasus interrupted Sunrise, waving a hoof at her in a dismissive manner. "Get lost." The pink mare sitting in the seat nearest the aisle suddenly raised her head, stretching her neck to meet Sunrise at eye level all the while still remaining in her chair. She resembled something more akin to a pink giraffe now. She simply glared into Sunrise’s eyes and shook her head menacingly. Sunrise took a step back, trying her best to ignore the creepy (but strangely familiar) antics of the pink earth pony mare. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. Something was telling her that these five mares had something to do with her problem, but it sure sounded like they didn’t want to talk to her. “Pssst.” Sunrise twisted her head in the direction up the aisle and saw Luna sitting on one of the end seats right at the back. She was tapping her hoof on the free seat next to her. Not getting any better ideas, Sunrise slowly began ascending the steps. She took a glance back at the mares as she did, but only got another stern look from the pink earth pony mare. Her hoof pointed at Sunrise then back at her face repeatedly. Sunrise put it to the back of her mind and took her seat next to Luna. It probably made sense for them to sit at the end, seeing as the seating didn’t exactly have eight-foot-tall alicorns in mind. “What’s this all about?” She demanded. “Shhh,” Luna hushed her, holding a hoof to her mouth. Sunrise raised an eyebrow before switching her attention to the movie screen lighting up in front of her, beginning to start. She still had no idea why they were in a movie theatre. Hell, even just knowing what movie they were watching would be nice. Well, it looked like she was about to get an answer anyway. The movie depicted a fictional scenario about King Grover the Sixth surviving Ferdinand Dawnclaw’s overthrow of the Griffonian Empire and returning in the future to reclaim it. The plot was terrible, the acting was sub-par, the special effects looked like a foal drew them with a crayon, and Sunrise could swear some of the griffon characters were ponies dressed up as griffons rather than merely finding griffon actors. Sunrise hadn’t been to see one of these new-fangled movies for a while, and this wasn’t exactly blowing her mind with its quality. The film eventually faded to black with a predictable ending of Grover and his fiance living happily ever after. “I should’ve taken you to the theatre reproduction instead,” Luna commented. “Or bought you the book.” “Why are we here, anyway?” Sunrise insisted as the credits rolled. “I was hoping it would inspire you,” Luna answered, then rolled her eyes, knowing how well that went. “Did your friends help you at all?” “My…” Sunrise raised an eyebrow, “...friends? Oh,” She craned her neck forward to peer over the seats in front of her “You mean those five random ponies?” “They were Twilight Sparkle’s best friends,” Luna informed forcefully, “And since you didn’t part on amicable terms, it sounds like they weren’t much help.” Sunrise rested back down in her seat. “I broke a lot of ties in my service to the Empress.” She turned to face Luna, “Are you trying to tell me to get back in contact with these ponies?” “Not yet,” Luna shook her head, then rubbed her chin. “This is going to take more work than I thought…” Sunrise chuffed, “You think I even stand a chance of getting them to work with me after what I did? Besides, anypony who catches wind of what I'm trying to do will report me to SMILE in an instant.” “You can cut down the tree of friendship, but removing its roots so it doesn’t grow back is much harder. Something you taught, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna winked, “Amici de cinrar.” “Oh please don’t start talking in Old Ponish riddles,” Sunrise huffed, almost wanting to pull her own ears off her head. “You give me enough headaches as it is.” “Then perhaps you best start doing some research,” Luna replied, “You used to love reading, Twilight Sparkle. I suggest you rekindle the hobby.” Sunrise did her best to withhold a groan, but a little still escaped her lips. “But I am not Twilight,” She insisted as if she had stated this fact a million times before. Knowing that it seemed to be falling on deaf ears, she almost felt like she was wasting her time saying it. “Not right now, you’re not,” Luna corrected. “But now that you are experiencing Twilight’s memories and emotions, you’re probably starting to understand… you need help. You need friends.” Sunrise scoffed, flicking her head, “No I don’t need help,” She denied. Luna simply glared and raised an eyebrow in response. “Are you sure about that?” “Fine,” Sunrise huffed, glancing away. “I don’t need YOUR help,” she rephrased. “Don’t need, or don’t want?” Luna pressed. “ENOUGH!” Sunrise smacked her hoof on the chair in front of her. “Stop talking in riddles! I’m not helping you, so stop with these mind tricks you’re trying to play.” “If that’s what you wish,” Luna agreed, nodding. “I know it won’t change your mind, but if you listened to me, I might actually consider stopping your nightmares… speaking of which,” Luna’s horn lit up in its blue aura. “Fair warning, this nightmare normally made Twilight scream when she woke up…” Before Sunrise could even get a word in, the world around her faded away and began to transition into the next dream...or rather, nightmare… “AHHH!” Sunrise screamed, her head shooting up. The nightmare was over. She took in her surroundings and tried to calm her heavy breathing at the same time. She was in her planning room, right where she… “Ugh,” She cursed herself, realising that she fell asleep at her desk. She glanced over to the clock, feeling her muscles ache as she craned her body over. She didn’t fall asleep in a very healthy position, and now she was paying the price for it. The clock read four in the morning, but she wasn’t sure if that was accurate as it had been there since the Great War. No doubt it was out of sync, maybe even a flat battery. The memories of the nightmare quickly came flooding back to her. Sunrise quickly extended her wings, feeling over them with a hoof. “Still there…” she shuddered and released a sigh. Her breathing was getting under control, but her heart was still racing. “That moon-butted bitch…” Sunrise muttered, “Thinking she can terrorise me into submission… I’ll show her...” She took some pieces of information that she needed, along with her long-gone-cold cup of coffee, and slowly raised from her chair. She cringed as her muscles ached from the stupid sleeping position she had chosen, but she hoped a bit of movement would free them up. She began walking back up the spiral staircase, horn lighting the way. As she reached the top, she was about to use her horn to open up the cellar door hidden under her throne to return to her throne room. But as she reached it, she heard the sound of voices and hoofsteps in her throne room. “Oh no…” she was clearly down there a lot longer than she thought she was. Perhaps it was her staff ponies looking for her. Lighting up her horn, she instead teleported directly to her quarters. She still had lots of information to digest, but it would have to wait...