//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Insurgency Celestia // Story: Unfriendship: Pony Gods // by littleman001 //------------------------------// "Everypony in position?" asked Insurgency Celestia through her comm crystal. Rainbow Dash was the first to respond. "Rainbow Dash and the Fliers are ready for takeoff!" she reported, shooting a grateful smile towards Insurgency Thunderlane for letting her respond even though it would have been his job as the leader of the unit. The black pegasus gave her a quizzical look. ""Rainbow Dash and the Fliers"?" he asked in annoyance. "I should have known your Equestria sized ego would get the better of you. It's the PAT..." but Rainbow Dash cut him off. "Forget it! I'm not using that atrocity of an acronym!" "Focus, my little ponies!" Insurgency Celestia ordered. "Now, how about you, ground team?" "We're all in position. We're waiting for our signal to storm the castle." responded Insurgency Flash Sentry from next to Princess Cadence. "With a Princess by our side, they couldn't be more confident!" he added. "You better make sure she won't get hurt, Flash!" Shining Armor warned the holographic image of the pegasus. Cadence rolled her eyes. "Shining, please, I'm an alicorn princess. If anything, you should worry about our enemies." she told her husband a little smugly. Shining Armor looked down sheepishly. "I'm sorry, honey. I know you can take care of yourself. But I'm your husband. I'm obligated to worry." "I know, honey and I appreciate it." Cadence replied sweetly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have a military operation to carry out." snapped Insurgency Pharinx from another comm crystal. Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes at the image of the changeling. "You just make sure that Regime forces outside the palace are occupied! My strike teams will have a hard enough time with the palace guards alone!" she snapped at him. Insurgency Thorax was who was standing next to his brother replied on his usual cheerful voice. "Don't worry, General Princess Ma'am! Those patrols will be lucky to find the tips of their weapons, let alone their way to the palace should reinforcements be summoned. Your ponies can focus all on the guards inside the palace. We will handle everything outside!" he reassured. "You better!" Shining Armor retorted angrily. He still had a hard time getting used to the idea of working with changelings, let alone trusting them when an important battle and the life of his wife was on the line. Insurgency Pharynx just rolled his eyes and shut off the comm crystal before turning back to the cell door that held the main world's Queen Chrysalis captive at the Insurgency's base to open it. "And while we're at it, General Princess Ma'am, do you want us to keep a bath warm for your royal bum when you return? With a massage for all four of your hooves and a box of bon bons fed to you?" Chrysalis mocked from within the cell. "I take back everything I said about you becoming king in the statue garden! The fact that you lead our race now is an embarrassment to changelings in not only this universe and mine, but in every universe, you slimy little hoof licker!" Insurgency Thorax winced at her tone. "I'm not sure if this is a good idea, Pharynx." he told his brother nervously. "You heard what Celestia said. She wants to keep her locked up." Insurgency Pharynx paid him no mind. Chrysalis walked out of her cell and glared down at the complaining changeling. "I would worry less about her, Thorax, and more about me!" she hissed in his face before turning around. "Now, let's go! If you want to bring mayhem and chaos to those guard ponies, I know the perfect way do that!" she said smugly as she walked away. Insurgency Pharynx followed her with an eager smile but Insurgency Thorax seemed a little more conflicted. While he was originally on board with having Chrysalis around, he was starting to get a feeling that this will not work out well for them. Or anyone for that matter. Insurgency Celestia and Shining Armor were waiting for the train while hiding in a bush next to the railroad. "Where is that train already?!" Shining Armor complained impatiently. "It should be here anytime now. Be patient." Insurgency Celestia replied, though she was getting a little frustrated herself. "I'm starting to think Starlight was right. The Regime realized we were after that train and canceled it." "Sombra assured me that this wasn't the case. Besides, canceling the train and therefore delaying the execution would imply disturbances withing the Regime towards Equestria. Twilight would never allow that." Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes in an attempt to finally catch sight of an approaching train and a few seconds later, her efforts were finally rewarded. "There it is." the alicorn announced to her unicorn companion. "Alert the fliers!" Shining nodded and turned back to his comm crystal. "The train is here! It's time!" "Copy that, Captain!" Insurgency Thunderlane replied. "Alright everypony, prepare for takeoff!" the Insurgency Pegasi and Rainbow Dash all took off into the sky and headed towards the castle. The still dark sky provided perfect cover for them as they soared over the city and flew over the castle courtyard. "Target in sight!" Insurgency Thunderlane announced as he spotted the gallows in the courtyard. "Rainbow, deliver the package!" Rainbow Dash just smirked and began to dive at breakneck speed with the bomb she was holding, she let go of it and it hit the gallows with perfect accuracy. The resulting explosion shook the entire castle and created a hole in the wall it was set up next to. Everypony heard it throughout the city, including Insurgency Flash Sentry's ground forces. "That's our cue! Go, go, go!" he commanded as all insurgent forces came out of their hiding spots and headed towards the castle. With the ruined wall, they easily swarmed the courtyard. The Regime forces inside the castle were thrown into disarry. "What in Tartarus is going on here?!" Regime Twilight demanded as she emerged from her throne room, followed by Regime Nightmare Moon, Regime Blueblood and Regime Spitfire. "Your majesty!" a guard replied as he bowed. "The castle is under attack!" "What?" the Regime officers gasped. "How can this be? It's too soon!" Regime Blueblood panicked. "Who cares?" snapped Regime Spitfire. "If they want a fight, I say we give it to them!" Regime Twilight ordered all available Regime forces into the courtyard, where the fight was already raging. Applejack was doing what she did best. Bucking. Only instead of apple trees, she was bucking the daylight out of Regime soldiers. She was so into it that she didn't notice one charging at her from behind. By the time she turned around, it was too late for her to react and she was only saved when another pony tripped the charging soldier. The regime pony tried to get up, but Applejack and her rescuer bucked him in the helmet from both sides which sent him back down. Applejack then turned and shared a hoofbump with her savior, who turned out to be none other than the Insurgency's older and bigger version of her sister, Applebloom. "The only thing that would have made this more awesome if I did it with mah Applejack!" she cheered. Applejack patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, sugarcube, let's buck a few more of 'em in her name." In tha air, Rainbow Dash was doing her best to take out as many Regime Pegasi as she could. They were no match for her. Her usual cocky attitude evaporated immediately as she bumped into Regime Twilight in the air. The empress tried to blast the pegasus away, but was interrupted by Applejack's lasso wrapping around her horn, pulling her down. "Can we play too?" Applejack asked with Cadence at her side. Regime Twilight flew up into the air, carrying the earth pony off with her. She then spun around a few time and threw Applejack at Rainbow Dash. The two crashed into each other and then into the ground. Regime Twilight was about to fly down to finish them off, but Cadence got in the way. "You are a disgrace to the name of Twilight Sparkle!" she said, blasting her with a spell, but to her shock, it had no effect on her. "Bold words! Let's see you repeat them with broken jaws!" Regime Twilight threatened, reaching to grab Cadence's muzzle, but she flew off before she could grab it. Regime Twilight flew off after her. "They're on their way." Shining Armor notified Insurgency Celestia. "Let's hope they make it in time." "Thunderlane and his crew never let me down in the past. You should focus more on our task." Insurgency Celestia replied. Shining Armor turned back towards the railway. "That's a rather... creative roadblock the changelings came up with." he said, looking at the small wooden scaffolding that had a captured Regime soldier tied up by all four of his limbs and his mouth tied shut. But most noticeably, he was painted all purple and on his belly, the words "Buck Twilight" were shaven into his fur. "Let's hope it'll make them stop. Seeing a pony smeared on the railroad was not within my plans for the day." Thankfully, Shining's plans for the day were not upset as a couple of seconds later, he heard the screeching sound of the trains emergency break. It stopped just on front of the roadblock. "Phase 1 complete." Insurgency Celestia said. "Commence phase 2." "What is the meaning of this?!" asked the conductor in shock. There was another Regime guard next to him in the locomotive and needless to say, he wasn't amused when he saw the little message. "Looks like some of the insurgents were in a funny mood." he scoffed. "Come, help me clean this up." the two ponies exited the engine and walked up to the roadblock. The pony tied to it squirmed and moaned incoherently at the other two as the train guard removed the bondage from his mouth. "IT'S A TRAP!" he screamed at them, but it was too late. Insurgency Celestia and Shining Armor grabbed them from behind and knocked their heads against each other, knocking them both out. "Thank you for your service. Now you get to get to take a nap." Insurgency Celestia told the tied guard before knocking him out as well. She then turned to Shining Armor. "Clear the roadblock away then prepare the engine and wait for me to arrive with my counterpart." she instructed. The two ponies got on the engine and Insurgency Celestia headed towards the first wagon to begin her search of the main world's Celestia, but before she could, she found that her search was interrupted before it could even begin, as upon opening the wagon door, she found herself facing a cannon. More specifically, Regime Pinkie Pie's party cannon. Insurgency Celestia looked up to see Regime Pinkie and Regime Flurry Heart inside the wagon waiting for them. "Hiya, Princess!" Regime Pinkie waved cheerfully before the cannon fired. Insurgency Celestia didn't even have time to utter some curse. It was only with Shining Armor's help that she could raise a powerful enough shield in time to protect herself from the blast. Regime Flurry turned to Regime Pinkie. "She's no longer a princess, you know. You don't have call her that. And she's our enemy. Why are you so happy to see her?" she asked. Regime Pinkie just grinned at her. "Why wouldn't I be happy, Flurry? The character I play will be a good guy in the sequel. Yours on the other hoof will stay a sourpuss meanypants, so I understand why you'd be so cranky." Regime Flurry didn't even pretend to understand that. Instead, she turned back to the two ponies in front of her. "Once Twilight heard of your theft of the documents about this train, she knew you were up to something. So she decided to put us here on guard duty." she told them smugly. But on the inside, she didn't feel so smug about it. Guard duty was one of the lowest level of duties within the Regime. High ranking officers like them were usually assigned to tasks like this as punishment for failure. Just like in their cases, as Twilight was not happy with Pinkie for letting Regime Starlight's counterpart get past her and Regime Flurry for failing to round up the changelings in the Statue Garden. Shining Armor just stared in shock at the counterpart of his daughter. "Flurry? What are you doing here?" Regime Flurry just stared at the doppelgänger of his late father, before turning to Insurgency Celestia with a glare. "Pulling over my father's counterpart? I heard Twilight talking about it, but I wasn't sure if I should believe it. But I guess I should have expected such a low move from you." Insurgency Celestia returned her firm stare. "Once again, you see enemies and hostility where there is none, Flurry. I see Twilight's 'teachings' are showing." the older alicorn scoffed. Regime Flurry smirked viciously. "Unlike yours on her?" Insurgency Celestia did not take kindly of this brat rubbing it in her face how she failed as Twilight's teacher. In a rather uncharacteristic moment, she tried blasting her with a spell. Regime Flurry flew out of the way and charged straight at Insurgency Celestia, but she intercepted by Shining Armor. Insurgency Celestia went to help him, but she was interrupted by another shot from Regime Pinkie's cannon. "Uh-uh-uh!" the pink pony sang merrily. "Your first fight in this chapter is against me, remember?" Insurgency Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Do honestly believe that you can stop me, Pinkie Pie?" Regime Pinkie shrugged. "Not really, but it's part of the plot so it's not like I have a choice. Why did you start this whole rebellion thing to begin with? If you just followed us like Luna did, there wouldn't be a war in the first place and all of us and our friends could live happily together in Twilight's utopia." Insurgency Celestia was baffled at the pink pony's delusion. "Twilight is oppressing all of Equestria and her tyranny is causing far more damage than any of the villains she's trying to protect it from! Of all ponies, I thought you would understand how much your friends are suffering under her rule! And yet you were among the first ones to abandon me when Twilight took over!" Insurgency Celestia replied angrily. Regime Pinkie seemed conflicted, but she also seemed to be still struggling to convince herself that she was on the right side. "I was just trying to..." Regime Pinkie started, but Insurgency Celestia wasn't having any of it. "Save it, Pinkie! You had to choose between doing what's right or following your friends down on the path to this madness and you merely took the easy way out. Peer pressure is an excellent justification for the weak willed, isn't it?" Regime Pinkie's face into a frown as her eyes became watery. "Twilight was right! You are no longer a Princess but a big meanypants!" her face then darkened into a glare. "So be it! If you want to be a party pooper, Twilight knows exactly how to deal with the likes of you!" The pink mare fired at the alicorn with her cannon again, but Insurgency Celestia quickly conjured up a plug and shoved it into the cannon. But unlike her counterpart from the main universe, Regime Pinkie was prepared for this. She quickly spun around and kicked the cannon towards Insurgency Celestia. The cannon exploded and the blast sent Insurgency Celestia crashing into the wall. Insurgency Celestia tried to pick up, but Regime Pinkie kept pushing her back down. She then suddenly bucked the alicorn in the side, kicking her further away from herself. She went to kick her again, but Insurgency Celestia levitated a broken part of the destroyed party cannon in front of her and Regime Pinkie kicked that instead. That was too solid even for her. Regime Pinkie yelped in pain and sat down to rub her aching hoof and Insurgency Celestia used this chance to hit her in the head with the debry, knocking her out. "You joined the wrong side, Pinkie Pie." Insurgency Celestia said coldly, before she left to help Shining Armor, who was struggling with the counterpart of his daughter. "Flurry, stop!" he begged. "I'm sure if my counterpart was here, he wouldn't want you to do this! Why did you even leave your mother's side to fight for Twilight? I don't understand!" Regime Flurry just glared. "He WOULD still be here if Celestia wasn't such a stubborn, weak fool and just killed the likes Chrysalis the first time they attacked! Even after Canterlot was destroyed, she refused to admit that she was wrong and her harmony failed! And Cadence just went back to the Empire to wallow in her self pity! I fight for Twilight because she was the only one willing to do anything to protect Equestria and make sure that it never happens again! She took me under her wings and trained me to become just like her! She's been more of a mother than Cadence ever could be!" Regime Flurry then prepared to launch another attack, but Insurgency Celestia grabbed her tail with her magic and pulled her back, throwing her across the wagon. "Is that the reason she's throwing you into battles far below an alicorn and ordering you to kill your fellow ponies just because they don't agree with her? Can't you see she's turning you into a weapon?" Insurgency Celestia lectured, but Regime Flurry had the perfect answer. "Like how you weaponized Twilight and her friends with the elements of harmony? You are such a hypocrite!" to this, Insurgency Celestia had no answer. The filly shot a venomous look at the elder alicorn as she got up and launched herself at insurgency Celestia in a fit of rage. Despite Insurgency Celestia's reservations about her methods, she couldn't deny that Regime Twilight taught Regime Flurry well. She was always powerful, even as an infant, but with Regime Twilight's teachings, she learned to fully control her magic. She was a powerful adversary, but while Shining Armor failed to subdue her, he did manage to wear her down. And Regime Twilight never taught her how to handle her impulses. Regime Flurry's anger lead her to throw her most powerful attacks at her late father's counterpart and the former princess from the start. Insurgency Celestia just had to avoid them and protect herself, which she could manage easily. In a few minutes, Regime Flurry used up all of her strength and tired herself out, becoming an exhausted, panting mass on the ground. Her attacks barely scratched Insurgency Celestia and she was so spent that she couldn't even look up as the elder alicorn approached her. "Me and Sombra have been talking about having a foal before this war started. The way you turned out, Flurry, I seriously doubt I would be up for it anymore." "Sta... stay away... from me..." Regime Flurry panted. Insurgency Celestia just pressed a hoof against her lips. "Shhh..." she then closed her eyelids and allowed her exhaustion to carry her off into unconsciousness. "Thanks for going easy on her." Shining Armor said as he walked up to her. Insurgency Celestia just nodded. "She is not bad, just misguided and blinded by her rage and grief over losing you. And Twilight took full advantage of that." "Can you reform her?" the stallion asked in concern. "Once we're done, I will dedicate great effort to it, but now we must move on. It's safe to say your Celestia isn't in this wagon." Shining Armor nodded and the two proceeded to the next wagon. Celestia slowly opened the door just a little to peek inside, just in case if there were anymore guards in the wagon. To the both of their indescribable relief, it seemed empty, except for a large, cage in the middle of it, which contained exactly what they were looking for: Princess Celestia from the main universe, although badly wounded and hurt on the floor. Clearly Regime Twilight did a number on her. "Princess Celestia!" Shining Armor yelled, running up to the cage. Celestia slowly opened her swollen eyes and looked up at the unicorn. "Shining Armor." she muttered softly with a light smile. "I'm happy to see both a familiar and a friendly face." she then noticed her counter part slowly approaching the cage as well. "So you are the cause of all this uproar." Insurgency Celestia actually chuckled at this. "I could say the same about you." she then turned to Shining Armor. "Get her out of there, I'll go and start the engine." "Oh, no, ya won't!" all three ponies in the wagon jumped in surprise as Regime Applejack barged in, carrying the same net gun she used to capture the main world Celestia. Insurgency Celestia frowned. "Open the cage. I'll take care of this." Shining Armor obeyed as Insurgency Celestia walked up to the orange mare. Regime Applejack raised her weapon at her opponent. "No more tricks, ya hear! This has gone on long enough!" she shouted. Insurgency Celestia stopped a few feet away from her, her gaze remaining cold as steel. "I couldn't agree more." she growled before tearing the weapon out of Regime Applejack's hooves. Regime Applejack stumbled back in surprise, but she tried to maintain her fiery glare, which wasn't affecting Insurgency Celestia in the slightest. "Besides my former student, you were the pony who disappointed me the most, Applejack. Not only did you turn against me and all of Equestria, but your entire family as well. Most stunningly, you did this out of fear. You stood bravely against Nightmare Moon, Discord and the Changelings, yet it was Twilight, one of your closest friends to reduce you to a coward. Looks like even I don't know my little ponies as well as I thought." Regime Applejack was obviously unhappy with being reminded of this. "Shut up! Ya don't know anything!" it was obvious that she was trying to convince herself rather the Insurgency Celestia. She looked so desperate to come up with an excuse to justify her actions and was failing so pathetically that the alicorn actually took pity on her in that moment. She took another step towards her. "It's not too late, Applejack. I knew many ponies who used to be afraid. Just like you. But they could overcome their fears. You can too." she offered a hoof to Regime Applejack. "All you have to do is take a step forward." the earth pony seemed to be considering it, but just as Insurgency Celestia got her hopes up, she saw her face give way to fear once again and knew what was coming. Before Regime Applejack could attack, Insurgency Celestia pushed her away and used her magic to shut the wagon door on her head, knocking her out. "If only you could see that Twilight is the enemy." she lamented. She was about to walk past her, but she was stopped by a blast the sent her crashing against the wall. She got up groaning, only to see Shining Armor approaching her and charging his horn for another blast. "Shining Armor! What are you doing?!" she exclaimed in shock. "You should be asking me." Insurgency Celestia turned to see Regime Trixie standing in the corner of the wagon. She noticed her horn glowing with faint light in the same color as Shining Armor's eyes seemed to be glowing. She quickly figured out what was going on. "What's wrong, Trixe? Are you afraid of taking on me yourself?" Regime Trixie glared at her for the insult. "Don't be ridiculous. It's just that Trixie doesn't see the point of getting herself dirty in a fight when I could get this dumb stallion to do it for her." she said, trying to sound convincing, but she wasn't fooling anypony. "Right." Insurgency Celestia responded, mostly to herself, as she tried to come up with a way to neutralize Shining Armor without hurting him. Shining shot another blast at the alicorn, but she dodged with ease. She tried to get around him to get a shot at Regime Trixie, but Shining Armor kept getting in the way. Everytime Insurgency Celestia tried to get past him, he fired again. He fired two blasts at the same time, Insurgency Celestia had to counter one of them with a blast of her own to get out of the way of the other. Shining then fired three blasts. Insurgency Celestia countered one, dodged the second, but the third one hit her body. She fell back and collapsed on the floor. Regime Trixie stood up and smirked triumphantly... "HA! You should have known better than to challenge the great and powerful... 'THWACK' ...and then fell on the ground unconscious. Insurgency Celestia looked up in surprise to see her counterpart standing over the blue unicorn with one of her forehooves raised. Apparently, Shining managed to loosen the lock enough for Celestia to get out and incapacitate Regime Trixie. But given her state, it was all she could do before collapsing herself. Insurgency Celestia walked up to her and put one of her wings around herself. before she was joined by Shining Armor who was snapped out of Regime Trixie's mind control and wrapped the other wing around himself. "Hey, uh, when we recount the story of our daring rescue to the others, could we leave out this part?" Insurgency Celestia just shook her head and headed off towards the engine. In Canterlot Castle, the insurgents were doing their best to keep the Regime forces occupied. Though they couldn't help but mentally urge their Celestia to hurry up so they can retreat already. Especially the main world ponies were trying to fight off Regime Twilight, with less then more success. Applejack was already out and Rainbow Dash was trying to lead the crazed empress away from her. She was faster than her, but she still couldn't outfly a magical blast which reached her and threw her off course. Regime Twilight caught up with her and pressed her hooves together at Rainbow's throat in an attempt to crush her neck. Rainbow tried to struggle, but Regime Twilight was too strong. The pegasus' eyes rolled back and she was about to pass out. She was only saved by the intervention of Cadence, who crashed into her from behind and then fired a blast at her. Regime Twilight recovered in time to counter with a blast of her own and the engaged in a beam-of-war. Cadence held up admirably, but with Regime Twilight's much increased magic and her depowered state, she was no match. Regime Twilight blasted her away, but instead of chasing her, she took a moment to catch her breath. There was one thing she just couldn't wrap her head around. Why were the insurgents attacking the castle so vehemently now? The other Celestia wasn't even here yet. Her train still hasn't arrived from... Her eyes widened. The train! it should have arrived by now! This attack took her mind off of it completely, which was no doubt her Celestia's goal! She narrowed her eyes and let out a scream of rage before taking off into the direction of the railway. 'Damn you, Celestia! Damn you to the lowest pits of Tartarus! You tricked me!' After cleaning up the roadblock and restarting the engine, the two Celestias and Shining Armor settled down and waited for the train to get close enough to the city for Insurgency Sombra to teleport them back to HQ. Shining Armor was tending to Princess Celestia's injuries while Insurgency Celestia was minding the engine. Canterlot was already in sight which was a welcome sight for all three of them. But their joy was short-lived as they heard a crash from the wagon behind them. Insurgency Celestia opened the door to find Regime Twilight standing under a whole in the ceiling. And she looked absolutely furious. Insurgency Celestia was terrified beyond belief, but she managed to keep that out of her expression. "Mind the engine. We're almost there." she told Shining Armor. The stallion nodded and took over from her. Insurgency Celestia stopped at the door and Regime Twilight started to walk slowly towards her. "You thought you could fool me, Celestia? Like she did?!" Regime Twilight demanded. Insurgency Celestia remained stoic. "This isn't about Chrysalis, this is about you, Twilight. And what you have become." she spoke calmly. Or at least as calmly as she could be given the situation. 'Anytime now, Sombra.' "You always taught me to hold back! When we should have used all of our power!" Regime Twilight shouted, causing Insurgency Celestia to scowl. "Use for what? To control and oppress Equestria?" Regime Twilight's glare intensified by tenfold. "We could have prevented Canterlot! Saved my family! All of those lives were lost because we held back!" Insurgency Celestia's eyes narrowed. "I lost friends at Canterlot too, Twilight!" Regime Twilight's stare somewhat softened when she heard this, but her glare returned a second later as her eyes lit up with dark violet light. "BUT YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO CAUSED THEIR DEATHS!" Regime Twilight screamed before leaping at her former mentor, but as she was about to pound her, she was stunned to see her disappear right in front of her eyes. She looked up to see that her mentor's and her late brother's counterparts were disappearing as well. In the last moment, Shining Armor pulled the emergency break before he vanished and train came to a halt with a horrid screech and a sudden stop that made Regime Twilight fall over. 'What in the name of... What just happened?' Regime Twilight got up and flew out of the train to look around in a vain effort to find locate her enemies, before her search was interrupted by a loud scream coming from the city. "TWILIGHT! YOUR TIME IS OVER!" Regime Twilight instantly recognized the voice as her eyes narrowed. 'So, you finally show your true colors.'