Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 5
By TDR
Poisonga Spike
[Canterlot throne room. Spring]
“Please explain what is going on.” Princess Celestia sighed as she looked down from the raised dais her throne was on to the two ponies before her, a pair that included Empress Cadence, and the Royal Gardens Grounds Keeper.
“AHHH!!” a pony cried out falling from the air with a thud nearby. The Guards having seen this quite often in the last hour quickly rushed in and grabbed the confused mare and drug her away from the throne to check her over for any injuries.
“Right well. You know I was only here to advise and Twilight was running everything right?” Cadence offered.”And that this has been the biggest turn out to the Equestrian Pony Summit yet because of all the representatives of the various towns of Equestria wanting to meet Twilight after all she's done, as well as the latter half of the event being open to all of Equss this time.”
“I am well aware of that.” Celestia nodded as a park bench appeared and crashed to the ground nearby. Another group of Guards rushed over to grab it and carried it off to put with the pile of other things gathered.
“Right well, turns out Twilight stayed up for three days straight to make sure everything was perfect and orderly according to countless lists she had due to the limited time before the event. Something she decided to make the best she could.” Cadence smirked before she continued.” She succeeded of course but exhausted herself and then tried to speak in front of a large crowd for the opening ceremony. She managed to do it, but her tiredness coupled with her issues had her break down and hide out in her room before she crashed. Big Mac is slowly getting used to being treated like a stuffed bear, and Rahs has been quoted as saying, 'Better you than me” to Big Mac. After this, Spike and Rahs tried to take over to keep things running, but you know how Rahs is. He spent most of the time overreacting from the amount of stupid that tends to fill these sort of events. At one point some pony was complaining that his friend stole his seat and Rahs lost it finally, and ripped the chair in half before he made both of them sit on the tattered remains of it. Granted that worked and the pair became friends again if only to complain about Rahs.”
Celestia sighed as a large tree formed and crashed down from above her, bouncing off the shield she had up before it fell crashing to the ground, destroying more of the marble tile floor. A number of Unicorn Guards darted over slicing up the tree with magic and carting it off as the Royal Grounds Keeper winced.
“Alright. That's a nice recap, now how did we get to this in only six hours since that introduction?” Celestia asked.
“ White Heart Cherry Trees.” Cadence offered, gesturing as another of the said trees appeared in the air above Celestia and bounced to the ground with a thud after sliding off the Princesses shield.
Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“Also known as Dragon Sneeze Trees.” Cadence offered. “The trees themselves don't produce any edible fruit despite the name, and were used as an outer defense in the Crystal Empire to ward off dragons as it was found to cause uncontrollable sneezing in anything with draconic heritage.”
“I remember those. Bleu torched as many of them as she could find with lightning after a rather unfortunate event with a young dragon before the War of Shadow..” Celestia sighed.” It is quite a sight to see, watching a dragon sneeze itself to death. And not something I want to see repeated.
“Right, they are an endangered species and thought extinct until we found a great deal of the seeds for them in an old shed in the Empire. A number of them were sent to the Royal Gardens given their former extinct status. Evidently they were planted and grown and only just started to bloom this spring.”
A still running chainsaw appeared, crashing down on the barrier before the blade bounced and started tearing over the floor zipping around the room tearing up the marble floor even faster as a number of Guards tried to catch and yet still dodge the machine.
“Lovely. So you planted a war crime in the middle of the pavilion that was going to have draconic guests attending.” Celestia sighed glaring at the Royal Gardener. “ Again.”
The mare winced at that.
“Again?” Cadence blinked looking at the beige earth pony with a tree surrounded by flowers as her cutie mark.
“Mrs Arboretum, despite being very good at her job, other wise she would have lost her position the first time something happened, has on four separate, but very very very remarkable, occasions now, caused a disaster.” Celestia narrowed her eyes as a bird bath fell and shattered over her shield.
“To be fair Princess. The eucalyptus was ordered by my predecessor.” The mare protested.
“This is true, so the fires from the very flammable and explosive sap the trees produce cannot be blamed on you as I have said before, Though the infestation of chlamydia ridden drop bears can be, when you didn't remove the ones that didn't explode like you were told. Then there was the poison joke salads you let the palace chefs make after you assured them that the blue flowers were not poison joke and were in fact very tasty.”
“Yes well. I didn't know at the time that I was one of the rare ponies immune to poison joke.” Mrs Arboretum offered.” And every one did agree they were tasty.”
“The less said about the Hura crepitans the better.” Celestia growled as the mare winced again.” I had to declare a state of emergency for that event.”
Another pony appeared in the air bouncing off the shield before picking themselves up with a grumble. The new arrival was dressed in a slightly singed nurses uniform and once she got her bearings waved off the Guard looking to help her and stormed towards the exit with a glare at the Head gardener.
“Any luck nurse?” Cadence asked.
“I got him to stop sneezing for about two minutes before we found out the smoke from the burning trees has the same effect. “The nurse offered as she headed back to the courtyard.” We can't even get close enough to get him out of there, nor do we want to risk it if we need to take him past anything else flammable. There's still eucalyptus trees at the outer edge of the courtyard.”
“Well. Mrs Arboretum, make sure all traces of those trees are removed far away from Canterlot before you burn them. Not replant them, Burn them, and have it done by the end of the day. The Equestrian only portion of this event is going to end in two days and then the Equss portion starts up. There will be a contingent from the Dragon Lands at this event, and I would very much like all the Nox-Cal and some of the entertainment we have to be able to breath and stop sneezing as well. And if the Dragon Lords Daughter so much as sniffles we are going to have a larger problem and I will see about demoting you back to manure spreader are we clear?”
“Yes Princess.” Mrs Arboretum winced.
“Good, there are far too many creatures showing up for this thing, and while I am mostly staying out of it beyond hosting it in Canterlot I want to make sure that this goes well for Twilight.” Celestia offered as another random pony fell from the air over her head bouncing off her shield.
[Far South West]
The sound of armored hooves thudding against stone filled the room as a cloaked figure entered the large meeting hall where several others were gathered including a massive form at the head of the table.
“You called for me sir?” the cloaked figure asked, eyes darting to the others around the table with disdain.
“Yes.” the large figure agreed. “How are the new toys you were presented working out?”
“Exactly as they were supposed to. Though we have not tested them on anything as powerful as we will be facing so I am not one hundred percent convinced yet.”
“They will work.” One of the figures at the table offered, a unicorn with a pink mane.
“I hardly trust your word.” the cloaked figure frowned.
“True enough. Trust does need to be earned which is why I am here and have been providing the information and supplies that you need.”
“Enough. I believe this will work and that is all you need to know. I have a mission for you.”The large figure stated\ cutting off the others before the bickering started.
“It's time then?”
“Indeed. They have presented us quite the opportunity and I would be remiss to miss it. There is a change to the main plan however. You will be accompanied by Squall's forces as well.” the larger figure ordered.
“Prince Squall?” The cloaked figure sneered.”No offense sir, but your son is a psychotic idiot.”
“Some taken.” The larger figure chuckled. “But he has his uses, even if it is as little more than a distraction for you to complete your mission. He has been told to follow your lead in this.”
“Do you really expect him to do that?”
“No, but I do expect you to adjust for his stupidity. If you have to leave him there, or use him as a meat shield to accomplish your goal, do it. I can always make more pig headed fools, my bed chamber is rarely empty.”
“Do we have a plan to get close?”
“Interestingly enough, yes. We were invited in fact.” The larger creature smirked holding up a flier for an event called the Friendship Festival.” This event lasts a week and the global community has been requested to send a delegation or representative. That will be you. You will set out immediately and you should make it by the closing ceremonies”
“As you wish sir. Though do not forget your promise.” The hooded figure pushed back her hood revealing a mulberry colored unicorn mare with a scared face and a broken horn.
“Of course. Tempest Shadow.” The Storm King grinned.”Bring me the alicorns and I'll do what I promised.”