//------------------------------// // Twilight Gets a Puppy. The Movie, Part Five // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 5 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 5 By TDR Twilight Gets a Puppy. The Movie, Part Five [ Canterlot, 6 hours after the attack] The arrival of the massive warship set off another minor panic in the city before anyone noticed the Equestrian flag the craft was flying. The Waning Moon's captain, a slate blue furred Nox-cal Kirin named Thrawn had brought the craft back to Canterlot at top speed once word had gotten to them about the attack. The pirate raid against the border settlement was taken care of with no damage to the warship, nor the settlement. The Storm Kings raiding ships however, well Thrawn was the sort to ask for surrender once at the start of battle, and if it was refused, he ignored any other requests for the same afterward, particularly from pirates. Princess Celestia was not fond of him, but even she couldn't deny he was effective. The ship took up a position over the city while the mobile Guards on board moved to aid the remaining Guards in the city. The crew of the ship remained at stations, every one of them almost twitching to take a shot at the Storm King's fleet if they returned. Captain Thrawn however left his ship to head to the castle. In his experience everything was going to be a cluster fuck of arguing right now. Doubly so if there were no Princesses present. [Canterlot General Hospital] “Whata yah mean it ain't magic?” Applejack questioned.”Ah ken smell it” “Yes and while I am well aware of your condition Miss Apple, what you are smelling is the only thing keeping the victims alive.” The doctor snapped at her, making sure he kept himself between the orange mare and the statue behind him. “What?” Applejack blinked. “I shall try to explain this simply. What ever this stone effect is, that is over as soon as it covers the victim. From that point their condition is stable, and non magical some how. The magical part of this is a stasis effect that is keeping what ever is trapped in the stone alive and in a mild hibernation. If you eat that the magic stasis will end, and all body functions will try to start again, only everything is encased in stone and therefor it cannot start, the creature would die, as stone throats do not allow the passage of oxygen. Whatever this is it has filled every oraface it is able to all the way to the lungs and stomach.” “Shit.....” Applejack muttered taking a step away from the statue in the room. “Exactly, who ever made this knew very well what they were doing, and it is designed to keep normal dispelling as well as your own abilities from working the way we want them too. My theory is they are likely holding the whole of them hostage at this point unless we can figure out how to break the stone before the stasis effect.” The doctor offered. “As it is Miss Apple, given we are working on gathering those affected here and in field hospitals we are setting up around the building, I very much would like you to leave, just in case.” “Ah get yah. If yah need me fer anything ah'm headed tah that castle, a spect there's gonna be a lot of folks trying tah figure stuff out there.” Applejack sighed, heading out the office glancing around warily as she did so, trying to keep away from any statues. “So what did he say?” Applejack blinked and looked down to her sister. Applebloom was staring in hope at her, and the look on Applejack's face ruined that. “Ah see.” “Ah'm sorry Applebloom. Ah ain't much use here. Doc said ah'd make it worse.”Applejack sighed.” They said they couldn't use normal magic stuff on um cause they got tah git rid of the stone afore they ken get rid of what's keeping everyone alive.” Applebloom closed her eyes, Applejack knew she had been crying, not that she blamed her, there was a dragon statue in this place that gave her a good reason to do so. “Come on. Ah'm gonna meet up with Sunset and see if ah ken do anything at tha castle. We ain't gonna be much help here...”Applejack sighed. “Big Mac's already headed over there.” [ Storm King's Castle, 3 days after the attack on Canterlot.] Squall and Tempest stood on the loading dock as a group of yeti carried out the statues of the four alicorns. The pair of them were staring out to sea and to the approaching airship. “This makes no sense.” Tempest offered. “They had to have seen we still had most of the fleet, and yet they chase after us with one ship?” “You ponies are creatures of whimsy, perhaps this was just a whim, they clearly just came after us as soon as they got word from Canterlot.” Squall huffed. “Pity, that is quite a nice ship. I doubt there will be enough left of it when it gets here to make a hook to hang my helmet.” Tempest stared at the ship with a frown before turning to head after the stone alicorns. She had a bad feeling about this. Despite the leadership of their gods gone, Tempest knew there were some very dangerous and clever ponies left that could cause issues. Sending one ship like this, no matter how powerful, was both stupid and a waste. And she doubted the Guards were that desperate. At it's current speed the ship would be in range in about ten minutes. There had to be more to it, and she wanted her horn back before she found out what that more was. [Canterlot 7 hours after the attack] The throne room was stuffed to bursting with ponies, Guards, nobles, the remaining element bearers, dignitaries, and ambassadors that had managed to avoid getting caught in the attack. The twin thrones sat empty on the raised dais of the throne room. Applejack, Rarity, Sunset, and Rainbow Dash stood in front of the thrones along with a seething Comet Trail and Captain Thrawn. On the right side of the throne room were all the dignitaries and ambassadors. Griffons, Yaks, Diamond Dogs, Kitsune, Harpies, Orcs, Elk, and countless other races that had been invited to the event were gathered here. Most of them were calling for blood and screaming curses at those on the other side of the room. Sunset had known the Canterlot nobles would slow things down in terms of getting the alicorns back, but she hadn't expected the fools to grind it to a screeching halt within the first day. “And I say again we are NOT authorizing a rescue mission at this time!” Posh Posh of the Posh family shouted back at the other side of the room. With his father as one of the casualties, the unicorn had slid into the position of speaker for the nobles before any of the others could get a word in edgewise. His usual entourage of most of Twilight's evil exs adding a good bit of power to his new claim, given how influential they were on their own. And with most of the Blue Blood family, and the other 'smart' nobles out of commission or not in Canterlot at the moment, Posh had swept in to take control of the crisis. The other members of his little group stood with him simply following along with what he said, well it was hard to tell if Percy was doing that, given the size of the schematics he had hovering in front of his face. “Bullshit!!” Comet Trail snapped ignoring the frown from the minotaur delegation.” We need to act now before they manage to do whatever they are planning to do with the Princesses!” “I think commander that you are not thinking things through due to your current loss.” Posh stated flatly getting a growl from Comet Trail, both at the wrong title being given as well as the statement.” Perhaps you should be relieved until you come to terms with it. Rash decisions will help no one. The first thing we need to do is secure firm leadership from this point forward. The council of nobles will have to appoint some one” “WE HAVE LEADERSHIP!” Comet Trail snapped.”There is a royal order of succession.” “No one believes that Prince Sombra is to be trusted with the throne of Equestria.” Another noble shouted out. “Yeah I'll give them that.” Sunset smirked. “ We also doubt the claims that Sunset Shimmer has anything to do with Princess Celestia and is in fact an attempt by the apple family to claim nobility.” Another shouted “WHAT THE FUCK!?” both Sunset and Applejack snapped, though the noble who had yelled that wisely hid back in the crowd. “None the less, with the Sparkles out of commission and with Sombra unfit and Sunset's claims unverified there is a vacuum of leadership that must be filled before we are able to progress enough to react to this. “ Posh explained. “Due to damage to property and everything else we shall reconvene in a week in order to hold a proper discussion on who to suggest for the role.” The roar of the ambassadors screaming at the nobles was cut off again by Posh screaming at them. “Your opinions on Equestrian politics are noted and ignored. You are little more than guests here and you have overstayed what short welcome you have. Please leave, you should not have even been allowed into these hallowed halls at all!” Posh snapped. A shrill whistle cut through the screaming, that said shrill whistle came from a dark gray mare, with far too many eyes and spiked tendrils that ended in teeth that would have made a cragodile back away slowly had more to do with the sudden silence than the noise itself. “Thank you darlings the shouting was getting a bit much. Now then going back to the royal succession you seem to have forgotten something.” Rarity offered letting the nightmare form fall away now that she had everyone's attention. “Empress Cadence is not in the line of succession after her claim on the Crystal Empire.” another noble shouted.”Therefore neither of the bugs has any claim on Canterlot no matter what their parentage or marital status is in that state.” “Ooh delightful loop hole there darling, but no. I was not speaking of them.” Rarity offered. “Then who...” Posh questioned. “Me.” Squeaked a voice from behind the Element Bearer. Rarity stepped aside and the entire room beheld a white unicorn filly, perhaps in her teens, sitting on the Throne of Night with the unicorn adviser to Princess Celestia, Raven Inkwell, and the heavily armored zebra mare who was Guard Captain Moskau of the Six Sixty Sixth, Royal Guard flanking her. There was a moment of silence followed by riotous laughter from most of the nobles, which had Sweetiebelle raise an eyebrow. “You cannot be serious.” Posh gestured to the filly. “Really? Do you think this is a joke?” Sweetiebelle asked plainly. “Of cou...” Posh began. “I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK!!” Sweetiebelle bellowed, the Royal Canterlot voice actually knocking Posh off his hooves. “This is preposterous she's what twelve?” another noble questioned. “Fifteen, Princess Platinum was twelve when she took over for her father, and since half of you claim to be descended from her, that invalidates your entire line if you protest Princess Sweetiebelle Reignolds age.” Raven Inkwell offered.”To clear up any other arguments she is indeed legally the sister of Princess Luna Nocturne and Princess Celestia Solaris. Something eighty five percent of the noble council agreed to because and I quote' Maybe taking care of this brat will keep her out of our manes' end quote.” Sweetiebelle narrowed her eyes at the nobles, some of them had the decency to look sheepish. Posh was not one of them. “This is preposterous, you cannot expect a child, not even of a noble line to run the country. Let alone in a time of crisis.” Posh snapped. “Actually I have learned a lot from all the time sitting in in Big Sister Luna's night court.” Sweetiebelle offered adopting a bit of a innocent pose. “Oh like what?” Posh demanded. “Well first off is that most nobles are entitled little shits who don't even deserve the title, and second is the easiest way to remove said little shit, is with one command.” Sweetiebelle listed as Posh had asked. “What?” Posh sputtered indignantly.” A command?” “Yep. “ Sweetiebelle grinned , the smiling expression dropping off her face as she glared at the noble before her.”Guards. Execute order sixty six.” “What?” Posh questioned. There was a momentary pause at those words, the sound of collective noble butt holes puckering nearly audible. A few of the Guards around the room looked confused and one even pulled out his Guard handbook to search for the order. Moskau and Comet Trail however developed grins that were positively feral. Captain Thrawn rolled his eyes at the theatrics. Raven Inkwell decided to step in. “Posh Posh of the Posh family. By order of Princess Sweetiebelle Reighnolds you are hereby stripped of all land titles and holdings granted to you and your family by the crown by your title. Which at latest census is sixty five percent of your holdings, with the noble title stripped from your family you are also subject to retroactive taxation from the time of the title being given to be accounted for without the tax adjustments that come with the title. Your families title was given two hundred years ago and going by current Equestrian standards and rating will account for an estimated three billion bits.” Raven stated reading off her clipboard. “What?” Posh nearly squeaked. “Say 'what' again! Say it again. I freaking dare you mother bucker say 'what' one more time!!!” Sweetiebelle snarled at him standing up in the throne to lean towards the noble as if she was about to leap off and deal with him herself. “Princess please contain yourself.”Raven sighed. “Princess Celestia would never stand for this!!” Posh whimpered. “You're right. Princess Celestia wouldn't allow it, it's why Big sister Luna never used that command.” Sweetiebelle offered with a smile, that turned very dark very fast.” But Princess Celestia isn't here right now is she? Get him out of my sight.” Several Guards rushed forward grabbing the former noble dragging him off. “You can't do this to me, I'm important!” Posh cried out. “No you're not.” Sweetiebelle called after him before turning her attention to the other nobles who looked like cockroaches who had been caught when the kitchen light came on. Except Percy, who didn't seem to have noticed anything was going on and currently was setting up a easel to put another schematic on. “The rest of you sycophants listen up.” Sweetiebelle snapped. “Right now you have three choices. Help, get charged with treason, or get the buck out of my way.” [ Canterlot 7 hours after the attack] “No you are not.” “Like Tartarus I am not!” “You are staying right where you are and that is final.” “I'm your mother you can't tell me what to do!” “You are pregnant and need to stay in the Crystal Empire in order to keep them calm given both their leaders and their heroes have been taken down.”Saturnia responded calmly to the irate Changeling Queen in the mirror. “You have the entire Empire that you need to keep a hold of to prevent any panicking, it has been a rather chaotic time for them and leaving them completely leaderless is not the thing to do right now.” Saturnia raised an eyebrow as she twirled a blade on her hoof rolling her eyes at the noise the god of changelings was making. “Don't growl at me mother, I've already interrogated a number of the yeti that were caught and while they didn't know much they did know that their little guns could take down gods., We've already lost five of them today and that is going to be something of a problem as it is. No one is going to allow more gods to go on this mission and have even more portfolios tied up for who knows how long. We have no idea how to fix any of the problems just yet, but we know the Storm King cannot be allowed to do what ever he planned with the alicorns.” Saturnia snapped. “Fine, fine, I'm calm, I'm cool... the only reason I am agreeing with this and not going there myself to rip off his fool head and shit down his throat is because of the grub I'm carrying.” Chrysalis hissed. “Good. Now that all that is out of your system I want the Widows to mobilize. Pharynx and the warriors in Canterlot are going to join in to help whatever the Equestrians come up with to represent the 'face' of the changelings, but I want to make sure The Storm King doesn't have any chance what so ever.” Chrysalis smiled. “Oh I'm well ahead of you on that my daughter. The Widows are already moving.” [Canterlot 8 hours after the attack] “ Alright. Enough. Recap the high points one more time.” Sweetiebelle ordered as she glanced at those present. “ Nearly all of those affected by this stone magic have been moved from the streets and are at the hospital and the surrounding area in makeshift tents and triage units. No progress has been made thus far on the study. We have every alchemist and medic in the city, and several who came with the dignitaries looking into this. By your order, the zebra Zecora has been contacted and flown here in order to offer a hoof with her assistant Applebloom, we have also sent word to the goddess Ascepius, though we have no idea how long it will take her to get here. “ Raven offered to the murmmering of the nobles and the remaining dignitaries. “Right, next?” Sweetiebelle offered. “The dockyard is a complete loss, we have three Guard airships still capable of extended flight including the Waning Moon. There are a no suitable civilian craft remaining for our purposes save one, The Princess Bride.” Captain Thrawn pointed out. “Prince's ship survived all that.” Rainbow Dash whistled. “It did.” Thrawn offered. “Inconceivable.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “ We are down to forty percent Guard strength in Canterlot right now. The Day Guard are at 5% as they bore the brunt of the attack. The Night Guard took a heavy toll in the defense of the hospital and are at 30%. The six sixty sixth monster hunters and the 42nd training division are largely untouched given they were not in Canterlot at the time of the attack. The Ponyville Guard had a small presence in Canterlot during the attack but are at 95% with the rest heading to Canterlot now save a skeleton crew to remain in Ponyville. The Heart Guard and Changeling Guards are also present but in smaller numbers than even the remaining Royal Guard. We are rolling all of them into three units, one of which will stay in Canterlot and the other two will prepare for pursuit.” Guard Captain Moskau offered. ”The Outer Guards will stay in their locations in various outposts and the local guard in the closest cities shall do the same. We are bolstering them by activating the reserve units to maintain order in the face of everything when word gets out.” “ The Wonderbolts are ready as well.” Spitfire offered. The mare was still smoldering as the occasional flame flickered along her fur as she sought to remain calm.” We can bring in our own reserves to aid in the city and we have several contracts that we can bring to bear from sponsors for supply aid.” “Good.” Sweetiebelle nodded looking at the next mare. “Infrastructure of the city itself is in bad shape.” a crimson unicorn mare in a bright blue robe offered. Strawberry Snap was head of the arcane order in Canterlot, a smaller branch of the Guard that focused on magic more than anything else. They also oversaw the cities ley line network and as such often worked closely with the city planners.” Bad news. The attack targeted a number of power supply points for the ley line, road, and rail lines. Trains will not be running and most roads are impassable to and from Canterlot. There were a number of Guard buildings targeted that included included the main armory,two of the secondary armories and one of the manufacturing plants we use for Guard gear. Strawberry Snap took a breath. “Now the good news. The store houses of raw supplies for said factory are untouched and if we conscript the blacksmiths and other factories in the city we can restock the armory without waiting for the factory to be repaired. Also we should have the ley line grid up and running again in a matter of hours. Contingencies we put in after the attack by Tirek have paid off rather well.” “ Well that is some good news at least. Make sure the power stays on with the hospital and the labs primarily divert it from non essential areas like the commercial districts if need be.”Raven suggested. It shouldn't be any trouble to do so.” Strawberry Snap stated. “If I may suggest something.” Rarity chimed up.” I know quite a few merchants and crafts ponies around Equestria, if need be I can see if they would wish to help with the armor and weapon shortages.” “That would be helpful, we have a few in Canterlot but some of our usual contacts were caught up in this.” Strawberry Snap nodded. “At the current rate what's the estimate that we can go after them?” Sweetiebelle questioned. “At current four or five days.” Comet Trail grumbled looking at the notes the group had compiled. “They will be back in their own territory by then.” Captain Thrawn pointed out. “Not good enough.” Sweetiebelle frowned. [ Canterlot 8 hours after the attack] Applejack let out a small sigh, she had not expected she would be put in the position she was currently in and she certainly would have chosen to be any where else if she had the choice. She also knew she was going to smack the fool out of Sunset for sending her here to deal with this. Currently the orange earth pony farmer was in a large room with large pregnant buffalo cow. Maohk didn't seem to want to be here either. The reason of course was the four gods who were also here. Iinii towered over all of them, which was rather odd given how big Bleu was. Lockheed seemed rather indifferent to the whole situation and Aqua was also fairly calm. Applejack wasn't sure where any of them had come from, but they all showed up at the same time and Sunset had sent her out to deal with them rather than let them come to an already stressed Sweetiebelle. Bleu was of course pissed off to the point that she was drooling lightning and ever movement filled the air with sparks. Aqua was clearly upset, but aside from pointing out she had met Pinkie and Fluttershy in Ponyville a few hours ago, she wouldn't say why. Lockheed seemed to be annoyed that he was even here. And Iinii... well. Applejack had seen a pissed off buffalo before at eye level, and this one was the size of her barn, the new crystal one, not her new new one, though she suspected that the new one had gotten trashed by a stray cannon shot somehow during the attack. “I will end him.” Iinii snorted, ice forming in the air from his breathing. “You will not.” Maohk stated. “His actions put you in danger again. He will not be allowed to repeat that.” Iinii stated flatly.” If I had a bit for every time some stupid god put you in danger lately.... well I would have two bits, but I will make sure that it shall not happen a third time by showing an example.” “Get in line, my sons a rock due to that bastard.” Bleu snarled. “Funny how he is only your son when it suits you.” Lockheed snapped. “THE FUCK YOU SAY!?” Bleu whirled on Lockheed who stared back at the dragon without a hint of apology or fear. “:You heard me Bleu. And you heard the Element of Honesty, The Storm King has weapons that can trap us. We are not going any where near him, there is already going to be enough trouble if the sun remains where it is for long. In a weeks time this side of the planet will be scorched barren, and the other side frozen. “Lockheed explained. “I have no idea what the removal of magic and love will do if anything, but we have very real physical problems right now that will only be compounded if we lose the God of snows and the god of storms.” “I agree with Lockheed on this.” Aqua stated. “While he needs to be put down, this is not a task for gods. I have already sent word and have a force gathering as we speak. The Storm King has caused a number of problems to the hippogryph population in that area and I am currently sheltering refugees from Mt. Aris. Although there is no current hippogryph god, I have taken them into my protection. This was something to bring up 'again' in the next council meeting.” “And I for one feel that we should simply remove his head and throw it in Tartarus.” Bleu snapped. “Indeed.” Iinii snapped. “Seems this has come to a vote then. Yet I can see it is already deadlocked.”Lockheed stated. “You are making this a council vote?” Iinii asked. “I am, and you will be bound by the rules of the vote. I am not one of the council heads, but neither is Bleu, but in this instance I will invoke the Council rules to prevent you two from doing something stupid.” Lockheed pointed out. “I second this and I am one of the council heads, as is Iinii.”Aqua stated. “We are not going after the Storm King ourselves.” “I disagree.” Iinii snarled” And in a deadlock, nothing is solved and there fore we are not held to anything.” “Can yah do anything bout yer husband?” Applejack muttered to Maohk. “No. He is stubborn when he gets like this.” Maohk sighed. “That is a loop hole that needs to be closed.” Aqua frowned.” We have put forward the motions for it before.” “ And all times it was ignored and there is no vote for that here. Therefore with two votes for and two against, you cannot stop us with council rules.”Iinii growled. The arguing may have started again though a figure that had been at the back of the room took this moment to stride forward pushing between Lockheed and Bleu without looking at either. Applejack blinked at the approaching form, and the gods in the room stared at the black furred canine with the white braided hair that stood now before the Bearer of Honesty. The massive diamond dog bitch looked down at Applejack. “The enemy have something that can stop gods?” Jynx questioned. “Yup. They got all four alicorns and Rahs.” Applejack frowned. “Of course he cannot be left alone for a second.” Jynx snorted.”Fine the gods will stay out of this.” “What? Who do you think you are to tell us anything!?” Bleu snapped dropping her massive fanged maw to eye level with the black furred diamond dog. Jynx turned and looked passively up at the massive dragon head before her, a single tooth in the maw as large as she was. Jynx reached up with one hand, and wapped the dragon on the snout with a glowing folder like she was a bad puppy. Bleu yanked her head back snarling though Jynx ignored it. “My name is Jynx. I am the goddess of Diamond Dogs and thus the tie breaker in your argument. The gods are not getting involved directly.” Jynx stated staring at the four confused gods before her holding up her own portfolio to them before she turned to look over her shoulder at Applejack with a smirk on her face. “Do you think that was dramatic enough for Rahs?” Applejack couldn't help but snicker at that. [Storm Kings Keep, 3 days after the attack on Canterlot] The Storm King sighed ignoring the sound of the yeti setting the alicorn statues into position in his throne room. His gaze remained out at the approaching air ship and the ever present storm that surrounded his island. His portfolio did not hold storms, something that annoyed him, he had a minor in lightning and some smaller weather phenomenon and clouds. His main portfolios were yeti and islands, an odd mix to be sure. Granted the Island King was hardly the image he wanted. Even so his gaze lingered on the ship, his own armada was already starting to move to intercept. He only sent a score of ships as he expected this was a diversion, and keeping the rest near his island would prevent any surprises. The craft was a long way out yet, but rapidly approaching, but despite that, carried on the wind, he was certain he heard the first strains of music.