//------------------------------// // Chapter Fourteen: The Dawn of the Maids of Honor // Story: Maids of Honor // by Foal Star //------------------------------// It was early in the morning, and Mop Head was standing before the rest of her maids of honor, all in their specially designed maid outfits made by Rarity. The head mare over them, she couldn’t help but feel proud of them and their accomplishments, not only finishing their training with the princesses and Shining Armor. But were able to hold their own against some jerks from the royal guard. For the first time since being dubbed the head maid of the Maids of Honor, she felt ready to take on whatever today threw at them. She cleared her throat and then said, “Now I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks or less; I have to admit, first, when we created the Maids of Honor due to our shared unfortunate circumstance of being demoted to maids, I didn’t think we would be friends.” she brushed the mane from her eyes and continued, “in fact, I thought you would grow to hate me as I decided to stay like this instead of trying to turn back into a stallion and reinstated into the royal guard. But the honest truth is I grew to like you, even care for you as if you were my sisters. I don’t have a doubt in my mind we won’t succeed,” Her eyes went wide, and then she said, “When you all return to royal guards, please don’t forget about me, ok?” The mares all gave each other nervous glances, and then she finished, “So let’s take down these sirens and let the maids of honor go out with a bang!” “Yes, ma'am!” the maids all chime, and they all leave. As Moppy stayed behind, she pushed the furniture and beds aside, lit some candles, and sat in the middle of them, concentrating on her friends as Soapy came by with some tea and eggs. “Ready.” “Yes, let's do this.” Mop Head tied her mane and knelt into the circle of candles as Soapy doused the lights and then closed her eyes, concentrating. She lit her horn and realized she could feel the others. Sea Star and Lemon Heart are already in the kitchen; Amber is feeding Philomenia in Princess Celesta’s room, and Silky is talking to Princess Celestia and going over which gown she should wear to the banquet. Orange and Stormy were bickering in the Grand Hall about who was the best at dancing the other night. Dawn broke as Sea Star and Lemon Heart were busy whipping up pancake batter together and frying up pancakes in the royal kitchen. The two were working diligently and continued to make sure that the pancakes were fluffy and covered in Celestia’s favorite toppings, berries with whipped cream. Once they settled the stack onto a plate and cleaned up, Sea Star looked a bit worried. “So you think we can do it?” “Do what?” “Save Equestria, of course!” “Yeah, save Equestria…I think we all did pretty well, considering the circumstances. I’m sure everything will turn out fine.” Sea Star sighed, “I hope so, I really do.” She then looked to see Lemon Heart, still looking disheartened. “Us failing to save the world isn’t what is bothering you, is it?” Lemon Heart looked over and said, “I know we’re trying to help Princess Celestia, but what we’re doing feels like we’re tricking her.” Sea Star saw tears in her sister's eyes and, feeling bad, came over and said, “I know it sucks, but we need to keep Princess Celestia occupied as long as possible until we can take down the sirens.” “Right, we can do this.” The two mares then saw the princess of the sun flex her wings, coming in with a beautiful yellow and white gown streaming around her body as she yawned, “Good morning, Sea Star Lemon Heart.” “Morning, princess,” the maids chimed and curtseyed; they then gave the princess her breakfast, and her eyes grew wide as she ate. “My goodness, these pancakes are delicious.” “Thank you, princess,” “Oh, stop with the formalities, grab a plate and some coffee. I would love to just chat for a few minutes before the banquet.” “Of course!” Sea Star exclaimed; she then led her sister to the table, and there they talked and chatted for a few hours about the banquet. Shield Wing and Sword Wing then came down and curtseyed in their cute maid uniforms, and they said in unison, “Good morning, princess.” “Morning girls.” “We are ready for that rehearsal of your speech; we can be your audience and give you pointers.” “Yes, let's get to that.” She dabbed her lips and then followed them as Sea Star and Lemon Heart followed suit. They then continued towards her bedroom, where they saw Silky and Amber leaving, winking at them. Sea Star was looking rather unsure, but she took a deep breath and then continued forward, willing to do whatever it took to keep Princess Celestia occupied as that was what they were tasked to do. Not far along that morning, Amber and Silky were going downstairs, with Silky nuzzling her marefriend and whispering, “So you think we can take care of Aqua?” “I'm sure we can; let’s just stick with that and make sure we keep her away from Princess Celestia, unaware that we’re trying to stop her crazy plan.” “I'm sure we can.” The two then continued to the grand hall, where a group of pegasi wearing togas were standing in the Grand Hall the head of them being a pegasus, was now standing in front of her with piercing blue eyes, that soft light blue and sea green striped mane that fell around her head like a waterfall; it matched perfectly with her snow-white coat, which was partly covered by the toga flowing around her body. It was Aqua she came over to them, and with a group of pegasi, the guards standing at the doorway bowed as they came by strutting towards them. Aqua then smiled at them, threw her hooves over her, and said, “Amber, It's been so long!” The brown-coated pegasus gulped and hugged back as they both embraced, then replied, “Yes, it has. I should go by your bathhouse more often.” “You should, and so should the princesses,” she then looked around and asked, “Talking about the princesses, where are they?” “Oh, uh, I think they’re busy preparing for the banquet.” “That's good to hear,” she turned to face the grey-coated unicorn and whispered, “Now, uh, meet my marefriend Silky.” The grey-coated unicorn trotted towards them and held out a hoof. “Pleased to meet you again.” “Ah yes, Silky Apron, it’s a pleasure.” they shook hooves, and then Aqua went up to Amber and whispered, “So, um, until the banquet starts, want to hang out together? It’ll be great to catch up.” “Yes, that would be a lot of fun; come on, let’s go catch up. Besides, I’ve been feeling quite peckish.” Aqua then led her fellow mares to the Royal Dining room to chat over tea. Silky eyed Amber, who blushed, seeing she was getting jealous, and she continued talking to her. Meanwhile, Twilight was making her way through the streets of Canterlot, knowing full well she didn’t have a lot of time left to stop the sirens. She charged forward, rushing towards a massive temple-like building, recognizing from the description given to her it was the bathhouse of goddesses. It was a lot bigger and seemed grander than she originally recognized, and as she continued towards it, she saw that the front doors were unlocked, surprisingly enough. She then continued scurrying through the marble hallways, being somewhat enthralled by the architecture, and recognized it as pegasus-inspired with a hint of an aquatic theme. She then slowly opened it, looked around, and made their way through the building, scurrying about the halls and opening and closing doors. Twilight was getting rather pissed as they passed another room. They eventually came upon two giant golden doors and then pushed them open. Inside was a vast pond with a waterfall flowing down over everything; it was like an indoor garden with flowers and willow trees everywhere. The room was rather beautiful, and Twilight, looking around, checking her surroundings, hesitantly trotted in with this look of awe on her face. Standing above the water, in the middle of the pond, was a statue of Princess Celestia. There she was surrounded by candles, and on the pedestal was a book. The two mares slowly trotted over the water. The alicorn then came upon an old-looking spell book and read the passage about spells they were using to control Princess Celestia. She then read how they used a spell to use the statue, like a voodoo doll controlling the princess’ actions. She couldn’t believe it was that easy all it was there. She then said, “ok, all I need to do now is reverse the spell and destroy this statue. Simple enough.” Then, as Twilight was reciting the spell without warning, she felt something hit the back of her head, and she suddenly blacked out. The banquet started with the sirens talking and being enamored with Amber talking, with Sea Star, Lemon Heart, Princess Cadance, and Princess Celestia all gorging on cake together. Seeing everyone seated and having a good time, the Princess of the Sun rose from her chair. She clanked her glass, and everypony looked towards her; she said, “Well, it’s good to see you all are here well. These lovely creatures, sirens, have come to this magnificent banquet to enjoy this wonderful dinner we are about to enjoy with each other.” Everypony nodded and smiled, “in fact, the sirens had been at odds with the pony race for nearly a Millennium, and it warms my heart to see you all gathered here enjoying a wonderful meal. So please eat and be merry!” Everypony clopped together then as they all sat down with Princess Celestia. Sea Star and Lemon Heart then took her aside as they watched Amber and Silky swoon, Aqua, leader of the sirens. Mop Head saw it all from her room with tears in her eyes, wishing the princess's words were her own, but she knew she was being manipulated and used in a plot she was unaware of. She then suddenly lost her connection to Twilight Sparkle, and she started to get scared as she instantly sent a message to Shining Armor. “Shining, I just lost contact with Twilight Sparkle; get to the bathhouse now! “Got it!” Shining Armor then ran off and saw some pegasi talking to the other maids of honor near the door. The pegasi turned with one whispering, “What are you doing here?” “I uh need a breath of fresh air.” “Sure he does,” The two pegasi started to circle around him, “Maybe he needs to come to bed.” “Yes, he needs to relax.” “Sorry, but I'm with somepony now, excuse me.” “Oh no, he's taken!?” “Well, are you married?” “What, no-” “Then you're not taken.” Stormy stomped forward with a glare, then snapped, “Hey, you heard him go to the banquet and leave Captain Shining alone!” Orange followed suit and said, “Yes, please back off. That’s the Captain of the Royal Guard you're harassing.” “Or what!?” the two pegasi hissed. Then the sirens rushed over, and the four started brawling, with the two maids whipping out their brooms and detaching the ends with two wooden staves. They then went at the sirens fighting back, with kicks and flips, looking like some martial arts movie. Despite the sirens being trained in combat, Shining could tell that the maids he trained were winning and coming out on top. Eventually, the maids held the Then they shouted, “Shining! Moppy said to get moving!” “Right!” he was just suddenly shaken from his stupor and burst out the doors as the two mares came in close to ensure none of the sirens followed him. Once the doors were closed, Sword Feather and Shield Wing flew in shouting, “Need back up!” “About time!” Stormy shouted just as another group of sirens rushed them. They then went at each other as Mop Head looked on the fight from her room, wanting to go down there and help; she then shouted, “Soapy, we should go help them!” Soapy shook her head and said, “No, keep in connection with everyone; if Twilight has been kidnapped or knocked out, Shining is our only hope of salvaging this. If you lose your connection to the spell, we’ll lose.” Mop Head sat down and asked, “Girls, are you doing ok?” “Yes, we’re fine, Mop Head. Do what Soapy said; we got this!” Stromy shouted in her mind. “Yes, please, without you keeping an eye on things, we’re screwed!” Orange thought out loud. “Ok, but if things get out of hoof, let me know if I can help! Just keep it together until Shining can save Twilight!” “Yes, moppy!” Everyone thought at once, and Mop Head sat down and then decided to continue making sure everypony was ok and doing their assigned tasks. Back at the banquet, things were wrapping up, and Princess Celestia stood up and then rose up and went to the head of the table and clanked her glass once more, “I thank you all for coming, and as the banquet is wrapping up, I am here to give an announcement.” Everpony was stunned, and then they listened intently, and she continued, “I have been waiting for a long time to say this finally, but this, but I'm retiring.” The crowd was stunned, many just gaping. She then continued and said, “With my retirement, the sirens will rule Equestria. I know that sounds crazy.” Everypony in the hall rose up in an uproar, shouting angrily and stomping their hooves, but Aqua dabbed her mouth with a napkin as she rose up and shouted, “everypony sit!” And they all did as they sat back down and waited as she continued, “That's right, Princess Celestia already signed away the right to be a princess, and I am now your new princess of the sun! Seeing Princess Luna will resume being the princess of the night!” “This is a Coup d'etat! No way are you going to give up the kingdom like this of your own free will!” Dozens of soldiers came in, surrounding the sirens, then Aqua turned to celestia and shouted, “Do it now!” The princess lit her horn, and the dozens of stoic soldiers cried out as their bodies morphed, most of them shrinking, manes and tails growing out, armor turning into fluffy black and white maid uniforms, as their shouts and cries turned into the shrill terror of mares now wearing cute prench maid uniforms and their spears replaced with mops and broom all looking utterly confused. Princess Celestia’s eyes glowed as Aqua’s voice boomed, “I am your queen, and you will bow to me!” “Yes, Queen Aqua!” everypony shouted in unison as they all sat down at her command. This time, the sirens surrounded them all, smirking at them with this sadistic look in their eyes as Aqua took out some scrolls, “Now, before my rule is official, there’s a lot of paperwork we need to get done, so let’s get that done, shall we!?” Meanwhile, back at the bathhouse, Shining Armor was sneaking about, trying to look for his sister or anything, but everything he came across was bolted locked. Then he heard something down in one of the rooms at the end of the hall. He then looked around for a way to break it but then smashed it with the back of his hooves and then saw Twilight groaning on the ground. He then helped her up onto her hooves and asked, “Twilight, are you ok?” “Ye…yeah ” She looked around. “Wait, we need to get to the statue.” “Right, the statue, come on, we need to get to it Moppoy is saying. Aqua just had Celestia turn the rest of the guards into maids and control them. We need to destroy that statue now!” They nodded, then rushed into the lobby, and there were a dozen sirens all laughing and hissing. Twilight braced herself and shouted, “This is it! We have to take them on, or Equestria is doomed!” “Just stay by me!” Shining shouted, and just as the Sirens lunged and started to swarm them, Stormy burst through and slammed down, causing a wave of water to burst out from the massive baths and pushing the sirens aside. Orange dived in and started watching any of the sirens still up as Sword Feather and Shield Wing flew in, protecting Stormy as she maneuvered the water into storm clouds. She turned to Shining and Twilight and shouted, “Get to the statue!” Twilight and Shining Armor rushed through the lobby and slammed through the doors to the statue, and then Shining Armor put up a shield and shouted, “Twilight, do whatever you need to do now!” She nodded, brushed over, and went over the spell. She then shot a beam of energy, sucking the power from it then, shattering it into a thousand pieces. As it crumbled to dust, the sirens shrieked as they flew off in terror. Back at the banquet, the nobles were being forced to sign into law that Aqua was to be the queen of Equestria, all being hypnotized as the sirens silently sang a song with the former guards now serving them food or cleaning up around them. Amber herself was preening Aqua's wings with a stupid grin on her face but then felt her mind break free as she shook her head, getting a message into her head that Twilight had just destroyed the statue! Stop Aqua now!” Amber held Aquas into a choke hold and shouted, “Fellow soldiers of Equestria, snap out of it now! Equestria is being taken over, and I don’t care that you're now mares or dressed in maid outfits; fight back and help me defeat these sirens!” The maids all looked amongst each other with worried looks as Silky came forward and slammed a pie into a siren’s face; soon, the other maids and the nobles at the banquet started throwing food at the sirens, who hissed and attacked. Soon, there was a massive food fight with pies, cakes, and cups of tea being flung all over the place! Queen Aqua bit Amber’s hoof as she cried and then fell back as Aqua’s eyes lit up, and every bit of tea, wine, and juice swirled into a massive liquid ball, and it exploded, sending everypony flying. She then turned to Amber, and they slammed into each other. The two pegasi crashed onto the massive, long dining table as they rolled about in platters of dishes. Aqua cried, “Why are you even siding with Princess Celestia? She was going to fire you even before I demoted you to a maid! You should be joining me; I can make you rule alongside me!” Amber scoffed, flexing her wings and standing up, “I learned a lot about myself the past few weeks, and the one thing I realized I needed to stop trying to be an asshole. Maybe it's about time you did the same!” “How dare you!” Aqua's eyes lit up once more as another massive ball of liquid started to form above her, and then she flung it, this time right at Princess Celestia, who was standing by looking dazed. “No!” Amber cried as she saw Silky jump up, lit her horn, and then catch the ball, dispersing it into a massive spray. Then Amber flew over and slammed Aqua to the ground as Celestia blinked, rubbing her head and looking at the hall, now covered in food stains and slightly flooded with juice, wine, and tea, as she asked, “Girls, what happened? Where did all these maids come from?” They all looked at each other, confused, and then Amber pressed a hoof on Aqua’s muzzle to keep her from saying anything, sending a thought to Mop Head, Mop Head: come down here. You can explain everything. A few hours went by after the fighting was over. Shining Armor led the rest of the Maids of Honor alongside his sister, with the rest of the sirens all gagged and in chains. After the nobles cleared out and evacuated, the former guards helped clean up, and they are better at it now due to their transformations. Once everything was cleaned and the Sirens all brought to the grand hall, all the maids stood at attention as Mop Head explained everything to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. As Mop Head recited the entire tale, Princess Celestia was moved to tears as she looked among all the maids and bowed before them and cried, “I know I was brainwashed when I turned you all into maids, but it does not excuse the pain and torment I caused you all, please forgive my actions.” The maids all blushed, and then Mop Head cried, “Don't be. You’re not to blame.” “She’s right!” Amber shouted. She shoved Aqua towards her in shackles. “She’s to blame; she brainwashed you into turning us into maids so it would make it easier for her sirens to take us down and had you almost sign Equestria over to her.” “She’s right; you did nothing wrong. You held back when we saw you, but they were using some powerful brainwashing spells.” Celestia glared at Aqua, who looked rather pitiful now; she then said, “Remove the muzzle.” “But princess, she can.” The princess of the sun held up a hoof and continued, “I know she can, but I want to speak to her mare to mare.” The maids did as she asked and then stepped aside as Celestia addressed her, “Queen Aqua.” “Yes.” “I understand why you tried to brainwash me and control me; your species is facing a crisis, and you needed my lands for protection and safety.” “Yes.. we lost our homeland to a creature known as the Storm King; we were seeking refugee here.” Princess Celestia then rose up and said, “As you know, we have had dealings with yaks, dragons, the horses from Saddle Arabia, and I'm good friends with Queen Novo of the hippogriffs, who sadly lost contact for some time. Why wouldn’t you think we couldn’t come to an agreement?” “Our history with the ponies has been dicey at best. We wouldn't think you would welcome us with open arms.” “Most of those battles you speak of were fought long before I ever ruled, and I tried to reach out for a peace agreement, but I was always met with hostility from you. Queen Aqua, I have every right to banish you or do far worse for what you did to me and my soldiers. But luckily for you, nopony was truly harmed. I can easily change back those you had me change into maids. So, instead of continuing the cycle of hostility, let's end it here and now.” She brought out a new treaty, and they signed it as the sirens bowed and left the hall. The princess then turned to the maids and, with an embarrassed smile, said, “Now, we need to right some other wrongs; please, let’s do this one at a time. The curse placed upon you all is rather complicated to dispel. So this might take a while.” One by one, Princess Celestia took her time to change the maids back into stallion soldiers with their old cutie marks, but soon, only the original Maids of Honor were left standing before her, all looking sheepish. She then asked, “I'm sorry for leaving you last; the truth is I owe you a great debt…in the face all of Equestria does, so I wanted to thank you all personally and apologize for what I've done.” The maids looked at each other, unsure of how to respond as Mop Head spoke up; she bowed and said, “In truth, there’s no need. We know you had no intention of turning us into maids.” “I understand, but I still feel it necessary now I'll turn you back into royal guards,” “Wait!” They turned to Amber, who came forward, “uh, Princess Celestia, we um…” “We came to a decision.” Silky continued, “Amber and I wish to stay this way permanently.” She turned to see Orange come forward and nod, “Yeah, me too. I want to stay as a maid.” Stormy sighed, “Yeah, me as well. I have to admit I had way more fun like this than I ever had as a boring old royal guard.” She turned to Sea Star and Lemon Heart, who both blushed as they chimed in unison, “It would be an honor to stay as your maids of honor! And making your breakfast and cake every day!” The princess of the sun was quite surprised by their answers and continued, “I see, so you wish to be the Maids of Honor?” Mop Head continued, “Yes, if that is ok? We not only wish to stay as mares but be your covert operatives to keep Equestria safe from hidden threats. ” “If you wish, then consider it done.” The maids all cheered and hugged each other as they gathered with the sun princess, who embraced them all with her wingspan. Princess Luna flew over, took out a camera, and said, “Come now, face me!” The mares all cried out in surprise, but before anyone could do anything, the camera went off with a flash.