The Last Missions of the New Lunar Republic

by TacticalRainboom


Operation Total Solar Eclipse

“I... he told us he was with his friends.” April Showers’s left eye twitched. Her husband, Lucky Star, was present as well. Lucky Star remained silent, preferring to merely rest both forehooves on the table. It was a stance he often took when under distress--the stable stance kept him from being tempted to pace around.

April sputtered as she talked. “I didn’t think he would be at the parade... I went looking for him, but I didn’t... he was... I’m so sorry if there’s anything I can do I know I shouldn’t have let him I didn’t think that he--”

“This is not some minor case of disorderly conduct,” the armored guard across the table from her interrupted. “Is this the kind of behavior that you--”

The lawpony sharing the small office with Lucky Star was interrupted, in turn, by a voice from the doorway behind Lucky Star. “Thank you, Lieutenant Cloudbank. You may return to your desk.” The newcomer’s tone was low, femnine, and sweet. Offcer Cloudbank’s eyes eyebrows raised sharply, and he bowed his head before backing a few steps away from the table.

Lucky Star snapped his head ninety degrees to the side to see behind her. What he saw turned his tight frown of embarrassed distress into a comical frown of suppressed terror.

“Please pardon the lieutenant. He has always been diligent in his adherence to procedure, and I assure you that he has everypony’s best interest at heart.” Princess Celestia smiled as she entered the room, filling it with the soft shimmer of her mane and pure white coat. Pure white, except where the side of her head was still stained with cherry red. “All will be forgiven soon enough,” she reassured.

April Showers forced a terrified smile, but her left eyelid was tensing and quivering again.

“First...” Princess Celestia crossed to the other side of the table, and Lieutenant Cloudbank slipped past her to excuse himself from the room. “I think your son should explain himself. He caused quite a stir among the guards and driving team!”

A midnight-colored colt barely tall enough to be seen behind the table appeared to become even smaller, until his eyes dipped beneath the table-top. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.

“Good,” the Princess said with a nod. “You inconvenienced quite a few hardworking ponies with your little game.” Then she tilted her head just slightly. “Was it a game?”

Little Sweet Dream paused before answering. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“What kind of game?” The Princess asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Sweet Dream’s mane disappeared beneath the table. “Just a game,” he monotoned in barely more than a whisper.

“I’ll tell you what,” the Princess said, bending her forelegs so that she could duck under the table and look the cowering little one in the eye, “Tell me all about this little game, and I promise nopony will be mad at you for anything you did.”

“For my friends too,” Sweet Dream replied. “I don’t want them to be in trouble either.” He fixed a timid, wide-eyed gaze on the Princess.

“Sweetie, you shouldn’t--” Sweet Dream’s mother tried to speak up in response to the under-the-table negotiations, but Princess Celestia spoke over her.

“No trouble for you, or your friends,” Princess Celestia agreed, still with her rear raised and her head lowered awkwardly to the ground. “I promise. Just as long as you all stay out of trouble from now on. Deal?”

Sweet Dream stood up, but only the top of his head was visible this time; he was staring at his hooves. “We wanted to be the New Lunar Republic...”

April Showers and Lucky Star gasped in unison at their son.

That raised Princess Celestia’s eyebrows. “Don’t you think your friends are a little young to be starting another Lunar Republic?”

“We thought it was so cool when we learned about it,” Sweet Dream grumbled. “The way they were rebels and stuff, and the way they were all secret and how they did dangerous missions. And...” He sounded even more miserable as he finished his explanation in a barely audible murmur. “We thought Princess Luna was so cool when she visited last week for the eclipse...”

Princess Celestia let out a short but quite un-Princessly laugh. “I’ll make sure I tell Princess Luna how ‘cool’ you think she is,” she said happily. “Now, were the cardboard sword attacks part of your little game?”

“The what?” Lucky Star said in an offended gasp. Princess Celestia waved her hoof and shushed him.

Sweet Dream’s muzzle was already pointed downward. He looked like he was going to strain his neck muscles if he tried to hang his head any harder.

Celestia sounded very pointedly and intentionally patient. “Nopony’s getting in trouble, remember?”

“Cherry Red already GOT in trouble,” Sweet Dream said, pouting. “She got captured. And grounded.”

“What about the attempted pie theft?”

This time, it was April’s right eye that started to twitch. Lucky Star grit his teeth, but didn’t speak up.

“Soft Breeze failed his mission.” Sweet Dream’s lip curled, despite the circumstances. “He chickened out and went home. Twice.”

“So...” Princess Celestia tilted her head to the left; towards the stained side. “Where did you get the pie from?”

Sweet Dream sighed, defeated. “Sugarcube Corner.”

“I thought so!” laughed Princess Celestia, shaking her red-spattered royal head. “Nopony makes cherry pie like Mrs. Cake. I must say, you have very good taste in weapons.”


The three of us sit in our little meeting spot underneath Soft Breeze’s house, but none of us talk for a few minutes. Soft Breeze agreed to come along after I told him about how Princess Celestia promised me that he wouldn’t get in trouble. Cherry Red was un-grounded after Princess Celestia went to her house to talk to her parents. Our parents haven’t split up our club yet, which is probably thanks to the Princess again.

But now that we’re together again, none of us really knows what to talk about. Eventually, Cherry Red asks the question that all three of us are thinking: “What should we play next?”

“Let’s play house,” Soft Breeze says hopefully, smiling a big, pleading, fake smile. “Now that we’re done being the New Lunar Republic, we can play house like I wanted to! I can be the--”

“That’s not cool enough." I sneer, rolling my eyes. Cherry Red grunts her agreement. I place my hoof to my chin, showing them that I’m thinking hard, because a scheming club leader should always be thinking. “It has to be something secret, with cool codenames and missions to plan out.”

“How about changelings?” Cherry Red suggests. “They’re really cool. All black and scary.”

Changelings. Even more secret than the Republic. We could be secret changelings, pretending to be little foals so that we could infiltrate anywhere we wanted to. We would start by using our disguises to learn all about the town’s weaknesses, until finally we were ready to take over! Cherry Red sees the smile growing on my face, and she returns it with a smug smirk of victory.

“But...” Soft Breeze complains. He relents once he sees the wisdom of my plan. “Okay fine,” he says, showing his loyalty to me, his leader. “I’ll be the spy changeling, who’s all good at hiding and stuff. There.”

In the darkness of in the secret changeling caverns beneath the house owned by “Soft Breeze” and his “parents,” we choose secret changeling names and abilities, and our real game begins.

And once we are all prepared, I smile again. Even though I’m still in my innocent pony disguise, my smile is evil, showing just a hint of my true changeling self. Rael’zpekus, the warrior changeling, smiles too.

Our little New Lunar Republic game had been a facade, a clever disguise to make the ignorant multicolored fools think that they had foiled our plans. Now that the Princess and our fake “parents” no longer suspect anything, our plans will begin. First Ponyville--and then, before long, Canterlot itself will belong to the Secret Changeling Hive.