//------------------------------// // Royal Archive // Story: The Thousand Year Change // by Darthvalgaav //------------------------------// Scootaloo turned under the covers of her new bed. Both the bed and the blankets were softer than anything she ever had back in Ponyville. To her confusion, she had asked Twilight why that was only to receive a long, confusing explanation that caused the filly’s head to spin. Not that she needed anymore confusing things in her head. After everypony had left and the two ate dinner, Twilight had decided that they should start studying. The purple unicorn started by asking what Scootaloo already knew. The filly did her best to tell Twilight what they had been going over in class but it was clear by the unicorn’s expression that she wasn’t impressed. She then began to pull a large number of books off her shelves until there were ten piles with were each larger than Scootaloo. The first thing they started on was math. Twilight had opened up several math books and began to lecture. Scootaloo did her best to pay attention, but there was too much that didn’t make sense and she was afraid to raise her hoof to ask a question. Once Twilight finished she wrote down several sample problems and gave they to Scootaloo to try and figure out. The filly got everyone incorrect. After that, the two worked on a couple other subjects until nine. By that time Scootaloo was dead on her hooves as well as confused. Everything that Twilight had tried to teach her was all jumbled around. Perhaps soon Twilight would see that she wasn’t smart enough to go to this school and give up. But until then Scootaloo would at least try her best. -x- “What was that?” asked Cadence as she stepped back a bit. Ruby Moon looked up at Cadence to stare her directly in the eye. “We wish to become part of the Royal Guard,” she repeated. Cadence nodded. That was what she thought she heard but she had to be sure. She didn’t have anything against these ponies nor did she think it was a bad idea to let them join the guard. In fact, it was just the opposite. It would be the first time in a thousand years that there were bat ponies protecting a princess of Equestria. But why were they asking her? There was an administration office a few blocks away from the castle. They could have easily applied there. The Princess of Love then noticed that the spears held by the guards were getting closer to the bat ponies. Not by much, but they were defiantly closer than they were a moment ago. Some of the guards looked like they were ready to attack at any moment. Then, one of the guards spoke. “Bat ponies can’t join the guard,” he growled. “Any pony with a criminal history is banned from joining, thus it is impossible for scum like you things to join us.” With that he spat on the ground near the three ponies. Ruby looked at Cadence with a sorrowful look. “We do what we have to in order to survive,” she said simply. “If there was another way, believe me, we would. But since no pony will give us work or land to grow food we are forced to steal. It is that or death.” “Death is the only thing your kind-” began a different guard. However, Cadence took a step forward while keeping her eyes on Ruby. “I see,” said Cadence. “Believe me when I say how sorry I am for the way ponies like you are treated.” She paused for a moment before speaking in a louder voice. “As a Princess of Equestria I hereby pardon Ruby Moon, Dusk Blitz, and Thunderclap of all previous crimes. They will also be allowed into the Royal Guard. After their training has been completed they shall become my personal guards.” Normally, only Princess Celestia had her own personal guards that stayed with her almost around the clock. Guards were assigned to ponies like herself or Blueblood by Celestia or the captain of the guard. But it was well past time that changed. Cadence may not be a ruler like her aunt, but she was still a princess. This was her decision and she would not back down from it. “You can’t do this!” yelled one of the guards. “We shall take this to Princess Celestia!” “Go right ahead,” said Cadence as she motioned the three bat ponies to follower her. “You will find her still locked within her private quarters. If you do manage to find her, I will be in the dining hall making sure these three get a good meal before they begin basic training.” -x- “What do you mean Trixie is not allowed inside,” demanded the student of Princess Celestia. She, as well as the ponies from Ponyville that had given her a ride, were standing in front of the Royal Archives. It was a tall, spire like building that stood in the back of the castle. Inside was nearly every document that had ever come out of Canterlot. If there was any information about what really happened it would be in this building. However, the guard stationed in front of it seemed to be taking a great deal of join in giving Trixie a hard time. “Just as I said,” came his reply. “No pony is allowed inside without Princess Celestia’s permission.” “But Trixie is Princess Celestia’s faithful student!” cried the blue mare. The guard smiled. “Yes, I know who you are,” he said. “But being her majesties student does not mean that she has given you permission to enter. Even if she did you still couldn’t go in. The Royal Librarian for the Archives left hours ago. So you have until she comes back in the morning to get Princess Celestia’s permission. Have a good night.” Trixie felt her anger rise as she snorted. She was about to say something nasty to him when she was suddenly grabbed by the ponies she had brought along. As they dragged her away the farmer pony apologized to the guard as did the shy yellow one. Trixie began to shout only to find Rainbow’s hoof covering her mouth. The group turned the corner and kept going until they were out of the guard’s sight before letting Trixie go. “What is the meaning of this?!” demanded Trixie. The girls exchanged looks except for Pinkie Pie who was missing. “Well I think it obvious that we’re not getting in through the front door,” said Rainbow. “So it looks like we’re going to break in.” An amused smirk appeared on Trixie’s face. “Oh what a wonderful idea,” she said sarcastically. “Tell me; just how do you all plan on taking down a member of the Royal Guard?” “Well dear, you could teleport us in with your magic,” said Rarity. As she said this, Trixie’s smirk vanished only to be replaced with a look of fear. It, however, lasted only for a moment. “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall not use her incredible power to break into a building,” stated Trixie with her nose in the air. “You will have to think of a different way to get inside.” The girls gave each other another look that said ‘she can’t do it’. “Well there’s gotta be a way in there,” said Applejack as she looked at the spire. As she looked upward, she thought she saw something pink. “Impossible,” said Trixie as she turned her back towards the mares. “This is a twenty story building with windows only at the top. Even if the two pegasi did try to fly up there are magic spells keeping unauthorized pegasi from opening them. The outer walls are completely smooth making it next to impossible to climb up. Even if somepony tried they would be caught by the-” Trixie’s long explanation was cut short as a large amount of rope fell on her head, completely burying her. A moment later Pinkie Pie, still in her ninja outfit, slid down with a smile on her face. “Um, are you ok?” asked Fluttershy. About fifteen minutes later everypony had climbed up the rope and gotten into the Royal Archive. The window they had climbed into was on the nineteenth floor which was lucky for them. The higher up the older the document. Or at least that was how it was done the last time Trixie had visited this place. All around them there were stacks of dusty books and scrolls. It was clear to anypony that few ever came up here. “My word,” said Rarity as she covered her mouth with her hoof. In front of her was a spider web twice the size of her body. “I don’t mean to be rude but perhaps the royal cleaning staff has been slacking off a bit.” “They don’t need to come up here,” said Trixie as she used her magic to pick up a book. She then blew on it to remove the dust, revealing it to be a journal that had belonged to a noble named Proper Manners. “Every record that is kept here has a magic spell placed on it to make sure it is preserved. According to what Trixie has been told the building could flood, crumble, and then explode without losing a single piece of parchment.” Deciding not to waste anytime, all the mares decided to split up as that they could search the archive a bit faster. Applejack had used her hat to destroy the spider web to see what she could find past it. Slowly the farmer mare picked up a scroll and began to read. Finding nothing she picked up another and then another. After a while she began to wonder what she was even looking for. Would one of these scrolls just say ‘Make Luna evil to the public’ or ‘Lets make up stuff about moon ponies’? After awhile she found one book written by a stallion name Divine Right. She began to skim the pages only to find that a lot of them talked about Princess Luna. Or rather complained about Princess Luna. From what Applejack could gather, Princess Luna had been poking her nose into the business of the nobles. He also whined about how Luna was giving aid to ‘dirty peasants’ so that they could attend school. The more Applejack read the more it seemed that she was despised by the nobles simply because she didn’t play their game. Then came a passage that really made the orange mare wonder. ‘The light at the end of the tunnel has finally begun to shine,’ wrote Divine. ‘Princess Luna and her low brow followers have left us. When I heard the news I simply had to tell Princess Celestia. Several times she asked me if I was sure. I revealed my sources who had witnessed the account. Truly it is a glorious day. Equestria needs not two princesses but one. Lowly, young Luna has caused nothing but trouble since the day she set hoof into the castle. It seems that Princess Celestia herself has realized this as well for she has decreed that Luna’s name shall never be spoken again. Blessed Celestia has even order a halt to that annoying Hoofshire incident. Who cares if a couple commoners die? But Royal Bit did say something to me about that. Now there are fewer ponies to tax!’ Applejack fought hard not to slam the book shut after that part. She was sure that he was laughing as he wrote that part. After a bit longer she did eventually close the book. Placing it on her back Applejack began to look for the others to see if they had found anything yet. After a minute or two of walking she found Rainbow Dash. She was sitting there, staring at something in a dusty book while looking like she could start crying at any moment. Her hoofs trembled as she bit her lower lip. Slowly Applejack walked over to her friend only to trip over a book that was on the floor. Hearing this, Rainbow quickly closed the book. “Ah hey AJ,” said Rainbow in a somewhat forced cheerful tone. “What’s up?” “Something wrong sugarcube?” asked Applejack as she ignored Rainbow’s question. “Never better,” said Rainbow as she stood up. “Let’s go see what the others found. So far I’ve only found this old history book.” Before Applejack could say another word Rainbow had walked past her. -x- Another letter written. Another letter sent. Another letter ignored. Celestia sighed as she began to wonder if Luna would ever answer a single one. Since this morning she had been writing non-stop in the hopes that her little sister would listen. But so far she hadn’t even gotten a letter telling her to stop. For a brief moment, she felt anger towards the pony named Twilight Sparkle. Had she not appeared at that moment, both sisters would have united their two countries and Celestia’s plan to change the ponies views on lunar ponies would have begun. But this feeling only lasted for a moment. Now matter what Celestia knew it was mostly her fault for letting things get this bad. And because of that she might not see her sister again for another thousand years. Quickly Celestia shook her head. ‘No,’ she thought. ‘I will not let her go again without a fight! If she won’t answer my letters then I will just go to her so that we may speak face to face!’ With this new resolve Celestia’s horn began to glow. Golden light began to cover her entire body, shining as brightly as the sun. There was a flash and then she was gone. -x- Outside the Lunar Palace, Shining Armor was giving chase to Shadow Blade. The bat pony had the nerve to say that he was going to ask Twilight to marry him regardless of how Shining felt about it. Shining had decided to respond in the mature fashion by pulling out an energy cannon and trying to kill his sister’s coltfriend. Shadow, in response, dodged each shot with ease. He knew sooner or later the cannon would run out. He would let Shining Armor get the crazy out of his system so that he would be too tired to try and stop his proposal later. Suddenly there came a beeping sound from inside a pocket from Shining’s jacket. The two stallions ceased their antics at once, knowing what that sound meant. Normally, life in the Royal Guard and Shield Corps was mostly fun and games. After all, they had no enemies that could get up to the moon. So unless there was an emergency, Luna allowed them to be a bit flexible when it came to their behavior as long as they knew when to be serious. And that beeping sound meant it was time to be very serious. “What’s going on?” asked Shadow as he landed next to Shining. The white unicorn stallion pulled out a thin black device with a screen in the middle which was displaying a lot of information. “Some unauthorized pony just tried to teleport into the palace,” said Shining as he placed the device back in his pocket. “Luckily for us, we were able to redirect whoever it was into the anti-magic holding cell. A group of guards are heading towards it to find who was stupid enough to try something like that.” Shadow nodded before he took to the air again. However, it was not to run away from Shining Armor. He flew in the direction of the palace to personally interrogate this prisoner.