//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 - Cadence, Shining Armor // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// The trip back to Canterlot had proved to be very anxious and stressful for the Royal Couple. After being driven from the Honeymoon suite to the nearest railroad depot, they had been traveling for the past week to get back to Princess Celestia’s side as soon as possible. On the sixth day of their travel, they had received a second letter from Princess Luna informing them of the entire situation, including the fact that she believed her sister to still be alive, and that she was leaving Equestria to find her and bring her back. “But why would she not want us to tell the nation this?” Cadence asked her dear husband, who was still looking over the letter line by line. Shining Armor began to stare at the far wall of the train car as he looked for any potential reason, “Maybe she’s not sure she will succeed, and she doesn’t want ponies to live in false hope.” “If both Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna are gone, how are we going to raise and lower the sun and moon?” Cadence asked as she looked out to the now setting sun through the window next to her. Shining Armor now followed her gaze to watch as the sun lingered near the edge of the mountainous horizon, as if it were waiting for the command to rest and travel to the other side of the world. He wrapped his foreleg around his Mi Amore Cadenza and held her close. She put her hoof on his chest and turned to look at him. “I don’t know what we’re in for, what'll be in our future, or how we’ll face it,” he said, “I just know that with each other, there's nothing we can’t do. If Luna trusts us to rule in her's and Celestia’s stead, I’m sure that we can make it work.” Cadence smiled and kissed Shining Armor softly, “You’re right. We can do this. I’ve been doing all the political duties of a princess for as long as I can remember. I never thought I’d have to use those skills in a situation like this, though.” In a few minutes, the train pulled into Canterlot station, and the Royal Couple disembarked as inconspicuously as possible. As they got closer to the castle, they noticed a large number of ponies had started to gather in front of the large doors to the public entrance. “What’s going on?” Shining Armor muttered to Cadence. Reaching out with her empathic talents, the Princess could feel the mood of the crowd as one gestalt creature; there was frustration boiling over, discontent, even anger. It was a powder keg of negative emotion waiting to explode, if given the right prompting. Looking to her lover, she magically constructed herself a small box hat and placed a ball cap on Shining Armor’s head, after which she made them matching tinted sunglasses. Her husband blinked rapidly in response to have a new set of shades suddenly shoved onto his face, “What are you doing?” Cadence quickly lead the two of them into a nearby alleyway, away from the crowd, “For whatever reason, everypony is angry, and I don’t know why. We should just get back into the castle as quickly as possible.” “Citizens of Canterlot,” a voice called out from the front gates to the crowd. Shining Armor recognized it as the voice of Lieutenant Swiftfeet of the RSD. “Please disperse at once. If you wish to bring any grievances to the Royal Family, do so on an individual basis through the Day or Night courts.” “Is it true that Luna murdered Celestia?” a stallion yelled out from the crowd. “What?!” Cadence exclaimed in complete shock. A couple of ponies turned and looked to the two strangers in the alley. “Hey, isn’t that Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor?” “I thought they were supposed to be on honeymoon in Mustangia?” “Honey, we really think we need to go now,” Shining Armor urgently whispered to his wife, and the two of them began to walk away from the alley and the ponies that recognized them, but the recognition only followed them. “How do we know they are the real Cadence and Shining Armor? They could be Changelings!” “If things were this bad, why wasn’t a detail sent for us?” Shining Armor thought aloud. “Shiny,” Cadence called out with a little edge of fright in voice, “they’re following us!” “Return to your homes at once, or we will be forced to clear the area. This is your last warning,” Swiftfeet called out through his bull horn. Ponies began to get uncomfortably close to the two royals on every side. “We teleport to the front porch, alright?” Shining Armor said as he looked to Cadence. She nodded her understanding, and before the crowd could get any closer, the two of them were lost in bursts of bright magenta and cyan light. Landing almost right next to the Lieutenant, Shining Armor spoke urgently to him, “Swiftfeet, report. What’s going on here?” The Pegasus turned to the Captain, “A disturbance began about an hour or two ago with some wild conspiracy theories about what happened to Princess Celestia. It’s good to have a calm head like yours here; the non-military royals are browning themselves, and some of the Royal Guard has even defected to the crowd. RSD got called in for nonlethal crowd control, which we are about to begin.” “We know you’re holding back on us!” another pony in the crowd yelled above the din, “You’ve been lying to us all for years about the Changelings!” The crowd quieted a little at this strange accusation, and the mare continued, “For years and years they’ve known that the old stories were true, but they did nothing to warn us, nothing to protect us! If there’s anyone responsible for Princess Celestia’s death, it’s this so called ‘Royal Family’!” “Luna wasn’t around until after the attack,” another pony called out, “how do we know she didn’t have something to do with it?” Random voices began to shout out, “Down with the Moon! The Sun Rises!” “Lunar Princess! Solar Tyrant!” “Down with the Royals!” “Get my wife inside,” Shining Armor yelled to a few nearby guards, “Make sure she’s safe above anything else!” The guards snapped to attention, and with a quick “Yes, Captain!” they escorted Princess Cadence to the security of Canterlot Castle. The crowd was now boiling over with anger and confusion, and the breaking point was about to be reached. “Whatever you have planned, do it!” Shining Armor called out to Lieutenant Swiftfeet, who nodded. The RSD personnel, each one covered head to hoof in thick polymer suits with hard fiberglass helmets and equipped with back-mounted tear gas launchers, were ready for the order to pacify the crowd. Having given permission to fire, Lieutenant Swiftfeet and Shining Armor watched as tear gas canisters soared into the crowd from above, dispersing their pea-soup colored contents into the assembled ponies. Cries of bewilderment and fear came from out of the smoke, and it seemed that the majority of the crowd was vacating the area. A portion of the gathered ponies, no less than thirty stallions and mares, began a charge on the frontsteps of the castle. “Hold!” Shining Armor yelled to the fifty guards and officers as he quickly constructed a set of Captain’s armor from the ether, “Use minimal force as necessary! Incapacitate only!” The pegasi of the small mob began to leap into the air, so as to break the front line of the defense. In immediate response, the pegasi of the Royal Guard took to the air to cut off their strike preemptively. Magical bolts of all different colors filled the air as the mob continued its push, and the guardsponies created a multi-layered phalanx of shields. After the first volley of unicorn magic was dispelled by their shields, the guardsponies that could began to fire hexes that would hog tie anyone they could strike. One by one, the rioters began to fall like dominoes, as they were magically restrained, and horn and wing cuffs were placed on those who needed them. The battle was one sided, but the Royal Guard had succeeded; no casualties to report on either side, and containment had proven simple after the small group of ponies had been subdued. “Can you handle this from here?” Shining Armor asked Lieutenant Swiftfeet as the RSD forces began to haul the pacified rioters away. “Go, sir. We have this under control,” the pegasus replied, but Shining Armor was already galloping for the entrance to the castle.