To the west of Equestria is a small nation named Concordia. It had been established not long after Equestria and after a grueling war and a forced peace treaty is currently one of Equestria's greatest allies. The alicorn rulers of this small peaceful country are Princess Rosetta and her daughter Princess Stella. Queen Rosetta is a yellow alicorn with a dark red (rose colored) mane and tail. Princess Stella is a much smaller pink alicorn with a small horn and blue mane. Concordia is still recovering from the assassination of their king. The nation was looking to pull through when an unknown group with a powerful militia starts a take over on the kingdom...
[Queen Rosetta's POV]
I was going over old records when it hit me. My vision went white for a few seconds and then I was in some factory I didn't recognize at first. I was having a premonition. They were a somewhat common occurrence, but I usually brought them on myself. This was different... It came to me. I now recognized the place as Concordia's weapons and defense facility. Ponies were hard at work on machines and everything seemed normal. BOOM! An explosion on one of the machines. All the guards immediately rushed to the machine to check if everyone was OK. One of the guards drew his sword and stabbed another guard in his throat. Then 5 more ponies around the factory pulled out swords and begun to murder the workers. Guards burst in and were slaughtered within seconds by the highly trained killer ponies. One of the ponies stepped forward and spoke to the others.
"This is the beginning of the end for Concordia. With no weapons they are defenseless against us and our allies. Concordia shall fall and..."
The vision ended as suddenly as it had began and I was back in my castle. I decided there was no time to waste. I went to my daughters room and packed some essential stuff for a long journey. I needed her to get in contact with Luna and Celestia. I wrote a letter addressed to Celestia and put it on the desk. With impeccable timing my faithful student Lightning Haze walked in.
"Lightning Haze, please get a status report on the weapons facility ASAP and return to me. No time to explain but this needs to be done as fast as possible." I said and she obeyed with out question, quickly turning around and galloping down the hall way.
I walked back over to my desk and began to write a second letter. This time addressed to Lightning. I knew very well these might be my last days of life and there was something I needed to tell her, but I don't have the bravery to tell her in person.
Just as I finished writing the letter my daughter Stella walked in. I handed her saddlebag to her and hugged her.
"Mother whats going on?" Princess Stella asked. Stella sounded panicky and scared.
"You and Lightning Haze are going to Equestria to seek the help of the Princesses there." I said trying to hurry her along.
"But... why?" Stella asked looking scared and confused.
"No time to explain Stella I need you to hurry. Give either of the Regal Sisters this letter." I said handing the letter to my daughter.
"Mom I don't want to leave." Stella whined.
"I don't have time for this go NOW!" I said giving a hard smack to Stella's rear end.
"Ow mother that hurt" Stella whined. The door burst open suddenly and in came my favorite student. Lightning Haze.
"Princess! The weapons facility has been taken over. How did you know this was coming?" Lightning Haze said looking frantic.
"My premonition powers... take Stella and lead her to Equestria. I shall stay back and try to neutralize the situation... Stella I always loved you so much. I hope one day you rule this country better than I have. Goodbye darling." Lightning Haze wasted no time and took Stella by the hoof and led her out the door before I could say anything else.
[Princess Stella's POV]
Once we reached the main entrance to the castle a group of royal guards led us to a carriage.
"Wait I forgot something... I'll be right back." I said. I turned and dashed into the castle as fast as possible to the family room. I grabbed a picture of my mom and I and sprinted back out.
"Okay guards I am ready to leave now." I said getting in to the carriage and seeing a highly frantic Lightning twitching around not sure what to do.
"Okay, but your highness you will be leaving the country by sea now, the original plan by train is now out of the question. Armed ponies have secured all roads and train exits from the country. It's the safest way we can think of." said one of the guards. I absolutely detested sea travel, it always made me moody and sick.
[Lightning Haze's POV]
On the way to the docks Princess Stella begun crying. She puled out a picture of her mom and only started to wail louder. At this point in the journey I was fed up with all the tears, but I let Stella cry it out anyway. I just aimlessly looked out the window and prayed for our queens safety. About an hour into our journey we heard one of the guards pulling the carriage yell out in anguish and the carriage flip forward and shatter. I crawl out of the wreckage and survey the damage. I was a little scratched up and luckily Stella seemed unharmed. The same could not be said for the stallions. They were a crippled bloody mess and soon died due to injuries from being impaled by parts of the wheels and carriage. I noticed an arrow in the foreleg of one of the guards and quickly looked around for anyone that might shoot another arrow, at them this time. A couple of ponies that must have been nearby heard the crash and came to investigate. Stella was still dazed when the two pony's approached her.
"Scarlet do ya know who that is? That's princess Stella." The small filly said happily. Stella slowly got up and looked around she saw the two more clearly now. One was a small dark blue almost black earth pony with no cutiemark, the other was a older but still young purple Pegasus with a weirdly colored cloud for a cutiemark. I gathered that by the travel packs they had with them, they were fleeing as well which meant they were of no danger to her.
"Nice to meet you my little pony, and nice to meet you... Scarlet I think she said your name was?" Stella asked curiously.
"The name is Scarlet Cloud, little one here is Lunar Lilly, but everyone just calls her Lilly. Is everypony here OK?" Scarlet looked around and saw the bodies of the stallions and shielded Lilly's eyes from the sight. I started to get up off the ground and brush myself off.
"Lightning are you OK?" Stella asked with concern on her face. This was the first time I had ever considered Stella a friendly pony. Usually I hated the way the Princess treated me, but this was different. The Princess was showing genuine concern for me.
"Yeah i'm okay" I muttered half-heartedly.
"Well we're headed for the docks what about you two?" Scarlet asked.
"The same... Scarlet have we met before?" Stella asked. I had just now noticed that Scarlet looked very familiar. I just couldn't place where I had seen her before.
"I don't think so Princess and we should probably get going before any unfriendly ponies find us." Scarlet had a sense of urgency about her as if we were pressed for time. The four of them made it to the docks just before nightfall.