--Chapter 8--
The Wedding
“I’m not sure what to think about all that, Falcon…” Shaw said as he stroked his jaw, while sitting on his bed in front of Falcon. “It all seems rather unlikely.”
“I know, but after what Princess Luna has shown me, it’s hard to deny it.” Falcon replied. “Well, anyways, how did your talk with Twilight went?”
“Better than I thought actually. It was rather refreshing to talk with someone who actually understands what I’m talking about. At least most of it.”
“Well, I guess you were bound to eventually find someone who understands all that jargon you’re using. But back to topic, what have you found out, in simple words please.”
Shaw sighed and then proceeded to explain what he got out from Twilight, who was still lying asleep on Shaw’s bed. Like Falcon has already knew, history of this country is a peaceful one, with the last major conflict taking place almost thousand years ago. What was surprising however, was the fact that existence of any wars was not a common knowledge, and it wasn’t easy to come across it in any archives or libraries. Same goes for any fighting manuals, which are illegal to possess.
Luckily though, Twilight Sparkle’s lust for knowledge has led her to Princess Celestia’s private archive under Canterlot, where she managed to obtain informations that she normally wouldn’t be able to get (of course without Celsestia’s knowledge).
The last war that took place on Equestrian soil was labeled as ‘The Great Rebellion’. In short, a group of cultists begun to gain influence in the early government, and almost led the country to ruin. Equestria was able to recover, but not fast enough to prevent the cultists from starting a home-war in the entire country. The point of the war was to ensure the resurrection of cultist’s gods, but obviously the plan didn’t work out in the end.
When it comes to other countries, the knowledge is also spread rather thin, but again, Twilight was able to get her hooves on some informations not available to public, mostly because she has often been contacting various diplomats who were meeting with Celestia and was able to squeeze quite a few things from them.
Other then Equestria there are three other major countries in this world. The biggest one is The Empire of Grefis. A country that covers almost an entire continent oversees and controls many colonies spread all over the world. The inhabitants are mostly griffons, a hybrid species between mammals and birds. They are rarely living outside of their county, and at the moment there are only three griffons in Equestia. The current ruler of the Empire is King Fellus IV Intrepid, who in last few years was expanding the territory of his country. There is one griffon living in Canterlot, but no one has seen him since the invasion was over.
The second country worth mentioning is Zebricannia, another country covering nearly an entire continent, though with much smaller population then Equestria and Grefis due to most of the land being covered by deserts. Within the country live Zebras, another equine species. Zebras also rarely live their country, usually to exchange goods with cities near the border. According to Twilight there is one Zebra living in a forest near Ponyville. It would be good idea to talk to her. Falcon thought.
The country bordering with both Equestria and Zebricanna is Saddle Arabia. Not much is known about the country, other then it being ruled by a king and that it has a lot of problems with its citizens rebelling. The problem is apparently large enough for the king to ask Celestia for help, despite his apparent dislike of Equetria and its inhabitants. Other than that, Twilight wasn’t able to say much more, but Falcon made a mental note to question Abuyin about it.
Except those countries there is of course more, but they are not very important, and most is dependent on one of the major forces of the world.
There are also 2 nations without a country, Dragons and Minotaurs. Dragons technically live in one area known as Dragon Lands, but it’s unknown whether they have some form of government or not. Minotaurs on the other hand, are nomads, and never settle in one place. They travel around the world, usually as merchants or mercenaries. They are rarely visiting Equestia though, since they know that Celestia keeps watching over their activities whenever a group shows up in her lands, suggesting that they may not be very law-liking beings...
Until recently the existence of changelings was unknown to anyone, and no one can really tell much about them that wouldn’t be a speculation.
When it comes to levitating objects and other things Falcon have seen ponies doing, it was in fact them performing ‘magic’. Falcon was aware of certain cultures performing things that could count as magic, but in this case it was different. ‘Magic’ he was aware of, was mostly based on rituals and alchemy, but on this planet things were different. Magic rituals of course did exist, but they were rarely performed. The way ponies used their magic, was through releasing energy from their bodies and forming it in a way they want to.
There was much more to it than that, but to say that Falcon understood a word from what Shaw has said would be a lie, and it seemed that Shaw wasn’t sure he understood everything either.
Ponies are divided into three races. Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies.
Unicorns are known for possessing an ability to influence their surroundings in much more effective ways then other races, who’s magic is more focused on themselves. Earth Ponies use magic to influence their strength, stamina and endurance or in rare cases their speed and agility, which are the area where Pegasi use their magic.
Passively, Unicorn magic allows them to sense different sources of magic and sudden shifts in it. Pegasi are able to walk on clouds and have their vision and hearing significantly superior to that of other races. Earth Pony’s magic grants them a connection to other living beings, be it animals or plants; in rare cases Earth Ponies can straight up talk with animals and in even rarer cases, with trees.
As far as religion goes, like the most of the galaxy, the majority of ponies are atheists. There is only one belief system within Equestria, but it doesn’t have many supporters and as years go by the number keeps dropping.
Shaw explained everything about the recent events that took place in Equestria, including things like Nightmare Moon and Discord. Overall, they‘ve spent the rest of evening talking about what they have found out about the world they are in. “Alright, I think this is everything.” Shaw said, attempting to stand up, only to realize that Twilight had her hooves wrapped around his hand. I thought she would be awake after 10 minutes top… Well, I guess she must have been tired. He thought.
Falcon laughed at the display. “That’s good, now, we better get some sleep. We got invited to a wedding tomorrow.” He got up from the chair and walked up to his bed, lying down on it.
“A wedding? What wedding?”
“I was summoned by the third Princess -Cadence- and she decided to invite me on her wedding tomorrow. I thought that I might as well go and see if there will be something interesting to see, and you’re coming with me because I’m not going to leave my little brother alone.”
“You’re one day older than me.” Falcon laughed again and laid his head on the pillow. Shaw sighed and tried to lay down himself, only to realize that Twilight was still sleeping in his bed (and holding his hand). With no other option left, Shaw sighed and lied down next to the purple Unicorn.
On the next morning, Falcon woke up in early hours. It wasn’t like he had to get up now, but after spending his entire life in a military, certain habits emerged. He was still in his armor, since he preferred to wear it whenever he was sleeping in an unknown environment (that and he keeps a blaster under his pillow). This of course wouldn’t be possible if he was wearing Phase I armor, which was way too uncomfortable to sleep in.
He got up from the bed and quickly stood up. He noticed that Shaw was already awake, and that he was holding his helmet in one hand and one of his tools in the other. Shaw always carried a set of basic tools in his belt, in case something needed to be fixed. “What are you doing?” He asked.
Shaw almost jumped out of surprise. “Oh, it’s you sir.” He stood up and hid his tools back in his belt. “I couldn’t sleep so I decided to fix your helmet.” Shaw threw the helmet over to Falcon. It was now in one peace, though the place where it broke was still visible.
Falcon put the helmet on to see if everything works properly. “Thanks, Shaw. I appreciate it. But wait, something seems a bit strange…”
“Oh, so you noticed. I’ve found an upgraded software for the helmet on Cipher’s datapad, so I tried to see if it works. I think it’s still not entirely finished, and most of the software is coded, so I didn’t try to get to it. The parts that were not coded however, seem to work perfectly fine.”
“Sure seems that way. But, um… what exactly is it supposed to do?”
“From what I can tell, it is supposed to some sort of aid for hacking. But he has also mead a few improvements to targeting system and communications. There’s probably more than that, but like I said, it’s coded and I’m not going to hack it.”
“Well, thanks anyways. It’s good to have that thing back in one peace.” He picked up the rest of his stuff. “Where is Twilight by the way?” He asked.
“She left about two hours ago, said she had to take care of the preparations. I guess she meant that wedding you were talking about. Actually, when in that wedding?”
“Princess Cadence wanted to meet us at ‘14 P.M.’. What that means, I don’t know.”
“That’s their measurement of time. It’s very close to the general galactic time, but they call some things differently. Basically, she meant that we should meet her in…” He checked the hour on his helmet’s interface. “…about 10 hours.”
“Well, then I guess we should find ourselves something to do. Maybe Twilight will need some help with those preparations.”
Shaw picked up his equipment and they both left the room. Like usually, the hallway was empty as they walked through it until they’ve reached the stairs. “Wait a second.” Falcon stopped. “Let’s go that way.” He climbed on the ladder and opened the hatch above.
“Why?” Shaw asked surprised, but still following his friend.
“I have a feeling there will be a greeting party waiting at the front door.” He decided to go and check his theory by looking over the side of the roof. Needles to say, he was right, the main entrance was surrounded by a swarm of reporters from yesterday. There was one pony standing between them and the entrance. And that pony was Twilight.
“…for the millionth time, NO you can’t interview them!” He heard her yell.
“Because what? Because you want to have them for yourselves? You greedy horse…” One of the reporters replied, but it was hard to make out his words out of the crowd yelling.
“Well, I guess she hasn’t made it far…” Shaw said when he approached himself. “Should we help her out?”
“Yeah, might be a good idea.” Falcon replied. “You still have your grappling hook, right?” Shaw attached the device to his rifle in answer. “Alright, so here’s the plan. You go down there and grab her, while I stand here and blind them with the drone to make sure they won’t know where we run off to.”
“Sounds good.” Shaw immediately begun. He attached the hook to the edge of the roof and jumped down, using the line to slow down. He landed in front of Twilight, startling both her and the swarm of reporters. However, just as they were about to question him, a drone flew down from the sky. Shaw used his hand to cover up Twilight’s eyes as the drone released a blinding flash of light. Clone’s helmet was of course shielded from it.
“W-what are you-“ Twilight attempted to speak out but Shaw grabbed her around the midsection and begun to pull them up before the reporters managed to realize what has happened.
“I don’t know how you got here, but thank you. I don’t know how much longer would I last before giving up and leading them to you…” She said as they climbed on the top of the building. From there they could see that reporters were already looking for them and that few guards begun to approach the scene.
“You’re welcome.” Shaw said as he and Falcon begun to approach the ladder on the opposite side of the roof while Twilight followed them.
Falcon was about to go down the ladder, but Twilight have stopped him. “*GASP* Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! I was supposed to take care of the preparations! Because of all those reporters there’s no way I will make it in time!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll help you get this done.” Shaw said.
“Really!?” He nodded. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She jumped on him and begun to hug the clone as hard as she could.
“Hey, easy there.” Falcon said, smiling underneath the helmet. “You two lovebirds can cuddle when we get this done, now move it.” He climbed down the ladder, leaving his two blushing friends on top of the roof. “I said move it!” He yelled at them.
Immediately they snapped out of it. “Yes, sir!” They both said in union.
When they were all down on the ground, Falcon begun to lead them towards the castle the same way he and Pinkie got here the previous day. “So what exactly needs t be done?”
“That would be preparing the food, dresses, getting the party and decorations ready, deployment of guards, music, setting on the decorations and helping Rainbow prepare the Sonic Rainboom. Most of that was ready, but after the attack we had to start again.”
“Alright, you go and take care of food and dresses, Shaw will take care of party, decorations and music, while I try to do something with those guards and help Rainbow with that sonic whatever. Sounds good?” She nodded happily. “Alright, so now tell us where to go.” He stopped and pulled out a holo projector, from which he displayed the castle’s layout.
Now knowing how the device works, Twilight didn’t ask any questions, though it was still exiting for her. “Pinkie is taking care of the party and decorations, she should be in this chamber, the one where wedding will take place. Fluttershy on the other hoof will be on the east balcony with her birds.”
“Noted.” Shaw said, marking the place on his helmet’s display.
“Shining Armor will be in this room next to the throne room. Just remember to watch out for Princess, she may come after you. I’m not sure where Rainbow is training, but I’m sure that if you will find her, she’s quite hard to miss.”
“Great, let’s go then.” Falcon said and turned off the projector.
They continued to walk towards the castle using the side alley. It wasn’t long before they reached the gate, and luckily there were no reporters to be seen. The group splitted, and everyone went in their own direction.
Knowing the way to the throne room, Falcon reached his target fairy quickly. Like Twilight have instructed, he watched out for Celestia when he was next to the throne room, hoping that she’s not there in the first place. There was an open pair of doors not far from the throne room and Falcon approached it, finding Shining Armor inside. The Royal Guard Capitan immediately spotted him. “What are you doing here?” He said coldly.
“You sister asked me to help with that wedding preparations, so I decided to see if you need help.” Falcon said as he walked in.
“Well, I don’t need any help so you can go now.” He turned back to the plan of the castle lying on the desk. Falcon of course ignored his request and walked over to him. “I told you not to-“
“You should put two guards on the outside of the entrance. If someone will try to break in through there, they can inform everyone inside. You should also place few Pegasi on the roof and make sure to get someone to guard the secret passages.”
“What passages?” Shining Armor asked surprised.
“You seriously don’t know?” He nodded. “Eh, there are tunnels going all around the castle, and there are two passages that lead into the chamber where the wedding will take place.”
“I-I was never informed of this.”
“I’m actually not surprised. I don’t think that even this Princess of yours knew about them.” Though that lives a question, why those tunnels look like they were designed for someone of her height... “Regardless, let’s go back to it, shall we?”
In the other part of the castle, Shaw reached his own target. He pushed the entrance open and walked into the chamber. He immediately spotted Pinkie Pie jumping around the room and decorating it with colorful… everything. It didn’t take her long to spot him as well. “Heya Shawie!” He said as she got ready to give him a hug. She jumped with her hooves reaching out towards the clone, but he managed to dodge.
“First of all, my name is not ‘Shawie’, its Shaw. And second, no hugs.”
“Awwww... but hugging is so cool...” She made a cute face to convince him.
“No. Hugs. I’m a soldier, not some stuffed toy.”
“Well, if you’re not here for a hug, then are you here?”
“Eh, Twilight wanted me and Falcon to help with preparations for the wedding, is there anything you need help with?”
“*GASP* You’re a lifesaver, Shawie! There’s a big problem that‘s just for you!” She pulled out a huge music set from seemingly nowhere. “Vinyl broke her DJing thingy and we just can’t have a proper party without music. And you are good with that stuff, right? You can fix it?”
Shaw walked over to the device and inspected it. At the first look it appeared to be in good shape, it looked like someone was taking care of it well. However, once he looked at the insides it became clear what was wrong. It seemed that some of the wires got damaged during transport and caused a shortcut when it was turned on. “Alright, I’ll take care of this.” He said.
Pinkie almost jumped at him again, but she stopped herself just in time and instead doing the second best thing: dancing with her party cannon while firing it and singing. Shaw just sighed and begun working.
It didn't take Falcon long time to finish the plan of guards' deployment. He wasn't hoping they will stop anything from happening or actually stopping the threat, but he made sure they will rise the alarm so that he and Shaw could take care of neutralizing whatever threat would appear. Shining Armor seemed to be at least somewhat competent -he sure did have a sharp mind, but looking at who his sister is, that's not surprising- even if he has no actual experience to speak of.
When they were done, he left to go look for Rainbow Dash. He knew she was most likely flying around, so he begun searching the air, wishing that he had borrowed macrobinoculars from Shaw. “I see you’re doing well.” He suddenly heard a voice from behind.
Blast it... He thought, recognizing the voice. Of course, behind him stood Princess Celestia, with less than amused look on her face. “You’re going to try putting me in jail again?” He said as he turned towards her.
“No, I’m here for a different reason. I want to make sure you won’t be hurting my ponies, or teaching them your violent ways, human. I’m willing to look past your race, if you just promise not to, and keep that promise.” She said, keeping her not amused look.
“Look past my race? What do you mean by that? You have some grudge against other species or something?”
“No, just against humans.”
“That’s just stupid, our races have never met.”
She looked at him surprised. “Have your race really forgot? Have you truly forgotten the horrors you committed?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. This planet is not in any records or maps as far as I know. If it was, the technology level here wouldn’t be as low as it is.”
Celestia sighed and walked over to the window. “Millions of years ago. Humans and ponies lived together on this world. We had our initial differences, but for the most of history we lived peacefully. But like it always was with you humans, you had to change that. First you started a war between each other, then you dragged other nations into it, eventually starting a worldwide conflict.
At one point few nations decided to use nuclear weapons, making others do the same to defend themselves. As you probably figured out, the result of the war wasn’t pretty. Millions have died, and even more lost their homes, the radiation slowly begun to turn the world into a wasteland. We ponies suffered even more than your race did. Radiations proved to be extremely harmful to us and many races of ponies simply died out in a process, like Shadow Ponies and Draquons.
But have your race helped? No. Your run away into space and left us to die. We’ve managed to save ourselves by hiding underground for millions of years and woke up only three thousand years ago. But that wasn’t over, it turned out most of the ponies that survived suffered from a severe memory loss, including Luna. Our hibernating technique was lacking at beast and we had to rush everything, and as the result most died in their sleep.
It took us years to restore the society, and I will not allow you to destroy it by starting another war.”
For a moment Falcon remained silent, thinking about Celestia's words. "I don't plan on beginning a war. I can promise you that I won't attack your subjects or cause fights between them. But don't expect me to step back when I will see innocents being attacked like two days ago. Because I will fight to defend them, even if that will mean I have to take lives, whether you like it or not." He said after a moment and left.
"Eh, come on. I'm not a black demon, I'm Falcon's brother, you can come down now." Shaw said to the yellow Pegasus above him.
"B-but you're so dark... and scary..." She replied, shaking in fear.
"Oh, for the love of..." He took off his helmet. "Come on miss Fluttershy, I'm supposed to help you with music, so come down here and let's get this over with." She looked at him and after seeing his face she begun to calm down and slowly lowered herself down from the pillar she was holding onto. "See, it wasn't that bad." He said when she came down. "Now, let's-" He was cut off when Rainbow Dash suddenly fell into the balcony they were on.
She was panting like mad and was lying on the floor with all her muscles denying to work. "Does *PANT* he*PANT* always*PANT*act like that*PANT* when-" She said to Shaw after a moment, but she was cut off when Falcon's drone appeared behind her.
"No breaks allowed! Move it soldier, you still have ten circles to make!” Commander’s voice rang through the air.
“B-but you said it will be five!”
“I also said that I may change my mind if you’ll be slacking off! In fact, I changed my mind again, you will make 15 circles! Now go! Go! Go!” Dash immediately forced herself up and returned to flying circles, while the drone followed her.
Fluttershy looked as her friend disappeared in shock. “W-was that-“
“Yup, that was Falcon’s drill sergeant mode. And yes, you’re going to be seeing him like that a lot. At the least expected moments.
All she could do was gulp.
Few hours later, Falcon and Shaw were on their way to Princess Cadence’s chamber. They have finished the tasks given them by Twilight much faster then she would done on her own, for which she was more than grateful (so grateful in fact that she proceeded to hug the life out of each of them while yelling ‘Thank you!’ over and over).
Falcon knocked to the door guarded by two Unicorns, or at least tried to. The door were opened before he even got a chance to touch them. “Come in please.” The both did just that. Princess Cadence was there along with the Element bearers , save for Twilight, who was at the moment with her brother in other part of the castle. “I’m happy that you have made it.” The Princess said, greeting Falcon. “And you must be Falcon’s brother.”
Princess Cadence was already wearing her wedding dress, though to say that either Falcon or Shaw knew about anything even slightly related to fashion, was an exaggeration. Others were also dressed, but clones’ opinion on their clothes was the same - they don’t care.
“Yes ma’am, my name is Shaw. Pleased to meet you.” Shaw responded. Meanwhile, Falcon was rotating his drone on the tip of the finger, while looking at Rainbow. Making the Pegasus mare stand at attention.
Falcon took off his helmet with his free hand and Shaw did the same. “Wooah!” Cadence suddenly jumped in surprise. “When you said you have a brother I didn’t expect you to have a twin.”
“We’re not twins, we’re clones.” Falcon said.
“Clones? But-“
Shaw stopped her by rising his hand. “Trust me, it will be better if we don’t talk about it now. You can ask Twilight to give you a quick version later, but if I was to explain it to you, we’d be sitting here for an hour, and as far as I know, there’s a wedding going on and you want us to show up.” He said.
“That’s right. In fact the reason I called you here is to give you this.” She levitated two pieces of paper towards them. “Those are the invitations. You’re going to need them so that guards will let you in.”
“I’m sure we could find another way in.” Shaw said.
“Not with the security we’ve put up with Shiny.”
“He allows you to call him ‘Shiny’?” Cadence said
“No, but it pisses him off, so I’m gonna keep doing that.”
About half an hour later Shaw and Falcon entered the chamber where the wedding will take place. There was a massive crowd of ponies inside already, including the Elements, Shinning Armor and Celestia. They have purposely chose to stay on the back of the room, not only because they would block the view for someone else if they were to be in front, but also because Falcon have hoped Celestia will not notice him. Obviously she did, and she was uncomfortable with his presence, to say the least.
At least there are no reporters or journalists around… Falcon thought.
Shortly after they have walked in, Cadence made her own entrance, with three little ponies coming in first and throwing flowers around. “Mares and Gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of the real Princess Mi Amore Cadenza–“ The Princess in question cut her out and corrected. “The union of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. The strength of their commitment is clear. The power of their love, undeniable. May we have the rings please?” Twilight’s assistance Spike presented the rings. “I now pronounce you mare and colt!”
As the crowd was busy cheering, Falcon activated his drone and sent it towards Rainbow Dash. And as soon as it got behind her, it begun to play the recording. “What are you waiting for soldier!? Move it! Now!” She immediately begun to throw off her dress and run towards the window. Shortly after she has jumped out, the sky was painted with the massive explosion of rainbow.
“H-have you thought her that!?” Shaw yelled.
“No, I just turned two hours of her nap into a trip to hell.” Commander replied. “I must say, I didn’t expect all that rainbow stuff, but I’ll just take it as magic.”
“So you’re not even going to try understanding that?”
“No, I don’t see a point in that.”
“Well, do whatever you want, I’m getting to the bottom of this.” And with that said, Shaw walked over to the best source of knowledge he had at the time - Twilight Sparkle. Falcon on the other hand, begun to walk towards the castle’s garden, where the party prepared by Pinkie was beginning.
When he got there, ho was obviously greeted with not-so-welcoming reactions from local high class. He didn’t care though, there was a lot of lower class ponies who were much more accepting of his presence, and as it turned out, many were straight up friendly towards him.
However, it was mostly Pinkie Pie who kept him on his toes. The crazy mare kept coming up with the craziest ideas that has kept him and later Shaw, up until the end of the party.
For the two clones this was quite the experience. They have never been in an environment like that, it was always about war for them. Even when they were allowed to take a short break, everything was still rotating around the war. Now however, they simply felt alive.
They would have probably kept going, if it wasn’t for Abuyin…
…Who has run to them from the hospital to tell that the Changeling has woken up.