Movements of the Past

by RJ17Boy

Chapter 2: Reactions

The thoughts running through Celestia’s mind were not those of which actions need to be taken. She already had a plan set up for situations like this. All she had to do was gather some legionnaires from the Equestrian Armed Forces (EAF), and post them on their side of the Macintosh Hills.

The EAF has a total of four legions under its control: the First, Second, Third and Fourth Legions. The First Legion is permanently stationed at Canterlot guarding the city and its inhabitance. It is the smallest of the four legions- usually no more than a few hundred ponies are assigned to it at a time- but they have the best soldiers in the EAF, making them a force to be reckoned with. The Second Legion consisted solely of pegasi and holds the majority of the EAF’s air power. Usually, they are assigned around Cloudsdale and other areas vital to Equestria’s weather production, though they are rather small when compared to the Third and Fourth Legions. The Third and Fourth Legions are scattered across the rest of Equestria in small divisions, performing basic police work and other mundane tasks. Each legion has thousands of ponies of all kinds at its disposal, which makes up for the lack of any specialized skills the legions have as a whole.

Since she had plenty of legionnaires available, all she had to do was gather some of the ponies from each legion, excluding the First, and form a temporary legion. They would then be placed at the border and deal with any threats until the situation was settled. ‘The odds of them seeing any action are slim’ she thought, ‘but it is better to be safe than sorry and show what the might of Equestria has in store for anyone who threatens us.’

Before this could be done, however, she had to discuss this with the council, since they were the ones who could authorize the formation of a new legion. This would not be hard to press, so long as she had the support of her sister and Princess Cadence. While persuading them is usually easy, there is a complication to these circumstances since the princesses, and most of Equestria, knew next to nothing about the Fifth Legion. Also, since Twilight was now a princess, she had the right to know what the state of the country was and what it planned to do. However, she did not want to reveal to her that the threat being made to the country was directly related to her. This could easily cause a rift between them, which was not what she wanted to do, especially so soon after her coronation. Finding a way around these circumstances was all Celestia could think of as she walked back to the castle.

As she walked through the castle halls, she dropped the scroll the griffon gave her since she believed it would cause more harm than good if the others saw it. Thoughts soon came rushing through her head about not asking her friend for more information about the Fifth Legion and how stupid it was to forget something that simple; but would she know anything that she herself did not already know? She shoved those thoughts aside as soon as she found the room where the other princesses were and used her magic to open the large golden doors.

As Celestia entered the room, the others ended their discussion and gave their attention to her. When the doors closed behind her, Cadence was the first to speak.

“So how was it?” she asked with concern. “What did Griffonsworth have to say?”

“She had nothing to say” Celestia replied, “but she spoke on behalf of a country that was not the Griffon Kingdom.”

“Really?” Luna said. “That’s unusual for diplomats to do something like that. Who did she speak for? The dragons? The Saddle Arabians?”

“A country I’m sure none of you have heard of, and that I know little about myself.” She paused for a moment to let the thought sink into their heads.

“Well” Luna insisted, “who is it?”

“A country that calls themselves the Fifth Legion.”

“The Fifth Legion?” Cadence questioned.

“More specifically, Equestria’s Fifth ‘Forgotten’ Legion.”

“What!?” Twilight exclaimed.

“That’s an unusual name for a country” Luna commented. “Sounds more appropriate for-”

“A terror group?” Celestia interrupted. Luna nodded. “I can understand that; but trust me when I say they aren’t one.”

“Did Griffonsworth say so?” Cadence asked.

“Well, no. In fact, she thought they might have been a terror group themselves-”

“So why did she take the job?” Twilight intruded.

“She said it was an easy job to do. Probably got paid well too, but if she was certain they were a terror group, I doubt she would’ve taken the job.”

“But how do you know they aren’t one?”

“Because I’ve dealt with them before.” The other three looked at each other, dumbfounded as to what Celestia said.

“What do you mean ‘dealt with them before?’” the princess of the night said cautiously, wanting Celestia to think about her response before saying something.

“I mean, I’ve talked to them before.” Again, silence fell upon the room. Luna had a feeling Celestia was hiding something, and she had a hunch as to what it was.

“You wouldn’t happen to know how-” Luna proclaimed before the doors opened, cutting her sentence short.

“Princess Celestia” the guard said as he entered the room.

Celestia turned around. “Yes? What is it?”

They soon noticed that the guard had a scroll levitated in his own field of magic. “You dropped this in the hall” he said handing the scroll over to her.

Celestia quickly realized that it was the same scroll Griffonsworth gave her, the same one she tried to get rid of so the other princesses couldn’t read it. For a brief moment, Celestia panicked as she tried to determine what the best course of action was. On the one hoof, she could accept the scroll so that the others would not suspect she had something to hide; but that also meant that the others had a chance to see what the scroll contained, something Celestia did not want Twilight to see just yet. The opposite could be said for both if she rejected the letter. Also, she was not familiar with this guard- probably a new recruit- meaning she did not know how he would react to her objections and that he was probably not going to recognize any signals she tried to send him so that she could get out of the situation. But that moment only lasted as long as it took to blink.

“Oh yes” she said as calmly as possible, “this letter is mine; clumsy me. Send it to my quarters; I don’t need it right now.”

As she spoke, Luna noticed that the letter had an insignia stamped on it that she did not recognize. “Where is that symbol from?” she asked as she used her magic to take the scroll away from the guard.

Celestia swiped for it with her hoof, but she just missed it. “Luna!” she complained as the scroll flew on by to her sister.

“As a ruler of Equestria” Luna proclaimed, “I have the right to know what the state of affairs are in our country.”

She opened it and began reading it to herself, causing Celestia to become nervous. As she read on, she glanced up at her sister with a surprised expression on her face, and then glanced back to the parchment. Her gaze then went to Twilight, same expression as before, and then went back to the scroll, then back to Celestia, then back to the letter.

Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her as Luna gave her a second glance. “What does it say?” she asked as her magic enveloped the letter. Celestia prepared for the worse as she knew the scrolls contents would upset the new princess. The guard then realized his mistake and quietly exited the room. Twilight’s jaw dropped as she realized what the letter was saying and how she was involved with this predicament. “I… But… You…” she struggled to say as her mind was suddenly engulfed with emotions.

“Twilight” Celestia tried to say calmly without tearing up. “I can-”

“You USED ME!?!?” Twilight exclaimed in a mixture of surprise, sadness and anger directed at her mentor. Her scream left her panting with anger as the others stared at her with disbelief at her reaction, particularly Princess Cadence. “All this time, I thought you cared about my well-being, but you actually did all of it for THIS!?!?” she exclaimed as her thoughts ran wild and could only be calmed with words she wanted the princess to say.

“No Twilight, I-” Celestia tried to explain only to be interrupted by Twilight’s accusations.

“I thought you were better than this” she said as tears filled up her eyes. “I thought you were better than Chrysalis, Sombra and the others. But this…”

“What is going on?” Cadence said in concern for Twilight’s state. “Twilight, let me-” she tried to grasp the letter with her magic, but the new princess thought it was Celestia trying to take it from her. Twilight engulfed the letter in flames as her anger towards the princess of the day grew, quickly turning the parchment into a pile of ash. At the same time, she dashed out of the room, tears balling from her eyes, as she wanted to stay away from the source of her anger.

“Twilight please…” Celestia begged as Twilight slammed the doors shut behind her, leaving an echo in the room. As it slowly faded away, silence replaced it, along with an uneasy feeling in the stomachs of the remaining princesses. Never have they seen her act like this before, which brought feelings of concern and, for Cadence, confusion into their minds. After a few tense moments, Celestia began to follow her, wanting to apologize and explain everything.

“No Celestia” Cadence ordered knowing what the princess was up to. “Not now.” Celestia turned to her and wanted to protest, but she never got the chance as Cadence kept talking. “I’ve dealt with many foals while I was a foal sitter; the last thing you want to do is try to explain something to them when they lose control of their emotions. Give her some time to think about this; only then can you approach her.” Celestia nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. “But can someone here please explain why she’s having an emotional breakdown?”

Luna quickly realized her sister was not in any shape to explain the situation. She went over to Cadence and whispered in her ear what was going on as best as she could. “I see” Cadence stated, wishing she had a solution to the problem. The theme of silence came back to the room, extracting time away from them, while offering nothing in return.

As Celestia collected herself, she thought of what she would say to the others. “I know all of this looks bad” she explained. “I know this doesn’t make sense to either of you, but don’t worry about it. I take full responsibility for the situation at hand; neither of you knew what was going on so don’t blame yourselves for what transpired today. I have a lot of explaining to do, both to you and Equestria, and I will do so, as soon as Twilight is willing to speak to us again. I don’t want to give that speech any more than I have to, and I want to be sure everypony gets the same information from me. Is that fair enough for you?”

Cadence gave a nodding approval, but the princess of the night had something on her mind. “I just have one question” Luna said inquisitively.

“Go ahead” Celestia replied.

“When you were considering making Twilight a princess, did you put ‘them’ into account?”

Celestia thought about it for a moment trying to see what her mind was going through during that period of time. “I” she began to say, unsure of how to word her answer. “I don’t know.” Her response surprised Luna, not so much as to what she said, but how she said it. She could read her sister well, but her response seemed to indicate that she wasn’t telling the truth, but neither was she telling a lie. Despite her curiosity, she decided to let it go for now; in due time, she would get the knowledge she needed, and understand everything.

“Very well” she said hesitantly, unsure as to where to take this conversation next. “Why don’t you two head for bed?” she insisted as the night went on. “I have other tasks I need to attend to, and I don’t want this situation to get any worse than it already is.”

“Sounds good” Cadence said as she gave an obnoxious yawn.

“Agreed” Celestia said, relieved that the situation, at least for now, was about to end.

Luna smiled. “Glad we can agree on something” she said as they headed for the doorway. “I’ll see you at sunrise.”

“See you then” Celestia and Cadence said simultaneously. “Jinx.” They chuckled as the doors closed behind them and they went their separate ways.

Twilight slammed the door to her quarters behind her as her emotions continued to run rampant. Tears of anger and sorrow still filled her eyes as she struggled to cope with her mentor’s deception. She threw her hoof guards and crown blindly across the room as if wanting to discard a gift an abusive friend gave to her. Her body still felt encased with betrayal, lies, and deception and every second seemed to inject more of this poison into her mind. Instinctively, she removed the dress from her body disregarding any damage the fabric received from her actions. While she felt relieved from the release of pressure, sorrow still filled her heart.

She got on top of her bed and clinched the pink covers as she curled up into a ball and tried to cry her pain away. ‘Why me?’ she though. ‘Why did she do all of this to me? Why did she make me so good, just to use me this bad?’ Other questioning thoughts flowed through her head as she struggled to gather the information and make a picture out of it.

As time calmed her down a little, she got off of her bed and looked into the mirror overhanging her dark wooden dresser. ‘What do you see in the mirror?’ she thought to herself as she interpreted what the mirror was saying to her. She learned from Cadence that if you’re feeling down, look into a mirror. Your mind may tell you that you’re weak, but your reflection tells a different story; it tells you how strong you really are, what you are capable of, and sometimes gives you the answer to your questions. She had done this several times throughout her life and even if it didn’t fully heal her wounds, it made her feel a lot better.

This time, however, the damage was already too severe; too severe for a minor exercise like this to fix. While she saw parts of herself stay strong, she saw others parts become weak. She remembered herself as a pony proud of her accomplishments; now she was ashamed and felt unworthy of such deeds. The love her princess had given her was now replaced with emptiness and misguidance. She turned away unable to bear the burden she was given.

What she wanted most was an answer. What she wanted was a way to understand this complicated mess. What she wanted to do, was think.

… but not here. Here, the area was tainted, too polluted to process this event thoroughly and properly. She thought about going to Ponyville to talk with her friends, but that area would be corrupted too. A moment went by and she realized that Celestia’s influence was strong in every place she could think of- including the Crystal Empire- which meant she could not properly analyze her ordeal with her.

She looked up and through her tears, she noticed her window. When she visualized it, she saw it not as a means of observing Canterlot and Equestria, but as a gateway from her ordeal; a portal to a land that would allow her to complete the task she had, both properly and efficiently. With that thought in her mind, she opened the window, closed her eyes, spread opened her wings… and jumped.

For a second, she felt like her wings weren’t there. For a second, she panicked and wished she thought about this some more. For a second, she thought the last thing she would see was the ground as it would rush towards her if she opened her eyes. But when the next second came, she felt her wings lift her in the air and take her towards Luna’s night.

When she opened her eyes, the ground was rushing like a river below her and the sensations of flying took over her body. She felt free for a moment, free of the burdens the day had brought to her, free of the responsibilities she had placed on herself, free from the influence of the princesses themselves. The sensation was wonderful; very rarely was she ever as happy as she was now. She couldn’t believe that the thought of being away from the princesses and doing something that they themselves did not teach her would be just as euphoric- if not more- than anything else she had experienced in her life.

But the past was not willing to let her go so easily, as its thoughts brought her back to reality. Once again, she felt sad, but not nearly as sad as before. She was grateful for this, which brought another tear to her cheek. With this new found will, she closed her eyes once again and allowed the sky to take her where it wished.

She did not know where she was headed; she did not care. She did not know what the land below her did; she did not care. She had no idea how long she was flying in the night sky; but she could not care. Only when her wings told her that they were near their limit did she open her eyes and come back to the world.

Below her, the ground stood offering what it could to the princess. To the right, extensive woodlands, stretching as far as her eyes allowed. To the left, a massive clearing, having nothing but small hills and grass, with woodlands starting on the far ends of her vision. She was grateful she had those lessons with the Wonderbolts as she used those skill to land in the clearing a few yards away from the woods.

When she walked, the realization came to her that she was actually lost. If a stranger came up and asked her where she was, odds were that she couldn’t tell them where she was. Whether this was good or not would be determined later on. She looked towards the sky and noticed some clouds floating around, unsure if they were able or willing to drop rain down below. ‘The odds are not likely’ she thought, ‘but they are there.’

She decided to sleep in the woods in case the rain decided to appear or if Celestia decided to send some guards out searching for her. About fifteen feet in, she decided that it was adequate for the moment. When she searched for animals and found none, she used her magic to gather leaves, twigs and other objects to make a layer between her and the forest floor. Once the layer was sufficient, she curled up and thought about how stupid she was for doing something like this. ‘I’ll worry about it later’ she decided. ‘For now, I’ll enjoy the moment until it is gone. When tomorrow comes, I will worry.’

With that thought, she absorbed the pureness the woods gave her, the likes of which she had never felt before. A tear rolled down as the land greeted her as one of their own. It was the last thing she did before she closed her eyes, and lost herself in sleep.

Author's Note:

Its one thing to write down an idea, its another to write the details.

After finals week, which for me is in two weeks, I hope I can write at least a chapter a week. Thanks for the likes and favorites. Its nice to know that you're enjoying the story.

Comments

[Draco Dei]

This time, however, the damage was already too severe; too severe for a mire exercise like this to fix.
-minor
-Also, I think you are having her over-react, unless the words on the paper magically changed after Luna read it. Celestia has been fairly obvious about Twilight being her "most beloved chess piece" ever since episode 2.

-I wonder if she is near the city of the enemy at the end?

[RJ17Boy]

2524795 Thanks for the feedback. Let me address each point in the order that you posted.

1. They believe their 'gear' is able to eliminate the princesses, but if their primary goal was to kill them, wouldn't it make more sense for them to have their gear on them? There might be some politics or other business involved since the one pony told his country accent friend not to kill them immediately.

2. How did I miss that?

3. Referring to point one, there might be more to this than what is shown.

4. Ok I definitely need to fix that.

5. Yes and no. Yes about the diplomat not being a changeling (good observation). No, the diplomat is not an imposter; I think Celestia would've notice if this griffon wasn't her old friend rather quickly.

6-7. Oops.

8. I'll see if I can improve upon that.

9. I agree. I'll change it.

10. In some sense, its possible, but lets see things from Twilight's perspective. Celestia told the guard to send the letter back to her quarters, suggesting the letter isn't important at the moment. However, when she reads the letter (that Luna didn't mess with; nice guess though), it makes her feel a little deceived and messes with her emotions. I'll explain this a little more in the next chapter.

11. Perhaps. Perhaps not. We'll just have to see.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

[Draco Dei]

10.) I never thought that Luna messed with it. I thought that the letter might have been enchanted by the sender to change working when anyone but Celestia touched it after it was opened, or some thing like that.

[garfan]

you've given me no reason to believe this threat you've come up with is actually a threat.