• Published 21st Jul 2013
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Transistance - ToixStory



In the distant future of Equestria, Luna is recalled to Canterlot against her will to participate in a court case that will decide the future for sentient machines in Equestria.

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Madness

Twilight strode through her guest quarters inside Canterlot Castle. She had been settled into a room on top of a spire that jutted from the center of the highest tower. She vaguely recalled the tower as having been the same place she had spent many visits to Empress—back then it had been Princess—Celestia. Not that it was very recognizable in its current state. The spire was thicker to accommodate the massive elevator inside the tower to replace the old stairs, and the outside was covered in antennas that ended in a flashing light at the top.

The interior of the guest quarters was bare, but covered in holographic plates that were intended to be used to spruce up the room. Twilight left them off, content with the steady nothingness. After spending years surrounded by durasteel walls on harsh colony worlds, having doors instead of airlocks was a wonder all by itself to her.

She strode across the smooth floor lit by bright halogen bulbs that made the air taste like ozone. Her thoughts were turned to Luna, and had been the whole night. She kept running the scenario through her head, of the former Princess getting up on the stand and telling Celestia off. It was an act that would have to be done both delicately and with a great amount of force. It was something that Twilight, honestly, didn’t know that Luna could do.

There was a bag sitting on top of the massive bed in the center of the room, packed with Twilight’s belongings and ready to be carried to the spaceport if Luna failed. Twilight tried not to look at it, but couldn’t keep her eye off it. She knew that if her gambit failed, Epsilon Eridanus was the only place she’d want to be. Though it almost seemed like a dream now, she could remember the fight between Luna and Celestia three centuries before, and Twilight didn’t think she’d survive if Celestia came at her the same way.

“Now you’re just being ridiculous,” she said to herself. “Celestia made a mistake, sure, with Luna, but I’m her student. She wouldn’t do the same thing twice.”

Still, her eyes went to the bag again. Just in case, she told herself. Twilight let out a sigh, then turned to the elevator doors at the back of the vaulted room. She knew she wouldn’t get anything done in the stuffy room, so she decided to get a little air, and maybe find somepony to talk to.

The elevator car hummed on the way down, and Twilight let her wings flutter at her side. She wore only a small headset hooked into her neural lace, but otherwise kept her body clean of electronics. She had been surprised to have seen Luna so heavily outfitted with tech, but then again almost everypony in Manehattan was. On Epsilon Edridanus, far from the World Net, ponies didn’t pay much attention to technology other than what could get them food.

Twilight arrived in a cold chamber filled with blinking blue and green lights. It was Canterlot Castle’s server room, or at least one annex of it. From what Twilight understood, the whole facility extended deep into the side of the mountain, so she assumed that she was only seeing one small part of it.

The room she was in had all she needed, though. Beneath the lights was a small pad raised off the floor, colored in a creamy off-white. It seemed to pulse with energy when Twilight walked to it. She could feel little jolts of electricity pulse through her when she stepped onto the platform. The pad, she knew, was lined with sensors that linked themselves to their counterparts in Twilight’s neural lace, sending visual and audio signals to her brain. It was a fancy replacement for holographic projectors, so fancy that Twilight only knew of pads in Canterlot and Shanghay.

In front of Twilight, four holograms appeared in her vision. They wavered for a bit, then came to life as four familiar ponies. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash stood in front of her. They all stared at each other for a moment, then the four yelled together: “Twilight!”

Twilight smiled. “Girls!”

They all rushed together for a sort of awkward hug that, while it didn’t technically exist, felt real enough to Twilight. Her smile was the widest of them all, and her heart leapt to see them all again. Pinkie Pie was bouncing as she always did, but even Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash weren’t afraid to be sappy and gushed over Twilight.

“The gang’s all together again!” Pinkie Pie was saying. “Well, besides Rarity, but five out of six isn’t bad!”

Once everypony had calmed down, the four AIs formed a semicircle around Twilight, who sat on the projection pad. There was a moment of quiet between all of them, as they each tried to figure out who would say what first.

“So did you just get back from the colonies?” Applejack asked at last.

Twilight nodded. “I didn’t get into my room until tonight, and I thought that I might come down and see you girls. It’s been so long, after all.”

Pinkie Pie raised a hoof. “Forty years, one hundred seventeen days, nine hours, thirty-one minutes, and twenty seconds! Twenty-one seconds, twenty-two, twenty-three . . .”

“Well, I didn’t know it had been that long.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “Time passes so quickly out there, especially with me being an alicorn. A year feels like it only takes a day now.”

“Don’t worry, I totally know what you mean,” Rainbow said. “I have some e-cards from Hearths Warming six years ago that I haven’t opened yet! Time’s really . . . fast nowadays.”

Twilight nodded. “Though, these days I wish it would slow down.”

“The reason you called us here . . . it’s about Rarity, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asked. Everypony looked at her, then turned to Twilight. Fluttershy added: “It’s okay if you did, Twilight. We’ve seen the news in here, too, you know.”

“It’s not that I just came here about that,” Twilight said, “. . . but yes, that is something that matters a lot right now. Rarity is on trial and if she’s found guilty, well, I don’t know what’ll happen.”

Rainbow snorted. “No, you know exactly what will happen if Rarity loses. She gets shut down and never comes back, and then everypony starts wondering about the rest of us, about whether they trust us or not.” She growled. “Because of Rarity going gaga over a stupid technician, they might decide that our entire class is done for and shut us down, or wipe our memories and start over. It’s the same to us, anyway. We die.”

“No, no, it’s not like that at all!” Twilight shook her head. “Nopony is going to shut you all down. Whether Rarity wins or not, Princess Celestia won’t shut you all down. She trusts you all too much.”

“No, she trusts you too much,” Rainbow said. “We weren’t made because she just really wanted to have us back. We were made as a gift to you, and now you spend all your time in the colonies anyway. What is going to make her hesitate to shut us down, when all we do is the jobs of AIs that cost a tenth of what we do?”

Fluttershy backed away, while Pinkie’s usual bounce in her step disappeared. Even Applejack looked down and kicked at the floor of the holograph room. Only Rainbow stood up, facing Twilight and giving off the appearance of breathing hard. Twilight wasn’t sure if that was part of the programming, or if Rainbow made herself do that to add to her statement.

“So what do you want me to do?” Twilight asked.

“If that time travel spell actually worked, I’d want you to go back and tell Rarity how stupid she was being,” Rainbow said. “About how her petty little affair threw all of us into jeopardy because she didn’t think for one second that giving her ‘generosity’ to that techie would cost us.”

Applejack stepped forward. “But she can’t do that. Nopony can change what’s happened, just affect what’ll happen in the future.”

“But what will happen to all of us?” Fluttershy said in a small voice.

“Nothing will happen, because I'll win,” Twilight said.

“Will you?” Rainbow approached her. “You’ve packed your bag already, ready to leave. Do you really think you’ll win, or are you doing this for vanity, and hopping the first flight from Equestria as soon as you lose?”

Twilight stomped a hoof on the pad. “You don’t know me!”

“No, I don’t. The memories I have from you are from when Rainbow Dash was still alive, and the Twilight she knew never would have thought about giving up, not for one second.”

Her words shook Twilight. It had been so long since she had seen Rainbow in the flesh. She’d been to the funeral nine hundred years ago, when they laid her into a cloud and let it float away. Rainbow had been the second to last to go, with only Fluttershy left. Seeing Rainbow yell at her, and worse, be right, was like being in a bad dream.

“What do you want me to do, then?” Twilight asked.

“I want you to win,” Rainbow said. “As dumb as this whole thing is, I want you to win and save Rarity and her stupid marefriend so you can save us, too. I don’t want to be wiped, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded. “I can do that.”

Pinkie Pie rubbed the back of her head. She had stayed silent the whole time, but now stepped forward. “Could you promise us one more thing, Twilight?”

“What do you want, Pinkie?”

“When you leave for the colonies again . . . could you take us with you?”

Twilight shook her head. “Outside of the castle, you’ll die in five years.”

“I know,” Pinkie Pie said. “Rarity is taking the same chance, though. If she’d rather die in five years doing something she wants than live for a hundred in here, I’d follow her.” The other AI nodded their agreement, all except Rainbow. She just looked away.

“I’ll win, then.” Twilight sighed. “I”ll win and I’ll bring anypony with me who wants to, alright? I can’t promise much more, but I’ll use every power I have as Princess of the Night to help.”

Applejack smiled. “That’s all we can ask of you, sugarcube.”


Luna stared at Celestia. Her heart beat fast, and her head felt fuzzy. All her plans hadn’t accounted for Celestia fighting back. In her mind, she would have won after declaring herself Duchess. Now, she watched as the Empress’ royal guards began to advance on her.

The Manehattan guards looked to Luna for guidance, questioning looks on their faces. Few of them looked to have seen combat before, and it was doubtful that they would last long against the well-trained guards. Luna met their gazes and shook her head.

Instead of fighting, she grabbed Rarity’s data core and Sapphire by the waist. “Can droids handle magical teleportation?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Sapphire said. “Why?”

Luna didn’t reply. Instead, she held on tightly to Sapphire and bowed her head. The guards started running across the courtroom, and Celestia was shouting. It didn’t matter, though. There was a bright flash of light, and then the courtroom was gone. It was replaced by a simmering city street that teemed with ponies in robes and tattered suits.

The crowds came to a stop around Luna once she had reappeared with the two, however. They stared at the princess whose image was still displayed on the many screens on the sides of buildings and inside shops around the streets.

Luna struggled to her feet, and pulled Sapphire up with her. She stared back at the masses who formed a ring around her. Most stared dumbfounded, while a few started recording on miniature cameras.

“Uh, where are we, exactly?” Sapphire asked.

“I dropped us into the Manedarin district,” Luna said. “It’s the place with the least amount of supporters for Celestia. We’ll be safest here.”

Sapphire looked around. “I hope you’re sure about that,” she said, “because there’s a lot of them and two of us.”

“I’m still here you know,” Rarity said, her voice being pumped out of her core. “I can’t actually do anything about it, but I can give emotional support!”

For a moment, the entire scene was still as the crowd regarded Luna and Sapphire, and the two mares stared back. Then, all their attentions were interrupted by a blaring screech coming from the screens and video billboards all around the district. The images had been mostly of the trial, but now they wavered and flickered, and were replaced by an image of Celestia’s head.

The Empress stared out from the screen like she knew exactly where Luna was. “Citizens of Manehattan!” she said in a booming voice. “There is a pony in your midst who has betrayed you and the state! Luna, my sister, had declared herself Duchess of Manehattan in an attempt to usurp power from me. In doing so, she has she has forced martial law on every pony in this city until she is captured. I hope that everypony in Manehattan will do their duty to keep Manehattan peaceful and prosperous.”

The screens flickered off back to an image of the tricolor Manehattan flag. Luna stepped closer to Sapphire, almost pushing the droid beneath her wings. “Stay close to me,” she said.

“I really hope you were right about that whole safe thing,” Sapphire said. “Heck, I want to turn myself in now. Let’s just hope these ponies don’t.”

The crowd began to advance. Ponies of every size and color walked toward Luna, a burly stallion at their lead. His eyes drew a bead on the new duchess, and his mouth wavered. The ring tightened around the droid and princess in the middle until the crowd was only a hoof away.

“Now, before you say anything—” Luna began, but was interrupted by the crowd.

One by one, the ponies lowered themselves to their knees. Their heads bowed down and their eyes closed. After a moment, Sapphire followed in their wake. Luna found herself standing above a massive crowd in the middle of a normally-busy Manehattan street, all bowing to her. They murmured their thanks that rippled over the ring.

Luna couldn’t think of what to do. She wanted to say something brave to them, to encourage them, but couldn’t find the words. After a minute, she closed her eyes and bowed to them too, her horn almost scraping the ground. When she raised her head, the crowd began to cheer.

“Long live Luna!” they cried. “Long live the Duchess of Manehattan!”

Sapphire started to laugh and hugged Luna around the middle. The duchess could only smile back and feel her cheeks flush with embarrassment and relief. She felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders and cast away for the reverence of so many gathered ponies. With a chuckle, she waved to whoever was near her, and most waved back.

“I guess this city isn’t all bad,” Sapphire said. “They at least know who’s the real leader around here.”

“Yeah, I just hope the rest of the city feels the same way,” Luna said.

“What makes you think they won’t?”

“Celestia and an entire division of her guard might be enough to persuade them.”

The crowd was chattering and talking, and somepony was yelling up on top of a car about what they were going to do. They all seemed happy and excited for once. That was, until the droning of aircars could be heard overhead. Heavy floodlights flashed on and sirens echoed across storefronts and small shops. Ponies in the crowd started to disperse beneath the turbojets as the cars came down.

Luna’s heart sank until she saw that the cars bore not the symbol of the Canterlot Guard, but the words, “Manehattan Police Department.” She even started to smile a little, though she didn’t know if she should have so much hope.

One of the cars landed almost on top of her and Sapphire. The side opened, and a pony got out. Luna almost didn’t recognize him until he pulled out a cane and hobbled over to her. The old stallion had a smile on his face. “Nice to see you again, Princess,” he said. “I had hoped it wouldn’t be until after you had won the case, but circumstances like these could be worse.”

“You know him?” Sapphire asked.

Luna nodded. “He gave me a ride home from the courthouse.”

“And I reminded her that Manehattan is behind her,” the officer said. “Was I wrong?”

“No, you weren’t, but why show up now?” Luna asked.

“Because we need to get you out of here, Princess.” He stepped toward her. “Celestia is going to be hunting for you, and her guard won’t waste much time. They’ll find you one way or another, so we need to get you out of here now.”

Sapphire took a step back. “Luna, are you absolutely sure we can trust him?”

“If he’d wanted to, he could have led the Canterlot Guard straight here already,” Luna said. “We can trust him, and besides, he’s our only hope. We need some sort of organization in this city or our little ‘rebellion’ will crumble.”

Sapphire grumbled about “Since when is this our rebellion?” but followed Luna to the waiting police car anyway. She stepped in the back while Luna took the passenger seat. The older stallion took off while several of the other cars flanked them while they flew through the city.

Unlike the last time they had flown, the stallion kept closer to the ground. The turbojets on the car skimmed the tops of stalls and larger buses in the street. Most ponies either looked up at them or got out of the way as fast as they could. Luna watched them from her window, and wondered how most of them had felt. The part of the city most opposed to Celestia had supported her, sure, but she wasn’t so sure about everypony else.

Despite how low they flew, the cars seemed to fly laboriously slow, as if they were in a dream. The lights flashed off the sides of glass skyscrapers and lit the underbelly of the city in shades of red and blue. The stallion in the front watched Luna from his rearview mirror, and smiled when she saw him.

“We’re going to be alright,” he said. “Like I said, Princess, you’ve got plenty of supporters here in the city. Celestia isn’t going to touch you so long as we can help it.”

“I only hope you’re right,” Luna said.

“Captain Buck Shot always is,” he said.

The Captain drove on toward a tower near the middle of the city. The lofty building was smooth and round, with a giant holographic police symbol projected on the side. Lights flashed all over, and police cars buzzed overhead. The Manehattan Police Station was easily twice as tall as Luna’s apartment building had been, and wide enough that Canterlot Castle could have been dropped down the middle.

Buck Shot flew up toward the top of the building and descended into a hangar bay built into the roof. The car settled next to dozens of others just like it while Luna got out into the cramped structure. Her horn nearly brushed the ceiling. It was a relief when the Captain led them to an elevator off to one side that descended down into the depths of the building.

The elevator opened up into a sweeping room with vaulted ceilings framed by arching windows. Metal fans cut through the hazy air in the room that was laced with cigarette smoke. Desks were clustered around several holographic information boards in the middle of the room. Most of the ponies inside stood near the boards, chatting to each other when Luna and the Captain entered the room. When they saw who it was, they straightened their backs and saluted.

“Luna, welcome to the office for Manehattan’s Fifteenth Precinct,” he said. “We’re all here today because we wanted to bring you in and see if we couldn’t put something together to make this whole thing work out.”

The other police officers began to walk over toward Luna and their Captain. Most of them looked like they had just woken up, or that they hadn’t slept in the past few days. Still, smiles cracked on their faces and their eyes watched her every movement as Captain Buck Shot led her to his office. Sapphire followed close behind, tucking her head down and clutching the Rarity core to her chest.

They stepped into the glass-walled office together, with Buck Shot walking over to his desk and brushing away some of the loose datapads on it. He stared at a few of them, but tossed most of them aside. The office had several large telescreens, each of which was tuned to a different news channel that was playing the same broadcast over and over again: Luna declaring herself Duchess and Celestia’s message about her capture.

“They’re going to be going on about it all day,” Buck Shot said. “This is the biggest thing to hit Manehattan ever, and those reporters don’t have an original bone or circuit in their bodies. At least the word will get out about you.”

Luna nodded. “I just hope it’s a good one. Any word on support or opposition around the city?”

“Coms are a mess right now.” The Captain sipped at an old cup of coffee from his desk. The light behind him was dim and made him look like a shadow of himself. “From what we know, you have a lot more support than anything else in the city. Manehattan’s a big place, though, and there will be more than a few who want your head on a stick.”

“Charming.”

Sapphire stepped forward. She was staring up at security cameras that blinked above the office. “You have an internal security feed, or can it be controlled externally?”

“I . . . suppose . . . it could be controlled externally,” Buck Shot said. “Why?”

Sapphire didn’t answer him. “You hear that, Rarity?”

“I certain did, Sapphire,” came the voice from the data core.

Sapphire picked it up and brought the core over to a slot in the wall with a comp port in it. She reached into the core and brought out a cord, which she plugged into the wall. There was a moment of silence, then the core began to whir.

A hologram projector perched on the ceiling of the office turned on, and Rarity appeared next to them. “Ah, much better,” she said. “The data in here is simply wonderful, so many decryptions and combinations!”

“Hey, what is she doing in there?” Buck Shot asked.

“She’s helping you,” Sapphire said. “If you don’t want Celestia to find out where we are, let her take control of the cameras. She can keep out anything the Royal Guard throws up in a city-wide search. Let’s just hope they haven’t already done one.”

Buck Shot shook his head. “I swear, I will never understand all this tech stuff as long as I live, especially AIs and droids. But as long as you’re on our side, I’m glad to have you.” He turned to Luna. “It’s good you can trust them, Princess.”

“They’re why I’m here,” she said.

“As we all got to see on national television.”

Luna rubbed the back of her head. She felt like a star all of a sudden, but in the worst way. The screens kept blaring her trial over and over, the fateful moments when she stood up to Celestia. Looking at herself, she looked like a scared little filly trying to tell off the Principal instead of some big confrontation between two sisters. Luna had tried to feel like she was in charge of something, that she could beat her sister in something for once. Instead, she began to think she was embarrassing herself.

Buck Shot nudged her. “You alright, Princess?”

“Ponies are going to get hurt because of me,” she said. “Am I really that worthy? All of this is between my sister and I. I don’t see why so many have to be involved.”

“That’s just how it always is,” he said. “You’ve got ponies who are willing to follow you anywhere just because they don’t like Celestia that much. Others will follow you because they think you’re pretty, because you’re like them, or because you’re just different. The point is that it’s up to you not to fail them, not whether they’ll follow you in the first place.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“This many years in the force? I know I am.”

Sapphire stood in the corner with Rarity, talking softly to the core. She gave furtive glances to the two other ponies, but didn’t say anything. Not at first, anyway. After a little while of tense waiting, she walked over to the two ponies on the other side of the room and slumped against the floor.

Luna watched her. All the sensors in her body picked up the subtle movements of the droid, the little reactions in the circuitry of her brain that surged white-hot. Sapphire flicked her tail, a conscious thought unlike normal ponies. Luna bit her lip.

“Sapphire . . .”

“What?” she asked.

“I can’t do this without you and Rarity,” Luna said. “You two are the whole thing that binds this together.”

“Are we?” Sapphire sighed. “The more this goes, the less it seems to matter if Rarity and I get out of this or not. Now it’s all about the new duchess and a big rebellion in your name against your sister. Who even cares about our rights anymore?”

“You know I do.”

“Then will you make this about us? Or will this be about getting back at your sister?”

Luna fell silent. It wasn’t that she was doubting herself, but that she was too sure of her answer to be comfortable. She could have answered that it was about droid rights in an instant, but that would have been without thinking. If she really thought about it . . . she wasn’t so sure.

Before she had to answer, though, their conversation was interrupted with Rarity’s core starting to flash red. The hologram image of Rarity disappeared for a moment before reappearing once again, her hair frizzled and matted against her forehead.

“We’ve got trouble,” she said.

“What kind of trouble?” Buck Shot asked.

A holographic picture of the police building appeared on the floor in front of them in blue. Little red dots appeared in the air of the office, circling around toward the building. There were at least two dozen of them, if not more.

“Air cars inbound,” Rarity said. “Markings indicate they’re not police. Best guess is that Celestia finally figured out where we were and wants us out of the picture before we can rally any support.”

Luna grimaced. “I guess it’s time we get out of here. Sapphire, grab Rarity. I’ll teleport us all out of here.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Buck Shot said.

“And why not?”

He shook his head. “They’ll track your teleportation like we did,” he said. “And this time, when they find you they’ll be on you before you have any back up. Alone, they’ll capture you and drag you back to Celestia without anypony being the wiser.”

“Alright then, what do we do?” Luna waved at the holographic dots. “They’re getting closer and if we don’t move now then none of this is going to matter.”

“We have to go where we can gather ponies to your cause. We need to go to City Center and link up with as many of your supporters as we can. Celestia will be drawn there, but so will camera crews from all across Equestria. The rest of the Empire can’t just ignore us.”

Luna nodded. “Well . . . alright. Let’s get out of here.”

“Already ahead of you.” Buck Shot pressed a button on his desk that began to glow green. He turned and ran out of his office and toward a window on the far side of the room. Luna galloped after him while Sapphire tugged Rarity’s cord free and hurried after the two.

Luna heard Sapphire’s servos and gears whirred in protest as she struggled to carry Rarity’s large core across the crowded police office. The mare looked like she wanted to speak up, but kept her mouth shut. If it hadn't been a more trying time, Luna would have asked her to speak up, but at the moment there was too much to worry about.

With a grunt, Buck Shot kicked open the window just in time for a wave of hot air to blast over everypony by the window. A police car lowered itself until it was sitting just outside the window. Its doors opened, beckoning the ponies in.

“Is this entirely safe?” Luna asked.

“No,” Buck Shot said, “but neither was calling out your sister. By comparison, this is actually pretty safe.” He jumped across the gap between the building and the car and landed in the front seat.

Sapphire followed, throwing the core ahead of her and then leaping into the back seat. She landed with a small crash, but sat up and nodded to show she was fine. Luna then prepared to jump, only to remember at the last second that she had wings. With a bashful grin, she flew to the other side of the car and climbed in.

The doors to the hover car closed and Buck Shot took off, zooming away from the police station with the roar of turbojets. It made it away just in time as Luna, watching through the rearview mirror, saw a hoard of hoverjets swarm all over the station.

Her breath caught when she saw a couple of the jets turn and begin accelerating toward the car. They gleamed gold in the afternoon sun, and white contrails washed out of their engines. They flew in wide arcs toward the car, cutting off any escape.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Sapphire asked.

“This is a car,” Buck Shot said. “We’re trying to move faster than jets. The odds aren’t exactly in our favor.”

“Then do something!”

“I am!”

Buck Shot leaned the control stick forward, and the car dove for the streets below. They had started near the tops of the medium-sized skyscrapers, and quickly began to close the distance between themselves and the ground. The car picked up speed while red warning lights flashed on the dashboard.

Wind screamed around the sides of the car. The apartment complexes and smaller shops grew larger in the forward windshield as they ate up altitude. Yet, Luna saw, the jets continued to come for them, taking their time. They were being stalked like prey for a hunter, and Luna wanted to yell at them for what they were doing.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t use her magic against them since it didn’t extend that far. Instead, just before the car could smash into the ground, Luna’s horn glowed and the car disappeared for a split second, reappearing parallel to the ground and skimming low over the gray street.

The car rocketed forward on its inertia from the fall, and Buck Shot had to cling to the stick to keep from running into any of the other hovercars that prowled the streets. The jets continued to follow, but at a larger distance than they had before. They seemed to be confused, and Luna smiled.

“How far are we from City Center?” Luna asked.

“We should be coming on it right . . . here . . .” Buck Shot said as he quieted down. The car had just reached the central area of downtown, and what was waiting there for them caused his jaw to drop.

In the massive central square of Manehattan teemed a crowd of thousands upon thousands of ponies. They all convened around a central podium, decorated with large banners in blue and violet which displayed sigils of the moon. On that stage, shouting to the crowd through a large set of microphones, was a purple alicorn.

“Land over there,” Luna said, pointing to the podium. “We need to get down as soon as we can.”

The jets veered off, streaking over the central square and banking back toward the courthouse. Luna watched them go with a sense of dread, but her feelings were lost in the roar of the crowd. They all watched as the police car landed with a flurry of wash from the turbojets, and the doors opened.

Sapphire was the first to get out, holding Rarity’s core to her chest. The crowd watched her in silence, and Luna could see her quiver a little. Then, she got out. This was received by dull roars and the stomping of hooves. A thousand voices started to mutter things like “Princess,” “Duchess,” and “Luna.”

Twilight ran over from the set of microphones to greet Luna. The two stared at each other for a moment. Both stood almost as tall as each other with Luna in her “normal” form, and their eyes met.

“Are you ready, Princess?”

“Ready for what?” Luna asked.

Twilight smiled and turned to the microphones once more. “Ponies of Manehattan!” she called. “We do not have time for words, but for action! Luna, your Duchess, has joined us at last and is ready! Today we will march on Celestia’s courthouse, her pillar of power in this city, and show her that she cannot dictate that the lives of ponies in this city if they do not wish to be ordered around! Not only will we show her this, but Luna will be leading you, showing the Empress once and for all who your true leader is!”

In response, the crowd yelled its approval and banners were raised above their heads, bearing the symbols of Manehattan and Luna both. Where they had found time to make them, Luna didn’t know. Twilight turned back to her and smiled.

“Like I told you, the night is on your side,” she said. “I gathered together everypony I could for your cause. If Celestia wants to ignore you that’s fine, but she can’t ignore the will of her citizens for long.” Twilight patted Luna on the shoulder. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Luna said simply, nodding her head. She stood on the edge of the platform and watched the pulsating masses begin to make their way to the edges of the square, marching toward Celestia’s courthouse. She knew it should have filled her with hope, to see so many put themselves at her side and march in her name, but all she could see were the three jets that had appeared, flying high above them.

As she took to the sky above her host, Luna felt afraid.