Hearts against the Monarchy

by Chalanceless

Chapter One - Friendship is...

Hearts against the Monarchy
Chapter One --- Friendship is…

“The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.”

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An Introduction to Twilight Sparkle

Enter: Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was a lavender unicorn whose straight indigo mane and tail were streaked with stripes of purple and magenta. She had a voracious appetite for books, and her violet eyes blazed with incredible intelligence, though constant accumulation of magical knowledge occupied parts of her brain better left to other tasks…

Twilight Sparkle has always been a model Equestrian citizen: bright, dutiful, and above all, unquestioning of the perfect world in which she lived. She was born to an all-unicorn family of high standing, which put her relatively well off, even in the aristocratic core (and capital) of Equestria, Canterlot. Her parents had been city officials before they had passed away, and her older brother, Shining Armor, was a well-respected member of the royal guard. Twilight Sparkle herself was a student of the magical arts who had only just graduated from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as our story begins…

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“I’m home!” Twilight Sparkle walked through the front door and announced her presence. It was just after noon; Twilight had just come from her graduation ceremony, which had lasted almost too long for Twilight Sparkle’s attention span. Almost.

“How long was that ceremony?” Shining Armor said, coming in from the next room over. “Any longer and I would’ve thought they’d kidnapped you. I was about to organize a rescue party.”

Twilight looked at her brother bemusedly. Her BBBFF (big brother best friend forever, for those not in the know!) was almost as good at exaggerating as she was. Fortunately – especially in this case - Shining Armor was missing that particular psychological quirk that made his sister a ticking time bomb for disastrous overreaction. In fact, Shining Armor was as different from her as it was possible without one of them secretly being either a changeling-sheep hybrid, or a cyborg-ninja-dragon. Where Twilight was scrawny and bookish, he was big and burly, even for a stallion. Though their manes and tails had similar colouring styles, his were varying shades of blue, and when it came to neatness, Shining Armor was a sight that could make an aristocrat faint. Twilight once tried to devise a spell to tidy up her brother’s messy mane, untidy tail, and scruffy fetlocks; that day she discovered that there were limitations to what magic could achieve.

“The ceremony wasn’t that long. I mean, the professors did talk a little more than I thought they would, and the whole thing was scheduled to end an hour and a half earlier than it did, but ” The lavender unicorn set down her saddle bags on the floor. Careful as a munitions expert, she removed her diploma from a pocket and magicked it away to the ornate frame in her room that she had prepared just for this occasion.

“Hey,” Shining Armor interjected. “I wanted to see that.”

Twilight sighed. “You could have told me that before I sent it upstairs.” With a glow of her horn, she reversed her previous spell and the diploma returned, a feat that was impressive enough to justify her diploma on its own. She floated it over to Shining Armor, who took hold of it with his own rose-coloured magic.

He visually drank in the details written out on the most important piece of paper in Twilight Sparkle’s life. “Well look at that. ‘Graduated with honours’… ‘top of her class’… a note about ‘record-breaking marks on examinations… more than 100%.’ I think somepony needs to redefine the term ‘teacher’s pet’.” He looked from the diploma and back to its owner and flinched at the sight of a scowl that could wilt flowers.

“I am not a teacher’s pet,” she denied.

“Oh really? I bet you were the only one who sat through that entire graduation ceremony.”

“How did you know?” Twilight gasped, surprised at her brother’s correct assumption. Unsurprisingly, nopony else in Twilight’s graduating class had neither her near-infinite attention span, nor her astronomically high capacity to listen to the self-indulgent academic ramblings of professors old enough to have met Star-Swirl the Bearded. The former students had been eager to leave, and seeing as they had already received their diplomas by that point, they started to disappear as the ceremony-turned-lecture rolled into its third hour. It was the perfect opportunity to use their newly-qualified skills; some literally disappeared, turning invisible and sneaking out while the professors were occupied with their speeches; others, the more qualified among them, simply teleported away, leaving nothing but a momentary flash of light in place of a severely bored unicorn. When the last speaker had drawled to a stop, Twilight Sparkle was the only pony who hadn’t left, still listening attentively, as if the professor had been reciting the recipe for an immortality potion.

“Are you serious? I was just guessing.” Shining Armor facehoofed. “I’m proud of you, Twily, but… you really are something else, aren’t you.”

“If by ‘something else’, you mean ‘the smartest unicorn in Equestria’, then yes.” She grinned, overly pleased with her diploma and the glowing compliments her professors had given her, especially the ones given when they realized she was the only one who had listened to their end-of-the year speeches.

“You’ve got that right,” Shining Armor laughed. He passed the diploma back to Twilight who either sent the diploma back to her room, or reversed her reversal of the original spell. Magic is hard. “The problem now is what are you going to do now that you’ve got the highest magical qualification in Equestria. With cred like this, you could just walk into the Astral Society. Oh, and speaking of which–” Shining Armor’s face fell. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What’s uh-oh?” Twilight asked. “What did you do now?”

“Why does it have to be my fault?” he asked, frowning. “I mean it sort of is my fault, but…” Twilight gave him a patronizing look and he capitulated. “Okay, I guess it is my fault. I sort of left some things back at the castle, namely some things I was supposed to give to you…” He grinned sheepishly. Twilight wondered exactly how exactly he had been planning to try to pass that off as ‘not his fault’.

“What exactly are these things you were supposed to give to me?”

“A letter; somepony gave it to me directly while I was at the castle this morning, and I forgot to bring it home with me. Also, a ticket to the Royal Equestrian Theatre’s production of The Ballad of the Regal Sun for the day after tomorrow.” Shining Armor shrank under Twilight’s withering gaze, but was relieved when her face lit up as she processed this information.

“The Ballad of the Regal Sun?! That’s my favourite written play! How in the wide, wide world of Equestria did you manage to get a ticket this late?” Twilight could barely contain her excitement; she bounced up and down on the ends of her hooves, like a filly promised a week’s worth of candy.

Shining Armor chuckled at her foolish behaviour. “As a member of the Royal Guard, I happen to have friends in very high places.” He walked over to Twilight and put a hoof on top of Twilight’s head to stop her erratic jittering. “Listen,” he began, pausing to make sure she was listening. “I have to go to the city square now; the prince is holding a military demonstration in an hour, and the Royal Guard has to stand up there and look pretty with him. Nopony but the royal family’s going to be allowed in the castle, so I can’t get the ticket or the letter then, and after that will be too late. You’ll have to go to the castle barracks and get them. Can you do that?”

Twilight nodded, dislodging Shining Armor’s hoof. “How am I going to get in though?” she asked brightly.

“I almost forgot about that,” he said, hitting his forehead. His eyes darted around the room, searching for a piece of paper and a quill. He found them a moment later and floated them over, and after scrawling a quick note and touching the tip of his horn to the paper, he passed the paper over to Twilight. In summary, the note explained who she was, why she needed to enter the castle, finishing with a magical seal in the image of Shining Armor’s stars-and-shield cutie mark. As an expert magician, Twilight instantly recognized it as an identification spell – the mark resonated with her brother’s unique magical wavelength. Failing extenuating circumstances, the mark would allow her entry into the castle barracks on Shining Armor’s behalf.

Slipping out the door, Shining Armor called out a goodbye, then proceeded over to Canterlot Square. Twilight grinned and shook her head at her brother’s forgetfulness. Oh well, she was planning on a walk anyway. A walk to the park for a peaceful reading session, but this would do too. The Ballad of the Regal Sun! She was ecstatic at the chance to finally see a live production! Unable to wait any longer, she dashed out the door, picking up her saddlebags as she went and stashing away Shining Armor’s note. She was almost at the other end of the street before she went back to lock the door. Perhaps the siblings weren’t that different after all.

=#=#=#=

“No unauthorized ponies beyond this point.”

“I’m telling you, read this note. I AM authorized.”

Twilight Sparkle was at the end of her patience. Standing at a security stop in front of the Canterlot Palace’s Royal Guard Barracks was an earth pony stallion who she assumed was the dumbest pony in all of Equestria – he was also barring Twilight access to the barracks. The dopey-looking stallion was a mix of colours Twilight couldn’t be bothered to describe, all stuffed into a can of golden armour, his rifle leaning against the road stop.

“No unauthorized ponies beyond this point,” the dumbest pony in Equestria repeated.

Twilight groaned. What was this pony’s problem?! The letter clearly gave her authorization to enter the barracks. What was she to do now? If she couldn’t get in soon, the castle would close for the night, and she wouldn’t be able to get her ticket in time. Her temper rose as she glared at the sole obstacle between her and seeing The Ballad of the Regal Sun live. Of course, an accomplished magician such as herself could probably find a way to sneak inside. She could override the security spells and get in and out without anypony noticing, but what if somepony did? There would be a warrant for her arrest, and she would have to live out the rest of her life as a fugitive, forced into self-exile in some god-forsaken land until a government assassin finished her off. Then she’d never see The Ballad of the Regal Sun!!!

“What seems to be the problem here?”

Twilight turned around to see a mint-green unicorn mare with a seafoam-coloured mane. Before the blockhead stallion could repeat the line he was so fond of, the newcomer flashed him a security badge, and he thankfully shut his mouth. As the mare passed by Twilight, she grabbed the note from Twilight. “What’s this then?” She scanned the note, and pushed the piece of paper back in her face. “Let her through.”

The guard opened his mouth to protest, but the mare jumped down his throat again. “What does it say on the badge?” she said sternly, waving the plastic card in his face. “It says do what I say, cuz I know what I’m doing.” She reached back and pulled Twilight along with her. “She’s a mare just out of Celestia’s School,” she said as she shuffled past the speechless stallion. “I’ll gladly take the blame if she turns out to be a terrorist.”

Well this is a convenient turn of events, Twilight thought thankfully as the mare led her away from security.

“Sorry you had to go through that,” the mare said suddenly, as soon as they were out of earshot of the obstinate stallion. “Some ponies can be so slow.”

Twilight acknowledged her with a nod. “How did you know I went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? I just graduated today.”

“Your posture.” The mare imitated her stiff, straight-backed attitude. “They still drill that into you from day one right? ‘This school is for sophisticated unicorns, and sophisticated unicorns don’t slouch’. I graduated from there myself a few years ago, and I only just learned how to relax again.”

“You inferred that just from my posture?” Twilight asked, amazed.

“Well, you could have been a noble too, but if you were, you would’ve been yelling about your mother being the duchess of wherever, and how you’d have him turned into glue if he didn’t let you in immediately,” the mare said with a laugh.

Twilight joined her with a sheepish giggle. She looked back and forth to make sure nopony heard her. Making fun of the nobility was dangerous in most cases, or at least inadvisable. Canterlot’s unicorn aristocracy took itself seriously, even by the standards of Twilight ‘Stick-in-the-mud’ Sparkle.

Twilight’s lookout for eavesdroppers drew her attention to the fact that she was now inside the actual barracks. The conversation had distracted her from where she was walking. She also became aware that she had no earthly idea where to go from here.

“Well, this is where we part ways,” the mare said, coming to a stop where two hallways forked off in opposite directions.” To Twilight’s despair, she started to walk away, but hope was restored when she wheeled around and asked: “By the way, do you know where your brother’s office is?” She waited exactly half a moment to wait for a response, then snatched the note (which Twilight didn’t realize she was still magically holding this whole time) and concentrated for a moment. Her horn shone amber for a second, and Twilight felt a faint magical pulse pass over her. This obviously told the mint-green mare something, because she smiled at her evident success and returned Shining Armor’s note. “You’ll want to go that way,” she projected a… something-shaped magical image that had five stumpy appendages, four tucked away and one pointing down the hallway. She continued to give instructions, which the… something… demonstrated, turning to point its outstretched appendage where she indicated. “Take the first right, go all the way down the hallway, then a left, and you should be right there.”

“How did you know that?” Twilight asked, looking at the bizarre magical image out of the corner of her eye. She shook her head, dismissing the absurdity of it all, and looked at the mystifying mare straight-on. “What kind of spell did you use?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” the mare said with the air of somepony opening for an explanation. “It was just a bit magical resonance stuff. You know all about magical wavelengths, right? Of course you do. You did just graduate from Celestia’s. What I used is just a magnified version of a resonance identification spell. I assume you’re familiar with them, seeing as there’s a resonance mark on the note you came here with. I sent out a pulse that pinged off magic traces in the area, and using the resonance from the note as a reference, I located the area with the highest number of matching spell traces.” The mare grinned. “Brilliant, isn’t it?” This mare struck Twilight as a bit full of herself, but figured that the mare’s high regard for herself was more or less justifiable. She reminded Twilight of somepony, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out whom...

“Magical resonance happens to be my special talent. If it goes ‘ping!’ then it’s my thing!” With a wink, the mare turned her side toward Twilight, showing off her lyre cutie mark.

“I get the symbolism,” Twilight said, engrossed in the discussion of magical theory. Somewhere in the back of her head, a voice was trying to remind her of her original purpose here, but she ignored it in favour of their dialogue. “Magical resonance and wavelengths being compared to harmonics and sound frequencies. I noticed that your spell functions similar to sonar, like a bat uses.”

“You don’t miss a beat, do you?” the mare answered, startled at Twilight’s accuracy. “I’m an engineer, so I would have gone with submarine, but that works too. But not that we’ve had enough of staring at my flank—” (Twilight blushed) “—we should both get back on track.” She took a step, but once again turned back. “I’m Lyra Heartstrings, by the way. Next time you’re around, you should visit me. I’m with the Arcane Engineering department. Come and see me if you ever need a helping hand with something.”

“A helping what?” Twilight was perplexed. She knew every word in the Equestrian language (and quite a lot of words in quite a few other languages), but she had no idea what this mare was talking about.

Now it was Lyra’s turn to blush. “Hoof. I meant hoof. Helping hoof.” She laughed in an embarrassed manner. “Anyway, come and see me some time, ya hear?”

“I will. Oh, and my name’s Twilight Sparkle,” she added.

Lyra smiled. “Nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.” And she galloped off down the hallway, leaving Twilight alone with her mission to pick up her things from Shining Armor’s office. Suddenly, Twilight found herself less excited about it than before.

She set off to her destination with her head lost in thought. Twilight wasn’t an antisocial pony. Really. It was just that she had more important things to do than participate in stuff like small-talk and friendship. She found the things other ponies talked about blindingly dull, and though she did not know it, the feeling was mutual. Lyra Heartstrings was the first pony outside her family that she actually enjoyed speaking with. Their interaction had been short, but discussing a topic she was interested in with somepony who was equally interested filled her with a sort of warmness. It was like Princess Celestia had raised the sun inside her and refused to lower it, like what Nightmare Moon had done when she wrested control of the moon from its rightful owner. She smiled, thinking about how Lyra had invited her to visit in the future. This kind of invitation was alien to Twilight. Nopony had ever shown her any kind of amicable interest before. Was this… friendship? Twilight Sparkle was knowledgeable in many fields, but friendship was not one of them. She would have to do some reading on the subject. Were there any books on friendship? Who else would need such things; it seemed everypony but Twilight had a grasp on the concept. Whatever this phenomenon was, Twilight was determined to study it. If this was friendship, then friendship was… Twilight searched for the right word…

Her train of thought derailed. She had found herself outside her brother’s office. Inside was the reason she was here. Right.

Obviously, the office was locked. Twilight inspected the surface of the door, her eyes coming to a rest on a crystal embedded at head height. A wavelength recognition device. I bet Lyra knew this was here, she thought as she pressed the resonance mark to the crystal’s facet. The gem recognized the wavelength and the door clicked open. She stepped inside.

A pair of envelopes, one no doubt containing the ticket, the other a letter. They rested upon the desk, right where one would expect. What was unexpected was where everything else was, and how nothing seemed to be where it belonged. Shining Armor’s office was the messiest thing Twilight Sparkle had ever seen, and she had seen botched dissections in her biology courses that looked like a scene out of CSI Detrot.

Suppressing the urge to go full-OCD on the room (are eyelids meant to twitch like that?), Twilight snatched the two envelopes off the desk, stuffed them in her saddlebags along with the ever-useful note, and ducked out of the office before she ended up bursting a blood vessel.

After making sure the door was locked, Twilight was about to depart and make her way home, but her attention was drawn away from that ambition by a commotion down the hall. There was shouting, and shooting, and all matter of noises. Possibly the loudest of them was the clip-clop clip-clop of four, no, five ponies running…this way…

She turned her head too late. Five ponies, probably mares, overtook her in an instant. Twilight felt herself being grabbed and spun around. When her vision refocused, she was staring at a platoon of very angry-looking soldiers pointing rifles in her direction… and she could feel the barrel of a gun pressed to her temple.

“Get any closer and the mare gets it!” A rough, raspy, but female voice bounced through Twilight’s ear and into her considerably large brain, hurting all the way through. Looking sideways at her captor, Twilight saw she was wearing black clothes that looked thick enough to be bulletproof. A quick look around let her see that the remaining four mares wore similar outfits.

“Ooh! Ooh! What does she get? A present? I want one!” The high-pitched, fast-paced questions came from a mare with similar qualities; she bounced around like lightning in a bottle. Tufts of her pink mane and tail stuck out from her clothes

“That’s not quite what that phrase means, darling.” This time the speaker was a unicorn mare with a refined, ladylike stance that distinguished her from the others. Her voice was slightly accented, but Twilight wasn’t familiar with the exact cadence.

“I don’t think they’re listening to us,” came a whisper from her right. Twilight could barely see the mare; she was quivering beside the mare threatening Twilight, with her wings fluttering nervously. A pegasus then.

“Girls, y’all better get ready to run…” The last of the five mares, one with a southern accent, started backing away while motioning for the others to do the same.

A shot rang out. A magically-accelerated bullet whizzed off the ceiling above them. “Dammit!” The gun was pulled away from her head, a strong foreleg grabbed her around the chest, and she was lifted into the air. Before she knew what was happening, she was being flown away from the soldiers, who were now in pursuit. Beneath her, the rest of the interlopers galloped at full speed, loosing an occasional shot at the pursuing soldiers.

What have I gotten myself into? Twilight asked herself as she was carried helplessly down the hallway and farther into the madness that seemed to epitomize today.

She only knew the half of it.

Comments

[SpaceCommie]

Interesting premise, will keep reading to see if it delivers.