First Impressions
First Impressions
After their initial discussion, Celestia had insisted that Luna get some rest. The younger mare had protested, saying that she had had all the rest she needed, but conceded on the point that she needed time for her physical and magical strength to return. However, Luna had seriously misjudged how fatigued she was, and what started as a simple meditation session ended with Luna asleep on the floor, curled up into a tight ball. She had never needed sleep while wandering the Warp, and she had forgotten about the feeling of simple pleasures.
For the first time in a thousand years, her soul knew peace, even if only for a little while.
Luna’s eyes twitched as the sun beamed down upon them. She rolled over, hoping that she would be able to move out of the sun’s rays, but this proved ineffective as a poorly placed mirror reflected the beams right into her face. After a few minutes of fruitless attempts to remain asleep, she sighed and sat up, looking around the room that Celestia had designated as hers.
“I will have to get rid of that sometime soon.” she muttered before stretching out her wings. One by one the joints in her right wing cracked, a surprisingly pleasing sensation that made Luna crack a small smile. The only sound her left wing gave off was the faint clicking of cybernetics, her reminder of her fight with Discord and a warning should she ever begin to let her feelings of doubt gain too much control.
Once she had finished, Luna stood and moved towards her balcony. Below her, she could see the city of Canterlot waking, ponies opening their businesses and pulling carts of produce to sell. They seemed... happy, their innocence radiating off them. They did not have to live in fear of daemonic incursions or attacks from other nations, or at least had not experienced such things in a long time.
Luna frowned; other than her observations here, she had no real way of connecting to these ponies. Never before had she had the chance or need to interact with normal ponies beyond official business, and times had changed considerably since she had been imprisoned. Even the party had left Luna very confused; as her sister's Warmistress, what few gatherings she had attended were much more formal, and nothing like the free spirited celebration the citizens of Ponyville had given her.
I suppose I shall just have to get used to that, she thought. But hopefully there will be a few more formal arrangements that I might be able to attend; I do not think I will be able to stand a consistent barrage of that kind of reverie, especially not that music. She shuddered and moved away from the window, crossing over to her dresser when there was a knock at the door.
“State your business.” Luna called.
“Do you need any help, your majesty?” a voice replied. Must be a servant of some kind. Luna initially felt like dismissing the servant; after all, she was a full grown mare, and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Then again, it could be beneficial to interact with somepony that is not my sister...
“Enter.” the door opened. In stepped a young Earth Pony mare, dressed in a white apron and carrying a small tray, on which sat a small teapot and cup. The mare set the tray down and turned to face Luna.
“Princess Celestia asked me to come up and see if you were alright.” the mare explained.
“She needed not worry; I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“Well, yes.” the mare shuffled around a little. “But you did just come back; the Princess thought that you might need some help adjusting.”
“... Perhaps I do.” Luna sighed. “I apologize if I come off as overly blunt. As you said, I have not had a chance to adjust, and as such I have not gotten a chance to familiarize myself with proper decorum.”
“Um... yes, your majesty.” ‘Majesty’... it does not feel appropriate. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Well...” Luna looked around the room, her eyes being drawn to the mirror. “could you please move that mirror to a position with less sunlight; I do not want that thing beaming down in my face when I sleep.”
“Of course...” The mare moved over to the mirror, carefully pushing it away from the wall before scanning the room for a shady spot. Once she found one, the mare began to push the mirror so that it would slide across the floor easier.
“You are very efficient.” Luna said as the mare moved the mirror into place. “You must take pride in your work.”
“Thank you, your majesty.” Luna was not sure, but she felt that this mare was being a bit stiff. She knew better than to approach the mare on this, in case she offended her, but it was not doing wonders for Luna’s attempts to reintegrate into society. I suppose I shall have to discuss this with my sister, she thought as the mare finished up moving the mirror. “Will that be all?”
“Yes. You are dismissed.” the mare hesitated for a moment before bowing slightly and leaving. Luna turned and walked back out onto the balcony, her eyes shifting back to the door for a brief instant before looking back out at Equestria.
As far as introductions were, that could have gone better.
...
Celestia set aside her morning tea before looking to the stack of papers the secretaries had prepared for her. Normally she did not mix work with her daily preparations, but ever since she gave up the title of Empress such separations had become more and more blurred. She would have set up an administration branch to deal with the workload, but that might have resulted in Celestia becoming more detached than she would have liked.
With a sigh, she reach out and pulled the first few forms off the top of the stack, scanning them for important information before signing and sending them off on their way. Quite a few of the forms were absurd requests, such as preparing Equestria for a potential zombie apocalypse (a valid argument considering the powers of Nurgle, but the technique that the proposal suggested was unlikely to yield anything), but there were enough legitimate concerns for Celestia to focus on.
“Auntie?” Celestia looked up from her paperwork as a pink alicorn with a multicolored mane entered the room. “Is something wrong?”
“Why would you think there’s something wrong, Cadence?” Celestia asked. Cadence shrugged and stepped towards the table.
“I’ve always had this innate sense when something is wrong... And you’ve been in here for almost two hours, that stack of paper has barely been touched and you’re out of tea; you usually finish your tea when you’re about halfway finished with your work.”
“You must have spent a lot of time with Twilight, Cadence; you’re starting to talk like her.”
“Not such a bad thing, is it?” Celestia gave a small smile and shook her head. “But really, auntie, something’s bothering you.”
“... Yes.” Celestia looked away. “You know of the current political situation in the Griffon Kingdoms?”
“Somewhat. The king hasn’t selected an heir yet?”
“It’s worse than that.” Celestia lifted up one of the forms. “I just received this from our embassy; not only is the king refusing to pick an heir, he’s blaming me for the economy’s stagnation. Me! They’re the ones that overtaxed their citizens, not me.” She sighed, taking a few breaths to calm herself. “I’m sorry, Cadence; I should not have allowed my stress to bring up my anger like that.”
“Well, you are still a pony.” Celestia looked up to Cadence, raising an eyebrow. “... An incredibly powerful pony, but still a pony.”
“I know... I suppose bringing my sister back has brought up a few parts of me that I would prefer remained suppressed.” there was a pause before Cadence spoke again.
“What will you do?”
“Nothing, for now. I can always move a few more companies of Legionnaires to the outposts, but that would only encourage the griffons.” there was a pause.
“Is there anything I can do?” Cadence asked.
“I’ll let you know.” Celestia straightened up a little and smiled. “But enough about that. Tell me, Cadence, how is Shining Armor?” Cadence blushed and took a small step back.
“Well... I think he’s a little shy about... well...” Celestia was about to answer when a second door opened.
“Tia, I was hoping I ask you about-” Luna began before stopping, her eyes snapping between Celestia and Cadence. Celestia thought that she saw her younger sister’s wings bristle and prepared for the worst.
“Luna, is something the matter?” she asked.
“Is something-” Luna jabbed a hoof at Cadence. “Who is this?”
“Um, my name’s-” Cadence began before Luna’s head snapped around.
“Silence! This is between my sister and I, not you!” Luna turned to Celestia. “Explain yourself.”
“Luna, I really don’t see what the problem is.”
“You don’t?!” Luna stamped her hooves and flared her wings. “You swore that you would not take a mate or lover! And now you go and break the very law that you set forth-”
“Wait,” Celestia raised a hoof, and was relieved that Luna stopped her rant. “You think Cadence is my daughter?”
“Is that her name?”
“Yes, and no, she is not my daughter.”
“But...” Luna pointed to Cadence. “But she’s an alicorn. As far as I know, ponies cannot birth alicorns.”
“I cannot fully explain that, but she is not my daughter. If anything, she is my adopted niece.” Luna blinked as she began to make sense of what Celestia had said. She straightened up and fluffed out her wings, doing her best to recover her composure.
“I see. I apologize for my misconduct; I should have spoken to you about changes such as this, and my behavior was completely inappropriate for someone of my position.” Luna turned to Cadence. “I am sorry for shouting at you, Lady Cadence. I hope we can look past these troubles and work together in harmony in the future.”
“Oh, of course.” Cadence said, blushing again. Celestia noticed that the mare had taken a few steps back from Luna, and she seemed much shiftier than she had been a few minutes ago. I guess Luna is not the only one that needs to adjust...
“Was there something you wanted to ask me, Luna?” Celestia asked.
“Yes.” Luna turned her full attention back to Celestia. “How soon can I return to my duties?”
“In a few day, Luna. You still need to get used to Equestria so we don’t have more incidents like...” Celestia nodded towards Cadence.
“I understand, I think.” Luna shuffled around a little. “... Have you been working on my armor?”
“As soon as I am able, I will... Unless you would like to build it yourself.” Luna’s eyes brightened.
“Really?”
“I can see that you are looking for a sense of familiarity until you fully settle in; consider this a first step of sorts.” Luna, nodded, and Celestia caught the hint of a smile on the younger alicorn’s face. That moment disappeared as soon as it came, and Luna had returned to her normal stern demeanor.
“Thank you for this opportunity. I shall begin working as soon as I am able.”
“Oh, of course.” Celestia fluffed her wings and looked away. “I have a few things I need to finish up, and we can talk later.”
“As you wish.” Luna nodded in respect and left the room. Cadence’s eyes shifted from the departing alicorn and back to Celestia, who sighed again before returning to her paperwork.
“The very least she could do is smile.” Celestia muttered as she set aside another form.
“Maybe I should go talk to her.” Cadence said.
“After your first meeting, I doubt that going after her will change anything. You are a good mare, Cadence, but you cannot rush something like this, or else we’ll create a much larger problem. Luna will warm up to you, trust me.” Cadence nodded, but she still seemed unsure. She shuffled a little as Celestia finished off another form, and when Celestia did not respond again she excused herself from the room. Once Cadence was gone, Celestia sighed one more time before bringing her hoof to her face.
“Why can I never handle my family properly?”
...
It had been said that the Night Guard never slept. Metaphorical meaning aside, Force Commander Sleight-Hoof Lulamoon would beg to differ; the dark-blue unicorn lay sprawled out across his mattress, his mind drifting aimlessly through the dreamscape. As his first real chance to rest since returning from Vanhoover, he intended to enjoy every second of not having a bunch of insane cultists trying to rip his head off.
That was, until Acolyte Midnight Glimmer entered his room.
“Commander Sleight-Hoof, sir?” the young batpony asked, shuffling around on her hooves.
“mmph... goway.”
“Sir? Justicar Echo wanted to speak with you about something.”
“Can’t it wait? I’m trying to sleep.”
“She said it was important.” Of course she did... Sleight-Hoof grumbled and propped himself up on his forehooves, turning to face Midnight Glimmer.
“Where is she?”
“Outside the barracks, sir... she’s got the blindfold on again.” Sleight-Hoof nodded and climbed out of bed, exiting the room followed closely by Midnight Glimmer. The barracks were mostly deserted, with only a few other Night Guardsponies to be seen. Most kept to themselves, although one or two did nod in courtesy as Sleight-Hoof passed by. He wished he could say that he knew the names of those he saw, but that was the thing with the Night Guard: at times, the faces changed faster than they could be remembered.
As he and Midnight Glimmer stepped out of the barracks, they saw another batpony mare walking close to the wall, a crossbow grasped in her helmet’s telekinetic aura and a blindfold wrapped around her eyes. Her ears twitched rapidly as she walked, and every step she took was completely inaudible. She stopped walking as Sleight-Hoof and Midnight Glimmer walked over to her, her ears snapping around as they got closer and closer.
“Ah, Sleight-Hoof, glad you could make it.” she said before continuing down the wall.
“Well, you asked me to come out here, and here I am.” Sleight-Hoof replied. “What’s the problem, Echo?”
“Many things.” Echo stopped, raising her crossbow and loading a two-pronged bolt. There was a pause before she fired, a loud squeak greeting the ears of everypony present when the bolt reached its target. Sleight-Hoof looked ahead and saw a large rat pinned between the prongs, struggling to free itself. Echo smiled and turned towards Midnight Glimmer. “Acolyte, you might want to get rid of that before it gets away; it’s been breaking into your room for the last few weeks, and it’ll probably keep doing so if it escapes.”
“... it has?”
“Well, your room is closest to the outside, isn’t it?” Midnight Glimmer did not respond, instead stepping past Echo and Sleight-Hoof to retrieve the rat. Sleight-Hoof ignored the younger batpony and raised an eyebrow at the Justicar.
“Is that what you wanted to tell me about? Pest control?”
“There have been several of those rats that have been sneaking into the barracks through a hole near the Acolyte’s quarters. And it is an important problem; if something like that can get in, something bigger could as well. And cultist can be very creative in their attempts to kill ponies.”
“You’re paranoid, Echo.”
“I trust my ears more than anything else. I trust them even more than I trust you, sir.” Sleight-Hoof frowned, his ears flattening against his head. “I take it you don’t appreciate that?”
“No, it’s just weird when you talk like that... It doesn’t matter. I’ll get somepony to look at that as soon as possible, so you can relax a little and not go around shooting rats... And you can take that blindfold off; it makes you look creepy.”
“Isn’t that what you used to say about my eyes?” Echo said as she reached up to remove her blindfold, revealing pale and unfocused eyes.
“I’ve gotten used to that.” Echo nodded as Sleight-Hoof turned back to the barracks. “Since I’m up I think I might set up a few drills; the Acolytes were a little sloppy on our last deployment.”
“This is coming from the pony who said he wanted a chance to rest?”
“I never said we’d do the drills right away. I just want to be prepared, that’s all.”
“You’re the Force Commander; do whatever you want.” Echo began to walk off before stopping, her right ear flicking towards the palace. “Somepony’s approaching.”
“Who?” Sleight-Hoof tensed up a little, and it took quite a bit of restraint to prevent himself from preparing several defensive spells.
“Not sure... Pony, most likely pegasus... mare... bit larger than most... possibly the Princess... you should be able to see her by now.” Echo pointed her hoof just as a dark-blue alicorn with a flowing mane stepped into view. Sleight-Hoof blinked before his mind began to make sense of things.
“... Different Princess.” he turned to Echo. “You were here when Princess Celestia brought Luna back from the Everfree Forest, right?”
“Not like I could have seen them, but yes. What does that have to do with anything?” Sleight-Hoof was about to answer when Luna spoke.
“Hail, Legionnaires!” the Princess called. “I apologize for not notifying your commander, but I was notified of your location and wanted to see what condition the Legions were in.”
“Well...” Sleight-Hoof composed himself and tried to think of the right thing to say. “We’re a little small to be a Legion... but we still serve Equestria as best we can.”
“Highly commendable.” There was a pause before Luna spoke again. “Apologies again, but your name is...?”
“Force Commander Sleight-Hoof Lulamoon at your service, ma’am.” he gave a salute before gesturing to Echo. “This is Justicar Echo, one of our best snipers.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess Luna.” Echo said, bowing.
“Likewise.” there was another pause. “Justicar Echo, is... is there something wrong with your eyes?”
“I don’t know; do you see something, because I can’t.” Sleight-Hoof mentally cringed and prepared himself for a serious verbal backlash.
“Are you trying to make light of this?” Luna asked, Sleight-Hoof detecting a bit of steel in her voice.
“I have no other option, ma’am.” Echo countered. “If I offended you, I’m sorry.” another pause.
“Apology accepted, Justicar. I hope that, in the future, we may grow to understand each other a little better.”
“Me too.”
“Anyway,” Sleight-Hoof said, trying to diffuse the situation. “Is there anything else we can do for you, Princess?”
“I would do a full review of your forces, but I... I have other matters to attend to at the moment. Thank you for speaking with me, though; it has been awhile since I have spoken with soldiers such as yourself.” Luna gave a small bow before turning to leave. the two Night Guardsponies saluting her as she departed.
“Very formal.” Echo said once Luna was gone. “Maybe I should have talked to her a little more.”
“Maybe... that probably could have gone better if you hadn’t decided to talk back to her.”
“Sorry mother.”
“Hey, this is serious!” Sleight-Hoof snapped. “That was a Princess you were talking to!”
“Well, she got back from who knows where yesterday; don’t you think she’d need a chance to experience some of the changes around here.” Echo sighed. “Look, if it makes you happy, sir, I’ll try to hold off comments like that in the future.”
“... Just try not to get yourself in trouble; I still need your fighting skills.”
“Aw, I thought you kept me around because I was pretty.” Echo bat her eyelids in a mock attempt to appear cute. Sleight-Hoof sighed and walked back to the barracks.
“I’ll try to get those drills set up. In the meantime, go find the others and make sure the Twins haven’t blown anything up.”
“Yes sir.”
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It would be funny if the Imperium somehow arrived in Equestria and tried to conquer it.
The Emperor's reaction would be priceless (assuming the Imperium still exist after all this time , and I somehow doubt that.) but at least Luna would be in her element.
Force Commander Lulamoon?
So Cadence meets Luna, Luna still has to adjust, and we get the first grumblings of war... ok we need to find a picture of Cadence in armor which would be awesome.
3293037
Since Equestria is in a different universe, doubt it
3293037 Other than Horus, no humans will be appearing in this fic. Sorry
3293113 Indeed it is Force Commander Lulamoon.
and yeah, Cadence in armor would be pretty cool (although she's not a commander of a Legion, sadly)
so I guess Justicar Echo didn't really see a problem with the way she spoke to Luna eh?
when the night guard sees combat I'm sure Lulamoon will have a few Trix up his sleeve... hoof... whatever.
a bit short on puns at the moment so that is all your going to get for now
After staying together for one thousand years in the warp, you'd think Horus would give Luna some pointers about people skills.
Or maybe Luna is being stubborn, maybe it wasn't brought up.
3293823
Why would Horus have great people skills? When it comes to warriors, sure, but civvies? Probably not.
Oh god, after reading a bit more of FoE:PH not that long ago this chapter feels like it ended too soon.
Hell, even FoE stuff feels like it ends too soon now..... What sort of monster have I become...?
3294464
Deus?
Orks versus Pinkie Pie. How badly will physics be broken after that little fight?
Hehe, FC Lulamoon. Im amused. Also, is Echo related to Derpy or more to Snowdrop?
Btw, eer since I read EoP I started calling Celestia "Old man" (Star Trek DS9 reference).
I may be a tad late to the whole 'who is cadance' discussion. For all i know you already answered it but...
Is Cadance the portion the emperor cut off from himself and cast into the warp in order to obliterate Horus during the final fight?
His compassion, kindness...
/Love./
All the things he needed to purge from himself to truly destroy Horus so that the chaos gods could not use him again.
Its oldish fluff so maybe im completely wrong but... Who knows
3294587
I've never heard that piece of fluff. When did it come out, 'cause it sounds awesome.
3294612
Its tied to the whole 'Starchild' theory regarding the big E. All really really old.
Supposedly when the chaos gods withdrew from Horus and the Big E realized he /had/ to destroy his son utterly and completely he took those parts of himself that might hold him back and cast them aside.
Since then its theorized both in universe and out that this energy coalesced in the warp as a potential new god. Of love and compassion. A possible way for the emperor to be reborn.
As for the source? Again, its really really old stuff. Originally published in 1990 in the early days of WH40k in the Inquisition War Series and mentioned a few years later in Warhammer 40k 3rd Edition. For the most part its invalid now. This was back in the day when the Thousand Sons were not empty suits of armor, Half Eldar were a thing, and Squats. twilightsheepish:
In 3rd Edition it was one of many theories about how the emperor might return. ONe suggestion is once he dies on the throne, and suffers a true death, he can be reborn after remerging with this part he 'cast off'.
Im just makin a wild guess because... Well... It fits.
Yeah, Luna is going to be a bit uneasy for a while; that's natural of course. As for Echo...? Well, I've got a feeling that he...? she...? if you specified their gender I missed it. Anyway, they might be something Luna needs, someone who talks to her like a Pony rather than a distant figure of legend.
Cadence's reaction is understandable although, with the benefit of hindsight, one has to wonder precisely when she was replaced with Chrysalis.
Meanwhile, trouble brews on the frontiers of the Empire (when does it not?). Luna may find that her... particular skill-set may be needed eventually.
Here's a suggestion: maybe a senior student from Celestia's school named 'Moondancer' should be sent to stay with Twilight Sparkle for a few weeks to learn about the world outside the rarefied social and academic world of Canterlot. It has the advantage of not even being a lie, beyond a simple glamour and a false name. Luna would benefit from being able to learn about modern Equestria without the understandable tension of her legend clouding all interactions.
3294478
But with fiction and just under 440 words a minute (Just did a test to find out; if you asked me before I would have said 700(Ego))
Looking forward to see more of the Night Guards.
3294560 As for Echo's relations, she might be very distantly related to either Derpy or Snowdrop
Celestia as "Old Man", I like this
Nice chapter. Very well written
So now i'm going to throw around some Wild Guesses:
1) the chaos gods are now trying to screw Equestria but the elemennts of HARMONY give this universe a protection. So Nurgle might make zombie, but it would be much harder to do so.
2) Unicorns were given the power to use the warp, but other races might be able to use it as well (as in wizard griffins). This is because the warp is much more safe here then in the Warhammer 40K universe
3) the dimension that Twilight went to before becoming an alicorn was the warp
4) The Chaos Gods are trapped in the tartarus gates
And now some question:
1) does Warhammer 40. Have greed related warp daemons? You know because Spike greed growth might become more problematic if so.
2) will the mane six + Spike appear here? I'd like to see how much the influences of the 40k universe changed them specially Spike and Pinkie.
Tank you for your patience.
3295330
1) On top of trying to get their act back together in the 40K universe, they are trying to muck around in Equestria, but the Elements of Harmony keep them away
2) possibly
3) also possibly
4) no
as for the questions
1) I think that might be in Slaanesh's domain
2) other than one or two cameos, probably not
3294381 Not to mention, he's kind of been dead for a few thousand years...
3298505
I'm sure being dead affects you social skills a tiny bit.
Ok new questions for this awesome and lovely writen fanfic:
1) Will Dragons appear?
2) any chance of having ElDeer or something similar?
3) Will this story cover a small or big time period? untill Sombra Comeback or only some weeks/months?
4) will Luna visit Manehattan?
5) How much does the elements of harmony protect Equestria from the Chaos gods?
6) What is behind the tartarus gates then?
Am i bothering you too much?
3306447
1. Possibly
2. We've got deer
3. I won't say when it will end, but it will be early in Season 2 of canon
4. Glad I thought of that
5. quite a bit, but there are still leaks...
6. That's where Celestia puts whatever made it through the leaks, if she hasn't outright killed it yet
and no, you are not bothering me; I like comments
Since i have nothing to crticize, my comments here will be:
A) praise
B) Questions
Or
C) Smart/funny comments
On second tought, i do have a critic: try giving the Daemons and things a bit of descripition. As far as i remember, in the previous Story when Celestia Fights a Tezeenech (did i get his name right?) Daemon you only said it's name, try giving a simple descripition.
And here Goes a small tip: try to develop this whole chaos gods leaks thing, they are a realy interesting concept, for example it seems that while things are mostly in peace there are still many problems (there is a small amout of wars against daemons instead of only war)
(Reads the TvTropes page)
Wait you made a blog for the series? Realy?!
Thats so great, could you please post it so that i can go there?
Please!
3324129 Well, it's part of my site blog (you can find that on my profile)
Maybe I should have a separate blog for everything related to this universe...
Oh, I didn't know you'd updated this! Neat!
3294527 You would be able to hear them scream for mercy as soon as they lay there eyes on each other....
Oh great, Pyromanics.