Age of the Tyrant

by BeingFrank

Five Years Later

The history of Equestria can be split into five ages. However, most of those ages are completely unimportant with the exception of two. The fourth age, or the Age of Enlightenment, where the princesses Celestia and Luna ruled the land in peace and harmony. And the fifth age, the one where this story takes place. Officially, it was known as the Age of the Everlasting Sun. But to those who saw it differently, it was known by a different name: the Age of the Tyrant. This was when Celestia, the lone ruler, entered a reclusive state. This allowed her tyrannical lords to take control of her kingdom. Celestia, however, remained a figurehead, causing all blame to be centered on her. So, when her lords took her subjects' money and used it to make Canterlot a metropolis of wealth, causing the land outside of Canterlot to be overcome with poverty and turned into slums, she was blamed for it, and earned the name, "The Tyrant."

But sometimes, when a tyrant takes control, there are those who will stand against her. In this case, it was Princess Luna. When she returned, she saw how the ponies she had ruled over were suffering under her sister's rule, or lack thereof. However, when confronted, Celestia refused to admit she was no longer in control, causing her sister to leave and form the New Lunar Republic, her small but loyal and ever-growing army dedicated to freeing Equestria. Celestia, for the sake of conceptual symmetry, renamed her side the Solar Empire. Both sides clashed, with the Republic fighting the losing fight. But they never gave up, and eventually made their comeback.

But with her lords in control, something clicked inside of Celestia. She knew that if she tried to leave the empire, her lords would kill every pony loyal to her. So, instead of leaving, she formed her own personal army, Celestia's Army, out of Imperial soldiers who were loyal to her. But though the army existed, two things never changed. Celestia's strange obsession stopped the Army from fighting the Empire. And, since the army was top secret, she was still blamed for the actions of the lords.

The Republic eventually came up with an idea. That idea was to convince the Elements of Harmony, who remained loyal to Celestia, to join their side. And if that wasn't impossible enough, they would still have to overcome the Empire's massive army. But, as it turned out, those problems could be solved hand in hand.

But how they were solved begins in Canterlot, the capital of the Solar Empire.

*****************************

Sometimes when Celestia looked out her window at the city of Canterlot she couldn't believe what she was looking at. The fact that her city, once so small, had turned into a large metropolis in only five years was crazy. The fact that in that time ponies had invented guns, airships, holograms, machines that played videos, and other high-level things was even crazier. It was hard sometimes to think about how much had changed.

And whenever she felt overwhelmed with change, she tried to think of something that had stayed the same, but she couldn't. Even her relationship with her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, had changed. Though she still wrote her letters, they weren't about friendship, just information, reports on what was happening. It saddened her to not see a letter that began with "Today I learned " in years, especially after they had become so familiar. But Celestia understood that it had become hard for Twilight to think about learning lessons in friendship after her friend Applejack's disappearance, as she thought that learning new ones would be a disservice to Applejack's memory.

The princess paused when she thought of Applejack. Her disappearance was one of the worst things to happen to Twilight. For weeks, nopony saw her, and when they did, she wasn't the same. Her student had become withdrawn, and barely talked to anyone outside her friends.

She stared out the window at Twilight leaving through the castle garden. Oh Twilight, She thought remorsefully. If only I could help you. The only thing she could do was have Twilight come to Canterlot every week, because she knew that nopony should leave a depressed genius alone to her own devices, since there is no telling what she might do.

She turned away, wanting to change what she was thinking of, and let her thoughts turn one last time towards Twilight. She remembered Twilight saying something about how amazing the technology in the airships were.

Celestia smiled. "Twilight, you have no idea." She walked through her door, down a hallway, and passed through a guarded door that led to a room with only a large screen.

At least, if you looked at it, and failed to notice the strange computer chips on the desk in front of it. These chips contained Celestia's personal project: Artificial Intelligences, or AIs. These were more than the AIs that ran programs. These were able to attach to a pony, giving them super pony capabilities, and could present themselves as a pony shaped hologram when needed.

Celestia grabbed them with her magic and placed them in a briefcase, which she handed to the guard outside to take away. She had to make sure that they got out of there fast.

She sat down in a chair and was about to turn the screen on when another guard walked in.

"Ma'am, the prisoner's awake."

********************************

The walk through the Canterlot garden was always hard for Twilight. It always reminded her of all those times she had come here with her friends, all five of them. She sighed as she looked at the palace labyrinth, where the six of them had gone in an attempt to stop Discord all those years ago. Even though it had been horrible, it was enough to remember those times they had spent together.

But no matter how sad it was to look at, it was better than looking up. Massive buildings rose up into the clouds, with airships both colossal and small flying around or in between. All this change. It was sometimes hard to believe. And it made Twilight even sadder. Just the thought of Applejack or anypony else she'd lost encountering an airship was so happy it made her cry. None of those thoughts could ever come true.

So she never looked up. It was always looking at what they did together, not what they could have done.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is!"

Twilight groaned as a white unicorn with a black mane walked up to her. "What do you want, Lord Silver Scroll?"

The unicorn smiled. "Please, call me Damien. And I prefer General, it has a nicer ring to it. I feel like we've been over this."

Every time I've come here and you've hit on me, Thought Twilight. "What do you want?"

"I just want to continue our conversation from where we left off."

"Do you mean the part where you asked me to come to your house, or the part where I said no?"

Damien smiled that same, annoying smile. "I just think that you didn't think it through all the way."

"I did, that's why I said no."

"That's why I know you haven't thought it through. All I'm suggesting is a little meeting..."

"No."

"...Maybe at a restaurant..."

"No."

"...Maybe your place..."

"Nope."

"...Maybe mine..."

"Never in your life."

"...It doesn't have to go anywhere.."

"Because it won't happen."

"...But it probably will..."

"Why are you saying that like it's predetermined?"

"...And then you don't have to do it again, ever, if you don't want to."

"I'm not falling for that again!"

"What do you mean?"

"You said that a while ago, so I went out with you, and you came back again the next day asking again."

"Well, come on, I mean, we only had dinner, that wasn't the full deal."

"And you wonder why I turn you down."

Damien started to get annoyed. He'd give her one last chance to do it willingly. "I'm just trying to make sure you don't do something, or rather don't not do something, you'll regret."

"That's why I'm saying no, why in the hell can't you understand that?"

Damien was done being a nice guy. "Now listen, I'm through with letting you choose. I'm a general, I have authority, I can just give you an ultimatum: You come with me, or I accuse you of treason. Even if you're the princess's protégée, if a general accuses you of that, the princess will have to believe me over you."

"Is that so? I wasn't aware of that."

Twilight brightened. Damien froze. A black Pegasus, clad in body armor except for a helmet, which revealed his blue mane, trotted over to them. "But I think you've forgotten that the princess values her student far more than a general. She's been with the princess far longer than you have, so I'm pretty sure she'd listen to Twilight, not you. Second, even if you try to go through with that plan, there's always the chance that somepony, say the commander of the army, could come forward and say that he overheard your plan to accuse her of treason, which he has, and get you convicted instead."

Damien was scared on the edge of pleading for mercy. "You wouldn't do that Cassius!"

Cassius smiled. "Look at you, one moment thinking you're in charge, the next you're groveling at my feet. No, I wouldn't do that. But if you keep on stalking her, then maybe, just maybe, some more ponies might hear about what you said today."

Damien ran off. Cassius walked over to Twilight and bowed his head. "May I escort you to the train?"

"You don't have to do that, I'm fine."

"Would you rather me walk with you to the train, or deal with Damien coming back by yourself?"

Twilight only considered this for a moment. She followed Cassius through the garden.

Once they left, Twilight decided to ask her companion what was on her mind. "How did you know what was going on?"

"I've been seeing you two out there for a while. At first I thought it was harmless, but after a while I got an idea of what was going on and decided to put a stop to it. In all honesty, ever since he became a general, he's started thinking he runs everything. To put it even simpler, he's become a dick."

He looked at her, hoping to see her react like she used to whenever he said something like that. When she did nothing, he was worried. First she had said hell, the first time he knew of in his life, and then she didn't slap him for saying something like dick. She had changed, and he was worried about it. The worst part was that he knew that right now he could do nothing to help, only smile and pretend everything was normal. It was decided. After she left, he'd try to find a way to help her out.

But for now there was something else he wanted to know. "Why has he been hitting on you if you keep saying no?"

Twilight shrugged. "I don't know. One day he just walks up to me asks me out, I say no and don't think much of it, and he just kept coming back. You know him more than me, do you have an idea?"

"One idea. The guy's persistent and is used to getting what he wants. Guess he saw you one day, liked what he saw, and wanted it. Been wanting it ever since I guess. And, being rich and all, doesn't want to compromise."

They reached the train station. Twilight showed her pass to the conductor, who let her on. Before she got on, she turned to Cassius. "Thanks, for what you did today."

"Any time. Will you be back next week?"

"Always am." She turned to get on. "Oh, and Cassius."

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad I can call you my friend."

Cassius saluted. "Pleasure's all mine."

The train moved away towards Ponyville.

***********************************

"Now's your last chance! Why are you here and what do you know?"

Celestia was growing impatient. Hours later and the green Pegasus still hadn't said a thing she wanted to hear. All she did was stare at her. Not a stare of fear, a stare of boredom. That outraged the princess, somepony high and mighty enough to act bored at her own interrogation. And then again, it was possible she wouldn't talk because the guards had tried some interrogating of their own, which ended in them beating up the Pegasus quite brutally. And they didn't stop there. They were with her in the interrogation room right then, ready to continue what they started if she acted up. Like they did a few minutes earlier, when she had suggested that Celestia do some anatomically impossible things to herself.

The Pegasus said nothing.

Celestia got out of her chair. "You asked for it." Her horn glowed with a strange white and black light and she brought it up to the Pegasus's head.

She had cast a memory spell, which would let her look through the Pegasus's mind and find what she wanted to know.

The Pegasus did nothing.

Celestia soon learned why. When she touched her horn to the spy's head, she immediately recoiled. Somepony had cast a protection spell on her, and the princess had a good idea who.

"Damn it, Luna!."

The guards stared at her in shock. They had never heard their princess say anything like that.

The Pegasus smiled.

Celestia scowled at her. "You're lucky Luna thought you're important enough to cast a protection spell on you. Guards! Take her away."

The Pegasus just looked back at her, smiling. "Before I go, one last thing," she said before she spat a wad of bloody spit in front of Celestia. The guards ran up and forcefully pulled her back to her cell.

Celestia was shaken. Her powerful magic, her last resort, stopped, by her sister no less.

But since that was done, she could return to what she was doing. She left the dungeon, returned to her private viewing room, and sat down.

"Program," she said aloud. "Play File 1."

"Ma'am," a robotic voice intoned out of nowhere. "You've watched this file precisely 3,568 times. What is the purpose to watch it any more.?"

"Just play it again program. I just need to watch this. I have to find a way, a way to do it right this time."

The video played.

******************************

Outside the town of Ponyville, two ponies stood in the rain outside a long-abandoned clubhouse. One was a blue Pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, the other a white unicorn with a violet mane. The three fillies that had called that clubhouse theirs were long gone.

The past five years had been a tragedy for Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Scootaloo, who Rainbow Dash had become like a sister to, had joined the New Lunar Republic with princess Luna. Nopony had heard from her since. Sweetie Belle had been caught in a Republic bombing. There were no survivors.

The only thing left of them was their old clubhouse. In front of it, Rarity and Rainbow had scattered old pictures of Sweetie and Scootaloo, along with any pictures they could find of the Apple family, since Apple Bloom and the rest of her family had disappeared along with Applejack.

Rarity broke down crying. She stuck her head into her friend's back, and Rainbow comforted her with her wing. Even though Rainbow rarely cried, this was one of the times where she almost did. She looked over to her left, where she felt somepony should be. Applejack should be here, thought Rainbow. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo each had a pony there to remember them. Apple Bloom had nopony to remember her.

Rarity straightened up and wiped away her tears. "All right darling, we're done here. Let's go back."

Rainbow looked up. "You go ahead. I have to check something."

"What's wrong?"

"I had Lightning Flash cover for me on weather duty. It's not supposed to rain today, and I need to find out why it is."

Rarity sighed. "I'm sure everything's fine. But nonetheless, good luck darling. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, she left.

Rainbow flew towards Cloudsdale, knowing that if she wanted to find Lightning Flash, her best bet was to go there. Luckily, she found him on the ground outside the city. But when she approached him, he did nothing. He just stared at the sky.

"Hey, Lightning."

He stared straight on.

"How's my favorite replacement? Lightning?"

No answer.

"Lightning, seriously. This staring shit's starting to creep me out. What's going on."

Lightning said nothing. Instead, he lifted his hoof and pointed at something. Rainbow followed his hoof and stared.

Flying southbound above them was possibly every Pegasus in Cloudsdale. But behind them was what shocked Rainbow and Lightning Flash. Behind the Pegasi was Cloudsdale, on fire. A fire not even the rain could put out. Most of the clouds that made up the city were already gone, and what wasn't destroyed was on fire. And leaving the city was a massive airship, presumably what caused the fire. It sailed away, as if it wasn't leaving a disaster and just calmly sailing around. It had to be from the Republic, no matter how improbable it was that it could be there.

For the first time she remembered in recent memory, Rainbow Dash broke down on the ground and cried. She looked up, tears in her eyes, to look for Lightning Flash, but couldn't find him. He was gone, he must've went south with the rest of the Pegasi.

Rainbow shot up. South! That was where the Republic was. All the Pegasi were headed straight for the enemy that almost killed them. "Wait, Stop! You're going the wrong way!" she shouted, and looked up. They were gone. Every last one of them.

Rainbow couldn't believe it. They had all gone, every last one of them, to their enemy, who would most likely kill them too. And then there was her. Wet, cold, scared, and alone. And all she could do was cry, cry tears that were lost in the rain. She walked back to Ponyville, hoping her friends could at least try to help her.

Behind her, the city of Cloudsdale fell from the sky.

****************************************

A week after the destruction of Cloudsdale, a meeting was put together to deal with the aftermath. But not by the Empire. This meeting occurred miles away to the south, in a massive citadel built in the middle of the Macintosh Hills. It was held by the New Lunar Republic, which also had other business to discuss.

It was in a small, half-circle shaped room. Around the middle sat ponies of importance: generals, admirals, ship captains, and such. In the center stood their leader, Princess Luna, addressing them. Behind her sat a red unicorn with a white fedora over his blue mane. He was currently levitating a bottle of hard cider towards himself, not paying attention to what Luna was saying.

"Commander?" Luna asked the unicorn.

" Huh-What?" asked the unicorn, who was just then realizing where he was.

"We were talking about the refugees from Cloudsdale, and since you've become close with their leader, we thought you could add some more to the conversation," Luna replied calmly. Several of the other ponies chuckled.

"Oh yeah, um, those ponies," he said uncertainly. "Well, their, um, leader, Spitfire, yeah that's her name, she's, um, a good pony, yeah good pony, and, um, yeah."

The ponies on the outside snickered. Better lay off the cider, several of them thought silently.

Luna looked at him and sighed. "Blaze, what are you drinking?"

The unicorn looked at his bottle. "Um, cider."

Luna pulled a bottle of Whiskey out of nowhere and levitated it to him. "Drink this. You know you get nervous in crowds when you don't drink enough." Blaze happily accepted the drink and drank it.

He stood up. "All right you effeminate screw heads, listen up! I'm talking, so you'd damn well better listen! This "Spitfire" pony is a good pony. All she wants us to know is that she's extremely thankful to us for taking in her and her refugees and she's willing to help us with whatever we need to fight the Empire. That's all she told me, so that's all you damn well need to know for now."

He sat down amidst the shocked stares of the others. As he went to take another sip, Luna lifted the bottle out of his magic.

"Blaze you've had all you need for now. Calm down and find your middle ground. Well then, on to the next order of business. Mist. It's been a week since we sent Ambassador Smooth Talker to Celestia to get Mist freed. We still haven't gotten her back."

A grey earth pony in the back stood up. "What do you suggest we do? I went and talked to her, she promised Mist's freedom, she still hasn't done it. There's nothing negotiating can do if she's not willing to keep her end of the bargain."

"Actually Ambassador, that's what I want you to do. You're going to negotiate again, but this time, you're going to be staying there longer."

"How long?"

"As long as Blaze wants."

"Why me?" asked Blaze, who, after a drawn out discussion with himself, had been convinced that he had found his middle ground.

"Because negotiating is going to just be you and the Ambassador's cover. You will conduct our back-up plan while the Ambassador draws out negotiations for however long you need to pull it off."

"Which back-up plan are you talking about?"

"The one that involves convincing Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends to join our side."

The ponies in the room grew silent as they stared at Princess Luna. Finally, Smooth Talker spoke up. "How do you expect us to convince them of that? And what makes you think that he'd be able to do it. I'm the Ambassador. Why not me?"

Luna turned toward him. "I don't expect them to do anything. I only see a chance, which I intend to make the most of. And as for Blaze, I believe that he could convince them better than you could. I have my reasons, but I'm 100% sure. Blaze, what do you think?"

Blaze thought for a moment. "I think I might be able to."

"Excellent. Any objections?" Nopony objected. "So be it. Meeting's over."

The room emptied of ponies until only Blaze, Luna, and the Ambassador remained.

Luna turned to the Ambassador. "You two leave tomorrow. I'll have a small airship able to carry seven of you and a pilot ready by then. You know what to do, and I'll brief Blaze on his part." Smooth Talker nodded and left the room.

Blaze turned to the Princess. "You really think I can do it?"

She smiled. "I know from experience you can convince mares to do a lot of things. But in case you need some help -" she pulled out a folder "- this folder has plenty of information on Twilight and her friends."

Blaze quickly looked in the folder. "I'll look at this. I might need to have some things set up to help me convince them."

"Tell me what you'll need and I'll get it."

"I'll let you know when I figure it out. But I'll be spending all night with this, meaning we can't spend any time together until right before I leave."

"What do you mean by that?"

Blaze moved forward and kissed her on the lips. After a minute, he pulled away. "That means that that was the only thing we can do before I get back, which is why I let it last a while. It'll probably be pretty hard to live without those kinds of things."

"Won't be so hard, I've waited longer for less."

"Not for you, for me. It'll be like Hell, except worse, because I'll be stuck with Smooth Talker." Blaze looked petrified.

Luna laughed.

"Oh, and Luna, one last thing."

"What?"

"How fancy do I have to dress? This fedora fancy, or my normal random stuff?"

"Nopony would really care, but the random stuff would attract more attention."

"That's a risk I'll be willing to take."

Luna sighed. "Just like you. I'll see you in the morning."

Blaze wandered down the maze of halls until he reached a familiar door. He opened it and walked into his bedroom. He walked over to the dresser.

"How goes it, Franklin?" he asked something on the dresser. Whatever Franklin was, he didn't answer.

Blaze lifted the fedora off of his head and looked around the dresser. After about a minute, he finally found what he was looking for. He stepped in front of his mirror as he placed the red fez on his head.

"Perfect."