It had been a few days since the defeat of Tirek, and in the time since life in Equestria had mostly gone back to normal. However, while the mystery of the six sided chest had been solved, a new puzzle plagued Shining Armor's thoughts. The mysterious castle that was now his new home in Ponyville, and the six (seven if you included Spike's little chair) thrones in that room in the heart of the castle. It couldn't just be coincidence, could it?
Well, there was only one way to find out. Shining had to call in his friends, and thankfully all of them agreed to come over.
"I still feel like there's something I should know about all of this," Shining commented to himself, looking at the thrones. "But what?"
"What else is there to discuss?" Soarin replied. "It's as simple as this: We found all six keys, defeated Tirek and sent him back to Tartarus, and this sweet new castle was the reward. There, end of story."
"For once I believe Soarin is right," Fancy Pants chimed in. "Even if it seems odd that these thrones have our cutie marks on them, I don't see anything that warrants further investigation. Besides that, you should be grateful. You don't know how many ponies would kill to be in this kind of situation right now."
"Let's focus on more important things, shall we?" Braeburn suggested. "Like when are you gonna let Pinkie Pie and I throw ya that house warmin' party for you and your sister? If it ain't gonna be soon, I'm probably not gonna be around to help plan it. The Appleloosa rodeo's comin' up and I'm aimin' to enter, cousin Applejack's hogged the rodeo spotlight for long enough."
"I agree with Soarin and Fancy Pants," Thunderlane smiled brightly. "Just let it go, Shining. If these thrones are indeed important, I'm sure we'll know eventually."
"No offense, but I think even cousin Braeburn's right on this occasion, Shining," Big Macintosh commented. "If ya wanna look further into those thrones, do so on your own time. Me personally, I'm lookin' forward to this weekend, Spike and I are gonna host the annual hoofball card show here. Spike says he's hopin' to make a trade for that rare card of mine, but I ain't gonna give it up so easily."
"Well, let's just see what happens when we're seated in these thrones, shall we?" Shining suggested to his friends. "Just last night I had a dream where my sister and her friends did the same, and when they did something appeared in this very room. Though what it was, I couldn't tell, it was too blurry."
The stallions sighed, but decided to go along with Shining's suggestion. All six stallions were seated in the throne that matched their cutie marks. Sure enough, something did happen once they were all seated. Six rays of light (each one matching the coat of the stallion seated in the mark matched thrones) shot out from the top of the thrones, concentrating on the floor in between the chairs. At the same time, the stallions cutie marks glowed brightly, as a gigantic roar shook the ground.
Suddenly, rising up from the floor, was an enormous table map of some kind! When it came to a rest after only a few minutes, it glowed brightly, and the stallions noticed that it was a map of all of Equestria!
Spike (who had been sleeping in his own chair the whole time), woke up as a result of the glow. And when he opened his eyes, he was amazed at what he saw. "Hey, is that new?!" He exclaimed. "I like it!"
The six stallions were still in a state of shock, they had never seen anything like this before.
"Well I'll be a donkey's uncle!" Big Macintosh exclaimed, looking at the map. "Guess you were right after all, Shining. Never should've doubted ya."
"Hey, it was a wild guess on my part. I certainly had no idea this is what those thrones would bring forth," Shining commented. "Heck, I didn't expect anything to actually happen."
Meanwhile, Braeburn was eyeing a corner of the map. "Hey, check it out! I can see my house from here!" He shouted in delight, pointing to the dessert displayed down to the bottom right of the map. But just then, Spike inadvertently stepped onto the dessert with one of his feet, seemingly crushing the buildings of Appleloosa.
"Huh, I didn't feel a thing. This map must be a hologram or something," Spike commented, looking all around it. "So, does anyone know how to turn it off? I can't sleep with it glowing so brightly."
But just then, the stallions found their attention diverted to a small patch of land in the far west corner of the map. More specifically, the fact that all their cutie marks were hovering around it.
"What is that place? I've never seen it before in my life," Soarin pondered outloud. "Uh, Shining, you think maybe the map's broken or something?"
Shining shook his head. "Sure doesn't seem that way, everything else about the map checks out. Heck, it even displays my new castle here in Ponyville." He pointed to the very center of the map, and everyone noticed that the crystal castle in Ponyville was displayed clearly on the map.
"What does it all mean then?" Thunderlane asked with concern. "You think the map is telling us to go to that odd place?"
"Hold on just a second, we don't even know if that place exists or not!" Fancy Pants protested. "Sure, everything else about the map checks out. It even displays places I've only heard of, like Griffonstone and The Smokey Mountains. But there is still the possibility that that mysterious village isn't there. Considering its location, it could potentially be a trap."
"Well, maybe Princess Celestia will know if this village exists or not," Shining decided. "At the least maybe if she's had a vision about that place, she could give us a clue as to what might be waiting for us there, and if we should go or not."
"And if even she doesn't know about that place?" Fancy asked.
"Either way, I think we should go," Shining said firmly. "But you guys don't have to tag along if you don't want to. I won't make you go on a mission if you're not ready for it. Though, I'll have to visit with Celestia before I make any plans."
"Don't worry about me if you have to go," Spike called, as Shining rushed out the castle doors. "I can always see if Twilight, Rarity, or one of the girls need my help."
Oh, great. And now we reach my least favorite season opener, and the most annoying "villain" in the series: Starlight Glimmer. Though it's ironic: hate as a villain, like her as a hero. Probably because there's nothing special about her as a baddie, and people hyped her up too much.
8258504 The thing with Starlight is, she's not some overly powerful villain. She is the worst kind of monster, the one hidden in plain sight but one you wouldn't recognize from a glance. She looks like a normal pony, it's who she is on the inside that makes her so threatening. She relied on manipulation and intelligence, as well as the element of surprise. That's what drew people to her.
I though you would switch Sunburst and Starlight's roles, but your story.
8258556 Nah, I can't imagine Sunburst being that disgruntled, especially since he's a former student of Princess Celestia's whereas we don't know about Starlight's past. Sunburst WILL take the place of another unicorn mare though, and before you ask it's not Trixie.
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Can't wait.
Not much I can say beyond great start on this arc. Splendid job mixing faithfulness with logical differences. I also appreciate you liking another one of my ideas enough to use it.
Celestia probably won't be able to tell them much (because THAT would make things MUCH too easy if she DID know anything useful) and, well, if Shiny is going undercover, I HOPE he has something that can cover his wings because, otherwise, an alicorn stallion would not be much use in an undercover mission (rare enough to be spotted instantly, you know).
But, while I can definitely see your point concerning using Zecora in the Season Six finale, perhaps the rescue mission could be strictly Thorax and Discord (again, Starlight would realistically be doing a life sentence in a super-maximum-security dungeon for the Season 5 finale mess [because I SERIOUSLY doubt Shining would be that forgiving to someone who tried to take his wife and sister hostage; a life sentence would realistically be the absolute maximum of his mercy] and Trixie would have no reason to get involved because Starlight wouldn't exactly be in a position to need a ride to her old village/a friend for support. Plus, having JUST Thorax and Discord on the rescue team would be great for character development for BOTH of them [especially since Discord would be doing his part WITHOUT his powers])
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And, here is a possible one for your "What If?" series (your choice of volumes if you like the idea):
1. "A Canterlot Wedding":
1. Twilight, being quite well aware of her own tendency to blow things WAY out of proportion AND making a rather extreme accusation about a princess without hard evidence would be a SERIOUSLY bad idea, actually DOES wait until she has actual hard evidence before making her accusations.
2. Celestia puts up a MUCH better fight against Chrysalis when the latter is exposed (in fact, actually having the upper hoof for most of the fight until Chrysalis gets clever enough to feed off Celestia's own love for "'her little ponies'")
3. Shining Armor and the REAL Cadance fend off Chrysalis's army a few minutes sooner than in canon (in fact, the Mane Six skip the canon attempt to go for the Elements of Harmony and go straight for helping Shining Armor and Cadance get together while Celestia is keeping Chrysalis busy).
and 4. The extra few minutes before the actual wedding are then devoted to more detailed explanations.
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Of course, if you don't like these ideas, I will completely understand.
But, at any rate, I will definitely be looking forward to more of this, but will also be VERY willing to be patient.
8258618 I already re-wrote "A Canterlot Wedding" over a year and a half ago, it runs from chapter 47 to chapter 55.
Okay. Point taken. I DID forget about that. Sorry about that. (sheepish grin)
8258529 Yes, i know. And i completely respect that. But the downside was that she was horribly annoying, whiny when her scheme fell through, pretentious, and her backstory was weak. Those are NOT the qualities of a good villain in my opinion.
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I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the "unicorn mare" you are referring to is going to be Moondancer (since that's the one Sunburst would be closest to in personality and being almost constantly bullied at the school without a single friend to back him up probably WOULD be a VERY realistic reason for him to be a complete shut-in).
Oh shoot thats right the episode Appleloosa wanted when troubleshoes comes in
ahh You kind of reference the original plot line from the show nice one