Celestia released her breath in a long, drawn-out exhale through her nostrils. There had been much to absorb and consider, but she figured she had the main points nailed down.
#1: She had been kidnapped by a bipedal alien race known as “humans,” which while lacking in magic, appeared to possess an incredibly high level of scientific technology and an emotional spectrum similar to her ponies’, albeit one a bit more darker and angrier than she was used to.
#2: These “humans” had encountered another version of Equestria, perhaps even containing another version of her (though that was pure speculations), at some point in the recent past, and the results were so traumatizing that it had led them to attack her version of Equestria immediately upon first contact.
#3: She was being held on the basis of these horrific events, which might somehow involve turning them into more ponies, which may not have been so bad, but if done on a large enough scale…
She frowned behind her closed eyelids. Her observational skills had allowed her to gather much more than most other ponies would have during her brief encounter with the humans, but it still wasn’t enough, not even close. She still had no idea of the nature of this “other” Equestria’s crimes or how bad they were, much less how to even begin convincing the humans that her intentions were peaceful. Of course, she also didn’t know the status of Twilight, Shining Armor, or any of the other ponies that had been gathered at that field around the portal to the human world, or if there had been further attacks, but she kept her mind away from those possibilities. There was no possible way to glean any information about those topics as it stood now, and thinking about it would just have her worrying about what could have happened to the ponies who meant most to her in the world. Thank the Maker Luna wasn’t at the field, thank everything that might be listening she hadn’t been there, because if she had been then having her and Twilight possibly in danger might just be enough to break her, and she couldn’t bear that, she couldn’t, she couldn’t, she..
Celestia bit her lip, fighting back a few stray tears. No matter how much it pained her, she couldn’t concern herself with the others now. That knowledge was simply out of her grasp, no matter how hard she tried to reach for it. She had to remain relaxed, focus on what she did know, and try to formulate a plan of action from there. That was all she could do now.
“Alligator tears, Princess?” A wonderfully familiar voice said.
“Captain Armor!” She gasped, her eyes bolting wide open, hope swelling in her heart. “What are…you…”
She trailed off as she got a good look at the little, alabaster unicorn standing before her in a handsome suit coat covered in brass buttons, and with a bejeweled ring adorning his horn. At first glance, it was her beloved former captain-turned-prince of the Crystal Empire, but a moment’s inspection allowed her to process the jagged scar running over one of his eyes, turned milky-white by its presence. And there was more. Centuries of politics had sharpened her ability to read ponies even further than her observational skills, and what she saw in this unicorn was nothing short of pain beyond any sort of measure. Here was a stallion who had spent many a sleepless night wailing into his pillow, screaming for what had been lost. Here was a stallion who, at some point, had longed for death. Here was a stallion who had visited the deepest chasms of suffering that any sapient being could endure, and still wasn’t quite all the way back.
“Dearest Maker above, Captain, what happened to you?” She gasped, completely forgetting all manner of decorum and political maneuvering in the shock of finding this shattered shell of a stallion in her little glass cell, having apparently sneaked in without her noticing.
The unicorn allowed the smallest grin to perk up one corner of his mouth. He exhaled shakily in a way that she might have confused with a snicker if she’d been sleep deprived or not really paying attention. “You of all ponies should know, Princess,” he said in an accent she couldn’t quite place and a tone that she could, but wished she couldn’t. “After all, you’re the one who did it.”
His words hit her like a punch to the gut. “Wh-wh-what?”
“Oh, come, you always enjoyed looking at what you did,” Shining replied, stalking up to her with that creepy non-smile on his face. “Remember those stained glass windows you had in palace? Smiting Discord? Crushing last changeling hive? The crusades into Gryphon territories? All such great achievements you had immortalized in those damn windows.”
He sighed, rolling his eyes over to her, his head cocked at a crazy angle. “Of course, they’re gone now. Shattered when the bombs fell. So I guess all you have left now is me,” he closed the distance between them, teeth bared, nostrils flaring, thrusting his face into her eyes. A single, sweaty lock of blue hair dangled over his face, swinging between them as he took her face in his hooves and forced her to look at him. “Take a good look, Princess! Aren’t you proud? Do I get a window too!?”
“I…Shining, I…” there was no keeping the tears back now. They welled up in her eyes, dribbled down her cheeks. She tried to back away, but the metal cuffs encasing her legs barely allowed her even an inch of movement. All she could do was stand there and whimper.
“Oh, what’s wrong? Not as pretty as your windows?” The unicorn tsked, shaking his head in mock sadness. "Too bad, because you're stuck here."
Suddenly, his hooves squeezed together, pressing into her cheeks. "Where you fucking belong!" Then one of his hooves reared back and delivered a blow to the side of her face. Celestia cried out in pain and surprise. She wanted to sink to her knees, but of course the metal restraints kept her standing upright. She could only stand there and take it as the unicorn whaled on her, over and over again, earning a new cry of pain with each hit.
"Now, I know what you thinking, the humans help, right? They will help soon, Geneva Convention, all that, but bad news," he cradled her chin in a hoof, running the other hoof over the jeweled band on his horn. "This not my suppressor. Is a cheap replica I made."
He stepped to the side, gesturing to the door, which glowed with the obvious, pink hue of his magic. She would know it anywhere, just like she could take one look at the sick way that hue crackled unstably and popped along the edges with barely-controlled power and know that the pony behind it was not right with himself. Voices boomed from the other side, the humans probably throwing themselves at the door, but she knew what the unicorn was capable of. It would take an army throwing itself against the steel for a month to get through that.
Her eyes drifted back to him, at the bags under his eyes and the way he grit his teeth when he looked at her, and she wanted to burst into tears, disregarding the pain rippling down the side of her face. "Maker above, Shining, Maker above."
"Yes, cry! Cry for god!" His hoof lashed out again, catching her on the chin. "Cry out just like I did when you finished with me!" Another blow, this time across the bridge of her nose, stars appearing in her eyes. And again, he held her face to scream right into it: "Cry to some nonexistent thing just like I did every night after you killed my Twily!"
That hit her harder than anything he possibly could have done. Her swollen, stiff jaw dropped, her throat seizing. Despite her best efforts, her eyes filled with tears, turning into shimmering, vermillion pools locking with his. "Wh-what?" She managed to squeak.
That threw him for a loop. Shining Armor looked confused, uncertain for the briefest moment. He looked around, as if all the answers might be on an inspirational poster tacked up someplace in the room, then his gaze fell back to her. It hardened again, and he advanced, glaring at her with every single fiber of hatred he could gather up from the deepest, darkest places within himself. He held the point of his horn against her throat.
"I could do it right now," he said simply, keeping his horn pressed to her throat. "It would be easy. Wouldn’t kill you, we know, but it would be fun watching you choke on your own blood for a while, gasping for air while your throat healed, trying to grasp at the injuries in agony, begging for some way to breathe again as you drowned on your own blood."
It was no surprise to anyone that the Prince was suddenly so eloquent. He had probably spent months on end daydreaming about this moment, planning out what he would say down to the last syllable. And now, here it was, the moment he had been waiting for. The humans might as well have been on the other side of the planet for all they mattered. To him, they were barely even a light tapping coming from someplace far off. To him, all that existed was the princess, his horn, and the steady crackle of magic building up within himself. Celestia knew how right he was: it would be easy. She could feel the magical energies building up, he was just holding them back now, working up the courage to simply let it go.
She couldn’t help it. The pain she saw in one of her closest friends, the implication of what she had done to her beloved student, it was too much. A choked-off sob filled the room, echoing off the plate metal. The walls finally broke down, and tears flowed from Celestia’s eyes, dribbling down her chin, rolling onto Shining’s horn. She hated herself for a moment then, showing so much weakness, but the pain inside the unicorn was palpable. She could actually taste it in the room, almost feel it radiate from his every motion, every single word he spoke. It was enough to make most who could feel it break down, but then, there was the implication of why that pain was there.
Twilight. Dear Maker above, Twilight…
“I-I’m so sorry, Shining,” she sobbed, hating herself for sounding like a little filly after being scolded but unable to stop herself. The words came dribbling from her mouth almost as fast as the tears rolled down her cheeks, squeezing out her eyes. “I’m so, so sorry…”
“You fucking aren’t!” He screamed, his voice cracking mid-sentence. Steeling himself again, he pressed the horn even deeper into her throat. When he spoke again, it was with an eerie calm: “At least, not yet…”
They stood like that for a solid minute, though it might as well have been an eternity. Just the Prince and the Princess, one absolutely ready to kill the other. Who knows how long they might have stayed like that, or what course Shining Armor might have chosen, if it hadn’t been for one, good thud from the other side of the door.
Shining dispersed his magic and looked over his shoulder. Then, with a sinister little half-smile, he turned back to her. “I wish to continue this…line of discussion Princess, I really do,” he nodded to the door. “But then, I doubt they let me see you again after, even with my status. So just let me leave you with this…”
The unicorn took her cheeks in his hooves and squeezed, tears soaking into the keratin as he gripped her face and stared sadistically into her eyes. This time when he spoke, his words were garbled by his own emotion, though their meaning was still as clear as ever:
“You. Ours. Now.”
And then he left. Just like that, he turned around and trotted back out the door, which finally swung open. Immediately, one of the humans rushed in, this one with another tuft of fuzz on its chin, though she couldn’t even see through the tears blocking her vision. She barely even watched as the human tackled the unicorn and dragged him back out, screaming ”Chyort,” over and over again as he rushed the little white body out of the cell. Somehow, she still sensed the maniacal smile Shining kept on her the entire time he was being dragged away.
“Maker above, Shining,” she whispered. “What happened here!?”
4790014 Oh, that come's later
I'm sorry, but the entire premise of this sort of story is imbecilic. Only a ten year old would think that tiny, sentient horses would pose any threat to humanity. Seriously...watch the show for five minutes. Then come back and say that Celestia and the Equestrians would pose any legitimate threat to the hominids....try to keep a straight face. Space magic and rainbow farts wouldn't make any difference here.
Did... Shining completely forget that this wasn't the Xenolestia he knows? I can understand given the trauma but wow. He really needs to be shown Twilicorn.
Seriously, how the hell would they have not figured out it's Twilight?
There's still no Dark or Tragedy so I continue to hold hope Celestia will be set free.
Oh. So this version of Shining Armor is a complete piece of shit who is perfectly okay with harming the innocent just to feel better about himself. Good to know I should root for his painful death. God damn that got me pissed off. I think I hate this version of him more than I hate Xenolestia.
Or does he not know that this isn't the same Celestia? And that this version hasn't killed her world's Twilight? Because if so, he's just a complete idiot.
4790025
Who cares about the show? In one story they may be tiny, pathetic, and unable to tie their own shoes, but in this story they're big, scary and mean.
It's called fimFICTION for a reason.
4790025 It's an anti-TCB story you fucking dolt.
4790025
Uh...super strength, magical powers, weather control... Those are just three things off the top of my head that, if used effectively would make ponies a threat if they wanted to be. Weather control especially. Imagine weaponized tornadoes and coordinated lightning strikes or hurricanes used as WMDs. Plus the more skilled pegasai like Dash or the Wonderbolts could fly rings around fighter jets.
Then take magic. Granted Twilight was probably at the high end of unicorn abilities before she ascended, but even taking some of her basic tricks into account could be scary on a tactical level. Strike teams that can teleport into otherwise secure locations, the ability to transmute things like tanks into a useless pile of rocks... Really unicorns are even more scary than pegasai because the limits of what their magic could do might only be limited by imagination and power.
Out of the base three races, Earth ponies are technically the least threatening...in a conventional battlefield. After all, super strength isn't that great when you can be mowed down by bullets before you can get close enough to use it. But then you imagine what somepony like Applejack or Big Mac could do to you in a close quarters fight... Also imagine pony soldiers with abilities like Maud Pie, being used to PUNCH their way into bunkers or even demolish buildings.
So yeah, on the surface, ponies don't SEEM all that scary, but when you really think about it, it makes you piss yourself at the possibilities.
Hmm... :) Wow, we got a LOT of things to think about here. Shining is almost completely broken, hatred the last thing keeping him sane. Japan seems to have been completely exterminated, more than likely because of their near, non-existencal army. The same thing happened in World War Z. And Celestia is finally beginning to realize the true horror that happened here.
Shining has just broken many laws and used pretty much all of his credence up by now. He will begin to talk to himself, as the enemy who he hated to stay sane seems so much more... Human, than he thought. That will begin to break him for good.
Twilight will learn of this armor at some point. Probably long after we FINALLY see what happened to her. She is the only thing that can redeem him now. Also, poor cadence! :(
So the Alicorns are immortal...
MOAR!! MAOR NOW!!!
4790105
Uhh...no. The average human male would more than a match for the average pony. Unarmed. You do realize how ridiculous that sounds, correct? The creators of the show intentionally wrote them to be cute and nearly defenseless. Their entire castle guard were beaten by little, insectoid/pony things. Not. A. Threat. Brah.
And shining just went full retard.
4790121 maud threw a bucking boulder, like to see you do that
4790121 Natural abilities? Both fully intending to hurt the other? Float you into the air, toss you over a cliff. Punch you hard enough to shatter rocks. Blast you with lightning.
And even disregarding all of that, Xenolestia is alternative universe!
You know what, I call on this.
4790121
...Right, and I suppose the average human can DRAG AN ENTIRE HOUSE DOWN MAIN STREET!? Or punch their way through a solid rock? That's not me applying any modifications, that's stuff that was shown IN THE SHOW. Yeah, the guard got beaten by the changelings...but A: that was them being taken by surprise, B: as you pointed out, it was a kids show and it'd leave nothing for the heroes to do if the guards were as competent as they should be. Now step away from the cutesy kids show premise and imagine a real life Equestria out to conquer us. Now imagine that one third of their population can have super strength, another third has at minimum telekinesis and at max reality warping abilities, and the final third can all fly naturally, can control the weather, and some of them can achieve super sonic speeds without the use of jet engines. Then just for shits and giggles, imagine that their rulers are nigh immortal beings with the ability to move a MOON and a STAR respectively.
4790166
You can see what I look like on my user page, man. Not a problem. Stop being so self-loathing. You're a human. Be proud of it.
4790080
I think of it as more of a counter-anti-TCB story. Which is way, way better than just another anti-TCB story, because they've by and large turned into bad jokes.
Also... I think this Prince was never informed that they've captured another alicorn. When he finds out he's blown any possible chance of being allowed to see Princess Twilicorn, that's going to really hurt.
4790175
-They panicked after seeing a mere Zebra.
-They needed the ENTIRETY of all of Ponyville's weather team to make a tornado strong enough to transfer the water from a single...small...pond to Cloudsdale. That still wouldn't be strong enough to lift a single M1 Abrams tank.
-Their entire castle guard was subdued by a small group of insectoids. Only "love" saved them. C'mon.
-There aren't that many Wonderbolts. And it wouldn't make a difference if there were. Their bones are hollow. Only Rainbow Dash would be able to do anything significantly threatening...and even then, her ability to do so would be limited.
-Princess Celestia was beaten by an insectoid pony powered by "love." And the main six were overpowered by a bunch of them. A single stomp from a human's boot would be enough to end a Changeling's existence.
-The most powerful magic available to a Unicorn would be endowed by the Unicorn Amulet thingy. And the Unicorns' abilities to do anything substantially threatening with their magic was limited to begin with. The average Unicorn can't do much more than levitate small objects. Most of them can't teleport of shoot magical projectiles and whatnot.
-I believe this is all stemmed from an inherent self-loathing of one's own humanity, seeing as to how it's absurdly unjustifiable to pose this possibility of Equestrians being a threat. The characters were intentionally written to be fairly defenseless to amplify the "cuteness" factor. Three, big rednecks with shotguns could easily solve the majority of Equestria's martial problems. Give them a few AT4's and some .50 caliber machine guns, and even the dragons wouldn't be that much of a big deal.
4790182 sorry I'm a misanthropist
Humans aren't gods, celestia and luna raise celestial bodies, applejack can buck apples of a tree with a swift kick, rainbow can summon lightning and control it, rarity can handle 100s of needles at a time, fluttershy can make bears maul you, pinkie is pinkie, twilight can teleport you into a volcano, THIS UNIVERSE GOT LUCKY
4790200
Good, he deserves it for his idiocy.
4790182 also your a big scary warrior, that metal conducts the lightning won't protect you from lava or save you from hordes of bears and the stare, rarity could find the fault lines applejack could shatter your spine
4790025 You must be new here.
4790225
They don't have literal control of the celestial bodies, dude. And they aren't gods. They may be long-lived, but c'mon. They can die. That's likely more metaphorical than anything. How would a Changeling queen be able to stop a deity that could control the heavens? She couldn't. The show introduced a good many plotholes with the whole "sun/moon purgatory" thing after they were captured by...fucking...magical vines. Just vines. And I get that you hate humans, but it's illogical and should have no bearing on your argument. A single squad of Marines would tear half the countryside up before they could so much as fart. Not that anyone would want to do that...I mean...they're so cute. Who'd have the heart?
4790220
Because xenophobia and mob mentality totally is exclusive to ponies.
Nobody's saying it would, ha.
In a universe where emotions are very powerful. In that world when you're racist, the world freezes and everyone dies.
Based on...?
See previous point on love.
Based on...?
Tom.
Acknowledging another species's advantages = hating humanity. The logic (or lack thereof) in that statement is staggering. You know, the box jellyfish has deadly poison that can kill you in minutes. I guess I hate humanity because some jellyfish are can kill people on touch, but I can't.
Three. Three. What the hell are you on? I get that guns are pretty deadly, nobody's debating that, but humans die pretty easily on their own. It takes a stupidly little amount, and while you can argue that for any species it's still true. Please explain to me which martial problems the three rednecks with shotguns (Let's be merciful and give them ammo) would solve that you are thinking of.
You mean the giant thick-skinned dragons that breathe fire?
Look, dude. I'm not a misanthrope like you seem to believe based on... I don't even know. I'm in Humans Aren't Bastards and my story is a crossover with one of the most Humans-Are-Scumbags game out there, and I still cast them in a positive light. I'd be happy to discuss this with you, provided you can actually, you know, back up some of your stuff.
4790240
You're immensely exaggerating their abilities, friend. And that's only the main six...of whom are considered the most capable in all the land to some degree. Fluttershy has not...and could not summon a horde of bears. And also, I've hunted brown and black bears here in TN. A large-bore hunting revolver is enough to put them down, dude. Applejack does not have super strength, either. Lava can't be teleported like that. The individual abilities of the weather ponies to create lightning and whatnot is extremely limited. Which is why they have to collaborate in huge groups to do anything substantial. Watch the show. Watch it closely. They're just candy-colored ponies, dude.
4790258 one what if chrysalis attacked, by your own logic she is extremely powerful.
Two ever head of mass teleportation, that whole squad, in the volcano, two in the TCB universe they have an expanding barrier that kills any human it touches and destroys anything human made
three it's an alternate universe maybe xenolestia killed off the changelings and wasn't defeated.
Four DISCORD CAN DO LITERALLY ANYTHING you mess with fluttershy, enjoy being a beach ball!
4790177
You just introduced your own fallacies in that post, man. You defeated your own reasoning. You might want to reorganize your thoughts there.
4790273 not teleporting lava, teleporting you!
Also she can stare down dragons so she could send a dragon on you
And it is still lightning you will COOK in your armor
What the fuck, Shining.
You know it's not the one you're after and... seriously, what the fuck dude.
I don't care what he's been through. Lashing like that against the innocent is criminal.
4790288
What armor? SAPI plates? We don't wear conductive armor anymore. This ain't the Dark Ages. And those cute, little bolts of lightning wouldn't be enough to kill most people. There's tons of examples of humans surviving massive electrical storms, being shocked multiple times by electrical bolts hotter than the surface of the sun and surviving. Hominids were made to be tough. A lot of you have simply forgotten this, because we live in a somewhat saccharine society that espouses humanistic sentiment over reason. And another thing: We've got technology, kid. Teleportation doesn't matter. Bullets, laser-guided rockets, and real-time mass comms do. That's why this sort of stuff makes no damn sense.
4790310 get off your stupid pedestal and think! Humans don't have natural weapons beside our mind, PONIES HAVE THAT AND NATURAL WEAPONS,
4790310 also BARRIER AND DISCORD
4790325
Jeez, kid. I wasn't trying to be rude. I was trying to be completely rational and polite. But you seriously need to grow up. I ain't putting humans on a pedestal. I'm representing the species in a clinical, rational capacity. I get that this is a cute, little fantasy world and all that, but you've become so entranced in it that you've lost your ability to see the forest from the trees. I'm not trying to put the little, guys down. I like 'em. They're cute. But they're not a real threat.
4790329
The Changelings broke that barrier by ramming into it a bunch of times. Seriously. That's it. And do you honestly think Discord would participate in a conflict like that? Hell, no. He'd sit back and watch it all unfold. Look what he did when he screwed around with Ponyville.
4790342 now he is reformed, and if you hurt fluttershy, discord hurts you
4790342 that's a different barrier, that was a normal shield spell this barrier destroys anything human and not even a nuke could break it
4790302
It's almost making one want to see Celestia burn them right back. You killed innocents, you assaulted her, verbally abused her, and now she strikes right back. There's a good reason they don't allow emotionally invested people to see prisoners! Doing that is a good way of getting yourself beaten and tossed in prison for a good long time.
4790116
Japan has a pretty good Military nowadays.
Also World War Z wrote the Humans as completely moronic, to the point that people with basic knowledge of the military can point out how many things were rigged for the Zeds.
4790105
Just saying that Rainbow Dash can only go to around Mach 1 wearing nothing, while the F-15E can go up to about Mach 2.5 with loaded weapons.
Ok, this story is good, but at the same time is so fucking stupid! Did they heard a word about multiverse theory? Did Shining heard about it? What the fuck does he think? That this portal goes back in time or some shit, to his Equestria before the invasion? It's so fucking moronic. It's like some Auschwitz ex prisoner, today tried to kill some guy, just because he looked like Hitler.
She could be Celestia, Xenolestria, Trollestia, Molestia, hell, she could even be star pirate in universe where ponies have galactic empire, but those humans and Shining act like there is only one option, and nothing else.
4790064 You DO realise that he is traumatized and that he only knows Celestia as a being of pure evil?
4790105 Flying rings around fighter jets? Just stop here... You have NO idea about modern military machines apparently...
A Jet could simply outrun or outclimb any Pegasus, the Eurofighter for an example can climb with Mach 1 to a maximum altitude of 20km!!! No fur is gonna safe you from the coldness up there...
Even if they had the upper hand with their magic in normal combat, they would have NO chance against ICBM strikes.
4790225 We are closer to being gods than any of the ponies, we can create life, destroy entire planets, can invent nearly everything, have a high understanding of how the universe works...
4790405
4790382
While I can understand the humans' actions (principle of precaution and all that jazz), what Shining Armor did violates all protocols about POW treatment.
Are you trying to make Shinning look like a complete dick? He is horrible in this!
4790479
I.. Did mention that? Nor was I supportive of the humans in this case? Or their abysmal POW care.
4790225 What would they do against a hydrogen bomb? missiles can travel faster than sound so they wouldn't hear it coming and if they made it come at the right angle they wouldn't see it. Survive every molecule in your body being atomized...
4790369 Let's also not forget what would happen if they do attack. The world would unite to stop them, combine technologies and create new ones in the process.
I've waited awhile to see this update, but now I'm afraid to read it.........
Looks like this Shining isn't the one she remembered, anyway nice chapter, but one question, how could he make the replica and replace the original with the fake one without anybody noticing, it? Shouldn't there be some countermeasures to this?
4790509
I don't think you're going to be able to convince him, friend, though I laud your efforts and reasoning. He threw a big hissy fit just a minute ago when someone exhibited the hubris to so much as disagree with him. I ain't tryin' to be mean here and insult the guy...I just think you're wasting your time is all.
4790369 Who uses just one nuke?
4790521 I concur, just take a look at Germany in the second world war: At first they were flying with simply piston engine aircrafts that could barely fly; later they had JETS with guns strong enough to rip apart ANY bomber in 1/4th of a second, nearly had a nuke, invented heat-seeking missiles, camera-bombs, synthetic fuel with jet fuel quality, steel so strong that tanks made of it could withstand over 100 hits and many more technological wonders. And this was only ONE nation!
4790225 Why the fuck do you hate humanity? That's speciest man... Well, since your a self named misanthropist and seem to hate yourself what place do you have in society? If you hate us fine. Join ponies and commit treason against your own species. Have fun on the losing side.
4790509
ICBMs with MIRVs... there's a reason they've never been used.