The Rise of Twilight, Part One
The hall erupted into chaos.
Guards appeared seemingly from nowhere, quickly surrounding the six. Nobles and commoners alike panicked, running around the room like chickens with their heads off, all converging towards the grand doors from which the six came from.
However, Equestria’s newest alicorns had other ideas. With a nod from Twilight, they all leapt (or in Pinkie’s case, bounced) into action. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie flew out the closest windows, while Applejack used a combination of her magic and Earth pony strength to close and bar the entryway doors. Rarity began focusing her magic to stem off the tide of guards from the barracks behind the throne, and simultaneously Fluttershy started sealing the windows so no pegasi guards could enter. Meanwhile, Twilight charged her magic and teleported all of the guards… somewhere else. This all occurred within a few seconds of each other, with Rainbow and Pinkie slipping back into the room just as Fluttershy sealed the last window.
Celestia, in the midst of the haze of disbelief, had to marvel at their efficiency. It was as if they had practiced just what to do, over and over and over again, until they could do it in their sleep, and were waiting for Twilight’s signal to carry out this part. However, Celestia would not put it past her student to do so. Not arrange a coup, per say, but plan for every contingency that could be thrown her way. Now it was just Celestia, the Mane Six, and all the ponies that had come for a “relaxing” day at court. Celestia tried to send a mental signal to the Captain of the Guard, and was able to get a fuzzy response. By the eyes of the guards outside, Rainbow and Pinkie broke through a window, and flew around the palace so fast, not only did it make some of the more motion sensitive guard sick, but both performed a Sonic Rainboom (in Pinkie’s case, what would come to be known as a Party Rainboom). They then used their magic to warp the Rainbooms into a dark shield covering the entire palace like a second skin. Celestia knew they were trapped.
“Well now, I guess we should determine the means of our surrender?” Twilight asked sweetly. If Celestia had been drinking anything, it would have been spit right back up.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on! Let’s just take her out now!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she charged at the slack-jawed Princess.
However, just before contact with the Princess could be made, a portal opened up in front of her and Rainbow Dash vanished, only to have a second portal open up somewhere above the other five, depositing Rainbow onto the ground with as much force as she had when entering the portal. Even in her shock, the Princess couldn’t help but wince as Rainbow left a largely alicorn-shaped hole in the floor upon impact. She climbed out of the hole, looking no worse for wear, and glared at Twilight.
“Why the buck would you stop me! I almost had her!” she screeched at her ringleader. Twilight just gave her that all-knowing smile and replied, “Dear Dash, there are certain, shall we say, proceedings we must attend to before we can, as you put it, ‘take her out’. Be patient, love.”
Twilight smirked, and then turned back to Celestia. “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,” with a glare at Rainbow that caused her to shrink a little, “We would like to negotiate the terms of our surrender.”
“And again I say, excuse me? First, you come into my courtroom unannounced after being gone for more than three months. Second, you are all alicorns, something you still need to explain to me. Third, you are going to celebrate your triumphant return by attempting to overthrow my rule? Lastly, you want to surrender? How am I supposed to react? Also, where are the royal guards?”
“For starters, darling, how about a trial?” Rarity quipped, brushing back her flowing mane. “That way, you can at least hear what we did and why we tried to stage such a coup in the first place! As for your guards, well,” with a glance at Twilight, “If her teleportation spell worked correctly, and I have no reason to doubt her, they are currently outside those doors, trying to beat their way in. Given Twilight’s calculations on the spells we put in place, it should take the combined might of the entire guard about three days to force down the doors.”
Celestia puffed her chest out, as if to berate them using the Royal Canterlot Voice, but then visibly deflated. "Fine. Twilight Sparkle, I hereby place you and your friends under arrest for treason against the crown of Equestria. Now, if you may, could you let the guards back in, so they may escort you to the dungeons to await your trial."
"Oh no no no, Princess, we have a much better idea, " Twilight spoke. "Since this is the Day Court, after all, why not have our trial right now?" With a wave of her horn, her hoof transformed into... a claw? Then, with a snap of said claw, all alicorns charged their magic and changed the hall. Applejack and Rarity disappeared, only to reappear dressed in police pony uniforms, complete with ridiculous hat and sunglasses. Pinkie Pie conjured up a jury stand, and teleported a dozen citizens into the seats, with her taking the first seat. All the other ponies were put into observer pews, with Rainbow Dash sitting somewhere near the back, looking disgusted. A witness stand appeared where the six once stood, with Twilight in the center and Fluttershy to the side wearing the business suit of a lawyer.
Celestia’s dais had been transformed into the quintessential judge’s booth, complete with gavel, censer, and poufy wig sitting atop Celestia’s head. After shaking the Sombra-damned headpiece off, Celestia was finally able to recompose herself. With a reluctant bang from the gavel, the Princess spoke.
“Alright, I suppose. I now call the trial of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony against the Royal Crown of Equestria to order. As the apparent presiding judge, I shall be the one to ask the questions. First question: what happened, Twilight?”
“Why, whatever do you mean?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Do not play coy with me, Ms. Sparkle! You know exactly what I mean! Where did you six go, and why?”
“Okay, Princess. I suppose I can take us all back to the beginning of our little adventure. Well, it all started when—“
“Hey you!” Pinkie suddenly shrieked, pointing somewhere behind Celestia. Celestia whipped her head around, but could see nothing but the wall behind her throne. ‘Yeah, you! Down in front! Don’t you even think about going and getting popcorn now! The real show’s about to start! I know you won’t bring enough to share with all of us!”
Twilight facehoofed, then turned to Pinkie. “For the last time, dear, this is not some epic adventure story being read by hyperintelligent monkeys’ five planeshifts up from us! That doesn’t even make any sense!” Resuming her glare at Celestia as Pinkie sat back down in her seat, Twilight remarked, “Sorry about that, Celestia. Ever since we became this way,” gesturing to the wings and horn, “Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense seems to have gone into overdrive. I promise it won’t happen again, right Pinkie?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
"Anyways, it was about thirteen weeks ago this all started..."
-------------------
"I'm so boooooooooored!"
"Pinkie, quit yer complainin' and help with these darned apple trees!"
The six were out in the fields of Sweet Apple Acres, assisting Applejack once again with Applebucking Season. Well, more like helping with the cleanup. This year, Applejack had both Big Mac and, for the first time, Apple Bloom to do the actual bucking. That left it up to the other five to collect the apples and cart them over to storage so Applejack could sell them in the market for the next few months.
After one such trip, the Apples called for a short break. They all congregated around the picnic table as Granny Smith brought out lemonade and fresh apple pies to munch. Seven of them tore into their portions with gusto, while Pinkie, strangely enough, took to pushing her piece of pie around her plate listlessly. Twilight was the first to notice.
"Pinkie? What's wrong? You aren't acting like your usual self." All the others took notice, and slowly stopped eating, fearing the worst. Unhappy Pinkie Pie is not a good Pinkie Pie.
"What's wrong? What's wrong? You of all ponies, Twilight, should know what's wrong! It's nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Exactly! Ever since we got Discord to play nice, nothing's happened! No new ponies have come to town, no letters from the Princess, no earth-breaking dangers! I've had to resort to celebrating half-birthdays, Twilight! Half-bucking-birthdays!" She seemed on the verge of tears.
“Okay, what do you want me to do about it? It’s not like I could force a problem to happen.” She shuddered. “You all know the results from that little adventure.”
Suddenly, Rarity perked up. “Aha! Ideeeaaa!” Once everypony’s attention was on the diva, she continued, “Since we can’t very well wait around for an adventure to be dropped unceremoniously into our laps, why not go out and find one ourselves?”
Applejack looked uneasy. “What are you suggesting, Rars?”
“Well, since we’ve all pretty much done everything we can around Ponyville, why not take a vacation to some of the surrounding countries? I know I’ve run out of design ideas, and I’ve heard Zebrican designers can make some of the most exotic gowns anywhere in the world.”
At this point, even Rainbow Dash was interested. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to go see some of the Griffonian cities. I know which one Gilda’s from, and it’s about time she showed me her own city. It’s the least she could do for me putting up with her all those years in Flight School.”
“Um, I want to go see the Minotaur gladiators.” Everypony whipped their heads around in shock to behold Fluttershy. “Eep! I mean… Ever since Iron Will came to town, I’ve always wanted to see their cities, and I hear their gladiator fights are world-renowned. I would love to go see them. Oh, can we Twilight?”
“Ooh! Pick me! Pick me next!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving her hoof in the air fast enough to create a current.
“Yes, Pinkie?” Twilight, muttered, fearing the worst.
“I want to go to Saddle Arabia!”
“Why?”
“Oh, no real reason. We were talking about where we want to go see stuff, and I want to go see Saddle Arabia! Really, Twilight, you should pay better attention.”
“Pinkie, I … uh …” Twilight had to resist facehoofing so hard she would self-lobotomize herself with her horn. She settled for banging her head on the tabletop. “So, Applejack. Care to voice where you wish to go?”
“Shucks, Twi. With all the help you five did today, Big Mac and Apple Bloom can deal with the rest of the harvest without me! Well, if’n I could pick someplace ta’ go, it’d be the Crystal Empire.”
“Really?” Rainbow groaned. “We’ve already been there, like, three times! Why would you want to go back?”
“If ya must know, RD, I’ve always been wonderin’ how them Crystal Ponies make all their crystal foods. If’n we can go there, I might jus’ be able to learn how, and that’ll push our apple sales through the roof! Imagine, Sweet Apple Acres Crystal Apple Cider! Heck, the Crystal Ponies’ be comin’ here to get their apples ‘stead of wherevers they get it from.”
Applejack turned to Rainbow to give her another round, but found her on the ground, salivating. “Crystal...CIDER?!” She twitched uncontrollably, then shot up, grabbed Twilight’s shoulders and started shaking her like a ragdoll. “TWILIGHT! WE HAVE TO GO TO THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!”
A field of purple energy surrounded Dash, gently pried her from Twilight, and set her back on her seat. She took a moment to recompose herself, then chuckled. “Heh, sorry about that. It’s just… the cider…”
“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy this time. “Where would you like to go?”
“Wow. Um, I guess it’s more of a question of where wouldn’t I want to go. There’s only so much you can learn from books.”
“Understatement of the century.” This earned Rainbow a swift foreleg to the ribs from AJ.
“I’ve always wanted to scale the peaks of the Himalneighya Mountains, wander the flats of Salt Lick City, find the legendary Hoofeuda Quadrangle and locate the merponies’ ancient cities within…” Twilight looked away, a mist forming over her eyes. She quickly regained her focus, then remarked, “But, really, anything you girls want to do is fine too.”
“Well, then I guess that’s settled!” Rarity whinnied. “We’ll all go on a globetrotting vacation together! And we shall start with…”
“Crystal Empire!”
“Cryst- I mean, Griffonia!”
“Minos.”
“Zebrica!”
“Saddle Arabia!”
All five glared at each other, then as if by unspoken agreement, turned to Twilight expectantly.
“… What? What do you want me to do?”
“Why, you’re the mediator, dear! Since you didn’t express a want to go to any specific place, you get to decide the order of things.”
“Well, I guess I could do that. Let’s see, according to my Atlas of Equis (RD: “She carries one of those in her saddlebags? Like, everywhere?”), the most sensible route would be to travel across Zebrica to the west, then head north to the Islands of Minos. From there, Griffonia is just across the Ponydratic Sea, with Saddle Arabia a little ways south. The Crystal Empire is in the northern tip of Equestria, so that would be the logical conclusion to our journey. That way, if AJ gets to learn about the crystal food process, and it runs a little longer than we think, she’s just a train ride away from Ponyville, not counting the stopover in Canterlot. That sound good to everypony?”
A chorus of agreements found its way to her. “Alright, everypony. Let’s plan to leave in one week’s time. Bring plenty of bits, food, and space in the saddlebags. Leave all disagreements at the train. For the next three weeks, we are officially on vacation!” Cheers all around. “Now, I just have to send a letter to the Princess detailing this…”
Continued in Part Two
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Yeah, like I said in the A/N, I wanted to get this out in prep for the next part. This next part'll dive into my own personal opinions on how Celestia has acted throughout the majority of the show, and how the Six might react if this was brought to light
5384350
oh, so this is going to be Celestia bashing. Thanks for the warning
5385171 well, yeah, if you put it that way. Should there be a tag for it?
although, it won't be from me or the Six. It'll be from some on the outside, looking in. Ones who aren't under Celestina's influence.
5385460
I would, but then my response to someone trying to punish Celestia for how she acts on the show is "You want to punish a saint?"
5384114 Awwwwwww.... *Goes back to the cage*