The Revolution will be Ponified

by Dark Water

Myth-taken Identity

Night Vision stood atop the castle tower overlooking the courtyard, on yet another perfectly normal night. Sure, there may have been a princess conference going on, but for him, it was just another night on the job, and that job was boring. Once the glamor of becoming a night pony, wearing the black armor, carrying the spear, and being in closer proximity to Princess Luna than your average pony wears off (as unbelievable as it may seem, the glamour does eventually wear off), his job consisted of standing on top of a tower, and staring at a city where most ponies were asleep. At least the Day Guards got to interact with pretty mares every once in a while! (Luna may be beautiful, but colt, talk about intimidating and unattainable!) Why did Equestria even need ponies like him? The official line was to defend the Princesses and the Principality against threats, but 9.99 nights out of 10, the biggest threat they had to deal with was a sweet-roll thief, and even on the 0.01 nights where Equestria had the likes of Discord, Chrysalis, or Tirek to deal with, the actual protecting was done by the Elements of Harmony, or the Princesses themselves. Why weren’t he and the other “guards” paying the Princesses to guard them?

Night Vision was getting depressed by such thoughts, so he turned his mind to his job, pointless as it was. The walkway to his left looked normal. The walkway to his right looked normal. The huge gathering of bipedal creatures and metal machines in that wasn’t in the courtyard a minute ago looked normal. The night sky overhead looked norm…

Wait WHAT was in the courtyard?!

Night Vision looked at the courtyard again. There was indeed an assembly of unknown creatures standing around in the castle courtyard. He had never seen their like before, in pony or on the creature identification chart he had studied in training. They were clearly sentient, judging by the clothes they wore and the machines some of them operated. One GIGANTIC machine looked somewhat like a metal ship without sails! What was even more alarming was that a number of these lifeforms were armed with what seemed to be blades similar to those used by diamond dogs. Aside from the bows a few of them carried, the gaurdspony couldn’t recognize any of the other devices the creatures carried, whatever those things were, three facts were clear: a large number of unknown lifeforms had just arrived in Equestria: they were armed: and they were practically on the Princesses’ front doorstep! Luna had to be warned! Night Vision took wing and sped into the palace. “YOUR HIGHNESS!! YOUR HIGHNESS!!” He cried, bursting into the throne room, only to find the throne unoccupied and Princess Celestia stepping in through the entrance to her bedchamber.

“Yes Night Vision, what is it?” the solar alicorn said in her usual regal, yet motherly manner.

Bowing deeply, face to the ground, the watchpony relayed what he saw. “mmm-mmmm-mmmph-mahanna!!”

“I’m sorry; I couldn’t quite make that out, could you please stand up?”

“Sorry, Your Highness.” Night Vision said, standing at attention. “I just saw a large group of sentient, bipedal primates in the courtyard. Many of them appear to be armed with bows and blades. Many more operate what appear to be highly advanced machines, a few of which I recognized as hot air balloons. We need to find out who these creatures are, what they are doing here, and how they got into your courtyard without anypony noticing until just now.”

“Indeed,” Celestia responded, “You have done well in reporting this. Go to the barracks and get some sleep. The Day Guard and I will look into this matter.” Night Vision bowed, yawned, and went on his way, glad for the rest but disappointed that the Day Guard would be hogging all the action.

“Day Guards to me!” The Princess of the Sun commanded. She may have been the most powerful magic being in the world, but even she could be killed by a well-placed blade or arrow (although actually landing the killing blow was much easier said than done). “A large group of sentient, lifeforms have been seen in the palace courtyard. We don’t know who they are, or where they came from, but we do know that they are highly technologically advanced, and that at least some of them are armed. Your orders are to accompany me as I raise the sun, afterwards, you will continue to accompany me as I have a chat with the group’s leader to determine whether or not their intentions are hostile.”

“Operator, do you see any hostiles from up there?” Hiroshi radioed the war balloon operator from the ground. Since being stranded here, the Emperor’s Army had been put on high alert. The castle that was before them looked European, and, as the European Alliance, the barbarous former masters of many Asian colonies rightfully belonging to the divine Emperor, were just as much the Empire’s enemy as the Soviets, a war balloon was currently being sent to scout the city for any European garrison.

“Negative, Daimyo,” the balloon operator replied, “There does not seem to be any European soldiers here, which is surprising, considering how wealthy this city seems to be.”

“Well done operator, report back for further orders.” Hiroshi responded. He was having very mixed feelings. One the one hand, he had, somehow, been teleported away from his post! The Soviets would surely overrun Beijing without his incredible tactical brilliance to defend it! On the other hand, he was in a rich, unguarded European city! If he could enrich the Shogun coffers with its bounty, the Empire’s war effort would surely be strengthened! He would be hailed as a hero alongside his glorious ancestor! “Warriors!” he shouted, “We have found ourselves in a highly unusual situation. Through means unknown, we have been transported to Europe. This city is full of treasure and if we can claim it for the Empire there will be wealth and glory for us all! We shall start with the castle in whose courtyard we find ourselves!” The Shogun soldiers were just about to charge the castle doors when, suddenly, those doors swung open, and revealed a sight that none of the soldiers could ever have been prepared for.

Stepping out of the castle keep, were ponies! A lot of ponies! A lot of ponies carrying spears! And wearing bronze-age Greek-style armor! Some of them had horns, others had wings, and in the center, was a large, white horse with a horn, a pair of wings, and a billowing, sparkling, multi-colored mane, that was wearing a tiara! Hiroshi had heard tales of genetically modified insect swarms and giant, orange-skinned, chainsaw-wielding monstrosities in South America, but he had never heard of the Europeans dabbling in such things. In addition, he could not think of any conceivable use for them on the battlefield, he guessed that the ponies could stab enemies with their spears, but that seemed like such a waste of bioengineering, and that wasn’t even taking the large one into account.

Suddenly, the large one’s horn began to glow. A beam shot out from the horn into the horizon behind the Shogun troops. When Hiroshi and the others looked at where the beam was pointing, the sun was coming up. Was this creature actually raising the sun? The large horse then took off into the air, flying towards the sun, followed by the winged ponies, which formed a screen under the horse as it flew. Once the horse got close to the sun it turned around, it seemed to be actually pulling the sun into the sky through the beam emitting from its horn. Once the sun was high in the sky, the majestic equine’s entire form glowed with unearthly energy, which then spread out from it, turning the formerly dark night sky into clear, blue day. As it, no, she landed in front of the Shogun army; Hiroshi realized that they were not in Europe, and that the being in front of them could only be the sun goddess herself, Amaterasu.

Celestia was quite surprised by the creatures in front of her. Judging from the open-mouthed looks of shock that she and her guards received from the primates upon stepping out in front of them, this was probably their first time in Equestria. She had hoped that by raising the sun in front of the new arrivals, they would be enlightened about the kind of power they were dealing with, and thus, would think twice about acting upon any hostile impulses they might have had towards her little ponies. Clearly, her tactic had worked as they were all, save for the darker-skinned ones with the white cloth wrappings atop their heads, now bowing low before her. Confident that the new lifeforms were going to cause Equestria no harm she asked, “Which one of you is the leader?” No response from the primates, they likely did not speak Equestrian. After casting a universal translation spell upon the assembly, she asked the question again.

“mmmm-mmmmmph mmmm-mmmph,” said the mostly bald one wearing black and grey robes.

Celestia sighed, “Please stand up and say that again.”

“A thousand pardons, glorious goddess,” said the robed one, “I am Hiroshi Tokugawa, daimyo of this, the Great Wall Defense Corps of the army of your glorious descendant the Dragon Emperor of the Shogun Empire.”

Comments

[dude5999]

Looking forward to more, also interesting story line.