Luna and the Calm [History Overwritten]
“Give me another ten laps!” the gruff drill sergeant bellowed.
“SIR, YES SIR!” The troops replied, already up and moving.
Recently promoted Captain Shining Armor observed the state of the troops he had inherited from his predecessor, and smiled approvingly. If there was one thing a looming threat was good for, it was getting ponies motivated to train harder.
The mysterious Agent Crow’s reports had the equestrian military on edge. But still, it had been over a month with only minor skirmishes against Dusk at this point. Those reports made it seem like something big was coming.
The highest ranking official in the Royal Guard had been looking over the intelligence reports last night, and he was worried. Shining Armor debated if the benefit of bringing in EUP border guards as backups was worth the expense. And while he’d need to put it past the princesses first, he was sure they’d support him in bringing in reinforcements.
The Captain rubbed his temple with his hoof. Even the brisk November air wasn’t invigorating him. He wished it was an invading army. The Captain was a barrier specialist. He kept enemies out, but the enemy was already inside his city. By donning pair of colored contacts and keeping their mouths shut, Dusk members could pass for normal civilians. It irritated Shining Armor that there was no clear-cut enemy.
The only one who could tell them apart at a glance was his sister, who had seemingly vanished of the face of the world a few weeks ago. Within a few days of her disappearance, the order had come through to find her as usual, but instead of capturing, the order simply said to make contact, request of her that she come back, and then report her current location. It made him happy that his sister wasn’t being treated as a criminal anymore, but it did nothing to ease his worry about her whereabouts.
That stallion that she hung out with, Cobalt, didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. Shining suspected that he still had a few screws loose, though he’d never say that to Cobalt’s face.
A set of nearly silent hoofsteps approached the Captain from behind and to the left. “Captain Armor,” the voice of Princess Luna said. “Might I have a word with you in private?”
Shining Armor looked over his shoulder. “Of course, your highness. One moment.” To the drill sergeant, the Captain called out, “Pardon me for a moment.”
The sergeant nodded back. “Take your time. We’ve got all day.”
The running troops groaned at the statement.
Princess Luna turned and strode away from the training grounds while Shining Armor followed behind. Once they were a safe distance away and positioned behind one of the training ground’s buildings, Princess Luna said, “Captain, I have good news and bad news. In order to spare your nerves, I will say the good news first.”
“Is it Sparkle?”
Luna shook her head. “No. The good news is that the bad news is a lie. You are hereby ordered to act as if the bad news is true, but you may take solace in the fact that it is a fabrication.”
“Your highness?”
Luna continued, “The bad news is that Twilight Velvet Sparkle and her son, Thornecrovitar, were found murdered. She was attacked by Dusk agents, and while they managed to defeat two of them, they were ultimately slain with a cursed weapon. The location we found her in was, unfortunately, heavily saturated in dark magic, which clung to their bodies. The health risk of preparing them for a funeral was too great, and their bodies had to ultimately be disposed of. I am deeply sorry for your loss.”
“You’re lying about that, right?” Shining Armor asked, just to be sure.
“Am I?”
“You have to be. Sparks and Thorn couldn’t be dead,” he said.
“Really?”
“But why? What could... Agent Crow. She’s Agent Crow,” Shining Armor concluded.
“Is that what you think?” Luna replied.
“Yes.”
Luna turned away. But, at the last second before her face was obscured from his, she winked. “Remember your orders, Captain, and I am dreadfully sorry for your loss.”
“Yes, your highness. Thank you, your highness,” Shining Armor said. Even though she’d outright said to him that it wasn’t true, his emotions had still been riled up by that lie. The tear that he wiped from his eye was more real than he’d admit.
It was an odd thing to see on a table. If one were to really think about it, the object's presence and appearance made a certain amount of logical sense. If one knew that Celestia was not a morning pony, despite raising the sun, having a container full of coffee on the breakfast table was understandable. Then, if one considered Celestia's sheer appetite, then having the entire pot instead of just a mug also made sense.
To most, however, the skull and crossbones on the glass of the coffee pot seemed out of place. Celestia's personal attendants and chefs, however, knew exactly how toxic Celestia's morning brew was. It wasn't spoonfuls of sugar the solar princess added.
The head alchemist at CSGU once took a sample of Celestia's brew to test what made the concoction toxic to mortal ponies. What he found made him weep with both joy and sorrow, for Celestia drank a coffee with so much caffeine that a single drop would keep a pony awake for days, and a mouthful would literally liquefy their hearts.
And yet, after downing such a massive quantity of a drink that took a goddess's physiology to tolerate, Princess Celestia could barely find the energy to eat her pancakes. In fact, when Luna entered the breakfast room, she found Celestia face down in the stack of fluffy treats.
"Sister, awaken," Luna said, nudging her elder sister.
"I'm awake," Celestia mumbled, her head still resting on the pancake pillow. "I just don't want to move."
Luna snorted. "You're making a fool of yourself, Tia."
"You know, I hate her," Celestia declared.
"Hate who?"
"Sparkle."
"You do not hate her," Luna insisted.
"Yes I do!" Celestia petulantly whined. She lifted her head from Mount Pancake and whined, "If she hadn't gone and stuck her big, fat nose in everything, I could have kept pretending that my country was just fine!"
The night princess rolled her eyes. "You would have realized it eventually," Luna said.
"Yes, but not all at once." Celestia fell silent for a time as she stared at nothing in particular. "Hey, Lulu?"
"Yes, Tia?"
"Remember, back a long time ago, when you thought nopony respected you, and that you felt jealous of me because nopony came to night court?"
Luna raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"I have a really important job for you. Do you want to replace parliament? Like, you make all the laws yourself? Because I seriously doubt that you could do a worse job than some of this latest generation of nobles."
Luna poured herself a cup of similarly fortified coffee. "What's the damage?"
"'What's the damage?' she asks," Celestia mocked. "More like, 'What's salvageable?' Most of the upper levels are irrefutably guilty of one crime or another. I'm running a skeleton government with maids as secretaries and guards as bureaucrats, I'm so understaffed. I'm going to be spending the next two decades hearing nothing but corruption trials, and the ones convicted so far have all had the flimsiest of defenses. 'He did it, so I thought I could do it too.' What kind of excuse is that?" the solar princess ranted. Over the course of her monologue, Celestia had gradually become more animated, and was flinging her hooves in the air by the end.
"Oh, and don't forget day court; I still have those idiots to deal with. Why, just yesterday, a pest pony came in complaining that he wasn't getting enough work to make a living and demanded a subsidy. Do you know why? There are no more pests, he claims. I clapped him on the back, said, 'Well done!', and had him out of the castle before he could even blink."
Celestia's head flopped back into her pancakes. "I really want to go back to an absolute diarchy again, Lulu."
"Well, there is the matter of an impending blood war with us slated as assassination targets before that, but yes. I would like that, too," Luna replied. She picked up her spoon and took a dainty bite out of the massive bowl of oatmeal that the chef had made for her. Luna looked at the bowl, and decided that it needed more cyanide salts as seasoning.
Celestia perked back up. A little bit of syrup dripped down her face. "They do know that I can reforge my body out of fifteen million degree starstuff, right? And that you can just dream yourself up a new body?"
"The last time you built yourself a new body, you created the crater that became Horseshoe Bay, vaporizing anypony that might have possibly told," Luna replied. "So no, they don't."
Celestial looked as if she had just realized something. "So that's why I still get assassination attempts."
Luna took a bite of poisonous oatmeal. After she swallowed, she said, "Tia, is it weird that we can just talk about attempts at our lives as if we are discussing the weather?"
"Lulu, after going from being the mortal daughters of a cheesemaker and a farmer, to being the personifications of the stars and the night sky, and fighting Discord, I don't think anything is that weird anymore," Celestia replied.
"True," Luna replied. "I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that Dusk is planning to launch a major offensive before the year is out. The good news is that Sparkle will have a weapon ready for us by then. We just have to inoculate the Red Platoon first, and she taught me how."
"Well, there's that," Celestia said. "How is she, by the way?"
"Very good, actually. Her skill at gathering information is exceptional, and her reports are detailed, but concise. She is a great spy, in part due to her unique skill set," Luna explained.
"But how is she mentally? She did say that this Mama Bear was a mind control and hypnotism specialist. I would assume that she has been exposed to her influence at least once," said Celestia.
"I am not worried in the slightest about her succumbing to Mama Bear's manipulations. What I am worried about is how she is getting around those manipulations," Luna replied.
Celestia frowned. "She is not messing with her own mind, is she?"
"Just the opposite; she is restoring her fractured mind. I've told you how she and her son share dreams. What I myself just found out is how this came to be. Her son, Thorn, is her phylactery. However, her soul is not entirely pony. Half a dragon's soul is fused to her own, changing the way her mind works. By splitting her personality in half and partitioning each to one body, Sparkle and Thorn are effectively two individuals. However, when they take down the wall between them, the resulting personality, Sparkrovitar, is far stronger than either of them, and can shrug off most anything. I told her that she was one of the strongest psychics in the world. I think, under me, their full self is the strongest psychic ever," Luna explained.
"I see. She is dangerously powerful, yes, but I feel that there is something else worrying you."
Luna pondered. "It is a sum of many things, I think. I do not believe I could adequately describe my thoughts. Still, I am wary of the full necromancer, if only on a hunch."
Celestia looked into her nearly empty pot of death coffee. Would everything be alright? There was so much going on that she couldn’t see how it was all going to play out, and Apollo had been quiet on the subject.
Lieutenant Ironwood hadn’t stood in front of the entirety of the Red Platoon in a long time. Of course, considering the circumstances that would require the coven leader to address the entirety of his coven, that was perhaps a good thing.
But how long it had been since he had last done this was inconsequential, as he was standing in front of his troops now, and in a time of war.
In the front row sat Silver Bells, the representative from the LSC, who was here as their ally. She stood out only by virtue of her mane, being the longest of anypony’s in the room. Other than that, she was watching him as attentively as the soldiers around her.
Ironwood began, “Soldiers of the Red Platoon, allies from Lune de Sang Cirque, I appreciate your presence here today. Thanks to the work of our informant within BLACKBLOOD, now known to us as Dusk, we have detailed information on the abilities of our enemies and knowledge of which targets are most valuable.”
He pressed a button on the crystal remote, and a projection crystal lit up. Memories directly from Princess Luna’s mind filled the screen. “Dusk is an organization composed of sixteen covens, the largest of which are Black Rose, the Crimson Guild, Haven, and the Midnight Vanguard, as well as several minor covens. There are three wolf packs, Blue Moon, H.O.W.L., and The PACK, that are allied with them, as well as twenty free changeling infiltrators. This puts their entire fighting force at well over a thousand vampires, one hundred werewolves, and the twenty changelings.”
A hoof went up in the middle of the crowd. “Wouldn’t we notice a group of vampires that big in Canterlot? They’d need a lot of blood to feed a force that big.”
Ironwood nodded, and clicked to the next slide. The image depicted a pony with a shark tail and gills, wearing mechanical equipment on his back. Also sitting on his back was a really tiny earth pony, who was also strapped to the mechanical equipment. “These are Battery and Boura, and for reference, Battery is the normal sized earth pony sitting on Boura’s back.”
“Crap, that’s a huge seapony,” somepony in the back said.
“Yes, and they’re the reason why we can’t find Dusk.”
“We’re inside a pocket dimension?” Thorn asked the giant seapony floating in the massive tank.
Boura nodded. Because of his size, his vocal cords didn’t function properly, so he signed to Battery using head, ear, and hoof gestures. Battery interpreted, “Yes. Boura and I built this place for Dusk. The entrance moves around, too. Nopony can find us unless we allow them to.”
“That’s impressive. Mom just uses psychic redirection wards to confuse ponies,” Thorn commented. “Hey, how did you get in here? We’re awfully far from the ocean.”
Through Battery, Boura said, “I swam.” The giant seapony submerged below the surface and swam towards the glass. Just as Thorn thought Boura would crash into the glass, the red-eyed seapony grinned his sharklike grin and phased right through the glass and continued swimming through the air as if it were water. He dove into the ground, reemerging a second later so that his head, with a mouth large enough to swallow a pony, was the only thing above the ground.
“I bet that makes for a nasty surprise for your enemies,” Thorn commented, digging for information.
“I swim through space, not water. Of course nopony expects that,” Boura replied.
“But we will,” Ironwood concluded as he finished explaining Boura’s powers. “The problem with fighting Boura is Battery, whose special talent is powering magical systems, such as Boura’s ability. Separate them, and Boura will exhaust himself quickly and strand himself.
“The other major threats we have to face are Dreamweaver, a.k.a. Guy, the changeling illusionist; Arrow, the vampire Lieutenant of Dusk; and Riding Hood, the werewolf commander,” Ironwood explained.
“How did it go?” Mama Bear asked the false unicorn as the latter walked out of the small room.
Dreamweaver rolled her eyes. “They broke in minutes, Mama,” she replied.
“Of course they did,” Mama Bear replied, smiling a smile that most ponies found creepy. “You are you, and I wouldn’t have recruited you if you weren’t that skilled.”
“Thank you for your praise, Mama Bear,” Dreamweaver replied.
“Keep up the good work and serve me well,” the actual unicorn said.
The changeling unicorn’s eyes went out of focus for a second. Then she snapped back to attention and saluted the leader of Dusk. “Yes, ma’am.”
As they parted to go about their business, a pair of inky eyes faded away. The specter needed to tell Mistress about what she’d observed.
His hooves were steady, compensating for the motion of his wings with centuries of practiced ease. The bow in his grip was taut, and the arrow aimed true. Though it was a simple stationary target, it never hurt to refresh the basics.
A black pony stepped in front of the target. Arrow rolled his eyes, silently insulted the fool, and shot anyway.
He raised an eyebrow when brains didn’t go splat on the bullseye. “Hehehe! Almost got me!” a cheerful voice said, coming from down the range.
“I did get you,” Arrow replied.
“Nope!” The specter stepped forwards, his inky mass flowing as he did. “Have a hole in my head. Arrow went through the hole. Didn’t hit me!” The specter blew a raspberry at the vampiric stallion.
The pegasus nocked another arrow against the bow string. He fired, and when the pesky specter that had interrupted his training didn’t die, he asked, “What are you?”
“A little demon Mistress made,” the specter replied. “Escaped before Mistress could destroy me,” the specter lied.
“I’ll be more than happy to finish you for her.”
Another arrow rocketed through the inky pony. “Yay! Playtime, hehehe!” The specter shrank, transforming her body into that of a crow. “Caw! Caw! Shoot me! Caw!”
What happened next was was a very impressive display of archery. Arrow rapidly loosed six dozen arrows, averaging five shots every four seconds. And though the specter lied to him about his accuracy and mocked him for “missed” shots, she noted that he had hit her every single time, no matter how hard she had tried to dodge. Even with minor perception altering magics applied to him, he adjusted rapidly.
But the specter did note that he barely moved from the one spot, preferring to make rapid, difficult shots as opposed to moving for an easier shot. With his skill, it didn’t matter all that much, but the crow-shaped-specter decided it was exploitable, and thus worth mentioning to the Mistress.”
“Thanks for this,” Thorn said as he gestured to the crate Riding Hood had brought him, “but you can go now.”
Riding Hood’s neutral expression didn’t change. The loyal commander said, “Mama Bear insists that I see inside.”
“Trust me, Mom’s in the zone right now. You don’t want to disturb her,” Thorn replied, moving to block the door and putting on some height as he did so.
“I insist.” The werewolf’s face twisted, partially transforming into something more feral.
Thorn blinked, and Sparkrovitar took over. “Fine, if you must. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Sparkrovitar stepped out of the way and let Riding Hood pass. Picking up the oddly smelling box, the dragon body shut the door and locked it with his tail. Riding Hood led them to a back room where Sparkrovitar’s unicorn body was working.
The werewolf opened the door in question, and though his expression remained as stoic as ever, his stomach churned with revulsion at the sudden stench. Riding Hood turned to get out, but found himself forcefully shoved into the room by a now much larger dragon.
“I’m sorry,” both bodies of Sparkrovitar said at once, “but this is my personal project. I’m glad you are curious, but this has to stay secret for now. Luckily, you just volunteered for mental conditioning. Shall we get started?”
The werewolf tried to force his transformation as fast as it would go in an effort to muscle past them, but found himself magically pinned to the ground, where the stench was strongest. He thrashed, claws flexing and grasping to no avail.
When he awoke two hours later, Riding Hood immediately blushed with embarrassment. He’d fallen asleep in front of his mistress! How could he have been so rude to the one who had given him purpose, the one who had introduced him to Lady Death’s great crusade all those years ago?
“Don’t worry about it,” the mistress replied. “You were just a little overworked. It happens to the best of us. Now, why don’t you go tell Mama Bear what I told you?”
Mama Bear, that fiend. Riding Hood swore that he would get revenge for her corrupting his mind with putrid magic. He was glad that the Mistress had shown him the light once more, but he couldn’t express his thanks just yet. For now, the facade had to remain in place.
There would be a time for that soon.
Ironwood concluded his briefing on Dreamweaver, Arrow, and Riding Hood. “Agent Crow provided us with additional details, which are included in the information packets provided.
“Now, these ponies are the most dangerous in Dusk, second only to the pony manipulating them in the first place. And while we may be outnumbered, we are better trained, better disciplined, better informed, and some of us bear Sparkle’s last gift to us. Between that and Agent Crow on the inside, we will win this, and we will protect the good citizens of Equestria. That is not a question, that is a promise. With luck, this will be over in less than five weeks. I expect each of you to be here in the new year.”
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WOOOT!!!! Keep up the great work!!!!
Yeah, now a thing.
Oi, too much headcanon! Hey!
Shut up, Elizabeth. How come it all redirects to your home?
Opal placed my universe as the headcanon/prime universe instead of his.
Okay... Excuse myself for a bit, I got some... chracters to fix.
8/10
He's a dude, so he noted
--SYA, The Horse
6012510
The specter answers to female pronouns, and in that context, the specter is the one doing the noting.
huh given that celestia was bitching about the nobles i wonder if she will be happy or angry about sparkle taking over most of the nobles if the plan works
dont get me wrong luna is going to be pissed as sparkle owns squads 3 through 6 of red platoon
6012510 the spirit apparently identifies female
MORE!
Nice to see some of our key villains fleshed out a bit more. I'm hoping to see in future chapters a bit more about their personal motivations for why they are a part of Dusk, or if they are simply being controlled. Keep up the good work!
6012534 Ah sorry, thought it was Arrow doing the noting.
--SYA, The Horse
Just as Thorn though Boura would crash
Riding hood lead them to a back room
1. Thought.
2. Forgot to capitalise, Led.
Just a mere pot? If a barrel were possible, she would down it. If anything though, they don't have to worry about poisoned food. Cyanide salt for oats indeed.
Question, do you mean that his bow was taught to aim or that it was taut; pulled tight at that instant.
Wooooo! New chapter!!! I've been swamped with new chapter updates the past two days. It's been a good week. :3
6013046
Stupid homophones.
Fixed now.
I almost died laughing from all those names. "Riding Hood" is the best.
Death coffee? Poisonous oatmeal? What is this, Game of Thrones?
6013259
Celestia needs that much caffeine because her metabolism is so powerful that it filters most of it out too fast for her to stay awake. Luna is just adventurous.
6013291 I already gathered that first part but that second bit? Damn. I needs me one of those (pardon my lack of grammar).
How much WoD have you played? I'm getting some strong vibes from that series.
6013445
None, actually.
I do believe it is spelled fiend.
Great chapter, btw. This is one of my favorite stories on this site.
So, they were moral before becoming alicorns, but then they lost their morals afterwards? Or... you meant to say 'mortal'? Be funny if it was the first one though.
6013445 What's WoD?
6014006
Roleplaying game called World of Darkness. Vampires, werewolves, changelings, it has it all. I know it more for this fun little game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_%E2%80%93_Bloodlines
The author is still very different with how the story lore is presented.
"Seaponies are shark ponies. That is now a thing." I can love with that.. Great job on the chapter mate!
Have I said this before?
I can't like Sparkle. Eating a soul is too terrible. Unforgivable. Actually destroying it permanently?
Of course I'm not religious and I don't believe in them for real. But in this fiction, they exist and frankly I'm pretty horrified by the necromancer type of magic. I'm with Celestia-- I'd stamp out all necromancy every time I caught wind of it!
Loving the story. Can't wait for more celestia luna sparkle conversations.
Boura... as in that giant rock whale from Bleach? The one the older Bount rode?bleachdatabase.com/images/db/2010/07/895.jpg?1279568594
I must say, this is one incredibly well thought alternate universe you have here. Though I read the entire thing in practically two or three days. As far as I am concerned, Sparkle and Thorn possibly the most twisted anti-hereos I've ever seen. (:< Anyway, I love the two of them and your ideas that you've incorporated are absolutely divine. Seriously. Making a crim e boss willing to kill his own son for immortality, forcing Sparkle to kill said son (and then saving the same pony by becoming Savior's mother), and then reintroducing the crime boss as a second in command to a supernatural organization was a stroke of genious! Not to mention the morning routines and Luna and Celly are absolutely hilarious if I might add.
6014897
Only problem with that is going through with that sometimes means you have to go to little fillies and tell them they deserve to die.
Great chapter! Well tought out characters and each has their own dynamic. I am really interested how Boura and Battery met. Arrow is also cool, only Riding Hood needs a bit more detail. It is a pleasure to see Sparkle in action, and I really love the dialoge between Luna, Celestia and Shining Armor. I do wonder how well information demons would work as buerocrats.
Up to date nitpicks!
literally liquefy
(Well, "liquify" is a nonstandard variant with some legitimacy, so if you chose it knowing this then it's not incorrect.)
godess's
thought
Horseshoe Bay
uh can you explain this multi persona thing to me I sort of understand it but also kinda dont
6020637 you mean Sparkle and thorns bond? Well when she hatched thorn sparkle joined their souls, effectively making them one person in two bodies. Through mind altering magic she has it set up so that they can live like two different people most of the time, but sometimes she let's those spells drop creating sparkrovitar, their true self.
Dusk so screwed up by bringing someone as powerful and as impossible to control as Sparkle into their inner workings as a consultant. Even if she wasn't working for Luna, she'd still be sabotaging them from within simply to take them over as opposed to taking them out.
Um...this should be to being the personifications of the stars and the night sky, and fighting Discord, I don't think anything is that weird anymore," Celestia replied.
6033435
Thank you.
NO THE STRONGEST PHYCHIC EVER IS PYCHIC MANTIS!!!
HE CAN READ MY MEMORY CARD AND MOVE MY CONTROLLER ON PS1/PS2
I love how the context for the Princess' discussion about ponies trying to assassinate them is them literally eating poison for breakfast.
Ha, look at that cute little guy.
SONUVA-!
gamecrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Saints-Row-The-Third-1.jpg
Be a-frikkin'-fraid!
I'll read the second half of this chapter later. Gotta get to work.
"I have a really important job for you. Do you want to replace parliament? Like, you make all the laws yourself?
cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/32005383.jpg
6234043 encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLKEkrdD1Hw2Ecycau0dSXesZcESRPAnfyZUQpHav43uZGGzLA
6019100 OCD.
Level: Eric Johnson. guitarworld.com/files/Eric_Johnson.jpg
Yeah. Oryx.
???
I think the first 'expense' should be something else.
I'll admit, I am curious about what Dusk thinks of Luna's cover story...
While Sparkle could fake her death like that, something tells me that Dusk never requested it and would find it strange from a mercenary like herself.
6299267 Nah. By that point, it'd be called CDO - OCD so bad, you have to alphabetize the letters just to show how bad it is.
7216410 derpicdn.net/img/2013/1/9/207285/medium.jpg
At least he didn't say they'll be home by Christmas
I'm very much getting "the war will be won by Christmas" vibes here. Hopefully, they're right like we weren't.