High up in a room within Canterlot Castle, lined with various stained-glass windows, three alicorns encased in obsidian stood in a circle, still as statues of a decidedly less chaotic nature. Fear reflected in their darkened, glassy eyes as clear as the moment of their capture… yet, among the horror-filled expressions chiseled on their faces, a small spark of blue light brightened up the room.
The tip of Cadance’s horn fluctuated in small magical pulses as bright white lines extended outward to Celestia and Luna. Upon contact, their horns brightened in response to join in, bridging the last gap between them with a bright white line to complete a triangle of telepathy. Yes, this was their moment to speak in secret, plan an elaborate escape, or even break free of their prisons in an explosive retort to their predicament or… or…
“Well, this could have gone better,” Cadance began in a displeased tone.
“Agreed. I believe we could have performed better than this,” Luna added. “Especially my sister.”
...Or, uh, do none of that?
Celestia snorted. “Well spoken from the one that flew away in a straight line from our stormy attacker and didn’t even attempt to swerve or serpentine.”
“I thought I could outfly it!” Luna retorted.
“You are not Rainbow Dash, Luna!” Celestia snapped. “You cannot simply ‘outfly’ a shot from a star blitzball player like Tempest!”
“Don’t you mean ‘buckball’ player?”
“You know what I meant, Cadance.”
“Well what about you?! You can’t tell me standing there could have possibly worked in your favor over trying to block it!” Luna fired back.
“But it was going to work, sister.”
“...How? Why?”
Celestia laughed. “Because it’s the last thing she’d expect!”
The response met silence from both alicorns for a time, the pregnant pause growing steadily as if a decade had passed… Or was it three days? Was there even a way to tell how much time had passed? In this room of stained glass and closed doors and bare walls, would it hurt to hang a clock somewhere, anywhere?
“...Celestia?” Cadance finally asked a millennium later.
“Yes, my darling niece?”
“Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet?”
Celestia wanted to shake her head, but couldn’t. “No, I haven’t. Why?”
“Can I make a personal request for you to resolve never to use or justify the paralyzed goat defense from now until forever?”
“Hrmm… I will consider it, but I was also thinking I should eat one less slice of cake this year instead. That seems far more reasonable!” Celestia said with a chipper note.
“That’s it, I’m getting out of here!” Luna declared, her horn glowing brighter as a thin aura formed at the base of her statue. Groaning and straining noises accompanied small shifts and tilts as Luna tried to lift herself off the ground, but to no avail. Summoning all the strength she could muster, she attempted one last burst of movement… and she succeeded! A thunk echoed through the room as Luna’s obsidian statue toppled over. “...Okay, levitation did not work as well as I hoped it would.”
“Luna! Are you alright?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” she groaned. “Barring escape, I was hoping to lose an ear so I could stop hearing this nonsense.”
Celestia rolled her eyes as hard as she could. “Sister, we’re speaking with telepathy.”
“WE RESOLVE TO NEVER USE TELEPATHY AGAIN!” Luna punctuated this outburst with a dimming of her horn, falling silent once more.
“...Very well. Cadance, since we’re on the topic, what’s your resolution?”
Cadance paused for a moment before responding, “To raise my darling Flurry Heart with the purest of unconditional love.”
“Aww…”
“And to limit visits from relatives to once a month instead of three times a week,” Cadance added without hesitation.
“Oh… HEY!” Celestia’s horn flashed brightly as she shook around angrily in place. “I do not visit that often!”
“And for me to pick and choose what parenting advice to follow!”
Celestia stopped shaking immediately. “...Okay, you’ve got something on me there, but—“
“And for you to stop spoiling Flurry Heart!”
“...” was the only response Celestia had for that.
Cadance gasped. “That was too far, wasn’t it?”
“Yes it was, but I get the point.” Celestia sighed deeply before asking, “Can I visit twice a month at least?”
“Deal.”
“I will also bring cookies every time. I insist.”
“Fine, but only if you promise to not make it a cookie mountain. A modest platter, and no more!”
“Oh, you are driving a very hard bargain Cadance… but I accept!”
“It’s settled then! But there is one more thing to do.” Cadance shifted in place slightly to turn towards Luna. “Should we try to stand her back up?”
Celestia’s horn grew brighter as a faint golden glow formed on Luna’s head. “It’s the most we can do for her right now.”
You ever have that feeling when you stumble across a book you rented from a library that’s three months overdue?
I have, and it’s happening right now.
Huh. I wonder if she plans on writing any letters after this is over.
Merry Christmas Celestia.
8650895
well, she'd probably be good at it. those spheres were smaller than the official ball.
Hm. I expected Luna to be more like Vegeta, not Celestia
The most disappointing - yet utterly unsurprising - part of the movie was the Worfing of the other three Princesses. I knew it was coming, but I knew it was going to be tired and forced once again.
I suppose at least Cadance managed to do SOMETHING vaguely useful as I recall, like raise a shield (so my headcanon of her actually being a more paladin-like character is still having some plausibility to it...)
I keep half-thinking about writing how that scene would have gone had the ponies who participated in my X-Com 2 run just come back. I probably never will, but it's a nice thought...
Wait... what about Sunny and Moonie?
...
Never mind, I just realized they'd probably just draw faces on Celestia and Luna's statues. Carry on!
Sunny: Hey, Moony! Look! I never seen these statues before. They look exactly like our real selves!
Moony: That's because it IS our real selves! Some cursed magic encased them in this form!
Sunny: So should we try to break them out?
Moony: NO! That'll make things worse!
Sunny: Aw....
8651270
Perhaps you had this in mind for how things 'really' went down?
I don't remember Fimfiction sticking ads in the middle of stories, but it looked like the princesses were bored enough to consider building an extension on their property.
8651859
Little bit, yeah. Thanks!
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Yeah, that definitely could've gone better for the alicorns. And in a timeline without narrative causality bearing down on them like an unhealthily obese elephant, it probably would have.
8652393
Yeah, I've been seeing that stuff too. But only on mobile... on PC, the ads are to the right of the story instead of after the first paragraph.
8672571
That is the confusing part though from what we can tell they must have done something to either steal an airship to make haste for the capital or since Skystar changed from a seapony to a hippogriff she might have had the pearl with her and transformed everyone into something with wings except for the ones who had wings already. When they got close enough to Canterlot they change back and prepped their plan. Alternatively they used the storm minion that Spike torched as leverage to get onto an airship. Honestly it is hard to tell but three days seems to be the safest bet from a second viewing. Though you are right that it is hard to tell and this is mostly conjecture on my part.
Yeah watching Celeste you stand there they’re there meet me face palm. She looked away from the enemy, you never do that. At least cadence did something something. I guess teleporting was it on their mind
At least, Luna did try to escape. You could blame her failure to dodge on wanting to get away as quickly as possible and not bothering to think about direction. Unless the hit came in front of her rather than from behind. Then, I agree.
But I can't get over Celestia not moving at all. You'd think seeing her niece petrified after being unable to shield herself would scare her into moving from that spot. Celestia was the easiest sitting duck.
I was best flame thrower
and I did exactly what I do in the episodes
nothing?
bingo!
8706909
You'd think that with a PG rating, they could actually do some real fighting.
If they ever do another MLP movie, that's going to be my top request for how they write the Princesses...at least have them try!