"You did what?" Celestia demanded in shock, staring at Nightmare Moon like she'd grown a second head.
"I revoked the nobles' legislative privileges," Nightmare Moon stated bluntly. "They can no longer pass laws regarding their own lands or those districts under their jurisdiction. They retain judicial privilege and can rule on cases brought before them, but they no longer retain the right to pass laws at whim. I checked the records, and even you haven't done that in over 500 years. Why should the nobles retain a right that you, their superior, do not exercise?"
"But...how are they not engaging in a massive revolt?" Celestia wondered.
"They tried to," Nightmare Moon replied. "I told them if they didn't like it, they could join Blueblood living amongst commoners. Then I showed them the legal documents that showed either of us had the authority to do so at any time."
Celestia stared at her, stupefied. "Wait...we do?"
"Indeed," Nightmare Moon replied. She chuckled wickedly. "Fancy Pants showed me the pertinent documents. The noble class gets their authority from Princess Platinum, the last unicorn Royal. I went through each declaration where she awarded a given pony the class of noble - which had to be regranted as lands and titles were awarded in Equestria - and each and every one had the same subclause in it: that if ever the noble line did not act in the interest of Equestria and the throne, the Royal Throne retained the right to revoke that privilege - or redefine it - at any time."
Celestia tilted her head in surprise. "I'm...rather surprised such a clause was in there. It...doesn't seem in Princess Platinum's character."
"From hornwriting comparisons, it seems that all legal documents post the founding of Equestria were penned by Clover the Clever," Nightmare Moon explained.
Celestia couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yes, that sounds like her. She hated the idea of noble privilege - especially having it inherited - but she said that unifying the tribes was too important to risk upsetting by trying to 'fix' things. But that shouldn't apply to Blueblood. He's a direct descendant of Platinum."
Nightmare Moon grinned widely. "Oh, Fancy Pants also showed me the adoption papers, where Princess Platinum officially adopted us so that the ponies would accept us as their rulers. It stated that her descendants would also retain the title of Prince or Princess, as the head of the noble council...so long as they proved worthy."
Celestia blinked. "Document penned by Clover the Clever?" she asked. Nightmare Moon nodded. "The last line in fine print?" Another nod. "Then...everything you've done since taking the throne by force is technically legal?"
"Not just legal," Nightmare Moon replied. "Binding. I didn't understand all the terminology and the names used, but according to what Fancy Pants translated for me, you and I are equals on the throne by those old laws the nobles cling to...which means you can't unilaterally overturn one of my decisions without the support of the Equestrian Population and its legal bodies."
"Like the nobles?" Celestia asked.
"Actually, the old laws specifically refer to those of the legislative branch of the government," Nightmare Moon pointed out. "Without their legislative privileges, the nobles can't weigh in on the issue."
Celestia slumped back in her cage, trying to wrap her mind around how much running the country had been changed - been simplified - by Nightmare Moon's takeover and decisions. She'd reigned as a tyrant for a month before she stripped Blueblood of his title, lands, and authority, and the country was barely recognizable now. Or at least the government was.
I'm beginning to wonder if we actually need to be saved, she thought silently.
Deep in the Hayseed Swamps near the southeastern coast of Equestria, Twilight and her friends confronted the Guardian of Generosity. a massive serpent shaped of swamp water. During the battle, Rarity was consumed by it...and Spike lost it.
"Give her back!" he roared, his rage accelerating his physical growth. No longer a dragonling, the young drake lunged with his adolescent frame, clinging to the serpent and slamming it with his fists, claws, and flames. "Give her back!"
Not long after his barrage began, the serpent burst, soaking everyone present. Rarity slowly settled to her hooves, the choker of the Element of Generosity decorated with waves.
"Looks like yer Element's water," Applejack pointed out.
"And how useful that will be," Rarity groaned, parting her soaked mane so she could see. "I'm soaked. I must look a fright."
"You look lovely to me," Spike told her softly, kneeling down beside her to help steady her.
Rarity looked up into his eyes, taking in his wiry frame and new height...and blushed prettily, fluttering her eyelashes.
"And it could have been worse!" Pinkie pointed out. "Imagine if the serpent had been flesh and blood instead of made of water! Then we'd all be soaked in something completely different!"
This statement was greeted with a concerted "Eww!" from most of those present. "Thank you oh so much for that mental image, Pinkie," Rarity groaned.
"You're welcome!" Pinkie hummed tunelessly to herself as she conjured flames to warm everyone up.
Rarity became much more sanguine about the situation when she discovered her Water powers allowed her to strip the water from her coat and mane, restoring both to pristine condition...oh, and everypony else's, too.
"Speaking of, how is Blueblood doing?" Celestia asked. "It's been nearly a month since you stripped him of his title." She took a sip of her tea, which Nightmare Moon had ordered brought to her.
"He's the navigator aboard a pirate ship," Nightmare Moon replied easily.
Celestia promptly spat a mouthful of tea across the room so hard it seared into the opposite wall. "What? How?"
"As I understand it, he started out as a cabin colt the crew called Blueballs," Nightmare Moon explained. "He apparently sneaked aboard with intent of stealing their treasure to finance some sort of quest to reclaim his lands and titles. They caught him and locked him up, intending to ransom him back to you when and if I was overthrown." She shrugged. "They got tired of leaving him in the hold, and they found it amusing to make a former prince to grunt work for his meals. However, during a massive storm in the waters to the west of Smokey Mountain - caused by the Guardian of Loyalty - the ship was in danger of foundering. Their former navigator got thrown overboard and drowned...and Blueblood seized the wheel. His special talent took over from there, and he steered the ship to safety. Lost his right eye in the process, though."
Celestia whimpered at the sound of that. "Is...is he going to be okay?"
"According to this letter he sent to you," Nightmare Moon continued, handing the letter up, "he couldn't be happier. Apparently, the thrill of steering the ship through the storm is the first time he's felt truly alive since his childhood. When the pirates offered to free him and drop him off wherever he liked as thanks for saving the ship, he asked if they still needed a new navigator. He now goes by Blackblood, and he now intends to unite the pirates in a coalition, and bring an understanding and alliance between the pirates and Equestria, acting as their king." Nightmare Moon frowned. "He also promises to come back in One Piece, though I've no idea why he capitalized those two words."
Celestia groaned, but chuckled ruefully. "He watched too many Neighponese cartoons as a child," she explained.
As Cloudsdale moved into position over Vanhoover, Twilight and her friends - those without wings relying on cloud walking spells - the Guardian of Loyalty approached the city. The Typhon - a living storm of unimaginable destructive power - roared as the winds around its edge began to lash the city.
"Alright, everyone!" Twilight shouted over the storm. "Time to fly!"
Twilight and Spike had used logic to determine that Loyalty would be connected to Wind, and that the Guardian would likely be airborne. It was why they had caught a ride in Cloudsdale to seek it out. While there, Pinkie had come up with an idea of how to fight the Guardian that would likely work. Working with Twilight and Spike, she had made her idea a reality. As such, Twilight and her friends climbed into the seven aircraft that had been produced, color coded to their pilots...craft that Pinkie called Neighport 23s.
Each plane used high powered lift and thrust crystals to move through the air rapidly, even against air currents, with enchantments on the wings to mimic the magic of pegasus flight. Each had a machine gun on the front, four of them designed to draw on the Element magic of their pilots, one designed to draw on its pilot's dragonfire, and two loaded with negatively charged mana crystal ammo. Twilight felt the negatively charged crystals that Rainbow and herself were firing would drain the magical energy out of the Guardian, weakening it enough to prevent too much damage.
When the Typhon got too close to Cloudsdale and began tearing it apart, however, Rainbow Dash abandoned her aircraft after getting enough altitude. She then dove straight into the eye of the storm, the core of the Typhon's power. Much to everyone's amazement, a Sonic Rainboom shattered the Guardian, and Rainbow rose back up from the destruction with the Element of Loyalty around her neck, miniature storms engraved on the gold of the choker.
"Hold still now, Princess!" Apple Bloom instructed. "Ah never done nothin' like this before."
"You've...never done mane braids?" Celestia asked in confusion.
"Never when the mane wouldn't hold still!" the farm filly complained, wrestling with the ethereal mass.
"Don't worry, Princess!" Sweetie Belle promised as she lifted the mascara. "You're going to look just perfect!"
"And we're going to get our Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo proclaimed as she tried - and failed - to stitch a Wonderbolt's flight suit around Celestia's barrel.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ROYAL STYLISTS, YAY!"
Celestia groaned internally. Is this Nightmare Moon's idea of torture? she thought silently.
"Me next!" Nightmare Moon shouted out.
Celestia nearly buried her face in her hooves before a scolding from the unicorn filly before her locked her back in place.
First?
EDIT:
OMIGOD FIRST
Heh, One Piece...
Oh my god! Hilarious. I wonder what'll happen when Twilight and the others get back.
I just don't know how or why... But I think of the tests of the bearers of the bearers of the elements and it make me think in this song and at the same time it seems that Celestia is not sure if they really need to be saved. There is not a really problem, they could even find Celestia telling them that in the end they don't need the elements.
Also... What about Discord? I think he must be laughing even stoned watching everything happening.
I guess she picked up Vanellope's sense of style...
6354704 He was mentioned at the end of the last chapter
Neighport 23s....I got the pun without even looking at the picture....I like it.
6354717 he must begin to broke himself in laugh.... I forgot that.
The comedy in this chapter is great! The ending was more than funny. But Celestia does have a point, I mean NM is running the king better than her. How well this affect equestria?
As much of an asshole as Blueblood really is I like it when he comes into his own. GO BLACKBLOOD!!
This is hilarious! I wonder what the mane six will do when they find out that everything is actually going better then what was expected. I wonder what would happen if Nightmare wins and is like 'wait...I won? How can I win when the hero's are supposed to win? I'm the final boss! What the hell? I'm so confused!' and then she eats ice cream wondering why video game logic is backwards as she's running Equestria better than everyone else in history and hasn't done literally anything wrong...technically speaking of course.
Wonder how the bearers will react when they find out about the changes Moony has made to the government. And I wonder how Moony will react when she discovers she isn't in a video game.
what is this someone gave bueblood a real personality WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS!!!!
That was really funny, it even got a few laughs from me while sleepy.
Now in this paragraph I'll be reading into the chapter too much: It was a bit of a shock the whole month time skip: considering Mane 6 got Kindness, Honesty, Laughter, three elements during the first day (previous 2 chapters) I expected this whole thing would be solved in a few days at most. Doesn't Nightmare consider this something odd for a game in the arcade? She's have to take over Equestria every time, she hasn't gotten info of a Game Over, or maybe she's thinking the player is one of the laziests ever.
In the end that ponies of Equestria might not want Celestia back; Nightmare Moon gets things done
Loving these recent chapters!
Is it weird that I am okay with Nightmare moon staying? As a Luna fan and a logic fan, I am conflicted.
6354744 Well, other than removing Celestia from the throne.
6354803
It didn't happen all in the same day. All of this has been stretched out, but not covering every detail.
The chapter where she confronted the noble council - during which I also covered the Mane 6 getting Honesty and Laughter - is, as established here, one month after her takeover.
Also, keep in mind Luna thinks this is an RPG, where a day/night passes every time the party sleeps at an inn.
6354836 But if you look at it Nightmare Moon(who is still technically Luna) has enough right on the throne as Celestia, she just exercises a lot more political power than her. She may have 'kidnapped' Celestia but she made sure Celestia's stay was actually really nice. That's literally her only 'bad thing' that she did.
XD Awesome!!
Can you do a One Piece story?
Blackblood! XD hahahaha!
You clever shit you hahaha.
OOoooh man, this is hilarious, my face hurts from smiling XD
Amusing chapter, I can't help but picture this scene from Princess Bride:
and picture BlueBlood in that same black outfit when he shows up again. And the One Piece shout out is great. The last paragraph has me laughing, we need to see more of the Crusaders' antics with NM and Celestia. OOOHHIOHOHOHOHOHOHOH, can Celestia start training Sweetie Belle in magic a bit??? NM might even learn a thing or two.
6354830 Easy solution. NM learns she's possessing Luna. "WTF??? I have an innocent pony princess trapped inside me???? GET HER OUT NOW HIT ME WITH THOSE ELEMENTS AND SAVE HER!!!" since she isn't evil, the elements would probably give her a body of her own and suddenly it's a Triarchy instead of a diarchy and NM apologizes for trapping Luna and starts treating her as a little sister if she's still at that small size from the first episode.
Twilight used logic! It was super effective!
I'm starting to think that Nightmare Moon might actually be in a game.
6354884
He kind ran out of interesting ponies to use, unless he used Celestia or something.
6354936 He's using her for a Star Trek the next generation crossover.
Such ironic beauty in this world!
There once was a pony named Blueblood, who became a pirate Blackblood.
He sought fame, fortune and adventure beyond the wildest ponies' dreams.
His last message to the crown before he sailed was this:
"I will unite all the pirates under my flag, but I promise you this:
"I will return someday in One Piece!"
All the while the chosen six quest across Equestria,
Searching for the Elements to make their dreams come true!
Yippie yo yigh yo!
DREAMIN'!
Don't give it up, Twilight!
DREAMIN'!
Don't give it up, Rainbow!
DREAMIN'!
Don't give it up, Pinkie!
DREAMIN'!
Don't give it up, give it up, give it up!
NO!
Here's how the story goes,
About the Quest to stop Nightmare Moon!
The Dark Mistress with the master plan,
Who single hoofedly conquered all of the land!
The student of Celestia started on her own,
To restore her mentor to the Solar Throne.
Twilight Sparkle is a rising star!
Her powerful magic will take her far!
Honesty will always prove its worth!
This next pony is the salt of the Earth!
Nopony better to have at your back.
Than tried and true pony Applejack!
Always one to bring out the best,
This pony knows the Art of the Dress!
But what you get is far more than you see,
From the beautiful Rarity!
Filled with joy like an endless fire,
This party pony is a livewire!
When you need cheer, she doesn't ask why,
Give up a smile for Pinkie Pie!
A more gentle soul you will never find,
Than the Pegasus, Fluttershy.
But cast no doubt on her unassuming stature,
For this pony is the Mistress of Nature!
She'll chase away all the gloom and doom,
With a powerful Sonic Rainboom!
She'll be by your side through thick and thin,
Rainbow Dash can outrace the wind!
Along with them is a young dragon,
With enough wit and wisdom to fill a wagon!
But don't think he's just a tag-along,
For this stalwart drake is Spike the Strong!
So now you know all about the Chosen Six plus One,
And there Quest to Restore the Sun!
I'm interested in what's happenig with Blueblood.............
Okay I'm going to need a sniper rifle or crossbow to shoot down these flying pigs
I can just imagine when the mane six and spike get back to Canterlot and say that they are going to return things the way they were everyone else will just yell Tartarus NO!! that they like it better this way.
6354981
*twitch twitch twitch* SYSTEM ERROR: AWESOME OVERLOAD *head explodes*
I always did wonder what Blueblood's compess ross cutie mark means, it fits.
6354981 I wish that song could be in the story your awesome Tangent
6354981
An excellent song...but you forgot to add a verse about Spike.
NMM: You little foals! You will use those elements and you will defeat me, and you will restore the balance between the sun and moon. Because if you don't I will blast you all the way back to Ponyville and you'll do the whole quest all over again!
Celestia: Who are you and what have you done with Nightmare Moon?
This fanfic is one of my favorite fanfics ever without a doubt. And DAMN Tangent, that was GOOD, especially the edit..
6354961
Hence why said he ran out interesting ponies.
Aaand I'm done. Thank you for a lovely story up until that point.
Edit: This actually annoys me. Just randomly teenage-izing a child so you can ship him when its otherwise inconsequential to the story. It's a shame, seeing this update usually was a bright point to the day.
6355039
Theme song now includes Spike.
Although ponies may wonder why it starts with the Pirate, Blackblood...
Is it okay I've placed these parts of the story in funniest list ever?
6354981 Dude, that is freaking awesome! you should totally find someone to actually Record that!
Ohmygosh that was amazing! And, did this story actually make it possible for me to like Blueblood as a character for the first time EVER?! I commend you...
I loved the new chapter and eagerly await the next one! I also look forward to seeing what happens next with the CMC.
The BLUEBALLS!?
OH CRAP!!! I....I....I CAN"T EVEN!!!!
Ah! OH! AW CRUD!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Oooooh yes!
This is extremely good!
At first I was interested at how you'd go from the Arcade to Equestria and make it work.
Now I'm hooked.
A very enjoyable chapter. Great job.
6355116
Wish I could but I don't know anybody with musical talent.
6355091
Can't say I was terribly keen on that part either.
Sparity a shit.