Equestria's Future

by Paintbrush235

Chapter 1: A Child in the Garden

Located on the side of the highest peak of the Unicorn Range, is the grand citadel of Canterlot, capital of Equestria and home to the Royal Sisters. The majestic city had stood for thousands upon thousands of years, withstanding political turmoil, siege and other challenges that it stood the test of time against. It was truly the symbol of Equestrian power and unity, sitting right in the heart of the vast nation, containing almost every walk of sentient life in Equestria. It was the location of the grand Wonderbolt Firefly Race Track, headquarters for the E.U.P. and Royal Guard, and the seat of Equestria's commerce. Many historians and ponies of the past and present refer it as the soul of the country.

The city also had the grand prestige of being the home of the two diarchs that led the Equestrian citizens through their many years of trials and peace. On the highest level of the city stood the Royal Palace and adjacent government buildings. The tall spires of the castle rose into the sky seeming the pierce the heavens at their highest points and the golden domes shone like the bright summer sun. The grand halls of Canterlot Parliament were adjacent to the castle, so that the leaders were never too far from their duties to their beloved subjects. The castle had stood for over a thousand years since the original ancient Castle of the Two Sisters had been destroyed in the battle between Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia.

At this point in time, the sun had descended behind the horizon and the evening shadows had just been cast by her highness Princess Luna, mistress of the moon. The moon itself was casting it's majestic light down on Canterlot as it's citizens retired to their homes for the night or congregated at the many theaters and clubs the city contained. Meanwhile, in the grand gardens of Canterlot Castle, containing an example of almost every plant and animal species found in Equestria, a pony made her way through the walking paths. This was no ordinary pony though. The mare walking through the garden was Her Royal Highness, Keeper of the Sun, Princess Celestia. This wasn't that uncommon to see the solar diarch wandering her precious gardens alone. She could frequently be seen strolling through the bushes and flowers as she reflected on the beauty of nature and life and all that was going well in her beloved kingdom. Tonight however, this was no stroll. For the Sun Princess was in the gardens tonight to find some respite from the turmoil and uproar that had shaken her life in the recent weeks.

Tears streamed down Celestia's face as she let her bottled up emotions out for the first time in days. Her duties required her to keep up a certain appearance to maintain confidence in her from the government officials and the citizens. Whenever she could be just by herself and let her true feelings come to light, she cherished it. Tonight was one such night, as she vented her frustration towards the pony who had been causing her grief for the past weeks: Prince Blueblood of the Canterlot Nobility and his followers.

For the past month or so, Blueblood had been lobbying the parliament that they adopt a new resolution that he claimed would greatly affect the "future and prestige of this great nation for now and forevermore." He demanded that in order to secure the safe future for the unborn generations of Equestrians was for Princess Celestia to be designated Queen of Equestria as her forerunners had been before her. The most invasive demand however was for Celestia to either designate an heir to her throne or produce one. Initially, the more level-headed members of parliament had immediately shot down such proposals stating that they violated the privacy of not only Celestia, but of the Royal Family in general. However, when everything seemed to be quieting down, Prince Blueblood pulled out his backup to his claim.

Flashback

"As you can see here everypony," the white blonde maned unicorn known "this document, signed by the hoof of His Royal Highness King Artemis of Equestria and Her Royal Highness Queen Galaxia of Equestria, reads 'that if an heir to throne of Equestria is not produced within reasonable and foreseeable time before the stars and their wisdom deem a change in the order necessary, then the Royal Family must select the most senior member of the Royal Council to fill the position'."

Celestia sat at the head of the room in the parliament halls of Canterlot, watching with contempt at the sly smug upon Blueblood's face as he read out the ancient scroll he had found deep in the Canterlot Government Archives. What was most troubling was the fact that she could plainly see that it was 100 percent genuine. She would recognize her mother and father's signatures anywhere. This fact was what filled her with dread the most as she now knew it was impossible for her to argue against it. That did not stop others from doing so though.

"This is outrageous Lord Blueblood!" roared a dark grey unicorn stallion wrapped in the robes of a high court justice. Celestia knew the stallion as Iron Law, chief justice of the Supreme Canterlot Courts. A more dedicated servant of the court and a more loyal friend could not be found in most reaches of the earth. "This ancient law had never been seen as an issue until you and your cronies dug it up in the archives!"

"That is irrelevant Lord Iron Law." Blueblood said in the cocky attitude that was his most annoying trait. "The fact of the matter is that it is the written law of the land, set forth by the first rulers of this great nation." He then turned towards his adopted aunt with a smirk. "If we were to do away with such laws sacred laws as those written by our Royal Sisters' Mother and Father, did they have any worth to begin with?"

Internally, Celestia was burning with anger at the accusation of not giving any worth to her parent's words. She had loved her parents. They had loved her and her sister equally as well. They had taught them the concepts of family, friendship and love for their fellow ponies. They had trained them in the roles as keepers of the sun and moon. They had raised them to be compassionate and wise in their rule of the government. The most cherished memory she had of them out of all of these however was their love.

It was this love that had influenced the decision made by both Luna and herself to not take on the title of Queen when the powers of universe had deemed it necessary to pass the torch on from their parents to themselves. She had felt unworthy of such a title as the one held by her mother and she still felt so. The troubling thought was that Blueblood was actually making some good points on the issue. The political standing of Equestria had been significantly hindered in the past centuries without a strong central head of the nation to lead the way. And there was no telling when the universe would deem another change in the balance was needed and she had no heir to pass on the responsibilities to. While she would've liked to have deemed that title upon her beloved sister Luna, she realized that was not practicable. Luna was the Keeper of the Moon, and though Celestia had taken over those duties along with the sun before and so had Luna vice versa, she remembered that it had not been easy . The challenge of being awake almost constantly and having to bear the magical burden of controlling two celestial bodies at once was physically, magically, and mentally straining.

She also knew she could not pass on the task to her niece Princess Cadence, the Princess of Love. She had her own responsibilities to the Crystal Empire and her task as the maiden of the most precious of all emotional attachments. She was not and could quite possibly never be ready to take on her Aunt's role.

And lastly was Twilight. While Celestia had confidence in Twilight's magical abilities, her beloved pupil was just only coming into her own in her task as the head of the Council of Friendship. Twilight also had a tendency to over complicate things, and on top of all that, absolutely hated politics. Celestia could hardly blame her there though.

So really unless she produced her own child to be deemed the heir to the throne, the only choice left was as stated in the document Blueblood held up with his magic, was the most senior member of the Royal Court. And, to the dismay of Celestia and most other ponies occupying the chamber, that member was Prince Blueblood of Canterlot. The one pony in Equestria's government that was arguably the best poster child for political corruption. And now he had a document that stated that he could become the next ruler of Equestria.

Knowing that arguing would get them nowhere, Celestia decided it was time to speak up. "Everypony, this is a difficult situation with a difficult choice to be made. I must humbly ask our esteemed colleague Prince Blueblood of Canterlot to allow us some time to think this over and to give you a straightforward and definitive answer."

Blueblood frowned at this. "I must then also humbly remind Her Highness that the time limit that we agreed upon when we first brought this issue to the court is near it's deadline. You may have one more month to decide on who shall be the next heir to the throne of Equestria. Good my lords."

And with that, the pompous Prince of Canterlot and his followers exited the grand chamber, leaving the remaining lords in a state of shock.

"The audacity!" Lord Currency from Baltimare now spoke up, standing up from his chair. "The gall of that conceited...!"

"That is enough Lord Currency!" Every head now turned toward their beloved ruler, who glared at the head of the Canterlot Commerce Department. "We are all civilized ponies here and do not stoop to the lowly business of name calling." Celestia sighed and looked down at her hooves. "I am tired everypony, let us adjourn until the next council call. Good day everypony."

Present Day

As Celestia remembered that day, fresh tears began to stream down her face as the stinging emotions welled up again. What was she to do? There was no immediate way that she could see that would prevent Blueblood from gaining his power. And she knew that if he did, it would be a disaster to everything that had been worked for to achieve the stability and harmony of the nation. Everything in her world was about to fall apart and....

*Tweet Tweet*

Celestia looked up from her hooves to see two bluebirds perched on the branch of a tree to her left. The were chirping up a frenzy and seemed to be pointing down the path that led to the center of the gardens.

"What is it?" Celestia asked the birds. Upon this, the birds took off from their branch and flew towards the center of the gardens. Celestia followed close behind, curious as to what they wanted to show her. After following them through the winding passageways, she found herself in the center of the garden staring at the grand weeping willow tree that was the centerpiece of the garden. Standing underneath it was a crowd of animals, deer, various birds, squirrels and other docile creatures of the world, that were all gathered at the base of the tree and appeared to be looking at something. As Celestia approached, she began to hear what appeared to be the cries of a foal. What would a foal be doing here in the gardens at this time of night? As she came to within 5 feet of the animals they took notice of her presence and parted to let her get a look at the object of their curiosity. And when Celestia saw it, she could hardly believe her eyes. Curled up on the ground, clad in ragged dirt stained clothing, sobbing and shaking like a leaf, was a human child.

It was a very young child by the looks of it. Not more than three years of age, from what Celestia knew about humans. What she did know was that there hadn't been a human in Equestria since before the time of The Three Pony Tribes. The only other contact that ponies had had with humans was when Twilight had travelled through the portal to the universe that Sunset Shimmer now resided in. So how could a human child of 3 wind up in the middle of the Canterlot Gardens? Celestia looked around to see if there was any sign of any other humans nearby and found none. She then returned her attention to the child and saw that the sobbing had quieted away and he was beginning to look up at her. When he did his shaking began to increase but his crying stopped. After a few moments of staring at each other he finally spoke.

"Ar....are........are you an...an....angel?" he squeaked. "Am I d....de...dead?"

Celestia's heart exploded at the innocence of the young human. She could hardly imagine what the child was going through but she knew one thing; he needed some reassurances. She knelt down beside him and wrapped a wing around the child.

"No dear you are not dead." She whispered soothingly. "Can you tell me your name young one?"

The boy hesitated.

"Do you have a name?"

The boy shook his head and started to cry again. As Celestia went in to nuzzle the child, she notices that through the child's shirt, she could see his ribs sticking out. It was obvious that he was malnourished and that he had suffered terrible abuse as was apparent by the scars and bruises on his chest. Celestia realized that this boy needed to be cared for immediately.

"Don't worry." She whispered. "We'll get you some food and then we can give you a name." She smiled at the child, who upon hearing this weakly smiled back. Celestia then wrapped the boy in her magical aura, which at first startled him but he relaxed as he was simply placed on Celestia's back. Once he was secure, Celestia headed back towards the castle to find aid for the boy.

Author's Note:

Hey everypony! Here is another new story.

This is an idea that was inspired by a lot of great works I have read. On that note I want to clarify that this will be an original story, not a copy and paste. That would be rude.

In this story we are going to try to explore both what life would be like as a human child in Equestria, and what the life of a child who was an heir to a kingdom would be like.

Hope you all enjoy and be sure to follow my other stories as they are continuing as well.

Again I hope you all enjoy

Comments

[Liuv]

Like it love it so far keep er goin

[The Great Derpsby]

I'm going to note a cautious interested. Cautious, because, like you, I've seen a lot of stories play out a similar scenario but found myself not liking most of them.

Partly because I've felt many of the human characters were actually Jerk Gary Stues who never get called out on their behaviour, and partly because there's so often a nonsensical rivalry built up with Blueblood just so the human OC has an 'acceptable' target for their horrible behaviour. Your story definitely has the advantage of creating an understandable conflict; whether or not Blueblood will be more than just a foil and/or Hate Sink remains to be seen.

[ShadowFirePon3]

Personally , I wouldn't place Blueblood in the role of the main antagonist. Not that a story of this premise needs a main villain, it probably would be better as just telling the story of the child and what he goes through, how he grows. But mostly, Blueblood seems better fit as a one off antagonist, or a recurring minor annoyance, but I don't see him being a good main villain to an overarching plot. The concept of this story is what most intrigued me, so I'm hoping to see how/ if you are going to make a compelling story out of it. Good luck . ☺

[Changeling_Shadows]

I can't wait to see what cuteness will pop up from this story!!

[VikingOtaku6]

(Reads synopsis) Well, this is why you hire discreet assassins...

[mylaptop]

The sun is looking lonely this time of year, perhaps it needs a new friend *cough*bluebitch*cough*. He can't rule the country if he isn't alive

[Die Pie WiM]

So far so good. I don't personally read many stories many stories like this, but I definitely like what you have going here. I'll be watching this and waiting for more.

Also I like the idea that humans aren't some completely unknown creature.

Anyway, thanks for writing and I look forward to whatever else you have planned.

[Omnipotence]

jeez, when are you gonna make more chapters?!

[trentondave]

Any chance this will keep on going? Or am I wasting my time...

[Paintbrush235]

7442686 No you are not wasting your time. I have been swamped recently with work and getting ready for school again. I am working on it though as well as my other stories. Updates are in the future!

[trentondave]

7444286 Ok thanks for the update. Hope to see a new chapter soon.

[Lighting Ace]

Please sir, may I have more?

[Samellan]

Strange, there was a mail about second chapter, but now it's gone.. .
Mispublish?

[GreyNimbus]

I love where this is going already. And I just love the feels I get from reading something like this.