A New Era

by Shadowmane PX-41

Chapter 3: The Castle

After leaving their luggage behind at the large hotel behind them, the Main Six, Starlight Glimmer, and Spike were now on the streets of White Wings once again. Their faces met with all of the sights and smells for the third time that day and the ponies that accompanied each and every one.

"So, we just have to go up to the castle to find the Silver Bullets?" Twilight pointed towards the towering stronghold and the massive white wings on each side.

"Yes. According to all of those visitor pamphlets, White Wings has a variety of different military forces—each specialising in the three different races of pony." Starlight Glimmer nodded and pulled out a purple card, opening it up to show the girls each of the groups. "The Silver Bullets are the most elite pegasi chosen from the people of White Wings. Fast, accurate, and capable of controlling all forms of weather, they serve as the aerial defenders of the kingdom."

"Eh, they're alright, I guess. But nopony flies better than the Wonderbolts do." Rainbow Dash shrugged and put her hooves behind her head. "These guys and gals can try, but I don't think they'd be able to beat us."

"The earth pony group is known as the Forces of Nature." Starlight tapped at the pony on the cover. It wore bronze-plated armor with a face guard and strong greaves on each of their legs. "Unlike regular earth ponies, these ones have gone through intense physical training and are practically the strongest ponies in all of White Wings. They can lift a boulder ten times their weight without any hassle and hurl it a fair distance away."

"Ah'll admit that that's a mighty fine feat, but how does that make them the best exactly?" Applejack cocked one of her eyebrows at the pony on the pamphlet. "Raw strength don't make an earth pony. They also need to be good at farmin' too. Otherwise, they're not really providing anythin' good for the people of the kingdom."

"Applejack, not all earth ponies are known for their farming talent." Twilight turned to face her friend and tipped her hoof.

"It's true!" Pinkie Pie burst in front of both of them, almost knocking them both onto their haunches. "I'm an earth pony myself, but instead of getting my hooves into that icky brown soil, I instead make delicious treats like cupcakes and cookies!" She reached into her mane and pulled out some of the aforementioned foods. "Speaking of which, do you girls want some? I've got plenty up here."

"Maybe later, Pinkie." Twilight shook her head and watched Pinkie put them away. "Thanks for the offer though." She then turned back to Starlight and laid her eyes on the informative paper once again. "What about the unicorns? What are they useful for?"

"The unicorns in the group are called the Other World. They're required to learn every spell in their books to maximise their combat efficiency as the queen puts it." Starlight used her hooves to air quote their power. "While most of the ponies of White Wings like to keep their names secret, the one here doesn't seem to follow that rule." She tapped on the final pony on the page. "Her name is Sugarcoat, and she's the most advanced unicorn of them all. She spends practically all of her time in her private study, never joins the others for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and prefers that everyone leave her alone unless the kingdom's in crisis."

"Kinda like you, huh, Twilight?" Spike jabbed one of his claws at Twilight's eyes.

"Spike. I'm sure that this Sugarcoat mare must have a good explanation as to why other ponies shouldn't intrude on her business." Twilight's gaze met with Spike's as she put him down on the ground. "I mean, if I wanted to learn every spell in the known world, I wouldn't want anyone interrupting me."

"Not that we'd plan to." The other girls chorused in harmony.

"Yeah. Thanks, girls." She smiled at them and walked off towards the castle. "Anyway, first things first. We need to see Indigo Zap and the Silver Bullets and ask them about the five ponies who keep saving this place time and time again. If anyone knows anything about them, it's going to be her."

"Ooh! Ooh! Maybe on the way back, we could get some of that food that the stallion was selling back there!" Pinkie waved her hooves and desperately tried to keep up with Twilight. "If ever there's a scrum-diddly-umptious smell in the air, I've GOTTA try it!"

"We'll see, Pinkie." Twilight gave her a wink and kept her eyes locked on the path ahead. "For now, though, let's just stay focused on the task at hand."

---

The castle of White Wings was even larger than the girls had been expecting from first glance. The towering structure was made entirely out of pure stone, with each of the massive bricks sanded down so that they were smooth to the touch. There was a colossal moat around the castle with water flowing in a smooth ring around it before trickling down the waterways that led to each corner of the kingdom. The bridge that the girls were standing on had been heavily reinforced by pure steel and was wide enough for a parade float to cross without any issues.

The front doors of White Wings' castle were a completely different story. They were a mixture of silver and gold, with various different crests on each door. A pair of massive knockers could be seen on each with a pair of ruby eyes on top of them. When the Main Six tried to push them, they would not budge an inch—even if they all tried moving them together.

"Great! Now how are we supposed to talk to them?" Rainbow Dash groaned and turned away from the door. "This thing's heavier than anything I've ever seen!"

"You don't. No-one gets into the castle without a good reason."

Suddenly, a small hatch on the door opened up, revealing a pair of purple eyes. They glared daggers at each of the Main Six as they walked up to them.

"State your business at White Wings' castle," said the eyes. "And don't you give me any lies. The queen doesn't like any liars in her company."

"Hello there, miss. My name is Twilight Sparkle." She bowed before the eyes, showing off her wings and horn. "As you can see, I am an alicorn princess from the faraway world of Equestria. My friends were sent here by our ruler, Princess Celestia so that we can join forces with your country. Now, would you be so kind as to—"

"Denied," the mare on the other side of the door said simply.

"Wait, what?! See the horns and wings? I. Am. An. ALICORN." She pressed her eyes against the ones poking out of the small door.

"And I. Don't. Care. Queen Abacus Cinch is an alicorn herself, and her power far surpasses that of ANY other; from White Wings or not!" said the door mare. Now, this is the sweet side of me talking. If you don't leave my sight right now, I'll have to hurt you. You wouldn't like to get hurt now, would you? I'm told it's very painful..."

"Hey, Sour Sweet. What's going on here?"

On the inside of the castle, an earth pony mare with pink skin and green hair walked up to Sour Sweet. She wore a pair of pink headphones around her neck as she stepped onto the red carpet and approached the door. Her Cutie Mark consisted of a number of slice lemon rings forming a crescent.

"Lemon Zest? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be looking after those children?" Sour Sweet turned from the door to meet glances with the new pony. "I'm sure that that's a better job than asking what I'm doing here."

"Hey, hey, chillax, girl. Those kids are all tuckered out now. I'm free for the next few minutes." Lemon Zest walked up to the door and pushed Sour Sweet aside. "Now let's see who we've got here. Better not be some of those dumb salesponies again." She looked through the small hatch and saw the Main Six standing outside. "Hmm. You look new. Have I seen you somewhere? One of those festivals, perhaps?"

"Who are you?" Fluttershy walked up to Lemon Zest's eyes and tilted her head. "Are you going to shut us out as well?"

"Nah, girl, I wouldn't do that to you." Lemon Zest brushed back her mane as she examined the other ponies. "Don't worry about Sour Sweet. She's just a bit loco in the coco after Wolf Sheep tried to disguise herself as a pony and bring the castle down from the inside. I'm much more chill than her."

"Well, we're here because we wanted to have our country join forces with your own, but I see that not all of the ponies here are really up for such an idea." Rarity stepped up to Fluttershy's side. "If you're going to lead us on our way as well, I suppose that we might as well come back later when someone less stuffy is working the door."

"Oh, I wouldn't call Sour stuffy." Lemon Zest shook her head and looked back at her. "She's just a bit weird. One second, she's gleeful and full of cheer and the next, she's a monstrous brute of a pony. She usually does criminal interrogation, but Queen Cinch decided to put her on door duty for the day. How crazy is that?"

"I know, right? That's like giving an earth pony the job of changing the weather!" Pinkie Pie slid up to Lemon Zest and gave her a goofy grin. "But then again, give an earth pony those glowy butterfly wings and I guess they could do it..."

"Y'know, I think I'm gonna let you in because I like you." Lemon Zest slid the hatch close and opened up the door, revealing her full body to the Main Six, Starlight, and Spike. "That, and I think that with Sour Sweet on the door for any minute longer and you would've been stiffed. So anyway, I apologise for her rude introduction, but I hope that we can still be pals." She stepped aside and motioned for the girls to come inside. "It's just wrong for someone on White Wings to be rude, right? I hope that this makes up for Sour's totally uncool attitude."

When the Main Six walked into the castle, they were met with yet another otherworldly sight. The audience chamber before them was gigantic, with the ceilings towering higher than the various banners draped around the room. There were suits of armour by the pillars on each side of the room with spiral staircases beyond them. A large picture of an alicorn with pale blue skin and amethyst hair could be seen above a golden throne with red velvet lining the seat.

"Anyway, welcome to White Wings. It's nice to meet you. My name is Lemon Zest." She went around the group and began to shake each of their hooves. "I'm in charge of taking care of the kids of the royal family, but in my spare time, I love jammin' out to some killer beats on these bad boys." She showed the girls her headphones. "Pretty cool, huh? Wireless. Top of the line."

"They're a lot like Vinyl's headphones!" Pinkie came up to the pink device and slipped them onto her head. She felt her ears slide into the holes effortlessly and was met with almost absolute silence before she pressed a button, causing loud music to pour out into her ears. She jumped from the noise and unintentionally threw them off, watching Lemon jump up and catch them. "Only they're much louder than I was expecting..."

"Yeah. That's what everyone says the first time they try 'em." She gave Pinkie Pie a pat on the back as she took put them around her neck again. "You'll get used to them, though."

"It's very nice to meet you, Lemon Zest." Twilight walked up to Lemon and gave her a small nod. "I hope that we're not a burden to you or the other ponies here."

"Oh, it's no trouble." Lemon Zest waved her hoof and looked towards the stairs. "So, now that we've cleared that little hitch with Sour Sweet up, what can I do for you all?"

"Well, we're on a mission from Princess Celestia over in Equestria. She sent the eight of us specifically so that we could meet with the ruler of White Wings and forge an alliance between the two countries." Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled towards the ground. "See, recently, Equestria was invaded by these creatures called Changelings, who captured every ruler of the kingdoms and every other important pony, replacing them with their own horrific kind. We wanted to join forces with you to prevent any future attacks that might jeopardise our home if we can't defend it ourselves."

"Well, I'm not the right girl to talk to about that. I'm just a royal caretaker." Lemon Zest rubbed the carpet with the tip of her hoof as she shook her head. "But, if you want, I could take you all on a tour of this castle, ending with a visit to the head honcho herself, her majesty, Abacus Cinch."

"A tour of White Wings' castle?" Rarity's eyes seemed to light up at Lemon Zest's proposition. "I feel flattered, miss Zest. If it's all the same with the other girls, I would like to accept your request."

"Ah can't argue with that." Applejack's shoulders jolted up and down as a small smile crept onto her face. "Count me in too."

"Me too!" Rainbow Dash waved her hoof.

"Me three!" Pinkie Pie bounced up.

"And me." Fluttershy nodded meekly, causing some of her hair to fall in front of her left eyes.

"Looks like it's a unanimous decision." Twilight smiled before turning towards Spike and Starlight Glimmer. "What about you two? Do you want to see this castle?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Spike stepped towards Twilight and laid his claws gently on the side of her leg, brushing his chest with the back of his other hand. "Count me in too."

"Well, if you're all going, it would be silly of me to say no." Starlight walked up to the Main Six as well, stepping behind them. "I'm in as well. Lead the way, Lemon."

"Alright. Looks like it's eight yeses, so let's get started with this room here." Lemon Zest stretched out her hooves to show off the audience chamber. "This is the main gathering room for all of Abacus Cinch's big announcements. Whenever she wants to add a new law, declare that her kingdom's at war with someone else, or even to celebrate her birthday and other celebrations, she says it all here from that throne over there." She jabbed towards it. "In the past, it was used by many different rulers who have either stepped down, are no longer with us, or who were pulled due to some unhappy townsponies." She walked over towards the stairs and watched the girls follow her. "Now then, let's move on to some other areas. We'll start with the kitchen."

"Kitchen?" Pinkie pricked up her ears and beamed at the sound of the destination. "You have a kitchen?"

"Not just any kitchen." Lemon Zest flashed Pinkie a toothy grin as she walked up the stairs. "You might want to bleach out every other kitchen from your mind, girls, because this one's gonna blow you away..."

As the girls all chattered among themselves, the audience chamber fell deathly quiet. The silence that shrouded the room was then broken by a ghastly black smoke that flew by the other side, past the other set of pillars. A pony in a black cloak appeared when the smoke crashed down by the other set of stairs and walked up, leaving no sound behind except the clopping of their own feet.

Comments

[FourShadow]

Queen Cinch? Oh I'm not gonna like her, aren't I... Just remembering the other Cinch, any sympathy I may have for her is probably not gonna exist...

However, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. This is the pony world, maybe she's more responsible and intelligent than her counterpart who's a cold-hearted idiot of a bitch.

[Xanderfox]

Be careful White Wings is starting to feel like the Kingdom of Mary-Sues... Not that we've seen any real evidence it's "better" than Equestria, of course White Wings is going claim their Fliers are best, their unicorns are the most magical and their earth ponies are strongest. So you have yet to cross into Mary-Sue territory, but it's something to watch out for. I doubt any pony is more Magical that Twilight, or Faster than Dash. or more wacked out than Pinkie. Also I expect Queen Cinch is the stuffiest of stuff shirt rulers and will likely disrespect Twilight on principal alone. Her character has been established and though Pony Cinch won't be exactly the same she will be very close, just like the pony Shadowblots will be to their human counterparts. Lets be honest Cinch is arrogant, manipulative and passive aggressive.

[EchoWing]

So Cinch is in charge...okay, my opinion of the place has gone downhill.

[Pony of Buffy Fire]

Looking good so far!

[StarzGecko]

I think I know who the real villain is now...