Past Actions, Future Consequences

by Rill

Ch. 17 Nightmare War

“We never figured out how he did it” Summer Breeze said, tears streaming down her eyes as she spoke. “I later asked Silver Star, and even he had no idea, though he admitted that such a spell would have taken weeks, if not months, to set up.” The world around the class faded, returning a moment later. “We barely had time to comprehend what had happened, barely had a chance to bury our dead, before the weather moved in.” Around them, despite it being the middle of spring, snow buffeted the caravan of ponies as they slowly fled south. “Besides protecting the Empire, one of the greatest things about the Crystal Heart was that it made it possible to live so far north. It tamed the wild magic of the land, making it pliable to our needs, which in turn allowed us to farm. Without it, nature didn’t hesitate to reclaim what had once been its own.” Around the group, ponies knocked snow off their tents as they broke camp. “Of course, I heard about all of this second hoof. For my part…” The view changed to the inside of a large tent. Along the walls, dozens of ponies, both crystal and equestrian, lay on cots, all covered in bandages to various extents. Coming to a stop at the foot of one cot in particular, the assembled ponies could see Summer Breeze’s colt friend, his hooves wrapped around one of hers, the bags under his eyes telling everypony how much he had slept. For her part, Shadow’s ancestor lay there, dead to the world, the rise and fall of her chest being the only indication that she was even alive.

“Remember what I said about Silver Star being a genius?” Next to her downed self, the group’s guide materialized out of thin air. “Please believe me when I say that I am not the only pony who owes their life to him and that brain of his.” Next to the mare, a map appeared, a red line showing the route from the Crystal Empire’s capital to Canterlot. “Normally, after a major battle, where an opponent has been utterly crushed, the winning side would usually stay in place for a few days to allow the wounded to heal enough to survive the trip back. Unfortunately, the rapidly deteriorating weather wouldn’t allow that. Silver Star knew this and had spent the previous night coming up with a solution.” Following their guide outside, the group could see groups of wounded ponies being loaded onto flatbed carts, each of which had a pair of pegasi harnessed to the front. “What he did, was to create a spell that not only reduced a cart’s weight to a fraction of what it should have been, but also allowed the cart to fly if it was hooked up to a team of pegasi.” As the group watched, once the final patient was loaded, the two harnessed stallions broke into a trot, then a run before extending their wings and taking to the air. Behind them, the cart followed suit, following the two flyers like a dog on a leash as the pegasi turned south. “Of all of his spells, this one saved hundreds of lives, and history seems to have seen fit to forget his name.” No pony could ignore the bite in the mare’s voice.

“It took the princesses almost two months to lead their combined forces back to Canterlot, and that was one of the longest times of my life.” Around the school group, the snow and mountains vanished as the northern wilderness was replaced by a room full of warm sunshine and walls of white marble. Around the room, dozens of ponies milled about, some using crutches while others sat or lay on their beds. “Thanks to Silver Star, everypony who was wounded during the battle made it back to Canterlot alive. Once the nurses let me out of my bed for something other than relieving myself, I would go down to the training grounds where I would spend hours practicing with both sword and spear. I did it partly to stave off boredom, but mainly because when I focused on my sword work, I wasn’t focused on the loss of my home. When I sent a spear smashing through one of the targets, I wasn’t wondering if Umber had survived or not.” The mare’s voice hitched as her duplicate smashed a wooden target with a spear from fifty paces. “It also helped to keep my mind off the fact that my coat had lost its distinctive shine. Without the Empire’s magic to influence the world, our coats became just like everypony else’s. It was as if the universe decided to make our loss complete by taking away the one thing that set us apart from every other creature in the world.”

The mare sighed as everypony watched her counterpart slowly sink to the ground, tears streaming down her face. “As you can probably guess, the army eventually made it back, and my Umber was one of the first ponies through the city gates. I won’t go into details about what that night was like for us, but believe me when I say that it was one I carried in my memories for the rest of my life.” Overhead, the sun and moon traded spots in rapid succession, until the moon and stars hung over the city. Below the castle, a pair of now familiar ponies walked, the young stallion’s pace slow and sedate as his mare friend limped next to him. The pair slowly wound their way through the moonlit garden, the world around them silent. Settling themselves onto a bench next to a large fountain, the two relaxed, the flowing water providing the only sound. For a while, the two simply sat there, the mare’s head on the stallion’s shoulder. Eventually, the dark red stallion eased himself from the bench, only to kneel before the mare. From beneath a nearby bush, he pulled out a small wooden box, a pair of crossed paintbrushes over a shield carved onto the lid. Lifting the lid, Burnt Umber revealed its contents, the simple ring shining gently in the moonlight. “The day I got out of the hospital, Umber proposed to me” Before the group, the mare all but launched herself from the bench before wrapping the stallion in a hug. “I think you can guess what my response was.”

The empty garden quickly became anything but as what seemed like hundreds of ponies filled it and the sky above. In front of the fountain, Summer Breeze stood tall, her armor gleaming brightly in the moonlight as she stared into Burnt Umber’s eyes. Between them and the fountain, Princess Luna stood; her lips moving silently as she spoke to the assembled crowd. Nodding her head to the couple, she stepped aside as the bride and groom kissed, the world erupting around them as everypony filled the air with flower petals that danced on the gentle breeze.

“For that first year, we tried to start our lives over in Equestria” The group’s guide said as the ponies around the garden stomped their hooves. “After all of the chaos of the failed invasion died down, Celestia had offered me and every crystal pony sanctuary and citizenship. While Umber and I gladly accepted sanctuary, I wasn’t ready to become an Equestrian. The loss of our true home was still fresh on my mind, as it was for many of the survivors. On top of that, I couldn’t forget Celestia’s response the night we had arrived at the gates of Canterlot, how she had refused to do anything until the sun had risen. If it had been Princess Luna who had offered us citizenship, I probably would have accepted, but it hadn’t been.” Around the garden, ponies faded out of existence. “Like I said, we tried to start over in Equestria. Luna made sure that I got into the Royal Guard and my husband” the mare’s voice seemed to develop a slight flutter at the mention of the h-word “quickly established himself as an up and coming artist, especially with the nobility.

“I wish that I could say that the transition was a smooth one, but I can’t.” From the wall around the castle’s training grounds, the class watched as a group of guards surrounded Shadow’s ancestor. Nopony could hear what was said, but Summer Breeze’s response left little doubt about what was said as she drew a sword and launched it between the heads of two of her harassers. The razor sharp blade buried itself into the granite wall behind them with enough force to loosen the weapon’s handle and cross guard. As the lone mare turned away, everypony watched as one armored stallion after another tried – and failed – to pull the sword from the wall.

The world around the group blurred as the scene changed, the blue sky and open field being replaced by a small bedroom surrounded by gold and white marble. In the room’s lone bed, the young couple held each other, gentle snores coming from the stallion while the mare stared out the nearby window. From somewhere above them, everypony could hear two voices yelling. Nopony had to ask who was arguing. They had all seen the owners of the voices in the flesh multiple times. In the bed, the stallion stirred, his eyes opening as his ears twitched at the sound filtering from above. “What are they arguing about now?”

“Princess Luna’s pissed at how her night court is a joke, and Celestia has her head so far up her plot, she can’t see her own sun, let alone that her sister’s right.”

“Why doesn’t Luna do something about it then?” Umber said around a massive yawn, his gentle snores returning moments later as he fell back asleep.

“To be honest” Summer Breeze said, the mare appearing behind the group “I had been wondering the same thing for a while. Supposedly the two sisters ruled the country as equals, but any pony with half a brain could see that their rule was anything but equal. Anything of significance somehow found its way to Celestia, while anything menial or mundane wound up in Princess Luna’s hooves. While I had gotten close to the younger Princess, I had never gotten a chance to broach the subject. I got that chance a week later…”

The darkened bedroom gave way to a deserted hallway, with Shadow’s ancestor the only pony around. The lone mare slowly made her way down the hall, her chest and left leg covered in bandages. “There had been an… incident… earlier that day, and I had just been released from the infirmary after getting my burns tended to, when I ran into Princess Luna or, more precisely, she almost ran into me.” At an intersection, Summer Breeze ground to a halt, barely stopping in time as the princess of the night came around the corner, the two nearly colliding. For a minute, the two mares stood there, exchanging pleasantries as the princess asked about the younger mare’s bandages. The scene followed the two as they walked together down the hall “After she had nearly run me over, Luna invited me to share some tea with her in her room. With Umber working late, I was more than glad to accept.” From where he stood, Shadow couldn’t help but smile at the faces of his classmates as the doors to Princess Luna’s room opened and they saw what lay beyond. “For a while, we sat on the balcony, as I shared stories from the Empire; how I had gotten my cutie mark, how I had met my future husband, how Crystal Rose and I had become good friends despite our different stations. As we waited for some water to boil so we could enjoy a pot of tea from the Empire, I made an off-hoof comment about how beautiful the night was, which, to my shame, I had been neglecting for some time.” From where they stood, everypony could see the tears roll down the lone alicorn’s face. “As we enjoyed that mind-numbingly expensive blend, Luna confessed to me that she was tired of being a second-class Princess. She spoke of how the Night Court was a joke, of how everypony went to Celestia for advice, but never to her.”

“I must confess Summer, I have grown weary of this exercise in futility that is my court. I am tired of not getting the respect that I have earned. According to the rumors of the court, the Empire would still be around if Celestia had left me back in Canterlot.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know” the Princess said as she gazed into her cup “but I will not stand for this disrespect for much longer.”

“I’m with you, Luna.”

“After I left, I told my husband what we had talked about and he joined us immediately.” The darkened room changed to the throne room that every Equestrian was familiar with, whether personally or through pictures. “The following morning, I found that I had been transferred to Luna’s personal guard unit.” Outside the room’s massive windows, the moon slowly soared across the night sky while the stars broke up the otherwise featureless black void. Standing next to the throne, Shadow’s ancestor talked with Equestria’s younger Princess, their hushed whispers barely reaching past the dais. “For the first few weeks, Luna and I tried to come up with ideas on what we could do. Unfortunately, those weeks were spent for naught, since one idea after another got rejected for one reason or another.” On the throne, everypony could see the Princess’s mood slowly darken as the night wore on. “One thing that I found out rather quickly was that Luna’s desire to be seen as her sister’s equal wasn’t a recent thing. In truth, it had been festering for years, if not decades. According to her, she and her sister had once been equals in the eyes of everypony, but that had been shortly after their ascensions. Once they had been crowned as Equestria’s rulers, things changed, with Princess Celestia receiving more and more attention, while Luna seemed to fade into the background.

“Then Discord happened and Equestria remembered that they had two Princesses. Unfortunately, ponies seem to have rather poor memories since, once the two Princesses had dealt with Discord, things went back to as they had been before, with Luna looking on as everypony ignored her in favor of her older sister. In truth, I could see the same thing slowly happening to me and the other ponies who managed to escape the Empire. After everything we went through and despite everything the Empire had contributed to Equestria, we were just as invisible as Luna.

“Surprisingly, it was one of Luna’s personal guards who had made the suggestion that the princess rise up against her sister. I had thought that we were being discreet, but apparently thestral hearing is much better than most ponies realize. It turns out that the throne room’s night guards had been listening the entire time. By the time the moon set the following morning, every last one of them stood with Luna. That morning, I made a few discreet inquiries among the other night guards and within a week, every member had personally pledged their loyalty to Luna.”

“Why would they turn against Celestia?” Though she tried to be quiet, everypony heard Twilight’s whispered question to Rainbow Dash.

The lone clone turned her head to look at the young Princess "Because she never lifted so much as a feather to help them.” Seeing the frown on Twilight’s face, the clone sighed. “A thousand years ago, there were six classes of ponies; you had Celestia on top with Luna supposedly beside her, followed by the nobles. After them came the ponies in the guard, then the merchants, with most of the rest of Equestria's citizens making up the second lowest level. At the very bottom, were the thestrals.

Every.

Last.

One.

“Unlike every other tribe, if you were born a thestral, there was only one career you could reasonably pursue: Lunar Guard. Sure, you could try to be an artist or a merchant, but you would never make it because of the distrust and outright hatred ponies felt for thestrals. Because of their eyes, thestrals can't stand bright light, which forced them to be nocturnal. Combine that with their dark colors and their fangs, which were not used to suck blood; it doesn't take much effort to imagine how they quickly became associated with the night and everything in it that supposedly wanted to prey on innocent ponies.

“With nopony willing to trust them, any thestral that tried to strike out on their own quickly found themself out of business as soon as ponies found out what they were. I met one pony who could sing the birds out of the trees, but couldn't perform in public because nopony would come, simply because she was a thestral. There was a guard I knew who could have been one of the best painters of his time. He had tried to sell his works by having an earth pony sell them. That lasted for all of six months before the plot-headed mare demanded a seventy five percent cut of the profits. When my friend refused, she stole all of his paintings, kept the bits and once the last one had been sold, told everypony who, or more precisely what, had painted them. This young stallion never sold another painting in his life.” The mare glared at Twilight

“On top of that, it was pretty much open season on thestrals as far as everypony else was concerned. You could publicly beat the ever living horseapples out of a random thestral and no pony would stop you. If your victim tried to press charges, even if you didn't show up to court, every charge against you would be dropped, simply because of what your accuser was, and you wouldn't have to worry about Princess Luna getting involved, since you could always get Celestia to overrule anything her younger sister decided by lying through your teeth.

“Because there were nearly twenty thestrals in Canterlot for every position in the Lunar Guard, they had the highest poverty rates, the highest representation in Equestria's dungeons and the highest suicide rate of any tribe.” The clone of Summer Breeze looked at Twilight. “If your family was starving, ponies you knew were spending years locked up for minor crimes and you couldn't get a job to save your life, would you turn down a chance to change everything for the better?”

Seeing no answer coming, the clone turned back to Shadow’s classmates. “Once the thestrals had joined, we needed a new place to meet, someplace nopony knew about.” Around the assembled fillies and colts, the throne room dissolved, the walls vanishing as the ceiling began to fill with large green crystals. “Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem for long. While doing her rounds, a night guard happened to open a door that she had spent years walking past. That door happened to lead down to a massive series of caverns located well below the castle’s foundations.” Unseen by all but her friends, Twilight gave an involuntary shiver at the sight of the oversized crystals.

“A friend of mine once said that scarcity breeds competition. With the thestrals, that meant that as soon as they were no longer foals, every child began guard training, in the hopes that it would get them a position in the guard, which would in turn help their family and their community in general. I think it goes without saying that, within a few generations, thestrals in general gained a reputation for being tough, extremely violent fighters, who would attack you at the slightest provocation. While their training and their reputation helped a lot, Luna and I both knew it wouldn’t be enough. What we needed was more ponies.” The clone of Shadow’s ancestor slowly smiled. “Remember when I said how us Crystal Ponies had been all but forgotten shortly after losing our home?” Around the room, a number of watchers nodded. “I wasn’t the only one of us to notice it, and I certainly wasn’t alone in my resentment.” Around the crystal-lined room, hundreds of ponies faded into existence. “We had to work slowly and carefully, since a number of survivors had decided to accept Princess Celestia’s offer of citizenship. During the battle against Sombra, we had managed to free several thousand ponies from the city’s dungeons. When you didn’t include those that had accepted Equestrian citizenship, those too old, too young, unable or unwilling to fight for Luna, we still managed to get over three thousand ponies to join us.”

Around the classroom, time seemed to fast-forward as ponies went about their duties. The original room quickly changed as well as it was expanded and a large table was carved out of a single crystal in the center of the room. Around the table, Summer Breeze, Silver Star and a number of unidentified crystal ponies and thestrals stood alongside Luna as they planned their rebellion. “From these long forgotten caverns, we spent over a year planning and preparing. When I wasn’t helping to plan, I was training every loyal Imperial how to fight, whether it was in sword or spear or hoof-to-hoof combat. As the months passed, our cache of weapons and supplies grew. Luna herself was never one to sit back and wait. Shortly after we started planning our rebellion; she all but stopped showing up to the throne room at all. If anypony noticed, nothing was ever said of her absence. Instead, she divided her time between helping to plan and working on her skills in combat magic. Everypony knew that in the end, she would be the one to face Princess Celestia. To that end, Sliver Star practically became her instructor and, just between you and me, I don’t think I had ever seen him happier since the loss of our home.”

The crystal-lined room around the assembled ponies vanished. Taking its place was a single cavern so massive that only the most massive crystals that formed the ceiling were even visible. Across the chamber’s floor, thousands of ponies stood in formation while the light from hundreds of torches shimmered off the crystals, filling the room with a strange green glow. In front of the assembled ponies, a platform had been erected. On it stood Princess Luna, with Summer Breeze standing just off to the side. Nopony could hear what the young Princess was saying, but they didn’t have to, as the assembled warriors shouted and stomped their hooves in approval. As the crowd cheered, Princess Luna threw back her head, her horn glowing brightly. Before everypony, her magic rose into the air, before descending upon her and covering her like a blanket. As the magic faded, a pony emerged, the likes of which Equestria had never seen before. The alicorn that had taken the Princess’s place was pure black. The mare’s ethereal star-filled mane was the same as Luna’s, but what stood out in particular were the mare’s eyes. They were the same turquoise color as Luna’s, but where the neglected Princess had normal pupils, this new mare had slits. As everypony watched, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.

“We thought of everything we could, planned for every detail and contingency we could possibly imagine. All that was left was to pick a date to strike. Interestingly, my husband had been thinking about that particular problem and when he suggested a date, everypony loved it. I mean, what better day to announce your dissatisfaction in Princess Celestia than on the one day of the year when the eyes of the entire nation would be watching her?”

The green crystals of the cavern turned to marble and gold while the walls closed in, with stained glass showing the fading moonlight outside. At a glance, nothing looked out of place. The thestrals of Luna’s personal guard stood at attention, while the princess looked as bored as ever. As a clock gently chimed in the background, the lone alicorn’s horn glowed. Outside, the moon slowly slipped below the horizon while the sun slowly rose. Inside however, it was as if everypony had received a sudden shock. Nodding to Summer Breeze, Luna quietly stood, nodding to her guards before making her way to a room hidden behind the throne. Silently, Shadow’s ancestor left the dais, trotting down the room’s length. As she approached the large doors that formed the room’s main entrance, she paused before bowing as the doors opened. Through them, Celestia strode in, her guards standing at attention, exchanging barely concealed glares with Luna’s Night Guard.

“As planned, I bowed to Celestia and informed her that Luna wished to speak to her in private. It nauseated me as I did. Here I was bowing to the one pony who could have prevented thousands of needless deaths. As the official representative of the Imperial Refugees, I was in a technical sense a low ranking noble, which should have meant that I could talk to either Princess.” The clone’s barked laugh echoed around the room. “Despite my efforts, the only time I ever saw Princess Sunplot was at official events and functions, and even then whenever I went and talked to her directly about getting a meeting with her, I’d get shunted to an aide. If it had been up to me, I never would have bowed, but as it was part of the plan and required by my position, I did what I had to.”

With a glance, the elder Princess dismissed her escorts. Igniting her horn, Summer Breeze walked through the throne room’s entrance, shutting the doors behind her. In the hallway, the line of Night Guards glared silently at the line of golden armored guards. In the background, everypony could hear a clock ticking away the minutes. From his hidden position, Shadow slowly smiled as, one by one, Rainbow Dash, her friends and a number of his classmates looked up, noticing the nearly dozen thestrals hovering silently overhead.

From beyond the door, the sound of breaking glass shattered the tense quiet of the hallway. As Celestia’s guards turned to rush the throne room, their nocturnal counterparts hurled themselves across the hallway, slamming themselves and their targets into the solid stone wall. Overhead, the hovering thestrals dove like hawks on unsuspecting mice. Through the fighting, one solar guard took to the air before tucking in his wings and slamming into the throne room’s doors. The pegasus stallion had barely gotten to his hooves before Shadow’s ancestor hit him with her magic, dropping him where he had landed.

On the far side of the room, Celestia stared in naked shock at the sight of her sister, the dark mare’s face showing nothing but contempt for her older sibling. Before she could react, Celestia was sent flying into a nearby column as Nightmare Moon’s blast connected solidly with the white alicorn’s chest. Next to Summer Breeze, the downed pegasus stirred. Sparing her nearby foe a quick glance, the mare bucked the stallion in the face, the guard’s helmet denting under the twin impacts.

Her horn still aglow, the yellow and orange mare rushed toward the dais. In the blink of an eye, an orange shield intercepting the battered Princess’s magic before it could reach the dais. To her credit, the solar princess got over her shock quickly as she scrambled to her hooves, a shield instantly appearing between her and the other two mares in the room. Pumping her wings, the larger alicorn fled the room, barreling through a couple thestrals as she blasted a hole in the wall ahead of her, the shield behind her absorbing the near constant barrage of magical blasts from the throne room as she fled her castle for the relative safety of the air outside.

“By mid-morning, the castle and all of Canterlot was under our control. It would have fallen sooner, but some of guards that the Celestia had abandoned had decided to make a final stand. They didn’t stand a chance and eventually fell. Subduing them had taken longer than I would have liked, but not as long as we had planned.” Around the school group, the world grew dark and damp as the throne room faded, only to be quickly replaced by two long rows of cages. “After we had secured the capital, one of the first things we did was round up every last ‘noble’ and tossed them in a couple of cells in the city’s dungeons. These ponies had used their positions to oppress the thestrals and had started to take advantage of my people as well. While I would have preferred a much swifter form of justice, Princess Luna, or Queen Nightmare Moon as she now called herself, wanted to wait until Celestia had been defeated before making a public spectacle of their punishments.”

Shadow’s ancestor reappeared before the assembled ponies, her armor shining bright in the mid-day sun as they stood outside the castle. “Overall, the initial takeover had gone off without a hitch, except for one rather major exception: the Elements.” In a room the size of the schoolhouse, Nightmare Moon strode in, her head held high as she glanced at the bound and gagged Solar Guards. For their part, the subdued guards stared on in shock as the black alicorn walked past them. Along the far wall, a pair of doors stood resolutely shut, the scorch marks marring the white walls around them a testament to the tenacity and numerous failures of the unicorn stallion standing before them. Silver Star looked up at his Queen, before stepping aside at her gesture. With a single blast, Equestria’s queen reduced the doors to splinters. On the other side, a single large chest stood on a pedestal. His horn glowing, Silver Star focused on the lone object for several minutes before lifting the chest and setting it before his ruler with a bow.

Lifting the lid, Nightmare Moon stared in silence. Without warning, her horn flashed as she sent the wooden box hurling through the air, a pair of tied up guards barely ducking out of the way as it smashed itself to pieces against the wall they had just been sitting against. “When we were planning for this day, we had thought about the possibility that Celestia might have moved the Elements of Harmony in secret and, while we planned for the possibility, nopony thought much about it. Since Luna wielded half the Elements, why would her sister move them without telling her?” The clone shrugged. “Apparently Celestia had as much trust in her sister as everypony else did.”

“Despite the setback, this day was an unbelievable success. Canterlot was ours. The castle was ours. Celestia was on the run without her full complement of guards, instead managing to flee with anypony she could find.” Around the school group, there was a massive celebration going on that was a strange mix of joyousness and nervousness. “While my people patrolled the city and castle and the thestrals waited for the sun to set, I found my husband celebrating with some of his friends.” In front of the castle, the stallion in question raised an overflowing mug of beer into the air, his companions doing likewise was they banged their drinks together, sloshing their contents and soaking the ponies below. From behind, Summer Breeze trotted up, her horn aglow as she grabbed her husband’s mug before he could take a drink. Turning around, the stallion was greeted by his wife who silenced his growing confusion with a kiss that lasted for several seconds. Breaking away so they could breathe, Summer Breeze downed half the mug before leaning forward and whispering in her husband’s ear. Nopony could hear what she said, which the adults in the room figured was a good thing, if the rapidly growing blush on the stallion’s face was any indication.

As Summer Breeze and Burnt Umber trotted into the castle, the frown that had appeared on Twilight’s face a while back deepened. Growing up, when the Lunar Rebellion had come up in class, it had always been glossed over, with the story of Princess Luna’s fall and transformation into Nightmare Moon all but ignored in favor of how Celestia practically ended the rebellion by herself. At first Twilight had never questioned what she had been taught. Why should she, when she went to a school where Princess Celestia helped determine the curriculum? It wasn’t until she had started her research on Nightmare Moon before the thousandth Summer Sun celebration that she had gotten the first inkling that there was more to the rebellion than what she had learned. She had planned to look deeper into the rebellion once she had gotten back from her assignment in Ponyville, but had forgotten those plans the moment the sun had failed to rise that fateful morning.

From where she stood, the young Princess’s frown deepened, not from how many holes she found in Shadow’s presentation, but from how few she could find. It all made too much sense. By herself, Princess Luna never would have stood a chance. Even if the Solar Guard didn’t get involved, she would have been no match for Princess Celestia. With an army of alienated and disaffected ponies behind her on the other hoof… She made a mental note to herself to ask Shadow about how he knew all of this.

“For a while” Summer Breeze said, the sky glowing brightly to the city’s west “everything was quiet. Celestia had escaped the city with a decent part of the Solar Guard following in her wake, and no pony had any idea where she had gone.” Standing with her husband in the garden they had gotten married in, the young couple looked up as a pair of pegasi materialized out of the slowly setting sun. Before the unicorn mare could react, the lead pegasus fell from the sky, crashing into the manicured grass and rolling to a stop in a patch of bushes. Her companion fared slightly better, managing a hard landing that sent her skidding across the grass, only to face plant into the fountain when she ran out of room. “That quiet didn’t last long” Shadow’s ancestor said as she talked to the two mares before they were taken away on stretchers. “The moment we had secured Canterlot, Queen Moon had sent out scouts to find her sister. It had taken a week, but by sheer luck, a team of scouts had stumbled upon Celestia and her forces at an old castle in the Everfree Forest. Unfortunately, they had been spotted and those two mares you saw were the only ones to make it back to Canterlot alive.” Summer Breeze closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again, there was a steel behind them that caught Twilight off guard.

“When their report was delivered to our Queen, she ordered an immediate attack on the old castle.” Around the castle in Canterlot, ponies in armor ran or flew around as carts and chariots were loaded. “In private, Luna admitted that she had never thought of looking there. She and her sister had all but abandoned the place after Canterlot had been built, and on the few trips she had made back to their old home, the surrounding forest had taken full advantage of their absence. Without the constant presence of ponies, the forest had grown wild and animals of every kind had decided to call the place home. In a couple centuries, what had once been a beautiful forest had gone to seed and had become a home to highly lethal carnivores and plants that were only slightly less so. In other words, one had to be extremely desperate to voluntarily enter that outgrowth of Tartarus.” The group’s narrator turned to the assembled children and adults “Since we were about to assault that hellhole, what did that make us?”

“Fortunately” Summer Breeze said as one heavily laden chariot after another took to the air “while some of us were out celebrating our first taste of victory, others had kept doing what they did best. When this little war had started, it would have taken a full day to get down the mountain and a week just to get to the outskirts of the Everfree. Who knows how long it would have taken to force our way to the old castle, or if we would have made it at all?” The mare smiled as she shook her head. “I’m sure Celestia was planning on us taking the long way, but when it comes to fighting, you use every advantage you have. In this case, thanks to Silver Star and a couple other ponies who together had more brains between them than half the Solar Guard, instead of taking weeks to get there, we’d be there within hours and we’d be on them long before they’d expect us.”

Below the school group, the edge of the city suddenly dropped away, revealing trees and plains as far as the eye could see. Looking out the back, Equestria’s capital was practically on fire in the late day sun, the red and yellow light playing off the city’s marble buildings like liquid flames that illuminated the entire mountainside. Almost immediately, the squadrons of chariots and their thestral escorts dropped out of the air, plummeting to the ground far below, only to pull up at the last second as they skimmed the fields of grass that surrounded the mountainside city. “The flight itself took less than two hours, and we spent it barely flying above the ground since we’d lose any element of surprise if they spotted us coming.” The plains flew by underneath, the sound of grass hitting the wooden wheels telling everypony just how low the chariots really were. Within minutes, Queen Moon and her forces pulled up, the bottom of the chariots scraping the tops of trees as they flew over the Everfree Forest.

As the Queen’s forces flew, the world above the Everfree dissolved. Around the students, thick moss-covered trees appeared out of the gloom. Around the trees, heavily armored ponies moved as quietly as heavily armored ponies could. Overhead, thestrals flitted from tree to tree, their dark armor glistening in the moonlight as if they were oversized insects. “Normally we would have planned this assault like we had with Canterlot, but fate it seems had decided otherwise. Overall, the plan we had thrown together, while admittedly rushed and very last minute; was elegant in its simplicity.” As Summer Breeze spoke, the trees and the ponies sneaking through them came to an abrupt stop. Before them lay an immense clearing. From where they stood, the class could see that hundreds of trees had been cut down; increasing the size of the clearing and ensuring that anypony trying to sneak across would be spotted. In the middle of the clearing, a large stone castle stood, its dark shape silhouetted against the stars in the sky, its size only discernable by the sheer number of stars it blocked from sight.

From the trees, scores of thestrals took to the air, the sound of them leaving cover the only noise they made. For a while, the only sound anypony could hear was the wind rustling the trees and the occasional sound of metal on metal as somepony moved. At first, the sound was all but drowned out by the evening breeze. Then, one by one, the ponies around the school group perked their ears. Moments later, giving her husband a final kiss, Summer Breeze gave the signal, a sweep of her leg toward the castle. As one, the forces of Nightmare Moon moved out of the trees. As they moved, the forces which had been spread out across the tree line converged, until it was a single large column of charging ponies, with their Queen and Shadow’s ancestor in the lead. Nearing the castle, even above the thundering of thousands of charging hooves, Twilight and her friends could hear the sound of ponies fighting. Ahead, half a dozen lanterns were hurled over the castle’s wall, shattering unheard against the ground, but their quickly spreading flames illuminating a drawbridge that was not only down, but completely unguarded.

Crying at the top of their lungs, Summer Breeze and her Queen charged into the unguarded opening, their horns glowing as they cast shields above the screaming ponies behind them. Within seconds, the world around them dissolved into chaos as ponies clad in silver and black armor fought against ponies in gold. “I will give this to them” Summer Breeze said, materializing out of nowhere to stand next to Cheerilee “despite the suddenness of our attack, the Solar Guard rallied faster than anypony would have expected.” The view of the battle shifted until the teacher and her students were looking down from the air. Below them, the forces of Nightmare Moon continued to pour through the castle’s entrance. Initially, the fortress’s defenders managed to hold their ground, but that didn’t last long as hundreds of charging ponies quickly overwhelmed them. “Within minutes, the castle’s entrance was ours and we quickly gained the upper hoof as we pushed Celestia’s forces back. Through it all, Umber and I never left each other’s side. Where one went, the other followed. When I got in trouble, he was always there to help me out.” The world narrowed until it focused on the young couple as they and a group of crystal ponies fought along the base of a wall. “At first we had tried to stay next to our Queen, since she’d be the most obvious target, but that plan quickly went to Tartarus when we were charged by a dozen guards. By the time we were able to look around; my closest friend was nowhere to be seen.”

As the fighting along the wall continued, the group’s guide gestured to a large wall across a nearby courtyard. Through the windows, flashes of light could be seen along with the odd silhouette of a pony with both wings and a horn. Within seconds, one of the stained glass windows shattered as Nightmare Moon was thrown through it, her unexpected flight stopped by an unsuspecting Solar Guard. Shaking her head, the dark alicorn leaped into the air, throwing herself through the new opening in the wall. As the last defender fell to their group, Summer Breeze and Burnt Umber stopped to stare at the battle between the two alicorn sisters. By this point, every window had been reduced to colored shards. Without warning, a beam of magic blasted away part of the roof. Out of it flew Princess Celestia, with her younger sister hot on her tail. Overhead, the two sisters fought, with the older sister barely dodging the blasts of the younger one. The chase lasted less than a minute before Nightmare Moon’s aim found its mark. With a scream, Celestia fell from the sky. Below, Shadow’s ancestors and everypony around them cheered as overhead, their Queen laughed in triumph. The cheers quickly faded as Celestia slowly arose from the castle, a band of multicolored light spinning around her. With tears glistening in her eyes, the older alicorn lowered her horn at her adversary, a rainbow beam of light erupting a heartbeat later. Igniting her horn, Nightmare Moon fired back. The two blasts of magic met in the air.

The battle between the two sisters ended abruptly as Celestia’s magic surged through her sister’s defenses. With a scream, Nightmare Moon took the blast in the chest, the magic washing over her as she was launched into the air. As everypony watched, the dark alicorn disappeared from sight. Moments later, a series of dark craters in the shape of a mare appeared on the face of the moon. For a moment, nopony moved. Before she could move or even think, Summer Breeze was thrown bodily across the ground by her husband. The world around the assembled ponies went dark; the only sound that could be heard was the sound of something solid impacted flesh, followed by a gasp. The world returned to as it had been. Scrambling to her hooves, Summer Breeze raced to her husband, who had fallen to the ground. Though Shadow had decided against showing the act, the shattered spear next to his ancestor’s body left no confusion about what had just happened. Looking up, Summer Breeze screamed at a dark figure on the wall above them. Without warning, as the world around the class faded once again, the mare’s mane and tail burst into flames as the newly created widow’s screams filled the air.

“I don't remember much after that.” Summer Breeze said, slowly fading into existence again, this time sitting on the floor in front of everypony. “The next thing I knew, I was waking up in one of the dungeons beneath Canterlot Castle.” The mare slowly got to her hooves. “It wasn't until later that I learned the identity of the pony who took my Umber from me, and that in my rage I had dropped half of the northwest tower on him.” The clone looked up at the children. “I guess after that, after losing my home, one of my closest friends and my husband, I lost it. One of my cellmates later told me that it took Celestia herself to stop me.”

Around the room, the world returned to the dungeon cells beneath the castle. “I don’t know how long they initially left us down there. The only way I was able to tell time was that the guards showed up at the same time twice a day with breakfast and dinner, which was nothing more than a plate of raw hay, a stale bun and a mug of water. After what seemed like months, but was likely only a couple weeks, I was dragged out of my cell, along with a number of others to stand before Celestia.”

The world around the classroom slowly changed as it followed the chained mare and her friends, the sounds of their chains echoing across the hallways. As they entered the throne room, everypony was greeted by the sight of hundreds of ponies lining the narrow strip of carpet that led from the door to the dais, where Celestia stood surrounded by guards. Making their way down the long aisle, everypony could hear the insults and slurs those in attendance hurled at the chained ponies, only for them to stop as the lone Princess spread her wings.

“Summer Breeze, you and your companions stand accused of treason against Equestria as well as leading a rebellion against the crown. How do you-”

“Not guilty.” The room erupted in shouts as the defiant mare interrupted the nation’s sole ruler. It took the princess over a minute to restore order. “Unless you forget, Princess, I am not one of your citizens. I never was, and you and your nobles made sure to remind me of that fact every chance you got. When the Empire fell to Sombra, we fled to Equestria looking for help. Your sister was the first to show us any kindness. Do you remember what you shouted at her when she informed you that the Empire had fallen and that the entire Imperial family was dead? It can wait.” The mare hissed the words at the white alicorn. “On top of that, you waited to respond to Sombra’s crimes, which cost thousands of innocent ponies their lives, or have you so quickly forgotten the horrors that awaited us outside the Imperial Capital?

“Through all of it: the training, the marching and the fighting, Luna was there for us. She was the only one in Equestria who seemed to give two horseapples about us and the Empire. As if that wasn’t bad enough, whenever something important happened, there you were; the focus of everypony’s love and attention, but where was your sister? In the shadows, being ignored and looked down upon by the very ponies who worship the ground you walk on. Many of them are here right now and I have no doubt they would gladly lick your plot if they thought it would please you!” Smiling at the uproar around her, the chained mare turned back to the lone alicorn. “Since you couldn’t get you head out of your own plot for five seconds to see what was going on around you, is it any wonder why we answered your sister’s call for help? Is it any wonder why we returned the love and kindness she showed us?”

Around the throne room; what little pretense of order that had existed, shattered. On the dais, Celestia rose on her hind hooves, before slamming her front hooves down, shattering the solid stone beneath her as she bellowed. “ENOUGH!” In the silence that immediately followed, the irate alicorn looked down on Shadow’s ancestor, who defiantly stared back “Guards, escort everypony but her back to their cells. I will speak to her in private.”

The sea of angry ponies faded as they were once again replaced by the rows of cells. Leaning against the back wall of her cell, Summer Breeze lowered her gaze from the ceiling to look at her guests. “Though she didn’t say it, what you saw was not what good ol’ Celestia had expected. Admissions of guilt? Pleas for mercy? Sure, but outright public defiance?” The mare chuckled mirthlessly. “After our little private meeting, I was sent back to join my friends in the dungeon’s stench. While we waited for Celestia to deal with us, I had time to think. One of the things I quickly realized was that during the final battle, we faced half our number, which didn’t make any sense. Even at half strength, Princess Sun Butt should have had twice the number of ponies under her command than her sister, so why did we fight only a quarter of that?” The lone mare traded her spot on the floor for a spot on her bed. “Simple. It turns out that once she had rallied her forces, Celestia had left three quarters behind to watch Canterlot and to take it if the opportunity ever presented itself, which it did when we left to go after her.”

The mare sighed as she stared off into the distance for a moment. “Fortunately, not everything went to Tartarus that night. If you could look around” Summer Breeze said, gesturing to the illusionary dungeon, “you’d quickly notice that while everything from fillies and colts to ponies old enough to be my grandmother were here, the one thing you wouldn’t find would be thestral families.” Seeing the confused looks on the ponies around her, Shadow’s ancestor smiled. “Evening Breeze was the name of the head thestral in Canterlot. During the year we were planning our little coup, she and I came up with a number of contingency plans. One of them was that as soon as Canterlot was ours, the thestrals would leave the city. Originally their movement in and out of the city had been restricted for some reason I’m not even going to try and understand, but we both knew that if things with south, it would be open season on every thestral in the city, and ponies wouldn’t stop just because their victim happened to be a child.”

Noting the look of horror on the adult’s faces, the mare smiled gently “Fortunately, that particular plan went off without a hitch and, when Canterlot was retaken by the Solar Guard, there wasn’t a single thestral in the city.”

Sighing, the mare sat up in her bed. “Of all the things I missed the most down here was the sound of children laughing.” A sad smile flitted across the unicorn’s face. “After we had gotten married, Umber and I had talked about starting a family of our own. Those plans had been put on hold while we planned the rebellion, but as we waited for that fateful day to come, we had wandered back onto the topic of starting a family. The night before the coup, we had agreed to try and start one after everything had settled down.

“For a while, I had thought that that dream was now forever out of reach.” The lone mare shook her head as she smiled knowingly. “Let me tell you, morning sickness is not fun at all. At first I thought it was just some bad hay or something in the water, but after a week of it, my mom, who they had put in my cell with me, realized what it was. One visit from Celestia’s personal physician later and it was confirmed: I was pregnant! I was going to be a mom!” The excitement in her voice died as she sank against the wall behind her bed. “Unfortunately, while they wouldn’t do anything to me now that I was expecting, there was no telling what they would try to do once I gave birth. In all likelihood, they’d try to take my foal.” The glint of steel in the mare’s eyes returned at the suggestion of taking her foal. “The only thing they let me have down here was my diary, which I’d write in to break up the monotony. I knew it was being read, so I made sure to make it clear that my child was off limits.” The mare’s smile turned predatory before softening again “It worked. I got Celestia’s promise and vow in open court that my child was off limits.”

The world changed slightly until everypony from Ponyville was standing outside the cell. Inside they could hear a stallion and an older mare talking over Summer Breeze’s barely restrained screams. As the younger mare screamed, the wails of another much higher pitched voice erupted, drowning out the other three. From where he was hidden by his namesake, Shadow could see a number of his classmates smile at the baby’s cries. Behind his classmates, Rarity didn’t even bother to try and hide her tears. “I decided to name her Burnt Sienna, after her father and the color of her coat.” The cell’s bars dissolved as mother and daughter were revealed for the first time. Held gently by her mother, the young foal slept soundly. “I didn’t know how long we’d be down here. It had already been almost a year by the time this little one came into the world, and growing up in a dungeon was no way for a filly to live.” The lone mare smiled as she looked down on her child. “Apparently somepony else agreed with me, since we were released a week later.”

The world brightened considerably as the dungeon disappeared, the walls and cells being replaced by the marble and gold of the city’s buildings. Along the streets, the city’s residents had lined the sidewalks. Down the center of the street, hundreds of ponies marched or rode in carts. The line started at the city’s entrance and wound its way to the front gates of the castle. At the top of the front steps, Celestia stood, flanked by guards as she watched the proceedings. Below her at the base of the steps, Summer Breeze embraced her mother, before gently lifting up her daughter with her magic. “When we had lost our home and Celestia had offered us citizenship, my mom had been one of the few to accept. When we were planning the coup, I had made sure to keep my mom out of it. She had seen enough and deserved to not be drawn up in it. That was one of the smartest decisions I made in my life. While everypony involved in the rebellion and their families were being banished from Equestria, those who hadn’t participated were allowed to stay. While it meant that I’d never see her again and that she’d never see me or her granddaughter again, I was glad my mom was staying behind. She was getting on in years and, while not exactly old, she more than deserved to live the rest of her life in one place and in peace, instead of spending every day on the road, traveling from one place to another.” Embracing her daughter and grandchild one last time, Summer Breeze’s mom watched as her daughter took her place on the back of the final cart to leave. As the cart made its way through the city, the barely restrained anger of the city’s citizens broke at the sight of the one pony they blamed above all else leaving with her freedom. Igniting her horn, Summer Breeze cast a shield over her cart as ponies hurled items at her. As the cart crossed the city’s front bridge, the world faded to white, the image of a lone mare standing at the city entrance as she watched what remained of her family leave remained for a few seconds before fading as well.

“Thank you for letting me tell you my story. While I won’t say that I’m guiltless, I hope you will be able to understand why I did what I did. This isn’t the end of my story. We eventually found a new land to call our own, but the story of how we got there and how I had to fight a dragon for it is a story for another day. Thank you.” Bowing her head, the mare faded from existence.

---

“Well… that was unique.”

Celestia couldn’t help but nod silently at her sister’s assessment. In truth, the eldest Princess was rather surprised at how accurate the report was. While she couldn’t vouch for a number of spots, those that she had personally witnessed had been depicted too accurately to be a coincidence. “Indeed” She replied as the clone of Summer Breeze faded away. Beneath where the clone had been standing, the bright green crystal darkened as the spells etched into its matrix ran their course. “Frankly, I’m surprised at how close to the truth it actually was.”

“Indeed” Luna replied. “Despite our friendship, Summer Breeze never went into detail about why she hated Sombra so much. I thought her hatred for him stemmed from the murder of his family, but after what he did to her…”

Celestia nodded silently. After what she had endured for a week straight after he had taken over, the princess couldn’t blame the mare for harboring a vendetta against that bastard. “I hope what we saw wasn’t what he showed for his presentation.” Next to her, Luna picked up a scroll that had appeared during the middle of the clone’s presentation. While unexpected, what had caught both sisters off guard was how the clone of Summer Breeze stopped mid-sentence as the letter from Twilight appeared and had watched the princesses set it aside for later before starting where she had left off. Even the raised eyebrow and sigh that had followed the letter’s appearance had strongly reminded the elder sister of the mare she had known.

“Apparently Shadow got full marks for his presentation.” Luna said as she scanned Twilight’s letter. “It also appears that we got the adult version.” The darker alicorn rolled up the letter before passing it to her sister. “So…” Luna said, looking at the nearby roaring fire “What did you think of it?”

“Honestly? I found it kind of refreshing.” Celestia replied as she scanned Twilight’s letter. “I’ve seen a number of presentations that foals have sent me over the years and they all tend to be heavy on the praise. If anything, this shows me just how blind I was back then.” Extending a wing, the white alicorn draped the feathered limb over her sister’s back. “I was so caught up in my own importance back then that I couldn’t see past my own nose. I’m sorry Luna.”

“We’ve been over this before sister, we’re both at fault and we’ve already forgiven each other.” Luna smiled as she leaned against her sister “Although, if anything, this little presentation explains much.”

“Like what?”

“Like why Shadow feels about you the way he does?” Celestia nodded as she recognized what her sister was saying. Considering everything that Summer Breeze had gone through, it wouldn’t have surprised the princess if what he had presented was taught in school. Given enough time, a tragedy like this could easily fuel a sense of resentment and suspicion.

“I wonder how he could have been so accurate with events.”

“Twilight mentioned that as well. Apparently he has Summer Breeze’s original diary and based his entire presentation off of it.” Stretching, Luna slowly stood, loath to leave her spot next to her sister, but knowing that she had no choice. “Unfortunately, I have duties to attend to.”

“Be sure to pass along my compliments when you talk to him” Celestia said as her sister made her way to the room’s door.

“That I will” Luna replied, the door closing silently behind her.

Luna smiled at the sight of an endless field of stars that greeted her as she opened her eyes. Rolling her shoulders, the princess ignited her horn. Before her, thousands upon thousands of doors blurred past her. Without warning, the line of doors came to a sudden halt. Before her, a simple wooden door stood before her, silently obeying her magic a moment later as it opened for her. Stepping through, Luna found herself standing in mid-air, her mane fluttering gently in the breeze. Below her, Ponyville lay quiet under the mid-day sun while over the town, cumulus clouds lazily drifted overhead. Spreading her wings, the lunar diarch took to the air. Settling herself onto a particularly fluffy cloud, it took the princess less than a minute to spot the dream’s creator. Not far away, a black colt burst from a cloud, a visible trail of fluff following him as he exploded from the cloud’s top, gaining hundreds of feet of altitude every second. Without warning, the young flier threw himself into a vertical flat spin before plunging for the ground a heartbeat later.

Luna smirked as she watched Shadow’s dream. Igniting her horn, a bowl of popcorn materialized next to her. She’d congratulate the colt on his presentation later. For now, she would just sit back and enjoy the show.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Shadow sounds like Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic series, right?

[Rill]

8739555
I never played Sonic growing up. The name is because of the color of his coat, the fact that he'd have to live in the shadows of society back home and traditional naming conventions among some circles back home.

[Da Fennec]

Interesting chapter wonder how it did compared to Diamond Tiaras