Discovery of the hidden dragons

by EveryAlternateEnding

A snap in the night

"Assign half your on-duty guards to me for the night, then take the rest of them and go get Spike. The dragons trust him. He can relocate them to the Civil Dragon Commune until we think of something more permanent. Make sure Fluttershy stays at home. Sunburst-" Twilight shook her husband awake. He jerked up and unfurled his wings in surprise. "Sunburst, this is an emergency. That dream I told you about? It wasn't a dream. I need to take half your on-duty guards for the night. Take the rest and declare that there is to be an important announcement to the ponies of Equestria in an hour."

"What?" He asked.

"Trust. Me." She replied.

He scanned the room and saw the distressed look on Twilight and Luna's faces. "Alright," he said, "I'll announce the announcement."

"Excellent. Now, go!" Luna commanded Twilight. "I shall alert thy active guards. Go!"

Twilight teleported herself to the barn door, knocking back two white unicorn stallions who had been pressing down stones on the lock. "Stop. You have new orders and they're to return to your positions." Twilight commanded.

The guard was entirely impassive. "Celestia said you might intervene. Your Majesty, I have to ask you to step aside."

"And if I don't?" Twilight was trying to sound brave.

"We won't harm you, but we will have to remove you from the premises. We have nine trained unicorns here to do the job."

At that moment, several members of Twilight's and Luna's guards came up behind her. She knew that over a third of them were unicorns. "You'll have to tear me away from them."

"Very well," the guard responded, lighting his horn. Twilight heard the sound of dozens of horns lighting up all around her. She could feel the tug of Celestia's guards until she added her own magic. They were no match for the combined power of an equal number of guards and an alicorn. They stayed locked like that for some time. Celestia's guards began to grunt and strain to no avail. Twilight and her guards were beginning to show strain as well, until some of Sunburst's guards arrived, making their task easy. The horns of the Celestia's guards dimmed as they realized the futility of the situation.

"Call in reinforcements," one of Celestia's guard commanded.

"That will not be necessary," a voice from the back of the room boomed. Celestia stepped forward until she was in view. "Twilight, step aside."

Twilight looked at the pink scratches on Celestia's neck and thought of the alliance to the Dragon Lands. She could have had an hour to ponder the decision she was about to make and it still wouldn't be long enough. She stood still, more out of indecision than anything. Celestia continued to step forward. "Twilight, step aside," she said, now in a firmer voice."

"If I do, will you kill them?"

"What choice do I have?"

"You have the choice to be honest, and take responsibility for what you did."

"You're putting honour before reason," Celestia replied. Then, she lit her horn. Twilight's guards lit up to help her. This time, Twilight could feel herself struggle against the force of the thousand-year-old alicorn. The guards broke down, many collapsing from exhaustion. Twilight felt their help give out one by one until she was fighting a hopeless battle alone. Sweat poured down her forehead. Finally, Twilight could take no more. Her horn went dull and she flew into a wall. "Sorry, Twilight. I didn't mean to use so much force." Twilight watched helplessly as Celestia pressed the buttons on the lock. Then, looking back she saw them flying to her rescue: Luna, Sunburst, and Spike.

Luna cast a spell on Celestia. And when she tried to light up in return, her horn produced nothing but a few sparks. Celestia gasped in surprise.

"Guards, back to your stations. All of thee. We bid thee dismissed!" Luna shouted in her Canterlot voice. A few of Celestia's guard passed her confused looks, but she merely nodded, not willing to let them get hurt for what she thought could be solved with words. She stopped only three of her own, all earth ponies.

"You too, Luna? And Sunburst?"

"I can understand thy actions, sister. But no longer can I accept them."

"I... Found out about this... um..." He summoned a pocket watch. "half an hour ago, but it seems right to me."

"Fine, then. But I'm not stepping away from this door. This is for the good of Equestria."

Spike stepped forward and pushed Celestia out of the way with his draconic strength. Celestia tumbled to the ground, scrapping her face, but got up quickly and locked arms with Spike, evenly matched as they wrestled. A guard ran forwards, ready to stab Spike with his spear. "Look out!" Twilight yelled. Spike raised his tail to swing it at the guard, but in his distraction, Celestia gained the upper hand and knocked him to the ground, her hooves landing landing on his chest and knocking the air out of him. The guards ran forwards, but were blocked by the three alicorns using magical forcefields. Spike dug his claws into Celestia's legs, causing her to jump and allowing him to get back up on his feet. "My spell will only last another thirty seconds, and I cannot cast it again," Luna said, "Spike, the dragons! Twilight, the announcement!"

"Got it," Spike replied. The two broke away from the fight. Twilight pressed the correct combination into the lock and then teleported away.

Celestia ordered her three earth pony guards to gather the others to stop Spike and the dragons. Luna left to gather hers and ensure that they wouldn't be successful. That left Celestia and Sunburst. Did that mean... that he was to face off against Celestia. He may have been a younger alicorn, and had never been the most athletic of ponies, but he was also the only male alicorn in existence, and was very strong as a result. But as strong as Celestia, who had just thrown off a male dragon? He was stuck standing there awkwardly between Celestia and the door. Celestia didn't seem aggressive in her stance. She stepped forward with the same regality she showed in front of her people.

"Sunburst," she began.

"I don't want to hurt you..."

"Well, I don't want to hurt you. I think this is all rather much, is it not? Some of my guards and Luna's are going to get hurt or even die. Spike assaulted me, and I had to shove Twilight against a wall using magic. All for something like this. Be honest, don't you feel like this is just senseless chaos?

"Well...yes. No one expects to wake up to something like this."

"I know. I'm rather disappointed in Twilight and Luna. They're acting out of passion when reason is needed. One of Twilight's greatest strengths is the way that she values relationships, and my sister has always cared very much about justice, but you and I, we're analytical. We can see the big picture. So I hope that you can see that this is unwise. In short, please move."

Sunburst had no idea what to say or do. He was practiced at not looking as irresolute as he often felt, but Celestia had a point about him not knowing anything about the details of the situation. And Celestia was the wisest alicorn he'd ever met. Was he doing the right thing?

A sudden thought emerged of what Twilight had said to him: it could have been Spike. He could so easily been one of them. "I'm not moving."

"Very well," Celestia declared, taking to the air to fly over Sunburst. He caught her and dragged her back down. They wrestled on the floor, Sunburst finally pinning her down after a over twenty seconds of struggle. Celestia teleported herself back behind him, and they began to joust with their horns. While their horns were locked, Celestia laid a heat spell on Sunburst. Heat began to burn in his hooves, spreading to the rest of his body, as though he were being dragged hoof-first into an oven. He responded by punching Celestia in the mouth, knocking her backwards and mercifully, breaking her spell. She returned with an equal blow, and Sunburst was preparing to match it when a voice yelled, "Stop!" It was Twilight. "It is done."

The two alicorns stopped immediately. "Oh, Twilight..." Celestia sighed. "I'm not going to punish you. The natural consequences of this are going to be punishment enough."

Twilight looked upon the scene. Spike and the dragons had already left- the only creatures who remained were the three alicorns, none of whom were entirely unhurt. She was particularly concerned with her ex-mentor, now fellow ruler's bruises and bloodied mouth. She could even see the marks from tears from when Celestia had cried from physical pain. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Not as much as you soon will be."

"I can honestly say that I don't regret it." Twilight turned to Sunburst. "I'm sorry to you, too. That was an awful lot to have you do as a snap in the night."

That might have been especially true for Sunburst, who hadn't even known about the situation mere hours ago, but Twilight knew that it was true for all of them. The decisions they'd been forced to make within seconds would be affecting their lives and the lives of countless others for years.

Comments

[xDHannibalxD]

Wow, how Celestia still thinks she has the moral high ground and talks about consequences for Twilight, but she is the one who has to face the fire for what she did.

[fanreader999999]

Bizarre as fuck

[EveryAlternateEnding]

9549908
I hope I didn’t make her too unlikable. She does think she’s doing what’s right. Since I’ not the best socially, I struggle to write the behaviour of characters in emotional situations that would never happen in real life. I hope I did okay.