Repercussions

by vortex123

Preparations

The nine stood in silence as they look at the different ponies assembled in the room, while it wasn't anywhere near the size of the former royal guard, it was impressive nonetheless. Not seeing any reason to stand there, eight of the nine joined the assembled ponies, while Celestia went up to a makeshift stage.

"My little ponies, thank you for coming. I know you've all must be getting tired of hearing this, but I need to be absolutely sure you know what you're getting into. And in order to do so, you need to see what kind of battle this will be in case plan A fails, and we're forced to do plan B." Celestia says with a frown. "Should you be faint of heart, please vacant the room. You will not have to take part in plan B, and instead can help with plan C." She sees a hoof raised in the air. "Yes?"

"What's plan B and C?" The pony asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Plan B, to put it simply, is war. Plan C, is to find potential new bearers of the Elements of Harmony." She says. "Unfortunately, it's not up to us who gets the Elements, it's up to the Elements themselves. So all we can really do is find ponies who seem like they could fit the position, see if the Elements accept them, and hope the new bearers can form a proper bond." Another one raised her hoof. Celestia nods to her.

"Why would we need to hope for the 'Elements' to pick? Couldn't you just pick the ones best suited?" She asked, only for Celestia to shake her head.

"It took me a thousand years to orchestrate the specific instances that lead to Twilight and her friends becoming the bearers, and like I said, we're short on time." Celestia says with a frown. "Again, please leave this room if you're faint of heart." She waited for a bit as some left the room, after a little bit, she noticed no more were leaving. "Alright, now brace yourselves." After she says that, Luna appears beside her. Their horns then glowed as they crafted an illusion of a war from long ago. It was, of course, an edited version of what happened (not showing the more gruesome parts, and changing the blood from red to blue). They just wanted to make a point, not scar them for life, especially since not all of them would even be willing to participate.

After about 30 minutes, they dispelled the illusion. And as expected, many of them were definitely shaken, though none of them were scarred (much to the sisters' relief).

"I cannot begin to express my regret that we showed you that, but it was necessary for you all to have a general idea of what we're asking of you. Of course, many of you have probably realized that what you saw, was a watered down version of what really happened. That leads into what I have to say next." Celestia says. It takes a moment for the murmurs to die down. "Many of you have loved ones, ponies who're waiting for you at home. I know that we need as many ponies helping us as we can get, but if there's one thing I've learned about war, it's this: Those forced to fight, will flee the first chance they get. But those who want to fight, will do so till the bitter end. So I urge you, take the night to think this through, and ask yourselves if this is truly what you want to do. Each and every one of your lives are a precious thing, and they are in your hooves. It's your choice, and your choice alone, if you should put it on the line for anything. And keep in mind, should you decide not to fight now, that doesn't mean you can't fight later should you change your mind." Celestia says with a blank expression. "Thank you for your time."

---

The next day

After a long night, the sun had finally risen, much to Luna's relief. Ever since the day of betrayal, nightmares had been much more frequent, some even going into night terror territory. And the worst part was there were only so many dreams she could get to in one night. Her powers over the dreams may be second to none, but there were still limits. She can make time past in a dream much faster then in reality (example: you're in the dream world for an entire day, but only a few minutes have past in reality) in whatever timeframe she deems necessary, but that only effects the specific dream she's in. It's normally not something she has difficulty with, but with the shear number of bad dreams, she has a mountain to climb each night. So it was up to Celestia to prepare for what's to come, since she's the only one available who's experienced wars.

It had been decided to split the assembled ponies into three main groups: Sabotagers, Harmony, and War reserves. The war reserves had three sub groups: Medical, Combatives, and Infiltrators.

The Sabotagers will be a small group (6 at most) who'll be the ones to sabotage the food and water supply. The ponies who'll do this will be Cheese Sandwich (due to his abnormal abilities and his baking skills), and the four wonderbolts (since they're a known part of the military,it's possible they'll be overlooked), and Twilight (who had appeared last night, straight out of the blue, though refused to say where she's been). Of course Celestia wasn't foolish enough to let somepony as mentally unstable as Twilight currently was, go on this type of mission without supervision. So, she made sure to include a secret 7^th member, just to watch her. It's safer to let her join the Sabotagers, then it was to refuse her, and she decides to go on her own. At least this way, they could keep an eye on her, and not have to use precious resources just to keep her from going at all.

Harmony would be anypony who doesn't join the other groups. They'd focus on trying to find the ponies that the Elements would accept. Celestia did already have some ideas on who could work, but again, the Elements might disagree.

And the War reserves.

Medical: The medical would be those trained in first aid and frontline trauma care. Though given the short timeframe, Celestia wasn't feeling too confident in this area.

Combatives: Those that'll be fighting in the war itself. They'll be taught the different aspects of warfare and strategy. They'll also be learning how to fight like a guard (well, as close to one as they can get to in such short notice).

Infiltrators: They'll sneak in and out of Equestra as the situation demands it. Their job will be to convince more ponies to come and join their fight. They'll also find and bring back resources for the Empire to use once things hit the fan, and keep those in the Empire up to date with what's going on in Equestra, the dragon lands, and the griffin kingdom. With how cold it is around the Empire, and with how far and few prey there are there, the dragons and griffins aren't likely to attack the Empire (assuming they were even aware of the Empire).

Unfortunately given how long the Empire was gone, information was far behind the rest of the world. And this led to the next point……

Celestia's gonna have to rob her own castle, and give what she stole from her castle, to a country that's technically not apart of Equestra. And to add insult to injury. With their forces stretched so thin, and Luna out of commission due to damage control, Celestia was literally the only one who could do it. It certainly didn't help that she was gonna break her own law.

"I guess it can't be helped." She sighs, then puts on a brave face. "Come now Celestia, sometimes you just gotta take one for the team." With a determined look, she set out to gather everything she'd need, which she felt wouldn't be much. After all, it's just an in and out job. It shouldn't be too hard.

…

'Maybe I should enchant a bag of pebbles with a want-it-need-it spell, just to be safe.' She thought as she walks to her destination. 'No wait, they'd be able to tell it was my magic…maybe I could teach the spell to one of the unicorns here, and have them cast it?'

Comments

[Redstargazer]

Just found and caught up today. Normally not a fan of this sort of fic as
1) RL doom and gloom problems don't fit MLP as the core of it is having a better way despite adversity and
2) I don't typically like good characters written as evil or tyrannical. Partly because I tend to be attached to said characters. Mostly because they are often written so OOC with little to no explanation. Even going against the writer's own established canon. Ex. One story I read started Celestia as the typical politically savvy, kind-hearted, mischievous princess that tolerated her spoiled nephew only to become a murderous psychopath giving her 'adored' nephew rape victims for his private dungeon. Apparently, all you need is an out of nowhere prophecy to justify pulling a 180 in her personality halfway through the story. And then, to drive home the point that she was always secretly evil right after the midway, they introduced Cadence as a violent racist bigot, brought Sunset in so Shining could rape and execute her, and had the Wonderbolts kill some foals. You know, so everything could make sense.

I'm not sure about point 1 here as I'm still waiting and hoping to see the turning point (please let there be a turning point for Equestria), but point 2? It actually looks pretty good so far. Whether a TV show or a book series, a lot of writers get lazy with AU character and just say 'Oh! Hey! They're evil because...uh...evil universe!' You, on the other hand, have written something a lot more believable. Shining Armor disillusioned desiring to be more aide to his country but being reduced to glorified door man. Eventually deluding himself into justifying atrocities due to the combination of growing bitterness and naïve grasp of military action due to living in a peaceful kingdom. An unlikely, but possible scenario like any good AU.

Speaking of naïve. Can't wait to see him get schooled in military rule the hard way.

Shining: What?! What do you mean our soldiers are underperforming?

Soldiers: Yes, Sir. Apparently, killing a lot of defenseless civilians has an adverse effect on our mental health. It also doesn't help we are getting reminded every night with nightmares and every day with citizens running in terror. Something called morale I think?

Shining: Hmph. Must have missed that class.

Solider: Also, the soldiers are starving and we can't replace our equipment.

Shining: Why!?

Soldiers: Civilians either scared for their lives or having relatives we killed seem less inclined to work and provide income. Also, a thousand years of peace have made us heavily reliant on international trade which seems to have dried up as other countries seem reluctant to trade with a new ruler that murdered his own civilians, national/world heroes and ousted a peace-loving sun goddess. As a result, we're no longer receiving funding due to our ailing economy.

Shining: Darn it, Soldier. Stop making up words!

Soldier: Also, there is the matter of the message you sent to the surrounding predator and/or warrior countries. The one saying 'Respect us or face the wrath of the Equestrian Royal Guard.'

Shining: Yeah, that was pretty epic.

Soldier: Except we were a bit confused a the response they all gave.

Shining: And what was it?

Soldier: 'Okay.'

[vortex123]

10218998
I can understand where you're coming from. Personally, I would have gone with Sombra returning as a ghost and possessing Shining Armor (which would explain his sudden willingness to kill the citizens he's supposed to protect). Sombra would want to hurt Spike and Cadence because they're the ones who actually got the crystal heart to the place it needed to go. Making someone they're both close to do the things Shining did, would not only hurt them in the worst way possible, it'd also give Sombra resources and solders to reclaim the Empire. However, the point of this story is to show the consequences of Shining's actions, so there are certain things I can't change and keep true to the original story. I will however, try to keep them as in character as I possibly can, given the pre-established AU. Please let me know if any character starts to enter too far into OOC territory (I say 'too far' and not 'into' because Shining is already OOC, though he's ment to be in this AU).

And as for everything Shining and that soldier talked about, that's pretty accurate to what I was going for.

I put the spoiler tag because I didn't know if it classifies as a spoiler or not, so i just wanted to be safe.

[Redstargazer]

10219073
Did I seem critical of your depiction? Sorry. I get so caught up in some of these I sometimes bury my point in text walls. While I do normally like Shining as straight up good guy, I do think you did well with him here. Mainly, in providing an AU that may act OOC but in a way that makes logical sense....if, that makes sense?

Also, do you want me to remove the conversation in the previous comment? Just meant to have a little fun but, don't want it to overly spoil anything.

[vortex123]

10219133

Did I seem critical of your depiction? Sorry. I get so caught up in some of these I sometimes bury my point in text walls.

No, it’s fine.

While I do normally like Shining as straight up good guy, I do think you did well with him here. Mainly, in providing an AU that may act OOC but in a way that makes logical sense....if, that makes sense?

Yeah, it does. Gonna be difficult to write this without falling into the lazy methods many authors use. Example: like how some use the characters as mouth pieces while everyone else is unable to come up with a proper retort (hence why the only argument that Twi made, that Shining couldn’t counter, was about the changeling invasion).

Also, do you want me to remove the conversation in the previous comment? Just meant to have a little fun but, don't want it to overly spoil anything.

I didn’t see anything that seemed like a spoiler. I mean, given the title and the description, it’s fairly obvious what direction the story is gonna go (for the beginning anyway). So don’t worry about it.