Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Celestia was busy working on her desk when she heard the approaching hoofsteps. She had gained a good ear for telling who was coming to see her over her long years which gave her ample time to adopt an air of being able to predict who was coming.
Right now, it seemed to be a stallion of an upper class bearing, walking stiffly and with purpose which meant her nephew.
"Hello Blueblood," she said even before he entered the room, with the unicorn blinking in confusion before he smothered it and plastered on a much more appealing smile that he thought she couldn't see through. "What brings you here so early?"
"Hello Auntie," he said, keeping up that annoying charade of being a loving family member. If she could actually prove his true nature, then undoubtedly a lot of her headaches would vanish. "And I simply finished the itinerary for Canterlot's Summer Sun Celebration. I thought you would like to have it now, so you can clear your agenda for future personal matters," he said, offering a bundle of papers while giving a wide smile that Celestia instantly distrusted.
"How very kind and altruistic of you, Blueblood," Celestia said, taking the papers and began to scan them. It seemed to be on the level which made Celestia frown internally, wondering what his actual plan was. Everything seemed to be taken care of, with a number of vendors and even a carnival set up for the citizens to enjoy though there also seemed to be an increase in guards being posted.
Ah.
"I see you have posted more than a few additional guards for the festival, Blueblood," Celestia said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Surely such security is a tad unnecessary."
"I have spoken with Captain Sentry as well as captain Meadow Wishes about it, and after we discussed it, we all thought it would be better to be safe than sorry," which was code that Blueblood had teamed up with Wishes to either bully or trick Sentry into agreeing with him. Sentry was a good soldier but he was not cut out for his position. Celestia flicked an ear of annoyance that Cadance had dismissed Lucky Wings without consulting her, though after his personal beliefs came up, the only grievance Celestia had was that she wasn't the one to personally dismiss the pony. Still, they needed a proper replacement for the captain of her guards.
"And how, pray tell, are you going to do it?" Celestia asked while knowing full well how it was going to unfold.
"By a case by case review, Auntie," Blueblood said as honestly as he dared, stopping short of outright stating he was planning to keep out any of the riff raff he did not care for; the pegasi, earth-ponies and those with more nocturnal features, which was in itself was a broad and opened term for ponies like Blueblood to discriminate against. "Unless you wish we go for something of a national registry so we could keep a track of our citizens and streamline the process."
"Perhaps on another day, Blueblood," Celestia, angry that he was denying her the ability to take steps to progress her nation but as good as a national registry would be for a wide range of her nation's different fields, she knew that ponies like Blueblood would take advantage of it and begin to discriminate against her ponies even more efficiently than he already was. And that was without any avengers getting their hooves on those lists. There would be countless murders before any of her agents could react if that were to pass, and that was something she would not tolerate.
The thought that Blueblood could belong to that group entered her mind once again, and it was uncomfortable that she could not place him in one camp. If he actually was part of that group, he would never risk letting her know it as Blueblood knew she would strip him of his rank and privileges and then sic Cadance on him. Her adoptive niece was the most outspoken in their nation when it came to protecting those targeted by bigots, and Celestia was very proud of Cadance's defense of the innocent. She wished she herself could be more publicly outspoken on the matter, but knew that if she was, it would only encourage the noble caste to push back. Besides, Cadance was doing a very good job at dealing with them and Celestia knew her ponies saw the fact she hadn't stopped her niece was a sign of her approval.
Not to mention that certain others might step in if they thought I was overstepping my bounds, she thought.
Aloud though, she said to Blueblood, "I will inform you of my final decisions on the matter when I am ready." It was a clear dismissal, and he took it as such, bowing and leaving.
Alone again, Celestia sighed. It was days like these that she really wished Luna had been able to see things her way, so they could have stayed together as co-rulers all these years and that Luna hadn't acted so rashly that night. She adored her niece, but Cadance was no replacement for Luna; her sister was special to her in a way that no civilian alive, nor many others, had ever realized. Perhaps in time she could explain it to Cadance but that would require leaving Equestria and her Duties in the hooves of another and she had no one she trusted that much.
Tilting her head, she felt for her sister's presence and could sense it still on her moon. It was the only way she could tell Luna was still there; her sister had either placed spells to hide her and her followers from view or they had advanced to the point where they didn't need magic to hide themselves anymore.
Either way, Celestia and Luna were going to run out of time shortly. She knew where five out of the six Elements were and she still had not discovered Magic or found Twilight yet. Their dimension was reaching a point where such magic would be needed and unless she found either quickly, she would be forced to go to Luna and make a deal with her for the overall safety of their world, which put her at her sister's mercy.
At least, she reflected. She is still herself and not one of those Nightmare Moon creatures.
Still, there was only a few days left before all signs pointed that Luna would make her presence known once more in Equestria and completely upend everything.
Luna walked towards her seat as the rest of the Republic's leaders took their own seats among the table, smiling at her trusted allies, and for some, her friends.
"Ladies and gentlecolts," she said as Honey Spice came in, taking her seat. The mare was getting up there in age but she still had a fire in her belly and was not ready to retire. "Let us start with a good note; Water Wheel?" she said, with eyes moving to Water Wheel, who cleared his throat and stood up, activating the holograph panel at his desk to have Orion displayed in the middle of the chamber.
"Thank you, ma'am," Water Wheel said, holding his head up with pride. "Along with Crystal Lace and her department, the time we have been waiting for is almost here."
"As it stands Orion is approximately eighty-seven percent finished with the rest of the structure due to be completed by the end of the month and the outer layers soon afterwards. After that, we should be ready for the next step, providing we have the means to do so still. Director Raven Inkwell?"
The mare in question stood up and gave the director of science and the sixth dome a respectful nod. "Thank you Crystal Lace," she said before turning to address the other eleven ponies in the room. "I would hate to say it is fortunate that Orion will take longer than expected but it will allow my department more time to produce the predicted amount needed."
That drew a murmur of conversations from the ponies in the room before Director Neighsay stood up. "Excuse me, but Director Inkwell, I thought you said last meeting you well on the way to meet the quota needed for Orion's success."
"We were but due to a weak harvest last term, we needed to divest assets to keep the Republic sustained and address the issues in fields thirteen, twenty and thirty," she said, looking towards Luna before back at the Director of Education. "This was in the packet that I had sent you all when such issues arose, Director Neighsay."
"Yes, I do recall reading it," Luna said, preventing any argument that could come from the mare calling out the unicorn. "Directors, I assume the teams you have selected for Orion are still prepared and ready for their part in our history?"
Crystal Lace began to nod her head before Steady Notes coughed and cleared her throat, standing upright. "If I may interject and change the topic, Director Luna?" she asked while staring Luna directly in the eyes.
"As long as it remains important to the current topic at hoof, Director Notes," Luna replied, staring at the mare.
"It is becoming incredibly close to the thousand year anniversary of the Night of Departure as you are undoubtedly aware," the mare began with a tone that implied she had rehearsed this many times. "Beyond the annual celebration of the Lunar Republic's birth and the founders, there is another matter that needs to be addressed, that of Equestria." That brought in sharp looks from most of the ponies in the room that were not able to hide it quickly. "We plan to take the next great step in our civilization but before we can go forwards, we need to address the past or at least, attempt to." Steady Notes looked around the room, no doubt trying to gauge reactions before she continued. "I am not going to advocate for anything drastic like reunification, but we should at least make the attempt to reach out to our cousins down in Equestria before we begin to leave them behind completely. We owe it to the founders to at least try and see if they have changed in a thousand years."
Luna sighed, shaking her head. She would have preferred to inform them of this her own way but Notes had deprived her of that possibility. "This has already crossed my mind, my dear directors," she admitted to them. "I have already reached out to several ponies to do a bit of reconnaissance as it were to get the opinion of the average Equestria pony. Once I had finalized my two teams of two, I would have brought this to you all."
"Then let us take a silent vote on if we should proceed or not in this," Twilight Velvet said with the other directors nodding their heads.
"And I will abstain from the vote as I raised the motion," Luna said as the screens rose to block off prying eyes as her directors began to vote. It did not take long for the votes to come in. Luna looked at them and let out a sigh of relief at the result, though she was unhappy at how close it was. "Four abstained, four in favour and three against," Luna read aloud. "The motion carries." she said with the directors staring at each other, no doubt curious to who voted in what way. "As soon as I find the fourth member, I will send down the teams to Equestria's capital and a rural town nearby as a healthy mixture of their population."
"Pardon me, Director," Onyx Plate said, causing eyes to dart to the normally quiet Director of Security. "But I have to ask. How sure of this plan are you? Can you be certain of the chosen ones' safety, and if not, are there steps that can be taken to ensure they will be protected from potential threats?"
"Team one will consist of Shining Armor and Vinyl Scratch. The former is your number two and his abilities are well known to us all," Luna said, stealing a look at Velvet whose eyes widened in surprise, fear and regret, telling Luna who one of the four in favour of this mission was now. "Vinyl Scratch is capable in her own right but her unique circumstances will provide us insight into how Equestria treats those disabled among other different viewpoints. Regardless, Shining Armor will be there to protect her if anything were to happen and she him."
"And the second team?" the dark coated stallion asked, narrowing his eyes.
"My own student Twilight Sparkle, providing she accepts," Luna said with Velvet gasping loudly at this and looking very cross, signaling a long, private lecture would be coming from the mare as soon as their meeting was over. And no doubt Shining and Twilight would be suffering the same fate later on. "Again, her own mindset will allow us variable insight in how Equestria treats their own. She is very methodical and is able to see things others cannot."
"In that case, I would like to nominate myself as the fourth member," the stallion said. "In addition to having my own manner of seeing things, I will be the best choice in protecting Twilight if something were to happen to her."
"Yes, as I recall only I and Red Rocket are capable of besting you," Luna said with the stallion and the rest of the directors snickering.
"Well, one is an alicorn and the other is my husband, both very important factors to consider," he said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Regardless, I will debrief you later on Director Plate on the specifics of the mission in private," Luna spoke with the unicorn nodding his head. "And with that said, I do believe that concludes this part of our meeting," she said with nods of agreement from all of the other directors. "Shall we move onto the next point of the agenda. Director Clear Flow?"
As the stallion in charge of the sanitation stood to give his own report, Luna thought once more about the state of affairs that she did not share with her directors. She was still upset with herself that she was unable to tell if her precious student was Magic or not; Celestia had been the previous Lady and thus would have been able to determine and differentiate which Power Twilight had started to become. She knew she housed at least two Powers in her Republic, with one potentially being incredibly crucial to holding back the return of Chaos's champion among other key and crucial threats. And while they were safe from nearly all the threats that would soon plague Equestria, Discord remained as the only one capable of doing the most damage to both nations.
Her ear flicked, as she felt her Opposite's near invisible touch reach out to her and flicked her eyes to Equuis, staring at the location where her sister was.
Soon, they would need to meet, lest all of their dimension fall prey to the unchecked monsters from their thousand-year falling-out preventing a united front. Luna just hoped that Celestia had taken the time to grow and would see reason to her requests or it would become a very difficult uphill fight to achieve peace and harmony for their dimension.
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So Celestia looked into other universes to get info?
Ah, so she takes no fault. This is going to be interesting.
I kind of wish the main threat wasn't discord and blueblood like it was in The Thousand Year Change but something else instead of what being hinted at like isn't there a storm king or others then just are stone chimera, slighted moon pony and a racist prince causing trouble deeper troubles?
I wonder if the prince and his nobles got other things to help them this round? I could see a certain umbra pony might wanting to help or artifacts of powers or spells being a bother.
a little sad but I think discord should of been more of a unpredictable element as the avatar as chaos... but maybe he different then The Thousand Year Change discord
10774745
I never said it was them, just that they are aware that Discord's return is something that is imminent
Yeah. This was another well-done chapter. Greatly appreciated the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up, once again. Definitely understood Celestia's reflections on Blueblood and the circumstances that forced Flash into a position he was not suited for (as well as the acknowledgement that the potential for abuse of a national registry outweighs the potential usefulness), though I admit that the balancing act of Celestia admitting that she misses Luna and not acknowledging her share of the blame for the falling out IS a rather difficult one. As for Luna and her council, that was a pretty good scene too (especially with the notes on the progress of the preparations, Velvet's Mama Bear reactions to both of her children going on such a potentially dangerous mission and Luna's silent acknowledgement that this is going to be very difficult, but necessary in order to minimize Discord's threat [though I guess the reason they don't just destroy Discord's statue is because it would not do any good to do so {i.e. Discord being an "as long as there is chaos", sort and would probably have an easier time escaping from the Infernal Realms than he would the statue}]).
Anyway, definitely looking forward to more of this.
Smeh, I’ll give it a chapter or two more.
Anyway, it feels like none of these canon cutouts actually have any personality of their own; and adding random canon characters into a setting where they shouldn’t exist does not help the monotone rhetoric. Additionally, The internal monologues are a bit hamfisted in trying to repeatedly get the “ohh how foolish ‘character name’ is! If only!!!”
Now as for the more subjective stuff; I don’t really like that these 1000 year separated cultures are pining for each other “just cause” when they probably wouldn’t give a single frack about each other. Hell, they wouldn’t even speak the same language. Not to mention that throwing people down into a unknown and possibly hostile environment completely blind is just the absolute height of stupidly and reeks of authorial rail-roading ex machina.
Anyway, I’ll hang around a little more but so far this is looking to be a poorly executed fiction that rushes from point A to E.
So the people on the planet CANNOT see anything of the people on the moon.
BUT! Unless the people on the planet are doing something similar the ponies on the moon should be able to use telescopes to view the planet and get at least some low level idea of where they are technologically. Observing the planet from the moon is analogous to having a spy satellite and they should be able to gain similar information.
Their investigative teams should not be going in completely blind. They would at the very least be able to tell how prevalent nighttime lighting use is. How much land is used for agriculture and how large the cities are giving them a rough estimate of population. They might be able to track a ship moving across an ocean and calculate it's speed letting them know if they're still using sails or some sort of artificial propulsion.
Hm, curious. Why does she keep referring to dimensions?
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The point of the teams is to see how the ponies of Equestria are like, not their technology level. They want to see how the average Equestria thinks and what their beliefs are and if things have changed since a thousand years ago. All the best surveillance cannot tell you how a person thinks, only meeting them face to face can.
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I completely understand that the purpose of the investigation teams is to learn about Equestrian ponies and their society at large. Boots on the ground as it were to understand them on a personal and up close level.
I guess I didn't specify enough that it seemed like the teams were going to be sent in completely blind with zero current information on Equestria.
They're being sent to learn about their Equestrian cousins up close, but I got the impression that their knowledge of Equestria practically stopped 1,000 years ago when they came to the moon.
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Well for exact details that would be spoilers at this point, they had left on very bad terms and they had no desire to look back on those who were left behind during the early years of Lunar Republic.
10775279
'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.' would that philosophy not be employed and mean suspicion and surveillance for the unlikely possibility that the equestrians might attempt to reach them in some way (irrelevant of intention)?
Also, is Luna aware of the prophecy of the thousand year return or is this just pure coincidence/harmony-direct-interference?
Another thing I noticed is that Celestia's (and Luna's) motives don't make much sense. Celestia want's Luna to come back (just her, not the moon ponies) for "personal reasons" that nobody really knows, yet I can't say that I heard any regret or consideration for Luna's situation (then or now). And Luna wanting to include the equestrians (who have been completely unaware of everything that is happening up there. Which she knows) only to say "This is the final farewell" before skipping this star system is pointless and perhaps a waste of time (aside from the potential to leave on neutral if not good terms with the sister she is unlikely to see again). And lastly if magic is so advanced (or unpracticed) on the moon that it cannot be detected without carefully and specifically looking for it, then there is no chance of Discord ever finding or even searching for them (especially if they split up into multiple colony ships to spread out their numbers and increase chances of successful colonization.) Discord is and should be a moot point for the moon ponies (or should they be called ETs?)
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Like the ones they have in airports. Kind of like escalators that run flat on the ground instead of from one floor to the next.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
10774541 Each blames the other ... it's probably going be up to the Elements and their friends to bring the two nations/worlds together. (I wonder if Vinyl is one of the Elements in this 'verse?)
Oh yeah, we're getting close to the point in time where a lot of things tend to start happening in these dimensions
Wonder if she ever considered the two of them being on the moon?
This is Too Similar to Thousand years of change. Feels like im rereading it
I wont be continuing but i have the best wishes for this story as its a great concept.
and I presume there is great people writing it
I have a strong feeling that the plot follows the same paths as another story with a similar concept (original mastermind). I was hoping that at least the main antagonists would be different, but we see Blueblood and Discord again. The similarities are good, but there must be differences.
It is also embarrassing that Celestia somehow knows how the story went in other universes. For me, "knowing spoilers and future events" has always been unfair cheats breaking the balance of power.
So basically it's "Thousand years of change" with cliches instead of exposition.
A bunch of gays, disabled, and whateverelse fight horse-nazis.
I read an amazing fic years back that had twilight making a potion so she could see threw the eyes of an alternate universe self. This other universe is very similar to this one.