Barrel Roller leaned forward across her desk at Twilight Sparkle and Cadance.
“Princess Sparkle, Princess Cadance. Request denied.”
“Captain, please,” Twilight said. “This could be important.”
“You know what’s also pretty important? A princess. You know what’s more important than one princess? Two princesses. And I’m not letting two princesses down into a dangerous abandoned mine where they almost died the last time.”
“We wouldn’t be going in without proper precautions.”
“You said you don’t know what you’ll encounter there. That means you don’t know what the proper precautions are.”
“Okay, true. But we can take a broad number of reasonable precautions based on our best estimate of what we expect.”
“And what do you expect, again? Chrysalis’s ghost?”
“Not a ghost, but an afterimage,” said Cadance. “When Chrysalis held me in the mines, she projected her image into the crystal walls to taunt me. She did the same to Twilight, too. But not even she knew the full power of those crystals. We think a copy of her magical essence could have been trapped in those crystals. It’s still down there, and it’s plotting something.”
“What are you basing this on?”
“I fell asleep on palace grounds,” said Twilight. “The image of her attacked me in my dreams. It was just like back during the wedding- it had Cadance’s face and voice, but twisted and cruel.”
“When was this?”
“Three days ago.”
“In the late afternoon? In the back commons? When you were held tight in Root's warm embrace?”
“Hey!”
Cadance smiled.
“Captain,” Cadance said, “after she told me about it, I tested it, as well. I slept here in the palace, and it attacked me in my dreams, just like it did her.”
“What exactly does it do in your dreams?”
“Awful things,” said Twilight, shuddering. “It insults us. It shows us terrifying imagery. Tries to break our spirits.”
“So Luna can confirm this?”
“Well… no,” said Cadance.
“No?”
“I had Luna watch over my dreams when I slept here. She says she couldn’t even find my dream bubble. It’s like the entity can hide from her power.”
“And that alone tells me to keep you away from it.”
“That alone should tell you we need to remove it!” said Twilight.
“How do you even plan to eliminate this entity?” asked Barrel Roller. “You can’t just destroy every crystal down there.”
“The same thing that beat the real Chrysalis- a blast of love,” said Cadance.
“So Shining Armor is coming in for this?”
“No. We don’t like to leave the Crystal Empire without at least one of us at all times.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. But the love between sisters-in-law is powerful, too,” Twilight said, smiling at Cadance.
“It’s been years since the wedding. Why is it just revealing itself now?”
“That’s something we can only find out if we confront it,” Twilight said.
“What’s the worst it can do?”
“That, we don’t know,” Cadance admitted. “We don’t know everything Chrysalis is capable of under normal circumstances, and we don’t know everything those ancient crystals can do. We have no idea what kind of interactions the two could have together. But if it can reach into the minds of ponies sleeping in the palace, there’s no telling what else it could do.”
“All the more reason not to go in there yourselves. I’ll send in a taskforce to ascertain the risk.”
“Please, we can’t risk the lives of other ponies on our behalf!” said Twilight.
“That’s literally what guards are for, your highness.”
“I know, and I hate that more every day.”
“Look, the way I see it, you’ve got a few options. You can either pull rank on me and do what you want in spite of my disapproval…”
“We don’t want to do that,” said Twilight. “We respect your authority and the trust Princess Celestia has put in you.”
“You can go in with the Element of Harmony jewels…”
“We can’t. They have to stay where they are.”
“You can get Discord to make himself useful for once…”
“He, uh, already said no.”
“Or you can let a fully-outfitted and escorted palace survey team go in, and let somepony else do something around here for a change.”
“Captain!” Twilight said. “I’m just not comfortable with that! We need to be in there!”
“You mean, you don’t think a bunch of puny non-alicorns can accomplish anything?”
“Hey!”
“Captain, it’s not like that,” said Cadance. “Chrysalis created that projection to mock us. It may only show itself if we show ourselves. That’s probably why Celestia or Luna haven’t detected it- it’s got a personal grudge against us two.”
“Look, you’ve got me, let’s say, sufficiently worried about this thing. If you want to go down there, you do it on my terms. You’re taking every pony I recommend on this. That includes multiple magic specialists, medic backup, experts on mining and crystallography, and above all, guards. Lots and lots of guards. You get in, you blast it, you get out.”
“We accept,” Twilight said.
“You want Root for this?”
“Oh, Radish? I mean, I understand if he’s busy with his own duties or training…”
“He’s supposed to be. But he always seems to get wrapped up in your… circumstances, doesn’t he?”
“I suppose,” Twilight said. “Wait, that hasn’t put him at odds with his superiors, has it?”
“Let’s just say his name comes across my desk far more often than any other guard I’ve ever commanded.”
“Well, maybe he has some special destiny.”
“Yeah, I bet he’s the next princess.”
Twilight smiled. “We’ll take him. And he comes out of there an alicorn, I’ll buy you a nougat bar.”
Barrel Roller narrowed her eyes.
This story makes Fallout Equestria look short.
Nice
Years since the wedding?
If he becomes a prince ( or princess? Because legally the title prince for alicorns might not exist) light will be PISSED. Pushing him farther into the Princess’s company. while she has been dealing with her insecurities and jealousy very well, there’s only so much a mare can take.
I was not expecting a callback like that.
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I wasn't expecting Twilight of all pones to make it. Not just a callback, but a callout as well. Daaaaaaaamn, princess.
Personally I'm hoping he sprouts wings and just doesn't tell anyone about it and is too covered in his paranoia supplies for them to tell... And then he gets home and finds out that no, that wasn't an illusion or something.
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Honestly, I don't think she will be pissed enough to break up with him, more pissed at the circumstances. Celestia might be too because it means that she can't just outlive him (she might also be secretly thrilled about that though)
Intriguing setup here, I wonder if this is when starlight saves them all from chrysalis.... Probably too soon for that.... Wonder if he would even be told about our town or not.
I also wonder if this actually is part of chrysalis plan ( or maybe starlight). Or even that one obsessed changeling.
Alicorn Radish Root, Princess of Neuroticism.
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"I'm so glad I chose to wear my Ranger cloak."
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I'm glad my armor's enchantment being tailored for earth ponies hides my horn! ...too bad it's tight around the wings!
oh sweet Celestia, the Castle is already up? I am so far behind, and Tirek was the arc I was looking forward to most of all. I'm going to need to catch up at some point.
hum Alicorn Root nope just wont work.
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His Mark is Literally to Fuck with Celestia… what better way to do so than to become an Alicorn
Huh, looks like the Tantabus is getting an early start.
11769907
Celestia be happy about it depends. Is it her or her mad frat girl alter ego in control? I feel it’s not the last time we will see the beer chugging dark side of her.
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It would be hilarious if his marks meaning was to metaphorically fuck with celestia head, and he ascends to alicorn hood via unintentionally fucking up celestias mental health.
It may just be because I started reading this story not long ago, but this sentence called me back to when Barrel Rider was making metaphors about nougat bars, and blnever getting any. I like to imagine Radish coming back out of the caves sporting a horn and wings, marching right up to Barrel and saying "Now I am the nougat bar".
And then time splits, and in one timeline he follows it up with "and everyone can get some", while in the other things just go from there.
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Fallout: Equestria was close to 620,000 words. This story is currently 294,025.
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I meant by chapters not by words.
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I had completely forgotten about the tantabus. Radish got his mark during a dream, I wonder if that will effect anything.
So if something happens and Radish becomes a male alicorn, does that mean he gets promoted over Barrel Roller and can order her around? Or does he still hold the position of Major and still bound by his link in the chain of command?
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Check out SAPR...
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Based on his behavior over the hearts and hooves date challenge fiasco, I would say he would still want to do things by the book, even if he DOES outrank her.
....did we ever get to see the whole obey stamp fiasco thing come to light? because I'm wondering if pinkie still has the ink cartridge.
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Nope, the whole stamp fiasco is still up in the air.
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Fallout Equestria got more popularity.
Yet SAPR got more words.
So now we have Radish exploring the basement of Canterlot Castle. Well, it's to be expected. After all, you can find all sorts of things in a Root cellar.
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Excuse me? Original FOE story is almost twice longer than this currently but not longer than SAPR(which honestly should have been 6 books). Dominant sequels are even longer (PH and Blue Destiny). You're confused by obscenely short chapters
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The moment is long past, so I don't feel that explaining the joke to you would do anyone any favors.
Thanks for the infodump, though...
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It's self-contained story arcs linked to the progression of the show. Also there is nothing here that even rivals the whole Canterlot ruins expedition from FEq which is like 60k words worth of an arc.
Nah, he’d be way cooler.
An Earth Pegasus.