Siege of Canterlot; Duality

by Draconequues

Good morning, Princess!

The solar princess woke up with an agonising pain in her back. Her mane was messed up and reminded a bush of discord’s flowers. Her whole body - from hooves to horn — was covered in a weird layer of dirt unnatural to her majesty. The weird disgusting taste of acid lingered in her mouth and her eyes were sticking together, trying to force her to sleep more.

With a loud yawn she rose up from her bed and sat on it, looking into the window. The sun was closing in on noon, and the moon was nowhere to be seen. The sky was clear, and not a single cloud ruined the perfect picture, not even Everfree tried to mess it up. It was the perfection she enjoyed to see.

She stood up on the tiled floor of her tower, feeling the coldness touching her hooves, making its way to her bones and forcing her to shiver.

She quickly put on her little Luna-like slippers, which also were covered in a layer of dirt and approached the table.

The window above it was wide open and the cold air was threatening the health of the princess. She quickly closed it and found the reason why on such a perfect day such a small thing wanted to ruin everything.

A small velvet letter closed by a green seal that depicted Chrysalis’ crown. It smelt awful, Celestia almost threw up when she levitated it closer, yet, she didn’t throw it away.

With a brace and a gulp of fresh air, she opened the letter despite feeling that awful smell of sweat, dirt, chitin and blood.

Inside was a simple text written by her new friend. A really weird connection that happened against Celestia’s will. One day such a letter just appeared on her table and instead of burning it down or forcing guards to search how it got in there, she just wrote an answer and left it on the table. Ever since new letters were appearing every night.

For Celestia those letters were the escape from boring and annoying reality. In those quick moments when she read them, she forgot about all her subjects and everything she had to care about. She could just be free and enjoy her life, her love and her feelings. Those were the moments of peace and the moments of freedom.

She opened her nostrils wide and filled her lungs with that cacophony of smells. The blood, sweat, dirt, chitin and weird, but the pleasant fragrances of sunflowers and roses rushed into her brain, calming her down and making her forget everything. She brought the letter closer to her nose and sniffed again to feel even more.

The moment her eyes laid on the words, the door of her room burst open. A newbie soldier, dressed in the copper armour and barely holding his spear entered the room. He looked proud of himself, and he looked at the princess with eyes full of honour. He quickly took a report from behind his back and spread it open in front with his wings.

“Princess!” he said loudly, “Council is awaiting you in a few minutes. They are awaiting your decisions and answers about recent situations!”

Eyes full of anger lunged into his direction. All the fury, all the anger escaped Princess’ body and filled her sight. She despised him, hated him, wanted him to be gone. The one perfect moment of her perfect day was ruined by some kind of soldier wanna-be. No respect, no honour and no saluting as any soldier befits. He was no one thinking he was someone.

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm her wave of emotions, she said to him with the most fake voice possible, “Thank you! I’ll be there in a few moments!” She turned away to her letter, awaiting the sounds of door slamming. Second passed, two, three and only silence was filling the room.

She turned around to him and frowned. “Begone, soldier!”

“But Ma’am! Allow me to accompany you! Who knows what lingers just around the corner!” He said with full confidence in himself.

Celestia tilted her head. “You think I can’t protect myself? You think I’m weak?! That I won’t be able to navigate my own castle without defence?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” The dam finally broke.

The soldier squeezed his head into his body and took a few steps away. “N-no Ma’am~”

“Get out of here and don’t let me see you again!” She said before throwing him from the room with her telekinesis and shutting it close.

Breathing out, she thought of what she just did and a little piece of her was hesitating about the whole situation, but the rest was only thinking about the letter and its contents. Besides, she’s the princess and the Council can wait.

***

Full of confidence, emotions and hope, she opened the doors to the Council room wide and entered with the nose turned up.

The room that was seconds ago alive, went silent. All the noises, distractions, creatures, everything stared at the Princess as she slowly approached her place in front of a table and loudly pushed and pulled out her throne. She sat down and her eyes ventured around the room, judging everything and everyone as one of the council members slowly got up.

It slightly tilted her anger, but she let him be for then.

“Good day, Princess! Shall we begin our meeting?” he asked the room. Princess let out an annoyed grunt and rolled her eyes. Her head leaned and laid on her hoof.

Awkwardly coughing, he continued, “Ahm. So. Your last plan worked as expected and we managed to make a way around changeling’s patrols in the caves. We managed to get a few dozen soldiers out of the siege, and they brought enough resources for the city to survive a few more days.” He pointed towards a board with a few papers on it. Maps, statistics, reserves.

Without letting him say anything else, the Princess got up and approached the board, reading the newest information. “Tolerable, but disappointing.” She said, surprising most of the room.

“Excuse me?” He asked her again.

“I said it is disappointing. The soldiers would have brought more food… and the amount of creatures injured by keeping the barrier around the city is too high! Are you sure they are trained for that?” She asked which put them all in a more awkward state. She flipped a map around. On the other side was another map that showed the latest pegasi patrols reports. “And what’s that?! Why are your soldiers letting changelings strengthen the ring around the barrier?!’

“B-but Princess!” He screamed out in shock.

She turned around and faced him. “Don’t ‘princess’ me! If you can’t fix the situation, you will lose not just your jobs, but something else, understood?”

A silent wave of gulps followed by another wave of nods rolled around the room.

“Good. Now. I’ll be in my tower, constructing some plans. Don’t disturb me unless it’s something really important.”

She left the room as gracefully as she entered it. The door shut behind her. But when she left the room didn’t come back to live, quite the opposite, it stayed dead. No whispers. No noises. Just thoughts and fears.

And the general who stood up at first, waiting to deliver happy news about a victory outside of the city stood there, thinking about what he did wrong and what was with their usually kind princess.

Celestia returned to her tower and laid down on her bed, closing her eyes and letting the sleep’s embrace to take over her.

Comments

[Bicyclette]

She quickly put on her little Luna-like slippers, which also were covered in a layer of dirt and approached the table.

aww, this was a cute detail

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and it's interesting to portray Celestia as a mirror image of Chrysalis here! both very mean and arrogant toward their "subordinates", both distracted from their very real duties. i am with the general wondering what happened to the kind princess at the end!