Equestria: World War II

by The Unseen

Chapter 42

------------------------------------------------------BUCKINGHAM PALACE, LONDON----------------------------------------------------------
It was now almost 4:40pm in London. The cars carrying the princesses and their retinue stopped outside the Buckingham Palace. The palace was more than a hundred years old, and despite it being not as large as Canterlot Castle or the Crystal Castle, its relatively modern style of architecture impressed the ponies. The princesses wondered if they could replace their old castles with such relatively modern buildings.

The ponies got out of the cars, and began walking towards the palace. Multiple reporters were swarming around the area, but had been blocked from accessing the palace grounds by the soldiers, who were were long black caps and red uniforms. Apparently, they were known as the King's Guard. They were extremely coordinated, as they opened the door of Buckingham Palace to the ponies.

They went in the palace and were greeted by the King of Britain, George VI, and his wife, Queen Elizabeth. "Greetings, your Highnesses." said George VI. "I am honoured to meet fellow monarchs, especially ones as mighty and powerful as you."

"I am also honoured to meet a fellow monarch, Your Highness, especially one who rules a powerful nation such as yours." said Celestia.

"Ah, Princess, alas, the monarchy does not truly rule Britain anymore. It's the parliament, the democracy that holds all of the power. The monarchy is just a figurehead nowadays. The only place the monarchy still has real power is in our colonies, such as India and Burma." said George VI.

"I know, but still, even if the monarchy is a figurehead, it is still impressive to see that it exists today, unlike in other Earthly nations, where the monarchy is a thing of the past." said Celestia.

"I know, Princess. Anyways, let's talk inside. Follow us. We'll go to the state rooms." said George VI, as he and Queen Elizabeth walked inside Buckingham Palace. The ponies followed them inside, and began heading towards the state rooms. As they continued walking, that was when Celestia and Luna felt something. They felt a different kind of magic. Faust's magic. This was the first time they had felt it in a place on Earth.

Since Faust couldn't come to Earth herself right now, that meant only one thing. A piece of the Destroyer of Discord was here, on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. That was something they did not expect. The two sisters knew the Destroyer of Discord was somewhere on Earth, just not in a large metropolis like London. That was when they realised that everyone had stopped walking, and was looking at them.

"Alright, why are you looking at us? Why have you all stopped?" asked Celestia.

"Well, your Highnesses, your horns are glowing." said King George VI. "Are you using your magic right now?" At this question, the two sisters realised their horns were glowing, but not in their usual auras. They were glowing a beautiful and strange purple aura.

"Ah, it seems our horns have detected the presence of a powerful Equestrian artifact somewhere in the palace compounds." said Luna.

"Wait, what?" asked George VI.

"Yes, a piece of a powerful Equestrian artifact is somewhere here, in the compounds of this palace. It's a long story, but first, we must find it!" said Celestia.

"Alright. Does that aura tell you where it is?" said George VI, as they all began jogging down the corridor.

"No, I'm not sure it do...." said Celestia, just as they passed a bank vault, where the aura started glowing brighter. "Hang on, that aura has gotten stronger... near this vault. It must be in here!" said Celestia.

"Your Majesty, that vault contains jewels, mainly diamonds. Do you think we would keep an alien artifact in there?"

"I don't think you knew it was an artifact from our world. It must have been disguised as a large diamond. Open the vault." said Celestia.

"If you insist." said George VI, as he opened the door, which had a combination lock. It was like a jewellery store as they opened the vault, with multiple jewels kept enclosed in bulletproof glass cases. However, there was one odd thing about them. One of the cases had the same glow as Celestia and Luna's horns emanating from it, and it was the most central one. It contained a crown.

"That's my crown." said Queen Elizabeth, shocked and amazed at the same time by it.

"One of the diamonds on the crown seems to be a piece of the Destroyer." said Luna, as they entered the vault. They walked closer to the case, and saw the first piece of the Destroyer of Discord. It was the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, on the top of the crown. It had been surrendered to Britain by Indian rulers close to a century earlier, and had been with the British Royal Family since. The Indians believed that the Koh-i-Noor had been stolen from them by the British, and wanted it back the second their country got their independence, if ever. Apparently, men could not touch the Koh-i-Noor, as it cursed them. Must have been something Faust had done to prevent Discord from getting his hands on it. However, women were safe from its curse. Celestia wondered why her mother would have made the Destroyer like that.

As they marvelled at the Koh-i-Noor, King George VI spoke. "I never knew this. So, we have had an Equestrian artifact in our possession for more than 90 years now. That's crazy."

"You wouldn't have known it was an Equestrian artifact, until we located it. But we need it returned to our country soon." said Luna.

"What? Why do you need it so soon?" asked Queen Elizabeth. Luna wasn't surprised at enough, because she didn't know about the situation with Discord. Only heads of state knew about it. However, George VI knew instantly, as Prime Minister Chamberlain had briefed him about it.

"My love, that jewel is probably the only thing that can save the entire world from destruction. I'll tell you about it later, but we must let them take the Koh-i-Noor. Plus, it is from their country, so we have to return it to them." said George VI to Elizabeth.

"Oh, I see." said Elizabeth, a little reluctantly. As the ponies began to leave the vault, George VI began talking with the princesses.

"We will have to announce that it is an Equestrian artifact, we just won't reveal that it has magical powers."

"How will we fool the public and Discord into thinking so?" said Celestia.

"Well, we will just announce that jewellers who were fixing a defect in one of the jewels on the crown noticed something off about the Koh-i-Noor, and did some checking. We can say that they used tiny inclusions in the diamond to determine its age and where it actually originated from, which in this case is Equestria. That is a method we have used to date diamonds in the past."

"Hmmm, that is a good cover story. Hopefully, Discord won't get suspicious at that." said Luna.

"I hope not, or else, this could be the end of everything, and everyone we know." said King George VI, a little fearfully.

As the ponies headed towards their staterooms to continue their stay at the Buckingham Palace, the morale among the princesses began to rise, now that the first piece of the Destroyer of Discord had been found. It was the first big success in their quest to defeat Discord.

Comments

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter