Equine Royale

by MemoryLane

Gather

Celestia smiled eerily, her prayers have been answered! Finally, things can go back to they way that they were! Peace, and harmony will rule over chaos and neglect! It was so simple, now all she had to do was wait patiently. She left her quarters and noticed that Serenity and a few other guards have already left to gather up the 30 unlucky "Felons". She wondered who they would even be. Even though she told Serenity and the guards to pick 30 felons at random, she hoped he picked ponies worthwhile. It's too late now, nevertheless.

She was eager to get this started. Her mind was racing with possible things that she could do to enhance the match, to make it more...impactful.

She rose up, not even knowing exactly where to get started and made her way for the Throne Room. She decided that she must tell the citizens of Equestria what is going to happen. Let them taste fear first. They will be frightened, especially the ones who have a criminal record, since their chances of getting picked skyrocket.

Since Equestria has barely any amount of modern technology, Celestia summoned a Canterlot-born journalist who owned and led the company for the nations newspaper, the "Equestria Weekly" as it was called. As soon as Celestia called her guards to go fetch her, the mare was there within minutes. The guards wittingly don't like to keep the princess waiting.

The gray unicorn stubbornly made her way through the Throne Room, watching the sun princess intently and carefully with her brown eyes. Bringing Celestia to do the same thing back to her. The mare's turquoise mane and tail hung daintily at her sides as she spoke. Her cutie mark almost shone when she stepped in view of Celestia, who believed it to be some sort of purple book.

"Princess? You summoned me?" She asked, willingly keeping her distance. Celestia hoped for some reason that this mare wasn't like the others, that she would show some proper respect.

"Stringer." Celestia spoke as calmly as physically possible. "I have summoned you here for a simple reason." She said. She didn't want to just come out and say it.

Stringer raised an eyebrow at the princess in anticipation.

"What would that be?"

"I have a story for you."

Stringer smiled, this should be good. She levitated out a pen from her backpack, and her brown journal as well and flipped to an open page. A story from the Princess herself? What could be better? Front page here I come!

"But first, I have a simple question..." Celestia purred, turning around and looking out a nearby window, it was roughly noon at this point, and the sun hit Celestia square in the face, she moaned happily as she felt the sunshine on her. "What would you do, if you were in a simple situation: Kill or be killed?"

Stringer stopped cold. "W-what do you mean?"

"Would you kill strangers to protect others?" Celestia stated. She knew the obvious answer of most ponies in this society, but she knew Stringer enough to know what she would say.

"Uhmm..." Stringer didn't know what to say, at first she thought this might be a trick question. Was she being questioned for murder or something without knowing? Stringer was losing some of her concentration and the pen and journal she was levitating lowered closer to the ground. "Well, at the cost of my own life, I'd have to say that yes, I would. But only if the situation has no other possibl-"

"Well, great!" Celestia interrupted. Stringer was very confused, and quite unnerved as well. She wasn't sure if she liked where this is headed. "Because that is what we are going to do."

Stringer didn't believe what she just heard. What!?

"What are you talking about?!" Stringer asked in a rude tone. Celestia didn't mind though, surprisingly. She was to excited to care for petty things like that. Plus it's only a natural response, right?

"What would you say to 30 ponies around Equestria, forced to kill each other?" Celestia said bluntly. Stringer's jaw literally dropped.

"Stop asking questions!" Stringer suddenly shouted. "That's my job."

Celestia bore a bemused smile. "30 strangers, all forced to a fight to the death..." She concluded, not willing to give out other specifics. Knowing Stringer was a journalist, it was apparent that she was going to try to get that information anyways.

"But why? What for? Why do this to innocent ponies?" Stringer spoke, getting angrier at the sun princess.

"Equestria is losing control. Spiraling, as it seems. Crime and chaos has plagued the land, and it's only getting worse. Ponies killing and robbing each other," She said. "If they want to kill, then so be it. Do it where everyone can watch them. Do you understand now?"

Stringer completely disregarded using her pen and journal to take notes, she didn't need to anymore. "But what about the innocent ponies? That's you're plan!? Kill of innocent common folk?" She interrogated.

"No. Only those with a criminal record, who deserve this." Stringer's eyes went wide. "You now have something to worry about Stringer, don't you?" Celestia stated knowingly. Stringer's eyes shifted from left to right.

"I...I have no idea what you're talking about! I have never done any time in jail in my life! My record is completely clean!" Stringer argued, only causing Celestia to close her eyes and give a hearty chuckle.

"Maybe so," She took a few steps closer to Stringer. "Well, I think it's just that you've never been caught before. Until now."

Stringer was utterly confused, and frankly a little bit angry. "What?!"

"Don't act like you don't know. Blackmail is a serious crime, Stringer, getting ponies to spill the beans for you in exchange for life changing and humiliating information-"

"But-"

"But! It's your job to get information. I know. But it's not your job to blackmail. That would look terrible on a criminal record wouldn't it?" Celestia finished. Stringer looked at the ground, defeated. "You have just enough of a chance of getting into the death match as all these other felons out there. Don't lie to me and say what I am speaking is anything but the truth."

Stringer continued to look at the ground, genuinely scared for her life. "I'm sorry...please don't make me go..." Stringer cried, she didn't want to blackmail those ponies, but she had to! Her business was in a slump! They needed more copies of her newspaper to be sold or else her business would go bankrupt! She had to...

"Only time will tell, Stringer." Celestia said, walking closer to the grey mare. Tears were filling up Stringer's eyes as the little voice in her head told her that she was going to be picked. Celestia whispered in her ear: "Now go write your article."

***

Meanwhile, Serenity and the four other guards were traveling across Equestria at breakneck speeds, they didn't have much time, and as of right now they only had eight ponies.

"Captain!" A white bodied guard shouted as they flew. "What prison are we headed towards anyways? At this rate we won't get the mission done!"

"Fluorescence!" Serenity yelled over the loud whistling of the wind. "I told you, the Ponyville Penitentiary!"

"Ponyville? Why there?"

"Look Flora, you may not know much about Ponyville, but a lot of the nation's crime actually happens there." Serenity explained. "We can get most of our ponies that we need."

Something clicked in Flora's head. "When we get there, I know exactly who I want to take with us..."

***

A short while later, they arrived at the Ponyville Penitentiary, where they landed at the outside gates. Almost immediately, a Security Guard stood in front of them.

Ugh, great...him again... Serenity thought.

"Hey! Halt! What are you doing here?" The security pony asked them. Serenity just sighed.

"We are because we were given special permission from Princess Celestia to require at least...22 more ponies from jails all around Equestria." Serenity said, pointing to the royal emblem on his armor. The Security Guard looked at them wide eyed and backed down, realizing his mistake.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'll tell the Warden what you gentlecolts-"

Flora coughed.

"-and ladies will be doing. Just tell us which ones you end up taking."

"Thank you..." Flora stated before trotting ahead, passing the guard. Serenity and the other guards quickly followed her as they all disappeared inside the jail.

"Ditzy is in here somewhere...and we're going to get her." Flora muttered under her breathe. One of the other guards raised an eyebrow at her, but decided not to ask questions.

There were many cells containing ponies, big ponies to small fillies that range in various different colors. Serenity almost pitied them as he thought about what they had all done to deserve this incarceration. The ponies all wore orange jumpsuits that bore their name on them, along with their prison numbers.

The guards came prepared for this, and brought tranquilizer darts to make this extraction easy and clean.

One by one, the guards shot the dart inside of the cells, breaking contact with the jail tenants skin and causing them to slowly fall asleep. One pony in particular saw what was going on and wasn't going to have any of it.

"What are you doing?! You can't just come in here and do this to us!" She wailed. Serenity didn't look over at the greenish mare as he was busy aiming at a cream colored pony in an adjacent cell.

"We have special permission" He explained, firing the dart at the meek mare, the beige colored pony slid to the floor, unconscious.

"No! Stop! You can't do this!" The green and white maned mare shouted as her friend was carted off by a different guard.

"Yes." Serenity stated simply as he fired another dart at her.

***

In a different part of the cell, Flora had finally found the mare she was looking for.

"Why did you do it?" She said in a monotonous voice. "Tell me the truth or the next dart is aimed straight for your neck."

The charcoal colored pony hung her head low, the memories flooding back to her. Blonde hair stuck to her face as tears fell from her cocked eyes.

"It was an accident! I-I swear!" She cried. Flora didn't believe that for a even a second.

"No it wasn't. Everyone knows it...you deserve this." Flora said, raising her dart gun and pointing it at the defenseless mare.

"Wait!"

Flora lowered it again. "What?"

"You have to believe me! It was an accident!" She repeated, Flora was starting to get sick of the grey pegasus quickly, and the fact that she pretty much repeated what she said just a second ago.

"No it wasn't! How do you 'accidentally' set a house on fire and kill a family of five!?" Flora shouted. More tears came from Ditzy Doo's eyes. It truly was an accident, why did no one believe her? She didn't want to think of that day again, even though it was already burned into her mind.

Flora spoke eerily slow at the mare. "Look, here's the deal. I'm going to shoot you with this dart. You're going to go to sleep, and when you wake, you will die." Flora said, realizing how awkwardly she phrased that. She didn't care, she didn't want to give out too much information anyways. Ditzy's eyes widened as she said that.

"No! Please...I have a daughter...she's expecting me to be there for her when I get out! Please..." Ditzy begged. Flora smirked at the pony's sorrow.

"Yeah, well I bet the family you killed wasn't expecting to die in an inferno!" She yelled, Ditzy got as close as she could to the ground, expecting to be shot, but the dart didn't come. "You deserve to perish after what you did!"

"But I didn't mean to! Hones-"

"It doesn't matter if you meant to or not! You killed a poor family, and at least two fillies." Ditzy didn't know what to say. No matter how many times she said it was an accident, Flora was deaf to her pleas. She sighed loudly.

"You deserve this." Flora deadpanned, raising the dart gun to Ditzy's neck and pulling the trigger. The mare grabbed the dart as it pierced her skin and threw it across the room, but the damage has been done. The drug had already entered her body, and she felt her frame go limp. She lied there on the ground and saw Flora standing there, a wicked smile on her face, just before things went black.

***

A short while later, the team of guards had successfully gathered at least 22 convicts. One of the guards had recently acquired a cart in which to haul the unconscious bodies in. After a while of shoving and effort, they loaded up the bodies. Serenity sent the most well built pony of them all, a blue pegasus named Raybeam, to send the ponies to the awaiting ship that rested on Canterlot Harbor, which also contained the other eight ponies they had captured. Serenity gave a relieved sigh as he realized that his mission was complete.

"I noticed you found Ditzy Doo." He said as he passed Flora, who smiled at him.

"Yep, I did..." She stated. Serenity scoffed as he took to the skies to tell the Princess that he had succeeded. He thought about how weird Flora was acting when they got there, and when they left. Did Ditzy do something to her? Ugh, whatever.

He quickly reached Canterlot Castle, as he was flying full speed, and rudely barged into the Throne Room, where Celesita was eagerly awaiting him.

"My Princess!"

Celestia smiled at the sight of him, a great feeling of joy entering her heart. "Serenity! Please, tell me how it went! Did you acquire the total number or ponies I requested?

Serenity finally took off his helmet, and grinned. "Yes, the deed is done."

"Wonderful..."

"How do you plan on doing this?" Serenity asked her, raising a brow quizzically.

"I already have everything greatly planned. It's perfect! The rules I set up are flawless, and I will inform the ponies of said rules tomorrow when they awake..." Celestia explained, her giddiness getting to her.

"So, you set them free...and they just, kill each other?" He asked her. It seemed, simple. Too simple. "Any weapons of some sort? Or food or supplies and things?"

"Yes. There will. All three of them, in fact. You will know more as the story gets printed tomorrow." She said, hinting to the stallion. Serenity didn't ask, and just assumed the obvious.

"What happens to the winner?" Serenity proposed. Celestia stopped, that had not been brought to her attention.

"Winner...?"

"You say this is a fight to the death? What happens to the last one standing?" He explained. Celestia thought for a moment and immediately came up with a clever response.

"Simple. They get to live free."

"They are freed?! What if some deranged killer wins?"

"By the end of the death match, they already will be a killer. No matter what." She replied.

"Touche."

"Anyways, I'm going to go help the servants prepare for tomorrow. I hope you will be there to help at some point to help, Serenity." She said, as she began to walk away into the next room.

"Don't worry 'Princess'. I will..."

***

Authors Note

Second Chapter is up! Took a while to write, and I'm very glad it's...up? Haha.

Thanks for reading. Comments and feedback is appreciated!

Next chapter is when the fun begins...

-Cyneryk

Comments

[Derpylover1234]

She rose up, not even knowing exactly where to get started and made her way for the She decided that she must tell the citizens of Equestria what is going to happen

Error....

[Derpylover1234]

Equestia Weekly...

Equestria

[Derpylover1234]

FUCK YOU FLORA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DERPY DIDN"T MEAN TO!

[MemoryLane]

1652764

Thanks!

Oh, and Fixed~

[Regidar]

Damn, son.