The Alicorn's Pride

by JuyUnseen

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

River of the council.

The Atheltian high council was made up of six members. Together the six voted on all issues, and any ties ended in a vote by the general public. The purpose of the council was to give Athelta a fair and impartial government, but of course the council was of course in no way impartial. The council members each had followers and their own agenda.

Of the council members, Luna usually sided with the decisions of River, an old but strangely beautiful mare with a light blue coat and a sea green mane, and Deepwoods, a dark brown stallion with amber eyes. These two council members made up the unofficial ‘peace’ party, and that’s why Luna sided with them. The other council members included Rust, a fiery tempered stallion with a coat colored the same as his name; Sky Dancer, a mare who had once been a sun runner with a deep seated hatred for griffins; Thelia, a gray mare with a hay colored mane and a very cool calculating demeanor; and Greathoof, a highly violent blood red veteran who was always pushing for some sort of war. The council had been butting heads for centuries over war with the griffins, but the current council had a balance of pro-war and anti-war advocates that they had reached a form of stalemate.

Luna flew back towards her sister’s house, reflecting on what she had seen that night. She needed to inform the council (preferably River and Deepwoods) but listening to a meager sun runner was not the council’s highest priority. Luckily, Luna knew a pony that some council members would listen to in a heartbeat, the very pony who had spent the last week grieving over his dead brother. Luna needed to talk to Sothe.

Luna landed outside of her sister’s house and let herself in. she looked around the humble living room, taking in the familiar sight of the house she had lived in for the past week. All was quiet save for the light breathing that could be heard coming from the bedroom shared between Celestia and her mate. Luna sat down and waited for the sun to emerge. Only after it had reared its head did she consider waking the sleeping alicorns, but her better judgement won out and she decided against it, Sothe needed his sleep, he had been working harder than ever after hearing the news of his brother. She hoped he could rest more peacefully now that Cal was buried.

Luna waited for some time more before she began to get bored, she fidgeted and looked around for something to distract her from the nagging twitch in her mind that begged for something to do. Her boredom was alleviated a bit when a fiery form shot through the open window across the room.

“Well hello Philomena.” Luna said from where she sat. Ahe was happy to have someone to talk to, Philomena cooed a good morning and motioned to the mouse held in her talons, “Busy night I see.” Luna said, appraising the catch. Philomena shook herself and flew over to her perch to begin her meal. The blue pony looked, away not wanting to see the carnivorous work. Luna sighed and sat back down, boredom returning to the edges of her mind. She paced around the room, wishing that Sothe would wake up.

Eventually her wishes were granted and Sothe entered the room looking tired but more rested then he had all week.

“Good morning Luna.” Sothe mumbled sleepily as he headed towards the kitchen to get some breakfast.

“Sothe,” Luna said “I need an audience with the council.” That stopped Sothe in his tracks. He turned around looking confused

“Why?” Luna took a deep breath and began to recount the sights of the previous night. She told the soldier of the army amassing in the woods, she described their camp and gave a rough estimate of how many soldiers might be there. Sothe listened, a little stunned but nowhere near as surprised as Luna would have predicted.

“So he’s going through with it without a council vote? That bastard’s going to get us all killed!” Sothe yelled once Luna finished telling her story. It was Luna’s turn to be surprised.

“What? Who’s going through with what?” Sothe sighed at this and thought for a moment,

“The council is nowhere near perfect, you understand that right?” Sothe asked. Luna nodded

“Good,” he continued “You must understand that the politics of this country of ours can most easily be described as a complex web of agreements between council members. The soldiers of my unit, myself included, while technically are a part of the Atheltian army actually work for a single council member, namely Lady River. Each council member has their own part of the army that they unofficially run and the largest group currently works for Greathoof.” He growled the name as if it disgusted him, “Greathoof has for months now been pushing harder than ever to break our border treaty with the griffin’s but has never actually had it put to a vote.”

“Why not?” Luna asked.

“Because he knows it will tie in the council, which means the ponies of Athelta will be given the vote. Greathoof would then have to lay his true motives bare to the common people, and that would ruin him.”

“True motives?” Luna echoed.

“Yes, he doesn’t want to invade griffin territory to capture more land or gain resources, he has a grudge. We believe he wants to exterminate them entirely” Luna was stunned at this thought, sure Griffins were not necessarily the nicest creatures on the planet, but to kill them all… that was too much. Luna felt sick.

“Can you get me an audience?” she asked finally.

“Yes, this is a matter of protecting the country now.” He trotted into the kitchen and returned with two cinnamon buns. He offered one to Luna who gladly accepted. After their brief breakfast, the two alicorns flew north, towards an enormous floating building.

Luna had only ever been to the Forum once before, it had been when she first applied for her job as a sun runner. The place was enormous and made of marble. Here scholars met and talked for hours, here debates were held, and it was here that the High Council met. Sothe worked here, in the west military wing, but that wasn’t where he was headed today. Today the two alicorns walked quickly and with purpose towards a large wooden door at the center of the compound, the council room. Once inside Luna stopped, here they were, the ponies that she had only ever seen in her newspapers, the council members. They were currently in the midst of a discussion about trade with the griffins.

“No, trade must remain unhindered if we are to at least keep up the illusion of peace,” said Sky Dancer.

“It’s no illusion,” responded River, “We are at peace with the Griffins, an unsteady peace but peace all the same.”

“It’s not a question on the realities of the peace, it’s the fact that we all know war will return to our borders soon enough.”

“It would benefit both of our nations to keep the trade running freely, tense politics aside.” Deepwoods said in a husky voice, “Money talks, and if we ever wish to alleviate tensions a healthy trade route would be in our best interest.”

“You think griffins are interested in alleviating tensions? Those barbarians don’t know the first thing about peace.” This statement was growled out by Greathoof, “They won’t rest until we’re all dead.”

“Neither will you it seems,” Sothe said clearly from across the room. Greathoof turned his eyes towards the soldier, glaring.

“And what pray tell, might you mean by that?” The blood red council member asked. Luna felt uncomfortable, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell about what she saw just yet. Sothe’s answer relieved her.

“I mean that you’re constant push for war isn’t only annoying, it could easily lead us to the end of Athelta.” Sothe spoke cooly, meeting the intimidating council member’s gaze without fear. There was silence for a time until Thelia, who had until now remained silent, spoke up.

“We’re off topic, let us return to the matters at hand.” The other members murmured in agreement and the debate resumed.

After another half hour of debate the council had taken a vote. Trade routes would remain open due to a majority vote of four to two. The council members then agreed to take a break and began to leave in search of food. River walked up to Sothe with a mischievous glint in her eyes,

“You gave ‘Hoof a run for his money that time, I thought he’d break.” She said and laughed, “He’s hiding something though, and I assume you’re here with the answer as to what that something might be, am I right?” Sothe nodded.

“River, I’d like you to meet ‘Tia’s little sister, Luna” he said motion towards Luna with a hoof. River looked her over for a moment,

“You look astoundingly like your mother,” she said with a ring of approval to her voice, “Nice to meet you.” Luna was in shock, one of the leaders of Athelta (her favorite leader in fact) was talking to her.

“N-nice to meet you to,” She said doing her best not to stutter. River turned back to Sothe.

“I assume you brought her for more than just a meet and greet?” the council mare asked.

“Yes… How to begin? Luna… Luna is a Sun Runner, she runs the moon shift every five days, but last night she saw something… troubling while flying over the Everfree Forest.” Sothe went on to recount Luna’s story to a slightly shocked River.

“An army… that bastard’s raising an army under our very noses.” River growled.

“How do you propose we react?” Sothe asked. River pondered this question for a moment.

“We can’t do anything, nothing official anyway. If we bring it up he’ll just disband the army and we’ll just look like petty mudslingers.” She began to pace around the empty meeting room, lost in thought. “I have an idea though, it will need to be a covert operation.” She looked directly at Sothe, “do you think you could handle a… a trip into Griffin territory?” Sothe stiffened at this. He looked confused, as did Luna,

“What would you want me to do?” he asked after a short pause. River took a breath and began to explain.

“You understand the griffin hierarchy right? Two main clans, each lead by a warlord. We don’t tell the public this, but we are actually only on bad terms with one clan, the clan under Warlord Voltag. The other clan, lead by a griffin named Scar is in fact on pretty peaceful terms with us. My propostion for you is to go and warn Scar, explain the situation, and help him prepare in whatever way he needs.” Sothe thought for a moment, Sothe’s skill was in tactical planning, his cutie mark itself was a map of a battlefield. He was probably running over every possible complication. After a time he sighed,

“I’m going to need an illusionist,” he stated, “I’ll need to be able to go invisible at any time.” River thought for a moment,

“I can’t send any military personnel, it’ll have to be a civilian, and a powerful magic user.” Luna thought for a moment and spoke up,

“I can hold an invisibility spell for up to two hours at a time, with rest in between usages.” She was a Sun Runner, and only those most gifted in magic could take that job. River looked impressed.

“Two hours? That is quite a feat. Where did you train?”

“At the Mage’s Academy in Manesburg, ‘Tia and I both went there.” Luna responded shyly. River gave Sothe a look and said, “Well?” Sothe shook his head,

“No, absolutely not.” He said firmly.

“it would work to our advantage, she already knows and the fewer who know, the better.”

“No!” he yelled “I… I couldn’t… I something were to happen I… I’ve already lost my brother, I don’t want my mate to lose her sister too.” He sighed, “Luna, I’m sorry but I can’t allow you to come.”

The next morning, Sothe got his things together, preparing for a trip. Celestia asked him where he was going, to which he replied vaguely, “I’ve been given a… assignment” and drop the subject. He kisses his mate goodbye and left the house at 10:15. At 10:42 he arrived at the border, at 10:43 he crossed the border into griffin territory, and at 11:12 he was spotted by a pair of blood red eyes.

Comments

[Maera Fey]

I love the story so far. It's really nice that Luna is the main character here while most fanfics tend to concentrate on Celestia.