Then comes the Storm
Lots-O-Hugs looked at the screen before her. The display showed her the path her attack would take, overlapping everything that got in its way. If there was anything that would halt the attack or slow it down Lots-O-Hugs would have been informed. Seeing nothing, Lots-O-Hugs smiled knowing that every Equestrian in the path of her blast would be killed.
As her weapon charged, a signal came from Princess Luna. It demanded that all Lunar Guard synch up. Doing her best not to roll her eyes, Hugs tapped the side of her helmet as well as a button on her tank. In less than a millisecond both high tech wonders connected not only with each other but also every other weapon they had brought with them. The A.I systems began to communicate with each other, offering up information to every troop. Once the battle began in earnest, they would be suggesting the most effective targets that nopony else was targeting as well as warning their owners when an attack was coming their way. All this and more done in an effort to keep as many Lunar ponies from dying.
Hugs couldn’t help but groan as the system began to work for her, her display now showing several other attack targets that would result in a higher kill ratio. Thankfully, Hugs was the pony who ultimately decided the target. She wouldn’t have liked it if that were the case. No she wanted to blast them right down the middle so that more ponies could see just how bucked they really were.
Now the display was telling her that the cannons energy level was currently at ninety eight percent. Soon it would be ready to fire.
-x-
Hot Pants watched the scene below unfold before her eyes as fear crept into her entire being. She saw the glow from the weapon getting brighter and brighter until it became painful to look at. But she dared not turn her attention away from it. In fact, if she dared to turn her attention away from it Hot Pants would have seen that everypony else except for Stareye shared her worry. The High Commander, on the other hoof, was shouting his lung off about how his greatness would see them to victory or something to that effect. Hot Pants was actively tuning that moron out.
Before the Equestrian forces made it a third of the way towards the Lunar army something happened. Much like how Lunar weapons or unicorns shot magical beam energy, the brightly lit crystal fired a circular beam of golden light the size of a fancy carriage. Hot Pants didn’t have time to drop her jaw as it shot through the recruits before plowing into the troops behind them without slowing down or stopping. In fact, it only stopped after hitting the wall of the mountain with enough force that it shook. Then there was the noise it created. Unlike the cannons on the backs of the regular Lunar Guard this weapon didn’t make the ‘Bweee’ noise. Instead it was closer to thunder while standing a few feet away from where the lightning just struck that was so deafening that the mare was forced to cover her ears.
The blast last only a second and a half to reveal the horror it had brought. Everything that had been in the path of the beam was gone. Erased from existence as if it had never been there. Looking around, Hot Pants saw that there were those ponies who were partially hit by the attack and had to cover her mouth to keep from gagging. She watched as one pony who was missing his entire right side fall to the ground with a surprised look on his face showing that he had died instantly. One or two were missing their back ends, crying out for help as they tried to drag themselves out of the danger zone. Overhead, Hot Pants could hear the panicked screams of Canterlot’s citizens as they ran back into the city for safety. As for their High Commander, he had fallen back on him plot with both his hooves touching his neck for some reason.
And then the crystal on that…that Annihilator began to glow once more.
-x-
“By Celestia….” gasped North Star as he looked down at the carnage below them. Currently he, Fancy Pants, Majesty, and Blueblood were all seated together on the same balcony. Most likely in an effort to try and win the pair on their side or something like that. But Lord North Star couldn’t think about that right now as his coat turned green.
He wasn’t the only one to react like this. Fancy Pants looked whiter than usual with a tremble of fear running down his body. Majesty was covering her mouth with both hooves while tears threatened to leak out of her eye sockets. And Blueblood, well, he looked out at the scene before them with his mouth hanging open.
Still staring at the scene below them, he noted that the Equestrian army was beginning to fracture a bit. Many of those in the front who had survived, mostly the recruits, were running away in all directions while trying to take off their armor as they galloped. North Star didn’t blame them and was thankful the ponies from the Republic were not attacking them. Those that remained were backing up against the mountain, clearly in a state of panic.
“For the love of all that is good we need to stop this.” said North Star shaking. “Prince Blueblood, you saw what they are capable of. Clearly they came prepared. Nothing we have can stand up to that kind of fire power.”
“All…All we are doing is sending good ponies to their deaths.” added Fancy Pants. “Blueblood, even you have to agree that we have no chance of winning against something like that!”
Blueblood opened his mouth several time but nothing came out. All he could do was to stare out at what was below him in pure terror. Not for those below, but of his own fate. He had been positive that the armor they had used during their last encounter was the best they had. But now he was beginning to realize that that had been just the tip of the iceberg. And not they were coming for him. Unless Stareye did have a plan underway that might end this threat then one of two things was going to happen. Either the Lunars were going to kill everything in their path to get to him or the nobles would turn on him in order to save themselves. Then he would be taken to the moon where Celestia knows what awaited him.
The light from that floating cannon thing caught his attention once more. Quickly he turned his attention to Stareye to find that moron doing nothing to salvage the situation. He was just sitting there with his mouth closed for once.
There was, however, somepony who was up to the task. Hot Pants let out several magical flares from her horn which Blueblood was sure had some meaning. He just hoped she wasn’t surrendering to the enemy. Luckily for him she wasn’t. Instead, a dozen unicorns teleported in front of troops and began to cast a powerful barrier spell just as the cannon fired.
Blueblood and the others watched as the unicorns completed their spell just in time for the blast to hit it. The force of the impact sent many ponies in the area flying backwards except for those directly behind the barrier. However, as Blueblood looked through his opera glasses to get a better look, he could see that the unicorns were struggling greatly to maintain it. The twelve dug the hooves into the ground but were still being pushed back. Large cracks were beginning to appear on the barrier. Sweat began to pour down their faces while veins appeared on their foreheads and necks. For a moment it looked like it would hold, but just at the last possible second the canon stopped its assault.
“You see there.” said Blueblood with a smile, pointing to Hot Pants. “No need to worry since your niece is on the job. I suspect she’ll become the next High Commander at this rate. And now that we can block their attacks we should be fine.”
“I seriously doubt that.” replied Fancy Pants as he looked at the twelve unicorns who had created the shield. All of them were on their backs, panting hard. They were in no shape to do this again.
And they had done was delay the inevitable.
-x-
‘This is bad,’ thought a panicked Hot Pants. ‘I thought that our best shield casters working together would have lasted longer than one attack. We need to-”
Hot Pants stopped her train of thought as the Lunar troops began to move out in mass. Like a pack of timberwolves the floating crafts moved swiftly towards them at lightning speeds. The ‘ships’ seemed to be surprising fast as they barreled down towards the base of the mountain while the smaller, single pony crafts buzzed around them like hornets. Their infantry also began to move, changing their formation into two horizontal rows as they marched. That left the Annihilator and the two similar looking crafts who remained where they were.
Not seeing any other choice, Hot Pants let out several multicolored flares from her horn. The Equestrian land forces charged with swords and spears in hoof or magical gasp. Meanwhile their pegasi air support took to the air making the sky sparkle thanks to their golden armor. And taking the lead were their best fliers, the Wonderbolts! Her flares also signaled for the trebuchets and her ice archers to begin their own assaults. Almost immediately large boulders were being loaded up into the siege machines while the pegasi archers aimed at their targets.
The pegasi were the first to be hit. As soon as they entered the battle zone the Lunar pony’s air force moved towards them at speeds that took the Wonderbolts by surprise. The bat winged crafts began to fire energy blasts much more rapidly than the troops in the armor. In fact, they were firing so quickly that only the Wonderbolts were able to dodge the attacks leaving the rest of their comrades to take the hit. As for the bulkier crafts, the three fired something solid at them that moved much slower. Sure they were still fast, but even the pegasi in their heavy armor were able to dodge them with ease. But before this fact could get to their heads, the objects exploded in mid-air killing dozens of aerial Equestrians in the process.
Far too soon the sky began to rain dead bodies.
The ground forces weren’t handling things much better. The ‘ships’ plowed through the Equestrians with no mercy. Anypony who was in the way was run over while their weapons fired randomly. Unlike their armors, these weapons created much larger impacts so when a pony was hit all those around the target went flying into the air. Many brave ponies tried to stop these ships with their weapons and magic, but all attempts fail as neither could so much as scratch them. Some ponies tried to climb up or teleport onto them, the ships were moving too quickly for anypony to get a decent hold while those who teleported were blasted on the spot.
The smaller hovercraft seemed to be even more deadly. They flew high and fast, blasting away at everypony they could. Added with their smaller size made them harder targets to hit. Yet this was not their true terror. Once they had gotten in deep within the Equestrian forces front lines, black orbs were fired from the holes in the front of their crafts. Hot Pants had managed to watch one being fired, noting that the air around it seemed to be distorted somewhat. Then, much to her ever growing horror, the orb began to hover in the air and pull ponies towards it. They were lifted right off the ground screaming in terror right before being pressed against the black ball. More ponies quickly followed until it became a sphere of ponies pack tightly together at twenty feet in height.
The trebuchets were not having much luck either. Several of them managed to fire, their targets being the Annihilator and those like it. One bolder manage to hit one on the far right, causing it to slam on the ground. Hot Pants and the others couldn’t help but grin in relief at this. One of them was down. One less to worry about. But that happiness soon died as the boulder rolled off to the side and the machine began to float once more. From what they could see there wasn’t even a dent on it. Then the Annihilator fire another earth shaking blast, its final target being one of the trebuchets. Any Lunar troops in that path quickly moved out of the way at the last second as if given some kind of warning that Hot Pants could neither see nor hear. As for the two canon machines, they also began firing into Equestria’s forces. Unlike the Annihilator these ones fired twin orbs of yellow light that created massive explosions upon impact.
Last was the Lunar infantry, which was still marching towards the mountain. Several units of the Royal Guard charged towards them with the hopes that they could at least take them down. The Lunars responded to this by mowing them down with energy blasts before they could even make it half way.
It was then that the ice archers made their move. The pegasi in the clouds took aim on the infantry and soon it began to rain the icy arrows. Most of their shots hit the ground around them, covering the surface with a layer of slippery ice that the Lunars walked effortlessly across. It was only when their shots hit their armor, creating a block of ice around their weapons or freezing their hooves to the ground did they stop. They looked at each other’s frozen armor with unreadable expressions thanks to their helmets. After a second or two of this, those who had unfrozen weapons used them to blast the ice right off of their comrades.
As the ice archers prepared for another volley of ice arrows while adding in lightning, several Lunar aircrafts descended upon them. Seeing the attack, the archers turned their targets to the crafts in an attempt to take them down. Sadly the blasts from the enemy came faster. A torrent of energy beams was fired into the various clouds, passing over them several times before flying away.
Only one pegasus survived this assault. At least for the moment that is. He, like all the others, had been hit. Luckily for him they had only gotten the side of his barrel and his right hind leg. Pain shot through his with every step causing tears to appear in his eyes no matter how hard he tried to fight it. There was no way for him to keep fighting all by himself in this condition. He doubted that he could even be able to fly down without being hit. Peeking through the bottom of the cloud the pegasus saw that the Lunar pony infantry was right below him while killing more Equestrian Guards.
Silently, the pegasus moved up the cloud as fast as he could. The entire time the pony had gritted teeth but eventually made it to the top where his quiver was. Once he got a hoof on it there was no hesitation as he dumped the ammo into the cloud. Instantly the cloud began to expand and freeze at the same time, consuming the pegasus at the same time. Larger and larger it grew while beginning to fall to the ground below. But it never did reach the ground as one blast from the twin cannoned hovercraft blew it up causing hundreds of small ice crystals to fall harmlessly to the ground as the infantry continued its march.
-x-
‘We’re not going to make it at this rate.’ thought Spitfire as she watched more feathered ponies fall to the ground all around her. Not too long ago the sky had been packed with some of the most highly skilled flying soldiers Equestria could provide. But all too soon there were probably no more than two hundred out of the thousands they once had. Spitfire knew they had to turn the tide and soon. She was sure once there weren’t any more fliers those crafts would target whatever remained of their land forces and wipe them all out in twenty seconds or so.
But what could they do? The bat winged machines moved too fast for them. It was taking all their skill and concentration just not to be hit. The only maneuver they had been able to try so far was a fake out designed to get them to hit their allies. Sadly, the Lunar ponies didn’t fall for that.
Spitfire refused, she REFUSED, to give up! She was a Wonderbolt, a title that carried with it the reputation of being the best fliers in all of Equestria. But it wasn’t just her pride on the line. She had to make this count. She had to make sure that all those who had been senselessly slaughtered didn’t die for nothing. Perhaps they could take out the bulkier fliers since they were slower.
“EVERYPONY!” shouted Spitfire as she glared at the nearest bulky flying machine. “DRAGON CLAW FORMATION!”
“Alright!” cheered Soarin as he and the other Wonderbolts began to line up in a V formation with Spitfire at the tip. Once they were all in position, all of those behind her started to move up and down in a circle while also staying in formation. Soon, they looked like a flying javelin made out of wind as they soared towards their enemy. No pony alive had ever withstood the Dragon Claw for anything that got in its path would be torn to shreds by the powerful winds. Or, in the case of some larger foes, knocked out of the sky with tremendous force. All around who saw this let out a cheer for they knew in their hearts this would work like it always had.
Their target moved towards them at the same speed. It didn’t try to dodge, but instead fired at them. Both objects flew to both sides of the Wonderbolts formation before they exploded. Everypony there watched in horror as the Wonderbolts were blown away and falling to the ground. Many of them with smoke coming off their badly burnt bodies.
There was one, however, who managed to stay in the air. It was Soarin. While dazed with ringing ears and missing his goggles, he had managed to escape with only minor injuries most likely due to his placement in the back. Seeing his comrade’s fall like this spurred the pegasus on. With teeth gritted and his right foreleg outstretched, he charged at the enemy aiming to strike at the window and punch his way through. He flew faster than he ever had before, picking up more and more speed with each flap of his wings. His hoof soon made contact with the glass with all his force behind it and…
Soarin scream in pain as all the bones in his foreleg broke. His body rolled off the glass, but managed to grab onto the wing with his one good hoof and hind legs. Pain was searing through his body, his right foreleg was forced back due to the powerful winds. But he dared not. He knew that if he were to let go he’d become nothing more than another target.
As Soarin struggled to remain on the wing, he suddenly recalled a colt he knew from his younger days. Every day at recess the colt would take a magnifying glass and hold it up to the sun so he could burn ants he had collected from the ground below them. Soarin remembered how the colt would giggle sadistically as he watched the ants desperately try and escape their fate with no success. Soarin now had a good idea what it must have been like to be those ants. To be at the whim of something so powerful that they could barely comprehend.
Not knowing what else to do, Soarin looked around and noticed an arch on the wing he was standing on. Carefully he moved over knowing that if he slipped off it would be the end for him. Once he was there Soarin peeked in, but quickly pulled himself back. The air current there was much stronger, as if something was pulling the air in. Also, while he didn’t good look at it, Soarin saw some kind on mechanical device in there. Soarin began to think that if he through something large enough in there it could cause some damage to this thing he was standing on and force it out of the battle zone. Maybe even crash it. However he had nothing on his pony that might be able to do the job. But there had to be something he could do. He just couldn’t let his friend’s deaths…
A great pain burst from his chest that made the pain from his foreleg feel like minor irritation. His friends. Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Rapid Fire, Fire Streak, Misty Fly. Ponies who he had known and worked with for years, all dead in the blink of an eye leaving him alone. Narrowing his eyes he turned his head to look at the pony flying this thing finding that said pony wasn’t looking at him. Either he/she didn’t know he was there or simply didn’t care since there was nothing he could do. Well there was something he could do. He wasn’t going to be one of those powerless ants! He wasn’t going to let his friends die in vain! He was going to finish what they started and take this thing done if it was the last thing he ever did!
With a great deal of determination and effort, Soarin moved his good hoof to grab hold of the arch. It was a struggle to fight against the strong air current, but he didn’t care. Step by step he moved his body to lean against the arch until he teetered over the edge. He only hoped that when he made it to the other side, he could see his friends once more and be able to tell them the good news. And, well, maybe there would be some good pie there as well.
And with that, Soarin leaned over to the side and into the arch where his death awaited him.
-x-
Raging Storm maneuvered around his the few remaining Guards as he tried to get closer to the mountain. Closer to where one of their own had fallen. Less than a minute ago he had spotted the Wonderbolts try and fail to stop one of those flying terrors which resulted in them being blown out of the sky. By chance one of them had fallen nearby in what could have been an attempt at a soft landing. Meaning there was a chance that one of them was alive. Perhaps somepony he could save.
Far too many were either lying on the ground or obliterated by energy blasts.
Looking over his shoulder just in time, he managed to avoid being hit by an energy blast from one of the smaller crafts. He had seen enough action in his life to know to always be aware of your surroundings. It’s when you fail to do this that your life ends. That was how he had stayed alive for this long, constantly scanning the battlefield and managing to dodge at the last moment. But there were too many close calls and his stamina was almost gone. He felt as tired as his first day after training, but he pushed himself forwards.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted something that brought him a twinge of happiness. One of the bulky looking flying machines started to leave a trail of smoke that was coming out of its wings and was sinking towards the ground. Was that the one the Wonderbolts had attacked? Had they, in some way, managed to take it down? While this would not win them the day, it did make him feel a bit better that they had managed to take one of these things down. It gave him hope knowing that the Lunar Republic was not invincible.
After galloping a bit longer, Raging found the pony he had been looking for. It was Spitfire, lying on her side with no living pony around to help her. She was breathing, but in bad shape. Most of her uniform was gone to reveal that almost half her fur was covered in burns. Her wings looked just as charred making it a true miracle that she had managed to land with them in this kind of condition. But, just by looking at them, he knew she would never be able to fly again. If she survived. At least for now she was somewhat conscious, speaking softly to herself in order to stay awake. Raging could hear her going over a list of things she hadn’t done yet like kissing Fleetfoot and dining on Restaurant Row.
“Hold on, I’ll get you out of here.” whispered Raging as he moved closer. Once he was close enough, he gently placed her on his back. However, thanks to her weight and position, flying was out of the question.
As he scanned the area for the best way to escape and seek medical attention, he spotted the bulky craft. He could see flames coming out from its bottom causing Raging Storm to think that it was more heavily damaged than he originally thought. Yet he quickly realized something that made his blood run cold: those flames were being used to slow its descent! He then took a step back when he saw that chicken like legs came out from the bottom and allowed it to land safely on the ground. It also gained two cylinder like devices along its bottom as well.
Several dozen foolish ponies charged at it, thinking they could take it down as it walked across the field. They threw spears at it and swung their swords at its legs but to no avail. Raging Storm watched in horror as is walked on top of them, stepping on them like they were bugs. Then it began to shoot energy blasts at those still alive and fighting.
Raging storm felt tears roll down his face as his body trembled. It…it just wasn’t fair. After everything they had done, after all they did to prepare for this. It was all for nothing. They couldn’t even take out a single one of them. Nothing they did seem to matter. Other ponies seemed to feel the same way. Less than half of those who still remained had their hooves up in the air and their weapons tossed to the ground. Some were even taking off all their armor in a hurry just to make it clear that they had given up. Above him many of the pegasi were flying down to the ground also with their hooves in the air. The Lunar infantry approached those who did this and began to round them up to a section away from the mountain. Whether it was to show them mercy or just to shoot later, Raging didn’t know.
“Hey,” came a whisper behind him. Raging turned his head to look at Spitfire whose eyes were closed. “Did…we get…it?” Raging Storm didn’t answer at first. He looked at the walker who was killing whoever had yet to surrender. The he looked back at his fellow former Captain. He gulped before forcing himself to smile, something he knew she couldn’t see.
“Y-Yeah,” he stammered, unable to keep the shakiness from his voice. “You and the Wonderbolts did it. You w-were the only ones able to take o-one of them d-down.” Spitfire didn’t say anything in response. Raging saw that she was still limp on his back, face staring down at the ground with her eyes closed. Taking a deep breath the stallion flung his head down with enough force that his helmet came off while at the same time raising a hoof into the air.
-x-
Blueblood and the other nobles could not take their eyes off of the scene below them. There was so little left to fight with. All of their siege weapons: gone. The Wonderbolts: gone. Their army: slowly surrendering. The ponies from the Republic had done all of this in such a short amount of time it was almost inconceivable. If the prince hadn’t seen it with his own two eyes he would never of believed it possible, the mad ravings of a crazy! And with so little now to stand in there way they would be coming for him!
“My prince.” whispered Majesty in his ear. “We must leave now before the others turn on you.”
Blueblood’s eyes widened at this. She was right. There was no way any of the other nobles would defend him or protect him in any way. There was no way he could keep any of his promises of wealth or power. Equestria had now lost its entire army because of his decisions. Sooner or later they would turn on him and hoof him over to the enemy who would drag him to the wasteland they call home to die.
Slowly he nodded before walking backwards. To him relief neither Fancy Pants or North Star noticed, both their gazes fixed on what was going on below. Once he had passed the threshold separating the balcony from the throne room he used his magic to slam the door shut and lock it.
“Blueblood, open this door at once!” shouted Fancy Pants as both he and North Star began to bang on the door.
The prince then heard another door slam causing him to jump. He turned in the direction he had heard it to find that it had been Majesty closing and locking the main doors leading into the throne room. Before Blueblood could say anything he began to hear the sounds of many hooves banging on the doors as well as the shouting voices of the various nobles. Many were demanding that he open the doors or to turn himself in.
Blueblood began to walk backwards, feeling like a trapped beast. It would be only a matter of time before they dirtied their own horns to blast the doors down or teleport in. Eventually he backed into Celestia’s throne causing him to jump ten feet into the air while yelping in fright.
“Prince Blueblood,” said Majesty catching his attention. He turned to look at the other side of the room where she was standing, her magic pulling back a drake which had been concealing an old wooden door. Majesty’s magic then opened the door to reveal a small, dimly lit corridor. The prince knew what this was right away: the servant’s secret passageway! It was a direct line from the throne room to the kitchen for, according to Celestia, having late night snacks delivered to her without anypony knowing.
Blueblood knew what Majesty wanted them to do. To use this door to escape and gain some distance. An idea that, under normal circumstances, Blueblood would have dismissed out of hoof. The very idea of walking through an area for the help was enough to send shivers of disgust down his spine. However, this was a desperate time and he knew that. His life was now on the line so he couldn’t afford to be too picky.
Without uttering a word the prince raced towards the door at a gallop. As he entered the corridor he gave Majesty a nod of thanks. Majesty returned this with a sinister smile that he didn’t noticed, galloping in front of her at full speed in order to escape the nobles, the Lunars, and this pathway. As Majesty hurried into the corridor as well, she calmly closed the door behind her while also stopping the magic which held the drape up.
-x-
“This…this has gone on long enough,” said Hot Pants, her face looking slightly green at the moment as she looked onto the field of death. Only a small hoof full of ponies were still trying to fight and were dying quickly. If they didn’t end this soon there might not be anything left. “Let’s signal the enemy and tell them we surrender.”
All around her were nods of agreement. It was well past time they began to save what they could. However, as she began to form a large white flag composed of her magic a shot was fired. Everypony gasped in shock of the attack and took a step back. The same amount of shock, however, was not present when they saw the smoking horn of Stareye with a twitch in his eye.
“We are not giving up!” he barked. “I give the orders, not you! I’m the pony in charge here, not you! We shall continue to fight!” Every word he spoke was punctuated by him stomping his hooves like who foal who wasn’t getting the toy he wanted.
“With what?” snapped Hot Pants in a tone that made Stareye flinch. She was so tired of Stareye. Tired of his laziness. Tired of his incompetence. Tired of his self-important attitude. There would be no more games, no more pretending to listen to him while trying to make things work. Now was the time for honesty. “Our troops? Gone. Our trebuchets? Gone. The Wonderbolts? Gone! The recruits? ALL GONE BECAUSE OF YOU!”
Stareye took a step backwards while bringing a hoof up to his throat. He knew he should be yelling back at her. He knew he should be threatening to place her in a cell for talking to him in such a manner. But…his trembling body refused to allow his to do any of this.
“They have to be tired by now...” whispered Stareye, a hoof still on his throat as he spoke. “Th-They just killed about five hundred thousand ponies. We…we can still win this. We just need more…more ponies that’s all.”
“Are…are you that demented?” asked Crème with complete sincerity. “Look at them! They haven’t lost a single pony! Buck, I don’t think they’ve even broken a sweat! The only thing we did by sending out five hundred thousand against them was giving them more ponies to kill.”
“I didn’t send enough,” muttered Stareye, who hadn’t heard a word Crème had said. Instead he stood there, sweating slightly while his eye darted back and forth. Slowly a mad smile crossed his face. “Yes, that’s it. I didn’t send enough. I can still fix this. I can do it! Then nopony will ever doubt me again! I just need to get them all down here.”
Hot Pants rolled her eyes as she turned around. She wasn’t even going to bother saying that there weren’t anymore Guards he could call upon to fight for him. Instead her horn began to glow creating a large white flag which she intended to wave above them in the hopes that the Lunar ponies understood what it meant. But before she could lift it higher into the air she felt somepony slam into her hard, knocking her to the ground followed by the sound of a unicorn’s energy blast. And a moment later another body fell to the ground.
Looking over to where she had once stood, she saw Bitsworth lying on the ground with a hole in his chest. Instantly she and every other pony other than Stareye rushed to his side. Hot Pants was the first to reach him. without thinking of anything else she got in close and placed an ear against his chest while ignoring the blood that was flowing onto her coat. Her eye widened and began to water before pulling her head back followed by shaking it.
“I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!” roared Stareye, his head still lowered and his horn smoking. “YOU WILL STAY HERE AND STALL WHILE I GET MORE PEONS TO FIGHT FOR ME!” And with that, the raving lunatic vanished.
Before he had even left, Hot Pants had been staring at him with a fire building up inside of her. With every word he spoke it seemed to grow and when he vanished it was the size of Canterlot mountain. Eyes narrowed in utter determination, Hot Pants rose and snorted loudly as the saddened gazes of the other ponies watched her.
“No more,” she hissed. She then turned to Crème. “Signal the surrender. I’m going to stop Stareye with my own two hooves. And once that is done I’m dragging Blueblood out myself. He started this whole mess and I’m TIRED of innocent ponies paying for it with their lives.”
And without saying another word she too vanished into thin air.
-x-
“So tell me again why you think they’re changelings?” asked Cadence in a deadpanned voice. In front of her were several white coated stallions that would normally be wearing golden armor. Most likely they had taken it off so they could work better bucking the apples. Next to them, tied upside down to a tree, was Trixie and a flame haired filly. Below the two were several of their personal items including Trixie’s hat, their saddle bags, a disposable coffee cup, and a compass.
A short while ago Cadence walked through the apple orchard with a smile on her face. As she and her daughter searched for the Guards assigned her, they had taken in the natural beauty of the countryside. Midnight had simply bouncing around with more energy than ever before, curious to everything she saw. A few times she stopped to point at something she didn’t know and would ask her mother what it was. Cadence was all too delighted to assist her learning.
But as she continued to walk and Midnight hopped after a grasshopper, Cadence couldn’t help but think about Midnight’s future. She wanted her to have the best possible one she could provide, but that might be tricky. Canterlot was well known for its magical school, but the pink princess didn’t know much about their other ones. That would be something worth looking into. Or perhaps she should just homeschool her. It would be safer, but then she would miss out on a lot of experiences like making friends her own age.
What broke her out of these thoughts was the screams of filly, a sound that made her blood run cold. She looked down at her daughter, knowing that her top priority was to keep her safe. But she was also a princess with a duty to protect her subjects no matter what. Even if she was so tired she doubted she could even make her horn glow. More screams hastened Cadence’s decision. She told Midnight to stay close as the two raced towards the sounds.
When Cadence finally found the pair as they were being gagged, she was both relieved and shocked to find that those who had tied the two up were member of the Royal Guard. Naturally she wanted them down but the Guards refused, claiming they were a pair of changelings.
“Well, you see princess,” began Major Blazing Glory, the pony in charge. “A short time ago these two were stumbling around the area. Naturally we offered to help them, especially when the one pretending to be Trixie claimed that she was here on urgent matters from Canterlot. I will admit that she does a frighteningly good impression of her. So good, if fact, we were taken in! We asked if what was going on, prepared to drop everything to help her but she refused to tell us. Then we noticed something that warned us that something wasn’t right!”
“And that was?” asked Cadence with an eyebrow raised.
“She wasn’t drunk at all!” exclaimed Blazing as he pointed a hoof at Trixie who scowled at him. “I’ve met the real Trixie several times and she always at least had the scent of booze on her. This one, on the other hoof, smells more like coffee!”
“Well that’s…an interesting deduction.” said Cadence slowly. She was also suspicious of Trixie, but for different reasons. Last she had heard was that Trixie was heading to the Lunar Republic with the mares from Ponyville and Spike. Meaning that the real Trixie should be on the moon right now. Still there was a chance that Trixie had to return on some urgent business for her aunt. The only way to tell would be to talk to her. “But I’d think it would be better to see what she has to say.” Horn glowing, Cadence removed the gag from Trixie.
“Of all the nerve!” roared Trixie. “Is it not possible that the Great and Powerful Trixie is trying to go sober?” This got her a choir of no’s from the Guard causing the unicorn’s eye to twitch. “Get the Great and Powerful Trixie off this tree this instant or else the Great and Powerful Trixie will shove her Great and Powerful hoof right up you-”
“Trixie, there are fillies present,” interrupted Cadence while indicating both Midnight and Sunset.
“I’M TIED TO A BUCKING TREE!” roared Trixie savagely.
“And I am going to let you down,” replied Cadence calmly, her magic already around the ropes. “Now, once I get you down, I want you to tell me why you are here. Then we will see if you are a changeling or not.”
Little did any of them realize that while Trixie was being untied, a pair of eyes were watching them from up in one of the nearby trees. ‘This is going to be tricky,’ thought Ripper as he licked his beak. ‘The princess looks tired, but she’s surrounded. If there were two or three then it wouldn’t be a problem, but right now there’s too many. And none of them are bat ponies meaning I’d have to go looking for them so that they can take the fall for her death like Blueblood wanted.’
Ripper knew his job was getting harder and harder. Not only were these current factors unfavorable, he also had Trixie to deal with. It wasn’t because he preserved her magical skills as a threat for he had heard about her magical ‘talent’ several times. What concerned him was that Blueblood had informed him that she had raced here with the magical compass, eluding the guards as she did. Perhaps it was because she just wanted to get Cadence to Canterlot for the credit of doing so or that she possibly knew more than she should. Whichever reason it was would determine how much harder the job got.
A job he intended to complete no matter what the cost.
-x-
Chaos had erupted in Canterlot. It was no surprise that the lack of any law enforcement plus the approaching Lunar forces would cause mayhem. Everywhere one could look, ponies were breaking into the fancy stores to see if there was anything they could take with them before fleeing the city. Most of the upper crust members of Canterlot society took bits, jewels, and anything else they thought might be worth something. By contrast, those ponies who were of lower social standing instead looked for food, medicine, camping equipment, and anything else that would allow them to survive whatever was to come.
It was also non-surprising to see ponies running in herds. Nearly all of these herds composed of family members, choosing to watch out for only their own. But there were others, like Moondancer and her friends, who stuck together while looking for others that needed a helping hoof with their herd growing larger and larger. Finally came the upper crest who were trying to get others to carry their possessions for them. It surprised them greatly that even after promises of a great rewards too few came to their aid. Even their own personal servants had abandoned them.
This was the scene that Stareye entered when he appeared in Canterlot. The High Commander looked around with his jaw clenched, his heart racing, and sweat dripping off his muzzle. The first thing he noted that he was in the lowest district of the city. A place that he had never set one hoof in before if he could help it. Near him was a cheap outdoor café that had its tables and chairs overturned. Beyond it were several small chain stores including a grocery market, a pawn shop, a low grade jewelry shop, and so on. Like the café, everything seemed in disarray.
Soon a small herd of four ponies consisting of a blank flanked unicorn colt who had a wooden Guard toy in his mouth, what he assumed was the colt’s older sister, and their parents came galloping out of the grocery store. The parents and their daughter had saddle bags full of various foods that would last them several days. The four spotted the High Commander at the same time he spotted them and raced towards Stareye as fast as they could.
“Please you have to help us,” said the mother as the group stopped in front of him. “We need to know what to do.”
“Which way is safe?” asked the father as he stepped in front of Stareye. “Have they surrounded the mountain? Are the remaining Guards helping to evacu-” The stallion got no farther before Stareye smacked him across the muzzle with his hoof, knocking him to the ground. The mares gasped in shock and the little colt dropped his toy as he began to cry.
“SHUT UP!” roared Stareye as veins appeared across his face. His screaming voice caught many ponies attention causing them to stop in their traps. “Nopony is going anywhere. You are all being drafted to protect this city.”
“B-But the foals,” stammered the mother. “We have to get them to safety!”
“No! Everypony is fighting,” snapped Stareye as he grabbed the colt with his magic. The colt whimpered and tried to get away but Stareye shook him back and forth. “You will all fight! This is a decree of the High Commander of the Equestrian Guard and your better! I don’t care if you all die as long as you take those Lunar scum with you! Now do as I command or else.”
“This…This isn’t right,” said the father as he got up. “You can’t-”
“I can,” said Stareye as he used his magic on one of the nearby tables. With a loud crack, the legs of the table broke off unevenly. He then forced them onto the family putting one of them in the mouth of the crying colt before dropping him to the ground. To Stareye’s great irritation, the colt spat it out and began to cry once more. “SHUT UP! Mare, tell your brat to stop crying! He has a job of killing those monsters.”
“The only monster around here is you,” snarled a voice behind Stareye. The High Commander spun around to see Hot Pants marching towards him with an angry scowl on her face. While his back was turned the family moved into the seating area of the café and hid behind an overturned table.
“What are you doing here?!” yelled Stareye, spit shouting from his mouth as he did. “Didn’t I order you to stall the enemy while I got more troops? Was it really so hard to follow such a simple order?”
“We surrendered.” said Hot Pants flatly as she continued to march towards him.
“You…You...,” stammered Stareye. “I told you…wait a moment. That gives me a glorious idea. Yes, I can use your insubordination to my advantage. We’ll ambush them in the city while their guard is down. Yes. Brilliant! I’ll send the foals in first with-” Stareye got no further as Hot Pants, now in front of him, spun around and bucked him as hard as she could in the chest. The force of the impact sent him flying backwards eventually landing on the ground and skidding to a halt.
As he lay there, Stareye noticed two things. The first was that his armor now had a large crack in it, ruining its perfection. The other, and to him most important, was that his mane was dirtied. He could feel the dust and dirt and several other things in there that made him shudder. He was sure that if he were to look in a mirror he could have the same appearance as a commoner.
He turned his furious gaze at Hot Pants which quickly fell when he saw her changing at him with the fury of a bull. In a flash, Stareye teleported away right before Hot Pants could hit him again. When he reappeared he was behind her, horn charging instantly to counterattack. As Hot Pants looked around to find him she saw his attack being fired at her. Not wanting to waste her magic she easily side stepped the attack. But a moment later her eyes perked and eyes widened when she heard a crash behind her. Quickly turning to get a quick peek she saw that a cart full of cabbages had been destroyed and its own wailing about the damages to his wares.
‘I can’t dodge his attacks or else they might hurt innocent bystanders.’ realized Hot Pants as she turned to look at Stareye who was preparing to fire another magical blast. She didn’t bother to say this to him. It was the same reason she didn’t tell him that he was a disgrace to the uniform or give a speech about what it means to be a Guard. It would have been wasted on a fool who didn’t listen or care.
Stareye fired his next attack. Hot Pants threw up her head as her horn glowed brightly creating a dome around her which completely blocked the attack. Stareye grit his teeth in rage as he began to use his magic to grab everything that wasn’t attached to the ground. Dozens of items, mainly saddle bags and chairs were thrown at Hot Pants’ barrier which blocked it all with apparent ease. With each item that bounced harmlessly off, Stareye’s throwing became wilder and more erratic. He began to grind his teeth while veins appeared in his eyes.
While this was happening, Hot Pants considered what to do next since she couldn’t stay in here forever. She thought about using a magical beam attack, but quickly dismissed the idea. She was a member of the Royal Guard sworn not only to protect the Princess but also to protect the ponies of Equestria. There was a chance that she might hit an innocent pony by mistake and that was a gamble she refused to take. Her other option was to get in close so that she could beat him down with her own bare hooves. It would not only ensure that no other ponies got hurt but it would be satisfying to do.
Stareye, meanwhile, continued to fling whatever he could at his disrespectful subordinate to no avail. Cursing loudly as his coat became drenched in sweat he dropped everything all at once and began to charge his horn up for a more powerful beam attack. He paid no attention to the ponies still in the area nor the oddly shaped, fast moving shadows that appeared and just as quickly disappeared. All that mattered was using this spell to kill the mare who had challenged him from day one! The moment that his horn began to glow, however, the barrier dropped as Hot Pants vanished from in. Blinking in confusion, Stareye missed the moment when she appeared above him with her right foreleg pulled back. He did not, however, miss the moment when her hoof connected with his face as she came back to earth. The High Commander was knocked back to the ground and rolled until he hit the wall of the café.
Once he was stopped, Stareye felt he had a few teeth that were loose and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He quickly spat it out as he glared at the mare who had dared do this to him. Hot Pants, he realized quickly, seemed like she was about to attack him once more. And although he despised admitting it to himself, there was no way he could beat her.
‘At least not fairly.’ thought Stareye as an evil smile graced his bruised features and his horn lit up once again.
Hot Pants saw that he was charging his horn for another attack. Thinking that she was the target, she charged at him with the intent to kick his sorry flank before he got the chance. She had only galloped a few steps when he fired, but his horn wasn’t aimed at her but somewhere to her right. She looked over to where the shot would go and time seemed to slow down. It was the family she had seen Stareye harassing earlier. They were still there, huddled behind the table facing Stareye with their eyes closed as they prepared for the worst. Without a second thought Hot Pants jumped into the line of fire as time began to speed up once more and take the hit.
“Ha-ha!” cheered Stareye triumphantly as Hot Pants feel to the ground, a small hole in the middle of her barrel where he had hit her. Slowly he walked over to her with his grin still intact.
“You stupid mare.” he said as he spat on her face and was somewhat surprised when she flinched. “See this is why I am your superior. I am willing to make any sacrifice in order to win. Ever if I have to send everypony in Equestria to their deaths it won’t matter as long as I win! Now get out of my sight!” Stareye’s horn began to glow brightly and he pointed at the defeated mare. But just before he fired two barriers, one blue and the other orange, appeared between the two. Then, before Stareye could even register what he was seeing, he received a powerful flying kick to his side courtesy of Crème. Upon impact his armor shattered and the arrogant commander was sent to the ground where he began to roll for several yards before stopping. As he looked up he saw not just Crème but all of the lieutenants standing there, looking at him with angry expressions.
“What are you doing here?” whispered Hot Pants as she tried to get up. However Boot Licker kept her down.
“Please rest ma’am, please.” he said gently as he began to tend to her injuries, his magic stopping the blood flow. As this was happening the family on ponies Stareye had assaulted remembered they could move and ran away as fast as they could.
“Sorry, but you never said to stay where we were.” said Crème as her horn, as well as the other lieutenants’ horns began to light up. “And did you really think we’d let you have all the fun of kicking his bucking ass?”
“He killed Bitsworth.” said another lieutenant as his eyes narrowed in rage. This was followed by a chorus of ‘That’s right” and reminders of his cowardice during the massacre at the castle.
“How dare you?!” snarled Stareye. “Do you have any idea who I am, who my father is? I will see you all in shackles before the night falls! Now get on yo-” Stareye got no farther as he was suddenly showered in magical energy blasts of all colors, piercing every part of him at once. Before his body hit the ground he resembled Swiss cheese more than a pony.
“It’s over.” breathed Crème as she and the other turned to walk towards their true commanding officer. After taking a few steps, however, a large shadow fell upon them. Looking up, everypony gasped when they saw dozens of the Lunar machines flying into the city. Many of the smaller, one pony crafts were buzzing around the city in packs of three to five. Other crafts like the ‘ships’ or the fighters had begun to hover above the city in strategic locations. The one that had created the shadow was one of their ‘ships’ as it hovered just above the building in. Soon a single pony jumped out of it, extending her wings in order to make a soft landing a comfortable distance away from them.
It was Princess Luna.
“I saw the whole thing,” said the princess while the lieutenants quickly moved into a protective formation around Hot Pants. If this worried Luna in any way she didn’t show it. “He was a coward for using such a dirty tactic, truly unfit to be a Guard in any civilized society. My only regret was not getting here sooner.”
Several of the lieutenants lowered their heads with their eyes narrowed. “Stand,” began Hot Pants but stopped to cough out blood. “Stand down everypony.” As the lieutenants raised their heads Hot Pants did her best to stand. This, sadly, proved to be difficult resulting having to wrap a hoof around Boot Licker’s neck and use him as support. Breathing heavily, she said “We surrender.”
“I am well aware that you have. I saw the white flag being waved by her,” said Luna simply as she gestured to Crème. “Why else you I have brought my army into your city. Of course, it’s not like it you could have stopped us at this point.”
Luna’s eye narrowed as Hot Pants coughed up more blood, also taking note of how her coat seemed to be growing pale and her labored breathing. “You are in desperate need of medical assistance. Without it, you will not survive. I’m sure you know this.”
“Yeah,” whispered Hot Pants, surprising everypony there as she coughed up more blood.
Luna nodded before placing a hoof to the side of her helmet. “This is Princess Luna contacting the medical wing of Dome Zero. I am about to use an emergency teleportation beacon to send over a seriously injured Equestrian soldier. I demand that she is treated with the utmost respect while she is there. She is not to be placed in a cell after treatment is completed. She is to be treated like one of our own. I will be most displeased if my order are not carried out to the letter.”
As Luna said all of this, the Equestrian Royal Guard heard everything she was saying and thus stared at her in utter amazement. “Why are you doing this?” asked one of them when Luna brought down her hoof, voicing what they were all thinking.
“Despite what you have been told your whole lives and what you have just seen, we are not monsters,” said Luna as levitated something out of her armor. It was a small, circular device that was no bigger than a bottle cap with a blinking blue light in the middle. Gracefully it flew over to Hot Pants and attached itself to her chest. “Many of your survivors are being sent to Crescent Hope to be checked out. However, there are those who will need more serious medical help that Crescent Hope can’t provide.”
As she said this, Luna observed that the ponies in front of her did not look relieved or happy. Instead their gazes shifted from Hot Pants, to her, and then to each other. Their stances were rigid, as if they were still ready to brawl. Their distrust did not surprise the night princess. She had said it herself, a short while ago her ponies were killing them. They probably thought that she was going to do something awful to their friend.
Luna let out a sigh. “I could teleport some of you to the moon as well.” she offered.
“No,” whispered Hot Pants. “I’ll go alone. The rest of you need to stay here.”
“But ma’am.” cried Boot Licker as he looked at her. Her head was beginning to droop a bit and her color was going faster. She looked so very weak at this moment.
“Y-You are all needed here,” whispered Hot Pants. “The ponies here a-are most likely to be afraid right n-now. The civilians a-are our top p-priority. You should all stay here and make sure those w-who want to leave c-can.” She gulped. “R-Right now, I d-don’t matter. I-If they are planning on doing s-something h-horrible to me then I d-don’t want you there. Please…”
“Yes ma’am,” said Crème after a moment, saluting as she did so. Slowly all the other nodded and saluted her with the exception of Boot Licker.
‘She’s got her priorities straight,’ thought Luna while suppressing a smile. ‘I’m almost tempted to offer her a spot in my guard. But I’m sure Princess Cadence will need a mare like her more once I place her on the throne.’ With that thought, Luna pressed a button on her chest plate sending Hot Pants to the moon.
As the mare vanished from sight, Luna opened her wing to head up back to her transport. Just as she became airborne, however, she sensed something that caused her eyes to widen. Something she had not felt in a thousand year. And, in spite of the length of time, she could never forgot the feel of chaotic magic in the air. Eyes narrowing Luna sped off towards the castle at full speed, hoping she’d be able to arrive in time to stop Discord from freeing himself.
-x-
Blueblood raced into the royal garden as if timberwolves were nipping at his flank with Majesty by his side. Try as he might he could not keep himself from panting loudly. He was, after all, a unicorn noble and not some earth pony filth who had to walk everywhere. The most he ever had to do was walk up stairways and when he grew too tired he could simply order his servants to carry him the rest of the way.
As soon as the two had entered the kitchen, it had been non-stop activity. Majesty did everything she could to ensure that they made it out of the castle unseen. While the castle had been emptied of all of its guards and most of its servants, one could never be too careful. She peeked around every corner and made distraction with her magic whenever the situation called. Truly, she was his one and only loyal supporter in all of this.
“I…need a…moment,” panted Blueblood as they passed by a hideous, cracked statue of some creature that he was sure his aunt had tried to tell him about. But, alas, he had not bothered to pay her any attention to some dusty told tale.
“Alright my prince,” said Majesty who was looking less winded than he was. “I’ll keep watch while you catch your breath.” With that she walked around the hedge bend while Blueblood sank onto his flank, never noticing the glint in her eyes or the fact that her smile widened a bit.
“Oh thank Celestia...” breathed Blueblood as he raised his hoof to wipe the sweat from his brow. But once it had reached eye level he stopped himself to stare at it. His suit was filthy! Not just from sweat, but he saw there was dust and cobwebs that had to have come from galloping down the servant’s corridor! He also spotted mud and grass stains on it as well. Grass stains! The horror! This was a four thousand bit suit and it was ruined!
His eye began twitching like mad as he slammed his hoof back onto the ground. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” he bellowed to the sky above. “Everything was perfect, simply perfect. I had everything planned out with the parasprite and taking control of the Royal Guard! I had the chance to make Equestria a better place for unicorns, placing us at the top and securing it forever! We should have won this battle and the nobility should be singing my praise, those who doubted me begging for forgiveness. So how could things have gone so wrong?”
Faces began to appear in his mind. First Spell Matrix and his lot came floating into the forefront. They had been given the simple task of copying the Lunar armor technology yet failed miserably. If only they had not bellyached about it being more ‘advanced’ then perhaps they could have started mass producing it. Maybe even arming their own forces with those weapons on the backs of the Lunar Guard! They would have won this thing for sure then. Then came North Star and Fancy Pants, both of them being irritations at his side. Questioning him and swaying ponies away from his side. Trixie who ran away with the magical compass. Lady Fine Dining for causing that scene at the party which turned more ponies away from him. Stareye THAT BUCKIG IDIOT!
“IT’S THEIR FAULT!” screamed Blueblood, pouring all his anger and frustration into that yell while the statue behind cracked some more. “It’s their fault everything fell apart. If it wasn’t for all of their whining and utter incompetence then I wouldn’t be in this situation. I would be preparing for a victory brunch or getting pampered like I’m supposed to.”
Just then, Blueblood heard the sound of hoofsteps coming towards him. Turning his head he saw that it was Majesty walking towards him. He opened his mouth to ask her if the cost was closed, but stopped himself before he even uttered a single word. Something was wrong with her. Her eyes looked fiercely at him, full of an utter hatred that caused his brain to stop working for a moment. He also saw that in her magical gasp was a large stick, more of a tree branch really, hovering next to her.
“Now it’s just you and me,” she whispered. “Nopony will get in the way. THIS IS FOR SCOOTER!” With a wild scream she swung her weapon at him. Blueblood, his brain just now realizing the danger he was in, ducked down just in time.
“Majesty, what are you-” be began, but stopped as pain erupted through his body when Majesty struck his head.
“You killed him,” said Majesty in a quiet tone, neither one paying any attention to the cracking noise in the background. “You killed my Scooter. And because of you Scootaloo might be hurt or dead. I don’t know! But I’ll make sure you can never hurt anypony ever again!” Again, Majesty swung the branch down as hard as she could. However, Blueblood managed to regain enough sense to roll to the side so as to avoid her attack.
Growling in rage, Majesty charged at Blueblood so she could bash his brains in with her branch raised above her head. Gulping, Blueblood created a magic barrier in the shape of a kite shield in order to protect himself. However, whether it was because his magic was weak from exhaustion or his own lack of magical skill and/or power, Majesty’s attack went through the shield as if it were made of paper. Still it at least slowed down the attack enough so that Blueblood could get out of the way.
Feeling more sweat appear on his brow as he dodged another attack, Blueblood began to lite his horn to counterattack. After ducking to avoid being hit once again a beam of magical energy fired from his horn. Majesty, in turn, blocked his attack with her branch. Normally an attack like this would have either destroyed the branch or created a hole through it and still hit its target, depending on the level of discipline and focus of the caster. In Blueblood’s case, however, all it did was destroy the end leaving behind jagged wood that Majesty could use to stab him with. And to make that point perfectly clear, Majesty lowered her weapon and thrust forwards. Eyes widening, Blueblood threw himself to the ground as hard as he could in an effort to get out of the way to save himself from a fatal blow but got scratched on the cheek.
Before he could lift a hoof to stand, Blueblood saw Majesty’s hooves right in front of him. Looking up, he saw her narrow gaze locked on him and the branch poised to strike. Quickly he began to think of how to get out of this with little success. His magic had so far proved useless and there was no chance of anypony coming to his rescue. Maybe he could say something, but the question was what could he say. Promises of power and wealth would have been laughable given his current state. Thinking faster than he ever had before, he searched his memory for anything that might cause her to stop. Then, an idea came to him.
“Do you really think Scooter and Scootaloo would forgive you for murder?” he asked quickly. It was the only thing he had really. Those two names she had spoken about earlier, they must have some importance to her.
Upon hearing Blueblood’s question, Majesty’s eyes suddenly widened slightly and her makeshift weapon lowered a bit. Seeing her pause, Blueblood quickly reached out with his magic to try and take hold of the branch while standing up at the same time. Seeing Blueblood’s magical aura mix with hers, Majesty gasped in shock before redoubling her efforts to be in sole possession of her murder weapon. Then Blueblood raised a hoof and punched her square in the muzzle with all his might, knocking the mare to the ground while also losing her magical focus. With the branch now under his full control, Blueblood walked over to where his former ally. When Majesty looked up wide eyed and saw Blueblood looking down at her in utter hate.
“Traitor.” he hissed as he raised the branch and then swung it down hard. Majesty screamed in pain as the branch hit the side of her face before it rose again only to strike her once more. Over and over again, Blueblood struck Majesty as he put all his rage into each swing. Each time he hit her he remembered all the ponies who had caused him problems since the dealings with the Republic began. He never did notice that the cracking noise behind him was getting louder and happening more rapidly with each passing second. All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing and the wails of pain in front of him.
Minutes passed, but to Blueblood it could have been hours, before Majesty stopped crying out. Now she just laid there looking like a wreck. Her once elegant pink coat now marred with ugly bruises and blood. Looking down at the part of her face he could see, her cheek looked puffy and her eye had swollen shut. Sneering at her Blueblood tossed away the branch just as the loudest crack he had ever heard sounded throughout the garden.
Maniacal giggling soon filled the air as Blueblood looked around in a panic, thinking that somepony had found him. Yet all he could see was Majesty and she was in no condition to be giggling like that. But who could it-
Suddenly a full orchestra began to play a dark, yet exciting tone that caused the prince to jump into the air. When he landed, he spun around to look at the statue to see the cracks on it were beginning to glow white. As if it were waiting for him to turn around and look, the statue exploded revealing a creature of the same mixed matched parts that roared loudly as it threw its arms into the air.
The music then cut off abruptly, sounding like a scratch on a record player as the creature began to float in the air while wearing a pink robe and rubber ducky slippers. In one of his claws was a coffee mug that read “Best God of Chaos” in letters of various fonts.
“Oh how I do love a good cup of chaos in the morning,” said the being as he sipped an ever changing liquid from his mug. “Ahhh, that hits the spot after being trapped in stone for a thousand years.”
“Wh-who are you?” asked Blueblood as he took a step back.
Discord looked down at him with a curious expression on his face which slowly turned into a smile. He raised a clawed hand and snapped it so that his attire changed instantly. He then reach behind his back to pull out a full head rubber mask of Celestia and put it on his head.
“My dear nephew,” said the creature in a perfect imitation of Celestia’s voice. “Didn’t I once tell you about the most powerful, handsome, and not at all stick in the mud like myself being to ever walk Equestria? He is Discord!” Right when Discord said his name the mask began to expand until it popped like a balloon leaving only his own smirking face. Blueblood stared at him while his eyes widened in realization.
Just then Discord’s expression shifted as a surprised and then embarrassed look crossed his face. He then began to dance around while both his hands and tail covered the spot between his legs. Looking around, he teleported in from of one of the hedges and pulled on it. The front of the hedge swung to the side like a door revealing what looked like an old outhouse. Blueblood could even see that written on the walls in crayon were things like “For a lame time call Celestia” and “Luna will never get her own throne on the show”. Quickly Discord ran in, slamming the ‘door’ behind him with all his might.
As Blueblood stood there, with the sound of a humpback whale splashing in the water coming from inside the hedge, the wheels in his head began to turn. From what he had just seen, this Discord fellow seemed to have the ability to play with reality. That or he was a really good illusionist. If he could smooth talk him into an alliance, then he could fix everything in one swoop!
The hedge swung open to allow Discord, who was wearing a gas mask, to exit. Gas began to leak out of the hedge causing the plant life around it to change in random ways. Some of the plants grew massively large thrones while other gained teeth instead of petals. Other plants grew four times their original size and one began to scoot away like a caterpillar. Then, before anything else could happen, Discord closed the door.
“Well now, I’d better get to work,” said Discord as he looked at his wrist which now had a calendar glued to it. “Oh there is so little to do and so much time. Strike that. Reverse it. Oh how I love the classics!”
“Excuse me,” said Blueblood, getting the Lord of Chaos’ attention. “If I may have a word I would-”
“A word? Certainly!” said Discord as he snapped his fingers. Just then the word ‘heavy’ fell on Blueblood’s head creating a rather large bump and causing Discord to snicker.
“A, yes,” hissed Blueblood as he tried his best to keep from shouting at this powerful being. “Er, what I meant to say is I want to talk to you. I am Prince Blueblood.”
“Oh, I know who you are,” said Discord as he walked over to the prince. “Believe me, I heard everything that went on around my statue.” He then leaned in close and whispered into Blueblood’s ear. When he was done, the white coated stallion looked very green while holding his mouth with both hooves.
“Look,” said Blueblood quickly as he took a deep breath and walked backwards a bit. “I would like to make a deal with you. You are a being of great power. I believe that together, with my brains and connections, there would be nothing that could stop us. We could take over the world”
“OF COURSE!” shouted Discord as the M. Bison attire appear on him for a brief moment.
“You agree? That wonderful,” said Blueblood with a smile.
Discord chuckled. “Oh no,” he said while shaking his head with a grin on his face.
“But you just said-”
“I couldn’t help but use that meme,” said Discord with a shrug. “But, in all seriousness, why would I ever need you? Before Celestia and Luna imprisoned me in stone Equestria was my happy fun time zone. A world of pure chaotic imagination. I had it raining chocolate milk, snowing dandruff, volcanoes spewing out bad Adam Sandler movies on VHS.”
“Who is Adam Sandler?” asked Blueblood.
“Never mind that,” said Blueblood. “The point is that the two royal pains were the only ones who could use the Elements of Harmony to stop me. And thanks in no small part in your selfish efforts I was freed before they could reestablish their connection or find new barriers!” Behind Discord a choir of himself suddenly appeared and began to sing “Hallelujah!”
“W-What,” stammered Blueblood as a great unease crept over him. “I-I don’t u-understand.”
“Oh Blueblood,” said Discord as he lifted the prince up and placed him over his knee, a pipe appearing in his mouth with sprinkled doughnut rings coming out of its end. “Did it ever occur to you that Celestia had a reason for doing the things she did? Oh, she tried to protect you all with her compassion with the hopes that it would rub off on you all. That you would all follow her example and become better, nicer ponies. But thanks to ponies like you Blueblood,” he bopped the prince on the nose, “You completely undermined her efforts. For various selfish reasons you keep her from learning about much of the problems in this happy little country. All the delicious disharmony ponies like you spread allowed me to be freed earlier than expected. And thanks to you I can now run around free to do whatever I want with nopony around to stop me!”
Discord then vanished, causing Blueblood to fall on the ground and land on his plot. When the chaotic spirit reappeared next to the prince, he was wearing an “I’m with stupid” t-shirt with the arrow (which was blinking on and off) pointed right at Blueblood.
“Now then,” began Discord as he literally snaked an arm around a very scared Blueblood. “I was just going to let you go and be on my merry way as thanks for all your wonderful help. But, alas, it was not meant to be. I mean, really, trying to trick the master of tricks? I’m afraid I can let that one slide. But don’t worry, I won’t kill you like so many commenters have been asking for.”
“W-Wait, commenters?” stammered Blueblood.
“Now I think I have just the idea to make you as important as you really are,” said Discord with a smirk as he snapped his fingers. There was a flash of light and when it had faded, Blueblood was frozen in stone while sitting on a toilet with his mouth comically hanging open. “Hmm, it’s missing something. Oh, I got it!” Discord once more snapped his fingers to magically add a crown with the words “Hay Burger Princess” on it. Seeing this, Discord jumped into the air while clapping and laughing at his own wit.
As he landed onto the ground, Discord heard a moan. Curious he walked over to Majesty whose head had moved slightly so that it was facing the statue. Rubbing his chin, Discord pondered what to do with her. He could use his magic to heal her and then see what she did next or toy with her a bit. Various ideas began to pop into his head like play doctor with her to turning her into a plate.
Before he could make up his mind something fast and shiny caught his attention. Turning his head and pulling out an old pirate scope from nowhere he saw that there were five of these science fiction looking things moving in a pack of the city. In fact there were many others like them all over the city. Lowering the scope, Discords expression changed from curious to gleeful.
“Oh what a wonderful day!” cried Discord as he snapped his fingers and a book entitles “Sci-Fi References” appeared before him suspended in midair. “First I am freed and now I get to use this for the first time ever. This is simply marvelous. I am going to have so much fun!” With that said, Discord began to flip through the pages while a pair of reading glasses appeared on his face upside down. Eventually he found something that amused him and snapped the book away. He was about to snap his fingers when he heard the sound of somepony flying towards him fast. When he turned his head the only thing he saw was Luna’s metal hoof impacting his face, sending him into the air and into the sky above Canterlot.
As the god of chaos flew away, Majesty slowly began to stir. Slowly she pushed one foreleg in front of her in the direction of Blueblood’s statue. Once it was planted into the ground she dragged her body forwards. She then placed her other foreleg in front of her, hissing from the pain as she did so, and repeated the process. Over and over again, she used her forelegs to move her inch by inch towards the statue. Never once did her gaze linger from her target, even when her vision began to grow dark and hazy. All she cared about was getting to that statue.
As she moved forwards, the noble began to see something on the edge of her vision. It was Scooter. He was standing there, smiling at her. But she could tell from the look in his eyes that it wasn’t a happy one, nor was it forced. It was sad. She then saw him opening his mouth to say things, yet no words came out. Tears began to appear in her eyes for right now for she felt cheated not being able to hear his voice one last time. But she was also happy. She didn’t know if this was an illusion caused by the blows Blueblood had inflicted upon her or if this was a ghost come to take her to the other side. Either way she didn’t care. It was still good to see him one last time like this.
‘If I die,’ thought Majesty as she continued to crawl. ‘And if there is anything like reincarnation, I’d like a do over with them. Maybe then I’ll make the right choice and we’ll all be a family.’
Eventually she reached her target. Now Majesty placed one of her hooves on the statue and began to pull herself. With her strength sapped like this, it was like climbing a mountain. Yet she was soon able to get into a standing position with both her forelegs pressed against the cold stone. Then, with every last ounce of her strength, she pushed the statue forwards causing it to tip over. As she fell, her vision went dark. But before she landed on the ground, she heard the sound of stone shattering which brought a smile to her face.
‘For…you…Scooter,’ thought Majesty. ‘I’m…sorry…Scootaloo…but…mommy…won’t…see…you…’
And those were the last thoughts that ran through Majesty’s head.
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No! Majesty should have been able to at least meet Scootaloo!
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/9/9d/Fiddly_Faddle_ID_S3E8.png/revision/latest?cb=20121223005646
Played like a fiddle, you are.
i hope they make it =c
7362952
Ah, but we already have that fic elsewhere...
and then everypony woke up and found out it was all a dream....
...or was it?
yeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! NEW CHAPTERS!!!!
well things have gone from bad to much worse. Thanks to the Canterlot Nobles and lets call them The Lunar Fundamentalists(the powerful Lunar republic ponies behind the plots on that side) Thousands of good ponies have died, the Lunar Republic's reputation has been stained for using WMDs, Discord is free, The Elements are in Danger, and Luna and Celestia's relationship is in worse shape than ever. Power corrupts and it's done it's job wonderfully here, the princesses made stupid choices with good intentions and ponies they trusted are willing to risk everyone's lives to cling to power.
update are magic,
yea for updates
7436553 Really? Where?
Just how long will this story be?
...Yup, they're all doomed.
Here's hoping there's an actual fight between Luna and Discord instead of just Luna curb stomping because that's all that seems to happen in this story.
spelling error
“Prince Blueblood,” said Majesty catching his attention. He turned to look at the other side of the room where she was standing, her magic pulling back a drake
7436478 agree
7436781 On principle I'm not linking it
Most of the characters are railroaded to be stupid so Blueblood can be 'stache twistingly evil. Powered by secret dark magic made by Sombra, he brings about a Unicorn Supremacist movement right under Celestia's nose just before she croaks dead from Plot Flu, then drives Luna, Twilight, and a good chunk of the Royal Guard(the other chunk he controlled) out of Canterlot and force them to cede much of the Equestrian heartlands on a whim(this includes Ponyville) so Blueblood can enforce a Hitler Youth style program by not only reforming the education system under his new ideology but also transplanting unicorn foals from mixed parentage to be raised by "pure" unicorns instead, and then further enslaving the other two tribes.
That's the whole plot of the story, there's no "good guys fighting in the background" here. It's just Blueblood winning basically uncontested for 75 thousand words
7436881 It's a space age civilization going up against a medieval one. If they weren't curb stomping something would be seriously wrong. Don't worry, though, Discord's too powerful to go down easily.
Ok this tv meme is seriuosly overused.
BUT in all honesty, this battle's outcome was seen miles away, While Hot Pants did her best, Equestia was doomed to fail in the end. Now the question is its fate. After the Luna vs Discord battle, Celestia will most likely now be in favor of being a leader in the eyes of the Equestrians, Cadence has a better shot at being leader now and with Luna's help will brige the gap in trust, hopefully. And the other problems like the Changlings and the Dragons...
Good chapter.
7436781 I think the one that they're talking about is called 'The Trouble With Unicorns'.
7437659 It's not as bad as you make it out to be. It's meant to show Blueblood's fall from a well-intentioned revolutionary to an iron-fisted dictator. It's actually quite an interesting read.
7437667 True, but it makes for a boring story when it can pretty much be described as a 6 foot tall dude kicking a newborn puppy to death.
And I'm still trying to figure out how they can manage to be so advanced when they just have materials from the moon to work with. That's doesn't even include the fact that they still somehow have food and water problems to this day, despite their tech.
7437923 To your first point, this is closer to Lovecraftian horror than an actual conflict. The payoff comes from Equestria realizing just how screwed they are, not any sort of balanced contest. That's part of why the anime Gate peaked in its second episode before the downward spiral started.
Second, the moon, along with just about every other rocky planet in the solar system, is covered in untapped resources, either from mining that hasn't happened or meteorite impacts that haven't been scavenged by neolithic tribes. I would expect any civilization up there to have large amounts of everything that isn't organic, and getting more from Equestria is quite the challenge, hence the food and water issues. It makes perfect sense from a scientific standpoint.
7436584
Well I think it is supposed to be a dream because of the initial spell twilight casts was supposed to be for viewing different outcomes of choices. Yeah that little fact is easy to gloss over with everything going on.
Was this irony intentional? Because technically, it's when your life ends that you fail to be aware of your surroundings. Regardless, it made me chuckle. Great job!
Two?
7439526
Her forehooves
7436881 This fight will be different because as powerful as technolgy is, it still has weaknesses when it comes to the magical department, and Discord's chaos is something of a rule breaker, so no Luna will not be curb stomping discord, instead she will either emergency teleport all troups to safety and activate project umbrella, if former is not possible, activate project umbrella anyway.
Pretty sure we need the Gore tag after that chapter. That was easily at least teen level gore.
Does Luna realize appointing Cadence as new ruler of Equestria isn't going to do the pink alicorn any favor?
From the populace's perspective, Nightmare Moon, whose troops slaughtered the Equestrian Army and took over Canterlot, is going to place a convenient puppet to "rule" Equestria for her (an historically common practice) . And a batpony lover, nor less (gasp)!
The Princess of love will have problems carrying on any reforms, even necessary ones, without a sizable group of oppositors pointing how the true objetive is to destroy "Equestrian purity, tradition and culture" and turning the country into a mere colony for the Republic benefit ( which may not be a lie considering the latter one arrogance and thirst for resources).
... You know I really, REALLY have to ask this question. Are the Mane 6 seeing ALL of this or just their perspectives?
Either way I doubt they'll be the same after all this.
*shudders* This is why you don't f*** with space and time unless it's at the god damn GODZILLA THRESHOLD!
7451876
You will find out when the time comes
Wow...Just wow. I knew that Stareye and Blueblood would get it sooner or later and that Equestria would get their flanks handed to them but...wow. Overkill has been avenged.
7451722 agreed
7437744 wow, that is short sighted. Cadence is next in line for the throne so Luna is only ensuring that she gets it. True she is trying to make Equestria better for bat ponies but we have seen that she is putting her bits were her mouth is and is making things better in the same amount of time Blueblood fucked it over. While Blueblood was in charge two armies have attacked and seiged cities, failed to deliver on ANY of his promices, and has just been an overwhelming failure except for his silver tongue. And who would be stupid enough to give Cadence grief with Luna, the mare's whose ARMY crushed like 500000 ponies in 15 minutes, on her side? I think the author was going for a Code Gieas
7458756 I made a mistake in my comment I meant to say that Tia will mostly likely NOT be in line for the next ruler. and you right Cadense has a long road ahead of her to mind the gaps and damage to the brigde that Blueblood left behind. and if Candense marries Shining Armor...well the Luna Empire will have an ally and a mutual peace between the two......yeah, she going have a busy time. and when what Trixie did in the empire gets out to either Celestia or Cadense...she's going to have a bad time.
EDIT: Also hopefully Candese doesn't make the same mistake as Tia did: Be ignorance of the event of today and learn from them, and not let events be a memory only. In the years to come, all of Equestia will know that Prince Blueblood of the Silver Solar tongue was both the cause and end of the Celestia reign and the beginning of the Cadense (insert cool title here) reign.
Mane 6 Comments after the initial shock:
Finally that ******* got what was coming! Just wish I could of helped.
I could help you with that.......
Uh.... guys who's she?
Twist? How'd ya get here?
Oh I'm not Twist, I'm Discord!
Then why take the form of one of my sister's friends?
Oh, Applejack, he can't. There are no Discord emotes in the comments section.
Would you rather me be a giant floating heart? 
Or this showmare? 
Is vis good? 
Or a fan favorite?
What?
So Discord are we still on for our weekly Netflix binge?
Wouldn't miss it for the world, just don't jump me this time, my poor antler still won't stop shaking around the couch.
Yay...... you better not have watch ahead on Game of Thrones again Discord!
No I have not Fluttershy, I swear *Crossing his hooves along with disembodied hands*
One spoiler and no cucumber sandwiches next week!
*Gulp*
7511464 because he ponies elect their senators to represent them. thus a Republic.
7451722 I don't think so. THis event has fully brought to light how corrupt the nobility is. Think of it. Everypony who died in this battle were because of the nobility with Blueblood and Stareye at the top. As more coems to light on how and why this happened Equestria will change. The nobility has just gabled and lost their power. Heck the fact that the Lunars are giving the survivors the best medicine they can provide further destroys the lies Tia has let stand.
7436650 wrong. Everybody saw Stareye use recruits as cannon fodder and that the Lunars did target any civilians and accepted the army's surrender with grace will be making a bigger impact and as the truth comes to light the Nobility will pay the price for their arrogance.
7532708 She acts like a president. She still has some power but ceded others. It's a monarch republic.
7532669
Wrong how? The Lunar ponies DID use WMDs, it won't matter to those who lost loved one that they where "graceful" in accepting the terror induced surrender of the Equestrian army. The perception is what's important, not what really happened. Only a small handful of ponies WANTED to use the WMD, but it was used and the victims aren't going to be so quick to forgive when hundreds of their fellows died and their army was obliterated. If the Wonderbolts ever get rebuilt they will resent this attack for DECADES even though less that 5 members who experienced it lived.
7532731 Luna still has considerable power politically but personaly limits herself to laws either she or the Senate has made.
In essence is this. Both Luna and Celestia have weaknesses. Celestia is a very long term thinker but is weak to react to anything fast. I blame her father's teachings for that for then her. Luna is a very fast reactor to a situation. At times too quick. Thus why their mother figure out both were needed to rule. Luna could push Celestia to act while Celestia could keep Luna from acting to fast. When the split happened Luna knew her weakness and created the Senate to be her new brake. Celestia has never seen her weakness and went on not changing a thing till we get to here. That's why in this universe Luna is the better leader for she minimized her weakness that Celestia never did.
From what I see in the Republic is that she is a combo President and Speaker of the House.
7532820 I don't think those canons are capable of destroy a city like Canterlot in one shot thus not a WMD. Also as Equestrian ponies demand answers all the evidence would point to the Nobility causing the conflict. Heck the true act of war is when Luna's Honor Guard came under attack. It is a shame that Majesty is dead. If she could have testified it would further bury the nobility.
7533569 One that works like a Republic, the ponies choose the Senators.
7533556
Mass Destruction doesn't necessarily mean Total Destruction in one hit. The destruction was massive I don't think the fact that "the cannons fired more than once" makes a difference. the cannons are weapons of mass destruction because they CAUSED massive destruction. Strategically it was a sound move, cause massive damage to the foe to force a surrender. That doesn't mean civilians will see it tat way, or even front line soldiers. Your perspective is a little different when your the one dying.
Honestly this desire to paint the Lunar Republic as blameless and Equestria as just this nation of backward jerks who don't care is annoying. That's because it BORING. if one side is just "right" then why the conflict? also when one side is "right" then they are justified in ANYTHING, they have no need for empathy or thoughtfulness which would make them little more than robots.
7534187 No because they are not equal to a nuke thus not a WMD.
Also while The Republic has a just cause they are not perfect.
What we are seeing here is the results of poor choices done by all sides.
When Luna left Celestia did nothing to change the reasons why Luna left. She just banned her sister's name for 200 years and when she got over that she did nothing to change it. Thus the lore of Nightmare Moon is even worse in this universe and it expanded to her followers. just imagine if Twilight was not sent to Ponyville and the merge went through. It would have been more chaotic and costly.
Luna's flaw was never setting conditions that might lead to a merge for all those years.
And lets look at the extreme factions for both sides.
Equestrian Nobility: They manage to assinate the successor Captain of the Guard and get away with it. Then appoint a trainee to be his replacement. In a matter of days they pull a coup right under Celestia's nose with little effort. Then again the nobility has been corrupt for a long time and with no real attempts by Celestia to ever change that it got worse.
Lunar Extremist: Likely not really existent till recently these ponies serve the republic. Their zeal has lead to them altering the evidence and nearly killing Twilight so that Luna would wipe out Equestria. This is only possible due to Gigawatt being a Senator AND former head of the LBI which allows him influence to where what he is doing is normally not possible. Right place, right time for Gigawatt here. Luna saw the corruption of Equestria and wanted to avoid that with the Republic. She mainly succeeded.
In truth this whole senario is showing how much Nightmare Moon was in infulencing Celestia's thinking habits.
Celestia was taught politics by her father. From what we have seen i say the guy is a bad ruler. he rather sit on his butt and pay ransom rather then help the griffons with a just cause. heck it took his wife to get to even rule. And since he wanted Celestia and only Celestia to rule she got all his teach, that and with her own faults made in the end a very incompotent ruler. her innocence and father's teaching allowed the nobility to do a lot right under her nose with only Luna trying to be a check on them. Remember for a long time she thought her words and the good nature of ponies would always lead to the right thing. She does not realize that many ponies don't have good in them anymore so she was told lies or half truths and never checked for herself, again her father's teachings are partially to blame.
Luna was never taught by her father because he didn't want her to rule. In his mind she was an accident. It is likely her mother taught her and general impression I see of her is that she seems to be a far better ruler then her now ex husband. That plus her observing the ponies around her and their dreams gave better insight. She believes in action being stronger then words. To lead by example. She tries to learn from her mistakes. Gigawatt and his group snuck by because that have always been loyal and while they made hate Equestria they have good reason to and have never taken any action till now. You can be sure that afterwords and with Twilight's testimony she would make what Gigawatt has done even harder to pull off.
Now let's go into the pros and cons of the sisters.
Luna is really good at reacting fast to a situation. At times too fast. She doesn't fully think things through. However she has tried to correct that both personally and by making the Senate as a way to brake herself.
Celestia is a long term planner. Everything, every move is calculated so she gets the result she wants. However if something happens she doesn't plan for she doesn't know how to act. She has to plan everything. unlike Luna she has never figured out this is a weakness for her thus never corrected it. In addition she is too trusting. Example, when she learned of the lore of Nightmare Moon and correcting it. She let is slight and only planned to correct it when the merge would happen. When the merge fails she grows desperate because she didn't plan on it failing. First letters, then trying to visit Luna, then forcing Luna to relive a painful memory with the idea that luna would go to their mother and their mother would agree with Celestia and their nations would merge. She never counted on Oceania to not say that but to say that luna should think in the best interest of her ponies.
Celestia maybe portrayed in a poor light in this fic but there is enough cannon material to say this is not OOC for her. This fic shows how much NMM event affected both princesses.
7534247
So in other words this comes down to "The Definition of Weapon of Mass Destruction". My definition is "A Weapon that causes Massive Destruction" your definition is "A Thermonuclear Explosive Device", one specific kind of weapon. I don't think a weapon must be a thermonuclear explosive to be considered a WMD.
Also you seem to have miss the whole "perception vs facts" thing. You argue a lot of "should" and the fact is there are a lot of "shoulds" in this word that simply aren't. You present facts when I wasn't arguing what ACTUALLY happened but what the common people will THINK of what happened. The Lunars AREN'T psychotic extremists looking to wipe out Equestria, but some pony who watched Canterlot get pounded and the Wonderblots get destroyed is going to be hard to convince.
It's like with Cadance, no matter how good a case she presents some will refuse to listen to her, their beliefs about Equestria too deeply entrenched. They "should" listen to her, but some just won't.
7537097 WMD is a nuke or gas weapons. I don't think laser cannons count.
And as for the ponies of Equestria they will as why this had happen. And everything will point to Blueblood and the nobility. Heck I think any other country would call the RG attack on Luna and her guard an act of war and there were good nobles who can testify that Blueblood instigated the attack on Luna and that Luna gave them multiple chances to surrender.
7537199
Like I said as far as I am concerned any weapon that causes massive destruction is a weapon of mass destruction. It's a simple A equals A situation. It's a a Weapon. the Destruction it cause is Massive, it's a weapon that causes massive destruction, a weapon OF massive destruction.
Now my starting point was the situation was bad, and the things that happened made the situation worse. The situation was caused by the actions of Canterlot nobility and small group of Higher Ups in the Lunar command. it was a case of the situation was just going to get worse, even the best choice was going to make things worse because they was no way for things NOT to get worse. it is immaterial who made the call, the situation is the fault of the Nobles and the Lunar Higher Ups and was at a point where down was the only way for things to go. Strategically the cannon was the best call, but it still made things worse because thing where going to get worse no matter what.
Well, I think the question 'Would it have been better if Luna had ponies that believed in her 1000 years ago?' has been thoroughly answered.
The answer is no. Apparently, if Luna had people who believed in her, all Equestria would turn into racist bigots who would happily commit violence against minorities, Celestia would be an even more incompetent waste of horseflesh than the canon version, and it would ultimately culminate in the slaughter of over half a million ponies by Luna.
About the only benefit I can see is that Scootaloo gets her wings healed and a family. Much as I love Scootaloo, that doesn't balance out the horrors that this alternate timeline throws up.
However, since this is supposed to be just an alternate possibility that never happened and the mane six are just living it for a few weeks, it will be fascinating to see how they react afterwards. Especially if they retain the memories of their counterparts. I expect them to curl up in the fetal position for at least a week. After all, they failed. Even if Discord is stopped, the destruction and loss of life wrought by the war they had an unwitting hoof in creating had happened. They failed to get a message to Luna in time, and doomed 500000 ponies, many of whom they know personally.
I was going to say 500000 seemed like a bit much, but the Union in the civil war fielded 2 million, and even the Confederacy had over 1 million, and their tech level was about Equestria's, so yeah.
In universe things won't be much better. Celestia will see the results of her failure to actually lead or make changes, and it will utterly crush her. When Luna finds out that the war vote was fixed and that Celestia had managed to find her the food she needed and would have given it without a fight, thus meaning that she killed all those ponies for nothing, I expect her to have a breakdown that makes her earlier one look like a fainting spell.
Then there's the victorious Lunar army. Once they see and smell the mounds of corpses they're responsible for, ponies just like them, I expect their morale to nose dive. You can expect massive psychological trauma, everything from emotional problems, to various sorts of psychosis to guilt driven suicides. These are ponies, not humans, and their only experience of war comes from films and video games.
Even assuming Discord is defeated, which I expect he will, that what all the dangling plot threads have been heading towards, Equestria is wrecked. Invasions on all sides and no army to protect them. And the Lunar Republic is no better off. They may have done to Equestria what America did to Japan, but unlike America, the Lunar Republic do not have the resources to take over Equestria's protection or help them rebuild. Quite apart from the section8 discharges, there's a point at which quantity beats quality. There are too few of them to protect all the areas that need protecting, even if each one is a one pony army.
So this is as bad a timeline as any of the Starlight Glimmer inspired ones.
In the real universe however, in the long term, there would be benefits. Twilight would have all the memories and knowledge of her Lunar counterpart, including the wing regeneration tech. Cue a technological revolution.
Also, knowing exactly what kind of horrors Blueblood would unleash given a position of power, they will want to utterly destroy his social standing to prevent it ever happening in the real timeline. And here they have the power to do it.
Finally, this has got to knock Celestia off that pedestal Twilight puts her on. Luna, as has been demonstrated in canon several times is the better teacher. Anything that gets Twilight to stop worshiping Sunbutt is a bonus in my book. She may even adopt Scootaloo, now she knows how fulfilling it will be.
She also knows who Scootaloo's true parents are, and in this timeline, they may still be alive.
So as a 'what not to do' warning, the spell has been a good thing.
Damn. That was one bloody massacre. Then again, I'm not surprised. Considering that a medieval based army went up against a Star Wars level sci-fi army. I also somewhat pity Majesty. While revenge is not a good thing, I feel sorry for her that she didn't get to see her daughter one last time.
More importantly though, I'm anxious to see how Discord and Luna's encounter is going to go. So with that, I bid you adieu and look forward to the next chapter.
~ Super-Brony12
NOOOOOOOOO MAJESTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUCK! I knew this war would be dark, but....shit. So many named good ponies died!! T__________T
When you just start CIV