The Rise and Fall of the Holy Romane Empire

by Ponycletian

1: Deaths in the Family

It was a quiet night in Canterlot when the King and Queen of the young Kingdom of Equestria died. It didn’t seem fitting that the two ponies who had done so much for all pony kind should die so senselessly. A careless comment made by a being whose power exceeded their ability to control it was all it took to strike down the two most important ponies in the young Celestia’s life. Her father, Radiant Dawn, and her mother, Vernal Glory, lay before her. She could have thought them asleep, were it not for the doctor’s assurances that they were dead.

She looked at her parents’ corpses, for that was all they were now, lifeless husks, and thought of the creature that had murdered them. There was little doubt as to the identity of the culprit. They had died when their brains had been transformed into cotton candy, and there was only one being that would even conceive of such a means of execution. Discord.

It had to be Discord. The King and Queen had been the last of the natural alicorns before they had Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Their magic was vastly stronger than anything else known to ponies, with only two exceptions. One was the draconequus Discord, who embodied Chaos. While the other was an alicorn, Concord, who embodied Order. Neither of them were natural creatures, having simply materialized in front of the castle one day, nearly 18 years ago. But natural or not, there was one thing about them that was indisputable. Their powers were unmatched.

Beside her stood a younger, deep blue, alicorn mare. She was sobbing quietly, the tears glistening in the candlelight as they rolled down her face. She shouldn’t have to deal with this. Nopony should. What could Discord have possibly been thinking when he did something so... there were simply no words to describe what he had done.

Their parents had been universally beloved by all ponykind. Radiant Dawn had been the last of an ancient family of alicorns which had, through incest and infighting, dwindled to near extinction. Vernal Glory, on the other hoof, was the first alicorn born to a non-alicorn couple in untold centuries, and was born into a farming household. Their marriage represented a union between the old and the new, the ancient elite and the working masses, and it heralded a new era of unity and inclusion for ponies everywhere.

In the absence of any other alicorns to rally the disparate pony tribes, the couple found themselves virtually unopposed in their efforts to unite all ponydom. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies alike all sought to join the growing Kingdom and almost unanimously declared them the rightful rulers. And under their wise and benevolent rule, everypony had prospered.

Her reminiscing was interrupted by the quiet sound of muffled hoofsteps approaching from behind. She turned her head to see the only pony who could even begin to rival Discord as the pony she least wanted to see. “Why have you come, Concord? Haven’t you done enough?”

Concord was an alicorn stallion whose height neared that of Celestia. He was completely grey and nondescript, except for his horn, which, while it was fluted like most horns, was made of a translucent crystal that was lit by an internal grey light. She always had difficulty telling when, and even if, he felt emotion, but right now, his grief was obvious. His tread was slow and listless, his eyes clouded, and face downcast.

He started to drape one of his wings over Princess Luna, but this only roused her anger further. Her wings flared and she lowered her horn as if to stab him as she almost snarled, “you will stay away from her!” She felt a surge of joy when she saw the look of surprise on his face as he hastily withdrew his wing and took a hurried step back. In a ringing voice she declared, “you have no right to come here, to where our parents lie, dead through your inaction, and act as if nothing has changed.”

“I am very sorry,” he said quietly. “I only meant to pay my respects to our parents, and offer any assistance I could.” He started to turn to leave, but Celestia wasn’t finished.

“What arrogance to think that any parents would wish for the respects of the creature who sat idly by as they were murdered while it was in your power to save them. Discord may have done the deed, but you share in his guilt!”

The grey pony took another step back, as if her words struck a physical blow. His head drooped a bit lower and the light from his horn dimmed momentarily. Then, with a flash, he was gone, leaving the two sisters alone once more.

She looked at Luna for the first time since Concord’s unwelcome arrival. She was stunned to see the look of anger on Luna’s face.

“Why must you do this? You know that Concord had nothing to do with this,” she paused, at a loss for words. “this tragedy, outrage, call it what you will. Just because Discord did something wrong doesn’t mean that Concord will too.”

She was stunned for a moment, but not by the fierceness of Luna’s response, or by the response itself. She realized suddenly that it might not have been Discord’s fault after all. Maybe, just maybe, Concord actually was behind it all.

She addressed Luna as seriously as she could. “Sister, don’t let your feelings prevent you from analyzing the situation. This is exactly Concord’s style,” she said urgently.

“Wh- what do you mean?” Luna said, confusion clear in her voice. “We both agreed that this could only be Discord, the cotton candy, his flight, everything about it is just like him.”

“And who would know that better than Concord, the master manipulator, the lord of order. Don’t you find it strange that a week before our weddings, Discord would just suddenly decide to throw everything away.” Her confidence was growing, with each word she felt more certain that she was correct. “He had nothing to gain by murdering our parents and fleeing, but Concord, now, he stands to gain everything.”

She could see the uncertainty slowly working its way into her sister’s mind. Hesitantly, Luna asked, “I don’t understand, what does he stand to gain?”

“Everything! Here, listen to this. Concord stages the murder of our parents by using a method that nopony would believe of anypony but Discord. Discord, who has always been the more mistrusted, would naturally flee, fearful of the reactions of everypony else. Concord just has to let us assume from Discord’s flight and the method of murder that Discord is now our enemy.”

Luna interrupted her here, saying cautiously, “Those are a lot of assumptions, and Concord doesn’t usually like to take chances. Like, what if Discord hadn’t fled, but remained behind to face the charges?”

Still confident in her theory, she continued. “That could be arranged in a few ways. For example, he may have ambushed Discord, binding him somehow and teleporting him against his will. But I don’t believe that something so direct would be necessary, since I hope you will agree that I know Discord much better than you do, and he knew that, if it came down to a simple question of who do ponies trust more, then Concord would win. He would have fled because he believes that his guilt will simply be assumed, like we were doing before.”

Luna still didn’t seem persuaded. “To be fair, this does seem more like Discord’s work than Concord’s. But, assuming that what you have said so far is true, that doesn’t explain what Concord stands to gain? He hasn’t ever expressed any dissatisfaction with his role or with our parents’ plans.”

She was ready for this, it was all so clear. “Right, so if we accept that he successfully frames Discord, then we must assume that Discord would be treated as an enemy of Equestria, correct?” Luna nodded. “And if we wanted to fight against Discord, who is the only pony strong enough to match him? Who would we necessarily turn to? Who would be the pony upon whom all of Equestria depended?” She watched as Luna tried to find some flaw in her explanation.

“I’m sorry, but that still doesn’t seem like Concord.” Luna said slowly. She opened her mouth to reply, but Luna continued regardless. “I don’t deny that your theory holds together, for he is more than capable of what you suggest, but your explanation is based entirely upon the assumption that he wants power, but that just isn’t true. He has always obeyed every rule, law, and instruction, and to commit murder, much less regicide... . No, I just can’t believe it.”

Much as it pained her, she had to admit that what her sister said felt uncomfortably reasonable. She couldn’t help but wonder whether or not it was something she had done, if somehow she was responsible.

Her face must have reflected the direction of her thoughts because Luna stepped closer and nuzzled her reassuringly. “‘Tia, this isn’t your fault,” Luna said in a calming voice. “These marriages have been planned for years. You can’t think that he would suddenly realize just how awful it would be to be married to you. He surely realized that years ago,” she finished with a giggle.

She snorted in mock anger which only caused Luna to giggle harder. When she stopped laughing, she said, “but seriously, given how willing Discord was to criticise anything he didn’t like, I think it says something that he never complained about you.”

She smiled at her sister’s kind words, and decided to get her back for her earlier joke. “I guess you’re right. Unlike Concord, Discord never was one to keep his thoughts to himself, so if he had objected to the arrangement, I’m sure he would have said something.” She finished with a sly smile that clearly unnerved Luna.

“‘Tia, what do you mean when you say, ‘Unlike Concord’?” Luna sounded genuinely upset by her little comment.

“I mean,” she answered in a playful voice, “that while Discord would have said something if he thought being married to me would be terrible, Concord would simply accept that it was his duty and marry you regardless.”

Luna seemed dumbstruck by her joke. In an uneasy voice, she asked, “you don’t really think that he would do that, do you? I mean, just pretend that he was okay with the idea even if he wasn’t.”

Happy for the distraction from the other weighty problems that she would soon have to face, she continued to mess with Luna. “I don’t think so,” and she smiled as she saw the relief on Luna’s face. “But, he is so good at hiding his emotions when he wants to, and as you said earlier, he takes his duty so seriously that I guess there simply is no way of knowing what he really thinks.”

It was Luna’s turn to snort, but her anger wasn’t feigned. “I’m starting to see why Discord might have wanted to leave rather than spend years trapped with you.”

She chuckled lightly and said, “alright, alright, I was kidding. I am certain that if Concord had objections to marrying you, he would have voiced them before now.”

Her good humor faded as she was forced to confront the reality of their situation. The King and Queen, their parents, were dead. Probably murdered by an unimaginably powerful spirit of Chaos over whom they no longer held any control. The only creature capable of rivaling that spirit of Chaos was a spirit of Order who could not be completely cleared of suspicion. And the ponies responsible for leading the fledgling nation were still relatively young and were balanced precariously between those two spirits.

Their parents had made a plan, that had it worked, would have ensured a safe and prosperous future for Equestria. But now that their plan had started to crumble, it fell to Celestia and Luna to salvage what they could of the situation.

Comments

[xxGamer101xx]

Nice story you got there. I just hoped it would get more views. Oh well, faved.

Also, puns. Puns are everywhere.