Chapters View Online
Prolouge: “OK you two! Today is your (un)Lucky afterlife!”
The Solar Ruler took a deep breath to steady her shaken nerves, but living under the oppressive rule of Discord has caused her to harden her resolve and to show no weakness the masses. She cantered out of her personal tent to see the rows and rows of canvas tents, soldiers running to and fro preparing, flags bearing a golden sun on a white background embroidered with battalion and company identification letters, and many preparing for what was to come. With a trace of maternal pride, she saw each one of the worker bees ready themselves with an unwavering determination.
Seeing them work strengthened her resolve to what was coming, so she withdrew back to her tent, and looked at the pearly white and gold heavy plated armor resting on a large ponikin. With her magical grip, she floated each piece onto her and made sure it would stay on to her. Now that she was wearing her battle regalia, it was time to let the troops know that it was time to cause the final strike toward the insurrection that went against everything she and her sister believed and worked for while leading the fight against discord. She exited her tent literally glowing, extended her wings to test if the wing blades were placed on correctly and to make her self known. She almost laughed when she noticed some of the nearby greenhorn soldiers stared at her with reverence and awe. When the blades were known to be secured correctly, she gave a powerful downward push and shot straight up into the ‘morning’ twilight sky. As she hovered above the sea of troops’ tents, she gave a slight annoyed growl over the moon still being in the sky. It felt unnatural for her sun not to raise fully, but it was enough for her to bask in its glow, and it slowly raising did do wonders for everyone's moral. She quickly forced that thought out of her head, focused on the task before her, took a breath, and prepared the Royal Canterlot Voice.
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“TROOPS!’ Nightmare shouted in her glassy appearing moonstone and ebony armor, “ON THIS NIGHT, THOU, THE ELITE OF MY FORCES HAVE GATHERED HERE TONIGHT TO PUT AN END TO THIS POINTLESS FIGHT ONCE AND FOR ALL!”
A roar of cheers, and the stomping of hooves erupted from the sea of Lunar Soldiers.
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“ON THIS DAY, THIS REVOLUTION DECLARED ON THE EQUESTRIAN EMPIRE SHALL BE QUASHED BENEATH THY HOOVES! THIS IS AN ALL OR NOTHING ATTACK! ONLY ONE SHALL WIN, NEITHER SIDE WILL BOTH SURVIVE THIS FINAL STRIKE! WE CAN FINALLY DEFEAT THEM ONCE AND FOR ALL AND YOU SHALL BE ABLE TO RETURN HOME AFTER THIS LONG CAMPAIGN!” Celestia Boomed.
Shouts and clanging of weapons on shields rose up from the Solar Guard.
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“BUT IF YOU FAIL THIS BATTLE, YOU SHALL FAIL ME, THINE OWN COUNTRY, AND THINE OWN HOUSE HOLDS, THAT THOU HAVE FOUGHT TO PROTECT THIS ENTIRE TIME! ARE THOU GOING TO LAY DOWN AND LET THESE PITIFUL WELPS TREAD OVER THYSELVES?” Nightmare bellowed at those down below her.
Angered yells, shouts of denial and rejection rose to the thought of losing, and the clanking of armor could be all throughout the camps.
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“PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR WE ARE ABOUT TO MARCH TOWARD THE FINAL CONFRONTATION! SHARPEN YOUR BLADES, STEEL YOUR NERVES, AND PREPARE THE SPELLS, FOR WITHIN A FEW HOURS WE SHALL MOVE OUT!” Both sisters shouted at their Soldiers, both flew down back into their camps, and both entered the camp’s command posts to talk to their own general on plans.
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As Celestia entered her tent she was met with her commanders and a white stallion with an electric blue mane and tail, wearing a set of Golden Solar armor, minus the officer’s helmet, which was sitting next to the map of the soon to be battlefield. With a quick flick of the amber eyes to see who disturbed his careful planning. Noticing it was his Empress was the intruder, he did a quick nod and went back to examining the battlefield map, giving orders to the once bowing commanders, and generally taking care of troop control. When all of the preparation was finished, battle plans drawn up, commanders gave their input and information on troop situations, and the officers receiving their orders, they were swiftly rushed out. Immediately the general turned to his Leader and did a proper salute to his Empress.
“My Liege, it is good to see thee, from what thy commanders have seen and heard, morale is high as it can be. All of the weapons are accounted for, they are sharpened, and armor has been repaired. We are now fully prepared to march toward the enemy encampment, and ending this Faust forsaken war for good. At thy command we will move out and confront Nightmare’s forces, generally for involving thou, go for Nightmare, and me and thy commanders will focus on the rest.”
Celestia gave a quick, heavy, sigh before speaking, “I expected that I will face my own sister in this confrontation till one of us fall. Thee and thine commanders will have complete control, so this army is now in thine capable hooves. I will have to use the Elements in this fight, and since I only control over half of them, I will not know what happens in the confrontation, whether they will fail or something unseen effect happens, either way that this fight ends. It was an honor to fight alongside you in this conflict.”
After a short hesitation he snapped to attention, and saluted her. He quickly said, “Thank thee ma’am! Thee honors me with thine kind words! As I said before, at thy word we move out!”
“Then we march!” Celestia declared.
“Yes my Liege!”
And with a telekinetic grab and equipping his battle worn helmet, he teleports to the front of the loosely assembled battalions. He gave a quick nod to the battalion commanders who at once began to bark orders, at once the warriors started to fall inline. Pegasi with light armor flew above the soldiers, lifting a select few of lightly armored unicorns whom know the cloud walking spell onto clouds and taking position to escort the air units with ranged weapons varying from fuse grenades to bows and arrows. Earth ponies marched toward the front, in heavy golden armor, with spears decorated by flags of crests of the sun above family crests filtering in the breeze, varying short swords hanging at their sides, and Scutums attached to their forelegs and backs. In the back were the unicorns equipped with heavier armor compared to their airborne support, ranging weaponry, from spell books for a quick cramming session on how to have arrows on fire appear, to having several bladed weapons on them, ready to be slung about. As the mass movement finally stopped there was nothing but the nervous shifting of some. At the front the General waited a few moments, to give his last troop inspection.
“MOOOOVE OOOUT!” Commanded the General, as he did a quick turn about to march toward the battle at the front. As a retort, the rhythmic clanking of armor and weapons came from behind him.
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In the Lunar command tent, a batpony stallion wearing a heavy ebony armor set with his general rank etched into his fore shoulders was barking orders at his commanders of the forces.
“GENERAL!” Nightmare Moon Boomed as she stormed into the open aired command post, causing a few of her subordinates to wince away, except one, the general she wanted to speak to.
The general tensed his stance, his forehooves lowering him into a saluting kneel, the battalion commanders, though recovering from the shock, soon followed suit. His deep voices echoed loudly throughout dim command post. "Yes, your highness!"
"IS THINE ARMY AT THE READY?" Her thunderous voice demanded, sparks of dark magic erupting from around her darkly set eyes, the kind of eyes that could even make the toughest of stallions cry out in terror. Fortunately, her general was more than used to her horrific and demonic stare.
The bat pony shoots back up, his hoof snapping quickly to his forehead. "Ready and waiting for thy command!"
"EXCELLENT! TODAY, LET NOT A JOYOUS SOLAR VOICE BE HEARD, LET NO MARE SING OUT IN HAPPINESS! FOR TONIGHT, THE SOLAR FORCES SHALL FALL WITH THE LAST DROP OF MY SISTER'S BLOOD!" Nightmare stepped forward, her heavy silver and obsidian armor reflecting the glow of the full moon above. She lowered face to the stallion's eye level. "IF YOU FAIL ME, WE SHALL MAKE SURE THOU SHALT NEVER BASK IN THE LIGHT OF MY PRECIOUS MOON AGAIN. HAVE WE MADE OURSELVES CLEAR!"
"Thine excellency puts it clearer than the Crystal Empire!" The stallion replied, his icy-blue cat like eyes seen reflected in her electric blue irises.
The stern look on Nightmare's face curled up into a wicked grin. She turned and walked towards the battlefield, her voice lowering in volume and tone, but not lacking in bone chilling enjoyment, "Send them out!"
The stallion followed the lunar mistress out into the large clearing in the middle of the Everfree Forest, the area spotted with several large black tents.He nodded towards a taller guard, who in turn raised a chased silver war horn to his lips and blew, sending a eerie drone across the field and deep into the forest. Every head in the encampment turned to face their fearless leaders. The stallion took charge and stepped to the forward of the camp, thrusting his steel to the sky. "FAAAAAAALL IIIN!!!!!'
The Lunar Aarmy of several thousands erupted into a chorus of morale boosting 'huzzahs!' as they drew their weapons from their encampments and raised them to bask in the light of the moon. Nightmare Moon flew high above her army and at the sight of her rightly feared horde, she erupted into joyously evil laughter.
Speaking to herself in a whisper, "Soon, dear sister, thou shall meet thine end."
Everypony, beast, and changeling equipped their gear and set out for their own formations. Up front in heavy Starmetal armor were the few earth ponies with spears bearing flags of the moon’s likeness, short swords at every side, and rounded shields with a crescent moon on each one. The chain-mail equipped bat ponies and changelings flew up to the clouds with quivers filled with silver arrows and javelins strapped to their backs and a few with their hooves with various containers filled with acidic potions. In the middle were changelings wearing no armor, for their thick chitin protected them and needed no weapons, for their razor teeth and their jagged limbs made up for that. In the rear were the unicorns wearing robes with belts of potions strapped to them, while at the moment they were readying the protections spells to keep their ‘meat shields’ walking.
When all of the soldiers fell within their ‘positions’, they all waited at their Queen and Conqueror's command.
“FORWARD YOU CURS!” Nightmare ordered from above, and that order bounced around the officers. The army moved forward in tempo with the war drums and following their Mistress of the Night and her most loyal General.
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As soon as the two armies and sisters caught sight of one another over the horizons, the tension became thick enough to choke on. When the two forces were within two hundred yards of each other, they stopped. The drums, the marching, the generals, and even the sisters. For a short moment, it felt like things were locked in time never to progress to everything there.
The two sisters walked toward each other, each raising a wing to cease the armies following except a signal to the Generals telling them they were allowed to follow. There was a pregnant silence as each of the four met at the center of the field. When each stopped they all stared at their counterpart. One sister almost had a deadpan stare, yet her eyes showed a barely detectable amount of regret. While the other held a gaze that could kill any lesser creature. The two generals shared a look that was just short of rivaling the spiteful sister.
In the blink of an eye the sisters launched into the air leaving the two leaders alone. With no words exchanged, the golden clad general drew a golden and ornate mithril rapier in his magical grip, while the lunar general drew a black starmetal claymore held by his maw, each weapon more battle worn than one weapon should ever be. As each of the sisters flew off, and the generals' weapons were drawn, both armies roared at the other and charged, each still being a large distance away.
Each of the generals glared and not even flinching at the first volley of fired arrows, tossed javelins, flung potions, and the glare of spells. None came close to the two Generals. The Lunar general was the first to move, charging at his opponent while never breaking his glare. The Solar general held a defensive stance, yet his horn glowing intensified for less time it takes one to blink. Almost immediately he changes his stance and charges as well to meet his opponent. Just as the two’s weapons finally clashed, the Solar general’s weapon started to turn black and quickly turn to dust his eyes. Before he had time to react, he was sliced in two, but just as the Lunar general was given a chance to cheer, he saw the body turn to mist and dissipate. He looked around to find the solar general charging at his side, all in one piece, still with his rapier, and wearing what he thought to be the most aggravating smirk. Cursing his negligence, he was knocked off his hooves and landed a few feet away. As soon as he lands, he jumped back onto his hooves he goes to a defensive stance.
“Oh so thee went with a dissolving enchantment this time? That is the best thou have?” taunted the Solar General.
“Thou shalt speak for thyself! A simple illusion? Thou must be in dire need of magic teaching if thee use cheap foal’s play spells!” Retorted the Lunar General.
“Less words, more fighting! En Garde!” the Solar General said after an unamused grunt.
With a quick flap of his leathery wings, the Lunar general began hovering, and was about to charge when the front lines of the air combat clashed. Thinking of using that to his advantage he flew to the closest allied cloud. When he landed on the closest abandoned/cleared out Lunar cloud, he grabbed the cache of the remaining projectiles and began firing directly on the lone unicorn below. The not so surprising response was that the unicorn was grabbing them mid air with telekinesis, and returning fire. As the two exchanged Javelins, arrows, and curses involving one anothers mothers, the Solar general noticed that he missed more and more of the shots at the batpony. While the batpony’s aim was getting better, faster, and closer to him to before he reacted.
To change things more toward his favor, he changed things up when he returned fire with a spear. He continued his homing spell onto that spear, gave it a toss much like the ones before. The bat pony dodged it with ease thinking it was a simple throw. As soon as the cloud sitter noticed that his opponent was dodging his tosses, instead of catching them like before, an internal red flag rose, saying to move. If the Lunar general reacted to his instinct a second later, he would have been skewered. Then and there, he noticed that it altered its course again turning back at him. Instead of using his sword's disintegrating enchantment he went with a quick idea. He dived downward, directly at his opponent.
Surprised to see his opponent diving directly at him, he ducks to avoid an expected sweep of the claymore, not hearing his claymore whiff in the air confused him for a tick, until a clang of a certain spear ricocheted off his helmet, stunning him for a second, causing the spell to fail, and causing the spear to sink into the earth. Seeing his opportunity, the Lunar stallion dived at his opponent again with the intent to take advantage of the spell backfire. Right before the dive bomber hit, the solar stallion recovered fast enough to shift his rapier to intercept and block the almost ending strike. The solar stallion back off as soon as the metal collided, as well as the batpony.
Sadly, just as it did with the illusion, his blade was destroyed. Discarding the dust from his grip, he rips off his helmet and with a wave of his horn, he crushes and reforms the once helm to a new rapier looking like the first one. After approving his work he flicks it with ease, he tests its slicing ability by splitting a javelin sticking out of the soil in two.
Both take a stance ready to charge again, but with the light glaring of the front-line spear heads from both sides lower to be used less than fifteen yards away from both sides, the two leaders thought that the battle needs to go to the clouds once again. Thankfully, there were several clouds above that were abandoned for aerial fighting, so the ignored clouds began to clump together, and float a lot higher than most are comfortable, making a perfect arena to not be easily disturbed. With a quick nod from each side, the flap of wings and the casting of a teleporting spell and a cloud walking spell, both met again on top of the white mass.
Not a moment too soon either, when both resumed their earlier stances, the front lines finally meet. The clanging of sword on spear, shouts of hitting a mark, and shouts of being hit rang out below causing both leaders to flinch. Immediately the Lunar Stallion took to the air again doing pass and pass at his target, missing constantly, yet coming within a hair’s width of landing. After several charges the Solar General noticed a flight pattern. So he waited until the next pass, once his opportunity came, he did thrust, which was unsuccessfully dodged as it cut through the flesh of the left wing. With the forward momentum, the rapier cut through left wing’s bone with ease, which left only a stump. With a roar of pain the Lunar General crashed luckily into the white fluff. The wounded stared at the portion of his severed wing as it lazily spiraled to the ground, confusing/scaring the Tatarus out of a changeling, who's head was covered by.
Looking up with a slightly demented smile at his opponent, he said as he sheathed his weapon “Oh, you shouldn’t have done that. Now I want you to go get it back!”
Slightly surprised by this statement and action, the Solar General couldn’t even respond before the batpony tackled and held onto him as they both dropped toward the battlefield. The solar stallion slashed, hacked and stabbed at the batpony’s armor and flesh to get him to release him, but the purple armor and the wearer of the said armor refused to yield through the pain. Evident that he wouldn’t let go, the solar stallion focused on the right wing slicing that up, yet still the lunar stallion’s grip held. Because of the solar stallion’s back was to the ground, he was the one to take the brunt of the force and the one to make the crater. Even though the two made a small crater the lunar stallion skidded away a few yards knocking away some unlucky fighters, and both impact and rolling away kicked up a small dust storm in the process.
As the dust settled the two generals were standing across from each other. One with his left side stained red by his stub were his wing should have been, his left hind hoof clearly broken from the position it was facing, and his right wing hanging limply to the side, severely cut. The other’s forehead was stained red, his hind legs movement were sluggish from possible spinal damage, and broken rib or two for every breath was shallow and obviously painful.
With some trouble, the Solar Stallion raised his rapier to where his opponent’s heart would be. With the sun to his back he charges as best as he could, he roared “THIS IS WHERE THEE SHALL FALL!”
“HA! THIS WILL BE THINE OWN GRAVE, NOT MINE!” The batpony retorted, before unsheathing his claymore again. With the moon to his back, he charges to meet his enemy.
two noises seemed to echo loudly over the field, a quick metal piercing metal screech, and the sick combination of hissing made from dissolving armor and flesh. The two waited there in the struck pose for a moment, before craning their necks to see what new pain they received. The golden weapon skewered the batpony’s chest up to the hilt, piercing the plated armor and hitting several vital organs, including the heart. While the black blade cut deep into flesh cutting through the spine and ribs. Then as quickly as they looked over themselves, they looked up to see the other morbidly smiling faces paling from blood loss. They both collapsed to their side, weapon still lodged within in the other.
“Heheh Got Thee. Thou lunatic.” The solar general wearily said.
“And I Thee. Thou show whorse. Ha...Ha” The lunar general weakly joked.
“... Its been a good fight... and I guess a good life for me.”
“... I’ve lived my life, I don’t regret anything.”
“Well, it was an honor to fight thee, and die by a blow from my equal.”
“Same goes to thou.”
“Buck thee... and see thou in the afterlife...”
“... mmmhmmm”
Both looked up to the heavens to see a white dot and a blue dot zip back and forth occasionally colliding. It looked like two fast lightning bugs dancing. Both of the two’s eyes grew heavier and heavier to keep focused on the two lights above, and eventually every limb went cold. Then there was darkness.
...
...
...
...
“Oi,”
...
Tap
“Come on!”
Tap Tap
...
“I know you're there!”
Tap Tap Tap
“Hmpf!”
WHACK
“OMPFH! What do thee want?! can’t a pony pass on in peace?!” The solar general shouted rubbing the spot on his barrel where the blow landed. Then his anger quickly dissipated to awe, as he stared at a large serpentine body towered over him, which was obviously not pleased.
“Finally thou art awake, wish thou would awake like you ‘compatriot’ but what can a mortal do?” the serpentine figure said as he jabbed a raven-clawed digit at the pony that he wished last to see.
One that had bat wings, ornate armor, and a golden rapier hilt lodged in his chest. Standing.
Angered, but still standing.
The Solar General craned his neck slowly to see the claymore that struck him down still lodged in his back as well. Within a few seconds of discovering the fact that he has stood up by reflex, with a claymore easily severing his spine, a raven talon tapped the back of his head drawing his attention to the being in front of him. The Dracoequuis of Death quickly cleared his throat, and snapped two talons together to get both of the spirits to stand directly in front of him.
“Now then, I'll get my introduction out of the way! I am The Spirit of Death, The Grim Reaper, The Angel of Death, Osiris, Mors, Etcetera Etcetera, but for your unique circumstances, thou can call me Mortimer. NOW THEN! Considering the fact that thee died at the exact same time, thou both get the sa-”
“HellOOOoooo?” an echoey voice interrupted Mortimer. In response Mortimer face clawed, and turned to a small green orb that wasn’t there within the past few seconds. The appearance of the orb surprised and confused the two ponies present.
Mortimer gruffly responded to the orb ” Hello Discord.”
Immediately both ponies jumped to defensive stances and had their eyes dart all around the white void they were in, ready to defend themselves from whatever direction the chaotic object was going to hit them.
“HAHAHA! Calm down! Right now for you two, I’m a decorative garden fixture and you two are dead ! What could I possibly do to... Hmmm... Oh Uncle Morti~”
‘NO, Discord.”
“Oh, come on, Uncle!”
“The answer is no Discord!”
“We both know it would be funny as buck to see what would happen!”
“The answer is still no!”
“You still owe me uncle! Remember when you hit that-”
“Why do thee still bring that up?!”
“Because you still owe me a few more favors!”
“What about not harvesting thee from the mortal coil from being imprisoned in stone?!”
“Oh pffffffffffft! You and I both know you wouldn’t do that, I can hold my breath all the way to tuna-cookie!”
“Discord! Thou needs to quit counting in non digits!”
“Whateva! I do what I want! I am a strong independent draconequus and I don’t need-”
“I swear to Oblivion Discord! quit speaking in hoo-man mee-mees! You know I let death go on auto for those self mutilating, yet, over-reproducing apes!”
“Only if you let me cash in on a favor and let me wheel them!”
“THOU KNOW WHAT FINE! I’M GOING TO KILL MOST OF THINE LITTLE WEEDS SO THOU DON’T DAMAGE HARMONY’S TREE WITHIN MAYBE A MILLENNIUM OR SO!”
“Yes!”
“Finally dear ‘nephew’, whatever thine stupid wheel lands on I’m sending them back to the mortal coil! Permanently! Just like those two fillies I made a deal with! I don’t even care what comes about!”
“Yes, Yes, blah blah blah, I’ll take it from here uncle! You still have those that you need to collect from the battle!”
Mortimer stormed off while fading into the white until he wasn’t even visible, leaving a giddy green orb, and two dead ponies trying to process what just happened, what in the name of Tartarus is the ‘wheel’, and trying to decide to or not to fear it.
The orb zipped right in front of the two’s faces, stopping just short of bashing into the Solar General’s muzzle.
“OK you two! Today is your (un)Lucky afterlife!” an audible snap was heard from the orb, and instantly a gargantuan, and multicolored wheel appeared. “This here beautiful circle will decide what happens to you, when, and where when you two return back to life! It ranges from the blech... normal coming back to life, to being zombies, to Kaiju! This has literally everything that could spawn you back as written on it!” Another snap was heard, and a comedicly large polka-dotted bow-tie was on the orb, with a mic floating in front of it. “SO COME ON DOWN! You! mister Lunatic! Your spin decides what happens to you, and you mister sunbutt-wannabe! You decide where in equestria! So do you both think you have the luck to get something good? Then spin,” a crowd of voices coming from no where started to say what he was saying,”WHEEEEEL OOOF FAAAAAAAAATE!” Instantly the invisible crowd gave deafening cheers and within a few moments, the applause faded away.
The two ponies at this point shared a glance of utter confusion of what to do. So to avoid any other Spirit causing their afterlife to be even more haywire, the Lunar General decided to move toward the wheel, at a snails pace, preparing for... whatever was going to happen. As soon as he got within two feet of the wheel, a thought hit him.
“Sooo... how dost thou... ‘spin’ this?” the Lunar General inquired.
“Just grab it and pull down, simple!” Discord said with enough excitement to make a kid with a candy factory all to himself, sound as unenthusiastic as eunic on discount Tuesday at a brothel.
With slight reluctance, the batpony grabbed hold of one of the pegs and pulled down with enough force to blur the possibilities colors together. A few seconds passed, as everyone looked with anticipation. A few minutes passed and it gave no sign of slowing down.
“So uh, how long does it have to spin?” questioned the Solar General.
“Hmmm, I don’t actually know. I honestly didn’t think I would get this far with this plan.”
Two hours pass.
The boredom finally gets to Discord.
Four hours pass.
Discord was sitting on a pile of armor and two weapons while the other two were calling out Discord for rigging the deck.
Six hours pass.
Both ponies were sitting on an equal sized pile of their armor and several other things, ranging from a shattered lamp reformed into Discords image, a file case containing all legal rights to a large set of documents called the ‘Krabby Patty Secret Formula’, rose tinted aviators, a diamond shaped chest with six keyholes, a golden cane with a cheery random unicorn's head on it, a rectangular box that had 'Half-life 3' written on it, a wooden cup, to an old looking golden chest holding two rock tablets with unreadable writing on them. Discord was not to happy after removing all chaotic magic from the deck and playing ‘fair’.
Much, MUCH later.
“... And seeing her look at her rump while I held her multicolored tail, PRICELESS!” Guffaws where heard from all three, while discord sat on all his reclaimed losses and the pony’s armor and weapons.
“Discord! If you weren’t a maniacal Spirit bent on the reconstruction of Equestria into your playground again, we would have to go to a pub sometime!”
“Good idea! That way we get smashed, and cause some chaos! Everyone would be happy!”
“Oh stop it you two! Oh! I just noticed something. You two stopped using ‘ye olde’ speech!”
Both of the ponies looked at each other, sharing the hundredth glance of confusion.
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Yeah, what do you mean by ‘Ye olde’?”
“Well, you two are picking up on the ‘modern’ speech that I am using right now. Thankfully whatever you guys get, I’m sending you to the time where the way we are speaking now is very much common place.”
“Pfft like it will catch on. Ok colts, show your cards, two pair ace high.”
“Suck it lunatic, Flush! gimme back my sword!”
“Ah, Ah, Ah! Royal Flush! You two’s armor is now mine again!”
A little rage was had while the orb put out enough smugness to FEEL the sh*t eating grin, while he sported his re-won Aviators without ears or a nose to rest it on. While the orb was rolling around in his gains,firework mortars, roman candles, and sparklers went off behind them. Immediately, everyone raced over to the wheel to see what the wheel decided for them.
The Solar General read out what the little arrow pointed at,
”... ‘Coronation’? The hell does that mean?”
“OOoooh~ you are going to love being back home! OH! OH! OH! Sunny! SUNNY! your Spin! GOGOGO I wanna see what happens!” Discord practically squee’d with sheer excitement.
“... Screw putting muscle into this spin.”
“Yep.”
“You are just sore over loosing again.”
With the resounding agreement to just slightly push, the Solar General did just that, slightly pushed. Within a few seconds a single, wimpy, black snake went off next to the ponies, who ignored it completely to see what it landed on.
This time the Lunar General Reads what it landed on, “Sweet Apple Acres, I’m not familiar with that area.”
“Neither am I.” The Solar General responded.
"Hmmm, must be a colony you started." The Lunar General remarked.
Discord on the other hand was rolling his orb all around the ground and having a laughing fit.
“I’MTRAPEDINAROCKANDEVENNOWICAN’T!IDON’TEVEN!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“What is so funny?!” Both of the Generals yelled.
“SPOI-HOI-HOI-HOILIERS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Both of the ponies just sat there waiting for the laughing fits to end. After a moment or two, Discord floated back up to their eye level.
“WHEEW I really needed that... Whooo! anyway you ready to go back?”
“Can we have our armor back?” The Solar General requested.
“And our weapons?” The Lunar General followed up with.
“Nonono! All three of us know I won those fair and square,” grumbles were shortly heard, “Oh don’t be like that! It wouldn’t even fit with your new sizes anyway!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“BYETELLCELESTIAANDLULUISAIDHIANDILLSEETHEMSOON!” A snapping was heard and the white void got brighter and brighter, till neither of them could see.
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Chapter 1: "I think I know what 'Coronation' means now."
Ah! Now that the sun has been raised and the moon set, it’s time to get breakfast, and more importantly coffee! One certain Diarch thought to herself. Ever-so (un)gracefully getting out of her bed, Celestia walked(stumbled) into the royal bathroom and began her morning rituals. After using the facilities, she dried herself off, brushed her teeth, and brushed her mane in the full length bathroom mirror. Almost done with the morning grooming routine, she levitated the brush out of her hoof to begin on the tail as she left the bathroom to put on her golden regalia. She put her shoes, necklace, and finally her crown, before floating the brush back to the bathroom.
Giving herself one last look over in her full body mirror, she walked over to the hallway door, opened it and gave her practiced motherly smile to her two guards that quickly saluted and began tailing her.
Finally reaching the set of double doors to the dining room, she pushed them open with magic leaving the guard at the door. She made her way to her usual chair, with a new chair across the table. The new chair had a certain night theme with a certain night themed princess sitting in it, beginning her own breakfast.
With almost childlike giddiness to her, Celestia took place in her seat seeing that her sister was finally looking like her old self, and her actually sitting there.
“We bid thee good morrow sister!” Luna greeted between bites of her salad.
“Good morning to you too sister.” Celestia greeted in return.
“Do thou see sister? Our mane and tail have regained their former glory within a fortnight of us returning!” Luna said as she playfully flicked her mane with a hoof.
with a little chuckle Celestia remarked,”That is incredibly good to hear! Do you think you
have the capability for me to hand complete control of the moon back to you tonight, now that your strength has returned?“
Giddily clopping her hooves together, Luna responded(shouted),“Yes! Finally We get control of Our Night once again!”
Celestia quickly covered her mouth with a hoof to hide her amusement. Failing in that prospect, Luna quickly noticed and put her hooves down, put on a poised face that would make a few nobles nod in approval, and cleared her throat. ”We mean, Yes dear sister, We shall gladly accept the return of the Night from thee.”
Celestia couldn’t retrain herself, but she tittered at the ‘excited-to-collected’ speed. Luna again proved that she wasn’t oblivious, noticed the laugh, and dropped the poised expression for pouting, which in turn turned the titter into a straight up guffaw. Luna eventually gave in and joined her sister in the infectious laughter.
Right when the two were starting to come off their shared giggles, the both immediately stopped.
A small magical twinge halted both.
It would have been thought of a small unicorn foal having a magic burst if there wasn’t a hint of ancient magic that was much, much, older than either of them with the twinge.
They immediately looked each other in the eye sharing a look of confusion. Slowly standing up from the table, both slowly made their way out of the dining hall, and out onto the nearest balcony. Without a word, both sisters took off to the sky and toward the highest tower. Immediately, the both land on the tower, and both activated a high level magic tracking spell. With only needing a memory of the sense of the magic, which came easy with it’s freshness on their mind, they look over their lands.
“Sister!” Luna beckoned, “We believe to have found where that unknown spell’s source.”
“Where did you find it?”
“It appears to have come out of the bordering area near that small village at the base of Canterlot!”
“Which one?”
“We believe it is the one known as Ponyville.”
“...”
“...”
Celestia quickly summoned a piece of parchment, and a quill, and hastily wrote a letter, magic’d it to a puff of green ash, and watched the ash fly to a certain Librarian.
***************************************
“Twilight, why do we have to sort these shelves?” said a tower of books with two stubby purple legs at the bottom.
“Because Spike, we just finished moving in, and now that we have that finished, we need to organize these books better. So I can find something when I need it. Like when I looked every where for The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.” Said Twilight as she was floating a few books from the mountain next to her, in front of her face, then sending them to spike or to an open shelf.
“That... actually makes sense, but why does it have to be so early? it’s three hours till noon!.”
“The early bird catches the worm spike! So make sure that you keep those books in that order or-”
BELCH
After dropping every book that he held, he quickly put on an awkward smile, he then hastily snatched the letter out of the air to have something block twilight’s glare, and began reading.
“Ahem, My faithful student Twilight,
Earlier this morning, my sister and I felt a magical disturbance, older than what should be ignorable, near the border of Ponyville. We have narrowed it down somewhere in one of the farms on the outskirts of Ponyville. We are not entirely sure what will come about from such an old spell, but we ask that you gather the Elements and sweep the general area for anything that might have come from it, if any harm has been done to anypony, or anything,I want you to let me know about anything and everything you find.
Your Mentor,
Princess Celestia
“You heard her Spike! You go get Pinkie first, get her to get Rainbow Dash, Then you get Rarity. I’ll go get Fluttershy, and We’ll meet up at Sweet Apple Acres!”
Spike quickly snapped to a quick salute and ran out the door, right behind Twilight.
*30 Minutes Earlier*
Applejack stood on her farm’s highest hill surveying her orchard all around her. What she saw was nothing but thousands of trees that she and her family had cared for, and the yield she was about to work for within a month. She shivered in anticipation at the thought of this years expected yield to have largest bumper crop of apples to her memory. Standing there, just soaking it all in, just gave a reminder why she loves her home.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a bright flash in the Northern Orchard. Worried that something that might go wrong, right before the biggest Applebucking Season to her memory, she galloped to see what was the cause of the flash.
***************************************
Two stallions groaned as they were regaining consciousness, and recovering from the headache from the over dramatic lens flare that Discord used to bring them back to life. Both stallions also rolled off their backs and onto their stomachs, one wincing from rolling on a limb that he wasn’t familiar with. Then both stallions noticed something within relatively a few seconds of waking up and each other.
The sun was hanging above in the sky.
Within a second of this revelation, one Stallion cheered like he won the lottery, and the other sending up a storm of curses that would make any pony throw up at the clever use of a duck, and a bank teller. With both hearing the contrast of what they were feeling, both jumped to their hooves, ready to see who would spurn the great victory/ Revel in the fact someone was cheering for the loss of all he worked for.
What they saw confused each other for an outrageous amount of time. What stood in front of the once Solar General, was an Alicorn. The Alicorn in front of him, was in the image image of a pre-rebellion Luna, except with a more angular jawline,unkempt wavy bangs, a wider barrel, thicker neck, and an overall stocky build. What stood there was a male version of Luna.
What stood in front of the once Lunar General, is an Alicorn which was a copy of his long time enemy’s Empress except, the differences of the Alicorn in front of him sporting an angled jaw line with a well kept beard grown, straight, short cut bangs with a long mane and tail that was the reddish colors of a rising sun, and a taller, toned build.
Both stood there staring transfixed at the other. A few seconds pass, and they slowly turn their heads to look themselves over. Seeing what has happened to both of them, their legs gave, putting them back to lying on the ground. They stared into space for a few more seconds letting them absorb what they just witnessed. They looked each other in the eye and both simultaneously said,
“I think I know what ‘Coronation’ means now.”
They both looked away from each other, and stared into space for an even longer time absorbing what has happened. They would have sat there longer, but both jumped to a defensive stance from pure reflex from their training, as soon as they heard a pony galloping in their direction. What they got though was an orange Earth Pony wearing a brown hat of unusual style and make. Said Earth Pony’s expression changed from worry for her orchard, to pure awe of seeing the two, never seen before, Alicorns in her orchard. For a Literal minute, the two Alicorns stared down at the Earth Pony, and the Earth Pony stared back, until her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fainted.
Those that were conscious continued to stare even a few seconds later, until they snapped back to reality.
“What do we do? I'd like to do something before anymore things happen to me.What we need to figure out where we are, but where is a good vantage point?” The Solar Stallion questioned his counterpart.
“Ok, since I’m the one of the two here that knows how to fly, I will fly up and try to find any settlement, then we can try to find any answers there.” The Lunar Stallion slowly replied.
The Lunar Alicorn opened his feathered wings, and with a single wing beat, he shot up like a rocket, much to his own surprise. The grounded Alicorn on the other hand watched with amusement at, the number of panicky flips and the height achieved, and the speed that they were achieved. Though shortly, much to the Solar Alicorn’s disappointment, the Lunar Alicorn managed to get used to the new wings, and wing span and hovered, higher than he would like.
The grounded Alicorn, bored from not seeing an impromptu airshow, decided to look over the unconscious pony to see if any form of injury happened to her from her ungraceful fall. Thankfully she has no injury from anything besides a bad headache when she wakes up. Now that the Solar Alicorn was in a moment of mental awareness, he now realized that ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ was some form of orchard, and considering the out cold pony’s Cutie Mark, she must have been the caretaker, or owner of the orchard they were in.
The Solar Stallion’s attention soon turned to his counterpart when he landed behind him.
“There is three major things I noticed. The orchard that we are in is much more expansive than expected, about a few hundred acres, and judging by your wretched sun,” The Lunar Stallion said with a bit more venom than the Solar Stallion would like, “We are in the western part of this orchard. I saw a fairly large town to the East of us, which would be the closest and best place to go to learn anything. Though, A far distance to the North East, there was a mountain, with a VERY flashy castle dangling from the side. If we are to learn nothing from the town, we would figure out where we are there.” The Lunar Stallion rattling off what he saw.
“We need to head towards that castle, but we need to go to that village so we can learn anything before approaching a possibly hostile keep we know nothing about. I’d rather not go to the place that should be heavily defended, before knowing their allegiance anyway.” The Solar General declared.
“What is this? You actually think before charging into things? Why didn’t I see this when I was your opponent?” The Lunar Stallion quipped.
“What ever do you mean? You left such gaping holes in your frontal defense, charging through the front was all I had to do to achieve victory.” The Solar Stallion snidely returned. Looking down at the poor farmer, The Solar Stallion’s horn glowed quickly, levitating the farmer onto his back.
“What are you going to do with her?” The Lunar Stallion said with a tilt of his head.
“Well we can’t just leave her here!” The Solar Stallion remarked.
“Fine, whatever. We can just leave her at the village.”
“That was the plan.”
“Though I have to say, what an odd hat.”
“That is a thought that both of us can agree upon. Come on, lets get out of this ‘Sweet Apple Acres’.”
“Wait, I don’t think we should walk into a town as Alicorns, scouting would be impossible with the two of us sticking out more than an angered Ursa Major. You know any of your blasted unicorn magic to make us look a little less conspicuous?”
“hmmm, I do have something. I’ll disguise us as what we looked before we killed each other. Though I don’t think I can have our sizes be reduced, so we will still be fairly larger than the average pony.”
“Good enough, get to it!”
With a dismissive grunt, the Solar Alicorn’s horn flared and changed the two's appearance to their first life before striking each other.
***************************************
“OK! Thanks for coming girls.” Twilight said to the four in front of her. “I received a letter from Princess Celestia saying that some magical force was sensed out somewhere near Ponyville's Farms. She doesn’t know if anything happened, so she requested that we look into it. So! Rainbow Dash, if you can go find Applejack, we can let her know, and we can start getting to the bottom of this.”
Rainbow Dash gave a mock salute before shooting upward to find her hatted friend. She zipped to and fro, straining her eyes looking for that one splotch of orange. Eventually though, she did find her friend, though a more than a few red flags shot up seeing her on the back of some huge white unicorn. Her mind quickly brought up several worst case scenarios, and with those, she quickly assumed the worst and dive bombed who was kidnapping her.
Twilight saw her friend shoot downward to what she guessed was Applejack, and with her found, everyone walked in the direction that Rainbow went down at, but something sounded off the closer they got. With spike on Twilight's back, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie shifted from a walk to a gallop as soon as they made out the sound of the struggle to come from Rainbow Dash and somepony else.
Finally reaching where their friend was fighting, they came to a scene that they did not expect. A white unicorn stallion, somehow larger than Big Mac, was magically hogtying Rainbow Dash’s legs and wings with both of Applejack’s hairbands while having an unconscious Applejack rested on his back. He wasn’t alone for an equally huge midnight-blue batpony was lecturing Rainbow Dash something about being terrible with sneaking while being brightly colored.
“Let go of Dashie and Applejack you big meanie heads!” Pinkie shouted as she pointed her pulled-out-of-no-where party cannon at them.
“We won’t ask again you brutes!” Rarity said, pulling out a length of ribbon from her saddlebag.
Twilight didn’t say anything as she prepared a stun spell, and trying to look angry(she failed at the later).
Fluttershy on the other hand asked in her inaudible volume, "Is that Princess Luna's Cutie Mark?" Though her question went unheard by everyone.
Both stallions’ attention and heads snapped to the new three and a half attackers.
“CANNON!” The batpony shouted as his wings snapped open and shot him into the air. The unicorn responded by hastily casting a quick teleport spell to move him further away and behind the cover of the trees, leaving Applejack hanging in the air until gravity decided to kick in, which was instantly.
Still on guard, they ran over to free a struggling Rainbow Dash, and to check on Applejack who wasn’t moving, though a quick look showed that she was breathing.
Flexing her limbs to get the blood flowing again, Rainbow Dash angrily questioned,
“What are those hairbands made of!? Also, LET ME AT HIM!” She was just about to go flying after the batpony, but Twilight held onto her tail with her magic.
“Rainbow Dash, you can’t go running after them! They managed to knock out Applejack, and tie you up! We need to stick together. That way we can catch those two!” Twilight advised. With a huff and crossing her forelegs, Rainbow Dash decided to stay with the group, and hovered.
“Um Twilight, Applejack is waking up.” Spike said pointing to Applejack. As groans were heard from Applejack’s prone form, Fluttershy was giving Applejack a look over before she slowly opened her eyes, and clutching her head.
“Ooooow mah head. What happe-” Applejack then immediately stood straight up on all four hooves, looking around for something.
“What is it dahling? If you're worried about those brutes they seemed terrified of Pinkie’s Party Cannon.” Rarity reassuringly said.
“YA SCARED THEM OFF?! WHY IN TARNATION DID YA DO THAT?!” Applejack shouted still looking for what she saw.
“Ex-excuse me?” Rarity stuttered in confusion.
“Why in tarnation did you scare those two off?!” Applejack restated in a more tolerable volume.
“Um, it looked like they were trying to kidnap you.” Fluttershy said to Rarity’s defense.
“Yeah! And then they used your hairband thingies to stop Rainbow from saving you! But then were were like ‘the Cavalry is here!’, and I grabbed my party cannon and they ran faster at the sight of us, than that one time Mrs. Cake thought Mr. Cake was implying that she was fat, but I was like ‘your not fat Mrs Cake! There is just more to love!’ but I don't think that worked, ‘cus she locked herself in the upstairs bathroom with a tub of her favorite icecrea-” Pinkie’s rant at that point was ignored for Applejack got the gist of things.
“Girls they didn’t knock me out to kidnap them, I... may have fainted. when I saw them.” Applejack finished with twiddling her hooves.
“Why did you do that?” Twilight asked.
“Whadda mean ‘why’? Ya saw them with yer own eyes!” Applejack said completely bewildered at her friends obliviousness.
“...What were we supposed to see? Sure they were bigger than Big Mac bu-”
“Twi, are you joking? Of course they are bigger than Big Mac! They were Alicorns!”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“- and I was like ‘I love jolly cooperation!’ and... why is everyone so quiet?”
“... Spike, take a letter,”
***************************************
“Damnation, that was close. Where did she even get a cannon from? That nutcase just pulled it from behind a tree,which I know we walked by and nothing was there! How di-” The Solar Stallion was interrupted by a batpony landing right next to him.
“I knew you should have left her there but noooo you had to be a saint. Anyway, I didn’t see them on the path behind us giving chase at the moment, so they shouldn’t be able to catch up to us by the time we get into town. Before we get into town, can you please fix my disguise’s Emblem? I think the yellow pegasus back there saw the real one seep through.” The Lunar Stallion told his compatriot, motioning towards his Cutie Mark.
“Twice Damnation, sure hold on.” The Solar Stallion said with a flick of his horn, changing it to his past life's: a five pointed star with the claymore he wielded pointed downward in the foreground. He then turned to his own Emblem and reinforced the spell to keep the image of two rapiers crossed, with a sun behind the two. “There. Now then, do we even need pseudonyms? I mean, we are already going by our past life’s appearance should we even need make up names?”
“Hmmm, well I guess not.Considering either way, that battle was going to be the last one, they are speaking equestrian the same way as Discord, and that hat wear, I have never seen that style before within equestrian borders before. So we may be far into the farmlands where they shouldn't know our names, or something else entirely.”
“Fair enough.”
“Mhmm.”
“Just in case your incompetent changeling spies botched up getting my name, its Blueblood.”
“Oh? I thought it was Brown Noser.”
“Har Har, what was yours anyway? I never really cared enough.”
“Oh! you wound me.”
“Wound Me? how did you live past private with that name?”
“That was a terrible joke and you should feel terrible. My name is Star Gazer, You pompous git.”
With a humorous snort, Blueblood continued walking to the town.
***************************************
Luna was nervously pacing while Celestia was looking through some of her journals trying to see if anything like this has happened to her that she forgot. She levitated her cup of tea to take a sip, but a scroll appearing in front of her stopped her for a split second. Setting down the Journal, she open the scroll and started to sip her tea. Luna walked over to read what was written over her sister’s shoulder, to see what Twilight did or didn’t find so fast. Both read the letter with slight anticipation up to a point which had caused Luna to shout “WHAT?!” in her Royal Canterlot Voice, nearly shattering every window, and Celestia to do an impressive spit take. Both of them re-read what was written several times, before it actually sunk in. Sharing a quick look, Celestia floated over a inkwell, parchment, and a quill.
Dear Twilight,
Are you positive that there are another two Alicorns near Ponyville? I want you to be 100% sure that they are, actually, truly, Alicorns. If they are, I want to find out their intentions, where they come from, and who are they. Just to ensure things go well and hopefully positive, I am going to send Princess Luna, to either punish them if they are liars, and in the case they are actual Alicorns, welcome them to Equestria.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
With a nod in agreement and expression oozing determination, Luna made her way down to the Castle’s hangar to depart in a chariot.
***************************************
“So, then we figured out that your scout’s training tended to guide him to go for the food supply, and that is how I caught him red hooved.” Star Gazer proudly said.
“Really? I thought that I told the trainers to update our regiment before the near-successful assassination attempt.” Blueblood responded.
“Yes, though you did eventually get that through, but it was far too late. We still managed to get enough information from him to help with our supply line’s guard.”
“So that is how you managed to last out that attempt to retake the castle. Though you have to tell me, how did you get the bugs on your side? I thought they wanted us both long gone?”
“Well, Nightmare Moon figured out that their main hive ran mainly one one water source, so then she decided to threaten to put distilled ‘depression’ in the water, and well, you know what that does to a changeling.”
“Ohhh, how did- Oh! uh, well continue that conversation later, I am starting to see buildings, homes I suspect.”
“Fair enough. Let’s get our stories straight, I am Star Gazer, and Your Blueblood. We both travel together for convenience sake, I am trying to make an accurate star chart of the world, and trying to pay off a debt to you. You are a traveling merchant that saved me from a shady debt collector, and you paid my debt as long as I acted as protection for a few years. Just a few days ago your stock and wagon was stolen in the middle of the night by highwaymen when you sent me a head to check if the way forward was clear.
What we are going to do, is that you are going to look for a mage tower, library, or wherever you find information, to find out where we are, who owns that castle on the mountain, and how to get to our homes. I’ll try to procure the common currency, then supplies. We'll meet back up at...” Star Gazer looked around and saw a gigantic tree over the rooftops. “That tree over there.”
Blueblood gave a quick nod and responded, “Fine we’ll met up back at the tree within two hours. If you are found out or something goes incredibly wrong, I will launch a flare spell, to request your help, if you need help, just fly at a height where I’ll be able to see you. I doubt it, but if you need to drop the disguise spell, you just need to tap where your horn is with one of your hooves. Finally, these ponies are most likely untrained civilians, so no casualties, especially if it is those six that saw us.”
Star Gazer and Blueblood nodded at the accepted goals they were told to and both split up starting their tasks.
***************************************
“PRINCESS LUNA IS COMING?!” The mane six shouted as spike finished reading the short letter out loud.
Pinkie let out a long gasp. “YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!? I HAVE TO GO SET UP A PARTY!” Before anypony could stop her, she bolted off to Ponyville, to prepare.
“Applejack are you positive that you saw two Alicorns?” Fluttershy nervously asked. “They sound really serious.”
“Fluttershy, ‘ah swear that ‘ah saw two of ‘em. If 'am lyin I'll eat mah hat!” Applejack swore as she was putting the hairbands back where they belong.
“Please don't swear darling. But OOOOh~! think of it! Two princes!” Rarity said slightly daydreaming.
“Girls focus here! That means those two unknown Alicorns are disguised as the two we saw and are probably heading to Ponyville! Princess Luna is coming to see these two, and if we don’t have anything we might get in big trouble! Meaning we need to get back there, and search for any large batponies or unicorns!”Twilight ranted, getting her friend's focus back to what they need to do.
“I’m going to go fly ahead and see if I can catch the batpony. It’s not like there are many in Ponyville, and I’ve got to get him back for that little ‘hairband’ stunt.” Before anybody had anything to say, nothing was there but a rainbow contrail.
“What are we waitin’ for? We can’t let Rainbow have all the fun catching them! Come on!” Applejack said breaking into a full sprint, followed a nervous Fluttershy, leaving two unicorns to trot back to Ponyville.
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Chapter 2: “LAUDATE DIES! LAUDATE SOL!" "OB AETERNA NOXT!”
Sitting on one of her sister's golden chariots, waiting for all of the spells and her guard used to transport her, her mind wondered.
Sister, needs to calm down with the use of copper and gold, it’s starting to become rediculus, and it looks like our coffers are the ornate objects lining the walls! Hmm hopefully we can get some moonstone or some darker colors, I know that it is a gigantic display of power, but there is a line that needs to be drawn when buildings blind our ponies during the day. I do hope that some darker colors are reintroduced in future building projects. Those can be influenced if thee gives false hopes to some of the noble ‘brown muzzles’ that a few of the court guards whisper.
Thinking about it, my reintroduction has caused quite a stir. The implications of two more Alicorns could be completely catastrophic, or a highly potent boon for Equestria. If they are Alicorns what would they have power over, or master, to reach Alicorn? Would they contend for our positions as Diarchs? How would our ponies react to the introduction and reintroduction of three Alicorns? If the two come along without raising a blade at anypony, would we have to accommodate them at the new castle? If the two strike out at us, what will the appropriate counteraction be from My sister and me? We would be forced to use the Elements, but can the current Bearers use them at the right time?Hmmm... I do hope that the Elements shall not be abrasive with me once being their opponent and slightly insane.
“Princess Luna, we are about to begin our takeoff, if we follow the predicted time schedule, we will land in Ponyville within two hours.” A chariot-pulling Lunar Guard batpony said, bringing Princess Luna back down to earth.
“VERY WELL, WE DOTH NEED TO BE THERE, POST HASTE!” Luna said using the Royal Canterlot Voice.
***************************
In Ponyville, batponies are a rare sight, they are only seen when a train from a large city, like Manehatten or Los Pegasus, stops in Ponyville to refuel or repair. Meaning, Star Gazer wasn't met with any open hostility, though interactions were plenty one sided. Thankfully obtaining 'traveling supplies' via 'haggling' from the market district was plenty easier with his large stature, his intimidating natural appearance, and a few well thought out words.
Resting on a park bench, he was eating something called a 'cupcake', which he got from a pink pony that was in a major rush, about a party of all things. Taking the last bite of the unnecessarily sweet 'cupcake', he was trying to think of something to do until it was time to meet up at the tree. An exclamation of “FOUND YOU!” from a very familiar polychromatic pegasus, hovering a few meters above him, snapped him out of his thoughts.
Not letting his pursuer's repeat mistake of letting the element of surprise go to waste, Star Gazer kicked off the bench and took to the skies, flying directly at her.
Not expecting the batpony to charge at her, she dove to get out of the way of the large stallion trying to do a literal flying tackle. Instead of following after her though, he continue to fly in the direction of town that was to her back. Angry that he tricked her by letting him get behind her, giving him a head start, she quickly did an Immelmane Turn to try to make up for lost time. To her enjoyment, she was proving why she owned the title as 'The Fastest in Equestria'. Rainbow Dash was easily catching up to the batpony, and she wasn't even at her max speed.
Star Gazer didn't miss the fact that his pursuer was catching up with just pure speed, so to level the playing field, he dove when he was over the residential district, and decended. Not one to give up, Rainbow Dash followed right behind him. He flew through multiple narrow alleyways, though to his disappointment, she didn't loose sight of himm. The Silver Lining was that she stopped gaining on him. Seeing an allyway that was a spiderweb of wires that had cloth draped from the wire, he flew into the allyway. Once in there, he flew like around erratically as he could possibly do without being tangled or being covered in the loose hanging cloth. Satisfied that he did enough, he flew straight up and landed on one of the rooftops with a view of the allyway, watching a pony sized, bundle of cloth bounce a few times into the street.
He wouldn't have been spotted, but sadly he was caught when a cloth pony bursted out of it's egg and stared up at his guffawing form. Realizing the chase was back on, he took to the skies, with his pursuer, being a bit more cross than he remembers, right behind him. With the good laugh putting him in an equally good mood, he decided to be a little risky, and fly at pony head level. With even more determination to chase after the pony that was laughing at her, and to not loose the obvious challenge to her skill, she flew down to the level that he was at. Feeling cocky, Star Gazer bobbed and weaved through groups of citizens, minding their own business, in the open streets they traveled. He eventually started to notice that the buildings were getting larger and stalls were starting to be seen, meaning they were entering the market, making him think, things are going to start being fun .
Heading into the heart of the mass of market stalls, Star Gazer flew through the cluttered stalls freaking out ponies, both owner and customer alike. Snatching the occasional bit of food, or object, Gazer tossed anything and everything back at his pursuer. He was also enjoying throwing a small wrench into random ponies' transactions, and one literal wrench back at his pursuer, which sadly missed. Though just looking back and seeing the enraged determination on his pursuer's face was fairly entertaining, he needed to end this chase, and he was feeling like he wanted to end it with a bang. Starting to fly upward to get a good enough look of his surroundings, he saw a fairly large, circular, garish, building covered with ponnequin. At the sight of the eyesore, he got an idea that might be considered 'ending with a bang' worthy, if he didn't mess up. He quickly beelined toward one of the building’s windows, and right before impact he folded his wings to his sides, shielded his face with his forarms, and crashed right on through.
Rainbow Dash was slightly winced at the damage done, and angered that she 'let' him go smashing into Carousel Boutique. So she flew right in, shortly behind her target. she landed inside the center of Rarity's Work Room, and quickly begun to scan the room, for anything that seems out of place, or a good hiding spot. Shortly though, she heard something move behind her, and as she was turning her head to see, she saw a pony go right out the window from the corner of her eye. A snide grin plastering her face, Rainbow Dash flew out the window to catch up. Looking everywhere around the buildings nearby she didn't see him any where. Letting out a shout of pure rage, she shot off as fast as she could trying to pick back up the trail.
A few seconds passed within the boutique, before a chuckle was let out by Star Gazer who put the pointlessly large hat and cloak back on the ponnequin. Looking out the broken window to not see his pursuer or anypony, he brushed himself off and checked for the cuts he thankfully didn't get from the shards of glass. Doing a short hop out the window, he saw the ponnequin in the bushes that he through back out the window. Checking again that the polychromatic psycho wasn’t in eyesight or anypony else, he let out a less restrained laugh, while lazily walking back to the general direction of the town center. Still wondering what to do, he finally decided to go ‘borrow’ another pony’s coinpurse, and go sample something more complex than raw carrots, and something that wasn't as overly sweet as a 'cupcake'.
*******************************
After nearly two hours, of searching the town, every pony in the mane six plus one spike, regrouped outside of Golden Oak Library.
“Sorry Twi’. Nothin' in at the residency district.” Applejack annoyingly huffed.
“Nothing near town hall girls.” Twilight said with a few strands of hair gone astray.
“The brutes didn’t go back to my shop.” Rarity said grinding her teeth, over the damaged window, one of her male ponnequins being torn, her new work in progresses being roughed up, and a missing wall from the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Window Repair' debacle.
“I got nothing after seeing him the first time.” Rainbow Dash said irately, crossing her forehooves as she hovered.
“I, uh, didn’t see the two get onto a train.Sorry.” Fluttershy nearly whispered.
“Didn’t find any clue from the market, that Rainbow doesn't already know.” Spike said with a shrug, followed by a grumble from Rainbow Dash.
“Don’t worry Girls! I have great news!” Pinkie said excitedly.
“REALLY!?” Everypony shouted.
“YEAH! I have Princess Luna’s 'Congratulations-for-not-being-evil-anymore/Welcome-to-Ponyville/I-for-one-I-accept-our-new-Alicorn-Overlords' Party READY!” Pinkie jovially shouted as she tossed a hoof full of confetti into the air with a party horn sounded from no where. With an awkward silence resounding all around Pinkie, she looked around with a sheepish smile, ”Weeeell , we haven't tried Golden Oaks yet!” she said pointing a hoof at the door they all were standing next to.
“Pinkie that is ridiculous !” Twilight exasperatingly tried to explain, “Why on earth would two of the most powerful -”
Stopping Twilight mid-question, the library door slammed open with a large white unicorn stallion stand in the doorway, whom was extremely aggravated.
“WILL YOU QUIET DOWN?! This is a place of learning, and I am trying to use it to triple check that I am right about a seemingly impossible revelation that my friend and I are in... in...” With recognition and annoyance etched on his face, everypony present, plus one dragon, stood there in another awkward silence. The silence was quickly broken, when the alicorn slammed the door shut and shortly after the door let off a magical glow.
Pinkie spoke up after another short silence, “I may have an idea where one of them are.”
After pulling her forehoof away from her face, Twilight ran up to the door, extended her hoof and pulled on the door knob, and the door didn’t budge an inch. With a few more tugs on the handle, and a few grunts of growing annoyance, she grabbed the door with her telekinesis, and pulled as hard as she could exert, yet the door did not budge an inch.
“Did... did he just lock himself in my library !?” Twilight angrily questioned. Twilight quickly shifted from enraged confusion to a calmed down calculating expression after having a moment to herslef. After a few seconds coming up with a plain, she spoke up. “OK... I suppose that we have to keep him from leaving the library until Princess Luna comes,so we can ascertain what he and his missing friend want, and where they came from. The library windows are opaque enough so he wouldn’t have enough of an accurate view of the outside to teleport away. So! For him to get away again, he needs to exit through the front door, which seems unlikely at the moment, or stand on one of the three balconies.
“If this is to work, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, I need you to carry Pinkie, to the top balcony, because he seems to be afraid of the Party Cannon for some reason. Once Pinkie is at the top of the balcony, take Applejack to either balcony, it doesn’t really matter which of the two, as long as you two can get up to the last, undefended, balcony before he gets there. Rarity, Spike, and I will make sure he doesn’t escape from the front, if he realizes the easiest and quickest ways out of there are blocked.”
With a nod of understanding from everyone, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash grabbed a giggling Pinkie and carried her to the top. Once Pinkie was dropped off, she pulled her cannon out from behind the mounted telescope, leaving a baffled and confused Twilight on the ground. Ignoring their friend’s usual shenanigans, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew down and picked up Applejack to place her down at the lowest balcony, and none too soon, for the Alicorn in disguise was seen through the glass door, to stop look at Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack, for less than a second and continued running up the stairs. Not missing their cue, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew up to the second balcony, just in time for them to discourage him from their balcony.
Climbing up the stairs to the top of the tree-library, Blueblood cursed his luck that the only six mares that know what he really is, are the ones he yelled at, and seem to be blocking him from leaving this library. Though respect where respect is due, the brains behind this is relatively quick to think this clever plan up, he admitted to himself. Looking up he saw that the stairs ended into a wooden door. Considering the last two exits, there is going to be a pony out there. So I’ll have to disable this next pony, though a shield spell sound like a good insurance plan .
He slowed down the ascent to the door to a walk, then a complete halt, a few feet in front of his exit. Raking his memory of spells that could handle something heavy duty, noticing that the door in front of him was solid oak, he thought of one good spell.
Deciding on what to do, his horn started to glow a bright Vermilion as he ripped the thick wooden door completely off it’s hinges, and magically reinforced it within a second of it being detached. He reflexively put his ears back, bracing for the sound of the the defensive measures taken to withhold him inside. Though all he heard was something, not unlike a child badly playing a Flugelhorn for the first time, and a wet slap hitting his improvised shield. Confused as to what just happened He spun his door, to see what hit it, and what he saw confused him even more. It seemed some kind of cake or dessert was smeared over the fired at side.
Throwing the door over the balcony, all he saw was the cannoneer from the orchard's awkward smile to counter his ‘are you kidding me?’ look. Before she could do anything else, he quickly casted a Zone Out Spell to temporarily disable her. With her just standing there staring off into space with a dopey grin, he shot a magical flair skyward to alert Star Blazer or whatever that things where happening.
Though what he saw in the distance, when he fired the flare, made him raise his hackles.
Nightmare Moon was riding in a Solar Chariot completely covered gold being pulled by two Lunar Guard, which he couldn't help but stare as the chariot landed in front of the main entrance to the library. NIghtmare Moon walked off the chariot to the purple unicorn he met in the orchard, and he could hear her all the way up there.
“THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HATH ARRIVED! ART THOU TWILIGHT SPARKLE?”
Blueblood couldn’t hear, nor really care about one ‘Twilight Sparkle’, though he could easily hear Nightmare Moon's portion of the conversation.
“THOU DOTH SAY THEE CONTAINED ONE OF THE TWO?”
His utter anger at letting Nightmare Moon find out that he was here, disgusted himself greatly. Not caring to hear much more, he lifted the colorful cannon and went back inside. Poor Luck for you Nightmare! This time you won't have an Alicorn pulling their punches for being your sister! Running down the stairs and using a familiar spell to split and reform the cannon into a rapier, he hears his soon to be opponent use the Royal Canterlot Voice to directly 'talk' at him.
“THE PONY WITHIN THE LIBRARY, WE COMMAND THEE TO RELEASE THINE SPELL UPON THE ENTRANCE, AND LET US ENTER!”
Finally getting to the Library’s foyer, Blueblood stopped to steady himself in front of the door, and reenforced his grip on the rapier in his magic. After taking deep breaths to mentally prepare him for the fight, he got up close to the door, pivoted, quickly turned around, released his Unmovable Object Spell on the door, and bucked the door clean off the hinges, sending it flying toward Nightmare Moon. Sadly, Nightmare Moon’s guard were in the way, and they quickly stopped the door from smashing into her with their faces. Though the silver lining was that it hit them with enough force to knock them out, even with their helmets on.
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” Nightmare Moon angrily questioned.
Blueblood answered with his army’s battle cry, “LAUDATE DIES! LAUDATE SOL!”
The instant the cry was heard, Luna’s expression changed to a mixture of confusion, astonishment, surprise, and alarm. Before he could lunge at her, he was intercepted by a dive tackled by a batpony, returning with his own battlecry, "OB AETERNA NOXT!"
The response call brought forth even more confusion to rise within Luna. Everypony not involved in the fight just stood there slackjawed, though most just wondering what they yelled and why they fight, while Luna was wondering who these two actually are to know such old war cries.
Snapping out of the shock of the familiar battle cries, she turns to Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Spike,"TWILIGHT SPARKLE, TAKE YOU AND YOUR COMPAINIONS AWAY FROM HERE! WE WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THE SITUATION!"
"Princess, we can help yo-"
"NO TWILIGHT, LEAVE THESE MATTERS TO US, WE CAN NOT CHANCE THE ELEMENTS TO BE HARMED BY WHAT MAY HAPPEN! NOW GO! THAT IS A ROYAL ORDER!"
Hesitating Twilight Sparkle eventually bowed before running over to Spike and Rarity to tell them to go to Sugarcube Corner, and that she will meet up with them after she helps everyone down from the balconies. She then teleported to each of the balconies to let her friends know what is happening and that by royal order they have to go, broke the spell over Pinkie, and helped Applejack get down as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got Pinkie get down. As they were leaving, Rainbow Dash helped Applejack move the knocked out guards to a safe location, and all moved to meet up at Sugarcube Corner.
After making sure that Twilight and friends, get her guard away without being caught in any of the crossfire coming from the two disguised Alicorns, she Quickly casting a Telepathy Spell contacting her sister.
Sister! I defiantly found the two Alicorns under very detailed disguises, but fighting has broken out between the two, and I worry that things might get out of hand. though I have to ask, how well known are war chants from around our... defection at this age? From both sides?
I am pretty sure I haven't had anything written down details down to that level. Why? Celestia responded while prepping her Long Distance Teleport Spell.
Well, one of them shouted your army's war chant, and tried to attack me with a makeshift rapier, then the other alicorn intercepted him before he could strike me with it, and shouted one of my army's own war chants.
What?! Hold on LuLu, I am almost done casting the spell!
SISTER CAN YOU TELEPORT TO ME RIGHT NOW?!
Celestia responded instantly starting to worry over the new alarm in her sisters voice, Yes I can now. What has happened?
JUST GET HERE NOW! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
Closing her eyes Celestia casted the teleport spell, and braced for the transit. She arived in a burst of light, and as she opened her eyes, her expression changed from hidden worry, to outright horror. For Celestia saw Luna standing next to two bodies.
********************
Mortimer dragged his ravenclaw-ed hand down his face at two who are standing in front of him. After dragging his hand down his long face he folded his arms, sighed, and asked two big questions, "Should I even ask why you two are Alicorns? Or how you died within a day of being brought back?"
Both Alicorns felt a little ashamed as one was trying to remove the blade from his neck, and the other trying to correct where his head should be facing on his neck.
Finally getting the blade out of his throat, the Lunar Stallion gave a short series of coughs to clear said throat, before speaking up to defend himself.
"In my defense, I was defending my Leige's life, from this moronic sun worshiper ."
Angered at the insult, the Solar Alicorn "Oh, quiet you! If you wouldn't have stopped me I could," he interrupted himself by loudly popping his head back into place, "Aaaaah much better. Where was I? Oh right! I could have-"
"SILENCE! BOTH OF YOU!" Mortimer boomed as his size grew to easily strike fear into the veteran warriors. "I DO NOT CARE ABOUT HOW OR WHY YOU REACHED YOUR SECOND DEMISE, BUT IF YOU LET ME SPEAK I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT FOR YOU TWO ASININE MORONS!" Finally receiving their full attention, his boy started to shrink from 'crush you with a finger' size to his original size of 'wow he's tall'. "Now that I have your attention , and stopped caring about you two, I can tell you what is going to go down.
"You two are once again the luckiest or unluckiest ponies, for you are managing to slip through a loophole with how the natural order of things work by being Alicorns. Here is why: in the beginning, when The Creator was making the sun and moon for your world, he ordered me to never reap any Alicorn directly connected to the sun or moon, and to not reap any other Alicorn if they pass from age. Meaning before you two, I couldn't kill Celestia or Luna. For some reason, the instant you were returned to the mortal plane, the sun and moon accepted you two, as well as the two sisters.
Meaning, I can't touch you two.
So what is going to happen now is that you are going back to the land of the living, fix your head, pull out that blade, wait for your natural healing magic to kick in, and not die anytime soon or I am going to get pissed
Before the two could nod in pure fear, or react to the information, Mortis snapped his fingers, and the two re-experienced being brought back to life.