Author's Note
Hey, guys! I've got another story here, hope you all like it. Don't like or dislike the button unless you aboslutely hate the piece, I can't stress that enough that people seem to like pressing the button without giving a specific assumption to hating a story. If the grammar is bad, then dislike it. If the story is bad, I mean bad, I mean just silly, then dislike it. Don't dislike it because you don't entirely believe one part.
This is the prologue chapter, and I will explain Rarity and the others during the next. Alright, well then, have fun I hope you enjoy this as much as I had writing it.
If you feel that Corvo's backstory and mainstay for this story doesn't seem like it would fit, don't worry I'm working it all out. Though you must remember that Corvo might not even be here.
Inspired by Godspeed You! The Black Emperor, and Self Loath!
Took about three hours to create.
Power And Sacrifice
“What’s it got to do with her?” Princess Celestia cooed, sipping on her tea patiently as her sister was plodding around her room like a nervous wreck.
“She’s our newest princess in Equestria, already four years in the making.” Her voice slightly raised, before lowering itself. “And that does not qualify for what’s sweeping this dying nation, Celestia.” Luna refuted, her tone was sharp, meek, and quite open about the subject at hoof. Celestia constantly studied her irregular movements, keeping her eyes on her sister’s hooves. But couldn’t peel away the honest feel she was getting from her young, but eradicated sister.
“Hmm, what do you think we should do about it?” Celestia chirped, placing her unappealing drink down on the coffee table before walking out in the balcony. “Canterlot is still self-contained, there hasn’t been a single death in over a month. That’s what I call a success.”
“A success, yes.” Luna replied, her sister didn’t respond back so she continued on rambling. “But the odds won’t be in our favor soon, and you can expect another body count rise if we don’t apt our reputation with the rest of the world.”
“Twice, they already applied for two sanctions on the amount of bits we already receive, and that is more than an enough to get everyone start questioning our motives.” She sat back on her sister’s bed, placing her fore hooves over her face.
“We can make another cover story, surely they will fall for that.” Celestia countered, her voice was firm with the subject and her body language proved it. Barely moving an inch, she eyed her city and watched down below at the steam rising up and the smell of the smog encapsulating it as a whole.
“We would if we could, but times are changing, the world already knows about the plague being here. They know that our technology is updating a lot faster than anypony could comprehend. Some are already coming to the conclusion that we are a loss cause. And they might be right.” Luna ended her speech with a loud groan before stuffing a heart-shaped pillow down her face, she was thinking way too much about the situation but somepony had to. Celestia wasn’t doing it, at least she thought she wasn’t.
“Our recent discoveries were because of Twilight Sparkle, remember that. She is a fine princess, I don’t see the sense in why do we have talk about her when clearly we have more important matters to attend to.” Celestia fumed.
There was an awkward silence before Luna finally amended the silence.
“Look, I know she means something to you, she means a great asset to all of us. After all, she is our newest princess, but look at the facts. The plague is here, it transferred from Europonia to Equestria in a matter of weeks because Twilight instigated these new discoveries through wales in the Pacific Ocean. I mean it is bad enough that we are a society that doesn’t condone killing of animals, sea-life, or any life in general unless were in absolute danger. But no-”
“We are in danger, look at Equestria!” Celestia practically shouted out in the air, her hooves raised outward as she glares at her fine city. “It’s a mess! Dead bodies piled up on streets, numerous cities and villages are constantly quarantined. And the Underworld beneath our own city is on the brink of contamination from those bloody weepers! And it is one of the most violent places in all of Equestria, sure we don’t condone death, but how can we stop plague victims when we can’t even control the Underworld. It’s redundant to say that we don’t need the watch guard plan, it’s silly to think that we don’t need the walls of light, and it’s definitely silly to consider that we can survive without breaking the number one rule in our own country! And that is to kill or perhaps, starve any pony with any sort of contamination. Whether it be some poor stallion with rabies, or a mare coughing up on her own blood while she lies half-dead on some filthy street.” Celestia would’ve continued for ages, but she needed to catch her breath. Her sister felt small towards her once again, unable to match the power of essence and sincerity as her, she could never captivate the way Celestia explained things, no matter the size of the argument.
Luna whisked herself off the bed, and made her way towards her. Trying to keep a low end of the stick, she hastily decided hang on the right side of her big sister while she collected her thoughts.
Celestia’s tail thumped up and down sporadically. Luna was making her mind trail off into a dark place, a place she would rather not visit. Unable to lift the burden off her shoulders of all the ponies that were already dead since this past year, she soon unhinged her insecurities for the moment and decided to give her sister some insight on the matter at hoof.
Celestia took another glance at her city before beginning. She could imagine the screams down below that were sure to begin any day now, the cries and shouts begging for their love ones to come back, the stress of her royal guards and watch man both utilizing each other strengths while they bash some ponies head in. She could visualize the raining days that were sure to follow when this would finally happen. She could hear the riots from the ponies in the Underworld busting through the main gates all mixed with the uninfected, normal citizens, convicts, mobs, thugs, infected and even the poor homeless. There was an estimated 35,000 ponies living down in those filthy slums while another 100,000 rested comfortably on the dead free Canterlot. Canterlot wasn’t known for its big population as opposed to Las Pegasus, or Seaddle, but it was known for its high wealth and the home of three rulers. Something that Manehatten didn’t have. It was just a matter of when all these problems would finally arise and collide with one another. Celestia knew that the royal and watch man guards couldn’t contain this city with both sides clashing, but it was inevitable unless she could find a way to stop Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia sighed, her thoughts trembling and the speech grinding her head apart was mind-blogging to say the least. And soon her own words would begin to topple over one another with immense difficulty if she doesn’t speak her mind right now. “What should we do with Twilight Sparkle…” finally admitting submission and allowing her sister’s motives to break the barrier down of what to do with poor Twilight Sparkle. Her shoulders arched upward, ready for the impossible question she could never have predicted.
“I don’t say we should kill her, if that’s what you are asking.” Luna cooed, her heart rate decreased and she finally felt at ease somewhat.
“I somehow expected a different answer.” Celestia responded quickly, the tension in her shoulders relaxing.
“No, no I didn’t think you were expecting it either. I’m not that mean, sure I am still considered a little brat to you, but-”
“Hey, don’t say that,” Celestia snapped, a little ashamed of what her sister just stated.
“But. I do feel that we need to tell Twilight to back off on the techy stuff, ironically I never expected a princesses to do more labor work than us, you know she does even more than Cadance, and that’s saying something.” Luna intended the last bit to be comical in hopes of brightening the overall moody conversation.
Celestia giggled, “Yeah, who would’ve thought.”
Both treated themselves to a short laugh before things quieted down again.
Luna snapped back in action, judging this moment as top priority. “I think that this is something we need to act on right now, if we take Twilight Sparkle out of the picture for a little while. I can get the press off our backs, and have world leaders keep a leveled head for a longer duration than what we currently could muster.” She closely followed her sister back inside her room as she whisked the cup of lukewarm tea off the table with her magic, sulking down it the horrendous liquid quickly as possible. Celestia didn’t care for her not-so-modest-approach right this moment, she just wanted to get rid of this tasteless drink. Destined to finish this atrocious mess that has become more of a bother than a soothing afternoon delight, she craned her head back and slammed the drink down her throat like slamming shots of hard liquor.
Shoving the empty cup and plate aside, the cup rattled along as it spun towards the edge of the coffee table.
Taking a deep breath before beginning, Celestia replied. “Damn those rats is all I have to say, if we didn’t have to start processing wales for wale oil and having to use ships and freight those dead carcasses. We wouldn’t have met those putrid rats, and we wouldn’t be watching our country crumbling on all ends.”
