“Lyra are you sure this is alright?”

“Relax Bony its fine,” said Lyra to her marefriend, nuzzling her gently as she spoke. “I’ve been to Berry’s before remember, and Minuette needs to see her girl after so long, you understand that right?”

Bon Bon looked at her a moment, before sighing as she nodded, “Yeah, I get that, I just wish you had told me that your friends would be moving here, I would have planned accordingly.”

“Hey, in my defense, Twilight moved here before any of us, and you know I didn’t tell you because the last time you gave anyone a party before Pinkie Pie did it caused that one party war, and we are not living through that again.”

Bon Bon blushed, and then blushed harder as Twilight Spoke up, “party war?”

Bon Bon sighed, “Yeah, um…I have my own confection shop, and I kind of got into this disagreement with Pinkie Pie which turned into a full blown party war, because I also throw my own parties from time to time. The disagreement happened when I threw a party for Lyra before Pinkie Pie did, Pinkie claiming I was… “moving in on her turf” and claiming I was trying to steal her business.”

“But surely she understood why you were throwing Lyra a party right,” said Twilight, “I mean you are marefriends.”

“Oh she did later,” said Lyra, “but not before the party war happened, and I didn’t exactly help much because every time Pinkie would throw me a party I’d have to tell her that Bony’s was better, and she just could not accept that because she didn’t get that Bony was my special somepony, and parties done for you by those you love are always better.”

Before Twilight could comment further, they reached Berry’s bar, all of them walking in and then stopping as a voice gasped from within.

Turning to the voice, Twilight saw a little unicorn filly behind the bar, the fillies eyes sparkling as she saw Minuette before she turned to the other patrons and spoke. “Alright everypony its closing time, everybody out or you will have to answer to Mister Wackum! But not you guys, you guys can stay.”

Everypony save for Twilight and her friends cleared out of the bar, those who had to paying for their drinks before leaving as the little filly ran out from behind the bar and leapt into Minuette’s waiting arms. “COLGATE!”

“Hey my little Pinchy,” said Minuette as she hugged the little filly, before pulling back a bit to speak to her. “Is your mom home, I have some news for her that’s very important?”

“She’s upstairs with Aunty Cheerilee and Princess Luna, I’ll go get them!”

Pinch ran off, leaving Twilight and the girls to get comfortable as Lyra spoke up, “Holly mothers that filly is weaponized cuteness, you never stood a chance Colgate.”

“No she didn’t,” said a new voice, everypony looking up to see Pinch leading two earth ponies and Luna down the stairs, one of the earth ponies walking up to Minuette and giving her a kiss while Luna walked up to Twilight and spoke.

“Twilight, there is something I need to tell you…”

“You can tell me here Luna,” said Twilight, “these girls are my old Canterlot friends, and they know about…um…well they know about us.”

“Ah, I see,” said Luna with a smile. “Then there need be no secrecy here, for Miss Cheerilee and Berry Punch also know about us, for I have come to view them as close friends.”

Twilight smiled at that, then leaned up and kissed Luna one the lips, the mare humming in appreciation while they got a few whistles from the other mares in the bar.

“Dam Twilight, you really are dating the princess,” said Minuette, causing Berry to look at her as she spoke.

“You know about them?”

Minuette nodded, “We became friends with Twilight when she lived in Canterlot under the stewardship of Celestia, and we became the ponies she would go to to share stories with, especially embarrassing stories about her mentor.

Suddenly Luna pulled away from kissing Twilight, the mare looking at Minuette and speaking to her. “You all have embarrassing stories about my sister?”

Minuette nodded, which caused Luna’s eyes to widen and her pupils to dilate, before a fiendish grin appeared on her face as her eyes began to sparkle.

“Um…Luna,” said Twilight, looking concerned. “Luna why are you smiling like that…Luna you’re scaring me?”

Luna remained silent for a moment, and then let out a squeal of joy as she jumped around the room, before grabbing up Twilight in a hug.

*

Back in Canterlot, Celestia felt a cold shiver run down her spine, the mare looking up from what she was doing as a sense of cold dread filled her.

“Celestia,” asked Velvet, “what’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing,” said Celestia, “just got this feeling that someone just got a whole bunch of dirt on me that I really don’t want them to have.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” said Velvet, “now get back down here, I’m close.”

Smirking, Celestia gave her a devious look before speaking. “Oh, you think so do you?”

*

“Oh you have given us the greatest gift ever beloved!”

She spun her around for a bit, then let go before turning to Twilight’s friends and speaking. “My sister and I used to always tease each other relentlessly and play pranks, but Celestia always had the upper hoof on me because she always knew more about me then I her, but now with you all at my disposal, I have years worth of ammunition I can use against her, it is glorious!”

There was silence for a moment, and then Lyra spoke up. “Well, it would be nice to actually use all those stories.”

“I’m not sure how comfortable I am with this,” said Twilight, before sighing as she looked at the pleading expression on Luna’s face. “Oh fine, I can’t say no to that face.”

“Huzzah, we have a new victim for out adorable faces!”

As Twilight facehoofed, near the bar Berry was having a conversation with Minuette. “Are you serious babe, you really are moving here for good?”

“Mhmm,” said Minuette with a smile.

The two mares hugged as they kissed each other, causing many a mare in the room to daw over the sight, and Pinch to gag, “Ew mom, that’s gross.”

“One day you’ll get it sweetheart,” said Berry as she pulled back from the kiss, before looking to the gathering and speaking. “Alright everypony, I want to spend some alone time with my mare so why don’t you all go back to your homes, I promise we can all gather together later.”

Nodding, everypony left in a hurry, Pinch running up to her room as Berry turned to Minuette before speaking. “So, wanna bang?”

*

“We need to find a way to get control of this situation Gold Bit.”

This had been the sentence that Silver Shade the maid had heard when she had passed by Gold Bit’s meeting room, and since then she had been staying by the door, listening to the various voices and gathering what Intel she could.

It was not well known outside of a very select circle, but all the maids and castle staff were actually more than they seemed, doubling as guards, as well as spies, and they served only two ponies…well three now, what with Luna being back and all.

Which was why Silver Shade was so interested in this conversation, for the majority of it centered around Luna, as well as Twilight, and the tone of it was not to her liking.

“So that is the plan then, we marry off her student and her sister, what could possibly be accomplished by that?”

“Because then we would have control of the two most important ponies in her life,” said Gold Bit, “Cadance is right out because she is sleeping around with Celestia’s newly appointed High Commander, and the princess herself has ended up back with her old lover, and gotten her lovers wife to boot, so we need to do something in order to reign the princess in and hopefully get back the control we had. If we work this out right, we can turn both her student and her sister against her, and with them in our pocket we can finally begin moving Equestria in the direction it should be going.”

“And what of Blueblood?”

“He has rejected every mare we have sent his way,” said Gold Bit with a growl. “No, it is through Luna and Twilight that we shall take what is ours.”

Deciding she had heard enough with that last bit of information, Silver Shade lit up her horn, fading into the shadows before dropping out of the ceiling in Celestia’s office, right as the mare walked in to begin her paper work.

“Silver Shade,” said Celestia in surprise, “I suppose you have a good reason for dropping out of nowhere like that?”

Silver Shade nodded, “The nobles are planning to usurp your rule…”

That got a laugh from Celestia, “Of course they are Silver, but this is nothing new, so unless you have something important to report…”

“…and they are planning to use your sister and your student to do it.”

That got a dark look from the princess, the mare gesturing to a chair for Silver to sit in before speaking to her. “And how exactly are they planning to use my family to usurp my throne?”

“They plan to marry the two mares off to influential mares of the court,” said Silver, “and before you ask no, I have no idea how they found out about Luna’s preferences, though one of the guards originally assigned to Ponyville may have overheard her at some point. Anyways, once they are married off, these mares are apparently supposed to poison Luna and Twilight against you, so that one day they will support the nobles plan to take all your power away and place it into their hooves.”

Celestia stared at her for a long moment, and then she let out an angered snort, before pulling out a quill and two pieces of parchment, creating two notes before handing them to Silver along with a list of names attached to the second note. “Make copies of these two letters and have them distributed. The first letter is to be sent to the rest of the nobility, but the second letter is to be sent to the names on the list attached to it, and them only.”

“Your will be done princess,” said Silver, before vanishing into the shadows, leaving Celestia to rise from her seat as she made her way to the throne room with an ominous growl.

“This. Ends. NOW!”

*

It had taken a while for the letters to all get sent, but in just a few hours the nobles who were not on the list found themselves in the throne room, many of them talking amongst themselves, Gold Bit and his group being one of them.

“Something does not feel right Gold Bit, I am telling you she is on to us!”

“And I have told you before that is impossible,” said Gold Bit, “I swept that room myself for listening enchantments, and we all know she is above having ponies spying for her when she is such an accomplished…”

He was interrupted by the sound of a thunderclap, everypony in the room shaking a bit as a teleportation spell the likes of which they had never seen before went off, and when they looked to see who had appeared they all gasped in shock, and many of them began to cower in fear.

For sitting upon the throne, clad in armor that had not been worn in centuries and the holy Solar Halberd stabbed into the floor by her side was Celestia, her mane and tail once more flickering like flame and her eyes glowing like twin suns as she gazed upon the ponies gathered before her.

“You no doubt are wondering why you have all been gathered here,” said Celestia calmly, and even though her tone was level and her voice quite, each word vibrated through them like a small quake.

“Y…yes your highness,” said one of the ponies, bowing as low as he could as her eyes darted to look at him before looking back upon the group at large.

“It has come to my attention that you…the ponies of my noble court, have been plotting to strip me of my powers as princess, effectively usurping my throne without the bloodshed or politics associated with it by turning my student and sister against me…and what’s more, thanks to some very valuable sources, I now can prove you all are the ones who have been backing the rouge guards that have been causing havoc in my kingdom.”

“Princess that is not…” started one of them.

“SILCENCE!!!”

It had been ages since Celestia had loosed her own version of the Royal Canterlot Voice, and there was a very good reason for this.

Cracks formed upon the floor as well as the walls, the entire room shaking and many of the nobles there wetting themselves due to the primal fear which washed over all of them, and even the guards could not entirely control their shaking as her voice sounded in their ears.

“I have long known you have been seeking ways of usurping my power, which is why so much of my time is spent looking over every single bill you send my way to counter act any attempt at this. But today….oh today you have finally given me a reason to act on your well-hidden plots against me.”

She gave them a toothy smile, showing off her new fangs before continuing to speak to them. “I really have to commend you, for up until Gold Bit’s slip-up today I would have nothing but rumors to go on, because you forgot to soundproof your room before speaking within this castle.”

Many of the nobles turned to Gold Bit in shock, but before anyone could comment Celestia spoke further. “Thanks to this, after I had you all summoned to the castle I had your servants, who as many of you probably forgot are under my employment and simply on lone to you, collect anything which might interest me, and what they found is frankly…quite disturbing.”

Summoning her magic, she pulled out stacks upon stacks of papers, taking one from the top of the pile before beginning to speak further. “Beyond the evidence that your families are using bits provided by the crown to fund the rogue guards, I have found several recorded incidents of pony trafficking, several documented incidents of illegal gambling rings and fight pits, as well as several documented incidents of underage prostitution.”

She rolled up the scroll, smiling sinisterly at the nobles before speaking further. “The fact that you have been able to keep this from reaching my ears in any other way beyond rumor is as amazing as it is appalling, but it ends now. From this day forth, I am re-instating the old laws when it comes to the nobility and rights of succession. As such, your funds and your properties are to be seized and liquidated, your titles striped from you and your heirs, and you and all your accomplices are going to be tried and imprisoned for their actions.”

“You…you can’t do that!” cried one of the nobles, “you don’t have the power…”

“I am Solar Invictus,” said Celestia with a rumbling growl, “and my word is law.”

“You won’t get away with this,” said Gold Bit, “You may have us, but we are not the entire nobility, and when they here of what you have done they will rally against you and depose you for the tyrant you are!”

“Oh really,” said Celestia, before turning to one of the guards and speaking, “you may bring them in now.”

The guard nodded and then lit his horn, opening both the doors behind the throne and allowing several ponies to walk in and take their places beside Celestia, causing shock amongst the nobles as they saw that there were their fellows.

“As you can see,” said Celestia with a smirk, “these nobles are on my side, for they unlike you have done what they could to help better Equestria not just for themselves, but also for those who are less fortunate than them. They know what it truly means to be nobles, and because of this they have been allowed to keep their titles.”

“You can’t be serious,” cried another noble, pointing to the stallions and mares standing at Celestia’s side with nothing but disdain in his eyes. “They do nothing good for Equestria; all they do is waste bits on charities and the peasantry, instead of using it to help better Equestria the right way.”

Velvet growled from her place beside Celestia, “There is no better way to help Equestria Cold Ledger, for the peasantry is the backbone of Equestria itself, and while you may refuse to admit it, we are all descendants of ponies who used to be peasants. We owe our very existence to them, and what you and the rest of you cohorts have sought to due to both Equestria as well as to my daughter spits in the face of our hallowed ancestors, so be thankful that the princess is choosing to be lenient with you at all.”

“Lenient,” said Gold Bit, “you would call this lenient…Lady Velvet surely you should be able to see…”

“See what,” asked Fancy Pants, “cause from what I know of the old laws of nobility, the princess would be well within her rights to incinerate the lot of you and leave not but ash for your families to bury.”

“Aye,” said Photo Finish with a smirk, “or she could let the peasantry get their hooves on you, for I am sure they could come up with some inventive ways of punishing you filth.”

“I think that is quite enough,” said Celestia, before looking back to the nobles before her as her horn began to glow. “Now, to make sure that none of you can run away.”

Then, in a bright flash, Celestia cast a might binding spell, rendering the magic of the nobles before her inert, sparing none of them. Then, before they could get acclimated to their helplessness, she turned to the guards once more and spoke. “Take this scum from my sight and to the dungeons so they may await their trials, and if there are not enough cells for them individually, bunch them together as necessary.”

The guards nodded, one near the main entrance poking his head out the door and whistling for more guards to come, and then they all began roughly escorting the dishonored nobles out of the throne room, ignoring their protests.

When the last noble was escorted out and the doors closed, Celestia let out a massive sigh of relief before turning to the other and speaking. “Well, now that I have effectively decimated a good two thirds of the nobility, anypony got any suggestions for worthy replacements?”

Everypony in the room facehoofed.

Author's Note

With all that happened this chapter, let’s just say that next chapter is going to be...interesting. So till then, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop them on by, I love hearing from you guys.