Celestia breathed in the summer air and looked at her supplies. She didn't have to eat as often as most ponies did, since she did still have her connection to the sun. That didn't mean that she couldn't get tired from the walk to the Republic's inner sanctum of Canterlot where the Six Ministers sat in session for the year.
She glanced up and looked at her resignation letter to the ponies a millennia ago. The Elements of Harmony had given her the strength to banish Nightmare Moon, but she had felt everything that her sister had done in anger as a backlash against the power. And it still gave her nightmares with how depraved the moonbeasts had made Luna.
But that was a thousand years ago and Celestia had been a stronger pony then.
It was a beautiful day in the Republic and her sun and Luna's moon stared down at her. They were her unmoving guardians that she hoped Luna could see in her haze and try and fight against the corruption that had warped her mind and body. She had locked them into place with the last bits of her connection to the Elements. And Celestia had wondered if anypony had tried to see if they could harness enough mana to move them again. Probably not. The world had grown hot and humid with the constant sun beating down on them. They had better things to worry about- things like food shortages and bandits.
She pulled her cape around her and shifted into an inconspicuous form of a pegasus. She dug deep and shoved the large portion of her magic behind a barrier that she had created deep within her mind. If anything ever got to that deep and unknowable place, they would be faced with her own kind of defenses. But there were very few creatures that had the power to probe the inner walls of her mind.
After a few seconds that felt like forever, she blinked and breathed in air a foot lower than when she began. Begrudgingly, she still noticed that throughout her tests her cutie mark was still proudly that of a giant blazing sun. That would become problematic if anybody in the trading posts noticed. Quickly shuffling her protective robe around her she sniffed the air. Pegasi could taste the air of nearby dangers but seeing no aromas similar to raiders or wild animals she breathed in a breath of fresh air and relaxed a bit. Testing her new form, she began to walk towards the distant walls of Canterlot. They stretched to the sky and gave her a sense of dread because of the hazy smoke that twisted the days colors into a differing shad of rainbow hues. The world had moved on since she abdicated it seemed. The new machines that the Ministers used to protect the wasteland from violent creatures was proof of that. Wonderbolt Special Forces stood as living proof of the possibilities when Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the Canterlot Ministry and magical expert extraordinaire put her mind into stopping the most dangerous thing currently on the planet.
Alicorn class level threats. At least she was only trying to find one pony in a sea of machinery and whatever.
The town of Canterlot was the last major bastion of pony culture in the waste of the unmovable things in the sky. The sun and the moon looked down quietly in judgement against the surviving crowd of ponies. Or that's what the Lunatics preached. They spoke of a coming battle that would bathe the world in fire and cleansing light.
Sunset Shimmer just found them super annoying. They would just not stop yelling their heads off about their prophet that told them that her ancestor was coming back. Sunset would just knock them out with a sleep spell.
"So bored." Being a glorified police officer in a world changing to stupid magitech tanks was a lifestyle of complete and utter boredom. Thankfully she was her own boss. So she took a lot of walks because it helped keep her fit and made it look like she was doing work for the Ministry. Getting on the bad side of the Sisters of Mercy, she heard, was a thing that would result in torture and death. It was better to live a life of boring obscurity and survival instead of a life of torment and pain.
She was quickly broken out of her reverie by running into a white pegasus pony in a long brown cape looking thing.
"Oh sorry, sorry. I didn't even see where I was going! See I took the last turn a bit quickly in order to find the Ministries and look where that got me! Dang it Aurora! Why don't you listen to your superiors?" The cheery white and pink pegasus happily said.
Rubbing her hurt nose with a hoof, Sunset groaned. Her nose wasn't broken but it sure hurt a lot. Maybe this was one of the Laughing Elites- those ponies were known to be a bit off kilter from the experiments with psychotropic drugs to keep troop morale levels high. Though the side effect was that it made everypony who used it into a unfeeling happy mess that just seemed creepy.
"No problem. Well I'm Sunset Shimmer, Aurora."
"Oh that's super amazing and neat. I just love that your name is so important! Y'know the sun and the moon being in the sky at the same time and all." Sunset noticed that the white pegasus was acting a bit weird with quick glances back to where she had come from. Sunset was going to ask what was going on but she got her answer quicker than expected. A large alicorn class mech dropped from the sky, its weight shattering the stones that most of Canterlot was paved with. A booming female voice was being cast over the speakers.
"Miss 'Aurora' please come in for questioning by the Honesty League. Your pass into the city was a false one. With that being said, I am the leader of the Wonderbolt Special Forces overseen by the Loyalty Department. Name's Spitfire, you may have heard my name in such glorious battles as the Badlands Rumble against the Changeling Hives and-"
"Nope. Sorry can't say I have. Been dealing with sealing my sister into the moon and hiding away in Diamond Dog lands. Same old same old. Though you certainly did try to make an impression."
Sunset felt a shift in Aurora's aura as she noticed a bit of a gleam in the white pony's eye. And when Sunset looked closer with her senses she felt a pulsing rhythm of flaring light in response. Then everything went a brilliant shining white and Sunset couldn't see anything for a few seconds. As her blurred vision began to return, she noticed that the nice and happy pegasus that she knew was now the most wanted criminal in the entire waste.
"Now I'm not one to brag but for some reason you guys all want me."
For her part, Sunset was now wanting to take back her statement of boredom and roll up in her government given bed and sleep off this nightmare.
Spitfire was silent on what she wanted to do for once.
Celestia just sighed. She hated having to play up her evil nature. She didn't really have a mean bone in her body but the whole silly game of being the worst criminal ever known to ponykind really drained her. Looking up at the ten foot mech with enough weaponry to level a city block, Celestia knew of two options- run away or be captured and tested on. And with the stories of what might have happened to Candance's joy and love- Celestia knew what to choose.
"Well I'm getting what I came for. Tell the Ministry to shove it. Taking Sunset away from me was not a really nice thing to do. Makes it all the worse for family reunions with my other daughter. Well goodbye death machine- too bad you didn't catch me!" Celestia just lazily grinned and grabbed Sunset's hoof and silently started to perform a memory transfer to make the whole explanation round a bit easier. Makes it less you kidnapped a pony, more you saved me mom, thank you very much.
With that Celestia and Sunset disappeared in a bright flash of teleportation.
Spitfire could only scream in frustration. So close and yet so far away from being a national hero. Clicking on her communication link, she radioed into the Loyalty Minister.
"Minister Dash, Celestia is out of hiding. Do you want me to send out all the alicorn class mechs to patrol our borders?"
Spitfire just got an earful of angry yelling. Bad news was bad news and having the countermeasures of the six parts of the Ministry be foiled by a magic disguise and a fake pass into the city was just the icing onto the cake. Twilight Sparkle had devised each safeguard in order to keep the society stable and relaxed.
"Fine, Spitfire. Sounds fantastic. Just get her contained- we are working with keeping everypony here in a stable work environment to counteract the prophecy of the Dark. Even if some of our methods are personally a bit extreme, I have to be loyal to Twilight's plan. Use the Shadowbolt model mechs if you want, I don't care. I just need a freaking glass of cider to help cool off the four hour meeting and in depth presentation Twilight will give over this screw up."
With that the line went silent and Spitfire was happy that she wasn't in Dash's position- Twilight was rather persistent and had loose moral standards on progress. But that was why she beat out the other candidates for the role of leader of Canterlot.
Author's Note
I watch too much anime. Here's something for the trouble.
Here's something I came up with a bit ago.
Running with my normal AU ideas for the daughters of Celestia. I have no idea where that personal fanon idea came from, but for my stories it kind of works.
Sorry for the short chapter. This was just a decent stopping point with how busy I've been recently and this was more to set up the feel for the world in my head.
