Changeling Empire

Silver Hall walks across the streets of Canterlot towards the castle. He looks up to the castle and smiles.

"It feels like it was only yesterday.", Silver Hall chuckles heading down to memory lane.

2000 years ago, somewhere in the unknown...

"And the winner of this magic duel is... Lauren Faust!", an announcer announce as a young Lauren Faust waves to the audience, while two alicorn paramedics place an unconscious alicorn on a stretcher. As the crowd cheers, a navy blue alicorn stallion with silver mane and tail and a cutie mark of two crossed swords that are behind the shield stomps through the crowd leaving deep hoofprints on the concrete floor.

"FAUST!", the stallion shouts in frustration breaking through the crowd.

"Huh? Oh, hey Silver! Look! I won!", Lauren said pointing to the Winner: Lauren Faust screen.

"I don't care that you won!", Silver Hall shouts causing Faust to plug her ears as Silver continues. "Today's the day of the Elite Ten's final deliberation of the new members and nominations! You were also nominated, thus must participate! And yet here you are having magic duels!"

"Oh... I completely forgot about that.", Lauren said as Silver drags Lauren out of the area by pulling her tail with his magic.

An elderly olive-colored alicorn stallion with long spiky white hair with a mustache and a beard and a cutie mark of a laurel wreath stands before a crowd of one hundred alicorns with Silver Hall and Lauren Faust barely making it in time.

"Looks like Headmaster Divine is starting his speech.", Silver Hall said.

"Greetings.", Divine said. "Congratulations on becoming the nominees for the first formation of the Elite Ten. The Elite Ten will comprise of the top ten students of this academy, you could say being a member is like being a ruler of a kingdom."

The nominees wait anxiously as Divine opens an envelope and pulls out ten cards.

NAME: SILVER HALL
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1800
POSITION: 1ST SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: WON 1000 MAGIC DUELS WITHOUT USING MAGIC, BY HAVING HIS MAGIC DRAINED FROM HIM.

Silver Hall flies to the stage to take his seat.

NAME: LAUREN FAUST
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1800
POSITION: 2ST SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: INVENTED AND HAVE COMPLETE MASTERY OF CREATION MAGIC.

Lauren Faust teleports to her seat.

NAME: HARVESTER
KIND: ASCENDED ALICORN (ORIGINALLY EARTH PONY)
AGE: 17
POSITION: 3RD SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: FIRST EARTH PONY TO BECOME AN ALICORN AND INVENTED HARVEST MAGIC.

NAME: ELEMENTAL
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1952
POSITION: 4TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: INVENTED WEATHER MAGIC AND ELEMENTAL MAGIC.

NAME: FORGE
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 2031
POSITION: 5TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: INVENTED REQUIP MAGIC AND MANY MAGICAL ITEMS.

NAME: SEIG
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1500
POSITION: 6TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: INVENTED SPIRIT AND POSSESSION MAGIC AND IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO POSSESS OTHER ALICORNS.

NAME: HERBAL MEDICINE
KIND: ASCENDED ALICORN (ORIGINALLY UNICORN)
AGE: 13
POSITION: 7TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: MASTER OF HEALING MAGIC TO THE LEVEL OF CURING INCURABLE ILLNESS AND RESURRECTING THE DEAD (CANNOT WORK ON NATURAL CAUSE OF DEATH LIKE AGING OR THOSE WHO CHOSE TO REMAIN DEAD).

NAME: CHRONA
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1341
POSITION: 8TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: INVENTED AND HAVE FULL MASTER OF TIME MAGIC.

NAME: FOURTH BREAKER
KIND: PURE-BLOODED ALICORN
AGE: 1973
POSITION: 9TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: CAN BREAK THE FOURTH WALL (WHATEVER THAT MEANS) AND DO IMPOSSIBLE FEATS EVEN BY ALICORN STANDARDS.

NAME: COLOSSUS
KIND: ASCENDED ALICORN (FORMERLY PEGASUS)
AGE: 26
POSITION: 10TH SEAT
ACHIEVEMENT: CREATOR AND CONTROLLER OF THE TITANS.

Nearly half of the nominees not chosen clap their hooves in joy, while the rest glares at Harvester, Herbal and Colossus in anger.

"Why were those mud-bloods chosen?"

"They're not even true alicorns?"

"Shut it! You want the Headmaster to punish us?"

"Yeah, also these ten are the most powerful alicorns to date. Their power rivals or even surpass the Headmaster himself."

"We've tried everything!", starlight scream in frustration after another failed attempt to free Discord.

"Have you tried the more obvious like 'Release, Discord'?", Templar asks.

"It's worth a shot.", Trixie said shrugging. "Release, Discord!"

The crystal glows and shoots Discord out like a cannon. Discord screams and crashes to the wall.

"NNNOOO!"

"That sounded like Celestia!", Cadance said.

Most of the ponies leave the throne room, leaving some and a aching Discord behind.

"That's right, just ignore poor old me.", Discord groans in pain.

Gold Star said reaching the top and watches as several airships are placing defense towers around the area.

Defense Tower

"Let's see those fools break through these.", Gold Star said as an Automaton walks up to him and whispers. "Good, bring it here."

Automaton then whispers another thing to Gold Star.

"What?! Why is he here?", Gold Star asks in shock. "Tch! This is troublesome! Looks like I'm going to need his help."

Meanwhile Ambrosia is continuously annoying Rose to the limit.

"That's it!", Rose screams grabbing Ambrosia to the neck and prepares to punch her to the face. "This'll shut you up!"

"Time out!", Ambrosia said making a T with her legs and everything freezes. Ambrosia gets out of Rose's grip and moves to the side looking at the readers.

"What? You thought Pinkie Pie is the only one capable of breaking the fourth wall?", Ambrosia asks. "Please, I've been doing that much longer than that pink pony and she's a novice, while I'm a master. I just don't use it as much as Pinkie Pie."

Ambrosia picks Rose up and puts her in front of Gold Star.

"Time in!", Ambrosia said making a run for it as Rose punches Gold Star to the face knocking him to the ground.

"Oh! Gold Star, I'm sorry!", Rose said helping Gold Star up, while wondering what just happen.

"Celestia...", a voice calls out behind the sun princess. Celestia turns and sees Shining Armor, however this Shining Armor is different as he is horrendously disfigured. "Why did you do this to me? Why have you made me suffer?"

"I've done what I believed was right.", Celestia said sadly.

"You force my sister to fix your failures! You've endangered your kingdom with your mistakes! You've killed my family, because you never took matters into your own hooves!"

"I... I..."

"Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, and Tirek! You could've fought along side with my sister, but instead you simply relaxed and enjoyed the luxurious comforts! You were selfish!"

"No!"

"You've destroyed everything I've held dear, so I will destroy everything you hold dear", the disfigured Shining Armor said, before transforming into Black Armor before walking to the balcony. Celestia follows and is horrified at what she sees. What was once a beautiful paradise is now a dying wasteland. Everything her mother worked to hard to maintain is destroyed thanks to her poor leadership.

"No! No! NNNOOO!", Celestia cries in grief collapsing on the floor.

"Sister/Auntie!", Luna and Cadance screams bursting into Celestia's room with Starlight and Shining Armor behind them. The two alicorns sees the illusion created by Celestia's own magic and quickly dissipates it with their own magic. "Sister, it's alright. It's just illusions created by your magic."

"Auntie, you must stop creating these illusions.", Cadance said. "It's destroying you."

“They are the truth, aren’t they?”, Celestia said with her face turning away in disgrace. “No matter what decision I have made, no matter how hard I try to put help keep this kingdom protected, it comes back to haunt me in the end. My legacy has been one of a series of failures. So many lives endangered, ruined all because of my mistakes.”

"I turned my sister into Nightmare Moon, because I ignored her plea when all she wanted was for ponies to notice your beautiful night. Because of that I was left to banish her to the moon for a millennium and lost my connection to the Elements in the process."

Luna knew that Celestia still had a heavy burden over the incident.

"Next was Gold Star. Although his methods were extreme they were all good intentions just to keep Equestria safe. His ideas of keeping Equestria wasn't just methods like executing prisoners, but also forming a decent military force and develop advance weaponry. And what did I do? I called him a madpony and sent him away. I literally sold Equestria out to the enemy."

Cadance knew what Celestia meant. Gold Star was a Captain of the Earth Pony Guards, thus possess vital information that could be dangerous at the wrong hands. His rank and years of service was more than enough to trick Cerberus to leave his post in order to free the prisoners in Tartarus. He is also a tactical genius.

"Then there is Chrysalis. She nearly turned Equestria into a buffet for the Changeling twice and the only reason we survive both attempts was just sheer dumb luck. I got beaten and then captured by the weakest of the Changeling Queens. If I can't handle her, what good am I against her more powerful sisters?"

Starlight knew that the incident between Chrysalis and Celestia was bad, but it turned out much worse than she thought. The other Queens confirmed that Chrysalis was the weakest among them that even the newest member, Rose surpass her greatly. Also losing twice against the same foe can hurt ones pride.

"The incident with Tirek is where everything starts to fall apart. Discord's betrayal to Tirek was the catalyst needed for Ryubee Templar to start his conspiracy by taking advantage of my mistake and expose my poor leadership. Because I trusted Discord, I ended up endangering my ponies lives with some of them joining with Templar or Gold Star and because I've endangered Cadance and Twilight as well Gold Star took the opportunity to slowly corrupt Shining Armor, by turning him into an Artificial Alicorn."

Cadance looks down sadly. If Twilight had indeed failed, then she, Celestia and Luna would still be in Tartarus now, drained of magic and doomed to spend eternity rotting away within it's vile confines. This would cause Shining Armor to suffer in grief and despair transforming into Black Armor. He would've blamed Celestia for all this and destroy Equestria.

"Finally, the Friendship Festival. I end up being turned to stone, while the Templar Conspiracy took place. Not only did Shining Armor came close to fully transform into Black Armor, but had Templar succeeded every single alicorn candidates would've become alicorns, but in exchange the non-candidates would've been sacrificed as that's 80% of the population."

"What's worse is that in my dream, Miasma told me all of the Artificial Alicorns were actually my former subjects, who lost faith in me. Shining Armor was the first, but after Tirek's defeat their numbers increased to 100, after the Friendship Festival the number increased to 500 and after Twilight's capture their numbers increased to 1000."

The four ponies simply look on as the eldest looks up slowly at the moonlit night. Her wings droop down as she felt like the last of her dignity and her restraints give way under an everlasting weight of doubt. She could no longer contain herself as she spoke up again choking on tears between brief pauses of her sentence.

"I'm the reason why Equestria lack a military force to fight off foreign threats. I'm the reason why Shining Armor is slowly falling to darkness. I'm the reason why Twilight and her friends are captured. I'm the reason why my subjects are becoming Artificial Alicorns. I'm the reason why Equestria nearly lost 80% of it's population. All because I'm a failure! A failure! A failure! A COMPLETE FAILURE!!!", Celestia finally breaks into tears as she lands against the floor covering her head beneath her forearms. It felt like hours had gone by before Celestia’s tears slowly began to dry away and her cries turned to gentler and gentler sobs. Starlight levitates a handkerchief to Celestia’s face and wipe away her tears before looking up with, much to Celestia’s surprise, a heartfelt smile; along with Cadence and Luna, though Shining's face remain neutral.

"Sister, I'm glad to have finally see you release your feelings like this. And I know that it will take some time to fully regain the trust of our subjects considering all that has happened, however...”, Luna said turning her smile to a sorrowful frown as her mood changed to that of seriousness before she continued. “Let me set this straight for you. What Miasma said about everything being your fault is only half true. She's making you believe the fault is entirely on you without considering the fault of others as well.”

Luna looks up to the moon.

"One thousand years ago, I envied on how the ponies praise your sun while shunning my night. I allow that jealously to ruin not only myself, by you as well.", Luna said looking back at her sister. "After my restoration and my visit to Ponyville for Nightmare Night, I learned something that I had never before tried in the time before and that was simply to interact with my subjects. Had I socialized with the ponies like you had rather than force their attention to me, then perhaps things would've gone differently."

Luna's words was a surprise to Celestia as she never thought her little sister would share the blame on the incident as well.

"I know that you failed the day of my wedding, but what could you do? Cancel the wedding?", Cadance asks. "Had you done so Chrysalis would think that we're on to her scheme, thus forcing her to resort to more drastic methods like killing Shining Armor just to get rid of the shield. Also when impersonating me, Chrysalis had every opportunity to know study her enemies like the time of day you are alone and vulnerable. You losing to Chrysalis was only because Chrysalis had years of combat experience fighting many battles in the Unknown, while Equestria on the other had been living in peace with little to no threats of invasion. The Changeling Empire Invasion is the first time Equestria fought a powerful foe backed with a powerful army since the days of Queen Faust."

Celestia knows that Cadance made a good point. She's no soldier or a military strategist, just a politician. Sure Equestria had to deal with powerful foes like Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra and Tirek, but they are just one person. Had they had an army backing them up, things would've been much more difficult. Starlight then walks up to Celestia.

"The Artificial Alicorns are much to blame as well. They see you as some sort of unstoppable deity capable of doing everything, failing to understand that your just an everyday pony like me. They refuse to accept the fact that you're not perfect.", Starlight said. "Even Queen Faust made mistakes, but rather than cry over it she simply moves forward and learned from the mistakes made."

"While I was mad after I learned that you've sent my sister to face off Nightmare Moon, I knew you had a good reason in doing so.", Shining Armor said. "I too share the fault as I was simply overprotective for my family. It was my overprotectiveness that gave Gold Star the opportunity to turn me into an Artificial Alicorn, whenever I fail to uphold my duty as a father, husband, brother and captain.

"We all make mistakes, but we all get better with them as a result of it all. You’re not a failure sister and you never were despite what was said. As Starlight said you're just an everyday pony like everypony else. There are time you have been left in an tough situation and had to deal with an abundance of tough choices as to what to do for the sake of all of Equestria."

"Despite all the hardship you had to endure, all the pain you had to work with and all the choices you had to pull yourself through, you kept on going.", Cadance said. "Despite your guilt over what happened to aunt Luna you pressed on by ruling an entire kingdom alone, raising the sun and the moon, ruling and protecting your subjects."

"Twilight may have been the one who save Equestria many times, but she couldn't have pulled them off without your teaching and guidance. You taught her not only how to research things correctly and how to find ways to help Equestria, and not only how to become a better pony to become a princess, but how to become a better pony than she was before when she believed for so long that it was nonsense. It was through your teaching that allowed Twilight to pass that knowledge to others like me, Sunset, and Tempest. Every achievement Twilight has made is your achievement as well. And everypony owes you so much princess.", Starlight said giving Celestia a comforting hug.

“And me auntie.”, Cadance hugging her closely.

"And me.", Shining Armor said joining in.

"And me as well dear sister.", Luna finish hugging her sister.

Celestia feels her broken heart being slowly put back together and filled with joy upon hearing those words. She unfold her wings and wraps them lovingly around her family; in Celestia's eyes she sees everypony in Equestria as family members. She embrace them closely as tears of happiness pour out of her eyes. Celestia knew that she had made mistakes, but she had also left some good to come from it by teaching more than she herself knew. The belief to inspire and set a better example not through always getting things resolved herself, but getting things resolved altogether. Their embrace comes to an end when the clock on the wall chimes telling Celestia that it is time to raise the sun. Celestia knows that she must deal with the ridicule and resentment from angry subjects.

"And fear not sister, we will be here for you to help restore the trust from our subjects.", Luna said in a comforting tone placing her hoof on her shoulder.

"I know it won't be easy to have them see who you truly are, but we will help you get through this and show them that you are worthy of your crown and title.", Cadance said with Shining nodding in agreement.

"Our enemies tried to turn the ponies against you and will continue to do so, but they will soon know that we will not allow them to take their trust away from you no matter what.", Starlight said. "For now though, it's time to announce the start of a brand new day."

Celestia smiles as she lifts up her head slowly and use her magic to slowly raise the glorious sun. The ponies watch as the night slowly drift away and rays of light beaming away the deep blue sky into a beautiful sapphire blue. A new day has arrive for the ponies of Equestria.

"We have much work to do. For today is the day we start working on a better Equestria we can all make everypony see.", Cadance said. "But we can't start off the day with an empty stomach."

The mares could only giggle as they head off for the doorway out to the corridoe, though Celestia stays behind to put on her royal jewelry. Celestia reaches for her crown only to remember that she shattered it. Celestia then decides not to restore her crown, until she fully regain the trust of her subjects. She will face her subjects head on, not just as a princess, but as an equal. Though she has made mistakes, she will work with them all to be corrected no matter what, knowing that with her fellow princesses, the message of harmony throughout Equestria will never be unhindered, not matter what perils they will face. She knows this because that it’s what her family has taught her most of all; to never give up on anypony. She stands up and trots after her ponies to the dining hall.

Nearby, Silver Hall the whole thing from the shadows.

"You have some fine kids, Faust.", Silver said. "Perhaps they and the candidates will open a new era, but for now it is a dawn of a new day in Equestria. A dawn of change and of optimism."

Silver the stares at a photo of Faust holding a just born Celestia.

The baby Celestia cries, but Faust calms her down with a kiss to the forehead.

"Welcome to Equestria, my little sunshine.", Faust said with tears of joy.