The Rescue

by Diamond Sparkle

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Sad
Length: 10070

Princess Celestia is set free from a Changeling cocoon, and soon wishes she had not been.

Princess Celestia is set free from a Changeling cocoon by the Equestrian Royal Guards, only to find out that her entire two thousand year life was a dream created by the changeling pod she has been in for two months. In reality, she's just an earth pony filly who works bucking apples. Can she cope with her new life of poverty?

Published 2012-07-17 22:14:05 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-10 18:44:35 UTC

The Rescue

Princess Celestia sat upon her throne, having been set free from the changeling pod and cleaned, with several more guards then normal around her, just in case any Changeling had somehow managed to avoid being flung out of Canterlot and remain alive. Even a single Changeling who survived could become a major danger to her little ponies. She sighed as she considered the security measures that would have to be taken to protect them

. Whatever option I can think of is bad. I can send the Royal Guards to destroy every adult changeling and defenceless baby grub that can be found. But that will be expensive, take a long time, the Changelings will take on other shapes and infiltrate or flee, and even after what’s happened, I cannot answer it with genocide. Or I can close the borders and shield them but that will ruin trading and destroy the economy. Or maybe I can hold talks with the Changelings, friendship is magic after all. But can anypony including me trust them after they disrupted my niece’s wedding and attacked the capital city?

There were more screams from outside and she went out to the royal balcony and almost let out a cry of terror of her own. Visible through the glittering pink shield there was a great black crack in the sky. And it was growing by the second. Celestia stood her ground and controlled her fear. I am Princess Celestia; I can control the Sun and the Moon. I’ve faced the chaos of Discord, the rebellion of Nightmare Moon, a Changeling attack and all the small problems of being an autocratic monarch, I can close this thing. The crack reached the shield and tore it like paper, and Celestia sent a beam from her horn of rainbow light into the crack, using all her power to close it up. But it didn’t work and the crack started to tear the city apart. Celestia spread her wings and turned to flee but the crack swallowed her up.

Blackness.

I can still think. Is this what death is like, able to think but not speak or move? Or have they accidently buried me alive in the Canterlot Noble Graveyard? Are six feet of earth above me? Or have I survived the destruction of my entire universe? I feel cold, and wet.

A voice broke the silence. “Celestia, open your eyes, you’re safe now.” She opened her eyes and smiled. Royal Guards were with her, drying her with a towel wielded by a unicorn, helping her to her feet. She was in some sort of cave and she blinked a few times and noticed the remains of a sliced open changeling pod at her feet. “Thank you,” she said, and tried to spread her wings. And nothing happened. Looking at her flanks, she opened her mouth in horror. Her fur was still white, but beautiful wings were gone! Not even wing stubs were present. Her sun symbol on her flank was gone, replaced with a book, and she was as small as a partly grown filly. She reached up to her forehead with a hoof expecting to find her horn, but only found a bare forehead instead.

“What happened to me? I’m not an earth pony filly, I’m two thousand years old and I’m Princess Celestia of Equestria. I want to be taken back to the castle at once.”

The guards started at her and frowned. “We know you’ve been through a lot, being kidnapped by Changelings and spending two months hung up in a cocoon to feed the grubs can’t be very pleasant, but you are not an alicorn. Princess Aurora rules this country and has done so for two thousand years, and she takes a dim view of any royal pretenders. A very dim view. If you start telling everyone you’re an alicorn, you’ll either be sent to an asylum for the insane for what could be a lengthy period of time, or you’ll end up decorating the Canterlot Royal Gardens as a stone statue. You are a common earth pony filly, and your parents work on a farm bucking apples. You went out one night to look at the stars and was kidnapped and replaced by a changeling, and nobody found out for months. We are going to take you out of the hive now along with the other victims, and the Princess will see you, and then we’ll take you back home to your family.”

They led her out of the ruined Changeling Hive to join other fillies, colts and fully grown ponies, each of them cut out of a changeling pod, and she stared at the alicorn, Princess Aurora, standing in front of her. The Princess was dressed in the full royal finery, a jewelled crown on head, a breastplate on her body, a golden shoe on each hoof, unlike the now naked Celestia. Celestia blushed for a second and then remembered that nakedness was nothing to be embarrassed about for most ponies. The alicorn spoke sweetly. “My little ponies, you have been freed from the menace of the Changelings, and are now free to go home. My guards will take you home to your families, who I’m sure will be delighted to have you back.”

Some of them clopped their hooves together and cheered, but by no means all of them. Celestia was one who remained icily silent.

So I never was an immortal alicorn and the past two thousand years of my life was a lie? I’ve gone from being a princess, a goddess, loved by my little ponies, to a little pony myself, an earth pony filly, not even a pegasus or a unicorn. I will never fly again and soar through the sky, never manipulate anything again with the power of my magic horn. When I want to pick anything up it will be with my mouth or perhaps with bracers attached to my legs, for the rest of my life. My immortality is gone; I will live no longer then an average pony, and may well end up bucking apples for the rest of my life as a common labourer. Or I may end up being reduced to pulling carts for a few bits. Why did they have to cut me out of that pod for? I was so happy in there.

A tear rolled out of her eye as she was ushered into a large wagon with the other victims of the Changelings.

It was a lengthy trip of days to the border of Equestria proper, and Celestia had plenty of time to talk with her fellow ponies. Many had thought themselves alicorns, like her, others had simply enjoyed an idyllic life with their families or lovers with everything they needed provided for them whilst their bodies lay perfectly preserved in the Changeling pods. And now they had all been freed and reintroduced to the real world and by no means all of them, particularly those from poor backgrounds, were happy about it. Some wished they had never been rescued. They were fed adequately on apples and the guards were pleasant to them; they were not prisoners but rescued ponies after all. Soon enough they reached the Equestrian border and a train that took them back and dropped them off at home. The closer she got to her new home, the more Celestia came to dread what was coming.

Her New Home

After stopping in Manehatten and Stalliongrad, the train came to Canterlot and Celestia stared smiling at the Royal Castle in front of her. She could remember from her Changeling dream every detail of the royal palace, from the rarely used dungeons to the statues in the Royal Gardens, from the Throne room with it's beautiful stained glass windows, to her lovely soft bed. And the guards and the servants and how much they respected and loved her. Her name was not called and she had no choice but to watch the spires and the tall towers of the place she had memories of living in for two thousand years vanish away into the distance. Soon enough the train stopped at Ponyville, far from the fine wealthy streets of Canterlot, where a guard read out her name amongst others and reluctantly she stepped off the train. Facing her were two earth ponies, a white stallion with a hoof as his cutie mark, a gray mare with a heart as hers, and a white blank flank who let out a whinney of sheer delight at her beloved sister coming back to her.

Her parents trotted up and kissed her tenderly on her cheeks and her forehead. "Celestia, we are so delighted to have you back. Tonight, we party. We may not be rich but at least we have you. What was it like in that Changeling hive? Did they beat and mistreat you?"

Celestia hesitated. If I was to tell you what really happened, that they made me think I was an immortal alicorn with a whole Herd of ponies doing my bidding, and that I wish that I had never been rescued at all, your feelings would be deeply hurt. "I'd rather not talk about it right now," she said grumpily. "I've been through so much after all."

When they got home Celestia had to force herself not to turn her nose up in horror. She, who had two thousand years of complete luxury in the Royal Suite, who once owned an entire castle, now had a small house of five rooms of which only one was her own. Of the rest, there was her parent's bedroom, her sister's room, the dining room and the kitchen. For a bath there was a tin one that had to be filled by hoof. Oh, yes, they had decorated the house with paper chains and a sign saying "Welcome Home Celestia" but clearly her parents were poor. She decided to find her new possessions. There were five books;that must be where she earned her book cutie mark from, her talent must have been reading. There was a doll and a toy sceptre, a bracer fixed to it, and a crown.

A crown made of cardboard, with semi-presious stones.

No diamonds, rubies, emeralds or sapphires here, but plenty of other jewels. Amythests and topaz, quartz and garnet, agate and moonstone and here and there a little silver charm. She eased it onto her head and it broiught her some comfort. At least she still had a crown of sorts.

She read her diary. Her father was named Iron Hoof, her mother was named Beauty and her sister was named Luna. They only had enough money to send her and Luna to school for one month in every three, the rest of the time they worked twelve hours a day either bucking apples for Applejack's Loyalty Corperation or, when apples were not in season....pulling carts full of....horse excrement and other such rubbish and spreading them out on the fields. Although she was top of her class, they had no money to educate her or her sister beyond secondary school. She could forget about getting a university degree and getting a good job that would lift her out of poverty. She would spend the rest of her life toiling away and earning barely enough bits to eat and pay bills and taxes, her only holidays being New Year's Eve, Hearth's Warming Day and Princess Aurora's birthday. It was not that she was stupid, far from it, she could read aged two and read adult books aged three, but there was no money for further education.

Celestia had to really struggle not to howl and burst into tears. She, who could remember so much about her life of luxury,a life where she ruled the whole of Equestria and talked with ambassadors from other countries, would never enjoy power or influence or luxury again. Just then she heard her father calling her to eat.

"Hey, you think you're a Princess," her father said with a laugh. "I suppose tonight you are.Tonight, as well as the apple for each of us that we normally eat I brought a cake. Normally we'd never see cake outside of the Holidays. Applejack is a harsh boss, but even she granted a day off from apple bucking to spend a day as a family together after all that you went through in that Changeling hive."

With memories of huge meals with every kind of fruit, grass and vegetable as well as many a cake in her mind, Celestia sadly ate the small meal and savoured every last crumb of the cake.

"Time to go to bed, we have twelve hours of apple bucking ahead of us," her mother said.

Why would any Changeling in their right mind want to impersonate me and life this hard life of toil? It must be because my parents and sister love me so deeply that to a Changeling, the meal of love would be worth it. But I'm not a Changeling and...I want to hunt down an undamaged Changeling hive and beg them to put me back into a pod to feed their grubs. I want to be an alicorn again. Celestia thought. Her bed, when she went to it, was hard, with only a single pillow instead of the five she was used to and she tossed and turned and got very little sleep. It seemed to her that she had only just fallen asleep when her father nuzzled her awake. "Celestia, wake up, it's time to go.apple bucking."

Bucking Apples

It was only the fact that Celestia was used to getting up early to raise the sun in her happy pod-world that gave her the strength to haul herself to her hooves. She and her parents and sister had a mile long trot to reach the apple fields. Whilst the Applejack Corporation would take anyone who could buck, the pay was low and the working conditions were anything but pleasant.

Applejack herself stood there, a horse-whip by her side and her cowboy hat upon her head. "Good to see you back, Celestia. Because of what you have been through at the hands of the Changelings for today only I'll halve your quota-you only have to bring me 150 baskets of apples today instead of 300 baskets. Now get to work."

Celestia knew what she had to do...she placed a basket under the nearest apple tree and bucked it. As she was not fully grown, it took a few hard kicks to make each tree give up it's apples. The first few times it was hard but not unpleasent work, but by the twenty-fifth tree her hooves were starting to ache and her mouth ached from dragging heavy baskets of apples, and there were still so many trees left to buck, so many heavy wickerwork baskets full of apples left to drag with her mouth, and as the sun grew higher it grew hot and so tempting to eat one of the apples and relax a little. Surely Applejack would not miss one apple...

There was a crack as Applejack lashed her rawhide whip across Celestia's cutie mark and Celestia let out a scream of pain. Dropping her whip Applejack screamed at Celestia. "You little thief! You little maggot! I ought to sack both you and your whole family on the spot for this sacrilege. From tomorrow I'll make you wear a muzzle at work, and since you won't be able to pull the basket with your muzzled mouth I'll make you buck 600 trees a day instead until your hooves feel like they're falling off. How did such a poor filly as you get a book cutie mark anyway? It should have been a thief cutie mark! Hard Ass, come over here."

A brown pony with a horsewhip in his mouth and a coiled horsewhip for a cutie mark trotted up, one of Applejack's Overseers.

"Guard this pony, watch her like a griffin, and if she slacks off or eats any apples,whip her until she gets back to work," Applejack told the stallion.

It was a long hard day for Celestia in which every time she tried to rest she was whipped on her back or butt or cutie mark. As an alicorn, for what she thought was two thousand years, she had been coddled, comforted and always treated with respect.True, there had been moments of danger and of sadness-facing down Discord with Luna to bring sanity to Equestria, early battles and wars against griffins, zebras, and others, for Equestria in it's early days was not always at peace, banishing her sister to the moon, the Changeling attack, the loss through old age of ponies that she was close too, but these were few and far between. Now she was being whipped, insulted, treated like a slave, with the knowledge that there was nothing ahead but more misery and toil. She who had ruled so long at the top was now well and truly laid low.

At the end of the day each pony worker was given only a few bits for all their hard work, from a chest that was packed with them. Celestia thought So Applejack exists here, but she's a hard hearted tyrant...what are the others like? Rarity, Fluttershy,do they exist here? Are they any nicer then Applejack? I don't think I can bear much more of this. I have to get away and find an unspoiled Changeling hive, and then hope they decide to feed on my love rather then hurt or kill me. That way I can be an alicorn again.

As they walked home on sore hooves,the lash wounds on Celestia's back caked with dried blood, Iron Hoof struck Celestia hard on her head with his hoof. "You stupid filly! If we get sacked then we'll be homeless and you'll end up earning your bits as a whorse! I wish you had never been rescued from that Changling hive. Your changeling replacement was so much better then you.."

"I wish I was never rescued either," Celestia replied, glaring at him. "In that changeling pod I was an immortal alicorn! Applejack and her friends answered to me, and I lived in luxury...and now look at me! I hate bucking apples! I don't deserve this, I'm better then this."

"Unless you want to end up on the streets as a homeless pony, you will do what you are told. You're not a Princess, not an alicorn, you're a little brat,and I'll hear no more of your nonsense. Yes, you may have earned your cutie mark in reading, but there is no money to send you to college when your schooling ends, and I doubt that they would accept you anyway." Iron Hoof replied, scowling at his daughter.

That night Celestia left a message written on a page of her schoolbook with her mouth.Don't look for me, I am off to find the Changelings. and slipped out into the night, taking with her only a full water-bottle carried in her mouth. I'm never going back there,never she thought.

The Great and Powerful Trixie

By sunrise she was far from her parent's house. I wonder if they will be horribly worried about me when they find out I'm missing and will ask the Ponyville police to find me, or if they'll think I'm an ungrateful brat and will be happy to have one mouth left to feed? Most likely the former, they do love me...I think.But I can't stay with them and spend my life bucking apples until my hooves are sore, when I can be, or rather, think I am, an alicorn. Even if in real life I'm just lying there in a changeling pod. Her hooves began to feel sore soon enough; they had not fully healed from all the bucking of Applejack's trees. Unable to afford the train fare, and unwilling to try and steal anypony's bits, she had no choice but to walk. Once she managed to steal an apple from a stall when the stall-keeper was busy serving somebody. Once she stole an apple pie from a window where it had been left to cool. And once she found a bit lying on the ground and was able to buy an apple slice.Apart from that, she did not eat.in several days,and her belly was soon rumbling with hunger. Water was not such a problem; with the farms in the region, the weather pegasui provided plenty of rain to the area so she could refill her water bottle quickly enough to escape death by thirst.

Her belly constantly screamed to be filled and after a while, her hooves felt almost as if they were on fire despite the soft grass that she could often walk upon. She consoled herself with the thought that she was nearly at the borders of the land of the Changelings. Soon I will be once more hanging inside a pod as Princess Celestia, a Goddess once more, loved and cherished by all my little ponies. And even if I don't become an alicorn again, at least things will be better for me then they are now. As she reached the border that separated Equestria from the Changeling Queendom, she started to cry because a thick pink magical force-field now stood between her and where she wanted to go. She ran up to it and beat on it over and over again with her hooves without even putting a dent in it. "I was so close, so close!" she wailed. "But I'm not going back there, I'm never going back there. I deserve more then a life spent bucking apples, I want to be somepony!" Just then a trailer appeared, clearly powered by magic as it moved along of it's own accord. The driver, a blue unicorn wearing a coat and hat that were covered with stars and moons stopped and stared down at the unhappy white earth pony in front of her.

"I am the Great and Powerful Trixie," she said loudly, "and who are you? Why are you so unhappy? And why are you trying to break through into a restricted and highly dangerous area for? You're not a changeling spy that got cut off from it's country, are you?"

Celestia sighed. "My name is Celestia and no, I'm not a changeling although I can see why it would look like that. I was...it's hard to explain. I was captured by the changelings two months ago and hung up in a cocoon so my love could be drained to feed their grubs. But whilst I was in the cocoon I was dreaming, a dream that seemed so real. For two thousand years in my dream I was an alicorn, the ruler of all of Equestria, and of the sun and the moon as well.And then I was...rescued by the Equestrian Royal Guards and returned home. Where I found that my life was one of grinding poverty and hard toil. Not wanting to spend the rest of my life slaving away for Applejack, I ran away here hoping to hand myself back to the Changelings so that I could go back to my dream. Please could you open a hole in this forcefield so that I could find the nearest Changeling hive? You certainly appear to be one powerful pony."

"If I was to do that, and the Royal Guards were to find out, I could be hauled up on a charge of High Treason, and at worst could be banished to the Moon, a death sentence for any non alicorn, or made into a stone statue decorating the Palace Grounds. But I can offer help of a different kind. I can make you my apprentice and teach you magic. Not the basic magic that any unicorn filly knows, but real magic.In return, you can look after me...you can rub my back after a show, I love that. You can in effect be part servant, part apprentice. It's a lot better then bucking apples all day, that is for sure. You won't be paid, but you will get food and shelter and one day will learn enough magic and showponyship to become a witch and a showpony in your own right.With your own fans cheering your name to the rafters.If you join me now, I have plenty of food waiting for you."

"I will do that," Celestia said, and Trixie ushered her into her trailer and gave her the first proper meal she had enjoyed in days. Two sandwiches, some oats and hay, some apples and water, enough to fill her empty belly that had been screaming to be fed for so long.

"You may not be a unicorn," Trixie said, "but although most unicorns don't like to tell them about it, earth ponies have magic within them as well. I will teach you a simple spell tonight...how to move small objects like a unicorn can. You can start with a single bit and move on from there."

Celestia smiled. "Why are you agreeing to help me then if most unicorns want to keep the secrets of magic for themselves?"

"Because most unicorns dare to look down on the Great and Powerful Trixie and think themselves to be above her, snobs that they are. This is a small way of getting my own back," Trixie replied.

Trixie taught her the spell and sure enough, with a lot of concentration Celestia could make a single bit move around in the air. "It's a lot like weight-lifting," Trixie told her. "If you practice for long enough you would even be able to pick up a pony using your magic."

Trixie's Servant

"You can sleep outside tonight in a hammock that I'll set up for you.,I have three pillows you can use. I trust you not to run away with them as I beleave your story and you would have nowhere to go anyway," Trixie told Celestia.

"Thank you," Celestia said. Whilst not as pleasant as the royal bed she had enjoyed as an alicorn, three pillows were a lot better then one or none at all, and a hammock was a lot more comfortable then either the ground or where she slept back at home.For the first time since she was cut out of the Changeling cocoon, she enjoyed a decent sleep, at least until she was woken early by the rising sun. But as an alicorn in her dream world she had woken up early anyway so she now felt refreshed. Over the next few days she looked after Trixie. She went on errands for her, rubbed her back and cleaned her hooves, and she massaged her ego. And in return, Trixie helped her awake the earth pony magic deep within her body. And whenever she got the chance, Celestia practiced the little magic that she had been taught. Soon she could hold an item the size and weight of a small rock with her magic. If she got an itch in a place that it would be rude to scratch with a hoof in public, she would scratch it with her magic. It was both polite and much more satisfying. After they spent a month together Celestia could pick up things almost as well as a unicorn could, and Trixie could siphon off a little of Celestia's magic to boost her own power.

Before she found Celestia, Trixie was lucky most days to have more then a hundred or so ponies turn up to pay to see her shows when she booked music halls and other such places. Busking brought more but often the Royal Guards either demanded bribes or moved her on. Now, as her magic grew stronger and her tricks more impressive, there would be nights when thousands of ponies gathered to see her preform and to pay over their hard earned bits in the process. About half those bits went to the owners of the places where she preformed, but what was left over was still a lot of money. And slowly a few of those bits started to trickle down to Celestia. At first she only got the occasional bit from Trixie to buy a sandwich or an apple now and then. Then she got twenty bits a week to buy things with. It was not much, but it was most likely more then she would have earned bucking large numbers of apple trees every day until her hooves were sore. Then when the money really started poring in she got seven hundred bits a week as well as the free accommodation and a certain amount of free food and free magic tuition from the Great and Powerful Trixie.

Some ponies would have felt exploited but Celestia never complained. As well as picking things up with her magic as well as any unicorn, she could now create a ball of were-light to light the way and knew two or three other spells. She could afford a good bed with multiple pillows and even a small trailer of her own. It was true that she didn't get the fame that belonged to Trixie, she was very much a backstage pony, but she was living for the first time a decent life. One day she asked Trixie for permission to go and see her parents and Trixie replied with a smile. "Not only do I give you permission to go, but I, the Great and Powerful Trixie will come with you. Since I met you and trained you, my own power has grown and my genius has been well and truly recognized, so it is the least that I can do in return."

When they got there it was to find Luna, Celestia's blank flank sister, howling and crying, Beauty close to tears and Iron Hoof glaring as everything the family had, which was not much was dragged out of their house by three sturdy earth ponies, whilst a unicorn with a cutie mark of a broken house watched them. "What in Equestia is going on here?" Celestia demanded.

"After you ran away we could not get our quota per day of apples bucked," Iron Hoof replied, "And Applejack foreclosed on our house, sacked us and threw us out."

"How can you do such a thing to my parents? put their stuff back NOW," Celestia snapped, and then Trixie intervened.

"The last pony that angered the Great and Powerful Trixie, a bandit, I think he was, ended up hopping about and eating flies as a frog for the rest of his life. I strongly advise you to do what Celestia says, unless you want the same thing to happen to you." At the sight of the showmare, worried that she might carry out her threat, the bailiff ponies backed down, but not before saying that their boss Applejack would be informed. Soon enough Applejack came galloping over in a fury.

"Who the hell are you to intervene in a lawful eviction? They didn't pick enough apples or earn enough bits so Ah want them out."

"If I pick those apples for you, will you stop this and leave my family in their house?," Celestia asked.

"You?," Applejack snorted. "You're a single filly, there is no way you can pick enough apples to pay their debt."

Celestia let her magic pick one apple, then five at a time, then tree after tree was stripped of it's apples within seconds until the entire field was bare and all the apples were in their baskets and ready to be sold. Applejack stared and her mouth dropped open. Unicorns considered toiling in the apple fields to be beneath them, and alicorns would not even consider it. So this was a real novelty. When the last apple had been picked Applejack told her "Not only is the debt paid, but you have earned yourself a thousand bits. If you do the rest of my fields I'll offer you two thousand more."

New Friends

Celestia hesitated. "No, and I'll tell you why I'm saying no. Because you treated me and my family horribly. Because you maltreat and grossly overwork those who buck your apples for you. And because you were so nasty to me just because I ate only one of your precious apples. And because if I do that for you you'll most likely sack and evict all of your workers, making them even poorer then they are before. Don't get me wrong, I respect you for building your farm up into a big business, and I know that you most likely started small like I did. But I can't bring myself to be your friend when you were so horrible to me in the past. I'll give half the bits I earned today to my parents so they can pay rent and eat for a while and even have a few days of holiday, they deserve it. Oh, and if when I'm away you give my family a hard time, I'll come back and crush all your apples whilst they are still on the trees. If I can pick them I can certainly crush them too." Having made herself clear Celestia helped her family move their few possessions back into their house. "That was kind of you," Iron Hoof told her. "Many ponies would have taken Applejack's money."

Celestia snorted. "That would only have made things a lot worse for you and everypony who toils for Applejack.You deserve better then that. Now you can get good food and proper bedding and later I'll drop by and help you some more. Luna?" Her sister came up and Celestia told her "As I was taught the basics of magic by Trixie Lulamoon, so I will do the same for you, and I want you to quietly teach it to all your fellow earth pony friends." By the next day, Luna could pick up a bit just like Celestia, and it would only be a matter of time before she could use her magic to pick up heavier things.

The next evening as Trixie, with Celestia helping her behind the scenes, was at yet another large magic show in Ponyville, Applejack was fuming with revenge at her offer being turned down, and went to the Ponyville police station to make a complaint. A unicorn police pony with a handcuffs cutie mark was at the desk. "I'd like to make a complaint against an earth pony by the name of Celestia, for threatening to use magic to crush all the apples on the Apple Family farm. She's white in color with a blue book for a cutie mark. I'd like her arrested for it." The police pony nodded. "I will tell Inspector Spy Glass and we will see what we can do." When a pony as rich as Applejack, one of the richest ponies in Ponyville, made a request to law enforcement they would do their best to help her, at least partly in the hope of a heavy (and illegal) payment for it afterward. Although the Ponyville police force was not highly corrupt, money was a factor.

As Celestia walked back to her family's house after the show, with Trixie by her side, a couple of police unicorns trotted up to them, handcuffs and batons floating in the air beside them. "Celestia, you are under arrest on a charge of making threats to destroy Applejack's personal property. We are here to take you to the station."

Perhaps if Celestia might have thought about things a little bit she might have done things differently, but she let her anger get the better of her and spoke a spell of firework summoning. With loud bangs and crackles that slightly singed them the police stallions dropped their equipment and galloped away. Trixie stared at her. "Why did you do that? Now the police will think that the Great and Powerful Trixie is also to blame for this and want to arrest me as well, and I can do without a costly legal case."

"Trixie, I'm sorry for getting you dragged into this. But we need to teach as many earth ponies as possible the secrets of magic. Have you noticed how almost all the best jobs...in the police force, the legal firms, scribing and many more, are nearly all filled by unicorns as they can pick things up without having to use their mouths or bracers? Oh yes, the occasional earth pony like Applejack or Filthy Rich can become rich too, but for the most part the earth ponies are stuck in the menial, boring, low paid jobs. Growing food, bucking apples, and the like. How many unicorns do you see at our level? If the earth ponies were able to get magic they would not have to be stuck at the bottom, like ninety-nine percent of them are. We are the ninety-nine percent, and with magic we can have change we can beleave in!"

Trixie was rather worried and said, "The sort of things you are saying could get you sent to Foalsom Prison or even turned to stone to decorate the Canterlot Palace Gardens if the Princess thinks that you are spreading Discordian ideas and filling Equestria with chaos. What you are saying sounds very close to treason to me."

"I'm not against the Princess, it's her ministers in general and the regime that we have to change, and for that we need the support of the herd. If one pony demonstrates he or she would just get arrested and blacklisted and end up unemployable, but if ponies demonstrate in their thousands, or their tens of thousands, what can they do but talk with us?"

"We have to get out of here NOW before the entire Ponyville Police Force shows up and drags us away in chains," Trixie pointed out, and they left the area quickly before that happened, Celestia with a burning desire to change Equestria for the better, and Trixie wondering what the hell she had got herself into.

You Say You Want A Revolution

Over the next few days, Celestia did just what she said she would and began teaching as many earth ponies magic as she could,asking nothing in return but a night's sleep at their house and that they would teach unicorn magic to their families and friends. The magic that she taught was not dangerous stuff like how to summon fireworks, which could easily be horribly misused. Instead she taught basic magic of the kind the unicorns used to pick things up and move them around. After only a month, hundreds of earth ponies knew how to use unicorn magic; not long afterwards the number was in the thousands. Trixie and Celestia split up, Trixie touring well away from Canterlot where there was now a warrant out for her arrest. Celestia spent most of her time and energy teaching magic to earth ponies,and pegusai and the majority of them loved her for it. A few started calling her their Princess, and brought her small gifts...apples and sandwiches, silverbloom flowers and pillows. One made her a cardboard crown studded with semi-precious stones of the kind that were so common in Equestria; garnets and quartz, amethysts and copper, silver charms and peridots and lapis lazuli.

With this magic, at least the more well educated earth ponies had a better chance of getting jobs that were almost always given to the unicorns. Some of the unicorns, Prince Blueblood amongst them, complained to Princess Aurora that the earth ponies were getting uppity and refusing to serve their betters. Not long after that Celestia found a small crowd of angry grumbling earth ponies gathered around a poster. When she got close enough to read the poster it read "Let it be known by royal decree that Celestia is declared a traitor to the Crown on two counts;calling herself the rightful Princess of this country and teaching earth ponies magic. The teaching of and use of unicorn magic by earth ponies and pegasus ponies is now forbidden as it encourages them to act above their station. There is a reward of ten thousand bits to the pony or ponies who hand over the traitor to the Police or the Royal Guard." Instead of turning on her, the crowd of earth ponies were indignant and Celestia said "Are we ants to be stepped on? Bring friends, as many as you can, and we will proceed to Aurora Square and demonstrate and show them how we feel."

Celestia's heart started thumping as she set off to the square with around forty earth ponies and a few pegasui. If this does not work out, if I cannot get enough support quickly enough, then I'll end up jailed in Foalsom Prison, an anti-magic collar locked onto my neck.Or maybe something worse will happen to me. More ponies started joining them in twos and threes and Celestia started up a chant "The ponies want the regime to fall!" By the time they reached the square there were too many for the small police force of Ponyville to disperse, and even more started to show up. Celestia got on top of a tree stump. "Ponies of Ponyville, lend me your ears. We are here to protest the unjust law that restricts magic to unicorns. All the pony races, be they unicorn, pegasus or earth pony, deserve to use magic as long as it is not done for evil. If we disperse to our homes, the police and the royal guards will come for us one by one and haul us off to prison. But if we stay together, united, they can't."

By the end of the day there were many thousands of ponies in the square. Celestia and others had made speeches to them, Trixie had showed up and entertained them with magic in a one off free show, and a large unit of Royal Guards had turned up but only to guard the railway station and the road to Canterlot. They made no attempt to beat or arrest the protesters and the protesters for their part behaved themselves and didn't throw things at the guards or try and push past them.
*****
Prince Blueblood cantered up and burst into the royal throne room. A lesser pony would have been barred by the guards at spear point if need be, but he was of such high rank that they decided not to block him in case he found a way with his influence behind the scenes to ruin their careers. "Princess Aurora, thousands of lowly earth ponies are protesting in Ponyville, calling openly for your regime to fall and not doing their jobs. I insist that you send in the Guards and beat up the treasonous scum who challenge their betters. Now."

Princess Aurora snorted in disgust. "I will do no such thing. The road and rail links to Canterlot are blocked and the protest is non-violent. Going in hard would be the most idiotic thing I could possibly do. It would turn a small problem into a great big one. If ponies are beaten, jailed, even killed, others will take up the struggle and it'll burn like a flash fire from end to end of Equestria. If I wait, it'll burn itself out quietly and then I can have the ringleaders arrested if need be. And talking of respecting your betters,you seem to have no respect for me, your Princess and immortal ruler. Leave this room now, and guards, you have my royal permission to stop him bursting in again, as long as you don't kill him or totally beat him up in the process. If you really have to, use your spear butts on him."

Aurora thought a little. Would it be so bad to let earth ponies and pegasui use basic magic like unicorns do? Obviously we don't want them using dangerous magic like that summon fireworks spell, but basic magic would make them happier and healthier and able to achieve far more. With a restriction or two for safety and common sense, I see no problems with it.
She summoned her sky chariot pulled by a pair of pegusai and set off for the protest. With a bit of tact,I can end this, stop future protests and put that oaf Blueblood in his place, without having to give away an ounce of power.

The Sun Come to Earth

Celestia was feeling quite pleased with herself as she looked around Aurora Square, which had filled with earth ponies determined to show their Queen how they felt,and even some protesting pegusai. The local police of Ponyville, backed up by a unit of Canterlot Royal Guards, kept a close eye on everybody going in and out of the square, but made no move to strop anyone entering or leaving, settling for blocking the routes to Canterlot. Trixie didn't look happy. "They're cleverer then we thought. Right now they can't arrest us or hurt us without our supporters kicking off and maybe even rioting. But we can only keep this going for at most, a day or two more. Most of the ponies have jobs, and they need to earn their bits. Also, they'll get bored given enough time and just drift away. And then we'll both end up locked up. Princess Aurora is not in any way stupid, she's ruled for thousands of years and she knows the weaknesses of mass movements such as ours. If we take this further and march on Canterlot, we'll be giving the green light to the Royal Guards to repress us, if we don't, interest in us will fade away. Why are the ponies all bowing down like that?"

The shouts of "The ponies want the fall of the regime" died away as everypony in the square, stallions, mares, and colts and fillies alike, sank to their knees. For it was Princess Aurora who stood there, her mane flickering with the colors of the aurora borealis, her white fur perfectly clean, her royal clothing and many-jeweled golden crown glittering and gleaming, the very picture of pony royalty. She frowned. Her voice was sweet but there was no disguising the annoyance in it. "Do you? Do you really want my regime to fall? Who will raise the sun when it sinks below the horizon? Which one of you will raise the moon? If you were indeed to topple me, within weeks your crops would fail and it would get very cold around here. You would be driven to meat eating to survive, then when you could no longer hunt down animals,you would starve and die if the cold and the snow did not get you first. Is that what you want? The freedom to do without sunlight and moonlight? What is this about? Explain it to me."

Celestia said "I...we think all races of ponies should be able to use basic magic to pick things up. That's all. And we don't want your regime to fall, we just needed a catchy slogan."

"You know what?" Princess Aurora replied. "On that point I agree with you. I will make a Royal Decree giving all earth ponies and pegusai the right to use basic magic if they can use it. For advanced magic that if used wrongly or stupidly could harm other ponies, a license will be needed. Certain magics, those that are already banned such as necromancy and the making of love potions will remain banned. And although your protest is technically treason, you will all be pardoned." The ponies got to their feet, clopped their hooves together and cheered their merciful and unexpectedly generous Princess. She raised a hoof. "However, in exchange you will go back to your jobs and your houses and stop this protest. And please don't do it again or I will not show mercy. You...Celestia, I think your name is, come with me to Canterlot. I came here by sky-chariot so your transportation will not be a problem. I want to know more about you." The ponies, happily that their Princess had heeded their protest, were happy enough to go back to their normal lives.

On the way there Celestia answered all the Princess's questions and the Princess showed a suitable interest. "So under the effects of Changeling venom you thought yourself a Princess like me and ruled for a thousand years? Interesting, very interesting and you're certainly not to blame for what happened to you. I think I need a new student, would you like to take up the post? Better to have you urinating out of the tent then outside the tent urinating in. For a paid job you can become the librarian of the new Ponyville library, as long as you behave yourself and cause no more discord. We had enough of that when Discord was free.. "

"I'd be honored," Celestia smiled, as she realized her life would now greatly improve.

***

Dashed Hopes

That night there was many a party amongst the earth ponies, now that they had gained the legal right to use magic to manipulate things like unicorns. Even Applejack allowed her workforce to stop work for a day and have not only a party, but an apple feast, with cider as well. This was almost unprecedented for Applejack of all ponies to do this. She invited Trixie Lulamoon to be her guest of honor. "Trixie, I may be a rich earth pony but I have longed to use unicorn magic and would pay you well-let's say...five thousand Equestria bits.You deserve it." Trixie stared at her wide eyed. Five thousand bits was more then she got from a major show after taxes and the payment of the venue owner.It would keep her in apples and other food for a long while.She happily taught Applejack the spell and the party went on long into the night.

The next day Applejack had all her employees lined up in front of her and picked out ten of them to stand behind her. "Right, the rest of you are now redundant, you will get two days severance pay. If you're wondering why, me and Big Mac and ten of you can now do the work of hundreds using unicorn magic."

All over Equestria the farms and other businesses that traditionally relied upon earth pony lifting to do the heavy work suddenly found that as low-level magic took a lot less energy then physically holding things, one pony could do the work of ten.
Large numbers of earth ponies now found themselves made unemployed, and although they tried to get other, better, jobs, few managed to do so. Most bosses on land tended to be unicorns, who despised the "uppity"in their eyes earth ponies who thought themselves equal to the unicorn race. Within a year many an earth pony was homeless and reduced to begging, stealing, or eating grass. Celestia, as Aurora's student, could see her rather more often then most ponies, often as often as once a week.

One day she asked her "Princess, is there anything you can do about the plight of the earth ponies? I heard only one in five now has a job and the normally very low crime rate of Equestria is rocketing to the ;point that there have even been murders happening. Could you please either make a law saying businesses should hire a certain quota of earth ponies, or establish benefits for the unemployed?"

Princess Aurora sighed. "Celestia, it is your and Trixie's fault. You urged the earth ponies to think above their station and they didn't think it through properly. What they are going through is simple economics, businesses are not charities and will always want to employ as few workers as possible. What stopped them hiring unicorns is that most unicorns had better things to do with their time then pick apples or drag around heavy carts. Now that one worker can safely do the work of five without burning out in the process, of course unemployment has risen. And no, I won't do either of your suggestions. The first would be unfair to the owners of businesses who may hire and fire whoever they want to. The only things they cannot fire for is a refusal to take part in crime, or for giving evidence in court or to the police or the royal guards or me, and I want it to stay that way, The second would destroy discipline and the work ethic, as almost nopony in the lower jobs would want to do them if they could get bits or food for free, and our society would collapse."

"But Princess, the earth ponies are starving. There are too many of them chasing too few jobs. Sooner or later they will call for real for your government to fall."

"And I will ignore them unless they get violent or riot, in which case a few new statues will soon be decorating my royal gardens or if the Elements are on the blink, Foalsom Prison will be full to bursting with the ringleaders. From what you told me earlier, in a changeling cocoon you thought you were ruling Equestria. If it is that pleasant, why not take a pilgrimage of earth ponies who are doing very badly here with my permission to the lands of the Changelings? I will open a hole in the force-field for you to leave. That way, if what you have told me is true, nobody loses. You get to be the ruler of Equestria in your dreams, the Changelings get free food, perhaps to the point that their Queen becomes friendly with Equestria and the force-field can be lowered, and Equestria can get rid of it's useless eaters in a nice way. Every statue in my gardens was once a dissident, and they are all still alive sealed in stone, unable to move or speak, unable to scratch an itch or roll their eyes, baked by sun, freezing in the winter, only able to see what they are facing and to think. Some have been that way for centuries. It would be a pity to add you to their number, which is what I will have to do if you start causing trouble again. Think about that."

The Plan

Celestia nodded sadly. In some ways Princess Aurora is a lot like me when I was ruling Equestria, although she seems a lot harsher then me. I tried not to let anypony starve even when times were hard whilst she does not seem to care. But I was just as intolerant of any opposition, and not just Discord ended up sealed in stone. Almost every statue in the castle gardens was once a traitor or a dissident of some kind. You don't rule for a thousand years without facing some opposition after all. "Princess," she said politely, "I thank you for your suggestion, and I ask for ten days to gather together those who would rather hang in a Changeling cocoon then live a life of poverty and hardship in the real world." The immortal alicorn smiled.

"Your wish is granted and you have my permission. It is better to let troublemakers out of the country then wait until they infect the masses within," said the Queen. And it was then that Celestia came up with an idea. She bowed to the Princess and left the royal palace and found a rather unhappy Trixie waiting for her. When they were safely out of earshot she said to her "The Princess has told me that anypony who is having a really bad time can go into the Changeling's country and offer themselves up as food. Now, between ourselves, I have an...idea. A very treasonous idea. If I was to persuade the Changelings to seek revenge, and you were to spell-break the force field....well, there are many earth ponies who would join with them to bring Aurora down."

Trixie shuddered. "That's high treason. I could be turned to stone for it. And what if the changelings prove to be much worse then the Princess? Princess Aurora may have her faults, but she's ruled for a thousand years and ruled quite well. And have you thought of this...who will move the sun and moon across the sky? Everlasting night would first kill the crops and then starve everypony. Those who were able to stomach eating...meat would last a while but they too would run out of food in the long term. Everlasting day would not be quite so bad;I suppose the pegusai could arrange a cloud cover to allow enough light in for plants to be grown whilst not allowing enough to make it be too hot. It's not as if the Changeling Queen has the power to move the moon and sun."

"What if...what if Equestria in fact orbits the sun, and the Moon orbits Equestria, because of the scientific force of gravity, instead of them being moved around by the magic of an alicorn? What if Princess Aurora is only pretending to move the sun around so that everypony will worship her? Have you thought of that?"

Trixie stared at her. "Heresy! Don't worry, I won't report you, but how do you expect anypony to beleave that? How can you possibly prove it? Even if you could, you would become a wanted mare very quickly."

"I can't," Celestia said sadly. "But many earth ponies would love the Changelings if they took power and made some reforms. And the love they got would feed the Changelings enough that they would not have to attack ponies to get it. Ponies and Changelings can live together, I am sure of it. Now, here is what I want you to do..."

*****
Ten days later a surprisingly large group of ponies had gathered together to make the journey to the Changeling Hives, the vast majority both earth ponies and perfectly willing to go. Here and there were a few pegusai or unicorns who had trouble in their lives and thought a new *life* in a Changeling pod was the way to go, or had been captured by the Changelings before and then rescued by the Royal Equestrian Army. On the Princess's orders, disabled ponies who were blind or could not walk, or who were thought mentally ill, had been added willingly or otherwise. The Princess herself was flown in her sky-chariot to meet them with a larger then normal escort of Royal Guards..

"My little ponies..." Princess Aurora glared angrily at them, and her voice had nothing of her normal warmth. "Some of you are lazy and cannot be bothered to work....others clearly don't like my rule. Still others are disabled and as far as I am concerned, useless. Most of you are perfectly willing to leave, others are being deported on my orders. I will be rid of you, the Changelings will be fed and perhaps in time will be less of a threat because of that, and you can live lives of luxury in your Changeling pods. Everybody wins. I will open a gate in the border for you to leave, and then you can go. Most of you want to go anyway but those who refuse will be expelled from my lands by force. Goodbye, and also, good riddance." Her horn glowed and a portal opened in the forcefield, and the willing and the deportees trotted or were forced through it. When the last one had gone through, it was closed behind them.

Celestia felt much warmer, the land they were in was scrub land, and clearly no pegusai controlled the weather here. Like the Everfree Forest, the weather was left to run wild.Nearby, a large dust devil blew past them, and specks were seen in the air. Specks that rapidly grew and turned into changelings, circled above them in the air, and then dwindled again. "Those are the scouts,they'll tell the nearest Hive that we're here,and then we can expect a lot of Changeling attention, but they should be fine with us when we explain we don't mind being made into their food," Celestia told them. Either way things should work out, either I'll be an alicorn again or I'll be able to get my revenge on Princess Aurora for her ill treatment of the earth ponies.