12 O'Clockby Sc0rcHChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 112 O'Clock Chapter 1 "Intro" 16th of February 2019. one year anniversary after the end of the war. "It's snowing....." I mumble to myself. The cool breeze flowing through the cracks of the building all but calm my nerves, i'm so anxious about today. But i need to relax my thoughts, this won't work if i'm shaking like a small dog. I get up from my make shift bed in the clock tower that i made my residents, for now, deciding that i'm done procrastinating for it's almost time. I grab my rifle and uncover a small hole i made in the eastern wall earlier. "They're about in position, right on time too" I lie on my stomach facing the small opening, pointing my rifle through it. I look through the scope and get a read on the soldiers below. "One, Two, Three........Four, not as many as i thought, guess that just makes my job easier" I rest my finger on the trigger and wait for the right moment. Oh. Why now? 3rd of March 2017 three years into the siege. "Hey comrade, where do you come from?" A rookie. Typical rookie looks, clean white coat, bright blue eyes, i can't see his mane, looks like he was just drafted. Probably from the west. "Используйте язык вашей матери. Они не знают." "Сожалею." Better. "What do you need my friend." "I was just curious where you came from, you don't look like your from here." "...I'm from the northern district..." "Oh, so i guess you know your way around then?" "...." "....C-Care to give me a few poin-" "You ask a lot of questions, now is not the time." I get up and walk away from the rookie giving him a dirty look and walk to another part of the trench. Maybe he'll learn some manners. I walk past some other soldiers, laughing about when they were still civilians. Laugh all you like, you won't be laughing when your facing your enemy's who won't be laughing. I continue my walk through the trench taking in what was left of the environment, there's a wide meadow to the east and a large sized town to the west, divided by a two layer, four foot deep pre-made death pit. A very dense forest line to the south with it becoming less dense the more you turn east, a large mountain line to the north that is a few kilometers tall that spans tens of thousands kilometers east and west separating the tundra and the forest. Still some snow left from the winter but it's starting to melt now, the trees are starting to turn green again, no birds today, maybe they'll come back some other day. I can't wait for the day when we push back these fascists out of our motherland so she can heal herself from these wounds. I finish my walk through the trench and enter a small cave system dug out by the engineers. We've only been here for three days and already they got all this built, feckers are fast at what they do. I walk through the cave system occasionally stopping and chatting with my fellow ranks, i finally locate my bed. (If you can call it that) I set my rifle down against the wall next to 'my bed' and lay down myself, i haven't slept in three days, if i stay awake any longer i might mistake a comrade for an enemy because i'm too tired. I slowly begin to doze off, listening to the distant echos of gunfire, the firing from artillery and the shells flying overhead has become a sort of lullaby to me now. "Hope that doesn't happen twice, what time is it?" I say to myself to act as if somepony else was with me. I look at the watch on my rifle. 11:58 AM "Hmm" I look back through my scope. They got more down there.There's about twenty now. and it looks like they're just starting. "Damn" I mutter under my breath, I look at the watch again. 11:59 AM "Almost time........." The clock tower shifts into position for the daily enlightenment. I give an aggravated growl, not another flashback. 4th of march 2017 "...." "...." "...." "снайпер!" I awake to a fellow rank shouting from outside of the cave, i jump out of bed and snatch my rifle up making sure it's loaded and sprint out of the cave into the trench. My colleagues are already returning fire, a comrade is down just outside of the entrance to the cave, not taking long i duck below the ledge so i don't get shot myself. "WE GOT A SNIPER NORTH-EAST!" Shouts the commander an older stallion maybe mid forty's, crimson red fur, black and grey mane and scars from his previous fights, a true warrior. "FIRE SOME TRACERS IN HIS VICINITY! WHERE'S OUR MARKSMAN!?" He yells looking for me. "HERE COMMANDANT!" I shout to him to drown out the gunfire. I duck under a comrade shooting over me from a trench above. It's that same rookie, i don't have time to yell at him for cross firing for the commander begins barking orders at me. "GET TO HIGH GROUND, FIND THAT УБЛЮДОК AND TAKE HIM OUT! WE'll GIVE YOU COVERING FIRE SO YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS GRAVE!" He shouts at me. "YES COMMANDANT!" I obey his orders and sprint off from the cave entrance and run up a pre-made slope to the north of the trench and begin running to a nearby five story building, an old residential building now abandoned, running as fast as i can to the now destroyed structure, i crash through the closed door knocking it off it's hinges and run up the stairs across the room as fast as my legs can propel me, finally i reach the top, the whole roof is caved in from the shelling earlier in the week, i see some built up rubble to the right of the door next to a window, 'that'll make a good hiding spot' i thought to myself, i move slowly over to the rubble so not to be seen, i gently lie down onto my stomach and begin scanning for the sniper. "Where is he!? Where is he!?" I repeat in my head trying my best to find him, it's even harder now that the sun in facing me. The sun might be glaring on my scope. I lay my rifle down and pull out my binoculars and resume the search. "Where where where where whe-" I see him....... He's looking right at me. *CLANG* I'm torn back to reality by the loud clang of shifting gears above by the old tower. Guess that's my cue. Damned flashbacks. Why are they happening now? I take a moment to ponder why, but then i remember the task at hand. I look at the watch. 12 o'clock. It's started now. I look trough my scope and see that she's up there now. Princess celestia, wearing her now iconic golden suit of armor, my target. And her sister, princess luna, what? "She's not supposed to be here." Princess luna looks fairly upset about something, I wonder what it is. Celestia is supposed to give a speech about something, something politics, sanctions, blockades against Russland or something like that, nothing out of the ordinary. I push up on the action on my mosin and pull back, letting the first round be pushed up and align itself towards the chamber, i push forward and slap down on the action. Ready to fire. I gauge the shot. "Not much wind, downward angle, 350, maybe 400 meters. Now i wait...." .... .... The clock begins chiming. "Wait for it...." I say to my self as some sort of way to relax myself. The anticipation is getting to me, it's making me shake my rifle. "Calm down old timer, they'll be really upset if you screw this up." I empty my lungs to stabilize my shot, i align my crosshairs. The first gong sounds. *BANG* Chapter 212 O’Clock Chapter 0.5 "A New Beginning" 5:55 pm. 1st of October 2018 Princess celestia imagines giving a long bored sigh as she sits in her seat, pushing through the monthly Q&A. It's common in these Q&A's for subjects to come and ask questions that would normally be simple to answer; 'My annoying neighbors' 'My daughter won't go to school' and other related questions, occasionally a pony will come up and ask a serious question; 'What are you doing to decrease, increasing global tensions?' 'What are you doing to counter the ever growing unrest in the west and south of the kingdom' and other related questions. After eight hours of answering 98% simple questions and 2% actual questions, the day has finally come to an end. "Alright my subjects, this monthly Q&A will be over soon, i can answer one more question before we leave it at that for this month." Celestia says informing the reporters and citizens of the closing of the Q&A, multiple Journalists and ponies raise their hands yo try to gain their princesses attention to get the final question in for it ends. "Hmm" Celestia thinks to herself, looking for a good looking reporter to answer, she spots a young reporter with a cream colored coat and long chocolate colored mane with caramel eyes, wearing the basic beige colored female reporter outfit, celestia points to the young information collector and the moderator walks towards her. Once the moderator reaches the reporter she hands her a microphone and the other ponies in the room fall silent. "Good afternoon princess," She begins, celestia nods in appreciation and waits for the reporter to continue. "My name is Ink Well, i represent TEDO (The Equestrian Daily Opinion) and i have come here today to ask about your thoughts regarding this....". 'TEDO? They're still a thing?' Celestia thinks to herself. Ink Well grabs her station issued 'Equis Standard Journalist Satchel™' and produces a sky-blue folder and takes out it's contents. "The TEDO office has recently received photos of you meeting with a rusion government official in moscolt-" Celestia interrupts. "Okay? I've met with many rusions officials before, i don't see why this is a problem." She says calmly if a bit confused. "The source of these photos say they were taken in 2014." Other reporters and ponies begin quietly chatting with each other, celestia visibly shifts nervously in her seat. "May i see these photos" Celestia requests. "Of course." The moderator takes the folder from Ink Well and walks towards the desk celestia is sat at and hands it to her, celestia takes out the first photo and is immediately shocked by what she sees. The first photo is a clear shot of her giving the rusion ministry of defense; Black Iceberg a warm handshake, the next photo is a shot of her and the minister walking into the main RMoD building, the third photo is her walking out of the RMoD with the minister and the top general of the Rusion Armed Forces; Red Glacier. Several other photos are in the folder all of which consist of her walking or talking with some rusion government or military official. "I-i don't know anything about these photos" Celestia says attempting to hide her nervousness. "That is clear evidence of your collusion with the rusions when we were just beginning military operations on the city stalliongrad!" The young reporter contests. "I-i-i..." Celestia tries and fails to speak. "I haven't any clue of these allegations!" Celestia counters. "You're a liar!" A citizen shouts from the crowd, "Sir, please be silent, we will not be taking anymore.... The moderator tries to speak but is quickly drowned out by the protests of the reporters and subjects. "Traitor!" "Liar!" "Rusion partisan!" More and more insults are thrown by crowd soon becoming static noise do to so many ponies talking at once. "Please my loyal subjects, allow me to explain myself!" Celestia attempts to calm the growing in numbers crowd. They don't listen, and continue the barrage of insults toward the princess. "Terrorist!" "Pan-Volgavist!" "Tyrant!" "Rusophilic!" The Insults increase in loudness and grow more intense. "My citizens, i have a full justification for this! Just give me a chance to speak! Please!" The protests don't stop and instead grow more and more intense. The wall to the room begin to crack until the wall behind the princess fall down and reveals the entire city of canterlot who are also protesting and shouting insults. The princess again tries to calm down the protesters but can't even hear her own words over the noise of the protesters. The protesting begin to raise in height and form a wall of insults toward the princess. The desk and chair celestia had been sitting at disappeared, now she is standing on the cold stone floor of an unknown place, knowing she will never end the assault her once faithful subjects are bringing down on her, she just lies down on her side and curls up into the fettle position attempting to block out all the negative remarks. Celestias eyes shoot open, her sleep disturbed by the blaring sound of her alarm clock, she slowly sits up in her bed and looks around her bedchambers, letting her eyes adjust to the early morning light leaking in through the curtains that leads to her balcony. "Nopony here...." She says to herself, she uncovers her legs and swings them over the edge of her bed and rubs her face with her hands. "....Just another bad dream cellee." She reassures herself, she sits there, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. She looks at her alarm clock; 2:32 am 02/16/19 Sa. it reads. "I need to get ready for the speech." She says to herself. She stands up and presses the snooze button on the alarm clock, shutting it off, she walks to her bathroom yawning, stretching and clearing the sleep and guck from her eyes signifying the beginning of the morning ritual. She opens her bathroom door and turns the light on, the bathroom was built to meet all the needs of a princess, everything was a well designed gold, white and chrome colored masterpiece, as if the worlds greatest artist made it them self. She walks to the shower and turns the handle for hot water to the maximum and water begins flowing out of the faucet, she pulls out the faucet and the water is guide towards the shower head, leaving the shower to let the water heat up, she walks to the bathroom closet and retrieves a large bath towel and facial cloth, walking to the counter where the sink is and places the towels on the counter, she then begins to shed her nightgown and undergarments and steps into the shower, she slightly winces in pain by the sudden contact with near boiling water but quickly becomes used to it, she then move her head underneath the flowing water getting her mane completely wet, she grabs a nearby shampoo bottle (Cake scented, made just for her.) and squeezes a fair amount onto her hand she sets the bottle down and rubs her hands together to distribute the shampoo evenly on her hands then begins mane washing the process as well as practice her lines for the upcoming speech. "Dear subjects of stalliongrad.....No, i'm not going to integrate them into the kingdom, so they can't be subjects" She rinses the third round of shampoo out of her mane and grabs the conditioner bottle and begins the second phase. "Citizens of stalliongrad, i've come here today to tell you......No, it needs to be more professional then that." 45 Minutes Later.... Celestia turns off the shower, steps out and moves to the sink, she turns on the hot water and grabs her toothbrush out of a nearby cup and dips it in the water, grabbing the toothpaste she covers half the brush with the paste and begins brushing while continuing her practicing. '...All rights and benefits a subject of the kingdom have, you will have as well. I wish you all peace and a hopefully kind and warm relationship with the us....That seems good enough.' She thought to herself. She spits into the sink, filling the cup with water and rinsing her mouth, she places the toothbrush back into the cup. She then cups her hands and collects some hot water from the sink with them and splashes her face a few times before taking the facial cloth she had prepared before and wetting it down in the water, she then covers one hand with the cloth and grabs some face wash, she slips her hand underneath the facial cloth with her other hands and begins washing her face. "I really hope this speech goes well" She begins thinking. "I mean, we JUST got out of a five year long war, and a majority of the fighting happened there too. Here's hoping they'll be at least open-minded to what i have to say" splashing her face to wash off the face wash, she grabs the large bath towel and begins drying her body off, once she has dried off her body and mane thoroughly and finishes brushing her mane, she grabs a perfume bottle and sprays a little bit around her body. Gathering up the used towels and her sleep wear she places it in a nearby hamper to make the maids job easier. Walking out off the bathroom turning off the light on her way out. Walking across the room to the window blinds she moves them open a bit to let more of the morning light into her still fairly darkened room. "Much better." She says to herself, she then walks over to her walk-in wardrobe and opens the door and turns the light on, inside is a wide array of clothing ranging from formal dresses to sleep wear and some casual clothing, but she wasn't in there to dress fancy. She walks to the back of the wardrobe towards and shelf, on the very top lies a box, she takes the box down and brings it out of the of the wardrobe and setting it on the bed, going back to the wardrobe to turn the light off and close the door, she then returns to the box and reads the label on the top of it. "For times of crisis only!" It says. She opens the box and inside lies what she wishes she would never have to see. Her golden suit of armor. The most rarest seen formal attire in the princesses wardrobe, only ever seen in a time of crisis or war. She has made herself quite the name by wearing this for the five years in her public addresses during "The Battle For Stalliongrad". To the subjects the armor is a symbol that "The kingdom is in crisis and we need to save it!" To other kingdoms and nations it means that "The Solar Empire mean business! And we will not hesitate to take action!" But to princess celestia, it means that innocent, new and great lives will be lost for some idiotic or justifiable reason. Every time celestia puts on this armored suit, she gets hit with the regret of ever going to war. But she must wear it this one last time, as a unspoken message to the agitating allies of the rusion government to not advance in there hostile policies. She picks up the torso piece out of the box and places it on the bed, she continues to remove the other pieces of armor and align them with each other as if somepony was wearing the armor and lying on the bed. At the bottom of the box lies and polyester one piece that covers the whole body from head to toe, where the only parts that are not covered are the eyes and a zipper on the back of the neck to fully enclose the wearer. Supposedly this suit is what they call a "Weather Adapting Suit" essentially it's a suit that keeps you cool in the dessert and warm in the tundras. Celestia places the inner-suit next to the outer-suit. The last item in the box is a Colt M1911 Pistol with seven loaded magazines of ammunition for self-defense if needed. "I'll never understand why they named their company after a foal." Celestia says to herself, knowing how to use the weapon, she inspects it to make sure all the parts are there and that they move smoothly, she presses the mag release button to make sure there isn't one in the pistol, she confirms to herself that there isn't one loaded, she then pulls the action back to make sure the weapon is clear, seeing that nothing flew out she looks inside the chamber in case the round got stuck. "All clear..." Knowing that the weapon is safe, she aims the pistol at random things in the room making pistol noises with her mouth, enjoying herself. Celestia jumps in surprise and drops the weapon on the bed when there was a sudden knock on the door, she calms down and collects herself knowing that somepony just decided to pay her a visit and that it's nothing dangerous. "Come-" She cuts herself off after she realized that she still isn't dressed. "uh...just a second!" She hurry's back to the wardrobe and retrieve a robe and puts it on, tying it shut "Come in!" She announces, the door to her bedchambers opens and princess luna walks in. "Good morning sister" She greets. "Morning luna." "art thou ready to go to stalliongrad?" Luna asked. "Almost, i still need to get the armor on, could you close the door so i do so?" Celestia asked. "Yes, also, we must have a talk with you." Said luna while closing the door. "What do we need to talk about?" Celestia asked. "About the speech," Luna started. "Art thou still sure about going? The residents in stalliongrad are still very crossed with us, and i assume you know how rusions act when dealing with intruders." Said luna. "I am fully confident about this luna," Celestia starts to explain while taking her robe off, feeling comfortable about being nude around sister and begins putting the armor on. "we can't improve relations if we leave them in the dark, the only reason why i annexed stalliongrad from the rusions is because i want to get the residents there on our side so we can return stalliongrad to their homeland in hopes they'll spread the word that we're not the villains in this." Celestia explained, getting into the polyester suit. "I understand your intentions sister, but there is lots of Anti-Solarist sentiment is russland, mainly because of the griffins. We are just worried they might do something drastic." Said luna. "Don't worry sister, i've prioritized stalliongrads rebuilding and will further their rights with this speech" She said putting the torso on. "But still, we just finish talking with the general of the army, and he believes, there may be sleepers in the city for the actual urban combat phase in the siege only lasted a month, which said is very un-rusion. He also said he tried many times to get a sector sweep approved, but you denied all of them, is this true?" Asked luna. "yes i did," Celestia begins as she starts to put the leggings and boots on. "The reason why i denied all of them is because i want to gain the trust in the rusions, we can't really do that if we have our military on top of them 24/7. I'm allowing them to do their own thing so they can't comfortable being under our rule, i originally wanted to give this speech around month after the war ended, but decided against it think they would be violent towards me if i showed up, so i gave them some time." Finished celestia as she puts the arms on and strapping everything down. "Hmm, we still don't trust it." Luna contested. "Well you don't have to come if you don't want to." Offered celestia as she picks the pistol from her bed, loads and holsters it. "Neigh, we feel we should come along as well." Said luna. "Alright, but i'll be doing the main talking, okay?" Said celestia. "It is thou's speech." Said luna accepting the fact she won't convince her sister of not going. "Alright then, i'm ready. When does the train arrive?" Asked celestia as she grabs the spare magazines and stores them in the pouches on her armor. "Around 3:45 am, and it departs at 4 am." Answered luna. Celestia takes her sisters words and looks at the alarm clock; 3:35 am, it says. "Then we better get going." says celestia walking over to her desk, picking up her crown and placing it on here head, Luna nods in agreement and they begin walking out of celestia's bedchambers. Once they open the doors and leave, celestia dismisses the guards outside of her door. They begin walking down the hall and towards the main room in the castle. While walking celestia speaks up. "Luna..." She begins. "Yes sister?" "What do you think our subjects will think about the speech?" Celestia asks. "We can not give a clear answer to that, everypony has their own opinion, we will just have to wait a see......Did thou have that dream again?" Asks luna. "...." Is celestia response. "Thou should worry so much about what her subjects think, it will only bring stagnation." Luna says. "I know sister, i'm just worried i may spark another revolt." A concerned celestia says. "And we will be victorious in that one as well." luna says attempting to reassure her worried sister. "But we'll be fighting our own subjects and destroying our own cities." Celestia says thinking about what could happen if there was another revolt. "It is a price to pay in order to do good, sister" Luna says giving her sister some wisdom to live off of. Celestia thinks about luna's words for a while. "If it another were to happen.........Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as the last one." Says a hopeful princess, luna just nods in agreement. Reaching the main room of the castle that continue their walk out of the castle and threw canterlot towards the train station waving and saying hello to passing citizens. Once they reach the train station they are greeted by the soldiers who will be escorting them, wearing the new uniforms the army issued when they realized during the siege that shiny yellow medieval armor and white dyed fur isn't very healthy for the soldiers, so now they wear a forest green uniform with brown spots and helmet, armed with M1 Garands. "Your majesty's." They say in unison whilst bowing. "Morning soldiers, will you be the ones escorting us in stalliongrad? If so which one is the leader?" Celestia asks them. "That would be me princess." A middle-aged stallion with sky blue fur and short white mane speaks up, walking out from the group of thirty or so to the princesses. "Captain Flying Spear at your service. It is a honor for my unit to escort you, your majesty's" Says spear giving a salute to princesses. "The honor is ours for having such a well shaped unit be our escort, Keep us safe now." Celestia says with a smile and slight laugh. "With my life your majesty." Spear replies The princesses and escorts board the new 'Canterlot Express' a train capable of reaching speeds between 280-325Kp/h (174-202Mp/h) compared to the older train which could only travel at third of that speed. It's a one of a kind train there being only one in the world and being the most advanced piece of technology on the planet and the princesses have the luxury of having it be their personal transport. As the Train sets off for the six-seven hour long journey, princess celestia retires to her personal room in one of the cars to get some more sleep before the speech, and luna stays and chats with the guards in their travel car. Chapter 312 O'Clock Chapter 1.5 "The Shooter" Stalliongrad. 10:15 am 16th of February, 2019. the canterlot express pulls into the newly built 'Stalliongrad-Canterlot Railway Station' to the south of the city, once fully stopped the car doors open and the escorts along with the princesses step out and onto the snowy platform and are greeted by the city's new mayor. "Princesses! It's a pleasure to finally meet you two! I am Red Ink. " The mare with a thick rusion accent chipperly greeting the pair, walking up to them and giving a firm handshake to the two princesses. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Red Ink, congratulations on your election!" Celestia says with a smile. "Thank you princess, please, follow me to the city hall." Red ink offers motioning her hand to follow. "Lead the way." Celestia says beginning to follow the mayor along with luna, being flanked by a few of their escorts, five stayed behind to watch over the train to make sure nopony tampers with it, and about four started walking toward the stage a few hundred meters west of city hall to inspect it before the princess arrives. As they walk through the city luna decides to spark up a conversation. "So how long have thou lived in stalliongrad?" Luna asks. "Thou?" The mayor asks back confused. "You..." Luna says enlightening the mayor. "Oh! Okay, i see, you talk funny princess luna!" The mayor ignorantly says slightly annoying luna. "I have lived here my whole life, born here in fact. Rusions rarely leave the city or village they were born in, only time they do is when they move to one of the bigger cities like stalliongrad, moscolt or saint pegasusberg, It mainly has to do with the mentality of 'Why would i leave here when i could help improve it?' sort of thing." Said the mayor finishing her answer. "Interesting," Luna comments. "How long have thou...er, you, been involved in politics?" Luna asks. "Umm....Almost a decade now, i was the minister of law and order in moscolt before i was mayor, and when the ponies here got word of that, it really helped me in the election because they believe that i would be a great asset in keeping the city stable while it rebuilds." The mayor answered. 'So the residents want stability, that could be helpful' Celestia thought listening in on the conversation while looking around the streets as they walked through the city. It looks like your typical rusion city; cobblestone roads, basic three to five storie buildings some with shops on the ground floor with apartments on top, the streets weren't very crowded, probably because the local police restricted a large amount of locals to enter the street the princesses were going to travel down. Celestia's admiration for the simplicity yet oddly beautiful scenery was interrupted by the mayor asking a question. "Would you princesses would like a bite to eat or a snack before we arrive at city hall? The speech won't start for another hour and a half or so." Asked the mayor motioning toward some shops down a street. "We've already eaten on the way here, but a snack would be nice." Celestia said accepting the mayor's offer. "Alright then, we can go down here to the markets to pick up some treats, you will love them, i promise you." The mayor says beginning to walk down to the shops with the princesses following after. Once they reach one of the shops, half full of customers the mayor greets the owner of the shop. "Привет, мой друг, можем ли у нас новые вишневые пироги для принцесс?" She says to the shop owner in her native tongue. "Конечно, двадцать минут." Replied the shop owner, walking into the kitchen to begin the order, the mayor leads the princesses to a booth in the back of the shop. "Guards, wait outside please." Celestia orders. "Yes your majesty." The guards say in unison and stand outside the shop to keep watch. As the three mares sit down at the booth a young female waitress walks up with a notepad. "Хотите выпить?" The waitress asks. "What drinks would you like?" The mayor translating the question for them. "Mint tea would be fine." Celestia answered. "What kind of soft drinks do you have?" Luna asks the waitress. "Извините?" The waitress responds not knowing equestrian. "Какие безалкогольные напитки у вас есть?" The mayor translates for luna. "Ой! У нас есть байкал, фрукты, квас и тарзана." The waitress give a list of available soft drinks. "They have baikal, fruktime, kvass and tarhun." The mayor translates. "What is fruktime?" Luna asks. "Fruktime a series of the carbonated soft drinks which are not to different from your coca-cola, it is made in various flavouring variants like; caramel, tarragon, hand bell, lemonade, pear, strawberry, apple and cream soda." The mayor says finishing her explanation. "We will have the cream soda." Luna says. "But she wanted the mint tea?" The mayor says confused and motioning her finger to celestia, reminding the princess of the night about her order. "*Sigh* I, will have the cream soda...." Luna says a little more annoyed. "Alright," The mayor says and she begins telling the water what their orders are. "Один мятой чай, сливочная сода и один квас." The mayor says translating their order for the waitress. "Очень хорошо, я вернусь через несколько минут с твоими напитками." The waitress says to the mayor walking off towards the kitchen to retrieve their drinks. "So what will you be talking about in your speech?" The mayor asks celestia while looking at her. "I won't say anything her, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you hear it." Celestia replied. "Aww, don't get my anticipation amped up, i have a hard time holding in my excitement." The mayor whines. "Well that's how it's going to be until the speech." Celestia says, shutting down the question. The mayor leans back in her seat defeated, hiding her moping from the other patrons so not to look bad in front of the princesses. "So what will we be having Miss Red Ink?" Luna asks the mayor, the mayor slightly shifts in her seat, feeling a bit off-put yet proud by the princess calling her 'miss', but quickly regain composure with a smile. "I won't say anything here, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you see it." The mayor says half mocking celestia whom returns the jesture with a slight laugh, the other mares begin to chuckle as well over the quick joke. "Alright, so i guess, I, will see when it arrives." Luna says. After a few minutes of soft chatting, the waitress comes back with their drinks. "Вот ваш квас, ваш мятный чай и сода." The waitress says handing out their beverages off the tray she used to carry them, placing them in front of the group accordingly. Luna was the first to pick up her drink and sip on the straw placed in it. "mm! This is very good!" Luna compliments, downing more of the sweet drink. "That's rusion soda for you." The mayor says feeling more proud over the princess liking a local drink. A few more minutes of talking about relevant events and memory's, until the waitress comes back with a dish full of butter and sugar covered cherry filled pastries. "Oh! Here's the snacks" The mayor says grabbing the attention of the princesses. "Вот ваши закуски." The waitress says with a smile placing the pastries on the table. "Спасибо." The mayor says to the waitress paying the tab early and tipping the waitress. The mayor then picks up the snack and holds it up for the princesses to see. "This is Vishnevyye pirogi, or cherry pie in your language." The mayor says explaining the snack and hands it to luna, who then takes a bite of it and proceeds to be blasted with extremely buttery, sugary bread balanced with the tartness of the cherry. "Do you like it?" The mayor asks princesses luna who can only excitedly nod in agreement. "I told you, you would love them." The mayor said with a smile feeling the most proud she has ever felt for having the princess love her local pastries. Celestia seeing her sister enjoy this snack so much, sets down her tea she's been sipping on and grabs one herself and gives it a taste, where then she is hit with the same extreme euphoric feeling. Celestia swallowing her bite asks the mayor a question. "How do you say 'Can i get a thousand of these' in rusion??" Celestia excitedly asks the mayor, the mayor chuckles and answers the princesses question. "I'll tell him on the way out." She says with a smile. After twenty minutes of talking and celestia trying to pronounce 'Могу ли я иметь тысячу вишневых пирогов?' The princesses leave the shop while the mayor tells the shop owner to cook up more of the pastries and deliver them to the canterlot express at the new train station. Once the mayor was finished she walks out of the shop to meet up with the princesses. "Shall we continue?" The mayor asks the princesses. "Yes, we may." Replied celestia, luna being unable to speak do to her still being in a trance from the snacks she ate earlier. After fifteen more minutes of walking they finally reach city hall, it wasn't anything exciting but still interesting nonetheless. After touring city hall they begin walking west toward the stage. After about twenty minutes of walking they reach the stage and all the guards take position while celestia talks to the local police. "Is the stage set?" She asks the policepony. "Yes it is, you may go up when ready." The policepony responds. "Excellent." She says. After a briefing of the escape route in case of an emergency, celestia asks a question. "By the way, would you mind telling me the time?" She asks. The policepony looks at the watch on his wrist and reads the time. 11:59 am. "Thank you." Celestia responds. and walks up the stage, luna attempts to follow but is stopped by the policepony. "Sorry princess, but we can't let you go up there." He says. "Can't go up there?? We demand to be allowed onto the stage, to accompany our sister!" Luna shouts to the policepony. "Who is 'We'?" The police pony questions. "UGH! I, I WISH TO GO ON STAGE TO ACCOMPANY, MY, SISTER!" Luna shouts louder and stomps to the steps of the stage, regaining some of her composure before going up so not to make her sister look like a fool in front of the whole city. "Что заставило ее так расстроиться?" The policepony asks his colleague who can only shrug. Once the princesses walk up the stage and to the podium in the middle of it, they begin to observe their surroundings; it's a basic junction where five roads meet, one of them being the direction toward city hall, further to the west is an old clock tower which when it's done chiming is when the speech begins. Looking over the large crowd just below the stage separated by a line of fifteen guards, the remaining ten are patrolling around the block across the street, she continues to look at the large crowd of ponies, must be a few thousand citizens who took some time out of their Saturday morning to watch her speech in person. (In pony?) Celestia looks to her sister standing to her right, who looks to be upset about the citizen's not understanding her dialect, and then to the mayor whose standing to her left giving celestia a wink, then she looks at the clock tower, waiting for the daily enlightenment. 12 O'Clock. The clock tower begins chiming. After the first set of smaller bells sound to attract the attention of the citizens of the city. The first strike on the largest bell sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* A loud cracking noise could be heard right over celestia's head who looks upward in an attempt to find the source, all of the crowd heard the noise and are looking for the source of the sound as well. The second strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *SMACK* A second crack could be heard, this time a chunk of the podium breaks off and the mayor falls to the ground clutching her stomach. 'She's been shot.....' Celestia thinks to herself. "SNIPER!" A guard from the line shouts and the crowd begins to panic, everypony is running in every direction. Celestia stands in place, too shocked to move, she heard about snipers during her weapons training four years earlier. 'You can't see them, you can't find them, but if you hear them. You're already dead.' Are the words echoing in her head, forgetting her training on how to deal with snipers. The third strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *SMACK* *THUD* Was the only thing celestia could hear. A guard had rushed the stage and shoved celestia to the ground, but was hit by the bullet. 'It was Flying Spear....' Celestia thought to herself. Princess luna grabs her sister by the shoulders along with a few other guards. "SISTER! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!" Luna shouts down to her discombobulated sibling. Celestia finally realizing the gravity of the situation, jumps up and begins running south off the stage. The fourth strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *PING* *Dissipating Whistle* "AGH!" Celestia shouts in pain. A bullet connects and ricochets off celestias armor, the kentic energy causes her right shoulder to begin feeling an immense amount of pain. The ricocheted bullet flew right past and whistled the Grimm Reaper's favorite tune right in luna's right ear causing her to fall to the ground in fright, celestia stops and turns around to help her sister up. The fifth strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *PING* *THUD* Celestia grunts in pain as she ricochets another round off her breast plate cause pain in the chest. She hear's that 'thud' sound again. She looks to her right and sees another guard go down, killed by a ricochet. A guard steps in front of celestia. "GO PRINCESS, WE'LL GET LUNA OUT OF HERE!" A guard shouts at her, entrusting her guards would keep her sister safe she hesitantly turns around and continues to run off stage, looking over her shoulder to see the guard that stepped in front of her along with another, pick her sister up and run with her off the stage and toward the north. Celestia continues running with twelve of her guards, while ten stay back to try and locate the sniper. The sixth strike sounds. Celestia knew what would happen next, she knew the sniper was going after her, she knew she would hear that crack again, looking for somewhere to hide and finding nowhere to hide, she continued to run, awaiting for fate to choose her future. *GONG* A guard grabs her by the waist and pushes her to the ground using his body as a shield. 'Don't you do this too.' She thought to herself, thinking of how she's going to apologize to the despairing family's of the fallen guards. .... .... .... No crack. She didn't hear a crack. The guard was shocked by the fact as well, but without wasting anytime, he lifted the princess back up to her feet and pushed her to run. ecstatic that fate has decided that she would live to see the suns morning light again, she begins running like she never ran before, the adrenaline kicking in as she runs towards the corner of the street that the policepony briefed her to run to if anything bad happens. The seventh strike sounds. As she turns the corner to run into the safe area, confident she would make it, she just barely does. *CRACK* *SMACK* *GONG* The sniper fired before the bell sounded, and the bullet hit the corner of the stone building, not three inches away from her head. She then hears rapid gunfire, presumably from her guards having located the sniper. Celestia slows her running a bit once she rounded the corner in order to catch her breath, as she begins to slow the thirteenth guard drives up next to her in a M3 Half-track leftover from the siege. "PRINCESS! GET IN!" The guard shouts to her, without hesitation she jumps into the APC along with five of her other guards getting in the back of the APC, the other seven guards start running back to the stage to face off with the sniper. As they begin to drive off towards to the train station, celestia hears more cracks. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* Four cracks are heard with half second spacing. 'Seems like he gave up trying to kill me and turned to the guards, i just hope he still misses his shots.' She thought. As they pull up to the train station and get out of the truck, the guards stationed there rush to meet up with the with the with the six other guards. "What the hell is going on up there!?" A guard asks the driver. "Somepony just tried to assassinate the princess!" The driver responds. "We got to get her into the train and peel out of this hell-hole!" Shouts the driver to the other guards. As celestia boards the train and the doors close, she remembers her sister is still out there. "Where's my sister! Is she here!" Celestia shouts to a guard that was stationed at the station. "No your highness, she has not been here." The guard answered. Celestia grabs the guard by the shoulders and shouts to him. "We're not leaving until she gets here! Got it!" Giving the order to the soldier. "Yes your high-" As the guard attempts to respond to the new order, a volley of machine gun fire rains down onto the train from a nearby rooftop, the guards in the train car and the princess drop to the floor to avoid being hit from the spray of bullets, three of the guard on the outside of the train were not to lucky. The driver from APC get's on the mounted M2 Browning Machine Gun and begins unleashing hell-fire onto the rooftop, the machine gun fire from the rooftop ceases and the guard stops shooting eyeing down the roof of the building to make sure he doesn't peak. He see's the shooter stand up and open fires, hitting the target with a .50 caliber machine gun round, sending his left arm flying. But then he remembered why he stood up, he looks toward the sky and see's a small silhouette of something falling towards him, the small object lands in the back of the APC giving a clear view of what it is. "FFUU-". An explosion is heard from outside the train car. "What was that!" Celestia shouted. "Doesn't matter, we're getting out of here!" Shouted the guard. "Conductor! Conductor! this is Royal Escort Squad Leader-01 do you copy, i repeat, this is RESL-01, we demand you to take us back to canterlot immediately!" The squad lead ordered the conductor of the train. "Roger that RESL-01, returning to canterlot." Once celestia heard those words she stood up and grabbed the guard by his uniform. "We're not leaving without my sister!" Celestia demanded. "We have to or else another bastard well come and finally get you!" The guard shouts back, the train begins moving. Celestia grabs the radio off of the guard and speaks into it. "Conductor, this is the prince-" The squad leader snatches the radio from the princess and she tries desperately to get it back, but is restrained by other guards that were in the train car. "We're not leaving without my sister! We're not! Stop the train! Stop the train now!" She yells. But her cries fall on deaf ears as the train begins to speed away from stalliongrad. All she can do now it sit on one of the seats and begin to cry. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* The princess hears distant cracking.
Chapter 112 O'Clock Chapter 1 "Intro" 16th of February 2019. one year anniversary after the end of the war. "It's snowing....." I mumble to myself. The cool breeze flowing through the cracks of the building all but calm my nerves, i'm so anxious about today. But i need to relax my thoughts, this won't work if i'm shaking like a small dog. I get up from my make shift bed in the clock tower that i made my residents, for now, deciding that i'm done procrastinating for it's almost time. I grab my rifle and uncover a small hole i made in the eastern wall earlier. "They're about in position, right on time too" I lie on my stomach facing the small opening, pointing my rifle through it. I look through the scope and get a read on the soldiers below. "One, Two, Three........Four, not as many as i thought, guess that just makes my job easier" I rest my finger on the trigger and wait for the right moment. Oh. Why now? 3rd of March 2017 three years into the siege. "Hey comrade, where do you come from?" A rookie. Typical rookie looks, clean white coat, bright blue eyes, i can't see his mane, looks like he was just drafted. Probably from the west. "Используйте язык вашей матери. Они не знают." "Сожалею." Better. "What do you need my friend." "I was just curious where you came from, you don't look like your from here." "...I'm from the northern district..." "Oh, so i guess you know your way around then?" "...." "....C-Care to give me a few poin-" "You ask a lot of questions, now is not the time." I get up and walk away from the rookie giving him a dirty look and walk to another part of the trench. Maybe he'll learn some manners. I walk past some other soldiers, laughing about when they were still civilians. Laugh all you like, you won't be laughing when your facing your enemy's who won't be laughing. I continue my walk through the trench taking in what was left of the environment, there's a wide meadow to the east and a large sized town to the west, divided by a two layer, four foot deep pre-made death pit. A very dense forest line to the south with it becoming less dense the more you turn east, a large mountain line to the north that is a few kilometers tall that spans tens of thousands kilometers east and west separating the tundra and the forest. Still some snow left from the winter but it's starting to melt now, the trees are starting to turn green again, no birds today, maybe they'll come back some other day. I can't wait for the day when we push back these fascists out of our motherland so she can heal herself from these wounds. I finish my walk through the trench and enter a small cave system dug out by the engineers. We've only been here for three days and already they got all this built, feckers are fast at what they do. I walk through the cave system occasionally stopping and chatting with my fellow ranks, i finally locate my bed. (If you can call it that) I set my rifle down against the wall next to 'my bed' and lay down myself, i haven't slept in three days, if i stay awake any longer i might mistake a comrade for an enemy because i'm too tired. I slowly begin to doze off, listening to the distant echos of gunfire, the firing from artillery and the shells flying overhead has become a sort of lullaby to me now. "Hope that doesn't happen twice, what time is it?" I say to myself to act as if somepony else was with me. I look at the watch on my rifle. 11:58 AM "Hmm" I look back through my scope. They got more down there.There's about twenty now. and it looks like they're just starting. "Damn" I mutter under my breath, I look at the watch again. 11:59 AM "Almost time........." The clock tower shifts into position for the daily enlightenment. I give an aggravated growl, not another flashback. 4th of march 2017 "...." "...." "...." "снайпер!" I awake to a fellow rank shouting from outside of the cave, i jump out of bed and snatch my rifle up making sure it's loaded and sprint out of the cave into the trench. My colleagues are already returning fire, a comrade is down just outside of the entrance to the cave, not taking long i duck below the ledge so i don't get shot myself. "WE GOT A SNIPER NORTH-EAST!" Shouts the commander an older stallion maybe mid forty's, crimson red fur, black and grey mane and scars from his previous fights, a true warrior. "FIRE SOME TRACERS IN HIS VICINITY! WHERE'S OUR MARKSMAN!?" He yells looking for me. "HERE COMMANDANT!" I shout to him to drown out the gunfire. I duck under a comrade shooting over me from a trench above. It's that same rookie, i don't have time to yell at him for cross firing for the commander begins barking orders at me. "GET TO HIGH GROUND, FIND THAT УБЛЮДОК AND TAKE HIM OUT! WE'll GIVE YOU COVERING FIRE SO YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS GRAVE!" He shouts at me. "YES COMMANDANT!" I obey his orders and sprint off from the cave entrance and run up a pre-made slope to the north of the trench and begin running to a nearby five story building, an old residential building now abandoned, running as fast as i can to the now destroyed structure, i crash through the closed door knocking it off it's hinges and run up the stairs across the room as fast as my legs can propel me, finally i reach the top, the whole roof is caved in from the shelling earlier in the week, i see some built up rubble to the right of the door next to a window, 'that'll make a good hiding spot' i thought to myself, i move slowly over to the rubble so not to be seen, i gently lie down onto my stomach and begin scanning for the sniper. "Where is he!? Where is he!?" I repeat in my head trying my best to find him, it's even harder now that the sun in facing me. The sun might be glaring on my scope. I lay my rifle down and pull out my binoculars and resume the search. "Where where where where whe-" I see him....... He's looking right at me. *CLANG* I'm torn back to reality by the loud clang of shifting gears above by the old tower. Guess that's my cue. Damned flashbacks. Why are they happening now? I take a moment to ponder why, but then i remember the task at hand. I look at the watch. 12 o'clock. It's started now. I look trough my scope and see that she's up there now. Princess celestia, wearing her now iconic golden suit of armor, my target. And her sister, princess luna, what? "She's not supposed to be here." Princess luna looks fairly upset about something, I wonder what it is. Celestia is supposed to give a speech about something, something politics, sanctions, blockades against Russland or something like that, nothing out of the ordinary. I push up on the action on my mosin and pull back, letting the first round be pushed up and align itself towards the chamber, i push forward and slap down on the action. Ready to fire. I gauge the shot. "Not much wind, downward angle, 350, maybe 400 meters. Now i wait...." .... .... The clock begins chiming. "Wait for it...." I say to my self as some sort of way to relax myself. The anticipation is getting to me, it's making me shake my rifle. "Calm down old timer, they'll be really upset if you screw this up." I empty my lungs to stabilize my shot, i align my crosshairs. The first gong sounds. *BANG*
Chapter 212 O’Clock Chapter 0.5 "A New Beginning" 5:55 pm. 1st of October 2018 Princess celestia imagines giving a long bored sigh as she sits in her seat, pushing through the monthly Q&A. It's common in these Q&A's for subjects to come and ask questions that would normally be simple to answer; 'My annoying neighbors' 'My daughter won't go to school' and other related questions, occasionally a pony will come up and ask a serious question; 'What are you doing to decrease, increasing global tensions?' 'What are you doing to counter the ever growing unrest in the west and south of the kingdom' and other related questions. After eight hours of answering 98% simple questions and 2% actual questions, the day has finally come to an end. "Alright my subjects, this monthly Q&A will be over soon, i can answer one more question before we leave it at that for this month." Celestia says informing the reporters and citizens of the closing of the Q&A, multiple Journalists and ponies raise their hands yo try to gain their princesses attention to get the final question in for it ends. "Hmm" Celestia thinks to herself, looking for a good looking reporter to answer, she spots a young reporter with a cream colored coat and long chocolate colored mane with caramel eyes, wearing the basic beige colored female reporter outfit, celestia points to the young information collector and the moderator walks towards her. Once the moderator reaches the reporter she hands her a microphone and the other ponies in the room fall silent. "Good afternoon princess," She begins, celestia nods in appreciation and waits for the reporter to continue. "My name is Ink Well, i represent TEDO (The Equestrian Daily Opinion) and i have come here today to ask about your thoughts regarding this....". 'TEDO? They're still a thing?' Celestia thinks to herself. Ink Well grabs her station issued 'Equis Standard Journalist Satchel™' and produces a sky-blue folder and takes out it's contents. "The TEDO office has recently received photos of you meeting with a rusion government official in moscolt-" Celestia interrupts. "Okay? I've met with many rusions officials before, i don't see why this is a problem." She says calmly if a bit confused. "The source of these photos say they were taken in 2014." Other reporters and ponies begin quietly chatting with each other, celestia visibly shifts nervously in her seat. "May i see these photos" Celestia requests. "Of course." The moderator takes the folder from Ink Well and walks towards the desk celestia is sat at and hands it to her, celestia takes out the first photo and is immediately shocked by what she sees. The first photo is a clear shot of her giving the rusion ministry of defense; Black Iceberg a warm handshake, the next photo is a shot of her and the minister walking into the main RMoD building, the third photo is her walking out of the RMoD with the minister and the top general of the Rusion Armed Forces; Red Glacier. Several other photos are in the folder all of which consist of her walking or talking with some rusion government or military official. "I-i don't know anything about these photos" Celestia says attempting to hide her nervousness. "That is clear evidence of your collusion with the rusions when we were just beginning military operations on the city stalliongrad!" The young reporter contests. "I-i-i..." Celestia tries and fails to speak. "I haven't any clue of these allegations!" Celestia counters. "You're a liar!" A citizen shouts from the crowd, "Sir, please be silent, we will not be taking anymore.... The moderator tries to speak but is quickly drowned out by the protests of the reporters and subjects. "Traitor!" "Liar!" "Rusion partisan!" More and more insults are thrown by crowd soon becoming static noise do to so many ponies talking at once. "Please my loyal subjects, allow me to explain myself!" Celestia attempts to calm the growing in numbers crowd. They don't listen, and continue the barrage of insults toward the princess. "Terrorist!" "Pan-Volgavist!" "Tyrant!" "Rusophilic!" The Insults increase in loudness and grow more intense. "My citizens, i have a full justification for this! Just give me a chance to speak! Please!" The protests don't stop and instead grow more and more intense. The wall to the room begin to crack until the wall behind the princess fall down and reveals the entire city of canterlot who are also protesting and shouting insults. The princess again tries to calm down the protesters but can't even hear her own words over the noise of the protesters. The protesting begin to raise in height and form a wall of insults toward the princess. The desk and chair celestia had been sitting at disappeared, now she is standing on the cold stone floor of an unknown place, knowing she will never end the assault her once faithful subjects are bringing down on her, she just lies down on her side and curls up into the fettle position attempting to block out all the negative remarks. Celestias eyes shoot open, her sleep disturbed by the blaring sound of her alarm clock, she slowly sits up in her bed and looks around her bedchambers, letting her eyes adjust to the early morning light leaking in through the curtains that leads to her balcony. "Nopony here...." She says to herself, she uncovers her legs and swings them over the edge of her bed and rubs her face with her hands. "....Just another bad dream cellee." She reassures herself, she sits there, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. She looks at her alarm clock; 2:32 am 02/16/19 Sa. it reads. "I need to get ready for the speech." She says to herself. She stands up and presses the snooze button on the alarm clock, shutting it off, she walks to her bathroom yawning, stretching and clearing the sleep and guck from her eyes signifying the beginning of the morning ritual. She opens her bathroom door and turns the light on, the bathroom was built to meet all the needs of a princess, everything was a well designed gold, white and chrome colored masterpiece, as if the worlds greatest artist made it them self. She walks to the shower and turns the handle for hot water to the maximum and water begins flowing out of the faucet, she pulls out the faucet and the water is guide towards the shower head, leaving the shower to let the water heat up, she walks to the bathroom closet and retrieves a large bath towel and facial cloth, walking to the counter where the sink is and places the towels on the counter, she then begins to shed her nightgown and undergarments and steps into the shower, she slightly winces in pain by the sudden contact with near boiling water but quickly becomes used to it, she then move her head underneath the flowing water getting her mane completely wet, she grabs a nearby shampoo bottle (Cake scented, made just for her.) and squeezes a fair amount onto her hand she sets the bottle down and rubs her hands together to distribute the shampoo evenly on her hands then begins mane washing the process as well as practice her lines for the upcoming speech. "Dear subjects of stalliongrad.....No, i'm not going to integrate them into the kingdom, so they can't be subjects" She rinses the third round of shampoo out of her mane and grabs the conditioner bottle and begins the second phase. "Citizens of stalliongrad, i've come here today to tell you......No, it needs to be more professional then that." 45 Minutes Later.... Celestia turns off the shower, steps out and moves to the sink, she turns on the hot water and grabs her toothbrush out of a nearby cup and dips it in the water, grabbing the toothpaste she covers half the brush with the paste and begins brushing while continuing her practicing. '...All rights and benefits a subject of the kingdom have, you will have as well. I wish you all peace and a hopefully kind and warm relationship with the us....That seems good enough.' She thought to herself. She spits into the sink, filling the cup with water and rinsing her mouth, she places the toothbrush back into the cup. She then cups her hands and collects some hot water from the sink with them and splashes her face a few times before taking the facial cloth she had prepared before and wetting it down in the water, she then covers one hand with the cloth and grabs some face wash, she slips her hand underneath the facial cloth with her other hands and begins washing her face. "I really hope this speech goes well" She begins thinking. "I mean, we JUST got out of a five year long war, and a majority of the fighting happened there too. Here's hoping they'll be at least open-minded to what i have to say" splashing her face to wash off the face wash, she grabs the large bath towel and begins drying her body off, once she has dried off her body and mane thoroughly and finishes brushing her mane, she grabs a perfume bottle and sprays a little bit around her body. Gathering up the used towels and her sleep wear she places it in a nearby hamper to make the maids job easier. Walking out off the bathroom turning off the light on her way out. Walking across the room to the window blinds she moves them open a bit to let more of the morning light into her still fairly darkened room. "Much better." She says to herself, she then walks over to her walk-in wardrobe and opens the door and turns the light on, inside is a wide array of clothing ranging from formal dresses to sleep wear and some casual clothing, but she wasn't in there to dress fancy. She walks to the back of the wardrobe towards and shelf, on the very top lies a box, she takes the box down and brings it out of the of the wardrobe and setting it on the bed, going back to the wardrobe to turn the light off and close the door, she then returns to the box and reads the label on the top of it. "For times of crisis only!" It says. She opens the box and inside lies what she wishes she would never have to see. Her golden suit of armor. The most rarest seen formal attire in the princesses wardrobe, only ever seen in a time of crisis or war. She has made herself quite the name by wearing this for the five years in her public addresses during "The Battle For Stalliongrad". To the subjects the armor is a symbol that "The kingdom is in crisis and we need to save it!" To other kingdoms and nations it means that "The Solar Empire mean business! And we will not hesitate to take action!" But to princess celestia, it means that innocent, new and great lives will be lost for some idiotic or justifiable reason. Every time celestia puts on this armored suit, she gets hit with the regret of ever going to war. But she must wear it this one last time, as a unspoken message to the agitating allies of the rusion government to not advance in there hostile policies. She picks up the torso piece out of the box and places it on the bed, she continues to remove the other pieces of armor and align them with each other as if somepony was wearing the armor and lying on the bed. At the bottom of the box lies and polyester one piece that covers the whole body from head to toe, where the only parts that are not covered are the eyes and a zipper on the back of the neck to fully enclose the wearer. Supposedly this suit is what they call a "Weather Adapting Suit" essentially it's a suit that keeps you cool in the dessert and warm in the tundras. Celestia places the inner-suit next to the outer-suit. The last item in the box is a Colt M1911 Pistol with seven loaded magazines of ammunition for self-defense if needed. "I'll never understand why they named their company after a foal." Celestia says to herself, knowing how to use the weapon, she inspects it to make sure all the parts are there and that they move smoothly, she presses the mag release button to make sure there isn't one in the pistol, she confirms to herself that there isn't one loaded, she then pulls the action back to make sure the weapon is clear, seeing that nothing flew out she looks inside the chamber in case the round got stuck. "All clear..." Knowing that the weapon is safe, she aims the pistol at random things in the room making pistol noises with her mouth, enjoying herself. Celestia jumps in surprise and drops the weapon on the bed when there was a sudden knock on the door, she calms down and collects herself knowing that somepony just decided to pay her a visit and that it's nothing dangerous. "Come-" She cuts herself off after she realized that she still isn't dressed. "uh...just a second!" She hurry's back to the wardrobe and retrieve a robe and puts it on, tying it shut "Come in!" She announces, the door to her bedchambers opens and princess luna walks in. "Good morning sister" She greets. "Morning luna." "art thou ready to go to stalliongrad?" Luna asked. "Almost, i still need to get the armor on, could you close the door so i do so?" Celestia asked. "Yes, also, we must have a talk with you." Said luna while closing the door. "What do we need to talk about?" Celestia asked. "About the speech," Luna started. "Art thou still sure about going? The residents in stalliongrad are still very crossed with us, and i assume you know how rusions act when dealing with intruders." Said luna. "I am fully confident about this luna," Celestia starts to explain while taking her robe off, feeling comfortable about being nude around sister and begins putting the armor on. "we can't improve relations if we leave them in the dark, the only reason why i annexed stalliongrad from the rusions is because i want to get the residents there on our side so we can return stalliongrad to their homeland in hopes they'll spread the word that we're not the villains in this." Celestia explained, getting into the polyester suit. "I understand your intentions sister, but there is lots of Anti-Solarist sentiment is russland, mainly because of the griffins. We are just worried they might do something drastic." Said luna. "Don't worry sister, i've prioritized stalliongrads rebuilding and will further their rights with this speech" She said putting the torso on. "But still, we just finish talking with the general of the army, and he believes, there may be sleepers in the city for the actual urban combat phase in the siege only lasted a month, which said is very un-rusion. He also said he tried many times to get a sector sweep approved, but you denied all of them, is this true?" Asked luna. "yes i did," Celestia begins as she starts to put the leggings and boots on. "The reason why i denied all of them is because i want to gain the trust in the rusions, we can't really do that if we have our military on top of them 24/7. I'm allowing them to do their own thing so they can't comfortable being under our rule, i originally wanted to give this speech around month after the war ended, but decided against it think they would be violent towards me if i showed up, so i gave them some time." Finished celestia as she puts the arms on and strapping everything down. "Hmm, we still don't trust it." Luna contested. "Well you don't have to come if you don't want to." Offered celestia as she picks the pistol from her bed, loads and holsters it. "Neigh, we feel we should come along as well." Said luna. "Alright, but i'll be doing the main talking, okay?" Said celestia. "It is thou's speech." Said luna accepting the fact she won't convince her sister of not going. "Alright then, i'm ready. When does the train arrive?" Asked celestia as she grabs the spare magazines and stores them in the pouches on her armor. "Around 3:45 am, and it departs at 4 am." Answered luna. Celestia takes her sisters words and looks at the alarm clock; 3:35 am, it says. "Then we better get going." says celestia walking over to her desk, picking up her crown and placing it on here head, Luna nods in agreement and they begin walking out of celestia's bedchambers. Once they open the doors and leave, celestia dismisses the guards outside of her door. They begin walking down the hall and towards the main room in the castle. While walking celestia speaks up. "Luna..." She begins. "Yes sister?" "What do you think our subjects will think about the speech?" Celestia asks. "We can not give a clear answer to that, everypony has their own opinion, we will just have to wait a see......Did thou have that dream again?" Asks luna. "...." Is celestia response. "Thou should worry so much about what her subjects think, it will only bring stagnation." Luna says. "I know sister, i'm just worried i may spark another revolt." A concerned celestia says. "And we will be victorious in that one as well." luna says attempting to reassure her worried sister. "But we'll be fighting our own subjects and destroying our own cities." Celestia says thinking about what could happen if there was another revolt. "It is a price to pay in order to do good, sister" Luna says giving her sister some wisdom to live off of. Celestia thinks about luna's words for a while. "If it another were to happen.........Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as the last one." Says a hopeful princess, luna just nods in agreement. Reaching the main room of the castle that continue their walk out of the castle and threw canterlot towards the train station waving and saying hello to passing citizens. Once they reach the train station they are greeted by the soldiers who will be escorting them, wearing the new uniforms the army issued when they realized during the siege that shiny yellow medieval armor and white dyed fur isn't very healthy for the soldiers, so now they wear a forest green uniform with brown spots and helmet, armed with M1 Garands. "Your majesty's." They say in unison whilst bowing. "Morning soldiers, will you be the ones escorting us in stalliongrad? If so which one is the leader?" Celestia asks them. "That would be me princess." A middle-aged stallion with sky blue fur and short white mane speaks up, walking out from the group of thirty or so to the princesses. "Captain Flying Spear at your service. It is a honor for my unit to escort you, your majesty's" Says spear giving a salute to princesses. "The honor is ours for having such a well shaped unit be our escort, Keep us safe now." Celestia says with a smile and slight laugh. "With my life your majesty." Spear replies The princesses and escorts board the new 'Canterlot Express' a train capable of reaching speeds between 280-325Kp/h (174-202Mp/h) compared to the older train which could only travel at third of that speed. It's a one of a kind train there being only one in the world and being the most advanced piece of technology on the planet and the princesses have the luxury of having it be their personal transport. As the Train sets off for the six-seven hour long journey, princess celestia retires to her personal room in one of the cars to get some more sleep before the speech, and luna stays and chats with the guards in their travel car.
Chapter 312 O'Clock Chapter 1.5 "The Shooter" Stalliongrad. 10:15 am 16th of February, 2019. the canterlot express pulls into the newly built 'Stalliongrad-Canterlot Railway Station' to the south of the city, once fully stopped the car doors open and the escorts along with the princesses step out and onto the snowy platform and are greeted by the city's new mayor. "Princesses! It's a pleasure to finally meet you two! I am Red Ink. " The mare with a thick rusion accent chipperly greeting the pair, walking up to them and giving a firm handshake to the two princesses. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Red Ink, congratulations on your election!" Celestia says with a smile. "Thank you princess, please, follow me to the city hall." Red ink offers motioning her hand to follow. "Lead the way." Celestia says beginning to follow the mayor along with luna, being flanked by a few of their escorts, five stayed behind to watch over the train to make sure nopony tampers with it, and about four started walking toward the stage a few hundred meters west of city hall to inspect it before the princess arrives. As they walk through the city luna decides to spark up a conversation. "So how long have thou lived in stalliongrad?" Luna asks. "Thou?" The mayor asks back confused. "You..." Luna says enlightening the mayor. "Oh! Okay, i see, you talk funny princess luna!" The mayor ignorantly says slightly annoying luna. "I have lived here my whole life, born here in fact. Rusions rarely leave the city or village they were born in, only time they do is when they move to one of the bigger cities like stalliongrad, moscolt or saint pegasusberg, It mainly has to do with the mentality of 'Why would i leave here when i could help improve it?' sort of thing." Said the mayor finishing her answer. "Interesting," Luna comments. "How long have thou...er, you, been involved in politics?" Luna asks. "Umm....Almost a decade now, i was the minister of law and order in moscolt before i was mayor, and when the ponies here got word of that, it really helped me in the election because they believe that i would be a great asset in keeping the city stable while it rebuilds." The mayor answered. 'So the residents want stability, that could be helpful' Celestia thought listening in on the conversation while looking around the streets as they walked through the city. It looks like your typical rusion city; cobblestone roads, basic three to five storie buildings some with shops on the ground floor with apartments on top, the streets weren't very crowded, probably because the local police restricted a large amount of locals to enter the street the princesses were going to travel down. Celestia's admiration for the simplicity yet oddly beautiful scenery was interrupted by the mayor asking a question. "Would you princesses would like a bite to eat or a snack before we arrive at city hall? The speech won't start for another hour and a half or so." Asked the mayor motioning toward some shops down a street. "We've already eaten on the way here, but a snack would be nice." Celestia said accepting the mayor's offer. "Alright then, we can go down here to the markets to pick up some treats, you will love them, i promise you." The mayor says beginning to walk down to the shops with the princesses following after. Once they reach one of the shops, half full of customers the mayor greets the owner of the shop. "Привет, мой друг, можем ли у нас новые вишневые пироги для принцесс?" She says to the shop owner in her native tongue. "Конечно, двадцать минут." Replied the shop owner, walking into the kitchen to begin the order, the mayor leads the princesses to a booth in the back of the shop. "Guards, wait outside please." Celestia orders. "Yes your majesty." The guards say in unison and stand outside the shop to keep watch. As the three mares sit down at the booth a young female waitress walks up with a notepad. "Хотите выпить?" The waitress asks. "What drinks would you like?" The mayor translating the question for them. "Mint tea would be fine." Celestia answered. "What kind of soft drinks do you have?" Luna asks the waitress. "Извините?" The waitress responds not knowing equestrian. "Какие безалкогольные напитки у вас есть?" The mayor translates for luna. "Ой! У нас есть байкал, фрукты, квас и тарзана." The waitress give a list of available soft drinks. "They have baikal, fruktime, kvass and tarhun." The mayor translates. "What is fruktime?" Luna asks. "Fruktime a series of the carbonated soft drinks which are not to different from your coca-cola, it is made in various flavouring variants like; caramel, tarragon, hand bell, lemonade, pear, strawberry, apple and cream soda." The mayor says finishing her explanation. "We will have the cream soda." Luna says. "But she wanted the mint tea?" The mayor says confused and motioning her finger to celestia, reminding the princess of the night about her order. "*Sigh* I, will have the cream soda...." Luna says a little more annoyed. "Alright," The mayor says and she begins telling the water what their orders are. "Один мятой чай, сливочная сода и один квас." The mayor says translating their order for the waitress. "Очень хорошо, я вернусь через несколько минут с твоими напитками." The waitress says to the mayor walking off towards the kitchen to retrieve their drinks. "So what will you be talking about in your speech?" The mayor asks celestia while looking at her. "I won't say anything her, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you hear it." Celestia replied. "Aww, don't get my anticipation amped up, i have a hard time holding in my excitement." The mayor whines. "Well that's how it's going to be until the speech." Celestia says, shutting down the question. The mayor leans back in her seat defeated, hiding her moping from the other patrons so not to look bad in front of the princesses. "So what will we be having Miss Red Ink?" Luna asks the mayor, the mayor slightly shifts in her seat, feeling a bit off-put yet proud by the princess calling her 'miss', but quickly regain composure with a smile. "I won't say anything here, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you see it." The mayor says half mocking celestia whom returns the jesture with a slight laugh, the other mares begin to chuckle as well over the quick joke. "Alright, so i guess, I, will see when it arrives." Luna says. After a few minutes of soft chatting, the waitress comes back with their drinks. "Вот ваш квас, ваш мятный чай и сода." The waitress says handing out their beverages off the tray she used to carry them, placing them in front of the group accordingly. Luna was the first to pick up her drink and sip on the straw placed in it. "mm! This is very good!" Luna compliments, downing more of the sweet drink. "That's rusion soda for you." The mayor says feeling more proud over the princess liking a local drink. A few more minutes of talking about relevant events and memory's, until the waitress comes back with a dish full of butter and sugar covered cherry filled pastries. "Oh! Here's the snacks" The mayor says grabbing the attention of the princesses. "Вот ваши закуски." The waitress says with a smile placing the pastries on the table. "Спасибо." The mayor says to the waitress paying the tab early and tipping the waitress. The mayor then picks up the snack and holds it up for the princesses to see. "This is Vishnevyye pirogi, or cherry pie in your language." The mayor says explaining the snack and hands it to luna, who then takes a bite of it and proceeds to be blasted with extremely buttery, sugary bread balanced with the tartness of the cherry. "Do you like it?" The mayor asks princesses luna who can only excitedly nod in agreement. "I told you, you would love them." The mayor said with a smile feeling the most proud she has ever felt for having the princess love her local pastries. Celestia seeing her sister enjoy this snack so much, sets down her tea she's been sipping on and grabs one herself and gives it a taste, where then she is hit with the same extreme euphoric feeling. Celestia swallowing her bite asks the mayor a question. "How do you say 'Can i get a thousand of these' in rusion??" Celestia excitedly asks the mayor, the mayor chuckles and answers the princesses question. "I'll tell him on the way out." She says with a smile. After twenty minutes of talking and celestia trying to pronounce 'Могу ли я иметь тысячу вишневых пирогов?' The princesses leave the shop while the mayor tells the shop owner to cook up more of the pastries and deliver them to the canterlot express at the new train station. Once the mayor was finished she walks out of the shop to meet up with the princesses. "Shall we continue?" The mayor asks the princesses. "Yes, we may." Replied celestia, luna being unable to speak do to her still being in a trance from the snacks she ate earlier. After fifteen more minutes of walking they finally reach city hall, it wasn't anything exciting but still interesting nonetheless. After touring city hall they begin walking west toward the stage. After about twenty minutes of walking they reach the stage and all the guards take position while celestia talks to the local police. "Is the stage set?" She asks the policepony. "Yes it is, you may go up when ready." The policepony responds. "Excellent." She says. After a briefing of the escape route in case of an emergency, celestia asks a question. "By the way, would you mind telling me the time?" She asks. The policepony looks at the watch on his wrist and reads the time. 11:59 am. "Thank you." Celestia responds. and walks up the stage, luna attempts to follow but is stopped by the policepony. "Sorry princess, but we can't let you go up there." He says. "Can't go up there?? We demand to be allowed onto the stage, to accompany our sister!" Luna shouts to the policepony. "Who is 'We'?" The police pony questions. "UGH! I, I WISH TO GO ON STAGE TO ACCOMPANY, MY, SISTER!" Luna shouts louder and stomps to the steps of the stage, regaining some of her composure before going up so not to make her sister look like a fool in front of the whole city. "Что заставило ее так расстроиться?" The policepony asks his colleague who can only shrug. Once the princesses walk up the stage and to the podium in the middle of it, they begin to observe their surroundings; it's a basic junction where five roads meet, one of them being the direction toward city hall, further to the west is an old clock tower which when it's done chiming is when the speech begins. Looking over the large crowd just below the stage separated by a line of fifteen guards, the remaining ten are patrolling around the block across the street, she continues to look at the large crowd of ponies, must be a few thousand citizens who took some time out of their Saturday morning to watch her speech in person. (In pony?) Celestia looks to her sister standing to her right, who looks to be upset about the citizen's not understanding her dialect, and then to the mayor whose standing to her left giving celestia a wink, then she looks at the clock tower, waiting for the daily enlightenment. 12 O'Clock. The clock tower begins chiming. After the first set of smaller bells sound to attract the attention of the citizens of the city. The first strike on the largest bell sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* A loud cracking noise could be heard right over celestia's head who looks upward in an attempt to find the source, all of the crowd heard the noise and are looking for the source of the sound as well. The second strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *SMACK* A second crack could be heard, this time a chunk of the podium breaks off and the mayor falls to the ground clutching her stomach. 'She's been shot.....' Celestia thinks to herself. "SNIPER!" A guard from the line shouts and the crowd begins to panic, everypony is running in every direction. Celestia stands in place, too shocked to move, she heard about snipers during her weapons training four years earlier. 'You can't see them, you can't find them, but if you hear them. You're already dead.' Are the words echoing in her head, forgetting her training on how to deal with snipers. The third strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *SMACK* *THUD* Was the only thing celestia could hear. A guard had rushed the stage and shoved celestia to the ground, but was hit by the bullet. 'It was Flying Spear....' Celestia thought to herself. Princess luna grabs her sister by the shoulders along with a few other guards. "SISTER! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!" Luna shouts down to her discombobulated sibling. Celestia finally realizing the gravity of the situation, jumps up and begins running south off the stage. The fourth strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *PING* *Dissipating Whistle* "AGH!" Celestia shouts in pain. A bullet connects and ricochets off celestias armor, the kentic energy causes her right shoulder to begin feeling an immense amount of pain. The ricocheted bullet flew right past and whistled the Grimm Reaper's favorite tune right in luna's right ear causing her to fall to the ground in fright, celestia stops and turns around to help her sister up. The fifth strike sounds. *GONG* *CRACK* *PING* *THUD* Celestia grunts in pain as she ricochets another round off her breast plate cause pain in the chest. She hear's that 'thud' sound again. She looks to her right and sees another guard go down, killed by a ricochet. A guard steps in front of celestia. "GO PRINCESS, WE'LL GET LUNA OUT OF HERE!" A guard shouts at her, entrusting her guards would keep her sister safe she hesitantly turns around and continues to run off stage, looking over her shoulder to see the guard that stepped in front of her along with another, pick her sister up and run with her off the stage and toward the north. Celestia continues running with twelve of her guards, while ten stay back to try and locate the sniper. The sixth strike sounds. Celestia knew what would happen next, she knew the sniper was going after her, she knew she would hear that crack again, looking for somewhere to hide and finding nowhere to hide, she continued to run, awaiting for fate to choose her future. *GONG* A guard grabs her by the waist and pushes her to the ground using his body as a shield. 'Don't you do this too.' She thought to herself, thinking of how she's going to apologize to the despairing family's of the fallen guards. .... .... .... No crack. She didn't hear a crack. The guard was shocked by the fact as well, but without wasting anytime, he lifted the princess back up to her feet and pushed her to run. ecstatic that fate has decided that she would live to see the suns morning light again, she begins running like she never ran before, the adrenaline kicking in as she runs towards the corner of the street that the policepony briefed her to run to if anything bad happens. The seventh strike sounds. As she turns the corner to run into the safe area, confident she would make it, she just barely does. *CRACK* *SMACK* *GONG* The sniper fired before the bell sounded, and the bullet hit the corner of the stone building, not three inches away from her head. She then hears rapid gunfire, presumably from her guards having located the sniper. Celestia slows her running a bit once she rounded the corner in order to catch her breath, as she begins to slow the thirteenth guard drives up next to her in a M3 Half-track leftover from the siege. "PRINCESS! GET IN!" The guard shouts to her, without hesitation she jumps into the APC along with five of her other guards getting in the back of the APC, the other seven guards start running back to the stage to face off with the sniper. As they begin to drive off towards to the train station, celestia hears more cracks. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* Four cracks are heard with half second spacing. 'Seems like he gave up trying to kill me and turned to the guards, i just hope he still misses his shots.' She thought. As they pull up to the train station and get out of the truck, the guards stationed there rush to meet up with the with the with the six other guards. "What the hell is going on up there!?" A guard asks the driver. "Somepony just tried to assassinate the princess!" The driver responds. "We got to get her into the train and peel out of this hell-hole!" Shouts the driver to the other guards. As celestia boards the train and the doors close, she remembers her sister is still out there. "Where's my sister! Is she here!" Celestia shouts to a guard that was stationed at the station. "No your highness, she has not been here." The guard answered. Celestia grabs the guard by the shoulders and shouts to him. "We're not leaving until she gets here! Got it!" Giving the order to the soldier. "Yes your high-" As the guard attempts to respond to the new order, a volley of machine gun fire rains down onto the train from a nearby rooftop, the guards in the train car and the princess drop to the floor to avoid being hit from the spray of bullets, three of the guard on the outside of the train were not to lucky. The driver from APC get's on the mounted M2 Browning Machine Gun and begins unleashing hell-fire onto the rooftop, the machine gun fire from the rooftop ceases and the guard stops shooting eyeing down the roof of the building to make sure he doesn't peak. He see's the shooter stand up and open fires, hitting the target with a .50 caliber machine gun round, sending his left arm flying. But then he remembered why he stood up, he looks toward the sky and see's a small silhouette of something falling towards him, the small object lands in the back of the APC giving a clear view of what it is. "FFUU-". An explosion is heard from outside the train car. "What was that!" Celestia shouted. "Doesn't matter, we're getting out of here!" Shouted the guard. "Conductor! Conductor! this is Royal Escort Squad Leader-01 do you copy, i repeat, this is RESL-01, we demand you to take us back to canterlot immediately!" The squad lead ordered the conductor of the train. "Roger that RESL-01, returning to canterlot." Once celestia heard those words she stood up and grabbed the guard by his uniform. "We're not leaving without my sister!" Celestia demanded. "We have to or else another bastard well come and finally get you!" The guard shouts back, the train begins moving. Celestia grabs the radio off of the guard and speaks into it. "Conductor, this is the prince-" The squad leader snatches the radio from the princess and she tries desperately to get it back, but is restrained by other guards that were in the train car. "We're not leaving without my sister! We're not! Stop the train! Stop the train now!" She yells. But her cries fall on deaf ears as the train begins to speed away from stalliongrad. All she can do now it sit on one of the seats and begin to cry. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* The princess hears distant cracking.
