12 O'Clock

12 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.