Midday in the Heart of Equestria

by Wheller

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Original Character, Octavia, Tragedy, Discord, Princess Celestia, Pinkie Pie, DJ P0N-3, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 14078

In the midst of the World Leaders Conference, Princess Celestia reflects on a time long gone by.

In the midst of the World Leaders Conference, Princess Celestia reflects on a time long gone by.

Published 2011-12-09 00:32:50 UTC
Last updated 2011-12-16 19:36:21 UTC

Chapter 1

Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the twelfth story in the Bonds of Eternity Series.

The first story in the series is Family found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1307/

The second story in the series is Nihil Novi Sub Sole found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1444/

The third story in the series is Friends in High Places found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1716/

The fourth story in the series is Trust found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1973/

The fifth story in the series is Domino Effect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2151/

The sixth story in the series is To Whom It May Concern found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2465/

The seventh story in the series is Bridge Over River Rijn found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2726/

The eighth story in the series is The Way of the Maneaanite found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2931/

The ninth story in the series is Diamond in the Rough found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3062/

The tenth story in the series is Old World Blues found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3265/

The eleventh story in the series is Archimedes Constant found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3672/

Midday in the Heart of Equestria
Chapter 1

Princess Celestia had never been more bored in her entire life, which was truly saying something because of how unnaturally long that life had been. She never liked the World Leaders Conference. Every year, she dreaded it, knowing it would just be endless bickering back and forth between the parties, which was exactly what was going on at this moment. King George of Welara, and Governor General Albert Isaac of South Island had entered their fifth verbal sparring match with King Olaf of the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms of the day, and it would not be the last.

Princess Celestia hated the World Leaders Conference, sometimes she thought it would be better to just cancel it out right, but no, she couldn’t do that, if she were to just up and cancel, there would be nothing to stop the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms and Welara and her dominions from trying to kill each other.

Since the return of Princess Luna, she had taken a more active role in management of the conference, resulting in Celestia mostly sitting by watching them bicker with extreme boredom; she looked around and noticed Cheval de Gaulle, President of the Cheval Fourth Republic and Saul Goebbels, Chancellor of Bundesrepublik Schäferhund where having their own verbal sparring match over who knows what. Czar Alexandre of the Cossacks was sitting quietly reading a book.

Luna was clutching her head in pain, having a headache from all the noise, this was working out pretty much as could be expected, the World Leaders Conference was never productive, and by the end all it did was keep peace in the world holding for another year, until the next one.

‘Hem ehm’, Princess Celestia said quietly, causing everybody in the room to become silent. ‘I think that is enough for today, we shall adjourn for the rest of the day, and resume sessions at eight o’clock tomorrow morning’.

Everyone in the room glanced slightly at each other and shrugged, they all rose from their seats and filed out of the room. Leaving Celestia and Luna alone in the room together.

‘Sister, it’s not even midday!’ Luna proclaimed.

‘Yes, I know’, Celestia said simply. ‘King George and King Olaf need the time to work the bitterness out of their systems, it’s only the first day of the conference, Luna, I’ve been here for more of them than you, trust me, I know what I am doing’.

‘Nothing ever gets done at this Conference the way you do it!’ Luna proclaimed. ‘Maybe it would help if you actually cared about the rest of the world and its troubles!’

‘I care about the world just as much as you do Luna’, Celestia said passively.

‘The hell you do!’ Luna cried out angrily. ‘You haven’t even said anything about the Said Canal Crisis’.

‘I don’t know enough about the Misr’s grievances to make a fair statement about the matter’, Celestia said plainly.

‘Well that’s the problem, maybe you should come down from your ivory tower once in a while and take a good long look at everything instead of sitting back and doing nothing. This is now, you can’t ignore the rest of the world like you did while I was gone’, Luna said in a huff as she stormed out of room.

Celestia sighed, it wasn’t that she ignored the rest of the world; it was that she needed to tend to her own first. Her subjects were the most important things to her; she had to protect them because they could hardly protect themselves. So they looked to her to protect them.

Celestia liked to think she had done a good job; she had made sure that they would be safe... although, now the other nations had made that job a lot harder.

...

The royal unicorn trotted up and down the corridors, her long, flowing pink mane bouncing in with each step. Princess Celestia was lost in thought; the year had once again just turned. Year 4000 of the reign of Queen Gaia, Celestia couldn’t believe it had been that long already. Time passed for the royal unicorn much differently than it did for the rest of their subjects. Celestia had been born only a thousand years into her mother’s reign and was still only on the cusp of being a mare.

Suffice it to say, the royal family were different. Though they were different in ways that their subjects wouldn’t... couldn’t understand, they weren’t ready. Celestia knew this already. It was one of the few things that she and her parents agreed on.

Celestia rounded the corner and found herself accidentally bumping into somepony else.

‘Oh! Pardon me your highness, I am so very sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going...’ the pony said.

‘Oh, that’s quite all right’, Celestia said with a small smile. She had bumped into Emerald Sparkle, her mother’s protégée; the emerald green unicorn pony was aptly named.

Emerald Sparkle brushed her celadon mane back into place nervously, something that Celestia noticed that she did often when she felt out of place. Emerald Sparkle had been pretty much considered part of the family since she was young, Queen Gaia’s own personal student, though, Celestia had begun to see less and less of her after the mare had obtained her cutie mark, a thermionic valve. It became clear that the unicorn’s talents lay elsewhere from what mother could teach her. The royal family’s skills were in magic. Not science.

‘Emerald, please, I’ve known you your entire life, you’re like my other sister, you don’t need to be so formal with me’, Celestia said simply.

‘I know’, Emerald said with a shrug. ‘I’m just nervous... that’s all, the Sunburst project is ready for testing, my dream within my grasp... I’m just worried I’m not going to be able to contain myself for the queen’.

‘You are awfully excited about a weapon... Emerald’, Princess Celestia said uneasily.

Emerald Sparkle frowned slightly. ‘It’s not the weapon itself that I’m interested in; I’m interested in the applications of it! If the weapon works, we can adapt the technology to generate power! We’d be free of our reliance of fossil fuels, which we’re going to run out of eventually. Imagine cheap, clean energy for everypony! It’s just... it’s so exciting!’

Celestia offered her a shrug. ‘I haven’t really been keeping up with science...’ she said, her voice beginning to trail off, causing Emerald Sparkle to frown.

‘Oh you really should! It’s so exciting Princess! There is so much that science has to offer! The sunburst project alone has so many applications! I wouldn’t be surprised that if in 10 years we’ll put a pony on the moon! We might even be able to leave our little Tau Ceti system!’ Emerald said. She was starting to get excited.

‘Tau Ceti?’ Celestia asked in confusion.

‘You know? The star our planet orbits?’ Emerald Sparkle asked.

‘I just call it the sun’, Celestia said with a shrug.

‘So do most ponies’, Emerald Sparkle said with a frown. ‘But that implies that ours is the only one! There’s another star a lot like ours that’s 12 light years from here! Can you imagine what we might find if we were to go there!? Maybe we’d find intelligent life! Oh I just get so excited at the prospects!’

‘Emerald, don’t you think that’s a little silly? I mean... aliens? What is the likelihood of them existing?’ Celestia asked with a frown.

‘What’s the likelihood that they don’t?’ Emerald Sparkle asked. ‘I mean, think about it, what if we are the only planet with life on it? What will happen when our sun dies? Is that just it? Are all civilisations in the universe dead?! It’s too depressing to think that we’re all that’s here, there has to be something else!’

‘I suppose...’ Celestia said, slightly unsure of herself.

Emerald Sparkle gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Well, I have to go; it’s almost time for my audience with the queen! It’s been nice talking to you again Celestia... I’ve kind of missed it’.

‘I have too’, Celestia said nodding in agreement. ‘You really should come around more Emerald; I know mother has certainly missed your visits, and I’m sure Luna would be a better pony to talk about science with than I would, she’s really interested in... Oh what do you call it, radio?’

Emerald Sparkle nodded. ‘I think maybe I will have to, I’ve forgotten how much I missed you and Luna’s company... I think maybe I will’, she added a smile. Causing Celestia to return it.

Emerald Sparkle gave a polite wave goodbye, and trotted off to visit with Queen Gaia.

Celestia turned and continued to walk; she thought about the words that Emerald Sparkle had said. What if there were... aliens... out there? And what if they weren’t friendly?

Then what?

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

‘Emerald Sparkle is like family Tia! The least you could have done is shown some interest in her accomplishments!’ Princess Luna exclaimed.

The two royal unicorn sisters were lying in Celestia’s bedroom, as they often did at the end of the day, speaking about their day’s events. A side effect of being royalty, and heirs to the throne that would eventually become theirs, it led them to become bored very easily. As heirs to the throne, they had little in the way of responsibility or duties to the state. There were a few things, most of them trivial.

Celestia let out a small sigh as rolled onto her back and began staring up at her ceiling. ‘I don’t know Luna... I mean, I’m happy for Emerald, of course, I just don’t know how I feel about what she’s working on’.

‘You don’t know how you feel about anything!’ Luna said. ‘For the sake of everything that’s good, one of these days, mum and father are going to hand over the country to us, am I going to have to push you into running it the way you should?’

Celestia let out a chuckle. ‘Probably, you were always the one with the interest in it’.

‘Yeah well, unfortunately for you, you’re going to have to learn to get along without me’, Luna said quietly.

Celestia perked her head up and looked at her sister. ‘What?’ she asked.

There came a knock at the door before Celestia got an answer. The door opened and the majestic figure of their father, the tall Alicorn with a flowing red mane entered the room and smiled at them. ‘Good evening, Celestia, Luna’, he said in that grand voice of his. King Aether came into the room and sat down next to them.

‘Hello father’, Celestia said politely.

‘I heard that Emerald Sparkle was in with your mother today’, he said simply, ‘she wishes for us to attend the demonstration of the sunburst project. She was very excited about it’.

‘Well, you know Emerald, once she gets on the subject of science it’s hard to get her attention to anything else’, Celestia said.

‘Sounds like a daughter of mine and magic’, the king said with a smirk.

‘Magic is worth it...’ Celestia said quietly.

‘Oh come now Celestia! Try not to be so closed minded, you’re young... relatively speaking, don’t become so set in your ways!’ Aether pleaded.

‘We will be attending the demonstration, won’t we father?’ Luna asked, piping up from where she lay.

‘Of course! Emerald Sparkle is like family, we wouldn’t miss it for the world’, Aether said. ‘Isn’t that right Celestia?’

‘Yes father...’ Celestia said quietly.

‘Good! You should both get some rest, tomorrow will be here before you know it after all’, Aether said as he got up from his seat and left the two mares alone.

‘Tia, father’s right, you need to be a little more enthusiastic about progress! The world can’t stay the same all the time!’ Luna pleaded with her sister, causing Celestia to sigh.

‘Well why not? Everything is nice the way it is now! Why do we have to change for the sake of change!? Not all change is good’, Celestia said adamantly.

‘Not all change is bad, either’, Luna said. ‘You’re terrible, you know that?!’

Celestia gave her sister a sore look of annoyance, her eyes becoming small and beady. ‘Well at least I don’t moan in my sleep!’ she said, a sly grin beginning to form on her face. ‘”No! Vinyl Scratch! Don’t touch that!” Who is Vinyl Scratch!? Is she your marefriend!?’ Celestia called out teasingly.

A look of horror began to form on Luna’s face. ‘What! Nopony! I’ve never heard that name before in my life’.

‘Then why do you call out to her in your sleep!?’ Celestia said grinning madly; she hopped on top of her sister, tickling her playfully. ‘“Oh Luna I love you, my name is Vinyl Scratch! Kiss me Luna! Kiss me!”’ Celestia pursed her lips together into an obnoxious kissy face to tease her sister.

‘Tia! Stop that!’ Luna called out, playfully pushing her sister off her and landing softly on the floor.

The two mares couldn’t help but giggle to each other.

...

Princess Celestia opened her eyes again after being lost in her thoughts. The Alicorn princess’ mind lost in events a thousand years old. She found herself getting nostalgic. She missed mother, she missed father, and she even missed Emerald Sparkle. Celestia never knew what became of her almost sister, she just up and disappeared without a trace one day.

Celestia figured she was dead by now; she had to have been, but still, despite the mare’s dangerous obsession with her nuclear power and her robots. She really had cared for her almost sister, and she missed her something terrible.

‘Penny for your thoughts? Tia?’ asked the voice of Princess Luna from behind her.

Celestia turned around and looked to find her sister had trotted out onto the balcony overlooking Canterlot, the majestic capital city of Equestria with its ten thousand inhabitants. There was no space for any more, if they wanted to make more room for ponies to live here, they would have to start digging into the mountain side, and the result would be disastrous. Dig any more, and the entirety of Canterlot would tumble down into the valley below.

‘I have just been thinking...’ Celestia said. ‘About mother, father, you, that fateful day, Emerald Sparkle even’.

‘Emerald Sparkle?’ Luna asked. ‘Now that is a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time!’

Celestia nodded as her sister joined her in looking out over the city.

‘You know? When I first took Twilight Sparkle on as my student, I saw Emerald in her instantly; she gets that same look in her eye when she gets going about magic’, Celestia said with a smile.

‘I did not even know that Emerald Sparkle had had any foals of her own until after I had returned from my exile’, Luna said. ‘I did not even know she had been seeing anypony’.

‘Neither did I’, Celestia said. ‘She didn’t even know she was pregnant until the day of the Sunburst project’s demonstration’.

‘Who was the father?’ Luna asked curiously.

‘I couldn’t tell you’, Celestia said. ‘She didn’t want to talk about it... It was... very strange, to say the least’.

Luna raised an eyebrow at Celestia’s statement. ‘You... you do not think that she was... assaulted? Do you?’

‘I don’t know Luna... I don’t know, though as much as I wish it to not be true, everything points to Emerald Sparkle’s pregnancy to be... not her choice’, Celestia said sadly. ‘I never did find out’.

‘How terrible’, Luna said glumly.

Celestia could only nod her head in agreement.

...

The grey Pegasus pony lie sleeping in the middle of an empty field, though the body was asleep, the mind was hardly idle. The many voices of Legion echoed back and forth as the Pegasus slept. The collective consciousness of the creature, was not to say unaware of their surroundings. Some of the personalities slept, others were arguing back and forth with each other while the one that held them all together rested.

Others sat quietly, listening, watching the surroundings for any sign of trouble.

There was a sound, a faint fluttering of wings. Legion’s blood red eyes shot open and he leapt up from his slumber and took up a defensive stance. The consciousness inside him all began to focus, working together and building a consensus on what to do with this situation.

There was nothing around him.

‘We demand that you show yourself’, Legion called out in his distinctive voice. It echoed several different inflections at the same time as if it were made up of several different speakers saying the same thing at the same time.

Three small metal orbs, each with big, bright eyes materialised into view around him.

‘Don’t be alarmed, I am not here to harm you’, barked a voice from one of the orbs.

‘We cannot be harmed’, Legion said simply. ‘We cannot be hurt’.

‘All living things can be hurt, you just have to know how to do it, but I am not interested in fighting. Not with you, not today’.

Legion studied the metal orbs before them. ‘Speak your desire, then’.

‘I want what you want, and I know how to get it for you’.

‘And what is it that you think we want?’ Legion asked, sceptically. ‘We are hesitant to trust one who hides their face behind a machine’.

‘Unity’.

‘What?’ Legion asked.

‘Unity, that is what you want, is it not? Well, it’s what I want too’.

Legion studied the metal orbs for a moment, looking carefully upon them, making sure that they were legitimate and that the voice behind them was not luring him down a path that he did not want to be on.

Legion looked at the metal orbs and made up his minds. ‘You have our attention’.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Princess Celestia had opened her eyes and lifted her head up off her pillow, she had not been asleep, as it was still daylight out, she had merely laid down and rested her eyes for a bit. She spread her wings out, stretching them as far as she could. Soon it would be night, and soon it would be time to sleep, and then before she knew it, she would be up again and be waste deep in arguing world leaders. The idea was already giving her a headache.

She took her mind to other things, and glanced out the window towards the west. She could see Ponyville out in the distance, and thought to herself that it had been a very long time since she had received a letter from Twilight Sparkle. Of course, she had said specifically that she only wanted Twilight to send a letter to her when, and only when she had learned something about friendship... but at the same time, Celestia figured that Twilight would have had to have learned SOMETHING by now.

To be perfectly honest? She had started to miss her student’s regular correspondence, more importantly, she missed Twilight. Twilight reminded her so much of Emerald Sparkle, her friend and almost sister from all those years ago. The resemblance was uncanny. Her recent nostalgia about Emerald had caused her to yearn for days gone by when Twilight was around Canterlot and she tutored the unicorn mare in the way of magic.

Maybe she would cut the conference short tomorrow and take the rest of the day to visit her student in Ponyville. That sounded like a good idea, Celestia had decided, she was going to do it. Luna wouldn’t like it that she was shirking off the conference, but she could live with it. Celestia’s horn began to glow as she reached out for paper and ink.

‘Dear Twilight Sparkle...’

...

Monty Ulan poked his head out the window and looked around at the countryside. Right on schedule! ‘We’re about to reach Central Canterlot, would somepony go back to the caboose and throw the breaks?’

Vinyl Scratch looked up from where they were sitting on the floor of the engine compartment and raised an eyebrow. ‘Caboose?’ she asked.

‘You know... the car at the back of the...’

‘I know what a caboose is. This engine does have brakes, right?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Of course it does’, Monty said simply. ‘Every car does, but the controls for them are in the caboose, put them in any other car and you can’t hit the brakes on all of them...’

‘Monty, look out the window towards the back of the train. Tell me what you see’, Vinyl said simply.

Monty nodded and took a look, only to discover that there were no train cars behind them at all. ‘Well fuck’.

‘Any bright ideas now?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Yeah, I got one. ABANDON TRAIN!’ Monty shouted as he pushed open the door to the engine and leapt out.

Surprise grabbed onto Vinyl and spread her wings the force of the wind pulled them out into the air and they watched as the diesel engine continued to speed off along the tracks. Blowing past the Central Canterlot Province Station and continuing on its way.

‘Gahh... You’re heavy!’ Surprise cried out, her voice straining as she continued to fly with her.

‘Shut up and keep flapping!’ Vinyl called back with annoyance in her voice. She looked around. ‘Do you see Monty?’

‘No! I’m... a little busy... carrying you... seriously... how much do you weigh?’ Surprise asked with a grunt.

‘I liked you better when you were staring quietly into space!’ Vinyl said in annoyance.

‘I liked you... better when I... didn’t have to carry you!’ Surprise snapped back.

‘Fine! Take us down to the ground!’ Vinyl said. ‘Cry baby’.

Surprise lowered herself to the ground, her grip on Vinyl slipped, causing the unicorn mare to fall a good 50 or so centimetres before hitting the ground.

‘Well at least I can cross ‘jump from a speeding train’ off my list of things to do before I die list’, Vinyl said. ‘Now where’s Monty?’

The duo heard a rustling sound from the bushes, Monty Ulan burst through them, his robes torn to shreds by the jump from the train. ‘Man... Chapter Master Archimedes is going to kill me when he learns I crashed his diesel engine’.

‘Crashed?’ Surprise asked.

‘Those tracks go all the way to Manehattan, It’s going to crash eventually, and when it does, the Manehattan Chapter of the Machine Cult will swarm it and take it for themselves, the greedy bastards’, Monty said, causing Vinyl Scratch to raise an eyebrow.

‘The Manehattan Chapter likes to hoard anything left over from before the Reign of Celestia, they don’t even use it, or have any desire to improve upon it like we in the Fillydelphia Chapter do’, Monty explained, he grabbed at his robes with his teeth and pulled the tattered remains of them off, and exposing his cutie mark of a diskette. ‘Let’s go, we’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us’.

...

Twilight Sparkle was nose deep in her book as Rainbow Dash lay against her, napping soundly, Twilight Sparkle looked over to her and smiled, Rainbow Dash was so adorable like this.

Spike was in the kitchen cooking dinner for the three of them when Twilight heard him belch in a way that only happened during a specific event, Twilight shot to her hooves, accidentally knocking the napping Rainbow Dash to the floor.

‘OW!’ Rainbow Dash called out. ‘Hey! What was that about!?’

‘Sorry Rainbow’, Twilight said with a frown, and kissed the Pegasus on her forehead to make up for it. She trotted into the kitchen, where Spike had fallen to the floor, likely from the surprise of getting a letter from the princess, something that had not happened in quite a long time.

Twilight picked the letter up with her magic and opened it up and read it. ‘Oh no’.

‘What? What’s wrong?’ Spike asked.

‘The Princess is coming here tomorrow Spike! Ohh... this can’t be good’, Twilight said. She was beginning to panic. The last thing that they needed was Princess Celestia coming to town and discovering something going on that she shouldn’t. ‘Emerald!’ Twilight called out, dashing back into the main room. ‘Emerald! I know some part of you is here watching, you need to get all your spritebots out of Ponyville! And fast before Princess Celestia shows up’.

‘I thank you for your concern, but it’s not something you need to worry about. I’ve been watching our dear leader longer than you’ve been alive, and she’s yet to notice the spritebots in her castle. Celestia sees what she wants to see and nothing more. I know what I am doing, great-granddaughter’, said the tinny metal voice of Emerald Sparkle from a still hidden spritebot somewhere in the room.

Twilight frowned; it didn’t make her feel any better. Twilight still didn’t quite know how she felt about Emerald Sparkle, but the last thing she wanted was for something terrible to happen to her great-grandmother. To be honest? She wouldn’t put it past the princess to do something drastic.

...

Octavia stepped out of the bath at the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse. She was beginning to rethink her opinion of Applejack. She was a dumb hick, that much was apparent, but she was a kind dumb hick, which was better than nothing. Octavia grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her and dried her hair off.

I smell like Apples. Octavia thought to herself. It figured, it was an apple farm, though she couldn’t help but wonder if Applejack and her family took apples a bit too seriously. They were a fruit, a pleasant one with a good taste, but still just a fruit.

Although, the more she thought about it, this Ponyville was a small town in rural Canterlot Province. Agriculture was probably this town’s lifeblood.

There came a knock at the door, Octavia went over and opened the door to find Applejack outside.

‘Oh! Yer done with yer bath, kay then, well Ah just wanted ta let ya know, supper’s gonna be ready in a few minutes’, Applejack said.

Octavia nodded. ‘Applejack?’ she asked.

‘Yeah?’ Applejack asked in return.

‘I find it extremely hard to believe that you could have been clueless about the contempt I’ve shown for you... yet, you continue to show me nothing but kindness... why?’ Octavia asked.

Applejack shrugged. ‘Ah know what it’s like ta be angry at somepony or somethin’, Ah figured ya just needed somepony to show yah some kindness and it’d help ya, ya know?’

Octavia cocked her head slightly to the side, questioning the truth of her statement, though the more she thought about it, she could see that Applejack was being honest with her.

‘Thank you Applejack... you’re a good mare’, Octavia said. ‘I’ll finish up and be down in a minute or two’.

Applejack nodded and trotted back down stairs. Octavia smiled; maybe things weren’t so bad here after all?

Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to beat on Montana Ulan when she caught up to him, and she was probably going to strangle Vinyl if she saw her.

Besides, Vinyl probably deserved it.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

‘Tia! Pay attention!’ Luna said, nudging her sister. The royal unicorn sisters sat on the observation deck of the royal airship as it glided softly and gently towards the docking tether. Celestia looked down towards the ground as they passed over a settlement.

‘Is that Dream Valley?’ Celestia asked.

‘Huh?’ Luna said as she looked down at the settlement below. ‘Oh yeah, them. The reactionaries threw a fit when they heard that our flight plan was going to take us over their settlement. “We don’t want no hydrogen blimp over our town!” Can you believe that? The nerve of them and it’s called a zeppelin! There’s a difference’.

Celestia couldn’t help but smirk. That was her sister all right, ranting about the ignorance of others. Though to be perfectly honest, Celestia didn’t know what the difference was either, and she knew better than to ask. If she did, Luna would rant from now until the end of the flight about how the airship was rigid... or something.

Celestia looked out the window, and discovered that there was a white coated Pegasus mare sitting on a cloud, watching as the airship went by. Celestia’s eyes met hers, and the Pegasus mare waved to her. Celestia waved back, feeling more than a little silly and turned and looked away.

The airship approached a docking tether some 50 or so kilometres away, it closed the gap and soon enough, the airship was hooked into the tether, and the automatic systems began to pull in the boarding ramp to the airship.

Celestia and Luna walked towards the gangplank where they met their mother and father and walked off the airship and onto the platform.

Queen Gaia was quite possibly, the largest pony that any would ever encounter, standing at nearly four hundred centimetres, the pure white Alicorn with a flowing multicoloured mane. Celestia was clearly her daughter, and the resemblance between the two was uncanny. Celestia would look nearly identical to her mother in a few thousand years time.

Emerald Sparkle was standing on the gangplank, waiting for the royal family to arrive and giving them a smile. She was clad in her eyeglasses and wearing a white lab coat as required of the members of the project.

‘I’m so glad you all could make it’, Emerald said happily. Celestia couldn’t help but notice that Emerald was struggling to keep a smile on her face.

‘We wouldn’t miss it for the world!’ Gaia said her deep, regal voice. ‘This is quite the occasion, after all’.

‘It’s this way! Come with me!’ Emerald said with a sort of fake enthusiasm. Celestia could tell that something wasn’t right.

Queen Gaia, King Aether and Luna walked ahead, while Celestia lagged behind to speak to Emerald Sparkle about what was going on.

‘Emerald? Is everything all right?’ Celestia asked.

Emerald Sparkle’s head shot up in surprise. ‘What?! Of... of course they are!’ she said unconvincingly, causing a look of anger to appear on Celestia face. Emerald was lying to her; she couldn’t stand it when ponies lied to her, especially when they were practically family.

‘You’re lying, Emerald. What is going on?’ Celestia asked firmly.

Emerald Sparkle caved. ‘I... I found out that I was pregnant this morning’, she said softly.

‘Oh!’ Celestia exclaimed, she didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it was certainly not this. ‘Congratulations! ... I didn’t even know you were seeing anypony’.

Emerald Sparkle shook her head. ‘I’m not’.

‘Then... oh, Emerald... I...’ Celestia began, but was quickly interrupted.

‘Celestia? Please, I can’t deal with this right now, I’m sorry, but can we talk about this later?’

‘You’re not thinking about... are you?’ Celestia asked.

‘Please, not right now, the project is what’s important right now’, Emerald said quietly. ‘We can talk later’.

Celestia finally gave in; she nodded her head in agreement. If that was Emerald Sparkle’s wish, then she would have to respect that.

Emerald and Celestia caught up with the rest of the royal family, and continued over to an elevator which took them out of the docking tether and down to ground level. Emerald led the way to the testing site. The outdoor complex was a maze of trenches that had been dug for the occasion.

At the far end of trenches, was the actual bomb itself, was being rolled of the bunkers of the development facility on a sort of motorised tracked trolley. Emerald showed the royal family to seats where they could watch the demonstration from safety.

Queen Gaia, however, approached the bomb. She was curious and took a closer look at the construction.

‘How does it work?’ Queen Gaia asked.

‘Oh, it’s quite simple; really, there is a piece of fissile material at both ends of the bomb, to detonate the weapon, the piece in back is shot at the one in front, when they hit... boom’, said one of the research ponies, a black coated earth pony with an equally black mane. His amber eyes light up with excitement.

‘Oh, thank you... your name is?’ Gaia asked.

‘Cromwell, your majesty, Oberlander Cromwell’, the pony said with a smile. ‘You should take your seat, your majesty, we’ll begin the test soon enough.’

Queen Gaia nodded in understanding, and returned to her seat. She watched as Oberlander Cromwell, worked the tracked trolley and pulled the bomb up out of the trenches. It sped down the range where it was loaded onto the back of a Ute and driven off to a safe distance down range.

After about an hour, Cromwell and the Ute drivers returned, and a voice began to speak over loudspeakers. It was time for the test.

‘Best not to look directly at it when it goes off’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘It’s going to be bright’.

The bomb exploded, a column of fire burst into the air, forming into the shape of a mushroom and sending a shockwave that kicked up dirt and tossed it into the air.

...

Life in Dream Valley was a quiet one, so it was not surprising that everyone began to panic when every window and glass object in the town shattered simultaneously for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

...

The dust began to clear over the test site, and everyone looked up over the trenches down the range to where the bomb had been detonated at. There was a large crater that was visible, along with the charred remains of many of the Hoofson Bay Area’s maple and evergreen trees. The test had been more than successful.

Emerald Sparkle became legitimately excited, the years of theory and designing had payed off. Now she could begin adapting this concept to civil power, the generation of electricity.

Princess Celestia, however, was the only one who was not impressed, or excited, in the slightest. Rather, she was mortified. So much destruction... how could anything positive come from that?

And Emerald Sparkle wanted to use this concept to generate electricity for ponies? If the process was going to be anything like that, then better to have them in the dark!

‘Your majesty! The airship!’ Oberlander Cromwell cried out, pointing a hoof at the docking tether. The shock wave had pulled it free from its mooring, and the wind was pushing the hydrogen zeppelin up and towards the test site.

Queen Gaia looked up and discovered what was going on. That was something of a problem, as everypony were not able to go after it. With the exception of Oberlander Cromwell, all of the researchers were unicorns, as were the royal family with the exception of the King and Queen.

‘I can get it’, Gaia said spreading her wings and leapt into the air.

Queen Gaia was a different kind of ruler than most, she preferred to do many things herself, and as a result, the royal household had few servants. Gaia flew up towards the airship, the strong northern winds had pushed the airship over the test site, and unbeknownst to the queen, into the heavily irradiated air. She bit down on the steel cables dangling from the mooring rings on the front of the zeppelin and began to pull it back to the docking tether.

‘That’s the queen for you’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘She loves to get her hooves dirty’.

...

The sun began to shine directly into Celestia’s bedroom. It was morning, Celestia didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, but she must have slept right through the night. She pulled herself out of bed and went over to the window.

She looked out over Canterlot, and down on the city, she could see the tiny dots of her subjects going about their business even in the early morning. Celestia wondered how many of them thought that she raised the sun each day, and how many of them dismissed the idea as preposterous. Stories told of Celestia and Luna raising the sun at the beginning of each day and the beginning of each night. Though Celestia figured that there had to be some ponies that figured that these were just that, stories.

Celestia ended the line of thought, she needed to get ready for the day, and she couldn’t really keep the foreign leaders waiting.

Well, she could, but then Luna would have her head.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

‘Tia! Pay attention!’ Luna said quietly, gently prodding her sister with a hoof. The Sisters Royal were already waist deep in arguing world leaders. King Olaf and King George were both ready to leap from their seats and across the table to get at each other’s throats, as were Cheval de Gaulle and Saul Goebbels.

Celestia was more than annoyed with them already, but she couldn’t adjourn the conference yet, they’d only been here for ten minutes.

‘He hem’, Princess Celestia said quietly. Everyone in the room fell silent and looked at her. ‘I don’t think I understand the issue here. King Olaf? What is your issue with King George?’

Olaf scoffed. ‘King George is a greedy imperial warmonger who wishes to see his union flag over the entire world! He sees what he wants and he takes by force!’

‘King George? What is your issue with King Olaf?’ Celestia asked.

‘King Olaf is pushy, he sees what he wants and he tries to take it by force or manipulation of others, where it not for us he would overrun the entire world!’ King George replied.

Princess Celestia glanced at the two of them for a moment. ‘Well, it seems to me that you two are the same person then’.

‘I... what?’ King George said.

‘You... what?’ King Olaf said.

Both gryphon and pony glanced at each other in shock.

Princess Celestia then turned to de Gaulle and Goebbels, and asked them the same; both of them began yelling in their respective languages, which caused Princess Celestia to shush them again.

‘It seems that your problem is that you are not willing to communicate with each other effectively, perhaps if you tried speaking a language you both understood, you might have better results?’ Celestia asked.

Goebbels and de Gaulle looked at each other with the same bewildered look that Olaf and George were giving each other.

‘Now, with that information, I think it best we adjourn for the rest of the day, and think about these revelations and where to go from here, no?’ Celestia asked.

Everyone rose from their seats and quietly filed out of the room, leaving Celestia and Luna alone once again.

‘Tia! What are you doing?! You are wasting a whole day that we could use for negotiating!’ Luna cried out.

‘Yes, and we’ll get more done over the next three days than would ever been accomplished otherwise’, Celestia said plainly.

‘You had better hope so’, Luna said. ‘Because if things do not turn around, I will be taking lead at this conference, you may not care about what goes on in the rest of the world, but I do. What we do here the next three days will impact the political climate of the entire world’.

‘Fair enough’, Celestia said with little interest, causing Luna’s temper to flare. She said nothing, and rose from her seat and trotted out of the room. Celestia only sighed, and then rose from her seat and returned to her room to ready herself to visit Ponyville.

...

Queen Gaia was ordinarily an effectively direct ruler, while she was an absolute monarch, she was as kind as she would be, and as fair as she could be, however, in the days following the testing of the sunburst project. Queen Gaia’s government had effectively stopped. Celestia was worried that something was wrong, though her mother assured her that everything was fine.

However in the weeks that followed, her mother became increasingly frail for seemingly no reason. So much in fact that that she surprised everypony by naming Duke East Wind of Cloudsdale as regent, which caused something of an outburst in Canterlot’s unicorn dominated high society. Celestia knew that they would hardly accept a Pegasus pony as their ruler, Queen Gaia had to have known that it would cause problems too, so why East Wind?

King Aether had all but barricaded himself in his queen’s bedroom, refusing to leave her side until she would become well, calling for the best doctors that Canterlot had to offer, though none of them were able to discover the reason behind the queen’s sickness.

Rioting broke out in the streets when Duke East Wind arrived and took his place upon the throne as regent. He was forced to send out the Canterlot Police Service’s CO19 riot police in force to put the riots down, hardly cementing his position as a popular one.

Celestia spent several minutes studying the Duke before approaching him for the first time. The grey coated Pegasus would have partially blended in with the background of the sky city of Cloudsdale with his snow white mane. What stuck out to her the most was the Duke’s ruby red eyes, Celestia noticed that the duke dressed simply, wearing only a red cape tied around his neck. His cutie mark was a cloud with the wind blowing east.

Celestia quietly approached the Duke and bowed respectfully to him, he was regent. ‘Your Grace’, she said.

‘Your Highness, please, I should be the one bowing to you’, East Wind said. ‘Frankly, I don’t know why I’m even here, surely, there would be a better choice of regent in either you, or your sister... but when the Queen asks you to do something, well can’t readily say no, can you?’

‘No’, Celestia said. ‘I suppose not’.

East Wind stepped down from the throne and towards the windows overlooking the streets. CO19 officers in riot barding were shooting at the crowd with rubber bullets and using their unicorn magic to lob tear gas grenades to force them to disperse. ‘They really don’t like me, do they?’

‘I suppose not’, Celestia said with a shrug.

‘Can’t say I blame them, there are no pegasi in Canterlot’, East Wind said simply. ‘Not exactly allowed... a kingdom of three races... though they are not equals’.

‘What are you getting at Your Grace?’ Celestia asked.

‘That this... racial violence? This is not right’, East Wind said. ‘Somepony needs to do something about it. What if... what if the power structure were to be reformed? Queen Gaia is a fair and just ruler, but nopony ever thought something like this would happen... what if power was shared? Then this sort of crisis would never happen again...’

‘Your grace!’ Celestia exclaimed. ‘Such ideas... those are treason!’

‘Treason? No, no, it is not treason without action, and it is merely a thought... probably wouldn’t work anyway, think nothing of it, Your Highness’, East Wind said simply.

It was at this point that Celestia had formed her opinion of East Wind. He was dangerous; something would need to be done about him.

...

Twilight Sparkle was in full out panic, she was pulling books off shelves in the Library and putting them back trying to insure that they would be straight. Rainbow Dash had tried to calm her, though it had failed spectacularly. Twilight Sparkle’s obsessive compulsive tendencies were usually not as pronounced, but when Twilight started to get worked up, everything had to be perfect.

Rainbow Dash had once thought Twilight’s obsessive compulsive tendencies were funny, and just the egghead getting worked up over nothing. Then she discovered that it was an actual medical condition that plagued many ponies. It could be physically painful for a pony if their bed sheets were not perfectly straight. Some had to turn light switches on and off a hundred and fifty times before they were comfortable. Rainbow Dash figured that Twilight was lucky; her obsessive compulsiveness was somewhat mild compared to others. At least, that had been what Doctor Nightly had said.

‘Twilight... I’m pretty sure...’ Rainbow Dash said.

‘The Princess is coming here, Rainbow Dash! Everything has to be perfect. Everything has to be straight. If everything is not perfect, the Princess will think something is wrong! And if the Princess thinks something is wrong... then we’re all screwed!’ Twilight said, pushing Rainbow Dash out of the way and continuing to check if everything was straight.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Spike, who was reading a magazine in the corner.

‘This is nothing’, Spike said without looking up from his magazine. ‘She’s been worse’.

Well that didn’t help at all.

There came a knock at the door, Twilight was too busy checking if ‘The Elements of Harmony, A reference guide’, was straight for the sixteenth time. So Rainbow Dash trotted over to it and opened the door.

To her surprise, Vinyl Scratch, Surprise, and most shockingly, Monty Ulan standing outside the door.

‘Hi! We’re nephite missionaries, and we’d like to talk to you about god and how we’re right and you’re not!’ Vinyl Scratch proclaimed with a grin.

Rainbow Dash sighed. ‘Not now Vinyl, we’re in the middle of a mild crisis here... Twilight’s being obsessive compulsive’.

‘Oh really? I should turn one of her vases a quarter of a centimetre to the left and see if she notices!’ Vinyl exclaimed as she walked in.

Within seconds, Twilight Sparkle was in her face. ‘Vinyl... Princess Celestia is coming here. I need you to be on your best behaviour! We don’t want a repeat of Trotterdam!’

‘I put out the fires!’ Vinyl exclaimed.

Twilight sighed and added simply. ‘You made them worse!’

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Princess Celestia had slipped out of the castle quietly to make her way to Ponyville. She hated to make a big spectacle of the matter, always had. She had neglected to tell any of her guards what she was doing. It wasn’t like she actually needed them to protect her. There wasn’t anypony alive who could actually hurt her. Emerald Sparkle was smart enough to figure out a way, but since she was long dead, Celestia had nothing to fear.

Things had not ended well between Emerald Sparkle and Celestia. Emerald Sparkle and Princess Celestia fought with each other more and more as Queen Gaia’s condition deteriorated.

...

‘Are those really necessary?’ Princess Celestia asked.

Emerald Sparkle nodded in affirmation as she used her magic to pull surgical scrubs over her body. ‘If the Queen is suffering from what I think she is suffering from... then yes. This test will confirm it... I’d recommend you two scrubbing up too if you want to see her’.

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia looked at each other worriedly; Celestia was particularly worried when Emerald levitated a small device up above her head.

‘What is that?’ Celestia asked.

‘This...? It’s a detector, I’m going to use it to see what’s making the queen sick’, Emerald said simply.

Celestia could tell that Emerald was holding something back, but she also knew that Emerald Sparkle loved the Queen as if she was her own mother, and she practically was. Celestia said nothing and watched as Emerald Sparkle opened her mother’s bedroom door. No sooner did she take a single step inside did the detector start beeping and clicking.

‘That can’t be right!’ Emerald Sparkle cried out. ‘Her exposure was for a couple of seconds at the most!’

‘What?! What did it say!?’ Celestia cried out.

‘.1 grays...’ Emerald Sparkle said. She moved closer to the Queen. The device began to tick faster and faster. Emerald waved the device over the queen’s head and took a look at it. Her eyes widened in panic and she ran out of the room and into a makeshift shower area that she and several of her colleagues from the Sunburst project had set up, but Celestia still had no idea what it was for.

Emerald Sparkle pulled on the rung with her teeth and water began to run over her, completely drenching the unicorn mare for a few seconds before it cut off automatically. ‘We need to get everypony off this floor right now!’

Several of Emerald Sparkle’s colleagues, including Oberlander Cromwell leapt into action and began directing castle staff and non-essential Sunburst project personnel down to the lower level.

‘Emerald? What is going on?’ Celestia asked. ‘Tell me the truth’.

Emerald Sparkle frowned and glanced towards the device that she was still carrying. ‘This... is a radiation detector. When I ran it over the queen’s horn... 10 grays, the highest concentration of radiation in the room... it seems that when she uses her magic, its synthesising the radiation and it’s been poisoning her, her unique Alicorn physiology has made her a highly conductive source of radiation... more than our bomb could have ever done’.

‘Is she...’ Princess Luna began, but found herself choking up on her words.

Emerald Sparkle nodded. ‘At that dose? I’m honestly surprised that she hasn’t died already’.

Celestia felt as if the mirror of her mind shattered with that statement. Her mother was dying, and it was Emerald Sparkle’s fault, her and her stupid science had doomed her mother.

‘This is all your fault!’ Celestia screamed as she lashed out with her magic, striking Emerald Sparkle hard and sending her toppling to the floor. ‘She’s been sick for weeks and weeks! And all this time you keep making the bombs that are killing her while you could have done something!’

‘Tia! What are you doing!?’ Princess Luna called out.

Emerald Sparkle clutched her muzzle in a hoof, blood dripping from her nose, and tears dripping from her eyes. ‘How was I supposed to know that her horn would absorb the radiation!? She wasn’t exposed for that long! It wouldn’t have been an issue for anypony else!’

Princess Celestia lashed out again with her magic, sending Emerald Sparkle flying several metres back and hitting her head hard on the back wall of the hallway outside her mother’s room.

‘TIA! STOP!’ Luna called out again, this time, she utilised what was commonly known as the ‘royal Canterlot voice’, a magical technique involving the channelling of magic from a unicorn’s horn to amplify one’s voice. ‘It is a new science! There was no way that she could have known what would happen, and if you do not stop, you will not only kill her, but her unborn child as well!’

Celestia looked over at where Emerald had landed and immediately felt a wave of guilt crash over her. Emerald Sparkle was three months pregnant at this point, and already putting her child at enough risk trying to help the sickly Queen of Equestria. Celestia took a step forward to help her friend up, but Luna stuck a hoof in front of her.

‘I think... you’ve done more than enough’, Luna said coldly as she trotted over to Emerald Sparkle and helped her to her hooves. She walked the injured unicorn to the stair case and the two of them went down it, bound for the Royal Hospital, where both mare and foal could be looked after.

Celestia turned and walked the other way, up the stairs to her own bedroom where she could have some time to think for herself. Luna was right; she had no right to do that to Emerald Sparkle, even if it was her fault.

Her mother was dying. Soon enough, Celestia would take the throne. Her mother had been a proponent of development, a champion of new ideas and thoughts. She actively encouraged developments like the Sunburst Project. If the Sunburst Project had proved anything, it was that such new ideas were dangerous.

She would be putting an end to that.

..

Princess Celestia’s hooves touched down on the outskirts of Ponyville, it was still not yet noon, and as a result, the perfect time to visit Ponyville without causing a lot of commotion. The foals were in the middle of their classes, and everypony else was in the middle of their work day.

There were a few ponies out in the streets, a cyan maned Pegasus with a mailbag fumbling over it and dumping letters and such every couple of metres. Most of the street vendors had closed up shop for their lunch hour. Princess Celestia had picked the best time to show up. She quickly spotted the library door and trotted over to it. She raised a hoof and was about to knock on it when a voice interrupted her.

‘TWILIGHT! FOR LUNA’S SAKE! THE BOOKS ARE STREIGHT!’ shouted a voice from inside.

Celestia then knocked on the door.

The door quickly opened and Celestia looked down to see Twilight Sparkle looking up at her.

‘Pr-Princess Celestia!’ Twilight said. Celestia noticed that her left ear was beginning to twitch, as it often did when her student was nervous.

‘Hello Twilight Sparkle, may I come in?’ Celestia asked.

‘O... of course!’ Twilight said, she stepped aside and allowed the princess entry.

‘Twilight, please, this isn’t a formal visit! Relax, it’s not like I’m... oh hello’, Princess Celestia said as she noticed several of Twilight’s friends in the room. Celestia recognised Rainbow Dash instantly, though the other three she did not know.

‘Hello Your Highness’, Rainbow Dash said.

‘Hello Rainbow Dash’, Princess Celestia said with a smile, and then she looked over at the other three ponies in the room. ‘I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting these other friends of yours Twilight’.

‘Oh... um, that’s Surprise’, Twilight said, pointing to the white coated Pegasus pony that was staring off blankly into space. ‘Then there’s Montana Ulan’.

‘Your Highness’, the grey coated earth pony said, bowing his head respectively.

‘And then that’s Vinyl Scratch’, Twilight said.

‘Yo’, the off white unicorn with the goggles over her eyes said with a cheesy smile.

‘Vinyl... Scratch?’ Celestia asked herself. That name sounded familiar... but from where?

‘That’s me! Vinyl Scratch...’ Vinyl Scratch said nervously. ‘Uh... maybe you recognise it from tax forms? I have to file a lot of them’.

Princess Celestia thought about it for a moment. She couldn’t get over how familiar with was... and then it dawned upon her. After kicking herself for the pun, she remembered that Vinyl Scratch had been a name that Luna had mumbled in her sleep oh so many years ago. She continued to study the unicorn mare for a moment. ‘Where are you from, Vinyl Scratch?’

‘Uh... I’m from Manehattan, Your Highness’, Vinyl Scratch said.

‘Manehattan...’ Princess Celestia repeated.

The tension in the room was broken when the door to the Library burst open and one of Twilight’s other friends, Pinkie Pie plunged through holding a red stick of what looked to be clay covered in a paper casing with a fuse sticking out of it in her mouth.

‘Twilight! Good news! I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, and I was able to stabalise the dyna...’ Pinkie Pie cried out in excitement, but then noticed that Princess Celestia was in the room, causing her to gasp in surprise, dropping the stick to the floor. ‘Is this a bad time?’

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The royal unicorn slept poorly that night after assaulting Emerald Sparkle. Her mind raced back and forth with thoughts from her mother’s condition, to the condition of Emerald Sparkle. She continued to lie awake for hours and hours, sleep, never coming to her.

However, it was not to say, that nothing did. A knock came at the door, Celestia sat up in bed as the door pushed open to reveal Princess Luna. ‘T... Tia?’ she asked.

Celestia rose from bed and trotted over to Luna, only to discover that her sister was crying.

‘Luna?’ Celestia asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Oberlander Cromwell just came to see me... It’s mother...’ Luna said. ‘She’s dead...’

The shock hit Celestia as if a pony had hit her sack of bricks. She fell to the floor, tears streaming from her eyes, and she began to sob. Luna dropped down to her and pulled her sister close in a tight embrace. The sisters royale spent the next hour on the floor of Celestia’s room embracing each other.

...

Oberlander Cromwell hated bearing bad news. This was the worst kind. He was outside the room of King Aether, and he had tasked himself to telling the king that his wife was dead.

It wasn’t a task he was looking forward to. He raised a hoof and knocked on the door several times.

‘Enter’.

Oberlander Cromwell opened the door and trotted inside. ‘Your Majesty... I have word of the queen’.

King Aether was up and out of bed, looking at the black earth pony and hoping for good news.

‘The queen... she has passed away, she succumbed to her sickness... and we can take comfort in the fact that she is no longer suffering’, Oberlander Cromwell said.

Aether’s mouth dropped open, and he fell to the floor in shock. The Alicorn’s head turned the sky and he let out a scream. Oberlander Cromwell couldn’t exactly blame him. This was terrible news.

That was when Cromwell noticed something was wrong. The King didn’t stop screaming. That was when Cromwell noticed that he was beginning to change. One of his forelegs had grown into an eagle’s talons, the other a lion’s paw. The king’s body grew longer, not unlike a serpent's. His head took the shape of a goat, Cromwell watched in horror as two mismatching antlers sprouted from his head.

What had once been the king... was now something else entirely.

‘King Aether...?’ Cromwell asked.

The once had been king reached out with his taloned arm and grabbed Cromwell by the neck.

‘Not quite...’ the creature said, with an insane, sadistic smile forming on his face. ‘King Aether died with his wife... you can call me... Discord’.

Cromwell had not the chance to respond, for Discord, with all his might threw the earth pony into the window.

Oberlander Cromwell fell in the early morning hours through the Canterlot sky; he continued to fall off the mountain. At first, he fought the fall, but, try as he might; there was nothing that could be done. Cromwell closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable embrace of death that awaited him when he hit the ground.

Discord climbed out the broken window and onto the castle rooftop as he observed the sun rising in the east. ‘Today’s forecast? Sunny with a chance of chaos!’ He said as he cackled madly in the open air. If the ponies of Canterlot had thought that the last few weeks had been chaotic... well they hadn’t seen anything yet.

...

‘Is this a bad time?’ Pinkie Pie asked as she looked at Princess Celestia.

‘Oh not at all!’ Princess Celestia said with a warm smile. ‘Hello Pinkie Pie, it is quite good to see you again’.

‘Oh... um, thank you your highness!’ Pinkie Pie said with a slightly nervous smile, and gingerly rolled the stick of dynamite that she had brought to show Twilight underneath the sofa closest to the door with a gentle tap of her hoof and closed the door behind her.

‘You are quite welcome, now what was it that you were saying when you came in?’ Princess Celestia said with a smile.

‘Oh... uh... I was just telling Twilight... that I finished... making the dynamic duo! It’s this new two layer cake recipe that I’ve been experimenting with’, Pinkie Pie said. ‘Yeah... that’s it...’

‘Oh, that sounds quite lovely!’ Princess Celestia exclaimed. ‘I would certainly love to try it if there is any left’.

‘Uh yeah! Okie dokie lokie! I will be right back!’ Pinkie Pie said with a smile, and then opened the door and quickly shut it behind her. Pinkie Pie took off towards Sugarcube Corner at high speed. ‘Get out of the way! I have to bake a cake or we are all going to die!’ she cried out, nearly knocking Lyra and Bon Bon over in the process and not stopping to apologise.

‘What was that all about?’ Lyra asked as she watched the pink party pony speed down the street.

‘It’s Pinkie Pie’, Bon Bon reasoned. ‘Who knows?’

...

About an hour of small talk later, Princess Celestia looked back up at the front door; and noted Pinkie Pie had still yet to return. ‘She is... not coming back, is she?’

‘Not looking like it, nope’, Vinyl Scratch said with a disappointed look on her face. ‘I don’t know about anypony else, but I was really looking forward to that cake’.

‘Yeah...’ Rainbow Dash said. Everypony in the room practically jumped when they heard Rainbow Dash’s stomach begin to make noises.

‘It sounds to me...’ Princess Celestia said with a smile. ‘That everypony is hungry? What say we get lunch, on me?’

‘Well, okay!’ Twilight said. The lavender unicorn had calmed herself down since Princess Celestia had arrived, and was now acting a bit more normal.

‘It’s settled then!’ Celestia said with a smile as they all rose from their seats and walked out of the Library into the open air of Ponyville.

Monty Ulan looked down the road, his eyes widened in panic. ‘Crap!’ he cried out and immediately ducked back into the library.

Everypony looked around in confusion. Vinyl Scratch glanced down the road and immediately saw what Monty had freaked out about. Octavia and Applejack were walking up the road towards them, chatting pleasantly with each other. ‘You all go on ahead, I’ve got something I need to take care of real quick’, and without another word, Vinyl walked away from the larger group towards Octavia and Applejack.

‘Hi Applejack’, Vinyl Scratch said, greeting the farm pony. ‘Hi Octavia’.

‘Vinyl Scratch’, Octavia said coldly.

‘Howdy Vinyl, somethin’ on yer mind?’ Applejack asked.

‘Yeah, Applejack? Could you give me an Octavia a minute? There’s something I need to talk to her about, in private’, Vinyl said.

Applejack nodded her head in understanding and trotted off, leaving the two mares alone.

‘This ought to be good’, Octavia said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. ‘What do you want, Vinyl?’

Vinyl frowned, she took a deep breath and pulled the goggles off her eyes and down around her neck. ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about things the last couple of days Octavia... and I wanted to say I’m sorry’.

‘Well that’s just too bad... wait, what?’ Octavia did a double take, unsure if what she had just heard had actually come out of Vinyl’s mouth.

‘You were right. I had no right to freak out like I did. Not after everything I’ve done to you, for the longest time, I was the worst friend anypony could have, I kept things from you, and I hurt you a lot... and so you’re a copper, so what? A detective inspector no less, that’s something. What were you when we first met?’ Vinyl asked.

‘I was just a DC then’, Octavia said.

‘And now you’re a DI five years later, that’s something to be proud of. I imagine that my behaviour probably didn’t help when it came time for the Greater Manehattan Police to promote you’, Vinyl Scratch said.

Octavia nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve exchanged a lot of words about you over these last five years, Vinyl, and in the process pretty much guaranteed that I’ll never make Detective Chief Inspector’, a small smile formed on Octavia’s face. ‘I think I’m okay, I pretty much decided that you were worth it, and besides, if I was promoted to DCI, I’d have to quit the symphony orchestra’.

Vinyl Scratch could only grin. ‘Good to see you’ve got your priorities straight’.

‘Well come now, everypony knows that my true passion is music, if it wasn’t for that I probably couldn’t stand to be around you’, Octavia said with a smug grin.

‘Oh really? And here I thought you liked me for my devilishly good looks!’ Vinyl said with a bright grin.

‘You? Please, you’re hardly anything spectacular, Vinyl Scratch’, Octavia said with a forced straight face.

‘That’s not what you were saying the other night... in bed!’ Vinyl said grinning like the madmare she was.

‘Vinyl Scratch... let me make something abundantly clear. I am not above smacking you in the face’, Octavia said with a look of annoyance on her face, which quickly turned to a smile. Vinyl could only grin in reply. The two mares reached out and wrapped their forelegs around each other in a tight embrace. It was good to have each other back.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Oberlander Cromwell had not expected to survive the fall that he’d taken from the top of the mountain city; he had not expected to hit water at the bottom. Cromwell forced himself to the surface gasping for air and paddled himself to the shore of the... lake?

That was the problem, Cromwell knew that he was somewhere in Whitetail Wood, though exactly where, he could only guess. Cromwell pulled himself out of the water and onto the shore, breathing heavily. He had expected himself to die, he had accepted it, and yet here he was, still alive. Clearly, the Long Road had more in store for him. Cromwell sat up and looked down into the lake, intended to splash some water on his face, he stopped himself, however, when upon looking into the lake... he had not one reflection, but three. And only one of these reflections was of an earth pony, the other. He glanced behind him, he was the only one here, and then back down towards at the lake.

‘What in the...?’ Oberlander Cromwell questioned.

‘Welcome to the Lake of Circumstance’, the reflection of the pitch black earth pony said.

‘We have much to discuss with you’, the pitch black Pegasus added.

‘Who... who are you?’ Cromwell asked.

‘We... are the Lake of Circumstance; it is you who determined how we appear to you’, the pitch black unicorn said. ‘You have much work to do Cromwell’.

‘The earth pony race is in trouble. There is an Island, east of here, across the Orientem Ocean’, the earth pony said.

‘If you want to save your race, then you will lead them there’, the Pegasus pony said.

‘It is a one way trip, you and the ones that you bring with you can never return, for if you do, they will be killed’, the unicorn said.

‘Are you willing to do what is necessary to ensure their survival, Cromwell?’ the earth pony asked.

Oberlander Cromwell nodded. He looked back up at Canterlot and in the midmorning hours, saw that the king was doing. He knew what the reflections were saying was true, and he knew exactly what to do.

Cromwell turned and galloped away, picking up the road south. He needed to make for Fillydelphia; the earth pony port city would have everything he needed.

...

Celestia and Luna had heard the commotion from outside and trotted out onto the balcony, shielding their eyes from the early morning light. Then, just as quickly, the sun seemed to go out. Of course, it wasn’t really out, rather something was blocking it. That was when they saw it; many of the buildings were hovering in the air, upside down. The unicorn town ponies were out in the street en masse; CPS CO19 riot police were doing their best to maintain order, and were failing in the process.

And then, it began to rain.

Brown water began to fall over the city of Canterlot, or at least, they through it was water, Celestia stuck out a hoof, allowing some of the rain to land on it and then gave her hoof a lick. ‘Luna... it is raining chocolate’.

‘Do you like it? I think it’s a vast improvement over stuffy old Canterlot, don’t you?’ said a voice from behind them. Celestia and Luna turned, and looked up. Lying on the roof above them was a creature that they had never seen before, and obviously the culprit.

‘Who are you?!’ Celestia cried out. ‘What have you done!?’

‘Celestia! Please, you hurt me with your words, don’t you recognise me?’ the creature said.

Celestia thought about it for a moment, and then she recognised it, his voice. ‘Father?’

‘In the flesh!’ the creature said. ‘I asked you again? What do you think of my beautiful masterpiece?!’

‘This... this is horrid!’ Celestia cried out.

‘Oh boo, whine whine whine, just like you always do, “oh status quo! Satus quo! I want everything to stay the same!” Well that is just too bad; you can’t always get what you want! I wanted my queen to get better; did I get what I want?’ Discord asked, hissing at them. ‘No I did not’.

‘Tia’s conservatism aside’, Luna said. ‘This is not right!’

The draconequuis snorted at them and then sat back on the roof of the castle and pulled out a glass from seemingly nowhere and held it up, allowing it to fill up. ‘Then do something about it’, he said, taking a drink from his glass.

Celestia needed no further invitation. She grabbed Luna and pulled her back inside, the two of them raced down the hallway to the lower level.

‘Tia! Where are we going?’ Luna cried out.

‘I have an idea! You’re not going to like it, but I don’t think we have any other choice!’ Celestia said. She burst into the throne room, dashing past Duke East Wind who was standing at the window, staring out watching the madness unfold.

‘There you are!’ East Wind cried out as he looked to them. ‘What is going on out there!?’

‘No time!’ Celestia cried out as she galloped up the stairs towards the throne, going past it and opening up a hidden compartment on the back wall.

Sitting undisturbed for who knows how many years were five stone talismans, the elements of harmony, powerful magical artefacts that had been the heirlooms of the royal family since taking power in Equestria so many years ago.

‘The elements? But Tia... the prophecy!’ Luna said.

‘I know, I know, but we don’t have time to wait around for the true bearers to come around and claim them! We might not be able to utilise their full power... but hopefully there should be enough to...’ Celestia did not get a chance to finish the sentence, for Discord came crashing through the glass windows overlooking the city.

‘Hmm... I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d think to try that’, Discord said with a chuckle. ‘Celestia: default to magic!’

East Wind turned and looked over towards the creature that had just invaded the castle. ‘What in the name of Gaia?’ he asked.

‘The spirit of chaos, you can call me Discord’, Discord said with a toothy grin, and reached out with his lion’s paw and batted East Wind away, sending him flying into the wall and knocking him unconscious. ‘I’m disappointed, Celestia, I would have expected better of my children, surely you could have thought up a solution better than this’.

‘You are no father of ours, Discord!’ Celestia cried out. ‘We will fight you’.

Discord could only chuckle. ‘You can’t beat me, not with those’.

‘Maybe not’, Celestia said. ‘But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try!’

‘Oh, you’re funny! Well tell you what?’ Discord said as he cackled loudly. ‘Hit me with your best shot!’ Discord proceeded to strike a pose, one that you would expect a statue to be made into. Celestia and Luna glanced at each other nervously, and allowed their magic to flow through the elements of harmony.

Celestia’s eyes shot open, she felt the power of the elements coursing through her. Her body began to change, she and Luna sprouted wings, their manes grew longer and began to flow and wave in the air though there was seemingly nothing to cause it. A wash of colour flowed throughout the room and shot out of them towards Discord, striking the creature and in an instant, turned his body into stone.

Celestia and Luna collapsed to the floor and began panting heavily. It was over, they had won, and everything returned to normal.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and over their new appearance. The Elements of Harmony had empowered them as Alicorns. They had earned their right to become the new rulers of Equestria.

‘No one must know the truth’, Celestia said, looking towards the statue of Discord. ‘Our parents died noble deaths. The public can never know the truth’.

‘I never thought I’d be saying this Tia... but I tend to agree’, Luna said. Luna rose to her hooves and enveloped the statue of Discord in her magic and began to pull it away, out of the room.

Celestia trotted over to where East Wind lay unconscious, and nudged him with her hoof.

‘Huh? What?’ East Wind said. He looked up towards the Princess above him in confusion. ‘Princess Celestia?’

‘Discord, the ancient enemy of chaos and strife has been defeated. He took advantage of my father’s grief over my mother’s death, and used the opportunity to strike, Discord killed my father and tried to take his place’, Celestia said. ‘Luna and I are the rulers of Equestria now’.

‘Of... of course our high... your Majesty’, East Wind said.

‘No. Your Highness will suffice’, Celestia said. ‘In honour of my mother and father’s memory, Equestria will never again have a King and Queen, by my authority as ruler of this land, I hereby declare the Kingdom of Equestria dissolved, and establish the Principality of Equestria in its place’.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Princess Celestia couldn’t help but smile on their return from lunch. Twilight had finally calmed down and was acting as she normally would. Celestia figured that this had to have been her own fault, she had sent Twilight away. Clearly, it had been for her benefit, and she had reaped much from it. Still, Celestia couldn’t help but feel like she had planted the need for everything to be perfect in her students mind.

‘Well this was fun!’ Princess Celestia exclaimed as she looked down upon Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Surprise, who had been the only ones to actually join her for their lunch. ‘I don’t get away often enough; we shall have to do this again sometime’.

‘Oh! Yes! Of course your highness! That would be great!’ Twilight said with a smile.

‘Indeed it was, unfortunately, I really should be returning to Canterlot, duty to the state and all that, the conference calls’, Celestia said, even though she had no intention of calling the conference back into session, not today. ‘Goodbye Twilight, tell the rest of your friends I said hello’.

‘I will, Princess’, Twilight said.

And with that, Princess Celestia spread her wings and leapt into the air on a fast track back to Canterlot. Twilight waited until she was out of range and then turned to Rainbow Dash. ‘Do you think she noticed something was off?’ she asked.

Rainbow Dash sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘The way you were acting? I’d be surprised if she didn’t!’

The turned back towards the Library when they noticed the front door to Sugarcube burst open. ‘Everypony out of the way! I have the cake to save us all!’ Pinkie Pie called out as she galloped up the road towards the Library.

‘Pinkie Pie!’ Twilight called out to her, causing the pink party pony to stop in her tracks. ‘It’s okay! She’s gone’.

Pinkie Pie sighed a sigh of disappointment as she looked at the cake box that she had tied to her back. ‘Aw, and here I spent the last hour coming up with and baking the recipe for that two layer cake’.

‘Oh don’t you worry Pinkie Pie’, Rainbow Dash said, eyeing the pink party pony’s flanks and was beginning to drool. ‘We’ll find some use for it!’

...

The first five years of the Principality of Equestria had been rocky ones. The transition of power could have gone better. The first week of the new government didn’t go by before a popular uprising in Fillydelphia left the city sacked and most of the town’s population, almost a million earth ponies had hijacked the entire Equestrian Navy (of both sea and airships) and sailed east to lands unknown. Celestia would have ordered them followed and destroyed had it not been that she had planned to scrap the navy anyway.

Celestia had plans of her own; she had slowly being deconstructing the country’s technological infrastructure as quickly as she could, but as slowly as necessary to keep from drawing Luna’s attention. Technology was dangerous, and there had been a number of ‘accidents’ at installations around Equestria that were proving her point. The city of Hopeville to the far south, past the Mohoofie Desert had been destroyed when the missile base that it had been host to had an ‘accidental’ launch.

Slowly, Luna had found out what Celestia had been doing, though Celestia had reasoned that Luna had probably figured it out a while ago and had been contacting other to stop either stop it, or make the accidents less devastating.

‘We are supposed to be ruling together Tia! I do not see a lot of togetherness in this new government! You have been undermining me at every turn!’ Luna screamed at her during one of their numerous arguments late in the day.

‘I am doing what is necessary for the safety of the public!’ Celestia shouted back.

‘The public!? You are damning them to a life of ignorance. You do not do what is best for them; you do what is best for you!’ Luna cried back.

‘Better ignorant, then dead’, Celestia said denying the claim entirely.

Luna frowned at her sister; she opened her saddlebag and pulled a book out from it. ‘Then you leave me no choice’.

Celestia’s eyes widened in horror, she recognised the book instantly. ‘You wouldn’t!’

‘You aren’t leaving me any choices... so yes, I would’, Luna said, and opened the book. ‘Tome of Alhazred! Lend me your power so that I may stop my sister!’

‘Luna no! It’s evil! We...’

Light began to shine out of the book; it enveloped Luna in bright light. She let out a scream in pain and terror. Celestia reached out to help her, but the magical energy pushed her back against the wall, narrowly missing the throne entirely.

The light faded and a new form stood in Luna’s place.

‘Luna...’ Celestia called out to her sister weakly.

‘Luna! Ha! Luna is no more!’ the tall, black Alicorn said. Her body covered in silver armour. ‘I am Nightmare Moon! Using the power of the Tome of Alhazred, I shall defeat you and take your place as sole ruler of Equestria as you would have eventually done to me!’

Celestia glanced up and noticed that she had been flung back against the wall containing the Elements of Harmony... surely not; surely, Nightmare Moon couldn’t have been so short sighted as to have noticed this. Her sister had become mad with the power of the Tome, the ancient dark magical artefact that the royal family had kept hidden, along with many countless others for millennia.

Celestia opened the case containing the Elements of Harmony and allowed them to dump out around her. ‘I’m sorry Luna; it is you who give me no choice’.

She used her magic to surge the five Elements of Harmony and charged at her once sister, she knocked the Tome away from her and unloaded the magic into her.

Nightmare Moon screamed and then winked out of existence. Celestia collapsed onto the floor. She knew her sister was still alive, she had not enough power to actually defeat her, and she was not the one destined to wield the Elements. No those ponies had yet to come. She had sent Nightmare Moon to a fitting imprisonment, on the moon. She would have to bide her time, wait for the bearers of the Elements of Harmony to come, then, and only then, could she save her sister.

Until that time came... she needed to make Equestria safe. She would set out to do just that.

...

When Oberlander Cromwell stepped out onto the island of Welara for the first time, it was like taking a step back in time. Welara was inhabited, of course, though sparsely and with no real central authority. There were a few petty kingdoms scattered about here and there, though nothing they couldn’t handle.

Cromwell had stuck around long enough in Equestria to see some of the first orders of the Principality of Equestria. The destruction of technology! They were knocking themselves down on purpose! Cromwell knew that Celestia had a dislike of technology, but he had not thought it that extreme that she would actually go about and destroy it!

That was wrong, technology was for the betterment of ponykind, and it wasn’t there to destroy them! Any other claim was one of insanity! The ponies of Welara were in their early middle ages, and Cromwell knew better than to try to advance them quickly. Technology was a good thing, but gradual progress was key. Anything else and they would kill themselves with it because they didn’t know the correct way to do things.

Cromwell had a plan, he would make his way into Welaran society, and he would become a trusted advisor to one of their petty kings. When the king became commonplace in his advisor’s loyalty, he would strike, dispose of the king and establish a government for the people. He would give the ponies of Welara what the ponies of Equestria had deserved. It was time for Oberlander Cromwell to get to work. He had much to do.

...

In the aftermath of the banishment of Nightmare Moon, Equestria plummeted into the dark without the liberal ideas of Princess Luna to keep Princess Celestia’s more conservative views in check. Celestia remembered what Duke East Wind of Cloudsdale had said to her about the restructure of government that day when he first took regency of the Kingdom of Equestria.

Princess Celestia perceived East Wind as a threat to her authority, and feared he was building support for a popular uprising. She had no proof of the matter, and instead summoned him to Canterlot, where she declared him a traitor and had him executed, and ordered the rest of his family to be disposed of. They escaped, however and began a life as commoners in Manehattan, occasionally moving around until the Duke East Wind passed out of living memory.

This lead too many years of distrust between pegasi and unicorns, violence between the two races would be somewhat common until the year 500 of Celestia’s reign, when discrimination became illegal, and was failure to adhere to the anti-discrimination laws was harshly punished.

Soon enough, ponies of all three races, earth, pegasi, and unicorn forgot that they had once hated each other, and Equestria began to flourish once again under the pretence of a benevolent princess ruling them.

They had all forgotten about Princess Luna, and their past, and just how much better life had been while their king and queen had still been alive.