~A.S.~
Pressure
by
Allington Sinclair
Chapter 1
“Well, you have done it now girl; haven’t you?”
A certain purple unicorn was perhaps in the greatest conflict of her life, and certainly up there with the list of other wonderful predicaments that she had stumbled into over the last hoof-ful of years since she came into procession of the Element of Magic. She had placated a corrupted princess, supported and loved her dear friends, and even locked a demented spirit back into his statuesque prison. However, history was irrelevant at the moment, the last two days were all that really needed to be focused on. The moments leading up to the present were still very clear in her mind, every event in the last twenty-four hours laid bare in her memory. The short version of the predated events is this: she just happens to be up cowpatty creek, minus one paddle.
If it had all gone to her plan, the original plan; her elder and dear brother would be locked lips with one of her first close friends, bound together in Celestia's eyes in eternal matrimony. Her brother; Shining Armor, and her foal sitter and her mentor's niece, Princess Mi Amore “Cadence” Cadenza; were to be wed. The lilac unicorn would be heralded into royalty, on grounds that her brother would be ascended from a knight to Prince-Consort, and she would return to her arboreal library and wait for the next big adventure to come along.
Well, that adventure came a little sooner then she had hoped; a Queen from a far off land who just happened to be the leader of a hoard of parasitic faux-ponies that just happen to feed off the love and friendship of ponies had decided to crash the wedding by disguising herself as Princess Cadence. Of course, if you happen to look like Cadence, then why not take control of her soon to be betrothed and weaken his force field around the city, so that hoards of her insectoid minions can freely march on the Equestrian capital at their leisure. Hey, why she was at it, why not convince Shining to edit the spell just a tad so that it levies a magic suppression field on all that had plans to attend the fabulous ceremony, because; the ebony wasp in front of her sure took the liberty and had done so.
Twilight had only a few milliseconds to cast a bulwark spell to repulse the field that so enveloped Canterlot, and to be doubly sure took a few more free microseconds to place a entrapment ward on the ground where the overgrown bumble bee stood; just too keep her in place while Twilight tried to come up with some form of magic to save the day.
It was then that she was locked in a stalemate with the insect queen. All she could do was focus on keeping her wards up as the mosquito Queen used her best rhetoric to dissuade her from fighting. There had been some small comforts in the past few days. While everypony had dismised her concerns, she persisted in saving her foal sitter and exposing the faux-Cadence in-front of everyone, and by the apologetic countenance that sat upon her mentor, Princess Celestia's face, as well as the mixed looks of self-shame and support that her friends and family wore, told here that they were sorry for being so dismissive of her concerns earlier, but she had already forgiven all of them. She knew if they were not paralyzed by her brother's spell, then they would of already jumped at the chance to aid her in combat.
“Come on Twilight, think! You have read about stand offs before, you have to know something about this,” She muttered to herself, trying to calm her nerves as her mind raced for answers. At this point, she was past panicking, for the first fifteen minutes of this stale-mate she ran around her six-by-six luminescent dome; hyperventilating and screaming for help, and all that served to do is make her more stressed and tired then before. She needed to do something, lest this become nothing more then a war of attrition; a war she knew she would loose.
“You know, little mare; as cute as your little bubble and bear trap are, you are only stalling your defeat. I really have no intent of harming you, nor your little princesses or your friends. We only wish to have their friendship, is that so much to ask?” She was less saying it and more letting the syllables buzz out of her jagged maw. Twilight had to focus her eyes on the black beetle that was only a few yards away, since when did her eyes get so puffy? She really hadn't noticed that she had been crying, or at least; tearing up from the stress. Quietly she admonished herself, it really wasn't right to be every-ponies' last, best, hope and bawl like a little filly that just stubbed her hoof on a paver stone.
A little spoiled by Deus ex-machina, she had already pleaded that the Elements of Harmony come to her aid, but when nothing of that sort came about, she had chalked it up to the fact that her dear friends from Ponyville were compressed by the suppression field. Unable to move, nor come to her aid in anyway other then mutely supporting her from the side-lines; for which Twilight was thankful for.
With no elements to aid her in her trial, she could only rely on her own knowledge and magic to come up with a plan, and at seventeen minutes into the stand off, no such solution presented it's self. Yes, she had Ideas: That Cockatrice had taught her how imprison somepony in stone, but she had never used that spell on anything, it just seemed too cruel to use such magic on anypony that didn't deserve it, combine that with a sudden and entirely justifiable fear of self-petrification, it really didn't seem likely that she could encase the changeling Queen in stone. She could try to teleport, it would be satisfactory to try to buck that smug grin off the Queens face and hope it lands halfway to Fillydelphia. However, she knew if she left her bulwark, she would fall prey to the pressure like everypony else had.
“Perhaps I am approaching this the wrong way, Twily,” The overgrown mantis chortled out, “how about this? We changelings have an eye for details. It comes in handy when we have a slightly more difficult time trying to figure out who a little pony like you desires...” she trailed off. If the Queen's smirk could get any smugger, it would of at the point. To the Queen, all she had to do is break the little mare and Equestria would be her's.
Twilight took a step back, hoping this wasn't going where she thought it was. “W-what do you mean, desire?” It was the first time she had granted retort to any of the Queen's rhetorical attacks, the others were easy enough to ignore, but this one had implications, terrible terrible implications.
“Oh, it was easy enough to see, when my dearest Shining Armor banished you, his own little sister, from his wedding, you only took in the shame, no.” Grinning, the smirk had now evolved into a full on grin, her fangs showing in their full. “No, Twilight, it wasn't until...”
“No! You cant!” Twilight had practically barked that out, but it was too late, the Black Queen was playing her card. Twilight could only choke up as the figure before her lost it's insectoid characteristics: bee wings were replaced with a set of shimmering alabaster wings; her tattered mane and tail were replaced with a flowing silk of bright pastels; her carapace grew soft with cotton-like fur, legs and horn straightened out, loosing there corrupted appearance.
“No Little Mare, it wasn't until your darling princess took to punishing you that you felt guilt. That you felt that you had done something wrong” Sneering in front of her, the Queen had taken form of a near perfect replica of Princess Celestia, the only flaw is that the Queen's grin was ever present.
The lavender mare began to step backwards, it wasn't until she noticed that she was nearing the back of her dome that she stopped. Her fur on her cheeks matted down with tears as she croaked out the best answer she could. “You lie! Th-that isn't what I want!” Twilight had tried to sound convincing, but to whom was she trying to convince? She told herself her family and friends, the only ansere she wanted to believe. She found herself incapable of looking around too those who she cared for, scared to see what expressions they wore. She did, how ever, catch the look of shock upon the real Celestia's face.
“Oh, little mare, I do beg to differ. It isn't unreasonable to be star struck by the very Sun herself, even when you have lived your entire life in her shadow. Who knows what emotions could come from years tutelage from Celestia? But ask your self this, Twilight, If you gave in to me, wouldn't be so easy to get Celestia?” At last the smug grin had disappeared, only to be replaced with a look of mock concern. “Just give in, my dear pony, and you and I could be together as much as you want, it is really that simple, Little Twilight.” She tried her best to mimic Celestia's regalia, but only barely made it passable to anyone who has heard her voice enough.
It was that bad acting that had tipped Twilight off to the faux-Cadence, but it was of little use to her now, she was sobbing, in a way that wasn't like her. She was trying her hardest to to pretend that she could not feel everypony's gaze boring into her from all sides. “N-no, you are lying!” She broke with a sob, “I d-don't want to be with fake Celestia, that isn't true!” She didn't catch that she was admitting to everyone that she did want to be with the real Celestia at first, but after a few moments of sobbing in the bulwark, she figured out what she had said, what she had admitted, and knew even if she did save the day, it would be Pyrrhic at best, she had lost privy to one of her darkest secrets, and had played right into the faux-Celestia's clutches.
It was a secret she kept hidden for a while, and it was easy to keep. She just had to avoid being intimate with others of her gender, especially Celestia and nopony would know. She knew no one would hate her for it, but statistically she knew that mares like here were a minority, and as long as no one had known, she could of kept it indefinitely. The real thing she feared wasn't being hated, it was the change to her reputation that will come. Will they tip trot around her now? Will they feel awkward around her? Will they feel like they have to avoid her
It was several minutes more, thirty five minutes after the stale-mate had begun, as the grandfather clock on the walk had noted; that her sobbing had stopped. She fell nearly silent, occasionally heaving as she laid there, in the back of the bulwark.
Her friends, her parents, her brother, her foal sitter, the nobility, aristocrats, guards, day-workers and her Princess had heard her betray a secret she kept deep in her heart in hopes that it would go away. She wanted so desperately to be alone, but she couldn't abandon them, they all counted on her, and so her bulwark, the spell she cast to buy her time; had become her own pillory. In it, she was trapped, forced to stare at the marble floors that surrounded her, bearing both the weight of Equestria's future as well as the judgment of her friends.
At this point, she had but two options...
She could drop the shield and release the Queen, maybe this could cause the Queen to let her guard down long enough for someone more talented then her to save the day. It could be so easy. To admit defeat, to surrender to the black hearted changeling before her. Sure, all would be even more disappointed in her, but only for a short time at best. After all they would all fall under the changeling's spell and forget all about her short comings...
Or...
She could own it. It would be hard, probably taking more effort then the lilac mare had left to spare, but she could try it. She could stand up and look the false-princess in her eyes and tell the world that yes, she did care more deeply then she could for the princess, let alone mares in general. If they had a problem with it they could take it up with her after she's starved. She could fight to the end, let herself starve as she holds the bug in place as long as she could. Maybe if she held her long enough, Twilight's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. It could be possible that she could weaken the Changeling Queen enough that when the suppression field dropped, the changelings would be so starved they would be easily picked off by her friends.
That is what she had to do, she reached up and wiped her eyes, gave a final sniff and stood up. If this was her end, she wouldn't go out a failure; she would fight to the end, no matter how much of a freak she would seem to those she cared for. She tensed her muscles and inhaled to ready herself to tell the usurper how and where to stick it.
Twilight Sparkle, daughter of two loving and supportive blue unicorns, younger sister to a powerful knight; the librarian of Ponyville, and the faithful student of a Princess, opened her eyes, her gaze to the polished marble floors, and began to lift her head to glare at the entrapped invader.
Only, rather than find an unobstructed view of the faux-pony she had such ire for, her eyes transfixed onto a pair of thin ebony legs. As her head continued to rise, the ebony legs grew wider until they were calves, then thighs, and finally a rump, complete with an amorphous gaseous tail representing the night sky on a clear winter's night.
Suddenly feeling much smaller then her confidence had lead her to believe a few moments ago, Twilight had deduced from the evidence provided to her that she was about to tell the hind-quarters of an indescribably happy Nightmare Moon how and where to stick it. In a sudden moment of well-received clairvoyance, the purple unicorn had decided it would be best if she happened to keep her maw shut.
~A.S~
It could go without saying that everyone had overlooked Princess Luna's absence from the day before in their rush to plan the wedding. Having been excluded from most of the preparations, Luna had come up with a plan to make the most romantic moon she could for her Niece and soon to be Nephew for their honeymoon. She figured if it was called a “honeymoon” then she could at least make the moon part of it. She had plans for a gigantic full moon, bright pink, with a very slow arc. So as to keep it on the horizon as long as possible, she would have to have the moon pick up speed all night long, starting slow and picking pace. This isn't something she had really attempted before, so she needed to crunch some numbers to find out the best way of doing this.
Unfortunately her only and favorite abacus was well over a millennium old and happened to choose yesterday to fall apart. Having only a small window of time, she remembered from Nightmare Night that Twilight had an abacus in her library in Ponyville. She quickly made her way there to find it so she could push the number necessary to make the perfect moon. To her dismay, the purple unicorn's specimen turned out to only be a piece of décor, useless to the Princess of Darkness.
However, knowing that she was in a library, she found a few woodworking guides and a tome about “outdated” precision equipment and tools. Using some wood from the fence outside of the arboreal library, she was able to assemble a trio of fine abaci, granted they could use a fresh coat of whitewash to cover up the aging wood. Seeing this as a good time to further take advantage of the Ponyville township's public library system, she took the time to push the numbers around, figuring out a simple formula to make the largest and brightest full moon she could conjure forth. Leaving the withdrawn texts in the “Returns” slot, feeling that Twilight would be happy she attempted some library etiquette, she made her way back to Canterlot.
Quickly she was able to tell something was wrong, the corruption of Armor's spell was apparent, and knew stepping into it would be perilous. So after a short while, she was able to find Twilight's bubble in the Castle's ball room. Holding her gaseous form, she teleported into the bubble, successful bypassing the magic suppression dome and arriving just in time to watch a pretty fake version of her sister expose her little purple friend's secret.
To say Luna was elated was an understatement. While she dearly loved her sister and loved her benevolent regime just as much, to see somepony put it all under such danger lit a long dead spark inside of her. After nearly twelve hundred years, two hundred of benevolency and tolerance, and a thousand year cat nap on the moon, it was her turn, finally after so long, it was her turn to banish somepony. Her joy only grew as her hatred of the false-princess grew, watching her only friend squirm under the agony of her own self-loathing over her own emotional attractions, oh yes, the false-Celestia had it coming.
Luna took her most imposing form, materializing in the dome that Twilight had crafted, standing before the literally, but hopefully figuratively; petrified ponies and grinned a grin that would haunt her enemies for the rest of their lives. It was her turn to be the Princess, her turn to be the knight in shining armor, and her turn to repay a debt she owed to her little lilac friend.
“BEAST MOST FOUL, FOR THE CRIMES OF USURPING OUR ROYAL SISTER'S AND OUR SIEGES, THOU ART BANISH'D FROM OUR LANDS!”
Once again to be spoiled by Deus Ex-machina, Twilight watched in awe as Nightmare Moon had called forth a lightning storm, the rolling clouds quickly enveloping the castle, sending bright arcs of lighting into the room. Each clap of thunder sending down several bolts of lightning down into the ball room, ripping the changelings and their Queen up into the dense clouds above the palace to never be seen again. Still overcome with shock at Nightmare Moon's return, she could only watch wide eyed as the Princess of the Night dispelled the suppression field, as well as both of her own enchantments from earlier. She tried to turn and run to her friends, they needed to use the Eleme-
“Allyoop!” the princess chirped, quickly snatching up the lilac mare and depositing her unceremoniously onto her back, between her midnight wings. With a flash and a clap of thunder, Nightmare Moon and Twilight Sparkle had disappeared from the ball room floor, leaving behind a legion of ponies in varying degrees of shock and fear, including more then one upset Princess.
End Chapter 1.