“Whether we wanted it or not, we’re stuck with you as the face of this deal between Equestria and Saddle Arabia. From what I can gather, you’re supposed to be one of the most intelligent ponies to come out of the School for Gifted Unicorns.”
Vuvuzela leaned closer to me. He probably believed he was being intimidating. It wasn't very scary compared to Princess Luna around breakfast time. My hangover - which I’d managed to get despite never feeling any of the more pleasant effects of what I’d drunk - made me flinch at his tone. He took it as a sign of weakness.
“I have to ask myself who wrote those reports, and why they were apparently so very inaccurate,” the ambassador continued. “Unless you have a better explanation for why you vanished for hours in the middle of the night after drinking heavily, causing a scene, and generally performing even worse as a representative of Equestria than Prince Blueblood, whom I previously assumed had set an unbeatable standard for inexcellence?”
“You know,” I said, after he’d finished. “I thought I made it pretty clear that I wasn’t in a mood to be yelled at. Doing it early in the morning doesn’t change my opinion.”
“I’ll stop the very moment I think that you’ll manage to do the right thing on your own, which at this rate--”
I didn’t bother listening to the rest of his rant. My head was pounding but not so badly that I couldn’t cast spells. He vanished in a flash of teleportation.
A manebursh dropped to the floor next to me, the pony holding it gasping in terror. I’d forgotten the maid was even there with Vuvuzela yelling in my face.
“He’s just down the hallway,” I sighed. “He’s fine.”
The maid nodded and picked the brush back up, edging closer to me like she’d been asked to brush a manticore instead of a pony. I tried to stay still, and she very lightly stroked my mane, making it nearly halfway through the curls before it snagged on a knot, I twitched, and she made a sound like a surprised rodent and jumped back, leaving the brush tangled in my mane.
“I’m sorry!” She squeaked.
I looked over my shoulder to apologize for scaring her, even if it was her own fault to begin with, and she shrieked and ran.
“What kind of feathering stories have ponies been telling about me?” I demanded, to absolutely no one. To my surprise, nobody answered.
“You know, you should at least accept some of the blame for it.” A guard was standing in the doorway, watching the maid go. “I don’t think teleporting Vuvuzela into the ornamental pond was a good idea if you wanted him to stop yelling.”
“I didn’t even know there was a pond.”
“That’s surprisingly good aim, then. He could have landed in the cactus garden.”
“Thanks.” I sighed, and started pulling at the manebrush, trying to yank it free. "I'll aim more to the left next time."
The guard stepped over and rocked it loose, then started brushing with more confidence than the maid, if an order of magnitude less skill.
“You don’t have to do that. It’s not your job”
He shrugged. “As the only pony in armor, I’m the best qualified, right?”
I laughed a little at that. “Sure. Maybe I’ll have you polish my hooves next.”
“Don’t joke - personal grooming is something all guards have to learn. You can’t be in Celestia’s service unless you can look your best at all hours.”
“What’s your name? You’re the only pony that doesn’t want to yell or run away.”
“Flash Sentry. Pleased to meet you.”
“Now you’re sure you can do this?” Flash asked.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think there’s anypony that could mess it up.”
“That’s what I thought about my first assignment. Just stand in one spot and don’t go anywhere for a few hours until somepony comes to switch with you.” He smiled. “I went through almost a year of training, and I ended up standing in front of some dusty room nopony had used since before I was born. I thought I’d done something wrong, and I was angry and upset.”
“Are you really trying to teach me some kind of lesson?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Just hear me out!” He laughed. “I requested reassignment, tried to figure out why I was being singled out, and eventually I was transferred to the patrols around the garden. I got to see ponies, actually walk around, talk to other guards. I thought I’d finally gotten back on track with my career.”
“Hold on, I’ve heard this one before. Let me guess - after that it started raining every day?”
“There was rain, as a matter of fact. But more importantly, a week after I got that transfer, Princess Luna came back and it turns out that dusty room was her bedroom. The post I’d been on became one of the most important in the palace, and I threw it away.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“No. But sometimes you have to take things on faith. That includes having to sit and do nothing. I mean, they were going to have Princess Cadance do this, right? And they wouldn’t have her waste her time. That means you should treat this like it’s an important royal duty.”
“Flash, it’s a parade.”
“Exactly! A parade for you! So let’s see a smile!”
I tried to smile, though it didn’t quite reach my eyes.
“Hmm…” He inspected it critically. “Not bad. Are you sure about the cloak?”
“Black is a good color on me. Somepony told me once it works at weddings, funerals, and everything in between.” I paused. “Besides, I didn’t really bring anything else to wear. Do you really want me to try squeezing into something fitted for Cadance? I don't have the figure, the wings, or the... pink.”
“Well, just keep smiling and wave to the crowd and it’ll all be okay,” Flash decided. “I’ll be on the parade float with you. If something happens, let me deal with it, okay? I know you’d be able to handle it but it’s my job and I don’t want ponies thinking I’ve gotten lazy.”
I snorted. “Fine. And you’re sure there’s no time to redecorate?”
I looked up at the float. It was shaped sort of like one of those swan boats and covered in more shades of pink than I’d ever seen in one place before.
“Do you have a spell that can do it in the ten seconds between now and when we have to leave?”
I looked at the swan’s empty glass eyes and sighed.
“I wish.”
The crowds cheered. That’s what I’d like to say, anyway. What they did was line the streets and stare.
I was starting to get a feeling for the town. The buildings here were all the same as the slums I’d been at last night, but they loomed taller above us because the road had been cleared of sand all the way down to a brick road the same white color as the bare stone I saw everywhere else. Banners and flags were hung from every window and wall, rope stretched overhead with ribbons dangling like curtains.
I smiled and waved and the crowd responded with whispering and pointed hooves.
“What am I doing wrong?” I hissed from the corner of my mouth, trying not to move my jaw. Things were already tense enough. If I stopped smiling they might stampede.
“It’s a tough crowd,” Flash assured me. “Don’t let it get to you. We’re halfway to the palace. Just, uh, try not to insult the king.”
“You say that like I was planning on it.”
“No, no. I just want to make sure you’re planning on not doing it. It’s completely different.”
I snorted in laughter and felt some of the muscles in my face unclench.
“Hey, that’s even better,” Flash said. “A real smile looks nicer on you.”
I shook my head and didn’t reply. There was no way I was going to be able to say anything without laughing or blushing like a filly or doing both. Flash had a lot of charm for a pony recruit.
Maybe I was looking at it wrong. If I went out to see Songbird Serenade and she canceled at the last second and I only found out when they put somepony else on stage, I’d probably be upset even if the new pony was just as good. If I remembered the schedule correctly, there’d be another parade after all the events were over, and then ponies would know to expect me. I’d have to talk to Vuvuzela about doing a few minor magic tricks, maybe some fireworks and illusions, something to pump up the crowd.
I was halfway through a mental lists of spells I could safely cast over the crowd when a tall pony in blue and white silk veils stumbled out into the street just ahead of the parade float. She tripped and fell with the kind of drama I was used to seeing from a certain seamstress, turning the misstep into a swoon.
Flash reacted first, in the worst way. He stepped in front of me like he thought a fainting filly was some kind of real threat. I didn’t have time to yell at him.
I teleported in front of the float and picked the mare up before she could get trampled.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping to the side with her while the parade jerked and slowed to a halt. I helped by gently using my magic to gently help the dumb swan-float come to a halt like it had, again, gently, run into a brick wall. There probably wasn’t any permanent harm done except to the swan’s beak, which was now bent enough that it looked more like a shoehorn than a hornbill.
The mare turned over in my magical grip, and I got my first good look at her. She was the most beautiful pony I’d ever seen, and I say that as a certified expert. I’d met supermodels, danced with Princesses, and this pony was so stunning it put them to shame. Her coat was a blue paled to almost white, with a sheen that made it gleam like brushed steel. The mare’s mane was stark black and as glassy as obsidian.
“They’re after me!” she said, pointing back to the crowd.
I followed her hoof and saw a half-dozen strong-looking figures in dark robes shoving their way through the assembled Saddle Arabians. As if they weren’t ominous enough wearing full masks in public, their robes were painted with wide snake prints, like somepony had used a stencil and spraypaint to tag them. Each wore a different color - white, red, green, yellow, blue, and black.
“Let me guess,” I said. “Assassins?”
The mare nodded, and the first of the masked killers jumped out of the crowd, who I’d mentally noted as Black Snake, spinning in the air and using the momentum to toss a javelin my way.
I must not have been as famous as I thought, because when I caught it, I could feel there weren’t any enchantments, no special anti-magic metals, nothing that could pose a real threat.
“What is this, amateur hour?” I asked. I snapped it like a toothpick and used the blunt end like a bat, cracking it across the first assassin’s chin and laying him out on the street. “Come on, put on a good show. We’ve got a whole crowd watching!”
“Hold on, Miss Shimmer, I’m coming!” Flash yelled. He didn’t get far. Yellow Snake got in his way on the float, brandishing a long chain and whipping it through the air, keeping him pinned down and unable to take to the air.
“You take that guy,” I shouted. “I got the rest!”
The civilians were going to restrict my options, so I took a few steps back to the middle of the street and let the four assassins make their way out of the herd. There were plenty of spells I could have safely thrown into the crowd but most of them still wouldn’t have made me popular. Ponies don’t like being knocked out or glued to the ground even if it’s for their own good.
“They’re very dangerous,” the mare in my magical grip warned. “You should--”
“Just sit back and relax,” I said. I clapped my hooves, adding a little flair to setting off the explosive array I’d cast under one of the assassins. Blue Snake went flying, and I had some time to play around before I worried about where he was going to land.
Green charged at the same time as Red. I immediately decided White was the smartest one, since he was hanging back and watching. My more pressing concern were the two curved swords being drawn from underneath dark robes.
I threw a simple hex at them and watched the two assassins react in confusion as the steel in their blades magnetized, their weapons snapping together and refusing to come apart. A dozen more hidden daggers tore out of their robes and into the knot of steel. Their charge faltered as their torn clothing tangled their legs and sent them to the ground in a heap of groaning pony.
“You should really know better,” I said. One of them tried to stand - I think it was Red, but most of his clothing was around his fetlocks - so I hammered them both into the ground with a force bolt. It wouldn’t kill them, but they’d be unconscious for hours.
White gave me a look with his piercing green gaze, and I motioned for him to come at me. Instead, he produced a small flask and threw it to the ground at his hooves, smoke billowing as whatever alchemy was within hit the air.
“You don’t get away that easily,” I said. I’d been keeping track of Blue, and I nudged his path back down to earth at the last minute. The falling pony flew into the mist and two horses tumbled out, White’s escape cut short by the crash landing.
I threw a web spell across them to keep them in place, then turned my attention to Flash.
“How you doing up there, bodyguard?” I teased.
“This guy wasn’t a problem,” Flash said, from where he was sitting on top of the would-be killer, the pony restrained by his own chain. “You seemed like you were having fun, so I didn’t want to interrupt and get caught in the friendly fire.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“That was amazing,” the beautiful mare said, and then I remembered that I still had said beautiful mare to deal with.
“All in a day’s work,” I said. I put her down on her hooves, brushing some of the dust off her silk… robes? Toga? If I knew more about fashion I’d know the name of whatever she was wearing. “You going to be okay?”
“Yes, of course, I just… you defeated all six of them like it was nothing!”
Her expression was just so precious I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t act like it’s a big deal. I’ve known foals that were more dangerous than those guys.”
She looked flustered. If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were in the middle of a stageplay and she’d forgotten all her lines.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Fine.” She coughed. “I was just… it’s such a relief! I must give you a reward--”
I held up a hoof. “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
“Is that so?” She asked, shaking her head and looking amused.
“You get home safe,” I said, teleporting back up to the float. Climbing was not an option with my bad leg acting up, and I wasn’t going to ask Flash to carry me. “If we meet again, I’ll buy you a drink and you can tell me how you ended up with assassins after you!”
She bowed and got out of the way, letting the parade start up again.
This time, the crowd cheered when I waved, and that made it all worth it.
It was the first time I’d seen Vuvuzela smile. When he was happy, I could actually see why Celestia had made him an ambassador. He had the open, friendly face of somepony with nothing to hide. Somepony you could trust.
“I was worried, but it seems I’m the one eating crow today,” the diplomat said. “An attack in the middle of the parade would normally be a disaster to any kind of treaty signing, but it was exactly what we needed.”
“It felt good to cut loose a little,” I said, trotting along after him and trying not to stare.
Now, I’m no country hick. I spent a good part of my life living in a palace, and then I spent even more living in another palace which was, admittedly, mostly in ruins. I’ve seen a lot of castles. This one was so opulent it made Canterlot look like a foal’s treehouse.
When the parade stopped, it was less like we’d arrived at a building and more like we had come to the base of a vast cliff stretching as far as we could see in both directions with a gentle curve to the surface that let the ends vanish behind the buildings of the city. Instead of a fortress behind a protective wall, the palace was the wall itself, the central structure a tower as tall as a Manehattan skyscraper and with wings and balconies shielding the capital city from whatever lay beyond, though the size of it was like a statement that this was it, the edge of the world, and ponies in the city never had to think about what was outside.
The Saddle Arabians had helpfully provided a way up that cliff. A staircase wound its way from landing to landing like a mountain trail edged in brass and silver.
“That’s a lot of stairs,” I muttered.
“A thousand, or so I am told,” Vuvuzela said. “I’ve never tried counting them myself. It takes several hours unless you’re a skilled athlete. The elite guards can do it in ten minutes. I’ve seen the drills.”
“Let me guess, it’d be rude to just teleport to the top.”
“You aren’t the first to ask that.” Vuvuzela craned his neck to look up. Way up. “The palace is warded in much the same way as Canterlot Castle. Teleportation would be all but impossible.”
“I cracked Canterlot’s wards years ago.”
“No doubt. I would ask that you avoid doing so here. It might be seen as espionage or even an act of war.”
“It might be worth it. That’s a lot of stairs.”
Three hours later, we were almost at the top, sweat was running down my neck, and I had come up with several elegant solutions for getting ponies to the top of the palace. Around the time my bad leg had gone from painful to totally numb I decided that a cannon shooting them through the air was the most effective method.
“You have your lines memorized?” Vuvuzela whispered.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
“As the representative, you have to go first,” he said. “Mister Sentry and I will be right behind you.”
There was only one short flight left. I took the opportunity to look back over the city. From this high up, the details all blurred together and the city looked like a maze of white and black. Sun-bleached rooftops stretched to the glimmer of the sea, and a haze of dust and sand in the air gave it all a dream-like feeling.
I took it all in, the wind at this altitude cold enough to help peel the sweat off my coat and leave me feeling less like I was going to collapse.
I should have taken the time to learn spells to make myself presentable. Cadance probably knew a hundred different spells to make her mane stay put. If it hadn’t been for Flash I wouldn’t have even gotten it brushed.
Horns blared above us in a tune I didn’t recognize. Vuvuzela met my gaze and I nodded, trotting up that last flight of stairs with my head held high.
It was like walking into Canterlot’s throne room, except without the walls. A pavilion of polished stone as large as a city block, with pillows, benches, and a walkway leading to a raised platform upon which sat a brass and silver throne that looked practically like a fossil, like it had been dug up all in one piece from an era a million years in the past. The thin air and traces of wind tugging at silk shades hanging from ornate open frames made it feel like we were meeting near the summit of some great peak with the sky huge and open above us.
The pony sitting in the throne wasn’t nearly as old, maybe twice my age and dressed all in violet and burgundy, a sharp contrast with his sky-blue coat. His crown was a simple twist of metal dark with age.
I bowed.
“King Zephyranthes, I bring greetings in the name of Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria. I present myself as a newcomer to your lands with the hope that I can further the strong relationship between our nations.”
He paused for longer than I would have thought necessary before replying.
“I welcome you with open hooves. There is no need to bow in my presence. You have already done a great service to my subjects.” His voice was deep and resonant and managed to carry even with the totally open floorplan. He’d also gone off-script. My next line was supposed to be about my credentials. I was going to have to improvise.
“It was no great trouble, your majesty,” I said. “I couldn’t just watch idly while ponies were in trouble.”
“Indeed. And instead of ordering your guards to help or calling for the local authorities, you took matters into your own hooves.” He leaned forward to look at me. “Princess Celestia is a cautious ruler, but she does produce subjects who strive to act on their own initiative. You do your nation proud, though I suspect seeing a beautiful damsel in distress made the decision somewhat easier.”
I blushed a little at that. “I’d have done the same no matter who it was.”
“Yes, I suspect you would have,” Zephyranthes agreed. “I don’t think you even stopped to ask the name of the pony you rescued.”
“I was more worried about making sure she was safe. I’m sure if Your Highness wishes, I could find her again.”
“There’s no need,” Zephyranthes said. He clapped his hooves twice, and that beautiful mare stepped out from where she’d been hidden behind the hanging veils. She wasn’t dressed the same way she had been at the parade. The plain robes had been replaced with ornate, embroidered patterns of dragons in flight and edged with silver jewelry and gems. Even with the translucent veil obscuring her mouth, I could tell it was the same mare. You don’t forget a face that hits you like a bolt of lightning.
“Sunset Shimmer, you didn’t let me introduce myself to you properly,” she said. “My name is Princess Shahrazad.”
“I cannot thank you enough for saving my daughter,” King Zephyranthes said. “She shouldn’t have been outside the palace and she somehow escaped the palace guard as well.”
“Oh, well, I can’t say I haven’t done the same back when I lived in Canterlot…” I laughed a little, trying to cover up how flustered I was and wishing that Vuvuzela would step in and say something.
“You refused a reward when last we met, but this time I wish to give you this.” Princess Shahrazad stepped up to me with her hips bobbing in a way that had to be absolutely intentional. Nopony in the world walked like that unless they were doing it on purpose, not even Cadance, and she had so much natural charm she got a dozen love letters every morning.
She unclasped a pendant from her neck and offered it to me. It was a simple twist of silver around a glass bauble. It seemed harmless enough. I couldn’t sense any serious magic around it.
“I’d be honored,” I said. I moved to take it and she shook her head, taking the opportunity to do it for me, leaning in with her breath tickling my ear and clasping the silver chain around my neck.
“Excellent,” the King said. “This will mark a new age of peace between our nations. This treaty was merely going to grant us wealth, but I did not expect that I would be honored to find my daughter a fiancee at last.”
A what?
“Tonight, we feast in their honor!” Zephyranthes declared. A cheer went up around the palace, and ponies who I hadn’t seen at all seemed to melt out of thin air to begin setting up decorations and music.
I looked at Shahrazad. She grinned, her eyes twinkling, and I smiled back because that’s what you do when your new fiancee, the most beautiful mare you’ve ever met, smiles at you.
I was in so much trouble.
Hmmmm, my guess is that Shahrazad is a storyteller, though stories about what, exactly--that's harder to see...
I had to break away for a minute to recover.
Flash Sentry is in the story and he’s not on fire!
REEEEEEEEEEE!
Anywho, back to reading the story. 😜
1001 Saddle Arabian Nights, eh?
Also, If this entrapment was for Cadence, they really lucked out with Sunset. The Princess would have seen through this all too easily, this Sunset, at lest until/if her empathic abilities come on line? Not so much.
Going to guess that all that was one hell of a setup.
LoL, That Will NOT End Well
Congratulations Sunset... I guess?
...
Ah, how exciting. I’m hoping the authors note that you aren’t shipping her with an OC doesn’t mean you are planning on shipping her with a cannon secondary character. (No, that’s not misspelled, I spelled it that way because Flash Sentry is a character that should be fired out of a cannon.)
All pretending at Flash Sentry hate aside, this is quite the story that’s been spun to catch Sunny in its web. She’s getting played, but what is the long con that’s been set into motion? Time will tell. I guess, with a cliffhanger like that, you live for another night.
That seems to be the arc of life here.
Part coincidence, part setup, all Sunset.
I mean, better Sunset shipped with some random OC than...B̴̜̬̂ŕ̴̞̠̟̹͐̋̏ā̴̀̑̇͜d̵̡̧̛̿ Sentry, right?
Well, it’s a better matchup for this Shaharazad than the original’s. Sunny’s got her issues, but I doubt she’ll make her bride spend three years telling her stories on threat of her and her sister’s lives. It seems like a perfect political marriage. I look forward to seeing how it gets all screwed up.
Have to say did not see this coming at all.
I ship Flash Sentry X Sunset Shimmer. So this makes me feel angry.
Uhm. No royal family ever would permit sudden random engagement with a mere ambassador, especially when the pairing could not possibly lead to heirs. That's not how any monarchy in the history of ever would operate. This makes no sense unless the whole 'attack' was planned and there's a nefarious ploy at work, which Sunset should be suspicious about now that she finds out the incompetent attackers were after the Princess who conveniently happened to break though the crowd at exactly the same location and time Sunset was right there.
So, yeah, I'm expecting this is all a trick.
9802491
Mere ambassador? She's Celestia's DAUGHTER. I mean, this is a political coup for the king... Not that it would actually get him anything except the ability to imply that Equestria supports him on things they really don't.
Hah! Well. :D
We'll see what happens next...
Yes, yes you are, Sunny.
And I suspect the whole thing was a set-up intended to snare Cadance.
9802790 Ok... Celestia adopted Sunset in that way? Well that's... odd... Sunset's an orphan in this version of events? Or did Celestia bump off her parents to gain control of her! (I've seen dumber things in fanfics...)
9802941 But they knew Cadance wasn't there. Sunset's coming was known well ahead of time. So why would they have gone through with a plan that they already knew couldn't possibly work as the intended target was thousands of miles away?
Why not both? Dunno about you, but I'm always up for some shipping. Bonus points if Sunset gets the princess in the end - please don't match her with Flash!
Fighting together is fine though
Given how incompetent the assasins were they were probably never meant to succeed at all. Also Alondro is right in that monarchies don't support marriages that don't produce heirs, after all you don't want to have a succession crisis that becomes a war like often happened in real world monarchies.
9803076 That's the thing, the Equestrian Delegation knew Cadance wasn't coming, but with so little advanced notice that they didn't even make an attempt to change any of the decorations, floats, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the Saddle Arabians didn't know a switch had been made until the parade started.
And either way, the whole situation still smells like a set-up to me, regardless of who the Arabian court was trying to snare.
9803434
We know already that Cadence wouldn’t be the type to interfere directly, especially not with Shining Armor there. I would imagine the plot would be much more interesting if they snagged the brother of the Princess of Friends... hmmm... has Twilight ascended yet in this verse? Well, Shining still makes a good mark just as Consort to the Princess of Love. Hurray polygamy?
Yeah, I don’t know if I buy this quite as much after I realized I’m pretty sure Twilight isn’t an alicorn yet in this one. Still confident it’s a setup.
9803434 If they expected Princess Cadance… wouldn't a strikingly non-pink unicorn be rather obviously not the same pony?
So again, why would they still go on with the plan unless Sunset was already the target?
Rarity is gonna kill Sunset when she see's her next. She wasnt there for the engagement!
I will say this was so far out of left field i didnt even remotely see it coming. I did call it that the mare was the princess but that was easy.
9803647 Simple "Sunk-Cost Fallacy" ('Oh darn, it's not the pony we want ... but it is a high-ranking member of the Equestrian government, and we do already have a plan ready, so let's just go with that').
However ... in hindsight, I do have to agree that this was probably targeted against Sunset specifically; the Secret Police knew who Sunset was, and it is unlikely (although not impossible) that they would hide that information from the King.
What the Saddle Arabians think to gain from this farce, however, remains to be seen.
9804188 Rarity will forgive Sunset, if she gets to design Sunny's wedding gown.
9804561 They do seem a very arrogant sort. They most likely believe everyone will fall for their rather transparent tricks.
Oh no, is the princess going to torture Sunset by making her play a bunch of nested subgames? For real, though, that was obviously staged. Like, real killers do not wear brightly colored, easily identifiable uniforms.
9803425
True, but magic . We don't know if same sex couples can have kids in Equestria, we also don't know they can't.
Besides, everyone with power in Equestria is female, save maybe Blueblood. So she might have younger Siblings to take over, and Sunset's mom is, so far as anyone knows, immortal. As such, they might not care.
Well, maybe you're more perceptive than you know, Sunset. It's possible this was rehearsed and your lines haven't been what she expected.
I'm not sure you should have told us this ahead of time, though. I mean, we already have assassins and black magic and suspicious ponies handing out Dark Magic healing while being hunted by the secret police. I don't think anyone thought they were just getting a simple shipping story but now you've narrowed the possible resolutions.
Oh well, overall I still think this story is off to a good start.
Calling it now: the princess is the mastermind. Her namesake is a storyteller, after all.
Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let's get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta'aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He's well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defenses, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold.
Are the Saddle Arabians all ponies in this story, as opposed to horses closer in size to Celestia?
9806178 Actually, I’ve read in some fics that mares know a spell that can uh, make it possible for ‘em to have foals and no- the genderbending spell doesn’t count. Unsurprisingly, it can only be cast by a unicorn. I call hax on unicorns.
There is absolutely no way that wasn’t planned.
Is no one gonna comment on the Destiny references here, and the fact that it's Vu-Vu-Zela?
oh boy, that's one heck of a can of worms to open there.
i.pinimg.com/originals/6e/1e/28/6e1e287da53614647b9b33cc480c7a26.jpg
Oof. Oh nonono, Autor. It is far too early to start shipping and Flash is DEFINITELY not a pony for it! Seriously, you don't want to go there. You have no idea what is going to happen, the readers will just go WILD. And not in the good way!
...
SHIP! SHIP! SHIP! SHIP!
Is this the same pony that was mentioned in the first story when Celestia was talking about her past?
looks confusedly at shipping papers
Huh, I had some pretty strong connections with Twilight and maybe Rainbow. There is also this Luna one....
To be fair, I have known one fictional culture in which professional assassins really do dress to stand out - in fact, they initiate no violent acts on the job unless they're already entirely dressed in bright red (at a minimum, Day-Glo red, although neon red and containing actual red lighting elements are also common), any gear or vehicles they're using are also all bright red with any incorporated lights (red, naturally) on at full, and they've finished providing a warning both clearly visible and audible (and displayed and broadcast on any available PA channels) to anybody close enough to possibly get involved that they're on a contract, exactly who their targets are, and what level of collateral damage their contract is paid to permit to either people who try to interfere or separately to random bystanders. ...They're also very good at their work, because they work in an empire huge enough and wealthy enough to afford the kind of pay scale you need to hire intelligent people willing to accept these restrictions as the price of being tolerated within a lawful society, and because they aren't actually into spectacle or self-aggrandizement and have had a lot of time to think about how to still operate effectively. (And because you can buy significant amounts of overkill in terms of manpower, weaponry and personal safety with what they charge for one-off contracts with no guarantee of success, and they have no personal stake or ego on the line fulfilling those.)
I can see one minor benefit to the overly stagey nature of this playlet: if the assassins looked realistic it's entirely possible some random citizen or guard might have intercepted them or the princess, either to save or threaten her. (I doubt the secret police are really good enough to give her an invisibly protected route through the crowd.) Just somebody-else's-problem and out of the real world enough to encourage people to watch and let the designated heroes handle it all.
Also noting it's not quite a case of "falling for it". Nobody there but Sunset could be expected to not know what the earring meant, and they couldn't have expected she wouldn't. And it's hard to imagine anybody in that room is expected to believe the attack was real - they're supposed to all be grateful somebody had the forethought to stage it to get the Equestrians endeared to the populace and whatever was in that treaty better thought of (with Sunset's own reputation a bonus). Cadence being there might get a random guard engaged to the princess with her cautious optimism about the long-term prospects of the match (or they might have had an actually well-matched mare or stallion ready to take the victim's place), but even if she diplomatically turned down the offer it would definitely end on the same note of general goodwill. As far as anypony on the Equestrian side could analyze, this isn't the kind of sketchy which is a bad thing. So far.
Yup. Gotta love culture clash!
LOLOLOLOLOL
1000 stairs would only take a few minutes to climb. Unless those stairs are crazy tall and pushing you backwards
10694313
Going by old-world precedents, try out "broken up into short flights going in all directions with maybe six to fifteen feet of fairly flat ground between each, passing through small enclosed kill zones twisting through corners along the way, and with the stairs varying enough in height and depth that it's impossible to get any rhythm going on either ascent or descent unless you've got the trip practiced down to muscle memory". If this is the "intimidate the common people and outsiders route", with most people doing business with the ruler already residing in the palace and hoists or trade entrances at the far ends used for supplies, I also wouldn't be too surprised if the stairs were less than two feet wide, with no railing, set against a wind-polished wall (maybe with an easily-removed rope hanging loosely along it), and the steps weren't especially level to start with. And they might get some loose sand on them.
Also, a quadrupedal body kind of sucks for rapid stair climbing. More feet to trip over and two of them are well behind the head and eyes (which makes a broken-pattern stair even worse). Moving a unified group also slows things down. Still, while I can believe all of the above might make ten minutes a real mark of pride for a troop of elite guards, a relative baseline of multiple hours for the trip does seem off.
sunset's current harem
twilight the faithful kouhai
flash sentry the damsel knight
shahrazad the rebellious princess
Well.... saw that coming just before Sunny found out. Going to be interesting seeing where this goes, and what is really going on here. On the plus side, the order assholes might be less eager to screw with their future Princess-Consort then they were of the Equestrian ambassador. Unless they are the true power here of course.
And I'm fine with a competent, decent guy Flash Sentry. At least Pony Flash, who really does get a bit too much hate at times. Now Brad? Yeah, he's earned that distaste, and it just tends to spill over on the Pony him. (Granted in part becuase, with the exclusion of Sci-Twi, EQG kind of sucks at not making the humans just shallow copies of the Pony, so people are used to just mixing the two anyway. )
LMAOOO WHAT IN THE FCKK
HAHAFSKAVHAHAH WAIT TIL CELESTIA AND TWILIGHT HEAR ABOUT ANOTHER NATION STEALING SUNSET SHIMMER AWAY HAHAHXBAHAFHSHSVSJQBDD