With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Afternoon
Canterlot

"Bawhahahaha!"

The guards have by and large given up on looking offended as I steady myself by leaning against the wall.

"Hahahahaha!"

My eyes are staring and Sunset is trying to indicate by her stance that no matter what they may have heard, she’s got nothing to do with me. Her eyes flick to me as the laughter stops, only to be rolled and turned away once more as she sees that I’m just trying to recover my breath.

Plucky Slugger’s eyes narrow. "What’s so funny?"

"Huh-huh." I take a deep breath as I try to get myself under control. "Huuurrrh. Ugh. Okay." I stand back on my own four hooves and face him, bending down slightly so that our muzzles are level. "What..." I cough. "What you just said."

He turns his head slightly to the right. "I just said that the Royal Guards are Equestria’s premier fighting for-."

I hold up my right forehoof. "Stop, stop! You’re going to set me off again."

He snorts. He actually snorts! "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

I invert my right forehoof -and isn’t that weird- and press it to the underside of his muzzle. "Oh, you precious foal. You actually believe it, don’t you? That’s so sweet."

His eyes widen for a moment, then he knocks my limb aside. "I don’t know what you think you’re talking about-."

"I’ve met soldiers. I’ve fought against soldiers. You’re not soldiers. You’re.. tour guides at best. Living statues at worst. I mean-" I sit and spread my forehooves in the general direction of our escort. "-come on, be honest. When was the last time you ponies contributed meaningfully to the defence of Equestria? Count off the major incidents from the past few years. One, Nightmare Moon. Celestia's escort got knocked aside like they’re not even there and the whole thing gets wrapped up in a few hours by Celestia’s disciple. Who had no guard support while doing it." I can see their cheeks start to colour through their fur. I’m going to assume that this isn’t the first time they’ve heard something like this. "Discord? ... Nope."

"Discord is a master of chaos magic! What could we do against him?"

"You did have over a thousand years to prepare. I’d have thought that you could have worked something out. Prepared something. Anything. At least arranged for the statue to have some flipping railings around it."

"We didn’t know that’s what the statue was!?"

"And the other statues?" His face freezes. "You have asked about those, right?"

Silence.

"You haven’t. Okay." I tense the muscles in my jaw. "Then we had the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot. Not a malevolent deity this time. Changeling drones are generally worse fliers than pegasus ponies, their magic is limited to shapeshifting and basic thaumokinesis and they’re not especially strong. Exactly the sort of thing a professional standing army might be expected to fight. And how did you do? You got your haunches handed to you."

"Next up was Sombra. Once more, Princess Celestia sent her disciple. Did she send her a retinue of guards? No. She sent the best young flier, a pony likely to join the Wonderbolts during their next recruitment session. Not sure why she didn’t send the actual Wonderbolts, but maybe she couldn’t get hold of them at short notice."

"Rainbow Dash is one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

"Did they have the Elements with them?"

"Ahh... No?"

"Then how is that relevant?" I give him a moment to come up with something. Nope. "And in addition to that doughty duo, she sent... A seamstress, a farmer, a baker... And a veterinarian. Instead of? Any. Guards. At. All." I shrug, just about getting some motion out of my wings. "And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Did the Grand Galloping Gala really get... Overrun by animals from the palace gardens?" Plucky Slugger’s ears fall. "You ponies couldn’t even take fluffy little bunnies in a fight!" I walk past him, carrying on in the direction of the training area. "I mean, at least that explains the veterinarian! Celestia must think that Fluttershy is the most deadly pony she has in her service!"

Then the friction disappears from under my hooves and my right ear glows pale turquoise. "Excuse me, gentlecolts." Pony or not, Sunset’s grin is quite unsettling. "Grayven and I need a quick... Chat."

She drags me along behind her as she leads the way down the corridor a short distance and around a bend before shoving me against a wall. "What the heck are you doing?"

I’m not sure that it’s healthy for her to grind her teeth like that, either. "Talking them down. What did it sound like?"

"I don’t want to alienate everypony in the palace! I thought we were going to try and sell them the weapons I developed?"

"I’m not. You are. My words have caused them to ruminate upon their deficiencies and failures. Now is the time to talk up how much you can improve upon their capabilities. I will take a back seat and remain silent. This is your show." Her spell deactivates as she blinks at me in surprise. I turn around and try to put my membranous right wing over her back in a hug. Unfortunately, she's far too short. "Knock 'em metaphorically dead."

"Oh. I just thought you were being a jerk again."

"The Canterlot Royal Guard are low hanging targets. I have standards."

The cyan glow encompasses my side and gently shoves me away. "Right." She looks me in the eyes, her own eyes narrowing. "I can't work out whether you made that up as an excuse or if that was really why you did it."

"Why can't it be both?"

She sighs. "Just butt out and let me work, alright?" I make an expression of total innocence, eliciting another sigh before she walks back around the corridor to rejoin the party.

She needs to learn to lighten up.

I let her and the guards get ahead a little way before attaching myself to the rear of the party. Plucky Slugger looks around at the sound of my hooves, but he doesn't say anything. His head flops in what I suspect to be a sign of pony-depression and his hooves barely lift off the ground as he walks.

Perfect.

I follow them out into the training field. On one side, unicorn guards charge their horns and fire blasts of coloured magic at a target downfield, Tempest Shadow watching carefully. Where they strike, the targets blacken and smoulder. Pegasus pony guards fly around in formation, spears their weapons of choice, Lightning Dust flying literally circles around them. In another part of the field earth pony guards line up to charge into tackle bags held in place by Buckface, bouncing off as they fail to move him.

Two grey unicorns -who based on their insignia appear to be senior officers- have walked over to where Sunset stands in front of her escort. Wait, those are the prats who couldn't organise a simple search party when those plunderseed vine things grabbed Celestia and Luna. Oh, sure, a firm pair of hooves there, I don't-.

Where's that music coming from?

"Let me teach you of fighting and fury.
Permit me to tell you how to wage war."

Sunset prances up to a tired-looking Unicorn who managed three small burns in the centre of his target and shoves a mana siphon gun into his forehooves and points to the activation knob.

"A creature's might,
should exceed its plight,
Or what's a soldier for?"

He takes aim and fires, the rainbow-coloured beam punching a hole clean through the centre of the target, then the wall behind that and the wall behind that and the wall behind that before breaking out of Canterlot entirely and sailing into the air.

The soldier grins.

"I'll show you the way to take thought for tomorrow,"

Her horn glows and arcane armour appears around an earth pony, who runs through the bag and the wooden structure behind it. The structure collapses onto him and he isn't even fazed.

"To rea-lise your dreams and to hunger for more."

Another glow and a target finder helmet appears on a pegasus pony, along with a saddle mounted laser.

"A creature's wrath,
should protect its path,"

The pegasus pony swoops into a dive and fires, striking the centre of each of the unicorn targets in sequence. Sunset looks them over briefly, then turns to gaze up at Celestia's tower.

"Or what's a Princess for?"

I step forwards in a daze. I'm in a musical number. As part of the chorus.

…

Mine was first.

Sunset appears to be getting into her stride. The three ponies she just upgunned and their moronic commanders gather around her, and for some reason I find myself joining them. Her horn glows brilliantly, and then...

We're in a lecture theatre? I'm standing in the wings while the other five are in the front row.

"Taste of the fruit of the tree that is knowledge,"

Sunset's horn glows as seven different pieces of chalk dance around her before drawing arcane and mathematical proofs on the blackboard behind her.

"Of science and magic and all two worlds’ lore."

The regular lecturer whom she just displaced looks at her with irritation. Then looks at what she's writing and sits down, his mouth falling open.

"A creature's thought,
must exceed what it's taught,
Or what's a scholar for?"

She takes a selection of books on Atlantean thaumaturgical notation from her subspace pocket and hands it to the lecturer, who immediately opens the first and starts reading. Good job she translated them first.

"So come let me help you become as the gods are."

She moves over to the second blackboard and starts drawing out the shape she showed Luna and I earlier, the one which is supposed to enable her ascension. I recognise the symbols for the three pony tribes and.. some of the other symbols, but the precise mechanics of how it's supposed to work are lost on me.

"For I've got a wonderful secret to tell!"

The doors at the rear of the lecture theatre open and Celestia herself trots in. No one looks around as Sunset pauses in her song, then hardens her expression and pushes onwards.

"A creature's reach must exceed its grasp!"

Sunset rears up as the audience stomp their forehooves in approval.

"Or what's an alicorn for?"