Sixth's Handmaiden
Her stare burned into his as he shifted his web-weaver figurine to yet another of the game boards. He did his best to ignore the intensity of the look and the feeling of subtle dread it was inspiring in him, at least until he was done with his move. He then folded his hands and looked neutrally across the board. “Is something the matter?”
“Surprisingly, no,” she replied after a moment of visible thought. “I apologize for staring so intently, but I wasn’t sure that I believed my eyes or any of my other senses.”
He blinked, genuinely astonished. “You… are not angry?”
“Angry?” She grinned fiercely. “Whyever would I be angry at you, minister?”
The feeling of dread grew stronger. “I… imagined that one of my agents sending a demon-shadow after an innocent and terribly wounding her would earn me grievous punishment, even though I regarded the risk as a worthy one.”
“Oh, I won’t pretend that I didn’t feel a flicker of rage and a momentary impulse to geld you to make a point, but then I contemplated the big picture.” The grin grew fiercer, if that was possible. “Your agent did something on my behalf that would have otherwise been impossible to do with any subtlety. It was something I had wished to accomplish myself, and even made elaborate plans to do it, but in the end, I only needed to sit back and watch.”
“You’re making no sense,” he all but growled. “She unleashed a klesae and slipped the grasp of the Handmaiden. I see no benefit in this for you and I know, for a fact, that spiritually wounding the pegasus would never be an objective of yours.”
She sighed. “I realize that it’s a very foreign concept to you, but I trust the tools in my hands. I invoke their aid because I know that I can rely on them to do the best thing, and I typically know what that best thing is. The Handmaiden accomplished something, but you can’t see it because I didn’t command her to do it; I simply trusted that she would, and she did.”
He frowned pensively at the game board, studying the game piece that represented the dragoness and idly noting that the hand grasping the locket was clearly feminine. “I can’t help but notice that you’ve only invoked one tool.”
“I’m stunned by your incisive powers of observation,” she remarked dryly.
He bristled a little. “It just seems very unusual for you to let someone else define the board. Even for a Light, it’s very… passive.”
“‘Even for a Light’?” She eyed him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know perfectly well what it means,” he replied evenly. “That bizarre tableau of a collection of angels lounging on clouds and plucking harps is more literal than the Lights like to admit. Granted, your creatures are more fantastical than small, naked, human infants with tiny wings but the principle’s the same.”
“Sometimes, good things come to those that wait.” She settled back. “I’m a great deal more aggressive than… others.” Her mouth twisted briefly with distaste. “But you’d be surprised how much succulent fruit has just… fallen into my lap because an opponent felt compelled to do something, while I wisely did nothing.”
“Deflect until they’re exhausted, then surge.” He considered this. “I find that difficult to credit in this situation.”
“No, in this situation I plan to wait only until my anvil is in place and then drop the hammer.” Without any warning, cups of tea in exquisite rose-patterned porcelain appeared in front of the two contestants, causing him to jump a little as she reached for her cup and sipped placidly. “Speaking of hammers and anvils, I hear that every creature of any intelligence and significance has a story of how they escaped the Blood Plain.”
“Would you not do that?” He responded in irritation.
“Offering a pleasant drink is a standard courtesy among Powers.” She managed to restrain her grin to a little twitch at the corners of her muzzle. “Do you not like tea?”
He contented himself with a glare before sighing and taking a sip; naturally, it was the perfect temperature and his favorite flavor, par for the course in her realm where her rules of reality ruled. “There is precious little to tell,” he responded after another sip. “I lingered no longer than my master then proceeded to run, as the humans put it, like a little girl. And I’m not the least bit ashamed of it; there would have been no purpose in being brave, dead, and stupid and stupid is precisely what it is when you stay on a battlefield where your dead have to be numbered by the wagon.”
“And even with that, you seem irritated when I refer to him as ‘Folly’.” She noted.
“I learned a valuable survival skill from his example,” he smirked. “Hard to disparage the one that is responsible for your continued living.”
She visibly contemplated this. “It makes a certain sort of sense,” she admitted after a moment. “So, do you have any more immediate intentions for the game board?”
He looked it over thoughtfully. “Not at the moment. Thank you for the tea.”
She grinned over the rim of her cup. “I didn’t summon any tea.”
“But it’s the perfect flavor and temperature…” He paused and set his cup down with a sigh. “…and you’re more of a whiskey person, aren’t you?”
She laughed. “If only I’d been lucky enough to have something as refined as whiskey when soldiering. We typically had to make due with straining from fermented mash. But yes, the simpler tastes of a soldier in mortality, the same in immortality.” She took another delicate sip. “Although I never turn down a nice, flavorful drink if I can help it.”
“I’m ever so pleased that my efforts are appreciated, Lady Aon.” Just like that, a leaf appeared on the left side of the table with a luxurious divan pulled up to it. Lounging on the furniture was a serpent-like creature that looked like he was stitched together by a madman: one eagle wing, one dragon wing. A lion’s paw and an eagle’s claw. A goat’s head with an antler, twisted horn, and snaggle tooth. One rear leg from a horse and the other from some unknown reptile and a dragon’s tail to top it off.
“Ah, I haven’t missed the chaos,” he grinned. “Excellent.”
Twilight Sparkle eyed her visitor warily, but the dragon seemed sincere enough and she could probably have done whatever she wanted in the time before Twilight had noticed her, if she had evil intentions. “OK then,” she said, returning to the chair. “Let’s proceed under the assumption that I accept your sincerity. Who’re you? Who’s Lashaal? What do you think I need to know?”
“For those outside of the Elements and your family, I wish to use the name Myrilandel,” the dragoness replied. “My true name is Spite.”
Twilight blinked. “Spite?”
“Spite.” She smiled a little. “I wasn’t named by people who like me, and I didn’t earn the name by good deeds. But when spoken with affection, by friends, I’m proud of it.”
“How’d you get it?”
Spite looked seriously at her. “When I win your affection and trust, such that you come to regard me as a friend, I’ll tell you that story. For now, I’ll say that I haven’t always been the kind of dragoness who would abandon her quarry to save the life of a stranger.”
Twilight searched her face, noted the determination, and decided to let it go. “So who’s this Lashaal you mentioned?”
“You know her as ‘Lily Shell’, although I would think that’d be obvious: there’s only one pony I’m chasing, and thus could be said to have ‘slipped my grasp’,” Spite replied. “Who is she? I know some things about her but no details of her history. Suffice it to say, she’s not a pony by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Is that related to her odd manner of speech and her starved appearance?” Twilight asked thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Spite responded. “She has limited experience being around mortals and reverts to old speech patterns. I’m… not really sure about the emaciation. It could be her attempt to remake the shell she seized…”
“Excuse me, ‘shell she seized’?” Twilight felt her stomach twist. “She stole somepony’s body?”
“Yes,” Spite confirmed. “She has little power of her own beyond knowledge. To accomplish whatever her design is, she would need a physical body and the best of those, in her mind, would be that of a unicorn.”
“Why not a dragon like you?”
“Because she’s not strong enough.” The dragoness grimaced. “And as much as I’d dearly love to see her try, I wouldn’t wish the pain and spiritual wounds on my most hated enemy. No I don’t speak from personal experience, but I was shown the remains of a spirit that made such an attempt, and I’d just as soon forget the sight.”
“So she’s a ghost that stole somepony’s body.” Twilight concluded.
“A ghost that’s a few apples short of a pie, equipped with horrifyingly dangerous ritual objects, that stole somepony’s body.” Spite corrected her. “She unleashed one of those objects on Rainbow Dash to prevent me from following her.”
“What… kind of object?”
“A magic-infused sphere linked into the Void that would call a klesae bound to the will of the summoner,” she answered. “It’s a animalistic beast, essentially soulless, that exists to eat living spirits, which is what it started to do to Rainbow before I could interpose myself and get her to safety.”
Twilight felt herself pale. “It… was eating her… um…”
“Will. Soul. Spirit. Self.” Spite supplied. “There’s many names for it, all refer to the invisible and imperceptible force in living creatures that gives them their unique selves and determines their nature at its most basic level. And that was the part of Rainbow Dash that the klesae began to feed on—as Lashaal intended, for it was the only way to distract me from pursuing her.”
Twilight looked fearfully at the prone form of her pegasus friend. “Will she be alright?”
“Yes,” Spite assured her with a warm, reassuring smile. “Your friend is very strong and her soul is also very strong. A lesser spirit would have been swallowed entirely before I could do anything, for it was a very large, powerful, and hungry klesae. But although she was wounded in soul, she was still alive and with enough strength to fight through the weaknesss and comprehend my presence.” The smile faded. “I was forced to take extreme measures to save her life, however, and repair her ragged spirit enough that I could place her in a regenerative sleep state. She’ll recover completely on her own now, but there’ll be consequences for what I did to save her.”
“What kind of ‘consequences’?”
“I honestly don’t know,” the dragoness closed her eyes and sighed. “I can only tell you that the consequences will not harm her. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the infusion will make her even more of what she already is; there’s simply no way to be sure.”
Twilight looked steadily at her. “What exactly did you do?”
“That is another one of those things I can’t really explain unless I’ve earned your trust,” Spite replied, opening her eyes again, meeting Twilight’s gaze evenly. “It’d require explaining what I am, which would require explaining why I’m different, which would require explaining my history, which I’ve already said is something that can’t be adequately explained without an existing bond of friendship and trust.”
Twilight frowned, considering this. “More of what Lily did, hinting at a larger truth but refusing to expound until an undefined ‘later’ isn’t good enough, Spite,” she told the dragoness firmly. “Within the last week, I’ve already had one total stranger pretend to be harmless and sincere, only for another total stranger to bring my friend back in a coma, claiming that the first stranger attacked her on a spiritual level. You seem nice, but it’s just not reasonable to sit here, smile, and trust that you’re not lying to me.”
Spite sighed heavily but she nodded. “You’re right, my mere assurances aren’t good enough. If you’d like, I’ll leave, but I can’t promise that I won’t visit Rainbow from time to time.”
“Why would you?”
“Because, whether you believe it or no, I care about her well-being. I care about the well-being of all six of you, but I haven’t failed all six of you; I’ve failed her.” She paused. “So, may I stay, or would you prefer that I go?”
“I wouldn’t mind asking Applejack to listen to what you have to say,” Twilight responded.
“Applejack?” She thought. “Oh yes, your farmer friend. The Element of Honesty, if I recall correctly. So she’s in-tune with her Element to the degree that she can reliably separate truth from lie? Or, to put it another way, if she spoke to me and declared that I was being honest, would you accept it without doubt?”
“Absolutely,” Twilight replied without any hesitation.
Spite smiled broadly. “I’m pleased to hear that, more that you trust her so absolutely than that you’d accept my honesty if she declared it.”
“Until then, though, I have a friend who’s very vulnerable and I’m uncomfortable with someone I’m unsure about being in the room.” Twilight continued with a slight note of polite apology. “Granted, you’ve been extremely pleasant and open but Lily… er, Lashaal seemed the same way.”
“And I have no doubt she did that deliberately, damn her.” Spite sighed disgustedly. “Before I go, you should know that Lashaal is just the tip of the iceberg. She’s the servant of another, and she’s far from the only one. Be very careful, Twilight; I was there to save Rainbow but while I plan to keep watch on the six of you, I cannot possibly be everywhere at once.”
“Speaking of keeping watch, why wolves?”
Spite grinned. “Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, they’re noticeable and for another, they make ponies nervous because they’re not ordinarily friendly,” Twilight pointed out.
Spite snorted and shook her head. “It’s amazing how scared you ponies can get at a wolf. I myself would cross the entire breadth of the world alone, and keep no watch, if I had a pack of greys hanging on my flanks as I went. If you gain their trust and friendship, there is no creature more loyal, nor one that will fight so hard to protect pack.”
“And they regard you as part of their pack?”
“They do, along with the soft-kind wingpony.” Spite smiled placidly. “Even a predator, who needs to live by the ethic of kill or be killed, basks in the serenity of your soft-spoken friend. So is there anything else you wish of me before I leave you to your vigil?”
“Just one thing.” Twilight gestured around her. “How’re you doing this? I’ve never seen a spell like it before.”
“Trade secret,” Spite responded instantly, amethyst eyes twinkling. “Maybe one day, you’ll see just what can be done with it. For now, however, I think I ought to bid you farewell for your own peace of mind.”
“Farewell then.” Twilight paused. “And… assuming what you say is true, assuming that you actually intervened to save my friend’s life and weren’t the one who tried to harm her... thank you.”
“Doing a good turn for any of you six is my honor, Twilight,” Spite said warmly. “Be safe, Lady, and be watchful. I hope we shall meet again soon and do give Rainbow my best wishes when she awakens.”
And just like that, Spite was gone and reality reasserted itself instantly. Sun streamed into the room, the noises of the hospital filled her ears, and Rainbow’s chest continued to rise and fall steadily. Twilight stared at the space that, a moment before, had been occupied by the black-scaled dragon, and looked at Rainbow. “Wish you were awake, Dash… right now, even a conversation punctuated by ‘pfft, boring’ would be welcome. I mean, I just had a dragon appear out of thin air, tell me that a harmless-seeming pony was an evil ghost that tried to kill you, and disappear back into thin air.” She paused. “And yes, I know how insane that sounds.”
She shook her head. “I know I should tell the girls but…” She broke off and began to chuckle. “What am I saying? You wouldn’t want me here when I should be doing something important, would you? I guess it’s fortunate that you can’t talk to me or you’d be hurting yourself trying to kick my flanks out the door.”
“Why would she be kickin’ yer flanks out th’ door, Twi?” Applejack inquired from the doorway.
Twilight jumped slightly, blinking. “AJ? What’re you doing here?”
Applejack gave her a funny look. “Ah’m here t’ spell ya, sugarcube. Ya’ve been here fer hours already.”
Twilight facehoofed. “But she was only here a few minutes!”
The look from the apple farmer turned to utter confusion. “Um… who was only here for a few minutes, Twi?”
Twilight waved a hoof. “Don’t worry about it. Round up the girls; things just got complicated.”
><><
“They represent the greatest single concentration of complimentary talents in the entirety of Sol Selune.” The precisely-accented, and eerily resonant, voice of the spymaster echoed in Spite’s memory as she watched from a corner of the room, melded into the shadows and watching as the six ponies (which included Twilight Sparkle’s “twin sister”, Dawn) talked anxiously amongst themselves. “There are, of course, immense talents to be found elsewhere and among the other peoples of the world, but they are the concentration of said talents within a particular grouping. They can be roughly, albeit not entirely accurately, compared to the thirteen Templar of the Order in their concentration of talent and importance. You are of nature with Amarra in your interpersonal interactions so this ought to be a natural setting for you.”
“There is no leader as such but the role of guide is naturally assumed by one Twilight Sparkle, lately discovered child of the world’s solar goddess, Celestia,” the voice of her memory continued as she shifted her gaze to the lavender alicorn, idly thinking it a shame that the practical mare didn’t give her color-streaked mane some fashionable attention. “Exceptional, incisive intellect combined with natural intellectual curiosity augments her magical potential above specimens of comparable or higher magical reserves. Not that hers are to be sneezed at; prior to her full manifestation as an alicorn, she had sufficient magic and exquisite control to simultaneously manage sustained telekinetic levitation of a tenfold mass, and the complex serious of fine manipulations and movement to, in the colorful description of my eyes, ‘give a massive ursine cub its bottle and rock it to sleep’. As with any specimen that is simultaneously very powerful and highly intelligent, she is a significant obstacle to your goal; that said, I recommend her as an initial point of infiltration. She is most able to suspend subjective emotional strain sufficient to consider evidence with admirable dispassion, and if told your objectives and intentions with honesty, is most likely to see said objectives and intentions in the most objectively correct light. Put simply, you can trust her and having trusted her, can cultivate her into a trump-card asset, especially in the sense that she is the key to the cultivation of her five most common companions.”
“Applejack.” Her eyes turned to the orange farmer pony, handsome in a feminine way, solid and hard with honest muscle from honest work. “Element of Honesty. Simple-minded, although sufficiently intelligent that her comprehension is at least equal to the seventy-fifth percentile of ponies overall, although a precise rating is impossible without extreme measures. Above-average manual dexterity, ninetieth percentile muscular strength, has an instinctive feel for truth and untruth that is augmented by her Element to be virtually impossible to deceive. Exceptionally fit, but not exceptionally fit in the athletic manner, which presents a point of physical vulnerability.”
“Fluttershy.” She couldn’t help but smile broadly as she looked at the butter-colored pegasus with the soft, gentle eyes and a pretty light pink mane that seemed symbolic of how utterly sweet and harmless she was. “Element of Kindness and radiates it with every gesture. Highly detailed knowledge of all world fauna and a nearly-unique ability to communicate safely with that fauna, although her mental and physical attributes are impossible to determine. Slipping out of her cripplingly shy personality due to stress or emotional strain empowers her to exert a force of absolute will through locking eyes with the target of that will, allowing her to compel obedience, although there is no evidence of malicious effect from this Stare-related compulsion. Frankly, Spite, you’ll likely want to expend some of your free time just hugging her or some such foolishness; my eyes tell me that she has a similar effect to a security blanket or a favored stuffed animal.”
“Pinkamena Diane Pie, commonly called ‘Pinkie’.” Spite carefully avoided looking towards Pinkie Pie, trying to avoid the possibility that the mare’s odd extrasensory perceptions would allow her to see her. “Element of Laughter, typical case of mirror personalities. First personality is mentally-unbalanced, obsessed with parties, displays little to no apparent comprehension of the world around her. Second personality is sober, warm, and displays a hyperawareness of her surroundings, and especially of the mental states of those around her, with an emphasis on friends. Both personalities manifest tactile precognition and remote awareness, high intelligence, and the capacity to bend or break reality selectively to accomplish feats of teleportation or omniscience that are generally limited to certain gods and god-like entities. Personalities are aware of one another and can share information, although they have distinct and delineated roles that don’t overlap. I recommend a combination of tolerance and avoidance.”
“Rainbow Miriam Dash.” Here, Spite looked towards the prone pegasus with a mixture of warm regard and sadness, feeling that uncomfortable clenching in her gut that always accompanied being reminded of a failure. She looked over that rainbow-colored mane and smiled a little, enjoying the irony of the fact that of the six, it was the pony that most hated high society, fashion, and elegant mannerisms that could be the eye-catching beauty that would fit very easily into that world. “Element of Loyalty, the most exceptional specimen within her realm except for Twilight Sparkle. Brash, prideful, borderline arrogance, active loathing of anything that she designates ‘frou-frou’. Also possessed of immense focus, an incisive intelligence that is entirely concealed by her personality traits, and an absolute loyalty towards friends and towards her ideals. Ninety-first percentile strength, above-exceptional manual dexterity, exceptionally fit in an athletic manner. Possesses a unique mastery of a flying maneuver called a ‘sonic rainboom’ and a related speed and agility that allow her to compensate with raw talent for deficiencies in training. She’s your sister under the skin, Spite; if you can’t clever your way into Twilight Sparkle’s confidence, she’s the optimal second point of infiltration.”
“Rarity.” The alabaster unicorn was the only one of the ponies she glanced at that she couldn’t see being anything else; somehow, she looked like she’d just come from getting her mane styled although Spite knew that the elegant pony had been fretting in her shop and left without even bothering to comb. “Element of Generosity, selfless and giving of her time and talents. Appears to have an intimate affinity with gemstones of all kinds, able to locate them with minimal effort, a talent appropriate to the marking on her flank. Dressmaker of notable renown which results in her being quite wealthy, although most of her wealth is dedicated to improving her craft by improving her selection of materials. Of common birth but is self-taught in the mannerisms of nobility, such that she imitates the appropriate affectations effortlessly. Assassin.”
It’d been the last assertion, a single word delivered with dismissive casualness, that had taken Spite aback and she dared to meet the pitiless eyes of the towering sea hydrus. “Assassin?”
He’d grinned toothily down at her. “Of course, my dear. You know I would not offer to fully brief you on the six and then tell an outright lie. That would be a calculated insult, and I do not pay Amarra calculated insults, not after the incident in front of the Palace.”
She’d accepted that, although she still couldn’t figure out how “assassin” fit a mare who could be traumatized into incoherence at a little mud. And looking at Rarity, her posture subtly concerned, her head occasionally twitching in the direction of Rainbow Dash, she simply couldn’t see such a genuinely selfless creature accepting money to kill someone, for no other reason than the weight of the bits in her pouch.
She sensed that the tempo of the conversation had begun to slow and drift towards some kind of conclusion, and she slipped close enough to be slightly out of range of being instinctively bucked, and let the cloak of the shadows she’d been wearing dissolve off her shoulders. Thus revealed, and so far unnoticed, she awaited developments.
“So, sis, some black-scaled dragon pops out of nowhere, claims to have a heart overflowing with warm fuzzy feelings towards us all, and admits to being the one that brought Dash back in a coma.” Dawn said in a dry tone of voice. “And you believe she’s… sincere.”
“Well, no, not…” Twilight shifted uncomfortable under her sister’s gaze. “Not necessarily but she seemed to harbor no ill-intent and…”
“Do you have any objective evidence that what seemed to be true was, in fact, true?” Dawn interrupted. “Did she offer any proofs that could objectively establish her harmlessness? Did she offer any proofs at all?”
“Um…”
“Guess not.” Dawn looked at Applejack. “Whatcha think, AJ? Do you think some dragon that’s been spying on us and sent wolves after Lily Shell is on the level?”
Applejack frowned. “Ah’m sorry, Twi, but it jus’ don’t sit well with me. She claims Lily did this t’ Dash? The same Lily that seemed t’ be terrified that she might accidentally get Applebloom hurt? Polite an’ nervous an’…”
“…leaving you wondering if anything she said was true?” Spite suggested.
It was at this point that she discovered that while she was well outside the range of being bucked in the face by a normal pony, Applejack was very much not a normal pony. Some objective part of her mind, the part not reacting to the exquisitely painful sensations of her nose and jaw breaking, noted that the apple farmer had an amazing reach and more power than she would have ever imagined. Of course, admiration for the strength and skill of Applejack’s rear hooves was effectively swallowed up in a combination of annoyance at her newfound inability to speak, and the idle curiosity over why someone was stabbing her face with a hot poker.
Sometime later, she found herself looking up at six colorful equine faces, two of which looked so similar that she briefly wondered how Twilight had duplicated herself. Twilight-without-a-horn looked at Twilight-with-a-horn and then back down at Spite. “Spite, right?”
Spite held up a claw, indicating that Twilight-without-a-horn should wait for a moment and then she shadowstepped, her vision briefly overtaken by the more-black-than-black sight of the Void, before she found herself looking up at those six faces again, all of which now looked six different variants of shocked. She opened and shut her jaw, working the structures that had been entirely restored by a brief sojourn in a formless state, and then propped herself up on her elbows.
“Yes, and that hurt like a motherbucker.” She informed Dawn, looking obliquely at Applejack. “I hope you don’t find it too unreasonable if I ask you to not break my face again.”
“Wha… wha’ th’ hay?” Applejack responded, eyes wide as saucers.
“I heal fast,” Spite deadpanned. “May I get up?”
“Um, sure.” Twilight replied, staring, but apparently enough in command of her faculties to respond to the situation.
“Thank you.” She smiled at the lavender alicorn and rolled to her feet, the ponies backing up to give her room as she cricked her neck and stretched her wings a bit. “Sorry for surprising you like that.”
“What th’ hay didja jus’ do?” Applejack demanded, eyes still wide.
“I reverted briefly to a formless state and then reformed in my shape as it existed prior to having my jaw and nose broken by a surprisingly powerful kick to the face.” She frowned. “Not that I had any intention of explaining that aspect of myself before at least one sleepover and a shopping trip or two, but circumstances necessitate that I provide accurate information to you sooner than I otherwise would have.”
If anything, this blunt statement seemed to shock Applejack more and she sat down roughly on her flank. “That… so…?” She managed.
“If it wasn’t, you’d be giving your friend significant looks indicating that I’m lying my tail off.” She reached over and patted the stunned farmer gently on the shoulder. “I imagine this comes as quite a shock, somepony telling you something like that and it not being a ridiculous lie.”
Applejack gave her a slightly shaky look of gratitude. “Ya have no idea.” She then looked at her friends. “Might be hard t’ believe but she’s on th’ level, at least as far as the disappearin’ and reappearin’ all healthy goes.”
“I could have told you that,” Dawn scoffed. “I mean, we sort of watched her do it. But if she’s telling the truth about how Rainbow Dash got hurt, that’s a really good first step.”
“Only a first step?” Spite asked with a touch of amusement.
“Lily being the one that hurt her and you being the one that brought her in just means that Lily means us ill and that you wanted to save Dash’s life,” Twilight pointed out reasonably. “It doesn’t mean your motives are pure or that you mean us well. At least… I think that’s what my sister meant…?”
“More or less, although my working theory is that you’re head over heels for sleeping beauty.” Dawn gave her a grin that was one part leer to two parts challenge with a hint of joking thrown in somewhere.
“My interest in Rainbow Dash has nothing to do with the fact that she’d be absolutely beautiful if she ever wanted to be,” Spite informed the earth pony amusedly. “I admire, and feel kinship to, anyone as dedicated to her friends as Rainbow Dash is. That I had to outthink her, and couldn’t outfly her, is just icing on the cake. My personal feelings about her aside, however…” She looked squarely at Applejack. “Lily, whose real name is Lashaal, attacked your friend without provocation to distract me from pursuing her. I fought and mauled the bestial demon-shadow Lashaal used in her attack and drove it off. I then took emergency measures to save Rainbow Dash before placing in her a recuperative sleep and bringing her here to be cared for. My intentions towards the six of you, or the seven of you if we include Dawn, are to see you safe and well.”
Applejack looked steadily at her before grinning widely. “Well then, sugarcube, we’re glad t’ have ya. Sorry ‘bout th’ face… ya startled me.”
“As you can see, no harm done.” Spite responded affably.
The farmpony’s reaction made all the tension and suspicion drain out of the other six ponies; unsurprisingly, Twilight was the first to trot closer and embrace her. “Thanks for saving her, Spite.”
“It was my honor,” Spite replied, embracing the alicorn and briefly enjoying the feeling of a soft, warm body against hers, sighing with nostalgia for when the warm body was one of her own dear friends. “I only regret that I failed to prevent her injury; I knew of Lashaal but had no idea that she was so vicious, nor that she had such deadly and evil tools at hoof.”
“Why were you watching us anyway?” Dawn asked her. “I mean, obviously you’re trying to keep an eye out for us and do the ‘shadowy protector’ thing but why’d you show up in the first place? Why’d Lashaal, for that matter?”
“My queen, who also happens to be my sister and my dearest friend in the world, asked me to lend my service to a close friend and ally of hers. That friend and ally told me that she would have many uses for me, but the first task she needed done was keeping a close eye on you seven,” Spite replied carefully.
“But why?”
“Because your well-being is important to her for reasons she didn’t tell me.” Which was true enough; the Archangel hadn’t come out and told her why the Six were important but she knew without needing to be told, something that She was well aware of. “I don’t believe that her intentions are anything but good, and I have faith that my sister wouldn’t ask me to serve her if she had any doubts about the morality of what she planned to do.”
“And Lashaal?” Dawn persisted.
“I have no way to know,” Spite admitted. “Partly why I was keeping a close eye on her: I was attempting to figure out her purpose by following her until it became clear to me. Now, she’s slipped my grasp and I have no idea where she’s going.”
“She said she was going to the griffin lands,” Twilight offered. “She claimed to have started in the arid lands to the east and was heading to the mesas that the Griffin Provinces occupy.”
Spite eyed her. “And she… volunteered this information? Freely?”
“Yeah, an’ she was tellin’ the truth when she said it,” Applejack interjected. “Can’t fathom why she’d be honest ‘bout it if someone was after her.”
“She probably saw no point in lying.” Spite shrugged. “You weren’t going to interfere with her, and piling more untruths on top of the ones she’d already told would have made you suspicious. So, the Griffin Provinces…” She tapped her chin. “I can’t imagine there being any information to discover there and she’s far too gauche to be an assassin.”
“Sometimes, being too obvious to be an assassin is the best concealment an assassin can ask for,” Rarity commented, the first time the alabaster mare had spoken since Spite had revealed herself. “Being disregarded and ignored can be a dream come true, and based on what I’ve heard about Lashaal’s disguise, she’d be very easy to ignore if she was trying to seem unimportant.”
Spite looked at her with blank surprise. “Aren’t you a dressmaker?”
Rarity sniffed proudly. “Of course! My designs are renowned in Manehattan, Filyldelphia, and even among the nobility of Canterlot.”
“And yet you have intelligent insights into the tradecraft of an assassin.”
The unicorn looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Well… yes.”
Spite looked at her steadily as she winced internally, dreading yet another smugly superior ‘I told you so’ smirk from Trilychi. “I don’t suppose you’re willing to connect those two dots for me?”
Rarity’s visible discomfort intensified until Spite sighed and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Rarity. It’s… not important. What is important is that your insight, however, you obtained it, is correct. However, what I meant by Lashaal being far too gauche is that she’s a sledgehammer when an assassin needs a dagger. Her method of trying to shake my pursuit proves the point: she used her biggest, strongest, most evil ritual object, threw it more or less in my direction, and ran the other way. Instead of using something I was unprepared for or would struggle to deal with, possible being harmed by, she threw something that would only do damage if I couldn’t get Rainbow out of the way in time. That did turn out to be the case, but she couldn’t have known that beforehoof.”
“Is the klesae still… here?”
“I sent it back where it came from.” Spite gave the alicorn as reassuring a look as she could. “There was no need to kill it; as horrible and evil as it is, it’s part of the Void and was only here because it was made to be.”
Twilight acknowledged this with a nod and looked at the other five mares. “Well, I’m satisfied that she at least means well and intends no harm.”
“Ah concur, Twi.”
“I vote that we trust the really creepy dragon that can heal herself instantly and turn into smoke and back again without effort, and whose unnamed friend of a friend wants her to spy on us.” Dawn said with an absolute deadpan. “I’m sure we can be absolutely and unquestioningly certain that she’s full of love, fluffiness, and puppies, and wants rainbows and sunshine for all.”
“It’s a noble effort, Dawn, but a few centuries interacting with my sister’s colleagues has given me an immunity to snark.” Spite responded with equal deadpan. “Besides, miss objectvive-proof-requred, all that blatherskite doesn’t amount to an assessment.”
Dawn looked genuinely taken aback before she grinned. “And I despaired of meeting another pony that’d give it back to me like Dash does. Just for that, I’m voting to trust you, for real this time.”
“I trust her,” Fluttershy offered. “She… was kind to the wolves and they called her ‘sister’ which means a lot coming from them.”
Rarity gave her an appraising look. “Green.”
“Beg pardon?”
“Green,” Rarity repeated. “A deeper one, just the lightest hint of blue tone, like an emerald. The contrast would be exquisite.”
Spite eyed her, puzzling out what the mare was talking about. And then it hit her and she stared. “You haven’t even voted that I’m trustworthy and you’re already making fashion plans?”
“Oh, trusting you is a foregone conclusion, darling,” Rarity replied airily. “But if you’re to walk around, you simply must do so with a modicum of style.”
Spite chuckled. “I’m sure we’ll have a lively discussion on the issue later, Rarity. So, then, I suppose you’re…”
As she turned to address herself to Pinkie Pie, her voice faltered at the calm, penetrating look from a straight-maned pink mare that was only recognizable as Pinkie because of her cutie mark. “I’m what?” She asked calmly, with a slight tilt of her head and a genuinely interested expression.
“…the, um, last pony that hasn’t registered an opinion about whether I’m trustworthy.” Spite finished, unnerved by the very much not-Pinkie Pinkie standing there and looking at her.
Pinkie smiled broadly. “Don’t be silly; of course you’re trustworthy. But what about everypony else? Is your mysterious boss trustworthy? Are we, including yourself, pawns in a larger plan, or does she plan to exert herself as much as you intend to in the interests of keeping us safe? Are you her only servant here, and if not, can we also trust the others like we can trust you? They might not be immediately important, but they’re good questions to ask.”
Spite couldn’t help but stare, slightly open-mouthed. Yes, she’d been warned that Pinkie Pie had a serious side that acted like a mirror to her crazy, partying side but being told that the perpetually hyperactive and silly mare could be serious and thoughtful and seeing it were totally different things. “Y..yes, I suppose they are,” she admitted after several seconds of stunned silence. “All I can offer is that the seven of you and a few others are of vital importance in her eyes, and to my knowledge, my power and disposition are typical of her servants. I don’t know whether she intends to use more tools than just me, however.”
“OK,” Pinkie replied. “Which leaves just one more vital question.”
“What’s that?”
A broad grin that somehow suggested that the pink earth pony was laughing merrily behind it, spread over Pinkie’s face. “Raspberry or buttercream?”
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more please.
I freaking love pinkie's reaction, and the assesments of the characters are all spot on, expecially Pinkie's. I like the idea that "pinkamina" isn't crazy, just more focused and incisive.
Exquisite chapter
“Raspberry or buttercream?” Peanut-butter!
Another great chapter and the interactions with two at the start is starting to make a lot more sense to me.
The story seems to have a very heavy feel to it in that you have to pay attention to every detail. I usually can get thru stories pretty quick but with this I need to slow myself down to take in everything and I love it.
I vote for buttercream.
1300601 I'm glad that it's slowly becoming easier to make sense of. The obstacle has always been that with the opening bit, it's a minor story in and of itself being written one page at a time, so it's hard to see the story unless you have more than a couple pages.
I tend towards the dense because I think it's rewarding when you're reading along and suddenly, that one line three chapters ago makes perfect sense and explains everything, It's hard to cultivate that feeling unless there's that one significant detail three chapters ago.
1300771 It's nice to have a story that has this amount of depth to it especially working off of The Empty Room as the setting. Doing a follow up to TER has some really big shoes to fill and you are doing a wonderful job of it. I'll probably go back and reread the previous chapters on the next update now that events are clearing up.
Also the sizes of the chapters are perfect for me, not too long where every thing seems to drag on and not too short where it feels rushed. I know this is something that can't necessarily be controlled easily when writing, but for me the 5-8k word chapters always feel like the right length
1301053 I'm doing my best with it. It's hard to equal an epic and Wanderer D created an epic. I suppose it says something about my ambitions that my two fanfic goals at this time are to write a "six months later" for The Empty Room and a total AU for Fallout Equestria.
I encourage you to go back because I decided to go through the first two chapters and write some reference entries giving the reader contextual information that I can't see an opportunity to include in the main story. Stuff like the Light/Dark/Evil relationship and who the Reaper and Weaver are. I may continue the practice into other chapters but it's up in the air right now.
For me, it actually can be controlled easily, mainly in the form of setting a minimum and maximum number of pages per chapter, which I write in a word processing program before posting here: minimum of 12 pages, maximum of 18. More or less, the story itself set this limit because I wrote 16 pages at the beginning and liked the size and flow.
The only way I can tell this isn't written by WD is that if it was, half the cast would be dead by now.
Which is a good thing, the way I look at it. I don't think I could stomach reading something with quite as many twists and turns again.
1306206 To be fair, only three ponies were dead at the beginning of TER and two of them were either minor or OC. Everypony else died near the end.
Give me time, my dear... give me time...
1306311
1301430
Well those footnotes are a great inclusion, I read them and went to re-read the beginning parts of the chapters again and now that I have some understanding of what the terms it gives those sections a good bit more sense. It's no longer a list of seemingly random words, Now I know what "The Nine" are or who the "Weaver" is. Are they integral plot points? Probably not but not being bombarded with terms and names that seem like they should be important makes them far more understandable.
1333764 No, they're totally irrelevant information. However, people seemed to be frustrated that they lacked the irrelevant information that sheds no particular light on what's going on, so I provided it. I apologize if some level of irritation comes through but feeling obliged to provide the information totally ruined the atmosphere I was going for. That said, "what the hell's going on here?" is a legitimate request and I felt like refusing would be petty.
1335339
The problem with it was while you know it is irrelevant we don't. And the only real "Atmosphere" it added was frustration. It is like having a conversation with someone and every ten words is in a completely foreign language.
When writing Fanfic you don't really have to do any universe sculpting you and the reader both understand at least the basics of the world in question. We all know what Canterlot is and we all know what Sweetie Bell sounds like. But when you introduce whole new elements it is important to remember that we don't have any of this shared knowledge.
Does any of the information you supplied provide directly to the plot? No not even a little. Does it make those lead in parts less mysterious? No, while I now know what The Nine what you provided only helps give us bearing in there world. We now have an idea where in the cosmological order these two beings lie and are left to wonder why two impossibly powerful beings think colorful equines are so interesting (Besides just being awesome of course). So ultimately we traded "Who the hell are they?" for "What are they up to?" which seems like a improvement.
I remember many moons ago going through the "Lone Wolf and Cub" comics and at the bottom of the page every so often there would be an explanation for one of the terms used on the page. It served two very important uses. First it informed the reader what exactly the aforementioned thing was, whether it was explaining what a No-Dachi was or what the concept of "Face" meant. But second and more importantly it did it in a way that did not distract from the story. Readers were free to choose to read it or not and it prevented the writer from having to make an obligatory lame out of character explanation lines in a conversation that would never actually be said by two native beings. Nothing would have made Ogami Itto more lame then explaining the meaning or purpose of some ritual all samurai did. But the bottom of the page does not have to worry about staying in character so he handled it very well.
So all and all I am sorry if you think they are harmful to the story but I wanted to try and state the case for why I think they are helpful before you decide to completely hate them. I mean at the end of the day it is your story and we are all just along for the ride. I just want to see out of the front and the side.
1337283 I appreciate all of that but I'm swiftly coming to feel like I've totally failed because people are getting fixated on totally irrelevant blatherskite off in the nevernever instead of paying close attention to the all-important details they are given. Nothing in the references matter or tell a reader information that is useful for them to know and yet, people are fixated on useless trivia instead of the work itself.
1338616
I think people are only inclined to question it because it is the part that did not make sense.
What has happened so far in the other part makes sense so no one questions it. Lilly Shell had everyone but AJ fooled, and Spite was kind of a mystery. I mean sure she was using wolves but she never did anything harmful.
As for little details, most folks are not really gonna get 'em right away. For example; I recently re-read TER and noticed MANY little subtle things I missed the first time. I lost count of how many times I called my Nook a "Lying cocksucker" because I knew now how certain characters panned out.
As for the lead in sections, yes there is a lot of subtlety there but, and I can only speak for myself here, I feel folks are getting stuck on not understand who or what everything is and missing other things. Like I said given the bit of understanding or familiarity I was able to find much more in those lead in sections. All and all it is important to remember you know what is important and we don't*, so since we don't have all of the details most of us reading will not be able to see the forest through the trees.
Again, still very much enjoying it and eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
-Macisbest859
P.S
Sorry for any of this that makes no sense, hard to type and pretend to work at the same time.
EDIT
*Wanted to clear up, these are things we should not know yet, if we knew everything this would be a waste of a story.
1338964
The irony of that is that it's not supposed to make sense. If it made sense, it'd ruin what I'm trying to achieve by writing it to not make sense.
And the delicious thing about writing her dialogue is that nothing she says is a lie, except her name.
I like writing my headcanon, don't get me wrong, but it's depressing to feel like my headcanon is as important, if not more so, to readers than the story. For the missing pieces are all headcanon stuff totally unrelated to the story, and stuff that would never be revealed therein because it's not important and does nothing to enhance a reader's understanding of what's actually going on. My chief fear is that readers are going to get so fixated on my headcanon tidbits that they totally miss the big, giant, ultra-important tiny details that will be relevant later. Thus, I'm hesitant to feed the fixation by revealing the headcanon in the open.
1341527
How do I put this? We as readers yearn to know more about your characters in stories. We know everything about everyone else, we would not be here if we didn't read the last book. Your characters represent the new and exciting and we want to get to know them better.
What those little tidbits supply is a sense of world. Something we can put our stakes down in and call familiar. Once we have a footing we can look further into what you have done but when everything is new, foreign and scary we are to busy trying to make sense of everything and ,as you point out, are missing what is important.
Those little details all seem very important and likely are but they are not important yet so most of us have yet to spot them. As they come up later we will all be left standing going "Well s*%& I guess X thing from four chapters ago really did matter." and thinking you did a great job at foreshadowing.
Allow me to give an example and a bit of comparison.
Let's take an early event from TER, Trixie's death. On the surface Trixie seemed to die for no reason other then to become a ghost and to show us how scary the Everfree Forest can be. But as we would learn many chapters later that section was there really to kill her and to introduce what would actually become the main conflict. But at the time all we thought was "Man the Everfree sucks.". We didn't know that The Guardian was some kind of god beast who had a whole cult of crazies that were planing on helping him bring all of Equestria under heel by corrupting not one or two but in truth six deities and countless poor ponies.
Nope he was some random monster that ate a little blue unicorn.
Lets apply this to an event that happened last chapter, Dash being attacked.
Dash being attacked did three important things. First it showed us Lilly Shell's true colours* it also formally introduced the first "Light side" character of Spite and finally it injured Dash. Similarly to Trixie and her early fate in TER not much seems to have happened in this exchange beyond the overt. But this at least seems to me like one of those things that is going to come back up and be SUPER important later. But for right now it is getting accepted and passed by just like we ignored The Guardian for so long...
I would like to bring up the comic "Watchmen". This was a series that was impossibly deep with all of the little things it had wether they were hidden in the writing or the art.
What it also had was Headcannon, and a hell of a lot of it. At the end of every issue there were excerpts from a fictional novel** within the story that was used to explain many many things about the world. While literally none of it has any bareing on the story it is fun to read. It also gave us a much greater depth on smaller characters or things that were not pertinent to what was going on. But what it really did was build a world around the story to make it feel more "Lived in" or "Real". I will admit that the first time I read the comic I skipped over these areas entierly and still found it (and find it) to be my most favorite graphic novel ever. Those additional parts just make the experience that much more enjoyable.
*Speculation Time!
1, Not sure how, but I just know Dash now being tainted by the aether is going to be a major world altering event later on down the line. That or a persistent nagging that keeps her in check is she doesn't go and ruin the story by being awesome enough to just fix whatever problem.
2, I don't buy Spite's crap about wanting to help and protect the main cast, for the most part it seems she wanted Lilly Shell dead on sight. Which does not strike me as the kind of thing one on the light side would be doing. Light seems to me the end of structure and rule of law so because of that I am not sold on her being from that side.
3, Lilly Shell not actually a bad guy. Admittedly at least inadvertently attack Dash was kind a dick move but beings form the dark end of the spectrum might have a different set of whats cool and whats not. Also, yeah the bags some serious stuff is going down there, dunno what but what's for sure is it's gonna be real when it gets used.
Or maybe I am wrong all over, but that's the fun of it all at this point.
Speculation Over
** and a newspaper and police reports and many other things, but mostly that book.
1341916
Interesting... you know, I've just realized that that best thing I can do for this story is to remove those reference footnotes. Thanks for your helpfulness.
1342095
Well its your story so your gonna do what your gonna do.
I don't know how to state the case anymore then I already have. I still think these bits only make your story more enjoyable but if you so truly and completly hate them then fine can 'em and lets move on. Some of us have a running tally of theories and want to see if they are right or not.
1342141 True, but the way you helped me realize that removing the references was best is that it helped me see that the extra facts don't help flesh out the characters, but the background of those characters' world. To put it another way, is the Light's character, her personality and disposition and other things, changed because I add a note saying "oh, by the way, she's an archangel"? Are details required about the Reaper for a reader to know what his role probably is (I seriously doubt anyone would miss the blatant reference to the Grim Reaper)?
That said, I think that the best approach here is to build an independent chapter smack dab in the middle that will be constantly updated where I store the relevant pieces of my headcanon. That way, if someone wants to know more, they just open the chapter but if they don't, it's not just sitting at the end of each chapter staring them in the face.
Were it not strictly improper, I'd kiss you, Mac.
Thank you, I totally and sincerely mean it.
1342141 By the way...
Theories about what?
1342178
With these kind of stories? Anything and everything. Like where Celestia and Luna are and what there involvment is. Why Big Mac gets a back seat role. Why the sky is blue. What the deal with those bags is. But most importantly why you chose to mimic the title of a series of books written in such a gawd awful fashion.
Yeah don't ask I just hate how George RR Martin writes. The man makes JRR Tolken look like Tom Clancy
Chapter 5.
Because Lauren Faust has supernatural powers that allow her and her writing crew to manage a whole bunch of characters without ever drifting off focus, and I'm not her. But fear naught, I just haven't gotten to him yet.
Celestia.
Mimic a...?
Oh.
Well, damn. I forgot that the book series "Game of Thrones" even existed when I came up with the title to this series. So what's it all about, out of curiosity?
relating to current theories
- whats in the bags
- where is tia and luna
- what is the elements role in all of this, for example are the going to friendship cannon someone
- is tia somehow related to the archangels
- was Luna turned to Nightmare Moon by the corruption of the "void" without anyone realising
- will this affect dash
- what is with spite
- and many more to numerous to name