Chapter Forty: Sneak Peek · 1:21pm May 25th, 2016
Hi, guys! Been kept busy because we had to move to an all NEW house, practically right after settling into our OLD house. But I wanted to reward everyone for their patience, so here's a sneak peek at what Chapter 40 has to offer!
“I am more committed to finding a cure to the Swap now than I ever was before.” Twilight Sparkle told Princess Celestia.
Celestia’s expression was very briefly surprised, just long enough for Twilight to catch it. “That… Is a relief, my student. Might I ask why?” she asked, her expression shifted back to a more neutral interest- she’d seen it before, one when she didn’t want to give away her feelings. It felt… odd seeing it directed at her.
Twilight inhaled a deep breath. “Because of all these other ponies,” she explained. “The ones who fell afoul of those prototypes I created. I mean… certainly it’s awful enough that my five friends should suffer. But all of us Element Bearers… after all we’ve been through, we’re kind of like soldiers. ...Maybe heroes is a better word. We can take it. But now… it’s like a monster that’s broken free of its cage, running amok among the general public. Ruining the lives of defenseless ponies.”
Twilight shut her eyes momentarily.
“The Swap is heartless. It doesn’t care. It’ll switch a mother with her son. It’ll switch a beetle with a dog. Anything with anyone. It’ll be trickier than ever, coming up with something to reverse the effects of all these different versions of Starswirl’s unfinished spell. Both my own prototypes, and these new ones crafted by these desperate fools. But I swear on… on the very Element of Magic, that I will triumph over the Swap! I don’t care how long it takes, or even if you, Celestia, were to tell me to stop! All I need is the right insight!”
Celestia relaxed to hear these words, almost smiling again.
“Honestly, that is a relief to hear… If you had no wish to continue… I would have had to take on the burden myself for that very reason. I’m uncertain I’d have the insight to complete it that you would, but for my little ponies, I would need to try. But that does leave one question…”
“...Yes?” Twilight asked after a moment of Celestia leaving the question in air.
Celestia paused, letting out the tiniest sigh, as if she dreaded asking the next question. “Once you do discover the Cure, will you be using it on your fellow Element Bearers?”
Now Twilight faltered. “I… I… that is to say...” Her thoughts went to Rarity in particular. They ate together. Fell asleep in the same bed. Shared the same stallion. Shared each other. And now, today… this talk of marriage… But was it really what she wanted?
Marriage. To uncaring, self-serving ponies such as her mother, Star Sparkle, it amounted to nothing beyond a silly, overpriced party. Not her, though. With marriage, she was of the same school of thought as her brother. Twilight Sparkle believed in the sanctity of marriage; the sacred vow of eternal devotion. Holding yourself to a higher standard of faithfulness and love.
She had told Fluttershy that she’d wanted nothing more than to live out the rest of her life with Rarity, but now Twilight found herself second-guessing herself. Was this really what she wanted her life, her home, her family to be like, ‘til the end of her days? Being compelled to play the role of Rarity’s herdsister was one thing, when it was in the name of keeping her sane. Growing to love her was forgivable. But could she bear to keep this great and terrible truth from Rarity and Rainbow Dash unspoken, even to her last breath? Was it even right? What did she want?
“...And what if she won’t?” Celestia and Twilight both turned at the sound of Lero’s voice.
The human strode forward, stopping right beside Twilight Sparkle. Glaring at Celestia with eyes like frozen, hazel-colored steel. Blinking much less than normal.
“What if Twilight Sparkle feels that her five fine friends simply do not require any ‘curing?’ What will you do then, princess? Banish her to outer space?”
Lero’s tone was like silk on fire. Smooth yet with a hotness that most of Lero’s party guests would’ve found outright terrifying. It was certainly frightening Twilight Sparkle.
In the past, Twilight had stood beside Celestia in diplomatic summits and watched foreign ambassadors threaten war upon Equestria with the same quiet and refined fury that Lero was showing now. Celestia’s response was just the same as it was with those ambassadors: straightening herself to her tallest, and looking down her muzzle at Lero without outright frowning.
“I would never ask her to act against her conscience,” she told Lero.
Lero also held himself straighter. “We bent over backwards, we jumped through hoops of fire to bring those five to this state of happy equilibrium.”
“And I thank you for your efforts toward helping relieve their suffering.” She nodded softly to him. “But all I wanted to do was to remind Twilight that this is merely a treatment of the symptoms of a larger syndrome, not a cure… and leaves us with a more complex moral quandary to deal with.”
“Syndromes?! Symptoms?! Is that what you think of them as?!” Twilight knew when Lero was barely able to hold himself back from attacking someone else… and thank all goodness, this was NOT such an occasion. Enraged as Lero Michealides was, he stood with his feet planted like a defense attorney in the court of law, contending against the royal prosecution.
“None of them behave as their true selves.” Celestia clarified. “As much as they behave much like unique people, it is the effect of a spell.”
“So what?” Lero retorted. “They’re all living, thinking individuals! Capable of love and thought and emotional growth! Doesn’t matter that they were born of magic! They have as much right to life as anypony conceived by a mother and father!”
This'll be interesting. Though Lero needs to get his emotions under control. I'm with Celestia on this one. Even though they are individuals capable of their own thoughts, it wouldn't be fair to keep lieing, to keep pretending that all is right. They will ultimately have to be restored. I don't believe the swap effects on the elements (the magical items not the ponies) were ever shown in the episode.
We can assume, obviously, one of two things.
1. The elements of harmony will work perfectly fine.
2. Because the bearers, regardless of equilibrium, are not their original, whole selves and thus not in a true harmony. They will be inert, unusable and only good as a jewelry piece. Which, if this story were to continue along with the main canon, would ultimately result in Tirek being unable to be defeated.
That's of course just an assumption on the elements themselves. I could of course be completely wrong *shrugs* but hurry up Mike I'm getting anxious over here!!!
Hey Celestia, projecting much? You went all psychotic dictator and had to get fused into place permanently, but that doesn't mean the Swapped Five are screwed in the head. Hell, Lero and Twi have checked in with their soul fragments, and the original personalities seem to be OK with things. You can keep clinging to "it's all the spell's fault" if it lets you sleep at night, but leave the others out of it.
...
And hey, Twi. What about the new swaps? Sure, they're horrific, but un-swapping them will be euthanasia at best, as far as the new personalities are concerned. If any of them have time to stabilize and want to stick around, it'll be murder.
Damned if we do, and damned if we don't. That's the extend of it.
Something something mirror pool.... no, that's silly. Funny, I've been rereading this over the last few days, feeling as though an update would be coming soon. To be fair to Celestia... she and Luna didn't have a bewitchment to help them stay sane... they actually got pushed exactly the other way.
And yet that's the real problem here. Sure, 'Shy gets what's going on, but she's got Pinkie's otherworldly awareness. The rest? Insanity, or at best, serious therapy once Discord drops the Bewitchment (you don't expect him to keep that up forever, do you?). That's enough reason to give the cure a good long look no matter what the Swapped say, hard as that is to admit. In the show it's not like any of them forgot what they'd done while swapped, those memories and choices didn't just die off or fade out. Further, they didn't waste time flipping out about it. "Sorry Ah drove the Boutique into the ground, Rarity." "Oh don't worry, darling, it's been so long since I've sewn a dress I'm feeling prolific." ~or along those lines. No hard feelings: ponies can be pretty adaptable. And a lot of the jealousies and hurts you might expect? Meh, a culture embracing... well, embraces... and polygamy... not as likely to have those hitting as hard as they might be expected to (for reference, see Rarity's reaction to Dash and Lero getting close again back about a dozen chapters).
So that said, keeping them in the dark forever won't work... or it'd be pretty wrong at the least. But giving them a choice... a fully informed choice, one that involves every part of every soul weighing in? That's what I'm hoping to see. We don't need a return to status quo; if each of them comes out a bit resembling who they swapped with, what of it? Once they've made that choice, the resolution, including any drama about it, can commence. Will prologue!Rarity have a change of heart, or a dozen showers complete with brain bleach? Only time will tell!
Oh, and speaking of time, maybe some time travel to go back and kick Starswirl in the nuts. Seriously, buck that guy. His performance in the flashback did nothing to salvage him in my eyes, actually made him look worse.
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Hey, Starswirl is a fuckup, but we still don't know why Sunbutt decided to unleash his magical virus on the world (AGAIN!) without so much as a "be careful with this one, Twilight".
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Eh... I see your point, but we kinda do know. She shouldn't have to tell her student of many years to be careful with old magic any more than my professors in college needed to tell me to mind my grammar. Further, she knew, per her prophecy dreams, that she needed Twilight to solve this. And Twilight did take precautions, unlike in the show. Of course in the show there's no indication that Celestia knew what would happen with it. In this fic, yeah she knew what happened the first time, with a pair of Alicorns even. So she warned Twilight, and Twilight sent her herd away while she tried it out; that's in the first couple chapters. Lero and Rainbow knew there was risk, hence them going out of town that day. It wasn't enough, but putting too much blame on Celestia here solves nothing. Ultimately, too much warning would mean we'd have no story. Twilight would have just put everyone to sleep with that uber coma spell and bam, this is a boring one shot while we watch her solve it through trial and error. *Yawn*
Further, saying something like 'it's Celestia's fault, Celestia should fix it' assumes two things which I believe to be in error. One: Celestia could fix it. I doubt that. If she could, she would have done so centuries ago. Starswirl can talk down to Twilight all he wants (apparently, no one is going to call him on being a shitbag within the fic, damn hero worship) but she's the strongest, most gifted unicorn pretty much ever (per show canon, even if this fic wants to paint her otherwise). Quote from episode 23 by Celestia to Twilight: "I don't think I've EVER come across a unicorn with your raw abilities." That was to a filly that just got her cutie mark. So yeah, this one might be beyond Celestia to solve. She's powerful, sure, but a spell crafter? Not much evidence of that that I recall. Two: Twilight would allow the problem to be taken out of her hooves. I don't need to elaborate much here: try taking a problem away from Twilight. Yeah, I wouldn't either.
Twilight needed to overcome a great trial, like the many she's overcome before, in order to meet what Celestia's prophetic dream required. What's happening sucks, but it's nothing compared to Tirek destroying civilization. This is training from Hell, and even Celestia knows it's worse than she thought it'd be. But that doesn't mean she can reverse time and play softball about it. She didn't warn her about Nightmare Moon's requirements either. She trusted her to figure it out and she did. Same thing here, but now that it's taking longer we get a lot more armchair quarterbacks.
Don't get me wrong: your anger at Celestia is justifiable. When it plays out in the fic I imagine I'll be nodding along with all the characters who want to give her a piece of their (hopefully sane) minds. But at the same time, I find myself thinking that a multi-millennial ruler has to look at the big picture and, to an extent, be the bad guy. Twilight needed this trial. The fact that she's not acing it changes nothing. If she can't solve this it means Tirek would have won anyway. Not to mention everything else down the line that depends on a restructuring of the Elements, the Map, the Castle, reforming Starlight, and in general Twilight's ascension. There's a lot riding on this, so the lack of kid gloves is, for me, forgivable.
A show where Celestia goes around solving everything by burning every villain to the ground would get pretty boring pretty quickly. Still, after all this mess, I'd love to see her pull that one on Tirek. She follows Discord to find him, and as soon as he does, she jumps out and burns him to ash when he's still weak. Twilight, still on extended, triple overtime paid vacation from fixing the Swap, receives this letter via dragonfire:
To my Faithful Student,
Went with Plan B.
Your contrite teacher,
Princess Celestia
Twilight looks up from the letter. "Spike, did she ever mention a Plan B for Tirek?"
Spike is looking at the horizon, and the column of smoke rising into the shape of a mushroom. "No... but I think it means 'burning'."