//------------------------------// // Confrontations // Story: Cards of Finality // by SwordTune //------------------------------// "Step out from your fog. I will not ask again." Princess Luna shined her horn in Twilight's dream, but the black cloud surrounding the true scene ate the light so that it was darker than space. Do you not have faith in the Princess? Luna didn't bother looking for the voice. She knew the Card Master could play tricks, even in the dreaming world. She shuddered to think what else he could do if they were in the waking world. "She's stronger than you. She has mastered dream magic and defies all your attempts to assert yourself over her mind. And she does this every single night." Luna saw the cards flash out from the darkness and blasted a bean of magic at it. The Card Master moved through the beam, dancing narrowly around the beam of magic like leaves in the wind. He reformed beside Princess Luna and spoke calmly to her. The fog around them began to settle. I'm am curious. What do you believe I intend to do? Luna scowled, and kept her magic ready to disintegrate the Card Master. "Do not act like we both don't know. I can feel your presence looming over her. She fights you in her dreams but you remain while she wakes. It is known in the waking world that Princess Twilight is suffering from exhaustion and depression. She gets nothing done." At least Equestria has a new savior, or so I hear. Luna's face twisted into rage and she struck the Card Master immediately. "Speak not of Starlight!" The Card Master hardly seemed fazed by the blow, but dropped down to the ground anyways. Luna stomped on his back, pinning him down. "You cannot have them! The defenders of Equestria are protected by the Tree of Harmony and myself." She leaned her head down and whispered into the Card Master's ear, her coat blackening and pupils a vertical slit. "That sham copy of me cannot save you," she hissed quietly. The Card Master softened and turned into a pile of cards. They slithered and climbed over her until he reformed on top of her. With surprising force, Princess Luna was shoved back down to ground. The fading black fog suddenly disappeared into the soil, revealing the scene Twilight was dreaming. She was reliving her time captured by Chrysalis, paralyzed and forsaken, terrified of being helpless. There are consequences to your power. Luna growled at him, but he was right. Twilight was sleeping peacefully because the Card Master was distracted with their conversation. By revealing just an ounce of the remains of Nightmare Moon's power brought out Twilight's most recent fears. Any more could cause drastic terrors. But the Card Master waved his hoof and the nightmare simply collapsed. Grass grew in its place, trees sprouted in seconds. All of creation was at the tip of his hooves. He turned Twilight's dreams toward the Everfree Forest, where she dreamed of peaceful days when she could study foreign potion and magic from Zecora. Princess Luna shoved the Card Master back and stood. She looked through the trees at Zecora's hut, and caught glimpses of Twilight smiling. "You're worse than Discord. You live only to infest and torment the minds of others." I assumed you would be happy that I have given the Princess a good night of rest. "Deceiver!" She beat her hoof into his face, but the cards simply fluttered around the blow. Luna grunted as she punched the tree behind him. He stood there, with a hole in his face to make room for Luna's hoof. Her anger subsided and turned to resignation, she knew he would only ever be struck if he willed it. "I know you don't care for her," Luna sighed. "You give her a moment to breathe just to drown her again. Why?" Shtock, Luna glared at the Card Master. "Silence?" kakh ala bemakhshava lefanai. "This is how I see things," she repeated. Slowly, her lips curled, forming snarl. "This is how you see the world?" She threw her hoof in the air, pointing to Twilight's dream, where she practiced simple spells with Zecora like levitating water and conjuring stones. Luna hissed. "You let her live a happy moment, just so her guard is lowered, and then you strike. You torment endlessly in a cycle, and then you turn around and call it 'Harmony.' If this is part of Harmony, then Harmony is evil." Very true. But when have I ever said I wanted pure good? It is needed. The Card Master waved his hoof and collapsed the dream back into the ground, bringing back the pitch black fog. Sadly, it appears time has passed us by. Daylight is breaking, Luna. Your power here is waning fast. Luna wanted to drive off the Card Master with a burst of energy, even if the effects would be temporary. But she couldn't. On top of proving to Twilight she needed Luna's direct intervention -thus damaging her confidence to fight the thing himself- she could feel the tethers of Twilight's mind thinning, weakening her magic. When Twilight woke, she would not be able to hold a stable form in her mind. "Don't think I won't be watching you," Luna warned as she reluctantly let herself fade from the dream. My dear Queen of Nights, I don't doubt it. ============================================================= Wake up Princess. You have work to do. Twilight rose slowly from her bed and went downstairs and picked up the mail. She called for Spike and asked him to get Starlight ready to leave immediately. I will enjoy watching you piece together the Broken. She heard his voice in her head but ignored it. She needed to focus. ============================================================= Sunset drummed her fingers on the edge of the counter waiting for Drama Crest to finish his meal. "You look disgusting eating that," she said to him. Drama Crest wiped his mouth and looked at his hands, greased clean and shiny. He picked up three fries, and with ketchup, stuffed them in his mouth. He disregarded Sunset's remark and bit into his burger again, dripping sauce from the patty onto waxed paper. "Doesn't everyone, when they eat these things? I don't get out much so I wouldn't really know." Sunset turned away and looked out the window of the restaurant. Fast food chain, she thought. Calling it a restaurant gave it too much credit. She was forced to listen to the crunch of the burger's lettuce as she watched the cars move by across the window. Being with him didn't make it better at all. She felt the gem hanging on her necklace, holding it between her thumb and middle finger while her pointer finger ran along one of its smooth flat sides. If only she was fast, like Rainbow's, for strong like AJ's, maybe she could get away. "The things you showed me," she remembered as she touched her gem, "the stories Twilight's dreaming about, what are they? I never studied Caller Weaver." "You couldn't have," Drama Crest wiped his mouth. "Nearly all the texts, original and copies, were destroyed. Those that remain sit in the Crystal Empire, a place that didn't exist in your time." "Have you ever considered that maybe your 'harmony' isn't something meant for us?" Sunset asked bitterly. "I don't like you messing with Twilight's head. What will happen if you're aiming too high, and all the targets on our heads are waiting far below your shot?" Drama Crest turned to the cashier taking an order from some Canterlot High freshmen. "Did things begin to fall only when the people it effected were aware of gravity?" Sunset scoffed and rolled her eyes, still staring out of the window. "Gravity doesn't have a personality. Or a face." "Nor," Drama Crest corrected. "It's 'nor' when you have a negative clause." Sunset furrowed her brow and turned her gaze back to him. "Who are you, my English teacher?" "Anyhow, it matters not if harmony is for you. I will act as I have." Drama Crest shrugged and looked down at this tray, a field laid bare littered with titans once cradling the heart of life. "Why do you think magic exists?" he asked from no where. He crumpled up slick fast-food waste and tossed the wrapping away. Sunset got up from her seat and followed him reluctantly. They walked down the street toward Canterlot High School. "I don't know. Who says there's a reason anyways?" "The second law of thermodynamics states that reactions tend toward chaos and disorder in a closed system," Drama Crest explained as they crossed the street out of the commercial district. "It take energy to create order. The sun, for example, gives life to this rock when there should be only lifeless madness." "And magic?" Sunset asked. First English, now thermodynamics out of no where. If she didn't think him utterly insane, she would have laughed at the thought of her teachers and Drama Crest being one and the same. "How does that come in?" They passed many stores on their way out, a couple bus stops too. Sunset wondered if he could follow her if she simply hopped on a bus and fled, but continued to walk until she could see her former high school. "You do not want chaos. Neither do the princesses," Drama Crest said, pointing to the portal between worlds as if signalling to those he spoke of. "Magic is the will of everything. All realities are bound by its energy; from it, universes are created. Magic will always work against chaos." They crossed the road over to the school, reaching and sitting on the steps of the entrance and looking onward at the western light on the portal. Drama Crest, whose face was infinitely more expressive than his shapeless form, seemed to look upon the light and the portal with reverence. Sunset wondered what he saw. Magic flowed from the portal like light from the sun and she could feel it in her body and through her gemstone yet it was only a feeling, like smelling a barbecue or feeling the resonance of a rock concert through the ground. Looking at the sun and the portal had no difference for Drama Crest. Lines of energy spewed from the portal, terrestrial solar flares wrapped around each other, looping in and out until the end. "There must always be something for the magic to work against. Chaos undoes Harmony, and in turn, Harmony corrects chaos. A struggle too difficult to accomplish but too essential to stop." "You're crazy," Sunset remarked, gesturing at the portal statue. "The world on the other side is better thanks to Twilight and the Elements. How is what you're doing going to make it better?" Drama Crest slapped his knee laughing, his torso bouncing to a rhythm of happiness. "I once told the Princess I wanted to kill time. A petty thing, of course, compared to the ever-present harmony we so desire. But it did help her understand; no time means no fractured events, all things living and dead and will be living can be united." Sunset shot up, glaring down at Drama Crest. "If you don't think we can understand what you want, then why get involved with us anyway?" "Because you will help," Drama Crest said. "You've seen all I have to show the Princess, at least all that is enough. You know our path." "Like hell I will," she muttered, her jaw tightening and her fist ready to beat the Card Master's corporeal form into the ground. He simply shrugged, and his indifference gave her all the reason to strike. To Sunset's surprise, her fist struck hard, but it did not reach Drama Crest's nose as she had intended. He took it in his palm, directing its vector elsewhere, and got up. Sunset threw a kick to keep him down, but he was quicker and stepped into her space, placing a leg between hers and unbalancing her stance. If they leaned in any closer she swore she could have felt his papery breath. They sparred over nothing but it made Sunset feel better, making the Card Master work in her world. She threw a punch, he jammed her arm before it could pick up speed. His elbow dug into her chest and pushed her back, but she stuck out her leg and kept Drama Crest from getting closer. In some time he pushed her back, closer to the statue, pressuring into her attacks every time she tried to strike. In a fit Sunset charged Drama Crest, her shoulder compressing his gut, and toppled him back. She rolled off him and stood up, but he was up too and standing next to the portal. With her necklace. "Give it back," she reflexively. He shook his head. "In a moment. I know you are not convinced. There is something I would like to show you, that the Princess can show you. We are fortunate you are so close to your trinket." She ran at him but there was no chance in any world that she could have caught up before he joined the gemstone to the infinite magic. ============================================================= The place is Broken. I see it, Starlight. Are you sure you want to see this? It's pretty gruesome. I'm a princess. If I can't see it, who can? Fine. I just worry. Well stop, and start helping. Pity doesn't do me any favors. They walked up the school as quickly as possible as to not drawn any attention from the flashing and clicking of the cameras that were collecting photos for newspapers. It was certainly an astonishing story, as one reporter put it. Princess Twilight, if I could have a moment, he said. A camera flashed, taking a picture of the reporter and Twilight. The princess isn't ready to speak to the press until after the investigation. They walked on but more persisted, despite Starlight's shielding. Princess, can you assure parents that their colts and fillies will be safe? Do you have any idea why this happened? Could your 'friendship map' predict anything like this? No comments until after she sees the scene, was the same reply for all of them. The walked inside the school. Police kept the scene clear of reporters. I'll help out MPD for now, until the royal guard get here to calm things down. Twilight nodded. I'll be down the hall if you need me. Starlight waited for a response and then walked away to let the princess see the classroom for herself. She stepped in the room carefully as to not disturb them while looking around at the walls and the desks. She saw the teacher. There was a supply closet next to the window and opposite the door where she could see the talk and promises of reporters and officials while police inside consoled the crossing guard who was just on the road when it happened. A chess board and its pieces scattered themselves on the floor with glue and glitter and guts. A filly once. Her legs buckled and it was impossible to keep composure. Twilight's hooves rooted her to the ground but she yearned to leave, so she stretched and twisted until Twilight stood facing the door with her back to the window. On her left a chalkboard clinging to the hasty scribbles of a desperate pony, asking to tell her family the thing. The thing they did not have, the ones who came. On the right they were uncountable because Twilight could not look at them even if she tried because her neck and joints were rusted shut so all she could do was listen to screeching joints suspending a frozen body. Starlight came back from talking with the police and trained her eyes on Twilight and looked at all the little details of fear. Twilight looked back. She didn't need to explain herself, not to her, but she needed to speak. I don't know if I can get over it. I don't know if you're supposed to. They looked at each other through the door. Step out. I can't. It's not a portal where you can never come back. Yes it is. A part of me will never leave the room just like a part of them is here permanently. Can you see why I'm worried? About? You, him, all this. It's why I begged Spike not to come even though he wanted to help you. Good. That's good. One less thing. One less thing, Starlight repeated. There were more less things of course. The ones who came were killed as well, so they were a few things less to think about. She sucked in her breath. Catch me if I fall. Starlight nodded but didn't move. She only looked at the ground where she stood watched . She lurched forward one step at a time like a bridge in an earthquake that shook with the tremors so that it did not crumble. Her body swayed forward and her legs came after at the last moment to catch her just in time. The teacher watched the door and made it even harder to cross, but Twilight steeled herself and bore the weight of the dead eyes. You okay? Starlight looked at her for a moment. You look awful. You're fine, you walked out of there. No I didn't. Not all of me at least. There's a part of me in that room, and I don't think it'll ever leave. Well, um... Celestia sent some royal guards to leave a message for you. What's it say? She needs you in Canterlot for a press conference about it. I already have a copy of the police report. Twilight looked down the hallway to the entrance of the school. Outside there were more reporters and twice as many parents who were angry and worried. Send the messenger back, and tell Celestia Equestria will get its press conference. I'll do it here, talk to the parents, get the real emotions. Starlight looked at her mentor. You sure? Twilight nodded. We don't follow her whim. ============================================================= It was draining her, this thing. Twilight wasn't Twilight. She couldn't figure out why she was like this. She taught her to seek friends for help but now the others have never been more distant. What could be done? She looked at Twilight's list of things to do. Travelling, talking, compromising, arguing, how did she manage discussions on the outside when something debated her on the inside? All she would say was his name, and brief summaries of his powers. Power over time and worlds, seeded deep inside her. Power to change or destroy? She didn't know. But there was a lot of work for Twilight to do. More and more piling up as Celestia's distance from the world grew more apparent. She wanted to help, but if Twilight insisted on keeping the thing inside her to herself, then the only way was to pick up the baton. She wondered if Spike had a list of errands she could run for Twilight.