Chapter 6: The politics of War
Princess Celestia hated the demons. She hated what they did to ponies; giving them power that allowed them to hurt others and take what they believed was rightfully theirs. Unfortunately the only way to be rid of them, when she first learned of them was to use their power. She thought that would be the end of it, she learned that she was wrong. She sat at a small table in a forgotten wing of the castle, the war room, and began to plan how to win this Shin Megami Tensei.
Beside her sat Luna, her dear sister and supporter, who helped her through her countless battles over a thousand years ago and now swore to aid her once again through the darkness. On her other side sat Starswirl the Bearded one of the greatest conjurers of the pre-classical era and one of her dearest friends. There was also Apple Seed, the progenitor of the great Apple family and a great warrior. Apple Seed’s marefriend Cloud Mirror was also present; she was the original captain of the Pegasus royal guard and a loyal friend to Celestia and Luna. Even the Queen of the changelings, Chrysalis, was present.
Starswirl levitated a bunch of different papers to each of the present generals and the princesses. That done he began to speak “Tamer’s have been sighted in essentially every province in Equestria, possible Praetor sightings in Los Pegasus, Manehatten, and Appaloosa.”
“There’s one more.” Cloud Mirror spoke up, “I left yesterday to do a little target practice and found a pony that somehow tamed Nyarlathotep.”
Luna slammed her hoof to the table “You hurt innocent ponies!” Luna’s royal Canterlot voice pierced the small room.
“They weren’t innocent,” Cloud Mirror shot back, “I’m telling you Nyarlathotep was among them.” Celestia sighed deeply; Nyarlathotep was an insanely powerful demon that stood side by side in power level to most of the demons in the room, the others he simply outclassed.
“Princess Luna this is a war, casualties are inescapable.” Chrysalis spoke with a slight laugh.
Starswirl continued, “Clearly it is advancing faster than it did in our time, it’s only a matter of time before the real fighting breaks out.”
Apple Seed was the next to speak, “what do we do?”
Celestia furrowed her brow in thought. It was a simple question that was far too difficult to answer. “Suggestions?” the sun princess asked.
“We could tell the people about demons.” Her sister began “Get them on our side, tell them we want to return things to normal.”
“That won’t work.” Chrysalis rebutted, “Your subjects are scared, they won’t differentiate friend and foe, simply them vs. everypony else.”
Cloud Mirror chuckled, “pessimistic outlook miss changeling queen.”
Chrysalis scoffed, “and I suppose you have an idea then.”
Cloud Mirror stood, “yes I do, we hand out a reward to any towns that can tell us that a praetor has arrived there and we just go get them.” Celestia sat back; this was probably the reason that she had never heard of a Shin Megami Tensei where the previous winner succeeded.
“Perhaps that won’t work but something similar might.” Starswirl continued once everypony’s eyes were on him “Scare tactics; we stage massive Tamer attacks in major cities make them think that all tamers are trash.”
“Swirly, beg pardon but Tia’ here is a Tamer” Apple Seed interjected.
Starswirl smiled, “nopony but us knows that though.”
“I can’t believe you would even consider such a barbaric option.” Luna screamed at Starswirl, her rage consuming her, “you would harm innocents just to turn them away from the Tamers!”
“Yes, and I believe that if you want to restore order you’ll listen and help me.” Starswirl responded.
Luna stormed out of the room, her demons following behind. “Luna!” Celestia called back at her sister. She stopped as Luna teleported away, Celestia sighed and sat back down. “Aright, we’ll attempt your plan, on a small scale at first so that as few innocents are harmed as possible.”
Starswirl nodded and he looked to Apple Seed, Cloud Mirror, and Chrysalis. “You three will be our terrorists, Apple Seed go to Appaloosa, Cloud Mirror to Manehatten, Chrysalis to Ponyville.” The three generals bowed and left for their posts. Celestia looked to Starswirl “They will be hitting a frontier, a small border community, and a major metropolitan city so as to show that nowhere is safe, no further attacks beyond that unless authorized by you.”
Starswirl started to leave when Celestia stopped him, “Do you think I’m right in doing this?” Starswirl looked at Celestia, her eyes were sad and downcast, her normally motherly visage was melting away and she began to look tired and pitiable.
“Only you can answer that, you know this world more than I do.” He walked out and headed for his quarters as Celestia sat alone in the war room, the full realization of her actions hitting her as she sobbed softly to herself.
Sweetie Bell ran to the clubhouse before anything else once she was back in Ponyville. She heard from Big Macintosh and Twilight that Applebloom and Scootaloo were looking for her, if she knew them they’d return to the clubhouse to report their findings to one another, so she would meet them there and see them one last time before she left with Twilight for Canterlot. Once she got to the clubhouse memories flooded her mind, memories of searching for their special talents, something she wouldn’t be doing for a while. Scootaloo walked in behind her with Rainbow Dash after about an hour of Sweetie Bell sitting there. “Sweetie Bell!” Scootaloo ran up and gave her a hug; she must’ve been worried.
“Hey Scootaloo, I’m sorry for running off.”
“As long as you’re safe.” The two were interrupted by another knock at the door as Applebloom entered.
“Oh good, Scoots found ya.” Applebloom let out a sigh of relief and entered the group hug as well.
“Hey your hoof.” Sweetie Bell pointed at Applebloom’s hoof and saw it now had a pentagram on it. “Yep, my own demon, and that’s actually what I came to tell ya’ll about, see I’m leaving Ponyville for a while.”
“Yeah me too,” Scootaloo yelled, “I’m going to join Rainbow Dash and Daring Do in their journey.” Applebloom settled into a chair and so did Sweetie Bell both of whom were looking nervously at their friend. “Daring Do is going to become like a queen or something and she’s going to make it so that ponies can enter the demon world!”
Sweetie’s mouth gaped, “That’s horrible, what of somepony accidently stepped in there!”
Scootaloo scoffed and waved a hoof in protest. “Please then Rainbow Dash or Daring Do will just rescue them or something.”
Sweetie Bell shook her head, “They can’t always be there, that’s why I’m joining Twilight, she wants to use the demon tamers to study demons to learn how to use their magic to help ponies.”
“No way.” Both Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo looked over at Applebloom who had spoken up.
“Oh yeah well who are you joining.” Scootaloo fired back.
“Trixie.”
Twilight returned to her home in Ponyville, worn out from the previous night. Spike made her, Rarity, and Big Macintosh some tea to soothe their nerves. Sweetie Bell had asked that before the three of them went to Canterlot to meet with the Princess that she stop by the clubhouse to say goodbye to the other members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Twilight sipped her tea and looked to Rarity, demons had saved her life, brought her back from the brink of certain death and then helped her save her sisters life, surely if Celestia heard of this then she would allow the demons to stay in some capacity.
“I believe my praetor that you wish for the impossible” the voice in her head chimed.
‘She’ll listen I know she will,’ Twilight thought back, ‘and why are you calling me praetor?’
“The mark above your containment spell is called a praetor’s mark it shows that you are a leader of the Shin Megami Tensei, that you are one of the select few who have a Reason strong enough to lead Equestria.”
“Twilight,” Rarity’s voice brought Twilight out of her internal conversation with her demon.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“You should summon Virtue so that we can all be part of the conversation.” Big Mac added.
Twilight blushed, forgetting that she now had a team that she had to coordinate with. She summoned Virtue to the spot and he was joined by Kikuri-Hime and Fuu-Ki.
“So,” Rarity continued, “what’s the plan Twilight?”
Twilight looked to her dear friend and sat back in her chair; her demon simply floated back content and aloof, “We use our power to help as many ponies in Ponyville as possible, then once we have them on our side, we go to Canterlot and make our case to Princess Celestia.”
“I do hope that you aren’t planning to go in there, guns blazing, at your current power level.” Fuu-Ki chuckled as Big Macintosh shot him a dirty look.
“He’s correct, none of us have a prayer against the demons that serve Celestia.” Kikuri-Hime said as she floated over to Fuu-Ki, “Even the three of us against one of hers would end in tragedy, Metatron, one of the most powerful of the Divine, serves her eternally”
“One of the strongest of the Divine.” Everypony and demon in the room turned to Virtue “There is one other Divine who is on Metatron’s level.”
Twilight bolted up “Well who is it?”
Virtue looked with his red-jeweled eyes at Twilight and in her eyes he saw a devotion to a cause, a devotion that he felt maybe… just maybe, could calm him and he would lend Twilight his power. “He is called Trumpeter, he is one who ushers the dead and will signal the end.”
Fuu-Ki simply burst out laughing, “You honestly believe that the Trumpeter who has never, in any of the Shin Megami Tensei’s, been taken in by a tamer will simply allow Twilight Sparkle to be his master.”
Kikuri-Hime had a slightly more dignified response to the matter, “It’s certainly possible, improbable, but possible.” She looked at Virtue “So tell us where is he hiding?”
Virtue used one jeweled arm to point out a spot to the map opened on Twilights desk at the other end of the room. “In a world above this one, the Ascended, the second plane of Elysiia that is where we will find Trumpeter.”
Twilight looked over the point on the map that Virtue pointed at, he pointed at the gardens of Canterlot. “Why?” Rarity looked at the map “Why would we find Elysiia in the Canterlot gardens?”
Twilight perked her head up in a sudden realization “If Elysiia is the opposite of Tartarus which is the demons world, then logically the entrance to it would be in the opposite of the entrance to Tartarus!” Rarity suddenly saw the link,
“The Everfree forest, to the gardens of Canterlot.”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac sidled up and nodded at the spot on the map. “But that means we have to get to Canterlot first.”
Twilight sighed “Eeyup.”
Shining Armor stood in the center of a group of farmers, builders, and other workers. Beside him Applejack and her demon were riling up the crowd. “The Princess doesn’t want to help us!” she shouted, “Princess Celestia has shut off Canterlot from the rest of Equestria, she stays there with the nobles and upper-class and she refuses to help us in our time of need.” Voices decried the Princess, they screamed of rebellion and the destruction of Canterlot.
Shining Armor cleared his throat, drawing all eyes to him. “We have reached an impasse,” he began, “the royal sisters of Canterlot have abandoned us.”
“What about Princess Cadence?” voices called out, “can she be trusted?”
“My wife was helping me with my first plan, to try and gather the elements in Ponyville to convince Celestia, but it has come to my attention that this plan will not work.” He cleared his throat, “the problem is that the sisters had hidden the existence of demons from all of us, because Celestia herself is a demon tamer.” The crowd began to yell, shouting down the names of Celestia and Luna. “It is because of this, that I, and the leaders of the Pegasus and Earth pony divisions of the Royal Guard will rule in their place.”
“Down with the sisters!” voices from the crowd proclaimed, “the guard will rule,” more chimed in. Soon the entire crowd was joined together in denouncing the princesses.
Shining Armor smiled, the rebellion had begun.
Applebloom clenched her jaw as Sweetie Bell punched her. For such a sweet little unicorn she packed a decent right hook when she needed it. “How could you?” she screamed, “Why her?”
“Because I’m tired of being taken advantage of,” Applebloom responded dryly. “The Apple family is constantly the victims of all kinds of stuff.” She pointed to the map of Ponyville on the clubhouse wall, “do you girls know why we only sell to Ponyville, or why we only sell outside of Ponyville during certain times of the year?” Scootaloo, now holding back a blood-crazed Sweetie Bell, shook her head. “I asked Applejack once, she told me that ponies would charge us something called ‘export fees’ cause they wanted to make money off of our hard work.”
“What does this have to do with the bastard who almost killed my sister?” Sweetie asked through clenched teeth.
“Sweetie! What does ‘bastard’ mean?” Scootaloo asked sheepishly.
Sweetie shrugged “I don’t know, I’ve heard Rarity call a few of her boyfriends that though.”
“Like I was saying,” Applebloom interrupted, “Trixie wants to win this thing too, she wants to create a world where the strong, those who everypony depends on for example, are treated like they should.” Sweetie was still seething, and if it weren’t for Scootaloo holding her back she probably would have busted Applebloom’s head by now. “Think about it, what about Flim and Flam, they preyed on my sister’s kindness, and tried to kick us out of town!” Applebloom screamed, “or what about Diamond Tiara, bullying me, insulting me, all because I’m a blank flank; but I have the power, not just my demon, the Apple family provides most of the food supply for the town, what if I just refused to sell to her family?”
“Applebloom, that’s going a bit far dontcha think?” Scootaloo asked sheepishly.
“Why? Why is it ‘too far’ I’m the one with the power here! I’ll inherit the farm someday!”
“You’re just as evil as she is,” Sweetie Bell said quietly.
“What?” Applebloom asked.
“I said,” Sweetie Bell said slowly, as she wrenched herself from Scootaloo’s grasp, “You Are Just As Evil…” that was as far as she got before Applebloom jumped her. The two started to punch and kick each other; Sweetie Bell started the fight by biting Applebloom at the tip of her ear. Applebloom countered with a swift kick to the midsection, unfortunately causing Sweetie Bell to bite harder. A tearing noise softly sounded off, followed by a horrifying deep-throated scream of agony. In response to the injury of their respective summoner, both Jack Frost and Black Frost popped out of their containment spells.
“Sweetie Bell!” Scootaloo shouted.
“You...!” Applebloom screamed back through tears.
“Just go,” Sweetie Bell muttered, “consider this the end of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Black Frost stood at the ready, a fireball forming in one hand, and a large icicle in the other. “Don’t,” Applebloom stammered out. Black Frost still stood at the ready, “I mean it,” Applebloom muttered softly, “Black Frost, listen to me, we’re leaving.”
“I could easily defeat this Tamer, just give me one attack…”
“No,” Applebloom responded, “fighting her now wouldn’t be fair.”
“What?” Sweetie screamed, “Jack Frost, attack.” Jack Frost launched an icicle at Black Frost, only for the icicle to be absorbed into Black’s stomach. The bigger frost then summoned a fireball and launched it at the smaller snowman, instantly disintegrating it. The smoking remains of the demon retreated into the containment spell on Sweetie’s hoof.
Black Frost picked up his master in his hands and began carrying her out of the clubhouse; Applebloom shouted back, “Now we can consider this the end of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Getting to Canterlot was going to enough of a problem for Twilight and friends; the getting out part was going to be near impossible. The lavender unicorn had been staring at the map of Canterlot that Virtue had used, searching for the easiest way to the gardens, or more importantly, how to get back out. Best case scenario, they would be getting out with Trumpeter in tow, and would be able to fight their way out, but that was assuming that nopony noticed them going in, and therefore Celestia and her guards wouldn’t be waiting for them when they got out.
“You’re worrying over nothing,” Virtue said, “You won’t be where she focuses her attention.”
“Why do say that?” questioned Twilight.
“She is a previous winner, throughout the history of the Shin Megami Tensei, on many of the worlds that the battle has occurred, the previous winners have almost never won a second time. She will most likely make all of the same mistakes of the other winners, she will lock herself away, hoping that the other Praetors will defeat one another until few are left.”
“But she has the royal guard as well, she could send them after us!”
“It depends on how many ponies that she knows that have demons, considering the circumstances, I would assume that number is very few.”
Twilight continued to stare at the map, and the gardens that lay in the center. She somehow needed to reach that, despite Celestia, and more than likely Luna, being in the castle and armed with much better demons than her. She continued to mull over entry points in her head until Virtue again interrupted her. “Perhaps you could have one of your friends be a decoy, draw her attention while we go and get Trumpeter.”
Twilight shook her head furiously, “No, I’ll never abandon my friends, we’re in this together. Besides, they’ll probably be killed if I leave them alone with Celestia.” Twilight stopped, the gears in her head turning. “But, if I were a previous winner, with friends with higher level demons, than the idea of using them as a way of drawing attention away from me…”
“Or trying to get the public on your side…”
The two’s internal back and forth was interrupted by screams and shouts from outside. Twilight ran outside, running into Big Macintosh and Rarity, running away from changelings.
The changelings wings filled the air with a buzzing noise, joined by the screams of terrified ponies running away from the insect-like creatures. The panic of the ponies permeated the atmosphere, as well as a cloud of smoke billowing from the town square.
“What’s going on?” Twilight screamed.
“Changelings, what does it look like?” Rarity screamed back.
“Yeah, but then why is the Town Hall on fire?” the lavender unicorn shot back.
“I don’t know? Why do you...” Rarity’s voice trailed off. “No.”
“Yes, I think that the changelings are being led by a Tamer.”
“Perhaps a Tamer conscripted by your Princess, in order to instigate public distrust in Tamers.” Virtue chimed in, “we should approach with caution, considering that she may have been given powerful demons in order to combat other Tamers.”
Big Macintosh summoned Fuu-Ki forth and started to head towards the Town Hall. “Don’t matter, we can’t let some demons walk all over this place.” Rarity swiftly joined him in summoning Kikuri-Hime and heading towards the Town Hall, forcing Twilight and Virtue along for the ride. The trio managed to make it to the Town Hall where Chrysalis was waiting for them. By her side were two demons, both dressed in revealing black leather, and sporting bat wings and a long ropey tail. The one on the left was a man, and the one on the right was a woman.
“Ah, I see that the wedding crasher has found herself a demon to help her interfere with my plans,” Chrysalis mocked, “then again leave it to Celestia’s prized student to get wrapped up in the Shin Megami Tensei within days of its beginning.”
Twilight stepped forward, “let me ask you something Chrysalis.”
“Why?” the Changeling Queen mused.
“Are you working with Celestia?” the question caused murmurs among the crowd of ponies and changelings. Chrysalis was taken aback, but started laughing maniacally. Twilight’s face fell, “I suppose... that that’s a yes.”
“Well this makes things more fun, I was just supposed to terrorize Ponyville here for a bit, but if you’re a threat than I suppose that I can convince Celestia that killing you was necessary.” The two demons on Chrysalis’ sides stood at the ready, “Incubus” she spoke to the one on the left, “Succubus” to the one on the right, “burn these ponies to ash.”
Succubus threw a ball of flame at Virtue, which landed in his center. The crystal demon fired back a large bolt of lightning at Succubus, managing to zap her. Incubus also charged a fireball and fired it towards Virtue, only for Big Macintosh to jump in front of it, getting blasted to the ground. Incubus charged another blast, but was interrupted by Fuu-Ki who smashed him over the head with his club.
Rarity pointed towards Big Macintosh, ordering Kikuri-Hime to heal him. The healing light of the demon washed over Big Macintosh, repairing the burnt skin, and regrowing the singed hair. Virtue attempted to launch another lightning bolt at Succubus, who counted with another blast of fire.
Fuu-Ki continued fighting with Incubus, blocking the fire demon’s attacks with gusts of wind. Big Macintosh rushed forward at Chrysalis, only for Incubus to adjust his aim and send a fireball at the red earth pony. The fireball slammed into Big Macintosh, sending him skidding to the side. Incubus readjusted his focus to Big Mac’s demon, but too late. Fuu-Ki shot a gale of wind at Incubus knocking him back into the Town Hall. The silvery demon charged at the Incubus slamming his club into the leather-clad demon’s stomach, and prying him off of the wall and throwing him to the ground below, kicking off the side of the building Fuu-Ki somersaulted through the air and slammed his club down on Incubus’ face, annihilating him.
Chrysalis growled and charged at Twilight, “our demons may be evenly matched, but I’m still better than you!” The Changeling Queen swiveled around and slammed Twilight in the face with her hooves, sending the unicorn reeling back. Virtue charged another bolt of lightning and shot it at Chrysalis, only for Succubus to dash in front and get hit by the blast. The leather-clad demon charged another fireball to launch at Virtue and fired. But the healing light from Kikuri-Hime engulfed Virtue first, allowing him to shake off the fiery blast. The crystalline demon charged another bolt of lightning and fire it towards Succubus, finishing her off.
Chrysalis stared at her hooves, dumbfounded. Both of her containment spells glowed a bright red, indicating the defeat of both of demons. She dumbly stared at Twilight, who now stood over her. The Changeling Queen began to prime her horn, but dispelled the magic, lying back on the grass, a single tear slowly making its way down her face.
“You must kill her,” Virtue remarked, “she works for...”
“I know,” Twilight quickly muttered, “but it-its difficult.” The lavender unicorn looked at Chrysalis, who lay perfectly still on the grass, only her chest moving up and down indicating any sign of life. “I’ve never killed, never even thought about killing, I-I’m scared.”
“If one wishes to reshape the world,” Virtue reassured, “than one must be willing to sacrifice, one must sacrifice everything that makes them normal.”
Twilight swallowed her fear, charged her horn and stood over Chrysalis. Changelings in the area started to move towards their fallen master, before backing off and running out of the town. “Why?” Twilight muttered.
“Because I lost,” Chrysalis spoke, trying to hold the tears in her throat back. “It would be unfair of me to use my position as Queen to live another day, my life is in your hooves Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight moved her horn, pulsing with magic, further towards Chrysalis before unleashing the spell. A bolt of dark energy arced from Twilight’s horn and blasted into Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen screeched and clutched her sides in pain, before soon going silent. The containment spells on her hooves disappeared, and Twilight’s first battle was won.