//------------------------------// // Sharing Information // Story: CCC-Back Home Again // by Fresnor //------------------------------// It was odd being at a Pinkie Party without Pinkie Pie being around, but Surprise did do a pretty good job making up for it considering it was her first party she ever threw. Twilight was actually enjoying herself as much as she could, though I could see a hint of melancholy in her eyes when she thought I wasn’t paying attention. Still the day had to end eventually and after walking back to her palace we agreed to meet up the next morning at my home. Once I got home I checked on the progress of Butch and Cassidy before warning them of the impending visit before heading to bed myself. The next morning I woke up feeling sick, but I chalked it up to my body not being use to the sugary food that I hadn’t had in centuries. I noticed the Rose was missing as I prepared for the day as well, though it wasn’t uncommon of her considering her personality. I just hoped that whatever she was doing she wasn’t causing any major problems for the ponies. Once I finished my morning preparations I made my way downstairs where I found breakfast waiting for me while I thought about what was needed for the day. I decided to start with investigating my old garden to see if there is anything left of it before Twilight arrives. Moving around to the back of the manor I take a good look at the Everfree Forest to find that it is literally wall of trees like when I first found it. The only difference was that it had advanced so much as well as the fact that I had new tools to deal with it. Instead of cutting them down like I used to do I use my magic to bend the trees out of my way to create a path through. It didn’t take much effort as it was only the outer ring that formed a wall around the forest so I was able to pass unobstructed once I remove that. I found my old garden fact enough, and was surprised to find it in a pretty decent condition still as the forest had grown around it instead of through it. Looking around I noticed that many of the trees and bushes I had planted had flourished in my absence. Snagging a cherry-apple from its tree as a snack I examined the area to identify this strange phenomenon. “Huh, I forgot about the gems I planted around this place to protect it from weeds and pests. I guess they counted the Everfree was one of those forcing it grow around it.” I poked at the ground above one of said gems for a moment before heading back to the manor, placing a protective spell on the new path as a precaution. As I came around the manor I noticed a purple figure in the distance that looked to be heading this way. Waiting by the front door I soon saw that it was Twilight, but I didn’t expect the second figure of Rose following close behind her. “You look like you didn’t get much rest last night. Did something happen that I should know about?” I ask when Twilight is close enough for me to see her condition. She sighs as she gestures towards Rose and I look over to see Aurora asleep on her back. “We were able to get some information out of that changeling last night which had to be sent to Luna and Cadence up at the front. It turns out our magical messages are no longer secure so she was sent to deliver it and get a status report from the front. It turns out that we had been getting false information about much of what was going on and things are even worse than we thought. I don’t think anypony but Aurora could have gotten there and back as fast as she did, and she even outflew her Wonderbolt escorts on the way back, taking out a dozen griffons with a sonic rainboom as she raced to get the message back.” I look at Aurora in surprise when I notice she had earned her cutie mark sometime during the last day, a letter with a rainbow colored Wonderbolt emblem holding it shut. Twilight wasn’t done talking just yet though. “Things are really bad now, and I mean really bad. I don’t think anypony realizes how close we are to losing this war because of that. We thought we had decades before Canterlot would be threatened, but we may not even last a year. Luna and Cadence are even now preparing for one last ditch defense for the end of this coming winter in Manehatten. If they fail there then Cloudsdale and Canterlot are the only major cities that we have left.” I can see Twilight shaking a bit in fear at all of this. “While the rest of my guards are trying to get any more information I came to let you know about this. Some reason Aurora knew your timberwolf there and asked her to take her home though I didn’t know she was living out here. I don’t even know why your timberwolf was in the library in the first place with all those Daring Do books even. Nothing makes sense anymore and I just don’t know what to do.” Twilight breaks down crying in front of me and I motion for Rose to bring Aurora inside as I stay with her. I try to think about what I can do or say to cheer her up, but little comes to mind until I remember something that Discord was doing before I left. Searching through the field produced by the stone below the manor I found something that felt out of place at the edge of it opposite Ponyville. “Come on Twilight, there’s something that you need to see that has been waiting for too long now.” It takes a moment, but I manage to coax her to her hooves and, with her leaning against me, walk her towards the abnormality. We walk in silence as I think about what she must be going through as I myself had just gone through it. I could feel the front that I had kept up the last day crack a bit as the pain started bubbling up once again but I was able to force it down for now for Twilight. Soon we enter reach what appear to be a doorway just sitting inside the edge of the Everfree which was the source of the disturbance. Twilight looks at me oddly as I open the door revealing a garden full of trees and flowers with a path through it all. I can hear Twilight muttering ‘impossible’ as we go through the door as it closes behind us. “Welcome to the Friendship Memorial as created by Discord. After Fluttershy’s death hit him so hard he was lost and alone so I suggested that he create this place, not just for himself but for everyone that was touched by them.” We stop in front of a group of statues clustered close together in a hug of the five long dead Elements of Harmony. I wasn’t sure what Discord did, but it actually felt like the five were really there and the statues even looked real as well. Glancing over I could see Twilight raise a hoof towards the statues before she moved forward and threw herself into the open space between them all. As she burst into tears again I noticed that the statues really looked as if they were hugging her back as well. I moved away towards a nearby tree to give her some time alone as I became lost in my own memories. On a whim I started shaping the tree with my magic with no real goal in mind, just going by instinct. It wasn’t until I finished and looked it over that I realize that I had turned the tree into a wooden statue of my husband, Prince Okami. I sat and stared at the statue for a long time and I didn’t even notice the tears crawling down my face at first, but when I finally did it was far too late to hold back the floodgates. Everything that had happened came flooding back to me in that moment as I collapsed to the ground in front of the statue. From the shadows nearly wiping out my kind, to the deaths of my husband and mother-in-law it was all too much. What made it even worse was that I had the tools to prevent it all from happening, but chose to follow their judgments despite my instincts telling me otherwise. To top it all off the burden for the survival of the remainder of the kingdom was all on me despite never wanting this type of power or responsibility. I wasn’t sure how long I was there, I wasn’t even sure if time even had any meaning in this place, But sometime during my breakdown Twilight had joined me. She had one of her bandaged wings over my back even though I could tell that she was in pain from moving it. We didn’t say anything and just laid there in silence sharing our time of weakness with each other. Twilight must have been examining the statue as her first question was about it. “Who was he?” I just sit and stare at the statue for a bit longer, making no move to wipe the tears away which had slowed considerably. Twilight started to shuffle a bit uncomfortably as if wondering if she should have said anything before I answered. “He was my husband, and probably the best thing to ever happen to me after I found the rest of my kind. It hasn’t even been a week since I lost him to the war we were involved in, a war that we lost.” Twilight gasps at this revelation but says nothing, either from shock or from not knowing what to say. “To find that I was heading into another war zone after escaping from another one, and to find that this one may be ending in the same way, it’s just so hard to keep going. The only thing keeping me going now is the fact that there are many beings that are relying on me to keep them safe.” Twilight looks at me oddly for a moment before she interrupts. “But why you? Why aren’t any of the nobles or government leaders of that kingdom doing anything?” I look up at the statue again, trying to draw some measure of strength from it before I continue. “That’s because there is no one else Twilight. My husband’s name was Okami, prince of New Sionnach and the son of the rulers Lord Inari and Lady Ogitsu. The kingdom was located in a dimension between dimensions and was powered by not only the magic but also the life force of the Lord and Lady. So if they somehow managed to survive they are still lost to us as they can never return to this world. And with most of the nobles lost that leaves me as the only one left to lead as princess of New Sionnach through my marriage with the prince.” Twilight stayed silent, and when I glanced over I could see a look of shock on her face at the revelation. “What makes it worse is that I actually had the power to prevent it all from happening, yet because of ancient prejudices and being overly cautious I wasn’t allowed to do anything. I couldn’t even do anything except heal the injured that managed to make it back from the front lines of the war, while nobody was even trying to figure out what we were fighting. I can’t help thinking that if I had just pushed a little harder in getting them to listen, or even just ignored their orders completely and did my own thing then maybe I could have saved them.” I am greeted by more silence until Twilight finally figures out a response though she sounds confused. “But if you are the only one left, then why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with them right now?” I sigh as I wasn’t sure how she would react to this next bit of news. “It’s because we are coming back to claim our old home land, what used to be the Kingdom of Sionnach and is now the Everfree Forest.” I look towards Twilight to see her jaw drop open in shock. “You see not only did I find my kind when I left, but I actually found answers to so many questions. Ponies could never really control the Everfree because it was fighting them since it rejected them as its ruler. It was the reason why I was so comfortable when I was exploring it because it truly was my home even though I didn’t know it. I came ahead of the others so that things went smoothly here and that connections with our ancient allies could be opened yet again. I just hope Celestia listens to what I have to tell her though.” Twilight fidgets around a bit when I mention her fellow princess. “Why wouldn’t she listen to you though? She seemed to have gotten over whatever it was that happened and accepted you before.” I can only shake my head at Twilight, though I’m glad to see she is at least asking instead of speaking as if Celestia could do no wrong like she used to. “Except that she never fully accepted me, Twilight, she just tolerated my presence. There was always something in the back of her eyes that made me feel as if she was constantly judging me. Yet I now know why as I found the answer to that as well. I was always confused as to why she was like that and yet Luna accepted me completely even though they both were alive during the split.” I take a moment, thinking about all that I learned as well as the one thing that I didn’t want to use but felt as if I might be forced to. “And I don’t even need to do this as we are so few now that we could have just moved into the Everfree and nobody would have known. Not only that, but there was already an army loyal to us waiting for our return. It’s only because of my friendship with you all and an ancient pact that I am here for the sake of my subjects.” Twilight looks a bit frightened for a moment at my declaration, but she also looks a bit curious. “Ancient pact? I never heard anything about that before, though until I met you I had never even known of your kind in the first place. But if you had been gone so long how can it be that there is an army already here?” I actually smirk a bit at I would have thought Twilight would have figured this part out by now. “Twilight, you’ve seen Rose and a little of what she can do. She’s an alpha timberwolf and I’ve learned long ago that they can still control their corrupted cousins from the Everfree Forest. I have no idea how many of them there are, but imagine what would happen if even five thousand timberwolves were to join up and attack somewhere.” Twilight’s fear is visible when she pictures this but I’m not done yet. “That’s not even the largest part of what was left behind when the kitsune nation ran. In new Sionnach there were a few million of us there, but now there is only two thousand confirmed. But the kitsune were not the only race that was part of Sionnach. Right now there are four thousand diamond dogs guarding the few that remain, as well as every single diamond dog clan that was left behind all those years ago.” Twilight jumps to her hooves in surprise at this as she had already told me how they were still neutral in this war. “You mean the reason why they haven’t joined the war is because they are still waiting for your kind to return? Which is happening right now? This is important news, I have to tell the other princesses right away and-“ I raise a paw to her mouth to stop her right there. “Calm down Twilight, if you rush around screaming the information the enemy will be ready for it, especially with the changelings helping them. I’ll be telling them personally so that I can sweep out any changelings so that at the most they only know of me.” Twilight stares at me before nodding as she gets what I’m saying. Now that my focus is shifting towards the war and what could possibly be the battle to decide everything I manage to bury my thoughts on the past once again. “Right now I think the most important thing we need to turn this war around is information. Catching the changelings out like this is the first step, but I need to know everything from armaments to what kind of magic both sides are using.” I pause as I look at Twilight’s bandaged wings. “And I think the first thing you need to tell me is what happened to get you so injured.” Twilight looks back and twitches her wings a little as she frowns. “That’s part of the problem with the war. They somehow managed to acquire a lot of forbidden magic and our first hint of it was when they attacked us with some kind of name based magic.” My eyes widen and I wince since I know a bit of how that magic works and I’ve found little good with it. “Celestia was attacked first and she barely managed to warn me in time at the cost of herself being heavily injured. I was able to protect myself from most of the spell but because I didn’t know what kind of spell it was some still leaked through. Cadence was also targeted but the shield around the Crystal Empire stopped it as far as we can tell. For some reason both Selene and Luna were ignored by the attack and we haven’t seen the spells use since then.” I think for a moment and a theory comes to mind. “I bet they were targeted as well but they failed to use the correct name. Normally you have to use the full name that the target is born with, but Luna isn’t the same as when she was born and nobody was there when Selene was born so her true name is unknown. Using naming magic is dangerous as well since if your target defends themselves, or the spell can’t find a target it causes a backlash.” Twilight’s eyes widen in understanding. “So they were attacked, but since the enemy used the wrong name then the spell backfired. That’s why they never tried again, it’s because they can’t anymore. We’ve always wondered but we just don’t have books anywhere on much of the magic they’ve been using since they are destroyed when found.” Twilight sounds a bit annoyed at the books being destroyed and I agree as destroying information rarely helps as once it is found it is nearly impossible to bury it again. I wave a paw for Twilight to continue with the explanations on what both sides have. “As for the other magic they have it’s quite an extensive list but the more worrying types are of the worst sort. They’ve been summoning up demons and undead as well as using blood magic to augment their army. But even worse than those though is the fact that they have managed to craft enchantments on nearly all their armor that stops all but the most powerful magic.” My ears perk up at the mention of enchantments as I had seen very few that I couldn’t pull apart. “How do the enchantments work? I may have some ideas there if it’s something I recognize.” Twilight looks hopeful when I say this and she enthusiastically explains. “We’ve found a few types, but the most common seems to involve them carving runes into the armor itself while the worst ones are gem based like what you’ve made.” I frown in disgust at it being something so simple and potentially dangerous if you knew what you were doing. “That’s it? I was actually hoping for something difficult for a moment. The easiest way to deal with them is to overload them all at once since they can’t be repaired easily, and if you put enough power behind it you can even injure the wearer from the feedback of the rune breaking. I’m surprised that you didn’t think about it yet since you’ve seen it happen before when you first found out about Selene’s true appearance.” Twilight’s jaw drops at this before she brings a hoof up to her face. “I do remember that now, but you never really explained much about what happened beyond you blowing up your lab.” I chuckle at the memory though I do get an idea on using it as a weapon to even the odds a bit while Twilight continues. “Anyways I’m not sure how much you know about how far our technology has come, but we’ve long since abandoned the spears and arrows for firearms.” I nod in understanding as I’ve seen some used before through some of the portals, though I never did find out why we never used them. “Right now our main problem is getting the powder and metal so that we can make the ammunition as we’ve lost so much ground. As of now the Crystal Empire is one of the few places that has access to any kind of mine with the materials we need.” I cock my head to the side as something sounds wrong with that. “Why aren’t you using magic to propel the bullets instead of a material that can easily be cut off?” Twilight just shakes her head at me. “We haven’t figured out a good way to get it to work so that non-unicorns can wield them as well.” I snort as this isn’t that big of a problem and in fact relatively simple. “What happened to all that research in the Crystal Empire? All that you need to do is either split the enchantment between two crystals or gems so that it fires of a burst of telekinesis propelling the bullet out, or use a plug in the crystal or gem so that when it is moved in and out it breaks and completes the enchantment doing the same thing. With this you can significantly reduce the weight required as you only need a small number of gems to swap between as they recharge and the bullets themselves are shrunk down.” Twilight is once again looking at me in shock before she starts rubbing her temples again. “I can’t believe I missed something so simple. We haven’t had any experts on enchantments in centuries and if we had your knowledge at the start of the war we might have been better off.” I look at Twilight and think back to how she always could see the big picture but often had trouble with the little things. “That always was one of your big flaws; you often would forget about the little things and focused on only what was in front of you. Kind of like with what happened with the Crystal Empire where you focused only on the faire but didn’t look into why the crystal heart was important. Rarity or Fluttershy were always the ones to notice the little things.” We both look a bit sad when I mention those two as things just didn’t feel right without them. In an effort to cheer Twilight up I lay a paw on her shoulder. “Don’t worry Twilight; I’m not going to let what happened in New Sionnach happen here. Now that nobody is holding me back I’m going to use everything at my disposal to make sure Equestria doesn’t lose this war.” I manage to get a small smile and a nod out of her and I’m about to say something else when I notice the paths behind the statue of the five other Elements of Harmony. “Hold on a second Twilight. You said that you hadn’t seen Discord since I left, yet when I left he was working on this place. Could it be that he may have left something here?” Twilight looks at me curiously before her eyes widen and she leaps to her hooves. “If you’re right then we could really turn things around as he could probably take on that army by himself if he had to. But where would he put something like that?” I look at the paths and notice that they each line up with one of the stone ponies. Taking a guess I move towards the one behind Fluttershy, since she really was the one closest to him, as Twilight follows. At the end of the path we find another statue of Fluttershy and what appears to be a shrine to her as well as a statue of Discord curled around her statue. Looking around I could see the care that Discord put into this place as it was decorated in a way that Fluttershy herself would have decorated. I hear a yell of frustration from Twilight and turn to find her holding a note the she appeared to have found on the Discord statue. Moving up next to her I take a look at the note to see what was written on it. “Dear Equestria. Out playing with space monkeys. Will return when chaos is needed again. Discord.”