Of Gods and Demons

by ThePonyBros

Pre-Rise: A Near Miss

Candelight was in a bad mood, but disguised it well under a show of aggressive patience.

As librarian, Candlelight was king of a small kingdom. A very, very small kingdom. He’d heard stories of the old country, when ponies had permanent land and farms. When buildings were made of stone and bricks. When there were books.

But they didn’t live in that world anymore. When the wendigos drove ponykind out, twenty years ago, the three tribes had been optimistic about their rich, new home. But what they didn’t understand was war.

The spirits had been fighting the same conflicts for longer than any mortal could guess. The violent energies that they released were exactly what gave the land such bounties. And kept their new neighbors, the ponies, from taking advantage of the rich soil.

There were no farms. There were no towns. When the strict racial ideas of the old ways fell apart, the tribes melted together. New leaders usurped the old, incompetent ones. And the pony nation split again.

And then the Nemesis was discovered: one of the most powerful spirits, a Variance that had been leading a slave army across the land, conquering and then abandoning, for thousands of years. Ponies were new to the cycle of devastation; they needed to be able to uproot their lives at a moments notice.

And that made for terrible libraries. Books were too heavy to carry for any distance, so smaller scrolls were much preferred. Scrolls that carried much less in the way of words.

As the only full-time librarian, Candlelight was expected to carry most of them on his back. As well as everything he owned. Attacks happened, and ponies could not own more than they could carry. Everything that was left behind was taken or burned to ashes by the Nemesis and her slaves.

Knowledge was the most valuable thing in existence. It was there, immutable, whether you knew it or not. Candlelight wanted a cathedral, but all he had was two rough-cut yew shelves that would be emptied and left behind at the first sign of trouble, inside a pitiful tent that barely kept out the rain.

It ate away at him. He dreamed of books.

“Hi. Is this the library?”

Candlelight snapped out of his daydreams. “Ah, yes, I suppose it is. Or what passes for one.”

The young mare blinked at one of the shelves. Her coat was the color of a campfire burning low. “Not much, is there?”

“I, yeah. Um. Are you new here?”

She blinked, then smiled. “How’d you know?”

“There’s only a few hundred here. I know pretty much everyone. Well, everyone who reads.” Everyone who I care to meet, he thought but didn’t say.

“Do you have anything worth reading?” The mare asked. “Stories? History?”

“Not really, no.” Candlelight sighed. “Mostly manuals and practical nature scrolls. Which plants aren’t poisonous, stuff like that.”

“Really?” The young mare looked as disappointed as Candlelight felt. “What about Red Roarer? Anything by him?”

“No.”

“How about the classics of Grenwallis? The griffin?”

“Nope.”

Her jaw hung. “You have to have the Sun Dancer trilogy, though.”

Candelight shook his head. “There aren’t enough hooves to spare. I would assume you’re here to help with the whole sun and moon situation, but we’re pretty far from the neutral zone, this year.”

“Yeah. And I can lend a hoof, in terms of general labor,” Her eyes lit up with excitement. “But I’m actually a weather pony.”

“How so?” Candlelight raised an eyebrow.

“Well, magic, of course.” She giggled.

“Well, yeah,” Candlelight coughed out a chuckle, despite himself. “But, I mean, aren’t pegasi the ones who do the weather?”

“In the short term, yeah. But I’m more of a long-term pony. I play with the weather system as a whole. I’ve turned away storms. And I can calm down a tornado before it becomes a tornado.” The mare looked exceeding proud. Then she turned and showed her flank. “See?”

Her cutie mark was two lightning bolts flanking a cloud.

“My mom’s a pegasus. She thinks my job is hilarious.”

“I’ll bet,” Candlelight laughed for the first time that day. “I’m sorry that I can’t help you more. We don’t have enough ponies helping. We can barely carry the stock we have.”

“Nah, it’s alright.” She tried to smile and failed. “It’s just, I moved from the High Rock area. I’m used to a bigger library.”

“High Rock?” Candlelight beamed. “I used to live there. I grew up on the South Isles, but High Rock is where I lived on my own for the first time.”

“Really? That’s awesome.” She said politely. She didn’t hide her emotions well—she was still depressed by the selection.

“Yeah. We all went hungry a few nights, but there was always something to read.”

“I remember,” She said, pausing. “Is it worth it? The trade off?”

Candlelight’s nostrils flared. “I think it’s just stupid that we have to choose at all. Especially at the only permanent settlement. You think they would have time for both.”

The mare nodded. “Well, I should go. But we should hang out sometime. Reminisce about the Rock, you know?”

“Yeah, we should do that,” Candlelight agreed before really thinking about what the question meant. “I get off at seven. How about then?”

“Sounds good. I’ll pop back again at a quarter till.” She smiled, and headed for the exit.

Something seemed off.

“Wait! What’s your name?”
***

“So, yeah. Her name’s Sunbeam. I think we’re going on a date-shaped-thingy. Maybe.”

“Ha!” Riot laughed. “I always knew you had it in ya, buddy. When is that happening?”

Candlelight grinned. “About an hour.”

“Not much time to prepare, then.” Night Riot gave Candlelight a firm look. The uniform made it look much more convincing. “We’re going to need one hell of a montage, my friend. I should have trained you a long time ago.”

“What? I think I know what I’m doing!”

Riot scoffed playfully. “No, I don’t know. When was the last time? That mare from out west, right? What was that, five years ago?”

“Two years,” Candlelight corrected, grimacing. “Okay, maybe I could use a few pointers.”

“Great. We’ll start at the beginning. When a stallion loves a mare very, very much, they—”

“I don’t need that!” Candlelight spurted. “And I know the platitudes, Riot. ‘Be yourself’, and all that junk. I just need—”

“What? No, no, ‘light. That’s awful advice. What you need to do is be somepony else!”

“Thanks. That instills so much confidence.”

“Okay, that sounded bad. I mean, be the best you. Be a good representation of who you really are. You can show her the warts later.”

“You’re right. Yeah. My comb is at home.” Candlelight started bringing heavily. “Oh, no. My comb is at home. I haven’t washed my mane in two days! And my teeth are—”

Night Riot smacked Candlelight lightly in the mouth, and looked like he was having far too much fun doing it. “Get a hold of yourself! You’ll be fine! We know she’s got low standards, anyway.”

“You haven’t met her. She’s new. How could you possibly know that she has low standards?”

Riot just grinned until Candlelight understood. “Hey!”

The big earth pony laughed. “Sorry, sorry.” He clapped a hoof on Candlelight’s shoulder. “You’ll do fine, good buddy. And if you don’t, I swear, I will despise her for it. You don’t even have to tell me why.”

It was a rare friend who declared that your enemies were theirs. Candlelight smiled.

Author's Note:

Thursdays sound good. We'll try to get a chapter out every thursday.