My Little Pony: Friendship is Fate

by Kujo Blaze

Ask about the serious stuff.

“……” I’m more interested in why Rarity is still here. “Then I want to hear about the serious matter. I want to know why you stayed here.”

“…All right. Then I’ll ask for your conclusion first.”

“…?” …What is it? It seemed for a second like Rarity was disappointed…

“Then I’ll be direct about it. What are you planning to do from now on?” She asks directly the one question I don’t want to be asked. …No, that’s not it. It’s not that I don’t want her to ask me, but I haven’t made my mind up yet. I’m the one who wants to ask, what do I do now.

“…Honestly, I don’t know. You say I should fight for the Harmony Grail, but I’ve never been in a fight between mages. First of all, I…” I want to try to avoid killing ponies, and most of all… “I’m not interested in something mysterious like the Harmony Grail. I’m not too sure about risking my life for something I don’t want.”

“I knew you’d say that. You’ll be killed by your Servant if you say something like that.”

“Wha… Why would it!?”

“Because the Servant’s goal is also the Harmony Grail. They can be summoned by the Masters because the condition on their summoning is that they obtain the Harmony Grail. The most important thing for a Servant is to obtain the Harmony Grail. They obey their Master and risk their life for their Master, because they have a chance of obtaining the Harmony Grail. So just try saying that you don’t want the Harmony Grail. You can’t complain even if they kill you and call you a betrayer.”

“…What is that? That’s weird, because Servants are what the Master summons, right? So…”

“Do you think a Servant would obey a pony for no reward? The Harmony Grail grants the wish of whoever obtains it. The Servant of the Master who obtains it is no exception. Even the Servants have their own wishes. That is why they respond to the otherwise impossible summoning. It’s not that the Masters are summoning the Servants to obtain the Harmony Grail. The Servants are answering the Masters’ call because they can obtain the Harmony Grail.” Servants have their own desires…? Then, does that mean Saber has a wish she wants the Harmony Grail to grant? “That’s why the Servants try to eliminate other Servants even without orders from their Masters. Only one can obtain the Harmony Grail. They cannot accept other Masters obtaining the Harmony Grail. Unlike their Masters, they don’t have the power to take away the Command Spells. So the only way they can disarm other Masters is to kill them. So even if the Master has no intention of fighting, battle is inevitable. A master who is attacked by a Servant must fight it off with their own Servant. You heard enough from Blue to know that this is the nature of the Harmony Grail War, right?”

“Yeah, he told me that last night. But…” That means allowing your Servant to try to kill other Servants. I thought it would be over if I reached a compromise with other Masters, but if the Servants are summoned to obtain the Harmony Grail and if it is true that they will not give it up, then a battle between the Servants is inevitable. …Then… The mare that fought to protect me is also ready to kill or be killed to obtain the Harmony Grail? “…That’s awful. I don’t know about this heroic spirit thing, but Saber is pony. She was bleeding badly yesterday too.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that part. There’s no life or death for the Servants. Even if Servants are eliminated, they just go back to where they belong. Heroic spirits are a phenomenon. They can’t be killed. The only ones that can be killed during a fight are the Masters.”

“No, but still…” Even if it’s a temporary death… There’s still the fact that something pony-shaped has disappeared from this world.

“What? Are you saying it’s murder? Are you still carrying such a sense of justice even though you’re a mage?” Her comment is only natural. As a mage, death is always right beside me. I understand it and I’m already prepared for that. But still… I’m not strong enough to judge ponies’ deaths as good or bad.

“…Of course. I won’t participate in a fight to the death.”

“Oh? So you’re just going to wait for the others to kill you? You’re ceding the victory to other Masters?”

“That’s not it. The point is to survive to the end, right? I don’t have any intention of killing others, but I’ll have no mercy in a fight to protect myself. …If the opponent is out to kill me, they won’t complain if they are killed in return, right?”

“Oh, so you’ll be staying on the defensive. Then you’ll just be observing what other Masters are doing, right? So even if somepony like yesterday goes around killing everypony, you’re going to ignore it?” Somepony like yesterday…? She must mean that inpony monster. Superpony strength that allows the destruction of a house or two with a single blow… …Certainly, if that thing wished, this town could be in ruins in just one night. And on top of that, the problem is that the Servants are normally in spirit form. Ponies can’t see those in spirit form. But since the servants can affect the real world as spirits, you could call them the most powerful weapon. With the technology we have now, there are no weapons that can affect a spiritual being. Our attacks are useless against them, and their attacks can damage us. It’s not just a one-sided game. Murder by a Servant is like a natural death for normal ponies. Death caused by an invisible killer will just be treated as accidental death or suicide.

“What is that? Servants… no, Masters and Servants don’t just attack other Masters? Other ponies have nothing to do with them, right?”

“Yeah, I really wish that was the case. But if it were, you wouldn’t need a supervisor like Blue, would you? I should have said earlier. Servants are spirits. They are already complete, so they don’t grow. But magical energy used as fuel is different. The more magical energy they have available, the more they can use the powers they had in life. That part is the same as for us mages… do you understand?”

“I do. So they can use magic repeatedly, right?” You could say magical energy is the gunpowder to fill a gun, and the mage is the gun itself. The type of gun depends on the mage’s abilities: pistol, rifle, machinegun, shotgun… Using that metaphor, Servants are cannons. Using a large amount of gunpowder, they fire a large bullet.

“That’s right. Servants aren’t given their mana by nature. They act with the magical energy inside them. We Masters support them, so Servants can only use their powers using their own magical energy plus the magical energy of their Master. But that means an amateur Master like you would be no match for other Masters, right? So there’s a loophole… well, I guess you could call it an obvious answer. Servants can supplement their magical energy from other sources. Servants are spirits, so they can get nourishment from eating things that are like them.”

“…Hm?” Nourished by eating things that are like them…? “Things like them? You mean spirits? But what kind of spirits would they eat?”

“It’s a simple answer. Nature spirits obtain power from nature itself. So where do you think Servants, pony spirits, get their power from?”

“…Oh.” It is a simple answer. As we ponies eat vegetables, the pony spirits…

“Exactly. Usually, they replenish enough magical energy from their Master. But it’s obvious that one gets more magical energy from many ponies rather than just one pony, right? To put it bluntly, a weak Master makes his Servant eat ponies. Servants transform pony emotions and souls into magical energy. That is the most efficient way to make your Servant more powerful. There are many Masters who kill ponies as sacrifices for their Servant.”

“As sacrifices… so you’re saying that if a Master didn’t care about his methods, he would kill ponies to make his Servant stronger?”

“Yes. But I don’t think a smart Master would do such a thing. You see, even if Servants are powerful, there is a limit to their magical energy capacity. They can’t store magical energy over their capacity, so there is a limit how much they can kill and collect magical energy. The Association wouldn’t ignore you if you went around killing ponies, and most of all, other Masters might figure out your Servant’s abilities and identity of the Master as well. It is highly advantageous in the Harmony Grail War to keep your identity a secret, so a normal Master should be stingy about using their Servant.” …I see. Certainly, if nobody knows that you are a Master, there’s no danger of other Masters attacking you. Conversely, if you know who the other Masters are, you could definitely pull a surprise attack on them. By that theory, there won’t be many Masters that would have their Servants attack ponies and reveal their identity…

“…I’m glad. Then there’s no problem. That means Servants won’t indiscriminately attack ponies without orders from their Master.”

“Right. They are heroes, right? Somepony who would go out and kill ponies wouldn’t be called a hero in the first place… well, no, I can’t really say that for sure. There are many examples of ponies becoming heroes just because they were a mass murderer.” Rarity makes an ominous comment. As it seems to be her true feelings rather than just sarcasm, I guess Rarity is a realist. “Anyways, that’s what I wanted to confirm. Now you know what kind of beings Servants are, right? Masters aren’t the only ones trying to win the Harmony Grail War. As you’ve entered this battle, you have an obligation to command your Servant.” …An obligation to command my Servant. So I can’t allow my own Servant or other Servants to attack innocent ponies… “So, you understand your situation? Now, about your body. Do you remember what happened to you after that?”

“…No, no memory of anything, I…” I ran towards Saber and got my stomach blown away by Berserker. I lost consciousness then, and I don’t know anything about last night nor why I’m alive.

“…Heh, that’s what I thought. Before I continue, I’ll explain what happened.” With an unpleasant sigh, Rarity starts to describe what happened yesterday. It seems that Berserker left after I fell unconscious. She tells me that my body started to heal itself, and that it looked fine after about ten minutes. And she says she brought me here, since I didn’t regain my consciousness even when my wound had healed, and that’s where we are right now. “The important thing here is that you survived on your own. I did help you, but it was your own power that healed that wound. Don’t mistake that part.”

“It sounds like a lie… …Then, you didn’t heal it?”

“Of course not. I can’t do something like reviving a dying pony any more. Storm Whooves himself healed his own wounds.”

“…Hm.” What can I do, now that she said that? My stomach is certainly healed, but I have doubts about Rarity’s story. I can’t use healing magic, let alone revival magic.

“Then the cause must be the Servant. Your Servant must be really powerful, or something went wrong during the summoning. …Well, I think it’s both, but I think some kind of line formed between you two.”

“A line? You mean like the karmic line connecting a familiar and a mage?”

“Oh, so you have working knowledge of familiars? Then this should be easy to explain. In other words, Storm and Saber’s relationship is not a normal relationship like between a normal master and their familiar. It looks like Saber has natural healing powers, so some of that may be flowing into you. Normally, the mage’s power flows into the familiar, but in your case, the familiar’s power is flowing into you and helping you out.”

“…Hmmm. So, put simply, it’s like a river flowing upstream?”

“That’s a good way to put it. It is not naturally possible, but I bet Saber’s magical energy is so great that it can even change the flow of a river. That’s the only reason she is able to go against Berserker with her small size.”

“Not naturally possible… then is the relationship between you and archer that of a normal mage and familiar?”

“Yes. He doesn’t listen too much of what I say, but we do still have such a relationship. The connection between a Servant and a Master is like that of a gasoline and an engine. We provide the magical energy, and the Servant just uses it. …Well, I guess there have been some Masters who shared their physical bodies with their Servants to obtain fake immortality. Not dying until their Servants are dead, something like that… Hey, are you listening, Storm?”

“Huh…? Yeah, I’m listening. Then, are you saying most of the wounds on my body will heal even if I don’t do anything?”

“Using your Servant’s magical energy. I don’t know how, but I’m sure the cause is in Saber’s materialization. I know you haven’t learned the curse of self-healing.”

“Of course not. My father never taught me anything that difficult.”

“No, I mean that if that’s the case, I’ve nothing to worry about. Don’t worry about it, it has nothing to do with you.”

“…?” What is it? Rarity’s words are indirect and hard to follow.

“Oh well. Just don’t do anything too reckless. It’s good that you survived this time, but you won’t survive if you take that kind of a wound again. You shouldn’t get any optimistic hopes that you’ll survive any major wounds.”

“I understand. I feel bad about taking damage and having Saber helping me.”

“Idiot, that’s not the reason. I’m sure you’re not just using Saber’s magical energy to heal your wounds. …You’re definitely using something. I don’t know what it is… your life span, or your luck, or your savings account, but you’re definitely using something up.” Rarity gives a humph once again. I feel the same way, but…

“Rarity, doesn’t my savings account have nothing to do with this?”

“Of course it’s connected! Magic uses up your money, so it’s something that drains your money the more you use it! I won’t allow myself to be wrong!” Rarity Jewel erupts with the fires of personal grudges. It’s strange. The more I talk with her, the more I understand this is the real Rarity Jewel, and that the Rarity at school is just a mask she puts on. …No, it’s something I had realized already yesterday.

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Comments

[the other sans]

“It sounds like a lie… …Then, you didn’t heal it?”

Did you put this quotation mark too early?