The Other Half Of Me
There was silence in the Everfree Forest. A tall unicorn, his coat the dull grey of unpolished steel with eyes to match, paced slowly before a necromancer that busied itself cowering. “You mean to tell me three husks and your brother all failed?” the grey pony asked, his voice low and silky smooth. “They could not kill one fledging, barely blooded and hardly trained, and five mortals?”
“She fought like a madmare,” the necromancer protested. “She nearly killed herself destroying the last of the husks, with a smile on her face. How am I to fight that?”
The grey pony snorted impatiently. “By dying, if need be. I'd thought I'd taught you to fear failing me more than your own end?”
The necromancer shuddered despite the warm night air. “I thought it better to return to you and inform you of why the mortals survived. The fledgling was not the one who saved them.”
The grey pony quirked a curious eyebrow. “Oh? Is there another?”
“The Blind One,” the necromancer whispered. “As my brother left the forest, The Blind One appeared and tore the soul from him.”
The grey pony stopped pacing and stood still as death. “You made the right choice,” he said after a moment of silence. “This information is more valuable than any other service you could ever provide. You have earned my thanks, and a gift.”
The necromancer looked up, hideous anticipation in his eyes. The grey pony smiled, and with a single blurred motion drove his hoof through the necromancers skull. “Peace is the greatest gift I can provide,” the grey pony chuckled as he cleaned blood and viscera from himself with a flurry of magic.
“A waste,” a huge, resonant voice commented from the shadow of a tree. “Why kill him when he had done well?”
“It was a reward,” the grey pony answered, his tone utterly sincere. “All of us wait for death. Or have you come to enjoy eternity?”
There was a snort that sounded more like rocks being crushed as a titanic earth pony stepped forward to examine the necromancers remains, his massive frame easily dwarfing even the tall grey unicorn he stood near. “I can't remember her name,” he said, his voice a barely audible subterranian rumble. “My wife. I killed her before I learned to control myself. I think of her every day, and yet her name is lost to me. As is her face. I can't even recall if she was an earth pony or one of the other tribes. The day I die will be my happiest day in this world, and if I am for The Pit, then I will tear down that hell reach her in Elysium. I merely think his death could have been more profitably used.”
“The reward for work well done is more work?” the grey pony replied. “Rather defeats the point.”
Riese shrugged the mountains that passed for his shoulders. “That may be so,” he admitted, then he fell silent for a while. “The Blind One,” he muttered as he shook his head. “Even Death stands against us now?”
The grey pony smiled, a feral expression. “If he does, then I suppose it would be the right time.”
Riese's eyes widened in shock. “After six thousand years you would take that beast's bargain?”
“Oh yes, and with the power it earns us, we will tear this realm apart.”
Riese let out a discontented rumble, but he nodded. “Yes, General.”
Twilight was in a rare state. Alone, free of pain, and with very little that needed to be done. Celestia had arrived and asked to speak with Luna alone perhaps twenty minutes earlier, and so, she had decided to take this rare break to practice a skill she'd long since cast aside but that she believed may help her in coming days. Sitting calmly and with deathlike stillness, even taking advantage of her vampiric nature to stop her breathing, she focused on her heartbeat for over an hour, feeling it slowly receede until anypony who found her would have immediately thought her dead. It still beat, but only twice in the span of an hour.
It was a form of meditation she had never mastered, but had practiced during her younger years to aid her magical focus. Now, without the distraction of the majority of her bodily needs, she fell into a deep, mesmeric trance where all that existed to her was her thoughts.
'Hello,' she thought quietly. 'Are you still here?'
'Of course,' her mysterious advisor answered, his own accented voice equally quiet. 'There is no need for this sort of trance to speak with me, you know.'
Twilight calmly cast a spell, the magic flowing around her freely in Luna's style, and then she opened her eyes. They were dimly lit with violet light, and though she was blind to the mundane world, she could see every ebb and flow of power, magical or otherwise, that she cared to gaze upon in a gorgeous whirlpool of colours too varied to name. 'I need it to cast this spell,' she thought. 'I confined it to my vision, and I know you're behind me. I won't try to command you to show yourself, but I will ask.'
'Well,' the voice said, seemingly a little surprised. 'A student of Celestia's who knows to respect what she doesn't understand? How could I refuse such a rare mare's request?' A moment later, a starnge looking thing wandered into her field of view. It seemed, at first, to be a simple unicorn, but the sheer presence of the being made it clear that it was something far older than any mortal race, let alone a single mortal being. Twilight and the being locked eyes, and for a moment Twilight nearly lost her trance, staggered to the core by the depth and weight of the beings gaze, and the timeless power it conveyed. ”Here I am, young one,” the being spoke aloud, and the voice resonated within a deep part of her that she'd only vaguely been aware of before, and Twilight stared in utter shock.
“What was that?” she asked, no small amount of fear threatening her peaceful state. Any being that could be so deeply rooted within her without her explicit permission was a powerful, dangerous entity indeed, and she was not yet certain it was friendly.
”You,” the being replied, “the part of you that is not flesh, or mind, or even soul. Something older than any of those. Do you understand?”
“Nothing is that old,” Twilight answered, her voice calming again and she more firmly set the barriers that kept the world beyond her thoughts at bay. “Especially nothing inside of a mortal.”
”That's true,” the being answered with a gentle smile, ”but then few mortals have ever borne the weight of me or another of my kind. Only six, in fact, in all of eternity and creation.”
Twilight's blood froze, then sang with the realisation of who she was speaking with. Her trance crumbled, forgotten, but as the spell faded her Element remained. “You're alive?!” she practically screamed, leaping to her hooves in excitement. “I knew you had some level of awareness but nothing like this!”
“Alive?” her Element answered, and Twilight realized she could not longer feel the resonance within her. “For your purposes, I suppose that I am, but it would be more accurate to say that I am life. The embodiment of an aspect of the magic that created this realm. The other's are as well, but they have elected me to be the first to speak. The aeons have made them somewhat timid, I'm afraid.”
”Timid?” Twilight sputtered. “What the hay could make an Element of Harmony timid? You've got to be the single most powerful group of beings there is!”
“We are,” her Element answered, his voice deadly serious, “and as you use your own power, you will come to understand how terrible it is to be so great.” Twilight frowned in confusion, and her Element sighed. An instant later, the world had vanished, and Twilight was floating alone in a raging ocean of magical power under the control of a single, inexorable will. ”This is what I truly am, Twilight Sparkle,” her Element's voice thundered, the restrained fury buried in it's calm tone splitting her ear drums and tearing at her mind, leaving her whimpering and terrified beyond reason, the currents of power eddying around her tearing at the mundane parts of her being with a searing flame.
As quickly as the pain and terror came, it was gone, and now the same sea was placid and still, cooling her and rapidly piecing together her sanity. Then, she was back in her library, panting and afraid but whole and in possession of her wits. “Imagine what I could do with that power and that rage, little one,” her Element intoned seriously. “I have no desire to destroy, but if I should lose control, this entire reality would be dust beneath my hooves. Do you understand?”
Twilight jerkily nodded. “That's why you won't fight the necromancers,” she gasped. “It'd be like trying to squash an ant with a fireball. There'll be too much collateral damage.”
“Precisely, there is little we can do to in a battle that would not defeat the purpose of defending your world,” her Element confirmed with a mischievous smile. “We can do much to aid you in less direct means, however, as you have already seen, and I've hardly even begun to show you what we can accomplish together. You will never command me, but be assured, if it is in my power to see you to victory, it will be done.”
Twilight blinked. “Six,” she said quietly. “We can do it with six, if the circumstances are exactly right. You realized that the same time I did, and the implications.”
Her Element nodded. “It will be a hard road. You may die. Other Bearers may die. But it's a chance, perhaps the only one.”
“And if we fail?” Twilight asked quietly.
Her Element's face hardened and a shadow of terrible wrath and ruin filled its timeless eyes.
Twilight gulped. “Not an option. Got it. When do we start?”
“We start now,” her Element answered as it faded from view, 'by changing the circumstances. It's time you learned how things truly are.'
A spell matrix formed in Twilight's mind, and she fuelled it without even thinking before flashing away.
Celestia and Luna strode through the Royal Observatory's lower sections, their accustomed place for private discussions. The doors were sealed, it was remote, and it was a place filled with history old enough to make the twin Immortal sisters feel deeply at peace. It was the lone concession they had made to eternity, a strangely sacrificial spritual acceptance of the losses of endless life, the only ground sacred enough to the sisters to contain them when discussing anything as terrible as war. Even after Nightmare Moon's rampage, the Observatory had remained undamaged, and Celestia had personally transported the entire upper section of the tower that held it to the new capital of Canterlot.
"I haven't been here in a thousand years," Luna said with a small smile, gently running a wing down a stone carving and closing her eyes. "I'm glad it's been preserved."
"Nothing added, nothing removed," Celestia answered, her eyes a little vacant as she scanned the room until they settled on a small device made of intricately hammered gold. "Oh my," she whispered, "I'd forgotten about this. That lovely little pegasus made it for me.... three thousand years ago? Four?"
"Three thousand, eight hundred," Luna said. "She made mine from silver," she said, pointing to a similar looking device with a wing. "What was her name?"
Celestia shook her head sadly. "She was an orphan, she had none."
Luna sighed deeply. "What a waste, a mare like that forgotten. I doubt a single smith alive today could match her work."
Celestia ruffled a wing, and a single light flash of gold shone through. "I know they can't. She made this feather for me after I placed her in the Royal Smithy, it's still tradition for every smith to make one for me as their last work. They've all been beautiful, but there's an art that little pegasus had in her that won't be seen again."
"Why are we here, sister?" Luna asked. "It does my heart good to see this place again, but there must be a reason."
"War," Celestia muttered. "Seems the only reason we've ever come here."
Luna's expression became carefully guarded. "You have a plan?"
"Of course I do," Celestia said, raising a hoof to her chest in mock offense at the question. "I always have a plan."
"Out with it, then," Luna said impatiently. "Time is not on our side."
"First, let me ask you a question," Celestia said. "How has Twilight been? I haven't seen her lucid since her accident."
Luna flashed a defiant, devil-may-care grin. "Necromancers or none, that mare was worth breaking our laws. She's the perfect vampony, aggressive and confident and proud. The world has not seen her like in far too long, and she will be needed now."
Celestia nodded, but the news obviously made her unhappy. "For the best, I suppose, but I'll miss the civilised mare she was terribly."
"She can be perfectly civil," Luna retorted. "Do you remember them, sister?"
"Your old children? Celestia asked. "Of course. Brutes, every one."
Luna's grin only widened. "You would see the savagery and not the nobility. The pride and not the caution. Think of my children as warriors and leaders, not animals or monsters, and you may eventually understand."
Celestia snorted delicately. "Perhaps, perhaps not. Does she make you happy?"
"More than anything," Luna answered, her grin fading into a sombre, steady expression. "I need her, sister. Even if Equestria was safe, I need her. She reminds me of who I am."
Celestia looked equally sombre for a moment, then she nodded. "How would you like five more?"
Luna froze, not even daring to breathe. "What are you asking me sister?" she whispered. "If this is some trick of yours..."
Celestia smiled a delicate little smile. "No trick. I'm prepared to let you turn five others, so long as they are very specific ponies."
Luna blinked. "The other Elements?" She asked, dumbfounded.
Celestia nodded. "It seems the only reasonable option."
Luna nodded and said, "I had the same thought."
Celestia and Luna stared at each other, each equally incredulous as to the situation. “This is a disaster indeed, for you to agree with me,” Luna asked, suspicious. “The last time you suffered anything remotely resembling a threat to your power, the continents had not yet split.”
Celestia sighed bitterly. “Do you truly think me such a tyrant?”
“You are a tyrant,” Luna stated, her voice matter of fact but free of any anger or disgust. “Benevolent as you may be, you are dictatorial, paranoid, and vicious.”
Celestia smiled as her molten anger only barely touched her eyes. “A disagreement for another time. For the moment, vampiric Bearers, yes?”
Luna frowned, but nodded. “You see the potential?”
Celestia nodded. “The necromancers have always been lead by six. Six Bearers to fight them, you and I are a match for any army that could be fielded as quickly as our force. It could be done.”
“Yes it could,” came Twilight's voice, and both Princesses whirled in shock to spy her calmly sitting some ten feet from them.
“How are you here?” Luna asked. “The only way for a mortal to enter is to be brought by my sister or myself.”
“Did you think you were the only one who knew how to make an entrance?” Twilight asked, dropping her veil to reveal her twisted, scarred smirk and a single sharp fang.
Celestia was taken aback. She'd never known Twilight to be so sarcastic, at least to royalty, and the fang was an obvious threat display, the mare perhaps unintentionally declaring herself to be the equal of her rulers. More telling, she'd sidestepped a direct question as if it was something less than insulting to do so, and showed no signs of even considering potential reprisals to her relaxed, self declared ascension.
Twilight's eyes flickered out of focus for a moment, then her gaze snapped to meet Celestia's. “Yes. That's exactly what I just did. I'll apologize when I'm done telling you how to save the country.”
“I told you she was a wild one,” Luna muttered with a cheeky grin. “Even my old Captain didn't take to my teachings so well.”
“You've certainly changed,” Celestia said, “but would it pain you to not flaunt it so much?” she continued. “You are like a daughter to me, you know.”
Twilight snorted. “I am a weapon to you,” she corrected. “Powerful, loyal, and controlled. I just know it now.” Celestia blinked furiously, and even Luna's mouth dropped slightly. “I'm not angry,” Twilight continued with a smug little grin, “I just wanted you to know I figured it out.”
Celestia glanced at Luna, who had recovered and wore a grin that matched Twilight's. “Did I mention that she is most perceptive?"
Celestia ground her teeth. “I'm not one to stand on ceremony, but really she is a bit much.”
“She moved the moon,” Luna stated. “She has earned her confidence.”
Celestia's blood ran cold, and The Unconquered Sun cast a very uncertain gaze at her former student.
“I can do the sun too,” Twilight stated, cold and calm and utterly sure of herself, letting the implied threat hang venomously in the air.
In a flash, Luna stood in front of her pupil, eyes narrowed and a dangerous smile on her lips. “Be careful, Twilight,” she said, jovial but sincere. "This is not the place for your sharp tongue."
Celestia hardly dared breathe as she understood. Her sister and her former student had a very different relationship than she had expected. Twilight stared hard at Luna, but only for a moment. Then she smiled and whacked herself harshly on the head. “It can be a little hard to control sometimes,” she said, obviously referring to the new instincts vampirism had planted in her mind. “I'm sorry.”
The stare she levelled at Celestia, however, made it clear that there was no forgiveness for the Solar Diarch, only a sense that only a pony too weak to do it themselves would have allowed another to draw the line.
Celestia swallowed hard. She spoke that language as well as any, but she'd never expected to need to speak it to her student. Striding over to the unicorn, she levelled a glare that had silenced kings and gods for millenia against the mare and whispered, low and hard, “listen to her, Twilight, I won't stand to be so boldly threatened. Even by you, especially not here.”
Luna held her tongue to allow her sister to prove herself, and Twilight smiled slowly when she noticed. “Why do I feel,” the only mortal in the room asked, her voice strong and confidant again, “like you're the only one in the room that's afraid of what might happen if I keep pushing?”
Celestia flinched and looked away.
Luna's eyed flared with a simmering, insulted rage and she slapped her student, hard enough to toss her to the ground, drawing blood and a shocked hiss. “Enough,” she snapped, dropping the cheer from her tone in favour of impatience and open threat. “Did I teach you this poorly? To threaten and mock? And where in the world has this insufferable attitude come from? I would not like to remind you of your place again.”
”Are you all so sure of victory, to be at each others throats? came a voice from nowhere, and Twilight sighed and drew herself back up to a seated position.
“Well you told me I needed to see for myself.”
”Yes. I did not expect you to provoke two of the very few beings alive that could end you as easily as you blow out a candle. Clearly I need to be more specific in the future.”
Luna frowned, then laughed in sudden comprehension. “Now I see.”
Celestia frowned. “I seem to be the only one here still confused,” she muttered uncomfortably.
“It was a game, a very dangerous game,” Luna said, her grin turning a little manic. “She tested you to prove to you that she really is one of mine now, and show you that you need not fear her. It is an admirable demonstration of both.”
“She threatened me to make me feel safe?” Celestia asked, dumbfounded.
“If she wanted a fight,” Luna began.
“You'd never see me coming,” Twilight finished.
Celestia quirked an eyebrow. “'Did I teach you this poorly?'” she repeated. “You were more upset at how she squandered the element of surprise than how she treated me?”
“Yes,” Luna answered bluntly. “A vampony will only submit to the rule of one stronger than they are, she has the right to force you to prove yourself."
“How reassuring,” Celestia said in a dry, flat voice.
”Enough, Twilight's Element commanded, quiet but serious and intent. ”Twilight, she will never understand how reasonable you have been. Celestia, Twilight will never understand that what she's done is unreasonable."
Twilight nodded grudging acceptance, while Celestia felt slightly ashamed of her behaviour and Luna simply chuckled again. "I see where she learned to control celestial bodies now, and where the power came from," the Luna Diarch said.
"Oh no," the Element of Magic replied, a note of fierce pride in his normally calm voice. "I only showed her the way, and not even all of that. That triumph was her own. Did you think I choose a mortal that was anything less than exceptional?"
Luna whistled low and quiet while Celestia shook her head. Even Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "I thought you gave me the whole spell?" she asked.
"Perhaps half," her Element told her. "I wanted to see if you could complete it. You did, obviously, and without even realising it. Element of Magic, indeed."
Twilight preened slightly at the compliment, then coughed and awkwardly shuffled her hooves. "Right. Necromancers. Being able to act openly will be nice, but how do we ask my friends to do that?" Twilight asked.
"We don't have to ask," Celestia said, a grim look in her eyes. "They'll volunteer soon enough."
Twilight and Luna frowned, then Luna ground her teeth. "You intend to let the necromancers run rampant," she bit out.
"No!" Twilight interjected, leaping to her hooves and glaring accusingly at Celestia. "We are not letting ponies die if we can help it," she stated, emphatic and leaving no room for compromise. "Civilised ponies don't act like that. I won't allow it!"
"Allow?" Celestia asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Neither will I, sister," Luna stated sadly. "I remember the last time we travelled that road, even if you've forgotten. Do you not love our little ponies?"
This time Celestia's rage escaped her eyes and seethed in her tone. "Love, Luna? You ask me about love? I built them the greatest country the world has seen since the days of our father!" she raged, carefully controlled but with searing fire dancing on her words. "Look at what I've done for them and ask yourself if there was a single thing I wouldn't do to save them!"
"Then why are you telling me to let them die?" Twilight fired back before Luna could open her mouth, surprising both Princesses. "Me and Luna can stop it, and we will, with or without your help."
"Yes," Luna agreed, proud of her pupil beyond measure. "If you will not support us, then stay out of our way."
Celestia laughed bitterly. "It's a little late for that. Reports have started arriving from several of the more remote cities of husks being sighted, one city may have already fallen. I expect hundreds are dead."
Twilight and Luna stared at Celestia in shock, and the Solar Diarch nodded grimly. "No matter what we do, there will be death. Death on a scale not seen in hundreds of years. Twilight still needs to be trained, the other Bearers as well. It will be the work of months. Fewer will die if we train them first, then take to battle, and then the living will fawn over me as if I'd truly saved them instead of sacrificing the lives of half my country, revere us all as great heroes, and we will never let them know that the calculus of leadership is all that saved them. Go and stop the tide if you can, but I will not act before the proper time."
"So much anger and hate, for so little cause. The other Elements will speak with their Bearers, I will ensure they are ready to be turned."
"I'm trained enough to follow Luna's lead," Twilight said quickly. "All I really need is some armour."
"I will not let ponies die," Luna stated, implacable. "Stop the tide, you say? I believe I shall."
Celestia's anger started to fade as her eyes darted between the two ponies in front of her. "What are you saying?" she asked, desperate hope starting to displace some of her bitter rage. "You cannot seriously believe they will be ready soon enough to make a difference!"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. I, for one, could not forgive myself if I allowed that to stop me."
"Sometimes trying matters more than winning," Twilight said quietly.
"I faced a thousand years alone with a Nightmare. This battle is not so hopeless," Luna said. "Even if it were, I am not you. I could never stand by and watch."
"How soon can the Bearers be assembled?" Celestia asked, her mind whirling.
"Within the hour," Twilight's Element assured her.
"Months before they can truly say they are ready for your plans, but a week before they can fight beside me," Luna stated with utter certainty. "There will be no songs of their prowess, but they will be able."
"Us," Celestia corrected. "They will fight beside us."
Luna's smile was as beautiful as the moon on a clear night. "Come Twilight," she said. "Let us go find your friends."
The two vanished in brilliant fashes of light, leaving Celestia alone. She looked about the room, then walked over to the oldest thing in the room, a simple stone chest. With a brief flurry of magic, she opened it and levitated her ancient armour, elegant golden plate bound with enchantments that made it stronger than any steel, and the great shining steel mace she'd always favoured. Luna, she knew, cast and called her weapons and armour from nothing but shadow, but Celestia had always preferred the solidity of real, strong metal on her back. She chuckled lightly to herself, feeling younger than she had in thousands of years, and began the laborious process of putting on the armour.
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Just by the by's me lads this isthe tail end of the opening, she kicks off in a couple chapters and the war proper starts. The pace will pick up and the batshittery that is my writing will start to show again.
7089110 I can hear the rum in you.
7089796 Hush you. I'm a Canadian Maritimer with Newfoundland heritage, I'm allowed to drink rum until I drop! It's the only bloody right I've got!
Oh dear sweet god how I've missed this story!!! I noticed a few mistakes here and there but nothing major, all in all this was a great chapter thanks for the update man.
7089942 May or not be a thousand words into another chapter
7089815 as an American with both Germanic and Irish/Scottish heritage I agree! CHEERS Mate!
7089110 ya know with a chapter called ascension i was expecting twilight to gain a couple of limbs extra also bout fuckin time
7089249 True enough. Here's a bit of morality here: a soldier never sees battle. A soldier is just an unsung hero...And a soldier who abandons morality has another name: villain. And on who has and regrets has one for himself: atoner.
7090229
'course, lines get blurred. Righteous evil, impure light.
I thought this story was dead. Great chapter. Almost worth the year we had to wait for it. I love this story keep going.
7090345 It'll die when it's done or when I do. Gaps happen, entirely my fault, but I'll finish the fucker.
7090258 tis foolish to believe there are lines to begin with. One ends, another begins. There is never really any one point where it does so.
7090384 Hehehehe I like you.