The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

The Power Of Artifice

"Hey. There you are."

Valey hovered in the warm lobby of a school building that had been taken over by Princess Celestia's guard contingent during their stay, the alicorn herself presently making rounds with a thoughtful expression. Celestia looked up at Valey's greeting.

"I assume you've heard the report about Felicity?" Valey landed, standing on a table so she could match Celestia's eye level.

"I have," Princess Celestia replied. "And I have been thinking. Though I assume you would prefer to discuss this somewhere slightly more private?"

Valey paused. "Eh, yeah, she'd probably appreciate that. You have anywhere in mind?"

Celestia was already trotting out the door, bidding her to follow. "Indeed."

Outside, the night had turned windy, granting them perfect natural privacy the moment they found an area that was open enough. "So," Valey began. "She's officially not fit for air travel because the air would be too thin, and they could maybe do stuff for the safety of her foal if she stayed here, which means she's basically stuck here. And writs or no, I don't think all of us are running off and just leaving her here on her lonesome. Not to mention we've got two kids who are both slightly unhinged in their own special ways and probably shouldn't be growing up on the go... What are you gonna do?"

"I will make my final decision in the morning." Celestia shook her head. "My visit here has grown long, and much as I wish to give this proper consideration, my ponies need me in Canterlot. I have already spent the better portion of two months away. However, I am leaning towards leaving my original offer intact, with the provision that you could wait here as long as you wished before setting out should you choose to return to the north."

"So, like..." Valey paused. "We could take the whole get-six-writs thing, but just hang out here for a year until Felicity is doing better?"

Celestia nodded. "That does not fully solve your problem with having other children. However, I would permit you to delay the choice as well. As long as you remain on Kinmari, you will not need Writs of Harmonic Sanction. You could stay here for months with your friends, and at that time decide you would like to stay here after all, and I would honor it. And it would also give me time to dedicate more thought to a fairer offer, especially once the border and other high-priority national issues have calmed themselves."

Valey folded her ears. "Yeah... still got the other kids. And this place was pretty great for recovering, but the ponies here idolize us a little too much to... you know, let us live normally. At least they'd be happy to have us though, right?"

"They would." Celestia looked out at the sea to the south, a lone light shining on it from a boat whose occupants were partying into the night. "I have already approved this with President Kinmari. He is a gentle soul of great empathy, and believes you have shown yourselves friendly and trustworthy enough so far that he would offer you long-term residence here free of charge. As the island is his property, he has final say in these things, so you have friends already in the right places."

"He's a cool dude? Neat. Was trying to get a read on him." Valey frowned. "...If I were you, I'd be trying pretty hard to get a read on me right now, huh? This is the first time you've gotten me alone, and I've heard you have strong feelings about ponies coming back from the dead."

"Hmm." Celestia nodded. "I would expect more nervousness from someone who feared themselves an aberrant of nature who would be subject to my wrath, yet you say it like a dinner conversation."

Valey flicked her tail. "I'm pretty good at telling when someone wants to hurt me... and I am kinda wigged out. Mostly because you're being completely chill."

"That pendant of yours," Celestia said, dodging the implied question. "I assume it contains your cutie mark."

"Yeah..." Valey rubbed at the thing with a hoof. "Sure does. Beats me how it can be physically in there and on my butt at the same time... and not gonna lie, I'd like it back where it belongs. Don't suppose you have any other magic that would help with that?"

Princess Celestia shook her head. "If I did, I could have restored you last month from your empty shell."

"How much do you know about..." Valey fidgeted slightly. "Exactly what happened to me, or how I am now?"

"I don't believe I have seen your unique case before," the princess replied. "However, the materials necessary to reproduce it have been gone from the world for a very long time."

Valey pursed her lips. "Well, hey. Thanks for, like, not trying to capture me and use me as a science experiment, or anything. I really hate it when that happens."

Celestia turned to face her fully. "Valey, if I may ask... I have been focusing much of my attention on your captain, but from what I have gathered, your crew holds you in at least equal regard. What is it that powers your relationship with them?"

Valey shrugged. "I'm usually the one bailing their rears out of tough spots. I'm seriously strong. Nearly won the Griffon Empire tournament, except I got messed up by Crystal interfering at the end. And I've had some identity issues in the past, and problems with self-esteem, and been kicked around a lot because everyone in the north hates batponies, so when everyone's talking about, like, finding a home to settle down... I'm kinda the poster girl for that. But hey, maybe that's just me bragging. I also stick my tongue out a lot."

"Hmm." Celestia nodded and turned back to the starry, windswept horizon. "Many ponies care about their friends, and quite a few try to deny death when it happens, often emotionally or through coping mechanisms. Few physically try to get their friends back, and fewer still succeed. That your friends returned you successfully... do you think this is a testament to their own love and determination, that they cared more about you than others care for their lost friends and that care thus empowered them to do more?"

Valey wrinkled her nose. "Uhh... no. Bananas, I sure hope not. That would be like telling everyone else who loses their friends that it happened because they didn't care or try hard enough, and that's gonna mess anyone up. It just happened because they had no choice. Like, maybe they got lucky, but they were also minutes away from getting mauled by brood beasts and needed me to come kick tail and save their rears. And that's just how stuff works for us. We win because the alternative is losing. And it always keeps us alive, but is somehow never enough to get us where we wanna be in the first place."

Celestia watched her for a moment. "You win because the alternative is losing. When framed like that, my little pony, sometimes there is no alternative. What will you do when old age comes to call? Seek out immortality for all of your friends? I am a testament to its possibility, but it is not something ponies merely do."

"Cross that bridge when we come to it and live life one step at a time." Valey shrugged. "Planning for the future? That's a luxury to us. Maybe it's not natural, what we do and how we survive, but is everything that comes at us natural either? Do most ponies just randomly lay down and die whenever an evil goddess-monster shows up on their doorstep?" Her mane went limp. "Don't answer that, by the way. It feels like it's us these things always happen to, but thousands and thousands of husked batponies up in Mistvale have it even worse."

"If there was one pony without which your way of life would fall apart," Celestia said, "winning because the alternative was losing, doing whatever it takes to stay alive, even the impossible, merely because anything else is unthinkable... who would it be?"

Valey swallowed. "I mean... me, I guess." She knew that wasn't the real answer. "Dunno if you heard about what happened in Ironridge. The Empire's probably way bigger news... but those clowns in Yakyakistan tried to invade, and I beat up their evil ambassador and foiled his plans. Bananas, it was a hard fight, but there you go. Still, though." She shook her head. "I don't think I could pin it on one pony at all. All of us try, you know? We rub off on each other. The way I actually got back? One pony invented the technology, another remembered it, a third modified it to suit me, another took care of my body while I was gone."

"You are hesitant to speak highly of yourself when you feel your friends deserve the credit."

Valey would take what she could get. "Yeah, something like that."

"You were listening over your sound stone when I explained the workings of harmony and the strength of your friend Shinespark," Celestia continued. "What does your cutie mark stand for, if I may ask? Do you believe you could have a similar power?"

"Uhhh..." Valey immediately chuckled nervously. "Weird story... You sure you wanna know?"

Celestia shook her head. "I did ask your permission."

Valey shrugged. "Well, crazy long story short..." She checked again, just to make sure her flank wasn't tingling. "This thing is apparently called one of Luna's Artifices."

If Celestia had been drinking tea, she would have sprayed it. "E-Excuse me!?"

Valey chuckled harder at the reaction. "Yeah, no joke. Some really immoral scientists up in Yakyakistan moon glassed some poor bat filly, and then stuck in a cutie mark from the meteor to see what would happen. Tough luck for them, they got me, and I booted them around pretty bad."

"That beggars belief." Celestia gave her a stern look. "Though one of the artifices was known to have been taken to the moon, how do you explain Yakyakistan extracting it from the remnants of the comet? Unless you've been wearing this pendant your whole life?"

Valey shrugged. "I'd give almost anything to know, but they mostly died in an accident and the lead scientist took that know-how to his grave. Seriously. If we did know, I could skip town on this pendant and be more of a normal pony again."

Celestia sat back, shaking her head. "If you truly possess an artifice, I am afraid your life will not be so easily tamed into normalcy. They wield incredible power. If you know what they are, perhaps you have heard this as well, but of the other two, one was possessed by Garsheeva, and the other is mine."

Valey blinked hard. "Wait a sec, you...?"

"Yes." Celestia nodded. "There are three of them, and they were originally made for myself, Garsheeva, and their creator. It is a very lengthy story."

"Huh." Valey sat down as well. "Well, I'm well aware of how strong it is. Been using it my whole life. It makes me basically invincible in a fight. Lets me read the future and see what my enemies are doing next, where they'll strike, what things are dangerous. So as long as I'm fast enough and keep this as a card up my sleeve..."

"The three artifices are intensely harmonic," Celestia added. "They were forged with the raw power of the Immortal Dream, an artifact that is the genesis of all cutie marks. I assume you have heard legends of it, since your ship shares its name, but if one can wield it, it gives them the power to grant any wish that is wished fervently by one other than themselves. Cutie marks themselves are the manifestation of these granted wishes. So if the Immortal Dream is an anvil and a hammer, then the artifices are its masterworks."

Valey folded her ears. "So when I kick rear, it's partly just me wanting to win, or however you said harmony works?"

"A slight oversimplification, unless you somehow have obtained Garsheeva's artifice instead of the one that went to the moon." Celestia shook her head. "But the artifice's power is real, and your skills are no coincidence. In fact, there is likely far more power waiting for you should you ever be able to use it properly... though it may be constrained by your mortal body. Nevertheless, this does a lot to put your feats and those of your friends into perspective."

Valey tilted her head, her interest caught. "Garsheeva's artifice? What does that one do?"

"It provides a direct conversion between hope and power," Celestia replied. "Put in your wishes and your dreams, and it can act upon the world in many ways. Its crudest use would be to amplify one's individual abilities, and I am sure Garsheeva did this many times. But she made an art form out of using it to grant special wishes to her subjects, ones where she would change their cutie mark or even their body to work in ways she desired."

"Wait..." Valey frowned. "Put in your hopes and dreams, as in, you lose them?"

"It requires willpower as a energy source." Celestia nodded. "It is by far the most dangerous of the three. While the artifices do not need to be borne by immortals, were most ponies to attempt to use it, they would find themselves meeting with unusual success before becoming emotionally tired and drained, unless they have careful understandings of themselves and its effects. Artifices are difficult not to use."

Valey looked away, hiding the understanding in her eyes. If Starlight's magic had been powered by that thing instead of her broken horn... that was how it worked, then. She had wanted magic, and it had... obliged? There had to be limits on this sort of thing. "Huh. The more you know."

"You visited Garsheeva in her temple," Celestia continued. "You likely know how she powered it without any adverse effects to herself, then. But I would ask you not to speak of her secrets to others. The workings of sphinx immortality are dangerous secrets that should not be spread to the world, lest anyone attempt to abuse them for their own ends."

"Yeah, no, I know what you're talking about." Valey nodded firmly. If cutie marks were hope, and Garsheeva had a whole mountain of them stockpiled from her sacrifices that were already being used to fuel her immortality and massive size... "Well, good talk, Princess. I should get back on home to my friends and let them think about this before you give us your final decision in the morning. See ya?"

Princess Celestia nodded. "Good night, Valey. I hope I can talk with you again in the future."

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

Valey, sometimes a sledghammer, sometimes a scalpel.
And she chose not to mention that they have the Artifice of Hope with them, in addition to Valey's artifice of love.

[Boopers]

Why is Celestia asking Valey how she got her cutie mark in the first place? Is she not aware that batponies usually get born with theirs?

[Oberth Effect]

One pony invented the technology, another remembered it, a third modified it to suit me, another took care of my body while I was gone.

Arambai, Jamjars, Shinespark, and Amber, respectively?

I'd give almost anything to know, but they mostly died in an accident and the lead scientist took that know-how to his grave.

Did Navarre get to write down the notes he had in his cutie mark, or is that info still floating around in the moon glass sword somewhere?

Immortal Dream, an artifact that is the genesis of all cutie marks

That's new info, I think. I'm curious who used it to make all those cutie marks, and how they got integrated into life in such a widespread way.

In fact, there is likely far more power waiting for you should you ever be able to use it properly... though it may be constrained by your mortal body.

So maybe Valey uses her full potential to save the ship and its crew, dies, and Starlight takes her cutie mark for preservation?

Valey tilted her head, her interest caught. "Garsheeva's artifice? What does that one do?"

"It provides a direct conversion between hope and power," Celestia replied. "Put in your wishes and your dreams, and it can act upon the world in many ways.

Interesting. Here's how Luna described it:

"This one allows for some manner of manipulation in the fabric of cutie marks. In essence, to do what We do, limited to modifications instead of creation."

The description is different, but not wholly incompatible.

they would find themselves meeting with unusual success before becoming emotionally tired and drained

That could explain Starlight's emotional instability, although arguably she has had unusual success before acquiring the artifice, too.

Artifices are difficult not to use.

Wonder if part of the story is learning how to live without them. Valey, especially; we saw how she struggled to fight when her cutie mark was overloaded by Crystal, although to be fair she was fighting against Wallace.

If Starlight's magic had been powered by that thing instead of her broken horn... that was how it worked, then. She had wanted magic, and it had... obliged?

Did Starlight tell anyone else how Glimmer said her horn was not working quite right because it was missing a cutie mark?

I guess that brings up the additional question of whether her horn needs *a* cutie mark or *her* cutie mark specifically.

[Venlinelle]

It’s always a bit painful to see deception like this play out, no matter how well-meant. You can’t help but wonder if Celestia would’ve been able to help Starlight, but alas.