• Published 21st Oct 2012
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The Assumption of Applejack -or- Appletheosis - Blue Print



Applejack deals with ascension to godhood.

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Chapter Thirteen: Phrike

Chapter Thirteen: Phrike

Night Glider quickly regained her vigor over the next couple of days. Soon she was up to the task of moving about Celestia’s chambers and reminding her body of how to eat and so forth. Celestia would come into the chamber every so often and chat with Night, updating her on the current news and intrigue in the Unicorn courts. Most of this passed Applejack in a blur, only focusing in on a few moments and conversations, such as the one that was playing itself out in front of her now.

“Celestia, How can Queen Argent afford to humor such backstabbing nobles? Surely she could simply bring them in line like the pegasi do.” asked Night.

Celestia chuckled at her young protégée, “No, Night, each of the nobles has many ponies that are loyal to them alone, not to mention that some are quite powerful magi in their own right. The Queen on her own has maybe the power to crush one or two of the most powerful, but should she do so, then the queendom would be weak and defenseless against its enemies… Enemies like the pegasi. She is much better off using subtlety and mischief against them.”

“Then, where do you fit in? You surely have the power to bring them all in line.”

“I am not interested in ruling a bickering herd of unicorns, and I don’t think they would have me.” Celestia took a moment to swig from her stein. “Ahh, and anyways, I don’t like paperwork. I see myself as a protector of sorts, protecting the races from themselves and each other. The pegasi love me when I take their side. They shower me with praise and hail me as Sol Invicta and numerous other lovely epithets. Right now they haven’t forgiven me for thwarting their raid of Coltonville ten years ago, so, Sun-Nag I am.”

“Why do you live in Unicornia though? Isn’t that taking sides?”

“Yes, but I have a treaty with them. They have been experimenting with their control of the moon and wish my cooperation with the sun. It’s all very much over my head, complicated astrology. In return, they give me luxurious apartments and a nice pile of gold. All I have to do is follow the solar schedule they give me. No harm done in a few late days once in a while. It’s honestly been a nice vacation for the past decade or so.”

“That’s all you do!?”

“Aye! Grand, isn’t it?” Celestia grinned and quaffed the remainder of her drink.

***

Applejack interrupted Luna at this point. “Wuz she really that lazy?

Luna grinned at Applejack, her eyes sparkling, “Yes, every bit. It can be hard to be ambitious for one’s self if one is immortal, and she was already ancient beyond memory even in those days. She was so much more fun back then too… But I digress, I’m telling thee this so thou canst know how I fell, and what once froze the heart of the very Sun.”

***

Over the next few weeks, Night slowly attempted to integrate herself into the unicorn court. The nobles had seemed pleasant enough at first meeting, but there was an undercurrent of disdain that ran through her interactions with them. It all finally bubbled to the surface when she accepted an invitation to dinner at Lord Heartstrings’ manor. Celestia had declined, not being fond of the stuffy pony, but encouraged Night Glider to go if she liked. “I can’t hold your hoof forever.” she’d said. Night had nervously arrived, fashionably late, at the small soiree wearing an expensive blue cloak that Celestia had purchased for her. The party was already in swing, and she could hear the laughter and merriment from outside. The hoofmare at the door let her in. As the timid alicorn entered, the room quieted immediately from a jovial roar to an expectant rustling. A rather flushed Lord Heartstrings stepped forward to greet her, a hoof thrown wide in welcome.

“And you must be the new-old-one we’ve been hearing about! What an amusing contradiction that is, yes?”

“Ahaha, yes. I can see how that is rather funny.” said Night, unsure how to react to the attention.

“Everypony can see how you are funny, my dear. Now, come take your place at this feast of proud unicorns!” He gestured at a small chair set at one end of the table.

“Th-thank you, I believe I will.” As she walked past her slightly tipsy host, he stumbled a bit and stepped on the corner of her cloak. The weak gold brooch at the front snapped off, letting the cloak fall behind her. She gasped at having thus been disrobed, her wings flaring out in embarrassment.

“Aha!” cried Heartstrings, “Perhaps you do not belong at this table of unicorns at all! Perhaps you are just a bull-headed pegasus under all that finery? I can understand why thou wouldst try to hide it. Thy own kind beat thee and left thee for dead. The filthy vultures don’t have any honor.” By this time the small crowd of nobles was laughing uproariously at her discomfort. Night cowered, unsure what to do or how to react. Seeing her thus in his power, Heartstrings continued mercilessly, physically poking at her to emphasize his points. “And what is this on thy flank? A cutie mark of the moon? Hah! It takes a hundred unicorns to muster the power to raise it. Thou must be a powerful magician indeed if thou hopest to wrest it from us. Here, a toast to thy power!”

He levitated a large glass from the table, in addition to the one already levitating near his head. “Here is thy glass,” He brought the cup over Night’s head and dropped it upon her. “What? Couldst thou not lift a single glass with thy magic? By what power dost thou propose to manage the skies? Mayhaps we could give thee proper motivation to try. Thy own mother cast thee out. I promise to cut her down as a favor to thee if thou canst shift the heavens. Simply touch the moon and I shall see her dead.” Night looked into her tormenter’s eyes at this. They were cold, hard and perfectly sober as they bored into her. She let out a tiny shriek of fear and ran crying into the night, the loud laughter of the party still ringing in her ears while the spilled wine mingled with her tears.

***

Celestia had been furious when she had heard, and swore to wage a war eternal against the despicable noble and his kin. After Night Glider had calmed down a bit she and Celestia had held a council of war to determine how to proceed. Celestia had given Night a crash-course in magic and crude animation. They sketched out their plans for the humiliation of the Heartstrings family in detail, but at the end, Celestia had frowned, unsatisfied. “It needs something more. These are all enough to drive a pony completely mad, but it needs a focus, something he can be truly terrified of…”

Night Glider looked up at her mentor expectantly. “Some sort of illusory monster perhaps? Something that lurks in the shadows after every prank? Something he can blame it on, but never find?”

Celestia grinned wickedly at that and glanced up at the vaulted ceiling. “I have just the thing, watch this.” She reared up on her hind legs and let out a burst of green flame from her horn that ran its way down her body. Her back straightened, making her massively tall, and her muzzle retreated into her face. Her back hooves grew a knobbly paw from the front and her forehooves grew little tentacles. Her face completely disappeared into blank whiteness while her mane and tail withered away into nothing. The now-hideous Celestia grabbed a black cloak from the closet and draped it about her shoulders menacingly. “What do you think?”

Night stared in horror before puking all over the floor.

Laughing, Celestia switched back to her normal self. “Haha! That will do swimmingly. The foal will be a gibbering wreck within a week.”

“Wh-what was that? And how did you do that?”

“Ancient magics, of a darker bent. It was something from my childhood, twisted of course to something more hideous. There were creatures, long ago, called humans. They were bipedal, tall as a minotaur. I was even friends with one. Her name was Megan. That was a creature from her nightmares…” Celestia trailed off, her mind lost in better times. After a moment, she shook herself and smiled wolfishly at Night. “Now! There’s a pony sleeping right now who does not deserve to sleep the sleep of the just. Let us relieve him of that burden.”

***

“Aw, come-on. Y’all can’t jest stop there!”

“Art thou sure? We were very unkind to him.”

“Eeyup, he deserved it. Ah wanna see him get whut’s comin’ to him.”

“Ok…”

***

It started simply enough. Two nights after the party a subtle glow of moonlight lit up the noble’s bedchambers as he was retiring to bed. Paying it no mind, he simply magicked the curtains shut. After a moment, he realized that the glow hadn’t diminished, except in the far corner of the room, where deep shadows were gathered. Slowly the light began to strobe across the room, and he caught a glimpse of something gaunt and white and impossibly tall standing in the darkened corner. Before he could make out its features, though, the room was pitched into complete darkness. Timidly he called out, “Hello?”

The dark answered him with a silence so profound that not even the servants downstairs could be heard as they prepared the house for the morrow. Whimpering, the noble cowered low in his blankets the rest of the night.

The next day, after a night of fitful sleep, he awoke to find his entire wardrobe missing. Not a scrap of clothing was anywhere. Grumbling, he headed down for breakfast in the nude. True, it wasn’t that scandalous, but it was disorienting when the hired help was better dressed than he was. Heartstrings gave his majordomo a stern talking-to about thieves and watchfulness and sat down to his morning oatmeal. Just as soon as he had lifted the first spoonful to his mouth and taken a bite, a massive, fuzzy, hoof-sized spider heaved itself from beneath the surface of his oatmeal and leapt upon the now-panicking Lord. It crawled wetly all over him as he and his servants tried to bat it off before it finally scuttled away towards the basement.

Morbidly curious, he walked over to the stairs and peered down them. Something scuttled in the dark. Finally he spotted the spider, a little shadow moving against the larger gloom. It scuttled into the middle of the room and onto a tall, motionless figure. A pale motionless figure. He slammed the door shut and hollered at his servants to head downstairs with lamp and knife to evict the stranger. When they got down there, the room was empty, all save for a little trail of oatmeal that wandered into the middle of the room and simply vanished.

The rest of his day at the palace of Queen Spira went smoothly, other than the quiet sniggers he got for walking about unclothed in court. With some trepidation, he headed home to find the house in good order. The mood at dinner was tense and somber. Every dish was carefully tested by the head chef before being placed in front of Lord Heartstrings. The complete lack of a surprise was terrifying, every moment he kept looking over his shoulder, expecting to see that thing again. He ate quickly and lightly, taking only a few bites of every dish offered to him. Finally, he excused himself from the table. Beckoning to his majordomo, he instructed that a servant be posted in his room all night with a candle. At that moment, all of the mage lights and lamps on that floor were extinguished all at once. The only light came from his butler’s horn as he held a dish in his magic. In a moment that faded also as the butler fainted clean away. His light had illuminated a strange, faceless figure beside him.

There was a mad dash for the stairs onto the second floor, ponies trampling each other in their haste to flee. Heartstrings lead the charge. The lights continued to vanish one by one, the darkness chasing him into his chambers. He slammed the door behind him, narrowly missing his majordomo as he also leapt inside. Outside it had started drizzling rain and the sky was thick with clouds. A flash of lightning lit up the outside. The fear-addled pony crept up to the window, peering outside. In the darkness, he could just make out a bundle of sticks tied into an effigy of a pony. It was wearing one of his shirts. He glanced about, to the side was another effigy, wearing his best hat and monocle. He looked back to the first. It was now joined by another, wearing a sash. Everywhere he glanced, more and more of these strange ponnequins appeared. Soon the yard was full of them. They sat there for a moment, gazing reproachfully at him across the yard. Finally, one of them rose into the air, was crushed by an unseen force, and immolated in a cool, blue flame. One after another they were lifted, crushed and burned, adding a ghostly, intermittent luminance to the yard.

Lord Heartstring’s mind had already broken. He stared numbly out at the burning array. Something else caught his eye. There. In the center of the yard. It was the slender beast. It stood there, heedless of the flames. It was wearing his finest jacket, ripped and warped to fit over the ghastly frame. Without inclining its blank head, it raised one hideous arm and pointed straight at him. Then, in front of his eyes, it vanished. A thud sounded behind him from the direction of his majordomo. He turned slowly. There it was, still pointing at him, the beast. Everything went black.

***

Applejack’s eyes twinkled, but she sat quietly after the vision ended.

“Applejack? Art thou alright? I knew it was too disturbing…”

Applejack turned to Luna, “Ah ain’t never seen somethin’ more beautiful happen to a more deserving pony in all mah days! Whut happened ta him afterwards?”

Luna smiled guiltily, “Well, he left the country the next day along with most of his household. The Heartstring name faded out of history for quite some time. Some of his descendants made it back to pony lands after the diaspora and unification. Celestia kept her vow, though.”

“Wait, her vow?”

“To wage an eternal war on them for my sake. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. She’s not vindictive enough to torture them for something their ancestor did. It’s a prank war. Ever since that day, the direct descendants of Lord Heartstrings have been plagued by occasional glimpses of strange, bipedal creatures that they can never catch. It’s silly and harmless, but she does it to remind me how much she cares, and how seriously she takes her word.”

“Heh, was that Celestia’s ‘rampage’? ‘Tain’t much in tha way a violent outbursts.”

“No, it was not. Her true wrath came soon afterwards though.”