Before the Game
The forest road was quiet and still, kept in a sort of perpetual twilight by the thick foliage overhead. Twilight was reminded of many different walks under canopies that she had taken on her journey, from her first foray into the Everfree with her friends nearly two decades ago to her adventure with Morning Star that had cemented her supposed love for him to the many, many walks she had taken through the Everfree with Golden Radiance, or Radiant Zenith, or Tara as she had considered different facets of her duties in the Ever Free. As she recalled these moments, she noticed that the trees began to take on different qualities.
The massive monarchs of the woods were normally gray, but to her they appeared to gain color and texture depending on what she was thinking of. A snowy walk with Tarantella during one winter caused phantom drifts of white powder to pile up around their skeletal remains, whereas the smell of fruit began to spill from the trees when she recalled a sunny day at the Apple farm, where she had met Honey Crisp for the first time.
Golden Radiance smiled as fiery tones rippled through the trees overhead, a reflection of the first Running of The Leaves that Twilight Sparkle had ever run. “This place is not immutable, as I see you’ve figured out. The Aether responds to your thoughts and consciousness in the form of physical changes. Your memories help to strengthen the fabric of this place as you change it. At the beginning of time, before lives were created and destroyed, there was nothing here, not even mist. But as life passed through this place, so too did experiences.”
“Everything you see here is the product of life and death working together to create things. The Aether is very much a product of balance.” Morning Star added. “As more ponies and Gryphons and Minotaurs pass through, this land becomes more and more defined and expanded. As you get closer to the center, those experiences run together into the biggest layer of them all. Like an onion, but each layer inside is bigger than the one on the outside.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “I thought that the Aether was a goddess. But this place is also called the Aether?”
Golden Radiance shook her head. “No, Twilight. The Aether is both goddess and realm. She is tied to this place as much as it is tied to her. It is an extension of her self, but she can also be seen as an archetype, the expression of this realm.”
“From here, Mother’s essence runs out through the afterlife into the primal seas of Creation, spilling out into the world. All of the worlds.” Morning Star added.
Golden Radiance shot him a look. “Hold your tongue. You know that she wants to explain that herself.” she snapped.
He bowed his head meekly. “Apologies. I’m a little over-eager, that’s all.”
Twilight cocked her head. “Why?”
Morning Star looked at her strangely. “Well, I suppose it’s because I died without telling you my side of things, and why I wasn’t permitted to continue on to those mountains you were so eager to get to.”
Twilight snorted. “You died because you tried to sell me out to Celestia like the traitorous bastard you were, and don’t even try to spin it any other way.”
“I died believing in my heart that you were a beautiful, intelligent, and principled mare who would understand Celestia’s side of things and sacrifice herself for the greater good. Admittedly, I was wrong about your understanding her, but as I watched, I began to develop an appreciation of your side of things. You proved in your very first winter that you didn’t need Celestia to survive, and that if you were left to your own devices, you could lead ponies just as well as she could. In fact, the only reason you didn’t do better than her is because you were also trying to conceal your existence and fight a war.”
Golden Radiance rolled her eyes. “Tell her the whole story, if you’re going to talk about it.”
Morning Star gave her a patronizing grin. “I planned on it.”
Twilight looked him in the eye. “Tell me right here and now that you didn’t wish me harm at the end of your life.”
The stallion’s cheeky grin diminished somewhat. “Of course I did, a little bit. I was in quite a bit of pain, and under considerable stress. But I’ve had four years to cool off. And I’m under the impression that if you were to ally yourself with Celestia instead of working against her, you might be able to accomplish some real good, given time. But I still believe that Celestia is the driving force for prosperity in the world, and that you need to work with her closely.”
Twilight’s nostrils flared. “How can you possibly justify her actions? There’s nothing there that isn’t horrible on multiple levels! The elimination of free will, the attempted genocide of other species, the years of manipulation, nothing there is good!”
“Her actions can all be justified using your rebellion, actually.” Morning Star retorted. “You say she’s trying to remove free will, which she is. Look what you did with it. Equestria’s on the way to its most destructive conflict ever. More so because you’ve actively involved other races as well, all of them possessing free will. Free will drove ponies to fight and kill one another over ideology, to lie and cheat and steal because they decided it was justified. When Celestia controlled Equestria through the Elements, even with limited power she was able to drive our race into an unheard of level of prosperity for centuries. We can harvest crops three times a year whereas other races can only do it once.”
“And you’re in favor of killing those other races.” Twilight accused.
“No, actually. Her plan was to let nature run its course. Equestrian expansion would eventually result in the assimilation and gradual extinction of the other races, simply because they would be unable to match the level of cooperation we could achieve with one another if we were truly of one mind.”
Twilight’s lip curled. “Like Changelings?”
Morning Star nodded. “Exactly. The oppression you’re thinking of would entail crushing all individuality, leaving no room for expression or thought. Celestia knows that would be both wrong and horrible. Your foal would have worked to remove violent, confrontational, and morally reprehensible thoughts at the source, before they manifested themselves. Ponies would never have thought them, simply because the thoughts would never have the opportunity to take root. By focusing energy on productive and good thoughts, we would eventually eliminate the need to remove those thoughts.”
“I don’t follow.” Twilight said. “You’re saying that Celestia thought that ponies would never have bad thoughts after a certain period?”
The stallion was excited. “That’s it exactly. After several generations, all the social mores that would have made those thoughts manifest would disappear. There would never be a reason for ponies to think those thoughts, so they wouldn’t.”
“Because Celestia manipulated the system to ensure that they’d never get that chance?”
Morning Star rolled his eyes. “Yes, we all know that she manipulated you, and as a result your happy little life was taken from you. And I recognize that the results were pretty horrible. But you have to look at it from her side, Twilight. The Celestial Wars showed her that discord and strife killed ponies far more effectively than they could themselves. It was Celestia’s love for her ponies that formed her plan, not some sociopathic need for control. The life of one mare, one that she tried to make as happy as possible while she was alive, for the ensured prosperity of her chosen race for eternity. When you look at it from her perspective, you seem fairly selfish by denying that opportunity.”
Twilight’s retort was quick. “It’s not about me! It’s the fact that I disagree with her morals entirely. The fact that we feel negativity is a wonderful thing, because without it we could never experience the full range of what we are capable of emotionally.”
“Oh, so you enjoy feeling pain, fear, anger, and heartbreak?” Morning Star fired back. “I’ve watched you cry yourself to sleep at night, Twilight. You certainly didn’t look like you were enjoying that.”
“Maybe not, but it made the good times that much better. And hardship will leave you stronger for having endured it.” Twilight said resolutely.
“Or leave you broken beyond repair, like you almost were.” Morning Star snorted. “You’re speaking from a limited perspective. I honestly expected you to have a more intelligent argument than that, Twilight. You’re a mare of intellect trying to speak from the heart, and failing miserably at it. What I’m saying is that Celestia’s world would involve no reason to engage in that so-called hardship.”
“You’re speaking like some sort of zealot. I’m trying to approach this rationally, but my beliefs don’t line up with hers. I’ll never work with Celestia, and that’s final.” Twilight said, laying her ears back.
“I’m an idealist, and you’re playing the role of a cynic, but without the emotional detachment. And I can assure you that never is a very long time. Just ask Golden Radiance.” Morning Star replied smoothly.
The unicorn mare glanced over. “Don’t drag me into this dispute. The two of you are arguing over something far more personal than ideology, so don’t pretend that I’ll have any bearing on this conversation.”
Twilight realized that she was right. The conversation was superficially about Celestia’s goals, but what it was really about was the relationship they had shared before Morning Star had died. She still didn’t trust him, even in death. She knew that if it had been only Morning Star who had met her when she died, she would have bolted for the mountains without a second thought. The only reason she was even talking to him was because Golden Radiance was there in case something went wrong.
“Fine. I have personal reasons for fighting against Celestia. She used me like a game piece to achieve some sort of nebulous goal. She was playing with my life, how do you think that makes me feel?” Twilight grated. “In the space of a week, I found out that I had been bred like a dog, was valued only because of my reproductive abilities, and that I was going to be a sacrificial offering to bring forth some sort of mind-controlling Alicorn. And then I found out that my friends were enthralled to her, the Element I had been entrusted to bear was in fact controlling me, and to top it all off, Celestia and Luna both played me as if I were some sort of token to gain a strategic advantage.”
Morning Star’s expression was neutral. “And what about me?”
Twilight found out that just because you were dead didn’t mean that you couldn’t cry. “I think you were the worst. I had very real feelings for you. I still do. And when I killed you, I hated you for what you had done, more than anypony I had ever faced, ever. You were worse than Discord, or Nightmare Moon. But when I shot Celestia down fleeing Ponyville, I wasn’t using my hatred for her. That came later, after I found out what she had planned for me. I was using the hatred and self-loathing I had felt for myself when I killed you to fire that particular spell.”
Morning Star sighed. “I can understand that.”
Twilight shuddered. “I still don’t trust you. I killed a monster that day, or so I thought. I think it made it easier, to think of you as a monster.”
The stallion looked at her strangely. “Do you want to hear how I looked at it?”
Twilight nodded. “How could you have done it, faked it all that well? I thought you cared about me then. Did none of it matter to you?”
“Actually, you mattered more than you know. What I felt for you was just as real as what I felt for Celestia.” he said calmly. “Do you know what it’s like, to love two ponies so much that your heart is torn between them?”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You were…in love with Celestia?”
Morning Star’s head bobbed once. “I was, when I was alive. I worshipped her; put her on a marble pedestal far above any other pony. She was beyond reproach, my perfect goddess of sunny marble, with a rainbow caught in her mane. My earliest memory was loving her. I would have done anything to see her smile, thrown myself from the tops of mountains if she had only asked. For a kind word I would have forsaken water until death claimed me, for a kiss I would have fought armies. I could no more refuse a request from her than I could will my heart to stop beating.”
His expression turned inward, as if he was contemplating some part of himself. “So when she asked me to follow you, so I might win your heart and fulfill her plans for you, when I was told that I would father the savior of Equestria, how could I have said anything other than yes? I thanked her for the opportunity and swore that I would do my utmost to make you love me, though I had never met you.”
Twilight felt a sharp little pain in her chest. “So it was never real?”
“At first, no. A kind word here, a touch there, it was all I needed to bind you to me. I knew you were smitten after the first days, before we had even left Ponyville. I don’t think you knew until much later. Perhaps it was that night after we had fought together, when you kissed me. But I remember that night, when I saw you sitting by the fire, charting the night sky. The moonlight caught you, and you looked so beautiful that it was hard to stop myself from falling for you then. And I did. That sketch I made of you came from the heart, and I was very much embarrassed when you discovered it.”
Twilight felt a pang of guilt. She had lost that sketch in the fire that had consumed her library, along with most everything else.
“The love I felt for you was different than the love I felt for Celestia. Hers was stately, grand, the love a common pony felt for an unattainable ideal, a paragon without equal. My love for you thrummed like violins, burned like lantern oil. I wanted to talk with you for hours, to bring you everything you could ever ask for to see what you’d do with it. Yours was raw, earthy. Hers was ethereal, like a sunrise. By the time we reached Canterlot, I was head over hooves in love with you, Twilight.”
Twilight felt her heart break, just a little. “Then why did you…”
“Betray you?” Morning Star asked gently. “Well, it wasn’t an easy choice. And at the end, I wasn’t sure if I could go through with it. Who do you turn to in that situation? If I hadn’t betrayed you, and out of nowhere Tarantella had come into your life, who would you have picked?”
Twilight didn’t have an answer for that.
Morning Star continued. “I contented myself with loving you, knowing that your time was short and that I would be able to spend as much time as I could with you. I would keep you ignorant to keep you happy, and raise your daughter the best way I could along with my other love, Celestia.”
“So you were going to love me until I was dead, and go back to Celestia?”
Morning Star looked at her disapprovingly. “It’s hardly that simple. To refer to the other scenario, what if Tarantella had only a year to live, and I was alright with you being in love with her, while she did not know about me?”
That threw things into relief for Twilight. If she were put into that sort of situation, she was unsure of how she would handle it. Some part of her was angry with Morning Star for suggesting that she was not the only pony he cared for, but another part of her reminded Twilight that in the same situation, she might very well have tried the same thing.
“So I continued loving you, both for Celestia and myself. Until one autumn afternoon, I showed up at your library early, with a bottle of red wine that had cost me a week’s pay at the Archives and the hope that you and Spike and I might be able to have an evening together. But you weren’t home, and I, being curious, found an opened door into the basement. I thought you had been working on something, and so I went downstairs. And I found another door to another basement that you had apparently neglected to tell the Princess about.”
Twilight winced a bit. There was no malice behind that gesture, it was only a small basement. She had never seen reason to bother the Princess with the details of her home improvement. When she had begun compiling evidence against the Princess, the space had come in handy. Nopony ever came down there except for her, and it was by Spike’s room, which meant if there was ever a break in, the dragon would be able to hear the intruder if they decided to investigate the basement for some reason.
“I found everything down there, Twilight. And I knew what it was, too. It was obvious you had been busy, and with only a few more pieces to the puzzle, you would have had the whole thing laid out in front of you. You had already found out about your heritage and Celestia’s role in it, and quite recently. I found the letter from a relative near the door when I went back upstairs and realized that you had gotten everything you needed, more or less. And I was so angry with you, Twilight.”
Morning Star took in a shuddering breath as they walked. The trees were growing larger, and smelled of pine spice and ozone. “You and your damned inquisitive mind had destroyed what little happiness you could have had left, and when you were inevitably brought before Celestia, the goddess I loved would ask me to break your heart. And I couldn’t do that to the mare I loved.”
His tone turned hard, and Twilight finally heard some of the Morning Star that still appeared in some of her nightmares. “So I forced myself to hate you. Right then and there, I forsook the love I had for you, and allied myself to Celestia completely. Because it would be easier for all of us if I did. Then you’d have no doubt that I would not save you, Celestia would see my loyalty, and I would no longer have to hurt a mare I loved. I made you into a target, and when Spike came home, I knocked him out and waited. The rest you know.”
“I died fighting for a cause I believed in, on the orders of the goddess I loved, fighting a mare that I despised. And when I woke up here, I cried until Mother found me, and brought me here.”
The party stopped, and Twilight’s eyes widened as she took in what was in front of her. The library was just as she remembered it, the leaves shimmering emerald in the light of the Aether’s strangely luminous sky. A coil of smoke unfurled lazily from the chimney, and the windows blazed with light. Twilight could smell woodsmoke and the baking of fresh bread from the inside. She turned to Morning Star and Golden Radiance.
“Is this where she’s been waiting? In my library?”
They both nodded. “We’ll be waiting out here for now.” Golden Radiance said. “You’ll see us both soon, don’t worry. But right now, it’s just you and her.”
Twilight swallowed. She was suddenly nervous, and for good reason. “What is…what is she like?”
Morning Star smiled. “She’s wonderful. Everything she does is in your best interests, and you can tell. But you’re going to have to make some tough choices. Now go on, she’s waiting for you.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded once, and knocked gently on the door.
“Come in!” a bright female voice called. “It’s unlocked, Twilight. You should know that, it’s your library!”
The little unicorn took a deep breath, and pushed the door. It swung open with a creak, and before she could lose her nerve, Twilight Sparkle stepped inside, closing the wooden door behind her.
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Second part coming soon.
Two updates in one day, or my mother is a goat.
fuck yes
Hey am the first one here cool.
If the chapter where everything is resolved isn't called check mate, with all the other chess related chapters so far I won't be happy. I don't care what the resolutions is, but it needs to be that name.
2598914
I think we'd all be disappointed. I was actually considering calling it "Yahtzee" just to mess with folks, but I'm trying to write a serious story here.
YES.
files.sharenator.com/for_the_love_of_god_MOAR-s450x516-138604.png
2598915 Surprised you haven't used the titles Stalemate and Fifty-Move rule. Though Fifty-Move doesn't fit yet I suppose.
2598922
There's never a stalemate in chess. Even if only two kings are left, eventually someone will slip up.
2598924 Stalemates can occur if the player can't make a legal move, and the king isn't in check. I don't know how common it is, but it does happen sometimes.
2598915 that would have been pretty funny, a missed opportunity in my opinion.
2598932
I hold by my earlier statement. Never a stalemate.
Damn morning star is still a huge asshole. i hope twilight kills him again.
2598937 With only two kings left it's still a draw but for different reasons. And though a stalemate in chess doesn't fit the textbook definition it's still a kind of stalemate.
I don't even know why I'm pressing the issue so much. You're the author, name the chapters whatever you want.
I think that Twilight is too forgiving. and they have forgotten Cadences manipulation of their emotions.
not that I'm saying that she has, but it is what it looks like from Twilight's perspective.
Totaly expecting Aether to be Fausticorn XD Looking forward to what happens next!
Even though he betrayed Twilight, I never really hated Morning Star. I had no explanation then, but I do now.
thecartdriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The_Major_Hellsing-460x258.jpg
2598996
ZEPPELINS!
2598998
so many fucking zeppelins
2598915 Please name it "Yahtzee" if you did, that would make my day.
Jeez, Morning Star is a mess, isn't he? Personally, I don't know what I would have done in his situation...
Backstory is always nice in long stories! Nice job.
Looking forward to Part Deux!
2598938
Not only an asshole, but an idiotic asshole with a god-size oedipus complex.
About Celestia´s plan, I actually see her as the opposite of this guy:
cafewitteveen.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/6b6gc.jpg?w=450&h=679
Is licit to remove the fruit of knowledge from the ponies to allow them to life in a paradise of delights and blissful ignorance? I think at least they should be allowed to make the choose by themselves, not Celestia. Besides:
I totally agree with Twilight here. One cannnot grow in a shell. Without opposition there is no grow or true learning, which is as close as the meaning of life as we can have.
It seems the only true flaw of the other species is merely they don´t have the "luck" (if can be considered as such) of having a god/goddess to look over them.
And I still think Celestia´s plan would turn the ponies into a bunch of weakling, indolent, retarded foals unable to accomplish anything significative by themselves, without an alicorn direct command. Reminds me to the situation on Paradise State on "A mighty Demonslayer grooms some ponies" under Queen Majesty´s rule, and how Megan was forced to put the ponies into shape to be able to prospect by themselves.
finally we get to hear morning star's side of things; i feel sorry for him, being a zealot in love, where your loved one needs to be sacrificed for the sake of your cause can't be easy, i don't think he was right by any means, but that all backtracks to celestia; she (and a few others i guess) is the one doing something wrong, and she is bringing others into it with glorious ideals and manipulation. although, what she does want isn't wrong in any way, but even if her basic 'end-result' is great, her means doesn't justify the end, the road to tartarus is paved with good intentions and all that.
and now twilight is about to meet Aether...one more to manipulate her...
2599026 That picture fits twilight very well in my opinion.
I'd rather be miserable and free than a contented ignorant slave.
2599049
You say that until you see the carefree and well-kept life of a privileged servant while you beg for scraps because you have no patron. When antagonists talk about the "freedom of slavery" in stories, they aren't being contradictory on purpose. You are liberated from choice, and therefore from consequence and responsibility. You are kept and cared for, and all that is asked is obedience.
There is a reason why they say ignorance is bliss. I'd be much happier if I didn't know some of the things I did.
At last, this is calm.
All Twilight has to do is complete her mission in this realm, and then she may return to the land of the living.
...but are the others who ended here as well?
Could they be bound to the Earth?
Awaiting further releases.
I loved the last chapter, i know its been apparent throughout the story but it just clicked (for me) how the recent development with Morning Star has kind of framed this as a straight up revolution between a rebel force (Duh) and a oppressive totalitarian government. i know its obvious but the whole stating that everyone would be happy, only ponies no other races. kind of cemented it down for me and i like that. i keep imagining Celestia as some kind of leader of a pony CCCP now.
2599086
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2599057 Its not really living if you have to spend your whole life obeying someone else's wishes, regardless of how you are treated.
2599092
I couldn't agree with you more. But do you see how some might desire that?
2598984 - I'm not sure either of them knows that Celestia manipulated their emotions/feelings via Cadence. I somehow doubt Morning Star would have had a problem with it at the time, but obviously Twilight would reject it. It's a love poison (that kills even) just a little bit slower.
Morning Star talks a good game, but still glazes over the important elements, freedom. I personally would most definitely reject Celestia's world, as did a great number of ponies, under even more difficult pretenses.
2599094 i suppose some people would desire that, not having to think or do anything for themselves.
In my opinion celestia's plan has already failed. You can't build a world of peace and prosperity with war.
War only brings more war.
2599152
Don't get me wrong. Ben Franklin once said that "Those who trade liberty for security deserve neither", and I wholeheartedly agree with that. But I can definitely see the appeal.
I feel like everyone is forgetting that "everything" is relative. What is good if bad does not exist? In a world where "bad" does not exist, neither will "good". It will just "be". Either that or the bad will simply change to something much more mundane like: "Aww, my friends didnt come to visit today thats so heartbreaking."
Or am I getting this wrong?
// Sphex
2599166
Most look at concepts like "good" and "evil" as polar, fixed opposites. I fix that by deciding to put actions on the scale of "ordered" and "chaotic", and letting others deal with the moral aspect. I have a personal code of ethics that I abide by, and if I see something that seems to me especially reprehensible, I will act to stop it. But to answer your question, yes. Things are not inherently good or evil. They simply are.
2599156
As I said before, it should be a personal, individual choice. Twilight, in your story, tried several time to make a peaceful compromise between the Everfree and Canterlot, similar to the one between the Oracle and the Architect at the end of Matrix: "those who choose to be free, will be free.". Celestia is simply to arrogant to accept anything else than complete victory, and the rule of "Harmony" over the entire world, which leaded to the present situation: a world at the verge of its destruction.
2599175
It's not arrogance. It is her fulfilling her role by attempting to assert Order over all else. She won't accept anything else.
Its interesting to see a why of actions, instead of their ending results. Yet, for this, discussion, something is very off in this in the viewpoint you present.
If he chose to equivalently put his mission before a love, how much of his action is based on his indoctrination, and how much is actually his own thought? Given his focus, his control, and his mission, he no matter what his own actions, he would have done this as a constant, a tool that was used, discarded by proxy for whatever reason so long as his life was spent in the pursuit of that goal. A bullet fired would have more free will than him. No matter how you disguise this by wordplay in his answers. He was preconditioned, and very likely bred, to obey, no matter what it was he was asked. His feelings in this case was truly meaningless.
That twilight takes an objection both in the stance as its put, a cynic, and opposed for personal reasons in the pursuit of 'free will' being there as her own supposed viewpoint. It falls flat, not out of her views, which have weight given experience, but that her opposing stance is so singularly aspected, that he cannot grasp anything she might say, beyond the words themselves. He has no perspective of what free will is, in meaning, life, or experience, as everything he was revolved around celestia and her commands. That he lived, yet never did, shows just how alien and perfect for celestia's desire he was.
But still, for the nitpicking, and it really is, a good chapter.
2599191
Exactly. You, my good friend, have stumbled upon something much larger than what I was planning to reveal. The point you have brought up has far-reaching consequences, and in fact reveals something about Morning Star that goes far beyond the boundaries of this story.
Of course, I'm not going to say what, exactly. That would be too easy.
Uhhhhh...this is by far my least favorite chapter in this entire Saga. Morning Star is a monster and should have just stayed dead and forgotten. This chapter felt like a desperate attempt by the author to retcon a villian into someone sympathetic, but his excuses are sociopathic, make me hate him more, and make me concerned about where this story is heading.
Airstream, from your comments it's clear you have the view that there is no good or evil and everything is relative, but this thinking is fundamentally flawed. There is good and evil, but terms you can more easily understand them in would be empathy and greed. If everyone in the world acted with empathy towards others before their own greed the world would be a utopia.
The one thing I've strongly disagreed with you about this entire story is that Celestia is only doing her duty of exacting perfect order, simply because there are many ways to interpret and go about trying to achieve this, and the way she is going about it is a psychotic route that many dictators would agree with.
2599247
I never intended for Morning Star to become likeable if you found him dislikeable. And believe me, along my moral compass, this guy is a pathetic pile of shit that doesn't deserve either Celestia or Twilight. But he needed a motive. He's a sociopath without doubt, but a skilled manipulator. He's playing off of Twilight's emotions to ensure his own ends, fulfilling his imperative to the last.
I assure you that his misguided "love" serves a greater purpose than a mere retcon. And I can assure you also that the reasoning for this whole conversation will become clear in the next chapter. I only ask your continued tolerance while I type it up.
In regards to your comment on good and evil, I tend to disagree. I hold the view that true altruism is in fact impossible, as others act in such a fashion to inflate their own self-worth or to gain recognition subconsciously. When Gordon Gekko said "greed is good", though he was talking of physical wealth, I believed him on a moral level. We all act for benefit. The trick is acting in a way that benefits others as well as yourself. Instead of putting empathy ahead of greed, work to make your greed empathetic.
And lastly, to the problem of Celestia. I could not agree more. The plan is psychotic, the cost much too high. But the payoff is guaranteed and the process foolproof past a certain point (i.e. conception). To someone who does not think the way we do, the personification of Order, this might seem a very reasonable means to an end. It really all depends.
2599281
Ahh that clears up a lot and gives me a much more optimistic outlook on this story, thanks for replying, can't wait to see Twilight go super saiyan(hopefully).
2599320
I feel bad whenever I have to do that. I should be able to convey this sort of thing in the story, but it seems that I fail to on occasion.
And yes, Twilight will be back, and she will kick much more ass than she has already. But I can guarantee that we will not see a new Alicorn. This I swear.
I had to read this chapter twice in order to really understand what Morning Star was really trying to say to Twilight. And quite frankly I have to congratulate you Airstream because your character just made it onto my top 10 lists of ponies I really hate!
He wants to be forgiven by Twilight, and asks this by accusing all evil that happened during the war on Twilight rebelling against Celestia. Since they were going to have a brainwashed paradise if everything had gone to plan, all Twilight had to do was give up her own life and everything would be dandy! After all… The ponies wouldn't be brainwashed for all eternity, only until they were on able to think freely even if given the chance to do so.
Then Morning Star goes on telling her that he is completely justified in trying to murder her since he actually loved Celestia more than her, and the only reason things turned out wrong, was that Twilight was so damned inquisitive and managed to figure everything out before she was impregnated. Which really made him disappointed in her, since Twilight didn't seem to understand just how much it would pain him to have two fuck her against her will, he would probably have trouble sleeping for a couple of days at least! I mean it was also perfect; he was going to fuck her, then make Twilight last nine months really lovely, then take their child when she died and go back to Celestia and raise their daughter together with her. I mean can't Twilight see how selfish she is; Celestia and everyone else who were still alive were all going to singing Twilight´s praises while she faded into the history books…
Well what a lovely sentiment!!! Sign me up at once!!! I would really like to ask that asshole one thing, if he was the one to be fucked and killed, would he have been as eager to go through with it as he was now when he was left alive and well.
I mean in the end Morning Star sums it up pretty good himself: “I died fighting for a cause I believed in, on the orders of the goddess I loved, fighting a mare that I despised.”
And with this sentence he demands that Twilight should be the bigger pony and see it from his point of view, and therefore forgive him all his wrongdoings and let him enjoy some kind of afterlife. Because that is what I think is on the line here, he had to wait for Twilight and ask for her forgiveness, if she gives it he is home free, if not he is probably off to some kind of hell… And all I can say to that is… I've brought veggie burgers!!! Anyone else feel like having an eternal barbecue!!!
2599335
Welcome to Airstream's account. We make monsters made to order, and we guarantee your loathing.
And the pregnancy for ponies is eleven months.
Again, what you see of Morning Star is only the beginning. You're seeing small parts, parts that echo now and will continue to echo through centuries.
By the time I'm through, you're going to curse his name like it should be cursed. You think you hate him now?
You don't know hate.
2599199
Well, for all the problems celestia has, in her view of order, none are bad, really. Its the means to get there that give to such monstrosity. She wants peace, security, growth, and prosperity, and yes, the dubious one amongst them, her sole control still at the helm. How she approaches that, morally, is very much something that speaks to what kind and shade of order she seeks.
Yet, celestia, has fallen for a very insidious trap of thought, in the prey of language, but in a second. First to speak of the subjective and perspective nature of abstracts that are touched on here. As morning star so clearly shows, he fully believes even in death, from his perspective, that celestia is still right. His life, if you could call it that, was to most of us, yes, monstrous, but subjectively, he lived in his own views, a full one. And on both sides of the thing, what he did, was clear and concise, and we as the readers, really do likely feel he got off lighter than he should have if such was the intention of how you wrote these words to shape the nature of thought. Twilight, yes, has dealt with her own share of things in this same vein as morningstar, yet, she had to deal with the aspect of his own fallout, and celestia's snares in the aftereffect.
As for celestia, what I would guess, and where and why she is neither right, or wrong, good or evil, but in her views, seeking a conclusion. Is the how she defines "order." And yes, while its a very vague term, its not good or evil, even moral, but a subjective, and perspectively based abstract concept. We even now, everyone has a way they define order, chaos, good, evil. Yet, order is in of itself, not biased, but applied in how its acted upon by those who choose its defining characteristics. The trap of many an immortal in cases, is that they come to see order, chaos, good, evil, as something they have mastery over in a form, in this case, celestia's "order" to be her unquestioned rule for what she perceives in her life and experience as best from the nature of how things were at certain times of equine history. And this is where she comes across as so monstrous. Her experience colors her much more harshly to control, and where her viewpoint at my own guess, celestia has come to see order and control interchangeably intertwined.
I may be incorrect in this, but it had me thinking when you replied, how a language really works, and how we are a product of our enviroment, and what is right or wrong to us is based on our inner struggle against the abstracts as we define them, and act upon them as well.
2599346
Intriguing... I can see you going for the number one spot here with Morning Star.
Also I just learned that ponies are apparently pregnant for 11 months, to which I say thank you for the information, I did not know that.
2599281
Sounds like the final part of Deus Ex Human Revolution, when the three representatives of each choice wanted to convince Jensen, before the point when Eliza Cassan offered him the power to change the world or not.
I am wrong, right?
Morning Star playing the Woobie card. Ain't gonna work on me. Already believe that Celestia's plan would deny future generations the magic of friendship, as ironic as that sounds.
2599366
More wrong than you think but more correct than you realize.
2599365
THE MORE YOU KNOW, BITCHES!