Zero
The Shattered Halo
~By Sabre
A thick pile of aged-yellow parchments smacked with an airy thud in front of Celestia’s throne, scattering tiny flecks of long-lived dust into the air. With a single, raised eyebrow, she beheld the lone visitor that had heaved the letters up the steps and onto her dais.
“What is this?” she asked calmly. A quick glance down at the words on the paper sent her heart into a spasm and she did her best not to show it on her face.
No… Is she?
“Propaganda, your highness. I found it under Twilight’s bed this morning.” The figure's voice was even, and held no remorse or regret for resigning the unicorn to a grim fate. Celestia nodded slowly and almost unsure at the figure before her.
“Very... well, Spike. You were right to bring this to me.” She emitted a slight sigh. A stillness held over in the lonesome early-morning court as the dragon stood silently and at attention. “I didn't want to do this, but I think it’s time for Twilight to be given her halo. Please, bring her to the edge of Everfree forest so we may do what needs to be done.”
Spike merely bowed severely, and, coming up, rested his eyes upon his princesses’ own. The private emerald fire they normally held was gone. In its place stood a fume of misty-grey indifference.
“As you wish, Princess.” Spike scuffled off, and shut the heavy door with a quiet crash.
Celestia shot a glance down at the stack of parchment before her, and read the words scrawled across the top page with a discerning eye:
Royal Lies, Political Intrigue, and Bloodlines Forged in Falsehood. Sister, merely an Ignorant Pawn. Magic: a hocus-pocus belief in a power greater than anypony could understand. Why should we listen to the lies she is telling us all!?
Celestia had read more than enough. Muttering a quick incantation, she sneered quietly as the stack of dry papers alit instantly with a purple breath of dark magic. Edges burned hot first, and curled up into themselves like the slain body of a dead spider, drawing fire’s unstoppable cascade into the center before the entire pile became a quiet, smoldering mess. From out of the corner of black ash stood the mercifully unburned section of words that had been scribbled in a flowing, magical hand.
“—re lies! Lies! The Princess has deceived us all, and only together, can we possibly stop—"
A heavy, gilded hoof stamped upon the scorched paper, silencing the letters that screamed out one last, final time.
- - - - - ҉- - - - -
“We're here, Twilight!”
"Finally, Spike." A brief pause held in the frigid pre-winter air. "What's in there?"
"I don't know, Twilight! You know how the Princess likes to make compulsory visits to Ponyville every once in awhile? Well I followed her here one day, and this is where she ends up every time."
"It seems like the last place I would want to go to get deep information on Princess Celestia, Spike."
"Look, I'll be right behind you, okay?"
"Okay, Spike. Just hurry up and get it open. It's freezing out here, and I have...er, work I wanted to do."
"Right, I know, just go ahead and—"
The door snapped shut behind the unicorn as Spike’s voice cut off, emitting a prolapsed breath from Twilight’s already agape mouth.
"Spike? Spike!" Twilight cried as the hish-clack of a bolt fell behind the heavy metal door. A press of a shaking hoof against the cold metal revealed that the entry had been rendered immobile. "What's going on! Hello!?" The unicorn bashed her entire body against the door frantically, but was repaid with nothing but a sorely jarred shoulder. With a shocked and confused look, Twilight turned to behold the darkness before her. Inside the dank room, the chill was unbearable. It was a frigid ice box, set in stone and painted in the corners with hideous shadows.
Moonlight ripped through the frosted windows and bled across the dirt floor in oblong pools of mercury. Reciting a trivial incantation through chattering teeth, Twilight felt, more than heard, a slight pop at her cranium, and reeled somewhat as her eyes attempted to adjust to the light she had just produced.
With a grimace, though, she quickly turned it off with another brief mumble. The light she had produced had only revealed a thick haze of dust and debris floating about the air. Leaving her magical torch smothered for now would allow her the best view, though it was still just as poor as the moonlight that sopped thickly along the ground.
The little unicorn let out another strangled breath and watched as the vapor mixed with the dusty air, almost blinding her in a fog within the horribly ill light.
“Hello?” she squeaked out into the long building.
Not a single response gave her the benefit of some comfort. Even the chirping of crickets had ceased, or at least seemed to, here within the long, desolate shed. Where was Spike? What's going on?
The silence was cloying, and she almost begged aloud for something to make a sound. Catching herself, she felt her heart skip a beat as she heard a ticking coming from the far end of the long shed.
No, no, nothing there. It sounds like a clock… But it can’t be. The intervals between each tic are too uneven…
She grimaced in the poor lighting at her own thoughts. It seemed that they simply betrayed her own conscious reasoning. Why was everything so strange recently? And what about her friends?
They had been acting seriously odd, ever since she had tried telling them about her discovery of the Princess' lies. All of them had stormed off, unbelieving. But now, she would find the answers. Twilight knew they were here, her gut told her so... This was it.
The final test.
As she shuffled inside, kicking up even more dust, a harsh kra-chunk was heard, like the flipping of some gigantic power breaker.
Suddenly, an arc of white lightning jumped from one orb to another right across the room. Lighting up the dusty expanse, the spheres crackled and spit with a harsh electronic squeal, and coalesced into a horrifying cacophony of sparkling lights. Twilight felt her eyes widen painfully at the lurid display, and covered her ears as the intense noise even threatened to draw blood from her sensitive aural complex.
Finally, the maelstrom of light cooled, and left the room buzzing in a harsh blue light. The static energy seemed to have cleansed the very air, scrubbing it free of nasty airborne particles and leaving behind an ozone-like tang that caught on her tongue disgustingly. A swelling, throbbing sound emitted from the far end: a welcome relief to the horrible screeching of air-shattering electrons.
Wincing against the glare of the brilliant orbs, she spotted something on the edges of the room, just outside light’s reach…
With a gasp, she realized they were the forms of five ponies. With another look of horror, she recognized that they were her five friends, all shuffling slowly into the cold ray of electronic light.
Their eyes were glazed and pearlescent, and all their distinctive color was lost to a mist of grey indifference. Each pony’s mouth was twisted into a cruel sneer, and they looked onto her, almost past her, in the same disturbing look as the next.
Backing up, Twilight was only allowed several quick steps before she hit her rump on the metal door of the shed, and slid down it as the forms’ mouths opened up to speak. What they had to say, she could only hazard a guess.
Sucking in a shallow breath, Rainbow Dash uttered a few words, unemotional and unadorned.
“Knowledge is in my hooves.” A smug look replaced her sneer of contempt as she looked on Twilight.
Pinkie spoke next, directly across from the pegasus, buried in shadow. Her voice was just as flat and unemotional, as well.
“Knowledge is in my head.” At this, she seemed to skip slightly, and then stopped herself with a scowl, as if realizing this were bad.
“Knowledge is in the trigger,” came Applejack’s voice. Twilight noticed for a brief moment that her rustic accent was lost in her cold tone.
“Knowledge is beyond the dead.” This time it was Fluttershy. Her detached voice seemed in horrible contrast to her normally bucolic demeanor. Twilight noticed that the buttery-tinted pegasus was not cowering, as she was usually found to be in situations like this.
“Knowledge is in the warning,” Rarity mumbled from the opposite side of the light. With an odd look, Twilight recognized that the white unicorn’s natural charm seemed lifted right off her body. With a shock, she realized that the majority of her allure was in her pose. The prissy mare’s usual grace was left a dead husk in the threatening manner that she now held her body towards her frightened friend.
“Knowledge is in the threat.” This time, Twilight did not recognize the sixth voice. Her face dropped into strangled confusion, and then ripped right in half to reveal bitter anguish as she saw who the voice belonged to.
Princess Celestia herself stepped forth from between the orbs of light at the far end of the shed. Her pastel mane was dead, immobile; it hung at her side in a strange and alien way as the untouchable breeze that wafted it ever-so-gently had disappeared. The pearlescent alicorn had disregarded her usual trappings of royalty: crown, boots, and necklace had been tossed away. For what, though, Twilight could barely hazard a guess. She had never seen the princess without these adornments before.
She seemed, now, so plain. So...
Hollow.
“Hello, my faithful student,” came the Princess’s calm voice. It was a welcome break in a storm of unfamiliarity, upset, and ostracism.
“Princess!” the frantic unicorn breathed, eyes begging for an answer. “What in Equestria is going on!?” she asked, almost completely at a loss for words. Nothing was making sense. She had to get some answer out of her beloved mentor. Something that would give some sort of insight into this weird occurrence!
The alicorn merely smiled at her student’s confusion. The expression did not hold any sympathy, though. It was a crack across her face that betrayed a malicious and abusive intent. Twilight reeled slightly at the punishing gesture.
What was going on!? her frightened mind screamed in protest.
The urge to scream out loud was killing her. All this, was it because of her pursuit of knowledge? Because she had questioned the Princess’ words? Had told others to do the same?
Maybe it was her own fault. She had wanted to find out what the hidden knowledge was. True knowledge. And this, she realized with a sinking feeling, was the dire cost.
“A half-a-bit for your epiphany, my dear?” came Celestia’s dulcet voice. Twilight merely blinked in a model of surprise at her teacher’s question.
“I…” she began, unsure of where to start. Swallowing hard, she decided to jump straight into it. There was no sense burning time now.
“This is my punishment, isn’t it?” she asked shakily. As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted ever having said them. It seemed that merely admitting to this, she had damned herself to the flames of some unseen torture.
Celestia merely nodded curtly in response.
“I’m afraid so, my little filly.” There was no remorse in the voice whatsoever. “You see,” she went on calmly, “what sort of teacher would I be if my faithful student decided she could go off questioning everything I have strived to put in place? Now, I know you’ve been planning to spread some nasty rumors about me.” Her face lit up as Twilight’s fell in absolute horror, but a mere flicker of disapproval alit upon her mask. The look melted away into calm vicariousness as her eyes flashed to some private memory…
“No more problems from you, though. We can say that with a heavy amount of surety, seeing as I have burned those documents you tried hiding under the bed. The last remnants of just a shadow of a lie left in Equestria. And I will tell you now, my little pony: there are no shadows in the full glare of the sun.” Her laugh twinkled inside the long shed, though it snagged in the filthy rafters in a very unflattering way. Twilight grimaced at the sound.
“You see, Twilight Sparkle, I have put far too much time and effort grooming you to allow you to just go off questioning my laws willy-nilly. So, it seems I’ve had to get your friends in place, so that they could help me to get you to come here.” With this, she indicated the five ponies with a delicate nod of her head, and smiled at the door that stood like an impenetrable sentinel behind Twilight’s shivering form to indicate the very dragon that had led the unicorn here.
“And my, what a help they have been! I have to say, at the beginning of all this, I had my doubts, but they turned you into something I can absolutely be proud of. Well,” she added, her face dropping in minor irritation, “except for more recently. But don’t worry, my dear, we’re here to fix that nasty habit of curiosity you have.” Another cruel smile split across the mare’s face, beaming down on Twilight with a radiant black light that seemed to rival that of the hissing globes which glowed behind her.
“Wait, I… What?” Twilight stammered, not sure what to make of what the Princess had just said. What she was saying was… ‘Grooming her?’ Getting her friends ‘in place?’ No, it couldn’t be.
Could it?
Celestia merely laughed again as her student fumbled around numbly at her feet.
“You give yourself far less credit than you really should, Twilight. Your thoughts are right, of course. Everypony you have befriended in Ponyville, and even beyond, every foe and equal match, they are all pawns of mine. You honestly think I would send my star pupil out to the random country to ‘make friends?’” She shook her head morbidly as a disapproving frown spread across her lips. Twilight merely stared on, face blank and mouth agape in shock. “I honestly thought my own student would have more common sense than that.”
“I… I don’t-” she started, but was cut off harshly by the princess’ slight groan.
“They were tokens, Twilight. Mere ragdolls to be used and discarded as I saw fit, in order to test and strain your magical abilities. Everypony here,” she said, indicating with an unadorned hoof, “is a very loyal subject of mine. They live and breathe my word, Twilight. Everything I say, they absorb. It seems they have failed me somewhat, as of recent,” she added, and shot them all a cruel frown, though none of them even flinched at her harsh gaze. Celestia merely let out a sigh, as though she were appreciating a finely sculpted statue that had been ruined by one wrong chip of the hammer. “But they are still useful. The others, though, you certainly won’t be seeing them again.” With this, she let out another bitter laugh.
Twilight was stuck in mental anguish. A thought bubbled up to consciousness, and she merely squeaked out a single, curious question.
“The others?”
“Oh, yes!” Celestia said, clapping her hooves together in a mocking sense of recollection. “They served a purpose, all of them. ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie?’ Please. Merely a puppet I sent out to test your patience and magical skill. Discord was an interesting challenge, though, I must admit,” she mused, eyes settling far off as another smile split her features. “But, he was the easiest one to piece together yet. A few spare parts, a catchy story, and a ridiculous mission made the perfect character to test against your will and personal strength. Your friends here,” she said, indicating with a slight wave of her hoof, “merely did what I told them. It was easy enough to reprogram how they thought, and make you think they were ‘turned against you.’ And, ah! what a brilliant lesson it was,” she said. Her smile returned, and she looked down on Twilight with cool eyes.
A fire sprung up suddenly. The placid eyes were lakes of untamed flame, and doom seemed spelled on Celestia’s face in a hideously uncharacteristic fashion.
“But now it seems you’ve gone and ruined the lot of it!” she cried, her voice holding the estranged sensation of a banshee’s wail. “Why, Twilight? Why did you betray me? Why are you so adamant to forsake your teacher?”
“I…” Twilight began, mind fried in pure panic. “I just…I don’t know!” the mare cried out, completely unsure of anything that was going on. Tears streamed down her face as great wracking sobs rocked her body. “I just wanted to know the truth, wanted everypony to know some sort of truth! I thought I could handle it, but now, oh I can’t even fathom what in Equestria it was I was looking for. I just, I don’t know anymore,” she sobbed. Celestia merely nodded down on her deplorable student as a steady smile spread across her pearly white face. This time, it held an enigmatic mixture of pleasure and pain.
“It’s okay, Twilight. Your friends and I will help to change you back. No more curious thoughts and wandering eyes, you understand?” Twilight merely nodded dumbly, not having any idea what it was her mentor was talking about. Anything to get out of this mess suited her just fine. Hours of late-night writing and sneaking into archives had left her body with a bare minimum of sleep, and the biting cold of the shed was starting to take its toll on both mind and body.
“Now, girls,” the princess continued, addressing the zombie-like ponies that stood around her, “let’s tell Twilight what true knowledge really is.” Her eyes alighted on her cowering student, who flinched as her friend’s voices coalesced into a single, morose tone in the darkness of the long shed.
“Knowledge is freedom. Knowledge is truth. Knowledge is power, and it is proof. Knowledge is passion, and knowledge is fame,” the ponies sung out in eerie voices. Twilight shivered at the unanimity of their tone.
“True Knowledge gives meaning. False knowledge gives pain.”
The friend’s harmony seemed to pick up. Each pony seemed to retrieve their own distinct personality through their voice as they sung on.
“You can be right like me, with an ace in the hole, you’re a righteous soul! I’ve got a halo around my head. What have you got?” each one asked, their harsh gaze hardening as they looked on Twilight.
“I’m not the same as you.” The sentence was a profanity, spat out in aggravated disgust. Each voice picked up in emotion as they continued on.
“I’ve seen the light, and I’m getting in. I’ve got a halo around my head!”
With this, they all began moving in on their frightened friend. Twilight let out a slight scream as they advanced on her, grabbing her by the neck and legs, and began to drag her up to the two orbs that crackled away far in front of her. They stopped, however, at Celestia’s feet.
A multitude of hooves grabbed Twilight roughly by the head and mane, and snapped her neck forward to look up onto the vicious form of her princess, whose long face was framed disturbingly by the blue light. The alicorn merely looked down on her student, her features painted long and grotesque, and lips pouting in an odd sensation of curious questioning.
“It looks like we’re going to have to put a halo around that head of yours, my dear,” Celestia remarked, and looked deep into the unicorn’s wide eyes with a horrible, soul-rending and breath-taking force.
Twilight felt a stabbing fear that raked her entrails with icy talons. Feeling a breaking point, she lost consciousness and dissolved into unmaterialistic darkness.
- - - - - ҉- - - - -
A steaming little cup of tea sat in front of Twilight. Picking it up with a glimmer of magic, she sipped it politely, and glanced over to look at Luna, whose long, starry mane was sweeping gently in an unseen breeze and spilling across the table. The alicorn placed down the tea biscuit that she had been nibbling on, and opened her mouth to speak.
“So, Twilight, how was your vacation to Fillydelphia? Did you enjoy everything there?” she asked smoothly. Twilight merely smiled behind her cup, and settled it down. As she dredged up memories of the trip, a slight buzzing preceded an answer. Thoughts became muddled, and vibrant, almost caricature-like images popped up in her mind's eye like a slideshow of somepony’s summer trip to Manehattan. She opened her mouth, but felt the odd sensation that the words that came out next were not her own.
“Oh, yes. Simply delightful! I saw so many fun things, you wouldn’t even believe it, Luna.” She smiled again, and picked up her tea to drink daintily from it. Luna merely raised an eyebrow.
“Like what, Twilight?”
A screeching sound ripped into her mind: NO NO NO NO NO NO, over and over again. With a twitch of her eye, Twilight merely responded calmly.
“Oh, you know. Fun things, Luna!” Another sip, and she emptied her cup. “I’m going to go get more tea, okay Luna?” Without waiting for a reply, she jumped out of her seat and clopped out of the little tea parlor’s dining room to get more teabags from an attendant.
Luna merely smirked as she looked out the window, and decided it would only be best to overlook whatever it was that had happened to the little unicorn and Celestia while the pair was on “vacation.”
It was best never to question anything that had to do with her sister. Not anymore.