//------------------------------// // 1 - Ancient History // Story: The Chambermaid // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Celestia’s Study, Canterlot - Equestria 18th of Megan, 4,676 RH - 519 years ago Princess Celestia stood within her den, overlooking the young city of Canterlot. Or rather, the three hundred-year-old city of Canterlot. Young is a relative term. For the average pony, their grandparent who would be passing on any day now saw the city being built as a foal. For Celestia, the city had begun construction a mere decade ago. Relatively speaking of course. A few centuries are nothing to a pony whose life had already spanned over a millennium. Today’s sunrise had been a special occasion for Canterlot, for it was the first time the sun shown on the completed city. While the walls, homes, streets, and the plumbing had all been finished long ago the last roof of the last building had finally been tiled with gold. Celestia’s grand vision of Canterlot City, sprawling down the mountainside centered around the old Cathedral turned palace, was at last a reality. The enormous expense of matching the city’s rooftops to the ancient cathedral delayed the project no more. The sun reflected in a thousand golden mirrors, their light making the Royal Palace seem to glow with a light of its own. Celestia smiled happily, drinking in the beauty of the ivory and gold city below her. Canterlot could now truly be called an architectural wonder. A place for other monarchs to envy, a mirror to reflect Equestria’s wealth. The glory and prestige of a palace extended to an entire city of one million ponies. “Your move, Drake,” Celestia said triumphantly to herself. She was certain she had won her little game of one-upmareship with the draconic nation. If the current Burninator could somehow create a more magnificent wonder of the world, well, she had no idea what she could do. Aside from be impressed. As it stood, her city was a true marvel of engineering, architecture, thaumaturgy, and art. Truly a creation to be proud of. Unfortunately, Celestia had shame to deal with as well. Turning away from her bay window with an irritable sigh, Princess Celestia crossed the short distance to her walnut rolltop desk and sat down. She might as well write her apology to Duke Brightmane instead of continuing her procrastination. Taking her gold-dipped quill in her telekinetic grip Celestia tapped it against her chin in thought, staring into the wood grain of her cherry paneled walls. Composing this letter would be hard. It was one thing to apologize for one’s own actions, but entirely another to have to apologize for those of a vassal. When you own a mistake, rather than commit it yourself, there is anger to deal with as well as regret. Keeping the venom out of her letter was Celestia’s top priority. As Equestria’s monarch, merely hinting with a vague context that she might take some position or action could have disastrous political outcomes. Closing her eyes, Celestia sighed in frustration. “Faust’s mane, Cadence… Why did you have to bed his daughter?” she moaned. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the young mare were not in an arranged marriage. Then she could simply arrange for Lady Cadence and the Duke’s daughter to marry, play it off as some kind of clandestine romance, and appease the family by tieing them closer to the throne. Unfortunately, the Duke stood to gain several thousand hectares of land from his daughter’s marriage… And Cadence’s affections had not been exactly standard. Or decent. No matter how much Cadence insisted her ‘partner’ had asked if they could engage in that particular carnal delight, and that she didn’t enjoy the act herself until she had seen the other mare for the first time, Celestia still had to work out what to do politically. “I told you to forgo romantic interests until everypony was used to a second Alicorn,” Celestia fumed out loud. Celestia knew that Cadence’s memory wasn’t so poor as to forget the rules after only one month of being an alicorn. She had broken them intentionally. But why? Standing up, the immortal ruler began to pace her den, hooves clicking against the marble floors rhythmically as she plotted what to do now that the instability created by Cadence’s ascension was worsened. Recalling Cadence’s insistence that she had not even thought about the act before and had no intention of bedding the mare, Celestia stopped. “I could pass it off as an attempt at mind control by foreign spies,” she mused briefly. Celestia often found speaking her thoughts out loud helped her analyse them. Especially when she was stressed. No, it would never work. She’d already checked for signs of mental control herself and found none. Her own report was already on file, and covering the report up would cast doubt on the story. “Perhaps,” Celestia mused further, “I could offer some form of compensation to both houses involved in the arranged marriage, getting them to agree to cancel it, and proceed with a wedding between Cadence and whatever the other’s name is?” The double doors to Celestia’s den flew open with twin thuds, propelled by a bright flash of yellow light. Celestia whirled, startled, ready to fire a thousand spellbolts into what she assumed was an assassin. Only the jingling of a dozen brass bells saved the ‘intruder’s life. “Celestia! It’s not her fault!” Starswirl exclaimed loudly enough to wake anypony still asleep on this floor of the palace. The ancient bearded wizard looked worse for wear. His starry cloak and peaked bell-covered hat needed a wash, his gray fur reeked of sweat, his hooves were stained with four colors of ink, and his yellow eyes had heavy bags hanging beneath them. “Starswirl! I almost shot you,” Celestia exclaimed in a near panic. “If you didn’t have those bells on-” “Nevermind that triviality,” Starswirl said dismissively as he walked over to Celestia’s desk. Producing a small pile of notebooks, scrolls, and scrap bits of parchment from beneath his cloak, Starswirl dropped the assorted notes onto their desk and immediately spread them out, sweeping the desk’s surface clean with his magic. The two ponies had spent more time together than anyone other than Celestia’s long since banished sister could ever understand. Starswirl had practically raised her, even finding a means of prolonging his life to continue teaching his old apprentice after Celestia had ascended and become an Alicorn. To Celestia, the fast, practically desperate movements Starswirl used while he organized all of the notes into a presentable arrangement could only mean one thing. “Did we have a breakthrough?” Celestia asked, the wizard’s urgency presumably due to at least having made some progress on their greatest project of this century. “No! We have hit a dead end,” Starswirl cursed, his inflection turning ‘dead end’ into an expletive. Celestia's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with irritation. “Impossible! We can’t possibly be prevented from finishing a production model. You were able to transform Cadence, your version of the ascension spell works! It has to be duplicatable via enchantment, that’s a basic law of Thaumaturgic Physics!” “Oh, it’s replicable alright. I have a prototype on my workbench. But this project is over!” Starswirl stated adamantly. Before Celestia could ask why, the wizard pointed to a scrap of paper on the desk. “This is the part which bypasses the need for a hero’s heart and a keen mind. It’s the root of the problem,” he informed. Celestia frowned. “We can’t remove that,” she said flatly. “The entire point of this project is to have a brigade of alicorns. You and I know how long Clover spent looking for anypony else besides, L-Lu… My sister and I. We need an elite force to counter the Prench if their Steward does decide to overturn traditions and declare war… You know once they start warring they won’t stop.” Celestia sat down on the floor, holding her head in her hooves. Her sister had been right. Sometimes violence was unavoidable. “I- We need an army none would ever wish to challenge, Starswirl. How else can we have permanent peace?” “We’ll have to find another way because this project ends now,” Starswirl said firmly, unswayed by Celestia’s morose mood. “By removing the requirements Clover put into the spell, you create extremely detrimental side effects. It alters the bond between alicorn and element in the worst possible way.” Celestia frowned oddly. “But you said you foresaw success, that this spell would be finished,” she protested. “I did… But I have not foreseen when, how, or who would finish it. It is clear now that it is not now, not by this method, and not by me. If I had Clover’s spellbook to reference, perhaps I could. But this spell,” Starswirl said, thumping the cover of the leather book, “is as close as I can get to my wife’s original. And it removes the alicorn’s agency in regards to their element.” Celestia’s eyes widened. She hadn't expected the wizard to say that. “Come again?” Starswirl sighed and pointed to a scroll with one hoof. “Look here, this is the segment which amplifies the recipient's special talent, binding it to the closest possible natural force. Notice this part here? The influence flows both ways, too and from the force itself.” “But how does that ‘remove agency’?” Celestia asked, bending over to read through the spell for herself. “I’ll explain this to you with a pertinent example for a certain recent scandal,” Starswirl decided. “When Cadence insisted she had no intentions of inserting her hooves into Miss Lilac’s rear, I checked to see if the mental shielding she should have was working correctly. It was, but she still insisted she was compelled to bed Miss Lilac, as she knew that the mare wished to copulate with her greatly, and Cadence felt she could not decline. “I decided to ask her again under the influence of a truth-seeking spell. Cadence is not lying about being compelled to an irresistible degree. I concluded that since her special talent was helping others find their passions, and since her alicorn amplified talent grants her the ability to sense and influence the bonds of love itself, that something must have gone wrong with the ascension spell. “And that is exactly what happened! Cadence not only can sense and influence others passions, but she HAS to! You could choose to not raise the sun one morning, Celestia. You can choose to not channel its power to bolster your strength. Cadence cannot, because her very power reaches back through the link and forces her to do what it allows her to.” Celestia’s jaw dropped in horror. “Are you telling me we’ve destroyed her free will completely!?” Starswirl shook his head. “No, not completely,” he said with a long sigh. “She can still choose what to eat, where to go, what to say, who to be within a given moment… But she can’t ignore the passions of those around her. Fortunately, it’s only whatever they are the most passionate about, which isn’t always something kink- I mean ‘unseamly’. “For example, right now she’s been happily chatting with your baker about cake for the last two hours. We both know that Cadence never cared about baking or anything other than physical contests in her life. Your baker’s passion for baking fills Cadence’s mind and she needs to help her improve or fulfill that passion. She’s having the baker give her a crash course in how to make a cake so she can try and help her improve her craft! “Cadence can’t choose to not share the passions of anypony within her empathic range with as much love as they themselves have for their passion. Gods help us if she gets within empathic range of a serial killer!” Celestia stood up closing her eyes and hanging her head in a mixture of regret and sympathy. “Can we change her back?” She asked hopefully. “No,” Starswirl said hard enough to leave no doubt. “I already tried to find a way. The ascension is irreversible.” “Is there anything at all we can do? I- I’m not against altering someone's mind to turn them away from evil but this… This is cruel,” Celestia said firmly. “It is cruel. But fortunately I can do something,” Starswirl agreed. “I have an idea for some small charms to limit her empathic range and allow her to ignore a love of evil. I won't be able to do more than afford her a small measure of self-control. She’ll be free to choose whether or not to help the average pony, but anytime she gets near somepony who exuberantly loves their craft, trade, art, or what have you, they won't be of any help.” Celestia’s ears perked, hope for her pet project’s continuation rushing into her heart as if a dam had burst. “Could we do something similar for everypony we might-” “NO!” Starswirl snapped. “I refuse to damage anypony else in this manner. I told you this was a bad idea from the beginning. I’ve only gone along with it because you are right, we do need a better army. But when you pile this atop the other reasons such an army could backfire on us, the project is simply too dangerous to continue. “I am burning these notes, Celestia. The prototype I constructed is going to be mothballed in my old lab in case for whatever reason we do need them one day. I feel that they will have use in the future, but I am uncertain how, when, or where. But in all other respects, we are done with this… This travesty!” Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly along with her crushed dreams. “Alright, if you think that’s best,” she lamented. “However, you did say you KNOW that spell will be completed. Right?” Starswirl paused, frowning urgently. “Celestia… Don’t.” “I want you to take that book, and copy it,” Celestia ordered. “The copy should emphasize the spell is incomplete and detail the problem as best you can manage. You will then give the copy to me and I will keep it for the day when whoever you’ve foreseen finishing the spell correctly is born. You may destroy everything else. Including the original book when you are finished.” Starswirl sighed slowly. “Celestia… It’s best to drop this entirely. I’m warning you, there are very few possible good outcomes from this action,” Starswirl warned, his arcane foresight screaming warnings at him. “I won’t use it to create an army,” Celestia promised. “But… I-I need a companion.” “Luna will not be gone forever,” Starswirl reminded. “But she may never forgive me… And you still age, one day you will be gone,” Celestia said, doing her best to prevent her heavy heart from showing too much. “I need a friend who can be with me forever, or who knows, perhaps one day I’ll finally want to start a family. I couldn’t ever do that with a mortal. “I’ll never use this spell to create an army. But if I ever find a suitable champion, or a pony I trust enough to govern a portion of our expanding kingdom, or somepony I love… That’s all I will use it for. You have my word.” Starswirl sighed slowly, mulling the idea over and using his dimming foresight to examine the outcomes as best he could. “Very well…” Starswirl decided. “There is one pony I can see who would indeed be a good wife for you-” “I’m not my sister, Starswirl,” Celestia reminded, raising an eyebrow. “You’ll feel differently about her,” the wizard guaranteed. “Everypony has an exception to their norm. I once stumbled across a colt I rather fancied in Trottingham. In this case, your feelings for her eventually turn romantic after her husband dies and you are unable to handle seeing her in such dispa-” “Fine, fine, just… Copy the spell,” Celestia interrupted, shuddering at the thought of being with another mare. Starswirl smiled mischievously, always loving finding a potential future that would bother somepony he was upset with. It was the wizard's way of getting even, even if the odds were prohibitively high. “It’s only a possible future, Celestia. Not a guarantee. I need to help Cadence now, you’ll have your book within a week,” Starswirl said, collecting his notes and the old spellbook with his magic before simply leaving without a goodbye as he always did. “Faust’s blood… What am I going to do now?!” Celestia demanded angrily, returning to her desk to try and come up with a replacement plan for her now impossible Elite Alicorn Guard.