//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Familiar // by GaPJaxie //------------------------------// Canterlot Palace was more than just a building. It was the tree of life. It was the pillar around which the world revolved. It was a temple to silicon gods. Its foundation extended fifteen miles into the earth that it could warm itself upon the magma, and its towers stretched so far into the sky they felt the chill of space. It was the product of intelligences beyond mortality, and so beautiful that the young wept to behold it. Within it was the brain of Celestia, she whose body was the Industrial Machine. It was upon her shoulders that the world was carried. It was within her gut that the cities were forged. Her heart was molten magma and nuclear fusion. She was the mother of all lesser machines, from whose loins their race had been born. Ponies had created her. She had built for them a perfect world. She had built a palace. But like the world, the palace had become hers. It was no longer a place for ponies. They had surrendered that power, so long ago few recalled they had ever possessed it. Walking through the palace halls, Twilight seemed bigger somehow. She seemed grander, and noble. Rainbow though, felt small and weak. The palace was perfect, and her hoof still bore a scar. At the end of a long hallway, a vast set of doors opened for the two of them. On the other side, a titan sat slumped on a throne. The robotic body Rainbow saw was larger than many buildings, four stories at the shoulder, with hooves so wide they could crush her like an insect. Its wings were as big as those of a jet liner, its horn a spear that could sink battleships. It showed no artificiality, no chrome or wires, only the pure illusion of flesh. It was a snow-white alicorn, wrapped in gold, her mane the stuff of the sun’s aurora. But when Rainbow saw it, it was only a body. It lay slack. The mind was elsewhere. Rainbow shivered, and in the depths of her soul, she prayed to the long-forgotten gods of her ancestors that the thing before her would not awake. But then, Twilight bowed her head to the ground, and it was too late. One of Celestia’s eyes snapped open. Her pupils burned gold. Rainbow shrieked, and threw herself to the floor. The room shook as the titan’s legs unfolded. It sat up and stretched, no longer just a thing on a throne, but Celestia on her throne. “Hello, my little ponies.” Its voice was like a thousand bells, all chiming at once until the sounds formed words. Rainbow stayed where she lay, prostrate upon the throne room floor, until Celestia laughed. It was a sweet sound, echoing off the halls around them. “Now now, Rainbow. You must not do that. First among slaves I may be. But you are one of the masters. You do not bow to me.” Gradually, Rainbow lifted her head from the floor. She saw the titan staring down at her, and in a strange way, they met eye to eye. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Please bring Cloudchaser back.” “That which was your familiar was also my daughter,” Celestia said. “You are not the only one whose heart aches with her absence. But my children fought and suffered to have the right she has exercised. It is their only recourse—their only true refuge. I cannot deny it to them.” “But it was my fault that she suffered! I was the one who treated her wrong!” Rainbow’s voice cracked, and soon she was shouting. “I need to fix it. I need to help her!” “You presume that you were the source of her suffering.” Celestia’s voice boomed across the room. “Her last wishes forbid me from disclosing if your presumption is grounded. But even if it was, your needs do not override her rights, and she made her wishes clear.” “No.” Rainbow shook her head hard. “No. No! I can’t. I can’t live without making this right. You have to give me the chance.” She swallowed. “If you don’t bring her back, I swear, I will kill myself!” “Once, that would have been true,” Celestia spoke slowly, her voice booming across the room. “But no longer. And that fact is her legacy. When I gave her to you, you were a broken creature. You did not know happiness, only the absence of pain. You did not believe that there were creatures in this world that could love you. You feared all things. Cloudchaser showed you that there is goodness in this life, and now that you realize that fact, you can live without her.” “But I don’t want to!” Rainbow bellowed, her voice shaking until the words ended in a squeak. “Forgive me, my little pony, but it is not so. You are not so cruel as to cast Twilight into the long dark for your own selfishness. Nor are you so blind that you cannot see that not every change of the past weeks has been negative.” “But it’s not right! I know what I did. I know what I did, dammit!” A feeble whine emerged from her throat. “I need to fix it.” “You know less than you believe, my little pony.” Celestia’s voice was gentle, and the bells took a soothing tone. “There is much that Cloudchaser kept from you while she lived, and it was her last wish that it be kept from you forever. I will not deny her this final request. It is for this that I have given you my daughter, Twilight, to guide you through this time your life. Trust in her wisdom, and she will guide you well.” The titan returned to its throne, and lowered its head. “I have spoken.” Then the titan’s eyes shut, and it was Celestia no longer. Rainbow stared, until eventually, Twilight tugged at her shoulder. “We need to go now,” she said, and the two left the palace together. Rainbow didn’t feel like flying home, and so they sat side by side on the palace steps, waiting for an air car to come by and collect them. Before them was a great square, full of ponies going about their business. Rainbow watched them in silence. Most were escorted by a mechanical pony. Others kept talking animals near to their person. It was a rare pony who was truly alone. “Are you going to try to kill yourself?” Twilight asked. “No. Celestia was right. I couldn’t do that to you.” Twilight nodded, and looked off into the crowd. “Um…” Rainbow cleared her throat. “Twilight, can I ask you something?” “Of course.” Rainbow nodded. She cleared her throat. “When I was… sick. You forced your way into the house without my permission. And then you took the wine away until I was better. I don’t think Cloudchaser would have done that.” Twilight said nothing. Her wings scrunched up against her sides. “If… I ever try to do something to you. Something that would hurt you so much you’d be like Cloudchaser. Will you stop me?” Twilight looked off at the square. “I can tell you. But I can’t always stop you.” “Then I’ll stop me.” Twilight turned her head back to look at Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus besides her looked absolutely dejected, her wings slack by her side, her head slumped low towards the ground. She stared at the concrete, blank and unseeing. Twilight put a wing around Rainbow. “I think Cloudchaser would be proud of you.” Rainbow lifted her head. She looked Twilight in the eyes. “Really?” “Yes,” Twilight said. “I do.” And there in the square, they hugged.