//------------------------------// // The Keepers In White // Story: The Seven Seals // by Lightwavers //------------------------------// “We found it.” Celestia acknowledged the information with a nod. “But there are...guards,” the messenger continued, lashing her tail. The two armored stallions beside the throne frowned at the display of emotion. Celestia waited. “It’s the Royal Legionnaires. From the aerial corps. A squad dropped down beside the artifact, which was being carted by some mare, and then just...helped. Anypony else who gets to close joins in.” Celestia rose from her throne, not showing a speck of any emotion other than her Calm. “Thank you. I will be there as soon as I can.” The messenger stayed where she was. Her eyes darted between Celestia and the entrance she’d come from, and her wings started fidgeting with the saddlebags on her back. She was much younger than the ones who usually gave Celestia updates. “You may go,” Celestia said, a faint note of amusement escaping. Then the worries crashed back down on her head, a massive wave from an ocean she couldn’t escape. She’s too young. The thought stuck with her as she watched the mare—almost a filly, really—leave. She jumped into the air, then seemed to remember where she was and dropped back to the floor, trotting at a flustered pace. She stumbled as she rounded a corner, leaving a blue feather behind. “Arrange a chariot,” Celestia said suddenly, breaking the silence that had stolen into the throne room. “Yes Princess,” the unicorn on the right said. He left at a dignified trot, as if to underscore his disdain with the messenger’s conduct. Her guards would never show their displeasure in any more active ways, of course. Well… Unless it was with the thestrals. Fights had broken out all over the castle between Celestia and Luna’s guards. It was dying down now, but only because there were barely any thestrals left. Some were gone because of the fighting, others because they sensed Luna’s coldness, and a small fraction because they distrusted Celestia. As well they should. Just yesterday she had agreed on a course of action she never would have allowed if her sister wasn’t...whatever she was. But she had no choice. Her method would take less lives overall. You swore you would never gamble with lives. You swore you would never again measure them, never again treat them as numbers. She shoved the thought away. Maybe she should have kept it. But she needed her sanity. “Princess. Your chariot is here.” Land passed beneath the chariot, whizzing by at a speed unknown to anypony without wings. It still wasn’t fast enough. The Lesser Provinces had fallen mere days ago, and some of the fires were still going. Celestia couldn’t turn away. They found her, invaded her mind, seared themselves into her memory. Farmland burned to ashes, scorched completely black. A scar the land would bear for a long, long time. Towns in pieces or on fire, some with ponies trying to rebuild. Occupied with the present, filled with concern for their homes, for their livelihoods. Unaware or uncaring that the next wave of fire would fall upon them before they could succeed. She was too high for the scents to reach her, too fast for the sounds to be heard. It was a relief, and it was wrong. She should be down there. Not in the sky above it all. And then they landed. The pegasi kicked up dust when they touched down, and unhitched themselves from the chariot. They spread out, one on each side of Celestia. She brought her hooves down on bare, dry earth. Less than a mile away was a group of ponies bearing the armor of her Legionnaires, pulling a flat cart with a statue lashed to it, arrayed in a defensive formation. Celestia stepped toward them. They saw her. A single earth pony broke away from the group while the rest bunched up defensively against the cart. She neared Celestia. The guards raised their spears. Her eyes were the pure, radiant white of the sun. She said something. They said something. Celestia nodded to herself. She should join them. Help them. That’s all they wanted. Somepony to help, to guide them. Somepony to… Wait... They retreated. She was herself. She reeled back, spinning a teleport about herself, but she was too late, they said— She should join them. Help them. That’s all they wanted. Somepony to help, to guide them. Somepony to share their burden. It was perfect. It was wrong. It was perfect. It— She blinked. Stumbled away. Everything was fuzzy. Blurry. Shaky. Moving. They said something. The world shook. “No…” she said. They frowned. She could feel it. They said something else. She shook her head. She had no experience with mind magic. But Luna did, and she’d given Celestia a shield. Back when she was herself. It seemed to be holding, if barely. “What do you want?” Celestia got out. The pony paused. Spoke again. This time it had meaning. Communication. If you won’t help, then leave. “No.” Celestia shook her head. The voices stabbed at her thoughts like knives, a horrible corruption that killed ideas. Even with Luna’s protections, with enough time she’d change. The only options were to stop whatever curse Discord had on them, or return to Luna and hope she could fix it. And Luna was...distant. Celestia trusted her completely, of course, but— Do I? She had trusted her completely. And until recently, Luna had done everything to deserve that trust. And Celestia had just…failed to update her beliefs, leaving herself in a strange space. I...don’t. The past years crashed down on her all at once. Celestia stood firm, outwardly betraying nothing of her thoughts. But inside, she...cracked. Fell to her knees. Cried. Luna wasn’t trustworthy. She shoved the thought aside, consciously shouldered another burden, one she had never thought she’d have to bear. “This ends now.” Celestia drew on her magic, the magic of the sun. It swirled inside her, lighting the bare earth on fire. The earth pony drew back, white, blank eyes narrowed. Celestia was not skilled with mental magic. Or any magic at all, really, aside from a few utility and combat spells boosted with the strength of the sun. And the spells that her position granted. She dragged the magic out through her horn, creating a ball of sun. It was light, but it wasn’t just light, wasn’t just heat. It was a part of her very soul, a cleansing fire. The sun purifies. She it toward the pony in front of her, who scrambled back, ears flat against her head. The voices emerged, ideas of panic and fight and flee that blended together in Celestia’s head, sending spikes of foreign emotion through her. Then the fire reached the pony, and the pony fell sideways, unconscious. And this time Celestia did slump to the ground, the voices of dozens of dying souls crying out in the moment before their extinction. They were real ponies, once. Preserved somehow. I...Discord… Discord. He’d stolen dozens— Hundreds, she thought, gazing at the possessed ponies surrounding Discord’s statue. —hundreds of souls, hundreds of the constructs that kept ponies from truly vanishing after their deaths, and corrupted them. And for what? So they could free him and then be abandoned, just like the rest of his creations? Celestia rose, surveying the ponies with a gaze of Steel. She would have to destroy them. She wasn’t Luna. She couldn’t expel them, and even if she could...what would stop them from possessing more innocent ponies, ponies with their entire lives ahead of them? Ponies who would essentially stop living, forced to the back of a multitude. It is necessary. Her expression hardened. Maybe it was. Maybe the new pony that had taken her sister’s place was right in this regard, at least. If Discord was willing to something like this… He is no longer a viable solution. And that left only her.