//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Eight: Shattered Chess Board - Part One // Story: Changeling Mine // by Futile Task //------------------------------// A deep, bellowing laugh echoed across the barren landscape that composed the central ring of Tartarus, many of the denizens there cowering in fear, and a few looking to the throne which was composed of the skulls of Tartarus's former rulers. Chained to it were Sombra and the recently defeated Tirek, and atop the throne was their master, Grogar, who was looking through a magic mirror at the surface world above. “Tis good to know that we have left such a lasting memory upon the Sun, hm....how we long to taste of her moist flesh once again, wouldn't you agree my pupil?” The growl that escaped Sombra's mouth caused Grogar to frown, the goat back hoofing the stallion so that he went flying into the air, before his chain snapped taunt and caused him to choke as he fell to the ground. “You will do well to curb your rebellious behavior Sombra, after all, Tirek has already submitted himself to us, haven't you old man.” Tirek's vacant eyes looked toward Grogar, before he let out a weak little rasp, for he had yet to regrow his vocal cords from their last encounter. Taking a deep breath, Sombra got to his hooves before turning and glaring at Grogar. “You can do whatever you want to me, but I will not serve you again, not after what you did to my people!!!” Grogar laughed at that, “Then we shall do whatever we want to you, but you will serve us one way or another, after all, when all is said and done, we will rule the world....and all shall bow to us.” Then, with another laugh, his horns lit up, Sombra gurgling as he felt his lungs begin to compress inside his chest. “Now, let us see how much pain you can endure this time around.” * Twilight woke up gasping. It had been a fitful night for sleeping for the young ruler, from the cramps she was experiencing to the bad dreams about her....real mother, all of it was getting to her in the worst way possible. Looking toward her window, she saw that the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, so she decided to get up with it. Groaning, she rolled out of bed, managing to escape from Chrysalis, who had once again snuck into her bed to snuggle with her. It wasn't really a problem, when she thought about it, for Chrysalis's fur was softer then silk, so she made a very comfortable bed fellow. Not that she was romantically involved with her, for Chrysalis; in a move that had surprised even her, had actually sat down with her to talk, telling her that she would be stalling in her romantic pursuits in light of what was going on, which Twilight had to admit was rather nice of her. Now she was on her way to Celestia's chambers again, for she wanted to talk with her, though she hoped this conversation would go better than the last one. However, as she reached the door to Celestia's chambers, she felt a presence appear behind her, before a deep, soothing voice spoke up from behind her. “Hi lost bok ful pogaas, dii mon.” * “WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE LEFT!!!” Cadance cringed at the volume of Clover's Royal Canterlot Voice, the alicorn staring daggers down at the guard before her who had just told her the news. “It's as I said my lady,” said the mare nervously, “The lord came out of his room looking fitter then he has in years, said he was going out to meet someone special, and then vanished.” Clover glared at the guard a little bit more, then let out a deep angered sigh before looking to Cadance and speaking, “Cadance, how are you with long distance teleportation?” “Normally good,” said Cadance, “but the doctors recently told me that I should keep it to short range teleportation, on account of the...the foal.” Clover looked surprised for a moment, and then growled, before gesturing for her to follow. “You should have told me before we left, no matter, we shall simply have to use my personal dragon to get us there, she can cover the distance in the time we need.” * Twilight was completely and utterly speechless, for what she had found standing behind her defied all logic and reason. For, standing before her was Starswirl the Bearded, but not the unicorn, no...he was an Alicorn. “Kiir, dreh hi mindol til los aan golt mu aal tinvaak?” “Uh...I'm sorry, I...I don't understand you,” said Twilight. Starswirl looked confused for a moment, then facehoofed, before stamping his hoof upon the ground face as he spoke. “Ruth, zu'u fod lost dahmaan hi dreh ni tinvaak ol dovah dreh, mu bolog krosis.” Then, before Twilight could react, he leaned forward and touched his horn to hers, a brief flash passing between them before he pulled back and spoke once more. “Can you understand me now?” “I...yes, I can now, what did you...” “I cast a spell which allows you to understand me,” said Starswirl, “not that complex, but to my earlier question, is there someplace we can talk?” Twilight nodded, leading him away from Celestia's chambers and to the map room, Twilight taking a seat as Starswirl gazed at the map a bit before looking over at her and smiling. “You no doubt have questions?” Twilight nodded, “Why are you here?” “I came because my mind is finally clear after thousands of years of madness, and so I set out to find you.” “Why...” “Because I am your father Twilight.” There was a long moment of silence, and then... “What...” “I am your father,” said Starswirl, smiling as he said it. “H...how...” “Well I know you have met your mother, so you should be able to put two and two together on that one.” “But why...how...you were her teacher, she was your student...and the age gap...plus there is the fact that you’re an alicorn...I just.” “I know,” said Starswirl, “it's a lot to take in, but if you will allow me, I would like to tell you of how me and your...how me and Clover came to be the way we are.” Twilight hesitated for a long moment, and then nodded, causing Starswirl to smile before he spoke once again. “As you know Twilight, a lot of history was lost after Discord took over Equestria, and as such, many things about the time of the three tribes were either lost to history or heavily altered due to the memories of the ones telling the tales being rather spotty. For instance, did you know that Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum were in fact sisters?” “What?” said Twilight, “but that's not how the history books tell it.” “As I said,” said Starswirl, “much was lost, though it may have also been due to some changing the story for other reasons, for royal families back during that time had some...dark practices, and Platinum's family was no exception.” “What sort of practices?” “Like that fact that every child after the first born became a slave to the first born, to be used as they saw fit.” Twilight blanched at that, allowing Starswirl to continue uninterrupted. “It was quite a barbaric practice, and only made worse in Clovers case when she attained her talent. When she gained it, Platinum suddenly had a treasure trove of knowledge at her disposal, as well as a mare who could divine the future of anypony she touched, well...almost everypony.” “What do you mean?” asked Twilight. “Well you see Twilight, there a few select ponies that when Clover touches them, she cannot see into any of their possible futures, she simply comes up blank. Of those select few, I was one, and Princess Platinum was another, and she did not take this news well.” “When she found out that Clover could not divine her future, Platinum decided she had no use for the mare, and decided to sell her in an actuation, and as you can imagine many ponies showed up to purchase such a rare prize.” “That's simply barbaric!” “Indeed it is,” said Starswirl, “which is why I freed her after I purchased her.” Twilight, who at this point had conjured up some juice for herself to drink, spat it out as she stared at the stallion in disbelief. “You WHAT!!!” “I bought her,” said Starswirl with a smirk, “walked right into Platinum's action haul and bought her sister, paid an outrageous sum of money too, after all I didn't want anyone betting against me.” “So you are telling me,” said Twilight, a note of anger in her voice as she spoke. “That you, Starswirl the fucking Bearded, one of the most noble ponies ever written about in our history, bought one of Equestria's founders as a slave!” “The money was clean,” said Starswirl, “and I freed her once we got to my mansion home, after all it wouldn't have been good for my future wife to be a slave, even my reputation wouldn't have survived that.” Twilight was near livid at this news, “You bought her so she could be your wife, what kind of twisted stallion are you!” “Please,” said Starswirl, giving her a disgruntled look as he spoke. “I only bought her so she could be my apprentice, after all she had an extraordinary talent, and a gift for magic, so I bought her rather than let her be grabbed by some scumbag noble who would do nothing but abuse her gift and fill her belly full of foals. It was only later, after she expressed interest in me, that I started pursuing her as a wife.” “She expressed interest?” asked Twilight, “pardon me for um...finding that hard to believe.” “Because of the age gap correct?” asked Starswirl, receiving a nod and chuckling. “Well for one, it was common practice back in the day for a student to marry their master, for often they were the pony who they formed the greatest bonds with during their life. And as to the age gap, when I bought Clover I was already over four hundred years old, so I think it is fair to say there would have been an age gap no matter who I chose to pursue romantically.” “Four hundred...but...but ponies only live to be one hundred, how did you...” Starswirl lifted up a hoof then, letting a crystal attached to a chain drop down, one which Twilight focused on with a look of shock and horror. “That's...” “A philosophers stone,” said Starswirl, “but before you make any accusations, I did not use the normal method to make this one, I instead used a safe, less well known method.” “But Philosopher stones require pony souls!” said Twilight, “what method could be safer if that is still the main ingredient.” “Well it has to do with the types of souls you use,” said Starswirl, conjuring himself a drink before speaking further. “Now most wizards wanting to make a stone tend to be on their last legs, and thus don't care what kind of soul they use so they will simply take it from anypony. However, if you take corrupted souls, like those found on a battlefield, then the philosopher stone created actually behaves a lot differently than your standard Philosopher stone.” “How so?” “Well, in a standard philosopher stone, the souls trapped within exist in agony till they are released, but in the case of a philosopher stone composed of corrupted souls, the stone purifies them as it uses their soul energy, till they are released to pass peacefully into the afterlife.” “...You will understand if I want to verify this?” “I have many notes on the subject I would be willing to lend you, but for now let me continue with my story if you will.” With a nod from Twilight, Starswirl continued. “Anyways, we spent many lovely years together, but when I gave her a stone after our wedding, many of the ponies began making preparations for her to take over the throne from Platinum...till the unthinkable happened.” “What?” “Platinum gave birth...to two alicorn foals.” Twilight's eyes widened in shock, but before she could continue Starswirl continued. “The day of Celestia and Luna's birth, Platinum was hailed as the mother of Alicorns, and her position on the throne was made ironclad, and to top it all off her children were crowned the eternal rulers of Equestria, with Platinum holding the throne in trust till they were ready to rule.” Sighing, he took another sip of his wine, before going on further. “As you no doubt know by now, ponies and changelings have existed for many years together, and by the point Celestia and Luna took the throne, Clover and I had created a good rapport with one of Anthra's daughters, known as Nashandra. She was deeply fascinated with both of us, and was one who often spurred on some of Clover's more...well out there experiments, and so one day she postulated a theory...one which Clover became obsessed with.” “And what was that?” “Well,” said Starswirl, “it appears that Nashandra had done some digging, and apparently the night of Celestia and Luna's...conception, Platinum's mate, one Chancellor Puddinghead, for he was male, not female as many of the legends say. Anyways, according Platinum he had seemed drunk that night, but in fact he had been infused with insane amounts of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magic by an unknown source, magic that went from him into his mate. This magic made Platinum insanely powerful for the entirety of her pregnancy, to the point she was able to wield the sun and moon by herself, but this magic left her when Celestia and Luna were born, being split instead among the two of them.” “So Nashandra thought, if an alicorn could be born in such a way, maybe one could be made by other means. So we all began to work, Clover and Nashandra working on their version on the project, while I decided to pursue my own research into possibly becoming an alicorn, though I am glad to see that you were able to complete what I had left abandoned so long ago.” Blushing, Twilight giggled a bit. “Well...it was no big deal really.” “But it is,” said Starswirl, “when I abandoned that project, it was because I thought it was a waste of effort when there could possibly be a better solution, I could not see what I was missing. But anyways, when Clover figured out a way to make us into alicorns, we decided to do so in seclusion, unfortunately we timed it rather poorly, as by the time we emerged from the slumber brought on by our change, Discord had already been turned to stone, and Equestria had been changed.” Falling silent then, Starswirl looked down at his wine glass, staying silent for a long moment till Twilight caught his attention. “Um...if you don't mind me asking, my...Clover told me that she had to keep me away from you, said something about you trying to fix me when I was little, what did she mean by that?” Sighing, the old stallion gave her a sorrowful look before speaking. “It is actually connected to why I am speaking in ancient draconic instead of equestrian, for you see, many years after we became alicorns, I found a book of dragon magic, the Draconian Xarxes, which I am sure you have heard about.” Twilight's widened in utter shock, “The...the Draconian Xarxes, that book is said to contain all the knowledge on dragon magic, and is said to grand the reader total understanding and mastery of said magic.” “Both are correct,” said Starswirl, “but what none of the legends speak of is that the ancient tome was cursed, driving mad the mind of any reader who was not a dragon. This madness was not permanent, and came with lucid periods, and it was during a particularly long one that we conceived you. However, when you were born, the madness returned, and in my maddened state, I decided that I had to try and fix you, as you were not born an alicorn as we had both hopped.” Sighing again, he looked up toward the ceiling, speaking as a look of hurt crossed his face. “Clover still bears the scars from having to subdue me, and when I woke next, you were gone, though part of me always knew where you were.” “I...I see,” said Twilight, before jumping as Clover teleported into the room, the mare looking livid as she stared down Starswirl before speaking. “You insufferable hedge wizard, what the fuck were you thinking!”