//------------------------------// // 16| Heaven and Earth // Story: The Evil Paradox // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// After the previous day’s fight, I woke up feeling as though I was a stuffed toy that had been put through a tumble dryer. I should have either gotten Celestia to lower the moon that morning, or done so myself from the safety and comfort of bed, but instead of listening to my body’s cries for rest, I wound up rolling onto my broken wing as I moved to get up. Considering my healing factor, I didn’t know why everything was still hurting, so I went to see Radiant about it. She gave me a vial of medicine, and said to dilute it with some tea. After having some breakfast and a couple small cups of tea with the medicine, I was in a much better position to go pay a visit to Belcusas. I didn’t head straight to the throne room for court because the roof was being repaired from when I punched through it, and the doors had to be taken off and all the hinges replaced while the stonemasons chipped off the melted rock of Firefly’s hoof prints, which were then smoothed over with mortar. Fortunately for Firefly she had savings to dip into to pay for the repairs, or I would’ve had to dock her paycheque. I paused before the two sergeants standing sentinel outside the door leading to the dungeons. They nodded wordlessly, then one of them proceeded to open the wrought iron door while the other pulled on a chain to raise the portcullis some five metres or so down the corridor. Accompanied by one of them, I proceeded to walk down the double wide corridors, sticking to the left until I arrived at Belcusas’ cell, which, ironically, was the same one that Compass occupied some time back. Belcusas was laying on the wall mounted cot with his back to me, and I knew he was awake because his ears twitched when I stopped outside. “Good morning to you,” I said, sitting on my haunches. Grumbling contemptuously, Belcusas looked over his shoulder at me. “I know it was you who tinkered with my dreams last night; everypony with half a brain knows you walk between the Here and There. Did you think that you’d sway me into behaving by your personal moral code?” He scoffed and rolled over to face me. “That I’d suddenly realise what you interpret as wrong would make me realise the supposed error of my rule? Mares,” he growled, proceeding to distastefully spit on the cell floor. “All you’d ever be good for is continuing my bloodline.” “And yet you’re the one that got defeated in our fight.” I couldn’t help but smirk at that. “What was it you told me yesterday? Oh yes; Go sit on a cactus!” “Oh, you wound me so!” I dramatically replied, a hoof over my chest in feigned indignation. Composing myself, I cleared my throat. “In any case, I’m here to give you a sentence for your assault on my guard, and my demands for the victory in our fight.” Belcusas visibly tensed when he realised I never stipulated what I wanted. “Name your price and get out of my sight,” he seethed. “First is your sentence,” I said. “Since you willfully and mercilessly beat my friend, the severity of your crime would typically dictate about a five year sentence. But, I am not an unreasonable mare; five years being cooped up in a cell in a dank dungeon wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience.” “Just get on with it!” Belcusas exclaimed with an exasperated roll of his eyes. Obliging his ignoble request, I magicked two scrolls of parchment, a quill, and some ink. “I want two letters, the first declaring your official abdication, to denounce any and all claims your heirs might have to your throne, contingencies you would’ve put in place, and a sincere apology for my friend. If you choose to do this, then I will lower your time to as long as Midnight’s wounds take to heal, about six weeks at the best estimate.” Belcusas suspiciously narrowed his eyes at me. “What if I refuse?” I shrugged indifferently. “It really doesn’t matter if you refuse or not. As per the rules of the Challenge, I am entitled to everything in your kingdom. The fact that I still have your staff makes that an uncontested argument since you said it is a representation of your rulership. I simply want the documentation to make the process as seamless as possible, and having you write these letters boils down to how long you’re willing to spend in this cell.” I set the writing equipment against the far wall of the cell so Belcusas wouldn’t ‘accidentally’ tread on them. I could tell by how he was looking from me to the quill and ink that he was torn between swallowing his pride and giving me want I asked for, or retaining what shred of dignity he had left by refusing. The only complication I’d have with his refusal was that the process of integrating the City of Clouds would take a bit longer that I would’ve liked. Having concluded my business, I got up to leave, making sure the stallion could still hear me on my way out. I looked to the guard accompanying and said; “Belcusas gets breakfast at 10am, dinner at 7pm, a bucket of fresh water every day, and the other emptied as needed.” “Of course, Princess,” he said. I half expected Belcusas to rip and tear the parchment into tiny pieces as I left, but it seemed he wasn’t quite done. “Wait!” I stopped, and turned to look at him over my shoulder. “What will you do with me once I am out of this forsaken cell?” I sucked the inside of my cheek for a moment. It was a good question, one I honestly didn’t consider. After taking a minute to carefully, and I mean carefully consider it, I came to what I thought was a fair conclusion. “As much as I want to keep you locked up for what you’ve done to the mares of your kingdom, Equestrian law states that Celestia and I cannot place the leader of a neighboring county on trial for breaking our laws when they were within their own territorial boundaries. I can only sentence you for your assault, but I will be back to banish you from the City when it becomes part of this country.” I shivered a little. Talking to someone like Belcusas was not a pleasant experience, so I was quick to get out of the dungeon. There was just a cold, unending silence as I left, and I could almost feel the intensity of Belcusas’ hatred for me through his stare on my back. As I made my way to my room unhindered, I couldn’t help but think on what would be happening in the City. No doubt that once word got out about Belcusas’ defeat, things would be going haywire and there’d be a mad dash for the throne, but without the staff, I didn’t think those claims would hold up. If I got my letters from Belcusas, I could follow through with my plan of declaring a union with the rest of Equestria. That way I could make sure none of the City’s mares would ever be mistreated ever again, and give Boreas some sense of closure about the whole situation. In the meantime, I just opted for trying to repair the stave. Its broken state would have made things more difficult for me. I closed the bedroom door and pulled the cloth bundle on my desk closer, unravelling it to reveal both halves of the staff and all the crystal fragments. Several small shards had splintered off from the main crystal, which was still relatively intact. Once I took down as many notes about the staff I thought relevant; overall length, design, the wood it was made of, it took a few hours of trial and error in figuring out where all the shards went since there were so many that I had to fit together like a puzzle. When that was taken care of, there was the simple matter of activating the stave’s magic to repair itself. I was thankful all the shards had been retrieved, or I sincerely doubted fixing it would’ve been possible. After a minute or so of fierce concentration, I was rewarded by a bright light that began to slowly emanate from the staff, which proceeded to envelop me too. Right before my eyes, all the shards began fixing themselves back onto the larger gem like a reverse slow motion window cracking, and the two halves of the staff’s wooden handle were knitted back together at the same time. My feeling of accomplishment from fixing the Staff of Sacanas came second to how powerful I felt holding it once fixed. It made me wonder if magic items from Equestria would work on Earth, so I made a note to take an enchanted gem with me back home alongside back with the spellbook I had in mind. As I was admiring my handiwork of the staff, a knock came from my door. I pulled it open with a bit of magic, and Celestia strode in. She looked me over briefly before turning her attention to the staff, then raised an intrigued eyebrow. “I felt a magical surge come from your room, so I came to see what happened. Now I see it was the stave’s magical properties being restored since you apparently managed to fix it,” she said I internally sighed when Celestia levitated a cushion over to to sit on. That only meant one thing: She wanted to talk. “Luna, I... don’t think you should be putting yourself in dangerous situations like this anymore.” I tilted my head. “But it was Belcusas who incited the fight, wasn’t it? He was literally asking for it.” “I don’t want you to wind up dying. You should let me handle this sort of thing in the future. Impulsive actions are certain to lead to undesirable consequences.” “And yet I walked away with a broken wing that will heal inside of a couple weeks,” I flippantly stated. “And with the staff fixed, I could just instantly heal my wing.” Celestia took on a subtly angry, yet even tone. “You should be more concerned with the inner workings of the castle instead of investigating gold mines, volcanoes, foreign leaders, and ponies who break into your room, Luna. I am the older sister. What you did not only undermined my authority, but it also put yourself in danger. You have no idea what could have happened in that fight, or the consequences if you lost.” “And by saying that, you’re undermining my authority as your equal in what’s supposed to be a diarchy, Celestia! Even if I lost and Belcusas challenged you, I know that you would have won your fight and rectified the situation. That’s the difference between us; I have confidence in someone else’s abilities that extends beyond my own. Do you honestly expect me to sit idly by while you reap the glory of being the only one to demonstrate their capabilities to deal with situations like this?” “I am only doing my best to keep you safe, Luna,” Celestia said. Who did Celestia think she was, telling me what I could and couldn’t do? Even though I could understand that she was trying to look out for me, she made me feel as though my efforts were going unappreciated, if they were needed at all. I needed to remain calm and rational if I was going to talk her down. “Celestia, you’re asking—no, telling me that all you want me to do it sit at my desk. You need to understand that what you’re saying isn’t going to be good for my leadership skills. What if something happens to you and I’m the only one around to handle things? I’m going to wind up running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to keep things under control.” I signed, looking up to Celestia through my bangs. “I just... I’m trying to illustrate that you don’t give me credit where credit is due. If I can recognise that something is beyond my ability to handle, then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that I’d ask for help. I am going to prove to you that I can take responsibility for situations I find myself in by rectifying the immediate issue of the City of Clouds.” Celestia took a long, hard look at me after I said that, and eventually got up off the cushion to walk forward and hug me. “You’re right, Luna. I’m sorry for not putting my trust in you.” “How do those words taste?” I lightheartedly said. “Like vinegar,” Celestia chuckled. “Would… Would you mind taking care of the afternoon’s petitioners while I refine my plan? I can run it by you after you’re done.” She gave me a peck on the cheek. “Of course, Lulu. On another note, have you spoken to Belcusas since yesterday?” “I gave him a choice between a five year sentence that fit his crime, or aiding me with integrating the City with the rest of Equestria for a reduced sentence. If I don’t get what I asked for by the end of the day, he’s gone and dug his own grave.” “Acceptable,” Celestia replied. “What of the deal you struck?” “A letter declaring a formal abdication to absolve his monarchy, and an apology for Midnight,” I added. “I’m yet to work out how I’m going to minimise the eventual fallout, so I need some time to work on that. Hopefully I can get it done by Sunday.” “I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Celestia said, levitating the cushion back to where she got it. “I’ll let you be for now, and I’m looking forward to see what your plan is.” “Thank you. I’ll see you at dinner.” Celestia pulled back from the hug, allowing me to return my attention to the papers, books, and parchment scattered across my desk. The door clicked shut behind me, so I made a solid effort to draw up a fully detailed plan. The biggest problem I faced with how to make the City of Clouds part of Equestria was not how to get everyone on board, there was bound to be opposition, but how to make the citizens think it was a good idea. The stallions that I presumed to follow Belcusas would be loyal to his cause since Belcusas gave them what they wanted. The proverbial do-do would hit the fan when I would rock up and tell them that; “No, you can’t do this anymore”. Forcing an entire kingdom to adopt and obey another country’s laws overnight would take a while to get used to, so I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to undo two-hundred years worth of indoctrination since unification. I could only glean so much information by research and observation, and it went without saying that I was going in blind for the most part. Talking to Boreas would only provide me with limited perspective since she was one person on the side of the problem at hand, but could be very well worth it. Even a little bit of intel could provide me with enough insight so I didn’t make a complete idiot out of myself. When I got back to my room, I mostly sat at my desk, sipped tea, and kept myself occupied until Boreas rotated off of her shift so I could talk to her. As far as I knew, Boreas was my only way to locate and get into the City, so I had to convince her to take me there and be my guide around. I’d hoped that going back to the place she fled from wouldn’t do her any harm. Three days later, my plan was finished and had been run by Celestia; I had dealt with the petitioners on Saturday, and even even though I was taking care of official business on my only day off for the whole week, I was actually looking forward to it. A city made of clouds that literally floated in the sky? Sign me the hell up! On that particular morning, I stood outside my room with Boreas after I had lowered the moon. “So… Are you ready?” I asked, looking down to her. Though she was rather reluctant to return home, she had agreed to take me to the City since her father was no longer a threat, and there was also the fact that I had her back. Belcusas had also come through with the letters I asked of him, which meant the union of the City of Clouds and Equestria was a certainty. He also decided he’d try getting under my skin with Midnight’s apology letter by offering the stallion a hundred gold pieces, but since he’d become destitute after our duel, he expected me to pay up on his behalf. A passing comment about furious lesbian horse sex in his private bed chambers wiped the smug grin from his face pretty quickly. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Boreas stated with determination, flexing her wings. “Good, so let’s get this over with.” I looked over to what was my injured wing, giving it another rotation. Radiant was against me using the staff to heal my wing for a number of reasons, namely that I was using an unknown variable to heal an injury, and outright refused to let me use it on Midnight without further testing. She was adamant that I wait the two weeks for my wing to heal so she knew I could handle flying with some physio, but I was just as adamant that I didn’t want the situation in the City to go from bad to worse because of a simple broken wing that I had an immediate solution to, so she begrudgingly gave me a full physical once I cast the spell and sent me on my way. Alongside the staff secured to my side, I had a few provisions in my saddle bags for Boreas and I since she wanted to take as many of her things back to the castle as she could manage, provided they were still around. I closed the double doors to my bedroom so all the enchantments could properly engage, then Boreas and I took off from the dais, flying north-west. “How long did you say it would take to get there?” I asked. “I didn’t, but it’s about a four hour flight. A lot of the ground-based pegasi tend to get vertigo at the altitude the City is located. My father really went out of his way to stay secluded.” Boreas looked over to me. “Think you’ll be able to handle it, Catherine?” “Yeah, should do,” I replied after a moment. “I don’t mind if you want to use my real name, just… try to be discreet about it. If you’d like, my friends from when I was at school, and at work all called me ‘Kate’.” “That won’t be a problem. I just don’t want to get confused as to who you are.” “That’s fair,” I said. We didn’t say much after that, there was just this period of awkward silence as we kept flying, slowly increasing our altitude. “What was school like on Earth?” Boreas asked after a while. I couldn’t help but smile widely at the fond memories. “School on Earth is awesome, at least it was for me. Instead of one small building for a collection of colts and fillies as is the case in a lot of towns in Equestria, there are building complexes as big as the Castle of the Two Sisters that can hold anywhere from a few hundred, to a couple thousand people in classrooms, sometimes even more.” Boreas’ expression soured slightly. “You can imagine what ‘school’ is like for mares in the City. Taught to—” “Ah ah ah,” I chastised before she could launch into a rant. “That’s what we’re here to change. Let’s focus on what will be.” “Yeah, I s’pose… Anyway, what kind of things did you get taught in school?” she asked, trying to sound excited. I loved it when people asked questions; it showed me that they wanted to learn, and I was more than willing to help if I could. “In biology, we were taught that people who live at higher altitudes, such as mountain ranges and so on, have a higher red blood cell count. It allowed them to make better use of the oxygen they breathe, and getting rid of carbon dioxide more effective. The same could be said for the pegasi in the City.” “Now that is the kind of stuff we should be learning about! Not how to–” Boreas caught herself about to go off again, but she cleared her throat and looked over to me. “Sorry, I’m still kinda anxious about returning after all this time.” “I understand. We can keep talking if it’ll help keep you calmer.” She smiled thankfully. “Yeah, I’d like that.” And so we kept talking. I did my best to answer all of Boreas’ questions regarding Earth, but my favourite thing to talk about was the nuances in the English language. For example, the difference between a booty call and a butt dial, why ‘fat chance’ and ‘slim chance’ are the same, yet ‘wise guy’ and ‘wise man’ are opposites. A couple hours into the flight, we were so high up I could see everything around me for at least a couple thousand miles, and let me tell you, it was a spectacular view, almost like flying in a commercial airliner if we were twice as high. At that point, I was beginning to get light headed, so Boreas and I took a break for a while to have a snack and acclimate ourselves a bit before continuing on. An hour and a half later, I could finally see the City coming into view. It was an absolutely enormous cloud bank that could’ve passed for Mount Olympus from Greek mythology. It all looked like one homogenous building built from the very clouds themselves. Pillars of twisted white that looked like the City’s palace soared high into the sky, and from there the buildings grew smaller the further out from the palace you got. But, as we got closer, something didn’t feel right, like we were being followed. I widened the space between my feathers to better feel the air currents between them, which confirmed my suspicion: there was a disturbance of flow from above and behind me. “Luna, check your six,” Boreas suddenly said. The fact that she used Luna’s name was cause for concern, so I looked over my shoulder and saw three pegasi wearing armour, flying above us. Soldiers from the City, I suspected. “What do we do?” I cautiously asked. “They’re soldiers that patrol the airspace around the City. Don’t make any sudden moves. Keep flying.” About ten seconds after that, I felt a gust of air from above me as the three soldiers flew in front of Boreas and I, blocking our path. We thought it wise to stop. The leader of the three narrowed his eyes at me, cautiously looking me up and down. His eyes widened when he saw the staff poking out from under my bags, then snapped back to me. “Are you the one who won the Challenge of Kingdoms? “This is correct, which means you must know who I am.” “You are Princess Luna of the Royal Equestrian crown,” he confirmed. “Tell me, what of our King? Rumours have been floating around…” Heh, floating around, I mused. “Belcusas is currently in my dungeon for injustices committed against my subjects.” “And what business do you have in the city?” the leader said. “I won the challenge issued to me by your old King, which means the Kingdom and everything within currently belongs to me. As such, the City itself is now under the Crown Rule of the Equestrian Diarchy, making you subjects under its rule. Step aside and let me pass.” They all snickered at me when I said that, and I realised it was because we were no longer on the ground. “Sarge? What do we do now?” the pegasus on the left asked. The sergeant was clearly less than pleased about having a mare as a ruler, growling as he spoke. “Let her through. I don’t like it anymore than you two, but this is out of our hooves to deal with. Continue the patrol.” And just like that, they were off. “I thought they would’ve put up more of a fight than that?” I asked rhetorically, turning to Boreas. “They know better than to challenge the ruler of their kingdom, least they risk being exiled.” “Did Belcusas really do that?” I asked as we continued flying towards the city. “On more than one occasion, though usually for treasonous reasons. The worst punishment I’ve seen was when the palace’s financier was caught garnishing the Crown’s money to supplement his own salary.” “Uh huh, and?” “His forehooves were cut off at the fetlock as a message to everyone about what happens when you steal from the Crown.” My mouth hung open in abject horror. Boreas didn’t say what happened to the guy after that, and I can’t say I wanted to know. A short while later, we arrived at what I’d best describe as an airport for pegasi. A large section of cloud longer than it was wide jutted out from the side of the walled city, and I could see half a dozen pegasi each in two watchtowers of sorts, all of whom would have been paying attention to who was coming and going if the place wasn’t completely deserted. Two guard-looking ponies with spears were positioned either side of the half-opened gate that lead inside the City proper, which would have been as as wide as the ‘runway’ itself if fully open. All eyes were on Boreas and I as we touched down, following us as we brazenly walked up to the gate. The two guards crossed their spears in front of us, but I was more confused as to why they would when they would’ve heard of the rumours. “Let them pass,” someone from up in the left watchtower said down. “That’s your new Queen, private.” I was surprised when I got called a Queen, but considering the title Belcusas held, it made sense I’d inherit it since I won our duel. Queen Luna. I liked the sound of that. I wondered if I’d get to keep the title after I made the City part of Equestria. The private glared at me and reluctantly withdrew his spear at the same time as his partner did. “No mare will ever be a queen to me,” he said distastefully. I shrugged off that comment as I walked inside the gate, but it was only the tip of the iceberg for what was to come.