//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Defense in Depth // by Fon Shaolin //------------------------------// Sol Shard began his day like any other - at dawn, with a small pulse of magic that slowly brought him out of his slumber. The unicorn sat up for a moment and then, like always, slowly leaned back into his goose down pillow to try and claw back at least a few minutes back from the stingy morning. “You used to get right up and start the day.” The unicorn didn’t bother opening his eyes. He rolled over, burying his head into his thick duvet. Soft, bell-like laughter managed to chase him beneath the covers. “Some things never change, I suppose. You always did dislike my mornings, even if a prompt wake up was necessary.” One graying ear swiveled around and caught the soft movements of the defiler of his sanctum. They were looking through his cabinet  (the one creaky hinge he’d been meaning to fix for the last year gave them away), moving, arranging, and tidying as if they owned the place. Despite the temptation to simply succumb to the numb twilight between sleep and wake, Sol Shard refrained. Celestia was patient as he rolled out of bed and wisely didn’t tease him about the way his joints now creaked and cracked. He was advanced of age, but his intruder was timeless and likely knew better than to call someone else “old”. Though, the little smile on her lips that he could only just catch in the shadows made him feel the weight of ages on his shoulders. She had a cup of coffee and he could smell it even across the room. “Come now,” she said, smiling in full at his sour expression, “it is almost past nine. Too late for you to be sleeping when there is so much to discuss.” Sol Shard ran his tongue around his teeth, biting back the first few responses that wanted to escape. Celestia’s eyes danced. He didn’t give her the pleasure. “Of course, Princess.” The coffee floated over to him, suspended in his strong, light brown magical grip. He sipped it and almost frowned - brewed to perfection, as always, just as sweet and creamy as he liked it. “It’s non-coffee,” the Celestia of his memories said, turning a sleepy, petulant little glare on the cup he was holding as he climbed back into bed. “An abomination to good ponies everywhere in my kingdom.” It was set aside. “What is the agenda for today?” he asked. “Did I miss a meeting?” Celestia shook her head. “No, but there’s been a slight development. Something I wish to discuss with you.” Sol Shard’s horn lit. “Slight? You do not invade the magisterium for slight, Princess.” His magic filled the room, pulling back the curtains and arranging furniture with practiced efficiency. His bed folded away into the wall and a large table built itself out of loose bricks from the ceiling, mismatched stone chairs and all. A tablecloth and throw pillows completed the set. The princess gracefully curled up into the larger of the set like a spry, regal cat while Sol Shard took a moment to retrieve his coffee and climb up. While he finished it off, Celestia informed him of a new prospective student. Twilight Sparkle - a young unicorn mare from the Canterlot Sparkles. Never classically trained but with enormous magical potential and dedication to Equestria. In a few years she would likely be quasi-royalty herself, being the sister-in-law of Princess Cadance. “You’re telling me nothing I do not already know,” he said, enjoying, behind the rim of his coffee mug, the slight surprise on Celestia’s face with a smile of his own. He mastered himself in a moment’s time and set the cup down to lean over the table. “The Magisterium keeps records of all potential students to your school, Princess. As you know, the majority of your professors are former members of this very college. They pass on entrance information to us every year.” Some of the warmth in Celestia’s expression faded. “You put my students on a list?” she asked, evenly. “That is quite the violation of privacy.” Sol Shard waved the concern away. “A violation that you allowed when you gave the Magisterium its charter a century ago. You tasked us with keeping a tab on anyone who could help you with your ‘lunar problem’, remember? One that could wield the Element of Magic?” He leaned back, trying not to look flippant. “Of course we would watch the most visible school of magic in Equestria. We convinced you to give your student, Sunset Shimmer, another chance, did we not?” Slowly, Celestia dipped her head in defeat. Sol Shard ignored the part of him that wanted to say something comforting. Instead, he offered, “But the process is not infallible, as you’ve discovered with Twilight Sparkle. She should have been brought to my attention long ago as more than just a side-note to her brother and future sister-in-law.” “I’m pleased I’m not the only one who understands that.” Celestia’s voice was subdued, but it sounded a little more relieved than it had when she had been telling her story of the mare. Sol Shard allowed his princess to drop some of that lingering guilt by sharing it, which wasn’t so bad, he thought. Still. “Well, we all missed her. That is obvious. Now what can we do to make that up? You said you agreed to take her on as a student?” Celestia’s expression closed again, but he knew her well enough to see the guilt. “I promised Cadance I would make her a student, yes, but only after the Summer Sun Celebration.” The unicorn clicked his tongue. “That could be a problem,” he admits, ignoring the cool look Celestia was giving him. “So, you don’t think this unicorn is a solution?” Again Celestia’s head shook. “I do not. Twilight Sparkle is undeniably powerful. She has potential to rival any other in this kingdom, but she is untrained and her temperament is...unsuited for an Element of Harmony.” “I assume you mean her unhealthy obsession with you?” he asked, again surprising Celestia. “Or perhaps her history of violence and cruelty as a filly which was never completely ironed-out?” “I won’t ask how or when you received her psychological profile from her high school, but you are right. The Elements of Harmony will not respond to her, though she could be useful as a check to Sunset Shimmer.” “Or as a suspiciously-ticking package you can send to some other nation.” Another glare. “Do not disfavor me because I understand how your mind works, Princess.” The alicorn rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue the point. The room grew quiet for a moment - Sol Shard finishing his coffee and Celestia watching him - until the princess broke it again. “I want her trained,” she said, firm. “Cadance is insisting on it and I wish for her to grow as well. But she must be kept from any real levers of power so that Sunset Shimmer can fulfill her destiny. Things cannot become complicated at this phase, delicate as it is.” The real topic of the conversation was not, Sol Shard knew, a little purple unicorn off in the middle of the desert playing soldier. It wasn’t even a certain sassy little firebrand of a unicorn that badly needed a kick in the ego. It was, as always, the looming disaster. The Summer Sun Celebration. Real emotion finally cracked the careful construction that was Sol Shard’s feigned disinterest. He looked at the alicorn. The way her wings sagged in their sockets, the way the jewels in her crown had caught stray strands of her mane, the sunken rings under her eyes. He wondered how he'd missed it from the start. “Have we still no better plan, Celestia?” He wished the princess had smiled then and wiped away his question like she would have for all of her other subjects. “No,” she said instead, and in that moment he hated her as fiercely as he had years ago. “But I have hope.” “Hope will not save you when your sister plunges a spear of magic through your heart,” Sol Shard spat. He knew that Celestia did not take it as an offense. Not from him. “She is going to rip you into so many pieces because we have been unable to find a solution.” He turned to the window of his tower. It was not part of the castle proper, but it was close enough that the Magisterium was considered prime Canterlot real estate. It had an excellent view of the castle gardens. Celestia’s wing unfolded like a giant taking a breath and blocked the window. “No.” She said it with all the power and gravitas at her command and even Sol Shard, Arch Magus of the Equestria Magisterium, quailed. “Nothing is worth unleashing that creature on this world again. Not even preventing my own death.” She blinked and the spell was broken. She sank back. “Not even Equestria itself, my friend.” But you are Equestria. The thought hit harder and in a place more tender than Sol Shard thought possible. With great pains he pulled back his expression. He forced himself to nod, to at least lie a little bit, and Celestia nodded back. She was probably already dreaming a plan to stop him when the inevitable came. The new silence in the room was not as companionable as the last. Celestia refolded her great wing as if she had only been stretching and Sol Shard pretended to consider more coffee, but the tension was palpable. Several times the unicorn opened his mouth to say something and each time Celestia waited eagerly, but he couldn’t find the right words. The imaginary comradely had well and truly died. “What do you want, Celestia?” Sol Shard asked, hammering the last lingering coffin nail in with bluntness. “You did not disturb me today and tell me all those things about Twilight Sparkle for no reason. I know you want her in the Magisterium. Do you think that, should you somehow prevail against your sister, that she can replace me when I die? Is that it?” Celestia was staring again, but the aging unicorn didn’t back down. “Take your position, yes,” she admitted, quiet enough that he almost didn’t catch it, “but never replace you. None of you have ever been replaceable.” Her eyes softened. “Is that offensive? If speaking of your eventual succession offends, then…” She looked to the door. Tempting as it was to let things lie there, Sol Shard said, “No, it is not. Nothing mundane lasts forever, myself least of all. Are you sure she would be a good fit?” The laugh from the alicorn surprised even Sol Shard and it shown on his face. “Of course not,” Celestia chuckled. “She is, as you said, obsessive and extremely temperamental. And she once had a penchant for cruelty. But, she is loyal. And quite dogged, once she has a desire firmly in mind.” “I heard that she dumped you on your rump when you were playing dress-up. I didn’t quite believe that one, though.” Sol Shard leaned over the table, caught between concern and curiosity. “Did she really suppress your magic?” Celestia’s lips pinched, which was as close to squirming as she would allow. “Spoke with the hospital staff, did you?” She sighed. “Yes, it is true. If only for a moment and when I was being flippant.” “But, still.” “But, still.” “Then you are right,” Sol Shard admitted after a moment of thought. “She needs to be trained. Are you pulling her out of that...education program at the fort?” “I promised Cadance that I would not and it is Twilight Sparkle’s goal in life to become a Royal Guard.” The greying unicorn let out a scoffing laugh of his own. “Is it? One of the most powerful unicorns of our generation wants to guard empty rooms. Wonderful. What, then, would you have me do?” Celestia’s horn lit. A scroll that had been sitting on the dresser flew over to the table and unwound itself across the surface for Sol Shard to read. He recognized it - it was one of the dozens of investigation requests the Magisterium received every week from ponies across Equestria who claimed to be cursed or that some monster was threatening their backwater hamlet. To him, this scroll read just like all the others - a few missing ponies from Las Pegasus and a frantic report from a city guard that they had seen something in a dark alleyway. It was easily the kind of report Sol Shard would either throw at the Royal Investigators or at some of his junior mages who were feeling too claustrophobic inside the Magisterium’s walls. Still, he felt like he was being graded again with Celestia watching him so closely, so he read the scroll a second and third time. The more little details he picked out, the more he realized there might actually be some truth to it. “A manticore or something terrorizing the city,” he guessed. “Perhaps a few changelings starting a new hive, even.” “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, I wish for you to build a task force to investigate it within the week. You are free to requisition whatever manpower you need from the local military.” Celestia paused and one of her eyebrows ticked up in a significant fashion. “Up to and including Fort Dressage.” Sol Shard tapped his chin, catching the line of thought. “And I would, of course, need the best and brightest to help. Perhaps a pony that could be taught a few simple spells and sent on a little adventure to get a taste of what life as a proper mage is like?” The monarch’s wings ruffled as she got to her feet. “Whatever you deem necessary for your investigation,” Celestia said, voice only a tiny bit more melodic than normal. “Perhaps that enterprising young pony could be a good temporary assistant to the Arch Magus? Or maybe they can be taught how mundane the life of a guard actually is? I leave it up to you for the lesson.” As the door to his tower room shut behind her, the unicorn felt both the lingering tension and courage drain out of him. He wondered if, a few decades ago, his own adventures had been planned out like this by Celestia and how much of his life was, or still was, just a set piece in some play to maneuver him. And now he was doing the same thing to someone else. “I might be closer to the curtain now,” Sol Shard muttered, grabbing a quill and some official letterhead, “but I’m still standing on the stage.” He only hopped Celestia still knew how to write a convincing happy ending.