Saints of Equestria

by Carlin


Prologue

Saints of Equestria – Prologue



Where had she gone wrong? Was she not a fair and loving ruler? Always making sure everypony was content, safe, and productive. But despite all her efforts there was dissent. They wanted more, and they didn’t care who they hurt getting it. Greed and chaos had been rare sights before, but now it spread like a wildfire throughout all of Equestria. It turned good ponies into hooligans and bad ponies into monsters.

Princess Celestia paced nervously in her bedchamber during another sleepless night. She was grateful for Luna’s artistry in crafting her night sky during times like these. It served as a reminder that even in the darkest of days she would never stand alone. Even while her dear sister was in exile she took comfort in knowing it was temporary and her family would be complete again soon enough. And the timing of her return could not have been better. The strength and resolve of the royal sisters was being tested to its absolute limits and Celestia needed every source of strength she could find.

Their once harmonious society had begun to fracture at the seams. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies used to coexist peacefully. But now they turned their backs to each other with little warning. They quickly began forming street gangs to evict those who didn’t fit in and keep them away with threats of, and acts of, extreme violence. But it didn’t stop there…

Once the gangs had coalesced into viable organizations they saw no reason to stop expanding their influence and power. Gambling, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, extortion, murder, forgery, tax evasion, and jaywalking had all become commonplace almost overnight. Each gang specialized in their own selection of the aforementioned crimes and exerted total dominance over their territories. Their ‘hood’ if one wanted to use the native parlance.

The guards tried their best to contain the chaos. But having lived their entire lives in nothing short of absolute peace and tranquility meant even the most senior of her personal guards had little to no actual combat experience against fellow ponies. Her police forces had all become complacent and only the most blatant of offenders couldn’t avoid prosecution, assuming they were captured at all. Those who chose forgery and tax evasion were especially vexing, if not the most deadly. It took a special sort of arrogance to talk into a courtroom with a smile and a friendly wave to the prosecuting lawyer who was about to lose horribly.

They needed to take back the streets before it was too late. Almost an entire generation of ponies had fallen to corrupt ways. If they wanted to secure the future of Equestria she needed to turn back the tide of darkness. They needed somepony to lead by example as a shining beacon of light in a blackened world. They needed somepony to vanquish the evil that infested its streets and liberate its ponies from tyranny. The needed a paragon of order to purge corruption from the very heart of society!








They needed a saint.


She was pacing, again, after pulling an all-night study session, again, because she was paranoid that she was going to disappoint her mentor and mother-figure Princess Celestia, again, and was afraid she would be about to banished to a faraway land and locked up in a cell in the place she was banished to… again.



Trouble is she was right this time.

But that would only happen if she was wrong about this. No mistakes could be afforded, no detail left overlooked, no plan left half finished, an endless supply of backups and contingencies, and no fail left unsafe. This magic was dangerous enough that it had been banned proactively by the Princess herself to prevent shortsighted magicians from misusing it and unleashing chaos and destruction onto the land. But the lavender unicorn currently wearing a groove into the floorboards with nervous pacing was anything but shortsighted. Summoning creatures from the abyss was always dangerous work given the wide variety of personalities one could encounter. She knew it was very tricky to accurately specify the requirements of the summoned being. But if done correctly a powerful magician could find an even more powerful ally.

It would work, it HAD to work.

She had kept telling herself this all night. All eight of her had done so, in fact. Well to be more accurate seven of her, a male variant named Dusk, and a shockingly bookish version of Rainbow Dash had told her so. All nine entities kept a watchful eye on the frazzled student through a fractured mirror, effectively becoming an inter-dimensional conference call. A Think Tank, if you will. This one spell was that important to her. She has spent a sleepless night just figuring out that the only pony she could truly confide in completely during these troubled times was, ironically, herself. Another week was burned mastering the Farsighted Mirror spell. And shockingly only an hour was spent tracking down the variants of herself through the multi-verse. It was a very fortunate coincidence that the third dimension Twilight tried contained a version that had already done just this in order to fill the crushing void of loneliness with the only pony she could stand to talk to. (Number Three was a bit anti-social and had been passed over by the Elements of Harmony in her universe, but she was still useful)

The planning session has been wonderfully productive. The accumulation of raw brain power and fresh perspectives brought all sorts of new ideas, details, unearthed complications, solutions to the aforementioned complications, and backup plans to ensure the operation would be a total success. There remained only one last unresolved issue…

“I still think we need to tone down the aggressiveness of our target.”

“Any less and it’ll be useless, Six. If it gets out of control it’ll be easy to put down, you made sure of that yourself!”

“As options of last resort, Eight! If it comes to that then the plan already failed. We need a hero, not a disposable weapon.”

The sole Rainbow Dash looked exasperated, clearly tired of having this same conversation. “But that’s exactly what we’re getting. Yanking a creature out of its world with no hope of return for the sole purpose of using it as a weapon. When the task is over what then? ‘Go about your business strange alien creature that doesn’t belong here and will never fit in. Oh, and best of luck to you!’ Yeah like that’ll work. May as well make it a total badass, you’re going to end up needing to kill it at the end anyway. If you’re merciful that is.”

“Rainbow, has anyone told you that you can be a real pessimist sometimes?”

“Only when I’m tired, hungry, or looking at your face Number Two.” Rainbow shot a glare through the mirror that could pierce souls. RD and Two had been arguing all night. This Rainbow may have been a bestselling author and researcher, but she was still Rainbow Dash. Holding her temper in check has never been a selling point of hers. “I’ve been sitting here for hours and it’s already been a long day! And I still have climate data to collect tomorrow. I hope you appreciate all the time I’ve given you, One. I’m not exactly getting a grant to do this work in case you forgot.”

“We’re almost there, I promise. Once Dusk has the list finished up we’re ready to cast the spell and I’ll be on my way.” Though deep down the unicorn knew this wouldn’t be the last time she needed the Think Tank’s help. Finding a suitable ‘Hero in a can’ was only step one. Using it to take back Equestria from the thugs that were as common as dirt would be even harder…

Fortunately Dusk had just completed his task. He was a bit more special than the rest of the think tank, aside from his chromosome selection. Unlike the rest he had been appointed Royal Scribe to Princess Celestia and Luna themselves. Normally such duties were reserved for enchanted quills as the work was either mundane or too sensitive to be discussed in front a servant. Dusk, however, had a very special talent with words and their meaning. He had the odd ability to read between the lines and draw profound meaning from even half-finished and mumbled thoughts. To the uninitiated his skill seemed almost psychic, to those in the know it was still unsettling as he finished the sentences of ponies he had only just met. It was a very handy talent given the eccentric nature of his current company and the important of their input.

The only male pony in the Think Tank held up a scroll and looked very hopeful. The better part of the night had been spent debating that damn list. All the effort, time, energy, and resources spent on this project all came down to this. He was sure his interpretation of the group’s musings and demands had been accurately recorded in the chaos of the night’s debate. It was a good list…

Courage, intelligence, leadership, strength, and love would all be vital components of the unknown creature to be summoned. All were things that could easily be found right here in Equestria, in Ponyville itself even. But to combat the darkness that festered in plain sight would require more. A talent combination that should be impossible in any creature even remotely sane. A combination that was in fact impossible to find, at least in Equestria.

It needed to be vicious. A heart of gold shrouded in the very same darkness that even now threated the peace of Ponyville. The shining white knights of the Princess could not find their way in the black. For all their bravery and courage their efforts were useless without guidance. They needed one who had walked the path of darkness and learned all of its secrets, one who shunned the light. Yet who had simultaneously shunned the darkness as well, choosing to return from the brink of damnation stay true to its origins. One who could betray both the light, and the darkness.













They needed an asshole.