A feast was organized impromptu, and Discord tried not to make petty comparisons, but he had a hard time remembering when did the ponies stop an entire city to celebrate the fact that he was simply there. Griffons that lived in the wilderness close to the city came to the festivity, and not only the farmers, but hunters that lived hours away. Travelers leaving to visit another city or to return home decided to stay and join the feast and celebrate.
The same beaten path outside the gates continued well into the city and branched out into other streets in between the stone and wood buildings. Houses and stores, most of them. The path ended on an open area before ‘The Horn’ and in the back of such area was a sort of audience place with a few tall ceremonial seats. One for the Jarl, another for The Lion, and one for Discord in the center, and then other seats for other griffons. Before them was a large curved table. Its wings half-embraced an open area imagined was used for audiences and the such, and further was a crackling fire in the middle of half-a dozen caribou carcasses roasting at the stakes, skinned, and cleaned within a couple of hours after they started preparing the feast.
He could see why the ponies and these northerner griffons would be cross. He couldn’t imagine them condoning this whole affair surrounding six dead hooved creatures. He was aware of how much of a controversy that thing was among these groups, and even with the more pony-friendly griffons to the south, but he felt it would be out of his place to denounce it or condemn it. If he had learned anything, it was that there was a time for everything.
Well, he didn’t eat meat nor traditional pony food. He usually ate the plates and napkins. If anything, it put him in a neutral position to mediate. Celestia had it right once again.
There was a lot of discussion and that was one of the reasons the griffons in the north were so pissed with the ponies. At the same time, there was no outright prohibition on game hunting simply because fish was an important source of food and of income in Mount Aris and almost every single coastal city of every race. Ponies kept carnivorous pets and zoos would need to feed their animals too.
Eventually Celestia brought down the hammer and made hunting and fishing regulated activities. The slaughtering of any creature capable of higher reasoning was forbidden and farm animals were protected. In fact, wild animals were protected too, including these caribou the griffons roasted in his honor. They were capable of rational thought, just not ‘as much’ as the ponies… That was a tough topic to explain. Other hooved animals typically were smart enough to talk, but most of them had a more primitive intelligence.
They behaved different and that made the argument complicated. These creatures would live in the wild and distance themselves from cities and villages. They wouldn’t accumulate wealth or educate themselves. They were content with simply being themselves and existing in their place. To some, this meant that they were put there to serve as prey. What is worse, these creatures accepted that fate. Their defenders would never understand why. Not that they wouldn’t fight for their lives, far from it, but they wouldn’t look for help from those that would protect them. It a simple predator and prey relationship.
There was something important about that Discord seemed to have forgotten.
That whole mess was one of the reasons the two Griffon Wars happened if Discord’s endeavor into pony history could be trusted with all that mess of changed history.
He was just happy it wasn’t his job to figure that one out. He also didn’t really understand why it happened. His mind drifted back to his conversation with Twilight, Cadance and their friends and he wondered if had something to do with the Animus Imperative. Were they really just put in their places to serve as a source of food to others?
From the point of view of the grass that would certainly make sense.
Thinking too much had a tendency of ruining the thinker and the situation he found himself in precluded such thoughts.
The music was the best. Drums, flutes, lutes and some instruments he didn’t know the name of. All he knew was that the music was different than what he traditionally heard in present day pony parties. Though he also remembered a time when ponies partied very much in the same way. Just like these griffons they would dance, play instruments and eat until they couldn’t anymore. Parties in the present had a tendency of becoming social affairs. The ones he had in mind from the past were sheer manifestations of pure joy, in the open instead of big halls. With improvised music. Rustic food.
Celestia had once told him that ponies had civilized themselves too much and it was boring. He supposed he had finally understood what she meant. She was also a bit drunk and whining about some date she had, or something. It was a boring conversation anyway.
The air was cold, but the giant bonfire and the partying griffons generated enough heat that one could completely forget they were surrounded by one of the coldest areas in the known world. Most of the light was provided by the fire too, with a few torches, since Luna’s Moon was hidden behind the clouds.
And even if he didn’t find the big game meat appetizing, he did enjoy the roasted potatoes, tomatoes, and the fish. He held a stick in his hand with the pieces of fish, tomato, potato, and chunks of bell peppers, like any of them would and they appreciated that he liked their food. They just didn’t expect that she would eat the sticks too.
Not that any griffon complained though. They just stared curiously, and the sticks tasted good anyways.
He refrained from drinking the mugs, though. He figured they’d be too expensive, and that mead stuff was almost as good as the wine from the Royal Reserve. He could drink that stuff all night.
At his side the old Jarl of Brokenhorn picked at the leg bones of a rabbit with his beak, not really paying it much attention to it, which he directed at the dancing griffons next to the table.
“How did your lordship end up here? I had figured that the ponies would do everything in their power to keep you from actually meeting us.”
“Funny thing. Celestia asked me to come when I told her you guys liked me.”
The griffon chuckled. “Now I am nervous.”
Lord Gilad on his other side spoke with his deep voice after leaving his mug on the table. “Never mind him, Lord of Chaos. Some old griffons have difficulty understanding that the biggest problem we face are not the ponies or even the Princesses. It is other griffons.”
The older griffon bah’d at him with a dismissive wave and threw the bone at the fire. “You didn’t have to stand in formation with unicorns shooting magical fire at you.”
“Ignore me, Lordship.” The Jarl continued. “Old griffons become bitter and pesky.”
“Indeed, the problem seems to be griffons.” Discord pulled at his beard, watching curiously while the griffons brought wood planks and prepared some sort of stage in front of the fire. “Whatever happened to that... Army I saved from being slaughtered by Lord… Graham, I believe was his name?”
“They are prisoners in an encampment right next to Stormedge. I’ll be damned if I’ve ever before seen such a pathetic lot of soldiers in my life.” The old Jarl answered throwing a small cherry tomato down his beak. “They are being well-treated if that is what your lordship wishes to know.”
Discord nodded to him, satisfied with the information, but Gilad spoke again. “Those are not the ones who concern me either.”
“Who are they, then?”
“The ones that are too cowardly to pick up a weapon and fight for what they believe.” He frowned while he stared at the fire and the stage being assembled with two big logs. “History has a penchant for rhyming. And I do believe that your lordship knows history, as does Princess Celestia.”
That confused Discord. He thumped his fingers on his mug nervously. “I don’t understand. Princess Celestia is perfectly fine with you becoming King of the Griffons.”
“She is.” He lowered his voice. “Until I actually am and suddenly griffons are crying for her help. As I said, history rhymes. It’s like a song that loves repeating its refrains with the most dramatic of choirs.”
“History isn’t my forte. But I understand. I can tell you that Celestia has sent me to meet you guys because she believes in building a bridge.”
“I can respect that.” The griffon smiled earnestly again. “If there is one thing that I can’t say about her is that she is likely deal in underhanded ways with us.”
“I am sure she appreciates that trust.”
The Jarl raised his hand in the most petulant way Discord had ever seen, and his eyes remained fixed on the impromptu stage. “Ah… These talks are best left to another time.”
Both of them agreed with the old griffon and by that time the stage was complete. It had a pair of pillars holding a long swath of red linen among them, shinning a bit with the giant fire behind it and above the flat surface of wood planks. To Discord that didn’t really understand their traditions it seemed like something especial was about to happen.
“Is that Gwineth?” Gilad asked the Jarl, staring with him at a particularly beautiful griffon lady calmly walking toward the stage.
“She is.” The old griffon wouldn’t take his eyes off of her.
“She looks stunning.”
A very young steely-blue furred griffoness with a silvery head and blue eyes with cyan ‘eye shadow’. It called Discord’s attention that she was the only griffon in that entire affair that seemed. Different. He struggled finding the word he was looking for, but ‘sophisticated’ seemed appropriate. Maybe she had come recently from one of the more pony friendly cities?
She carried a longsword on her back, made with darkened steel and it seemed to be charged with magic. The only thing on Discord’s mind was what was she going to do with that sword, but the males in the crowd and in his company seemed hypnotized by the young female for completely different reasons to the point it began feeling creepy. It seemed that these griffons could be very creepy.
Regardless, she seemed proud of all the attention she was getting, and Discord’s curiosity only grew. “Who is she?”
“Gwineth is a matter of pride for Brokenhorn.” The Jarl said. “Not only is she known as one of the most beautiful of our race, but she is also a pureblooded descendant of Emperor Grigor. Is your Lordship familiar?”
“I’ve heard of him. Yes. I know that his legacy is very important to your hold.”
“Given her heritage and attributes, she was chosen by Lady Gwendolen, trained and educated with several skills that make her special among our kind.”
The way this griffon talked about her made Discord ever more worried about that creepy tone of his. Regardless, he had to admit that she was quite beautiful, as far as Discord was able to discern the traits of beauty in a griffon, and at least The Lion wasn’t so overtly creepy about it.
“And what would those skills be?”
“She is the product of Gwendolen’s love of our older traditions.” Gilad explained. “She called Gwineth a Swordmaiden.”
“Though I am not so sure about the maiden part.” The Jarl laughed at his own joke and Discord’s ‘creep-o-meter’ might have exploded if it was turned on. Gilad didn’t seem to like the joke either.
Meanwhile Gwineth talked to an older, tan and white griffoness holding some sort of musical instrument and lord Gilad talked to Discord again. “She spent a few years of her life in Griffindell, studying with our Loremasters, and with my mate, Gwendolen. Your Lordship will have to meet her and will leave just as soon as the lich is dealt with.”
Discord simply nodded. He had assumed that The Lion would want to talk to him but would also want to do so when the party was done, and also with his mate present. He didn’t believe Chrysalis’ and had a hunch that she was actually very important to the griffons. More so than a ‘pretty face’ he had mated. These griffons certainly didn’t.
The Lion seemed a lot friendlier than he was led to believe though. Curious.
He had distracted himself and wasn’t paying attention, but it was then the older griffoness with the instrument started playing by the side of the stage. It produced a haunting sound that reminded him of a rustic violin. A combination of raspy metal sounds and the wind. In a way, it seemed appropriate to the region and the gruff griffons that lived there. Another two griffons joined with simple wood and leather, but dramatic drums.
The younger Gwineth stood on her hindlegs in the middle of stage, holding the sword point down to the wood in front of her. Her head lowered and closed eyes, she seemed to focus her mind, and to Discord’s special eyes, she bled magic into the air and her weapon seemed to syphon it into characters etched into the blade. Runic magic, how appropriate.
It exuded blue magical fire and scorched the wood where the tip of the blade touched it. When her owner spun and swirled it around herself it cut and burned the wood several times, sending blazing splinters into the air. What is more, the sword whistled through the routine of sweeping arc and spinning flourishes, leaving a faint trail of blue magical light in the air.
Now Discord wasn’t a specialist in the martial arts, and he had never even come close to using a sword, but he saw she didn’t simply spin the blade in her paws, though. She held it purposely and every movement seemed like a proper cut with the weapon, even the flourishes she performed seemed controlled with precision to come within a hair’s length of cutting herself apart with a dangerous magical weapon.
Of course, with the way the old griffon and the others in the audience stared at her and the sweat shinning the flame’s light in her fur and muscles underneath, it was pretty obvious that he and the griffons around them were seeing different things. Not that he couldn’t appreciate her beauty and graceful, even sensual movements, but Discord was used to seeing deeper.
He didn’t judge them either. He understood it was a part of their beings and ponies did similar things. He still remember when ponies build entire cults to love that turned out to be… Well… The Bordello of Candy on steroids.
The ‘thing’ was that he knew how taxing it was for such quadrupedal creatures to stand in such a fashion, much more with such control and balance. No wonder she was a beautiful creature, even against the bright flames her silhouette betrayed powerful muscles to keep such a weapon under control and with such precision.
She wasn’t a dancer, but a fighter and she wasn’t performing for some creepy old griffon, she was showing off not only her physical fitness, but her magical prowess and pure skill. Someone knew very well what they were doing.
He was no investigator either, but perhaps a conversation with this Gwineth was in order.
***
It was said that in modern times Equestria didn’t sleep. And to a certain degree that was correct. Ponies said that it greatly pleased the Princess of the Night that ponies had learned to appreciate her night in modern times and she even visited nightly dance houses and all sorts of nocturnal entertainment in Canterlot when her nightmare hunting allowed it of her.
But Silent Wind, nicknamed ‘Whoosh’ by her co-workers, colleagues and clients belonged to a special kind of pony that appreciated the night a long time before the modern times. When ponies invented the brothels, inns and taverns her kind was there already. But while some specialized in providing company, her kind specialized in relieving costumers of prized possessions.
But as the skilled professional she was she ventured on into a more lucrative venue of work for a pony with streetwise in a city like Canterlot. She figured that rich ponies, for some stupid reason she couldn’t grasp always wanted to be richer, no matter how much money they already had. And some wanted that so much that they would break the law, and when they broke the law, they would find themselves in trouble. That was where Whoosh’s skills were needed. And the price, of course, was on par with her costumers.
She had her eyes on a job for the Crown about assisting in retrieving a certain couple of princesses at odds with the Royal House, and that job was good since the Royal House always paid and those pampered ponies were likely to be an easy target. Besides, she had heard that Flying Snake was on it too. Even if she’d need special preparations for that job, all she would have to do was show up, pull her weight and split the pay. Sweet as mango.
But when none other than the county’s Lord Protector’s secretary contacted her, she knew that it could be the job of her life. She took it without thinking much. Even if dealing with canterlotian nobility was a pain in the flank most of the times.
She crossed her legs, under her dark-gray cloak with the hood down letting her pretty batpony head with her golden eyes show and leaned against the door’s frame watching the old unicorn freaking out and desperately looking for ‘stuff’ in his office. It was a nice place, his home office in his mansion. She didn’t know what he had done, but she doubted he would ever show his face in the County Militia Administration ever again. It was funny in a way because he was the sort of pony that would’ve give her trouble for her typical job.
It was amusing to see ponies freaking out anyways. The old pony was sand yellow with a once reddish mane turning grey. He was probably a strapping local militia at one time (or just a pampered noble that got a job because of his name). He still had quite a lot of muscles on his large frame, for a unicorn. Not that she herself was much bigger as a bat-pony, but whatever.
He ran to the other side of the office and pulled open several drawers, then squealed in panic and pulled down the curtain to the window. Then slammed each of the drawers, one at a time until he found what he was looking for. A cigar case. It was a pretty one to be sure, gold embroidery and all. Ironically the cover was an image of Princess Celestia raising the sun.
“Sir!” His young secretary by the desk sounded on the brink of panic too. “I think you should take things of real importance only.”
Poor young thing. One of those young pegasus that got infatuated with some rich, high and mighty city official that was gonna fix all the problems in the world and when she noticed that he is about as crooked as all the criminals he was gonna put in the dungeon she was already too loyal to turn on him.
Silent wished she believed those crazy ponies that said Princess Celestia sent bad ponies to Tartarus because then she could imagine this jerk would have a nice place in there right next to Cerberus’ pissing post.
Regardless of Whoosh’s feelings, the old pony stared at the object he held and left it on the table. “Yes. Yes, you are right. Oh, my goodness! It wasn’t supposed to come to this! It was supposed to be simply a side project! And it was not like anypony would ever notice the missing money!”
Whoosh cleared her throat. “Whoah! Chief, mind your words. They say the walls have ears.”
She couldn’t hold a diminutive smirk. In Canterlot the walls had sophisticated divination spells, rather than popular sayings.
The unicorn did shut up, but he kept looking for something in his desk. The secretary sat on her haunches and held her own hooves. “Sir… We really should be worrying about things you should need on your travel, since our bags are already on the airship.”
“But I need it!” He almost screamed in panic throwing papers and office supplies all over the room until he finally found it: a pretty heart shaped locket. Silent Wind couldn’t believe it. “My wives would kill me if I left it behind!”
He even opened it to show it to her. A nice heart shaped photograph of one of those tall and pretty saddle arabian mares next to a tall and elegant unicorn mare. “Well, you found it. Cool. Are you ready then?”
“Yes! I am terribly sorry, Madam Silent Wind. But this is most important. My wives are on vacation, as you suggested, but I simply could not leave this behind. It is from our second marriage you know. I have to get one with our daughters, but… Well... Time.”
“Yes, yes.” She waved her hoof at him. “Get this thing somewhere safe cause we’re not coming back for it if you lose it.”
Then the door to the office opened and one of her helpers, an earth pony’s head slipped in, covered in a black balaclava and a cloak over his seemingly orange body. “All set, boss.”
“Cool!” The bat pony grinned. “Let’s review the cover story.”
The unicorn nodded. “Yes! My family was set to go on vacation to Las Pegasus, and that is why my wives and daughters left. But I had to stay behind to prepare a report on Ponyville’s situation to Lord Blueblood that was to be sent to him tomorrow. Thus, I left this night to meet my family in Las Pegasus using my private yacht!”
“Yes!” Silent Wind nodded at him and then at his secretary.
“Oh! I was supposed to accompany Lord Stalwart Star to the docks and go home. Then, by the morning I would take his report to Lord Blueblood in Canterlot Palace! But when I arrived in the morning the mansion was gone. So, I ran to the Militia!”
The bat pony nodded again and then stared at her earth pony accomplice who grinned under his mask like it was Nightmare Night. “Unfortunately, a fire broke out during the night and, lo and behold, the report turned to ash! Along with all the records. Unfortunately.”
“Excellent everypony!” She grinned too.
“Are we ready to leave, then?” Lord Stalwart pointed anxiously at the door, but Silent Wind calmed him with a hoof and professional demeanor.
“Almost. You were looking for that thing… You can afford a few minutes for your own safety. One of my partners needs to check back in. He’s making sure that we can reach the airdock and that the militia isn’t in the way. If I understood it correctly, we may already be too late and there is one heck of a Justiciar zeroing in on you. But we gotta try, right?”
“I am most certainly not paying you if we are caught!”
“Dude…” She grinned. “If we’re caught the that Justiciar is going to rip you a new one large enough to pass Princess Celestia’s new airship through it. Paying me will be the least of your worries.”
“You know, you’re not really helping.” His secretary gave her a cute angry look.
“Ah, chill. She’s not going to catch us. I got a reputation to keep. Besides, remember my ponies tipped her off in the wrong way. She thinks you’re leaving by train.”
“Oh! Yes!” He grinned a little calmer. “You sent Miss Rainy to book a ticket in my name! I asked for first class, for the sake of credibility. By the way, Rainy, did you deliver the letters?”
“Yes sir!” She chirped and Silent Wind grimaced.
“Wait! What letters?!” The batpony had a mini-heart attack just then.
“Oh… Uh…” The unicorn coughed. “Nothing important. I simply saw myself forced to inform a few friends of my departure.”
Great… Just great. Silent Wind started regretting taking that job.
Then the door to the outside opened and closed. Another earth pony in a balaclava and cloak stopped next to the first, this one green. “Way’s ready to go, boss! Goldies are on their way though. We gotta go now!”
“Oh no! The Royal Guard?!” Whoosh could’ve sworn that Lord Stalwart almost turned white.
“What did you expect?” The first earth pony chuckled at his reaction. “Bro, you sole from the crown, didn’t ya?”
“Alright, enough chatter. Let’s go.” Too late to jump off the boat now. “The back door as we do, everypony keep quiet and don’t let stuff jingle. Keep low and keep your muzzles shut. If the Guards find us, don’t panic. They may not be the ones looking for us. Just let me talk.”
The group followed her trough the mansion devoid of its servantry straight through the kitchen to the pantry to the back door that opened to the large open area for receiving household supplies in the back yard, before the tennis yard and the pool. The ponies rushed past everything, following the thestral’s lead until a place in the living fence where there was a hidden hole one of the earth ponies held open for them. The first to pass was Whoosh, followed by her charge and the secretary, followed by the others to the neighbors’ yard.
A pair of unicorns stared at them. The male, white and blue with a monocle over his right eye was a career politician and he held an unlit cigar in his mouth while he held a lighter in his telekinesis. Next to him, his wife a female rosé and blonde unicorn froze mid-bite on a sandwich while another unicorn male, green and greener, worked a griddle where he seemed to be making another sandwich next to yet another unicorn, his wife who was yellow and pink of mane. Both lawyers. All of four of them very influential and important ponies in the Canterlot social and political environment.
Just his luck.
While the ‘professional’ ponies ignored them, Lord Stalwart gave them his best ‘definitively not panicking’ smile and saluted with a hoof, never stopping on his way and unable to keep a nervous chuckle from bubbling up. “Evening, Master Gourd. Ah. Wonderful evening for an outdoor snack. Don’t mind us. We’re just… Uh… Playing a game. You know… Live Action Role Playing. Later!”
Going past another hole in the living fence they reached the streets and Lord Stalwart swiped at the sweat on his forehead. “Goodness, I am never going to recover from this.”
His secretary patted his shoulder. “I am so glad you are with me, Miss Rainy. I simply do not know what I would do without you.”
“Nah, it’ll be alright.” Silent Wind looked one way and another. The way seemed clear. “It’s cool. We’ll mosey to the other side and then down the street. Left in the balcony park and into the sewers. Then we go straight to the exit of Windyrow Street. Go around the building and into the service area, straight to your airship’s hangar. It should be ready to go with the crew waiting.”
“Come on, uncle.” One of the earth ponies pushed him lightly. “You’re making a scene and we’re not getting paid till you gone in that airship.”
“I’ll scout on ahead.” Silent Wind told them. “Keep’em moving boys.”
She rushed ahead, and the others made the ‘clients’ move. The street was empty and mostly silent and dark. It was a rich area and the lamps were kept lit, but either way nopony was there to bother them. At least they made it to the corner where Whoosh waited for them and looked past the corner.
“Horseapples… The balcony is full. We need a distraction. Slick, you’re on it!”
“Yes ma’am!” One of the earth ponies, with a little too much excitement removed his cloak and his balaclava revealing an orange earth pony with a blonde mane he adjusted with a swipe of his head. Determined orange eyes set forward. Stalwart wished he had had that level of enthusiasm in his recruits in his early years as Lord Protector of Canterlot. “See you guys latter!”
With that he galloped towards the balcony. It was one of the leisure areas in the capital were ponies would sit in a plaza with food carts (refined gourmet, not to mention vogueish food carts were all the rage in Canterlot, if one wasn’t in the mood for one of its many restaurants) and some street performers (well dressed, prim and proper as must everything be in Canterlot). Most of the ponies in the plaza though were rich residents of the neighborhood, some of which Stalwart recognized and he cringed a little knowing that they would recognize him too.
But to his surprise Miss Wind’s pony stopped galloping just short of drawing attentions to himself and took a deep breath. His shoulders slumped, his ears fell, and he held his head low while approaching the plaza from that point onward. He drew the attention of some ponies, mostly the rich unicorns of the area, but they kept to their glasses and food, talking to each other, casually watching the sad pony approaching.
Then he bumped into one of the richest looking unicorn mares and caused her to spill her wine all over her pretty dress. She gasped with the greatest degree of indignation, as one usually did in Canterlot.
“Sir! What manner of-” She began, but the pony Slick interrupted her with the most hurtful of whines.
“No! It is not worth it ma’am! There is nothing you can do!”
“What?” She took a step back, more than confused and other curious ponies around the area congregated around them.
“It is not worth it ma’am!” He wailed again holding hooves to his eyes. “She’s left me and there is nothing more for me in this cruel, cruel world!”
“What? You cannot mean! Sir! Wait a minute!” One of the rich stallions, one of those nice and upstanding ones wearing an aqua polo shirt standing around seemed legitimately worried while the other ponies simply seemed distressed. He held Slick’s shoulders. “Whatever has happened, there is no logic in-”
“No!” He freed himself with a dramatic flourish. “It is over! She was everything!”
Before he could do the next step in his routine, the ‘I’m gonna jump run’, the same unicorn held his mane with his magic. “Sir, please try and calm down. This is most unnecessary and unbecoming.”
One of the mares, a yellow and lime unicorn with a frilly dress approached, holding a tall glass in her telekinesis and giggling friendly. “Indeed. We will keep you company, and you will tell us what happened. I will pay you a dinner! How about that?”
From the corner of the street Whoosh showed her little fangs in a large grin. That never failed! Most of them might be self-absorbed plotholes, but as soon as they realized that things were bad, they would wise up and earnestly try to help. In their own way, but still. Understanding how ponies and their heads worked was the most important part of her job sometimes.
She simply gestured to her companions the way while ponies in the plaza laughed and kept their attention on the ‘sad’ earth pony and the unicorns convincing him to share a meal. Nopony noticed they slipped by close to the back walls of the mansion and russhed into the street as though nothing had happened.
Fortunately, their guide knew where she was going because Lord Stalwart had no idea they were supposed to enter the small and unassuming door by the large wall in the mountain side. It was a decorated archway flanking a simple metal door with a padlock which proved to be no match to Silent Wind’s lockpicking skills.
He simply stared in awe while she grabbed her kit from under her cloak, dealt with the thing and carefully replaced it to safety. He figured he really ought to invest in quality magical locks for his mansion. If he ever managed to have one in Canterlot, that was.
Past the door, they went down a flight of stone stairs and the smell soon became unpleasant to say the least.
“Eeew.” His secretary took a leg to her muzzle. “What’s this smell?”
“The Canterlot sewers… Ma’am…” The remaining earth pony replied with all the sarcasm the situation required.
“Well, excuse me, sir. I typically do not wallow in the sewers. Canterlot’s or otherwise!”
Ah, Miss Rainy. Don’t ever change… At least she gave her employer a reason to smile in this whole awful situation.
Not much further down the stairs they reached the main. At least it had two passageways by the sides and little bridges every now and then. But most important, there were little rubber boots Whoosh’s associates had stashed for them. Stalwart took a second to shiver at the absolute horror that would be stepping in something nasty in there with his bare hooves.
“Come on.” Silent Wind encouraged them. “Soon the worst will be behind, and you’ll be in your fancy airship.”
Oh yes. That would make it all worth it. It was simply a shame that Miss Rainy couldn’t go with him, though. He could use her company in the travel.
Regardless, fortunately the travel through the sewers was a long, tortuous, dark, damp, smelly and wholly unpleasant; but it fortunately was also uneventful. None of the monsters said to dwell in the sewer showed themselves.
Exiting was the same as entering, but fortunately Miss Wind had thought ahead before their departure and the door was open for them. That was why it was worth it to pay extra for good professionals. He couldn’t imagine the agony that retracing their steps through the sewers would be.
Coming out the sewer access they were in another of the typical Canterlot streets in the rich area, with public illumination and fortunately without witnesses and mostly closed stores.
They could already see the illuminated front of the private airdocks ahead of them, with its big and welcoming glass behind golden stylish bars doors closed. And two local militiaponies walking in front of them. The group stopped before they would be too close.
“It should be fine.” Whoosh quietly assured her client. “It’s just a patrol. They’ll be leaving. They don’t know what we’re doing.”
Some time passed with the ponies making themselves the least visible possible in the illuminated street, hiding the best that was possible behind a bench. But the guards didn’t move for ages until, finally, one of the two unicorns in leather barding elbowed the other.
“Hey. I gotta take a leak. Be right back.”
“Cool.”
He left without much hurry and his partner stayed relaxed, sitting in front of the glass doors, casually looking around. Silent Wind’s patience started to drain as much as her client’s anxiety grew.
Then the guard coughed and snorted before he started ‘singing’. “Pam pa ram pam pam pa ram...”
“Oh, hay no!” The thestral cursed under her breath and promptly started walking towards the guard so nonchalantly Stalwart thought that everything was lost.
“Ma’am.” The guard stared distractingly at her, at first, but them frowned. “Strange outfit out in the streets, ma’am.”
She simply drew a black truncheon and hit him over the head with that. “No! Bad pony!”
“Ow! What?” He tried protecting his head, but she was relentless. “Let me guess, somepony stole your sweet roll? Ow!”
“Stop! Don’t ever do that again!” She raged.
“You know, I used to be an adventurer…” She screeched before he could go on, hitting him as fast as she could and finally knocked unconscious. The other ponies approached the very miffed looking Miss Silent Wind while she stashed her weapon under her cape.
“Was that really necessary?” Miss Rainy glowered at the bat pony.
“Let’s go! That was too much of a racket for my tastes!” Was all she said.
They obeyed the angry batpony and fortunately the other guard never returned until they found the service entrance. It was a large metal gate closed with a large padlock and a chain, but she had as little trouble opening it as she had done before.
They were close now, and soon it would be over.
They quickly traversed the large patio behind the docks with the large cargo doors and Whoosh pointed at one of them. “There. Number six! We made it!”
She had a huge smile on her face, opening up the door when the magical lights came on. There was some fanfare, two Royal Guards threw up confetti. The beautiful white and blue airship was tethered to its dock with magical chains sealed by the Royal Guard and the crew was nowhere to be seen. Worse, there was a smug looking Justiciar unicorn sitting in between Princess Celestia and the freaking Changeling Queen. The princess applauded happily, and the queen blew a party horn.
Not to mention a whole selection of Royal Guards and black carapace changelings around the hangar with expressions that ranged from professionally stoical and smug grins.
“What the actual fudge?” The batpony blinked her unbelieving golden eyes.
“You are under arrest, Lord Stalwart Star…” Said Golden Rule with an even smugger grin. “For attempting to evade the Royal Guard and under severe suspicion of stealing resources from the Crown, obscuring administrative impropriety, conspiracy, blackmailing, prevarication and all the vain horseapples you stupid motherbuckers do when you think you are untouchable.”
He didn’t answer. Instead he had resigned to his fate with dignity. At least he had tried. With some luck, his associates would take the necessary precautions and this mess would blow even more out of proportion. All he wanted was some more money.
“What… What is Queen Chrysalis doing here?” Silent Wind was still more confused than worried while the others were still confused or in denial.
“She is here to commemorate the first successful operation by the first changeling Justiciar!” Celestia chimed infuriatingly happily.
Then green magic flame enveloped the secretary and she turned to a cheerful aqua and cyan changeling wearing the red robe and golden chain of the Justiciars and tap-dancing madly while spinning and squealing. “I did it!”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” The batpony facehoofed while the Lord Protector seemed to have accepted his fate with numb surrender.
“We arrested Miss Rainy Sky with the letters you sent her to deliver to your partners, Lord Stalwart Star.” Celestia said calmly. “She tried to protect your honor as far as she could. Please don’t be angry at her. And I am afraid that you have forfeited your freedom as well as your position though.”
“With all due respect, Princess. I don’t want your pity.” He hardened his stare, but hers remained as calm and patient as always. He meant to say more, but words failed him.
“You don’t have to explain yourself, Lord Star.” She did pity him regardless. “I know of countless reasons ponies do what you and your cohorts attempted. None of them try for the right reason, and it is something that is beyond your ability to help yourself. Still, I don’t take it personally.”
Silent Wind didn’t like the way she spoke as though she knew more than she let on, but it was not like she felt asking questions right there. She sighed and resigned to being arrested. It happened every now and then. But her partner earth pony stepped back and pulled a pistol from his cloak.
“Screw this.” He said and promptly pointed his gun at the old unicorn. “You talk too much, Celestia.”
Everyone froze. The queen changed from happy to a deathly stare and the princess looked sad. He didn’t like making an old lady sad but screw her and her millennia of sitting her flank in the throne. Whoosh screamed and jumped back. The two Justiciars hardened their stares. He actually had to see it, or he couldn’t have figured out one of those new cutesy healed changelings looking angry. Well, the black changelings and guards didn’t like it either that he had just pulled a gun out and tensed up, staring seriously at him. Good.
“Nopony do anything or uncle’s getting shot in the head.” The unicorn actually looked angry now. “Any horns start glowing and I pull the lever. Don’t dare me, I’ll do it!”
“Schlick!” Silent Wind screeched. “What the hay?!”
Right on cue, his pals came into view. Six earth ponies promptly standing with their muskets on hooves by the cargo door and two pegasi came flying in the airdock’s outer door, also carrying guns. Others came from the administrative area offices, unicorns and earth ponies, also armed with pistols and surrounded the group while that dumbass Celestia asked nopony to do anything.
“No no no no! This is dumb! Really, really dumb! Put that down, Schlick!” Silent Wind barely screamed. “It’s just a botched job! Nopony needs to die for this!”
“Sorry, Whoosh. This thing is huge, like a pile of manure the size of Mount Canterlot huge, and you got screwed big time. Should’ve picked up the princesses job.”
“My little ponies, how do you think that this is going to end?” Seriously, her sad voice was pissing him off. “I beg you to surrender these weapons and turn yourselves in to the Madam Justiciar and I can guarantee your safety. You’ll be hurt unnecessarily.”
“Shut the hay up, princess.” Screw that annoying way of hers of talking to them like they were foals. “Some ponies with a lot of power are really tired of staring at your dumb face. What is going to happen…”
“Shut up, you moron.” Lord Stalwart told him, but he approached Lord Stalwart and pushed the point of the gun on the side of his head.
“Is that I’m going to prance my way out of here with the old fart and my guys are coming with me all the way to bay three where our airship is waiting to leave with us. Nice and easy, and nopony gets hurt.”
Not a second later Chrysalis took a step forward looking like she was ready to murder someone and her horn flared up with green changeling magic like she was about to conjure up a storm. “I’m not Celestia for you to fuck around with, peasant.”
Before he had even processed what she said he screamed when his leg holding the pistol shone in green and every kind of pain possible shot through it just as her magic pulled it up at an angle it should not be put on. His pistol flew somewhere, and shots banged in all directions.
Silent Wind squealed and dropped to the floor covering her face with her legs. Lord Stalwart did the same, sans squealing, and not only the changeling Justiciar jumped on top of him, but a golden magical shield manifested around him.
The two closest Royal Guards jumped at Celestia and drew their own pistols, shooting at the earth ponies by the door while the others rushed for cover. Two of them dropped, hit by the stunning magic crystal balls.
Inside the hangar it was a mess. Royal Guards and changelings jumped at the ‘criminal scum’ with magical subduing batons and spells as soon as the weapons were spent. Turned out their armor, natural or otherwise, did protect them. The changeling Justiciar clung to Lord Stalwart like she was a possessive cat staring evilly at anyone that approached the shield, and her colleague used her horn to shoot magic at the fighting ponies and encasing them in small golden cages while she herself protected herself with a magical shield.
In the middle of the chaos Princess Celestia turned one way and another. “Everypony, please calm down. This really isn’t necessary!”
Iron ball shots bounced off Chrysalis’s carapace and mildly inconvenienced her other than simply pissing her off. Wondering who in all of creation would be brain-dead enough to shoot those noisy and irritating ‘guns’ at her she turned to the two pegasi hovering by the skydoor ready to drop their weapons and fly away.
Out of several spells that would outright kill, maim or disintegrate them, she was going to rip their wings off and shove them down their mouths for their impudence, but Celestia was looking and she was in enough trouble as it was. Instead she groaned in the middle of the fight and slammed the two together. Then she threw them on the hangar’s floor. She was afraid that if she did anything other, she might end up killing them because they could drop from the mountain. Hopefully, her soldiers would remember to preferably not kill or maim anyone.
The fight turned to a next level of chaos with shouting and more shooting when more weapons were drawn until things began solving themselves with Royal Guards and changelings subduing the others. Silent Wind sighed to herself, tied up with that weird changeling goop. All she wanted was an easy retirement.
The remaining earth ponies by the cargo door realized that indeed things didn’t go the way they thought they would, even if some guards and changeling were injured, and bolted. With her blood pumping and instincts rearing, Chrysalis shot forward, but she stopped when Celestia called her. For some reason the mare stared up with her horn alight. “Don’t bother. The Local Militia will find them. Kindly ensure that Miss Golden Rule takes these ponies into custody and that nopony else is injured.”
Then she jumped up and flew through a small skylight, closing her wings through it.
“Celestia?” Her eyebrow rose with confusion.
***
Grufnor had stood the whole day hiding under the blue blanket, the same color the ceiling was. That wasn’t a problem, as he was used to standing still, quiet as a predator should be. He had his new bolt action rifle, comfortably snuggled under him, he had eaten enough, and he had taken care of his physiological needs. The only thing that bothered him was the cursed heat in the pony lands.
But he remained quiet and calm. His mind slipped into a meditative state between awareness and sleep but roused when he heard movement and talking inside the hangar. The small skylight allowed him ample vision within the building, and he could see the golden armored guards talking to the airship’s crew. Making arrests and their unicorns magically tethering the airship to its dock.
Things wouldn’t go the way the old corrupt unicorn had imagined. He cared little for where things had gone awry, all that mattered was that the unicorn preferably left Canterlot and then reached safety in Snow Mountains, or that he was dead and couldn’t talk more than his life was worth.
Should the ponies he hired fail, his trusty rifle would ensure that he wouldn’t talk. Always have alternatives… Part of his training.
His internal clock said it would soon be night, if the infernal princesses kept to their routine and soon would be time to act. So, he laid still, hidden under the blanket and watched over the hangar for the time.
Hours later, after the Princess and the Queen had arrived and prepared the small meeting the Lord Protector arrived with his escort. Grufnor remained quiet until tensions rose and then he readied his weapon, loading it and shouldering the stock.
As he had anticipated, as soon as violence began the Justiciars protected his target. The queen dealt with some of their enemies, the whole fight was an ugly brawl and in the middle of it all Celestia kept trying to talk to them like an imbecile. After the earth ponies by the door ran, the Justiciar dropped her shield and the old unicorn was exposed. So predictable.
He stared down the sight and lined his shot at the base of the horn. It was a pathetically short range and from above. A cub could have made it with minimal training.
But when he pulled the trigger, it clicked, and nothing happened. He frowned and looked at his weapon. Pulled back the bolt to see the chamber empty and the bullet floating in front of his face, encased in golden light.
He cursed under his breath and looked back down. The changeling queen talked to Celestia and the cursed white alicorn stared directly at him.
He cursed aloud this time. “Damnation!”
He slung his gun behind his back and threw the blanket jumping up and flapping his wings, immediately flying towards his previously stablished escape route, the nearest building, one of the many towers in Canterlot. He grinned to himself for an instant. Not very likely that the changeling whore and her mosquito wings could chase him, much less cake-hole extraordinaire.
He spun mid-flight, drawing his revolver from under his coat and just as soon as he saw movement out the skylight, he shot at it. Didn’t stop to look though. He made a sharp turn at the tower and propelled himself to an L turn behind it. Then he looked at what he had shot at, expecting to see a bleeding white thing collapsed on the blue floor. Instead golden lightning blinded him with a thunderous clap that broke every single window in the vicinity. The tower exploded with brick and mortar shrapnel and threw him off balance in his flight.
Next thing he knew, he crashed against something hard that buckled on impact. Ponies screamed and scrambled out of his way and he jumped with a flap of his wings next to hold at the paving stone with his claws. Flared wings ready to jump at his opponent.
To his left a closed store with scared ponies in front of its windows. To his right the outside tables of the restaurant he just crashed into, more scared ponies staring at him from the broken window and behind it.
Before he thought of looking up, he heard her. “Up here, hairball.”
She hovered above the semi destroyed tower and blew a raspberry at him. Curse that insufferable devil. And not a moment too late, Royal Guards started arriving and closing off the street while the pegasi circled above.
He didn’t think twice. He jumped, grabbed the closest pony, a yellow unicorn with short red mane. The others cried and distanced themselves, but the guards remained calm. He pointed his revolver at the pony’s head. “Let me go or you’re losing this one.”
“Joke is on you, griffon.” She yelled from up there. “I don’t actually like this one! He writes horrible slander pieces about me in his newspaper, cheats on his wife and thinks nopony knows he has a life-size plushie of one of Twilight’s friends.”
Before he could react, the pony could decide if he was scared or angry and the others remembered they were in danger after giggling, she spoke again. “Let him go and I can guarantee you will not be injured. None of this is necessary and will only end with you hurt.”
He shook his head, more angry than intimidated. “That is not how this works, Princess! Call off your guards and beat it or this is going to get too ugly for your ponies.”
She actually changed her expression and he knew he had struck a nerve. He knew she was bluffing. Then she spoke again. “Well, since you’re so tough, why don’t you fight me instead of hiding behind scared ponies and I will show you how I killed thousands of your ancestors and put a scar so deep in your racial memory that your ilk thinks eating sugar is a sin.”
A trained and experienced, loyal killer such as him should be above insults and not fall for such petty trickery. But there were moments when unleashing one’s fury was warranted, and that was one such moment. His face burned, and the surrounding ponies gasped at whatever expression he made. He pointed his weapon at the princess, but before he pulled the trigger one of the unicorns pulled his paw and the bullet hit nothing but the ceiling. Ponies cried and he threw the unicorn at the approaching earth pony guards and pushed past the pegasi coming from above in one mighty flap of his wings. He thought one of the unicorn guards tried to hit him with a stun spell, but he was so furious he barely felt it and the only thing he saw right them was the white alicorn that he wanted to rip apart into a flurry of blood and feathers.
He recognized anger in her stare, but he wasn’t afraid of it and in a way, it was good to see that she could feel such a thing. He reached for her neck with his left paw with the right one ready to rip into her flesh, but her horn shone like the day itself and he could swear he collided a stone wall. A searing hot one. He didn’t even feel the pain until he realized he had been flung across the ceilings. He flared his wings and stopped to a hover, his wings burned with pain and when he reached for his other handgun, his paw was gone.
He didn’t really understand what had happened, but movement drew his attention and he looked forward again to see the alicorn flying towards him and arching above. Then her horn shone again.
***
Fancypants and his wife enjoyed a nice dinner in an exciting but exclusive restaurant a friend of his had just opened. Actually, it was one of those quaint food carts with tables surrounding it that popped up everywhere in Canterlot, but that worked wonders. He had claimed one of the leisure areas close to the edge, but not quite a balcony with their uncomfortable winds. It was well illuminated, and a few artists performed nearby with happy music. A few ponies occupied nearby tables, minding their own food and conversations. Such a pleasurable night to be out with his lovely wife.
Then the night turned into day in a flash, his horn itched like it was on fire, something exploded nearby, and something fell of the sky right into his friend’s food cart, which in turn exploded too and showered vegetables, sauces, all sorts of toppings and crepe dough everywhere. Ponies hid under the tables or ran as far as they could while still being able to curiously stare from afar at what might have happened.
Fancypants hugged his wife under the table and wouldn’t leave her side for all the anything in the world.
A griffon almost rose from the mess but tumbled and rolled on his side. His dark brown fur was covered in red tomato sauce and it spread all over the floor. Yes, that was what it was and nopony could tell Fancypants otherwise. The griffon kept one of his paws close to his body and had trouble breathing. He tried to stand but his hindlegs seemed to have no strength. He collapsed and coughed painfully.
“Sweet Celestia!” Fancypants’ friend squealed, closest to the griffon and reaching to help.
“Back!” The griffon barked and caused ponies to scream and cower where they were. He had probably swallowed a large quantity of tomato sauce because he coughed a lot of it, and it spilt from his beak. He barely seemed able to breath and it was agonizing to watch.
Then Princess Celestia arrived, landing softly in the paving stone and the first thing she did was look around the place, then she focused on the griffon again. “You had ample opportunity to surrender and spare yourself and others of this whole ordeal. Now look at your beautiful body… It is broken and struggling to keep alive.”
That moment was when Fancypants realized that there was one thing that griffons could do that ponies couldn’t, and it was giving another ‘the finger’. To make such a rude gesture to Princess Celestia though!
She didn’t seem to take offense, however. At least she spoke calmly. “So much for the big scary predator. You think yourselves so powerful, but you are so fragile. And look at this thing.”
She held his riffle in her telekinetic magic and examined it messing around with its action like it was a toy. “First you used your claws, then sticks. Sticks made of bronze, and then of iron. Sticks made of steel. Sticks that shoot. What will be next? Weapons capable of massive damage and killing hundreds in the shortest time possible? These things have no place in modern Equestria and I am quite done with your muskets and whatnot that you managed to infect my ponies with. And you still miss the point of your whole existence for some silly ideology that you don’t need.”
“Will you just shut your mouth and kill me already?” It surprised the pony and the griffon that he didn’t breathe with any difficulty anymore. He even tried standing but couldn’t. Didn’t seem to be in pain anymore, but certainly looked confused. “What are you…?”
His left paw touched his chest and there was a place in his clothes that was charred around a sizeable hole. But his body seemed fine. The griffon started to panic but couldn’t move anymore.
“Did you think that you would expire? That your friends would think of you and sing of what a great martyr you were? That one that fought the… What are they calling me these days? Something silly like the Dawnbringer?” She grinned at him, walking closer. “No, you are not going to expire. We will extirpate the poison they put on your heart. You will go back to being a nice griffon and when you will think back to this night you will regret all the silly decisions that took you to their side. You will mate to another nice griffon and you will teach your cubs of the mistakes you have made so that they would never fall in the same traps you did. Because, like it or not, you are a part of us.”
The Princess must have been very angry with that griffon, and considering his demeanor and weapons, Fancypants could imagine why. But then she did something he didn’t expect. She talked to him again, but in that language, he had heard about the griffons in the far north speaking to themselves. She loomed over him and approached him even more, speaking slowly and she grinned in her typical mischievous way, but the griffon seemed mortified. She must have said something about their hunting… Thing.
Some moments later the Royal Guard pegasi started arriving. None of them seemed to be her lieutenant, but one female of white coat and red and white mane approached her with very annoyed blue eyes. “Princess, you would make our job much easier if you would let us deal with the griffon terrorists. Thank you.”
“I am sorry, corporal. But I was afraid his target might have been gravely injured if I hadn’t intervened. Has Miss Golden Rule taken the other to the Guard’s quarters?”
“Yes, princess.”
“Kindly take this griffon to the palace’s clinic and ask that he is taken care of. He shouldn’t need to be restrained. And ask that Miss Grenda prepare him a nice griffon meal. He is probably hungry, and some nice food will do him well. I should talk to these ponies and assure them that everything is under control.”
***
Cadance woke suddenly. She was literally standing in the middle of a nice and peaceful grassy field with colorful flowers here and there. Simply standing there, under a clear blue sky with the nice sun above giving her some nice warm feelings. Simply standing there, as though existence simply started at that precise moment and there was nothing before it. Still, she felt anxious, her heart pounded and there was this strange ephemeral fear that vanished as soon as she tried focusing on it.
“Huh…” She scratched her head. “This is weird.”
She looked around and saw nothing more than the calming flowery field covering the uneven ground. Finally, she saw her. The friendly blue alicorn laying over her legs on a rock that seemed out of place in the scenario and like she put it there herself.
“Hello Cadance.” She smiled.
“Luna. Oh. I’m dreaming.” Realization came as suddenly as the weird sensation that something wasn’t quite right returned. She felt like she needed to remember something important but whatever it was, it had evanesced from her mind like steam in a hot bath “What happened? I feel weird.”
“A nightmare.” The other spoke calmly.
“But… I’m just standing here.” She argued. “I don’t remember anything.”
“I made this place. It doesn’t really exist. I needed a ‘when’ and ‘where’ to situate your mind since I shut down the entire mental state you found yourself in previously, and then erased the recollection of the nightmare from your mind. Your autonomous nervous system just needs some time to return to baseline and you should feel perfectly fine soon. You should be able to remember things from before you went to sleep and this weird sensation you’re getting right now is how your mind perceives the break in continuity.”
“This is one of the weirdest things anypony has ever told me.” She blurted out with a weirded-out expression. At the same time, she was sure she was forgetting something incredibly important. “Can’t you tell me what the nightmare was about?”
“Well, telling you about it right after erasing it from recollection would be counterproductive, wouldn’t it?” Luna smirked.
“Is this normal? I mean, I didn’t even realize I was dreaming. I just… Happened here. Can you do this? Just hijack my mind and do whatever you want with me? I mean… I only know this is a dream because you told me!”
Luna grinned mischievously. “Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?”
“What was that supposed to mean?” She whined at the blue alicorn. “Actually, I do, by the way, but right now I feel like I’m still having a nightmare and it’s about you, torturing me with your dream powers!”
Luna giggled and spoke excitedly. “I’m sorry, Cadance. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s a quote from a really interesting story Chocolate Velvet told me! I’ll leave you and your mind should pick up again from a safer state than you were before.”
“Wait! I need to talk to you!” Cadance put out a hoof.
Luna’s ears fell. “I am sorry Cadance. Chocolate Velvet told me you called for parley. And I wanted to talk to you too. I wanted to apologize… Legitimately. But I can’t… I’m extraordinarily busy this night.”
“Oh…” Cadance sighed and her ears fell too.
“But I will meet you again in your dreams in the next opportunity. I promise.” She winked and then vanished, evanescing in a sparkling shower of stars.
Cadance hummed to herself and looked around. Something didn’t seem to be right: she was still there, and alone. She didn’t even feel sleepy or something. Actually, everything seemed to have stopped. The subtle breeze didn’t move the small plants anymore. The smells were gone.
“Odd. Maybe Luna really is having a lot of trouble tonight…”
She hoofed at the ground and waited patiently. The sound was weird and the feeling of digging in the ground was numb. Distant. She heard something, an undefined sound and her chest stung.
“Ow! Something definitively isn’t right.” She told herself, looking around and seeing only the endless field of grass and flowers. Her hoof massaged her chest, but the pain didn’t go away. Distant and muffled, undefined sounds floated around her.
They made a mockery of my Gift.
“Huh… Weird. What a strange idea.” Then, just as suddenly the world darkened around her.
***
A pony whispered in the dark and Cadance couldn’t see where they were. The voice was distant and muffled, as though they tried to speak through a door. She smelled burnt meat though. It almost made her heave and she covered her mouth with a hoof.
“What? Ow!” On top of it all, her chest hurt as though a nasty bug had stung her and she rubbed it. “What was that? Hello?”
***
Cadance woke suddenly. She was not in her bed, but in a strange cave made of soft pink light and she stood on a small platform made of white light that separated her from a water-like liquid underneath her, all pink. Like liquid pink light.
“Hum… Luna?” She moved her ears around and heard only a soft chiming and soft clinking when she fidgeted in place and her hooves reconnected with the ‘ground’.
More pressing though was the fact she saw a large pink crystal structure in front of her, several hooves away. A crystal mountain where a crystal staircase spiraled around until it reached a multitowered palace at the top. Everything made of the same light pink crystal.
“So, I guess this is a real dream? Should I explore a bit? Luna?”
She heard no answer. Only the soft sloshing of whatever it was underneath her.
She tested the floor with her hooves, and she could step outside of her little light platform. Her hoofsteps clinked while she walked, and she stared up at the palace. That place, for some reason she couldn’t fully understand felt like it was important. She figured she should be mindful of this place where she had found herself and decided against flying. Again, not entirely sure why, but she shouldn’t fly.
This is sacrosanct ground.
So, she didn’t. She drew closer with each step and there was a strange foreboding sensation that permeated every step, but she felt compelled to move forward. She felt like she was coming home from a long journey.
By the time she reached the first degree, she didn’t know how long she had remained in there already, but for some reason it felt like an eternity had passed and with each step she took up the stairs she was compelled to take the next. Each step easier than the last until she was at the balcony the stairs led up to.
The floor had a beautiful embroidered design etched into the crystal and from every angle it led up to the massive doors. Double doors in opaque white crystal dominated by a stained-glass mosaic of her cutie mark.
“Where am I?” She knew the answer in a strange way as though she should know the answer, but it only came to her after searching for it.
I am home.
“But I live in the Crystal Empire…”
This is my Home.
She stared down, confused for a second, before looking up the doors again. “Should I go in?”
This is my Home. I should go wherever I want in here.
The doors opened to her when the mosaic of her cutie mark vanished. They chimed, as though they were magical, pure magic by nature. Beyond them she saw a long corridor, that opened in a room on the other side.
Something called her. Not with words, but she was compelled to enter.
She galloped inside but stopped just as soon as she entered the corridor. Her chest stung and she stopped taking her hoof to her chest with a pained squeak. “What sort of dream is this? Maybe I shouldn’t be here and… And…”
I should be here. This is my Home.
She took a few deep breaths and tried walking again. This time her chest felt like it had ben punctured with a knife or something. She had never been actually hurt so, but it sure felt like it. She cried and collapsed on her side. Confused, she stared at her hooves and for an instant she thought she saw blood, but darkness enveloped her.
***
Darkness all around her, Cadance could hear a pony whispering.
“What? Where are you? Hello?”
Magical explosions, laughing ponies. Crying ponies. Spells hurtled everywhere. She couldn’t see anything but bright blurs, like fires beyond a fog. Clashing of metal and its clinking against stone. The smell of burning wood blew over her, hot and dry.
“They will destroy the Farmland Gate!” Somepony cried in near panic. “They will let in the Lost Herd and they will swarm the city much sooner than we expected!”
Stop! You are hurting them!
“Help!” Somepony she couldn’t see pleaded behind the dark with a distant and fading voice.
Then she cried and doubled over at the sharp pain in her chest. Like something had just teared a piece of her out. She cried again. It hurt so much.
***
Cadance woke suddenly. She still found herself in the same corridor she was before with the memories of her strange vision and the pain in her chest. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes stung.
She cringed and held her hoof to her chest, over her heart, but saw no blood when she looked. “Ow… What is happening? Luna?”
She heard no answer. Was she trapped inside a bizarre nightmare not even Luna could get her out of? Fear began creeping into her voice and her throat tightened. “Luna, help me!”
I must know. My fractured mind depends on this and the Queen of Nightly Visions will not give me assistance. The veil must be lifted as hurtful and harmful as it may be. I must know.
Her attention was drawn further down the corridor. It opened in a room and there was something in the middle. She heard a crystal crackling and echoing in the corridor and her ears homed in on it.
“The Tree of Harmony?” She craned her head and immediately started walking towards it, forgetting her fear and tears.
Her attention was immediately directed to the top of the tree where the branches formed a crown holding a beautifully crafted and large jewel made to the likeness of her cutie mark.
Maybe it was her curiosity, but her pain was gone, and that thing commanded all her attention. It looked beautiful. The Crystal Heart looked so real, a true multifaceted heart shaped crystal, just like the real thing and its golden frame seemed to be the purest gold in existence. The object ensorcelled her and she found herself unable to avert her eyes for several minutes.
Crystal crackled.
She took a step back. It certainly looked like the Tree of Harmony, but it wasn’t. She could see the differences more clearly now. It was more like a branch of the Tree that sprouted from the crystal floor inside a neat and pretty small fence, as though that must be protected. Though it looked more like a six-armed scale, each of its arms holding a heavy lapidated gem. Beautiful, livid colors and mirror-like shine; they hung from the branches each at a different height.
Crystal crackled again and the purple gem raised with a sprinkle of crystal dust from its branch. They all shifted as the branches cracked and reformed like a living thing. The orange one lowered. And so, did the magenta one. The red rose furthest of them all, but so did the blue and the pink. The branches shifted too and the branch from the Tree of Harmony bent ever so slightly to one side.
“That is important. Isn’t it?” She wondered softly and frowned just so. There was something she needed to remember. It was important too and had something to do with that… Thing. Whatever it was.
She turned to look at the rest of the room, drawn by soft light. Four doors occupied the room, and in their midst a stairwell led downwards. It was closed with a magical force field and she wondered what was down there, but her eyes were drawn to the first door to her left and behind her. It was tall, etched from the crystal wall with white magical lights. It was dominated by the image of Celestia’s sun, shining in gold.
She frowned and shifted her head, looking to the next one to the right, towards the back of the room. It was the same but sealed with Luna’s moon, all silver and black highlights.
She walked around the branches of the Tree of Harmony and stared down the stairwell to see nothing but a sinuous dark stairwell. Something worried her about it, but it was locked with a door-shaped magic field, blue with Luna’s magic and sealed with her Cutie Mark.
The next door was no surprise and it showed her Crystal Heart etched on it. A quick glance showed the final door, adorned with Twilight’s twin six-pointed star surrounded by five more.
She was drawn to the third door. She would say that she didn’t know the reason, but it was obvious before it even became known to her.
The Throne of Love. Before they could recognize they were even alive they must be made to reproduce, increase their numbers, and perpetuate their species or they will not be in sufficient numbers. It is a beautiful and romantic word for the base instinct and sexual desire that drives communion. It lacks context by itself and only within the whole is Harmony possible at all and that it should even be called ‘Love’.
As such it cannot be removed from the whole or put under restraint else the rest lose their places within their own frames of reference. Love is no more, and no less important than the rest of Creation.
The door opened as soon as her magic reached for it. The etched image lit up with her pink magic and the doors gave way effortlessly. The sound of muffled heartbeat came from all walls, floor and ceiling in tempo with a pink-reddish light that pulsated in the dimly lit room.
It illuminated with clear light as soon as she stepped in as tough it welcomed her. It was a simple square room with plain walls, floor and ceiling, nothing but a simple yet ornate and beautiful crystal altar in the back, as though it organically grew from the floor in front of a large, red and golden heart-shaped throne. The heart still beat around the room and pinkish light still flooded the room each time it did while she walked to inspect the table.
It lies neglected after ages of shunning, but it still functions as the day I created it and it compels them to seek for those who will complement them in Harmony.
“This place needs something. Some pretty things here and there. It’s too plain.” She mumbled to herself walking towards the table and the throne.
An exquisitely crafted pony figurine sat in the middle. Shining Armor, on his fours and proudly wearing his Captain of the Guard barding. She smiled, circling the table and finally taking her seat on the heart shaped throne.
Shining Armor. First and final love, as it should be. There could be no other, as ordained by Harmony itself. Left to its own designs the Throne of Love will fail in its fundamental task as it has become submitted to the whims of societal conventions and will attempt in vain to fulfill its imperative, lying to itself after each failure until it has shriveled and turned into a blasphemous abomination suffused with thorns and poison.
I must watch them torture themselves with passions that will be forever unfulfilled and are changed for another and another amid the sharp edged shards of broken hearts until the pain is too much to bear and they learn to ignore it. Dulled memories of bright passions, one after the other subdued until the day they die at the end of an irrational parade of broken dreams. It is dangerous, for hatred is also the province of Love.
She looked around for a second. “Hum… I should see the other doors. Luna seems to be having a lot of trouble tonight.”
She left the room and the Throne of Love closed its doors after she had left. She looked around again, seeing the other doors and the ‘tree’ in the middle.
“This is so weird. What are these doors supposed to be?”
She focused on the first door. The one where Celestia’s sun shone all golden inside the light markings on the doors. “Is this supposed to be Princess Celestia’s cutie mark?”
The Throne of life. It is forbidden.
“Of course, I can’t go in.” She grunted.
Then she looked at the door right by its side. The one marked with Luna’s moon.
The Throne of the Mind. It is forbidden.
Cadance grunted loudly and to herself. “What about Twilight’s?”
She walked over to the fourth door and looked up to the symbol of the stars. “Why are these things even here? Why are they here? What does this mean?”
The Throne of Friendship. It is also forbidden.
She sat angrily on the crystal floor. “I guess I’m supposed to simply sit my flank here and wait for Luna to deal with this stupid dream!”
Cadance frowned a little and looked back at Luna’s door. For a while, she simply stared, while her mind was occupied with thoughts about what could those doors mean. She knew that her magic could force ponies to fall in love with each other. Of course, she never meant to use it like that, but she could if she wanted. In essence, she had a doorway that would open to ponies’ heart for her.
Is that what it meant? And that is why she could enter the Throne of Love but not the others?
Forbidden does not mean it is inaccessible.
“Hay! If this is my Home, I should be able to go wherever I want!” She stood and walked over to Luna’s door and stared angrily at it. Then she noticed it was open. Just barely.
Her magic didn’t interact with it, however. But instead of letting that deter her, Cadance simply pulled the edge with her hoof. It was deceptively heavy, and she had to stand on her hind legs and pull with all her strength.
She managed though. Pulled at it until the heavy door budged and opened just enough for her to pass. She grinned triumphantly, but then restrained herself.
I should be aware that not all in existence is meant to be seen, by mortal eyes or otherwise.
“Should I go in? It’s forbidden. What if I see something that hurts me?” Her ears fell. “Discord said that there were things that could hurt us if we saw.”
The veil must be lifted. I must have answers and be made free to fulfill my Destiny.
She steeled herself with a brave expression and walked inside.
She expected another empty and plain square room. Instead she found a spacious and luxurious sitting room with a silver and blue sofa and some reading chairs. She spied the room with large eyes after blinking twice.
The wall on the right was covered in a long and clear mirror adorned with acid-imprinted images of the moon and stars at the top. The ceiling was cushioned with blue velvet and the corners accented in silver and black metal. The floor was crystal, but it had a blue hue to it and the light which pulsed in the Throne of Love was now white and traveled in pulses under the floor.
It was mesmerizing and beautiful.
But beyond the sitting area something beeped loudly and insistently. She also heard Princess Luna, very angrily growling at something.
She sat on a blue cushioned chair behind a series of magical images, not at all unlike the ones Cadance remembered from the entrance to Chrysalis’ Spawning Pool. There were others that reminded her of the magical control panels for the teleporters spread along the walls in the back too. A magical alarm, the sort that would alert against somepony messing with a magical lock was what beeped, or at least something very similar.
“Ow!” Luna’s horn sparked and she recoiled. “Stop that! I’m trying to help you stupid… Brain!”
Cadance simply stared unable to believe what she was seeing.
“For the love of Equestria! Stop this or I’m gonna have to fry you!” She frantically tapped with her hooves at one of the magical images with her hooves and grimaced with sweat on her face.
“What the…”
Was that really just a dream?
This is no dream. It is a violation of the sanctity of my mind.
Luna squealed when another magical image started flashing red and a magical siren blared. She stared at it with a frown. “Huh? ‘Sudo’ what?”
“Luna!” Cadance called from the door and she finally looked up to see her on the door and coming inside, going around the furniture. Luna herself didn’t seem to believe what she was seeing.
“No! No no no! This is not good! You can’t be in here!” She jumped over the magical images but Cadance thought fast. She simply grabbed a hoof with her telekinetic magic and pulled on it. Luna cried and stumbled on the furniture to crash to the floor in panic. “Cadance! Stop! You’ll hurt yourself!”
Simply walking around, while Luna fumbled about in the furniture, Cadance reached the chair Luna previously occupied. It was surrounded in magical images, indeed much like the ones the changeling doctor monitored in the entrance to Chrysalis Spawning Pool.
It had images that Cadance couldn’t comprehend. It had symbols Cadance had never seen. It had text that looked more like the small letters and symbols the griffons used on their letters rather than the pony glyphs. It looked like a form of magical notation that moved on the images, incredibly long and complex magic.
Colored graphs moved up and down. Numbers soared and turned red. Her confusion only grew and her heart beat faster and faster, kicking at her chest. The air seemed insufficient. Her mind immediately returned to Chrysalis’ laboratory. To her conversation with Luna and Chrysalis in the Bordello of Candy.
“Luna! What is this?” She looked up just in time for the other to hold her in her hooves and stare right at her, but she batted Luna away.
“Cadance! Calm down! Please! It is not what you think it is!”
“Did you… Make me like you made Chocolate Velvet?!” She stepped back, barely controlling her rage. Or fear. She wasn’t sure which anymore and everything seemed the same.
“Why is there a…” She searched for a word in vain and her stressed mind came up with the best it could. “A control panel inside my head?! What are you doing?!”
Cadance’s horn flared up with magic and she opened her wings, ready to throw herself at Luna that backed a few steps. “Start explaining things, Luna! Now!”
“For the love of all that is sacred! Stop and take a breath! This is not what you think it is! I swear! Think for a second! This is a nightmare! A particularly nasty one! You’re imagining things Discord told you and trying to make sense of this place with what you know!”
Deceiver!
“Liar!” She cried and her magic surged, hitting Luna squarely in the chest with a powerful magic beam that caused her to reel and fall on her back with a wail. In an instant Cadance regretted what she’d done and jumped forward, reaching for her after letting her horn fizzle out. “Luna! I’m sorry! Please! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you!”
“I’m sorry Aunt Luna! Please forgive me! I’m just so… Scared!” She helped Luna stand and Luna sighed.
“Alright. Fine. We called this the Palace of the Self. It is a magical construct that exists inside a virtual space within the minds of every sentient being in Equestria. It’s where what we are coalesces into a being, from soul, mind and body. Where we ‘are’. And what you see is not exactly what it is. This is a mental image that allows our minds to understand some very complex and abstract concepts. When I enter your dreams my magic connects with this place from the outside and that allows me to sense what you are really feeling and why. That way I can actually help, because contrary to common beliefs, simply talking to a pony in a nightmare won’t help. The mind is in a fractioned estate and under attack from a psychic monster. So, when you see me chasing away the problem my magic already joined your mind together, I understood the problem and expelled the Nightmare. Then I can talk to you and calm you down. Help you resolve the problem from within the narrative of your dream. It is much less intrusive that way.”
Cadance was even more confused and a creeping headache in the middle of all that noise didn’t help. “But, why are you here then? Why am I here?!”
“Coming here requires more energy, concentration and it is very intrusive, including to myself. I don’t like violating ponies’ and their privacy like this, but when things aren’t working the way they should, it’s the only way. From here I can see deeper. I can see the way your brain is functioning I can open your mind for me to examine and understand why you are doing and feeling what you are. I can see subconscious processes, your train of thoughts. And I can see that the reason you’re going through this is because of the things Discord has told you. The things you’ve been seeing with Twilight. It’s stirring parts of your mind that should he dormant.”
She pointed at a magical image with a pony’s head cut open with colorful ‘clouds’ all over it. It meant nothing to Cadance.
“No pony was ever meant to visit this place other than me, and I can’t even begin to formulate a theory explaining how you are here. Maybe some part of my magic that got imprinted in your mind or something of the sort. All I know is that this is bad, like… Really bad and your mind is breaking down.”
“Stop talking like I am machine! What are you doing to me?”
“You are a machine, Cadance.” Luna frowned. “All of us are. Machines made of living tissues and magic. We are made of systems and systems have rules and rules can be learned and explored. I couldn’t do my job if that wasn’t so! I was given the key to ponies’ mind or else I couldn’t do my job! Doesn’t that make sense?”
“Who did?”
“Whatever created us, Cadance! I don’t know. Harmony! I don’t even know why it is like this… Why this place even exists… It’s probably a leftover of our creation. I just changed it over time, so that it would make things easier for me to do my job. Like I said, this isn’t real… It is a mental representation of a magical construct. And this is not a control panel of some sort! This is a way for me to understand the workings of your mind and help you. I can’t order you around with this like you were thinking.”
“Why does it have doors with our cutie marks inside?” Cadance frowned and immediately bawled. She lost all her strength, her legs folded and her eyes teared again when the pain in her chest returned fiercer than before. She smelled burnt flesh and heard ghostly cries again. Her vision darkened and the only thing in her mind was that overwhelming pain. Luna seemed desperate though, torn between going to Cadance or to her seat.
***
Cadance saw a pony knelt in front of her. It was a young earth pony mare with radishes for cutie mark on her off-pink coat and with a light green mane she cut short. She said something, but Cadance couldn’t make out what it was. She heard a roaring inferno burning amid screams of panicked ponies and maniacal laughter. The small village behind the pony glowed with flames so bright they made her eyes ache and stung her nostrils.
She wanted to warn the pony and do something about it, but she couldn’t. She tried screaming, but her mouth wouldn’t move either.
***
Cadance woke suddenly. Luna, sat on her chair, looked at her and screamed her name as soon as she woke up, jumping at her.
“Cadance! Listen to me!” She heard Luna cry. She seemed deathly worried about something, but her voice was distant. The room was on fire. Cadance could smell burnt flesh and a mad cackling that she was sure wouldn’t ever leave her alone for eternity.
The little houses were on fire. Ponies ran everywhere. Ash blew in the wind. A stone pillar collapsed. An oat field aflame beyond the building’s entrance lit the night into day. The sky was gone, replaced by a meaningless mad combination of senseless colors. A pony that was important to her lied lifeless near her. Her dress, one of the wondrous offerings she had received was torn and stained in red. The crystal walls of Luna’s Throne of the Mind were on fire. There was smoke everywhere and she could hear distant cries of ponies begging for help. None of it made any sense and it made her even more anxious.
“Cadance!!” Luna called her again, but she found herself unable to simply keep a straight life of thought. Luna made her look at her eyes, though. “Your mind is looping around a series of recollections of a very traumatic experience and the fails-safes aren’t working anymore! You were not supposed to see this place. It’s causing your limbic system to force memories that are banished from the conscious mind right into it! It’s fragmenting your Self. You’re becoming psychotic and I don’t know what will be coming out the other side when you go back to normal if this doesn’t stop soon!”
Cadance coughed at the smoke and tried to focus on Luna’s voice. For some reason she didn’t understand, not that she did anything at all at that moment, she was very angry at Luna. “Please! For all that is sacred! Let me help! Let go of these memories!”
You did this to me! You violated my mind, filed my horn and cut my wings! You defiled my Gift!
“You hurt me!” Cadance roared and pushed her. Coughed with a fierce scowl. “You entered my mind, restrained my power and my freedom! You ruined my Special Talent!”
“No!” Luna cried and held her shoulders. “You are confused! Please, let me help!”
You wallow in lies. The Ancient Pact is no more, and your supremacy is forfeit! I will witness what you have hidden whatever the costs!
Luna’s tears meant little to the pink alicorn in the middle of the foul smoke and terrible flicker of the flames. “You lied to me! I don’t trust you and you are not my superior anymore! I want to see it, no matter what it costs me!”
The pain returned. Cadance held her chest with a hoof and cried, and coughed, and wailed collapsing to the floor. Above her Luna stared with her mouth agape. Her own breathing too fast and painful. She looked at the magical images and at Cadance. Again, at one and then another.
Finally, Luna closed her eyes and trembled. Her horn lit up with her blue magic and reached for her seat.
Suddenly the pain was gone. The smoke and the fire were gone. The cries. The laugher. All gone. Cadance supported her weight on her foreleg knees and looked around. Everything seemed perfectly normal, from the room to the magical images. At least as normal as Cadance could figure out since they were just doing their thing and not flashing, and no sirens sounded. Luna was nowhere to be seen and her heart slowed down now.
“Luna?” She stood slowly.
She has left my mind.
“I hurt Auntie Luna! She was trying to help me! I had never struck another pony like that! What is happening to me?”
I acted out of place and I made an immature filly out of myself. I must seek her forgiveness, but regardless, I must witness what she has hidden.
She looked at the door and walked slowly. Outside, everything around the ‘tree’ was exactly as it was before. She could swear that the gems had shifted places again though. But the most important thing was that the archway with the stairs leading downwards was unlocked. Luna’s magic was simply gone.
She stared down the stairwell. It was dark and it still filled her with a foreboding feeling that she was making a mistake. “What was it that they said about staring into the abyss?”
It was funny that the place she found herself in, somehow, was inside of her mind, because it was so silent and peaceful, yet each step she took down those stairs more and more metaphorical alarms sounded in her head that she was doing something dangerous and forbidden.
She wondered for a brief instant if that was how Twilight felt going into the Queen’s Spawning Pool… And what a mess that unleashed.
***