//------------------------------// // 273. You Got What You Deserved // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// There was… a lot going on when Celestia stepped in to take a look at how the Pristine Army had been handling their mission of exterminating the dragons in the village of Seaward Shores. Celestia had promised Neighsay to leave his soldiers to their own devices so that they could show her what they were made of, and she was inclined to do just that. In part because she trusted Neighsay’s judgment. In part because she believed rather strongly on letting blossoming ponies fly with their own wings, so to speak. In part because the whole point of the Pristine Army was to do what Celestia could not, and if Celestia had to step in, it sort of made the whole project moot. But mostly, it was because Celestia was very, very tired. Which is why she was, to put it politely, feeling rather peeved as she entered the village and saw Rarity and Rainbow Dash standing over a downed soldier, with a frenzied mob of village ponies looking ready to draw blood. Celestia had come to check on the soldiers after the third wave of them that she had caught running for the hills. She assumed the dragons had been too much for them. Dragons were dangerous after all, and the impression Celestia had gotten from these soldiers had been that they were a mite overconfident. She figured they would have some trouble dealing with the dragons. She did not expect them to be so thoroughly antagonized by other ponies. The soldier scrambled to his hooves and scurried over to Celestia; she recognized him as one of her Slayers, Prince Blueblood was his name. He looked like he had been through quite a lot today. “Queen Celestia!” he shouted, pointing furiously toward Rarity, who turned her gaze away when it met Celestia’s. “These ponies attacked me! Simply because I was doing my job!” Blueblood was… well, Celestia didn’t want to say ‘whiny’, because she erred on the side of politeness whenever she could, but she was so tired, and her patience was rapidly thinning. “If your ‘job’ is to brutalize these village ponies,” Rainbow Dash spat, “then you kinda deserve to be attacked, my guy.” “Queen Celestia?” one of the village ponies asked in confusion, and Celestia wearily turned her attention to them. She didn’t like to make public appearances in such a sorry state, but she supposed it couldn’t be helped. “You’re Queen Celestia!” another of the villagers said, pointing a finger at her. “What are you doing here?!” The villager didn’t sound too happy. “Did you send these soldiers here?!” another villager called out, even more angered than the last. “Why would you let them just trample all over our village like this?!” “No one was supposed to be hurt,” Celestia said sternly. “This was supposed to be a simple, routine mission. There were dragons in this village, the Pristine Army was here to remove them.” “Ye can’t just ‘remove’ members of our community!” another villager yelled, spitting venom at Celestia. “Those dragons are our friends and neighbors! And ye’re comin’ in here, talkin’ like they’re some kinda parasite!” “Those dragons never hurt us!” another villager said. “Unlike your army!” The frayed rope of Celestia’s patience was burning ever thinner, and as the villagers erupted into a chorus of jeers, echoing the sentiment that the Pristine Army had done more damage than dragons, the rope finally snapped. “ENOUGH!” Celestia roared and flared her wings, and the crowd was silenced. “All of Equestria knows the severity of harboring dragons in this country! The Pristine Army are to make sure that all of Equestria’s ponies follow the law!” “Boo! The law sucks!” Rainbow shouted and blew a raspberry, and Celestia’s eye twitched. Shut up, Rainbow Dash. Shut the hell up, I swear to god. “I think what Rainbow is trying to say,” Rarity spoke up and looked directly at Celestia, who gave her student her full attention, “is that you’re wrong Celestia, and your law is wrong too. There’s nothing wrong with dragons. You’ve been lying to all of Equestria, perhaps even to yourself, and we’ve had enough of it.” Celestia didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. Rarity had said this to her already, that she agreed with Rainbow’s assessment that dragons weren’t all evil, but quite frankly Celestia didn’t want to hear it, so she simply pretended not to. She couldn’t ignore it this time. “Do you see, Celestia?!” Blueblood whimpered. “Do you see what I had to—” “Shut up, Blueblood,” Celestia said thoughtlessly. She looked down at him, and her eyes burned with a rage she hadn't felt in a long time. “You find your damn soldiers that ran away from here with their tails between their legs. You gather up every damn one. I don’t care how long it takes. And once you’ve done that, I want you to report your pathetic failure here to Neighsay. You’re his soldier, I’ll let him decide what to do with you. “Consider yourself blessed that you don’t have to answer to me right now.” “Y-yes ma’am,” Blueblood grumbled under his breath and began to slink away, only to be stopped short as Celestia’s hand gripped his shoulder. “What.” “Y-yes! Your highness!” Blueblood said with a shaky salute, and Celestia let him run off. Quite frankly, she was sick to death of seeing him. Celestia turned her eyes to the crowd of villagers. They were shaking, and a few of them took some steps backward. Good. “Return to your homes,” Celestia said coldly. “I won’t ask again.” That threat was more or less empty. Celestia was furious yes, but she wasn’t about to lash out at her own citizens. The worst they would likely receive from her was harsh language, and even that wasn’t terribly likely. But Celestia was well aware that the threat would be enough; some ponies left immediately, others looked for confirmation from their fellows that it was okay to leave, but eventually the crowd dispersed. Even Rainbow Dash, after a brief whispered exchange to Rarity, headed off alongside the crowd. Celestia was glad she didn’t need to dismiss Rainbow herself, because she wasn’t sure how difficult Rainbow’s headstrong attitude would make that. What was important was that Celestia and Rarity were left alone. The unicorn looked an absolute disaster; her hair was frayed and messy, her fur was caked with blood, and she had garish black makeup lines streaming down her face. Blueblood looked like he had been having a bad day, but Rarity looked like she was having a bad month in the span of one day. “Rarity,” Celestia said patiently as she walked over to her student. “Celestia,” Rarity said shortly as she looked up at her mentor. “Tell me what happened here,” Celestia said, though even as she spoke she didn’t know if she could trust whatever Rarity would tell her. But she wanted to have faith in her star student. Haha, that sounded awfully familiar. And it worked out so well last time too. “Oh, okay,” Rarity gave an unhinged little chuckle. “I’ll tell you what happened here. The Pristine Army tried to have me and Rainbow Dash killed! They gassed us with this horrible fume that made my eyes burn, they beat me until I was bloody with iron rods, they tied me up and threw me in the back of a smoldering iron wagon, and then they tied me to a cinder block and threw my body in the fucking river!” “Why?” was all Celestia could think to say. “Wh—” Rarity sputtered and backed up, looking as baffled as Celestia felt. Rarity grabbed her mane and tugged on it, then dug her nails into her brow before slowly letting her hands slip down her face and fall limply to her sides. “I don’t know. I guess because Blueblood was mad that I went to the Gala with Twilight instead of him.” “That’s a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?” Celestia chuckled. “Celestia,” Rarity sighed, “this isn’t funny. I almost died.” “Rarity,” Celestia groaned and rubbed the back of her neck. Her story was farfetched, and Celestia had a hard time believing it. But she could also see the damage written on Rarity’s face, and it was far from just physical. She didn’t know what to believe. “I don’t know what to say. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn't gotten in the way of their job.” “Th-their job?” Rarity scoffed and then let out a bitter laugh. “Celestia, darling, they’re a bunch of egotistical fascists and you let them loose on a village full of innocent ponies! What did you think was—” “No, I let them loose on a village of ponies that were breaking the law,” Celestia put her hoof down and glowered at Rarity. “And that justifies the way they treated these ponies?!” Rarity screamed, taking a step toward Celestia and staring daggers at her. “Does that justify the way they treated me?!” Celestia took a deep breath. She hated this. She hated that Rarity had gotten her mind twisted by whatever bug crawled in there and started making her turn against Celestia’s teachings. All Celestia wanted was to take Rarity in her arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay, like she had done so many times before. But Celestia knew that she had to stick to what she believed was right. She couldn’t waver, she couldn’t falter. Not even for the person she loved more than almost anyone. “Yes,” Celestia said. “Ponies who break the law will get punished, and not even you are above the law, Rarity.” Rarity stared up at Celestia, wide-eyed with shock. She stumbled back a few steps and lowered her head, shaking it a moment before looking again at Celestia. “Celestia,” Rarity said, “at least tell me one thing. Do you believe me? I mean, about what the Pristine Army did to me? Do you think that I’m lying, or do you just not care?” Celestia paused. She honestly, sincerely, did not know. She couldn’t imagine why, or even how, Rarity would come up with such a specific and horrible story. Celestia had been worried about the volatile nature of some of Neighsay’s men, but he assured her that they would follow strict guidelines regarding their behavior. Celestia knew Rarity had a chip on her shoulder against the army regardless, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that she was lying to try and discredit them. Maybe that was all it was? But Celestia didn’t take Rarity for that kind of person. But really, the truth was simple. “I don’t know,” Celestia said, carefully picking each word and measuring her tone. “I honestly don’t know if I believe your story or not, it’s… a lot for me to take in.” “Okay,” Rarity sighed and ran a hand through her mane, as she often did when she was trying to deal with a stressful situation. “I guess I can accept tha—” “But it doesn’t matter.” “I’m sorry?” Rarity looked up at Celestia, and the Queen’s heart cracked and fractured as it pounded in her chest. She hated the words that would be leaving her mouth, but she needed to stand by her principles no matter what. “It doesn’t matter,” Celestia said. “If your story is true, well… you broke the law, and defended dragons. You got what you deserved. Just be happy you’re still alive.” Rarity stumbled back, her legs wobbling. She fell backwards, hitting the snow with her flank as she stared helplessly up at Celestia. Celestia didn’t need to read Rarity’s mind to tell that she was devastated, it was clear as day on her face. Celestia didn’t feel good about it either. She wanted to make it better. She wanted to make Rarity feel safe… but she couldn’t put Rarity’s feelings, or even her safety, over the ponies of Equestria. “Rarity,” but she couldn’t do nothing. She didn’t know what she could do, but she had to try and do something. “I—” “Shut up,” Rarity spat, and pushed herself up onto her hooves. “Shut the hell up, don’t even talk to me.” “Rarity—” “SHUT UP!” Rarity shrieked, her horn flashing with blue magic that tore her own armor off her body and threw it to the ground in strips. “Shut up! I’m done! I can’t take this anymore! FINE! I DON’T NEED YOU! I DON’T NEED THIS DAMN ARMOR, OR THE GODFORSAKEN SLAYERS! AND I DON’T NEED THIS!” Rarity threw the black sword that Celestia had given her to the ground at Celestia’s hooves. “Don’t ever talk to me again!” Rarity snarled and walked right up to Celestia, pointing a finger toward the alicorn’s face. “I don’t give a damn if you’re the Queen of Equestria, I don’t ever want to see you again. The next time we meet, we’re going to fight.” Rarity turned and walked away, leaving a shocked silent Celestia behind. Those were… some choice words to say to the Queen, and if it were anyone other than Rarity, Celestia might have had something to say. No, actually, Celestia did have something to say, as her shock quickly gave way to anger. “So that’s it then?!” Celestia shouted, and Rarity turned to look at her. “After everything we’ve been through, this is it?! You just decide out of nowhere to throw your lot in with dragons, and leave me behind?!” “You had your chance!” Rarity shouted back. “You’ve had a thousand years of chances! I cannot believe you’re standing there trying to defend your bigotry right now, after you just told me I deserved to be tortured, beaten, kidnapped, and nearly murdered for doing what I believe is right!” “Just because you ‘believe’ something is right, doesn’t mean that it is!” Celestia said. “Well at least we can agree on one thing!” Rarity shot back. “Rarity, please,” Celestia said, ears flattened against her head, a hair’s breadth from getting on her knees and begging. “Please don’t leave. Please, please just reconsider.” “You first,” Rarity replied coldly, and Celestia had nothing she could say to that. Rarity took a deep breath. “Celestia, you taught me to believe that dragons were violent, cruel, and vicious. That they didn’t care about the feelings or safety of anyone but themselves. “Now I know you were just projecting your own demons onto them.” Rarity turned away, and Celestia called out to her but she didn’t listen. Celestia called Rarity’s name again, and again and again until Rarity had completely disappeared from Celestia’s view. “Rarity…” Celestia whimpered, tears streaming down her cheeks and face twisting into a mask of agony as she tried and utterly failed to keep herself from falling apart. She fell to her knees in the snow, head in her hands as she openly, hideously, and loudly sobbed. Alone. More alone than she’d ever been.