//------------------------------// // Chapter Six // Story: Tales from the Conversion Bureau: The Last Bastion // by Sachiel //------------------------------// Pedro V's Office, Present Day The Princess wasn't a god Despite what some of her ponies (and some humans) thought she wasn't a deity, she was the one who controlled the sun on her side of the barrier. She had great magic that let her do it but she was a flesh and blood being, not a flawless goddess, she got hungry, she got tired, she got sad and she got mad. She wasn't a god. His father, grandfather, all the emperors before him, they'd all known that, growing up with Twilight around made it clear, Alicorns were powerful creatures but they weren't gods It was easy to know that when you'd go your entire life without setting your eyes on her. It was a bit harder to remember when the temperature in the room continued to rise. When you could see the candles on the shelf start to sag and melt and she was glaring daggers right at you, when fear shot through your body She rose up off the cushion, standing as tall she could, flaring her wings out wide like an angry swan as far as they would go, so wide they filled most of the room. Her face twisted from regal serenity to a mask of cold fury. He could feel it, closer to her body, there was a wall of heat far, far greater than what was rolling over him, it was like sitting at an angle to an open furnace door. She was holding back, holding it back. If she willed it that terrible heat wave would surge forwards in every direction, reducing every living thing in its path to charcoal and ash. How far could it go? Would it burn him? Burn the room? Burn the palace? Burn the city? Burn the empire? Burn the world? In her gaze, in that terrible fury he could see it, she knew he knew she was holding back. She was enjoying this, this show of her power, showing what she could do, how easy it would be, how no-one could stop her, he'd pressed a button, well here was what that button did, was it worth it? No, Celestia wasn't a god but with the power at her command it felt like he'd angered one Pedro just sat there, he knew there was nothing he could do, knew she knew that he knew that. If she unleashed her power...well he knew he was going to die one way or another very soon anyway. He'd known that for years, he'd made his peace long ago, so had most of the country. The last dinosaurs had been taken unaware, hadn't known the asteroid was coming, the last humans in their last bastion knew their asteroid was on its way. So a volcano would get them a bit sooner than expected instead? So they were losing a week? So what? He stayed calm, not getting angry, not showing any joy at having touched a nerve, just sat there, silently telling her that her outburst wasn't working, you made me jump but that was it, that's all you're going to get. So either follow through on your threat or give it a rest Slowly the heat began to recede like an ebbing tide, Celestia furled her wings and sat back down, letting out a low sigh. She put her head in her hooves for a moment and took a deep breath, evidently trying to calm down before continuing. Her eyes were back to normal “It's going to happen, I can't stop it now” “Even if you wanted to?” “You think I enjoy this?” “No, you don't” he looked to the photo, the wallpaper was discoloured and peeling from the heat but the photo and Twilight's smiling visage was untouched “At least I don't think you do” Canterlot Castle, several more years AFC Twilight steeled her nerves, this was it, she'd been up all night practising, preparing, everything had to go perfectly, nothing could be left to chance, even by her standards she'd been thorough, meticulous, choosing the best examples. It had to work, a world rested on it, she could feel her anxiety beginning to rise “Twilight?” Celestia's voice was gentle, calm, soothing, she'd seen her most faithful student like this countless times before, she knew how to diffuse it. It worked, Twilight closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then another, and then another, slowly calming herself down. She didn't know why Twilight had asked her to meet in the throne room and put up all the sound-blocking spells, but she could make a decent guess Twilight trotted forwards to stand before the throne, setting two files down on the carpet, her teacher sent her a look, silently telling her: You can do this, she cleared her throat and began to speak “Princess...you know what I found in my Friendship Report” “And I thank you for it Twilight, it showed what needed to be done” “That's just it Princess, I think we've made a terrible mistake” Celestia's face switched, locked up, gone was the friendly face of her teacher now she was looking at the guarded mask of the ruler of Equestria “We heard what the newfoals had to say about how bad the humans are” “They're hardly an impartial source” “Twilight you showed me your Friendship Report, there were countless examples of the humans at their worst”she raised a file, much thicker than the report she'd complied before “But I've found so many more of them at their best” “And everything you showed me? Does it cancel that out?” Twilight sighed internally and lifted the other file, preparing several photos from within it It wasn't a question so much as a challenge in her mind, Twilight knew this was a battle, an argument, a test she could pass like all the others her teacher had set her “I'm glad you asked Princess” “The famine, their greatest empire let a country starve out of apathy and greed” Twilight pulled a photo up and enhanced it with magic so Celestia could see it. It was of a portrait of a man in elegant clothes, wrapped in a regal cloak and with a red feathered fez atop his head “As one Empire was starving them another was trying to save them, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Abdülmecid sent a fortune to help them when his own empire was in decline. The British wanted him to send less, so he did” she could see Celestia preparing to speak so continued “but he sent ships full of food as well that helped to feed those starving” “Twilight it's just one man” “No it's not” she called up other photos, showing ships bearing the stars and stripes, of men and women with darker skins and flowers in their hair and many more “people and governments from around the world sent money or supplies to help, the Cherokee, the Pope, one empire didn't care, lots more nations and plenty of people did” “Well what about the Congo? You told me yourself that they used severed hands as currency” “And the entire world was disgusted when they found out” Twilight pulled up three black and white photos “Edmund Morel, Roger Casement and George Washington Williams all helped expose what was happening and helped lead the campaign to get it to stop. One king ordered it all done for his own greed and ego, the rest of the world made him stop and now he's known as the monster he really was” “And Rwanda?” Twilight had already pulled up the next photo, this one in colour showing a determined looking man with a thick moustache, sporting army fatigues and the blue beret she'd become so used to seeing during her time at the UN “People tried to stop what was happening, General Dallaire did, he didn't have much but he did everything he could to stop the madness, it nearly killed him but he did everything he could” she lifted another one, this one showing a dark skinned man in the same fatigues, a blue UN cap and sporting a wide, toothy smile “and so did this man, Captain Mbaye Digane, he saved a thousand people on his own, he couldn't even use his weapon, he did it with words” Celestia looked at the photos and felt her heart soften, Twilight knew she was winning “The holocaust?” “Even before it started humans saw the dangers and acted to save others” she lifted more photos “this Portuguese consul saved thousands of lives, so did this Japanese one” she showed the picture of a man wearing black clothes with a huge beard “this Greek Bishop was threatened with death if he didn't stop protesting what the Nazis were doing, he kept doing it anyway” she held up another of a demure looking man and one of a kindly looking, overweight old man in papal attire “Raoul Wallenberg helped save thousands of Jews in Hungary, the future Pope John XXIII saved them too” “And the atomic bomb? The thing they made that could destroy their world and ours?” Twilight pulled up a final photo, one of a naval officer decked out in medals, “It should have done, during the Cuban Missile Crisis Vasily Arkhipov made sure it didn't, he was willing to sacrifice himself and his submarine to make sure it didn't” “For everything bad one of them does there are lots more who are do good, who are good, who help, who step up when they're needed” she held up the folder and floated it over to the Princess “there's more examples in here, a lot more, so many more, because of all that...Princess... we've made a horrible mistake, we have to try and stop the barrier, slow it back down. Give them time, give them a chance” “Twilight...” Celestia's horn glowed as she took the folder in her magic, then set it down before the throne, unopened “...I know” The Princess of the Sun's heart broke as she saw her Most Faithful Student's face crumble Celestia stepped forwards, coming down off the throne “I know, I had to know, I looked, the humans aren't like the old myths, they're far more complex, there's a lot of good along with the bad” “Then why?” Celestia swept her forehoof towards the window “Because of this” “I don't understand princess” not a question, more a statement, Twilight couldn't understand why “Equestria Twilight, that's why, I'm responsible for my little ponies and Equestira” she lifted the file “not for these humans or their planet, unless they choose to become my little ponies and make a new life here” “But all those examples, the good people...” “I know the good they can do and I know all the bad they've done, in the long run, sooner or later they'll turn on us, or enough of them will to make it matter. I wish it didn't have to be this way Twilight, really I do but I can't risk it” she raised her head looking down at her Most Faithful Student “that's what being a Princess is about, sometimes you have to make a choice with countless lives in the balance and hope you're right” she looked at the folder “and find a way to live with yourself” “But Princess” “Enough” Celestia said firmly “it's over and done with, we probably couldn't stop it now anyway” her horn glowed and the folder began to smoulder and then ignite “we just have to live with it” Twilight looked at the burning folder as it slowly turned black “Alright Celestia, I won't bring it up again” her student said calmly, and then turned and trotted away Celestia's mask of composure never slipped as she tended to the ashes, deep down she wondered if it was even a mask anymore, to stay on so well for so long Pedro V's Office, Present Day “Won't you consider it?” Celestia asked “go to the Bureaus, save what you can” “We wouldn't be saving anything or anyone, we'd be committing mass suicide and leaving you everything we have left, you'd twist it like you do the minds of the newfoals” “It helped them acclimatize, after the Last Exodus started there were problems, they couldn't handle it, something with the magic, maybe it knew they didn't want to be there in Equestria. Half went mad, most took their own lives, it helped me save them, now hardly any commit suicide” she looked down at the ground, looking for all the world like a sinner in confession, the regal tone was gone, now it was the jaded one of a bitter soul “I had to make a choice and I made it, maybe it was wrong but it's too late now, I have to live with it, that's the price of the crown, you're a ruler, you know that” “I do” he said “and maybe if I'd been in your place I'd have done the same thing” Celestia looked up “maybe” “So you understand?” desperation, she was almost pleading, he knew why she'd really come here now, she wanted someone to understand, she wanted someone to know and she wanted forgiveness, that what she'd done wasn't so horrific, that anyone would have done it, that it was a price of the crown she wore. She wanted absolution “Maybe, I would have waited, given you a chance, tried to save you, extended a hand in friendship, a real hand, maybe I would have taken a chance” he sighed “but we'll never know, will we?” the mask was gone now, so was the anger, there was a desperate look in her eyes “Please, convert, go through the bureau before the barrier expands, make your people go” “Can you spare us from the newfoal mindset? Let us choose” “It's magic is infused into the potion, I can't change it in time, please, just go, for your people” “I'll tell them what's coming, all of it, they can decide themselves, they deserve one last chance to choose how their stories end” “Go through, please” now she was begging, begging him to save himself from what she'd set in motion. Pedro looked out the window, seeing his son entertaining the Equestrian dignitaries, he saw the sash he was so proudly wearing “In honour of Twilight Sparkle I can't do that, I'm sorry” Celestia rose to her hooves and turned to go, then she turned back, her eyes those of a haunted mare “You understand, right? Why I had to do it?” Pedro looked at her and said nothing, there was nothing left to say, finally the Princess of the Sun left the room, dragging her hooves across the floor, the weight of seven billion and six souls around her neck