//------------------------------// // Subject 84: The Chaos Of Truth // Story: Interviews With Equestrians // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// Once the details of Luna’s plan were explained to the group, each of them recoiled. “Yeech,” Quick Draw hissed with her mouth scrunched up in pure disgust, “That’s what her weakness is? Just how do we even uncover that?” Luna hung her head with a small, vexed exhale. “Tis true. But it is something Tia needs in order better herself.” Starlight took a look at the fiery wall, and did some quick, mental calculations. Her eyes darted all over the place. “Hrm...it’s too much. Even if we undid the effects of the Costume Curse now, Daybreaker would still be Daybreaker.” “What?!” Quick Draw exclaimed, “Then we just have to place complete faith and put all our eggs in the basket of being able to exploit this weakness?” “Now hang on,” Sunburst interjected, swift to diffuse any panic amongst them. “All we have to do is focus on undoing this curse as well as finding its source. That way, we can work on getting everypony else undone from the effects of this curse.” “Agreed,” Starlight replied, “As Little Red Riding Hoof, I don’t exactly have access to all my best magic, but I’m still pretty smart. We can do this, Sunburst.” There was a hidden sense of satisfaction behind the unicorn stallion’s focused eyes. Being relied on by Starlight was very comforting to hear. “Absolutely. Will you join us, Luna?” The blue alicorn shook her head. “I am afraid not. I need to be there to support the others as they try to calm down my sister. Quick Draw, please assist myself and your friends in this endeavor.” “Me…?” She was hesitant at first, but she knew very well that her friends needed her help now more than ever. It wasn’t the time to worry about what they’d think. It was time to act. “Alright. I’m with you.” “Do you really want to know why I am this way?” Daybreaker snarled as she looked at each of my tired team members and I that failed to land any successful strikes upon her. “Hmph. Fine. I suppose it would only be fair to indulge you before I enslave you all.” “Ugh, get on with it,” Flash Drive quipped as he lied flat on his back. He was tired from casting all of those magical chains, and his horn could barely spark at this point. Or was it also the heat? “SILENCE!” Daybreaker screamed, which only increased the intensity of the heat. After she calmed down, she cleared her throat, and began to discuss just what made her tick. “It is very simple, my little fleshlings. I want to conquer to satisfy my--no--Celestia’s insecure fat flank!” “First off. The insults, very gratuitous, madam,” Neon commented from the right side as he struggled to stand. “Focus on the important points, please. Second off, insecure? Just how insecure is she if she can create someone like yourself?” Her response was, ironically, cold and bitter. “Like you wouldn’t believe.” For the first time since she made her appearance on this Night, the demonic sun alicorn had calmed down in order to speak with us in a (relatively) calm tone. “Being immortal has its drawbacks you know. You foolish mortals cannot even begin to comprehend the vile acts that I have seen over the centuries, but were unable to stop. It was disgusting!” “Oh yeah?” Guttersnipe challenged the alicorn while she fanned herself with a folding fan made of water. Wait what? “What part of any of that gives you the damned right to wanna take over all worlds, lady?!” Daybreaker stomped her hoof, which caused a flame to rise. “You fool! Listen! Before we came into power, my precious little sister and I both took control of this land away from Discord. Everypony hated the way he had things going, so we ended him, and put him to stone. But even then, conflict never ceased. I had to banish my own sister to the moon for centuries because of how much she threatened everypony else. Me! I had to do it! And you know what happened after that? What do you think was the reaction of my citizens once they witnessed me banish Nightmare Moon?” she hovered in the air, and folded her hooves. “Go on, try to answer. I’ll wait.” My colleagues and I all looked at each other, perplexed. A quiet moment lingered in the air, save for the sound of raging flames in the background. Finally, I decided to break the silence with an answer. “...Your subjects praised you for your work?” She scoffed, and rolled her eyes. “Tch. It would appear that you’re not as unintelligent as you look. Yes. Exactly. My subjects all praised and shouted my name from atop their homes as their savior. Those who offered words of sympathy, only did so out of pity. None of them knew us personally,” she said with a sneering sense of annoyance, “so how could they truly care about what I went through? It was all lies! All of it! But you know what I had to do in response? Don’t answer that. I had to simply smile and wave in response. Every. Single. Time.” She mushed her hooves against her cheeks and spoke in a childish tone to mock her other self, “‘I’m fine my little ponies! Oh don’t worry about me! Nothing ever goes wrong with me because I’m the leader of this whole country and I have to keep moving on as if nothing happened!’ ‘Yaaaaay!’” I said nothing. All I could do was exhale a puff of sympathetic smoke against the heat. The mental state of an immortal was...an interesting case study to say the least. Somepony who could live forever. See countless ponies be born, live out their lives, and die, all within the span of a single generation. It was...beyond painful. As a ‘mortal’--as she put it--I simply could never begin to comprehend just how she felt. Even still, I continued to listen to what she had to say. “Blah, blah, blech,” she went on, and returned to her normal speaking voice, “Then came the arrival of King Sombra, whom Luna sympathized for. But we had no choice but to banish him as well. Unfortunately, he decided to be a petty little colt of a unicorn, and curse the place. But Luna felt so bad that we had to cast him out. And so did I. And time, and time, and time again. We came across villains who wanted to cause an upset or imbalance in the world. We saw ponies fight for what they wanted, lived for what they believed in, and died...over and over...again and again…” Much to my surprise, the alicorn’s voice actually began to break as she recounted the events that led up to her creation. It was honestly terrifying to watch as the mare landed with her hooves firmly planted in the ground. I watched as her knees quivered, and she lowered her head to hide her face. She went on, in a slow, disturbed tone. “Celestia was too weak...too soft. She kept her true feelings...hidden from everypony else...and as a result….she created me in the back of her psyche. Just as how Nightmare Moon was born from Luna’s jealousy towards Celestia, I was born from Celestia’s insecurity towards herself!” Her head rose, and I could see droplets of tears leak from the sides of her eyes that instantly evaporated into steam. Very hard to spot, but visible all the same. “She sat and did nothing! Sleepless nights constantly throughout those thousand years that Luna was away! She blamed herself, cursed herself, and kept her feelings hidden away!” My crew and I had no idea how to react. It was a painful thing, to watch someone break down and succumb to their feelings in such a way. I looked over, and even witnessed Corkscrew shed tears of sympathy for her. Despite being trapped in the mind of a horror movie slasher, he was still himself, and it comforted me. What didn’t comfort me, however, was Daybreaker’s words. Her melancholic ramblings turned into rage-filled ranting as she went on. “Again and again, she felt powerless against her enemies. Chrysalis, Sombra’s return, Discord’s return, the Pony of Shadows, Cozy Glow, all of them! She still loathes herself for what she’s done.” The intensity of the flames kicked up as the ground began to shake, her rage had mixed with her powerful emotions, and had started to erode the earth where we stood. “But not anymore...from this point forth, I will be strong! I will never succumb to my weakness! I will establish absolute order to keep everypony from causing anymore conflict! That way, I can finally lay to rest and spend the rest of eternity with my sister in true peace. No more pain, no more suffering, no more corruption. No more ponies or griffons or other creatures would have to be harmed! Isn’t that what you’ve been fighting for this whole time?! Isn’t that why you killed that bastard Svengallop?!” she snarled at me with her eyes lit ablaze, and her fanged teeth on display. “Well? Answer me, cretin!” I grit my teeth, and hid my own tears beneath my hat. It was...a difficult thing to answer. Why was I shedding salty droplets from my eyes? I didn’t know. Was I sympathetic towards this mare who had essentially damned herself because of the way she treated her own psychological inefficiencies? Of course I was. But it was more than that. I wanted to walk with her towards a path of sanity, and a better tomorrow. None of us were perfect, and Celestia had proven time and time again she was not fit to rule--not by herself anyway. Her deteriorating mental state was just another piece of evidence that proved it. But me? Well, I couldn’t judge. I was the same way. The small difference I suppose, is that I came to accept who I was. The Blood Viper--while it was a hilarious and fake moniker that sounded like something a foal would use to come across as edgy towards their friends--was a part of me. The capacity to stain my hooves with blood when necessary, the will to fight, and the desire to take risks in order to come out on top. But beyond that, what she said about peace also stuck with me. True peace...was not possible. I was the first to know that. Only relative peace can occur in which we all were in agreement for a temporary period of time with each other. But despite this, conflicts, wars, and disputes would only happen again and again and again until the end of time. So then, why fight? Why do anything? Would it not be easier to just give up and let the land fall to ruin so that we never had to worry about it anymore? No. That would be far too easy. It’s much easier to build something up compared to breaking something down. That challenge, and the desire to keep the lives of the innocent civilians happy and free is what drove me above all else. No matter how difficult it got, no matter the decisions I had to make. It would strive for my beliefs until the day that I died. “No...I don’t want your...foolish ideals,” I angrily retorted, “Some godly being of ultimate power does not get to decide what I do with my life.” I began to slowly stand up, partially winded from all of the fighting myself. “Steamrolling all life, purging the concept of free will...that is not peace. That is a hive mindset that appeals to no one but the leader.” It may have been foolish, but I chose to take steps towards her, and glared at her with my own eyes that were slowly approaching levels of demonic. My Blood Vi--er, Mr. Hide side was starting to show. “You have no right to call yourself a leader, much less a queen. You are a foolish, downright unworthy ruler and an insignificant speck of feculent scum living on a rock floating in the midst of an infinite abyss of nothingness!” She glared back at me, her face turned from that of an annoyed one, and became haughty once more. She likely attempted to hide her feelings behind her ego. “...Oh? A weak little common stallion has the absolute testes to approach me? Fine, I’ll give you a moment to speak before I enslave you.” I could feel the concerned gaze of my colleagues behind me. But this was something I had to--no. This was something I chose to do. “You’re weak,” I spat, “You’re foolish, immature, and have no right to stand as a ruler. If I had the capability, I would cut you down here and now. But I can’t. All I am is a weak little commoner, am I not? And you are the perfect princess who everypony loves! Including your sister that you condemned to the moon!” “…” she grimaced, and gazed at me with contempt. “Don’t you dare speak of that. You have no right to--” But I interrupted her. “And there’s Sombra who was cast out for being different, and you ultimately banished him for the trouble he caused! I’m sure he loves you too!” “...He deserved it.” I scoffed and continued my ranting. “Maybe. But Discord certainly hates your fat, sun-laced flank for being so passive that he felt the need to teach Twilight a lesson himself! And what does he do? Bring back your three greatest enemies who you also failed to defeat, I might add!” She leaned in close. Her face just inches away from my own. Despite her intensity being stronger, I could no longer feel the heat. I was starting to lose my sense of self once more. I was...becoming just as unhinged as she. “...I do not tolerate such insolence. You have three seconds to kneel before me in surrender before I execute you. Then I shall revive your corpse with my magic and force you to follow my commands, and kill your friends. So what shall it be, you incessant meat sack of a mortal?” My eye twitched, and a sadistic smile grew on my face. I was ready to answer until… “I…” I was interrupted by a familiar mare’s voice. “PALE! STOOOOOOOP!”