Council
Oh yes, Twilight - I have known many dragons.
A whale's corpse is its own ecosystem. Its carcass sinks to the bottom - and the whale fall becomes a verifiable feast for the sealife to feast on and make their home. A dragon's corpse is much the same, as organs the size of houses, scraps of meat and colossal shards of bone sink into the Celestial Sea. The sea is painted red - bloody waves crashing against the shore, the world itself smelling iron.
The ferric scent is not the worst part. The rain strikes down so hard, the smell of saltwater and fire so intense that it begins to fade as the wind picks up. No - the worst part is the noise. The weeping.
Foals cry for their unmoving parents. Siblings hug siblings - gurgling corpses reaching out limp arms and fractured hooves. Slaughtered like animals, cobblestones and gravel drenched slick with blood and fluid. The weeping persists through the city.
They are divine. Both of them could destroy cities, unrestrained. They are power incarnate - but no amount of power stills the weeping.
As day breaks - the new does, too. Then, finally, the letter arrives, hours later - through a disgruntled messenger, who succame to his exhaustion moments after arrival.
Your Royal Majesty,
Celestia Indomita, Breaker of Night and Bringer of Day, Vanquisher of Discord and Guardian of Harmony,
There are no words to describe my sorrow. No words to describe my rage, no words to describe how I feel. It is not within my right to say that I could understand one such as you, allowing my actions to speak better than my words.
Allow me a summary of the events. Three nights ago, my father - King Redclaw Belle, had a sudden change of heart. He believed that we were owed Equestria and that we should take what is ours - the world. The war cry reported in your newsletter originated from a conversation the two of us held. We fought - but I am no fighter, My Lady. The only reason my father did not strike me down was our blood relation. I assure you, Daybringer, I sought to send you a letter informing you of his plans. Yet, my father seems to have had powerful allies - and none of my messengers managed to reach you. I can only imagine the fate that has befallen them.
Attached to this letter are two documents that have ostracized every known member of those involved in the Trottingham massacre. Another - that formally declares my father, King Redclaw, as a criminal - and appoints his son, myself, as the new Lord Griffonstone - in honor of the Lord Trottingham. I have abandoned the title King - for no King would allow something like this to transpire in his world.
My only plea - and truly, a plea, not a request - is that we are able to meet within the following week. The sooner, the better. My doors are always open to you - and I hope that you extend your hoof as well. Whatever action you may take - you will have the full support of the Griffonstone Government.
Maker's blessings,
His Royal Majesty, the Lord Griffonstone,
Steelbeak Belle
The Lord Griffonstone,
You have been cordially invited to Mount Canterhorn in order to discuss the events of the Trottingham Massacre of Equestria, otherwise known as the Butchery of Trottingham.
Attached to this letter is an artefact of tremendous power, known as a gatestone. It is requested that you hold this artefact at the twelfth hour of the sixteenth day in order to be brought to neutral territory - to discuss the threat of King Redclaw and his army.
Notarized by Raven Inkwell,
Signed,
Her Royal Majesty, Lady Celestia Indomita, Breaker of Night, Bringer of Day, Vanquisher of Discord and Guardian of Harmony,
Her Royal Majesty, Lady Luna Astrella, The Morrigan, Bringer of Night, Vanquisher of Discord and Guardian of Harmony,
Her Royal Majesty, Lady Twilight Sparkle, Mistress of Magic, Princess of Friendship, and Guardian of Equestria,
Her Crystalline Highness, Mi Amore Cadenza, Empress of the Crystal Empire, Vanquisher of Prismia, and Destroyer of Sombra,
Tempest Pulseradottir, Breaker of Chains, Queen of Storms.
The gatestone activates with a lavender flash.
Steelbeak doesn't recognize where he is. It is a crater of rock with four thrones in every cardinal direction and a starless, white void encircling them. He, and his assistant - a light blue unicorn mare with almost hollow grey eyes, didn't waste a second. They bowed so deeply that his beak and her horn scraped against the rock and dirt below.
They stand around him. Celestia is the most noticeable - as she dons the Celestial Plate. Nearly identical to her sisters, but with no horns or horn blade and no armour to cover her flank - her cutie mark shown to the world. The same brand is emblazoned on her chest. She sits on a throne carved out of marble.
Her sister is to his left, on a throne of moon-rock. The Lunar Crest decorating her form. To her right, her faithful student- no armour and on a throne of wood, but her eyes are wet - as if she's been weeping. Magic flows from her so freely that even the magically insensitive Steelbeak can feel it permeate the air. Finally, behind him is Cadence. Her throne is made of crystal - no armour, but her face is hard, her loving eyes cold.
He bows every bit as deeply to all of them as he did Celestia. Then, he slowly stands up - only to notice the white void shifts. Her eyes open as her form shifts to show the locale - and the colossal drakoness stares down deeply into his heart.
Steelbeak is not easily frightened. He stares for only a second - before he bows a fifth time as he finally recognizes where they are—the Jackalope Slopes - where the mythical entrance to Tartarus itself is.
"Steelbeak," Celestia begins. No lord- no, what is the Lord Griffonstone to the Sun herself? Her voice is even and cold - unbefitting the sheer solar heat that seems to emanate from her. She sits as the first among equals - her voice carrying with it the weight of eternity itself.
"You stand before the Alicorn Pantheon of Equestria-" Alicorn Pantheon? "-as the representative of the Gryphon nation."
He is a gryphon in name and blood only. His wings are deformed beyond sustained flight - his claws blunted. His name is ironic, for his beak is one of the few parts not made of steel.
"You were not permitted to bring a guest," she said softly. "Explain at once - or she will be removed from the court."
Steelbeak cleared his throat and stepped forward. "She is my cousin, Your Royal Majesty - her name is Astrabelle." The wall of scales shifted. "But, deformed, as I was. She may not speak, and none but me understand her. We have never left each other's side. I apologize dearly for bringing her - but I would be unable to function properly without her. My sincerest apologies."
The Pantheon exchanged some glances. Cadence merely nodded.
"Do you swear, Steelbeak of the Gryphons-" Celestia began, "do you solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm by the Maker - that the evidence you give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
"I do," Steelbeak nodded.
"Do you agree, that a violation of this affirmation, will be punished as swiftly and harshly as possible?" Luna continued.
"I do," Steelbeak nodded again after the slightest moment of hesitation.
"D-do-" Twilight cleared her throat. "Do you agree that you are here to discuss the - the..." She trailed off for a moment. "...the Massacre of Trottingham, and the threat of Exiled King Redclaw?"
"I do."
"Do you, Steelbeak of the Gryphons - agree to lend every resource, within reason, available to you in support of Equestria and her people?" Cadence finished.
"I do."
"Then we may begin." Celestia nodded. "Please state for the Pantheon the events that preceded the Massacre in as concise a manner as possible."
"Two days before the event, I entered a confrontation with my father. He had been acting erratically as of late - claiming that he would burn all of Equestria and take what was, in his words, rightfully his. Astrabelle had fallen asleep when I had gone to confront him-"
"You claimed that you would find yourself unable to operate without her. Clarify, what this means." Luna interrupted.
"It means what it sounds like, My Lady Moon." Steelbeak bowed. His grating, monotonous voice started to wear on Luna, her jaw clenching slightly. "I have never experienced the feeling of being alone in my life. Since birth, my deformity has meant that I needed constant care - and I was always in the presence of my father, or my cousin. My cousin's mere presence soothes my pain, and mine, hers."
"Your - deformity." Twilight said quietly. "Is it magical in nature?"
"Partially. The full depths of knowledge on my ailment is - unknown to myself. It was lost, with my father."
"Continue." Celestia waved her hoof.
"We battled, briefly. My father is a great combatant - I am not. He struck me down - and he only spared me on account of our blood relation. The fight woke Astrabelle - who wounded my father. He fled the scene immediately, and she tended to my wounds. I succame to unconsciousness, temporarily. The following day, when recovered, and my augments repaired - I found that a sizable section of our standing army had already left. The exact number is unknown - but at any given time, we have 240,000 soldiers on standby. A little under half of that was - loyal to my father, and supported him."
Twilight paled. Celestia's eyes shut. Steelbeak couldn't see Luna or Cadence's reaction.
"Our attempts to contact you failed until recently. Likely to do with the involvement of dragons, as I've heard." He glanced at Tempest. Considering her size - he couldn't really see her facial reactions. "I am now the Lord Griffonstone, in honor of the falling Lord Trottingham. I believe, that is all."
"Are you aware that your father has been replaced with a changeling?" Luna tilted her head to the side.
Steelbeak's expression was one of surprise - his head shooting up towards Luna and his body recoiling slightly. "Replaced? By one of the creatures that -" He glanced at Cadence.
"Yes," Twilight nodded. "A changeling. Luna, uhm-" She trailed off. "...Wounded, him - and he bled silver."
"I am unfamiliar with the meaning."
Twilight's voice shifted in tone - becoming slightly more confident and monotonous as she shifted into her tutoring mode. "Their blood actually contains a lot of mercury - which is part of why it's so valuable for alchemy. It gives their blood a slivery hue - part of why they're known as silverbloods."
"I was not aware of this, no." Steelbeak said quietly. "Truly - replaced? What does - what does..."
"It is likely, Steelbeak," Cadence said - her flat voice mirroring Steelbeak's monotone but with just a slight hint of remorse, "that your father is - dead."
Steelbeak shut his eyes. He clenched his talons. "...I..." He turned his head to the side. Words failed him.
"The dragons." Tempest spoke. Her voice sent chills down Steelbeak's spine - the ground rumbling underneath them. "Tell me about them."
"There is little that I would be able to inform you of, Oh Mighty-" He paused for a moment. "Drakon. I know nothing of any connections my father had with the dragon empire - so I assume that it would be related to the changeling that has replaced him."
Tempest shifted. Her massive head came prodding onto the crater - squeezing past Luna and Celestia's throne. "Have you heard the name Gorolich?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. From this distance - Steelbeak could feel and see the air beginning to roll with heat.
"I have." He nodded. "Little more than a mention from my father. May I ask why?"
"We thank you for your cooperation, Steelbeak. We will request your aid when the time comes - but for the time being, we shall remain solely independent." Celestia nodded. "You are dismissed."
Before Steelbeak could react, with a soft click behind him, Steelbeak was back where he had been, moments before. The whole meeting had gone by in a blur.
Celestia - cold. Luna - practically bubbling with rage. Twilight - distraught. Cadence - stoic.
A small part of Steelbeak felt pleased. He had them where he wanted - they knew of the changeling, they knew of the involvement of his worse half - and they would see him as nothing more than a gryphon trying to make right. However, the rest of him felt deeply unnerved by the presence of the fifth element—an unaccounted variable. There was nothing Steelbeak disliked more than an unaccounted variable.
"Tempest Pulseradottir." Steelbeak mused to himself. "How strange."
---
"You are certain, sister?"
"As I have said a thousand times, Celestia - and will say a thousand more. T'would do you good to have some more faith in me."
"We - killed him. His body burned - we barely managed to retrieve Spike's egg from the wreckage. Nothing could've survived that."
"Then a pretender - or another egg escaped our notice. Regardless - the threat of the Gryphons and Dragons that plagued us once have returned, and reunited."
Twilight let out a soft noise. Eyes turned towards her.
Cadence broke the silence. "Twilight - are you..."
"No." Twilight shook her head. "I'm not - I'm not alright. Maker, Cadence - ten thousand, five hundred and twelve ponies died. I don't think I'll ever be alright again, Cadence. I can't - sleep, and it's not because of the nightmares - it's because I lay awake and think, that could've been Ponyville, and there's nothing I could've done to stop it. I - and, Celestia, Luna - you're so...detached - I know you care, I do - but it feels...i-it feels..." Twilight's breath became shakier and shakier.
Celestia's horn lit, and the two Alicorns were teleported into a hug. She wrapped her wings around her and squeezed. "I'm sorry, Twilight. We - it was foolish of me, to ask you here. I'm - sorry." She whispered.
Twilight buried her face into the alicorn's neck as she wept. Tempest coiled around the crater so that her head rested next to Cadence.
"I am remiss that we could not meet under better circumstances."
"You're telling me." Cadence sighed. "It really is a pleasure to meet you, though." She glanced at her. "...Do - do I call you Auntie?"
"You may call me what you wish to call me, Little Spirit. I have a question for you though. Did you sense anything - strange, about the Lord Griffonstone?"
"Strange? Strange how? As if he was lying?" She tilted her head to the side.
"He was not lying. I would've sensed the disharmony in his heart if he was. But - there was something...hm. Misplaced, about him."
"I'm - sorry, I'm not really sure what you mean." Cadence said softly. "I'm still kind of - processing everything."
"You find yourself confused in a swarm of new information?" Tempest tilted her head to the side.
Cadence's eyes narrowed. "Don't most?"
"Yes. Yet, when informed of his father's passing - he quite quickly recovered in order to answer my question. It struck me as strange."
Cadence thought for a second. Tempest could see the gears turning in her eyes. "I - can sense love. He did love his father. But - something about his emotions did seem...muted, now that I think about it."
"Muted?"
The Lady of Love nodded. "They weren't quite - right. Nothing extremely jarring, but...just, there, now that I think about it."
"Thank you, Cadence," Tempest said softly. "When the air is a bit less - heavy, I would love to visit your Empire - assuming you would have me."
"I would be delighted."
Tempest's eyes shifted to the weeping alicorn. Celestia and Twilight exchanged words that Tempest, even with her hearing, couldn't quite catch - and then Twilight disappeared with a burst of lavender energy.
"She - my student - no. Twilight, is in dire need of rest."
"As we all are." Luna spoke quietly.
"The world feels - like it's collapsing. The Gryphons are invading. The Dragons are returning. What's next - Discord, back from the dead?"
"I resent that," his voice echoed from the void beyond - his eyes forming first before the rest of him came with a soft pop. "I haven't died yet."
"You know of whom she meant, devil." Luna snarled. "This is a time of mourning and action - leave us be."
"I find that Entropy is a much more fitting name for him. The two eyed, one horned, flying purple people reader herself suggested that. Makes the whole situation less confusing." He waved his hand to the side. He then teleported onto Twilight's throne, as it shifted into the throne he had sat on during his rule of Equestria. "Oh, but Luney! I'm reformed now, didn't you know? I'm here on Celestia's orders. Honest." He crossed four fingers behind his back.
"Did you find him?" Celestia stood up. "His corpse?" Luna's mouth opened - then stood up as she realized just who she was talking about.
"I looked high!" Discord held his hand up high. "I looked low." He shifted down and slid underneath a limbo pole. "Yet - the old geezer was nowhere to be found."
"So it's true, then." Luna said softly. "Gorolich the Indestructible - he has returned?"
Cadence paled slightly. "Is - is that possible? For something - to come back from the dead?"
Discord shrugged. "Entropy certainly did it, a few times. So did Tempest." He jutted his thumb out towards the coiled drakon.
"We were Spirits. Gorolich was not." Tempest shook his head. "The process is not - applicable. And I am confident that I would be unable to repeat it."
"He was not a Spirit, to our knowledge." Celestia added.
"Mm-mm, Sunny Skies." Discord leaned over Celestia's shoulder. "If he had ascended - you two would've been toast." Discord turned into a walking piece of burnt bread. "And I would've certainly felt it. He was not a Spirit - and, as far as I can tell, we - plus Sparkles, are the only Spirits on the planet."
"What...about necromancy?" Cadence suggested. "I've heard - rumours of it."
"Necromancy on such scale would've been detected. Nor is it a true resurrection - it is will placed into bones. Necromancy is not a school of magic - it falls underneath golemancy." Luna shook her head. "Regardless of the means, he has returned. Be it a shadow of him, a pretender - but the threat he represents has returned. There is involvement of the changelings, as well - it seems as if our old enemies are banding together, in some sense."
"Are you implying-"
"No, sister. I am outright stating - that not just Sombra, but Disc-" Luna huffed, "Entropy as well may return."
There was a beat of silence in the air.
"He will not return. If he did - he would not be the Spirit of Chaos. That mantle belongs to Discord now." Tempest glanced at the draconequus. "If he were - by some tragedy, to return with all of his power - I was his equal at his height of power. With all of us, with Twilight - he would stand no chance."
"Then just Sombra." She glanced at Cadence. "Precautions should be taken to ensure the safety of your empire."
"We defeated him once already. I'm certain we could do it again." Cadence said confidently.
"That is assuming, that he does not bide his time - gathering his strength and forces. At his peak, he was a match for both me and my sister. Although - we have grown far stronger, since then. Regardless - you can never have too much precaution."
"Discord," Celestia turned to the draconequus - who had animated his paws and talons into doing battle with one another. "What of my other requests?"
"No sign of bug-legs, or any of the gryphons. Not that there was very much to go off on." Discord shrugged.
"Then we are in the dark," Celestia growled. "The nation is a tinderbox ready to go off - the backlash we'd get from not being able to prevent another gryphon attack...but we have no idea where they would attack. I will speak with Commander Cloud Charge."
"Well - what about Cloudsdale?" Cadence suggested.
"What of it?" Luna arched an eyebrow.
"Every single gryphon can walk on clouds. So - that limits their opponents to those who can fly. No unicorns."
"Yet, Cloudsdale has the highest military concentration of pegasi. It would be the greatest threat." Celestia tilted her head to the side.
"I mean - I suppose, but...wouldn't that be part of the point? They take out the biggest threat first."
Something suddenly clicked in Tempest's memory. Her head tilted up. "There is something that I have kept from you, unintentionally." Eyes turned towards Tempest. Discord stretched over his now-upside-down throne and met Tempest's eyes.
"Discord - helped me find myself. With a spell of his, I experienced five lives. I was a changeling - E842. A pegasus mare, Storm Breeze. A gryphon animal caretaker, Windplume. A minotaur smith, Temper. And I was a wolf - known as Tundra."
Tempest recounted the rest of Tundra's story. Wolves, the Ring of Asptra, Graymourne and Cobblerock. Ending with fractured memories - the death of Lord Rex and the sludge-like mist that oozed from a voice that sounded - black, like void.
"It feels - related, somehow. If this - Gorolich, is truly back from the dead - then I think it has something to do with this voice." Tempest nodded.
"And - you kept this from us - why?" Celestia said quietly.
"I had Order and Harmony block myself off from the memories, so that it would not distract me. It was not - pressing."
Luna grunted. "Twilight should be informed, when she begins to feel more like herself."
"In the future, Tempest - don't keep things of that importance from us. Am I understood?"
Tempest's eyes narrowed slightly at her tone. "You are understood, Celestia." She said in a soft growl. Tempest's wings spread - and she promptly took off, tearing from the ground with a sound like a landslide.
"You'll have to forgive her."
The air was ablaze with sound. A constant stream of her superheated plasma, the air thick with magic as she asked and shaped with her will.
The blaze faded from her lips. Her tongue tingled, as it always did after she had used it to cast. "I already have. My response was - childish, and her response was warranted."
"You, like the rest of my nation - give my sister far too much credit." Luna sat down by Tempest's side. She had shifted into a form only a few heads taller than Celestia, as she let her instincts as Temper take control - getting to work on forging something new. "She is not infallible. When we were rebuilding after Discord - one time, she stepped on a frog. Crushed the poor thing under her hoof. Cried for hours."
Tempest snorted.
"She's terrified of spiders, too. Shrieks like a foal when she sees one. She has ticklish spots all over her wings and underside. Her wings, especially - she never lets me preen her, because I always end up tickling her."
"Unintentionally?"
"May the Maker strike me down if it was ever unintentional. I certainly claim as such, though." Luna grinned smugly at Celestia.
"I don't particularly understand your point, though."
"My point is twofold. First, First, Celestia is not infallible - and I hope, that as the ages go by - you will begin to see that. The cracks in her facade, when the world is more - peaceful. When there is no threat of war. She has been distant from you, no?"
"I, from her, as well. We are - friends."
"You were family. She keeps your scale on the inside of her chest plate. I do, too. It's saved me a few times - it saved me against Gorolich. Which brings me to my second point."
Order, Harmony, and Temper took over her body. They were all part of her, part of a whole - but they retained enough independence to act on their own if she permitted. Harmony kept Order and Temper working together as they set to work on Tempest's forge.
"Gorolich is a sensitive subject for Celestia. It's the first time she failed. Truly, utterly - failed."
Tempest glanced at Luna. "How so?"
"The world itself was powerless against Celestia. She was not alone in that regard. We won against the Gryphons - but against Gorolich, however, my sister fell."
"The Dragonflight invaded. They came from the Badlands; they lay ruin to the territory above the Macintosh Hills - you may not have been there recently, but it is a desert. Utter destruction - only the hardiest of earth ponies and the buffalo have survived there, with developments only coming as of recent. The amassed military might of Cloudsdale and the medieval siege weapons that the unicorns built and earth ponies operated gave us slightly more equal footing. But there were hundreds of dragons - each one taking down hundreds of ponies before they had to so much as a retreat.
Celestia and I took to the battlefield - slaying dragon after dragon. The two of us fought as one that day - we were a true terror. I remember - I thought to myself, that wherever you were - you would be proud of me."
"I am, Luna. I am, and I was, and I forever will be."
"Well - yes, but I didn't quite know that at the time. I just - felt it. Regardless, as the dragons approached the Everfree - their numbers began to thin. Until Gorolich the Indestructible himself showed."
"His name. The Indestructible."
"It was truly put to the test, that day. Our strongest weapons - diamond-edged ballista bolts, didn't even scratch him. Our spells bounced off of him - Cleddwyr found its match in his scales, and Celestia's glaive - The Taligar, was the only thing that seemed to be able to damage him. He was born with abnormally strong scales - further exemplified by a unicorn mage known as the Prophet. The enchantment she placed on them wove into his very soul - and as the one who did the most damage to him, I can assure you - the Indestructible is correct."
"If he was indestructible - then how did you defeat him?"
"The answer? Barely. Thousands of ponies died that day. We wiped out the invading forces - but not without loss. In the end, it was merely Celestia and me against Gorolich. Unrestrained - Celestia's power was great...to the point where, while Gorolich's scales were indestructible - his innards not quite as much. His organs and eyes began to liquefy - but not enough, before he tore half of my sister's face off and snapped her horn."
Tempest winced sympathetically.
"Her screams haunt me. Mine likely haunt her. He didn't consider me as great a threat as my sister - and toyed with me, like an insect. He picked me up - and tore the wings from my body in a bloody display."
She was silent for a second. "It was there, that I tapped into the Parasite for the first time. It was a whisper - something deep within myself. The energy I loosed that day - for a year, my horn had a split right down the middle - and I could never quite cast a spell right. Gorolich's head was completely destroyed - and his body began to burn. It burned for days, it burned for nights - and it was through a long and arduous effort that we were able to bury his corpse in the depths of the Badlands."
"The Parasite," Tempest said quietly.
"Nightmare Moon." Luna matched her tone. "It is - a period of my life I do not like to think about." She shut her eyes.
"Luna." Tempest turned to her.
"Please," Luna's voice was a frail whisper.
"It's breaking you apart, Luna. I don't know the details - but whenever you mention the word parasite, your heart - it burns with disharmony. Something is wrong, Luna - and-"
"No, Tempest. I will not speak of this now." She stood up. "I am going to take my leave, mine family." She was silent for a second. "...I love you."
"And I love you, Luna. My door is always open."
"Hm. What door?" Luna's voice contained a hint of her usual mirth before she disappeared.
-