//------------------------------// // Reunion // Story: Babel // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// “Cannae believe it…” Rockhoof mumbled as they entered Manehattan for the first time. The sight of emaciated and destitute ponies brought gasps and murmurs from the Pillars, but the Pillar of Strength was the first one to vocalize his horror. “I haven’t seen this since…” “The war.” Flash Magnus finished with grim certainty. “This is exactly how it was when the Windigos came.” His eyes then trailed up and followed the tall buildings of metal and glass that seemed to stretch on forever upwards as if he expected the ghostly apparitions to suddenly appear. No clouds darkened the skies though, and no unnatural chill permeated the city. The only thing here was desperation, and that never looked different. What caught them more off guard than the gaunt visages of the ponies around them were the deformities, the remnants of the sickness that had ravaged their bodies. It was the first time that the Pillars had truly seen the vile consequences of transformation. The elongated limbs and visible fangs left all of the ancient heroes aghast. “Oh no…” The pony most affected by the unicorns’ affliction was Mistmane. The Pillar of Beauty had a hoof to her mouth and tears rolled down her cheeks. “To have your body stolen from you and changed like that…” The eldest of the Pillars took a deep breath and steadied herself with a nod. “I must help them…I must.” “I’ll help anyway I can, Misty.” Mage Meadowbrook offered a smile. “There’s gotta be somethin’ we can cook up together to get these ponies right.” “I will see what I can remember about the curse.” Starswirl spoke up as he stroked his long beard thoughtfully. “Perhaps, if I can recall some of the intricacies, I can find a way to reverse the physical changes.” Twilight couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t a big smile nor particularly noticeable, but it was still a smile. It was a satisfied little grin. This is why she had been so resolute in her mission to bring the Pillars back from their exile: they were the heroes that Equestria needed right now. They could help stitch the world back together. Twilight knew if her friends were here that they would be having an almost identical conversation. Her friends weren’t here though. They were still dead. Twilight stopped smiling. “We should get you all to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna before we start planning too much. After all, we seem to be drawing a crowd…” Starlight said with a nervous chuckle. The group had been noticed and now flocks of ponies were gathering around them and murmuring in surprise. “Twilight, maybe…sooner than later?” The crowd was not staring at the heroes of old that were accompanying the two sorceresses, no. They were all staring right at Twilight. Those stares became glares and the little murmurs became angry rumblings. Twilight’s ears became pinned to her head as the rumbling became a roar. “Where’s our food?!” “Where have you been hiding?!” “When are you actually going to do something?!” The heart in her chest seized and the world suddenly became no bigger than the space immediately around her body. Even her wings felt like they were too tight against her sides. Everything became dark and all of the voices overpowered even the thoughts in her head. The princess of friendship began to shake as she was suddenly surrounded by enemies. All of a sudden she was back in Ponyville. Her friends were dragging her across the sun baked dirt in a desperate bid to get her inside of the castle. She could hear the monstrous unicorns closing in to take her back, to drag her back into the darkness where her thoughts were not her own and her actions were dictated by someone else. She could still see her friends around her, their bodies and spirits broken from the onslaught that had been unleashed upon them for daring to attempt to save her. A hoof touched Twilight’s side. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” She couldn’t stop the words from pouring out of her mouth with primal fury. She could not stop the magic from surging into her horn, and she could not stop the teleportation spell from being formed and encompassing her and the ponies she had been traveling with. They all disappeared in a flash of blinding light. Where they reappeared was the lobby of the Royale Hotel. In her panic, Twilight had not gotten the spell completely right and the group had appeared a few feet above the floor. Somnambula and Flash Magnus responded quickly enough to hover in the air while the rest of the ponies fell to the floor in a pile. Twilight was at the bottom of the pile. The bodies on top of her pushed down and compressed her chest, but they were not the reason it was hard to breathe. She had been so close to that place again, to Ponyville. Not the physical space, no. She had been there not too long ago and just been filled with sadness and a grim determination. This had been much different. The mob had catapulted her back to the Ponyville that existed in her mind, the one that she could still see in her nightmares. The clawing darkness scratched at her mind and she could hear the haunting chant of ‘them or us’ ring through her soul all over again. It gripped her heart and squeezed. Twilight felt like she was dying all over again. Even as the weight on top of her abated the ability to breathe and think did not return. The sun was blinding. She could feel it’s interminable heat on her back. She could taste blood. It ran through her teeth and pooled in her throat. It poured throughout her body and stained her coat. It kept her wings bound to her body and settled around her hooves. Were her legs getting longer? Her jaw hurt, was it changing again? It felt like her body was cracking and breaking with each passing moment and at any moment the beast that she had been was set to burst forth. “Twilight Sparkle!” Two powerful hooves grabbed her and sat her upright. “Hey!” Twilight’s vision slowly returned from the demons that had captured it and she was met with the stolid face of Flash Magnus. His bright blue eyes looked right into hers with raw intensity. “Wherever you are, it is not real.” The pegasus spoke like her brother, even with the same cadence. He was not speaking to her, but ordering her to listen. “You are right here. If you are in a memory, then I am here to tell you that it has ended.” “It never ended…” Twilight choked out the words. Tears had been falling from her eyes for some time now, this was just the first moment she noticed them. They rolled down her cheeks and stained her purple fur. “I-it’s still going on, don’t you see? It never ended!” Those words rang throughout the now silent lobby of the hotel. “It’s still happening every day! I-it didn’t end with Ponyville! Or Canterlot! Or Cloudsdale!” Twilight wrapped her wings around herself and hugged herself tight. “Celestia, it’s still happening…” “My poor son did not come home from the war, but a soldier did. The colt is dead, but the shell remains.” Flash Magnus spoke the words knowingly, but then shook his head. “Poor mare…” The pegasus reached up and removed his helmet. The red mane that had been contained to a neat plume by the piece of armor fell around his head in waves. He sat the helmet by his side and then squeezed the alicorn in a hug. Twilight sobbed openly and loudly for the first time in months. For so long she had been convinced that she had no more tears to shed, that something deep down had broken and she was now incapable of this kind of sadness. She had not expected whatever dam had been holding everything back to break like this. She wrapped her hooves around the armored stallion who embraced her and clung to him for dear life. —- “Very well, we will send the orders out tomorrow then.” Princess Luna looked over their plans for the Stables and nodded. It was a start, but an important one. “We suppose later today that We will call the press for a conference to announce the plan to them.” She moved the final plans over to her sister, who looked them over and then gave them a nod. “I’ll get my guards prepared to oversee elections where they can.” Shining Armor gathered up a piece of parchment in his pink aura and put it in his purple breastplate. “I’ll…try to not use unicorns where I can.” A knock came at the door and drew the attention of both alicorns and their captain. They all three exchanged questioning looks to see if any of them was expecting anypony. When they all responded with shrugs or a shake of their head, Luna spoke. “Enter!” Flash Sentry, one of Shining Armor’s underlings, pushed the door opened and hurriedly stepped into the suite. The pegasus had more limbs made of metal than flesh and they all creaked as he gave a deep bow. “Apologies, Your Majesties.” He sounded out of breath and he was visibly shaking as he rose from his bow. “There’s a situation down in the lobby that requires your attention…all of you.” His mouth opened a few times as he searched for words, but each time those words seemed to fail him. “It’s Princess Twilight.” Shining Armor and Celestia immediately got to their hooves. “Is she alright?” Shining was already moving towards his subordinate and Celestia was not far behind. “As far as we can tell, yes. Well, physically.” There was a beat. “She brought visitors with her. I-I think it’s best if you saw for yourselves.” “Very well.” Luna was the last to stand. The leathery wings on her back flexed and stretched out as she joined the other two members of the royal family. “Go down there and evacuate everypony but Twilight Sparkle and her visitors. Do not waste any time. In fact, let Us help you.” Princess Luna lit up her horn, encompassed the stallion in her magic and made him disappear in a flash of light. Both Shining Armor and Celestia looked at her. “What? Are you not worried? I assumed this was urgent.” “Yeah but…” Shining stopped and sighed. “Well, probably better if we just get down there now.” Shining Armor and herself trotted through the door that led out of the suite, but Celestia did not follow them immediately. The other alicorn hesitated at the doorway and big eyes full of worry and pain looked at the elevator doors just beyond. It did not occur to Luna that her sister had not been out of the room for some time, perhaps not since they moved into the space. “Sister…” Luna extended a hoof towards Celestia. “Your student needs you. Surely that must triumph over your fear.” Celestia gave a small nod and took Luna’s hoof in her own. When the sisters stood side by side, the elder one extended one of her wings and wrapped it around the younger one. It may be undignified for princesses to do such a thing, but sisters needed to be there for one another. The ride down to the lobby in the elevator was thankfully short. It was quiet though, the only sound that permeated the little metal box was their breathing. It gave them too much time to think and wonder what was waiting for them. Luna was expecting, somehow, for Twilight to be joined by her dead friends. She was not sure how such a feat could be accomplished but she was sure if any pony in existence could figure out how to bring the dead back, then it would be Twilight Sparkle. That would be the only logical explanation as to why the guard that had fetched them was so hesitant to say what he had seen. She was mildly excited to see the fruits of this months long process that Twilight Sparkle had undertaken. When the doors opened, Luna’s magic reached out into the lobby. The shadows themselves rose up from the floor and clung to the windows that lined the walls. They even reached up to cover the skylight to block out her sister’s light. When she was through, only the lights on the walls illuminated the vast space of the lobby. It left the area dim, but they could still see what they needed to. The diarchs were out of the elevators and they froze in place. Their eyes were locked on a form all too familiar, the hat and cape too iconic to be mistaken for somepony else. A chill ran up Luna’s spine as she spotted the spector amid a mass of ponies. The shock fell away and anger rose in its place, at least for the Princess of the Night. She reached out with her magic and grabbed that stallion and dragged him over to her at a blinding speed. Her brow furrowed and her nostrils flared as she glared down at him. She searched this pony’s face for the imperfections it had to have. Luna bared her fangs and growled at this pony. “Who are you, fiend?” Luna brought all of her ferocity to bear, even letting her leathery bat wings flare out as she drew herself up to her full height. “We know what happened to Starswirl the Bearded, and you are not him. That is impossible.” “Hallen Celuleunelnen.” The words from the stallion hit Luna like a freight train. Her concentration broke and she dropped him to the ground. How long had it been since she’d heard that language? How long had it been since she heard that name? “No…” Luna finally spoke and shook her head as she looked down at Starswirl. “This…no. How?” The usually fiery princess was left treading water in her own mind as she tried to comprehend what was in front of her. “Starswirl?” The ferocity fell away and Luna felt as though she was a filly again, lost on the rolling slopes of the eastern coast of the continent. He said something again in that very dead language, but her ears refused to hear it through the blood rushing through them. Even if she did pick up on them, she doubted she could translate or understand them. She had not spoken a word of that language since Starswirl disappeared well over one thousand years ago. There was no doubt Celestia was in the same boat as she was in that regard. The only three ponies who spoke the language or even knew of it were in this room right now, and they had not been around each other for a very long time. Celestia lurched forward and pulled the bearded mage of old into a tight hug. Starswirl did not resist the embrace, instead he leaned into it and wrapped his hooves around the other alicorn’s body. He removed his hat and set it to the side as he hugged one of his students. “You both look so different…” Starswirl muttered just loud enough so the two alicorns could hear him. “Celestia…” He pulled away from the hug slightly so he could get a good look at her. “...where has the dawn gone? How much of your beautiful day has passed to leave you with only the dusk in your mane?” Tears streamed from Celestia’s eyes and she looked down at the floor in abject shame. “And Luna…your gentle night has given way to a realm of nightmares. Fangs and bat wings…these are not the things of dreams.” “This is not the first time I have worn these features.” Luna muttered and sat beside her sister. “The last time I embraced them voluntarily…this time I’m afraid I had no choice in the matter.” “Twilight Sparkle informed me of some things I missed.” Starswirl sighed and wiped traces of tears from his eyes as well. “None of them were good.” Those words hurt, as Luna knew one of those things had to be about her stint as Nightmare Moon. It was a point of deep shame, one that now burned a little more now that Starswirl knew of it. There was a sense that a serious chiding was coming her way from her old mentor, one that was a thousand years in the making. “There is no time to waste moping, though. She brought us back to get this sorted out, not to lay about and think about old mistakes.” “What if we can’t fix this?” Celestia spoke now between sobs. “We must.” Starswirl nodded resolutely. —- “She has a soldier’s sickness.” Twilight heard Flash Magnus speaking to Shining Armor with unabashed loudness. “It’s a disease of the soul, one that fills you with nightmares and claims your heart between its hooves. How she managed to get so much done with this weighing on her is a miracle.” “She’s not a soldier.” Shining Armor pushed back on that front. “Her and her friends were heroes but…they weren’t soldiers. They did a lot for Equestria but-” “But what…?” Twilight finally sat up and wiped her face with one of her wings. “Are you saying we didn’t fight enough? When your brain was leaking from your ears during your wedding and we fought across Canterlot through an army of Changelings. I was thrown through a mountain by Tirek! We were kidnapped and being used as Changeling food! We saved Equestra! THEY DIED FOR EQUESTRIA!” Twilight was screaming at the top of her lungs at her brother now, something she had never done before. "Is that not enough?! Just because we didn’t wear armor or march in time doesn’t mean we weren’t soldiers for Equestria! We were the last line of defense! It always came down on us!” “Yeah and look where that got us.” Shining Armor winced as soon as he was done speaking. “I-I didn’t mean that Twilight.” “No…obviously you did or else you wouldn’t have said it…” Twilight’s heart cracked a little more in her chest. She felt nauseous and like she was about to collapse. “You’re dismissed, Captain Armor…go take care of other business.” She effortlessly slipped into the cold professional demeanor of a princess and nodded at her brother and subordinate. “What? Twilight, c’mon.” Shining tried to protest. “She said you’re dismissed, Captain.” Flash Magnus stepped between the two royals, his helmet back on his head. “I recommend you follow that order.” Both stallions sized each other up and glared at one another, but it was Shining that buckled first. He wilted from the pegasus and retreated with a nod. “I’ll be up in my room if anypony needs me…” Twilight let out the breath she had been holding in and let her wings and shoulders slump. “Not that anypony will anymore…” She looked towards Celestia and Luna, who were now surrounded by the rest of the pillars except for Flash. “That’s why I brought you guys back, right?” “If that’s what you need of us, then yes.” Flash answered with a curt nod. “I don’t know how much help I will be, though. I’m not like them. I’m a soldier, not a healer or builder or mage. I’m sure I’ll find something but I won’t be part of the grand plan forming over there.” “Flash, we need bravery now more than ever. You are just as valuable as the other pillars.” “Are you saying we don’t need magic, Twilight?” “Not mine. I caused all of this.” Twilight shook her head and sighed. “My final contribution was bringing you all back to help fix my mistake…” Something caught in her chest, words she wanted to say but couldn’t bring herself to force out. Instead she opted to just part ways for now. “I’ll be in my room if anypony needs me.” Then she disappeared in a flash of light.