//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Burdens // Story: Dishonored: A Ruined and Drowning World // by Kleptoshark //------------------------------// The Outsider waited patiently. So it had begun, the young unicorn was now over the hill, in a world destined to change her for better, or for worse. For her, things were quiet, but that would change in good time. He waited, knowing that the most interesting bits were worth being patient for. The Outsider felt an influence, pushing at the corners of the Void. He could easily guess who it was, attempting to force its way through the walls of its own existence, and into his. He persevered that a good conversation would help pass the time until something worth watching happened in Gristol. “Hello, Celestia.” He said calmly. “Cut the greeting,” Celestia growled. The alicorn was furious. “Very well.” The outsider remained in his human form, regarding her coolly with his arms crossed. “Bring her back. Now.” Celestia demanded, “You had no right to take her from Equestria.” “Oh, Celestia.” The Outsider sighed in a condescending tone, “Will you ever give up on trying to control your subjects’ lives? Even as your protégé has crossed into another world, you still attempt to keep your hold on her? She accepted my offer out of free will. Thus, she must return by her own decision.” “Twilight has no idea what she’s getting into-” “-and whose fault is that?” The Outsider asked, cocking his head at Celestia. “We both know you’ve put her in the way of great danger, Outsider.” Celestia retorted, still glaring at him. “We both know your words are not going to sway me, Celestia.” The Outsider said, “But perhaps they may sway her.” He paused, ensuring the alicorn paid attention. “Twilight’s assistant, Spike. He still acts as a conduit for your messages.” He informed Celestia. “Your Twilight Sparkle has been given free will, and she cherishes it greatly. If you can convince her to give up her venture, to return to you, then she may yet come back.” Celestia’s glare only continued in intensity. “There’s a catch. What is it?” “Only the flow of time.” The Outsider said, nonchalantly, “I would attempt to contact her quickly, if I were you. The opportunity for her to return easily is fading in earnest. When that opportunity dissipates, she will be on her own. I have offered her a world of knowledge, Celestia. How will you persuade her to give it all up? I wonder how you'll answer.” Celestia had made the mistake of lowering her guard whilst she listened to the Outsider’s words. In an unanticipated burst of magic, she felt herself being forced back into Equestria, cast out of the Void. *** Callista made her way towards Emily’s room, busily organising today’s lesson schedule. Emily wasn’t much of a morning-glory when it came to starting her day, so Callista thought of starting the morning off with relevant studies: geography, and maybe history. Emily found those the least boring, anyways. She passed a hallway, and saw a hunched, broad shouldered City Watchman talking to one of the maids. The entire tower staff had been buzzing with the latest rumor. Callista generally didn’t enjoy the spreading of rumors, but she had become curious. The empress’s caregiver slowed down to listen. “I heard something about the Empress, apparently she was seen with some new pets…?” the maid asked. “My brother James told me about it, he works the night shift. Apparently there was this weird dog-sized horse following Empress Emily around, and some sort of weird lizard thing.” The guard leaned in, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial hush. His accented baritone still carried down both ends of the hallway, however. “He said he heard 'em talkin’ to each other.” “Are you sure he wasn’t drunk?” The maid cocked an eyebrow. “Nah, James hasn’t touched a bottle in weeks. A lot of the other guards on night shift were talking about it, too… Well, at least I hope he wasn’t drunk. Who knows? I heard Piero was doing another one of his experiments last night, maybe some sort of nerve gas got out of his workshop and made everyone go crazy.” “Sometimes it feels as if this whole city’s going crazy.” The maid said, shrugging. “Tell me about it,” the broad-shouldered guard concurred, “first the plague, then the assassination, then the war, now this?” “Well, whatever they are, I hope they don’t make a mess. I have enough animals to clean up after as it is.” She said, glaring pointedly at the watchman. “Don’t look at me like that,” the watchman said defensively, “that little plague vermin was askin’ for it, you should be thanking me for having one less rat to worry about.” “You stomped on it in the middle of the grand foyer.” The maid said angrily, “Do you realise how long it takes to get rat blood out of a Serkonan carpet?!” Callista moved on, she had already heard what she wanted, and she wasn’t in any mood to stick around for the impending argument. She continued onward, the clicking of her simple black shoes against the floor only just drowning out the sound of raised voices behind her. It seemed as if everywhere she went, people were chatting about the new rumor of the possibly-sentient animals that Emily had been seen with. Even the elite watchmen who normally stood vigilant at Emily’s door were discussing with each other, their steel masks muffling their voices at a distance. They had the good sense to snap to attention once they noticed her, though. The guardsmen seemed to have an expectant air to them as she approached, no doubt waiting for her to enter and discover if all the rumors had been true. She knocked on the door to Emily’s room, and was surprised to hear the faint sound of laughter coming from within. It wasn’t that she didn’t want the Empress to be happy, but she wondered what the young girl could have found so entertaining. She turned the handle gently, slowly opening the door. Callista was shocked with what she found inside. The first thing she noticed was that the room looked like it had been ransacked, the bed sheets were strewn all over the floor, and the once neatly-organised books were scattered about the room. The second thing she noticed was that Emily had been jumping on the bed, and had a pillow poised over head as if she meant to throw it. That was when the caregiver noticed the small pony and the small lizard, both carrying pillows of their own and staring at her wide-eyed. Eventually Emily broke the awkward silence, slowly setting the pillow back down onto her bed. “I guess an introduction is in order,” the small girl said, sheepishly smoothing out the front of her clothing. “Callista, this is Twilight Sparkle, and Spike. Twilight and Spike, this is Callista, my caregiver.” Callista breathed a barely audible ‘hello’, her hand waving weakly whilst her brain still rebelled against the information her eyes and ears were telling her. “Why was I not made aware of this?” she asked Emily, still keeping her eyes on the two odd creatures. “Oh, it happened last night.” Emily responded, obviously missing her teacher’s stunned look. The young girl finally noticed Callista’s gaze, sweeping worriedly around her wrecked room. “We should probably clean up.” She said to Twilight. The purple unicorn nodded, and she used magic with a nonchalant air, setting the bed, and neatly arranging the books back on the shelf. She smiled at the two humans, only to notice that Emily now bore the same shocked expression as her caregiver. It suddenly dawned on the unicorn that magic didn’t seem anywhere near as common in this world as back home. “Maybe I should explain.” Twilight said. Callista listened intently as Twilight and Spike gave a partial explanation of how they arrived, carefully abridging the parts about the Outsider. When Callista asked ‘why’, Twilight sheepishly explained that she had merely wanted to learn things- anything she could. The slightly dazed caregiver seized this as a drowning survivor of a shipwreck seizes a piece of driftwood. Today’s lesson! “That reminds me,” Callista mentioned, “Emily has a lesson this morning.” Emily’s jaw dropped, her disbelief obvious. “Are you kidding me?” she groaned. The morning lesson went even more slowly than usual, but Twilight enjoyed the opportunity to learn what she could about the world she had come into. The purple unicorn listened intently as Emily and her teacher discussed geography and history, and occasionally asked questions about things she didn’t understand. Her enthusiasm began to diminish as they discussed ‘current politics’, however. “Can you tell me the current political alignment of the Isles?” Callista asked. “Tyvia has ceased direct contact with Gristol, and Morley has declared its independence from the Empire of Isles,” Emily dictated with a recited tone, “Serkonos has stated that they will not break trade with Gristol, but they have not pledged support to either side.” “Can you tell me why?” Callista asked, attempting to stretch the young empress’s mind. Emily seemed thoughtful for a moment. “Serkonos relies on its trade with the other isles.” The child empress speculated, “Serkonan trade ships have always used Dunwall as a resting point before travelling to the other isles; the Serkonan king probably wants to make sure he’ll be on good terms with whoever wins the war. Same goes for Tyvia, I think.” Twilight’s face reflected her confusion. “What’re you talking about?” The small unicorn asked innocently, “I thought you said that all the isles were part of the Empire?” Callista said that she’d let Emily explain the details as her lesson for the day, and would fill in the missing parts. Twilight’s eyes widened in disbelief when she heard that the city was currently locked in a civil war: she was stunned. “But… why?” the purple mare asked, “Why would anypony think that killing solves anything?” “People have been asking that for years,” Callista said knowingly, “nobody has found a clean answer yet.” Emily shrugged, “Some people think that I’m not old enough to rule the Empire. They’re still looking for someone who can snap their fingers and solve all the city’s problems in a flash. Plus I think they’re a bit greedy.” Twilight continued to gaze in disbelief, wondering why anyone would want to hurt the friendly, innocent girl sitting in front of her. Humans were strange indeed. Twilight was getting restless. Not that she didn’t enjoy learning, but she got a sickening feeling in her gut as she listened to the Empress and her caregiver discuss loyalties and motives regarding such a bloody business as war. “Sorry to interrupt,” she asked meekly, “can I go over and visit Piero? I’d like to take another look at that machine of his.” Callista agreed, but insisted that Emily stay to finish her lesson, much to the Empress’s annoyance. Twilight beckoned for Spike to follow her, and tried to remember the way to the inventor's workshop. Spike was getting notably more anxious at the weird looks the guards made at them as they made their way down the halls of the tower. Finally they found the door to the workshop. Twilight tried at the handle. Locked. “Oh, well.” Spike said with poorly feigned disappointment, “We should head back, I’m sure that-” He was silenced by a stern look from his surrogate sister. “One of the guards could have the key,” she reasoned, “we could just ask one of them to let us in.” “No way,” Spike said, fearfully, “I don’t like the way they’re staring at us.” “It’ll be fine.” Twilight assured him. “Just let me do the talking.” She trotted purposefully towards a thin, gaunt watchman in a faded blue cap, patrolling towards them. He started becoming visibly agitated as she approached, his gloved hands fidgeting at his collar nervously as she approached. He eventually just snapped to attention as she came near, or rather, tried to snap to attention. He just made an attempt to stand up straight and leave his arms at his sides; obviously not a natural posture for him. “Hello.” She greeted him. “Eh, agh…” The watchman said, still trying to comprehend the small purple horse. “ Umm. Hullo, miss.” “Could you let us in to the workshop?” She asked politely. “Well, I-I would. But Peiro’s asked not to be disturbed.” The guard informed her in his partly raspy, slightly nasal voice. Spike looked up, his eyes filling with hope. “Piero knows me, I’m sure he’d make an exception.” Twilight reasoned. Spike slumped. The guard guessed that she wouldn’t leave him alone until he complied. His eyes twitched back and forth, making sure nobody was passing the adjoining hallway. “Fine.” He fumbled with his ring of keys and unlocked the door. “Promise you won’t tell anyone. I’d lose my stripes if the Captain heard about this.” Still checking the hallway, the guard ushered them in to the workshop, and closed the door behind them, quickly returning to his patrol rounds. Twilight glanced around, only now fully appreciating how spacious the inventor’s working space was. "Hello?" Twilight called, her voice echoing around the metal grate floors. There was the sound of footsteps echoing, and the Philosopher slid down a ladder from the maze of catwalks above. "Ah, you're back." Piero said with genuine enthusiasm. He set up a folding table, and offered them a pair of grease-spattered folding chairs. Within a few minutes of conversation Twilight and Piero both discovered that they had a similar trait: The pursuit of knowledge. Piero’s breakfast was delivered to the door while they talked, and he agreed to share a portion of his morning meal with the curious unicorn. A short period of examining Spike’s diet proved that he could digest Tyvian ore: a type of malleable stone filled with deposits of fractured precious stones. "How does it work, anyway?" Twilight asked, motioning to the machine set up, pointed at the melted bricks in the side of the room. "Ah, it's quite simple, really. Deceptively so." He began, "It runs on whale oil." Twilight nodded, but her color drained slightly. She remembered the subsection in the rune-maker's guide. Oil extracted from whales could be refined into a highly-combustible substance. A single whale could make drums full of the combustible liquid, said the book. Piero continued to elaborate on the invention that helped bring her here. "Through the dissolution of a few choice materials, I was able to chemically modify the oil to be extremely electrically conductive. I hypothesized that by saturating the surface with the modified oil, then sending an electrical current through it, it would open a rift to the beyond. I was having trouble fine-tuning the timing of the mechanism, however, one second off-" "-and it would've exploded, wouldn't it?" Twilight finished. "Exactly!" Piero exclaimed, "However, considering the overwhelming results from the first use, I guess I was being too cautious." Spike took this moment to speak. "Will you be able to send us back?" He realized he was sounding needy by now, but the Outsider's warning had been nagging him since he first came through here. I can send you there with ease, but you may not return with the same ease. Piero adjusted his spectacles, doing the calculations in his head. "It will take some time for me to re-acquire the appropriate materials, but once done the machine should operate with the same efficiency as it did the first time. If I start now, I should be able to get the appropriate items in a day or two." Spike relaxed, a day or two wasn't so bad. Nothing much could happen in Equestria during that time, could it? A polite knocking could be heard at the door. Piero adjusted his glasses again, he judged that by the part of the door the knocking was coming from, it was a child. He guessed it was Emily, looking for her guests. "I believe that is Empress Kaldwin, no doubt inquiring after you." Piero said, rising from his chair, "And now, I think I should return to my work. It was nice to meet you formally, Twilight Sparkle. And you, Spike." He gave a polite bow to both of them. Spike had absolutely no idea how the philosopher knew the knocking was for them, but he opened the door. Like Piero had predicted, there stood Emily, smiling at him, with her arms crossed behind her back. "Hi." she offered to the purple dragon, "I finished my lessons... and I was wondering if you and Twilight and wanted to have a tour of Dunwall Tower?" "Thanks, I'd love to." Twilight accepted, drawing up behind Spike. *** Their tour started with the courtyard, seeing as Twilight and Spike didn't have the pleasure of entering Dunwall Tower the conventional way. As soon as they exited the front doors, Twilight saw something entirely new to her. Striding amongst the gardens outside was a human atop a massive, intimidating contraption. From a creative view, its giant double-jointed steel stilts with their claw-like feet made it akin to some sort of giant heron or an egret- stalking the gardens for prey. Emily must have seen the way Twilight was staring at the stilt walker, because the young empress started off directly towards the towering stilts. Twilight briefly considered staying in the shadow of the tall marble doorway, but she followed anyways. Emily ran up until she was directly next to one of the feet of the giant walker, and began jumping up and down, waving her arms over her head at the man up above on the stilts. The hulking figure atop the stilts noticed her, and craned his head around to see what she wanted. Emily cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hello up there!" she called, by this time Twilight and Spike had caught up, and were sticking very close to the Empress, still fearful of the giant stilt-contraption. "How's the weather up there?" Emily knew that the tallboys normally swallowed a chemical concoction before their patrols to make them devoid of pain or remorse whilst in combat. At the most, he’d just look at her funny, and move on. To her elation, the figure atop the stilts waved at her, and slung his compound bow over his shoulder. “’Tis a fair wind up blowing in from Wrenhaven river, if a bit putrid in smell.” the armoured figure called down to her. “How does the wind treat to you down there, fair empress?” “It’s much nicer down here.” Emily said, “The flowers probably see to that.” “Perhaps I’ll come back through here on my own legs,” The Tallboy chortled, “after I’m done my patrol rounds.” “Of course,” Emily said, straightening up in a mock salute, “As you were, guardsman.” The Tallboy saluted, and continued onward in earth-shaking strides. Emily turned to Twilight and Spike. “See?” She reasoned, “They’re a bit scary when you first see them, but they’re not so bad.” The tour went on for the better part of the day, with Twilight and Emily talking about everything and anything that came to mind. The purple unicorn noticed that Emily had a particular infatuation with stories- tales of adventure and battles on the high seas. Eventually Twilight asked for a notebook, and soon Spike was scribbling down every tidbit of information that was overheard. Between Emily introducing her new guests to every guard they passed, a lengthy lunch, and the tour, noon crept up with surprising alacrity. Twilight noticed that her tour was pointedly avoiding a small marble pavilion overlooking the nearby river. “Could we see what’s up there?” The purple mare asked, pointing to the simple, yet elegant structure. Emily appeared to have a moment of indecision, struggling with her thoughts. She finally agreed, but Twilight noticed that the Emily looked more and more worried as they approached. It seemed as they made their way up the cobbled path, that her face was losing its colour, making her quite pale. Finally the young empress stopped in her tracks. “You go on ahead.” She suddenly blurted out, “I’ll stay here, if that’s alright with you.” Twilight nodded, cautiously, and Spike followed her up the rest of the way, partially wondering what could scare the girl who stood up to the stilt walker. The pavilion offered a beautiful view of the city, and was rather plain on the interior. Twilight ascended the short staircase to find Corvo, leaning on a carved guardrail and looking out over the vista. He turned his head slightly towards them, acknowledging their presence. “I see Emily elected not to come up here?” He asked. “Yes…” Twilight replied, deep in thought. “Is there something wrong with this place?” Spike asked, “Emily looked afraid of something.” “It’s the memories.” Corvo said, turning to face them. “Something terrible happened here, a long time ago. Some people still get chills coming through here.” Twilight thought better than to ask what, but morbid curiosity got the better of her. “What happened?” Corvo’s eyes misted over as he recalled what happened on that cursed day. He let the memories play in front of his eyes like a recording, simply conveying what he remembered seeing. *** Corvo’s eyes twitched about. A trio of assassins had attacked him, seeming to appear from the Void itself. Corvo had fulfilled his duty as Lord Protector admirably- their corpses had disappeared with the same subtlety as the mysterious assailants had entered. He turned back to Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, and her daughter, Emily, checking to make sure they were safe. Emily ran forward and hugged him, her breath ragged. Corvo returned the embrace, relieved that she was safe. Empress Jessamine merely nodded to him, and took a deep breath, regaining her composure. “Corvo, thank you. If you hadn’t been here…” She started. Another duo of assassins sublimated into existence, mere inches away this time. Corvo tried to draw his sword but one of the assassins simply raised a hand at him, and the bodyguard felt himself getting hoisted into the air, being held in place by an eldritch energy being projected from the masked killer. A second assassin, clothed in a dark red, stormed towards Jessamine. In an attempt to protect her daughter, the Empress tried to push the assassin, checking his advance only slightly. In response he slapped her, knocking her away with a strong backhand. He advanced towards her, and grasped her graceful neck, pushing her against the guardrail. Jessamine reached a hand toward her bodyguard, desperately hoping he could find some way to save her. “Corvo-!” The red-cloaking assassin plunged his blade into Jessamine’s gut, sinking it to the hilt before drawing it out in a spray of blood. The assassin changed his grip on the Empress’s neck, crudely tossing her body onto the cold marble floor. Emily screamed, the poor child had seen the bloody deed. The masked assailant who had been keeping Corvo immobilized changed his footing, using his free hand to snatch Emily as she tried to run. Gripping the squirming child, the assassin disappeared, letting Corvo fall to the ground with a dull thud. The killer in red glanced at Corvo, but merely turned away, vanishing along with his accomplice. Corvo remembered the feeling of blind panic as he rushed over to Jessamine’s side. His beloved Empress, once so graceful and composed, now lay in a growing pool of her own blood, unmoving as her wound created red blossoms on the white marble. He rolled the Empress onto her back, and held her in his arms. Jessamine's eyes fought to stay open, holding onto life by a thread. “Corvo… it’s all… coming apart.” She sputtered in a mixture of pain and distress, “Find… find Emily.” Jessamine coughed, her mouth filling with blood, “Protect her. You’re the only one… you’ll know what to do. Won’t you…? Corvo…” The Empress’s eyes flickered, and her body went limp in Corvo’s arms. The bodyguard sat petrified, cradling Jessamine in his arms while his pulse throbbed in his ears and his throat constricted as a feeling of helplessness washed over him. He heard footsteps; obviously the rest of the guards had finally shown up. The Royal Spymaster was with them. “Ward us all, look at what he’s done!” “Yes! He’s killed the Empress…! What did you do with young lady Emily, traitor?” The Spymaster declared with a suspiciously dramatized bravado. “Her own bodyguard, ironic.” “I’ll see you beheaded for this, Corvo! Take him.” Corvo remembered one of the guards swinging the pommel of their sword at his face, and all went to dark. *** Corvo sighed, running a hand through his coarse hair. All at once, he appeared to grow older, as if he had put on a few years in the time he spent to provide a small glimpse of his blood-steeped past. “So what happened next?” Spike asked, “I mean, things are okay now, right?” Corvo gave a small chuckle. “For the given value of ‘okay’.” He replied, darkly. The bodyguard noticed that his shadow extended farther in front of him than it had before. “It’s getting late, you should probably be going inside.” Once again, Twilight was lost deep in thought. She had newfound respect for the young empress. The purple mare was trying to imagine what it would be like losing anybody so close to her, let alone a parent. She couldn’t begin to imagine the emotional pain. And someone like Emily- she couldn’t be older than a decade. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were about that old themselves- how would one of them cope with losing their parents at that age? She was shaken out of her thoughts as they caught sight of Emily, standing awkwardly near the path to the pavilion. She perked up slightly when she noticed them coming back down the walkway, ushered by her bodyguard. “Did you like the view?” She asked meekly. “It was nice.” Twilight responded. The mare wished there were some way she could reach out to the young girl. Some way to tell her that she doesn’t have to suffer alone, but Twilight had no idea what to say or do. Spike felt a familiar rumbling in his stomach. “Twi?” He asked, “I think there’s mail.” “Really?” Twilight asked, confused, “Let’s read it, then.” Spike promptly created the scroll with a burst of flame, and heard a metallic clinking noise behind him. “Corvo.” Emily said with disapproval. The ex-assassin had produced his folding blade and had leveled it at the back of Spike’s head. “Sorry.” The bodyguard said, seeming to remember himself. “Merely reflex.” He twirled the blade around in his hand, the blade retracting back into the handle as he put it away again. Spike gulped, and handed the scroll to Twilight. The small group waited patiently as she read it. “So, what does it say?” Spike asked. “It’s from Princess Celestia.” Twilight said thoughtfully. “She wants me to come back to Equestria, she says everypony’s worried about me.” “Princess Celestia?” Corvo asked skeptically. “She’s the goddess of Equestria.” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “Well, could you write her back?” Emily asked. “I think so.” Twilight said. “In any case, we should get inside.” Corvo mentioned, “Supper is in a few minutes, and the guards tend to get edgy around now.” *** Most of the evening went by without much of a hitch. Twilight learned readily as Callista gave a lesson on sums. Twilight had completely forgotten about her intention to ask Corvo about his hand. By the time she remembered, he was nowhere to be seen, almost as if he had vanished. Within what felt like no time they were back in Emily’s room. Twilight tried to write a reply to Celestia’s letter by candlelight. Three crumpled up drafts later, Twilight decided she’d put off on replying for now. What was she supposed to write? That she’d rather stay longer? The purple mare didn’t want to face the scorn of the Princess. She decided that she would merely return when she was able, and then she’d be able to go back to her old life in Equestria without too much conflict. Twilight hopped down from the small cedar desk. By now Spike had already curled up, and was fast asleep. Emily, however, seemed deep in thought. The child empress sat on her bed, idly swinging her feet while her eyes seemed fixated on some distant point. Twilight could guess what the poor girl was thinking about. The unicorn hopped up onto the bed, and sat down beside Emily. “Hey.” Twilight greeted quietly. “Hi.” Emily said back. Another moment passed in silence. “I guess Corvo told you… about the pavilion?” Emily asked, her head turning slightly toward the small pony. Twilight nodded. She reached out a hoof, rubbing it against Emily’s back in an attempt to comfort her. The young girl’s gaze returned to an empty space a foot away from the bed, her eyes misting over. “Do you miss her?” Twilight asked. She immediately regretted asking that. Of course she missed her mother, who wouldn’t? “Yes.” Emily responded, “Every day.” The young empress unclasped her hands from between her knees and started rubbing her upper arm. “Sometimes I wish she were here.” Emily continued, “Mother always knew what to do.” Twilight noticed the way Emily’s eyes started puffing up. Emily clenched her eyes, but a few tears escaped the confine of her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. The unicorn immediately sidled closer to the empress, and nuzzled her tenderly. Emily gave a faltering smile, and gave the purple unicorn a small hug, thankful for having a friend to lean on. Twilight returned the embrace, sitting in amiable silence with Emily. Eventually the candle on the desk began to flicker, having burnt itself to the stump. Emily broke the embrace, lifting the palm of her hand to wipe away the tears. Her eyes were still puffy and red, but Twilight noticed a change in the young empress. It seemed that Emily had, at least momentarily, regained some innocence. Eventually Emily muttered a small ‘thanks’, and they crawled under the covers of the bed, a mercifully dreamless sleep coming over them.