//------------------------------// // Old Grudges // Story: Purity // by LightStriker //------------------------------// Rarity took a step back. "Thanks?" She asked in a dangerously soft tone. "Why would you thanks anypony, you monster!" she screamed while moving forward. To her surprise Blueblood, still on his side, tried to move away from her. His legs, however, were jerking convulsively, each motion useless and wasted. "Why?" She shouted at a mere hoof from his face. The Prince tried to hide himself from the white fury, hoping to disappear behind his forelegs. "For... for freeing me," he said softly. Had Rarity not been so close, no doubt she wouldn't have heard that. The white mare, stunned by the answer simply sat down on the spot without ceremony. It was a trick, it had to be. But Blueblood didn't sound like the jerk he was at the gala or the monster that tried to kill them moments ago. He acted like a frightened colt, reminding Rarity a lot of Sweetie Bell when the fashionista would be mad at her and scream because she had once again destroyed something in her shop. She tried to shake the idea away; it had to be an act! He had to be the best actor in Equestria, since he managed to stay around Princess Celestia for so long without anypony knowing his dark secrets. Was the fear in his eyes fake or was it only because he had been defeated? "Explain," Rarity cringed in between her teeth. "I... I found these caves a... a long time ago," he said without lifting his head off the floor. "Twenty, twenty-five years? I was just a colt. There's a room deeper in the mountain, it... there is a trap for unicorns. Some... somepony sealed his... mind or something in there a very long time ago. I think... I think it used my horn to control me," he said while pointing at his severed horn. Rarity frowned at the story; it had to be the weakest excuse she ever heard of. "You can't seriously think I would believe that?" The Prince looked at the stone floor, his eyes showed a deep sadness. Rarity had some troubles to think it was fake. "N... no... Probably not. But it's the truth," he said in a breath. "It wasn't me... at the gala, or... or just a moment ago, or... or for most of my life," he finished in a whisper. "Who?" Rarity managed to ask. "I... I don't know," he replied. "I just know he was some... somepony of importance a long time ago. That... that he hated Celestia more than anything." The white mare stayed there for a long time, thinking of the courses of action, her sight never leaving the stallion on the ground. Blueblood didn't try to stand up; his apparent lack of control over his legs wouldn't allow him to attempt anything. She could try to carry Twilight and escape the caves, but she had no idea how to find her way through the labyrinth of tunnels. As long as her friend was out cold, there was no chance to be able to teleport outside. The Prince could find his way out, but she didn't trust him with that kind of task; he could lead them into a trap. Rarity sighed, disappointed by her inability to come up with a solution. "Azure!" she shouted always keeping her eyes on the Prince. "Honey, I wouldn't mind if you had some idea on how to get us out of here." The silence of the heart of the mountain was the only answer. Worried, Rarity finally looked over her shoulder, only to find Twilight lying on her side, snoring softly; there was no sign of the blue filly. "Azure!" she screamed but no answer came back. "What have you done to her?" she hissed at the wounded prince. "N-n-n-n-nothing!" he answered while cowering behind his forelegs. It hit Rarity, the young filly must have heard Blueblood's story and probably went exploring the dark corridors. "Seriously! She's like Sweetie Bell!" she said while sprinting towards the door at the opposite side of the room. "I never was that careless when I was her age!" "Don't!" Blueblood barked in fear, but Rarity didn't stopped. "If he takes control of your body, you will become a danger for her!" Logic finally kicked into gear in Rarity's head and she stopped just in front of the dark passage. What if he was right, she couldn't take that chance. She stomped on the ground as hard as she could with her front hooves; cursing her powerlessness once again. "Twilight!" she said while walking towards her sleeping friend. She sat down beside her. "When you wake up, you will teach me and I will learn." Azure walked down the dark corridors surprised to be able to see her way. Somehow, the walls were lighted up just enough for her to see a few hooves ahead. However, she was unable to find any source of illumination. She could feel a faint trace of magic ahead and from the Prince's story she had no doubt it was that magical trap. She had left Rarity behind because she decided that she was the only logical choice. She had no horn, so this magical trap shouldn't affect her, right? At least it made some sense: a unicorn's horn was a magical conduit which allowed magic to go out just as well as flow in. Hopefully she could physically destroy whatever was holding the spell to allow the magic to disperse itself without affecting another unicorn. After all, she learned a while ago it was easier to apologize than ask for permission. Grown-up always assumed she couldn't do anything right. Truth was it was mostly curiosity that got her going. In all her study she never heard about this kind of spell and even while thinking about it she couldn't come up with a way to replicate this kind of effects. Obviously it wasn't just a simply trap that would turn a pony into a mindless drone as anypony would have spotted Blueblood. Something had to be alive in some way to be able to plot and gives orders. The Prince said somepony sealed its mind, but that subject wasn't discussed in any of the magical tomes she had read. Walking deeper into the mountain, for what felt like ten or twenty minutes, she reached a circular room with a large bowl of stone in the middle. Surprisingly, it looked like there was a mirror in it. As she entered the room, a light field of energy wrapped around her head. Shocked, she jumped back out of the room. The energy slowly faded away. If it wasn't for the light show it produced, she would have never noticed the field that tried to grab her. He moved her legs and head around, verifying that she still had control over her own body. She smiled; she was right, without a horn to channel that spell in, it had no way to take control of her. She walked back to the entrance of the room; a stone arch was engraved with old runes. She put a hoof forward under the arch and the field reappeared, trying to grab her appendage. She watched the bluish energy fly around her hoof harmlessly. If her fur hadn't waved in rhythm to the energy pulses, she wouldn't have feel a thing. That spell was unlike anything she saw before; it was obviously crafted by a master unlike any she encountered before. She wondered for a second if the princesses could perform one like this. After a while watching it, she heard it; a small whisper in her mind. It was trying to take control. The voice was obviously angry for losing its last puppet and even more by its inability to seize the new comer. She stepped forward and entered the room, the field fully wrapped around her. As she came closer to the middle of the room, she could finally see that the mirror was in fact a liquid that was glowing faintly of the same color as the energy field. Upon closer examination, she noticed that the field originated from the bowl itself. Even after seeing the spell's container, she still couldn't postulate on the spell's structure; it was at a level beyond anything she had learned so far. She wanted to take her time and examine it, but she didn't have this luxury. At some point, Rarity would start to look for her, but the unicorn's rage was the last thing Azure was concerned about. If she entered here, Azure had no doubt the spell would take hold of her. She could hear that voice raging at its inability to control her. She didn't like it, but she had to destroy it. Who knew what Blueblood had been forced to do. She turned around and placed herself at kicking distance of the bowl. She might be a bookworm, but she lived on a farm for almost all her short life. She looked back; no, the stone wouldn't offer much of a challenge for a good bucking. She took a deep breath and kicked as her as she could. The stone broke easily, the gooey liquid spilled out of it's bowl. Azure looked around, there was nothing but darkness. She could swear she was still standing up but she couldn't feel anything under her hooves. The last thing she remembered was the strange liquid touching her. Her heart skipped a bit; maybe she was wrong, maybe the liquid was the trap! She shook her head, she didn't remember losing consciousness and she was pretty sure she could still feel and control her body. Maybe whatever spell was lighting up the cavern was broken the moment she destroyed the bowl? No, something felt odd, as if this place didn't exist. "Defeated by a filly, what a shame," said a voice all around her. It was the same as the whisper that was raging against her but now she could clearly hear it. "I should have been more careful." Azure looked around but there was still nothing. "Who are you?" A dark purple stallion appeared in front of her; it was a unicorn with a short but sharp horn. He was smaller than most stallions Azure met, if only slightly taller than a mare. His silver mane was brushed back. His left eye was completely white, an obvious result of the large scar that started on top of his head, passed on his eye and finished down on his jaw. "You can call me Constellation," he said with a proud tone. "You're the one who made that mind control spell? Why?" the filly asked, surprised the stallion didn't look like any monster and was much smaller than she imagined. Constellation moved forwards without moving his legs. "And why would I tell you anything? You're just a stupid earth pony," he spat out. "The stupid earth pony defeated you," she replied louder than she wanted, half afraid and half proud. "I think I can talk to you because I came in contact with that fluid. The bowl is broken, this... this reality won't last long," she said softly, analyzing the recent events as she talked. "You're dying," she finished in a whisper. He frowned, somewhat surprised at the accurate analyze. "Whatever," he growled. He turned around and the darkness rippled out, leaving the two ponies in a large room. For the first time Azure could see his cutie mark, an arc of stars similar to a cloudless night. Azure looked around, surprised to remember that room too well; it was the exam room used for the entrance examination to Celestia's school. In a childish fear, she looked up the room and yes, there was four teachers looking down on her. Or actually, they were looking pass her. She looked back and found a much younger version of Constellation standing in the middle of the room. Beside the colt was standing his older version. "A prodigy," he said while looking at his younger self with pride. "That's what they called me. Or genius. I solved and answered all their lame tests; it wasn't even a challenge. Even their so call impossible test was no match for my talent." The surrounding rippled again and the colt was in front of a class of other ponies, explaining something Azure couldn't hear as a chalk was drawing madly on the board. "Within two years, I was decades ahead of most teachers in this school," Constellation said while staring at a white mare that was captivated by the formulas taking shapes on the chalkboard. "There's a mistake in the third formula," Azure whispered. "The equation isn't balanced." Constellation turned around in rage, staring at the insolent filly who shrunk on herself. After a moment, he looked at the board and slowly a smile crept on his face. "Yes, but no teachers could even understand it," he said in a chuckle. He raised an eyebrow and throw a glance at Azure. "You're Luna's student, right? I guess I had the wrong teacher." Space rippled once more and the two ponies found themselves in a room of Canterlot castle. Celestia was there, standing in front of a slightly older Constellation that was reading a large tome full of complex formulas. "She took me under her wing; became my private teacher. The Queen teaching a young pony, it was unheard of." He took a deep breath. "But even her... After four years under her tutelage, I had surpassed her in all magic topics." Another change of scenery happened and Azure found herself in the throne room, as Celestia was slowly lowering a sword on an adult Constellation. The sword hit his shoulder and the princess repeated the process a few times as she spoke some official ritual that Azure couldn't hear. His robes displayed clearly his status as archmage of Equestria. "Seventeen years old; I was the youngest archmage, and even today nopony managed to do better." He hit the marble floor with his right forehoof, but no sound came from this ethereal memory. "And then it came, her first order; to research a specific field of magic, one that nopony ever had any success before; time travel." He faced Azure with a large but fake smile. "I was delighted! Finally a challenge at my level! Something nopony else ever did!" he shouted as he hit his chest with a his hoof. "Obviously, the Queen wanted such magic to bring a new era of prosperity to Equestria! It was for the better of everypony, to make our country better!" Azure found herself in the middle of an old magic laboratory. A now much older Constellation was writing a formula on a huge chalkboard, but this time the filly couldn't understand its meaning; it was beyond anything she learned so far. "Two decades, it's the time it took me to come up with the unified time equation," said Constellation while standing beside the board. A white unicorn mare in golden armor walked up to the magician and hugged him. "Aurora, my wife," he said softly. Azure could swear she saw a tear at the corner of the ethereal Constellation's intact eye, but he looked away before she could be sure. "If my work was owning my brain, she fully owned my heart," he explained softly. "There was no mare like her. She was one of Celestia's guard, but she could challenge me on my theories. I never understood why she didn't use more of her intellect. She could have taught in any college, those lazy teachers would have been no match for her. She could have been an archmage with little effort." He looked down. "But she always said she enjoyed her work as much as I did mine; guarding the Queen." Celestia entered the room and walked up to the couple, her eyes fixed on the board. "My Queen was happy, I had succeed in the task she gave me. And at that moment, I was happy too," he explained with obvious tone of sarcasm. An argument broke out between the archmage and Celestia. Once again, Azure couldn't hear anything of the discussion. "She didn't only want to travel back in time, she wanted to go back centuries in the past," he explained. "I argued that for such a long... distance in time, it would require more raw magic that even her possessed." For a moment, Azure thought she was back in the darkness as all lights faded away. Her eyes slowly got used to it and noticed she was back in the cavern where Twilight fought Blueblood. However, the walls appeared as if they were newly constructed and the floor was clean. Torches arranged around the columns were faintly lighting the large room. In the middle, a huge metallic contraption was taking most of the available space. At the heart of the device lied a large sphere of crystal. It was pulsing as numerous stream of golden energy were flying chaotically within it. "This was my solution; it was brilliant!" Constellation said while staring at the machine. "An accumulator. Any unicorn could use it to store magic. In the end, that unicorn could use it to cast a spell that would require far more power then what this unicorn could provide. My biggest success, my worse failure." Celestia came out of the shadows and inserted her horn in the device. Her horn glowed brightly for a moment. "For almost a decade, every weeks, she came here to put some of her magic in it. There was numerous safety, of course; only her could use the stored magic." The ethereal Constellation walked up to the device and pointed at a blinking light. "That day, it was full. There was enough magic in it for Celestia to do her little time travel," he spat out. The Queen smiled at the two unicorns also present in the room; Constellation and Aurora. She pointed at the blinking light and the archmage nodded back. She moved around and inserted her horn in the device once again. She closed her eyes and started to cast a spell. Almost immediately, a small tornado whipped up around her and accelerated as she drained magic from the accumulator to stream it to the spell. As the tornado started to fully envelope the Queen, a crack appear on the surface of the crystal sphere. The archmage noticed it right away and ran to Celestia, screaming. Azure couldn't hear anything, but the fear on the Constellation's face was obvious. It was too late, the Queen vanished in a flash, but at the same moment, the sphere of crystal shattered violently sending bolts of golden energy around. The energies exploded columns of stone, burned the floor and melted the delicate mechanism of the device. One shard of crystal flew towards Constellation and stroke his face, slicing in his left eye. He collapsed on the floor, but managed to turn around and scream at Aurora. Azure didn't need to hear it to know he was begging her to flee. The armored mare turn around and was about to sprint out when a stream of magic sweep across her. For a moment, she looked like she was about to scream but she disappeared in an explosion of golden dust. Constellation lost consciousness. Azure was back in the void, shocked by the experience. "When I woke up, I was in a bed in an hospital," Constellation explained behind her. "The Queen came back from her little travel just fine. However, nothing had changed. No rewriting the history, she had failed whatever task she wanted to perform," he cringed. "Worse, I managed to learn at what time she traveled; it wasn't for the country, it was a personal matter!" he screamed. "The Queen," he said with hatred. "she locked herself in her apartment for almost two years, talking to no one. Her servants said she was sad," he explained with an ironic tone. "I spent over thirty years of my life for her and I was rewarded with a locked door and a dead wife!" "No one could replace Aurora, no one," he raged in front of Azure. "And that ageless Queen of ours, she sure wasn't helping. Why would she? What are we to her? She saw countless ponies die throughout history, what is one more mare?" Azure recoiled back at the display of such strong emotions. "They found me. They have no names, but for their goals, names are not needed. They explained, they showed me the history as it really is, not as we are taught in school. Our divine Queen is wise," he snorted, "but her wisdom came from millennia of trial and error at our expense. We even called her Goddess at some point. She started numerous conflict with other countries. One of them almost wiped out ponykind completely!" He moved his face in at a hoof distance of Azure's. "My wife was simply the latest victim in a very long list that history simply forgot," he whispered with a dangerous smile. "The Queen never apologized, never cared about what happened." He stood back up and looked down on her. "I accepted what that group told me; the Queen had to be removed. And the only way to get rid of a leader that ages has no grasp on is to kill her. She should have been killed centuries ago, but they never managed to do it; she was simply too powerful for them." "So, it's about vengeance?" Azure asked softly. "Vengeance!" he screamed at her. "It's only a small part! Vengeance is a motivator, not a reason. We have to control our own destiny and not leave it at the hooves of a leader who simply doesn't care. One who locked herself up for two years, leaving the country on its own. One who spend fortunes on research for her own personal reasons." Constellation took a few deep breath. "It wasn't that hard; I only had to eliminate Celestia." The darkness faded away, replaced by the royal library. Time was frozen as books were burning. Windows were shattered, desks were broken. In the middle, Constellation was standing up, his horn glowing brightly. At his hooves, Celestia was lying on her side, her horn burned and cracked. "It wasn't even hard. I had expected much more challenge from a being of millennium of experience," he said while looking at the hurt form of the Queen. "But she's never been very bright; always leaving other do the job for her and when she fight, it's without subtlety. With her, it's all about brute force, and if that fails, she has no idea what to do." He glanced at Azure. "In retrospective, I had much more trouble with Twilight then with Celestia." He stepped back. "It was all done," he said while pointing at the defenceless leader. Time slowly resumed its course and as the archmage was about to cast the killing blow, a royal blue unicorn jumped in front of his target and create a force field around him and Celestia. Time stopped once again. "Brilliant Shield... One of the Twilight's family. What a fool." Constellation cast his spell; a sharp lance of purple energy flew towards his target. The force field didn't even slow the spell down; it shattered as soon as the tip touched it. The offensive spell entered the unicorn's body and vaporized every cell at a molecular level. The soldier didn't have time to scream or react, in a second he was gone. But the damage was done, as Constellation was readying himself to cast the spell once again, an arrow appeared on his flank. Then a second and a third; the time gained by the soldier had been enough for other guards to come to Celestia's rescue. Seeing he wouldn't have time to prepare his attack, he charged up a much quicker spell. In a flash the archmage was gone, teleported away. Back in the void, Azure was staring at her hooves. She knew the history of Equestria wasn't pretty, but she never expected something like that. "So now you know," Constellation simply said. "Those arrows were enough to kill me. I never really took time to learn healing magic. I would die three days after that, but not before I managed to seal my soul in those caves." "I... I don't understand," Azure replied. "Why did you try to kill me?" The purple stallion laughed. "You? I don't care about you. If Blueblood had a third of the power I used to have, I would have attacked Celestia directly. I'm sure you know what happened to Luna a thousand years ago. Killing you might very well be enough to push her over the edge. A combat between the two princesses would weaken them both enough for us to make our move and eliminate them both." He shrugged. "For the simple mind of the group, you, an earth pony, learning magic was a powerful motivator, not a reason. For them, such preposterous act must not be left unpunished. For me, I couldn't care less; my targets are the princesses. It's the same thing with Twilight and her family; they are close enough to Celestia to push her to make mistakes." "Did... did you ever talked to Celestia after... after you wife died?" Azure asked softly. He stared at her. "You've been Luna's student for six month. Tell me, in all that time, what have you learned of the princesses?" She looked away, unable to look at his eyes. "I... I don't know." "Nothing!" he shouted. "After three decades at Celestia's side, I knew nothing of her, of her past, her history or her feelings. I tried to talk to her but she refused to answer. They lead us, but they aren't part of our society. They are detached, distant from us. They let others do the job and watch. They let other ponies die for them," he finished in a whisper. "I could have accepted her apologizes, but they never came. She was in her world, in whatever events she tried to prevent in the past. She didn't care about what was happening around her. Some ponies could say that something good came out of it; she stepped down of the title of Queen and created the high council. But it's obvious that the council members are only her puppets," he explained. The void shook as if an earthquake was happening. Behind Constellation, the darkness fractured, letting flow in a bright light. Azure had to look away as the light was painful, but the stallion appeared to be drawn to it. "I guess I cheated death long enough; no escape this time," he said disappointed. The cracks widened enough for him to pass. He started to walk towards it, but stop and looked behind. "Good luck little one, you will need it. Our society isn't ready to accept an earth pony magician, but... but there's always a beginning to everything." He did a few more steps and stopped again. He sighed loudly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry of what I did to you and Twilight," he said without looking back. "You were the only ones I could reach that would hurt them." He looked up in the void, as if he could see a starry night. "Part of me is happy you managed to stop me." The moment Constellation stepped in the light, Azure found herself back in the cavern, her hooves wet from the liquid. The bowl was broken and no fluid was left in it. She started to walk back to the main chamber, her head low. They had won, but her heart wasn't happy. She had no idea how to handle the mass of information she just received.