//------------------------------//
// Talks 
// Story: The Abundance 
// by defender2222 
//------------------------------//

"A demon can get into real trouble, doing the right thing."

— Crowley, Good Omens





"Where is she now?" Clyde asked coolly. 

Twilight despised his tone but thought better than to call him out on it. She needed the heads of the rebellion's support if she were going to convince the majority of the ponies in the hideout to hear her out. She wasn’t going to be able to get away with flashing some wing and having them fall to their knees, begging for help. It might have… if it weren’t a queen she was trying to get them to accept.

So, instead of rolling her eyes or snapping back, Twilight merely gave him a level stare and stated, "A half mile away secured with my magic. She suggested that, by the way, as a show of good faith."

"That does little to ease our discomfort," Whisper Wind stated, shaking his head. "You have to understand where we are coming from."

"I do, I really do," Twilight said. "I get it... my friends have destroyed Equestria. No pony is denying that, not even Rainbow Dash. I wanted to push the blame to the abstract but Dash wouldn't hear of it. She wanted to take the blame because she is guilty. But it is not all her fault!" Twilight turned, gesturing for the others to hear her out. "Rainbow Dash was driven to do what she did by the same entities that have also turned the rest of my friends into the queens: The Elements of Harmony."

"I find it hard to believe that the Elements could do this," one of the former royal guards said. "The Elements have always been tools for peace."

"But it makes sense, doesn't it?" The Doctor interjected. "What other force out there would be so concerned with harmony than the Elements?"

Celestia clanged her hoof against the ground, drawing all attention to her. The ponies looked over at her, still startled by the fact that they didn’t need to crane their necks to look her in the eye. "You all must understand that it is not the Elements that are the problem; the Elements are merely necklaces and jewelry that are worn by the bearers. It is the abstracts that lend their strength to the Elements and the bearers that now cause the strife in the kingdom."

"I'm still not for sure I believe that there are such things as 'abstracts'," Clyde stated, chewing on his straw stalk in agitation.

"Believe it, good farmer," Luna told him. She looked at the others and they were surprised to find that though her powers had been taken and her sized diminished Luna still had the ability to hold their attention. "The abstracts have played a role in the fate of Equestria for the last thousand years. It was the aid of six that allowed my sister and I to defeat Discord: Honestly, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness and Faith." Several opened their mouths to question the existence of ‘Faith’ but a cold look from Luna kept their mouths shut.

"And it was my failure in trying to hide the achievements of one that led to the fall of the final abstract and turned Faith into Doubt." Celestia shut her eyes; even after all they had gone through, her shame in her part in the corruption of the abstract still weighed heavily upon her.

"It was Faith, before he truly fell, who helped me... and gave me the power to become Nightmare Moon. His removal from the battle allowed my dear sister to banish me."

Twilight nodded. "Faith, when he was Doubt, traveled the world and created many of the greatest heroes and villains. Our lives would be so much more different if he had not been here."

"While that is well and good," Whisper said, "i don't understand the point of this history lesson."

"Those that fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it," Shining said softly. His voice grew stronger as he spoke. "Faith was merely one abstract and the youngest of the 6. According to what he told Twilight, he had little knowledge about his powers when he became trapped in Equestria… he wasn’t even for sure how to return to his own… well, for lack of a better word… world. And yet he still managed to do so much… I don't want to consider what older abstracts might be able to do."

"My friends are in the control of four immortal beings... and there is a 5th that we managed to purge from Rainbow Dash that is in the wind." Twilight began to pace. "So far, all of you have been reacting to the actions of the queens. Now we have a pony that was in their confidence and knows what they had planned. Rainbow Dash has information, locations and strategies... we'd be foolish not to utilize it!"

"Twilight, it is easy for you to say that... you have the power to face the queens. You can't be threatened by them or bullied," Whisper Wing gestured towards the rest of the rebellion. "But all of us? There is nothing we could do to stop a queen. Even if your friend Rainbow Dash has been cured she is still an alicorn... she still has the power to destroy us. How can we ever believe that we can talk to her... be in the same room as her... and not be threatened?"

"Well, you are doing it right now," Twilight said, her image shimmering. In her place stood Rainbow Dash, who fought every urge to smirk. The rebels squawked but before they could act the air beside Rainbow rippled and Twilight revealed herself to them.

"I'm sorry... but we had to do something drastic," Twilight stated. "Rainbow was able to walk right in here and none of you realized it was her."

"And we should be giddy because she tricked us?!?" Clyde snapped.

Twilight sighed. She had known this was a very risky move; it would have been easy for the rebels to view this as a trick and close ranks even more on Rainbow Dash, fearing that she could look like any of them. Shining and her had argued about it but in the end Twilight had realized that if they didn’t do something drastic the rebellion would waste days debating the issue and that was time they needed. Twilight wanted action, even if it was to learn that she couldn’t rely on the rebellion for aid.

"No... you should be scared because if it was that easy for me to sneak in, the rest of our friends could do the same thing." Rainbow leveled a cool stare at them. "I screwed up and I am ready to face my punishment... but don't waste this opportunity. I can help you get into Cloudsdale and we can get the foal and fillies and colts back. I can help you ward this place tighter than Fort Clops so that no other queen can get in. After that, if you want to throw me in a dungeon or banish me or banish me to a dungeon, go right ahead. But don't punish innocent children because you don't want to suck up your pride and ask for help!"

The others looked about, mulling over her words. Finally, one of the royal guard said, "Give us half a day to debate this."

"Ok," Twilight said; she hated the waste of hours but was gracious for the chance.

"But don't wait too long," Rainbow said, unable to stop herself from ruining the mood or voicing the fears Twilight held. "Every hour we wait we lose the advantage."

~MC~MC~MC~

"They... they were so vicious!" Doubt sobbed dramatically, covering her brow with one of her forelegs. She swooned and Rarity hurried to help her sit up, missing the dark little smile that flicked along Doubt's face.

"Cadence, how did they manage to escape?" Fluttershy asked softly, rubbing the sobbing alicorn's back. 

Doubt, her voice mimicking Cadence's perfectly, whimpered in mock pain. "Oh... oh Fluttershy... I... I can't say! You'll think I am lying!"

"My dear, I promise you we will not think you are lying," Rarity said sweetly. "You are the victim here. We should have never put a gentle soul like you down there with those ruffians."

‘Cadence’ hid her frown at that. The dungeons had not been part of the plan at all when the queens had begun their takeover of Equestria. Prisons spoke of law breaking, which simply wouldn’t do in a magical land of harmony.  The goal had been to awash the country in harmony and bring all the ponies peace. Of course Doubt had begun to select a few ponies to hook her claws into, infecting them with doubt so they could throw off the brainwashing and fight the new regime. She had come up so many wonderful plans, picking out housewives and business stallions that would become arsonists and rapists in their attempts to fight against the new rules of society. She had planned for years of slow burning dissent that would end with the bloody war that would see both sides dead and her the sole survivor.

But then, a month ago, something had changed. Doubt wasn’t for sure what it was, but the queens had been forced to convert ponies one at a time, rather than on mass as they had been. The ones resistant to the change would have normally been brought before all five queens… but instead Rarity and Fluttershy had simply begun to lock them in the dungeon.

Not that Doubt was going to complain. The prisoners were wonderful at stirring up trouble and had kept her nice and fed while they rotted away. But the way it went about caused trouble for the female abstract; in the beginning Canterlot had been empty (thanks mostly to the queens ruling that it should be abandoned and its subjects sent to Manehattan and Cloudsdale), making it the perfect base of operations for Doubt. The few guards assigned there were little more than honor guards that stood guard more in ceremony that to protect the realm, which meant Doubt could easily slip into their minds and spy then dart away, back into Cadence, who had become the perfect vessel for her to rest in… what brought on more doubt that the first flickers of love?

Then the dungeons had been opened up and Fluttershy and Rarity had begun to visit more and more. They had held tea time once a week, but now they spent nearly half their time in the castle and half in their domains (Rarity having set up her throne in Manehattan and Fluttershy preferring to stick with Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale). It was Rarity’s guard that had ended up coming to help out the undertrained ‘royal guard’, but even with the generous amount of reinforcing there still hadn’t been enough to go around and most of the prison was watched over by ponies that had let themselves get fat, believing peace was at hand and there was no reason to worry about chasing after criminals. Rainbow didn’t help, even though her forces were some of the best, Pinkie had locked herself up in the Rocky Plains, Fluttershy’s were not suited for guard duty and Doubt hadn’t seen Applejack in ages. It was all Rarity’s forces and they were simply not enough… as the recent jailbreak had shown. All of Rarity’s ponies had been on the other side of Equestria, planning out their next march on Trottingham, when Faith and Trixie had led the escape.

Doubt didn’t like it when twists were thrown into her plans. It was hard enough managing with her slipping sanity without new wrinkles being added in. Still, the female abstract rolled with the punches. The dungeons were here, Fluttershy and Rarity were in the city more often… she could use all of those things to continue her plans.  

All of this flew through Doubt’s mind at a speed that would have shocked most ponies. Part of being an abstract was thinking quickly; the mare wondered if Twilight Sparkle realized just how long it took Faith in abstract-time to come up with his little ‘off the cuff’ speeches.

"You're... you're sister has betrayed us." Doubt sniffed, giving them her best ‘hurt’ face.

Rarity blinked in shock. "Are... are you sure? Sweetie Belle would never... could never..." She shook her head, confused. "That makes no sense... Sweetie Belle embraced harmony..."

Realizing that she was overplaying her hand, Doubt began to backtrack. "I think they did something to her!" The female abstract nodded quickly, trying to convey rapid shock. "Yes... yes that is it! I think that horrible Faith did something to her!"

"But we put a magic dampener on Doubt's horn!" Fluttershy said in surprise, turning towards Rarity. Only Doubt heard the tint of accusation in her tone. It had been Rarity who designed the magic dampeners. "How could he do something without his magic?"

Doubt fought back a scowl. When she had discovered the other elements of harmony they had been under the delusion that their baby brother was still corrupted. She had used that to her advantage, as she knew that none of the abstracts would have ever moved against Faith if they knew he was himself again; of all their flaws, laziness was the worst one abstracts had. Because of their prolonged life they felt that they had forever to accomplish a task and thus it could take centuries for them to act. The five members of the Elements had, after all, not moved to save their brother in a thousand years. Their slow reaction had caused Faith, who had always been unlike his brothers and sisters and had a nasty case of 'impatience', to steal her name. Their failure to act had doomed the true Doubt and thus the female abstract had sought to destroy the five siblings along with their baby brother. 

She had lucked out to find them finally preparing to deal with Faith when he had elevated Twilight. That act had drawn them out of the sloth and Doubt had been more than willing to point them in the right direction, taking on the guise of a kindly, helpful abstract. 

The only downside was that the five siblings, and in turn the five queens, still referred to Faith as Doubt; this was something that the true Doubt took umbrage too. She had to bite her tongue each time she heard them use her moniker in relation to the wrong pony, lest she scream in rage.

Still... it was a small sacrifice.

Rarity and Fluttershy said a few kind words and then motioned for one of the guards (one of Rarity’s boys, Doubt noticed) to take ‘Cadence’ back to her normal room. The abstract nodded, covering up her laughter with a cough when she saw Fluttershy and Rarity rapidly talking, gesturing at each other and debating about what had happened and how. It wasn’t a fight… not yet… but the seeds had been planted.

There wasn’t much harmony in Canterlot that day.

But there was plenty of doubt.