//------------------------------// // 1.5 Respect and Trust // Story: Unforgiven Memories // by Hidden Brony //------------------------------// Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did. Memories of a Lost Time Chapter Five: Respect and Trust “I can see it. You’re broken. There were pieces of you that I couldn’t restore. Pieces of you that I didn’t restore. Yet, in your brokenness, you are whole. You are better. You. Are. Mine.” It took me weeks, so many boring weeks, to recover. My friends tried to make my weeks more bearable, but after Celestia’s visit, I was allowed no visitors. It’s not my fault that Faust-damned Nurse Redcross walked in! ‘No stressful activities’ my ass! Anyway, the nurse told me that Luna wanted to see me when I was being released. This confused me, I’ll admit, but I went straight to where Luna was. That is, I followed six different conflicting directions from guards until I eventually wandered into her. * * * Streak’s retelling was interrupted by a voice. Streak heard bellowed into his mind, There’s someone at the door! Everypony in the room heard the door opening. He immediately settled into a combat stance, while the girls all froze, expecting the worst. What they got instead was Nurse Redheart. She walked in with some papers held in her mouth. “Rainbow Dash, you still have to sign out. You know—” She shook her head, sighing, “—you can’t just leave out the window. We’ve told you this before!” The girls stared at Redheart in disbelief. Streak just chuckled, “You remind me of Redcross. Nothing seems to faze you. I do have to ask, however, why you aren’t reacting and what are you going to do?” Redheart laughed, “Oh, Streak. If you had any idea what I’ve done for you already, you wouldn’t be asking that.” She turned to Twilight, suddenly serious. “What was it I said? ‘That’s the problem with Equestria, everypony lets the Princesses do the thinking for them. Think for yourself, learn what this Streak did that was so bad that he had the ‘Dead or’ tacked on to his 'Alive.' There’s a reason she’s not telling you what he did.’ Glad to see you’re following my advice.“ She then added in a stage whisper, “Was I right about why?” Twilight flushed bright red to her neck before managing to sputter out, “Wha–uh. No! No no no!” Redheart smirked, “To answer the second part of your question, Streak. I know what you’re planning on doing, and I intend to help you.” Streak laughed at her, “You have no idea what I’m planning on doing. Nopony knows what I’m planning.” Redheart never lost her smirk as she leaned in close to his ear and whispered. The girls watched Streak’s face go from amused, to flat, to frowning, to troubled. “How in Faust’s name do you know that?” He exploded. “How could you know any of that?” Redheart patted him on the withers, “I know many things I shouldn’t be able to.” Streak heard the overpowering voice again, pounding on the inside of his skull, Kill her. She knows too much. Streak growled mentally, No. If Celestia doesn’t know already, she’s on our side. If Celestia knows, then it doesn’t matter. At this point, we need all the help we can get. Outside of Streak’s head, the conversation was continuing. “Yes Pinkie, even that,” Redheart chuckled Pinkie’s eyes widened, “I didn’t even ask! How did you know?” Her eyes narrowed, “Did you look ahead in the chapter? Do I say it later?” Redheart shot a confused and concerned look at Pinkie, “Does she make sense to anypony else?” “Nope.” “Nuh uh.” “Not one bit.” “No, she doesn’t.” “Um... no.” Just kill the pink one now and save us the trouble. “Nopie dopie!” “Pinkie, did you just... nevermind,” Streak said rubbing his temples, “She’s giving me a headache.” Redheart smiled fondly at Pinkie before turning her gaze back to Streak, “Why don’t you continue from where you left off? We don’t have long until Celestia mobilizes the guard, I can be caught up later.” Streak looked at her, confused. “How did you—” “As I said, I know many things I shouldn’t.” * * * Luna turned to me, “We have a bit of a diplomatic issue.” I nodded, not quite sure how that involved me. “The sentient creatures of Discord’s army approached us with a plea for a place to stay. Apparently Discord destroyed their old homes, and was giving them parts of Equestria in return for helping. The minotaurs took the land we gave them without complaint, as it was rich in various metals. We negotiated a lease of our land in return for their services as smiths,” she sighed. “The dragons were more than willing to accept living in the gem-rich mountains in return for shipments of gems, along with one egg of each clutch being raised in Equestria.” She held up a hoof to stall my protest, “This was their condition, not ours, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think they mean it as a show of solidarity.” “The issue we have now is the griffons. They have a very militant and honor-bound culture, and their leader, Emperor Gil, is afraid of the repercussions if we don’t handle this well.” “What repercussions are we talking about?” I asked. “If we mess up too badly, the entirety of the griffon race will declare a blood feud against ponies. This will create a war with only one end. Genocide. They will fight until there are no ponies left to kill, or until there are no griffons left to continue this feud. Even if it doesn’t come to that, neither the griffons nor the ponies can take another war at this point. In no uncertain terms, if we hadn’t won that last battle as we did, we would have lost.” “So we need to negotiate a treaty that doesn’t break down into another war with a people that we were summarily killing not a month ago?” I summed up. “Precisely,” Luna nodded. “So how does this involve me?” I asked. Luna sighed before beginning, “Well, you see—” Another voice boomed across the room, “We saw your attack of the ursa to save your friend.The griffon peoples have come to see you as a representation of everything griffon in pony society. With something as powerful as the public opinion backing you, you are the best, if not only, choice we have for a negotiator.” I turned to look at where a figure was entering the room we were in. This figure happened to be a griffon easily the size of Celestia. He looked fairly similar to the griffons I had seen before, but with some noticeable differences. Most griffons had fur that was greyscale or brown, and generally lighter grey or white feathers, and he was no exception. His brown fur reached his shoulders before being overtaken by feathers white as snow. But while most griffons had crest feathers that faded to purple, brown, grey, or green, this griffon had a crest that faded to red. The second I saw him, I settled into a combat stance, wings flared. I sat there waiting for him to make a move. Instead, he laughed, “Cautious enough to detect that I might be a threat, but wise enough to hold yourself from charging, realizing that I might not be. I see that my griffons have chosen well.” “I take it you’re Gil?” I asked, paranoia rightfully seeping into my tone. Luna gasped, “Streak! Be respectful! He is an Emperor!.” The Emperor chuckled, waving off Luna’s concern, “No, no, I don’t mind. Respect and trust are both earned, and I have done nothing to earn either from him yet.” I nodded, still tensed, “So what you’re telling me is that if I don’t do the negotiations, we have no deal?” Gil sighed, “A griffon is only emperor as long as he can keep power. When a challenge is called, another griffon is literally declaring themselves Emperor. Due to our laws, there can only be one Emperor alive at a time, and the only way for an Emperor to retire is to die. This means that one of the two will die, and the other will take over. The more positive public opinion an Emperor has, the less challengers he gets, and the more time he has to both run the country when we get one, and to rest and recuperate before the next battle.” “And you’re afraid that if I’m not the negotiator, majority opinion will turn against you,” I concluded. “Exactly,” he smiled. “And why do you tell me this? I could just use it against you,” I pointed out. “Two reasons,” he held up his talon. “One: you seem like a wise pony.” I snorted. “Don’t discount yourself. You are more wise than you think, you just need some refinement. With as wise as you are, you could see the benefits of a partnership between our races, so learning the inner workings of our politics would have happened anyway.” His second talon went up, “Two: I wish to earn your trust. By opening myself up and showing that my intentions, no matter how noble, are also in a way selfish, I cease to attempt to be the perfect pillar that most leaders think they have to be. No being that lives today is perfect, this war has shown us this. Even one of the Guardians, placed here by the Weaver himself, has turned against us. We need to work together. Both to rebuild, and so that we can stand and fight in the event another Guardian turns.” He looked at Luna, “No offence.” Luna shook her head, “None taken. As sad as it is to say, it is a legitimate concern in this day and age.” Gil smiled before continuing, “I intend to be as transparent as I can in the facilitation of this goal, and I ask that you do the same.” * * * I groaned in frustration, “How the hell are we supposed to negotiate if neither of us is willing to compromise?” Gil rolled his eyes, “I’m more than willing to compromise, you’re just being stubborn!” “Look, there needs to be some sort of limit on cross-border travel!” I exclaimed. “If either of our nations experiences a drastic downturn in their economy, we can’t burden our sister nation with what amounts to economical refugees!” “And if the opposite happens?” He pointed out. “What if your Equestria experiences an economic boost? Are you going to shut out griffons who wish to take advantage of a new job market?” “If it protects my Equestrians? YES!” I slammed my hoof on the table, “If there is not enough jobs for both Equestrians and your griffons, I am more than willing. My first thoughts are on Equestria, your griffons come second.” Gil growled, “I thought that we were trying to be your allies, not your satellite nation!” I growled back, “I am treating you as allies, you are trying to make us one damn nation! I offered that at the very damn beginning, and you said no!” “My griffons want to rule themselves, not be subjected to rule by your Princesses!” Gil roared. “And I’m trying to protect the interests of my damn citizens!” I yelled back at him. “Neither of us can afford another war, you agree to this!” “Yes I do, which is why I wonder at your willingness to start another one!” “And how the hell am I doing that?” “You insult us with your terms!” he exploded at me. “You talk of peace and equality, but you keep trying to shove the griffons down!” “Any of my terms apply to Equestrian griffons as much as they apply to Equestrian ponies!” I reiterate for what must be the eighth time. “I’ve said this!” “Perhaps we can adjourn and come back to the table after our tempers have cooled down?” Celestia suggested, walking into the room. “This is the third time that Luna and I have heard you two shouting from halfway across the castle.” Gil stared at Celestia for a second, before slamming his head into the table. I burst into laughter at both his reaction and Celestia's confused face. Gil picked his face up off the table and glared at me before joining in on the laughter. Celestia just got more and more confused as we kept laughing. Eventually we calmed down. “I lost fair and square, looks like we have border constraints,” Gil wiped a tear from his eye. “I was sure Luna was going to be the one to come in!” I grinned, “I grew up with these two around and sleep with one on a regular basis, I know them.” “Could you please explain what is going on?” Celestia asked. “We reached a standstill on immigration and emigration policies,” I explained. “And after our second argument on that topic, Gil proposed a competition.” Gil took over, “You see, we were at an impasse. I wouldn’t have any more and he wouldn’t have any less. Streak suggested getting an outside force to decide for us. I proposed that, since griffon negotiations don’t allow for a third party to intervene, we would play a game of chance. We would argue again, but we wouldn’t stop until either you or your sister intervened. If you came in we would use Streak’s policies. If Luna came in, however, I would win and my policies would go into effect.” Still grinning, I finished it off, “Since he let me choose, I picked the two of you more likely to come over.” Celestia just stared at us, jaw opening and closing as if she was looking for the right words to explain our genius. What we got instead was incredulous surprise, “You based our border policy with a neighboring country on a game of chance?” Gil and I looked at each other before responding at the same time, “Yes.” Celestia shook her head while leaving, muttering generalizations about ‘males.’ It was a good day. * * * Streak stared off into the distance, seemingly looking for the right place to continue the story. Unknown to the mares, there was an argument raging inside Streak’s head. You are delaying, the overpowering voice growled. You are afraid. What the hell do you mean? This is important! Streak retaliated. Important to history is different from important to the task at hand, the voice answered. Your fear is causing delays. Delays we cannot afford. And what would you suggest I do, oh wise one? Streak asked. Don’t get smart with me, I am a part of you. A part that wants us to get the revenge we so rightly deserve. What even are you? Do you not listen? I am a piece of you. I’m calling bull on that. To the best of my knowledge, I am not schizophrenic. You are not. I am... The voice trailed off. Now who’s afraid? I didn’t take you for a coward. WHO ARE YOU TO INSULT ME? WHO ARE YOU TO CALL ME COWARD? WHO ALLOWED US TO SURVIVE THE VOID? YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW, DO YOU? I DID! ME! YOU SAT THERE FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF, AND WITH EACH PIECE PULLED OFF OF YOU, I FOUGHT HARDER! I KEPT YOUR CORE SELF SAFE WHILE YOU SAT THERE SNIVELING ABOUT YOUR FATE! I AM STRONGER THAN THE VOID YOU SO FEAR, I AM STRONGER THAN YOU! If you’re so damn important, tell me what the hell you are! I AM WHAT MAKES YOU IMMORTAL! Streak’s brain broke. Immortal? No, not even the Guardians were immortal. Their death was foretold in the Tapestry. I told you he wasn’t ready. I don’t care about you or what you think. He needs to know, and if you won’t be the one to tell him, it might as well be me. You may make him immortal, but you are wrong about being stronger than the Void. The countless swarms of the demons that inhabit the Void are only bolstered with each passing day. You would have been overrun within the next century. Do. Not. Test. Me. Could one of you two shut the hell up and explain what you’re talking about? There was quiet before the Librarian spoke up, It is getting late and the mares need to get home. Streak’s immortality spoke up again, We will meet in person, or as close as we can get, when you next sleep. Streak was pulled out of his internal conversation by a poke to his shoulder. He snapped back to reality to see Twilight’s worried face. “Are you okay?” she asked. Streak smiled and looked out the window. It was nearly dark. “Just getting tired, it is getting late. Perhaps we could adjourn and begin anew tomorrow morning?” His suggestion was met with grumbling approval and yawns. * * * Streak opened his eyes to see books. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books. He looked around, but the row of books he was in seemed to go on forever. He looked up and couldn’t see the top of the shelves. Looking at one of the thick bound books on the shelf he saw words written on the spine. They read: Sunny Smiles, Day 9826, Hours 0–12 Curiosity overcame him and he pulled that book out. Placing it on the ground, he opened it to a random page about halfway through. It appeared to be a very detailed accounting of Sunny eating cereal for breakfast while tapping his rear hoof. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Lips part three-fifths of an inch. Jaw down two inches.. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Right forehoof up seven inches, left half an inch, and back seven inches. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Lips close two-fifths of an inch. Right forehoof forward two inches. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Rear right hoof up one inch. Jaw up two inches. Jaw down an inch. Right rear hoof down. Heart beat in. Heart beat out. Jaw up an inch. Right rear hoof up one inch. Jaw down an inch. Heart beat in. Right rear hoof down one inch. Heart beat out. Flipping a few pages later, Streak found that it was written like that for nearly a dozen pages. Who could have the patience to write something like this? “Me, not that I have a choice,” the Librarian said from behind him. He turned around to see a white alicorn with crimson hair and mane, and blue eyes. Her horn was lit with a crimson aura as if casting some spell eternally. His eyes widened and he dropped to the floor in reverence. He was in the presence of Faust. The Librarian scoffed, “Do not prostrate yourself, your kind are below my notice. My form is inconceivable to the likes of you, so I take the form of the being that is the closest to it, no matter how false they may be. Griffons see me as a pure black griffon, diamond dogs see me as the Allmother. Your ‘Faust’,” she spit the word out in disgust, “is but another form to me. Another skin that I wear to interact with lesser beings such as yourself.” “Ah, get off your high horse,” the immortal voice responded. Streak whipped his head to look at the speaker. What he saw surprised him. What he saw was what appeared to be what he would look like as a hole in the universe. The immortal was black as the void, and no light seemed to affect him. He seemed to radiate a translucent aura of darkness. “You need him, you need us.” The Librarian scoffed, “There are thousands more like him in the Void that I could grab.” “None that are good enough to do what needs to be done, especially not now,” the pony of nothingness growled. “And none that can counter your balancing agent. Face it, Librarian; you’re stuck with us.” “I thought this was me getting some damn answers!” Streak exploded. “Don’t give me more questions until I have had a chance to ask the questions I have!” The Librarian turned to him with a look of cold fury. She opened her mouth to berate him when the Void pony interrupted, “You have a valid point. Ask, and we will answer what we can.” “First,” Streak began, pointing at the pony of darkness, “What and who are you?” The pony sighed, “I am a demon of the Void. Most of us were created by the Librarian and the Weaver when this realm was Woven, but in the last thousand years, the number of demons has swelled due to mortal interference. I think you know why.” Streak cringed. “Yeah, thought so. These demons are usually the result of a pony losing their sense of self, their identity, to the Void. Demons are eternally hungry for spent magics, and this includes life magics.” “And you hitched onto my soul for free meals in return for protecting me?” “Nothing so parasitic. As I said, I am you. Something about the magics Celestia threw onto you to keep you from dying while in the Void allowed you to both become a demon and keep your identity. This is unheard of, from what the Librarian has told me. This is why she has picked us.” “Okay, question three.” Streak turned to the Librarian, “You said you don’t have a choice whether you write these or not. Why is that?” The Librarian looked stunned for a second before recovering. “I am bound to the fate of this realm, and cannot leave until it has ended. My job is to record the present and past of this realm for review. This allows us to correct mistakes for the next realm we create.” “You don’t sound happy about this arrangement,” Streak noted. “It has been approximately one-hundred and seventy-five million, one-hundred and sixty-four, eighty-nine point eight five three three one seven seven one six eight three three five seven three nine hours since this realm was created. There is a book for every single living thing, from the largest dragon to the smallest amoeba. I am tired of writing the miniscule details of the lives of lifeforms that mean literally nothing.” Streak was silent for a second. “Well that—” “That number, if you didn’t know, comes out to almost twenty thousand years. Do the math.” “Don’t, she already did.” “Okay, question four.” He turned to the demon, “What is your name?” The demon was silent for a moment, “I have none.” Streak raised an eyebrow, “Really? None?” “He is a part of you, not his own individual being, Besides demons don’t have names,” the Librarian said smugly. Streak looked at the demon. His nature made it impossible to read his facial expression, but from body language, Streak could tell that having no name bothered him. “Nihility.” “Nihility?” the demon asked. “Your name,” Streak smiled. “Nihility means the state or condition of being nothing. I think it fits you. Everyone should have a name, regardless of what they are.” If he could Nihility would be smiling. “Question five, why me?” “I was expecting this to be the first one. Short answer? Me. Long answer? Because you died, we are no longer attached to the Tapestry of Fate. Our lives are our own. Every single action we take makes another piece of the Tapestry invalid. Her hope is that when the Tapestry no longer shows the future, that the Weaver will return, spirit her away to somewhere new, and she will no longer be stuck with this realm for the next eight-hundred thousand years.” Streak’s jaw dropped, “What if they just decide to axe the realm totally?” “The Tapestry only deals with the big things. Important people and events, deaths of major figures, wars, famine, the like. The small things, like the death of one insignificant gnat of a pony? That can be changed by what I write. I control the world, and I can kill those you love when they are no longer attached to the Tapestry. The Elements have only one more use with their current bearers Woven, and after that” her voice grew threatening, “the Mare of Magic is fair game.” * * * “So let me get this straight, you want me to do... something? Just exist?” Streak asked, incredulous. “Precisely,” the Librarian nodded, “Just acting, no matter what you do, will change the fate of the world. You are in a unique situation. Just don’t fail me and die early.” “Or Twilight joins me in an early grave, I know,” Streak growled. “I do this for me and for her, not for you.” “It matters not why you do it, just that it gets done.” And with that, she was gone. “Bitch.” “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Streak left the Librarian’s realm with a new understanding of his demon half. * * * Streak opened his eyes to see his candle had burnt out during the night, leaving him surrounded by darkness. His eyes widened in panic, and he curled up in his corner. Streak, Nihility tried to get through to him. You have nothing to fear. This did nothing to change Streak’s mood. He remained oblivious to Nihility’s voice as he shook in his corner, abjectly terrified. Eventually the door at the top of the stairs opened up, allowing light to spill down. Streak practically bolted up the stairs, nearly bowling over Twilight, who had come to wake him up. He grinned sheepishly at her, “I, uh, don’t do well in dark places anymore.” She shook her head, smiling, “What will we ever do with you? The girls are here.” Streak looked to see the group assembled for his story to continue, including Redheart. Rainbow Dash was smirking at him. “Big bad soldier’s afraid of the dark?” she mocked. He deadpanned at her, “You spend a thousand damn years in the Void and we’ll see how well you fare, Rainbow Dash.” “Just... Continue with the story please, Streak,” Twilight sighed. Streak was silent for a moment. Do it. Tell them. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, suddenly nervous. Streak, have some courage, Nihility said. You have to tell them eventually, it might as well be now. Again, Streak opened his mouth, but no words came out. “Streak?” Twilight asked, “Are you okay?” Streak sighed, “I’ve been stalling.” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow, “Well duh, you’ve started and stopped twice already.” “No, I mean with everything. Telling about the war, telling about the diplomacy, everything I’ve said has been a stall tactic. I just realised that last night,” Streak shook his head. “What comes next, well,” he trailed off. “It’s not something I want to relive. Bear with me here.” Pinkie sat with a look of absolute horror on her face. Twilight nodded understandingly, “I know, I saw it, remember?” Streak shook his head, “You saw bits and pieces. You didn’t get to the bad stuff before breaking down.” He shook his head violently. “I’m stalling again. We’re starting. Now.” * * * It all started with a book. That’s it. A small, bound book with no title. I had gone into Celestia’s room looking for her, hoping that she wasn’t off repelling the remnants of Discord’s army from some hamlet somewhere, when for some reason this book caught my eye. I opened it to find pages of names crossed out. Some I recognised as soldiers, others were obviously griffon, minotaur, and even dragon names. Some thirty pages in, I got to names that weren’t crossed out. Written in the margin was: Black Forest site full. Old Capital site full. Hasten Void experimentation. Looking at some of the names, I realised that they were names brought before me by Luna. Missing persons. I took a copy of some of the names as fast as I could before returning the book as to not raise suspicions. Taking my list of a couple dozen pony and griffon names, I checked missing persons records. Of thirty-one names, twenty-nine of them were reported missing since the end of the war. This troubled me. Why would Celestia keep a record of the names of missing persons? And what did she mean by ‘Black Forest site full’? Knowing fully that I would regret not asking her and going behind her back, I went to Starswirl. “Starswirl,” I nudged his sleeping form. He’d fallen asleep doing research again. “Starswirl, wake up!” Starswirl groaned and looked at me, “What? Celestia’s got all the researchers working on some kind of portal to the Void and I need all the sleep I can get.” My blood ran cold. “Starswirl?” I began hesitantly. “You’ve got bad news for me, haven’t you, my friend?” I nodded, handing him the copy of the names and the note. His eyes looked over them one by one before looking at that last note. “What is this?” “I was hoping you could tell me,” I said flatly. “I found it in Celestia’s room. That is one page out of over thirty. Each name was scratched out, and all but two are reported missing.” Starswirl grimaced, “That is not good news, have you talked with her?” I shook my head, “It’s probably nothing bad. Probably taking names of ponies she found and moving them to refugee camps,” I could see that Starswirl didn’t believe that at all, and I knew I didn’t either. “On the off chance that it really is something, I don’t want her to know that I know.” “But she’s your—” Starswirl began. “What did I say before the Battle of Canterlot?” I interrupted. “ ‘Doubly then,’ “ Starswirl said grimly. “ ‘Doubly then,’ “ I repeated. “What exactly is the Void?” Starswirl brightened up with the chance to change the subject, let alone talk about his work. “Well you see, the Void appears to be a plane of nothingness! Nothing is there, as far as we can detect!” I looked at him incredulously, “You’re saying that the Void is a perfect vacuum?” He grinned like a foal in a candy shop, “It appears so! Now, opening a portal to the Void is not a problem. Opening a portal to the Void that doesn’t suck in everything around it is. On top of that, the portal needs to have a permeable barrier so things can get thrown into it. The researchers are thinking of creating a stabilized self sustaining version and using it as waste disposal once research is done.” I froze. “ ‘Things can get thrown into it’?” I asked. Starswirl nodded, “The Princess’s exact wording.” I looked at the list and back at Starswirl. His face fell, “Oh. Well.” “Shit.” * * * I left Starswirl to do his experimentation, knowing that pulling him off would arouse suspicion. My next stop was Wonderbolt. I was hoping to go out to the old capital on the guise of improving my flight. Plus, Wonderbolt was one of the best people I could think to spend a two hour flight with. “This is grim news,” Wonderbolt said after he was caught up. “You know that you’ll need more evidence before you can bring this to Luna or Chance.” I nodded, “She mentioned an Old Capital site. I figure that that is much more specific than somewhere in the Black Woods.” Wonderbolt looked at me sideways, “Everfree is in the Black Woods.” “Ah, but Canterlot is not officially the capital yet, it’s still Everfree. The capital used to be farther West on the coast before a tsunami destroyed it. Damn near wiped out the population too. That area of the coast was deemed too dangerous to live in nearly two-hundred years ago,” I grimaced. “I have a feeling that that’s where she hid the bodies, if that’s what’s going on.” Wonderbolt nodded solemnly, “The ruins of Equus are nearly two hours away at your top speed.” I nodded, “Let’s make it in one.” Two hours later, I caught up with a thoroughly appalled Wonderbolt. I collapsed on the ground, and pulled myself up to walk even with him. What I saw sickens me to this day. Bodies. Bodies, everywhere. Most of them are ponies, with some griffons thrown in, a spattering of minotaur here and there, and what I think might have been a dragon at some point based on an intact scale here and there and bone chunks that were large enough to be identifiable. Wonderbolt looked at me, green in the face, “I think Luna has to see this.” I silently nodded, appalled by what Celestia had done. * * * The girls all had looks of shock on their faces. Rarity was the first to make a comment. “Well, I can see why this is a difficult topic for you.” Pinkie shuddered, “I’m never reading ahead in the chapter again.” Her eyes widened, “Now I’m really not reading ahead in the chapter! It gets worse!” Streak smiled sadly, “It does, indeed, Pinkie. It gets much worse.” * * * Luna sat, looking at the devastation in horror. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as she struggled to find the words to express what she was feeling. Eventually, she settled for just interrogating us. “How did you find this?” I silently threw the list at her. “These were taken from a journal in Celestia’s room. There were easily thirty times that many names written down and scratched out, and half that many names not scratched out. That note about the sites being full was in the margin.” Luna looked at me in shock, but I didn’t relent, “It says to hasten Void experimentation, and in the orders she gave the researchers, she clearly states that the barrier between the Void and our plane needs to be permeable, so things can be thrown through. All this on top of the fact that there has been a steady increase in monster activity since the end of the war, and as such a steady increase of dead and missing persons. Celestia personally attends to each and every one of these reports, leaving her out of the castle for what can amount to weeks at a time.” I pointed to the mass grave, “Do you see those scales?” Luna looked green. I kept hammering it in, “Yeah, that is at least one dragon. I’m not sure, because it was flayed alive, ripped apart violently, then its bones were shattered. All of this was after all the ponies its pieces rest on top of were already dead. Presumably by Celestia’s hoof or direct order. Most likely each of these ponies, griffons, minotaurs, and dragon-slash-dragons were killed personally, one at a time.” “How could she have had time to do this?” Luna asked with tears in her eyes, clearly looking to prove her sister innocent. Hell, I hoped she did it too, but the evidence was damning. “Luna, how fast could you snap a neck?” Luna’s eyes widened in shock at the odd line of questioning. “It would take you a fraction of a second.” I kept going, “How fast could you make a magic dampening cage? It would take you minutes, if not seconds.” My eyes were misting. It hurt to make these accusations. It hurt more to know they were likely true. “How difficult would it be to incite Discord’s old army to attack a village? Easy, I could do it. How hard would it be for you to teleport some ponies into those cages while you’re fighting off the attack that you orchestrated as a distraction?” Luna finished for me, quietly, “Effortless.” Tears were falling down my face, “I’ve been working with Gil so that our races would be ready for another Guardian betraying us. I just didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime, let alone so soon after Discord.” I choked up, “And I had hoped to any kind of divine being listening, whether it was Faust, the Allmother, the Weaver, or whoever, that it wouldn’t be Celestia that turned. “I guess you don’t always get what you want.” * * * We returned to the castle to find that Celestia had yet to return. Small miracles. I gathered all our old squad. They all reacted to what Luna, Wonderbolt, and I had to report as could be expected. Brick sat with no facial expression, but I could catch twitches of fury and despair in his eyes now and then. Poor Ironhoof broke. Just collapsed on the ground and started bawling. Sombra had to be restrained by Starswirl so that he didn’t go hunt down Celestia. Starswirl already suspected, but getting conformation nearly put him down with Ironhoof. I think having to restrain Sombra was what kept him up. I returned to Celestia’s room to grab the book while Starswirl went down to get the official orders for pushing Void research. The book was not hard to find, having been right where I left it earlier in the day. When I turned around, I saw Starswirl standing in the doorway. “Starswirl? What are you doing? You’re supposed to be in the labs!” I exclaimed. Starswirl looked at me sadly, “I’m sorry, my friend.” I was confused for only a second before there was a golden flash from behind me and everything went black. * * * I woke to see the last pony I wanted to see right then. Celestia. I tried to move, but I was strapped back-up down on a table. “I hope the accommodations are satisfactory?” Celestia asked. I just glared. “Listen, you need to understand my side of this,” Celestia pleaded, giving me the sad eyed pout that used to make me cave instantly. “What good side can there be to murdering hundreds, potentially thousands?” I snapped. “How can you put a positive spin on mass murder?” She genuinely looked hurt at my accusations, “It was for a good reason—” “I’m going to stop you right there. Don’t you dare try to pretend you’re the same Celestia I fell in love with. You are a fucking monster, and shall be treated as such.” Celestia looked taken aback for a second before smiling. “You always were smart. Such a useful tool. A mental nudge there, a glance there, and you fell so hard for me.” She laughed. “You would trip over yourself to make me happy. You were the best tool I think I’ve had the pleasure of using.” Her grin turned wicked, “But with the hammer and the saw, every good tool reaches a point where it has to be replaced. You have just reached that point.” “Go ahead, then. Replace me,” I spat. “There’s Wonderbolt–oh, wait, he was with me when I found your mass grave as Equus. Oh, but maybe Brick–nevermind, he knows too. Ironhoof–no, he knows too. Sombra could be a good choice, but we had to restrain him from hunting you down. Maybe Starswirl–but oh, I know him. He wouldn’t work with a monster now that he knows what you truly are.” Celestia grinned again, “Who do you think told me you knew? I already have another tool. You don’t buy a hammer after the last one breaks, you keep a spare in the cabinet for quick access. Starswirl is mine, Streak. He’s always been mine, he just didn’t know it yet. “I can see it now, my lover betrays me and corrupts my sister against me. Good thing Starswirl was there to stop the vile monster Streak, who had been hiding in plain sight all along. Too bad for Luna, poor dear’s sealed on the moon.” At my look of horror, Celestia grins even more. “I forgot to mention that, didn’t I? I used the same technique I used on Discord to drive him insane on Luna. Oops, did I let that slip?” Her grin was wider than any I’d ever seen on her before. “I thought that I’d leave you awake to watch the punishments of your fellow conspirators. Unfortunately, whatever method you used to corrupt them is irreversible with the level of magic we have today.” She looked out of a window in the side of the room. “Too bad for the mortal ponies, I just had to put them down. Too dangerous to keep them alive, you know. Sorrow and regret and such.” “You bitch!” I exclaimed. “Why do you do this?” She turned her grin back to me, “Why does any sadist do what they do? Power, control. I don’t care who I have to walk on to get power, I just want it. You enabled my removal of Discord and provided me with a method to remove my sister from the equation, leaving only one player left to oppose me.” “Chance.” “Precisely, but he’ll go down soon enough. With you singing your lord praises and bragging about the power he granted you before you went down. Too bad you refused to surrender, or we might have saved your friends.” I glared at her, but she just left the room laughing. In the doorway was Starswirl with a look of sorrow on his face. The level of hurt I was feeling must have spilled over into my face, because he opened his mouth. “Streak—” “Fuck off, Starswirl.” “But—" “Fuck. Off.” Starswirl hung his head before following his new mistress, leaving me to my thoughts. * * * On the other side of that window was another room. It was fairly plain, being merely a twenty foot long and ten foot wide cobblestone box. There were three-hundred thirty-six stones on the back wall. I triple-checked. The floor and ceiling were the same cobble, and the whole room was lit with magical torches. They make no smoke or heat, you know. It was on my fourth count of the cobblestones on the far wall that the door to that room opened. Starswirl walked in with Celestia, who hadn’t lost her grin since I last saw her. The sadistic glint in her eye was new, however, which was probably a bad sign. My hunch was proved right when there was a golden flash, depositing a thoroughly confused looking Wonderbolt onto the floor. “Let’s begin with an easy one. Splitting into multiple,” Celestia began. Her horn glowed, surrounding a panicked Wonderbolt in golden glow. The glow intensified until you couldn’t see him anymore. “Alright, I’m supplying the power and the failsafe. Don’t be afraid to mess up, all it will do is cause pain, not damage. In fact, make many mistakes, you learn from them, I hear.” Starswirl stepped up cautiously before adding his own aura to Celestia’s. From Wonderbolt’s cries of agony, Starswirl wasn’t getting his spell right on the first try. The golden mass shifted, growing wider and thinner, taller and shorter, and contorting into all sorts of odd shapes. Eventually the mass split into two nearly identical masses of similar shape and size from the original one. As Celestia’s aura receded, two pegasai were revealed. One was obviously male and looked like Wonderbolt with his mane and coat dyed dark blue and sky blue, respectively. Even his cutie mark was the same winged lightning bolt. The other pegasus, however was female with Wonderbolt’s colors. Her coat was orangish-yellow, and her mane and tail looked like fire. Her cutie mark was a bastardization of Wonderbolt’s: a flaming lightning bolt. “Good. These two have no memories of who they once were. This is one way to deal with dissenters, and it gives you an extra functioning member of society each. However there are more ways to deal with them.” With a flash, the ponies that used to be Wonderbolt disappeared and were replaced with Sombra. “In the case of a powerful magic user, you could corrupt their minds, driving them to, say, take over northern Equestria and declare it an independant Empire based off of slavery. This allows you to defeat this ‘menace’ and makes the public love you. Try this now, I know that mind magic was never really your forte.” Within minutes, Sombra’s eyes were green with a red iris and slitted pupil. Purple smoke was trailing out of the sides of his eyes, a sure sign that he was filled with dark magics. Damn it, Starswirl! I wanted to scream, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. “Slaves,” Sombra growled. With a flash, Sombra was gone and replaced with Brick and Ironhoof. They looked around in confusion before settling on Starswirl and Celestia. Brick stood up and said the longest sentence I had ever heard him say, “I knew it was ya, Starswirl. Go ahead. Do it. I bet ya can’t look a stallion in the eyes when you kill ‘im.” A tear fell down my cheek. Defiant to the last. Outmaneuvered, out manned, and overpowered, and Brick could still look that bastard in the eye and give him a tongue lashing. “Actually, that’s what I want you to do,” Ironhoof looked at Celestia in surprise. “Kill them both. I don’t care how. This is the easiest way to deal with dissenters and rebels. I would know, I’ve killed easily a thousand since the war ended a year ago.” Wonderbolt closed his eyes, bracing himself for what he was going to do. That rat bastard knows what he’s doing is evil. He doesn’t even want to do it! He’s forcing himself to torture and murder his friends! The room was filled with fire as Starswirl unleashed his magic. When the smoke cleared, Celestia and him were behind a blue barrier. He looked like he was about to throw up. Celestia never lost the grin * * * Starswirl came to me one last time. “Streak, you have to join her.” “No.” “Streak, please! There are things happening that are bigger than our circle of friends! Bigger than Equestria! Join me, and help make things right!” He pleaded. “She’s a fucking monster, Starswirl. And so are you. Get out of my sight.” “Streak—” “What part of go the fuck away do you not understand, you bastard? Did you think that some damned sob story is going to make me change my mind about you after watching you torture and murder my friends?” “They were my friends too, damnit!” “If they were ever your fucking friends, then you wouldn’t have done what you have done.” “I had no choice! The realm—” “Can go fuck itself. And so can you.” Celestia joined in, “Looks like he’s not coming back. Starswirl, be a dear and step out of the room. This is personal.” Starswirl gave me one last look of sorrow before walking out of the room. Celestia grinned, “I could make this long and drawn out, but I think I’ll make it short and sweet. And painful.” She placed a hoof on my back, holding me down. “Try not to scream too loud, I like it when my victims try and be defiant. Breaking them is... almost orgasmic.” Suddenly I felt a tugging at my left wing. No. NO! “Tug, tug. pull, twist, wrench, yank, toss~! One wing down~!” Celestia singsonged when I managed to not scream when she tore off my wing. “You’re good at this game! Let’s try round two!” She went much slower with this wing, dislocating every joint, breaking every bone, and tearing the pieces out one by one. I felt her shiver when I started screaming. I think the ‘almost’ was an underexaggeration. Before long my wing was laying on the ground next my other one, and tears were running down my face. “Now comes the fun part! Can’t have you bleeding to death just yet!” she exclaimed with childish glee. She teleported a red-hot fire poker from somewhere in the castle and began to cauterize the wounds. Very slowly. Very sloppily. I my screams elicited another shiver from her. She was really enjoying this, wasn’t she? Celestia left the room, I swear, skipping with joy. Starswirl came in and used some kind of soothing magic to make everything not hurt as much. I think it was a healing spell, but I can’t quite be sure. I did, however, manage to groan out at Starswirl, “Bastard.” After Starswirl left, Celestia returned, her vicious grin returning to replace her happy one she had when she left. I’m not sure how long it took for her to come back, or why, but it wasn’t going to be anything good. Her horn fired up and a disk of blackness opened up in front of me. It appeared to be a hole in the universe. The hole was blacker than night, and no light seemed to affect it. It seemed to radiate a translucent aura of darkness. Nothing good could come from this. “You’ll never guess what Starswirl made~! It’s a void portal with a permeable membrane~!” Celestia sing songed. You get to be the first living thing to visit the Void!” She clopped her hooves together repeatedly in joy. I was, unsurprisingly, less than enthused. Her horn glowed as she layered spell after spell on me. “One of these,” she explained, “should keep you alive to experience every second of the rest of time in the void! Ooh, I’m so excited! I might even drag you out in a few thousand years to see how you did!” Her grin turned malicious, “Starswirl, if you’d do the honors?” Starswirl looked at me with immense sorrow, “I’m sorry, my friend.” “You’re not my fucking friend,” I spat out as I was surrounded in blue. Then everything was pain.