Basil quickly dashed over to the basin before him and splashed water into his face, hoping it would wake him up from the horribly lucid daydream of an old unicorn wearing a pointed hat and cloak with jingling bells dragging him several hundred miles to Canterlot in the blink of an eye to tell the Empress she was doing a poor job as god to Equinity. The chilled mountain water enveloped his face, eliciting a gasp from the young stallion. He looked into the mirror above the small basin, whose contents he had dumped all over himself and the washroom; he was already wide awake.
“Oh sweet Celestia; this is actually happening.”
He received a rap on the head with a magically conjured wooden staff to get his attention. “Of course this is happening!” Starswirl the Bearded exclaimed, “If it wasn’t, you’d be back at your cottage in Baltimare, and I’d be sitting in front of a roaring fire at the Galloping Mare contemplating my navel!”
“Really?” Basil asked with some hesitation.
“No of course not, my lad! That’s simply a figure of speech. To contemplate one’s navel is altogether useless!” Starswirl led the thoroughly confused and somewhat frightened Basil out of the washroom to the large hallway outside. The wizened unicorn hurried up a nearby marble staircase to a large antechamber that led to Empress Celestia’s throne room. “Now, before we enter, there are two things I must absolutely require you to do, Master Basil. One, be sure to breathe; I cannot have my evidence faint mid-argument with her Majesty. Two, be absolutely quiet until I tell you to speak.”
So many new things were rushing at Basil that he didn’t know what to do with himself. His nervousness and fear were physically beginning to affect him, “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“You can alleviate your stomach later. Right now, I need you at silent attention for the next fifteen minutes. Can you do that for me?”
“Ohohohooooh, why is this happening to meee?” the young stallion whimpered in rising hysteria.
“Because you were the first pony I came across,” Starswirl said flatly, “but perhaps this will help ease you for the time being.” The elder unicorn cast a relaxing hex on the young earth pony, and in a couple seconds Basil let go of all his stress, closed his eyes, and sighed contently. “There,” Starswirl declared after he had finished, “Has that calmed your nerves any at all?” The only response he received was a snore; Basil had just fallen asleep standing up. Starswirl facehoofed.
In the extravagant throne room of Empress Celestia, all was peacefully quiet. Her Worshipfulness was preparing a new strategy for the Empire’s expansion into the western wastelands, when the large gold enlayed doors from the antechamber opened. From out of the waiting hall strode a unicorn garbed in a robe and hat, bedecked in a multitude of different constellations. On his back was the limp form of a burgundy hued earth pony. Guardsponies sprung from almost every corner of the room to surround the two strangers, and in no time their spears were at the ready, “Halt, in the name of the Empress!”
The unicorn scholar was unfazed by the weapons and horns pointed at him. From across the room, the Empress with her heightened senses heard the sage mutter under his breath, “Typical young upstarts.” He then waved his hoof in an arcing motion, “You will let me pass unhindered.”
The entire squad of soldiers stood down as one stallion, and they snapped to attention to the old unicorn, “We will let you pass.”
“You will leave me for a private audience with the Princess.”
“We will leave you for a private audience with the Princess.”
“You will all go back to your barracks, and you will contemplate the true purpose of all life, the meaning of existence, and if either of these two relate in any way to your navels. Also, make sure to report your findings to me; I will be utterly fascinated to hear of your results.”
With their instructions given to them, the Royal Guardsponies left the throne room in a double file line with a medium paced trot, closing the doors behind themselves. The Empress was absolutely flabbergasted at this strange display of power; who was this unusually familiar character of a pony?
“I am pleased at least,” the sagely unicorn raised his voice, “that the rumors of you killing those who come to see you with your very gaze are untrue, Princess Celestia. From what I’ve heard, though, you seemed to have taken up another title in my absence, Empress Sol Invicta.”
The Empress frowned; she continued to sit at her royal throne, but she whisked away her table, charts, and stratagems with her magic, “By what right do you claim to speak to me as such? Just who exactly are you, that you would come into my throne room unannounced?”
“An old friend, though it seems in the many years I’ve been traveling you’ve forgotten basic manners and decency. It is I, Starswirl the Bearded.”
The Empress paused and recollected as best as she could, “Starswirl…” After a very long time of trying to grasp at her memories, her eyes lit up, and a smile burst across her face, “Starswirl! Not the Starswirl who used to tell the grandest of stories about his travels to the four points of the compass? Not the Starswirl who made and showed off so many wonderful spells? How many years has it been since we last saw each other?”
The elderly unicorn looked to the ceiling, counting back all the years he had been gone, “I believe it’s been almost two hundred years now.”
The Princess was surprised, “Has it truly been two hundred years already? But how are you still alive? The average unicorn lifespan is at most seventy years.”
The unicorn chuckled, “Age and time are funny little things to me now. I invented a chrono-traversal spell centuries ago, and in about one hundred years’ time from now I helped an alchemist with one or two minor little demons in exchange for a Philosopher’s Stone. Apparently, I become quite famous!”
The Empress got up from her throne, and ran to Starswirl with the joyous energy of a young child. She swept her wings around him and embraced him in her hooves, consequently knocking the sleeping earth pony off of his back. After a short time, she released him and looked at him with an ecstatic grin, “It really has been far too long since we last saw each other, old friend.”
The smile that had also been on Starswirl’s face had faded rather quickly after the Empress had embraced him, “That may be true, but I’m afraid I am not here on a social visit.”
The Empress looked at him in confusion, “I don’t understand. Why are you here then, Starswirl?”
The elderly sage sighed, “I am here to save you, Tia,” he said, “I’m here to save you from yourself.”
The Empress gave a little chuckle, not understanding the statement one bit, “What are you talking about?”
“You have become something so much darker than you would have ever dreamed possible. You have become your own antithesis.”
Starswirl turned around and cast a charm on the sleeping form of Basil.
The earth pony twitched as he returned to the waking world, “Ooh, why does my back hurt so much?”
“Rise and shine, Master Basil,” Starswirl said grimly, “You are in the presence of your Lady Tyrant.”
“Tyrant?” the Empress exclaimed in confusion, “What do you mean, tyrant?”
The earth pony’s eyes practically burst open as he looked up to see the gigantic form of the imposing Sol Invicta. He yelped in terror and practically disappeared as he cowered behind Starswirl’s cloak, “Please don’t kill me! I didn’t mean what I thought about you! All I ever wanted was to be a little better off! I’m not ungrateful! IdontwannadieIdontwannadieIdontwannadie-”
The Empress looked down at the shivering earth pony in alarm, unable to even say a word.
Starswirl looked back behind himself at Basil and then turned his cold eyes at the Empress, “This is what you have become, your Highness; a scourging god who reigns supreme through fear. I had my doubts when I heard the first proclamations of your apotheosis so many years ago, and now my fears are fully realized. You have gorged yourself on the commonpony’s adulations, and now the deluder has become the deluded. The great social crusader I once knew you to be is gone; you have become nothing more than a spoiled child, ruling through misguiding principles and misguided individuals. Sol Invicta? I name you Solaris Tyrannus!”
The Princess was unresponsive. A numbness had overtaken her as she tried to comprehend all the accusations being put before her of what she was, and she couldn’t process a single one of them.
“I’ll leave you to your thoughts.” Starswirl finally said, “Goodness knows you need time to think about what exactly you’ve done! I’ll be staying in the guest tower. You will find me there in time.” With that, Starswirl and the terrified Basil disappeared in a flash of light.
It was now midafternoon, and Starswirl had returned Basil to Baltimare. The elderly unicorn had calmed the poor young stallion’s nerves, once again promising that he would not be turned in. “I will also promise you this, Basil my lad,” the sage declared, “Your children will not know the fear you know today, nor will any generation afterwards. In ten years to this very date, I will return to you, and my promise by that time will be fulfilled.”
“You can’t promise that,” the humble tomato farmer whimpered, “Neither of us may be alive in ten years!”
“Have faith, young Basil,” the old stallion smiled, “Don’t you know what they say about wizards?”
“No. What?”
“We always arrive precisely when we mean to.”
And with that, Starswirl flared his cloak with a grin, and he disappeared on the spot.