//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Lessons for a Benevolent Tyrant // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// Celestia had not been entirely sure what to expect of Starswirl the Bearded upon being told she was to receive lessons in ‘Generosity’, but she had promised to humor her old friend, so she would listen to whatever he had to say. After raising the sun for an early morning, she made her way to Starswirl’s chamber in the guest tower. Upon opening the doors to the cozy chamber, she found Starswirl was just about to leave the room. “Where are you going?” she quizzically asked, “I thought we were going to have lessons today!” “We are, Tia, dear. I find, however, that when it comes to teaching, a visual aid beats out simple lecturing any day. We’re going to be taking a little stroll.” Celestia smiled, “Alright. Where are we going?” “The Diamond Dog Empire. Stay close to me now; taking a passenger while teleporting can prove interesting to say the least.” Celestia stepped a little closer to the sagely unicorn, and in the blink of an eye, the two of them found themselves nowhere near Canterlot, but nearly a thousand miles away and several hundred feet underground. The white alicorn saw with a start that she and Starswirl were in an enormous cavern, spanning almost a mile by a mile and a half of empty space. She also realized the two of them were floating several feet above the stalagmite strewn surface of the cavern floor. “How are we not falling?” She asked while looking down at the sharp spikes erupting from out of the cavern floor. “I took the liberty of making us intangible upon arrival. We can only influence each other now; we are invisible ghosts to anyone else. It will allow for a glimpse into the natural goings-on of the Diamond Dog state, without influencing our surroundings.” The two ponies seemed to walk on air as they continued on their field trip. “Speaking of, do you notice anything about our surroundings in particular?” Starswirl asked whilst looking ahead of the two of themselves. Celestia strained all of her five senses and several of her others to find anything of note based on her immediate surroundings, “I see a large mound in the distance.” “Good. What else?” “I hear a small murmur, like voices below the bedrock.” “And?” “I don’t sense a Diamond Dog anywhere near here.” “Not in this cavern. You won’t find a Diamond Dog here apart from one; the Emperor himself. He’s your contemporary in more ways than one now.” Celestia looked to Starswirl with agitation, “I told you to stop calling me an Empress, Starswirl; how many times are you going to guilt me with my mistakes?” “Several, at least until my meaning behind it starts to sink in. Now, you won’t find a Diamond Dog up here for this reason; these are the Imperial Gem Grounds, from which he can pluck any precious stone he so desires to add to his considerable pile in the Palace Vault. Any interloper is put to death if they step across this cavern without his permission. You’ve heard, I’m sure, the tales of the Diamond Dog race’s greed?” “Of course,” Celestia nodded. “They don’t even tell the half of it. Avarice is a virtue here in the caves of the Diamond Dogs, and the gems they seek are pursued with an almost religious fervor. It started with Siegfried Vielknochen, their first Emperor.” Celestia's eyes misted over in memory of days long gone from the world,“I remember meeting him near the dawn of time, when all the races were gathered together to let the others know what they were to be called on that first Naming Day. He had only one eye, and he was short compared to every other Diamond Dog around him. He was always very quiet; I felt he was hiding some secret that he didn’t want others to know.” “The Diamond Dog royal family does hold a secret; they are much smarter than they appear. Siegfried I won his title through cunning of wit against all the others of his pound.” Celestia looked to Starswirl, her mind still going as far down as memory lane as she possibly could go, “Now that I think about it, the Emperor was very secretive of how he achieved his pound’s respect. How did he win?” “With a brilliant strategy; he used his race’s greed to his advantage. He promised them that he could make his pound’s jewels grow in value and number, if they entrusted a portion of their haul every year to him and his litter. The other Diamond Dogs, being slow witted and actually believing their jewels would literally grow in Siegfried’s paws, accepted the terms.” “So you mean to say..You can’t be serious?” “Oh, yes! The concepts of banking and financial fraud were invented on the same day. But the tale is not finished. Otto IV, the great great great great grandson of Siegfried I, perfected the family scheme, by encouraging his race to seek out slave laborers. Any Dog could exchange a slave of any other race for a fluctuating amount of gems in return for that slave’s remaining years alive and for the quality of service offered. The common Diamond Dogs, in their lust for gemstones, raided many nearby lands for as many slaves as they could carry back. More land equates to more gemstones, and the Palace Vault grows larger and larger by the year.” Starswirl looked around the large cave, eyeing its full dimensions, “I expect it will take up the whole cavern in about one hundred years at this rate.” Celestia began to look to the cavern floor below, an expression of horror growing on her face, “So the muffled sounds I hear below the bedrock-“ “Are the cries of both slaves and masters, mining deep below for a few shiny baubles” Starswirl said darkly. “I must put a stop to this,” she declared, “The Solar Empire will destroy this awful practice!” “And then what? Replace your own dictatorship with the current one? I’d wager neither the Diamond Dogs nor their slaves would notice that large of a change,” the elderly unicorn slipped into a Diamond Dog syntax, “ ‘We ruled by horse lady now. We no care, just give us gems!’ they would say.” Celestia angrily snorted at Starswirl, “I am different from these frauds and slavers! I bring peace with me!” The unicorn fired back, “You probably aren’t used to hearing this, but You. Are. Wrong! A peace through tyranny is no peace at all! The Emperor may be a tyrant through fraudulence, but he at least knows he is a fraud! Look at yourself! You crushed freedom from the lives of your subjects, but you were truly ignorant to the damage you were causing until I showed it to you! The only different between you and the Emperor here is that your subjects force a smile at you, so they aren’t in turn forced into reeducation!” “What in Tartarus,” Celestia yelled, “Does any of this have to do with Generosity? All I’ve learned so far is that you are out to demonize me!” “I told you last night you cannot make other ponies happy, didn’t I?” “I remember,” Celestia growled, “What is your point?” “By trying to make everypony happy, you make nopony happy. Pursuing the path that you are, you are doing the exact opposite that you intend! The only way to make ponies happy is to let them choose their own happiness. For that to happen, though, you must allow them to choose! You must be generous with your power; let it go, and you will be one step closer to redeeming yourself, in returning to who you once were!” Celestia was silent as she mulled over what Starswirl had had to say. “I have one last thing to show you,” the sage said quietly. In a flash of light, they were moved to another corner of the world, one full of fire and smoke. The winter nesting ground of the dragons was a desolate ash heap, and in and among the few scattered jewels left from their migration to their summer homes in the northeast many months ago were the dully glowing, brittle bones of several dragons. “What happened to these dragons?” Celestia asked in awe; in all her years she had never seen a dead dragon before. “They starved,” Starswirl bluntly said. “The Dragon Overlord, Leviathan, is neither generous with power nor with food. The weak perish, and the strong survive. The dragons are actually beginning to die out now. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, any and all relations will kill each other just to have one new jewel to add to their hoard. There are only about one thousand left all over the world. If they had learned to be generous, though, they might have averted this fate.” “This is just another object lesson on Generosity?” Celestia impatiently asked, “Share and the world will be better?” “Generosity and sharing are two different things,” Starswirl declared as he picked up a stray amethyst in his magical telekinetic field. “Sharing is an exchange of material goods or services only, and it will demand of any being an equal amount or service in exchange for the good received. Generosity, to pardon the expression, is a horse of a different color.” With the amethyst still in his telekinetic grip, Starswirl forced the gem to change its physical structure, crushing some parts inward while pulling other facets outward. Finally, the amethyst was transformed into the shape of a perfectly formed and polished dodecahedron. He then offered it to Celestia, who made to examine the jewel with her own magic. Starswirl retained his hold on the gem, and she finally looked to him. “Generosity,” the elderly unicorn finally proclaimed, “Is the offering of something material for something immaterial, and not expecting anything in return for the act.” “And those immaterial things would be?” “Happiness at being able to help others, for one,” Starswirl said, and then smiled, “But also to both receive and give a lesson learned on the subject itself.” The wizened unicorn let go of his grip on the beautiful jewel. Celestia looked at the jewel before her, and she began to smile. She thought she was beginning to understand now what this lesson had truly been about. “I think that will be all for today,” Starswirl said, returning the two of them to the guest tower in Canterlot. It was beginning to be time for Celestia to lower the sun and raise the moon. “I hope your lesson was luminary?” “I think so,” she quietly said, still holding aloft the gem her friend had given her. “Then in that case, I expect you to act on what you’ve learned. I want to see you one week from today, and I also want you to write me a paper showing what you have learned about Generosity and how it relates to you.” “Alright, teacher,” Celestia dryly smiled, “Good day to you, Starswirl.” “Good day, Empress,” the elderly unicorn replied before briefly yawning. “Starswirl?” “Yes, Empress?” “I revoke my title of Empress. Please, just call me Princess,” Celestia smiled as she walked out of the guest suite. Starswirl began to smile to himself, as he spoke to an otherwise empty room, “Very well, Princess Celestia.”