//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: 500 Kilometres 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7


Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes to discover that she was lying in bed. Her bed. Her bed in her home. The Ponyville Public Library. She glanced around and slowly sat up and looked around. This was the library, but... she couldn't actually be here, could she?

'Heinrich?' Twilight called out to her schäferhund companion. No response, though, if she was in the Ponyville Public Library, then she really shouldn't be surprised at that.

'Heinrich's not here', said a voice from over in the corner. 'Neither are you really'.

Twilight looked over to discover Montana Ulan sitting quietly in the corner, reading a book.

'Monty?' Twilight asked.

Monty looked up at her and smiled, he set down the book he was reading and gave her a polite wave. 'Hello Twilight'.

'Monty?' Twilight asked again. 'What's going on?'

'Simple, you're sort of dreaming. You're still lying on the ground on the banks of the River Rijn', Monty said. 'Your consciousness has been divorced from your body for a time, but don't worry. I'll get you put back right. I brought you here because I know you have questions, and to be frank you deserve answers'.

Twilight blinked slowly for a few moments, processing what Monty had said. 'I'm dreaming?'

'Sort of', Monty said. 'It looks like a dream, it feels like a dream, once you wake up, you'll struggle to remember this like it was a dream, and because you aren't going to remember it when you wake up, you can ask me any questions you would like, and I will answer them truly'.

Twilight blinked for a few moments. 'Who are you?' she eventually asked.

Monty smiled at her. 'A fair first question, not a very good one mind you, I am Montana Ulan, the same pony that you know me as, a better question would have been, 'what are you?' I'll save you the trouble of asking, but respond with another question, do you remember the tale of The Mare in the Moon?'

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and then recited the legend from memory. 'The Mare in the Moon: myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape and she will bring about night time eternal'.

Monty nodded. 'Not one of our better decisions, mind you'.

Twilight thought about it for a moment, then the realisation hit her. ''The stars will aid her escape' …'

Monty nodded again. 'The nephites know us as god, the tigers of Bharat know us as Krishna, the gryphons abandoned their old time worship of us for an atheistic society, and the ponies of Equestria know us as the Stars... though they have forgotten us entirely, not a surprise really, especially when our enemies have actively worked to suppress knowledge of us. They call us, 'The Others''.

Twilight sat quietly for a moment, taking all that was being told to her in slowly. 'Your enemies? Who are they?'

'The Royals, of course', Monty said simply. 'Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, especially, since Overdrive and the Siblings Nightmare have been rendered a non-factor'.

'Why are they your enemies?! The princesses are good, fair, and just rulers!' Twilight proclaimed.

'Yes, you would say that', Monty said. 'You don't quite have a choice to say anything different'.

Twilight thought about it for a moment and realised that he had a point. Twilight had really learned much about her own upbringing from her time in Europa. She’d been indoctrinated from childbirth to love Princess Celestia, but she had only recently become aware of it.

‘I’m more concerned, however, with the more recent indoctrination by the Tome of Alhazred’, Monty said. ‘You can hardly stand to be without it’.

‘That’s a lie!’ Twilight cried out, her voice shaking with hostility. ‘I don’t need it! I can go perfectly fine without it!’

Monty sighed and rolled his eyes at her. ‘Prove it, then’, he said, extending his leg and pointing at a spot on Twilight’s bed. Twilight looked over to it, and discovered the Tome of Alhazred lying on her bed next to her, which she had not noticed before. ‘Toss it out the window if you don’t need it’.

Twilight picked up the book in her magic, rising from bed, she trotted over to the window, she held it out, and told herself to drop it. Nothing happened, she told herself to drop the book again, but to no avail, the book would not drop, her magical hold on it staying firm. ‘I can’t...’ Twilight said in resignation. She needed the book, she loved it, and she wanted nothing more than to hold it close and to read it until the long hours of the morning.

‘I didn’t think so’, Monty said with a sigh. ‘The book, the real one, is a powerful magical artefact, and it does not release its hold on others, even after it is done with them’.

Twilight looked up to discover that the Tome of Alhazred had vanished; she understood that in this dream like state, it wasn’t even real to begin with. 

‘To answer your question, we’re enemies with the royals because they have an opposing ideology to ours. They hold power over you directly, ruling over you and providing with the illusion of comfort, safety, and security, while at the same time ruling with an iron hoof and a pleasant smile. While we, on the other hoof, prefer to get you started along the right path, and once you’re on it, we leave you be to make your own choices... and that’s gotten me into a bit of trouble, actually...’ Monty said, rubbing the back of his head with his hoof.

‘What do you mean?’ Twilight asked, razing an eyebrow.

‘I killed La Roche’, Monty said. ‘I intervened directly, and I’m going to have to pay for it’.

‘What’s going to happen?’ Twilight asked.

‘What did happen is a better question’, Monty said. ‘Let me give you some background, Pierre La Roche was a simple pony, the quiet type, doesn’t particularly like to be around other ponies, prefers to spend his time with himself, has been for his entire life, sound familiar?’

Twilight nodded, it sounded just like her before she had come to Ponyville.

‘La Roche was isolated from others, it’s enough to make a pony feel small, insignificant. So when he joined the Police Internationale, he discovered that he liked hunting down criminals, it made him feel special, important. He had power over others and he liked it. For Pierre La Roche, power was everything’.

‘Then he... raped me...’ Twilight said with a shudder.

‘Rape is always about power. The sex is just a bonus’, Monty said. ‘Having total control over another’s fate... It’s a huge power trip, La Roche isn’t the only one guilty of this, I can name six others right off the top of my head. Overdrive, Nightcaller, Nightsinger, Nightshadow, Celestia, and Luna... and many others to go along with them... in any case, the Others convened a tribunal to determine wether or not La Roche’s life was taken fairly or not, the tribunal ruled in his favour. Since he was killed by one of us without the approval of the tribunal, they have opted to restore his life. He’ll wake up tomorrow morning in his flat in Seine, CFR, with no memories of the last few days. I was also able to convince them that the best way to maintain the status quo would be to expunge your criminal record in the Cheval Fourth Republic, believe it or not, they agreed with me right out. Pierre La Roche will have never heard of you, and will not bother you ever again’.

‘I suppose I should be thanking you... doesn’t change the fact that he still raped me’, Twilight said, her ears drooping in disappointment.

‘No... no it doesn’t’, Monty said with a frown. He looked up towards the ceiling for a moment, but then looked back to Twilight. ‘It’s almost time for you to wake up... I’m sorry, but you’re not going to remember anything that I just told you... but you’re not going to know how you know that. You’re going to forget who Pierre La Roche is too, you’ll have no idea what you were doing out here either’.

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but Monty interrupted her.

‘It’s not up to me, Twilight, this is what the tribunal decided, I’m already in enough trouble with them as it is, I don’t care what they’ll do to me, it’s the other two that were with me that I’m worried about. The tribunal knows that I don’t care what happens to me, so they’re going to punish them to put me in my place’.

‘Sounds like they don’t like you’, Twilight said.

‘We have a difference of opinion, right now, we’re sitting back and letting the Royals do as they please while we should be taking the offensive to them. We could wipe them out in seconds, but the tribunal doesn’t want to because it’ll upset the balance of power in the world’, Monty said with a shrug. ‘So now, we sit back, and we do nothing, and you have to forget everything, the influence of the Tome of Alhazred providing a plausible explanation as to why you can’t’.

Twilight frowned, she looked down at the ground. ‘Monty?’ she asked, looking back up at him. ‘What about Heinrich? Am I going to forget him too?’

‘Yes’, Monty said with a simple nod.

‘I... I never told him I loved him’, Twilight said, tears forming in her eyes.

‘I’m sorry’, Monty said, the lights in the room began to grow bright, and Twilight Sparkle was shaken awake.