//------------------------------// // The Reason // Story: Families // by Darth Link 22 //------------------------------// Applejack really wished Twilight was awake right now, because she was the smart one and she would have really liked her input. As soon as she saw that unicorn levitate that magically suppressing horn ring up to her head, she had tried to leap to her friend's defense, only to be ambushed by two other ponies from behind, and she wasn't the only one. So now, what Twilight had hoped would be nothing more than an investigation had ended with the four of them tied by their back hooves, hanging upside-down from the thickest tree branch they could find. The cowpony struggled, trying to make the ropes come loose, but such actions proved fruitless. Clyde and Pinkie were having no better luck, their own struggles only serving to tire themselves out. Twilight hung limply, unconscious from the beating she had taken. "We might as well save our strength," Clyde said finally, allowing himself to limp. "We'll still need to fight our way out of here if we do get free." The ponies guarding them apparently weren't bothered by their discussion of escape. The unicorn that had taken down Twilight was talking to one of his subordinates, a pegasus with a lightning bolt cutie mark. "Make sure Olive Branch gets this quickly. He's about to go into negotiations with Celestia, and this will tip the scales in his favor." The pegasus nodded in approval, and like a shot he was in the air, heading toward Canterlot. Nodding in approval, he turned to a group of ponies that he had apparently collected when his captives weren't paying attention. They were all large, nearly as big as Big Macintosh, three earth ponies and two unicorns. "Just keep them in place. That horn ring should block the lapdog's powers, and our files on the other two say they're too stupid to be much of a threat." Applejack shouted at this insult, but she was ignored. "The time is right. Four of the six Bearers are our prisoners, and the remaining are the prissy ones. We can finally go after our target, and I will lead you there." "But Olive Branch said..." "He didn't know what would happen! We have a chance! That beast will die!" "No!" two simultaneous voices yelled as Applejack and Pinkie Pie both began thrashing anew. It was Applejack who managed to get the first words out. "If you lay a hoof on that boy, I'm gunna..." She was hit by a blast of magic from one of the unicorns. It didn't burn or hurt her seriously, but the force still knocked the wind out of her, ending her sentence with a strange groan. Turning back to the assembled ponies, he spoke again. "Fillies and gentlecolts, we're about to do a great service for Equestria. Onward!" Soarin groggily returned to consciousness only to remember why he had been knocked out. He attempted to open his eyes and focus, but his vision was greatly blurred. His wings were unresponsive, he realized, they had been bound to the sides. He was hogtied too... not a good sight to wake up to. "Rainbow?" he tried to call, but it came out as "Ruhnbow?" A scratchy moan answered him. He turned and saw Rainbow Dash, hogtied and wingbound like he was, still teetering on the edge of consciousness. "Well, this is great... I thought seeing you tied up would be a little more enjoyable than this." He could hear Spitfire scold him for not taking a situation seriously as he looked around. He was still in the Delivery family's home, he would guess. It looked like a basement, at any rate, with a water heater and a few boxes of Hearth's Warming decorations. What was an unusual attribute was the cage. It wasn't professionally made, that was for sure. It looked rather makeshift, but he knew it would hold. That much was clear. "Ugh... Soarin? What happened? Wait... the dinner..." "Looks like you were right, something was up," he noted. Rainbow Dash began struggling against his binds. "No, save your strength." "'Save my strength'? Scoots is in trouble, we need to get..." "I know, but tiring yourself out won't help," he said bluntly. "You want to be a Wonderbolt? Rule one, you need to keep cool under fire. Now, we need to assess the situation." "How?" “We let this simmer for a moment," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Eventually, a guard will walk in, and believe me, they're suckers if you play them right." As if on cue, a door opened, bathing light into the room. Immediately Rainbow Dash took this as a sign to start yelling. "You... I'm going to...” “P-please don’t be mad,” a little voice whimpered. All of Rainbow Dash’s anger melted away when she realized who it was, replaced by fear. “Scootaloo? Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” “He... he stepped on my wing... when I told him what you said. Please, I didn’t know he was going to do this...” “Scoots, listen, you need to get us out. Open the cage and untie us.” “...I... I can’t. He’s going to be really mad if I...” “Scoots, listen: I can help you, I can protect you from him.” Soarin’ spoke up. “What your dad is doing is wrong, it’s illegal. If you let us go, I guarantee he won’t get to you.” “...But, he’s my dad...” “He hurt you, Scoots!” Rainbow Dash’s voice was enough to shatter glass at that moment, and despite Soarin’s attempts to shush her, she went on. “Why would you want that?” “He just did it because... I disobeyed him...” “That’s not a good dad! Scoots, listen, you need to...” “Scootaloo? What the Tartarus are you doing down there?” Scootaloo froze and began shaking as her father descended the basement stairs. “I told you to stay out here. Honestly, can’t you do anything right?” “Don’t you talk to her like...” “Shut it,” the father growled, walking down the stairs. “You little lapdogs trying to tell me how to raise my foal. I swear, that’ll be over soon.” “You’re working for Olive Branch,” Soarin stated. There was no question, just the tone asking for confirmation. “Yeah,” he said. “I am. He was happy when he found out I could get you here, and he was even happier when he found out that Celestia’s attack dog ended up caught.” “You...” Rainbow Dash’s anger increased. “If you hurt her, I’m...” Speedy Delivery reached through the bars and struck the mare in the muzzle. It was hard, and it drew blood. “Daddy,” Scootaloo said, starting to tear up, “please don’t...” “Would you rather I hit you instead?” “...N-no...” “Then get upstairs. Now.” Crying, Scootaloo sprinted up the steps, tripping twice in her haste, before she was out the door. “Look what you’ve done to her. She used to be a good kid before you got a hold of her.” “She’s better than you deserve,” Rainbow Dash spat, but at the same time she was doing her best to wiggle away from her captor. “Another example of Celestia trying to control our lives. You damn dogs coming in here trying to tell me how to raise my foal...” “Listen,” Soarin said, hoping he would speak over his marefriend’s insults, “if you really have a problem with the way Celestia’s running things...” “Don’t even try telling me trying to talk her into stepping down would work. She’s been ruler for over a thousand years. But she’ll step down. Olive Branch is on his way to make sure of that.” Olive Branch entered the castle to a thunderous applause. The crowd being held outside the gates were all too happy that their efforts had paid off. They were pushing forward, doing everything outside attacking the guards to see their leader one more time. “Olive Branch? Please stay still.” The guards who spoke it received only a customary nod as they searched his assistants’ saddlebags. Finding nothing offensive, they instructed, “Come this way.” The unicorn nodded, motioning to the two earth ponies with him to follow the guard. It was a quiet walk to Celestia’s throne room. The escort entered first. “Presenting Olive Branch,” he announced, stepping aside and allowing the three guests to enter. “Thank you,” the unicorn said, levitating two bits toward the guard. He looked at them with a mix of surprise at the generosity and outright revulsion at having the protesters’ coins. Eventually, he pocketed them, vowing to spend them as soon as possible. The throne room was empty besides Celestia and Luna. In its center was a table, surrounded by five chairs. Two of them were occupied by Celestia and Luna, the former looking calm and serene, while the later was barely hiding her contempt. “Olive Branch, I’m glad you could make it. Please sit down.” Even through everything he had preached, Olive Branch admired how calm the Princess of the Sun was being. He took his seat, his assistants sitting on either side of them. “Care for tea?” “Two sugars, please,” he said politely, and his assistants followed suit. “Well then, now that we’ve had the customary greetings, let’s get down to it. I would very much like to hear your list of grievances. I trust you narrowed it down to the most extreme?” “I asked the citizens what they wanted,” he nodded, levitating the list out of his assistant’s pack and sliding it toward the Princesses. They scanned the list, finding the expected demands, that Shining Armor be replaced, that security be tightened, that more power be taken out of their hooves. “And what matter would thou wish be focused on first?” “The list isn’t anything I care about. You may do what you wish.” That was not an answer either sister had expected. They both stared at the supposed revolutionary until finally Luna said, in a blunt tone, “What?” “I really don’t care how you run Equestria. It doesn’t matter to me in the end.” There was another silence. “Do you mean to tell me that this whole movement... was a lie?” Celestia said, anger entering her voice. “No... only my part. I’ve been wanting an audience with you for awhile, but a common pony like myself has a hard time getting an audience with royalty, and even a noble couldn’t meet with you in private like I wanted. They served a purpose I needed, but I’m finished with them. Still, they won’t be done with you, so I suggest keeping a hold of that list. You’ll need it.” “You foal!” Luna cried, slamming her hoof on the table. “You caused all this trouble for a selfish motive?” “Cause it? Hardly. Your incompetence did that, I merely took advantage of it. By the way,” he levitated another slip of paper out of his assistant’s pack and slid it to them. “This is the address of one of my followers. He’s abusing his foal. I’d put a stop to that.” The two Princesses gaped at this. Olive Branch shrugged. “What? I’m not heartless. Now I suggest you listen to my request.” “Insolent cur! This one good deed does not make up for all your trouble! We will not negotiate with the likes of...” A raised wing silenced her. But it wasn’t done because Celestia was being kind. She glared a glare usually reserved for Discord or Chrysalis and said, in a growl, “What is it that you want?” “I want something you have been keeping to yourselves ever since you took the throne. I want immortality.” Twilight awoke with a groan. She looked around through blurred and was hit with vertigo, though she didn’t know why. She tried to piece together what had happened. She tried lighting up her horn. She couldn’t feel her magic. She remembered her brain feeling like it had been split apart. She realized what must have happened: a horn ring. It was suppressing her magic now, and having it be placed so unexpectedly had caused her magic to be pushed back into her. Through all this thinking, she hardly noticed she was hanging upside down until she heard Applejack’s call. “Twi? Twi?” “Huh... whoa!” she suddenly was awake enough to notice her surrounding. “What happened?” “They got us, Twi,” the earth pony moaned. “I’ve been trying to break free, but it’s no good.” “Ooh! Now that Twilight’s awake, I’ll bet she can do something fun! Oh! Break the ropes and do some super cool magic stuff...” “Pinkie,” Clyde said patiently, “horn ring.” “Oh... right.” “Still, I trust a pony of your caliber knows how to remove it?” “Don’t bet on it,” one of the guards said, though he hardly looked at them. “That ring’s as high a caliber as you can get without being able to suppress an alicorn.” “Cute,” Twilight thought, as she began concentrating. “Ya gotta figure a way out of here quick, Twi,” Applejack said. “Most of them varmints went after Spike.” Twilight froze. Or she would have, hanging by a single rope meant all four ponies were swaying. “What?” “It’s true,” the guard said, looking at her with a malicious smile. “By now, that beast is likely a dragon skin rug.” “What?” A silence hung in the throne room. A very angry silence. “Immortality?” Celestia repeated, not quite believing it. “I know you figured out how to make yourselves immortal through the Source. I’m all set to head there myself, I simply need the key you know and...” “Foal!” Luna shouted, using her Royal Canterlot voice once more. “You’ve wasted our time for a curse?” “Believe me,” Celestia said coldly, “I would give you immortality if I knew how and I didn’t shudder to think what a pony like you would do with such power.” “Oh don’t give me that ‘immortality is a curse’ nonsense,” the unicorn waved a hoof dismissively. “It’s allowed you to reign for a millenium. I want that kind of power... oh don’t worry, fighting the two of you would be too much work. I’ll find my own kingdom to rule. I think I could whip the griffons into shape...” Celestia stood. “We’re done here. My guards will escort you out.” “Are you sure you want that, Your Highness? I think you might want to reconsider when you learn who I have.” “What?” Luna’s roar was accompanied by Celestia whirling around glaring at him. “Hostages? Honestly? That’s your plan?” “Indeed. Ponies will die...” “I cannot risk the thousands of lives you will ruin to save any hostages. What makes you think I would?” “Please. The reason the invasion happened is you considered the comfort of your niece more important than the lives of your citizens.” Two pairs of eyes went wide as the Princesses gaped at their opponent’s knowledge. “Oh yes, I know Twilight tried to warn you. I was saving that as a trump card to tell the public if you refused to see me, but it proves my point. Now then, I merely have to use my magic to send the signal, and Twilight Sparkle will die. And before you get any ideas on trying to stop me, if I don't send the all clear signal every thirty minutes, my associates have orders to kill them anyway.” “You beast! Release Twilight Sparkle at once or I shall...” Luna was cut off. But not by Olive Branch. By her sister. It hadn’t been a gesture to be silent, even that wouldn’t have quieted her rage now. It was laughter. Not a simple chuckle, or a sarcastic laugh. No, it was full, deep belly laughter. The Princess of the Sun lost her composure as she fell bottom down on the table, laughing like Olive Branch had told the most hilarious joke she had heard in her incredibly long lifetime. Her hoof pounded the table in rhythm to her roars as tears rolled down her her cheeks. Her laughs became labored pants as the other four ponies looked on feeling a bit disturbed. “Wh-what’s so funny?” Olive Branch demanded, trying and failing to sound intimidating. “I’m... I’m... okay, I think I’m okay now,” Celestia said, righting herself. “It’s simply this: in the centuries I’ve ruled, have seen some truly foalish... no, that’s too kind... idiotic attempts at my throne, or equally half backed assassination attempts. Your base plan is full of holes as it is. Suppose I gave you what you wanted. Then what’s to stop me from hunting you down after you released your hostages? Especially since you told me where you were going. I could have a squad on you long before you ever reached the Source. And since you were dropping your group, nopony would likely know of your disappearance.” “I... I had plans!” Olive Branch said, in the single most transparent lie Celestia had ever heard. “But picking Twilight Sparkle... my student, as your hostage, takes the proverbial cake. It pushed your scheme far past a mere annoyance and made it amusing. I shall treasure this memory.” “I don’t think you understand,” Olive Branch shouted. “It only takes one message from me and your lapdog is dead. Twilight Sparkle is safely restrained!” “Let me guess, you had some Royal Guards working from the inside lend it to you? You must have had inside assistance to know of what exactly happened the eve of the wedding. I’ll be conducting an investigation to find and punish them soon, thank you for telling me. I take it they gave you a standard issue? You didn’t try for the true military grade I keep locked away?” “Y-yes... it will hold her!” “No it won’t. I trained and mentored Twilight myself, and she came to my attention through her raw power. Now tell me, what makes you think standard issue will be enough to hold her?” A blast of magic hit the guard, sending him flying. The remnants of a horn ring landed somewhere in the grass, while Twilight and her fellow hostages fell to the ground, being stopped by Twilight’s magic for a soft landing. They readied themselves for resistance and found none. The lead unicorn had only left four guards, and the three remaining conscious ones had wisely decided to run. Twilight had no clever quip, nothing to say. She simply began racing towards Ponyville, and the others quietly followed.