//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty-six // Story: Freedom Through Harmony // by Electricut //------------------------------// Chapter Thirty Six Year 498; House of the Hylian Rainbow Dash “Before you ask, though- no, Fafnir isn’t in town any longer.” Spike continued. “He got transferred to another place around ten years or so ago, and is still there for all I know. He never did tell me why he switched though, just that he was needed more elsewhere. “I mostly just lazed around Eclipse for a while after that. It wasn’t as though the capital city needed any more defensive measures, so I really didn’t have much to do. But it was important that the King’s eyes and ears were able to see what was going on at the capital, so I resolutely stayed. I always had two things on my mind, though- finding out what happened to Fenrir, and finding a way to get home. “The Queen figured out after a while that she wasn’t getting rid of me, but without anything to defend against (what kind of idiot would attack the capital city with a full barracks?) I was little better than dead weight to her. So one day, not quite a year after we arrived, she approached me with a request. She had... picked up... a new apprentice, and asked if I would serve as a guardian for her. You know, bodyguard, confidant- the works. “At first, I had no idea why she was asking me. All my life before then, I had been around maybe three children regularly, and by then I was sure she’d have figured that out. But I decided I’d see the apprentice at least, decide whether or not I thought I was up to the task. So she led me through the halls to a room that looked as though it had recently been converted specifically for this use. There were toys and a bed, and... other, kid stuff. In the center of the room was a little girl, messing around with some kind of magic-resonance-light show thing.” He motioned to Twilight, indicating he was speaking of her. “She turned around curiously when the door opened, our eyes met and... That was it. I stayed by her side ever since, and at some point I even stopped caring whether we found a way home or not. Still don’t. But at first, something didn’t quite sit right with me. When the queen said she found an apprentice, I thought she meant one who was around ten or so, who was fully ready to kick of magic training- Twilight was only two years old at the time. “It kept nagging at me, and I decided I needed to check where she came from- I needed to see what the circumstances were that her parents would be willing to give her over to the queen completely. It proved more of a challenge than I thought it would- already traces of her past life were being erased, and I really started to feel suspicious about the whole thing. Eventually I did manage to track her family down- a pair of accomplished, but not namely ‘gifted’ mages themselves. I learned through talking to them exactly one time, and getting second opinions from some other townspeople, that they had given up Twilight without a fight. They were both clearly devoted to their ruler, and would and had made the ultimate sacrifice for her. When I spoke with them, it was in their own home, as they had invited me in after I told them of my standing with the queen. And- while I was there- I did happen to see another young girl of the same age as Twilight...” He now nodded in Trixie’s direction. “I pretty much just left it at that. I considered trying to talk sense into her parents, but the fact that I knew it wouldn’t do any good, the fact that Celestia would never give her up by then, and the fact that I thought I could do a much better job of raising Twilight than her parents had demonstrated they could- I decided I’d just work with the situation instead.” He wrapped up his bit of the story, and offered for one of the others to take over. Glad to hear someone else here is in their right mind. I thought. There is nothing right about what Celestia did. And to think... I flashed back to the last bit of my story, of what that soldier had said. ... That was almost me. It’s almost like I had three different paths to choose from- to live the rest of my childhood with Applejack, to be taken to The Order with Fluttershy, or to become a human weapon for Celestia with Twilight... Thanks, Vi. Going on this line of thought, I remembered the one part of the story I had conveniently failed to mention, mostly because I wanted to understand it fully myself before I tried telling anyone else about it. A while after his execution, I had had a dream, in which I was on a featureless plain, surrounded by rolling fog and unable to go anywhere. Eventually, out from the fog came Ultraviolet. I asked if it was a dream, and half expected the imaginary world to start falling apart, as it usually did when I realized I was dreaming. It did not. "Yes..." He had started, "And no. You’re asleep and in a world of your unconscious mind, yes. But- at the same time, this is happening. I’ve just figured out how to contact you this way- it seems this is the only way I can- and I wanted to test it out, drop in and say hi." Aren’t... Aren’t you, dead though? I asked him. Are you talking from beyond the grave or something? "Yeah... Yeah, I’m dead. That much is still true. Right now... I’m not sure what’s become of me. Everything’s been moving too fast for me to figure it all out, and I’m still trying to learn all the new rules. If what’s happening to me is what happens to all people when they die, or if this is something that I have to brave alone... I’m not sure. But I wanted to use this chance while I had it to see you, maybe one last time, and tell you anything you want to know, that I wasn’t able to tell you when I was alive.” I gave it some thought- an action made totally unnecessary by the fact that in this place, every thought in my mind was laid out like a platter in my mind, and I could access any and all of them instantly. Quite disorienting the first time trying it. Just... What happens now? What am I supposed to do? “You’re staying with Mac and Applejack, and their family now, correct?... Then don’t worry about it too much. I trust Mac to get things where they need to be. Just do as you’re told, and in time, you’ll know what has to be done.” I shook my head, bringing myself back to the present. Luckily, I hadn’t missed anything, as Phil and Trixie were trying to decide who went next. Phil stepped forward after a moment, but only shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. Celestia found me when I was little in what I assume was the same way she found Twilight. Being a human phoenix as I am, I was just as viable to be a human weapon as a gifted mage like Twilight. She tried the same tactic at first- essentially just asking nicely. My parents- one Child of Fire and one Hawk Tribe Laguz, as it happened- refused, and it came to violence. Long story short... they got killed, she took me regardless, and I was raised like a brother with Twilight.” I was somewhat concerned that he was able to skim over the death of his parents so easily. I guess he was little at the time... could be he only knows how it happened out of researching it, and doesn’t remember the event. But then... It could also be because he doesn’t want to get all emotional about it like I did, especially in front of his little girlfriend. “Wait... Human Phoenix?” Rarity asked first, several others agreeing. Phil grinned, a look that was startlingly similar to one I would use regularly. “Yeah. Watch this!” He clapped his hands together and wrung them for a moment, then ran forward and kicked into the air just short of the campfire, his wings spreading wide as he went. But when he reached the peak of his jump, instead of flapping his wings to propel him further into the air, he only hovered while he threw back his head and arms, giving a strong, hawk-like cry. A strange, fire-like orange light enveloped him, and from the core of light a huge bird shot forth into the sky, like no other bird I’d ever seen. It’s feathers were all the same color as before- blazing orange and red, and seemed to shift colors like a leaping flame as the bird tore through the sky. With its more compact form, it was able to (and did) preform complex and tight arial maneuvers that I could only dream of doing so efficiently. With an entirely unnecessary flourish, the bird nosedived straight for the ground, and landed as a human again just as it approached the ground. Phil rolled forward to his feet, then slightly more into a bow, meeting applause from most everyone gathered. I found it to be a bit flashy, but I clapped anyway. “Human phoenix.” He confirmed, returning to his seat next to Twilight. “Trixie, you’re up.” She stood in his place slowly. “Well... I guess it was when I was eight or so... I had finally figured out what had really happened that day, six years ago, and managed to squeeze a confession out of my parents about it. As you can well imagine, I wasn’t too happy about it. I was absolutely enraged that all this time, I had once had a twin sister- and that they just gave her away just because Celestia asked them to. I got so caught up in thoughts of what could have been, the awesome childhood we both missed out on- and I realized I couldn’t stay with them any longer. I hated them for what they did, and just couldn’t bring myself to be any kind of loyal to them ever again. “I ran. I grabbed what I could and walked out the door, never to look back. I think they tried to find me again for a while, but they didn’t deserve to find me. It wasn’t an easy way to live, but I managed to avoid them altogether. I had some money with me, and some food, so I wasn’t too desperate for a while, and ended up sneaking out of Eclipse before too long. The crowds weren’t making it easy to go undetected, and I needed to find a more permanent place. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do after that, but at the time, I think I was just focusing on the problem at hand. “I managed to make it all the way to a small town sitting right on what used to be the Eclipse-Dusk border- a fair distance from where I had left.... Things got harder after that. I was able to live off what I had for a bit, but pretty soon I was clean broke, and had to live off of what I could get people to give me. I had shelter off and on, and no house was permanent. I was able to make some cash for a few magic demonstrations, but it was only just enough to survive off of, and even that soon began to abandon me. “I went on as long as I could, but soon it just became too much to bear, and I ended up slumped against a random building, hopeless. I was tired, hungry, dirty, and- on top of all that- it was raining. Yep, things looked pretty hopeless right then. I was just about ready to give up, and let whatever was going to happen to me happen, when...” “When a tall, ludicrously handsome, charismatic gentleman approached her.” Xekora interrupted with a grin. Trixie grinned right along with him and shook her head at his self-portrait. “Sure, we’ll go with that. Anyway, yeah, he came up to me, and just asked what I was doing on the street. I looked up at him, wondering what he was trying to pull. All this time, he was the first one to take any notice of me sitting there, and he seemed to calm about it too. I told him ‘nothing, just sitting around waiting to die, how about you?’ He looked at me more closely, I guess to re-evaluate me from what he had seen before. “I asked if he needed anything, or if he just wanted to stand there and block the rain- in which case, please, be my guest. He lowered himself to a crouch, bringing himself to my eye level, and said: ‘You’re the sister of that girl Celestia’s been training, aren’t you?’ I looked at him funny, as could be expected, and asked how he knew that. He told me he’d been keeping an eye on things that had been going on, and that it was very unfortunate what had happened to me. He said that it was only partly my parents fault, and that Celestia, asking for them to give Twilight up, was the root of the problem. “I started to see his point- in the situation, my parents could have chose to act as they did or fight- but in the end, it was still Celestia that had robbed me of my sister. I experienced a surge of anger for just a moment: then stopped, deflated as I was before. It all just looked so pointless from the street, in the rain, and over the sound of my stomach. But what he told me next definitely caught my attention. “ ‘You’re not alone, you know. Countless others have had their lives destroyed by the Queen, and want them back. You’re not the first, young one, nor, unfortunately, will you be the last. However... You could make a difference, and see to it that no one else has to live like this.’ I just stared at him, wide eyed. He sure knew what I wanted to hear. ‘You could well be the spark that starts a revolution against her. And I, while sworn to stay on the sidelines, could at least house you and ready you for the challenges ahead.’ “He held out his hand to me, a sympathetic but excited smile on his face. ‘I can make you powerful enough to take on the Queen.’... I don’t really know why I did what I did that day, but I’d do it again. Maybe it was out of desperation, of wanting anything to believe- maybe it was because I was too tired, and just wanted whatever would come to me to come and take me- or maybe I truly believed what he was saying. Whatever the reasons, I took his hand and let him help me up.” Xekora took over the story from here. “For the record, it was obvious to anyone who cared to look that this girl had some serious potential- I thought it a shame to waste such skill, especially when we needed great fighters like her to face the queen. I took her into my own home- I was living near that town at the time, completely undercover- brought her back up to health, and showed her the world as best I could. Years passed, her magic skill flourished under my vast knowledge (and pile of magic-related stuff), and I basically did my best to set her up with all the tools she’d need in the future. “When she was fourteen, I felt she was truly ready to go- to take on the world again, and to try and get things stirred up for a proper resistance. I set her up with some money, some hand-me-down weapons and armor, and sent her on her way. Meanwhile, I picked up shop and moved all my belongings here, to get a better vantage point for when things really get going.”