“You know, it sure would’ve been nice if you’d told me a month ago how much hiking I’d be doing here. Who knows, with that little nugget of info I might’ve thought over coming here at all a bit more carefully?”
“As I recall I did tell you that you’d have to carry a flower to the top of a mountain. Was that not explicit enough? Besides, you were happy enough to do it before. What’s the matter, not getting cold hooves now, are you?”
“No, of course not! It’s just… horseapples, why do there have to be so many stairs?” Panting, Derpy stopped to catch her breath.
“Oh come now Miss Hooves, look on the bright side. Hiking’s a very healthy activity for both the body and mind, and at least we have stairs to climb. Or would you actually prefer that I give you a crash course in mountain climbing instead?”
Coming from any other pony Derpy would’ve shrugged off that last query as just some wisecrack, maybe even countered it with a smart-alecky comeback of her own, but from Aucune she could never be sure. She wasn’t really positive he understood the concept of sarcasm and decided it was best to remain on the safe side of things by saying nothing at all, and so the two ponies continued their ascent in silence.
Where exactly they were climbing Derpy could not say. It’d been two days since her grueling trial in the Dark Mile, and in all that time Aucune had largely kept mum on the matter. To be fair Derpy had slept through most of Monday; Aucune had given her the day off and she’d been so sapped by Sunday’s enterprise that she’d ended up confining herself to the comfort of her cot all day, only rising in the early evening to get some dinner. Tuesday hadn’t been much more eventful; after helping all morning around the castle with a few odd chores, Derpy’s afternoon had been spent gathering food and supplies with Aucune for their trek on Wednesday. Even then he’d barely shared any details about what was in store for her, aside from the fact that they’d be traveling to a secluded area high in the mountains for the duration of what he’d described as the “forthcoming tribulation”. Once their preparations were complete Aucune had dismissed Derpy for the day, and after grabbing some dinner the anxious mare had spent the rest of the evening reading, trying to take her mind off of things.
No matter how hard she tried, though, she just couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d have to confront in the mountains. Fear held her fast like an eagle clutching its prey in its talons, and she didn’t even know what exactly she’d find when the time came. All she did know was that whatever her demons were, they’d had a stranglehold on her life for as long as she could remember. Every gaffe, bumble, goof-up, and blunder she seemed to constantly make was attributable to the power they had over her; that fact alone made them a daunting and fearsome opponent, and the thought of challenging such an adversary filled Derpy with dread. When she could no longer go two sentences in her reading without her thoughts straying back to her anxiety, she’d given up altogether and headed to bed, hoping sleep would grant her some respite. But all night she’d tossed and turned beneath her covers, and a few times even woken with a start in a cold sweat.
She was almost relieved when Aucune roused her from her restless slumber early that morning. After wrapping themselves in cloaks and scarves and strapping on saddlebags containing their supplies, the two had set out at the crack of dawn, crossing the boulder-strewn vale until they’d come to an unmarked, secluded stairway at the eastern edge of the encompassing mountains. All morning they’d been making their way up the mountain path, climbing higher and higher. By no stretch of the imagination were things easygoing, yet despite her fatigue (and ever-increasing enmity towards stairs) Derpy really was grateful for the activity in general. Sure the climb was difficult and at times even monotonous, but it did divert her thoughts from her nerve-racking fears. Well, at least to some extent.
Derpy and Aucune continued their climb in silence for some time. Periodically Derpy glanced at the ground in front of her, watchful of her footing; these stairs seemed even more archaic and worn-down than those that led to Die Schmiede, and on top of that a good number of them were covered by thin, difficult-to-spot layers of glaze ice. All it would take was one misstep or slip of the hoof for the accident-prone Derpy to go tumbling a long and very painful ways down, a scenario she rather hoped to avoid altogether. Occupied as she was with the climb and her own worries, it came as a surprise to her when Aucune broke the silence soon after their last exchange.
“I must say, much as I enjoy a good hike, this is a rather dull affair. How about a story to pass the time?”
“A story? Ummm… is this really the time or place?” Derpy asked, unsure if her tutor was getting lightheaded on account of the higher elevation. Earthbound ponies’ bodies usually had a far more difficult time adjusting to high altitudes than pegasi, though seeing as Aucune lived in the mountains Derpy reckoned it wasn’t altitude sickness.
“Why not? There’s nothing else to do at the moment besides continue following the path; I’d say it’s as good a time as any for another history lesson.”
“Uh… OK, yeah, I guess that makes sense. What’d you have in mind Mister Magique?”
“I believe it’s time you finally learned our history Miss Hooves. By that of course I mean the history of the Order.”
What the hay, we haven’t covered that? I could’ve sworn we did. Hmmm, let’s see… Pre-Classical Era, the Unification Wars, Equestria’s Foundation and Classical Era, Discord’s Reign of Chaos, the Rise of the Alicorn Sisters. We’ve certainly gone through our fair share of ancient Equestrian history, but yeah, I guess we haven’t covered the Order yet now that I think about it. Wonder why he waited till now?
“Sure thing Mister Magique, fire away, I’m all ears!”
“Very good. I warn you, ours is not exactly a happy history, but there’s much to be learned from it. You won’t find it in too many annals of Equestrian history these days either, but not on account of its “obscure” nature. No, no: we have been forgotten by most because a select few exalted individuals have made the express choice to purposefully neglect us and our contributions to Equestria. But enough about that, let’s get to the history itself, from the beginning.”
“Harmony did not reclaim Equestria instantaneously after the Sisters’ overthrow of Discord; chaos reigned across the land, and the infrastructure of every region and major city lay in shambles. Some villages were even completely abandoned, never to be inhabited ever again. All in all, the Sisters stepped into power with an abysmal national disaster on their hooves the likes of which even they were unprepared to handle, at least by themselves. Complicating matters was the Crystal Empire to the north, and the role it might play in Equestria’s future.”
“The Crystal Empire? Wait, what’s that, I’ve never heard of it?” A million new questions spun through Derpy’s mind all at once, each one vying to be answered.
“Patience Miss Hooves, patience,” Aucune implored, “all will be revealed, just wait and see. The Crystal Empire was an ancient kingdom older than Equestria itself. Nopony knows where its citizens, the Crystal Ponies, came from, but we do know that they built their kingdom centuries before Equestria’s founding in what is now the Frozen North. Once, all the barren, frozen waste beyond the Crystal Mountains was a lush and beautiful land, if that can be believed, on par with Equestria itself. The three pony tribes discovered and established contact with this kingdom soon after founding Equestria, and over time the two pony nations developed close relations with one another. When the draconequus overran Equestria, the Empire sheltered Equestrian refugees who fled north, and also granted asylum to Equestria’s government. They even helped organize the beginnings of what would eventually have been a joint Equestrian-Crystal coalition, which would’ve fought to liberate Equestria from Discord’s grasp.”
“But then Princess Celestia and Princess Luna showed up,” Derpy interjected.
“Quite right, and that changed everything for everyone. While what could’ve easily been a bloody, drawn out conflict with Discord was averted, Equestria now had two godlike beings whom nobody knew virtually anything about as its rulers. All anyone really knew about the Sisters was that they were both ridiculously powerful. And that scared ponies. A lot of ponies.”
“You’re joking. But why?” Derpy asked. “The Royal Sisters are awesome! They raise the sun and the moon, keep us all safe, and, well, just do the best they can to make Equestria a great place to live. Why would anypony be scared of them?”
A heavy silence hung in the air for a moment. Aucune flicked his tail very deliberately from side to side, and if Derpy had been facing him she would’ve seen his standard steely countenance somehow further hardening. When he finally broke the silence, his words were slow and measured.
“Put yourself in their place for a moment, Miss Hooves. Try imagining what you yourself might’ve thought of the Sisters without over a millennium of their rule to go upon. What if you had never seen nor heard of an alicorn before, had no idea what one even was, and then one day, out of the blue, two show up in your home unexpected and unannounced with a bang? What then, Miss Hooves? How do you think you’d react?”
“I… guess I’d be pretty freaked out,” Derpy admitted. “But they still imprisoned Discord with the Elements of Harmony. I mean, weren’t ponies happy about that? Didn’t they know they could trust them after that?”
“On the contrary, that’s exactly what gave most ponies cause for concern in the first place. It proved just how powerful the Sisters were and understandably frightened many. Before Discord, ponykind had never encountered magical beings of such magnitude. Things certainly hadn’t always been perfect, but by the time Discord showed up the three tribes had achieved a stable, harmonious balance in the still young Equestria. Discord and the Sisters, however, threw that balance out of sync. It’s no surprise then that, with many of their own subjects uncertain what to expect and some even terrified of them, the Sisters put the Crystal Empire quite on edge as well, which finally brings us to the Order’s inception.”
“As I previously mentioned, Equestria was in shambles when Celestia and Luna came to power. With so much effort required to restore order to the land, the Sisters had neither the time nor energy to personally devote towards building amicable diplomatic relations with the Crystal Empire. So a solution was devised by the Sisters and the Empire’s Royal Family: an order, our order, was established.”
“Originally called simply ‘the Order’, it was comprised of hundreds of soldiers, scholars, and government officials from both nations, and allotted land in the Crystal Mountains. It would in effect be autonomous, owing no political allegiance to either Equestria or the Empire. The intent behind its formation was both political and cultural; while the Order’s express purpose was to regulate and protect the Equestrian-Crystal border, its unofficial function was to build and maintain relations between Equestria and the Empire as ponykind entered a new age. Self-governing and self-sustaining, the Order would take in any pony willing to join its ranks and devote themselves to promoting harmony, upholding justice, and protecting ponykind from whatever evils dared waylay any in the Crystal Mountains. Watch your step.”
Derpy’s eyes darted to the ground and she just barely sidestepped a massive gap in a few stairs right in front of her, timeworn by centuries of exposure to the elements. After recovering from her near slip, she turned her attention back to Aucune’s account.
“So what happened next?” She was very intrigued by Aucune’s revelation that the princesses themselves had had a hoof in founding the Order, not to mention everything she’d just been told about an empire which up until today she hadn’t even known existed.
“Hoped for and unexpected developments. Just as the Sisters and Royal Family hoped, the Order quickly proved to be a stabilizing presence along the border, monitoring traffic in the mountains and maintaining law and order, at least along the most important major highways. It also served spectacularly in its capacity as a diplomatic body, forging new ties between the Equestrians and Crystal Ponies and helping the Sisters gain the trust of the Crystal Empire. But as it grew, the Order began to change. For the first few decades of its existence, displaced ponies of every background from all over chaos-ridden Equestria swarmed to the Order. But as harmony was restored and the Sisters’ rule established, the Order’s ranks noticeably transformed. The dejected, displaced, and lost continued to join, but they no longer came from just any background. Instead, those who had no place in either nation came: the homeless, the talentless, the jobless, the aimless, the hopeless. As more and more came the Order’s superiors began to notice a common thread; cutie marks seemed to be at the center of most of these ponies’ troubles.”
A subdued giggle escaped Derpy’s lips, drawing an irked glance from Aucune.
“What, do you mean that all of them were unsure about their cutie marks and as big of klutzes as I am? Sorry Mister Magique, it’s just a little funny picturing thousands of clumsy ponies all coming together, everyone blundering this way and that.”
Aucune halted and turned to face Derpy. His face and body were a picture of calm neutrality, but his eyes told a different story altogether. Two fiery orbs of icy cold rage glared down at Derpy, and looking down from above her as he was, the sight of Aucune’s withering gaze alone was enough to strike the fear of Celestia in even the most rugged and stalwart of ponies.
“Ah yes, amusing, right? Countless lost souls with nowhere else to go, nopony left to turn to: what a regular laugh riot,” he coldly retorted. “It’s sad that your mockery is not too far from the truth; the only thing sadder is that the truth is so much worse. Some ponies came with cutie marks they didn’t understand, others with none at all, usually well into adulthood. Oftentimes they’d never displayed any talent or ability for anything at all, perhaps not even held down a steady job at any point in their lives. Far too often ponies came who’d been flat out ostracized by their own families, especially those who’d been born into noble families that had reputations to worry about.”
“Whoever they were, whatever their past, they were all lost! Deep down in the pit of their being they had no sense of belonging anywhere, no genuine feeling that they had a meaningful role to play in their home, their country, even their own families. Surely you of all ponies can appreciate how terrible such a fate is, and know the desperation and suffering that arises out of such a lot in life.”
Derpy paled at the rebuke and felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach.
Oh… oh horsefeathers, why? Why did I say that? Why the hay did I say that? Dang it, what would she think? Laughing at ponies like me, maybe even worse off!
“I’m sorry Mister Magique, really. That wasn’t the right thing to say at all. It’s just hard for me to imagine so many ponies having so much trouble… being ponies, I guess. I know I’ve been here with you all for a month, but everyone here seems perfectly normal, that’s all. Still, that’s no excuse, and for what it’s worth I’m sorry.”
The flames in Aucune’s eyes died down, replaced in an instant by his usual steely expression, and he gave his repentant pupil a curt nod before turning away, much to Derpy’s relief. His body language as a whole remained neutral, but he seemed less rigid and tense than when he had delivered his reprimand a moment ago.
“Apology accepted Miss Hooves. I’m sorry as well; my words were true, but I’m afraid I was unfairly harsh. I know that this is all new for you, and you had no way of knowing just how dire things have been and are. Sometimes the hardest part of these lessons for me is being reminded how few ponies know the truth: that our nation is hardly the flawless paradise so many paint it as, where everypony has their own special place.” Sympathy and bitterness simultaneously seeped from his words.
“Was there really no other place for them to go? Were things really that bad?” Derpy asked, hoping to gently prod Aucune’s mind away from whatever sad thoughts now occupied it.
“Regrettably no. Nopony else knew that so many of their brethren were so… desperate. Like I said, we didn’t even realize it until they all started coming, and that was completely by accident.” Aucune gave a disgusted snort, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Accident?” Derpy asked in confusion.
“Remember Miss Hooves, the Order was self-governing and self-sustaining from the start. While its members certainly treasured the independent nature of the organization, that independence also meant that they couldn’t rely on the Sisters or the Royal Family to continue replenishing our numbers. Officially, the Order had no binding legal ties to either government, and so they were in no way legally obligated to reinforce it regularly. So we did the only thing we could: we opened ourselves to anyone. Any pony, and I do mean any, were welcome within our ranks. We spread this word far and wide across the land, but as time went on only the most desperate, forlorn individuals, bereft of talent, vocation, and even home, responded.”
“Well, we couldn’t very well throw these ponies out just because they’d never shown an aptitude for anything else; at the very least, the Order needed them just as much as they needed the Order. So instead, we adapted; the brightest minds in the Order gathered in council and, after months of deliberation, the beginnings of a philosophy were produced, a philosophy that would completely transform the Order. They called it Unbegrenzt. No longer would the Order simply function as border patrol and an unofficial diplomatic body between two nations. Those functions were retained, but in addition we took upon ourselves a third purpose, a nobler, higher purpose: to show the world that any pony, no matter who they were, where they came from, or what they lacked, was capable of accomplishing anything.”
“It was at this time that our name was changed to its present day title, the Ordo Extraordinarii. In this brotherhood, there would be no common ponies or ordinary folk; whoever they were, we would ensure that each and every pony who joined our ranks would become the absolute best they could possibly be, not just for the Order’s own sake, but because they owed it to themselves. No pony should settle for a limited life just because others tell him that his cutie mark will only allow him to do this or that; Unbegrenzt dictated that each and every pony was capable of accomplishing anything at any time in their life. If they only completely devoted themselves wholeheartedly, all the strength, will, and power they could muster, then they could attain whatever object they desired.”
“That sounds a bit… aggressive,” Derpy noted.
“You misunderstand Miss Hooves. We had no hidden objects of conquest in mind, nor some juvenile desire to prove in any way that those within the Order were somehow better than everypony else. The plain fact of the matter is that these desperate souls were the only ones coming to join the Order, but it needed to still function as professionally as possible. After all, it still had to manage the border, and in those days that was no easy task; even after the Sister’s rule was established the Crystal Mountains remained a lawless, wild region, full of roving gangs of bandits, highwayponies, and all manner of beasts and monsters waiting to waylay defenseless travelers. So the Order’s superiors simply did what they needed to do to ensure that our members remained the best of the best, more than capable of defending the citizens of Equestria and the Crystal Empire from whatever dangers lay in the mountains.”
“OK, well, that makes sense,” Derpy conceded. “So did it work?”
“Well, yes and no,” Aucune answered. “In practice Unbegrenzt, and the regimen that developed out of it, worked like a charm and had an astounding success rate. But… in hindsight, our leaders should’ve taken things a step further and shared their discovery that there was such a cultural crisis in both countries, that so many ponies were outcasts simply because of the way all of ponykind exalted the role of cutie marks in their lives. They should’ve presented their findings to the Sisters, the Empire, anyone at all in a position of power, back when they might’ve listened to us, while we still had influence enough that most anybody would’ve listened. If they’d advocated hard enough, who knows, perhaps dozens of organizations could’ve been built that emulated the Order, giving outcasts as many places to go as possible.”
“But it was so easy instead to simply go on as these ponies’ sole benefactor. Our regimen and philosophy always worked, always managed to change the lives of the tens of thousands who came to us for the better. Our members were happy, content, and the Order was growing; what more needed to be done? They just couldn’t imagine that it could all come crashing down.”
Aucune remained silent for a few long moments before he continued from where he’d grimly left off. Each sentence seemed strained, as though the mere uttering pained him.
“For 300 years we throve and prospered. Equestria was restored, relations between the Equestrians and Crystal Ponies flourished, and the Crystal Mountains were kept safe. As our ranks swelled we began to require even more living space, and so with the wealth we had built through trade and various other business with the two nations, we bought more land in the mountains and built more strongholds, further securing the mountains and the roads that passed through them. Before we knew it, we’d built an entire civilization. At our peak, the Ordo Extraordinarii controlled a dozen fortresses throughout the Crystal Mountains, all of them fully garrisoned, not to mention the communities that sprang up near each one. As the centuries passed, our wealth, our ranks, and our knowledge all grew. Unbegrenzt continued to evolve, refined and developed by some of the finest minds the world has ever known. In our free society, we imported ideas, philosophies, cultural practices and lifestyles from all over the world; in effect, we became the most cosmopolitan civilization the world has ever known, a light for all ponykind.”
“That sounds like it was really wonderful Mister Magique,” Derpy remarked, envisioning the bustling arcadia that had once existed in the desolate mountains.
“Yes… yes it does, doesn’t it?” Aucune agreed.
“So where did it all go? What happened?” Derpy was dying to know the answer, although judging by Aucune’s tone whatever it was, it was not pleasant. All the same, she wanted to know.
“A monster happened. A monster in the north by the name of Sombra,” Aucune spat the name as though it were venomous. “At the pinnacle of our glory, in an age of peace and prosperity for all of ponykind, the dark-hearted King Sombra came to power in the Crystal Empire. For reasons unknown evil clouded his thoughts and stained his heart and soul black as a starless sky all of his days. He lusted after power and delved into dark arts to get it.”
“A few years after he ascended to the throne, troubling reports started coming to our strongholds from the north. Word of exorbitant taxes, heavily regulated trade, state seizure of private property and businesses, and the disappearance of all who opposed these measures permeated the correspondence of members from their families in the Empire. Soon the mail came less and less, then finally nothing. Complete and total silence was all that resonated from the north. At this point it was apparent to the Order’s leaders that something was terribly wrong, and so spies were sent north. Out of a dozen sent only three returned, and not a moment too soon, for shortly thereafter Sombra began shutting down every major highway into and out of the Empire, garrisoning the entire border at the northern edge of the mountains. Needless to say, the report that our spies gave was… disturbing.”
“So how bad was it?” Derpy asked.
“Worse than anypony had even imagined. Sombra had by then complete control over the whole of the Crystal Empire, ruling with an iron grip. He’d acquired a frightening amount of command over powerful dark magic, and ruled through fear and brute strength. The Crystal Ponies had been reduced from free and happy citizens to a state of serfdom, nay, slavery even! On top of all this, the magical crux of their nation itself, the Crystal Heart, had been stolen away from them, hidden by Sombra through his dark arts. Famine was beginning to spread across the land, the Crystal Ponies were in no position to resist (for all who dared oppose Sombra were swiftly disposed of), and even the rest of the Royal Family was in a veritable state of house arrest, confined to the Crystal Palace. Throughout the Empire, there was no hope, happiness, or love to be found: only despair. It was clear to the Order that something had to be done. And so it was.”
“First, a daring operation was launched into the heart of the Empire. A crack team of some of our finest members managed to infiltrate the Empire’s capitol and the Crystal Palace itself; at the cost of many of our brethren’s lives, we managed to extricate the entire Royal Family, including Sombra’s younger brother, next in line to the Crystal throne. Once we’d secured them, the Order moved swiftly; after gathering together all the evidence we could, emissaries led by the Order’s leader Eisen Huf the Stalwart marched to Canterlot with the Royal Family in tow, to present our findings and their testimony, and devise a plan to stop the madness of King Sombra before it was too late. It was here that the seeds of our demise were planted and took root, nourished by a betrayal we could never have imagined or foreseen.”
“Wait, really?” Derpy said in surprise. “What could’ve possibly gone wrong in Canterlot? Did Sombra have spies there, or, did he attack the Order while the emissaries were away? Or maybe something else? What happened?”
“Nothing,” Aucune replied bitterly, “nothing happened.”
“What?” The gears in Derpy’s head churned, trying to make sense of Aucune’s nonsensical reply. “I… I don’t understand.”
“The emissaries presented their findings. The Royal Family gave their testimony. Every single Crystal Pony that the Order had either managed to extricate, or had somehow escaped on their own from the Empire, at great peril to their families, friends, and themselves I might add, gave detailed, chilling accounts of the horrors they’d witnessed.” Enmity became more and more distinct in Aucune’s speech with each passing sentence; every recollection seemed to be bitter kindling to an anger that threatened to burst into a wildfire of rage any second now if fanned too much. “Every single condemnation, damning account, and scrap of evidence that we could possibly bring against that bastard were presented to the Sisters and the entire Royal Court. The blind could have seen that he was guilty, the truth of our words was evident to even the deaf. But what did the Sisters do? Absolutely nothing!”
A pall of shock descended over Derpy. Unable to come up with anything else, she did the only thing she could and asked the obvious.
“Why? Why wouldn’t they do anything about a monster like that? That just doesn’t sound like something the princesses would tolerate in the slightest. I can’t believe they’d be so… apathetic in the face of somepony as evil as Sombra.”
“A fair question Miss Hooves, a fair question indeed. In all honesty, I cannot say why they did nothing. Oh sure, they gave their reasons, our records tell us as much; the Sisters explained that they feared that Sombra would try to escalate any military action between Equestria and the Empire into an international conflict, dragging Griffonia or some of Equestria’s other traditional enemies into the fray through his cunning and deceit. Sound logic, no doubt about that; after all, the Griffonians were always looking for an excuse to fight with the pony nations at the time, and there was evidence even then that Sombra had already made overtures to the griffons seeking their assistance in the event of war with Equestria. Any other conflict, their reasoning might have been enough to drop the matter.”
“But for all their logic and practicality, they forgot one crucial factor: the heart of the matter. Who we wanted to fight for, to liberate from the shackles of that beast’s tyranny. It was not cows, pigs, sheep, mules, griffons, or even diamond dogs; these were ponies. They were our kin, brethren, blood of our blood. We could not simply abandon them to the sick machinations of a psychotic dictator! The heart and soul would simply not allow it! Furthermore, it was more than even a question of who we wished to free. It was a question of doing the right thing, and consequences be damned, the only right thing to do was storm the Empire and topple Sombra from his throne! What did we get instead? Political asylum for the Royal Family and a “pledge” that Equestrian authorities would monitor the situation in the north closely. And so the Sisters betrayal was effected, though nopony realized it at the time.”
By now it was fast becoming clear to Derpy that the Order had certainly not had what could be called a “happy history”; in fact, she had a bad feeling that the ending to Aucune’s tale would be anything but happy. Still, she needed to know how it all ended. So she pressed on, same as before, undaunted by the unknown.
“What did the Order do Mister Magique?”
“The only thing we could do: the right thing. It may not have been the most reasonable or practical move, but from the start our leaders knew that the Order would act no matter what course the Sisters and Equestria took. How could we not? Over a third of our members were Crystal Ponies; many families within the Order were even blended, made up of Crystal and Equestrian spouses. No matter what the rest of Equestria might’ve thought of the Crystal Ponies, by that point they were nothing less than kin to us. And when our kin were in such dire straits, facing a terror unheard of by ponykind since the chaotic days of Discord, we could not just sit in the mountains and do nothing! So we acted, when the Sisters would not. When nopony else was willing to do the right thing, the Ordo Extraordinarii did!”
A strange blend of pride and sorrow simultaneously resonated from Aucune’s speech.
“Before Eisen Huf left Canterlot, messengers were secretly dispatched to all of the Order’s outposts. When the emissaries returned weeks later, an army had been gathered the likes of which the Order had never assembled. Over half of our members, 10,000 ponies of all shapes and sizes, were gathered to march on the Empire, while the rest were left behind to garrison our fortresses. Led by Eisen Huf, the army marched north, intent on liberating the Crystal Empire once and for all.”
“Well did they?” Derpy asked directly.
“They never even made it to the capitol. The accounts we have are sparse, but from what we do know it seems that Sombra was simply too powerful for us to handle by that point. While his own military forces were paltry compared to our own and largely comprised of griffon mercenaries, his mastery of dark magic was unparalleled, and against such brute strength our forces were simply no match. When the Order finally met him on the field our ranks were cut down like wheat beneath the scythe; most, including Eisen Huf himself, were either slain or captured, and only a few dozen survivors escaped the battlefield, fleeing south. That was merely the beginning of our suffering; from there, things only got worse.”
“Worse? How could things possibly get worse after that?” Derpy asked, wide-eyed at the thought of so many thousands of lives snuffed out in a single day just like that by one wretched individual alone.
“An outcry resounded from all of Equestria following the Order’s disastrous expedition, but hardly the kind we could have hoped for. The survivors along with the remainder of the Order presumed that at the very least the Sisters and Equestria would be goaded into action after such a raw, terrible display of Sombra’s power and wickedness. Instead, for our noble, selfless sacrifice, all we were accorded from Equestria in return was contempt and vilification.”
“The Sisters did everything in their power to distance themselves and Equestria from the Order politically, making it very much clear to Sombra and the rest of the world that they wanted nothing to do with us for fear of reprisal. Needless to say, Sombra couldn’t have been more pleased by this turn of events; before we could get our bearings he launched a furious campaign into the Crystal Mountains, targeting specifically our strongholds. Dozens of villages were torched, thousands perished or were driven from their homes, and all of the Order’s outposts were razed to the ground, save of course for the secluded Die Schmiede. And still the Sisters did nothing!”
Aucune’s anger was slowly starting to make more and more sense to Derpy. After all, like every pony she’d always been taught as a filly only about the wondrous ways that Princess Celestia controlled the sun and moon and wisely ruled over all Equestria. And while she certainly didn’t know that much about Princess Luna, she’d seemed nice enough at last year’s Nightmare Night festivities. It was unfathomable that the regal alicorns, so powerful and committed to doing good and securing justice for all, could simply ignore or, even worse, tolerate the horrors that King Sombra had inflicted upon his subjects.
“When did all that madness end? It had to have ended, right?” Derpy pressed. “I mean, there’s certainly no Sombra around today, so something must’ve stopped him.”
“Oh, it ended all right,” Aucune gloomily confirmed. “It certainly wasn’t on account of anything the Order did; our cries for aid continued to fall on deaf ears until the very end, by which point there was merely a hoofful of us left. No, no, it was really Sombra’s own doing; after he’d nearly crushed every single pocket of resistance the Order could offer, effectively seizing control of the Crystal Mountains in the process, his power went to his head and he made the boneheaded decision to lay siege to Manehattan itself. Needless to say, the Sisters didn’t take too kindly to anyone threatening their lands and finally realized that Sombra was nothing more than a crazed, bloodthirsty, power hungry dictator who couldn’t be talked to or reasoned with and would not stop until somepony stopped him once and for all. After shattering his forces around Manehattan and sending them reeling back north, the Sisters personally stormed into the Crystal Empire all on their own and battled Sombra. In the end, their combined might was too much even for his dark magic. However, victory did not come without a price. With his dark arts so far advanced, Sombra had managed to curse his kingdom prior to his downfall; as soon as he was overthrown, the Empire, and every last Crystal Pony within it, disappeared. Thus, the Empire was, quite literally, no more.”
“Gone, just… just like that? It really all just disappeared into thin air?” Derpy was horrified at the idea that there was magic out there capable of such a terrible deed.
“Indeed it did. All that remains where it once stood over a thousand years ago are the cold, inhospitable lands of the Frozen North. Even the Crystal Mountains lost their legendary luster as a result of the Empire’s downfall. Beyond the scant records of the Empire’s history kept by ourselves and a select few in Equestria, the only other remaining evidence that it ever existed now resides further down the mountain, guarding the passage to our last stronghold and carrying on a sad, forlorn existence.”
For a moment Derpy was stuck trying to make sense of that last sentence, when the answer suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks.
“Wait… are you saying that those ponies who showed me the passage to Die Schmiede are Crystal Ponies?”
“In a word, yes.” And just like that she had a thousand more questions.
“How’d they escape the Crystal Empire? Was it the Order? What about the Princesses? Did they try to help at all? What about-”
“Miss Hooves, please, restrain yourself!” Aucune implored, forcefully cutting off Derpy before she overwhelmed herself and her mentor with an endless list of questions. “I’m pleased that you’re so enthralled by our history, but please exercise some patience and restraint. To start, yes, it was the Order’s doing; we managed to help some Crystal Ponies escape the Empire before its ruin, while others were members of the Order itself who’d survived Sombra’s destructive campaign. It hardly mattered, however, when it was all said and done, for a mere hoofful remained after the fall of the Empire. The whole Order was in tatters, really; Die Schmiede alone survived Sombra’s warpath, and only because it was hidden, unlike the rest of our strongholds.”
“But why don’t they live here then, in the fortress with the rest of the Order?”
“Because they barely have the will to live as it is. The Empire’s ruin broke their spirits. Everything they’d known and loved, their families, friends, and homeland simply disappeared like that. Overnight they went from being members of a proud and powerful race to being the last remnant of a now endangered species. We told them they were free to go south to Equestria if they wished, where they could join and assimilate into far healthier, stable communities, but they refused, and likewise chose not to remain in the Order. None of it mattered anymore to them, none of it at all; they were too crushed by such a terrible loss, and they and their descendants have remained that way for the past thousand years. Today the last of the Crystal Ponies simply drift through life, their spirits as dulled as their coats and the very mountains in which they reside. The only thing we’ve managed to do for them is hide them from the rest of the world as they wish, ensuring none interfere with their way of life in exchange for their own guarding of our secret stronghold. I wish we could do more, but I don’t think anything could ever fill the hole in their hearts left by the loss of their home.”
“Didn’t the Princesses try to help at all? Wouldn’t they have at least tried to see if there were any survivors, from either the Empire or the Order?” Derpy asked, raising a fair question.
“They might have given more than the halfhearted excuse of a search that they did if certain events hadn’t transpired shortly thereafter. Soon after the fall of the Empire, Luna’s resentment against Celestia came to a head and Nightmare Moon was born. After their brief but fierce struggle and Nightmare Moon’s banishment to the moon, Celestia was left with double the responsibilities and could hardly be troubled with searching for a small band of refugees. So we were forgotten: the Order, the Empire, everything, not just by Celestia but, in time, the whole of Equestria.”
“A mere shadow of what we once were, we could not hope to rebuild without the resources and influence we’d once commanded. More importantly, the bitter taste of our betrayal still lingered fresh in our memory, and so the Order made the decision that it wanted no part of Celestia or her country. Thenceforth we would carry on with our work from the shadows, and that’s exactly what we’ve done since then; for the past thousand years, we’ve slowly rebuilt, helping as many of the most despondent of ponykind as we could with the limited resources at our disposal. That, Miss Hooves, is the story of the Order; now you know who we are, who we were, and how we became the shadow of our former glory that we are today, limited but more committed than ever to our noble work.”
Neither spoke for some time after that. So much had been said, and there was now so much to think about. So they just climbed, the only sounds the clop of their hooves against the worn stairs and the wind beating against the mountainside.
They must’ve had some good reason for not doing more. C’mon, think, think! OK, well… no, that’s no good. What about… no, no, they still might’ve denounced him at least. But they couldn’t just, well, actually, now that I think about it, they could’ve at least opened their borders to refugees, or broken diplomatic ties or… horsefeathers, something! Anything, anything at all would’ve been better than nothing!
Derpy grunted in frustration and kept racking her brain, desperate to find an answer that might give her some peace of mind. She’d been troubled ever since Aucune had finished his account, mostly by what she’d been told about the princesses. All her life she’d grown up thinking of Princess Celestia as some kind of flawless, immaculate being. To be fair, the return of Nightmare Moon had somewhat marred that image; sure Celestia hadn’t done anything wrong herself, but her sister certainly had. Twice now Celestia’s own sister and co-ruler had tried to plunge Equestria into eternal darkness, and to say that was bad was putting it far more nicely than was warranted. Princess Luna might’ve eventually been cleansed, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d done some terrible things. Still, it didn’t make sense that either of the sisters could just sit by and do nothing while some tyrant right next door caused pain, misery, and suffering for countless ponies, at least not while they were happily ruling together at any rate.
Wrong. It was wrong. I… I wish I could deny it but I can’t. What they did was wrong! Callous, cowardly, whatever you call it, the fact remains that it was just flat out wrong. All their power, they should’ve done something before it all spiraled out of control! I- I still can’t believe I’m thinking it, but I am, and I can’t get it out of my head; Princess Celestia and Luna were terribly, terribly in the wrong! I just… what do I do with that? What does Aucune want me to do with that? He waited until now to tell me for a reason, but why?
Anger and confusion ranged through Derpy’s torn mind. Was this what Aucune wanted her to feel? She certainly couldn’t deny the wrongfulness of the Royal Sisters’ apathy, but still, something just didn’t feel right about this. She’d come to the Order to find peace, but right now, all she felt was conflict: conflict of the mind, of the heart, of the soul.
What do I do, what do I do, what do I do???
Through the raging discord in her mind a tiny memory gleamed through the din. Recollections of a devastated filly eyeing from afar a lone figure atop a grassy hill, a tall, resplendent white mare standing next to a small apple sapling with her head hung low, silently sharing in the filly’s grief. Slowly but surely, Derpy’s mind stilled as she thought more and more of that small but invaluable moment that’d meant all the world to her at the time.
You can’t forget the good either Derpy, you just can’t. All the good they’ve done for so many ponies, both big and small. Countless generations have enjoyed peaceful lives because of all the good work Celestia and Luna have accomplished in their rule. And hay, they were even able to let go of whatever animosity they held toward one another after a thousand years of being separated!
If they can forgive mistakes a millennium old, well, then so can I; sure, they may not be perfect, and yes they’ve made plenty of mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying their best. That’s the most any of us can do really; do the best with the gifts we’ve been given even if it’ll never be perfect. Can’t be bitter about that, but accept it instead. I shouldn’t feel anger towards anypony, not for something that happened so long ago, no matter how terrible it was; instead, I should give my all, the best that I got, do what I can to help everypony else make our home a better place, and ensure that these past wrongs are never repeated again.
The weight of her troubling thoughts began lifting from her shoulders, and Derpy breathed a sigh of relief.
No need to get myself all in a fuss over others’ mistakes; got my own demons to deal with after all. Soon as we finish climbing this feathering mountain at least. We’ve got to be close to the top by now… OK, maybe not that close, but at least to wherever we’re going!
“Ah, here we are,” Aucune announced.
Wow… talk about your weird timing.
Despite having no idea what to expect at the end of their climb, Derpy was still caught off guard by what met her gaze as she scaled the last few steps and followed Aucune through a small rift in the mountainside. In place of the frigid barrenness that’d been the norm throughout their ascent, a veritable paradise now lay before her; a lush, grassy hollow dotted with small pools of water and all manner of vegetation. A clump of pines rose near one pool, and not far from it a pair of maples. Here and there were a few cherry blossoms, their pale pink flowers beginning to bloom, along with some florescent apple trees. A cluster of bushes bearing shimmering berries grew near the base of a papery birch that towered over a nearby flowering dogwood. Wide arrays of exotic flowers and shrubs, most of which Derpy had never even seen before, ranged throughout the hollow. A great rugged oak seemed to round everything out, presiding near the center next to the largest pool in the unlikely arcadia.
“What is this place?” Derpy breathed, almost at a loss for words.
“A most sacred spot, Miss Hooves. This grove is the oldest remaining testament to our Order and its mission; each one of these plants you see here was planted at some time or another across the centuries by members, brought from their original homes in Equestria, the Crystal Empire, or elsewhere. Here they serve as a reminder to any who visit that no matter where we may hail from, every brother and sister of the Order stands united in perpetuity in defense of all ponykind. There is no name for it in our annals… no need really. It simply is: always has been and always will be, at least as long as we’re still around to look after it.”
“How’re they growing up here? We’re so high up. I can’t imagine most of these plants can tolerate the cold at these altitudes, not to mention the soil can’t possibly be that fertile either, at least not enough for most of the trees here.”
“Very astute of you Miss Hooves. Just take a few more steps and I believe your question will be partially answered.” Aucune beckoned her to follow him through the rift and Derpy complied, stepping into the grove she still couldn’t quite believe was really there. As soon as her hoof touched the soft, carpetlike grass, warm air enveloped Derpy’s body and the sweet scent of the diverse, newly blossoming trees overcame her nostrils, and suddenly she realized just how foreign this oasis really was from its mountain surroundings.
“This whole space isn’t natural, is it?” she asked upon her revelation.
“Besides the springs, no, it isn’t,” Aucune confirmed. “It took quite a few advanced climate-altering spells along with some expert horticultural finagling to successfully plant this grove and create hospitable surroundings with a temperate climate and nutritious earth to support anything planted here. To this day we still have to routinely send unicorns and earth ponies about once a month to regenerate the weather spells and look after the plants. But enough about that; I believe a refreshing drink is in order after a long day of hard climbing.”
The two trotted over to the large spring at the center, setting their saddlebags down beneath the great oak and divesting themselves of their cloaks and scarves, now unnecessary given the pleasant clime of the magically-altered space shielded from the mountain cold. Laying down at the edge of the pool, the pair blissfully lapped up icy water to their hearts’ content till their thirst had been sated. Rejuvenated from their exhausting trek, a thought came to Derpy as she finished gulping down one last mouthful of water.
“You mentioned that unicorns have to regenerate the weather spells here once a month. Are you gonna take care of that too while we’re up here?”
“I will not,” Aucune simply responded, turning back towards his saddlebag and sorting through its contents.
“Why not? We’re up here, so might as well. I know we came here for my training, but I don’t mind, really. I can’t imagine it takes that long anyway. Uh… does it?”
“No, as a matter of fact it does not take long at all. The problem is not the timing Miss Hooves; I simply can’t assist in this particular matter.”
“Why can’t you?” Derpy asked innocently, thinking it must have something to do with some stingy code the Order had about higher ranking members not having to perform mundane tasks.
“Simple: I have no magic,” Aucune plainly answered, eliciting a double-take from his student.
“Wait, what? Since when?!”
“Well, since always to be honest.” Aucune shrugged as though there were nothing at all out of the ordinary about what he’d just said and turned back to emptying his saddlebag. Derpy, however, wasn’t about to let a bombshell like that go unexplained.
“Woah, woah, woah, time out; you’re not seriously just going to tell me ‘I have no magic’ and leave it at that, are you? That’s like, I don’t know… contracting some kind of untreatable disease, or getting fired from your job and treating it like it’s nothing. You can’t just treat it like it’s nothing Mister Magique, because, well… it’s something, it really is! I mean, that’s kind of a big deal isn’t it?”
“I suppose, though to tell you the truth when you’ve lived without magic as long as I have it really doesn’t feel like it matters all that much anymore. Just a normal facet of my life at this point. But if you really want to know more details so badly, I’ll tell you more once we’ve pitched our tents and gotten some food in our bellies. Fair enough?”
“Sure, I guess that works. I am pretty hungry. How long have we been climbing?” Derpy inquired, eyeing the quickly reddening sky.
“If I had to guess, I’d say about twelve hours.”
“Are you kidding? That long, huh. Well, that certainly explains why I’m kinda starving at the moment. Best get moving then; the sooner we get some food in our bellies, the better!”
With some difficulty Derpy mustered up an anxious burst of energy, a hollow sort of vigor that felt like it might give out any second now, but it would have to do for the moment. At this point the promise of food in hopefully a few short minutes was the only thing preventing her from dropping like a rock where she stood, but given that right now she’d gladly give all the gold and gems in Canterlot for a bite to eat, all things considered that promise alone was pretty good motivation for her. Unfortunately, she might’ve been a bit too motivated.
Hungrier than a famished timber wolf, Derpy hastened in pitching her tent, and the results weren’t pretty. While Aucune calmly went about setting up his own tarp tent, Derpy first forgot to lay out the ground sheet, and as a result set up her gadget poles too close together, a mistake she only discovered when her tarp wouldn’t fit on the line between the two poles. Less than two minutes after they’d begun, Aucune had pitched a textbook tarp tent while Derpy was back at square one; the former, rather than assist his struggling student, began collecting dry leaves and grass along with some twigs and fallen branches. As Derpy continued to struggle, frequently being forced to go back two steps after realizing she’d missed something yet again in her tent set up, Aucune retrieved a piece of flint and a steel striker from his own pack along with a char cloth, and next began constructing a tinder nest. By the time Derpy finally had an adequate tent pitched, Aucune had already in the meantime gotten a small fire going and was busy munching on an apple when his flustered pupil came over.
“How’s the old adage go Miss Hooves?” Aucune asked with some mirth between bites. “Ah yes, I believe it was ‘slow and steady wins the race’.”
“Yeah, well, as far as I know the tortoise was racing on a full stomach,” Derpy grumbled, grabbing the first apple she dug up from her pack and sitting on her haunches near the fire opposite Aucune. Hungrily biting into it, Derpy savored every mouthful; it might’ve been just an ordinary apple, but right then it tasted as sweet as ambrosia. Three apples and two hay sandwiches later, Derpy’s hunger had finally been sated, and she stared into the fire, not thinking about anything in particular, just giving the gears in her head a rest. After a few moments of quiet repose Aucune broke the silence.
“So… do you still want to know how life’s treated a unicorn without any magic?”
Derpy raised her eyes and met Aucune’s own, nodding.
“If you’re still willing, I’m listening.”
“Very well then. Where to begin? I suppose the start’s as good a place as any. I was born in Canterlot to an old unicorn family. We certainly weren’t the wealthiest nobles in Canterlot by any means; after all, most of our money was old money passed down from generation to generation, not invested in anything whatsoever, just sitting in heaps in decrepit old vaults. But what we did have was social status, and a fair bit of it if I do say so myself; mother and father’s families were two of the oldest in all of Canterlot, so naturally they ranked quite high in the city’s social hierarchy, and relished everything that came along with said status. If there was a fashion trend sweeping the city, they had to be the first to know: if there was a major social event going on, they had to be there: if there were some frivolous item being touted as a must have for anypony who was anypony, they had to have it!”
“To be brief, my parents were perfectly happy wasting their lives away on petty activities and raising their children to do the same. But then I came along. The youngest of five, my parents believed I’d be as picture perfect as the rest and only increase the family’s image and status as I was expected to. Life’s funny sometimes though, that’s for sure.”
As Aucune recounted his childhood, he stared steadily into the fire, his grey eyes shining in the flames’ glow. An unsettling tranquility resonated from him, an indefinable aloofness, like the calm before a storm that may or may not break any second now. Derpy remained silent, not out of fear, but respect; she could tell already that this was a difficult memory for Aucune to go back to, and she appreciated that he was willing to relate any of it to her at all.
“I was eight when mother and father started growing concerned. Up until then my childhood had been uneventful enough; I’d excelled in all of my school work, had good friends, and there wasn’t a thing in the world I couldn’t have if I wanted it. Around that time, however, my parents began to notice that not a mite of adolescent unicorn magic seemed to be surging from me. Most unicorns don’t start having magical surges on a regular basis until they’re twelve or thirteen, but intellectually advanced individuals are generally the exception to that rule. Higher cognitive skills allow a unicorn to tap into their magical potential at an early age, so it didn’t make sense that a gifted student such as myself shouldn’t be displaying any magical talent whatsoever. Furthermore, they remembered that as a foal I’d had none of the random magical surges common to all baby unicorns, no matter what their magical ability ended up being in adulthood. By the time I was ten and had still not exhibited any magic at all, enough was enough, and naturally they did what any of the Canterlot nobility would do when confronted with a baffling conundrum: sought professional help.”
“We must’ve visited dozens of experts to look into my case: doctors, psychologists, mages and magical theoreticians, even a couple of herbalists! I tried everything from prescriptions to physical stimulation, endured a bevy of spells meant to arouse my “magical reserves” from just about every notable conjurer in Canterlot, and even tried a number of herbal remedies. Nothing worked in the slightest. Finally, our family physician, after corresponding with a number of doctors we’d visited, came to us with the news that, in his professional opinion, I was what the medical community referred to as sine magicis artibus, a genetic defect that nopony really understands since it affects so few unicorns. Not that my parents cared about that little detail; if anything the fact that it was so rare and unheard of only made things worse for them. Suddenly their perfect little family in their perfect little world was flawed; it contained a genetic mistake, bizarre, uncommon, and potentially highly embarrassing to the whole family. Couldn’t very well allow that, now, could they?”
Sheesh, and I thought I had it bad. I mean, sure I’ve always had trouble flying, but at least I can fly. A unicorn with no magic at all in a noble family; might as well be a pegasus with clipped wings and a Wonderbolt for a parent to boot!
“Of course things only went downhill from there. In their “benevolent wisdom”, mummy and daddy decided to pull me from my classes and keep me cooped up at home where I wouldn’t be able to bring any shame to the family’s good name. If I was more naïve it might not have hurt so much, but by that point I was smart enough to know that I was more or less being placed under house arrest by my own parents. For six years I endured their debasement, six long years. In all that time the only ponies I saw beyond the family and servants were more and more “experts” brought in to try to coax my nonexistent magic into action. The whole lot of them were nothing more than a bunch of fools, hacks, and con artists, but still they came, preying on my family’s desperation and stupidity. I was a prisoner in my own home, the only pony I could rely on at all to ensure my very survival. My intelligence was the only weapon I had in all this time, and so I nurtured it as best I could, reading whatever I could get my hooves on, whether from the family library or elsewhere. Had I grown dull I would’ve had nothing, and perhaps never made anything of myself.”
“I suppose it goes without saying that the family was of no help at all during this time; my siblings avoided me like the plague, perhaps worried that my condition and shamefulness might rub off on them. Mother always tried to act sweet and kind around me, like she was only trying to protect me and watch out for my best interests, but there was always a hollowness to her words and actions as though she were wearing a mask every time she spoke to me. But father was the worst of them all. He grew to openly loathe me as the years passed and made no secret of it. It didn’t matter that by the time I was thirteen I was smarter than my other four siblings combined, no, nothing that I did mattered at all. All that counted in his eyes was that at sixteen I still had no magic nor any cutie mark to speak of, and as far as he was concerned, that meant that I was a worthless nopony and nothing more. Every time he looked at me all he saw was a disgrace, and he reminded me of it as often as he could.”
The fire’s glow no longer shone alone in Aucune’s eyes; instead, a flame of his own now burned in his withering gaze, and it seemed that more heat resonated from that fiery glare alone than from the flames of the campfire itself. Strangely, his demeanor remained the same; that unearthly, off-putting tranquility that sent chills down Derpy’s spine the more Aucune spun his tale.
“Finally, I’d had enough. It was crystal clear that there was no future for me in that oppressive dungeon, so when I was sixteen I fled. I wandered all over Equestria for a while, looking for something, anything at all to do. I didn’t care what it was, so long as it kept me away from Canterlot it was good enough for me. But it seemed that no matter what I tried, nothing worked; I didn’t have the proper training or certification for higher occupations, but I couldn’t even excel at the simplest of activities. Something was just wrong, some indescribable element missing: a piece of the puzzle without which my whole would remain incomplete. It was a little over a year after I’d run away that everything changed. Suicidal musings had begun to enter my thoughts on occasion, and there’s a great possibility that if things had continued as they had been much longer, I might’ve honestly taken my life rather than live another day a failure. That’s when I met him: the first true brother I ever knew.”
“He found me very much as I found you, actually; just appeared out of the blue one day and approached me while I was drinking away my sorrows in Fillydelphia at some local dive. He told me that he knew who I was and what I had suffered through, that he empathized with my situation; said that he and his associates had been watching me, following me for some time, and that they saw a greatness within me that they believed could be unlocked with the right catalyst. My life began anew that night, and for that I am forever indebted to my mentor and the Order for the opportunity he afforded to me in that bar. Of course I took him up on his offer; how could I not with no other viable option at that point? Now, here I am: no longer a handicapped misfit, but an agent of the Order. I belong now, I belong to a community where I have peers who respect me and a purpose that guides me, a mission I cling to with all my being.”
After a few minutes of waiting anxiously for him to continue, Derpy spoke up.
“Wait, is that it? Oh come on Mister Magique, there must’ve been more between then and now than just ‘I joined, now here I am’! I read fairy tales as a filly with more drawn out conclusions than that. No disrespect, sir,” she added. Aucune just shrugged in return, not even fazed.
“Miss Hooves, you’re asking about more than three decades; sorry, but if I were to recount every chapter of my life, we’d be here well into next week. All that’s really happened since that fortuitous encounter is… life. Before I joined the Ordo Extraordinarii, I was not in control of any aspect of my life; everything about it was askew and out of balance, sheer chaos. But since then I and I alone have been the master of my own destiny, and that’s enough for me. I’ve had my successes and failures, overcome countless challenges only for more to arise, known love as well as the pain of having it trampled upon. I’ve made dozens of friends who’ve all left varying impressions on my life and lost plenty as well, and it never hurts any less when I do. But whatever’s happened to me, be it good or bad, I’ve owned it all, all of it, plain and simple; dignity comes with that total responsibility over one’s affairs, the dignity of not just being anypony, but somepony, and that is priceless Miss Hooves.”
Dignity. Despite all she’d done already, that precious quality continued to elude Derpy. It didn’t matter if the Order’s members treated her like one of their own, an equal. At the end of the day, besides speaking volumes about their character, it didn’t mean a thing at all for Derpy herself. She was still a klutz, a bumbling fool, just anypony and not somepony. She wasn’t herself yet, what she could be, wanted to be, knew she just had to be. Anything less wasn’t good enough anymore and she knew it, and that insight ate her up inside like a worm burrowing through her core. What did she have to do to become Derpy? What had he done to become Aucune? Would she really leave this mountain a new mare, or was it all for naught?
“Well? Satisfied Miss Hooves?”
“Almost. Just one more thing: when did that show up?” she asked, pointing a hoof at his cloud cutie mark. She’d been wondering about that curious feature of his for some time, and she figured now was as good a time as any to find out more about it.
The faintest smile finally broke through Aucune’s neutral demeanor and he now stared into the fire with a wistful expression. “What, this old thing? Didn’t show up until sometime after I’d completed my training with the Order. I’d been starting to think I might be a blank flank my whole life, which really didn’t seem liked it’d be all that bad. Didn’t want something like that, a single physical feature that some ponies would try to define me by. What a ridiculous notion indeed!”
“In any case, shortly after I’d finished my training I did something that a few years earlier I couldn’t have dreamed of: I returned home. There were no bells and whistles or anything like that. I just went home to see mother and father, to let them know I was alright and show them that I’d made something of my life. Father was the only one I saw; we talked, but nothing good came of it. No matter what I said, no matter how many things I showed him I could do, the stupid old bastard couldn’t get over the fact that I still had no magic or cutie mark. For every talent I had, for every art I showed him I’d mastered, that hateful codger only had insults and contempt to hurl right back at me. In the end, we had a falling out, a very bad one indeed, and I broke all ties with my family that day. When I left, that’s when this came, and you know something, it felt right for me, it really did.”
Huh… that’s weird. Never heard of somepony getting a cutie mark after a huge falling out with their family, much less being happy about it. Wonder what that means his special talent is? Arguing?
Pondering Aucune’s cutie mark would have to wait, however, as he suddenly blindsided Derpy. “Alright Miss Hooves, your turn. Tell me about your demons.”
“What?” Derpy managed to blurt out. “Now hold on, I- I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that. Can’t we just, um, sleep on it or something? I mean, we’ve had a long day and you must be awfully tired; wouldn’t it be better to do this in the morning when we’re wide awake?” Derpy feigned the biggest yawn she could, stretching her hooves and wings wide as she tried to sell her excuse. Unfortunately Aucune wasn’t having any of it.
“Now, now Miss Hooves, it’s only fair,” he countered, his voice measured but firm. “I told you, at your request, a great deal about my life; it’s only right that you grant me the same courtesy. Besides, we’re not here for me, but for you. This isn’t just a courtesy you owe me, it’s an obligation you owe to yourself. If you want to overcome your demons, you have to revisit and recognize them so that you might transcend them.”
“But I –”
“It’s time, Miss Hooves.”
“That’s –”
“It is time. I know you’re scared; after all, the truth is a scary thing to confront. But it’s time, Miss Hooves. So tell me, please, for your own good: what made you into the mare you are today?”