//------------------------------// // Plot Holes and Revelations // Story: Rest for the Wicked // by Embershade //------------------------------// Twilight was jolted awake as the carriage lurched to a stop outside the Palace in Canterlot. She yawned deeply and stretched as she clambered out of the carriage. She used her magic to hand a bag of bits each to the two regal looking pegasus ponies pulling the carriage and started her trek up the stairs and too the palace's main doors. In spite of the serious circumstances, Twilight couldn't help but feel a little giddy- she always did when it came to Princess Celestia. Something about her mentor's presence gave her a warm feeling in her stomach that she couldn't quite grasp. That wasn't to say she didn't like the feeling, though- it was similar to the warm, content feeling she got after reading a good book, except that it made all the nerves in her body feel like they'd been kicked into overdrive. The magical mare's thoughts were interrupted by a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to see Princess Celestia watching her concernedly. "Twilight? I've said your name three times. Are you feeling alright?" She asked, holding a hoof against the lavender unicorn's forehead as if checking her temperature. "Maybe we should run a few check ups... I'm sure I have a spell somewhere..." the powerful alicorn said, tapping her chin with one of her hooves. Twilight gently removed Celestia's hoof, smiling. "No, I'm okay Princess... just a little tired. It was a long ride." She said, doing her best to reassure her mentor before any flurry of worry could put off her Q&A session for a few hours. The solar alicorn nodded, not entirely convinced, and nodded her head toward the stairs. "So... Why don't we head to the study for this? Embershade is a delicate matter..." The princess said, giving her best impression of a Canterlot Royal Guard- stolid and expressionless- if it weren't for the glimmer of sorrow in her eyes, she may have been mistaken for a stern schoolteacher rather than a kind mentor. Gulping and thinking that perhaps bringing this before her mentor hadn't been a good idea after all, Twilight lead the way to the study, her heart beat almost louder than their combined hoofsteps. Once they'd arrived in the quiet, stifling, bookshelf-lined study and arranged themselves across from each other, Twilight finally decided to break the silence. Only to have Celestia shush her. Celestia took a breath, as if composing herself, and slowly began her tale... Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, sat alone in the throne room, a manuscript held inches in front of her face by her magic. Her eyes sliding from word to word with so much focus that she didn't notice Luna sneak up behind her, nor the pair of cymbals hovering above her head. Biting her lip to hold back laughter, Luna slammed the cymbals together over Celestia's head, causing the regal mare to leap into the air so fast that the Cymbals were again bashed- by the ruler of Equestria's head. Luna then proceeded to show amusement in her most regal and controlled manner- rolling around on the floor, filling the hall with her musical, resonant laughter. "Hah! The look on thy face!" She said as her eyes began to tear up. "It was without price!" Celestia did her best rendition of an 'are you fucking kidding me?' face as she rubbed the newly forming sore-spot on top of her head gingerly. "Luna, please, I understand that you feel the need to play jokes, but can you not hurt me so often?" She pleaded, wincing as her new headache settled in. The night princess slowly giggled herself to a stop, then looked around at the scattered pages of the manuscript. "We are sorry. We- er, I- Was just interested in what you were reading." She said hurriedly, improvising an excuse for interrupting- other than the prank itself, of course. Luckily for her, her transparent distraction attempt worked. The Sun Princess gathered the pages back up and straightened them out, smiling even as she looked at them. She turned to her sister and gestured to the manuscript, a kind of glow kindling in her eyes. "This? This is a delightfully written little story I got in the mail." She gushed, trying to rediscover her place in the now-jumbled mess of pages. "Some young author named Red Feather sent it to me. It's something you'd call a 'FanFic'." She said, finding her place and settling down again. Luna looked on interestedly, peering over her sister's shoulder. "Really? What is this... 'fanfic' about?" She asked, and suddenly found herself enjoying a lovely face full of Celestia's hoof. After taking a moment to get her eyes straight, she realized that Celestia was blushing. The regal princess was as red as a filly after her first kiss- and on top of that, she was stuttering. "It-it's about me..." She murmured in a small voice, hiding the pages behind her back. Any other time, Luna would have remained curious- but the look on her elder sister's face was enough to make it quite clear that, as dirty as the dark mare's mind was, this wasn't something she wanted to read. Blushing almost as furiously as her sister was, she made her way out of the throne room and left Celestia to finish reading in peace. ---- Celestia shook her head, grinning, as she put aside the latest note from Red Feather. She'd quickly sent off a letter requesting to meet the author in person when she finished the story- the sun princess was more than interested in commissioning another story from her. The author- Celestia had neglected to ask if it was a mare or stallion- was supposed to arrive within a few minutes. Celestia had been delighted to hear that Red Feather lived in Canterlot, and had requested that the pony visit her as soon as possible- that ASAP, funnily enough, was approaching with every tick of the clock. Suddenly, one of her generally-statuesque Royal Guards stepped in from outside the Throne Room. "Your Highness, we have a... Well, there's a 'Red Feather' claiming to have an audience scheduled with you." He said, and Celestia wondered at the hesitation in his sentence. She nodded and made a 'go on, then' motion with her hoof. "Yes, she does. Let her in, Tank." She said, curious to see the pony that had written so well- and had caused such an odd reaction in one of her usually emotionless guards. She heard the soft hoofsteps first, and was surprised at how quiet they were; they were almost silent, and the only reason Celestia could hear them was that the sound bounced off the smooth marble walls in resounding echoes. Then the source of the quiet noise emerged, and the Alicorn understood immediately. Before her stood the thinnest, dirtiest, and altogether angriest-looking mare Celestia had ever seen. The mare was as striking as she was filthy, though- a tall, red pegasus pony with black hair, eyes like Celestia's own sun, and a pen-and-notebook cutie mark that conveyed her talent as a writer. But, what struck Celestia most about the red mare was the first words out of her mouth. "So, I finally get to meet the Queen Bitch of Equestria." She said in a cool, almost aloof tone. Her words were met with a stunned silence that resounded through the hall like a gunshot. Celestia gaped for a moment, and the much-younger red mare smirked at her dumbstruck expression. "Well- It's a miracle. I've silenced royalty. Tell me, are you really that used to ponies bowing and scraping before you?" She asked, her every word dripping with sarcasm. One of the guards made to seize her, but Celestia held up a hoof to stop him- once again, everyone was struck silent. Celestia was laughing, tears of mirth gathering in the corners of her eyes. "Oh, my my." She giggled, eying the now-angrier red mare with newfound respect. "What, might I ask, provoked that?" The sun princess asked, crossing her forehooves and struggling to contain her giggling. Red Feather eyed her furiously for a moment, expletives chasing each other around in her head. Finding none that would suffice, Feather decided to simply tell her tale. "I don't know, O Princess, maybe it was spending the majority of my life in a run-down orphanage in the capitol city of Equestria. That tends to breed cynicism into the most carefree of fillies." She said, rolling her eyes and brushing dirt off her leg in a vain attempt to appear dignified. Instead, she seemed like a sad, dirty pony- which, incidentally, was exactly what she was. Go figure. The Princess sighed, her mirth forgotten- she'd read and agonized over the latest reports on the economic state of Equestria already. Two out of five families were homeless, unemployment was up fifteen percent from the year prior, and there were too many parentless foals for the orphanages in Equestria to keep up. The angry mare interrupted her thoughts before she could even voice her slowly-forming idea. "Though, my regal princess, I doubt it matters much to you- here you sit, aloof and free from the troubles of us little ponies." She spat, her words full of spiteful contempt. "I am curious, though... Why am I here?" She asked, arching an angry eyebrow so high it almost brushed her hairline. The princess shook her head, gathered her thoughts, and spoke softly- reassuringly. "Red Feather, I called you here because I read the..." Here, she coughed and cleared her throat elegantly. "Story you sent me. I rather liked it, and called you here because I recognized the talent." She explained, doing her best to keep any type of insulting tone out of her voice- this mare was a fiery one. Feather scoffed. No, that's an understatement. Feather made such a grand gesture, it went down in the history books- a dramatic scoff, partnered with an eyeroll so fierce her entire head moved. "That filthy clopfic? I sent that to you as an insult." She said, her face flushing red (unnoticeably, due to her blood red coat) at the memory of the vivid detail she'd written into the story. "Anyway, why would you call me here just to tell me I've got talent? To waste my time?" She asked, performing another quite impressive eyeroll- she really had a talent for that particular expression- and stomping one of her forehooves. The Princess had to bite back a stinging retort- this mare was unnervingly similar to how Luna had been shortly before she'd become Nightmare Moon. "At first, I called you here to commission another piece from you... But, perhaps... Would you consider joining me here at the palace?" She asked, holding out her hoof in a gesture of offering. Feather was silent. A miracle! Thought Celestia, I've silenced a commoner! She mused, giggling internally. Red Feather was having a fierce internal argument with herself- On one hoof, she hated the princess and everything her castle of hypocrisy stood for. On the other hoof, this was her chance to get out of the thrice-damned orphanage for good, and maybe even gain some respect and bits for her work as an author... and then there was Embershade. Sure, Feather and her younger sister hardly ever saw eye to eye, but she wasn't sure she could abandon her. No, of course she could- Ember hated her guts. The last words between the two of them had ended with both of them wishing for the other's death. Maybe it would be better if she just stayed here... "Very well, Princess Celestia. I'll take you up on your offer." She said, taking the Princess's hoof in her own and giving it a single decisive shake. The Princess smiled- and, upon examination of her now thoroughly dirty hoof, pointed towards a door off to the right. "The showers are that way. Welcome to the Palace." She said, giggling slightly at the incredulous expression on Feather's face.. --- "Wait, Wait." Twilight said, jolting Celestia back to the present. "If you pretty much adopted this Red Feather, how come I never heard anything about it?" She asked, feeling more than a little hurt. Celestia shook her head, placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Let me stop that train of thought right there, My faithful student." She said, a knowing smile forming on her lips. "Nopony was told because Feather didn't want Embershade to find out that she'd abandoned her. She even had me call her Bookcase and dyed her mane white- I found it rather funny at the time, but she was very serious." Celestia said, smiling to herself at the memory of their argument. After a few moments, Twilight cleared her throat and knocked Celestia out of her reverie. "Celestia... how does this relate to the symbol? What happened next?" She asked, shifting restlessly where she sat. The Princess took a moment to compose her thoughts once more, before launching back into the tale. "Well, for the sake of time, I'm going to skip forward a few months..." Celestia was trying very, very hard not to pull out chunks of her mane. Equestria was falling apart at the seams- Discord had returned, and was wreaking havoc upon the entire Queendom. Twilight's friends had already been reached by Discord's influence, and for the first time in a millennium Celestia was afraid that she was about to be beaten. Her royal guard was doing it’s best to halt the chaos lord’s progress, and she had the best minds in Equestria working to find an alternative means to defeat him- as it seemed Twilight was going to fail without her friends. The sun princess had just finished sending back the last of Twilight’s letters in the hopes of reaching her when Red Feather strode into the throne room, a grim mixture of sadness and anger etched across her face. “Princess Celestia.” She said simply, bowing. When Celestia gestured for her to stand, she didn’t bother to wait for further acknowledgement before speaking. “I’ve found out who’s responsible for Discord’s return, My Lady.” She said, scuffing a hoof against the ground angrily. The Princess waited silently, knowing that Feather would rather continue at her own pace. “My Sister, Embershade. She started the riots in downtown Canterlot, broke up Prince Blueblood’s engagement, and set fire to the Griffon embassy. The resulting strife was enough for Discord to break out of the spell.” She explained, looking down and avoiding the Princess’s gaze. Celestia shook her head, confused. “Your sister? You never mentioned a sister... Why?” She asked, looking at her second-favorite pupil with hurt stirring in her eyes. Red Feather simply shook her head. “Because, Celestia, if you’d known I had a sister that was relying on me, would you have let me come stay at the castle?” She asked, an angry eyebrow raised just as it had been on their first meeting. She shook her head once more before Celestia could even form an answer. “It doesn’t matter. Discord has her under some kind of trance, so I’m going to do my best to free her. Maybe I can buy your precious Twilight Sparkle some time to get her friends straightened out.” The red pegasus said before turning and leaving the hall, leaving Celestia alone once more. Celestia watched her go, her heart heavy. Something told her that this wouldn’t end well for anypony. ------ Celestia brought herself back to the present forcefully, and turned to look at Twilight. “But that’s as much as I know, Twilight. After that, Red Feather disappeared, you defeated Discord, and Embershade was arrested trying to leave Canterlot. Luna set the Lying Cloud spell to activate as soon as Embershade left the city- and, apparently, it did, or you wouldn’t be here now.” She said, giving the story a quite anti-climactic ending. Twilight shook her head, annoyed. “That’s it? That’s all that happened?!” She asked incredulously, an irritated frown already starting to stretch across her face. “So.. should I chase Embershade off? She did help Discord.” She asked, composing herself. The Sun Princess brought a hoof up to her chin, contemplatively. “No, my faithful student. As much as your history with Discord may make it difficult, you should at least make an effort to be kind to her. If her life was anything like Red Feather’s was, her choice to help Discord wasn’t made lightly.” The Princess counseled, putting a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. ------ Embershade staggered back to her feet, directing her weight away from her injured foreleg. She blinked and tossed her blood-soaked mane out of her eyes with a quick shake of her head. She was in a sorry state- she was covered in bruises, a long and jagged cut ran down her flank, and her left wing was almost definitely fractured in a few places. But the other pony, the one whose throat was pinned to the ground by her uninjured hoof, was in a lot worse condition. Both of it’s wings bent in unnatural directions, one of it’s eyes swollen shut and black, and a puncture wound in it’s throat was spurting blood in tune with it’s frantic heartbeat. Embershade eyed the other pegasus grimly- after a moment though, the grimness was replaced with humor. She pulled a handkerchief out of her saddle bag and threw it on the beaten pony before her. “Wipe yourself off. You’re bleeding.” She said, giggling slightly to herself. Anger glowed in the other pegasus’ rosey-violet eyes, but everything from her bleeding nose to her once-colorful, blood soaked tail screamed that she couldn’t do anything about it. Suddenly, a rustling from behind Embershade had them both directing their attention to the bushes behind them. A buttery-yellow pegasus pony with a bright pink mane emerged from them, humming to herself. She stopped with a quiet “Eep!” When she noticed Embershade. “Oh my! Oh no! Embershade are you all ri-” She noticed the pony pinned beneath Ember’s hoof, and her eyes widened and teared up almost instantly. Embershade looked from the pony beneath her hoof to Fluttershy and back. By the time Fluttershy got her voice back, Embershade had already sprinted off into the woods and was nowhere to be seen. She stared at the injured pony for a moment, in a state of shock. “R-Rainbow Dash?”