//------------------------------//
// The Ballad of the Last Arch-Magus 
// Story: Etiamsi Omnes, Ego Non- The Promises 
// by Gabriel LaVedier 
//------------------------------//


After Thomas Babington Macaulay




I

The Stag King in ascension

In chains all minds did lock,

Enslaved the wills of males

With the foolish crystal cock.

Upon the fair Equestria

He laid his filthy hand,

And tore the lasting peace

From out that lovely land




II

The Heartless Hind1 commanded

The lesser stags to fly

To bring the darkest hearts

In array below his eye.

From out the tainted Empire

They went and wrought their woe:

Below the heartless hoof of hate

The many lands did go.




III

South and east and west around

The darkened message flows.

It reaches twisted minds along

And most dare not oppose.

Village, town and city

None spared the curséd blot.

The pervert horde marches forth

To conquer Canterlot.2




IV

And yet in all the madness

Not only darkness reigns:

Of the noble in Equestria

A core of good remains.

Where magic hath disturbance,3

Where not the crystal glows,

Where came not shriek of hatred

There stood the Stag King's foes.




V

In many crystal caverns,

Below the soil deep,

Dog scientist and scholar

Could little more than weep.

Deep within the mountain4

Changelings sheltered well

Escaped from Canterlot's fall

With many woes to tell.




VI

By distance and lost focus

Were the griffin aeries spared,

As well by all the zebras

The curse went on unshared.

Though Equestria was focal,

By some it was not felt,

Those fortunate, in some sense,

Were full protection dealt.




VII

No clinks of gem or metal

Any longer sound.

“Love” is no longer spoken

Where once it was renowned.

Protected, but imperiled,

Away the spared one's flee;

'Twas not in fear fled they:

There was death in bravery.




VIII

Adrift on winds of Fortune,5

Within the Harlot's Wheel,6

The Black Knight carried magic

No mere Hind could seal;

Within the Mountain prison,7

Inside the damping stone,8

The General,9 Arch-Magus,

Had defense of his own.




IX

Rumor passes lips and tongue

And reaches eager ears.

The free use word to gather;

It irks the Hind, who hears.

He does not know the reason

(For the Stag King is a fool)

He only knows that some

Defy his crystal tool.




X

By guile of the Black Knight

And Arch-Magus' grand wit

Gathered up the free ones

To a place for them more fit.

To the hidden place they wandered,

The secret of Moon and Sun,

The repository of Danger:

Paddock Fifty-One.10




XI

Scientist and Archivist,

Mage and guard and all,

Screamed in rage and sorry

To hear about the fall.

For in the hidden depths,

Below the Paddock far,

In lab and box and storeroom

Were dangers singular.




XII

Artifacts of Discord,

Random's deadly toys,11

Things experimental,

And that which just destroys.

The keepers fretted greatly

For reasons very dear.

With half the power inside

The Hind could spread pure fear.




XIII

The Hind had found the Paddock

By torment, mind and form,

And he gathered up his forces

The facility to storm.

His many simp'ring minions,

They without excuse,

Said, “Yes, go send them, master,

Your army cannot lose.”




XIV

He pretended to great power

But was a coward to the core.

He could conquer the defeated,

But could not fight a war.

He summoned hind and pony,

And chose the greatest there,

To march beneath his banner

And take the rebel lair.




XV

The ranks marched out with purpose

With spear and sword and shield;

Behind marched great commanders

To lead the deadly field.

With hind were mingled ponies,

All with the darkest hearts,

The equines were as vicious

As cervine counterparts.




XVI

Within the sunken Paddock

Panic ruled the day.

“It must all be buried

Or the hind will soon hold sway.”

Thus spake the lead researcher

Who added, “There is no chance.

There is no hope, at the end of a rope,

All of us will dance.”




XVII

The Arch-Magus, grim, but certain,

Led Black Knight from the ground.

They stood upon the highest point

To view the land around.

He pointed far past the horizon,

Beyond the curve of earth,

Towards distant Canterlot,

The place once of great worth.




XVIII

“Though Canterlot is Fallen

Her faithful still do stand,

Within the depths below

And scattered through the land.

Perhaps they are no army,

Not in the formal way,

But they may stand to defense

And free the land one day.




XIX

“But to reach a future promise

We must not fail now.

We must survive assault,

And only I know how.

The Hind is sending many,

To kill and steal away,

So some force must be waiting

To hold the fools at bay.




XX

“Equestria means nothing

If not full of love and peace;

We cannot be true citizens

If we let such things cease.

If citizen must expire

Then best is to help prevent

The death of our sustenance,

Land and Government.




XXI

“Help them destroy the items,

Burn the papers, crush the rest,

Bury the indestructible;

Defeat you may arrest.

For me, I'll raise the land up,

And make a narrow path.

The close and pressing walls of stone

Will dull their mindless wrath.




XXII

“You know me as a scholar,

But I am a soldier too.

'General' is likewise my title,

I know what I must do.

Go, ye servant of the Night,”

Go on, Fortuna's pawn,12

Leave me to my work here,

To honor the golden Dawn.”13




XXIII

The Black Knight went below,

With many a backward glance;

Though he knew the Arch-Magus' secret,14

He thought he had no chance.

Though mighty in his magic

His body still was frail.

He would speed along destruction

In event the stallion fail.




XXIV

He sent his magic surging,

And sank it to the soil,

The ground it surged and rumbled,

The earth it seemed to boil.

The land sent forth stone walls

That rose up to the sky.

It curved around the Paddock

To hide it from the eye.




XXV

The Arch-Magus stood stalwart

Within the narrow way

And turned ear and eye to the horizon

To note the Hind's array.

They marched from out the distance,

And raised a dust storm high.

He knew each face and hist'ry,

Afore they had drawn nigh.




XXVI

There Vidkun15, called the Bloody,

Who skinned a hundred does;

Ulvhud who stored bodies

In places no one knows.

Frykt of the dark woods,

Where none still sane will tread,

And Smerte, Lord of the Barrow,

Who rules among the dead.




XXVII

And ponies once familiar

Whose minds had sadly fled

Led forces as the deer did

And eagerly they sped.

There Vert Joilie of Percheron,

High Wind of Cloudsdale far,

Rocky Road from the hills of Capal,

And Strike, a Wonderbolt star.




XXVIII

Behind, beneath the banner

Of the cruel Heartless one,

Pulled by impresséd troops, was he

Who betrayed the Moon and Sun.

The selfish, thoughtless stallion

Who sold his folk for gain,

There came dark Shining Armor,

Who wrought the killing pain.




XXIX

They marched in ordered file,

Deer and pony, rank on rank,

Towards the new defenses

That they could not outflank.

The battle-trumpets sounded,

The spears shields they beat.

They halted just within the view

Of the one they need defeat.




XXX

The peal of mocking laughter

Shook earth and rent the sky.

The Arch-Magus, deathly stern,

Did not even twitch an eye.

Though but one could breach the passage

Three came forth in wrath;

Each wished to claim the glory

In the winning of the path.




XXXI

Ulvhud with his twin daggers

Known in the Northlands far;

Strike, the disgraced, with pike,

Trusting the speed of a falling star;

And Vert Jolie with his magic sword,

The two-handed blade that magic held,

Whipped aloft like a whirlwind's rage

With a flaming fur that would not be quelled.




XXXII

He had not sword or shield,

Nor poleaxe, ax or spear,

Not bow or other weapon,

He needed not the fruits of Tyr.16

A surge of magic flowed,

His horn glowed strong and bright,

He was cloaked in magic armor

With sword and shield of light.




XXXIII

With quickness Strike flashed forth,

But was pushed as fast aside,

To smash against the entrance

And his head split open wide.

A thrust sped through Vert Jolie,

His blade split straight in twain,

And with a scream Ulvhud fell,

First and last brush with pain.




XXXIV

Then Rocky Road, High Wind,

And Frykt ran to the fray.

A sword, crossbow and greataxe sped

To clear the narrow way.

The bolt is loosed and magic

Back two its owner sends;

Sword of light cuts one of steel

And greataxe fully rends.




XXXV

In disdain the great Arch-Magus

Forms bow of magic might,

And pierces Smerte's hornéd brow

With arrow made of light.

“I know you, fell stag, by rumor,

And by the fear in what was said:

Does had not peaceful slumber

In the halls of quiet dead.”




XXXVI

The army laughed no longer,

For high their ire burned,

And brighter glowed the fury

That their foe was unconcerned.

A vast and violent legion,

A sea of gleaming steel,

Yet a single frail scholar

Served as a solid seal.




XXXVII

Vidkun strides amid the throng

And the cringing shoves aside,

As he moves on the Arch-Magus

With proud and noble stride.

“You does and mares disgust me,

And I curse your fearful halt!

Would you even dare to come

Join Vidkun in the assault?”




XXXVIII

He bore double-bladed war axes,

And clanged in plate, not mail;

His helm was steel-banded bone,

A doe skull, snowy pale.

His plate was trimmed in hide,

Pulled from the newly dead,

And twenty points (If he had one)

Crowned his armored head.




XXXIX

The Arch-Magus had his secret,

Vidkun did as well-

Through ancient, dire magic

A could aside a spell.

His war axes rang on the magic shield

And it cracked like brittle glass.

The sword struck once and shattered;

he was near to winning the crevasse.




XL

The magic of the Northlands

Was not Equestrian pure,

And the Arch-Magus wavered on his hooves,

Scarcely able to endure.

His armor cracked and crumbled,

Darkness crept along the edge.

The Arch-Magus cried in anger.

He would not bear the sacrilege.




XLI

In the Northlands there was power,

But in Equestria there was skill,

Centuries of work and learning,

How push back any ill.

Though weakened by the evil,

His mind was still intact.

The Arch-Magus surged with power

And did the vileness counteract.




XLII

Back surged the curséd darkness

To Vidkun whence it came,

He wrenched in screaming agony,

Cloaked in ethereal flame.

With his evil cast back to him

The blow Vidkun could not check.

The Arch-Magus brought back his magic

And cut the monster's neck.




XLIII

Then fell the bloody Vidkun

Like a blazing shooting star,

Crashing to the stony ground,

Scattering soil and pebbles far.

And as with the fallen meteor

When one claims a fragment shed,

The did the great Arch-Magus

Pluck up slain Vidkun's head.




XLIV

He presented the hornéd skull

To the cringing, awestruck horde,

Then threw the accursed object,

The thing which he abhorred.

“And now ye hinds and ponies,

You see the cost is dear.

Which brainwashed minion next

Will taste this pony's cheer?”17




XLV

They wished to vent their anger,

But could not hide their fear.

They did not lack for forces,

Of pony or of deer.

The chosen of the Heartless,

Both willing and the crazed;

They were capable of killing,

Any vileness, all unfazed.




XLVI

But all the Heartless' chosen

Were all too well aware

There was not profit in bravery,

No cause for them to dare.

Sever ignoble monsters,

The cream of the elite,

The best of all the army

Rushed headlong to defeat.




XLVII

The blood flowed like a river

From the figures of the slain

And those on the front line

Dared not rush forth again.

The rear pushed forth the forward,

That they should bring the fight.

The army shoved and jostled

Their ire hiding fright.




XLVIII

Then magic parted the rabble

And forth strode the evil one.

The Arch-Magus smiled coldly

At betrayer of Moon and Sun.

“Welcome, welcome Prince!

You need not come in dread.

Here lies the road to power;

Please do not fear the dead.”17




IL

The Prince looked on the pathway

Then looked upon the slain,

Gazed on the proud Arch-Magus

And the road he would attain.

“I know you, General, and better,

Know that you are wise.

You cannot check an army

Claiming their desired prize.




L

“You stand as iron Aegis

Before the narrow way,

And yes, the single soldier

You easily can slay.

But limbs grow sore, magic fades,

Your body will give out.

Then once your power is ended

There comes the bloody rout.”




LI

Disdainfully the Arch-Magus

Dismissed the Prince's word

And spoke in booming tones

To ensure the army heard.

“You claim you know me, monster,

And I say it is not true,

For you do not know the secret

I now reveal to you!”




LII

Magic, in abundance,

Surged through his crackling horn,

Red-glowing, pulsing, blazing,

Like the ruddy sky of morn.

The power was more than any

In all those ranks had seen,

It rushed through the Arch-Magus

And in redness washed the scene.




LIII

His eyes grew white, his body rose,

The Arch-Magus roared, enraged,

And as the forward rank deserted

His true power he uncaged.

In beams of magic there he spread

Concentrated death.

Every screaming soldier struck

No longer drew a breath.




LIV

Flesh and bone made ashes,

Bodies sucked into a void,

Desiccation, exsanguination, detonation;

'Twas terror unalloyed.

He throng ran past the border

Of the desolating strike,

Behind the wicked, watching Prince

Who stood firm, statue-like.




LV

Down came the great Arch-Magus,

Halting against the wall;

Vidkun's dark enchantments

Had some effect after all.

Then up he stood and strong he looked

Armor springing forth again.

His horn glowed bright and weapons sprang,

To stand as the army's bane.




LVI

The prince then cried out,

“General, I see that you have force.

Stay your rage and listen,

I offer a brighter course.

The Stag King holds all power,

He will rule every distant land.

You, wise, potent stallion,

Place yourself beneath his hand.




LVII

“Yield ye, General, to him,

His power and his might,

Pass beneath his flowing banner,

Bask in his darkened light.

You could freely use your power,

The knowledge that you hold,

No more shut up in a prison,

But standing free and bold!”




LVIII

The Arch-Magus stood, unmoving,

Deep in careful thought.

He dropped his magic armor,

And said, “It is taught:

Agreement comes from learning,

Of knowing all I may,

To know the terms and burdens

Will not my strength overweigh.




LIX

“And thus it comes, the question,

'What is it that I need?'

I assure you, Prince, I do not

Have a heart for petty greed.

Perhaps, with one assurance,

He'll have my guarantee.

With but a single promise

He'll have my loyalty.”




LX

The Prince he smiled in triumph,

And the army was at ease.

He nodded to the Arch-Magus,

And kindly said to him, “Please,

Tell us of your needing

And surely he will agree.

What assurance do you need

To serve his majesty?”




LXI

The Arch-Magus gave a smile,

A scholar's tricky grin,

As though he had seen the board

And was assured that he would win.

“All that I require,

That his will shall prevail,

That while I am in his service

None shall hurt a female.”




LXII

The Prince's mien grew dark,

And his brow pulled tight in rage;

He would not bear such mockery,

From the smug and smiling sage.

“You know the way of Stags,

And how we all now live!

Equestria is gone, HE is here,

Obedience is imperative!




LXIII

“The destruction now is over

But NONE will mute the groans:

We'll draw their blood, mar their flesh,

And crack their worthless bones!18

Females are wombs and openings,

Toys of living flesh!

We shall claim even yearlings,

Soft, tender, sweet and fresh!”




LXIV

The Prince's words were silenced

When high the Paddock blew.

His eyes grew wide in anger

As suddenly he knew.

“You never meant to kill us,

Only make us long delay,

To wreck the precious items

And let others get away!”




LXV

He ordered archers ready,

And each remaining took a bow.

The arrows were tipped with rusty red

With bleached shafts white as snow.

“So if you will not obey us,

And our plenty you dismiss,

We will give you arrow volleys,

Blood and bone of cockatrice!”




LXVI

Not all were sagittarii,

But all loosed shot on shot

Until the sky above

Was a single, darkened blot.

The slaughter of the cockatrice

Had served them very well,

As seen by rain of arrows

That on the Arch-Magus fell.




LXVII

Weak from Vidkun's vileness,

And his show of mighty power,

His magic shield and armor

Could not wholly stop the shower.

With conjured wind and dancing hooves

he tried to stem the tide,

But with his waning energy

The arrows pierced his hide.




LVIII

He fell back into the passage,

And closed the narrow way,

Horn glowing in desperate protection

As he held the stone at bay.

He rushed to the smold'ring ruins,

To see that all had fled,

And know his duty had been discharged

Before he joined the dead.




LXIX

He found the Black Knight waiting,

To bear through the blockade

But seeing his dire straits,

He rushed to the Arch-Magus' aid.

The Black Knight tried to speak,

But the Arch-Magus spoke before.

“My time is short, listen well,

Your skill is needed sore.




LXX

“Now you alone must lead them

Into the promised fate,

Responsibility rests with you,

From this you may not abdicate.

Now give to me the knife

You made out of that flask,19

Once only ceremonial,

I shall give it another task...”




LXXI

He touched his glowing horn

to the silver blade;

Though stone crept up arms and legs

He looked quite unafraid.

The blade glowed like a rainbow,

And gained another seal,

The dual, dancing Princesses20

Beside Fortuna's golden wheel.




LXXII

“I wish that I could tell you

What it is that I have done

But time is not in favor,

You must avenge the Moon and Sun.

Only know you, Black Knight,

This magic that it bears,

'What Was' is its title,21

To the vanished world it stares.”




LXXIII

The Arch-Magus groaned and seeing

The rock was reaching high,

He returned the blade with a tremble

And drew the Black Knight nigh.

“Before the Hind's bloody minions

Can claim their battle prize,

You must do one last favor,

'Twould be chaos otherwise.”




LXXIV

In time the heartless army

Made path through summoned stone

But found they only ruins

And the Arch-Magus all alone.

Shocked were the remaining

Who claimed the stonéd dead:

They took his stricken body

But never found his head.22




LXXV

There came no peal of triumph

When they marched back to the base:

Chastening stripes and executions,

The cost of such disgrace.

Though they had his stony carcass

It was not near the same.

They could not claim dominion

Without the whole to shame.




LXXVI

Thus fell the Last Arch-Magus,

Of old-world Canterlot,

In service to a nation

Poisoned by cruel rot.

All honor and all glory,

To him it must be shown

His deeds and dedication

Must by all be known.




LXXVII

He sought a world unbroken,

The land we once adored,

The land of peace and plenty,

The land not of fire and sword,

The land of light and laughter,

The land of cheery jubilee,

The land of rapturous delights...

The land where women can be free.




LXXVIII

When the jenny feels certain

She may take a peaceful rest;

When the griffiness frets not

For the egg within her nest;

When the Dog knows she can slumber,

And not hold ope an eye;

When the zebra does not think

At any moment she will die.




LXXIX

When the Changeling feasts on love

Not chokes on bitter gall;

When the buffalo knows she

May stand up proud and tall;

And mares need never worry

For minds, horns, wings or life;

When all have strong and sure protection

That is the truest end of strife.




LXXX

That fate was his last promise,

His true and lofty goal:

To wipe away the Heartless,

And again make our land whole.

We must all fight and triumph,

To make his vision true:

To bring to birth the old world

From the ashes of the new.23