//------------------------------// // The Greatest Show on Earth: Deleted Scene [Original] [OC] [Celestia] // Story: Journeyman's Journal // by Journeyman //------------------------------// “I admit weariness hugs my mind, but...” she trailed off. Her head panned the empty corridor. The empty, blank corridor devoid of any doors or servants. Even though they had been walking the halls for a good ten minutes, she had not recalled turning left or right since Lulu left her quarters. “What...? Where are they?” “Nowhere. They were never here. You were never here. I am not here.” He stood on all fours, calm as he could possibly be. “They’ve been missing for some time.” The lady backed away from the lord. Her wings twitched and readied for flight, but she took the time to examine the castle in greater detail. The floors were immaculately kept and the fires still burned with a comforting warmth. There was a slight chill in the air, but such a thing occurred in any castle built from cold stones. The corridor that seemed to stretch the entirety of the castle was, somehow, blank besides windows and the occasional table. “And yet, more questions remain. For instance, despite us talking for some time, do you know where this place is?” “Home. I knost this place.” Her eyes met his. He had retained his usual calm cheer and beads of mirth in his eyes. However, something clung to the corners, something she didn’t recognize. Only then did she understand how old they actually felt. The lord’s red eyes were stuffed full of tales, legends, and stories, not all of them conjured over a pint or the fire. That kind of age only came from experience. “How did you get to the bar, My Lady?” “From the castle. I...” she trailed off. She was... suddenly she was there. Speaking to... a complete stranger now that she thought about it. Not once did she call him his name or reveal his cutiemark. “I will show you mine, if you show me yours, princess,” he repeated as if he could divine her thoughts. “I know you have many questions for me, but I am afraid I can only provide so few answers.” “Who are you? How didst I get here? Speak; are you spirit or dream?” she demanded. “By the order of the crown and the holy seal I command you to tell me what I require.” “And how come you never noticed our patterns of speech are so vastly different? All in good time, princess. Yes, I know who you are,” he added upon seeing her call her by her title for the second time. Tia backed away from the stallion. How could she be so foolish? The curse of sleep prevented her from realizing the truth about her environment, the small inconsistencies that only amounted to a false reality crafted when night had fallen and drowned the sun. “...Why art thou here? Thine eyes are not that of dream’s whimsy,” she muttered. “That is the second truth. I am here to show you yourself.” In a flash, every single light source within the complex snuffed itself out in some great wind. The light of the moon streamed through the window, but it was precious little light to navigate the darkness. “I have always prefered the darkness, My Lady. As do the monsters.” “Art thou?” Celestia backed herself into the midst of a moonbeam. “My dear, I assure you no physical harm will befall you this night,” his voice echoed. Given the breadth of the corridor and its echoic nature, she had difficulty discerning where his voice originated. She focused every particle of her mind on the dream, concentrating, willing the darkness to part. It was her dream after all. A single torch in front of her burst to life. Tia screamed. In front of her was a massive creature composed of several animals. It grinned at her, eyes brimming with mirth and cruelty. “The little lord is lost in the light. Perhaps that is your singular fault, Celly. The inability to see the evil that good may cause.” The light vanished as her control of the dream slipped through due to panic. Her breathing was rapid and shallow. “Wha-what was that beast?” “A memory, trapped in the shadows. Listen to his words, princess,” the lord preached. “Monsters flee to the darkness for more than just preferential hunting grounds. They know that the real monsters prefer the light.” Tia ran to the next moonbeam. The lord’s voice followed her. “The lies and false faces, the good intentions brimming with sharp words and razorblades, everypony wears hidden intentions in the light. Everypony works for self gratification in the idea of utopia, an idea that will never come to pass unless it is tainted with a vein of evil. When you are in the dark, you can trust a monster to be true to its nature, the evil, good, or malicious intent is always worn on their sleeve. Those that dwell in the light force their corruption behind veils.” “Keep your forked tongue behind your lips, loremaster! You speak of the superiority of evil? Bah!” She focused her mind again. She needed light to find the lord, wherever he was. The light flashed on once again. Her mouth opened to scream, but this time it died on her lips. Instead of the comforting stone and light chill of familiar castle walls, she was greeted with a large, unending wasteland bloated with fires and the scent of death. Ponies littered the ground like pockmarks, as did creators caused by arcane science. Ponies clothed in gold and the occasional silver dueled everywhere in great battalions. The skies were alight by the full moon, yet the skies were almost black under waves upon waves of pegasi. “Commander General!” a pony screamed at her. A large, imposing stallion in rent gold armor stood tense. Blood streamed from where one of his eyes was once previously! “We must fall back and regroup our forces! An entire legion of magi have defected to the enemy, slaughtering our reserves! We are being overwhelmed!” She was trained for this. Scholars and many wizened taught her battle tactics and tactical maneuvers along with political skills. Some instinct took hold of her mind. “Which lines doest thou speak of?” “The eastern reserves, highness. They’re being crushed by a pincer movement by the traitors and a force of ground troops. Without them, we may lose protection on that front altogether. We’d be flanked and surrounded.” “Tell them to hold, general. Stage an incremental retreat and order the vanguard to hold to provide cover.” The soldier stared at her for a moment longer than necessary. “...We’ll lose a fair portion of the vanguard and our reserves, highness.” It was just a statement of fact, but his remaining eye watched her, seeing how she would take the news. “Understood, soldier.” The panic of battle had receded. Seeing that he still had not moved, her eyes narrowed and she issued a cold, hard command, “Dismissed.” The lights died once again. “Who knew that ponies were capable of such a slaughter?” The lord’s voice held a hint of gallows humor. “That was quite cold of you, sending ponies to their deaths without a hint of remorse.” “‘Tis the price of battle, loremaster. One cannot hold investment in a battle to the death.” “I would have issued the same order. But death? Is that what it what battle is to you?” Amusement mixed with curiosity filled his voice. “All battles comes with death. You cannot fight a bloodless battle?” “You can fight to protect instead of destroy... Celestia.” Something about the loremaster saying her name with such sadness resonated with her. Celestia’s horn flashed with light. A tall pony stood in front of her with fur as black as the deepest, darkest shadows. Her mane billowed in a nonexistent wind and shined as if crafted from starlight itself. “YOU!” Never had Celestia heard a voice crafted with such blind, wanton hatred. Her ears flattened against her skull. Only then did she notice that the monster mare was not looking at her, but above her. Celestia quickly got out of the angry mare’s way and saw who exactly she was looking at. The most beautiful mare she had ever seen stood head bowed, legs spread, wings flared at the front of a set of double doors. “It that... me...?” The light dimmed once more as Celestia saw the look on her elder’s face. It mirrored the monster mare point for point, every curve of her perfect face contorted into a violent, wordless snarl. “I always thought it would be more difficult for you to fight an enemy you know. As I said, the pain of an friend always cuts deeper.” The lord’s voice still followed her every step in the now normal castle. “Chaos is right. Why deny what may be your nature, princess?” “I do not dwell amongst the wicked.” “You misunderstand me. This is not about right or wrong, about the validity of good or evil, it is about truth. Pure, unbiased truth.” Celestia increased her pace to that of a good clip, yet the lord’s voice never escaped her. It was better than staying in one place amongst the endless corridor, waiting for the inevitable climax of the lord’s designs. “This is about you being on the precipice of something great and terrible, being capable of changing the world for the best, or its most prolonged and lasting evil. There is a fine line between the greater good and watching the world dance on silver strings. Your young mind sees yourself as a driving force that cannot be denied. Your will is law.” “Of course it is! I have been groomed to rule!” For once, the lord is silent. Celestia tried once more to force the world to bend to her will, even though experience hinted such an opportunity would not be granted. “Oh ho ho! Didn’t you learn anything while we were together, Celly?” The creature was back, it’s elongated face giving her a wide, toothy smile. It leaned against the wall towering over her young form. “Speak, demon. I command you to reveal the puppetmaster.” “Celly, you wound me!” He grasped his heart in mock pain. “Stop it! Only Luna can call me that!” she demanded. This only widened the creature’s smile. “Oh come now, this is your dream. I can call you whatever I want. Even if we were not, we are two sides of the same coin. I inflict chaos for the fun of it, you inflict it because you think it is needed.” The creature snapped his fingers and her world became consumed in a blinding flash of light. The sound of stampeding hooves met her ears. She was in a large courtyard in some place she didn’t recognize. The adult version of herself was back with a foreigner held up to her eyes by magic. “I’ve had enough of your lies,” her older self told the mare. In a flash of motion, adult Celestia stabbed her horn into the other mare’s gut. As she pulled away, something other than red congealed against her fur. Grayish stone branched out like some fast-forming web across her abdomen and limbs. Before she even knew what was going on, the mare was frozen stiff, petrified in solid stone. Celestia didn’t move. Her older self had... had petrified a mare. “I told you already, Celestia.” The creature was by her face, slowly stroking her jawline. “I don’t turn ponies into stone.” The sky darkened once more into the cold castle ceiling. Celestia didn’t move. “This is all a dream...” “Of course!” the creature exclaimed. “Does that make it any less real?” Celestia turned around and ran from the beast. Windows and glowing moonlight streamed past her, but she did not stop. Galloping down the endless corridor did about as well as she would expect: nothing. “Lies are always easier to take, my dear,” the lord comforted. “What will be, or what has been, is never easy to face.” “This is a dream. None of this is real I will never do... that!” “Never hurt somepony for the greater good? Never hold a foreign leader prisoner in order to quell bloody revolts? Never hurt the one dearest to you for the greater good?” Something twitched in her chest and Celestis stopped in her tracks, skidding across the floor. She glared at the darkness. “I will never hurt Luna!” “‘I’, my dear? Not we, but I?” Celestia thought for a moment. “I do not understand.” “Not ‘We were groomed to rule,’ but ‘I have been groomed to rule’. Do you really think so little of your sister?” “Perhaps another lesson is in order.” The creature had appeared in front of her again. With a snap of its fingers, the world was transformed once more. A battlefield. Unlike before where there was nothing but chaos, battle lines were clearly defined now, and one was destroyed beyond belief. Ponies lay dead on a field running red with the blood of the fallen. Far off in the distance was a titanic black gateway opened to a red, hellish world. A great creature was stumbling through the gateway with a horde of eldritch creatures. Celestia saw horns on the beast, a wicked smile and a limp form clutched in one great hand. “LUNA!” she screamed into the night.