//------------------------------// // Civility // Story: Canine Complications // by Wages of Sin //------------------------------// A wave of magic swept Twilight aside and a much more threatening blast was fired at Bark Back. Before Twilight's trajectory carried her into the wall and the blast had time to reach its target, though, a dark blue aura caught her and shielded Bark Back. Celestia's formerly narrowed eyes shot open as she looked to her sister, "What is this?" she nearly shouted, eyes returning to their previous, unquestioningly threatening slits. "I am defending my citizens, what else would be expected of me?" Luna responded firmly, rising from the throne, eying her sister critically. "Your- ...citizens?" Celestia's firm and intimidating facade melted and was replaced with one of confusion, then fear, and then finally a teetering edge between anger and sadness. "Sister... Are you saying you are behind this?" "If you mean to ask if I have defended rightful citizens of Equestria from your misguided attempts at the same, then yes, I am wholly responsible. Beyond that, I am conspicuously unaware of to what you could be referring, a matter I must express a measure of discontent with. Tell me sister, whatever has driven you to the point that you would attack your own student on sight?" Celestia looked taken aback, glancing between the Luna, who wore a hurt frown and the wolf, who sat with a similar look of worrisome confusion in its eyes. "I'm sorry sister..." Celestia said quietly. The words brought a smile to Luna's face. "I'm sorry you got involved at all." before Luna could question, a bright flash filled the room to reveal the lunar princess unconscious. The lunar guards may have reacted to the affront, had they not shared a similar fate. As the dark alicorn fell, Twilight and Bark back were once again suspended by a golden aura. Celestia's sad eyes turned hard as she turned from her fallen sister to the wolves suspended in her grasp. "So this was your intention? You knew my sister would not fall to your temptations directly, so you possessed my student and used her to drive my sister to re-establish the Night Empire? You may have gotten Twilight, but I will not lose my sister as well!" she shouted furiously, her mane's normally soft breeze quaking and snapping like a pennant in a gale. "I shall never lose my sister again, I swear it!" she screamed as the wooden wolf in her grasp was engulfed in solar flames. The other suspended wolf looked on in horror. She turned to the remaining wolf, speaking with a much quieter, but all the more frightful for it, tone, "You will release your hold on my student, or I will make you suffer until you do!" The wolf looked her gaze, Celestia's purple eyes meeting the wolf's blue. ...blue? Celestia's horn brightened, but the magic fizzled out as so too did the magic holding her up. "I am stunned by your cruelty. The sister I know and love would never act this way, but then again, you must be in a poor state of mind if you thought a sleep spell would work on me sister." the wolf said calmly, in a familiar voice. The figure began morphing into a the same form that lay limp across the room as that and all the other present bodies dissolved into smoke, the very room quivering and reshaping into a familiar starry void of Luna's realm. "Now, what is this about the Night Empire? Surely you do not think I have fallen prey to the Nightmare once again?" Celestia's anger was clear to Luna, though she could not tell if it was at her, at herself for falling into her trap, or for another reason. Regardless, her anger carried through her grimace and into her words, "You stand before me defending the Nightmare's monsters and claim to not be influenced? The farce has ended, it is all too clear what has happened here." Celestia's scowl faltered as if surprised though, when, rather than taking action, Luna merely continued to talk, “Well then sister, please enlighten me; What is it that has clearly happened here?" The action, or the conspicuous lack thereof, caught Celestia unguarded. "You! You... The wolf! Twilight was possessed by some force that has transformed her and continues to influence her! She has brought the Nightmare's wolves from hiding and atempts to bring you back to madness!" Her tone turned incredulous, "Such must be the case if you believe them your subjects!" "Sister, your student is under an influence, one that she has been doing her best to fight, but it is not what you appear to think. I know not the circumstance, but she speaks in the voice of your student, she herself has expressed the fear that she is tempered by the instincts of a predator, but I have seen no more reason to distrust her words." "But she fought me! My student would never raise a hoof against me! It is against her nature!" Celestia exclaimed indignantly. To any other the retort would have sounded like a confident statement of fact, but Luna could hear the confusion and concern underlining her words. Luna took a long breath and spoke her reply slowly and deliberately, "I have no doubt it was hard for her to do so sister, but to simply abandon her friends would be an even greater betrayal of her morals, would it not?" Celestia's confidence faltered, “What is this of her friends?" she asked, "The Element Bearers were the ones who brought my attention to this matter in the first place out of their concern for her! How would fighting me be in the interests of being loyal to her friends?" "Because those are not the friends she needed to defend." Luna replied calmly. For a moment Celestia merely stared at her sister, but quickly her expression changed again, "Surely you do not propose that she has befriended the Nightmare's creations!" The look Luna returned said all it needed to. "Sister, surely you are aware that such beings are not capable of-" "My conversation with Twilight and the timberwolf would attest to the fact they are capable, not just of speech and cognition, but of independent complex thought, and indeed friendship." Celestia remained steadfast, "If it is as you say, and these creatures are capable of thought, that does not change that they are still allies of the Nightmare! They-" "These wolves have no more allegiance to the nightmare than our thestrials of today. In fact, their ancestral counterparts likely had even less reason to fight when compared, if our assessment rings true, for they were not even given a choice, rather having been forced into the conflict in order to survive." "But-" Celestia called out, "Sister, they kill ponies! Even if they can, as you claim, channel the magic of friendship, they are dangerous and wild! There is no way-" "How many ponies have they killed?" Luna interrupted. "Many!" confidently shouted in return. "After the war, how many did they kill after the conflict had ended?" Luna asked, still calm. "Parties into the Everfree have been reporting attacks ever since! Likely hundreds have died by their claws and teeth!" Luna did not seem surprised or even all to upset by this number, "Yes sister, but how about Manticore, Hydra, Ursa? Have they killed more than any other creature of the Everfree? Do their actions fall out of line with any other predatory or territorial race? Is there anything to say that their actions have been anything more malicious than trying to survive? You as well as I know the forest does not give special dispensation to ponies and I would not ask that of it, for that is not its way." Celestia opened her mouth, "Wh-" "...and I will not hear you make claims against the natural order either, not now, and especially not on the case of a species so closely tied to our last conflict of that very subject." "Fine! What is it then? What do you propose I do? Allow the wolves to run free? Continuing to kill indiscriminately all those who wander too close to the forest?" Celestia asked, stomping a hoof, "I intend to protect my little ponies, if that means that there is one less type of monster in the forest then so be it!" "Are you listening to me sister? Or even yourself? Harmony should always be the first choice!" "Harmony with monsters? We cannot-" "They are not monsters!" Luna shouted “Are you not listening to me? They are an organized sentient race, and should be treated as such! Can you name one reason that this is not the case?" "They hunt and eat ponies!" Celestia replied without pause. "So did the griffons. We can work past it. Further, your student has already presented a method of doing just that." Luna replied, "That is why I have already gone ahead with giving them the rights they deserve. I have already made them citizens." Celestia gaped indignantly, "Citizenship! They are but magical constructs! How can you think of them as citizens!" "Are not we all magical constructs sister? Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies, all formed by the great magic that flows within and between us?" "You know very well what I meant." Celestia retorted unamused. "Surely I did not! What separates them from us?" Luna shouted, stomping a hoof. "They are magical constructs! Look at them!" Celestia shouted back, obviously becoming frustrated with her sister's lack of understanding, "They are made of wood held together by magic!" Luna rose a brow, "So you claim that not being of flesh makes them monsters? I would dare say Princess Cadence would disagree on behalf of her crystal ponies." Luna paused, but continued before Celestia could retort "Do you have yet more reason to persecute them? Or do you need further reason to finally accept them as the rightful citizens I have already made them!" Whatever response Celestia had been preparing was lost as she sputtered."Persi... I am not persecuting them! I am defending my little ponies! You are the one making a mockery of our nation by offering citizenship to these creatures! What next sister? Will you elevate cragodiles to nobility? This is absurd!" "No, what is absurd is your refusal to see the truth of the matter!" Luna shouted as she stomped a hoof, "To be certain, I would elevate a cragodile to nobility if it preformed deserving service to Equestria!" Luna paused as her sister stared, aghast "That is precisely the point that you need to see!" she continued much to her sister's consternation, "Do you not remember Prince Platinum the forty-third?" Celestia was taken off guard by the question but gave a cautious nod. "Do you remember why we finally ended up removing the power of the Unicornian royal family?" Celestia gave no response. "I believe his exact words were not too far from your own just now, something about making a mockery of Ponydom by allowing the first Pegasi and Earth ponies to live in the royal capitol. Do you remember? I believe that he also made a similar comparison, likening our plan's 'absurdity' to that of an Earth pony becoming noble. I regret to admit that at the time I was more inclined to believe him, but I trusted your judgment. Now here we are, positions reversed, and I hope that you will trust me." Celestia could no longer hold her sister's gaze... "Mistress,” Bark Back asked as the limp forms of the Diarchs began to stir, "The Moon Bearer and White Hunter reawaken." The lavender wolf scrambled to her paws, unsure how to proceed, but preparing to cast a shield just in case. She sided up to Luna's rising form, keeping her eyes on Celestia's. "Princess, how did it go? Is she...?" "She acts as a detestable mule, and has the stubbornness to prove it, but yes..." she said with a weary but contented sigh, "...she has relented."