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// Chapter 17: Confrontality 
// Story: When the Everfree Burns 
// by SpiritDutch 
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What greater fear than not knowing if the gods were real?
What greater comfort than knowing the gods cared for you?
And what greater delight than knowing god was not watching you sin?

Hark, those who had snidely satisfied themselves with the latter 'knowledge',  for Celestia had reawakened. The first sinner so seen, whose tally had at last come before the Sun's prosecutor, was the vain nightmare known as Illustrious Valor. 
Celestia watched as Iillor violently tantrumed against the spot Phyte had been moments before, and with judgement yet reserved the alicorn felt a tinge of amusement at the creature's fury.

Illor, for her part, was a shuddering mess, head filled with unbound anger at Phyte and herself, with the pain of her shot-away appendages, with the echoes of the ecstasy of total victory snatched away, and every other ache of her body and mind after a tortuous battle with a worthy adversary.  But what had it mattered when Phyte herself had slipped away, teleported to who-knew-where?  The Star's minions were dead, true, but those slaves were beneath Iillor's pity and anger- None of the ancient vengeances and mystic grudges were satisfied.
Although...
Phyte stopped her destructive tantrum, basking in the sensation of her exhausted, brutalized body. Then, she turned to the other entity in the room.

Celestia's radiant profile was now the only light in the room, looming with absolute stillness besides the swirling luminescences of her mane and tail, with the glow of her eyes making it absolutely unmistakable that her stare was settled on the nightmare and the nightmare alone.  The alicorn demigod had all her attention on her now.

What more perverse pleasure than feeling god judging your profligacy?
"I let her get away." Iillor said, the pangs of anger at herself becoming almost overwhelming. "I... got cocky." She sighed.

Celestia said nothing.

Iillor let her form revert into shadows, then reform as her earth pony disguise. After so long using the earth pony shape, it felt more natural to move in than anything else.  And was it not proper to address the pony empress as a pony? "Princess, I squandered the opportunity you gave me. I'm ashamed of myself, and my failure is a disgrace to Lady Moon, and yourself as well." Celestia twitched at those words.  "Empress, highness and grace, please tell me where that bitch Phyte has escaped to. Your mercy would mean everything to me! Please, let me run her down and destroy her once and for all."

Still Celestia did not say anything. Unmoving, unblinking. What was that divine mind thinking?

"Princess," Iillor was starting to get frustrated. Couldn't the alicorn see how much this meant to her? If Celestia was going to Iillor her get away with everything she had already, was it really too much of an ask for a tiny bit of help? "Celestia, give me this boon and I will owe you-"

"How dare you speak to me." Celestia interrupted. She glided forward through the darkness, looming over Iillor, her wings partially outstretched. "This is not the first time you have imposed on me, nightmare. You kill my ponies, you harass and worry my officers, you meddle incessantly. All your bothers come back to me, all distractions, wasting my time. Every time you stir the pot, some pony comes crying her their princess. So too Phyte, the loudest and most annoying crybaby, wails and demands my attention: And for what, but this same riotous nightmare assaulting her home."  Celestia stared down her snout at Iillor, with the look of a one who has finally cornered a bothersome insect buzzing around them.   "Rather than show any remorse, you instead made demands for MORE of my time, energy, and attention. So, I must waste this breath to berate you, though I doubt it will get through your skull. I hold out no hope of you understanding and showing contrition for your transgressions."


The rapid assault of words by the imposing alicorn struck Iillor speechless.

"Are you finally going to settle down?  It is about time." Celestia huffed. "Do not bother Cadence or me again." Celestia's horn came alight with white energy, and Iillor recoiled in terror at the prospect of being rent apart by the princess's magic; But instead there was a blinding flash and Celestia disappeared, teleporting out of the dismal cavern.


For a pony, the collision of so many emotions at once would probably have elicited a moment of pause, some reflection, and consideration of what to do next. Yet Iillor's instincts were different, and her fears were rapidly subsumed under a new feeling of indignation directed at Celestia.
Teeth clenched, Iillor decided she was not going to accept the princess unilaterally cutting off the conversation. She still had more to say, damn it!







Celestia had teleported back to the surface, atop the collapsed and smoldering Musician's Guild hall.  Nearly a hundred city guardsponies had descended on the scene from lodges all over Canterlot, beginning the work of cleaning the street of debris. There was no hope of approaching, let alone clearing, the shambolic heap of stone which had once been the mighty neoclassical guild yet, for the great heat that it still radiated- the princess was concealed within the smoke and haze.


Most of the citizens had gone back to their lives (for what else was there to do?), but there were still a few ponies hanging around: The Wonderbolts and knights had run off, leaving city guardsponies to clean, with Sel Lech and Duke Lightdowser observing from a commandeered cafe table across the street.

"Do we want to have permanent alicorn guardianship or are we going to have autonomy over ourselves as ponies. That's the question Lady Twilight Velvet posed to me."  Sel Lech explained to the duke. "As a courtier with no prospects, her ideas made a lot of sense. Our economy, our public morality, and our country is stagnating because we reached the upper limit of what ponykind can do under Celestia's wardship. The same institutions that she protects us with are limiting us."

"That smacks of reform, which is a vulgar word I only hear from the mouths of the dishonorable." Lightdowser replied, his tone a disinterested drawl. He kept one eye on his son who was pestering the recovery workers, asking them infantile questions about their jobs and lives.

For Sel Lech, having the duke at the table was already half the job, however aloof the stallion acted. It was not his task to convince him of anything. "How the commoners talk about it definitely is scandalizing to well-borne ponies like us." Sel agreed.  "However, I don't think you're above rocking the boat, since you came to Canterlot to make changes. When Velvet said change was needed, I agreed. If you also say change is needed, I'll agree with you too. I think most ponies agree Equestria isn't in its greatest shape. The imperial government hasn't planned or built any infrastructure projects in decades. The free cities are bickering-"
Sel Lech cut himself off, seeing familiar faces in his peripheral vision. "Allow me to resume that thought later, my lord. Some friends of mine are here."

"I hope that's not you being facetious, Sabonord." Blueblood trotted up to the table, closely followed by the robed slave, Molar.  His compatriot Aurthora was leading a contingent of a dozen armed ponies down the street. "Cool hat. You must've finally gotten through to talk to Seacrest about a job, aye?"

"Yes, it was me being facetious. You're conveniently late, even though you had advance warning of this guild buisness." Sel Lech acted cold. "I'm not going to hear any bad excuses now that I have ponies relying on me, whose lives I risked, while the Black Horn Council sat out the crisis."

Blackhorn had been expecting at least some jocularity and ribbing from Sel, at most some self-righteous puffery, but nothing like the icy stare he was receiving. "Uh, what are you talking about pal? It's not as though we were ordered to be here. We're a political organization and fraternal order first and foremost, you know.  I mean, we're putting our lives on the line coming out here, as private citizens, because we love Canterlot so much." He cast furtive glances to the refined stallion across from Sel, and the steel-clad knight flanking him. "We're here to serve ponies and the state, and some ponies have an issue with that, but we do it anyway."

Sel sighed. "Okay, fine, sure. Look, we can talk later. Maybe we have a little conference with Lady Velvet there too. Or not. I'm going to have a lot of work in my new role."  He could tell Blueblood was formulating an answer and preemptively cut him off. "Later. Please leave."


Glancing a last time to the older stallion, Blueblood trotted back to Aurthora and their gaggle of militiaponies. "Sabonord is getting big for his britches."

Aurthora gave him an uncharacteristically disappointed look. "Don't be a dolt. Across from him that's the duke of East Unicornia, Sharphoof Lightdowser. You do know who that is, right? He has over a hundred knights and lances at his beck and call."

Blueblood gave Sharphoof an appraising look. "That's Lightdowser? We've taken Speaker work from him before. I thought he'd be younger." He stroked his chin. "If Sel is is buttering the duke up..."

Aurthora shrugged. "Either Sel is still our boy, or he's maneuvering into a different camp. Let's not jump to conclusions until Lady Velvet tells us more."



Just then, gasps and exultant shouts were heard from nearby. Everypony turned to look at the cause of the commotion.

"Holy cow, it's Princess Celestia." Blueblood uttered. 

"It was really her highness! She's come before us again!" One of the guardsponies cried out.
Indeed the sun princess was there amongst them. She was at the top of the stairs of the ruined hall, striking an imposing visage above the ponies below her, the great heat distortion from the smoldering ruin behind her making her seem all the more etherial.


The ponies, witness to a ramshackle revelation of their lately-distant princess, would have loved to throng forward, to adore and revere her closer, and to plead their worthiness to her so she would never leave them to their own devices again. But the ponies were repelled by their own primal fear, for it was not just the princess's physical presence alone that awed their hearts. A supernatural aura hung about her, a subtle thrum in the air, which life-long Canterloters knew intimately from the yearly ritual: The Sun was watching too. Not passively shining her gilding light, not daylight as could be found on any other day, no, but the felt presence of the attention of their impossible deity.  

The ponies cooed on instinct, enraptured.  "T-The Summer Sun!" Some of them yelled.
But how could it be? The Summer Sun was always cast at dawn, while it was then afternoon.  But the ponies knew it nonetheless, that between them and their solar god was an unbroken ray of celestial power that strobed and lapped around them invisibly. If somepony succumbed to temptation and cocked their head back, to cast their gaze up and return the Sun's stare, what would they see? Was it even possible for a pony to see, or would the laws of heaven and the universe obliterate them down to their very atoms for attempting to peer behind the veil of creation?

The Sun Princess Celestia, unburdened by her familiarity with the awesome terrors of direct divine attention, moved free. She descended down the steps of the flattened guild, her stature still putting her well above the ponies whose eyes were upon her.
Celestia had to admit she missed the attention. Away in the tower, she had few optical suiters; perhaps a passing pegasus or a unicorn with a telescope. The pony who laid their eyes upon her could not help but commit themselves to the old Equestrian compact with all their soul: That she was their undisputed warden, and they were her impotent wards.
They awaited her words and deeps with bated breath, and could do no other. "My little ponies!" She spoke, her voice supernaturally loud, the royal voice occasioned by the Summer Sun and most important imperial court pronouncements. "I am here to give my FINAL MESSAGE."







Cadence felt the change in the air.
"Something is wrong." She dropped the book she'd been reading; She and Manered had finished with most of the Maresopotemian and Babyloneighian astrological texts and begun scrutinizing classical works. Their study had been progressing quickly though not productively, for while Cadence greatly enjoyed devoting herself to reading like she was a student again they were no closer to understanding the sun's strange movements.
Now Cadence had the sinking feeling that it was too late.

"Hmm?" Manered noticed her expression of deep concern. "Wronger than it has been?"

Cadence tried to keep her royal poise, but the magical agitation she detected from the skies above, even from far away and through the solid stone of the monastery, filled her with a deep and primordial fear. "Yes, brother. Wronger, I worry, than it has ever been." She stood up. "It was just an inkling before, a tickle. Now... I have to go. Princess Celestia..." If what she feared was happening was happening, then what could she even do?  "Celestia is not well. I have to go see her."


Before Manered could break his quizzical expression and ask what she meant, a deep reverberation echoed through the foundations of the monastery.  "What?! That's our Summer Sun bell!' Manered gasped. He stood up too. "What damn fool though it'd be funny to ring it? One of the initiates is having a laugh!"

Cadence's dread grew. She galloped for the door and almost collided with a monk coming the other way.

"Whah!  I- I'm sorry princess! T- The sun!" The monk squeaked. He skirted around the alicorn and ran over to Manered. "The observatory says the sun froze again! A- And it's...  doing something!"

Manered realized that the ringing of the monastery bell, shaking the dust from the ceiling with its steady slow tolling, was not a prank. "I see." He nodded to Cadence. "Princess Cadenza, it's not just Celestia who is not well."
He paused. Maybe now was the time to tell Cadence about Twilight Sparkle's research. No, probably not, or not until the moon's involvement was completely proven. "Be safe, princess. Do not risk yourself for us lowly ponies."

Cadence had only a vague idea what he meant by that. "It's going to be fine." Cadence said. She galloped away.







A city of nearly two-hundred-thousand citizens, with many thousand more squatters, beggars, tramps, and villains. What a grand project, and for the combined wills and souls of so many ponies to come together for a common purpose, and to flourish in harmony with one another and with their divinely descended empress.  Lo, was not the Mountain looming above them all not a beckoning beacon for the living dream of a united ponykind?


It was all true. More or less.
But Celestia had fallen out of love with that dream, and no longer wished to live it.

Hundreds of eyes, fixed upon her, became thousands. The souls her city came out at the command of the bells now echoing all across Canterlot.
Over the centuries as their sovereign, Celestia had come to understand their patterns. Like a magic all its own, the mortals flowed and thrummed in its magnificent way, curling and contoured to the land and city around them, shaped and reshaping their world. By week, year, and decade the little patterns emerged. For over seven-hundred years Celestia had engrossed herself in their study and facilitation, to let that chorus of color, collectively and individually, express itself to its utmost.

Very poetic, sure. But most poets usually ended up killing themselves, n'est pas?
Why had she even bothered? There was no joy in seeing the ponies live their lives anymore.
She was getting old and stale, living in one place and in one role for so many years. It was unfair to her, and to the ponies. That is why it needed to change.


Celestia had considered sneaking away. The ponies who had for a year been denied her audience would barely noticed they had also been denied her presence. They might worry for a few weeks, then go back to routine, just like when she had begun her vigils atop the watchtower. The patterns of the lives of ponykind did not need their princess to continue on- They did not really care about her, nor she about them.
And yet...  standing before the ponies as she had not in nearly a year, seeing the awe and reverence on their faces, was almost enough to break the feeling of estrangement Celestia had built up. She had lingering fondnesses for her ponies that she could not shake away; Nor did she want to completely rid herself of sentimentalities, for even as a creature apart from mortal creatures the ponies often spoke of her as one of their own, and the bonds of fictive kinship were strong in both directions.
... But that Celestia had been made to resemble the ponies was one of the deeper aggravations she would never be able to shake away. They were her masters much more than she was theirs. If there had been no ponies to dominate, the Celestiaan would never have descended to the world, sent by their celestial sires.

Such potent, contradictory thoughts...  Sorting through them would take too long, and Celestia had already committed herself to what she felt. That is why she had decided to go before her ponies, and give them most of the truth.
She took a deep breath, readying herself for what she had to say.


"EQUESTRIANS!" Celestia boomed. Her voice echoed across the city, challenging the incessant bells, an alicorn's timbre reserved for the most regal of events. "This is my FINAL MESSAGE to you all. I, your princess, have come before you t-"
The princess did not finish that word before a torrent of black magical energy struck her head from behind. Everything to the right of her mouth was blasted away, and Celestia staggered forward from the unexpected attack, nearly tripping down the stairs of the guild.

The black pony form of Iillor was there in her shadow, panting hard from the exertion of her magical attack. "Never turn your back on a nightmare, asshole." She cackled between breaths. "We weren't done w"
Iillor had stopped- Not cut off, as she had Celestia, but frozen mid enunciation. The ponies on the street were frozen too, gasping, groaning, screaming at the sight of their princess's apparent assassination, perfectly still. Wisps of smoke did not rise and glowing embers did not fall.

Celestia, sighing from the half of her mouth that remained, straightened herself and turned to the nightmare assailant. "Impertinent mare." But Celestia alone moved now, the sun alone watched, and no other could hear or answer. "Did your god put you up to this? No matter. Go home to play with the mortals. Your aspirations to dance with the divine are over."
After a steadying breath, Celestia curled back and backhoof smacked Iillor across the face with all her strength. Frozen as she was, Iillor's body did not realize it had been hit yet.


Still, the damage had been done, both ways. The energy Celestia had gathered to give her grand speech had turned to more frustration and bitterness. Couldn't a mare go out in public and talk without being shot from behind?!  Now she would have to talk over the ponies' screaming and crying as well as the endless bells. There was no recovering this situation. It was better not to have tried.
She would just slink away like she had originally planned. As long as she hid, she would never be hurt or bothered ever again.

Bit by bit, Celestia relinquished her hold on the course of time and causality around her. The world resumed its natural course.
For the ponies observing, it appeared for all the world like Celestia had instantaneously moved by a few meters at the same instant that Iillor's upper body had exploded into black mist.  As predicted the screaming and crying continued, and a few bold ponies ran forward to see if Celestia and the nightmare were alright.
Celestia rolled her eye and teleported away.



The Sun's attention abated and the sensation of the divine presence lifted.  The only proof Celestia had been there were bits of her skin and Iillor's mutilated torso, but those too dissolved into shimmering sparkles and dark mist respectively.
Immediately, the vomiting started. To be bathed in the divine attention of the sun, and then to have that power yanked away by the disinterested god once Celestia left, was an overwhelming disorientation for the already distraught ponies on the high street. Their wails and moans and screams became a miserable chorus that extended to several blocks away from the steps of the guild hall.  The Canterloters were left to once again wonder if the brief appearance of their princess was a mass delusion, a ghastly apparition, or an altogether more earnest and horrifying audience by their liege. The bells tolled on.

"What the buck did I just witness?" Blueblood cursed, his natural cynicism letting him recover most quickly from the residual effects of divine grace. He lent a steadying hood to his comrade Aurthora as she swayed and trembled, struggling to keep the much larger mare upright. "Here's hoping we don't get in trouble for any of this..."

Protected under the cafe awning, Sel Lech and Lightdowser had not felt the sun so much. Sel, nauseated, lay his head down on the table and waited for it to pass.  The duke however stood up and rushed to his son curled up on the street.
"What the devil has gotten into this city." Lightdowser checked Rusty's vitals and, seeing his son was mostly fine, sat back with a sigh. "Violence and spectacle at the level of madcap nonsense. I was beginning to suspect I was the victim of a vaudevillian orchestration. Now I am sure of it."

"It's not like this every day." Sel Lech murmured.

Lightdowser shook his head. "That may be so, but this is what it will be like tomorrow. I would not presume that mine and the Admiral's arrival has caused anything, but together with this chaos are concomitant of something greater. Perhaps we are being strung along by devils or gods, or we are traveling a path of destruction paved by our own sin. In either case, the only possible action is virtuous action. This dire spectacle, whether instantaneous or staged, is a message to us, or, perchance to me specifically, that passivity will destroy us. I have been dumbly sitting by while fantastical things have been pushing the world along faster than I am meant to see. That is to say, Sir Sabonord, that I must do more than talk. It is not possible to watch the play and still count oneself as an actor. But there I was, talking across the table with you instead of moving."
With a grim frown, he got back up and left his comatose son where he lay. "Look after him." He commanded one of his knights, who were not in much better shape. "I have to abide by the decision to bring him, but the empire needs me more than any colt." He galloped in the direction of the castle as fast as his hooves would take him.

Sel barely lifted his head to watch Duke Lightdowser disappear around a corner. "Wait!" He tried to stand up but his nausea forced him to the street. "These damn ponies and their savior complexes." He whimpered, as much to himself as anypony.


Swooping over the scene a minute later, Cadence did not even stop on her path to the imperial keep. She took in the sight of the collapsed and smoldering hall, and the miserable state of the ponies around it, and just shook her head.  Things were not going to get better any time soon.








Teleporting into the midst of her lonesome, dusty living quarters, Celestia sensed she was not alone.
For one, things were not how she had left it. Somepony had rummaged through her bureaus and not closed them all, some of the carpets were fussed, and there was a low fire in the fireplace.  She sensed an entity, something skilled enough to mask their magical aura, nearby, who'd apparently enjoyed the fire moments before Celestia arrived. Now the uninvited guest was hiding somewhere close, skulking in the shadows of the parlor it seemed...  But still that cloaked aura was strange, the like of which Celestia had felt only a few times before, and always under inauspicious circumstances.

Eyeing the door, Celestia saw the locks and wards were still in place. "You shall have to wait on me a moment, visitor." Celestia said quietly, and only silence answered. "I am injured, having had to put down a nightmare. After I attend to myself, we may deal, if indeed that is what you wish."
She trotted across the threshold into her bedroom, a trail of sparkling blood drops blazing the floor behind her. She passed into her seldom-used boudoir and sat before her largest mirror. With a hiccup of surprise she saw much more of her face was missing than she expected: The nightmare had been very angry it seemed, to damage her so.  Celestia gingerly brought a hoof to the missing region, feeling where soft white fur transitioned into the haze of alicorn energy that now filled out her profile. If made her hoof tingle.

Behind her, she sensed the visitor shift position, and approach. Celestia waited until the visitor was at the doorway to the bedroom, ready to defend herself, but the entity stopped, so Celestia could now just see her out of the corner of the mirror.

"Impatient?" Celestia asked.

"No. I've had years. What's a couple minutes longer." The visitor joked.


Celestia's blood froze. She could not breath, she could not move, eyes now locked on the tall shape in the mirror behind her... desperate to see something that disproved what she'd heard.
No.
It could not be.

Confusion and anger nearly overwhelmed the alicorn, and it was all she could do to stay on her cushion, until she allowed herself to breath again. Why now? Why ever?  No, no, it simply could not be.



Slowly, agonizingly, Celestia turned in her seat to face the visitor. Her hoof dropped from her face, and now she felt terribly ashamed among all the other emotions blasting her, to be seen so damaged.

The visitor pushed back the hood of her concealing robes. She had a totally unfamiliar head, a cat's, like an abyssinian's head but sleeker and with much larger eyes. But those eyes...  Celestia did recognize them, for they were a pony's eyes. And the cat's fanged smirk was much alike a pony's.  The feliform creature was, from orange-furred head to orange-furred paws, concealing a pony soul.
And Celestia knew exactly which pony.


The two of them passed the mutual recognition in silence for several minutes, until the dreamer ceased to grin. "Phyte says hello, and other choice things. She's away now. Good riddance." The cat said. After another minute of waiting she spoke again, frustrated. "Actually, I don't have forever. Your little princess in on her way."

Cadence...  would understand. "She may see you if you are discreet." Celestia pronounced.  With this dreamer it was not a guarantee that her commands would be obeyed.

The dreamer was indeed displeased. "You'd be risking her life even more. I didn't come back to gossip."


"Why DID you come back? Why couldn't you have stayed down there, died down there, and never bothered me or my ponies ever again? The pain you've caused me-"  Celestia paused, fighting back years of inner angers. Almost no other pony could make her feel this way, truly eliciting all the feelings that a pony could feel, and survive. "I thought long and hard about chasing you down and executing you. Tell me why I shouldn't do it now?"

The smirk was back. "You did try. I saw you there, on the edge of the forest, dragging the purple filly behind you. She was too young to understand, loudly complaining about the difficulty of the lesson. But it was no lesson, and your eyes were on the horizon, looking, burning, for me."  The dreamer loosed the strings of her robe and pulled it open. "Right here, Celly." She fussed the fur over her heart, and tugged at a claw-full of loose skin. "I can still die in this shape, as you know. If you don't do it now you'll never have the chance again."

"Just another traitor I've executed?" Celestia said. It did not sound as firm as she'd wished. Part of her still wished she would blink and the vision would disappear, more illusory torment.
She walked forward, and reached forward with a hoof. It trembled as she came closer, hovering right above that spot on the dreamer's breast.

"Rawr!" The dreamer shouted, making Celestia jumped back. "Ha ha! Got you, Cel-"
She got no further, for time's progress had been strangled.

It was not so strong a control as out on the street, for without the light of the sun Celestia lacked the sway to halt the world completely. The dreamer's mouth oh-so slowly contorted around each of the enunciations, while a hundred kilometers away things were probably moving as normal.
Celestia used the extra time to stare at the feliform, just... numb. The back of her hoof, where she'd smacked Iillor into giblets, ached.


"So much grief. The hurt of betrayal, the rupture of my trust..." Struggling with herself against the destructive urge, she turned her head away, unable to bear the sight any longer.
How pathetic was she. Hardly behavior befitting of a monarch, let alone a alicorn.  Celestia had maintained constant, unflappable royal decorum for hundreds of years; Through wars, assassination attempts, and natural disasters she had shown care, kindness, firmness, and imperiousness in the exact right mix and at the exact right times. Such was the grace of a demigod. But nowadays her heart was so brittle. Nowadays...

Celestia released her magical control over the course of causality, but when she looked back at the dreamer, the cat was not where she had been. Instead the dreamer was sitting on the edge of her bed inspecting the wall.  WHAT?!


"You were taking too long." The dreamer laughed lightly, but with little joy. A certain melancholy had taken her over. "I knew you couldn't do it. I mean, I'm not ready to die so I'd hardly have visited if I actually thought you would kill me. But still I'm...  disappointed somehow. I suppose that even though I'm an older mare now, I never fully matured out of the adolescent reverences I held for you. When I rebelled I expected to be blasted all over the wall or lost into a phantom time forever. But I slipped through your hooves the first time, the second time, then the third time- I though it was just a fluke and my time was still nigh. Oh, I was a reckless and repulsive dreamer for my first years of exile, certain I would soon be dead one way or the other.
"When I defied common sense and continued to live, reality caught up to me. Ha, well, you know, not exactly, since in the Dreamscape everything is its own form of quasi-reality." The dreamer chuckled softly at her own joke. "But I did smarten up. I made strong friends, and became stronger and wiser myself. Yet, when I thought about what I was, who I was, it still came back to you, my rebellion, and my defiance, even if I found new meanings to it."

Celestia said nothing.

"I thought about you too much, I think. Looking at you now, this Celestia really wasn't worth dedicating my life to, worth obsessing over, nor suffering for." The dreamer sighed. "You couldn't kill me, but I can't discern whether that means you've moved on, or that you haven't."


"You think too highly of yourself. I went years without thinking of you." Celestia grunted. "You have been totally replaced in this world, so that just like in the other world you exist as a duplicate, a surplus. I have well moved on. I dwelled on the pain you caused for a while, questioned what I did wrong, but eventually that pain had to be let go. The magic you stole regrew, and so did my ability to trust.” Her doleful masque hardened into determination. “It is already pitiful you have stayed obsessed with me. It is becomes pitifully tragic that the obsession led you to your state, unwanted in both worlds."

The dreamer looked hurt but said nothing for a while. She retied her robe and pulled up her hood. "You wish. I think I had a much happier life there than you have here."


There was the sound of wings flapping and hooves scrambling for purchase on stone from outside the parlor window, and a moment later a concerned voice could be heard.  "Celestia, are you in there? Celestia, we have to talk."

The dreamer crossed her arms. "Last chance to get me to leave. If she sees me-" 

"Do not presume to order me." Celestia barked. She unlatched the window with her telekinesis, but then immediately retreated back into the boudoir.


Cadence ducked into the room, breathing hard from her hurried flight. She took a second to smooth out her mane and settle her wings before looking around.  The absence of the other alicorn, and presence of the sullen feliform in the bedroom was immediately obvious to Cadence, to her great concern.  "Oh, um, hello. I...  wasn't aware. I don't suppose you are privy to what is happening, lady ambassador?"

"I'm an Ultharian, not an Abyssinian. I have little to say but by the empress's leave." The dreamer shrugged.

"Ultharian? I apologize for not being familiar, but by your accent I assume you to an imperial subject. Uh, regardless, it is nice to meet you." Cadence bowed her head. "Princess Celestia is-"

"Here. I simply needed a moment." Celestia reentered the bedroom.  The damage to her head and face were gone, restoring the alicorn's physique to full wholesomeness. 

"Princess." Cadence bowed. "Thank goodness you seem okay. Things have been so confused lately. I don't know where to begin." She glanced over to the dreamer, hesitant to speak in front of the stranger.  "We can talk about what occurred in the Old Town, right?"

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked.

"Nary ten minutes ago. I was still far away but I unmistakably saw you. I saw the Sun doing something, and then you left." Cadence said, her tone becoming harder, trying to discourage Celestia from lying.

"Mmm, yes, I had an announcement to make. I decided not to make it." Celestia shrugged. "The clarification was needed because of so much else happening in the Old Town. The flattened building surely did not escape your notice. Nor the dozens of deceased ponies, nor the injuring of two Elder Siblings." She said. "My lack of speech was of the least note."

Cadence was silent for a long minute. "Yes, princess, we should talk about that too." She looked to the cat again. "Mis, I must insist you leave. Even if the empress does not mind, I do."


The dreamer hopped up from the bed. She pulled her cowl down lower, that her nod from alicorn to alicorn hid her too-ponylike eyes. "Princess, princess, this isn't goodbye forever. You won't get away before I say my piece." She strode towards the parlor, out of sight. Though the outer chamber door stayed shut, both Cadenza and Celestia felt the cat's strange aura dissipate. She had left the chambers.


Cadence sighed, rubbing her forehead. What a mess.  "That was Sunset Shimmer, wasn't it."

"Speak of that one no more, whoever she is. You came to see me, to confront me, and therefore you would best be on with it." Celestia's demeanor turned instantly more hostile.


This would not be an easy conversation. For one, how could Cadence NOT talk about the strange cat, who notwithstanding her likely identity was already an ominous harbinger of grave things from places beyond. Far from ignorant, Cadence knew that the cats of Ulthar did not just stop for tea...   But ignore it Cadence must, to get Celestia to talk about the guild hall. If there was a connection there, Cadence would have to figure it out later, because she could not think of approaching the one topic from the other.

But how to begin? Being an immortal alicorn herself, who Celestia would hesitate to punish even from the deepest rage, she had some leeway to be honest and blunt.  But if she wanted results, whatever that meant, she also had to be tactful.  This could not be only for her own catharsis; She had to speak for the benefit of all the ponies, when nopony else could.
"Celestia, are you willing to let the conversation have consequences?"

Celestia nodded once. "If you can manage, it will."

Hopefully she could. "I am doing what I can. However I am not as old, as grand, or as powerful as you. I am the Equestrians' junior princess, and my responsibilities to them are trivialities to they and I both." Cadence said.  "You have many, more important responsibilities. You have the dual crowns that governs both the souls and bodies of ponykind, to protect them from myriad evils, sovereign as god and queen.  A pony might survive the neglect of their lord, or of their diety, but without them both the pony is doomed."

"Are you saying that I am neglectful?" Celestia said.

"The best comparison I have is to a dragon. She lurks, thrums, then wakes with great calamity." Cadence said. "This was just a foreshock."

"Be more straightforward, Cadence. You do not think me greedy." Celestia shook her head.

Cadence ruffled her wings, uncertain. "I think you have been overcome by some unknowable desire that has turned you away from your ponies."


Celestia glanced away, contemplating for a moment. "No. No. Never. I am here in spite of the arcane attacks against me. I do not turn away. I am clearheaded, clearsighted. I see the horizon."

What? Celestia seemed to be speaking much more literally than Cadence had meant. "Princess, is somepony attacking you? If it's that cat I swear I'll-"

"When you have a power above others, over others, you will always be under attack." Celestia said firmly. "They are not winning, if it worries you. They are losing more than ever. I am at my zenith. My enemies are at their twilight. There is nothing that they can do against me to divert my strength, my course, or my mind."

"Truly?" Cadence asked.

Celestia strode to the window (slightly cracked open), ignoring Cadence for a few minutes as she watched the streets below. When would she be assaulted by strange visions again? Those vivid scenes of danger and destruction always found her at moments like those. What terrible things, plausible or fantastical, would she see? The visions were never of nice things...
She turned back to Cadence. "This planet is, and will always be, completely under my hoof. What lives does so because I allow it. What moves does so because I have not bothered to stop it. This is not a normative claim, but a factual one. All the threads of history and destiny have converged, woven together, to give me power over all life, every atom, of this planet." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Does that intimidate you, Cadence?"


Now it was Cadence's turn for pensive silence.

Celestia laughed softly to herself, cracking one eye open, looking down at Cadence expectantly.

"Whenever I would act out or screw up, you would tell me a sovereign must be gracious and dutiful. The older I get the more I appreciate that lesson, and the more I worry about the conflicted mare who gave it to me. You're not well, princess." Cadence finally said.

Celestia nodded. "I could be better." She spoke it not as an admission, but as a sly insinuation, almost a threat.

Again Cadence was wracked with indecision for how to proceed. She had never seen Celestia act this way. "If it were a poor subject acting this way, so manic, so megalomaniacal, I would tell them to go get some rest, to be with family, and to reflect on what is really important in their life."

"What is important to me, has never been the guiding force of my life. I was given to this world to govern others." Celestia said.  But this matter-of-fact statement had a tinge to it, which Cadence at last picked up on, that was another expression she had never heard from Celestia: resentment.

Resentment? Cadence had to dwell on that, to puzzle at why the demigod above all would have a reason to resent, well, anything.  There were times that being a leader was a stressful and demanding role, but Celestia had taken on challenges before with grace. Cadence had seen, when she was just a fledgeling princess at the edges of the Court, the manner in which the empress adjudicated, ordered, commanded, and governed. It was the memories of that judicious and honorable princess, who ruled not only because she was given by heaven but because she was righteous above all others, which kept the flame of loyalty alive in every pony.
And then to consider...  A most wrenching thought...  That Celestia resented her duties to her ponies...

"Tell me it is not so. Tell me that it is something else you loath. Like, Shimmer. You are unnerved by her. Say it, please." Cadence muttered out. She wasn't even sure what she was saying, just knowing she had to hear any exculpatory excuse from Celestia to ease her own rising panic.  "Or the slavish ponies of the Court, or the bickering ponies of the Council. You resent them and how they've squandered your patience. Or was it Twilight Sparkle? Or was it me?" She pleaded. "It was me. Say it was me. Please, Celestia, say it was me."

The sun princess was stone-faced at Cadence's deterioration. "Calm yourself princess. As your senior I understand what you do not. What you see from the heavens-"

"Are you going to kill us all? Will you take away the sun, or keep it over us, or plunge it into us, to rid yourself of the tiresome world you were born chained to?" Cadence babbled, fidgeting and flapping her wings in distress. Then-
All Cadence saw was a flicker in the air, then she abruptly found herself sitting on one of the big couches in the empress's parlor, with Celestia sitting across from her, serving herself tea.
Cadence almost wretched. "W- What the devil?"

Celestia stared coldly over her teacup. "I ordered you to calm yourself, Cadence. You are going to hurt me or, worse, yourself. I will not be destroying anything today. If I have pride, ego, or resentments, it comes from disparity; They ponies, and us. We are their alicorns, Cadenza. THE alicorns. Without the mortal point of reference we are just the solidified spit of the gods wasting away on a dreamless rock. Are we not, mmm?" The tea set clattered as Celestia shoved it across closer to Cadence with her magic. "I am not so vindictive to want to murder my subjects. I am troubled you would even think such a thing."

Cadence's head swam. She lay her head back and closed her eyes, waiting for her feeling's to subside before she spoke again. She'd let passion get away from her, and said truly vicious things, but did it seem so farfetched? It was incredibly painful she allowed herself to think such horrible things and beleive them plausible. "I- I'm trying to help you." She buried her face in her hooves. She wished Shining Armor were there. Just seeing him would help her keep it together. "Why did you use your powers on me?"

"It's hardly contained to you, Cadence. Time does not play simon says." Cadence droned. "And not just now. At the guild hall I made the whole planet, and one astronomical unit in every direction stand absolutely still. The sun shone so brightly upon me I could have made the states of Dream, the firmament, and the very heavens beyond stop dead." Celestia cracked a thin smile. "Now that would be ego, to dance or sing in the halls of Anima Astral Nacre herself in the creeping chaos of space, whilst her eye is frozen, watching a causal chain that I flout and refuse to obey. I would have been the god at the center of the universe, and all creation, movement, action, and thought would have been emanations of my dance, and flourishes of my song."

"Celestia..." Cadence mumbled pitifully.

"But I dance nor sing. Fa la la! Nay, I do not sing. Hmm, unless needed or asked." Celestia said her smile becoming truly cheery in contrast to Cadence's deepening fear and anxiety. "Cadence, don't be worried! My dear, dear Cadence, I have neglected you and so you've gone off and given yourself a headache. I'm not sure what dreadful things you read in those dusty Babyloneighian and Maredian texts, but they grant no real insight into the sun or me. Those tomes were already a thousand years outdated when I was born, so they are surely useless now. Besides, you know that those are the wrong books for finding out about the sun."

"Enough." Cadence said, barely a whisper.

"Oh, my little pony, did you intend to stay in control of the conversation? And to say what? Yes, I have been secluding myself on that watchtower, which must seem odd. But you have hardly interacted with any but the maids for a decade, until Shining Armor and friends broke you out, god bless them."

"Enough, please. Can't you understand my alicorn language? I said enough." Cadence opened her eyes. She stood up. "I can do nothing to break you out of your impairment right now. I must therefore take my leave."

Celestia shrugged. "Without taking tea?"

"I am not Twilight Sparkle, so I can not stomach it when I have no appetite for it." Cadence trotted to the sturdy doors to the castle keep. "We will talk soon, tonight or tomorrow. This HAS to be solved, princess."  Celestia did not reply so Cadence quickly let herself out, resealing the door and listening for the weighty click of the internal latch going back down.
What a mess. Nothing was accomplished, besides that Cadence got the rough outline of what was bothering Celestia; But it really was too rough, with nothing to act upon.
So really all that Cadence had done was make herself feel bad, with Celestia almost seeming to delight at her despair. Why? Why? Heavens tell why?



But Cadence quickly realized that the knights who usually guarded the doors of the princess's chambers were missing, in their place, the robed ultharian cat was leaning against the wall, arms crossed.  "A moment please, Princess."

The timing of the cat's presence was unsettling to say the least. Cadence was decent at dream magic, given its proximity to her forte of psychological and emotional magic, but she had never explored so far as to meet an ultharian. And why would she? It was folly, utter folly, reserved for the insane and maniacal, to seek out the dream cats.
This wasn't how she imagined spending her day when she turned down accompanying Shining to the funeral.

"I had a lot to catch up on, but as I've come to hear, so did you.  A princess's tower is about as nice a prison as can be found anywhere, yet a prison still." The  dreamer carried on. "Knowing what happened, knowing that you obeyed your empress when you had other options open to you...  It upsets me that she then goes and disrespects you, uses her powers on you, and lies to you."


Oh, so that was how it was going to be. "Was I supposed to follow your example?" Cadence said icily. She was in no mood after what she'd just been through. "My friend I do not know you by name or nature. Maybe you are Sunset Shimmer, or maybe you are a tricky cat."

The dreamer cat chortled. "Oh ho ho, by the heavens, princess, I would not want to trouble you with more shapeshifter worries! I will be a pony today. That is my nature. This body has a name but I hesitate to burden you with it when I will regain another, though if Celestia wouldn't confirm or deny, I can not speak any further." What a coarse laugh it was, very different and harsher than a pony laugh.  "Ah, but down there I was a very tricky cat. I made good friends, and had a good life.  Following my example would not have been so much worse for you."

Cadence ground her teeth, intensely bothered by the nettling. Would it have been too much to get some time to think and recompose herself after the argument with Celestia? "I made my choice. A princess does not abandon her ponies."

"Does she not? Well nevertheless..." The dreamer shrugged, plotting her words for maximum viciousness. "Being a princess must seem so easy to you when it only involves an orchestrated victimhood, an orchestrated martyrdom, and a hot minute of luxurious isolation. You are a true leader of ponies, pony." She raised a paw, interrupting Cadence's reply before it was made. "Prove otherwise, I'll repent, openly. Until then I'm a committed Celestiaan partisan. The world became too damn complicated when they added a second princess."

"You're a funny cat. I wish I had all my friends here to laugh with us." Cadence said tersely. Oh how she seethed like she hadn't for years, her self-pity evaporating into anger. Such open disrespect! There were limits to her patience and pride. Even Twilight Sparkle had the sense to be more coy with her barbs! And to think she had once felt sorry for the stupid orange sinner in her exile!  "I will laugh because I can prove myself right now, but for want of a gauntlet."

"And want for a pony to throw it." The dreamer quipped, but as she drew in breath to insult again she paused, as if her words had suddenly reminded her of something. She shifted, brushing back her cowl slightly, just enough for Cadence to glimpse the suggestion of her whiskers and lips, and the apologetic smile they bore.  "Or rather, princess, you've called my bluff. I conceded to you fully. When the time comes I know you will be there for the ponies. You were Celestia's choice for a reason."

The ability and willingness to pivot between aggression and passivity instantly was the trademark of most infuriating court assholes. That was... comforting for Cadence. No matter what otherworldly lands and seas the dreamer had plied, she was still a trumped-up Canterlot courtier at heart. Some ponies never grew out of being the First Student.  
Cadence sighed, and almost blushed. Oh to be a young mare again. She could hardly allow herself to be sucked into a scrap with an outlaw in the top floors of Canterlot Castle. It would disappoint both the ponies and Celestia.
"So, you're a cat now."

The dreamer's grin grew. She cocked her head while she fidgeted with one of her whiskers. "Am I? I lack your powerful alicorn eyes." She paused, as if another little realization came over her. "Princess, I didn't want to see you, but Celestia insisted." Her arms dropped to her sides. "Do you know why?"

"No I don't. You tell me," Cadence huffed.

"Why would I know? Celestia's changed from when I knew her." The cat shrugged. "I'll confess to you, princess, that I don't have all the answers. Not remotely. What I do have is a depth of specialized skill and knowledge that I cultivated, diligently, when I decided to make my return."

"Yeah, welcome back." Cadence deadpanned. "Am I supposed to thank you for sharing your vulnerability? You've caused a heap of trouble and you're going to cause more."

The dreamer's whiskered lip twitched. "I haven't caused any trouble today that you know of. I happened to show up at the same time as the mess in Old Town because I predicted it."

Tilting her head away ever so slightly, Cadence's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You always were an opportunist." Presumptuous little creature! Whatever magical talent the cat had had in a past life, it could not compare to the junior alicorn. It was just a fact. "For your sake, and for the sake of the innocent ponies of this city, I command you to forsake whatever tricks you have aligned against us.  You had the right idea the first time, those many years ago, to run away."

"It wasn't that long ago, especially not for an alicorn. Mmm, long enough? But let's not dwell." The dreamer ruminated. She gestured for Cadence to come closer. "Princess I have no tricks I'm playing on you or your princess Celestia. I simply don't care about you that much."

"Then you chose to arrest me here purely for the jollies of bothering me." Cadence tutted.

The dreamer shook her head. "No, I have no wish to upset you therefore I wanted to avoid you. Then, thinking on it, I decided Celestia was right, and I realized that if I cared for your feelings there are a few things I must warn you of. Firstly: Shining Armor is alive and safe. I'm just heading that one off to save you the grief of you slowly discovering his fate."

Shining? What?!? Why would he-
Cadence's eyes snapped open. OH! The guild hall! Of course Shining Armor would find a way into that 'trouble'.

The crash of regret that Cadence was about to feel for abandoning Shining to whatever tribulations he faced was forstalled, as the dreamer lifted a paw and raised two furred caws. "Secondly: Celestia is going to secretly leave Canterlot within the day. Whatever you may want from her, such as answers, concessions, or respect, will have to be got before or as she leaves."

Why would Celestia leave Canterlot? Cadence wondered if the cat was making things up.


A third digit flicked up on the dreamer's lifted paw. "Three: the reason Celestia is leaving is spelled out in the aborted address she was going to deliver to her ponies, from the foot of the ruined hall, itself a monument to ruin; A ruin that will come to be understood by all ponies the way she understands."
The dreamer sighed. "Princess, I will give that speech, in her stead."

Cadence already had a good idea of what it said. She knew it would confirm everything she was suspecting about Celestia's state of mind, which the empress had vehemently denied.


The dreamer cleared her throat and uncrossed her arms, spreading them wide as she began the speech.
"I am the only sun princess you have ever known, who your parents ever knew, who your every forebearer for hundreds of years have known.
"There was a time before me. There was a time before everything. When the first Sun princess came to Equestria, it was Celestia, but it was not I. She was Celestia the first, and since I am not Celestia the last, whence will come a time when I ascend back to the heavens as she did, to be succeeded by another. They Celestiaan, as me but not me, have come and gone at the pleasure of the Sun. At the imperial founding the convention was that your new princess arrived with every Summer Sun, but that convention changed, and so it was that I, the Celestia before you, have raised and lowered that sun tens-of-thousands of times.
"That change was not of my mother Sun's design, nay, but MINE.  I deigned to stay upon this planet, upon that throne, far beyond what was originally planned of me. I expanded my ken beyond a year, beyond ten, to hundreds, a ken of time more appropriate for one of the mythic ancient alicorns than an alicorn of the sun. That is to say, my ponies, that I had made a choice to live, to see and sense and rule, when I had been destined by my Sun to be reabsorbed: An apostatic choice that made me not only your princess, but your empress. By making the choice to live I was taking on a commitment that can hardly be overstated- To govern this continent for several unbroken centuries, where the health and prosperity of a species relied upon my attentiveness and energy. I was ready, and I took on that task with the utmost diligence."
The cat's tone dropped, becoming more somber.
"I go now to seek other things. I know not what awaits me. I know not what I seek. Still I must depart, and though I do not promise that this will have the best results for you, I hope that you understand why I have chosen to leave at a time like this.
"Go with god, my little ponies. If we see each other again, I may not be your princess, nor your empress, but I will hope to be your devoted friend. Fare thee well."


It was so outrageous, so impossible. Yet it couched with what Cadence felt was true.  Cadence turned away, struggling with her feelings and trying to keep them from showing. Perhaps the best outcome from resentment was abandonment. "Do not lie to me. Anypony can write a hoax speech." She choked out.

"Yes, I am a liar. Most great magicians are, for we must imagine a falsity, a way that the world is not, then bring that lie into reality with magic. That's how I wrote that speech, ten years too early." The cat said. "Our princess wasn't ready for it then. Now, the words and the alicorn have come into alignment, alas to the detriment of everything else on this planet. Even if Celestia had meant to say something else before she was interrupted, once begun it would have been those words which spilled forth. But do not lament Caddie. It was inevitable."

Cadence was silent for a long while. "You say you have no tricks. But there was a whispered phrase, which you love so much, a hidden 'for now'. You want to finish what you started." She tensed in anticipation of the answer or a preemptive attack.

"I'm not going to touch this Celestia, nor you, ever. I promise. She's a pain but she's leaving. What point is there to chasing after alicorns whose absence suites me just fine." The cat laughed. "Were you listening to the speech? She wasn't exactly subtle."

"No, no, away with you and your totally contrived speeches." Cadence hissed. "You came only to vex and tease me, telling me falsities about Shining and the empress. Away or you will have another decade in the dream to look forward to. After all, you promised not to touch me, and I made no such promise to you, traitor."

The cat was not chastised, but merely raised her fourth claw. "Four: Your life will at great risk during the Summer Sun."

Uh oh. Cadence's breath hitched.

The cat continued. "The great cognoscenti of the dreamscape bade me pass certain warnings along to Celestia, that she would take steps such as to protect you. But there is every chance Celestia will not hear me out, nor, frankly, that she would do anything if I did tell her. So telling you now is the best I can do."

Cadence thought she saw an obvious flaw in that story, as if a denizen of the dream wished to send a message up they could have woven it into a mortal's sleeping dream; Only, Celestia had been isolating herself, and mortals could have twisted the message to suit their own purposes. Cadence wished she knew enough dream-lore to guess who those cognoscenti could be. "What danger am I in? Is it from same force that Celestia says is attacking her?"

The cat shrugged apologetically. "Celestia would know, or if she doesn't she will soon. I can't answer."

"Can't, or just won't?" Cadence asked, torn between pleading or sneering.

That remark almost cut through the dreamer's airs of detachment, for she contemplated her answer for several moments, her clawed toes clinking as she drummed them on the floor. "I can't tell you in a way that keeps my return on track. I'd be betraying some friends I care about if I derail everything just to protect you. I'm sorry."

"So Celestia knowing won't derail anything, but me knowing will, but also I can tell Celestia I know and she can save me. Totally sensical." Cadence snarked. "Thanks a ton. Here's hoping your evil plot carries on just fine."

The cat's hands moved to her hips, and her tone became pitying. "Come on. You're an alicorn princess. Either put it together and save yourself or your destruction will be no loss." She sighed and shook her head. "Stay safe Cadenza. If you do, we'll meet again."
She slinked down the long hallway, the alternating vaulted columns and windows basking her in light or plunging her into shadow, until she was halfway down the passage and she simply never emerged back to the light.


What now? Cadence now highly doubted going back to the monastery to keep researching would be remotely useful to anypony- Celestia had said as much, if she could believe. But what else could Cadence do?
A threshold had been crossed. Cadence didn't trust the dreamer, but her words felt true. That meant Celestia was going to leave Canterlot. That meant Shining Armor had been involved with the chaos at the guild hall somehow. That meant Cadence herself was at risk of destruction.
If there was any truth to it, if the dreamer was anything more than a liar and traitor, one thing was clear: Not only was the future not going to get any brighter, it was going to be significantly worse.

But again, what could Cadence do?
"Celestia..." She contemplated turning 180 degree and barging back into Celestia's chambers, and demanding it all: In a single breath, with all her voice, she could FORCE Celestia to tell her the truth, brooking no evasion or deceit, to save her life and possibly Celestia's as well.
But facing those doors again she felt all the shame, pain, and despair she had felt exiting them. Immediately Cadence knew she didn't have the strength to confront the empress again. Cadence had dealt with mortal assholes like the dreamer all the time at the university. But how could she stand up to the judgement and scorn of her fellow alicorn, the empress who raised her up and gave her everything that defined her life now?
What if the dreamer was lying or wrong? What if Celestia stayed in Canterlot and recomposed herself? How could Cadence meet Celestia's gaze when they both knew how Cadence had let her idle worry turn to suspicion turn to bitterness? She'd prove herself even more bitter and ungrateful than Twilight Sparkle. If the rift became public, nopony would side with her, and her name would be said in the same disdainful breath as Sunset Shimmer's. Then she really would have to exile herself.


"There's another option." Cadence said to herself. She'd spied a couple ponies at the guild hall who she knew to be Twilight Velvet's lackeys.  There was a chance, small as it was, that the secretive unicorn could tell her what nopony else would.
Could Twilight Velvet save her life?







One by one, the distant bells of the Old Town and Inner city fell silent.

"Is the show over already?" Velvet wondered. At her age and fitness it was hard to keep up a gallop, so she continued at a light trot as she passed along the tree-lined boulevards of the south plateau. She had to trust that her subordinates would handle the rapidly evolving situation in Canterlot while she had her attention elsewhere. "Hmm, hopefully nopony too important died. No use fretting about it now, though."

Around her were the mansions of Canterlot's greatest nobility, petit palaces funded by the owners' estates down in the Canter or further afield which had once filled Velvet with so much envy and resentment. Take one look at the inbred halfwits who actually had political and economic power in Equestria and the whole deception of divinely gifted hierarchy should have been disproven. Yet the institution of aristocracy shambled on, weighing down the edifice of the empire to their mutual destruction. It was not a unique critique, for the simmering revolutionary movements skulking in the Inner City had many of the same hatreds as Velvet; Perhaps in another life, where she had been born a commoner rather than in an impoverished noble family, Twilight Velvet would be the mastermind of a worker and peasant revolution instead.

"Instead of a conniving political operator, the kind of loathsome bastard that high and low alike have been taught to despise." Velvet said to herself, with the silent reminder it was no use fretting about what could not be changed.


Her jaunt terminated at the foot of her destination, where the coarse outer stone walls of the Castle Magoria jutted back into the pateau and forced the circumplateaular ring road to bend in towards the gardens and mansions. Velvet saw that progress on the new castle wall towers had progressed somewhat since the party those months ago. The additions made the modern star fort layout of the outer walls clash less with the majestic heights of the old central keep, and thought the aesthetic contradiction was soothed, the architectural juxtaposition of modern military design and indulgent grandeur struck even the common pony with inexplicable unease.
In these troubled times, was there more to the duke building a fortress in the heart of city than just idiosyncratic fancy? Should the imperial government and princess have allowed such a thing?


Regardless of such political (and aesthetic) questions, the Castle Magoria was bustling. A lot more workers had been hired on to raise the bastion towers, and amongst them Velvet spied the olive-furred court architect whose name escaped her who was lounging in the crenelations while supervising the work.

"Hello there!" Velvet called up to the mare. "Doing well since the groundbreaking party I hope!"

The architect shifted in place to gaze down on Velvet. "Hello, Lady Velvet. Heard from Sparkle lately? How is she doing?"

"I'm afraid we've been out of touch with Twilie. She's busy, I'm busy, etcetera. I'm sure she's fine." Velvet said.

"Oh, that's right. You know,  I meant to come see you after your husband's arrest, but things got so difficult with the duke's project I have had no time." She waved toward the nearest bastion tower, then to the laborers fussing with a hoist to bring up its next block.  "I misjudged you though. You are not the kind of mare to play defense. You really are Twilight Sparkle's mother."

"Yes I am." Vevlet agreed. With the somber echoes of the bells so recently of Canterlot in their ears, the implication was clear. "My husband is abiding. Things are going to be alright for us, thankfully."

"Good to hear. My work on Castle Magoria will finish eventually, as professionally frustrating as it has been. And since I am still on the outs with the Imperial Council, meaning no frontier fort contracts, I may still come around. That glorified blockhouse called the Chateau la Garde could use some modernizing. And I don't mean modernized like this." She waved to the work scene again. "But a proper reconstruction that can withstand modern cannons and spells." She laughed mirthlessly. "Then the name of Laurel Black would be on the tongues of every pony entering Canterlot."

Ah, that's right! Laurel was her name. "It's not my chateau, Laurel. It's my daughter's, as an investment from the princess. If you are really interested in it as a project, you still might have to get good with the council."

Laurel pursed her lips. "Unless what I have heard is true, and those airships which docked this morning were carrying a Unicornian duke and a Cloudsdale admiral, here to shake things up." She sighed. "There was smoke from the Old Town...  and perhaps in due course I will be wanted there."

Velvet shrugged. "Who knows. I wish you a good afternoon, Laurel, but I really must be getting on to see Duke Flux. Good luck with all this."


Pasting under the outer gate, to one of the castle courtyards, Velvet had to weave around stacks of mortar, stone, metal pipe, and glass to approach the central keep.  She felt oddly alone now, having gotten used to one of her agents haunting her shadow. Having the self-styled prince Blueblood or the viscountess Aurthora  visibly obeying her made Velvet feel grand, and she loved the captive audience to alternatively snipe at or make clever observations to.
"And what do you suppose all this piping is for." Velevet asked her empty shadow, cracking a grin. "Why, on closer inspection it looks like spell-grade steel. Pricy for a bit of plumbing, no?  Is dear old Flux putting together magical laboratories in his six new towers?"

With the six thin towers beginning their upward climb, brick by brick, Castle Magoria was taking on the look of a claw reaching out of Canterlot to grasp at the sky. Let it be so.


Velvet continued through the aged inner wall to the inner courtyard, past the dead tree at the foot of the keep, to stand in the threshold. There was nopony waiting for her, which was odd. Usually a servant or courtier would spot and rush to her, eager to convey her to the duke. But the old stone entry of the original Castle Magoria was as quiet and as empty as her hall in the Chateau la Garde.
Velvet dared to hope it meant good things for her.

Larger, taller, and more comfort-oriented than her chataeu, the Castle Magoria had long halls branching off into servant and guards quarters, meeting and dining halls, a coronation room, armories, countless sitting rooms and parlors, and a whole quarter stuffed with art and the duke's knickknacks. Velvet knew every succeeding floor was ever more dedicated to Foaly Flux's fancies, with eclectic book collections, free city avant-garde sculpture, Foal Mountains folk art, and all kinds of  narrow and angular things from across deserts and oceans.

Velvet approached the stairwell which led to the duke's private wing. The total lack of servants or maids persisted upward. Velvet could just barely sense the aura of a lone unicorn floors above her. The duke, surely.
"Has something happened? Oh, I hope not." Velvet tried to keep from laughing, for she would soon be in the presence of her in-law the duke, and would need to control her emotions. "Is it more likely that something befell an entire household, or one unlucky stallion?"


Surmounting the stair, Velvet came to the open doors of the duke's private floor. The firefly lanterns had all burned out, and the amount of natural light was inadequate.

"Foaly? Foaly!" Velvet yelled in the direction of the aura she felt, nearby, just a few rooms away.
Oh goodness, what if wasn't Foaly Flux at all? What if the summons was from assassins who had just dispatched the duke, and now lay in wait for her? The last act of the Musician's Guild, stabbing at her from hell's heart!

Cautiously advancing through one parlor and into another, Velvet found that her paranoia was for nothing. It really was just Foaly Flux, half fallen off of a chair, head lolled back, murmuring unformed syllables to himself. Whatever he had used to get himself into his stupor must have been imbibed elsewhere, for it was nowhere to be seen.

"Foaly, are you alright? Have you been poisoned? You can't die on me yet." Velvet nudged him. "Hold on now-" She lifted him into a better sitting position, but he immediately slumped to the side. Sighing, Velvet listened to his heartbeat and cast a few diagnostic spells she could remember.
Flux was fine, physically. He was just tripping. "Good grief. The silly stallion probably threw the evidence out the window." It was a relief he would be fine, in light of how suspicious his death would have been with only Velvet there to be implicated for it.


Leaving the insensate stallion to himself once more, Velvet prowled through his rooms until she found his office. The ink pot with which he'd written the summons to her was still left out on his desk.

"Last chance to say something before I go through you papers, Foaly!" Velvet called back. No answer. So Velvet scooped up everything and began rapidly going through them.
Most of what was there was unimportant. "Ever is that true." Velvet remarked, throwing every would be suitor, scam letter, and Summer Sun well-wishes into the corner of the room, for later palimpsest use.

Velevet paused momentarily, hearing louder sounds from out the window. Was it the servants returning, or somepony else? Depending on who it was, Velvet might have to be ready to meet them with the correct letter in hoof.

That meant the important stuff: letters from back home, ducal Foal and the ancestral home of the Bright Dynasty; from vassals and other nobles; or from Canterlot politicians and buisnessponies. Frustratingly was all mixed up by date, but Velvet went as quickly as she could, glancing down each letter and judging its importance.
Though it was not the most important reason, Velvet needed to know for absolute certain that Foaly Flux was not conspiring against her with any other faction in Canterlot or Equestria. Page after page, Velvet saw only mundane feudal business, squabbles from the knights back in the Foal Mountains, expenses related to Castle Magoria and its expansion, and money being moved around to fund the duke's court in Canterlot and a couple castles he retained in Foal.

"It's a real shame your brothers died or exiled themselves, and left this mess to you, Foaly. You could have had a stipend and only a backwater town in the east to manage, drinking yourself silly for fun rather than from stress." Velvet remarked dryly. "Poor soul. It's not so easy to be highborn when-" The corner of a letter caught her eye, for it had clearly been crunched up and smoothed back out. She drew it out of the stack and tossed the rest of the letters back towards the desk, scattering most of them. "-when personal tragedy haunts you, stalks you, and reveals your blood will not protect you from death."
She held the reason Foaly Flux had called her to the castle.


Less distracted now, Velvet heard the commotion outside growing louder. Carefully tucking away the letter in her dress, she trotted to the plateau-facing window to spy on the noise.  A few uniformed pegasi were on the bastions and walls, accosting the workers. Poor Laurel Black had three pegasi surrounding her, shouting and jabbing her.  The Wonderbolts.

"What are they doing here?" Velvet wondered. Maybe she wasn't the only pony Foaly had sent a letter to. If so, she'd underestimated him.
Without a servant or guard to escort them in, the Wonderbolts had demanded an audience with the duke from the hapless laborers, and been unable to accept their answers (or so Velvet imagined). One of the pegasi stopped arguing with one of the laborers long enough to look up at the keep, spotting Velvet watching from the window. The pegasus yelled something, and before Velvet knew it a Wonderbolt had zipped up to the level and hovered eye-to-eye with her.

The two mares stared at each other for a while, the pegasus showing impressive flight control by barely moving with each wingbeat.

"No visitors today. We're closed." Velvet said.

The Wonderbolt officer scrutinized Velvet for a few more moments, before gliding back down to the other Wonderbolts. Velvet waited impatiently as the pegasi conferred, until the pegasus flew up to the window again.  "Word has it that the lord Duke, Foaly Flux, retained a private choral orchestra. He must surrender the musicians for questioning. Do not defy us."


Velvet could barely contain a shout of excitement. So that smoke from the Old Town really was the Musician's Guild. By the gods' grace, somehow the trap had gone off correctly! It looked like the Wonderbolts were enthusiastically involved in chasing down the stragglers who survived.
Victory after victory. Velvet felt a swell of accomplishment and pride. Another challenge overcome and another foe bested. Phyte had threatened her life, and the life of her family, and now she was ground to dust, along with her family. Nothing could stop her now.


"What a laughable threat." Velvet sneered at the Wonderbolt before her. "There's no musicians here right now. Even if I had them I wouldn't give them to you, because I'd want the satisfaction of destroying them myself. I speak not for the duke, but myself, what I say that threatening me further will earn you and your admiral my enmity rather than my friendship."

The Wonderbolt officer absorbed Velvet's words in silence.  "I see. I had not been briefed that the duke kept a lady of standing in his household." The pegasus said, silent for a moment while she connected the dots in her head. "You must be Lady Velvet."

"And lest you forget, you're in Canterlot at my invitation. I will be very disappointed if you misbehave and reflect badly on me." Velvet pursed her lips and shook her head. "Ohh, but is it too late for that? Not in too much trouble, are you?"  To the pegasus's shock, Velvet climbed out of the window, leaning herself forward to bring herself eye to eye.  "Go get your officers and your admiral. We have a lot to talk about."

The Wonderbolt allowed herself to drift backwards, out of reach of Velvet with open air and a deadly plummet between them. Velvet did not move, did not blink, until the Wonderbolt turned away and flew away, shortly followed by the others on the ground.
Velvet still did not move until the pegasus was a dot in the distance, whereupon she pulled herself back through the window. She nearly collided with the pony now on the other side: Foaly Flux, haggard, eyes wide but fixed on her, working his jaw back and forth in silent contemplation.

"Foaly!" Velvet could not fit all the way back into the room with the stallion so close. "How are you feeling? I wish you the best afternoon I can, under these circumstances."

"Velvet." Foaly Flux nodded slowly, and talked slower. "You left your poor cousin-in-law here all alone in his keep, so lonesome, wasting away. Just dusty, cobwebbed bones, am I." It would have been a playful joke, so typical of him, but the duke's words were stiff and his expression strained. "I thought you had moved on to greener pastures, with the Blackhorn claimant and his fanclub. No need for a skeletonized old jester, aye Velvet?"

What Velvet could see, and what she knew, told her Flux was moments away from buckling under the pain and drinking/drugging himself comatose again. "You're not old, and you're not a jester. You're a proud, respectable lord. That'll last until you really are a skeleton, which gods willing won't be for a while."

"A proud lord, am I? Oh yess, that's right, isn't it. I own one of the most important chunks of rock they ever called a mountain range. Enough for a grand party, for surely. There's a lot to look forward to in life when you're a rich and powerful as me." Flux said, then paused, looking away, thinking in silence for several long minutes.
"The gods had different plans for little 'ol me. If not jester, then tragic hero, minus the heroics. Mmm, but that leaves the article without the subject, nay? Then...  what?" He finally stepped back, letting Velvet onto her hooves. "Don't let me suffer anymore. Tell me who I am and what I am to become?"

Pain, yes, but there was also a simmering determination in lord Flux that Velvet hadn't seen in years. Determination, desperation, pride, other things she could not discern. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she had to be careful of the stallion. "I don't know what you mean, Foaly." Velvet said.

Foaly gave her an incredulous stare and shook his head.  "I guess I gave the punchline without the set-up. Just me being silly then." He nudged Velvet in the side with a hoof.  "We must discuss what's in the letter you took, Twilight Velvet."







The smoke rising from the Old Town had brought a few ponies out to the castle plaza to look for answers, but with many officials either going home after Fancy Pants's funeral or having no idea, the remaining could only shrug.
But once the bells of the city began tolling, more ponies came, crowding more and more of the plaza before the castle doors. The IHG knights, the nervous shift replacements for the veterans Shining Armor had taken to the guild hall, locked ranks to keep the civilians from going any further.
It was when news spread of Celestia's apparent assassination that the situation became very dangerous. The crowd was starting to press in again, getting louder, more restless, and increasingly aggravated. "You imperial dogs! Stop standing between us and our princess!" Somepony shouted, earning approving repetitions from the others. "Give us our princess!"

Positioned between the shield wall the castle door, Prosser could only offer moral support to the novice knights. "Back in the days of classical Clawstantinople, a mob lynched one of their last emperors. They crucified that poor griffin upside down and gradually ripped him apart, dining on him for days until he died. That's to say, good sirs, that I beg you to keep those ponies out."

The steely faced knights looked to one another, gauging if any of them would break and leave the rest exposed.

"Give us out princess! Give us our princess!" The crowd began to chant, pressing forward more aggressively and pushing themselves against the shield wall in a test if they could get through. "It's treason to keep the nation from out princess, and the princess from her nation! We'll punish all of you!"

The delicate situation was at risk of boiling over, and fast. "Well lads, I'm not going to tell you how to do your jobs, but maybe its time to, uh, withdraw." Prosser suggested, but the crowd was pressing so aggressively it was clear no orderly retreat into the castle would be possible. He could just imagine the castle servants and courtiers ogling from up in the keep, praying for dis downfall. Wretches, all!
And for a moment, Prosser thought seriously about dying, imagining all the times in history mobs like this had killed ponies like him. Even when he had been face-to-face with Iillor for the first time, and wondered if she would target him next, Prosser had put his hopes in his own wits and tact. Those skills had preserved him and kept him close to power much longer than he'd had any right to. But the incensed citizens were exactly right to view him as the kind of palace schemer that could usurp power away from the princess, and there was no outwitting a mob once they got their hooves on him, even with genuine confessions of loyalty to the princesses.
"That damn nightmare ended up killing me after all." He hung his head. It was all just desserts for thinking himself oh-so clever, as if he could outsmart death. All he had accomplished is facilitating the pain and suffering of others.

"It's not over, councilor." He felt a steadying wing on his back. Looking to its owner, there stood Cadenza, serene amongst the noise and danger.

"Princess!" Prosser yelped.

"Don't be worried, especially not for me. I had a tough time with Celestia just now. This is trivial by comparison." Cadence said, her smile both kind and confidant. Just the sight of her almost made Prosser cry. There was the princess, the pony, deserving all the good of the world and none of the ills. "Counsel me councilor: Is the empire of Equestria worth it?"

The weighty question landed on Prosser like a sandbag, and caught him so off guard that the fantasy of alicorn salvation immediately evaporated, leaving him once again meters away from an angry mob with and all the burdens of reality. "Princess, is Celestia okay?"

Cadence glanced up, towards Celestia's quarters, as thought to see whether Celestia had immediately returned to her habit. "Her highness is uninjured. I will say that much." She returned her gaze to Prosser. "So?"

"So..." Prosser sighed. From any other pony he would immediately interpret the alicorn's dire question as a trick, an insult or ironic and sarcastic badgering. Spoken from the junior princess's mouth, it was earnest but melancholic. "If there is a better tool than the empire, to protect and instruct ponykind, it has yet to be found. Further, it is unproven that any nations are more worthy of such blessings than the ponies'.  Therefore, princess, the answer relies on your imagination and your charity."

Still Cadence was unmoved by his eloquence. "Come now. It was a simple question, councilor, and deserving of a simple answer."

Damn, no weasel-wording out of this one. Prosser's instinct, to rhetorically vacillate, to confuse anypony on his meaning and what side he was even on for even the most obvious and morally clear questions, made him feel pathetic before his princess. Why didn't he have a straightforward answer now? Did he fear that his answer would be wrong and everypony would conclude he was a foolish poser? Yes, that was Prosser's constant fear. Yet on the question of the worthiness of the empire, if the truth were proved one way or another then surely the ponies would have much greater concerns in that moment of clarity and would hardly bother to see Prosser vindicated or contradicted. But he'd know, and the gods who read his heart would know too.
Prosser, after a silent moment staring into the smokey evening sky, matched Cadence's gaze again. "Yes, princess." For in the infinite possibilities of political formulation, some of those forms would cherish Cadenza as much as the empire did, some more, but most less.

Cadence nodded silently. "Thank you." She faced the crowd, and a curl of purple magic circled her horn, the flashed. Some of the nearer civilians yelped or covered their eyes. "These ponies will leave soon. I have suppressed their motivating faith, so that their orphaned anger turns inward." She raised her voice, so she could be heard above the already-fading din. " Since the empress is whole, the day and our duties go on. All will be well. I am sorry."  She launched into the air, gaining altitude rapidly and arcing north.

True to the princess's words, the shouting and chants of the crowd died away very quickly, leading to an awkward silence as the IHG knights and the hundreds of citizens stared at one another. Then the crowd started to disperse.


Breathing hard, Sharphoof Lightdowser arrived on the scene, pushing between the stragglers of the crowd to reach the shield wall. "Councilor!" He waved for Prosser's attention. "Councilor, the most spectacular series of events have transpired at the Musician's Guild. Princess Celestia-"

"Princess Celestia is fine. The junior princess said so directly." Prosser said.
Since the plaza was clearing the knights finally dropped their shields, with most of the withdrawing back into the castle, slumped, tired, and frazzled. 

Duke Lightdowser was relieved, but still energized. "That's good, very good. I never had any doubt. We witnessed was so much more than simply a scare about the life of the princess. It was..." He stopped to get his breath back. "A signal fire. Unlike the totality of the rest of reality, I can not say in confidence that what I saw was the same as what other ponies saw, or if it were a revelation for me alone. I was much moved, where the ponies around me were sickened." Lightdowser's expression turned dour. "I was meant to see and understand my princess's message. I am very glad she is okay."

"You're, uhh, a very faithful stallion, lord duke." Prosser complimented, but he was hesitant to talk any more.
While Lightdowser seemed like a willful and confident stallion, Prosser also marveled at his foolishness for running so far ahead of the knights guarding him, wearing only his fine embroidered garments and having with no weapon to protect himself with.  Was this lord not worried about an assassination? "I can not, in good conscience, say much more, sir, for I am still unsure if we will be collaborators or competitors." 

Lightdowser was completely unfazed by the veiled threat. "I am sure there are as many baseless rumors about you as there are about me. You don't feature very prominently in my memories of my last time in Canterlot, Councilor, but I have never heard accusations that you were personally avaricious or ambitious. Unlike many other ponies, I am confident you are loyal to the princesses in your own way."

Prosser blinked. "Okay."

"I would be more cautious around you if I did not see you standing here, between the fickle masses and her highness's sanctum castle. That's why I trust you to have the wit and clarity to understand my purpose here in Canterlot."

Was Lightdowser's demanding Prosser to be subservient, or offering an alliance? "If you want something from me, say it."

An invitation like that, though cautiously offered, clearly delighted Lightdowser. "I think rather that you should want something from me, Councilor. In Lady Velvet's missive to me I could not fail to notice an interesting detail theretofore neglected in the narratives around Sir Fancy Pant's assassination: You were the pony who brought Princess Cadence from her tower and established her in the Imperial Court."

"I..." Prosser was no closer to understand what the duke was getting at. "I think the junior princess is worthy of trust above what she is often given. Just now she used her alicorn magic to disarm that dangerous crowd. She dampened their faith, and for those of them who were incised and angered, defanged their moral." He said, starting to tear up again. "The princess are owed our faith, yet Princess Cadenza willing forwent it for the sake of her humble subjects, in a self-sacrifice we are not owed. Her kindness is magnificent."

Lightdowser hummed in appreciative contemplation. "Ah, it would have been a brilliant trap to identify any of the mob who remained angry. Radical, or secessionist, or Blackhorn loyalist, we could have seen their fury was not righteous- and caught them."

That response deeply disappointed Prosser, and he couldn't help but sight, "Devilishly clever, lord duke.", and yet as he said that he realized he really meant it as a compliment. For was not that kind of pragmatic ruthlessness exactly what he wanted out of a leader, like he had berated Fancy Pants for lacking? Unfortunately the ambitious detractors of the empire were blessed with animal cunning, and the passive allegiance of the midwit masses was insufficient to hold up the firmament (as they might get in their heads to kill the ponies trying to help them). 
Canterlot and Equestria needed somepony who knew when to sacrifice a pawn to take a queen, or perhaps rather to prop one up. Perhaps Lightdowser could be that pony. Even if the Unicornian duke was out for himself, he could be the ticket to sustaining the empire. Anything was better than the absolute apathy to governance that Hauseway's clique had displayed.  "But rounding up random dissenters is not the balm to this nation's, nor this city's, ills. We are estranged from righteousness and our destiny."

Lightdowser seemed to understand his meaning, partly. "You will be denying me entry to see her highness?" He looked up again, to the princess's corner of the keep. "No, you would not be so bold."

"You can go see Princess Celestia and far be for me to stop you. if she allows your audience, if she listens to you, if she does not dismiss you immediately, then it will not be a waste of your time. However that has not been typical of late." Prosser said.

"I am one of her most important vassals. Have things gone so far?" Lightdowser did not wait for Prosser's confirmatory nod. "Then we will have to find another way, because there is no time to delay. The alicorn's sweeping view of history does not always account for moral imperatives, even after inciting them. Consider me at your mercy, Councilor. I wish to know what should be done, to reverse the ill you've identified."

"Lord Duke, you're speaking all kinds of sense. I'll gladly assist a stallion in need." Prosser beamed.
While the councilor felt nearly ecstatic at  prospect of having Sharphoof Lightdowser wrapped around his hoof, he did not stop to consider how easily he let himself be yanked into the duke's camp. The smug aloofness he'd maintained, acting as though he kept above the factional politics, was over. "We must go convene with the junior princess and your comrades. Perhaps we can convince some of these gentlepony knights will join us, to attend to Cadenza and consult with her about the future of Canterlot." 








The afternoon sun cast a long shadow across the Canter, a second Mountain that darkly mirrored the first.
How did the wingless ponies stand to live in such conditions, Fleetfoot wondered. In Cloudsdale the districts moved with the season to keep out of each other's shade. Even the lowliest pegasus workers and peasants refused the indignity of having somepony steal their light and breeze.  In contrast the Unicorns willingly clustered at the foot of the biggest mountain on the continent, and did not complain when it stole their sun from them.

The first day in Canterlot had been crazy, and Fleetfoot had missed all of it. The Admiral had her on a short leash, and so she hadn't been there when the Wonderbolts had assaulted the Guild Hall. Even Captain Spitfire, who had supposed to be on a different mission, had gotten involved and drawn unicorn blood.
Fleetfoot was conflicted, terrified the show was over and she wouldn't get any excitement or glory, but also wary of actually putting herself in danger- If she got injured somepony else would take her place as the admiral's adjunct.


"The travails of being teacher's pet." Fleetfoot grumbled to herself, leaning on the aft taffrail of the docked Wonderbolt airship.  Since Admiral Rain Gnash had retired to her cabins (the admiral was vigorous but tired easily), Fleetfoot had time to herself. The paperwork could be done later.

The creak and clank of new arrivals on deck drew Fleetfoot's attention. It was her squadon-mates who, without her, had been the ponies to follow Captain Spitfire into the guild hall and cause hell. They looked like hell too, most of them having ditched parts of their armor to enjoy the afternoon sun on their fur. "Howdy Fleet." The Wonderbolts looked tired, they looked frazzled, and a few of them looked morose. When they glanced her way, they also looked suspicious.

Assholes. Fleet stepped away from the taffrail and approached her squadron-mates. "What's up. You allowed to talk to me? I heard Cap got really testy with Admiral Gnash during the debrief. I'd thought we'd all be boasting and singing in the mess galley. Something got y'all down?" She was trying much too hard to be comrade-ly when the mood was not suited for it. 

"Can't saw we share your good cheer, Fleet." One of the junior Wonderbolts, Blaze, remarked. "Soarin nearly lost a wing and he's out of reach while the unicorns look after him in their hospital. And you saw how toasted Cap got. She's lucky she didn't lose skin." She looked around, absorbing the silent approval of the rest of the squadron. "Not a good start to a campaign."

Fleetfoot pantomimed deep thought as she squinted and cocked her head. "Isn't it though? The admiral seems to think so. You good ponies pulled off a really tremendous victory against those secessionists, terrorists, or whomever they were. An immediate 'Bolts legend, I'm sure of it."

"Not for the reason you think." Somepony said, though Fleetfoot didn't see who. The other pegasi mumbled in soft agreement.

Fleetfoot was tempted to berate her squadron-mates for being such downers, with their moody and borderline defeatist attitudes. After some consideration, she decided it wasn't her job to snap them out of it; It was ultimately Captain Spitfire's responsibility, and if she was lax about it Fleetfoot would just have to have a few words with the admiral. "If you say so B. We've got a job to do here and you'd knocking it out. I'd ask to join the next sortee if I thought I could swing it with the admiral."

"Yeah, then who'd take your shitty job, Fleet. I can't fake a smile near as well as you do." Blaze joked, but by her tone there was a sharpness to her ribbing.

It seemed the squadron was even more tired, or unsettled, with than she'd thought. "Yeah yeah. At ease asshole."
Not much else to be said when nopony wanted to talk to her. Fleetfoot saluted and drifted back toward the taffrail.

But before she got there there was a rush of wind and and the stomp of a hard landing on the deck.
"Hoy! Where's the captain!" It sounded like Streak, one of the wing leaders. He was supposed to be patrolling for Musician's Guild stragglers. "I said where's the captain?"

"Hey, cool it. Cap's recouping." 

"No I'm not." Captain Spitfire, limped onto deck.
The Wonderbolts, Fleetfoot included, turned and saluted.  Spitfire looked like she'd crash-landed in a charcoal pit: Completely disheveled, lacking all her armor but an ankle guard, bandages around her leg and barrel, her fur still sooty and dirty, the visible skin on her snout and around her eyes inflamed red. 
"At ease ponies." Spitfire held up a hoof to forestall Streak's message.  "First things first. That means first squadron-" She pulled out small slips of paper from under her wing. "who performed commendably with me today, gets shore leave. You fine ponies are fine soldiers. We followed orders, we did what we had to, and we survived." Her tone dipped, a hint of regret. "I'll be damned if we lose a 'Bolt on my watch."

The squadron accepted their shore leave passes and saluted. "Thanks Cap. Guess that means Soarin will be alright."

Spitfire nodded. "Stay safe, and stick to the docklands and Inner City west. The Old Town isn't going to be too pleased since we just blew up one of their finest architectural monuments. Understood? Good, dismissed."
With the thankful first squadron descending the gangplank to the skydock, Spitfire turned to Streak. "Alright let's hear it."

Streak was taken aback by the captain's damage and dishevelment, but quickly recomposed himself.
"My lady captain, we found her. Twilight Velvet." Streak beckoned to the edge of the deck and pointed across the starboard bow, to the majestic heights of the Castle Magoria projecting out and above the city walls. "She's there, expecting you or the admiral."

Spitfire's brow furrowed. "Twilight Velvet. Bucking hell..." She sounded daunted.

Fleetfoot interrupted with an amused hiss. "Why worry about her, Cap? I thought things'd moved past that character."

Spitfire's troubled thoughts were immediately derailed by Fleetfoot's casual disrespect. "I still have standing orders to establish direct communication with a certain Lady Twilight Velvet. I do not just ignore orders. I can not write myself up a lazy pass whenever I feel like it. One job is over, the next begins. Is that wrong, Mis Fleetfoot?"

Fleetfoot didn't want to get into an argument with the captain, so she straightened herself, eyes forward. "Nay Captain nay, it is not wrong."

"I can't write you a lazy pass either Fleet." Spitfire grunted. "So get your ass in gear and inform the Admiral that I am going to Twilight Velvet's last known location. Convey that message to her too that Velvet wants to see her." She gestured to Streak. "Take point."

"Cap, are you good to fly?" Streak asked, concerned.

That questioned earned him an irritated look from Spitfire. "I could outperform any of you pigeons with a cannonball through my coverts. Take point I said."
The two pegasi launched into the sky and vectored toward the Castle Magoria.







The Old Town was in a state of controlled chaos. The assault on the Musician's Guild and apparent assassination attempt on Celestia had half the population cowering at home and half going out to demand answers. Nopony had any answers, so the masses, burghers, and nobles of the district together had gathered at the taverns, temples, and guild halls to discuss, speculate, and argue. Despite the promise that the Wonderbolts were out looking for miscreants, everypony looked at everypony else with suspicion.

There were not many ponies left on the street. Blueblood and Aurthora sat on the steps of the Black Horn Council hall, at a loss for what to do.  Most of their militiaponies had gone home but a few stragglers were sitting nearby debating what they'd seen in hushed tones over a dice game.

"I wanna know why there's no celebration. The guild mistress was a damn menace, not to mention a cloud over our heads. I could about dance in the street knowing a guild mare isn't likely to slit my throat." Blueblood mused. "While we didn't get involved I feel a stir of pride for our role in getting the ball rolling, you know. We've done a great good today, Airy."

Aurthora chortled at Blueblood typical mental gymnastics. "We are habituated to taking credit for the accomplishments of others, but this is a stretch. We had very little role even for tricking that poor Spitfire mare." She grew more serious. "It does not comfort me that we are mere accessories to Lady Velvet's plans. I do not wish to be disposable because I do not wish to be disposed of. Does death not seem to be creeping in?  The guild ponies were our neighbors, and no matter their clandestine sins they got along with most of Old Town, but now they are slaughtered. Lady Velvet's son is probably dead too. And only heaven can explain what happened to Princess Celestia. There is just death, confusion, and anti-climax. I do not know what to make of it all, or of our place in it."

The hour was growing long. Blueblood shivered. "Maybe you're right. Being a big picture pony like I am, I miss the trees for the forest."
Their shrouded slave, Molar, emerged from the guild hall with a plate of drinks.  "Oh!" Blueblood exclaimed, eagerly taking one. "Tea? You've been ill-taught by Velvet and her demonic maid. Next time, bring some liquor or something."

"Better than nothing." Aurthora said. She paused, giving the earth pony a meaningful look. "Did the burning guild hall bring you any gratification? Whatever pony you were before the guild mistress cut out your throat and rearranged your skin, you have no choice to be what you are now. We are well rid of a cruel tyranny that would do that to ponies."

Molar was, of course, silent.

"No? Maybe you're not even capable of resentment anymore. Or were you, in fact, as devoted to the Guild Mistress as the rest of the patchwork ponies who're burned and buried under the hall? If fortune was a little different, it could have been one of them staring at me, and you butchered by the Wonderbolts. If a pony resents that they are deprived of every liberty, every master must seem monstrous. But again I wonder, can you resent us?" Aurthora speculated. Seeing the line of inquiry was only annoying her friend Blueblood, she patted Moar on the back and pointed him towards the militiaponies. "Be a good lad and take some to our friends."

"They sure need it after the hard day's work." Blueblood snorted. He called over to the others. "Thank the good lady for her generosity, boys."


The militiaponies weren't paying attention to him, but to a new arrival, trotting across the plaza towards them.
The Junior Princess, Amore Cadenza, bejeweled in royal regalia, head high and with determination in her eyes. She stopped at the base of the stairs, which with her height advantage put her level with Blueblood and the others.
"Good afternoon." The princess nodded. "I am looking for Lady Twilight Velvet."

"Join the club." Blueblood sighed, rolling his glass of tea between his hooves.

Aurthora jumped to her hooves, suddenly angry. "What the devil is wrong with you Blueblood? That is our princess. Get your eyes checked." She turned and bowed to Cadence. "Princess! We hearten to see you. If there is anything your loyal subjects can do, please say the word. After what we thought we saw with Princess Celestia-"

"Celestia is not harmed, and as strong as ever." Cadence promised.  She glanced to Blueblood wondering what the stallion's issue was. "It has been a long, exhausting day. Still I must see Lady Velvet. It is for the good of the realm."

Blueblood snickered quietly. Aurhora ignored him. "I apologize my princess but we have not seen her all day. I believe she attended Sir Fancy Pant's funeral then went home. But there has been so many things happening I have well lost the plot and she could well have come back into the city to attend to some buisness or another."

"I understand." Cadence nodded. "I will look for her at her daughter's keep then, then her relation Flux's castle. If Lady Velvet comes around, do tell her I must speak to her." She took a step back, but paused. "One last query, though. I also have reason to speak to Illustrious Valor, that provincial mare who has been hanging about in various quarters."

Aurthora flinched. "Yes, well, uh-  She has not been with us for some days. Mis Valor has been more erratic and- Ahem, well, we think she might have died in the fight at the guild. No need for condolences, you see, as she was no longer associated with us."

Cadence cocked her head. "Ah. Nevertheless if she did survive, you may also tell her I am looking for her too." She paused, silent for a moment. "And Sir Shining Armor too. I don't mean to burden you but-"

"It's our pleasure, my princess. We'll help you find your missing ponies." Aurthora bowed. "Fly safe."

Cadence bowed back. She cast a last glance toward the shrouded form of Molar before she launched skyward, flying toward off southeast.



"She will never be a princess. I'm shocked she had the guts to trot around Old Town." Blueblood, though a pony of idiosyncratic belief, had absorbed many of the petty hatreds the nobles of Canterlot had towards Amore Cadenza. "Maybe Princess Celestia really is dead if that mare is going around off her leash like this. Next thing you know she'll restablish her court."

Aurthora sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. "That lack of decorum is most unlike you, dear prince. Like it or not she is your alicorn liege; sovereign unlike you. She is owed your respect."

Unmoving, staring off in the distance while his comrade berated him, Blueblood could only sigh again. "I don't want to have that argument with you again Aurthora. If that slave-" He motioned to Molar. "Is permitted to resent his masters, so am I. There was nothing to complain about before they started introducing new alicorns we had to bow to and worship."

"From one to two. A one-hundred percent increase." Aurthora said in mock agreement. "Just be polite. Even lady Velvet has it in her to be polite."

Though tempted to mock back, Blueblood heard the kernel of a question he was actually interested in the answer to. "Are you going to propel Velvet into sovereignty?"

Aurthora had a feeling what was coming. "I wish I could say no. Committing my body and soul to a leader with mortal prejudices and inadequacies is terrifying. Yet, she is a great leader and I find her compelling. She is everything a mare of Canterlot should be, and I am proud to be a part of her design. Wherefore she goes I will follow. She is not a messiah, but if there is salvation to be found it is with her."

Salvation? Wow. There was no persuading her when she didn't bother use euphemism, Blueblood knew. "She won't stop after she ousts her fellow mortals. I don't know where the hell her ambition ends but its not at the limits of this city or even this empire."

"Exactly, Blueblood. Isn't she grand?" Aurthora's expression took on a certain melancholy. "The alicorns were heaven-sent to dominate and lead mortalkind. Until we are ready to rule ourselves, they rule. If we are ready to rule, as embodied in her ladyship..." Aurthora shook her head. "I harbor no delusions about our direction. But the alicorn will remain an alicorn. Divine by origin, noble in all ways, worthy even when not sovereign. That is why I find it distasteful to disrespect her."


"Okay, Aurthora, you made a good argument, so I'm sorry. I'll apologize next time I see the princess." Blueblood lied. 
How much of Aurthora's ideology was actually reflected in Velvet's?  Somehow their cobbled-together alliance of political brigands was hurtling towards victory, with the offers lacking a clear sense of what they wanted, what they were going to do with power, or how far they were going to go. 
It was just power and domination for its own sake, Blueblood felt. And could the ponies be blamed, when a princess did not maintain the legitimizing narratives of her sovereignty, so that the realities of empire was seen in all its nakedness? It had always been about power. It would always be about power; To do whatever you wanted, whenever, to whomever.

Even though Celestia's hoof had turned Iillor into a meter-long splatter on the Old Town street, they were living in the Nightmare's world already. Let the pure id of mortalkind ravage the world.

"Tea's just not doing it for me. Let's go find a tavern with space and get hammered." Blueblood pushed himself to his hooves. "Hoy! You guys and gals coming along?" The militiaponies, who'd been trying to act like they weren't listening to their leaders argue, broke out in affirmative cheers.  "Come on then. If we're lucky we'll get in a tussle and crack some heads after all."







The clock was already counting down, and Spitfire hadn't even arrived at the Castle Magoria.  Gliding above the city wall, just above the level of the fortified towers, she spied a gaggle of IHG knights trotting behind a pair of ponies, Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser and a short earth pony in the rich robes of an imperial bureaucrat.

"Damn, looks they're heading the same way." Spitfire grumbled. She flew faster despite the protests of her aching body.

Streak's eyes lingered on the duke as they flew overhead, and their eyes briefly met.  "That so bad, Cap? I thought he was on our side."

"I cussed him out. Hopefully he's bad with faces, otherwise it'll make things awkward." Spitfire said. "Plus, I've got words with Lady Velvet that're better said in private."

His captain's subtle evasiveness made Streak worried. "Okay, so we are still on the same side?"

Spitfire eyed her subordinate. "How else'd be, Fire Streak?"


At the new pace Spitfire was setting they rapidly came to Castle Magoria.  With the sun threatening to set over the Mountain, some of the laborers at the bastions were packing up and leaving.  The keep was dark, except for one window half-way up.

"Oh yeah, all the servants got sent home or something. It'll probably just be us. There's your privacy, eh?" Streak said.

"Yup. Good thing you're such a tight-lipped guy." Spitfire agreed sarcastically.

The single lit window was darkened by a figure stepping forward, watching the pegasi.  Spitfire knew instantly it must be Twilight Velvet: There was a resemblance to Shining Armor in her face, and indeed she matched by fur and mane the way Velvet was described in the briefing dossiers- which Spitfire was just now realizing must have been written with information supplied by Velvet herself- but more than that was an aura about the mare.  Her expression SCREAMED danger. Her eyes were so wide and so bright, burning with an impossible energy (metaphorically) that Spitfire was stopped in place and almost forgot to flap her wings.

"So you know." Spitfire whispered, transfixed by those eyes. She instinctively reached for her sword but realized that in her haste she'd left it on the airship.
Then Velvet stepped back and away from the window, an unspoken invitation.

"Like I said Cap, it's just her in there. I've got your back anyhow." Streak nudged her, sensing her nervousness but apparently not its reason. "And we're allies, 'cuz how else would it be?"

Not reassured at all, Spitfire climbed into the keep through the open window after him.
Velvet was waiting for them. Beside her was an other unicorn, a tall, gaunt unicorn stallion of distinguished age and even more distinguished mustachio. He did not look happy to be there, but held himself up straight anyway: Probably the lord of the castle, the notorious Duke Foaly Flux.


Nopony said anything for a few minutes.
Spitfire, by the candlelight and the rapidly diminishing sunlight streaming in from behind her, could just see Velvet's triumphant grin. Was she falling victim to stress-illusions, mixing up what she'd heard about this mare with the pony right in front of her? Surely no middle-aged unicorn could live up to the terrible things that Phyte and Iillor had said of her.
"That's the second time I've attacked through a window today." Spitfire said breathlessly. How could she stand up to this mare mentally when she didn't even have a weapon? She was tempted to order Streak to give her his.  "Lady Twilight Velvet. Lord Flux." She bowed stiffly.

"You're the Wonderbolt captain. Spittlefire, was it?" Velvet laughed softly to herself. "I jest, I jest. We're all good friends here, pegasus. You've done me, and ponykind, a great service for coming to Canterlot. Everything I hear indicates an amazing first showing. My my, you Cloudsdale girls are efficient."

"Yeah, glad to be here. Shame you couldn't meet us at the dock. But I'm here now, you're here now, and soon the other big-wigs'll be here too. This morning I was supposed to be assigned to you on an ongoing basis, furthering coordination between your thugs and ours." Spitfire said slowly. "My Lady Admiral could countermand that tonight, or maybe she doesn't. Either way, your ladyship, I expect we'll be seeing more of each other, hopefully as friends."

Twilight Velvet nodded. "That would be delicious."

Streak was finally picking up on the bizarre energy in the room. "Captain." He whispered by Spitfire's ear. "Something's not right."

"Everything's fine." Spitfire said out loud. She raised a hoof. "Streak, the Admiral's party should be on the way by now. Meet up and guide them in." She tilted her head his way. "Get to it."

Streak, after a moment of hesitation, saluted and vaulted out of the window.


Nothing between them now.
Velvet struck first. "You saw things you weren't supposed to, Captain Spitfire. Talking to Phyte was a big taboo. If Princess Celestia was doing her job you would be assigned to Chitin fighting bugs, until you were quetly disposed of. But Celestia isn't doing her job, which has created so many opportunities for getting away with big taboos." Velvet sauntered forward. She was about Spitfire's height, but the way Velvet tilted her head back and forth kept breaking eye contact in a disorienting way. "You're a smart mare who knows better than act like a silly filly. I can see in your eyes that you haven't told anypony the full truth of what you saw. I don't exactly respect your reason, which is because admitting it makes it real, a you still wish to cling to denial, but that's forgivable. I respect the rank, your nobility, and the effort of your achievements. You stand tall despite your visible injuries. I can tell you and I are going to get along."

Spitfire was frozen, her eyes straight ahead, while the older mare approached. Her mind was racing, replaying everything she'd seen under the guild, barely able to process Velvet's words. This was just a pony, not a monster, she told herself.

"Am I right about you, Captain Spitfire? I'm a fallible mare and I have made errors in judgement before." Velvet said, her voice getting quieter as she got closer, until it was a low purr. "You are going to be my friend, little pony, or are you going to get in my fucking way?"


Spitfire lowered her gaze to the floor, silent for several moments.  "Your ladyship-" Her mind screamed for her to escape, but the pain in her limbs seemed to multiply, fixing her in place. Some of what Velvet said made sense to her, some of it did not, but lacking a escape option Spitfire knew she had to avoid committing herself for or against the unicorn. Just like with Phyte, Spitfire had the distinct feeling her soul was on the line. "Lady Velvet, I would be flattered but..." She met Velvet's stare again. So, so bright. "I hear you tell all the ladies that."

Drawing in a breath, Velvet's smile faltered somewhat. "What a dirty rumor, Captain. They only say that because those ladies didn't amount to much. It's all jealousy and spite. I can tell you're not like them, so there is nothing but clear air between us. We need mutual trust." The unicorn took a step back, giving space for Spitfire to mull.

Spitfire maintained the staredown, emboldened by her successful deflection. Yeah...  If she trusted this mare, she would be as lost as any of the assholes who bled or burned in the Musician's Guild, and maybe as dead.  While Phyte deserved to go down, it was tragic that somehow Twilight Velvet had gained the most from it.  What a messed up city. "It'd be nice to believe that, but-" Visions of fire flashed in Spitfire's eyes, and she hesitated. "I hear you treat the boys like that too, Lady Velvet. And that's just not right, because he didn't deserve that. He didn't-" Spitfire, her voice trembling, had to restart. "He didn't need to be down there! What happened to Shining Armor wasn't right."

"I can see where you're coming from now." Velvet shied away slightly at the sudden shout, exaggerating her aversion and throwing the mopey Foaly Flux an apologetic look. "is that all? I will not bother you further. We can wait until everypony else arrives."

Spitfire closer her eyes and nodded. She'd made her stand. If she had to look into those fiery eyes any longer, Spitfire feared she really would end up as Velvet's 'friend'.







Arriving at the foot of Castle Magoria's keep, Prosser waved Duke Lightdowser aside to speak in private. The dozen IHG knight the'd led there waited impatiently by the gate as the earth pony led the duke towards the dead tree at the center of the courtyard.
"Lord Duke, now is the time to decide how you want to proceed."

Sharphoof Lightdowser, looked surprised, then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I must make a choice? If that is really so, then I feel you have led me here under false pretenses, Councilor. You said this is where the junior princess had gone."

"She's not here yet. Soon." Prosser mollified him.

"Then what is there for me to 'decide'? The vizier, the lords, and every pony act in accordance to the alicorns." Lightdowser said with exaggerated sternness.

Prosser let out a tired, disbelieving sigh. "I respect your piety but you don't believe that, or you wouldn't want to be vizier. If governing was unthinking adherence to dogma, then it'd be a job for stupid ponies. Given, plenty of ponies think that it is a job for stupid ponies, and who can blame them." When the duke didn't answer he continued. "Since you're not a dunce whose ego is routed out of them, you have ideals to consider. It led you to Canterlot, and it led you to me."

"Therefore I have something to decide." Lightdowser said.

"No, you made a very dangerous pact with a certain Twilight Velvet, therefore you have something to decide. Because while Lady Cadenza hasn't arrived yet, Velvet has. She is up there, lording over us." Prosser said, trying to convey the urgency and importance with his tone without being overheard by the nearby knights.  "I hope you take my meaning."

"I am sorry to disappoint that hope." Said Lightdowser, but his lingering half-lidded stare betrayed that he, in fact, understood perfectly. "There is more to be said, certainly, for trust, justice, and death. However I did not come to Canterlot to be your patsy, or Twilight Velvet's." He scrutinized Prosser for a reaction for another few moments. "That is all I have to say for that at the moment. Perhaps I shall see you inside."
He whistled for the IHG knights to follow again, and they trotted into the keep together.

"Such is your decision." Prosser intoned, before following behind. Velvet would stay free for a little longer.







Fleetfoot saw the windows around the Castle Magoria keep come alive with light, a sign that more ponies were arriving. So an unknown number of ponies were congregating, to reorganize the balance of power in Canterlot.

Admiral Gnash was clearly frustrated with herself for slowing the rest of her group, her Wonderbolt Guards and functionaries who surrounded her flight. "I used to lap the circuit roads and city wall in five minutes. No other IHG pegasus came close. I could circle the plateau and the Mountain in the time it took them to reach Airy Tower. I must be getting old. Never thought it could happen to me."

It's because you eat too much, Fleetfoot thought to herself. "Being a wild and clever leader is what makes an admiral, Admiral."

"Yeah yeah." Gnash grunted.
Slowness notwithstanding, they arrived at the keep just before the sun set completely.
"Fleet, find Captain Spitfire. Get her impression on how we should run this. If you sense danger from the unicorns, bug out immediately." Gnash ordered. "And you get a read on Spitfire too. See-" She paused while they landed on the outer walls. "See how she's doing. The captain has had a difficult day." She gave Streak a sideways glance.

Maybe it was genuine concern for her subordinate, or it was something else. "Aye Admiral. She's had a hard day. I'll judge if these crusty horners have gotten in her head, eh." Fleetfoot saluted.

"Just so. The rest of us will enter through the top of the keep and check every floor down in the case there is an ambush." Gnash gestured with a wing. "If you've gotta get out, escape with the captain and link back with us. Go."


So ordered, Fleetfoot flew to the open window while the other Wonderbolts few to the roof.  She could hear voices and laughter, so she she allowed herself to relax a tad.

An IHG knight was waiting for her at the window- Save for his horn he was completely obscured by his gleaming plate armor, reflecting the lantern light with its spotless polish.
"Salute, Wonderbolt." The knight bowed. "Since you don't smell of smoke like your Captain, I'm guessing you missed the fun at the guild hall! Yeah me too."

"Greetings sir. I currently attend to her ladyship Admiral Rain Gnash in an administrative role, so yes, I wasn't there." Fleetfoot said, fighting back the urge to sass the stallion. "Wouldn't say I missed it though."

Hidden though the knight's face was under his sallet helm, the knight's enthusiasm was visibly deflated by Fleetfoot's words. "Ah, yes, well I suppose somepony has to do that stuff. Our comrade Sir Shining Armor-" He stopped, and a sound between a choked sigh and a clearing is throat echoed from the armor. "Missing, presumed martyred, had an 'administrative role', and he was a great soldier and..." He trailed off. Apparently unwilling to say more, he gestured to the next room over, where most of the noise and movement was coming from.


It wasn't until she was halfway into solar that Fleetfoot had the presence to wonder why the Imperial Household Guard was there. Clearly the unicorns were prepared for trouble, if it came.
The duke's private solar was in the process of being rearranged, as IHG knights dragged in tables and chairs and dragged out statues and desks to make room. It didn't look like anypony there was having much fun, but neither did they look afraid or angry. Instead it was a shared anxiousness, for both those whose fortunes were waxing or waining, with everything or nothing to lose, be they prideful or humble (not that any of them were).

Spitfire, near the doorway, spotted Fleetfoot first. "The Admiral is nearly here. I bet she chose some alternative entry, probably the roof or higher floors." She told the other ponies.
The other high occupants, Dukes Flux and Lightdowser, and Twilight Velvet, fell silent.

"Tactical genius worthy of her father." Prosser trotted in behind Fleetfoot balancing a wine bottle on his croup.

Foaly Flux nodded his agreement. "Now now, Gnash is a genius in her own right, Councilor. I had her acquaintance when she was still a Household Guard officer. I know from direct and secondary evidence that she can lead an assault on a liquor cabinet like no other. She was a bold youth and her escapades with my late brother drew the constant ire of her father." He grabbed the bottle from Prosser and began a struggle with its cork.

Duke Lightdowser looked uncomfortable with the topic. "I may not have come to know Lord Rain as well as those of you who lived in Canterlot during his captaincy, but he never anything but earnest praise for his daughter in his conversations with me."

Prosser giggled. "Because he was trying to get her over, Lord Duke."

"And I don't wonder if he wasn't trying to tease a potential suitor." Flux laughed softly. "Now as then, you are both unwed, Sharphoof.

Now Lightdowser was very uncomfortable. "Gentlesirs, why say such things before you have the actio libera in causa excuse by your imminent intoxication?" He snatched the bottle from Foaly and popped it open with his magic. "Lady Gnash is a fine mare, truly a mare worthy of my respect, but-" He sighed, popped the cork off the bottle, and took a swig. "Not the kind of mare who I could love." He took another swig. "My my, how improper of me. I must be parched."

"Bloody hell, wait until somepony brings the glasses." Foaly Flux shook his head. "Oi! Could one of you fine knights get the crystal from the other parlor? Enough for us, and enough for yourselves!"



The casual banter of powerful lords was not for Fleetfoot to hear. She quickly trotted over to Spitfire. "Captain." She saluted. "Status and situation?"

"I'm not sure." Spitfire said.

Was that it? "Captain, the Admiral needs to know what she's getting into. Don't you have something to report?"

Spitfire eased herself into one of the newly-brought-in chairs. "I could say something, but it would be the result of deception and pageantry, just like what brought us to Canterlot in the first place." She leaned forward, whispering into Fleetfoot's ear with a wing raised to obscure her mouth. "It's a fifty-fifty shot that this meeting ends in blood. The reason or the perpetrator, who's to say..." Her eyes gravitated towards Velvet. "Blood must be spilled. The sacrifice at the guild hall was insufficient."

Fleetfoot pulled away, shocked. "Captain-"

"Oh ho, your captain sure can spout some doom and gloom when she's over-imbibed." Velvet circled the table to the Wonderbolts. "Since the Captain and I will be seeing a lot of each other in the coming weeks, perhaps I should take responsibility for her tonight." She waggled her hoof at Spitfire teasingly. "Which means I will MAKE you pace yourself, Captain, else I will have to cut you off. Understand?"

Weird. Too weird. "I-" Fleetfoot stepped past Velvet. "Where are the stairs?"

"Forward and to the left." Flux called after her.

Fleetfoot all but galloped out of the room, nearly knocking over some unsuspecting IHG knights lounging in the adjacent parlor. Heedless, of their indignant shouts, Fleetfoot raced to the stairwell and flew up to the top floors. She nearly bumped into Streak who was on his way down.

"Woah, Fleet. Is everything okay?" Streak asked.

Fleetfoot nodded hastily, and was about to try to squeeze past him when Admiral Gnash came up behind him. The Admiral, seeing Fleetfoot's expression, immediately grabbed for her sword. "Those bastards will pay."

"No! No, it's not-" Fleetfoot took a deep breath. "The Captain is fine, maybe a bit out of it, but fine. You were right, that she has had a difficult day." She shook her head, unable to conjure the right words for confusion she felt. "She might have more to say if you get her away from the unicorns. She's not under duress or anything, still, something is off." She cleared her throat. "About ten IHG down there with them too. It's probably just a show of force, but Captain Spitfire suspects a trap."

Rain Gnash slowly released her grip on her sword and let it drop back into its sheath.  "No kidding." She contemplated silently for a few moments. "Should we withdraw back to the airship?"

"We can take on those hornheads no problem! First squadon destroyed a whole building of 'em!" One of the Wonderbolts yelled from further up the stair.  That was met with a few affirmatory laughs and cheers.

Fleetfoot nodded. "I'll second that, Admiral. If we signal we're not to be messed with, they won't."

Streak didn't look as certain, but he added his nod as well.

It was settled then. "Not that I was going to listen to you cloud-buggerers if you said no." Rain Gnash chortled. "Wonderbolts don't run!"








When Cadence landed at the city gate, there was still some daylight left. The city guardsponies and the travelers entering the city gasped in surprise at the alicorn in their midst. Hopefully it would be a good portent for them this time.


"The question now, Lady Velvet, is whether you will answer a direct question from your princess, or whether you will lie." Cadence said to herself.
She acknowledged the ponies's reverential yells and prayers with a wave of her wing, then pivoted towards the Chateau la Garde, taking purposeful strides towards the keep doors. Princesses, even adventurous ones who took care of their own buisness, did not take side entrances nor windows.

The maid was already there, smoothing out her frilly dress, then snapping to attention as Cadence drew closer. "Princess Amore Cadenza." She curtsied. "Are you looking for lord and lady of the house? That is not a good idea, princess. Instead I can offer only trifling amusement and hospitality. For this, I deeply apologize."

That couldn't be right because Cadence was already darkly amused. "The lord and lady? Surely you misspeak, as this is a condominium of Princess Celestia and her First Student Twilight Sparkle." She didn't get a lot out of being pedantic, but it was hopefully enough to establish authority, which all her interactions over the day proved she needed.

The maid covered her mouth in polite embarrassment. "Oh, only too correct, my princess." But when she dropped her hoof back to the pavers, a mischievous smile remained. "My princess you are lucky this household is in such good humor. Even for a close close friend of the mistress's family, a smart ass-comment like that will get you punished."

"I beg your pardon?" Cadence cocked her head. Was she really being chided by a maid?

"I know this is a complicated time for all of us, princess" The maid bowed her head. She withdrew into the entry parlor of the Chateau la Garde. "It is thus even for a simple mare like me, bereft of ego and desires. I have no answers for you, as I have none myself. I am standing between you and even greater confusions because my lady is merciful."

Cadence knew the cryptic pablum she was hearing was bait. But what could she do except bite? "The mercy of this earth flows down from heaven, through us, to mortals. They teach that in school." Cadence said. She felt silly quoting scripture but it felt appropriate. "Take me to Twilight Velvet. I absolutely have to talk to her right now. No two ways about it, mis."

"Very well Princess Cadenza. Princess Celestia tried to protect you. Shining Armor tried to protect you. For this is mortal buisness, the devilish realm of ambition and dreams, that you are meant to transcend." The maid said with a nod.

How tiresome, Cadence thought. "What deep thoughts, conjured during the hours of dusting and washing, that you get to badger passers-by with. What a shame the theological college didn't recognize your prodigy." She said, trying to match the level of sass the maid was putting out. It'd been years since her university days and she felt out of practice.

"Thank you my lady. It was actually the Baltimare Divinity School." The maid said flatly. She let Cadence in and shut the door behind them, muting the fawning of the crowds on the darkening street.


There were a few candles lit around the Chateau la Garde's great hall.  It had been years since Cadence had been inside, back when Sunset Shimmer was still the First Student. While her recollection was imperfect, she was still absolutely certain that somepony had installed an extra passageway she had never seen before on the far wall, half concealed by a hinged facade of stone.  A hidden tunnel under the city walls perhaps?

"We shan't be going down there. I already brought the captive up." The maid said.

Captive?! Cadence scanned the room, and finally noticed an earth pony in a corner of the hall- They were slumped over in their chair, with a full plate of food set on another chair beside.  The lantern keeping the chained mare and her meal illuminated had dimmed from the death of its fireflies, but still her long mane and untrimmed hooves told the tale.

"Oh my goodness!" Cadence gasped, rushing over to the mare. "Mis, are you okay?! Can you answer me?" The captive was breathing, and her ear flicked at the noise, but she did not stir at all, her head down, her bodyweight testing the limit of the chains holding her to the chair.
Cadence turned back to the maid. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"That is a heretic, a most perverse sinner, who her ladyship spared death in exchange for guarantees and drudgery from her friends." The maid said. "Do not feel sorry for her, Lady Cadenza. She was a killer, a Star-worshiper, and enemy of her Ladyship."


At last the captive moved. She tilted her head, to be able to eye Cadence and the maid from under her dark grey mane. "I'm nopony's enemy, nopony's friend, nopony's servant or master, any longer. Do not look at me."

Cadence closed her eyes and gradually calmed herself. How great I have to deal with this now in addition to everything else, she lamented. Where was Twilight Velvet why had she been keeping a private prisoner? "Mis, are you okay? How long have you been here?"

The captive let her head droop again, unwilling to answer.

"She has been interned since Fancy Pant's assassination, for which she is partly responsible." The maid chimed in.

"This earth mare-" Cadence draped a wing over the captive. "killed Sir Fancy Pants?" She asked, incredulous.

"No, not at all. She is responsible, albeit accidentally. I t is the least of her crimes, but it is why she was caught." The maid explained, a twinge of irony to her tone. "And it is why we have kept her, in her penance, so she may improve herself."


Cadence was silent as she regarded the haggard mare. "Then you're one of the dead assassin mares." She crouched, trying to catch the captive's eyes again. "I heard Twilight Velvet burned you alive, Mis Octavia."

The captive shuddered, then snapped upright, making the chair (and Cadence) jump. Shivering, every muscle tense, her breathing quickened, she locked eyes with Cadence. "That I was, princess." The earth mare hissed, not hostile, not desperate, but still anxious. "It's nice to see somepony new for a change."

"Now now mis, do not worry yourself with thoughts of release just yet. Lady Cadenza is not going to let you go. That is still Lady Velvet's prerogative." The maid waggled her hoof. "Though, you may take heart that it is not so far off now."


Cadence backed away from the pathetic shaking mare. "I can't believe this. Only Celestia can pass judgement whether a pony deserves this. Actually, nopony deserves this!" She smoothed her mane with a wing, fretting. "Dead mares are turning up far more often than I'm comfortable with today."

Octavia's rapid breaths turned to pained exhalations of laughter. "Yet you look upon me. If I'm dead, look away." She groaned and slouched again, unable to keep herself up.


This was too much. Cadence could only imagine the horrible things Octavia had been through. She had survivors of torture before, pony veterans of the overseas wars or parolees from the Canterlot Castle dungeon.  Octavia had not a scratch on her, but... "But why? The senseless destruction of a mare, who stood no trial, and who you say is innocent. Why?"

"No!" Octavia shouted, her voice echoing in the empty dark hall. "I'm not innocent. I was a sinner. I upheld a false god. I did not respect the lives of others. I was a petty and cruel mare." She moaned, a pained confession. "I will tell anypony willingly and openly that I deserved this, deserved to be destroyed, and if I survive I will be a better mare for this trial by ordeal, for the verdict against my life. Don't be upset for me, because I've almost proved that I deserve to live." Octavia stabilized her breathing, and gathered the energy to lift her head again. "I just wish I'd had a little more company. Some water would be nice too. I could dance, with a nice swig of water."

"Yes very well put, Octavia dear. You were down there longer than her Ladyship hoped was necessary. We couldn't risk you being found." The maid sighed, turning back to Cadence.  "You see, Lady Cadenza, that I had just finished explaining the destruction of the Musician's Guild to her when you arrived. Her friends and owner from that past life have been wiped away. This mare killed her soul when she pledged herself to a Star but she has nearly built it back."


Cadence could barely pay attention to their words, her mind fixated on the madness of it all. This was beyond the pale. Velvet would have a lot to answer for. Yet, though the scene before her was revolting, she felt totally certain that when confronted Twilight Velvet would give her an excuse that would completely absolve her. "So how does this fit into anything? Why show me this?"

The maid shrugged. "I warned you."

Cadence didn't know what she had been expecting, but it wasn't this. "Yes, I suppose you did warn me." She thought for a moment. "My duty extends to all ponies, all across this empire. I must be mercy for all of them. I can not indulge the needs of any specific pony even if I love them." Cadence was not going to be led around by the snout by these mares. "So behave yourselves. I find this predicament interesting, but not compelling. I did not come looking for this, but rather for Twilight Velvet, to discuss matters of national and imperial importance."

Octavia squeezed her eyes closed. "Absolutely, princess. I'm so sorry for my impertinent distraction."

The maid did not look convinced, but nodded regardless. "Lady Velvet is awaiting you at Castle Magoria. If you wish, I will remand Mis Octavia to your care, to give to Velvet."

"Why would I do that? I would be culpable in keeping a mare from her liberty." Cadence asked.

Both Octavia and the maid snickered softly, Octavia's interspersed with labored gasps, as if what Cadence had just said was absolutely ridiculous.
"Do what you wish, Lady Cadenza." The maid said. "However I judge, and Lady Velvet would probably agree, that nothing you do will have very much effect at all on the ponies. Your actions are for yourself alone, your ego and self-respect, and to realize the mare you wish to be. The ponies will meet their fate regardless. Good evening." With that, the maid bowed and trotted away.

"Excuse me? Hey, we're not done talking!" Cadence blinked, but the figure of the maid disappeared into the shadow, laden hall, until the clop of her hooves disappeared up the stairs deeper in the chateau.  "This is almost exactly what I didn't wanted to happen." She sighed, eyeing Octavia.

Octavia tried to sit all the way up, and after a few deep breaths strained with all her might against the chains on her legs and body. She thrashed her head back and forth, hissing at the self-inflicted pain of the bindings digging into her fur, until exhausting herself and slumping forward again.
"Who cares, honestly. Who cares what anypony wants. Wants and whims are bullshit. Its actions that matters. So like she said, do whatever you want."


Cadence wasn't a stranger to such rude words, but it still stung her. "You don't seem as reformed as was let on." She hooked a hoof over the back of the chair and pulled it over, nearly causing it to fall. "What will you do if I release you?"

"Do as instructed: Follow you, princess, to be taken to Lady Velvet." Octavia said.

Though Octavia still appeared totally pathetic and desperate, Cadence detected the slightest hint of a canny smile peeking out from under that messy mane.  This was not some pure soul in desperate need of her help and assistance, whose salvation by her hooves would be an unassailable virtue-  Cadence felt she had been pinched into another dirty conundrum, where the maid and the captive were in some inexplicable conspiracy against her. "I could turn you over to the IHG or city guard. If they knew you were alive they'd still want you for Fancy Pants's death."

"Sure princess. I'm sure they'll waste their time trying to actually solve a murder nopony wants solved, rather than gear up for their civil war." Octavia rolled her eyes. "What honorable and proper officer is going to humor their princess when the reward is only tedium and annoyance?"

Shining Armor would, Cadence knew. Where had that poor stallion disappeared to? Cadence tried to catch Octavia's eyes again, ready to interrogate her, to ask what she knew that Cadence didn't, or to ask how the situation had changed, but Cadence felt suddenly very silly. The chained mare had been stuck in a hole for over a month and yet she acted more knowledgeable than her alicorn princess?
"Have I been sheltering myself from what's happening?" Cadence asked herself.

"You'd have to ask Lady Velvet." Octavia grunted.







With all the lords arrived and introduced, the assembled ponies that were overflowing in Foaly Flux's quarters collectively agreed it was time to get down to buisness. Their un-nominated, un-elected, conniving conspiracy which, by accident of blood and ambition, had come to see itself as deserving to rule a nation of millions, had convened at last to make their final plan and put it into motion. Yet each silently asked themselves if the alliance, or the conspirators themselves, would survive the week, or even the night.

At the head of the table was Foaly Flux. "Ladies and lords, gentleponies and wellborne all." He bowed his head. "Welcome to my humble home. My servants are on holiday, and my orchestra is indisposed, but I hope you still find this to be a warm and comfortable little tower." He paused for some affirmatory cheers from along the table. "I'm not party to this alliance, and I have long since given up interest in imperial stuff. It's so booring, and what is more the last time I tried to get involved I got my ass kicked! I give you my home as a neutral meeting ground, with an admitted partiality to my delightful in-law, Lady Velvet." He leaned over and pecked Velvet on the cheek. "Cheers, all. To the memory of those we've lost."

Polite clops and murmurs.

Next counter-clockwise was Admiral Rain Gnash and her entourage, the Wonderbolts Fleetfoot and Spitfire. Gnash, hoof curled tightly over a glass of wine, accepted her turn to speak with a grunt. "Unicorns, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't missed you. Lots of ponies, maybe even some in this room, maybe even me, thought the Cloudsdale clique was gone for good. But looking around, and seeing faces who are both strong and friendly, who I can count to be on our side, I think Cloudsdale is back."  She raised her glass, and the Wonderbolts at the edges of the room stomped their hooves and threw up a united cheer. The unicorns and IHG knights nodded along, not quite as enthusiastic. "We had a damn good first showing. The rebel conspiracy festering in that guild hall was burnt out, and we earned the welcome of no less than our holy princess on those conquered steps!" Even louder cheering from the Wonderbolts. "So I pass it to the victor of that brilliant campaign, who honored her unit, her city, and her tribe, Captain Spitfire."

Spitfire lifted a hoof, and her Wonderbolts immediately fell silent. Sullen, still out of uniform, she was obviously unhappy to be there. "Thank you Admiral. Thank you Lord Flux for you hospitality tonight, and thank you to Canterlot for your hospitality generally. I worry about how there is to do, and that there will be much to mourn when it's over. To the memory of those we've lost." She leaned back in her chair, signaling her unwillingness to say more.

Polite clops, and soft agreement from around the room.


On the other side of the table was Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser., who had been idly toying with a salt shaker while he waited. Now that it was his turn to speak he stood up and scanned around room, looking every single occupant in the eye. "These are troubled, confused times. Even the sight of my beatified princess, in all her splendor, filled me with the most terrible contortions of awe and anxiety. For to fail her at her time of greatest need would be a dishonor of historic proportions. I knew, seeing Princess Celestia, that I would be remembered, for better or worse. Coming to Canterlot and throwing forward my name for the contest of honor, I had resolved to test everything that I am. Should I be found lacking, in either my own personal skill and vigor, and in my ability to chose worthy friends, I would be destroyed and my name would be trampled into the mud." He nodded sternly. "That was the promise I saw in my princess's expression. This is not about any petty rivalry or grudge. It is about upholding the empire and the alicorns. Evil is real. We shall best it and be blessed, or be bested and be cursed. That is all." He sat back down.

Nopony really knew how to react to the duke's words. Velvet found it more interesting than his spiel at the temple so she cheered.

Beside Lightdowser, Councilor Prosser rose to fill the silence he'd left. "I don't need to fully agree to say that was eloquently put. There's no lack of talent, bravery, or strength here tonight. It's enough to frighten a stodgy councilpony like me." The joke earned a few laughs. "I'm not here to assert any desire of my own, besides that of all Equestria, which is peace, tranquility, and stability. I'll help any pony who I think can deliver that for our ponies. I've had an ego about such things in the past and it's only caused me trouble, so I'm just here to do my job, to provide council. Thank you all, and remember the prayers for peace that are spoken by every Equestrian, in Canterlot and beyond."

A couple ponies nodded but the Wonderbolts and IHG knights looked bored by the appeals to peace, and for the latter who were at least a little familiar with Prosser, doubtful of their sincerity. The remorse of a troublemaker could not be instantly accepted for what it was, even when earnestly offered.

Completing the circumnavigation of the table, only Twilight Velvet was left to speak. This turn was received with silent nervousness and dread by some of the other attendees, and though they remained expressionless and just as calm if scrutinized, the tension in the room nevertheless spiked, despite most of them being unable to explain why.
"Thank you all so much for coming. That is excepting my dear honorary uncle, Duke Flux, who lives here- It would be much more extraordinary if he weren't at hoof, as he is inseparable from his beloved Castle Magoria, who proves her loves through steadfast resiliency, when so much else and so many other ponies are fleeting and tragic." Velvet said, the otherwise comedically strange words seeming grave in her serious tone. "The future of Equestria is here, in this room. I can only echo Duke Lightdowser's sentiment: Victory is pleasing to god, while defeat is sinful in the same way suicide is sinful. That's all for now."

Prosser cut in before anypony could applaud. "Is that all Lady Velvet? I'm sure you have more to say, and less poetically."

Velvet laughed and nodded, leaning forward, holding everypony in suspense as she did not answer for a long minute. Then, sighing, she fell back into her chair again. "Not at all. I am a lady among grandees. I invited everypony here but I am not interested in taking the lead."

"Her ladyship is very demurring now? I hope I didn't misjudge you, though regardless I can appreciate your attempt to get on our good side." Rain Gnash guffawed. "Oh, I think you're a clever mare, Twilight Velvet. I wouldn't have minded you monopolizing the room for a while."

Lightdowser grunted his disapproval. "I would have. We have much buisness to discuss, Admiral." He turned to Foaly Flux. "May I, Duke Flux?"

Flux shrugged. "The room is yours, metaphorically."


Lightdowser eyed the pegasi, gauging if they would object, before clearing his throat and speaking again. "The past, the present, and the future- That is the burden of a fastidious pony who would be lord, not just over themselves, but over others. So, where shall we begin? Like any story, with le naissance."

"I'd rather not start with la naissance, if you'd be so kind. Let's skip to l'incitation." Velvet said softly.

Lightdowser nibbled his lip, slightly peeved. "We surely mean the same thing, my lady, which is that Equestria has been unjustly grasped by weaklings, who inflict bad government on the ponies. It has been this way for years. I was courteous to my predecessor's memory at his funeral, but in truth Fancy Pants failed as a vizier. He let the government, the nobility, and the princess herself degenerate and lose their vigor."

"Is it a vizier's job to invigorate his divine princess?" Rain Gnash asked sarcastically.

"If the job was not necessary, why did the princess create the position? I could just as easily ask why the princess needs guards and a captain." Lightdowser retorted. "The high officers of our nation service the princess to fulfill our racial tutelage, the same as any apprentice craftworkers serves their master, or a squire to their knight. It is by serving the alicorn that we (collectively and individually) learn to rule, so by neglecting the former we would remain ignorant of the latter." He pontificated. "Therefore bad government fails ourselves as much as it fails her."

"And in our degenerated state, so much misery and chaos has been unleashed on Canterlot." Prosser nodded along.

Still Rain Gnash did not seem convinced. "What's your deal, earth pony? Why are you stoking this poetical stuff out of the unicorns?" She nudged Spitfire. "No offense, lord duke, but your arcadian mountain living gives you no perspective on how the world works nowadays. Have you stepped a hoof into Cloudsdale or one of the Free Cities? It's a rough life for a dispossessed peasant, stuffed into a slum, shut out of the guilds and working for a wage." Everypony in the room shivered at the mention of the wretched 'wage'.  "And rough living means rough society. They kill each other, and not just the commoners."

"Not here. Not in this city, Princess Celestia's city!" Lightdowser thumped the table. "Once there is stability and firm government, the murders will stop. We will stop it out there-" His lip curled back, barely holding back his disgust. "in the free cities and corrupted metropolis, by both our example and our firm use of state resources. We will stop the bleeding." He nodded to Prosser. "That is why we, the cure to this ill, have been summoned here."

Spitfire mumbled indecipherably under her breath and Rain Gnash snickered, but otherwise let Lightdowser continue.

"It is in that spirit that we must build the narrative of what has occurred with the liquidation of the Musician's Guild. If we desire to be be exemplars of the fight against the corrupt and complacent, to inspire copycats in every municipality in the empire, we therefore must mutually consult on our explanation of what it is that others will be copying." Lightdowser said. "To wit: what happened?"

Velvet raised her hoof. "Allow us Canterloters to explain. The Musician's Guild was the base of an organization of cultic assassins, run as the personal fiefdom of a mare named Phyte. This Guild is completely unknown to most of the population, but an open secret among the highest levels of the imperial court."

Prosser looked mortified by Velvet's admission. "Let's not overstate things, Twilight."

Rain Gnash first looked to Spitfire, who shrugged. "The hell? Cultic assassins? This doesn't match the info we had." She sat up, looking past the others at the table, to the reactions of the IHG knights lounging at the edges of the room.  While some of the knights looked shocked, a few others met her gaze with indifference or nods of acknowledgment. "A cult. A death cult..." She rubbed her forehead with a wing, thinking to herself.

Undeterred, Prosser was adamant about putting the cat back into the bag. "Many rumors surrounded the Musician's Guild but there has never been any definitive proof of anything heretical or supernatural."

"Oh buck off." Spitfire rolled her eyes.

"You may dispute the councilor, dame Captain, but do not disrespect him." Lightdowser chided. 

"He's disrespecting you by lying to your face. That damn guild was run by a mad witch." Spitfire contended, visibly seething but keeping her tone calm and even. She side-eyed Velvet, and taking note of the omissions about Phyte's supernatural nature. "Her ladyship is telling the truth, mostly."

"I would not be taken in by what what you thought you saw in the fog of war, captain." Prosser's shook his head. 


"Insurrectionists, assassins, or 'mad witch', I just wanna know: who cares? " Rain Gnash lifted her head. "Listen, we already did the dirty work, and cleaned out that den of den of iniquity. So I'm not interested in post-hoc justification. Write your history books later. Any excuse is fine by me. The 'Bolts kick ass either way."

Prosser was happy to accept that willful ignorance. "Indeed admiral. After all, there's no narrative that makes you look worse, unless somepony manages to commit it to the history books that the guild hall was actually an orphanage defended by breezies you attacked." That elicited a couple laughs from the audience. "Either a great evil was surprised, or you overcame a fortified position and proved that Hauseway can't protect the city. The latter is a lot easier to sell and understand."

While Spitfire was still seething mad at the agreement to hide the truth, Velvet was merely amused. "Gnash, would you really not want the world to know, or even verify personally, whether your Wonderbolts conquered a supernatural monster?"

Rain Gnash sniffled and shook her head. "Not particularly."


Lightdowser, who had not chimed in, rapped the table. "Then perhaps it is not necessary to dwell. We will rule that the assault was necessary, and acknowledge the role of both the Wonderbolts and the Imperial Household Guard in carrying out the deed." He paused. "An accessory role by the city guard and Canterlot auxiliary groups will also be noted."

"Yeah sure, give credit to the citizen guard pansies." Gnash grunted. "You keeping the minutes of this meeting, councilor?"

Prosser ignored her. "That satisfies me if it satisfies you, Duke Lightdowser. Though before we continue, Sharphoof, could we have a few minutes' break? My glass has run empty."

"Ah, the consequences of my deserted household! I'm so sorry." Foaly Flux cried out. "Yes, let's break for a few minutes. Let me run back to the wine cabinet, my fellows."

Rain Gnash shook her head. "I've had enough." She curled a wing over Spitfire, holding her in place as well. "Don't take too long."


Foaly Flux led Velvet, Prosser, and Lightdowser a few rooms over to his main parlor, still in disarray from his stupor earlier in the evening. "Let me find something good. I let my steward stock me so much swill, which is fine for the average class of guest my parties attract, but hardly a Unicornian lord. Let me see if there's something hidden in the back." He wandered to the other side of the room, a signal he would not listen in unwelcomed.

Prosser spoke first, barely holding an even tone. "Lady Velvet you are being unwise, bordering on stupid. The Musician's Guild is wiped away, so we can close the book on that sordid chapter of history forever. We can forget, forgive, and save ourselves and our descendants the shame of that memory. Are you going to spill the beans on everything the empire has worked hard to forget, just for fun?"

Velvet laughed but gave no answer.

"I had heard rumors and threats about the true nature of the guild during my contest against Fancy Pants. It was difficult to tell from the outside alone whether the Musician's Guild really was so evil." Sharphoof Lightdowser said.

Grinding his teeth, Prosser nodded. "If you actually care to know, then yes, it was quite bad. If you embrace that truth, and glorify yourself and your new regime by its elimination, you'd be simultaneously besmirching the entire imperial government. There were ponies who had to abide the existence of the Musician's Guild that would feel betrayed if you indicted them. You need those apparatchiks to stabilize the nation under your viziership."

Lightdowser sighed. "I start to understand. Institutional momentum paralyzed you" He nudged Velvet. "You were free to act, and to conspire against this guild. A noble deed, to be sure, to step up when others couldn't, but I do not understand you motivation. Why take the risk, Lady Velvet?"

"Phyte threatened my family." Velvet said. "But I don't want you to jump to the wrong conclusion: I didn't force Gnash to settle the score for me. In fact, I suspect Rain Gnash thought she was weakening me by destroying the guild. She may still want to believe that."

"Admiral Gnash was attempting to subvert you?" Lightdowser asked, incredulous. Things sure were complicated in their alliance.

"It is only a suspicion of mine. I would not voice it openly, but I though you might want to know." Velvet said. She put a hoof on Prosser's shoulder, and cocked her head his direction, fixing him with a firm stare. "There's one more little secret, lord duke, about Phyte and the Musician's Guild. Even the castle bureaucrats don't know, except for the councilor here and a couple others."

Prosser trembled, torn between his need to object and the controlling grasp Velvet had laid on him. "Lady Velvet do not ruin our hope for salvation. Please, exercise restraint."

"Councilor, I understand you want to protect me. By censoring the truth, you want to make questions of idealism versus pragmatism vanish. I would be left with only my ideals to pursue." Lightdowser said. "But it is as the young pegasus captain said: You disrespect me by taking away my choice and my agency. That is not being a good councilor to the governor, but a governor in your own right. If I do not have the opportunity to chose, the virtue of idealism withers to nothing.

"Very astute, lord Duke." Velvet answered for Prosser. "And right now, I would wager that ninety-percent of the time you would obey that idealism of yours, and uphold the vision of a virtuous government you were yarning about earlier, all the way to Canterlot Castle. But your ideals have foundational propositions, and the councilor and I happen to know a juicy, foundation-shattering secret."

"You sound like you are trying to threaten me, but you might as well threaten a legion of windigos and nightmares, Lady Velvet. Therefore you must mean merely to humor me." Lightdowser chortled.  However Prosser's continued despairing, panicked look convinced the duke that maybe Velvet was being serious. "This is getting ridiculous."

"Same as it ever was. Velvet is going to mess everything up just for fun." Prosser ground his teeth, racing to think of a way to get away from the topic.

Velvet laughed to herself. "Same as I ever have." She paused, as if consider if she was really going to pull the trigger. She leaned in, whispering. "It's a lark, Sharphoof. The guild burned down, and the princess appeared. But didn't you ever stop to consider-"

Prosser abruptly struck her on the side. "Twilight!" He exclaimed. "If withholding a choice from the duke is disrespectful, foisting one on him is dishonorable!" He bowed, his nose nearly touching the floor. "My lord duke, you want to help rule ponykind, but some challenges are still only worthy of the princesses! We are not ready as a nation, or a species, to stand on our own four legs. We both know that! That's why I BEG you to remain ignorant. We just aren't ready."


Lightdowser remained absolutely motionless for several moments, then, glancing away briefly, trotted over to the nearest cabinet. "I have never been to war. The equestrian high nobility, domesticated by the princess, eschewed war and become philosophers and gentleponies. Excepting that madmare Glori Sabonord, we have decided ours and ponykinds prosperity is furthered by everything I described before: Virtue and good governance.  But I am not too naive to realize that war still waits for us, a primordial evil, which ever wishes to possess us. So, I imagine I understand what Velvet is hinting at, that a demon of our very nature was lurking beneath the guild hall, but I do not yet know whether we sealed it or unlocked it by the conflagration. Will war beget more war, or have we won peace?" He scooped up the nearest liqueur bottle. "I so dearly hope it is the latter, because it means we are not helpless. Perhaps it is impious to think we're ready to wrest our fate from the alicorns like that.  You were right, Councilor, when you accused me of having an ego." He withdrew back into the meeting room.



Prosser beamed. "Nearly, Velvet, nearly." He said, letting out a shaky, relieved laugh. "Maybe my warnings about you have finally gotten through to him."

"Just don't gloat too hard. While you ponies are retreating into metaphor and overwrought poetry, I need nothing but the truth anymore. Have a long think about why that is." Velvet laughed along and patted him on the back. "Run along."

Prosser smiled, nodded, then turned very serious. "Don't be a jackass, Twi. There's more than me between you and your anarchist revolution or whatever nonsense you have cooking, because this empire has a thousand years of history behind it and you are just a former rhetoric teacher. Reflect on the fate of your son, and realize you're only going to end up hurting those you care about." He followed Lightdowser out.

Not that the discussion was over, Foaly Flux wandered back to Velvet, holding a dusty wine bottle. "I'm on pins and needles, Twilight...  I'm worried. Am I too weak for this?"

Velvet pulled him closer and kissed him on the forehead. "Life, death, infamy or disgrace, which those ponies are so obsessed with, are meaningless when considering the incomparable, inconceivable enormity of the future. You're the strongest pony I know, who can agree with me on that and still be able to keep your humor. That stuffy councilor thinks I'm baselessly smug. On the contrary, uncle Flux, we have every reason to laugh." She accepted the wine bottle and led him back to the meeting. She pantomimed a toast. "To friends and good health!"







In the hours since Cadence and the Ulthar cat had departed, Celestia had nary moved an inch. Her eyes had wandered to the window- She slowly melted over her magnificent sofa, her body doing nothing to maintain her except to keep her facing that window, that blue and bright sky, and the promises and power carried on brilliant streaks of sun, shining first above, and then below, the patient feathery clouds. 
The grand alicorn did not move any longer, did not speak any longer, seemed not even to breath, so any intruder would have imagined her to be a statue but for how her mane still flowed this way then that in the magical currents, curling and tickling her surroundings. That and her eyes... for what was reflected on them was not the world as it was.


Celestia felt herself beyond that window, striding forward on pallid bolts of light, each rising to meet her hooffall, leading her higher along an incorporeal stairway heaven-bound. Celestia knew why she was climbing but was nearly too afraid to admit it to herself. Though she was already miles-high, so far above the limit pegasi could fly, she felt uneasy, as though some threat were following behind her, flanking her on either side, and below, so her only course was ahead and up, to where an even greater danger awaited her.
Then Celestia was there, at the pinnacle, the last step after the stairway of light leading to her a rounded snow-capped mountain peak. The snow gleamed like diamonds in the unobstructed sun, and in a flight of childish fancy Celestia was tempted to grab some up and shower herself, so she could dance among the descending flakes of light.

But Celestia was not alone. Another entity was watching her from the other side of the peak, as large as her but obscured in blinding brilliance, her recently-used path up to even higher heavens fading away. "You." The light-entity's voice was not heard, but felt, like the vibration of a deep bell vibrating along Celestia's whole body. "At last."


"At last." Celestia repeated back, trying to identify something in the white haze before her, to know who or what she was addressing. The luminous entity had a majestic and dreadful aura, and by the mysterious grandeur of their meeting place and that it could pull Celestia's consciousness into the meeting at all, indicated in sum that this was at least a low-level officer of heaven; Perhaps it was an asteroid or comet, or the emissary of a distant white dwarf.  Whatever they were, they were trespassing in the Sun's demesne, and presuming to speak to the Sun's vassal directly.
But in the moment there was little shelter in knowing the position or irrelevance of the entity, for it thrummed all the same with incredible power, so Celestia began to worry what damage it could do if it really wished to harm her, remote though her body was. "Hello. Be you friend or foe, I can not welcome you. Your descent is illicit, and you bring danger to yourself and to me by it."

The entity raised a limb, slowly, until its upturned hoof cradled the sky, that as she held it grew a deeper and deeper blue, until the whole world beyond that snow-capped peak was a deep-dark void, and the only point illuminated by the yet-blazing sun was they two entities. The peak, too, was not what it was before, but obsidian black, flattened stone, with curving sides that descended forever down into the depths of space, a tower of infinite proportions.
The entity dropped its hoof back by degrees, so it was reaching towards Celestia, grasping at her.
"You have willfully dismissed our previous warnings. We are coming for you."
The noon-time sun jerked widdershin.


Celestia returned to lucidity in her parlor with a violent start, shattering the sofa underneath her. She teleported onto her hooves, crouching, wings extended, alert against threats from every direction. And for a few moments she swore she saw shapes in every corner of her parlor, hunched and waiting, but waiting for what she could not hazard a guess. But just as quickly as she saw them, the shapes vanished, just another tormenting vision.
Celestia remained tensed for several minutes, slowly drawing her mind down from the heights of panic, and gradually working to parse the lingering visions of the tower and luminous being, and the vibrations of its message which where just then leaving her body.

Twilight had come to Canterlot, the sun having long since set behind the mountain and was then descended below the horizon beyond, tinging the eastern sky in scarlet and orange.
Celestia straightened up and trotted to the window. It was still cracked open from when Cadence had entered there earlier. She paused with a hoof on the sill, listening to the wind and the distant sounds of the tired city for a while, before pushing the window closed.

"At last." Celestia whispered to herself. That brief encounter, laden with mystery, gave Celestia much to think about. 
A heavenly being had its sights set on her, not the dispassionate glances of divine attention that could glance against the world, not the accidental fragments of cosmic influence that would scatter to ends of the earth when a divine traveler occasioned to have a roadside picnic nearby, nor the cordial and arms-length dealings that heavenly sovereigns would have with her or her mother Sun.  Something very powerful, and potentially very dangerous, had singled her out. "At last, it said." And it seemed very, very likely that this attention was not new, but something ongoing, and which had been ongoing. "Which means there's every possibility that she is who has been sending me visions."


Celestia looked out of the window for a while longer, watching the twilight hues fading, and with them her lifeline to her celestial protector. If there really was an outer god after her, hours of danger were approaching. Then her mind changed.
But perhaps it was time, at last. At last. At last. At last. Things were coming to a head, at last. It was time to stop looking at the southern horizon, stop yearning for far off things. At last. At last it was time for the hoof to follow the gaze.
The world was turning over. The world was becoming something different. Or had it already happened? The new reality, the new zeitgeist, had been waiting so long, too long, to be born. Celestia did not wish to dwell on spurious or needlessly crass analogies of gestation, and yet the turn of the day, the turn of the hour, had driven progress on, so it grew and grew, poised to burst straight out of her, through her, ripping every part of her apart and turning her into so much mulch to fecundate the new world, built over her  that would have her as its foundation and still build higher, so its values where no longer her values, cherishing its own accomplishments instead of hers, signifying that the name of Celestia would come to denote something lost or perhaps just different. Perhaps just different...

That was when Celestia remembered that most significant message of that mountain-turned-tower, where the Sun had moved widdershins. The twilight had not begun her danger, but rather ended it. 'Til the Sun rise again.

Celestia turned away from the window. It was time to leave Canterlot, fast. It would be dangerous for her to remain in the sun's city.






"The Hare Moon already. Wow. I was down there longer than I thought." Octavia was trotting jauntily, looking all around her with the fascination of a filly, to Cadence's growing consternation. "Last time I passed these houses, I was going the other way, panicked out of my wits, running as fast as I could. I was running to my doom and I didn't know it. But how could have I known? I didn't understand anything. My eyes were completely clouded with sin. I could have walked into an inferno and not even realized it, and in death I would have been filled with all the evil resentments of my life. Though, I suppose that is exactly what happened to me."

Cadence had lost her reservations about chiding the mare. "Mis Octavia, you have been through more than any pony should bear, but it is not nearly as melodramatic as all that. You were imprisoned yes, but I know what that is like, and it is not death."

"Do you know much about death, alicorn princess?" Octavia asked, her tone innocent but not her eyes.

"Unlike the empress I am exactly as old as I seem. I have outlived as many friends and relatives as any other mare my age." Cadence said. "Death and unlife are not my domain, but I've dreamed enough to tell that you didn't die even a little bit."

"I respect that perspective princess, but death is my domain. That is why I can say, authoritatively, that I died. I mean no disrespect, of course. None at all. But I must stand by my claim." Octavia insisted.


It had been clear from the first that something wasn't quite right with Octavia. Cadence hoped she would not be forever-burdened with watching the mare, as abandoning her would probably lead to somepony getting hurt. "You were in a criminal gang?"

"I was in an evil empire, as an agent of no small repute." Octavia retorted, her voice a subtle mix of proud and ashamed. "At induction I was only given petty bounties on lowlife scum, and by the time of my death I hunted nobles, burghers, and imperials. I had the love of the guild mistress, high priestess of death, who taught me the liturgical language of mortal murder. In that world, I was as a duchess."

There was ample evidence that the earth pony's regret was just for show, but if it was a trick surely Octavia would be trying to sell her trickery better. Under that strange mannerism (sculpted by torture?) maybe Octavia was trying to be sincere.
"That life amounted to very little, considering the way you were laid low by Lord Night Light and Lady Twilight Velvet." Cadence said. "Mis, I do not meet many ponies like you. Even during my freest and most adventurous years at the university, hormonal youngsters were my greatest peril. But you were, are, an agent of genuine evil and chaos."

"Largely true, my princess. My murders were illegal because I did not perform them in your name. I recognized a false sovereign, who whose sway over me was debasing." Octavia agreed. "Nevertheless I think your remark on my novelty rings hollow. Do you not keep company with killers like the imperial guard and the sun princess? Lady Velvet often whispered about her son, his accomplishments, and your mutual affections."


Scandalized and with cheeks burning, Cadence nearly missed the thrust of Octavia's words. What kind of uncouth fantasies had Twilight Velvet been telling her captive audience! Poor Shining Armor did not deserve his mothers machinations. "If you're accusing me of hypocracy, know I would absolutely detest somepony hurting others in my name. I just want ponies to be happy. Me torturing you over past deeds helps nopony. I said before I do not want to help deprive a mare of liberty, even a sinner. That's why I'm not moved by your deprecation either- You'd only impress me, Mis Octavia, if you advance your own penance by reversing the damage you've done. Find victim's graves, find victim's families, and pray for forgiveness." Cadence said.

"Why is that necessary when the nation is personified in you? If you forgive me, the feelings of the other ponies, in all their pettiness, is immaterial." Octavia shook her head. "I will be your weapon, if you wish it. I will be anything you want, I swear."

When Cadence heard those same words from knights and courtiers, they seemed just an insincere. But Octavia's motivations were baffling. Why would the killer, who Velvet had tried reforming into a good little mare, be so adamant about serving the alicorns? "Because of your association with criminals and heretics, you were privy to certain secret mysteries of the Elder Siblings of mortalkind."

"Yes and no, princess. The guild mistress was very private." Octavia apologized. "In fact, while Lady Twilight Velvet interrogated me, it was obvious that she knew much more about Mistress Phyte than I did. Her crepuscular ladyship must have been planning the destruction of the guild and eviction of Mistress Phyte for years."

Cadence felt vindicated in her choice to seek Velvet for her answers. "Yes, Lady Velvet is wise, which is why I have been seeking her out tonight; But not, I should think, as wise as all that. Her ladyship has made quite an impression on you, so I must wonder if she she could have lied and you would have been none the wiser."

"Should I beg you for your wisdom then, my princess?" Octavia asked, subtly teasing. "I mean no disrespect, and speak with the utmost reverence to your divine nature, when I say it was not my impression that you were not in the know." Octavia said. "Are you really totally unfamiliar with your kin, the Stars? I would be embarrassed to have to ask Lady Velvet, since I thought it was the alicorns who were teaching the ponies."


That was damn cheeky. Cadence was going to retort something about decency and propriety, but she thought better of trading snipes with a dead mare.
That thought almost stopped Cadence in place, so she tripped a bit over her own hooves. Glancing back at Octavia, she remained certain that the assassin mare was some bit actor in some orchestration by Twilight Velvet. So why submit to the charade? The mare was dubiously repentant, and the whole rest of the world believed that she was already dead, burned to a crisp by Velvet.

Octavia met her glance, but did not speak, until a moment later she demurred by averting her eyes. "Have you grown tired of me? I am, to all ponykind save a hooffull, mouldering in the grave. It is your right to punish me for my slights against you."

"What is wrong with you? Alicorns don't just execute anypony they don't like. That's never been the dogma." Cadence said sharply. "Mis Octavia, as an appreciator of theater and the preforming arts, I find your composure under stress admirable. Nevertheless, there must surely be limits to the act. If Twilight Velvet intends to harm you, or use you against somepony, will you maintain this housebroken persona?"

Octavia did not flinch from the weighty question. "I am already being used against somepony. My friends fear for me, so have become pawns to that fear. I wish I could say I am not a pawn because I'm fearless, it's not true, because I worry about my friends too, more than my own death. I doubt you'd understand."

Though Cadence felt a flame of resentment for having to acknowledge it, that accusation was true, for Cadence felt instinctually repulsed by the idea of self-sacrifice Octavia was espousing. She was the realization of the hopes of ponykind, and as an alicorn she would toil for the pony's sake, up to a point- She has said as much to Octavia before, how she could not be their collective comfort if she sacrificed herself for any singular pony. "I do understand."

"Because you are the icon ponies are sacrificing themselves to?" Octavia pressed, her question confirmed by Cadence's expression. "Don't let it upset you too much. It will all be over soon."

Cadence was getting annoyed again. She was trying to be nice and the mare was being snippy with her. "For you, perhaps. I am blessed to be above mortality."

Octavia did not answer but with a knowing look.








Once the meeting of the grandees recommenced, it was time to discuss how to out the 'squatters' in Canterlot Castle.

"You can only make so many demonstrations of strength." Prosser was arguing. "The liquidation of the Musician's Guild can only be the high point of a campaign of terror that eventually creates resentment."

Neither Rain Gnash nor Sharphoof Lightdowser seemed too keen on what the councilor was saying. Lightdowser had been staring out the window, while Gnash had answered everything with dismissive snickers. "Councilor the way I see it we will be resented by the weak and the dispossessed either way. The animus of the overthrown will never fade. They have to be crushed, and if it isn't done all at once it has to be done in parts." Gnash waved at Lightdowser with a wing. "And the lord duke would suffer for having dissenters running around. Is the terror of order or the terror of anarchy worse, say?"

Duke Lightdowser barely responded to the appeal to his sensibilities. "I would rather deffer security questions to the captain of the guard. As for the political question, I have not yet gauged how tolerant the nobles of Canterlot will be to us 'securing' our regime."

"Firstly, I have gauged it. The Canterlot nobles, who are very invested in the Estates and hybrid politics, are going to expect your flattery, not your boot. Second, the nobles are not the only stakeholders you need on your side to take or hold the castle." Prosser said. "Your opponents, Hauseway and Seacrest Sabonord, understand this. Usurping them easily is not a foregone conclusion."

Gnash shrugged. "That's why, at the guild hall, we made clear that the not-easy option was us busting in and evicting their asses." Some of the Wonderbolts laughed, but as the night wore on the Wonderbolts and IHG knights had gotten less boisterous and more somber, perhaps reflecting on what they would be asked to do in the coming days, and what they had already done. Or, they were just drunk, sedated on Foaly Flux's generosity.

"If you truly want to attack Canterlot Castle, pitting soldiers loyal to your alliance to those loyal to Hauseway's, you don't need me in the room for that. In fact, you might find me in the opposite room. Like it or not Hauseway was confirmed by the princess, while you were not." Prosser explained coldly. "What if you take control of the castle and Celestia refuses to confirm you? The pageantry of you pretending you received royal approval as you act out the role of IHG captain would greatly amuse me, Admiral."

Gnash tried not act annoyed by the earth pony's contrariety. "Listen, councilor, I see what you're getting at. Like any political dead-ender you are trying to talk me into the course of action that facilitates you acting as the gatekeeper and rainmaker for my prospects. I'm not talking about attacking Canterlot Castle, necessarily. The castle is just one strongpoint in this city."

Spitfire raised her hoof. She looked tired, but was still ready to compliment her admiral's argument. "We've got more armed pegasi than any other armed force in Canterlot, which means we can deploy fast and strike hard anywhere in the city. We've proven our striking power."

Twilight Velvet cut in. "Captain, I think you and the Admiral have been making a mistaken assumption, that the ponies of Canterlot will attribute the entire Musiician's Guild assault to the Wonderbolts alone. You can't rely on that assumption. First, ponies saw Wonderbolts, the Imperial Household Guard, and city guardsponies together. They even saw princess Celestia briefly. Second, most ponies have no idea of the battle lines you have already drawn in your head, between 'friendly' and 'enemy' factions. Third, primary accounts are swirling into rumor and speculation as news spreads across Canterlot, and indeed I myself must judge whether whether you and other ponies have told me is true." Velvet continued. "Convincing Canterlot and the castle of your power is going to require every ally you can get your hooves on, which, I think, is the point Councilor Prosser was making."

"I acknowledge all of that Lady Velvet. Wonderbolts are always just a wing of an operation." Spitfire said, but after a pause her tone was much more pointed. "Though, will I be working with that bright young IHG officer who joined the assault?"

"Just a wing? Don't belittle yourself and our 'Bolts, captain." Rain Gnash said.

"Your captain shows an admirable humility. She really is a credit to her city." Prosser said.

Gnash did not take the compliment kindly. "Listen here you little-"


Sharphoof Lightdowser stood up. "Please excuse me. Continue without me, as I stretch my legs but for a moment." He stepped back from the table and left the room. Nopony followed him.


The noise of the conversation, occasionally rising as the conspirators argued, faded as Lightdowser wandered into the further rooms of the Castle Magoria. His head hurt. It was too late into the night, and he had much drunk more alcohol than he had meant too. Tired, slightly hungry, and increasingly annoyed by the allies he had chosen, Lightdowser wondered if he could sneak nap on one of Flux's lounging couches. He couldn't imagine any productive discussion with Gnash or Velvet that night, when so many considerations had to wait for persuasion and alliance building around Canterlot. 

"Princess..." Lightdowser whispered to himself. He was on the other side of the keep from the meeting, in a dusty library. Furnature had been shoved into the various corners of the room, including some old chairs had been stacked by the south-facing window. Lit by the moonlight, Lightdowser worked to pull one of the chairs free, struggling and failing to get a grasp on it with telekinesis. "Oh bother." He swore silently, before giving up and sitting on the ground.
The hills and plains of the Canter, that gentle patchwork of fields, farms, and hedges, appeared as a blue quilt draped over the landscape far below. Lightdowser felt an instant yearning for that provincial landscape, for though it was far different than his Unicornian duchy of terrace farms and mountain castles, it struck him as a place of simplicity and honesty so unlike the city he now found himself confined in. "Princess Celestia, why did I come here? By my hubris I believe I can venerate you properly, princess. Am I clearsighted or weak to doubt myself now?" He burned inside at his suspicions of the dirty truths Velvet had been him teasing with. Lightdowser knew if he ever had to answer for cozying up to such cynical ponies he would kill himself from shame.  "Princess, if you saw my heart would you spare me praise, or mockery?"
If he waited a few minutes he could ask one of the alicorns in person, but the prospect of actually facing a princess had Lightdowser uncharacteristically afraid. As a duke he led his life knowing nopony could outright tell him no: They would accommodate him, throw every platitude and compliment at him, to stay in his good graces. The princesses COULD tell him know, and they had. Celestia had passed him over for Fancy Pants, sending young Sharphoof's rising star careening off course, and since then life had served a steady stream of petty humiliations. What if the princesses denied him again? Could he handle that? He had prayed every day for the last decade but it did nothing for his doubts. 



Against the backdrop of the distant meeting, and the slight rattling of the window by winds over the plateau, Lightdowser heard somepony's hooves on the stone floor.

"What a hell of a day, huh?" It was a mare's voice, familiar but not one Lightdowser instantly recognized. "Not that you did much. You're just along for the ride."

What? Lightdowser felt his neck tingle, but he interpreted it as impinged pride rather than danger. Had a drunk knight wandered from the meeting hall to bother him?  Lightdowser looked over his shoulder and source of the rude voice, but they were at the threshold, away from the moonlight and cloaked in deep shadow. "Our divine Sun lights our faces and weaves our fate. The challenges placed before us are intellectual, spiritual, or martial. I laud your worthy triumph over your martial challenges, but those challenges are not mine." He said.

The mare laughed. "Nice try but that's not what I mean. As funny as it is, imagine you with us charging into the Musician's Guild, I don't expect that out of a leader. But you're still a failure by your own metric; Being passive, getting led around, so failing your 'intellectual challenge'. Even a tourist has to get in the mix of things every once-in-a-while." She paused. "I saw you with the earth pony, the councilor. Didn't he explain everything to you? Keep being a bitch and Twilight Velvet literally eat you, because even though she wasn't at the battle she conquered her challenge."

Lightdowser was beginning to get the strange feeling this wasn't a drunk knight or Wonderbolt. A voice from void, making proclamations of doom... He would almost suspect it was an assassin, taunting him before she struck. "Those are the words of a pony who does not truly respect leadership."

"Yeah that's true. I'll get in gen-u-ine trouble for it one of these days." The mare said. She crept forward, until at the edge of the moonlight.  She let the moonbeams bask her face, just long enough for her to smile and wink, before she slipped back again. "We met in the temple. I was giving you a hard time then too."

Oh fuck. It was the black-furred earth pony, Illustrious Valor. "I heard you gave the Admiral a hard time as well.  A thug, she called you." Lightdowser fully turned to face her, jaw clenched, fearing the worst. "It nevertheless confused me when you entered the Guild Hall alongside the soldiers. And it certainly confused me when I witnessed you turned to red vapor by our hallowed Princess."

"That's me, ha ha. I deserved that smack being all insubordinate and ingracious." Iillor confirmed jovially. "I was royally pissed off, wasn't thinking, and got pissed off at the royal. Oops. I still can't feel my face."

More than fear, a deep unease settled over Lightdowser. "You are not a normal mare."

A moment's pause. "I'm just a girl looking for an interesting time, and while I'm not exactly normal, I guess, don't expect for me to flash it my power. I'm still as sore as hell and can barely tap my magic." Iillor shrugged. "I don't think you're a stallion impressed by show-offs, displays of brute strength, or magic shows anyway."

Some facts were starting to click into place for Lightdowser. The lurking supernatural mysteries, like the nature of Phyte's death cult and the reason for Princess Celestia's appearance over the guild, began to make slightly more sense.  The metaphors Lightdowser comforted himself with, that the pony contest for power was just a reflection of a spiritual and mystic battle where order battled chaos, appeared now to him as material! "By the gods, it was not us mortal lords alone that Twilight Velvet conjured up for her cause. You are a demon!" He took a breath to calm himself. He felt the cold hoof of death press against his back. "Did I displease her so quickly? You must be here to kill me, for she surely knows I would not be reconciled by intimidation."


Iillor giggled. "Nah nah, nothing like that, because Lady Velvet doesn't know I'm here. If she thinks I'm dead she can keep on thinking that. I still like the old gal, but my work for her is over. There's nothing satisfying about her striving anymore. She won."

"Lady Velvet... won?" Lightdowser repeated. "If you are betraying her cause, then tell me your meaning. Is she going to harm the pegasi and me?"

But the duke's sudden eagerness evoked a disappointed coo from Iillor. "Hey, don't get it twisted. I'm not betraying anypony, and I'm definitely not interested in sabotaging Lady Velvet or undoing my own damn work." She approached closer. To Lightdowser's relief she was still fully pony-like. "While I was convalescing in the wind and shadow of the Old Town, smarting from the princess's rebuke, I decided I needed a new mortal striver to shadow, so my mind turned to the noble duke who boldly proclaimed his ambition to the funerary assembly. You're a pony who's going to be fighting for their dream, struggling against a world that doesn't understand or sympathize with their ideals. Basically, I am offering to be your soldier, your catspaw, and your tutor." Her grin, wider, wider, ever wider, so transfixing. The mare, the beast...  She was mad, surely mad, and yet-  "I will hold no secrets before you, duke, which I have never promised to any other pony so far. I can be anything you wish."

How much did the mare know? Lightdowser figured that if Iillor had survived the princess's attack she had great mystical power, evidently able to conceal and to spy.  "You demon, whatever you are, are everything everything the dogmas of the princess warns against, for how your sweet promises of victory will seduce our souls to our destruction." Lightdowser gulped. The mare-shaped thing was not asking him to change though. She said, with convincing conviction, that his cause would become her cause. Was her contrition before Princess Celestia genuine? "What will you do if I refuse you?"

Iillor looked shocked by the question. "I've miscommunicated. This isn't exactly an offer, really, and I'm not asking permission. Never have, never will." She crept closer still, until her face was nearly pressed against his, not smiling any longer. "My god would say your clumsy fretful striving, the offal of mortal angst when confronted by gods' works. I say it's juuust delicious enough. You've dreamt too big, my lord, and have besmitten the nightmare. Can you really refuse? Can you?"








The meeting chamber of the Imperial Council was cold and dark, its lone window too small to let in significant light, and only one firefly lantern for the entire space.  The other councilors had taken their lanterns with them, and Seacrest Blackhorn was left alone in the only place they needed him, in the plush chair at the head of the table. It was cold, but Seacrest had ventured out and found coats and pillows in various offices around the castle. He supposed that he could have found another room to sleep in, but he couldn't be sure that somepony wouldn't want to use those other spaces and yell at him. The only place he was absolutely certain he was safe was in the council room, for when anypony else was supposed to be there he was supposed to be there too.

Engrossed in a book, Seacrest didn't notice that he had a visitor until the door latch began to rattle. Wasn't it late in the afternoon for an Imperial Council meeting? Captain Hauseway reliably ran the meetings until the early afternoon only, the routine buisness of administration mostly being left to the other councilors.  Hopefully there hadn't been an emergency that would bring all of them back for a midnight meeting.

When the door to the hall swung open, a stranger was on the other side. "You're not one of the councilors. I haven't seen you around the castle at all, actually." Seacrest said. "You look like the pink one."

"I keep out of the way. My name is Celestia. I too am an alicorn, like the 'pink one'." Celestia said. She had to duck her head to pass through the door into the council room. "Bear with my through my confusion, for I was looking for one of the councilors, but have found you instead... living here."

"Well, yes. I am the vizier after all." Seacrest chuckled. He dog-eared his book and set it aside. "Every morning, the councilors bring their buisness up to me, and with due elegance and grace, I sign off on it all. I get to approve all kinds of things important to the nation, and I'm well-advised by some of the smartest ponies in Equestria." He laughed again, more hollowly. "If you believe it, the mistress of the castle always sends her food back uneaten, so the wonderful butler lets me have some. It's a good life, nay, the best life. There's noplace I'd rather be than right here."

"I see." Celestia said.

Seacrest scrutinized the stranger looming in his doorway, fuzzy though her details were in the faintness of the lantern-light. "I'm a pretty important pony, I hear. THE most important, even. If you need something, I could help you." He flexed to make sure his coats were well secure, then circled around the table toward the alicorn, nudging the lantern along the table as he went. "I've gotten everything I wanted in life, to be here, to do what I do... A dream come true. But I had help to be where I am today. Do you have a dream, my lady? I could be the guiding hoof that helps you to where you need to be."


Celestia stared down her nose at the stallion claiming to be her vizier. He clearly had not slept in days, and if he had been eating her food there was every possibility he had been drugged or poisoned incidentally. It had happened before. "That's very kind, sir. All I need right now is an airship."

"Of course, of course." Seacrest sprinted back and grabbed his book, tearing out one of the pages. "I will write out an order for the skydock to prepare one for you!" He hummed to himself as he fetched an ink pot and quill, jotting out a nonsense series of lines across the page. "I'll even give you an escort of imperial knights. I'm sure Captain Hauseway will see you right in that regard." He hesitated before passing the page to Celestia. "Will you be returning? I am almost ashamed to confess I find you very beautiful, even in this pitiful light of mine. You compliment these surroundings almost too well, my lady."

"While I may return, I doubt you will still be here once I do." Celestia said.

Seacrest took the rejection in stride. "Ah, that's often the way of things. Nothing so wonderful as this is destined to last forever." He gave Celestia the page and bowed away. "Have a safe trip."

"Thank you, pony. Die well." Celestia bowed back, then departed the way she came.







The wind was picking up as Cadence and Octavia passed under the outer gate of Castle Magoria.
However, instead of a servant of Duke Flux waiting for them, it was a stallion, with a knight beside him. "Princess Cadenza, it is my deepest honor to finally meet you." The stallion bowed, snout nearly to the grass. "Please forgive this presumption. I am Sharphoof Lightdowser."

Octavia stepped between the alicorn and the stallion, a brick curled under her hoof as a makeshift weapon. "Princess, have you had enough of ponies like this?"

Lightdowser, clearly not expecting to be confronted like that, backed away, until his knight attendant rested a solidifying hoof on his shoulder.  Cadence did not like the way that knight, every feature concealed in armor except for grey eyes peering through her visor, reminded her of the Ulthar cat. After another few whispers, Duke Lightdowser stepped back to Octavia. "You presume to speak before her grace? Unless you think your princess has not had her lust for violence satiated, you will step aside."

Octavia, either because of her own doubts or Cadence's silence, stepped aside.

Lightdowser bowed again, and Cadence curtsied. She then took his hoof into her own. "Lord Duke, I remember you. I remember us chattering idly those years ago, when I was just a student and you were an aspirant to the viziership." She said. "We might have even locked eyes earlier today, in the aftermath of her highness Celestia's appearance in the Old Town."

"Shamefully, I did not see you, princess, but I dearly wish I had. There was so much to say, but I do not think any of that matters now." Lightdowser said.

Cadence had extended the necessary courtesies, but didn't really have an interest in engaging with the duke. "Unfortunately not." She shook her head. "I came to look for Lady Twilight Velvet. Is she here?"

That clearly irked Lightdowser. "Well yes, princess, among a few other ponies. We are assembling a coalition who wish to see Canterlot put right. In fact, we assembled here on the knowledge that you would be coming."


The whole world seemed so, so different than it had that morning, which itself was so different from the year before. Cadence hadn't had much time to reflect on what it all meant yet, bouncing from one crazy situation to another. She had been hoping, vainly, that the right pony would finally explain it all to her, tell her whether her life was really in danger, and from that knowledge Cadence would know how to behave or what to do. But so far the monastery, Celestia, the Ulthar cat, and Octavia had disappointed her. "You knew I would be coming?" Cadence asked, begging clarification.

"The Councilpony, Prosser, told us." Lightdowser nodded. The knight whispered something in Lightdowser's ear again, and he whispered something back. "Or rather, told me alone. Councilor Prosser's intentions seem honorable enough, but is suspicious by nature. Or so it seems to me. If it is otherwise, tell me so."

These damn ponies were so infuriatingly duplicitous! Cadence dearly wished Shining were with her. "While he has been kind to me, I'm sure you know that the councilor's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the court or princesses."

"Which is why we are all so eager to speak and submit ourselves to you, princess." Lightdowser said. "Princess, I know you-"

Cadence interrupted him. "My lord, you do not know." Again, while the duke shied away from his princess's rebuke, the knight attending him did not. "While I appreciate you greeting and welcoming me here, and I welcome your due submission,  I do not think it is proper to speak alone. I am not your muse, nor you mine, but rather I your princess, and you my subject. We each have our respective duties. You may believe you are fulfilling yours, but I fear you will impede mine should this continue. So please, lead me to your compatriots."

"Of course princess." The Duke sighed. With a nod, he and his knight led the way into the keep.







Spitfire was counting the seconds that Duke Lightdowser was missing, to amuse herself while the oh-so tiring debate around her carried on. She peripherally realized that she was missing good moments to chime in to support what the admiral was saying, but she also didn't care anymore. She was tired, almost too tired to sit up anymore, and as she slowly tuned out all other sounds the metronome of her own heartbeat throbbed louder and louder in her ears. Six-hundred- forty seconds... Six-hundred-fifty seconds...


"Then we're agreed on strategy. We can adjourn." Twilight Velvet's voice yanked Spitfire out of her stupor.

"I am satisfied with the compromises." Prosser said, his tone relaxed. "And about time. Any longer and I might begin to like you ponies." Gnash and Velvet laughed good-naturedly.

"W-Wait a sec." Spitfire sat up groggily. "Duke Lightdowser's been out of the room for about eleven-and-seven-eighths minutes."

Councilor Prosser reached across the table and patted her hoof. "Not to worry, our esteemed duke has been well represented." His face contorted as if he suddenly remembered something.  "Oh, there is one more thing. We should revisit the provision for clemency toward future-former officials."

Velvet seemed irritated. "I thought we agreed to but that point of discussion off."

"Who cares. Just stick 'em in prison or exile them." Rain Gnash said.

"As long as we agree to put Countess Plenty Song under the prison." Velvet said as if she was agreeing, but her words drew sharp looks from Gnash. "But as I said, discussion can be put off.

Prosser conceded to the irritation of his allies, putting up a hoof in pantomime surrender. "Well, it is just something to be thinking about, not to decide right now."

Rain Gnash looked like she was going to pursue the point, but preemptively interrupted herself as she stood up. "Indeed not." She murmured. "There's four ponies, from the direction of the stairs. At least one is armed."


Sharphoof Lightdowser led the unexpected procession, followed by one of his knights. "I am sorry to have kept you waiting." Lightdowser bowed. "Gentleponies, her ladyship the junior princess." Cadence entered.

"Princess! Finally, we-" Prosser exclaimed, jumping to his hooves. Then the next pony entered, a grey-coat earth pony mare with a treble clef mark, and he screamed. "AAAAAHH!" Using up all his breath in a flat second, Prosser fainted, bouncing off his chair on the way to the floor.

The clef-marked mare knelt by the collapsed stallion. "He's alright." She said, sighing in relief. She glanced over to Foaly Flux, inviting an order.

"Good heavens. Any of the couches in the next room will do." Flux circled around to the comatose councilor.  Aroused from their drunken/tired torpor, a couple of the IHG knights got up to help move Prosser.

Cadence watched silently as the team carrying him passed, then trotted over to his evacuated spot at the table. "Good evening gentleponies. I understand that I was expected." Duke Lightdowser retook his seat, while his knight hovered behind the alicorn.

Still a little shocked from the sudden turn of events, Rain Gnash pushed herself to her hooves, wobbling slightly, and bowed. "Princess, it's my eternal honor to see you again. I, your humble servant, am Rain Gnash, lady, lately of Cloudsdale, and Admiral in the empress's airfleet."

"I remember you when you were a imperial knight. Charmed, Lady Gnash." Cadence nodded.


Exhausted before, Spitfire was now wide-eyed, alert, and a bit panicked. Before her was the princess, yes, but she could also hear orphaned echoes in her head, some of the last words of that unfortunate stallion Shining Armor, "Cadence, princess, save me..." She mouthed along with the words. Damn. How had Shining concienced sacrificing himself when this what he had at home?

"Pardon?" Cadence was staring at Spitfire.

"I- It's an honor, princess." Spitfire sat up in her chair. "I'm the Captain of your grace's Wonderbolts, Spitfire."

Cadence appraised those Wonderbolts, varyingly conscious and at attention after the drinking. "It's been years since I've seen Cloudsdale's finest. At ease."  Was it Spitfire's imagination or was there a tinge of sarcasm in the princess's voice.


Unlike all the other ponies in the room, Twilight Velvet seemed strangely aloof, staring at Cadence like she was trying to hurt her with her mind. "Princess Cadence, thank you for being here with us. In chaotic times like these I know there's a lot of demands on your attention."

"Not as many as you might think, since my court was overthrown by Captain Hauseway and his pawn, Seacrest Blackhorn. You will be my means to get back at them." Cadence said. "You have my blessing to take control of Canterlot Castle. After you do, I will confirm you all in your desired positions in the Imperial Council. In return, you will reopen the Imperial Court. My only condition is that there will be no violence, and no retaliation."

It was almost everything the conspirators could have possibly asked for. An alicorn princess was legitimizing their power grab. But it wasn't THE princess.
"The empress could countermand you." Velvet gave voice to that worry. "If you speak up on our side, and then we fail or are ordered to stand down, your political cachet will be tarnished for decades." She leaned forward, a sneer of suspicion forming. "It would look like you made an ill-guided power grab at best, and at worst that you were attempting to usurp Celestia.  If you really wanted to reopen the Imperial Court, you could just publicly order Hauseway to do it. If he refuses, he looks like the traitor, not you. Your offer is ill-conceived."

"The princess is indeed generous to us." Duke Lightdowser said.

Rain Gnash gnashed at the back of her hoof, thinking. "Princess, will due respect, Lady Velvet's right. You've got no reason to stick your neck out so far for us. What'd we do to deserve this?"

Spitfire went further. "All we've done since coming to Canterlot is kill some of your subjects and burn down a building. We got the whole city, and even Princess Celestia, riled up.

"None of you should presume to know either Princess Celestia's disposition or what actions she might take." Cadence said, more firmly than before. "What is more, you presume to doubt my motivation and my own assessment of your success."


However the air of concern had spread to Lightdowser as well. "Princess, you spoke of duty, and I thought I understood. Now I see that I am ignorant. Please, princess, explain how this selfless act couches with the fulfillment of your duty."

"I will not." Cadence said with an air of finality. "Are you ponies to be my instruments, or not?" What a grave question, for every grandee knew that rejecting the alicorn would be tantamount to treason and heresy. It would illegal NOT to stick out their neck for the junior princess- and how could Cadenza be anything other than genuine, speaking so candidly in front of the assembled ponies?

The first to voice her concerns, Velvet was the first to come around. "Of course, princess. I was conceited to imagine there was any factor I could voice that you would not have already thought. Sir Hauseway misstepped gravely by adjourning your court and I wholeheartedly support its re-seating."

"I appreciate it, Lady Velvet." Cadence nodded. "Do any of you dissent?"

Still a little perplexed by the sudden turn of events nopony had anything to say, silently acquiescent. It was, after all, exactly what they wanted.

"Very good. You are all dismissed." Cadence stood up. "Lord Flux, see me out please."

Everypony rose from the table, silent and wide-eyed, trying to process things and decide how to feel. Foaly Flux dutifully skirted around the table and led Princess Cadenza and her clef-marked mare the way they came.


"What the buck?" Gnash muttered.

Spitfire's heart was still pounding. "So are we taking orders from the junior princess now or she going to be on the sidelines?"

Wordlessly, Twilight Velvet kicked her chair back against the table and chased after the princess.

Gnash hissed. "Don't just stand there! After her! Don't let Velvet talk to the princess alone."

Spitfire saw most of the Wonderbolts were slow on the uptake, dulled by inebriation- Except Fleetfoot. "Fleet, with me." Brooking no argument or opportunity for the admiral to countermand, Spitfire grabbed Fleetfoot and pulled her along after the unicorns and alicorn.


"Geez!" Fleetfoot wriggled out of Spitfire's grasp. "Uncalled for, Captain!"

"Yeah? Sober little suck-up. I told you to warn the Admiral and you still led her into the trap. Did you say I was crazy or did you just lie? Pshh." Spitfire sneered. Not waiting for an answer, she continued through the darkened rooms to the stairwell.

"Captain Spitfire I protest! I transmitted your concerns to the admiral and she forged on anyway!" Fleetfoot said, trailing. "The Admiral's judgement has proven to be better than yours since it wasn't a trap and we're still alive!"

"You don't get it. I wasn't worried about an ambush. I was saying, CLEARLY saying, that we're getting entangled in a bad situation, and once enmeshed beyond our ability to control we would be bled." Spitfire shouted over her shoulder.

Fleetfoot didn't like being yelled at one bit. "You shouldn't discipline me for mistakes I didn't make, and what's more, you sound like you're contradicting both the admiral and the princess. Please don't get yourself in trouble, captain."


Spitfire was furiously thinking up a reply and nearly bumped into the object of her pursuit: Twilight Velvet, Foaly Flux, Princess Cadenza, and the earth mare had stepped off the stairwell to confer by lantern-light. They all turned to the interloopers, unamused.
"Miss me already, Spitfire? Or are you just looking to get yourself in more trouble." Velvet teased through narrowed eyes and a scowl.

Fleetfoot squeaked in embarrassment.
Spitfire felt similarly, for before her were two terrors, their eyes upon her. The first, Velvet, represented a sinister power Spitfire's ever fiber was telling her to escape. The second, the austere Princess Cadenza, her royal highness who by right Spitfire's agency as a soldier and a pony was completely suborned to. To approach those mares without caution or respect was suicidal. But Spitfire had to. "My deepest apologies. The Admiral bade be ensure your safety. If we're unwelcome-"

Cadence raised a hoof to interrupt. "No, it's fine. In fact, please let both Admiral Gnash and Duke Lightdowser that I wish to see them again. Seems we adjourned prematurely." In a very pegasus-like manner, she motioned to Fleetfoot with her wing. "If you would."

"Y- Yes your grace!" Fleetfoot darted back up the stair without a moment's hesitation. What an admirable subordinate, for the admiral and for the princess, just not for her captain, thought Spitfire.



Before the tension could grow too great, Foaly Flux clucked his tongue and hummed.  "So, who's on first? Is it me?" He turned to the clef-marked mare. "Mis Octavia, I am very surprised to see you alive. Not as surprised as poor Councilor Prosser, but surprised enough." He tried to look cheerful but could not. "Unfortunately I don't think I can hire you back to my chamber orchestra. It'd be, you know, a bad look."

"Hang on a sec..." Spitfire was once again keenly aware of her lack of weapon. "She's a mare of the musician's guild isn't she!"

"Yup." Velvet confirmed. "Dame Spitfire, you're owed fair warning that you've again stumbled into a deep mess that will proturb and upset you greatly. If you couldn't handle what you thought you saw at the Musician's Guild, I recommend that you follow your Wonderbolt back up and wait with the others."

What?! What was that supposed to mean?! Sptifire's temper flared. "And let you go behind your ally's back? If you're in league with this mare, a guild mare who you just an hour ago said was a death cult, then how am I supposed to trust-"

"Quiet!" Cadence transfixed Spitfire with a glare, her massive wings spreading to either side. "Your commentary it noted but I do not allow you to be disruptive. Understood?"

The junior princess had, in the popular imagination, a naïve and demurring nature. This alicorn was not matching that. "I-" Spitfire gulped. She decided not to say anything and merely nodded. By the gods, she was so confused and wanted to know what was going on so badly! Hopefully the conspiracy under the conspiracy she was being allowed to witness would answer something, anything.


Candence settled her wings back against her body. "The dead mare may proceed."

Octavia obliged. "Lord Duke, I am guilt not only of duplicity against you and many other ponies who thought me a humble musician, but of the sin of murder, direct and indirect, as agent of and party to the deeds of the Star and the Musician's Guild. In the proceedings of justice I was summarily sentenced to death by Lady Velvet, to reside under her control until such a time that sentence was carried out or I was acquitted." Octavia paused for a moment, eyes closed, as the ponies surrounding her awaited her next words. "My accomplices, to the murder of a city watchpony and many other criminal acts, were Lyra Heartstrings, vizierial agent, and a certain Vinyl, more popularly known as the Red-Eyed Killer. Vinyl was caught and imprisoned alongside me but escaped to Lyra."

"Is all that the truth?" Cadence asked.

"I swear before the alicorns and all the stars and gods, I have told the truth." Octavia affirmed.

Twilight Velvet produced a crinkled envelope. "You can guess what tonight brings, don't you." She asked Octavia.

Octavia eyed the letter wearily. "No less than nights like these has brought so many other ponies, innocent or guilty."

"The same; Inevitably, silently or loudly, mourned surely, with either tears for the tragedy or solemn commiseration of years gone." Velvet passed the envelope to Cadence.

Accepting the envelope, Cadence carefully extracted the letter and began to read. Waiting in silence, but for that constant plateaular wind rattling the windows, the mortals watched Cadence's expression grow more pained, more anguished, as tears welled in her eyes.
Folding the letter back, Cadence cleared her throat a few times before she spoke. "I'm so sorry." She said, voice trembling. "Today has been just awful, hasn't it. So much avoidable death." She gave the letter to Flux, who jammed it into a breast pocket.  Cadence took the time to fully recompose herself. "This is why the court MUST reopen."


"Because mortals are killing each other? We were dying before there were alicorns on our planet, during every alicorn reign, and we will be killing and dying for a million years after your species leaves to find other races to subjugate." Octavia said, her lip quivering in a barely contained sneer. "You ponies should think long and hard before you actually hoof power over to this wimp. Are you actually interested in a kingdom of mercy, benevolence, and understanding? Truly, in your hearts, do you long for peace? Then reject Cadenza." Face to face the princess, she pointed an accusing hoof. "She didn't have the bare shred of bravery to kill me herself like she should have. Passing me to Velvet wasn't some gesture of mercy, but a slight against all my victims, and my future victims. There will be no peace while ponies like me are allowed to flourish. You really do live up to Princess Celestia that way."
Octavia then turned to Velvet. "Why tease the princess like this? You know she can't protect you. If you give Cadenza power, she'll let in the next ambitious lord, who is just a little more clever, quick, or vicious than you. She will cast you to the dogs from indecisive mercy, and the cycle will repeat, until the peace you thought you were sustaining will be just another dead letter among an empire of dead letters, fostered by the apathy of its guardians. This is what happens when you prop up weak rulers just because you think they're more 'legitimate'. I hope the revolutionary mobs devour you curs alive." She snorted contemptuously. "Send me to hell already so I may prepare it for you highborn souls."


Cadence bore an expression Spitfire unfortunately recognized, like a little filly seeing and trying to understand a life-defining trauma. The alicorn did not move or even seem to breath, but stared with muted shock at Octavia. Octavia didn't bother to meet the princess's eye again.

"As final words go, there have been worse." Foaly Flux sighed. "Does the princess wishes to extend clemency, or pass the sentence herself? Hmm?" He asked, but despite a few more hums and a slight prod, Cadence remained stone still, statuesque, and even the shimmer of her mane and aureole seemed diminished. "No? Very well. I defer to you, Velvet."

"Get on with it." Octavia growled.

Velvet shrugged. "Okey dokey." Her horn flared with bright white-greenish magic.
Spitfire, as shocked and stupefied as Cadence, was hit with the sudden brightness and yelped, throwing up her hoof and wing to shield her eyes. The sensory assault was redoubled with a loud woosh of magical fire and the radiant heat basking her, that all at once Spitfire saw before her the poor struggling shape of Shining Armor, the rising flame blocking their way to each other, until everything in her vision was consumed. Spitfire screamed.







Unlike Rain Gnash, who was very actively engaged with her Wonderbolts in the next parlor room over, Sharphoof Lightdowser was sitting alone on the floor, Iillor standing behind him as self-appointed bodyguard. The IHG knights had lost their interest and energy in the night's proceedings after Prosser's collapse, so were taking advantage of Foaly Flux's liberality by either napping on the furniture or sinking even deeper with the leftover gin and wine.

Counting the minutes pass until they could go see the junior princess again, Lightdowser contemplated things. "Am I truly the only object of your interest, or am I the vector to get at Cadenza? I will not be an accomplice to such things, Valor."

"Celestia told me to leave Cadence alone and I will. Besides alicorns don't dream, so not that interesting to a girl like me." Iillor said.

"Thus me any my issues serve to amuse you." Lightdowser lamented. "And what issues they are...  I hope my retainer knights are not waiting for me in the Old Town. If they have sense, they took Rusty back to the airship, and learned from the pegasi at the skydock that I was here. If they drag Rusty around and keep him awake too long I will be furious."

"How old is your son?" Iillor asked.

"Nine years of age. It is difficult work, caring for a duchy of many thousands of souls and a child at the same time. As a lord I have much that I must delegate." Lightdowser said. He seemed like he wanted to say more about it, but seemingly reconsidered. "For now the nation must come first. The princess comes first."

Iillor yawned and lay on her back, making the armor she wore clank disruptively. "Yeah? I saw you talking with that twerp Sel Sabonord. Did he tell you about his politics?"

Lightdowser graciously accepted the change in topic. "That is not very kind. Sir Sel seems sharp and vigorous, though yes his politics are troubling. He seems to have interpreted something Twilight Velvet had been espousing at some point, and decided that the era of alicorn tutilage should end."

"Oh no, that's not Lady Velvet's position. She thinks the alicorn guardianship is already defunct, or wasn't legitimate in the first place. Velvet has absolutely no desire for anypony to tell her what to do or to think that they control her life, least of all an alicorn. She's got an astonishing ego for a mortal, huh?"

"I don't fully believe you. That claim does not line up with my interaction with Lady Velvet." Lightdowser said.

Iillor sighed. "Okay, I didn't intend to pivot to talking about Velvet. I wanted to know what you thought. I want to know what you think of that ideology, and about alicorn rule in general."

That impertinent line of questioning did not outwardly bother the duke as much as she expected. "Everything under the sun is moved by her provenance, her providence. Even ponies who think they're rebelling they are only doing what they're told."

"Then why would you have any right to be angry at somepony if they sin or do something you don't like? Or is that anger pretend too?" Iillor frowned. What a completely unsatisfying worldview, like would only ever be shared as a joke. And indeed the duke was probably trying to throw her off, but whether or not the duke was a dogmatic believer at heart was not interesting to Iillor. If he needed imagined approval of higher powers as satisfy is internal doubts that was fine: The Nightmare Pretender and Dark Lady were alicorns too.


One of the Wonderbolts peeked into the room. "What was that sound? Did it come form in here?"

Iillor hopped to her hooves and pulled Lightdowser up along with her. "No, a lower floor. Come on, lord Duke. I think we've given Cadence and the Brights enough time."







Magical or not, the violent dragonfire Velvet had cast had scorched the floor and caught the tassels of a nearby carpet aflame.
"Whew." Velvet was tired after the spell, but had the presence to run over and stop out the fire. "I forgot how much energy that took. One less guild mare to deal with."
Octavia was gone.

Nopony else seemed to be happy in the least. Cadence was still frozen, staring into the smoking space Octavia had been a minute prior. Foaly Flux had turned away, her face under a hoof as he cried silently for a pony he'd known and still cared about. Spitfire was... wait, where was Spitfire?

"Oh hell, she fell down the stairs!" Velvet groaned. She leaned over the spiral stair, and saw Spitfire laying on her face halfway down to the next floor. "Captain Spitfire, are you alright?!" Spitfire was still breathing, at least. "Captain, should I get-" A shiver ran through the pegasus, and she lifted her head. "Oh, nevermind. You seem fine."

"I'm really, really not fine. What the buck is wrong with you." Spitfire hissed through clenched teeth. She slid into a sitting position on the stair and rested in a hunch, trying to control her shivers. "You're literally no better than that monstrous Star. She burned your son to death. Not a speck left of him. Don't you have a shred of a conscience in your heart, to not even hesitate to do something like that to another living creature?"

Velvet sighed. "Listen my dear, you can't say I didn't warn you. I personally don't know why you would get a hang-up over Shining Armor, since you shed the blood of dozens of ponies this very day.  Your trauma is not remotely useful to me, so its not my problem. So, either be a big girl and get back to your duty of standing impotently at my side, or leave. You have wings, so start flying and you can be half-way to Cloudsdale by dawn. The showdown over Canterlot is only ending one way, and if the time comes and you bitch and moan again I'll just repeat it: 'I warned you'."

Spitfire remained hunched over, thinking. Then, smoothing her mane back, she leapt up, maneuvering masterfully in the cramped stairwell and landing behind Velvet, grabbing her by the neck. "You let your son die, you witch! There's nothing good left in you anymore. If I'm gunna leave this damn city, I'll leave knowing I finished the job, because the Musician's Guild weren't the only death cult that needs to be quashed!"



"Shinning Armor is alive." Cadence said.

Spitfire's eyes flew open, and she was startled long enough for Velvet to pull herself free. "P-Princess?" But Cadence brushed past her, trotting down the stairs and out of the keep.

Velvet sputtered and rubbed her throat, dragging herself away from the Wonderbolt. "That hurt!" She tried to sooth herself with a bottle Flux passed to her. "Ech! That doesn't make it any better, Foaly, you degenerate alcoholic."

"Ladies, please, this is just a misunderstanding, probably. We are all friends here." Flux said. "The princess told us to uphold her earnest hope for peace. What do we stand for if we kill each other tonight?"

Spitfire rubbed her eyes, getting the last aftervisions of fire and murder out of her head. Had she heard Cadenza correctly? No, no, she had seen it, seen Shining's death with her own eyes. That counted for more than a muddled word from the junior princess. No, NO! "This is some bullshit." She limped down the stairs after the princess.


"No need to chase after them." Velvet said. The day had been going so perfectly, though it was far from ruined. She wasn't going to let a grouchy pegasus pull her down.

Flux sat beside her. "This is the world you've made for yourself. Is it really better than what we had?" He sighed, his eyes returning to the scortchmark on his floor.

"To use a tortured analogy, if you're staring at a castle gate, you won't know if there's barbarians on the other side until they burst through, but if you open it and charge out yourself you at least stand a chance of catching them off guard. Trouble would have found me, this dynasty, and this nation eventually." Velvet promised.

"I'd have agreed when I was younger. I'd've welcomed the adventure! I think I'd be a bard, and sing heroic songs and woo the desperate wenches. Now I'm old and decrepit, and I'm not even that old. Buck me, what a wasted life." Flux sighed. "What a waste of life! Why couldn't we be in a golden age, so we could live joyfully with family and friends, rather than at the tail-end of a dying regime? Velvet, I'm both blessed and cursed to have you as my kin...  You, Nighty, and your kids are about the only family I have left now." He closed his eyes and tried to breath through tears.

"There there." Velvet lay her head on his shoulder.

Flux sniffled. "How unbecoming of a duke. I don't even have a courtesan to cry on, just my sorceress in-law." He tried clearing his throat but it didn't make it any better. "You'd think I was the one who just got choked."

"Let's forget about the courtesans." Velvet ribbed. "Like you said, we have the princess's peace, and all the ponies of the future to stand up for. Are we up to the fight for the future of ponykind?"

Flux did not hesitate. "We are."


The mutual reminiscences  ended just in time, as Duke Lightdowser and his knight were coming down the stairwell.
Lightdowser took in the scene, the two unicorns sitting against a wall drinking, a big burn on the landing, and the princess nowhere in sight. "Is overly-curious to wonder what's transpired here?" Lightdowser tapped his hoof.

Velvet stood up. "Apologies, lord duke. This is the result of some house Bright dynastic issues. It's not my right to share."

Oh? Having just overheard the tail of the conversation with something about courtesans, and Foaly Flux's reputation as a goofball bachelor, Lightdowser could only assume there was some drama about a bastard child, blackmail, or ducal pretender. "I see. Lord Flux, though the ancient thrones of Unicornia and Foal have been foes as often as they have been friends, be at ease that I will proffer my aide to any thing, at any time. Foal Mountain is one of the most prestigious fiefs of the empire and its stability it Equestria's stability. I'm sure Princess Cadenza said the same." He arched a brow. "That is what you discussed, yes?"

"In part." Velvet said.

Flux got up and approached Lightdowser. "I may have to cash in that offer sooner than you expected."

"Please do! I am at your service." Lightdowser nodded. Hearing Rain Gnash and the Wonderbolts coming down the stairs aggravated him. Were the pegasi going to get in the way and ruin the moment?

However Floaly Flux was not put off. "Oh, good, you're here too, Admiral? Gather round."

"Uh, where's the princess? Where's Captain Spitfire." Gnash scraped a bit of ash along the floor. "Was that Spitfire or that earth pony the princess had with her?" She stared at Velvet, lodging a silent accusation.

"Lord Flux is about to explain." Lightdowser nudged the portly pegasus into silence. "Foaly, please, continue."


Flux, through oppressed by his misery, loved to perform. He bowed for the assembled ponies crowded awkwardly on the stairwell landing. "Gentleponies, House Bright is no stranger to tragedy. You will all have heard how, twenty-odd years ago, by brothers, sisters, uncles, and at last my parents succumbed to disease and accidents, once after another. A terrible curse befell my family, threatening to exterminate a lineage, and every day my remaining brother and I dreaded and yearned for death in equal measure. My brother Rosen abandoned me too, and as terror pressed in closer and closer I was absolutely certain I would perish, leaving the duchy to my late brother's twin infant sons, Glitterhoof and Glorymane, who were sure to follow me. Foal Mountain would pass to a distant cousin, and perhaps they would die to the curse too.
"But the deaths stopped. A year passed, then two years, before I began to trust that the curse had extinguished itself and House Bright would be allowed to survive. In that time of terrible solitude, with two infants to care for, I had my dear cousin (howevermuch removed) and his fiancee, Night Light and Twilight Velvet. I do not exaggerate when I say I would not have survived without them. I got stronger, and got other help with the twins, so Nighty and Velvet could return to Canterlot and start their own family. Thus my life, and my dynasty, was left hanging by a thread, with two rambunctious colts growing stronger every day to make that thread sturdy once again."

Night Light produced the envelope with that creased and crumpled letter peaking out, and gave it to Lightdowser.

"You can read it if you want." Foaly sighed. "It's long, and full of condolences. Glitterhoof and Glorymane are dead. By the princess's leave, and with all of you as guarantors, I declare that Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor are to be my heirs."