//------------------------------// // Ten // Story: The War for the Sun & Moon // by Maxes Altho //------------------------------// The room is silent, except for the creaking of a chair and the breathing of the single pony on the chair. Eventually, the scraping of the door is heard. “Shining? Are you okay?” Oh, hey C. I’m just… trying to figure out what to say. The door closes and Chryssid pulls up another chair. “You are trying to find the correct words to describe your time in Canterlot Fortress, correct?” Hmm. “If you wish, you could just skip that period of time.” That’s the point, C. I can’t. You know I still have night terrors. It’s something I don’t want to relive, but I need to to show the true depravity of the Empress. “However, if it will revert your progress with the psychologist…” C, this is something I need to do, so butt out, you fucking bug! “…” I’m… I’m sorry, C. But if you went through what I fucking went through… “You need to confide in your allies, Shining Star. We trusted you to do the right thing. Do the right thing now; put the microphone down and come back later. I can take over until you are ready.” C, no. This… I have to do this, no matter how much it hurts me. Just do me a favor, alright? Make sure none of this ends up in the official transcript. Very few ponies deserve to know exactly what happened. Who knows? Maybe this’ll eventually get chalked up as one of the greatest triumphs of medical history: Shining Star, survivor of the Empress’s torture, makes a full recovery from the lingering effects of the torture. “Fair enough. I will remain here though. You need the support of someling.” Wouldn’t have it any other way, man. ---------- “Why would I ever wish to destroy my only son?” “Wh-what?” I’m panicking. This has to be a ruse, something to get me to lower my guard, then kill me fast. I focus, and teleport away, landing in the middle of the room. I grunt in pain and fall back to my knees; that fall from the tapestry banged me up worse than I thought. I hear soft hooffalls as the Empress approaches. “Come now, a mother always knows her children. Granted, you are… different from my Shiny all those years ago, but your magic signature doesn’t lie.” “I… am not… your son. My name… is Shining Star… I can’t be your son.” She looks perplexed. “Shining Star? That is not the name I gave you when I gave birth to you. Your name is Shining Resolve, Crown Prince of the Empire.” “What?” No, that’s not possible. She’s right! It’s not possible, we were left at an orphanage. We were born to rule the Empire! We were trained to destroy the Empire! “Goddesses! What’s happening?” I clutch my head. I can hear two voices, the same two voices when I fought C that one time. The difference this time is they are fighting each other, and it’s tearing my head apart. I hear screaming as they fight; it takes a minute to realize it’s me. I’m screaming. We belong with the Warriors! We belong with our mother! She is not our mother! Death to the Warriors! The Empress must die! Death to the Warriors! The Empress must die! Death to the— Suddenly, both voices are silenced. I slowly lower my hooves and look up. The Empress is standing over me, horn ablaze. “What… what did you do to me? What happened?” “It seems there is more to you than meets the eye, my young colt. This explains so much…” she looks away. “Guards! Take the Prince to the Lunar Spire, and call the doctor to take a look at him. He is not to be harmed in any fashion.” She looks back at me, and smiles. “I must do some research, but I will come to you when I have answers.” She trots off, Queen Pinkie in tow, as a few guards surround me, some using magic to levitate me onto the back of a large Earth pony. They start moving through the castle. Of course, even though I swear one of my ribs is poking a lung, I can’t help but mouth off to my captors. “So, you guys are the Empress’s Royal Guards, huh? You know, the Warriors have this threat chart hanging in the main rec room, lets us see what is more dangerous. We rank you guys above smelling a really bad fart, but just below getting a splinter.” No reaction. “I think it’s because nopony’s ever seen you guys do anything but stand around, being the Empress’s side bitches. You know, since the Queens are obviously her main bitches.” No response. Tough crowd. “How many of you does it take to satisfy her? I want to say she ignores about half of you ‘cause your packages don’t meet the size requirements… actually, make that all of you, especially you, big boy.” I pat the shoulder of the one who’s carrying me. “I wanna say you’re majorly compensating for something here, what with the big armor, big muscles, big head, all to cover up the fact you have a really tiny—Ow!” he jostles me, just enough to dig into my ribs. It shuts me up for the rest of the trip. Heal up first, then escape while making snide remarks at the guards. We make our way up a tall tower, and the guards deposit me inside a large bedroom, like large enough to encompass all of the Warrior’s main command rooms and still have enough room for a part of the residential section. The dominant theme is blue and dark purple, with the ceiling covered in mosaics of the constellations. They drop me onto a bed large enough for at least five ponies to sleep comfortably without touching any of the others, and back out. I would get up and make my escape, but my ribs and legs don’t want to move, and I know at least four guards are outside the door, waiting for me to try something like that. I busy myself for about five minutes with light tricks, forming spheres of light into ever-increasing complex shapes, when a middle-aged unicorn with glasses and a doctor’s coat enters the room. He stops when he sees me, adjusting his glasses. “By the marks of the Six, it is! When they told me the Crown Prince had been returned, I almost didn’t believe them, but here you are! Now,” he bustles over to the bed, “what seems to be the trouble?” “I think I cracked a rib and sprained a couple knee joints when I fell from a tapestry trying to get away from the Empress. Wait, how do you know who I am? I don’t even know who I am!” “Boy, I’ve delivered many foals, both before and after the Empress took me in. I remember every one of them clear as day. You were a special one. I mean, who else can say they helped the Empress give birth to her only foal? Not that she hasn’t tried since, but every time, failure.” He lights his horn and begins going over my body with it. “Yes, your predictions seem accurate. Some light bone bruising, rib definitely cracked, one knee sprain and one dislocated joint. You say you don’t know who you are? What do you know?” As he begins healing the lesser wounds, I tell him exactly what I know. “My name is Shining Star. For the last fifteen years, ever since I got my mark, I have been training to join the ranks of the Warriors to take down the Empress and restore the Princesses to their rightful place. I was born… I was… born… as…” the memories refuse to surface. I can get hints of them, but it is like they are locked behind a wall. “I was left… as an orphan… but also born a few months later… how is that possible?” Just saying that increases the pressure on this wall, like the two voices want to come out. “Bite this,” he hoofs me a pillow. I comply, and he pops my leg back into place, earning a muffled groan from me. “I do not know. I am a master of the healing arts, not of the spiritual or mental, but I have heard of some dark rituals. Rituals for transmogrification, immoral alchemic practices, and even theories for combining living beings into one.” I jerk my head up at the last one. “Just theories, mind you. Star Swirl the Bearded surmised that two beings who shared similar souls could, in theory, come to inhabit the same body. Sort of like two conductors of a train that instinctively know what the other was going to do, before the other even knew it himself. Every time he tried, however, he was forced to split each soul in half, and ended up destroying both in the process. He deemed it a failure.” “What, you think somepony got his experiment to work?” At that moment, Empress Twilight bursts into the room, trailing a long scroll. “Somepony got Star Swirl’s experiment to work!” She’s bouncing like a school-age filly, until she remembers who she’s dealing with, and her mood sours. She shoves the scroll into my face. “Do you recognize any of this ritual?” I take it in my magic and scan through it. “I don’t even know what half of these words are, and I’ve never heard of this ritual before. The closest we have to a mind specialist is the group’s psychologist. I would say any of the ponies who do know are probably dead by your hooves.” “That is… disappointing, but this is the only explanation. Somepony, somehow, fused two souls together, one of which was my little Shining Resolve. The result was you.” “That still doesn’t make any sense!” I’m scanning the room for anything I could use to distract her, the doctor, and the guards, and get out of this loony bin. It’s just not possible that I could be the Crown Prince. “Then why, when I used my magic to scan your mind, did I find two distinct forces within?” “I don’t know. You do know about the whole id and ego thing, right?” “Yes, but both of these forces have their own id, ego, and superego. They also have their own likes, dislikes, and thought patterns. Either you look almost exactly like my Shining Resolve and are, or you have the worst case of a split-personality disorder ever recorded. In fact, the latter can be thrown out completely because those pony’s brains switch back and forth; they don’t have more than one set of thoughts at a time.” “So what did you do to my head? Can you control me now?” “I would never do any such thing! What I did was create a blockage of sorts between the two souls. They were conflicted, unable to work together as they usually would, and were tearing your mind apart in their battle. This blockage should keep them from fighting, and keep your mind intact.” “So, can you make me do the can-can now? Ooh, what about the Macarena?” The Empress becomes flustered. “What is it with young ponies and their ignorance? Alright, let us examine your magic then. Am I right in surmising you have propensity for light-bringing spells?” Where is she going with this? “Yeah, what of it?” “Most ponies who gain that knowledge are usually limited to creating the simple ball.” She does so, floating it above her hoof. “Yet, in fighting me, you displayed far more alternatives to the spell than any pony I know, other than myself. Shields of light to deflect magic-based attacks. Solid spears of light that can actually cut. No pony would ever think of using light that way. While I do not understand your use of just light, the experimentation you showed matches the same level of experimentation I exhibited while learning magic.” “So we had the same study habits. That still proves nothing.” I want to believe it, but something in the back of my brain is calling my continuing arguments complete BS. “I use light spells because that’s all I can do. If you want even more experimentation, there’s one unicorn I know that can…” crap. What is this mare doing to me? I shouldn’t be just spilling Warrior secrets to her! “We shall come back to your magic proficiency later then. For now, let us return to the two soul’s concept. These two forces, did they ‘speak’ anything to you?” “Yeah. One was saying I belong with the Warriors and was left at an orphanage at a very young age, and the other was the opposite of what I believe: that you are my mother, and I was born to rule the Empire.” “I think I know of a way to prove once and for all you are harboring two souls. What else can you do with your light?” “Pretty much anything.” “Can you use it to project an image? Like, if a pony were to describe something to you, you could magically recreate it?” “I-I guess so.” I have a sneaking suspicion what she’s asking. “Then I shall lower the blockade I placed in your mind around one of the forces. I want you to project that force through your light spell.” She approaches, horn alit. “I guess I have no choice in the matter.” “Not really.” Then, I hear one of the voices return. The Empress must di—wait, what happened to the other? Before it gets any ideas, I focus on what the force thinks it is, and cast several light balls. They coalesce into a pony-like shape, slightly taller than me, muscular, a unicorn. Then the Empress casts some kind of spell, and addresses the apparition directly. “Who are you?” [i]My name is Bright Star, orphan by your doing. “What do you mean by that?” My mother and father left me at an orphanage as a newly-born foal because they were on the run from you and your forces. “What happened to you, child? In the orphanage?” I was bullied growing up, because I could not make friends. They made fun of me because I made a friend in a small half-changeling pony who called himself Shining. We helped each other through the years up until the day we got our cutie marks. On that day—the apparition fizzles, then returns to normal. It shrinks a little, then speaks with my voice. – And from that day forth I was known as Shining Star. “What happened?! What happened when you got your cutie mark?” The apparition concentrates, then suddenly starts screaming in agony, causing me to scream as well as it literally tears itself apart. I cut off the spell, and the screaming stops, replaced by a quiet voice in my head. Please don’t make me go back out there. I’m panting; the Empress is looking at me sternly. “What did you do?” “Nothing! It just started going insane and tearing itself up!” “Are you ready to try again?” “The fuck do you mean? I’m not doing that again!” “Do not worry; I only wish to speak with the other half. I will be less… forceful with my questions.” With a wave of her horn, the voice stops, replaced by the other. I perform the same spell again, and this time the light forms into a smaller stallion, also a unicorn, but with holes in the hooves and much darker, as if my light spell inverted into a dark spell. My name is Shining Resolve, Crown Prince of the Empire. I was taken as a newborn by very bad ponies. “Sh-Shiny?” Through the strain of casting the same intense spell twice, I see the Empress, tears glistening in her eyes. “What did they do to you?” They took me to an orphanage and raised me as a homeless brat. I was picked on because I was part changeling. Then, I found one colt who didn’t make fun. He became my… friend… and we learned to support each other. Then, the day finally came we found what we were meant to do in life. We earned our cutie marks—the same fizzle, and the ghost grows, and again speaks in my voice. – And from that day on we were known as Shining Star. In my shock, I drop the spell, and it vanishes, replaced by the voice in my head. The voice starts pounding, wanting to get out, forcing me out of the way to freedom. Through the sound of rushing water in my ears, I hear the doctor pleading with the Empress. “Please, you must put the spell back! I don’t claim to know as much as you, but having a partial soul take over will destroy him!” The pain stops. I feel the bed creak as the Empress climbs into it and puts her hooves around me. “Oh Shining, my Shining, what did they do to you?” ---------- I’m in a field, surrounded by tall grass. A veritable mansion stands a ways off; the orphanage I grew up in. What am I doing here? Two foals run by me; one tall, for a colt, light coated, and the other smaller, a deep purple coat and a crooked horn. I give chase; I don’t think they can see me, but I need to know what happens. They run through the grass at speeds only a determined colt could attain, and eventually happen upon a cave right outside a forest. Don’t go in. Don’t go in, it’s too dangerous. For the love of Celestia, stay away! I want so badly to scream at them to run away, but my lips are sealed. They dash inside. A few minutes later the ground shakes and screams emanate from the cave. A blinding white light shoots out of the hole, right through me. ---------- I bolt awake, trying to rub the light out of my eyes. I’ve made some pretty damn bright lights before, but that was like staring straight at the sun. It takes me a moment to realize I’m not in my bunk in my small room in the Warrior’s base, a changeling sleeping in the bunk above. I’m in a massive bed in an even more massive room in a spire of the Canterlot Fortress. Another few moments, and I remember the events of last night. Shining Star is a lie. Two foals; something happened to two foals, and they became me. Shining Resolve; Bright Star. I am both, yet I’m neither. And now the pulsing headache is back. I think the pulses are from the two souls trying to break out of the walls the Empress erected in my mind. Slowly, I realize somepony is knocking on my door. “Allo? Monsieur Prince? Are you awake?” With a click, I unlock the door with my magic, and two Earth pony mares walk in. One is blue with a pink mane, the other is pink with a blue mane, both with boxes on their backs. “Allo. I am Aloe, and zis is Lotus Blossom. We have been sent by Her Majesty ze Empress to prepare you for today’s events, non?” “What events?” “Why, ze celebration of ze Crown Prince’s return, of course!” she hops her box onto the bedside table as Lotus Blossom ushers me out of bed and towards a vanity mirror and stool. One grooming later, my mane and tail are brushed out, my coat is polished, and my hooves are perfect. The girls kept up a constant stream of babble in some foreign language, with Aloe acting as the translator whenever Lotus asked a question. “So, are you guys Prench?” “Oui. My sister and I are Prench by birth. However, I was ze only one to learn ze Equish.” She unleashes a stream of Prench at Lotus, who bustles over to the box on the side table (the other box had all the grooming supplies). “We both love our native tongue, but I enjoy ze language of your people. It is a language of peace, and warriors.” With that, she presses a small piece of paper into my hoof with eyes that say ‘not here’. I give a small nod, then transform my hoof into a changeling hoof and slip the paper into a hole, transforming it back to my hoof afterwards. I make sure to keep the hole present, but closed at both ends; I don’t need paper poisoning my blood. A few moments later, Lotus returns with a snazzy looking suit. As they help me into it, I’m surprised at just how well it fits, and how comfortable it is. Almost white, but a very faint yellow too, to complement my muted purple coat. A high collar to accentuate my neck and facial features, topped off with a small over the shoulder cape of a deep red. “Wow. How did somepony manage to make this?” “Ze Empress called upon her best seamstress for a rush order. She is always happy to do work for ze Empress.” “But how did she get it to fit so well?” If I could take this with me when I escape, I could sell it and get enough bits to keep me sated for a long time. “It turns out you are nearly identical in build to your uncle Shining Armor, albeit a little bit thinner.” Okay, the one souring note appears. When Twilight went after the Crystal Empire, they tried to fight, but like all the rest, were quickly defeated. She allowed her sister-in-law, Cadance, the only alicorn left, to remain the ruler of the Crystal City. However, she banished her brother and forbade Cadance from ever marrying again; a major blow to the alicorn of love. Last I heard, Shining Armor is out in the Badlands, trying to scrounge together a force to retake his wife’s city. With a pop, the Empress materializes into the center of the room. She is looking even more stunning than usual, drop-dead gorgeous. “Is he ready? Good. Aloe, Lotus, your services are no longer needed. You are dismissed.” With a pair of bows, they leave the room. With another pop, she teleports the two of us to another part of the castle. I stumble a bit; teleporting oneself is fine, but teleporting another pony causes disorientation in the other. “Now that you have had a night to mull it over, do you believe now you are my son?” “I think I’m half your son. Something happened about fifteen years ago, and two foals became me. I-I think they got hurt, and in order to save both, whoever completed that ritual was forced to sacrifice half of both.” “You remembered something.” “Not really. I had this dream, I saw two colts, they must’ve been Shining Resolve and Bright Star. They wandered into a cave, everything started shaking, I heard screaming. Then I woke up. I’m sorry you don’t have closure for your son.” “It is alright, Shining Star. With you, I at least have some of him back. Now, to business. We are about to reveal your righteous return to the Empire. When I introduce you, you are to step out onto the balcony and wave. You are to do nothing to attract the attention of your ‘friends’, the Warriors. Any ideas of doing so, and I may just forget you are my son. There will be no place on this planet you can hide. Understand?” I gulp. “Loud and clear.” By now, C and the others must have gotten back to the Warriors and told them of my capture. Imagine their surprise when they see me on the television, alive and well! Of course, they could call it all a ruse, which it sorta is, since I’m not truly the Prince, but whatever. As long as they know I’m alive, they can work on breaking me out. She pops away and a television in the room blares to life. For an announcement like this, all stations are overridden by the Empress’s command. A reporter is giving the viewing audience the heads-up. “We are currently outside Canterlot Castle. The Empress has called together the press for a special announcement and the crowd is abuzz with rumor. Some say she is unveiling a new weapon, while others think she has finally captured the leader of the nefarious Warriors.” “The Prince has returned! I foretold it!” “And some lunatics think the Crown Prince has finally been found. Needless to say, we eagerly await- ah, here she is now, Empress Twilight Sparkle.” The camera pans to focus on Her Royal Plotless. “My faithful ponies,” she pauses while the sudden uproar dies down. “I come to you today with a proclamation of joy. Last night, a small team of rebels attempted an attack on Queen Pinkie Pie.” So much booing, I can hear it without the television present. “Their attack was unsuccessful, and while they managed to take one prisoner, we reciprocated by capturing one of their own.” Several chants of ‘Death!’ are heard. “No, my ponies, this one will not die for his crimes, for I have found him to be familiar to me. And now, I present to my Empire, the newly returned Prince Shining Star!” With that I step forward to the edge of the balcony… And am almost blown backwards by the roar of the entire population of Canterlot. Remembering her warning, I give a half smile and wave and surprisingly, the roar grows louder. I see a Pegasus out of the corner of my eye focusing a camera on me, but I just keep waving. Eventually, the roar dies down, and at the end, a single voice shouts out “I foretold you so!” “Yes, my ponies, today is a day of celebration. Today marks the day of the reunion of my family, and the downfall of the rebel faction known as the Warriors!” I falter a bit. What did she say? “Now that they lack their one safe card, I hereby remove the restrictions placed upon the forces hunting them down. Our armies will now turn their focus inward, and destroy the Warriors with extreme prejudice!” the roar starts up again as the guard’s usher me back inside. ---------- The Manse of Queen Rarity, some four hundred miles away… (This information relayed by an infiltrator placed deep within the house of the Queen of Manehattan. If this data had been reported earlier, much of my torment may have been avoided.) “So, Rarity, what kept you up all last night?” Sweetie Belle watched as I poured her morning bowl of cereal. She may have matured, but seems to have retained her streak of bad luck. I mean really, who sets fire to cereal? “Oh, just a quick personal project for Twilight. Don’t worry about it.” With a flourish, Queen Rarity enters the dining room. With a glance at the clock, she gasps. “Quick, turn the TV on!” I do so, and a live feed of Canterlot Castle appears. “—think the Crown Prince has finally been found. Needless to say, we eagerly await- ah, here she is now, Empress Twilight Sparkle.” She begins speaking of some great accomplishment, and Sweetie Belle looks on with indifference. “And now, I present to my Empire, the newly returned Prince Shining Star!” I hear a splash; Sweetie Belle has dropped her spoon, and some of her jaw, into her bowl. “RAR-IT-Y!!!” the screech happens right in my ear. “We need to get to Canterlot, NOW!” “Whatever do you mean? I know I did a fantastic job on the Crown Prince’s outfit, given I did it in only five hours, but—” “You remember that last operation, the one you let me lead?” The smile drops from the Queen’s face. “What of it?” Sweetie Belle points at the screen. “He was there. I started breaking into his mind when the foal threw everything into chaos. He knows everything about the Warriors, I’m sure of it. And since I already have a hoofhold into his mind…” “You want another shot. Very well, I was planning on visiting Twilight anyways, meet him for myself. Reginald, prepare our chariot.” “Right away, my Queen.” I bow and leave the room. If I knew then what I did now, I could have spared Shining Star so much pain. I would have sacrificed myself to save him from what the Queen and her chief Investigator did to him, if only to give him a few more hours.