//------------------------------// // The Secret of the Guardians // Story: The Rise of an Alicorn's Destiny // by HMXTaylorLee //------------------------------// "At first glance, it appeared to be abandoned. There were no signs of life, and nothing in the air but the smell of dust and decay. I entered the main chamber, examining the massive statue cast in bronze at the center of the room that had undoubtedly served as the centerpiece to many of their rites and ceremonies. The statue depicted a unicorn standing stock, a shield one hoof and a sword in the other. While the entire statue appeared to be fixed and immovable, there was one thing that was not." Reveille hopped upon the base of the statue, sidling past the bronze shield to stand below the unicorn's chest. He reached up with his hoof to a shining medallion that hung around the neck of the metal pony from a melded chain. Reveille examined the large coin, which was free to move within the confines of the chain link that held it aloft. Though there was nothing but a sword and shield embossed on either side of the medallion, something else caught his bright red eye. There was font engraved along the side of the thick medallion. Stretching his rear legs, he got as close as he could and read aloud; "To search for infinity, to find something more The road that will take you is under the floor" The chamber that had fallen silent for years was alive with the sound of eager hooves examining every square inch of the room for a method by which to reveal the passage. After around a minute and a half of fruitless searching, Reveille grew impatient. "I've waited six years for this moment," he said with bravado to no one in particular, "and I'm ready to break down!" Using his powerful magic, he blasted at the bronze statue, freeing it from it's pedestal, and sent it careening down to the wood panel floor below. With a deafening crash, the statue destroyed the floorboards, and fell down into a what seemed to be a chasm leading further under the temple. The alicorn peered down into the abyss, eager to explore what secrets it held, and began to search for a method to descend safely. He scanned around the room until he discovered a coil of rope hanging from a pillar. Reveille galloped towards the rope and using a wooden signpost that read Inner Sanctum Access Lever and Utility Rope for support, yanked the rope away, making sure it didn't catch on a precariously placed lever. Delighted at his cleverness, he tied a loop around himself, and then around a pillar close to the hole in the floor. The colt walked backwards towards the opening, and began to rappel down the wall towards the Secret Guardian's inner sanctum. After about fifteen seconds, Reveille reached the bottom of the pit. Careful to avoid hitting his head on the destroyed statue, he opened yet another set of double doors. Reveille covered his eyes, blinded by a white light. His eyes very quickly adjusted, and he found himself on a ledge overlooking a gigantic cave that went on as far as the eye could see. There were trees and rivers winding below him, and the sunlight filtering through a thick sheet of ice with several icicles having formed upon it. The alicorn looked around the gargantuan hollow, searching yet again for a sign of life. Barely noticeable under a canopy of trees directly below him, was the roof of a building. His destination in mind, he now had to find a way there. Cursing his current lack of flight, and over reactive teleporting, the only way down was by navigating a lengthy sloped outcropping following the outer wall. "I've waited six years for this moment," Reveille announced aloud calmly, walking towards the beginning of the trail. "and I'm going as the crow flies!" He turned around, rapidly approaching the edge of the jagged platform at a full sprint, and jumped. ****** "I began my descent with a nine-hundred degree clockwise spiral and then, curling up to make myself as small as possible and decrease the time it takes to make a full rotation of course," Reveille added with a dismissive wave of a hoof, "began executing a series of no less than fourteen front flips, three torso axial aerial somersaults, and then fourteen back flips to keep things even. The announcement of my intent before I jumped seem to have triggered a series of huge icicles falling from the frozen ceiling, so I had to concentrate on both my distance to the ground as well the obstacles chasing me from above. I twisted as they fell, and with the ground coming ever closer, I looked up to see one fast approaching just slightly offset above me. I curled my legs together, and just as it was passing, I used my hind legs to springboard myself off of the icicle towards vines hanging down from a separate ledge above. I gripped it with two hooves, revolving counter-clockwise two and a half rotations before screeching to a halt two feet above the floor." "...You jumped down," Twilight summarized, her chin cradled by her hooves. Reveille took a sizable gulp of fresh air, slowly releasing it through his nostrils. "Quite." ****** Reveille quickly found the building he had seen from up above. It was not difficult, as the building was much bigger from his perspective on the cave floor. It looked almost identical to the temple he had entered at the mountain's peak. As the pony followed along the wall of the building in search of an opening, he mused aloud to himself once more. "I've waited six years for this moment," His horn began to glow bright red. "And I'm the verge of a breakthrough!" A blast of energy collided with the wall, breaching the stone exterior and sending huge chunks of rubble flying into the newly made gap. Reveille bounced into the hole before the dust had even settled, landing on a massive slab that had just been a part of the wall. The stallion heard a collective gasp before him, and the blinding particles of dust and sand floated downward to reveal a grand hallway with two dozen ponies wearing sheathed swords and shields upon their back staring at him. Reveille looked back at them, sensing the tension in the room growing to a fever pitch. Finally, an earth pony with a light blue coat standing to the alicorn's left stood up, pointing a single hoof at Reveille. "He has defeated the master!" Reveille glanced below him, but didn't see anything but the thick slabs of stone the had been blown away from the wall. If he had to guess, whomever it was that he defeated was underneath it. "The rules state that whoever defeats our master will replace him as the head of the Secret Guardians!" The room was filled with the clanking of swords and shields as all of the Secret Guardians knelt down before the smirking alicorn, who uttered with a cool, collected voice as he pushed the bangs of his red mane out of his face. "I waited six years for this moment, and it was a... smashing success." ****** "So, because you were impatient and just happened to make a hole in the wall at the exact place their leader was unfortunate enough to be, it was decided that you were to be the leader of a mysterious group of warriors as an 11 year old colt?" Twilight asked incredulously. "Unfortunate?" an affronted Reveille replied. "Luck had nothing to do with it. I knew exactly where he was." ****** According the official handbook of the Secret Guardians, somepony taking over as the master needed to have been a member for at least three months. Reveille's first pre-official act was to burn the handbook, but his unfocused and uncontrollable magic wound up burning the entirety of the furniture in the dining room, and all of the food prepared for his inaugural feast with it. "Food is for the weak," Reveille announced after the smoke had cleared and new, less exquisite but perfectly functional folding chairs and tables replaced the smoldering ones. "But, my liege, how will we survive?" a pony asked from the back of the room. "Survive?" the alicorn whispered blankly. "SURVIVE? I spent the better half of my life wandering through mazes of shadowy forests and crossing endless plains that stretched as far as the eyes can see. I've suffered winters so frigid that the snowponies wished they'd never been born, and summers so searing that you couldn't fry an egg on the sidewalk - because the bird got fried before it could lay one. I've gone without proper food and shelter for so long, I would eat a tent and sleep under a tortilla, just because I could no longer tell the difference. So, do not ask me how we will survive, because survival?" Reveille laughed quietly to himself as he shook his head in disbelief. "Survival is a game for foals." Other than some debris still slowly crumbling down from the hole in the wall, the room was silent. Another pony three seats down stood up shakily and cleared her throat. "Your omnipotence, what could possibly drive a pony as young as you to journey so far and for so long to find us?" Reveille opened his satchel, withdrawing the wooden box that Despair had given to him. "I'm looking for somepony," he answered while the box slid open. Groping with his hoof, he seized the weathered note with his step-father's last name written upon it. "Who here among you answers, or once did answer, to the name of Aceans?" "I bore that surname long ago." A grey pegasus at the end of the table closest to Reveille stood up. "Before I had devoted my life to this cause, dropped it, and became simply known as Yrit." He bowed down to the colt before him. "My lordship, what of this humble Guardian do you deem worthy of your attention?" Reveille placed the slip of paper back into the box, carefully scooping the tuft of his mother's hair into his hoof. "I have a message from your wife," he said. "The alimony check is in the mail, your benevolence," Yrit exclaimed nervously. "Call the bank, tell them not to honor it." Reveille raised the ball of hair above him, the silver strands shimmering in the glow of a nearby torch. "Because she's dead," he informed Yrit unflinchingly. The room uttered another collective gasp as the pegasus wailed "Oh, Despair!" "You'll get over it," the colt muttered to himself as he returned the box and it's contents to his satchel. "I know I have." ****** "Pardon the interruption, Reveille," Twilight asked, hearing a brassy tune emanate from the fireplace. "But, a lot of this seems..." "What, my dear?" Reveille inquired, tightly clutching the wooden box to his chest. "My dear?" the princess mouthed silently. "Uh, please don't take this the wrong way, but the actions and speech patterns that you say you did seem... highly advanced. I don't know any eleven year old ponies that speak with near the sophistication that you did. You didn't interact with ponies often, and you couldn't have been able to read a lot of books always being on the move with the amount of er... anguish that you described." "Most eleven year old ponies are also not the son of a deity, absorbing her knowledge and magic every night that the moon doth glow. So yeah," he answered shortly. "Do you think I liked being superior in every way to everypony I met? It started to get old after a while." "I can imagine..." Twilight grumbled, yet another one of her logically sound arguments being swatted out of the air. "Right, I'm sure," Reveille nodded with a strained look on his face. "Now, may I continue?" "Actually, I think a break woul-" ****** Reveille bounced on top of the large chunk of rubble he created, ready to make his way out of the temple, and out of the cave. He heard the shuffling of hooves on the stone floor pursuing him, and stopped moving. He craned his head to peek behind him, seeing all of the Secret Guardians huddled around with looks of anticipation upon their face. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," he said sarcastically. He was legitimately surprised when he heard the clicking of camera shutters, and saw the bright flash of the bulbs on the walls. Reveille turned the rest of his body around, his eyes firmly shut. "What are you doing? Stop that!" The collective of ponies took a step backwards, their cameras stowed as quickly as they had appeared. Yrit stepped forward from the crowd timidly, having seemly followed the advice about his late wife's death. "Your majesty," he whispered. "We were simply doing as you commanded. Were we... not supposed to?" "You guys can do whatever you want, as far as I'm concerned," Reveille told him. "I'm getting out of here." "Leaving, your grace?" The alicorn groaned in frustration. "Yes, whatever other synonyms you wish to use, I'm going." Yrit's eyes darted back and forth, the crowd behind him murmuring worriedly. "Thine holiness, where will you go?" "I'm not sure yet..." Reveille bit his lip. "I might go and try to fly again so I don't have to walk so much, and then get this teleporting thing down so I won't have to fly so much." "El Jefe, your planning efficiency in planning efficiency to accommodate for your planned efficiency is..." Yrit paused, struggling to choose the right word. "Yeah, my plans are pretty efficient," the black colt brushed his shoulders, glancing up at the female unicorn who had asked him a question earlier approaching from behind Yrit. "Master, do you wish for self-improvement?" she spoke with a look of uncanny interest. "You're going to have to be more explicit," Reveille said cautiously, "because I haven't felt the need for it." "Self-improvement is master-" the unicorn coughed from the remnants of dust that the crowd had kicked up. "Apologies, sir, it's mastering the skills and talents you already possess to become more efficient at them, or learning new ones to increase your overall aptitude." "Do you think that I need to improve after such a hard-fought victory?" Reveille's eyes squinted at her, causing the mare to yelp in fright. "I meant nothing by it, your excellency! We have trainers who are experts at the very subjects you described, that's all I was going to say!" The colt's eyebrows relaxed, but his eyes were still angrily fixed upon her. "Then I shall stay and consult with these trainers to see if I need any 'self-improvement', as you seem to be a very poor judge of my skills and talents," he informed her. ****** "I have to say." Twilight shifted uncomfortably. "That was kind of a mean thing to say to her. She seemed like she was just trying to help." "Well, her telling a young colt that they aren't good at anything was mean. Completely uncalled for. One shouldn't dole out criticism if they aren't prepared to take it," he insisted adamantly. ****** "Your benevolence, might we save the training for after the ceremony?" Yrit suggested timidly. With a roll of his eyes, Reveille sighed. "What ceremony is this now?" "Your highness, it's to celebrate you as a new member of the Secret Guardians... and then subsequently promote you to be our master," Yrit explained. "Does it take long?" the black colt inquired. "I don't enjoy partaking in tedious and laborious affairs when there's a faster and simpler way to do things." Yrit looked behind him at his fellow guardians, perhaps seeking moral support, before he replied. "It's just a few short speeches, your sovereignty. The admittance ceremony is but a simple vow to protect the Secret. However, the ceremony for welcoming a new master used to have a number of steps and speeches, but none can recall precisely what those were. It was detailed in the Secret Guardian handbook, but per your instruction... none remain that are not burned beyond comprehension. Also..." "Hmm?" Reveille tilted his head. "There is an item we must present to you that was in the possession of our previous master. He - it - is underneath the large slab you are standing on." The alicorn colt blinked at the pegasus. The pegasus blinked back. After half a minute of exchanges identical to these, Reveille took a seat, with an annoyed expression upon his countenance. "Well?" "Oh captain, my captain, you are standing on the fallen section of wall that we need to move," Yrit informed him once again. "I can't help that," Reveille replied blankly, laying down upon the rock and wriggling to get comfortable, using his satchel as a pillow. "Now, I'm going to recharge my unfathomable energy with a well-earned nap." His eyes fluttered shut. "Wake me up when you get... whatever it is that you need to get. I would strongly advise against accidentally waking me up beforehoof, because..." Like the flaming meteorite that carried him burning bright against the night sky, his red eye shot open upon his dark face, moving side to side as he gazed warily at his legions. "There are plenty of walls left that could fall down." He shut his eye, and promptly fell asleep, the first nap that he had claimed to indulge in for three whole days. Yrit looked back at the group behind him, a helpless frown on his face as he silently pleaded for assistance. He was met with the same expression. ****** Twilight stared at Reveille with wide eyes, the black alicorn telling his account with nary a hint of emotion. "I've heard that adolescent ponies could be awfully belligerent, but that..." her words faded as she struggled to find a proper way to phrase it. "As I've expressed several times in my regaling," Reveille told her with a semblance of tragic undertones as his eyes shut. "Everything that everypony else is, I was more so. For better, or for worse." "Yes, but -" "It's the cross that lifts me, but my cross to bear." "Um..." "My gift," his eyes opened, his expression melancholy. "My curse." "You have to admit that's a tad unnecessary!" Twilight blurted before Reveille could continue his tirade. Just like the princess' last objection to his methods of treatment, he had a retort that he was prepared with. "It was valuable training. As I myself had learned while I evaded dangerous creatures in the darkness of the forest, silence is your one true ally. Having your presence needlessly announced among those that overpower you is certain death." "Reveille, that's-" Twilight heard, more clearly than before, the sound of a bugle again playing briefly in the distance. "Did you hear that?" "You're hearing things, Twilight," Reveille answered quickly. "As I was saying, it was both training, and a test. By acquiring the artifact without disturbing my slumber, they passed." Twilight tried to think of how they could have moved the rock with the young Reveille laying upon it without waking him. "Did they do a very careful group lift with unicorn magic?" The stallion shook his head. "No. They dug under the floor and came up from underneath." Princess Twilight had to admit it would have taken her a little bit to figure out that sort of solution. "I'm impressed. Good job on their part." At the compliment, and she might have been mistaken, it looked as though Reveille's eye twitched. "Having said that, I had hoped they would have figured it out sooner when I set the test up," he told her flatly. "I was trying to teach a lesson about the importance of utilizing alternate routes rather than the obvious one to avoid detection. The road less taken, if you will." "Twilight!" Spike stuck his head in the opening of the study. "There you are. I'm making dinner, it should be ready in say... twenty minutes? Three plates?" he asked, holding up three clawed nails to illustrate. "Yes," Reveille and Twilight answered at the same time, Spike raising an eyebrow at the instance. "Right then, I'll get to it," the dragon said, turning around but quickly coming to a halt. "Oh and, Twilight! You know that big window above the front doors that wouldn't close?" Twilight nodded, remembering her attempts to shut it earlier. "Yeah, what about it?" "I went up there with the ladder, and there was a blob of gum sticking above the hinge! How do you suppose that got there?" The princess scratched her chin with her hoof in puzzlement. "How strange, I have no idea." "Me neither," Spike shrugged as he began to rapidly scoot backwards to the hallway. "Anyways, gotta run, food on the stove!" "Thank you!" Twilight called after him, following it up with a pleasant giggle. "My number one assistant. Don't know what I would do without him." Reveille cleared his throat, the noise more gutteral than it had been before - probably because his throat was sore after speaking so long, if Twilight was to hazard a guess. "Right well, I venture that I should conclude my story with haste," he noted with disappointment. "There's no rush," Twilight explained, though secretly glad that the rather long-winded tale was coming to a close. "We can continue after dinner, or whenever. We've got plenty of time." "The story of a life, especially this part of mine, is not something that can be simply interrupted, your highness," Reveille cried at a surprising volume, leaving Twilight somewhat shell-shocked. "It may seem to speed up or slow down depending on the perception of whoever is experiencing it, but it will never, ever pause." The stallion took several deep breaths, more than seemed necessary for the volume and speed at which he spoke. "The only time the story ends," he whispered, "is when your heart becomes still and cold." "Cold?" Twilight squeaked. She was unsure whether to be impressed by how rather poetic it was, or frightened by how morbid it became. "Cold" the stallion repeated quietly, his eyes intensely fixated upon Twilight's wide violet ones. The lavender alicorn adjusted herself, taking the opportunity to look away from those infernal orbs, her hooves finding a new place to settle on the cushion. "I um... I suppose you should probably continue?" she suggested, her voice having inadvertently raised in pitch. "I suppose so," Reveille agreed, "before we run... out of time." ****** "Right so, I'm going to speed through all of this stuff here," Reveille explained, the first ceremony whizzing by at three times the normal speed. "Talk, talk, talk. It's just a bunch of self-serving and moronic rambling that the Guardians term as 'prose'." The voices of the various ponies were high pitched unintelligible squeaks, and even the motion of one of the ponies simply idling seemed jerky and unnatural. "Blah blah blah, uphold this, do that - I still need to get a copy of that picture from him - 'I solemnly swear', alright... Okay! First ceremony done, here comes the next one." The ponies sitting in the chairs in front of the stage all stomped their hooves together, the boosted speed giving it the sound of a throaty growl. Everypony in the room lined up along the right side of the stage, and one by one, went on to shake the newest member's - Reveille - hoof. Some contact was so short that Twilight scarcely saw it happen. "Aaaand... promotion to leader. It's longer and filled with even more pretentious jargon," he explained. "How are you able to manipulate this to go by so quickly?" Twilight asked, watching a pony with an itchy muzzle raise his foreleg to scratch it repeatedly, giving him the appearance of hitting himself in the face over and over again. "You're about to find out," Reveille answered mysteriously, "...once this pony ceases his drivel." One pony that went on to speak had a rather deep voice that sounded quite funny when it was played back at triple speed. "Okay, this is it. The changing of the guard. Aaaand... now. "Among the junior Guardians, this pony has demonstrated an unmatched mastery in the arts of combat, speed, and intelligence," the mare speaking behind the podium continued. "Though born without a voice, our rigorous process of selection has determined that among his peers, silence is truly golden. As the new Prime Guardian, his orders are not delegated through the chain of command, but come directly from our newest master. Any command given by the new master-to-be is to be followed without hesitation and with no argument or question why." "Not like that will be a problem, if he's mute..." Reveille mumbled to himself as he sat upon the stage, slowly lifting himself to get some feeling back in his hindquarters. Even though all of the Official Secret Guardian Handbooks had been incinerated, there was one pony who had been so inexplicably bored that she had taken it upon herself to memorize the entire Master Induction Ceremony - all 12 single spaced pages. Reveille's first official act as Master Secret Guardian was going to be having her hoofwrite the entire thing in as many notebooks it would take to replace the lost handbooks for the rest of the ponies here. "...a round of applause for the newest Prime Guardian, Seasons Yore!" There was an abundance of cheering and polite applause, the enthusiasm of which had died several hours ago when the ceremonies started. Seasons Yore, a white pegasus with a neatly maintained purple mane took a short bow. He was given his shield, one that was also pure white, but had a curious symbol in the middle. ****** "I don't mean to interrupt, again, but what exactly is this 'secret' that these ponies are guarding? It seems really rather... generic," Twilight queried as swiftly as she could manage. The naturally inquisitive alicorn had followed along with most of the tale, but she found this point to be frustratingly vague. "Do I need to give that speech about interrupting a life story again?" Reveille hissed. "..." ****** "Stand up, Master Guardian," the unicorn mare at the podium said at long last. Reveille was only too happy to comply, bouncing up with enthusiasm, his crimson mane flopping over his right eye again. He slowly but deliberately stepped forward, centering himself with tiny 'x' that somepony had taped on the floor. "From this point forward, you shall be known only as Master Guardian," she continued. "Like the dozens of Master Guardians before you, your old name and your old life will disappear once you don the Element. Your sole reason for existence as you know it will change to reflect the vow you've taken, to protect the Element from those who would abuse it's power. Many will come to take it from you, but while you still draw breath, none shall succeed. Only when your spirit leaves your body will you surrender it, because you are the Master Guardian." Another pegasus glided upon the stage, their wings keeping her and the ornately decorated box she held aloft. Seasons Yore made a precise facing movement, turning to face the pegasus mare with two clean clicks of his hooves. His wings stretched outward, keeping Seasons' balance as his front hooves opened the box. He reached inside and withdrew the sole item that lay within, lifting it with an expert blend of speed and caution. Another facing movement, and Seasons' was staring directly at Reveille, holding in his hooves a golden necklace, bearing at the center a gold frame in the shape of a sideways eight. Within the hollow spaces sat two gems, pure white and sparkling with a brilliance unlike anything that Reveille had seen before. Seasons Yore marched towards the alicorn, keeping the necklace aloft, coming to a rigid stop in front of Reveille. "Take hold of the Element, Master Guardian," the speaker commanded. Seasons' Yore motioned very slightly with his hooves, and Reveille grasped the necklace with his hooves. Up close, the necklace looked even more beautiful, the trim along the ∞ symbol embossed with equidistant studs of the same brilliant gems it surrounded. Seasons quickly made his way to Reveille's left side, and turned to face the crowd alongside him. "We will send off your old life, and your old name, with the fanfare worthy of a pony willing to make such a sacrifice to protect the Secret. To protect the Seventh Element of Harmony, the Element of Infinity. Fellow Guardians, say hello to the Master Guardian, and goodbye to Reveille!" After Reveille's name was announced by the speaker, everypony in attendance echoed it. Even Seasons Yore, his mute Prime Guardian contributed. While he could not shout along with the others, he lifted a shiny bugle to his lips and played the three syllables in perfect time with the others. Starstruck and overjoyed at the attention he was receiving at just the mention of his name, Reveille scarcely noticed that Seasons had stepped behind him until he felt a tapping on his shoulder, signalling the final step. The golden necklace grazed the tops of Reveille's ears at the guidance of Seasons, finally resting in place upon the back of his neck. The alicorn looked down at the Element, the two gems glowing with an intense magical light. He could feel boundless energy coursing through him, and an increased concentration of that energy tingling upon his flanks. Reveille's eyes moved from the Element around his neck to his flank, and bore witness to the representation of his special talent, his coming of age, and of his destiny - his cutie mark.