Chapter 31
When the twins came to, their noses were working a bit more than their eyes, as the musty conditions were pungant. As their focus started to come in, they looked around, seeing only one light overhead, and bricks. They were each one bound to a chair, and sitting opposite them was Ponaeros himself. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he said, the twins now seeing Ponaeros for the first time, and not expecting such friendly and open tones. He almost sounded fartherly as he spoke, and Downy then said, "I would ahve expected you to be more sinister."
"Oh, silly filly," he answered, "Why would I want to be sinister to you two. The both of you are going to be key to ending this war quickly and efficiently."
"I thought you hated us!" Quill spat out, "I thought you wanted us dead!"
"Perhaps," he answered, "In time, when you have used up your usefulness. Yet, There is one thing I have come to realize about you bards, and that is, with my abilities the way they are now, why destroy you? Why do that when I can merely bend your minds to work for me."
"No!" Downy sharply protested, "Why would we ever want to work for you? We would never hurt or kill anypony!"
"Who said anything about that?" he said, still maintaining his friendly tone. He felt no need to rage or threaten. He held all the cards now, and his victory was all but assured now. He had time on his hands. He continued, "In fact, what you do not realize is that your magic not only can be used to bring peace, and peaceful feelings, but also to go the opposite way. I know it is not in your breeding to harm anypony, yet, if we can get past that little seeming genetic issue, if it is one at all, that can be bent by my magic. I’ll have my troops so ramped up to fight, and so much fear put into the inferior ponies I fight, the battles will be ending faster than they have a good chance to get going. Why needlessly prolong the war when there is no need to do so? Any fool can tell you that winning swiftly and decisively is the best way to go. Why waste resources when you can gain control of the land swiftly. Such resources will be better used in harder campaigns, such as the Crystal Empire, or Yakyakistan.”
“You don’t have that kind of power!” snapped Quill, “You’ll fail! Evil always does.”
Ponaeros was pacing around as he spoke, resembling a teacher giving a lecture, but now he stopped dead in his tracks, and his face took on a slightly cross tone. He looked right at Quill and said, “Evil could take notes from me!”
His glare sent a shiver up the spines of the twins, and the look was someone who was of power, but now belittled by the peasantry about just how strong he thought himself, and looking insulted. He continued in a quiet and angry tone, as if a low tremor in the earth getting ready to become severe. He said, “Child, if I am evil, then I am the worst form that could be: indifference! It is neither love or hate, good or evil, because in each case, there is care for something by somepony. Me? I care only about myself, and others only if they can serve a purpose. If not, I can always throw them into the proverbial trash and replace the broken part. You have no idea what it was like battling my way out of the Abyss, but being clever enough to make Faustian bargains with the beings there, and then being able to betray them and move on before they could act on me, taking what they taught me with me. I applied some of what I had learned to go further, but I have yet to fully explore a fraction of what I could do. As over a year has passed, I have only gotten stronger and stronger as I have learned how to use more and more of what I have learned. You have no idea of my potential! As I grow powerful, I will transcend everypony in every aspect, eventually transcending mortality itself. I will be a god! This planet will bow to me! Everything shall be for MY benefit and MY glory! I will reshape the whole of it in my image and how I think it should be! Nopony, not even the princesses, could stop me. And now, with you two by my side, I shall be unstoppable. My only regret is that I should have thought to do this with you bards centuries ago. I was so paranoid about what your kind can do that I didn’t consider bending a few of you to my will early on. I could have stopped that Starswirl and had the world under my thumb way back then! I only wish I had Starswirl now! My revenge would be complete!”
He then calmed, looked at the now terrified twins, and said, “And now, from what I understand, the two of you have been away from Equestria for some time, because records show you haven’t been here longer than a year, and moreover, your birth certificates show you should have been around much longer than that.”
“How do you know all this!” said Downy, now in tears.
“I have spies everywhere,” he said matter-of-fact, “In fact, they were there at your Ponystock, taking pictures of Celestia and printing them in our propaganda in the most unflattering ways possible. My tentacles extend through everything.”
His horn glowed as he stared at them and said, “And now, it is time to find out everything about you two, and how to bend you to my way.”
Two beams of light contacted the twins’ heads and they went stiff. Yet, this was not a mind-bending spell in the sense of just making them do what he wanted. It would be better to twist them into what humans would have called a magic-induced Stockholm Syndrome. When you convinced your foe to be as you, and by their own choice, you did not have to look over your shoulder constantly expecting a knife in your back. As he cast, he spoke in soothing words, making them relive their past, the hardships they faced, (all this being spoken by the twins themselves as he progressed,) the personal battles they fought, and tapping into anger emotions to get them to start wishing for vengeance and paybacks. He started to convince them in this frame of mind that everypony, even those that had become their friends, had only used them for their own gain, and they did not care about the twins. In essence, he was magically brainwashing them, reeducating them, and not by force. He then started to convince them that they were a key to making a new world where nothing like that could ever happen again to anypony. They could make a perfect world, and it would indeed be a world without war; when all was one under Ponaeros, there could be no wars. However, he also had to convince them that, in order to make an omelet, they would have to break a few eggs…
After a few hours, he had the twins completely bent to his will and way of thinking. Yet, because of the session, he now realized his power could extend over two worlds! The so-called Princess of Friendship had a portal to an entire other world, and once he was done with this one, he will have grown powerful enough to be able to use magic in that world. Though that was not possible for anypony else, he could once he had perfected his own magic and skills. He had the twins untied as he said, “I don’t think that will be necessary anymore. And, here, let me take off the inhibitors.”
With a simple spell, he removed the seals from their horns and said, “Now, I have some musicians at my disposal. Find the ones that you think play the best and start forming a symphony of destruction. We cannot delay too long, however, Sun Butt will be trying to reform, and trying to rally the bards to resist my advances, and we cannot allow her to reinforce herself. However, I do not think those bards will be of any effect. After all, once you cut off the head of the snake, the body is useless.”
The pair went off, escorted by the white-clad Tripe elites to form their band. Once they were gone, he muttered, “Your parents were wise to hide you two from me. Yet, you would have been better off in that ‘human’ world never knowing what you were. They will now pay for that mistake to bring you back! They should have left well enough alone.”
Indeed, he began to ponder just how ironic the whole thing was, in that, he would have returned anyway, but it would have been a longer campaign to take everything. However, their fetching the twins, thinking they had brought their shield against his conquest, now would regret it. What they thought was their salvation would now be their downfall. He began to giggle, then to laugh, and then laugh manically and hysterically. Nothing could stop him now.
Word spread fast globally about the war that had begun. The Battle of the Bards had turned into disaster, and now they looked at a long, bloody, and protracted war. Celestia was spreading word, and Luna was going into the dreamscape of the leaders of the world, letting them know that Equestria’s danger was also their own. If they fell, Ponaeros would come for them. With that, help and pledges to help were pouring in around the world. The exceptions were those from the White Tail Forest, in that they really had no military, and had always relied on the Equestrian Guard to protect them. The Arimaspi Territory, however, told everyone to get bent, and that they would hold their own if he even tried to come their way. The Grittish Isles pledged naval help, considering Equestria’s eastern coast had now been compromised along with the Equestrian Royal Navy. Griffonstone pledged their militias…at a stiff price, of course! They would hook up with the Grittish Navy, and once they gained mastery of the sea, they would join with the Grittish Isles and open a second front. Yakyakistan pledged two of their three armored divisions, keeping back one for home defense, and the Crystal Empire pledged all their forces save for a home guard, both hoping to open a front to the north. The whole intent was to overtax the resources of the Tripes and strangle them in a war of attrition. Of course, this was the worst form of warfare one could face in that it would drain ponies and resources, and it could take a long time, as a war of attrition was one that tested the mettle of the nations involved. It was not only to pound your foe into submission, but also to cause them to drain all their abilities to continue to engage in war. It was going to be a dark time for Equestria indeed.
At Canterlot Castle, the rest of the six along with Spike, Moondancer, and Starlight Glimmer were all in the room with Rainbow Dash as she was starting to come out of the coma. They had her on partial life support as a precaution, they having had to work hard to un-collapse her lung. She had a cast on each of the limbs broken, and tape around the cracked ribs. Twilight paced as Rarity held Rainbow Dash’s good hoof, dabbing a cold compress on Dash’s forehead and Fluttershy was in tears. Applejack looked both stoic and angry, wanting to stomp into a mud hole the one who did this to her. Pinkie Pie, however, was a nervous wreck. Every emotion was hitting her at once, and she was finding it hard to find anything humorous to say to lighten the mood. For her, this stunk bad, because she felt completely helpless and her mind was desperate to find some way to help, but finding none.
Her vitals were getting stronger and stronger, however, and eventually the doctors felt confident enough to take her off the partial life support as she seemed near to coming to. After another twenty minutes, her eyes fluttered open, and her vision cleared slowly. Seeing that all her friends were there, she smiled, and tears rolled down her cheek. Seeing the somber mood, she chuckled and said, “Boy, if this is how you act when I get some boo-boos, I’d hate to see you at my funeral.”
This caught their attention that she was awake, and the humor of the statement made them laugh, but then cry at the very same time considering their friend’s state. Rarity then said, “Oh, darling, how can you make jokes at a time like this.”
“Easy,” she said, “I open my mouth and say it. How else do I make jokes?”
Again, they reacted the same way, but it did put them at ease, realizing that it was showing that everything was going to be alright. She would recover, and she would fly again. She looked herself over and said, “Boy, when this filly does it, she does it right. Go big or go home!”
Fluttershy was helping now to make her feel more comfortable and said, “It still isn’t any fun to see you like this. It is so horrible.”
Dash sighed and said, “Yeah, you’re right. This does suck, and it hurts. Still, you gotta go in expecting this, and yet, you still think it’s not gonna happen to you.”
Twilight then said, “Well, at least you did your bit. You won’t have to be going back to it…”
Dash cut her off and said, “What are you talking about? As soon as I get better, I’m going back!”
That caught everyone off guard. They all snapped to as if somepony had slapped them all and they all stared at her as if she had said the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard. Rarity then said, “Nonsense! You’ve been hurt, and hurt badly! You just can’t go back and fight again. You’ve already done enough!”
“Oh no,” she said, “We’re in this deep right now, and we’re going to need everypony we have. I just won’t feel right if I’m standing on the sidelines watching my ponies-in-arms getting beat on while I do nothing.”
“But…but you can’t,” blurted Pinkie Pie, “You’re our bestest friend! We just couldn’t lose you! With whom would I be able to do my jokes with?”
No one saw that comment as silly, however, as Pinkie Pie was dead serious. Yes, she was happy-go-lucky, and a bit scatterbrained at times, but this by no means meant she lacked any ability to see the gravity in any given situation and know when to be serious. Yet, Dash said, “I’m loyal to you, but I am loyal to the cause now. When I joined the Wonderbolt Reserves, I knew this might happen one day. Nopony wants this, trust me. Yet, it’s here, and it’s time. Please, I’d bring shame to Cloudsdale and Equestria, as well as my friends, if I didn’t go to fight for them…for you. Let me honor you in that way, and honor me if one day I go out and never come back. Remember me as the one who was willing to fight for her friends when it seemed nopony else could, or would.”
They all started to cry on that one, including Applejack, (for this one could not be kept inside,) and they all carefully embraced their friend, accounting for her wounds, and now loved her more than ever before. At this, a new voice came in to the room, which said, “I leave you alone for a day or two and you start slacking off, Sergeant Dash.”
Everypony stood back as they looked over to see Spitfire and Soarin in their Class A uniforms enter with Celestia and Luna. Celestia was floating what looked like two flat and blue jewelry boxes and two green leather-bound folders with the Equestrian royal seal on each one. Spitfire then said, “He caught you with one of the oldest tricks in the book; pull you into the anti-pegasus fire and pull out as you become a sitting duck. We’re going to have to work on that one in training with you. In the meantime, it seems that upper command wants to get sweet with you.”
The first box opened, and Soarin pulled out a medal on a purple ribbon as Luna opened one of the folders and read, “The Purple Hoof goes to Sergeant Rainbow Dash, Second Squadron, First Reserve wing for sustaining wounds in actual combat. Given under my hoof this day in the city of Canterlot…” and it named off the year and day of the award, and Spitfire pinned it onto Dash’s hospital gown. The second box opened, Soarin did it again, and this time, it was a cross made of pegasus wings with the Wonderbolts emblem on it, backed by a sunburst and an iron cross. Luna then read, “The Distinguished Equestrian Flying Cross goes to Sergeant Rainbow Dash for heroism while participating in an aerial flight.”
Luna went on to read that, on the day of that battle, Sergeant Dash had distinguished herself by leading all other flyers in the fight, taking on multiple foes and coming out unscathed, and was committed to the fight despite the dangers she faced, even in the face of serious injuries during the fight. She then declared this reflected great credit on herself, her unit, and all of Equestria. This was also pinned on her to the right of the other, and the two pegasi, as well as Celestia and Luna saluted, as did Dash, as her right foreleg was not the one injured. Spitfire then said, “Now, Sergeant Dash, I have a direct order for you: get well!”
“Yes, ma’am!” she said back, though weakly, as she still found it hard to sound off. She saluted and the salute was returned as Dash said, “And once I’m better, you can count on me to be in the air with you.”
Spitfire smirked as she left the room and said, “From you, I’d expect no less.”
Now the room was gushing over the hardware, and Rarity said, “Oh, that is so divine!”
Dash just blew it off politely and said, “It just means I got lucky. Hey, I’ve got other medals, but you sell them all and they wouldn’t by a cup of coffee at the Hay Burger.”
“That’s odd fer you,” said Applejack, “You bein’ humble an’ all.”
She just smiled a bit and looked at the medals as she said, “Maybe I just got a new perspective on things; cherish all the good times you have and don’t get too big a head, ‘cause it only makes it a bigger target for somepony to hit. You never know when the next moment’s gonna be your last.”
That put a serious mood back on the situation, but they all started to act cheery and start to make her even more comfortable. They then all left the room so she could get some rest. Yet, when they had, and she knew she was alone, she then began to cry, and cry hard. It was not that she cried because she got hurt, or that she feared going back into combat now, but it was more the sense of the fact of how close to death she had actually come, and somehow cheated death, and was crying because she was happy to still be alive. Yet, she also cried for others she saw on the battlefield that same day go down to never come up again. It was also for them that she cried, and she swore, for them, she would live her life one time more vehemently for each of her fallen comrades. She would never take life for granted again.