//------------------------------// // 25 Beginnings // Story: Lifegiver // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Lily - 22nd of Midsummer ‘15 EoH - Afternoon “He’s down! Medic please!” Princess Twilight called, chest heaving and voice showing even more exhaustion than her stance did. “Psst! That’s you, Mad Mage!” Pinkie whispered into my ear before I even had an opportunity to start walking. No wonder my half-brother married her. They were equally as endearingly irritating. “Ja, on it,” I said quickly trotting forward. I honestly never thought I would be obeying the commands of an autocrat. At least, not before I left Germaney. I had always thought it would feel as if I were being used. In Stalliongrad, it had been. In Equestria, it didn’t. With Twilight, following her orders felt like helping out a friend. Quickly drawing alongside Twilight I gave her a concerned look. “Are you sure you want me to heal him? It might be better to allow him to die.” Twilight shook her head, giving me a look that conveyed a ton of experience. “It’s never better to allow them to die. Yes, sometimes you have to… But it’s always best to turn an enemy into a friend. Especially when they are as powerful as he is. My friends and I have reformed an actual chaos spirit before, Lily. “To me, Sacred comes across as naive but honorable, and he seemed to want to be working for good instead of evil. He deserves that chance, please help me give it to him.” Well… When she put it like that and even used a please... “Alright,” I agreed, critically eyeing the armored mage’s dull black plate mail. “Since he didn’t just disintegrate from that blast, I assume this armor’s material is magically resistant. So it will probably insulate him from magical effects to a certain degree. You’ll need to help me remove at least the helmet so I can get to work.” Twilight frowned and bent down, searching Sacred’s neck for where the helmet began. “This could be difficult. It’s most likely arcanite, if I used telekinesis to just force it off, I’d probably have to use so much energy the force would break his neck. Also when the glow was going I could see that the helmet locks to the neck somehow…” I bent down as well, helping Twilight fidget with the almost invisible catches and latches that formed a rather complex locking system. How did this stallion eat? He certainly wouldn’t be able to take his helmet off on his own… Then again, as a commander, he probably had a squire. After a few minutes of puzzling, we finally managed to push one latch up, another down, and a third inwards, then slide all three latches counterclockwise until they lined up at the back of the neck, which finally allowed us to slide the helmet off his head. “I get why a helmet would lock on,” Twilight grumbled as the two of us set the surprisingly heavy helmet down together, “but who they hay designs it like a puzzle?” Sensing the question was rhetorical, I decided not to reply but instead to start examining my patient. He was fairly badly burned, which made perfect sense. The armor might protect him from the arcane energy, but not from the fireball that energy turned into, and his helmet had holes for seeing and breathing… “So… Is he completely burned, or just a little burned with black fur?” Twilight asked in a tone that was only barely hiding distress. “He has black fur. Most of the burns are around his eyes, nose, and mouth,” I answered, still examining him physically. “You shouldn’t feel bad about hurting-” “Yes I should,” Twilight objected instantly, “what kind of monster would I be if I liked violence?” She let out a relieved sigh as I moved aside to let her see his face clearly. “Good. Fire would be the worst way to go.” “Burning is pretty bad, ja,” I agreed casualty. Sacred looked like he was mostly fine. The burns didn’t look to be much worse than second degree, the real damage was probably scorched lungs from breathing in the flames. And also his eyes. What the buck did that spell do to eyes? Face was burned, most fur scorched away, mane blackened. Normal fire damage… So why were his eyes glassy and crystalline in appear- “Ohhhh!” I exclaimed facehoofing in realization. “They’re both glass eyes. That makes-” “What?” Twilight asked, sounding very shocked. “He can’t be blind, he was tracking me while I was flying. They have to be arcane prosthetics.” “Most likely,” I agreed. “Should I replace them?” Twilight shook her head. “No. Just heal him please. We can ask if he wants normal eyes later. Given his armor, he probably intentionally replaced them.” “Fair point,” I agreed as I closed my eyes and summoned up my magic. The probing tendrils of magic revealed much of what I had expected as they spread through Sacred’s unconscious form. Scorched throat and lungs, lots of internal damage from blunt force trauma, shattered ribs. No big deal. A few minutes of carefully applied spells and he was as good as new. I even decided to be nice and cause his burnt mane to fall out, and a fresh one to regrow. Once my work had finished, I took a step back to make sure everything looked right. After all, I had been working on somepony in a possibly arcanite suit. My magic could have been fooled. Sacred was oddly handsome for a brainwashed army commander. He had coal black fur that included the shine of coal, a spiky burning coal orange mane with streaks of yellow in it, and with the glass eyes rolled around so they pointed outwards, a pair of dark red eyes which suited the chiseled features of his face and his coloration well. To my amazement, his horn was straight, though a tad slender and long. “Huh… I expected the dark magic horn curvature,” I mused to myself. “I should really see about getting him to let me examine his armor. If he was capable of that sort of magic without using Dark Magic for a power boost... ” Twilight mused to herself. With a quick shake of her head she turned to face me. “Theoretical mana battery improvements can wait. Is it safe to wake him up? I need to decide what to do with his forces, and it’s only fair he be a part of that.” I nodded then blinked. “Hold on a second, his helmet doesn't have a horn sheath! How the hay-” “Extradimensional space. Some unicorn guards prefer them to a sheath or slot,” Twilight said with a smile. “You don’t know much about magic besides medicine, do you?” “No, not especially,” I admitted with a light blush, “but, yes, it is safe to wake him.” “Thank you,” Twilight said giving me a polite smile before moving over to Sacred and giving his shoulder a gentle shake with a hoof. “Sacred, can you hear me?” As Twilight gave Sacred’s shoulder another shake, two shadows of flying ponies passed overhead. I looked up in time to see Princess Luna and Princess Celestia turn and land a few feet away from Twilight. “I’m glad to see you have everything in order, Twilight,” Celestia said walking forward with her wings flared regally. I gulped, internally panicking as I tried to remember what exactly protocol was for greeting somepony of her station! “Uhhhhhh!” I accidentally said out loud ears standing upright in alarm, as Princess Celestia turned to look at me. Politely ignoring my distress, Celestia gave me a small smile. “Hello again, Baron von Maresburg. It’s nice to see you here, I take it you have healed this pony post-duel?” I nodded. “Yes, your highness.” “Excellent,” Celestia said as she turned back to Twilight. “I assumed their army destroying their own heraldry meant they agreed to a Duel of Champions to settle the matter. I’m glad to see they agreed to terms. Do you have any ideas for what to do with them? I assume they’ve surrendered.” Twilight smiled, talking to Princess Celestia as if the sun-moving god of a pony were an old friend. “Actually, Sacred, er, the stallion in front of me, is the one who proposed a duel. He seemed like he was questioning his master’s orders… And had been for some time. “He’s quite powerful, especially with his armor. I think he would make a great addition to the Solar Guard, as he’s apparently known nothing but military life. I doubt he would be comfortable as a civilian.” Celestia nodded and began to speak, seemingly debating a course of action with Twilight. I wanted to overhear for simple curiosity's sake, but Princess Luna gently tapping on my shoulder with her left forehoof instantly shifted my attention. “Y-Yes Your High-” I began only to be cut off with an eye roll. “You saved my sister from serious injury. You’re a friend, and so is your half-brother, and your half-sister as well. So please don’t call me Highness outside of formal discussions. It’s Luna, Moony, or Moonbutt.” Luna objected giving me a small smile which was clearly hampered by physical pain. “I cast a very draining spell a few minutes ago. Do you know how to cure a migraine?” “Er, well yes, of course!” I stammered, shocked by her statement. “I may not know much about the brain, but headaches and migraines are simple enough. Hold on.” My horn glowed dimly for a moment as I cast the relatively simple spell, Princess Luna immediately sighed in relief. “Oh thank the Gods! I swore my eyes were being hammered out…” “You’re welcome,” I said, still a bit shaken. It was weird that a monarch considering me a friend shook me up despite my being friends with Dusk. But it was even weirder that even though I could acknowledge that fact, it still felt weird. With a shake of my head I turned my attention back to Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight’s discussion. “-that would be for the best,” Celestia said, nodding her head. “It would certainly free up a lot of Luna’s soldiers for her use. But we should see if this, Sacred will go along with the plan. I imagine his soldiers will listen to him more than us at the moment.” “Excuse me, what this about my Guards?” Luna asked, having over heard as well. “Celestia and I have decided to see if the er, Trixies will join the Equestrian Armed Forces as my own Guards. It’s probably about time I got my own, after all I can’t keep expecting you to provide patrols and troops for Ponyville,” Twilight explained. “That would be a much needed relief for the Lunar Guard,” Luna agreed. “The Las Pegasus area needs a good monster purge but I don't quite have the numbers free for one right now. This is their commander, right?” Twilight and I nodded. “Let’s wake him then,” Luna decided, walking over to give Sacred a shake. She took three steps before stopping in her tracks, eyes widening, and jaw dropping. “Heavens! Tia, he looks exactly like Mantle!” “What?” Princess Celestia asked, eyebrows raising in surprise, then widening in shock as she came around to an angle where she could see Sacred’s face. “I… he does. It’s uncanny!” “Whose Mantle?” Twilight and I asked together. “Our youngest brother,” Princess Luna answered, shaking herself from her shocked state. “He was the Crown Prince when we were fillies.” “If Luna and I had not become alicorns and won the people's support, he would have assumed Equestria’s throne… Er, Luna… Mantle was killed by peasants before we took the capitol, wasn’t he?” Luna frowned. “Probably. It’s been so long… I think they trapped him in the palace with the other nobles present, before burning it down. But I don’t remember for sure. I do remember we spent a few years searching for him just in case he was alive.” Her lips formed a little ‘o’ mid sentence, “The Trixies are all clones.” “He might very well be a clone too, and if he is, and if Mantle survived… I think we’ve just found the root of this thing,” Celestia said sadly, ears drooping slightly as she did her best to contain her emotions. “I-if he’s been alive all this time, we could have helped him! He would have been a terrible ruler on his own but-” “We should ask him for confirmation, before we do anything rash,” Luna said, doing her best to keep calm. “Agreed,” Princess Celestia er, agreed. I took a sideways step towards Twilight, whispering quietly. “Er- Princess should we do anything or let them-” “Let them have their moment, then bombard with questions,” Twilight said almost reflexively. “Do you have parchment?” “No?” I said, tilting my head to one side. “Why?” Twilight sighed. “It's okay, just remember everything you can, we’ll transcribe this later.” … Twilight, you sort of scare me. “Wake up, please,” Princess Celestia said as she gently pushed Sacred’s shoulder with a hoof. Sacred groaned, shifting slightly with clinks and scraping of metal. The tired, need-coffee way that he moved meant he was mostly likely waking up from pure chance rather than Celestia’s push. “Okay, alive… Helmet off…” Sacred muttered, pushing himself up on one foreleg. “Princess Twilight, I thank you for providing a he-” Sacred stopped speaking mid sentence, artificial eyes dilating in surprise and fear as he suddenly had Princess Celestia looking directly into his face. “Cool! They mimic real eyes!” I exclaimed with a grin, immediately blushing and quieting as Twilight gave me a ‘don’t ruin their possible moment!’ glare. “Sorry,” I quietly apologized. Sacred folded his forelegs into a bow, pressing his head against the ground. “Your Highness,” he said reverently. “Your Champion has defeated me, you may do with me and my forces as you will. I am sorry to have worked against your ideology, it clearly produces ponies of a higher caliber than my former master’s.” “Rise, I have a few questions for you,” Celestia ordered. Sacred quickly stood up. “As you will, Ma’am.” “Are you also a clone?” Princess Celestia asked, eyes narrowing in focus as she clearly wanted to be absolutely certain she was not being lied to. “Yes, all of Father's children are clones. Aside from some financial backers and very rare volunteers, we are all his creations,” Sacred answered, lips pursing for a moment. “I suppose, having surrendered, I should divulge the location of our head quarters. It is located-” Celestia smiled at Sacred, cutting him off with a raised hoof. “I have just come from it, and have razed it. You and the soldiers under your command here are presumably the last of your organization. Various branches of Princess Luna’s forces began raids on your other bases an hour ago.” Sacred sighed and looked down. “I knew Father was becoming a fool in his old age… But I did not think he was so far gone as to allow for a total destruction as he did. Though, I suppose most of it is on my head. I was his second… Did you slay him in battle?” “He went down without a fight. I assume this, Father, was a litch of some kind?” Luna asked, interrupting her sister so she wouldn’t have to answer that question. “Yes, Your Highness,” Sacred replied. “I am unable to tell you more. Father did not allow me to learn Necromancy.” “Then the skull we recovered is his Phylactery,” Celestia said thoughtfully. “Luna, remind me to put it into Tartarus for storage later. Sacred, this is important. Who are you a clone of, do you know?” Sacred nodded. “Yes Ma’am, I am a direct clone of Father. While all of his children share some of his blood, I am made as a copy of him. Hence my name shared with my predecessors, Sacred Shadow.” Celestia nodded, face shifting to a subtle sadness. “I see… Do you know who Father was in life? Or how old he was?” Sacred frowned, clearly seeing the same sad look on Celestia’s face that I did. “Ma’am,” he asked, “this topic distresses you. I do not understand why you would weep for the death of an enemy.” “Please answer my questions,” Celestia said, ignoring Sacred concern. “I don’t think even Father remembered who he was before,” he answered. “I have scattered memories of my predecessors. As far as I know, not one of the sixteen of us ever knew his name. As for his age, it is at least five thousand years.” Celestia nodded grimly to herself. Luna took a step forward, looking into Sacred’s eyes as she asked. “Do you know why he wanted to attack Equestria?” “Yes Ma’am,” Sacred answered immediately. “Father insisted he was the rightful King of Equestria by birth, which is what got me to question him. If conquering a land would make him it’s ruler by right again, then surely the logic of ‘he who captures land rules it’ applies to other people as well, and therefore… Your Highnesses, did I do something wrong?” Sacred’s question came as the stallion’s face showed a complete and total lack of comprehension of the concept of someone in power crying. Lily - 2nd of Faust ‘15 EoH - Mid Morning (One Week Later) I sat on Scootaloo’s couch, idly rolling my breakfast bowl around in my hooves. I hadn’t been able to sleep well for a week. I just had so many unanswered questions! Thank Faust Scootaloo was more than willing to help with snuggles or I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep at all. My mind was so consumed with thoughts at the moment that I almost completely missed Scootaloo walking into the living room, her mane wrapped up in a towel. “What’s wrong hon?” Scoots asked as she plopped down onto the couch next to me. “I was expecting you to follow me into the shower… Are you still trying to work through-” “Yes,” I confirmed, cutting her off a tad rudely. “Sorry… Just… The Princesses find out one of their old family was alive too late to do anything to help him, und the vat grown commandos he made are being trained to protect the very city they were ordered to destroy. Meanwhile we still don’t know exactly what the laboratory under my clinic was doing in the whole scheme, so we can’t tell for sure if all of the Ashes were destroyed or not, und then there’s however your parents fit into this an-” Scootaloo cut me off by wrapping one foreleg around my shoulders and pulling me into her barrel in a tight hug. “Lily, it’s okay,” she said insistently. “No it’s not okay! What if-” “It’s been one week, if any of them survived they won't be doing anything anytime soon. And with Sacred’s help, the Princesses will easily be able to track down any remainders soon enough. The threat’s gone, dear,” Scootaloo soothed. I bit my lip in thought, but sighed as I couldn’t find a flaw in her logic. “Ja, okay… Granted. But what about the lab und your parents?” Scootaloo sighed. “Look… This is Ponyville. Something really weird happens every few months, and over time, you get used to it. Nopony is in danger right now, that’s all that matters.” My ears drooped even further. “But if your parents were hired to carry you to term as a test subject-” “The Lunar Guard took all the paperwork from the lab, right?” She asked patiently. I nodded. “Ja… You know they did. You were there.” “Is there any way the Ashes were not keeping records on who was carrying what for them?” Scootaloo asked. “If anypony else was helping them that way, the Royal Guard will arrest them as soon as the paperwork is all inspected. “As for my parents… My mom’s dead and my dad is already in prison for life. What can they do? Put him into another jail cell slightly smaller than the current cell so that it can fit inside the first cell?” “Uh… Well… I guess they can’t really do anything,” I concluded. “But it still feels like there is more to be done before everything is normal again!” Scootaloo laughed so hard she slipped off the couch, pulling me down on top of her thanks to her tight hug! “Hon, this is Ponyville!” Scootaloo exclaimed after her giggle fit died down. “It’s never normal here. In two or three months… Oh I don’t know, some living magic fog will roll in and hold the town hostage for hay fries or something. And then sometime next year Lyra will run into herself from another dimension who happens to be that fictional species she obsesses over, or something like that. “The last few weeks are just what it’s like to live here. If you worry about every little detail, you’re going to go crazy within a year. We teamed up, solved the immediate threat, and now it’s up to the Guard to clean everything else up. We’re done! It’s go shower with your marefriend time.” I felt my ears droop. “E-every few months?” Scootaloo nodded. “It’s slowed down a little over the last few years. It was once a month when I was a filly.” “This kind of craziness, will happen here, every few months?” I asked again for the confirmation. Scootaloo nodded again. “Yes.” “Every few months, my special somepony is going to ascend to demi-godhood, and something will attack Ponyville…” I groaned, leaning into my hooves. “What the hay have I gotten myself into?” “Oh no! It’s not always an attack,” Scootaloo clarified. “Normally it’s just some drama that envelops the whole town. Like Pinkie’s World War Snowball, now that’s something that got out of hoof. And um… Me controlling the weather is weird by Ponyville standards… So yeah, I guess most of the time it won't be anything like this. “My point hon, is that this incident is done, and life is going to lead us to the next one. Or if there is more to this one, it will happen when it happens and we’ll take care of it. So perk up, have some fun, come take a shower with me because that sounds fun.” I pursed my lips, trying to find anything I could argue against. Honestly, all I could think of was one thing. “But you just showered…” “Yes, because I felt all greasy. But seriously, I thought you’d follow me in. I was waiting,” Scoots giggled, booping my nose playfully. “For what?” I asked, not quite get- “Oh!” I felt a deep blush covered my cheeks, and shyly nuzzled into Scoot’s neck. “There ya go, silly,” Scootaloo said, giving me a little kiss on the forehead. “So, are you over worrying about the Ashes? Can you accept that everything’s now in the proper hooves?” I sat up and winced slightly. “Er, well… Nein. But I’m not thinking about it as urgently. I just… I think I’m used to a more calm normal.” Scoots sat up and gave me a quick hug. “I understand. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Everypony does. And well… If you can’t, I’ll be happy to move somewhere within a short flight of Ponyville.” I shook my head firmly. “Oh nein nein nein! You have a lot of friends here, and family, and are a part of the community. I could never ask you to move. I’ll just have to get used to things is all, I guess… This is just the weirdest possible way I could have started a new chapter of my life.” I paused for a moment and looked over at Scootaloo urgently, ears standing upright in alarm! “One more important question! What did Princess Celestia do with Father's skull?” Scoots shrugged. “I don’t know! I assume chucked it into tartarus… At least, for now. I mean that’s her brother, right? She’s probably trying to find a way to fix him. Hey, maybe you could help!” “Ja, maybe, after they find a way to un-undead him,” I muttered to myself. “At any rate, we’re not the sorts of ponies who would be working on destroying that thing. That’s Twilight’s job…and maybe also moms’ and their friends,” Scoots said with a small grin. “Seriously sweetie, it’s okay now. We can just relax and hang out together. How about we go out to the movies?” I gave Scootaloo a long blank stare, hoping she understood what she had said. Scoots cracked a smile. “Alright, fine. Let’s not summon another disaster. How about we stay in, snuggle up, and just have sammiches or something?” “Well…” I said trailing off, unable to object. Scootaloo was right. At least, if she was telling the truth about the frequency of weird things happening here. If this was just how it was, I needed to learn to live with unanswered questions and weirdness. Besides, it hadn't been all bad. Yes, there had been a minor battle, dark hidden secrets coming to the surface, and the possible death of an evil creature. But I had gained a brother, met the love of my life, started my own clinic like I had always wanted, and made friends with the kinds people I had never thought I would have even met in person. If that is what it was like to live in Ponyville for just forty two days, Faust only knew what a lifetime would have in store for me. I supposed an interesting life is better than a boring one though, isn’t it? Besides, I knew one thing for sure, no matter what else happened, I’d have Scootaloo there to help me through it, and I’d be there to help her through it in turn. In the end, isn’t that all that really mattered? Yes. Yes it was. I leaned forward, wrapped my forelegs around Scootaloo’s shoulders, and gave her a loving kiss. “Yes. That actually sounds like a lovely morning,” I agreed with a smile. “After that… Let’s just see where the day takes us.” The End