Elder Reunion
Furrowing his brow in deep concentration, Malich scrutinized the small wooden contraption before him. It was an odd little device, a wooden box with a large phonographic speaker attached to the top and a smaller one attached to the side, resting on crude hook by a short black wire. The executive had seen phonograph records made before, but this wasn't meant to make records. The purpose of the device was to broadcast something called a "radio transmission" via electromagnetic radiation waves.
"And you're sure this works?" Malich asked.
The inventor of the device, Doctor Ino Vation, a pudgy, bright orange unicorn, one of the scientists called into tap into Imperatrix's communicative wave lengths, gave a confident smirk and words to match. "I've already tested it." Ino declared. "A minor issue with delay, and interference could be a problem, the transmitting antenna would also need to be enhanced a little, and an adapter for power is called for, but if you don't believe me, just pick up the microphone and see for yourself."
Whilst the unicorn held and air of competence and certainty that Malich respected, Ino's slightly nassely voice was quick to wear on the vice-president's nerves.
He picked up the wire connected black box from the end, as instructed, pressed a button on the "radio" and spoke a few words into it. Odd sounds came from the box before him, but Malich was aghast to hear another voice cut through the static and respond to him. Feeling a little testy, Malich decided to ask the voice a question. "To whom am I speaking?"
A few moments of silence dragged on with only the crackling and fuzzy sounds to fill the void.
"This is Doctor Ventas, Mr. President." Said the same voice from the box.
Malich's eye brow shot up in muted surprise.
It wasn't a bad prank utilizing a gramaphone and miniature record. The voice was a little distorted, and the crackling of the speaker was irritating, but he'd grilled the pegasus enough to recognized Ventas' voice, and it answered him! He asked a few more question to make sure, each one answered by Ventas with precision enough to eliminate all doubt of authenticity.
The look on his face must have been more flabbergasted than he thought. Ino's smile grew almost earsplittingly wide as he took in his superior's stupor. "And the best part? He's on the opposite side of the wing."
Opposite side of... that was a good two hundred feet from here! This was incredible! This... this was instant communication almost!
"I can tell your interested." Ino said, proudly rubbing his hoof against his lab coat.
Interested? Malich was entranced! The possibilities of this device were endless! Even if there was a longer wait time for response and reply, with this... radio, two ways talking, thing, couriors and letters would become a thing of the past, Malich maintained his compusre, but praised Ino for his work and gleefully listed off the possibilities that had come to mind.
"Two way?" The orange pony asked before laughing aloud. "Oh no, Mr. President, you misunderstand. Yes, it can be two way, but it's so much more than that."
More? What more? How could there be more?! What other feats of astonishment was this little brown box capable of?
In answer to his superior's silent question, Ino stood from his place and wondered to one of the many boards in the confrence room. He picked up a piece of chalk in his magic and drew one square directly in the middle of the board, surrounded by three circles. "If my theory is correct sir," he stated, pointing to the square, "the transmission may reach between point A and point B for the purposes of back and forth communication." He drew a line between one of the circles and the square.
"However, if in the proper frequency..." He drew a few more circles and drew one way arrows from the square to the circles, turning to face Malich with no small sense of pride. "One voice could reach every ear within, not only Unitas, but the entire Federation as a whole where ever a radio is present."
Malich's jaw dropped, his mind working over time to fathom what he was introduced to, and failing miserably to catch on the instant he heard it like he usually did.
"Think about it." Ino said, his voice big and wistful, despite no noticeable change in tone. "A radio inside of every single home, loud speakers all throughout Unitas, Northwood City, Colipso Bay, everywhere! Everybody, from the ponies of North New Equine to the griffons of Columbus, to the minotaur of Vain, hearing the news while they sat down to breakfast, instead of reading the newspaper!"
It took a few moments for the executive earth pony to regain his bearings, but when his state of disbelieving shock wore off, a million and one possibilities immediately sent his brain right back on the frits. To hear the news rather than read it? That would be bad for his news papers, but that would be a laughable loss to Triple M. profits. Hearing the news as opposed to taking time to read it... it sometimes amazed him that the idiotic masses could read sometimes, hearing it, though? That was convenient, and convenient things were much easier to sell... News Papers were a bill for two, a radio he could easily rake in, at least, a 2,000% increase on for sales alone!
It was one of the many perks of industry and pioneering. It was amazing how many innovations came from mistakes and failed attempts at other endeavors; the pencil, the single strike match... project Thanatos' expansion, and now the newest to be added to the list, the radio. Of course, it wouldn't go down in the history books as being discovered through attempting to intercept changeling communication waves, of course.
With his mind running through all of the prospects of capital gains, Malich didn't even notice Ino walk over to the device and pick up the microphone.
"And the best part?" he beamed before saying something into it.
Malich reluctantly tore himself away from his thoughts to listen to what the pony was saying, though what he heard next confused him a little, at least for a moment. The radio's audio was on now, crackling a bit like paper being lightly crunched in the background, but he could hear something else coming from it, a steady sound that he could almost recognize as something.
All to suddenly it hit him and he couldn't keep a rare, bewildered chuckle from escaping his throat.
Music, Ventas was playing music on the other end of the radio. A jaunty, beat heavy, swing like tune that made Malich want to tap his hoof in rythem. The audio quality was absolutely terrible, constant cracks and moments of dead noise, but he figured that the signal and devices could be refined to fix the issues. He was never much one for music, especially of this kind, but in this moment, standing on the precipice of a new innovation bordering on the slowly forming idea of a media revolution, Malich could think of no sweeter sound to hear.
"Hmmm, say what you want about the zebra, but you gotta love Voodoo Daddy." Ino said, lightly bobbing his head to the beat.
Sitting beside her sister in the Canterlot throne room, Luna forced her face to remain stoic and her body regal and royal, despite the torrent of emotions fighting to escape her body. They had a special guest in the castle now, a guest none of them had expected to come. She'd wanted him to, it had been so long... Of course, the scouts had found them... found him long before he was announced.
How he'd entered the country or gotten as close as he had without them knowing was a mystery, no reports of any activity from the western sea board had come in, but the events of today should have sent the entire country into an uproar, especially considering what happened the last time a foreign vessel had entered Equestrian territory.
Still, the knowledge had done nothing but allow time for the churning in her stomach to worsen with each second that passed without him being present. The consequences for this were numerous: a hidden race finally making outside contact, public opinion, his entire reason for coming, and worst of all, the bad blood between he and Celestia, if what said sibling had said about their last encounters were true.
"You seem nervous, sister." Celestia noted calmly, her visible pink eye looking directly at Luna.
The lunar sister took a breath and nodded. "It has been over a thousand years since I have seen him, have I not a right?"
Turning back and closing her eyes, Celestia offered a small, almost indistinguishable smile of reassurance. "I do not know why you are nervous. Between the two of us, it is I he has no favor for."
The solar alicorn turned her attention back forward, her smile dissipating and eyes hardening to their typical regal glare of competence and knowing. Luna's mind didn't have too much time to wonder about the events that may unfold, heavy hoofsteps the likes of which she could scarcely remember back in the old castle began echoing through the new one. It wasn't the sound that sent the chills up her spine, though, it was the small, almost unnoticeable quivering of the floor beneath them that shook the structure to it's very foundation with each step he took.
The closer he drew, the more violent the small shifting in the floor became. Each step sending Luna's heart a jolt until it moved in rythem with the clopping.
The door to the throne room opened and Captain Nocturnal let himself in. The newly appointed Captain of the Guard marched up to the princess, his eyes wide in disbelief.
"Was he seen in the city?" Celestia asked calmly.
Nocturnal stuttered for a moment. "N- No your highness, he... they... I- I don't know how they, uh. One minute they were on the mountain side, the next they were in the garden!"
Celestia closed her eyes. "I see, thank you, Captain Nocturnal. Raven." She turned down to her earth pony assistant. "Please record everything that is said."
Raven retracted the pencil she kept behind her ear, grabbed her clip board and dutifully awaited.
The doors opened a little more, and the golden clad guards present stiffened as a full compliment of royal purple cloak bearing Centaurian legionnaires marched forward in perfect unison of two lines down the red carpet that lead to the throne. Luna could feel a small sense of inexplicable dread radiate from the centaur as they marched forwards, they were larger than she remembered, the peak of her horn maybe touching the mid of their chests, each brandishing a single spear and shield for combat, none of the weapons looking anything less than a full century of usage.
The marching pillars stopped in perfect sync a polite distance away from the princess's, but still in the room far enough to be a considerable force. The lead centaur grunted and every other legionary turned away from the red carpet to watch the guards ponies while the rest faced the walkway.
Luna took a silent breath and used every bit of her will to maintain her forward gaze as a centaur, larger by a good two feet than the legionaries before him, marched into the throne room, flanked by two more of the highborn.
His hard and scared face was a pale, almost deathly shade of lavender. A naked, strong barrel chest covered in ribbons of ritualistic tattoos held strong below the centaur's proud head. Pupil-less, glowing yellow eyes that showed no emotion glared forth, burning holes into the lunar princess's soul. Green hair pushed back with minor strands falling over his face, leading down to the darker forest green of his coated pony like body. Cloven hooves slammed unforgiving against the velvet red walkway with enough force Luna feared the marble beneath may crack and chip from his walk.
Tapio looked different now, much colder and more judgmental than he did a thousand years ago. The only solace the lunar pony could take was the great, big, bushy beard that hung down to the being's waist. Forest green like the hair on his head, bushy, and held in twin braids at the bottom.
The facial hair that had spawned a legend.
He stopped before them, staring at the diarchs expectantly, the staff in his right hand gripped tightly by four fingers and two thumbs. Slowly, Tapio Bearking blinked his eyes, his head turning with a painfully slow methodism as he took in the throne room. He looked left and right, his gaze sending each of the pony guards that stood in the room, judging them with a contemptuous look.
Silence descended upon the room, save for the subtle sounds of shifting skin and controlled breathing from the forest emperor. A thousand years had changed him from the centaur Luna had known, she remembered him being smaller, and much more forgiving. The sickly feeling she felt radiating from him now was an abomination that she'd only encountered from him once during their battle with Tirek.
Luna suddenly remembered what that feeling was called, the nature magic, the 'eyes of the predator'.
"Hmmm..." Came came a low drone of acknowledgement from the ancient being. His tone was gravelly and odly patience, considering his irritated appearance.
"Welcome, friend Tapio Bearking." Celestia declared, her voice a mix of matter of fact and genuine enthusiasm. "It has been some time since-"
"You are no friend of mine, sun bearer." Tapio answered softly, the slowness of his words only serving to accentuate their authority in silencing the Alicorn. His gaze shifted from the death glare at her sister directly to the lunar alicorn and his eyes softened a little. "Luna, it is good to see you again. I have heard... you returned, Milikki sends her compliments."
"Tapio." Luna answered with a slight bow, one he returned with only the faintest nod of his head. "You honor us with your presence, and we are grateful that you have come."
Luna hoped her act of respect would slowly bridge the gap between Canterlot and the Northwood. Centaurs were powerful creatures, quasi-immortals who's secrets to life were hidden from most every living being on the planet to the point many thought their very existence only a myth. It wasn't their raw muscle or magical abilities that made them formidable, but the collective knowledge that such ancient beings possessed. Hundreds of thousands of years of life, of thought, of reason and experience, held by the few thousand or so centaur in existence.
A set number that could never grow, if what the lunar princess had come to understand was true. The highborn, like Alicorns, had a particular method to their creation and sustenance of numbers. Where Alicorns must be chosen and ascended, Centaur had long banned the breeding and creations of new highborn into the world. The conditions to bear a youngling were stringent and only for the purposes of reincarnation, at least that's how things were a thousand years ago. Though, if Tapio was as hard as he'd looked, Luna suspected that the practice had not changed during her absence.
"The Dark One returns, ancient pacts are to be honored." Tapio replied, slowly folding his massive arms over his barrel. "The highborn search through your lands, Tirek is weak, too weak to be found by my eyes."
"He will be found." Celestia said. "I am confident that-"
Tapio scoffed, his next words coming with no shortage of disgusted venom. "I need no reassurance from you, Kin-slayer."
Luna internally cringed, centaurs were not the most forgiving of creatures. Even one thousand years later, Tapio still held Celestia's acts against her. He was not going to make any ties between their peoples easy.
Despite the sun goddess's stone exterior, Luna could see the discomfort and helplessness, she took the opportunity to salvage her sister's dignity.
"Tapio, please." Luna began, both her and Celestia knowing that the white pony would get no where with him. "What our sister did, she was right to do. Calling her kin-slayer is much too harsh."
Any warmth his eyes, for her, had disappeared and Tapio's gaze hardened upon Luna, a quick to grow feeling of dread creeping over her, though she would not be dissuaded.
"We have reflected our actions that day." Luna continued allowing neither; his magic, nor her pain of memory, to intimidate her. "We wished to bring about eternal night for our land, to rule as a tyrant with absolute supremacy and authority. And as you can see-" she gestured to herself "-I am very much alive and un-slain."
Tapio did not reply at first, giving the moon pony a small bit of hope for triumph, though the centaur's face showed no sign of submission to her words. After a short period, he closed his eyes and crossed his massive arms over his chest, his staff resting on his shoulder, before finally speaking.
"Outside of the immortals, both true and like." He stated sagely, as if telling a story. "Of ponies, and dogs and all, one hundred years is considered a very long life, a number of years most never get to see. I have observed these past thousand years, these ten fortunate lifetimes that were denied you, and you, moon bearer, were forced to endure the silence of the stars, or worse, the lone sufferings of a demon."
Luna cringed, knowing that each and every word was slicing into her sister's heart like a hot knife.
"Despite knowing of your suffering before the conflict, Celestia elected to bask in her arrogance and cast your plight to the way. She has admitted as much."
Luna stole a glance from her sister, who's ever present mask of calm was tested to the point of visible strain.
Tapio opened his eyes, staring blankly at them both. "She chose omission over aid and then violence over inconvenience."
Luna's jaw almost fell to the floor at the accusation. Inconvenience? Is that how he saw it? She nearly put Equestria into permanent night, thus rendering tens of millions of crops without the needed sunlight, dooming millions to die of starvation before the year was out, and he had the gall to call such a thing an 'inconvenience'?
Her own patience tested, she lent voice to her indignation, politely as she could. As much as she valued Tapio Bearking's friendship, she valued her sister's peace of mind and lack of guilt more so.
Though, centaurian memories were just as endowed as their stubborn nature. "The night would have lasted longer than it should have... for a time. Mistakes have consequences, this is true." Tapio admitted solemnly before his voice took an accusatory edge. "Though, Equestria was not without allies, moon bearer. Allies whom owed a debt to her. Rather than seek the aid of these allies, the sun bearer elected your banishment over redemption."
"Banishment so we may never harm our subjects!" Luna countered swiftly.
"And this is why we highborn recluse from you." Tapio growled. "Your worship of life's convenience and interference, it makes your... subjects soft... weak... dependent. Complacent in their ignorance to self protection and preservation. Instead of guiding them as you should have done, you lord and rule over them, shelter them, demanding obedience and subservience."
Luna scoffed in indignation. "Now see here! We... we do not rule as... tyrants! The happiness and quality of life is of the utmost concern to our subjects, and they are quite capable and strong!"
Tapio's sneer turned slightly upward as a deep, bellied laugh escaped his throat. It was terrible sound, a frightening chuckle that shook her in the worst of ways. Tapio was always hard and harsh, but this was an unprecedented display of iron and cruelty. She was about to speak, though the diplomat's words beat her to it.
"Quality of life." Tapio snickered cruelly. "Quality of life is your justification for their weakness?"
Celestia interjected herself on Tapio's question, answering that that was the point of rulers, to protect and to aid those they ruled over, to give them guidance and lead them to a place of prosperity and happiness. Equestria had strong diplomatic ties with the surrounding nations, Griffonholm, YakYakistan, The Crystal Empire, the Diamond Dog territories, Zeborica... there was no need for their ponies to be hard and battle ready, the time of war had passed and a new age of peace was finally beginning to emerge within the world. The only nations who'd rejected ties with Equestria were those ruled by Dragons, the lost merponies, and the Centaurlands Federation; none of which was due to lack of trying on Canterlot's part.
"I see no reason to subject my little ponies the brutality and battle, Tapio." Celestia finished.
Luna closed her eyes, already dreading the coming reply. Progress had been made during the past mallenia, so much progress. War was such a common thing back in her time, before Equestria had come into her own as she had. Griffons and ponies were constantly in strife, over the water territories of the, now Celestial Sea. Back then, both Luna and Celestia were in full agreement with Tapio Bearking's philosophy, that ponies needed to be hard and ready, ready to fight, ready to kill to protect themselves and their lands...
But things were different now, and Luna still did not know how to feel about it. Of course, there was always some little strife going on, like the small revolutionaries and reactionaries who'd constantly challenge their rules as diarchs, demonic returns, draconequess revolts, changeling attacks and such, but for the most part, the ponies of Equestria didn't need to waste their lives and talents on such things. They could study other things, peaceful things, ideas for better crops, or new innovations to enrich the lives of themselves and those around them.
"I have seen your... strength, sun bearer, as well as that of your... guard." He spat in faint amusement, his glowing yellow eyes trailing about, looking at the stoic forms of golden clad ponies all around.
Through the nature strewn about Canterlot, he'd seen the ease of the changeling invasion, he'd observed how quickly the city had fallen, how little meaningful resistance the Equestrians had put forth in her protection and felt nothing but contemptuous disgust for its weakness.
"Disorganized, undisciplined, untested." He continued, shaking his head in disapproval. "Your over reliance on your Elements of Harmony have spawned a nation of ineptitude, of cowards and weaklings, this I have seen. Days of knowing an attack would come, hours to observe your foe and prepare. Hundreds of your most faithful recalled for your defense. And even then, Canterlot folded with ease. Even you, yourself have fallen from grace in a battle you would have easily won a thousand years ago. In single combat, the changeling queen felled you just as easily as her... subjects did yours."
He paused to chuckle, though his laugh was not of mirth, but pity. "Had it not been for a single pegasus, one rejected from your world, half of your country would now be dead while the other half enslaved and used as cattle."
Luna had just about enough of their guest's rudeness, but a slight clearing of the throat from one of the legionaries drew Tapio's attention from the guilty/livid Equestrian royalty. The lead legionary gave the ruler of the forest a look before lifting a soft blue cloth in his massive and calloused hand.
Tapio audibly gritted his teeth, looking at the thing contemptuously, as if it reminded him of something he'd have rather forgotten. "I digress." He spat, turning his attention back to the sisters. "Rather than allow your... subjects, as you call them, to live a time of suffering and strengthen themselves whilst she sought aid for your salvation, she stole ten life times from you, one thousand lost years is more than adequate to earn the appropriate title of kin-slayer!"
Luna was on the verge of losing her patience now, the words cutting deeply into her own heart for the pain they undoubtedly caused her sister, but what Tapio said next was what sent her over the edge.
"You cast away your own flesh and blood for the sake of your ill begotten and false crown."
"ENOUGH!"
Luna's eyes were glowing white, her shriek of a word emphasized in the feared Canterlot voice. Her mane whipped and lashed about in an a magically induced torrent of wind that radiated from her. Glowing alabaster eyes locked onto the yellow of the centaur, the air becoming thick with tension and the threat of violence almost coming to climax.
A loud and singular shift was heard as both the guards ponies and the legionaries forwarded their weapons at one another. The pony sisters, alicorn bodies stronger and more tested than simple ponies, noticed the room become more heavy and tense. This was not their first time encountering the might of the Eyes of the Predator, but the guards, the unicorns and pegasi whom they commanded, began to shiver as the weight of their thin allies glare bore down upon them, slowly withering their moral and resolve, breaking the stoic faces of the stallions to reluctant anticipation.
"Enough." Luna whispered, her teal green eyes fading in as the glowing white subsided, her calm bringing back the tense peace of the room.
Even if Celestia and Luna did have the power to defeat Tapio here and now, it would take time, much time. Even a thousand years ago, the Ruler of the Forest was a formidable force to be reckoned with, and she doubted time had done anything but make him even more powerful. It wasn't he that would need to be worried about, however, it was his legionaries and the countless ponies they would slaughter so easily...
It wasn't a fair fight by any means, the centaur, for their love of peace and the calm of nature, were brutal fighters. Borderline savage on the battle field, believing that it was only through the strength of their own that they could protect themselves from the dangers of the world, they trained and fought just as well as they could meditate and maintain tranquility. Despite the show of authority here today, Luna knew that the entire centaur race bowed to none. Many times had she wandered the Northwood, observing the highborn in their natural state of primitive anarchy. Tapio's title as the Ruler of the Forest was in name only, that each centaur was a free one in accordance with their own peoples philosophy, banding together only when necessity called for it and for no other purpose.
It was a misleading title for him to have, he was a leader, not a ruler. A leader, his position gained through being the eldest of his race, his body standing the tests of the ages and surviving when the other highborn had fallen and been reborn by the only true authority the centaur knew.
As much as it pained her to admit, the difference between the ponies and the centaur was self evident. Even the youngest, and thus weakest, of the centaur were still capable fighters in their own right. A single one of them could easily hold his or her own against all of the guards present in the room today, and still come out victorious. There were only a half a dozen non-alicorn ponies in the entire empire who would stand a chance in single combat.
"Centurion," Tapio said, turning away from the sisters, and addressing the head of his escort, "we have wasted enough time on Milikki's errand."
Upon the second in command's word, the legionaries abandoned their battle position and, in uniformity, turned their backs to the princesses and began marching out of the throne room.
Luna called out to him, halting Tapio in his place, along with his guard.
"We have addressed you, as my shala has asked. There is no more reason for my presence among life worshipers." He declared factually, dismissing the princess of the night before continuing his march out of the throne room.
One would find the entire display, complete with an outright dismissal of the Equestrian royalty, a maddening insult of the worst kind worthy of the highest contempt and rage, but Luna did not have either.
The centaurian did not know the pain of loss that the other races had. They did not know true death, true loss of life. If ever one of their own fell, they did not stay gone. What they condemned as "life worship"; the dedication and commitment to the preservation and enhancement of life... they would never know its significance and how precious it was.
How could they? They, the alleged "highborn", the quasi-immortals, hidden away from the world on their island in a constant state of stagnation. Luna had found it a mystical thing a thousand years ago. The philosophy, the methodical dedication and consistency in how they lived, but upon her return, seeing the industry and progress her ponies and the world had made, she found the centaur ways little but crippling and callously inhibiting. Time might as well have stopped for them, there was nothing to gain and nothing to lose. All the centaur cared for was their freedom, free from the concerns of loss and war, free from anything that would harm their nature and traditions, free from all change and progress...
For all of their power, for all of their brute force and capability, for all of their experience and years of life, the only thing Luna felt for the elder centaur, as well as his entire race, was a staggering amount of pity.