//------------------------------// // History is fiction // Story: The Phantom of Canterlot // by Azure Drache //------------------------------// "How exactly will your search proceed, Your Highness?" Climber asked. "You seem very confident in your ability to find the source." Twilight, who trotted next to the baron through the corridors of Dragonbite Castle, was very willing to explain her plan, as she began, “My plan is to go through the radius of the phenomenon with your two servants. For this, of course, we need the map to record our measurements and to reconcile them with the circumstances of your family seat. I expect a somewhat circle-like area of effect, depending of course, if walls, buildings or other things within will affect the range." “And you think that would lead you to the source?” “In any case, I can limit the expected horizontal position, however, I will have to measure for the vertical position by myself as your servants cannot fly.” “If it helps, I can let Barksurfer and Chisel each get carried by a pegasus, Your Highness.” Twilight thought for a moment. “If it doesn’t cause too many inconveniences, it would certainly be very helpful.” “Then it is decided,” said Climber. “Thank you, Baron.” A few minutes later they reached their temporary goal. Above the wooden oak door, a small recess had been made into the wall, from which a marbled pony head looked kindly down at her. The marble bust appeared somewhat weathered from age but otherwise completely preserved. As she looked more closely, Twilight realised that the marble head still had small remnants of pale blue. “Is this?” she asked, pointing to the bust. “Yes, Your Highness, this head is a replica of my ancestor, Compassion Snowflake.” He stepped forward a few steps and opened the door with a heavy iron key, keeping the door open for Twilight, and with a prompted gesture, he invited the princess to enter. After Twilight had passed him, he also entered and closed the door behind him. “Welcome to the ancestral gallery of Snowflakes, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight persisted in step with this over-formal salutation. It seemed to her as if the baron expected a proper answer from her, but she could not imagine what or how she should answer, so she just stopped. The baron, on the other hoof, went past her into the middle of the room and lit the candlestick standing on a pedestal with the help of a match. The fire spread a little light in the otherwise dark room. The curtains in front of the only large window were almost completely closed and the sun had already reached the edge of the horizon, not long before Celestia would push it all the way from the sky to make space for the moon. From habit, Twilight tried to cast a ball of light herself, but the success was only very moderate. Flickering light brightened the room for a while, affected by the mysterious phenomenon, but the improvement of visibility was little at best and so she let the light spell go out. In the light of the candelabra, the room was very long drawn. On the walls hung portraits of ponies with small gilded nameplates among them. Important dates were noted on the signs; the time when they were the head of the Snowflake family, their date of birth and their date of death. Some even had their most important deeds noted. Eleven portraits, counted Twilight, and there was still room for some more. At the end of the room, on both sides of the window, Twilight could see some showcases. They contained as far as she could recognise several small items and a few great heavy books. There was also a lectern with a chair in front of it. At the end, a large chandelier on the ceiling dangled. Bright light flooded the room as she pressed the light switch. With the now useless candelabra still in his hoof, the baron remarked with a well-hidden trace of anger in his voice. “You really know how to spoil a carefully prepared mood for a little history lesson.” He blew out the candelabra and set it back on the table. “Uh,” said Twilight, embarrassed, “I didn’t know. I can turn the chandelier off again.” "No, Your Highness, now it's too late.” Climber sighed. “Anyway, if you will allow, I'll lead you through the room.” “Gladly,” replied Twilight quickly before joining the baron. Eventually, Climber stopped and straightening himself, pointing to the first portrait on the wall to the left of the door. “This is, as you can see, Compassion Snowflake," he said proudly. Twilight inspected the picture carefully then slowly moved closer to read the words on the plaque. It stated that Compassion had ruled House Snowflake for twenty-six years and that it was three hundred years ago. The plaque also told that he was the son of Burning Snowflake. Upon further inspection, Twilight noticed that the words were in cursive instead of being engraved in a standard font. Following afterward detailed that house Snowflake was only created by him. With a short look at the other plagues it was obvious that Compassion’s was the biggest with the most information about his life. “Twenty six years?” Twilight asked, curiously. “He must have been very old when he became a baron.” Climber just shook his head slightly. “No, Your Highness, he was twenty four years old when he rose to the aristocracy and founded the house of Snowflake.” “If he was twenty four when he became a baron and remained as the head of your family for the next twenty six years, his death must be at fifty years old.” “You misinterpret the circumstances, Your Highness. I suggest that you read the rest of the plaque," Climber suggested, "Of course it will explain at which age he actually died and why this meant that he wasn’t quite young at this day as well.” After Twilight reading, she announced to her astonishment, "He has it arranged so that every head of the Snowflake family will give his position to the next in the order when he or she reaches the age of fifty.” She looked back at the baron. “Why?" "To be sure that there will be room for the next generation, Your Highness. He had the opinion that with old age comes with a certain stubbornness and a lack of ability to go in new directions. Compassion was not born as a noble, so he was able to see it from a different angle than the other noble houses. Without the desire to cling to power there was no intention from his side to claim the title till his death and," he added with a smile, "no one from the family—absolutely no one—would have dared to give him any orders after he had hoofed over his position with his mother still watching." Twilight thought about that topic for a moment before she asked, "Was she very protective of the family, Baron?" Climber shook his head, a bit unsure, before he spoke. “Well that’s a difficult question to answer.” His gaze wandered around over the portraits. “I would rather say she kept an eye on us”—his gaze stopped by the portrait of a pegasus mare—“or two…” Pointing at an empty spot at the wall and explained, “But—if we don’t show good behaviour, she will, also, slap our hooves.” “Huh?” “As long as we rule like Compassion would have, or more precise as long as we act like the traditional good guy’s everything is fine and we have her support or at least her approval. That means she pulls the strings behind the scenes in our favour, but if we bring shame on the memory of her son in any way, well, then she comes down on us.” Twilight gave the empty spot a closer look. It seemed that a portrait had once hung there but was removed long ago, so she asked, “Can you elaborate on that a bit further, please?” The baron sat down and scratched his chin with his hoof. “Mhh, how to explain this,” he mumbled. “This empty spot once was filled with the portrait of my ancestor, Flippant, till we was removed from rulership by Burning Snowflake herself.” “Why would she do that? And how? I mean the ruler of this baronie is set by Celestia's laws and not by somepony else. I believe you when you say you have an arrangement or old contract with Celestia about your special terms of fellowship but I doubt that she would allow somepony to rearrange her barons at will. I mean it isn’t so that Burning Snowflake just can come here and put in charge whoever she wants.” “You are right, Your Highness,” he said nodding, “but in this case that is more or less what happened.” With a raised eyebrow, the princess commented, “Seriously, you want to tell me she simply walked into the castle and said ‘Flippant, you're dismissed’ and that’s it?” “It isn't that simple, Your Highness.” He made an offering gesture. “If you want to hear it, I will tell you what happened that day and of course why it happened.” “Go ahead, but be aware, I will argue with you about it after you’re finished.” “That is only fair, Your Highness, so let me start with the reason why it happened. My great granduncle, Flippant Snowflake, used his position to his own advantage and a small group of knights around him, as best as he could, instead of caring for the ponies under his care.. He also changed the local laws, as far as the throne will allow a baron to do so in his baronie, to get higher taxes and get rid of the charity costs.” “Which charity costs?” “Oh, forgive me, Your Highness. Compassion once established a… How to name it? Some sort of village I guess, for poor people. Where everyone can get shelter and food, for free of course. It isn't some fancy place and the food isn’t that delicious, but you don't have to starve during the winter or freeze.” “Nopony had to starve anyway, and I don't know anypony that would have to sleep in the cold outside during winter too.” “Yes, today that’s the standard, but back in the day life was a bit more rough. But, of course, the importance of that village decreased over time. Actually, it still exists but it is no longer a place for the hungry and homeless. Yes, you still get food and shelter there but it is more for artists like painters or writers. In short, everypony who does some form of art for a living, yet doesn’t get paid well. But that’s not the point. Anyway, my ancestor closed it nearly seventy years ago. Well, he not only closed it, he chased off the ponies who lived there from our land.” “That's horrible!” Twilight said. “All those poor ponies with no place to go. What happened to them?” “Sadly, their fate is still unknown. The village was closed by the end of autumn. I can only hope they found another place in time before winter arrived, but truth be told I doubt that everyone found it soon enough.” Climber sighed while Twilight let her wings hang down a bit. “However, my ancestor Flippant did more ungrateful things during his rulership. He lowered the payment for all who worked in the castle and dismissed the ones that only got their job for charity reasons. You know kitchen helpers, gardeners and so on. In short, he did everything that saved him money and spent it for himself with dissipating feasts, tournaments and his expensive wardrobe. He really was a selfish tyrant.” “If your ancestor was such a bad guy, why did Celestia not interfere? As her baron he had to justify himself towards her.” “Two reasons, first is that Celestia generally avoided confronting my house as much as possible. I blame Burning Snowflake for that.” He raised a hoof to defend against Twilight's response and explained, “That’s only my opinion. I know you are still not convinced about her. And the second one is that the Democracy War was just thirty years ago from that point in time and Celestia surely didn’t want to risk another one by breaking the sovereignty of the inner baronie rulership.” “That is actually one point I was wondering about while I read your family history, Baron. There was no Democracy War in Equestria. The members of the democracy movement and the loyalist faction simple gathered and solved their problems with a long discussion.” “Oh no, Your Highness. This meeting did happen, after the war, even if the war merely was, primarily, one major battle.” “That’s not what is documented in the history books.” “Well—it sounds better that way, doesn't it? Simply overcome your differences by talking about them and find a solution instead of fighting over them.” “The democracy movement was resolved after they told Celestia their sorrows about the way she was ruling and she promised to take care of their needs to a degree that they would be satisfied with, and they were. There was no war or fight at all.” Climber simply shook his head. “That's not the truth, Your Highness. A nice lie merely to make history more friendly and to teach ponies that talking will fix all the problems, but sometimes there is no room for negotiation.” He moved a few steps to the right, over to a portrait of a white earth pony mare. “This is Birdsong Snowflake. She was the one who actually fought in the battle of the Hooves-Hills a bit south of the Foal Mountains.” Twilight moved a bit closer to examine the portrait at first, then read the plaque below it. “If there was such a silly thing like an actual battle at this place you’ve mentioned, at least your family stood on the right side with Celestia and the loyalists.” “Not from free will, Your Highness. Birdsong was an enthusiastic follower of the democracy movement.” “What?” Twilight asked, surprised. “Why is that?” Climber noticed her body-language, which had turned to annoyance. Standing against Celestia, seemingly, wasn’t a thing Twilight would approve in any case. He had to be careful about this topic so he thought for a moment for his explanation. When he finally started, he spoke slower than usual to give the words more weight. “There wasn’t only black and white in this dispute, both sides had their good arguments and for my ancestor the arguments and advantages of the democracy movement sounded better.” With an unpleasant look, Twilight turned to him, and with a sharp voice asked, “And what do you think?” It was more than obvious that the only answer that would not annoy the princess anymore would be that he supported the loyalists. “I have full trust in the reign of the two sisters, Your Highness,” he started, which seemed to calm down Twilight a bit, “but I am not sure which side I would have joined in those days.” “How dare you!” Twilight stomped a hoof on the ground as she said, “As a baron of Equestria your loyalty ought to be with Celestia and Luna!” “That is more than just a bit impolite to question my loyalty in my own house,” he replied, then followed up with ‘princess’ with a sharper, than his normally respectful, tone. “You told me just a second ago yourself that you are not sure which faction you would support!” she said, angrier than before. “Back in those days, perhaps,” he explained in a nearly disrespectful tone. “Today I support the two sisters—and Burning Snowflake of course.” “What has your wanna-be ancestor to do with this?” “The same as she had to do with Birdsong Snowflake. I can’t act against her will, even if I would want to. Birdsong tried it and regretted it.” The princess took a deep breath and then another. “Elaborate on that, Baron.” He turned to the portrait again and snorted, annoyed. “Birdsong was willing not only to support the democrats with bits and words but really was willing to send troops into field for them. Not necessary to say how useless this would have been if Princess Celestia had not declined to fight herself.” “Celestia never was needed to fight because there was no battle with the democrats at all. They all gathered and solved their problems together,” said Twilight. “That is what the official history is telling, not what really had happened. I told you before that the facts I would confront you with would not be the same as that of Celestia’s fact, then or now. If you’re turning back to simply deny them as false, there is no point in furthering this conversation.” He sat down and crossed over his forehooves. “And I told you I would argue about them with you.” “Arguing is one thing, but simply ignoring them and stamp them as false at once is a different thing.” “Arg, fine,” Twilight said. “For the sake of politeness, please just tell me your version and I won’t interrupt you till you're finished, but,” Twilight pointed with her left forehoof at him, “after you have done this you will let me challenge your version as best as my knowledge lets me.” “Acceptable,” he said. The princess sat down herself, on the ground, and prepared to listen, causing the baron to remember his normally good manners and fetch a chair from the reading-pult at the other end of the room to bring it to her. “Thanks.” “So,” he said with a cough, “for the version of events my family kept written down, and of course I guess there will be other families which have their own versions of this event kept somewhere in their ‘poison hidden’ bookshelfs, it started with the day Princess Celestia decided to reform the laws about territorial government of the nobles about their own land. The short version is that she removed some rights from the nobles about social topics like the one which allowed us to set up towns or villages on our own and even force our people to live there.” He shook his hoof a bit unsure. “It is not clear if that was a good or bad idea, the results however, were a massive discontentment of some of the noble houses about this. This and all the other changes she already made in the previous years but that one in particular was the final drop in the barrel. And here, more or less, the membership of the lords and ladies in one of the factions was set. The nobles in the countryside like my family joined mostly the new faction of democrats who were tired with the way the throne dealt with us. The loyalist faction however was filled with the lords and ladies of Canterlot and the ones that made more profit with trade or mining than farming. “Of course that wasn't true for everypony,” he continued. “Personal preferences, loyalty or the promised outcome pushed the scales for some in a certain direction but as an overview it is useful enough. Till this point the truth hadn’t been covered up with the official history.” A simple nod from the princess encouraged him to go ahead with his version of events. “But in difference to Celestia’s version, these factions don’t simply gather and talk it out, I doubt that it would have worked this way anyway. At this point Celestia had so much experience in ruling the country that she believed she always knew best and in fact that was mostly true. With a normal lifespan you don't get as much experience than she has. On the other hoof a long life doesn't make you infallible either. No matter how wise you are, if you treat your people like little foals, even the one in charge of a shire or a baronie you will cause trouble.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Nobody’s perfect and we nobles have our pride. However, things escalated very quickly. The unity of the twenty four, which was the precursor of the democrats faction, wrote a postulation and gave it to Princess Celestia at one of her courts. It wasn't so polite as it should have been and Her Highness didn’t take it very well. She denied it, politely of course, as she knows how to play the game of politics but the anger behind the scenes on both sides increased.” “Still nothing to start a fight for,” Twilight added as Climber took a short break. “They still could have talked their way out of it after things calmed down a bit.” “Maybe,” Climber confessed, “but they didn’t. But let us skip the details a bit till the time my family was involved. Birdsong’s reasons for joining the democrats faction were friendship, loyalty and personal dislike of Princess Celestia.” Climber noticed that Twilight wanted to interrupt at this point but was held back by her offer to not interrupt him while he was talking so he stopped and made a gesture to let her know that he was willing to listen. “Loyalty?” Twilight asked as she was visibly annoyed. “Loyalty should have kept her at Celestia’s side.” “Not to the throne, Your Highness, loyalty to her friends and to the noble family ‘Clockwork’ which her younger brother was going to marry in. This family was part of the unity of the twenty four and so completely part of the democrats. But the strongest reason for her was without doubt her personal dislike for Celestia. These two had several run-ins with how baronies should be handled. With Celestia’s royal power behind her she won, nearly, all the conflicts between them in this matter.” He gave the portrait another glance. “As part of this family, I know I am biased about this so I won’t try to judge this here and now. It just has to be mentioned to understand the background of my ancestors dislike for the Princess of the Sun.” “Everypony is allowed to make mistakes,” said Twilight. It was not clear to which she referred but Climber would have bet it was Birdsong. “Be it as it is, Birdsong joined the ranks of the democrats and was involved in the things that had to happen. Some of the nobles simply ignored the new laws from the throne and refused to obey the princess’ orders. This of course couldn't be ignored by Her Highness and so she first sent messages to the said nobles to remind them who was in charge and who gave orders to whom and when that had no effect she sent the guard to arrest them.” He drifted a few seconds away in his thoughts before he continued on with his telling. “There is, however, an obvious difference when arresting a criminal opposed to a rebellious lord. We have troops in our service and we, mostly, live in defendable places.” He made a gesture which included all of the castle around them. “It isn’t a surprise that the lords and ladies didn't accept the attempt by Her Highness to arrest them. In short, things got more and more worse till the point this all resulted in one big rebellion with the democrats.” He stopped for a moment and looked at Twilight. “I know what you want to say about this, Your Highness. Yes, this isn't mentioned in the history of Equestria and is also not known by the commoners.” “Exactly, Baron,” she simply agreed. “If I never had read your house history, I would have never heard of this nons… alternative history.” “Of course you would have not. Everypony who was involved in this conflict is dead by now, except for Her Highness and the other immortals. History is written by the winners and Celestia knows this.” Climber couldn’t suppress a smile, “Oh yes, her Highness is as well clever as generous.” “Elaborate on that.” “This version of events allowed the nobles who fought against her to save face and kept the common ponies from worrying as much as if they heard about an open rebellion against the throne. It also supported her royalty a lot, thousand years without a single revolt against her from the inside sounds very impressive compared with: had fought a rebellion of her own lords and ladies against her rulership for homemade problems.” Twilight snorted. “Yes, it was a very complicated matter to keep that all secret and convince the nobles, on both sides, to agree and stay silent. More so for the troops and commoners who were involved in this but even with a few spreading rumours in the following years it still worked. Remember how good Princess Celestia is in politics and how much she is adored and loved by the ponies. If she gives you an order to not tell something to anypony else as it might save Equestria from harm, would you deny her?” Twilight thought on that for a moment then gave her answer. “I… guess I would not. It would be a matter of circumstances but to be honest I have trust in Celestia's wisdom. If she decides it is the best for Equestria I would accept her request on the matter.” After a second she added, “But that doesn't mean I believe your version at all.” “In the bigger view, the same counted for the ponies these days,” Climber said, as he ignored the last part of her sentence, “not that it would be different today. For the democrats however there was more in the scale to bring them back to order. With the version Her Highness told they stayed in charge of their land and also some of the new laws were changed to make the impression more believable that they really had talked about this all in peace. That's the reason so few rumours about the true events spread afterwards, because if they had successfully revealed what really had happened they would have lost not only their land but their freedom too. Being a traitor isn't something that is easily forgiven or forgotten.” He shook his head. “No, they definitely lived better with the official events.” Climber scratched his left foreleg while he sorted the words for the next part of the story. “For the lords and ladies of the loyalists on the other hoof, they were loyal in the first place and so in this case too, mostly. Some of them surely took advantage of their decision to join the loyalist ranks, it was far more easier to get a good post at the administration or an other high position in the court of Celestia for an ex-loyalist those days then for an ex-democrat. Her Highness’ decision to handle the events was a win-win situation for both sides and also for Equestria itself in the long run.” Climber raised and took a few steps around the room, finally turned his attention to the portrait of Birdsong Snowflake again. With a smirk and a little shake of his head he spoke again. “Well, but back to my family. Birdsong was bound to the democrats by different reasons and so she had connections to the leadership of this faction. She got them by her actions during the time of the foreplay of the rebellion. She was very active in the circles of the vacillating nobles, seeking nicely for support where she could and also made threats to those she couldn't convince nicely. Also prepared our castle for the confrontation with the royal guards when it was obvious this could happen and so on. I tell you that to show she got sucked deeper and deeper in this every day and also was known well for her opinion about Celestia. That's very important for later. But by all the things she did, she made one fatal mistake.” He shook his head again lightly before he explained. “She started the second Snowflake call.” “What is a Snowflake call? I never heard of this.” “Simply said it is a command by the head of my house to all who consider themselves as Snowflakes in any way.” “Like an order from Celestia to her lords and ladies?” “A bit more than that. Princess Celestia's orders are important by law and loyalty; a Snowflake call on the other hoof pulls the family strings.” “So it affects your parents, children and also brothers and sisters?” “No, Your Highness, it affects every Snowflake out there, even those who married into other families or moved to the far other end of Equestria and as a Snowflake you have to answer it. There is no excuse or apology when a Snowflake call is made. If you deny to follow it you are cut out of the family.” “That does sound a bit harsh to me,” Twilight said, “as life goes on there are surely other responsibilities and bonds made that couldn’t be broken just for a simple call of the leader of your house.” “That is indeed true, but it doesn't matter. If a Snowflake call is made you have to decide where your priorities lay.” “So if I get that right, if you make a Snowflake call right now, every member of your family has to answer it and follow your orders?” “Yes, Your Highness, that is true, but if I do it just for fun it surely would be the last order I gave as head of the Snowflake family. As strong as it is, it is also risky to make this call. It unites my family to stand against our enemies but also cuts the connections to all those who refuse to follow it.” “I see, a strange old tradition you have there, Baron. So tell me then what was the first Snowflake call? You said this was the second one.” “The first one was about succession for this baronie, I may tell you later about it, for now we should stay at the second one for clarity.” “Then tell me what happened after she made this call and what was written in it?” “Of course, Your Highness. Birdsong simply wrote that all members of our family who are able to use a weapon and are adults have to gather at”—he poked the ground with his hoof—“this castle to join the troops.” “That is one of the points I was sure that would cause trouble with this call,” Twilight commented. “You said Birdsong was well known for her opinion about Celestia and so your family would have known which side her troops would support. I am sure there were loyalists within the members of your family and with this call Birdsong forced them to either break up with your family, their family or to fight against their convictions. That's a horrible choice to make!” The baron simple nodded. “Indeed you are right about that. It is as I said, a risk to make this call and also you have great responsibilities with it.” “How did your family members decide?” “Most moved to Dragonbite Castle, only a few choose to refuse. One hundred seventeen ponies.” “For me, surely, it is a mistake in the first place to support the democrats. More so to gather troops to fight against Celestia, but besides the fact it divides the family, what was fatal from a neutral point of view at this call? Don’t get me wrong I think it is a cruel and in itself wrong but what was the fatal mistake in it from the side of your ancestor Birdsong?” “Birdsong…” Climber searched for the right words to transmit the idea behind it, “Birdsong didn’t make sure that her Snowflake call would be approved, or at least tolerated, by Burning Snowflake.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Slowly I get the impression your ancestor’s adoptive mother had her hooves in everything your family did.” Climber shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.” With a raised hoof to her forehead Twilight gave in on that and said, “Just go on with your story, Baron.” “As you wish. So we had my ancestor in touch with the leaders of the democrats, some troops, mostly family members at Dragonbite Castle and a displeased Burning Snowflake ready to act. Best requirements to cause much trouble. Burning Snowflake told Birdsong she wasn't happy with her actions, but she didn’t tell her on some random day. Instead she did so on the day Birdsong wanted to move her troops to the democrats’ camp near the Hooves-Hills. And of course Burning Snowflake hadn’t been discreet about it either when she had told her in private. Actually, she trotted into a meeting of Birdsong’s performing her duty as leader of house Snowflake, with Lord Grass-Cutter Clockwork and some other knights and less ranked nobles in attendance.”