"Fool! Fear is my best weapon...now I have to work at it!" The thing, looking like some kind of scientist or chemist with a disease of the frame, pulled tight on the chain binding discord, like a bridle. ”Now I have to lull her into a false sense of security and delude her thinking!”
"It's not my style....."Discord complained like an artist to his shop supervisor, a choked sob followed. "Please..." begged the muzzled mouth, followed by a gag. "Let me go." He knew it was fruitless, begging to the cruel thing on his back gigging him as the reins tightened, pulling the chain clinked and as it sank into him.
His pleading came out of an instinct of survival!
He knew him before, after the swirling wonder of creation. That one, on his back, now, would never show mercy!
Mercy came from another, the first from before, the one who made light known, the wonder!
"Let there be light!"
Day made known the swirling glowing of creation's workshop. Day, revealed!
He was like, the physical and yet, extending beyond what could be seen and so close as if to be inside and yet beyond and inside connected yet separate(unseen above and around, walking beside and also inside). He had borders, an exciting country to live!
"Oh...so this is what it all looks like! This is what I look like!" said the little draconequus.
"Hello."
"Hewlo..."
"Do you want to see things neat and new and never done before?" He asked smiling know he would.
"Am I a thing?" said the draconequus."I like new things!"
"Okay!" He said He picked him up and held him. “This called a hug!" As he snuggled him, the baby draconequus laughed."...and laughter."
"Is it um...safe?" asked a woman who stood by.
"Who is that?" the tyke asked pointing at the woman.
"Ohhh!" He said. "It is good!" He then handed the baby to the woman who held it dangling awkwardly confused and concerned. Staring at him chagrined.
"Hewlo." he said. "Are you good?" asked the draconequus, he concerned.
Wisdom put out an entertained half smile
"Of course she is!" He said. "Now sit over here, and watch, as you always do and bear witness!" he took her by the hand and sat her where they could see everything and lifted the draconequus on her..."this is called a lap. Have to get started with the day."
They eyed each other; he this tall woman, she this fuzzy strange, "I created cute!" thing on her lap.
"Watch now!" He said. "This is called busy...."
They watched in awe!
In that first light that wisdom saw clearly, as she pet chaos head and scratched him behind the ears, He, with that, "I created kindness and mercy, bam!"
Then he did!
Glorious day!
Then he created another, and another, and another......
Wisdom tempered chaos, with kindness and mercy , as they watched together, her and him, the seven days, rejoicing in that first beginning!
That first draconequus,( was it him or his father, made unclear.) had let Him take the reins, willingly.
*When, bird and beast and flower were one; and of endings..? But a dream!
Then someone came along and stole a fruit and everything became so laborious and less exciting…..but the outline and the goal never changed.
That was what He was like, the snippets Discord could remember, pushing against the door, ready to spill out when kindness was revealed to him again! He, rejoicing at the actions of his creations as they proved themselves distinct, individual beings by whatever they did!
”It is one thing to know it works. To draw it out on blueprints and know that it ‘will’ work. It’s another to see it racing round the track proving itself on the grounds! So exciting!”
Not this one, now on his back.
This one hated kindness, hated light, and maybe darkness too, but darkness leached from this one’s eyes like dying flames....it sought to overthrow all creation, (in its worship of a false premise, if it didn't worship anything but itself, that everything was it and it was everything, even the dracoaquis, as well as Marigold and Equestria, delusions, actions made by itself alone), even the chaos before; that the light had revealed, glorious, the workshop to the creation of all!
In madness (Denial: what it was, not even discord would do that. Hopeless: saying right was wrong and dark was light) leaving, not even,
......nothing.......
There......
Marigold Found herself....where?
"You're hereee!"She thought she heard a voice say behind her. She spun around panting...there was no one in the nowhere to be seen or could it be seen ? Or couldn’t , as she spun around all three sixty of the axis, tail and main going everywhere.
Here mind screamed and prattled about the wrongness of it all as she pawed and flailed at the empty around her, with a deeper voice underneath it all, barely inappreciable.
"This isn't how the story goes..."
Finally coming to a still position, a path lit up before her, swirling and scroll-like, tracing itself in the nothing...she was floating above and scrambled, pawing at the ether toward it, she managed to set her hooves on it, body next and hair falling gravitationally toward the hooves.
A sign board popped up, neon words flashing and dancing like eels, this way it said.
Marigold followed, for all she knew, with the lack of horizon, she could be walking up a wall.
It seemed like an eternity she traveled on the path.
"Where am I?" she huffed. "I can't be late! I'll miss my hope of a stallion of my own!"
A unicorn came up beside her, a gold chain on his neck, glinting authority.
"Hello."
"Hello." she said still straining ahead, why it felt like she was slogging through oatmeal....without the pleasant taste or warm feeling.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm on my way to the Selections to find my special pony!" she answered with a sigh of frustration.
"Why?"
Marigold stopped."Why?" she thought. "I know why...why is it taking so long to remember?" In her mind pink hooves frantically searched through files that had mysteriously fallen over and had become jumbled finding at last what was need the file was placed in the heart corollary and compared. A bell went off signifying a match.
Satisfied the assistant barred the door and began reordering the files, "And I wanted a dance party....."She sighed.
"I'm off to find my special pony!” Marigold repeated manically.
"Why?"
"I promised!"
"Who did you promise?"
"My giant: his father!" she said exasperated.
"There are all kinds of giants, cyclopean giants, centurion giants, troll giants, dragon giants....all kinds of magical giants that would have a pony as a son.....
"He..um...isn't a pony and..well, I didn't, didn't feel, um magic from him....not...not really..."she scuffed her hoof on the ground.
"Your special somepony is a pony.."
"Yes."
"Regular ol' earth pony?"
"Yes."
“What is his name?”
Marigold blinked.
“Come on!!!”Cried the poor pink over worked file clerk inside her head as she began a desperate search through the scattered files, now more desperate because she was causing a commotion with her fellow workers, yellow, white and blue, but now her purple supervisor was coming over and she did not want to be demoted to grocery list again! She had gotten too many write ups for including an overabundance of cake flower, sugar, sweets and chocolate.
“What’s the problem?” asked the supervisor.
“I’m looking for a name!” whimpered the pink clerk almost to the point of tears.
The supervisor walked over to a very important file drawer she unlocked. ”Important files are kept in here.” She slowly hoofed it to the anxious clerk before pulling it away. “Remember. The information in these file are acted on by emotion so they may not be wholly accurate.”
Pink thanked her supervisor. Barely controlling the urge to rip it from her barking, “Gimme!” and fed it into the heart corollary. The bell went off, with confirmation and the mare set the information to the brain.
“Imago Dei!” blurted Marigold.
The purple mare came up to the pink one and touched her reassuringly. ”Don’t worry.” she said. ”Do your job. You can’t go wrong just doing your job. Clean up the mess and keep going. ”She smiled and the pink mare calmed. ”I have assurances from higher up, that everything will be ok…”
“Amego Day?” asked the unicorn incredulously. ”What kind of name is that?” he scrunged his nose. “Friend of the day? Who's next tommarrow?”
He then put on a more thoughtful face. “Well, I suppose a powerful giant could name his son anything he wants.” The unicorn chuckled darkly. ”After all I’ve known many powerful giants; the most powerful and awesome went into the dark, shining bright in that sacred dark and discover a great truth about himself, above the sacred and above right and wrong, about how great and beautiful he was, that he desired to reach beyond. We all agreed…many followed.” there was a tinge of grief in the unicorn’s voice along with a slight shudder.
"So, the giant is a giant earth pony!"
"Well, ah, no..."She then described the giant.
"Come, now Marigold..With a name like Amego Day?" speaking sarcastically he then explain how biologically something like that didn't happen. "Face it Marigold...you made it up..."
"I did not make it up, he was kind, and we talked!" she stammered. "He took care of my needs as I came up here!
"Really." he said. "So this giant bent down out of the sky and took care of you like ponies do with the fauna?"
"Yes...uh no.." she explained that he had, but the unicorn countered that this giant had been just a dream.
"A dream?" Marigold began to doubt as the handsome unicorn looked at her with cross front legs. He then stood up again.
The yellow pony inside marigold bit her lip as she saw a light indicating doubts begin to flutter.
“Just do your job.” sang the purple supervisor cheerfully as she trotted passed, making her rounds.
"Poor Marigold..."he cooed in such a lonely voice. "so lonely, for such a long time!" He gently stroked her cheek with his pastern, she closed her eyes. It did feel good. "It’s understandable. You can see how a pony like me could see, that those dream were just a longing...a longing to fill a need." She opened her eyes to his cheerful cherub smiling face. "It’s the season." he said apologetically. "You’re an incurable romantic!” He talked so sweetly. ”You saw the princess edict and you then built up a fantasy around it. Going on a quest: a mission under the guise of a mighty king sending you out, hence...your giant."
"But if only you had been there!" Marigold said. She then told the story up to that point.
The unicorn grinned and touched her cheek again. "Manically running around acting like a foal?" he said dotingly. "Why that was just the passion this time of season we all get!" He stepped back and she got a good look at this unicorn walking with her, a really good look. "Even I feel subject to the passion..."he let out a sound as he bowed his head. ”But there is hope..."he came up close to her. "We are beings with imagination. Surely we can satisfy ourselves right now! Hope in me.." Marigold's eyes opened wide. "I know you burn as I...you’re so hot, why don't we..."
"No!"she said. "I can't do that! Not out in the open, with who knows what pony is watching?" she stuttered. "There is a process!" she stepped back looking at him clacking her front hooves together for emphasis at each word. "I don't know you. Even if I didn't go through the rites of Megan, there is still paperwork to fill out and... I promised the princess at least!" she let out air. "Besides, I'm hot...but that would make me hotter still." she chuckled. "And..."She sniffed. "I promised, and you never break a promise."
A gently breeze came up, Marigold felt relief, she closed her eyes again.
"Do you like it?" asked the unicorn a sick saccharine grin wrapped around his face.
Saffron Sails was doing a quick tour around the deck. She slipped up to the rigging and enjoyed the breeze. It was a lovely moonlit night for sailing. The ship wright had done some necessary, "busy work" and she and her husband had taken the ship out to circle round the mountain that was the capital of Equestria, to see that it held together. The crew had been given the night off, it was a simple maneuver, so they really didn't need anypony but themselves to steer the ship. Then the breeze stopped. The sail fell limp.
Faraway.
"Keep pumping those wings!" said the head weather pegisi.
"I don't understand." said another breathlessly. "I've never had a pressure front come up and block the wind before!"
"Don't worry." said another pony breathlessly. "It’s just a mountain swirler!" He said this with a grin. "Once it builds up a critical mass it will break...and come swirling back on us." he laughed. "You're in for a treat! Have you ever been wind surfing boy?" The other shook his head. "Well this will be nothing like it as we're scattered swirling leaves across the sky! It always comes back on us, always has, always will. It’s a law of nature!"
Back on her ship Saffron opened her eyes to the stopped breeze.
"Odd.." she said.
She then heard voices.
"Still hot?" it was a sickening masculine voice, full of attraction. "Look at all that cool air down below, surely your giant wouldn't mind if you refreshed yourself in the air between here and the ground, surely he would catch you...."
"No...." said the other voice. "What happened before was accidental, he was watching me then, I was in a mania, I was lucky...but he might not be watching me now. Busy with other things..."the voice was remarkably calm and lackadaisical. "I'm supposed to be at the pens, he wouldn't be watching for me here..."
"Marigold?" Saffron Sails said as she came to where she heard the voice. She saw her for a moment entwined in the rigging, her mane and tail wild and frizzed before she disappeared. She approached the place, she found one of Marigolds pink strands in the ropes, where she had stood was warm and her scent lingered in the still air.
She had been there! Had she fallen overboard?
Saffron rushed to the side, the moonlight made everything clear, she would still be falling...Saffron saw nothing.
The hairs on Saffron started to stand up she straightened her stance, a chill ran through her. Something was there!
She turned saw the other. Saffron’s heart caught in her throat, her mind could not comprehend what she was seeing, this eldritch thing!
He looked at her.
"My dearest Saffron: Sweet, sweet delectable Saffron." He said."Let'ssss make a bargain you and I?" It said.
"Gleaming gold, pouring out (after the crash, over the countryside) gleaming gold, in rivers, into that bluest of blue sky grey clouds like smoke, like foaming water washing over the sides! They coming, from the split in your hull, gleaming fountains! Those golden glitters raining down, they gushing down!" swaying back and forth. ”Washing over the studs on your hull.” It came so very close to her. "How you lonnnng, those sweat days of freedom." *It stared her in the eyes, endless bottomless pits of adventure as the back of her mind screamed to just jump in. "How would like to have all that gold back, your license and ship rights restored? Hmmmm..."
Saffron couldn't move her eyes off the thing, part of the rigging? Through the rigging, part of the woodwork and air??! Chains???!!
Like a heat mirage or vibrating air when unicorn were so move to make heat or cut thing for work with their horns to transmit over distances visions of sights or sounds for fun and entertainment or educational information, but it wasn't like that all. It was...dirty.
"All you have to do...issss" it smiled at her touching her cheek, "Want me....",along her back feather touching here cutie mark, the ship with the spider's web of rigging and cranes.
She almost wanted to lean against it.
Saffron bit her lower lip. That voice, that bargain! It was a deal come true. To be pirate again! To free! To swing in the rigging without a care in the world as the crew watched, breaking hearts, crushing them under her hooves, laughing, wherever she went...but it was wrong....To be a pirate again-to be a foal as the crew watch her be unchaste and undignified, laughing!
To break hearts again-
before she knew how much it hurt when one's own heart is broken.
A life without Tackey? The one who was with her, hiding her as she fell apart and to pieces?
He mended and complete her, lifted her up, her yoke-fellow beside as they strode out together in purpose as one, her to become...so much less, alone? Like a stereotype of herself? The horror!
Saffron turned mechanically away, her eyes fixed ahead, her back to him. It was all she could do, turn away, turn away from that, that that, maddening indescribable monster tempting her to break faith, to break her oaths!
She could feel it behind her, moving like smoke, away, its eyes burning into the back of here skull.
"Hafto find Tackey!"She swallowed, feel like she had been kicked in the side.." Got to find him! Can't go back, can't go back, can't go back! Not the way I was! Before my heart was broken....!"
She found him in the steering house.
"I don't like this. This calm, what are the pegsi thinking? Ah! My own self...."he said. She rushed forward and held him. Acknowl was there with him talking." Is everything alright my dear?"
"I saw Marigold!"
"Where?" he said look toward the side. "Hardly, not in this light."
"No.!" she said. "I saw Marigold, on board, tonight, she's in danger." Saffron grabbed the wheel, Acknowl stopped her.
"You'd never get to the pens in time!"Acknowl sadly said.
"We'll signal the docks to get help!" Saffron said tears in her eyes.
“Never get to the docks in time!” said Acknowl
"What happened?" Asked Captain Tackey Tea Sails.
Saffron explained what happened.
"Tell me." asked Acknowl the unicorn. "How did you avoid the monster's temptations..."
It was a surprising question.
"I..."she sputtered. "I simply begged for anything good out there to give me help..."
"Then that is what we will do!" said Acknowl."We will ask anything out there, an ally to life and love for help in saving and protecting our beloved Marigold!" he bowed his head, Saffron and Tackey Tea confusedly copied. "Hello? Anypony there?"Acknowl asked. "You know who you are, we accept that! So we direct our request to you who knows yourself to be. O, ally of, of love and of, of life...the creator of wisdom!Yes. You, you, who, who loves us!" he nodded sure of himself. "Please let our asking be made acceptable and in the way you would have us ask.” he licked his lips. ”Forgive these many words…Please, protect our friend Marigold; we feel she is in trouble..."
"I know she is in trouble!" Saffron said. "If you could help her? Send a pegisi or anypony...."
"Its not supposed to do that!"
"The pressure front is gone! The bubble! It’s collapsing!!"screamed a pegisi.
"Stop!!!" cried the weather lead to his team. "Disperse! No more wind! Too much!"
A tidal wave of air came crashing against the side of the Cloudy Dream, the ship was shaken and tossed! Tackey pinned his wife down holding her on the ship for dear life as Acknowl clamped himself to the deck with his magic and took hold of the wheel.
"Keep us upright, you old toot!" barked the captain.
Small pieces of the ship ripped away some of the rigging came loose, but on a whole the ship stayed together. Then it calmed to a gentle breeze again.
"MY self!" the captain asked his wife. "Are you okay?"
Acknowl broke out laughing they looked at him saucer eyed.
"What's so funny you old toot?!!!"
"I'm sorry. I couldn’t get anything to happen!" he said wiping a tear from his eye. "But you! Forgive me Saffron, I was only trying to placate you. Stags!" He exclaimed. "You really hit the right keys. Right between the eyes! You did. You really made it mad!" he said speaking like a much younger unicorn. "It’s lost that power with that display of temper! The rules you know." he said matter of factually with a sniff returning to respectable unicorn speak. "I have no doubt, that everything you ask will be granted, that, now, that your prayer will be answered. That all I have prophesied is real and will come to pass!"
Looking back at the old unicorn the captain spoke incredulously. "I thought you forswore never to us magic again."
"Son." said the unicorn with endearment. "There is magic and then there is 'magic'. There is the type that has rules: that will always happen a certain way, that requires food for power!" his stomach rumbled. "You owe me breakfast!" he said as if wining a bet against a rival.
"Yes.Me too." said Saffron huskily. "I'm sooooo....very hungry." Saffron seized Tackey, wrapped her legs around her husband. "There's certain magic I need to practice on you right now!" She drew him in as he made a squeak. "Hungry for you!" She kissed him and he melted.
"Oh dear." said Acknowl."I don't want to know!" He threw an old sail, patched a quilt sail over the two. A sail worn and useless that let plenty of air pass through, might as well have been a blanket, why it was on deck instead of in the mast.
"Keep it quiet you two!" The unicorn faced forward steering the limping skyship back, the balloon a little droopy, ballast a little wobbly rolling around below deck making rumbling sounds. Acknowl smacked his lips, showing his teeth, with his tongue playing with the ring on his tooth. "Saffron has to pass a time of testing....expecting." The unicorn rolled his eyes as the sail rumpled about. "Won't the little ones be interested in how it came about?" No pony was listening. "Again.”Acknowl sighed.”' You two make terrible witnesses!'” turning the ring on his tooth with his tongue, his wife Pring Knowl the earth pony had placed there. "Unlike me....well, but for zebra maybe..."he mused.
"Tell me more about this giant." said the unicorn.
"He's kind, he's gentle and he wants all that he made to try to understand, to try to be friends!" said Marigold.
"In order to do that, he'd have to come down to your level." The unicorn showed her a vision of a bipedal creature staggering through a desert.
Marigold saw something familiar about him.
"Look at him, all in the name of restoring relations: friendship!" the thing mocked.
Marigold looked at the unicorn.
"It’s true!" there was a scene. More bipeds about a dozen gather round a fire. "He said it himself!"
"No greater love than this," said a biped no different than the others, nothing special looking about him, "that one pour out his life for his friends..."
Marigold was intensely curious and struck out on her own.
The unicorn started to walk away again, "And for what? Just to suffer and die! For these muddy things he..."it was at this point the unicorn realized he was alone. Where did she go? His eyes widened,"NO..."it snarled.
"Is that why you were angry with him?" asked Marigold drowsily. "Is that why you called him a name and made him get behind you? Was he going to try to stop you from doing great work?" The man was seated, the fire burned happily. He looked up to the sky, smiled, then looked at Marigold, smiling and slowly nodding.
"So you intend to make friends of any who would be your friend and love them before they loved you?" he considered nodded again.
"What love, what trust!" Marigold reared up happily. "Such love, like my father said, that believes all things trusts all things, hopes all things. How can I get, where can I get, no, to seek it out, such love, the kind as you?"
He looked at the fire thoughtfully. Then pulled out a stick and put out the fire by looking at it. He bent it into a circle and looked through it at Marigold holding it tightly. He was still taller than she sitting down, even on her hind legs. He dandled the ring back and forth above, daring her to reach up and touch it , a whimsical smile on his face. On here side, looking through, Marigold saw his face and a star resting on his right shoulder. In wonder, she reached out and touched it with her front hoof.
That instant, the monster whisked Marigold away, he now standing there under the gaze of this man seated, who tucked the ring quickly into his robes near his heart. He glowered at the monster in that twinkle of time at which point; the monster left his presence "an infinite distance, instantaneously" to the effect as to be compared to a bolt of lightning.*
What became of the circlet of twig snatched from the fire?
It went with his clothes, and only the lots drawn know where they went!
The unicorn cleared his throat having receive such an intense stare.
"For that you need power!"in an instant marigold was an alicorn.
Circlet it occurred to him"And...and authority!"he placed a magnificent crown on her head.
"If you just take me, all this can be yours!"Celestia was there in a palace even more magnificent than her's bowing low, all the other ponies bowing."With power to move the sun and moon and manipulate the stars through the skies!"
Then Marigold saw an earth pony resplendent in armor stand at attention, she wanted."Anything you want, yours!"She approached him touched him but instead he cowered away and shook in fear. "The ability to make ponies think and do only what you want!" She turned round and round unsettled by what he said, she had heard it somewhere before. "Look,”he raised a mirror before her. ”Are you not most resplendent in your glory?" She wasn't thinking about what he said or what she saw in the mirror, just the ponies around her, abasing themselves around her in hysteric fear!
"What if that circlet had been a crown?"she thought,"wouldn't that nice fellow be disappointed?" he was so much bigger than her."What would he do?"she became afraid as she thought about what she was tempted to do.
"It's sensible to be afraid of me, after all, I am so much bigger, and those who do wrong should be afraid of me. But my friends I will always help not to be afraid."Marigold remembered."....but he wouldn't be my friend, nor anyone else's, some pony I could share with."Marigold stared at the pony withering under her gaze."He would be a puppet...."
"You would have any pony you wanted..."said the unicorn noticing Marigold looking over the herd before her.”The queen bee: the alpha female!"
Marigold looked at her reflection, she was impressive. However the look on her face, haughty, arrogant, and proud. Here was a mare that would be strong enough to do anything. The power made her look hard, look, ugly, she didn’t like that.
Marigold didn't want that.
"No thank you." she said taking off the crown slightly glancing at herself, diminishing, as the palace evaporated and the ponies faded away, removing the wings and horn as easily as props. "But I have my stallion I need to find."
They were back in the wild woods, the wild wood in her mind, before them stood a wild tree. A face emerged from the tree. A face unfinished and wrapped in red vines pulsing with a throbbing heartbeat, "This? This is this thing think you worth it? What want you really?" said the unicorn leaning against the tree, looking at her as if she were stupid.
"No! That can't possibly be him!" she said in horror.
"You're right!" said the unicorn glibly. "Take a look at the things ancestors, his great uncles!" The bigger ape crushed the smaller with his fists, crushing him like an egg. The unicorn and the pony then flew together into the sky, zipping past an elderly couple deer in the headlights look in their eyes. "But mother and father, did they come and stop them, try to prevent what was obvious to all, after such a mighty fall, one son claimed, a possession, the other? Nooo! Instead they made another," then the unicorn showed an angry mob." And look what his descendants did!" that same biped from earlier, the one who looked just like him, the crowd...."Marigold looked away.
"And you want to make him your family, some foreigner, some stranger?" Marigold opened her eyes and looked at the unicorn, lovely and pretty: the very emblem of virtue. "Come on..." he smiled.”The vision prophesied the child was born out of unicorn. "He smiled. "Why not make that unicorn...."he let out a breath."meeeee...!!!"
"Test the spirits, not all come from me....I will never tell you what you do not know...all who are friends of life are my friends....."marigold remembered.
"Let me be your dream...."
She recognized the intruder, he was trying to bully! She blocked his attack and defended wrestling away the idea.
He was losing.
According to the rules of Equestria... being new and a traveler in time, all be it, hitchhiking a ride on anther's back, the rider decided to take a pause and assess the situation.
He was allowed one pause.
"Okay." he said looking over the frozen mental refection of Marigold before him. "Time to improvise...."
The Cossack rubbed the beard on his face, the chains on his uniform clinking ever so slightly.
"Sooo..."he said, "You're not into power." his brow furrowed. "What is your yen?" said the Mongolian rider of the plains. He leaned over discords head and looked into the reclining face of Marigold, with discord's finger on her head, as she lay on her side her eyes eschew. "huh...."said the rider, looking into her face a blotted scarecrow with hooked nails wear a backward baseball cap. "The changes are already happening, everything He touches changes, more like him, more like themselves..."The rider grinned. "The image, right, in, the, mud." He glowered over her."Welp, let’s see if we can find something out from what in left...the ugly left, uglier than me!"
"Ahhh.." came an awful toothy grin. "But what is a lady finery sitting, starring in the mirror, at her vanity?" she said as she leaned in remembering the glances Marigold gave that mirror in her court. "You and I are not so unalike after all." said the cruel face of a haughty Amazon princess in manacles as if escaping from Prometheus rock.
The rider returned to his place in the reflexive mental construct and hit the pause.
"Ah! You have defeated me." said the unicorn looking at her with a piggy eye, bowing down the chain of authority round his neck. "I am ejected..."he disappeared in a cloud of sulfurous fume.
Proud Marigold!
She had defeated the enemy all by herself (not knowing how)!
Inside Marigold the mares of the office were celebrating, they had won.
All celebrating except for the purple supervisor sitting on her haunches, chewing her lips, her eyes wide in horror, a barely visible smoky shadow circled round and round her keeping her within an imaginary circle. Keeping her from making her mind known to the rest of the office.
"If I have won, then where am I?" Marigold pondered." Its dark so I must be in...some kind of large cave...yes!" She shook her head vigorously.
"Oh for heaven’s sake!" said the moon high above. Luna peering out."She is as thick as he is! How in heavens are they ever going to meet!"
"Patience Luna."said a male voice."He's interfering with time. With my will set down. Being sneaky. You think he'll get far? Patience. Everything will always work out."
"Finnne...."Luna said, spinning the moon like a coin till the profile of Nightmare moon returned.
Marigold strode out, what she thought, confidently, but she stumbled around in the dream, drunk as a fly in a pitcher plant, not knowing how close she was to the digestive tract.
She found it.
She tripped.
In her mind a rip!
Great jagged chasm was before her. A deep darkness lay deep inside! She notice something Beside it, a box, something inside her warning her not to open it.
What was she to worry? She had defeated the enemy soundly and completely, in her haughty mind! This was her reward, she told herself.
She opened the box. In an instant a stallion of her dreams appeared everything she imagined. He was gorgeous!
He embraced her.
"At last Marigold, you have found me!" He was as beautiful as the illustration of the stallion depicted on the edict nailed to the tree. At last her dreams come true. "Yes!" cried Marigold ecstatic.
"Our children shall be great and many!"
"Oh yes!" She did care, her needs, her wants!
"They shall bring down kingdoms and trample down worlds!"
"Ye...what?" the words caught in her throat.
His words were sickeningly sweet." They shall go from world to world, multiplying becoming a mass higher than the heavens, subduing them!"
"No..."Marigold thought in disbelief.
Teeth appeared on the shadow and the mare waited patiently for the thing to devour her, closing her eyes.
Now Marigold was afraid. There was something was wrong its eyes. They shined red reminding her of the predator of the valley in her dreams. Its embrace, like chains, cold and unfeeling and he looked exactly like the poster in the park.
All eyes in the office turned to the purple mare circled by the toothy shadow, fear filed the staff.
Marigold swallowed for words to test it. "So..."She licked her lips. "If I chose you, forgot friendship, and said to that world, the world I saw were the monsters ran around like mare aflame...die...it would come to pass?"
He smiled. "Oh Marigold..."he cooed. "I like the way you think, just like me. "He came close to her. "I knew you were part of me!" the embrace was colder. "I would guide your hooves to make it happen, that entire world...desolate and empty..."he hissed.
"All the children, the animals, everything, dead?" Marigold said her lip quivering. The things expression froze all that feeling merely a reflection of her!
"Then I don't want you!" Horrified Marigold shoved too pulled herself away.
Suddenly, it grabbed her. "You will take me!!! Our children shall careen across the multiverse slaying thousand, million drawing to a close the reign of mortals !!!!!"
"No!!!!"Marigold screamed hitting him in the face. That drawing of a face, out of an artists scetchbook, split itself in two, a parade of a unicorn revealed, snapping at her, a maw full of tentacles the kind eyes gone!
Chaos was in the office, they grabbed what files they could and pulled away the super, they scattered to the winds to evade the pursuing predatory shadow!
She broke free, she shouldn't have been able to do that, herself from the grip of the snake eyed, split faced, unicorn thing threatening to devour her and ran, ran into the wilds.
"You can't escape me!" it cackled. "This isn't real and when I find you, none of this will be real! With the power of chaos, the universes will be mine!!!!!"
The office staffs had made a barricade and were huddled together. “It” would not be kept out.
As they all cried their apologies there was a crunch sound then quiet, they cleared the barricade to reveal a shy wild pony so very transparent, who immediately spat out the severed head of the snake and looked very embarrassed and shy. Another pony trotted up, as see-through as the other. ”That was so awesome!” she said.
“Welcome promises of the future!” said the purple pony."...and garantee of faithfulness!" she mused the rainbowed ones hair up.
"Stupid romantic notions!" Marigold snorted afraid and crying. "They nearly got you killed, or worse!" She galloped hard along the path till she came to a split. She stopped to read.
The office was back together again, having locked the predator out, all eyes on the supervisor.
“Think.” she said most serious assuring them. ”Just do your job and think.”
One sign said, "The valley."
The other, "The maze."
Marigold set her hoof to the path of the valley and stopped.
"Valley of the Shadow..." she remembered.
Well she knew the valley, not in a good way. "It" knew the valley better. Suffer to say that was the predator’s territory. Going that way would be like jumping from the airship earlier. She could hear it behind her!
"Make up your mind!" she huffed.
"She who hesitates is lost."she remembered from Celestia.
"Maze it is." she though as she bolted down the path.
A thing, the shape of a man knelt down and examined her hoof tracks. Something scampering and crawly, like a millipede, scurried over its body, clicking , the of back his arms, his back, across his war painted face, over its bloated belly, painted with bulls eye on it. He stood up, bone through its nose, dead bird round its neck, feathered headdress. It ran across its open palm clinking. He caught it tightly. It curled round and round as the savage clenched the chain, turning his hand red. He brought that hand to the open palm of the other in front of his face, holding it there as the other grasped around, looking over both with a vicious scowl. He put his feathered riding crop to his cheek under his turbaned head, as the ruby in it glinted, the gold chain around his neck clicked. "Someone is helping her." he said mimicking a bad stereotype of the local accent of the costume.
He pulled tight on the chains around Discord and whispered in the choking draconequus ear, "I wonder who? Jigsaw!" it was rhetorical as Discord gagged.
The rider began to whistle as he placed the flap of the ridding crop bind his ear, on his oiled head, walking along in his ruffled shirt and waistcoat watch chain across. She periodically swatted at the green of the shrubbery of the maze, walking along swaying in her knee high riding boots chains on their tops, red jacket and fox hunting gear. Swelling up as a blot fly on his legs to pudgy to carry her in the too tight fox gear, she was wearing.
"Come out come out wherever you are!" It said saccharinely
.......
Marigold came to a break in the maze wall, before her was an image of a purple unicorn.
"....with friends like you who needs enemies..."she cried bent her head down, and began turning grey.
"Celstia!" cried a pony before Marigold could contemplate the scene. "Its father! Mother and Father had an argument," she was a lovely golden color, washing out the grey that was popping up everywhere in the maze, her eyes afraid." He said....she said.... his jaw just went slack....he just stat! He doesn't speak....he doesn't move!" there were tears in her eyes. "His face is a nasty color! Oh aunt Celestia! Help! Come quick!"
Marigold was flummoxed. "How could anypony, let alone an earth pony, have Celestia as an aunt?"
Marigold recognized the next as earth pony drawl.
"It can't be over. Nopony, nopony whatsoever. Nothing, nothing best be moving".
Discord: When all the truth does is make your heart ache, sometimes a lie is easier to take!
Marigold saw a golden mare flying through the air being pulled by a necklace she wore with a jeweled apple in it.
"I know this one!" came the craggy voice of the rider. "You look just like you ancestor! Apples taught this one to lie!"
"Help me!" sobbed Discord's voice.
"Well played..."came discord's voice again. ”Well played." It sounded so pathetic.
A normally cheerful voice spoke exasperated, making Marigold’s pink hairs stand on end, as if she knew that voice.
Stop it! Stop laughing at me! You are huh...Need a good laugh? What are you laughing at!"
Smoke and flame filled that part of the maze. Marigold couldn't get a look as she walked passed.
"Dragon! If I get you to laugh will you leave?
"I have never laughed!"
"Take a good look at me!"
The dragon laughed. "Oh! My!" more laughter. "You are a long way from home! I've never seen anything as ridiculous as you!"
Something shot by the opening startling Marigold, then; there was Celestia in full battle armor.
"I find your battle training sorely lacking...."she said sourly. "I will have a talk with your trainers, just as I have had a talk with your tutors who were supposed to teach you about the law.” A groan came from a pile of rock that was once a pillar. "All is not lost, the winter is long and so we have time. I will not send my judge out again to look a foal!" Celestia took a stance. "Now, I see you! Come at me again. "Marigold only saw a minimalist grey blur full of furry, she blocked in an instant sending him flying. "Terrible. I'm going easy on you because today I need you to know the laws of evidence." her student groaned again. "By tonight, while we work on your mountain moving, earth ability," Marigold could hear a guttural grumbling and cursing, "YOU will recite," she brought her head eye level to the pony to beaten armor clearly intimidating him, "the fundamental laws of evidence!"
The vision disappeared.
Again another voice.
"I like very much. No. No. Must Get to the center, reach the others. Mine! Mine!Don't get any ideas about my gem!"
"Mine!" came a different breathless voice. "At last! At last!" she gasped. "He's minnnne!!!!"To Marigold it sounded like herself.
Marigold quickened her pace past; she did not want to know what was happening there.
A tower appeared before her. A voice came from inside, "You! You! Sit! Right there and you my lady sit! Here!"
"Know your place!" said a voice shocked. "Do you not know who you speak?"
"I speak as if to speak to two young fillies, caught taking sweets!" Now she was accusing. "You first, and then her, and then you again afterward! You should know better! Taking what you shouldn't take, going where you shouldn't go!"
"Do not abrade your servant." said a voice that sounded like Celestia's. "What should we do Pegisus?"
"I mocked him, The Rider, I did, when he came for my mistress and I laughed and I laughed at him and ask for help from the creator of life itself." She said stoically. "We will ask for help again, and ask to be protected from the shadows!"
The lonely tower disappeared.
There was the cry of a baby.
"Please take care of her." it was young filly's voice.
"What is her name?" asked what sounded like Marigold.
"Her name....name is....Constance....." then there was a ticking sound, like a small clock, then quiet, only Marigold and the maze.
She swallowed, she couldn't think what that meant, it could all be a trap of distractions for all she knew, she had to keep watch she had to be ready for that predator, the rider.
A tall stoic figure stood before her. At first, Marigold thought he a statue, till he blinked, a fare haired unicorn with bleary blue eyes, he had a stance that would put an ,of the royal guard to shame despite the massive inhibitor ring, almost a manacle, latched on his horn,. As Marigold approached, she began to notice differences. His cutie mark: one that signified the pride of unicorn, history and heritage a deep gash, a scar ran through it.
Grey ran through his blond mane, he held himself as a young stallion but he looked a little grizzled, old enough he ot to have been retired. And his armor! Old and dented, it wasn't even Equestria's style. Marigold looked over it, she spotted an eagle, wings unnaturally straight, then something battered and battered again, where there were holes only shining because some pony polished his armor daily, two lines intersecting, like a crossing the edges totally annihilated. Despite the air of gloom he wore, he held his tattered spear straight. He guarded a large slab,strange glifs, but Marigod could read the name. The name on the stone read,"Issac" and it was written." Celestia. There's been enough, no more. For my sake, this once, have mercy."
Marigold turned to leave. "Please...."came a small voice from the stone. "There is so much to atone, but he won't be doing much if just standing there, alone. "Marigold looked to the guard, she felt for him. "Even if it cannot, in a lifetime, be undone, please send someone."
"Someone?" Marigold said.
"Hello." said a young filly startling Marigold.
The guard looked down at the filly cross eyed.
"I come here, with my family." said the filly. "Father has us sing to the statues, especially Nappy and The Old Carob and of course discord, though Celestia always makes a face at that like this." the filly made a scrunge.
The guard looked away.
"Maybe, you've heard us sing?"
No response from the guard.
"Well, I know about you." she said expecting an answer. "Mom and Dad say, 'leave that one alone.'"she puffed out her chest."Celestia says you irredeemable!" she snorted. "I don't believe it! My dad says, 'None alive are irredeemable.'" She said proudly. "I realize, you may not understand me. So, I am going to sing to you..." she stood up and took a deep breath. "In your own language...I searched and search...I found it!"
She began.
*Ein' feste burg ist unser Gott,.......into the forth stanza.
Das wort sie sollen lassen stan,
Und kein dank dazu haben,
Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem plan
Mit seinem geist und gaben.
Nehmen sie den leib,
Gut, ehr', kind und weib,
Laß fahren dahin,
Sie haben's kein gewinn,
Das reich muß uns doch bleiben.
Her father called and the little filly left.......and the stallion was greatly troubled, he trembled and a tear left an eye.
Marigold saw him much older, an older filly capable of making wise and discerning decisions, knowing her own mind, came and set a blanket a short distance, she had a picnic basket.
"Come and have something to eat!" she teased something light and fare at him it was practiced as if she had done it many times before.
The guard looked away.
She sighed. "For the past few weeks I've been doing this every midweek, but this time, I know that you've had nothing to eat today..."
The guard’s stomach growled still no response.
"In my job, following my mothers practices, when I find the time, for your sake, I've gone to the best unicorn cooks and bakers in all the capital and Equestria. finding ponies who make the the lightest and most traditional digestable fare, as to not shock your system into indigestion, for the grass you have always eaten, and the fo
untain you always must drink from." she said trying to tempt him again.She dipped the tip of her hoof into a small cup and brought it to her mouth. ”The specilty made by a cheif in that new city, Manehattancoat."She smacked her lips."So creamy! You simply must try!”
Still no response, the mare closed her eyes looking totally serene as she turned her head to the sky."Oh..mom.."she sad saddly,quietly.
"How dare he make this one cry!"marigold blinked, an idea occured to her. "Do I dare?"Marigold though mischievously her tongue through her teeth. She jostled the stallion at the moment the guard was startled by leaves, the helmet came off his head, it rolled up to the other mare who seized it up.
"Mine!" she said with a smile. "And I won't give it back," she grinned wickedly, looking at him through half lidded eyes and lashes" and who knows what Celestia will do to you if you've misplaced your armor!" Marigold snickered, she knew that smile.
Now the stallion was looking at her, panicked eyed under his golden and greyed mane, rubbing a shoulder as if remembering an old wound, she filled it up with some food. "Come over here." she placed it on the other side. "Eat with me...."
He stared at her chewing his lower lip. At last he relented, humbly and meekly walked over, and slowly descended beside her.
"Don't worry, father has Celestia's ear for some charity ideas along with her favorites...with Sunshine, her most favorite! She'll be busy till the sun goes down. No pony will bother us, its spring." her smiled dinned. "Then, you can head back to the barracks, back to that haystack of yours, in that barren clapboard shed in the back, staring at those bare and empty walls, waiting for your next assignment for the earth pony guards. Or till they are ordered to humiliate you again scrubbing you down publicly."
He had no reaction and had quietly started eating. "You're not going to talk about unicorn superiority are you?" she asked.
He let his mouth empty before he spoke. "No,no." he said a heavily accented voice. "Unicorns are exactly like everyother pony." he took another bite. "Except with horns, "he took another bite, "and can move things." and another bite. "and can perform fantastic Thurmatic displays of...."she put her hoof to his mouth.
"I know you haven't talked for a long time," she smiled sweetly. "How about you concentrate on eating instead," she moved her foot away. "Think about what we can talk about."
They sat enjoying each other’s company.
He spoke again." Earth ponies have their glories. There are many wonderful aspects," He reached out and cautiously touched the most extreme tip of her tail. Her face expressionless she moved his hoof to her rear hoof. He pulled away looking forward turning red; he had not touched another pony like that in a long, long time.
The vision swirled away.
"That was weird." Marigold said.
Discord: Listen closely. A weighty choice is yours to make. The right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue the foundations of home will crumble without you!
Now a panicked voice could be heard."
"Crumble without me? No!!!
Marigold saw the pegisi looking at a box with a ribbon on it.
Leaves began to fall. Marigold picked one up admiring it. Wait a leaf doesn't look like that. It wasn't a leaf...her mind snagged the answer.
"Wings!" Marigold dropped the thing in horror. She looked up. They were coming from a solitary red and brown cloud in the sky, the color of a scab.
"DON"T LEAVE US!" cried voices from the cloud.
"You only have to blame yourselves!" said a pegasus pushing a balloon in a team.
"What have I done??!"gaped a voice.It came from that balloon drawing away from the cloud."Get me down."said the voice.
"Getmedowngetmedowngetmedowngetme down!!!!!"
The balloon touchdown there was the sound of clattering hooves and cast off armor.
That moment a comet crossed the sky. It flew to the ground and everything was obscured by the flash. Marigold shuddered as the explosion tearing at her core, the very foundations of her being!
The light dwindled into a lovely golden colored filly.
"Come on!" she said it was the same one as before with Celestia as she ran past Marigold.
"I don't know about this!" said a pegasi running past on the other side of Marigold wings held up excitedly. .
"Don't be silly!" said the radiant golden filly to her sister. "I promised mother I would help you learn to fly and that is just what I'll do."
There was a slightly annoying ticking heard. "Why are we here again?" asked a much older unicorn filly with a pocket watch tastefully set of necklace around her neck with a younger one coming stage right. She looked at the watch,”I have homework I need to get to!”
"Yeah!" said the unicorn filly as young as the other two. "And I wanna get ice cream!"
"I need you two here!" said the earth pony confidently stomping her hoof." Your essential to my master plan!" she raised her head high.
"Listen to you!" said the older unicorn filly. "Going all 'Aunt Celestia' on us?"she said in time with the ticking of the clock.
The filly glared at her unicorn sister."...and you’re starting to sound like a capital city snob!" she stuck out her tongue.”Are you going to tell me its ‘ a complete lack of eff-ecient-ce-cy!’” glowered the earth pony.
"I just wanna fly!!"Cried the Pegisi before the argument could germinate losing focus on their objective.
They came to a place, a high hill, the earth pony made the pegasi climb on the unicorn's back, only because she was tallest and told the younger unicorn to stand below the birm and help lift the pegasi when she jumped off. They did this a dozen times and failed, falling in a heap.
"Oh come on!" said the earth pony to the younger. "You have to start, then older sister can help!"
"I'm not that old!"
"I know what sister can do!" she said. "Show me that horn on your heard can do more than sound like a kazoo!"
Marigold heart filled with joy as she saw the four accomplish their goal and the pegasi lifted of the ground, flying.
She landed gracefully, to the laughter and embrace of her two sisters.
"Now." said the older sister the ticking symbolizing time was fleeting and short." All you have to do now is find your marks!"
"Way to spoil the mood Constance...."said the younger sister as the two others groaned.
Discord: Looks like you’ve been left behind again by your so called friends.
Then came a voice filled with faith. "Oh no I'm certain their doing their best to find me."
Discord: It must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are.
"Not at all." she said not at all discouraged. "I know I am weak and helpless I appreciate their understanding."
Discord: Surely it burns you up inside when they are always pointing out your flaws, right?
"Not really, in fact, I think I'm lucky to have friend who want me to be the best I can be." she spoke confidently.
In that moment the pegisi and the draconequus froze. Marigold felt a breeze behind her. She turned to see another pegisi.
"Hello Marigold...."Marigold could see her, she knew she was dainty and lovely, but she couldn't define her or her cutie mark.
"Stay away!" She cried. "Whatever you are!"
"Please...don't be afraid." said the older pegisi."I've been sent. He asked me to go and I volunteered and went after one called out in faith!"
"Are you a ghost?" Marigold looked at her cross eyed.
"Oh no.Don't be silly...spirits of the past can't communicate with the living." She smiled rolling her eyes to the sky as if sharing a joke with someone. "Now of the future...let’s help move your story along hmmm?"
Marigold was about to lash out again when the pegisi spoke.
"I will tell you only what you know..."Marigold knew that answer and she calmed. The Pegisi came closer to Marigold. "What do you see?"
"I see a weak mare." Marigold said. "About to fold under the power of a monster."
"....and yet she stands!" said the pegisi "How is that?"
"I suppose because her strength comes from somewhere else..."
"From where?"
"I don't know...."
"The monster from before? Was he strong or was he weak?
Marigold felt ashamed and sighed," He was strong..."
"...and yet he failed. Why?"
"He didn't fail...I only found out because..."the horror gripped her as her heart began to pound. Marigold started to hyperventilate."...because, because...I am weak!" She fell to her haunches. "I am so week and a coward!" All her memories came back from her travels, she hadn't done anything unless she had been bullied or temped or let the worst of herself out.
Her head bowed she began to sob. "I am soooo weak! What am I going to do?" She cried some more.
The pegisi reached down and touched her cheek. "And yet, the other still stands against the monster and his temptations, how?"
"Because in her weakness she is strong?" the idea seemed ludicrous!" That in its strength, it is weakness?" she looked up to the pegisi.
"What does that mean?" the pegisi was earnest in her anxiousness, wanting to help but for the rules.
Only what Marigold knew
"What is strong that would be flawed?
Marigold remembered a field trip her class had taken to a foundry. There the blacksmith explain after a long lecture on metal fabrication..."
...good metal cannot just be strong, it must be alloyed, allowing it to have flexibility and rigidity."
"Metal." Marigold said. "Alloyed metal is both weak and strong."
".....so you are strong?"
"No..."she said. "I am week."
“And yet you stood up to the power of an alicorn earlier? How did you do that?”
Marigold was flumuxed turning pale. ”I rememberd how the giant would feel about such things, I want to do my best for him, I want to keep my promise!” She stuttered.” I remembered his words and held them.” She looked away. “But I was flawed, the thing that made me turn away was seeing how ugly I looked in that mirror, vanity!” She pawed the ground still looking down. ”And my vanity, that thing got me to embrace it.” Marigold shuddered. ”I only broke away because I remembered my giant was a friend of life.”
“And because of that embrace there will be consequences.” said the pegisi.
Marigold looked away and made a choked sob.
…but when you find him, he will help.” said the pegisi again. ”So we know from where the help comes,from one greater than the monsters.We know him because He is on the side of life, from good help and good words, all are know by there deeds and their fruits. If you stood against the monster, with such bad motives as vanity and got away from him know how good life is, that you are loved because you are alive, that you exist because all thing that exist, good and life made, how can you not stand now?” She reached down to Marigold.
The pegisi smiled "Let the weak say I am strong!" she put her hoof under Marigold's. "Having done all you can to stand, stand anyway!"
"Let the weak say,' I am strong!'"
"I....am...strong!!!"Marigold said as she began to push herself up in the real world.
She began pushing herself up with all her might as an earth pony mare. Against the mud her face was in, her face rose.
"I...am...strong!!!" She grunted. She still couldn't see, and her mind was a muddle, with nutnilla in her mouth.
"I...will...stand!" She began to rise despite Discord's talon on the top of her head, panting, her chest heaving.
Discord was surprised.
"Huh...stronger than I remember; not as strong after ,hmmm, must have watered down during the years coming through the family lines. You're becoming more trouble than Flutter Bye, little mother!"
"You did it Marigold!" said the pegisi embracing her. She held her legs distance away and looked into her eyes. "This monster is cheating, trying to use the rules of the world he used before! Using the only one who may override the will of others, don't you give in!" She grabbed Marigold. "Remember: self control, discernment and faith are on your side. Above all have faith, for in weakness, He will give strength in hope and love. Remember: here, the enemy cheats, but he can’t make you do anything you don't let him do! For his strength lies only in brutality! Remember! He can't, read, minds!"
Then the pegisi sang this song.*
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
.....one little word can fell him.she sang.
"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!!!!"
Then the monster screamed, tired of searching for Marigold among the hedges.
He stomped the ground in Marigolds mind and everything disappeared like roiling silk even her savior, the pegisus.
She saw the thing on the monsters back wearing a large floppy hat, screaming catcalls, it lassoed her round and round with chain.
The thing stared dead eyed at her.
"Well this has been a 'fascinating' bit of storytelling, a bit of brothers Grim, Andson: of grand battles and heroes and villains and monsters and dragons and, tell the truth, I did get a kick in the head when I saw you get yours!" He said with a cruel smile."I will crush his heart!" a cruel smile on his face like someone who has had too much of his favorite cooking."Sqish!"as he closed his hand in illustration.
"But, so very toilsome when our favorite 'moon pie princess' showed up. 'Oh, let myself be changed, be mortal.' Like her? Helpless?"
"My favorite doubting angel: a horse!” he mocked.
Oh, how He protects them, shrouding their mind with tinnitus and forgetfulness when they submit to his 'grace'. Here! Of all places! This Ghost and the Darkness!
' Stop!'
says the commander and they stop.
'Go!'
says the commander and they go.
Not willing to let these doubters with alligator tears throw themselves headlong into the fray for their doubts, even though they long to do so in the despair of their doubts, the remnants, gnawing at them, but having guards behind to back them up as they advanced, for Him! Not even put on the front line to be offed for their doubt, where they would have gladly gone, but soldiers before and after trusted these doubters as their backup, to watch their backs!” He hissed.
“ She even had her little orbiting star in the fray, in love, fighting with her, clueless of her mentors sin! Laughable, seeing such a tiny sparrow trying to protect both sisters as her mentor finally begged one of the faithful to protect her!Fighting together, the four.
He even came down to encourage these doubters, as if they like every other soldier, before turning them over to the commander, ’Be not afraid!’ He said.
How they were in fear! But they used it these two sisters. Every swing counting against what they allied too, they, chained together: Traitors!" He then took the form of something like nightmare moon if she were male and human.
"By all rights they should be here with us," he became darker still. "here in the void."
"What did He do?”the shadow said indignently. “He commended them, gave them their commissions and sent them on His missions!"
He then brightened back up to the merry commissioner of Hazard. "But no matter,”he smiled insipidly and insanely,” think how much smoother things will run when....I"his voice took on a dark tone."...am in charge.
How much smoother the thundering herds will run, the racist we can appoint as leaders, then harness the power of the windigos, get some zero point energy going...then let Nappy and The Old Carob put out their philosophy and machinations and hatred....." he yawned. "I'll just save time and make you read the juicier excerpt from Lovecraft, make that holly writ!" he straightened his powdered wig. "Nice thing about being a lackey of the 'devourer' I get the right vehicle, and all his rank and power are mine!
You'll like it, Marigold," he said bruising, "You watching it happen, trapped inside!"
"Please, stop!" cried Discord. "You're soo boring! Can't we do this later??!!!"
The monster tightened the chain, caging up the draconequus for the time being.
"I...am..later!!" hissed the rider.
“All I wanted was to keep them apart,” the draconequus stuttered then they would never come together. My job would be sooo much easier!” Discord began to pant. ”We can still do that?”
“And have him die? Centuries long gone turned long ago to dust?” If it were possible the rider pulled the chain harder, ”You would like that! Denying me my influences to future generations? O don't worry my friend when you get to the future I'll keep you on a very short leash.” It rattled the chain.
“It won't work!” Discord protested.
"I’ll make it work. I’m bigger than you.”
Discord made scoffing noises. ”And yet you’re on my back!”
The rider threatened Discord’s face with dancing catlike claws.”If I make you drink a glass of chocolate milk, leaving the chocolate and drinking the glass, you'll be so grateful!"
He threw something besides Marigold. It landed with a splat.
“How much more fun, to bend her, distort her, distorting all generations after. Then, when you arrive again, I'll just saddle the two of them!” he spoke with a face splitting grin. ”What a world this will be!”
He looked back to Marigold.
"This es going on yo back!" the thing beside her rose up on a stand that sprouted up. It was a saddle. The nastiest saddle Marigold had ever seen! She then imagined that thing crawling all over her fasting straps, tightening chains and then that bridle, like a muzzle.
Marigold thrashed and jumped and coiled!
She struggle against the chains wrapped around her. Thrashing as the thing changed its form every time she’d look away.
"Kick Marigold, Kick with all you're worth!" it laughed. "You can't keep it up forever!" it tugged the chain." Once you’re tired, I'll bring you in like a lowing ox!"
Her eyes fell on the awful saddle on its stand as she rolled and thrashed like a pony at a rodeo.
"Yess!" she thought. That is exactly what she would do! She stopped thrashing and lowered her head.
"Already?" he said with a crooked grin. "I thought you were stronger?" He mocked.
"No." Marigold said. "I am sooo very weak..."
"Quite right." said the monster rubbing his finger under his nose looking at the mucus between his fingers. "You can't fight a god..."he said. He whipped the chain. "HiYA! Come closer, my little pony."
She walked towards him.
"Closer."
She had to get closer.
"Stop!" he said.
She got as close as she dared.
"Turn around..."he said a sick grin on his face.
*"Apples and Pears!!!" screamed Marigold, she had ment to say Apples Forevers.
She spun around quick with a kick at the end lashing out at the stand. It spun round and teetered for a moment on the edge of the precipice. The rider looked at it perched there, unsure what to do, flummoxed at the unbelievability , the unimaginable possibility, that this mortal, this simple silly thing, could escape so easily.
The stand fell backward. Down it fell into the chasm, the crack in her mind.
There was the sound of chain clinking as it unwound going faster and faster. The rider mounted on the strange monster looked dumbly, disbelieving, as the chain fell faster and faster through the darkened crack.
"Are we going for a ride?" asked the draconequus stupidly. Marigold grinned at her tormentor. "You're not a god!" she said. "You're nothing!" she laughed. "Nothing but a slave!" she said as the thing looked back at her in fear.
"I'll make you pay for that!" he growled. "I'll use him to do it!"*
*Dragged away suddenly the monster, the beast on his back and Marigold.
...she hadn't planned for that!
Down into the abyss they fell, Marigold grabbed on the edge of the crack. Hanging there the chain unwound from her like stringy mucus the rest of the metaphorical pitcher plant following, being turned inside out. She scrambled, pulling herself up, hooking her rear legs, launching herself out. She looked down, swallowing as the two monsters dissipated into the darkness.
High above, the moon watching, the crack Marigold looked through.
"Behold! The foolish things that make sport the wise!" the mare in the moon looking down, grinning looking down on Marigold.
Then she turned to the monster falling.
"Lost, lost, you have already lost long, long ago," her beautiful voice merrily coming from the moon. "cauterized, the last of the power of the Devourer!" The rider screamed, in abject frustration!
Outside, Discord he draconequus rolled his eyes back into his skull. His face followed, then his body, till at last in a pinprick he disappeared with a pop of chocolate milk smoke back to the future!
The chasm was gone but Marigold was not alone
"You’re a mess." said the pegisi beside her. "Come on let’s find some water."
"Who are you?" asked Marigold.
"Remember those mares in the maze?" she smiled. "I'm a direct ancestor of one of them!" a gentle soft voice with a light laugh in it.
"Oh! Oh!" said Marigold excitedly ponging a little, pink strands wiping around as she jumped. "I know which one! It’s the rainbow maned one isn't it?"
The Pegisi looks over at her a lock of silky hair draped over one eye. An unreadable expression on her face as she turns back to the path they tread together. Was it disbelief?" this way Marigold." she said.
Through the reeds they came to a river.
"Walked through the reeds, drawn from the reeds, of warrior race named for Pans flute of reeds..."she sang.
"Oh." said the pegisi."Remember the reeds. Very important! Lift you up, when you feel the bitter..."
Turning to the Pegsi Marigold was going to ask her permission to wash when she saw something on the other mare's back.
A dress shop, a studio, as a bipedal squirrel hemmed a dress. It was a very pretty shop, Marigold considered incorporating aspects into her own flower shop, another squirrel burst through the doors with an envelope, she red, a red squirrel with a braided main almost as long as her tail.
“OOO…”said the white pony inside Marigold.” What a darling little dress shop! I must take notes for later!” She took out a notepad and started making notes as the purple pony rolled her eyes. ”What is she using in her mane? I can guess!” said white.
Red is different from the other, a head not as round, blue eyes, her face, almost comical and comely, ears tied with a head kerchief, a body that looks made for dancing, neat cloths, not as fancy as the others a working girl. She gives the envelope to the styled purple tailed and manned white furred seamstress; she looks at the contents of the already torn open envelope and gasps.
These squirrels had manes like ponies!
Red exclaims something as she tosses her laughing, the head kerchief is loosed off her head revealing two fair and lovely shaped ears, alien and strange for the squirrel like creature she is, yet somehow fitting, and she tosses it into the air.
All decorum is lost as they hop around together hand and hand chirping a circular dance. The seamstress hair bouncing, measuring tape flapping, both excited.
"My Tam my friend from another world,
the face of a chipmunk the body of a squirrel
Agreed, decreed free to wed, her and him, as squirrel,
Safe, to marry as been said!!"Marigold heard.
A dress for her,
A suit for him,
spreading copper leaves under,
An honor guard!
Under the blessing,
this world,
the mice of the trees!
in dark crimson, grey cobalt, silver and gold!"
"Uh..."Marigold said, "there are squirrels on you back...."
The pegisi looks back and then looks at Marigold.
"You do get distracted don't you? Or is somebody got bored...?Hmmm. No." She turns Marigold's head forward gently. "That's just a reflection somewhere of something else: something else for another time, another story." She says quietly." What you should pay attention to is what is on the other side of the river."
"Ohhh! But its so boring over there!" said the pink mare inside.
On the other side of a river there was a stallion, hunched over and crying, she hears him speak.
"I am Nothing!!!!"he roars, choked sobs follow. "I am trash upon the banks of the Styx! Flotsam and debrie was up upon the shoes of Tarterus."
A figure come out of the dark wood behind, going through some old books in his grip, tattered and cheap looking as printed on pulp he flips through bookmarks. His lips move as he quickly reads to himself, the notes transcribed then he tucks them in his cloak confidently striding forward.
It is Starswirl the bearded!
"A powerful stallion, crying its eyes out, under the moon, in a deserted valley is a sight and a sound hardly to be imagined!" quoted the mage.*
"Hardly deserted!" snarled the stallion. "You're here; the river also!"
"Luna was very impressed with that speech...none has ever recited so well what liberty is!" said the unicorn as he diplomatically led him back from the steep river shore.
"It’s just good manners, better.” grumbled the pony. ”Liberty is foremost; it keeps us from treading on the other as we seek life and property." As we freely keep ourselves from taking advantages of another...it pre-most the rights of m....the rights of m....."he gritted his teeth and forced it out with all his might. "THE RIGHTS OF MNNR!!" he roared again. "BUT I AM NOT A MNNR!!!I AM A THING, A BEAST CRAWLING ALONG THE GROUND ON FOURS!!!"
Starswirl grabbed his head and stared into his eyes.
"You are not a thing!" he said with authority making the pony listen. "You! You are a decedent of Adam and Eve: The pride of your world's lowest beggar and the shame of its greatest king!"* he exclaimed loudly." You are loved! You are alive!"
Now Starswirl spoke quietly," And you are not alone!"Starswil took a deep breath. "Any that can think and talk and know what they are...are also called Eve's descendants."
"What shall I do?" asked the stallion relenting.
Starswirl let the pony go.
"Take pride in what I have told you, hold your head high." said Starswirl."Plant gardens, eat of their fruit. Build houses, live in them." a mare came out of the woods and slowly approached the two. "Take up an occupation, excel in what you know in well and good." the mare came to him, she knew the stallion well. Starswirl took up her hoof and put it in his. "Marry: make pride in what you are, tell your children lest they forget and wonder why the world is weird for them, why they kick against the goads."Starswirl smiled. "Remember: The Lord shall never forget what he has made and everything that is, He has made! He will return."
Starswirl departed into the woods.
"What shall we do first?" ask the mare of her husband.
"We shall build a great house, and in the great house, there shall be a great bell, and that great bell shall be in the center of a great city!" He stood up proud and tall. "And when that bell is rung...ever pony shall be reminded to preserve Liberty!"
Fog drifted between the scene and Marigold, she knew the story well.
"That was from my home town," said Marigold. "but the bell is cracked. We dare not ring it more."
She looked at the pegisi,"Does he really look like that monster I saw in the tree?" Marigold asked.
The pegisi spoke, "Oh Marigold.." the elder Mare said through limpid eyes. "If there weren't something there, "Marigolds world was becoming stilted, so gradually she hadn't noticed," there wouldn't be an attraction!"
Fog drifted in.There is a sparkle in the dark, "Is that the moon?" It is not. It is a coin, a silver coin, spinning in the darkness. A bit of the finest workponship. Marigold cane see a face, no, two faces, reflecting in the coin. Then the coin falls.
"Don't you dare."says an irrate voice."Don't you dare slip off into the darkness you coward!" Now a choked sob."Please. You interceeded for me, you showed me there was an intercesor! When you stood beteen me and the fire.When you recovered my book."Now a cry."A pagan had to show me."he laughed. "Don't go off into the darkness, don't close your eyes, my unicorn, without, without considering, a better way, by, by, believing in this adopted before you..."
Marigold was amoung the hills near a lake.Again, the little unicorn foal was in her grip. "Where did you come from?" she said frustrated. She raised her face and looked ahead. There, on a brier of flowers was a very young unicorn filly.
"Ohhh..."tears came to Marigolds eyes as she saw how young the mare was.
"I give to you,"Celestia's voice boomed." to meet out justice and to judge your brothers and any who would run with the thundering herds under my authority as my select prefect, judge of Equestria!"
There was the sound of a ticking watch. A stallion ran past. The young filly mare rose and stood beside Marigold. The stallion ran, he ran among the rocky hills, at every turn there was another filly holding a child. Marigold followed the stallion as he ran panicked, avoiding them their eyes staring at him accusingly. He tripped dropping a pocket watch and fell down a hill, a huge bound became embedded in his back, (no!) was part of his back, yet still he ran. He fell again, this time he was plunged into the middle of a huge lake.
He struggled; the lake was viscous, as Marigold watched from the shore. The unicorn stallion, with broken horn and dented armor from earlier stood beside them. They were joined, by the same foamed and dirty mare wearing the torn dress. Marigold realized, as they stood together silently...they were a family.
They looked to the stallion struggling to stay above the waters in the lake. Then they looked to the horizon with compassion. Out of the horizon a figure approached, he stood on two legs, at first Marigold thought it was her giant, no, it was the biped. The biped, the giant, they were the same!
He reached out to the stallion, a kind face a gentle hand. The stallion slapped it away. This happen over and over again. At last he turned his back on the giant.
In a few more moments of struggling and cursing the stallion was pulled beneath the waters as ripples reaching the shore and reflecting back, then the surface of the lake was placid calm, as if the stallion never was. The giant stood up and looked to the unicorn who walked out to meet him. As soon as he got close the mare trotted past, and leaned up against the giant in absolute contentment and adoration. One touch from his hand and she became clean. The unicorn stood there confused. The giant reached out and put his hand over his broken horn resting on his head. The stallion's eyes went wide for a moment, then he wept, none had done that since his mother when he was a foal, and his horn was quite small and remained that way.
They turned to leave.
Marigold turned to the filly. "He is very good and kind..."
"I know." she said. She reached down and picked up the pocket watch and placed it with the foal with a smile, an heirloom of belter generations. The filly looked at Marigold. "I know his servants." she walked out with her parents.
He turned and looked at her, she looked up at him and smiled, He looked down and smiled back and brought her together with her mother and father.
Many rose from the waters and followed; many came to the shore and walked across. Some rose from the water, no stones on their backs. Together in a merry crowd, they left for the sunsetted horizon, rejoicing. Marigold couldn't tell but in that glimmering light, they looked like the same kind of creature.
"Not yet." said the pegisi to Marigold.
"You have a lot to do."
There was the sound of nails being draw across a ballon or as if it were turned inside out and then a pop sound.Marigold eyes gently opened. She slowly lifted her head, she heard the murmurs of ponies talking and saw the flickering of campfires waking up, pasterns up in nasty mud, of her own making...the pentafores had finally made their appearance! And the smell of chocolate milk?
She had made a mess
She brought her hoof to her head and winced. There was a bruise. She must have tripped and fallen.
Then gotten up and fallen asleep on her hooves?
"Miss? Miss?" a unicorn trotted up. "Are you alright?"
"Ahh!" Marigold cried. "I do not want to marry you!"
"I wasn't asking." said the unicorn guard incredulously. "See?" he pointed to a ring on his horn. A figure moved about on the ring, becoming abstract when she was doing private things, like taking care of their child. "I'm married."
It was one of those expense deluxe wedding bands, sold at the high end shops: the highest end.
"And I'm a mess!" Marigold said with a bit of a chuckle. "I'm a mess and weak! Whelp, better clean up!" she then proceeded to turn over the earth in instinctive earth pony earth action, in a manner of a dog or large gofer so the smells of the mud would also be covered up and the mud dried out, as the guard tried to question Marigold.
She was in the garden, with her father, turning up soil, cheering her on as she dug the earth for vegetables making a mess of her. "Won't mother be incredulous!" she liked using big words when she was a filly. Marigold laughed, it was such a vivid memory,
"Did you call Dyer Kiln?" asked Rose Water as she approached.
"Yes." he said. "She won't answer questions!" he said perturbed.
"You won't get any answers from that one, not right now, and you know where she needs to go!"
"Well, all done!" said Marigold finishing her tilling, wiping her brow.
"Miss!" said Rose Water looking at the mare aghast. "You can't go up there!"
"Out of my way," Marigold said dismissively. "I've been delayed enough!"
"Yes. Yes." Nodded the Mare manically, "That's just it maam!"Rose Water said "Its ttatt way!"
"Oh."
Rose caught Marigold by the tail.
"Let me go!"
"Bleak!" Rose water spit out the tail, leeching at the taste, looking like she would gag. "You can't go up there like this! You can't go up smelling like both ends!" In an instant she mesmerized Marigold in the eye.
"Can't go up smelling like both ends..."Marigold repeated. She obediently looked at her mane and tail took whiff, came to her senses and gagged.
"Come along dear; let's get you clean for the medical."
"There's going to be a medical examination?!!!"
Dyer Kiln found a curtain to give Marigold some privacy.
"Here Kiln!" clean those up would you.
"Gives those back!" shadows struggled, playing keep away. "My life saving is in that bag, permits, papers and licensing!"
"Shuuu....shush ush suh." said Rose Water somehow calming the agitated Marigold down. "He is just going to clean your saddlebag and neaten your paperwork." dropping the saddlebag out of the curtain to the stallion outside.
"Hey!" said Dyer Kiln.
A mares head popped between the curtains. “It’s your family’s business! “Scolded Rose Water. “Isn’t it?" She put a hoof on his mouth. “Not another word! This mare is held together by shivers, I'm going to have a time getting the smell out, ten minutes tops! And as they say, the team clamming on the bit will not be held back!" she disappeared. "Oh." her head popped out again. “Be a dear. Send this to Celestia STAT!" she pressed a letter to his barrel.
He glanced at it."Hipposunculus? Really?"
"Well! Can you blame me,” she whispered. “Strangest goings! At the very least she shows signs of hypnosis...that is only the worst case scenario!" she glanced back “Miss! Miss! Don't do that! You’re going to drop the curtain!"
He sent it in a puff of magical flame. Really, mother in law." the stallion grumbled, "You should leave spell analysis to the casters!" He began cleaning the bag and the things.
"Brush found water made clean a mess,"sang Rose Water.
"Couldn't believe she did that, such a mess! You're here!"
"Thank you." Marigold said cleaned up, receiving her saddle bag, setting her hoof to the path.
"That way.“ said Rose and Dyer pointing the opposite.
"Of, of course." Marigold grumbled trotting past with a flick of main and tail. She followed the path up the hill.
"I can't believe I made that poster picture to be my fantasy pony, so very cartoony. What a terrible thing to have been chained to that thing for eternity! As if that was my heart’s desire! Why fantasize anymore? The reality is about to replace the dream!" thought Marigold as she topped the hill. Massaging the headache she was having.
“Yes…Yes!The reality is about to replace the fantasy!“ said the inner pink pony who was now floating high above the others, her eyes glowing tail and mane swirling around her.
”Is she supposed to be doing that?” asked a timid member of the staff as a white pony stared with her.
The purple pony rubbing her head with a wince, ”Just do your job.” She repeated. “Despite this temporal delay, everything will work out the way it should. It happens to everypony eventually, why we still remember what happened with Majesty, slight heroes, and never-weres and could-have-beens!”
“Yep!” said the pink pony.” Everyone just do their job!”
“You are not promoted!” called out purple.
“We’ll see, we’ll see.” sang the pink one. ”Chocolate milk and gummy snacks!”
“Sigh. Just get through the Doctor and the medical.” mumbled the purple pony trying to placate the intense throbbing in her head.
“Do wa deee.”sang the pink pony high above. ”Da doo day..” as she floated around in circles. “Dee do, da do da dee…”
“Not cool!” said a serious light blue pony.
“Not helping!” said a gold pony rubbing her eyebrows.
“Its from Carousel!”said the pink pony.
“No it’s not!” Said the white pony.
The pink pony made a sound like somepony scraping at piano wires.
“Pleeeease, everyone… “wined purple” just get through the door!”
Rose Water was content. She had kept the camp safe and family friendly and had just led a lost mare, clean and prepared for her stallion, to where she needed to go! Her good mood was interrupted when she heard munching beside her. Dyer was eating.
How could he! Didn't Celestia say to everypony that they needed to work together as a team.
"Did you give her anything to eat?!!" anger build inside her.
"Should I have?" said the clueless steed to the danger.
Rose Water grabbed the pie he was eating and smeared it all over his face. "It’s a wonder you're still married at all! “She turned and headed back into the light of the fires leaving the stallion behind to wonder what he had done wrong.