2: The White and the Red
2
THE WHITE AND THE RED
The things in the holsters were weapons, Twilight decided. Not a kind of weapon she had ever seen, but that was what they were. Why else, she reasoned, would her brother and the Royal Guard have been so concerned when the owner had arrived at their gates dressed in dirty hides? No, not concerned, she corrected herself. They had been worried. Whoever this pony who called himself Peacemaker was, he represented a fact which the guardians of the imperial capital had grown to distrust. ‘Fear’ was the word floating in her subconscious, but her heart would not allow her to do her brother such a disservice. She had known Shining Armour her whole life, and had seen proof that he feared nothing in all of Equestria.
They were inside the castle now. She had tried to inspect the stranger more closely, but Shining Armour had brushed her away from him with the sweep of one foreleg. She had been able to see that the weapons were very much like the mark on his flank. They were large, imperfectly cylindrical and constructed from blued metal. The curved parts sticking out of the holsters, which she thought might in fact be handles, were fashioned from fragrant, yellow sandalwood. The stranger had curtly said that while he was only a guest, he would not feel comfortable talking – “palavering,” as he put it – with a dozen armed guards training their spears on him. Princess Celestia, ever polite and impossible to refuse, had requested that Shining Armour remain in the hallway with his sister, and that his subordinates should return to their previous duties.
The captain had not liked the idea of leaving the princess alone with the stranger, not one bit, but he had acquiesced all the same, and now the siblings stood together with Twilight’s baby dragon, waiting to find out what happened. Shining Armour, in particular, was waiting for something to go wrong, and for the steel totems the stranger had brought with him to unleash their unspeakable wrath against the beloved monarch.
“What’s going on, Shining Armour?” Twilight asked her brother. “Who is that pony?”
“I’m not sure, Twily,” he replied, “but he shouldn’t be here.”
“I don’t get why this is all such a big deal,” Spike chirped, then immediately covered his mouth with his paws. He had spoken out of turn.
Shining Armour shook his head. “Hopefully it’s not,” he said, “but if it is…” His voice trailed off, then he said, “I shouldn’t really tell either of you any of this.”
“But why not?” asked Twilight, insistently.
“You really want to know?”
Twilight nodded.
“Because ponies like him aren’t meant to exist!” Shining Armour snorted. “They should never have been here in the first place!” Twilight recoiled, confused and just a little bit hurt that he had used an aggressive tone with her. Shining Armour seemed to realise his error, and hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry, Twily. I didn’t think this sort of thing might happen so soon after I got promoted.”
Although she had no idea what he was talking about, she understood the sentiment. Captain of the Royal Guard was a position of not just prestige, but hefty importance. Her brother was still new to the role, the youngest to receive the honour, and that meant a lot of pressure from scrutinising elders and expectant subordinates. Shining Armour, like plenty of his colleagues and predecessors, silently hoped for the chance to prove themselves in some major skirmish, to be the prodigal defender who overcame terrific odds, but those dreams always pitted the hopeful against threats they could understand, or were so strange they could not be understood as anything other than an opponent who needed defeating.
The stranger in the room was not a monster. He was an earth pony, and yet he was somehow all the more bizarre and unknowable despite that, or even because of it. Shining Armour felt his sister nuzzle his side, and he smiled a little.
“I’ll be okay, Twily,” he told her. “I’m sure the princess has everything under control.”
“Of course she does,” she agreed. “I know my teacher well enough to see that, but I want to know if you’ve got everything under control. I can’t remember the last time I saw you get so flustered.”
Shining Armour said nothing, but he did grimace. Twilight Sparkle put on her best stern tone of voice. “Shining Armour, have I ever betrayed your confidence in me before?”
The captain glanced incredulously at her, and then at Spike, who was still perched on the unicorn’s back. The dragon put two claw-tips together and drew them across his mouth, imitating the motion of a zip being pulled shut.
Shining Armour looked like he was seriously reconsidering his silence, quite cowed by the reminder of the promise he and her had made when they were children to be honest with each other, and Twilight’s brief feeling of guilt was quickly overpowered by a jolt of anticipation. The truth was that while she did indeed care deeply for her brother, and she did take anything he told her in the strictest confidence, she had an ache inside of her now. She had become a witness to something she knew nothing about, and she thirsted to fill that gap in her knowledge. If she could not satisfy her need to understand through what information he possessed, then it would drive her mad. Even if it was only meagre, it would mean something which was preferable to nothing.
“I’ve never met his kind. They were gone before our time,” said Shining Armour. “What I know is that they came from outside Equestria’s borders.”
“Outside? Then, they were of the Red?” Twilight asked.
“No,” replied Shining Armour, “no, they stood for the White, but that makes it even worse.”
“How?”
“They were capable of things nopony else ever has been, and because of that they represent one of the worst parts of our kingdom’s history.”
Twilight Sparkle did not press him. She wanted to, she really wanted to, but her brother had just presented two statements which were to her mind complete contradictions. ‘The White’ was their word for the forces of good in the universe, those which brought about light and fullness and understanding of one’s fellow beings. The White was embodied in Princess Celestia, and all those who followed the teachings which had made Equestria strong. ‘The Red’ was its absolute opposite. Disciples of that counteracting, chaotic dogma thrived in the dark, inhospitable corners of the world. Places like the Badlands or the Frozen North, which were as far from the safety and sanctity of Canterlot as you could get without vacating reality altogether. Being as her brother had put it, “capable of things nopony else had ever been,” went with the Red like daisies and daffodils. Only, he had also said they were not Red. They were White.
The conversation died there and then, because the door to the throne room suddenly opened, and Celestia emerged with the grey earth pony. The princess seemed a little more relaxed now, though not enough to drop her guard. Too many years of ruling made that unlikely even at the best of times.
“I’m glad we got all that cleared up,” she said, finishing a sentence she had begun on the other side.
“As am I, Celestia-sai,” the earth pony replied in his flat voice.
“Your Grace?” Shining Armour piped up.
“Captain,” Celestia acknowledged him with a polite tip of her head, which the captain returned. “You need not be so tense. Peacemaker came to Canterlot looking for work. That is all.”
The grey earth pony, Peacemaker, turned to face the siblings properly. His eyes were heavy-hooded, as if he were trying to conserve energy, but still they shimmered like pale desert mirages. There were as many colours for ponies as there were stars in the sky, but Twilight Sparkle had never seen eyes like his. They were coloured as much by intent as his genes. Whatever they had talked about in the throne room, her instincts told her that there was something Princess Celestia was not privy to.
“As I have just explained,” he said, “I have come to Canterlot to continue the services rendered by those who came before me. I grasp that the world has changed since my father and grandfather’s days, but so long as this kingdom still has its dinh…”
“Its what?” Spike asked.
“Its leader,” said the earth pony after a moment’s thought. “So long as this kingdom still has its leader, the one we have always served, then my guns are at her disposal.”
Twilight Sparkle reasoned that ‘guns’ must be the word for the totems he carried, the blue, petering cylinders with the sandalwood points at the thick ends. It was a strong word, but that did not mean it was also pleasant. It was strong in that it was also severe, like a full stop that abruptly cuts off a short sentence.
“With all due respect to Her Highness,” said Shining Armour, the softer side he had displayed to his sister once more overtaken by the persona of authority that was part of his uniform, “guns aren’t what we need. Equestria doesn’t deal in aggression.”
“Stand down, Captain,” said Celestia.
“Yes, Your Grace,” said Shining Armour begrudgingly.
If the grey earth pony was offended by the harsh words, he did not show it. In fact he seemed indifferent. Shining Armour’s nostrils flared, but he held his tongue. “I’ll make myself available when you require me, sai,” said Peacemaker as he made ready to leave.
“Peacemaker, I may have a job for you right now,” said Celestia, and he was still again. “Twilight Sparkle.”
“Yes, Princess?” asked Twilight, standing to attention. She watched the smile curl on her teacher’s lips, but she did not take it as a sign of reassurance. In fact, she suddenly felt a bubble of dread welling up inside her belly, smothering her earlier ache and replacing it with a weight that threatened to make her knees buckle.
XXX
“It’s not so bad, Twilight,” Spike told her for the third time that day. The unicorn disagreed. She had been correct in that Celestia had read her letter before they had arrived at the castle, but the reaction had originated somewhere clearly left of her own expectations. She had wanted her teacher to share her concerns, to say, “Excellently done, my dearest student. Now come, we must make preparations,” but that had not been what happened.
Instead, she had been told not to fuss over everything she read, and when she tried to argue the point, which she rarely did, Celestia had proceeded to disarm her with a look that was both authoritative and serene to the point of being almost patronising. It was a look she herself had used on several first-year students, on the occasion when she took time out of her schedule to earn a few extra gold bits from tutoring, would see their attempts at the most basic enchantments and think to herself how much farther along she had been at their age. At least, she thought she was. Since the difference between them spanned centuries rather than three or four years, Celestia’s version of the expression was vastly more impressive, and it wilted Twilight’s pride considerably. What Celestia could not accomplish with just the tiniest shift of facial muscles you could count on half of one hoof.
The princess had then assigned her to supervise things in the town picked to host the Summer Sun Celebration. Last year it was Trottingham, the year before that Manehattan. The winning town in the lottery this time had been Ponyville, a quaint little hamlet far out in the boonies. Well, that was really it. All Twilight Sparkle wanted was to be taken seriously, but not only had the pony she had come to look up to like a mother denied her that one solitary flake of dignity – and Celestia was the last pony she ever suspected this would come from – she had been more or less banished to the middle of nowhere, to make sure these backwoods ponies knew which end of the mallet you used to put the nails in.
The company on the trip over was far from ideal as well. Spike, much as she loved him, refused to shut up about how good this opportunity would be for her, and reminded her that Celestia had encouraged her to make some friends around the town. Friends were hardly going to help save Equestria from the coming darkness, and blast it she knew she was right about this! The signs were all there, why could Celestia not see that?
Peacemaker, given the task of acting as her bodyguard, in contrast said nothing. He was completely silent, more like a machine than a pony. She had tried to make sense of him, if only because it gave her something to do on their journey, and decided they were roughly the same age. In fact, Twilight wondered if he might not actually be younger than her by a couple of years. If Celestia had entrusted her protection to a foal, that would really be it! The rock bottom lowest point in her life, protected by a foal! Except, she thought, for his eyes. He had old eyes. Not in the sense that they were weakened or ailing, but they were not bright like a foal’s eyes, full of star-shine and wonderment. It was more in the sense that they were experienced. They had seen things.
Things nopony had ever been capable of. Was that why he looked that way, and if so, what did that mean exactly?
“Look on the bright side. At least the princess arranged for you to stay in a library,” said Spike, derailing her train of thought. She was not very good at hiding her discontent. The baby dragon was reaching for things to cheer her up. Admittedly, that thought was a comfort. “Doesn’t that make you happy?”
“Yes it does, Spike,” she said, “so when we arrive, I’ll still have plenty of time to get there and form a strategy.”
“What about the celebration, and making friends like the princess said?”
“I have greater concerns than friends, Spike, and Mister Peacemaker can handle the supervision,” she told him matter-of-factly. “All he has to do is look at a few stalls and nod his head.”
Peacemaker’s ears twitched, lifted, and he seemed to finally remember where he was. “Sorry, filly, but I’m sticking with you,” said the gun-pony in a tone which brokered no argument. A pause, and then, “We’re landing.”
The sky-chariot they were in descended through the clouds, touching down in what looked to be the town square. The two white pegasi hitched to its front landed in perfect synchrony. Twilight Sparkle dealt them a courteous thank you and they snorted proudly in response. Peacemaker allowed a brief grunt of recognition, which the pegasi returned. The square was quiet. Not dead, and not empty. There were plenty of town-ponies out, fewer than the sleepless bustle of the capital city, but there was an air of unusual tranquillity in spite of the activity. Twilight Sparkle immediately thought something was wrong with them. Peacemaker knew it, although he did not believe their peace to be at all fake or forced, just that it was hiding a separate truth. It made him edgy.
“Yo, ’scuse me,” someone said. Peacemaker turned, and suddenly he was reared up on his hindlegs, the guns fixed to his forehooves and pointing into the face of a very surprised chestnut earth pony. He had wide, watery green eyes, and his mane and tail, which waved lazily around him as if they had been moulded by a heavy downpour and dried in that fashion, were a striking shade of cerise. His mark was a jester’s cap, striped scarlet-and-blue, complete with four golden bells. “Hey, whoa, whoa!” he cried, raising his own forehooves above his head in surrender. “Peace, dude!”
Peacemaker flicked the guns back into his holsters and got down on all fours again. “What do you want?”
“Jeez. Just tryin’ to be friendly, guy,” said the earth pony. “I don’t know what those things are, but they don’t look like how you shake hooves in whatever city you come from.”
“You’ll have to forgive him,” said Twilight Sparkle, “he’s our bodyguard.” The word seemed alien to her. It did not sound quite right to her ears. “Is it that obvious we’re from the city?”
“Well, local types tend to be a little less conspicuous, y’know?” replied the chestnut earth-pony. “We get a lot of different folks come through here, ’cause we’re kind of smack-bang on the trade route. You don’t look too much like merchants, though. Not unless it’s exotic pets you’re dealin’ in.”
“Hey! I’m no-one’s pet!” Spike harrumphed. He had hidden himself behind Twilight Sparkle when Peacemaker pulled his weapons, and only now felt suitably prompted to re-emerge.
“Well, wouldja look at that,” the chestnut earth-pony smirked, “the little feller talks, too. Easy there, buddy, I’m just kiddin’.” He patted the dragon’s head with a forehoof, then offered it to Twilight. “The name’s Jack-a-Nape. My friends call me Jackie.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” the unicorn replied, “this is Spike. He’s my assistant.”
“I’m the adorable little brother everypony wishes they had,” the baby dragon chirped with a grin.
“That’s funny, kid,” Jack-a-Nape smiled, “when I lived in Manehattan, my big brother used to tell me the exact opposite.”
“So you’re not from around here?” Twilight asked.
“Not originally, no,” said Jack-a-Nape, “but I guess I’ve gone kinda native. Still, that’s enough about me. You three need help findin’ your way ’round? ’Cause if you are, I’m the pony to see.”
“Well, Twilight was sent here by Princess Celestia to check on how things are going for the Summer Sun Celebration,” said Spike, gesturing to the unicorn, who rolled her eyes. Jack-a-Nape whistled, impressed.
“Hang on, I got a checklist of things here somewhere,” Spike continued, and checked the pouches in his leathery skin. He found nothing, and his expression turned to one of oncoming panic.
“These what you’re after, short-time?” Jack-a-Nape asked with a sardonic smirk. He reached under the paisley-cuffed denim jacket he wore and pulled out a comically oversized pencil and a scroll.
“How did you…?” Spike began, snatching both up in his paws.
“Hey, I might not be no fancy-pants unicorn, but I got tricks of my own,” replied Jack-a-Nape.
“You stole those,” said Peacemaker dryly. “You’re fast, sai, but not so fast I cannot see your hooves moving.”
Jack-a-Nape looked nervous for a moment, then he just shrugged, laughed and said, “There’s always one sourpuss who’s gotta spoil the show for everypony else, huh? So what’s first on your little list there, pal?”
Spike unfurled the scroll and scanned it quickly. “Banquet preparations,” he said, “that’s being handled at somewhere called…Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Cool,” said Jack-a-Nape. “A.J.’s place. I was plannin’ on headin’ up there myself later on. She’s a sweet gal, lets me sneak a little of the produce when her grandma’s not lookin’, ya dig?”
Twilight Sparkle looked appealingly at Spike, who nodded his head a little and winked. Twilight grinned, but it was awkward. “Sure,” she said, “I, uh, dig.”
“Great!” said Jackie exuberantly, bouncing a little as he did. “Come on. It’s a little ways out of town, but I tell ya, the view’s really worth it.”
That was how the gun-pony, the acolyte and the dragon came to meet Jack-a-Nape. It was the beginning of a story that would decide the fate of Equestria and beyond. With the chestnut earth pony as their lead, they walked together, the four of them, all the way past the town’s boundaries and into the hilly fields to the west of Ponyville. All the while, Peacemaker refused to utter a single word. He did not remark on his surroundings in spite of their verdant beauty, or answer their new guide’s questions no matter how much the subject was pushed, always seeming to be thinking of something or somewhere else. Twilight Sparkle was beginning to think this behaviour was par for the course. Had Peacemaker deigned to consider that, he might have been thankful. It meant there would not be two fools distracting his attention.
The gun-pony knew there was wrongness in Ponyville. He saw it in the dark shape that fled him.
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Stick around, I shall...
I know I get to beta most of these, but it's still awesome to see you post a new chapter, DT. Hope you're having a happy holiday and I can't wait to take a look at the next one!
3552862 We don't celebrate Thanksgiving on my side of the pond, B.H., but thank you very much all the same. Hope yours was good. I think you'll enjoy what I have planned, but we'll see what happens when it does, eh?
I'm seriously excited to see how this all plays out...
3554565 Ka willing, you won't be waiting long to see.