Shadows of the Past

by Dr Atom Discharge

Chapter Seven: Downfall of the Conclave (Unedited)

Shadows Of The Past
Chapter Seven: Downfall of the Conclave
Warning: This chapter contains large amounts of information about the plot, so pay attention

Last time: Soon they came out into the light of the small Library that seemed to have doubled up as a Study for the Mysterious figure at the desk, facing away from them. The room was tall, the walls covered with books except for an area to the right which indented into the wall, showing a stained glass window with a desk filled with scientific equipment slowly working away, with a few notes. Further into the room was a short set of three steps leading up to a small alcove in which the desk the figure was sat at was located. The Figure turned around and regarded his two guests.
“YOU!?” Both Luna and Twilight shouted in shock and awe.

Stood before them, exactly as Luna remembered and as Twilight had seen paintings of, was the tall sky blue Unicorn. He wore a darker blue cloak that was covered in stars and moons, the rim of which was covered in bells, it clasped around his neck with gold chains meeting in a sapphire amulet that held the two ends together. He was also adorned with a matching, pointed hat. His long white hair blended into his beard, which twisted down from his face, trailing on the floor. Starswirl The Bearded stood before them and gave a slight bow.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again your Highness” Starswirl said to Luna “And to meet you Pri- Miss Sparkle.” He said quickly catching himself and muttering before writing something down in what appeared to be a journal on the table behind him before turning his attention back to his two guests.
“Hmmm… so… which bit are we up to now..?” He said consulting a strange kind of chart that Twilight couldn’t even start to work out how to understanding it. “AH HA! Here we are… you’re here for information about the Conclave…” He said.

Both Twilight and Luna were rather baffled by not only by his mannerisms but also by the very fact he was still alive, and apparently as young as ever.
“Starswirl, I have not seen you in over two thousand years! Where have you been!?” Luna asked, being the first to recover from her shock.
“Why I’ve been here obviously.” Starswirl said blandly, not really paying attention. Twilight opened her mouth to ask a question but was cut off by Starswirl. “Save your questions. It will be much easier to answer everything at once, come with me.” He said already moving before he had finished, opening a door that had blended in until now as it doubled up as a book shelf.

Starswirl lead them through into a second, much bigger library area, small tables dotted around, mostly piled with books, but he walked them over to a clear one and sat down.
“Alright. So you want to know about who the Conclave are… where they went, how to read their texts… and about how I am still alive, am I right?” He said in a serious business like tone leaving both Twilight and Luna a little taken aback.

“Y-yes, that’s exactly wh-“ Twilight started to say but was cut off quickly by Luna.
“Wait! Where are Sabre and blade?” The princess asked, almost desperately. Starswirl’s eyes widened
“Oh of course! I’m sorry, I had forgotten about them. Don’t worry” He said, closing his eyes, his horn glowing and one of the bookshelves slid up revealing that the book shelf had actually been a back wall of a cell containing the two guard Captains. Both swivelled around and Sabre galloped forwards, wrapping his forelegs around Luna and kissing her deeply, a favour which she gladly returned, leaving both Twilight and Blade gawping, jaws slack.

Starswirl just chuckled. Sabre broke the kiss and nuzzled her gently.
“I-I thought I’d lost you… “ Luna said desperately. Sabre gently pecked her on the lips
“I’m here now my love… and I won’t be leaving your side anytime soon” He said gently before turning back to the others, his foreleg still around her shoulder gently. He then froze as he saw the other’s expressions.
“Oh… I suppose we have some explaining to do…” Luna said quietly, looking down as a slight blush spread across her cheeks.

Starswirl interrupted “I’m afraid that will have to wait, we have to cover a lot of history in a short time, it may be more prudent to do it one the way back.” Sabre was a little shocked, apparently he hadn’t noticed Starswirl, his eyes then widened.
“Is that St-!?” Sabre tried to say but was cut off by the stallion himself.
“Yes, yes, I’m Starswirl the bearded… woo hoo… now sit down so we can actually get down the business.” The ancient unicorn said, waving his hooves about dramatically. Twilight could practically taste the sarcasm.

Everypony sat back down at the table and Starswirl let out an exasperated sigh “Alright, everyone settled? Nopony needs to use the bathroom? Get a bite to eat? No? Good!” He said in the same sarcastic tone. “Alright… so you need to know about the conclave? Well then, the conclave was founded several thousand years ago. In basic terms, it was meant to balance Equestria. And the rest of the known world, there were many memebers, I’m not even sure if anyone knew how many there actually were except the creator… she was a mysterious character, a tall pony with long hair, she was called the creator as she was the founder of the group, and none knew her actual name. But some even believed she may have created the world…” He said ominously, but moved on before they could ask any questions about it.

“Anyway, I’m getting off topic, there are several members you know of: Discord, charged with balancing order and chaos. Queen Chrysalis of the changlings, charged with balancing love. Celestia, charged with balancing night and day. And yours truly,” Starswirl gestured to himself. “charged with balancing time… I was the most advanced researcher into the study of time as you both already know,” he said gesturing to the Princess and Luna.

“There was peace, and the conclave worked for a time after the creator left, but it is inevitable that those with power will seek more, it started with Chrysalis. By balancing the Element of love, she was able to gather enough for her family, but… she got greedy, Equestria was, as it is now, a beacon for love, and Chrysalis tried to take it, just as she did recently. It ended quite the same way as her recent attempt.” The wise unicorn said, levitating down a book, and flipping it to a page showing a painting of a bloodied battlefield, with two armies, one made up of ponies with fierce war faces on, clad in gleaming armour, all commanded by the figure of Celestia tall and regal in golden armour. They were facing off against a huge force of the insectoid changelings, Their Queen visible in the distance.

“The problem then was that there was a dispute between two of the members. This then caused a panic, the equilibrium was upset, and everyone started to try to grab power where they could, one by one they slowly turned away from the Conclave, taking what power they could, until there were naught left but me, Seth, and Celestia still holding true to the laws, which is why Equestria is still in near perfect harmony. Seth was one of the most influential and powerful members of the group, a Dragon, who was to control good and evil in the world, he tried to use his powers to reform the conclave about one thousand years ago, but it backfired, killing him, while it did create the light he had intended, and it wasn’t nearly as much as was needed. By the nature of our magic, the light balanced itself out, spreading a wave of darkness across the land.” He continued secretly glancing at Luna.

“In short, the Conclave has been defunct for quite some time, most of our members hiding away with their powers, or killed during the infighting. Leaving Celestia to bear most of the responsibility of the Conclave, there is only so much I can do, only being a unicorn. She has to carry all of that responsibility… eventually something was going to have to make her snap.” Starswirl got up and put the book away, looking at the four rather shocked ponies, still taking in everything they had just been fed. But Starswirl didn’t give them time to think it over.

“But of course that simply explains how the stage was set… and I believe you wish to know how to end the scene!” Starswirl exclaimed over dramatically snapping everypony back to attention. “Now, there’s no point dancing around the point, Celestia seems to have broken slightly. This seems to be the ‘Straw that broke the camel’s back’ as it were. She’s been holding the tatters of this conclave together for so long, it was inevitable this would happen eventually. She seemed to have things steady, but unstable at best, now you’ve toppled it.” Starswirl said in an uncertain tone, obviously worried about his old friend.

Twilight spoke up then, having taken in and processed what she had just heard, displaying her impressive analytical mind. “Alright, but how do we go about stopping her, or at least calming her down enough to be able to reason with her, last time when Blade and Atom tried to reason with her she barely even blinked.” Twilight said, trying to stay on topic, being very tempted by the row upon row of ancient texts and with her hero sitting across the table from her.

Starswirl nodded “Ah yes, that was it. I think your best bet is to reconstruct the conclave, otherwise this is simply going to keep getting on top of her; you need to show her she doesn’t have to do this by herself. Although, there may be a slight problem, you see, when a new member is inducted, their predecessor loses the power, and so, most of the members tried to take the book containing the ritual. They tore it apart and ran away with a piece to ensure their powers remained with them. While Celestia was able to recover most of them with Luna’s Help.” Starswirl said.

Luna rested a hoof against her chin, trying to remember. “Oh yes, she always was rather secretive about that, she always changed the subject, and I think we all know how good she is at that.” Luna said, thoughtful.
“Yes, exactly, well… there are still a few she couldn’t track down, or at least simply didn’t have the resources to. I have the rest of the book here, and there are only three pages that we need that the Princess couldn’t track down. I believe the princess recovered Discord’s already. Now I’m not sure who has them, but the Princess had been keeping tabs on all of the pages back before the Nightmare Moon incident, and so they should be in the library at the old palace that I believe you and your friends have set up camp in.” Starswirl said with a thoughtful expression Twilight had once seen him wearing in a painting in The Canterlot Gallery.

Starswirl suddenly rose to his feet startling everyone “Alright then! I believe that’s all you’re meant to know right now, it’s up to you to solve the rest, and I had best be back to my duties.” He said with a stretch, Blade then spoke up.
“What do you mean ‘Know right now’? Are there things you aren’t telling us old stallion!?” Blade said demandingly. Standing up and pressing a hoof quite forcefully against Starswirl’s chest. Twilight was completely mortified and Luna’s jaw hung agape, as did Sabre’s. But no one dared to move or speak.

Starswirl simply smirked “Silly little colt… I regulate time itself, of course I know more, but the time line demands you not know them yet.” Starswirl’s horn glowed and Blade shot into the air, Starswirls face curling into a smirk “and if you were trying to be threatening… I have studied magic for thousands of years… you would stand no chance, I could pluck you from the very fabric of time if I so desired.” Starswirl said with a dark glint in his eyes. “Now go, get out of here, I must attend to my duties.” He finished returning back to the desk he had been at when Twilight and Luna first walked in.

Blade scrabbled to his feet and hastily left the room, followed soon by Luna and Sabre trying to calm Blade down. Twilight walked slowly after them, completely embarrassed, and disappointed she hadn’t been able to talk more to her hero.
“Twilight?” Twilight stopped at Starswirl spoke, looking back. “Be careful… dig up the past and all you get is dirty.” He said ominously before turning back to his work. Twilight considered asking more but she didn’t want to fall behind the others. She quickly galloped after them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Couple Of Hours Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I could have taken him, but he startled me!” Blade said unconvincingly.
“Suuure you could old timer.” Sabre said in a joking tone. In reply to which Blade responded with
“Bloody magic…” To which he received glares from both Twilight and Princess Luna. “Oh.. er… sorry Ma’am… er Ma’ams…” He attempted (and failed) to recover the situation. Twilight was in the middle of forming a witty response (at least witty for Twilight) when her thoughts were cut off as they came out of the woods at one end 0f the repaired rope bridge. She froze on the spot and gazed across the bride in horror.

The ancient stone stairs, now smeared in blood leading up to where the newly erected gate had once stood, the splintered mess hanging off the hinges, smoke rose up from behind the falls, far too much for it to just be. The smell of brunt flesh, fabric and wood filled the air; striking terror into Twilight’s heart.

Comments

[MC BR0N3]

Great chapter: Does the creator's name begin with "F" and end with "aust" by any chance?
You also have a couple of minor errors:
“Be careful… dig up the past and all you get is dirty.” I think you mean "dig up the past and all you get is dirt."
“and if you were trying to threatening…" "and if you were trying to threaten me..."

AND DAYUM! What in the nine circles of Tartarus caused all that bloodshed?

[Dr Atom Discharge]

639313 Yeah, I thought I'd throw that reference, notice any subtle hints when he addresses Twilight for the first time?
Actually it's "Dig up the past and all you get is dirty" is a quote from the film Minority Report, it means that if you go digging around then you're going to get yourself hurt.
And the "If you were trying to Threatening" is meant to be "If you were trying to be threatening"
Well... to reference a picture I draw a while ago fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/555705_199088816875163_100003221370082_316322_1008557679_n.jpg

[MC BR0N3]

639324 Ohh...ok.
A...moustache? Really?
Some things can only be expressed with a moustache!

[Dr Atom Discharge]

639536 Er.. yeah... but did you notice the little bit with Twilight?

[Sonicbrony66]

640507 She gonna take over Celestia's place, ain't she?

[Dr Atom Discharge]

640569 Mmmmaybe... the point of an apprentice (Which Twilight pretty much was to the Princess) is to eventually take over from the Master

[Zombi]

Fantabulous!!!