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0900 HOURS
A CAVE IN THE ALPS
NEAR GERMAN BORDER, NORTH OF ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND
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It had all gone so wrong, and it was all her fault. Coming here was a mistake. Had she really thought it would be so easy? Did she honestly believe that she could swoop down with her precious student in tow and just…make things better?
Celestia could defend herself. There’d been no time to think or plan, they’d barely arrived in time as it was. But in time to do what? Nearly die at the hooves of a ravenous mob and permanently traumatize her own precious student, a mare being groomed for a position of power and leadership in Equestria? No, these excuses could have been made by a young stallion wrecking his father’s produce cart, but not by a centuries-old princess with the fate of two worlds on her shoulders.
Two worlds she was failing. Miserably.
Celestia lay with her muzzle in her forehooves, still watching Twilight on the other side of the small cavern. It had been a few hours since the debacle in the “Newfoal Colony,” and at the very least, she had managed to wash the blood out of Twilight’s coat. It had been awful, like cleaning up a doll: Twilight allowing herself to be positioned in the creek, only moving to raise her hooves when asked, or splay out her wings so each and every feather could be scoured. She kept her eyes forward, staring off into the distance at something Celestia could only guess at. If anything, the princess thanked her lucky stars that Twilight had dropped off immediately after her bath in the cave’s narrow stream. At least then, she didn’t have to look into that vacant stare again, wondering if the old Twilight’s warm brightness would ever return.
“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered with a quiet sniffle. The only reply was a dribble off one of the cave’s numerous stalactites, little drops echoing along the walls of the tiny cavern.
This couldn’t be allowed to happen again. There was already too much blood spilt in this world, too many sacrifices. She would have to get better, figure things out. She would have to learn all she could about what she was up against.
All at once, Celestia knew what she had to do. And it wasn’t laying here, crying until things got better. This “other,” this enemy, who or whatever she was, obviously still held some power in this world despite her imprisonment, and she possessed more than enough prowess to wield that power to devastating effect. Celestia needed to know everything she could find on her doppelganger.
Turning to her pack, she pulled out the Time magazine article she’d torn out back in their hunt through the library, clenching it between her teeth. “Interview with a Prince: How One Stallion went from Captain of the Guard to Rebel Leader to Rebuilder of a Devastated Nation.” She raised an eyebrow. Certainly not the most well-written title she’d ever seen for an article, but at least it had caught her eye. And it alerted her to the possible answers it might hold.
Celestia, of course, was no fool. She knew the answers this article might provide would most certainly not be all that pleasant, but she knew they would almost certainly be necessary for what she needed to accomplish. Still, she shivered at the full-page close-up of Shining Armor spread out before her. Though he had his trademark blue-streaked mane and pristine white coat, this Shining Armor lacked her own captain’s sureness and confident smile, instead glaring up at her from the page as if accusing her personally for the destruction wrought in his land. And that scar…that awful, deep, jagged scar running along his muzzle…
Sighing, she quickly turned her attention to the next page and, still breathing heavily to counter her rising pulse, she began to read.
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SEVEN YEARS AGO
NATION OF NEW EQUESTRIA, SOUTH CHINA SEA
CANTERLOT, EQUESTRIA, SPECIAL UN-EXCEPTION ZONE
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Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard tried very hard not to tremble as he approached the Solar Throne, his head bowed the entire time. He only partially succeeded. The Solar Princess radiated power, her wings flared out so that her massive size filled her throne, seemingly an entire side of the throne room. And yet, for all this, her eyes were still open and kind as she gazed down at him. He didn’t buy it. Not even for a second.
“Your Highness,” he enthused, bowing.
“Ah, Captain Armor,” she replied with that warm lilt in her voice, like a mother embracing their foal after a day at Kindergarten. “How very good to see you again.”
“And you, your highness,” he lied, trying to ignore the sweat gathering under his helmet as though he were working the engineer’s compartment of a steam engine. In truth, it was never ‘good’ to see her again. Not since he found the documents telling him what really happened to those subjected to ponification, and what a Newfoal truly was. Since then, seeing the princess had felt like playing a game their “enemies” called “Russian Roulette.”
“I am so glad to hear you say that, my little pony,” she hummed as she circled around, and suddenly, Shining Armor felt like a zebra being backed into a corner by a manticore. Alarm bells went off. Oh hell, was this the day? Had he finally played this game one too many times? “You know, it can be so hard to find good, loyal ponies these days. Since we opened up our first Conversion Bureau, there have been so many ponies that have lost sight of the truth, and of the guiding light. It can be so exhausting, all the double-talk, the backroom deals, the assassination attempts…”
Most of it carried out by you, he thought bitterly, remembering the freak accident that had destroyed a caravan of picnicking nobles the previous year, wiping out the entire Blueblood line just hours after Vladimir Blueblood had demanded the princess make her secret military research programs regarding the defense of Equestria from any “cross-dimensional incursions” public.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, your majesty,” he said, rising in a way that he could only hope looked natural, and not all shivery and janky as though his legs were going to give out from under him at any moment. “I like to think we all have our burdens to shoulder, no matter our occupation, though I’m sure the burdens of royalty are heavier than most.”
“Hmm…I suppose they are,” she mused, and for a second, Shining allowed a glimmer of hope into his thoughts. Was he just being paranoid again? It was easy enough to let his imagination run away with him, especially as he laid in his bed at night, all alone, wondering if today he had made the mistake that would finally get him killed. “There are also the decisions we must make. You see, Captain, ruling requires that we make difficult choices at times. Choices that overall are for the benefit of the country, but might be to the detriment of a few.”
“O-of course, your highness,” what was this? Had she invited him in for some small talk? If so, why hadn’t she put out some tea and coffee cake as was her tradition?
Her gaze drifted over him, and suddenly he felt the stare of a thousand suns looming over him, a creature with infinite power and little to no restraint regarding him like a magnifying glass over an anthill. Shining’s head bowed once more, ears fanning against his skull.
“And if those few happen to be ponies the royal knows, well, that can’t be helped. If a royal were to make exceptions there and put anything above her country, that just wouldn’t be fair.” She paused right in front of him, and he just knew that she was gazing holes into the back of his head with those eyes, those awful, blazing eyes, her mane billowing out to the side without impeding that damnable gaze in the slightest. He swore he could feel the heat of her glare on the back of his head. “Do you agree, Captain? That is fair, is it not?”
Oh dear sweet Celestial goddess above, he was so dead. “Yes princess, I suppose that is very fair.”
Nodding her approval, she turned away, and he felt that horrible gaze leave the back of his head. His relief was short-lived as the doors to the throne room creaked open behind him.
Shining Armor of the Royal Guard turned to catch a glimpse of the newcomer, as was ingrained in him by years of training, and Shining Armor the terrified foal immediately focused back on the tile, his vision blurred by tears, his heart beating in his throat. She wouldn’t… he thought to himself, even as another voice roared back that she so would. Still, he didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t believe it, knew he had to believe it but wanted to refute it with all his will.
He remained like that until a pair of hooves clad in the gold-plated armor shoes of the royal guard halted next to his ear, a pair of loud clacking sounds that echoed in the hallway like an executioner’s gunshot. This was followed by a loud squelch, something fleshy hitting the tile. Something fleshy, purple and covered in blood.
Shining slowly craned his neck around, a drop of blood leaving a trail down the side of his ivory cheek. Twilight Sparkle’s one remaining eye focused in and out on him, the other a bloody hole in her face. A spurt of blood cascaded from her mouth, trailing from the streak her impact with the tile left. Her jaw pressed into the floor at a strange, haphazard angle that told him it had been broken, along with the upper part of her muzzle leading to her snout. Her only eye gave him a half-asleep, thousand-yard stare from the middle of a network of swollen, red cuts, beneath the shattered remnants of her horn.
He looked at her, his back heaving, his breath coming in wretching gasps despite his best efforts. The gasps became longer and higher-pitched as his wide, horrified eyes drank in his sister, his stomach twisting in knots. He wanted to puke. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to reach out and strangle the fuckers who did this. In the end, all he could do was reach feebly for her, wheezing pitifully as the first wails broke from his throat.
His sister, the precious little filly that had become so withdrawn since her admittance to Celestia’s – no, no, even now he couldn’t think that name – to Her School for Gifted Magickers, laid as a broken mare before him. The guard closest to him at least allowed for the embrace, letting Shining cradle the tattered pile of mattered fur until that evil fucking bitch cleared her throat. Without a moment’s hesitation, the guardstallion cracked a hoof up the side of Shining’s face, sending him sprawling, still clutching his sister.
“Did you think I was stupid, Captain Armor?” Celestia asked calmly, retaking her place on her throne. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice the backroom meetings and the missing lab documents?”
He didn’t respond, still clutching his sister, still wailing.
The Princess shook her head. “Such a shame…so much potential from both of you, but then you had to go and lose your spine, Captain.”
At that, Shining Armor turned on her, tears still streaming down his face, teeth bared. “You’re kidnapping sapient creatures for your own twisted experiments in turning them into mindless zombies! What the fuck else could I have done!?”
The Princess just shook her head again. “Such an utter and complete waste,” she sighed. “Oh well, one more rabble-rouser down.”
“God damn you!” He screamed, the guardstallions all gasping at the use of the forbidden expression: the ‘God’ their enemy was so used to invoking. “God damn you all straight to hell!”
“Very well,” the Princess’s horn warmed and Shining Armor knew what would come next. A flash of searing pain, certainly, a couple theatrical peals of flame, and then, the cold eternity of nothingness. He closed his eyes, still gasping, hugging his sister close to him. At least she wouldn’t be in agony much longer.
“Shuh-Shining?” The mare in his grasp asked. He looked at her to see her eye open, trying to focus on him.
“Shhhh…” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “It’ll all be over soon, okay? The pain will be gone soon.”
He felt tears gathering against his legs as they embraced her. He cringed and clenched his teeth, awaiting the final blow. Then the throne room doors opened once more.
“Your highness?” Shining opened his eyes, blinking away the tears as a familiar pink form stepped through. Cadenza. Cadence for short. The Princess’s personal secretary. What was she doing in here?
The Princess turned that burning glare on the smaller unicorn. By some incredible force of will Shining would admire until his dying day, Cadence didn’t shrink back, only kept her head bowed. “What is it, my dear assistant?” The Princess asked tersely, her jaw visibly clenching and unclenching.
“I-It’s an official from the occupied territories in New Manehattan, madam,” Cadence said, keeping her eyes on the floor. “You said to let you know the moment we…”
“I did…” the Princess paused, the magic draining from her horn, and the temperature dropping in the room considerably. Shining noticed sweat dripping down the other guards’ foreheads, though whether that was from the heat or the tension was anypony’s guess. “Now, why would I do that?”
“Something…about…” Cadence glanced around quickly. “Nutmeg?”
The Princess glared at her. Shining had detected the lie instantly, but why was Cadence lying?
Unless…
Oh, that impossibly brave mare. If Shining had had any suspicions before about who had been feeding him documents to supply to the growing rebel army, they were all confirmed right here, in that sideways glance, the pieces coming together in his mind at once. In that moment, he could have rushed over to that scared little unicorn and swept her up in his hooves. As it stood, he could only wait, and pray to an entity that didn’t even have a religion.
Cadence stood there, waiting for some sort of reaction. The room held its collective breath. The Princess regarded her secretary for five of the most terrifying moments in anypony’s lives. Then, one of the royal alicorn’s eyebrows arched.
“Ah yes, Griffonian nutmeg,” the princess enthused, a light smile touching her lips. “Delicious stuff, I was hoping to step up our trade relations to favor its import.”
Of course, by “trade relations” she meant “tribute,” but Shining Armor was a bit too deep in the throes of shock to bring that point up. Instead, his focus strayed to the pink unicorn, letting out a relieved sigh as the Princess stepped around her, barely giving a passing glance as she trotted out the throne room’s doors.
Instantly, they slammed shut, the lock clicking into place. “What’s…” the guardspony at Shining’s side started before the unicorns standing on either side of the throne darted forward, blasting spells that knocked Twilight’s “escorts” to the floor before they could even get a spell off. Cadence fell too, breathing long, heavy gasps of relief. After a few moments, she turned to Shining.
“Captain Armor?” She asked.
He nodded.
“We’re here to extract you, sir,” she said with a wan smile, tears rolling out her eyes as she gazed over Twilight’s broken form. “Both of you.”
Shining nodded, holding the unicorn in his grasp a little tighter.
“Don’t worry, sir,” Cadence continued, galloping to his side even as the undercover guardstallions from Celestia’s side rushed to bind the fallen guards. “We have healing mages, we can help her…though I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for her eye…”
“That’s okay,” Shining sniffled, relieved tears rolling down his cheeks as he kissed Twilight’s shattered muzzle. “So long as she’s alive, that’s okay…”
“You should get moving, sir,” one of the undercover guards shouted. “We know she designed those doors herself, but we don’t know how long they’ll hold against her!”
“Thank you,” Shining repeated over and over again. “Thank you so much, thank you…”
He trailed off while Cadence went to work taking out one of the windows, the guards keeping an eye on the door. It struck Shining as odd how no sound had come through the door since it had been locked. One would think they would hear the sounds of the buckling hinges, the Princess ranting from the other side, something. It didn’t even occur to him that she might know of another way in, not until the sound of granite grinding on granite filled his ears. He looked up to see the keystone at the height of the archway around the door shift, and by then it was already too late.
“She’s coming through…” he started, and then the stone popped out of place and crashed to the tile, smashing itself to pieces with a deafening thud. His eyes widened in horror as the winged figure of the Princess strode through the hole, framed in her sun’s light, shadows trailing in the dust.
“Cadence,” she said in a tone just above a low whisper, her rage flowing off her body in the form of peals of flickering, white-hot flame, fire dancing along the walls around her. “You too? Even you dare to question your Princess?”
After a few moments finding her voice, Cadence replied: “I do when her actions reveal what an evil, genocidal pile of horse-apples she is!”
“TRAITOR!” The Princess cried, diving out of the hole and charging, her rage clouding her mind. One of the guardstallions leapt back at her. She trampled him beneath her hooves, not even slowing down. The next stallion proved quicker in his charge, dodging to the side at the last minute to bring his spear around in a stab at the Princess’s side.
“Traitors!” She repeated, the blow still not enough to pierce her magically-endowed coat, but enough to throw off her charge.
“Move!” The guard screamed, turning to face the trio by the window. “Before she-“ his sentence ended in a choked-off gurgle as the Princess’s horn jabbed into his throat, piercing right through until the tip emerged out the other side. He still let out a couple strangled, clicking sounds as she hoisted him up and catapulted him over her shoulder, throwing him against a wall with enough force to leave cracks.
Her murderous glare turned on the three remaining ponies, blood streaking down her face, her eyes filled with the sort of murderous rage reserved for the worst of tyrants. “Traitors.” She whispered again, stepping forward, kicking one of her own unconscious guards to the side.
Tears stung Shining’s face from the sheer heat. He hugged Twilight closer, like a foal with his teddy. He didn’t notice the way Twilight’s eyes fluttered open as he set her aside, standing, his head bowed.
“Come on, then,” he said quietly, his eyes closing dejectedly as he faced the Princess. “Finish it.”
With a snarl, the Princess reared back for an earth-shattering blow, the light pouring off her body almost too much for Shining, even with his eyes closed. He heard Cadence gasp behind him, assumed it was in horror, and whispered: “I love you, Twily.”
There was a last cry, the snap of a massive spell being unleashed, and then pain seared up the side of his face. Shining Armor collapsed, knowing he was mortally wounded, knowing there was no way he could still be alive. At least, not for long.
To his surprise and amazement, he breathed in, and then breathed out. He was alive. The pain in his face was indescribable, but he was alive. He opened his eyes - or eye, as it was – and focused. It took nearly all his will to climb back to his hooves, and when he did, he wished he hadn’t.
A scorched, charred corpse lay before him, a little pony burnt beyond recognition. The tortured flesh of the face was twisted into a mask of immense pain, the mouth open in a choked-off scream of agony. He might never have recognized it were it not for the mostly-intact flesh of the flank.
Twilight’s cutie mark winked back at him, the only recognizable part left of her.
“No!” He screamed, turning to the surprised Princess in horror and rage. “It was me! It should’ve been me!”
“Shiney!” Somepony far off screeched as hooves grasped at his shoulders. “We have to go! She’ll only be distracted for so long!”
He paid no heed, instead locking eyes with the loathsome, evil creature before him. “It wasn’t enough for you to ruin her life, you had to take it too you evil motherbucking…”
“Shining! Oh Maker above, your face! She got your…”
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Twilight came back like one waking up from a deep, restful sleep, clinging to unconsciousness with the greed of someone forced to wake up to an alarm. It had been so peaceful here. Peaceful and quiet. The exact opposite of the last few days, where she'd been kidnapped, held, accused of the most wretched crimes, sent on the lam with nothing in her stomach, and...
...his head vanished in a cyan blur and a sudden explosion of gore, bits of skull and droplets of blood blanketing the cheap throw rug proclaiming “welcome” to anyone on the doorstep...
Twilight bolted upright, sleep fleeing her body. A hoof flew across her mouth, stifling the scream threatening to rise from her throat. Her heart pounded in her chest. Tears gathered in her eyes. Darkness crept in along the edges of her vision, and she squeezed her eyelids shut. She was going to faint. And would that be so bad? Sleep had been peaceful. Sleep had been refreshing. Out here, all that existed was the image playing constantly in her mind, hammering her skull just like...just like that pegasus had...enjoying it...oh yes, they had enjoyed it, that pegasus had stomped that human's brains out and looked back at her with the sort of ecstasy you only saw in foals discovering chocolate for the first time. No, no wait, that was wrong. It had been more like Dashie whenever she pushed some new limit in her flying, or Applejack at the end of an especially hard day when she came over to just relax over a movie with the rest of her friends. As if that pegasus had been meant for this, meant to kill and kill again the same way Fluttershy was meant to take care of her animals.
That somepony could be wired to believe killing was their natural talent forced a bit of bile up Twilight's throat. She swallowed it back and tried to will herself back to sleep again.
Except that would accomplish nothing.
Except sleep meant laying here - wherever here was - like a useless log while Celestia did all the work.
Except sleep would be hard to return now that the image of that man's head exploding kept playing over and over on the inside of her eyelids.
Tears stung at Twilight’s eyes as they opened tentatively. Her lower lip quivered, but she forced the tears back down as she had with the bile. She was a princess, specially selected from an entire generation of promising foals to be Celestia's personal student, and someday, perhaps even her substitute. The mare worthy of these things would not cry in the face of such hardship. The mare worthy of these things would do whatever it took to make sure they didn't happen again.
Twilight laid there until her heart slowed down, her hoof forcing her breathing to remain steady. Eventually, she felt confident enough to lower her hoof without fear of a scream breaking out. She knew if she screamed, she probably wouldn't be able to stop, and a mare screaming and jabbering herself hoarse was the last thing a pair of fugitives needed.
Even with her confidence growing, she laid there awhile, not yet able to roll over onto her hooves. Her mind needed time to analyze the situation, to appraise it. Except it couldn't. It was all too big, too completely overwhelming for one pony to process and deal with. This world had seen so much death and destruction at the hooves of another world like her own, yet not. And in trying to set things right and improve that image, all she had accomplished was a near-death experience at the hooves of an utterly ravenous horde of ponies straight out of a horror story: one of those cheap post-apocalyptic things the griffons were so fond of. On top of that, her sole attempt at saving just one life and sparing this world any more misery had ended in total failure, as well as an image that she just knew would be haunting her nightmares for the rest of her life.
A few years before, Twilight would have been so totally paralyzed by all this she probably would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep. Now though, she knew exactly what she needed: a friend to help her.
Finally pushing herself to her hooves, Twilight gave herself a quick preening. The habit had been surprisingly easy to get into once she had started, and now even a brief nap usually resulted in a small preening. Just another ritual to hold to, like brushing her teeth or running a comb through her mane. Amazing the things one got used to.
If she ever got used to mornings like this, she would slit her own throat.
She sat up, and her eyes fell on a beautifully white form watching her from deeper in the cave. She locked eyes with Celestia, the older princess lying prostrate at the other side of a tiny, stagnant pond. By her hooves were the folded, laminated pages of a discarded magazine article. She looked so tired and old just then that Twilight had to take a step back. She had been old when Starswirl the Bearded was just another promising young unicorn in Canterlot, when the Crystal Empire had first been banished from existence by Sombra’s power, and even when Luna’s rage had first welcomed the power of the Nightmare into Equestria. And finally, it looked like all of those long centuries were starting to weigh on her.
Twilight had to blink at her former mentor. Had those bags under her eyes always been there? Did her muzzle always sag with loose skin? And weren’t those eyes a vibrant, lively magenta before she’d gone to sleep? Or had they always been a sort of dull lavender, the kind you saw on the wallpaper of an elderly pony’s home who was just too old and too tired to change it?
Without really thinking about it, Twilight trotted over to Celestia and tucked in at her side, nuzzling against her, not even realizing this had been the exact position she’d assumed years ago as a filly, whenever she was feeling down about the other unicorns teasing her in class or because she was feeling a little homesick. This was enough for Celestia to pull her muzzle out of her hooves, slightly damp from lapping at the very edge of the stagnant water for who-knows how long, but not much else.
Also without realizing it, Celestia completed the old ritual by fanning a wing over Twilight’s body. Though she missed covering a few errant feathers Twilight had missed in her preening, a contented smile rose on both mares’ faces, one that died almost as soon as it was born.
“A mistake,” Celestia muttered. Her voice was quiet and wavering, as though on the verge of tears. Hearing her princess speak in that voice made Twilight’s heart leap into her throat. “I have made so many mistakes…”
“Princess?” Twilight asked, hoping to snap Celestia out of whatever spell this was and see that old, lively, self-assured confidence return.
“Twilight, I realize now how foolish this was,” she said, her voice still at that eerie quiet. “You are…young…young and inexperienced, and…you should…”
“Princess, no,” Twilight insisted, still ignorant of the way Celestia kept her head down, the shadow of her mane covering her eyes. “I’m here to help…”
“And I can’t lose you!” At that, Celestia finally looked up, and Twilight took a few shocked steps back. Celestia, the Princess of Day, ruler of the sun, the mother figure for everypony in Equestria and abroad, had tears streaking down her muzzle, soaking the dirt beneath her barrel. Twilight had seen her cry before, of course, she’d cried just the other day when Ainsley had called up all those horrid articles about the crimes of her doppelganger. This time, however, Celestia was not crying on behalf of a species or under the weight of the crown. This time, Twilight just saw a pony scared to tears of losing someone she loved.
“I-I can’t do it, Twilight,” she whispered, her voice kept low by a barely-contained bout of sobs. “I will fight hatred and death in this world with my dying breath, I will stretch my magic past its limits curing the Newfoals, I’ll even die fighting that bitch…but if I had to bury you here, if I had to lower your body into a grave, I think I’d just lay down next to it and cry forever and ever until I couldn’t cry anymore and…and…”
Twilight rushed to embrace her teacher, nuzzling deep against her barrel, hooves around her slender neck. She emulated the many long evenings Celestia would spend in this exact position, their roles reversed from those old days when Celestia had to nuzzle away the bullies’ words or the homesickness or the other hundreds of things a pubescent pony might suffer through.
They stayed like that until the sobs finally abated, calming into a series of quivering, hyperventilated breaths. “I can’t…” Celestia whispered as she finally calmed. “I can’t lose you.”
Rubbing her cheek into her ivory coat, Twilight whispered back: “Now you know why I can’t leave.”
There was a pause in the jagged breaths. Celestia’s breathing increased again, and for a second, Twilight was worried she might lose her to another crying fit. But it calmed after a few minutes, and at last, the pair were able to just enjoy one another’s embrace.
“Please, Twilight,” Celestia whispered. “Please go. I’d rather die than lose you.”
“Out of the question,” Twilight whispered back, wiping the tears out of her mentor’s eyes with the tips of her wings, even as tears of her own started wetting her muzzle. “I’m not leaving here without you, and without helping put something right. That would be abandoning a job and leaving things half-finished. I have never done that in my life, and I refuse to start now.”
A few moments of silence passed between them. “You’re a wonderful pony,” Celestia finally said between sniffles and hiccups.
Twilight settled in to stroke the near-pristine ivory coat next to her. “Let it all out, Princess,” she whispered. “And then tell me what the next step is.”
“The next step?” Celestia looked away, biting her lip to control her sobs. “The next step…”
Twilight’s heart sank at the blank look in Celestia’s eyes behind the tears. Perhaps that had been another reason to send her off: she didn’t even know what the next move would be. Not that Twilight could blame her. The situation had looked so simple before the Newfoal colony, but now, after the death and destruction there, what would they do? What could they do?
After a while, Celestia looked over at her, eyes still glistening with tears but her muzzle holding that gentle smile Twilight knew from years under her tutelage. “What is the most important thing for somepony who is just learning something new, and fails?” She asked politely, voice still quivering.
Twilight blinked, her mind shifting into another gear with an almost audible thud, but when it finished the answer was on her lips almost immediately: “To try again, no matter how long it takes?”
The smile on Celestia’s face widened, tears still standing in her eyes. “Precisely.”
Who needs sleep anyways?
Ooh, and I just finished my Spectrum marathon!
Okay, this is still less dark than Spectrum, but not by a lot. I'm fine with it; it'll get better. (Right? )
Well, would they expect her to turn around and try again?
Good to see you back friend
yay! updates! orig04.deviantart.net/3db3/f/2012/363/1/e/clapping_pony_icon___twilight_sparkle_by_taritoons-d5pkpl8.gif
The DJK link is busted
Evil Celestia is doomed, she just doesn't know it yet.
7532526 Not all admrials are stupid. just this one and those he is allied with.
Glad to see this coming back, the wait was worth it and I hope the duo manages to find another chance to help.
In all honesty, I do wonder what could be happening right now in the rest of the world... will your story be affected by the events of IRL events or you have already cemented in one way?
Thanks for the updates sir! They were well appreciated!
7532576 You like this too? Awesome
coughsiricough
I don't care how awful you make Xenolestia, I'm still going to believe that the orbital friendship
canoncannon is capable of redeeming her, and that she deserves it, if for no other reason than every, single story featuring her says otherwise.Because with ponies, Friendship is [the most powerful] Magic!
Glad to see this story rise again. I quite enjoyed it the first time around, and it seems time has done it no ill.
Here's hoping things turn around for the characters sometime in the near-future.
And, of course, give Xenolestia a stern talking to. By which I mean blow her out of the sky, whether by alicorn magic (I'd wager four alicorns could beat one, even with Celestia being quite definitively weaker than her evil counterpart), nuclear strike, or orbital friendship cannon.
7532998
Gonna go ahead and say that I'm amused to see someone make that particular spelling mistake in reverse for once.
7533529
Clearly I meant it as written - that orbital friendship is canon!
I thought the first Celestia died. Where does it say she's still alive?
7533636
Somewhat more topically, I sorta-kinda agree with you there on principle. Not really so much out from the "fuck writing clichés" angle so much as from the basic idea that forgiveness and redemption is something you are offered because you don't deserve it. Nightmare Moon and Discord never did anything to deserve a second chance. They were just offered one anyway, because it's the right thing to do. There's a reason they say "to forgive is divine."
It just represents the central themes of this show better, I think.
7533660
How could I forget Tigerclaw?!
7533659
Chapter XXI: Stirrings, paragraph 4 and onward.
7533749
Oh, definitely yes. The show's core values, the characters, and really, Equestria as a whole feels very cheapened when 'righteous anger' is a stronger force in the universe than 'friendship is magic.'
'Because it's the right thing to do,' especially in the face of adversity, is a very pony attitude.
Glad to see this update again. Curious to see what happens next.
Thanks for this delivery. Eagerly awaiting more from you. Welcome back!
7532998 I actually don't believe the OFC is going to help here. What we are encountering is, at least imho, a twisted and sick mind or, how I'd like to describe it, pure evil. This is no simple alternate personality like NMM, but her one and only personality. Not everypony can be saved. Not even with the power of love ... I messed this up, right?
What I am trying to say is, you can't solve every God damn problem by shooting a rainbow at it. I am not familiar with the whole storyline, but why didn't the other universes Mane 6 use the Elements against Xenolestia when they had the chance?
Yet, if Xenolestia is like NMM, and I'd hate to see that, she probably has already grown so strong that Celestia can't be saved anymore. Hell, NMM could also only be defeated because she was caught by surprise by the Elements. Imagine what would have happened if she knew what was going to happen.
Enough for now.
Stay fresh
7539818
That's exactly what I hate about these "irredeemable villains" of MLP fanfiction: the idea that Equestrian values and reality are, at their core, not very effective. (There's also this passive assumption that therefore, human values are better/more effective than Equestrian ones.) Do you know how badly that kind of ideal cheapens the entire "Friendship is Magic" shtick that is the center of our beloved show? "Friendship is Magic Sometimes" just doesn't have the same ring.
I mean, picking and choosing who to try it on is... just arbitrary. And that's not just or fair.
Thanks to some very lengthy discussions about how the Elements of Harmony work, I think I've come up with a way to make them work in all cases without being too "mind-rapey." When the EoH do their thing, they insert "compassion" into your personality.
Yes, that's it. Compassion makes you care about how others view their wellbeIng. Bam! Xenolestia now cares how her actions impact/have impacted others. She'll probably be a much nicer pony.
7540300 Yet these irreformable villains add a bit of variety to FiM fanfiction.
7540453
Except that it's always the same villains, and always for the same reasons.
Xenolestia can't be reformed because:
A: She was never good to begin with, so there's nothing for her to go back to. (Chrysalis was never good, but that doesn't stop her reformation in many, many fanfics.)
B: She's too powerful to be reformed. IE, her sheer evil is actually more powerful than the concept of 'good.' (Which is a big FU to the core of MLP:FiM)
There are innumerable stories where Xenolestia gets put down because one or both of these reasons. It's not 'variety' to have the same thing happen every single time, so I, for one, will continue to hope that kildeez is actually planning on doing something else with her. After all, this isn't real-life Earth, and the magic of friendship can actually be the most powerful force in the universe.
Eyyyy. I just randomly decided to check if this had updated. Neato. Hope you can stay in the groove.
7540300
7540300
Inserting compassion still sounds very forceful and mind-rapey. While i heavily doubt it's what the writers have in mind, i imagine them as having had a long conversation with NMM. Neither explains Discord's petrification or NMM's banishment, though.
7542596
Well, there's certainly more going on - the Elements have to stop their target from doing whatever evil deeds they're up to in the physical world - and I don't think we can avoid a certain amount of mind-rapey-ness simply because the Elements need a certain amount of power/force behind them. But inserting compassion and letting the target do all the hard work of reforming themself is a mite less 'rapey' than scouring the target's entire mind and excising everything undesirable. At least according to other people I've had this discussion with. (Though many of those people consider the mind inviolate, making mind-alteration a crime above and beyond anything evil done by any of the villains, and would rather take a bullet to the brain rather than be force-reformed.)
And, yes, a lot of this is my personal headcanon because it's hard to explain why NMM was locked away one time and fully reformed the other, Discord was locked away each time, and Tirek was simply de-powered. But then, those are all examples of cartoon physics, where the needs of the episode alter the given qualities of their world.
7542818
It's something I can sympathize with. You can punish people against their will, but to "reform" someone against their will is just a different kind of slavery. Morality fundamentally comes from choice. You can't actually be a good person if you don't have the free will left to be anything else. It's why we don't hold animals accountable for their actions - neither the good nor the bad they do is actually willful intention. Just look at what the "canon" version of Conversion Bureau does there.
As the duchess of Genua says in one of Pratchett's Discworld novels: "You thought that breaking into my mind and showing me what I really am would change me? I know what I am! Everything I did, I did because I wanted to! And if I could go back, I would do it again, just longer and harder!"
Innuendo not intended. I just can't find the actual quote.
7543353
That's the conundrum, isn't it? Either way you're taking away someone's free will - whether by forcing some kind of reform, or "simply" forcing them to stop doing what they want. In the battle between good and evil, is good even allowed to use force? It seems wrong for good to force anything on anyone, and if it can't, then all evil characters are inherently beyond reach (Xenolestia, NMM, Chrysalis, Silver Spoon, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer...) because they're not going to stop/change on their own.
7543595
I suppose if you wanted to really make serious moral point about it, the answer would be that to reduce actions and people to "good" and "evil" is in itself a mistake. Choices are made right and wrong equally on the basis of principles and consequences. Basic principle decides some of our ideas about the world, but what our choices are ultimately measured by is what outcomes they produce in our lives - and "would anyone be harmed by this choice and if so, how much" is one of the big ones. It's because we value freedom for its own sake that we fight tyrants. The "good guys" and the "bad guys" are distinguished by that the good guys have lines they will not cross, because otherwise, you do not have heroes fighting monsters. You just have monsters fighting more monsters.
In my view, freedom of choice is one of the most important values there is. In fact, I would go so far that our freedom to choose how to live our lives is what makes them life at all. It is what gives it value. Someone who has been reduced to a niceness-machine cannot be considered a person at all anymore. Not being able to choose and instead merely existing at the dictate of someone else is not qualitatively different from death to me. You are a thing at that point, and things do not live. It is adding torture to murder, in my opinion. Better to just kill the incorrigible outright and spare them that degradation. In a binary choice between two evils, you should at least pick the lesser one.
7542818
Well, i am absolutely one of those people who considers the mind to be inviolate and sacred. I see little moral difference between forced reformation, forced love, forced loyalty, forced zealotry, etc. If the main force for 'good' uses mind rape to achieve its goals, then i don't think it's goal were all that good to begin with.
Actually, now that i think about it, it could be that if the elements can't get the villain to see that they are evil/wrong, then they use another method ie banishment, petrification, de-powering.
7543642
Then you are still evil. Because...
7544250
..."other methods like banishment, petrification, and de-powering" are still infringing on someone else's freedom of choice. With these sorts of handicaps, it sounds like 'good' cannot meaningfully sway 'evil' from its course.
Though, talking with friends, we had another thought. In many games/movies/stories/etc. If you spend too much time in a thoroughly evil-tainted area, you will eventually become more evil yourself. Why wouldn't the same be true in reverse? If an evil character spends enough time in good-aligned surroundings, they are eventually 'corrupted by good.'
The EoH could work on this principle, so banishment/imprisonment comes complete with an ambience of 'good.' Which could also explain why Discord and NMM took several tries, and Tirek was simply depowered.
7544443
Yes. A lot of things in life are. Society is built upon little evils like that, in fact. That's the social contract: agreeing on a small number of acceptable punishments for unacceptable behaviour in exchange for the guarantee that you will not be victimized by others in turn. Fundamentally, locking people behind bars for extended periods of time is a bad thing to do. It is, however, also the least harmful and easiest-to-reverse form of deterrence that is widely available to us. An important thing to remember is that no one can be expected to not defend themselves when someone attempts to hurt them. When someone is a threat to others, then denying them the ability to cause harm to others - in the most civilized and humane way available - is the best option of a number of bad options. Inaction, in that case, is the greater crime.
No one ever said being "good" means being "perfect." That's unrealistic and we have to live in a world where that is not actually an option.
Personally, I prefer to think that Nightmare Moon was "reformed" because she was, in fact, insane. Luna went into a deep depression and lost her contact with reality in her isolation and feelings of neglect. She had no control over her actions anymore to begin with, so she was not so much mentally influenced as cured of an affliction that was already present. The elements, in that case, did not put her through brainwashing so much as laser-powered speed therapy, which is a qualitatively different thing. I could probably give a fairly reasonable explanation as well for why Discord and Tirek got such a different treatment, but at that point, I'd be 90% pulling it out of my ass, so I'd rather just not.
7544499
That opens up a whole different can of worms.
You're now using semantics to phrase events to fit your morals. Someone was in charge of NMM's body, and was making decisions for it based on its own will, and in "curing" that body, the current personality was overwritten in favor of another. You're going to have to get very exacting with your definition of "insanity" versus simply "negative uses of free will" because...
...not really. Sadism, and similar negative traits, can be classified as symptons of some form of insanity, and in some cases - Psychopathy, Sociopathy, etc. - I believe kind of already are. So it should be possible to justify "laser-powered speed therapy" for most any villain, as long as your morals identify the villains' characteristics as symptoms of insanity. Which is just begging to make the decision highly arbitrary - after all, different societies have different morals.
So I believe that Xenolestia is a perfectly valid target, because I feel she's thoroughly insane - she can't control whether she enjoys hurting others. All we need to do is cure her.
7545187
No, I'm not. Involuntary commitment is a thing for a reason. Mental illness is a thing that exists. Mentally ill people are incapable of understanding that they are causing harm to themselves or others and cannot deal with things rationally anymore. If they were in control of themselves, they would not be sick to begin with. There is nothing about a plan like "I will stop the sun from rising and then everyone will love me!" that's sane. Complaining about curing someone from homicidal insanity is like complaining about giving an unconscious injured person a blood transfusion because they didn't ask for it. You're free to disagree with my character interpretation, but don't tell me I'm being inconsistent there. There's respecting personal freedom and there's just being stupid. If you're trying to tell me that psychiatric treatment is brainwashing, then you really need to get a grip.
Also, the kind of sadism you mean is a sexual fetish, not a personality trait. "Cruelty" is not considered a mental illness anywhere. Psychopaths are widely believed to literally have a neurological disorder and do not have the same emotional range as healthy people. This is not an argument.
7544443
But you at least are choosing the better of the two. You can't go from dystopia to utopia instantly, not without extreme force.
There do need to be certain restrictions, of course, but the mind can and must be unaltered. The main justification for removing one's freedom of choice is if they will use that freedom to harm or kill others or their freedoms. Is it evil to stop a murderer because that would remove their freedom to kill? No, because that would be far worse for the victim. Good does need some force to stop people from destroying other's freedom, but that doesn't need to and shouldn't extend to mind control, because that removes all of the victim's freedoms, and at that point good and evil are indistinguishable
7545292
First, both of us are going to have to be more specific than saying "insane." From what I can tell, thanks to the research I've been doing for this argument, insane is not an accurate enough term for the range of mental disorders out there.
Second, no, I do not mean sadism as a sexual fetish. I mean it as the general, marked enjoyment of others' suffering. If there is a better term, then I will use it, but as far as I'm aware, "cruel" doesn't inherently come with the connotations of joy from the act. I never said it's specifically a disorder. I'm pretty sure it's a symptom of some.
Third, to clear things up. Given all that you've said about mental and neurological disorders, and the necessity of curing them for the subject's own good, do you believe Xenolestia is mentally deficient enough to warrant curing? There is clearly something wrong with her. After all, her driving goal seems to be the forcible and violent alteration of an entire species into mindless slaves and an entirely different species.
Fourth, please make your points without directly insulting me. I've tried very hard to avoid doing that myself because it gets this discussion nowhere.
7545520
Just consider it shorthand. Neither you nor I are psychiatrists and I'd feel ridiculous throwing around a bunch of medical vocabulary that I don't actually understand. It's primarily a moral debate, not a medical one. Neither of us are qualified for that.
That's one of those things I am of two minds about. On the one hand, she's calculating, efficient, and successful. That's something the average act born out of mental illness isn't. On the other hand, the sheer malicious glee she shows in that containment room really doesn't look all that emotionally healthy. When someone giggles to herself in an empty room, the thought that comes to mind is not "that is a person that has all four feet on the solid ground of reality."
I don't think enough of her behaviour is based in delusion or psychosis in the proper sense for the elements to be able to "cure" her of it, though, so there's that. If she changes, it will have to be because she actually wants to. Xenolestia knows what she's doing. She's more of a Tirek than a Nightmare Moon.
I wasn't. At most I was being a bit snippy. C'mon, I think by now you should know me well enough to know that when I actually mean to insult someone, it sounds very different. Besides, you were calling me intellectually dishonest in that comment there. That's about as insulting as you can get in my line of work.
7545409
Sums it up, basically. Justified, proportionate self-defense is always morally acceptable. No one can be expected to suffer victimization just for someone else's enjoyment.
I am so looking forward to the Celestia showdown between those two. Yes, it'll be a fairly even match, power-wise, and it would be out of character if Dark-Celestia didn't try every sneaky, underhanded tactic there is like you see in every Jedi vs Darth fight. I have a feeling that Twilight will have her hooves full dealing with the collateral damage assuming all the other players (pony and human) don't crowd the stage in a freeforall.
Heck, the only way this could get even more out of hand would be Light-Equestria punching through to Earth and adding their two bits to the battle. Oi vey!
...that reminds me. What happened to Dark-Equestria's Luna?
7545580
Unfortunately, as unqualified as we both may be, the moral debate is moving in the direction of a medical one. At what point do the medical issues make it morally okay to force someone's mind to change?
As you said, to us, there's something very wrong with Xenolestia, no matter how lucid (non-psychotic) she seems.
Ah. Is force-overwriting someone else's personality proportionate self-defense in the face of an unrepentant personality who has both the means and desire to force-overwrite the species and personality of everyone around them, and to kill any and all who evade the conversion attempt?
7545693
That rather depends on your definition of proportionate. As far as I'm concerned, the order of escalation goes jail < kill < brainfuck into a lobotomized meat puppet. There's no situation that quickly and mercifully ending someone's life can't solve that magically enslaving them would.
So glad the stories not dead! I hope that evil sun bitch dies horribly!
I hope this story doesn't stop soon! I will always be looking out for the next chapter, this story is too good to leave!
7545690
Dead, if I had to guess. Probably executed post-Nightmare Moon.
Oh God no. Twilight. No...
I respect your loyalty to the true values of Equestria, Unknown Guard.
That she is, Princess, that she is.
7532998
Its not the magic of friendship that redeems people. Its themselves who regret their actions.
Oh My God, Celestia said a bad word!
...
😃😁👍 WE'RE A BAD INFLUENCE! 😅😂🤣