- - -
(24)
Plans, Partnerships and Poison
- - -
Rainbow Dash returned home under a curtain of darkening clouds. The last shift of weather ponies had prepared for a short shower tomorrow by corralling and collecting rain clouds above and outside the normal residential airzone. Moisture had been collected and banners hung from different sections of perforated cloud so, when the shower was scheduled, each could be moved by designated teams into place over Ponyville’s farms and fields and town. Every cloud was marked for a weather team – blue or red or orange or green – and for a location.
The orderly rows drifting overhead were a contrast to Dash’s own tumultuous thoughts.
Flying slowly, just drifting with the air currents, she eventually circled around her home: a multi-level bachelorette pad with cycling, flowing rainbow waterfalls and frostflake trellises behind coiled cloud pillars. She couldn’t imagine living her life on land, or like one pegasus, under it in a cellar. She checked her mail box by rote, though it was too late for any mail to have been delivered, and then reached for her door. Her hoof paused, then, before pulling the door open.
“You can come out now,” she said, and for a moment, Rainbow Dash simply waited.
“You are there, aren’t you?” A quick one eighty turn didn’t reveal her supposed pursuer and the brash pegasus groaned. “Oh man, I hope I’m not talking to myself here!”
“You aren’t.”
With a yip of surprise, she spun around and saw Soarin peeking out from over the lip of her roof, his hooves resting easily on the cast cloud-stuff shingles. A rainbow waterfall cascaded down to his left, just missing one of his pale blue hooves. He wasn’t wearing his Wonderbolts blues and seemed very at ease with that fact.
“You were following me,” she told him, frowning. “And what’s with surprising me like that?”
“I thought about not revealing myself at all,” he replied, with the same easy smile as always. Soarin was well known as a mare’s pony, despite his tendency to goof off, and Rainbow Dash could see why. Being so close to him in her training had brought up more than a few naughty thoughts she kept to herself.
“But, yeah,” he admitted, “I was following you. When’d you notice?”
“When I left Fluttershy’s place.” Dash leaned bodily against one of the pillars near her front door. “The birds told me.”
He nodded, seeing how that could reveal him. “Did Ritter notice?”
“I don’t think so.” Rainbow Dash sighed, coming to the question she was a little worried to pose, “Are you gonna tell me why you followed me… when I explicitly said not to? Did Spitfire order you to?”
‘Doesn’t she trust me?’ she wanted to ask. ‘Does she think I’m going to back out?’
Soarin shook his head. “Spitfire didn’t order me to follow you. And I know you said not to…” He looked away, guilty. “I was a little worried. So I lied.”
“Worried about me?” Dash asked, not sure whether she was touched, amused, or angry. “Soarin?”
“Spitfire and me… we…” he said, still looking away at the horizon somewhere, “We’re putting our hopes on you. If Ritter had attacked, if she does attack, before you’re ready… that’s another reason why I’m here.”
He slowly turned back and startled when he noticed she was flying just within reach. A cyan hoof reached out and bopped him on the head, just in front of the ear.
“Thanks,” Dash said, deciding on ‘amused.’ “But we just talked.”
“I saw,” he replied, grinning again, this time at her acceptance of his going against his word. “But what did you girls talk about?”
“Things,” Rainbow answered, evasive. She turned and flew back down to the door, her tail swishing. “Anyway, between you working me ragged and… that mare making my head hurt trying to understand her… I’m turning in. Are you headed back to the Wonderbolts mobile HQ?”
“I suppose I should,” Soarin agreed, standing up and stretching his wings.
A beat passed and, unseen by the Wonderbolt, Dash softly bit her lower lip, unsure but tempted to ask something. Sensing he was about to head off, Rainbow Dash did what she always did: she just spoke her mind.
“You can crash here tonight if you want,” she blurted it out quickly, her back to the stallion. “As long as you don’t snore. You don’t snore, do you?”
“You do have a comfy couch,” Soarin commented, and then with a smile she could somehow hear, “And crashing sounds more appealing than usual. The real question is: do you snore?”
“M-me? Snore?” Rainbow Dash laughed, totally not nervously at all. “No way! Not this pony!”
He hopped down, landing alongside her. It was much more comforting having him close by than trying to play hide and seek in the twilight sky. It almost made Dash regret that, for all his professional protectiveness, she had to tell him at least about one thing she and Ritterkreuz had discussed. He wouldn’t like hearing it.
“There was one thing,” she warned him, and saw a flash of confusion on his face. Soarin’s expressions were so often exaggerated, it nearly made her giggle to see his eyebrows shoot up.
“One thing?” he asked. “What? Like ‘don’t look in my medicine cabinet’ or something?”
“No,” she said, laughing lightly. A cyan wing slapped him on the side. “I was talking about… when I do fight Ritterkreuz… you can’t get involved. You have to promise me you won’t.”
He opened his mouth, but didn’t respond, hesitant to tell another white lie.
“This is important,” Dash told him, making sure she had her serious face on. “Soarin, this is really important. It has to be just her and me.”
“…why?” he asked, tentatively. “You don’t have to do this alone. Spitfire and I, we…”
“I do have to do this alone,” Dash corrected him, resting a hoof on his shoulder. “Not just because… of things… but because I want it, too. I want to do this alone. I have to. Trust me.”
He came close to frowning, but looked more disappointed than angry. “Even if you beat Ritter,” he reminded her, “We have to take her in. She turned against us. Don’t tell me you… that you’re sympathetic to her?”
Rainbow Dash snorted, dismissive of the implication.
“Not sympathy,” she said. “Besides, I’d bet something like that would just make her angry. Just trust me, okay? Promise you won’t get involved when it happens, whether I’m winning or losing. And no telling the others. I want you to be there…”
She was almost pleading, less with her voice and more with her eyes. She had learned so much from him, about flying, about the Wonderbolts and about the world – of air to air combat – that so many of her heroes came from. She’d thought about joining the Air Guard, like he had, but she had never been one for strict rules and regulations. She and Ritterkreuz shared that, at least.
“I do want you to see me win,” she said, “but you have to promise!”
Soarin did frown, then, and she was sure he meant it when he said, “Fine. I promise. My word as a Wonderbolt.”
“Not just as a Wonderbolt, but at my friend.” She held up a hoof to her eye level. “Pinkie Pie promise.”
He went through the motions, but did the eye-squish a little gingerly. It was his first time, after all.
“Happy?” he asked, when it was done. Clearly, he wasn’t pleased with the vow he’d made.
“No, but I will be proud to have you there, cheering me on.” She briefly touched her hoof to his, lowering it from his face. “We’re going to do it outside town to make sure nopony interferes. I can only bring one pony, and I’m glad it’s you.”
“I won’t get involved,” he promised again, closing his eyes to sigh. “I guess you never did really grasp the Dicta Boltcke’s eighth rule of combat.”
“Always attack in groups of four to eight,” Dash recalled, and opened the door of her cloud home. She headed inside, Soarin following close behind.
“So you do remember it.”
“Sure, I remember, but I told you: I’m terrible when it comes to rules. I know ‘em, I just don’t like to follow ‘em.”
“When is this fight going to be, then?”
“During the Art Festival. With town security and everypony hanging around Blueblood and Rarity, Ritterkreuz and I will finish this.” Rainbow Dash glanced back at him, for just a moment. “One way or another, we’ll finish it.”
- - -
“Good morning, Eunomie!”
“Good morning, Twilight.”
It was seven thirty, and the prim crimson-maned unicorn had already made and set out breakfast for her host and her sleeping twin sister. She seemed bright and alert, though without the usual cheer of morning ponies like Applejack or Fluttershy. Twilight thanked her again for the food and sat down to eat. Today, Eunomie had prepared eggs and waffles with fresh apple juice. It would have been a wonderful start of the day, except…
Twilight noticed the sword from the night before, resting on a mat near the back of the library. She hoped it didn’t mean what she thought it meant. Euporie’s words from last night came back, about how Eunomie had to compensate for her lack of talent by working herself to extremes. Eunomie had called her special talent ‘focus’ – but was that intense focus just a crutch for lack of natural talent? It seemed too cruel to be true, and as she eyed the longsword, Twilight realized she did not want to imagine her new acquaintance and helper transmogrifying it another thousand times.
“Last night, didn’t you…?” she led the question on, hoping for a ‘yes, I finished with that spell.’ Or most anything along those lines.
“If you mean the swords to plowshares spell, last night,” Eunomie replied, emotionless. “No. I did not get to one thousand before making another error. I will try again today. And, if I can not do one thousand today, I will do one thousand two hundred tomorrow.”
“What… what went wrong last night?” Twilight asked, and secretly, she wondered if Eunomie had practiced making thousands of waffles before she perfected it to her satisfaction. ‘If I can not prepare one thousand perfect scrambled eggs today, I will prepare one thousand five hundred tomorrow.’
“If you don’t mind me asking,” the lavender unicorn channeled a little Fluttershy, so as not to sound rude. Eunomie couldn’t somehow enjoy doing so many hundreds of spell repetitions. Could she? It seemed impossible. Even a robot unicorn would get tired of it.
“After Euporie came home, she entertained herself by attempting to distract me in various ways,” Eunomie explained, levitating a set of books around her head like tiny orbiting moons. “I was on my nine hundred and ninety third repetition of ‘swords to plowshares’ when I accidentally transmuted the plowshare into a Coltish shortsword instead of the hoof-and-a-half longsword. I finished my set, ended at one thousand and went to sleep.”
She opened one eye, and Twilight realized her other one was blank, blind, the pupil missing. Her familiar was off somewhere. Twilight glanced around, looking for the arcane construct that cost its user half of her vision. Galen was normally quite bright and easy to see… except when he was moving, and thus, immaterial. It reminded Twilight a little of Princess Luna’s spells, from Nightmare Moon’s return. Shadow magic specialized in the manipulation of the immaterial.
“Is that how you learn all your magic?” she asked, and Eunomie blinked – just the good eye. The other stared off into space. It was a little creepy, and Eunomie must’ve noticed something in Twilight’s expression, because she reached a hoof up and closed the blind eye.
“Repetition is the key to how I learn spells. Yes.”
“Is that what your tutor taught you?”
“…” There was an unusually long pause then, before Eunomie responded. “No.”
That caught Twilight by surprise. “Your tutor didn’t…?”
“My tutor was not very effective,” Eunomie answered, her one good eye skimming through a page in a hovering book. “She essentially gave up on me after a time. I developed this method on my own. It is simple, and straightforward, but it works.”
“I doubt any other pony in Equestria could do swords to plowshares a thousand times in one day like you did, even with a few mistakes…”
“Nine incorrect transmutes out of a thousand is still nine incorrect transmutes.”
“It’s only one percent.”
“If I were to rely on a spell to save my life or the life of another, one percent is still an unacceptable failure rate.” Eunomie put two books down on the table and floated the others back to their shelves across the lower floor of the library. “I would be willing to accept one failure in a thousand transmutes. One tenth of a percent.”
“Well, would you… like to study with me some time? Maybe if we study together a little…”
“Are you also learning swords to plowshares?” Eunomie asked, though she had to know Twilight’s answer.
“No,” the other unicorn replied, “but…”
“Then I must decline,” Eunomie said, deadpan. “I must focus on one thing at a time if I…” A thought crossed her then, and the serious mare’s brows lowered slightly. “No. That is incorrect. Learning swords to plowshares is an ancillary pursuit. Learning more about one another, especially if you are to lead our family, is much more important. I apologize for my rudeness.”
It was a somewhat reserved reception, but Twilight had come to see that that was just how her guest was. She offered a wide, genuine smile – enough for both of them.
“I’m glad!” she said, possibilities already running wild in her mind. Princess Celestia’s teaching methods probably wouldn’t work as well with Eunomie as they did with Rarity, but there were other ways to teach and learn, and Twilight loved them all. The most important thing, though… the one concept that united them all…
“Learning should be fun!” Twilight told the straight-faced and tight-laced mare.
“Learning should be… fun?” Eunomie repeated, blinking slowly, as if the concept was more perplexing than an armory of swords turned into plowshares. She closed her other good eye, and though her mouth never moved to smile, Twilight got the feeling she was amused by something.
“What?”
“Be enthusiastic about what you do,” Eunomie said, repeating something she had clearly been told before. “Love what you do, in your own way. My step father said that to me, years ago. I do love… what I do… in my own way. I would like to know how you love what you do, Twilight.”
Eunomie finally put on a grin, though it was clearly forced and for her host’s benefit.
“What are you studying?” she asked, and Twilight didn’t feel offended by the plastered on smile. It was just the other mare trying to be polite and normal. Twilight could sympathize, remembering how social norms had vexed her before coming to Ponyville and learning about friendship. She’d never been quite this bad (not by a long shot), and Eunome didn’t seem like a recluse, but it was similar enough for there to be some understanding between them, or so she thought.
“I was just going to compile some more of my dragon research first…”
“Dragon research?” Eunomie raised a delicate eyebrow, her curiosity not as veiled as her other emotions.
“For the Free Company Rarity’s hired,” Twilight explained, taking a quick drink of apple juice. It must’ve come from the market just this morning. “They’re working for information now as much as gold. Mostly because we have more of the former than the latter!”
“Of course,” Eunomie’s response was typically curt.
“Their Captain, Sir Germolio, was willing to make a little trade, and he understands how important knowledge can be in the right hooves. Once I finish with that, though, my transmutation studies are up to ‘apples and oranges’ … orgo-trans is a step up from plowshares, but after seeing what you can do, I bet you’ll surprise yourself by how easy it’ll come to you.”
“I am willing to try, Twilight, but I do not wish to hold your own studies back.”
“Don’t you worry about that!” Twilight was just about finished with her breakfast, and as she washed it all down with a glass of water, she noticed Galen had materialized overhead. The crystalized arcane construct was just floating there, moving slightly up and down, like a living creature would draw breaths. Wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin, Twilight remembered Eunomie asking her to make use of her familiar as needed.
“Galen,” she said, and the floating crystal chimed in response.
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle?”
“I have a bundle in my room, on the floor and next to Spike’s bed. Can you get it for me? And please be careful.”
“Retrieving.”
The familiar turned back to wind and shadow, vanishing from sight and leaving only a faint magical tingle that danced along the sensitive skin of Twilight’s horn. She knew she couldn’t follow the familiar with her eyes… but this wasn’t just a request on her part. It was another test. So far, she had seen Galen easily navigate the open areas of the library’s lower and upper floors. The door to her room was closed; would Eunomie’s familiar be able to deal with the obstacle? If so, how? Twilight turned an eye on Eunomie herself, but the reserved unicorn opposite her didn’t seem perturbed or interested in her host gathering some additional information on her familiar’s capabilities.
Twilight’s ear twitched as she heard a noise: the door opening and closing. Galen returned a moment later, and with him, the bundle Twilight had requested. He had clearly opened the door, either in coming or going or both. She filed that information away.
“Thank you, Galen,” she said, her magic overlapping that of Eunomie’s familiar.
Eunomie glanced up, as Twilight undid the cloth, but said nothing to express her interest or curiosity. There were a few things inside, notably the pieces of the puzzle box Alpha Brass had given her. She was still working it – it was fiendishly complex! Time seemed to fly while she worked, and she wanted to make at least a little progress before she got distracted by other things during the day. As for the other objects she’d wanted brought down…
“I’ve been thinking about what to send back to Alpha Brass with my letter,” Twilight explained. “I wanted to ask first, though: how do you send things back to him? Can you only send small things like scrolls and this puzzle box?”
“No,” Eunomie replied, and for a moment, it seemed as if that was her only answer. After a moment, she explained in more detail, “There is no weight limit, only a limit of volume. The largest space I can teleport is a cylinder of roughly one thousand cubic hooves.”
Twilight did the math in her head in a split second. “So, a little less than eleven by eleven hooves?”
“Correct.”
“And how do you do it?” she asked, standing up to put away her dishes. “Can you teach it to me?”
“It is possible to teach you the technique, and I am willing to do so, but it will not function without a contract,” Eunomie replied, following Twilight with her good eye.
The librarian and Element of Magic left the dishes in the sink and cantered back into the athenaeum. “A contract?” she asked, “A magical contract?”
“Correct.”
“You know contract magic?” Twilight was more than a little surprised. How could Euporie call her sister unskilled, when she practiced one of the most difficult of arcane arts? Contract magic required very high level magical understanding and a keen, disciplined mind. Then again, that was to compose the initial contracts and runes… once made, anypony could use it…
“Correct, again.”
“Can you show me?”
Eunomie nodded and stood up. Her horn shimmered as much as it glowed, and she summoned up a small brown and green case. Opening the lid, she retrieved a paper slip and the closed the box again. Walking slowly over to the clear area in the athenaeum where she had been practicing swords to plowshares, the pale mare ran a hoof along the floor. Twilight followed and watched, closely, as the other unicorn ripped open the paper slip, and a trickle of white powder sprinkled from it onto the ground.
“Ash and salt?” Twilight asked, sniffing the air.
“Volcanic ash and common magnesium sulfate.”
Eunomie first drew a circle, and then within the circle, a triangle, and within that triangle another triangle. The circle was ubiquitous to any sort of transformative magic, and the triangles were ways to denominate bracing glyphs from controlling glyphs. With the ash and salt in place, Eunomie’s horn began to heat up with light, and a second glow formed, etched into the floor. On the corners of the first triangle, where they met the circle, the pictographic characters for ‘matter,’ ‘power’ and ‘movement’ appeared. Between them, facing the sides of the triangle, were ‘pass,’ ‘wall’ and ‘key.’
“The ash and salt are only required for larger or more static transportation circles,” Eunomie said, and the glow of her horn faded slightly. “This one will continue to function for several hours. Feel free to study it. As you can see, it is not very complex; however you will need a contract with myself or my father to actually cast it yourself without my aid.”
Before Twilight could ask just why a contract was needed, rather than the essential intricacies of the spellwork itself, Eunomie asked, “May I ask what you wish to send back to father?”
“Oh! That!” Twilight trotted back to the bundle unwrapped on the table, also eager to see what her suitor’s step-daughter thought of her return gifts. She first floated over a small wooden case, opening it to reveal a quill pen with bright orange plumage, the color and intensity of living flame. Eunomie’s amber eyes widened a little as she realized just what she was looking at.
“Oh,” she replied, the first surprised sound Twilight had heard her make. “Is that…?”
“A phoenix feather quill,” Twilight answered with a happy grin, glad to have shocked the normally implacable and emotionless mare. “I don’t have anything like a first edition Starswirl treatise, but Princess Celestia gave me two of these when Philomena died and resurrected a few months ago. I read that the only time phoenix feathers don’t turn to ash is when they’re near death, so it’s pretty rare. Do you think Alpha Brass will like it?”
“I am confident he will,” Eunomie said, nodding. “This is a fine gift.”
Twilight was personally rather proud of her first choice of courting gift. It was hard thinking of things she would have on hoof that her would-be husband did not. The two Phoenix Quills in her possession were probably the most materially valuable items in her possession. It was the second gift, though, that she considered more personal and meaningful.
“I also copied some of my research on the magic of friendship,” Twilight explained, a sealed scroll of her own wrapped protectively in wax and parchment drifting behind her and then over to Eunomie. “I’ve learned so much since coming to Ponyville and… and I thought...” She blushed a bit. “Well, maybe it would help provide some insight into me as a pony and how I feel.”
Eunomie examined the sealed scroll for a moment, tilting her head to the side. “You as a pony? Yes. I can see how that would be an emotional investment. One material gift and one personal one. Very good.”
“When you put it like that it sounds really contrived and pre-planned,” Twilight complained, her maidenly blush quickly receding.
“But it is pre-planned. You planned it last night, did you not?” Eunomie asked, and shook her head. “We already have one dangerously impulsive member of our family, I do not think we need another. My father will understand and appreciate this, Twilight Sparkle. He is much better with feelings than I am.”
“I look forward to meeting him,” Twilight said, and Eunomie blinked in momentary surprise.
“I can teleport you to him if…”
“I want him to meet me here,” the librarian insisted. “I know a good place.”
“But – but…” For the first time Twilight saw the pale mare stammer. “But, he… here? In Ponyville? On the surface?”
“Is that a problem?” Twilight asked, taking note of how Eunomie had said ‘on the surface.’ What did that mean?
Eunomie reached up to her eye, her blind one, self-consciously. “Father will be reluctant to leave his home for Ponyville on such short notice. I was instructed to take you to him when you were ready…”
“Plans are good things to have,” Twilight agreed, floating over her response to Lord Alpha Brass. “But sometimes they have to change.”
- - -
Granny Smith ‘hmmed’ and hawed as she inspected the ripe fruit, rolling the apple in her open hoof, feeling and gaining and testing the weight, the glossy shine of the skin and peel, the healthy spring of the stem, and of course the blush red color. She sniffed it, gave it a tiny, tentative lick, and then went back to checking for sore spots. Hers was the eye of a wizened and time tested master – a true apple connoisseur.
Applejack just bit into hers and finished it in two bites.
“That’s pretty good,” she concluded, after exhaustive scientific-al study and analysis and all that bookish stuff. The taste buds told the truth. “Pretty darn good!”
“And shiny!” Apple Bloom reflected the rays of the just risen sun off the skin of her apple. Applejack frowned and stepped back to avoid her little sister’s attempt to get the light into her face. That was unnaturally shiny!
She turned to her older brother. “What do you think, Big Mac?”
Big Macintosh was a stallion of few words, especially when his mouth was full. He chewed his bite of apple slowly and methodically. Applejack watched his jaw move, chewing… and chewing… and chewing…
And chewing.
“Just swallow it already!” Applejack growled, not one for waiting. Not when it came to this.
Big Mac chewed one or two more times and then gulped, licking his lips.
“Well?” His sister prompted. “Was it good? Did it pass muster?”
“…eyup.”
“So far, so good!” She exclaimed, patting the big workhorse on the back. “Now we just need Granny Smith’s stamp of approval.”
“Eyup.”
The eldest of the Apple Family still seemed to be inspecting her apple, and the remaining basket full besides. It was lying next to the tree that had born and delivered the fruit for them: Maggie. Poor Maggie. She hadn’t handled the frost too well a few years back and her harvests had diminished year after year in both quantity and quality. Applejack had picked Maggie to be the tree Lady Yumi proved her magic on, and the Earth Pony Princess hadn’t disappointed. In the span of an hour, Maggie had sprouted new foliage, a fresh and healthy green against the sea of fading orange and tan. Her apples had morphed right before Applejack’s eyes, too, growing fuller and richer than she could recall Maggie ever producing.
Lady Yumi, her job done for the moment, did not partake of the apples herself, though she had permitted her retainers to try some. Instead, the aloof foreign mare had sat down on a clean white cushion, itself on top of a mat rolled out over the grass. One of her silent unicorn servants was floating a brush down her back and combing out her pitch black, straight mane. Nopony could say she had a very warm or outgoing personality, in Applejack’s opinion, but when she said she could do something… she sure as heck did it!
“Crush up a quarter barrel of cider,” Applejack told her brother, once he had finally finished his apple. “Let’s see how the end product turns out.”
Rather than another ‘eyup,’ Big Macintosh nodded slowly and picked up the basket of apples from next to the STILL ‘hmm-ing’ and hawing Granny Smith. It took her a few seconds to realize her oversized grandson had come and gone, only noticing when she reached for another apple to inspect and finding them all gone. She called out to Big Mac and with surprising vigor headed over to the press to make sure the cider turned out to Apple Family Standards.
Applejack kept an eye on that, but she also trotted up to the tree to run a hoof along Maggie’s bark. It was rough and thick to the touch, and snapping off a tiny chuck had taken some work. Despite her injuries, Applejack herself had bucked the applies from Maggie after Yumi used her magic on the old cultivar and it had been like taking the apples from a young, vigorous tree mid-season. She’d actually needed to kick twice to get them all!
“Amazing,” she muttered, turning away from the tree.
Still, she was a little wary. It was probably smart to test this on one tree first before she had Yumi go over half the farm. Yumi’s retainers were also milling around: the pegasus, Cool Breeze, was standing protectively near the dark-maned heiress, the unicorn, Evening Squall, was sitting opposite the other unicorn servant brushing Yumi’s mane. White Dew, the other earth pony besides old Antlers, was watching the Apple Press in action. Applejack had learned that his family had been farmers, generations ago, before they swore service to the Neighponese royal family. He found the whole apple-farming thing fascinating.
As for Late Rains, or Antlers, he seemed to be fielding a few questions from Apple Bloom. Watching him, it was sort of hard to recall how he had stood in that spot behind Sugarcube Corner, shrugging off everything Applejack had thrown at him. Even if she had earned the unwanted nickname ‘she who moved a mountain,’ Applejack could hardly believe what Shigure could do. Now, she had to add Yumi to that too. Theirs was earth pony magic, but taken to an extreme she hadn’t imagined before.
“Mind if I jump in?” Applejack asked, approaching her little sister and the older earth pony – ‘my father’s age,’ she thought for a moment.
“Hey! Applejack!” Apple Bloom stood on her hind legs and pressed her forehooves into Shigure’s upper leg, pointing at the white capped mountain that was his cutie mark. A three chain link stretched behind and through the triangular peak. “Mister Shigure here got his cutie mark by being a cutie mark crusader, just like me and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!”
“Really?” she asked, smiling.
“Yep!” Apple Bloom spun around, looking at her flank and probably imaging the same cutie mark on her rear. “And if he got it from Miss Yumi’s dad, then Ah bet ah could get it from him, too! All ah gotta do is sit under a waterfall fer a few days and maybe smash mahself with some boulders… and…!”
“Let us not go overboard,” Shigure suggested, patting the filly on the head with a fatherly smile. “Remember, this cutie mark is meaningless without something to protect. Do you really want to spend your life doing that? To get this cutie mark, you must accept and understand that ‘life is a mountain.’”
“How is life a mountain?” Apple Bloom grumbled, pouting. “Ah don’t get that part.”
“I didn’t either, at first.” Shigure turned to Applejack. “Was there something on your mind, Miss Applejack?”
“Actually, yeah.” Applejack sucked in a deep breath of the morning air. It almost made her forget the aches and pains she still had from their sort-of duel. “Ah don’t mean no offense with this, but… well, I kinda trust you more than I do Lady Yumi…”
“No offense is taken,” Shigure replied at her lengthy pause. “Lady Yumi’s first impression on you was not her best, and you have not known her long.”
“Ah haven’t known you that long either, sugarcube.” Applejack grinned a little, glad that he wasn’t so easily offended. “Ah just need ‘ta hear it from you: what Yumi’s doin’ here… it’s on the up and up, ain’t it? I mean, it looks good, and the apples off Maggie came out… great… but…”
“It seems too good to be true?” Shigure guessed, Apple Bloom still looking up at him and then at her sister. “I can assure you: the cost of this magic is born entirely by Lady Yumi. It is the burden, responsibility and honor of the Neighponese royal family to bring prosperity to the land and to give of themselves for the good of all.”
“She bears the burden…?” Applejack asked, looking off to the side at the uppity noblemare on her pillows. She reminded the apple farmer a little of the hoity-toity Oranges in Manehattan: privileged and pampered and so emotionally and physically removed from the earth and dirt that was an earth pony’s calling.
“Apple Bloom,” Shigure said, and it was a bit of a surprise to hear him address the little sister instead of the older. “Would you like to hear another cutie mark story?”
“Sure!” Apple Bloom agreed. “That last one already gave me plenty’a great ideas ‘ta try out!”
“Yes, just be mindful not injure yourself,” the old stallion cautioned. “Now, around ten years ago, there was a small crisis in Neighpon. One of our most important crops is the sugar beet. We process it to make much of the sugar Equestria enjoys, and the trade earns Neighpon many hundreds of thousands of bits. Well… one day, a friend of the royal family came to the citadel and requested an audience. I was already a Mountain, then, and listened in as Lord Yama’s retainer.”
“The petitioner was a very wealthy tradespony and her beet crop was in dire straits because of a withering sickness. She had tried other remedies, but all had failed, so she called on her lords for help. Lord Yama deigned to answer her plea. While Lady Kai reigned in the capitol, he and his young daughter Yumi left to use their family magic to heal and recover the sugar beet crop.”
“So Miss Yumi got her cutie mark for healin’ up some sugar beets?” Apple Bloom asked, jumping the gun but making a pretty accurate guess, in Applejack’s opinion. This was a cutie mark story, as Shigure had said, and the only one who would be needing a cutie mark a decade ago was Yumi.
“Now, let me finish,” Shigure asked, chuckling good naturedly. “Normally, I was retainer to my sensei and master, Lord Yama, but since his daughter was to leave the walls of the citadel, he put me in charge of her safety. Lord Yama himself went to handle the bulk of the crop, and Yumi was sent to handle three small villages. All had large beet plantations owned by Lady Sweet and Lord Sour. A week passed, and Lady Yumi did as she was asked, using her magic on the two outlying towns and saving the beet crop.”
“I saw that Lady Yumi, even as a young age… at your age, even,” he said to Apple Bloom. “Had great talent in her family’s secret art. However,” he added, growing a little more solemn. “At the third village, in addition to the sugar beet failure, the rice crop had also turned bad. It was believed to be something in the water… acidic fumes from below the earth…? I am not entirely sure, myself. Worse still, an infestation of pests had invaded, devouring what was left. Rice and oats and even imported corn, all were in very bad condition.”
“Lady Yumi saw this as we traveled the countryside in her norimono… what you would call a ‘sedan chair,’ I believe. She saw the suffering of the smallfolk and, on receiving lodging at the third plantation, asked for my advice. Her father had entrusted her to see to the sugar beet crop, but I could tell she was torn between doing her duty and averting the suffering before her eyes. I did my duty, and reminded her of hers.”
Shigure’s smile widened and he chuckled at himself and the him he had been, then.
“She did not listen to me,” he explained. “She went out to the small fields owned by little ponies – plots a tenth of what you have here in Sweet Apple Acres, Miss Applejack – but there were hundreds across the mountainsides, built on half flooded terraces. For five days, Lady Yumi used her magic, sleeping only a few hours every night in her norimono.”
“I saw with my own eyes… imagine it, if you will: the leaves of plants curled and crushed caterpillars, and roots choked and mangled beetles… the pests that infested the fields themselves became fertilizer for the crops there…”
Applejack recalled the grass, bowing and angling towards Yumi on her hill. Yes: she could imagine it.
“The soil itself glowed with her magic,” Shigure continued. “And by the end of the fifth day, the mountain was green and rich, the crops alive and plentiful.”
“One crop of sugar beets failed that year,” he said, shrugging. “Lady Yumi swore to repay it for her failure, and she did in time. But to this day, the smallfolk of that mountain pray for her and honor what she did for them, putting their needs before that of their wealthy lord and lady. It was also on that fifth night, as Lady Yumi lay exhausted in her litter, that I noticed she had earned her cutie mark. It was a blade, an arrowhead, wreathed by three leaves.”
“It became her banner,” he concluded, swelling in pride. “And I swore to serve it as long as I lived. That same village… before we left, the daughter of a local dam came and pleaded for us to take her with us. Her father had served Lord Yama, she said. That little filly was Suzukaze, and she had watched Lady Yumi from up in the clouds. She had also sworn to serve, though as you can see, she still has the zealousness of youth to overcome.”
“She did all that?” Applejack asked, still finding it hard to reconcile the Yumi in the story from the stuffy mare on the blanket and pillows.
“Lady Yumi is still young… and with that youth comes pride, a hot temper and ambition, but her heart is in the right place and she is gifted. She will grow up into a great Lady Lord,” Shigure assured the apple sisters, and Applejack could sense the conviction in his voice. “I know she will.”
“So Miss Yumi got her cutie mark by workin’ real hard,” Apple Bloom concluded, hoof to her lips in thought. “Hmm. And by makin’ plants crush bugs and stuff. We haven’t tried getting cutie mark crusader exterminator cutie marks yet… ah wonder where ah could get some industrial strength pesticide… maybe some’a them killer plants from Everfree…?”
“Don’t even think about it,” Applejack warned, leaning down and surprising her little sister. Apple Bloom jumped back with a squeak.
“Ya gotta know that Blueblood ain’t gonna change his mind,” Applejack said to Shigure, and she had said as much to Yumi, too, the night before. “That’s the truth. No point otherwise. He’s in love with Rarity, and you can’t reason with a pony in love.”
“I know this,” Shigure replied, nodding slowly. “Nonetheless, Lady Yumi is convinced she must try. It is her dream to be the first earth pony to wear the Crown of Canterlot – to prove that earth ponies can rule as well as unicorns and alicorns. I had thought that dream crushed when Lady Antimony visited our realm and talked Lady Yumi into a duel. Now, I almost wish it had stayed that way… but…”
He shook his head, dispelling his doubts.
“I have faith in Lady Yumi, and I will protect her. That is all.” He turned to Applejack. “What faith you have in me, have in her as well.”
“Cider’s ready!” Granny Smith called. Over near the Apple Press, Big Mac was stepping down from the driving belt and squeezing out a mug of cider from a tap. He passed it on to Granny Smith first, and then poured for himself and the others. Applejack, Shigure and the still plotting Apple Bloom headed over, but Applejack could tell just by the look on granny Smith’s face when she took that first sip…
It was good.
They had a product.
“We’ll give out free samples,” Applejack said, already thinking up plots of her own, all of them ending with her driving the Flim Flam brothers out of town by the time the Art Festival came around. The two idiots had spurned her offer to work together; that only left them as competition. Hostile competition. Again and again, she had tried to play nice. Now?
“We’ll crush them.”
- - -
“I hate to have to ask you this a third time,” Blueblood said, his features shaded by the awning of a parasol. “When the Emir gets here, you remember the order you have to greet his party in?”
“Of course I do. And this is the fourth time you’ve asked me,” Rarity replied, a little cross with the Prince. “First his wife, Gentle Stream: pink, blue mane. Then the Emir himself, then for some reason I must greet his mother, the Padishah – even though she is not here – and then his second wife, Soft Melody: white coat, blue mane, and then his first concubine, Swift Stroke: white, purple mane, and armor. Blueblood, how many mares does this stallion have and how many are we housing? And why do they all have blue manes?”
“My dear friend the Emir only has three wives,” he replied, chuckling a little under his breath, “Though he beds all his concubines, who make up his personal guard. There will only be two wives and four concubines. We’ll still have plenty of room for our other guests.”
“And the blue manes…?”
“A fetish, I believe,” Blueblood responded, winking at her. “I prefer purples, myself.”
Rarity blushed and huffed dismissively at his lecherous smile and bright eyes. “A fetish, is it?”
“The last time Golden Star visited he…” Blueblood, for once, wisely knew when to shut up. “Suffice to say, it is a fetish. Are these the first Marabians you’ve met?”
“Face to face, yes,” Rarity admitted, feeling a little uncomfortable with a silk and cloth-of-gold cap between her usual curled mane and her scalp. It was apparently considered uncouth for a pony’s bare mane to be revealed in Marabian culture.
“Ah, and here they are!” Blueblood announced, puffing up a bit.
Their guests arrived in a painted wooden wagon, trailing white and ocean blue silks. A hundred tiny strips of cloth dangled from the seams, each with a pearl at the end that caught the light. It was a magnificent carriage, not just in appearance, but in size. Marabians were larger and taller than all but the largest ponies and, among alicorns, only Celestia herself stood taller.
There were no Equestrians among the procession. Bronze and iron scales polished to a high sheen reflected off the backs of tall, proud mares – Antimony’s bodyguard, Gewitter, came to Rarity’s mind for a size comparison, but these mares were slimmer and taller with long, graceful necks. Laced breeches and shoes covered their legs and hooves as they trotted forward, and thin spear-like lances stuck out from beneath the barding that draped over their sides, resplendent in exotic hues of purple and blue, gold and milky white.
Three ponies – not that Marabians considered themselves ponies – eventually emerged from their silken wagon. The first was a pink mare, with a long, wavy blue mane. Rather than a dress, she wore a heavily accented and delicately constructed mesh of cloth from around the base of her tail, to under her gem encrusted violet barding, to around her chest and collar. Amethysts set in sequins and dangled from tassels around her neck and in front of her eyes like a veil, and behind them, greenish sea-blue eyes blinked against the sun. Like all Marabians, she wore a cavesson noseband, though the four escorts outside the carriage wore full bit-less bridles.
She was followed by the first and only stallion of the group: a slightly taller pony, cream brown in color with a neatly trimmed golden mane. His barding was blue and gold, less intricate, and studded by a jeweled star and crescent. Behind him came another mare, with a white coat and rose and crimson schemed clothing. Embroidered breeches covered her front legs halfway to the torso, glittering with pearls.
Rarity quickly overcame her initial surprise and cantered forward with practiced grace to make introductions. First, the First Wife: Gentle Stream. Then, the husband, the Emir Golden Star. Then, she bowed to the empty space to the left of the Emir, imaging the illustrious Padishah was in said place. Finally, she welcomed the Second Wife, standing behind and to the right of the first: Soft Melody. Finally, she greeted the First Concubine, Swift Stroke – a tall and fierce looking mare with a dark coat and cold, blood-red eyes.
She felt… unusually small and vulnerable around them.
Marabians were not true ponies, like unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. They were like zebras, and the disconnect within that similarity created an unintentional sense of unease. Blueblood had warned her it would take a little time to get used to them. Their faces – their snouts – were just so exaggerated, and they were so uncannily tall! They were like alicorns… but like earth ponies, too. It was all very strange, and Rarity silently longed for more familiar faces.
Blueblood’s Manor was becoming so full of strangers…
“All for my Art Festival,” she reminded herself, as Blueblood chatted easily with the Emir. It was so odd seeing a pony larger than Equestria’s Prince. Blueblood himself was very nearly at the limit of how large most ponies got, and Golden Star towered over him easily on those long, thin looking legs.
Rarity spent the next few hours checking in with Photo Finish and Sapphire Shores – both mares were beginning to frustrate the household staff with peculiar demands like bouquets of orange blossoms to eat, even though the season was months over, and nitpicky complaints about seating arrangements during meals. Then she had to attend to real business, like finalizing where all the displays were to be in the three sections of the festival and seeing the pavilions raised…
And still, through it all, she couldn’t stop thinking about the argument she had with Applejack.
‘I should have been less unkind,’ Rarity thought to herself as she descended a long, broad curving stair. ‘Fluttershy would have been firm, but kind. I should apologize and just get it over with.’
But, really, what did she even have to apologize for?
Sweet Apple Acres wasn’t just important to the Apple family, it was important to all of Ponyville, and Ponyville was her domain now. It was her responsibility. Princess Celestia herself had recognized her as Baroness of Ponyville, the very same position Applejack’s great grandparents had eschewed so long ago. She had made vows before the Stable of Lords; before both Princesses! Why should she have to apologize for doing what a Baroness should do: protecting the interests of her town and her ponies and her friends?
‘Then why do I keep thinking of it? Why does it keep bothering me?’
She had reached the bottom of the stairs, paused in thought, when one of the household staff approached her. “Lady Rarity?”
“Yes?” she asked, snapping out of her thoughts.
“The front gate has announced the arrival of more guests.” It was the castellan, a dour, bristly moustached gentlepony with a Canterlot bearing. Bushy white eyebrows framed the base of his horn. Rarity hated that the announcement of more guests only lowered her spirits where she had hoped they would be raised, just days earlier.
“Who is it? The Riches?”
“Lady Fleur-de-lis and Master Fancy Pants, Madame.”
Rarity was secretly dreading having to force Sweetie Belle to attend to Diamond Tiara, when the promised Canterlot shopping spree and play date came around. Yet, promises had been made to the Rich family, and they were bankrolling many of her projects in Ponyville. It was a commitment. One made more dire because of all she had needed to do to save Sweet Apple Acres. If only Applejack had – if only she could – understand that.
“Fleur and Fancy…” Rarity said, and smiled a little. “I will meet them out front.”
She cantered towards the front door even before she heard a response. It would be good to have somepony to talk to, and it would be a relief to see Fleur and Fancy Pants again. She normally had no problems talking to Blueblood of her problems, but this… this was Barony business that she should be able to handle. She could not allow herself to rely so much on her Prince, and she did not want him to think less of her for her difficulties.
Opening the door, she only needed to wait a few seconds for a stylish open-air carriage to come up the road and park before the statue of Pegasus Victory out front. Fancy Pants emerged, wearing a vest suit and bow-tie, and Fleur – being Fleur – proudly wore nothing. Her amazing alicorn-like figure was all she needed.
“Fleur!” Rarity greeted the other mare, taking her hooves in her own. “Fancy Pants. I am so glad to see you again! You can’t imagine!”
Fleur pulled her into a quick hug. “It’s wonderful to see you, too!”
“Indeed, a pleasure as always,” Fancy said, kissing her hoof. He adjusted his monocle, and noticed something about her. “Is there some distress?”
Rarity smiled, relieved, but a little sad it was so obvious.
“A little,” she admitted. “Come inside, please.”
- - -
“Are you asking me out on a date?” Pokey finished levitating a box of Nightmare Night costumes out of storage, setting it down on the carpeted floor. He owned and operated a number of party supply stores in the greater Canterlot area, but the Ponyville one was his favorite… for several reasons.
“Yep!” Pinkie said, but was immediately distracted by the box full of masks. “OH! Look at all these! Do you have a beak in here? I was thinking about being a chicken this year, or if not a chicken, then maybe a chicken disguised as a pony! But nopony can tell that I’m a chicken disguised as a pony, except maybe one pony nopony will believe, so I’d actually need a chicken costume and then over that a pony costume! Oh! Or a Fluttershy suit! Do you have a Fluttershy suit? Tell me you have a Fluttershy suit!”
“A Flutter – wait, a, what?” Pokey sighed at the sight of Pinkie half buried in the box, rummaging around like a dog digging for a bone.
“Hm. Oh! Rarity suit. A whole bunch of Rainbow Dash costumes?” Pinkie briefly stuck her head up out of the box. “That’s weird!” Then back down again. “Where’s the Fluttershy suit?”
“We don’t have one of those,” Pokey said, and used a little magic to yoink the hyperactive pink pony out of his party supplies. “We do have a chicken costume, but… a chicken disguised as a pony? Where do you get these ideas?”
“Just here and there,” Pinkie replied, hanging upside down thanks to Pokey’s magic. She snapped her hooves - a gesture he had never seemed to figure out how she managed. Hooves didn’t normally make snapping noises.
“So, what-do-ya-say?” she asked again. “Wanna go to a super fun party with your favorite pony?”
Pokey only really needed to think about it for a second. “Sure. But is this an actual date or just… I need somepony to help me carry things and I’ll call it a date-date?”
“Totally a date-date! I think. Which one was which again?” With a little twirl, she slipped out of his magical grip and rushed up to envelop him in a bone-crushing hug. “Thanks Pokey! You’ll have a great time, I promise!”
“I usually do, even when I’m just being a workhorse.” The unicorn stallion chuckled, not really minding the overly enthusiastic crushing Pinkie was giving him with all four of her limbs. “So,” he asked, “What’s this next party of yours for? You haven’t stopped by here to buy any new supplies…”
“Oh, I’m not hosting this party,” Pinkie said, releasing him but still filling his vision with bubbly pink smiles and bright blue eyes. “My new friend is! And she’s hosting it for me!”
“A new friend?” he asked, mentally going over who could possibly-
“Her name’s Euporie, and she’s from out of town!” Pinkie explained and started tearing into the box again. Somehow, every article of costume she threw behind her stacked into neat piles. A few even ended up hanging on hooks, somehow. How she did things like that without magic… well, Pokey had basically given up on trying understanding it. He wasn’t even sure if she was sorting all the items perfectly on purpose or not.
“Euporie?” That was an odd name. Most ponies had compound names.
Unless…
“Mosaic,” he said, one instance of the name coming to mind. But that was impossible. “You aren’t talking about Euporie Mosaic, are you?”
“Mosaic?” Pinkie asked, standing up in the box, a chicken beak hanging from a thread over one ear. “Oh! Yeah! That’s her! You know her?”
He was a Canterlot socialite as much as a Ponyville entrepreneur. Yes, he had heard of her. But – but Euporie was here? In Ponyville?!
“Euporie is…” he hesitated a few seconds, and Pinkie sensed that something was wrong.
“What?” she asked, ear flicking at the chicken horn hanging from it. “What’s wrong, Pokey?”
“Euporie is, well,” he struggled with just how to say it. “I’ve heard stories about her kind of parties in Canterlot. Ponies who go there eat and drink and…”
“And?” she led on, big blue eyes blinking in innocent curiosity. “Eating and drinking is fun! What else?”
“And…” Pokey had to sigh and just force it out. “And they have sex, Pinkie.”
“Sex,” Pinkie Pie repeated, her lips pursing together. “Ponies have sex at Euporie’s parties?”
“Uh, yes, supposedly,” Pokey said, a little flustered. Not that he and Pinkie hadn’t… from time to time… but they usually didn’t talk about this sort of thing. Fun was just fun, and ponies you liked were ponies you liked. They were good friends, that was the point, so there was no problem. He thought. Then again, at that moment, Pokey Pierce wasn’t sure what he thought.
Pinkie blinked again and finally asked:
“Do you want to have sex at Euporie’s party?”
“GAH!” Pokey gasped, hiding his blush with a raised foreleg.
“Do you?” Pinkie asked again, lowering his leg with a pink hoof. “I wouldn’t want you to go and be uncomfortable. That’s not fun.”
“I don’t have… a problem with it, I guess? I’ve never been to that kind of party,” he admitted, now a little ashamed that he seemed more flustered by it than Pinkie was. “Do you have a problem with it?”
“It does seem sort of strange,” she said, ear flicking on and off. The chicken beak part of the costume she had been looking for was still hanging there. Distracting. “Usually, if you’re going to have that kind of fun with somepony, you do it after the party. Not during the party.”
“OHHHH!” Pinkie Pie suddenly cooed, her eyes wide with excitement and realization. “That’s why she wanted me to bring a cute date! And why she only wanted pretty ponies to come!”
Seemingly lost in her own little world, Pinkie nodded to herself, eyes squinting as she pondered.
“I’m still not sure I get it,” she decided after a few long seconds, during which Pokey wasn’t really sure what to say. “But if everypony’s having fun and no pony’s feelings are hurt, I guess I don’t see any problem with it… everypony is bringing ponies they care about and like after all, and if they want to do that there, then I guess that’s their business, isn’t it?”
Pokey opened his mouth to ask-
“As long as they stay out of the cake!” Pinkie decided, slamming her hooves together. “No super special fun time in the cake!”
“Ah…”
“No making woopie in the cake either.”
“I…”
“No bedroom ball dancing in the cake.”
“Yes, b-”
“No tying each other up and playing wrestle the cowpony in the cake.”
“…”
“The cake is a sacred trust,” Pinkie concluded, and tilted her head in wonder. “Wait, are we having cake? There has to be cake!”
“...I-”
“I’ll bring cake,” Pinkie finished.
“Well, with that-”
“As long as no pony has sex in it.”
“…”
Pokey waited… and waited. Pinkie remained where she was, staring at him, her ear occasionally twitching. Not saying a word, he reached out and plucked the costume beak off her ear. Naturally, she saw it and gasped loudly in surprise.
“Hey! You found it!” Pinkie cheered, crushing him with another full body hug. He was on the verge of sighing when the pink pony whispered something into his ear. A certain something that caused his horn to light up a bit.
“In the cake… really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Pinkie hugged him even harder, somehow eliciting a toy-like squeak. “Oh! I can’t wait for the party now! We’re gonna have tons of fun!”
- - -
“Our good Princess fails to find the banquet to her liking and now raids the pantry?”
Cadance demurely hid her face behind a napkin, her appetite seemingly lost. Hiding half in the darkness of a fading oil lamp light, draped in the concealing safety and anonymity of the scullery shadows, the pink alicorn stiffened as she turned towards the voice. A voice that had been but a whisper in the darkness. The sweet and loving couple she had followed – a pair of female servants seeking refuge in the scullery - did not seem disturbed, if they had heard it at all. They continued their secret lovemaking.
The Princess’s amethyst eyes flashed green as they narrowed, annoyed but not concerned that her privacy had been lost or that her voyeurism had been revealed. She quickly gleaned the identity of the offender: her erstwhile partner and ally. The lean and hungry looking stallion stalked through the half-light more like an inquisitive jungle cat than a pony. His golden coat and mane slipped all too easily into the shadows for how bright it had appeared in the lights of the ballroom, or even the dimming fires of a bedroom.
“Brass,” she whispered, not bothering with his full name in private.
“Or perhaps our young Princess seeks to whet another appetite?” The Marquis smiled but didn't laugh. He craned his neck to show her that he caught sight of the couple in the pantry. “Ah. Our Lady has fine taste. They are a pretty pair.”
“Their affection for one another,” Cadance whispered in reply. “It is fresh, young, and sweet, with hints of fear and confusion. It has a delicious texture.”
“I prefer wine, myself.”
“One of them would be a wonderful candidate for replacement, should the relationship deepen…”
“My servants are not yours to prey upon, ‘Princess.’” Alpha Brass was not a large stallion, nor was Princess Cadance’s form that of a small mare, yet he succeeded in cornering her in her hidden oriel of shadows, his body blocking her means of exit.
“No, not your servants,” Cadance replied, lips parting in a sensual smile. “Only your guests.”
“I am a protective and jealous creature,” he told her, their chests inches apart. “As you know.”
The breath of the two mingled for a moment, but ultimately, Cadance drew away. Alpha Brass had no taste to him, not when her palate had been teased by the potent cocktail of love and life. As useful as he was, as useful as he had been, he was not food. He was loved, but gave no love in return. It had been impossible to coax it out of him, not since Olive Branch had ‘died,’ and even then, it had been a dry, bitter, dutiful love of family and country. Cadance did not miss that bitter milk; it still left a foul taste in her mouth. There was so much richer and more wonderful emotions to experience in the world…
Equestria was a banquet, and soon, she and all her brood would feast.
“You always flee from the parties to feed,” Alpha Brass observed, whispering into her ear.
“I prefer these sorts of tastes now,” she explained, watching the pair of mares in love. “Call it… quality… over quantity. Even with that vile step-daughter of yours gone, simple flavors like lust and friendship bore me.”
“Euporie will be so sad to hear it.”
The ravenous Princess’s eyes disappeared before the napkin that inched a little higher over her face. Feeling this much affection, feeding on it, always tested her control over her shape. Had she stolen the form of one of the mares, she doubted she would have been able to maintain her normal level of control. Luckily, like all changelings, she had the ability to influence the minds of those whose partners she replaced.
It really did make feeding on their love so much easier, like a mosquito drawing a painless bite to suck blood, or a leech numbing the pain of a bloody incision. Evolution was just such a wonderful thing. What poor creature had to feed on an unwilling host? Cadance had always imagined it to be an unduly terrifying experience for the predator in question. Prey should be willing and compliant before their predator, giving of themselves to sate the desires and hungers of their betters.
“Be quick with your meal, Princess,” Alpha Brass teased her ear, and then backed off, slowly. “Gluttony is unbecoming of a Queen and there is much to do.”
He vanished back into the shadows as easily as she herself could.
Cadance let him go without a word, taking her fill from the two ponies in the scullery. Siphoning off affection was less satisfying than receiving it directly, unfortunately, and the supposed Princess knew that her hunger would quickly return in a few hours. She longed for Shining Armor: his touch, his mouth, his words and his bottomless well of love for her. For the ‘her’ he imagined her to be, anyway.
Secretly, she laughed.
Shining Armor’s love… it was perfection. It was all she ever needed! The flavor of it was rich and thick and sophisticated with notes of jealousy and protectiveness, the sharp tang of long repressed desire, and soothing notes of relief and joy. She could drink it in night after night, reveling in how it brought her personal power to new heights. No other Chrysalis could have imagined just what could be gleaned from these seemingly insignificant ponies.
She had devoured her forebear, of course, but had she been alive, Chrysalis would have laughed to her face. A great many races had been seen fit to feed the Hive, from lowly Diamond Dogs baying for lost loved ones in the echoing, fiery depths of the earth, to young dragons who roared for their mates and set the sky ablaze in their passion. Changelings, as the other races called them, had followed starving tribes of camels across endless desert dunes, naked under the merciless heat of the sun; they had infiltrated ancient cities lost to jungle, dwelling in canopy and shadow and the recesses of the world.
From sewers and crypts to palaces and temples, they had fed.
Yet, before her, none had found the land of ponies, this “Equestria.” It was rich and untapped: a bountiful harvest, waiting for the reaping. Since her ascension, her Hive had grown without check, without predators of their own, their numbers swelling. Cadance… Chrysalis… herself had held off the growth for a time, knowing that secrecy was their ally, refusing to lay more eggs, but even she could not hold back the swarm. If she did not soon lay, as all Queens must, then another of her offspring would turn, as she had once turned, and try and supplant her. Who knew what chaos that would cause?
Disappearing into the darkness, letting it consume her, Chrysalis left the scullery and kitchens behind, escaping the notice of the sleepy and distracted staff. The air was thick with the smells of baking foodstuffs: pastries, pies, meals for dozens of their kind throughout the Gardens, but none of that interested the faux Princess. Only the ones preparing the meals. They were all just food to her, and she could feel the warm ambiance of their friendship and kinship towards one another.
Equestria… Canterlot…
Soon, it would be her banquet. She would feast and lay and the Hive would grow and be content. For a time, anyway. The other great cities and realms of Equestria would follow in the years to come. Then all the world would be painted black with her Hive. They would hunt down their own predators in numbers never before seen, and all the world would become her larder; all the creatures under the sun and moon her nourishment.
“Gluttony? Unbecoming of a Queen?” Chrysalis laughed under her breath, passing by two of Brass’s stoic guardmares. “We shall see.”
“…your faith in me is not misplaced, your Lordship,” the tail-end of the conversation came from a barrel-chested, balding unicorn stallion, standing to the side of a desk with Alpha Brass and shaking hooves with the smaller, younger pony. The two stallions had smoking cigars in their mouths from a box of the vile things on the Lord’s desk. To her distaste, Chrysalis, as Cadance, recognized the stink: imported Mareabian tobacco.
Why ponies indulged in such things, she couldn’t imagine.
“Cadance!” Alpha Brass called out, waving her over. “I was just concluding some business with my good friend, Broad Way, the future Mayor of Manehattan.”
“Charmed, my Lady,” the bull-like unicorn said as she drew closer, taking one of her hooves in his own to kiss it.
“The pleasure is mine, I assure you,” she lied.
The three made some small talk, the business of things already concluded earlier, chatting about the ornate fireplace and some varied trophies Alpha Brass kept about his study. Cadance had seen it all before. She had virtually grown up around such. To her, the beautiful white marble looked poisoned by veins of blue, the roaring fire smelt of dying shadows and places to hide, and the delicate pillars that rose from floor to ceiling were like thin bones stripped of flesh.
She imagined it all covered in a thick coat of green slime and wax, and smiled.
That time would come. Sooner than any thought.
“The Mayor of Manehattan?” she remarked, after the pony had left Brass’s study. “We should replace him when he is elected. Or even before, to be sure nopony notices.”
“There is no need,” Alpha Brass assured her, trotting over to the fire to stoke it with a poker.
“No?”
“Even ponies lacking ambition will strive to do much for their children,” Brass explained, staring into the rippling flames of the hearth. “Between gold for his election campaign, and the possibility of a noble life for his daughter, a pony like our friend Broad Way can be very tempted… and attached, to certain powerful new allies. Unlike my father, I care nothing for high birth or the proper social strata. It is a trifling thing to me, to raise a lowborn pony up to high station.”
“Is that what you promised him?” Cadance scoffed at the obsession ponies had with material things. “Gold? Titles?”
Trinkets and words. Worthless baubles.
“Opportunities,” Brass corrected her. “I only gave him opportunities.” He floated the iron poker over to a rack by the side of the marble fireplace. “Have your changelings finished putting on their new clothes?”
“They are in place,” Cadance assured him. “I have also set one to work on my new Bridesmaid.”
Alpha Brass paced around his desk and past her left side.
“Is something the matter?” she asked, sensing his ire. “Some trouble?”
“You could call it that,” he replied, and with his magic, he retrieved a small brown package. It had already been opened once, and plucking it out of the air with her own magic mimicry, ‘Cadance’ saw for herself what was inside. Her eyes widened and, for a moment, they reverted into narrow slits.
Before her, she held the edge of a wing.
Not a pony’s wing, but a thin, delicate diaphanous wing. Like her own.
“Who?” she asked, only that one word. Disturbed, she folded the wing back up and returned it to the package. Without a doubt, it had belonged to one of her kind, perhaps even one of her children. The smell was gone, so it was impossible to tell for sure.
Brass poured himself a drink of softly glowing ambrosia, quick to dispose of the half spent butt of his cigar. His lengthy pause began to test Cadance’s patience. Swirling his drink, he took a tentative drink, but still didn’t answer her question.
“Who. Was. It?” she repeated.
“My little sister, Antimony,” Brass finally replied, glancing back at her over his shoulder with one eye. “It seems she has learned some … unfortunate things. I had wondered about the rumors of her mobilizing her guard.”
“Impossible!” Cadance snarled, hurling the package across the room to skid into a corner. “How could she have found out? How could she even find…?”
“Finding one or two of your children isn’t as difficult as you imagine it to be,” he interrupted, slowly walking back to his desk. “The Princesses still don’t know, so whatever my sweet little sister discovered, she only wants me to know that she knows. You understand what this means?”
“Yesss.” Chrysalis let some of her true self slip through her façade. “She has to die.”
“She always did,” Brass commented, neither excited nor disturbed by the prospect. “She would never just sit idly by while some calamity befell her birthright of Canterlot and her idols the Princesses. I must have the armies of the Terre Rare before she does.”
“Send me to her.” Cadance’s mask returned, but it was streaked by cruelty and thirst for blood. “I will kill her myself.”
Alpha Brass sighed, as if he had long since dismissed the idea.
“Antimony may treat other ponies with some honor, but if you come to duel her… Changeling Queen… she will laugh at you and call up her guard in their hundreds. And,” he concluded, chuckling dryly. “Before the night is out, she will have you stewed in a pot and hung in a cage for peasants to throw rotten apples at. She will hammer chains into those holes in your legs, and then, when you have suffered enough, she will present your preserved head to Princess Celestia in a silver box, stuffed with flowers.”
Cadance hissed, a ripple of energy running through her alicorn disguise, momentarily revealing the black chitin and punctured carapace beneath. Shining Armor’s love had given her great power… power above and beyond that of a mere unicorn… but a thousand ants could still kill a spider. Especially one that left the safety of her web.
“It would be inconvenient for me to have to deal with another would-be Queen Chrysalis,” Brass continued, only momentarily amused by her rage. “So, no, I’d prefer you remain here, or close to here. I already have a counter to Antimony and all other threats in the works and things are not as dire as they seem.”
“How can things not be as bad as they seem?” she asked, still stewing in anger. “One of my children is dead! Revealed!”
“Revealed, but with no real proof,” he assured her. “Recall the eight changelings we sent to my sister’s realm?”
‘Yes, eight… that you know of,’ Chrysalis thought, but nodded. “Yes. I remember that you put some sorcery on them.”
“A failsafe, in case my sister were to catch one with her eyes,” Alpha Brass explained, and motioned back to the case with the wing in it. It was still on the floor where she had thrown it, and he used a spark of magic to float it back to him. “The spell I had cast on those changelings was to burn them should they be revealed. The end of this wing is singed. I’d say it was ripped off just as the magic consumed the owner.”
The thought of one of her precious children in flames made Chrysalis want to scream, but she choked down her rage and disgust. It was foolish and naive. Of course, some of her children would perish, bringing about their new utopia of flesh and sensation. More would perish when they reclaimed their original homeland beyond the mountains of the south. Growing too attached was unwise. Still, it rankled.
“So we are not exposed?” she asked, after a deep breath.
“No, or else the Princesses would have been informed,” Brass told her, holding the case in one hoof. “What is a single wing? Nothing. Except to those who know what it is. As I said, I have things in motion to deal with Antimony and all the others.”
“The unicorn you mentioned?”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Alpha Brass said, and his smile returned, small, smug and always deliberate. As if he knew very many things she did not. “For your information, you foalsat her when you were younger. ‘Cadance.’”
The would-be Princess cocked her head. “Did I?”
“You did,” he replied, staid, “so please don’t act surprised when you see her. She is to be my wife. After you take Canterlot, we will need a replacement for Celestia and perhaps Luna as well, though I still hope Chalice to be capable of filling in for the latter.”
‘As if I would allow that,’ the changeling Queen thought, but she guarded her expression well to let no trace of her innermost desire betray her. Just as her partner did. They were each consummate liars. For most of their life, lies had meant survival.
So she lied again. “So long as she is under our control, so be it.”
“I’m glad you agree,” Brass said, simply. “This is how it must be.”
Chrysalis nodded and craned her neck to look back at the door Broad Way had exited through.
“You know, I always felt rather sad for you,” she remarked, sniffing. “You don’t smell much like these other ponies, and the flavor of love has been drained from you.”
“Ah, well, I do have you to thank for that,” he replied, finishing his drink and placing the empty glass on his desk. “You, my former wife and your predecessor.”
“Yet,” Queen Chrysalis continued, trotting up to the desk to rest her front legs on it, close enough to touch his hooves with her own. “Here I am, a monster pretending to be a pony, and there you are, a pony pretending to be a monster. You would make a superb changeling. Except you have no Hive. No real family. Not anymore. Should I replace you, too, some time? Would you be happier in a woven cocoon?”
“If I were to become a cocoon…” Brass’s response was strange, enigmatic. “What would I emerge as? Perhaps-” And he smiled, darkly. “I would become the monster I pretend to be. Would you like that?”
The creature that was Princess Cadance felt an unwanted tingle run down her thorax.
“No,” she decided, tasting a bit of her own fear. It was bitter and unfamiliar. “I wouldn’t.”
“Good!”
Alpha Brass pushed off from his desk, breaking contact with the Changeling Queen. He headed for the door, floating over a black-velvet cloak. Before he left, however, he gave one parting piece of advice, “You should know my plans have changed and my would-be wife wishes me to come to her. Expect my absence.”
“But,” he cautioned, just before he left. “In the meantime, please remember: you would be wise not to underestimate ponies. We could well be the most terrifying monsters of them all.”
Chrysalis let him leave, and with a thought, snuffed out the fireplace.
‘We shall see.’
Alt. Title: I Love Rarity And She Should Be More Powerfulz: So Important, It Needed A Table Of Contents!
I know it's been a week since I last replied to some comments, but I've been working hard to get the next chapter ready for the weekend.
1683635
Applejack isn't leaving Ponyville, as you'll see in the newest chapter, though her threat to just hand the farm over to Rarity (and Big Mac) did have some bite to it. Both of them want to apologize to the other, but both also think they're right to be stubborn and hold the positions they have on the issue.
1683641
Thanks for the catch there. As always, AJ's dialogue and narrative cause the most trouble. Darn accent!
1686239
Did I PM you before? Man, now I can't remember... posting suggestions as comments is fine, and PMs are great too. I gotta get to work on that, too, soon.
1688753
I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes, Luna did spend most of her life banished as NMM. Sad indeed, but she IS immortal.
1691849
You may like what's coming up then.
1692487
A very interesting theory... oh yes. But the only ones who would know for sure how much truth there is to Euporie's story are Olive Branch and Alpha Brass. Twilight and Eunomie do seem to be getting along - it must be a little strange for to have to break through somepony else's shell - but they don't immediately clash in personality like so many other counterparts do.
Friendship is an insidious power, however...
1692826
Read on. Antimony, Fleur, Fancy... Rarity's old enemies and allies haven't been forgotten.
The more bodies in a grand melee, the better!
And of course the Neighponese ponies call out their attacks! It's their thing! Also, it IS fun to write.
1694244
I do so enjoy reading your comments, Boobah! You have a good eye for picking things out, but I still hope to throw a few surprises your way. Unfortunately, it makes responding to your comments without posting spoilers somewhat difficult. haha. I'm curious what you'll think of things after chapter 24, when we do get some more insight into the plans of our antagonists. And a little look into the perplexing mind of Pinkie Pie.
1695956
What can I say? I DO love to sneak in references! It has to be one of the most fun things for me as an author, since by nature I can't plan for it, so they're all spontaneous things that come out while I write.
1698398
Euporie does need a good sense-knocking-into. And Rarity plus Water is always a good combination.
1715892
Ritter is about as subtle as one of her explosions and her brand of honesty really is sort of refreshing after all the manipulative ponies everywhere!
1716433
The Fate of Arsenic is involved... though I won't say just how, yet. After all, she's at the heart of the Terre Rare-Blueblood dispute. It all really began with her.
Lastly - for this post at least - while this fact will probably never come up in the story, I was thinking it was Gilda, yes.
Oh, Celestia help us all...
I think I can see a fifth path which will open shortly after the fourth route has been taken half-way. But that aside, this just confirms that Brass and Chrysalis ARE in bed with one another. Er... no innuendo intended. But seriously, that route is going to be like Sombra's door that moved on its own. Best metaphor I can think of.
So... let's assess the situation. Brass wants Twilight to take Celestia's place and hopes for his sister to take Luna's, while Chrysalis have no intention of letting that happen. Twilight just wants an end to the conflict between the Terre Rares and Blueblood, so she has no knowledge of this. Let's hope Chrysalis doesn't learn about the rhyme. And where is the Real Cadence in all of this!? Surely she can't be in the Canterlot caverns, there's nothing to eat down there and she needs food.
Oh, now I'm just rambling on. Love the build-up. I'm gonna ENJOY watching their plans crumble at the Worst. Possible. Moment! :sombralaugh:
Dammit~
So Alpha is working with Chrysalis. I'm going to say he's going to let her have Canterlot in exchange for his control of the Terre Rare... And then immediately regret it as she takes his people as well. The only wrench in the machinery appears to be Twilight Sparkle.
Rarity on the other hand... may very well have her title and rights stolen from her by just plain sheer honor. Which is being used in a dishonorable way.
Cute RD snoring incoming! I wouldn't mind if a SoarinDash relationship develops out of this, I tend to like that pairing.
Hmn, that gift of Philomena's feather makes me a tad nervous.
"She who moved a mountain" if you know what I mean, wink wink, nudge nudge. I got some respect for Lady Yumi, she seems to take her noble obligations quite seriously.
Suspicious Rainbow Dash costumes are suspicious. And some Pokey Pie, nice. Hmn, an established relationship even, or at least friends with benefits from the sound of things. So, was in the cake acceptable or not? I'm a little unclear.
Looks like my off-the-wall speculation from last chapter about Lady Arsenic was wrong as expected, definitely for the best. There does appear to be some sort of longer term connection between Brass and the changelings however, can't wait to see what it is.
I can't wait to see what Antimony is up to. I'm not sure I would assume that Twilight is going to be entirety cooperative in both getting rid of her and in replacing Celestia, not to mention assuming that a single burned wing is the only piece of that changeling Antimony managed to save.
1716551
It is a bit dark in that there is no utopian world of Equestria and Canterlot, but instead factions and ambitions and manipulations. I never intended for the fic to be conventionally dark, but in reflecting some of reality, it does take on a blacker tint. Exactly why, as the story summary notes, Equestria may need a overly generous marshmallow on that throne.
1716586
Indeed there was...
1717883
"thaumobabble"
I'm going to have to remember that one.
1718437
Thanks! It was always a concern of mine since her introduction. In fact, it is a recurring thought and worry in the back of my head whenever I deal with the many OC antagonists in the story, from Antimony to Ritter to Yumi and more. Ritterkreuz was the one that may have skirted the line most closely, simply because of her sociopathy and blatant (to the point of self-defeating) disregard for authority.
1718447
You're right... in quite a few ways.
Yumi is actually quite like AJ in many ways: proud and stubborn and, yes, honest. But then, Euporie and Pinkie, Eunomie and Twilight, Ritter and RD, Chalice and Fluttershy... in every mirror, there is some warped reflection under the familiar surface.
1719132
Have I mentioned that I really do love this comment?
I love this comment.
I've written so many crazy bitches for TPC. lol. But crazy in different ways... that's been an interesting challenge. And your analysis was spot-on. Love it.
1720595
he he he. ha ha ha. ho ho ho.
1722098
1722578
Blueblood is rather more potent a force - when he puts his mind to it - than anypony expects. Not like he doesn't encourage this perception, either. He wouldn't have beaten Shining Armor like he did without being underestimated. There's a power in not being taken seriously by your enemies. Also, there's an opportunity to screw with other ponies, that's a plus too!
1723848
Oh man, I never got to making these corrections! Time to do that now.
Glad you liked those silly CMCs! And the proxy war. Things are heating up! Time for Lady Yumi to make her play.
1728245
Good to hear from you again! And yes, I hope to make the endgame of TPC something suitably ... big.
1731015
If Applejack were to hypothetically renege on the deal, then yes, I imagine Yumi's wrath would be pretty terrible. As other people have speculated, she may be able to do good things (and as we've seen with Lyra, and in chapter 24, she CAN do good things), but she is not very nice.
1731743
This, I think, is one of the best parts of any comment I've read in a while:
"Yumi may be telling the truth, but is she being honest?"
Yumi's is Applejack's 'counterpart' just like Euporie is Pinkie's, and there is a difference between truth and honesty.
Rarity herself, knows all too well that AJ's farm can't fail. Did she go out of her way to help out a friend, yes, but it was also her duty as Baroness to do something to protect Ponyville and its agricultural livelihood. The problem is always that she knows that Applejack would disapprove of dishonest practices and interference in the marketplace. What to do? The worst... thing... ever!
As for little Twilight, this is her first courtship. And he has books!
Besides, whose to say that "the enemy of my enemy" isn't my friend, fiance, or greater enemy to be?
I do enjoy trying to come up with new things to throw at the mane six. haha.
As for her preference is clearly to act through... intermediaries.
1739002
Around where I am, porno rag is slang... but perhaps it is too regional a use of the word?
1742377
A little meat seems normal for Equestrian ponies, oddly enough, but yes... Ritters experiences were clearly overboard, since even she mentions it made her sick in the process. There's some Pinkie, Brass and Chrysalis in the latest chapter. Time to punch a few villain cards.
1761605
A 700 year old antique like that! wow!
Even Yumi would be impressed!
--
Oh, and I got a comment for the new chapter, too!
I'll stick that into this posting.
1763103
Yes, Chrysalis and Brass were quite close... until he lost his "flavor." Not that he seems all too broken up over her change in tastes.
Remember as well: by Chrysalis's own admission, both are consummate liars, their very lives based on falsehood. And as for Princess Cadance... the real one... where could she be?
MUST KNOW WHERE REAL CADENCE IS.
I actually like her.
SOMEONE BETTER FIND BEST FOALSITTER, OR HEADS WILL ROLL.
This was a good chapter overall. I very much liked the Pinkie-Pokey scene; you write Pinkie really well.
And Chrysalis... Alpha Brass is monstrous, but Chrysalis is just inhuman (inequine? you get what I mean). The part where she thinks about how frightening it must be for poor predators to actually have to chase and kill the prey that can struggle and run shows such total psychopathic, selfish detachment.
Well. I'd certainly had my suspicions about Alpha Brass, but he has surpassed all of them. In both magnitude and darkness.
I figure he'll still mange to convince Twilight to marry him, but I doubt she'll be as easy to control as he seems to believe. The real question is how he plans to use/dispose of the Changlings? Whatever his endgame, he wants more than to play second fiddle. I'm certain of that. Also I can't wait to see Twilight's introduction to 'Cadance'. Oh, that will be entertaining.
Anyway, another great chapter, Capn. This is easily the best high fantasy treatment of Equestria I've ever seen.
Oh... Shit... TWI DON"T DO IT!!!!
Still great to watch this all play out. Brass is an interesting person to try to work out but something tells me he may be a step or two ahead of Chrysallis despite how things appear.
Does it bother you, the term "cutie mark?" I always feel weird when I'm writing a serious story and suddenly have that term pop out. Sometimes I'll even go so far as to avoid it by simply calling it a "mark."
horrorjuice.com/psychos/pinhead/pinhead-large.gif
Now all we need is for Eunomie to lose her cool and assault Europie, and we'll have a ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK!!! A game that will make you grow , it's so manly. I think I like her, and I hope she doesn't stay an antagonist. Friendship-power, ho!
I get the feeling that the study on friendship is going to be analyzed and used to extract information on the mane cast to use against them... and to give Alpha Brass a hearty, condescending laugh. Could magic be worked on the feather of a phoenix to effect the bird itself, in a type of sympathetic magic? Oh, I hope Twilight hasn't lain the seeds of defeat here.
I wonder, though... if Brass is using mind affecting magic and Twilight can instantly learn any spell she sees, would she know what witchery he was working as soon as she met him?
Is Chrysalis not at the same power now as she is at the wedding? I imagine that Celestia, being able to raise the sun itself, would be able to take care of a meager hundreds of guards... or was she planning on losing to Chrysalis all along? Either way, she does have a few more months of feeding to go through, I suppose.
This is an outstanding story, and I am now relatively convinced (though not completely convinced) that Yumi is an upstanding pony, didn't intentionally work with Alpha Brass & family to create a situation to take advantage of Applejack's economic downturn, and won't try to blackmail Blueblood or anything like that.
I'm not too surprised by Pinkie accepting that some ponies would like sex at a party, but I still don't think a town like Ponyville has many that would knowingly go to a swinger party, or that Euporie would be content not mind-crushing everyone there. I still want to see what Pinkie Pie would do when the actual party happens and she realizes what's really happening.
Am I the first person to catch what seems to be a Chicken Boo reference?
Woah, Chalice is a changeling? I honestly did not see that coming.
Liked the character developement for Brass, Yumi and even Chrysalis; it's moved them from the shadowy villian category into ponies in their own right.
1765280
I had this exact same thought!
Nice chapter, looking forward to the next.
You have no idea how much I laughed at that.
Also, Marabians. Not Saddle Arabians? Why would you use the characters, but not their canon name?
Gods' blood... I can't wait to see Twilight get into a fight.
Anitome's (am I spelling that right?) action with the wing was RETARDED.
Notwithstanding the fact that Brass' proposal with Chrysalis could conceivably encompass certain concomitant benefits of a marginal and peripheral relevance, there is a countervailing consideration of infinitely superior magnitude involving his personal complicity and corroborative malfeasance, with a consequence that the taint and stigma of his current associations and diversions could irredeemably and irretrievably invalidate his position and culminate in public revelations and recriminations of a profoundly embarrassing and ultimately indefensible character, should sufficent evidence be procured in such a fashion that said evidence is admissable and acceptable in any lawful institution. (You know that Alpha's a tratior, and you should've shut up until you could prove it.)
But we know the future as is, so all we can do is wait to see how things got there...
1768762 dude all those words...
Well, guess there's finally proof that Alpha Brass's plans involve world domination. He was definitely giving off that nefarious villain vibe previously, and it was always pretty obvious he wasn't interested in the politics/family-feud that everyone else seems to be focusing on.
I wonder if Chalice can really take Luna's place like he hopes; Luna doesn't really seem like a lightweight in this fic.
I wonder if the person Twilight was told by her family to trust was really supposed to be Cadance and not Alpha Brass. I guess she's locked in the caves like she originally was? Otherwise I can't think of any way to guess where she is imprisoned, though it's possible I missed some hint.
Olive Branch's fate is also sort of mysterious, though it might be as simple as her being replaced with a Changeling so they can simply declare her dead whenever they want. I'm more interested by how much Alpha Brass stepping onto land worried his step-daughter, though he didn't seem to think much of it when talking about it himself...
I also find his hopes for world domination kind of silly. When it comes down to it his opponents can release Discord again as a last resort (unless his plan is mass mind control, which I guess is possible). I always kind of figured Celestia keeps Discord somewhere public as a sort of emergency back-up plan for just this kind of situation. And anyway he and Chrysalis are setting themselves up for a massive orgy of backstabbing that would certainly give do-gooders a chance to shoot rainbows down his flying castle's thaumic exhaust port.
I think, of every pony ever conceived, be they original or featured from the show, that Lady Antimony is perhaps my favorite.
Fuck. Alpha Brass and Chrysalis clearly have a long and storied history. Just how long have they been plotting together, both knowing the other plans to betray them?
And I'm looking forward to Antimony's return.
Oh crap, Brass DOES know exactly who 'Cadance' is...and he's in league with her! RED ALERT, RED ALERT! Get Twilight the the relationship escape pods! All hooves abandon arranged marriage!
1763241
"The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less."
- Maxim 29 for maximally effective mercenaries
1766931 Keep in mind that Chrysalis in canon seemed surprised that she defeated Celestia in that beam'o'war sequence. It's not unlikely she doesn't know just how powerful Shining Armor has made her here, either.
1768762 No offense, but until we learn what Antimony's actual plan is, we really can't say that it sucks. It's probably worth pointing out that the incineration spell may have been what tipped her off that Brass was involved with the changelings; Brass is smart enough to realize that, so it seems likely that he plans to use Antimony to drain Chrysalis's strength... or at least distract Chrysalis so he can achieve his double cross before she does hers.
1763032 Well, I'm not really sure that we learned a whole lot more about Brass or Chrysalis; the only obviously new piece of the puzzle is just how long they've been
partnersworking together. I guess we got confirmation that Chrysalis is planning to double-cross Brass, but given her objectives in canon that was a gimme.Pinkie took the news about the sort of parties Euporie throws fairly nonchalantly; like other commenters, I look forward to seeing how she reacts to discovering the mind-whammy that'll give the party that special something. And it'll probably take place in her cake, which will rub extra salt in the wound.
Also, I'm not fishing for spoilers. Getting some would actually reduce the fun, I think. I would like to someday have an author whose work I'm speculating upon tell me I nearly broke their story, though.
1763214
The idea of "Honor" being used - or abused - is one of the very reasons I wrote this fic. I wanted to both subvert the idea of Equestria's nobles as window dressing (giving them roles to go with the fan-common arrogance) but also to subvert the notion of the honorable noble or knight.
Alpha Brass, as of the end of this chapter, is off to make arrangements with his wife-to-be. One he claims will replace Celestia. But how much of what he said in this last scene was the truth? Especially since he's just as likely to betray Chrysalis as Chrysalis is to betray him? Timing, and one's resources, are key to a good stab in the back.
1763226
TPC does have a light SoarinDash in it, yes, though its mostly just friendship right now. It doesn't help that Soarin is a bit of a playboy and popular with the ladies. Pokey Pie is basically confirmed this chapter, though I'm trying to characterize them as one of those 'on and off' couples, so you can also call it friends with benefits. More on that later, though, notably Euporie's party scene(s).
"How many Rainbow Dash costumes do you need, anyway, Scootaloo?"
1763743
I do wonder. Where could she be in all this?
1763836
Just what I was hoping for, especially since I think my depictions of the changelings - largely unsympathetic depictions - are at odds with a lot of common fan interpretations of them. In TPC, Chrysalis and her changelings are monstrous and parasitic. Their plans for Equestria border on genocidal and their moral code is completely alien.
1764027
Thanks! This whole arc with Twilight is actually something I wondered about when I first conceived of it. Setting our beloved Twi on a romantic collision course with the story's antagonist? Even if it isn't all that romantic, but you get the idea. I thought it very risky. I'm glad I didn't get mobbed even just proposing it.
1764651
Haha. See?
But what better way to undo a villains plans than from within them?
1764918
Partly, that depends on just how much of their plans mutually overlap, and how much ultimately conflicts...
1765133
You know... this is a good observation and a fair question. It does, sometimes. Usually after I've just written a sentence or paragraph and go back to re-read it, and pause. It is what it is, though, so I usually just shrug and move on with it. If I were writing as much for new readers unfamiliar with the fandom, then I think I would use other terms for it from time to time, but since I figure most all my readers are comfortable with it, I should be too. Something like that.
1766931
I think the trick is Twi has to know there is magic involved in the first place. Her ability to rapidly learn is also constrained by her knowledge and experience. Trixie's "age" spells in the recent episode, for example. I'm glad you liked Eunomie - actually of a lot of the OC antagonists and the like, she does seem one of the easier ones to get along with. She really is fine being completely reasonable and minding her own business, except, of course, for when she has to mess some fools up or draw up a harsh "contract" for someone to sign. Pinkie is definitely not representative of most ponies at the best of times but, well, you'll see.
As for Chrysalis and her power at the moment, she knows she's stronger than her predecessor and figures herself stronger than basically any (normal) unicorn. However, Brass's threat was that Antimony herself is bad, but she also has - and would use - a rather well trained guard numbering in the hundreds. In the show, the royal guards (and Wonderbolts) are kind of fodder, but you can consider them all much more formidable in TPC (the Wonderbolts should already have shown this, really). The White Company under Germolio was also able to remove a dragon from its lair without casualties. Even at Celestia and Luna's level, they are not untouchable. For many, all it would take is a knife in the back at the worst time... or, put another way, just because you have a nuke doesn't mean you can't get shot. Luna is actually better off in the self-defense department than Celestia, so far, since she has shown the ability to de-materialize into shadows and bats at will, and can make copies of herself. It is also true, as in canon, that Chrysalis isn't entirely sure just how powerful she is relative to the Princesses, now. She currently does not think she can solo one of them much less both.
If she did know that, then she'd be much less inclined to cooperate with Alpha Brass...
1767371
Yep. That's a chicken, man!
Probably one of my odder references buried in the story. lol
(more responses in the next post)
1767407
I made the corrections soon after I saw your comment. Now, a day later, I can thank you for catching them. I don't think I get to thank some people enough for helping me correct errors in the story.
1767556
They have to be; the whole story is about different goals and different approaches, all in opposition! Of course, as OCs, there is extra onus on me to make them relevant but not so obstructive or obtrusive that they detract from the mane cast we know and love.
1767949
"Marabia" has been in the fanfic since Chapter Zero came out. Naturally, with new canon, some alterations need be made. For the time being, in TPC, Saddle Arabia (Saddle Marabia) is in the region of Marabia - an independent state that is not a part of Equestria proper. One is the nationality, in other words, and the other is their ethnicity and broader region. A bit like the difference between an "Anatolian" and a "Turkish citizen" or Turk.
In a meta context, balancing established stuff with new canon is always tricky.
1768129
Heh. She's being set up for a few, none of which she wants!
But there will be something to hopefully sate that thirst, next chapter.
1768762
Oh ho ho ho ho.
This post makes it so hard not to say a certain something spoilery.
1771769
Luna is no lightweight, that's true, and though we have not yet seen why Chalice is supposedly rather terrifying herself, those are big (horse)shoes to fill. The same with Twilight taking Celestia's place. Most curious, no?
You're basically on the ball with Olive Branch and her fate, but as for Brass's plans... what makes you think he wants world domination?
1771843
1772923
Heh! Good to hear readers still remember - even fondly! - Antimony after she's been gone for so many chapters. I promised she'd be back. Rarity's holding the crown for her, after all.
To hear Chrys tell of it, they've known one another for quite some time. At least since the tenure of the previous Queen Chrysalis.
1774837
Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!
1775204
True, that Chrysalis was in this for herself and what her plans were may have been something of a foregone conclusion (we all saw those episodes) but it had to be put down, regardless. No! Not the Cake! Only Pinkie Pie may enjoy those savory delights.
Next on the table is just that:
Euporie's party, and Twilight's meeting with her gentleman suitor.
1777395 Had a comment about "souleaters" here, but realized this was the wrong fic! Ha! But Twi's really, really powerful, and I want to see her teach those snotty nobles a lesson in humility - something she has plenty of.
1777122
Well if he plans on replacing the Alicorns with ponies he thinks he controls... I guess they technically don't rule the world though.
1777801 Twi is powerful. And so is her brother. And, oh yeah, her cousin who also happens to be Brass's sister. And since Brass has a better idea of the stakes and situation here, it seems likely that he's going to get in the first shot.
Though it is plausible that he'll underestimate his bookish cousin; not least because she has a surprising amount of esoteric knowledge... and some of it relates (at least peripherally) to his schemes since she did some of the research on Lyra's torc. I'd rather have her outsmart him than 'merely' give Brass a magical beatdown.
1778169 I'd guess that he expects that he'll have to kill or imprison Luna and Celestia to have his preferred happily-ever-after, at which point somebody is going to have to control the sun and moon.
Speaking of which, there were some folks who seem to be big fans of a scorched earth policy... you'd have to have be incredibly nasty for Celestia to unleash Discord. Oh, incredibly nasty and someone Discord doesn't consider interesting. And, of course, not someone who might be able to bind Discord. It might be worthwhile to let him out to prevent the end of the world ("Hey! That's where I keep all my toys!") but anything short of that and he's likely to be a bigger problem than whomever you're currently losing to.
1778766 Intellect and wit are also both forms of power in my opinion.
1778766
I have to agree with you here. Releasing Discord to stop Chrysalis would be like cauterizing both legs after losing a foot.
1777122
Setting our beloved Twi on a romantic collision course with the story's antagonist? Even if it isn't all that romantic, but you get the idea. I thought it very risky. I'm glad I didn't get mobbed even just proposing it.
I'm predicting that by the end of the story, Twilight is not just in charge of Terre Rare, but also very recently autowidowed.
'Not that he and Pinkie hadn’t… from time to time'
Really now‽
My brain is f---ed, thank you vary much.
Also, what do you think of my chapter name ideas?
The whole scene with pinkie and the cake... Gold.
I wonder, a bit... This story is skirting so dangerously close to a higher rateing...
Euphemia:
Nobody seems to realize the deeply frightening implications of Euphemia's abilities. What it might actually mean for her unsuspecting 'guests'. If the breif glimpse we saw with the cookie-thing is any indication...
Pinkie might never recover, she invited Euphemia and helped her.
I can picture Euphemia's spell broken, right in the... middle of things, and screams as the guests realize what was happening. A knot of stallions disperseing almost at one, leaveing one mare sobbing, curled in the eye of the storm.
Some have commented that they don't trust Alpha Brass, or that they wish Euphemia would get some moral sense 'slapped into her'. No-one seems to realize the logical end result, what is comeing.
...
Crysalis:
I don't know. I've always seen Crysalis as a very desperate character. But never evil. Not many people understand true HUNGER. I don't mean a skipped meal, either. I one went on a survival hike that lasted forty-two days. I didn't eat much of anything for the first week because finding food was difficult. Hunger, true hunger, feels like a tremendous, unfathomable emptiness, growing until you are lethargic, and then until you as frantic. Eating away at you. Until you can look at grass and wonder if it tastes...
I understand hunger as a motive for a villain. Hunger is a terrible thing for those that can't do anything about it.
...
Blueblood:
'Less than one percent'. of Blueblood's power? As he implied?
I wonder if Blueblood, pressed in a real fight, might reveal that he is, in fact, a teleportation GOD. I mean, he had several years (relatively speaking) to devlope his skills...
I continue to love the detail you put into this version of Equestria. The politics continue to spin and spin, and it looks like the big bads of this story are finally rearing their heads. It looks like things are going to get very ugly for our poor protagonists before they get better. This is shaping up to be quite the storm they are going to have to weather.
Quite the tangled web of intrigue we have here. So many variables to be accounted for & the story isn't even finished. I thought Rarity beating Antimony was the end of the whole story...now we have this! So many ponies plotting one thing or another. Alpha Brass appears to be in league with Queen Chrysalis, but it seems he has his own plans. Antimony isn't out of the picture yet, she's still got some fight left in her. Chalice seem to be doing good in Ponyville. No sign of Polished Jewel, were the hell is she? I don't think Yumi will go back on her word to Applejack. I believe she will help the Apple Family, get her meeting with Blueblood, fail at persuading him, leave the Apple Family trees alone & try a different strategy to get what she wants. Ritterkreuz...I don't know what to say about her. She's teaching Scootaloo how to fly & it seems a rematch with Rainbow Dash is eminent. The Mosaic Twins, Euporie & Eunomia, are off in their own little world right now with one planing a 'special party' & the other trying to learn a new spell. Not only have we not seen Polished Jewel, but Lady Sand Dune hasn't been seen once & has only been mention in passing. So many questions, we all have. How will Rarity deal with all this? Will she be able to handle it all? What does Discord have to do with all this? So many questions my friend, so many questions.
1775204
Are you predicting Euporie will do something...uncakesensual?
It would be such a waste if Yumi were to marry Blueblood. She couldn't very well be Dutchess of Canterlot without spending most of her time in the area, and her magic is far more needed in Neighpon.
Got it. Orgies, thumbs up. Cake at orgies, thumbs up. Sex in cake at orgies, thumbs down. I'll be sure to keep that in mind.
But I really want to know what she whispered about the cake at the end there.
Clearly, I need to be more careful about when I stop reading to do other stuff; I gave myself enough time to ask, "if the cake were made out of nothing but whipped cream, would it be situationally appropriate to have sex in it? Is that structurally possible?" Fortunately, I think the answer to question 2 is "no."
I'm really wondering if Alpha Brass really is an antagonist or if he just playing the role of the villain and using Chrysalis in some grand plan to root out the corruption in his family or something. I'm going for the former rather than the latter.
Oh god...that...that whole scene...that was just hilarious...
Oh, Pinkie...subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal, as usual...
I was kinda holding out hope that Alpha Brass was just a dick and not evil. No such luck.
However, no evil Cadance. Just Chrysalis being a bitch, so that's all right.
Mareabia, huh? I thought it was called Saddle Arabia?
"Master" Fancy Pants? Fancy Pants is married, so he would be called "Mister Fancy Pants". Master takes the place of "Mister" for unmarried men/stallions.
Oh! I get it! Cadance has been evil because Chrysalis has already replaced her! 0_o
Wow, Alpha Brass really is evil! I hope Twlight Squishes him.
3127273 This was written before that episode.
Considering that most of the other aspects were consistent, I think it fit pretty well.
The aviation geek in me loves the references to Boltcke and his dicta. More even than the Warthog/Thunderbolt joke earlier in the story.
apples
I can't parse this unless "Chrysalis" is a title for the Queen of the Changelings"