Chapter 21: Suffering and Injustice
Persei emerged from the crevice in the mountain, and felt a balmy breeze caress her mane. She could almost taste the ocean now, its briny scent sharp in contrast to the frigid mountain air. They had entered some kind of cavernous indent in the face of the mountain facing the sea. Magical lanterns hung from stalactites on the cave roof, their light augmenting the wan light of the starry night sky.
Persei had an amazing, panoramic view of the sea from here. Stone staircases led down to what appeared to be a small harbor with a brightly lit town. Looking beyond the rim of towering, ramshackle wooden buildings surrounding the bay, there were a dozen docks extending from the rocky coast. War galleons and small cargo sloops were anchored there, sailors and dockworkers roving about among them.
The huge canvas sails of the ships trembled in the breeze, and their wooden hulls creaked. Past them, Persei could see more ships outside the mouth of the bay, moonlight reflecting on their wooden hulls and sails as they drifted out to sea.
Persei looked at Ultra Violet. She had been talking to one of the guards, and had finished just in time to meet her gaze. The lilac-maned unicorn smiled. “Welcome to our camp.”
Persei gazed out at the bustling harbor. It was kind of shady and dismal looking, but after all, this was a military establishment with covert operations. “Impressive,” she whispered. Persei pointed her hoof out to sea where she had seen some ships disappearing. “Where are those ships going?”
Ultra Violet nodded. “Those ships are going to our other, smaller camps along the Worldspine. We get much of our food and supplies delivered from them.”
She couldn’t believe all this. These revolutionaries had their own economy going. “How can Nightmare Moon not know about all this? Wouldn’t she be able to see your ships moving about?”
“No,” Violet shook her head. “First of all, the Worldspine is impassible. Not even the strongest pegasi can brave the terrible conditions on top of the mountains. Secondly, Nightmare Moon and her government believe that there is nothing but the ocean beyond the Worldspine.” Ultra Violet and Persei began to descend the staircase as she explained. “You see, when she took command of Equestria, as I told you before, there was a civilization of ponies. She called them barbarians, whether you believe that or not is up to you, but regardless… sea levels rose due to some astronomical disturbance caused by her taking control. There used to be many coastal cities, but they were all drowned out. She thinks that it’s all gone, but some harbors remained usable despite the rising ocean, and we took advantage of them.”
“Wow,” Persei gasped, looking out to sea again. She wondered about the network of camps out there, how they were all working together in hopes of the eventual downfall of the government that drove them out in the first place. “How many ponies are part of the Scions of Celestion?”
“We had ten thousand ponies spread out all over the Worldspine, but now we have about thirteen thousand with all the Dayborn refugees that the Empress’ crusade has created.” Persei nodded, and Violet gestured to the harbor town. “We take them in. We take care of them, and they in turn join our cause. It’s not hard for us to convince them that the world would be a better place if all the Nightborns were dead.”
“Indeed,” Persei said, agreeing. “It’s incredibly kind of you to take them all in like this.”
“Oh, it’s our pleasure to help them out.” Violet said, grinning. “We needed more ponies to join us anyway, so they were welcome regardless.”
Persei nodded, and began to wonder about Violet’s role in all of this. “So, Violet... are you like a commander? Or a spy or something?”
Ultra Violet grinned, her mane glowing especially bright. “I am the leader, Persei. In the seventeen years since my foal’s death, I joined the Scions, rose up the ranks, and became their leader. I united them when they were on the verge of collapse. I made them what they are today, and soon, we will finally be able to take major steps against Nightmare Moon.”
Somehow, it didn’t surprise Persei that Ultra Violet would be their leader. She seemed to have a natural ability to lead.
Persei nodded, grinning viciously. “No more waiting in the shadows, it is time to strike.”
Ultra Violet seemed to be impressed by her enthusiasm. “You and I are very alike, Persei. I hope to see you find success among us, but for now…” They had descended all the way down the stairs, and were standing in front of a large, four story building. A sign hung above the doorway. “Port Darien Hospital,” it read.
Ultra Violet gestured at the doorway. “When your brother and villager friends arrive here, they will be brought here for medical examination.” Violet smiled. “We like to see our new recruits in good health before they begin work.” She gestured at the door again. “Go in there. You’ll work at this hospital until they get here, and then I will personally take you and your brother to my personal pavilion. I find you two very intriguing…” the unicorn leader said, something strange in her voice that haunted Persei. Violet spun around and then began to trot away. She looked back one more time. “Work hard, my Persei. Listen to the refugees. Empathize with them. It’ll strengthen your resolve.”
Violet turned away and disappeared inside another building. Persei was left alone at the entrance of the hospital. She was exhausted from her travel, but she had to earn her keep. Maybe she could also get something to eat inside….
She ignored a rumble from her stomach, and opened the door to the hospital. She was immediately met by the reek of sweat. There were sick and injured ponies everywhere. Even in the reception room, their beds lined the walls and were in clusters in the middle of the room. There was barely enough room for the nurses and doctors to weave around them to get to the patient that needed them. This hospital was way too overcrowded. They were probably treating that group of refugees who had recently come in….
The room was lit with the soft glow of red-tinted magical lanterns. The red light would allow other ponies to sleep, but it was bright enough for the nurses to do their job.
Persei began to wander through the room, looking at all the different faces. Living in a small village and almost never seeing new ponies, this was a dramatic change.
As she walked past the rows of beds, she felt eyes following her. She looked at the patients all around her. Her eyes drifted over them, and she met the gaze of a little filly. She was a brown earth pony who was clutching a rag doll to her barrel. Her bright purple eyes reminded her of Violet’s, and Persei felt herself being drawn to her.
The little filly smiled as she drew close, realizing that she would be getting some company. Persei stood by her bedside, seeing her hooves covered in bloody bandages. There was a pipe siphoning blood from her mouth, designed to protect her airway. “Hello,” the filly whispered, beaming.
Persei was distracted. These wounds were atrocious. Bone splinters had pierced her skin, black bruises where each fragment surfaced. Her legs weren’t just broken, they were shattered. From the look of it, the cause was blunt force trauma.
She looked the little filly over. Despite her terrible state, she still seemed happy. Persei finally responded to her greeting. “Hi there little filly,” she said, smiling. “What’s your name?”
She hugged the rag doll tightly to her chest. “My name is Chocolate Sweet, and I really like candy.”
She must be some kind of confectioner’s daughter, Persei thought. “Where are your parents, Sweet?”
Sweet smiled, and shrugged. She didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned. “I’m sure their fine. Their beds were right beside mine, but they were taken away for surgery. It’s been almost a day now. The doctors said they would take good care of them.”
What kind of surgery takes a day?
Persei was both saddened and frustrated. This little filly should be in this hospital because she has a cold, or a scraped hoof, not these terrible injuries.
She looked around the room, and saw that all the other patients had similar wounds. They were being treated for burns, cuts, broken bones like Sweet’s. These weren’t ordinary injuries a pony might incur living their lives, these were battle wounds caused by malicious intent. These ponies were refugees who had been fleeing the flames and swords of the Night Guard.
She wondered how she could possibly help here. She had some medicine-making experience from her mother, but….
“What’s your name?” Sweet asked, the adoring look still in her eyes.
Persei looked around and saw that all the patients within hearing range were listening in, waiting for her response. “My name is Persei, how are you?”
“I’m really good,” the filly said beaming. “The doctors gave me these shots that make me feel like I’m flying.”
Morphine…Strange. They don’t give such a powerful narcotic to foals.
The filly tongued the tube in her mouth. “I don’t like this thing. It tastes funny.”
All the patients who were watching, suddenly looked away. Persei noticed this and was put on edge. She touched the tube, and saw the occasional spurts of crimson being sucked out. The pipe led down to a bucket which was slowly accumulating the filly’s blood. She was drowning in her own blood. Her lungs were ruptured beyond repair.
Persei kissed the filly’s head, sniffing her mane. Sweet reached upward and wrapped her hooves around Persei’s neck, and she gasped. Her heart melted. But she noticed something. Looking down, she saw the two cotton bandages on her barrel. The filly continued to cling to her, and Persei lifted up the bandages. There were two, perfectly circular pierce wounds right over each one of her lungs. As if they had been punctured intentionally…the precision was surgical.
Persei felt someone touch her, and she flipped around, startling the nurse. Behind her, two doctors waited. The nurse was surprised, but quickly overcame her shock. “You must be, Persei.” The mare said cheerily.
Persei noticed that both her hind legs had been recently amputated, and had prosthetic limbs in place of her hooves. She pointed at her fake legs. “What happened to your hooves?”
“Oh,” the nurse said, her cheery demeanor fading. “Infection overtook the wounds I got from a Night Guard raid.” The nurse quickly changed the subject. “Have you been fed? Are you thirsty? Need a bed to rest in?”
How can this mare still be so caring despite all that’s happened to her?
Persei looked back at Chocolate Sweet. She was humming softly to herself, stroking the mane of her rag doll. Persei faced the nurse. “What happened to this filly’s parents?”
“Dead,” one of the doctors whispered. “They were too damaged. They bled out during surgery.”
“Unfortunately that is a common fate,” the nurse said sadly. “Our blood banks are completely depleted.”
Persei couldn’t believe this. “You should be taking better care of her, I can’t…”
“Look,” one of the doctors snapped. “We are overworked. Our surgeons collapse on the job from exhaustion. Our nurses haven’t slept in days ever since these refugees came in.”
“We’re doing the best we can,” the nurse said softly.
Persei looked back the filly, still playing with her doll. “Is she going to be all right?” she asked the doctors.
The nurse smiled sadly. “Once the doctors give her the medicine, she’ll be all better.”
One of the doctors motioned for Persei to step back, and the other doctor approached her. He raised his hoof, holding a needle which was half full of…Morphine. Such a high dosage will send her into oblivion, what the hell are they doing?
“No,” Persei said, shaking her head. “There must be something we can do.”
The doctor and the nurse restrained her as she struggled. The doctor lowered the lethal injection, and rubbed Chocolate Sweet’s shoulder with an alcohol pad.
The filly seemed unconcerned, talking to her doll, and playing with it.
All the other patients in the room were watching the scene in despair. They knew many of them would be sharing the same fate very soon. Persei was still struggling against the doctor’s restraining hooves, but she no longer knew why. The filly was dying. No surgeon could save her. “Consider this a final act of kindness,” the doctor said, injecting the morphine into her.
Chocolate Sweet sighed deeply, her body going limp. Persei broke away from the doctor and touched noses with the filly. “Please,” she whispered, desperately. She shook the filly. “Please don’t die.”
“It’s okay, Persei.” The filly whispered, her eyes slowly closing. “I’m going to be with my parents now.”
Persei shook her head, clutching the filly’s hoof. “No, no, no….”
The filly’s body went slack, and with one final, drawn out breath, she expired.
Tears dripped from Persei’s eyes, and the doctor who had euthanized her sighed. “Empty the bed. Get the next patient in here.”
Some of the other patients began to cry, despair weighing heavy on all of them.
Persei could no longer stand it. Her heart felt like it might burst. She fled from the room. She charged through the nearest door, and barreled down a dark staircase. She arrived into some furnace room. It was unbearably hot, and….
Two stallions with shovels were standing in front of the open maw of the flaming furnace.
Persei looked around and saw the heaps of burlap sacks sitting in the corners of the room. The stallions grabbed the ends of each bag, and chucked it into the fire. The flames washed over it, consuming the bag.
The stallions grabbed another sack, but this time, a tiny pale hoof slipped out of the sack. Persei stared at the dangling, limp hoof. They chucked it into the fire.
Persei looked around, seeing there were at least a hundred more bodies that needed to be…disposed of.
She fled from the crematorium, galloping down the crowded hallways, and into the clear open. She kept galloping all the way until she was at the very end of one of the harbor’s piers. She looked at her shaky reflection in the aquamarine water.
Why did all these ponies deserve to die, while she lived?
Persei stomped her hooves on the wooden planks. “What kind of monster would puncture the lungs of a little filly!?” she screamed out to the ocean.
“Why?” she repeated. “Why are such things allowed to happen? Why are such monsters allowed to roam free?”
They had taken her mother, they had taken her home, and they were hunting the last remnant of her family through the forest. What if? What if Cepheus and the villagers never got here?
Persei wanted to collapse on the dock and bawl her eyes out, but there were no more tears. Just anger. If ponies get sad, they’ll just sit around and cry. It’s when they get angry they take action.
Persei puffed her chest out, wiping her tears. She looked up in defiance at the moon, a symbol of the Empress. “I promise again, on the memory of my Mother, that I will avenge the death of these ponies. So no others have to go through the pain they have gone through. Nightmare Moon shall fall, and her favored race destroyed.”
Persei felt a wrath so pure and heated that it filled up her inside. Her horn glowed orange, and she belched a great gout of flame. The air around her began to shimmer with heat. Her blood was on fire. She wanted to scream. She wanted vengeance.
In the searing turmoil of her hate and promises of retribution, she felt something incredibly hot against her flank. It caused her pain, but it was a sweet suffering. She gritted her teeth, and continued looking out to sea.
If she had looked back, she would have noticed something on her flank. A new cutie mark glowed orange with heat, and then the glow disappeared as the heat intensified to new thresholds. It actually appeared to absorb light for a moment. The hotter the flame, the less light it produces. It is said the conflagrations of hell are pitch black…
This was a kind of flame that produced no light, but only burned.
The wind continued to whisper in Persei’s ear, tossing her mane. She didn’t know how long she remained there, but she knew that of all the places in Equestria, this was the place she was meant to be. She would give her heart and soul to this cause. Justice was long overdue….
Ultra Violet had been watching Persei from the prow of a nearby ship. She turned away, now even more interested in the white unicorn.
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They are both Celestia, Different parts of her. Her brother is the side we see most of the time but she still has this side as well but be Persei. Do not go Solar Flare
4677924
Who is Solar Flare?
4678157 Celestia's Version of Nightmare Moon
4678173
Persei isn't evil. She has every right to be upset. She's lost everything, and is constantly reminded of all the terrible things Nightmare Moon has done to innocent ponies. She is not meant to be a Solar Flare type of character.
Cepheus' and Persei's cutie marks are symbolic of the two aspects of "passion". Compassion and Anger. They're supposed to reflect two very different approaches to conflict.
4678205 Note Niether was Nightmare Moon to begin with. She has become evil in your story out of fear of her sisters return. Luna had reason to be angry to and that anger made her into Nightmare Moon. Different paths can lead to the same place. hopefully she won't.
4678236 This is getting too deep to handle!!!