History
“Uh,” Twilight looked up at the chalkboard, a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth. “Well, I would solve for the mass of the object being teleported by solving for R, since that’s the thaumic resistance of the object, which is primarily determined by mass. But I can’t solve for R with the equation you’ve written there, because…” Twilight’s horn glowed, and she picked up the chalk, reaching up to the little board. With two smooth motions, she turned a minus into a plus, and an I into a T.
“You intentionally wrote it wrong,” Twilight lifted her head and perked up her ears, adding a merry little. “Princess.”
“Very good!” Celestia nodded, reaching up with a cloth to erase the board. The two of them were outside, on Celestia’s balcony, enjoying a day of cool air and warm sunlight. It was far too pleasant an afternoon to spend cooped up indoors, and the palace weather team had ensured the breeze that flowed around them was just strong enough to be soothing without carrying away Twilight’s papers. “Now, if I wanted you to say, practice teleportation over this next week, what objects would you use?”
“I would use flowers,” Twilight said, “Since I want objects with both a small mass, M, and a low coefficient of thaumic resistance, Cq. Living things have the lowest Cq of any common object, so I want to use a living—but mindless in case of harm—target. And!” She lifted a hoof, “the reason I’m using flowers instead of grass is because flower's distinctive coloration and pattern will make it easier to detect errors.”
“You studied particularly hard last night, didn’t you?” Celestia asked, lifting an eyebrow just so. Twilight blushed and looked down, and Celestia raised a hoof to hide her giggle. “Don’t be embarrassed, Twilight. We all want to impress our teachers from time to time. And even I’m surprised by how quickly you’re coming along. I didn’t think we’d even be starting on teleportation until you were much older.”
“I’m… not that good,” Twilight let out an embarrassed little laugh, rubbing the back of her head. “The other students help me a lot in my other subjects. Like Jump Cut with illusion spells. And sleeping on things helps a lot.” She frowned for a moment, and her brow furrowed, as she tried to remember something that seemed just out of reach. “The material is really hard at first, but if I study all evening and then get some rest, it’s usually a lot clearer in the morning.”
“That’s good, Twilight. Too many young unicorns develop unhealthy study habits, staying up all night and trying to cram though spells half asleep. It’s important to take your time.” Celestia smiled and shut the books, packing them up and putting them away. “And that goes double this week. Teleportation is very physically taxing until you get used to it. If I hear that you passed out from exhaustion trying to do too many of the exercises in a row, your mother and I will be having words. Is that clear?”
“Awww,” Twilight grumbled, though her complaint had less to do with the instruction and more to do with the time, a glance at the sun confirming that her and Celestia’s hour was up. “Yes, Princess. That’s clear.”
“Good.” Celestia leaned over, nuzzling the top of Twilight’s head. “I’m sorry to hurry you on your way, but I have a cabinet meeting and I can’t keep making them wait.”
“It’s okay, Princess,” Twilight rose, her little tail flicking. “Um… before I go. There was one other thing.”
“Mmmm?” Celestia glanced back Twilight’s way. “Go on.”
“It’s about my Equestrian history class,” Twilight said. “It takes up a lot of time during the day, and I could really use a free study period to practice magic. Can I just take the final exam now?”
Celestia didn’t answer right away, but instead paused, twitching an ear as she considered Twilight carefully. “Do you think you would pass?”
“Yes! I mean, yeah.” Twilight looked down, and rubbed one hoof over the opposite leg. “The tests are all about stuff in the textbook, and I’ve read the whole thing. I know all the dates of Equestrian settlement and all twelve generations of pre-monarchy leaders for all three tribes. And, um. All that stuff about trade and weather control at the end. I read all the appendices. The class itself is kind of a waste of time at this point.”
“Very thorough, as always.” Celestia pondered that for a moment, then sat back down and folded her legs. “So tell me, Twilight. If you’d been born into a unicorn family in, say, 55 A.F., what do you think you’d be worried about right now?”
Twilight furrowed her brow, taking Celestia’s cue and sitting back down on the stones of the balcony. “Um…” It took her a moment to speak. “Learning… magic? It’s still my special talent.”
“It is,” Celestia agreed. “But, you’re eleven now. That means it’s not too many years until you’ll be a young mare. And wouldn’t a young unicorn mare in that time period have a little bit to worry about?”
“N… no?” Twilight tucked in her tail under her, her eyes darting over the floor as she wracked her brain. “While the three tribes technically remained separate, the years 0 to 100 A.F. were characterized by nearly entirely peaceful relations between them. It’s part of the period known as the magnus vincens, or ‘the great conquest’, where the Equestrian frontier was still largely open to new settlement and—”
Celestia lifted a hoof, and Twilight fell silent. Once a sufficient period had passed, Celestia asked: “Where do you get your food? There are no big cities at this point, certainly not much of a market economy. You can’t just walk down to a store. Where do you get it?”
Twilight hesitated again, and Celestia lowered her head a half-inch. “Where did your parents get it when they were young?”
“Earth ponies gave it to them,” Twilight answered, after a moment. “As part of the traditional tithing system collectively known as ancien regime, under which the three tribes—”
Celestia again lifted her hoof—this time just a few degrees—and Twilight instantly fell silent. “So, earth ponies came to your parent’s castle, or tower, or glade. And gave them food. Just for being unicorns. They had other responsibilities, like lifting the sun, or tending to the magical creatures, or building fine crafts, but that wasn’t a trade. The earth ponies just showed up with the food in baskets. Is that correct?”
“Y… yes,” Twilight nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s right.”
“And, how did your grandparents get food?”
“Earth ponies gave it to them,” Twilight said.
“And, your great grandparents?” Celestia leaned down low, with a little smile on her face. “And your great great grandparents? And your great great great grandparents?”
“Earth ponies gave it to them.” Twilight’s tail flicked, and she stared resolutely at Celestia’s hooves.
“So what question am I about to ask?” Celestia said, and as she said it, she reached out with a hoof. “Head up, Twilight,” she said firmly. “Because, you are going to be a young mare soon, and a mare never looks at her hooves just because she doesn’t know the answer. You look me in the eye. Can you do that for me?”
Twilight swallowed, then lifted her head and straightened her back. “Yes, Princess,” she said, taking a deep breath. “You’re about to ask me, ‘and where do you get your food’? Because the ancien regime was formally abolished in 5 A.F. And the answer is…” Twilight scrunched up her muzzle, then she spoke with conviction: “I buy it.”
“Do you?” Celestia asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Yes! Because—” Twilight’s pace picked up “—agricultural relations between the three tribes underwent a reformation during the magnus vincens, moving from a traditional tithing system to a mercantile system largely characterized by small trades between individual family units. Chapter 7, Section 3, Introduction to Equestrian History Standard Textbook.” Her tail gave a little wiggle. “So I buy food from the earth pony family up the way.”
“Very good,” Celestia said, and Twilight beamed. After the faintest of pauses, Celestia added, almost as an afterthought. “So where do you get the money?”
Twilight’s face fell. “I… uh…” She started to lower her head.
“Twilight,” Celestia’s tone turned firm, and Twilight’s head snapped back up. “Very good. Now, no mumbling or looking away. What is your best, honest answer to my question?”
“I… I have no idea.” Twilight swallowed, her expression gone stiff. “Princess.”
Celestia gave a small nod. “That’s okay, Twilight. It’s okay for two reasons. The first is because you should never be afraid to admit when you don’t know something. But you know what the other reason is?” A little smile softened Twilight’s expression, and Celestia leaned in so close she could whisper. “Nopony back then knew either.”
Before Twilight could fully process what she’d just heard, Celestia tucked a wing around her, pulling the two of them tight together. “I want you to picture it, Twilight. Really shut your eyes and picture it. Go ahead now.” Twilight shut her eyes tight, and in a conspiratorial whisper, Celestia went on.
“For your whole life,” she went on, in a breathy voice, “earth ponies just brought you things. You needed food? It shows up in baskets. You needed your windows fixed? The glassmaker comes along. You wanted a toy, the carpenter would give you one because you were the little master. And all you had to do was what you do now. Study magic. Be a wizard. It’s your cutie mark and your special talent and all you’ve ever wanted. Are you picturing it?”
Twilight suppressed a giggle, and scrunched her tail up around herself, tucking her hooves in around her body so she could snuggle into Celestia’s wing. “Yes. I’m picturing a little tower like the sort in the book. Probably two or three unicorn families and an old master arcanist.”
“That’s right,” Celestia said. “And then there’s this whole unification thing. And you’re all for it! You never had anything against earth ponies or pegasi, did you?”
“No!” Twilight said firmly. “I… know some earth ponies in town, probably. They seem okay. And I’m not a judgemental jerk in any era.”
“I should think not!” Celestia agreed. “You supported Princess Platinum all the way. And now, it’s here! The three tribes are at peace. A new land has been discovered. You’re excited about the news, maybe thinking of visiting, when that nice old earth pony up the way shows up at your door. And you know what he does?”
“He… congratulates us on the good news?” Twilight suggested.
Celestia let out a soft sound, and gently shook her head. “He throws two baskets full of rocks at your door, and shouts that he’s been giving you something for nothing his whole life, and so did his dad, and so did his dad, but he’s going to Equestria and making his own farm where he won’t owe tithes to anypony. And he packs up his whole family and leaves. Then, so does the next farmer. And the next. And the next. Until your family holding is barren. No more earth ponies coming to bring you things. What do you do?”
“I’d… I mean.” Twilight bit her lip. “I’d go to Equestria too.”
“Just like that? On your own?” Celestia gently teased. “A unicorn and a saddlebag?”
“No. I’d…” She took a breath. “I’d find a nice farm pony family that I liked and ask if I can go with them. I could… use spells to make establishing a farm easier. Like burning up weeds or making water flow or clearing land.”
“Why, any farm pony would be a fool to turn that offer down, talented little wizard that you are.” Celestia gave Twilight a squeeze. “But you’ll need one more thing to establish a farm out there. There’s a pony you don’t have yet.”
“We need a pegasus,” Twilight said, brightly. “To make sure the weather over the farm is good. And they’re going to want to bring their family too.”
“Mmmhmm,” Celestia agreed. “And so you leave the old family tower behind. And it’s just you, your parents, and two other families. The earth ponies who used to be your peasants, but have decided they’re just about done taking your orders. And the pegasi who used to threaten to burn down your house if you didn’t pay their tribute, but now are under orders to get along. So what are you, a young mare, worried about?”
“I’d be worried about if they liked me,” Twilight said. “I’d be worried about what happens next. And what’s out there. And… and all sorts of things. There’s timberwolves and dragons and hydras and breezies and all these other things I don’t understand. And, I still need to learn to be a wizard. Did the old master come with us? If not, who else will I learn from?”
“That’s exactly right, Twilight.” Celestia folded her wing back up against her side, and Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. “That’s the story of the Equestrian Frontier. Little families just trying to sort out what ‘all the tribes being together,’ meant. And that’s what history really is. A collection of stories from individual ponies just trying to get through their lives.”
“I think I understand, Princess,” Twilight said. “It… was a lot more interesting the way you taught it. If it’s okay to say that.”
“It is,” Celestia nodded. “And I think that maybe you have outgrown Professor Tome’s particular style of exams. I’ll have a word with him about getting you more one-on-one time. But for now? I’m giving you your next history assignment. I want you to write a story about a young unicorn mare growing up during the first settlements. About what she went through. It must be strictly historically accurate, and the settlement group she’s with must be typical of settlement groups in the, say, 70 A.F. period. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes, Princess!” Twilight nodded firmly. “I promise I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t, Twilight.” Celestia reached out and ruffled her mane. “Now, I’m already late. But before we go, tell me one more time what you learned?”
“That history isn’t just a pile of facts, it’s a collection of stories,” Twilight said, nodding firmly.
“Good, and?”
“That those who don’t learn their history get extra study time with their Princess teachers?” Twilight gave her best smile, tail flicking this way and that.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed, and Twilight’s expression faltered. “That um… er… that it’s important to know the difference between memorizing a pile of information and actually understanding something?” Celestia nodded, but her eyes stayed narrow. Twilight’s eyes started to lower, but she picked herself up, and held her head high. “And that… I should let you go get to your cabinet meeting. Good day, Princess.”
Twilight scurried out, and so quick was her exit, that she didn’t see the hint of a grin that played on Celestia’s face as she left.
“—and, I’m going to name her ‘Free Soil,’ and she’s going to be a unicorn but her special talent is actually plant related because I bet unicorns like that did super well back then. And her parents are super stern traditionalists but she was always into unification even before Princess Platinum so all the pegasi and earth ponies in her group like her.”
“You should give her a black coat and a red mane,” the voice in the distance suggested. “That would be, as the foals say these days, ‘totally rad.’”
“Oh! It would!” Twilight grinned. Her quill was floating just out of her reach—in fact, it seemed like any object she let go of promptly zipped out of range of her telekinesis. But she focused, and let the energy collect in her horn. A loud whine could be heard, and after several seconds of buildup, the power discharged. In a flash, the quill disappeared from its floating station and reappeared in front of Twilight, who quickly grabbed it to make the next note on her scroll. “Red and… black. Ooh. And she can be a secret princess too!”
“Sure,” the voice in the distance agreed. “Why not?”
“Yeah! And she can… uh...” Twilight paused, lifting her head. Directly in front of her, there was a small writing table, holding nothing but her parchment. Around her, numerous objects floated just out of reach. An ink bottle, spare quills, pens, reference and style guides, and more rolls of parchment. Beyond though, she could see only fog. An infinite abyss of dim fog that stretched in every direction, muffling sound and making it impossible to tell where the voice was coming from.
“Uh…” Twilight looked around, seeking the sun, but finding no source for the diffuse light. “Sorry, but.. actually… where am…” She paused again. “Wait, have I asked that question already?”
“You have asked it many times,” the voice said, “for you are in the dream realm.”
“And… I come here every night,” Twilight said slowly. “And you’re… L...u...naaah? Princess Luna.” She swallowed. “You are my teacher.”
“Very good.” From the mist, materialized a figure. A pony, a mare, with the a mane made of stars. With wings and a horn and a blue coat, and a cutie mark of a moon against the darkened sky. But she didn’t draw quite close enough to be easily seen. The fog still partially obscured her, leaving Twilight to squint and wonder.
“Your teleportation practice is going quite well,” she said, matter of factly, showing no indication she was aware of the unusual distance between them. “Though you will have to be careful. Here, in the dream world, I may remove the physical exertion associated with the practice of the skill. I have done so for the moment to allow you to hone your technique, but this is only temporary. We will practice the proper way later, lest you develop bad habits and exhaust yourself.”
Twilight focused her mind, and again, her horn glowed. After several long seconds of buildup, there was another flash, and the narrative style guide appeared in her hooves. At once, her quill zipped out of her grasp and back to its orbital path, expecting to be called again. She frowned a moment. “How long have I been here? How long has it been since I fell asleep, I mean.”
“About fifteen seconds,” Luna replied. “Your eyes have only just shut.”
“No, that can’t be right,” Twilight said. “I’ve been here… at least a few minutes.” She looked down at her parchment, covered in detailed story notes. “Or, hours. We were in the middle of a conversation.”
“Were we?” Luna asked. “Tell me. How did the conversation start?”
“We…” Twilight trailed off. “I… I can’t remember. But I was so sure…”
“This world works how I say it works,” Luna took a step forward, and her form became more solid, more detailed. Her cutie mark had dark spots around it, like ink spots. Her muzzle was long and narrow. She walked with her head high, like Celestia, like Twilight was learning how to do. “And I detest introductions. They are… awkward.” Her hooves shifted for a moment. “I frequently say that we will begin with such things already out of the way.”
“Oh. Oh wow. You can do that?” Twilight looked around her with a new sense of wonder. “That’s fantastic! I also hate introductions. Is there a way to get out of these in real life?”
Luna sighed. “Sadly, no. What I would not give for such an enchantment.”
“Do you ever, like…” Twilight gestured vaguely. “Use that power to get out of things? Or, awkward moments and stuff? Mom says I’m kind of socially awkward.”
“Yes,” Luna answered, her hooves shifting. “I do, sometimes. When our conversations grow unproductive.”
“So you like…” Twilight furrowed her brow as she tried to recall, biting her lip. “Start a new dream?”
After a pause, Luna said, “Yes. When we are done talking here, you will begin a new dream, and you will have no conscious recollection of this conversation. Interpersonal relationships are… easier, when they can be compartmentalized. You will spend most of tonight studying teleportation. In an environment less conducive to…” She let out a breath. “Distractions.”
“Oh.” Twilight looked around. “Um… thanks? I mean, it’s only a dream right? You’re not actually messing with my head.”
“It is only a dream,” Luna affirmed, with a slow nod.
“Neat…” Twilight kicked a hoof, looking around for several awkward seconds. “So… what did you want to talk about then? If you ‘compartmentalized’ us into a conversation.”
Luna’s eyes flicked to her right just for a moment, and Twilight followed them up to her writing desk. “Oh… my history assignment?” She looked back. “You’re not going to…” she frowned, “Argue with Princess Celestia again, are you? I don’t like it when you do that.”
“She taught you wrong,” Luna insisted, putting one hoof forward.
“She taught me to love history!” Twilight shot back, more than a little exasperated. “What’s wrong with that? You’re the one that taught me that understanding the concepts is more important than memorizing a pile of facts. I didn’t know how to apply that lesson to history, but it’s totally the same lesson. What’s wrong with understanding what really happened to the ponies who lived back then?”
Luna stared at Twilight for a few long seconds before she spoke. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing is wrong with that. And I am… glad my sister is teaching you that way. It is… right. That a student should love to learn. But…” She lowered her head. “The thing about this world, Twilight, is that it is mine. You see only what I want you to see. And if I do not wish you to see something, it does not exist. And the waking world is my sister’s world.”
Her horn glowed. “It always was.”
Free Soil fiddled with her robes, as she made her way up towards the Cobalt farm. It was a stupid little affectation, she knew. It wasn’t as if the mud ponies would notice, much less care, if the collar was done up high enough, or if the twelve sacred bands were tied in the correct order, or if the charcoal-and-red finish was quite the same shade as her coat and mane. But sometimes, tending her appearance wasn’t about the other ponies. Sometimes it was about who she was, and what she was, and what she was was a wizard and wizards were not seen to be anything less than immaculate.
Even if they were glorified gardeners.
The road she was on was little more than a depression in the grass, with two shallow wagon ruts as the only sign anything substantive had ever come this way. It was the untamed country, with huge open fields ahead of her, forests around her, and the twittering of birds and animals to keep her company. The sun shone bright overhead, the wind blew just so, and in the distance, she could even hear a stream gurgling.
It was a bit hot for her formal robes, but that was her fault more than anything, and she smiled at the world around her. Coming here had been the right call, and while it was a bit primitive at the moment, there were already signs of progress. The trees by the side of the road had all been neatly cut at the base by Zero Point’s severing spells, though the trunks were still waiting to be hauled away, as the stumps likewise needed to be pulled up. Eventually, the farmers would get around to it and the road would be wide enough for multiple wagons, but there wasn’t a rush. Good old ZP had done the whole road at once, and it would take a few years yet for it all to be done.
Eventually, the forest thinned out, and the open plains started, and she spotted the Cobalt house in the distance. It was a little thing still, with just one room and an outhouse, but already it was surrounded by fields in all directions: two fields of oats, one of rocks, and one apple orchard that would really be something in a decade or two. And there was Farmer Blue himself, tying an apple sapling to a post.
“Is that Cobalt Blue I see?” Free Soil called, and the farmer looked up from his work. The door of the house opened as well, as his wife and two of the foals poked their heads out. “And good to see you as well, Red.” Free Soil managed to avoid comment on the fact that she was pregnant again, reminding herself that if she couldn't read and had nothing to do all day but her husband, she’d probably have more kids too.
“Wizard,” Red greeted her, conspicuously avoiding the traditional Master. But that was a tradition in of itself these days, one that continued as Cobalt Blue finished his work and approached.
“Hello, Soil!” Cobalt called. “Good to see you again. Please, won’t you come inside and sit down? Red has just finished cooking a few things and we’d love to have you. Perhaps give you a few pies to take home while you’re at it?”
“Oh, I couldn't possibly.” Free Soil lifted a hoof, as the whole song and dance started again. “You’ve already given us so much, I’d feel impossibly guilty. You must accept my invitation to come by next week. We’ve just uncasked some of the wine we brought with us from the old world. It might be the last real Unicornian wine in existence, and I insist you be the first to try it.”
“Nonsense!” Blue waved it away, “I can’t enjoy anything without my wife, and you know she’s expecting. If anything, you’d do us a service by taking our surplus alcohol away. A few casks of fine cider would do you a world of good. And of course, some of our fresh bread to dunk in it.”
And so the conversation went, back and forth and back and forth, until finally Free Soil agreed to sit down for imported coffee and take home a pie, but if—and only if—Red and her delightful children would join them for High Tea tomorrow and let the farrier fit them all with nice new horseshoes. It was almost enough to make a pony long for the days when simply murdering each other was a viable option.
Almost. The coffee was actually pretty good. And Blue made good conversation. And Red’s kids were cute. Free Soil made a mental note to talk to her at tea about getting them an education. Statistically, she knew, most of them would probably never learn to read more than a few words. But Red and Blue both seemed cleverer than the average mud pony. If it ran in the family, one of their kids might be bright enough to be a librarian’s assistant one day. And really, wasn’t it a princess’s obligation to help her lessers? Even if a distant claim to the unicorn royal bloodline didn’t mean much these days.
“So,” Free Soil said, when the formalities had passed. “How may I be of service to you?”
“We’ve had a pest problem the last few weeks,” Blue explained. “A lot of crops trampled in the south field, plus rocks broken open before they’re ripe in the west. At first, we thought it was Skyfall’s kids. You know the two, with the… what are they?”
“Steel-rain battle-saddles. Yeah, those two.” Free Soil rolled her eyes. “Honestly. Their mother gives them too many notions.”
“She does,” Blue agreed. “But they weren’t behind this one. We caught some… critter. Heck if I know what it is. We heard a commotion last night and found it digging a bunch of holes near the well. Ugly thing too. Like a dog, only bigger and nastier. It actually attacked Red!” He scowled. “Can you believe it? A pregnant mare!”
“I can believe it.” Free Soil took another sip of her coffee, and glanced over at Red. “She’s okay though, right?”
“Eeeh,” Blue waved the worry off. “Old habits die hard. When she heard something rustling around the farm, her first thought was pegasus raiders, and pregnant or not, she goes charging out armed with… oh.” He rolled his eyes and turned around to look back at her properly. “What was it honey? A crossbow? A broadsword? Oh, a bomb?”
“Oh, you keep making fun.” Red fixed her husband with a glare. “But that frying pan had three dents in it before last night, and every one is shaped like a pegasus’s skull. Now it’s got four and don’t you forget it.”
Free Soil and Blue both got a chuckle out of that. “I think I might know what you’re dealing with,” Free Soil said, pushing herself up from the table. “But I should check it out just to be sure. Where are you keeping it?”
It was only a short walk back to the spare chicken coop. Peering inside, Free Soil could see a creature there, bound up with spare cord and fencing material. It was definitely a canine of some variety, bipedal, with arms so long that its oversized hands rested somewhere around its knees. It was wearing a headband made of twigs, vine, and uncut quartz crystals, though the crystals were stained brown now, and matted blood covered its temples. It seemed aware of them, and spoke with a heavily slurred voice: “Horkprouko. Lod no ka. Huxo u dunarav.”
“Do you understand it?” Blue asked. Free Soil shook her head and shut the chicken coop door.
“Not much to understand. It’s called a ‘Diamond Dog.’ They’re a local subspecies of goblin.” She explained. “I’ve never seen one myself before now, but word’s been getting around. They dig deep underground warrens and come up to steal things. You know…” She glanced up at the sky and gave a small smile. “Kind of like reverse pegasi.”
“Are we in danger?” Blue asked at once, looking to the thing in his chicken coop.
“Not particularly.” Free Soil shook her head “They’re vicious, and they can be dangerous in large packs—there’s even a few accounts of them enslaving ponies—but they’re cowardly by nature. They won’t attack unless they think they have an overwhelming advantage, and they’re not terribly hard to put down. Can you show me the hole it came from?”
It took only a few moments to find the hole out by the shed, and a few minutes more for Free Soil to inspect the opening and to confirm it had a negative airflow. “Okay,” she said. “Now, gasses aren’t my specialty, so I’m going to be improvising a little bit. This spell is really meant for dealing with insects. But really, you know, as long as it gets the job done. Just get something suitably nasty, toss it down the hole, and that’s that.”
Free Soil gestured, and Blue and his family backed away. A sickly green light came to her horn, and she focused all her attention on the hole below. “Winds of horn and not of wing, heralds of the silent spring, I bid you now to heed my call, for with every dawn the night must fall. In your wisdom, swift and fair, before the end, all things struck bare, hear my summons, wipe them clean, and by your power: Phosgene.”
Free Soil held her breath at once as a thick, yellow and green gas flowed out of her horn and down into the hole, a faint scent of musty hay carried along with it. As soon as the spell was done, she hurried away from the hole, and ushered the Cobalt family away as well.
“Okay,” she said, once the danger was passed. “That should send them a pretty clear message, but I doubt I got the whole warren. Airflow just doesn't work that way, sadly. So you’ll want to ask some of the pegasi to look for more holes. Just let me know when you find them and I’ll have Spark Ladder or Hemlock come and smoke out their nest properly.”
“Right,” Blue agreed. “And, the one in the henhouse?”
Free Soil hesitated. “Well… that’s up to you, I guess. I mean, you can train goblins? To perform minor tasks and such. But it’s generally not worth the effort. They’re vicious and lazy.”
“Oh.” Blue frowned. “So, no chance you’d want to buy him then?”
“Um…” Free Soil frowned. “Not me. One of the enchanters, maybe. Mind control solves all problems, you know? But I’d have to ask. And I’m not sure you’d get a good price.”
“Eh, forget it,” Blue shrugged. “I’ll just send him on his way then. Thanks much for the help.”
“Nonsense. Thank you for the coffee.” Free Soil embraced Blue, kissed Red across both cheeks, took her oat-and-cinnamon pie, and went on her way. The walk back to her tower was uneventful, but beautiful, and the nice part about the pie being a gift was that she didn’t have to share it. She penned a few letters, hung out with her sister a bit, and then it was back to business as usual.
She had the whole afternoon free to practice teleportation.
Celestia looked down at Twilight’s paper, then at Twilight, then back down to the paper. The stillness pressed down around them as Celestia scanned through the last few pages, only the ticking of the clock audible. Twilight simply sat there in front of the desk, her tail tucked in between her legs, her cheeks red, and her head up. She looked back at Celestia, until the Princess was done reading.
“Did somepony tell you to write this?” Celestia finally asked.
“No,” Twilight said. “I just… I thought for it to be historically accurate, I should go back to primary sources. And there’s a bunch of settler’s journals preserved in the library archives. So I read them. And the librarian kept bringing me more of them. So I kept reading them. And I didn’t like them.” Her ears trembled. “And I don’t like Free Soil. She’s a bad pony.”
Celestia stared at Twilight for a long time, and Twilight stared back. And finally, Celestia said: “No, Twilight. She isn’t a bad pony. She’s a pony who was raised in a world that was filled with hate. Evil surrounded her, and raised her, and guided her, but it did not control her, and she wanted the world to be a slightly less awful place than it was when she was born. And it was. Because her daughters were better than her, and their daughters were better than them, and eventually…” Celestia sighed. “Eventually you, Twilight.”
“She did things!” Twilight insisted, water coming to the corners of her eyes. “They all did things! To eachother, and Equestria a-and,” she forced herself to swallow. “And unity between all tribes of ponies meant just ponies. Nothing else! And it’s not in the textbook because ponies don’t want to admit their great grandparents were all bad ponies!”
“I know, Twilight.” Celestia’s ears folded back, and she sighed. “I was around then, remember? I saw these things. I saw the ponies who did them. And I felt the way you feel. But… I didn’t have it in me to hate them.” She gave a small shake of her head. “I still don’t. Hate hurts the pony who holds it as much as it hurts any of their enemies. It drains them, it weakens them, or worse, it twists them into something they didn’t want to become.”
Celestia leaned down slowly, looking head on at Twilight. “There are no bad ponies, Twilight. There are no good ponies. There’s just ponies. Given the right environment, we could all do terrible things. But all of us, every one, want to make the world better than it was when we came into it. We all have that spark of friendship and love inside us. And I honestly believe that if Free Soil was born today, she’d be as good a pony as you are.”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” Twilight sniffled, and when she squeezed her eyes shut, a quick river of tears ran down her face.
“No, it doesn’t.” Celestia said. After a moment, she asked, “Why are you standing up so straight?”
“Because I want to look at my hooves,” Twilight answered, blubbering around her tears. “And you told me n-not to. And—”
“Shhh,” Celestia reached out with a hoof and both wings, and pulled Twilight forward into a hug. Twilight rushed into the embrace, wrapping her hooves as far around Celestia as they would go. She buried her head into Celestia’s shoulder, and finally broke down, starting to cry uncontrollably.
“I don’t understand!” Twilight cried, but Celestia only cooed. Legs and hooves and wings and a tall neck conspired to wrap Twilight in a cocoon, holding her close and tight.
Eventually, Twilight’s sobbing slowed, and Celestia was able to whisper to her. “I know it’s not okay, Twilight. But I promise, it will be one day. You’ll make it all better. It’s your destiny. You have to believe that.”
It took Twilight a moment to choke out words. “I believe you.” she said, around her cracking voice. “I love you, Princess.”
Celestia didn’t respond, but just continued to hold Twilight until the crying had stopped. Then, she pulled a cord, and called a servant, and canceled her meetings for the afternoon. She took Twilight home herself, and spoke with her parents, and made sure that her most faithful student would be okay.
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6934464
Wish granted!
Huzzah!
History. Well, every look at history is subjective. Even more, some decisions that people would do will be seen barbaric right now. After all, survival stands higher than all the humanity and such,
It lives...
IT LIVES!!!
It's a true pleasure to see this returning.
7307611
It's not always about Survival.
7307612
7307636
Yay!
I'm so glad this story is back. I loved the first few chapters and this one did not disappoint. You portray the differences between Celestia and Luna really, really well, and seeing how their personalities change Twilight's perspective is just fantastic to watch.
Phosgene: This colorless gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I where it was responsible for about 85% of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons.
She killed almost all of the Diamond Dogs...
Is this story in any way based off of Destiny and Other Lies Told to Foals? (www.fimfiction.net/story/84693/destiny-and-other-lies-told-to-foals)(Sorry, I can't link to anything right now for some reason.)
7307945
Nope! Never read it.
7307904
Yay! I'm glad you liked it. :)
7307917
Manifest Destiny was not kind.
Reading this is like eating pie made from your favorite fruit with a hint of your last favorite fruit. It tastes amazing, but not so amazing as to be unbelievable. And that is the most perfect recipe for this kind of story in my opinion. It is just perfect.
You are my Luna.
I cant understand why I forget. But when I remember this story, it makes for a magical and majestic lesson.
You are simply stunning.
I went back and re-read this lovely gem, and "wow" you've improved so much!!
This is hooves down your best chapter.
:)
Glad to see this is a living story, almost gave up hope for an update.
Kinda wish Twilight took more away from these lessons then just impressions. But I guess if she could see the manipulation for what it is, it wouldn't work as well.
And I don't for one second think that Luna's doing all this for purely altruistic reasons. Because her sister hooves aren't clean on that account ether. Both of them want to shape Twilight into something befitting there own agendas.
I didn't realize how much I liked this story. No wonder why it's in my favorites. Will Twilight ever blab something about Luna in front of Celestia? Luna said she reveals only what she wants to reveal. Does that work in hand with Twilight's memories as well? Also, I know Luna is cold and distant (since she's always lurking in shadows during the dreams) but I feel Celestia is too, but not to the extent of Luna's. Am I sort of right or just in left field?
7308958
Uh... that's an excellent question. When I logged in this morning it had been unpublished. I have no idea what's up with that. It's replaced and now though. Have a read and enjoy!
I am starting to agree with Nightmare Moon. Celestia is a bad influence on that girl.
7309578
Cynicism for its own sake is as much of a flaw in reasoning as unbridled idealism.
"is because flowers distinctive"
"flowers'"?
"a few things and we’d love"
"things, and"?
"Phosgene"
[looks up]
Oh, how... nice.
Hm. The Wikipedia page says it's colorless, though, not yellow and green. Perhaps the color is lent by the magic, for safety?
"from the hole, and ushered"
"hole and"?
"once the danger was passed"
"danger was past" or "danger had passed"?
"find them and I’ll have"
"them, and"?
"to buy him then"
"him, then"?
Well, been a long time since the last update, but I'm still enjoying the story. :)
It would also seem that as time goes on, Twilight is becoming more and more aware of her dream-lessons. I wonder how long it will be until she starts Lucid Dreaming on her own...?
On a final note, while this little look into Equestrian History was interesting... I can't help but wonder what Luna's take on the "lesson" on Hate and Morality given at the end of the chapter will be later that night...
7309502
Usually a disappearing chapter means the author wants to rewrite it, but I knew that wasn't the case here because this was easily the best chapter yet.
Luna's opinion of Celestia's lesson is implied so effectively despite her being so vague. Celestia's interactions with Twilight were quite sweet, and Twilight's reaction to the unconscious lesson was a perfect depiction of a child learning something so dark and trying to come to terms with it.
Ive enjoyed these stories for some time now and its good to see the return. The lessons at then end hit very hard, this one and "Be yourself" especially hit very close to home for me.
Ive had people question my group of friends. But I know that I came from it for the better.
And ive held hate before. It frightens me more than anything on this world to think about going back to that time.
7310720
I try to make the lessons real. They're all based on things from my life. :)
Aaand thus 2016 continues it's revival of dead fiction. I had forgotten about this one, let's see what Luna has for Twilight this year.
That was adorably dark cute. Those bits of naivety and breaks of harsh truths inbetween was really nice. Liked that bit of tension with the "It always was" with Luna talking of the two worlds Twilight visits between the sleep and waking worlds.
Genocide is okay if you can't understand another's language. Such happy days those ponies lived in. Mind control does indeed solve everything, so long as you don't have some annoying draconequis eating up all the books with said spells one hasn't taken the time to already memorize. (S3 sure was dark)
P.S. I've missed this story.
Yay! Awesome storyupdate! Glad to see this story still kicken!
7311600
7311986
What could this story have in store?
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw5666_medium.jpg
Probably more heartwarming lessons!
7311751
Little Pony Manifest Destiny is still awful. And yes, mind control is an effective substitute for any and all social skills or diplomacy.
So Luna is actually Nightmare Moon, can we get a time skip?
Because well I can't wait for Twilight Sparkle to have a breakdown and want to kill both Celestia and Luna.
Because ahe learned to think that Celestia is a liar and a manipulator and she learned that Luna is actually Nightmare Moon and has been torturing her so she turns evil.
So yeah there is no way this Twilight Sparkle will end sane or be able to make friends but Nightmare Moon plans ia doomed because this Twilight will kill her for the greater good.
7312919
7312946
Let's see, Luna has tortured Twilight Sparkle to teach her a lesson and not just in the "dream of being sonepony else" way. She has also has been hinting that she is Twilight master and she should obey or else. She has been manipulating Twilight's memories and basically stealing her innocence. While I agree Celestia is not a good teacher, Luna is treating a little filly like her own personal soldier.
How long until Twilight Sparkle finds out how other fillies were raised and fills herself with resentment?
See the problem of treating someone like a weapon is "friendly fire."
Cue Twilight Sparkle finally remembering everything when she sees Nightmare Moon and trying to kill her.
Of course not even Twilight (as a unicorn) is powerful enough to take down Nightmare Moon without help.
Cue Twi dying and both manipulative Alicorns losing their little soldier.
7312509
O>o.......uuuh should I be worried? X3
Gapjaxie updating again? Excellent.
I had to set this aside until I had time to reread all the previous chapters too, but it was well worth it. Although, I think Luna really over-stepped herself this chapter. She even made Celestia suspicious. I wonder, how much of this is her attempting to deliberately shape Twilight and how much is her just being completely unable to understand children and trying to do what she thinks is 'right' by Twilight?
7313987
Yay. Good to see you again too. ^_^
Well I can of course offer no spoilers, I will say that Luna really really does not understand children. And I'm glad you picked up on that.
7314041
Luna in this comes off very much as a dark reflection of Twilight herself. You can see it in her approach to magically streamlining social interaction at the beginning, which not only comes off as something pre/early canon Twilight would think, but is immediately appreciated by this Twilight. And so, it stands to reason that, like Twilight, she doesn't really get people, especially ones that are different from her. The similarities might even make it worse because she may assume Twilight reacting like her to some things mean she'll react like Luna to other things. There's other evidence of all this, from the way she talks about what Celestia is doing to the fact if she really understood she wouldn't have made Twilight freak out so much in front of Celestia. And that's just in this chapter. The chapter before this she outright says she's bad at interacting with foals (but it's dangerous to trust things characters outright say about themselves).
It's a terrible flaw to have when you need to rely on manipulating someone and a bit baffling how much people assume deliberate malice. Hanlon's Razor applies here.
That was fricken awesome. The way it was back then...
You wrote this after seeing Zootopia didn't you? Just confess.
7316753
Nope! ^_^
7316695
I'm glad you liked it! :D
7316893 Oh come on! Racism but with an underlying message that were all the same inside and can work together for a bright future! You just got inspired! :)
I am glad to see the story back, I had written it off long ago.
7316929
Ha ha ha.
Actually, "Race Doesn't Matter" was originally going to be one of the Lies, but I ended up canning that because, while that is a lie we tell to children IRL, it's just not plausible in the MLP universe where race literally determines if you can fly, do magic, or... grow things, I guess.
I wasn't expecting to see this again.
Mostly because you announced very nearly one year ago that it was cancelled.
Glad to see it back, although I hope you've been doing some non-pony words too. You did express your wish to do such a thing when announced the cancellations.
7309594 Why is Celestia a bad influence? I'm not seeing it.
7317868
It's a joke about bad OCs
Ohhh no Celestia. I get that you are an optimist, but teaching Twilight that "there are no good ponies or bad ponies" is just a hoofstep away from teaching Twilight moral relativism. And we all know how quickly our young, impressionable unicorn jumps to conclusions.
The slope, it is slippery. Watch your footing.
I think I'm going to write down this awesome 'spell' somewhere, maybe even learn it by heart. Perhaps one day, when we're playing a pen&paper RPG, I'll get a chance to use it ))
ancient
each other
7346117 *Clears thtoat* Actually, ancien regime isn't a typo. It's Latin or French, not sure which off the top of my head, but it's kind of a way to refer to the monarchies.
7381425 Which would indeed be a non-typo, if this story was in French.
7381556
English is full of loanwords and borrowed phrases. For example:
* de facto, latin for "in fact", which is used in contrast to de jure (in law) in phrases like de facto standard, which refers to something which is standard because everyone uses it, unlike a de jure standard which is standard because some official organization said so.
(For example, the metric system is the de jure standard here in Canada and we do mostly use it, but feet and inches are still a de facto standard for things like construction supplies... possibly because our proximity to the U.S.A. bogged down attempts to convert entirely.)
* chic (pronounced sheek), the French word for for "stylish" or "fashionable", meaning exactly the same thing in English.
"Ancien Régime" is preferred over its translation ("old/former regime") in English writing to make it clear that it's referring to a very specific concept which existed at a specific place and time in history, rather requiring the reader to deduce which "old/former regime" from the context.
(That's actually why I prefer the American English for a lot of things. Because British English leans more toward reusing existing words, which means you have to rely on context more. For example, elevator/lift and flashlight/torch.)