158 - Statement of Faith
Despite Drafty’s assurances, Cloudbank could feel herself starting to grow nervous again as she touched down.
Her brief flight had been enough to let her get a good look at the crowd, and the sight had filled her stomach with butterflies. There have to be at least five hundred ponies here! And that wasn’t even all of them; against her better judgment, Cloudbank had glanced back at the rest of the camp as she’d moved to land. Sure enough, there were more ponies – a lot more – headed her way. Even as she watched, several other pegasi were coming in to land nearby.
The thought of so many eyes on her was enough to make her stumble as she landed. Barely managing to get her hooves under her, Cloudbank immediately looked towards the massed group of people, expecting them to already be pointing and snickering at the dumb pegasus who couldn’t even land correctly. But to her intense relief, nopony seemed to be looking at her. Instead, all eyes were turned towards Lex, who was regarding the crowd coolly.
Cloudbank felt a sudden burst of jealousy, and for once it had nothing to do with Drafty. I bet this just rolls right off your back, doesn’t it? she thought bitterly. The idea of Lex being nervous about addressing a crowd – being afraid of anything, really – was beyond her ability to imagine. She was almost tempted to tell him that he could give this sermon or speech or whatever it was by himself, but there was no seriousness behind the thought. After everything Lex had done for them, Cloudbank knew that it would be the height of ungratefulness if she couldn’t do this for him. But still, you think he’d have Sonata do it, she complained internally. This is supposed to be what she does, right?
As though he’d heard her thoughts, Lex suddenly looked right at her. Either ignoring or not seeing her wince as he made eye contact, her gestured toward himself, calling her over. Biting her lip, Cloudbank nevertheless trotted towards him, making sure not to glance back at the crowd of ponies as she did so, knowing that there was no way they weren’t looking at her now.
“It’s about time,” snapped Lex as she reached him. “Are you ready?”
Not even slightly. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Lex’s eyes narrowed in disapproval at her answer. “Make sure you do this properly.”
If you wanted me to do this properly, you should have said something about this before last night! raged Cloudbank inwardly. But her outward response was to give a crisp nod. “Right.”
Lex seemed almost suspicious, scrutinizing her for a long moment as if expecting her to argue with him. Finally, he seemed satisfied, stepping back a few paces. “Good. Then…begin.”
Blinking at the abrupt order to start, Cloudbank felt momentarily flummoxed. Somehow, she’d thought that there’d be some sort of big…thing happening before she began. Like, he’d make some sort of…of pomp and ceremony or something to gather everypony’s attention, and maybe introduce her before she had to start speaking. The idea that he’d just tell her to start talking left her momentarily reeling. Without thinking, Cloudbank’s eyes slid over to the crowd, and the sight made her limbs lock up.
They were all looking at her.
The large gathering of ponies weren’t quiet, all talking to each other and moving idly as they stood around, but all of the ones who were up front were looking directly at her. A few were pointing at her, and just seeing that made her stomach tighten up in knots. She tried to swallow, but all of a sudden her mouth was dry, and she found herself wishing that she was anywhere but here. Fighting that giant monster was nowhere near as bad as this! Slowly, almost unconsciously, she somehow managed to open her mouth. “I...”
“Louder!” hissed Lex. “Get in the air so everypony can see you clearly!”
That was the last thing she wanted, but somehow Cloudbank found herself nodding woodenly, and without thinking about it she flapped her wings, flying a few feet upward. Looking down, she saw that everypony was quieting down, correctly intuiting that something was about to happen. Cloudbank agreed with them, though to her that something was going to be them watching her throw up, or suddenly forget how to fly, or maybe throw up and then forget how to fly, landing right in her own-
Something caught her eye all of a sudden, making her raise her gaze as she looked behind the crowd.
There was one pegasus that was just now arriving, her wings flapping heavily as she flew towards the gathered ponies. With her back to the sun, the latecomer’s features were hard to make out, and it took Cloudbank a moment to realize that it was Drafty. Wonderful, thought Cloudbank dismally. Now I can humiliate myself in front of her too.
But as she watched, Drafty didn’t land, instead circling lazily in the air behind the crowd. Her behavior was strange enough that Cloudbank couldn’t help but frown, glancing down at the assembled ponies for any hint of why Drafty wasn’t touching down. But there was no clue to be found about why her girlfriend was remaining aloft, as the only thing she saw was the gut-wrenching view of everypony looking up at her. In fact, nopony even seemed to have realized that Drafty was there at all, their eyes glued to Cloudbank.
Wondering if Drafty needed something, Cloudbank raised her gaze back towards Drafty…and saw that she had started dancing.
Stunned by the incongruity of what was happening, Cloudbank could only watch as Drafty started to move her back legs as though she were walking, while she raised her forelegs above her head and waved them back and pumped them up and down, body undulating to a rhythm that only she could hear. A moment later she changed her tempo, bringing her fore-hooves together and moving them around in a circle in front of her, bobbing her head back and forth. This new dance also lasted for only a few moments before she changed it up again, spinning her forelegs in a windmill motion and kicking one back leg out, then the other. But it was only when Drafty looked right at her and gave a wide, carefree grin that Cloudbank understood what Drafty was doing.
She was trying to make her laugh. This entire one-mare show, where Drafty was acting like a complete goofball, was an attempt to get her to relax and forget her tension. It was her way of saying “I’m here for you.”
The realization caused a breathy laugh to escape Cloudbank’s mouth, the corners of her lips turning upward of their own accord. Seeing that, Drafty smiled wider, throwing a wink at her before finally moving to land at the back of the crowd. Cloudbank didn’t take her eyes off of her, knowing that Drafty had misunderstood her having laughed just now. It hadn’t been because she’d found the other mare’s impromptu dance routine humorous, but instead had been an expression of surprise, almost overwhelmed by just how much she loved her in that moment. That Drafty would do something like that for her, that she’d make such a gesture…it filled her with a warmth so strong that for a moment Cloudbank thought she was going to cry.
Drafty…thank you. Rubbing a hoof across her eyes, Cloudbank gave the mare she loved one last look before turning her attention to the rest of the crowd, her fear completely gone now.
“Everypony,” she said loudly, causing the last of the crowd’s murmurs and whispers to die away, “thank you for coming. My name is Cloudbank, and if you’re here because you heard there was going to be food, then you came to the right place.” That sent a ripple through the assembled ponies, more than a few looking around as though wondering where this supposed supply of food was going to come from. “Now, I know you’re all hungry, and I promise that this won’t take very long,” continued Cloudbank. “But I wanted to take a minute to tell you all what’s going to happen.” Turning slightly, Cloudbank pointed a hoof at the red-horned unicorn almost directly below her. “By now I’m sure most of you have heard about Lex Legis, the pony who brought us here to help save Vanhoover. Well, in just a second, he’s going to cast a spell that’s going to make enough food for everypony appear right out of thin air!”
This time the crowd’s reaction was more intense, everypony speaking up with reactions that ranged from wonder to skepticism, and it took Cloudbank a moment to quiet them down. “Now, I know that sounds hard to believe, but it’s true. That’s because Lex knows a new kind of magic, one that can do things that wouldn’t have been possible before.” She momentarily wondered if she should get into the different types of magic Lex seemed to know, before deciding against it. She wasn’t too clear on the differences herself, and besides, she wanted to stay on target while the courage Drafty had given her lasted. “And this new magic is a power that he received from the Night Mare.”
Again, she was forced to wait until the crowd had quieted down before she could continue. “One thing I want to make clear is that the Night Mare is not Nightmare Moon! While their names sound the same, the two are completely different. After all,” Drafty’s joke came back to her then, and Cloudbank suddenly found she couldn’t resist, “Nightmare Moon takes candy away, while the Night Mare is going to make sure we’re all fed.” She couldn’t help but offer a self-conscious smile as she made the joke, and to her relief she heard scattered laughter break out in response.
“But seriously though,” she continued, her face turning somber, “the Night Mare is able to give Lex this magic because she’s a goddess. If you don’t know what that is, then imagine a pony that lives in another world – a world far away from here – but is incredibly powerful. More powerful than even the princesses. So powerful that she can send some of that power to anypony that follows her, giving them the ability to use magic even if they’re not a unicorn.” Knowing that her words would be much more powerful if she backed them up with a demonstration, Cloudbank raised her hooves and began to gesture, chanting as she did. A moment later, a shimmering field sprung into being around her, and she heard gasps from the crowd below.
“This,” she waved her hooves to indicate the glittering aura around her, “is a spell the Night Mare granted me. It works like a shield, protecting me from anything that would try to hurt me. I could cast it on someone else too, if I wanted, so that I can protect the ponies I care about.” She couldn’t help but look at Drafty then, sharing a smile with her before continuing, knowing it was time to wrap it up.
“The reason she gives me magic like this, and gives Lex magic to feed everypony here, is because the Night Mare is a protector. She wants the ponies that follow her to become strong so that they can stand up, not just for themselves, but for everypony that can’t. She gives her magic to those ponies who, when they see something bad happening, are willing to step in and fix it, even if it’s dangerous. Following her…”
What the Night Mare means to me…
“Following her means being willing to step up and do what needs to be done, no matter how hard it is, for the sake of somepony else. If you have it in you to do that, each and every time, then the Night Mare will always be there to help you.”
Finishing her speech, Cloudbank paused for a long moment, not entirely sure what to do now. Just landing and walking away seemed kind of anticlimactic, but what else could she do? It wasn’t like there was a stage she could walk off the side of. Glancing over at Drafty again, the other mare thankfully seemed to read her mind, because she suddenly gave a loud cheer. The ponies around her looked at her in surprise, but Drafty didn’t stop, whooping and clopping her hooves on the ground…and a moment later they took up the call, doing the same. From there the cheering spread like wildfire, and a moment later the entire crowd was applauding, stomping their hooves so hard that several of the closer dilapidated tents collapsed. Smiling in relief, Cloudbank slowly sank toward the ground. But before she got there a sudden burst of inspiration filled her, and she couldn’t resist saying one last thing.
“Thank you all so much! And now,” she swept a hoof back, “take it away, Lex!”
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I gotta say, that was some peptalk. I'm more than certain that Lex had been expecting something far more lowkey and more befitting of a sermon but he can't argue with the results. Then again, this is Lex and he'll probably tell Cloudbank to do so in the future.
I enjoyed the contrast between Cloudbank's thoughts and her external responses, though I couldn't tell if it was the result of the stage fright or the fear of Lex's wrath that prompted this. Probably both. Thankfully the impromptu dance number Drafty did for Cloudbank brought her out of it.
Now I hope Lex has figured out a way to deliver on his promises and feed all these ponies cause if not, he's going to have a lot of disappointed ponies while also giving Block Party's cronies something to use against him though I doubt they can say much since they've failed to feed everyone in the first place. Speaking of them, will they make another appearance anytime soon?
p.s:Reading the part of Drafty's dancing brought up an interestingly silly image in my head but I have to ask to confirm this, was Drafty doing the can-can dance?
Whew, just caught up. Finished with Nightmare Nights. Good to see that there were more horse words to enjoy when I came back.
Nice wind up for the pitch there Cloudy, now lets see if Lex is going to be able to step up to the plate with more than strike out, or if hes going to knock it out of the park. Over to you Bob.
Well jim, Im sure the question that is on everyones lips on this most auspicious day is.
Whos on first?
8519401 Lex's response has just had the bar raised even more, and I suspect he knows that now. To that end, it's likely that he'll swing for the fences, rather than trying to bunt or steal first...actually, you can't steal first...
...and now I've lost the metaphor completely.
8519125 I'm glad you enjoyed it!
8519095 I suspect that Lex didn't really know what to expect when he told Cloudbank to do this. He's not at all religious in his relationship with the Night Mare, and doesn't really know the details of her dogma. Between that, and his lack of interpersonal skills, he could never have given a speech like this, and he knows it, which is why he drafted Cloudbank to do so. The question now is what sort of reaction he'll have...though admittedly, the much bigger question is what he's going to do about having to create food for everypony, since Cloudbank just raised everyone's expectations.
As for Cloudbank's being afraid, I should say that she wasn't really scared of Lex's wrath at all. She saw what he did to Garden Gate, true, but she - perhaps more than anypony else - understood that he did what he did because of the gravity of Garden Gate's crime. That's why she was able to talk Drafty out of her sudden doubt for Lex in the wake of his laying those curses on Garden. That, and I don't see Cloudbank as someone that's easily intimidated (public speaking notwithstanding). There's a reason why she's a follower of the same goddess as Lex, after all.
Insofar as the rest of Block Party's devotees go, we'll definitely see Spit Polish again very soon. As for the others who were following Block Party's lead, we might get a glimpse of them too, though I have to wonder - now that word is spreading of their leader's demise - if they'll keep their heads down. They might have swallowed his reasoning about what "needed to be done," but they ultimately relied on him to ease their conscience. While some of them might stick with what they were told in an effort to avoid feeling guilt, others are likely to just slink away, hoping to put it behind them without any sort of acknowledgment of what they did.
Finally, I'll admit that Drafty wasn't doing any dance in particular. I considered having her do some famous dances (she came very close to doing a certain one where you move like a chicken), but ultimately decided not to, instead having her do some generic moves. That's because, while it might have been a fun easter egg, throwing in an external element like that tends to be distracting to the story, as it brings up things that distract from the narrative. It's the same reason why, when someone makes food, you don't mention that they're using a George Foreman grill or a Black & Decker toaster, etc.
No typos.
I think Cloudbank did do a good job. Demonstrating the power and ability is a great way to get everyone to believe, even if they don't want to. It's kinda hard to say magic doesn't exist when it is being performed right in front of you, with very few other explanations.
8520319
Woo hoo!
That's exactly right. Although Lex can perform greater magical deeds, he's a unicorn, so that wouldn't be quite as shocking even if it was more impressive. Seeing a pegasus cast spells, though...that will likely challenge what everypony thinks they know.
Looks like Cloudy is going to lean heavily on the protection angle of Night Mare. Of course for the intro speech the focus is on her power, as a way to draw people in. It's only now occurred to me that Cloudy and Lex have never seen any dogmatic texts of the Night Mare, as far as I know. Cloudy just picked up her opinions from Lex, and I have no idea if Lex read about the non-magical aspects of the gods, and just picked up the basics while in the Everfree.
If things continue in this vein, I could see the Night Mare's Equestrian aspect as LN or even LG, depending on if gods are shaped by their followers the way say, Lathander and Aumanator of Forgotten Realms were. If gods are shaped to that degree, then everything really could work out fine for the church of the Night Mare... although no one has consulted Severence about this. I suspect he cares quite a lot about worshippers following the doctrines of the Night Mare as he understands it, and if a bunch of LG Night Mare clergy begin acting like followers of the Moon Princess, he will not be happy.
8522348 As you noted, Lex hasn't ever read any of the Night Mare's religious texts. He'd known he had some divine spells for a while, but never properly followed up on investigating that while he was in Everglow (to the point of never quite confirming which deity they came from, even if he could have guessed), being more focused on trying to get back to Equestria. Of course, that was rather convenient, since he didn't really want to know either; Lex's task-oriented nature works very well in that regard, particularly since he's found introspection useful for himself personally but - like everything else - not at all helpful when trying to figure out everypony else. It was only when he got up-close and personal with a deity (Kara) at the conclusion of his second sojourn to Everglow that Lex realized that he couldn't afford to ignore that issue anymore...and so he mulled it over for a while before speaking to the Night Mare directly, cutting a deal with her.
Even then, however, he views his current arrangement in a very business-like fashion. He doesn't pray, and knows very little about her dogma, and so as you noted can't really relay any of it to Cloudbank. In game terms, you'll notice that his stat block (over on my blog) has no ranks in Knowledge (religion); because he's spent time in Everglow, however, this does let him know basic religious facts about that world's gods (i.e. any information that would be a DC 10 Knowledge (religion) check or less). But that's very little to build a religion on, particularly since he doesn't really care about the finer theological points very much.
As for Cloudbank herself...other than Lex and Severance, there is one other individual that she could talk to about the Night Mare's religious information, and that's the Night Mare herself. Prayer has the ability to be a two-way communication in a world with interventionist deities, so it's entirely possible that she could receive information directly from the source. That doesn't seem to be the case so far, but then again Cloudbank seems to share Lex's view of treating her faith as a tool. But then again, it's been less than a week, and other stuff has been going on, so I might be calling that one too early.
As for Severance...it's hard to say what the Night Mare's weapon thinks, mostly because we never see it's "dialogue" directly, nor have its opinions narrated. That's to keep it in conjunction with how it originally appeared back in The Apple Falls Far From the Tree. More than that, there's a question as to how much of a personality it has; I've seen some instances where sentient magic items are treated like (rather robotic) artificial intelligences, serving their purpose with little else to be said for them, while others have a fully-formed mentality that's indistinguishable from that of a person. Severance seems to lean more towards the latter than the former from what we've seen, but it's still hard to say for certain. And even then, how it would react to the Night Mare's faith being bastardized is difficult to say.
Part of that is because there's naturally going to be sects and various offshoots of any d20 religion, to my mind. I've spoken about this before, but d20 religions have numerous points of potential balkanization, due to differing allowable alignments for spellcasting worshipers, different classes (potentially) approaching religion in different ways, possibly selecting different clerical domains (or inquisitions, mysteries, et al), etc. That's not even getting into the fact that the Night Mare is the deity (among the pony pantheon) that best recognizes the mutability of faith and the need to adapt. She used to be a goddess of monsters and the dark, fearfully placated rather than worshiped, but over time became the pony goddess of mastery over those things. Whether this actively changed her or she saw which way the wind was blowing and chose to adapt rather than let her faith drift away from her is uncertain, but it's why I suspect she'll give Lex and co. more leeway than would otherwise be expected.
8522788
I don't know if gods speak to their followers without either powerful magical rituals (which Cloudy can't perform) or very special circumstances, and with the gap between Everglow and Equestria it might be even trickier. That said, if Night Mare really wanted to I'm sure she could communicate with Cloudy. The question is, would she really want to? If Cloudy is unintentionally distorting her doctrine by focusing almost totally on her protection aspect and ignoring her domination aspect (which she is), but this results in conversions and followers, would the Night Mare "rock the boat" so to speak? Evil gods tend to be very results-oriented. That said, if she does nothing but passively hand out spells she is in effect allowing her followers to change her identity, and its hard to imagine such a domineering being being okay with that.
Yeah, sounds like we agree on Severance. It seems unlikely he would directly oppose a true cleric of Night Mare who still seems to be in her favor by retaining their divine magic. I kind of just was hoping to hear someone start saying "hey, when do we get to break out the whips?" or something.
That's a good point about Night Mare having intentionally changed herself long ago. I wonder if there are any really ancient monsters who used to worship her and now hold a big old grudge about being dumped for ponies (like Abolyths, who are born with the memories of their ancestors, or undead from when the world was young, etc).
8523201 My take on it is that gods can communicate with any of their worshipers at any time, whether through direct telepathic communication or by sending omens (which, I would guess, are simpler and easier for deities to do, hence why they seem to be more prevalent). While there might be additional methods that are preferred (e.g. the Night Mare and the Moon Princess being upset that Kara was communicating in dreams), I see that as being more of a matter of territory than anything else; it's an issue of "this is my phone; place those long-distance calls on your own!"
Of course, as you noted, local circumstances can make a huge difference in this, and it's here that the situation becomes murky. This story series has already established that deities can't just step into a new world uninvited; hence why Kara tried to coerce Lex, Applejack, the CMCs, and Willow and Sunflower into letting her into Equestria near the end of The Apple Falls Far From the Tree, and I ran with that idea, but there's ultimately no clear delineation of what's required for a deity to have access to a new world, what restrictions are placed on them with regards to interacting with it, etc. This is why I tend to grit my teeth whenever someone says that they don't want stats for deities in Pathfinder, because ultimately not having that sort of information hamstrings the people who want to use it. To be fair, D&D hasn't exactly had the best track record where that's concerned, but I'd rather have something to work with than nothing at all (as it stands, the closest match I can find for this particular question is with regards to the Spelljammer rules for AD&D 2E, which had it that a deity needed to have a stable body of worshipers active in a crystal sphere for one full year before they had "access" to that sphere).
Insofar as why the Night Mare would want to speak to Cloudy...well, there's a middle ground between letting her faith evolve without supervision and trying to make it rigidly adhere to her divine vision. I see her as providing at least some level of divine guidance and approval/disapproval over what happens, at least with regards to major issues. That barbed wire around Lex's hoof cut him when Cozy offered to heal him before, remember. And given that Cloudbank is actually praying to the Night Mare - something Lex himself hasn't done so far - there's an interesting dichotomy where she's actually invoking a closer relationship to her deity, even if she has less support. To make an analogy, Cloudbank is working at getting a field office of the Night Mare's company set up, whereas Lex is a foreign investor supplying the capital. (It's not a perfect analogy, but it does help to connote that there's a difference in how Lex and Cloudbank treat their shared deity.)
As for Severance...well, I won't say anymore about him, for now.
With regards to the Night Mare having possibly left old worshipers behind...that's an interesting idea. My read on her was that she was a lot like Kara's original incarnation as the Hive Queen; both were (to my mind) exceptionally powerful nature spirits that gained so much strength during Everglow's primordial history that they eventually reached divinity and with it, sapience. At that point, they saw the coming of the ponies and eventually stumbled onto the fact that divine worship could sustain and empower them, at which point they greedily began cultivating it. The Night Mare did the better job of it, as she's become a senior member of the pantheon, able to challenge the Moon Princess for her position, but both are unrepentant at having transcended their previous status, to my mind. I suppose their might be some old monsters that worshiped the Night Mare from before, but I wonder how many such beings were inclined to worship a deity to begin with, and if she would (or could) ever have answered their prayers with anything tangible at that point.
Still, it's fun to think about.