Story of a Stick

by Xinrick

Intermission X

“That’s…so sad…” Rarity said sadly. “But…a beautiful name for a beautiful baby girl…I will admit.”

“Is anyone gonna stop Twilight?” Rainbow asked, the Purple alicorn in question was actually, to the room's surprise, strangling her former mentor.

“Given how much she’s a bookworm, maybe give it a few more minutes.” Discord commented.

“I agree.” Luna added. “I never shared Tia’s desire to withhold all that information.”

“Then none of you understand a majority of the dangers to it.” Celestia countered as she suddenly tripping up Twilight and putting her in a headlock. “I know your upset my student, but trying to strangle an immortal doesn’t solve anything.”

“Why did you withhold the information anyway?” Pinkie inquired.

“Because if it got into the wrong hands, like a greedy noble with too many thought’s of grandeur, they could stupidly press a button and terraform the entire planet.” Celestia stated bluntly.

“But…not all of it…could be bad right?” Twilight brought up, thankful Celestia was being merciful in the headlock, but still upset that she hid all this knowledge away.

“Oh easily.” Luna said. “There are schematics on actually creating planets, suns, moons and solar systems that all self operate. That’s not to mention the space distortion technology. It would allow Canterot to house the entire planet’s population within a special set of walls that turn the pocket dimension it creates into a dimension with it’s own planet and methods of genetically modifying plants to be immune to all disease and pests, even serums and machines that can make the average pony lifespan basically sextupple before age of wear and tear from time begin to finally take in.” As Luna went on Celestia was thankful her link to her sun gave her immunity to heat and fire… as Twilight was now on fire… “And that’s just on the science side of things. Her magic theories, spells and matrixes gave Starswirl wet dreams for years.”

“That all sounds really cool.” Rainbow said.

“But to have mastery over life and death like that isn’t right.” Celestia stated. “And no, having the power to literally create solar system’s is way too strong for any mortal to not go completely insane with.”

“So point for Celestia for pointing out that Mortal’s are completely insane when it comes to unfathomable power.” Discord said while bringing out a white board and putting down a tally for Celestia. “But Luna also has a point that half of what IQ wanted to bring would have solved a lot of issues, so point for Luna.” Discord said as he put a tally mark for Luna.

“Plus, it’s not like Immortals are responsible with such power either.” Luna said. “My Nightmare Moon event, Discord in general, Tirek. I will agree with Tia that power can corrupt but there is a reason why, true, unchecked power brings out the true nature of a being. And not always do said beings recognize the damage their actions cause.”

“So where is all this info then?” Applejack asked.

“Locked away in the one place Celestia knows the greedy, or Twilight, will never find it.” Luna said.

“And believe me,” Celestia started, as she lightly jabbed Twilight in a hyper specific spot on her left shoulder as her fire suddenly sputtered out, but the purple alicorn stayed conscious. “It was very difficult to make sure Twilight couldn’t find it.”

“Whoa whoa, how did you do that?” Rainbow asked in surprise.

“Pressure Points dear Rainbow, there are many that aren’t just the physical, but are connected to magic centers without causing build ups or stress.” The sun alicorn explained casually.

“Found it!” The whole room turned to see Pinkie bounding along with a red pull waggon packed nearly ten feet high with magically preserved notebooks.

“How?!” Celestia asked.

“Oh, it was easy, I just thought to myself ‘what’s a place some greedy nasty ponies or a book hungry Twilight would never look’ and then I realize, somewhere obvious yet sane enough to work. And I thought “Ah! I know!’ and bounced off to see if I was right and I was. Celestia hid it all under her mattress.”

The room was… silent…

“You hid all that under your mattress?!” Twilight yelled incredulously.

“It was Discord’s idea.” Celestia accused.

“What can I say? Best hiding place in the world, so blatantly obvious that everyone would overlook it, but close enough to know for a fact it’ll stay safe.” Discord shrugged. “Besides, you’d be amazed how fussy she get’s looking over it all, one time she was so overworked trying to find all the positives and negatives about a certain schematic it looked like her room was the inside of a feather pillow.”

“Oh shush you.” Celestia pouted. “It was one time…and the weather in Canterlot was atrocious, always messes with my wing’s….”

“Preach…” Rainbow and Fluttershy groaned at their own misfortunes with molting and the weather for their wings.

“So how do you decide what and when to have some of this stuff go public?” Applejack asked.

“A very comple-”

“Usually Tia will try and build or work it herself then if it works she’ll hire a random pony to play the ‘inventor’ and take the credit.” Luna said.

“Woah, so this stuff and all is basically a conspiracy?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh yes, big time.” Luna nodded, earning a death glare from Celestia. “What? In case you forget Honesty was one of the elements I held when we beared them.”

“And I had Generosity, so why shouldn’t I let our ponies take credit that I, or you, seriously don’t need when they already see us as gods?” Celestia frowned.

“In case you forget that’s how Blueblood got his ego, given his grandfather ‘invented’ the modern arcania navigation compass and he and his father before him have been riding that credit and fame ever since…” Luna said. “Most of the noble houses are in the same boat.”

“Even mine?” Twilight asked.

“No, actually your family largely descended from guards and teachers so your family is one of the few not in the conspiracy.” Luna stated.

“I thought it was a good thing for them, they’re family lineage were some of the best navigator’s of all time, and…well, his grandfather was going through a massive slump…” She sighed. “I just wish his parents didn’t ruin his life…little Blue was such an adorably adventurous foal….” She shook her head. “He honestly reminds me of that little Pipsqueak you mention sometimes Luna, all about traveling the sea’s.”

“Yes and I’d appreciate it of your left him out of your ‘list’ of ponies you plan to have take credit for advancing Equestria in whatever way might be or is needed for the time being.” Luna huffed.

“How long is the list?” Pinkie asked.

“Not that long but still.” Luna said.

“Equestrian development of technology and magic all being based on lies aside, does anypony wanna talk about the fact IQ is apparently Cadence’s grandmother?” Fluttershy asked.

“I was actually hoping to forget that…” Twilight huffed.

"IQ used to be such a sweetheart…” Celestia sighed out. “We thought, once Amore was born, gifted by the Crystal Heart…maybe IQ wouldn’t be hurt again…but then the Umbrum showed up…”

"What happened there?" Rarity asked.

“Year’s after Cadence was born…the Umbrum…killed Cadence’s mother, shattering her into thousands of pieces and scattering them throughout the frozen north…then me and Luna banished them all-”

“You mean damn near slaughtered them all.” Luna corrected.

“Banished, we didn’t kill a single one Luna.” Celestia glared. “The point is…we couldn’t find all her pieces, and even with IQ’s help…we sadly couldn’t find many…” She shook her head bitterly.

"Then we went into their prison and damn near killed them all." Luna said. "Sombra is likely one of maybe a few or possibly the only Umbrum left in existence."

"Wait, so is Cadence like, a thousand years old?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, no…" Luna said. "Actually a Safety spell IQ made that Amore cast on her saved Cadence. Back when Sombra went mad after the Stick People initially vanished, his love included, the spell activated and displaced Cadence forewords in time to a safe time and place. That ended up being a village in the backwoods of Equestria. The town raised her and she earned her horn after stopping a witch from taking away love from the area after her own rather harsh heartbreak."

“It was risky, given how Time is very finicky, even for someone like IQ and her creations…but thankfully it worked out in the end.” Celestia pointed out.

"IQ literally invented a time/space machine and showed us the Big Bang and the death of the universe. At this point I trust anything and everything she makes." Luna said.

"Ditto." Discord added.

“Then…why couldn’t she make people Ageless?” Twilight inquired. “She’s broken because Time took her family away from her…but couldn’t she have done that if she could do literally everything else?”

"... For the same reason Tia and I are grateful we can die… eventually, you have enough… and a… way out, Is a kindness. IQ has no such way out and even if she did make her family ageless, or immortal like her… I wouldn't wish true endless life on anyone."

"Even I can die, a nifty little exit clause for myself should a day come when even I get tired of life." Discord said. "Having no way out in the end just means no matter what, you'll end up on a dead planet, followed by a dead universe with only the empty void of nothing to fill your view."

“O-oh…” Twilight said nervously. “That’s…terrible…”

"Yes. Makes me wonder how they deal with it." Discord said.

"Ah! We don't talk about those beings Discord. Stars above grant us mercy should they visit because you accidentally invoke them." Luna said.

“Who are you talking about?” Twilight asked, honestly worried about how fast Luna was to try and stop Discord from talking about someone.

"Much like this information, you will never know Twilight." Celestia said using her horn and levitating all the notebooks up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find a new hiding place for all this."

“But…but knowledge~.” Twilight winded, lightly pawing at Celestia’s hooves like a needy puppy as her friend’s laughed at the display.

“No means no Twilight.” Celestia said as she headed off to find a better spot as Twilight had to be held back by Luna before she stayed next to her sister like a lost puppy wanting treats. “A lot of this still needs to be looked over, and not get out of control…”

To be continued...