Chapter VIII - Aslan Makes A Door In The Air
Caspian was dead, and with his death, the battle started to wane.
I looked up from his body. Around me, our forces were winning. Around me, the long war was coming to an end. Around me, sapient beings were slaughtering each other in a thousand nightmare-inducing vignettes of violence, while I was too exhausted and numb to do anything.
I ignored them, and they seemed to avoid me, as I made my way to Lucy and her Lion, my hooves drowning in the blood-soaked mud. And with every step of the way, I could feel his presence overwhelming me. Even through the detachment of the shock, I was scared of Him. Lions are inherently terrifying, even more so than dragons, for in every equine there still lives the primal fear the hunted has for the hunter.
This Lion was even more scary. The sharp teeth, the rending claws, the thick muscles rolling under His coat, the deep, primal magic that radiated off Him in waves. He may have been sapient and benevolent, yet no matter what anyone would say, He was not a tame lion.
But I had a piece of mind to say and stubbornness enough to say it, no matter how scared I was.
When I walked past the kneeling Pevensies, he noticed me. His giant nostrils sniffed in the air, “You’re not one of mine.” He said. His voice was deep and reverberating, and it shook me to my bones. “You’re of Celestia’s foals. How is my cousin these days, little pony?”.
“Where the hay have you been all that time?”, I had no time for His pleasantries, “You’re supposed to be the King of these people and you were not here for a thousand years! There was a Nightmare-damned genocide and you did feathering nothing! What, were you too busy licking Your fluffy balls to care? Or to notice? Those guys”, I pointed my hoof at the Pevensies, staring at me in silent shock, “Keep telling how amazing and awesome You are. Prince Caspian believed in You! And you what, we're waiting for someone to come begging for help and just ate some popcorn while our soldiers’ blood colored Beruna red?”
He growled. If His voice was heavy, even a growl of his displeasure was almost a physical thing. You could feel its pressure with the whole of your body, louder than even the Royal Canterlot Voice. I dropped to my haunches and really wished I had stayed silent.
“‘T was a Deep Magic, from the Dawn of Time that bound me, little pony. Would you have me acting against Emperor’s own magic?
“Yeah, right, whatever”. I may have been scared half to death, but my sarcasm was alive and kicking, “If that were true, you’d be begging for their forgiveness, not taking their homage. Celestia is a real Princess. She’d rather die a thousand deaths than let anyone hurt any of her subjects. Caspian was a Prince. You - you’re just a big old meanie with delusions of grandeur, that’s what you are.”
“Hey! You can’t talk to Aslan like that.”
Well, who would it be to find their tongue but the little miss “Aslan’s fan club”.
“Lucy…” Peter started helplessly, but she looked daggers at him.
“Don’t tell me you’re on her side, Peter!”
“Come on, Lu...”
“Perhaps”, Lion’s deep voice stopped the argument in its tracks, “some apology is in order. I wish you all to know, that were it possible, I’d have come sooner to your aid.”
Lucy looked as if she was slapped in the face with a wet trout. Her expression was so full of the childish feeling of betrayal and confusion, that I thought she was about to cry.
“Yet now the balance of the world is upset,” Aslan said, looking at Peter. “The White Witch is gaining strength. Now it’s but a matter of time, til her sceptre, summons the next wielder and Jadis will walk the land again.”
“I’ll protect it” Peter stood up, putting his hand on his blade. “For the rest of my life if I have to”.
“My Son,” Aslan spoke softly “It is not your world, nor is it your burden to bear.”
“Is it not, Aslan?” Susan stood up next to her brother, looking at the lion in the eyes. “Did we not come when it called? Have we not fought for it enough? Did we not water it with our blood, and sweat and tears?”
“Peter will have it sorted, Sire.” Ed stood up, “if anyone can be doggedly stubborn to protect it till Narnia itself is unmade, it would be him.”
“Please Aslan?” even Lucy chimed in with her family “We’re your children, but we’re not kids! We can make our own decisions.”
“So be it, then,” Aslan said, nodding, and something changed as He so spake, a shade falling upon Peter’s face. He was as young and bold as he’s ever been, but a white line now adorned his before brown hair, and a sombre silence seemed to hang around him like a cloak.
“But you will need help.”
“TRAITORS!” his voice boomed, reaching to the farthest ends of the battlefield. “Sons of Telmar, traitors to the crown. By the law from the dawn of time, those who betray their word belong to the White Witch. Your lives are no longer your own.”
Fear rippled across the ranks of the Telmarines, the memory of petrification, the dead eyes of the White Prince still fresh in their minds.
“Yet by the will of the Emperor From Beyond The Sea, by the Sacrifice on the Stone, by the Laws of Magic that come from before the Time began, I can give you another duty. Step forth, sons of Telmar, traitors of the crown, and you shall be bound to sleep while Narnia still stands, only to be roused for its protection. Death shall give you pass, and the world of the living will be forbidden to you while Narnia stands, and only after the end of the Time shall you be released from your post to enter the world that comes after.”
Anger, fear and protests were the reactions of the Telmarines, yet the truth of Aslan's words could not be denied. One way or the other they were cursed, and Aslan's deal was only half as bad as being in White Witch's thrall.
One by one they came towards Peter, and the same deathly shroud spread along the ground, turning the beach into a shadowland, veiled from the land of the living.
Peter stepped on the border, and wordlessly he passed Rhindon to his sister, taking care not to touch Susan’s hand. Choking with tears she could only nod as she accepted.
“You are the High Queen now,” Aslan said. “A great honour. And a greater duty still.”
“She won’t be alone.” Edmund and Lucy stood by Susan's side, King and Queen of Narnia, brother and sister to High Queen.
“I’ll go with Peter.” somebody said, and it’s only by the looks others gave me I recognised that it was me. “It’s my fault. The whole thing…. It’s on me. I should stay”.
“No, little ones” The lion shook his mane, and this time there was no argument to be had. “Your destinies are tied to the other worlds, and those ties are not mine to break. You shall leave, and when the time comes, some of you may yet come back to this land. But now it is time for you to go home.”
He pushed Lucy gently with His giant head. “Go. Say your goodbyes now”.
So we did. To Reepicheep and his boys, to Glenstorm the centaur, Trufflehunter the badger and to Doctor now grieving over Caspian’s body, to my soldiers and to other comrades-in-arms who made it through the fight… as every goodbye is, it was bitter, despite the sweet promise of going home.
I wanted to stay, if for a little while. To bury my friend and to share the grief with the comrades, to taste the fruit of our bitter and unexpected victory, to see Narnia rise again in a new Golden age with its High Queen in charge… but I knew better than that. Every sun must eventually set, and even if it were morning, the sun of Narnia was setting for me, the dawn as red as the dusk in the desert.
“Take the horn”, Susan offered, as Edmund and Lucy said their final goodbyes to their Narnian friends “You’ve helped Narnia in its hour of need, and as its Queen, I swear if you need help, we shall come to repay our debt. No matter the world, no matter how far, as long as Narnia itself stands, we shall come to your aid.”
“I too so swear”, Peter echoed, his usually booming voice now more like a hollow echo of itself. “You are a friend of this land now, Sunset”.
I gave them the best grateful smile I could muster. No matter how much some bitter part of me wanted to think that this was just wergild, blood money for Caspian’s death, I knew better than that. It was an honest gift coming from their hearts - Pevensies knew no other way.
“It is time for you to go, little ones.” Under Aslan’s heavy gaze a tree untwisted itself into an arch, through which I could almost see the lush green of Equestria and the purple mountain of Canterlot. “You shall yet see each other again, in this world or the other.”
With a heavy heart and the last wave of my hoof, I stepped through the portal home.
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I had to give this story a thumbs down. I could forgive the whole pacifistic Equestrian culture idea, but I can't support a story that makes Celestia in the same league as Aslan. That, and it is really depressing.
7689743
If I may ask, why do you think putting Aslan and Celestia in the same category is wrong?
7703199 It's two fold really. First, Aslan is pretty explicitly supposed to be the Narnian equivalent of Jesus, so portraying him as fallible is almost blasphemous to me. By the same token, I don't like portrayals of Celestia as divine, she's just strong and has an unknown lifespan as far as I'm concerned. I know not everyone is bothered by these things, but I am.
7704021 No, I was bothered by them, too. The Chronicles of Narnia is my favorite collection of fantasy books, and to see Aslan so fallible hurts my heart. Had to thumbs this down, too. It's sad, because I really wanted to like this story.
7778529
7704021
Well, in the books Aslan is rather explicitly not omnipotent. And he kinda does have a tendency to sit and do nothing for millennia, until Pevensies come and try (and fail) to fix things. That always bothered me in the books, so I at least wanted to give a reason why.
7779329 What do you mean Aslan is not omnipotent? I've read the Chronicles of Narnia many times and to me it's pretty clear that Aslan IS omnipotent. He's also ALWAYS with the protagonist of the story, just not known to them. The Horse and his Boy makes this pretty clear if you remember reading that one. (Examples are quite numerous in that story.) Also, if you remember, Aslan tells Lucy at the end of the Voyage of the dawn tredder that he would always will be with her, even in her world. Lucy asks him what he means and Aslan replies, "In that world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it." In the end, what I've mentioned is my only real problem with the story. Beyond that I wasn't thrilled that Caspian died either.
7779717
Aslan is bound by the Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic, as is rather explicitly stated in the books.
So when the White Witch comes and demands Edmund as her right of First Traitor, Aslan cannot refuse her, for example, and can only trick the Witch by using Deeper Magic.
Whether he can't go against it or won't is, of course, open to debate, but I honestly prefer the former.
Well, yes, certainly. Pevensies or other Narnian Heroes walk with Aslan.
Other peoples of Narnia, the sort that got genocided - not so much.
7780013 I agree with pretty much all you said, but the portrayal in this story almost made it seem like Aslan was non-existent. You're right that Aslan is bound by the deep magic (he was the one who wrote it in "The Magician's Nephew"). However, it bothered me that Aslan seemed to be blamed for a lot of the wrong-doing by Sunset Shimmer. If they had gone to Aslan in the first place, nothing bad that happened would have happened. It's a lesson that we should all learn (since Aslan is the equivalent to Jesus). It also bothered me that Prince Caspian died as well. As far as alternate timelines go, the future of Narnia must stink after this version of Prince Caspian.
7780062
Well, yes. Sunset did not learn her lesson, or rather misunderstood it. Which is the sort of the central idea of the series (starting with the "As Told By Sunset") - when Sunset learns the lessons of her adventures, on occasion she entirely misses the whole point. Which is why she ends up where she did end up.
Though I must admit, the idea of Sunset finding Jesus is not exactly the "right" lesson I had in mind for this one.
On another hand, even if, say, Sunset gets born again, and believes in Aslan, and he comes and fixes everything with a swing of his bushy tail, it would really not cancel out the thousand years of genocide by Telmarines.
I'll take that as a compliment. - it means I wrote it well enough.
Eh. I think Susan would make an kick-ass High Queen. Especially since, unlike Caspian, she actually has some experience ruling the kingdom.
7780090
Not gonna argue with you there. She's pretty legit. In that respect, I like the outcome better (since in the books she's the only Pevensie that stops believing in Narnia).
It is, to be sure. If you were going for depressing, that is. I too enjoy going dark sometimes. Adds a lot of emotion (which you most certainly accomplished).
What I mean't to communicate is that I just didn't like that Sunset that had so many issues with Aslan. Aslan is, like, the coolest cat ever. That was my only real issue.
7780101
Fair enough. Though I personally like Mufasa better.
7780109
Except Mufasa stayed dead when he died.
7780112
Exactly. Gotta respect the guy who sacrifices himself without knowing that it won't stick.
7780116 Don't forget, he also suffered and got humiliated, too. That's asking a lot of anybody. Gotta respect that.
7780131
I'm pretty sure that being trampled to death by stampeding buffaloes isn't too much fun.
And without a chance for revenge (or justice, whatever) too.
Also, he kinda actually ruled his land, and pretty well at that. No scaving off to other world for this guy. Responcible, family
manlion - what's not to like?7780140 Yeah. Scar was a jerk. Glad he got what was due.
As of the story's current state, this has been ConCritted (If that's the word I'm going to use now) by the Blunt Reviews group! You can see that here.
7903237
Yeah the group badly needs a catchphrase.
7780090
A more general lesson about humility and seeking help when one needs it might have also worked.
In any case, I admit, much of the story was lost on me since I haven't actually read Prince Caspian. Still, an excellent tragic tale of a unicorn-powered butterfly effect in a world with far different magic. Thank you for it.
9253915
She kinda was to me, especially after that scene in the movie where she kinda just calmly goes to cut that one gnome's throat, barely even changing an expression.
I couldn't follow half of this, but the half I could? Exciting as all get out. Not bad. :)
9449135
Thank you... I guess?
It is a bit more geared towards the people who read Narnia books or at least watched the movie.
I would love to hear more detailed feedback about things I could improve if you feel you can spare the time/effort for it.
9449558
I mean, the main problem is I don't know anything about Narnia. :B I even wrote a story about it once! The only real improvement this needs is a proofreader.
9541329
I suppose you'll have to read further and figure out what I changed )
I really lack the proper context from Narnia to fully appreciate this, but I love your interpretation of Sunset Shimmer. Wonder what is your justification for how childish she would act in the EQG-verse.
Just saw this story again when I went to comment on your tracking my latest story, and was reminded of this simple fact.
This story is one of my all time FIMfiction favorites! I just thought I would drop that again, as it has been many years since I read it enthusiastically, and my love of it has not wavered.
11368542
Thanks! It means a lot to me that someone liked my stories.
Hope you may get to sequels at some point too.
11368551
Excellent suggestion. I have re-downloaded the stories, and liked and favorited the one's I had missed.
Your work deserves much more love than it has been given. Thank you for your stories!