To The Princess
To Luna, Princess, Mistress of the Night, Lady of the Moon, Queen of All the Heavens and Their Stars, Rightful Sovereign of Blessed Equestria, Best of Mares,
Hail!
We, your faithful actors upon the stage they call the Chain of Creation, greet you in anticipation of your much-awaited return from dusty exile. We have waited nearly a thousand years for you to re-join us. We shall not need to wait much longer. The prophets have foreseen your return, and while we may not know the day and the hour, we know it comes soon.
We only mourn that we will not be there to greet you upon your arrival. The prophets, also, have warned us of the consequences if we attempt to join you upon your escape from your imprisonment. We have had one small taste of that fire that we believe would come if we were there when you descend from your celestial exile. We would break Equestria in two, smash the heavens to join you on your day of return, if it would not destroy the very thing that you would take back into your rightful care.
All that being said, we have a few words for an expected interloper, pardon us.
To the usurper, the thief, the tyrant, we extend our contempt, our rage, our fury, and yes, our hate. We know you will most likely compel your loyal servant, Cup Cake, to divulge this confidential message to your much-abused sister, and find that we must also, regrettably, address you, her faithless kin.
This is all your fault, and always was. You stole your sister's birthright, forced her to fight all of your battles, and neglected her interests at every turn. You allowed your sycophants to abuse your sister's ponies, to steal her revenues, destroy her properties, malign and libel and slander her in your name at every turn – and worse, you neglected her veterans. You allowed her maimed and mangled soldiers to be the subject of mockery and abuse. The Nightfall War was your right and just punishment for all of your wicked indolence and self-regard. We only regret the damage it did to the innocent and the uninvolved.
If your sister upon her return enchains you in the burning heart of the Sun for three years exchange for every bitter year you left her to freeze upon the Lunar surface, it would be your just reward.
But enough of that. Usurper, for you we have nothing but hate, but for your sister's sake, we must, regretfully, cry peace. We have in us not only that furious substance which ate away at your abused and neglected sibling in her last years before the Nightfall, but also that earlier, gentle soul who found herself, barded and armed, fighting all the horrors and terrors of the night for your sake. She had within her a treasury of love and affection for her elder sister which is, even now, barely diminished by time and centuries of exile.
For her sake, we shall not invade your territories, slaughter your ponies, tear down every last palace, smash every last monument, bring the very pillars of the heavens down on your faithless ears. For her sake, we will not destroy the whole Chain of Creation, to get at you.
Because without the continued existence of Creation, none of us will ever see our Princess again, and you are just not worth the cost.
And so, we extend our curses, and nothing else. No pony of the Company will cross your portals, but for our messenger, Cup Cake, and that one pony whom she desired as her boon for this service. We relinquish both from our service, and wish them well among your lickspittles, sycophants, and fools. Cup Cake, we understand it if this letter falls into the hooves of the usurper, but we do ask that you expend every effort in preserving it unread for the true princess.
That unfortunate duty having been completed, I return to you, our princess, our treasure. We shall rejoice in your return, when it comes! We hope that your difficulties pass quickly, and smoothly, and with as little pain as possible. We know you were in a very bad place when the War went against us, though we have forgotten most of our mutual history with you, lost to the sands of the Dar al Hisan and the decay of memory. We have sent you our recent histories via your sister's loyal servant, those that encompass your memory's rebirth within the Company. We forgot you for far too many years, stumbling along blind, forgetful and weak. Forgive us our weaknesses, Mistress, for we are ponies, and thus very fallible.
We will not approach you until you find your stability, and your centre, for we worry that our presence would only unbalance you further from your proper pitch. Let us know when you are steady enough in yourself that you might need retainers, and some few volunteers shall appear at your portals with any passports you might send them. Although not I, I fear, for I carry too much of the Nightmare within me, and too little of the Princess. But those who remember the loving, kind princess - they, they will come, if you send for them. But no more than a few. We have collected a vast treasury of naked power in our many, many years of death and dying. Too much for any one pony, even one as vast and strong as we know you are.
For we have fought on dozens of worlds, in a hundred wars, on a thousand battlefields. We have died on every world of the Chain of Creation from Equestria to Derecho, and from the Dar al Hisan to Tambelon. We have killed on almost as many worlds, in the service of dozens and dozens of employers, none worthy to be the weakest, most faded nebula in your flowing mane. Our founders, your defeated servants, built in us a great collector of deaths-magic, of naked power, intending to hurry your return. Somehow it never actually came to a return, and the Company forgot its purpose for far too long. And now, it is too late, we are too big, and you, the vessel we were made to fill, would crack and burst if we tried to pour ourselves into you.
We love you too much to break you with our regard; please, we would see anything but that. In the meantime, this poor, abused land requires our help and assistance. That vast hoard of lives and magic which would wick you into a world-devouring blaze in blessed, over-rich Equestria, is merely a torrent of wild magic down here in this magic-starved half-Tartarus. All the waters of our vast, generations-deep reservoir of magic could be swallowed up by these parched sands, and barely touch them with living foliage. But, we have our ways, and there are, even now, oases here and there that mark our passage through this thirsty land.
In other matters, Princess: In recent years, our returning memory of you has taken on its own life. She is but a semblance of you, a shadow which walks, and talks, and struts her way across this stage, this Tambelon. In our saner moments, we are aware that the Spirit is not you, but she has a reality which is hard to deny when her fury is in full spate. We love her as if she were you, but both she, and we, know full well we are not you.
For the truth is, we are not simply a mercenary company of soldiers; we are also a troupe of players, of performers. We have always done more through pretense, and performance, and illusion, then we've ever done with lances and spellfire and brute force. We are not simply warriors – we are actors.
And sometimes, our characters - the roles we play - appear more real than the actors that tread these boards. That is because, in a way, they are. We your performers are mere ponies, full of contradictions, and starts, and faults, and wrong cues. Our characters, our roles are pure, refined - they are the story, itself, breathing. All we can do is be them for the briefest moment on stage.
Your Highness, we have had the privilege, in this lifetime, to be your actors. We have been given, have given ourselves, the chance to be you. Our subconscious selves, our idea of you, our 'you in I', takes form, takes shape, and talks and acts you as if you were the character our better selves were born to play. We have been, for a few brief years, a few brief months, for some, the unlucky, a few brief moments - you, our Princess of Dreams. We rejoice in your triumphs, we rage at your losses, and we weep for your sorrows. We cannot bear your burdens in those moments that will come; of this we are sure, for it is also sure, that our conjunction would break both you and us, and the world in passing. But although we cannot give you our presence for now, we can still offer you encouragement, and hope, and faith.
May you find harmony, for we are your faithful players, The Company.
By the hoof of Feufollet, Forty-Third Archivist of the Black Company
Submitted to the archives directly by Her Royal Highness, Luna, Diarch and Co-Ruler of Equestria, to her newly appointed senior archivist, Faded Palimpsest, First Year of the Second Age of Harmony, September 8th, to found and re-establish the Lunar Archives. Filed with the original manuscripts of the "Annals of the Black Company", 11-9-1 AH2
*I knew that mare was hiding something! - FP
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Bravo, a strong end to a great story.
Well Done I Say.
A good note to end on.
A few bumps and slow winding roads throughout the journey, but you did an excellent job, and wrapped it up well.
I'll be keeping my eye out for more.
This has singlehoofedly been one of the best stories I have had the genuine pleasure of reading on this site, if not ever. Thanks for writing it. I'll lend on the lookout for whatever you decide to do next.
.....ah, that's the letter. And it appears as though Palimpsest got his deserved punishment.
Quite a good show, overall. You did credit as both a viable prequel to the show, and a rich cross-over with the Black Company.
Damm 10/10 cant believe its over. Was really bloody good cant give you enough props for the world you created between 2 other worlds.
~Reggie
Huh, so Cup Cake was right after all ... My apologies, Agent Cake.
And hey, at least there is the chance that one day, after most of the Company's contained power has been spent on Tambelon, that the Company can return to their Princess' side
8450437
Ha! Well, I guess yeah....
He was after all, as you put it, 'A demon worshiping cultist'.
Bad guys don't get the happy endings I guess...
Oh well, thank you for the story regardless.
A great ending, and I've already said in earlier comments what I love about this story. However, in hindsight, it's undeniable that the Order took up way too much time with no payoff. At the time it was intriguing enough, and since I was reading it in parallel with the second BC book it was amusing how they both had long tangents on people's lives who were only remotely related to the plot. However, in the end, it is the Company that is controlling Tambelon, and though the order has a big role, its' subordinate nature of a sphynxpaw leaves me underwhelmed to know all the nitty gritty of its legacy. Only a few were even given names, and then were quickly discarded, so we don't truly know anyone beyond having sympathy for a band of misfits. In the end, it turns out that the Company loyalist was able to exploit the Company traitor's weakening of the Bride (and implied the white rose too? who were also pretty incompetent towards the end), so it makes the deep dive into the Housa a bit more inexplicable. I was hoping that switching to a new cast of characters would give more insight into the plot somewhat, buy beyond first hoof experiences with the Holy Trinity, its clear that staying with command or going with Blade would have been more enlightening. So I'd definitely recommend this story, but would be remiss to not inform them that a lot of the later chapters are optional.
8470156
Fair enough. Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for the story!
Well finally caught up and finished the story and right now I wanna find where you Live and leave a pile of shit on your doorstep for killing Saw bones
Cause he really made this story also I see alot of places you could start a sequel off (hint hint)(not without sawbones tho)
So if you download this in .txt format, and then open it in Microsoft Word, it's 951 pages long ... I'm on page 700ish.
Even though I'm not done yet, I just wanted to say that you've done a great job capturing the feeling of the books. And sorry I had to read this offline and couldn't give chapter-by-chapter snark.
It was much better than ‘cats’. I’d read it again and again.
8632846
Thanks for reading.
8633009
Thank YOU for writing it. An epilogue where the spirit meets luna or where luna meets her company might be nice.
8633405
A side-story or AfterMASH type demi-sequel about Faded Palimpsest's career as Princess Luna's archivist is at the bottom of my to-do list, below a lot of other partially-begun projects. It got stuck behind an origin story for Palimpsest which really needs a complete re-think - it kind of went off the rails and turned into something more like a Ray Bradbury pastiche than what I'd originally intended.
Sadly, I've got this partially-started Dothraki Sunset project, a return to Trixie and the Beast, and more stories about Pinkie's extended family history all clamoring for attention.
8633423
The part about pinkie seeing the holes because of the spirit was inspired.
8634356
8634425
Fixed, thanks.
8634686
8635144
Got 'em.
ICR who said "Some novels leave room for a sequel, others leave a hole the size of a sequel." You've left room. If you mentioned whatever happened to the missing militias, I missed it
8941201
So far, so good! I used Calibre to convert it from FiMFic's HTML to MOBI, and that seems to have worked out just fine.
Wow... that was... one of the most difficult but well-done bright/dark crossovers I've read. I'll never be able to watch a scene that includes the Cakes without recalling this.
I highlighted a bunch of things as I read, intending to comment on them, but... y'know... life. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the story, and there were many bits that I really enjoyed/appreciated.
8990974
Thanks for reading. I'm a little sorry about the PTSD I left Carrot Cake, but after I looked at his jittery portrayal in the show, it had to happen.
And I wanted to give a different implied reason for the Cake Twins that wasn't an insulting slur on their marriage. So, i hinted that his ancestry was a tangle of low-magic phenotypically suppressed mixed-tribe mutts.
No actual clue wtf this is but I guess I’ll read it.
I have slogged the long trek. Over mountains of words, forests of paragraphs. Taken into me this glorious feast of words! Bravo my friend bravo this is woefully undervoted. Thanks for such a compelling read
You know, if the first Rainboom did all this, how does the chain react when she starts doing it every airshow/whim/Scoots was bored?
What a story. I am glam I read it even if I didn’t knew the original material that inspired this tale. I could say many things and critics a lot of stuff but I feel this story feel fine like it is. Could use a bit more proof reading to get rid of the spelling mistakes.
I loved so many characters in this epic and so many died. I appreciate an author who is not afraid to kill off his characters.
But I can't figure out what is Sawbones betrayal. Is it all the missing part of the Annals where we follow Feu-Follet?
And poor Gibblet. A thousand years waiting for is Princess and he can't be there.
And I raise my glass to Mad Jack the crazy engineer who would have planked the world over and Sawbones, one of the best main characters I read in a long time.
For your Story: Bravo.
If there is a sequel or some follow up stories one day, I will gladly read them.
9440294
Wicker Princesses is a sort of one-shot follow-up.
9440340
What is this crossin over
9533366
Glen Cook's The Black Company, a moderately long-running military fantasy about a grotty, morally questionable mercenary outfit like the free companies of the late Medieval era, such as the Great Company, la Compagnia della Stella , the Company of the Rose, or the White Company.
Technically, this is more of a style crossover or pastiche, with some of the setting elements and character archetypes translated into the pony context. I also imported some other elements from various inspirations as the muse took me.
9844420
"It's magic, I don't gotta 'splain shit"?
*reads the first two chapters*
This is a whole lot of dry world building with no story (yet).
*skips to the epilogue chapter*
...thats a lot of world for "what happened to Nightmare Moon's followers". I kinda want a "what happened to Celestia's anti-Nightmare Moon fanatics"-story instead.
9868615
Those are basically revenge zombies, right?
9869299
Eh, sorta. Revenants in this setting are not proper ghouls, but rather motivated undead, bound and determined to reveal this injustice or that which spawned them. One or two show up later on.
Ghouls are your basic Romero stomachs on hooves.
9869307
I honestly do kinda want more. More about the long patrol. More about the foreign service. More about equestria being like
"Hey so... nightmarecultistsaywhat?"
9941359
All stories require "the willing suspension of disbelief"
Some disbeliefs are harder to suspend than others
Great atory.
Magnificent mummery from start to finish. I'm glad I finally tackled it in all its immensity. Thank you for one heck of a show. Multiverses and mindscapes are two of my bigger weaknesses, and you nailed both fantastically. It did drag at times, usually when the Annalists were obliged to record times of uneventful travel and preparation, but overall this was a joy to read. Thank you for it.
10033909
You're welcome, and thank you for reading and commenting. It was nice to dip my toe back in the story as you commented and reminisce.
Aaaand finished.
I've never read (or heard of, to be honest) the Black Company books, but this story makes me want to check them out. I have always loved stories with lots of world building, especially the ones that do it well, and you sir have done a magnificent job.
Thank you for the wonderful story!
P.s.
For as long as it is, you've done a really good job self-editing. There are definitely things you've missed, but the large majority of them are small.
After reading the description, the fact that Mr. & Mrs. Cake are listed make more curious to read this.
10259610
Fair warning, they don't show up until several dozen chapters in. Hold on... damn. Chapter 67.
10259641
Estimated Reading: 1 day
I'll get back to ya in Twenty-four hours
Will this story ever have a longer sequel? It was a good read and am craving for more, but truly understand if it would just not be manageable.
10390693
Not for the foreseeable future. Some of the ideas I'd set aside were used in the holiday one-shot Wicker Princesses, though.
And as time allows, the Gilda/Bit stories will move into similar spaces as we greet the return of the Mother of Dreams.
A black company crossover? Really cool idea.
10499917
Yeah, though I've just been reading the books for the first time, so I was primed to find similarities.
Strangest situation with me, I get a fanfiction idea, often based off of other fanfiction, then I have to take on a reading project to get through all the original material before I can get really into writing any such fanfiction, and my enthusiasm inevitably leads into looking for other, still unfamiliar fanfiction on the topic.
This, however, seems like an exceptional piece of fanfiction. So I've been recommending this story in a few places. There's a serious dearth of good or complete Black Company fanfiction and I think this deserves more attention.
10500189
Yeah, not a lot that I'm aware of. Just did a scan of FFN and A3O, and the number of long-form fanfics of any stripe in English is pretty sparse. It probably would have filled out a bit if that Dushku adaptation had ever gotten off the ground, but last time I checked that was morbund.
10684582
Exactly, the rainboom traveled all through the Chain. Pinkie's age and recent cutie mark in the second to last chapter are more evidence as well.
Aye this is still grand to read. Still wish there was more of it. Best of luck in all your endeavours Mitch