• Published 9th Sep 2016
  • 7,592 Views, 116 Comments

Page Two - Trick Question



In a time of war, Celestia sends Luna a short note inexplicably divided into two pages.

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Page Two

The thick square of parchment appeared in a puff of green fire, hovering just a few inches above the tabletop. Princess Luna plucked the fabric from the air with her magic before it could drift down to the combat map on its own.

"Curious. It has heft," commented Luna, holding the note below eye level so both she and the general could see the unusually dark writing surface. Not much was written upon it.

"Your Highness?" asked General Firefly, as she stood watching with her wings wide at attention. Aside from the princess and the general, the underground bunker was empty. All of the remaining senior staff were currently pinned to the battlefield.

In most cases, literally.

Luna placed the parchment onto the smooth surface of the stone table, temporarily cancelling her illusion spell in the process. A pictorial representation of Equestria wasn't very useful at the moment, anyway: it was easy enough to remember which cities hadn't fallen. As the light from Luna's magic projection faded, two sconces on the cavern wall remained the only source of illumination in the damp, artificially carved-out room.

The princess rubbed her sore left temple with an ankle. "I am referring to this missive from my elder sister, General. The material she used is heavy, and it appears to have survived a fire," she said, gesturing toward the paper. The surface had a mottled sepia tone, and it looked like it had been charred around the edges. Luna squinted. "The odd color makes it slightly difficult to read in this light."

"Hmm. Burned in transit, I suppose," suggested General Firefly.

Luna shook her head. "No, the dragonfire spell does not work in that manner. Although it may only be cast upon a single piece of paper at a time, the apparent 'burning' effect one witnesses is illusionary," she said, and ran the tip of her hoof across the smooth, darkened writing surface. "My word. Never before have I seen paper of this quality, General. It is clearly an ancient form of parchment, one designed to withstand the elements. I believe my sister wishes to preserve what she has written here for future generations."

It was a rare and humbling experience for the princess to lay hoof upon anything older than herself, and she had the uncanny sense that she was doing so right now.

After a few moments, Firefly noisily cleared her throat and toed at the floor.

"My apologies, General," said Luna, snapping back to attention. "I shall read it aloud now."

Manehattan has fallen but for a few pockets of resistance. I have done what is necessary to prevent Tirek from draining my magic, and I remain hidden. Though I would do anything to help my little ponies in their time of need, I lack the strength to mount another attack.

Luna, you must approach Scorpan and beg for his aid. When he sees the horrors his brother has wrought, perhaps his heart will soften and he will elect to join forces with Harmony. Act now, but please wait for the second half to arrive before leaving the bunker.

Two confused faces stared down at the strange paper.

"Wait for the second half? What does she mean?" said General Firefly. "Pardon my curiosity, Highness, but the page she sent you is already mostly blank."

Luna's brow knitted together. "I do not know. More vexing yet, this letter tells us nothing remarkable. I was already planning to seek Scorpan's aid once the allotted hour had passed," she said. "Princess Celestia knows we presently wait within the safest stronghold in all of Equestria, and nothing she sends to this room can fall into enemy hooves. The second note must be something of great value, such as a map, or perhaps a rare spell."

"Well maybe, but we already know where to find Scorpan—" the general began to say.

Another puff of green flame, and the second sheet appeared. It looked just like the previous one. Luna quickly yanked it down to the surface of the table with her magic.

"What does it say?" asked General Firefly.

There were only three words on the page, or five if you counted the signature. Luna spoke them aloud. As she did, she used a tone of voice that made the tiny phrase sound more like a question than a statement.

Good luck, Sister.

–Princess Celestia

"That is all?" said Luna, her voice rising with frustration. "What in Tartarus does Celestia mean by this cryptic nonsense?"

Princess Luna lifted both parchments up into the air to examine them more closely, side by side. Then she heard a soft choking sound coming from across the table. In the space between the two pages, Luna could make out General Firefly's face. The general wore an expression that Luna had never before witnessed on a senior officer. She was frozen in a state of shock.

"General Firefly, are you all right?" asked Luna.

The general leaned to one side of the table, and her legs buckled as she vomited onto the floor.

Princess Luna quickly flipped both pieces of parchment over, and gasped. Then she shut her eyes tightly and released her magic grasp. The two papers plopped quietly onto the table. Luna paused for several moments before finally reopening her eyes.

"Leave them here where they shall be safe, and do not bother cleaning your mess," she said to the general. "Prepare my chariot for departure as soon as you are able. We must hurry if we are to save my sister's hide, not to mention all of Equestria." Luna trotted briskly toward the exit tunnel.

General Firefly took in several deep gasps of air, wiped the sick from her chin with a greave, and followed her liege into the dark crevasse.

Resting gently on the table lay two patches of magically tanned horsehide, an unmistakable royal sun emblazoned upon each one.

Comments ( 116 )

Oh lord, I can't really put into words how much that disturbed me. It didn't help that I was trying to figure out what the problem was, before finally seeing the last sentence.

I don't get it.

...Well, that earned its dark tag quickly.

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I did not see that coming. Bravo.

(My personal guess was 'survivors,' including Celestia herself, and some less then accurate version of that 'enter paper' spell of Twilight's that got mangled in transit.)

Oh, sweet filly Luna, that was as dark as the deepest part of the Mare-iana trench! It's so dark, the only thing that will make me feel better is a terrible pun!

7550777
In order to prevent Tirek from draining her magic if he should find her hiding place, Celestia removed the skin from both flanks (including her cutie marks) and sent it to Luna using the scroll spell. That's the 'paper' she was writing on.

7550777

I don't get it.

Celestia cut off her own cutie marks and magically preserved them to keep the core of her special talent out of Tirek's gullet. That was the seemingly unnecessarily large parchments the letters were written on.

7550787
7550788 Oh, I'ma lose my lunch now..:pinkiesick:

7550787

Man, ninja'd by ten seconds...

Thinks that's a personal record for me. :duck:

Ye gods, a brick wall of horror just popped up in the last line like holy fuck that was sudden.

Good job sir. When someone says they cried over a fic, I just sit quietly reading with no visible reaction. When someone says a fic is too gruesome I just sit quietly and read (and maybe smile cause I like that kind of stuff) but this, made me almost barf at the end. Once again good job sir.

7550777 Parchment is basically leather used for writing material, the leather used in this instance was the skin that contained Celestia's cutiemarks.

I've tanned and worked with leather before. so this doesn't disturb me nearly as much as it should.

7550787 It could only have been better if she'd included a cupcake with the letters... :pinkiecrazy::rainbowlaugh:

Oh Jesus Christ... :pinkiesick:

7550788
But that's not how pony magic works...

The cutie mark is just a representation of your special talent, and is manifested by your inner magic, not your inner magic itself. We've seen a cutie mark get shaved off before, with no detrimental effects to the wielder. Celestia literally cutting off her cutie marks wouldn't affect her magic, nor would it protect her from Tirek's magic drain.

Meh, oh well; still a pretty good story.

My kind of humor.

Luna's observation of the weight of the missive is what tipped me off, given the Dark tag, and the setting.

Didn't think it was Tia's own flesh, but still.

well. Shit.
Good work.

7551863 When did we see a cutie mark shaved off to no detrimental effect?

7552030
The Gabby Gums episode when Snips and Snails got their asses bubble-gummed together.

7551863

Technically, you're right, but personally I'm not seeing any reason there can't be some sort of dark/forbidden magic that works that way.

We did see in the Tirek episodes that it's both possible to bestow alicorn magic to other ponies, and to steal it, after all.

That ending popped up like a jumpscare. I almost screamed.

I never scream.

You have earned a mustache, my good sir.

:moustache:

7552030 Didn't It happen to Twilight once as well?

7551863
This is true: the premise is a slight stretch, and I was well aware of it while penning the tale.

But it isn't a story about cutie marks, or magic, or even a story about Princess Luna or Tirek or General Firefly. It's a story about Celestia's love and devotion, and the premise is just the medium used to tell it. :twilightsmile:

7552011
In stories like these, it's always tricky to maintain the foreshadowing properly. You want to throw in just barely enough hints that the reader doesn't put it together, so that at the end the realization hits them like a delivery by Derpy. Judging from the comments it would seem I succeeded fairly well this time.

Well... that was certainly a twist. A pretty dark one at that. Tag definitely earned.
Good job there, the end was certainly a shocker.

I say, good show. The idea is unique and the execution makes it hit in the hardest way possible. Well done.

Yea good execution. I could see fallout equestria's raiders using parchment like thats. A bit surprised Celestia has a spell for tanning hide, but then again she's lived a long time. And I hope she has a spell for flaying. Otherwise ouch.

I don't really know if I'd agree the revelation hit me like any freight train, personally. The contraints of the story make everything happen rather quickly and it is not shy about hinting at what would happen in both the description and the first half of the story. The actual revelation was rather expected, but the particulars of it weren't.

After re-reading the ending to make sure I had gotten it right, it certainly did make me go "Ooh, that's clever. Cutie marks disappear when Tirek does his sucking thing, so removing them prevents him from getting at the magic in there. That's pretty hardcore of her," however. My first thought was that Tirek would end up having gotten to Celestia and having sent the letters himself just to fuck with Luna after killing and skinning her, which would have been rather horrifying, but not nearly as clever of a twist or as impressively self-sacrificing of Celestia.

Nice, but probably would've worked better at twice the length.

Damn, that was dark, in a good way. Well done!

Well you gotta do what you gotta do. No surrender.

Not bad.

~Skeeter The Lurker

Oh god, oh my.

That.

Well,

It's radical.

At least we know it was temporary.

~Leonzilla

7552640 OH, so that's what happened

Oh jesus. That's intense.

7552784
But that was the fur, not the skin below.

Wow. I was not expecting that ending. :rainbowderp:

I have done what is necessary to prevent Tirek from draining my magic

Resting gently on the table lay two patches of magically tanned horsehide, an unmistakeable royal sun emblazoned upon each one.

Oh.:pinkiesick:
Oh god.:pinkiesick:
I haven't seen one sentence make an entire story so horrifying in a long time.

Well... *urk*
It certainly makes you think... even if you'd rather not.

7553137
Yes, but the cutie mark is the symbol, not the skin beneath it. There's nothing different about the flank skin than say, the chest skin or neck skin.

7553308
The detrimental effect is that Celestia has huge areas of missing skin, and if she somehow survives the shock/bloodloss, she's guaranteed herself a life-threatening infection.

Very nice and disturbing.

Read the very first comment and thought I got spoiled. But I love a good dark premise so I read anyway. That comment didn't prepare me, it didn't prepare me at all.

This... I don't have the words.

Talk about horror.

Good cleanup and expansion. A+.

Brilliant, moving, twisted, and creative, all in just barely over a thousand words. That's hard to do.

You are one damn talented writer.

Wow.

That was ... dark.

You get a thumbs up and fav for that.

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