Oathmaker

by Fangren

Chapter 7 - The Power of Friendship

“But please understand the actions I have taken and why they are for the best,” Cold said at the finish of her story. “That is all I ask of you.” She bowed slightly, and looked across the faces of those who'd fought against her stronger half, all of them now awake again.

All but the three oldest stared at her with mouths agape in surprise and bewilderment. Celestia and Luna averted their gazes out of sadness and shame, while Discord merely stroked his goatee in mute comprehension as he looked Cold up and down.

“Oh my...,” Fluttershy murmured, her lip beginning to quiver.

“Well...uh...” Twilight tried to say, giving up after only a few moments.

“Wow,” Rainbow Dash finished for her.

Twilight looked over, then said “Yes. That.”

“Guess that explains a few things,” Applejack said.

“I'll say,” Starlight said, looking like her throat had gone dry. “Uhh...sorry for thinking you were some kind of vengeful spirit,” she told Cold, rubbing one foreleg against the other as she struggled to maintain eye contact.

“Apology accepted,” Cold replied without pause or hesitation. “I cannot blame you for thinking what you did when I did not try to explain myself as I should have.”

“And of course we can't blame you for acting as you did either,” Rarity chimed in, trotting over to Cold. “Oh darling, I can't imagine how stressful this whole experience has been for you. Fortunately, now that you've told us the truth, we can finally figure out just how to fix it. Isn't that right, Twilight?” she looked back and asked her friend.

Twilight, looking lost in thought with a hoof on her muzzle, gave a slight start before looking back at Rarity. “Oh! Oh, yes, umm, well, I guess so? Probably, anyway. Hmm...” She turned her gaze back downward, and started tapping her chin.

“I apologize again for not explaining myself earlier,” Cold said, watching Twilight think. “You were unable to fully prepare for this battle because of it. But I pr-” she seemed to catch herself, hesitating a moment before continuing- “I will answer any questions as fully and truthfully as I can from now on.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie squealed, bouncing up and down near Cold. “What's your favorite treat?” she asked first, then darted in close so she and Cold were eye-to-eye. “Also, how many hugs do you want? Because you really sound like you need a lot of hugs,” she asked next, tears beginning to well up and hair wilting slightly. Then she suddenly froze in place, her look of sadness shifting more towards pain. “Also, why does my everything still hurt?” she asked last, shortly before falling forward onto the ground.

Cold blinked and looked down at her. “Umm. I'm afraid I do not know the answer to those questions. I apologize.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said in a strained voice, still on the ground. “That's okay. Take some time and think 'em over.”

“Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt,” Shining interrupted with a surprising amount of actual remorse, “but do we have time for this? We're kinda in the middle of a battle.” He tilted his head vaguely towards the valley, now silent but for the occasional rumble of thunder.

“Come to think of it,” Spike spoke up, looking at Cold and scratching his head, “how come you were even able to tell us all that in the first place? You've been freaking out pretty badly ever since your, uh, 'other half' woke up. I couldn't make heads or tails of what you were saying! Why's that changed?”

Cold looked at him, blinked, opened her mouth, failed to speak, blinked again, closed her mouth, and then finally walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked around the valley. The others soon joined her.

It took them awhile in the darkness and gloom of the Cursed Valley to find the Oathbreaker's earth-colored body even with the glow of magic that she was emitting. To their collective surprise she'd stopped her wild thrashing, and instead had alighted upon a charred mound that had once been part of the carpet of thorns that blanketed the valley. Her back was to the ledge and her wings were wrapped around her, and yet those who looked upon her could feel a wave of misery emanating from her body. Occasionally she would shudder slightly.

“I...guess now she's the one having trouble doing things?” Cadance suggested, though her expression betrayed her lack of confidence.

“But why?” Spike asked.

Twilight stared off towards their foe and frowned. “Yeah, this doesn't really make sense. I mean, not that any of this makes sense in the first place, but still. It doesn't exactly fit with the rest of Cold, I mean Oathmaker's story,” she said as she began to pace. “She created the new body because she wasn't able to control her original body anymore, right? And she had to keep her emotions in check so she wouldn't be overwhelmed by what the rest of her was feeling. So obviously Cold – I mean Oathmaker - couldn't have influenced her more powerful side. So logically it must have been that side,” she pointed towards the Oathbreaker, “who calmed down enough for this side,” she darted back over to point at Cold, “to regain enough control to tell us her story. But that doesn't even begin to explain why the other side calmed down in the first place! It's too convenient to have been a coincidence!”

Cold blinked. “I...wish I knew the answer. All I know is that the Oathbreaker is not acting according to reason, so it may not be possible to understand why she does things.”

Twilight shot her a withering look. “We have to understand her if we want to fix this!” she shouted, her breathing fast and heavy enough for Fluttershy to give her a gentle pat on the back.

“Perhaps it would be a good idea to explain what you understand of your link with your...other half,” Celestia suggested with a moment of hesitation. “That may shed some light on our way forward.”

A few seconds passed in silence as Cold looked down at the barren rock, blinking or twitching or moving her ears every few seconds. “I...understand very little of what I did when I created this body,” she eventually said. “But,” she clenched her eyes shut, “I can feel the rest of my mind at all times. I can feel its thoughts and impulses all around me, repeating the same lines over and over again without rhythm or pattern. Up until recently it felt as though it was a great beast lurking just behind a doorway, with...myself...being the only thing keeping the door shut. But now it feels as though the beast is more distant, or...-” she shook her head- “no, not distant. Not sleeping, either. But I can no longer clearly hear her thoughts.”

“Hold on,” Starlight said, brow furrowed and hoof on her chin, “could your link be weaker than it was before? Maybe acting independently from the rest of you for however long has strengthened the magic you used to separate yourself? It would at least explain why you've been so lucid recently.”

Cold's eyes snapped open, a specter of fear passing over them before they settled back into their usual self-enforced dullness. “No...no, the link is as it has always been. I feel no change in it. There must be some other reason my other thoughts have become weaker.”

“Wow, too bad you can't hear what the other you is thinking then,” Pinkie said, back on her hooves but not looking any cheerier. “Maybe she's thinking about some great big clue?”

“What, you mean like whatever she's thinkin' about is the reason why she's actin' all quiet now?” Applejack asked.

“Uh-huh!” Pinkie answered with a nod vigorous enough to knock her off-balance again.

“Hmm...that certainly sounds possible,” Twilight said. “But difficult to find out for sure.”

“We could try Withercraft's Mind Meld,” Starlight suggested with a helpful tone. “Maybe add in Norwind's Telepathic Tranquility to smooth things over for us?”

Twilight shook her head. “I'm afraid any spells like those would either take too long to cast, or would require us to maintain physical contact with the target. Since we don't know how long this will last, we shouldn't risk it. We need to figure this out as quickly as we can.”

“Then I will do it,” Cold said, drawing all eyes back to her. “I will open the door to the rest of my mind just long enough to find out what has distracted it.”

“Oh, but isn't that really dangerous?” Fluttershy asked. “We wouldn't want you to lose yourself in...well, yourself.”

Once more, Cold was silent for a few moments. “No,” she finally said, the remark accompanied by a slight shake of her head. “If understanding the reason behind my other thoughts' inaction is truly important, then I am the one who will discover those reasons. If nothing else, I owe it to you all to help as much as I can no matter the risk to myself.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked, concern in her eyes as she stepped forward. “You don't have to do this! W-we can find some other way to read the other you's thoughts!”

Cold shook her head again, then looked Twilight straight in the eye. “No. I will do this.”

That was all she said before turning herself back towards the valley – and the still-sitting form of the Oathbreaker – and sitting down in a motion that wasn't nearly dramatic enough for the situation. Her eyes quickly lost focus as she stared, unblinkingly, out at her other self.

---

The sounds of water dripping in a vast cave, and of faint whispers dancing just beyond her comprehension. The smell of lightning ripping through stale air. The feel of cold, carved stone beneath her hooves and against her skin. The taste of fresh berries, and the sight of the void.

None of it was real, not on the outside. Just a trick of the inside, created by her mind. Cold knew this. But it helped her to focus on what she needed to do, and so she stood. She turned around and saw in total darkness a giant door that wasn't there, hiding the part of her she feared so much.

She felt the beating of her own heart, loud and fast, a sensation she knew to be all too real. She did not look away from the door, and focused on the muffled whispers passing through it. She could not hear what they said, no matter how much she strained to do so.

Hesitation blossomed into fear as she understood that she truly had to do what she'd decided to, but that fear was quashed by the sense of duty that had always ruled her even after all that she had done. She had told the others, those ponies who had helped her so much already, that she would discover why her other thoughts, why the Oathbreaker, had ceased rampaging. And she would.

“And it was Duty who opened the door,” she whispered to herself – or perhaps simply thought, as she could not feel the words on her lips – and the door before her swung open. Only a crack, as she willed it. Just enough for her to pass her head through.

Beyond it, as she expected, was the rest of her – the Oathbreaker – sitting slumped against the wall of a cave much like the one Cold had started in. She was the image of her former self, her original body, fractured like the reflection in a broken mirror, parts constantly in motion as they spun and slid and swapped places with each other. Had circumstances been different, had Oathmaker not been looking inward at her own broken mind, she would have found it fitting.

Instead she simply listened.

Without the door of their link completely shut, Cold could make out the murmuring stray thoughts of her other self. “The Valley. The Valley. Why. Should never have come. Should never have stayed. All I bring is death no matter where I go. I never learn. Crimson Dust. Root Breaker. Simple Herb. Armor Fit, Long Spear, Helm Forger, Tiller, Golden Plow, Golden Tongue, Sweet Plum, Scroll Parchment, Cherry Stem, Quarry Stone, Big Mortar, Pest Pestle, Sharp Knife, Peak Watcher, Bronze Forge, Rock Chipper, Berry Bread, Happy Field, Brookwater, Shadow Keeper, Bee Singer, Harvest Moon, Frog Catcher...

...so many more. So many more. Can see it all. See them all. How many forgotten? All let down. All betrayed. All dead. Why come? Why stay? His fault. My fault. His fault. My fault.”

A shiver of understanding and fear passed through Cold's body as she watched her other self twitch and stir, an ominous wind blowing where none should be. “His fault. My fault,” she found herself repeating without intent, lips moving in time with her other self's, faster and faster as the Oathbreaker's wild and unfocused and irresistible eyes met hers. “His fault. My fault. His fault. My fault. His fault. My fault. His fault. My fault. HIS fault. MY FAULT.”

---

A sharp and sudden gasp came from Cold, the half-mare lurching up and forward as though waking from a nightmare.

“COLD!” Twilight Sparkle cried in panic, her magic and Rainbow Dash reaching Cold before she completed her tumble forward off the cliff. Several of the others rushed forward to help, but fortunately it wasn't needed – two alone were enough to bring Cold back to solid ground, Twilight even going so far as to turn Cold around to face the group.

She spent a silent moment looking across their concerned faces, then said “I apologize. I shouldn't have sat so close to the edge of the cliff.”

“I'll say,” Rainbow said, forcing a smile and giving Cold a light punch to the shoulder. “You gave everypony else a pretty big scare.”

“Hmm...yes...,” came the disinterested voice of Discord, speaking up for the first time since he'd awoken. His eyes brightened with mocking mirth as he turned them towards Cold, stretching his body over the backs of his startled friends to get closer to her. “More importantly, I'm just dying to hear what you learned in that dusty old head of yours,” he said, clasping his claws and batting his eyes.

Cold glared at him for a moment, then winced in pain. Once more the others took steps towards her, but she quickly waved them away with the hoof she'd brought up to hold her temple. “Please save your concern for me. I was able to learn the reason behind my other self's inaction with only minor difficulty. She has become fixated on several details of my past that relate to what I shared with all of you.”

“...what do you mean by 'minor difficulty'?” Twilight asked, a look of concern shared with Fluttershy.

A pause and a blink from Cold were broken by another sharp wince. “I...this part of myself was nearly consumed by the despairing thoughts I had tried to escape. I was able to break away from them once more, but I believe-” a piercing wail shook the air, startling the group and causing several to fall over- “it came at great cost. I apologize,” she said before clenching her eyes and teeth and holding her head in her hooves.

“No no no, don't apologize Cold, you did great,” Twilight said quickly even as the sounds of shifting rock and snapping bramble rose up from the valley.

“Indeed,” Luna said, standing over the younger Princess to look down upon Cold Reason with a beaming smile. “You should be proud of yourself, o elder, for the strength you have even in this form.”

“What-ngh-what strength?” Cold asked through her pain. “I am weakness, and nothing more. Were I truly strong this-nnnngh!-never would have happened!”

Luna shook her head. “You are wrong, o elder. Were you weak your reason would have been consumed just now, and in truth you never would have been able quell your inner turmoil to begin with.” She looked to her sister, whose thoughtful look was soon replaced by first wide-eyed realization, and then the knowing smile that fit her muzzle so well.

“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked, hovering over the group looking from the Princesses, to the struggling form of Cold, and then to her friends with a questioning look in her eyes.

Applejack tapped a hoof to her chin. “Hmm...I reckon she means that Cold's the reason why her other half calmed down all of a sudden.” Another wail was punctuated a tremor that shook the mountainside and the sound of crumbling rock. “Well, you know what I mean.”

“Quite,” Rarity said. “Though I will admit I'm a little disappointed that the answer was simply that the story itself was what gave dear Cold the ability to tell it, in a manner of speaking. Poetic, perhaps, but not exactly the level of drama I've come to expect from this adventure.”

A gasp startled her and the others, and their attention quickly turned back to Twilight as she began to excitedly scratch number and figures in the dust. “No, it's perfect! Don't you see? This proves that Cold can still influence her other half!”

“I...what? No...,” Cold said weakly, lifting her head just enough to look at Twilight through hazy eyes. “Can't...be true...”

“Yyyyeah, that seems off,” Rainbow said, looking from Cold to Twilight once the former shut her eyes in pain again. “I don't think she'd be like this if she could help it.”

“True, her other half is stronger most of the time,” Twilight answered, still focused on her scrawlings – which Starlight and the other Princesses were now looking over as well, adding or correcting bits and pieces. “But that's just it – only most of the time. If it were all of the time, I doubt Cold could have even been created in the first place. But the reasonable side of Oathmaker's mind can still influence the rest of her, it's just a matter of how much strength she has to do so.”

“And that means what, exactly?” Rainbow asked. “Cold clearly doesn't have the strength to fight back right now.”

Twilight froze, then her ears fell flat. “Good point. Cold can't regain control of her mind right now.”

“So what do we do?” Applejack asked. “Cold ain't strong enough to get at her from the inside, and I don't gotta remind everypony that we sure as hay ain't strong enough to take down that Oathbreaker or whatever you wanna call her from out here.”

“It's true,” Cadance spoke up. “Every part of our plan failed – the distraction, the shield, the Elements...”

“Even Fluttershy's stare!” Pinkie sprang up to add, bugging out her eyes for emphasis.

“Nothing worked,” Cadance finished plainly.

Twilight stared, at the equations and figures scratched into the ground, at Cold writhing in pain, at the Oathbreaker throwing herself to the ground in the distance, and at nothing in particular.

“...because we were wrong,” she finally said, the words escaping her lips before she knew it. She looked up. “We were wrong. Just like Cold has been saying all this time, the Oathbreaker can't understand what we're trying to do, and can't be redeemed.”

All but the eldest of her friends leaned away, taken aback by the statement. “Uh, you're not makin' much sense there, Twilight,” Applejack said.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy added, hurt and astonished. “Are you saying that we should just give up? On a pony who's in so much pain?”

Twilight shook her head and smiled, looking across the faces of her friends. “No. I'm not saying we should give up. I'm saying that Cold was right about that part of herself, even if it was for the wrong reasons. It's not that we shouldn't try to help her, it's just that the Oathbreaker isn't the half we need to help!”

She watched with growing delight as realization dawned, one by one, on five of the faces that were watching her back. “Girls,” she said, “let's power up.”

The Six stood and reformed their circle without words or conscious coordination, the others just as wordlessly stepping back to give them room.

“Wait, hold on, I think I missed something,” Starlight spoke up, brow furrowing as she watched the Six smile at one another despite their scrapes and bumps and cuts and bruises, the familiar feel of their magic growing and swirling around them. “You're gonna use your powers on Cold?”

“But of course,” Celestia answered for them with a light laugh and a smile that reached her eyes. “Cold Reason and the Oathbreaker are simply two parts of the same whole, one consumed by the tragedy that befell her and the other trying desperately to keep such a tragedy from happening again. All this time we've been so focused on confronting the first part that we never thought to heal the second part.”

“Heal?” Starlight asked, still confused as her vision was torn between the smiling Princess and the Six rising into the air under the force of their own friendship.

Celestia nodded. “Yes, heal. For all the power and friendship that we share between us, we were unable to defeat Oathmaker's inner turmoil by ourselves. But the magic of friendship can do far more than strip away dark magic or show ponies its light...”

She trailed off there, mere moments before the Six shot into the air as a brilliant spiral rainbow that warmed the air, and the hearts, of the seven who were lucky enough to bear full witness to it. In a blink of an eye it pierced the clouds above, and for the few seconds the column persisted even the Oathbreaker paused in her rampage to look upon it.

It was gone just as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind the Six in their powered-up forms. They quickly flew into formation above and around Cold Reason, whose writhing and moaning ceased and whose eyes fluttered open to look up at the smiling form of Twilight Sparkle.

“...what...?” she asked, her voice weak and her breaths heavy. “I don't...understand...”

“It's alright,” Twilight answered, her voice as soft as the glow that surrounded her. “You will soon enough.”

“Exactly!” Pinkie said eagerly, floating clockwise from the Princess. “It's time for you to turn that great big frown, upside down!” She giggled. “With a little help from your friends, of course!”

Cold looked at her with a sort of pained, distracted confusion. But it was Applejack, next to Pinkie, who answered her unspoken question. “Aww, come on now, don't tell me you ain't figured it out yet? After everything we've been through, of course we're your friends! What happened to ya in the past doesn't change anythin'!”

“That's right, darling,” Rarity chimed in from Applejack's other side. “Why else would we be so happy to give you the help you need so desperately? We want you to feel better, so that your light may shine on life once again!”

“We know it's hard trying to keep going after so many terrible things have happened to you,” Fluttershy said next, “and we understand why you'd think that cutting yourself off from the world is for the best. But it isn't, and all we want is for you to realize that.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow added. “No matter what happens, remember that we'll be here to help you through it! Cause that's what friends are for!”

From their places above and around Cold, the Six nodded as one. “That's right,” Twilight said. “So remember, Cold. Remember, Oathmaker. Remember all the good times you've had, and not just the bad. And let the light of those memories, and our friendship, help you find a reason to keep moving forward.”

She locked eyes with Cold, and the magic of the Six flared. Purple, pink, orange, white, yellow, blue; one by one beams of light shot out and engulfed their friend, the rainbow mixing and swirling into a powerful whiteness that grew and grew. And as the light lifted her into the air and consumed her, Cold saw – the past few days, and all that her new friends had done for her. Talking with them on the streets of Ponyville and the train to Canterlot and in the castle; getting her mane styled by Rarity; making plans with Pinkie that she didn't have the heart to turn down; and all of them coming to her aide when her other self finally awoke and she struggled to contain the resulting wave of emotions.

And then came the faces of those she'd lost, not hateful or anguished as she'd imagined so much for so long, but smiling and happy as they'd been in life. So, so many in a blink of an eye, seeing and hearing and feeling all the good times they'd shared, and all the encouragement they'd ever given her in all her times of trouble.

Further back, further back, before the Valley and beyond. Ponies she could barely see at all, they were such bare wisps of memory, but which she could hear clear as day, and which her heart knew and cherished just as much as those who'd come long after. And at the furthest depths of the furthest depths of the furthest depths, sheltered by darkness, buried under centuries of tragedy and strife before she'd ever stepped hoof in the Valley, only words remained...

---

My dear child...

Y-yes, mother?

Promise me...

A-anything! Anything, I swear!

…

Survive, my sweet...

Survive...

...and never...

...ever...

...give up on life...

I-I will! I promise!

…

Just...just please...

...don't...

...leave me...

Author's Note:

So. Yeah. Hopefully that explains some more things about Cold/Oathmaker in a way that makes sense and flows properly from observation to conclusion. Likewise, I hope all the cheesy and emotional/inspirational bits hit all the right notes and feel like the sort of thing that canon has done! It's my first time writing scenes quite like them, so I hope I did a good job.

As always, one of my Equestria Girls oneshots will be going up today as well - it's called 'No Other Choice', and stars Celestia and Luna as well as a couple of special guests that may be of interest to fans of this story.

And, more importantly, the final chapter of Oathmaker will be posted next Monday, May 29th. I hope you all look forward to it as much as I am

See you soon, dear readers

- Fangren