18 - Conference with the Moon
Everything would be fine, they said. Trust that friendship would come swiftly and naturally, they said…
Apparently not.
Avia grumbled sourly, shifting uncomfortably from her position overlooking the atrium from one of the higher up balconies. Things could be mistaken for a normal day if, you know, she hadn’t just learned of a huge diplomatic calamity brewing on the horizon.
Hives, not brewing, it was brewed. Now it was being distributed!
And now she was just thirsty, so Avia mentally decided to stop with the metaphors.
She groaned, her forehead meeting the top of the railing with a ‘thunk’. It was like every day she had an increase in the number of mental gymnastics she was going inside her head. She’d been left behind to figure out how to run a hive, but everything here was as calm as ever. And that was the frustrating thing! Things were devolving into chaos out there and here she was, stuck in the hive while her mother did all the heavy lifting.
As usual.
If she was there, maybe she could figure out a way to help! There had to be some books and diplomatic treaties to browse in the Canterlot archives. Beyond that, maybe she could just help her mother strategize. Find some way to keep their world from devolving into anarchy overnight.
That thought… It was as strange as it was scary. The fact that this kind of event could actually lead to conflict. Beyond the occasional magical psycho or rampaging beast wandering around, the Princess of the Equestrian Hive had never known conflict. The thought of what happened in the past, the conflicts between Equestria and the changelings, it was little more than accounts and words in historical texts for her. Born so long after as she was, it wasn’t even a distant memory.
So the thought that the peaceful world she’d grown up in might be ending was nothing short of terrifying.
No, there had to be something she could do. There had to be.
Avia pried her forehead from the railing, raising her lavender gossamer wings and taking off into the air. She lowered herself through the atrium, passing several drones as she went as her eyes scanned for Carduus among the crowds. He was meant to be out here spending some time with Panacea and Iuvenes. She hated interrupting that, the old stallion could always use such a break. But she needed his advice.
It didn’t take too long to find them, a mix of simple scanning the area and mentally pinging the odd drone she passed for direction. But sure enough, there they were. Outside of a little café built into the walls of the hive, sitting around tables with a couple of extra guests. Soronis and Puellula were there, Rose and Tutela too. A large gathering of friends and family.
She felt all the more guilty interrupting it. But this couldn’t exactly wait.
“Princess!” Rose gasped. “Hey! Princess!”
“Wowwww…” Tutela said in awe.
“You’ve seen her before!” Rose pointed out.
“So? She’s still a princess!”
Avia blushed at the children’s reaction. But she shook it off and approached the table.
“Avia,” Carduus greeted. “I thought you were going through some more proposals today.”
“Yeah, that can wait…” Avia muttered. “Carduus, can I talk to you? In private?”
“Oh dear, what’s happened now?” Soronis asked worriedly. “The Queen didn’t blow something up, did she?”
“Sis, if anything, the Queen would be in the building being blown up by something else that’s big and scary,” Puellula disputed.
Avia puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. “Nothing has exploded! Buuut, things are a little complicated right now too.”
“…The New Kingdom?” Carduus enquired slowly.
“Yeah. The New Kingdom.”
“That’s the place Queen Twilight discovered, right?” Iuvenes asked. “The one with the unicorns? There’s been a fair bit of word going around, but Dad isn’t telling us much.”
“What’s to tell? There are a group of ponies from the land of the Three Tribes,” her father remarked in turn.
“Yes, but every time we ask for details, you are a little evasive.”
“She isn’t wrong,” Panacea supported her daughter. “And I know the look you get when things aren’t going all that well.”
“I-Is something wrong…?” Rose asked timidly.
“And this is why I’m not spreading things around needlessly,” Carduus rebutted. “Not right now, and not with the kids. I’m not sure what’s going on with Twilight right now, but I think I’m about to find out.”
“I’ll get him back to you as quick as I can,” Avia said apologetically. “I just need some words of wisdom.”
“Well, I’m not sure I’m wise persay. But I will lend an ear, your Highness. As always.”
“But you will tell us if something is up and we need to worry, right?” Soronis asked bluntly. “We’re known you since you were a kid, Avia. I’ve known your mother for far longer. I don’t want to be kept in the dark.”
“I know, Soronis. You have Rose to think about.”
“And her mother.”
“Hey!” Puellula protested.
Avia did smile a little at that. “I understand. But just let me try to figure things out first, okay?”
“I’m sure we can do that, dear,” Panacea said gently, then looking towards her husband. “Go on. We aren’t going anywhere.”
“Right…” he muttered as he stood up wobbly. “Excuse me for a minute.”
“Bye Miss Princess!” both nymphs called out as they started to move aside.
They made their way past the passing crowd, squeezing past an earth pony before budging up against another railing overlooking the atrium. Avia regarded the statues at the bottom a moment before sighing and turning to face the former Captain of the Royal Guard.
“Things have gotten worse.”
“I gathered,” he replied, glancing back at the others. “I was hopeful that their efforts to reach out to King Ignis would bear fruit, but I had a bad feeling things might not go as the Queen hoped. That’s why I haven’t really said much to anybody. I guess I was right.”
“For better or worse, your instincts are still sharp at least,” Avia mused. “I had a talk with Mother over the egregore. They received a threat in reply to Princess Celestia’s letter. They want a tribute. A large one. The subtext suggested bad things should they refuse.”
“Ah…” Carduus gritted his teeth. “The old playground bullying tactics. Act big and tough and steal another nymph’s bits. I know the Queen, and she won’t go for something like that. It goes against friendship, and frankly, she really doesn’t like being threatened.”
“You’re right. She’s mad,” she confirmed. “They’re not going to pay it. But… I’m not sure I should be back here, stuck in the hive.”
“We’ve talked about this, Avia.”
“Yes, but things are getting worse out there!” she hissed. “My mother needs me right now. And, if anything, I’m more likely to gain experience ruling by helping deal with this than staying cooped up.”
“And what of the hive if you go, hm?”
“Come on, Carduus. We all know the Equestrian Hive has been without us for a few days or even weeks before. The hive mind allows that. And I know you can fill in any gaps or help the rest of our drones do so themselves. But this is important, I feel it.”
The changeling drone sighed, blue eyes moving up and staring out through the shielded ceiling of the hive. “I know. But the Queen wanted you here… Even if your mind could be of use elsewhere.”
“I guess she’ll have to trust my judgement. She left me in charge, so let me be in charge.”
“You’re certain of this?” Carduus asked her. “You really want to go to Canterlot in the middle of all of this?”
The Princess nodded. “I have to.”
“Then there’s not actually anything I can do to stop you. All I ask is that you sleep on it first, however. Think on things, if only to figure out exactly what you’re going to do when you get there. And how to stop your mother from giving you the God of all lectures.”
Avia bit her lip. “I… guess there would be no harm. Okay, fine. I will do that. But we’ll talk about this again tomorrow, because I know I’ll be going.”
“I don’t doubt it. She would do the same thing, you know.”
“Oh, I know.”
He chuckled. “Good to know. But what exactly did Queen Twilight say they were going to do next?”
“The general plan right now is to try and straighten things out without paying a penny to The New Kingdom. Talk them down with the usual flairs of friendship. I don’t really know what they plan on saying to him, just that they’re trying to come up with a way to change his mind. Either go with the original deal or back off entirely.”
“Makes sense. Paying would be a bad idea.”
“Even if it would secure peace?”
“Avia, you know better. Bullies always come back for more if they succeed the first time,” Carduus shot back. “His threats of violence are likely just hot air.”
“Yeah… I guess you’re right…”
But even as she said that there was still something that was bugging Avia at the back of her mind. Almost like she was forgetting something important. Something she had heard…? No, something she had seen. What was it?
The royal changeling shook her head, putting that point into the back of her mind for the moment. Still, the feeling didn’t entirely desist…
“Worst comes to worst, they will see us through it. Just like before,” he said in an attempt to comfort the Princess.
“Right… Well, I’m off to go and think then. Because I haven’t done enough of that recently…”
“You could join us for a little while? Put your hooves up for an hour or so.”
“I don’t think I-”
“Avia,” he addressed sternly. “You could use it.”
She went to argue, but the sharp look in his eye caused her mouth to shut up tight. Avia then released a sigh, resigning herself to going along with his request.
“Okay, fine. An hour.”
“An hour,” he agreed, motioning for her to follow him back to the table.
And so she did, waving off the concerns of the others as she pulled up a chair and let her worries slide away for a little while. The subject was soon changed, and the topic of world politics largely forgotten, Soronis teasingly launching into some stories of Puellula’s childhood, much to Puellula’s dissatisfaction and the particular delight of Rose.
Still, that feeling remained. She had forgotten something, but for the life of her, she could not recall what it was…
Fire.
The hive was on fire.
Avia wasn’t sure what had happened, everything had been so sudden and… How? What had caused this? Had something attacked them? Was it just an accident? What was going on!?
She groaned as she raised herself to her hooves, finding herself standing atop the jagged remnants of one of the atrium’s levels. The charred remains of the café was behind her, the floor either side of her having collapsed deep into the bowels of the cavernous space.
That’s right, she was taking an hour to relax with her friends, wasn’t she? Yes, that’s right. Seeking advice from Carduus, he told her to sleep on her decision whether or not to go to Canterlot and then she had sat down with them for a brief breather.
She looked over towards the collapsed table. Most of them had fallen deeper into the atrium when the floor collapsed, but she had been laid out atop the remains of theirs.
But where were they? Soronis? Puellula? Iuvenes? The kids?
None of them were to be seen. In fact, there wasn’t a soul in sight. Just the crackling of the flames and the occasional distant scream.
Carduus wouldn’t leave her. Nor would Panacea. Nor any of them, short of the sisters getting the children to safety, but someone would have remained behind to tend to her when she was knocked unconscious. Because that had to have been what happened, right? She must have blacked out by whatever blast caused all of this.
Avia moved along to the edge of what little floor remained beneath her, staring out into the trashed atrium. Her eyes widened as she spied the scattered remains of the statues far below, the crystal they held to keep the protective shield in place likewise shattered and useless.
And then she looked up, the night’s sky spread out above her. And there they were, shapes descending down. Blades chopping the air, mana engines humming with power. Her heart briefly soared as she believed herself to be seeing the Equestrian EUP coming in to help. But then it plummeted as she realised these designs were not theirs but looked exactly how she imagined those across the sea looked based upon her mother’s descriptions.
They were New Kingdom.
A light emerged from one of the helicopters as it lowered down, blinding Avia as she stumbled.
And then she heard something revving up.
With a shout, she jumped from the balcony and into the air as many bolts of magic struck the platform she had just been on. She allowed herself to fall freely for a moment before snapping her wings open and clattering down into the bottom floor of the atrium.
And then she saw the bodies. Changeling, ponies… All residents of the Equestrian Hive. Slaughtered. Butchered. Stallions. Mares. Nymphs. All dead.
“Y-you…!” she whimpered out, tears breaching her eyes as she lit her horn and whopped her head up to face the monsters who had done this. “Why!?”
And then something else emerged from between the aircraft above her. Like a flaming comet, the large equine figure flew down towards her as she explicitly felt her magic fail her. It came close, halting just above the changeling as it stared down at Avia with nothing but hate and contempt.
And fire. This alicorn. It all came back to her.
She had seen this. Just before the expedition. She had seen this!
No matter how hard she tried, no magic came to her horn. Ignis just kept staring, the flames growing higher and higher until…
The moon glowed.
“BEGONE, SHADE!”
There was a pulse of dark blue magic, and then everything had changed. It remained night, but the sky seemed to glow more brilliantly than ever. The hive was no longer aflame, the rubble was gone, and the statues were repaired. As Avia looked up at the returned crystal, it lit with its great magical energies and shot a beam up into the sky, reforming the shield that kept them all safe.
And as it did, the moon glowed all the bright, before in a flash it morphed into another equine figure that gracefully descended until Avia came face to face with Princess Luna.
“Calm thyself, Princess Avia of the Equestrian Hive,” Luna declared. “The dream is done, let your rest be a peaceful one.”
“Princess Luna!” Avia shouted out with no small amount of relief. “That… I’m dreaming!?”
“Tis not my first visit, young one,” the alicorn confirmed. “But this was of particular intensity. I saw fit to make my presence known, especially considering the subjects.”
“You… You saw that, huh?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I am the Matron of the Dream Realm. I do not miss the minuscule details, let alone what is so obvious it becomes, quite literally, an inferno.”
Avia scuffed the ground. “Right. Yes. I suppose so. Thanks…”
“You are most welcome. Still, it is clear that recent events trouble you.”
Avia hesitated, looking around the now pristine hive once again as she tried to banish the image of the devastation from her mind. But try as she might, she could still imagine as the destruction around her. The smell. The feeling of the heat and ash against her chitin…
“All I’ve know is peace. I don’t want that to end,” she admitted fearfully. “To see what my mother saw. It still haunts her, you know. I see it. It changed her.”
“It changed us all,” Luna lamented. “Those events killed your grandmother. Took Twilight Sparkle’s mind and enslaved it to another. Brought out the deepest and darkest aspects of my sister, much as I had once fallen myself. Whereas you have seen nothing but peace in your short lifetime, I have known much strife. My taste for conflict has long since faded.”
Avia’s breaths became shaky. This dream, and the one before, that was what she had forgotten. She had dreamt about what was happening before it happened! Prophetic dreaming existed; Luna’s own Dream Realm was funny like that. It could bend time and space, peer into what was and could be. She remembered doing a research project into that very phenomenon just before her little misadventure in the Everfree Forest with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
But she had seen it all happen. What was to come if the peace was not held.
‘Please, no…’ she inwardly begged as she scrunched her eyes shut. ‘Don’t let them destroy my home. I can’t let it happen. I… I just can’t!’
“Avia?” Luna questioned.
“You have to pay that tribute!” Avia suddenly declared. “You can’t provoke them. If we don’t placate The New Kingdom… I won’t see those flames again!”
“Alas, we shall not be paying anything,” Luna denied.
“But you saw-!”
“A dream, a construct of fears and insecurities. I have seen many,” the Princess of the night interrupted. “I too have… doubts, and I do question what will happen next. But after some thought, I have decided that my sister and your mother are correct. We cannot give in to their demands, doing so would incite future events such as these demands.”
“But-”
“It is decided. We are considering our future actions regarding these ponies but agreeing to their unreasonable and unjust terms is not something we can abide.”
“But you do have doubts?”
Luna looked away. “As I have explained to you, I grow weary of conflict. But I must trust in my sister and do what is right. I must put my fears aside and do what I must for the good of Equestria, not myself. We shall not be at war, young Avia. We shall prevent it.”
“But you won’t!” Avia protested in a panic. “I remember! I’ve seen Ignis before, before my mother found The New Kingdom. I’ve seen him! The death! The flames! It’s coming! If we provoke him, we will ALL pay the price!”
Luna’s eyes widened at the changeling’s sincere terror, looking back towards her while taking a step forward.
“Explain. Now.”
“I… I think I saw a vision of what’s to come. It happened just before the expedition, and I thought it was just a dream at the time. I brushed it aside,” the changeling recalled. “But now… I know it wasn’t just a dream! I saw Ignis, and it was just like it was a few minutes ago. Ignis will burn my hive given the chance, and Equestria is in his way.”
“You are truly convinced of this?”
“You know prophetic dreams exist. More than anypony!” she further pressed. “And I know enough about them to know when it has occurred! I’ve done the research, compared notes, projects done by myself my mother and all the other scholars of Equestria! I know what I saw, and we’re heading straight for disaster.”
“…I do not doubt your knowledge surrounding such things. You are your mother’s child in that regard. And… And I too have experience. My sister and I witnessed Lord Tirek’s return right before it happened, for example.”
“So you know I am right.”
“It is possible,” Luna admitted. “But there is no guarantee paying it would stop what is to come. Or, even if it should, they may attempt it again. We cannot allow-”
“PLEASE!” Avia cut her off desperately. “I know this whole thing is just… messed up! I’m running the variables in my head and there are all kinds of outcomes and so few right answers to turn to! But if we don’t try, then I know people are going to die. I want to try. I NEED to try.”
Luna was silent for a good few moments, conflict written across her facial features as she studied the Princess of the Equestrian Hive.
“…Should we do so, it would be but the once. Should they attempt future threats, as I unfortunately suspect, we cannot abide by them to keep the peace. Even if we wished to, we would not be able to afford to for long.”
“I know. If it happens again, there’s nothing we can do. But if they don’t? We should try, just this once. If it can avoid that future I saw…”
“And we would need to do it ourselves. Twilight would never agree, it goes against her very principles. My sister too would never condone it from a point of pride.”
“Then I’ll take it to them,” Avia decided. “If you can get it to me, maybe give me an escort of your guard, I can do it.”
“Not your own changelings?”
“They’d tell my mother. They’d have to. But your Lunar Guard will do what you ask of them.”
“Most. But I fear its Captain would find great discomfort in such an act,” Luna mused. “But I can think of a few. However, Avia, you must understand the dangerous path we trot. If something were to go wrong…”
“I know the risks. But I need to do what I can to protect my home. I want to do this. After what I saw, I NEED to do this.”
Luna grew silent once more, inwardly cursing herself for allowing herself to be swayed towards this course of action once again. No small part of her was screaming of its foolishness, that its outcomes were too numerous to properly predict. All arguments she had made to herself to talk herself out of it previously. But this supposed vision of Avia’s had upset the balance in her mind. The changeling was as sincere as she was knowledgeable about such things.
It could mean a number of things. But with the fire on the horizon, could they truly afford not to try?
Ponyville. Manehatten. The Badlands Hive.
Luna growled. Either this would be the best choice she ever made, or it would sit among the worst of them.
“Very well, Princess Avia,” Luna agreed with great resignation. “If you so insist, then I will help you. Come to Canterlot, I will oversee preparations here. But at the slightest sign of trouble, we shall be terminating this exchange.”
“Okay. I get it, I’ll be careful.”
“I would hope so. For we might never be forgiven should we fail this day,” the alicorn warned. “Rest, Avia. We have much work ahead.”
Avia nodded, steel in her eyes as her resolve hardened.
She knew what she saw. What would happen if she messed this up? But she had faith that future, that terrible future, could yet be prevented.
Carduus asked her to sleep on her decision. And she had done so more than he might have imagined.
Avia was going to Canterlot.
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War is coming, but paying that tribute will only make it worse
And neither one considered the possibility that this dream depicted what would happen not if the tribute was refused, but if it was paid.
Prophecies are about as useless as it gets. You get a warning of things to come, but without knowing what causes it, you can't avoid it. Not to mention that mess known as self fulfilling prophecies. Real or not, they're best left ignored.
This is sounding a bit oracle-y. And if there is one thing we know about oracles it's that they are never wrong, only on occasion misleading as hell. And the quickest way to bring about what they prophesied is to try and prevent it from happening.
I hope you know what you're doing, Avia....
The solution is to not give into demands, but someone is pulling at the right strings to force war into action.
10303346
10303348
If only they knew about the ancient Greek tragedies...
Sunset really shoulda warned em.
I got a terrible feeling, that even if they pay Ignus, that nightmare is going to become real...
I have a very bad feeling about this. Ignis is being manipulated into going to war with Equestria regardless of what happens, and I have a bad feeling this “prophecy” Avia saw is only going to made things worse.
yes go tripping to canterlot that will help. especially if u got kidnapped in halfway and begin used to force twi to fighting
A prophetic dream well this is not a good thing.
well it is and it is not.
10303346
Very good points.
Ah, nothing out there quite like good old self-fulfilling prophecy, causing the very thing you're trying to prevent.
Nice.
Did you mean to write "soared" here?
Typo.
I feel like the scene where she convinces them to pay is a bit too long and overstays its welcome. Being a bit verbose doesn't help.
10303448
To say nothing about WW2. Appeasement never works.