Metal Celestia

by Impossible Numbers

A Quicksilver Temper

Once more, Clover’s hoof hesitated before rapping against the grand portal. She wasn’t sure why she kept hesitating. It wasn’t as if Platinum ever turned her away, even if she did whine and moan and occasionally splash her face accidentally with water.

To her shock, the princess threw the door back, squealed, and seized her in both forelimbs. All too fleetingly, the warmth pressed into her neck and cheek, and then Platinum drew back. There was no sign in her wide eyes or beaming smile of their last encounter.

Oh dear, she thought. The mood swings are back again.

“Clover, my dear little mage!” She ushered her in, spluttering through sheer joy. “Oh, ker, fuh, lur! Don’t stand out here in this dingy bit of nothingness. No friend of mine should be allowed to freeze outside her mistress’ chambers.”

She’s just being nice. She doesn’t mean anything by it. She certainly doesn’t mean anything by “my dear little mage”, or reducing my life’s work like I’m some kind of favourite toy.

As she was dragged across the dimly lit room, she forced herself to remember young Platinum, who used to cheerfully hit her with a pillow and then cry whenever she wandered off. Sometimes, though, it was hard to remember all that when the adult Platinum had a voice like a dog howling in agony.

“Look what I did!” Platinum’s magic threw her forwards and almost into the dressing table.

On one side of the table, she’d heaped snow until a white molehill stood quietly melting onto the carpet. On the other, she’d placed what looked like three wine glasses full of water, except for the acrid smell dissolving the hairs around their noses. Between the two, a platter shone silver.

“See? I told you it was harmless!” Platinum giggled beside her. “I did the whole thing by myself. Add snow and acid, you said, and behold! It is still liquid.”

Platinum tapped the table smartly along its side. Gloop sloshed under the silver veneer – until Clover realized there was no actual distinction. It was all one substance.

“You were testing the freezing point of mercury?” said Clover, whose mind could think fast sometimes.

“Yes! The romance of quicksilver, the sheer elegant life-giving power of the living metal… Please tell me you remember.”

“Oh, I couldn’t forget this,” said Clover with a laugh.

Immediately, she wished she hadn’t spoken. Platinum gave her the pout of a kicked puppy. Even the princess’ fluffy brain could take a hard enough hit.

“I only wanted to show you,” said Platinum, who was inching towards a sob, “that I do listen sometimes. It was so beautiful, too. And I spent ages looking for the acids alone, never mind how long I had to wait to get the snow imported fresh from the Pegasus City.”

Clover burned where she stood. “I didn’t mean anything, Your Highness.”

I would never do anything to hurt you. Please believe me. No matter what happened in the past, we’re together until death. I swear. I haven’t forgotten.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the floor.

Platinum sighed and thumped the side of the table. “I understand, of course. You’re only trying to keep me safe. I know, I know. But this is my father we’re discussing.”

Clover glanced up sharply. “Your Highness?”

Staring at the wobble of mercury in the platter, the princess cocked her head and pouted. “So beautiful… surely, something so great and wondrous couldn’t possibly be dangerous? Not really?”

Clover’s reflection caught her eye. Red veins stood out against the whites.

“I suppose,” continued Platinum, “I could desist from the quicksilver powder… and from having my fur pelts dipped in the stuff to matt it properly… and I suppose from taking that medicine stuff, caramel was it?”

“Calomel, Your Highness,” said Clover, still staring at her reflection. My word, what am I doing to myself? My face looks like it’s been stung all over by a beehive. I’ve got puffy eyes and cheeks. How long have I been looking like this?

In the platter, the mercury continued to quiver. Strangely, it did look beautiful. Like living silver, metal that breathed and moved. She could almost hear it laughing, a tinkling tinny laugh like the fierce shaking of a bell.

Quiet and still, Platinum let her scan her hair, closing her eyes only when the purple bar flowed along her face. Tiny red dots flared. Signs of mercury. They rose from her face and mane, pooling into a floating blob between them that was all the more wondrous for the crimson hue of its bob and pulse.

I don’t blame her for sitting this one out. Clover ran another bar across the pelt of the gown, which fizzled and blazed red. The way Celestia’s just going around doing things – slipping scrolls, spying on ponies, all without a word – I wish I wasn’t doing it myself. The King can’t be worth all this, can he? I don’t know what’s worse; if he catches us first, or if we catch him out.

So cold… like ice…

No, like metal. It’s not just unicorns who love the stuff. Our entire history as ponies revolves around metal. It’s everywhere. When we talk about the fruits of civilization, we talk about art and love and science and sport and libraries and clothing. Yet metal’s always there, always cold and never glowing at anything but the strongest heats. Somehow, we fear it and love it at the same time. It’s like living on death.

Mercury pooled before her until it flattened, and she formed it into another platter. Hard to believe there was so much metal on one pony.

And sooner or later, it would have driven her mad. Is that what happened to the King? He seems so much more… drained these days. I know for a fact he uses stuff like this too. Most unicorns do. Pegasi as well. They even flavour their fermented grape juices with bits of lead! The whole world is on the edge of insanity.

Except for me…

As though avenging the slighted world, the guilty memory rose up and struck. The filly – young Platinum – standing there, eyes tinged with a green radiance. She just stood there gaping with the drool dripping from her mouth. Clover had screamed. She’d had no idea what she was doing – casting spells on a royal! – and frantically she cut out her magic –

The mercury dipped. Clover jerked awake and snatched the blobs up just in time. Beyond the crimson sheen, Platinum gave a yip of shock.

– but the spell hadn’t gone. She had no idea how to get rid of it. She’d only wanted to show her friend what she’d learned! Star Swirl himself had never dared to try it! It should have been nothing worse than the work of an earth pony trickster. Simple suggestion, a little magical push, and their mind did the work for you! What was wrong with her?

“Clover?”

Her face was aflame. Pinned down by Platinum’s stare, she stared back, helpless as a rabbit before a snake.

She blinked.

“Are you all right, Clover?”

Clover swallowed and forced a smile, which only seared across her muzzle. “Apologies, Your Highness. My mind wandered off for a second. It must have been the fumes.”

Her magical touch slurped up the mercury from the platter and tightened the lot into a cannonball. Instead of staring at Platinum, she focused on patting the crimson patina into a smooth sphere.

“I had good news,” she murmured. “I’m going to be a godmother.”

“Oh, bravo!” Princess Platinum rallied magnificently, stomping her hooves in applause and beaming at her. “Such an honour! Your godchild could not be in more capable hooves.”

Duty forced her to bow her head, despite the squirming in her chest. That hadn’t been the only ill-placed spell: toasting her princess’ legs with a faulty teleportation spell; knocking her onto her side under an overzealous shield bubble; having to revive her from a misjudged sleepwell spell. Every time, the King had shouted at her until she trembled and sobbed. Every time, Platinum insisted on having her around, even stamping her hoof before her father.

I don’t deserve such luck. I’m a disaster waiting to happen. This proves it. I’ve never been careful with my magic, regardless of how many times I swear I’ll make Star Swirl proud. And if I’m not careful, then I’m going to trigger a war.

Platinum tilted her head. “You don’t seem particularly enthused.”

“Sorry. I have a lot on my mind, Your Highness.”

“Oh, please. This is the Dawning of the Age of Equestria. I think ‘Platinum’ will suffice, don’t you? If any soul has earned that right, it’s you.”

“I’ll just…” Taking a sidestep towards the portal, she waved the cannonball up and down. “I’ll just dispose of this, Your Highness.”

“Thank you, Clover.” Platinum nodded with a sweep of her mane, gracious as she’d ever be. “I knew you’d think of something. You always do.”

Clover didn’t dare breathe again until the hinges creaked behind her and the portal slammed shut.

---

The portal burst open with a clank of brass, and Clover looked away from the view from the balcony. Marching across to the twisted gold of the rails, the King surged into her universe and goggled over the edge. Around him, his billowing cape caught the bubble of breeze.

“What in blazes is this?” he boomed. “What? What?”

“Your Majesty.” Clover kissed the floor at his hooves. “Good morning and favourable fortune unto your greatness.”

A blank stare met her when she straightened up. Then the King pointed a stocky limb at her, mouth rounded with a question too stunned to come out.

“They’ve been arriving through the gates all morning, Your Majesty,” she continued. “We’ve already stationed the guards across all entrances and exit points to the castle, but so far no one has tried breaking through.”

His mane was wild about his bulbous head like seaweed cast onto a swamp. He flicked his goggling gaze from her to the streets below, then back to her, and then back to the streets. His mouth struggled to form words.

“They can’t do that,” he rumbled. “Can they? This is behaviour liable to breach the peace, what?”

“They haven’t broken any actual laws, Your Majesty.” Once more, she kissed the ground at his feet. “There can be no misunderstanding this time.”

Finally, his eyes narrowed with recognition. “Clover,” he said, his voice quaking and causing dust to fall from the overhanging crystal roof. “Where the dickens have you been the last few days?”

“In pursuit of the rogue Celestia, Your Majesty.” Sweat burned through her skin like acid; practising in front of a mirror and acting in front of the crown itself were a world apart. “As soon as I realized my mistake, I tracked her across the San Palomino desert. Unfortunately, I lost her trail.”

His whole body trembled. She could feel the ground shaking through her hooves. “What on earth are you talking –?”

“That’s when Platinum contacted me, Your Majesty. There was suspicion of a conspiracy closer to home, Your Majesty. I was urgently needed to help uncover it. Much as it pains me to admit it, one treacherous rogue is nothing to the stability and safety of an entire kingdom.”

When he ground his teeth, sparks leapt up. She could almost hear his mind shouting for the guards. Lieutenant Lilt alone would be itching to rush in with his iron sword. Everyone knew she was involved in Celestia’s escape. Somewhere between that and the chopping block, her mind worked feverishly for a diversion.

Hastily, she threw herself onto the floor, flat and pathetic. Her own body was shaking below the rumbling volcano of his suppressed rage. “I live only to serve the royals, Your Majesty. I am oath-bound. I give you my word.”

And then, finally, the quaking stopped. She dared glance up, but he’d returned to the balcony. Blushing, she heard him mutter, “Confounded mages. I knew you were a bad lot.”

A few seconds seemed long enough to let the magma sink down into the depths. Clover helped herself onto her hooves and joined his side, peering over the gilded helix winding along the rails.

Ponies covered the street below. Every colour bloomed and squirmed under the rising sunshine. Merrily, they chanted, so many yells and shrieks blending into each other that a cloud of sound puffed around their ears. Squinting, Clover could spot the occasional hornless head among the mass, and saw no backs with wings. Most wore puffy sleeves and tights. Some had bows on their backs and platters on their scalps bearing puddings of all kinds. Confetti sprouted like geysers. Drums boomed louder than the King, and harps twanged and whistles cut through the din. Pots and pans banged together. Forelimbs waved.

On top of it all, cart-wheeling on the sea of heads and backs, the unmistakeable Chancellor Puddinghead led them all through the chant. Even above the shapeless shouting, her squeak of a voice smothered the lot like icing on a cake. Occasionally, Smart Cookie surfaced some two or three ponies’ backs away, chanting too.

The King stomped; a crash of thunder that quietened the ponies for a few seconds before Puddinghead flapped her hooves encouragingly. Pouring back into the silence, the din smothered him.

“Treachery!” he howled to the sky. “Woe! Woe! Tis vile treachery!”

No, thought Clover, and she narrowed her eyes at him. It’s a protest. Can’t you tell the difference anymore?

“It’s exactly what the pegasi were planning!” The King gaped at the mass. “Those wretches! Those villains! Those… those brutish nincompoops! They’ve destroyed my beautiful peace!”

A trickle of pity dripped into Clover’s mind. The King had never whined like this before. During the pegasine-unicorn wars, he’d always taken news of another breach or a mass desertion with a booming belly-laugh and a philosophical shrug of his shoulders. He’d been a pragmatist. Perhaps he was hitting old age too fast. Perhaps Platinum was his last hope after all.

Wood clanked on wood behind them, and Platinum yawned on her way over to her father’s other side. Her silver crown gleamed under the dawn light.

“My my, what a terrible noise. Father? What are they doing?” she said, blinking at the riot of colour below.

Caught out, the King hastily returned to all four hooves. “My lovely Platinum,” he cooed, still contriving to suggest that bagpipes featured in his vocal tract somewhere. “Look upon this mutiny and despair. This! This is exactly what I’ve been warning you about all these years… oh dear me, are you all right, pumpkin?”

Platinum covered her yawn with a genteel hoof. “I’m afraid I couldn’t sleep a wink, Father. Some pea-brain maid must have fiddled with my mattresses again.”

“Oh, but darling! You should have said. I would have instantly made them put it right again. Oh, aren’t you a brave soldier, my darling? It’s at times like this that I feel the sweet gales of hope smoothing my twisted brow.”

He loomed over her as a fat eagle might have huddled over a chick, his wing-like robe twitching as he magically straightened her mane and flicked a bit of lint off her shoulder. Clover looked down. Family was a whole different country to her.

“It seems,” continued the King, “that the pegasi and the earth ponies hold grievances against us. Yea, you may exclaim” – he waited for her to do so, but she merely yawned again – “but last night, we intercepted a confidential message from the Commander himself! Inciting the earth ponies to riot. What’s more, the earth ponies sent one back, claiming most falsely that we intended to undermine the pegasus-unicorn alliance once the earth ponies were removed. A slander! A wicked, pernicious slander! And behold! Tis true! No sooner has the rot been exposed to the sun that it decays and overwhelms us with its deadly stench!”

“Um hm.” Platinum examined a hoof. “Father, I love you, but all this political talk is making my head all spinny. May I use the hot springs today? I’ve been itching to go for days.”

Clover chuckled under her hoof, and quickly silenced herself when the King’s cape swung round with a flutter. She stared down at the crowd. Spikes slid through her veins. She didn’t dare move.

The King sighed. “Oh, my purest lily flower. Surely, you must appreciate what a calamity this is? The earth ponies and the pegasi are mobilizing against us.”

“Oh, pooh-pooh, Father.” Platinum flicked her mane back. “Why on earth would they do that, besides common jealousy? You just wait, and this’ll fizzle out like all those other faction things.”

The King peered down at the crowd, wiping his brow on the back of his hoof. “My legacy…”

“Oh, and may I borrow the great hall for the afternoon? I wanted to host a ball in there. When I dance under the chandeliers and the candelabras, the divinity of the air is simply too much to resist.”

Really? A ball of one… What kind of Princess Regent would she make? Is this plan even going to work with her in it?

I’m sorry, Platinum. But it’s true. I wish it wasn’t.

Clover still didn’t dare move. She could hear the King’s mind chugging along, whirring, trying to make everything click into place. And a mind like his was a gigantic machine. It was all too easy to get crushed under the gears.

“They’re not supposed to fight us,” he rumbled. “This wasn’t my vision of unity at all.”

Us. The stressed syllable was unmistakeable. Except apparently to Platinum, who continued to cluck and speak breathily about the wonders of the solo waltz.

She could feel him looking at her. And we haven’t even gotten the evidence yet…

Her horn flashed with the urge, but she forced the spell back down. Don’t capture anything just yet. It’ll take too much energy. Just let him get her alone, and –

“Mage!” The King’s voice pushed her head down as forcefully as a fist. “A word, if you please!?”

After another flutter of his cape, she turned and followed the sweeping hem with its faux fur outline. She resisted the urge to scan for mercury. Any unauthorized magic near His Majesty, and she could say goodbye to her neck.

Platinum gasped and flapped her gown. “Father! Where are you going? What are you doing with her?”

“Don’t worry, my dear,” he boomed with a chortle. “Hohoho, don’t worry! Your father has had the most brilliant idea, and I need young… Clover’s help here to fulfil it. We’ll soon have the mastermind behind this mutiny, don’t you worry.”

“Good luck, Clover!” trilled Platinum.

Clover didn’t dare look back. Sometimes, Platinum could be so dim.

Why wouldn’t she be? I never told her. She only sees him shouting when I’ve done something to deserve it. She’s never seen what else he does to me…

“This way,” the King grunted, turning to an adjoining chamber. It was black inside. No light entered or escaped.

I could blast him between the shoulders right now, and he’d be helpless. Hastily, Clover’s mind shushed the thought. It might show up on her face, which was already fizzing under the sweat.

Celestia, what have you done? No! Don’t think like that. Stick to the plan. Follow her instructions. Get the recording spell ready.

Then he shut the door, and she realized the darkness was no accident. She couldn’t see him. He could command her to stand wherever he wanted her to. Any flicker of magic on her horn would be obvious. And while Platinum was no mage-level spellcaster, she’d seen the King in action at the archery rounds. They needed new targets each time. Wars had taught him well.

Still, she had to try. The spell slithered through her mind.

Clover yelped. Everything above her forehead twanged, firing bolts back into her skull.

“I would keep my magic to myself, if I were you,” growled the King right into her ear. She yelped at the sting in her eardrums and clapped a hoof over it. “What happens in this room stays in this room.”

His horn lit up. Only his crushed snarl and the tip of her snout showed, but it was enough. His entire visage held her more thoroughly than any magic. Demons couldn’t match the curl of his lip or the rockslide of his frowning brow.

“I know full well you’re involved in this treachery,” he hissed. “An idiot with a concussion could work this one out. As far as I’m concerned, you showed your true colours the moment you attacked my officers and helped Celestia escape. Typical arrogant mage.”

You’re setting up Platinum as a scapegoat! You filled her head with lies! Only a few seconds ago, you were treating her like a queen. You monster! But she was always a lot braver in her head than outside of it. Instead, she tightened her jaw and hoped she could weather it out.

“Methinks you forget your place, mage. You live because Platinum wants you to live. You walk freely because that is the right of a mage. You are allowed in my domain because so far, it’s been safer to keep you in our sights than out of them. However, make no mistake. You are a dangerous siege weapon waiting to explode. Your rights as a mage extend only to tolerating royalty, not to crossing it; even Star Swirl himself is not fool enough to forget the ancient Mage Wars. So the instant Platinum has no further interest in you…”

The words battered her, and she winced all the harder under the cracks. Her memory showed her a green-eyed Platinum, a drooling body barely standing on her feet. Her own energies pulsing away deep inside her heart. The way Star Swirl had glanced sidelong at her, looking thoughtful.

He knows Platinum gave me the order. He can’t punish her for it. He can punish me. He knows she’s all I have.

“Celestia will not destroy me with these pathetic ploys,” he growled. “Oh yes,” he added when she jolted with the shock. “I can guess her game. How do you think I obtained the throne in the first place? But I had right and responsibility. A mare who insists we can all get along like fillies at school has neither. The unicorns survived because of me. Commander Hurricane knew that, until she sold her soul to you and your friends. I do not intend to fall the way she has.”

Clover didn’t dare speak. How did you know? How can you possibly know?

The crystal chamber lit up around her. A circle of unicorn guards crouched behind a ring of stars, all pointed at her. Lieutenant Lilt nodded at her. Pegasus officers hovered over their heads, trimmed wings beating as silently as an owl’s.

The King nodded and drew back. “The Praetorian Guard. A wonderful goodwill present from Commander Cryovolt! Now there’s a pegasus with his hooves on the ground. Metaphorically speaking, naturally.”

I can’t possibly fight them all. They’ll know about the expanding bubble shield.

Three of the guards levitated swords. Black swords, notched along the blade.

“Consider yourself fortunate, mage,” boomed the King. “Were we still living in the old country, I would be perfectly within my rights to have you executed. Alas, the modern times are a little more demanding than that. So, if you happen to know the whereabouts of the white warrior, lack of evidence notwithstanding, here is a royal message from myself: surrender with dignity, and I shall see to it Celestia at least survives the coming war, albeit in prison. But! Try any of this divide-and-conquer malarkey on a grandmaster, and my Praetorian Guard will not hesitate, and they will not fall for the same tricks twice. Is that understood, O apple of my daughter’s eye?”

Clover’s mind choked and drowned with the thoughts. He’s right. I’m betraying my tribe. I’m a danger. I’m just lucky to be living at all.

The plan has to stop.

Her lips struggled to speak. Finally, she closed her eyes and forced out the words. “W-War, Y-Your M-M-Majesty?”

Sniggers passed around the circle. The King’s own shoulders shook, though his mouth squeezed to stop anything escaping.

“Ho ho, yes,” he rumbled. “After all, the earth ponies are a treacherous bunch. It wouldn’t surprise me if these forged letters were their… decoys, shall we say? Yes, and then the real ones are sent between me and my pegasus friends. They’d better hope they’re not caught in the act, eh? I imagine that would anger Commander Cryovolt’s sensibilities. Numbskulls trying to undermine our union? And, of course, nothing less than treachery at the very top would be a positive act of war.”

Chancellor Puddinghead… Ice slid down Clover’s back.

The King straightened up, and once more he loomed like an iceberg. “Of course, I speak only from the psychology of the tribes. It remains to be seen whether any such treachery is actually occurring.”

Our trick didn’t work! No wonder he recognized it! Star Swirl always said to never curse a curse-maker.

“Dismissed,” he murmured.

It took her several seconds to realize what he’d said, and then several more to slip through the ring and out into the light.

The door slammed behind her. Still, she struggled to sense it had happened at all. Celestia rose up inside her head, suddenly a lot thinner, suddenly hunched and weighed down by shackles. Star Swirl was too far away, and what could he do anyway? He was oath-bound too.

Did she dare tell Platinum? No: she couldn’t worry the princess anymore. Not after their time together in Equestria. As it was, Platinum barely understood the risks of having someone like her around. What on earth would she think if Clover had made them all blunder into a war?

From a continent away now, she heard the crash and chants of the earth ponies.

I can’t go to Celestia. Not now. Not when he knows. I’ll simply lead him right to her. Did he have the Praetorian Guard the whole time?

Like the filly from a lifetime ago, sitting before a torn book and hearing the echoes of the young princess’ insults, she crouched where she sat and fought to keep her maelstrom mind under control.

---

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well. This is several shades of not good. A possibly mad but definitely shrewd king who refuses to accept the world is changing and doing his best to reverse the course of history. Worse, he's got one of the major forces of change shaking in her horseshoes. I'm not at all sure where you're taking this from here.