03 Behemoth in the Room
My Little Exalt
BEHEMOTH IN THE ROOM
by: Lithl
special thanks:
Rhanite
Saekwaka
Deep in the blackest depths of the Inner Sea, a creature stirred. The beast stretched over a mile from its snout to the end of its tail, and half that top to bottom. If the creature extended its arms to each side, the distance between the tips of its claws would put its axial length to shame. The beast's tremendous claws were constructed; the armor covering its hide was artificial. Between its jaws, like a whale's baleen teeth, its masters had affixed hundreds of spiked chains. Even the creature's eyes were not its own, manufactured so that its vision could pierce the depths... and report what it saw.
As the creature swam towards its destination with a purpose, it rotted.
This beast did not have a name, not any more. The beast was resurrected and altered for a singular purpose, the mission it was in the process of executing.
It slowed in the waters as the target drew near: a domed structure of jade, sunken into the ocean almost two millennia ago. The beast scooped the structure out of the ocean floor with a single swipe of one of its great claws as the other rose far as the beast could stretch. The plan required precision, both in angle and in force.
With a single motion, the beast struck the jade object in its claws. The jade should have fractured. That was the plan.
The jade shattered.
Fragments of the magical stone flew everywhere, blinding several of the beast's many eyes. The force of the attack ripped the artificial claws from the creature's body. Shards of power scattered in all directions, invisible to all but the beast. These were the targets of the mission, and the beast flailed in an attempt to capture the shards with the massive chains filling its mouth. When the beast could not catch enough, it resorted to flailing the chains in an attempt to catch more. Finally, the motion stopped. The shards of power were all either gone or captured. Of nearly three hundred imprisoned in jade, not even eight score were caught.
Slowly, the spiked chains drew back into the beast's mouth and down its gullet. When all of the chains finally disappeared, the unlife given to the creature was withdrawn and it died once again.
Lytek, the Right Hand of Power, sat in his office hunched over that most infernal invention: paperwork. He appeared to be an elegantly dressed human, with layered white robes and golden trim. An angular headpiece rested on his forehead, and extravagant epaulets rested on his shoulders. The epaulets shifted as he flipped a page in the document he was scanning and he ran a hand through his forest of spiky blond hair. He appeared to be a normal (if well-off) human, save for one detail: his body was composed entirely of light.
At one point, Lytek's office had been a grand affair. Due to political maneuvering and events out of his control, however, Lytek's status in the Bureau of Heaven had been steadily declining for over a millennium. His current office held simply a desk, three chairs, one cabinet set into the wall, and the door to a vault. While his position had declined, Lytek still held a position of power, and the quality of the items and decorations in his office reflected that.
Lytek paid little heed to these sorts of things, which was why the political moves of his peers had succeeded so well – Lytek lost the game, because Lytek generally refused to play. If Lytek could have his way, there would be no politics and no paperwork, and he would be left in peace to tend to his real duties. In a moment of quiet nostalgia, he turned towards his cabinet and sighed. The doors were intricately carved, and the wood of finest quality. Even despite magical maintenance over the centuries, the cabinet was obviously worn. The wear was much like a child's stuffed animal losing its fur due to too much love, for that's exactly how Lytek treated his cabinet. The cabinet's use had been in sharp decline almost at the same rate Lytek's position within the Bureau declined. With another sigh, Lytek returned to the papers in front of him.
Unbeknownst to Lytek, today was a special day for his cabinet.
It began with the small thunk of wood tapping on wood, barely audible from Lytek's seat at his desk. The Right Hand of Power dismissed the noise, perhaps attributing it to the Carnival. With another thunk – louder this time – Lytek turned towards the source of the sound: the doors of the cabinet had tapped against the cabinet's frame.
Thunk thunk. Lytek watched as the cabinet's doors rocked on their hinges before closing again to tap the wood.
The sounds continued with increased volume and frequency. As Lytek rose from his chair, a grin began to form on his face. The cabinet rattled, and the doors nearly fell off of their hinges. Lytek reached for the handle of one of the doors, and the motion suddenly stopped.
If the god had a physical heart, it would have frozen. If he needed to breathe for any purpose other than speech, he would have been holding his breath. Trembling with excited trepidation, Lytek pulled the cabinet open to reveal dozens upon dozens of glowing golden orbs. The sight drew a joyous tear from his eye which he wiped away while he whispered to the empty room, "welcome home."
Approximately Three Months Later
Chejop Kejack leaned back in his chair, staring at the message on his desk in disbelief. Copies had been sent to every divisional head throughout Heaven, but it couldn't be possible.
From the desk of Lytek, Right Hand of Power
It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Solar exalted have returned.
Oh, there would be hell to pay...
Approximately Four Years Later
"Hello, my little ponies," smiled the pearl-white alicorn with the flowing pastel mane.
The Bearers were stunned into silence. Even Pinkie Pie had nothing to say. Celestia was in Creation, a world the princess should have known nothing about. How was this possible? What did it mean for the secrets she'd kept for so many years?
Pinkie's train of thought was violently derailed when Celestia turned to her and asked, "Vizier, I was informed that these mortals needed passage outside the Carnival grounds?"
The lone survivor of the train crash stumbled out of the wreckage and crawled back to the rail line. The felt pony discovered a pump car on the tracks (or was it a Kalamazoo?) and slowly regained her normal momentum. Pinkie finally snapped out of her reverie to respond to the princess, "Oh! Yes, um... I need to get all of these ponies to gate 16 as soon as possible and-"
While Pinkie floundered around surprised at seeing Celestia for her own reasons, Twilight's brain finally began working again. "Princess Celestia!" Even Twilight's brain had to warm up before adding anything significant to the conversation.
The princess blinked once at Twilight's outburst. "Do I... know you, mortal?"
Shock rippled through the ponies close enough to hear Celestia's words; Twilight's shock nearly shut her down a second time. Perhaps she was inured to the inexplicable world by now because she managed to keep herself together.
"Princess, it's me, Twilight! Your most faithful student!"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I've never met anyone named 'Twilight' before, and I certainly don't have any students faithful or otherwise."
Tears began forming in Twilight's eyes. How could she not recognize me?
"Your majesty, if I may," Rarity took the floor to try and piece the puzzling situation together, "you have been ruling for thousands of years. You and your sister have protected Equestria from goodness knows how many threats. You must have met a million ponies in your lifetime." She bit her lower lip, not wanting to speak the next words. "Is it possible you've simply forgotten us? Somehow?"
As Rarity spoke, Celestia's head cocked and her face contorted with increasing confusion. "Sister? Thousands of years? 'Equestria'? What are you talking about, my little pony?" Celestia straightened up and gave the best serene smile she could. "I have no sister. I have only been employed on the Quays for twenty years, give or take. What in the name of Sol Invictus is 'Equestria'?"
Finally, something within Pinkie Pie clicked, and she laughed. Like someone coming late to the punch, line she squealed, "I get it! I get it now!" The others turned to her and she smiled back. "This is my fault. Well, our faults, but it started out as my fault."
Nopony responded to her claim. Everypony (including Celestia) seemed to want an explanation.
"Sigh. Praying to a god is like currency in Heaven. When I came here the first time, the only goddess I knew of was Celestia. The only god I ever prayed to was Celestia, but Celestia was in Equestria." The princess cocked her eyebrow at the claim that she'd been in a place she'd never heard of, but let Pinkie Pie continue the story. "Prayers have to go somewhere. If I had just been praying to the sun or to nothing in particular, my prayers would have been redirected to the Unconquered Sun. Since I was praying to a nonexistent god, I guess a god was created to fill that void."
"Yer sayin' you created the princess?" Applejack seemed just slightly doubtful.
Pinkie Pie looked to the princess. "Celestia, what is your role in the celestial hierarchy?"
Celestia's smile spread wider. If anypony had cared to think about it, her smile had an eerie resemblance to the smiles Pinkie Pie wore on a daily basis. "I am the goddess of sunrise and sunset."
"Where do you work?"
"In the morning I work at the Quay of Dawn and assist with the crew change of the Golden Barque. In the evening I perform the same task at the Quay of Twilight" Her wings fluttered with pride.
"What year did you start working at the Quays?"
"Realm Year seven hundred forty-two."
"One more question, Celestia: what did you do in Realm Year seven hundred forty-one?"
"Nothing; I didn't exist."
Pinkie Pie nodded with satisfaction. Pinkie said with a wink to her friend, "Guess what year I showed up, Applejack?"
Pinkie cleared her throat and turned back to Celestia. "You may not know us, Celestia, but your appearance, name, and even your role are all based on one of the princesses of Equestria, where all of us are from," Pinkie said as she waved a hoof over the herd. "I assume you've been receiving many more prayers in the past four days than you have in the past twenty years? Those would be coming from these ponies." A thought struck Pinkie, and she gasped. "You never got a 'Welcome to Existence' party! It would be like a birthday party, but for a god! You've gotta come with us so I can throw you a surprise party!"
The tinkling of bells was Celestia's laughter at the sudden enthusiasm of the young vizier before her. "Come; let's see you all through the barrier. I wish to see more at the Carnival, but if you little ponies are the source of my ambrosia, then I think you deserve a visit someday."
As a group, the ponies walked down the road past the obelisks marking the edge of the Carnival grounds. Once everypony was outside, Celestia stopped. "You'll be settling near gate 16, then?" Pinkie Pie nodded an affirmation. "Then I will see you in the future." With that, Celestia spread her wings and flew back towards the festivities.
"Huh," said Rainbow Dash, "how come she gets to fly?"
Pinkie led the ponies towards a bridge rising from the street over a silver and gold canal. A large boat – much longer than it was wide – was moored on the edge with a spindly-armed spider-like god resting in it. At each end of the boat was the carved head of a dragon.
"Hey, taxi! You think you can fit all of us on your boat?" Pinkie waved to the lightly snoozing god who awoke with a snort.
The spider glanced over the herd of ponies, making mental calculations before waving one of his arms over the seating area. Without any other indication of action on the part of the god, the boat widened by fifteen spans and lengthened by twenty. "Three coins, plus two every junction, plus one for every five of you lot," the god said.
"Come on, everypony! Hop in the dragonboat!" As ponies began boarding and finding seats, Pinkie walked up to the driver and said, "We're headed to Surprise Avenue and Algedonic Boulevard, which should be nine junctions." The driver nodded confirmation, and Pinkie reached into her mane to pull out a hefty bag of coins. "I'll pay you fifty now, and the rest when we arrive safely." She reached into the bag and pulled out several stacks of coins: foil-wrapped ambrosia stamped with the image of Sol Invictus himself. Pinkie hoofed the coins to the driver before bouncing gleefully into the center of the cram-packed dragon boat.
The taxi driver stood in the back and removed the enchanted rope securing the boat to the edge of the canal. As soon as the boat nudged into the current of the quicksilver, everypony's mane flew back violently with almost enough force to be ripped out of each pony's head. The bridges, streets, buildings, and crossing canals (the latter of which seemed to separate themselves from the path the dragon boat was taking) sped past at an alarming rate.
Noticing the panic beginning to spread through his charges and the flesh pulling away from their faces (and the hairs threatening to detach and wrap around his head), the taxi driver waved another of his long arms through the air. The rushing wind stopped, everypony's mane collapsed around them, and skin hung loosely off of everypony's face for a moment before its natural shape could be regained.
"Sorry 'bout dat. I didn't realize you wuz mortals."
That's when Rarity saw what had become of her mane, and began to scream.
The dragon boat took nearly two hours to reach its destination. It took most of that time to calm Rarity down and repair her coif.
As the ponies disembarked, Pinkie smothered the taxi driver in a hug. "Thanks for the lift! Here's the rest of the fare," she said as she hoofed another pile of coins over to the stunned god.
If it weren't for the quicksilver canal, the street the ponies stood on could have been mistaken for uptown residential Manehatten. Most of the buildings lining the street were many-storied apartments, but each exuded an air of grace and quality that most apartment buildings simply couldn't match. Between apartments stood the occasional restaurant or other place of business, but this area of Yu-Shan was obviously a residential district.
Pinkie led the herd away from the canal. She took several turns on her route, but within a few minutes, she stopped in front of a golden revolving door marking the entrance to one of the smaller towering buildings. Pinkie turned to her friends and said, "I just need to pop in and grab some stuff. There's... not really enough room for everypony, so could you girls just keep them here on the street for a bit?"
The other Bearers dully nodded their assent, and watched Pinkie enter the building.
There was an awkward silence among the ponies for a few minutes. They had nothing to do, they were lost in a strange world, and the only pony among them who could make sense of any of it was the pony who had always made the least sense. Perhaps their current situation shed some light on her previous behavior, but for now, there was nothing that could be done.
Unnoticed by her friends, Fluttershy began to grow antsy. Her ears folded back and she chewed on her lower lip as she looked towards the door. She set her shoulders and steeled herself for what she felt she had to do, and made her way to the entrance.
It was then that somepony finally noticed her behavior. Rainbow trotted up next to Fluttershy and asked, "Hey Flutters, what are you up to?"
"I... I have to talk to Pinkie about something. It's important. Just... stay with the others, please? I want to do this. I n-need to do this."
Rarity stood on Fluttershy's other side, eyebrow raised. "Just how do you expect to find her, dear? There are dozens of rooms!"
Fluttershy froze; she hadn't considered the possibility that she would need to search for her friend. Her resolve only faltered for a few seconds, though, and she resumed her march inside. "I need to do this," she repeated. "It's important."
Behind Fluttershy's back, Rarity nodded to Rainbow and the two let the determined pegasus go on alone.
Fluttershy paused in the lobby. There was nopony around. She began to study the soft red carpeting to try and find her friend's tracks, hoping she could follow them to Pinkie's apartment, when she looked up at the large black placard on the wall. A series of buttons ran alongside spaces on the placard, each space filled with strange white symbols. The symbols were clearly hoof-written by different ponies, but the language was unfamiliar. Yet in the dead center of the list was something Fluttershy could read: Pinkamena Diane Pie.
With newfound confidence, Fluttershy pressed the button next to Pinkie's name without hesitation. The loud, artificial buzzing noise that accompanied pressing the button, however, caused Fluttershy to dash underneath the small chair on the opposite wall. She covered her head with her hooves under the chair and her exposed flank quivered incessantly.
After a few moments of shaking, Fluttershy heard a voice. It was almost like Pinkie's, but a bit scratchier. "I'm a little busy at the moment. I don't know if you noticed the huge herd of multihued horses outside, but I've got to lead them back to Creation. If it's not SUPER DUPER important, could you come back in a couple years?"
Fluttershy rose from her ill-fitting hiding place. "Pinkie? It that you?" She looked around, but couldn't see her friend. "Where are you?"
From the direction of the placard on the wall, Fluttershy heard a scratchy version of a Pinkie Pie gasp. "Fluttershy? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to wait outside?"
Still slightly confused, Fluttershy replied to her invisible friend, "Um... I n-need to talk to you. It's important."
Fluttershy could almost hear Pinkie Pie smile. "Sure thing, Fluttershy! Just climb the stairs and I'll meet you at the landing." Fluttershy heard a rather loud click, and a gate barring entrance to a stairwell on the opposite end of the sparse lobby area opened up on its own accord. With an audible gulp, she trotted over to the entrance and began her ascent.
After twelve floors, Fluttershy was beginning to get worried that she'd missed Pinkie. Just as she was about to turn back and search lower floors for her friend, she heard an unmistakable noise: an equine bouncing on all fours. Fluttershy only knew one pony who did that, and she suspected her friend might be the only equine in two worlds who bounced. With a flutter in her heart, she surged up the last two flights of stairs and nearly collided with Pinkie.
It seemed that Pinkie was not satisfied with narrowly avoiding a collision, and took Fluttershy several spans off the stairs and down the hallway with a leaping tackle ending in a hug.
Before Fluttershy could even register the events, Pinkie Pie grabbed Fluttershy's tail in her mouth and began galloping down the hall. "C'mon! You can come see my apartment!"
Hurricane Pinkie Pie eventually subsided, and Fluttershy found herself at the entrance to an apartment barely larger than Fluttershy's own living room. A door led to a bedroom (with room for the bed and not much else) which had another door within (presumably leading to a bathroom). There was a kitchenette, a coffee table, and a small couch by the table. Beyond that, there were no other visible furnishings, nor were there any decorations. There was, however, dust. It was obvious that Pinkie had not actually entered this apartment in years, and when Fluttershy finished looking around and turned back to Pinkie, the party pony actually looked embarrassed about the state of her 'home away from home'.
"I'm sorry about all the dust. I don't get a chance to come by and clean up very often."
"It's... nice." Fluttershy nodded with a reassuring smile to her friend.
"Since you're here, do you think you could help me?"
"Sure," said Fluttershy, "what do you need help with?"
Pinkie led Fluttershy into the bedroom (cramped with two mares inside) and opened the closet to reveal a shining breastplate within. What did Pinkie call that stuff? Starmetal?
"It's troublesome to put this stuff on alone. I'd love your help!"
At the instruction of Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy returned to the living area where the pair would have more space for suiting up. Pinkie brought out the armor, padding, and some accessories that Fluttershy hadn't noticed, and laid her panoply out on the floor.
Fluttershy followed Pinkie's directions for how all the pieces came together and in what order. What Fluttershy didn't expect, though, was the conversation that happened while each piece was being put in its place on Pinkie's body.
"So, you wanted to talk to me about something?"
Fluttershy had almost forgotten the reason she had come to talk to Pinkie privately in the first place. She bit her lip before answering, "It's... it's about our special talents."
Pinkie's silence prodded Fluttershy to continue.
"The other day, before you girls gave me the hug and told me everything would be all right... I-I tried to talk to a badger that was drinking at the stream." Fluttershy sniffed a little, the memory of the events coming back a little hard on her. "I don't think the badger understood me, and he ran away!"
"So you think there's something wrong with your special talent?" Pinkie asked. "Fold that padding here, around my girth."
"Ever since I got my cutie mark, I've been able to communicate with the woodland critters. They could understand me and I could understand them. A-and except for the Gala, and that time when I was a meanie because I was too assertive, I've never had an animal run away from me!"
"Our cutie marks have some magic of their own. Yours helps you work with animals, mostly by letting you communicate. Secure that clasp, next comes the breastplate." Pinkie's ability to instruct while carrying her friend through an emotionally charged conversation was perhaps the only thing stopping the pegasus mare from breaking down into tears again. "Equestrian magic doesn't really work here in Creation. The magic of your cutie mark won't work until you get home."
That may have been the wrong thing to say, as it was exactly what Fluttershy had feared when she tried to ready herself for this conversation. Fluttershy also knew the difficulty that the ponies were going to have actually returning to Equestria.
"No! Fluttershy don't cry! Please!" Pinkie begged. Fluttershy managed to get her tear ducts under control again, and Pinkie gave her the best reassuring smile she could. "You may not be able to talk to animals, but think of all the experience you've gained working with animals for so many years. None of that is magic. That experience is how we found that stream in the first place, remember? If it weren't for you and your experience with animals, we would have a lot of thirsty ponies right now."
This seemed to calm Fluttershy down as she helped Pinkie lift the (extremely heavy!) armor over the earth pony's head. Pinkie didn't seem to mind the weight even though Fluttershy felt like she was barely able to move the thing at all. "Look at me, Fluttershy. I make ponies happy and throw parties. I may not have any magical assistance here, but I can still make you smile!" Pinkie nudged her friend with a hoof while grinning like an idiot. In return, Fluttershy gave a sheepish grin.
"Is... this why the pegasi can't fly, and the unicorns can't do magic?"
"And we earth ponies aren't nearly as resilient or good with the earth as we usually are," Pinkie nodded confirmation. "Help me with the straps around my legs, would you? I mean, Applejack will still be tougher than Cloudkicker, and she still knows what goes into growing apples; she just won't suddenly have the best apples around. You still know how to care for animals; you just can't talk to them. That's all real stuff we've earned through our daily lives."
Fluttershy finished with all the straps on the armor and went to fetch the headband and other accessories. Pinkie sighed as her head lowered a bit. "The really frustrating thing is all the fillies and colts that don't have a cutie mark yet. You can't get your mark without Equestrian magic, and everypony really looks forward to getting their mark." Neither of the mares said anything, but both of them turned their thoughts to the excitable trio of fillies who were obsessed with finding their special talent.
Pinkie winced a bit as she put on the starmetal earrings, using holes that were all but closed. As she adjusted the headband, she cried out, "pinchy knee!"
Fluttershy's eyes grew wide. "Some-something scary?"
Pinkie's body began to move on its own accord. "Ear flop! Twitchy tail! Achy shoulder! Oh! It's a scene change."
Outside, the waiting ponies began hearing hoofsteps drawing near, sounding from the opposite direction the ponies had arrived. Another pony? The steps were far too heavy for either of the princesses.
As it turned out, the source of the hoofsteps was a massive stallion. His coat was a dappled cloud grey, and his mane was a silver that almost shined. When he raised his head in surprise at seeing the ponies waiting for the return of Pinkie Pie, he became more than three times the height of any stallion in the herd. This was no pony; this was a horse.
The new stallion recovered from his shock quickly and spoke in a booming baritone, "Hail, small ponies!" He paused, as if he was waiting for some form of recognition to spark in the eyes of the equines standing before him. When he received no response, he continued: "Do you not recognize your lord? I am Hiparkes!"
Applejack was the first to speak up. "We serve the princesses, Celestia and Luna. We never heard a'no Hiparkes."
"It is I, Hiparkes, Stallion-Lord of the Marukan Plains! If your ignorance blocks your knowledge of me, then I shall simply have to escort you to my ranch!"
Twilight chimed in, "The maru-what plains? Look, we're waiting for a friend here. If you could just leave us be, everything will be all right. We have our own plans, we don't need to visit your ranch."
In an instant, Hiparkes shifted from a haughty – almost regal – stallion (which Rarity was trying desperately to avoid drooling over) into an entire herd of wild horses. Beyond the stallion leading it which appeared to be a diminished version of the original Hiparkes, nopony could tell where one horse in the herd stopped and the next began. "If you will not come with me of your own will, I shall take you there by force. Despite your diminutive size, you mares seem to have excellent foal-bearing hips. It will be an interesting experiment to see what sort of offspring talking mortal ponies can produce with my mortal and my spirit horses. You shall all come with me. Now."
Every single mare in the Ponyville herd looked horrified at the implications of Hiparkes' words. Many of the single stallions seemed to be considering his offer, though. (A few of the married stallions tried to consider it, before getting whacked by their wives.)
All second thoughts dissipated when Twilight stepped forward and began to speak. "Look, Mr. Hiparkes. We don't know who you are. We don't understand everything that's going on around us. I formed a bridge with this world and brought everypony here on accident. My friend Pinkie has made this entire experience survivable for us. If it weren't for her, many of us would be dead or worse. We aren't from this world, and while we may be forced to stay a while, I intend to help get everypony home one way or another.
"I would sacrifice my own life to protect these ponies; whether I'm protecting them from monsters or from lecherous scum like you doesn't matter. My friends and I can do anything if we're together. We've protected Ponyville and Equestria from threats before, and we'll continue to do so. I'll admit: my power has been reduced since coming here. I also don't like to fight if I don't have to. However, if you leave us no choice, we will stand up for ourselves. We fought off a hundred thousand changelings that attacked my brother's wedding, including their queen which managed to overpower our god-princess. What makes you think you can walk all over us?" As Twilight spoke, her friends took up positions next to her; they stood between Hiparkes and the herd of ponies. By the time Twilight had finished, most of the other ponies had planted their hooves, ready to fight for their loved ones and for their town. Even some of the young fillies and colts looked ready to help, though their parents dragged the foals back to a protected huddle in the center of the herd.
Twilight's words certainly tweaked the horse god. The words themselves would not have filled him with rage, though. No; the rage came after Twilight's lecture ended, when she became bathed in a golden light. Comforting warmth filled her body, and Applejack and Rarity standing next to her could feel Twilight radiating heat. Twilight's eyes burned a fiery white as new memories flooded into her mind.
The sounds of Hiparkes' growls and the gasps of surprise from the other ponies fell silent in Twilight's ears. Only one voice could be heard, a golden masculine voice. "Take now your second breath, Twilight. Bask in my evening glow. You have proven yourself worthy of my power, and greater brilliance lies just within your reach. You are a leader – a ruler – but this world is broken. Fix it."
The light cleared and Twilight's eyes dimmed, leaving only a half-filled glowing golden ring shining below her horn. The other ponies were speechless, but Hiparkes was foaming at the mouth.
"Damn you, you Unclean! Anathema!" Hiparkes gurgled in his rage, unable to properly control himself. This... pony... had no right to rule over the proud stallion lord. All he had to do was execute this poor excuse for an exalt, and her power would be reborn into a more suitable host to satisfy the Mandate of Heaven.
Hiparkes and his herd of a body charged forward at Twilight Sparkle. The Ponyville herd surged forward to meet him, led by the four Bearers.
After several minutes of stomping, bucking, thrashing, and biting, both sides were showing wounds and signs of exhaustion, but neither was willing to give up. Hiparkes had the advantage of size, but the Ponyville citizens had the advantage of maneuverability thanks to independent thoughts. Minor telekinesis from the unicorns, acrobatic maneuvers from the pegasi, and excellent strategic advice from Twilight helped, too.
The tables tipped when two mares waltzed out of the golden doors. One of them was wearing a starmetal breastplate and her right foreleg was covered with what looked disturbingly like a hoofheld party cannon. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked to Hiparkes and to the other ponies; both sides were panting for breath and yet ready to go another round. Behind the panting ponies stood a number of others which had stayed out of the fight to guard the foals from Hiparkes' attack: Cheerilee, Mrs. Cake, Filthy Rich, Berry Punch, Thunderlane, and others formed an angry-looking circle around students, children, siblings, and young friends. When Pinkie saw the brightly glowing aura surrounding Twilight that had built up over the course of the fight (with an image of her twinkling cutie mark floating above her) she winced. At the rate Twilight was going, she'd be burnt out and Hiparkes would overrun the ponies.
Fortunately, the cavalry had arrived. Pinkie lifted her canon and called out, "Hey Mr. Hippo!" As soon as Hiparkes turned to see the pink menace, she fired her weapon – a warning shot only, serving as a very short manecut. The blue-white ball of lightning singed the inner edges of Hiparkes' ears and he could smell burning hair. After the shot passed, steam vented from the sides of the cannon for a moment before clearing away to show Pinkie Pie positively beaming at Hiparkes as though she had invited him to a party, rather than fired an extremely deadly weapon at his head. Although he did not turn to see it, there was a five-inch wide hole in the wall of the building behind him. Hiparkes' eyes widened as it dawned on him exactly what sort of weapon Pinkie was wielding, and what sort of being this pink pony must be: another exalt.
Two exalted ponies. Even if one of them had just taken her second breath, the other had access to advanced First Age weapons technology. The tides had shifted, and not in his favor. Hiparkes shifted back to being just a single horse, and without a word, he fled back the way he had come.
The ponies relaxed their tensed up muscles, and Pinkie happily trotted over to Twilight (the cannon covering her foreleg served equally well as an artificial hoof). She drew in close to Twilight's ear and began to whisper, "You became an exalt like I did. Do you know what that means?" Twilight was about to respond with something along the lines of 'return to Ponyville with you,' but before she got the chance to even open her mouth, Pinkie shouted in her ear, "PARTY!!"
Octavia Philharmonica stood in the small living room of her apartment on her rear legs as her cello supplied balance. The room was mostly ignored by the apartment's occupants; the only use the room got was passing from the door to the kitchen or bedrooms, and Octavia's cello practice. While a plush couch on one wall dominated the room's space, it was not even used as a bed for temporary visitors or drunken stupors.
With each wave of her bow across the strings, Octavia pulled forth the enchanting notes of "Meditation" by Masseneigh. She was so lost in the music that Octavia almost didn't notice the cherub that flew through the window. As the colorful fluttering construct began to speak, she altered her speed across the strings and reduced her volume so that she could listen, but she continued to play.
The cherub spoke with a perfect facsimile of Derpy's voice, "Octavia, we have a problem. Intelligence reports that the Dowager has appeared in Equestria. It seems her base of operations may be in Ponyville, as the citizens were transported to Creation." Octavia, ever the professional, didn't miss a beat of her music at the news. "I'm headed to Canterlot now to seek an audience with Celestia; I'll figure out a cover story by the time I get there. We don't know what the Dowager is planning yet, or why she sent Ponyville to Creation instead of just killing them all off." The cherub paused.
"To be honest, I'm glad – my little muffin lives in Ponyville." The grey mare's fear was evident in the cherub's perfect mimicry of her voice. You wouldn't be so worried if you hadn't had that foal, Derpy. Octavia had met Dinky, and she was a cute kid, but this situation was exactly the sort of reason Octavia had refused any intimate relationships. There were only three agents guarding the entirety of Equestria and the lands beyond; attachments split loyalties, and split loyalties led to mistakes. Pinkie spends all of her time overcoming Arcane Fate, Derpy has a foal. Am I the only one taking her job seriously?
"I need you to go undercover and see if you can find out more about what's going on." Octavia rolled her eyes despite herself. Of course that was the plan. Send the Chosen of Endings to infiltrate the camp of the dead. Sending Black Ice Shadow on a mission like that was different – Shadow's father had been a ghost when Shadow was conceived. Still, Octavia thought to herself, I must admit these things carry a certain thrill.
The cherub winked out of existence, and the final notes of Masseneigh's music hung in the air. With a sigh, Octavia dropped forward to her natural posture and returned her cello to its case. She silently thanked the stars that her roommate was practically nocturnal, and was asleep during the visit of the otherworldly messenger.
With one hoof, the high-society cellist lifted the large couch away from the wall. It had taken three stallions – professional movers – to get the couch in place, but Octavia lifted the entire thing as though it were made of paper-mâché. When the couch was safely back on the floor and out of the way, she tapped a rhythm on the section of wall it had been concealing: tap-tap-taptap-tap-taptaptap. The wall section slid to the side revealing a secret cache of belongings, including another cello case. Octavia snapped open the latches and opened the hidden case. Within was a cello crafted of a dark steel material, and as she leaned in close, she could hear the voices inside...
As Octavia scribbled a note on the dining table, she began to plan. I think this time I'll use "The Conductor of the Cacophonic Steel Chorus", working for... the Lion? That might infuriate the Dowager when she's told one of the Lion's knights has followed her, but I think I can use that.
Vinyl –
I'm going to be out of town for several weeks. My half of next month's rent is in my room on the dresser. You're welcome to any of my food in the kitchen I've left behind. Please don't set anything on fire this time. If you have any "coltfriends" over, you are NOT TO USE MY BED! YOU USE YOUR OWN BUCKING BED!
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Pinkie Pie has a bounty out on reference spotting! One cupcake for recognizing Octavia's cover!
1042751
Keychain!
My God, that was amazing.
Your writing is near flawless,and your plot is great.
Keep going!
1042982
Cupcake awarded to PPS!
img401.imageshack.us/img401/3899/20120728163827628.jpg
Keychain of Creation
The Conductor of the Cacophonic Steel Chorus (aka: Resonance Ben)
1043005
> your plot is great.
Thanks! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia_plot.png
Twilight's exaltation didn't really live up to my hopes for it. This horse dude feels like a footnote, and the speech seems to come out of nowhere. I was hoping for some epic feat of intelligence with clear plot relevance, and I don't see any interesting or epic plot hooks in this confrontation.
1043245
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't planning to exalt Twilight until the next chapter. Then again, I was planning for the ponies to reach gate 16 this chapter, and they haven't quite gotten there yet. While I do plan before writing, the act of writing shapes the story just as much as outlining a chapter does; my story is malleable.
I would have loved for Twilight's speech to be more epic, but I'm no social-fu master myself, so impressing that into text can be difficult. That said, you don't generally get a Solar exaltation just from talking pretty (well, maybe an Eclipse...) - Twilight's exaltation comes as much from her speech as from her desire to protect everypony from a god who wanted to perform [Mature]-rated experiments with the ponies (mortal ponies are not supposed to be rainbow colored, nor are they supposed to talk - this is new for Hiparkes) and her need for more power to successfully do so (with no exalt using War charms to direct the mass combat, Hiparkes would have wiped the floor with the ponies in seconds). A lot of the stallions were a bit too eager... but they would have been sorely surprised once they found out exactly what Hiparkes had planned for them.
While a terrestrial god, Hiparkes is not a minor god. He's the god of the Marukan Plains, home to the Marukani Alliance which contains several hundred human settlements. The Seventh Legion (the second-largest standing army in Creation) only rides on Marukani horses.
Hiparkes fled a battle against a herd of intelligent horses that matched the size of his herd-form, plus a newly-minted Solar exalt, plus an exalt of unknown power and type (but with access to First Age weaponry and starmetal equipment - starmetal being made from the corpses of dead gods...) His flight was as much a strategic withdrawl as it was fear. Remember, the fight only actually began when he succumbed to rage; getting a buzz cut from a blast of ball lightning can take the wind out of your sails pretty easily.
Also, Hiparkes has a third form which he hasn't revealed, and looks nothing like his other two forms... dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_2.png
Was "The Conductor of the Cacophonic Steel Chorus" a reference to Keychain of Creation? =3
1043538
Yup! PPS got the cupcakes, though.
Have a moustache instead!
Loved it!
Twilights exaltation did seem a little underplayed tho. Massive solar power which she did what with?
If she was using war charms show us her using them.
this is just amazing! I can't wait to see gilda soon... good, bad, or just confused?
that one letter to vinyl.....fucking priceless
Okay, Lithl. You win. That was just plain awesome.
1043245
Yeah, it definitely feels rushed and like it's only there to get Twilight's Exaltation out of the way; that's a bad attitude to take, because Exaltation is easily one of, if not the most important moments in a character's life. For a Solar, it is the moment where they are Exalted beyond all others, glimpsing the perfect wonder and absolute virtue of the Unconquered Sun himself and granted both the divine right and the sheer might to rule as a god-king of Creation. That said, since I actually know who Hipparkes is, I know that standing up to him and chasing him off is a very impressive feat, even for an Exalt (maybe a bit hard to swallow for such a young one, actually, even if it is Twilight). He is, after all, the god of all horses and the central figure of worship for tens of thousands of humans (and in Creation, worship literally is power) and at least occasionally worshiped by millions more, so he's pretty high up in the Terrestrial hierarchy (high enough to actually be allowed to visit Yu-Shan, for one).
3201233
It's even better if you actually know your canon. 1.) That whole thing actually happened, including that letter. 2.) Ketchup Carjack (I've used the name too) was the guy who orchestrated the Usurpation that trapped the Exaltations and basically leads the Bronze Faction Sidereals (who want the weaker but easily manipulated Dragon-Blooded in charge so they can play puppet-master), and by the time Lytek informed him of it, not only was it months too late to do anything about the Exaltations, but Lytek had gotten a bunch of different gods to lend him all kinds of security; gods have very long memories, and they hate it when mortals, even Exalts, decide to manhandle one of the most powerful gods in Yu-Shan over (what they see as) political power plays.