Chapter 36: Princes of the Universe
A shadow moved through the corridors of the Castle of Friendship. Unseen and unheard, the cloaked figure of midnight blue and obsidian wove its way undetected past guards, staff and sightseers. Only once, when darting through an unavoidable late afternoon sunbeam, could anypony have discerned that the shadow was indeed equine in nature.
After what seemed an eternity, the shadow reached the locked and barred chamber that was its goal. A brief flare of magic took care of the final barrier, and the shadow slipped into the room on silent hooves. Briefly, the intruder looked around, scanning for guards or alarms. Satisfied, Princess Luna, Mistress of the Night, released the cloaking spell she had been using to cover her tracks and walked the last few steps toward her goal.
There, held in a secure framework, was an old hoof mirror and floating in mid-air just in front of it was a glowing portal roughly the size of a basket. The midnight blue alicorn summoned her magic with an effort and in a flash Luna was gone, and a tiny blue breezie floated in the air where she had stood.
“Sorry sister,” the little breezie squeaked, “but this is something I have to do.”
Luna surged forward towards the portal, only to bounce off a clear barrier that appeared in her path with lightning suddenness. She turned to the side in order to go around, only to find the barrier curved around and surrounded her. Looking up she saw the barrier there as well, and Luna realized that for all intents and purposes she was inside a very large glass that someone had dropped over top of her.
“Starswirl’s Transformation Tumbler Trap worked!” exclaimed Twilight, dropping her own magic cloak of invisibility. “Um, sorry Princess Luna, but Princess Celestia asked me to do this.”
“And you did well to obey my request,” said Princess Celestia, appearing in the room with a golden flash of light. “I’m very disappointed with you, sister.”
“Please Celestia, let me go to the other side,” Luna begged, eyes going wide as she saw her sister bring out a horn sheathe and a pot of glue. “You have to let me try to rescue the Tantabus.”
“Rescue…” Celestia replied, her voice trailing off for a moment. “But the Tantabus is dead. You said you felt it die.”
“I did,” Luna responded, trying to transform to her larger self for a moment and discovering that avenue of escape was blocked as well. “But for the past few days I’ve been getting visions, impressions, hearing bits of conversations when there is no pony around. I think somehow the Tantabus managed to survive, gravely weakened yes, but still a coherent magical entity.”
“Hmm,” Celestia murmured, scratching her chin as she thought. “How do you know it’s the Tantabus?”
“Because among the images I have seen are those of strange buildings, clearly not made for a pony,” Luna said, landing on the floor. “As well, the words I have heard are not in Equish, but a completely unknown tongue.”
“Then it can’t be the Tantabus,” Celestia sighed. “The translation matrix on the hoof mirror would change any communication into understandable language. What will it be, Luna? Glue or bridle?”
“You don’t understand!” Luna shouted back, as best a three inch tall creature can. “If what I was seeing came through the mirror you would be correct, but if it was coming to me directly from the Tantabus, via our magical connection, it would bypass the mirror entirely!”
“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed. “An ansible effect. Instantaneous communication via magical entanglement. Also known as ‘Thaumic Resonance’.”
“Yes! Yes!” Luna yelled. “Exactly. Thank you, Twilight. See, Tia, even thy student ‘gets it.’ If even the possibility of the Tantabus being intact exists, I have to go to it. I sent it there. I am responsible.”
“Fine, but on one condition,” Celestia said, levitating the enchanted glass off of her sister.
“Name it,” Luna demanded, giving her sister a very tiny hug.
“I’m going with you,” Celestia replied, and with a flash there was a solar breezie beside the lunar one.
“I’m glad for the company, but you do not have to come with me if you do not want to,” Luna squeaked.
“This situation is as much my doing as is yours, Luna,” Celestia replied. “I’ve been avoiding it, but I owe it to Lee Ung to check on his descendants and make sure they are doing well. Twilight, you’re in charge while I’m gone.”
“What?” demanded Twilight, panicking as the two breezies zipped through the portal. “Wait!” The sisters were already gone.
Foxfire began the cleansing ritual she had done in the past whenever she needed to calm herself or find her mental focus again. The days rest in Arnold’s arms and surrounded by their children had worked a minor miracle in helping the witch find her balance again.
However, the news that the secret of the ponies had been revealed and was going to be the focus of a town meeting had nearly thrown Foxfire back into the frenzied animal she’d been the previous night. Thus, her calming ritual while Arnold kept their children entertained.
Setting the large silver bowl on her bedroom table, she filled it carefully with blessed water. Water that had never felt the sun’s light and had only ever been touched by moonlight. Water that had been seen by each of the three goddesses who looked down from its face, and hopefully had placed a spark of their wisdom within.
“Artemis, Selene, Hecate,” the witch said, beginning the chant. “Maiden, mother, crone. Show me the path I should make my own.”
Foxfire took a deep breath and looked into the bowl’s depths, expecting to see the calm silvery surface she had seen in times past. Sometimes, when the light was right, she would catch a glimpse of herself in the water, surrounded by gleaming argent.
She cast her vision and mind into the bowl. Once again she saw her own reflection in a pool of silver on silver. Foxfire’s eyes widened as she looked into the reflection of Jean Pedersen.
It was her, but at the same time it wasn’t. Her human reflection’s face was looking back at her with a cool, powerful confidence, as if nothing and no one could stand in her path. As if nothing should dare to stand in her path. The vision pulled back to show that her doppelganger wore her long hair up in a complicated weave of multiple braids supporting a royal coronet in its dark coils.
That shining silver emblem of royalty was studded with opals and moonstones, one of them carved into a blazing crescent moon. At her throat was a matching and close fitting silver torc. It too was emblazoned with the crescent moon sigil, and both symbols of power were enameled with a light blue coating that made them look as if the Moon itself had crowned her with its own light made solid.
That beautiful, royal version of Jean looked back out from the reflection, and locked its gaze onto Foxfire’s. Two pairs of brown eyes met, their verdant cores forming a bridge from one woman to the other, and Foxfire/Jean heard a voice, that was everywhere and nowhere at the same time:
“Your destiny lies in your own hooves, but this advice I will offer to you, child of two worlds. Once you have chosen a course, hold true to it and though others may plead and threaten, you must stand your ground.”
The vision faded, and Foxfire fell back to the floor, stunned by what she had seen and heard. All she had hoped for was a moment of calm, some insight at best. To be granted a full-on vision was unheard of. Which begged another question: Why had the vision Jean been garbed as a royal?
Foxfire shook her head. Those were questions for another time. She’d been given the answers and balance she had sought, albeit in an unexpected way. It was up to her to accept what she had been granted and to start getting ready for the town hall in a few hours.
Foxfire also made a mental note to ask Medevac why she smiled every time she looked in Foxfire’s direction.
In all of space and time there is only one thing that is known to be faster than the speed of light, and that is the speed of propagation of juicy gossip. So it wasn’t long at all before the entire community had heard the story of how a group of the town’s children had somehow acquired the ability to change into power packed ponies.
Some scoffed, some laughed, others listened with sober concern, and more than a few decided they needed to find out what the truth was for themselves. To the consternation of the seven ponies that were currently in Brightly they found themselves besieged. Right up until Ernie decided enough was enough, and packed everyone off to his farm while his wife distracted everyone who decided to “stop by for a chat.”
“We need to go to the meeting, Mom,” Shield Maiden said, with as much dignity and authority as an eleven year old could muster. “It’s our fault this is happening. If we had listened and stayed home like you wanted us to none of this would have happened. We need to be there.”
Even at Ernie’s farm, people had shown up wanting to talk, but Wayan and Harb were doing yeoman’s work in turning people politely away, telling them they should be at the meeting in the community hall that evening if they wanted to see or meet the ponies.
Foxfire looked at the five younger ponies gathered around her with a mixture of pride and sadness. Pride that her daughter was acting so responsibly at such a young age, and sadness that circumstances had forced it to happen so soon. Her daughter Shield Maiden, was a leader of heroes now, and Foxfire had to live up to her daughter’s example.
“If you had listened to me, people would have died,” Foxfire said, comforting the young unicorn and letting her gaze take in the other Power Ponies. “If any of you had listened to me, or your parents, people would have died, or our town would have been flooded, or a man who helped everyone might have never found his way home.”
“As one of your parents I hate to admit it, but Foxfire is right,” Arnold agreed, passing out some juice boxes as the group sat in the barn of Ernie’s farm. “All of us are proud of you kids, and things would have come out eventually anyway.”
“But what about tonight?” Iron Hoof asked, slurping some juice. “We gotta be there, right?”
“No, you don’t,” Jean said, looking at Arnold for confirmation and she continued at seeing the big man’s nod. “A pony should be there, but not you kids. You’ve done and risked enough. I’ll go.”
“Not without me you aren’t,” Medevac interjected, from where she was perched on a roof beam of the barn. “That ass Cummins is going to be there, and I want a word with him.”
“Oh, why?” Arnold asked, looking puzzled at the vehemence in the voice of the pegasus pony. “What did he do to you? Other than accidentally uncover everything.”
“I’m not sure, but he blew up my voicemail,” Medevac half growled. “Must have been a dozen messages from him asking to meet me. Said I could pick the place, and bring anyone I felt safe around.”
“Weird,” Arnold replied. “You going to meet with him?”
“Haven’t decided yet,” Medevac wavered. “Either way, I’m going with Foxfire to the town hall meeting. I’ve got to keep an eye on my patient, after all.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me anymore, is there?” Foxfire asked, eyes widening.
“Not a thing,” Medevac replied, a widening smile on her muzzle. “I’ll tell you after all the excitement tonight, okay?”
“Okay,” Foxfire confirmed, looking suspiciously at the medical pony. “After the meeting.”
“I don’t care what you say,” Godwinson declared. “It’s not natural. People don’t just go changing into animals. How do we know they are even people anymore? How do we know they aren’t aliens? Or demons? Or alien demons?”
“Now you’re just being ridiculous,” Montcalm commented, trying to keep things under control. The town hall meeting was stretching into its second hour, and now that the initial shock had worn off people were getting testy.
The real surprise was how readily people had adjusted to the fact that the rumored ponies were actually real and were in fact, their friends and neighbors. True, the initial declaration had been met with disbelief and a few mocking jeers. Brightly was however, smack in the middle of the Great Bear Rainforest, a place of myth and legend. Home to the Kermode bear, also known as the Spirit Bear.
So when Foxfire and Medevac clopped out and demonstrated some of what they could do, it hadn’t taken all that much convincing to get people to realize that what they were seeing was real. Medevac had flown a couple of laps around the inside of the very large auditorium, while Foxfire had levitated several items. The piece de resistance had occurred when one skeptic asked Foxfire to lift him up, which she had promptly done.
Then had followed an abbreviated retelling of the events during the big storm, the plane crash in Carmanah Lake, and the overnight adventure with the power lineman from BC Hydro. Brian Cummins and John Wilcox also joined in, telling the crowd what they knew and how they had been sworn to silence until the meeting with Horgan on Sunday.
All eyes had then turned toward a certain room cleaner who had suddenly become very unemployed for violating a guest’s privacy. At which point Godwinson had jumped in to defend her cohort. Things had devolved from there as the gossipmonger fired verbal broadsides left and right.
What really worried Montcalm was that the woman’s words were igniting a storm of worry and anger in the crowd of residents. Worry that could easily turn to fear, and from there it was just a pitchfork and a torch away from being a mob. Godwinson was just the kind of person to make that happen as a distraction from her part in the mayhem.
“Short of a sign from above, I say there’s no way for us to be sure that this… woman and her freakish creations don’t intend some horrible fate for all of us,” Godwinson declared with an outthrust chin. “I say the best thing for the town is to call the authorities and let them deal with this.”
On the small stage Foxfire and Medevac glanced at each other in worry. This was Jean’s nightmare scenario coming to life. All that was left was the soldiers and the fire. Then the words of her Goddess self came back to her, “You must stand your ground.”
“I don’t know what I can say that will convince you that we ponies want to help,” Foxfire loudly declared. “But if words won’t sway you, maybe actions will. I’ll sacrifice myself to whatever authorities you want to call in, but only if you promise to keep the rest of the ponies secret.”
The creature inside of Foxfire screamed in sudden terror. If the unicorn gave itself up, it could be discovered and exorcised from this powerful host. It tried to protest, but it was still only weakly bonded to Foxfire and its power was at a low ebb after having given the motivating vision earlier. If Foxfire had any inkling of the creature’s protest, the unicorn gave no sign.
“Sacrifice?” scoffed Godwinson. “You don’t know what sacrifice is. In fact, all I see is a woman who has violated the laws of nature to create a group of inhuman creatures for who knows what foul purpose.” Foxfire shrank back, suddenly afraid until John Vatten stood up with fire in his eyes.
“You want to know what kind of sacrifices the ponies have made?” the big man snarled, spitting Godwinson on his gaze and closing her mouth with the sheer malevolence of it. “I know the mayor didn’t go into much detail, so let me tell you about the sort of sacrifice these people, these ponies are capable of.”
“When Iron Hoof hit Shield Maiden’s wedge against that tree, it was like Thor's hammer,” John Vatten continued, his voice hard. “There was a crack like thunder, a flash of light, and the trunk split in half with both ends burning. Even in that driving rain, the tree was set on fire. Iron Hoof cleared our way to the dam, but at the cost of his own life.”
The large room was utterly silent now, even breathing seemed to have stopped as the tough and wiry man recounted those desperate minutes.
“Iron Hoof is just a kid, so he didn’t know how to control how much power he used,” Vatten recounted, fumbling in his coat for something. “He didn’t know better, so he hit with everything he had, and when he did he shattered his leg bones.”
Gasps of “No” came from various listeners, and even Godwinson’s face twisted in shared agony.
“That brave pony, that child of Brightly, gave his all, gave everything he had for all of US!” Vatten’s voice roared out. “For you, for me, for his family and friends, he lay dying on the cold wet pavement of that dark night!”
“Greater love hath no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends,” Father Addison interrupted, quoting scripture in a voice pitched to carry.
“You’re damn right, Father,” Vatten growled, with ironic blasphemy. “So, when a literal pony angel came down from the heavens and healed him, like something out of the old stories, I made a promise.”
Vatten pulled out a large cloth, about the size of a large dish towel, soaked through and through with Iron Hoof’s dried blood. He held the scarlet brown banner high, so that the entire crowd could see it.
“For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be as my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition,” John Vatten declared, in a voice of thunder and defiance. “Iron Hoof is my brother, and I will defend him to the death against anything and anyone. Who’s with me?”
“I am!” yelled out John’s hose partner, Ben. “I don’t care if it’s Victoria or Ottawa or anyone else. Those kids are our kids, our ponies. They all are!”
“I’m with you!” yelled out Kevin Banta, jumping to his feet and as he did Darrell Montcalm noticed that the two men were now surrounded by a faint orange glow.
“We stand with little jinn,” Wayan Harb stated in his rough english, as hand in hand he and his wife got to their feet. “We have run for so long. This is a good place to stand up again. Stand for friends.” The orange glow now enveloped them as well, and grew in strength.
“Don’t you worry Jean, Foxfire, whatever you want to call yourself,” John Rosenberg said, getting to his feet with slow dignity. “No one is taking you or the kids anywhere. This old warhorse has a fight or two left in him. Our town, our kids. That’s a cause worth fighting for.”
It was the tipping point. In one, twos, and whole families people got to their feet, declaring that the Ponies of Brightly were their ponies, and no one and nothing was going to take them away. Light in different colours bloomed around each person as they shouted out their determination until the room looked to be lit by a rainbow that came from within the people themselves.
“You asked for a sign from God, Ms. Godwinson,” Father Addison shouted in Dora’s ear so he could be heard over the din. “I’d say He delivered.”
“Brightly, BRIGHTLY, BRIGHTLY,” thundered the chant until it seemed fit to burst the building.
Deep down in the earth, a pair of breezies in a slowly rising shaft heard a rumbling sound behind them. Looking down toward the sound a bright light could be seen rushing upwards.
“Brace yourself!” Celestia yelled, creating a pocket for her full alicorn size from sheer instinct. Luna followed suit a breath later as the sisters were enveloped by the rushing tide of magic blazing upwards from the portal. The magic swept past the sisters and into the rock face above them, leaving every surface it had touched glowing with rainbow highlights.
“What was that?” Luna asked, once things had stabilized. “Stabilized” being a relative term as the air around them was filled with glowing motes.
“This is more than the magic of Friendship, Luna,” Celestia replied, eyes wide. “This is Harmony. This is the core magic of Equestria and I think that Lee Ung, or his descendants, have somehow managed to call it to them.”
“We have to hurry then,” Luna urged, staying in her alicorn form and widening the shaft back down to the portal. “That much magic in untutored hooves, with no pony to guide them…”
“Agreed, sister,” Celestia said, continuing to bore upwards. “We can tunnel faster as ourselves rather than breezies. You widen the shaft downwards first, then help me.” Luna nodded, carving pieces of rock off the shaft and letting them fall down into the portal.
As the two sisters worked and the townsfolk of Brightly declared themselves united on behalf of their ponies, the amplified magic continued to filter its way up through the rock and soil. The magic oozed through the surface into the town, and into a long-forgotten apple seed planted by a hopeful miner long ago. Warmed by the touch of its homeland, the seed awoke and sprouted.
Ah Freddie, you sing for the angels now.
So, the secret is out. And the secret is hidden as well. Embraced by their town, the ponies of Brightly now have friends and allies standing beside them. Will it be enough though? Brightly has held fast through the physical tempest and now the emotional one. Can they continue to stand their ground in the face of the oncoming political firestorm?
And what of the power that the townsfolk themselves have unwittingly summoned to their town. Will they have to learn to wield the power of Harmony on their own, or will the Diarchs be able to finish their borehole in time?
The entity within Jean, what is its purpose and plan for the witch unicorn? And will this effect the growing life within her?
So many questions as we approach the conclusion. Many but all of them will be answered soon.
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I do hope Ms. Godwinson knows how to eat humble pie. Other manipulative tyrants in her position might lose what remains of their rationality and lash out.
Hmmm. A Tree of Harmony in the making?
Excellent chapter, once again.
Poor Twilight. Um, who is gonna raise the sun and moon while the princesses are away?
... Ooops. That's gonna leave a mark.
What a wonderful new chapter, I like where things are going and as always long for more chapters.
9679642
Twilight will raise and lower is my only guess
Another excellent chapter.
For those unfamiliar, Victoria is the capitol of the province, and Ottawa is the capitol of the country.
The cliffhanger club members are everywhere...
9679642
I do hope she's taking care of the rock debris that's shooting out of the mirror as those two cave a wider path through the mine. Poor girl's gonna need a few spa days to deal with suddenly being in charge of everything and then getting pelted with rocks. (Probably best to just face the mirror out a window so the broken stones land on the lawn and not fill up the room)
I do hope the mayor tells Ms Godwinson that, due to her hate mongering, she should move out of Brightly, post haste.
9680009
No. That would only engender more bad feelings in her and reinforce what she feels about the ponies. Hate and Fear have to be fought, and replaced by Trust and Harmony. Otherwise, if she goes to the Authorities herself, spreading her Fear and Hate, who knows what the response might be...
9680173
They'd likely ignore her as a crackpot.
I thought it was improbability. Or maybe bad news?
https://youtu.be/g2PCNKlddJY
9680866
One of my favorite parts of one of my favorite MLP tunes. I just don't know if I prefer the one you linked or the original.
9681124
You can hear the pain, then the anger, and determination and something else ... build up in Luna through the whole song
Wow, that town meeting was very moving; a true tearjerker. The scene in Canterlot with Luna trapped in a glass and being threatened with a pot of glue was hysterically funny. It could have been a heavy scene in it’s own right, but bringing some silly cartoon magic instead seems like the right choice. Plays up the difference between there and our own gritty real world.
Oh dear, they're drastically augmenting the quantum configuration of this localized pocket of the cosmos into a metastable transdimensional construct. I fear this contagion of strange matter may begin unraveling the entire structure of the universe.
(Alondro, master of unintended consequences leading to the end of the cosmos!)