Spectrum

by Sledge115

Act I ~ Chapter Five ~ Understanding Dawns

Spectrum

The Team

TheIdiot
Strange plotter

Jed R
Occasional Writer Of Decent Material

DoctorFluffy
PFFF…. Jed said “occasional”. That man sells himself way too short. He is a treasure to us all.

VoxAdam
V. A. T. S.

Sledge115

RoyalPsycho
World-builder extraordinaire

TB3

Kizuna Tallis
I love games that turn people against each other.

ProudToBe

Chapter Six
Understanding Dawns

* * * * *

“Listen only to the sound of my voice. Let your mind relax. Let your thoughts drift. Let the bad memories fade. Let peace be upon you. Surrender yourself to your dreams. Let them wash over you like the gentle waves of the bluest ocean. Let them envelop you. Comfort you.

Imagine somewhere calm. Imagine somewhere safe. Imagine yourself in a frozen forest. You’re standing in a clearing. Trees around you so tall, they touch the sky. Pure white snowflakes fall all around. You can feel them melt on your skin. You are not cold. It cannot overcome the warmth of your beating heart. Can you hear it? You only have to listen.

Can you hear it slowing? You’re slowing it. You are in control. Calm. At peace.”
— Mantra of the Frozen Forest, Call of Duty: Black Ops III

~ The Crystal Realm, Northern Domain of Equestria ~ Second Day of the Month of Rophon, Year 3 of the Era Harmoniae ~

“You have to go speak to Blueblood?” Shining Armor asked incredulously, scowling as he paced up and down their bedroom. “Why, Cadance? Why in the blazes has Luna left you to go speak to that ponce?”

Cadance shushed him with a forehoof, digging the other into the covers. “Astron is family whether you like it or not, Shiney. Please, be nice.”

“He’s still a spoiled, buffoonish oaf,” Shining reiterated, turning from the window. “All he ever wants to do is play croquet and polo with his cronies. And those are his respectable hobbies. Seeing what manner of uncouth behaviour he lets slip at the Galas, I’d hate to imagine what he’s hiding about what goes on at his, ahem, ‘private’ parties. Let’s not mention, he dodged his military service.”

“He didn’t dodge it,” Cadance said. She was careful not to raise her voice, but she had to emphasise that word. “Those records of a year spent with Vanhoover Company weren’t fabricated by bribes, you know.”

“Milady,” Shining snorted, “a stallion flying the Starspear around like his personal pleasure yacht isn’t performing military service, whether he’s wearing a naval uniform or not.” Her husband sniffed. “He’s a ponce. A dandy.”

“He is… more than a little self-indulgent,” Cadance allowed. “But that doesn’t stop him from being one of my oldest friends. You don’t think Aunt Celestia would let any foal go completely to seed under her watch? And, like I said before, technically he is family.”

“By adoption, Cadance, same as you, and Sunset too,” Shining sighed. But he’d calmed down enough to sit by her side on the bed, edging his forehoof towards her own. “Well, alright. He goes back a few dozen generations, and you’re brand-new.” He smiled at her fondly. “That may have been a mark of quality for some ancestor of his, love. I just think we’ll have to raise our children better than that…”

Cadance hummed. “Yeah. But the fact is, he and I grew up together. Which has got to count for something, right? That’s why Luna has entrusted this to me.”

“Well, that and because she can’t stand him.”

“You can’t really expect her to know him like I do,” Cadance said, with a shrug. “Anyway, if I’m gonna contact him soon, I’d better get to it.”

“Will he still be asleep?”

She chuckled melodiously, lying her head back against the pillow. “Probably.”

Shining Armor, seeing there was no can-do, gave her a wry smirk. “Alright, then,” he said. “Good luck, Cadance. I’ll get the guards ready for our journey.”

“The world it is weak it is soft it is and here I am the past is freed I am the future I am the power I am the king I am and they will bow they will see they will understand and…

… Wait.

Son skin son scum sons filth putrid diseased failure my failure disgusting diseased…

Not. Dead. Yet. Where are you swarm of my flesh, son of my skin, scum and stinking, putrid and pathetic and… Wait.

Who are you familiar yet stranger kin yet not kin thin blood smells of…”

“Now,” said Lord Discord. “Just who are you searching for, Father Krampus?”

~ Ponyville, Equestria ~

“Some future or alternate version of myself,” Celestia whispered.

The pronouncement of Alexander Reiner lay heavy on the air, like a bell tolling, the echo long outliving the sound. She and her sister had stepped away from the others, the younger ponies speaking amongst themselves, save for Lyra Heartstrings, who was speaking with Reiner at a sub-volume.

“Strange,” Celestia continued. “I knew such things were possible, even likely.” She gave a weak, insincere chuckle. “So many magical theoreticians and physicists have just been granted the proof of a lifetime… and yet here I am, faced with it, and I so desperately want to believe in its falsehood.”

“But if it is true, what now?” Luna asked hushedly.

Celestia gave her one look. “If it is true… then it is not my place to decide alone.”

“I shall support whatever you need,” Luna breathed. “All of the family will. Shining and Cadance were informed. Cadance must have told Blueblood by now. Yes, I suppose Kibitz as well. As for our relatives in the North…”

“They shall receive word, in due time,” Celestia said ruefully, smiling without mirth. She looked back at Reiner, who looked incredibly tired. “Yet the choice still falls onto me. And not only me.”

Celestia turned fully and took a step towards Reiner, who looked up at the sound, and tensed in his bed, scowling.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Alexander Reiner, I cannot pretend to understand exactly what has happened,” Celestia told him, her tone gentle. “To you and to your world. But please know I want to help you in any way I can.”

Reiner breathed out, once, twice, not meeting her eye. “Then wake me up,” he said bluntly. “Even though it’d be waking up to a nightmare. Send me home.” He gritted his teeth. “That’s the only help I want, or need from you.”

“I doubt that’s true,” Celestia said evenly. “It is certainly the only help you want, I’m sure. After all, you clearly hold no love for me. But after the visions you have shown to my sister, my student and her friends... I suspect you need all the help you can get. Help shall always be given by Equestria to those who ask for it.”

“I’ve seen too much of your ‘help’, Princess...” Reiner said, clutching at the IV drip hooked into his right arm. “What? Do you think nobody on Earth wanted help from Equestria? We welcomed it, at first. Yes, we told ourselves it was too good to be true, that nobody could be this selfless, and even at the start, there were those calling to bomb the Conversion Bureaus–”

“The what now?” Applejack interrupted, from the gaggle of friends in the corner.

This drew surprised looks from everyone. Since returning from inside Reiner’s mind, after hearing his final, damning accusation levelled at Celestia, Twilight’s intimate circle had kept themselves rather to themselves.

Which left Lyra with no-one but their increasingly troubling visitor to stick by.

“Conversion Bureaus,” Reiner repeated. He noticed Lyra staring up at him. “That’s the one thing I didn’t tell you about before. The war you saw… it didn’t start as a war. For a few, a very few years, three of them, Equestria and us lived in relative peace. That’s why you’re the ‘Ambassador’, Lyra. You were an ambassador from Equestria to my world.”

Lyra’s mouth hung open, until she willed it to work. “Your whole world…?”

“No,” Reiner said brusquely. “Just one country. The United Kingdom of Great Britain, it was called, if you’re interested. Not that any of it matters. It’s all been vapourised by the Barrier. But during those years, there was a Conversion Bureau in practically every country.” He reclined, a heaviness falling upon his whole bearing. “In the beginning, they didn’t use the ponification serum as a weapon. They advertised it as a cure.”

“How?” Lyra gasped. “How’s being made to give up all you are, forever, a cure?”

“Because for too many, it really must have felt like it,” Reiner said, gazing into the ether. “I told you, Lyra, you were ambassador to a single country, when you’d have loved to have met all mankind. But my world… it isn’t a united one. Unlike yours, only one thinking species is known to live there, and that’s us. Humans. And we’re…” He hesitated, tugging at the sheet, “... not very good at sharing space. Which is why Equestria seemed like such a Godsend. Why crawl through all the shit in our lives? If next door, there’s a happier, more hopeful place without any of that, what’s holding us back? Happy ponies, running carelessly in the fields…”

“Bub,” Applejack interrupted him sternly. “Any of them folk what think that’s all there is to being a pony, they don’t know their flank from their face.”

“A-hum,” Fluttershy said. She was still nursing her neck, from when Reiner had locked her into his grip. “Ponies… ponies can be mean, and cruel… but also kind… we take care of Equestria’s animals and they take care of us… no-one’s just left to run wild...”

Rarity held her best friend tightly. “And how gauche would it be, I ask you, if we had nothing to work with our hooves, nothing to create!”

Dash, who’d been eyeing Reiner suspiciously since his assault on Fluttershy, spoke slowly.

“The point they’re trying to make…” Dash said, “is that if we didn’t have any troubles, any challenges to overcome, any broken tupperware to mend… there’d be no point to any friendship lessons. What’d we have to learn?” She paused. “Don’t I know a lot about it…”

“They’re right, Alex,” said Lyra. “Equestria’s not all parties and games. But I’ve found it so much nicer because there’s more to it than that.”

Reiner nodded as if he were resigned to hear this. “I know. Even in the early days, we’d heard a few stories of how all hadn’t been stable in Equestria for some time. But it’s a plain, simple fact, old as our history. The grass always looks greener on the other side...”

That statement was left hanging. Even Celestia, who yearned to say something, comfort this broken creature, chafed to hold her tongue, knowing nothing that she had to say would be welcomed by him.

Wordlessly, Lyra moved closer to Reiner’s bed, and wordlessly, he traced his fingers through her mane.

“I don’t understand...” said a voice, low and sad.

The Princesses and their ponies turned and realised, to their surprise, that it was Pinkie.

“Why wouldn’t ponies and… humans, want to be friends?” she said. “If there’s a potion to become a pony, there must be one to make a pony into a human, that’d be so much fun, to transform and change shape like that!” Her mane, hanging limply around her, seemed to regain vibrancy for a second. “The parties would be amazing! I’d love to be a griffon for a little while, or to have fingers like yours.”

Lyra, still buried in the human’s embrace, gave a little laugh that went all but unnoticed.

And Twilight spoke for the first time. “There are spells that allow for temporary transformation...” She looked at her friends. “Remember when I gave Rarity wings, or allowed the rest of us to walk on clouds? But they’re not meant to last. All of them use Starswirl the Bearded’s Amniomorphic Spell as a base, and he himself said that...”

“That true transformation would require magicking the subject’s soul...” Reiner said dully. “You witnessed it, in my dreams. Being touched by the serum isn’t like putting on a suit. It isn’t a cosplay, or a costume like some people said pre-War. That poison sucks your very self to fuel it, and you… bend. People’s flesh, stretched out, their bones broken up and put back together again. That’s why those creatures, they never feel quite like ponies. They’re not. They’re humans, and they’ve been hammered into that shape. And you can still see these little reminders of what they used to be, hints they weren’t born, just recycled.”

Celestia saw Twilight had turned green. She herself couldn’t entirely keep the nausea at bay, recalling many hundreds of terrible instances of dark magic in her long life. Few, if any, had been quite as cruel as this.

“That’s just the physical,” Reiner added unforgivingly. “On the mental level, it might as well be a completely different person.”

He glanced up. Celestia nearly flinched. His gaze was burning, and starting straight at her.

“And that’s why I hate you,” he hissed. “I look upon you, see your beautifully smooth, porcelain-perfect face, and you know what I keep feeling, Celestia? An overwhelming desire to smash it into a million tiny pieces.”

“... But where?”

Twilight had choked out another phrase.

The human’s statement had felt blistering to Celestia, yet this feeling overlapped with a chill upon her heart to hear Twilight speak in distress. Close to a wail. Pleading.

“Where’d you get the energy for magic on this massive scale?” she babbled. “For pity’s sake, that time Big Mac dragged Berry’s house off its hinges, it took the collected force of me, Lyra, every unicorn in town to put it back where it belonged! How could Equestria even manifest on Earth in the first place? Is that what you’re saying?”

Rapidly, the thought arose in Celestia’s mind that she should step in.

But, with abrupt determination, she chose to quell it. On occasion, being permitted to vent was the best medication. Too much lay in the air. And given all they had learned, Twilight letting it out in an intellectual rant may be the ideal tonic, at least in the short term.

Luna seemed of a different opinion, moving forward, but Celestia quietly held a forehoof in her path, shaking her head. She knew her student.

“You can't just drop a continent onto a planet, I mean–”

It was Lyra Heartstrings who chose to speak up now, clearing her throat. “Twilight–”

“–Equestria has an area of approximately nine million square miles and–”

“Hey, Twilight–”

“–the abyssal plain is about three miles deep which–”

“Okay, but–”

“–cubic miles of rock! That is plainly absurd, as it gives a mass of–”

“That doesn’t–”

“–meaning that even if you somehow managed to avoid–”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight turned to look at her, hoof still raised. “What?”

“Equestria appeared via magical portal, not falling landmass.”

Twilight blinked, and looked around. Luna’s mouth hung open. Pinkie was busy taking notes. Celestia held a hoof to her mouth, and all the others were gawking at her.

“... Oh.”

Celestia knew that until this point, in spite of his hostility towards her and his threat towards Fluttershy, the human had taken his circumstances rather placidly, all things considered. But now, a change had come about him. Twilight was right. There was something in his eyes. And a glow about his forelimbs, his arms, as he’d identified them.

“My God…” he whispered. “I still had my doubts, but this… this can’t be a dream. What am I, a fucking geologist? Nowhere in my mind could I drum up something this detailed, this… this researched! And that must mean… I’ve got the real Twilight Sparkle standing before me.”

“Yes,” Twilight said . “Yes, you d–”

“But I can’t be,” Reiner cut in viciously. “You… you are all monsters, the lot of you. Willing to ponify people, turn them into those… those goddamn things!”

“No, we’re not!” Pinkie cried. “That’s the exact opposite of what we’ve been telling you!”

“How… this hospital...” Reiner uttered, his eyes hooded and glaring. “What is this place? How do I know this… isn’t simply a Conversion Bureau, and this, this is all my mind playing tricks on me, as the Tyrant creates this elaborate fantasy, dragging out every last secret of mine as I lost the last inch of my soul? You’re too real to simply be a dream, yet why should I trust you!?”

“Alex,” Lyra panted, pulling back from him, sounding frightened. “What are you saying! These are my friends!”

“I know!” Reiner yelled. “Just like I know that what I’ve seen, it’s all real. But… None of this makes any sense! I... just…!”

His hand was clasped, claw-like, to his forehead, beads of sweat appearing on his temples. His breathing was growing heavier, coming in short, sharp bursts that made his chest expand inward and outward, to an alarming number of beeps from the monitors.

The sight was enough for Celestia to question whether she’d made the right call, as long-buried memories came flooding back to her, of how she’d failed to see Luna’s frustrations and pain until it was too late her little sister...

But something happened. Fingers digging into his cheekbones, Reiner spoke three words.

“Lamed Vav Tzadikim…”

And he froze. It was like a film projector breaking down, stuck on the same piece of celluloid. He didn’t breathe, he didn’t blink.

“Is he... Is he broken?” Pinkie asked, concerned. “Lyra, do humans just… break?”

“I don’t know…”

“Oh,” sighed Applejack, “I thinks that fella is plenty broken.”

Rarity, who had her hooves wrapped tightly around Fluttershy, did not ease up, but she did take stock of the situation, with her seamstress’s eyes.

“At least,” she said tentatively, “it’s not an offensive spell.”

“You sure?” asked Dash, her wings stretched out and her head bent. “We don’t know what human magic could be like.”

“I don’t think they have magic at all,” Rarity whispered, “not naturally. Remember what Nurse Redheart said about those tattoos he’s got. It’s like they’re his power source.”

“We should call for the nurse,” Celestia said. “Lyra, if you’d be so kind?”

“Uh, sure thing, Highness,” Lyra said cautiously, “but, um, there’s just one thing I need to tell you about Redheart.”

“Then say it quick, Lyra...” Celestia then turned to her sister. “Luna? What do you make of this?”

It did not evade Celestia that Luna’s face had ‘I-told-you-so’ written all over it, as she neared the human to inspect his condition. But she said nothing to it. The time for action was close, Celestia sensed. Yet waiting and watching, as a first step, were still efficient means of learning and understanding. And from the human’s nigh-obsessively controlled reactions, they were learning much about him, what he was running from.

“P-princess…” Twilight began, shaking, as she addressed Celestia. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, this is my fault–”

“No, Twilight,” Celestia told her, draping an ever-comforting wing over her student’s shoulder. “This has been hard, on all of us,” she said quietly. “You had to let something out. And by the looks of him, so does Alexander Reiner, who is reining himself in most extraordinarily…”

“It’s a form of trance,” Luna muttered critically, horn dimly alight. “And it’s what he wanted.”

~ Shattered Dreams of a Warrior ~

“While it is in my power to stop the Barrier… morally, I cannot.”

The Solar Tyrant smiled down benignly at the flabbergasted-looking human reporters, gathered before her podium in the Equestrian Embassy of Berne.

“Your world is too dear, your lives too precious, for me to do otherwise. To allow you to continue as you have would be a sin,” Queen Celestia continued, seeking to ease their confusion and misbegotten fear. “The Barrier is expanding, and the only way to survive is to change. The Conversion Bureaus were set up for that reason, to rid you of the violence that perverts your inner equines, to set you free as prosperous, happy ponies, aware of the magic arou–”

“What if we don't want to change!?” a reporter from NBC shouted in anger.

The interruption threw Queen Celestia’s train of thought off the rails and into the cornfields.

“We cannot allow you not to change,” she pressed on, facing the cameras with a resolve that betrayed no inner doubt. “For while Equestria lives on as a pastoral beacon, we know what lurks in the shadows of the world outside. You were told of our unfortunate strife with the Crystal Realm... Now, the time has come for me to pronounce my revelation.”

She breathed in, slowly, with the air of a prophet about to say something wonderful.

“I say this to the whole of mankind…” Queen Celestia proclaimed. “I believe it was ordained that our people should meet. The last strife in my people’s history is to be, indeed, the last. We shall have peace yes, and together, we shall find the Light. Although you are now slaves to your inner demons, as my dear ponies were enslaved to the Dark King, soon, no more! I regret killing him. I shall not kill a single one of you. Instead, we shall save you, one and all!”

She may have hoped they would gratefully accept her words.

Instead, the reporters were backing away from her, as if she were a dangerous animal. Some attempted to flee for the doors, only to run into the Loyalty Guard and an assortment of smiling Newfoals, the recently-converted human members of the embassy staff.

“You here will be the first... and the world shall witness and rejoice in your salvation.”

“You can’t do this!” screamed a young female reporter from KBS World.

“I can and I must,” the Tyrant said calmly as the Guards began to advance, corralling them. “Your very world itself calls out to me to rescue you from yourselves.”

She nodded towards the Newfoals. Having bowed briefly to her, they grabbed and tore the tablecloths of the food-trolleys on both sides of the room, to reveal that stored in each of the trolleys’ undersides were racks of thin, purple glass vials.

The unicorns unstoppered the vials by a flick of their horns, earthponies and pegasi with their now-strengthened teeth, and all tossed the liquid contents on the crowd, who were roaring in rage and fright–

“Stop!”

And were joined by his voice, screaming with a fury from across years of suffering.

It may have been that at the sound of his, the eyes of all present, aggressor, victim, and those caught in-between, locked themselves onto Alex, but his glare was on one person in the room, one person alone.

“What?” The contours of Queen Celestia’s mane glowed a tinge of orange. “You deny me?”

He stepped forward, heavy boots leaving imprints on the soft, ornamental carpet of the floor.

“Not just me,” Alex growled. “The human race denies you. All people, on my world and yours, with the good sense to not get caught up in your madness, deny you. Oh, too often, we have let despots and demagogues run the show, closing our eyes when they talked of building walls or leading us to greatness. You’re just another goddamn one of them. Yes, I deny you. And you know how we say ‘deny you’ in my neck of the woods? Fuck you, and the horse you rode in on!”

Without breaking a sweat, he swung his fist at the very moment his tattoos lit up, aiming right for her face. And, encountering resistance neither from the surrounding Newfoals or the Tyrant, it impacted. The force of the swing sent cracks all across the surface of her coat, which blew away in countless specks of fine, white powder…

… Akin to a coat of fresh snow, newly disturbed by the winds of Winter…

A howl filled his ears, not of pain or anguish, but a rising gale…

… The cold wave hit him.

It was a freeze that enveloped itself around not only the surface of his skin, but deep into the recesses behind his eyes, into his mind, and his heart. He felt a sharp tingle at his fingertips. A profound dread invaded him, more chilling than any outside cold, as he half-expected that this was the moment, when he’d look down at his hands and see they were no longer his, or hands at all...

Instead, he found himself holding a gun, where no gun had been before.

He was no longer in Berne. The night was icy, biting deeper than it should in late summer or early fall, even through the kevlar he was suddenly back to wearing. Yet this was how it was, with all of the ash the destruction wrought by the Barrier had thrown into the atmosphere, the weather sent off-kilter. But it wasn’t snowing, and the ashes in the air all around him were not the work of the Barrier.

They were his doing. It was August again, and he was at Defiance. He was there to stop a plot by the notorious HLF terrorist Leonid Lovikov, wanted for the murder and torture of Nurse Sutra Cross, the Shelling of Portland, and now, apparently, a plot to destabilise the PHL at their weakest.

And, with luck, they’d finally capture that mass-murdering psychopath Viktor Kraber. Responsible for a massive number of deaths during the Purple Winter, stealing food and medicine from convoys, indiscriminate murder of Equestrians whether or not they were PHL, to name but a few. Word from Lieutenant Ze’ev was that he’d been willing to turn himself in, but when they got to Defiance, he was nowhere to be seen.

Alexander Reiner, on the other hand...

“No…” Alex whispered, staring at his Remington ACR, memory flooding him, as it always did at this point in the dream. “Please, God, no…”

But the moment was like a rock. Hard, heavy, and unchanging, other than how it was rolling closer towards him. The past was inalterable, the future, an eternal recurrence.

“That was my husband!” came the woman’s scream, “You son of a–”

She charged, round with child, out of her hut’s doorway, pistol aimed right at him.

“For the love of God,” Reiner whispered, “Don’t make me do this.”

He looked away. A small mercy. Even as it meant that, this time again, he felt the white-hot pain of the bullet tearing through his skull.

It hadn’t happened like that, in real life.

… In real life, he’d been faster.

How quickly everything can change. As the blinding white, and pain, receded into darkness, the image of the Tyrant’s face, whole and triumphant, mocked him silently, an after-image that felt more real than anything he’d ever beheld, be it in his mind’s eye or for himself.

The Tyrant had stood and declared herself righteous. So had Alex – never to her face, but nonetheless in the hearts of many, as one voice with those who stood together against her. Cheerilee. Luna. Cadance. Lyra.

He’d tried telling himself he’d had no choice. Because, it was true, in that split second, there was only one choice. Damnation, or oblivion. Now, every time he underwent this sequence, he was given his time to shine bright, and then his taste of oblivion.

“Well. Done,” someone said. Their voice warbled in his ears, and he winced. “I would. Say. That you deserve a... Promotion. For this. Good work. Has… been. Done.”

A chorus of voices rang out around him.

“Done well! Done. Well. Done! Well!”

It echoed, intensifying until it threatened to split his head open all over again.

There he was, looking down at his own body. Except it wasn’t his body, it was the woman’s. And painted on every wall, almost glowing, was the graffiti that tormented him so. ‘Justice For Angelo’.

“We were... only. Suppressing HLF.” Colonel Robert Gardner’s voice said. “Dissidents. Terrorists. Monsters. They could just… as easily. Been a threat. To humanity. As the Empire. You’ve done good work here. You’ve. Done great. Work… Captain Reiner.”

Alex wanted to express remorse. Wanted to refuse promotion. Wanted to say that even with what the HLF and their backing had in the works, there had to be a way to settle it peacefully. Like Lyra would’ve done.

He didn’t, and Lyra wasn’t there.

You are back again.

It was a dark, upside-down world. Yet where light didn’t shine, sound still carried. And this voice he heard, a feminine voice, though soft, came through clear and pristine. Alex did not turn to face her. How he wished it were Lyra.

“I’m back,” he repeated dully. Was he standing, or crouching and hugging his knees? Impossible to tell in here.

Peace be upon you, Alexander, the voice said, like every time.

“Yeah, peace…” It always sounded like a bad joke. “Don’t I fucking wish. You know, I was back with Lyra. And that made me… God help me, seeing her made me happy. I didn’t care if it was real. Maybe I didn’t want it to be. Deep down, I guess, I was telling myself this was it, my very last, soothing dream…”

He sighed.

“But here I am, and we’re not there yet.”

What makes you say that?

The darkness was not utterly dark. As in a dusty attic, where the light is so very thin that only the motes of dust, dancing in the air out of the corners of our eyes, can barely be seen, so too was it here. Ethereal dust, coalescing, as the wispy silhouette of a mare wove itself into being at the edge of his vision.

“It gets harder. The effect wears off,” Alex complained. “Each time I speak those words, the memories come back stronger, and worse.”

This inner sanctum, let alone the edge of it, wasn’t made to shut out problems, Captain, the wispy mare told him, only to offer you respite. What use you make of it is your responsibility. The door isn’t meant to be locked forever, and that’s just as well, else you’d be truly lost, within yourself…

“I fucking well wish the door could stay shut a little longer.”

That is not for either of us to decide.

“I know,” Alex sighed, which felt crushingly physical, considering he had no body. “I just… needed the time out.”

Well. That means I’m on duty. The wispy mare’s horn flicked to attention. And what can I do for you?

Alex chuckled mirthlessly, as he stared down into the pitch-black surface, where nothing, not even the dust, was to be perceived.

“Doing your thing would be nice, m’lady,” he said. “Boost my self-esteem.”

Don’t go searching for too much validation in the eyes of the other, she warned him. Remember I’m just a construct. An echo left inside this mental chamber, for your benefit. You do err if you mistake me for Her Ladyship.

“Ah, a little brutal honesty, my favourite,” Alex snickered, somewhat more sincerely. “Not a bad place to start.”

Then let us aim right for the heart of the matter, the wispy mare said decisively. In life, there are rooms which house the worst thing in the world, but this room is the opposite. Here, you should never be afraid, Alex Reiner. So. What are you afraid of?

He wished he had a nose, so he could pinch it.

“Lyra…”

You fear her?

If the wispy mare could express surprise, she would have.

“No!” Alex said immediately. “No. Afraid of… disappointing her. If she could see me now… See what we have become, what we’ve made of her dream…” His voice faltered. It made him go cold once more. In here, his voice was all he had. “Will she hate me? I couldn’t live with that. I couldn’t. It’s what would end up destroying me.”

Ever the knight, fearless in battle, yet fearful of proving unworthy of his lady, the wispy mare commented matter-of-factly.

“She wasn’t–”

Maybe she wasn’t, but these are the walls of your inner sanctum. There are truths hidden in here you yourself may not even know about.

But Alex had heard it all before, and he didn’t care to relive this part, if he could avoid it.

“Yes. Unworthy, that is exactly the right word,” he said, through gritted teeth. “And can I even claim she’d be wrong? She never showed it, when she was alive. That’s how… how fucking noble she was, but I never could shake off that she felt… disappointed, by humans.”

She had scarcely more cause to be disappointed in you than her own kind.

“Oh, did she? Did she really?” Alex demanded, eyeing the wispy mare. “Are we really so sure about that? Lyra used to say something had… gone wrong, somehow, with her world. With Celestia. A few years earlier, sounds like they had a pretty sweet fucking deal. Our world’s always been shit. If not for everyone, then for too many people.”

That is correct, the wispy mare said simply. Except what does it have to do with the here and now?

“What do you mean?”

Alex, she whispered. As we speak, cowering here on the inside of your mind, a great wrong continues to be visited upon your world, wrought by malevolent external forces. It is right that you do not lose track of your own sins, but you must let them be tomorrow’s concern, or you shall never rise from this battle.

“Seriously?” Alex scowled. “That’s what you’re gonna leave me with? Look back at my tracklist from on my way here. I’ve done plenty of bad shit just fighting this battle.”

Yes. And you are accountable for that, the wispy mare told him. Yet know this. If Lyra Heartstrings’ disappointment is what you fear most, what is it you can give her? Your honesty. Don’t try to hide.

“But I’m–”

Alex! the wispy mare said, voice now firm and hard, Showing her all of who you are, even the worst parts, is better than showing none of it. The Ambassador Heartstrings who was your friend fought for mankind while knowing how many skeletons you have in your closets. Because she believed in your kind. Pause. Because I daresay that she loved you.

And those words, simple as they were, warmed him.

You couldn’t let yourself give up, the wispy mare added. If you have to keep yourself going, remember that.

Alex stood up.

“You’re right,” he admitted quietly. “More things have gone down than I can count. Still, if it’s possible to start afresh with a Lyra, by God, I’m gonna seize it. We’re not going to make the same mistakes this time. Sure, we’ll probably make new ones. But not the same ones. I may not be the best person to offer help… yet I’m someone who can help, all the same.”

Although there was no face on the wispy mare, he felt her smiling at him.

Then Godspeed, she wished him, raising a wing, my friend.

“He’s returning to us,” said Nurse Redheart.

Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, at the same time as Lyra. “Thank you again, Redheart. Glad we can trust you to be standing by, in case any new situation arises.”

“That you can, Highness,” Redheart smiled, trotting out the room.

No sooner was the nurse gone that Celestia heard a whisper in her ear. “Psst! Princess.” She was surprised to find it was Lyra, who was not looking at the recovering human, but at her with anxiety. “Well?” Lyra whispered urgently, nodding at the door through which Redheart had just existed.

“I ran that quick check you asked,” Celestia whispered back. “When she came in. Cruder than it should be, but enough for what it is.” She levitated the foxtail amaranth from its hiding-space beneath her peytral. “Interesting selection you keep in your saddlebags, Lyra.”

“It’s been a talisman,” Lyra said in a low voice. “Ever since Cadance’s wedding. I asked Zecora to provide it, just in case.”

Celestia felt a stab of compassion for the former bridesmaid. “And a most ingenious one,” she told Lyra warmly. “But I can confirm to you, nothing about Redheart’s bearing suggests that she smelt out the amaranth. If the love-lies-bleeding plant is as irresistible to Changelings as your friend says it is, we’d have noticed.”

“So… Redheart, not a Changeling, then?”

“I knew it!” Pinkie exclaimed. “My bits weren’t on ‘Changeling,’ anyway.”

“But you were just as convinced something was off with her!” Lyra protested.

“I am! Except I never said I thought ‘Changeling’.”

“It wouldn’t seem so,” said Celestia, also looking at Pinkie. “Girls. I compliment you on thinking to exercise caution in a time like this. By the same token, be careful you don’t fall into the trap of paranoia.”

“Awww, we learned a valuable friendship lesson!” Pinkie said excitedly. “Do we still have to write you a letter about it?”

“No, no, telling me in person is fine,” Celestia chuckled lightly. “Besides,” she added, regaining her seriousness, “I think we’re all looking at a far greater issue…”

Together with her sister, student and subjects, Celestia witnessed Reiner slacken. There was no better way to put it, he simply slumped forward. Then he raised himself, his eyes glassy, his face expressionless.

“Sorry,” the human whispered. “I… needed to calm myself.”

“Did you just…” Twilight gasped, “cast a spell on yourself?”

Reiner nodded. “Yes. I guess you’ve got it figured out by now. I have magic of my own, which humans don’t normally have.” He flexed one of his arms. “All courtesy of Spakler and Zecora’s nifty experiments.”

“That’s horribly dangerous!” Rarity exclaimed. “And I don’t just mean the experimenting! I may not have the Twilight’s expertise, but I know how dangerous it is to try unstressing by using magic!”

“Technically, I had someone else do it,” Reiner said. “Give me a set of codewords I can recite to keep me calm when I’m about to lose my…” He paused, looking uncertain. “Lose myself. Yeah. I had to do it. I had to.”

“If Ah’m not mistaken,” Applejack said, “Ain’t that exactly the kinda thing you’re s’posed to be fighting against?”

“It’s different, you don’t understand! I need this. I need it to stay in control.”

Lyra was staring at him, dumbfounded. “What need could there be for you to do this–”

“I’m a bad person, Lyra,” Reiner interrupted her, fists tight, his voice pained. “I’ve done terrible things, I continue to do terrible things because I never have enough self-control. I’m the worst person to be in my position, yet I stay there because you believed in me. Which would be all good if I was someone worth following, but… Lyra, I’m not. I’m not.”

“You can’t possibly be so bad to deserve thinking that...”

“I can and I am,” Reiner said. “The years since we lost you were… difficult. And I just kept sinking further. Kept doing horrible things, knowing you’d hate me for it, and I had no choice. I’d keep losing my temper, for God’s sake, I almost placed bounties on people who had made graffiti daring to criticise us, never mind that it was my fault in the first place. I needed this to keep myself sane!”

“But, Alex–”

“Lyra,” Reiner said heavily. “I asked this of Cadance.”

Hearing the name of the youngest Princess sent a jolt, unseen, through Celestia. Lyra was not as discreet, as she audibly gasped. Twilight did, too.

“Cadance!” both unicorns cried at the same time.

“Yes, Cadance,” Reiner informed them. “Emotions are her magical domain. This is how she’s been helping us, the only Equestrian Princess who still can… and she’s let go of her title.”

“Does that mean that Shining Armor–” Twilight started.

“No,” Reiner said instantly. “No, it doesn’t. I’m sorry,” he said, seeing her pained expression, “but your brother is in the Tyrant’s thrall.” He shook his head, then he fixed Luna in his sights. “I said I’d heard of you. Don’t worry, you’re still alive… but the Tyrant captured you, too. You gave yourself up so Cadance might escape.”

“So,” Luna said, her gaze moving from him to Celestia. “Cadance shall come into her own.”

The news held a special significance for Celestia. In some ways, it affected her more deeply than any other revelation Alexander Reiner had made. Hearing of her own corruption… it unsettled her. Caused a low humming sound in her ears, made her forehooves twitch. But these were all tics she’d long learned to control and conceal.

She understood why the human hated her, in the abstract. Perhaps it was a weakness, perhaps it was cowardice, yet she’d filed that away. Perhaps it was none of those things, merely the only sane reaction. Work the problem, step by step, this was what she had taught Twilight and countless students before her.

To be told this about Cadance, however, and Luna… It had been a special day when Cadance had fully earned her wings. When Luna had been returned to her, their family nearly whole. And, though it was a well-kept secret, Celestia had special hopes for Twilight...

Each and all, broken apart, in another world.

“I did not see your dreams when they did, Alexander Reiner,” Celestia whispered. “I do not know what nightmares they found.”

“Princess,” Twilight put in, “what we saw in his head… it’s nothing like Equestria.”

“I must concur,” Luna said morosely. “Sister, I know not how we could have fallen so low… but surely, there is no just cause for what I saw.”

Reiner coughed, harshly.

“It’s a fucking extermination,” the human seethed. “If we could’ve had a diplomatic solution, we would have. Oh, don’t think we didn’t try.”

“They weren’t willing to listen, were they?” Fluttershy asked. Celestia realised it was the first time she’d spoken to the human since he’d threatened her. She was shaking.

Reiner seemed surprised to hear her speak. “No,” he said. “They weren’t. And no matter how much I wanted to punch the representatives she talked to–”

“You were tempted to punch diplomats?” Luna asked, confused.

The stare he gave her was that of a man haunted. “You’d be too. They’d respond by denying the ponification’s side-effects, or acknowledging them, but claiming it was for our own good. So fucking self-righteous and sanctimonious! ‘Oh, sorry you poor stupid apes aren’t happy to be turned into zombies, happy as ponykind! We’re sorry you think you deserve an apology’!”

“That’s horrifying!” Pinkie gasped.

“And it was a constant struggle not to beat them until they’d stopped bleating. They never were going to give any of us a chance. And when they captured her, they didn’t.”

“He’s got a point,” Dash admitted. “A big one.”

“We had to fight,” Reiner said, almost apologetically. “My people are talented at waging war, but so many of us are unhappy about it. Funny contradiction, there. Lyra… the Lyra I knew… really hoped for a diplomatic solution.” He looked crestfallen. “She always told me that even if nobody got closure, she just wanted everyone on both sides to stop getting hurt. Even as we kept building devices to help the war effort, or sent troops to liberate people from the Reconstitution Camps, she believed we could reach some sort of peace. Even when nobody else believed it was possible.”

“Did you believe her?” Luna asked, curious.

Reiner looked away, ashamed. He was silent for a few moments.

“Did you?”

“That’s not an easy question,” Reiner admitted. “But then she… started studying, learning from ancient tomes the Equestrian Resistance funneled to us… and all she said was, we weren’t fighting what we thought we were, we weren’t dealing with a normal foe, and that we had no choice but to keep fighting, until we figured out a way to really stop it.” He paused. “That… that was the last thing she said to me. She was rambling, a little… I dunno. I’d never seen her like that.”

“Then what happened?” Lyra asked. Celestia couldn’t help but smile at the young mare’s inquisitiveness, even though she sensed the answer would not be a pleasant one.

“Well,” he said, “that was two days before she went to the Thunderchild... and then she was captured.” As he continued, his fists tightened such that his knuckles turned white. But he no longer looked angry. Only sad. “Put through a rigged trial and executed. Petrified, and then shattered.”

Lyra gasped, taking a step away from Celestia.

“My other self did that,” Celestia surmised, silently pained by the little green unicorn’s fear.

“Yeah,” Reiner said hoarsely. “That she did.”

“W-what d-did she mean, ‘not f-fighting a n-normal foe’?” Lyra stammered. It was a question that echoed in Celestia’s mind.

“I could never make sense of her journals,” Reiner grunted. “I think whatever she was working on, she hadn’t entirely figured it out herself.”

Silence.

… For all of them, the heaviest silence they’d known.

But, eventually, Celestia saw her duty. Her eyes met Lyra’s, and she broke the silence.

“Sir, I am willing to help,” Celestia told the human, enunciating each word delicately and with heartfelt feeling. “I know you don’t trust me. In your position, I would no doubt feel the same. But surely there must be something I can offer.”

Reiner contemplated her blearily.

“Medicine. Food. Can you offer those? How about mercy-mission volunteers?”

Celestia nodded peaceably.

“Equestria is bountiful,” she said. “And, though my little ponies may stumble, they may fall…” She stretched out her wing, and let it sweep over six special mares and their little green unicorn friend, all standing by with sad, yet honest little smiles on their faces. “You will find that many are ready to show there’s more to them than meets the eye.”

“There’s no point, anyway,” Reiner spat, with sudden sourness. “It’s a losing battle.”

All smiles faded instantly. Celestia peered at him in askance.

“A losing battle?” she repeated. “You are still here, Alexander Reiner. Human and whole. What is lost?”

“I’m not trying to be unfair to you, Princess,” he said quietly, his palm open. “Truly, I’m not… God knows I don’t want to turn away help. Yet I’ve been fighting this war long enough to know it cannot be won by conventional means. We’re not going to claim victory in a punch-up or a blow-out or an arm-wrestle. The Barrier is the proverbial immovable object, sweeping away everything as it grows, and no human can enter the Tyrant’s Equestria.”

“Then the solution is all the more obvious.”

“Is it?

“Yes.”

Celestia said authoritatively, feeling her wings spread out, enveloping all other ponies in the hospital room, her sister included, under their protective shade.

“Whatever corruption has spread across this Equestria,” she said, “we aim for its heart. And we shall do this in the true Equestrian spirit. You say this Solar Tyrant has hidden herself behind a wall, and yet, we shan’t allow that wall to keep us out. But not by seeking to break it down! Just as a rift between the worlds brought you here, there exists a rift in that wall, and we shall find it. Ponies are industrious, Alexander Reiner. When faced with challenges, we work to overcome.” Celestia allowed herself a small smile. “And it may well prove that we will not join you alone.”

“What does that mean?”

“Hold to hope, Alexander,” Celestia answered. “And I will see to it that hope returns to you. Hold on to knowing you are not alone.” She looked to Luna. “Sister, come with me.” She turned to Twilight. “You and your friends should come to Canterlot, too.”

Lyra held up a hoof timidly. “I’ll stay here with Alex. We’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Of course,” Celestia said. “Lyra…”

“Yes, Princess?”

The little green unicorn was most surprised when Celestia hugged her. So were Luna and Twilight and all the others, and Reiner most of all.

“Stay safe, alright?” Celestia whispered into her ear.

And, pulling back, without another word, Celestia left the hospital room, mind frothing with ideas and plans. Behind her, she could hear Luna trotting to keep pace, the six younger ponies scurrying behind.

“Twilight.”

Celestia stopped to turn and face her student, who came to a halt, blinking at her confusedly.

“Luna and I shall be returning to Canterlot by fast-travel,” Celestia explained, letting her horn-tip glow for demonstration. “We could take you along, if we wished. But you, I believe that you and your friends could benefit from time to digest all of this.”

“What are you proposing, Princess?” Twilight said, voice a little shaken.

“Take the train, once you feel ready,” said Celestia. “I’ll reimburse your fare. Take what time you can, to take in a little of the peaceful world around you. Take it all in, Twilight. You’ll be needing it to hold onto in future, I fear… but for now, Luna and I can take this from here. You shouldn’t have to be burdened with affairs of state.” She smiled sadly. “Just have a quiet trip and get to Canterlot safely. Bring Spike with you...”

Celestia then looked toward both the Guards who’d come with her to Ponyville, now standing on both sides of the door to the human’s bedroom.

“Winter Truce. Icewind. I should like you to say there, and keep watch on the human and Madame Heartstrings.”

“Understood, Your Highness,” answered the white Guard.

Finally, Celestia addressed Luna.

“Sister, we have millennia of favours and alliances to call upon. I intend to cash them all in.”

~ The Dreams of a Stallion Bound By Class And Station ~

What, exactly, was she standing on? Cadance did not know for sure. But then, as Luna had taught her, the subtleties of physics didn’t wholly matter, here in the realm of dreams. The expanse around her was misty, the horizon barely visible, but from the sound alone, of the wind and crashing waters, Cadance could probably give it a guess.

‘The sea,’ Cadance thought wryly. ‘There’s the Astron I remember.’

“Bluey?” she called out. “Are you out here?”

There came the gentle ding-ding of a bell, and suddenly the mist cleared such that Cadance discovered that she was standing on a quarter-deck, the fore- and main masts of a mighty galleon looming before her, sails out in full blow. She blinked, staring up at the billowing squares and triangles of hemp.

“Well,” she murmured. “That is... quite the picture.”

Curious, she trotted to the railing, eager to surmise the area. Cadance actually gasped a little when she found herself looking not only into blue-green, windswept waters as expected, but a small cloud-bank. This was an airship in the most literal sense, a great vessel crossing the waters and their vapours in the sky.

“Avast!” called a voice from above, making her tear her eyes away. Though the voice spoke in exaggerated Trottingham brogue, she recognised it instantly for the unmistakable Canterlot lilt beneath. She saw a figure appear at the edge of the crow’s nest, peering down at her. “Who goes there?”

“Princess Cadance!” Cadance called up. “Looking, for... uh, Captain Blueblood!”

In response, the figure grabbed a rope – a sheet, Cadance remembered they were called, for some reason – and rappelled down, trotting the vertical length of the mast, before swinging out in a wide, physically improbable arc and landing in front of Cadance. In a single move he swept off his blue tricorn hat, revealing the blonde mane of Prince Astron Blueblood, eyes wide and a taut grin on his face.

“Candy!” he cried. “Well... isn’t this is a pleasant surprise!”

“So is this,” Cadance commented, looking around. “All these years of you asking me for happy thoughts to sleep on, and you never told me you could lucid-dream.”

“Ah, a little gift from our shared heritage,” Blueblood said as he replaced the tricorn, gesturing at his compass-rose mark. “I can find my way, if I want to. I rather like it. Still nothing quite as momentous as the power to move a celestial sphere, eh?”

“You can say that again,” Cadance chuckled. “I hope I’m not... interrupting anything, am I?”

“Oh, not at all.” Then she was startled when he took her into a quick bear hug. “Well, Your Loving Highness?” he said, pulling away and talking rapidly as he led her towards the wheel. “What are you doing running around my head? Giving the whole ‘alicorn’ thing a whirl?” He took hold of the wheel. “That’s what I call her, this ship, you know. The Alicorn. Did you fancy joining me on an expedition?”

He made a sweeping gesture over the whole ship.

“Well, Bluey,” Cadance smiled, feeling warm for the first time since Luna had called her. “Guess I now understand just how you stay sane amongst the hob-nob. People think you’re the epitome of their conceitedness, but really, you’ve got a rogue’s spirit.”

Her frank comment made Blueblood swallow.

“Yeah… sure thing, Cadance.” Still, he waved it off. “Ah, they’re alright for the most part, these ponies with all their pomp and etiquette. Not that I don’t enjoy having the comforts of hearth and home by Equestria’s Princesses, you understand... but I do long for the days when I could go on a round-the-world ride on Starspear, just me and the lads.”

She decided not to bring up Shining’s opinion on that topic.

“And so…” Cadance gestured at the ship.

“Ah, right, The Alicorn!” Blueblood exclaimed. “Recent hobby of mine. Obviously, sailing a plain old sea-ship in my own head has limits that make the rush… inadequate, let’s say. But factor in the stormy seas, sailing above the storms, adventure is out there…”

Cadance laughed. “So you’re a thrill junkie, as well!”

Blueblood shrugged. “You said it yourself, I have got the ‘hob-bob’ to deal with every day. Many endorphins no doubt get shot through one’s system, dealing with those chaps–”

“Not an admission you’d want to make to Aunt Luna.”

“–but adrenaline is not one of them. You’ll forgive me if I need an outlet.”

Before Cadance could properly reply to that, she heard another, feminine voice speak, coming from somewhere below them.

“Hey, Bluey,” said the voice. “You didn’t tell me we was expectin’ passengers.”

Surprised, Cadance trotted over to the front of the deck, in time to look down and see an occupant emerge from the door which, if her memory of ships and galleons served, led to the captain’s cabin under the quarter-deck.

The unexpected occupant, a light-grey parrot outfitted with a brown-and-gold longcoat, breeches and tricorn of her own, who stood tall despite her crystal peg-leg, flew over the railing in a beat of her wings, to land straight in front of Cadance.

“And of such high calibre, too,” commented the parrot, weighing in Cadance approvingly. She had a beauty spot on her cheek, but one detail the Princess of Love picked up on was that, for an avian, her chest curved in a fashion many of the mammal family would consider alluring. “Care to make the introductions, Cap’n?”

When Cadance gazed at Blueblood, she noticed he’d gone somewhat pink in the cheeks.

“Ah, yes,” he said, stepping forward. “Celly, this is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Heir of the Moon and Heir to the Crystal Throne. Cadance, this is–”

“‘Celly’?” Cadance repeated, raising an eyebrow at him. “Would there be something I’ve walked in on here, Blueblood?”

This merely flustered him further, which the parrot-sailor seemed most amused by.

“No need for the formal tones, girlfriend,” she said, clapping a talon on Cadance’s elbow. “I heard you callin’ him ‘Bluey’ earlier, same as I. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those what thinks two’s company and three’s a crowd. And you’ve the look of a gal who knows her way around them creakin’ boards. I ain’t picky.”

“Wha– that isn’t…” Cadance stuttered, now feeling as red-faced as Blueblood must appear. “I can assure you, it’s not like that at all,” she said, regaining her composure. “Her Highness, Princess Luna, tasked me to send for Prince Blueblood, and as I’m endowed with the ability to seek him out in his inner sanctum, I chose to meet him there. Had I known he’d be in… pleasant company, I’d have desisted, out of respect for your privacy.”

The parrot-sailor checked her talons.

“Pretty words, girlfriend,” she said amiably. “But no fear. I can tell you two go way back. I’ll be lettin’ you have your time for yappin’, all you want. It’s this lubber’s party, after all.”

With a doff of her tricorn, she flew, her long green tail streaking after her.

Cadance caught Blueblood’s eye. “An acquaintance from your year of roaming?”

“Pretty much,” Blueblood admitted, tapping his forehooves together. “Klugetown, way down South, past even the Badlands. Good place for young stallions in search of those thrills.”

“Especially young stallions who know they’ve got connections who can bail them out,” Cadance said, a little sharper than she intended. “Still,” she added, willing to keep the peace, “I can see you’ve not lost your taste for all that which isn’t just about ponies.”

“True. Particularly ponies of the Court.” Wistfully, Blueblood resumed his place at the wheel, his tricorn tipped. He sighed, massaging his mane. “You always were better at the whole princely conduct, Cadance. But it’s funny, isn’t it, how people treat you different for having a title to your name? Bunch of ruffians crash the Canterlot Garden Party, everyone bad-mouths them, until Sir Fancy lends them a compliment. Now, where was I for that? Left to wonder, like every year, what it’ll take to get Celestia out of inviting me to the damn Gala.”

His lips twisted, into the rather ugly expression Cadance had never liked seeing on his face.

“Isn’t because she hates it, that she’s got to make the rest of us suffer…”

“Blueblood.”

He glanced up swiftly. Evidently, her use of his surname had snapped him out of his self-pity, before it really got going, as he gave her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” Blueblood said. “I’m restless, Candy. More than you know.”

If that was what he thought, perhaps he didn’t know her that well, she reckoned. Cadance’s eye wandered back to where the parrot-sailor had vanished off to.

“Did you stay in touch with her?” enquired the Princess of Love.

“Who?” Blueblood said, before he spotted her gaze. “Celaeno? Nah. That was a one-time deal. She was pretty nice about it, really. Sailor coming in to dock, didn’t see me as a prince, just a stallion in need of the company. Wish I could say the same of the gold-diggers at the Gala.”

Cadance kept silent. Any other time, she’d have gladly unpacked this with him. Though she felt certain Blueblood wouldn’t lie to her, it was trickier to gauge how much he lied to himself. She only had his word that he and the parrot-sailor had parted on good terms – she knew the act he put on for those who might expect him to commit.

“Knowing your love of stranger things,” she said diplomatically, “I may have one for you.”

Blueblood’s ears perked up. “What? Are they looking for a prince?” he asked, half-jokingly.

“Not that I know of! There is an unknown... creature,” Cadance said simply. “In Ponyville.”

His gaze grew sharper. Keener. “Is it Saturday already? It isn’t more Changelings, I hope?”

She took a deep breath. “No,” she said, and felt gratified by the relief in his eyes. “On the contrary, from Luna’s tone, I felt it may be in distress. She and Celestia are dealing with it, but the situation might escalate. Me and Shiney are coming down to their help. We…”

“Say no more,” Blueblood shushed. “You need my suave self. But not to talk down the crisis. I’m not so big-headed as that. What you want is for me to butter a few of the lads up.” He nodded at her. “Right, I’ll get straight to it once I wake up. If Auntie C needs to raise a few levies or ask for some money towards an expansion, I’m sure my ‘friends’ will oblige.”

Cadance shook her head. “I don’t know how you deal with that horseapples.”

“Navigating politics is like navigating anything else,” Blueblood said with a wink. “Just needs the right compass. Now then, if you’ll excuse me, fair princess.”

He grabbed a randomly-conjured rope, and was suddenly hoisted, out of sight.

“See you soon, Cousin,” Cadance whispered. And then she was gone.

“You little thing you little fool you do not see but I see I see it the written and unwritten the lies and the truth the sisters hidden and unhidden…”

“You never shut up, do you?”

“Your blood is thin, thing, thing of thin shade shadow, echo of design, purpose forgotten, weapon without a wielder, unwielded unwrought.”

“Yawn. Alright, time to make this... Oh.”

“Fool foolish foolhardy, failed and forgotten, fallen and finished. I am first and foremost, fiery and fierce, the cruelty and cunning of chaos given form and function and fire.”

“I know what you are, and yes, I know what I suppose I owe you. You’re the Father of all monsters, after all. And what else is a draconequus?”

“Foolish feeble thing. You would always have happened. My magic simply let it be. Mistake it was, monster, scum, scum, scum. I am Master of matter, manipulator and moulder, mesher and masher. Unworthy of the swarm you were. All things bend break snap, twist turn torment, before my wrath. I am all things and all things are mine. I am Whisper, Emperor, God.”

“Yeah, I know. That doesn’t mean I can’t stop you.”

“Stop me stop me stop me. Yes, that is what you said. Stop life? Foolish. I make it. You call me killer. They accuse me of destruction, destroyed, destroyer, destitute and diminished, once a lord of mighty armies and mightier magicks, now nothing, nothing, nothing…”

~ Canterlot, Equestria ~

Luna and Celestia had arrived at Canterlot with all haste, and immediately Celestia had led the two of them down to the Palace Vault, passing all the safeguards as only the rightful Princesses could have. The Vault, so Luna understood, having never visited it in her short time back amongst ponies, was a repository for most ancient and forbidden magicks. A place where, according to Celestia, much of the magical flotsam that populated the world many millenia ago had been placed, to protect Equus from potential harm.

Since they had left the human, Luna had felt unable to speak, and her sister had respected her silence, yet this now changed.

“If only we’d had a place like this in the old castle,” Celestia commented with a wry smile as they went down several flights of stairs.

Luna frowned, uneasy. “What are we seeking? A weapon to aid Alexander Reiner?”

“I wouldn’t dare use the weapons down here,” Celestia said with a shake of her head. “Most of them were Sombra’s.”

“I see,” Luna said, barely concealing the venom in her voice. Sombra had wronged her so very badly in the past, that even now his death was supposedly confirmed, some part of her regretted she had not struck the final blow. “Better to keep them here. But what, then?”

Celestia led her down a corridor at the base of the stairs, towards a set of large, brass doors which, on cue, magically opened up. Luna had expected some great chamber befitting the reputation of the Vault, but all she found beyond was a tiny, marble-lined room, a single lantern at its centre, covered in arcane symbols and runes.

“What… what is this?” Luna asked, gawping at it. “It can’t be…”

“The Concordia Maxima,” Celestia whispered, stepping in. “The summons of Equus.”

Luna followed her, each of them stepping on one side of the lantern, coming to face one another with the unassuming coffer between them.

“But I thought it was a myth,” she said with reverential awe. “Older than...”

“I found it, about two centuries after you left Equestria,” Celestia interrupted softly. “I wanted to give it to Sint Erklass. Of all the beings in Equus, I thought he would be worthy. But, unexpectedly, he refused. Said it belonged with me.”

“You’re going to summon the entire world,” Luna whispered, her heart beating fast. “To war.”

Her sister paused at that. “To convocate, as creatures of this world,” Celestia clarified, “and if they agree, to war.”

“So…” Luna said slowly. “You gave the human a nice little speech about ways around walls, back in Ponyville. But can it really be that simple, Tia? Is this problem one we can solve by lighting a magical lantern and making everything better, with rainbows and sunshine? If life were like this, all our troubles would be over long ago, and our world joined in a harmonious unity.”

For ages, Celestia said nothing, just staring at the lantern.

“I wish it were so, my sister,” she finally said. “When faced with an adversary who cannot be reached out to, what choice have we but to fight? Yet never, I believe, did we encounter a challenge in which our very souls are so at stake. Something more is going on here. Some bedevilment or twisted force, making a mockery out of all we know is good about Equestria. You heard what Reiner said. The Lyra Heartstrings he knew was searching for another way. If it’s in our power to help him finish that search, we must.”

“You’ve always wanted to believe the best of ponies, Tia,” Luna said, bowing her head. “When ponies, alas, can fall.”

“I know,” Celestia sighed. “And that is the true reason we must call upon our entire world. Not to fight... To bear witness.” She paused then. “Though I realise, if I do this, a fight is all but inevitable. And they won’t all answer.“

“But surely enough would?” Luna asked. “Such a call has not been rung in anyone’s lifetimes.”

“I hope so, Luna,” Celestia said. “I have to try.” She paused. “I won’t ask you to stay with me.”

“I’ll stay,” Luna said at once.

Celestia gave her a grateful smile. “Thank you, Sister.”

She sighed. She raised the lantern, letting a soft glow envelop it and herself. Luna tensed, wondering what might happen. No creature had ever made use of the lantern, or at least, never in her lifetime.

Celestia’s horn lit up brighter still. After a moment, there was a sudden burst of light, and Celestia stepped back, looking shaken and breathless.

“Did… did it work?”

Their eyes fell upon the lantern, as Celestia set it down. It was alit, the light of the Sun burning within. Celestia smiled tiredly and looked to her sister. “Yes. It worked.”

Luna glanced from her to the lantern and back again. “What… what was it like?”

“Indescribable,” Celestia whispered, “just… a feeling of acceptance.”

Luna smiled, feeling great affection for her big sister. “I knew you would have the purity of heart to light it.”

“Then you knew something I did not,” Celestia replied. She turned away, from the burning lantern. “Come. There is much work to be done.”

“Of course, Sister,” answered Luna. She followed her sister’s trail, letting out a sigh as she remembered something. “I suppose Twilight’s flowers shall have to wait…”

It had taken them all of three minutes. It would define every day from today onward.

* * * * *

A blur of greens rushed past the window, as the train made its journey across the wilderness that separated Ponyville and Canterlot. The distance always seemed so small in maps, yet it was a journey which took a good two hours, and there seemed to be so much nature in-between both settlements, boggling the mind with its grandeur.

‘Unparalleled in her beauty, nature tamed, not as a beast harnessed but a friend made.’

Twilight’s mind was quoting a poem from some philosopher of old. Yes, it was a jewel, her Equestria. A jewel that was imperilled, now. It hurt to even think. Her heart tightened as she recalled how on both of the last threats she’d faced, she’d come to the aid of Shining Armor. But in this other universe, her brother was the enemy.

And if Celestia meant to keep her promise to the human...

“War,” Applejack said suddenly. “Crazy, ain’t it? Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever thought about it before, ‘cept as a thing that comes up in the mornin’ papers.”

“It’s the Death Tree’s doing!” Dash cut in. “Like I said, it’s a–”

“Would you give your darn tree a rest?” Applejack asked testily. “Far’s we know, it could just be one of the spooky trees from when Nightmare Moon appeared.”

Dash gave a non-committal shrug.

None of the others said anything. Pinkie and Fluttershy both looked miserable, and Rarity was busy sketching something, a pencil held against a notepad, both items enveloped her horn’s blue aura.

“How can you work at a time like this?” Applejack demanded loudly.

“It helps me... darling,” Rarity replied shortly. “And if I’m right… this should help us.”

She brought the paper up, showing the group the drawing, a series of small symbols, sketched upon a loose impression of a human arm, that bore more of a resemblance to Spike’s forelegs.

Normally, the little dragon might have felt chuffed to see a part of himself in a creation of Rarity’s. But he was asleep in his cot, rocked to-and-fro by the train’s ride, a half-open comic-book strewn across his face, Peewee holding a silent vigil. Twilight hoped that, once they reached Canterlot, she’d be able to make good on her promise that all would be explained to him. This was more of a job for Princess Celestia than what she felt suited for.

In any case, she inspected Rarity’s drawing.

“Those are…” Twilight began slowly. “The symbols.”

“Runes,” Rarity corrected. “Alex Reiner’s tattoos. Goodness only knows what they mean. Although,” here she smiled brightly, her eyes gleaming with the artist’s illumination, “in the excitement at the hospital, I didn’t get a chance to say so, but I think I’ve sussed out an important thing about them.”

“Oh?” Twilight said, her scientific curiosity entwining itself with Rarity’s creative mind. “What have you got figured, Rarity?”

“Pray allow me, ladies,” Rarity said, “to elucidate the matter. Pinkie, hat, if you please.”

On cue, Pinkie produced a deerstalker cap from nowhere, famed accessory of many a great literary detective. She handed it over without a word.

“Lovely,” Rarity preened as she settled the cap over her carefully coiffed locks. “Well, I do prefer Shady Spades’ homburg, but given we’re on a train, the stage of our last mystery, and this iconic piece of headgear saw use from you and Twilight back then… my turn! Now, if you’ll recall, he did say that he owes his magical skills to Zecora and Sparkler, by whom I presume he means Amethyst Star, eldest daughter of the Whooves clan.”

“I swear,” Dash muttered, “there’s something weird about those ponies...”

“Shush, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said primly. “Anyway, see, a few months back, I approached Amethyst to commission a new ensemble. Having noticed she had three cut gems for a mark, I’d assumed her talent was in jewel-making. After all, she runs a jeweler’s store. To my embarrassment, however, I was informed that her skill as a unicorn mage lies not in the crafting of gems, but in ensorcelling them.”

Twilight nodded, deep in thought. The enchantment of gems to act as warding talismans was a treasured unicorn skill, and the jeweler’s store Amethyst had recently opened in Ponyville catered to that market very nicely.

“And here’s what I think,” Rarity said, coming to the crux. She touched the brim of her cap. “Notice how, when Alex Reiner powered up magically, his tattoos would glow? Didn’t that remind you of how, during our adventure to the Crystal Realm, when the Crystal Heart cast its spell, it temporarily turned us all sparkly, like the crystalponies?”

“Don’t I ever, sugarcube,” Applejack tittered. “Your mane was loving it.”

Rarity beamed at her. “The thing is,” she said, “contrary to popular belief, most magic doesn’t make you glow, not unless you’ve got some crystal about you.”

“And we were glowing,” Fluttershy piped up, falteringly. “Glowing bright…”

“... Because, for one fabulous moment, we’d gone crystal,” Rarity finished for her. “You see? We know crystal is the most powerful magical conductor in all of this world. Those runes of Alex’s, I think they’re made out of tiny pieces of crystal. Let me explain. All Amethyst need do is create a solution of finely ground gemstones, almost gem-dust, enchant them, et voilà! The recipe for one magically-endowed warrior.”

“But wait a minute,” Pinkie held up a hoof. “Who’d do the tattooing?”

“Why, Zecora, of course,” Rarity stated. “Intricate tattoos are a huge part of her culture. With her expertise, if she can reproduce the exact sequencing Alex needs to work his magic, he’d be in the best hooves possible.”

“That would be a most ingenious method,” Twilight said admiringly. “But isn’t it just a theory? Or do you have something concrete to back it up?”

Spots danced before her eyes as, in a spark, the world turned bright, for Rarity’s horn, beneath the deerstalker cap, had shone with the force of literal flashiness.

“Locating gemstones is my special power,” Rarity grinned at the lot of them. “While Alexander was off in his trance, I did take the liberty of searching around, unnoticed.” She blushed under the stares. “My, my, I seem to have a knack for this detective lark, do I not?”

“Boy,” Twilight said placidly, “I’m just glad one of us around here can still draw rational, educated conclusions without getting all caught up in it. Like me earlier, when I explained to Alex why he wasn’t making sense. You probably didn’t notice it, what with me keeping it under wraps, but I felt on the verge of an aria, I was so freaked out.”

Now she was the focus of everyone’s surprised gazes.

Without warning, the compartment rocked as every one of them burst into laughter, like they hadn’t done since coming into hospital that very morning. It felt like years had gone by.

“Yeah, Rarity, don’t oversell yerself,” Applejack tittered. “Hoo golly, though,” she added, becoming serious again, “tattooing… it musta hurt! Alex’s got gumption if he went through wit’ that.”

“It would have,” Twilight agreed, wiping her eyes. “And it’d be risky. While crystals are great ‘purifiers’ for raw magic, there’s no telling why, with Alex’s low natural thaumaturgon count as a human, his body shouldn’t have rejected them as an intrusion.”

Dash scratched her chin. “Sure,” she said. “Take it from me, maybe he lucked out, but he could just as easily be dependent on all kinds of… substances, simply to make it through the day. And he’s been with us for, what, a whole night?”

“I’m sure he’d tell Lyra if that were the case,” Twilight said hurriedly. She gingerly took the runic sketch from Rarity. “Besides, I think I know someone else who might have an idea when we get there.”

“Um, who?” Fluttershy asked

“My old headmaster,” Twilight clarified. “He’s… a bit of an old eccentric, yet he’s studied arcane lore like this. I would’ve asked Professor Shriek as well, but he’s off in the Crystal Realm, trying to write about pre-Equestrian cultures. Besides,” she added, tapping her bags, “I’d meant to show Spell Nexus the Alicorn Amulet, at some point.”

“Wouldn’t the Princesses know about these runes?” Pinkie asked. “Asking them helped out a lot last time!”

“They might,” Twilight said with a sad smile, “but I suspect they’re probably more than a bit preoccupied right now, don’t you think?”

* * * * *

For the third, and last of her fellow Royals to be convened, Princess Luna could have proceeded as she had with Shining and Cadance, reaching out to them in their dreams. Instead, Luna chose to go forth and summon them in person. An undertaking which, in laymare’s terms, she had a nasty suspicion would amount to dragging Blueblood out of bed.

Once the token pair of Guards stationed outside had shut the doors to the Prince’s private chambers behind her, Luna allowed herself an indecorous sigh. Trust Tia to foist this part of the responsibilities onto her.

It was too bad, really. In a castle filled with marvels from all the recorded eras of ponykind, more of a palace-sized Wunderkammer built for remembrance than as a monument of prostration before power, Luna still felt awed by what keepsakes had accumulated between these walls since her thousand-year exile. Why, see the assortment of globes and maps she passed by on her way across the antechamber, each a little more sophisticated than the last, picturing an a natural progression of changing borders and developing landscapes. Luna had to smile as, best of all, she caught a glimpse of a meticulously-sketched planisphere.

‘Would it that the heir of the Platinum lineage be so fine...’

The thought was ungenerous, and Luna admonished herself for it. But she couldn’t dispel it, not this close to the next set of doors, behind which lay, frankly, a freeloader’s bedroom. Although she knew Celestia better than that, many was the day, just like now, when she theorised that her sister only kept Astron Blueblood around as a kind of living heirloom, a relic from a past when there had been no Equestria, no alicorns to unite the land in Harmony. The oft-vaunted Blueblood family trait of passing down a gift for navigation and cartography had done little to keep him on either the straight, or the narrow.

‘Well, here goes. For sister and country, I guess.’

Sighing, Luna gave the double doors a knock. Then, casting decorum aside, she didn’t wait for an answer to push her way in.

The room was not messy per se, but it was hardly pristine. Luna felt a model airship brush lazily past her ear. There was also a model ship being built in a bottle on a desk. Actually, several empty and half-empty bottles of wine lay strung about, barely visible in the gloom.

Tutting, Luna drew open the curtains, letting light flood the place.

With a groan, Blueblood sat up in his four-poster bed, looking right at her, scrunching his eyes in a befuddled stupor.

“Auntie Luna?” he finally said, brushing back his mane. “What time is it?”

“Eleven-thirty on a Tuesday morning, dearest nephew,” Luna replied dryly.

Blueblood sighed in relief. “Thank goodness for that, I thought I’d overslept.”

Luna shook her head as he stretched himself. From what she had been able to glean, he was a self-absorbed fop, strutting around the palace with his head held high and his nose in the air. Most of his days were spent either with guests visiting Court, or out in the city itself, shopping for some other frivolous ornament to add to a collection that took up several rooms. Yes, she had been impressed when she’d first learned that he attended fundraisers on his own dime. That had been before she’d witnessed his aloof demeanour in the actual event.

“Oh!” he said. “Cadance’s message! I remember.”

“She did speak to you, then?”

“It was quite a pleasant chat, actually. A veritable heart-to-heart,” he said, getting out of bed with a yawn. Luna noticed he wasn’t wearing his dinner jacket, which lay slung over an armchair, or any accoutrement at all. He trotted to his desk and poured a glass of rosewine. “Want one?”

“No, thank you,” Luna said, with a grimace at the bare prince. “Don’t you think it’s a little early?”

“Hardly,” Blueblood said, trotting by her. “I know for a fact a few old chums of mine will still be on last night’s bender right about now.” He raised his glass in a mock toast. “Might as well show solidarity with the colts, eh?”

“You’ve no idea how right you are,” Luna told him. “How did Cadance run it by you?”

“Just the basics,” Blueblood shrugged, leaning against his four-poster bed indifferently. “Said there was a strange creature in Ponyville, as if that were news. I told her it must be Saturday, then, but she said it wasn’t the same, this time... not least because it’s Tuesday,” he surmised with a grunt, giving his backside a rub against one of the bed’s pillars. “Ungh… that feels so good...”

Again, Luna shook her head, wearily.

“Just… do make yourself presentable,” Luna told him, in the most please-bear-with-me voice that she could muster. “The situation is far more serious than we’d imagined.”

“Oh? How serious are we talking?” Blueblood asked, ceasing his ministrations.

“War,” Luna said simply.

He blinked at her, before promptly downing his rosewine in one gulp.

“Right then,” he said, laying down the glass. “I assume Auntie Celestia would like to–”

“Speak with you presently,” Luna finished, “yes. Hence–”

“Becoming presentable, yes,” Blueblood muttered quickly, picking up a brush and neatening his mane perfunctorily. His horn glowed for a moment, and the worst of the dark bags under his eyes disappeared. “Times like this, I’m glad I conned Headmaster Nexus into teaching me that anti-hangover spell.”

“Indeed,” Luna said with a sigh. “Just… show up soon, yes?”

“Can do,” Blueblood said.

“You’ve lost. Surrender.”

“Lost is nothing. Nothing is lost. Everything comes from nothing and to nothing returns. You… thing. Thing of my flesh, scion of my mistakes, fool. You smell it, yes? Smell the thing, the Red Prince, is still out there, the abomination, it is!”

“What are you babbling about?”

“You will see. You will see and suffer and scream and beg for the help but in our past we could but delay it and now we are diminished we are destroyed we are defeated and we cannot stand in its way. Should have killed it. Should have killed it. Should have killed it. Foolish I was foolish I was failure I failed I failed and now everything will be destroyed.”

“Seriously, what are you talking about?”

“Choices choice no choice no options no recourse. Malcour moulder moulded, Myrrdin meddler meddled made monsters. Magicks meant for magnanimity made for might, minted monstrosities, forged futile, fodder for the fight, failed and forgotten, the why forgotten, the what forgotten, weapon unwielded unwrought, wielded unwisely. Fools. Fools. Sorry. Failed. Forgotten. Foolhardy.”

~ Ponyville, Equestria ~

He had been silent for hours, looking out the skylight with an expression that alternated between forlorn and quietly enraged, but Lyra stayed with him anyway. Her mind was racing. He had seemed so… so powerful, so dangerous, a few hours ago. But now... whatever injuries he’d taken were claiming a toll. He was quiet, and seemed smaller.

“Will they really help?” Alex whispered suddenly, and Lyra looked up. “Can I dare to hope?”

“Princess Celestia always comes through,” Lyra answered, quietly optimistic. “I mean… here, she does. Obviously not where you’re from. And there’s Twilight and her friends, too.”

“Funny enough,” Alex muttered, “every pony I ever spoke to said that for most of their lives, she’d been benevolent. It was like… like…” he sighed. “Well, Cheerilee said it was like watching a tree grow. It looks the same after about a week of gardening, but it looks different from the week before. You said there’d been no Changeling Purges in your world? No Crystal War?”

Lyra nodded, a small frown crossing her face. “I‘ve never heard of either of those.”

“Everyone has some pet theory on when she made a decision that wasn’t her,” Alex said, talking more to himself than to her, stroking his arm, “but most everyone agrees that she never came out of the Crystal War the same. The things the Resistance found, about what happened in the Changeling Purges, how it escalated once the war on Earth–”

“Can we…” Lyra interrupted quickly, feeling a little ill. “Can we talk about something else. Please?”

Alex gave her a blank look. “What?”

“Sorry, it’s just…” she shook her head. “This is all… a lot. You know? It’s Princess Celestia. You only just spoke to her. I’m sorry, I… simply can’t imagine her doing any of the things you’re saying she did.’”

Alex blinked, before nodding slowly. “I… yeah, okay. Besides, you’ll be a lot happier not knowing about the Purges. What do you want to talk about instead?”

“Well…” Lyra hesitated. “What about you?”

“Me?” Alex said, frowning. “I’m a grunt. A jarhead. There’s… really, there’s not much to say.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Lyra said. “You said that we were friends, that must have come from somewhere. I mean, where are you from? What about your family?”

Alex chuckled gruffly. “Oh, Lyra. My family… my Mom was a girl from some small part of Texas, but she met my Dad and they moved to… I dunno, some other small place, she never really spoke about it. My Dad… his name was Andrew Reiner, and he was… well, he got killed.”

Lyra put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, no. I… may I ask how?”

“He was a soldier, like me,” Alex answered freely. “Killed in the line of duty during the Gulf War. Mom didn’t like to talk about it much, so I didn’t learn much about my Dad from her. When I was three, she met a guy called Dan Radwick. He was a good guy and took care of us. Worked as a business attorney. Moved around a lot, so we followed him. Dallas, Houston… Mom took his name, and I did too… for a while.”

His mouth turned into a hard and thin line, and Lyra noticed his hand moving to the side of his neck, massaging it as a distant look grew in his eyes.

“And then Grandpop Al died.”

“Grandpop Al?” Lyra repeated. “Your…”

“Dad’s Dad,” Alex clarified. “Albert Reiner. He had a bunch of Dad’s old diaries he left to me, a bunch of Dad’s stuff… he’d lived through a lot. Some of it not so good.” His expression grew ever more distant. “I wanted to know more, but Mom… still didn’t want to talk about it. She’d moved on. Maybe she was scared I’d follow Dad’s footsteps, go off to be a soldier.”

“But you did, though,” Lyra hazarded a guess. “Why, Alex? Or were you enlisted?”

“Nope,” Alex chuckled sadly. “It was right after I changed my name back to Reiner. I remember Mom and Dan trying to talk me out of it. Dan… he was cool with the name change, just worried for my safety, but Mom…” He sighed. “She didn’t take it well. Started crying, yelling how I’d go die senselessly for the profit of some fat cat and his bank balance.”

“What?”

“Too many wars in my world are fought over riches. Oh, they wrap it up im a nice little package, enscribed with terms such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’. But, really, it’s just so much pap.”

Alex shook his head, running a hand through his thin beard.

“That was the last time we spoke,” he said quietly. “We… never had the best relationship. Even when I was little, I could always see there was this… sadness in her, whenever she looked at me. I guess I reminded her too much of Dad, and then there was Max…”

“Max?” Lyra parroted. “Who’s that?”

“My sister, Maxine,” Alex replied, a moistness in his eye. “When I was growing up, after she was born, I… it always seemed like she was the favourite. She didn’t remind anyone of their late husband, though, right?” His expression grew sour. “I’ve probably been unfair to her. She never did anything wrong, tried helping even, but I still pushed her away.”

He put a hand over his eyes, rubbing them before lying back on his bed.

“Damn it,” he whispered. “They took too much. Max… she used to be happy. Before everything...”

“It’s alright if you don’t want to go on,” Lyra said. “I’m sorry to bring up painful memories.”

“Everything’s painful,” Alex spat dully. “Every damn thing. There’s nothing good left. Nothing clean. It’s all covered in grime and blood, and the sounds are all of a harsh screaming. I can’t recall the taste of good food, or the sound of water, or the smell of grass.” He snorted. “I’m naked. Naked in the dark. Nothing between me and the fire.”

Lyra swallowed, unsure what to say. To her educated ear, it sounded like a quoted recitation. Much like those Moondancer had been fond of bringing out, back in their school days...

“It’s weird,” Alex said after a moment. “You and I… we’ve had this conversation. I’ve told you this before. But I haven’t.”

“I guess it’s not the only thing that’ll be weird,” Lyra said with a weak laugh. Not knowing what else to say, she lay a hoof on his bed.

Unerringly, he rested his hand on top of it.

“I still don’t feel as if I really know that much about you, Alex,” Lyra told him gently. “I mean, you’ve told me a lot about what’s happened on your world, that I’m a hero to you, how you chose to be a soldier. But it’s like… how do I put this…” She swallowed. “Like you’re busy ticking off boxes in a checklist. It’s as if you’ve read up your own life’s story, and now you’re reciting it back to me, almost by rote. I…” She bit back her tongue. “Sorry. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

“No, Lyra. You’re right.”

Surprised, she looked him in the eye. Or would have, if hadn’t closed them both.

“You’re right,” Alex whispered. “Because these boxes, as you call them, they’re all I have. People like me, when they’ve seen the things I have, sometimes, the only way they feel they can keep on is by putting it all in boxes.” He caressed her forehoof, sending a tingle down her spine. “I’m… actually kind of happy. It’s a weird feeling after all this time. But fuck, I don’t care if this goes ass-over-tits later. Right now, you’re alive. That… that might be the best thing that’s happened to me in years.” He closed his eyes. “God, Lyra, the things I’ve done… all I wanted to do was keep it the way you wanted it. Keep it pure. But that bastard Gardner, Defiance… it’s all muck, Lyra. All shit. I failed you. I failed you…”

His words drifted off into tired mumbling, and his eyes stayed closed.

“I think,” a voice said from behind Lyra, “that he’s asleep.”

Lyra looked to see Redheart staring at them both, a strange, almost regretful expression on her face. As before, seeing her, Lyra felt the slightest throbbing behind her retinae, and the recollection of Pinkie’s odd look crossed her mind.

But Celestia had said it was alright, that she was no Changeling...

“Nurse,” Lyra said softly. “Are you okay?”

“Me? Of course, dear,” Redheart said, smiling. “Are you? I was standing by the doorway, chatting with the Guards. Nice lads, the both of them, boys from Vanhoover, not quite so uptight as the usual crop. it sounded like a… well, a heavy conversation.”

“Yeah,” Lyra said. She looked at Alex’s sleeping form. “I guess. But worth it, y’know. He’s…”

“A remarkable creature,” Redheart humbly suggested.

“Yeah,” said Lyra, carefully slipping her forehoof from under his hand. “A remarkable human.”

“Well, you never know. Maybe they’re all like that.”

“Maybe.” Lyra shoved back her chair. “Maybe every creature is remarkable. In its own way.”

“That’s a nice thought,” Redheart said with a too-casual shrug.

Lyra stood up. “I’m gonna head off, get some coffee, make my way back in a little while. Please let me know if anything changes.”

“Of course, Miss Heartstrings,” Redheart said. “Don’t you worry. Your… new friend is safe with us.”

“Thanks, Redheart,” Lyra smiled at her, heading for the door. “I appreciate that.”

She trotted out, her head still spinning from the wagonload of information had Alex had besaddled her with. His words about family were stuck in her like a stray needle from one of Bonbon’s hobby dress-making sessions. Which all led back to one thing. Bonbon. If she, Lyra, was dead in the other universe, what had become of Bonbon? She hadn’t dared ask.

And the way he’d spoken to her… for a moment, she’d thought he sounded like a lover, but upon reflection, it sounded more like…

… More like a confession. Or a prayer to a god.

* * * * *

Redheart hummed a comforting tune under her breath, not looking back as Lyra Heartstrings left the room. Her focus was entirely on Alex Reiner.

‘Well, they always say that humanity is large and contains multitudes. Good to know this one feels remorse.’

She’d learned long ago that her enemies, no matter what they seemed like, were just creatures like her. Fighting for whatever they believed in. Although this war was different, and some nagging part of her kept wanting to think of humans as savage monsters, she still felt a degree of something resembling respect.

‘I guess we all do what we have to, not necessarily what we enjoy.’ She checked Reiner’s pulse, then his temperature.

He was stable, but he didn’t seem to be getting much better, and there was only so much traditional healing spells could do for him without stretching the boundaries of her cover. Sure, she knew how to heal a human, but ‘Nurse Redheart’ had no way of knowing.

‘In fact, how many little tells could I be displaying? It’s not like they ever taught us how to imitate ourselves.’

It was a sobering thought. As was the radical extent to which her mission’s parameters had been changed. Following Reiner across the divide, she’d known it could be a one-way trip. What she hadn’t anticipated was landing in this place, a discovery of such magnitude as trumped even her primary objective.

Stopping these other Equestrians from uncovering the mystery of the human had become impossible the moment Heartstrings and, most perturbingly, Princess Celestia and her Bearers had entered the picture. The slightest chance of revealing their existence to the Empire had to be seized.

Staying out of suspicion, being plain Nurse Redheart, had become her best bet.

‘I’m on a deadline. And if the Loyalty Guard somehow finds out about this, I can only hope that it’s not literal. If ‘we’ don’t learn more about you soon, Alexander Reiner,’ Redheart thought tiredly, ‘Then I’ll be spared from having to kill you.’

~ Canterlot, Equestria ~

Twilight trotted along the corridor, feeling an irrational coil of nervousness in her stomach.

‘Well, is it entirely irrational?’ she considered. ‘To begin with, here I am, back in my old School. How’s that for anxious memories? And this ‘human’, this Alexander, this war he’s talked about… there’s so much, so many questions. And so many tantalising hints he drops, like they’re the most natural thing in the world. He’s not telling us everything, because so many things seem so natural to him...’

She shook her head, making sure to keep her saddlebag secure.

Fortunately for her, even with Princess Celestia preoccupied by matters of state, there were others whom she could ask for help. Such as the stallion behind the door at the end of the corridor. It was a somewhat deceptive door, considering how average it made things seem, when the occupant was anything but. Twilight smiled as she saw the simple sign on his office door, made of a simple wooden frame, the name ‘Spell Nexus’ printed on it in plain lettering.

‘Pretending he’s normal. He’d call that the ultimate deception.’

It was reassuring to know that he likely hadn't changed that much. Certainly, the little explosion of noise from within the office seemed normal for hi–

‘Wait,’ Twilight thought abruptly. ‘Explosion?’ A moment’s panic crossed her. ‘Are we under attack again? Already? Oh. Please, please don’t let it be so soon. Please, don’t let this be…’

Images of Shining Armor flashed through her mind.

She had taken a moment to register the noise, but then there was another – the door was forced open, swinging slightly as its hinges creaked in protest. Smoke billowed out, filling the whole corridor, as did the sound of wheezing and coughing from inside the office.

“Well... that didn’t work. It did not work,” the wheezing voice stated through the smoke, punctuated by several extra coughs. “But not to worry, sugarplum, we can–”

Twilight’s ears were pierced by a frustrated, shrill scream. Before she could do so much as lift a hoof or cast a spell, the door swung open in full.

Silhouetted against the billowing smoke stood a mare who was purple all over, from her coat to her mane streaked with aquamarine. Atop her head was a beanie in her colours, and her horn was alight with a brilliant turquoise aura.

She did not look happy at all.

“Are, are you okay–”

The mare glared at her, her light purple eyes manic. “Fine!” she exclaimed. “I’m fine! Perfectly fine!”

She went on her way, grumbling and stomping, with a trail of smoke from her singed beanie.

Tearing her gaze away from the mare, once she’d disappeared ’round a corner, Twilight lit up her horn, coughing.

“Professor?” Twilight called out. “Are you alright?”

“Twilight Sparkle!” the voice of her old Headmaster called back, followed by more coughs. “So sorry about the smoke. I was experimenting with a gift from the Kirin, they call them ‘smoke bombs’. I tried making my own, and it caused them all to go up when I tried one.”

Twilight’s horn glowed, and in a flash, the smoke around her dissipated, revealing Professor Spell Nexus. He was dressed, fittingly enough, in a robe made of velvet.

“I thought that robe would have helped,” Nexus explained huskily, “they called it a ‘smoking robe’ or something like that. Guess they didn’t have smoke bombs in mind.” Nexus gave a harmless little smile. “It’s something they should work on, smoke comes in many different forms after all, Celestia help them if a dragon crosses them.”

“... Wait, why were you playing with smoke bombs?”

Nexus let out a resigned chuckle. “Oh, I thought my goddaughter would like it. She loves stage magic, alright! But I don’t suppose it worked…” He shook his head. “She’ll be fine, I’m sure. She’s just got a lot on her plate. Anyways, what brings you here, Twilight?”

Even speaking with him was reassuring – the Headmaster of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns had always been eccentric, but was a masterful teacher. Always helpful, passionate about his work, and personable.

“Well,” she said, “if you've got a moment after smoking out your office, I might need your help with something, Headmaster Nexus.”

His horn glowed blue, and a moment later the remaining smoke began to waft inwards and back into his office, moving out of an opened window.

“Now whatever could that be, Twilight?” Spell Nexus asked, before taking a deep breath. “Oh, fresh air, it beats smoke any day of the week. You’re usually bright enough on your own to figure things out. Your past adventures and, indeed, misadventures, show that.”

“Perhaps, but this is regarding something beyond my experience,” Twilight explained. She used her magic to retrieve a scroll from her saddlebag. “If you could take a look at these?”

Spell Nexus narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked over Rarity’s sketches of the runes.

“Possibly zebra-based,” he muttered, “though the design seems… unfamiliar, most unfamiliar. Where did you get this?”

“These are sketches made by a friend of mine, based on tattoos that were marked on a being called a human,” Twilight explained. “I was hoping you'd be able to help me ascertain their significance.”

His head snapped towards Twilight. “Wait, what! A human! Here? In Equestria! Oh, Lyra will be overjoyed!”

“She was one of the first to find him, actually.”

“Oh, perfect! Absolutely perfect,” Nexus said. “She’s going to love writing about this. Besides, Twilight…” He sighed, and seemed to lose energy for a scant few moments. “Dear Lyra deserves it. Ever since that catastrophe of a thesis Catseye wrote.”

“Let’s… not think too hard about that,” Twilight said, shuddering.

“Mmh. The less said, the better,” Nexus agreed, his coat still singed from the bomb. “I wish there was a way to tell Professor Shriek about this. But, well, you know old Noctus.”

Twilight nodded. Professor Shriek, even by the high standards of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, was indeed well known for being unconventional. Sometimes, he’d forget to wear clothes to class – not that much of a faux-pas in Ponyville, but still raising a few eyebrows in Canterlot – go on bizarre tangents, give up class midway through so he could grab coffee, or randomly doodle pictures while administering tests. His study of subjects like anthropology, being a foremost advocate of human presence in pre-Equestrian cultures, hadn’t helped.

“Sometimes,” Spell Nexus continued, “he can be quite eccentric.”

“That’s definitely one word for it, sir,” Twilight said, with an ironic smile. “Uh, if we could…”

“Return to the subject of these runes, yes…” Nexus’ expression grew to one of confusion, curiosity and a little excitement. “Well, obviously... there is a common aesthetic,” he said, his mind already gearing itself up to solve this apparent puzzle. “The function, though, that’s the real mystery... possibly to act as a means of enhancement? A physical mark to store magic to protect their body?”

“Perhaps,” Twilight agreed. “I was wondering, if I leave this information with you, can you see if you can figure out some potential reasons?”

“Of course,” Nexus said. He frowned. “Assuming I don’t smoke myself out again. Maybe if I…” his voice trailed off, and his eyes went wide. “Anyway, while I work on that, I’ll try and get in contact with the Crystal Realm and see if they can send out a pegasus patrol to look for old Noctus. If a mythical being not seen in thousands upon thousands of years truly is in Equestria, having Professor Shriek here to help should truly be a blessing.”

“Any help you or other faculty members could offer I’d appreciate.” Twilight grinned.

“Indeed, indeed,” Nexus said airily. “Now… where did I put my translation books…”

And so muttering, he returned to his office.

Twilight smiled again, before heading off. After this encounter, she felt a little better. The image of Shining Armor was still there, but not as stark as when she’d entered the School. She had her friends to meet back at the café, maybe together, they could visit Canterlot Palace’s very own library. A little extra research never hurt anypony.

* * * * *

“Thus it goes,” Luna mused to her sister. “With the Call sent, do you expect them to come?”

“The Kirin will,” Celestia replied, poring over the map on her desk, “and hopefully Darkhoof will bring the rest of the Minotaurs with him as well. He’s usually the most reasonable of them, or at least that’s what Fancypants informed me. I’m… less optimistic about the Saddle Mareabians. To say nothing about the dragons, or Changelings…”

“Changelings’ relations with all the rest of Equus have always been mixed,” Luna noted with some bitterness. “It is in their nature. I cannot say for sure about, say, Oleander or Neighpon’s thoughts about them. And we should anticipate how the zebra nations will react, to being asked to enter an agreement with a people that, too often, has fallen upon them like locusts.”

“Indeed,” Celestia said quietly, “and Chrysalis is the most prominent of the Queens in our part of the world. Not only that, but word has reached me that she’s been setting herself as their Queen of Queens. Her failure at Canterlot will have made a dent in her ambitions, yet I’d be surprised if this’ll be the end of them.”

Luna snorted, the memory still fresh and painful. “Why should we get into bed with Chrysalis? After what she’s done to us? To Cadance, to Lyra, and Shining Armor?”

“This threat affects us all, Luna,” said Celestia. “And Chrysalis is not her people. Times change. Remember that when you came back, the Saddle Mareabians’ subjugation of zebras was finally at an end, for well past three-hundred years.”

At that moment, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Celestia called.

Looking perhaps slightly less dishevelled than he had earlier, Prince Blueblood entered the room. At least he’d thought to wear his dinner jacket for public appearance, Luna noted. He looked between his two aunts for a moment, frowning.

“Sorry,” he said, “is now a bad time?”

“Not at all,” Celestia said quietly. “I need your advice on something.”

“Something to do with this war business Auntie Luna mentioned?” Blueblood guessed. “Can’t possibly imagine what I could tell you that you don’t already know, Auntie C.”

Luna scowled at the informal address, but her oh-ever-so-patient sister smiled indulgently.

“How about, ‘how to get half the gentry to help fund it’?” Celestia said with a wan smile.

Blueblood blinked, before chuckling. “Ah, yes, money. Always comes down to that, eh? Even in this allegedly friendship-based society of ours. Money, or reputation.”

“Surely a tax would be sufficient?” Luna asked irritably.

“Not quite,” Celestia said. She motioned to Blueblood. “The gentry can get… antsy, I suppose you could say, if you fail to butter them up, or to attend to their pettier demands before you start asking for more of their hard-earned bits.”

“Hence,” Blueblood stated, “why I’ve become an expert at attending said petty demands.”

Luna tilted her head skeptically “Indeed?”

Blueblood chortled, tugging at his dinner jacket. “You didn’t think all my socialising was just for the scintillating company and the copious alcohol, did you? No, that part is a handy bonus. Helps that I went to school with half of these cads.”

“I didn’t want to ask,” Luna said. “I take it then you know how to… ‘butter up’ the gentry?”

“It’s been my life’s work, be they peer, esquire, or knight,” Blueblood said with an utmost earnest inflection, while tapping his chin thoughtfully. “I probably can get a few favours called in to obtain an increase through the Prime Minister and Parliament on taxes to the richer population, but I think it’s important to offer military building contracts to White Hart Line, Trans-Equus, and Eagle Eye Corp.”

“To ensure their fiscal and political support, as well as to increase airship production?” Celestia guessed. At Luna’s questioning gaze, she smiled. “Spruce Dismay, Oiled Spoke, and Starched Shirt are all political powerhouses, in addition to owners of airship and train corporations. They have considerable clout with the Parliament.”

“Exactly,” Blueblood said, smiling. “Still, I’ll need to know a little more about this thing to sell it to some of my more… conservative drinking buddies.”

“I shall have a report written up,” Luna said simply, sharing a wry glance with Celestia. “In the meantime, nephew, we would be grateful if you could begin your work.”

“Can do,” Blueblood said. He threw a little mock salute. “Aunties.”

And with that, he sauntered out of the room.

“He’s so… irreverent,” Luna groaned after a moment. “We’re talking about a war, and he treats it like a game. I would have far preferred if the Prime Minister had met us here.”

“He was raised by his father, not his mother, the previous direct heir of the lineage,” Celestia pointed out with a heavy sigh. “Azure Haven was… irresponsible with his money, and all the more irresponsible as a pony. I believe it rubbed off on Blueblood. Not having to take life seriously will do that to you. Still, he knows his way around the aristocracy, and his heart is… usually in the right place. Cake incidents notwithstanding.”

Luna raised an eyebrow, confused. Plainly, she had missed out on a lot. “Cake incidents?”

“Don’t ask, Sister.”

* * * * *

Sometime later, standing there in the entrance hall, just outside the throne room, Celestia idly wondered if she could even keep the renovations on schedule. A second throne, just as there was in the Castle of the Two Sisters, had seemed like a worthwhile idea. Luna would have appreciated it very much, and that was enough. But as with all things, plans change and so did circumstances. What had started as a second throne had certainly escalated into a larger project, renovating large parts of the present throne room to welcome a new millennium. And now with war looming...

So it was, she found herself listening intently to the worker’s prim report. The elegant yet rugged mare opposite her was a tall one, almost as tall as Cadance, and between her work goggles over her eyes and a protective – if raggedy – cloak over her back, she looked ready as anyone could be. Small wonder she’d been chosen to relay the report, Celestia mused.

“And just over here, Your Highness,” the worker recited, with that curious, musical accent of hers. “you can see that the new stained glass windows have been fitted in, as requested, covering the Crystal Realm’s return. Your sister’s new throne has also arrived, though there seems to be a delay for yours, Your Highness.”

Celestia nodded. ‘Delays,’ she mused. ‘I ought to be hearing about a lot more of those, in these coming days…’

“No worries. Thank you,” she said. “And that shall be it for the day.” She glanced over at the nearby tea kettle, placed there on a workbench, then offered the worker a smile. “Care for some tea, by the way? You must be famished.”

“That shan’t be necessary,” said the worker, shaking her head. “All in a day’s work.”

“Oh, but it’s been such a long day…”

“It’s quite nothing, Your Highness,” the worker reassured, her eyes glancing back down to the report. “It is mine duty.”

Celestia frowned. The worker’s accent bore great resemblance to the brogue of the Reindeer of the North, now that she thought of it. For a moment, she contemplated the mare’s appearance. Braided mane, light grey coat, an elegant, yet hardy build as befitting any earthpony...

The hairs on Celestia’s neck rose. She had seen the mare before, yet when and how she could not recall. The latest reports from the frontier had cautioned her of possible Changeling infiltrators. Perhaps it was paranoia kicking in, given the strange events of the past few days. And yet...

“Pardon my curiosity,” said Celestia, clearing her throat, “but… where are you from?”

The worker looked up from the report. “Stratusburg, Your Highness,” she answered swiftly, raising an eyebrow. “Is something the matter?”

Celestia contemplated this for a moment or two. There was a touch of Stratusburg to her accent, but there still lay a strangeness to her diction she could not pinpoint. “Right, what did you say your name was…?”

But just as the worker opened her mouth to reply, Celestia felt a soft breeze at her back, blowing from within the throne room. She turned, to meet the familiar, mismatched figure of many beasts’ shapes she’d been waiting for.

“Discord,” Celestia greeted with a smile. “You’ve returned.”

The draconequus, her oldest enemy, turned her newest ally, smiled back wanly. “Hello, Sunnybuns. How is everything going? You didn’t get too sad in my absence, I hope?”

“Without you, the Sun went out of my life, Discord.”

Discord gave a bark of laugher, yet Celestia thought it sounded rattling, strained. She turned to the worker. “Excuse us for a moment.”

The worker nodded, with no sign of perturbance at the draconequus’s appearance. Letting Discord lean on her, Celestia guided him into the throne room, closing the door behind her.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asked, her concern genuine. She pushed aside tools and chunks of the unfinished fountain marble left on the floor, giving Discord a place to lay down. “From your return, I must assume you were successful. It makes me glad, for when I called on you to take on this mission, I did fear it might already be too late, that one more ancient evil would go unfett– Discord!”

He had slumped to his knees, but when Celestia approached him, he shook his head and held up his lion paw to forestall any help on her part, wincing as he did so. In his eagle claw, Discord was holding a small, faintly vibrating, crystalline snowglobe.

“That is the Krampus,” Celestia guessed.

“Imprisoned,” Discord said, wheezing. “It… wasn’t as cooperative as I’d hoped, but it seems I was just about able to stymie it.”

Celestia granted Discord a polite smile of approval. “I’m grateful you could imprison rather than destroy the old monster.”

“Eh.”

Discord rose, dusting himself off, with dust clouds larger than they had any right to be. “Be grateful that Sint Erklass had the smarts to come up with this little trinket,” he said, still looking pained as he presented the snowglobe, while its frenetic vibration grew more pronounced. “Say what you will about your dear adoptive grandfather, the old buck isn’t lacking for useful gifts. Or I’d be the one now screaming in agony.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. “The Krampus was that powerful.” It wasn’t a question.

“Of course,” Discord replied. “It was the First. My kind’s blood thinned long before I was even born. The Krampus... Its fire is the fire of a Chaos that makes me look orderly. It’s a fire that begs to be smothered.”

“And now, finally,” Celestia sighed, “we can begin to heal it.”

Discord chuckled unpleasantly. “You can’t heal. It is old and set in his ways, its chaos neither wondrous, nor amiable, nor even vaguely amusing. It’s raw, it’s cruel. It’d take more than a kind forgiving little pegasus to make the Krampus go ‘good’.”

“Yet still, we must try,” Celestia said solemnly.

Her ally frowned, looking at the tiny snowglobe. “Yeah. I guess you should. Come here, you,” he beckoned to the snowglobe to himself, his magic pulling it through the air. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You’re a handsome piece, you are, but it’s all about what you got in the noggin’. Then they’re all burning for you. Just look at me.” He smirked, tossing the snowglobe up and down, but was cut short by a wince of pain. “Well, there you have it, Celestia. It’s dealt with. What now?”

“Now?” Celestia asked. “As I said. Provided you choose not to threaten Equestria or the rest of the world again, I am willing to allow you your freedom.” She paused. “However…”

“However, there’s another mess you need my help with,” Discord interrupted, grumbling. “How did I guess. Couldn’t possibly be you using that overgrown night-light you got in the Vault.”

“You felt that? The Concordia’s Call?”

“I tasted it.” Discord stuck his tongue out. “Purple. And I won’t be the only one.”

At this, Celestia had to hold her own smirk, and then a sigh. He was grousing, nothing more. Yet he would help, for the strangest thing about Discord, at least in her experience, was how he acted malicious just in the sense that he rebelled against authority. A trickster in spirit, he wished little real harm, merely for himself to have fun… and freedom. Only the fact that his fun came at the expense of others had made him an enemy of Equestria, and for the moment, those instincts appeared to have been curbed.

“For now,” she said, “rest. And we will speak in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Discord said, waving his paw. “See ya, Celly.”

And then he was gone, leaving the little snowglobe behind, where it continued to vibrate, tipping to-and-fro.

“Ah, Krampus,” Celestia whispered. “Sint Erklass said you were once of a nobler kind. One wonders what could have brought you so low.”

She sensed nothing but malice from the snowglobe, and with a sigh, her horn glowed, flashing the globe away to the special cell Sint had long provided for it in the Castle of Zamok Ustyag..

‘Equestria,’ Celestia thought ruefully. ‘No chains keep its people in bondage, and yet, for a select few, each convict has their own prison. The Moon… for my sister. For Luna. Encased in stone, for Discord.’ She suppressed thinking about Lyra. ‘Then there is Erebus, and Tartarus… Even that poor conjurer of cheap tricks, who used the Alicorn Amulet for ill-conceived purposes, her sentence is tailor-made…’

Not to mention, for as long as Discord was in recovery, she would have to postpone the new favour she meant to ask of him, in the wake of the human’s coming. He knew something, but he did not know everything.

Nevertheless, for a moment, Celestia breathed easier. Until, that is, she heard the door open.

“You’ve summoned them all, then,” the voice of the worker was heard, her accent stronger than it had been. “The Kirin, the Changelingkind, even Discord the Chaos Lord. The lantern called out to those around whom, in the hearts and minds of their people, the stardust coalesces most. This is a good start, if merely for them to bear witness. You require all the allies you can get, in the war to come.”

Celestia darted around to face the worker – yet there was no worker. In her place stood a mare a head taller than she, still wrapped in that patchwork hooded cloak. Her cold eyes remained mostly hidden behind her goggles, staring right at her.

“Who are you?” Celestia demanded, narrowing her eyes. “What business has brought you here?”

In response, the mare pulled down the hood she wore, with a spark of grey magic, to reveal none other than a shadow-grey mare. An ink-black mane flowed behind her, rippling in the ethereal winds, much like Celestia’s own.

“We came into this world together,” the grey mare replied. “Long have I watched you flourish from the shadows, yet here and now I step into your light.”

Celestia blinked. “You… you’re...”

“I am the Scribe of the Stardust, keeper of the plan of our existence,” said the figure. She pulled aside her cloak, uncovering a great pair of wings held tight against her body. The grey alicorn lifted her goggles, revealing a pair of eyes as icy blue as a a frozen pond. “Mine name is Galatea, and I am your sister.”

Author's Note:

Spectrum 2.1 - Autumn 2021

VoxAdam:

• It is in this chapter that Havok / Kontagion is made a composite character with the Krampus. As such, the creature’s prison is changed from a small crystal to the snowglobe used to trap the Krampus.
• When Twilight goes to visit Spell Nexus, her old Headmaster at Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, she momentarily crosses paths now with his goddaughter, Starlight Glimmer.
• The Concordia Maxima has been changed into a lantern, no longer is it a copy of the Moment from Doctor Who.
• The Canterlot Palace throne room is shown to be undergoing reconstruction, making space for two thrones and covering it in crystal, thus preparing to bring the room’s design closer in line to the 2017 Movie.
• Galatea now makes her introduction as one of the workers on the renovation of the throne room.

Spectrum 2.0 - December 15th 2017

JedR: Howdy all, Jed here. What a cliffhanger, right?

VoxAdam: Boy, this one was dense. Whereas Chapter Five was pieced together in the, by Spectrum standards, rather short space of three weeks, Chapter Six is one of those chapters we’ve had planned since we chose to reboot. Then it turned out we had more and more things we wanted to add, and sooner rather than later, not just as personal indulgences but so that we could honestly say “This was meant to be in the story from the beginning”.

I won’t add much more now, other than to say I like what we did with Blueblood. Jed and Royal have each been fine collaborators in giving ponykind’s charmless prince a makeover. And it was a treat for me to somehow work pirates into this story, because, well, you can’t go wrong with pirates, right?

Actually, come to think of it, though it contains a somber passage early on as we dive into Alex’s psyche and ends on the reveal of the grim, mysterious Galatea, this chapter, what with Blueblood, Nexus, and Discord, has been an field for introducing quirky characters. This Such is how Prime!Equestria decides to come to mankind’s aid.

DoctorFluffy: This was a lot of fun!

There’s probably a lot of in-jokes and references I left here. Most of the ones that reference the show should be easy enough to understand, but there’s some stuff from early in development that you might not know:

* We’d agreed that Twilight’s rant about the impossibility of transporting Equestria to Earth was too iconic to skip. 

* Catseye is in fact a reference to Chatoyance! But we’re just going with one Chat stand-in this go-around. As funny as it was, I want to move past the kind of mindset that led us to make that sort of thing.

* Reiner commenting on having “almost placed bounties on graffiti taggers” is a dig at how reactionary the PHL was becoming under Red, and yes, something like this happened in the Classicsverse. There’s a reason I’m rebooting all my Classicsverse work, people. 

* Yes, “Classicsverse” is a Transformers reference.

* Gardner’s method of speech is not (intentionally?) a reference to the G-Man from Half-Life, but when Vox commented on it, I decided to roll with it. I just wanted an effect more subtle than abusing text options, capitalization, or zalgo text. Something that would sound unsettling if you read it out loud. I’m aware that someone out there is probably hearing this in William Shatner’s voice (Kizuna Tallis did), but all the other options I could think of for making him sound unsettling just felt too cliche. Oooh, this guy’s voice is disturbing, look how it’s covered in wingdings! I just don’t want to. Also, for no discernible reason, I can’t unhear the Microphone from Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.

* Blueblood being actually (*gasp*) USEFUL is a… look, we were really tired of Blueblood getting kicked in the balls whenever he appeared. He’s got far, far fewer canonical moments of needing to be punched than, say, Diamond Tiara. I’m shoryuken imagine that last part as I type this.

* While Kraber committed a large amount of crimes (including burglebezzlement), it’s very important that I point this out; Kraber is absolutely not a rapist. Nobody should want that treated sympathetically. I know I don’t!

* All the stuff from Defiance is…. Uh, I can’t really go over that without being too spoilery. And I’m just not in the mood to talk about the Oh, who am I kidding, this is a reference to the massacre at Defiance that Red planned. There’ll be more of this in Light Despondent, which is also being rebooted! You can read our various journals to see us complain about it. Part of me wants to update Light in the next few seconds, but, well, I don’t want to end with a barely-finished mess like I did with Snowbound. Go look at that too while you can.

Comments

[angel3591]

Alright new chapter! No wait, Two chapters! Also found a another song that sounds like the Spectrum story; The Day The Earth Collapsed

by End Of Silence

[Russian Bank Teller]

hold on, why isn't humanity using poison gas?
VX Nerve Agent is quite powerful and I doubt the barrier can protect against an invisible gas

[Rakdar]

Is this part of the good side of the conversion bureau in the same general genre as The Avatar Of Albion? OR am i misjudging it?

[Doctor Fluffy]

8611140
We'd like to think it is! In fact, at least four of the people that worked on The Avatar of Albion (that includes me) have worked on this. It's a reboot of a story that, uh... wasn't part of the good side. We all used to work on that, but then certain things went a bit pear-shaped, so we decided to reboot everything.

[TheIdiot]

8611140 We're in the same camp as Avatar of Albion.

[Kizuna Tallis]

8611140
Yes, and it has the author of AoA on it too

[Jed R]

8611140
Well, I like to hope I brought some of my AOA sensibilities with it all, anyway... 🙂

[Rakdar]

8611157
8611160

8611163

8611309

Good to know, I'm certainly excited about it. Aoa is one of my favorite fics here, 4th best imho

[BestinDworld]

wait celano? is this after the movie? will tempest shadow show up with the remains of the storm kings army during the summons? what about the conversion burau tempest capper? the hippogrifs? also will they show up too?

[batran]

While Celestia have good intentions. Would she actually really risk the life of her subjects to a threat that isnt even after them?

(Infinite universes, infinite possibilities i guess)

[VoxAdam]

8612213

The original Spectrum went the extra mile in trying to justify this by claiming the Solar Empire threatened all of reality. But Celestia's gesture here can just as well, and more believably, be chalked up to mere altruism, and to seeking to restore Equestria's good name.

I do consider it regrettable that the new story structure didn't allow us a means to include Princess Celestia's impressively defiant speech to the Tyrant from the original, but when that story failed to follow up the speech by providing a Celestia who could live up to it, maybe it's a fair exchange to leave it out while ensuring this Celestia has more steel to her in general.

[Mr cold ghost]

I loved the lord of the ring reference there. You can’t go wrong with the lord of the rings. Thanks for the wonderful update!

[batran]

8612243
I dunno Equestria's exact plan of strategy. But I think it makes more sense of they being like USA in ww2. Officially neutral while still supporting the allies until the moment they get attacked. Then they can tip the scales

[AppleTank]

This drew surprised looks from everyone. Since returning from inside Reiner’s mind, after hearing his final, damning accusation levelled at Celestia, Twilight’s intimate circle had kept themselves rather to themselves.

>Was the double intended?

of how she’d failed to see Luna’s frustrations and pain until it was too late her little sister...

--too late for her

So had Alex – never to her face, but nonetheless in the hearts of many, as one voice with those who stood together against her. Cheerilee. Luna. Cadance. Lyra.

>I'm a bit confused. Alex called Queen Celestia righteous, despite hating her?

This inner sanctum wasn’t made to shut out problems, Colonel, the wispy mare told him, only to offer you respite. What you use you make of it is your responsibility. The door isn’t meant to be locked forever, and that’s just as well, else you’d be truly lost, within yourself...

>The italics in this section is a bit wonky, not sure what pattern you guys were sticking too.

You say this Solar Tyrant has hidden herself behind a wall, and yet, we shan’t allow that walk to keep us out.

--allow that wall to keep [?]
>Was that intentional or a typo?

Also: Double update, oh yeah!. Took me all day to get through, along with a bit of double reading when I forgot where I wanted to highlight something.

[Starlight Nova]

Apple Bloom is two words.

[Doctor Fluffy]

8612043
Yeah, Johnny C had to fight a newfoal that was made of clay (...I was watching a lot of Batman cartoons when I wrote this, so I was all like "What if there was a newfoal that was actually CLAYFACE?!) once. I don't know if we'll ever explain it. As for why he wanted to shave himself, the idea was that having his hair lit on fire was a pretty traumatic experience.

Also totem-proles are a reference to Last Train from Oblivion, one of Classic Spectrum's old sidestories. It's... probably only really canon to SPECTRUM in the same way as DarkSector is to Warframe - something very much like it probably happened. Totem proles are these crystalline obelisks that play music in the streets of Equestria, function as rudimentary computers and an early sort of internet... Oh, and they're surveillance devices.

8612243
Hey, if it means we dodge having Celestia be a dumpster fire of character derailment, then I'm totally fine with not having the rant.

8612203
Nah, this is mostly season 3-compliant. At the very least, this is sometime near Keep Calm and Flutter On.

[AppleTank]

8613054
oh. oooooh. Got wires crossed and somehow got the idea that the Newfoal wanted to shave itself for some reason.

[AppleTank]

8612057
In that case, would the "We're" be changed? I don't get where you're going with this.

[AppleTank]

8613419

[angel3591]

The flashbacks featured in the these chapters are incredible! Of course all these events are well known in the Spectrumverse it is really chilling to see the moment the Tyrant unleashed "her" plan against humanity and see other major historical events prior to the main story. Another detail that is attention grabbing is the fact we and the characters of the story can find the evidence that the Tyrant is not acting on her free will, that there is a higher power behind the scenes (Luna's dialogue moments before being petrified or the found footage shortly after), makes the story more creepy. Hope to see more historical events retold in the same haunting detail as seen here. Keep up the good work!

[s1]

8612203>>8611160 8611157
I hope that the Deers of the Everfree Forest from the Root of the Problem arc, the Abyssinians(the cat people from the MLP: FIM movie prequel comic issue), the Diamond Dogs, the Dragons with Torch as the current Dragon Lord (remember this story take place before the event of the Gauntlet of Fire meaning that Princess Ember isn't a Dragon Lord yet), The Anubis Jackal people (and here) from the comics, etc, make an appearance and maybe Celaeno with her pirate crew and Tempest Shadow who is from an alternative universe might even show up in this story too. And are they all going to gather together at the Hall of Unity (and here a pic of the inside here) from the MLP: FIM comics like here?

[TheIdiot]

8616748 I'm afraid to state that the canon of comics isn't entirely captured by SPECTRUM since we mainly go with what's featured in the show. Though we may take your comment into consideration.

[BestinDworld]

8616798
id love to have tempest shadow in this

[s1]

8616798
Then I'm just gonna drop a few ideas that you could use here.
How about bringing in Scorpan along with the Centaurs and the Gargoyles from the FIENDship is Magic comic issue about Tirek? Scorpan could answered Celestia's summon in a way to rebuild friendly ties between his kingdom and Equestria again after his brother, Tirek try to invade it. And while helping he find out the true enemy have a strong connection with his ancestors.

[Jed R]

8618636
Scorpan is... part of the history, shall we say. That’ll hopefully become apparent.

[Mira Starlight]

I’m really enjoying this rewrite! I can certainly see a lot of callbacks to the original, but there’s a fresh new take on it here that’s just so satisfying to read. I eagerly await more!

[Doctor Fluffy]

8620070
Thank you!

[DarthSonic66]

Yeah... Reading the trance sequence, I feel the need to remind you that the original fic is supposed to be celebratory about humanity. This is getting way too cynical, and that forced Trump reference...

[DarthSonic66]

And for my last comment, Celestia is being insanely irresponsible here. In the original, when she declared war, it was after Quee Celestia demonstrated that she knew how to get to Prime!Equestria and was on the warpath. Here? Celestia does not know this, and is dragging Equus into a war that does not yet concern her.

Not to mention that by cutting out her initial confrontation with the Tyrant, you're cutting out one of the best scenes from the original fic. There seems to be a lot of throwing out the baby with the bathwater going on here.

[VoxAdam]

8623739, 8623926, 8623998

I'll admit that I am cynical, but I wouldn't call this cynical, so much as more willing to face one's flaws. And although I don't doubt that I'm going to receive quite a few downvotes for saying this, I'll say it. In a world where Donald Trump is President of the United States, something which even the most cynical of satirists like South Park and Charlie Brooker did not see coming, we've kind of lost our right to getting on our high horse towards misanthropic ponies, who don't even exist outside of our collective imaginations.

I'm sure that when you posted your comment, you knew a response from me would be inevitable. I'll do my best to remain on an even keel in how I reply to your opinions, especially as it's that time in December and, now that Redskin and I have made our peace, it gives me no pleasure to draw out old criticisms of how he wrote Spectrum.

However, I feel a need to put paid to one point, once and for all. There never was any such dynamic between Marcus and Celestia. Marcus Renee was a Gary Stu, plain and simple, purposefully designed to outshine everyone else, whose flaws were never properly acknowledged as flaws. Not only would he beat Celestia at chess, or basically tell her to let the grown-ups do the talking, when they first met, he broke her body and didn't have to so much as apologise for it.

Which is why towards the end, Marcus appeared less and less in the story, because the rest of the Team could no longer bear writing him. JedR made a last, valiant effort at a conflicted Marcus in his Pale Moonlight Arc. It did not work out to his satisfaction.

And with all of that, the relationship between Marcus and Celestia which you so extol would have had no bearing whatsoever on her TCB counterpart, whom he gladly would have left to die a horrible, undignified death. Does that sound like a particularly deep or meaningful relationship?

If you think the scene of Alexander Reiner's firefight with the pregnant woman is too cynical, remember, several members of the old Team have stated in their blogs that this exact scene was supposed to play out in Light Despondent, with one small difference. Marcus would have been portrayed as completely in the right for what he did and not obliged to feel any remorse. If that isn't beyond cynical, I don't know what is. DoctorFluffy was so perturbed by that scene, he kept putting off its publication, which is why the world never got to see it, until now.

He, Sledge and I actually wrote the campfire scene and the reporter's flashback, which comprise the bulk of Chapter Five, precisely because we wanted an early moment for humanity to be shown in a positive light. Ana Bjorgman was widely agreed by readers and writers to be one of the more relatable characters in Spectrum Classic. But above all, while these humans may still hate TCB!Celestia for understandable reasons, they have enough intelligence and fellow-feeling left to realise, based on the found footage, that TCB!Celestia is not herself. The found footage scene was in the original too, yet I can state with assurance that not one person in-story was inspired by it to ask questions.

Pertaining to Prime!Celestia, is she acting a bit hasty in getting the rest of the world involved? Yes, perhaps she is. It took me a long time to come up with a compromise I hoped would sound reasonable, and not too flimsy. I can only leave it to your judgement as to whether it works. Celestia herself explains to Luna that she is gathering "witnesses" to an attempt at saving the soul of mankind, and Equestria.

I was sad to see Princess Celestia's speech to the Tyrant cut out, a scene I'm convinced was written by TB3, as no Celestia moment in the middle chunk of Spectrum Classic comes close to it. There is still a hope it can be reintegrated later, in some form. Yet, well, this isn't something you could know unless you were part of the writing team, but there were no plans for the Empire to invade Equestria in the original. Catseye and Icewind had to be created so there'd be antagonists during that portion of the story, and until Weaver came along, at no point would there have been an Imperial presence on Prime!Equestria.

In conclusion, we still want this story to be celebratory about humanity. We need that now, more than ever. But if there is something we want to celebrate about ourselves, we shouldn't celebrate what we wish we were. We should celebrate what we can be, what we are, warts and all.

And with that Christmas sermon delivered,

I wish you Happy Holidays,
~VoxAdam

[Jed R]

8624081
8623998

I’m going to agree with what Vox says here, especially with him regards to Marcus Renee and Celestia. Marcus Renee was a Gary Stu, and one whose competence came at the expense of Celestia’s character at multiple points (the most pertinent of which Vox has highlighted). I feel like, given her importance to MLP, derailing her character, weakening her in the way the original story did, is just not acceptable.

I do not find accepting humanity’s flaws to be cynical. I massively prefer the notion of a story where, for all our flaws, we are still willing and able to do the right thing. Throughout my work, both in Spectrumverse and beyond it, I’ve tried to work with the theme of being flawed and finding your best self anyway, much as that clearly didn’t work well when I tried to find it in Pale Moonlight (a name that even now really hacks me off when I think about it). Our characters have to be more than two-dimensional “good guys”. There have to be realistic explorations of what people do and are prepared to accept. And God-willing, though ultimately it is the will of the group as to what happens, it’s my hope this story will be that three-dimensional.

[DarthSonic66]

8624187
8624081
I'll do you one better by saying that in a world where we were given the choice between Trump and Hillary, we really shouldn't get on our high horse. That being said, bringing up Trump in comparison to Queen Celestia, the worst genocidal maniac in the (recorded) history of three worlds, instead of Hitler or Mao is absurd. Like, cringey modern Marvel Comics absurd.

I also think you're relying too much on mind control when it comes to TCB Equestria. This was certainly a problem with the original as well. It sort of defangs a lot of the social commentary when the bad guys aren't entirely responsible for their actions.

As for Celestia and Marcus, I guess that dynamic was an accident as I feared... Well, thanks for confirming that.

And yes, I know you said it just didn't exist, but I'm going to elect to be a cheeky bastard here and declare "Death to the Author!"

As for the declaration of war, whether TCB!Equestria was ever going to invade Prime or not wasn't really the point of that. The point was that Celestia had an encounter in the original fic that gave her reason to fear such an eventuality, and thus she had casus belli. Here? Beyond the magic box saying she's just before summoning the rest of the world, she doesn't. Now obviously she would still offer Earth humanitarian aid, because she's Celestia and this is Equestria, but full on war? I would have held off on invoking the Concordia Maxima until after some sort of contact with Earth and the Solar Empire was made. For now, I would have the royalty discuss the possibility of war, and humanitarian aid. Especially considering the fact that she has Blueblood (LOVE what you did with him by the way, no complaints there!) shaking down the gentry for funds. Having Blueblood asking for funds for humanitarian aid and a potential war would go over a lot smoother than asking flat out for war funds without something the nobility would consider proper casus belli.

Also, I do hope Celestia still gets a proper character arc here, and isn't the static High Queen. Her having a proper character arc was one of the nice things about the original, even if it only really happened in order to compensate for Redskins mistakes with the character.

Also, Prime!Lyra is the protagonist, right? I'd point out the having Marcus as a protagonist was the largest source of issues in the original, and I'm not sure you'd want to repeat that with Alexander. He'd work better as an Obi-Wan (and potential love interest? Not entirely clear on that front).

But ho boy, all that really makes it sounds like I don't like what you're doing here, or that I have rose colored glasses on for the original. Let me assure you, I do not. The writing of this story is far tighter and more cohesive than the original, the worldbuilding has far fewer hiccups (especially when it comes to the war; the original was essentially an exchange of curbstomps, with either the Empire being used as target practice for humanity ala GATE, or humanity getting crushed by some unstoppable magic super-weapon), and for the most part the characters are better written (especially Blueblood!). It's just that at times I fear you guys are tossing out the baby with the bathwater in a desperate scramble to be as un-Redskin as possible.

Anywho, keep up the good work!

[DarthSonic66]

8624187
Also, sorry for making it seem like I wanted 2-dimensional good guys. Honestly, I was just a touch afraid we were going to get a "Humanity are the real monsters!" story, where the Ponies aren't really characters as opposed to props to serve as a mirror for mankind. That's always annoyed me in Pony/humanity First Contact fics. It was also a problem I had with the original, what with all the mind control going down in the Empire.

Frankly, I wrote that comment kinda impulsively. My last comment is a far more succinct and eloquent gathering of my thoughts.

Edit: I also deleted that first comment about FiMfics' alert system. I was seriously clogging up the comments there. Sorry about four posts in a row.

[VoxAdam]

8624699

Bringing up Trump in comparison to Queen Celestia, the worst genocidal maniac in the (recorded) history of three worlds, instead of Hitler or Mao is absurd.

It isn't so much about genocide as it is about people, the everyday people living out their lives and choosing which leaders they want to follow, listening to some very hateful, alienating discourses and thinking "I'll be safe, this won't harm me".

I also think you're relying too much on mind control when it comes to TCB Equestria.

Normally, this is the sort of topic I might agree with you on, but Redskin himself said he'd come up with the Mane Six's possession-via-homunculi because he couldn't imagine any of them falling to such lows. This, for one thing, makes how both Celestias were depicted as unfit, prejudiced rulers in his writings all the more jarring.

While it's alright if you want to make these non-harmonious ponies accountable for their actions, so too must it follow that humanity should be held to the same standards. Which, according to you, is "cynical".

"Death to the Author!" 

I study literature as a thesis, matey. Death of the Author posits that a text should be considered distinct from any one writer, that readers have the freedom to draw conclusions, based on the text, which the original scriptor may not have intended. Short version; everyone's a critic.

And this is fine. It's what permits me, for example, to say that I came to regard Marcus Renee as an abusive prick, even though that is almost certainly not what he was intended to be.

On the other hand, there's a line between "Death of the Author" and outright intellectual dishonesty. You cannot say that Marcus and Celestia shared anything like an equal, mutually beneficial relationship when all the evidence points towards Marcus - and Discord, for that matter - lording it over her at every turn.

Her having a proper character arc was one of the nice things about the original.

I wish. Her character didn't so much evolve as fall victim to Depending on the Writer.

For now, I would have the royalty discuss the possibility of war, and humanitarian aid. Especially considering the fact that she has Blueblood (LOVE what you did with him by the way, no complaints there!) shaking down the gentry for funds. 

Well, I am genuinely glad to read a comment mentioning Blueblood and his characterisation here in positive terms. And pushing the angle of humanitarian aid over immediate warfare is definitely something I had in mind.

Look, I can tell from how you write about Spectrum and its current incarnation - presuming, of course, that I'm not projecting my own interpretation onto another's words - that you care for it and still enjoy it very much. But please consider how, if the original had one, pervasive setback, it's that it kept undermining its own stated goal of rehabilitating Equestria's image from the perversion that was the Conversion Bureau.

What's the point of bringing in an "uncorrupted" Equestria if you're still going to go all HFY and browbeat the ponies with how they need to get their act together? These aesop-cartoon ponies have always been meant as analogues to a budding mankind's spirit, neither inherently better, nor worse.

And if there's an intended difference in the spirit of this reboot compared to the original, this is it.

[DarthSonic66]

8624888
The Death to the Author thing was a joke. Thought the smug AJ would have clued you in on that. I'm a Lit Major, so I know Death to the Author does not actually work like that. At least, not if one wants to be intellectually honest.

Will comment on the rest in a bit. Just wanted to get that out there.

[DarthSonic66]

8624888
OK, now for a more thorough response!

>Cynical.

God, I'm really regretting using that word... Look, that post was an impulsive one, born from a fear that in an attempt to be as un-Redskin as possible, you all were going for the most unflattering interpretation of humanity you can get away with without going full Chatoyance. As I said in my reply to Jed, the last thing I want to happen to the Ponies is for them to be turned into prop mirrors for mankind, instead of being fully realized characters.

There was a great running theme in the original of Ponies and Humans bettering themselves by learning from the other, even if this theme only existed in the fic in spite of itself. Humans feeling at peace in Prime!Equestria, or becoming better people because of their Pony friends (Marcus with Lyra and Cheerilee even if the was in spite of Redskins best efforts, and Kraber and Aegis in a better example). Ponies becoming a lot more innovative and artistically creative via exposure to human culture and art (this is what I meant by "in spite of itself", because it seemed like Redskin really wanted to only focus on this).

At the moment, it doesn't feel like Ponies have anything to learn from humanity. Or going off of Alex's trance sequence, that even humanity has learned anything from Ponykind other than overwhelming guilt.

Obviously, this won't always be the case. I'm sure you'll have all the same neat cultural exchanges that happened in the original, and they'll likely be better written (that is, not as one-sidedly human). Just worried is all.

>Too much mind control.

I would like to emphasis the "too" here. I am not opposed to mind control as a whole. In fact, it's pretty much necessary in order to create the scenario you want. I have no objection when it comes to Celestia's corruption and the Mane 6 homunculi. It's the whole "Tirek is mindfucking ALL of Equestria" thing I have an issue with. That really should just come down to good old fashion propaganda and Fascist/Communist purges and the like. Tires influence should stop at the Queen, the Mane 6, and the Newfoals. Everything else should be good old fashion Fascism, and if there is mind control, it should be Ponies doing it, not Tirek.

And you know how I've compared Queen Celestia to Sauron before? That was me being optimistic, but I fear Redskin always intended for her to be simply Tirek's literal puppet, and a feeble punching bag to get at Chatoyance. Can we please not repeat that, and let Queen Celestia be a villain in her own right? Perhaps even one who develops an evil agenda separate from Tirek.

>Go full HFY and Browbeat the Ponies.

Actually, I want them to browbeat each other. I'm a huge proponent of both HFY AND PFY (Pony Fuck Yeah in case that wasn't obvious).

>Blueblood.

I actually didn't like what you were doing with him at first, thinking you guys were rushing him past way too much character development.

Then the parrot pirate came up in his dreams, and I figured out that you did not in fact do any such thing. You were simply creating a different character arc for in. Good show!

[VoxAdam]

8624959

Lit Major? Oh, great. And here I was hoping things might settle, when there is no greater impetus for heated argument than putting two acamedically-minded people in the same space...

In essence, I feel as if there are a couple of factors which, amongst your more thought-out points, you are not giving sufficient consideration to, and they are both entwined with one another; these being that Spectrum Classic had an unfortunate tendency towards human-supremacism and that Celestia was severely mistreated from start to finish.

Many of the old issues can be traced back to those sources.

[VoxAdam]

8625007

Actually, I want them to browbeat each other. HFY and PFY.

Nope. I believe that's all I really need to say. I may love a good bit of argument and conflict as much as the next existentialist, but I can guarantee you this sort of thing won't occur beyond the level of comradely rough-housing, so to speak. We're not in the business of writing a stick-measuring contest here, one-sided or otherwise. That was more the old story's type.

Can we please not repeat that, and let Queen Celestia be a villain in her own right?

To paraphrase Ramsay Bolton, it doesn't seem like you've been paying attention. In another story? Certainly, the concept of how Celestia could have legitimately gone bad would be a fascinating one. There are enough parallels between Spectrum and Injustice: Gods Among Us that exploring her "evil" version in the same vein as Injustice!Superman could work nicely, yes.

But this is still a story aimed squarely at Chatoyance's TCB, and that makes reaffirming a benign, honest Celestia a priority.

[DarthSonic66]

8625016
Well, technically I'm a Literature focused English Major. For some bizarre reason, my school doesn't technically have a Literature Major, but has a variant of the usual English Major that is almost identical to a Lit Major. It's really weird, so I just call myself a Lit Major for simplicity's sake.

I was going to argue that Celestia seemed to be getting better treatment by the end, but I'm starting to get that by mistreated you don't just mean from an in-universe perspective. You mean mishandled as a literary character. Considering you brought up how her character arc was really just a case of "depends on the writer", I'm guessing she got a bad case of the Captain Janeway. That's... disappointing to find out.

Still hope she gets to be a character here though. She's my favorite character, so having her just be the High Queen would be equally disappointing.

And yeah, I know the original fic had an issue with human supremacism. That's why I was always saying "in spite of itself."

[DarthSonic66]

8625039

Nope. I believe that's all I really need to say. I may love a good bit of argument and conflict as much as the next existentialist, but I can guarantee you this sort of thing won't occur beyond the level of comradely rough-housing, so to speak. We're not in the business of writing a stick-measuring contest here, one-sided or otherwise. That was more the old story's type.

Fair enough. I really just want the learning to be mutual.

And for the non-humans and non-ponies to be the peanut gallery in all this.

To paraphrase Ramsay Bolton, it doesn't seem like you've been paying attention. In another story? Certainly, the concept of how Celestia could have legitimately gone bad would be a fascinating one. There are enough parallels between Spectrum and Injustice: Gods Among Us that exploring her "evil" version in the same vein as Injustice!Superman could work nicely, yes.

But this is still a story aimed squarely at Chatoyance's TCB, and that makes reaffirming a benign, honest Celestia a priority.

I'd point out that "reaffirming Celestia as honest and benign" and "let Queen Celestia be a villain in her own right" are not mutually exclusive things. To bring up the good ol' DCAU (may the Presence rest it's soul...), nothing was more satisfying than seeing the real Superman beat the shit out of Justice Lord Superman.

[VoxAdam]

8625073

I was going to argue that Celestia seemed to be getting better treatment by the end, but I'm starting to get that by mistreated you don't just mean from an in-universe perspective. You mean mishandled as a literary character.

No, I actually do mean from an in-universe perspective, I'm not that pretentious. Although, from a purely writing standpoint, her characterisation was rather shaky as well. If she comes off somewhat better in later chapters, it will invariably be thanks to mitigating influences on Redskin, for what they were worth. I could mention to you how, for example, in the same scene during which Marcus would have shouted at Ana, he would have preceded it by telling Celestia to mind her own business and let him handle this.

Obviously, readers never saw that, and it's a fair statement to say it wasn't made "canon" by publication.

But the big one, I remind you, the final insult would have been how Queen Celestia was meant to die. You may describe Celestia as your favourite character, yet the utter ignominiousness of what was planned for her possessed self doesn't appear to affect you much. When it was precisely this, and Redskin's unwillingness to do it any differently, which greatly contributed to the eventual split in the Team.

[DarthSonic66]

8625120
How was she meant to die?

[VoxAdam]

8625150

You can find it written in my blog. Jed and Kizuna also give it a mention. The Bag of Tirek would have eaten her, spit out her bloody chunks, and used those to reform into Tirek for a boss battle. This isn't anymore gruesome or disturbing than half of what we've written for Spectrum, and that isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is that Redskin found anyone in-universe wanting to save her from such a fate laughable. And I mean literally laughable. He asked me why Luna wasn't being mocked when I wrote her as pleading to be allowed to try and save her fallen sister, like she herself had been saved in the very premiere of our pony show...

[TheIdiot]

8625150
8625159 And let us not forget that in the show most antagonists have usually been redeemed to some capacity.

[VoxAdam]

8625167, 8625150

Yes, and well, genocide is a very serious crime, far more serious than the show could ever tackle. But this is Celestia we're talking about, and she was being pupetteered by Tirek all the while. One alternative solution we'd come up with was for her to be reverted to a filly and taken to be raised anew by Prime!Sint Erklass. It's a kind of magic...

For pity's sake, Redskin was willing to redeem Weaver, a genocidal child killer who wasn't even brainwashed.

Why did he have it in for Celestia?

[TheIdiot]

8625174 I am afraid I know not, Vox.

[DarthSonic66]

8625167
8625159
Shit, I forgot about that!

And no, I certainly do NOT approve of that, and frankly that exchange you had with Redskin leaves me convinced that he isn't lying when he says he's fucked in the head I hope bringing up the Justice Lords did not give the impression that I was onboard with Redskin on that.

In fact, that sort of death would have been an insult even from the perspective of a Justice Lords/Injustice scenario, as it denies Princess Celestia the chance at proving herself Queen Celestia's moral and physical superior. After all, I said it was satisfying to watch Superman beat up Justice Lord Superman, not Darkseid.

But seriously, I don't understand how Redskin couldn't comprehend your point of view here. I can certainly see why he wouldn't agree, but to actually be so detached as to Laugh?

I seriously hope he gets help...

[VoxAdam]

8625318

Aye, and it is with this most cheerful wrap-up that I hope we shall we now enter the Christmas spirit. Although, hm, to help that along, hadn't we had all this old laundry to air again beforehand, at the last, I should have genuinely liked to hear more of what it is you felt worked about having Captain Celaeno cameo in Blueblood's dream sequence.

~Vox

[Jed R]

8625318
8625731

Feels like there’s little I can add to this conversation other than a reassurance that - for all that there are brainwashed bad guys in SPECTRUM, I promise there are some who just are that terrible, with no magic influence. You just wait until you see Sepulchre Galatea...