The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

The Third Act

Eight years ago...

Silence echoed through a vast, sculpted corridor, curved stone arches supporting a vaulted ceiling above a polished granite path bordered with luxurious carpet. Alcoves were filled with priceless statues of bygone monarchs and noble heroes, wall-sized paintings hung protected by velvet ropes, and magical sconces burned with cool blue flame appropriate for the dead of night. There were no windows, and the air was still.

Then, with the clicking of talons against stone, a yellow oval of torchlight swept out from a mazelike side passage, and two figures stepped out into the hall.

"Night watch is such a chore, Gaston!" whispered one burly griffon to the other, keeping his voice down as if they were the trespassers. "Nothing ever happens no matter what! You want to join me and the brothers for a game of baccarat after one more round? It's not like anyone would dare to disrespect the royal temple so much as to come here anyway, don't you think?"

"Ho! Nonsense, Leville," the second griffon whispered back, marching with his chest out and turning into a corridor just like the one he had left. "Word on the block is there's been an uptick of criminal activity ever since that meteor shower several nights ago! Why, apparently the things have landed and are being searched for and sold on the black market. I wouldn't put it past some scallywag to try something this very night! Wouldn't do to be off duty the night our jobs finally get exciting, eh wot?"

"Ohh, that's the truth, isn't it now?" Leville shuddered. "But Gaston, the sayings I've heard are that the lower-class pony folk treat them as charms of good luck. You remember Leafblower, the pegasus from the academy? I saw him at the grand library the other night. He said one fell in the backyard of his folks' place out in the country! So he gave it to his missus as a gift, and the very next day? She went and discovered her calling as an academic! Fancy that a coincidence?"

Gaston fluttered his mustache. "An upstanding pegasus. Sounds as though they're valued to everyone!"

"Imagine if we arrested a smuggler," Leville whispered, hugging himself in glee. "And kept some of their bounty for ourselves! We could get promotions! Imagine us marching together on parade, or getting huge bonuses to buy new houses and wonderful toys!"

"Toys for you, maybe," Gaston huffed. "If I got a raise, I'd take a vacation with my own missus! Perhaps a fancy cruise ship out over the sea."

"Are you sure?" Leville looked slightly uneasy. "There's always the risk of pirates."

"Cruise ships are well-defended," Gaston countered. "But perhaps you're right, old fellow. A promotion may not be in our best interests after all. I, for one, enjoy having a job where nothing very well happens all the time! Ho ho."

Leville hung his head. "Sounds like that's not in the cards, then. Pity. Speaking of cards..."

"Yes, yes, one more round, you old poolshark, you." Gaston patted him heavily on the back with a wing... when there was a tinkling sound in the distance, and a shadow swept out of sight around a corner. Both griffons perked up in alarm. "I say, who goes there!?" Gaston boomed, puffing out his chest again.

The ghostly, night-blue light from the sconces above them mixed with the warm light from their torches, causing their shadows to flicker and stretch. A gasp returned to them, and a cloaked figure peered around the corner. "Guards! Oh, thank goodness!" a mare's voice echoed, not at all trying for silence, and they both bristled and readied themselves to reach for their weapons as she bounded toward them.

"Halt!" Gaston instructed, drawing his sword. "It is far past visiting hours for the likes of you to be here, madam. Prove your good intentions at once!"

"Or we could arrest her," Leville volunteered, running his tongue around the edge of his beak in excitement.

The mare stumbled to a stop, throwing her hood off and revealing a white face, pearly striped mane and long, elegant horn. "I grew separated from my group and lost before closing time," she explained in an accent that perfectly matched Gaston's. "I didn't have a map and have been stuck here for hours! Please, good sirs, can you help me find the way out? I'd be ever so grateful."

A broad smile reached Gaston's face, and he put his sword away. "A lost admirer, you say, hmm hmm? What do you say we provide a tight escort, Leville?"

"Emphasis on tight," Leville whispered, eyes running appreciatively up and down her angular face.

The mare looked uneasy. "Sir guard, you know that's against the law..."

Leville held out his empty talons. "I'm just looking. No harm in that, miss...?"

"I'm a patron," the mare said with a note of indignation. "And if you could please skip to the punch and help me out of here..." A tense look crossed her face, and she moved her hind legs closer together beneath her cloak. "Or more urgently, help point me to a bathroom?"

"A bathroom, you say?" Leville backed down, adopting an innocent and helpful smile. "Well, of course. There's one right around the corner through here..."

Minutes later, Gaston and Leville watched the cloaked mare's backside as she trotted through a smaller, far less-ornate entry at the side of a hall. "You, Leville, are destined for trouble," Gaston said, shaking his head.

"And you're destined for missing the finer points of life," Leville countered. "Say, do you think we should have asked her to disrobe? In case she's hiding any stolen artwork or treasure under that obfuscating cloak of hers?"

"Yes, but not for the reasons you truly imply." Gaston maintained his superior stance, and settled in proudly to wait.

---

Inside the bathroom, the mare let out a long-held breath, letting her vocal chords relax. That was one pair of guards that would be suspicious when she started taking too long, but were a lot better than a pair missing or incapacitated.

Stepping inside a spacious toilet stall, she lit her horn, locking it closed with an aura of brilliant yellow. Then, ignoring the porcelain fixture at the back, she pointed her head straight downwards, and her horn flared brighter. The magic extended, hardening into a long, wire-thin blade of energy, and she moved her head in a perfect cone, guiding and slicing it through the ground.

Eventually, she had carved a plug-shaped chunk of rock that sat neatly in place, but gave perfectly the moment she lifted it with her telekinesis. Effortlessly hefting the slab, she floated it up, climbed into the depression, and dropped through to the floor below.

A well-planned silence enchantment on her hooves was all that stopped them from clattering as her enhanced mass struck stone, more than twice as heavy as a normal pony her size. Silently thanking her magic, she floated the ceiling back down into place. Her cut was perfect enough that any but the shrewdest inspector wouldn't be able to tell where she had gone.

Teleporting would have been easier, of course. But the underground castle was heavily enchanted against certain spells, strong enough that even she couldn't break it without a significant disturbance, and she didn't want her guest to know she was coming.

The white mare straightened up in another bathroom, exactly as her mental layout said she would. This was far past the point where she could feign innocence with a bit of pleading and some good voice work. If any guards caught her on this level, she would have to do work to get them off her tail.

The next corridor was empty, and the one after that. Now that she was far enough down, the architecture gave up on vast vaulted ceilings, trading them for ornamental pillars and artwork carved directly into the bedrock. They provided ample cover, and several times she was able to press her black-shrouded body against one to avoid detection by passing guards. Wait at an intersection, turn left, descend a staircase nobody had thought to seal. Slip around another corner... a locked door no one was attending. It was definitely being watched from the shadows.

Hiding around a pillar built into the wall, she shrugged her cloak off. She wore another beneath it, just in case. This would take a careful guess... She surrounded both herself and the discarded cloak with her aura, floating it like a pony was inside, redid her hood, and stepped out herself in front of the door, leaving the dummy back where she had been hiding.

"Hello, intruder," a menacing griffon's voice whispered far behind her, as she walked to the door. She felt a tug at her telekinesis as the cloak was ripped by a sharp talon, heard a confused grunt as the griffon realized he fell for the wrong bait, and in a flash inserted her horn into the unicorn-only lock, performing the key spell. The door slid open, and she ducked through and closed it before the guard could stop her, locked out by his own security system.

Now the torches were red, and the architecture changed once again, dark and foreboding. The white mare shook her head, but then again, millennia-old immortals could be forgiven for being eccentric with style. The only guards she passed were ornately-robed acolytes who walked with their eyes closed, more ponies than griffons, and none detected her as she marched through the low-ceilinged corridors. She finally reached a broad room with one wall missing, in its place the top of a grand staircase more than two roadways in width. She was almost there.

No one disturbed her on the lengthy climb down, and the final antechamber at the base was likewise deserted. Glancing around one more time, the mare removed the rest of her cloaks, then released the shrinking spell she had cast on herself, allowing her body to return to its full size. Disguises would be pointless here.

Readying herself, she re-affixed her regalia from a saddlebag, cast that aside too, and trotted gracefully through the final arch.

"Well, well, well," a voice like distant thunder rumbled as she stepped out onto a bridge of crystal, fountains casting shapes of enchanted water into a moat around a gigantic central island. "Look what the cat dragged in. I wondered if you'd be showing your head around here some day, Sunbutt."

"Hello to you, too, old friend," Princess Celestia replied, mane blowing in the wind generated by the titanic voice.

"Don't you 'old friend' me, Sunbutt," the chamber's other creature rumbled, stopping her booming. Two slitted yellow skylights opened in the distance, and with the sound of gigantic snapping claws, a forest of one thousand torches came alight, revealing a curved throne resting on crystal spurs over the abyss, taking up a quarter of the space around the central platform. On it lounged a pony so big, she would have had to crouch to fit in the grand ballroom of Canterlot Castle, with pegasus wings and paws for hooves and a smile composed entirely of sharp, jagged teeth. "But let's hear it from you. What have you got for me this time?"

Celestia was entirely undaunted by the massive sphinx's show of splendor. "Surely you've noticed the cosmological event that unfolded in the past week, Garsheeva. I assumed you had guessed the cause, and would want to discuss it with me immediately."

Garsheeva looked unimpressed. "That's it? You're not here with the present I've only wanted for two thousand years?" She glanced at her titanic flank. "Awwwww, that's too bad, Sunbutt. Maybe I should just shrug and send you on your way. You didn't hurt my guards, did you?"

Celestia frowned, taken aback. "Of course I didn't hurt them. And you know just as well as I do why I cannot and will not retrieve your birthright power for you. Do not forget that I forsook mine as well in solidarity."

"Hah hah hah hah hah..." Garsheeva's voice briefly echoed again, her teeth moving like mountain ranges as she made a lipless show of laughing. "Only a thousand years later, and only when little Luna played with things we all agreed we'd never touch again. I never even got to touch mine..." Her feline lip curled in disappointment.

"Yet you seem to be doing very well for yourself," Celestia replied, stiffly holding her composure. "And my sister is exactly what I am here to talk about."

"Really." Garsheeva inspected one of her claws, looking unamused. "I figured that stuff was her. 'Moon glass', they're calling it. Scooping it up and selling it for money already. It sure would be unfortunate if it turned out to be dangerous. A threat from one nation, entering another, after we both agreed to go our separate ways... It almost makes me wonder why you waited a whole week to come tell me about it. Don't you care about your old friends?" She gave Celestia a sad kitten expression.

"I do," Celestia insisted. "And I came as quickly as I could. You must realize the vast distance between my nation and yours. My only stops beforehoof were to entrust samples to my top researchers and to pay my sister a visit on the moon."

Garsheeva's playful demeanor vanished into intense curiosity. "Now that's interesting, because you told me we couldn't go back to the moon."

"Up until now," Celestia sighed. "The thousand-year barrier I sealed access from the moon with still holds, and will not break for twenty-three more years. However, the barrier she put up in return has vanished without a trace. I detected Nightmare Moon's magic at work in this black material, but when I indulged the hope that I could confirm it, nothing stopped me from using the old transporter. I visited the moon."

Garsheeva mimed putting on a pair of glasses. "And how do you feel about that?"

Celestia hung her head. "She was... exactly the way I had left her. Driven out of her mind by jealousy and the specter she allows to empower her. We did not fight. She did not tell me anything of interest. But her surroundings..." She shuddered, her composure finally breaking. "She had built herself a house, much like our foalhood one. And she had a garden of sunflowers. Sunflowers, Garsheeva. My flower. And on her table was a note, in her own horn, that said she missed me. If she has had bouts of lucidity as well as insanity during her exile..."

A giant feather reached out and wiped her eyes, the sphinx on the throne lazily flexing her wing. "Sounds difficult. It's almost like us immortals get lonely when left alone."

"Thank you for your concern," Celestia replied.

Garsheeva grinned. "It's such a pity you can't return the favor, Sunbutt."

"Yes," Celestia said stiffly. "It is."

"So, about this moon glass..." Garsheeva went back to counting her claws. "Nightmare Moon, evil magic, blah blah blah... How bad of a plague has your wayward sister unleashed on my empire, Sunbutt? Be honest, now. If you wanted to stop being frenemies, there's a much easier way."

"I did not wait to find out," Celestia answered. "I do not even know for sure if it is truly of her, or what the purpose of such a spell would be. It seems to have bombarded the whole world equally with this material. But the primary purpose of my visit is not to instruct you, but remind you that the world may once again soon be changing."

"That 'every thousand years' nonsense?" Garsheeva looked disinterested. "You know the only reason it happened last time was your fault, and the only reason it's happening this time is because you used a spell to release her a thousand years after she was sealed? This is your problem to clean up. Varsidel's having rumblings and Yakyakistan just got their war out of the way, but I run a stable country and don't leave my enemies around to return looking for vengeance. Figure something out."

Celestia sighed and hung her head. "So be it. I only wanted to tell you that we may have access to the moon once again, and thought you might be concerned as to the fate of another friend."

"There's another thing I'd much rather have access to..."

"I am sorry." Celestia turned away. "We've learned the dangers of tampering with that magic. And if you would like to see more of me, I recommend not filling every word of every conversation with requests for the one thing I cannot give you."

Garsheeva blew a kiss with her paw. "Oh well. That was a short meeting. Love you too, Sunbutt. But before you go... care for a warning from me, in return?"

Celestia's ears rotated backward.

"Now not that this is a threat, or that I'd ever try to pressure you into getting my birthright power back..." Garsheeva suddenly looked insufferably smug. "But a little birdie told me that in that war of theirs a few decades back, Yakyakistan just might have lost those very important things you asked them to guard. A little birdie called one of them showing up unattended in my empire."

Celestia drew a sharp gasp. "What...!?"

"Oh, just passing on a warning." Garsheeva drummed her claws against the throne, looking disinterested. "After all, we both know how bad it would be if this magic got out and about or tampered with."

"These are not toys!" Celestia bristled. "What do you know of this? Speak!"

"Ooh, there's that Royal Canterlot Voice I love so much." Garsheeva smiled benevolently. "Just that a certain thing you like to call the Spark was wandering around my lands not so long ago. You need that for your plan to save Luna with the Elements of Harmony, don't you?"

"Garsheeva..." Celestia dropped into a crouch.

The giant sphinx shook her head. "Not so funny when your own toys go missing, is it, Sunbutt? I had nothing to do with this. Just passing along a warning. And don't go to Yakyakistan about this, or you'll throw their fragile new government into chaos. But if I were you?" Her jagged teeth flashed again. "A favor for a favor. Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."

Celestia fidgeted for several minutes... and hung her head and sighed. "I shall send one pony to search for it. One. Pony. And they will be cut off from Equestria and receive no aid until they succeed, to prevent our foes of old from following the connection back to us. And it may take me several years to find a suitable candidate."

Garsheeva broadly smiled. "Well, that's the first thing better than a no I've heard in two thousand years. Looks like fairness is finally getting through to you, Sunbutt!" She winked a giant eye. "That merits, I think... I'll pull some strings and try to send the Spark your way, and let you know if I hear anything more about Yakyakistan. But you'll have to come here to hear it."

"I cannot do more!" Celestia snapped. "At this of all times especially, when we must prepare the world for assault by-"

"Nightmare Moon? Sounds like your problem to me." Garsheeva folded her hooves. "Literally. I'll see what I can do. Sure would be easier if I could see the future..." She stretched, then yawned a feline yawn. "See you around, Sunbutt. And just tell a guard who you are and take the easy way out."

"Love you, too, Garsheeva," Celestia muttered, departing in a huff.

Comments

[Frodo]

A lot of interesting stuff here.

If Starlight is the Spark that they're referring to, how was Yakyakistan guarding her? Is she following the Spark in some way, but not actually related to it?

Garsheeva and Celestia both have ominous-sounding birthrights... but what of Luna?

Even Celestia doesn't know the exact purpose of the moon glass. Possibly fragments of the Nightmare Moon's barrier around the moon... or perhaps something far more sinister.

[Sypher]

I’m guessing Kero’s package is related to Garsheeva’s birthright.

Is Starlight the one pony--selected by Celestia without even realizing it--or is there another Equestrian somewhere in the North (ooh, maybe Cadance!)?

Foes of old... Nightmare Moon supporters, or changelings?

Also, I don’t recall The Spark having a physical form during the season 1 premiere, so I’m curious what exactly is being transported.

Finally, how the heck does Starlight know what’s happening in this conversation enough to narrate it?

[alamais]

9005903

If Starlight is the Spark

...wut? This is eight years ago, just after the moon glass fell. Makes no sense. I think there's implication here that the Elements weren't just left rotting in the old castle, but given to the Yaks for safekeeping for some reason, and that there originally was a physical form for the sixth element. Maybe.

As for their birthright powers, that remark at the end makes it seem that Garsheeva's was some form of foresight/clairvoyance.

It's interesting, the comment about Luna, "the specter she allows to empower her", that makes her 'infection' with NMM sound kinda similar to how ponies are with the 'spirits' inside the moonglass. Very interesting when taken with the fact that batpones—usually linked to Luna and/or NMM—seem to be something like changelings 'possessed' by a cutie mark, either one their born with or a moonglass spirit.

Overall, I gotta wonder if there were preexisting agents of NMM in place somehow when the moon glass fell, or else people who got strongly taken over by moonglass spirits almost as soon as the glass fell and weren't like Valey, but had existing personalities and plans. Maybe Navarre is one such malignant spirit. Given the hints earlier, I would potentially pin one of those as the person behind the whole get-mares-preggers-then-giv-moonglass thing—if cases like White Chocolate are indeed indicative of the foal taking on the moonglass spirit.

9007304

Is Starlight the one pony--selected by Celestia without even realizing it--or is there another Equestrian somewhere in the North (ooh, maybe Cadance!)?

Foes of old... Nightmare Moon supporters, or changelings?

Now, I may be wildly offtrack here, but I'm seeing a different possibility. This is in response to the "favor for a favor" remark, and if Garsheeva wanted something up north (she only seems to want her birthright power, but maybe there's something else) then why wouldn't she go after it herself or send her own agents, given that she's closer? I'm pretty skeptical that this is Tia agreeing to send someone up north.

Sooo...what I'm pondering is, the timeline could conceivably match up for this one pony—sent somewhere cut off from all all Equestrian contact and aid so that old foes won't follow her back—to be Sunset Shimmer, being sent to the EqGverse to search for whatever it is Garsheeva wants. That could make the 'old foes' the Sirens, or perhaps something original that was also sent to Starswirl's EqGverse trashbin.

[Frodo]

9007552

This is eight years ago

Garsheeva's was some form of foresight/clairvoyance

You said it yourself. Time doesn't matter as much when there's weird future powers involved. I think you'd be remiss to take too much of this conversation at face value.

That said, if Starlight isn't related to the Spark... that opens up some interesting possibilities. I like your suggestion about Sunset Shimmer being involved... she's one of the more likely candidates for being the Spark, if it's not Starlight.

[Sypher]

9007552
I really like your idea of Sunset being the one pony, but that would go against the idea of Kero’s package being related to Garsheeva’s birthright. Whatever her birthright is, it seems to be related to cutiemarks, as is obsidian (though that means that somehow after two thousand years her power was embedded into this eight year old piece of moon glass, so who knows):

"That's it? You're not here with the present I've only wanted for two thousand years?" She glanced at her titanic flank.

[alamais]

9007717
That is something that I find a bit confusing—they seem to be talking about something like removing cutie marks, but Tia and Lulu do have marks, and they both seem to be unfamiliar with the exact nature or creator of the moonglass at this point, so...eh?

9007560

[Boopers]

I shall send one pony to search for it. One. Pony.

Huh, lemme guess. A pegasus, adult, totally evil-looking red and black mane and a sinister goatee?

[Quinch]

....and she didn't want her guest to know she was coming.

Guest or host?

[Venlinelle]

Hmm. I have less than no idea what’s going on here.

It sounds like Celestia entrusted multiple somethings to the yaks to guard, which I assume has to be the Elements, but that raises the question of how they ended up back in Equestria in time for Luna’s return.

Then Garsheeva mentions the “Spark,” which, unless I misremember, was the term for the sixth Element. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense, given that the Spark would then be Twilight Sparkle, who was not wandering around north of Equestria when she was four years old. So I don’t know what’s going on there.

And Garsheeva wants… something, something related both to her birthright and possibly to a cutie mark, which Celestia promises to send one pony to look for. My initial reaction would be that this is Starlight, and that she was somehow manipulated into going north, which would not be remotely outside the bounds of what Celestia is known for doing with her subjects. A couple others in the comments have proposed Howe or Sunset, but Howe seems to only care about the windigo hearts (and, I pray, to no longer be involved in this story), and Sunset’s involvement would have to have been created entirely from scratch, so I couldn’t guess that.

Hmmmm.

EDIT: Fun fact! I've now read this entire story, and I still don't know what was going on here.

[Venlinelle]

I’m back to interrogate you on my reread again!

Even on a second read, this is odd. Obviously we know now that Garsheeva wanted her societal virtue/birthright power/whatever you want to call her equivalent to the Immortal Dream, but I’m less clear on the comment about the Spark wandering the Empire. Should I know what or who is being referred to there? And, for that matter, do we ever get confirmation on which pony Celestia is referring to? Because if it’s Starlight, it seems odd for her to have chosen Starlight for that task (given what she is), and if it’s somepony else (like that one Equestrian we meet briefly later) it seems odd that they didn’t do much. As usual, though, it’s possible that all of this is explained and I missed and/or forgot it.

You can ignore this if you like; I’m just having a lot of fun seeing all the foreshadowing as I go and get excited when I see things that may still refer to unknowns.

[Czar_Yoshi]

11822377
It's technically possible to piece together what they're talking about solely from things that have happened in TOW, but it would require random bits of seemingly irrelevant and unrelated info from half a dozen places throughout every corner of the story, and I haven't seen anyone yet who's actually managed to do it. If anyone does manage it, I'll tip my hat to them big-time, because it would sound like the biggest crack theory of all time.