Stygian Goes a Little Dark
Spike strolled down the hall toward the royal kitchen, hoping that the chefs knew how to prepare gem foods for dragons. It had been several years since he had lived in the palace, and even when he had stayed there, Celestia had made most of his meals herself.
As he traveled through the extremely long corridor, he saw a small gray pony in the distance. A few seconds later, Spike came close enough to recognize the brown cloak and bowl-cut blue mane. Spike figured that since he had become Starlight's confidant and had welcomed Discord into his guys' night group, he should show the same acceptance to the newest reformed villain.
He waved at the stallion. “Hi, Stygian! Are you looking for the kitchen?”
Stygian glanced behind him, appearing confused. Then he faced Spike once more.
“Are you talking to me, Master Dragon?” he asked, stepping toward him.
“My name is Spike, and of course I'm talking to you.” He nodded at a nearby guard. “Do you see any other Stygians here, sir?”
“No, sir,” answered the guard.
“Well, there you have it.” Spike turned back to Stygian, grinning. Then he saw that Stygian was shying away from the guard's attention, flattening his ears and ducking his head.
Spike held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Hey, it's okay! The guards aren't going to do anything to you. They take their orders from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and they're some of the most forgiving ponies you'll ever meet!”
Stygian's ears perked up as a tiny smile warmed his face. “And you are a forgiving dragon, Spike.”
Spike hunched his shoulders forward. “The thing is, I kind of know how you feel.”
“You are a fire breathing dragon who can swim in hot lava without feeling the slightest discomfort.” Stygian raised an eyebrow. “And I'm a little pony with no special magical skills.”
Spike shook his head. “I'm not talking about that stuff. I mean, I know what it's like to be stuck at home while your friends travel to far off places and have exciting adventures. I know what it's like to work behind the scenes while everyone else gets all the attention. I know what it's like to feel left out.” He tapped his claws together.
“That's it exactly!” Stygian's eyes grew wide as he leaned forward. “And were you the one who brought all the Elements together, the way I did the Pillars?”
“Well, no.” Spike scratched the side of his head. “I think Celestia kind of did that. You wanna talk about somepony working behind the scenes? She's the mastermind.”
“Wait a moment.” Stygian tapped his chin. “Where were the alicorns when I was trying to spread darkness across the realm? Why did they not confront me?”
Spike shrugged with a little grunt. “Who knows? Maybe they were busy with other things. At this point I've stopped questioning every time they're gone during a big threat. Anyway, I didn't bring all the Elements together, but I've lived with Twilight practically my whole life. She hatched me from an egg with her magic.”
“Really? I did not think that was possible. Not if you want the hatchling to live long, at any rate.” Stygian looked away, rubbing his chin.
“Wow, that got a little dark.”
“I am not called Stygian for my midnight blue hair.” The unicorn pointed at his mane for emphasis. “I got this far in life by being resourceful and considering all possible outcomes, no matter how dreadful. I lost count of how many times I had to stop my team of brave, foolish heroes from rushing blindly into danger.” He stared at the floor with narrowed eyes. “And what thanks did I get for my trouble? Never any encouragement or praise, just a pat on the head. Nopony built me a statue, that's for certain.”
Spike decided that this might not be the best time to mention his statue in the Crystal Empire.
“Is it any wonder that I was so desperate to prove myself to them?” Stygian asked rhetorically. “I just knew that if I studied the things that made them great, I could become as mighty as them. But I also knew that they would never give me permission to borrow them, so I figured that it was better to beg for forgiveness.” His mouth twitched with bitterness. “That was a poor prediction, to say the least. I suppose I should have gone back and explained myself, even after they kicked me out of the group. No,” he corrected himself, “I don't suppose, I definitely should have done that.” He shook his head. “But instead, I held onto my anger and pride because they made me feel more powerful than I was.”
“I know what it's like to want to prove how great you are. Not quite like you did, but there was this one time Twilight was helping oversee a summit for the leaders of the major cities in Equestria. She was exhausted, so I told her to take a nap while I took over her royal duties.” Spike paused, silently questioning his own memory. Had it been his idea, or had Twilight fallen asleep on her own? Oh well, it wasn't that important to the story.
“At first,” continued Spike, “I really did just want to help her, and everything went well, but I got carried away and I kind of let the power go to my head. My biggest mistake was definitely telling the maintenance pony not to fix the broken water main. The noise from the repairs would've woken Twilight up from her nap, so I told the pony to wait to fix the pipe. If I put off waking Twilight, I could keep being in charge. But I made the pony wait too long and the pipe burst and flooded the castle.” Spike's shoulders slumped.
“I'm sure Princess Twilight was furious.” Stygian lowered his tail. “I know Star Swirl would have been.”
“Not as furious as the ponies attending the summit,” said Spike. “She just told me that I had to fix my mistake. It sure wasn't my proudest moment. To add insult to injury, I sneezed and accidentally broke the commemorative statue. But it was hardly my fault somepony decided to plant Dragon Sneeze Trees after I moved away from Canterlot.”
“Dragon Sneeze Trees were cultivated on the eastern coast to ward off dragons,” said Stygian with a frown. “It's almost as if they didn't want you to come back.”
“You really are dark.” Spike put his hands on his hips. “You know, you could try to word things a little nicer.”
“Nicer? I said almost! How much nicer do you want? Besides, I'm merely being realistic.”
“Maybe so, but if you're too blunt, you could hurt somepony's feelings, and that makes it harder to be friends with them. I'll bet there were plenty of times Star Swirl the Bearded said something to hurt your feelings,” said Spike, spreading his hands.
Stygian lowered his ears. “That is true. Not only Star Swirl, but also the other Pillars have said things that hurt my feelings, although I don't believe they meant to wound me.” Then he gritted his teeth. “But I cannot think of any innocuous reason for the ponies of this city to plant Dragon Sneeze Trees! They have one purpose! It's in the name!” He stomped his hoof.
“Whoa!” Spike took a step back. “Take it easy! I don't know, okay? Maybe some bureaucrat thought they looked cool. Anyway, most of them are gone, now. I think they realized it was a bad idea to plant them.”
Stygian eased his stance. “I suppose. You don't think the diarchs expected the dragons to invade Canterlot, do you? That could be a reason for putting them in the city.”
“No, our relation with the Dragonlord has never been better!” Spike cheered at the subject. “I'm the official ambassador to Dragonlands, and I helped the new Dragonlord win her title!”
Stygian angled his head away from Spike and stared out of the corners of his eyes. “It sounds to me like you did go on an adventure and receive acknowledgment for your hard work.”
“Um,” said Spike, rubbing the scales on the crown of his head, “yeah, but that wasn't until I'd been helping the Element Bearers for a few years. At least, it felt that long. And before that, my friends went on plenty of adventures without me. The Map didn't even summon me until a little while ago, and it was for a friendship problem I caused.” Spike held his hand to his chest.
“But you still earned more respect than I ever did,” pressed Stygian. “I suppose there's a reason for that, however. You never decided to punish all the creatures in the country merely because a few ponies rejected you, did you?”
“Nothing like that. But my friends never turned their backs on me the way your friends did. I may have felt like I wasn't getting enough attention sometimes, but they've never kicked me out of the group no matter how many mistakes I made.” Spike shook his head. “And I admit I can be a handful. One time I went through greed growth, which was pretty dangerous for the ponies around me. Good thing it's reversible, and I can go through regular growth now.”
Stygian's frown deepened. “Hm. Maybe we're not so much alike, young Spike.”
The dragon rested his hand on the unicorn's foreleg. “Don't worry, Stygian, you'll get your chance to be a hero. Maybe someday you'll be Stygian the Brave and Glorious. In fact, I know a roleplaying game that could give you a taste of glory.”
“Roleplaying game?” Stygian echoed, wrinkling his brow.
“Sure!” Spike beamed. “It's called Ogres and Oubliettes. There's a game master – that's me – and we create our own characters and act out a fantasy adventure, rolling dice to add a random element of surprise. I play once a week with Applejack's brother Big Mac and Discord, and sometimes Rainbow and Pinkie join us.”
Stygian held up his foreleg. “Go back a bit. Did you say Discord?”
“Yeah. I'm a little surprised he hasn't popped in yet.” Spike's stomach growled. “Before I go into that story, I'm going to need to refuel. I can tell you all about Discord while we have a snack. You've probably never had a hayburger before, have you?”
“No, but I did have coffee for the first time this morning.” Stygian's eyes lit up. “It was quite invigorating!”
Spike waved his arm. “Eh, not for me. But we can ask the kitchen staff if they have any coffee left. Come on.” Tugging on Stygian's cloak, Spike led him toward the kitchen in search of caffeine and something gem-encrusted.
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You know, now that Assassin's Creed orgins came out.. can you imagine Somnabula wearing a white hooded robe? She brings hope to her people, but despair and death to their enemies from the shadows
Princess Luna: "We never met the other Pillars, and we were too young to understand the danger they faced."
--- Shadow Play, Part 1.
8521618
So yea the Princesses didn't show because they where adolescents when the pony of Shadows Showed up, Starswil was basically their dad so I expect he forbade them from assisting and had the guards keep them in the palace.
One of the reasons would be that you did something so horribly, awfully shameful, one of your descendants decided to destroy all written knowledge just to make sure nobody knew you existed.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/3/1427537__safe_artist-colon-tonyfleecs_shadow+lock_spoiler-colon-comic_spoiler-colon-comic53_idw_somnambula+%28location%29.png
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/1/25/1347346__safe_artist-colon-tonyfleecs_shadow+lock_spike_twilight+sparkle_twilight+sparkle+%28alicorn%29_spoiler-colon-comic_spoiler-colon-comic53_adven.jpeg
The saddest part of this is that there's one Pillar who definitely could've empathized with Stygian. After all, Rockhoof spent a fair share of his life admiring those stronger than he thought he could ever be. But he had a far more optimistic outlook than Stygian, and that made all the difference.
Still, good to see the support characters spend some time together.
8521618 8521713
Pretty sure the question is what they were doing this time around. Personally, I suspect that the Pony of Shadows would've been in for a very unpleasant surprise if he'd tried to draw power from the Dreamrealm, to say nothing of all those old places of darkness getting brightened up over the intervening centuries. As Spike said, grandmistress of working behind the scenes.
8521789
I hadn't even thought of it that way, but you make an excellent point. At the heart of the problem is Stygian's lack of faith—especially in himself. He didn't trust himself to become "special" on his own. And instead of emulating what made the Pillars strong, he tried to copy their power. That's not how it works, though. Rockhoof found the strength to persevere, Stygian tried to take a shortcut.
Someone as brilliant but as neurotic as Stygian probably shouldn't be allowed anywhere near coffee. They certainly shouldn't ever be allowed to DM a play session!
Glad I'm not the only one who saw the parallels between Spike and Stygian.
8521856
*sip* You find yourself on a *sip* battlefield *sip* the orc army has noticed *sip* you. Roll for *sip* initiative. *reveals board with 600 orcs*
8523094
I don't think there is a time line problem with Clover the Clever. It's quite possible there was about 30+ years between the founding and the disappearance, giving enough time for him to have taught her post unification without having to juggle anything.
In the Journal of the Two Sisters (not as strong as cannon, but close) the sisters are appointed princesses while they were fairly young, about the same age as the main six are give or take. So there is room for them to have grow up a bit more with him there as well. Maybe Starswirl was Clover's advisors and came along with her during unification and decided to take the young princesses under his wing as they were basically thrust into leadership because they represented all three tribes.
Either way, I don't think any juggling is needed to keep everything in line.
Why the
did nopony inform the Princess about the Pony of Shadow?
8523140
Headcanon accepted!
8523174
Being the proximate cause for preventing the destruction of the multiverse, maybe. But again, they've rarely been the proximate cause for any of the events they've been credited with. Cadance, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight, Discord, Trixie, and Thorax - to say nothing of the Pillars themselves - are each more responsible for more world-savings than any of the Mane Six.
8523197
I don't see much basis for giving those side characters so much more credit than the Mane 6, with the exception of maybe Sunset Shimmer, and even then I think she should get equal credit, not more. And I suspect that you may be downplaying the threats from Discord and Starlight because you're their fan and you want to think the best of them.
8521618
8521713
As Fan of Most Everything said, they were questioning why Celestia and Luna didn't try to stop Stygian the second time around. One possibility is that they didn't want Stygian to gain access to the dream realm through Luna. Another is that they got word that the Map summoned the Mane 6, so the royal sisters figured that the Elements could handle the crisis on their own.
8521789
Wow, good point about Stygian having a lot in common with Rockhoof. It's kind of amazing how many characters could identify with Stygian on some level.
8521856
Yeah, coffee and Stygian are not the best combination, but it is amusing to think about.
8521728
Intriguing. I should read that comic sometime. Though I wouldn't have guessed that Stygian ever got the chance to have any foals, which would be required for him to have descendants. Meadowbrook and Mist Mane, sure, and probably most of the others. But Stygian seems like the youngest, and most likely not the most experienced with romance if you know what I mean. But I consider the comics to be supplemental canon where they don't directly conflict with the show's continuity. Another issue from the comics is that Star Swirl seems much nicer than in the show.
8522070
I'll be honest, I didn't make the connection until FOME and another reviewer pointed it out, but once they did I ran with the idea.
8522141
Discord: Whose idea was it to make him the DM?
Rainbow: Whose idea was it to give him coffee?!
Spike: It seemed like a good idea at the time.
8523571
Funny thing about motives. They're rarely what you speculate. Starlight began her existence as an ignorant strawman attack on left-wing politics and I've disliked her ever since. Discord I don't care about one way or another. I very much want to credit the main cast, and especially Twilight. But to do so is to get played for a sucker. It just doesn't match up with what we're shown. And frankly I'm tired of being let down.
8523140
Starswril could have actually lived in both times easily enough, we don't know how long after the Unification the princesses appeared. Also how long ponies live isn't clear, Unicorns might live for hundreds of years. When Platinum left with Clover I just assume Starswril, being the court wizard, stayed with her father the king, the majority of the populace came to Equestria after it's discovery.
8523596
He might have had a relationship, or he might have had siblings or cousins. Cattail, as far as I know, is from the line of Meadowbrook's sister. Of course, you are right about the comics being supplemental, though they did take greater care to have the newer comics be consistent with the show.
By the way, while we're on regrets and such: Somnambula and Prince Hisan were really good friends. I don't know if one could infer romantic subtext, but they were quite close. Well, Somnambula vanished when they banished the Pony of Shadows, and the prince's line doesn't seem to be around today. What happened? Was he so heartbroken over her being gone he never married at all? That would be pretty sad.
8523596
I suggest you read the comics here.
I'd love to see Stygian meet and interact with Shadowlock!
8523733
Out of curiosity, where did you hear that? IIRC Cattail calls the treehouse his ancestral home and Twilight comes to the conclusion that Cattail is Meadowbrook's descendant, but he could be an indirect descendant through Meadowbrook's sister. I could see the writers not wanting to create the Fridge Horror of forcing any of the Pillars to abandon their children. In that case, the unicorn from the comics could be Stygian's distant relative without being from his direct line.
8524646
One of the IDW comics, I believe. I would need to check. But yes, Stygian could have a line of nieces and nephews, who were so ashamed of him they desperately tried to forget/make the world forget.
8521856
And under no circustances if the Game is Paranoia.
8523151
Considering they were Starswirl's underaged students back then, is not like they couldn't have done much about that
8527857
Yeah, but why didn't Twilight let Celestia in on freeing her old mentor from Limbo, possibly along with the villain he was fighting?
After reading this and thinking about Stygian's role in things, I'm wondering if his special talent might be a knack for spotting things going wrong, things that could go wrong, and how to make things go wrong for others. From that, he would be vital in noticing threats the pillars should be dealing with, finding weaknesses of the villains or monsters to exploit, and crafting the plans so the pillars didn't get in over their heads, which is what they said his role was in the show.
From that, and his general demeanor and appearance, I would then expect him to be rather gloomy. A very "glass half empty" sort of pony, which probably would have made him a little hard to get along with or get close to.
8523703
So how does that stick up your ass feel?
i have to agree they tend to go poof
Doing their homework and eating their greens? Contrary to fanon Celestia and Luna are not multi-thousand years old. When Pillars protect Equestria they been a teenagers at best.
8656606
I think he's referring to his attempt to spread darkness after escaping Limbo.
Stygian might find a friend in Discord.