Garken sighed as the rubble fell around him. The destruction of the Spire had been disappointing, though not terribly surprising.
“You really are just a shell of your former self, aren’t you?”
“I believe the human expression is ‘pot calling the kettle black’,” he replied, turning to face the glowing, insubstantial form of Karasa. “I’m surprised you’re still here.”
“I have always been here. ...At least since I died,” she snarked back, grinning up at him. “On the upside, I’m myself again. Thank you for that.”
“I barely noticed a difference.”
She burst into laughter at that, covering her mouth partly with the back of her hand. “You always know how to make a girl feel special, my love! Come now, let’s not bicker… without the program clouding my senses I can say a proper goodbye… because without the crystals sustaining me I need to move on.”
He shook his head, though a smile teased the edges of his lips. “I said my goodbyes decades ago. Such sentiment-”
“-Was never necessary for us, which is why I don’t offer it.” Still grinning, so like the daughter he’d neglected...
It was Keia that was like her of course… and I couldn’t bear it… sentiment indeed…
Karasa produced, from inside her glowing form-
“It’s disturbing watching you reach inside your own chest like that.”
“You want to do it? One last groping for old time’s sake?”
Garken rolled his eyes, but then looked back as her hand came out holding a record disc. The crystalline disc was smaller than a tea saucer, but could’ve held-
“The Archives. I believe you wanted to scour the Clades for these records? This disc holds them all, and I marked a particular file of interest for you. Of course you’ll need the computer from another Spire to peruse it. Hmm… I do hope Twilight Sparkle had better luck than you did here. Though I imagine she did. Quite capable, that one.”
Garken goggled at the precious item. “How…?”
She smiled softly, a smile he only remembered from their wedding day… and the day Keia was born. “I told you… I have always been here.”
He managed to catch the disc before she faded from his sight.
------------------------------------------
Nearby, Sunset and the others watched from their safe distance as the Spire came down. The layers of magical shielding they’d conjured had proven unnecessary as the tower had more crumpled on itself and collapsed than actually exploded.
Sunset smirked. “Three out of ten. Burning Bay would be so disappointed.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
“Movie director back ho-... heh, back home,” Sunset replied.
“Ahh,” Celestia replied, smiling. Without changing expression, she wrapped a wing around Sunset.
Who blushed at the sudden contact. “Uh, hi?”
“Nothing particular, dear. It’s just… very good to see you, and doing so well at that. We must catch up sometime soon.”
“Uh… yeah. Yeah, I’d like that. ...You’re sure you’re okay though? You feel a bit… different. Not bad different, but…”
Celestia shrugged lightly. “I believe you, better than most, could understand this. Put simply… I recently discovered that a burden I’d carried most of my life didn’t have to weigh me down quite the way it seemed. It’s still my burden, but if I can rely on others, just a little… it’s not nearly so heavy. I can be… more me... than I once thought possible.”
Sunset smiled. “You’re right… I do know exactly what that’s like. After Twilight helped me see what a… monster I’d become, even before the whole she-demon thing,” Sunset made air quotes around she-demon, though with hooves the effect wasn’t quite the same as she’d gotten used to. “...Well, I thought I had to keep my temper and aggression completely clamped down, you know? Or else I might go back down that road. But… that’s not it at all. I can still be me, a better me… the real me, not the twisted up, bitter me I’d become. Because I’m not alone… and there’s no way they’d let me go down that road again.”
Celestia tightened her hug around her former student. “I couldn’t have said it better, my friend.”
“We won’t go back with you!” Celestia and Sunset turned to the new voice, yelling not far off.
It belonged to a young changeling, who was facing off, despite clear fright, with Raven. All around them were the other changelings who’d been freed, alongside Thorax who’d been checking on the ones who’d not handled the captivity as well. Raven, who’d retaken her pony form shortly after the mass teleport removed them all from the Spire, stared down the younger being with narrowed eyes.
“Little nymph, I have no interest-”
“You said you wanted Mr. Thorax to get tortured! You want to hurt us, to make us all mean again like before! Well we won’t go back with-” She stopped as Raven’s aura clamped her mouth shut.
“...If I wanted to be your queen again, why would I resume this form?! Now SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” she shouted in an impressive rendition of the Royal Canterlot Voice.
The nymph quailed, but didn’t look away.
Raven noticed, and smiled… though it wasn’t the nicest smile. “Stronger than you look then. Good. Maybe that hoofpaint fever dream isn’t a complete waste of love after all. What’s your name, little one?” As she asked the aura disappeared from the nymph’s muzzle.
“...Ocellus.”
“A good name. And I am Raven Inkwell. I am not Queen Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis was abandoned by her hive because she failed to lead them to the glory she promised. Queen Chrysalis may well bear a grudge against King Thorax, for reasons which should be obvious even to a nymph. But that does not mean she, or Raven, who is me, bear the rest of you ill-will.” She broke off with a grimace, muttering, “Or anyway not much…”
“With all due respect, ma’am, young Ocellus is right to be worried. I take full responsibility for failing to stop the ambush that got us here, but-”
“And you are?” Raven asked with a raised eyebrow at the newcomer. Though he was colored like his brethren (like ponies if ponies were also dragonflies or something...), his palette was darker, more subdued than most. Raven admitted, internally, that it didn't look awful.
“Pharynx, ma’am. And may I say, I really didn’t mind the old ways all that much. But… that was before you took it too far. Hiding in the shadows, stalking ponies, replacing them! Tricking them! Sometimes getting caught, running for your life! Ahh, that was living!”
Raven was smirking.
“But… even before you took it too far and tried to take over everything… it wasn’t for everyling. Some had it really tough, and I used to think that was okay. But we could do better… Thorax showed us that. Now I stalk bigger monsters, and bad guys, heck sometimes for ponies even! So much more variety. And others, like Ocellus here, have a chance to do whatever they want. They don’t have to risk their lives, or pretend to be somepony just to get a meal.” He shook his head. “And even if we’d taken over… it wouldn’t have lasted. Ponies ruled by us… well even if they stayed subjugated… they’d love less, and resent more. That’s just less food in the long run, ma’am. Best case, we’d be no better off than we were before. Worst case, we’d be worse for being exposed.”
Raven’s smirk had fallen off. “Are you done?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!”
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Right. Now’s the part where I remind you that, despite knowing about all of you, thanks to being Celestia’s aide, I’ve done nothing to pursue any sort of vengeance or re-acquisition.”
“You could be biding your time-”
“But I’m not. What, exactly, would I do with all of you now?” She smiled, a genuine smile. “You’ve all grown up… surpassed me in finding a way to adapt to the world you inherited by your own hooves. Any grudge I may feel is nothing compared to that. My place is in Canterlot now… specifically rebuilding it… and finding my stash of Zebrican tea which better still be intact or I’m bucking Kirin in the crotch. As to all of you.. I forgive you, and I want nothing but the best future for all of you.”
She stopped then, and stared down Thorax. “...Except you.”
...Who chuckled nervously. “Eh, I think we’ll take it.”
------------------------------------------
Twilight and Telena, surrounded by the oni-koru of the Spire who hadn’t already run, stared daggers at Trixie Lulamoon. Said showmare’s innocent grin would not have fooled a foal, and she was further condemned by the similar looks she was getting from Evening Calm and Starlight Glimmer, the latter of whom held her in a telekinetic grip that persisted through the teleport that had gotten the three of them away from the chain reaction that had destroyed the Spire.
“On the upside, Trixie succeeded in destroying the corrupted aetheryte!”
“On the downside, you also destroyed everything else!”
“Not everything! Look, Sparkle saved one of the big computer things. Plus all the oni-koru who were trying to take over Equestria are still here. Yay, us.”
Twilight sighed, though it sounded closer to her trademark groan of frustration. “They’ve switched sides, Trixie… sometimes I wonder whether you have.”
“Please, Trixie is always on her own side. It aligns with yours… mostly.”
“...Right. Telena, did I get enough of this to work with?”
The petite oni engineer nodded speculatively, looking over the large terminal Twilight had brought with them in their hasty escape. “Think so… but we’ll need a power source now. This terminal can still access records for the Clades and the other Spires, as well as most of our technical manuals and blueprints, but not if we can’t turn it back on.”
“We’ll worry about that later. Luna, are we ready to head… oh my gosh, is that lady alright?!”
“I am fine, Princess Twilight…” Ferrana replied, standing slowly while leaning on Luna, both of whom had appeared not far away during the evacuation.
Luna nodded, smiling reassuringly. “She will require medical attention when we are back in Ponyville, but she is in no immediate danger.”
“If you say so. Speaking of, we should head back. Are all the onis here okay with congregating there?”
Telena raised an eyebrow. “I don’t mind, and I want to find a way to get this terminal up and running again, along with any other salvage we can get. This Spire may be a lost cause,” with this her eye twitched and she glared sidelong at Trixie while Ferrana did the same. “But building something new from what we can find sounds even more exciting! ...You really trust all of us in your home?”
After seeming to consider it a moment, Twilight shrugged. “‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’, that’s what Clover the Clever once said. Better to have you all where the ones who want to build something can keep an eye on the ones still harboring grudges.”
“And the ones genuinely still loyal to Kirin, grudges aside?” The eldest looking amongst the oni asked, the one who’d once argued with Telena about changing sides.
Twilight snorted. “They definitely need the sharpest eye kept on them… they’re clearly crazy.”
He considered that for a brief moment, before chuckling and nodding. “To Ponyville, then.”
------------------------------------------
Aiden led the group of oni-koru alongside Vos, as they headed towards the control room. “You’re kidding…” the former muttered to the latter.
“I am not. The primary function of this Spire is to build mechs. I’m sure you remember them from the war on Earth.
Aiden did. They were fairly rare, since most oni preferred more direct forms of warfare. That said, mechs and their pilots had been a definite threat, often a larger one in terms of area of effect and how many Espers and ‘normal’ soldiers were required to take one down. “I’m just surprised… given how little Kirin values your lives I didn’t think he’d let you waste dwindling resources on mechs to keep you safer in combat.”
“...Assuming I agreed with your assessment, I would suggest that our King values the effectiveness they offer, particularly in ablative shielding against magical effects from all but the strongest of sources.”
“Fair enough…” As the massive doors into the Spire’s control room opened, Aiden felt a twitch in the aether, and put up a hand to catch the fist that’d been headed for his face. “Hi…”
Rarity was at his side in an instant, breaking away from where she’d been quietly talking with Pinkie. Joyeuse hovered inches from the attacker’s face, humming quietly.
Said attacker, a young oni-koru in a dirty jumpsuit, stared menacingly at Aiden, who still held the offending fist almost negligently. “My father died in Seattle…”
Aiden raised an eyebrow. “Same.”
“And you killed him.”
“Probably?”
The oni snorted, withdrawing his fist, which Aiden released. “I told myself if I ever met you, I would punch you in the face. I didn’t expect it to go well.”
Aiden shrugged. “It wasn’t a good day in general. For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry about your father. Not sorry for defending my world… but sorry any of us met that way.”
The oni smirked. He was a head taller than Aiden, though not especially tall by oni standards. He had messy, red and white hair that nearly obscured two small horns that stuck up from his forehead, and pointed ears that were similarly obscured. His eyes, the common red and yellow of his people, flicked around as he took in the crowd behind Aiden, as well as the glowing, floating rapier still inches from his face. He grinned sheepishly, showing off small fangs. “I won’t attack again, Miss Unicorn.”
“Rarity…”
“Rarity, then. I said I’d punch him, told myself, promised… but that’s as much as I could do… after digging in and finding out certain troubling facts. I’m Kelvien Lureia, head of the Mech Corps and technical lead of this Spire, though Vos and Maegren outrank me… just Vos now I guess. Tragic loss to the art work, let me tell ya.”
Vos snorted. “Some respect for the fallen, Commander Lureia.”
“Yes, sir.” He replied with no conviction before looking back to Aiden. “Come take a look; I have some things you’ll want to see. And since Maegren’s no longer breathing over my shoulder… I can show everyone.”
“Show us what?” Aiden asked, falling into step behind him as they approached the computer terminal he’d apparently been working at.
“...Well, like you said, your father died in Seattle,” Kelvien sat down, bringing up a minimized file as he did so. “Ever wonder why?”
“...What do you mean?” Aiden looked up at the screen, his eyes attempting to decipher any of what they saw. Unfortunately the translation spell was apparently not up to it.
“When your people came here to help against our first invasion, 1500 years ago… did they die en masse from our tech’s aether emanations?” Kelvien asked, before clacking a few more keys and causing the file to restructure itself. Rarity gasped.
Aiden looked at the now legible file. It was clearly a table of contents of some sort, detailing file headings on… “No, they..." he started, before focusing on what he was reading, "'Advancements to oni technology since the defeat at Equus'…”
“Aye. Been putting it together myself for years. Some things from the archives, some pieced together from records our various kings… I guess just Kirin… didn’t quite erase as thoroughly as they thought, journals and reports, technical readouts, so on...”
“I thought oni-koru tech hadn’t advanced since then.”
“Correct. It hasn’t advanced as in ‘gotten better’, not really. But… each of our conquests of some other world… they were directed. See, our kings sold it as ‘finding challenges’, continuing to serve the old masters by destroying unworthy civilizations, so on and so forth," he continued, waving a hand about dismissively. "But… each one had something our kings would keep. Trophies are nothing mysterious, but Kirin… well he had more in mind than we knew. Easy to trick people when all you have to do is wait a couple generations while subtly manipulating how they think. Every time he almost got caught he could back off and play the long game, so no king was ever ousted for going against the will of the people, or however you want to put it. I say we’re doing pretty well not to be complete monsters by now, since it’s what he wanted. ...Guess it depends who you ask though.”
“I’m guessing… he changed your tech over the years… to make it dangerous to humans? But that’s-”
“He wanted to be sure it’d be a slaughter when we finally found Earth. We’ve destroyed plenty of worlds over the centuries, but none with that many people or that much diversity. To be honest, any guilt over being manipulated aside, I could even agree with a lot of the ones we took down. Not all, but... well they were worse than we are. ...I guess I can’t be sure about that, but if various journals and the like can be trusted. But Earth? He wanted more death and despair than we’d normally go in for. We like a good fight, but billions of people, mostly civilians with no magic to really fight back? Bo-ring… and pathetic on our part. Garken Caedum argued vehemently against it, but eventually I think it was the danger of stronger Espers that made Briareus... Kirin... agree to fight it Garken's way, even if it meant losing. At least at first.”
“Oni don’t believe in weapons of mass destruction… that’s why the Spires were a last resort,” Rarity muttered.
Kelvien nodded. “And one we really didn’t want to use. As you can see here, the Spires aren’t really designed for that at all, or rather they have a variable design and that’s just about the worst one. But there were plenty of us who were, how do humans put it… ‘drinking the koolaid’ and went ahead and agreed with him. Especially since he sold the whole ‘our tech kills them’ as proof humans were some kind of abomination that needed to be culled. Never mind he'd set that up in advance right under our noses”
Aiden snorted. “Except it didn't kill Espers.”
“Yep, magic users we could fight would survive… and that also had appeal. He sold us that too, when it suited him to get us to use the Spires. He played us.”
“Except you, it seems. You didn’t put this together just now, I assume?” Rarity asked.
“I started after Seattle, actually, but I was never the only one who opposed his line of thinking, like I said. Hell, it was practically tradition that our king held one line of thinking while our army held another, and that they were to balance each other for the sake of the betterment of oni-kind."
Rarity nodded. "Remember Aiden, we talked about that, based on what humans knew of them, back on Earth." She frowned slightly. "I wonder how Vera and the others are doing..."
Kelvien had nodded approval, then shrugged. "We might be able to help you find out when this is all over, but as I was saying... Most of the king’s biggest detractors tended to die in battle, usually suspiciously, and moreso in the last couple centuries. Or at least it was suspicious to me once I'd put it all together.” He shook his head. “I don’t know that I uncovered more than any of those others though, and even I didn’t uncover that all our kings were just one immortal in disguise… I guess I got lucky to even still be here.”
“Best not to waste it then,” Aiden said with a nod. He held out his hand. “More eyes on this information will probably help, so I’d like to take it with us. I’d like you, and the others here as well, if they’ve heard enough to make up their minds. Because it sounds to me like Kirin killed both our fathers… and I think we both owe him a punch in the face for it.”
Kelvien grinned, and took the Esper’s hand. The opening door Mark began to glow as they shook. “At the very least.”
Nice chapter!
Wooot. Nice to see you back.
Welcome back!
I declare that anyone who can post a summary of what's happening and why will gain a lot of appreciation from readers!
*looks around*
Anyone?
That Trixie sound like Mick Rory (Heat Wave).
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That is what a TVTropes page is for. Someone around here should make one. Not me, though. I just got here, which means that I have the first fic to read before starting this one.
Sweet, I missed this. I forgot how much I liked your take on Chrysalis.
Have the Pillars not shown up yet? Tempest is here, so Shadow Play should have already happened.
Yey update!
Glad to see you back!
I really do love your takes on the celestial sisters and Chryssie. And I'm glad to see her get to actually talk to her former subjects.
Your Trixie really sometimes seems to get shades of the Looper Trixie. Blow it all up!
Also, I am glad Garken got this final moment with his wife's spirit. That info she saved, the mainframe Twilight swiped, and the fabrication facility in Vos's spire may well be a massive change for everyone involved.
A general 'thank you!' to all the positive responses, and to address a couple in particular:
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I could probably do a synopsis chapter to be released alongside the next one, though if you have specific questions feel free to ask.
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Her sections have absolutely been a blast to write. I never realized how much I could enjoy the 'sorta reformed' snarky, 'former' villain. As to the Pillars... actually a few chapters ago Twilight made a sort of side comment about how meeting Starswirl hadn't been her favorite experience (directly referencing Shadow Play, you are correct). When and if any of them will make an appearance I of course won't say, but the possibility is there.
*snrk* Thorax shows his wisdom. Chrysalis hating only his guys is a small price to pay for such huge growth on her part.
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Oh, a synopsis would be much appreciated (if you don't mind of course).
Synopsis and next chapter will be up next week... possibly this weekend but that'll depend on work stuff and whether or not this flu keeps trying to murder me. It will not succeed... but the battle is distracting.
Edit: And then this whole corona thing happened. It has effected work a fair bit BUT... writing still progresses.
It WILL be up this week, 3/20 at the latest.On a related note, take care out there, wash your hands and such. This isn't as scary as some folks are making it out to be, but respect the risk to yourself and those around you.Edit/Update 2: Hey I don't have enough followers to really justify blogging about this. Work continues on this, it's just slow. Coronavirus is what I'm blaming, not that I have it... but I do stock shelves in a grocery store. Luckily I'm not a department head so I can get out when my shift ends, meaning no contact with customers, so lower odds of catching it and no odds of being yelled at because we get cleaned out every day by panic shoppers. That said, we are busting our asses stocking and sanitizing the place so when I get home I'm tired and don't have the energy to really write, especially coming up on what is the lead in to the final arc of this story (probably... no spoilers!). Synopsis is about done, but I don't really want to post it without a chapter that actually continues the story since then it's basically filler and I'm not a fan of that. I should have something up on Monday, but at this point promising anything other than 'it will continue, no hiatus, etc' is a bit too ambitious.
Once again, stay safe, be kind to one another (even if at a distance), and stay strong. Respecting a threat is healthy, panicking over it isn't. Check facts, don't just listen to the media blindly, and I'll see you soon with an actual update, dammit...
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hey dude just take your time. This pandemic is hard on everyone, so no need to push yourself too much. Just take some me time if you need it. There is no problem with that. Hope you stay healthy
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I appreciate that, thank you! While I'm still working (essential worker... yay), my contact with the public and my risk in general is minimal. That said, the whole thing is taking its toll in terms of stress so yeah, writing has been slow. I say slow, and it has been, but as has been pointed out to me (and I've noticed myself) many stories here go much longer between updates. I don't like being that writer but when you're not motivated you won't produce good work anyway so... yeah.
This story will never go on hiatus, and as it stands I intend to have the next chapter up by Mid May. But that's a tentative plan and we'll see how it goes.
Thank you again for reading and commenting. Stay safe out there, to you and everyone.
Quick update: I'm alive and well, physically. With everything going on I've not been in the right headspace to post on this, but I'm still not putting it on hiatus or whatnot.
To current events, I'll not speak much. More well known voices in this community have had their says on the matter and frankly I'm too tired to follow suit. Put shortly: Black Lives Matter, and while I feel rioters and looters are not the examples to follow, I do support the protests. If you are actively doing so, be as safe as you can while making your voice heard.
The world only gets better slowly, sometimes so slowly it's hard to notice and easy to get impatient with. Even the leaps and bounds forward we seem to sometimes make are too often accompanied by steps backwards. It can be scary, infuriating, and demoralizing. It can be even worse than any of that. Don't give up.