Tales Of Times, Past And Present

by God_of_Awesome

Caribou Anti-Defamation Society

The diarchy both bent over the table, staring hard at the picture laid out on it.

"Sister, could you tell me what this is?"

"Well, Luna, it's this fascinating new invention our little ponies concocted."

"Tia-"

"It's called pornography."

"I swear on our mother's memory."

"Now, pornography, my dear sister-"

"If you die in your dreams, you die for real."

"What would you actually like to know, Luna?"

"Who is this?"

"This lovely mare's name is Passion Fruit."

"Really, because it says here her name is 'Princess Molestia'."

"Ah, that's her stage name."

"Signed here 'From Molly'- 'Molly', really? -'to my'- ahem -'my role model'!"

"Yes, that's a bit of an in-joke between us."

"I also notice her cutie mark is an orange surrounded by a ring of bananas in a rough facsimile of your own."

"Excellent deduction, my little sister."

"It's rather hard to miss since her flank takes up so much of the frame."

"Well, you see, pornography, my dear sister-"

"Is her special talent actually just being your oversexed, pink-tinted body double?"

"She is quite the skilled actress."

"Because we already have Cadance."

"Really Luna?"

"Why? Why would you do this?"

"Wha- do this? I didn't cause Passion Fruit to come to be!"

"I don't believe you."

"Oh my goodness... I'm going to bed, Luna."

"Oh goodnight, Celestia. I have court to attend to."

"Good luck with that."

---

"What is thhiissss?"

Well, Luna took a look down at the little comic book slammed on her desk and she was about to same it was probably the visual adaptation of a very popular, post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel. She would then tell him she could understood if was upset if there was distillation or changes between the comic and the novels, but these things just happen whenever you adapt a work of fiction from one medium to another.

It occured to her how much her tone resembled Celestia's in this theoretical lecture.

Then she took another look at the title and while, indeed, "Fall" was there at the top and "Equestria" was there at the bottom, the "o" word that was normally attached to the first word was noticeably not and also a different, one letter shorter word. The cover also presented some caribou stag, with exaggerated musculature, standing menacingly over a frightened pony mare. She took a look between that and the actual caribou stag standing in front of her, kind of lanky with glasses on his face, seething with rage.

She decided this might be something altogether different then, and warranted investigation. Using a trick normally only quite talented and powerful unicorns could accomplish, she compressed time, accelerating her own comprehension speed while decelerating her reaction time. Consequently, if at some point she wanted to stop reading, she wouldn't be able to put the comic book down before she had already flipped through the whole thing and seared its contents into her mind.

"I have regrets."

"Oh, you have regrets, your highness?"

"Now-" She paused to look at him closer and nodded. "You're the head of that organization protecting the reputation of Equestrian caribou, yes?"

"The Caribou Anti-Defamation Society."

Luna blinked. "But that spells-"

"We know what it spells. Too late to change now."

"Right. Your name is-"

"Blesi," He interrupted her. "Blitzen is my slave name."

"I remember, Mr. Blesi."

"Do you know about this atrocity to my heritage?"

"No, now this one is new to me."

"This is worse than the Hearth's Mother and her reindeer helpers."

Luna blinked, remembering that imagery vividly, and fondly. The fact that something she saw as innocent and fun in her younger days was now deconstructed and vilified was disquieting to her.

Actually, so was the word "villain". Hearing heroes of this day call out terrible foes, and all she could hear in their speech was Blueblood screaming, "Know your place, peasant!"

So much time had passed, so much of the past had been forgotten. History passed into legend and those legends were twisted to fit whatever narrative was required at the time. Nightmare Night came to mind in particular.

Luna rose up to her seat and walked towards the balcony of her office. "Mr. Blesi, would you come fly with me? I wish to show you something."

The stag scowled but nodded, following her. While she spread her wings, he simply pushed off the ground and rejected gravity's hold on him. She waved away her secretary and her guards as the two of them took to the night sky and flew north.

"I was there, child... when your kind were called reindeer, the reigned deer. When your sight was stolen from you by annual dehorning and your flight was taken by silver-iron chains that jingled like bells. I was there when the world took advantage of your fractured, warring tribes and your traditions of war thralls and deorgelds to make slaves of your people.

"Ah yes, but I remember now. Your people took back that word and made it your own, yes? You forbid other races from saying 'reindeer', and even manage to make many creatures cow, as a show of power. Have I caused you offense, Mr. Blesi?"

"Not at all, Princess Luna. The historical context is allowable and... besides, you and your sister, of all creatures, should be given many allowances."

"Luna. That is not what your people call me, Mr. Blesi."

"Hrimfaxi." Blesi nodded as the wind swept through his antlers. "The Frost Mane."

"Yes, and my sister, Skinfaxi the Shining Mane. You know our history with the caribou people, then?"

"I know that when your nation was young, it became a rising power, and it did so off the backs of ponies, and not reindeer, as others did. You abolished the practice of slavery in your lands and made it so far beyond."

"Originally, only in our lands, you know, and for a long time. Though we found it distasteful, we were far too interested in clearing threats to our little ponies and consolidating our power. We traded with those who enslaved your people and grew rich from it. It was another who forced our hooves."

"Yes, that was-" Blesi stopped, and looked around. "It's cold. When did it get so cold?"

"You do your heritage a shame if you shiver so, cervine child, carved from pine and snow."

"Where are we, Pri- Hrimfaxi?"

"I didn't wish to simply teleport here, but I lead us through secret pathways, lanes even shorter than a straight line. We are in the home country, Mr. Blesi.

"We are in Tarandroland."

Blesi looked down, his jaw hanging open. It took a moment to let the overwhelming awe leave his snout so he could get it working again. "The- the home country."

"Indeed, Mr. Blesi."

"I- I have always wanted to come here. But why?"

"To show you something, Mr. Blesi. We will land here," Luna said, gesturing to dark city below. "In that courtyard there."

Blesi, tossed his head about. There were other caribou here now, in the sky with them although at a respectful distance. The closest ones were armored but they all stared. He not only felt the eyes in their skulls, but their invisible third eyes floating between their horns.

"Is this- is this the capital?"

"Do not worry, Mr. Blesi. We are expected."

"We are?"

"Yes. Although our transit took far less than it should have, far more time transpired in the materium that you experienced. More than enough time to send a message to King Ukko and gain permission for a short visit, especially for the reasons given."

"And if you hadn't gotten permission?"

"I would have taken you to a museum, but I thought this was more dramatic."

Hooves met stone. It was night time here too, so the courtyard was mostly empty, save some wary guards and the odd stragglers being told to stay back. What drew the attention of these visitors, however, were two statues on opposite sides of this particular clearing. They each showed a stag, but each statue could not be more different.

One showed a stag, handsome and clean, noble in his bearing, smashing chains beneath his hooves. This one was called The Liberator. The other showed a stag, haggard and mean, madness in his eyes, rearing up to smash on some unseen victim. This one was called The Despoiler. So different were these depiction but above each title was the same name.

"Liberator, Despoiler. Caribou the world over know him as the former, for obvious reasons. Perhaps his campaign began as such, but his fury, his sadism and his mania wiped such nobility away, even if he helped achieved it in the end. The rest of the world knows him as latter, for what he did, and what his followers continued to do long after he died. Not just those who enslaved his people but to anyone he felt stood idly by and allowed it to happen, whether or not they could had the power to stop it, let alone anyone who traded with the people who did the enslaving.

"And then there are the caribou of Tarandroland, a cynical people who believe themselves to be free of all illusions. They cannot deny the freedom of their people, but nor do they forget how he drained their lands of all able bodied stags to fight in his crazed crusade of unfocused vengeance or how in the following years after his death they faced so many campaigns of retribution in return, campaigns they could hardly defend against for aforementioned lacking of fighting stags, that the caribou could have been nearly driven to extinction were it not for mine and my sister's protection.

"The caribou of Tarandroland prefer nuance then, and erect here this tale of a stag, whose path may have had begun noble but quickly became madness."

Blesi looked between them. He saw very little more from than the craftsdeership and the respect for history that went into these carvings. He turned and looked, and he looked, at her, at Hrimfaxi, and saw the weight of history bearing down at him. He tried to close it, his Eye, but couldn't. It was, in fact, being pried open wider and his own real eyes went wider with it in surprise.

Hrimfaxi spread her wings out open. "I know well your gift of sight, Blesi, cervine seer, child carved of pine and snow. You are a postcognitive, as they call it now, but I knew as a remembrancer. Now See child, Look. Gaze upon the past that I lived when I slew him. When I cut off his head and I watched the madness be snuffed out from his eyes. The Pirate King.

"Dainn."

---

Luna's wings flashed, cutting down two more of the raiders with the silver blades between her feathers. She could only spare a moment of attention to the moaning, mutilated form of the young stallion they had been slicing apart. The stump there was too ragged, she knew at a glance he'd never fly again. It pained her to be able to do so little for him, body and soul, right then or ever, but she needed to move.

She was so close to the source of this madness. She spared another look, at the bodies she'd laid out. One was a caribou, the other... a pony. This was becoming disturbingly common, though the ponies she came across felt to her to have been a vile sort to begin with. What disturbed was how the caribou vikings had picked out the very worst dregs of their society, nearly stallions all, and convinced them to join in this atrocity. Even many of the invaders were perturbed by the horror of their erstwhile allies. Too many of caribou here were conscripts, brought here against their will, so very far away from home. There was no glory cutting them down.

"Does it really trouble thee so, Aunty Frostmane?"

She twisted in time to batter away his axe strike with her wing-blades, hurling herself back to put some much needed distance between her attacker. She spun to face him, wings splayed out. This was when she saw him, truly, with her own eyes for the first time. He stood taller, more massive, than any other caribou, as surely as she towered above her ponies and his exaggeratedly enormous horns flickered with jumping embers. A ball of flame hung between his horns, forming different shapes, an eye, a crown, the face of a screaming, caribou doe. Her first time seeing him, but she knew who he was.

"Dainn."

"We meet at last, a long overdue family reunion. Dost thou know what I am, aunty?"

"Aye, that I do. I can feel it, plain as my sister's day, descendant of my father's power. Tell me, what didst thou surrender to truly awaken thine enduring spark?"

"I let go of the past, Frostmane, and tore away all that that would keep me from embracing the future. My regrets, my restraints, all gone!"

"Oh, joy," She drawled sarcastically. "None of those things sound important."

"Does it bother thee, Frostmane? How easily I turned some of thy little ponies against thee and thine.

"I know it does, but not nearly as much as it bothers thee that this night is the most of thy beautiful night thy ponies ever see!"

Luna's eyes narrowed. So that was how it was? "I had been concerned how thou found the very worst of my ponies so that thou may turn them to thine cause. I had heard thou had the power to turn the hearts of sapients at a glance, but thou need no such power to have convinced these blackguards to join thee. I see clearly now that thou has the capacity to gaze into the hearts of others, and see what makes them turn."

"By my ancestors, how observant, aunty! Thou knows, it is so much easier when I do tell them I can change minds with my Eye. Then they do whatever I tell them, their conscience clear, assured they they had no choice, that I made them do it. What clever fauns I could have made thee bear if I did not need to kill thee."

"But why, Dainn? Why Equestria? I have heard of thee that thou fights for thy people's freedom, and we own no reindeer."

"Why not? Equestria still grows fat from its trade with those whom do, all while they sit comfortable without knowing war, without knowing suffering. Thy ponies shall know what it is like to have their magic taken away from them.

"Thy ponies shall learn how it is to live with no hope.

"And Equestria, with its fertile lands and rich resources, shall be made a perfect staging ground to strike out against the rest of the world. Thy ponies, thy foals, thy mares and those stallions that resist me, will made into crippled thralls, feeding the war machine that spread over the entirety of the- art thou even paying attention to me?"

Luna's eyes had wandered up towards the horizon, flickering towards the sky. She finally glanced back down to Dainn. "My apologies, I was having nostalgia. Thine irritating rambling reminded me of Sombra and Tirek before thee. Discord, at least, offered interesting philosophical tangents.

"At least thou hast proven yourself far more pettily cruel than any of them. Well, except Discord when he was in a mood, or his sister, but that is a tough act to follow."

Dainn's eyes narrowed, scratching at the ground with the axe blade tied to his hooves. He glanced upwards himself. "Tell me, Frostmane. Thine horn has been aglow this entire time and yet no spell have I seen of thee. What gives?"

Luna tilted her head and nodded. Her horn flashed and a turquoise shimmer rippled over the entire town.

"A shield? Over the whole town? That could not have been easy to raise! But what for, aunty? Dost thou think I am trapped in here with thee?"

"To keep thine reserve fleet from making land."

"While that is true, thou are here on thine own, Luna, with only thy paltry honor guard. Thy reserves are trapped outside this shield as well!"

"So then, I was correct. That is thy reserve fleet?"

"Well, of course. And as soon I slay thee, they will overrun this town and we will make a run for the capitol and thy dear sister, Shiningmane."

"Not any of thine slave galleys?" Luna pressed.

"There are some cargo ships, but they remain empty, Frostmane, ready to be filled."

Luna nodded her head. "One last question, Dainn."

The Pirate King gritted his teeth. "What?"

"Has it occured to thee that thou hast not been able to read all of my mind?"

Dainn blinked at that, somewhat dumbfounded as realization started dawning on him.

Luna turned upwards to the sky. "There are no hostages upon the enemy fleet and the town is protected by my magic.

"Smite them from the heavens, Celestia."

---

Blesi pulled away just as he saw a new sun rise early in the midnight horizon those thousands of years ago. A beam of light that turned an entire section of the ocean surface to so much steam and an entire pirate fleet to ash.

"My sister's power," Luna spoke softly. "I am- was the Warmistress of Equestria. Even after a thousand year sojourn, in many ways I am still my sister's better in battle, though she has by no means been resting solely upon her laurels in that time. But in raw power, she has always outstripped me by a magnitude.

"I remember a thousand years ago, in the depths of our madness, I cast aside all of my skill and sought to overwhelm her with my newfound strength. I still wonder, though she will never say, if she used the Elements out of desperation, or because she didn't want to have to kill me."

"Da- huh-" Blesi breathed hard. "Dainn. What was he?"

"Do you mean philosophically or metaphysically? Metaphysically, he was among the same kind of immortals as Son Wu Kong and Scorpan, the ascended. He was the distant descendant of another immortal, in this case some scion of the spirit Order like me. Before you ask, he was not my descendant, but technically my something-something grand nephew, I suppose. He had the potential for immortality but had to give up some part of his mortality to achieve. In his case, any ability to feel guilt for his past actions or give moral consideration to his future ones.

"Philosophically, he was a hero to his people, and a scourge to all others. Just as so many others in that time strived to be, just as I strived to be then. The thing I hated my sister for was teaching our little ponies how unnecessary I was. Not in those exact words, not with that intents, but that's how I felt about it at the time."

"And is he alive still?"

"Dainn? No, like I said, I slew him there. Our immortality is a misnomer, we're more ageless and very, very hard to kill. Dainn was overly reliant on his power to read minds in all things, including fighting. Without it, I had his head rolling on the floor. I remember he looked peaceful in death, but my morbidity always had me romanticize killing."

"Was he all bad?"

"I will not lie to you, he was a monster. Perhaps in the beginning of his journey, before he tore away all that would possibly make him pause, there was nobility there, but in immortality he trampled all over it. I don't know, I did not know him then. None who still live did."

"And my people? Were they anything like that book?"

"Dainn gathered to himself pirates and raiders; rapine and ravaging happened. Those were the dark days of your people, when to go a-viking began a cycle of more of the same, resulting in gutted jarldoms and glutted pirate fleets. And he was a mind reader and master manipulator, who gathered to himself the very worst, caribou, pony and other creatures alike, brought those caribou who stood on the edge over to him through rightly honeyed words and did away with those 'bou who would have opposed him. Some he kept on fore's length, successfully convincing some caribou and sympathizers that his mission was still entirely one of liberation while carefully never actually campaigning with them. These ones never saw his depredations, and many refused to believe their savior committed them.

"But like that book? I don't even think Dainn, in his madness, would have quite conceived of that. He did have a certain particular disdain for females, he blamed the councils of crones for the state of his people. In those days, the councils of elderdoe were the true decision makers of the caribou, rather than a check and balance against the jarls and king, who were merely meant to be military leaders at the time. But a truly vile and vicious female could impress him, like Red Coat, a pegasus mare who's name is synonymous with treachery and murder to this day. And like I said, rapine happened, but Dainn would have focused more on working ponies to death in the mines and out in the fields, of all sexes."

"Then who wrote this book? What is it based on?"

"For your second question, distorted facts. The myths and the legends of Dainn and his rampage that arose long after his death and I put down the last remnants of his most vile surviving followers. Stories that have seemingly been distorted even further to fit some... I hesitate to call it a fetish. Wanting to be whipped is a fetish, or to whip somepony like the former. This? I'd rather call it a dementia. Mayhaps my sister would say something more kindly, that our thoughts cannot damn us, and to do so is a step too far towards tyranny. However, I would be rather tempted to find those who read and write this and place them somewhere secure, under care and observation until I was sure they were not a danger to others.

"And for your first question, well that I intend to find out, Mr. Blesi."

---

It was a rather interesting invention of the youngest princess, and her apprentice, of course. An ensorcelled scroll, one writes on it with colored ink and one's words reappear on all such ensorcelled and so linked scrolls in the same writing and color. Incredibly convenient if apparently the combinations of various enchantments it used weren't seemingly so finicky. At this time it seemed the stars had aligned just right and the enchantment was working just fine.

So the Pirate King didn't have mind control powers?

Nay, none of his so-called enslaved subordinates showed signs of mental tampering. However, many of them seemed to sincerely believe it so.

Dainn found an unfortunate weakness in the psychology of many sapients, that they'd do things they normally wouldn't if they believe they aren't in control of their own actions.

Not everycreature was so easily fooled or captivated, but his unparalleled mind reading abilities meant he'd be able to tell immediately. He simply did away with those unfortunate creatures, unwilling to believe in guiltless atrocities.

No reply was forthcoming for a moment.

So, how about those comics? They're really weird, right?

I would think 'vulgar' would be putting it lightly. 'Absolutely disgusting' works better. I also quite like 'an insult- Nay, 'a declaration of war upon common decency and all that is virtuous'.

It's not as if such things entirely came from nothing. Our underground media is lush with fantasies of mares being taken by strong, powerful zebra stallions, precisely for their exotic natures, especially as a historically patriarchal society. In turn, there are quite a few pieces of zebra media depicting the fantasy of some zebra stallions being dominated by a powerful, pony matriarch.

Fascinating!

'Fascinating!' She says. 'Tia, why do you know so much about pornography. Does this have to do with Princess Molestia?

A slowly growing purple ink blot indicated that Twilight had put her quill to the scroll but wasn't actually writing anything. Then she finally scrolled down and scrawled out in hasty, scratchy letters.

What

Oh? Did my sister never introduce you to her illicit love-child with- I can only guess Cadence must be the father.

Luna, you're going to give her an aneurysm.

Or perhaps with the spirit of lust. Goodness, I hope not. Could you imagine an unaging, demi-goddess porn star?

That's a little elitist, Luna. Those burdened with eternal life are free to spend it as they choose, so long as it is not to the detriment of others.

Right, right, right, "freedom is the right of all intelligent creatures". But I absolutely hate to see a gift wasted.

There's a spirit of lust?

Ah, Twilight, there is a spirit for practically everything.

I feel like this is something I should know more about. That aside, what's going on with those offensive comic books?

You mean little Luna's witch hunt.

Please.

It's not little.

And it goes well, in fact.

So hey, I have a question. Why do I get the green ink?

Because I already called pink, Cadance.

Luna folded the scroll up before she could read any more replies, tucking them away in her saddle. Blesi looked at her as she did, gliding by her side as thestrals circled around them. They screeched softly and Luna listened, hearing them call to the spirits of dreams and deceit and darkness. The air around them rippled as these elemental concepts cloaked them from the sight of the unsighted. Over Baltimare, a city of mostly earth ponies, that would mostly work.

In Cloudsdale, there were too many possible holes as pegasus hearing might detect the whispering lies of her thestral's allies or hear by the quickly spreading rumor the gossip between the darklings and the zephyr air spirits. They'd couch it in terms of air pressure and warm fronts, but that was just the language the spirits of weather and sky spoke in.

In Canterlot, the illusion would have been practically flawless. Unicorn had no special sense, except for the power they held within themselves. Not unless they were clever, then, and projected that cleverness out into the world, willing their cunning to exist as a working. In a thousand years, means and methods of anchoring such workings had been discovered so they worked even as the caster slept. Luna was proud that a few unicorns had proven very clever indeed, but not all, not many.

Here in Baltimare, even as they trailed through the sky, they couldn't help but brush against the presence of earth, the nigh invisible flesh and veins and nerves of what might be called Mother Nature's presence, the background radiation of magic fed by all living things. Earth ponies were naturally attuned to this, some more so than others. There was more than one arion as gifted as Pinkie Pie. That didn't unduly worry Luna, she didn't believe her quarry was so able.

"What did the other princesses say?" Blesi asked. "Did they object to this?"

"There is very little to object to, Mr. Blesi. All this pomp aside, coming in under a veil in the dead of night, this is a simple chat."

"A simple chat with the pony that has been manufacturing lies about my people, yes."

"Remember, Mr. Blesi, let me do the talking. Your emotions are still boiling from this, after all. Disobey me, and I will be sure to tell your grandmother of Little Blitzen's transgressions."

Blesi grumbled.

The group finally took to land in an alleyway, the thestral finishing their soft song but the veil continued as the shadowlings danced. Even at night the streets were still populated but many passerby's could not see them. All those inside the veil saw quite clearly through it. Not because it was designed so but because they all possessed racial abilities that made such a design redundant.

Luna used a far more expedient method of unicorn wizardry to veil Blesi before she tapped her hoof against the metal door tucked away in the dinky alley. For this business, late hours were to be expected.

When the door opened, Luna stared. The mare revealing herself could almost certainly have passed a female version of her less-than-dear great something grandson, Duke "Prince" "Pissant" Blueblood. All the colorations were right, except she was an earth pony. Luna briefly glanced at her strange cutie mark, a heart with a- was that a-? She snorted and paid attention to her face.

"Hello, and welcome to Alt-Harmony Com-" The mare stopped short, blinking as she stared herself, finally noticing who it was in front of her.

Luna took a breath, remembering the lessons Celestia gave her and tried to speak calmly. "Hello, Miss Purity Coat. Could we have a chat?"

---

It took a bit of small talk to meander the conversation to where Luna wanted it. In that time, she made a few observations. Complimentary, Purity seemed quite able to deal with an alicorn waltzing into her shop with a casual attitude given a moment to overcome the shock. Whether this was a healthy amount of self-assuredness or an unhealthy amount of self-absorption remained on how annoying Luna found her.

The other was her cutie mark. She recognized the swirl of right angles, and what it represented. Quite an exotic symbol for one of her little ponies to have. A symbol of power couched inside of a stylized heart, another symbol that needed no explanation, by itself. So what did it mean? A love of power? The power of love? Power dynamics as they pertained to romantic interactions? If it was that last one, were her comics a very twisted expression of that? Eventually, Luna was able to steer the topic towards that. The comics, not her cutie mark.

(She still remembered the age when discussing one's special talent was an incredibly private affair, rather than the ice breaker it was today.)

"Oh that? Yeah, I'm done with that. I'm into something fresh now." Purity said as she went behind her cash register, reached under her desk and pulled out a similar magazine, pushing it eagerly over to the Night Princess.

Luna took that into her hooves, spying on the cover a row of muscled zebra stallions standing over a pony stallion and mare. Rather than expressions of fear or horror, the ponies seemed to be fawning over the zebras. See, Luna thought, that is certainly a step-up. Celestia made mention of this, a fascination with other cultures turning to fetish didn't necessarily mean having to vilify them.

However, Luna didn't let her hopes get up just yet, because the cover still read Getting Striped. She steeled herself and repeated the same trick from a few nights ago. The pages flipped rapidly as she forced herself to witness every bit of it. It clapped shut and was set down. Luna sighed with her eyes close, releasing the breath she had held.

Okay.

Not as bad.

"At least there wasn't any mutilation this time."

"Of course not!" Purity said with a wave of her hoof. "Only reindeer do that kind of thing, not zebras!"

Luna looked at her, looked back down at the book, threw her sense back towards Blesi to note he was stock still, looked back up at Purity and sighed.

"Your pen name is interesting," Luna said.

"It's not a reference a lot of ponies get," Purity said. She sat up to expose her chest and tapped her sternum, behind which was an earth pony's second heart. "But I am a proud member of the arion tribe."

Luna could have, but she didn't mirror the gesture. "That's an old word, Purity. Not many ponies use that name anymore."

"Yeah, it's real sad how much history has been forgotten."

"Yes," Luna said, keeping a straight face. "It has." She looked back down at the magazine and then back as if remembering something, but mostly just checking on Blesi if he was still invisible. His lack of movement was worrying her. "I noticed, in your caribou books, that earth ponies- earth pony mares, they didn't have their magic taken away."

"Those savages don't know anything of the power of the arion tribe," Purity scoffed. "We arion keep the secret of our magic safe."

"It's a bit difficult to for an entire third of a race to keep their magic secret, Miss Purity. Even if it's subtle, it takes only a hooful of waggling tongues to corroborate facts and there goes the secret."

"They were, eh, silenced?" Purity ventured.

"The griffons have a rather grim saying about that, actually. 'Three birds may keep a secret as long as one has a stone behind his back.'"

"Exactly!"

Luna tilted her head. "That'd be rather unlikely. The earth ponies would have to be quite prolific to make up for the losses, and very good at hiding all the bodies.

"There's not nearly enough room in West Orchards," Luna added sardonically.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Um..."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "You haven't killed anypony over magical secret, have you, Purity?"

"Ho, no!" Purity said, confidently. Too confidently for someone trying to actually mislead her, but it could be a double-bluff. Luna resolved to have Purity subtly investigated, just in case. Less confidently then, Purity murmured. "I just thought... there had to be some conspiracy. I know we have more magic than just being tough and good farmers! I've read the texts, we have more!"

Luna sighed with pity. "You're not wrong, Purity Coat.

"Long ago, each of the magi of the three tribes each played a role in the Celestial Wheel, in the moving of sun and moon," Luna continued. "You only hear about the unicorn wizards because they were the ones dropping like flies. The other magi didn't need to pour their lives into their workings."

"Aha, so unicorn magic is inferior!"

"It's instantaneity is both a strength and a weakness. Before the coming of my sisters, the unicorns devised a stopgap measure. They broke with the unspoken covenant of the pony magi and began spreading their knowledge to the masses. That- well, I'll cut out the majority of the effects of that. In the end, when my sister and I took control of the Wheel, and knocked the magi of the three tribes from their privileged stations. Only the unicorn wizards truly survived the transition. The pegasus shaman were made to disseminate select secrets, so that weather working could hope to continue on the growing scale it was becoming.

"But arion geomancers... I know that a variety of secrets continue to be passed down bloodlines, so I suppose your theory is somewhat correct. But bloodlines can end and secrets will go with them. Without the incentive of the privilege it would bring, fewer and fewer young arion pursued the arduous task of apprenticeship. Bitter and spiteful, I think the masters made their trials even harder. The geomancers of old took the vast majority of their wisdom with them to the grave, and the sum knowledge of ponykind has been emptier for it."

For a moment, silence reigned as Luna stared through the shop's ceiling into her starry sky and Purity stared blankly at Princess Luna. What brought Luna back to the present was when she felt Blesi fidgeting in the grasp of her magic.

"I think we wandered off topic."

Luna's magic lifted the original subject of her visits out of her saddle and set it next it next to the other book. She looked at Purity's "fresh" material a second time.

"There are already some zebras who are irritated with those stories that presented them as world-ending warmongers."

"They are?"

"Only some."

"Just some?"

Luna didn't miss the leading tone but she decided to follow it anyway. "Yes. Most zebra realize the premise is patently ridiculous-"

Purity interrupted her. "Ah! But this isn't ridiculous at all!" She insisted, tapping the caribou book. "This is based on cold, hard historical facts."

"I believe you're purposefully missing a lot of context, Miss Purity."

"I know it wouldn't be exactly like this, but there is a danger to letting in non-ponies into our lands with their inharmonious cultures. The more unlike us they are, the more dangerous they are. Especially patriarchal culture, with all that it implies. Warmongering, domination by strength, violence. Dainn The Despoiler was a real creature and is exactly what I'm talking about."

Princess Luna's eyes narrowed softly. Not in any kind of anger, although she was annoyed by this prattling. It was memory.

---

Her sword sank deep into Dainn's chest and out his back. The Despoiler coughed blood but didn't fall, partly because Luna was still holding him up with her magic on her sword but just as much as his own stubbornness. He looked down under his carriage to the blade sticking through him and then back up to Luna, to the wing-blades glittering between her feathers.

"Thou tricked me," He said. It was somewhere between an accusation and an impressed comment.

"I told thee that thou could not read all my mind," She returned.

With a flicker of will, she wrenched the sword from him and Dainn lowered himself back to the ground as his lifesblood escaped him in thick rivulets, splattering. He landed in a puddle of his own blood and couldn't remain on his hooves, collapsing on his side.

Luna landed calmly, but cautiously, next to him, her magic and her weapons and her senses ready for anything. However, she was certain this was the end. The only thing left to do was to finish the job, and she reared back one wing for the coup de grace.

Dainn coughed. "My people..."

Luna paused. "Thine people will suffer greatly because of thee, Despoiler. Without thee, thine followers raiding every coast in reach will collapse into infighting, as pirates are wont to do. The nations of the world will wipe them out and then turn their attention upon Tarandroland. They will either seek to destroy the last of the free 'bou, or put them all in chains once and for all."

Luna allowed Dainn to see into her mind, to see the predictions her mind had conjured. She took pleasure in watching him flinch and squirm from the truth.

"Tarandroland," He murmured then, as he became colder and his organs shut down one by one. "I only ever been to the fatherland once before returning here."

Luna's gaze flickered to his coat, to faint pale lines in his dark fur. Lines that matched the places where the reindeer barding would go, the so-called "silver bells", the silver-iron chains that robbed caribou of their flight. Luna calculated Dainn's age and knew he was old enough to have been a young stag in the years Celestia and Luna finally forced the most northern reaches of Equestria to heel. It was the last stronghold of resistance to their rule and that deplorable practice in their land, made to finally accept their laws and their declaration of abolition.

"My sister and I will do our utmost best to protect the innocent caribou from the World's reprisal and then some. It is clear to us that the practice of slavery cannot be allowed to continue in any land. It is time we exercise our growing power over the Globe. Thine people will be safe and free, Dainn, but it shall be no thanks to thee."

Dainn's eyes narrowed. He spoke in a deathly gasp but with much confidence. "Thou lie."

Luna sneered. He could still read her mind, and she had left herself open to torment him earlier. "Thou art correct, Dainn. It was thee who brought to our attention this grievous injustice by visiting the same upon our little ponies. Yes, smile, Liberator, and take some comfort in that."

Her wing flashed and brought an abrupt end to the conversation.

---

Luna and Blesi flew away from Baltimare surrounded by silent thestral and lying shadowlings circling around them. Without the bat ponies' singing, the spirits of deception still held to their end of the bargain, and danced around them.

Luna rolled up the scroll again, putting it away in her saddlebag. "My fellow princesses tell me there is a term in literary analysis for such things, 'stallions as destroyers'. Mr. Blesi, you are an educated stag, yes? Have you heard of it? I suppose I always knew the idea was there in the Equestrian consciousness, but now I am informed that a number of scholars of thoroughly studied, dissected and debunked the whole idea."

"You mean the misandristic ramblings of a racist mare with a rape fetish?"

"Aye, Mr. Blesi, all that."

Blesi was quiet for a moment. He turned away from Princess Luna and towards the north. "I know that in caribou literature we suffer from a similar kind of sexism. We are a patriarchal society though, like that stupid mare said. In our stories you will find the figure of the doe as a deceiver."

He did have a certain particular disdain for females, he blamed the councils of crones for the state of his people. In those days, the councils of elderdoe were the true decision makers of the caribou, Luna remembered explaining to Blesi. Her thoughts flashed back to the old kings of the ponies, who's pride and prejudices drew the tribes into war with one another before Celestia and Luna took charge. "I see. So 'tis all much the same everywhere, even when it's flipped upside down."

"So, do the princess plan on not doing anything about this mare?"

"Oh, we are not without plans."

---

Let the courts and kings of the World have their jesters, fools given permission to say to their sovereigns what others can't. In this way, these rulers can learn about discontent among their people in the form of a joke. Celestia and Luna encourage their ponies to speak with them frankly, they don't need a jester, but they do have a fool.

This fool doesn't wear any bells. Everypony knows he's an idiot, but nopony but a few are supposed to know he is the Diarchy's Own Fool. He says what the sisters don't want other ponies to think and ponies, not wanting to be seen to be like him, will often go with it. This pony's name is-

"Blueblood~" Celestia sing-song'd. "I have an assignment for you. It's about this interesting comic book."

The Prince blinked at the magazine on his desk. "Oh, they finally made a visual adapt- wait, this is wrong."

"Oh, my dear nephew, you don't even know the beginning of it."

Author's Note:

Maybe a little bit of explanation...

First of all, a lot of the ideas for caribou came from the reindeer from CoastalSarv's Under The Northern Lights, a fanfic still sporadically updated that I recommend that hell out of.

Now unto the important question:

Why Nazi?

I mean, in case you didn't pick up on it, the "swirl of right angles" in Purity's cutie mark was a swastika. (Or you were one of my pre-readers when I just outright stated it.) So why did I do this? Because I want to imply that the one who wrote these things I detest are literally Nazis? Not exactly! So why then?

Short answer, I couldn't resist the word play!

Long answer...

Okay, so, I wanted a mythology name for the earth pony tribes right from the get go, and by "the get go" I mean long before I thought of this particular entry. So then I found the Arion. To quote, "In Greek mythology, Arion or Areion (Ancient Greek: 'Ἀρίων, Ἀρείων, gen.: Ἀρίωνος, Ἀρείωνος) is a divinely-bred, extremely swift immortal horse which, according to the Latin poet Sextus Propertius, was endowed with speech. ... Arion's siring by Poseidon in stallion form vary by author: according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus, the horse was foaled by Demeter while she was "in the likeness of a Fury"; Pausanias reported that, according to Antimachus, the horse was the foal of Gaia, the Earth, herself. According to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Arion was begotten by loud-piping Zephyrus on a Harpy (probably Podarge)."

To emphasize, "...the horse was the foal of Gaia, the Earth, herself."

Perfect.

And then there's this chick. In case you missed the implication, this is Purity Coat's pen name.

I couldn't resist the wordplay. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I mean, I originally planned for the illustrator to be some breed of very disturbed mare. The original idea, in fact, was when Luna and Blesi encounter her, she brazenly begs Blesi to do bad things to her and would express misequinethropic tendencies. However, when this potential pun fell in my lap, plans were made to change. It also allowed me a chance to explore earth pony magic, just a tad, which was satisfying.

(In case you're wondering about how Purity's cutie mark works here, well... I personally lean towards Luna's last interpretation.)

Comments

[FTR2017]

Luna took a breath, rememeber her lessons

It's remember, man.

Other than that, it is good to see this story here. Thumbed-up, faved and tracking, as I'm interested in seeing what else you write for this saga.

PS: Quite an interesting take on history in the previous chapter, with a Griffon Lich of all things.

[God_of_Awesome]

9100862
"remembering" actually.

My plan for the next story is lore on the race of humans that wanders the world, "Celestia's Dungeon".

[FTR2017]

9101056
Well, what Celly does in the privacy of her personal dungeon with the humans isn't our business, right?

[God_of_Awesome]

9101071
Namely, rehabilitate a troubled soul with prophetic powers and nurse one of the victims of the Brotherhood Of Converts.

Of that, I shan't say more.

[FTR2017]

9101102
Well, it seems my joke flew over and splatted onto the wall.

Alright, then. Will be waiting for the future release, to see what you mean.

[Yami Vizzini]

"Is her special talent actually just being your oversexed, pink-tinted body double?...
"Because we already have Cadance."

The fact that something she saw as innocent and fun in her younger days was now deconstructed and vilified was disquieting to her.

Oh, so much. Perhaps we're long overdue for a rooting out of some poisonous systems or traditions, but surely one should be able to, say, enjoy the exploits of the Hazzard boys without being labelled a racist?

Then they do whatever I tell them, their conscious clear

"Conscience", I think.

These ones never saw his trepidations, and many refused to believe their savior committed them.

Depredations?

Mayhaps my sister would say something more kindly, that our thoughts cannot damn us, and to do so is a step too far towards tyranny.

Well, that's certainly true.

[God_of_Awesome]

9115728
Thanks, these errors have been fixed. And I'm glad the jokes were appreciated too.

I dunno who the Hazzards boy are though. I don't really seek here to make a moral call on examining and deconstructing possibly racist or otherwise problematic imagery that was overlooked in the past. I just point out that it's a thing and especially for someone displaced from time it would be disconcerting to suddenly have something they thought innocuous and innocent questioned.

9101153
Oh, I got it, I just could resist the opportunity to give you a little preview of what was to come.

[Yami Vizzini]

9116329