The Moaning Top Incident

by Visiden Visidane

The Incident

Official records state that the destruction of the cults of Luna was in response to the danger of their growing unruliness. The Blackmoon Blades for their murderous ways, and the Rondo for the chaos their revelry sowed. This is true on both counts, but it does not explain why the Night Parade also disbanded shortly, despite its benign existence.

A great number of historians agree that there was room for reform despite the extremes that the cults of Luna had delved into, and there was good cause to preserve them in some capacity. There was much to learn from the Blackmoon Blades’s killing methods, and both the Moonlight Rondo and the Night Parade could have been influential and true institutions for music and arts. Their complete destruction stemmed from attitudes within the Legion held onto at that time.

To understand this sudden, extreme response to the cults of Luna, one must examine two things true at that time. First, this was early on to the era of the Division, prior to the rise of High Commander Black Rose. The Prince was distant, and concerned solely with getting results from the Legion. The ponies of the Barrier Lands feared him and held him in awe. During the Time of the Three, all it took to earn his favor was to worship Princess Celestia. With the Division, nopony knew how to earn his approval. He ignored tributes and festivals, and personally tore down a temple dedicated to him. It seemed that the only way to to please him was to kill all he considered enemies.

Due to this, the Legion Commanders and their immediate subordinates behaved like a cult dedicated to the Prince, making stumbling, almost worshipful efforts to gain his elusive approval by outdoing each other in the slaughter of Equestria’s foes. This led to the second reason.

When the Prince returned from a visit to the Heartland, he was in a foul mood, particularly when matters that brought up Princess Luna or even the moon in general were brought up. The Legion Commanders, especially Western Legion Commander Sky Arc, saw this as both sign and opportunity to improve their standing with the Prince beyond killing invaders. Providence seemed to line up with this newfound goal. The Legion Commanders saw new enemies whose destruction would please the Prince. The Blades of Nightmare incident made it easy to eradicate the Blackmoon Blades, and the Moaning Top Incident allowed for the annihilation of the Moonlight Rondo. These cults were sacrificed upon the altar of Prince Terrato, despite his refusal to be worshiped. Perhaps, the instinct within ponies that led to the Old Kingdom still has vestiges left in all of us. The Night Parade, seeing the signs as they were, promptly announced its disbandment.

Things have changed in these times. The Prince has been more open and concerned towards the Legion and the ponies of the Barrier Lands in general. The Legion, in response, now anticipates his wishes in less fanatical ways. While it is a pity that much of the lore from the cults of Luna has been lost, there is refuge to be taken in the recovery of bits and pieces through the scholarly diligence. Perhaps, in the future, enough can be recovered to restore these cults in a more beneficial form for all of them.

-Notes by Historian Dare Vaunt of the Great Delve Arcane Academy

---

The villagers of Moon Basin, even in their inebriated state, started to suspect that something may be odd when the legionnaires attending the Rondo festival disappeared followed shortly by the pretty local healer. The odd rumbles coming from farther up the mountain sobered up the most cautious among them, including the constable and his assistants. No words of urgency were exchanged among the revellers, but all the merriment simply seeped out of them. They looked around and gathered together, aware more than ever that both the Rondo and the Legion were gone. This may as well be just a village festival with extra food and drinks. Not even the slightest peep of music that the Rondo was supposed to be famous for.

After a few half-hearted attempts to, at least, enjoy the laid out feast, the villagers silently agreed among themselves to head back home, suddenly worried of what might come from the mountain.

And something did come. A light blue unicorn mare that the villagers recognised as somepony from the Rondo staggered out of the tree line, soaked with sweat despite the cold, eyes wide with terror, and legs trembling from exhaustion. “Help!” she shouted hoarsely. “They’re coming! They’re coming!”

Behind her were a few more ponies from the Rondo, all desperately running and completely ragged. These did not look the sort that have been recently celebrating anything. Their eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and their hides clammy with sweat.

“What do you mean?” Mayor Bitter Hops asked. He stepped forward, and caught the mare just as she collapsed. Two more villagers, Constable Bronze Star and Saw Leaf, came to his aid when he struggled to keep her from falling.

“The Legion!” the mare gasped and sobbed all at once. “The Legion’s going to kill us all!”

Bitter Hops looked to the villagers that had crowded around them. The mare’s panic was already spreading among them faster than any disease. “What?” he asked. “Why? What has the Rondo or this village done to deserve such a thing?”

A Rondo stallion behind the mare struggled to catch his breath as he answered. “There was...there was this huge monster that suddenly appeared in the cave. It looked like an ophidite and it attacked the Legion! They must think that we were hiding ophidites among us!”

Fresh tears sprang from the mare’s eyes, and her face contorted in renewed fury. “They were already planning on killing us before it showed! Their unicorn mage called us degenerates, and he killed Wine Press!”

A second mare from the Rondo spoke up behind them. “I saw it too! I saw that same mage who killed Cloud Breeze even though there was an ophidite monster rampaging around! Killing us all is just as important to them as killing ophidites! They were unleashing poison gas all over the place!”

The villagers murmured among themselves.

“I’ve heard stories about this! This is just like Grape Song Village!” Saw Leaf yelled.

“By the Prince, are they going to kill us too?” Moon Cake asked. “We’re not part of the Rondo!”

“We accepted the Rondo, and aided their festival, that might be reason enough!” Bell Watch replied. “Especially if it’s an ophidite infiltration, they’ll probably kill us all just to be sure!”

“Hold on now,” Bitter Hops said as he turned the panicked mare over to Bronze Star before facing the crowd. “Think about this carefully, the Legion isn’t going to slaughter us all on a whim just because we might be ophidite collaborators!”

“You don’t understand,” one of the Rondo stallions said. “You weren’t there. The giant ophidite’s a convenient excuse. You should have seen how those legionnaires looked at us. They were planning to kill us all from the start! The Legion has it out for all the followers of Princess Luna!”

“That tears it!” Bronze Star said. “The Legion might execute us all just for being associated with the Rondo. Maybe just to quiet us to make it easier for the rest of Equestria to swallow what happened here!”

“Wait!” Third Wheel said. “If we get rid of the Rondo ourselves, the Legion won’t see us as a threat!”

Murmurs of agreement passed through the crowd.

“We should have never agreed to this festival!” shouted Kill Joy. “The Rondo has always been trouble!”

“They might even reward us for helping them!” Flame Stoke added.

The murmurs slowly rose to cries of assent. Bitter Hops trotted over in front of the crowd, waving his forelegs in a desperate attempt to quell this growing fire. “Listen to yourselves!” he yelled. “This is murder you’re suggesting!”

Bronze Star shook his head, and took a step to join the crowd before facing Bitter Hops. “Is it?” he asked. “Murder’s done out of malice. Think about it, Hops, we’re trying to save our lives here!”

“At the cost of killing others? There has to be a better way!” Bitter Hops looked towards the mountain slopes, towards where the Rondo ponies had come from. “We can talk to them,” he added. “We are not their targets, nor have we committed any crime. We can reason with the Legion without immediately killing others.”

“Even if we do that, we need to keep these Rondo ponies with us,” Bronze Star said. “If we let them flee, the Legion will see it as providing aid. If we want to talk to them, we have to keep the Rondo here.”

Bitter Hops looked to the Rondo ponies, who were already catching their breaths, though their wide-eyes panic only worsened.

“You can’t turn us in to the Legion,” the mare cried out. “They’ll execute us! For no reason! We didn’t hide that ophidite!”

“So you say!” Saw Leaf replied. “Maybe you were hiding that ophidite after all, we can’t know for sure! Let the Legion sort it out, I say!”

An argument, then a shouting match, broke out between the Rondo and the villagers. Bitter Hops could barely understand a word being said in the resulting garbled mess. The wine he had been enjoying so much earlier was making him pay dearly at this point with a buzzing headache.

The villagers had taken to surrounding the Rondo to prevent them from fleeing, but the size of the two groups were nearly the same, and the Rondo has clearly realized that there was no safe haven to be had in Moon Basin. They backed up upon each other, as if ready for a last stand. Bronze Star recognized the tension, and his front hoof occasionally hovered over his baton.

At the sight of this seeming threat of violence, one of the Rondo ponies let out a cross between an animalistic howl and an anguished cry. He made a mad dash for Bronze Star, eyes firmly locked on the baton, his hooves stretched out to grab the weapon. Flame Stoke moved faster, and tackled him halfway through his lunge. The two tumbled across the rough ground for a while, Flame Stoke barely able to hold back the Rondo pony, whose bloodshot eyes were all but bulging out of his skull. The veins around his throat throbbed as he screeched and struggled.

“Why can’t you just leave us be?” he shouted. “Everywhere we go, you guards and legionnaires have to show up and make us miserable!”

“Don’t make yourselves the victims and us the villains, you lunatic,” Bronze Star grunted as he helped wrestle down the Rondo pony. “You could have left us out of your schemes. Now, you’ve brought the Legion down on us!”

“Let him go!” screamed one of the mares from the Rondo. Her cries were followed by several more from the tree line. Bitter Hops tensed along with the other villagers. More escapees from the Rondo, there were too many now to easily corral. These new arrivals looked even more panicked and livid than the others. Upon seeing the struggle, they didn’t even bother trying to talk or beg. The stallion leading them galloped full speed. Even at a distance, Bitter Hops could see the strained, bulging neck muscles and the wild glare. The foam along the lower lips were also not lost on him.

“They’ve brought their lunatics out!” Bell Watch yelled. He gripped his rake tightly, making sure that the toothed end was aimed for a vicious downward strike at anypony threatening. “We have to fight to save the village!”

“No—!”

That was about as far a Bitter Hops could go before the villagers rushed past him, like an unstoppable river during a storm. One of them struck the pinned down stallion with a large branch, freshly cut from a nearby tree, leaving a viciously long gash across the stallion’s face and knocking him out. Bronze Star, free of having to restrain a pony, looked at the exploding situation. He let out a sigh, the sort of sigh a pony might heave as he watched a natural disaster inevitably envelop his home, pulled out his baton, and moved out to protect his fellow villagers in the only method left available: knocking out the Rondo ponies.

More villagers waded in as well, mostly with makeshift weapons where they could find them. Saw Leaf was swinging a chair, Moon Cake had a large metal platter floating in front of her through telekinesis while she swung a heavy ladle. Many just came in swinging their hooves, and even biting. A few less...enthusiastic ponies hung back and threw rocks.

A long time ago, in a different life as a stupid young stallion trying to make a living in the West’s capital, Bitter Hops ran around in the the Great Delve’s Underbelly with a gang. This wasn’t his first brawl, even if it had been a while. One of the Rondo’s stallions charged him, a big, young, stupid-looking one with a frenzied glare coming out of his blood shot eyes. The stallion swung wildly with a bare left front hoof, and a large branch with his right. Bitter Hops stepped back and let the poor fool swing and miss. This one had come running and screaming from the trees. He was breathing hard on the get-go and his weapon was too large and cumbersome. After a second miss, his exhaustion weighed him down, leaving his neck open. A couple of decades back, Bitter Hops would stick a bamboo skewer into that bulging vein that presented itself. As mayor, he simply swung a hoof to the stallion’s jaw. Old age hadn’t weakened him that much, it seemed. The stallion fell to the side glassy-eyed and stiff-legged.

Around Bitter Hops, the fighting had taken full swing as more ponies from the Rondo emerged from the forest while ponies from the village, curious over what was happening in the festival, stumbled into the scene. No words, only alarmed yells, hoarse screams, then fighting. Somepony has upended the long tables, spilling whatever remained of the food over. Both villagers and Rondo ponies alike discovered the unopened bottles of wine and liquor, and started using them as makeshift clubs, and even knives when the bottles shattered.

Several Rondo ponies had dropped to the ground, unconscious from knocks to the head or struggling to catch their breath after a kick to the gut.

“Bronze!” Bitter Hops shouted. “Stop anypony from killing!”

Bronze Star looked up from battering a mare with his baton and nodded. He put himself in between a villager with a broken bottle and a cowering Rondo mare, knocking the bottle away with his baton while yelling. Nearby, a Rondo stallion had snapped the branch he was using into a crude point. Bitter Hops jumped on him, twisting his foreleg so he dropped his weapon.

Nearby, the escalating violence infected every pony. More dangerous weapons came out, one mare was choking another with a twisted cloak, a Rondo stallion banged the head of a villager against the ground. This had to stop...this had to—

“Halt!”

More ponies emerged from the trees. The authoritative, non-panicked voice told enough. The sight of barding and enormous blades and spears made it even clearer.

At this, the Rondo changed from desperate lunatics to cornered beasts. Spears lowered and blades unsheathed, the Legion swiftly came upon the brawl.

“Legionnaires,” Bitter Hops said. “These ponies from the Rondo—“ he stopped when he noticed that one of the legionnaires was carrying an unconscious Cinder Spark over his shoulder. “What are you doing? That’s Fort Commander Forge Spark’s daughter!”

The lead legionnaire, a unicorn stallion Bitter Hops didn’t recognize, looked him over for a mere second before focusing on the Rondo. “Stand aside, citizen,” he said offhandedly. “This is Legion business. Leave the Rondo to us.” He lifted a foreleg to signal something when a distant shout from past the tree line stopped him.

A lone pegasus in light-barding flew towards them at breakneck speed. Though he wore some barding of a legionnaire, he was a far cry from the lancers the Western Legion was known for. This must be some sort of scout or messenger. True enough, he swiftly arrived near the other legionnaires. He nearly crashed in his hurry, and he was panting heavily when the other legionnaires helped him up. “Word from the main force!” he gasped.

The lead unicorn lowered his foreleg, and leaned towards the pegasus.

“The Moonlight Rondo is harbouring Blades of Nightmare,” the messenger went on. “Make sure to capture all of them!”

At this, the lead unicorn’s face went livid. “Blades of Nightmare!” he snarled. “Forget capture! Two of my siblings went on that raid on the Blades, and they came back in bags!” He turned towards his troops. “We’ll do it as Skirmisher Captain Plowshare said! Execute the Rondo! No prisoners!”

The rest of the legionnaires saluted, then moved in. One particularly crazed stallion howled, and jumped in, obviously counting on getting in close to prevent those long spears and huge blades from getting to him efficiently.

The first spear went through his throat with little resistance, spraying blood all over his chest as it punched through to the back of his neck. The legionnaire responsible deposited his body on the ground without so much as a grunt before closing in with his fellows.

The legionnaires moved in unison, like a wall of metal and muscle with enormous spikes protruding from their formation. The Rondo, even with some of their fellows knocked out, outnumbered them almost three to one, but an unruly mob of frightened, half-drunk ponies were not going to dent this formation. Behind the line were the unicorn magi, as well as a small group of ponies with different barding. Bitter Hops didn’t recognize them. Perhaps observers from a different Legion? They were armed with bows and dressed in leathers. From the south then. The Rondo ponies mentioned ophidites, these legionnaires must be here to help with that.

Even in their muddled state, the Rondo ponies understood the odds. One of them took off screaming, not even looking back to see if her fellows were right behind her.

A light green glow seized the Rondo mare so swiftly and tightly that her shoulders popped audibly. She let out a scream as the telekinesis dragged her towards a legionnaire. A barbed spear found its way through her back, cutting her spine and silencing her scream. When she went limp, the glow with winked out, letting her body drop to the ground.

“No prisoners!” the unicorn lead barked once more. “Tonight, Equestria ceases tolerance for the Rondo!” The rest of the legionnaires responded with a swift rap of their front hooves against their chest plates. They moved in unison once more, and swiftly thanks to their light barding. The nearest Rondo ponies had not expected such swiftness. They didn’t even get to run before they were skewered and cut down. The unicorn magi in the group raised shields when the Rondo ponies threw rocks or attempted crude telekinetic bolts. When the barrage stopped, they went back to grabbing ponies with telekinesis and hurling them in front of the formation to be killed.

The southern legionnaires fired their bows at the Rondo with an almost gleeful look on their faces. Bitter Hops scowled and choked back an urge to charge them. No legionnaire should be that happy about executing citizens, no matter the crime. He stepped back and instinctively wiped his face with a foreleg. He had thought it was sweat, but a crimson smear across his foreleg greeted his inspection. He wasn’t wounded, just too close to the nearby slaughter as it turned out.

“This is too cruel...” Bitter Hops mumbled. He looked across the killing, towards the faces of his fellow villagers. Even in the moonlight, the horror on their faces stood as clear as if they had been standing under a noon sun. What thoughts of killing they might have entertained a few moments ago withered at the sight of the genuine article. His gaze swept past them, towards a limp mare lying on the ground. The legionnaire carrying her must have simply dumped her there to get back to his task. ‘Cinder Spark!’ he thought. He galloped over to see if she was injured. The legionnaires here must all come from Sharpstone Fortress. They wouldn’t harm their Fort Commander’s daughter. Still, this was hardly a good way to treat a mare who had never so much as gotten angry during her entire stay in Moon Basin. Why was she unconscious to begin with? Did they knock her out? That made no sense, she wasn’t the sort to get wild and violent like that mare who frequented—

Bitter Hops looked around some more. No sign of that mare...what was her name again? Cloud Freeze, perhaps. Regardless of her actual name, she was nowhere to be seen. He knew what she and Cinder Spark had going on; a situation he didn’t mind, but had enough prudence not to inform Forge Spark. In a crisis such as this, it was unusual that they wouldn’t be together, unless...

Bitter Hops looked back to the trees where these Rondo ponies and legionnaires all came from. Perhaps, he should just assume that any of the Rondo that didn’t come out before the legionnaires has been taken care of. That included their leader, Spared Rod, and poor Cinder Spark’s marefriend.

“Uh...”

With a groan, Cinder Spark opened her eyes. It took only a second for that half-lidded confusion to turn into wide-eyes panic. She rose to her hooves with a start, then looked around.

“Cinder Spark,” Bitter Hops said. “Are you alright? What happened?”

“Cloud Breeze...” Cinder Spark whispered. Her tone turned into a hiss, and her front hooves dragged angrily against the ground. Her face contorted into a vicious scowl. “Chill Gaze!” She paused in her growing anger to assess the situation as soon as a few more screams finally reached her. The sight of the Rondo being slaughtered seemed to bring her perspective. “Mayor Hops, what’s going on?”

“The Legion,” Bitter Hops replied. “They’re here to kill the Moonlight Rondo.”

“The Rondo...” Cinder Spark started to tremble, her eyes welling up with tears. “To the end, she had to care for them so much...” She looked to the slaughter and stepped towards it. “I can’t let them destroy it now, not when she cared so much for the Rondo!”

“What are you doing?” Bitter Hops cried out. He waved his forelegs and tried to get in her way. “If you interfere, the Legion will—“

Cinder Spark, in a show of physical strength that took Bitter Hops by surprise, shoved him aside and let out a spell.

Bitter Hops had seen Cinder Spark’s spell casting on several occasions. She was no spectacle starter or hardened unicorn mage. Her magic was simple; summoning small objects to her side, creating temporary tools or materials, mending outfits, healing small cuts, and helping plants grow. His jaw dropped when huge arcs of her magic coalesced in front of the legionnaires, taking on the shape of a massive wall of scintillating colors. The wall flashed red, then orange, then purple, going through a fantastic and intimidating spectrum of lights. The legionnaires stopped dead in their tracks at the sight. One of them accidentally poked his spear into the wall. When he pulled it back, the metal head had dissolved while orange liquid, still hissing and smoking, dripped from the haft.

With such a massive and imposing barrier between them and the Legion, the surviving ponies from the Rondo were able to run for it, terror lending wings to their hooves.

“Don’t let them get away!” the lead unicorn mage shouted. His horn crackled in an obvious attempt to dispel the wall, but this creation proved resilient and complicated. Though he had no love for the Rondo and its antics, Bitter Hops couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at their escape. He looked to Cinder Spark, ready to offer a few words of surprised praise at the sudden power she showed, but she had fallen on her knees, eyes unfocused. Her horn sputtered magic, the sign of an overworked unicorn.

“Miserable, rebellious citizens!” one of the southern legionnaires snarled. She aimed her bow at Cinder Spark, and loosed without a moment’s hesitation.

Cinder Spark offered no defense. On instinct, Bitter Hops placed himself between her and the incoming danger, forelegs spread wide to cover as much as possible. It was only when a sharp pain, like the bite of a venomous snake, lanced between his shoulder blades did he remember that this might be a stupid idea. He had no defense to offer either.

“Hops!”

That was Bronze Star yelling, along with his heavy galloping. He was coming here, but there was nothing more he could do. Bitter Hops stared at the bloody, glinting point of an arrowhead sticking out of his chest. In front of him, Cinder Spark’s eyes widened. She pressed against him, inspecting the arrowhead, struggling to come up with some way to help. A fire was spreading from the wound, a hungry flame that chewed through muscle, organ, and bone. This wound...there was more to it than just the wood and steel. Even if they could patch this wound up, he would still be doomed.

“That’s the Fort Commander’s daughter, you idiot!” some legionnaire shouted.

“Hops!” Bronze Star cried out. He held Bitter Hops in his forelegs just in time as Hops’s legs gave way. Bitter Hops tried to reply, but the only thing to come out of his mouth was a trickle of blood. Bronze Star’s legs shook as he gently laid Bitter Hops on the cold, pitilessly hard ground.

“They murdered the mayor!” some villager shouted. Bitter Hops couldn’t recall which one.

“You monsters!” Bronze Star cried out. “He wasn’t Rondo!” He galloped off, towards the Legion with baton in hoof. Several villagers followed his example.

“No...” Bitter Hops tried to say. He could barely attempt a wheezing whisper. His lungs were failing, burned up by whatever poison was circulating his body. “You’ll die...”

“We’ll all die...”

Comments

[Beware The Carpenter]

Killing us all is just as important to them as killing ophidites! The were unleashing poison gas all over the place!”

They

He galloped off, towards the Legion with baton in hand.

Hoof

This note from Historian Dare Vaunt actually makes sense in explaining why the legion didn't adapt Blackmoon Blade training and weapons which I've been wondering about since Terrato's first description of them. THANK YOU!

Didn't see the ending coming either.