The Unforgiving Minute
Ping's eyes lingered on the hateful figures of his personal nightmares, sitting on the fitted stonework of the garrison courtyard, surrounded by their considerable baggage, utterly uncloaked by semblance or dream-magic. Every scar of age, every runnel carved into their hides by dream-magic gone wrong, dark magic over-indulged in, every compromise with morality or ethics or basic oneiromantic hygiene…
Disgusting.
Luckily, Ping was at the back of the small column, and it was the work of an instant to disappear from view, slipping into the shadows behind the doors, the heavy doors which the rest of the party had already passed through, to be brought up short by the obstruction of the two matrons and their clutter blocking traffic into the squadron's portion of the garrison complex. He stepped sideways, and flitted upwards to find a nook beside the decorative gargoyles along the wall outside, just below the patrol parapets. He dove into the implied space between a stone griffon, beak writhing with petrified horror, and a rock pony, her head eternally captured, rearing in disgust.
A mental gesture like a reflex, honed by a lifetime of need for rapid descent through the stages of unconsciousness, fired the stallion into the under-stuff like a rocket fired into a clear sky, or a corps-mare's needle, injecting him into the main vein of the dreaming world.
A quick spin in the gloaming, some few thestral souls gleaming like beacons in the early night hours, so few asleep among the mere day-souled sleepers. Those whose duties called for them to be awake later in the night, or through the whole of the daylight hours…
While Ping raced his anxieties, faster than they could catch him, and ordered his responses faster than he could think them, his mind on another level unpacked the impulse that had caused him to flee and hide. The impulse that had made his decision for him, even before Ping himself had consciously registered that there had been a decision to be made.
That usually meant that his subconscious mind had been playing with this problem for a very long time, and he'd just not let himself consciously register the moral calculations being performed under cover of his own personal ever-night.
First, the matrons had refused to be sent away, that was obvious, that was the trigger. They were too old in their evil ways, and too set in their personal self-regard; they wouldn't trust him with the exercise of authority in the matters which were to come.
No matter the practicalities and the possibilities.
But that was merely the naked, inciting fact. What was the thought-process that was even now making him pick out the dreaming thestrals available, discarding this one, considering that one but setting it aside as a weak reed, latching onto this one as a definite possible?
It wasn't simply that Ping didn't trust the two matrons, fools as they were. It was that he didn't trust the aunties, either. These two had somehow slipped the bonds of the Concordat, and were free of all restraint. How were the aunties covering for these two, anyways? Were they? The aunties, the Elders, were too detached, too slow-moving. They had pushed all these resources out onto a ledge, a ledge they had no conception of, no understanding of, no feel for. And it was possible they hadn't done their due diligence with these matrons. Or somehow had shuffled them out of the rotation, retiring them early, into the true retirement.
From the look of them, the two matrons maybe should have been properly 'retired' directly into the Plain of Jars. They were that disgusting-looking. It would only take a small push to get these matrons labelled 'corrupted'.
But no, it was vital that these two didn't have any sort of sustained contact with the leaders of Ping's new squadron. It wasn't as if anypony really knew what Gleaming Shield and her terrifying bat-hen were doing, least of all the two of them. Ping was morally certain of that fact.
Whatever it was they thought they were planning, the doors they were opening led into liminal spaces which housed great, unconstrained powers; one of which great powers Ping himself was pledged in service to, mind, spirit and soul. However queasy and terrified that prospect of servitude left him when he considered the facts lurking underneath the rituals of colony and home, kith and kin.
And those two lunatics down in the courtyard, like two ticking time-bombs.
Whatever was to come, Ping and his neglected thestrals would never reach there if they were all arrested for subversives here, now, in this moment, due to those imbecile matrons doing - whatever it was they thought they were doing. Playing the prophetess? Seeing if they couldn't get hired on as hierophants for the expedition? Ping had no idea, the resources of imbecility and incompetence were infinite - while matter was sadly limited, and magic constrained by emotional possibility & the strengths of the soul, stupidity was without limits, infinite in scope and possibilities.
Infinite possibilities, every one of them idiotic and undesireable.
The matrons were there, in the courtyard, in the open. From their posture, they had to have been there for a while, possibly as long as a day, although Ping rather suspected that Gilda and Gleaming Shield would have cleared the obstruction from their figurative foyer, sooner rather than later. So, fairly recently, but not too much so. A response had to be grinding through the bureaucracy of the squadron, somewhat slowed by Ping's own absence.
In time with Ping's lightning-fast calculation of time and space, he chose two options. That idiot Bob, to play the fool. Ensign Fruits Basket, who was both reliable, and already asleep, cautiously patrolling her platoon's barracks-room spirit traps, looking over her bats who were likewise sleeping on the early night schedule, to preserve their energy for daylight activities as expected by the day ponies.
The matrons would try to buffalo Gleaming Shield, talk her into hiring them on as 'experts' of the mysterious east, as if they knew anything of the continent of Beakland. Or present themselves as the emissaries of ineffable prophecy, which was somewhat more closer kin to the truth.
If Ping wasn't very clever and very good, the two matronly imbeciles would drag the entire thestral contingent into their idiot conspiracy. One which wouldn't fool the major, Gleaming Shield, in the least. Or rather, even if they fast-talked the major with gypsy piffle and cold reading blither, the master sergeant, standing behind her unicorn master, would see instantly through the grift.
The problem was, that if Ping tried to intervene directly, the griffon would spot it as just another, rival grift.
Which it was.
So, still calculating, Ping formed a dream-semblance, and appeared to 'Bob', the imbecile that Major Shield had accidentally gifted a Name of honor and distinction. For no good reason, of course - something to do with the imbecile's former name being too close to one of the major's elders - but it had implanted in the idiot the misguided idea that he was important.
So Ping gave Bob something to be important about. Wearing the cloak of the Mother, Ping appeared to the stallion Bob, and told him that there were fakirs, frauds, pretenders, heretics. He showed him a glimpse of the two matrons in the courtyard, and whispered that they were possessed of dream-monsters, warped in soul and spirit.
It was close enough to true that the idiot bearing testimony would cloud the matter, and make the matrons radioactive - they'd find themselves imprisoned in some spook's black site before you could say 'Nightmare Moon cultist' twice.
While setting that particular trigger, Ping considered why he was doing this, and how he could make sure that the trap only took the matrons, and nopony else. Why was he preserving himself and his fellow thestrals?
Well, for one, he didn't care to be imprisoned and subjected to the tender mercies of the White Witch's confused welter of secret services and counter-intelligence agencies. Despite what he'd said to the matrons, ponies didn't get burned at the stake in these modern, rational days. But they did get jailed indefinitely, subjected to mind magic to 'purge' the corrupting influences, or otherwise warped into 'good ponies'.
Assuming they were too compromised to be safely given into the hooves of the guardians of the Plain of Jars. Which, despite what the aunties and their agents within the Concordat told the White Witch, only contained safe ponies - those twisted by workaday dark magic, and unaligned dream-parasites.
Well, not safe by the definition of ‘won’t feed foals to dark dread monstrous abominations, eat pony flesh, or burn towns and villages in sacrifice to greasy black stone effigies of many-tentacled horrors’. Safe to the guardians of the inner mysteries.
The thestrals kept sub-colonies separate from the main colonies, for the benefit of batponies privy to the inner mysteries, those almost caught and subject to the ‘reforms’ of Celestia's inquisitors. Some few of those actually were too far gone, and were subject to the aunties’ own exorcisms. More than a few were beyond even the thestrals own rituals, and had to be returned to the custody of the guardians of the Plain. Even the successfully reformed could never again be trusted with the care of the dreams of others, and thus the sub-colonies.
Sometimes, though, the corrupted had to be sacrificed directly to the agents of the Concordat, so that they and their co-sponsor could feel that they served some purpose, conveyed some benefit to the balance of power. To prove to everypony that the Night Shift was trustworthy, and not corrupted by Nightmare worship.
As if there was a Night Shift without worship of the Mother of Dreams.
So! It was time to burn another pair of matrons. There wasn't a full inquisitorial team here in the Griffish Isles, for reasons which were obscure to Ping. The presence of the Temple of Hungers should have merited a proper detachment of inquisitors, if Celestia's guard dogs had any sort of wisdom in their approach to their job, riding herd on the unregenerate cultists who mared the ramparts of the dayponies' undefended dreaming minds, and the large if diffused swarm of batponies within the EUP’s pegasus squadrons.
Next - almost simultaneously - was Ensign Fruits Basket, who was from an ancient and valued lineage, and was as ambitious as she was admirable. Major Shield hadn't recognized what she'd offered Basket, but the master sergeant had, Ping suspected, figured it out. In a stroke, they'd made the thestral mare personally loyal to her benefactors. Oh, she was a well-indoctrinated follower of the Old Religion - you didn't get as far as she had in the EUP without being 'reliable' in that way - but her interests were aligned with the Regiment, not the Old Religion. And more importantly, she wasn’t an initiate of the inner mysteries.
And that was fine.
Ping appeared to Fruits Basket wearing his own soul, without adornment.
"Lord Spear-Stallion! Blessings upon your night!" she squeaked in her surprise, stopped dead by Ping's appearance before her, his shadows twitching despite his attempts at self-control.
"Blessings upon your nightly duties, shieldmaiden. How stands the ramparts against the formless dark?"
"Strong as we are many, lord," she said, bowing deeply. Ping had never talked to this one personally. In general, he'd avoided personal contact with other thestrals in the service. Their uncertainty in the light of day, and their obsequiousness in the dreamtime had made him prefer the company of day-ponies in the day, and nopony at all in the dead of night. "What has caused you to honor me with your presence, lord? Some dread thing for which you require an aegis to stand some half-second while you conjure its demolition upon your many-bladed spear?"
"Nay, lady. The line of dream-entrenchment stakes, of sudes are intact, the sudes stand tonight sentry for us all. There is a worse matter, which requires your personal honor to stand shield against our own follies."
"I- I have no idea what that means, lord. What worse matter…?"
"Treachery, betrayal, and subversion, lady shieldmaiden. Mares of great age and honor, betraying their oaths and their fellow-ponies, for ego, for self-satisfaction, for the corruption which their too-long stays outside of the sudes has left them half-souled, evil-spirited, or worse, corrupted entire."
The dreaming mare blinked, befuddled. "I thought those were myth, by the daywalkers who hunt us for any sign of disloyalty to the peytral. That it didn't ever happen."
Was that how she justified her oaths to the EUP, how she reconciled them with the rituals of the colonies?
"No, my lady. It is a very real thing. To lay eyes upon the naked flesh of matrons such as these, is to see their souls laid bare. It is never a pretty sight, even among the unfallen."
"You're saying they're here? Now?"
"Even now, at our gates. Petitioning for access to our sanctum. Plotting to promise our good major, certain secret magics, secret prophecies, imaginary wisdoms. All to lead astray the daywalking and the unprepared."
"Blasphemy!" she gasped.
And it was, of a sort. To those who were never accepted into the inner mysteries. Which most thestrals in service weren't.
And so, Ping bent his head down to the slight figure in the liminal gloaming, urgently speaking those things which must be done, to salvage the project of the Crystal Guard.
Giles led his griffons off to the side, away from the brewing confrontation just awaiting some sort of response from the ponies who ran his regiment. He knew trouble when he saw it, darkening the flagstones like pony-shaped holes in the waking world.
The foolish, overlarge hippogriff seemed likely to go confront the horrors, her give-a-shit no doubt overloaded by days of distraction and provocation. Giles got a good grip on the mare's wing, and dragged her out of the line of fire and the inevitable disaster.
Neither of the posted guards in front of the great doors moved a muscle, and Giles deduced by this stillness that somepony had already run for the authorities to intervene. If the official guard detail were holding their position so, far be it from juniorest of junior non-commissioned-not-really-any-sort-of-officer Lance Corporal Giles to put himself forward into the jaws of the beast.
Were these ponies fanged?
After an interminable minute, which may have taken up a single actual minute, or fifteen or twenty actual, ticking minutes, authority finally showed its pony face, as Captain Bell stuck her heavy, meaty mattock-head out of the main doors, staring at the black, scarred, bat-winged things sitting patiently between two small piles of - brightly pastel pony luggage?
It was incongruous, and Giles had no idea what to make of it.
"Hey there! You two! Can we help y'all with something? Guard detail said you wouldn't talk to anypony without th' rank to speak for th' regiment."
One of the horrors opened her apparently thestral eyes, and gazed up the stairs-and-ramp at the big pegasus mare.
"Be you Twilight Sparkle, of the Sixth Guards Regiment?" the horror ground out like every whispering, judging voice that had ever haunted Giles' troubled sleep.
"Cain't say that I am, ma'am. Nor can I say who the dickens that might be, neither. You sure you have the right city? Guard House is in Canterlot."
"We have the right city, Captain- Captain, what is your name, please?"
"You ain't said who you is, either, mare. I think yer a mare. Are you a mare?"
"They call me Witching Hour. This is my companion Wolf Time. We are here to see the lady and mistress of this company. You are clearly no such thing, so we would exchange words with your mistress. Bring her here, now."
"Well, then, Miss Hour. Since you all were good enough to give me yours, my name's Bell. Captain Big Bell. And I don't know any Twilight Sparkle. Name sounds vaguely familiar, but whoever it is, ain't the colonel of this regiment, on account of we ain't got one yet."
"She means me, Captain Bell, thank you," said the voice of Giles' commander, wafting over the shoulder of the thick-accented captain standing in the doorway. Said captain stood to the side, and let Major Shield pass by, with the master sergeant in tow. "Who are you, that you have the name of a dead filly in your mouth?"
"Well now… Major. It is, I am morally positive, a fact that the filly who was once known as Twilight Sparkle is very much not dead, not in the Elysian Fields, not in the Empyrean. Her dreams are known to us, although your face I must admit is the first in my waking seeing."
A chill went up Giles' back, as he watched the confrontation building.
Or maybe it was that batpony who blazed over the major's horn and hat, arching athletically as he burst out of the shadows of the unbarred doorway, rocketing towards the two unearthly mares sitting alertly in the middle of the courtyard.
Then the half-armored batpony impacted the two horrors, and scattered them and their luggage like ten-pins, knocking one aside, and spitting the other with his spear. A great screech arose from the impaled hades-mare, the weapon waving around like a lost boar-spear jutting out of a very living swine, struck but not fatally so.
"Charge!" bellowed Giles, his inaction broken by the prospect of violence in perilous proximity to his commanding officer. His griffons, startled by his sudden order, missed a step, only following him after a body's length had been consumed by his sudden darting advance.
Giles hit the unwounded mare with a full-body tackle, pinning her to the blood-sprayed flagstones, his weight sufficient to bear down on the smaller, terrifying monster. Her fangs scrabbled at his gorget, which was barely wide enough to spare his throat from her slashing sharp teeth. Mildly terrified, he raised a taloned fist and bashed her head in, once, twice, and - he didn't have to do it a third time, her demon-eyes gone crosseyed and vague. She collapsed into a heap, with his superior weight pressing her into the stones.
Giles looked up, to see what had happened to his lance. Two toms and a hen were holding down the other mare - Wolf Time? - and keeping her from opening up her wound deeper around the service spear driven into her side. The hippogriff doctor was moving forward with medical supplies in her talons, and off to the right, two more toms were holding down the mad batpony who had attacked someone in the presence of their superior officers. The madpony, his velocity spent, was lying peaceably beneath the pile of griffon flesh, his eyes on the insensate lump of pony flesh crushed beneath Giles' own bulk.
"Well, that was certainly a thing," observed Master Sergeant Gilda.
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>When you're playing a TTRPG as the usual group of scoundrels, mercenaries, and ne'erdowells and That Guy decides to be a psychopath for no reason
Well said, Gilda, well said. That was 100% a thing that just happened. Ping moves really fast, and I wasn't expecting that.
Twiggles has absolutely no idea of the powerhouse of a regiment she gathered, does she?
I knew he didn't like them, I had no idea he hated them to the point of revulsion.......excellent.
Edit: The fact that murdering both of the freaks was Plan A speaks volumes as to just how far down this rabbit hole goes. If Ping has any sense he'll the bosses in on the scheme real quick, else every Batpony in the regiment is gonna be in worse shape then they were before the Crystal Guard.
9924390
And then you get the paladin with 0 ranks in sense motive.
yea why do I have feeling twilight/shield is going to end up being Luna's great great great great great great granddaughter or something like that and be found out right before nightmare show up and few batpony attack her think she need be taken out but save by ping who find out or atleast I hope soemthign like that happen
9924426
I'm not convinced that straight up murdering them was Plan A. That's so simple it's not even a proper Plan.
I do suspect that violently assaulting and then detaining them, however, is part of the plan. Remember, Gilda's sharp: She wouldn't seen through whatever lie the Matrons supplied, but then Ping runs into the issue of trying to explain things in a way that won't Ruin Everything™, which is another lie that Gilda would see through. No, it seems to me that this whole Plan was not about killing the Matrons, but about shifting the truth around enough to where Ping could supply an explanation that was true enough that Gilda would accept it, while not allowing the same exit to the Matrons.
Ping's story seems to be all about trying to maneuver things so that the outcome is no worse than a compromise: Everyone something they want, but in a way they're unhappy about.
Very important distinction, that.
Oh yeah, Ping's right to believe these two are only going to mess everything up and get themselves (and others) caught, if their plan is to start out by addressing Gleaming Shield by the Forbidden Name, and in a manner implying that they will acknowledge her by no other name too, no less. There's no way that won't raise red flags.
Case in point. I'm not even sure I understand the full extent of just what it is the bat ponies are planning yet, but even without that context, saying this up front like that alone raises far too many red flags. Were it me who was Gleaming at this moment, I'd already be gearing up to tell the two hags to, at the very least, either clear off voluntarily, or be removed by force, because they're clearly nothing but trouble.
Of course...may not have to now.
Truer words have rarely ever been spoken, but we can always count on Gilda to utter them.
Ping's role in all of this remains an enigma to me, and the fact that we're only getting the true story behind the bat ponies as bits and pieces in passing, usually without whole heaps of the proper context, probably hasn't helped. Of particular uncertainty to me is where his (and by extension, other bat ponies) allegiances truly lie--with the Crystal Guard, with the bat pony cause, or some neutral or other side altogether? And whichever side that is, is it potentially benevolent or malevolent? Or, possibly, just misunderstood? Because the thought has occurred to me that both sides, in general, might already want roughly the same thing, its just both sides are greatly misconstruing the others' actions as the threats of an enemy, resulting in the adoption of questionable tactics to combat it.
It actually makes me think back to the whole Pinkie Pie situation of the last story, as it eventually was proved that Pinkie in theory had good intentions all throughout, she just resorted to highly questionable tactics to try and carry it out, and I can't help but think it might be a similar situation playing out here...but it's too soon to say for certain.
I just know that it'd be smart to not assume that everything here is as it seems at first glance...
9924471
After a quick re-read I realize I somehow skipped over a part on accident, you way makes much more sense.
9924451
I always end up with the robocops:
1. DETECT EVIL ON THING-> IF YES, GOTO 2, IF NO, GOTO 3
2. SMITE-> IF DEAD, GOTO 3, IF NOT, GOTO 2
3. FIND NEW THING, GOTO 1
Ok I will need a second read of this chapter because I don't know if it was the vocabulary or the way it was written but I had a hard time reading it. There was History, magic, vocations, religion and conspiracy all mixed together.
There were some new concept and terminology introduced in this that need either further exploring or some definitions to become clear.
9924426
I think plan A was to detain, discredit and feed the matron to whatever inquisition Celestia put in place against the Thestral after Nightmare Moon rebellion.
Plan B might actually be simply killing them.
9924700
your not the only one who had a hard time reading this chapter, a bit too much purple prose in it muddled what was being said
There are too much to quote in this chapter that was introduced that we don't have enough information of.
- The Concordat ( some kind of organization)
- Plain of Jars (either a prison or a retirement place for Matrons, Aunties and Elders)
- Sub-Colonies and Main-colonies
- The Old Religion and Nightmare Moon cultists (there apparently a nuance)
- The Crystal Guards project (which Ping seems to be the leader and creator of the whole thing)
- Elysian Fields and the Empyrean (both a a kind of afterlife. There is a difference? And the Elders seems to know 'Twilight' is not dead by some maner. Dream-magic or out-dated information)
- Bob is an idiot.
That's a lot of new stuff that hot shoved in with the purple prose. So I will focus on magic instead and Ping overall mission. Ok let's try this again, there is a lot to analyze and pick apart:
- It was Dream Magic that made their previous disguise a few chapters back. Good to know. Note: It can be dispelled with a swift strike of Shadow magic as was displayed by Ping before.
- Dream-magic can go wrong. Make sences, any type magic mishandled can go wrong.
- Dream parasites can be aligned. Apparently. The word parasite take a strange meaning with aligned there, it can be imply that dream parasite can be of use.
- Dark magic is a thing and can apparently be done by Thestral. Dark magic is kind of canon to MLP and I guess anybody can try their hand at it. It was also mentioned that dark magic can be "workaday" apparently.
- Seems the Aunties and Matrons practice dark magic for either their job (which we don't exactly know the scope or tenant of yet) or for their cult.
- oneiromantic hygiene is a thing. Which mean oneiromancy is a thing (had to look that one up. Great idea by the way)
- Resume: if trained and/or have the talent, Thestral magic can allow them to fly, cloud walk, dream magic and shadow magic.
There seems to be some stigma associated with the state the Aunties are in. A lot of what Ping perceive only seems to be available to him or maybe to anyone who is sensible to dream-magic. Well, not the scars, bad health and draconian traits, Gilles saw some of those. Doesn't explain how Ping was able to detect Dark magic thought. Maybe dream-magic allow it?
A new use of Shadow magic but I think we already saw the use of this particular skill with when the others Thestral disappeared in the catacombs.
Cool design for the gargoyles. Let's hope these are not actual ponies and griffons turned to stones.
- Under-stuff: what the dream lands are made of. Seems like a layman terms rather than the official one thought. The general environment of the dream world seem to be called the/a gloaming. There Thestral who have dream magic seems to glow, allowing to locate each others. They can talk to each other there, allowing for long distance communication if Ping talk with the matron in the other chapter is accurate. Here it allows him to quickly talk to any of his soldier on dream guard duty. Being actually asleep and using dream-magic seems to be two different things.
- Experienced dream-magic user can fall asleep anywhere and almost instantly. A rather useful skill for a soldier.
- Traps and wards can be applied in the dream scape to protect ponies and dream users.
- Don't get what's a corpse-mare needle is thought.
Just what did Ping pledged himself to do that would go against all he came from. For his "neglected Thestral" apparently.
Wow, that's very dark and disturbing. Even for Celestia. "Friendship is Magic or else we brainwash you into thinking so". Celestia: 'Supreme leader for eternity' much?
But still. A full on inquisition? No wonder the Thestral call Sunbutt the White Witch. Well... Luna did get corrupted and the Pony of Shadow do exist... And Sombra probably falls intothat category if we consider his Comic origin.
This implies a that only a few batponies are into the conspiracy or even in the know about the true religion. So most are loyal to the peytral but follow the Old Religion which is full of cultists...
Nothing like a little bit of chaos to brighten things up, just before leaving on campaign
This is going to get messy, I'd bet cookies on it.
9925452 -
The needle of a physician (in military parlance, a navy or marine field medic is a corpsman, thus "corpse-mare").
9925452 9925700
Corps, not corpse.
The phrase "morally certain/positive" is certainly intriguing. How exactly does morality apply in such a context? I suspect there's dream logic at work.
In any case, fascinating to get a glimpse of just how much lurks under the surface of the Night Shift. And how the left wing really has no idea what the right wing is doing. It's a miracle the whole thing hasn't crashed, though that may well change in the next few hours.
9924670
To be fair, the worlds tend to be full of lots of evil things that eat babies first and ask questions never, or spin word-shivs that end nations of justice and light.
Nothing wrong with going Inquisition on the lot, really. People with good intentions and desires don't show up on Detect Evil, after all!
9929168
Maybe, but you usually expect to play with sapients, not a flowchart attached to a wonderbible on top of a lawnmower that may, at random times, decide to murder you for a minor offense.
So, figure I should comment on here at some point, and give you a thumbs up (one of the benefits of being a bat pony). Found this series thanks to Sunset's Isekai which left me curious and I really like what you're doing here. I'm sure I've missed a ton of jokes and references since I'm an old hermit RL but that doesn't stop it from being a great read.
Hmmm, what would I like to see, hope you do...
Pinkie Pie's treatment, I can see Celestia assigning someone to her with all this talk of things not being how they're supposed to be, I'm sure she understands divinity, and Pinkie could help her steer Equestria on the right course.
A peaceful return of Luna/Nightmare Moon. Considering Cadance's emotional trauma losing Shining, her causing the war, and her strained relationship with Celestia who rather botched the war, I think those two might just hit it off. That and it'd make for a far more interesting story than the typical fight.
Any how, a long way for me to go on this story, so back at it, and can't wait to see what you give us.
Those two are screwed. Messing with Twi-I mean Gleaming Shield and Ping. Its probably just me but I am still not sure on Ping's stance. I am not sure if he is for Nightmare Moon or Luna? But it doesn't really matter because Luna is the end goal. It's just how he gets there that is not clear to me. But I am sure he will get there. Also I hope Bob makes it okay through this. Despite what Ping says about him.
10058970
You said a lot of what I was thinking. I become a big fan of batponies and look forward to reading about them and Gilda too.
I'm pretty sure Ping will have to fill Shield and Gilda in on everything before the serious shit goes down.
in sacrifice to greasy black stone effigies of many-tentacled horrors
So...do Lovecraftian Horrors exist in the Bit-verse, or is this just religion?
There are in fact three eternal verities: death, taxes, and stupidity.
And so NMM returned at some point whenever.
"AH! AFTER 1,000 YEARS I'M FREE! IT'S TIME TO CONQUER EQUE-.. Celestia? How did you get here so fast? And why are you all fiery and evil-looking... did you turn into that Daybreaker idea from when we were foals?"
"Buck no... that was so lame. Besides, Day Breaker? That's kinda what YOU would do! Ya know? Breaking the day? What was I even thinking? No, I am SOLAR PROMINENCE!! And now I must destroy you!"
"WHAAAAA?! But you're all nice and good and stuff! What happened? What's going on?"
"Sorry, you came back in a dark and murderous version of Equestria, and I am therefore a TRULY HORRIBLE TYRANT WHO ABUSES MY GOD-LIKE POWERS FOR EVIL!! MUWAH HA HA HA!!!"
"....Should we just join forces and torment all the mortals?"
"We totally should."
And so, Darkquestria was kerfuquelled. And Twilight still never got laid.
Well things got ugly in more then one way.
Ha! Indeed. Can't fool Gilda
Ooh, nice one. And not too far from the truth, to be honest
Ahh, now I wanna see Nightmare Moon get purged and Luna returned just to see that whole house of cards collapse in baffled embarassment
Ping is a master, wow
Charming names
Oh dear. Ping just turned him into a freaking assassin
Oh, yes, you stupid creature. Attack back rather than immediately surrendering. That'll help
Indeed, it was!
Remarks and corrections:
> when he considered the facts laying underneath
> was laying peaceably beneath the pile of griffon flesh
Both of those should be "lying", not "laying".
10464886
Fixed. I've always been bad with 'laying'/'lying'.
Okay, so we are seeing some more of what is going on the the Batponies. What I'm piecing together, is they sided with, and still overall worship NMM, though it remains to be seen if they worship NMM, or Luna, and simply followed Best Princess unquestioningly when she turned into NMM. After the end of the Lunar Rebellion, Celestia didn't fully trust the Thestrals, but also kind of needed them since they were the only ones left able to patrol the Dreamscape and deal with the threats and issues in it. So the Concordance was created to oversee them and make sure that they are doing their job in the Dreamscape, without consorting to dark powers or anything like that.
Meanwhile, the majority of the Bat Ponies do still secretly worship Luna/NMM, but know they have to work hard to hide that and to prove to "The White Witch' that they are good, trust worthy ponies who put all that in the past. Meanwhile the highest their ones, the ones who actually do patrol the Dreamscapes, know far more and do deal with the sort of dark powers that Celestia forbids, but are doing so in service to the job of preserving the Dreamscape, with those who eventually give into the corruption or go to far either retired to some prison type place, or given over to Celestia as a kind of 'We, as a whole, are proving we will follow you and be faithful, see we fond this heretic who consorted with dark powers and are freely handing them over to you to deal with!" move.
So on the whole, the Bat Ponies are loyal to Luna/NMM, while trying to fake loyalty to Celestia so they will be in place when it is time to help NMM return and claim the throne, and while also legit doing the whole 'take care of the dreamscape' job. With most Bat Ponies not being aware of just how deep this goes and how complicated things are, just the basics of "NMM good, White Witch bad, but don't let suspect you feel that way."
And these two Matrons...... are screwing it up by being so freaking BAD at hiding the whole 'we don't consort with dark forces and have agenda of our own' thing, they risk screwing it up for EVERY bat, hence Ping, who seems to actually be pretty damn high ranked among their inner circles, making moves to deal with them and set them up as rogue witches, not actual members of the Colony.
And all without having to risk giving Gilda a chance to roll her epic tier Sense Motive checks on him when he tries to bluff.
Lucky for him, these witches seem stupid enough to play along with what he wants to portray them as quite easily.
10848687
Thank you! Not confusing at all.