Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 264: Miss Dawn

Once everything had been discussed, it was time to get things into gear and get ready to finish this out. Discord and Fluttershy had agreed to stake out the area near the castle in order to dispel any unfair advantages that Grogar may have set up for himself. It was perfect since he had no idea that we knew where his hideout was located. So this would make things much simpler once we got the drop on him.

I had asked my crewmates to spend the night here in Ponyville also. The knowledge that all of my closest allies, friends, and families were right nearby put me at ease for the time being. As I had mentioned before, the fighting that day was all over the place. Disjointed. Chaotic. Completely off the walls with no way to tell what was happening or how to counter the enemy properly.

In short, we all needed to take some time to rest up and prepare properly. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t get to sleep at all that evening. I was stuck staying up late--it was around 10PM--and looked over a map of Equestria on my dining room table. More specifically, I focused on the areas around Ponyville. All the way from the Pie Family Rock Farm up to the Castle of the Two Sisters.

“Hmmmph…”

The main conflict stemmed from the fact that, on some level, I knew that I had betrayed Twilight’s orders. It wasn’t just an easy snap decision to make, but I knew that everyone wanted to stay and fight off this threat until the very end. But just how was our advance going to proceed? I was no strategist. I preferred to largely be in heated situations and think up plans on the fly. Trying to come up with something in the eerie silence of the night was, well--annoying in a word.

Knock-knock-knock.

My ear flicked as soon as I heard that--someone was at my door. But who could it be at this time? Did someone have second thoughts? Or was it something more dangerous?

Knock-knock-knock.

I suppose there was no point in wasting time. I went ahead and got up from my seat at the table to take a look outside. The individual in question wasn’t a familiar face by any means, but it was still somepony rather important.

I opened the door, and greeted the pony. “...Luster Dawn? Just what are you doing here at this time?”

“Pale. Pale Vestige, right?” the pink unicorn tilted her head as if she tried to get a better look at me.

“That’s...who I am, yes,” I said with a nod. “Now that I’ve answered your question, would you care to answer mine?”

She sighed, and looked over my shoulder. “...do you mind if I enter? I feel like it would be easier, and much less risky to speak with you inside.”

This wasn’t the place to debate, so I stood aside to grant her entry. “Not a problem, miss. What would you like to speak with me about?” I shut the door once the mare trotted inside.

Then, she promptly turned to me, and started to explain herself. “Listen...I know you’re just doing your job, but I just want to say that I strongly oppose the idea of trying to fight Grogar.”

Understandable. I suspect that she came to me personally to avoid causing a scene at the massive gathering earlier that day. Since we spoke privately, we could both relay our perspectives without pressure.

“I see...and why do you not want us to?” I asked.

“Well...we don’t know what we’re dealing with,” she muttered with a fearful tremble in her voice, “If we risk going against him, we could potentially lose everything and everpony that we’ve come to know. I don’t think you want that. The last thing we need is another Wendigo situation on our hooves.”

I already knew this. But my decision had been made. “...Ms. Dawn. Please understand why I’m doing what I’m doing. This is to change the very landscape which we live upon. To finely shred the walls between the common pony and the alicorn--so that we all can be seen as heroes. Our own elements of harmony.” I tilted my head, “Wouldn’t that be nice? To know that you could always count on somepony nearby?”

She looked down and sighed to herself. “I suppose...but even so. What if it fails?” She took a step towards me, and started to raise her voice with more passion poured in with each passing word. “What if it results in being all for naught? You’ll have wasted your life trying to prove somepony like Cozy can be trusted and endanger hundreds--possibly thousands of others in the process. Is that something you want taken to your grave, sir? ‘Here lies the naive visionary’?!”

I stared at the floor in silence for a moment, and shut my eyes. I was rather busy with coming up with a response to such a statement.

“...My apologies,” Luster mumbled as I heard her take a step towards me. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I’m only--”

“What do you want to do?” I cut her off with a question.

“...Excuse me?”

I turned to face her, and looked her in the eyes. “My words may be meaningless, but they’re genuinely all I have. And whether Twilight Sparkle approves of it or not, I’m not going to stand idly and allow the universe to control me. Nay--I’m going to start putting my hoof through the wringer to control the universe.”

There was a moment of silence before Luster Dawn responded. Out of desperation, she pulled a trump card of a statement out of her proverbial pockets. “...You know that I can contact Twilight and inform her of what you’re doing, right?”

Comments

[Neo4K]

"You’ll have wasted your life trying to prove somepony like Cozy can be trusted and endanger hundreds--possibly thousands of others in the process. Is that something you want to be taken to your grave, sir? ‘Here lies the naive visionary’?!”

What the hell is she getting at? Does she have a problem with Cozy or something?

There was a moment of silence before Luster Dawn responded. Out of desperation, she pulled a trump card of a statement out of her proverbial pockets. “...You know that I can contact Twilight and inform her of what you’re doing, right?”

Wow. You know, I get that Luster is scared, but making threats like that is a dick move even for her. Plus, Pale has already voiced his thoughts on the matter to the inhabitants in the previous chapter and they gave him their approval. So I sincerely doubt that Twilight is going to convince the entirety of Ponyville not to fight back against Grogar when they, as well as Pale, know that it's an act of cowardice and may or may not be a part of Grogar's plan.

[Jmaster49]

10821961
Yeah, you can kind of chalk it up to her being very new to all of this and afraid of the worst possible outcome.