An Empty World

by The_Unnamed_Pawn

Chapter 16

The empress screamed in pain and anger. This time though, her hatred was focused. She didn’t care about the world anymore. It was colorful sure, but it wasn’t chaotic. That was all because of the ponies. It was always the ponies that were causing trouble in her nightmares, and right now it was the ponies that were refusing to let her sleep.

In fact it had gone beyond that now. Not only would the ponies not let her sleep, but they were also actually trying to hurt her. Normally they just hurt her on accident; at least, that’s what she’d always thought. Now they were doing it on purpose, and it really REALLY hurt!

Her scream didn’t get rid of them all though. It only got rid of about half of them. The rest of them still stood there, and of course it was only the noisiest of the noisiest that were left.

“Ooh you’re going to pay for that one, Nopony!” the white mare shouted.

“Airheart!” the gray stallion yelled at the exact same time.

Both of them moved in for another attack after that. This time it was more vicious though. The empress closed her eyes and covered her ears reflexively when the bolts flew toward her. This did nothing to dull the pain or the noise.

“This isn’t working guys!” the golden stallion shouted in an attempt to calm the angry pair. It didn’t work. The gray stallion was already reloading, and the white mare was still moving in for her own attack. This attack was one the empress did react to. She couldn’t stop herself from flailing when the white mare grabbed her and threw her to the ground. She similarly couldn’t stop herself from leaping up and screaming in anger after she had landed.

This didn’t stop them though. The crying mare was the next to move in for an attack. She had been flying away before, but that was just so she had enough distance to charge. The knife hit the empress at an incredible speed, but she was left unfazed. It hurt a lot, but not enough to kill her. Nothing could do that.

The blue pegasus retreated after the stab didn’t even move the empress. All five of the ponies were concerned now. Even The white mare and the brown stallion had stopped smiling and bore looks of concern.

The empress was unbelievably angry at these ponies now, but she honestly had no idea what she could do about them. They weren’t going away like everypony else did, and she was really trying hard to make them. She couldn’t just get rid of the whole world like last time either. Discord wouldn’t let her.

“I think we need to calm down and think of a plan here everypony,” the golden stallion said. Everypony nearby nodded in agreement, the empress included. That was something the doctor had told her to do a lot.

“Calm down and tell me more,” he’d say. That was the key here. The empress was too angry. She needed to be calm in order to make her dreams quiet down. “You’re in control of your dreams,” that was another thing the doctor had said, “If you just keep calm and remember that, then you can change them however you want.”

The doctor was right too. It had worked last time. At least it had worked mostly, but that was just because the empress had changed them wrong. This time, she wouldn’t free Discord.

The empress took a deep breath, lowered her arms, and did her best to meditate. It was easier now that the ponies weren’t attacking her. They were still making a lot of noise as they planned, cursed, and cried, but it wasn’t as bad as the noise that Screwball had to deal with before. Just as before she was unable to completely shut out the noise quickly, but she was able to calm herself down. It would only take a little more effort to shut out her dreams after that.

The characters around her were thrown a touch by this sudden change in demeanor. Two of them became somehow angrier and two more were left confused. Only the brown stallion acted as if he wasn’t surprised, but the empress had little doubt that he was faking it.

“Now,” the empress said without the slightest hint of emotion; it would be gone soon along with everything else but the garden, so why bother trying to keep it now? “Here’s the part where we all disappear, and I get to sleep.” With that the empress reached out, and removed the ponies from her dream.

It didn’t work.

Instead of vanishing, the ponies were suddenly louder than ever. It was just like a base pumped up to the loudest possible volume and blasted right in the empress’s mind. The pain was almost unbearable, but she found she couldn’t move. All she could do was listen and watch as the five ponies floated up around her; each with a gem that emitted a light that was every bit as annoying as the noise.

“I knew this would work!” the one behind the orange glow shouted.

“Liar,” Screwball thought as loudly as she could at him.

“Just leave this to me!” the one behind the red glow shouted just after. This one was honest, butno less aggravating.

“Braggart,” Screwball futilely tried to shout back.

“I’m so sorry.” This sound came from the blue glow. Screwball didn’t have anything to yell at her. This one didn’t aggravate her as much as the first two had, but she still didn’t like it.

“Would you guys just shut up?!” the pink glow yelled louder than any of the others, “It’s time to take this mule down!” Screwball didn’t have anything to yell back at her either, but not because she didn’t want to.

Screwball only heard one more thing before the light finally faded. “I’ve got dibs on the crown,” by then it was all too bright for her to tell who had said it.

*****

When the light faded the empress saw that little had changed. All she could see was the garden still. The only difference now was that the sky’s color had returned, and the five ponies she had successfully banished were back. There were birds tweeting in the background too.

There was one big change though. The empress couldn’t feel anything anymore. It was as if she wasn’t really there anymore. The only reason she was seeing was because of her special vision in fact. Somehow it seemed as if her wish had backfired somehow; only she herself was no longer there.

All of the ponies that were still there, including the ones that had suddenly returned, were gathered around a statue in the garden’s far corner. The empress was fairly certain it was a statue that hadn’t been there before, but then again it could have just been one she hadn’t brought back with the rest of the garden initially. It was pretty far from where Discord was. That begged the question of why it was here in any case, but strangely the empress found that she didn’t care anymore. She felt strangely at peace.

Then suddenly her peace was gone once more when a group of guards noisily tromped into her garden. At the same time the ponies around the statue were talking again. “So does this mean we won?” Spectrum asked.

Caesar responded with a smile and a nod. “I think it does.”

After that there was a lot of noise from the ponies in front of the statue. They cheered and roared. The empress wanted to send them away again, but she couldn’t find the strength to anymore. Thankfully it didn’t last long though. When the guards came and collected them things got a little quieter. And when the guards took them out of the garden it became almost completely silent.

The empress smiled to herself, and fell into a pleasant, and for the most part dreamless, sleep.

*****

Celestia’s curiosity was admittedly peeked when she saw the group. Such a strange gathering of ponies apparently appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the night was assuredly an interesting sight. She was sure she knew at least a couple of the ponies in the lineup personally. Then there were of course the strange gems that half of them were wearing. Celestia had to admit that she was looking forward to an interesting story.

“Did you see them, sister?” Luna asked, landing next to her. Celestia nodded toward the window. The group had just about passed out of the garden now, but Twinkleshine and an unknown gray unicorn were still in view. “And the statue?” Luna continued.

“Not yet, Luna.” Celestia turned away from the window and trotted to the throne room alongside her sister. “I thought it would be polite to meet this group quickly after you went to the trouble of having the guards retrieve them.” Celestia smiled coyly at Luna. The blue mare was clearly not amused.

“I apologize Celestia,” Luna responded while pushing the door to the throne room door open unapologetically violently, “I thought it would be best to question them as a ruler properly should.”

Celestia chuckled and trotted through the doors. “You know I’m just kidding, Luna,” she said kindly while she took up her position to the right of the throne, “You did the proper thing.” As she watched Luna smile and take up her own position to the left of the throne, Celestia noted that they should really get a second throne for times like this.

“Majesties,” a night guard called to the princesses from the end of the throne room, “We have the intruders ready for you.”

“Thank you, Steel,” Luna responded, now in the infamous Royal Canterlot voice, “Please send them in.” As Steel walked away Celestia made another mental note: memorize the names of the night guardsponies.

Before Steel returned Celestia and Luna both removed their smiles in favor of more serious expressions. The sun princess was sure this was far easier for Luna. She seemed to still think of these ponies as a threat. Judging by the statue that had come along with them, Celestia was fairly positive that they were anything but.

When Steel did return a few moments later, he was accompanied by a company of three other night guards. In the center of them trotted the ten ponies that Luna had seen appear in the garden. “State your names,” Steel ordered once the group came to a stop in front of the throne.

The ponies did so with little protest. Only the gray unicorn in the back, whom Celestia now knew as Lightning Flash, and the white mare, Bee Bee, required prodding before they responded. The princess was pleased to see that both her student Twinkleshine and the noble Caesar were indeed part of the group. That would make things much easier.

“Explain yourselves!” Luna demanded in her best Canterlot Voice.

Celestia had to try surprisingly hard to keep her smile down when she followed her sister with a little clarification. “How did the ten of you enter Canterlot’s Stone Gardens without being seen?” She made sure to look at Caesar when she spoke. Admittedly she was more likely to get something out of Twinkleshine, but she was sure that Caesar would have more to tell.

“It is something of a long story your majesty,” Caesar commented with a smile from his place at the head of the group.

“I think we have time,” Celestia responded. She couldn’t keep her smile from escaping with that line. She had been looking forward to this part after all.

*****

As it turned out, the story wasn’t particularly long; just confusing. The many voices that attempted to add their own piece to the telling certainly didn’t help either. More than one of them even seemed to be outright lying. Luna had to silence the whole group once or twice in an attempt to return the story’s coherence.

Once Caesar had finally finished his telling, Celestia took a moment to piece together the true story. Caesar would likely leave out anything that might cause him, and by extension the group, trouble, and she was sure that this group couldn’t have possibly defeated an entity capable of wiping out existence on their own. Naturally, she concluded that Caesar was hiding somepony who helped them. Either that or he was hiding something about the group themselves.

“What was this entity’s name?” Luna suddenly questioned. Celestia shot her sister a glare disguised as a smile. That wasn’t the approach that she would have taken, even if it was a question that did deserve an answer.

Interestingly it actually did work though. “Her name was Screwball,” Spectrum said quietly from the back of the group. It could only be heard because nopony else had given an answer, and Celestia could see Caesar cringe when Spectrum said it.

Celestia turned to Luna and shared a real smile with her. With a name like Screwball, the villainess’s motives suddenly began to make a touch more sense. Though it did beg the question of why Caesar would hide the true nature of ‘the empress’. Then Celestia got another look at the ornament in Dew Drop’s hair.

“Could the ten of you please relinquish all the jewelry you’re carrying?” Celestia asked after removing the smile from her face. Caesar frowned and nodded, she’d won this round.

Steel’s team was kind enough to collect the jewelry. Everypony was reluctant to give up their particular gem, Goldstone in particular seemed to struggle with the idea, but in the end all of them were turned into the royal sisters. The spell to detect the magic was rudimentary for the princesses, but oddly enough neither princess detected even the smallest hint of a spell on the stones.

Celestia couldn’t help but laugh. It didn’t make any sense, but there was no other explanation. Luna didn’t laugh along, though Celestia had no doubt that she’d come to the same conclusion. “I suppose no more needs to be said then,” Luna said as she turned back to the group, “What should we do, Celestia?”

Celestia caught her breath and smiled down on the ponies. “You’re free to go,” she said while floating the gemstones back to their respective owners, “Just make sure you have permission next time you enter the gardens.” The crowd’s reaction ranged from joyous to shocked and confused. “Please escort them out, Steel.”

The guardsponies all nodded in unison and trotted out with the group. Most of the ponies paused to look back at the princesses, and again their looks varied from thankful, to prideful, to confused. Once the group had left and the doors had shut, Celestia chose to get a look at Luna’s reaction as well, it was a thankful one.

“An empty world,” the moon princess mumbled with a smile on her face, “I suppose he wouldn’t have liked that would he?”

Celestia nodded and trotted back towards the garden. “Come sister, I think we owe somepony a touch of thanks.”