A Lesson in History
Tiny loved sleeping in beds. It was so soft that she did not even have a sore back in the morning. It was also warm. She didn't want to wake up, but eventually, it always happened. She set up in her bed and looked at the window. It was bright outside. Maybe today, her sister would have time to teach her a bit more. She's been reading her books, but they were boring and she wanted to practice. Tiny went for the door but stopped, hearing someone speaking just outside.
"Dale."
"Element."
"Torn."
"Nugget."
"Tapestry."
"Yale."
"Empathy."
"Youth."
"Herb."
"Ball."
Tiny listened for a while more, confused as to why two ponies would recount words like this at her door. She opened the door slightly to see. On the other side stood a single guard and Princess Furry.
"Hair."
"Rake."
"E-e-e... Electricity."
"Yoke."
"Equality."
"Yeast."
"Task."
"I thought the rule was: 'No K'," Flurry said.
"Well... yes, it was," the guard gave up. "Test."
"Top."
"Pencil."
"Lake." Flurry then glanced sideways at Tiny in the door, "Ah, there she is. I think this means that you should be going."
"I think I should. See you, Flurry. Good day to you too, little lady," he gallantly excused himself before trotting away and leaving Tiny alone with brightly smiling Flurry. Tiny felt a little shudder run down her back.
"Hello, sister!" Flurry began. "Been waiting on you, don't you hate it when it's the last hour till you need to do something and that hour just drags on, and on, and on. No? I do. I am getting that feeling a lot," Tiny stood quietly, not sure what she was supposed to say. "Well, anyway. Since I got the big, scary leader to agree to me taking you off her hooves, I guess we should start. Now, what was it you wanted... oh, yeah, right. I think you wanted to practice teleportation, right?"
Tiny gave Flurry a dumbfounded stare.
"What? Didn't they tell you? I can see the FU-U-U-UTERE, and past occasionally. But first, you need to eat up. You've missed the breakfast, so I saved you some," with a pop, Flurry had a tray covered by lid balancing on her hoof.
Tiny continued staring distrustingly.
"Look, I can see the future, granted? That means I know what to do. I am a friend of your sisters and that means I am a friend of you."
"I am pretty sure it's not how this works, Princess," Tiny disagreed.
Flurry groaned,
"Okay, look. If you aren't going to do as you are asked, you are going to get in trouble with Nightmare. I want us to be friends, but you have to listen to me either way. So, have a bite and then we gonna have a very educational few hours."
Tiny suspiciously took the offered tray and experimentally opened the lid. Inside was some kind of warm soup, bread slices and a salad. She didn't know if she could even eat this much.
"You wanna go to the staff room? There's a table there," Flurry asked. Tiny's first reaction was to refuse, but she didn't feel like being rude to Flurry now, since she brought her food. She, of all creatures, knew how valuable food is.
"Okay..." she reluctantly agreed.
Flurry grinned,
"That's right, always better to eat with friends. The staff room is right this way; each floor in the Palace has one." Tiny noted the last bit, could be useful later.
Tiny sat in the conveniently empty room and ate her meal; Flurry had herself a sandwich too. Flurry told her about Crystal Empire and her Mom: it was mostly boring. Which Flurry apparently noticed and stopped talking. Tiny finished her meal in silence.
"Okay, time to have some fun," Flurry clapped hooves and teleported the empty tray and plates away. Next, it was Tiny herself who was getting teleported. She appeared in some kind of a large, brightly lit hole; it felt dizzy. "Give it a moment, it's always like this when you are starting out. So, anyway, you remember that blink spell you did back when Nightmare tried schooling you?"
Tiny cautiously nodded.
"Perfect, now I am gonna teach you something much cooler. You know how Aunty Twilight draws these circles on the ground and then a portal appears? Well, what if I told you that you can items into portals?" Flurry smiled conspiratorily. "Before we begin, Nightmare, Twilight, D, or anyone else can't know anything or both of us are going to get into a lot of trouble."
"Aren't you supposed to teach me safe things?" Tiny asked, remembering her sister's anger from the last time.
"Well... yes," Flurry gave in. "But you really need to know this. It will be important later. Now-"
"Wait, important later? Why won't Twilight simply bind portals to things if circles are fragile and need to be looked after?"
"For your first question, I can't tell you. For the second, well... Twilight, for all her brains, doesn't know about everything. Especially if it's something Aunty Celestia doesn't know."
"What do you mean, you can't tell me?"
"Well, to be honest, I am not sure myself how exactly you would use it. It's just that I know that it's better you do, than not," Flurry apologetically raised her hooves. "You also wanna know how come I know something which even Aunty Celestia doesn't?"
"Yes, please."
"I told you, I see past and future. This particular time it was the past. It's much easier than seeing the future, let me tell you that. There's only one possibility after all, so I don't have to spend days on end trying to sort through this huge web of possible ways everything can go differently," Flurry self-confidently said. "So anyways, this is something your friend Sombra came up with. That's why he was such a problem as to warrant Celestia and Luna's personal attention."
"Personal attention?"
"Wait, you mean nobody told you?!" Flurry facehooved herself. "I didn't even bother checking; everyone here knows the story ten times over. So, okay, listen: Sombra wasn't always this black cloud you see him as now. He's actually dead, just like Nightmare is. Back in the day, he was a unicorn, like you. Except it was so long ago, he probably doesn't even remember how he looked. He was the King of this here Empire, that's why Nightmare keeps calling him 'King'. She's a real believer in the old times she is. So, he was a good king; he's actually the guy who came up with the way to heat our little snow-globe up, pretty cool, right? It's really hard to tell by looking at him, but he used to be real cheerful and friendly. So much that Luna fell for him."
"Fell for him?"
"Well, she fell in love with him. It's like Nightmare and D. but between people who aren't related. It's real long and complicated to explain so basically it's what you feel like when you want to marry someone... or are supposed to feel anyway. Because Nightmare has a different idea. So, anyway, she falls in love with him and he falls in love with her. But they can't get married because Sombra doesn't come from a noble bloodline."
"Nightmare keeps talking about this, but she never explains why it's important," Tiny wedged in.
"Well, whether it's important or not depends on your perspective. To Nightmare, it looks like it's the most important quality a person can have. Mom thinks it's a load of horsecrap, but that's probably because she herself isn't noble. One thing that seeing future doesn't help with is knowing what's inside someone else's head; I honestly can't even tell with my own sometimes. So, as I see it, being noble isn't important because it makes you, in some way, smarter, or stronger. It's simply that back in the day, when even Celestia was still young, the family name was the only way you could pass something to your kids. So noble kids were always better than regular ones because they inherited personal qualities and titles of their parents, as well as more material things but those were less important. This was basically the centerpiece of the entire worldview that people had back then. Since Nightmare comes from that time too and spent the last thousand years away from everyone except Luna, I think that's why she still sees it as so important. Well, that and less rational things too."
"So your Mom is not as good as Queen Skystar simply because her Mom wasn't a Princess?"
"Well... not exactly," Flurry gave a strangled smile. "Look, Tiny, this is really complicated. My Mom isn't entirely a 'commoner' her ancestor was an aunt of the last Queen of the Crystal Empire, the one before Sombra. This is practically the only reason why Nightmare tolerates her. If not for her Great-great-great-whatevertimes-grandmother, Nightmare wouldn't even bother talking to her; because, honestly, Mom doesn't like Nightmare and it's mutual. They have an old grudge between them."
"So, is your Mom noble or not?"
"It's kinda both?" Flurry sounded unsure herself. "I told you it's complicated, but Skystar is totally more noble than Mom is."
"And Sombra wasn't noble?"
"Phew!" Tiny shook her hoof, hurrying the thought away. "Not one percent of him was. He wasn't even born here."
"So how did he become King then?"
"Well, the old Queen died and he was kind of like her adopted son, she had no other children and no one else wanted to compete for the crown. I know it's not exciting, but it rarely is with these things. So, he becomes the King, starts doing all this cool stuff and then he meets Luna, and they fall in love, but Luna has to reject him because he isn't noble. He gets upset, like really-really upset."
"Luna tried telling him that it's better this way because he would die someday and she never will. Well, I guess we are technically past that. Actually, coming to think about it, almost everyone from that time is dead. The only one who's still alive in the traditional sense is Aunty Celestia and by extension Big D. So, anyways, Luna's speech gives Sombra an idea of the century, or so he thinks. Sombra wants to become immortal. He starts digging up all the spells he can and ends up massing such an amount of magical lore that even good-old Starswirl couldn't manage. It turns out that a spell to make someone immortal doesn't exist, go figure; otherwise, every second-rate archmage would be immortal by now. But he wouldn't have been Sombra if such minuscule setbacks could stop him, if there isn't a spell that can set him up, Sombra will invent his own."
"Wait, magical lore? Where?"
"Well, where do you think? Sombra burned it all, of course. You don't know him if you think he'd let it all just lay about. So, I was just getting to the best part of the story. Sombra starts pushing in new fields of magical research. Wherever others thought it was too dangerous, Sombra was galloping straight to. So he found a way to make something of a magical battery; you saw how it works. By using fear magic, he managed to change regular crystals you see all around here into these new, black crystals. I don't think there's anyone else who knows how it works, except Sombra himself, but I think that black crystals can hold a magical charge and release it during a ritual. That's where things become real messed up because to get the ritual going you need to draw a circle with the blood of a creature scared out of its guts. Maybe it has to do with adrenaline in their blood, gotta ask him about it. By that point, the public here became a little bit... dissatisfied. Sombra anticipated an uprising so he also invented a mind control spell. Compared to what he already did it was a whole lot easier. Nightmare has it in her book, actually. So if you ever need slaves you know whom to ask."
"What's a battery?" At that question Flurry deeply frowned.
"Oh, damn, I hoped you wouldn't ask. Look, explaining it all will take like ten hours, so I'll just tell you that it's a thingy that can store energy for you to use later. Ever seen those flashlights every soldier and policepony carries around? Those use batteries."
"Ah..."
"So, back to it. Sombra gets his whole ritual going and... he fails spectacularly. Something apparently went wrong and Sombra ended up not only not getting his goal done but unhinging his own pretty obsessive brain even more. The whole 'good king' schtick was gone, though in all actuality, it probably happened a long-long time ago and it's just that Sombra stopped carrying enough to pretend to himself that it didn't. For a few weeks, Sombra is really upset and gets angry easily; kind of like D, but he actually meant it. It was ugly to look at, I'll just say that. So, the common folk get sick of him, grab their weapons... and it turns out that Sombra cast his new mind-control spell on every helmet in the army. Bet they all thought it was just ward spells; they always do. Things don't go too well for the common folk after that point.
"At last, Celestia stops listening to Luna crying to her about not hurting her coltfriend and decides to get it over with before Sombra realizes that he can just take whom he wants. Luna eventually caves in too. They get their troop together and go out to fight him. Luna pleads to him to just surrender, but that's just not how Sombra operates. So this is where this spell I wanna teach you comes about. Sombra had to lead his troops himself because his mind control had one disadvantage, it takes away all independent thinking. His soldiers could understand and execute orders, but they couldn't order their peers. Sombra had to retreat on more than one occasion and he was just unreasonably quick about it, he did use some kind of teleport spell but it was so quick and reliable: no matter what Celestia and Luna did, they couldn't trap him. Eventually, they still won by sheer attrition but he gave them a bloody good fight. He still had one last trick to play. He cursed the whole city to disappear and return later when Celestia and Luna wouldn't be around, hopefully. Yes, he was that bitter of a loser. He... overdid it a bit. Celestia was done talking to him then and ordered his head off. Except he wasn't really gone because that ritual he invented did work, just in a really weird way. Instead of becoming immortal he just became undying. That's all; storytime With Sister Flurry is over."
"So... you just told me all of this just to tell me about the spell?" Tiny asked, ever so slightly disappointed.
"What can I say? I love telling stories, and this is a really good one!" Flurry smiled. Tiny felt something was wrong this time, though; the smile Flurry had she saw before... on Celestia.
"Let's start already, Shadow will be done with her personal business soon and come to look at what we are doing. So, first, we need two items to bind portals to. They need to be durable but inconspicuous, also not bulky. Any ideas?"
Tiny lifted her hoof and slowly stroked her chin while she pondered,
"Well, I have one thing that's very durable. Nightmare gave me her helmet."
"Oooh! Yeah! That thing!" Flurry held out her hoof and with a soft puff, the very object appeared to rest on it.
"How do you do that? The textbooks said you had to know the exact spot of the object to pull it up like this."
"What and you think I don't?" Flurry smugly grinned. "Well, this is a good one, yes. You could carry this everywhere you go. From what Nightmare herself says about her armor, it might even come useful."
"Is it true?"
"What? What Nightmare says? Mostly true, yes. Her armor cost a fortune, just the materials could afford you a fitted ship for a long voyage. It was also enchanted beyond all reasonable measure by the best wizards of the time aswell as Nightmare herself. She wanted an armor that would protect her from anything and she very nearly got it."
"It has cracks."
"That's on purpose. It cracks but absorbs impact. Did she tell you how it saved her from a direct hit with a tank shell? Oh damn, lady, that was dramatic to watch, let me tell you! They sure don't make armor like they used to."
"Nightmare said it was different armor that did, she said she lost most of it when she was sent to the moon and had to make replacements. She also said that her chestplate broke from getting hit."
"If it was her original armor, she could still salvage it. That helmet you've got survived worse, the old thing will be around long after you." Tiny looked at the battered helmet in Flury's hooves with newfound reverence, just how many monstrous strikes did it take instead for its mistress?
"We also need something else. Something which you can leave behind and be sure no one finds, but durable enough to not break from someone stepping on it, for one."
Tiny had to think again. She didn't really have anything else that he owned, she was a vagabond in the end,
"Maybe make something?" Tiny offered in the end.
"Why, sure. Where do you wanna keep it?"
As a matter of fact, Tiny long since wanted something for the wagon. Something which Mister Rich would never bother removing because he won't need to,
"A light that doesn't run out?"
"Phuff! Oh, that's easy!" Flurry magicked the light from the wagon just as Tiny left it yesterday. "You know light spell? Nightmare had to teach you, every unicorn foal can do it."
"I... do," Tiny answered with a second of hesitation. Something just occurred to her. If Flurry knew past and future as she seemed to, why does she even ask? Didn't she know then that she learned the spell long before she ever heard about her regal sisters?
"Perfect!" Flurry smiled pleasantly; if she noticed Tiny having doubts, she didn't show it. "Let me just have this done," with a flick, Flurry extinguished the fire inside the light. "Now, just cast light and I'll add longevity modifier, easy." Tiny did as asked. She chose the same orange color as regular flame so that nobody would think anything is different. Flurry stared at it without removing her smile or visible tension on her forehead. If she was casting anything, Tiny couldn't tell; her horn was already glowing to hold the light in the air.
"Done," Flurry said simply. With subtle pops, three more items appeared floating by her. Crystals, exactly like those they found in Twilight's lab, and a simple clay pot. "Now, here's where things get messy," Flurry declared. "Gotta draw the circle and get it cleaned quick, not much time left. You watch, I'll give you the schematic later." Flurry stepped outside of the circle of flowing items and began taking paint from the pot and drawing a shape on the floor. ...It wasn't paint, was it?
In just under two minutes, the intricate circle was drawn on the floor, with many smaller, empty circles which Tiny assumed had to be spots for the items. The shape looked very much like the one that Sombra painted when he separated Daybreaker from Celestia. It had no sharp angles and all lines flowed into each other; it was elegant in a certain way. She quite frankly couldn't make 'a single lick of sense of this blasted piece of...' as Mister Rich was fond of saying when he was frustrated. Did Flurry really draw all this just from memory? Tiny wasn't sure if Flurry bewildered or scared her.
"Now?" Tiny asked, still reeling from Flurry's causality in doing something she wasn't certain even Princess Twilight could manage.
"Now we just put items in place and let it do its thing."
"That easy?"
"Eeyep. Sombra wasn't the nicest stallion around, but he had a smoking genius for designing these things. It casts all the spells itself, we just need to power it."
"Okay..." Tiny felt like she had no choice but to see what happens. Flurry then put the two items they got in place and then the crystals. The circle instantly came to life, shining purple. It went on like that for a few seconds before going dark again, "Did we do something wrong?"
"Not even slightly: it's just done. What, you expected it to hum, spin around and finish with a loud click? Okay, let's test it out," Flurry sent the light to hold on the other side of the hall. "Now, activating it is real simple. Works on intent. You want it to fly you over to its pair and you are there. Come on, touch it and try."
Tiny wanted to ask how exactly it worked but elected not to give Flurry an opportunity to go for another ten minutes about it. She touched the helmet on the floor with her hoof.
"Oh! I almost forgot, mind your..." Tiny didn't hear the rest. Before she even knew what was going on, she was already on the other side of the hall. Her world was spinning and legs running from under her, she wisely dropped on her bottom before she fell. Flurry was beside her a moment later,
"Hey, you okay? I wanted to tell you, but... yeah." At least Tiny could hear fine. "So, anyways. I am going to send both things back to your wagon, leave the light there and the helmet wear on your head wherever Nightmare takes you. Oh and don't tell anyone about it. I mean anyone at all. Especially not Rarity, actually don't tell anything to Rarity if you don't want everyone else to know it too. If Nightmare hears about this, she'll see the helmet as an asset and take it off you. Now, let's get presentable before someone catches us with this circle."
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Stay safe and stay strong, to you and all your loved ones. May Ukraine and her people stand their ground defiantly and fight courageously against Putin’s tyranny and madness. The World has your back, for they’re counting on you. From a fellow European: Слава Україні! Героям слава!
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Thanks. We gonna win, don't you worry about that. And Russian murders will enjoy their shallow graves.
Very glad that this wasn't the last we heard from you. Stay strong!
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Why would it be? I said my goodbyes just so that I do not leave too abruptly, but I never believed I won't get any more chances to be here. Russians and their army are, frankly, pathetic. I never for a day believed that they could win. An army that prides itself on its ability to shatter empty vodka bottles on the foreheads of its men is not going to win anything at all, much less a war. Russians need other people to be capable of something other than marauding and boozing. Their martial glories in the Second World War are not total lies, but they weren't solely Russian. 40% of the entire Red Army were Ukrainians because the war was going on predominantly in Ukraine as far as Eastern Front was concerned.
Do not be concerned over weather or not Ukraine will win. Be concerned about what happens next. Victory in this war frankly gives us very little. We do regain control over our sovereign territory but the war does not really end, just like Arabo-Israeli wars never really ended. Russians will continue launching missiles and drone strikes at civilian targets in Ukraine, as well as attempt further invasions, for as long as Russia is not utterly defeated. That is not possible, at least not until NATO finally does what it was created to do. We are looking towards a very grim future regardless of the outcome of the war. Our refugees will not return, not because it's unsafe but because they are not stupid enough to return back to the third world from the first. Our economy will never recover, because few investors would risk Russians' destroying their factories in their next invasion. There will be no membership in either EU or NATO either. Our enemies in the EU have vested interest in never allowing Ukraine in regardless of what happens in the war, and NATO will always pretend that Ukraine does not meet some arbitrary, ever-changing, conditions; apparently, Western Germany in 1955 was much more ready than Ukraine ever will be. The truth of the matter is that NATO has become so cowardly that it no longer performs its functions, I have large doubts that NATO member-states are even still willing to obey Article 5 even if it ever will be called upon. It is an age-old question: is Hans from Hamburg willing to die for Baltic states?