Trixie: Eclipse II
“So why did you exile them?” Trixie winced a little as everyone else stopped on the trail and looked at Shining Armor.
Shining shied away a little at the concentrated attention for a moment before squaring his shoulders and looking directly at Celestia. “I’m sorry Your Majesty, I’m sure it’s a very sensitive subject, but as your captain of the Royal Guard, I feel that the question of why I’ve spent my tenure scrambling to plug holes when Equestria used to have an entire race who are to soldiering what pegasi are to weather is relevant. I feel that it’s my right to at least ask, even if you choose not to answer.”
Celestia looked steadily at him for several moments before she inclined her head to him. “You’re right, Captain Armor,” she said. “You have every right to ask and… I feel that I’m obligated to answer. But as we walk, if you please.”
The walking resumed and after several more moments, Celestia spoke, “There was too much pain to do anything else,” she said, not looking back as they went at an easy canter. “Generation upon generation of accumulated resentment at an endless list of tiny, often unintentional, slights. Fighting for the other races, but still feeling their fellow ponies’ discomfort at their odd appearance. Generations of watching their children be the freaks in mixed schools, especially painful when their children came from a loving marriage with another race. Ponies being unable to understand changelings, fearful of the very simplistic understanding of how their special diet works, accumulating hundreds of stories of how horrific their last-ditch means of self-defense is. Fearful of their shapeshifting, confused by their tradition of self-government by a council of queens, trouble separating propaganda efforts to intimidate enemies into peaceful surrender from the actual nature of changelings. It was like a disease, an impossibly subtle one, that just kept infecting everypony and simply would not respond to any effort to smooth issues over.”
Celestia snorted. “The queens spent inordinate energies trying to gently suggest, sometimes even clubbing ponies over the head with, the fact that their special diet inclines changelings to be more friendly than other ponies. Everyone being happy, everyone having fun together and hugging and falling in love, and being friends makes the positive emotional radiance they feed on more nutritious.”
“And the general bad feelings from ponies made it less,” Trixie guessed.
“Yes.” Celestia twitched her wings in agitation before settling them against her barrel. “Not badly, fortunately. There was never any risk of starvation, not with the general atmosphere of warmth and friendship that, as Lady du Ard said, Equestria is saturated with. But it was noticeable and even with the efforts of the queens, even with me making it clear that the changelings were not to be maligned in my presence, even with Luna frequently crossing the line to nudge ponies into feeling comfortable around them, all the problems remained and kept slowly accumulating. Really, that we spent centuries with the lid kept firmly on the problem is a testament to the generational determination of the various queens to keep a tight, oligarchical grip on the issue.”
She looked over her shoulder at Cadence. “It’s true that Malyss struck the match and fanned the flames but there were six queens that refused to get in her way. I never found out why, never… really asked.” She turned her head back to the trail with a sigh. “I guess that in the time before reaching my decision, I was… afraid to know. Sarisssa du Closs was a good mare with overwhelming force of will. Aleera du Dune was the queen for the common pony, warm and obsessively hard-working; Ansela du Ard was practically her second self. Beatrice du Sylvi and Tessa du Aquis were more traditional nobles but with a strong sense of noblisse oblige. Martella du Luc was at once extremely stuck-up and a mare who would quite literally fight for anyone she considered friend. None of them seemed the kind who would abide a supremacist burning a stable relationship down around their ears… and yet they did. And yet not one approached Amaryss to open her eyes. Six mares who were as good of leaders as I could have ever hoped to work with allowed Malyss to stoke generations of petty wrongs into…” Her voice became rougher. “I still… I don’t have words for what Malyss did, what the sister-queens allowed her to do. I’d…. I’d never seen my little ponies hate each other like that….”
Cadence increased her pace so she could lean against her aunt’s side. “Auntie…”
“...it was… agonizing,” Celestia said after a moment more. “Ponies hating each other… spitting on each other… throwing slurs, full of anger and fear, full of pain from things that did not seem to matter, until that moment when they suddenly did. Some… there were a… some home burned. Some businesses. My little ponies were losing everything, watching entire lifetimes of treasures and memories go up in smoke, holding…” Another pause. “...watching it and crying… and then going out to share their pain with their perceived enemies, making the entire cycle turn around again worse than before. And all the while, me and Luna were helpless. Helpless to help, but more than that, terrified.”
“Of what, Princess?” Trixie asked.
“Of whom, Trixie.” After a minute of silence, Trixie wondered if Celestia was going to continue. “Of Discord. Counterpart to Order, the thing that became the Guardian, but far stronger, far more dangerous. Equestria spent nearly a year as his personal plaything, a horror of sadistic comedy, lethal pranks, shattered lives, every living thing he could reach being used for his own sick amusement, tastes that would change for one instant to the next. But the worst thing by far was… he was… wise. Cunning. His whims were insane and random, but the chaos was entirely within his control. Every failing and foible were as changeable as he was, and he used them like masquerade masks, taunting the few ponies that could actually stand up to him with illusions that he had weaknesses that could be exploited. If we hadn’t come across a magical weapon unlike any we’d ever seen, an unknown that Discord could not account for because he had no more concept of how the Elements worked than we did, his reign as the mad god of the world would have never stopped.
“The Elements froze him in the form of a statue, and imposed a cocoon of order around it to keep the pressure on his shackles. Luna and I did everything we could to extend that cocoon and empower it, creating as many formal rules, and rituals, and celebrations, and laws as we could, trying to make sure that Discord’s prison couldn’t develop a flaw he could exploit. We did well, I feel, and then… the land was drowned in a tide of disharmony, of discord. When we weren’t trying vainly to stem the tide of hate, we were watching that statue, terrified that a Discord that had rested for centuries would be too strong to cage a second time. It didn’t happen but we got far less sleep than we needed to deal rightly with the terrible problems that were developing.”
“So it was more than just desperation to solve a problem for the good of your subjects,” Anori said.
“There were many, many reasons behind it: stopping the suffering, trying to devise a way to give the changelings a place where the old pains wouldn’t accumulate again, preventing the emergence of Discord…” Celestia went quiet for a moment “The tragedy of it all was the timing. Luna had very recently completed a campaign to extend the rule of the Dragon Lord over their entire lands, intervening to make sure that there would be no more of this business of no one dragon being able to speak for the whole. It was a very ugly affair, as you might expect when the enemy can kill soldiers by the dozens, but it was also a high point for my sister’s efforts. At the end of it all, we hard formal relations with the dragons for the very first time in the form of Dragon Lord Singe.”
“I think I remember that name,” Cadence said. “Tetti didn’t manage to buttonhole me very often with her occasional unhinged rants about the glory of the past--if you remember what Twilight is like when she gets a hold of an idea, it’s like that--but stories about Queen Amaryss are always fun to listen to and I think the name Singe came up in one.”
“Of course it did.” Celestia sighed. “There are times I wish I could forget those days, Cady… the suffering of my subjects before... that moment where Amaryss’ royal mask slipped and I could see the devastated, utterly betrayed look of a filly whose mommy had just struck her for a reason she did not understand… and the aftermath of it all. An annus horribilis never ends cleanly, much less one as bad as the year I exiled your race.”
“Every enemy Equestria had pounced the moment they realized our army had been expelled?” Shining said.
“That was what we had expected,” Celestia said. “But it didn’t happen. The various minor powers remained quiet, Zebrica acted as if nothing had happened, the Provinces gave no indication that they even knew what had happened, and the dragons disappeared into isolation. Closed their borders, sent diplomats and aid workers home, ignored all further attempts to talk to them, and all forms of communication were as cold and hostile as they’d been before Luna’s campaign.”
“And then there was what Aunt Luna did…”
“It wasn’t quite like the bedtime story,” Celestia said. “We had no grand and epic duel, shattering our palace so badly that we had to abandon it to the Everfree. There was no terrible threat to the entire world, no looming eternity of night, and while Luna may have struggled to be the divine figurehead radiating motherly warmth to everyone she met, she disappeared into crowds as if she belonged in them. There was nothing I had that made her jealous, whatever the tale claims.” She made a brushing-aside gesture with one of her wings. “Oh, she put up a truly professional act but I know my Lulu, and I’ve seen her fake it; I was not deceived and she never really believed I had been.”
“Then why…?”
Celestia sighed. “Luna has always been… highly idealistic. Of the two of us, she was more the intellectual, thus her mastery of a highly technical branch of magic like runescription. In the wake of the chaos that erupted around the changelings and their eventual exile, she came to the conclusion that we needed to alter the way things were done radically and rapidly. Having two rulers, she thought, created a situation where debate would slow down decisions when they needed to be made quickly. And she believed that in the troubles she’d been pushed aside and not given adequate heed.”
“And she was right,” Anori said. “I don’t mean to bruise old wounds, Celestia, but while we know your sister would have stood by you out of love and loyalty no matter what decision you made, the exile was not her solution.”
“It was not.” Celestia slowed her steps and perked her ears. “Does it seem… quiet for approaching the scene of a battle?”
“I’m sure the stone walls of the ruins would deaden the sounds of fighting,” Shining suggested. “Or there may be some kind of lull. I believe Keen Edge spoke of Lord and Lady Bloodwynd chopping the heads off the leadership of the atermors. Eventually, they’d have to pause so they could rebuild the puppets they use.”
Celestia nodded vaguely. “I suppose. Still, there’s something… unsettling about…”
“It’s quiet,” Anori said.
“Too quiet,” Krysa agreed gravely.
Celestia gave them both a look that drew delicately-fanged grins, and smiled momentarily. “However cliche it may sound, I think it’s best to proceed with greater caution.”
“Caution is wise your grace,” said an exotic voice Trixie knew quite well. “But still, I advise against slackening your pace.”
Celestia turned as Zecora emerged from the underbrush, carrying a wicker basket slung over her neck partly filled with many plant cuttings, and she smiled broadly. “Flavius Zecora,” she said warmly. “How very unlikely a place to meet you.”
Zecora returned the smile just as broadly. “Unlikely meetings are common of late,” she agreed. “Though most recently, they portend an unpleasantly grim fate.”
“Where have you been?” Trixie said. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders returned to Ponyville with visitors days ago, and said your hut was empty.”
Zecora sighed. “They found my hut empty, that is true. But I had left a message with little Scootaloo: I had traveled home to visit relations and lingered in Zebrica for an extended vacation.”
“And so now you’re back,” Shining noted. “In the middle of the Everfree, while there are otherworldly creatures wandering around, gathering plants. Alone.”
Zecora regarded him in silence for several moments. “I normally travel alone,” she said. “The Everfree has long been my home.”
“She lives alone in the Everfree…” Trixie began.
“I know,” Shining said. “I was there when Scootaloo told their story of meeting the Bloodwynds and their retainers. If I might be blunt, Miss Zecora, the enemies lurking about can make creatures out of pure magical material that they can shape as they want. And very much out of the clear blue, a zebra walks up to us carrying plant cuttings, completely unconcerned about anything, having been unseen since the start of this crisis.”
“I thank you for being perfectly clear, but I assure you that you have nothing to fear,” Zecora said. “But you are correct that there is more to the story, and in not telling it quickly I have acted rather poorly.”
Celestia gestured to the path ahead. “We have to keep walking, Zecora, so if you could explain as we do?”
“I apologize for making delay,” Zecora said, trotting over to walk beside the alicorn. “With all that’s been happening, I haven’t quite felt like myself today.”
“I think you’ll find it easier, as will we, if you speak in ordinary prose,” Celestia said. “I apologize, you no doubt make a great effort to maintain the traditional rhyming mode, but…”
“I will not refuse a princess’ request.” Zecora nodded. “To speak in more common prose is, for now, probably best.” She glanced back at Trixie and smirked a little. “Although those who have known me for a time will probably be shocked that I can speak in something other than rhyme.”
“I’ve only lived in Ponyville for six months,” Trixie pointed out. “And Twilight has told me several times that you prefer your solitude.”
“Twilight Sparkle is a dear but she’s projecting just a little bit there,” Zecora siad. “I welcome and enjoy regular guests and those incorrigible fillies I find myself liking the best.”
Celestia chuckled a little. “Force of habit, I see.”
“When you have worked all your life to maintain the traditional show of intellectual cunning, to suddenly stop is…” Zecora snorted. “...as difficult as to stop a river from running.”
“So, how did you come upon us, Miss Zecora?” Shining asked.
“I left a message with Scootaloo, that much is true,” Zecora said. “And I was bound for Zebrica and my family too. But I often like to walk by the castle before looping west, and came across the thestrals establishing themselves there. Some had unwisely eaten marsh fruits and needed an herbalist's aid to stave off the sickness. So I moved the things I would need into their colony for a time and helped them, which served their purpose as well since they wished to make sure I couldn’t speak of them to Ponyville but were uncomfortably with being too forceful.”
“Underneath all the swagger and her big mouth, Keen Edge hews pretty closely to Mother’s gentler philosophy about dealing with Equestrians,” Cadence siad.
“So you’ve been acting as a doctor for them this entire time?” Shining glanced up at the trees above them.
“Don’t bother, love,” Cadence smiled. “Being unseen until they can go for the jugular is how they prefer to work, and they’re very good at it.”
“I can only do so much with local plants and my own implements,” Zecora siad. “I could do far more with the proper equipment. Or competent assistance, but Equestrian medical philosophy leans more towards allopathy than natural ways.”
“Depends on where you go, actually,” Krysta said. “That one alchemist is university-educated, isn’t he?”
“Green Leaf.” Anori nodded. “Although the focus on plants might just be…”
“Did you said ‘Green Leaf’?” Zecora looked back at him.
“Oh, do you know him Miss?”
“I do indeed,” she said with a smile. “He comes to the Everfree with a pleasant amount of frequency. Eager, and I can never quite understand why he wants the plants he does--they have no medicinal properties--but I have always been pleased to help him when asked.”
“Some alchemy theory he has,” Anori said. “He calls it ‘essentia’ and dubs the entire field of using it ‘thaturmagy.’ I don’t think anyone, even Princess Tettidora, fully understands how his ideas work but they do work.”
“This changeling alchemist visits without bothering with a guise?” Celestia glanced at Zecora.
“Depending on his mood,” the zebra said. “Sometimes in his natural skin, sometimes he lets out the hippie within, and once or twice has appeared as my kin. But he is hard to mistake for any other since he always comes calling with a staggering amount of saddlebags.”
“And you didn’t find his changing appearance odd.”
Zecora shrugged. “He is a changeling. The bodyguards too. Seeing Queen Chrysalis’ people about is nothing new.”
“Zebrica?”
“They seem to love to visit with families in tow and I’m told by my cousin that their numbers have grown.”
“And yet my ambassador never encounters them, and has never spoken of them,” Celestia sighed.
“I myself thought that if ponies were vacationing often in the zebra nation, their rulers would know,” She shrugged. “Perhaps the shamans and the caesar believe the same, and see no need to speak of it.”
“I’m sure many queens have also asked that favor of them.” Krysa said. “If I remember rightly, circumspection is highly valued among your people, Miss Zecora.”
“When truth is required, it is best to be blunt,” Zecora said in the tone of someone reciting from memory. “When privacy asked, do not be up front.”
“I thought I remembered there being a reason I manipulated Luna into attending Zebrican state dinners.” Celestia sighed. “I fear there’s going to be a lot of chilly relations between Equestria and others after this is all over.”
“I do not assign you blame; were I in your shoes, I would do the same.” Zecora paused for several steps. “Princess, I hope you know that not speaking of them is not meant as vengeance or disrespect.”
“If it was anyone else saying so, I would dismiss them out of hoof,” Celestia said. “But if, as Lady du Ard says, circumspection is important to the zebras I could understand how your people would see it as neither.” Even from the back, Trixie could see enough of Celestia’s face to see her grimace. “However frustrating it is for me personally.”
“You have always treated us well and with justice,” Zecora said. “I’m sorry that this has made you doubt that you can trust us. But please pardon the interruption, Princess, but while we walk I could use all of your group’s assistance.”
“Finding herbs?”
“Yes. I came into the forest seeking artemesia, aconitum, digitalis, and atropa, along with some others.”
“Wormwood, wolfsbane, foxglove, and nightshade?” Trixie glanced at Anori, who was giving Zecora an incredulous look.
The zebra stopped and looked levelly at him. “Yes.”
“Forgive our ignorance, Flavius Zecora, but what possible herbal use could poisonous plants be to you?” Krysa asked. “I recall that Green Leaf uses foxglove sometimes in his preparations to relieve a weak heart but the rest…”
“Drawing poultices,” Zecora said. “To those who know modern healing, using a poison against a poison is very unappealing. But sickness can be drawn out this way especially when I have never seen anything like it before.”
“I thought the thestrals brought you here to help with accidental poisoning,” Shining said. “Wouldn’t that be… routine? Especially when it’s a plant you’re…”
“The patients are not thestrals, but two earth ponies and two pegasi.”
Trixie froze. Two earth ponies and two pegasi. “A… mare and her colt?”
Zecora looked confused. “Yes. And two pegasi stallions.”
“And they’re… alive,” Celestia had turned and faced the zebra squarely, her expression clearly broadcasting that she was thinking alone the same lines Trixie was.
“They are,” Zecora said, looking between Trixie and Celestia. “You seem… surprised that mother and son are still alive.”
“We were told that their illness was fatal and extremely contagious,” Celestia said. “I was sending them to Canterlot, to make the colt comfortable during what I thought were his final days. They clearly did not arrive.”
“And the plague doesn’t seem to have mutated them into the creatures of the atermors.”
“OK, so this kind of begs the question,” Shining said. “If the creatures called ‘black death’ that have as their sole reason for being to spread a fatal, incurable, and twisted plague are not actually spreading that plague but a completely different one…”
“...and they’re not using the plague victims as soldiers, but masses of magical constructs…”
“...what is the atermors’ true purpose?” Celestia turned to look down the path. “And where are their victims?”
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I'm already enjoying the increased upload rate, even if they are shorter.
That was some interesting world-building, although I think Celly is beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed at how much other leaders have hidden from her.
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As much as I love larger chapters I'd have to agree.
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I'm definitely trying to play that angle
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I'm glad that the accelerated schedule is appreciated. :)
I would say that preventing an angry god from breaking free to ravage tha land is solving a problem for the good of your subjects.
Did you just give Zecora a new name? Might I ask why?
homes
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Yes.
I subscribe to the fanfiction idea that the zebras in their native land have a sort of Roman-esque structure with a leader that is called the Caesar and so on. Thus, the use of a Roman family name (Flavius) and personal name (Zecora).
Yes, thank you. :)