Game of Worlds

by DualThrone

Celestia: And Full of Terrors IV

“I’ve seen plenty of experiments done by Princess Tettidora,” Anori remarked as they walked. “And du Dune have demonstrated some of their finds--the less hazardous ones--in my sight as well. But I’ve never seen something quite like this.”

“This” was a howling blizzard sweeping over them, making the snow to either side of them shoot passed in smeared white streams or swirl in miniature whirlwinds, presenting a solid bank of white ahead of them. All of it might as well have been a gentle summer breeze for all the good it did against the aura of light around the lanterns that their escort carried.

The captain’s marshal turned out to be a yellow and pink ploughpony--Celestia idly remembered that the local Imperial parlance for them was ‘pullers’--named Cloud Runner who looked like she’d been dragged out of a drunken sleep when she stamped over. Gunning down three of the tasty brews they’d been sipping (helpfully supplied by a server by way of an Imperial ten-bit) seemed to clear away any hint of surliness.

“So, need ta stamp through the storm,” she’d rumbled with a drawl that reminded Celestia strongly of Applejack Apple. “Sit a spell and I’ll rouse some Lighters.”

“Thank you, Marshal Runner,” Celestia said.

“‘Course, Princess,” she said with a smile. “Can’t do any less.” And with that, she walked into the crowd and disappeared.

“Lighters?” Krysta said.

“Lamplighters,” Celestia said. “The part of the guard that patrols the highways.” She nodded towards the captain. “Which I suspect our escort is also.”

“Did you actually need to ask?” He sipped his drink. “Only with Lamplight’s grace can a pony survive the storms to bring the lost to safety.”

Celestia gave him a curious look. “I thought that Matchlight was the one that Imperial ponies regard in a semi-religious way.”

He frowned. “It’s not religious.”

“Usually, one only refers to something as a ‘grace’ when…”

“Very well, it’s her legacy.” His wings buzzed in irritation. “The point is that it is how we Lamplighters can walk the storms, and is also the symbol of our office.”

“That much I knew.” She nodded towards the lamp and pole he’d leaned against the table. “I wouldn’t mind to know more.”

He shrugged. “I volunteered, passed their tests, swore the oath, and received the lantern. They gave me one of the fourth string, the one that were designed to seem like ordinary lanterns. First and second string were made by mages working directly under Lamplight, third string was experimental, and fifth string are all special.”

“So the lantern you have is…”

“...passed down from the reign of Empress Lamplight.” He dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Enough were made that we’ve never needed to try to make more, and they’re artifact-type magical items so time doesn’t decay them, and they can’t be broken.” He grinned. “You can’t improve perfection, otherwise it wouldn’t be perfection.”

“If I hadn’t seen what your lantern can do, I might argue that with you, Captain.” Celestia had finished her drink and set the glass down, whereupon one of the waitponies was already refilling it. She blinked, looked at the stallion’s bright smile, and took a sip from the full glass. “I’d forgotten what the Flagge is like.”

“I find it hard to believe you forget anything Aunt Tia,” Cadence said, picking up her own refill from the extremely attentive wait staff.

“That’s because I train my memory very strategically,” Celestia said. “I remember enough fragments that whoever I speak to is convinced that I remember everything and happily fills in details with their responses and mannerisms.” She gestured around the pleasantly raucous tavern. “This isn’t the kind of thing I can remember well. Smells, sights, sounds, and the indescribable feeling of a place are all… I don’t retain them, except as descriptive facts in the back of my head.”

“Is it that way for all places, Celestia?” Anori asked.

“No, not all.” Celestia sighed. “Some places I can still remember because they changed, or because they were important to me. The Castle of the Sisters, the Dis Lis Estate, the Havens...” She trailed off at the same time that the captain, the changeling captain from the Empire that had been removed from the flow of time before the Exile, looked hard at her.

“What about the Havens, Princess Celestia?” He asked, his tone dangerously even.

“I…”

“It would take a long time to explain, Captain,” Krysta said. “A lot has happened since the Empire disappeared, and not all of it was good.”

“Well it’s lucky we have to walk for a couple hours, isn’t it?” He looked over the other occupants of the table before his gaze settled on Celestia. “I think there are a lot of Imperial soldiers who would be very disappointed to hear that their relatives were badly treated by Equestria, Princess Celestia.”

“I hope that they’ll remember that I’ve had a thousand years to regret certain decisions, Captain,” Celestia said. “And at least that long to repent.”

“I said disappointed, Princess, not angry.” He stood. “Still, I should like to hear the entire story as we walk. If you want to leave some of the weight behind, it’ll be secure here.”

“I suppose we won’t need it when we get to the capital,” Celestia said, “one way or the other. I don’t recall… does the capital have any barrier to someone simply teleporting inside its walls or nearby to it?”

“Inside the walls, yes,” the captain said, putting his empty glass down. “Especially with Night White there. But the defense doesn’t extend very far, and you should be able to get within sight of the capital once we’ve walked the storm. Here comes my marshal.”

From there it had been a matter of flagging down someone (surprisingly easy given the crowd) and being given a place to stow most of their gear while the Lamplighters prepared their own lamps to head out into the storm. Cloud Runner did not appear to have a lantern, or at least had chosen not to carry it, and had fallen into the trailing position as they walked. The captain had seemingly decided not to say anything for the first few minutes of the walk--something Celestia silently thanked him for while she gathered her thoughts on what to say--but she knew her reprieve was over when he dropped back to walk beside her.

“What happened that the Havens are merely something you remember?”

“I didn’t…”

“The Empire didn’t give me my lieutenant bars without being able to do critical thinking, Princess, much less give me captain bars,” he said. “I can work from context.”

Celestia sighed. “Circumstances arose that required me to expel the entire changeling race from Equestria.”

“Expel.” He frowned. “You mean exile.”

“Yes.”

“Which direction?”

“East.”

“Into the Wastes.” He chewed on this pensiverly for a moment. “It’s a bit selfish of me, but I’d like to know what became of my aunt Sariah du Closs and cousin Sarissa,” he said. “Or, I suppose, how is your royal plot not planted six feet down?”

Celestia carefully stopped herself from smiling at the mention of Sariah du Closs and her daughter. “Amaryss das Lavara chose to strike me with words instead of power,” she said. “The power would have been more of a mercy.”

“Lots of enemies in the world Princess,” the captain said. “Not sure how you missed that wronging the ponies that stomped all over those enemies for you would get them licking their chops.”

“You would have thought so Captain, but the Black Host loomed over diplomacy for nearly a century after the exile,” Celestia said. “Other powers, even powers that correctly discerned what had happened, negotiated as if the Host was still a threat.”

“Which of course it was,” he said. “I don’t know this Amaryss but I do know that if Equestria was in real danger, the exiles would come to her rescue. Speaking of exiles returning,” he looked over at Cadence, “you’re traveling with a couple of Honor Guards and a royal. Reconciliation?”

“Not formally,” Cadence said. “But my mother--the current queen--says that the hatchet has been buried for centuries.”

“And yet you’re staying in guise.”

Cadence grimaced. “It wouldn’t make a difference. My younger sister, the family genius, calls it guise stasis.”

“We always preferred calling it ‘transitioned,’” the captain said. “Sorry to hear it Lady.”

“Princess,” Cadence said. “Mi Amore Cadenza is my Equestrian name, Chidinida das Chrysalis is my birth name. ‘Chidi’ or ‘Cadence’ are equally appropriate.”

“Princess Chidinida then. Unofficial diplomatic liaison?”

“Adopted niece.”

“Lucky you.” He smiled slightly before it disappeared and he looked at Celestia. “What about my aunt and cousin?”

“Sariah passed shortly after the disappearance of the Empire,” Celestia said. “Sarissa took up her crown and carried the weight like she’d been born for it.”

“Which she had.”

“Which she had,” Celestia agreed. “The nobility quipped that she was ‘The Looming That Walked’ for her habit of seeming to loom over ponies that thought she wasn’t close enough to overhear them. She and the rest of the queens of her generation were…” she trailed off trying to find the right word “...special.”

“So how’d Sari respond to the exile?”

“Basically, she said ‘buck you all,’ took Tempesthaven apart down to the very last nail, and carried it with her into exile.” Anori grinned. “At least so goes the family story.”

“It’s something of an exaggeration,” Celestia said, unable to stop herself from grinning anymore, “but not too far off. If there was anything of value in Tempesthaven, even if it was a particularly pretty brick from the garden wall, it went with Du Closs. She even took support beams that du Sylvi had grown for her family when they were building the estate.”

The captain grinned. “I always knew that pigheaded stubbornness would be good for something.”

“Sarissa du Closs was a mare of immense willpower and determination,” Celestia said. “And along with the six others were good ponies, every one of them.”

“So why kick ‘em out, Yer Highness?” Marshall Runner had shouldered Anori aside and taken up position on Celestia’s other flank. “Seems like mares a mite too valuable to let go.”

“I don’t suppose you ever met Amaryss das Lavara?” At the marshal shaking her head, Celestia continued. “If she was alive today, with many advancements in understanding phobias, she would be diagnosed with demophobia. She was a compelling leader in private or among a small number but in any public setting, suffered crippling fear and anxiety. So she had her sister Malyss act as her public agent and…”

“Ya don’t need to say anything more, Yer Highness,” Marshall Runner said with a sour expression. “Knew that bint was made o’ mean and trouble right off. So what’d she do? Go all supremacist an’ kick off a mess?”

“Precisely what she did,” Celestia sighed. “I suspected that Lavara was aware that her younger…”

“Older,” Cloud Runner said.

Celestia furrowed her brow. “Older?”

“Eeyup, by a few years,” Cloud said. “Lavara adored her kids, but she knew what Malyss was so Amaryss got the pat on the head. Pretty normal stuff, ‘cept I don’t think she ever passed it along.”

“I’m confident that she did not,” Celestia said. “Amaryss’ trust of her sister made her blind for the entire lead-up, and she continued to be blind when the unrest began while she tried to find a way to stop it.”

“So how’d it end?”

“Amaryss eventually realized that her sister had struck the match and never stopped fanning the flames,” Celestia said. “She clapped her in irons and physically dragged her into my throne room, telling me what Malyss had done and giving me carte blanc to deal with her however I pleased. But it was too late, in my mind; there was no way to douse the flames except to remove the fuel.”

“Or fight the fire.”

Celestia turned and looked at the captain, staring down at him from her greater stature. “I would never endorse my guard attacking my little ponies, Captain.”

“Then you were a fool, Princess,” the captain replied, looking her directly in the eye. “Do you know how Empress Matchlight achieved her velvet revolution? Why there was no serious resistance to the old ways being completely turned on their head by ponies deeply invested in puller serfdom?”

“She was a spellbinding…”

“No,” the captain said. “Well, yes, but words don’t win wars, they…”

“...they end wars,” Celestia said, quietly. “So my younger sister told me, several times. She believed that her soldiers could stop the unrest and bring peace.”

“She was right,” the captain said. “It would have been a tense peace, a nasty peace, a conquerer’s peace, but you...”

“Captain please stop,” Cadence said. “I know all of this is very new to you, but it’s been a thousand years. Aunt Tia has been blaming herself for centuries, and we’ve all forgiven her for centuries. When this is all over, the second daughter of the current changeling queen is marrying the adoptive son of the current ruler of Equestria,” she gestured with a wing at Shining Armor, “and that will be that.” She paused and smirked at the suddenly dumbfounded expressions. “You’re all invited by the way.”

“...well, hay, this ain’t anything like what Ah expected,” the marshall said with a grin. “Big ol’ royal wedding in Canterlot, an’ we’re all invited? That reconciliation isn’t just words, is it?”

“It’s not fair to call it reconciliation before I’ve actually met the queen,” Celestia said, “But she will shortly be the mother of my daughter in law, and as Cadance said, that will be that.”

“Will you be inviting us back?” the captain said.

“Of course,” Celestia said. “I understand that it cannot be the same as it once was. I can’t imagine any changeling queen would even bow her head to the Dual Thrones again, so changelings will largely be the people of a different nation visiting rather than fellow citizens of Equestrian ponies.” She sighed. “And there is little chance that the Havens will be restored. Du Luc will certainly reclaim the prime vineyard lands, as is their right, and I’m sure that the du Aqui will take their rightful place in the Drainlands. Du Ard will reoccupy Horseshoe Hill, and I’m sure the Lampwick Heights above Baltimare will once again see a du Closs estate. But the Havens are gone, reestablished in the Wastes…”

“We call them the Barrens.”

“...the Barrens,” Celestia nodded, “and I just don’t see them returning to Equestria. Vinehaven, Oakhaven, Brookhaven, Tempesthaven, Dusthaven,and Torridhaven were treasures of Equestrian industry, art, and harmony but they are where they belong.”

“You have an open invitation to visit the Tempesthaven of the Barrens,” Anori said.

“And one to visit Torridhaven,” Krysta added. “As often as you like, for as long as you like.”

“Although you’re incorrect about the ‘living’ havens,” Anori said. “Oakhaven was briefly established about four hundred years ago but du Sylvi chose to make the trees fruit trees instead of trying to cultivate timber groves again. Brookhaven and Vinehaven have never been reestablished in the Barrens.”

Celestia smiled. “I see that your queen is not the only pony I’m fated to have some long and earnest conversations with.”

“Camri du Luc will be kicking down your door the moment you’re done with Queen Chrysalis,” Krysta said, grinning widely. “Based on what I hear of Martella du Luc, you’ll think she was her reincarnation.”

“Lemon Bloom du Sylvi will just rebuild Oakhaven without saying much. Anise du Aqui will do the same with Brookhaven.”

“It will be a joy to see it again,” Celestia said. “Well, except for perhaps Dusthaven. Do the du Dunes still exist in a state of profound paranoia about that?”

“Paranoia that gets more paranoid the more trinkets they find that they don’t feel comfortable leaving in place,” Anori said. “Paranoia that got exponentially more severe about… six hundred years ago, love?”

“More like five,” Krysta said. “It was around the time of Vespa.”

“Right, right.” Anori nodded. ”Anyway, the paranoia has been significantly stronger since around then, although Princess Tettidora doesn’t think it’s related to Vespa using certain of du Dune’s collection for leverage.”

“Tettidora knows it’s unrelated dear,” Krysta said. “She’s got lots of tells and most of them show up when she’s pretending not to know why du Dune have been riding the paranoia train for about half the length of the Exile.”

Celestia sighed. “I would prefer to get the current crisis taken care of before worrying about whatever far worse thing Aleera’s descendents dug up.”

“If they’ve been paranoid about whatever it is for this long, it’s probably not immediately dangerous,” Cadence said. “Mother, when she told me about them, seems to regard it as a foregone conclusion that anything that the du Dunes had found and thoroughly investigated was as safe as if it had been locked in the royal vaults--yours, not ours--no matter what the family ended up doing with it.”

“That was my experience with them as well.” Celestia said. “Although I’ve always been slightly miffed that they showed off their collection to Luna and not to me. I know it wasn’t a matter of trust, but it did sort of stick in my craw.”

“I’m sure they’ll be willing to do you the courtesy when the queen tells them to,” the captain said. “If any part of their collection was so dangerous that you can’t even look, then it’ll be in some mumbo-jumbo box in another box in a room of boxes that look the same.”

“That would be a mighty poor filing system.”

“I know, Marshal, but it’s a great way to hide something.”

“Hidin’ something is the fastest way ta lose control of it,” Marshal Runner said. “If you don’t know where it is at all times, the only way you find out someone sneaked off with it is when you want ta play with it.”

“I wouldn’t characterize any of the du Dune family’s use of their collection as ‘playing’,” Anori said. “Nothing they keep on hoof is innocuous, although they’ve become fairly skilled at playing the artifacts against one another.”

“On second thought, it’s probably best that they never showed me the collection,” Celestia said. “Especially after the Exile, I’d lose sleep knowing that terrible things I’d thought buried were in a display case somewhere. I don’t even trust myself with most of the ones I’m aware of.”

“Du Dune would regard that as a mark in your favor,” Krysta said.

“Maybe enough of one to…”

“Marshal!” They all turned to one of the elderly Lamplighters who had stopped walking and lifted his lamp higher, looking back and forth and turning in a nervous circle.

“Eeyup?”

“Something’s wrong with the storm,” he said.

“Something bad,” the other said.

“Wrong with the storm?” Celestia said. “What do you mean?”

“The flow isn’t right,” the first said.

“And it’s too gentle,” the other added. “It’s not fighting the lamps.”

“Ain’t fighting the lamps?” The marshall stepped out in front of Celestia. “Since when do the windnegos submit to the lamps?”

“When they’re not driving the storm any longer,” the captain said as he raised his own lamp.

“WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.” The sound of the immense basso voice seemed to radiate from every direction at once, and the familiarity caused Celestia to stiffen.

“MY SLOTH AND DISREGARD APPEARS TO HAVE UNDONE MY EFFORTS,” Sotto Voce continued, the reverberation and pervasiveness almost deafening although the actual volume seemed to be no higher than normal conversation. “PERHAPS IT IS APPROPRIATE THAT I SHOULD BE UNDONE BY THE ALERTNESS OF THE LAMPLIGHTERS; THEY ARE THE GRANDCHILDREN OF THE BEGGAR EMPRESS, AFTER ALL.”

“How would the likes of you know of the Beggar Empress, villain?” The captain said.

“MATCHLIGHT WAS A GREAT STONE IN THE RIVER OF HISTORY, CAUSING ITS CURRENTS TO BEND AND SHIFT,” Sotto Voce said. “I WOULD BE A FOOL INDEED IF I DID NOT KNOW OF HER. BE NOT OFFENDED THAT EVEN A VILLAIN SHOULD KNOW HER NAME AND HER DEEDS, BEARER OF THE FOURTH STRING.”

“Why are you here Sotto Voce?” Celestia said. “Surely you have a prize to claim and suffering to inflict.”

“CELESTIA.” Celestia stifled an urge to look around as she felt as if she was being examined from every direction by a mob of invisible eyes. ”I AM GLAD TO SEE THAT WITHOUT PROMPTING, YOU HAVE COME HERE AND DONE AS YOU WERE MEANT TO DO. YOUR ESCORTS LEAD YOU SURELY TO WHERE YOU ARE MEANT TO GO AND THERE, YOU MEAN TO DEFEAT ME.”

“You are not invincible,” Celestia said. “No one is.”

The resonant chuckle seemed, like everything else, seemed to come from every direction at once. “I AM NOT. BUT I AM ALSO NOT THE ONE YOU WILL BE FIGHTING.”

Celestia paused. Blinked. “You’re… not.”

“I AM A PAWN IN A LARGER PLAN. THE GAME IS NOT SO STRAIGHTFORWARD AS YOU IMAGINE--OR YOUR DAUGHTERS BELIEVE. THE GAME IS ALSO NOT THE GAME THAT EINSPITHIANA WARNED OF, FOR SHE HAS UNKNOWINGLY ARRIVED AT ITS FINAL ACT RATHER THAN BEING IN ANTICIPATION OF IT.”

“A pawn,” Cadence said. “Like Canceros.”

“QUITE. IT IS THE HOPE OF THE ONE WHOSE PLAN THIS IS THAT THE PHYSICIAN BROKE CANCEROS, AND THAT CELESTIA REVENGED HERSELF UPON HIM IN THE NAME OF HER PEOPLE.”

“I would wonder why they care after unleashing him on my little ponies, but I would first ask this: is there a purpose to you being omnipresent in this storm?”

“MERELY THE INABILITY TO BE ANYTHING ELSE. TO TAKE A TRUE AND LASTING VESSEL IS A POWER SPECIFIC TO OUR EMPRESS. I HAVE AN ANCHOR, BUT SHE IS NOT MY VESSEL IN ANY REAL SENSE.”

“Do you intend to attack us?”

“NO. HARMING YOU MYSELF IS CONTRARY TO THE PLAN, AND TO THROW THE STORM I HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF AGAINST THREE LAMPLIGHTERS WOULD BE FUTILE”

“Then what is your intent?”

“TO WATCH.” The storm’s intensity visibly and rapidly began to wane. “GO QUICKLY NOW, PRINCESS; YOU ARE EXPECTED.”

There was silence around their little party as the storm dissipated around them, vaporizing into a pleasantly bright overcast with a gentle breeze sending a dusting of the powdery top layer of the snow wafting passed them.

“Well that’s not a bad sign at all,” Anori said.

“Not in the least,” Krysta agreed. “Big powerful formless entities inviting you to hurry and telling you that you’re expected isn’t bad juju at all.”

“That was Sotto Voce?” The captain looked at Celestia. “He seemed… oddly innocuous.”

“He was the master of a host of sadistic creatures from outside our reality that unleashed a plague on Equestria,” Celestia said. “And some manner of dream predator--also from outside reality--deferred to him. Also, he seized control of a storm and keep driving it until he made the error that the Lighters noticed.”

“Your point is well-taken,” the captain said after a moment of visible consideration. “So if he is that strong, who is this one you will be fighting that he claims to be a pawn for?”

“Since Zambet---the dream predator, Captain--was all subordinate and respectful at him, and Lashaal was all subordinate at Zambet, we’ve only got one possibility,” Cadence said. “And we know less than nothing about her.”

“Her?”

“A voice we heard briefly when Sotto Voce finished speaking to the plague creature,” Celestia said. “Sounded like a very young filly, but…”

“...falsetto’s easy,” Marshal Runner said. “Guessing by ‘less than nothin’ you mean you’re pretty sure it was fake.”

“Yes.” Celestia sighed. “And yet with what we know, there is only one reasonable thing to do, and that is to continue towards the capital.”

“Eyup.” Marshal Runner looked at the captain. “Take the old guard with you. Go with the Princess and her companions to the capital.”

“Yes ma’am,” the captain said. “May I ask your intentions, ma’am?”

“Earning mah tenners captain.” The ploughpony looked at Celestia. “Luck, Princess. ‘Spect you're going to need it.”

Author's Note:

In which all the players are on their way to the same place, to meet soon. Sorry it's taken a while to post up a relatively short (comparatively) chapter but life and such, you know. Anyway, I hope people enjoy reading and really hope people commentate extensively. Even brutally. Watch this space, I'll be working in the background!