Game of Worlds

by DualThrone

Joining of the Roads, Part I

It had been over a thousand years since Celestia had approached the capital city of the Empire, much less along the great highway that led towards it from the west, but the longer she walked with her companions and escort, the more comfortable and familiar it felt. Familiar, but also extremely unsettling. Even with the Empire having been brought back, the highway felt desolate and empty, and the arctic landscape around it seemed to loom menacingly in all directions.

“It feels wrong here,” Cadence said after nearly an hour of silence. “Like there’s something that should be here, and isn’t.”

“Like Canterlot in the darkest and quietest hours of winter,” Shining Armor said.

“It’s the lack of travelers,” one of the older lamplighters said without looking back. “Except during storms, the highways and roads are teeming with travelers. Cart ponies, show wagons, soldiers, tourists, nobles and common ponies alike enjoying the weather, and foreign merchants moving goods.”

“All passages are unsettling when there’s no one there,” the other said. “You can feel the absence, especially when the place should be full of life.”

“With all due respect to your empire, I can’t imagine ponies enjoying the weather here,” Cadence said. “It’s rather… chilly.”

“It’s due to them being used to it,” Celestia said. “But also their patronage of Yakyakistan…” She trailed off and shook her head. “Well, when the Empire was around, that is. They’re fine, incidentally.”

“Good,” the captain said. “Is their yearly feast day still a popular tourist holiday?”

Celestia sighed. “They… don’t really have tourist holidays,” she said. “Or… tourists, really. Or any other kind of visitors. We tend to leave them alone and they seem to prefer it.”

The captain walked for a minute with this. “Oh, I… I see,” he said quietly. “Are the dragons still…?”

“Isolationist.”

The captain took this in silently and nodded a few times. “We have a world to rebuild, it sounds like. Lamps to light.”

“Starting with getting rid of Sombra,” Celestia said.

The captain grimaced. “His name is bucking Night White, not Sombra. He’s an emperor, not a king. And… he’s an embarrassment, an imbecile, reckless, selfish, spoiled, and his only unforgivable misdeed is closing the poor houses in the capital. Because his dumb plot thought it would prove to his council that he wasn’t a self-centered spendthrift, and then his dumb plot thought that kicking everypony smarter than himself out of ‘his’ palace made him look strong.”

“Tin pot dictator,” Krysta said.

“Shaping up to be one,” the captain agreed.

Celestia glanced at Krysta before looking at the captain. “The way you describe him he seems like a… spoiled brat rather than a danger.”

The captain paused to look oddly at her. “That’s because it was what he was, a petty tyrant who thought he was stronger and wiser than he actually was. Where did you get the idea that he was a danger?”

“He was aggressively expansionist, for one.”

“A program began under Emperor Lighthorn to get control of a really big chalcopyrite field,” the captain said.

“What’d he want all that copper for?” Anori said. “It’s pretty and I know Nurse Ratchet loves the stuff but it’s not great for tools.”

“Copper sheathing for ships,” Celestia said. “Right?”

“Lighthorn wanted to start building a larger fleet,” the captain said with a nod. “One of the things his kid canceled without canceling the expansion. So there ya go, ‘aggressively expansionist’ because he let dad’s initiative happen without connecting it to anything.”

“I seem to remember it was more extensive than just a vein of minerals.”

“It probably was,” the captain said. “But I’ll put a mousetrap to a monkey that the stuff I don’t know about was the same flavor: started by someone else, limited objective, kid kept it going without being sharp enough to do it properly. It couldn’t have been too bad or you would have whistled up one of the queens to deliver the nicest possible threat.”

“Believe you me, Luna thought about it,” Celestia said. “I can’t quite remember why she didn’t do it, however.”

“Confused picture?” Anori said.

Celestia thought on that a moment. “That was probably it,” she said. “It was not a happy time for any of us and memory can be mercifully fluid when times are difficult. There are many things I’d rather forget.”

“Like the Exile,” Kryssa said. “Although you won’t let yourself forget that.”

“That is correct,” Celestia said. “But I was thinking of the disappearance of the Empire, and certain horrors that followed it. I remember a general flow of events, and watching the winds scour the Empire into the Glass Waste, and the sound of the storm bells, but how we came to be so certain that Night White was a grave danger?” She shrugged. “You would have to ask Luna.”

“Your sister has a better memory?”

“A different memory,” Celestia said. “We remember different things and in different ways, so when we collaborate we can generally get a complete picture. She, for example, knew Matchlight personally and remembers details about her. I met her frequently enough and remember my impressions of her and what issues we discussed, but very few personal details. I, in turn, was well-acquainted with most of her predecessors and successors whereas Luna knew enough to convey the impression of familiarity without actually being familiar.”

“You two really are two halves of a whole, aren’t you?” The captain smiled.

“There’s a reason that Equestria is a diarchy,” Celestia said, smiling back at him.

“So what else led you to think he was a danger?”

“I believe…” Celetia thought a moment. “I suppose the way I’d put it is that the Empire spoiled us.”

“Spoiled you.” The captain glanced at her. “What does that mean?”

“The Empire was never a problem,“ Celestia said. “We’d have to untangle some tribal dispute in Zebrica, and the Empire held peaceful privy councils. The Provinces had to be induced to protect trade with a razor to their necks, and the Empire sent trade convoys with an armed guard. Raids from the yetis were a constant headache, except in the Snowbell shore and then in the entirety of the Snowbell itself as Dawnbreaker prowled the sea ice. The Empire was perpetually quiet, perpetually secure, perpetually safe, perpetually prosperous, and invariably well-led.”

“Then Night White sat on the throne,” Anori said.

“And the Empire having its first petty tyrant panicked you,” Cadence said. “It broke the pattern, violated the norms, and that meant that anything could happen.”

“It blindsided us,” Celestia said. “Much more than the realization that the Crystal Throne had been quietly perpetuating a system of grinding serfdom before the ‘Begger Empress’ pulled it all down.”

“Sotto Voce mentioned her,” Cadence said. “As have you, and the captain. She’s the ‘Matchlight’ you said Luna knew personally, right?”

“Yes.”

“She seems very important.”

“She was,” Celestia said. “Enough so that there’s a Hearth’s Warming Eve foal’s story about her that’s even popular in Equestria, although it doesn’t mention her name.”

Cadence blinked. “Really.”

“The Little Match-Filly.”

Cadence blinked again and exchanged looks with Shining. He looked at Celestia. “Um, I’m not Twiley so I’m not much of a scholar but doesn’t that end with the little match-filly… um, tragically freezing to death?”

“Yes, for some reason.” Celestia chuckled a little. “I can assure you that the Matchlight I met was very much alive. One thing the story doesn’t exaggerate is the effect of the matches. The spell was unique to her and since she was a head of state, I couldn’t exactly ask the court magi to examine her.”

“So, strike a match, you have a hallucination of happiness?”

“No, the full experiencing of a memory of intense contentment and happiness,” Celestia said. “The effect was…”

“Addictive,” Cadence said.

Celestia hesitated and then nodded. “Yes.”

“Which she took full advantage of,” the captain said. “Matchlight was not always a good pony, but if there was a greater empress in our history, I don’t know her name.”

“Nor do I,” Celestia said. “She was a mare intensely dedicated to her goals, and those goals were… well, if not precisely good all the time, were not so bad as to require any action on our part.”

“Affairs of state are seldom gentle and harmless, Princess,” one of the two old lamplighters said.

“You hardly need to tell me that,” Celestia said. “So then, if the self-named King is little more than a brat needing a paddling and a time-out, how did the Empire come to be suspended in time?”

“I know neither the how nor the why Princess,” the captain said. “But I do know that it was not due to anything that Night White did. I also know that that Sotto Voce thing didn’t undo it.”

“How can you know that without knowing the who or why?”

“Because Field Marshal Light Shadow sent a flurry of orders before it happened explaining what was to come and giving us instructions on where to station ourselves, and what to do when we came back to the normal flow,” he said.

“Field Marshal Light Shadow?” Celestia furrowed her brow. “That cannot be the same mare I’m thinking of.”

“That would depend: are you picturing a young mare, white mane, charcoal coat, rarely seen without the various components of a battlemagi kit and fighting shoes?”

“Yes, that’s the mare I’m thinking of.”

“Same one then,” the captain said. “Unless you can think of another way that the field marshal that reviewed my unit a month ago–a month before the end that is–was a young charcoal and white mare, dressed in full battlemagi kit, with fitted fighting shoes.”

“Bell and star cutie mark?”

“With a laurel arced above the star, yes Princess.”

Celestia took in a breath. Same coat, same dress, same mane, same mark, four centuries later.

“She’s immortal?” Shining said.

“As near as any of us can tell,” the captain said. “She hasn’t ever said so directly, but she never made any effort to hide it either.”

Shining looked at Cadence before looking back at the captain. “And no one seemed… concerned?”

“Why would we be?” The captain smiled. “She’s an unabashed patriot, and earnestly supports the Throne. She’s been the friend to every emperor and empress since Matchlight. A couple times, she was even the godmother to the heir apparent. She has been as much a part of our nation as the Crystal Heart itself despite having a life that would let her travel the entire world if she wanted.”

“And she’s not a…?”

The captain snickered. “There’s a whole division of fresh meat that wishes she was. Somehow–and I have no idea how–the entire lot of them caused some kind of mess trying to do… well, no one’s really sure what they were trying to do but it was a glorious mess. She spent a whole day walking down a line of every single one of the idiots and smacking them upside the head. Raised lumps you could hang a hat on. Never saw a ghost that could thump you in the head with a hoof and make it hurt for a week.”

“That seems rather severe,” Shining said.

“Severe was canning the lot of them, which was their CO’s impulse,” the captain said. “You look military, shield flank. Would you rather get smacked over the head and given a second chance, or not get the smack and get drummed out?”

“Shining Armor,” Shining said. “And yeah, I’d probably prefer the lump.”

“I think we’re side-stepping an important question,” Anori said. “How could this field marshal be aware of magic on that scale in advance of it being used? Did she cast this spell?”

“It’s possible,” Celestia said. “She could well be quite ancient, although she never seemed world-weary to me the way the truly ancient tend to be. Truly, I have doubts that she was the source. Luna would know better, but Light Shadow was a consummate military mare so I would expect her to lean on a military solution to a problem.”

“Though her knowing about it in advance sort of implies that she knows who did it and why.” Anori blinked. “Wait a moment… captain, you said in the Wight Flagge that you expected that she had made landfall at a cold-water port, didn’t you?”

“Yup, that was the plan.”

Celestia’s breath caught. “We never looked east. It… we…” She stopped herself and paused a moment for her suddenly scrambled thoughts to fall back into order. “Light Shadow didn’t only know about it far enough in advance to send orders, she knew far enough in advance to load up Dawnbreaker and possibly other ships and move into the Snowbell. But that makes no sense unless…”

“...she was moving the means to undo the magic outside where the wind wall would be,” Cadence said. “And from there, it follows that she either gave someone…”

“Why give someone else the instructions if she knew that she would be alive until the time came to undo it all?” Celestia blinked a few times. “...my goodness…”

Light Shadow, the keeper of the keys to the Crystal Empire that was frozen in time. Canceros, a dramatically evil being acting on instructions to reveal something to Sotto Voce. Sotto Voce, the master of the entire scheme, who claims to only be following instructions. Zambet, some manner of mental predator working with Sotto Voce. The mysterious filly voice, that ‘Lilly Shell’ thing traveling from the Wastes to the Provinces, and someone called ‘Vorka.’ Einspithiana claiming some grand game for ownership of the world is going on. Celestia was used to carefully schooling her expression but she could tell from the reactions of the others that they could tell something wasn’t right. All of them are chess pieces, most are working together… but only one of them could unlock the Empire again.

“What is it, Princess?” The captain’s brow had furrowed.

“Just… a few loose threads coming together.” Celestia said, gesturing with a hoof to brush the question aside. It was clear to her that Light Shadow was involved in the entire thing in some way; it was also clear that saying this to the captain, who clearly admired Light Shadow, wouldn’t help the situation. “I believe that Sotto Voce spoke the truth: there is a much different game in operation than we thought.”

“And you think the Field Marshal is one of the pieces,” the captain said. “I can follow a logic train, Princess. If Light Shadow was carrying the way to undo the spell east, she was the only one who could undo it. If she was the only one who could undo it, then it’s far too perfect for Sotto Voce that she undid it now.”

“Yes,” Celestia said.

“Alright. Cui bono, Princess?”

Celestia sighed. “I don’t know, captain. I would say that Sotto Voce does, but we still don’t know what his objective is, and he claims to be following another’s plan. We don’t know how any of the other players benefit either, and I will freely admit that all we have to tie Light Shadow to any of this is a very good train of logic.” She paused for a moment, realizing something. “That was an unusual way to phrase the question.”

“The Empire heavily favors the clever and the well-read,” he said. “Poor ol’ Bookmark has a yearly nervous breakdown from her very nice library being invaded by all the officer candidates.”

“Precise Index would start punting the lot of you out the door if you started being disruptive,” Celestia said with a small smile. “But to your point, we have no way to know who benefits or how. While I can’t imagine how Sotto Voce and those with him could compel Light Shadow to put the Empire within their reach, the Evils are strange beings and may be able to do such a thing.”

“The Evils?”

“A term for all of the beings that came to this world from some other place, which the emissary that warned us about all of this called ‘the Void’,” Celestia said. “They’re all varying degrees of evil, although I’m told that the one who calls herself ‘Nightmare Moon’ is a very good guest and Zambet was very polite.”

“So these ‘Evils’ may have somehow compelled Field Marshal Shadow to bring the Empire back,” the captain said. “Assuming that she had the means.”

“I am ‘throwing you a bone’ as the term goes,” Celestia said. “The power required to overcome a unicorn as ancient as you imply would be immense. But because speaking ill of someone you regard very highly gets us nowhere, and…”

“Don’t condescend to me Princess,” he said. “I’ve a sense that we’re close to the capital and will soon see the Skytower ahead of us. Will that be sufficient for you to skip the rest of the journey?”

The iciness of his tone and the sudden change in subject caused Celestia to hesitate a moment before answering. “Yes, that should be sufficient. The teleportation won’t be very precise but I only need to get us near the gates. What kind of welcome can we expect?”

“One due a visiting dignitary, of course,” one of the lamplighters said. “The pullers of the city watch take their duty of courtesy seriously.”

“Although there may be a very sparse honor guard for you, Your Highness,” the other said. “They had their hooves full last time I was there.”

“Dealing with Night White’s demands and general troublemaking?” Shining Armor said.

“The trouble he created by closing the poor houses, yes sir,” the first lamplighter said. “Arranging food, shelter, warmth, and safety for the destitute is the work and the glory of the Compassionates and they are exceedingly good at it. But…”

“...without their network of support, they can’t do much, can they?” Cadence said. “They don’t have clerks, accountants, quartermasters, cooks, maids, and the rest of the staff that keeps the enterprise working well. They only have the city watch who do their best but are not trained to the work.”

Both lamplighters and the captain paused to look at her with obvious surprise. “Well someone has been well-instructed in administration,” the captain said, smiling at her. “Very astute, Princess Cadence.”

“I can’t imagine that Night White could dismantle it all completely,” Celestia said. “We have institutions to help the destitute as well, so I know that they would have been kept well-supplied in case something happened that dramatically increased the number needing help.”

“Like what’s happening in Ponyville,” Shining Armor said.

“And in the aftermath of the Guardian,” Anori said. “And the aftermath of Canceros’ plague, even though this ‘Vorka’ sabotaged it.”

“Yes.” Celestia looked at the captain and the two lamplighters flanking him as they continued forward. “Did Night White seize the stores as well?”

“He didn’t have to,” the captain said. “You know how it is, Princess. No rich, spoiled bucker lasts long without a little gang of sycophants, lickspittles, and other petty evil little people looking to benefit from the bigger fish. Imperial citizens are no more paragons of unspotted virtue than any other people.”

Celestia kept her expression from twisting in distaste, although it didn’t take much effort; what the captain was describing was depressingly common. “I guess there are worse things than a petty tyrant.”

“At least they had to be careful about their theft,” one of the lamplighters said, smiling with a touch of ghastly pleasure.

“Getting caught stealing from hungry ponies by the pullers and even most of the citizens got them a stiff beating,” the other explained with the same touch of pleasure.

“Why not just…” Shining stopped himself and shook his head. “No, never mind, I’ve been there myself far too many times. If they’ll just walk right back out, it’s a waste of time. At least our, well, vigilantes have the good grace to not get caught.”

The captain shrugged. “Who was going to catch them? The pullers who were participating? The palace guard, who sympathized? ‘You make your choice, you pay your price’ was the common sentiment.”

“And if not a noble sentiment, it’s at least a fair one,” Celestia said. “Are there any other issues to be wary of?”

“You’ll cause quite a stir, Princess, but the worst that’ll come from that is a meeting with Night White.” He looked at Cadence. “She’ll cause about twice as much stir as you, honestly, because as far as anyone is aware you and Luna are the only alicorns that exist. Her being the daughter of the current queen–which will become readily apparent no matter how great her guise is–will stoke even greater interest.”

Cadence smiled. “I’m very used to friendly and curious crowds, Captain.”

“Then it’ll be no issue at all,” he said. “If my sense of the distance is right, we’ll be seeing the Skytower in a few minutes. It’ll be a damn fine sight no matter who’s on the throne.”

---

The Skytower, to Celestia’s recollection, was the first part of the imperial capital that had been built, predating Matchlight by centuries. Prior to the forming of the Bell Watch and Lamplighters, it was virtually the only early-warning measure the Empire had to spot storms forming and warn citizens to prepare for a blow. Its physically impossible height was magically-augmented, feeding off of the Crystal Heart that was placed directly beneath it and more than any other monument, it represented the Crystal Empire. Even a hundred miles away, the light on top was clearly visible at all times, and Celestia privately suspected that the eternal light was somehow captured by the special storm-shielding lamps that the Lamplighters carried, giving them a portion of the awesome power that deflected hurricane-force blizzards with such ease that the temperature in the capital walls remained constant even during heavy weather.

The walls and towers were also familiar, towering constructs of dense stone that, as Imperial mythology had it, was mortared with the blood of the building crews due to how frequently frenzied windnego attacks swept in before the Crystal Heart had reached its awesome strength as a bastion against the bloodthirsty ice spirits. The walls were also very thick, enough so that ponies could be housed within them semi-comfortably, and were designed such that they projected slightly out over their base, giving defenders a clear shot on any enemy trying to hide against the implacable surface and discourage attempts to scale the walls.

Celestia still marveled that the Du Arctis family had actually wanted to come to the vast frozen wastes that had once been called the “Gateway Wastes” because of their alleged past as the lands through which the tribes of ponykind had traveled, fleeing their original home towards the comparative paradise of Equestria. But the Wastes were where they desired to be and since no sane being wanted them, Du Arctis became the largest landowner in the world.

One thing that Celestia didn’t recognize as she walked off the lingering pins-and-needles sensation of being shunted out of teleportation by a magical disruption barrier was the immense statue of a stallion set atop the gate she was in front of. It was clearly not Night White himself–no horn–and visibly aged although even from the distance she was at, she could tell that it had been fastidiously cared-for. Clearly this stallion was very important to the Empire, but I have no idea who he is, she sighed to herself. I’m sure Luna knows.

“Hallo the gates!” she called, looking upwards to where she had seen arrow slits above the ponderous doors. “I am Princess Celestia, Princess of the Sun and diarch of Equestria, and I wish to enter.”

The pronouncement was greeted with silence, although Celestia had the distinct sense of eyes on her. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Hallo the gates! I am Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria. I ask you to please open the gates so I and those with me may enter!”

This was also greeted with silence, and Celestia looked back at the captain. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Of course you did,” he said, grinning. “Because you’re not an Imperial soldier, or guard, or citizen, and don’t know the protocol.” The grin vanished into a small frown. “Perhaps that should have occurred to you, and you might have asked the soldiers with you for the proper pass-phrases before taking the responsibility yourself.”

Anori cleared his throat. “Captain, it was Princess Luna that involved herself with the military and would be familiar with the concept of gate protocols.”

“It’s as she said earlier,” Krysta said. “There is a reason that Equestria is ruled by a diarchy instead of just one pony.”

The captain frowned at them, but then sighed and conceded the point with a nod. “Fine, I’m sorry Princess.” Before Celestia could respond to this, he stepped passed her and looked up at the gate. “We have traveled the icy cold and seek shelter at your hearth.”

“And are you friend or guest?” A rumbling baritone voice said from the rough direction of the arrow slits.

“I am a lighter of the empress’ lamps with two others at my side,” the captain said. “We bring guests to your hearth and friends to your city.”

“It is well,” the gate guard said, accompanied by the sounds of bars being slid out of the way of the gates. “Speak your names, friends, and be welcome.”

“I am Pri…” Celestia caught sight of the captain shaking his head “...Celestia,” Celestia said. “And thank you for your hospitality.”

“I am Mi Amore Cadenza,” Cadence said, “And thank you…”

By the time they finished giving their names–both Anori and Krysta added their family surnames without the captain stopping them–the gates had swung open to reveal a dozen or so puller guards carrying halberds at parade rest. Their captain–or so Celestia assumed from his position at the front–gave her a polite nod. “Welcome to Quartzica, Princess Celestia and companions,” he said. “May I ask your business in the city?”

“Various matters,” Celestia said. “Seeing to the resolution of the problem with Night White…”

“Emperor White,” the guard captain said firmly.

Celestia blinked, taken aback. “Beg pardon?”

“You sully the name ‘emperor’ by attaching it to him,” the lamplighter captain said.

“And yet he has lawful claim,” the guard captain said firmly. “He has legitimate claim. Is this untrue?”

The lamplighters all glared before the captain bowed slightly. “No, you are correct.”

“The throne will be respected, even if the emperor deserves none,” the guard captain said. “I hate it as well, so we welcome the aid of the Sun Princess and a princess of the royal line. What other business do you have?”

“Some manner of evil, and those allied with him, intend some mischief with the Crystal Heart,” Celestia said. “His minions started a pandemic in Equestria by tainting food crops to conceal other minions finding the Tree of Harmony and using it to pinpoint precisely where the Heart could be found.”

“The princess’ description may seem vague, but we saw this evil,” one of the lamplighters said. “He seized control of one of the storms and rode it so that he could confront the princess.”

“He claimed that there is a greater plan,” the other said, “and that he is only a servant of another. We can’t imagine there being someone powerful enough to command a formless evil that can ride the storms, but we don’t know otherwise.”

The guard captain nodded. “Then it is good you have come. Between Your Highness’ command of the sun, and Field Marshal Light Shadow on her way from Glacierfast with the 731st Marines, we will be able to frustrate the schemes of this evil you speak of.”

“You’ve been in contact with the field marshal?” Celestia said. “Did she mention my sister?”

“I don’t know that.” He turned to look at another of the guard. “You took the message.”

“Yessir,” the puller said. “The Field Marshal did indeed say that she was being accompanied by Princess Luna, a…” He paused, frowning. “...Nacked Meeree Mee-an, and others she called ‘the Elements’.”

She’s traveling with Lu-lu. I suppose that precludes Light Shadow being a willing part of the entire scheme, Celestia thought. Aloud she said, “That is wonderful news. Shall we go speak to Emperor White then?”

“He can hardly refuse a diplomatic envoy, especially fellow royalty,” the guard captain said. “Though we’ve a number of stops to make along the route.”

“Seeing to the well-being of the poor?” Cadence said.

“Indirectly,” he said. “We recently received a number of generous donations from upstanding citizens who repented of their misdeed and wished to show kindness to those without.”

“You kicked down the doors of the thieves and helped them find an appropriate amount of compensation,” Shining Armor said dryly.

The guard captain grinned. “You’re familiar.”

“Captain of the Royal Guard,” Shining said. “Helping mistake-prone citizens donate to good causes is part of the job.”

Celestia gave the stallion a sidelong glance. “To the tune of what amount, Captain of the Royal Guard?”

He shrugged, not looking the least bit sheepish or ashamed. “Enough to help, not enough to be thieves ourselves.”

Celestia fought to stop herself from smirking at him, only partly succeeding, before looking to the guard captain. “I would be happy to help you carry these ‘generous donations’ to those that need them,” she said.

Author's Note:

Yes, it's Part One. Don't worry, Part Two is coming soon to a Game of Worlds near you.