Striking the Match
Celestia didn’t stop to think about Luna’s comments as she stepped forward and embraced her little sister.
“Tia…” Luna’s protest was half-hearted at best, and she resisted returning the embrace for only a moment.
“It has only been a matter of days, sister, but it feels like far longer,” Celestia said to her, smiling as she let the smaller alicorn go.
“I can imagine,” Luna said, smiling back. “I heard about the plague, sister. Do you yet know how many perished?”
“No,” Celestia said. “But it could not have been many. Some being…”
“...sabotaged the plague,” Luna finished. “And then cut Canceros’ throat because she disdained him.”
She blinked at her sister’s words, and then. “She?”
“Field Marshal Light Shadow,” Luna said. “Who also uses the name ‘Penumbra’ and happens to own a creepily accurate copy of our old home. And by creepily-accurate, I mean that she recreated every scratch and dent.”
“So not an unwilling collaborator…”
“No sister, the mastermind of everything,” Luna said. “Vorka, Zambet, Cancerous… all of them are her tools in this. I don’t yet know what part the ‘Game’ that Spite warned us about plays in her scheme–it could very well be another feint–but it seems certain that her hoof was in that as well.”
“But to what end?” Celestia said. “How does she profit by doing any of this?”
“I do not yet understand her purpose,” Luna said. “She said that she planned to ‘shatter the yoke’ and that she was provoked to do all of this by our failure at the moment of crisis during the affair of Malyss and the changelings.”
“Queen Crysalis is a peach by the way,” Dawn piped up as she filed in with the rest of the Elements–sans Fluttershy–at her flanks. “Dressed us, fed us, gave Rares a neat gift, all the sort of good-royalty things.”
“I’m pleased that she treated you kindly,” Celestia said patting Dawn and then Twilight to reassure herself that her daughters were really there and in good health. She caught sight of a series of faint scars on Dawn and her eyes widened.
"Dawn! What happened?"
"Penny had a goon who loved his knives and cutting annoying ponies for fun," Dawn said with a nonchalance that seemed genuine but unsettling given the circumstances. "Said either he could cut me up himself or Penny would melt my brain. Think he believed it, but it was a load of horseapples."
"She was not confident in being able to use the powers of an established desme to disable the characteristic powers of Laughter, so she made sure the sadist greeted us," Twilight said. "She assumed that Pinkie would be the one to anger the sadist and lead him to inflict lasting full-body pain that would disable her. She reckoned without Dawn's personality or the fact that a talented alchemist named Green Leaf would be instructed to send an array of magical medicines with us that could accelerate healing and neutralize pain."
Celestia furrowed her brow. "I was aware that Light Shadow had the capacity to be ruthless but that is a degree above what I had expected." She looked steadily at Dawn. "And you're...?"
Dawn shrugged. "Totally healed," she said. "And honest... the guy wasn't great at inflicting pain. Razor-sharp knife, followed skin contours, all the kinds of stuff that pro surgeons do to tamp down on healing time."
Celestia shook her head. "I suppose there's nothing to do about it right now, but I will not forget this when I meet her." She tapped her chin thoughtfully with a hoof. "Green Leaf... I feel that I have heard that name."
"Gaius Zecora mentioned him Your Highness," Krysta volunteered. "Really loopy but he's to medical alchemy what Twilight is to scholarship."
Celestia nodded to her before looking at her daughters. "Other than letting a sadist loose on Dawn, how did Light Shadow receive you?"
“Like invited guests in a noble's estate,” Twilight said. “Captured us and then raided Ponyville for food and drink to make us comfortable. Said she left compensation…”
“...an’ she was telling the truth about that,” Applejack added.
“..but it was our first indication that she wasn’t really just a filly.”
“That and her preparations for us to accompany her,” Rarity said. “I know the industry. She had to have arranged for fitted winter clothes for months prior to any of this, which means she knew that she would meet us and take us on a journey over frozen sea ice.”
“The Dawnbreaker is an extraordinary achievement, isn’t it?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Twilight said. “Metalclad, larger than any other ship I’ve seen, driven by hundreds of ponies working in,,,” She trailed off and looked at Celestia. “You knew it was out there?”
“Until just today no,” Celestia said. “I and Luna believed that it was inside the spell that removed the Crystal Empire from time. We never thought to travel deep into the Snowbell Sea just in case there were ships there.”
“Not that it woulda made a difference,” Dawn said. “Apparently ol’ Penny needed to do some kinda thing to whistle up the filly spirit so she’d turn off the magic. Till then, the ships were all frozen and looked completely empty.”
“Well, not completely.” Twilight grimaced. “We let her talk us out of looking inside the hold of the ship carrying the train.”
“Filly spirit?” Celestia’s brow furrowed at her two daughters.
“Matchlight,” Luna said. “Yes, that Matchlight. She somehow remained anchored to the Empire even after her death and it was she, not Night White, that was holding the Crystal Empire in a place outside of the stream of time.”
“And she is in active collaboration with Light Shadow,” Celestia said. “One of the Lamplighters told me that just prior to the spell being used, Light Shadow sent out a series of orders to make sure that everyone was prepared. She knew it was coming, and the only way she would know is if Matchlight was working with her.”
“That’s what she said,” Pinkamena offered from where she was flanking Luna. “Talked about how if Matchlight didn’t feel like turning off the spell, it would stop all her plans and she couldn’t do anything about it. Called Matchlight her friend.”
“Certainly consistent with how Matchlight–along with most emperors and empresses–treated her,” Luna said. “Amazing that an empress famously concerned with the common pony could be a part of all of this.”
“Unless she believed that what Penumbra planned to do would align with her goals.” The voice was vividly, almost painfully, familiar and the form of Nightmare Moon was just as painfully familiar as she came through the door just behind Luna, slipping deftly around Rarity and Applejack as she came. “Hello Celestia.”
Celestia consciously walled off all the emotions she had connecting to Nightmare Moon–her feeling of betrayal as she realized that Luna was collaborating with the being, the storm of conflicting feelings over Nightmare saying farewell, and the emotions connecting with the last time she’d seen her–and schooled her face into a neutral expression. “Nightmare.”
“Nachtmiri if you wish to be formal,” Nightmare said. “Which… I have a feeling that a lot of strained politeness is in my future.” She glanced aside at Luna, who was wearing a similarly schooled expression. “And not just me.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Not at all,” Nightmare–Nachmiri–said. “However, I’m sure you’re aware that we don’t have much time to discuss how justifiably upset you are with both of us.”
Celestia blinked at her. “Upset? You are under the impression that I am merely upset? Do you have any idea how…”
“...lonely you were?” Nachtmiri smiled, but it was a hollow one. “Celestia, you will not believe me, but I empathize with you in that. Please, however… we don’t have a great deal of time to spend. You can castigate us for our wrongdoing later.”
Celestia looked steadily at her for a moment before she nodded. “You’re right, we don’t have the time. But this isn’t over.”
“Nor should it be.” Nactmiri said. “Now, I know some of what Luna knows about the nature of Empress Matchlight. I suspect that the Elements know far less. What is your estimation of the mare and whether this fits with her nature?”
“My estimation of Matchlight is that she was goal-fixated while being extremely flexible about how she achieved the goal, although she preferred the least extreme means to get to her end,” Celestia said. “Unfortunately, this entire scheme does conform with her nature if she regarded all of this to be the least extreme means.”
“I shudder to imagine what she regarded as more extreme than this.” Luna sighed. “But we can’t exactly ask her. Unless…?” She looked at Dawn and Twilight.
“She had a match that she struck to do it,” Twilight said. “And for some reason, needed to remove all of her warm clothing. Even if we could figure out what the purpose of being cold was…” She paused, visibly thinking.
“Maybe we could make another match,” Dawn said.
“No.” Pinkamena said, her voice more firm than Celestia had ever heard from the normally bubbly mare. “The illusion was too real.”
“It wasn’t an illusion,” Celestia said. “Matchlight’s name matches her special talent in an unusually precise way; it’s possible that she was named for her talent as a point of fact. Her match spell recreates a joyous memory, firmly establishing it in reality. If there is a fireplace in your memory, even if you’re freezing in reality, you will come back to yourself genuinely warmed-up. It is a unique power, and each match she made is imbued with it. She had to have given the match to Light Shadow herself.”
“Did you collect any while she was alive?”
“A great many,” Luna said. “By the end of her life, she had mastered the talent to such a degree that she could enchant them by the boxful. But it was over a century between her passing and the disappearance of the Empire, and matches that can let someone experience their happiest moments are an excellent gift to offer.”
“Even if any of those that the matches were given to restrained themselves, it would take a long while to find out who,” Celestia said. “And we have an urgent need to speak to her.”
“You might try going to the throne room and asking.” Celestia turned her head to see that Marshal Runner had looked up from taking care of one of the slumbering guards. “The Bell Watch is always talking about how Empress Matchlight actively leads them. If these,” and she gestured to the Elements, “have seen Matchlight’s spirit and spoken to her, then the Bell Watch may have been telling the truth this entire time.”
“The one I met did not seem very pleased to meet me.”
Marshal Runner shrugged. “They take their duties far too seriously and don’t care for foreigners–even well-regarded friends of the Empire. But they’re just as responsive to a polite request as any other reasonable person.”
“I’ll talk to him Tia,” Luna said. “The Watch seemed to… if not like me necessarily, be civil with me.”
“There is no need General.” The Watcher materialized through the shattered remains of the throne room door. “The conversation was not difficult to overhear. You wish to speak to our empress, Celestia?”
Celestia allowed herself a blink of surprise at the abrupt appearance. “I do.”
“Then your timing is perfect, for our empress requests and requires your presence in the throne room.” He looked at Marshal Runner. “Except yourself and those who are aiding the sick and injured, Marshal.”
“All of us, sir?” Twilight said.
“Yes,” he said. “Come this way.”
Celestia glanced aside at Luna, who gave her a barely-perceptible shrug, before following the Bell Watch pony into the still-dimmed throne room, although none of the miasma that Zambet had brought was present so the crystal lamps were visible high above. The Watcher brought them to be nearly within reach of the throne itself before gesturing them to stop. He then turned and saluted the empty throne. “Empress, I have brought them to you as required.”
After a moment, there was a very exasperated, very familiar sigh from the side of the room. “Chapter Master, I admire your dutifulness but why are you saluting an empty throne?” Matchlight’s cultured voice said, her accent strongly Equestrian rural nobility rather than the unusual manner of the Empire. “Have you summoned the palace physician?”
The Watcher redirected his salute in the direction the voice was coming from. “The entity concentrated her efforts on disabling him as a first measure.”
There was a long pause. “And?”
The Bell Watch chapter master’s slightly disdainful stoicism cracked slightly as Celestia glimpsed a touch of sheepishness. “And I will send a runner to the hospital at once. I beg your pardon Your Imperial…”
“Yes, yes, you’re pardoned,” Matchlight interrupted, sounding exasperated. “Just light a fire under your hooves and show some damned initiative.”
The chapter master no longer attempted to conceal his sheepishness, and immediately turned and trotted out of the room at a change of pace. There was another sigh, this one more tired than exasperated, and Celestia turned towards the sound. “I understand you wished to speak with us, Empress Matchlight?”
“More like, you wished to speak with me and I find it necessary to speak with you. Just a moment please, I’m still getting used to the configuration of the throne room enchantments again.” There was a sharp tap-tap and the entire room was bathed instantly in daylight. Celestia closed her eyes involuntarily in reaction to the sudden swift change from dim to bright and when she opened them a moment later, Matchlight was occupying the throne.
Matchlight had always reminded Celestia strongly of the matriarchs of the Du Closs family in that when she was in a room, you could feel her presence even if her small stature sometimes made her hard to see in a crowd. White-maned in stark contrast to all other changeling nobility Celestia had ever met and with the exquisite ascetic features of very, very old-blood Equestrian nobility, she cut an impressive figure even though she was so small that even seated in an elevated throne she still couldn’t look Celestia in the eye. She also had her horn glowing dimly, although Celestia couldn’t see any particular spell being worked or any discernible purpose to it.
“You look a thousand years older than the last time I saw you,” Matchlight said after a moment of silence. “Like you’ve been carrying the weight of the world.”
“I have,” Celestia said. “If the field marshal has been keeping you informed, you know why.”
Matchlight smiled, but there was a clear sadness to it. “She didn’t have to. I… am not trapped in the borders of the Empire. Beyond them I have no power, not even to make myself known, but I can wander mostly where I will.” She closed her eyes and slumped in the throne. “It’s not right that you should have been made to be so agonizingly alone for this entire time, Celestia. What Light desires is good, but it was not until I had completed my part that I was fully aware that the kind and warm mare I treasured during my life and enjoyed the company of during my eternal vigil over my empire has some… very cold and cruel blemishes.”
“What she desires is good?” Luna stepped forward, glaring at the apparition. “Do you have any idea what she’s been up to, Match? Crippling two of the Elements, employing a thing like Zambet, letting another thing experiment on innocent people for some mad purpose, letting some eldritch monster unleash a pandemic on Equestria just to send up a beacon at a place she knows by heart? In what mad reality is any of that worth whatever bizarre objective she has?”
“The objective is a shared one.” Matchlight opened her eyes again. “How long since you had something to eat, General?”
The question clearly took Luna aback and she had to hesitate a moment before the glare returned. “What the buck does that have to do with anything?”
“You’ll recall that making sure hungry ponies had regular, hot, nourishing meals no matter their impoverishment was something of a fixation of mine in life.” Matchlight smiled, broadly and without the sadness this time. “It transpires that we are all spirits within bodies and remain who we were in life after death. So while you read me the riot act, General, I shall have the staff–those who Zambet’s little foray didn’t harm–prepare something.”
“One thing first,” Celestia said. “Why did you have the chapter master send a runner to the hospital?”
“My…” Matchlight sighed. “The current living occupant of the throne was badly harmed by what Zambet did. Not so much that he is in danger, but professional care is required.” She gestured off to a side with her head. “If you happen to have any among the Elements with medical knowledge, they are of course welcome to do whatever seems best to them. I would ask the help of Kindness but… well, you certainly know by now.”
“Zambet put her in a coma,” Luna said. “Used some kind of extraordinarily powerful…”
“...contingency,” Matchlight sighed again. “We weren’t certain that Zambet could use them against the Elements, even fulfilling all the conditions, since to strike the Bearer requires throwing down with the manifest spirit. Or so we believed.” She shook her head. “When Light warned that she had employed an eldritch horror but had very limited means of control, I thought she was being overly cautious.”
“It seems like she has no control at all Matchlight,” Celestia said. “Zambet crippled Fluttershy–the Bearer of Kindness–and came here to sup on the staff and your heir. I doubt either or those things were Light Shadow’s will.”
“The second was,” Matchlight said. “Zambet infusing the Palace ensured she would be at a specific place at a specific time and with ample warning, and the use of Light’s Archive, she was primed to abandon the position when my Bell Watch arrived. She is cunning and knows our purpose in making her aware, but has concluded–accurately–that the Bell Watch constitutes our own contingency against her going off-script.”
“And Fluttershy?”
“Zambet is under the impression that she can do as she pleases without consequences. She will learn otherwise at a time and in a way you will see for yourselves.” Matchlight frowned. “But I fear that Fluttershy herself will spend some time under the care of Verdant Heart. We will find some way to recompense her for the evil our folly did to her.”
“Why do it at all?” Twilight stepped forward. “What’s this all for, Your Highness? Why would you work with something like Zambet, and why would you keep supporting Light after she revealed that she’d hired a thing like Zambet to complete her plan?”
“She didn’t ‘reveal’ it to me Twilight,” Matchlight said. “She proposed the idea, and I agreed to support it. Sotto Voce explained her in detail to us, although he stipulated that she is like all of the Named in that she does not reveal her actual power to anyone whom she expects to survive the experience. Light used the fragments that Sotto Voce conveyed to us to give Zambet the impression that we had discerned enough about her power that it would be pointless to continue to be secretive, so she explained it. Not fully–we still have no idea how she gained it–but we learned enough to put strictures on her ability to use it while under contract.”
“Zambet keeps to the liberally-interpreted letter of her agreements,” Nightmare said, “and the way she was able to use the contingency–poking Kindness until the manifest spirit tried to smite her–trampled all over the spirit while holding to the letter.”
Matchlight snorted. “She’s a monster, but I give her credit for sheer insane bravery. Kindness is by far the manifest spirit most dangerous to a thing like Zambet since she has the tools to heal the profound psychic wounds that Zambet can inflict. It’s even very possible that Kindness has the raw power to transmit a lethal blow backwards through the link that the Void construct-form of Zambet maintains with her genuine self.”
“That’s likely why Zambet targeted her,” Nightmare said. “It seemed odd to me that Zambet would waste a contingency when she could have simply abandoned the position, and I had assumed she was surprised by how dangerous Kindness is and was forced to act. Now, I’m not sure, about the surprise part at least.”
“She made very good use of the Archive,” Matchlight said. “Likely, she understands the nature of the Elements better than any one mortal, although I understand them reasonably well. Light appears to understand…” She paused as one of the palace guard appeared, looking surprisingly well. “Yes?”
“Nurse from the hospital to attend to the… erm, Night White.”
“It’s proper to call him ‘Emperor,’ it’s his legitimate title,” Matchlight said. “Also, that was suspiciously fast.”
“I apologize for the delay Empress,” a burly stallion said as he stepped passed the guard, already opening a case of what Celestia recognized as basic examination instruments. “The Watch Captain hastened to send a runner to the hospital and failed to see that Helpinghoof already called us up for an emergency shift.”
Matchlight sighed and nodded towards the corner. “Checking his breathing and pulse is the extent of my knowledge, but both seemed… acceptable.”
“Very good, Your Highness.” It wasn’t until the nurse had walked passed her that Celestia was able to make out the mostly-still form of Night White, still dressed in his finery, sprawled out on a pad of several quilts. The nurse put down his case and began a basic examination with the brisk professionalism of routine while Celestia turned her look back to Matchlight, who was looking at the guard.
“Was there anything else?” she asked.
“Some of the other hospital staff have arranged for food and drink,” he said. “Fortified orange radish soup. The maid staff are setting a table for your guests as we speak.”
Matchlight grinned broadly. “Outstanding,” she said. “It’s good to see that the palace staff keeps up the tradition of initiative. You are dismissed.” She looked to Celestia as the guard bowed and left. “In my time, it was a strange day indeed that the staff failed to fulfill my every request before I even thought to make it.”
“I enjoy the same level of ability among my own staff,” Celestia said. “Many of whom are drawn from certain noble families.”
“Such as those that live in the Pillars District.” Matchlight nodded. “I think history would have been much different if we had the old blood of Equestria, instead of having to build our own in the wake of a revolution.” She straightened up and then hopped off the throne. “General, you never did answer how long it’s been since you’ve eaten.”
“I am not a general anymore,” Luna said.
“You were,” Matchlight said as she trotted passed their group, presumably towards the dining hall, with the sound of her steps clearly audible. “And it’s a better title. You are a princess because you wear a crown. You are a general because you earned it.” She paused and turned to look at Luna. “Unless you prefer I call you by your name?”
“We call you by yours,” Celestia pointed out as she stepped a few times to catch up with the very solid-looking ghost.
“That has merit.” She looked at Luna again. “Luna you never did answer how long it’s been since you’ve eaten.”
Luna visibly thought about this for a moment. “I think it was… when we met Kyra in the…”
“Princess Kyra?” Krysta said.
“The ambassador to the Griffin Provinces?” Anori said.
“...well, yes.” Luna looked sheepish. “I believe that would have been a couple days ago.”
Matchlight snorted. “Little wonder you’re grouchy. Well don’t worry, we Empire ponies have just the thing.”
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I did assume it was dead, and yet many of the stories I enjoy on this site have similar issues, but continue to update on and off. It's wonderful to see you still writing, and I hope more is coming sooner rather than later, considering your mention of this being a piece cut off a longer section.
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I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart for responding to my constant near-pleading for feedback and criticism. At the moment I'm responding to this first post, I'm on my way out the door for some things but I'll be responding (generally with the corrections you're suggesting) to everything you've contributed when I'm able. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you for caring enough to criticize.
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I've developed a habit of checking, but if you reply on the main story page instead of the specific chapters I don't receive notifications. Just a heads up.
Oh, and you're quite welcome. As an author myself I know how much a good, not flattering, but interesting/useful, comment can mean.
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I apologize, thank you for informing me.
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Yeah, still working on that larger section. I fully admit to having a problem where I write more than I really need to and take a long time to realize that I can actually cut it up and post what I have.
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Gah, missed this one. Hey, could you actually use the reply function? Not super important, but it does make sure I see it.
Anyway, that does explain the physics. I was assuming canon changelings when I read that chapter, and it is becoming increasingly clear that you took a different take on the changelings. I'll have to keep that in mind in the future.
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Please, call me R.
Or don't, I'm not offended or anything, but lots of people do, and it's almost like a first name vs full name sort of thing. Only backwards, like in Japan. So you can call me R, or My Name is R, whichever works for you. Just don’t call me My Name is, cause that'd be wierd.
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What she specifically doesn't know is that there's an extensive library there which could be of use to nefarious people. Given that the library was supposedly there for about 1000 years, it's not strange that she is surprised that it's still usable. Nor is it strange that Celestia wouldn't bother talking about the library in a castle ruin overtaken by the Everfree: there's no reason to expect the books to remain intact.
BTW, I'm just chattering about this point for the lulz of it because the library is yet another orphan plot point that is mentioned precisely once and never figures in again. If you're getting the feeling that I'm kind of disorganized and never bothered to write a "bible" for my work, you are 100% correct.
Or there's another unicorn mare of impressive magical ability who spent time under the personal tutelage of Princess Celestia who could possibly have it. You never know. :)