Explanations and Tales
“Tell me, minister: were you there for the intervention?” Trilychi had abandoned his divan and was now curled up to a side, his avatar having expanded its size so that the mismatched imitation of Discord could address him with its chin propped up in his hand.
Fronck-Kais sighed internally, having given up trying to brush off the Eighth Prime’s random inquiries. “I was, and wished I was not. Coldest place I’ve ever been, including the Void.”
“Was it nice, feeling hope that Folly had actually retrieved the situation by pulling the Palace from the depths?”
He snorted. “There was no such hope. I followed Quezelzege on his mad adventure out of hope that while he capered around pissing off everyone who’s anyone, some gains could be realized. No one, not even his most ardent supporters, believed that Quezelzege had the barest modicum of intelligence. The most any of us hoped from the Palace was that it would distract that freakish hybrid and her hymn-humming friends so we could make good our escape. It worked, needless to say.”
Kaiya snorted. “Freakish hybrid? Hymn-humming friends? I’d pay dearly to see you try to say those things to their faces, especially Templar Drake. Or, even better, I’d love to see you say ‘freakish hybrid’ in the hearing of Drake’s adoptive family. I could carry you away in a drinking glass.”
He gave her a sour look but sighed and conceded the point with a nod. “At any rate, we hoped that the Palace would distract, and it did. The Sixth taking the field personally, with her armies and the full participation of the Elite Guard? That, no one could have anticipated.”
“I did,” Kaiya snorted. “Trilychi did. Weaver-damned Heccate did, and she takes great pains to ignore everything that goes on in the Helles. If none of you had the wit to anticipate that the sweet-natured Power with an enduring grudge against Folly would step in to ruin his plans, you had only yourselves to blame.”
“Oh, sure,” he retorted scornfully. “We’re supposed to obtain a deep understanding of the nature of one of the Primes, when her Helle is patrolled by Void-damned jei, she has an entire Family of expert spy-hunters who emphatically do not like Evils, and she herself is unfailingly, unfailingly, sweet-natured and friendly. How precisely do you imagine that we can understand the Void-damned Sixth, when the only Evil allowed in her presence is her tame void-dragon?”
Kaiya began to reply, stopped, and frowned thoughtfully. “He poses an excellent riddle, Trilychi. What say you?”
“I say that he and his kind ought to have utilized the most basic powers of observation,” Trilychi snorted. “She’s a dragon. In what world are dragons not fiercely powerful predators that, as often as not, have the raw physical and magical power to break entire armies? Beyond that, Amarra Drae’thul’s nature and danger are quite apparent to the most casual observer: she is the sword and shield of the first Prime to unite all nine Helles under a single banner; all ten Families both like and respect her, something they only do with equals; and the merciless way she dealt with Rijii, stepping directly into the toxic Void-infused aura that she projected around her and laying hands on her, is generally known among the Helles, so it wouldn’t have been necessary to spy on her to know of it.”
He felt his eyes widen and mouth gape involuntarily. “How is that possible?”
“For the same reason the demon-shadow your agent set loose to distract the Handmaiden cowered when she wielded pure Light against it,” Kaiya replied. “For the same reason that even an Evil as strong as a distolver fears and respects Light and Dark. Like water against a rock, Rijii’s aura broke against her own without making the slightest impression.”
“And all the Helles knows it, thus it would be easily possible for you to have known it, if you paid any attention at all,” Trilychi concluded with a smirk. “No spies, infiltration, or incisive cunning needed.”
He treated the pair of them to another sour look before he sighed, feeling the barest touch of shame. “In retrospect, someone should have realized that that damn red-scale with the innocently warm personality was at least as dangerous as the Ninth himself.”
“I’ve warned her about being too nice,” Trilychi sighed. “It’s a weakness unseemly for such a powerful and intelligent creature as she. And yet, it’s dreadfully hard to gainsay her after she’s risen from neophyte to Power without being the slightest bit hobbled.”
“Eventually, Lord Trilychi, you’ll acknowledge that she’s a Power because of what you term her weakness, not in spite of it.” Kaiya smiled at him, her tone that of someone who’s had the exact conversation hundreds of time and expected she’d have it hundreds of times more.
“And eventually, Lady Aon, you’ll realize that no amount of proof will ever convince me that concerted warmth and kindness is anything but an indulgence of fools, pathetic mortals, and Amarra Drae’thul,” Trilychi retorted with a genuine smile and the exact same tone.
“And your explanation for me offering you an exceptionally fine and valuable vintage of drink?”
“You’re a fool,” he stated cheerfully. “Which in no way detracts from the gratitude I feel towards you for the kind gesture of respect, even if I disdain as weakness the kindness that led to it.”
Fronck-Kais sighed lightly and tuned out the banter between the Eighth Prime and Ninth Archangel as he studied the game board. Almost all of his pieces were in place and his plan for this Game was unfolding perfectly. In her stupid desperation, Lashaal had gravely injured one of the Elements, by far the boldest and most mobile one, and it’d proven an unexpected boon for his grand design. And yet…
He turned his eyes to the figuring representing The Handmaiden, now positioned holding the bloodstained locket in such a way as to make it seem like it was being held up to the light for study. He knew generally about her, every creature of the Void did, but beyond her species, information about her was frustratingly vague. She was the literal hand of the Sixth Prime, a Prime famous for both her unfeigned personal goodness and her immense power, and had proven herself superior in power to many Primes by assassinating the Fourth Prime at the behest of her mistress.
But she was proving extremely frustrating, enough so that Fronck-Kais was beginning to see why Lady Aon seemed in no hurry to invoke other agents to aid her. The mere threat of her presence was enough to send Lashaal into a mindless panic and caused her to flee northwest before she could complete either of her intended tasks in Equestria. Even when she’d stumbled into doing something right, The Handmaiden mauled the klesae to the point of disintegration, something he’d have never imagined to be possible, and saved Loyalty from death.
She’d even somehow spotted the gaes another of his agents had laid on the griffin consul and destroyed it, all but guaranteeing that Fronck-Kais would be missing vital intelligence until another of his agents had finished their tasks and could move on to retrieve the results of Lashaal’s cowardice. If he didn’t know that Kaiya Aon was obsessively dedicated to the letter and spirit of the rules, he’d suspect that she was conveying his plans to her agent.
He noticed that the Light and Dark seemed to be winding down and looked up to convey attention. She may be a tamed void-dragon, he thought, but she’s lost none of her race’s love of stirring up trouble. Something has to be done or I may just have to concede that Lady Aon is correct: my bid to control Sol Selune is truly in vain. “I take it you have no plans for this turn, milady?”
“I’m thinking… not quite yet,” she chuckled. “Do go on, however. I enjoy watching plans play out, even if they’re the plans of my foe.”
It was black everywhere. It wasn’t simply black under her hooves or in front of her, but in every possible direction. She could see her hooves and when she looked back, her wings and her rainbow-colored tail, but there wasn’t any kind of light or any reason she’d be able to see, and it bothered her for some reason. That, and it was so boring here.
“You know, as dreams go, this one sort of bites,” she informed the blackness in every direction. “I mean, the entire ‘you can’t see what you’re standing on’ mystery thing is really, like, intellectual and all but you’ve got the wrong pony. Egghead stuff is for Twi, not me.”
The blackness didn’t seem to have anything to say to this and Rainbow sat back on her haunches with a huff. “I mean, I feel totally gypped here. Usually, my dreams are really awesome and fun but this? This just doesn’t fly.”
“You, however, do,” a silky, beautifully-exotic voice commented in a conversational tone from behind her. “And you seem quite good at it, child, although I simply must question the wisdom of trifling with the sound barrier at whim.”
Before Rainbow could get up or even turn, the owner of the voice strolled passed her, her steps causing the blackness to ripple softly at each point of contact, before she turned and sat on her haunches before Rainbow, looking down at her with a smile. It was a dragoness, but taller than Spike and built along slim, serpentine lines with a luxurious charcoal-black mane spilling off her hornless head, contrasting vividly with bright scarlet scales. Her irises were a vivid emerald green and around her neck, she wore a hinged gold locket stained with blood on a delicate golden chain. The dragoness folded her hands across her belly and bowed elegantly to Rainbow.
“I might add that unless I read you wrongly, this flying generally involves a lovely young griffiness whose image gives you comfort and peace,” the dragoness continued. “I’m not reading your mind, Rainbow Dash, but simply seeing flashes of your most important and intense memories.”
Rainbow found her voice. “Who the hay are you?”
“A close companion to a valiant dragoness who fearlessly charged a demon-shadow for your sake and afterwards, seeing the rents in the very fabric of your soul, infused you with a portion of her strength and self,” she replied. “Your body lies in a coma in a hospital bed, a gentle creature keeping faithful vigil over it in the way that family or a very dear friend would.”
She grinned a little. “Flutters.”
“If that is the one who fits that description,” the dragoness agreed pleasantly. “Although, I find it delightful that you’re so blasé about being in a coma.”
“Well, am I gonna wake up?”
“Without a doubt, and quite soon.”
“And can I still fly like I did before when I do?”
“I believe you’ll be even more capable than you were.”
Rainbow grinned. “Then why worry? I’m still me, still awesome, and the newest Daring Do book is gonna be out soon.”
The dragoness grinned at her fiercely, looking delighted by this response. “Yes, you’re still awesome, Dash. So, before you wake up and it becomes a bit harder to do this, I’d like to have a word. You’re probably wondering what the hay this all is, right?”
“Yeah, sorta occurred to me,” Rainbow admitted. “So what the hay is it?”
“A blank space between what is real and what is merely believed,” she replied. “For most of the last two days or so, your sleep has been regenerative and dreamless. That sleep will inevitably end, and probably much sooner than is wisest, and so the time to speak with you is now.”
“And you can talk to me… how?”
“It’s complicated but once, I did for the dragoness what she did for you, and some thread of me is still woven through her. Part of that thread was passed to you, and since it’s in tune with my own self, I can speak to you in this blank space.” The dragoness looked over her with a fond smile. “You are well worthy of that effort, Rainbow Dash. You are a valiant creature, as she is, and absolutely loyal to what you are and those you care about, which is what I love so dearly about her.”
“OK, enough with the flowery stuff; I already know how awesome I am. What do ya want, mysterious dragoness?”
“To get you up to speed, as it were,” she replied. “It’s only been two days but much has happened. The first, and most important, is that the pony you were sent to warn is a monster, and now the proper ponies are aware of it.”
The image of that emaciated white face twisting into a look of pure, sadistic, hateful ugliness flickered in the blackness behind the dragoness and a snarl of “Klesae, pegasi EIT!” echoed in the nothingness around them. Rainbow shuddered involuntarily. “Yeah, I remember.”
“I can see that you do,” she gave Rainbow a sympathetic look. “If it helps, your savior hurt it many times worse than it hurt you.”
Again, a memory flickered against the blackness, that of watching light-infused flames spew from the dragoness’ gaping maw, followed by the graceful pirouette that riddled the shadow monster with fireballs. It was followed by the vivid sensation of soft, gentle hands drifting over her face and sides, pleasant coolness emanating from the touches, then the wonderful sensation of being wrapped in a warm cloud-soft blanket and then… being here.
Rainbow became aware of the scarlet dragoness watching where the images had flashed, her expression proud and happy. “So she finally mastered the infusion,” she commented, turning that happy expression, heavily tinged with warmth, on Rainbow. “Honestly, I’m amazed that a flier of your skill and speed could ever be touched by a klesae. They’re dumb beasts and quite ponderous.”
“I was sorta… hurting…” Rainbow admitted, shifting uncomfortably on her hooves. “Now that I think about it, I think your friend was trying to stop me from reaching Lily Shell so she was doing lots of near-misses to throw me off my game. Not sure what the last thing she did was, but it hurt like hay.”
“She probably charged you when you were building up speed so that the onrushing air would hit like a brick wall,” her companion opined. “Which I’m sure she’ll be apologizing for profusely when you wake up, since it indirectly led to you getting nibbled on by the klesae.”
Rainbow snorted. “Naw, it was totally fair and totally not her fault. I think she was majorly pissed that Lily…”
“Lashaal, actually.”
“…yeah, OK, Lashaal used that klesae thing on me to distract her from running her down. That counts for a lot. And this klesae thing… pretty dangerous right?”
“Extremely so.”
“So she went right after that thing for a total stranger, without really stopping to think about it.” Rainbow grinned. “Which was cool of her and I’m pretty sure she kicked its plot, which makes her way awesome.”
The dragoness laughed at this. “I’m sure she’ll feel honored that the great Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, heir apparent to leadership in the Wonderbolts, and Element of Loyalty regards her as ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’.” She gestured to the blackness. “Not to wander from the subject at hand, but would you prefer that we ditched this background and went someplace cooler?”
Rainbow eyed her. “Uh, if this is someplace between real and imagination, how do we get out of it?”
“It’s a blank space, a ready canvas for whoever wishes to paint on it,” she informed her. “For example, if a certain red-scaled dragoness felt like hanging out in a peaceful village with a viewing platform directly above a majestic waterfall, she could totally take a certain cyan pegasus there.”
It was, it seemed, as simple as that for without any apparent pause, the blackness dissipated and the low, basso rumble of a giant waterfall filled Rainbow’s ears. She was now standing on a wooden platform with a nicely-carved hoof rail all around it and steps leading down to a cobblestone path. A gentle sun shined softly overhead and sparkling mist rolled off the falling water to shroud the platform in a cool and pleasant cloud of vapor. The foliage on the other side of the river looked green and lush, and the village to the other side looked colorful, the homes all with gently-sloped roofs and small decorative gardens around them.
“Hano,” the dragoness supplied fondly as she strolled over, her claws clacking almost inaudibly against the wood. “I’m sorry that I can’t imagine any of its people—I visit often but trying to keep track of hundreds of inhabitants with my imagination is a bit beyond me.”
“So this is where you’re from?” Rainbow asked, looking around.
“No.” She gave Rainbow a peaceful smile, a dead ringer for gentle, beautiful little smile that Flutters occasionally let out from under her shyness. “But it’s near the winter home of my minister of state, and he invites me here often to enjoy time away from my duties.”
“What kind of duties?”
“Alas, I would tell you but although there’s no limit to the space I can imagine, there is a limit to my time in your company, Rainbow Dash,” the dragoness told her. “So sadly, we cannot linger on pleasant and pedestrian things. The last thing I need to tell you, to get you up to speed, is that the consul-general to Equestria, one Egret Halia…”
“Eggie?” Rainbow interrupted.
“Eggie?” She blinked and a look of comprehension dawned. “…oh, you know him.”
“Yeah, he was like a combo father and big brother to… Gilda,” Rainbow explained, canting her ears fractionally. “So what’s going on with him?”
“One of Lashaal’s little helpers got into his head,” she told her grimly. “Laid a pretty deep memory compulsion on him that nearly killed him when my friend, the dragoness who saved you from the klesae, was trying to examine him. She was trying to make sure that he wasn’t being used as a puppet by Lashaal to stir up trouble with Equestria.”
Rainbow gulped. “But he’s… OK, right?”
“Yes.” Rainbow sagged slightly, relieved. “Your Princess Luna has a gift for the sort of intricate mental magic that can undo that manner of meddling. He’ll be fine within the week, if past experience holds true.”
“Past experience?” Rainbow frowned. “Who the hay are you?”
“Friend of a friend.” The dragoness considered this. “Call me ‘Mera’ if you wish. Or don’t, as you’re very soon to awaken, and it’s unlikely that you’ll see me again anytime soon.”
“How soon?”
“Oh, call it about a minute.” She chuckled. “Oh, and a piece of advice: when you start waking up, count to thirty.”
Rainbow stared at the merrily-grinning Mera, abruptly aware of the roar of the waterfall suddenly becoming muted, and the scene around her starting to fade slowly. “Um, why?”
“You’ll see.” Mera smiled warmly as the blackness closed in on her. “I hope that fate will allow us another conversation, Rainbow. Enjoy the mass hysteria.”
“...mass hysteria?”
><><
“Just keep in mind that pulling her out of the deep, soul-regenerating sleep I put her in may be hazardous,” Spite told them seriously as they gathered around the bedside of the stricken pegasus. “Princesses, I’d be grateful of your assistance if trouble arises.”
“What kind of trouble do you imagine, Spite?” Celestia asked, looking at Rainbow with compassionate concern.
“I can’t, really,” Spite admitted. “This is a totally unprecedented situation. Not only was I the one doing the initial work, I’m pulling her out earlier than is normally done, although I don’t know the reason for the practice. So hold some magic at the ready and I’ll begin.”
Twilight watched as the black dragoness reached a paw up and very gently stroked he claws through Rainbow’s rainbow mane before settling her hand over the cyan pony’s face, two fingers resting on the eyelids. Twilight felt a gentle swell of magic and Rainbow immediately began to stir. Spite stepped back and out of the way as the pegasus twisted in bed and opened her eyes, her mouth moving, looking like she was… counting? What was going on was destined to forever remain a mystery because at the same moment Twilight noticed that Rainbow seemed to be counting up from zero, she noticed other details about the awakening pegasus’ appearance.
A longer, more lush rainbow mane. Pink irises now a jewel-like amethyst—and slit pupils. Longer, more slender legs with broader and slightly oddly-shaped wings. But most prominently, s the pegasus got free of the sheets concealing it, thin, spidery lines of extremely faint luminous black energy arcing delicately along where Twilight knew veins and capillaries to be. Twilight glanced around, seeing that the other girls had noticed the same things she had, and a heavy silence pressed down on them, broken only by the sound of Rainbow’s voice softly saying “…twenty-five, twenty-six…”
Seconds later, a cacophony of nine different voices had replaced the heavy silence as nine different mares reacted to the situation: Rainbow trying to say something to Spite, the other Elements expressing their various versions of shock, Dawn laughing, the Princesses trying to calm everyone, Spite trying to answer Rainbow, and so on. Abruptly, the world assumed the muted, quieted appearance that Twilight remembered from when Spite had first appeared to her and the nine voices faded under its effects.
“Sorry, force of habit,” Spite said as she made a gesture and the muted effect dissipated. “What were you saying, Rainbow?”
“That was bucking awesome,” Rainbow declared with a grin. “Thirty seconds, right on the dot.”
The expression of vintage Rainbow Dash triggered a mass rush of the other Elements to embrace her and once again break the silence with a happy chorus of greetings, an embrace Twilight joined without hesitation. The burning question of the significance of thirty seconds and what was ‘right on the dot’ would have to wait: Rainbow was OK and whatever she looked like, she was still Rainbow.
“How’re y’all feelin’ sugarcube?” Applejacked asked her as they backed off to let Rainbow recover from the overjoyed group hug.
“Buckin’ awesome, AJ,” Rainbow declared with a cheeky grin. “For the first time ever, I’ve gotten to sleep in without anypony trying to kick me out of bed to go wrangle a storm or something. It’s way cool.”
“Do you… remember how you got here? Remember what led up to it?” Twilight asked her.
“Flutters got me up to chase down somepony named ‘Lily Shell’ and tell her that somepony was after her,” Rainbow replied without hesitation. “Turned out that Lily Shell was a bad sort, and the somepony after her beat down a big demon shadow thing and saved my plot. After somehow outrunning me when I was working up to a sonic rainboom. Which is, possibly, the most awesome thing I can imagine, taken together.”
“I sort of cheated,” Spite admitted, smiling broadly. “I’m pleased to see you well, Rainbow. I’d worried that the infusion I did to save your life would have some… untoward effects. I didn’t think it would, but few things are entirely impossible.”
“Well…” Rainbow turned and eyed her modified wings, now with a greater surface area. She then considered her longer, more elegant body shape, what little she could see of it by turning her head. She then batted at her longer, more lush mane with a sour expression. “…I can always cut the mane.”
This pronouncement caused a surprised Rainbow to be abruptly nose-to-nose with a scarily serious Rarity. “Rainbow Dash, you shall not!”
“But it’s all… frou-frou…”
Rarity backed up and mimed clutching her heart. “Frou-frou? No, no, Rainbow! It’s… it’s…” Her eyes gleamed. “…perfect.”
“Twi…” Rainbow gave the alicorn a pleading look.
Twilight had to work hard not to laugh at the desperate expression. “You might as well indulge her, Dash. It’s not as if manestyle is permanent.”
“And seriously, Dash,” Spite added, her eyes dancing. “If you’re out to be world-famous, what’s the harm in looking as awesome as you are?”
“But… but… the short cut is already awesome!”
“Well, yeah, but looking good enough to catch the eye of whatever stallion or mare you want is more awesome-er than just plain old awesome.”
Rainbow gave the dragoness a skeptical look, although her cheeks colored very lightly. “Seriously?”
“Cross my heart.” Spite replied solemnly.
“And hope to fly?” Pinkie asked.
“I can do that already.”
“Stick a cupcake in your eye?”
“When I could stick it in my mouth?” Spite laughed. “Are you crazy?”
The pink party-pony considered this with a perfectly serious expression. “You have a point…” She gave the dragoness a broad smile. “You get used to this pretty fast for somepony that’s practically new.”
“I can manage serious conversations with people so crazy that they’ve spontaneously become sane,” Spite smiled a little in return. “After Vampvipers, you’re easy.”
“Vamipric vipers?” Pinkamena eyed her. “Wouldn’t that be kinda hard with the poison fangs and all?”
Spite chuckled. “I have no clue where his name comes from or their name comes from; point is, he’s Vampvipers and made entirely out of vampvipers so naturally, he’s insane to the point of sanity. Case in point: his version of ‘have a nice day’ is ‘collections of white moonlight sun’.”
Pinkamena considered this. “Yeah, sounds pretty insane to me. How do you converse with him?”
“After a few decades, you learn to speak ‘schizophrenic’ like a champ,” Spite replied wryly. “Anyway, Rainbow, I’m quite serious: rumor has it that being physically desirable and an outstanding athlete is more awesome than just being an outstanding athlete.”
“You’re just saying that because you want her,” Dawn smirked.
“Dawn vas Celestia, do you want me to bounce you off a wall?” Spite sighed. “I like pretty things and I happen to have some affinity for Dash and that’s it. Not everypony nurses fantasies of tying your love interest up and having your way with her.”
“Well, duh… she’s a farmpony, she’s great with rope.” Dawn grinned. “I’m thinking something more… competitive between you and the rainbow-mane. Maybe…”
“Dawn when do you have time to think about these things?” Celestia asked of her daughter in wonderment. “Or inclination, for that matter?”
“Trust me, mum… Twi thinks of these things too. She just doesn’t let them out of her head.”
“I do not!” Twilight protested, blushing deeply.
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Dawn scoffed. “You’re gonna stand there and tell me you never think of this sorta stuff? Never indulge in one of those sappy novels as a guilty pleasure? Never look at a flank and think ‘I could hit that if I wanted it’? Never imagined somethin’ more than friendly with somepony? Never? Never ever?”
Twilight turned beet red. “N… never!”
Dawn laughed. “OK, sure, whatever you say bookworm. I know your type.”
Twilight stared at the ground, blushing fiercely as she sternly banished anything even resembling such thoughts, wishing she could think up a better strategy than just denying it when Dawn got like this.
“OK, OK, fine… I’ll let Rarity do the… whatever…” Rainbow grimaced. “I swear, Rarity, if you try to put me in a dress…”
“Heavens no, darling… you’d ruin it,” Rarity replied with a wave of her hoof.
“Oh.” The pegasus looked relieved. “Well, good.”
“So, now that Rainbow Dash is awakened and is well… I believe you promised us an explanation, Spite?” Celestia suggested with a beatific smile in the dragoness’ direction.
“Sure. Just get close enough that I can shift us out and give us some privacy.”
“Shift us out?” Luna inquired as she and Celestia obligingly trotted closer.
“It’s how I create the barrier around us that prevents use from seeing or interacting with outside, and outside seeing or interacting with us: I move us outside the ordinary flow of reality, slightly closer to the Void without exposing us to it,” Spite explained. “It requires very little effort for me, since I have a strong sympathetic aethirical resonance with both reality and Void.”
“That explains that creepy healing trick you did.”
“Um, yes, sort of.” Spite shifted uncomfortably. “Anyway, it’s possible to do it on a much larger scale and much more completely, but it’s only been necessary once.” She made a gesture with a hand and the world outside their little circle seemed to fade into the background. “Quite handy if you need to have a private conversation…”
“Or get off,” Dawn observed.
“That has honestly never occurred to me,” she retorted loftily. “So, moving on to the situation at hoof, you recall that I explained the concepts of Light and Dark?”
“We do,” Luna confirmed.
“Long and the short of it is that there’re nine… beings, I guess, who’re the strongest beings of Light and Dark in existence. There’re eighteen of them, nine per force, and each one rules over their own individual realm, called ‘Helles’ for Dark and ‘Heavens’ for Light,” Spite explained. “They tend to make themselves patrons of worlds, which gives them prestige among their peers and obligates them to defend the patronized worlds. Generally, they don’t switch hands but when they do, it’s always the result of a Game.”
“Your patroness, Amarra Drae’thul, is one of these?” Celestia asked.
“Yes.” Spite beamed proudly. “One of the strongest overall and the second-strongest military power among the eighteen, second only to the Ninth Prime. Anyway, the situation you confront now is the second Game that’s occurred in the last year, the first one concluding just six months prior.”
There was dead silence. “Thou sayest that the destruction of Our kingdom, the slaying of Our little ponies, the corruption of Our extended family, the corruption of Order, all the suffering that has come of it are Us being used as the… playthings of one of these entities of Light or Dark?” Luna inquired, her voice becoming resonant with building anger.
Spite sighed. “It’s a great deal more nuanced and complicated than that. The term ‘game’ is used because that’s often the most helpful representation: pieces on a chess board. Various of the extremely powerful entities of Light and Dark developed it as a system for gaining plunder, conquest, and prestige without doing great harm to the denizens of a world. The matter of the Guardian is a very rare case of one player cheating to sate their sadism.”
The glow of rage diminished fractionally. “Cheating?”
“There’s a rule that a player isn’t responsible for the conduct of their pieces unless they instructed the pieces to take the offending action.” Spite grimaced. “The Evil that was using the Guardian dodged the rule by stripping him of most free will when she engineered his corruption. Thus, while she didn’t tell him to do any of the evils he did, she made certain that he would do nothing else.”
“Well, we defeated the Guardian so I assume she lost,” Twilight mentioned.
“It’s better than that. You defeated the Guardian because she lost.” Spite smiled a little. “The other player was incoherent with rage when she realized what the offender was doing, and she declared the game forfeit with the approval of the mediator. The offender was subsequently executed in retaliation for the damage she did and the lives she destroyed.”
“Good,” Rainbow growled—actually and literally growled, Twilight noted—as she stomped the floor with a hoof for emphasis. “Pile of horsehapples took lotsa friends, took my very best friend in fact. Did she die hard?”
“Very hard.” Spite inclined her head gently in Rainbow’s direction. “My knowledge of the players is limited to the Ninth Light, who claims this world as one of her patron worlds and is the defender in the Game. Beyond her, and my own sister and queen, I know very about this particular game. Lashaal is certainly a piece and whatever creature laid the compulsion on the consul is another. We can only assume, therefore, that there’re still others that we don’t know about.”
“What about more of you?” Celestia asked. “By which I mean, what about more pieces who’re in the service of this Ninth Light that is acting as our unseen defender?”
“I’m all you get for the time being,” Spite smiled a little sheepishly. “I know Kaiya Aon, the Ninth Light, well enough to know her habits, and her habit in this instance is to spend her strength carefully until she knows the shape of the opponent’s plan. Make no mistake: if an army is what it takes to break her opponent and secure Sol Selune, an army is what she’ll send. But the plan isn’t known yet, so the entire array of her pieces begins and ends with me.”
“She must have the utmost confidence in you.”
“It’s very well-justified.” Spite looked over the ponies. “So now you know all I know about the situation. Admittedly, it’s not as much as I wish I knew, but it’s all I have.”
“How does your queen fit into all of this, though?” Celestia inquired. “If she’s not a player in this ‘Game’, what’s her interest in it?”
Spite tilted her head in a curious way. “Why do you need to know?”
“Because her letter is pleasant and polite, but anypony can write eloquent words,” Celestia replied. “In fact, most ponies can speak eloquently when they want to, and the most eloquent are frequently up to something. The question of whether you are in earnest is well-settled: the Element of Honesty confirms your truthfulness, and I know of at least two troubles that you’ve taken on and resolved just since my daughters became aware of you. However, knowing you tells me only that Amarra Drae’thul has a very earnest and truthful servant, nothing about Amarra herself.”
“Fair enough,” Spite acknowledged. “I think that going into her history would be a waste of time right now, but I can tell you the important bits. My queen and sister, Amarra Drae’thul, is the Sixth Prime and possesses the largest organized army in all the Helles. She is personally stronger than any Prime except for her master, the Ninth Prime. She has a warm and open personality, not unlike your own Your Majesty, and is regarded as exceptionally lovely by mortal standards. We’re actually twins, fraternal, so she looks like me except with brilliant red scales and green eyes.”
“Does she call herself ‘Mera’ sometimes?” Rainbow asked.
“…yes.” Spite looked thoroughly shocked by the question. “Although I tend to call her ‘Amy.’ But how would you know that?”
“Just before I woke up, she popped up in some ‘blank space between reality’ or something like that and told me what’s what,” Rainbow replied, looking like she was enjoying the look of shock from Spite. “Seemed really nice and for being a queen, she sounds like, well, me.”
The dragoness looked at her for a moment before shaking it off and giving a short bark of laughter. “Hah! I’ll bet she took advantage of the tiny thread of herself that I passed to you. And yes, she’s far more conversant in the way that more modern people and ponies speak than your typical Light or Dark, partly out of a nostalgic fondness for mortal things.” She visibly thought about this. “Well, damn… big sister’s pitching in, more than likely without seeking or receiving permission from the players. This can’t help but be fantastically good.”
“Is she actually permitted to intervene in the operations of the Game?” Luna asked.
“There’s no rule one way or the other.” Spite shrugged. “The possibility that there’d be a third party, with the power and inclination to simply step in and take action outside the confines of the formal Game, was never contemplated. The rules were formulated long before I was born and millennia before the rise of Primes and Archangels who maintained highly disciplined, well-trained military forces.”
“So shoot big sis a letter and have her sort this entire thing out.” Dawn suggested. “If she’s anything like you, she’s probably chomping at the bit to start the dance music.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?”
“I dunno… the entire spying on us with wolves and going after Rainbow to try and bring her down seems sorta intervention-ish.” Dawn smirked. “And showing up with a letter of introduction, and being right on the edge of giving us a couple quests and sending us on our way.”
“Oooh… quests!” Pinkie grinned her impossible grin. “Where’re we going? We’re going west, right? Because ‘go west, young stallion’ is a totally cool idea, and I think Applejack has a cousin out that direction, and he’s all nice and stuff, and we could totally recruit the buffalo, and then we’d have tanks to help us on the raid.”
“…um…” Spite was at a temporary loss for words, staring at the peppy pink party pony before shaking off the confusion. “I… was thinking more northwest and east but if you’re really attached to buffalo…”
“Naw, I’m totally ready to look to the east.” Pinkie tapped her chin with a hoof and her mane lost some of its curl. “So we’re going to the griffin lands, where Lashaal was going, and the eastern barrens where she came from?”
Spite smiled. “Yes, that was going to be my suggestion. How’d you know?”
“It was sort of inevitable,” Twilight offered. “We’ve got to stop Lashaal from doing to others what she did to Consul Halia and if she came from the east like she claims, she probably set things in motion there that we also want to stop. So it was sort of obvious that you were going to work around to suggesting that we split up and take care of both things at once. It’s the most optimal use of time and resources given our present circumstances.”
“To translate from sexually-repressed egghead to nymphomaniac egghead…”
“I’m not sexually repressed!”
“Mmmhmm,” Dawn grinned at her. “So you say, sis, so you say.”
Twilight did her best impression of an exasperated growl before looking at Spite. “It’s a good idea, Spite, but I think we need to split three ways to take care of Equestria while we’re off chasing Lashaal.”
“That’ll spread us pretty thin,” Spite pointed out, visibly struggling not to grin at Dawn’s needling.
“Not as much as you’d think,” Twilight countered. “We’ve got more assets than you’re aware of.”
“Such as…?”
Twilight smiled at the mental image of the unicorn she had in mind. “Well, I’m thinking we could really use somepony Great and Powerful.”
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trixie! WOO WOO!
heh. this seems like it'll be fun...
1343634
The novel is actually called A Song of Ice and Fire, it's only the first book which is called "A Game of Thrones". Apparently the person you're talking to there has only ever watched the TV adaptation, Game of Thrones, and is vaguely aware that it's based on novels.
1443927 If you say so. I myself hesitate to assume that I know, based on one comment, what knowledge another person has.
1445987 Better question: where does the typo appear? My personal copies of this story, Word documents on my hard drive, are out of synch with the posted chapters so I need you to be more specific if you spot an error.
1443927
I am actually quite aware, but like many other folks they drop the whole "Ice and Fire" moniker for simplicity. That being said I don't dislike the story that it has I just despise his style of writing. Martin is just far to dry for my taste. I barely managed to choke down Lord of the Rings and that was only because all of their incessant singing was in italics so I knew when to stop skipping.
Anyway...
Hooray! Stuff happened! and more importantly the important stuff got explained, I still feel Spite being tight lipped for almost 50,000 words was a bit much but it's done and out there now so it works.
Speaking of Spite, I was concerned there for a minuet she was going to go all "Mary Sue" on us last chapter but that little time bomb from Lasheel helped prove she was fallible*. The story still seems rather her centered but I imagine when light decides to get a little more involved that will be alleviated.
Lastly, Yay Trixie! Well not so much her as her coltfriend. So by possible extension, Yay Big Mac!
*Still not buying it, Spite is still a villain in my book.
1481651 Ah, but she's still being tight-lipped about something.
And naturally, the story is "her-centered": she's the only one who knows anything about what's going on and so, she's the only one who the author can use to do anything about the big picture. Don't worry, I'm no more than two chapters away from sending one half of the Fellowship to Rohan and the other to Gondor and leave Trixie in the Shire. So movement is coming. ^_^
Please tell me you're being facetious... x.x
1482505
Villain is a bit harsh, but there is some stuff going on there that seems fishy. Everything is just a bit too easy or well timed.
Besides what's to stop a piece from changing sides or being manipulated? this last chapter shows that a third party can get involved without the others even knowing right away.
1482538 Well, there's a pretty good reason that Kaiya sent only one representative at first and her opponent sent many of them; beyond that, however, events have coughed up only one relatively straightforward problem at a time, and one of those (the memory compulsion thing) was actually resolved by Princess Luna. So yeah, for the moment, everything is very easy. That will certainly change.
Ah, and that's the little paradox: one side has pieces with free will and the other side doesn't.
1482641
And it's a safe assumption that the side of complete order, rule and law would probably not be so keen on the whole "Do as you please" mentality.
Order is a double edged sword, one edge is responsible freedom, but the other is martial law.
1482686 That's true, which is why both I and the characters distinguish between "Light" and "good"; in terms of what's been shown and told about her, the Dark-aligned Amarra Drae'thul is a more good person than the Light-aligned Kaiya Aon. However, a being who likes to sneak away to get laid by her mate (as Kaiya casually admitted to Fronck-Kais a few chapters ago) probably isn't too obsessed with total control.
1483219
One might conclude that there is a balance to be maintained and that the only way a Dark-aligned entity could be more good than a Light-aligned one would be if a counterpart was similarly tilted in the opposite direction.
Okay, so we're back to a copy of Discord.
I've come to the conclusion that I was wrong about Folly being a Lord of Darkness. This chapter makes me think he must have been of the void.
So it was a spying sort of spell? Okay. That fits nicely into my understanding of the situation.
You learn to speak in hallucinations?
1446048
Try searching the chapter for the sentence. Control+f on most computers. Other systems tend to have the function as well, but without knowing what device you use there's no point in my naming all of them.
Umm, I don't know what you intended here, I'll just let you figure it out.
us
very little about?
11677327
It took me a moment as well. The "s" is meant to be "as." As always, thank you for spotting the error. :)