The Unknown Daughter's Reunion:Part 3

by Disembodied_Pony

Chapter 4: Dark Pools

Aboard her flagship, the empress sat in her chambers reading through reports.

Provided by her team of dream-walkers, she was reading them over with an increasingly souring expression.

During the dream-walking operation, her team returned from the dreams of Canterlot ponies quickly, too quickly.

Wearing expressions of confusion, and a little hurt; they carried on with the next number of ponies they were to probe intent.

By the end of the fifth return however, they expressed their desire to terminate the mission. Citing that the ponies of Canterlot were united in bitterness and disdain of others.

While surprised, she conceded. As she didn't want to drag her ponies through ugliness if she could at all prevent doing so.

Now, reading their reports detailing their reception, treatment, and dialog's; she was glad that she did so. Glad that her ponies felt free enough to question the mission, as well as doing so to herself directly.

'This bodes very ill' she thought, setting the pad down.

'It is as if they are enthralled by magical persuasion? I do hope that is the case. If it is not, it would mean that the last ruler has deeply poisoned the minds and hearts of an entire city.. to embrace a predominance rule, and deeply..'

Closing her eyes, she breathed out a sigh.

'Such a thing, I have never witnessed in ponies before. Nor seen in nearly a thousand years... To think such a thing could come to Equestria?'

Getting up and going over to the comm, she called the ship captain and her guard captain for an emergency meeting.

They were going to have to find out if this was a magical persuasion or not.

---

Coming to the door of the princess of the night's chambers, she tapped the door panel; announcing her presence.

The door opening, Luna beckoned her to enter. Walking in, the empress was without her usual greeting.

"...I know that expression, your highness. You bring bad news, don't you?" Luna asked.

"Dreadful" was all the empress said.

Going over to the food replicator, Luna came back with two teas in her aura. Setting them down, she sat next to the empress.

"Go ahead." Luna beckoned.

"Canterlot is poisoned. Irredeemably so I fear. Though we have only a small sampling of their thinking, it is worse than I imagined. And my imagination is quite dark, I assure you." the empress dropped her bombshell.

Sipping her tea, Luna didn't flinch. It was as if she were already aware?

"I see" was all Luna said.

"You do not find this disturbing nor surprising?" the empress asked.

"Disturbing, yes. Surprising, not as much." Luna answered, setting down her tea cup.

"I had made a sampling of my own. Looking up a couple of ponies that were descendants of good friends of mine, in my time. The results, were more than disappointing, I should say" Luna clarified.

"How did they fare?" the empress asked.

"Quite well. Though ,their spirit was dark, and their words full of scorn and bitterness. I was terribly disappointed that the lineage of such good ponies had fallen so. Their manners included." Luna went on.

"What did they say?" the empress asked her.

"Things that I had not heard since Hurricane's day" Luna replied.

Immediately, the empress's wings flew outward. Almost grinding her teeth, she exclaimed;

"They dared?!"

With Luna's nod, she almost demanded to know their identities before she took a deep breath.

"They should consider themselves fortunate that they are too insignificant, to warrant a stay in Tartarus" the dark alicorn dismissed her own ire.

Sighing, the empress followed up on her news;

"We have checked on the ponies we have contacted there. They are not under any form of persuasion in their thinking, I am sad to say."

Looking down, Luna's expression became forlorn;

"That, is the worst news that you could deliver. I had held hope that there was a magic influence swaying their thinking..."

"Indeed. Breaking a mass spell would be easier than breaking what has taken root there" the empress replied.

Looking over to the empress, Luna declared;

"The others, must know of our findings. I kept my disappointments to myself, but with what you have verified; though incomplete, it's..."

Nodding, the two just sat there.

Nursing their teas... though they tasted more bitter now than they had before.

---

Working in tandem with Luna, the empress checked on a many more ponies in Canterlot via their dreams.

The results being largely; biting words, or the silent treatment altogether. Though with the later, their eyes told them all they needed to hear.

These ponies hearts were filled with darkness. How it got there, or how long it took to accumulate; they could not guess.

Though they presumed it had taken a lifetime to become that way.

Now, in a conference room with the other princesses; they divulged their findings. Both of the dream-walking alicorns telling the others of what they had uncovered.

"I can't believe in this. You must be exaggerating?" Celestia rebuked the tales.

Shaking her head, Luna responded to her sister;

"Nay sister. I would gladly pretend that I had not heard the hurtful words of the ones I spoken to."

"But, there must be some that are open to us?" Cadance asked, keeping her optimism.

"While we have not spoken to all that are there yet, our findings so far have been largely unanimous. That they have no use for change nor other princesses than the one they had" Luna replied.

"As it is standing, should you take seat on the throne of Canterlot; you shall be surrounded by complete dissent" the empress summarized.

"How are we supposed to achieve any means of recovery in such an environment? Court would be pointless... Earnest ponies prevented from even getting close to the castle, let alone being able to take council?" Celestia pondered.

"We'd be cut off. Even our staff would be stopped as soon as they try to leave the castle." Twilight ruminated. Taking a few moments, she spoke again;

"How are we supposed to help anypony when we're surrounded on all sides by a barrier of spiteful ponies?"

"You wont. Such will become their sole purpose in their lives. Till their final days, they will utterly oppose every action you adopt, regardless of its purpose. Should they not let go of their anger and bitterness, that is" the empress spoke.

As they continued their conference, the dark alicorn spoke of her meetings with the ponies there; and how they had not shown any wariness nor fear of the alicorn of old darkness.

"Twas as if they had wrapped their hearts in a cloak of blind hatred, and showed no fear of anything even when it stood before them. Though I do not welcome it; behind fear, is some form of respect. These ponies had none of it" She spoke.

"Had I been the creature they should have feared... They would have stepped into their own destruction through the hurtful words the dared to use. Two thousand years ago, they would have begged for simple nightmares to besiege them, in exchange of what they would have been dealt" the empress's tone taking a hard edge to it.

"If you doubt either of us, we will be glad to take you to their dreams. So that your own ears and eyes can be assaulted by their dark hearts" Luna proposed.

"My own ponies refuse to even approach them now, having befallen their extreme in-hospitality repeatedly" the empress added.

"I have to see for myself. I just can't believe that these ponies have become this....bad." Twilight said.

The other princesses agreeing, they began their mission to reach out to all of the ponies of Canterlot.

With the empress and Luna ferrying the other princess, as well as doing so themselves; they entered dream after dream after dream.

Along the way, the princesses of love and friendship were becoming increasingly despondent. As the ponies they interacted with, were the antithesis of love and friendship.

Recognizing that they had had enough, the other three alicorns continued on without them.

Between the three; the results were only slightly mixed.

Celestia having the most pleasant of the interactions, her grandeur carrying some measure of decorum. Though she could see through the guile as well as reading volumes from the terseness of the conversations.

Though barely polite, they had no interest in what she had to say, and made it clear without words.

Coming to the last of the ponies there, they concluded that less than twenty percent were anything but fallen.

---

Now, reconvened in the conference room, they had assembled. A heavy silence hanging in the air, though for different reasons.

The younger princesses were disillusioned; their optimism having been dashed.

Celestia and Luna; overcome by the near hopeless weight of what they experienced and now faced.

The empress; by what she was about to propose in dealing with the situation.

Indeed, she had nagging thoughts leading to here, since she first heard the reports from her envoys research on Canterlot, years ago now.

In all of that time, she had hoped that such a proposal would be unnecessary. And though she was glad that her family had no part to play in it, it was still what she considered a worst-case scenario.

And so they sat there. A game of whom would be bold enough to break the silence.

It was Twilight who became fed up with the silence, and broke it;

"This is impossible! What in Equestria is this?! You're sure there's no mind control magic involved?" she shouted in exasperation.

Nodding, the empress repeated their findings;

"Indeed there is not. We have checked repeatedly. There are no spell matrices, charms, wards, nor fields; constant nor reoccurring, nor parasitic incursions. This mindset is a naturally occurring one; a product of a culture made commonplace some time ago" she spoke.

"One such as even I in times past, could not have envisioned nor created" she concluded.

"What are we going to do?" Cadance asked, almost pleadingly.

"I.." Celestia faltered, at a loss for a way out of this mess.

Talking a deep breath, the empress looked up at them all, and said;

"Banishment."

Her one word declaration; shocking all of the princesses. However it was Celestia that spoke hastily in response.

"Do you realize what you're saying?!" her thoughts on the multitude of ponies the empress was talking about.

Overcome by the humor in the irony of what she said, having gotten the best of her; a puff of air escaped through her nostrils while she looked down with a small smile.

Raising her eyes to the white alicorns nose, she replied in a soft and sincere voice;

"More than everypony in this room, combined" she spoke, her eyes then meeting Celestia's.

To this; Celestia flinched back like she was physically struck, and then wilted as humility filled her.

Finding herself outmatched, she was in no position to lecture the mare in front of her in matters of banishment and exile.

The others, Luna included; Were shocked that such a pony would suggest such an action. Finally, Cadance spoke;

"Isn't that a little extreme? It's not like they have enslaved ponies or such. They aren't the last princess" She asked.

"While true, the darkness in their hearts is the same. Sewn by the last princess, it has taken root and sprouted there. It will only bear fruits now, fruits of poison that will plague the rest of the ponies of Equestria until they themselves rid of it. Either through personal growth, or violence."

Talking a moment, she went on;

"I propose they be sequestered from the rest. Where; they may choose to either stew in their darkness, or grow out of it. As they have spoken in earnest; They have no need nor desire for light, not at this time. May chance; they, or their descendants shall some day? I offer them that chance, to choose for themselves what path they will travel, and its end. Same as I had."

Celestia, starting to tear up, pleaded with the alicorn;

"But they're my little ponies!"

Walking up to her, the empress sat before her and wiped a tear from her face. Looking into her eyes, she spoke softly;

"In a way they always shall be. However, they have chosen, or had chosen for them; another path. As such, they will have none of what Equestria, or We wish to offer. Alike foals going out on their own; they may indeed thrive, or they may fall. We, have to honor them as ponies to choose for themselves which, even when it hurts us to do so."

Embracing her aunt, the dark alicorn spoke more;

"They have become ponies apart... Should some day, they wish to come back; they will be welcomed. Until then, it is all up to them, what will be" She finished.

Breaking into sobs, the alabaster alicorn wept on the shoulder of the empress. The other princesses, feeling much the same way as Celestia did, shed tears of their own.

When the flow of tears had slowed, the empress released Celestia from their embrace.

"The resources of the empire are vast. We will give them everything they will need in order to make it on their own, save intervention. A green place on a world of their own, which to claim and do what they will" the empress did her best to assuage their sorrow.

That day, inside that conference room; Marked the establishment of a new future colony, and the end of an era which persisted for the better part of a century.

There was no joy attributed to this event, however. Only sorrow.

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Why are they so surprised? Canyerlot always had a dark undertone. And the mare that killed them displayed Celestia's head in the bucking throne room. If no fuss was given then. That they are beyond salvation.

[Stahlseele]

They were doing to have to find out if this was a magical persuasion or not.

find the spelling error!

she had nagging thoughts leading here

not there?

[Disembodied_Pony]

11258118
Phffaha good catch. Though doing was spelled properly, lol.

'not there?'
I have to think no, as it's a present/imminent future context?