Lawmare

by Jade Ring

Interlude 3- Last Look Back

The air is crisp this morning. Not quite frosty, but close. The filly shivers, but it is not just the cold that makes her shake.

It's nerves.

She reminds herself that the easy part is done. The older mare has probed her magical core and found the spark. She has the potential. Now she just has to prove she has the other qualities befitting a Lawmare; tenacity and an ability to adapt. Twilight Sparkle isn't worried about the former. Her father often jokes that she reminds him of a small dog clutching a scrap in its teeth with the way she refuses to quit reading and go to bed. But to adapt...?

Well, improvisation has never been her strong suit, do ya ken?

The older mare (what was her name? Twinkleshine?) steps aside. Two other mares step forward. Like Twinkleshine, they wear the leathers and badges marking them as full-fledged Lawmares, but their clothes are less frayed, show less signs of wear and tear. They're also much younger. "Sai Starlight Glimmer will be taking my place as the inspector while I go on the roads this spring." Twinkleshine nods at the pink mare. "She'll be administering the remaining trials. Do ya ken?"

"Yes, sai." Twilight tries not to squeak. She tries to stand straight and tall, tries to give no sign of the bubbling excitement in her heart. These Lawmares aren't much older than she is. These are two of the elite spellslingers she'll be training under, learning from, and one day? Fighting beside. "I'll do my best."

"You'll speak when prompted, maggot!" The golden Lawmare beside Starlight Glimmer barks, making Twilight flinch.

Starlight shakes her head at her sister Lawmare's gruff action. "Try not to scare them off just yet, Sunset."

The mare named Sunset snorts and looks away. "If they're jumpy enough to be startled by a little yelling, then maybe they should be scared away."

Twinkleshine gives a withering look to the golden unicorn. "As I recall, Sunset Shimmer, you were quite the jumpy one yourself. Don't let that badge on your chest make you forget what lies beneath it. We Lawmares are tough ones, say true, but we must be caring as well." She turns her gaze to Twilight and winks. "There's something about this one, I think. And who knows? Maybe she'll be your own apprentice."

Sunset takes the chiding silently, then turns back and stares daggers at the purple filly.

Twilight gulps, but doesn't break her gaze. She stares just as hard at Sunset.

Sunset's horn sparks. "Something you want to add, maggot? Something on your mind?"

"N-no, sai." Twilight wills herself not to look at the horn's dangerous glow. She maintains the impromptu staring contest.

For moments, neither pony moves. Neither looks away. Neither blinks.

It's Sunset who blinks first, and she grins. "Yar, you've got some salt, cully. What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle, sai." Twilight bows respectfully. "Daughter of Twilight Velvet of Canterlot. Sired by Night Light of the same."

Sunset nods approvingly. "And are they here to see your trials? Your parents, I mean."

"Say true." Twilight spares a glance over to where her parents are watching with rapt attention. Her brother stands near them, the teenager bedecked in his dress uniform. His graduation from basic training was only yesterday, and by all rights he should be using his leave to be out in the city partying with his friends and fellow members of the Royal Guard. He should be, but he's here. He's here for her.

And that means the world to her.

"You've done them proud by passing the second trial." Starlight starts smiling as well.

Twilight does a double take. "But sai, I..." It clicks, and she nods slowly. "It was a ruse."

The two young Lawmares share a look and a laugh while their elder shakes her head as she turns to walk away. "Mark me; if this is how you'll be conducting the trials, then may-hap you'll be the end of the Lawmares." She mutters as she leaves.

"Don't mind Twinkleshine." Sunset assures Twilight. "She's just sour that Starlight's so good that she's taking her job early."

Starlight watches the older mare leave with some sadness before turning back to Twilight. "Aye, 'twas a ruse. But you stared down a Lawmare, cully, and if that doesn't show a tenacious spirit, then I don't know what does." She cracks her neck. "Now all that remains is to test your adaptability."

Twilight's reply is cut short as the pink unicorn's horn sparks to life without warning. A tiny bolt of magic, hardly bigger than a bee, shoots out and strikes the filly in the chest. She cries out, more from the shock than the pain. It's almost nothing, barely a sting, but the suddenness of the attack makes it feel worse somehow. She opens her mouth to complain, but a yelp comes out as a second magic bolt strikes the same spot as before. Her ears flatten in irritation. "Why are... AH!" A third bolt, but this one's bigger. And it hurts more.

A lot more.

"Why are you just standing there, cully?" Starlight sends another bolt and gives no reaction to the filly's cry of pain. "You're under attack. Defend yourself." Her eyes narrow. "Adapt."

The fifth bolt actually staggers her. She racks her brain for what to do. Should she fight back? She only knows a few simple offensive charms. Certainly nothing that could affect a Lawmare. Defense wise...

The sixth bolt is bigger. She begins to cry. She can't think. She wasn't prepared for this. Everything hurts now. She doesn't want to be a Lawmare anymore. She just wants to hide under her bed with her books and wait for Shining Armor to...

Shining Armor!

Her little horn sparks and her brother's favorite shield charm flickers to life just in time to block the seventh bolt. She's finally able to catch her breath, and she wipes her eyes quickly, hoping the Lawmares haven't seen her crying. She's done it. She's passed the last trial. She lowers the spell and smiles... and then cries out in agony as the eighth bolt strikes her chest dead-center.

"Did your enemy yield, maggot?" Sunset snaps, unmoved by the filly who is now openly weeping and trying not to collapse to the cold ground. "Or did you think to reason with the pony trying to kill you?"

Twilight throws up the charm before the ninth bolt can hit her. She leaves it up as the tenth and eleventh bolts strike home. She stares in horror as the twelfth bolt makes the shimmering magic around her visibly crack. The thirteenth widens the crack. "What...?"

"Your enemy is increasing her attack to break your defenses, maggot. And she will. Do you know why?" Sunset continues her lecture while Starlight lets the fourteenth and fifteenth bolts fly. "Because a shield spell cast by a little filly is nothing compared to mares like us. And us? We're on your side. We're taking our time. But out there? On the roads? The enemy won't test your defenses. They'll just let fly with the most deadly spell they've got."

Twilight pours more will into keeping the shield up, but the sixteenth and seventeenth bolts continue to chip away. It's inevitable; the shield will collapse in a moment, and...

"That's what a Lawmare has to do, maggot." Sunset nods to Starlight. The pink unicorn ensures the eighteenth bolt is the strongest of all. "You're too cautious, Twilight. Sometimes you just have to let fly and hope for the best."

Twilight's shield shatters like glass and fades into the air. Twilight stares in horror as Starlight prepares to cast again. The bolts are too strong now. With the amount of magic she's using, Starlight Glimmer is apt to kill her. She thinks about running. She thinks about laying down and accepting her fate. She thinks about how she should have just stayed home today. She closes her eyes.

The nineteenth bolt flies out...

...and stops, humming slightly, inches from Twilight Sparkle's face.

Starlight and Sunset take an involuntary step back. Something has changed very suddenly. The air tastes different, somehow. The other assembled ponies can feel it too. They're looking around to see what could have caused it, this feeling of unease.

The answer is the cringing filly before them all.

Twilight's eyes fly open, and a blinding white (the WHITE, the coming of the WHITE) light shines from her sockets. A beam of light shoots forth from her horn and the magic bolt explodes with more force than should be possible, the resulting shock-wave sending both Sunset and Starlight to the ground. They stare in disbelief as the filly begins to rise into the air, a neutral expression on her face. Another magical shock-wave pushes the ponies even further back. They turn to face one another, each expecting the other to have some plan, some course of action.

Instead, they watch as a set of long white legs with golden shoes at the hooves passes between them.

"My little pony."

The magic flowing through her tiny body is roaring in her ears, but somehow she hears those words with perfect clarity. She seizes on them and pulls herself forward. Back to herself and out of the light. Twilight feels her hooves once more touch the ground, and now she can see again. She looks up at the statuesque mare and kneels at once. "Princess Celestia."

Celestia turns to the Lawmares who are just getting back on their hooves. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Twilight Sparkle." Sunset is staring at the filly with amazement and fear.

"She was taking the third trial." Starlight adds, dusting herself off. She has to do something with her hooves to keep them from shaking.

"So I see." Celestia reaches out, cups the filly's chin, and raises her eyes to meet her own. "I'd say she passed. Wouldn't you?"

The Lawmares share a look, then nod. "She'll be a fine apprentice." Sunset reaches up, pulls off her hat, and fans the dust away.

"Agreed. A fine apprentice." A peculiar smile crosses Celestia's lips. "And more than that, I'd say. Much more." She leans in close so only Twilight can hear her next words. "You're going to do something that nopony's ever done, little Twilight."

Twilight opens her mouth to start asking questions. What is she going to do? How does Celestia know about it? And why did she smile that that? But the ruler of Equestria is already leaving. Her family is racing over to hug her, to congratulate her, to tell her how proud they are. Twilight loses herself in their praise and admiration. The questions can wait. Now she has a walk to take with Sunset and Starlight to discuss when her training will begin. Her future is waiting.

But in all the excitement, she forgets to ever ask those questions. And what a shame that is.

Because by the time she does remember, it's too late.

Far too late.

Say true.

Comments

[ponepony]

"Agreed. A fine apprentice." A peculiar smile crosses Celestia's lips. "And more than that, I'd say. Much more." She leans in close so only Twilight can hear her next words. "You're going to do something that nopony's ever done, little Twilight."

She will attack and dethrone the goddess.

[fanreader999999]

Odd pacing.

[Charedfirescale]

It looks to me that Twilight will have to dethrone Cadance and Celestia. Celestia let too much slip out of her preview, out of sight out of mind. Her neglect is her biggest folly. For Cadance, it’s hypocrisy. She wraps herself up in a veil of Religious pageantry. Painting herself as the “Goodmare”, but how many lives as she ended? Cadance has left a massive trail of destruction in her wake. How many families were killed, broken, and forced out of their homes because they refused to comply? Or her followers she had assassinated when their use was over? Shining Armor in many ways is just as bad. He calls Celestia a tyrant, but he treated his own officers, those he swore to protect as pawns. The guards who died battling against the Goodmare’s forces died because of him. They knew when to strike because he had planned it out.

In my opinion Twilight will never side with Cadance even though she rejected Celestia. The ponies that she had lived with for years who had become her sisters her family are dead. The same is true for Flash Sentry. Those ponies were like siblings and they were betrayed by the one they trusted the most. Due to his betrayal they will never trust him again.

[Charedfirescale]

Continuing on from where I stopped, it seems that Celestia foresaw Twilight ascending to an alicorn and taking Equestria's throne. Her obsession with her heir apparent yet to be seems to have led to all the tragedies throughout the story. In all honesty Marelyn's grapefruit, regardless of being a Dark Tower reference also brings to mind the

Palantíri

from Middle Earth. Regardless, its quite possible that like the Dark Tower, it is a cursed artifact.

The visions seen can be back-handed, lying through reflection or other tricks to manipulate the viewer towards evil actions. The glass is extremely addictive and can entrance the viewer and cause a severe addiction to being viewed.

Before returning to my thoughts on the characters I just hope this doesn't become a massive time loop. As in Stephen King's works.
The Goodmare's actions also do not seem to be at the behest of a more powerful entity and seem to be far more personally motivated. I guess all I'm asking is that the series does not follow the Dark Tower series, but uses its themes to craft its own unique story. I have a big dislike for infinite time loops.

So based on what I've read, I have assigned "sins" to both Cadance, Celestia, and Luna. For Cadance, as the Goodmare her motivation is pride. She doesn't just want to be a ruler, she wants to be worshiped as a god. Her ego and likely napoleon complex is her biggest flaw. Celestia's is sloth, she has become dependent on the Grapefruit to make decisions, pushing everything else away. Her inaction ultimately led to the downfall of Luna and now Equestria. Out of sight, out of mind left to fester until it was too late. Luna's is envy, she envied her sister's status and was ignored. This ultimately led to her fall.

With Twilight, wrath is a possible "sin". Especially since her emotions can easily lead to Ponyville being burned to the ground in revenge for her sister's deaths.

Still, even if/when Canterlot falls, there will be a large amount of ponies left disenfranchised with the Goodmare due to all the betrayals and back stabbing. Twilight might also make alliances with ponies that are outside of Equestria along with other creatures. As an alicorn I kind of expect her to wipe the floor with Cadance.