The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

Ch14 Looking At The Evidence

The princess of the moon and the trio of mares following behind her entered Twilight’s house for the second conversation that Twilight would have with Princess Luna. Twilight hadn’t forgotten about the ten harddrives she hadn’t watched, but with the obvious situation going on for the past couple days she didn’t really have time to. Now here they were, flanked by Luna’s royal thestral guards holding their bolt action rifles as they sat outside the door and stood with the mares inside the house. For a while the four mares were silent anticipating the others to speak up. Then with an abrupt cough, Applejack slowly raised her hoof. “Uh, question Ms. Princess Luna, why do you want us here again?”

In response, the dark blue alicorn only smirked and took a sip of her lavender-scented tea, and placed the miniature teacup down next to her flank. “Well it’s simple, haven’t you guessed it? The answer you’ve been looking for is simple but is surface level compared to what I want? I’m here because I’m curious. I’m here because of the unknown that’s been plaguing me and my sister’s thoughts for a thousand years. I won’t go into full detail on it but even Twilight can guess that we have seen the horrors of the Tallmare. The silent queen. The operator. Or Güßergriff as the Griff’s of Griffonia call her. Also, I’m here to inform you that due to recent events transpiring, as I could hear you guys talking, it is apparently obvious that these things are connected. And so I’m here to study.” Luna said plaintively as she picked up her tea again and sipped it while she gave the cowpony a calm unreadable stare. Applejack looked visibly weirded out by the moon princess’ tone. It was as if her intentions weren’t in the best in favor for her subjects. Suddenly Luna’s telekinetic grasp wrapped around Twilight’s duffle bag and pulled it close to her.

“Now tell me, what inferences or ideas can you make from the clues bestowed on you through destiny?” Then again there was silence as the three of them, including the guards, didn’t know what to say. Then Twilight raised her hoof.

“We couldn’t view the videos on the harddrives your highness. This was because of the ever-present danger of the Tallmare and her followers as well as the other anomaly. But my princess, we also didn’t view the tapes because we didn’t want to bore ourselves by watching stuff that could lead us to dead ends. This is merely a game of cat and mouse or whatever complicated game that fits our narrative. It wants to trick us, it hands us truths and it hands us lies.” Twilight honestly was telling a half-truth but it was the best she could come up with and it sounded reasonable and convincing enough for anyone with empathy to understand.

Luna then gave her sister’s apprentice an understandable nod as she levitated the harddrives to a female thestral that lightly placed each ten of the drives into a small wallet. “Well what you gave was a very understandable reasoning and my little thestrals will investigate more of the matter at hoof. Most of them took their new profession of websurfer in due part as a procedure proposed by me and my sister to observe the behaviors of the citizens of our nation as well as others. Of course, what you just said does sound a bit like nightmare moon or the lesser-known Daybreaker, who I’ve as well as my sister hidden from our subjects. But it isn’t about political control. Lets just call this large group procedure the Cantalot Anomaly Defense Force.” Luna said as she raised a paper up with a symbol of the agency. It was a simple mark of a black horseshoe with three arrows on the left side, right side, and on top pointing inside the hoof.

“Now let’s get to the real reason we all came here for- the clues and the answers.” The princess cued as she laid her back against one of Twilight’s chairs causing it to creak under her massive weight. Fluttershy was the next one to raise her hoof and everyone looked at her.

“Well I have a small theory, it’s not much but I got it from my animals and the behavior of the ponies around me. I think how these followers are formed is entirely based on a possible disease that the mare in the woods emanates. Twilight has seen it with Octavia, our assailant, who has been identified with memory loss but I’d rather not question Octavia’s personal life. I see it as a mental trauma and as a doctor of animals and technically speaking we all are animals, I have to say this disease is quite abnormal.”

“Well partner, I have another theory,” AJ said just as Fluttershy finished speaking. “My theory here is that this thing is extradimensional in nature. I ain’t no egghead like Twilight but that thing don’t act like it’s from around here. It invades like a plant infecting every single thing around it like a parasite. Hear my idea out. What if there is another thing that came along with it? Sure we may have dealt with strange creatures like Discord, but he stuck out like a sore fuckin thumb and he WAS from here. I don’t know what to tell you Miss Moonflank but I am certain you know jackshit about whatever it is we’re investigating. And possibly you and your sisters could possibly be connected to it, Is that correct? Because if it were then that would explain why you’re so intrigued. I mean it’s glaringly obvious from the talk of you and Celestia always being curious about the creature not like it’s a childhood fascination but like it’s a threat to your existence is a blaring sign of obsession.”

Luna’s soft expression immediately turned to the type of sour that could taste like sewage. Her very face scrunched up like a raisin. With a glow of her horn, she shoved the element of honesty back into the wall and approached her. “Well excuse me, Ms Appleass but you don’t get to dive into my personal motives like that. For all I know you may be a speciest and you would be honest about your clear opinions. But then again, as the element of honesty that you are, you won’t shut your fucking mouth. Plus you still have a missing sister I heard. Without the help of me and my sister, you won’t be able to find your sister and we won’t be able to exterminate this metaphysical parasite in our world. To exchange honesty for honesty I think the sickness turned me into the nightmare I was!” She shouted aggressively into the orange earth pony's face.

Everyone could tell that Luna was offended by AJ's comment and they all felt afraid, or instead the princess had spread her fear. The fear was a desperate fear, the type of fear that was determined to survive and to do anything to get rid of danger. It wasn't magic that spread her emotion, but rather her own words read it out like a poem.

She took a couple of deep breaths before getting up and letting go of Applejack and looked at the rest of the ponies in the room with guilt as she realized her wrongdoing. "Oh...please forgive me for the outburst, I'm sorry applejack...just you touched something personal about me and I did the same...I'm sorry..."

The rest of the group continued to stare at her as she walked back to the center of the group while Applejack picked herself back up while wheezing. "I-I forgive you, Luna.. just I'm concerned for my family ya know."

Luna sat down on the carpet and had a long moment of silence as she thought. The theastrals and the 3 mares gathered the moon princess as she stared deeply at the floor as she recollected herself, then she got up and tapped one of the male thestrals on the shoulder. The thestral in question who had ruffled up hair under his helmet handed her a deck of cards which she then levitated the cards in the deck out and hoofed them over to the 3 and one to herself.

They looked at their each of their respective cards with speculative glances. Twilight’s was a drawing of a mare bathing in a pound and looking up at the bright white northern start with a look of hope. Applejack’s was a stallion carrying 10 heavy branches on his back with an exhausted yet determined grimace as he carried them. Fluttershy’s was an elegantly dressed mare walking through a garden peacefully as she passed a tree with 9 golden coins that had stars on them hung like apples. Finally, Luan’s had a thestral mare dressed in a priestly fashion sitting on a stone throne with a symbol which was a golden circle with 2 crescents on either side facing their respective directions.

“Now I must inform you that there will be another one joining you, he will help you find a mare known as The hermit. She lives in the everfree and she has knowledge we want.” She said as she pulled out another card and levitated the card towards the stallion that originally handled her the deck. The card was called the magician and it had a stallion unicorn holding a sword and cup at an altar, looking confident in his ritual.

Then something surprising happened, the thestral grabbed the card in his own magickal grip, which was impossible because he was a earth pony. He then looked at Twilight with a smug smirk and green flames washed around him as he shed his disguise.

“Hello twilight, long time no see” Thorax said as he held his card