My Little Teelo: Winter's Silence

by Ardwolf

Of Sins And Sinners

In which the villain weeps, the princess mourns, a victim finds help, and the truth is revealed.

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“Tišina, you are a threat to all Equestria, to every living thing. Your insanity will destroy the world unless I act to stop you. I would have preferred to use the Elements of Harmony, but you’ve disturbed one of the Bearers so badly that option is closed to me. You have left me with only one choice. I am sorry.”

Celestia’s horn began to pulse rapidly as the alicorn’s magic built up. Tišina could feel the power growing, being forced into a single point no larger than a grain of sand. She started to struggle, but knew she was too far gone to escape physically from the horror the alicorn was preparing to unleash.

“Do not force me to blaspheme, you pretentious horse!” Tišina shouted at Celestia. “You know not what you do, foolish mortal! I am Tišina, Great Mother Of Silence. You are a sinner! An abomination before the Natural Order! You must be destroyed for the good of the universe! You and all your kind! Do not do this.”

“Good-bye, Tišina.” Celestia said sadly.

Just before Celestia released the sun-bright speck Tišina did the unthinkable, the flash hidden by the glare of Celestia’s attack.

The speck slammed into the rocks even as the two alicorns teleported away. The explosion tore away a hundred feet of stone, leaving a massive crater.

The sound of the explosion shook the city, waking citizens and bringing them out into the streets to mill about and fearfully ask each other what had happened. But nopony had any answers.

ooOoo

The group that gathered in Princess Luna’s chambers afterward was somber. They had watched the attack unfold from the roof. Teagan still couldn’t believe the things she had seen. She kept seeing Pinkie shoot Tišina with Berry Fudge Gumball, swatting the monster from the sky. And then the second shot that nearly blew off Tišina’s wing…

Teagan shuddered as she remembered how helpless Tišina had looked falling to her death. She could still hear that tremendous thump when the insect-like dragon had hit the ground. That was probably going to be the new soundtrack for her weekly nightmares...

But what made it worse was when the albino monster got up and limped off. The fact Tišina had been able to do so scared Teagan worse than Discord ever had. She had fallen hundreds of feet! And then walked away! No living creature was that tough!

Matt hadn’t said anything as he watched her impossible survival. He just calmly shouldered his rifle and started shooting. Her ears were still ringing from the sound of those shots.

Teagan had seen Tišina flinch each time a bullet struck her, but she seemed to shrug off the gunfire, ignoring it as she limped away.

When Matt finally gave up and lowered his rifle Pinkie insisted Twilight teleport the two of them closer so Pinkie could shoot again. They’d been too far away to see them clearly but Teagan did see the flash as the rockets impacted the dragon and literally flipped her over onto her back.

That’s when the two princesses teleported away and after a bit Twilight and Pinkie teleported back. Pinkie was pouting, as though someone had taken away her slice of cake before she could finish it…

Something bright flashed toward Tišina and a huge glare exploded a half second before the sound of rolling thunder reached them. When the light went out there was a huge hole and no sign of the albino dragon.

That’s when the group went back to Luna’s chambers, following the blue alicorn in numb silence.

Teagan looked at Princess Celestia. Her horn wasn’t tinged green any more, and her mane and tail had regained their color, blowing in the intangible wind no one else ever felt. But the Princess sat looking at the floor, face blank. Luna had her head draped over Celestia’s withers, her eyes closed, pressing as much of herself against her sister as she could manage.

No one had spoken since returning. It had been nearly half an hour. Teagan finally forced herself to stand and hug both Celestia and Luna, not saying anything, just wanting to do something to counter the suffocating silence.

Matt watched the three of them with no emotion on his face. The other ponies looked dispirited and grief-stricken, never having imagined anything like this. Pinkie was solemn, her usual smile missing in action.

The private investigator was lost in her thoughts. Evelyn had never seen a real battle before and the brutality of it had shaken her badly.

“Your Highness.” Matt broke the silence. Celestia glanced up but said nothing.

“Are we sure Tišina’s actually dead?” Matt asked, staring levelly at the alicorn. “That dragon was huge and impossibly tough. Even after a blast like that there should have been some remains. There was nothing.”

“Matt!” Teagan glared at him. “Now is not the time!”

“Yes it is.” Matt said gently. “We won a battle, Squirt. I don’t know if we won the war or not. If we didn’t Tišina may come back. And if she does I guarantee she’ll be angry. We won’t like her when she’s angry.”

“Matt is right, Lady Teelo.” Princess Celestia spoke in a tired voice. “Sister, did you sense any magic before we teleported?”

“Nay, sister.” Luna replied. She turned thoughtful. “However thy magic was most fearsome. It could easily have masked any last minute spell Tišina cast, even if we were not distracted by teleporting.”

“So she’s not dead?” Teagan asked, appalled. “How can anything survive a blast like that? Besides, where could she have gone?”

“If she teleported she wouldn’t have been caught by the blast.” Matt pointed out. “Tišina walked away from a fall she couldn’t have survived. She shrugged off five .458 rounds meant to take down elephants and didn’t do more than flinch. I don’t know what she is, but not even a dragon should have survived all that.”

“She is Discord’s sister.” Princess Celestia replied.

The silence that followed was one of shock rather than grief.

“And that makes her what?” Matt asked, frowning.

“A goddess.” Teagan said heavily. “No wonder she ignored your bullets. Guns are useless against her.”

“Wait, that’s a gun?” Twilight asked, shocked. “You wanted to use that on Discord?”

“Yeah.” Teagan nodded. “My dad taught me how to shoot. But I don’t think guns would have done anything to Discord either. He’s probably just as immune to bullets as she is.”

“Well, she’s not completely invulnerable.” Matt said thoughtfully. “My first shot blinded one eye, and the BFG 9000 knocked her down and tore off a wing.”

“The what?” Teagan asked, startled.

He grinned at her. “Pinkie’s toy. Berry Fudge Gumball. BFG. It’s the biggest gun in the Doom video game. Before your time, Squirt.”

“This is no game, Matthew Sanders. The world is at stake.” Princess Luna said sharply.

“I’m aware of that, Your Highness.” Matt said calmly. “But soldiers learn to laugh where they can. Otherwise the horror of war will eat them alive.”

Her disapproving stare vanished, replaced by a look of pity.

“Hast thou warred these past twenty years then, Matthew Sanders?” She asked in belated realization.

“Off and on, Your Highness.” He answered, shrugging. “You learn to cope. Or you don’t come home.”

“We most humbly apologize to thee and offer our sincerest condolences.” The alicorn said, dipping her horn in salute.

No one saw Pinkie’s thoughtful look as she watched the soldier.

A discreet knock at the door interrupted the conversation. The door opened in response to the glow of Luna’s horn, revealing a delicate lavender pegasus with lemon yellow mane and tail so fine they floated around her, billowing almost like Celestia’s did.

“Hello, Fairie Mist.” Princess Celestia said with the first genuine smile she’d worn since being abducted. “I am very happy to see you again!”

“Highness, thank goodness you’re safe!” The pegasus’s wings flared before she controlled herself. “I just wanted to remind you it’s getting very late. You should get some rest before you have to raise the sun.”

“Oh dear.” Celestia said, blinking. “Already? Sister, would you be kind enough to help me in the morning? My reserves are still very low. The Wrath of the Sun requires enormous energy.”

“Happily, sister. So long as thee does most of the work! It was nearly beyond our strength, even with Twilight’s power added to our own.” Princess Luna said ruefully.

“You seem to have managed, sister. Thank you for coming to Luna’s aid, my faithful student.” Celestia smiled at the purple unicorn.

“It was my honor, Princess.” Twilight said, unexpectedly cheered by the comment.

“Come then, sister, let us seek our beds. Dawn must not wait tomorrow. My little ponies need to know everything is back to normal.” Celestia said, standing.

The others bowed and followed Faerie Mist out of the room.

ooOoo

Tišina lay in the darkness of her cavern and wept bitter tears, even as her body began regenerating the damage those horrible sinners had inflicted on her. But the hurt they’d done her was far more grievous than a ruined eye, a cropped tail, or a missing wing. Those would heal in time. In fact she had already reattached the end of her tail—that injury was nearly gone.

But the defilement they had forced on her was a different matter. That violation, the desecration of everything she held sacred, was a wound she feared would not—could not—heal. She would bear the scars for eternity.

All because of a thrice-cursed horse that didn’t have the common decency to die when it was supposed to. Forcing her, her—the Watcher of Stillness, to resort to the vile heresy of magic. She could feel the wicked, seductive power even now, caressing her like worms in a grave.

Tišina shuddered and groaned, squeezing her eyes shut to block the memories of what she’d seen, what she’d felt in the non-place as she’d been forced to teleport to save her own life. She knew magic, of course. One studied one’s enemies and her beloved enemy and his allies swam in the cesspool of sorcery like eels in sewage.

And that was the trap, to be sure. That was the siren song the corruption used to lure weak willed lesser beings into its inescapable clutches. The sweet lie, the feeling that one could do anything! The world she’d woken to was drenched in it, drowning in it, like a child trapped at the bottom of a river.

Tišina’s claws flexed and clenched as she wept, longing to rip out the throat of the abomination. But that wasn’t possible. Clearly her beloved enemy had plunged the world into chaos, opening the floodgates and welcoming the slimy deceitful horror with open arms. While she had slept in defeat he had destroyed the entire world, leaving nothing more than its moldy rotting corpse for creatures like that that one-horned goat to root among the remains like a pig in slop.

And there was nothing Tišina could do. The rot had gone too far. The world was done, and there was no saving it.

No saving it…

Tišina’s good eye opened and her sobbing ceased as her body stilled. She forgot to breathe.

No saving it…

The epiphany entranced her as she beheld the answer. So simple. So beautiful. So—so elegant. She smiled gently and began to think.

ooOoo

Tourmaline stumbled tiredly into Hayfield just as the sun was coming up. She moved to the center of the village and drew a deep breath, preparing herself. Then she let loose with a neighing scream that let the horror and the grief and the terror she’d been fighting each step of the last five miles explode in one ghastly shriek.

Even before she stopped from lack of breath, before the echoes of her pain died away, doors were being yanked open and ponies were boiling from every house. That neigh had been a cry for help, backed by all the earth magic Tourmaline could throw into it.

It reached down into the bones of every earth pony in earshot and yanked them out of their houses, stallions wild-eyed and ready to fight, mares snorting and searching frantically for the pony in such dire straits, colts and fillies cowering in fear while their parents dealt with whatever awfulness had prompted that cry for help.

They found Tourmaline waiting, head lowered and sides heaving, her misery plain in the way she trembled and shook.

After she recovered her strength she told them about Rockton, about little Gypsum staring up from his bed in frozen surprise, the horror on Feldspar’s face. She told them how every one of her neighbors had been turned to that peculiar green glistening stone. She begged them to send word to Canterlot, so Princess Celestia could come and restore her friends.

They chose Swift Grass, the fastest pony in Hayfield to gallop to Frosty Meadows, the closest town where pegasi could be found.

That’s why Sky Dancer, a long distance airmail pony, found himself soaring northeast toward the capital, rainbow mane streaming in the wind of his passage. He angled upward to the thinner air where his oversized wings gave him a boost in speed and made flying easier.

Canterlot was a good hundred miles away, and he’d never flown so far without resting before. But after what Swift Grass told him he doubted he be able to sleep for a week.

Narrowing his red eyes the pegasus settled in for a long flight.

Comments

[Celestias Paladin]

Magic is heresy? Oh boy...