IV - Of Freedom and Fate
IV
Of Freedom and Fate
- - -
The black crystals were thankfully free of horrible memories. Celestia had sealed away her recollections of the battle with King Sombra and his magic of fear, so that only a cold and academic familiarity remained. Even within her recollections of his fear and his shadows, there were some burdens that the ages had proven too hard to bear. If anything, her heart was her greatest weakness, and it was there that he had struck. Shallow pits of her memories from that fateful day had been removed entirely, to spare her the burden of knowing the falsehoods he had forced into her mind. Though not her match, he had been dangerous, and like so many dangerous things, he had proven useful.
She had brought up the thoughts in the first place as she forced herself to remember the powers of his black and twisted crystals. They absorbed Arcana, leeching it just as viciously as a changeling's thirst for love. Even Celestia was not immune; only her massive wellspring of magic gave her a measure of resistance to the prison cell she had hoof-crafted herself. After dismissing both the real Captain Ink and White Flag, she had returned to the chamber in search of clues.
She was joined in her journey by a simple bowl of water. While not a sphere of flawless diamond, it would suffice for her purposes. Rather than looking at the chamber, she set the bowl down, ignited her horn, and stared into its depths.
"How did Masquerade escape?"
Masquerade, statue, still in stone;
Looked to call this cage her home.
Tell me, mare of giant's size,
what did she see when she looked to the skies?
She thought the thoughts which were not her own, as they spilled upward out of the bowl, down the length of her slender horn, and into her skull. Her eyes closed, and she pondered. The raw spirit of Arcana was a strange thing. It was not so much deliberately unhelpful as it was so alien that it did not comprehend how difficult its challenges could be. Still, Celestia was old, wise, and cunning enough to best such a game without undue trouble. Her head looked straight at the ceiling of the room, where the little enchantment in the back of her mind tickled her attention. She'd placed it after Masquerade's escape, to warn her of illusions. It hadn't gone off the previous day, when she had freed the assassin from her stone prison. Something had changed.
Her eyes focused on the white shard that was set apart from the black crystal as a light source for the small chamber. Her wing swept through it with impunity, revealing the illusion it truly was. Extinguishing the spell was no harder than breathing for the ageless mare, who then ignited her horn to free herself from the sudden darkness that filled the room. Her reward for the action came in the form of broken, disenchanted fragments of the same white crystal lying on the floor, and a thin veil of smoke on the ceiling.
The crystal wasn't surprising; Celestia had assumed it might have been broken. It's enchantment was perhaps enough to overpower the lodestone ring Shining Armor had placed on the assassin's horn, but it was nowhere near enough to overpower Sombra's crystal. The smoke was a much more intriguing prospect. Both smoke and the fire that created it were the domains of a pegasus, and not a unicorn. Arcana could only create such an effect indirectly, by creating friction on a flammable fuel source, or outright teleporting fire from some other part of the world. Teleportation was truly impossible in the cell, leaving only two options. While Celestia feared that Masquerade might somehow have gained control of a pegasus' Empatha, it seemed the less likely of two options. She turned back to her scrying bowl again, focusing another spell.
"What was burned in this room?"
It comes in the morning on parchment plain,
arriving in a box atop itself all on its own.
It can't be driven from its road by snow, nor sleet, nor rain,
and yet by fire it comes to you alone.
You drive it headlong into the ground, hoping to help it stand,
And amidst a fence it watches over miles of one's own land.
Whenever it is, in days of tears or laughter,
it stands only to denotes the time that's coming after.
Celestia took only a moment to toy with the riddle before a slight smile broke on her face. The single word answer came quite easily. Rewarding her correct response, the bowl swirled to reveal an image of the recent past.
Masquerade stared up at the crystal overhead, and then performed a vertical jump that Celestia might well have called impossible. The mare's hooves caught the lighting crystal overhead, and dragged it back down to the floor of the chamber. Sure enough, the assassin wasted no time in smashing the enchanted stone against the ground. As soon as it burst, sparks of magic began flying freely through the air, being consumed by the black crystals that formed the cell. The unicorn lowered her restrained horn to the center of the broken fragments and the lodestone greedily ate at the enchantment until it had its fill. From there, the room was plunged into darkness. This lasted until the illusion of the crystal was restored at the top of the room, creating an all too real light. The last action Celestia anticipated was the casual flick of magic that removed the sealed ring from her horn.
Then, to Celestia's surprise, Masquerade's horn began shooting tiny sparks at the walls. The magic-hungry surfaces consumed her spells one after another, but one returned the motion with a surprising red glow. Masquerade turned her hooves to the otherwise seemingly arbitrary side of the chamber's wall, and began to beat on it forcefully. The immortal's surprise turned to fright as the crystal cracked under the force, and then collapsed completely. Behind the broken black stone lay a solitary scroll in a clearly hoof-carved space. Masquerade took the scroll, opened it, and began to read.
The view in the mirror shifted to accommodate a view of the letter, which was filled with an immense grid of nearly hexagonal symbols. She did not even recognize the language, let alone possessing the knowledge to read it. Such a challenge was little issue, however. A burst of magic from Celestia's horn froze the image on the surface of the water, and another such spell summoned a piece of parchment and a quill. With impressive speed, she replicated the symbols drawn on the image in the water, and then focused.
Predicate's Tentative Translation was a valuable but challenging spell, which skipped the need for comprehension of language entirely, and instead rewrote its targeted words or symbols to reflect the intended message of the writer. It took Celestia some modification before the spell would understand that she was not the original writer, but with her skill and experience, even such a drastic change did not take long.
The message that appeared stole her breath away.
Dearest Princess Celestia,
I'm so glad we finally have a chance to communicate, even if it is under less than ideal circumstances. I would love to provide you with a way to respond to me, but we both know that isn't feasible, without you also having a means of finding me. If it were possible, I would have contacted you in August when this entire issue first arose.
At this point, you are likely wondering two things. The first of these is how I've managed to bring this letter into being, since I clearly did not write it for Masquerade's benefit. I know you're currently using Predicate's Translation in an attempt to decipher my message to Masquerade. I was impressed with your ingenuity in applying such a spell to this situation–I would not have thought to do so. Nevertheless, 'deceiving' such a spell to deliver this letter was something of a chore. But I digress... I will tell you gladly that my message to the assassin contained directions on how she was to escape your formidable cage, as well as orders on what to do afterward. How I knew such information brings us to the next question which must, naturally, be filling your mind.
I imagine that the second thing that you are wondering about has now evolved into a third: how can I be sure of these specific details, and how have I remained so many steps ahead of you throughout this entire ordeal? Since I am secure in my position, I do not hesitate to tell you. While I have the utmost respect for your rule, especially in this most recently past millennium, I observe that you have passed a singular law which I find so short-sighted and negligent as to actually endanger Equestria, and all of your subjects who live within. Like any respectable, patriotic Equestrian, I have thus made it my duty to show you the error of your ways, by disobeying your unjust law. Forgive me if I seem philosophical in these next words; know only that I intend to explain myself fully and completely, so that you and I can share an understanding as equals at least in intellect, if not in physical power as well.
The law in question is a curiosity in some sense, for amongst the volume of your laws, it alone pertains to the theft not of life or liberty, but rather the seizure of potential agency. While you label such action as unjust, and that it violates the rights of your subjects, I must disagree. What good does the average pony have with the knowledge that in their future, they have the freedom of choice in a matter. Do their minds recognize the nudge of fate, or the grip of magic? Of course not! In their ignorance, they are comfortable, and their lives go on happily. Is that not what you pursue in rule?
In exchange, they would gain untold security. Equestria would rule the world, no longer living in fear in the shadows of dragons and changelings and stranger things still. We would but see a threat, and simply crush it, long before it took the chance to mature. If you question such a guarantee, ask yourself what you might have been able to do had you known of Masquerade some ten years ago.
To make my position perfectly blunt, I have spent my recent days looking into the future, hoping to offering Equestria a blanket of safety that your own fear and your guards seem to be holding back from the common pony. What I have learned shakes me to my very core.
Princess, a war is coming. I was not the one who looked into the future and forced it be the truth. If I had any free will in this matter myself, we would both be in a very different position. Yet for my loss of choice, I have no regrets. I think it much better that we know this terrible threat for what it is then charge toward it blindly and risk our utter destruction. In the face of this guarantee, I have been enduring the pain of preparing Equestria for its only chance at survival. I would love to have come to you, and to have presented you with this information. It would have made matters much easier to welcome your cooperation in this ordeal than to face off against you as a foe and rival. However, we are both aware that your love for your sister is overwhelming in this matter, and just as that love has forced your hoof for Luna, my knowledge has forced mine against her. Know, before I continue, that I bear her no ill will; the attempt I had arranged on her life was not in the interest of spite, but of safety for the benefit of the countless innocents that you call subjects.
What was seen before me, and passed onto my mind without my consent was that a war was guaranteed. Unavoidable. It will be a great war, like that which you faced after Discord's first fall. For days I struggled with this revelation. Knowing that such disaster was guaranteed, my mind struggled for ways to soften its blow, and spare us the greatest of pain. With that goal in mind, I asked what the races of ponies would have to do to win. You know the riddles and the conditional answers that such questions receive, so I make no apologies in the information that I provide you here.
When war comes–and it will come–we will need to be ready. I hope my near-success at arranging your sister's demise has spurred your guards into training and readiness. Of course, that alone will not be enough, but I will handle much of the rest. I did not do so only to ready the guard, however. The next terrible lesson sent a chill through my blood, but I could not bring myself to ignore it.
If your sister lives to see the first blood of the coming war, the eternal night will no longer be a story to frighten foals. I would ask you for more, but I already know that your reaction to this letter will be fury at my audacity, and your perception of my unbearable and undeserved pride. Though I disagree with your view of me, I nevertheless ask your forgiveness.
However, I must part with one last attempt to sway you. I will win. And, in so doing, all of Equestria shall win as well. There will be sacrifices, and I regret that your sister must be amongst them, but you know as well as I that Nightmare Moon cannot be allowed to return, even if you are unwilling to pay the price for such a measure. I have seen all the things I have written of, and they are guaranteed beyond any shadow of a doubt. When we are done, and the blood is spilt, you may hate me. I would not ask the future of your emotions, to rob you of the freedom for your own feelings. Think of me what you wish. I will not hesitate to come forth, and if at that time you see fit to hang my entrails from the spires of Canterlot, I will die without regret. I only hope you will someday see that my actions are for the good of Equestria, and not my own gain.
Sincerely Yours
No actual signature was present. Celestia's horn burst with a fiery golden magic, and the parchment she had summoned surged into white flames. Its smoke joined that of the original letter, creating a thick cloud on the ceiling. Without pause, her focus moved back to her bowl.
"Who wrote that letter?"
Electrum's Orb,
Rolled and Rolled,
Through hills and valleys,
Dreams and nightmares.
It only stopped when down was up,
When hills were valleys,
And dreams were nightmares.
Then it was stored away,
and many ponies have kept their eyes on it.
He is the last.
She sighed. It was a different riddle than that she had been given when she first asked who was behind Masquerade. Because answers had to be carried across the ambient mana of the world, they grew more complicated and less comprehensible over distance of both time and location. Some were nearly impossible to decipher. King Electrum of Unicornia had once been a famous seer, and his enormous crystal ball was an artifact sought by countless treasure seekers. Even Celestia didn't know its resting place. She casted a quick memorization spell and resolved to direct the riddle to the Royal Library's researchers, before readying another question.
"How did Masquerade get past my door?"
You ask a question with an obvious explanation.
No riddle needed to know it at all.
For you speak of magic's most bare foundation.
She wields a pegasus' fire, and strength enough to crack the wall.
Celestia stared at the bowl, making it the focus of her irritation. "I know that she has used Endura and Empatha. I want to know how."
She called upon her heart's pure rage,
to set a spark upon this stage.
And the gem beneath her hooves
gave rise to shattered cracks and grooves.
This time, Celestia groaned aloud at a second obvious answer. "I know how to use the magic. I want to know what gave her the capability. How was Masquerade, a unicorn, able to use pegasus and earth pony magic?"
A long pause followed before the magic finally answered her.
Alas, we must bemoan,
the answer is not known.
Her eyes glanced down to her bowl in irritation, as a final question entered her mind.
"What language was that letter written in?"
Rather than the usual challenge, the question that entered her mind was both blunt and painfully straightforward.
You don't know?
Can't read even a bit?
Countless many years ago,
your 'sister' invented it.
In a moment of fury, her hoof slapped aside the bowl of water, splashing it over all the black crystal walls. Her gilded shoes guided her outside of the chamber, and from there, her total control was restored. She needed to act quickly. Her horn burst with another spell, and in a flash, she was gone from the deep cavern.
- - -
Foresight stood beside his father in clothes that were far too light to endure the chill. His spell didn't care, thankfully. Krenn stood on the other side of the alicorn, leaning on his steel staff on the edge of the train station's mostly-covered boarding area.
The Black Cloaks had cleared the entire station in anticipation of Luna's arrival. Though Foresight despised his brother's guard, and the intimidation with which they went about their orders, he had to admire the efficiency they brought about in their work. They all wore long, heavy black coats of steel cuirasses, idolizing what Foresight knew to have been a ten-bit, spur of the moment purchase on his brother's part. Fortunately, Red Ink was not present to create a political fiasco. The sinking feeling in the bureaucrat's stomach reminded him that his brother's absence was no guarantee of a successful meeting between dragons and ponies.
The locomotive was a huge thing of steel and brass, belching a plume of smoke as it pulled into the station. It churned and chugged before it lurched to a halt in front of the gathered nobles. From that moment, no more than three seconds passed before the wall of the front most car peeled open like a flap of skin on an operating table. Out of the now wide-open train car came first a unicorn in golden armor, with a painfully broken horn. He was followed by a pegasus in an elegant dress. Foresight recognized them as Mirror Image and Marathon of the Honor Guard, whom he had met at a funeral months earlier in Canterlot.
Princess Luna herself followed shortly, as was expected. Completely unexpected, however, were the four unconscious figures she held in her telekinetic grasp. Perhaps most surprising was that Foresight recognized them all.
"Commandant!" he shouted, before catching himself using Equiish to a stallion that couldn't understand him. "Kомендант!"
The stallion's name was Molot, and he responded without hesitation or even a need for spoken orders. Though he was efficient and direct and reasonable in ways Red Ink had never been, he lacked the spark and the drive to be a truly inspiring leader. He began to bark orders, and soon a huge cluster of the Black Cloaks had converged on Luna's prisoners. In less than a minute, they were dragged away. The Princess sat quietly through the entire ordeal, watching them haul away the criminals before she began her true business.
The steel staff of the dragon ruler smashed down on the brick of the station as Lord Krenn limped forward with all his jagged teeth showing. "Luna… it's been so long."
The mare nodded. "Too long, Krenn." She stepped forward to his offered embrace. His good wing spread over her back, and her more comfortable wings wrapped him in turn. Though intense, their hug lasted only mere moments, ending with Luna stepping back and glancing toward his companions. "We do not recognize these two. Where is your son, Naslednik?"
For just a moment, Foresight was reminded that despite his political demeanor, Krenn had the fierce heart of a dragon. When the rage passed from his face, he shook his head. "That is a matter for later discussion. For now let me introduce my escort. These are Fire and Ice."
The dragons bowed, and Luna nodded to each in turn, before turning to her own companions. "This stallion is our bodyguard, Mirror Image. The mare is our advisor, Marathon."
As they had been trained, both took a knee to Krenn, who tilted his staff across his chest and bowed in turn. "I note you bring none of your own herd, Luna."
"They shall be joining us a day hence," the alicorn observed. "And sooner still, we will find two more of my kind. Shining Armor and Red Ink fly even now to join us, for a matter that we fear must likewise be kept for better company."
At the idle comment, Foresight stepped forward. "Roscherk is coming back?"
The Princess glared at the stallion who had intruded on her conversation. Foresight took a moment to adjust his Canterlot silk necktie as he edged away. When he had tightened the accessory to a virtual noose, he looked up, only to find himself still enduring her gaze. Her eyes flicked to the Tsar, before returning to his face. "We do not recall recognizing you, stallion. And we have said nothing about a 'Roscherk'."
Thankfully, another pony was present to step in on Foresight's behalf. Watchful Eye smiled his charismatic, disarming smile as he bowed before Luna. "Princess, this is my son, Predvidenie–Foresight, as you would say. You may have met him a few months ago, at the funeral in August. Regardless, he was merely concerned for his brother, just as I am for my son. I had been expecting to see him soon, though not under such circumstances. You know him by Red Ink, but by birth his name is Roscherk Krovyu."
Krenn released a sort of snorting noise, and a puff of acrid black smoke escaped his nostrils. "A curious name for a pony, I think. Certainly for one who does not eat meat. Tell me, Tsar Eye, why does he not go by 'Blood Stroke'?"
Luna's eyes grew ever so slightly wider, though Foresight noted that the greatest surprise at the minor revelation was painted across the face of the unicorn with the broken horn. Watchful Eye nodded in his son's direction, offering the explanation to the pony who was honestly to blame.
"Well… I decided to have a bit of fun with him, okay? He is my little brother. Honestly, I'm not sure he even knows it’s the wrong translation. He barely managed to sit through even two months of Equiish lessons when we were younger. His vocabulary is good, but his grammar is bad enough to be insulting."
"It has been greatly improved in recent days," Luna responded. "Twilight Sparkle was his mentor in the modern tongue, as for some short time she was mine. Though I must admit, Foresight, t'was a clever jest whilst it lasted. Perhaps I shall take advantage of my sister's poor Elkish in a similar manner." The nocturnal princess' smile faded slightly as she glanced up to the thickly clouded gray sky. "Time already? Forgive me a moment." Her horn ignited in her misty magic. No visible change in the sky's lighting occurred through the veil of stormy snow that served as a constant companion to the frozen city. Nevertheless, night had fallen.
The spell did have another, more obvious effect, however. Mirror Image, the broken-horned unicorn, collapsed to the brick floor of the train platform in silent agony, clutching both hooves to his shattered focus. Watchful Eye and Marathon stepped forward to offer him comfort, but he waved both ponies away. "…fine," he managed to mutter. "It's over now."
"Can I get you anything?" Watchful Eye asked, offering the stallion a hoof up.
"A coat," Image answered, shaking off a shiver. "Or a fire. But first, I'd like to get the Princess out of the street. It's too open."
Foresight laughed slightly. "You sound like Roscherk."
"And he is right. Ogon', offer him your flame. Let us be back to your palace, Tsar. Luna and I have a thousand years to catch up on, and I would like the gap to end as soon as possible."
As the cluster of ponies and dragons moved toward the palace, Watchful Eye was the last to leave. His thoughts were with his eyes, where the train tracks met the horizon to the west.
- - -
The moon was peeking up over Canterlot, and in its midst, two ponies drifted into a shadowed stall at the back of The Private's Reserve. One was clad in gilded armor. The other wore only an eye patch, having abandoned his broken and torn garb.
Thunder Crack folded his forelegs across his chest in the cushioned seat. "I wouldn't even be here if it were somepony else asking, Reckoning. You said this was important, so get to the point, sir."
For the first time in ages, when Reckoning's nose wrinkled out of distaste, the change was easily discernible from the wrinkles of age. "I'm not old enough for you to call me 'sir' anymore, and by the rules I'm sure you know, neither of us gets it for rank."
"Gah, that's bullshit, and you know it, Reckoning. What were you when the Commander pulled you over from the Royal Guard? Second Lieutenant? First?"
"Chief Warrant Officer, Scout Specialist and Operating Head of Platoon Sixteen." Reckoning's recitation spurred a moment of nostalgia, which he discarded quickly. "That was back when nopony put 'Crazy' in front of 'Deadeye'."
"It happens to the best of us," Crack muttered.
"Didn't happen to the Commander." Reckoning's response was brief, and brutal in bringing about an end to the topic. The scout glanced aside as a waiter approached, and cut the stallion off before he could even bother asking. "Nothing for me. Crack's having a draft, unless he's finally decided to get cultured."
"Those of us who actually stay in Canterlot call it patriotism," Thunder Crack snapped back with a smile, before remembering exactly what he was doing. "I'll take a ginger ale, with a slice of lime."
As the waiter walked away, Reckoning chortled like a schoolfilly. "Really, Crack? That isn't really–"
"The Princess banned me from even coming into this place after the Masquerade incident. I wouldn't be in the building if you hadn't said it was important, but I'm sure as Tartarus not disobeying her like that. Now what do you actually want? I need to be back to the Throne Room A.S.A.P."
"Fine." Reckoning set his hooves on the table and leaned forward. "The Commander isn't dead. I need you on a squad to go rescue him."
"Wha–" Crack's jaw dropped for just a moment. "No. How could you possibly know that?"
"Just trust me, Thunder."
"Okay, now I know something's up. You show up here, what, thirty years younger? Forty? What the hay happened out there in Zebrica? What…" His words trailed off as his eyes drifted toward the tavern's door. Reckoning, whose back was to the entrance, had to turn all the way around. As he did, he heard Thunder Crack offer a greeting.
"Flag? It isn't often we see you in here."
White Flag shrugged, deigning not to shout across the entire tavern in response. Her calm, focused strides were a sure sign to Reckoning that something serious was going on. He was old enough to remember that same determination and focus on the battlefields of the Dragon Wars, twenty years prior. What the once old guardspony had not expected, however, were the two mares who followed her. The first was a little orange filly, perhaps a bit old to be blank-flanked, but otherwise normal. The attractive cyan mare who accompanied her, however, sent a chill down his spine.
"Figures you'd be here, Crack," Rainbow muttered, shooting a surprisingly harsh glare in the stallion's direction. The attention didn't last long, though, before her attention shifted to Deadeye himself. "Reckoning."
"Rainbow?" he managed to mutter after a moment of silence. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for answers," Rainbow responded. "You lied to me about the Fountain of Youth."
Reckoning hesitated as his mind pondered giving out a thousand answers, and at every turn, shunned away from the truth. In his moment of silence, Thunder Crack leaned forward, wearing a bemused grin. "What, that old griffon legend about your wrinkly ass?"
With utter irritation, White Flag leaned forward. "For once in your life, Sergeant, shut up. You're supposed to be in the palace right now. It's not like you to leave your post, Crack."
"He's my superior officer, ma'am. He wanted my attention, he got it."
Flag rolled her eyes. "A coward's answer. If you want to debate semantics with me, I'll remind you that we typically issue an honorable discharge to the guards we declare dead. If you think you made the right call, that's fine, but don't try and hide behind the rules. We aren't Vigil's watchdogs anymore."
Rather sheepishly, Crack nodded and scooted further into the booth's seat to open more seating. "Yes, Lieutenant."
Flag gestured to the opening for her civilian companions. Rainbow hesitated to join her most despised drill sergeant, but Scootaloo only saw a comfy seat and a guardspony she didn't know. With the little filly for padding, Rainbow finally seated herself as well, and moments later, Flag took the opposite side of the booth beside Dead Reckoning. When the cluster of five had finally relaxed, Rainbow spoke up again. "So, Reckoning… what's going on, really?"
He took a deep breath, and then looked from Crack to Flag, before returning his singular gaze to Rainbow. "Yeah, okay. I lied. Rainbow, I'm in the same boat as you. Different Princess, but the same idea."
"What's that mean?" Scootaloo asked, looking up to her role model.
Rainbow's mind raced, finding herself suddenly in the unfortunate position of needing a fast lie that would fool the young filly, but stand up well if her curiosity kept up. "Well…"
"She was badly injured," White Flag interrupted. "While she was saving Princess Luna. The damage was so bad, Princess Celestia had to use healing magic."
With Scootaloo's focus on the guardspony mare, Rainbow found herself free to mouth 'thanks' to the otherwise unknown Honor Guard.
Just as Rainbow had feared, Scootaloo's curiosity remained unfulfilled. "What's the big deal about that? Why keep it a secret, Mr. Reckoning? What's the deal with lying to Rainbow?"
"Princess Celestia's healing magic is a secret, filly," White Flag answered again. "Think of all the ponies in Equestria who are sick or injured every day. All of them would love the Princess to heal them, but she doesn't have enough magic. It wouldn't be fair to just heal some of them." Despite the depth of her explanation, it was clear that White Flag had no skill dealing with young fillies and colts. Her tone had been that of a tired university professor, rather than a kind schoolteacher. She looked away from Scootaloo without acknowledging even the possibility of a question. "Is that all you wanted, Rainbow?"
"No." Rainbow's word was so uncharacteristically cold that it caused Scootaloo to slide away from her idol and toward Sergeant Crack. "I want to know why. What's so important, Reckoning?"
The scout nodded. "The Commander is alive. He wasn't in the…" Deadeye's singular eye darted toward the young filly present with the group, and he caught himself. "…in the hospital. Then I asked the Princess–Luna, not Celestia. She agreed he was still alive. Masquerade admitted it. So I'm going after him. That's what I came to talk to you about Crack. And since you're here, Flag, I guess I'll ask you too. He's in Suida, and I know you ran a mission there six years ago."
Crack cocked his head. "Wait, Luna rai–" The sergeant's words were cut off when his mouth was clenched by White Flag's magical aura.
"It means exactly what you think it means, Crack. Guardsponies die. Get over it." As soon as her words were done, she released his muzzle. "One of these days, you're going to have to get over that stupid, six year old grudge. Princess Celestia will dismiss you."
Their discussion was interrupted by the serving stallion bringing over a fizzy soft drink with a thick wedge of lime. It was transferred to a cheap cardstock coaster and slid across the table toward Thunder Crack. The waiter then glanced over the rest of the party, until his eyes locked on Scootaloo. "Uh, this is a bar, guardsponies…"
"And since we're the ones who brought her in here, I'd say you have a good chance of not getting arrested for it." White Flag's voice was growing more annoyed with every sentence. "Bring back two more sodas. We don't care what. Put them on Crack's tab. Don't interrupt us again."
The shocked and frightened stallion retreated before Flag's icy gaze, leaving the five disparate ponies once more alone.
Crack was once more the first to speak. "So, what's with all the 'cloak-and-dagger', then? Just tell the Princess, she'll get you a team, and you won't have to waste time having this conversation." The guardspony concluded with a rather large sip of his drink.
"I asked her. She declined."
Lime juice and ginger ale spewed into the air in a fine mist, narrowly missing Reckoning's face. Scootaloo giggled, missing entirely the point of Crack's shock. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to react to the revelation, though Flag shared Crack's disappointment, if not his surprise. Her brow rose when she spoke. "She doesn't want a war with Suida, Reckoning. I'm surprised to hear that you'd even try going behind Celestia's back."
"It's the Commander, Flag."
"I never swore an oath to him, Reckoning. It's exactly the same as Crack; we die. We're expendable. He's no different."
Reckoning's eye narrowed, and his response was filled with a sudden anger. "I owe him my life, and I'm sure you owe him yours too."
"Captain Lining was just another guardspony," Flag answered coldly. "Maybe your hero worship has turned him into some sort of legend, but in the end, we can always find somepony to do the job. No one life is worth a war."
Reckoning's hoof slammed down on the lacquered wood of their table. "There won't be a war! We're better than that! Don't make this a tactical decision, Flag! This is about helping out a friend!"
"Don't keep up your fantasies, Reckoning," Flag responded, retaining her physical composure and her perfect posture despite the rage roaring behind her eyes. "He didn't care about us. He made that pretty clear at Treasonfang Pass."
"Oh, so this is about you now?" Reckoning stood up fully, flaring the one wing he could still manage in a show of anger. "Fine. Get out of my way, Flag. I don't need your help anyway."
"I can't let you, Reckoning."
"Why not? Because you'd rather let him die? Is this because you never got to be Captain of the Royal Guard?"
White Flag closed her eyes, and Thunder Crack's glass shattered into so many tiny fragments that it would be more accurate to say the vessel dissolved. Then the aura on her horn faded, as though it were never there. In the silence of words between the two ponies, the middle-aged mare's dense breathing was the only sound to be heard. The fierce shouting match had murdered all other noise in the tavern. In that empty void, White Flag stood up, turned her gold-armored back to Dead Reckoning, and spoke once more. "Fine, Reckoning. Get yourself killed, but don't claim to be a guardspony when the boars put you down. The Honor Guard won't miss you. Crack, see that Rainbow Dash and her friend get out of Canterlot safely. Then report to the Throne Room." With nothing more to say, she left through the swinging doors and out into the night.
Only when the unicorn was out of sight did Reckoning move, lowering his hoof from the small indentation he'd left in the lacquered tabletop. His first words were uttered loudly enough to be heard by the silent crowd. "Sorry about that." He waited a moment longer, as the muffled whispers of lively conversation picked up slowly. Only then did he return his focus to the other guardspony present. "I guess there's no point in asking you, then."
"I'm not going behind Princess Celestia's back, Reckoning."
The scout shook his head. "Well, I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you. Where's Captain On?"
"Cap– you mean Soldier On?" Crack's face drew back into genuine surprise, untainted by any secondary emotion. "You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"On was the traitor. She was the one who got Masquerade past our guard–"
With each of Thunder Crack's words, Reckoning's mouth fell slightly more open, until at last he couldn’t take it anymore. "Horseshit. She was the closest to him after all this time."
"Hey, don't take my word for it." Crack spread his wings, leapt fully over both Rainbow and Scootaloo, and landed gently in the center of the room. From there, his hooves moved at a brisk trot to a bulletin board at the far side of the room. From amidst its dozens of pamphlets, he grabbed a single, slightly yellowed sheet of parchment, which he then carried back to the table. "Here you go."
After staring at the document for a few seconds, Reckoning thrust it away in disgust. "The day Soldier On betrays the Commander, I'll eat my other eye."
"I thought it was garbage, too, Deadeye, but she confessed it to Shining Armor and White Flag herself." Thunder Crack turned away for a moment. "Maybe it sounds awful, but Lieutenant Flag is right. It's like the Commander always used to say. 'The hardest part of the job is deciding when not to do something.' Right now, we have to let him go."
Reckoning's head twisted back and forth, forming a fatalistic pendulum. His words were calmly stated, sharp and icy like bladed iron. "Get out of my sight."
"What?" Crack cocked his head. "Deadeye–"
"Get back to your post, since it matters so much to you. I'll see Rainbow and the filly home."
Crack hesitated for only a second before nodding. "Sorry, Reckoning." And then, with the proud pace of a guardspony at the height of his duty, Thunder Crack left the tavern.
The silence that followed was total and consuming at the small booth, even amidst the soft murmurs that had consumed the remainder of The Private's Reserve. Reckoning looked first to Scootaloo. The filly's eyes were on the wanted poster sitting on the table in front of her, entranced by the picture and the brilliant words. He said nothing as his lonely eye shifted to the mare that he had last called his partner. In that instant, a thousand thoughts passed through the air unspoken. Only their eyes, potent violet staring into brilliant blue, shared hopes and dreams. When silent words were done, Rainbow Dash saw a hardness in Reckoning. His heart wanted tears, but the steel of his spine refused them.
"Let's get you home, Rainbow Dash." Reckoning's words came barely above a whisper. Without pause for any sort of response, the guardspony slid out of the booth and dropped onto his hooves. Though his body was young, the beleaguered and heavy way in which the pony walked across the bar and out the door reflected the true age of his soul.
- - -
Red Ink faced not so much a snowstorm as an outright wall. It was always strange to cross the channel, and see the literal line where dry, breezy heat turned instantly into a frigid and perpetual blizzard. He glanced down at the sheer, icy cliffs just inches from his hooves. One of the limbs was raised into the storm, as he forced himself to welcome the chill that had in his youth been a constant companion. The little bottle around his neck, glowing green with flame and magic, bounced against the brutal scar that traversed his chest. It would have been a good place to pause, and reflect on how much had changed since last he visited his ice-shrouded home. Time and urgency, it seemed, had no respect for such thoughts, however. Ink spared himself only a moment to catch his breath, before glancing back at the sound of approaching hooves.
"Oy! You there!"
The mare fast approaching was a bit older than Ink, probably in her mid- to late-thirties. Her wood tone coat and slate mane were unremarkable, and only her curious Trottingham accent (so far removed from its place of origin) seemed worthy of garnering his attention. He allowed himself a tired sigh. "I am sorry, but I am very busy. I need to be going. I was just sparing myself a moment."
"I hope you don't mean 'get going' into the snow. Yer wings'll freeze solid." She gave him a scolding look. "I've seen it 'appen before, and don't you go tellin' me about pegasus wings and heat neither. That sorta thing's fine 'n dandy for normal weather, but it won't save ye' from magic cold."
Red Ink displayed his opinion of the mare's warning first by rolling his eyes. "I know." He had intended to say more, but the vociferous pony cut him off with more words.
"Well then 'm afraid I've some bad news for ye. Bridge's out. I'm afraid Stalliongrad's rather unavailable 'til we get things fixed 'ere."
The Stalliongradian pony winced at the use of his home's painful Equiish name, before forcing himself to shake off a derogatory remark. "Why is the bridge out?"
"Well, I weren't there for the damage itself, but I heard it from me place over there." She gestured backward with a flick of her neck in the direction of a small stone cottage sitting a few hundred feet from the sheer cliff where the snow began. "It came just after the midnight train–a big blast, the likes o' which would wake the dead. I didn't see a thing, o' course, but I put on me coat and me boots, and I wandered out on the bridge. 'Bout three-fourths the way over, there was a big ol' gap, near thirty strides across. The wood was scorched, and I could see a bunch of pieces of a train car sittin' down on the ice o'er the channel. I don' know if the train made it, but– Oy, what're ye–"
"I'm going down," Ink explained with a sudden intensity, ripping the flask from his neck. "Do you have paper and ink?"
"I can get ye' a napkin if ye' need it badly, but I've got no ink."
"Get me one, and a knife. I'll make do for the rest." With those words, he ripped the cork from the flask with an awkward motion of hoof and mouth, before pouring its contents across his left wing. Green flame engulfed the stallion, sending pings of warmth across his body. The mare shrieked until Ink placed a (flame-free) hoof upon her shoulder. "I am fine. This is a guardspony matter, and I need your assistance. Get the napkin and the knife. I'll return soon."
Without waiting for a response, he spread his wings, focused his anger, and lunged into the storm. Despite the heat of Spike's dragon fire, Ink could still feel the chill on the tips of his wings and hooves. He forced through it, knowing that there was no time to spare, and entered into a steep dive. Only when the icy floor of the channel became visible did he spread his wings. The force of steel-shod hooves send thin cracks through the sheet of ice, but they stood no chance of breaking the yard deep coating on the water. On the ground, Ink's hooves cut into the ice blade first for traction, allowing him to dart forward with a speed greater than either wings or hooves alone. It wasn't long before the wreckage came into view.
Burnt sheets of cloth that had once been heavy coats lay strewn about a landscape of black and white, where ash and char fought a losing battle against an unending onslaught of snow. Here and then, boards the size of a grown pony jutted up out of the ice. The world seemed grayscale, given color only by the green light that Ink carried on his back. In the drab monotony, his eyes caught something surprising. A glint of purple flashed in the light of his fire, beneath the snow, beside a divot of cracked ice that reached down nearly to the level of the water flowing freely beneath.
His hooves moved quickly, brushing and cleaning. Moment by moment, more and more of the strange, shining object was uncovered. With each glimmer, Ink's rage grew, his heart sank, and the fire on his back grew hotter and brighter. By the time he had unearthed the amethyst helmet, a towering inferno of dragon fire was reaching its way up into the perpetual storm.
The headpiece of Platinum's Ward stared up at the guardspony, empty of the head he had always seen it concealing. Ink flipped the gemmed helm over twice, before sliding it over the top of his own head. A distinct chill from the gilded interior met his flesh, but the cold was not the source of the stallion's sneer.
"You were a good warrior, Armor, even if you were naive. I would have liked to have been the one to give you a warrior's death. Masquerade will pay for this."
A swipe of his wing gave rise to a wall of green flame. As it burnt the lingering objects to ashes, his anger faded into a dull throbbing, and his rational mind returned. Armor was dead; it was a costly loss, but not one to bring the stallion to tears. Soldiers died. That had been Mentor's first lesson when the revolution started. His anger wasn't directed toward the death of his rival, but that the assassin had escaped again. She was threatening his nation, and his princess, and his family. She had taken his form, and his coat, and his honor. All were sins he would gladly answer with blood, but blind rage would only serve to see him join Armor in the Summer Lands. The stallion spread his wings, turned back to the western cliff, and flew up to rejoin the mare he had met there.
It wasn't a long flight up. The snow and the cold ended abruptly when he crossed their threshold, only moments before folding his wings and simply dropping onto his hooves. The mare was waiting, carrying a rather small table knife and a cheap paper napkin. He suppressed a shrug, knowing he would have to take what he could get. With a bit of focus, he restrained the fire on his body entirely to the backs of his wings. From there, all that remained was to walk forward.
The civilian placed both her objects on the ground as Ink approached, before turning her attention to the amethyst armor adorning his brow. "'ey, that's a funny lookin' hat. Ain't I seen that somewhere before?"
"The newspaper," Ink told her as he lowered himself to the ground. "It belonged to a fr... to an associate of mine." His head tilted back to beneath his right wing. There, it was a simple matter for his teeth to pull free a loose trailing feather that would serve as a quill.
"Oh, ye' want I should cut that for a fine point?" the mare inquired.
"The knife isn't for the quill." He turned the blade so that its blade was facing upward, and its tip pointing in his direction. The soldier gritted his teeth, and forced his foreleg down on the object, just above the hoof. The wound was small, but without the benefit of adrenaline coursing through his veins, Ink felt every hair of the cut. Without waiting, he grabbed the stem of his improvised quill, dipped it in his leg, and began to write in red ink.
- - -
Princess Cadance despised being called 'Empress'. The title was a worse version of 'Queen', which Celestia avoided for much the same reason. Such a title was a virtual guarantee that the power of the position would corrupt its owner into a horrible, tyrannical figure who would have to be put down by the Elements of Harmony. And that was just 'Queen', to say nothing of 'Empress'. Perhaps the only worse title would be 'Vizier'–a position which a young Twilight Sparkle had pointed out as existing solely for the purpose of allowing evil advisors to rule nations by proxy while foolish figurehead rulers went about their business too ignorant to recognize reality.
It was because of this complicated hatred of the title of Empress that Cadance was secretly dreading her scheduled return to the Crystal Empire. The actual city was wonderful, and the palace luxurious, but the trips in and out were always accompanied by a painful overuse of the title. She cringed at the thought of all the ponies bowing her direction, slathering her with praises and promises of service as if they were fearful of her. She wished they could see her youth. At least in Bitaly, ponies had the decency to only bow once. She didn't even view herself as a noble there; the thought was strange. So much of her life had been spent in Canterlot, studying at Celestia's school and foalsitting to earn spending money. The thought that she somehow deserved praise seemed ridiculous. Nevertheless, the need to return was an unavoidable fact.
She groaned at the knocking at the door, regretting that her husband would not be able to offer her company on the long ride north. His dedication was something she loved about him, though at times she wondered if the long nights and the endless battles against crime, corruption and evil were worth it. It seemed as if he never got the chance to reap the rewards of his own battles.
She shook away the thought and walked over to the door. It opened with only the slightest tug of her magic. A white-powdered guardspony mare stood on their welcome mat, with a hood pulled up over her head. Cadance noted that the powder on her nose seemed smudged and twisted, as if it had recently dried into clumps after a thorough soak.
"May I come in?" the mare asked.
Cadance was surprised at the question; she'd been expecting to waltz out the door then and there on the way to the Canterlot train station. Instead, she stepped back, and the guardspony walked inside. A faint magic issued from a horn beneath the hood, and the door to the Canterlot home slammed shut. Cadance glanced to her husband's ornamental weapons as they rattled with the force of the collision.
"Sorry," the mare muttered, before pulling back her hood. Cadance's jaw dropped at the figure beneath. Her face was blotted and smudged with white, and her eyes didn't seem to be lined up together. The other pony looked for all the world like a foal's drawing of a unicorn guardspony. Before Cadance could even inquire on the revelation, however, a golden light engulfed the other mare, and her form shifted. Her legs grew longer, her mane more vibrant, and in only a matter of moments, a pair of massive wings sprouted from her sides. No more than five seconds later, Princess Celestia looked in Cadance's direction and nodded.
"Princess Celestia! What was that?"
"An illusion to disguise myself, though I'll be the first to admit I still need a great deal of practice. And you're welcome to simply call me Celestia, Cadance. Or Aunt, if you prefer. Goodness knows Blueblood overuses it already, and you're far closer by blood than he is."
Cadance finally overcame her shock. "Oh, well then, Celestia, can I offer you something to drink?"
"I don't have the time," Celestia informed the far younger alicorn. "I wish I could say that I came simply to visit, but I would be lying. A number of issues have come up; too many for me to handle alone." The nigh-immortal permitted herself a moment of hesitation before resolve once more returned to her visage. "Do you recall what I told you about Rainbow Dash's... condition?"
The pink mare gave a start as her eyes widened. "Has something happened? I thought you said it would be a matter of years–"
"I assumed as much for Rainbow, given her force of will. But that was on the assumption that she stayed away from guardsponies and the memories of her sacrifice. Unfortunately, one of my Honor Guard made a misinformed decision. I have no doubt that he held my sister's past mistakes over her head until she was guilted into assisting him. Regardless, Rainbow is here in Canterlot presently. When I encountered her, she mistook me for her mother, whom I understand to have died when Rainbow was very young." Celestia paused as she chose her next words delicately. "I cannot be sure, but I fear her soul is slipping while she spends her time in the company of these ponies from her past. While I had hoped that we could delay intervention, it seems the time has come."
Cadance's brow rose. "Do you want me to talk to her?"
"No." Celestia looked away. "Twilight and the other bearers have already been performing that task admirably, judging by her reports. They did what they could, but their part in this is over. What Rainbow needs is a bond in her soul that will fight the pull of the Summer Lands. Something to tug in the opposite direction." As the pink princess watched her elder's eyes, she saw only remorse. "I know you've refused to do what I'm about to request in the past, and I cannot blame you. I don't ask this lightly. But I need you to force Rainbow to fall in love."
The room was quiet for a very long time, as Cadance simmered in indecisiveness and rage at the sheer audacity of the request. Finally, she shook her head. "I can't do that to her. I can't steal her free will."
Celestia responded with a curt nod, at which point she lowered her body to the ground. Only her head and neck were lifted from the floorboards, so that her eyes were on a level with Cadance's. The idea was that they would speak as equals, though the idea was a lie. "Rainbow wants to live her life. She told me that herself. She saved Luna's life at a great cost to herself, and I will do everything in my power to grant her this solitary boon for as long as I can. This is her will."
"That isn't the same at all. Princess Celestia, I don't think you understand what my magic can do in a situation like this."
Celestia's head cocked to the side, as a dog's might after misunderstanding a command. "You'll make her happy, won't you?"
"If she happens to end up matched with a pony she could have loved anyway, then yes. But my magic only makes her mind think that it loves another. I can't change her heart or her soul. If the other pony is wrong, she'll be torn and tormented. She'd find herself going through the motions of love without feeling anything inside. It would be hollow, and meaningless, and cruel. That's why I have to be careful with my magic, and only enhance feelings that are already there. If I create love from scratch, I risk destroying lives." Cadance ended her words with a stiff shake of her head. "I'm sorry. I can't do it."
Celestia shared in the younger alicorn's regretful expression. "I understand where you're coming from, Cadance. In any other circumstance, I wouldn't ask again. But here, I find myself in no position but to beg you. This is a magic I can't do on my own. Is there something you can do? Anything?"
After a moment's contemplation, Cadance gave a short dip of her head. "I could open her heart, I suppose. Make her more inclined toward romance. The enchantment wouldn't last more than a couple of months, but she might find somepony on her own that way. I still don't really like it, but if it stands the chance of helping her, I'll give it a try."
Celestia was prepared to offer a thousand words of thanks, but the thoughts were stolen away by a trail of sparks and smoke that quickly assembled themselves into what looked for all the world like a cocktail napkin.
"Has Twilight changed her parchment?" Cadance teased.
"I don't think it's from Twilight," the elder answered, beginning to read the fresh, still wet characters on the letter.
-Princess Celestia,
I've confirmed that Masquerade is heading to Stalliongrad. She blew out the Dragon-Fire Bridge. Trains are down. I can fly, but you'll have a hard time getting anypony else over.
The explosion wasn't just to get rid of support, though. Armor is dead. I have his helmet. What is left of him fell in the channel, under the ice.
I don't have time for a full report, and I need Spike's dragon fire to keep my wings warmed while I fly. I'm not taking risks with capture this time, unless I'm able to snap her horn off. I doubt I will be able to contact you again before the deed is done.
-Red Ink
Celestia looked up from the note written in blood, and into Cadance's eyes. The time for a decision came, and she made it in silence. "I sent one of my Honor Guard to escort Rainbow back to the train station after a meeting with a friend. You should be able to catch her there. Please, hurry."
After a moment's contemplation, Cadance shot a quick smile and turned to the door. It was only after the mare was gone that Celestia ripped the central paragraph off of the napkin. It took only a simple spell to add her own writing, before she left the painful message where it would shortly be received.
Dear Cadance,
I'm so sorry.
-Celestia
- - -
"When last I visited this place, it was home to King Lazurite the Quiet, third of his line." Luna's remark dated the structure, and brought a smile to Foresight's face.
"That was almost twelve-thousand years ago! What was it like?"
"Warmer," she told him bluntly. It earned a chuckle from all the gathered ponies and dragons as they wandered the halls of Burning Hearth Castle in a tight group. "The Windigoes had not yet claimed the Valley in those days." The way the princess emphasized the word 'valley' drew Foresight's attention for a moment, though he missed the chance to ask when she continued speaking. "At that time, the Pegasi still lived where they had migrated, in Dioda–what we in the modern day have learned to be Zebrica and Grivridge. Only earth ponies and unicorns filled this land."
"Tragic," Krenn muttered loudly enough for the assembled to hear. "Had they stayed away, this might still be the Valley we remember, Luna. Still, the snow would be pleasant enough, were it not for the wind. Why not bring Magnus up and have him end this curse?"
Luna looked to her peer and shrugged. "Our sister informs that she had asked him, and he had declined to offer aid. Something of his past draws objection to this place, though I don't pretend to know what it is."
The assembled group reached a pair of tall oak doors, which opened with only the slightest of pushes from Watchful Eye. Behind him lay an opulent dining room, with seating for ten around a gorgeously polished walnut table. The shapes of the chairs clearly indicated the species of their intended hosts, leaving Krenn sitting at one end of the table and Luna at the other. Both the ageless dragon and the similar pony kept their advisors and bodyguards close by, leaving Watchful Eye to sit opposite his son in the centers of the longer sides of the table. Foresight, however, did not take his seat. Instead, the stallion smiled and allowed his gaze to match the eyes of all present.
"Tonight, we'll be serving two major meals. One is a Zebrican citrus salad with an assortment of Bitalian nuts and a thin vinaigrette dressing. The other is a crown roast of beef seasoned with peppercorns and crumbled diamonds." The stallion tried to replicate his father's smile, and ended up looking entirely awkward. His first reaction was to hide his lack of charisma behind his vocabulary and formality. "For all save one of you, the preferred dish is quite obvious. However, Princess Luna, I confess that foal's stories do leave me with more than the slightest curiosity. Will you be joining my father and I with meat tonight, or will the salad suffice?"
The reactions to the last statement were quite varied. Mirror Image, who was clearly the farthest from being a diplomat, visibly recoiled at the revelation that both his hosts would be consuming meat. Marathon shot Foresight a curious look but said nothing else. At the opposite end of the table, Krenn bared his teeth into a slight smile. The red dragon, Ogon', had the audacity to perform a short lived slow clap for the courage of the ponies, which died quickly under the spiteful glare of the blue-white female, Lyod.
Luna hesitated for only a few seconds, though obvious apprehension flashed across her face at the reference to Nightmare Moon. It went short-lived, however, before she recovered smiling. "Despite what you might have learned as a foal, Foresight, my teeth are as those of any other pony. Bless me with the diet of such, and I will be happy. Though perhaps if the mood strikes me, I might sample a bite of your dish."
Foresight nodded, bowed his head, and turned away. "As you wish," came his call, just before the doors swung shut in heed of his magic.
The moments that followed were very quiet, before Krenn finally spoke up. "We've saved many matters for later discussion, and I would like to get them out of the way, so that we will be able to speak more earnestly later, Luna. Firstly, you mentioned a great number of your soldiers converging on the city. What is the concern?"
The mare of the night took a slow breath. "Have you heard what happened not six months past?"
Krenn nodded slowly. "A threat on your life? Little more than rumors have made their way as far as my mountain, but I heard that much."
Luna nodded. "An assassin succeeded in filling my body with a poison that stole away my access to my magic. This body nearly failed. 'Twas a most disturbing experience. Alas, such a threat may have followed me here."
The dragon's brow rose, alongside Watchful Eye's. Luna opened her mouth to speak but another voice cut in.
"What the Princess means to say is that the assassin was not alone. As you saw, we encountered some brigands on our train ride in, and we fear they may be related to the attempt on her life." Marathon smiled even as she shot a quick glance to Luna. The elder mare knew what was being asked of her in keeping her mouth shut, though she did not understand the purpose behind the demand.
Watchful Eye spoke up at that point, again stealing away Luna's chance for words. "I have good news for you then, Princess. The creatures you encountered in your travel were part of Baron Frostbite's Remnant. Despite his mistreatment of the city and his subjects, there are those who blame me for the pains that plagued Stol'nyjgrad during the transition from his rule. Some chose to take up the banner of resistance under the leadership of a mare named Stoikaja. The tiger in particular I recognize as her second-in-command. By apprehending them, you've done my city a great service Princess. While they are criminals, I assure you that they offer you no threat. Within these castle walls, you may feel safe."
"You offer kind words, Tsar, and we thank you for them." Luna paused briefly. "We, in this case meaning both myself and my companions. Now, there is another matter which perplexes me greatly. Krenn, when last we spoke more than a millennium ago, your son Naslednik was soon to become a full wyrm. I had enjoyed speaking to another with the longevity to view history as we do, and had been hoping to see him as I have been looking to see you. Whence have you sent him, that he cannot join us?"
Krenn growled without opening his mouth. Nevertheless, the sound was enough to rattle the silverware sitting on the table, and send frost tumbling off the latticed iron bars that supported the enormous windows. "Twenty years ago, Luna, your kind and mine found ourselves in a... disagreement." The dragon leaned forward, crossing his clawed fingers together in an arch as he glared across the table. "My species cannot grow without more land. Already, our nature and magic leave us with at most three children to a father, and but one to a mother. We require land to breed and live and fly and hunt, and all those things were overfilled. Many saw that your kind cannot live within the frozen wastes that surround this city, and sought to claim them."
Krenn glanced between his two bodyguards, and sighed a cloud of acrid black smoke into the room. "I sought fairness for such a trade. I offered the Tsar's predecessor, one Baron Frostbite a great deal of gems and gold in exchange for land he could not use. He was stubborn, though, and saw me as a monster and an enemy. And in time, my kind grew restless and greedy, as is the nature of the curse that afflicts us. The bloodshed was light, at first, and though I reprimanded my own, I could not truly police such behavior. The raids continued for several years, until one group of foolish wyrmlings felt it prudent to attack this city itself. Three died, along with a number of ponies. I tried to placate him, but Frostbite saw the incident as too great, and began to prepare for war."
"He was a warmonger," Watchful Eye observed. "Had your dragons not attacked, he would have found some other slight to blame."
"Perhaps," Krenn responded. "But it does little to change the truth. War began between dragons and ponies. We conquered this city and claimed it for our own, but by then, our losses and our bloodlust could not be contained with just one city. I am strong, but I cannot change the minds of my entire species. They wanted Equestria. All of it. And so the war continued."
As Krenn's story continued, revelation dawned on Luna's face. At that point, she found the words to speak up. "Then Naslednik...?"
"A casualty," Krenn answered. "The second of my offsprings gone, and the wound still bleeds fresh on my heart." He grunted again, and another burst of smoke escaped his nostrils. "But it is in the past."
The stories and painful reminiscences were cut off by the room's doors opening again. Foresight strode in, towing a large cart with his magic. "I do hope I haven't kept you waiting too long. Dinner has arrived."
- - -
Deadeye wandered back to the two mares in his company, with three blue paper tickets tucked against his body by his wing. He took a seat on between the two on a bench that faced the tracks. "Just five minutes until the train leaves."
"Yeah." Rainbow's voice was hollow and distant as she stared out over the cliff side of Canterlot. A January mist left the lands of Equestria veiled in white. The city faced south, and yet the lands in that direction seemed so distant as to be another world entirely. Even the edge of the Appleloosan Plains on the far side of the Everfree remained unseen over such a distance. "Are you just going alone, then?"
"I'm not just leaving him, if that's what you're asking. I know you never really got the chance to meet him, but he was a great pony. I owe it to him to at least try."
The bitter pegasus mare had nothing to say in response, and so Dead Reckoning's attention turned in Scootaloo's direction. The filly held the wanted poster Thunder Crack had torn from the wall of The Private's Reserve clutched between her forehooves, though her attention was in the direction of the adult ponies in her company.
"Why don't you go with him, Rainbow? It could be like, an adventure! I could go too, and I bet–"
"Hold up, kid." Reckoning placed a hoof on the orange filly's shoulder. "First off, this is going to be dangerous. And not the way your teacher tells you that running with scissors is dangerous. Suida is where boars come from and boars don't like ponies at all."
"So what? Rainbow killed a dragon!"
Rainbow hung her head in shame as she shook it from side to side. She knew the words a responsible role model was obligated to offer, though she struggled to deliver them. "I don't know where you heard about that, squirt, but that's not good. I just..."
Reckoning had the decency to step in. "Killing another creature isn't like the stories you read about knights and heroes. It isn't pretty or fun, and if you do it too much, it starts to get into your head." The ex-guardspony put on a momentary frown before speaking up again. "Besides that, it wouldn't be fair for me to ask Rainbow to come running off with me. She shouldn't have even had to come to Zebrica six months ago. She's got friends to look after. And... family?"
Scootaloo nodded enthusiastically. "She's like my big sister!"
"Yeah, I can see where you get it." Reckoning smiled a little. "The point is that my friend is in danger, and I need to go help him. Rainbow doesn't know him, though, and it really isn't her problem anyway."
"So, like loyalty then?" At the one-eyed stallion's cocked glance, Scootaloo continued. "Rainbow says you can't leave your friends hanging, even if it means getting your hooves dirty."
"Well, I'd say she's the expert on the matter. " Reckoning shot another lopsided grin to the other side of the bench, in Rainbow's direction. "She's got the necklace and everything."
"Thanks," Dash grumbled, with her eyes still locked on the train tracks running down the mountain.
Scootaloo wasn't done, though. "Aren't you Rainbow's friend, though? Because if you're going, she'd probably have to go too. And then I'd have to go, because–"
"That's not always how it works, Scoot." Rainbow's words came across as harsh, rather than merely distant. "What would my friends say if I just ran off? What do you think Applebloom and Sweetie Belle would do?"
"Well, they'd probably follow me..."
Reckoning shook his head. "That's the problem. Do you want your friends in danger? Sweet Bell and–"
"Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo corrected.
"Right. Sorry. But your friends wouldn't be safe out there, and neither would you. Rainbow was a great partner for me. Hay, she was probably the best I ever had. But you have to learn to let things go. Especially when you're as old as I am."
The filly glanced between Reckoning and Rainbow Dash, as her expression grew more confused. "You have to learn to let things go when you're thirty?"
Suddenly recalling his own form, Reckoning looked down and then back up from the green coat that covered his body. "Oh, uh... It's just an expression. Don't worry about it."
"Okay." Scootaloo nodded, and finally decided to drop the issue as her attention returned to the torn poster between her hooves. Her eyes scanned it back and forth, as a pensive look overtook her face.
It took some time for Reckoning to note the young pegasus' interest. When he did, the scout leaned over toward the filly and whispered in her ear. "You think that's cool? Never seen a wanted poster before?"
"No, I have," the filly answered, not bothering to note it had been her own face on the picture. "This just seems weird. 'Stow-eh-kah-jah'." Her hoof drifted from the Equiish symbols to the Stalliongradi beside them. "But this part says 'Stoy-kah-jah'."
"You can read Stalliongradi?" Reckoning wondered aloud. "Where'd you learn that?"
"Just a few words," Scootaloo answered. "When Mr. Ink was our teacher, he taught us 'Hello', and 'Goodbye', and 'Where's the bathroom', and 'Tactical retreat'." The normally rambunctious filly clearly failed to observe that one of the statements was not like the others. "But this is the name of the pony who works at Sweet Apple Acres." Reckoning's jaw slowly dropped open as the filly continued. "I thought it was her for a second, but she's way too nice to be this pony. Besides, her Equiish name isn't 'Soldier On'. It's 'Resistant'. Maybe she knows this pony, though. They look kinda the same. They're even missing the same ear."
In the ensuing slack-jawed silence, a train whistle and the chugging of wheels on the track overcame all chance for discussion. A train pulled up to the station, ready to unload its passengers and begin the descent to Ponyville. Reckoning helped both his companions up, and the three ponies moved toward the platform. None of them noticed the faint blue glow that issued from beneath the hood of an expensive traveling coat. The subtle and translucent pink heart that hovered over Rainbow Dash's head for a moment went likewise unobserved as the party set off for what all expected would be a routine trip home.
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So here we are: another chapter.
I know I said I'd do some From Stalliongrad With Love first, and I fully intended to, but then an awesome opportunity came up. So let me direct you to it now:
The 24th Pegasus and I have embarked on a 'joint universe' plan between his series (beginning with Of Skies Long Forgotten) and Where Loyalties Lie. Those of you who've already read that story know how great it is, and I fully recommend it to those who haven't. You can find it in the group if you need a link. Speaking of which: The Price of Loyalty is the name of the group. Feel free to put questions or comments on links between the stories, or the setting there.
To address the one massive question looming over this joining: yes, 'Emperor Magnus' is the same griffon in both stories. For how that's possible, I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see.
Neither of us will be breaking from our original story plans very much, as the chronological periods are so set apart. Rather, the universe is set together so we can play off one another with ideas like the Arcana, Empatha, Endura magic system, and the war between the Griffons and the Pegasi. You're still getting the same 'Where Loyalties Lie' story that you always were; just with a little bit of extra depth and some fun references and ideas for those of you who take the time to read both.
Another announcement is that Keyesty (who had formerly only been doing translations for Russian text) is now formally the 4th Pre-Reader/Editor for WLL. I believe this formally makes me on par with a 'crazy old cat person', if one were to substitute cats for pre-readers.
Now, on to business. We see an awful lot of Celestia in this chapter, and I had more than a bit of fun writing her doing her thing with basically nopony else around.
Since all my pre-readers made this joke, I guess I'll give in and address it. Yes, our villain finally shows <their> 'face' in a rather roundabout way. And though it might seem like a 'Bond villain' monologue, there isn't quite as much actually said about plans as it might seem. The letter is much more a conveyance of motives than actual intentions.
While writing this, I found myself wishing I was writing for Zebrica again, because at least they don't have to rhyme in RIDDLES. I felt like that was the most interesting way to explain both the tendency of stuff in canon to just rhyme out of nowhere (see: Discord's dialogue, especially to Rainbow Dash about Cloudsdale) and also allow for there to challenge and misinterpretation possible when the characters are 'reading the future', or even just trying to find out about a distant location. So, yeah. Rhyming riddles. Oh, on that note, go ahead and see if you can guess what the answer to Celestia's 2nd riddle (the one where I didn't write down the answer) is here in the comments.
Also, now you finally know how the antagonists able to 'get away with' so much stuff under the noses of Celestia and the guards. You're welcome to still call foul in terms of contrivance, if that's what you think, but we've finally reached the point that matters in terms of methods and explanations.
I drew some better pictures too: A colored, less 'wanted poster sketch' version of Soldier On, and a Red Ink. I'll upload them to my deviantart soon.
Let me know what you think.
-Loyal Liar
- Pre-Readers aren't guilty for any rule 63 in this chapter.
- Zecora would be proud.
First four lines pointed to "scroll", like one sent by Spike from Twilight to Celestia. But last four... my first choice was "sun", but then I decided that I am not as smart as Celestia and surrendered. Mind you, it was before I continued to read.
- Rarity have Opal, is she our mastermind?
- Well, of course not, it is Foresight!
- And Trollestia strikes again. Really, her good intentions make Rainbow's life more and more complicated. And now Cadance.
twi dash twi dash twi dash
I love this, and I can't wait to see everypony's reaction when they hear the Commander is Rainbow Dash's father! Also, Celestia you bitch, just tell people when other people really die or not!
1949441
what this guy said
Hmm... A coming war, Reckoning doing something that might start a war, Reckoning being raised from the dead by Luna, Evil Mastermind wanting Luna dead so as to prevent war, I think the evil mastermind may have wanted to stop Luna from raising Reckoning so as to prevent the war he would inadvertently cause. This is rather interesting.
Denial is both a river in Egypt, and my current state of mind. Shining Armor lives!
I'm definitely suspicious that Naslednik is Spike somehow.
Let's see how many people can find references now
Hisss! It's the Night Guard! Eldest Sister! Maybe even Third Brother... Because Luna made the Night Guard -not sure if they have their own language though.
Though because of the other Alicorn mentioned
it might be Chrysalis because she has the Changelings and she did say
and why else would you mention a character if it did not have a point? On the other hand Masquerade said she had never seen a Changeling before, and she is honest with the Commander.
The topic of the Commander... I feel as though the Commander had written that letter... Though that is a ridiculous thought, though some of the things said in the letter make it seem as though it was written by him. I can however say with near certainty it is not the Commander in the letter.
There is simply too much going, too much information, too many angles, too many characters, too many bases to cover, one bit of false information good either save or damn a prediction I try to make, especially when I try to guess alone, it would be easier with a different opinion.
Now I'm off to my local VFW!
Good story, love it.
Still not convinced Shinging Armor is dead, after all, Ink never found the body.
Also, a little confused about one thing; where and when did Celestia find the real Red Ink? I don't remember it being covered in a previous chapter. Unless I missed it. Which is definitely possible...
Probably the greyest morality pony fic ive seen, especially since the grey of other stories is "We live in a happy universe" "NO YOURE WRONG WE LIVE IN GRIM DARK."
I'm really curious to see which princess revived him and why he's younger, unless I misread and it's luna?
1950043
It's not something that's directly covered; Celestia and Ink talk about it briefly after Scootaloo accidentally uses the memory crystal. She found him in Masquerade's cell, and then they immediately ran to Scootaloo's rescue; there is literally nothing more to say on the matter, hence my decision to address it by Celestia's 'after-the-fact' comment. I guess I can see how that might be misleading, though. I just didn't want an entire 'pov' segment to last for that little by way of dialogue and action.
-LL
1950486 Cool, cheers for clearing it up
I maintain that it's a little jarring to suddenly see Ink without an explicit explaination, but then again all that's really important for the reader to know is that Masquerade is out, so I'll forgive you.
This time...
1950888
By the end of this act, I suspect no one will forgive me for anything. Not in terms of writing mechanics, but plot.
that might very well even be my goal.
-Loyal Liar
1950896 Wait, what are you planning, you monster?
1950909
I believe the appropriate terms are 'Deicide' and 'Warmongering' (although the latter has the potential to become 'Genocide'...)
But then, you already knew that from the letter, didn't you?
1950951 Indeed. Though the warmongering only becomes genocide if we forgoe the deicide. So, we either kill Luna and risk destabilising the country by killing off one of its rulers just before a wartime scenario, or we ignore the letter and risk destabilising the country by way of eternal night.
Hmm, somebody should let Morton know we have some of his silverware
1951199
Morton's Spork: When, rather than four-ish distinct paths to an undesireable outcome, you have a theoretically infinite amount of choices, such that they all blend together into a rounded, indistinguishable mass, but the still all lead to the same negative outcome.
1951511 I see why you went with 'spork', but that description is pretty much all spoon
1951580
I guess my response would be that a spoon is a series of indistinguishable choices which don't lead to anything ever; to abuse the pun in an entirely mature-tag way, there just isn't a point.
For those of you who are confused, it's clasically Morton's Fork. Wikipedia it.
1951650 ¬¬ icwatudidthere
I could debate this, but it's nearly seven in the morning here and I need to finish packing. I shall simply say that with a spork, you technically still start with four distinct options, they just... blurr a little.
And now I'm debating it. Damn internet
Which riddle do you consider to be the unanswered one? The orb or the parchment one?
1951780
Oh; the parchment one. The Orb isn't really supposed to be answerable yet, since it would reveal who the author of the letter is.
1951782
I'm going to guess its something along the lines of...mail or mailbox.
1950043
- Celestia didn't know about Shining death before letter, so she didn't judge his soul.
- That mean, for him to die, Luna must judge him, but that act would be advanced warning "Oh, I am dead dear Princess and now Masquerade coming to Stalliongrad next train". Which basically void any surprise attack on Luna.
- So, 50% chance he is alive and if Luna show surprise to Masq's arrival it will be 100%.
I sense classic Greek tragedy: the hero creates the circumstances he's trying to prevent by trying to prevent them. Why do characters in stories always take prophecy seriously? The body of legend establishing that attempting to prevent a prophecy is how the prophecy is brought about is so wide, deep, and common that no character in any universe can seriously believe that trying to stop a prophecy is a good idea.
1952410
In one way, you have a very valid point. Howeverly, firstly, they are ponies. They do have their own rules about prophecy (as Celestia explains both here and in Act 1, during the meeting with the Nobles), rather than a vast body of literature on the topic. Because prophecy is both forbidden an extremely rare, it makes sense that many ponies (clearly, Celestia not included) wouldn't understand not to try and stop it. As much as I enjoy struggling for a halfway decent horse pun on 'Sophocles' and 'Aeschylus', I have imagine that equivalents of such works are less-than-common.
Moreso, however, think of the very first canonical prophecy ever addressed by the show, and how it was phrased. I won't say more than that outside the story, though I doubt I really have to. (I like to imagine that, since only 3 lines are given, the preceding line ends with a rhyme for 'escape'). Anyway, as seems to be my perpetual flaw, there is more to this issue.
But yes, in some sense, a struggle against an inescapable fate is what I'm trying to evoke here.
-Loyal Liar
Oh my god, that's horrible what Celestia did to Cadance. Telling her that her husband died by leaving a note and making her use her magic over Dash's will on top of it! (I hope we get to see her reaction though)
Everyone's going to hate Celestia by the end of this haha.
1955847
We're not sure if Shining Armor is dead yet, and Cadance isn't going to overwrite Rainbow's free will. She emphatically refused to do that. She's just going to make Rainbow more receptive to inherent romantic impulses.
1953973
Yes, in a very straightforward and literal manner. Moreover, what was prophesied to happen clearly happened in precisely the way it was prophesied to happen. And yet, given the forces involved, it would have clearly been insanely dangerous to try and prevent the stars from aiding in Nightmare Moon's escape on the designated day. Which is why Twilight Sparkle, being a very clever mare, ran around trying to find ways to prepare for the inevitable rather than even contemplating trying to stop it. Twilight is the very model of the proper way to respond to prophecy.
Of course there is. Thus my prediction of a Greek tragedy in the works, with the imbecile "hero" hurting everyone in sometimes horrible ways trying to prevent something that he's just causing to happen with his misguided efforts. I mean, you've already gone to lengths to make the readers believe that this misguided silliness has already killed one innocent pony, Shining Armor, with a body count destined to rise because the fool didn't pay close attention to how amoral his chosen tool is.
Which, IMHO, is one of the most annoying and idiotic story devices EVER. Not that you're any less of a writer for using it, mind you, but it's a story device that always pisses me off because built into the device is an implied promise to the reader that we're going to spend the next 200 pages watching someone fail because the outcome has been predetermined by the author. All outcomes are predetermined by the author in a story, of course, but only with "a struggle against an inescapable fate" are the readers informed of the outcome before the beginning is even written.
And may I just say... I hate the character who wrote this letter without even meeting him.
I have completed the riddle. It took a bit, but it is finished.
1957383
My point concerning the prophecy from the pilot was moreso concerned with the final line:
"...and she shall bring about nighttime eternal."
Because, as we clearly know, that part didn't end up happening; at least, not unless your idea of eternal is 'for a day or so'.
To get more quickly to the point, I had this conversation with another reader during Act 1. 1590025
I have no idea if that link will actually work, so I'm going to go ahead and post some of the relevant text here as well. I apologize for what will now inevitably be a giant wall.
To summarize my feelings: I don't generally like prophecy as a plot device either, but its very hard to create a conflict that challenges the validity of prophecy as the end-all, be-all in a setting without first having a prophecy to challenge.
DON'T consider this diatribe to be a promise that all (or even any) prophecies will be proven false. Rather, I simply wanted to draw attention to my motives for using a plot device which many readers (myself included) generally find to be in bad taste.
-Loyal Liar
1957447
Feel free to post your answer if you want; if you do turn out to be right, you'll get bragging rights when I put the right one up (alongside the next chapter).
1957478
So the prophesy actually has no purpose other than to create a thread of plot which has nothing to do with the story, or at least that's what I'm gathering from your explanation. The prophesy around Nightmare Moon was a very big part of the story, as was the prophesy being subverted directly and vividly. The prophesy in Part I seemed to change nothing and mean nothing because it was ignored entirely. This prophesy just explains the motivations of the villain but knowing why the villain is doing something when the "why" is utterly irrational tells the reader nothing and sets up no new conflict; it just attempts to redefine an existing conflict as a crazy anonymous pony trying to prevent a prophesy that is obvious hogwash. Luna isn't fighting the prophesy; she doesn't even know it exists. Celestia isn't fighting the prophesy; she doesn't buy it at all. RD and Deadeye and all the other characters aren't fighting the prophesy because they don't even know there's a prophesy to fight.
It's as if you told the story of Oedipidus and explained that it was a conflict between free will and prophesy... but you omit the part where Oedipidus finds out that he's going to kill his father and marry his mother, making it impossible for a conflict to exist.
1957736
Firstly, you're addressing two major 'prophecies' here. The first, from Act 1, reads as follows:
As with a few other things from Act 1, this suffers a bit from the separation of the Acts into separate stories. Given that the text was presented in Chapter 13 of a 16 Chapter Act, however, it seems fairly reasonable to me to assume people would understand that this pertains to later parts of the story, and not what was then the current segment (i.e. Act 1). However,
is entirely misrepresenting that offset. Yes, Rainbow hasn't done much to acknowledge this particular 'thread' yet, but that's just a matter of her not putting together the dots and making the connections to what is said there.
As for the second,
I have to entirely disagree (of course). Our villain's motive isn't entirely irrational. Rather, they are acting on the information they have to their highest degree of knowledge. This character 'knows' that if Luna survives, Nightmare Moon will not only return, but 'win'. Therefore, the entirely rational course of action is to try and kill Luna. It's certainly a cruel choice, but in the mind of this character, there isn't another option. There is no evidence that this prophecy is in any way 'obvious hogwash', and I wonder where you're inferring that from. As far as the text goes, the only statement I've made on the origin of said prophecy is that the villain did not actually make it, but rather acquired it from another.
These statements are all true, and in fact our villain outright acknowledges the 2nd (in explaining why 'they' did not call on Celestia for help, and instead took matters into their own 'hooves'). So then where does the conflict come from? Well, to borrow the title of this chapter, we see the conflict 'Of Freedom and Fate' in several places so far for.
Firstly, we see this conflict in Rainbow's clash with Smog. I know a lot of people didn't like this scene, and I admit I could have handled it better, but much of the point of Rainbow dragging off a 'helpless mare' was to present a question to her: is a life (in that case, Luna's) more important than free will? In Rainbow's eyes at the time, the choice was obvious.
Then we turn to Celestia's handling of Dash's death. In this case, Celestia tried to take away Rainbow's free will, making the choice to send her back to the Summer Lands independent of Dash's input. We see how much Rainbow values her own freedom.
Then we have the matter of Cadance's magic presented in this chapter, and just what effect its going to have down the line. Obviously, this one's still ongoing, but the example is obvious enough, given that Cadance expresses the idea of free will herself.
Finally-and this isn't one I've put much emphasis on yet-we have Going Solo's interpretation of what her Cutie Mark means. With that comes a whole slew of ideas about interpretation and meaning that I'm not going to address further for the sake of sparing the rest of the story.
I admit none of these has to do with prophecy, but in all honesty, the entire point of using prophecy is as a mechanism for removing free will from a situation. What I've provided here are examples of free will clashing with perceptions of predestination, and how that conflict affects the characters.
So, in sum, when you say:
I have to disagree entirely. The prophecy given (or rather, alluded to) in this chapter serves several purposes.
It informs the audience of the villain's motivation, and presents the question of whether or not to believe as 'they' do. And before one returns to Celestia's evident disbelief in the provided words, I observe that my Celestia is about as far removed from an infallible being as one can come.
It shares with us some insights on our villain, and presents the possibility that they might be acting as you suggested in your reference to Greek tragedy, and modern perceptions thereof: namely, that rather than trying to fight the prophecy and risk bringing it about as an imbecile "hero" (to use your words), the character (like Twilight) simply accepts the prophecy as unavoidable and tries there very best to deal with its inevitable after-effects as best they can. This action takes the form of killing Luna, and simultaneously trying to prepare Equestria for some unavoidable war on the horizon.
Further, and perhaps most importantly, it presents Celestia with a great deal of choices that allow her character to develop. While she might be denying the prophecy at present, is that an example of her logical disbelief, her suspicion that she is being lied to, or perhaps her blind devotion to her sister? What will her reaction be when and if she starts seeing signs that the information presented to her here is actually true? Will she be able to set aside her feelings? Will she try to 'disprove' the prophecy, and risk proving herself the imbecile "hero"?
I guess I should conclude with this:
The problem with your metaphor here is that we aren't that far in the story. If I had already shown Oedipus successfully killing his father, then there'd be a problem, but the fact of the matter is that there is still time for characters to learn of (and perhaps learn to cope with) the prophecies in question, before we start seeing how they come true (or perhaps even how they don't). In the mean time, this prophecy sets a foundation both within the story and from a meta-perspective for the readers, for which I can continue the conflict of 'Freedom and Fate' with a central example, as well as with smaller issues like those listed above.
It might not be something you like, because in many ways 'predestination' is an antagonistic theme-especially when paired against free will. However, the exploration of this conflict is by and large what I hope to use in making this be something more than 'just another adventure story'.
-Loyal Liar
I like the setup and there's enough tension latent in all the arcs started here to go around long enough that I don't think any of them will stall at all or become a pain to read (I don't know if anyone else shares my opinion, but Frodo and Sam's trip to Mordor with Gollum is the perfect example of this happening. It was important and it was character development, but until they reached a flash point, it was just dull.)
Generally speaking, I dislike prophecy on principle and so, I disliked seeing one such thing here. I don't think they're bad plot devices on the whole; they bring their own brand of plot lines and conflicts that can be very satisfying to resolve, but it's very easy for them to become a crutch to replace missing plot points or justifications to push through things that really defy all reasoning. There's a lot of examples of this happening in otherwise good story lines where, in my opinion, the quality of the plot just doesn't recover -or in extreme cases, come into play just in time to screw with the ending-.
Conversely, there are just as many examples of them working even when they're coming true.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you (and your pre-reader team, who also has my utmost respect for the awesome job they've been doing) have been posting such good works that I believe you'll make it work and I'll throw my misgivings out the window.
I do have an issue with Red Ink just assuming Armor dead out of hand when he's had first hand experience dealing with the fact that you cannot take some one for dead without having a body on hand. I'd have expected Red Ink to report that Armor was presumed dead instead of just taking it for a fact, especially when he doesn't really seem to want Armor six feet under unless he puts him there himself.
That last bit with Rainbow and Cadance was sneaky, dirty and underhanded with a very high probability crashing and burning whatever comes from the Princess' meddling.
I love it! :P Granted, odds are that that Reckoning ship I keep rooting for won't end well, but I still loved it.
Great showing, as always!
Wow. I foresee whatever relationship Dash ends up in crashing and burning. She's going to seriously hate Celestia, even more so, by the end of this.
I suppose Reckoning is a likely target.
Shining Armour, oh noes! I didn't expect that at all, and it worked well.
I loved your prophecies thing, that was brilliant.
Dash is going to be incredibly mad if Cadance does force her into something. With the whole Summer Lands thing being the apparent reason, it'll bring her thoughts back to that and make her even more angry.
LoyalLiar, guess what I just got for you!
You can't make two references in a single line and hope it will pass without repercussions. Especially, not after white Persian cats!
And I will never accept that it could have been held for accident.
That song followed me through entire chapter, I hope it will be as catchy for you in revenge.
As prophesies go, even if it is 100% accurate, it only cover certain events.
So, there will be war, there will be casualties, but did prophesy said anything about victor of this war? Or how long it will last? Or if there will be no war without Luna? Actually, until we confront our villain in person, we can't even be sure about contents of his visions. His words to Celestia could be just part of a play.
History also teach us that even 100% accurate (debatable as it is) prophecies may be interpreted in wrong way. Take Nostradamus, for example, so many have used his works to predict events, but most was called "true" only after depicted events took place, and only because it is so easy to quote them to almost anything due to their vagueness and lack of clear dates. Ironically, translations of very same predictions made before said events usually proved "false" and bite respected researchers in a flank spectacularly.
Wait, wait, didn't the World have ended month ago?
1957338 Sure Shining may be alive, but Cadance is still being told that her husband is dead. She'll react the same dead or alive.
And Dash, I meant that she still put that spell on her against her will. Granted, we don't know how much it will affect her, but I personally would have liked to have been asked before my mind is meddled with. If Dash falls in love, Celestia said that it would still be only a matter of years before she would have to go back, so now when she has to die there is another pony in love with her who will have their heart ripped out because Dash is gone. I feel that Dash would not want to cause someone that kind of pain.
1957877
I'm inferring it from the story and from canon. None of the conditions that led to Luna becoming Nightmare Moon are present, nor is it at all likely that they will be. And even if the unlikely happens, Nightmare Moon would not have the same goals because the condition that led to her original goal no longer exists. These facts are commonly known and would be especially obvious to anyone with the sheer immensity of resources it would have taken to accomplish what they have. Thus, the prophecy in which Nightmare Moon returns and brings night eternal is obviously incorrect; in other words, obvious hogwash. This will make sense if we eventually discover that the villain has developed a sort of obsessive tunnel vision in which everything confirms their belief, even things that obviously disprove it, but it's an ill fit for a villain that actually has the best information available and is taking action after rational consideration of the evidence available to them. Since we do not yet know that this villain has the obsessive tunnel vision, their actions presently seem totally irrational.
Which wasn't a conflict of freedom versus fate. Rainbow was indirectly acting as an agent of fate since she was dragging the girl back to her fated destiny but the conflict was that of whether an innocent and uninvolved person's personal freedom was more important that the life of a particular pony.
While it's true that we're told that Rainbow's free will was disregarded, we're not told what Rainbow would have chosen if she was given the choice between dying and living. Since she's going out of her way to avoid dying, the taking away of her free will is moot; Celestia chose for Rainbow what Rainbow would have chosen for herself if given the opportunity.
While that may be your intention, prophesy alone cannot remove free will. You have to also established that the prophesy, in and of itself, is impossible to prevent or alter by free will; using your own example of the Nightmare Moon prophesy, this is not how prophesy works in the MLP universe. Even the villain doesn't think this is how prophesy works because they believe they can change the prophesy by murdering Luna and destroying anyone who interferes. Thus, you're trying to say to me that prophesy, a mechanism for removing free will, can be negated by the thing it's meant to remove.
But in her disbelief, she's acting as an avatar for readers who have been told in a million different ways that if a prophesy appears in a story, it's wrong and only the actions of people trying to prevent it makes it come true.
The first is highly likely, the second is highly unlikely, and the third is between the two. Disbelief is the logical reaction to any unproven information which makes it highly likely. The second is highly unlikely because everything the author says about their own actions is true, and what's not provably true is unproven but plausible. The third is middling because while Celestia is certainly highly, even fanatically, devoted to her sister, whether it crosses into blindness is up in the air; personally, I haven't seen any indications that she's inclined to be blindly devoted, whether in this story or in canon.
That is quite evident already: try to frustrate the villain's schemes while continuing a policy of maintaining peace while preparing for war or at least to take forceful actions to prevent war.
The prophesy is structured in such a way as to be impossible to not try to disprove. By doing nothing more than trying to maintain peace (which is what she was already doing) and trying to be a good, loving, supportive sister (which she was already doing), Celestia's actions are calibrated to disprove the prophesy, even though she'd be doing these things if she was ignorant of the prophesy.
I'm sorely tempted to ask when this conflict began, but that would be childish and mean. I think it's more accurate to say that I still see no evidence of such a conflict in this story. Other conflicts, yes, and some of those conflicts are really quite complex and meaningful, but not the particular conflict of "freedom vs fate".
I hope you succeed, but nothing so far gives me confidence in the likelihood of your success.
I love this so much
I think that dash is going to fall for dead eye
1960312
Your statements here are true thus far, but I include them because of a strict disagreement here:
This seems to be rather bluntly untrue to anyone who does not know Luna personally. To use an example:
Consider Rarity's father, Magnum (whom I use as an example in the hope that everyone can agree he isn't the villain). This is an individual who knows of Luna from a distance, and may have even spoken to her during one of those occasions in which she visited Ponyville. However, I think we can both agree that he doesn't really 'know her'. Although the suspicion is unlikely, he has no idea what Luna thinks of her banishment, and possible jealousy relating to it. For all he knows, she might still be harboring those feelings. There may be some other reason she dislikes Celestia, or perhaps some other entity. However, without any evidence, there isn't much reason to harbor those thoughts.
Next, though, consider that Magnum comes across the prophecy alluded to in our villains letter. We don't know yet why our villain trusts this prophecy; all we know is that it has been assumed to be true. So we take that same case to be true of Magnum. He observes a prophecy stating that (amongst other things): "If Luna survives until the war, Nightmare Moon will return and bring about eternal night." What, then, is he left with?
There are a few obvious options: he can, as you suggest, look at Luna and disregard the prophecy as wrong. He could choose not to act on, let things run their course, and hope it doesn't come true. Without knowledge of how our antagonist (Magnum, in this case) came to trust the source of the prophecy, all we can really do is accept that he does believe it, as implied by statements such as this:
Thus, though I haven't yet revealed the source of the prophecy, we can understand that for whatever reason, our villain is unwilling to disregard it on its own basis.
There is, however, a second reason that the villain might disregard the prophecy, as I alluded to above: if Magnum knew that none of Luna's 'risk factors' for becoming Nightmare Moon were viable, and therefore to assume that the prerequisites of the prophecy are untrue. However, to have any assurance of this, he would have to know Luna on an intensely personal level - perhaps even better than Celestia does, if the former is indeed harboring hidden feelings of jealousy. Without this level of knowledge (be it gained by personal interaction or perhaps magical means), the risk of discarding the prophecy and risking Equestria would seem too great. Assuming Magnum has the power (magical, monetary, or otherwise) to pursue this path, he might try it. However, in doing so, he risks falling victim to the tragedy of prophecy and bringing about her fall by his own tampering. Ultimately, he would be risking the destruction of Equestria on his own ability to prove the prophecy wrong.
Alternately, he can assume Luna will become Nightmare Moon, and disregard her motives. Seeing as his prophecy excludes the possibility of addressing or resolving the issue in that form, such a course of action could be construed as reasonable. And yes, attempting to murder Luna certainly does smell of the same risk as getting to know her: namely, that this action might lead Magnum to unwittingly bring about the prophecy. However, and I stress this point, there is a major difference between those two courses of action that results from the way the prophecy is phrased. Before I continue, I'd like to bring up another pair of your statements:
I can see the train of thought you are following here, and its flaw lies in the absence of a single, two-letter word: 'If'.
I very much wish there were an example of this in canon for me to fall back on, but alas, I'm forced to simply call on my own text. Consider the sample from the letter below, with emphasis added.
To coin a term here, what I've put forward is a 'Contingent Prophecy'. The best example I can give of this that doesn't come from my own work is Disney's 'Hercules', where a prophecy states that hile that may be your intention, prophesy alone cannot remove free will. You have to also established that the prophesy, in and of itself, is impossible to prevent or alter by free will; using your own example of the Nightmare Moon prophesy, this is not how prophesy works in the MLP universe. Even the villain doesn't think this is how prophesy works because they believe they can change the prophesy by murdering Luna and destroying anyone who interferes. Thus, you're trying to say to me that prophesy, a mechanism for removing free will, can be negated by the thing it's meant to remove."If Hercules fights, you (Hades) will fail."
Thus, the difference between trying to kill Luna and trying to dissuade her from becoming Nightmare Moon is that the former is allowed for within the prophecy; if that is the case, then the prophecy doesn't say anything at all, and becomes vacuously true.
Thus, when you say
you are misrepresenting both Magnum's motivations and his perception of the prophecy which he views in some sense as a restriction on his own actions. Instead of trying to go against the grain of what he 'knows', he is taking what he perceives to be the only action he honestly can, even though he does not necessarily like doing so.
To close of this particular subset of the issue at hand, I'll note that bringing up the example of the NMM prophecy from the pilot episodes may not have been the best choice on my part due to its contradiction of some issues at hand, but that it nevertheless alludes to a further topic to be explained on this matter that I'm not quite ready to discuss. As it demonstrates, there do exist ways (or at least, a way) to 'break' prophecy once it has been given, though such actions have considerable cost and may be outside the scope of capability possessed even by 'Magnum'.
- - -
I think you're missing the point here as well. To summarize:
Celestia had intended to send Rainbow back to the Summer Lands immediately upon her return from Zebrica. That is, to use less than pleasant terms, that Celestia fully intended to kill Rainbow Dash without asking her permission or explaining the situation. Then Rainbow would not have had to deal with the suffering of a 'tug on her soul' or the other side-effects of being raised from the dead. That was the point of lying to Twilight and the others, allowing them to continue to believe that Rainbow Dash was still dead.
Contrary to what you state above, I would argue that we do know exactly what Rainbow would have done if given a choice, because she ultimately was given a choice; or rather, that she took one. She demonstrated that she wanted to live, even if it meant dealing with the side-effects of her 'condition'.
You might well argue that Dash might have chosen to die and move on had she been presented with the choice in a different fashion, but that isn't really the issue here. The point is that Celestia had no intention of presenting Dash with a choice at all. Rather than explaining the situation in private and allowing her to choose for herself, the princess was simply going to dispatch Rainbow again. The idea that Rainbow might have chosen to 'go back' to being dead had she been introduced to the idea under better circumstances is certainly a valid proposal, but what Rainbow would have chosen is not the issue here. Instead, the point of conflict between Rainbow's free will and her 'fate' is that Celestia had no intention of even allowing her that choice; the Princess intended to do what she thought was best for Rainbow, without Rainbow's input.
My response would be that this conflict began all the way back at the beginning of Act 1, when Rainbow was handed (and promptly showed derision for) a prophetic statement delivered by Third Brother of the Night Guard. Now, I'll be frank when I admit that I haven't had the two concepts clash very directly up until this point. Rather, my interest has been in creating conflicts that flesh out concepts of free will and predestination separately, so that when I do ultimately begin to bring them into conflict, there is a basis within the story upon which the characters can base their actions and beliefs. What I've set forth so far is by and large a foundation for a conflict that is finally starting to come to a head with the 'revelations' of this chapter.
- - -
To make a final point, there is a part of me that regrets not putting the exact text of the 'villain's prophecy' into this chapter; I believe the exact wording would have resolved several of the issues you've brought up here (notably in reference to the 'conditional statement' it contains). However, there are reasons and liabilities for the villain which cause <them> to not be interested in presenting that sort of information to Celestia.
And, in conclusion, thank you a ton for your input. Regardless of your 'faith' in my capacity to achieve my stated goal, I hope you've enjoyed the story. Input and criticism like yours is an integral part of improving writing, and I'd like to express my gratitude that you've taken the time to offer it to such a level of depth.
-Loyal Liar
1961461 There's a lot I would say here in response but we've hit the brick wall for this particular discussion. I don't see how your argument works or how your method brings about the result you desire. You, in turn, appreciate that I care enough to give you tons of input but let's be perfectly honest: you have a plan for this story, a plan that you've spent a great deal of time thinking about and developing, and even the best criticism i can muster wouldn't significantly deter you due to what one might call the "Arthur Conan Doyle" Standard: essentially, inconsistency and illogic doesn't matter so long as the readers enjoy the story and your readers really, really like what you're doing here, quibbles with minor points aside. So essentially, there's no purpose in keeping this rolling because I'm not going to be able to see the conflict or how your method gets you from Point A to Point B, and you have no reason at all to disrupt a very solid story plan because one reader is grouchy.
So I'll just end by stating that I hope you succeed in your intent. I think that your abandonment of your stated intention would free you to do a much more enjoyable, deep, and exciting story but I very sincerely, very earnestly wish for your success.
1961737
I understand completely, so let me begin by noting that I'm not writing this response to waste either of our time trying to re-explain our points of contention.
Instead, in the interest of being a better writer, I'm going to pester you for just a bit more of your time in explaining the last item you mentioned:
Though you're right in your assessment that I am unlikely to change my course at this point, as both a matter of curiosity, and also in the interest of a potential unrelated future story, I'd like to pick your brain for whatever time you're willing to donate with a response to this question:
If you were 'in my shoes', what theme or idea would you pursue in Where Loyalties Lie?
Regardless of how much you write (or indeed, if you even choose to write at all), I'd just like to say one last time that I thank you for your professionalism, your insight, and your honest and constructive critique. Commenters like you are a huge part of the inspiration not just for me, but many others across the site.
-Loyal Liar
1968522
I realize this is really easy to say and somewhat simplistic, but you have so many overt complex themes at work in your story that the covert theme isn't really necessary. Just look at Act 1! You explores so many themes and ideas just in that portion of your work that I literally cannot list them. You have somepony with goddess-like powers essentially enslaving another pony out of fear for Her dying sister. You have an old PTSD-riddled soldier who is trying to do the right thing (that he doesn't believe in) while he fights against the delusions torturing him--a fight he eventually loses. You have the workings of literal GODS bouncing around the story and everyone has to maneuver around what these gods are doing. You have an assassin who is far more powerful than she should be capable of being and this ties into the intervention of one of the god-like beings mentioned before. You have what amounts to a deputized civilian running around trying to accomplish something that no one actually thinks is possible with no guide but the aforementioned PTSD-maddened pony. You have a conflict about the value of two individual lives in direct competition. You have roiling intrigues peppering the very guard that's entrusted with the well-being of Equestria's monarchs such that the captain of that guard has little to no idea who he can truly trust. You have two competing visions of security coming to literal blows. And these are just the big broad themes!
And yet, you're managing this many themes and big ideas, each and every one of them capable of being a story itself, and you're shoehorning in another theme that you plan to weave throughout the story in subtle and overt ways while keeping going with all the other stuff? My point is, hun, this monstrous volume of themes and ideas totally washes out the story itself if you try too hard to keep readers' attention focused on all your ideas and themes.
The above said, the themes I would go with overall are sacrifice, duty, loyalty, and balance. These are already the themes of your story, as I see it, so what I would do in your shoes is focus tightly on my mega-themes and my crushing amount of big ideas, and toss the "freedom vs. prophesy" background conflict in the rubbish bin.
And me without a proper blushing emotionicon. Oh well, have a smiley version: O^_^O
I wish I had commentators on my own work who put as much work into their commentary as I put into mine. I'd have much more awesome work if I had more people like me.
I will only say this about 'fate' and 'individualistic prophecy'... such things are usually created by entities of evil to delude followers into bringing those things to fruition.
An either benevolent entity or even an impartial one only gives prophecy as a warning for something that can be changed. Such was the message of the book of Jonah, after all.
Basing all ones' decisions on a vision of the future as the one and only outcome is foolish madness. In such a mindset, YOU lock yourself on that unalterable course, not by invariability and inevitability of events, but by self-deluded obsession.
Frankly, I despise this sort of all-knowing portence. It's something that always ends up destroying a story. I've never seen it borne out well. If fate in unavoidable, then there is no point to prophecy, as the events will happen regardless of foreknowledge. Fate completely deletes the relevance of anyone's actions, rendering all characters meaningless. They may as well be machines operating by a pre-set program with no variables.
That letter has already made fate a reality in this universe, and thus the universe is now boring. It has set a precedent by having so many circumstances align in unreasonable perfection. Frankly, as a casual Super God observer, I am more inclined than ever to simply wipe this universe out of existence, if for no other reason than to completely troll Fate. But there is a problem. This pony who has seen the future, who believes in fate, IS TRYING TO CHANGE IT!!! If he can change what he has seen in the future THEN FATE DOES NOT EXIST!!! And thus, he will have destroyed his own argument! The two sides are irreconsilably contradictory! If fate rules all then why is he trying to change what should not be possible to change? And if not, then why does he decide Luna must die if there are clearly alternate paths to take? The only logical answer I see is that a great evil is pushing events in the background, and has been for some time. It is the one setting the stage for everything, driving the choices of many through a hold on their minds toward a future of desolation and death, more than likely for the sole purpose of seeing everything destroyed. But in that case, it introduces a OP god-mode level character who is simply beyond the bounds of what I will tolerate in a story.
In my opinion, 'fate' is one of the worst plot devices as it always ends up either one-dimensionally predictable, or falls to pieces from plot holes and self-contradictions. The few cases in which it's worked are those where the 'fate' was nothing but the delusional philosophy of a power-drunk madman or god who used immense energies to direct the courses of events to his will (such as in the TV anime series "Visions of Escaflowne" and Isaac Newton's Fate Alteration Engine"), which of course runs counter to fate in that a single being was actually diverting causality for its own ends rather than the fate being 'natural'. And that was the point of those stories: fate only exists for those who refuse to deviate from a stubborn mindset. It is self-fulfilling only for those who make it so. The mere act of refusal is more than enough to change everything.
I'll go back to what I've said from the start: releasing Discord is the best bet for everypony. He is the one thing, by virtue of his powers, that Fate CANNOT control. If it does, then he is not chaos in any way, shape, or form and would therefore not be Discord. Chaos CANNOT be predicted. His existence is a Master Override, a cheat code for the universe, and his release would easily alter the course of events.
1980843
As I did for DualThrone, I'll make two observations that you may or may not be missing.
The first is that in canon, in the very first episode of the show, a prophecy was given to the audience, and then utterly broken by Twilight & Co. ("...and she shall bring about nighttime eternal.") I don't even really need to state that prophecies can be broken. Instead, the idea of the emphasis on their unbreakability is that such a change is brutally rare, costly, and/or difficult, to the point that even Celestia seems not to acknowledge such a chance.
The second is that our nameless villain is acting on a prophecy in the from of an 'if-then' statement. "If Luna lives until the war, then Nightmare Moon will rise and take over and yadda yadda..." While the prophecy is 'guaranteed' to be true, it could be rendered 'vacuously true' (that is, killing Luna would render the issue null and void). This sort of a 'potential statement' which is nevertheless always true is something of a fundamental concept in prophecy. If prophecies were always just 'this will happen, period', then you're absolutely right: there's no reason anyone (ponies or otherwise) would bother to look into the future, and further, our antagonist would be totally insane.
For a really, really in-depth means of reaching those two points, you're free to read the comments below that I exchanged with DualThrone on basically the exact same topic.
-Loyal Liar
1980881 The prophecy of Nightmare Moon was designed in a way that ponies could have no influence upon it. It was essentially a countdown to the pre-set release by a star formation, the key to lunar her prison.
Note, however, it never said that she would be turned back to Luna, it never spoke of the Elements of Harmony. It merely stated a single predetermined event outside the sphere of influence of any pony.
This is quite different than a prophecy that deals with the actions of thousands of living beings influencing the personality and decisions of Princess Luna. Saying that such a thing is unchangeable fate is ludicrous to anyone who can reason. And if he knows this war is the trigger, why has he not done anything to, you know, STOP THE WAR? Instead, his actions are clearly among the factors CAUSING the war! HE is the one driving the prophecy forward! All of his agents have had their hooves deep in the conspiracies of those creatures plotting in the shadows. Had he instead turned his attention to rooting them out and killing them (a far easier prospect than killing a divine creature, I might add), the war might never happen.
Intead, he clearly has allowed a personal hatred of Luna to drive his actions, and has thus narrowed his vision to the only two outcomes HE has decided are possible.
Prophecy is always a many-edged sword. Putting too much stock into it can be the primary reason it comes to pass. Such was the message Dumbledore gave to Harry about the dangers of paying too much heed to prophecy, if you'll recall. The prophecy concerning Voldemort and Harry only came true BECAUSE VOLDEMORT ACTED UPON IT!! Hence, the choice was his all along. As it was Harry's to follow through with his end. (I found that part of the "Deathly Hallows" particularly clever.)
1987864
Well, to be fair, that prophecies phrasing *implied* that the Elements would fail, in the line:
"...and she will bring about everlasting night."
Obviously, that didn't happen, unless one allows 'everlasting' to mean "for a day or so."
However, that being said, your points are pretty much entirely valid. It might very well have been wiser to try and prevent the war. However, this character has stated (or at least strongly insinuated) that they believe the war to be totally unstoppable, and that killing Luna is the only thing that even can be changed. I do not promise in any way that said statement is the truth of the matter; only that it is the way the matter is being perceived by said character. If I wanted to make a terrible horse pun outside the context of the story, I could make a comment about 'blinders' here, but it's too late at night for me to come up with anything good.
Anyway, thanks for the input.
-Loyal