The Sorrow and the Temptation

by Hustlin Tom

Chapter 6

Twenty years had passed since the Princess of the Night had stumbled across the coven of bat ponies she would later take into her and her sister’s home. So much had happened in those twenty years. Acaeus and the others had gone the way of all mortals, and they were buried in the Everfree Castle crypt. The nobles had protested greatly, as they feared that at any time the Coven would rise again to curse the corpses of their ancestors with spells of undying thralldom, but they were ignored by Princess Luna. Only Orpheus and two of his Covenmates, Aequitas and Agathe, remained of that Antrozi Coven line.

Orpheus had gone on to pursue a position in the Royal Guard. Where others were apprehensive, Storm-Eye, the Captain of the Guard, was pragmatic. Upon first meeting the bat pony, he glared at him. This was Storm-Eye’s way of knowing whether a stallion had a good spine or not, and it was the reason for his name. Orpheus stood his ground, showing neither fear or anxiety, for he had none.

“Can yeh fight?” Storm-Eye gruffly asked the young stallion as he began to circle him.

“When necessary, sir,” Orpheus replied.

“Can yeh learn?” the Captain of the Guard continued.

“Whatever you’d like, sir.”

Storm-Eye stopped in front of Antrozi recruit and stared into his yellow slitted pupils, “Are. You. Loyal?” He prodded Orpheus in the chest with his front hoof with each word.

“Resolutely, sir.”

Storm-Eye grunted and turned away from the bat pony, “Yeh start with the second nightwatch, just afteh midnight.” It was not a pronouncement Storm-Eye regretted one bit; Orpheus had become a cunning military strategist in later years, rising to become Storm-Eye’s lieutenant. Aequitas, Orpheus’ younger brother, became a practitioner of Equestrian law in the hopes that one day he could argue for equality of rights for his herd and other herds in Equestria. Agathe would later be married to an Antrozi of another clan, Malkus, and she would become a mother of three.

As word had spread of Princess Luna’s benevolence to the Antrozi herd, many Antrozi came to Everfree Castle to seek further sanctuary from oppression by other ponies. This drove the populace near the brink of madness out of fear and suspicion.

“It’s a conspiracy to take over the government! The Princesses have fallen to Antrozi witchcraft,” some of the citizens whispered.

“We can’t keep our children safe anymore. They are monsters! They don’t deserve audience with Everfree Castle or any other civilized pony towns. We must drive them out,” others muttered.

There was one lord in particular who held the beliefs of his fellow pony deeply to his heart, and that was Lord Adamant. Lord Adamant was a handsome stallion among the handsome, his voice was as thick and sweet as honey, and he was a direct descent of the Diamond Dynasty, which offered him some of the greatest prestige of unicorn kind. “Our races, Unicorn, Pegasi, and earthern ponies, must band against this social menace which has plagued our fair country. I and several others are willing to provide land to create a separate nation on which the Antrozi herd can live off of in peace, away from our assembly.” Some took this offer, and did in fact start their own nation on the lands provided. The Antrozi who accepted the deal, however, were not allowed to grow the fruits that were staple to their diet, and in time the micro-nation of Antroz was on the verge of starvation. None of this would reach the ears of the Royal Sisters until years after the rise of the Nightmare. The failure of the independent Antrozi nation was blamed on an ‘unorganized bureaucratic misplacement of resources and information’.

Petitioners came and went from the Royal Court by the hundreds, each one with a message just as similar as the last, “Make the vam-ponies leave now.” Behind closed doors in the castle the Princesses argued back and forth on the matter for hours at a time, and each time it would follow the same pattern.

“I told you this would happen, and in a couple years this might have even been possible, but you had to step on the Lords' and Ladies' hooves, and now with each passing day the Antrozi are in greater danger,” Princess Celestia said.

Princess Luna would reply, “The nobles should have respected their rights as fellow ponies to simply live and be free. If they cannot do that, then they should respect us instead.”

“You cannot force the nobles to simply accept our will.”

“Yes, I can!” The azure alicorn would go on, “Your problem, dear sister, is that you are too soft. Your actions lack conviction and thus even in spite of all your power, you are utterly inept in ruling this country.”

“You have no idea how to run this country, Princess Luna! Balancing what is required to lead, accepting the noble’s troubles and desires, while also maintaining the general happiness of the populace takes delicacy! Delicacy which you most certainly lack!”

“I don’t need delicacy! If I had my way, I would blast that useless group of nobles from the face of the earth and be done with it! There is no need for those self-righteous pigs! They were royalty for all of a week before they made us their sovereigns, and they have been thorns in our sides for the past near four hundred years!”

Princess Celestia spluttered, “You must be joking! Wipe out the nobility? They’re the backbone of the unicorn nation.”

“Then it is time for a new backbone to take its place, one of strong iron rather than a degenerate aristocracy’s slime!”

“I will not allow such a thing!” Princess Celestia roared.

“I don’t care what you allow me to do or not; I am a Princess as well, and I can do as I please, such as bringing balance to pony rights rather than balance the despicable noble’s demands!”

A guard entered the room where the Princesses were having their verbal battle, “Your Majesties?”

“WHAT,” both of them bellowed in the Royal voice of Declaration.

“A gathering has formed outside of the Castle walls. It appears to be a riot.”

“What’s causing it,” Princess Celestia asked in frustration.

“A group of bat ponies appears to be the source, Ma’am. It was loud, but when I left there was no harm to them, but that could have changed.”

“Show them to me,” Princess Luna commanded the guard pony, and she began walking out the door.

“Princess Luna, I strongly advise not to do this,” Princess Celestia intoned.

Princess Luna turned to her sister, and with acid in voice said, “Your advice be damned to Tartarus. Somepony is out there who needs me, and I will not fail them like you have.” She then turned to the awaiting guard and curtly grunted, “Move!” and they left behind the aggravated Princess of the Sun.

Comments

[Hustlin Tom]

1899026

I personally never saw WIcked, but my sister loved it and I picked up some of the basic plot from her. It is rather ominous how the plots parallel

It does seem like the natural thing storywise that Luna and Orpheus would fall in love, but I wanted to avoid 'Luna x OC romantic shipping'. I'd say that the two of them are very good friends, and that they are close, but not romantically involved with each other.

[PrincessoftheNight]

1899146 So much going on here, I have to use bullet points:

1. So it is based on Wicked.

2. The word "parallel" doesn't even begin to describe it lol. Check out "Defying Gravity", the awesomest song in the show and a near-perfect song for chapter 4:

3. So no Fiyero then? Well, they're well and truly shipped in my mind at least.

4. He's still going to die, right?

5. You should watch Wicked, it is my favorite musical ever and I love it more than life itself and almost as much as MLP and btw, my handle on ff.net is keylimelphie.

6. I've been wanting to make a Luna Defying Gravity PMV for some time now but never really found the time. You gave me the inspiration I need to get going! It should be up in a few days and I'll make sure to credit you for inspiration.

7. I would love you forever if you named one of the Antrozi Doctor Dillamond or Chistery. See if anypony else gets the reference. ;D

8. I'm making a Wicked group soon. Wanna join?

9. Awesome fic starring one of my favorite characters. Liked and favorited. Keep up the good work.

[Hustlin Tom]

1900898

1. I didn't consciously try to homage Wicked in my story, but now that I've taken a look a summary of the extended plot it is extremely eerie how they so easily relate to each other. I'd call this a very happy coincidence!

2. Thank you for sharing this video! The musical piece was spectacular.

3. I'm afraid there's no Fiyero here. You could try down the street maybe!

4.

5. I'll see what I can do about watching Wicked. I haven't actually decided whether or not I'm going to make the jump to fanfiction.net, but at least I'll know one person there!

6. I hope that you can do it! I'd absolutely love to see it when its finished.

7. I'm afraid I actually just finished the major content of the story yesterday, and now its just down to some minor editing. The story will be filled out to fifteen chapters ( so you know how many to look for ), and there is a pony with a name that references to a certain famous dark romantic Virginian's work.

8. Once I've seen the musical, I'll see about joining.

9. I'm so glad that you're enjoying my writing so far! I'm afraid, though, that things are going to be turning much more tragic very soon for our Princess in another castle.