Interlude: Own the World
"THOU SHALT TASTE MINE JUSTICE!"
Burning Sun's entire body blazed, fire and flame shooting off of her and licking the clouds above her head. She ignored them. just as she ignored all other matters of insignificance. The charred, grass under her hooves, for example, or the sluggish river a hundred feet to her right, or the cowering ponies in the town directly in front of her.
"As if." Nightmare Moon stood atop the city gates, a thick black cloud streaming forth from her mane and floating high into the sky. "Want to try again? I almost felt that one."
"IF THOU REJECT MINE MERCY... THEN THOU MUST DIE," thundered Burning Sun. She still could not believe the impudence and treason of her sister. The nation was hers by right; she could lead it best and she was eldest anyway; that her sister wouldn't back down... that her sister had even turned to dark, forbidden magics to resist her... was depravity of unimaginable proportions. She needed to be punished, and the harsher, the better.
The gates of the town opened up, two dozen commoners marching out. Their eyes were completely black, and their steps were far too even for a ragged mob of civilians -- some of Nightmare Moon's brainwashed zombies, then. Burning Sun sneered. Did her sister really think that throwing a few petty poinies in front of her would accomplish anything? "PATHETIC!"
"We'll see," hissed Nightmare Moon. "Attack!"
The ponies charged at Burning Sun, who calmly raised a wall of fire to intercept them. The ponies would march into it -- their just desserts for being so weak as to wind up as the corrupt servitors of her depraved sibling -- and that would be the end of that tactic. But every spell her sister cast further weakened her; Burning Sun had more magical strength than any rival and she knew it. She just had to wear her sister down--
"Stop!"
No ponies had charged into Burning Sun's fire, and she frowned and lowered the flames a little so she could see what was going on beyond the wall. The ponies were standing there, eyes suddenly much clearer, and covered by a faint, shaking -- but still doggedly present -- glow. Burning Sun's eyes narrowed. That damn golem...
"Run!" yelled Cadance, materializing from a nearby copse of trees. Nightmare Moon lashed out at the civilians with tendrils of black magic, but Cadance's shield intercepted and blocked them, though it shuddered several times in doing so. This seemed to jar the ponies out of their stupor and they took off at a dead run, scurrying over the nearest hill and vanishing from sight.
"No matter," drawled Nightmare Moon. "Plenty more where those came from."
Burning Sun frowned as she looked at the golem. Her coat was torn, her legs were bloodied, her face showed total exhaustion -- but still she came forward, constantly spoiling the attacks of her and her sister alike. That wasn't right or proper. In fact, it was -- in its own way -- a treason akin to her sister's. A glorified mover of planetary bodies! How dare she interfere like this? "FOR THE LAST TIME, GOLEM, I ORDER THEE TO STAND ASIDE!"
"No!" Cadance's voice was weak, but she managed to keep it steady. "I won't let you hurt my ponies!"
"If you help me--" began Nightmare Moon, hopping off the gate and approaching her sister.
"I won't let either of you hurt them!" Cadance's voice became pleading. "Can't you make peace? Give up this feud, I beg you." She lowered her head. "You both say you want to help the common pony. Can't you see how much damage you're doing?"
"Regrettable necessity," said Nightmare Moon. "My sister is a tyrant, insane beyond control. She must be defeated--"
"DEPRAVED TREASONOUS WRETCH!" roared Burning Sun. "THOU DESCRIBEST THINESELF!"
"If you must fight -- at least fight somewhere else!" begged Cadance. "Go to some deserted steppe, or desolate island or some other place away from innocents you could hurt!"
"Oh, I'd love to," said Nightmare Moon. "But the moment I did, my sister would take over the country and burn all that opposed her. I dare not leave for a moment."
"SHOULD I LEAVE," thundered the other mare, "MINE SISTER WOULD CORRUPT THE NATION IN HOURS! I SHALT NOT LEAVE WITHOUT HER HEAD!"
Cadance bowed her head low and said nothing.
"Now, golem," said Nightmare Moon. "I appreciate a good challenge as much as the next mare, but really, you're just getting... annoying at this point. If you keep interfering, you have to know what will happen."
"I know," said Cadance.
"Now, nopony's saying you didn't try hard," continued the Tyrant of the Night. "Truly a remarkable job of helping the common pony. When you stopped that star from smashing into Trottingham, it was truly a heroic act." She grinned in mockery. "I think we all agree you've given it your best shot. You can stop now. If you don't..." She shrugged. "Eventually, one of us is going to unmake you."
"I know," repeated Cadance. "And I don't care." When she raised her head again, her eyes blazed. "I will fight to the death if need be to rescue even the smallest pony of my country from your insanity."
"Your country?" repeated Nightmare Moon, the words a barely controlled laugh. "You're a golem! No more alive than a lever or gear. This isn't your country. It is mine!"
"NO!" roared Burning Sun, her flames stretching even higher and breaking up the clouds. "IT IS MINE!"
The three alicorns, Cadance standing directly between the other two, stared at each other for a moment. And then, her voice heavy and low but firm as steel, Cadance began to sing:
"Your hearts are screaming emptiness.
Magic fills the air.
Could leave me lying on the floor
Could leave me dying here."
Nightmare Moon laughed, soaring high into the air and flipping over the golem. "So you've grown a bit in the last thousand years, I see. You can even sing now." She chuckled. "Well, I know a few verses too. Sister! Your end is NIGH!" And she launched a wave of pure emptiness at the Burning Sun.
The white-coated alicorn just barely managed to dodge, the emptiness striking the ground and simply wiping it out of existence to a depth of thirty feet. Meanwhile, Nightmare Moon sang:
"I creep through hills and trenches
I stand behind each door
Your blood & sweat & water
Sinks into the crashing shore."
She cackled and stretched out one leg in mockery.
"Take... my... hoof -- it's my world!
See... the... proof -- I'll make it real!" Waves of black emptiness and dark energy swept out from her in all direction. Burning Sun's flames blocked them from touching her; Cadance's fading magic diverted them from the town; the rest eliminated boulders, trees, grass, and earth in an eyeblink.
"Come... with... me -- in my world!
ALL... OF... THIS -- is MY WORLD!"
Burning Sun's flames reached higher, forming into tendrils. One wrapped around Nightmare Moon's leg and dragged her down with an awkward squawk; she slammed into the ground hard enough to rend it asunder and bury her feet deep. The Sun laughed, a long and mad sound.
"Sun fire rising higher!
It breaks across all lines!
Thoust debt to pay and thou payst all day --
Because that fire's mine!"
The flames flared up, and then stopped, bent back, and seemed to fold into her body... which began to grow. Cadance could only watch as the tyrant swelled in size, her skin and coat rippling as the fire contracted inside it, until the alicorn was at least thirty feet tall. She extended a hoof the size of a redwood, planting it over the lip of the hole her sister was climbing out of.
"Take... my... hoof -- it's my world!
See... the... proof -- I'll make it real!" She casually tossed a single flick of fire from her mane; it hit the ground, exploded, and raised up dirt in a fifty-foot spout.
"Come... with... me -- in my world!
ALL... OF... THIS -- is MY WORLD!"
Cadance backed up. She felt terrified. She had tried to rule the nation well; she thought she had done a good job; but she simply didn't have anywhere near enough power to deal with her creators. Even the very sky itself had been rent asunder; no stars remained, with some having been consumed by the sun (which had grown and now seemed to fill the entire western horizon) and others thrown to earth by Nightmare Moon. Above Cadance was just a cold, imperious moon, a ravenous sun, and empty void. Nothing else.
The golem had to force herself not to collapse in despair. There wasn't much more she could do to protect her charges, and there was nothing whatsoever she could do if the two stopped fighting each other and attacked her. She would be unmade -- it was as simple as that. She needed to run. And hide.
She sang, softly:
"The course is moving closer.
I can taste the end here now...
I feel the heavens shaking
With alicorns dropping down!"
As Nightmare Moon teleported out of the hole and the two alicorns began again to launch powerful attacks at each other once again, Cadance heard a faint sound. Turning, she realized with horror that one of Nightmare Moon's conscripted ponies hadn't run away from battle with the rest. She was a young filly, maybe college age, and one of her forelegs had slipped into a gopher's hole and broken; her companions had apparently been unable to free her. She was kneeling, crying in pain and fear. She didn't seem to notice Cadance.
The alicorn stopped, the sight of one of her subjects in need reminding her of why she was engaged in such a hopeless fight. With a little bit of magic, she eased the leg out of the hole; with another, she dulled the pain. "Can you walk?"
The mare turned to her, sniffling and shaking her head. "It's broken..." She realized who she was talking to. "Princess?? Run! They'll kill you!"
"Not without you," said Cadance, working out her next move. "You're my subject. I won't let monsters hurt you."
"But..."
Cadance shook her head and reached out a hoof to help the injured mare get onto her back.
"Take... my... hoof... it's our world.
"See... the... proof... and make it real." She smiled softly.
"Learn... love... live... in our world.
"All... of... this... is our world."
She eased the pony onto her back. "The monarch lives for her subjects. As long as I have any strength left, I won't let the tyrants hurt anypony that I can save. Come on -- I'm going to get you over this hill and back to your friends."
***
Burning Sun was readying another blast when a beam of light crashed to the ground in front of her.
For a moment, she stared blankly. One of my magic alarms... left over from a millenium prior? But where? Who? The only one I set that my sister did not unmake was the one in the old castle, but why would anypony go there? By that point, everything had been moved out of the castle, and the only thing any of us might have brought was--
She froze. "The Elements!"
"What, those old trinkets? I doubt you can use them, sister," called Nightmare Moon.
Burning Sun ignored her sister. The Elements were, after all, far more of a threat, and it was entirely possible that the golem had simply left them in the old castle after using them against the alicorn sisters. If somepony was trying to seize them, that might pose a real threat to her imminent reign. They had to be secured.
With a blast, she buried her sister under the earth. With a mighty flap of her wings, she soared into the air and began to fly towards the ancient castle at top speed. She was an alicorn and nigh-omnipotent; it would take mere minutes to reach the Elements and kill whoever was trying to steal them. Then she could set a trap, eliminate her sister and the golem, and rule. Equestria would have its proper monarch at last.
"Idiot!" hissed Nightmare Moon, digging herself out from her impromptu tomb. "I'll grab them first, tear you limb from limb, and rule." With a flash she was in the air, pursuing her sister.
Behind them, Princess Cadance -- having just returned from bringing the injured mare to her friends in the hills -- flapped a few times to get into the air, but she felt unusually heavy. She realized that she was at her limits, and though she struggled, she found herself collapsing to the ground.
My makers... she thought, just before she fell unconscious from exhaustion. Please... please, let there be something to stop you from hurting anypony else...
It felt like too much effort to even stay awake anymore, and her eyes slipped shut.
The two tyrants were already miles away.
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This was a very nice interlude. Wish you had done this a couple more times throughout the piece. Very nice work.
Oops, forgot to link the song. Link is up now, for anyone who read the chapter and is wondering what happened.
An original song? Cool
2694437: Nope, sorry. :-) Forgot the link. It's up now.
Wow, Cadence is just so nice, It makes me wonder if she is going to survive the pilot, at least whole and in her current form.
The only problem I have is that she's to pure and good, how do you rule a kingdom for a millennia and worry about each individual subject without going mad? Maybe we're just seeing her at her best but I'd have though she'd have had to take a longer view or have some sort of blind spot, but then I'm not a goddess of Love.
Um, I, um, that is, I-I just a have a quick correction if that's okay. Maybe you could delete the t, that is, if you don't mind.
Ou, a Dark Wave-song!
That was unexpected.
May I ask what music you usually listen to?
I´m just curious...
2694679: I don't think it's so much that she worries about each individual subject, as that, when she sees this one particular subject about to get curbstomped by evil demigods, she stops to help. She doesn't fight this hard over things like tax law. But this is an extreme and unusual circumstance.
2694703: Fixed, thanks!
2694704: I listen to all kinds of music. Right now I'm on a stage musical kick; I have multiple productions of 'Chess', 'Jesus Christ Superstar', and a few others. I also have a huge classical collection. But I try to listen to fairly diverse works on a regular basis.
2694723
Ah, Jesus Christ is one of my favourite musicals as well, I hope neither Octavia or Cadence have to go through Gethsemane, although I think Nightmare Moon might do a version of Herod's Song, she's sarky enough.
2694763: Fun fact: back when we were still planning on having some stuff with Fisher in Lunaverse S2, I had been hoping to give him King Herod's song (with him as Herod, and Trixie in the silent Jesus role). He doesn't think Trixie has what it takes to be a Bearer/fight Corona, after all, so I loved the idea of him having a scathing, mocking song when he keeps challenging her to do all this stuff she can't (or won't) do and she just basically ignores him.
"I only ask what I must know of all mares of your station.
Forget the frills, have you the skills to protect this nation?
I am WAITING! I'm just dying over here!
The nation has to know that you are not just any mare!
So... if you're the key, Trixie, to Harmony
Prove to me you're number one: step right outside and raise the sun!
Oh, has something gone wrong? Why do you take so long?
Come on, Dear Lulamoon!
As for Gethsemane... I love the song, but I'm not quite sure where to put it. It needs a character who thinks they're being condemned to death, preferably by someone who's far away and out of reach/unavailable to provide further detail. But I'll keep thinking. It'd be a shame to let it go to waste. :-)
(Although, my favorite JCS song is probably The Temple. While I do care a lot for King Herod's Song, particularly the Angry Anderson metal version of it they did in the Austraila 1992 version, The Temple really works well. Maybe I just like music in 7/4 time. That could explain why I also like the middle section of 'The Arrest.' "Tell me Christ how you feel tonight/Do you plan to put up a fight?...")
2694773
So you are the elements, the great elements of Harmony
Prove to me that you're so cool; blast me with rainbows so colourful.
That's all you need do, then I'll know it's all true.
Come on, elements of Harmony
Well Octavia going out to fight not one but TWO, god like beings while Cadence lies exhausted half a continent away maybe only able to give a few telepathic words of advice only able to tell her that her friends will help her when Octavia knows she's no good at making friends seems a very Gethsemane thing. A final crisis of confidence if she can actually be a good pony and not make it all about her. However, I do think it would fit L-verse Trixie better she's rather more emotionally fragile on the inside and seems to look up to Luna more than Octavia does to Cadence.
2694835: For the parallel to work, though, Octy would need to think that Cadance had somehow planned everything, up to the point of Octavia going to fight a possibly futile battle and very possibly get killed. It doesn't work as well if Octavia doesn't think any of it was Cadance's fault (and she has no reason to think that Cadance knew the tyrants were coming, or would sacrifice her like this had she known), since then it doesn't make as much sense for her to be ranting to Cadance about the unfairness of it all. "Tell me your reason for you wanting me to die" doesn't work as well when she knows that Cadance doesn't really want her to die.
I do think it would work better for Lunaverse Trixie at some point, though, for the reasons you mention.
2694868
Point, and Luna is a bit more puppet / chess master like than Cadence seems to be, Trixie might actually think that Luna might sacrifice her for the greater good in that way. Or maybe Ditzy, what might she sacrifice for Dinky to grow up in a world without Corona, she has self esteem issues.
Now I really want to put on one of my JC soundtracks, the emotional range is just great, the anger of The temple (Get up, get out) and Last Supper / Argument (You want me to do it!), the fear and exhaustion of Gethsemane (Tried for three years, seemed like ninety), the cracked madness of Damned for all time (My mind is in darkness now), poor old Judas.
2694949: I like listening to some of the lesser-known, smaller productions that got studio releases. There's a... tropical, I guess, overtone to some of the songs (notably, The Temple/The Lepers) in the Austrailian and New Zealand productions, and as I mentioned above, I like the metal version of King Herod's Song in the Aussy one. The recent Arena Tour production (with Tim Minchin as Judas!) is also really cool. It's got a nice, modern vibe to it that I think really works. Alice Cooper as King Herod in that one special edition production is also pretty epic. He plays Herod as pretty much unflappable, sarcastic, never really expecting Jesus to do any miracles and dismissing him with a casual, "You're gonna have to do better than that, son." It's an interesting way to take the character.
Granted, there are some flops. The 2000 movie struck out pretty much on every level (no one can sing, although special note has to be made of whoever they got to play Pilate and Herod as being completely and utterly inept), there were weird directorial choices ("Do we have a Roman uniform for Pilate?" "Nah, but we have a quasi-Nazi one." "That'll do!") and it just seemed ill thought out. But most of the performances I've heard are good.
Plus, at least it's not like Chess, which was rewritten six or seven times before they settled on a final version. Granted, I love the various versions of Chess, but you need a scorecard to keep the characters straight between the versions.
Nightmare Moon is singing! If anything could have made me like the first episode of Friendship is Magic more, it would have been that. We get a very good look at the tyrants' motivations here, and Cadance's determination to keep her little ponies safe no matter what. She fell trying to protect them, and now it's up to Octavia and her friends. Could she ask as much from any other mare?
I feel thoroughly outdone in the song department. The only musical number I've ever written was a filk of "What Good Will Wishing Do?", from the My Little Pony movie. I'm going to have to find a place for one in the Broverse, even though none of my Elements can carry a tune in a wagon.
2697142: Exactly what I was going for with Vinyl's magic! Thanks! :-) I think, though, that Vinyl isn't really a fan of running away. That's hardly 'epic,' in her eyes.
I do like the idea that Vinyl is actually quite sharp underneath that electric blue mop. Way I see it is, she's in a relatively new genre of music (electronic) in Equestria, to the point where she pretty much needs to invent all her own equipment and music spells.Hence her own magical talents being strongest in the area of craft (which is why she can dispell a golem, after a few tries) and musical performance. She also needs to break into the (absurdly competitive) music scene and outmaneuver other ponies who want to be number one, just like her... hence her developing pretty strong strategic abilities. She can't just figure out how the golem works in one go like Trixie could, and Twilight probably knows a 'how to defeat a golem' spell because she knows approximately twelve million spells, but she can still handle her own.
2697193: I was very happy to be able to put in a song for the alicorns. And yep, I do wish we'd gotten some music from NMM in the show. Glad you like it, and good luck using music in the Broverse!
2697291 And here I was thinking that Vinyl had the strategic skills because she was a gamer.
Some of her strategies (and Lyra's commentary) read a lot like what happens when you have a D&D party composed entirely of bards. (It can be done - it's not a great party, but not a terrible one.)
But yes, she is pretty close to the forefront of a new field of music and technology, so it makes sense that her magic gets a more thorough workout than Lyra's, especially since this Lyra is much closer to the slacker artist archetype that L!Trixie thinks L!Lyra is.
Apparently somepony is making their singing debut in Season 4, implied to be somepony who's already in the show. I think the smart money is on Luna at the moment.
I may throw in a minor variation of "BBBFF" - it turns out that "Me and Twily" scans just as nicely as "My big brother". I do actually have a major musical number planned, adapted from one of the songs on the show, but it's for the second story in the series, which won't be for a while, and it would be a massive spoiler to talk about it.
2697468: Lyra's magic more closely matches with traditional D&D bard stuff; she can play songs to boost members of her party or weaken enemies. She did this with the kraken, playing two songs at once (one to strengthen the spike-lifting team, and one to lull the kraken to sleep so it wouldn't feel the pain), and also here (while possessed, she uses a song on Tavi to try to weaken her).
In terms of party members... hmm. Lyra I see as a bard, Fluttershy as a cleric or druid (since she's the group healer and all, and I'd like to explore her ability to communicate with animals as having some useful practical applications), Medley as a barbarian (in that she's got a gazillion hit points and fights well {I'd like to build more later on what Emeral said earlier, that she can sort of see the 'rhythm' of the 'medley' of combat, move within it, and wear her opponents out with her greater stamina}), Octavia as a ranger (decent in a fight, but her ears and her general ability to pay attention make her very useful as a scout), and Vinyl as a mage. And Bluenote as the rogue, not in the 'steals stuff' sense but more in the 'unusual skills, mostly useful outside of combat but still invaluable team member' sense.
I hope the singing debut is Octavia. I still want that Tavi/Rarity duet!
Oh, Cadance. You are made of win and awesome... but that's not enough against the Mad Alicorns.
Wow, NMM and BS are really nuts, they really need help. So BS got the beacon for the Elements, let's hope that the 2 mad alicorns can be defeated and returned to sanity...
4138605 Burning Sun's abbreviation... heeheeheehee...
Ok, show of hands...who wants Britt Mklip, Nicole Oliver, and Kasumi Evans singing this song? Or at least we get some of the fan voice actors who can sing and sing this thing, becaus I don't think I do this chapter the justice it deserves. It is too well written and too wll done.