Illiad Easle is called upon to restore balance to the world.
Illiad Easle is not exactly a normal pony, he is slightly taller than most, and he's one of the few unicorns in all of the Trojan Empire. Despite the empire's unfortunate history with unicorns, he manages to lead a pretty quiet life as a successful artist. But his normal life is about to end, the world's balance is tipping to critical points and he is one of the only few who can save it.
On the tags, Most of this story is upbeat, but there are sad parts to it.
(Excerpt from Beings of Equestria) Empathic, (em-path-ick): A sub-race of unicorn that is physically alike to unicorns. The only difference is that Empathics have the ability to sense emotion in other ponies from a distance and are also able to follow the emotional trail of anypony they have become familiar with. Contrary to the popular belief, Empathics are relatively harmless. Common behavioral traits include an aversion to large groups or parties, though they usually prefer company to solitude. One common misconception about Empathics is that they can read minds, however, Empathics can only sense emotion. Some Empathics, as described below, can sense complex emotions and are then able to guess what somepony might be thinking. There are some ponies that can read minds however, see Telepathic. Empathics are divided into two groups, Introverted, and Extroverted. introverted Empathics can spread their emotions to nearby ponies, while extroverted Empathics can draw energy from nearby ponies. Because of this, changelings are sometimes refereed to as an extreme form of extroverted empathic. Empathics are now very rare, though were not originally, between 950 and 1000 ANM (After Nightmare Moon), the total number of documented Empathics in Equestria dropped from over 1000 to just over 20. Many of these have been attributed to the mass migrations of 998 ANM. Within the two groups of Empathics, individuals are distinguished by their level of ability. This is determined by the kind of emotions they can sense and how far their range extends. Most Empathics are level five. level 6 and above have been rumored to have a secret Empathic code based on faint emotional bursts that, supposedly, can be senced up to 1000 meters away.
Level 1: Can sense primary emotions, such as happy, sad, and mad. Has a range of 5 meters. Level 2: Can sense primary emotions. has a range of 10 meters. Level 3: Can sense secondary emotions, such as furious, depressed, and excited. has a range of 20 meters. Level 4: Can sense secondary emotions. Has a range of 25 meters. Level 5: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 50 meters. Level 6: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 100 meters. Level 7: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 200 meters. Level 8: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 250 meters. Level 9: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 500 meters. Level 10: Can sense any emotion. Has a range of 1000 meters.
There is only one weakness unique to Empathics. If too much emotion* is within their sensing range their horn will begin to glow extremely brightly, giving off sparks and sometimes smoke. If the emotional levels do not drop to sustainable levels soon, the Empathic’s horn will crack, causing a shockwave of emotional energy. The Empathic instantly becomes insane and any ponies in the immediate area will become emotionally distressed for between a few hours to 2 months, depending on their previous emotional standing. The shock wave may cause insanity in other ponies if the Empathic’s level is greater than 6.
*Too Much differs between Empathics, but is often more for higher levels and tends to rise or fall over time depending on the general atmosphere of the Empathic.
I'm falling. Ok, why? Hundreds of glass-like shards fall around me, did I fall out a window? I look around. I recognize the nearby architecture as Canterlot, but the nearby buildings aren't familiar to me. My face turns to the sky and I see a unicorn falling along side me and a pinkish pegasus diving toward us. I know she can't save both of us, and I feel her pain as she realizes this too. I feel the terror of the other unicorn, cold and dark. I turn back towards the ground, the shards, like diamonds, sparkle in the light. I feel the emotions of the unicorn begin to move upward and her momentary relief mixed with the sorrow of the pegasus. As the ground approaches I feel peace inside, my eyes close and I relax.
'THUD!'
"Ow!" This street is much colder than it looked. I'm ok, nothing feels broken. I open my eyes, 'The road is made of wood?' As I look around I begin to recognize my surroundings. I am back in my bedroom in Troy, it was all a dream!
I look toward the mirror at the other end of the room, and two blue eyes look back at me. By the light of the full moon I see that my khaki coat is matted with sweat and my brown mane is in its usual poofy mess. I lift myself off of the floor and discover that i'm not the only thing missing from my bed. My blanket is wrapped around me but my pillow has decided to play hide & seek. My searching is quickly interrupted by most unusual feeling, it stands out distinctly from the usual feels of the ponies on my block. Judging by it's location I would hope it's a pegasus, the unusual thing is that it feels like two pegasi, just in the same exact spot, like a split personality of sorts. I can tell it isn't Trojan, it's too... Equestrian. Having assessed the anomaly I resume the hunt for my pillow.
I feel Odys, the local mail pony, flying his route through my block. Which reminds me, I have a package for him to deliver. I trot over to my closet and look over at the corner of my room where I keep my laundry pile, unfortunately there is only one toga in it, which means it's monnight, and therefore meetings, hours and hours of ponies arguing into early morning. I look into my closet and put on a plain white toga. Since the meetings don't start until 4am I still have most of the night to paint. I walk over to the stairs and find my pillow on the way down. I float it over to my bed as I continue down the stairs. I float the paintings destined for market out of the back room and into a large box. I stamp my seal on the box and put it by the door, which to my surprise is immediately knocked on by the mysterious pegasus. At this range I can tell that she is searching for something. I open the door to find a light gray pegasus with an Equestrian mail cap and saddle bags. Her eyes don't really line up, I can't tell if she's looking at me or the letter she's holding in her hoof, both maybe? She feels, and looks, tired. She obviously isn't used to the nocturnal nature of Troy.
"Hi," she says, enthusiastically despite her sleeplessness, "I'm looking for Illiad Easle, do you know where he is?"
"That's me actually,"
"Really?", she tilts her head, at this angle her eyes seem to line up, "Well in that case, I've brought you a letter!" She hands me the letter in her hoof. It has the seal of the Canterlot Archives on it.
"Thanks, uh..."
"Ditzy Doo,"
"What?"
"That's my name, Ditzy Doo."
"Ok then, thanks Ditzy."
"You're welcome!" She turns and flies away just as Odys lands on my porch.
"Hey Illiad, who was that?"
"A pegasus from Canterlot, I think, she felt ... odd, somehow."
"Really? Anyway, I've got some mail for you."
"The usual kind?"
"Yeah," as he digs through his bag, "Fan Mail, requests, ooh look! There's a bill for you too!"
"yay, I always wanted one of those."
"You're just lucky I guess, here's your mail." He reaches into his bag and gives me a stack of letters bound by a piece of string. "Well, I best be off,” he says,a he turns to leave, ”See you tomorrow Illiad!"
"Bye!" I wave as he flies into the night. I take my letters inside, all but the one that Ditzy gave me and the bill are either fan mail or requests. less than half of them have racist comments, which is better than last week. I sort the letters, then look at the one from the archives. Illiad Easle,
Your request for a foreign access visa to the Canterlot archives has been granted. Enclosed is an ID card that will allow you access to the archives between the hours of 9am and 7pm for the duration of one month from the day you arrive at the archives. We hope you enjoy your research.
-The Archives Staff
P.S. I don't know why you even bothered to send a research request, the keys you got when you worked here still work. In case you lost them I put a new set in this letter, they will allow you to study whenever and wherever you want. You should also note that the ID enclosed has curator level clearance, which will allow you to access every section of the archives. Try to visit me if you can, I'd love to hear about your new life in Troy.
-Dewey, Head Custodian
I have no idea why I even requested a foreign research visa, I even have my old keys on my keychain. I pin the letter to my bulletin board and look back at the requests, there aren't very many, so I guess I could take a vacation to my old home town. I block off my calendar from Wednesnight, no, Wednesday to next... Monday. That's 6 days in Canterlot and a day and a half to figure out what I wanted to research.
I turn back to the requests and stay looking through them. Some are a bit complicated, while others are quite simple. A few of them even have some extra bits in an attempt to improve their standing, it works. I got 50 bits already and I haven't even lifted a brush. I take the one that had the most bits in it and examine it closer. It calls for three squares, evenly rotated in a circle with a radius of twenty art plotting units, It's a little big, but not too hard overall. I complete the painting within an hour and set it aside to dry as I start the next one.
When I finally check the time seven requests later it is already 3am. I trot upstairs and change into my fancy meeting toga, pearl white with a scarlet sash fastened by a bronze button stamped with my cutie mark, an artist's compass crossed by a ruler and a paintbrush. I head downstairs and start towards the sector 5 meeting house, it's warm and bright under the moon tonight.
I suppose that, by now, many of you readers will have questions regarding the nocturnal aspect of Troy, the togas, the apparent racism towards unicorns, and why I'm so awesome. This chapter will answer at least two of these.
It all started with the founding of Troy. Early in the reign of the sister princesses, Troy was founded in the desert south of the rest of Equestria, the closest cities were two hours by train until Appaloosa was founded. As these cities were in a desert most of the buildings were built out of sandstone and glass, The builders were inspired by the architectural style of Cloudsdale so the cities were sometimes referred to as sandstonesdales. Troy was the first city, named after it's founder Trojan Horse. It soon became a great trade center, attracting artisans and tradesponies from all over Equestria. It soon rivaled Canterlot for it's immense wealth and population. Four other desert cities were founded soon after Troy's success to house incoming ponies. These cities became the first districts of Troy, each with their own section in the grand Trojan Market. But behind the grandeur a secret guild of unicorns took control the local government, exploiting the artisans' talents for their own gain and not allowing the pegasi or earth ponies to leave, causing a state of imbalance and disharmony. The royal sisters took no action, and the local governments denied all charges of oppression and silenced those who would tell the princesses the truth. The unicorns that didn't agree with the guild's actions fled the districts, smuggling out the oppressed whenever possible. Soon the imbalance and disharmony became a state of rebellion among the remaining artisans, they planned an overthrow of the unicorn government and warned the remaining sympathetic unicorns to leave as soon as they could. One the plans were laid they waited for an opportunity to strike. Nightmare Moon gave them this opportunit. Darkness covered the land, and the rebellion began. The unicorns were ousted from power and forcibly removed from the districts before the sun rose again. As soon as a new embassy was formed, it and the new leader of the Trojan districts went to explain to the royal sisters what had happened.
Not only did Celestia not believe their report of what happened, but she had banished Luna for her actions. The embassy returned to Troy immediately and a three day conference was held. At the conclusion, a vote was held, and the districts of Troy declared their independence from Equestria and were thereafter the Trojan Empire. Celestia, upon hearing of their declaration did what she does best, censorship. All traces of the Troy and its districts were removed from Equestrian history and literature. Then she cut off all trade between the two nations. Despite her actions the Trojan Empire survived, worshipping the banished princess through a nocturnal lifestyle and continuing to sell its goods, though at a higher price, on the Equestrian black market. The memories of the evil unicorn guild caused distrust of unicorns and new Empire would not allow citizenship to unicorns for the next nine hundred years. This lack of magic in the empire combined with the discovery of iron and coal in the desert led to an industrial revolution, making the Trojan Empire the most advanced of the three nations. One of their greatest inventions is the Trojan Express, an extremely fast train that can get from Troy to Canterlot in one hour instead of six to eight.
Within the last hundred years, Celestia started a vicious ad campaign spreading lies about the evil of Empathics like me. In response, Troy decided that they would offer a safe place for Empathics to be free from the oppression of Celestia. They built a sixth district and used the Trojan express to transport Empathics out of Equestria, visiting a different city each night. Due to the evil of the prior unicorns, many Trojans were wary of the new arrivals. Though many still are, they are more used to our presence and the racism had dropped dramatically. In fact Empathics are able to live in whichever district they choose and are even allowed to hold a public office.
I was lucky enough to catch one of the last trains from Canterlot to Troy nearly two years ago. I arrived in district five the day before Nightmare Moon's return and almost got settled before the countdown to her return began. They had kept careful track of the prophecy of her return and their time of return was only off by 5 seconds. The excitement in the district was so great that I had to have an emotional shield to keep from passing out and even then I had the worst hornache of my life.
Though this answers the nocturnal question and the racism one, it doesn't answer for the togas. From what I was able to gather upon my arrival, togas were popular in the town that cloudsdale was initially based on, and I think they're pretty cool.
