Heeding the Call

Heeding the Call

Chapter 2: Everypony Knows But Doesn't Understand

        Three knocks ring out around the front of the library. Normally I would burst into the room shouting gossip and news. Spike was evidently quite surprised when he opened the door and found the dark coated mare that is me. I say evidently because he was stunned into silence in the middle of his hello. Before he could catch himself and say anything, Twilight called from within.

        "Spike! Who is it?" I could hear small clops as Twilight came to the door.

        "Pinkie Pie. I think." Spike had only seen me like this for a few moments before digging into a pile of gems I had given him. He hadn't really paid all that much attention to my change of mood at the time. Quite frankly I don't know what I expected from him when I had made the offer of gems for a phrase that made me depressed.

        "What do you mean you think Spike, either its Pinkie or its not... Unless there's two of her agi-" By then she had reached the door and pulled it open enough to see me. The sight of me made her stop everything she thought for a quick reboot. Out of nowhere she reached out and grabbed me into a hug. And they call me the random one.

"Pinkie Pie, what's wrong. Do you think someone isn't your friend anymore? Maybe we can talk to them, see if its a misunderstanding again. Or if not, we can work out whatever it is." she said stroking my back trying to comfort me.

"Twilight, stop" I pushed from her grasp "I'm fine. I just need to talk to you for a few minutes.”

"We have some spare punch from the party yesterday" He offered. I had made enough punch that everyone involved had to take some home.

"I'm sorry Spike but I don't feel like having punch. Would it be a bother to have some tea? Bengal Spice if you have any." This earned a confused and even more worried look from Spike but he headed to the kitchen.

"Now then. Pinkie, why do you look so sad?" Twilight asked from the couch. I sat down with her and looked down.

"First of all I need you to Pinkie Promise me you won't tell anypony until I say so. We're going tell everypony else in a while but I wanted to talk to you first." My voice was solemn. She knew how much I held the Pinkie promises dear. Everyone assumes it is a regular promise made with meaningless words. In truth it is a Children spell. My own personal one. I keep a list in my head of every single Pinkie Promise made. In a way, they form strings. Once that string is broken, I find out. Promising upon a Child is taking a sworn oath. The Children take sworn oaths very serious, even when our nature is silly.

Frowning at this she did the motions and droned "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye" forgetting to close her eye at the end. She rubbed her now sore eye. "I hope you're happy"

I giggled a little "yes thank you" filing the string among the many others.

I thought for a moment staring at the wooden floor of the library. There were so many things to go over. I had plenty of time but no where to start.

"Twilight, how much do you know of the All Mother?" I asked as my hooves twiddled about on the soft cushion of the couch.

This made Twilight ponder for a bit. She has a massive ability to store information but such memory has a drawback. The more she learns the more she must sift through. The more it is brought up the easier it is to recall.

"That's an odd question Pinkie. I know just about as much as anyone. Its a religion that covers the entirety of the world and no one knows why. Ponies don't really celebrate her or praise her but we all know of her at the very least." She turns to me questioning without a word if I would mind the lecture of what she knows. I motion for her to continue.

"We have almost no information written on the base subject of the All Mother. There are slight deviants to the religion that have various changes to the overall story but none have gotten larger than a few hundred members." I can at least tell that the ponies do not know the full story.

"The majority of the world's population knows of her because some of the information is given to us from birth. We have no knowledge where it came from. Some scholars of the religion believe that it is given from her." She brought her mini lecture to an end as Spike came into the room to serve our tea.

"Thank you Spike" I said before taking a sip. "Mm delicious. Twilight would it be okay for Spike to go to Rarity's for a couple hours and bring her and the others here in a little while?"

At this Spike's eyes shot wide and turned to Twilight "Can I pleeeeease?"

"Alright, tell her to come here in an hour. I'm sure having everyone here will help Pinkie cheer up." At this Spike shot out the door.

I shook my head at this and took another sip. After a couple seconds I sighed "Do you know anything about her Children?" I asked turning to Twilight

"Children? I would assume that everything is her child as her name entails." She turns to me, bewilderment adorning her face.

I raise a hoof to stifle a giggle. "While yes that is correct, everything that exists are her children, that is not what I refer to. Her Children with a capital C are more like her agents. They serve her directly and govern certain sections of life for ponies both emotional and physical. Love, Light, Comfort, Joy" I reflect on my sisters. They do not know that I had arrived a few years ago yet we still had dealings.

I continued before Twilight could think much on what I had said. "She must also keep a balance, not all of her Children ponies consider good. Deception, Chaos and Anger are also Her Children. This does not make her evil, but neutral. Being neutral does not make her uncaring, but care for both sides."

"How do you know all this? No book I have read has mentioned these children in the slightest. I am certain none of the religions deviations have any mention either." Twilight was starting to panic from this apparent large knowledge gap.

"Calm down Twilight, drink some tea. They are not known to be Her children because that is not their goal. They are to govern their jurisdiction. All of them that I have mentioned you are familiar with. Children are on occasion sent to the world to more directly interact with their charge. Some are more permanent fixtures." I paused for a moment to let her soak this all in.

"I assume you can guess them already. Celestia is the Child of Light. She controls the sun and thus governs the most major source of light in the world. Luna is the Child of Comfort. She walks among the ponies dreams to make sure the world sleeps well. Cadence is Her most recent Child. The Child of Love. There was love in the world before her existence but before that the All Mother had been the decider of love. As the world's population grew, the job became larger and needed its own Child to govern it."

"Normally when a Child is sent to the world, their power is reduced. Celestia in her natural form could turn the world to a volcanic wasteland for example. That would not be her goal and would not be able to the moment she decided too, because her power would be taken away, but she could theoretically. When she came to the world she was only given the power to control the sun and still have enough power to protect her ponies from most things that could endanger the world." I looked over at Twilight for a moment. At this point she was in a form of catatonic state. I had seen her like this before. When she reads books she shuts off almost every other function so that she can focus everything on whatever it is that she is learning.

Confident she was still paying attention I continued. "Now because the All Mother is looking to strike a balance she has to allow the other side more power. There are more followers of Celestia and thus her side has strength in numbers. Children such as Discord, The Child of Chaos, are allowed a larger portion of their power when they come to the world. Celestia is no match for him without some form of aid, yet they are equals when immaterial."

"The Child of Anger, Sombra, can spread his crystals with his power and then leech of the natural magic of the world through them. Chysalis is the last Child you are familiar with, The Child of Deception. Her power allows her to transform and turn ponies she saps her love from into her loyal minions, the changelings." Finished with my lecture I let Twilight soak all of this in.

Slowly but surely she became more lively. When she was again able to think coherent thoughts she asked. "That still doesn't answer how you know all of this. Not only that but you said that I had met all of them before. You left ou-" Her own thoughts interrupted her. It took her a little while, but she was able to put all of the pieces together.

"I am the Child of Joy, Twilight" I said before taking another sip from my tea.