The Die of Fate

“Then firstly, I need to teach you how to use that horn of yours.”

I startled. Images perpetrated my mind as my corrupted mind jumped at the subtle double entendre. Celestia lifted a questioning brow my way at my sudden reaction.

I coughed as my cheeks heated. The Innuendo seemed to have flown past Celestia, or it might simply be because what I saw as one was actually not.

“Sorry, I, um… How exactly?” I asked after my initial shock at the one sided innuendo. Certain things I shouldn’t have read… It was an interesting thought though. Was it simply a human perversion, or did ponies actually use the horn for more than just magic… That was going to be an awkward thing to find out, but damn I was curious.

“I do not know,” Celestia stated bluntly. “I have never taught a grown pony how to access her magic. Unicorn foals learn how to perform magic as it manifests within them from a young age. The skill simply is a fundamental part of a unicorn. There has never been a need to teach anypony how to access their magic.”

“Ah,” I eloquently summed up my feelings. I had never thought of that before. And really, how were you supposed to know how to? There obviously was more than just thinking involved, otherwise I would have definitely figured it out by now.

“So…” I swallowed to clear my throat, “what should I do?”

Celestia stared into my eyes and her horn lit up in a blue shimmering aura. Taken a bit back by the intense stare I shifted uncomfortably. After a moment Celestia frowned.

“You do not feel anything?” She asked, uncertain.

I thought for a second before I shook my head, equally uncertain. Not really sure what she meant, but I guessed it had something to do with whatever spell she was channelling. Something she must have been sure I would pick up on, or feel.

“Nothing, you sure?”

“Um… yes,” I nodded.

She extinguished her magic, a frown set onto her face. My magic was the obvious ‘what’ that she was trying to make me feel. Though it worried me, what she did obviously was meant to work, it probably did too. I just did not feel what she meant for me to feel.

Was my horn just for show? Was I only in the shape of an Alicorn, lacking the magic that made them so formidable and unique? I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the feathers of my wings brush against my sides. Without magic I would not even be able to fly!

“I do not understand you!”

I was snapped away from my internal thoughts at the scathing accusing tone in her voice. She had slammed her hooves down on the table and rose from her seat as if to launch herself at me, but stopped. Her weight pressed hard into the wood. Her golden shod hooves sunk deeply into the wood and with a thunderous crack splintered the table.

Ice shot through me, gripping it in fear as I flinched away from the glare she levelled against me. My ears flat against my head and ringing at the sudden assault to them.

The doors all around the room slammed open at once, dozens of armoured guards launching themselves inside, an attempt that was stopped before they even so much as took a step. Each door was engulfed in writhing cold blue flames and slammed shut with enough force to crack their frames. A cacophony of yelps and slamming metal from nearly a dozen ponies sounded as the thick oaken doors stopped them dead in mid stride. In a terrifying display of power the very stone making up the walls around the many doors into the room warped like clay and fused at the ends. The very air thrummed and distorted in an amalgam of wreathing waves of shimmering blue.

The fur on my body stood on end as the very air felt charged to the brim with static energy, a hairs breadth away from discharging.

Mutedly I could hear the muted thumps as the ponies outside tried to ram their way back inside.

The anger she had directed at me was a pittance to the snarl she was now displaying, the fact that her form was being so distorted by the magic in the air made it all the more terrifying. Her horn, no her entire body was aflame with her own magic, tinting her golden accessories pale and her multi-coloured mane and tail contorted violently. Her chest heaving.

As her attention finally returned to me, her sharp eyes soften a bit and, I would say almost sheepishly, she stepped off the remains of what had been a untarnished and expensive table. The Varnish cracked and almost boiling as it shifted with the ‘winds’ of magic that flowed through the room.

As suddenly as he magic had shown itself it vanished. The high concentration of magic power dissipating like smoke in the wind which seemed to seep out through the windows, the once smooth glass was now warped and misshapen; more than one pane had fallen out of its socket and shattered on the floor.

The silence was deafening.

I had not even realized how loudly much the magic had drowned out the ambient sounds. Distant shouts sounded through the rock and plaster that now blocked the doors.

With barely a whisper Celestia spoke.

“Ever since you have come, everything has fallen apart. My image is being torn apart, day by day. I have not gotten an hour to myself. My very guards,” she gestured absently towards one of the sealed doors, “do not trust my judgement anymore.

“Every gossip has only me and you on their tongues. My trusted servants have suddenly turned into matrons, guiding, manipulative, trying to interpose their beliefs upon me.

“All because of you and a poorly worded sentence of an old fool.”

She clenched her jaw. Chewing on her next set of words, studying me like she had ever since we first met.

“Worst of all, is no matter how much you look like a pony, what I want to believe, you throw wrenches into my plans. You look so much like us, you act so much like us that the very moment you prove, again, and again that you are not…”

She stopped speaking again, cutting herself off.

“You do not know how much doubt you have put on me.”

Stunned into silence and far from recovered from her sudden magical outburst, I processed her words. Her finishing words threw me into a loop. My thoughts immediately jumped to Twilight. I never thought that me revealing that she would actually succeed at what Celestia was hoping she would be able to do, would actually make Celestia doubt. I had turned what I hoped to be assurance into uncertainty.

I finally understood just what my presence had done, to her most of all. I thought I had at most stirred up some commotion, not put her millennial plan in the making in jeopardy. Distracting her from her quiet and routine life, from educating Twilight, from ruling the nation… No wonder why the mares in the bath was so sure in their beliefs. She had been distracted, out of synch from her usual self, and ponies knew it was mostly because of me, and jumped to conclusions. Conclusions I could not blame them for, ‘cause for most did not know the full picture. And because of how Celestia must have behaved, most likely without realizing, have given the rumours just that extra evidence it needed to spread out of control.

She simply had drawn the final and shortest straw of her patience and calm, letting her frustration out in one big, literal, explosion whose wake had destroyed the ancient dining hall. Not even the paintings had survived unscathed.

The power of an Alicorn was terrifying, I was glad it had not been directed at me.

“I… am sorry.” I managed to say after a prolonged silence.

The heaviness in the air lifted. Celestia smiled, seeing the gesture for what it was.

“And who gave you permission for planting your farm here?” Blueblood scowled as he stared at the young stallion farmer. A Pegasus of all things too! It boggled his mind, who told this featherbrain to take up farming of all things wasn’t too bright, that was for sure… Or drunk out of her mind, as she clearly failed to spot his wings.

But his problem was not with his race, but with the unlawful farm that he had erected under his cloud home. It happened to be his, not even by one of his landowners either but actually his personal land! Now he had no problem leasing out parts of it at times but that required ponies to actually come to him first.

“I don’t see a problem, there’s no one for miles around. I’m not intruding on any ones property now am I?”

The stallion hefted his body forward, wings unfurling slightly, making his already large frame larger. If anything Vladimir had to admit farm life had been good for him.

“Are you aware that the land you so… eloquently put it, is a national wildlife park, reserved for wildlife only.” That it was so only because he had not found any better use for it, went unsaid. After all it was out in the middle of nowhere. No earthpony in their right mind would move out here, were the winter laid so thick and cold that it would freeze even the wendigoes, and ground so acidic that nothing but wild shrubbery really took to it.

“All land is owned by the crown, which I will have you know I am personally responsible for, as every Blueblood before me has, and all landowners, or in your case potential land owners has to get permission from said owner of land. Not only have you chosen to settle without permission, you have not filed tax nor submitted any farmers tithe for the Royal Reserves. One would have you fined quite the substantial sum,” He sneered down at the now visibly cowed stallion, “A sum I do not think you could pay even if we took possession of everything you owned, now both failures would lead to five years of forced civil service, possession of all land, crop, and property, and then a long term fine that would see to it you never forget just what happens to those who do not give their dues.”

He felt incredibly irritated to have to travel all across Equestria, just to berate this young idiot, older than him without doubt, he himself was barely old enough to be taken seriously at his job while the Pagasus in front of him was well into his twenties. But not knowing the law was never a good excuse. And the far worse was that the stallion was probably only going to be put under a national loan and be mildly forced to pay back a years’ worth of taxes. His aunt was far too lenient in these matters. The farmer would just get listed as an official landowner, and have the land evaluated.

He eyed the frozen mire, a whole acre of land the stallion had cleared and fenced, and by his bank statement it had already yielded profit, meagre profit but after two years of working the ground it was a damn good accomplishment, especially considering they were thirty miles north of Vanhoover. Maybe a Pagasus was just what was needed to farm in this inhospitable place. It was clear to his eyes that his race’s magic had come in handy keeping the sky clear that the snow cover was a bare pittance compared to the surrounding countryside.

He scolded the Stallion a bit more, more to satiate his own frustration at being forced all the way out there into the cold, freezing landscape.

Blueblood returned to his team of Pegasus guards, still hitched to his chariot, with promises to send a team of inspectors at first chance he got. And they took off without ado.

Ever since his father died he had carried on the Blueblood business. Ever since the first Blueblood they had held the sole responsibility to manage Equestria’s land. A daunting task that he abhorred, even if he held an awful pride in it. Very few stallions, even ponies in general, could not have taken up his duties at the tender age of fourteen and been successful at it too. He was proud to have been able to keep and manage the Blueblood name.

He muttered quiet complaints the whole way back to Vanhoover. Burrowing his snout into his second scarf to shield himself from the freezing winds. As soon as he could he leapt off the chariot, cursing loudly this time as his hooves splashed icy snow slush up his coat, he quickly bounded into his hotel.

His mood firmly fouled he shook off his scarf and flicked it at a standing valet and shook his hooves clean, paying little mind that the cold dirty slush sprayed over the valet. His yelping protests firmly ignored.

His head held high and firmly set onto his goal, the hotel’s restaurant lounge, he trotted off. A casual flick at the grand clock above the receptions desk told him it was well past two o’clock. Mere minutes before the sun would set. Not only was Vanhoover especially cold this season, but the sun set way too early for his liking, leaving the place depressingly dark. He did not understand how anypony could stand living here. It was a dreary place, the days were quiet and the nights even more so; there was nothing Vanhoover could offer that Canterlot, even Baltimare had more to offer on the entertainment side than this town.

Sitting down he waved down a waitress to serve him some pear juice, the regions speciality, pears that is. Whatever he had to say about Earthpony clans then it was where they went the economy flourished, at least if they were of a decent sort. Most clans had long since fallen apart or become but shadows of their former selves as time passed by.

He snorted derisively. What use was a reputation if you did not use it properly? Wasted effort, something Earthponies was good at, not every Earthpony of course, he knew more than a hoofful of quite upstanding citizens, even a few aristocrats on level even with his name, unusual an occurrence as it was.

“Here you go, sir,” the young mare waitress, earthpony, rose colours, not too bad on the eye, no beauty but attractive nonetheless. She put the cold beverage on his table with a smile, “One glass of pear juice and here is todays newspaper!”

Vladimir arched an eyebrow at the proffered paper. Wondering silently as to why she offered it, but he shrugged. Must be local custom, all sorts of archaic traditions lived on all over Equestria, and being well travelled he wasn’t too unaccustomed to it, but newspaper was a new one for him… or perhaps, he thought, it was because of his age. Maybe he looked old enough to appreciate them now or something along those lines?

He took the folded paper with his magic and unfolded it, making an appearance that he had expected it. The servant went away and he relaxed and took a sip of his juice. That is until his eyes slid over the headline:

Turmoil At The Royal Palace!

Followed by a picture of what he knew at a glance to be the dining room. Slowly he set his glass down. At least it had been the dining room, what he saw was barely recognizable as the whole room was destroyed, warped into disfigured shapes, even the windowsills, most of the glass was gone and what was left would barely been see-through.

What in great aunt’s name…

Stunned he leafed to the articles page and read:

Late afternoon yesterday in an unforeseen incident Princess Celestia reportedly attacked her guards when they came investigating a weird sound from her private dining room. As one anonymous guard told us:

“We’d been posted outside to guard the doors in extra numbers this evening, told to be extra careful from the captain himself. And after a while we heard something from inside and we went inside, I saw her for but a glimpse, for that was all the time we had. I saw Celestia herself her hooves on the table, and red in the face before she slammed the door in our faces.”

As can be seen in the picture to the right she did more than shut the doors. We have sources that claim that she was not alone in that room, as she was in the company of…

Stunned Blueblood lowered the article. It went on to reiterate and speculate around the damned rumour Spin Talk of all ponies had spread, rumours that would take on a whole new life now. He knew it that the mare was behind this article as well, as he could feel the tabloid style of opportunistic sensationalism oose from the very first sentence. Heck the way the guard had been quoted could be…

His eyes widened as he realized just what the article insinuated! But he had made sure the very first day hadn’t he? But then again, the palace was large, with a lot of spare rooms…

No, no! He could not afford to entertain this, the implications were terrible, frightening even, and more than a little disturbing to him.

He had to speak to Celestia, if anypony she would be able to explain all this. This was a disaster, what would ponies say now, to him?

With his thoughts occupied he ignored curious faces as he ate a quick dinner before retiring to his suite. It took him a long into the night before he found sleep.