Effigy of Anarchy

It was quite fortunate that the University of Canterlot was an adjunct wing to the palace itself. Long considered the font of modern learning, the great Princess Celestia had, so the legends went, founded the first University to better study the stars eons ago. Presumably it wasn’t the one in Canterlot, though, as the city was fairly modern compared to some of Equestria’s more ancient settlements.

Having recalled the full extent of what her History classes had managed to teach her, Chase put the pieces into place, attempting to keep herself alert in the face of the fatigue she was fighting.

Messerschmitt, or perhaps Roger Martinside, had been a professor, that much was probably true. He had been researching that knife they had just seen, and found something which apparently every other pony had overlooked. When he used it, he could… do something. It didn’t even require him to be in the same room, but he could do it. At first it had seemed as though he could bend another pony to his will, but now he was unleashing bizarre monsters in an attempt to stop them. Monsters which…
“He can’t control them!” Chase burst out.

Silent merely continued trotting ahead. As they had made their way towards the connection to the palace, few, if any, of the students passing them even noticed her outburst.

“Yes, and?” Silent asked quietly.

“The creatures! He can’t fully control them! Oh it makes sense now,” Chase said proudly.

“Just figuring that out, are you?” Silent said, though not with any sarcasm. Somehow the monotone bit all the harder.

“But that explains why he had those guys waiting to ambush us when we - “

“Yes, I know. What I want to know is why,” Silent replied flatly.

“Well I thought I was pretty clever,” Chase muttered to herself.

“Now listen to me, Chase,” Silent said, pulling her off to one side as they approached the adjunct which would lead them into the palace proper. “This is important. If you find him first, do not engage him. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“Find him first?” Chase repeated. Then, it dawned on her. “Hey! No splitting up!”

“We have two targets right now. Messerschmitt, and Princess Celestia,” Silent said.

Chase’s eyes widened. “You don’t think she - “

“We have to assume as much. You know what to do if that’s the case, but try to be discreet. She’s got enough magic to shame a thousand unicorns, and that’s not to mention what the Royal Guard will do if she orders them to.”

“And if I find Messerschmitt first?”

Silent hesitated for a moment. “Don’t engage him, not by yourself.”

Chase nodded as they passed the doors leading outside. The palace loomed large above them now, glistening white in the winter sun.

The entrance hall to the palace was every bit as beautiful on the outside as it had been on the outside, as long as one kept their gaze high. Great stained glass windows ran up inside the grand hall on every wall, casting reds, greens, and golds down on the muddied floor as hundreds of ponies ran to and fro carrying all sorts of equipment, tools, and construction materials.

There was quite a din as the ponies went about, all shouting instructions and questions back in forth in a cacophony of chaos. Talking to Silent would be impossible, but a quick bump and a point, and Chase managed to convey her message anyway. There was a front desk beyond the many ponies, where a harried receptionist was doing her best to be the loudest of the loud.

“All construction materials head to the south wing except the paints! No! South wings, that way!” she shouted, though at whom, it was difficult to say. Chase and Silent approached the desk and waited for the clerk to notice them.

“May I help you?” the clerk shouted at Chase’s face from close range, invading her personal space just to get a point across.

“Yeah, we’re looking for somepony,” Chase shouted back.

“Good luck!” the clerk said sarcastically, making it fairly clear that she’d be no more likely to be able to help them than a random search would.

“Maybe you’ve seen him?” Chase asked.

“Nope! I’m seriously crazy busy here. If you’re making a delivery or something, sign the guest book!”

The clerk looked alarmed and abruptly dashed off, shouting at some workponies hauling what looked like bags of charcoals. Presumably, they were going the wrong direction.

“What the hay is going on?” Chase asked to Silent as she finagled a pencil and wrote her name on the open guestbook’s page. She noticed there were hundreds of signatures still outstanding today.

“Hearth’s Warming Eve is next week,” Silent shouted back, “Probably something big for the banquet and the play.”

Silent had turned to leave and pursue her quarry when Chase grabbed her and pulled her back. Intrigued, Silent watched patiently as Cloudchaser flipped backwards through the guestbook, passing hundreds of signatures of the many ponies who were in the palace at the moment.

With another flip, Chase reached the point where the workponies had stopped signing in, that being six a.m. that morning. She smirked to herself as she traced backwards to see the previous night’s visitors.

“Gotcha,” she said with a smile.

She pointed, and Silent followed to see Messerschmitt’s signature on the page. He had been there just before midnight the night previous, and he had also not signed out.

Silent met Chase’s gaze for the first time in recent memory, and an unspoken conversation passed between them. Chase, at first smiling, soon realized that this was it. Her smile began to fade as Silent turned and made her way through the throng of ponies towards the guest quarters on the far side of the palace.

“Wait!” she shouted. No sooner had the words left her lips than the crowd closed.

That was it. Silent was gone.

Even surrounded by a hundred ponies, she had never felt more alone.

The ebb and flow of ponies around the castle quickly began to subside as Chase left the more traveled corridors and made her way past the areas where the public was ostensibly to tread. Security was necessarily lax, considering the sheer volume of workers and servers running about, and Chase blended into the crowd easily.

Still, it wore upon her. A constant din of chatter surrounded her and tread upon her tired mind. It was all she could do to keep moving forward, aimlessly, for she had no inkling of where her target might be.

“Hey - hey have you seen - hello - anypony seen - Princess Celestia? Anypony?”

She may as well have been talking to a wall, for all the good it would do. Even when a pony would care to listen to her finish the question, the only answer she could get was a shrug or a vague wave in the direction of the rest of the palace. Perhaps nopony knew. Maybe she wasn’t even here.

The drudgery of wandering in the halls caused Chase to lose track of the time, and more than once she had an inkling she was walking in circles. A particular rose-painted wooden door looked unique enough from the others that she noted herself passing it - three times.

Frustration and fatigue united to press against her now, and she wearily pushed the door open if only to find a respite from the heated air and endless noise that had burrowed into her ear drums.

Within she found a muted library, or rather, a room that probably wasn’t a library but somepony had stocked full of books. Indeed, it looked more like a reading room owned by a tenant who had little need to return anything once it had been completed, instead opting to cast it onto the floor.

Said tenant was now sitting in the middle of the room at a table, likewise overflowing with books. She was a young thing, maybe a few years younger than Chase, and very intently focusing on the pages opened in front of her.

Chase held her breath. She hadn’t realized that this might be a private room, and quickly made to leave until it became quite apparent that the occupant had not noticed her. At all. She hadn’t even looked up.

Warily, Cloudchaser took a few steps into the room, treading lightly around the unstable piles of books. If there was any order to the madness, it could not be discerned by her right now, though she did note that many of the covers, if they had any pictures on them at all, favoured a full or crescent moon.

Chase had now reached the opposite side of the table the mare was reading at, and could see her closely. From a distance, she looked as any other purple pony her age, with a black mane featuring an interesting stripe in it. From up close, the small details were no longer to her favour. Her hair was unwashed and the edges of her eyes were red from fatigue.

Really, she looked no worse than Chase did right now. She still had not noticed her guest, though.

“Excuse me?” Chase offered.

She received no answer.

“I’m looking for somepony, and it’s a zoo outside.”

Nothing. This mare was perhaps an acquaintance of Silent’s.

“Have you seen the Princess anywhere?” Chased asked, trying to disguise the desperation in her voice.

As soon as the word ‘Princess’ left her lips, the mare’s head snapped upwards and focused on Chase with bewilderment.

“Who are you? What do you want?” the mare barked.

“Just, uh, do you know where Princess Celestia is? I have - “ Chase said, suddenly recalling that she had not come up with a cover story yet.

“You have? Something? A message?”

“Yes! A message!” Chase lied.

The mare pointed at the door. “Take that door, three doors down on your left. She’s reviewing correspondence in the banquet hall. Knock three times before you enter.”

Her eyes returned to the book and nothing Chase could do could rouse her attention again, not for lack of trying. Why did she have to knock three times? Was it a secret code? The mare wasn’t answering, and seemed to have forgotten she existed at all.

Cloudchaser still had one important question. Has the Princess been acting strangely at all lately? It didn’t seem to matter, as the book had absorbed all of the pony’s focus and Chase meekly acquiesced, quietly shutting the door behind her and returning to the cacophony of the workponies in the hallway.

The banquet hall entrance stood before her, Chase had made her way here with little difficulty. Yet, as she raised a hoof to knock, she suddenly froze. Perhaps she should locate Silent? Find some help? Do anything other than this?

It had become quite difficult indeed to knock on the door. This was her last chance to back away, and every possible reason to do so now flashed through her mind. She could always come back later, or at least wait a few minutes to let her brain rest. In fact, there was probably nothing wrong at all, and no need to investigate! She could just go home.

Each excuse was more pathetic than the last, and Chase silently berated herself. This was shameful conduct, there was no other way to describe it. Every second she delayed put Equestria in deeper danger, and here she was trying to tell herself that everything would be okay. She steeled herself for what was to come, and rapped on the door three times.

There was no response from beyond. She waited a few seconds, then knocked again three times. Once again, she received no response, and nudged the door open to see if there was anypony inside at all.

Before her lay the banquet hall, a room that was at least two stories high, perhaps higher, with a great glass skylight casting down upon a grand royal red carpet running the length of the room. Two long tables covered in a white cloth were flanked by rows of high windows, and between each window a tapestry hung from the ceiling to the floor. Abreast each tapestry stood one member of the Royal Guard, ten in total, five along each side. None of them even turned their heads to acknowledge her presence.

Chase gingerly entered the room, but a gust of wind slammed the door behind her with a great bang.

“Yes, may I help you?”

At the far end of the hall, on a raised section flanked by staircases along either side of the room, sat Princess Celestia, grand and ancient leader of Equestria, on a sitting pillow with a scroll floating in front of her face. She had not looked up from the scroll even as she spoke, and despite the great distance between them, her voice rang clear in the hallway.

Cloudchaser looked for someplace to hide, but the only spot of any significance would be beneath one of the tables. There was no food on them at this hour, merely many silver trays and utensils for the myriad guests that would soon be dining there. On one of the tables sat a grand bowl of punch with a ladle hanging idly on the side, but that was the extent of the food available.

“Uhhh,” Chase stammered.

Not coming up with a cover story was really starting to drag her down, she noted, but it was far too late to do anything about it.

Chase shook her head to knock the cobwebs out. Focus! she told herself, and immediately set to work.

Princess Celestia wore many gems at this moment, including her crown, shoes, and the great chestguard she always wore. This would be difficult, as the gem could be hidden anywhere, and attempting a search in public would be a bad move. Instead, Chase merely began slowly making her way towards the dais.

“Well, I was wondering - “ Chase said.

Celestia turned her eyes towards Chase for the first time, and then lowered the scroll before her. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were a messenger. If that’s not the case, do you have some business with me?”

Chase’s heart skipped a beat. Celestia’s eyes were focused and she was talking like an ordinary pony! Definitely a good sign.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Chase said, “I’m not too late!”

Celestia raised one eyebrow. “I should hope not, the banquet is not for a few hours.”

“Banquet? No, I mean, uh - “

“Not here for that either? Perhaps I should guess, if you’ve no interest in telling me.”

Suddenly a whole world had opened up before her. Why, Cloudchaser could just tell the Princess what that thug, Messerschmitt, was up to! She’d believe her, and have him arrested, and this would all blow over and she could finally go home.

“I’ve come with a warning!”

Celestia sat up. Chase had now covered half of the room, and the guardsponies hadn’t even reacted as she drew closer. Now she was walking on instinct, yet her eyes were still tracing over Celestia’s form, looking for something she might have missed.

“Go on,” Celestia said.

“There’s this guy, from Trottingham, and - “

“Oh, yes, Roger. The gentlecolt from last night, and what a tardy one he was. How disrespectful,” Celestia mused.

Chase slowed her pace for a half step.

“Yeah, him. He’s - “

“Silence!” Celestia snapped.

Cloudchaser froze. A chill ran up her spine, and her earlier confidence evaporated away.

“Do all the ponies around me think me so foolish that they can manipulate me? The lies are reason enough to discipline you, I can tell you’re hiding something and not very well, I might add,” Celestia said, snarling her lips in anger. Chase tried to contain her alarm, and failed.

“But this,” Celestia continued, “is sheer disrespect for a superior. You have not bowed once since you arrived, you’ve used low dialect with me, and now you bring up that amateur Messerschmitt as if you’re being coy? Do all ponies of your generation believe I am a charlatan, or is this a string of bad luck?”

“I - “

“Silence!” Celestia snapped again, “That question was rhetorical.”

Chase had seen the Princess once, when she was a filly. Her parents had taken her, along with Flitter, to the Summer Sun Festival being held in Fillydelphia one year. She had seen the Princess raise the sun, to the wonderment of all. Every bit of information she had picked up over the years about Celestia gave the impression of a kind, wise ruler.

Either all of that was garbage, or something was very wrong with this scene. Or both. None of the options were good.

As Chase felt a drop of sweat make its way down her brow, she noticed that it was extremely hot in the room right now. And why not, she thought, since the sun was directly overhead, shining down through the glass skylight right on top of her.

It quickly dawned on her that the sun should not be doing that during winter at this hour, and that running was probably the best move at this point.

“The sheer arrogance on display here is more than I can bear. Perhaps if I make an example out of you, the ponies of this country will show deference to their ruler, hm? I tried it with those miserable guardsponies you see around you, but I see it was no deterrent for this sort of degenerate behavior.”

Chase turned her head enough to see one of the guardsponies, still standing at attention beneath a tapestry not far from her. She hadn’t realized it until now, so focused was she on Celestia, that his face was twisted into agony. He was not breathing, blinking, or moving in any way at all. Another drop of sweat dripped from Cloudchaser’s head.

“Do you think you can manipulate me?” Celestia asked, and now Cloudchaser had truly no idea what she was on about. “Is that what you insolent whelps believe? I am a goddess, I will not be controlled by a lesser being for any reason, is that understood?”

Chase automatically nodded. The scowl on Celestia’s face only deepened, prompting Chase to take a step back.

“Listen, please - “ Chase begged.

“Silence!” Celestia shouted again. “You have trespassed enough. Meet your punishment with dignity, and I may yet spare you.”

It was now that Cloudchaser realized why it was so hot in the room, whatever role the sun may have played. Celestia’s anger had somehow translated into literal heat, as her whole body had begun to sweat.

That mattered little to her now, though, as Celestia’s idea of punishment began to manifest itself. Where before her mane and tail had been a flowing prism of teal and pink, a subtle change towards red and gold had begun. As Chase instinctively took another step back, the mane began to twist and billow until it had literally ignited, and a wreath of flame overtook Celestia’s body.

Her body had already begun to flee before her mind had caught up. The door wasn’t far, and she would be able to blend into the crowd to make her escape. The castle had a hundred corridors that could hide her until the chase had ended.

All those hopes were dashed as she approached the door and a great blast of flame erupted from it. Celestia had flung a ball of pure fire from her horn and the door was consumed in an instant in a cascade of orange flames reaching to the ceiling.

Chase whirled to see Celestia now descending from the pulpit, surrounded by a veil of living flame that grew higher with every second. She fought the urge to panic with every fiber of her being, and tried to think of something, anything, she could use to escape.

Chase bolted towards the punch bowl. It was stupid, but she had only one way out - through the glass windows on either side of the room. Smashing them down with her body would only cause her to bleed to death on the snow outside, but hurling something through them might give her a chance - that way Celestia would merely run her down and incinerate her as she flew away.

Still, it was worth a try. Maybe a miracle would happen.

As she dashed towards the punch bowl, another blast of flame struck just behind her, causing the carpet to ignite and melting the marble flooring beneath it.

“Stay still, accept your discipline!” Celestia roared.

Chase leaped the table in one bound and used it as a sort of cover as she closed the rest of the distance to the punch bowl. Yet another lash of flame struck behind her as she ran, flying high and hitting the wall tapestry. Still the guardsponies did not move, even as a sickening burning smell assailed Chase’s nostrils.

Finally at the punch bowl, Chase quickly found she could not lift it by herself. The liquid within made it too heavy, and as she strained to lift it, she could see Celestia bearing down upon her.

Chase had a stupid idea, just then.

She leaped into the air and beat her wings just enough to lift her over the table, then slammed down on the far side of the punch bowl. She quickly threw herself out of the way of the launched liquid, which flew as a great mass towards the Princess. No doubt that would snuff her fire!

A great wall of water vapour burst forth as the punch boiled away in an instant. Chase, now scarcely a tail-length from the Princess, looked up with dread to see that the only thing that had accomplished was to intensify her rage. She couldn’t be sure of it, but now fire seemed to emanate from the monarch’s eyes as well.

“I am the sun, mortal. You would not douse the sun with a hundred oceans, much less one bowl of sugar-water.”

She reared up to deliver another burst of flame, and Chase instinctively tried to block it with the only thing at hoof: the punch bowl, freshly emptied. Tongues of orange and red burst around the edges, searing her exposed ears. She quickly dropped the bowl as it heated up, only to have it shatter as the bottom had become molten glass. Still, it had saved her life for a few seconds more.

She scrambled along the slicked floor to stand and throw herself further away from the raging deity behind her. Surprisingly, Celestia did not strike again, and instead let her run for a few moments. She was now going the wrong way, towards the podium and not the doorway, but it didn’t matter. The whole room was now alight and even were it not for a murderous Princess, she didn’t have much chance of escape.

As she reached the stairway, a wall of flames burst from the floor ahead of her, blocking off the stairs. Celestia, now some distance behind her, laughed at the futility of her plight. It echoed all around the room and through Chase’s ears, deep into her mind. The ringing laugh of a bully, a pony with too much power who delighted in watching those around her suffer.

Now it was Chase’s turn to get angry. She could not hope to face down Celestia, but she could at least make sure she didn’t enjoy this. Chase flared her wings and blew three strong gusts at the blaze before her, cutting them down to size and allowing her to quickly leap over them. No sooner had she passed than the flames redoubled themselves, narrowly catching her tail and blackening it with the passage.

Chase now noticed she was covered with ash and probably minor burns. Her hooves stung with pain and her legs had been scorched badly at some point doing the skirmish. The adrenaline was keeping her from truly feeling the damage but she couldn’t take much more.

At that moment, that miracle she had been waiting for had arrived. There was a door at the far end of the room, behind where Celestia had been sitting, and it now opened to allow a brigade of fireponies in. Each was dressed in heavy, fireproof coats and each bore a segment of a hose to douse the flames.

It was not long before the miracle proved inadequate, for as Chase ran towards the door past the fireponies, Celestia demonstrated she would not give up the pursuit.

“Begone, peons!” Celestia bellowed, launched a burst of flame directly at the fireponies. They scattered and dropped the hose.

“Run! She’s gone mad!” Chase shouted as she made it to the doorway. The fireponies, perhaps not hearing her, attempted to reform and recover the hose, only to be driven back again by another volley.

Still, they provided a brief distraction and allowed Cloudchaser to slip out the door into the hall beyond. She could hear the fire alarm blaring now, and the hallways had emptied out. Chase wasn’t sure what to do now, so she just ran.

She picked a corner and turned it, then ran down the hall before turning again. Seconds later she could hear the horrifying sound of Celestia’s roars behind her, tracking her somehow.

“Peasant! Serf! You dare to flee from me? I guarantee you will suffer for this insult!”

Now Cloudchaser realized she was going away from the palace entrance, seeing the grand mountain that Canterlot stood in the shadow of looming before her. At first she wanted to change directions, perhaps lose Celestia in the twisting hallways, until she realized that, covered in soot, she was leaving a trail for her to follow.

Instead, she continued running, hoping that she was moving towards an evacuated area of the palace. At least, this way, no more innocents would get caught up in a firestorm. As for what she was going to do, a desperate plan was beginning to form. Whether or not it would work was anypony’s guess, but she had to try.

Chase barreled through the halls until she spotted her opening. A courtyard, one of the many in the palace, would be the place of her last stand. Hearing that the Princess was gaining on her, she threw the last of her strength into her legs to make it to the door with as many seconds to spare as possible. Throwing it aside, she ran a few steps forward and flared her wings.

Unfortunately, she was far too late. As she began her take-off, a burst of flame soared over her head and forced her to land again. Celestia stood at the door, pausing before the inevitable end.

“What was your plan, foal? Did you think you could run forever?”

Chase felt the last of her strength leave her. She couldn’t pull off her plan, she couldn’t run anymore, and nopony was coming to save her.

“No,” Chase answered.

“But you are a brave one in the end, I see. Will you face your fate with dignity?”

Cloudchaser stood and squared herself away before Celestia. She held up her weary head and puffed out her chest.

“Do your worst.”

Celestia, now seemingly more flame than pony, gathered up her magic once more for the final blast. Cloudchaser had a lot of regrets, but pushed them aside for now. She had failed, but she had done the best she could have. Hopefully, Silent had done better. Maybe she would be able to stop him in the end, and Chase had bought valuable time. It was foolish to try to take on Princess Celestia by herself, knowing that he had done something to her, but what else could Chase do? Sit by and let him win?

In her final moments, she let a smile come to her face.

Behind Celestia, a terrible crack echoed through the sky as a mass slammed into the roof behind her. Celestia turned in an instant to see this new interloper, but found nothing behind her save for the rumbling of a hundred tons of snow.

The roof of the palace had been Chase’s plan, too. She was going to lure Celestia outside, then find a way to dump the snow on her, but had run out of time. Somepony else had done it instead, and Chase had positioned the Princess perfectly.

The sloped roof of the palace had been loaded with snow and never cleaned off. It was a prime candidate for an avalanche, and the mounds of glistening white snow shifted and flowed all as one once the impact registered.

It started small, of course, as all such things do. The furthest roof up, four stories above them where the impact had started, pushed the snow down to the second roof. It then cascaded, picking up momentum and pouring down to the next and the next. Soon it was a torrent of white that poured over the form of Celestia. Cloudchaser threw herself away and found herself only partially covered, while before her a wall of white had completely blocked out the palace behind it.

Chase sat there for a moment, somewhat content to rest briefly, until it suddenly occurred to her that there was one thing left to do. Now she pushed beyond the edge of her endurance to dig into the snow mound, casting as much aside as quickly as she could, until she found Celestia buried within.

The snow had melted around her, but her mane was no longer alight, and she appeared to be unconscious. Chase could only see her head and was far too tired to dig the rest out, but this was enough. Concealed on her crown, hidden from sight just behind the purple gem, was a small yellow stone resting on her head.

Chase pulled it out and smashed it, then collapsed onto the pile of snow and finally rested.

She didn’t know how long it took for the Princess to wake up, but when she did, no words passed between them. Her magic easily lifted away the snow and she stood up before Cloudchaser’s prone form. Chase smiled weakly, but could not bring herself to say anything.

“Thank you, citizen,” Celestia said at last. “I do not know what came over me.”

Chase nodded and leaned back again. The snow felt good against her burns for the time being, and she was loathe to get up right now.

“But,” Celestia said, “What was it that set off that avalanche? Was it you?”

What had it been? It hadn’t even occurred to Cloudchaser to even ask, and it didn’t matter to her. It could have been a passing carrier pigeon for all she cared, but the question remained.

Chase sat up and looked up at the roof. Celestia’s gaze had already drifted upwards as well, and they both locked on something sitting on the edge of the second floor’s terrace. A pony, laying perfectly still in a pose that clearly indicated a broken neck. The malicious grin written onto his face brought up one name in Chase’s mind: Messerschmitt.

Far above, she saw an outline of a pony looking down on them. From atop a tower thirty stories above, she could see the glint of two amber eyes locked on her. No sooner had she seen them than the pony flared its wings and dove out of sight, heading off to the city.

Chase shook her head slightly, too tired to even think of pursuing, and let herself drift off to sleep.