The Key
by
De Writer
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The golden and red mare was so embarrassed that she was ready to slink away from the thrones room. The only reason that she did not was that she had spent too much coin on buying this appointment to leave.
The Herald was winding up his loud introduction with, “The deformed and blotched commoner, Keylara!”
Looking up at the triple thrones of Equestria, Keylara realized that her embarrassing introduction had caused much amusement among the gathered nobility but it had failed entirely of its purpose with the Princesses.
Luna’s lips had curled back from fangs, her forelegs rigidly braced, ended in deadly talons. Celestia’s lips were curled in distaste, and she looked utterly ashamed.
Gently, she said, “Come forth to Us, Keylara. Pay no mind to what that disgusting herald has said. Come before Our Thrones and make your plea.”
The Royal Herald cut in, “And be quick about it! You have only two minutes in the Royal Presence!”
That was too much for Luna. Her magic, usually a soft midnight gossamer shot through with stars, reached out and totally ensnared the Herald in a dark blanket filled with pustulent lights like glowing boils.
He was dragged before the thrones. Dumped unceremoniously on his hooves before the Princesses, Luna demand of him, “Grovel before OUR SUBJECT whom you have grossly insulted before our Court! Beg her forgiveness! Return to her the money that you extorted from her for this appointment which is her RIGHT!”
He started to retort, “Her time is used up! She must leave at …” There was a loud meaty thump as Celestia’s magic joined Luna’s. She yanked the herald’s forelegs out from under him, dropping him face first to the hard pave of the throne room.
Her gentle voice had solid iron under it as she demanded, “Grovel, Conwall. Beg forgiveness. Repay her. She should never have had to pay so much as a single bit for her RIGHT to audience.”
Conwall unwisely retorted, “I am a Noble! A Count! I beg no forgiveness of a mere deformed peasant!”
Quicker than Luna, Celestia’s magic began stripping him of Chains of Office, Badges and his Pectoral of County. All were laid before the empty Throne of the Queen, between the thrones of the Princesses and a step higher.
In a voice ringing with mixed with rage and sorrow, Celestia proclaimed, “Conwall is Vacant! The County must pass to proper heirs or be assigned according to the Laws of Succession!”
Luna, beginning to master her own anger, was returning to her normal, gentle seeming self. “Remove that peasant who WAS Conwall. Cap his horn and put him into a common cell to await judgment for his crimes.”
The rest of the Court was shying back. They had thought the Princesses ensnared in their webs of Protocol and Precedence. The sudden fall of Conwall and the admission of a peasant mare, intended as a mere amusement, showed that perhaps they needed to rethink their strategies.
Keylara limped hesitantly forward toward the Thrones of Equestria. With some difficulty, she curtsied low to the Princesses.
“Your Hignesses, I am known as Keylara. I have come from the future of Equestria to …”
A raucous voice overrode her, “From the FUTURE? She is mad! Throw her out!”
The richly decorated reddish yellow unicorn who was interrupting was seized by Luna’s magic, in it’s ghastly dark and pustulent form. He was slammed hard against the wall behind him.
Her voice soft, Princess Luna demanded, Guards! Clear the Throne Room! This audience WILL go forward without interruption!”
Celestia reached with her magic and, gentle and soft as it appeared, casually and without effort, broke the reddish yellow unicorn's horn in half. She commented, “Roth, We are perfectly able to decide for ourselves whether a pony before us is sane or not. The very brief glimpse that I took of you, showed me madness. You are removed from your County until such time as I declare you fit to hold Office.
“Guards, please remove Count Roth to a cell for now. He shall be placed into a madhouse later.”
Turning to Keylara she asked kindly, “You do know that, while things can be hidden from Us, it is not possible to lie to Us. My sister, Luna can use a Bridge of Dream which will reveal all of the truth or falsehood of what you say.”
To the surprise of the Princesses, Keylara relaxed. “Please, Princess Luna do use the Bridge of Dream on me. You both must hear what I have given up so much to bring you.”
Princess Luna reached out with a pale gossamer of midnight and stars to touch Keylara’s forehead. “The Bridge of Dream binds us, dear. Please tell us what is so important.
“Have you come to Us about your deformity?”
Keylara shook her head. “Not really. They are part of the proof that I have brought, that is all. I have had this leg and these mismatched eyes since I was foaled. I am used to it.
“I have come, I hope, to prevent a ghastly pair of deadly wars. Besides myself, many others bear such deformities as a consequence of the final battle of the Nightmare Wars.”
Luna, watching Keylara, was weeping. “How did you come to back in time to Us? I thought that travel in time was impossible.”
Keylara paused to consider her answer. “Basically, that is true. You cannot traverse time like a boat from one place to another on a lake. Time is both simple and complex.”
She rummaged in her saddle bag and produced a very common looking key. The power radiating from it was not common at all!
“I have been given this key, which can open the way to ANY point of the present or past. It must be used with care because going to the past makes it impossible to return. Wherever you go in time, that becomes the true present for you. That means that the future that you came from no longer exists. It is reduced to a set of mathematical possibilities. There is nothing to return to.
“It can be summed up by saying, The Future Is Forbidden.”
Both Celestia and Luna wept as they heard those words. “De Writer, our Foster Father used to say that to operate the Orb of the Ages. Not long ago, we set to banish him for a limited time.
“Some ponies substituted one of our Scrolls of Creation Magic that we use to adjust the heavens for the scroll that we intended to use. Worse, they rewrote what we gave them to write for a grander effect and greater poetry.
“Once a Scroll of Creation is begun, it must be finished. That is part of the magic of them. What is done with them cannot be undone or set against itself.
“We executed the ringleader but that will not bring De Writer back to us. We are sundered from him forever.
“Now you hand us the key to undoing that vile deed. If we do that, we have the paradox that we will never meet you to get the key.”
Keylara nodded. “Sort of true. You will have your memories intact up the using of the key. Time does not allow paradoxes. You will remember this whole thing but it will not exist at all. All of the time from then to now will revert to mathematical probabilities, having no existence until, through the action of chance, they become the present or not.”
A snort caught their attention. Looking up, Luna’s magic reached out and grabbed. Then again and yet once more. Casually, she commented, “Celestia, since the room was cleared, there is nopony here but us and Keylara. It is purely illusions that I am holding with my magic. See if you can pull the trick of producing two pectorals of Duchy and one of County from the illusions.”
Celestia’s magic did find Pectorals of Office and add them to the one before the Queen’s Throne. There were two Duchies and a County along with Badges and Chains of Office.
Three unicorns appeared, gripped solidly in Luna’s magic. “Your Highnesses! We stayed to be sure that you were safe from the mad mare! Nothing more!”
Luna grimly replied, “Lies. You were spying on your Royal Rulers. Are True Unicorns really so superior that they can ignore Royal commands?”
Celestia’s magic joined Luna’s in lifting the spies and moving them out to the balcony known as the Traitor’s Drop. She said softly but clearly, “WE ORDERED THE ROOM CLEARED! You are not here.”
They both let go of the criminals at the same moment. Their screams got fainter for almost two minutes before they were silenced by the rocks at the bottom of the drop.
Keylara looked a bit sick.
Luna quietly told her, “I am sorry to have upset you but some things cannot be tolerated if we are to rule at all. Please tell us more of what is to come if we do not act wisely.”
Celestia, from her throne, said, “That key is convincing. I would not have done what we just did otherwise. Did you bring any other things to show us?”
Sadly, Keylara nodded. She pulled out a map and a lump of stone. The stone was jet black and had radiant colors running over and through it in a way never seen before.
“This map was made by your printing office, Celestia. That is Circle Lake. Over here is Crescent Lake. Both lakes are thirty kilometers across. Circle Lake was an attack staging camp of the Unicorn Forces, on the Plain of Days.
“Crescent Lake, so like your mark, Luna, was at the foot of Mount Everstone. It was the location of the primary supply and training camp of the Unicorn Forces. The mountain was melted by the blast that made the lake and flowed down into the crater, creating the crescent shape.
“The heat and magic effects surrounding the blast resulted in small pockets and veins of this stone. We call it Crescent Lake Jewel Stone.”
Luna was crying openly. “I might do that? How many could die because of me?”
Keylara took the chance of hugging Princess Luna with her deformed leg. “If it helps, the wars were started by a cult of Unicorn Supremacists. You defended your followers to the last. You won the wars.
“By the same kind of treachery that exiled your foster father, you, the generous victor, were exiled to the moon for a thousand years.”
Celestia pulled back in shock. “First they took from us our foster father, De Writer! Now they would sunder us, too? It is not to be borne!”
Luna observed thoughtfully, “This plot has been many years in the making, Celestia. How many of our Court are now unicorns? It was not so only a hundred years ago.”
Celestia turned her attention to the small pile of Pectorals of Duchy and County. Smiling almost serenely, she offered, “I think that I see how to handle that, Luna.”
Luna nodded agreement, adding, “We need to make it a capital offense to even touch a Scroll of Creation, too. They need to be limited only to Us."
Celestia stretched and got up. Strolling to a cabinet, she concentrated her magic on it. It seemed to sink into the wood and vanish. The wood of the doors to the cabinet flowed together and became a single piece.
Turning about, she smiled and added, “If the unicorns are going to play the supremacy game, we need to take them down a few notches, Luna. Having them try their hooves at farming and weather control should help enormously, since they are pretty incompetent at farming and can’t do weather at all!”
Luna’s brow wrinkled as she thought with care. “Keylara, what triggered these Nightmare Wars?”
Sadly she replied, “Across the kingdom, Unicorn Supremacists started scheduling events celebrating Celestia so that they usurped the already scheduled events of your followers who loved the night sky and moon.
“It exploded into open combat right here in Canterlot. The park of the Twin Rulers had a Lunar Sky event of earth ponies, donkeys, goats, and some pegassi. The arrogant unicorns forced them out of the park to hold a Bonfire of Celestia to banish the Night of the Evil Twin. They “accidentally” murdered about twenty of the “lesser beings,” as they cleared the park.
“Grieving and enraged, the survivors struck back by breaking into an armory and taking military crossbows. They slaughtered over a hundred unicorns on what became known as The Night of Blood.”
Luna turned to the map of the two huge lakes. As she and Celestia studied the map, Celestia observed, “You do realize, Keylara, that if you do succeed, you will have never existed at all. Only we will know of your sacrifice.”
Keylara replied with a quiet, “Yes, I do know that. Thank you for listening to me.”
There was a light clinking. The Twins turned about.
There, on the floor of the Thrones Room lay an ordinary looking key.
~THE END~
