Attention Citizens of Equestria!
This broadcast publicae has been designated alpha priority! Continue your lives as always, but tune your completely Celestia designed ears to us! Use of any other part of your anatomy is HERESY!
First my children, my descendant Cloud shall offer her thought for the day (or what she does in lieu of such things).
Hot damn... Way to drop the hammer lady... Anyway Learn to tie knots in cherry stems. Deep and philosophical discussion should be reason two your mare or stallion put up with the stupid your tongue commits.
I Grand High Marshal Primaris Mater Shadow hereby levies two sanctions on Cloud Kicker for the following: one sanction for each mare because if yon muzzle has the time or energy to talk at all while you are a bed, you are commiting heresy! However, as thou did unto us bring new acolyte Aurora, and as they are to be found in our vast and all knowing estimate over all facets of pony to be, in modern vanacular, totes adorbs, we will allow your continued presence in our... presence. However, we caution any further acts of sass ass while within smelling distance lest we smite thee with the look of mom!
She looked so upset she couldn't boop you... And thank you Grand High Marshal Primaris Mater Shadow! I shall endeavor our ass towards only the finest and furthest of clan mom non sass-ery
I grow bored of such titles! I have ascended the paltry estimates of inadequate designation the lesser me made five moments ago! Henceforth I shall be known only as Super Kami Grand High Marshal Primaris Shadow!
Can't we just say Shadow for short?
I shall allow this acolyte Twilight! And that reminds me: We have deemed our snoot to be thusly unbooped by all things deemed to be foal in the wake of The Age of Flurry where the false alicorn whose name I shall not speak managed with her horrid eldritch hooves to boop our incorporeal state, thus rending our pristine stoic expression to commit blasphemy by... smiling! Yon false alicorn Kettle corn has spared the rod too much me thinks! Why, that was amongst the first of my lessons to my own: one does not commit ethereal boops on the souls occupying a clan holds vault!
Yeah... like you didn't nuzzle her and try to play it off as an accident...
I, Shadow, hereby levie a sanction on Cloud Kicker for the heresy of suggesting for one moment I would lower my lofty self from my lofty supposed place of what savior Dash might deem "awesome" to engage in any form of non Kicker, such as nuzzling or in cases of ultra heresy peek a boo! (and thank you Twilight for that, I needed to have that particular heart attack... Bright Charger come back from beyond the paths end...)
Don't blame me! Celestia said they might like to meet you, but jeez, did you have to be so mean? I know you hated her, but...
No... not hate. Pitied my young Queen.
Uh... Hey, Shadow, she didn't know...
Aye Cloud, I know. Princess Twilight... Bright Charger was not a mare you knew, nor one you would want to if you had. Whatever dear Cloud's personal pursuits might agitate, she at least tries to see others cared for. Bright loved no one and left us wept for by none. Thus stands the legacy she left.
Wow, that got maudlin quick... Maybe we should just skip ahead
Aye... My ponies, my name is Shadow Kicker. At my sides are your Princess Twilight, foal of Lucius and Twilight Velvet...
He just goes Night Light for most things out of work... And hi everypony!
At my right hoof, my bearer Storm, who pouts like a yearling and has deemed our endeavor on she wished no part in. And across from us, this clans current historian on the Lunar Rebellion of bygone days, Cloud Kicker.
Hi daddy... No doubt your pretending I'm not yours amongst our whole clan, but don't get your tail in a twist, I'm just here to see how tits up this goes and as mediator. And sorry Uncle Typhoon, Storm isn't at fault in this. Oh, and how could we forget! Come on up here new snuggle buddy!
GAH! DAMN IT, LEGGO!
Can't say I've had any stallion this handsome not wanna be snuggled by yours truly, but noponies perfect. Anyway, this is our token orphan hippogriff who'm Shadow calls boy. Say hello boy!
Damn it, get off! And I'm not an orphan!
Your mother perished, ergo orphan.
I HAVE MY DAD! And I have a mom you dummies, Lucinda! She's a bucking Kicker! Also, not a hippogriff! And whats does my dead mother have to do with any of this?
You are the son of a pegasus and a gryphoness. Ergo hippogriff. And your story must be of enough foalish grimness and misery as to warrant the wanted deference my clan and I are justly due for your upkeep!
What? Wait... Cloud, what is she...
Sorry kid, she's not... exactly happy with us right now. Okay, so, we talked about it, and it came to me and Duchess's mind that, well, ponies don't know all that much about us Kicker's. Oh sure, you know of us, but... well, I think you might be getting some things wrong or think we think we're better then you. I don't know how, I mean we're just...
Cloud... be still. Surely you do not think that your clan, especially in consideration of its sight of Crown, isn't granted a decidedly enormous amount of deference, lack of inquiry in inner mechanations, or how you, yourself, have led life until now, with little to any signifigant impedment in life... save in service to Equestria which called you as my descendant...
Well, sure, that sort of thing does sort of get in the way of a girls drinking and banging...
Cloud began making a slash move with her hoof across her throat, and nodding, Twilight made a brief call to a break, then turned to the mare and spirit.
"Well girls, I'm liking... what... um, you two okay?"
Cloud had let their "hostage" go, and standing, nodded to the door.
"Think you can step out a sec?"
Nodding, Shadow followed, and when the door clicked shut, Storm finally groaned, rubbing her temple.
"Damn it... I hope my elder know what shes doing...
....................................
Cloud turned instantly on her clans ancestor as soon as the door clicked shut, her eyes narrowed and teeth bared.
"And who the fuck do you think..."
She jerked to a stop at the downcast look of shame Shadow now had, her ears flat to her skull.
"Forgive me child... I forget that our princess is poorly versed in..."
Cloud poked a hoof at the spirits chest, and Shadow flinched as she looked up. Cloud had gone from merely pissed to being near furious, her voice low and dangerous.
"Shadow... Lets get this straight... Twilight ain't those two. I wouldn't have... well, you know."
At that Shadow snorted dismissively.
"Somehow that hardly seems to warrant much given your propencity."
Sitting back on her haunches, Cloud crossed her forelegs with a brow raised.
"At least my kid knows who their sire is... or at the very least had a mom who gave a shit at least enough to be able to say."
Seeing the mare stiffen at the slight, Cloud drew a hoof down her face.
"Okay... that one was a cheap shot... Look..."
"Ash..."
Hearing the tone in the mares voice, Cloud lowered her hoof, and felt her heart break a little. Shadow now merely looked at her evenly, her expression utterly devoid of any emotion, her eyes blank and tone clipped.
"My son and his life are naught a matter needst concern you descendant. Nor is the personal endeavors of one with near twenty and two on your of age. I am, at the very least, old enough to be your mother..."
Shadow took a step forward.
"And am, my daughter. Then and now, my clan is as my own..."
Cloud stood and met her ancestor nose to nose, the two now glaring.
"And as then is now, you will show your elders respect."
Snorting, Cloud said back in the same cold tone "And I did. I showed as much respect as you deserved. None."
Pressing forward, and causing the spirit to step back.
"And one more thing... that shit, uh uh. That one, we can let slide... but shit in family stays there. I already owe Star more then enough, and that was all on me. But you... lady, you got no say anymore. None. You think you can intimidate me or force something from me? Go ahead. Tell the world. Legal eagles are clear on this: anything you got from my head is utterly void in any circumstance and an automatic lump drop in my piggy bank from the Crown if you blab. So, by all means... Aurora could use another generous aunt dropping a couple of dimes."
Seeing the mares brow furrow, Cloud smirked.
"Modern dang kid talk old timer: a dime is a type of coin worth ten pence in certain nations, and refers to a mandatory sentence on a crime. And what we know we're on about... yeah, definitely."
As Shadow opened her muzzle in retort, Cloud growled playfuly, then whimpered.
"Can you really give me shit now... huh, Black Wolf of Celestia?"
At that, Shadow's wing shot out in shock, and she stumbled away from the source of those words like it were a spitting cobra, eyes wide and shocked.
"What... how did..."
As she did Cloud jumped, and stepped forward, her hoof outstretched.
"Whoa, whoa!"
As Shadow stopped short, she tucked her leg under her, her wings flared and about her, her eyes locked fully with Cloud's, her entire spirit body locked in place. She was... afraid. Badly. What had... As Cloud reached forward, Shadow's hoof made to slap it way... but passed through. The two locked eyes... one wide and pained, the other near agonized in the worst of emotional experience.
"You... You spoiled wretched overstretched whores cunt, who... who do you think you are..."
"Shadow..."
At that, the spirit shook her head furiously.
"No... not a word more, you careless child."
Shadow stood, then walked forward and through Cloud... then paused.
"Cloud... I know you meant no harm, only were acting out with..."
Cloud turned, and felt her guts twist in guilt. Shadow looked over her shoulder, her wings slumped, her face twisted into a pained grimace as tears began to gather. And then fall... oh shit, she'd made Shadow cry...
"... If that is what you did to Nimbus, then shame child. If that is your way, such casual cruelty..."
Cloud trotted up to Shadow, her hoof passing through her shoulder, her words rushed and desperate.
"No, no, no! Oh gods Shadow, I... I didn't think..."
Shadow just looked back. Cloud gulped and slowly lowered her hoof. Oh... she really had done it this time. She opened her mouth... then closed it, her own wings slumping slightly in helplessness.
"Sorry... I know that couldn't..."
Shadow slowly came forward, her eyes slowly returning to merely angry and sad, her words coming out in a forced manner, as though she could barely speak to Cloud anymore.
"Descendant... on this, on the wolf, I can say true... you know fuck all."
As she looked away from Cloud, all to much like Nimbus for Cloud's liking, she added "... Cloud... The wolf is as much yours as mine... Our path in its wake leads through a darkened woods in the deepest night, the winds about as coldest knives through our souls..."
Shadow looked down for a time, then raised her head again, her eyes furious but... loving.
"My daughter, you hurt your Mater this day. Can you know what that means Cloud? Much was lost to us in our tribes shattering, but that... was that worth it? A jab to my being for a mere arguement, a spat tween mares, or mother and foal? Why would you speak of such things so carelessly if you knew of them..."
"I am nothing like Alvus..."
At that, Shadow's ear flicked... then a smile spread. A sad smile but one Cloud dreaded more because it said "I hurt you now because I care."
"Dear heart... all my line are of Alvus. Tell me Cloud... how is your wanton desires more right then his, how in lust are you more disciplined then he in wrath? Or I in pride? In our clan, the darkness waits... have you seen it child..."
Cloud gave a slight nod.
"In temperance, in facing the beast in black, our clan is made strong... or was. Now... they look upon the past in such... foalish ways. Aye, in much, we were as foalish, if not more... but we did not parrot words we did not understand, to fool the hoof at our chains end to ease their cutting our breath..."
Cloud shook her head firmly.
"No Shadow. I know what you mean, I do, but ponies aren't like that anymore. We aren't mongrels or wolves or golden sloths or whatever. We... we aren't animals... we're not you."
Shadow looked back at Cloud from the corner of her eye.
"And if harm came to Aurora... If a hoof were to strike savior Fluttershy, should Sombra or some other tyrant gloat over them, or any you love..."
"That's... thats not the same. I love them..."
"As I you Cloud. Or Aurora. Or Storm or Star, and even fool Typhoon..."
Shadow made to walk off again, her voice soft.
"For love Cloud... all we do, we do for our own. We're... we're all alone here. You know that. We both know our Equestria... she does us harm not for malice, but because they're scared. This world... its so so big, with a bottomless abyss, and in it all, one finds death a salvation. So, they seek solace in their way, we in ours... They seek as the hare, with ears sharp and nose sharper, to flee to burrow and swiftest gait..."
Cloud rubbed a foreleg, her head lowering and ears flat.
"And... a we are as the wolf, with fangs to bite and claws to dig... in our pursuit to live, the rabbit dies."
"Unless..."
Cloud bit her lip.
"Unless there is, about the woods, a prey about, a worthy hunt. For that, we, the foolish proud wolf, we seek unto our end."
Shadow lowered her head and looked into Cloud's eyes, hers firm and loving as ever.
"But thats not all my love... We ponies, so assured in our ways, we forgot what made the wolf and hare... who saw in them all they needed to survive. In our ways, in minds knowing things good and evil, it seem cruel, but is it? Each has but what all have, a chance, to eat or to live, and both breed, but neither know. They know they hunger, they know they rutt, but the know not care or love, just want."
Seeing Clouds expression becoming even more baffled, Shadow sighed again.
"Cloud... in us was given a mind, a heart, and choice. And in that... consequence. We answer to our deeds, in one way or another, and will cause such as to see it wash up unto the lives shores of our furthest son. I knew what it would cost to face my tribe... what would be lost. Bright was less then beast, for even the wolf knows to care for its pups. She was a mare with neither heart nor mind... and had rejected all things given to seek the whispers of the abyss, where falls forever till no scream is heard... and ever is its winds, the echos. She looked into our past... and saw Hurricane. She saw him and lusted for him in all ways, in in each way in turn made twisted to suit her own vision of life. And in her world where she is god the law was thus: I can do no wrong, for I know not what wrong is."
Cloud raised her head again...
"So... by her claim of ascenscion... to be above all things... she showed herself, for all her power. to be so much less then those she claimed the right to rule as to be, by her own reasoning, unworthy."
Shadow smirked at that.
"A fine Epoch you would have made, my clever Cloud..."
The door to the studio opened, and the stood Twilight, looking stressed.
"Uh, girls, we gotta..."
...........................................................
We return to you, my Equestria... Forgive us our earlier foolishness, I... I have found my cults equally measured flexiblity and dense in regards to logic and morality maddening, especially since I said quite firmly I did not, and do not, seek veneration. I am not some great hussan of the east march, some windigos wind sage with brothers about to slay, no equal to our Queen... and in this era, no claim to any station or even rights as a free person. I am, for all intents and purposes, a tool. A thing easily used if not easily replaced, or worse, one where can be hung about all rational and arguement for the death and made less others. I am... I'm still me, and if that's Shadow herself, or just her copy... I'm still a mare, and I feel as you do. Do you not think I grieve, rage, laugh as you? Or is that it goes unheard before my forced slumber mean it matters naught?
But... I fear a worse thing comes unseen, a lurking evil just out of sight. Some time passed, a mare came to me unbidden... a mare of our Guard. She wept... for she must leave it a traitor, to be either in exile or to be hung. And if she caught, then shame and scorn. So... she said to me...
"I'm sorry Shadow... I... I shouldn't be here, but... But I ain't of your cult. I have my own god... and the Maker wants us to be true to who made us above all else. I wanted so much to help our little ponies... I even got this..."
She pulled out some...parchment, a poster from her barracks. It showed me... but not as I had been in ages past. No. In the days gone by, I nobly stood before our queen, awash in the praise of all, the flowers about my hooves as my efforts were given all due. Then... I was made uncaring, cruel. A mare who sought the death of others for their "savagery" and how I and those with me sought what was owed, sought the gold and jewels and to see put to flame all else if it could be so. Then... uggh, a flat out abhorrent wretch from the scrolls of those Sun fatheads... But I digress...
Here, it had two sides. One, me, I stood firmly, bloodied and gashed, but resolved, behind me, a stallion standing between his own, a mare with a terrified foal, a foes shadow come upon us. And it was me... it was clear. I had, in this portrait, met one my equal for all my ability and armor... and could barely hold my own. And it showed me... scared. Some part of me resented that, but then... It became clear as she talked. It was not an appeal to vanity, but a call from Shadow. I needed them... I needed soldiers at my side, or all was lost. For all I was, I was still just one mare... And I, as much as my wounded pride screeched otherwise, could find no reason to claim otherwise.
On the other... I stood again... this time my helm gone, though barding remained. Behind me, one of each tribe, each as firm in their resolve as I, though I bore armor arcane. Here, I said in ink, here I draw a line. Here you we shall go, and no further. It was so apart from our own ways... It was always thought all people were based, cruel. That kindness, generousity, loyalty were all only things the wealthy and noble could, that laughter and honesty were unto the kings... and all others were but a herd to be moved hither and yon, or as ones who owed us for merely allowing them their toil without a whip at their sides and a threat at their ears for each pause. But now... it was all or our, all ponies, duty. And moreover, it was to be done only by a ponies will. No oath spoken with a blade at the neck, no real reward but a communal pool with a little coin besides... And no honor but to return home with little but the knowing of anothers beings death if fate was cruel.
She, this poor mare... was near despondent with grief. She wanted so much to be like me, so much to hold the line... but one of ours had claimed the office once Shining Armor was made disposed. Our own Tornado... a fine soldier, and more importantly a wonderful stallion... whose raised one mare too a kind and loyal daughter and whose raising a fine young filly who I know will be a superb mare... and as she folded her poster again, I wondered what was amiss, surely she would find no fault with him.
She had though. I know not the minutia, but she believed he means, or meant, to see our nation made cold, that conscription and draft were as of an iron age barbarian. And... she is right. It is immoral, and an outright blasphemy, to impose on others to such a degree, to force from them duty and honor or the fruits of their labor. She said she knew sometimes, it had to be done... but it was to be done here in such a way as to stretch over years, and well into his career. It seemed more a taking of power, an act of a clan familia, then any Guard Captain.
And should she not? In truth, the stripping of Shining was but the desperate save of face of the nobles, ones needing a sacrifice and seeing one unwatched. And it seemed Tornado, while not in it fully, at least went along with matters. From there, he, to this mare, sought to purchase arms well beyond was needed, and of such high quality... they were to be used. She knew it wasn't war... not yet. Just rumors of it. And within her career... she knew she and hers were to be sent about, to see placed in wagon or put to bolt anyone of age who refused their Princess's due.
She reached out to me... then remembered I was warded, and withdrew. She said... She spoke of my actions in Cloudsdale. Oh, that misery... if you had only heard how Sunbeam raged, how Celestia, and how I screeched in equal measure, how your measured disciplined Shadow was in the throes of a pitch of pique nigh until the worst of mares capacity... and all for their final demand. We had, as was right and due, stripped them, and all pegasus of first arms, then free clouds, then rights as they could either be held as indentured, exiled, or put to death. Most took the indentured, such was their guilt.. but then was to be Sunbeam's atrocity.
In their city, in its center, was to be built a statue of finest nimbus, one of such craft as to be nigh unknowable from marble... it was to be our Queen. But not the one then or now... but one which even Nightmare would quell before, whose eyes were hard and uncaring on those of her traitor children as could be. They were to toil to earn their Queen's love again, and would not only love it... but would swear unto her a knights oath, to fight and die at her call and to, as none, not even Bright or Epochs, demanded bow and forsake all pride, to show utter devotion and want of atonement. And worse, to demand the same of their foals, and their foals foals, and the one last before it was lifted. She was to be our goddess... and we were to swear to this effigy our utter loyalty with a hoof on our back, a spear at out necks, and the sobs of foals in our ears to remind us fully where our tribe stood.
And we deserved it. We, as was said, sought no better, expected from our fellows no more, and would accept no less had we won our Rebellion. So none complained... save I. The second I saw her flatten out that paper... I screeched and stamped, and in my fury said "No. No, friend Sunbeam, my Queen, and even unto the spirits and even the Maker, ask me this and I shall say the same ever and on: no. No slaver of any am I." And as their pieous game of court slowly waned as they realized this was no show... Celestia looked as she often did, with distant if judging eyes... and Sunbeam... she walked to me, and put a hoof on my shoulder... and grew in her ichor as I slapped it away. She simply couldn't see this as I could, or at least see it in any way other then its cold logic. It made sense, after all, so obviously it was moral, or if I must be so stubborn, the lesser of evils.
But no... there are things in this life, my ponies, we should not bear in any form, some deeds so foul as to see even in me a beast stir... not one in logic or in honors pursuit, but one of desperate refusal lest what little conscious and moral ground I teeter on crumble and I fall into the abyss... and I cannot fall, my foals. I cannot bear to be a monster loved, or an evil less. I could not fight them if the law was such, such was their right... but I would refuse. It mattered not if they said I did, or would see me harmed for it, I had not only the right, but duty, the obligation to say no, this is not what I shall do. This sin is not on my head. It is an entirely selfish thing, one not for any true love for others, but one simply done for our own sake. And I knew that, but did so because, honestly, would any have pushed the matter? I would make no demand of my tribe, but feel free to send Sunbeam...
But this mare... a battle sister, she was to lose all. She had to leave her home, parents, siblings, beloved friends and cherished life to seek a barely scraped together bleakness in some forsaken patch of nowhere. Because she wanted better... She made a choice, she said. To be like me... to be in the Guard. And if thats what happened, hey, she'd help them onto their wagon. But if it meant she was duty bound to orders she knew wrong, that she was under so valued an oath as to be made to drag colts and fillies of age from begging parents and under beds, so great a cause that none would speak as to its validity, but would need as many swords as could be forced to our service... she had killed, didn't want too, but she was a Guard by choice. She wasn't going to point a bolt at someones back and say "its them or you soldier."
Know this: None of this bears on Tornado in any manner. He is a more then fair and exempt commander, but it does speak to matters: Shining Armor was young, of noble, ergo spoiled, life, and something of a fool. But he was a capable Captain, one entirely suited for it... but more importantly, one his soldiers wanted to serve. He was one of them, they said. They knew he would at least try to keep them fed and at least in as much comfort as could be allowed... but Tornado was just another Kicker. What does some elitist crown licker care for anypony under him... and being captain, that meant all.
Yes, its unfair, and utterly abhorrent she betrayed her nation... but can we be so foolish as to not see her view? Can my clan claim it unfair or biased when, more often then not, they see unicorns and earth as lesser, that they know whats best and the other two should be silent while their betters tend to things... that by no merit other then that we told them they had we should trust and respect them, and heed them no matter what.
She said she hated them. My clan. She said I was the only good thing that they ever made, and that they must know it true if they're so het up on keeping me around and solely for their use. In all this she saw me the victim... and perhaps I was, but I wasn't forced. I choose this, same as her, and my clan choose as well, though would come better able to help... or was that it? Did we see ourselves as fellows under one banner, or ones due reverence from the serfs about. If a hundred of them were slain but by a single foe, would any mourn? If the same saw Storm dead, then the exhaustive and heart breaking tale of her service would be the call for the week, how hers was a tragic beautiful tale... and the others just the cost one pays.
I can see all expendable, in most things.... but when one ponies death is said just while the same death just so much ash or entirely acceptable, no.
And so, I seek now to offer my... thoughts, I suppose, now and again, to act as an advisor upon a neutral platform and offer my Cloud and Storm as point and counter point should they wish it so, and our boy and Twilight here in our aid if able... And ones treated equal. In this place, in these walls, we speak of our people, or ways, and how we view things, and how they might be changed and improved.
Author's Note
Trying something a bit new here... discussions by Shadow and crew over various minutia and philosophies of the tribes of chengars verse. Or the pony war lady equivelant of
As for the awol Guardsmare... hmm... well, one could, I suppose, argue that Shadow would be romanticizing matters wouldn't she? She, after all, wasn't given a choice, was she? However, that means that our wayward pony is under an even greater obligation: she knew it might come to this, but choose to sign up anyway. Something to think about, no?
To put it simply, pegasus once ascribed to a sort of Ragnarok in terms of both faith and society. That all peoples have their rise, fall, descent into some form of desperation or depravity, then reform and ascension again. This does not of course excuse matters, the law is that as should be enforced, and what is right trumps all, but its also saying that theres a difference if you steal bread or gold, and difference between killing and pissing on the corpse.
The seven sins are pretty much the same as they are with humans, but seen less as things one is so unbelievably incapable of facing as too need some poor sod to try to sort us dumb cunts out, and more as a sapient beings inate animal drive. But just because a wolf hunts or a rabbit rutts has little on anything but its own life, it does not the same applies in ponies.
The problem though stems from their culture: ponies have an instinctual predilection to act on self interest but are also driven towards seeking companions and herds. Pretty soon, the tend to mesh to such a degree their only interest is their herd. This is not to say they have no identity or won't act alone, but its done less like Rainbow and more like season one fluttershy. That even asking for the notion of basic respect from a Kicker is akin to demanding something of Celestia. Except they have, and should not have, any sort of thing.
Its not this way, but their attitude and seeming hubris does little to convince anyone else. And since they all seek to be officers, it appears they are trying to being like the lunar era rebels then fellow Guard