"Good! Good!" Celestia said clad in the impressive armor to the panting stallion in battered and beaten armor frozen in a lunge over her. "You have finally got it!" He blinked at her. "When your enemy is defeated and pleads to surrender, it is the law: they be taken into custody." she said getting up.
"It was a fake...a fraud?"He said addled."You just pretend that I had you on the ropes???!!!"
Celestai stretched her back, then tilled her head as a mighty crack echoed down the halls.
"Not quite." she said with the ghost of a smile. "You did surprise me and I was knock senseless by the strength of that earth pony plow wallop...for a moment..only a moment.." she said slowly walking past him as he turned following her face."..but a used that moment,"she circled, her eyes locked on his "for you to learn, for you to understand..."he tilted his head at her."You are the crown's chosen: my prefect, my Judge of Equestria..."he began to follow,his eyes dropped as he considered this, only as she caught him by surprise, spinning him around, before he knew what happened held him on the ground"My Judge of Equestria..."with blazing eyes to show she was indeed, the one, large and in charge.
"Not my executioner!"
"Never let your guard down until the defendant is safely locked away, hopefully at a distance, giving you time to prepare." She bent down to him, his heart racing, "Answer my questions now..." she whispered in his ear."....Imago Dei..!"
Well, that's easy to translate!
Imago sound like Amego, and Dei certainly isn't die it could be day or pie with the continence pronounced....So the translation is either Day's Friend that makes sense orFreind Pie..which does not!
Why are you laughing Celestia?
Why oh,oh why do my little ponies always come up with some such silly! No. You are nowhere close. Imagotranslate as (HE)image. Dei translates as made. The dei is cast, the prints set the dei, the little foal plays with little deicast carts! You be better to look in the ancient writing of the Latens of Romane...
Am I...
Ask your question caefully!!
Am...I...Imago Dei?
You asked the right question.
Celestia's Prefect then answered every question she put to him, whispering in his ear, unnerving and distracting.
"I test you this way for you shall see many outlandish things in "your" court, of ponies trying to make you look unsure and unsteady, more so from the mobs of lawless and ungoverned strangers."
On rules of evidence, codes of conduct, litigation and court decorum. Lengthy and many antiquated, he answered her every one. For he had listened and repeated, listened and repeated as she made him tear and build up mountains, fought him to know how to survive battle, knowing how to use his armor and hooves, even as she bucked him and threw him, embedding him in many of the palaces columns.
"Last question..."she whispered in his reddened ear over his flushed checks."Will we be dictated to? Plowed over by these hordes these Thundering Herds?"
"No ma'am."he said."If they do not submit to the law, then to the courts, if not? The full force of the heavy buck of the iron hoof of the law."
Satisfied, she let him rise. "Follow me." she said swinging wide doors into the palace, her pace swift.
Bounding along, reminiscent of some small pampered over breed canine in his movements, he caught up to her at the last tenth of the hall,"You're Majesty?"she looked down at him. "You need to know everything..."he drew in a breath with a gasp."I didn't stop out of respection for the spirit of the law of surrender,ma'am."he frowned then swallowed as she stopped."I stopped because I didn't want to be dug out of another pillar again..."rubbing a sore knee on his front leg with the other.
Celestia laughed and covered his back with her wing as they continued. Though the judge's heart felt uplifted, the rider tried to grind him down with jabs hard in his sides, though a figment, a phantom, normally he could feel it, and evidence of welts and bruising always appeared on his sides...but Celestia's wing diminished or dissipated the rider's influence..his sides healed, though, seeming hands reached out from his sides as if to grab her majesty's gleaming down, unnoticed by both pair, almost infantile in their movements.
What had he done to deserve such a torment, such thorns in his sides?
I can only write what I have found annotated about the Stranger's God: His, "strength is made perfect in weakness." And again, for the believer: He, "does not allow temptation beyond what can be endured." How strong was this Smudgie Pie? This judge of Equestria?
Dust...clay and Dust...
Celestia bids me continue.
"Respection?" Celestia laughed. "Just remember, you represent Equestria's laws to your brothers, my justice and your God's intercession...remember..." she became serious."Failure means not surviving the pillars..."
"..and being crushed under them..."he said shuddering.
"Very good!" she chuckled then raised an eyebrow."Where is that from?"
"Another story,another judge,"he said"This of Samson."
At last they entered a large room, few ponies were gathered in small groups, a couple guards and some that looked like tailors and a couple black smiths. In the center was a cover dais.
Celestia excitedly moved over to it, unwrapping her wing from his back trotting forward. The rider gave the Judge a sharp kick in both sides with his sharp spurs making him wince.
Celestia raised her hoof and roared,"Behold!" It came majestically down. Upon the top of the dais was a manikin dress in the dark armor, regal and magnificent! The light glowed upon it as the stuff of truth and justice.
"This was worn by one who defended the innocent from the monsters of the night...An earth pony mare of the darkest coat who stood and looked me in the eye! A pony of graceful form but could keep time with a mace!A true judge in her own right!" she used her magic to float the armor down into her waiting leg. She held it with little effort though in the power of Alicorn full strength still, the armor was light.
"...my yoke is easy and my burden is light..." It is said, even in that retailored state, the armor was unworldly and awesome.
Pity, it was smashed to pieces by lawless mares, delighting in beating senseless any male they came across. It is said they lured the judge leading him to the criminals who so ransack the land! He didn't leave that ground until his wife found him with a magic song called a hymn? Or many Hymn? As he weakly sung it back, she found him, the armor twisted round, skin covered in welts bites and cuts, held him, weeping over him..until...until...his loyal unicorn friend, Ransom, a physician but not without deep scars that he bore till the day he touched the clouds and even after...but a stallion he remained, protected by that armor!
It never occurred to any that mares could be lawless as the Thundering Herds, I wonder what happened to them?
How strong and invulnerable they thought they were! Mistaking their unreined passion for strength! A scant flattering word in each ear and how easily their armor fell open and was slipped off!
By the Rider! So easily lured, into the ever free. Where they lost their minds, their memories and their essence!
Too late,too late! They fled the horror's reflection of themselves taunting! Unprotected and unarmored she ran.The rider walking unhurriedly behind. She was almost to its edge, one step to freedom! She could see the blue sky and open pastures! The six of them would be free!
When she stopped.
She stopped,they were no more only she, a shade! Her head bowed she slumped down. The form of a mare, faded away fur, skin, flesh, muscle and bone, mist like dust blowing away,the Rider chuckling.
Some say they wait. A grove, inside their hollow hearts, waiting. Waiting for new purpose, for new bodies. So their beastliness runs rampant, wolf like, through the woods looking for others to rend...for the rider never forgives.
Who is the rider?
Is and is not. Comes forward and is washed back. Defeated, long ago! Unable to accept, thinking he can change destiny and wheels of time!He dwells in the worst of nightmares, hunting in timeless dreams!
Pray you never meet him..alone in your heart!
The judge was never alone, and he could bear the rider!
Ah Luna! My sister! Queen of the campfire tale.
"This armor is second in craft, Luna's light being greater."Celestia spun in a dance with her partner. "Nyx, her name, an awesome earth pony in beauty and grace and magnanimity, prophesied of another, one who would come after her, one she said was worthy, whom she tailored, this, her own armor!" Cellestia heartily laughed."Come, My Prefect, come my judge! I find you worthy! Come to your fitting! Remove your Armor! Let us see how well this suit,remade for a stallion in his honor, of a mare who could look me in the eye and swing a mace in time, fits thou!Uh?!"
There was a rattling, and a tugging and a shaking.
"I said," she queued,"Remove your Armor!" Again she roared.
After a while, it was the point of embarrassment, Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"I'm...I'm...uh...stuck!"quietly apologist Smudgie Pie before the Princess could speak.
Celestia sat on the steps of the dais, both her and the Armor, with unreadable expression, as the guards and tailors and blacksmiths tugged and pulled the barding and mail making little progress. Little chunks and chain coming here and there,the groan of many crowbars
"That hurt!"
In a corner of the room, it is said, two eye gleamed in the shadows, a snickering could be heard, many espousing it to the rider on Smudgie's back, taking a break. Why torment the pony when he could have others do it?
A little page ran up to Celestia,"The wizard will be her soon!"the page gasped. She nodded and bayed the page sit beside her giving out a little water till he calmed. Then she produce from her helmet two lollipop confections with a smile giving on to the page the other she held.
"Cake!" said the page with discovered delight taking a bite.
"I hope you felt every blow." She said to the judge, a crowbar wined and groaned just before snapping."I told you to wear the regular armor, not the enchanted!" Said Celestia remembering the stupid stallion she first sent out as judge who had gotten in to an ill fight, losing a tooth or two.He brought down one of the country's largest mountains, being wounded so badly she had to send her phoenix to search, heal him with tears, put him on his hooves, come into court and account his actions. Unable to answer any of her plied legal questions, even question in the simplest law,she supposed, Equestria's finest legal scholars had drilled into him!
She beat the scholars, they beat him, then it was her turn again!!!!
Still, the whole scheme had been this colts notion.
"I'm sorry Oyarsa of the Sun! I'm so sorry!!"he said embarrassed beyond what he had known before.
Celestia shrugged, put the cake in her mouth, and she, the page, the armor, sat back and watched the show.
"Couldn't you just, you know, magic him out?" Asked the page.
"That is right." said Celestia taking the cake out of her mouth a moment."You are an earth pony, young and not experienced. No I would need the key, can't even teleport him out."
"But you are strong!"said the page.
"You mean, wrench my pony out of the carapace?" She blinked." Well I could..."she said.
"Ahhhh! Watch it!"
"...but it would be like helping an ant or a beetle..." she took a small nibble of her cake on a stick."I might inadvertently crush him, and that wouldn't do!"
"Oh.."said the page."Can I call you Oyarsa of the Sun too?"
"...and I will call you Imago Dei if you like..."
Really?
The word Oyarsa is a strange word. No pony really knows what it means.
I have found it in history in the pre Luna Celesta divide sprinkled in the frosting of history randomly but oddly enough, the word is fully developed. No etymological history. It just appears and then vanishes. Particularly in the writings of Star Swirl, something about Sirens, I was chased out of that library by an angry red face unicorn with a cane!
Lately I found it used and traced it back following the path it took, five hundred years, to the Stampedeic Rush stalking it back to its origin like a wildlife researcher tracing some exotic bird, hoping to find its nest and watch the little chicks grow and develop only to have it disappear in a cloud of vapors...the trail, ending in a research void, a dead end, like a cliff sharp and straight, cut with a parchment knife, nothing below, obscured in dark emptiness.
What lies beyond? Another world? Ha.Ha. Yes my Oyarsa of the Sun it's funny!
Princess?...excuse me, please don't frown.
Oyarsa is close to the word divine/steward? Yes....my research agrees. I was leading up to that...but...very well...somepony else in working on the origins of cake on a stick?
Anyway...there are other stories many tell, that aside from the judges companions( Namis Wat, Calacium Carbine, Ransom, Brutus, and Romane) he surrounded himself with old stallions, retired from Celestia's service, and young colts. The elders would advise and teach the younger and the younger he chose from foals who would not allow ill to be spoken of their mothers, of which he took many of their blows!
He would often seek council in strategy before enforcing Celestia's laws and edicts, when it came to strange ponies.He dressed them in similar armor with simpler enchantments.
These stories are so muddled up in the writings of Namis Watt and Puzzle's, chiefly documents, that is hard to say if the judge actually chose the foals and elders.
Accounts agree when he asked the army to help him defeat the dreaded Nappy, who's statue stands in the royal Canterlot Gardens, arrogantly clutching a flag in suborn defiance, a blank banner snapping in the wind, braced up on two legs wearing front shoes with mechanical digits on them, a reminder of how the judge bound the prissioners upright that night. For one, he unbound,when one mare, hurt, was led through the ranks, him identified... thrown into the darkness, left to the judge till morning the others bound and in camp trembling hearing his screams till the sun rose.At Sunrise what was left was packed up for the wasteland...I don't know if he took shelter at the ramshackle fort.
Nappy, though, never heard his warrior's plight. The choice...submit to the law, the court or the heavy hoof!
Needless to say, they locked their orbs with the grey eyed judge and swore to abide by their sentence...unless they chose the wasteland.
Caged by himself, Nappy, bound on four legs, caged beside the informant (allowed to move freely), for his good deed put in the custody of his wife. That is a tale of forgiveness...
No, Nappy spent the night cursing making outlandish demands and threats....and nothing else is written about him.
Of course, one old doggier showed me the remains of a spyglass said was used by two young armored colts, to track their agent in camp to find Nappy in the night "O Shock and Awe".
So maybe young colts and old ones journeyed with the judge...
Giant pony,he,the legend came from there! A colt, merely a child, made monstrous by Nappy, the scars where Nappy's bound hard exoskeletons to his troops, so they would fight on two legs! Clearly marked on body and legs!The colt who did good deeds across the land, who, carryied his mother on his back, in honor, his catchphrase "Not an animal" in his deep,deep voice...but that is another story.
I wonder how Nyx would have dealt with Nappy? I know when the Kestrels dropped the judge in the middle of camp to fireworks and booms that he received quite a thrashing from this Giant Pony...
"Useless!I leave the room for ten minutes and your courses turns thus verbose and discursive? Honestly!"
The last part of the dented and enchanted armor finally came off and the judge stood before the princess sweaty and a little bruised.
Preparing for disappointment, Celestia applied the barding, armor, grieves to her judge. His coat, was greenish gray, with a tint of copper shine. His mane was brown flaxen chestnut. His eyes, grey that hurt if he looked intently at you.
Celestia let out a gasp of surprise as she backed up to look at him.
"Wonderwul!"sad a tailor.
"Magnificent!"said a blacksmith.
"I'd think twice before messing with him on the battlefield!"said a guard.
The dark armor brought out and set everything off well. Even his eyed seemed to shine an other worldly glow.
"I've...never had such a well tailored suit in all my life, even on two legs!" the judge said."Its like being held...not like my wife, no...like a distant close friendly relative." said the judge.
"She was an earth pony, full of grace, with darkest coat and haunting eyes."Celestia, curious, lifted up his head and looked into the eyes very few could look into. "I had my doubts you were worthy, she tailored it especially for you." Celestia looked deeper."I see Nyx in you...though distantly...I wonder why? Ah...that's it Lu...the moon's light, yes, in your eyes. I do not see the moon's fair light shine from you like it did Nyx."she said.
More about the armor was written in a recollection of a dream by the Judge himself. Interesting caracter, if there is time in my life to do a proper study on him.
The judge.
I had a vision after I lived in Filly Delphi for some time as a community leader keeping the peace by helping my brothers remember their lives before.
It helps.Reminding us these things happened, we are not insane and we can benefit Equestria by these recalled methods and inventions, for it takes a room full to remember it well on pony was made well by remembering all the parts of a 1946 Plymouth car(t) dashboard....or did I see it when I was holed up in that crack in the wall at Celestia's selections I'm not sure.
In it I saw I tall and graceful elegant earth pony mare, dark as night.
"Most favored of her Majesty fare?"a humble unicorn stood with his wife when she had her own little ones cooing beside her. "What shall be done with your night armor there?"
"Have it be tailored, it shall be tailored to fit again !"she laughed
I assume it was her husband, he was very short but all the ponies there were dwarfed by the mare.
She took a necklace off her neck and placed it around her foal and opened the locket showing the babe the parchment inside. "Learn the meaning of the inscription signed herein." she told the foal with earnestness.
I was in a house that looked like the inside of a tree, modestly furnished and a figure lay covered on the bed.
"Who art thou?!"
I was there! She was in was in my face! I was human but dressed in battered armor. I answered.
"Of my father's race." she said. Please..."she begged."My father said he was like Cain..what does that mean? Was he a stick that wouldn't bend or a read that bent too much? " She licked her lips. "He cried and said he was demoted, his tears fell as he asked me to pray with him saying we were ask his God's mercy for him but mostly his favor and blessing for me...I know he was a good pony...but my father said being a good pony isn't enough!"
"There is nothing to be done!" I said."He has gone before I just judge and everything that can be done will be done!"
She lunged at me threw me to the ground."I know his name! Give me a sign or I shall assume you took him!"
I struggled free of the mare and grabbed a shred of parchment and wrote the name of God's Son upon it. Handed to her who took in in her pastern.
"...and his sign?"She said opening to me.
I, Smudgie, made a cross in correct proportion above the name. I spoke as she looked to the parchment.
"There is nothing to be done..."I said she glaring."Um...only...seek him earnestly: his kingdom, his righteousness only a gift given and a mercy to those in need needy and poor, helpless and weak, as you did for your father do for other. Your job, you do, render as...as...um....sacrifice, sacrament? Devotion! Made pleasing in service!"
She looked to the ceiling ears back as if hearing something."My prayer is answered." she said."So long, I though, my shield wither a mocker of the work I do!"
"This I shall do as I protect the lands from monsters. Now I know thy mark is true!"
She rushed at me again, flying past. She set herself upon the monster in the dark shadow who hand still bore the gore of his grizzly deed, devil, that thing all men are destined to be taken.
The rider shrieked confused as she took her revenges with hooves again and again, letting him go only when satisfied."Away with you! Celestia one day the job will finish!" She glared at me. "You will stand there gawking? Return to my past, from your future...but let Him show you, see one thing more." She laughed.
"See the sign," she said. "The lines intersect, this means all evil is canceled out, sacrifices for evil are done for one paid the price and fool over pays a bill huh, huh?" she playfully said to the little one looking up at her.
"Who is this?"she asked. "The letters below..observe them." she traced them out. "This hooked one, like an anchor holding everything in place, like a fish hook, when we are in need of food being worn and week. Next letter, tall back, but three parts, one letter leading us to the next, curved and covering, like the air we breath. Who would not fill his cup with as much as he can, the next letter. Bringing us to the last letter, like the third, our destiny, but is like the third letter being reach out to by the second, surrounded, safe, sustained."
"My most beautiful wife." said the unicorn impatiently. "What is to be done with your armor?"
"Have it be tailored, it shall be tailored to fit again !"she laughed,"Follow my instructions precisely, for it will not do for our judge to be found in armor of a mare!"
She spoke again.
"In fitting your noble unicorn station.... you unicorns!"she laughed again."He shall be dressed in battered silver, the armor of cemetery guard, to face the dreaded Mordred ours and cast off the unicorn crown in smoking plumes explodes in another world, for him to get away!" she laughed and looked at me again ."Run little pony! Mordred's flat teeth give chase!" she playfully gnashed her teeth in merry jest mocking
I Smudgie Pie woke up.
As one of our great philosophers has spoken."Nuff said."
Now I will begin to tell the many tails of Nyx of the night.
Here is where we begin.
Be assured that Nyx was real, at least documented by the judge above who came after, and her descendants are here even now, at court and regularly eat ,at her majesty's table.
My tale begins there also.
Princess Celestia was interested in me the moment I came into court.
Most scholars and gentry usually pay another to bring their petition before the throne. I, being recently impoverish do to an accident near a river. My research on a very important linage lost down stream, I had to make the petition myself to scraps of fairtail I had left or else eat grass and be a dullard!
I curse myself, that unfortunate stumble! Such a luxurious warm and pleasant day of zephyr breezes, I just wasn't paying attention. The sun was in my eyes.
As soon as I was before the throne, I made my bow and prepared my petition.
"Useless Scrubb." she said beneficently."What an interesting name!"
Surprised I rose, she knew my name,"Um yes your Majesty..."so very awkward.
"It says you are a historical researcher come to petition me, us, to allow the printing of certain documents as an anthology?"
"Yes your Majesty..."
"Well, I'm afraid I can't allow you to do it right now..."
"Oh..."so very disappointing
"Comeback this evening, I am having a private dinner with my sister...we will be together,"she smiled lightly," then discuss your petition."
It was most extraordinary! To be invited to dine?Me! What was I to wear!
Looking through my rags, an accumulation of at least five households, a miracle! I assembled a tux...it was tight in places...but I made it fit and look reasonably well...well..
A good cleaning, with good soap, coat brushing, teeth filing and the tiniest bit of cologne, all little beyond my budget, I...hired a carriage to take me to the palace from the cheap hotel I was staying.
The princess had me meet her in the gardens and walk a bit. There she told me stories.
We looked at the statues.
A decaying figure clutching a flag held aloft in defiance stance, as some weird biped, as his face began to soften by the element of wind and rain, forced by time to change, the braces and manacles he was wearing, stubbornly holding him upright, being undressed from him by nature's force. As I watched, one of the digits on the manacle of his right hoof broke off and fell to the ground with a click. I though I saw deep despair in those worn stone of his eyes.
Another was of a beautiful young mare she also stood erect, she held a sword in her hoof, in readiness but apprehension, Her dressing was turn of the century work of an excavator, I could guess, archaeologist? Clothes, pants and a cloak, still so very feminine, tossed by a stilled wind, chosen by the artist to look a pair of wing.
Like a Pegsi warrior bring salvation or justice.
Roses grew in abundance around her. "Quarter Horse special..."Celestia said bringing one up to catch its scent. "Lady Brundle Berry." she said with a smile as I took in the delicate fragrance offered. "I wish I had understood what those twisted Alicorn skeletons had meant when she found them in the train tunnel."Celestia's mood darkened."In that dark pit entombed in clay...predating Equestria." she sighed."Only Quarterhorse had the curiosity given by his ancestry to ask."sighing again."If I had had it, maybe he wouldn't have gone...Yes, for Brundle Berry he would have stayed,he would have stayed."she smirked "after all, I was never his princess.."
I did not ask. I was not invited too. I felt I was merely there to listen.
She turned to leave, I read the pedestal among the roses.
"One. Two. Three. The Secret of the Shovel."
"Moon flowers!" she cried bringing my attention.
"From Quarterhorse?" I asked
She only gave me a mischievous and mysterious smile, after all I was only there to listen.
"After Val Cry was dismissed from his post...I had these moon flowers planted round this stone! Aren't they lovely this time of year? So close to evening?"
The beautiful and delicate blooms seemingly from another world framed a stone. A grave!
"There is a pony there?"
"His name is Issac...."she said solemnly.
"Issac? Strange pony name."
"Yes...haven't you heard of the strange ponies?"she asked.
Stories. I had heard stories."The Thundering Herds..."
"Yes."She pointed at the stone. "Issac, means beloved...he was most beloved by me. My strange cap and bearded Issac.."
We walked on. "These gardens originally were tended by Doctor Puzzle." she said."When I heard this I could have heard the sound of children laughing and playing and singing. Till we passed that twisted figure.
She pointed at it,"Discord."she said.
"Doctor Puzzle often left riddles."she said bringing me back."Can you read this one?"
I squinted and read at last,"Find Marigold's"
A game!Trotting over to one, I pointed at it."Marigold!" I said proudly.
Celestia walked over never taking her eyes off of me. "I always look for Marigold's when I can.." she continue staring.
"Come,"she said at last. "Sister is waiting, we have much to discuss!"
