Of Ponykind and their Old Sins
View Online

The Tale of the Broken Soldier

Of Ponykind and their Old Sins

Then the room was gone, and Halberd landed on a cloud.

He could feel it in every hair, in every breath, in every spark of being that composed him. This was the old world.

Garen stood at his side as Halberd watched with awe the world unfolding before him, more beautiful and wonderful that Equestria had been, even before the war. It felt so right.

A couple of tears fell before the scarred pegasus rubbed his eyes. "How...?"

"Time and space are not the same in the plane of existence that the afterlife occupies. From there, the material world is like the biggest, most throughly detailed museum exhibit ever. We can visit every place, at every moment."

Then could he-?

"No, you can't change the past," Garen said, cutting that line of thought in the tone of someone that had explained something a million times. "The physical universe doesn't like being messed with in the fourth dimension, especially from beyond death. I could let you interact with everything here, and despite your best efforts things would still happen as they were meant to. So please do me a favor-unlike the last trillion of souls I explained this to- and don't try it."

The Spirit floated forward, wingless and magicless yet immune to gravity. Halberd blinked in surprise.

"How are you doing that?"

"Not a Diamond Dog, remember? Besides, floating is as natural for me as walking and flying is for you. So let's get going."

The pegasus glared at him, gesturing to his blatant lack of wings.

Garen hummed, head tilted to the side. "Still stuck in that broken state? You are a soul now, Halberd. Let go of the wounds and the pain, and remember your wings."

The pony didn't even need to voice how stupid he found the idea he'd have wings again by wishing really hard. Though it was normal for the recently deceased to need time to assimilate the fact that the impossible was normal for souls, Garen rolled his eyes and decided to give him a hand.

The Spirit flicked Halberd's nose, and the scars washed away like paint, wings sprouting in a flash of warm light.

"Do you believe me now?"

Halberd didn't answer, too shocked at the sight of his lost wings, the feeling of the wind through his feathers.

For the first time since that fateful day, he felt alive. Whole.

Before Garen could say anything else, Halberd sped past him, soaring the skies with a glee he hadn't experienced since his first flight.

The Spirit blinked in surprise before shrugging. "Ok, you have five minutes and then we'll keep going!"

After thirty minutes of acrobatics and racing the wind, Halberd Wings found himself suddenly stuck in place. Nothing was holding him, yet beating his wings didn't move him at all.

Then Garen was floating at his side, unamused. "I said five minutes."

"Let me enjoy this, dammit."

"We are not here for that. You have all of eternity to enjoy the ability to fly, but right now we have other things to do."

Suddenly falling, Halberd flapped his wing to fight the returned pull of gravity, glaring at Garen. An expression he felt he was going to use a lot in the future.

"I still don't believe you."

"Then turn around," Garen said.

Halberd did-and gawked at the cloud village that floated not far from them. "How did I miss that?!"

"You really need me to answer that?" Garen muttered before flying towards the village, Halberd following him after a few seconds.

Landing in the soft clouds, they saw a group of twelve soldiers in old leather armors marching to the border, standing right at the precipice and a fall that could kill anything that couldn't fly.

Every soldier was carrying something covered in blankets; except the last two, who were dragging a struggling pegasus, tied and gagged.

"What is this?" Halberd asked as they walked closer.

Garen sighed. "Centuries before the windigos forced the pony tribes to migrate and eventually form Equestria, the pegasi were a culture of warriors and soldiers, people that lived to fight, raid and conquer. This is a small village that existed in a time where such warmongering beliefs were at their most extreme. If a pegasus can't contribute to the community by either fighting, healing or making and maintaining their equipment, then they don't have a place among the tribes."

Halberd stopped as he got close enough to see that every soldier was carrying foals, barely old enough to start flying.

"These are the foals that have birth defects. One is blind, the others can't fly..." Garen said quietly, before turning to the tied pegasus that was fighting back harder than ever, his muffled screams earning him a hit in the head.

"And he is a father that tried to escape with his son when it became clear this would be his fate."

One by one, the soldiers threw the foals beyond the cloud; some were stoic, while others looked saddened by it. But none of them doubted to do so.

Halberd jumped forward, horrified and desperate-only to find himself frozen in place.

"Are you insane?! I have to save them!" He screamed, trying and failing to push against the nothingness that held him in place.

"You can't change this, Halberd. You are dead, nothing more than a ghost here," Garen said somberly.

"Then you do something!" He demanded. Or begged. Not even he could tell.

Garen glared at the pony in frustration. "I can't change this, either. If I tried, they would still die."

The last soldier trembled, holding back tears as she dropped the sleeping foal. With a muffled wail, the bound pegasus stopped fighting, laying limp as he was carried and unceremoniously dropped off the cloud.

Halberd fell to his haunches, shocked and horrified.

The soldiers turned around and walked back to the village in silence. All but that mare, who simply stared into the horizon, tears falling down her cheeks.

Garen sighed and sat besides Halberd, hesitating for a second before putting a paw in Halberd's back in what he hoped was a consoling gesture.

"That bound pegasus was her husband. That foal was her son. For loyalty to her people, she told her chief of his plans to escape. And she will spend the rest of her life wishing she wasn't so loyal."

It took Halberd a while to recover from the shock. Still, his mind kept going over it, trying to process, to accept that what he had seen was real and rejecting it.

"Why?" He finally asked. Garen patted him in the back before standing up.

"They put a value to life, and decided to kill all that couldn't reach that, or defied their choice. Living was hard back here, and that measure was taken to keep the pegasi tribes alive. Though the problem was their hyperfocus on war and raiding, not that some couldn't fight. Sadly, it will take them a while to realize that."

Being warriors was the legacy of every pegasus, a pride many carried in the present even when Equestria preached for peace first. But what they'd just seen... Halberd couldn't call that glorious, something to be proud of.

"Nothing justifies killing a foal," the pegasus muttered.

"And yet, you had no problem killing the children and babies of humanity. Their newborns are even more helpless than ponykind's."

Halberd glared at Garen, but the spirit didn't give him a chance to talk.

"And no, they are not all born evil. Some are too violent or incapable of empathy, but the vast majority are good. Their lives, their environment and culture, their choices forge them into people you could call good of evil. But at the beginning, they are innocent. No one carries the crimes of those that came before."

Halberd looked away, not agreeing with him and yet angry that part of him felt that what the spirit said made sense-only to notice that they weren't in the clouds anymore.

They were in the market of a small village, built with wood and filled with unicorns wearing simple clothes, some clearly needing new ones. A castle stood in the distance, its opulence contrasting with the normal, plain buildings.

"Our next stop, the unicorns."

"I thought the unicorns were rich nobles back then," Halberd said, needing the distraction. The villagers around them looked either poor or average people, with not a single gem or precious metal on sight. And many looked thin, even for unicorns.

"Oh, but not everyone could have been a noble. Who were their servants, their subjects then? The tribes didn't live together before the founding of Equestria, so no earth pony or pegasus would have filled those roles. The queens and kings, the nobles and great mages were the ones the unicorn historians of this time bothered to write about, as they were also of the same social circle; education was for those that could afford it, after all. For them, everyone else was forgettable, not worth recording."

Garen grabbed a passing mare as she stumbled, steadying her so she wouldn't drop the heavy sack in her back. She looked around, confused as to who'd helped her before warily resuming her walk. "The upper class kept most of the riches; most unicorns here have never touched a gem in their lives."

"And I suppose they did the same with the food?" Halberd asked, seeing that the market didn't have much in either quantity or quality of fruits and vegetables. There was not a single dairy product or pastry on sight, not even bread. He was sure the latter should at least exist in this time.

"Yes. The earth ponies not only took the more fertile lands, but their magic in general makes them better farmers. They sell most of their production to the other tribes, but the unicorn nobles used those goods mostly on themselves; it's better quality than any unicorn can grow, after all. So everyone here either consume their lesser harvests or take the metaphorical breadcrumbs the nobles give them."

"So the nobles give them the food they themselves don't eat?" Halberd asked with a raised eyebrow.

"More like they throw it outside the castle with the rest of their trash, and don't care if their subjects pick it up."

"...You're kidding me."

"I'd show you, but I don't like the smell."

Halberd turned towards the castle. "They don't care for their fellow ponies?"

"They see themselves as superiors. That arrogance, bred from their cozy lives and power, is part of the reason the stereotype of a noble tends to be negative."

Halberd shook his head. "How can someone be so arrogant?"

Garen slowly turned towards the pegasus, just staring at him, still as a statue. Not even bothering to breathe.

Halberd was getting a little creeped out. "What?"

Garen just sighed. "You believe in pony supremacy, Halberd. The reasons you put the other races and nations below Equestria? The same line of thought the nobles on that castle justify their lifestyle. Whether you like it or not, you are arrogant; for you would never help someone who wasn't an equestrian as much as someone who was. The same way most of those nobles would never do for their subjects what they'd do for their peers."

"I'll take your word for it," Halberd said, unimpressed. A noble with a comfy life and a gigantic ego was not the same as a normal citizen of an advanced nation that actually bothered to be better than its savage neighbors.

"And yet, right now the ancestors of your 'advanced nation' are just as bad as every other creature in this world," Garen deadpanned. "Part of the reason Equestria changed into what you know is that Celestia was powerful, inmortal and wanted things to be better. But only to the ponies under her rule."

In an instant they were in the castle, where fat unicorn nobles adorned in ridiculous amounts of jewelry ate while idly chatting with each other, calling and dismissing butlers and maids with barely disguised disdain.

The servants looked utterly bored but used to the treatment, doing their best to fulfill the whims of their 'betters'.

"Their arrogance doesn't come from the same place than yours, but it gives the same result; they would never help their servants, or the others under their rule, nowhere near as much as they would each other. They take it all and give little, if anything, back. In their eyes, they are better, the only ones that matter."

Garen turned to Halberd. "You wouldn't try to live in harmony with someone who wasn't a pony, because you believe ponykind better than them, the only ones that matter."

"In the end, who are the ones actually trying to live in harmony?" Halberd retorted.

"Harmony is finding commonality, accepting the differences and doing the best to work around them to live together peacefully. 'Convert or die'... That is an ultimatum, to either give up everything you were and have it erased and replaced or an execution." The Spirit leaned over the pony, who took a step back. "How is that harmonious?"

Halberd knew the answer to that question. The act itself was not harmonious, but the result was. A world free of the stain and corruption of humanity. That perfect dream would have made the world worthy... Had they won.

But before he could answer, they had moved again to the border of an even poorer community.

Earth ponies worked building and repairing houses and shops as best as they could with materials and tools that seemed of questionable quality; behind the duo, fields of farmland were being worked by a legion of workers preparing the soil or tending to the vegetables.

"Follow me." The spirit said.

Garen guided Halberd through the city, the pony noticing the Spirit throwing coins that appeared out of nowhere to the beggars too old or wounded to work that lined the streets.

"I thought you couldn't change the past."

The diamond dog slowed down to pick up a bag and put it back in the cart it had just fell off. "I can't change big things like someone's death, but the small things are not immutable. A kind gesture here and there, enough money to pay for a meal or two, lending a hand in moving or carrying something...

"Life is full of suffering, and even though it's not my job to help here, there's nothing stopping me from making their lives easier. However little and fleeting the effects of my actions are, they suffer less. And that's what matters in the end."

If Garen truly acts like this every time he visits the world of the living...

Halberd had never seen a non-pony be so kind. He had to begrudgingly admit to himself that he knew very few ponies that were that kind. His family made up most of that short list, but it was... different in a subtle way. The pegasus wondered if it was because they did it in part because of the teachings of the Church of Harmony, while Garen helped simply to help those that needed it...

Those that he could help, anyway- Halberd shook his head to get the memory of the foals out of his mind. He didn't want to deal with it right now.

"Religious teachings or not, your family does help people, Halberd," Garen said as he resumed his walk, not even looking at the pegasus and yet knowing what went through his mind. " They would be just as helpful and kind even if they weren't faithful. The same can't be said about them."

Now in the middle of a plaza, a small crowd listened to a smaller group of ponies arguing loudly between each other. They were dressed better than the rest, and their coats and manes looked cleaner and slightly stylized.

"Politicians, in the middle of a public debate," Garen explained. "In these times, they would have public discussions, arguing and trying to sway the people to their side and gain votes for the next elections."

"How is this bad?" The pegasus inquired.

"Oh, this is just a show for them to get the gullible and uneducated on their side with small promises and the occasional falsehood. You see, they are corrupt."

Garen pointed to a small pony at the edge of the plaza, throwing a couple of coins to the beggars and whispering things to them before moving to the rest.

"That one's bribing the beggars to vote for her boss. See that library over there?" The Spirit said, pointing to a building in the opposite direction. "A stallion is already fabricating false votes to replace the real ones on the coming elections and ensure his boss' victory."

Now they were in an alley near the plaza, where a stallion gave another a small bag of bits. "And here we have one of the few rich earth ponies of this zone, paying a partner in their political group to make sure a project that benefits their pockets over the needs of the working class passes without issue."

"Such dishonesty..." Halberd spat.

"Corrupt politicians like these are part of the reason Celestia accepted to rule over Equestria, to try and get rid of it. She believed she succeeded, when in reality most wisened up and became small and subtle enough to fly under her notice, taking advantage of the events that kept her distracted."

"What could possibly distract the Princess from stomping down such rats?" Halberd questioned, incredulous.

"Her usual duties as an absolute diarch, then as a monarch in all but name, helping the Church of Harmony grow and consolidate, conflicts with the griffons once they lost their rulers and sacred idol, conflicts with the dragons for the gem-rich lands where Equestria established itself, expanding her kingdom, establishing cultural values, controlling and censoring education, controlling and stifling certain technological developments that were deemed dangerous in a practical or ideological sense, mourning friends and those she came to see as family as she outlived them, dealing with Tirek, dealing with the changelings, the pain at her part on Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon, the dark alicorn's banishment and probably bloody return, the end of the world..." Garen listed, counting each instance with a finger. "That and more kept Celestia too busy to find most of the corrupt members of her government."

"...Ok, when you put it like that, it does sound overwhelming even for the Princess-wait, the end of the world?" Halberd admitted before his brain registered that last bit.

"Let's not rush ahead; we have a couple of themes to go over before discussing that one."

"Wha-you can't mention the end of the world and expect me not yo ask. And by the way, what end of the world?!"

"Later."

"...Ugh, you're insufferable." Halberd groaned, realizing the Spirit wasn't going to budge.

"And now you know how I feel when I deal with people like you."

That earned Garen another glare.

In an instant they were back in the clouds, having a perfect view of the lands below and beyond. A place Halberd found more beautiful than any work of art he'd ever seen.

"So, here you have three examples, Halberd. Pegasi so loyal to their leaders and their society they kill regardless of the target and their doubts; unicorns so greedy they don't care of the poverty they leave the rest of their tribe in and so arrogant they don't care for those they perceive as below them; earth ponies that manipulate and deceive others to gain political power.

"Just three examples of the many problems, flaws and evil that plagued the pony tribes before the founding of Equestria. Even after the birth of your nation they didn't go away entirely."

Garen turned to Halberd, who didn't meet his eyes, instead looking down from the cloud.

"Still, as bad, as horrible as they were, it doesn't compare to the evils humanity have committed," the pony finally said.

"Because I didn't show you the worst things the tribes did."

Halberd's jaw dropped. "What could be worse than killing babies?"

"A life of suffering, for example. But to answer this, we must go centuries further into the past. Tell me, ever wondered why the Crystal Empire is called an empire if they are just one city?"

"... Because they weren't always just one city?" Halberd guessed, uncertain of where this was going.

"Correct."

Then they were standing on a hill overlooking large plains, and the enormous army marching through, shining as their polished metallic armors adorned with gems reflected sunlight, creathing an ethereal rainbow around them.

"More than a thousand years before Equestria was founded, the Crystal Empire was three times your nation's size, and the superpower of this time.

"Conquerors that expanded endlessly, pillaging, murdering, raping and absorbing all the races that stood in their way."

Halberd stared at the army, composed mainly of crystal ponies marching in perfect formation with their spears. Still, he spied small squadrons of minotaurs wielding axes, griffons and pegasi with bladed gauntlets flying in formation over them, yaks armored like tanks at the front like mobile shields, muzzled dragons pulling heavy war machinery, and a trio of rocs used as mounts casting darks shadows over the soldiers as they passed over.

"What is this...?" He muttered. The pony had never seen or heard of an army consisting of multiple races.

"The Second of the Ten Armies of the Crystal Empire. Ninety thousand warriors marching towards an hippogriff coast city to add them to their territory."

"But... they are not just ponies." Halberd said, gesturing to the army.

"Yeah, crystal pony society included many races, though they were of a lower class or slaves adquired in conquests. They were useful so the military used them." Garen turned to Halberd. "An unfair, unequal and flawed culture, but there was a place for any race."

Garen took them to an opulent plaza where crystal ponies in elegant clothing discussed and dealt between them. A few ponies of others tribes mingled with them, though some were better received than their peers.

"You believe yourself superior because ponykind has followed the Church of Harmony for a thousand years? They believe themselves superiors because they have been conquering these lands for over a thousand years. For some, even other ponies don't compare to them."

Now in a less elegant part of a city, unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies went through their daily lives, most ignoring the occasional minotaur, griffon and yak that worked cleaning and repairing the streets.

"And ponies in general didn't exactly looked up to other races."

Once again their surroundings changed to simple brick and wood buildings were many races, all clearly not wealthy enough to afford anything luxurious, went about buying and selling in their simple market.

"Those seemed as lesser could never aspire to more, for no other reason than being different in body."

And them they were on a cave, were malnourished dragons of all sizes were caged and leashed, minotaurs and earth ponies feeding them vegetables.

"Though dragons were slaves. Less than people. Used to move heavy materials or hunt down free dragons. Dragonkind never forgot the centuries of suffering they endured here, and I'm just showing you the tamest example of what they endured."

"Dragons are savage monsters-"

"Because when disease spread among the crystal ponies and half of them died, the slaves revolted and destroyed their captors. Ten years of bloody revolution to earn their freedom and take revenge. Vengeance ruled the society dragonkind created after this, and although by your time they are better, dragons are still missing some kindness and consideration of others. Nothing that can't be learned. At this moment, though..."

Now they were in a cloud, overlooking a crystal city so majestic it put Canterlot to shame-only for reality to blink for an instant, replacing the magnificence with fire and death, roars and screams.

"Power and cruelty ruled the Empire, so the dragons answered in kind. And they won. The other races fled, as most didn't have much love for their conquerors that did not treat them as equals."

Halberd had no words as he overlooked the battlefield the city had turned into.

"Who you are, not what you are, makes you evil. Now you know ponies can be as bad as everyone else. I could show you more, but I think we've seen enough children die today."

That memory-still raw in his mind- shook Halberd. Could he still deny that ponykind could sink as low as humanity?

Garen took them back to the cloud they had first arrived at, overseeing a beautiful and pristine land, giving Halberd a few minutes to process all that he had seen.

After a while, Halberd sighed, looking just as tired as when they had met, even if not a single scar remained on his body.

Garen could tell the pegasus was horrified and disillusioned, but this alone wouldn't save him from his hatred. It was time to move to the next subject.

"Now that you have seen the evil your kind can commit, it's time to show you the good humanity can do."

Halberd snorted. "Now that is impossible."

Garen groaned in annoyance as they left that dimension. "Done this countless times, yet dealing with people like you never gets any easier..."