Author's Note

I'm going to put this at the top because I feel like I really owe people an apology. I have been messing around with this thing for ages, changing very little and all the while making this story seem like it's been abandoned while incomplete. I apologize for that, and thank whatever few of you are left for your forebearance. With a dramatic change in my life, I am hopeful that I can make all the changes I need to in myself to be more consistent with this and deliver an actual story in a more reasonable time span. I again apologize, and thank you for sticking with me. Comments, as always, are welcome and desired.

The Hammer Raised

It had been over a thousand years since Celestia had a meal in the Crystal Empire, so she felt quite blameless about having forgotten just how heavily they leaned on root vegetables that were less sensitive to cold, and vine fruits and vegetables that could be easily grown in dense hothouses by guiding the long winding stems along tall wooden meshworks. The result was that orange radish soup was really more like a stew heavily fortified with onions, yams, potatoes and turnips and served with sticks of whatever squash was in season, lightly fried in peanut oil to bring out the sweetness. Celestia could tell by how vigorously Luna tucked into the food that her little sister had been famished and hadn’t realized it. She also noticed how naturally and unconsciously Nightmare imitated Luna’s mannerisms, which she tucked into the back of her mind for later.

To her surprise, Matchlight had also been served a bowl of the soup and was eating it as naturally as any living pony might. The empress seemed to sense her (and everyone else’s) eyes on her because she stopped and looked over the table. “Magic,” she said with a grin. “No other explanation is necessary.”

“You’re doing something like what the Evils do,” Twilight said.

“Yes.” Matchlight paused, thinking. “No. Well, yes, but also no. It’s the same concept but different application. The body I’m occupying is a physical echo of my metaphysical self.”

“A physical..?”

“The Evils mold metaphysical substance into bodies, which can be anything they wish,” Matchlight said. “I am a mold into which metaphysical substance is poured, and I can only be what I was. I was malnourished in my youth and so very small in my adulthood, and while possessed of a physical form, I can only ever be a very small mare of a specific appearance.” She smiled. “And I’m not a genius at magic, I simply listened closely when Sotto Voce had detailed high-theory discussions with Light.”

“Now,” Matchlight continued, looking towards Luna. “The esteemed general was about to ream me good and proper before we were diverted into other things.”

Luna politely dabbed her mouth with a cloth napkin and she fixed Matchlight with a hard look. “What the hay happened to you, Matchlight?”

Matchlight blinked a couple of times, clearly taken aback. “Beg pardon?”

“During your life you were their hero,” Luna said. “You broke the pullers out of serfdom, built the foundation of the significant improvements Lamplight would make, and quite literally wrapped your own blanket around shivering ponies and fed them at your own table. And what is the first we see of you as the guardian spirit of your empire? Paling around with a vicious evil like Zambet, scheming to do something with destiny, and it turned out that the event we have always called the abomination was your doing. What happened to the Begger Empress, Matchlight?”

Matchlight sighed. “She led a revolution,” she said. “She was crowned empress, bore a beautiful daughter that inherited her father’s inherent goodness, buried a hero of her people, passed the throne to the greatest empress the Empire has ever known, and died content and loved.”

The former empress took a spoonful of soup and sipped it. “Then a wicked and malicious force called ‘destiny’ entwined her spirit with a source of very nearly unlimited power, and you are now looking at the result.” She looked over at the Element Bearers, who had chosen to cluster together. “Girls, do any of you know Starswirl’s maxim of power?”

“It wasn’t technically his max…” Twilight flinched as Dawn lightly smacked her over the head with a hoof. “Do you mean his observation that power does not corrupt or create, but makes a person more of what they already are?”

Matchlight gave her a nod and gestured towards Twilight with a hoof. “That is what happened to the Begger Empress, General: she gained immense power and became more of what she already was. A firebrand, a revolutionary, a patriot, and a pony willing to do what she must to achieve an important enough goal. I know that you know that I never once feared to pick up the hammer when the hoofshake failed.”

“But it was always a last resort,” Celestia said. “You were careful about violence.”

“Violence has a tendency to fly out of control and have results you didn’t anticipate,” Matchlight said with a nod. “It is also…”

“...fragile,” Luna said. At a nod from Matchlight, she continued. “We saw it with the Havens towards the end, how the tide of mob violence broke upon them and lost all of its energy. It’s what made Tia’s decision… safe to make.”

“There has never been a question in my mind that Celestia would have waited until the changelings could leave safely before she resorted to something like exile,” Matchlight said. “There have been over a thousand years of experiments upon destiny. How to guide it, how to understand it, how to avoid it, how to embrace it, and how to meddle with it. No gentler method even slightly deters destiny from whatever course it is taken, and that is why I am willing to resort to this.”

“Violence,” Celestia said. “Inflicting the plague upon Equestria.”

“Letting that Vorka creature loose in the Provinces to experiment upon the griffons,” Luna said.

Matchlight sighed and nodded. “You forgot what Zambet did to Fluttershy and Light subduing the dragons for a time. But yes, all of that is the price of the hard approach. Light believes that with the luxury of time she could have devised a way to accomplish it without employing the services of Vorka and appropriating Canceros from the hand of the cosmic player that was making a bid for Equestria, but circumstances closed that road before we could explore it.”

“But didn’t you have time?” Everyone turned to look at Cadance, who had been watching and listening quietly the entire time. “Auntie says that the Empire vanished a thousand years ago and it’s clear that it was something you chose to do. If you hadn’t, wouldn’t that thousand years have…”

“...been enough?” Matchlight shook her head. “Princess Chidinida…”

“Cadence, please.”

“Cadence, please understand that while my profound regret at not being able to pass my guardianship to my daughter has always been in my heart, understanding destiny being the culprit was a theory developed and demonstrated during our sojourn out of time.”

“The… abomination?”

Matchlight rolled her eyes. “I struggle to believe that you two earnestly thought that a greedy little scrap of a tyrant was capable of something so profound as removing the Empire from reality,” she said, looking at Luna and Celestia in turn. “Not that it was a decision worthy of a great ruler.”

“Why?”

Matchlight sighed. “For all the legend around me, Celestia, I was not and am not a particularly courageous person. When the pony I trusted the most–Light–warned me that she believed that Discord was teetering on the edge of going entirely mad I assumed the worst. That there would be no stopping him. That he would reign over the world like a capricious and sadistic god.”

“All of which was true,” Celestia said quietly. “So you…”

“Yes” Matchlight nodded, her voice quiet now. “I saved who I could, the ponies of the Empire, the ones that I am responsible for. I abandoned the rest of you in an act of supreme cowardice and selfishness… and I would do it again. Because when the chips are down and the way is perilous, I am a coward, and emphatically not a good person. I am also proof that destiny is not a force for good.”

Celestia looked aside at her sister and then at the ashamed Matchlight. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that destiny could have fallen upon a ruler who was actually great,” Matchlight said. “A ruler who presided over eighty years of peaceful expansion, who established sea trade with Equestria, who made the poor houses a source of pride and a fixture of Imperial culture, who established the Lamplighters to guide ponies through the storms the windnegos drive, and raised the Crystal Empire from an isolated power in a frozen waste to a center of culture and creativity.”

“Lamplight,” Luna said.

Matchlight inclined her head. “My precious Light, the joy of my life, the pride of my soul. A builder who took the ashes of my revolution and rebirthed all that I had burned down into something far greater than it had been before. The calm after the storm, the steady hoof upon the tiller of the ship of state. Knowing precisely what would happen had history taken a different course is impossible but Lamplight would at least have been different and her nature would have inclined her to endure the Reign of the Mad God instead of fleeing from it. Just that one thing would have changed everything.”

“The Exile wouldn’t have happened,” Celestia said, quietly.

“With an empire founded by a changeling noble family, heavily populated by changelings, sitting across the Equestrian northern border?” Matchlight shook her head. “It could never have worked. And with the Black Host preserved as the shield of Equestria, and future rulers of the Empire following already-laid plans to build more metalclads like the Dawnbreaker, not a parasprite could have stirred without our leave.”

“The crises of a thousand years would have played out in the shadow of a professional military ready to act if those involved refused to settle matters peacefully.” Between one blink and the next, Light Shadow was simply there, standing on Matchlight’s right at a comfortable parade rest. “With the option of force removed, the maternal wings of the Sun and Moon would have stretched over the entire world, and nothing would be the same.” She turned to Matchlight and bowed. “Hey Match. Enjoying your company?”

“It’s been far too long since I’ve enjoyed the presence of Equestria’s rulers.” She glanced towards Luna with a grin. “Even if they’re fully prepared to call me on the carpet for my misdeeds. How are things going out there?”

“The 731st have dug in near the disembarkation point to await the following locomotives and are well on their way to emptying the city. I left orders for them to arrange for a beacon to be sent as well.” She looked over at Luna. “You missed some outstanding chowder, Princess. The storehouses at Glacierfast still had their spring haul of shellfish and Snowbell clam is the best there is.”

“I was under the impression that my sister was in danger,” Luna said dryly. “I wonder who could have suggested that.”

Penumbra smirked at her before shaking her head and looking amused. “I shouldn’t enjoy exploiting the fact that you are both deeply dedicated to your family, but it does sometimes amuse me. You rushing ahead with everyone else was necessary because once I wheedled you into coming here, I needed to ensure you were ignorant of my specific purpose in bringing soldiers.” She looked at Matchlight. “The Bell Watch?”

“Marshal Cloud Runner earned her tenner by three,” Matchlight said. “Correctly guessing exactly which outpost they’d rally at is veteran work. They’ve even now gotten their cargo of rations into the undercity entry at the Ald Red Gate and moved a bell transport to the library steeple. I haven’t spoken to them–I’ve been receiving the Princesses and their entourage here–but it seems certain that they brought their highest-purity iron bell up from its storage shaft.” She paused at Penumbra’s sudden aghast expression. “It’s a last resort, and don’t make that expression at me. You can never have too many hole cards.”

“Um.” Dawn raised a hoof. “What do you mean…?”

“Did you say that your soldiers are well on the way to emptying the city?” Although she didn’t speak louder than Dawn, there was something about Luna’s voice that made Dawn go silent instantly. Celestia glanced towards her sister and saw Luna staring at Matchlight intensely. “A city of tens of thousands?”

It would take hours to empty Canterlot. The thought hit Celestia suddenly, and just as suddenly another thing occurred to her. “How many hours have you been at work, Field Marshal?”

“By accurate measure, the 731st has been at work for over twelve hours and the Bell Watch only a little less,” Penumbra said.

“Twelve hours?” Twilight said. “But it’s only been an…” She glanced at Matchlight’s still faintly-glowing horn realization visibly dawned. “You’ve addled our perception of time. The dishes are all enchanted to preserve the heat and freshness of everything put into them.”

“I’m a little surprised that Magic…”

“Munin.”

“...that Munin didn’t notice the ongoing spell,” Penumbra said.

“I did take care to blend it into the ambient magical energy,” Matchlight said. “Although there is little point in the charade now that you know what is happening.” She dowsed her horn.

“She’s never seen magic fueled by positive emotional radiance in operation.” Twilight smiled a little. “She says it feels like cotton and soap bubbles.” She paused a moment. “How did you know that Munin was…”

“...actively conversing with you?” Penumbra shrugged. “We didn’t formulate our erroneous hypothesis that Zambet’s contingencies couldn’t touch the six of you on hopes and wishes. We did the heavy lifting to understand their nature as much as possible.”

“You thought that the Elements would be immune to Zambet’s contingencies?” Nightmare snorted.

“Laughter can bend reality as she pleases,” Penumbra said, “and the rest are of comparable power. So yes, we thought that. Zambet has never levied a contingency at a mortal that has an immortal spirit jealously protective of their partner taking up metaphysical space. It seemed reasonable to suppose that the Elements could disrupt the attempt.”

“Munin says that your supposition has merit but they’d have needed to know what to watch for.”

Penumbra frowned and nodded. “Unfortunately, we had no means by which to warn them, and honestly Munin: would you have believed us?”

“She says… um, just a moment, she says she wants to talk to you herself. This will take a minute.” So saying, she lit her horn and began working on what seemed like some kind of complex casting.

“Why lay such a deception?” Celestia said. “Deceiving us into thinking less time had passed.”

“It slowed you down,” Matchlight said. “Gave us time to…”

“...get your citizens to safety,” Cadence said. “You fear that Zambet will use them if it comes to blows with her.”

“We know that she will use them,” Matchlight said. “There are turntables at the terminus of the line from Glacierfast; as quickly as the locomotives arrive, they are being sent out full of Imperial citizens. Under the gaze of the Dawnbreaker and the mixed company bivouacked nearby, they will be beyond her reach.”

“And there’s that bell.” Dawn said. “You called it a hole card. How the hay is a bell a ‘hole card’?”

“Don’t discount it,” Luna said seriously. “There’s an artifact bell out there somewhere–we think that the du Dune family has it because they have a disturbing gift for securing dangerous things–that consumes magic when you ring it. Original owner was called Grogar.”

“Fortunately he’s gone,” Celestia said. “Watching the Bell at work was terrifying to behold. The strongest magic and the… strongest constructs…” A horrible thought suddenly occurred to her. That Bell Watch pony’s bell broke Zambet’s hold with the same terrible ease. She swallowed and looked at Matchlight and Penumbra. “...what did you do?”

“Before I answer that, know that du Dune has secured Grogar’s Bell against any attempt to take it,” Penumbra said. “Even I, who can deflect enough raw power to shatter a mountain, would hesitate to force the issue.”

“I have seen the Bell at work Light Shadow,” Celestia said. “When that stallion of the Bell Watch sounded the one he carried, it looked like that. It didn’t occur to me at the time because the notion that an ordinary person would be carrying around an artifact was too far-fetched to consider.”

Luna looked between them, looking as aghast as Penumbra had been when Matchlight mentioned a high-purity iron bell. “You duplicated Grogar’s Bell?”

“No one can duplicate the Bell,” Matchlight said. “How Grogar had such an artifact will always be a mystery. But we found a way to imitate what it does by carefully studying it. The more expertly-smelted the iron, the more powerful the effect is.”

“Zambet’s form on any mortal plane is a magical construct,” Nightmare said. “But what is the point of keeping her out of a single city? She’ll just go and amuse herself on the rest of your empire.”

“The bells don’t do anything to Zambet,” Penumbra said, “I tested their effect on her while we were conducting… unrelated experiments. However, while they’re harmless to her, they make her unable to use any power or magic of hers. One such power is being able to slip into the Void as a form of teleportation. It’s not a matter of keeping her out, but keeping her in.”

“Zambet is aware of this?” Nightmare said.

“We can’t be sure what she knows,” Matchlight said. “She has heavily-perused Light’s Archive but she can’t know all of the right questions to fully understand our resources and contingencies. What we are certain that she knows is what the Watcher who broke her hold here demonstrated: they have a way to break her constructs and disrupt her magic that she can do nothing about.”

Nightmare nodded. “With all of this, I’m surprised that she’s lingering with the forces converging here. My–well, Selune’s–memory of the pullers is that they cannot be taken lightly even though they don’t have the kind of flexible magic that can be used for spells. That Watcher purging all of her constructs by ringing a bell was a very clear demonstration of how just one of an entire order of ponies can endanger her.” She looked hard at Penumbra and then Matchlight. “What are you paying her that’s worth lingering within reach of extremely dangerous mortals for an extended period of time?”

“If I reveal that she will be tipped off in short order,” Penumbra said. “You are all fundamentally good, which is an admirable quality to be sure, but would be extremely dangerous in this situation. Untethered from her agreements, she’ll do as she pleases and you emphatically do not want that to happen.”

“So far, Zambet has seemed to care only about living creatures she can snack on and power,” Celestia said. “I will not abide you trading either one. You have to know that.”

“We do,” Penumbra said. “But that is where this discussion ends. We are keeping the terms of the…”

“Good.” All the gazes in the room swung towards where Twilight had been preparing her casting, and more specifically to the tall lavender-coated mare standing beside her wearing an expertly-fitted waistcoat and tall hat in a dull brown that was emphatically–and most suspected purposefully–out of the style of the time.

Munin adjusted her simulacrum’s brass-rimmed spectacles with a frown, looking at Penumbra and then Matchlight. “Now that we can have a word Penumbra, Matchlight, perhaps you can enlighten me as to exactly what mad idea the two of you have cooked up related to cutie marks.” She withdrew a golden pocket watch from the waistcoat and placed it on the table, tapping it with her hoof. “We are on a strict schedule, incidentally, so make it snappy.”