What is a Lie? What does it cost?
Author's Note
Hello everyone,
I hope you enjoy the horse words with as much gusto as I put into writing them. this is my first fanfic after spending years on this site reading so many different novels, I guess I was inspired by so many different peoples works I decided to take a crack at it myself. Anyway, because I am such a fan of long fics looking at you Dairies of a Madman I want to try my ~~hand~~ hooves at a multi arc novel and give you readers something to enjoy for a while. I DO NOT HAVE AN UPDATE SCHEDULE! IM SPONTANIOUS AND I WILL BINGE WRITE PLES BE PATIENT WITH ME.
Love, Amethyst ~<3
P.S my girlfriend is an awesome editor!
What is a Lie? What does it cost?
Silence - si· lence | ˈsī-lən(t)s
Verb
1: to compel or reduce to silence: STILL
“silenced the crowd”
2: suppress
“silence dissent”
3: to cause to cease hostile firing or criticism
“silence the opposition”
4: genetics: to block the genetic expression of
“RNA interference is a natural phenomenon. When a cell senses a double strand of RNA, it acts to silence any genes with the corresponding sequence of bases.” — Andrew Pollack
Silence is what greeted Twilight Sparkle, fidgeting with the tea cup in front of her as she sat across the table from Princess Luna; who, meanwhile had a look on her face that suggested she was sucking on a lemon. Calming herself, she did her best to look upon Twilight in a different light. Thinking about how she could best approach Twilight’s curiosity without attracting the attention of her sister.
"Let me see if I am understanding you correctly, Twilight Sparkle. not only have you decided to make it your mission to dig into the true founding of Equestria, but you have also uncovered the truth that was supposed to remain hidden from the world." Walking around the table Luna dropped a piece of paper in front of the purple pony while giving her a hard look.
"Be warned Twilight, knowledge is power. Power over lies, power over others, and even power against one’s self. If you decide to take the first steps to that power, meet me at this location and tell no one else. Bring nothing with you and do not be seen."
With those words the Lunar Princess started to walk away only to stop at the entrance. "I hope for both of us you choose to make right the wrongs of the past."
Unfolding the paper, Twilight was initially confused. It was a royal decree, signed by Princess Luna, declaring the Golden Oaks Library of Ponyville to be Twilight’s new residence. But a thought occurred to her. She held the letter up to the light of her candle, and a new line of text slowly became visible: “Castle of the Two Sisters, midnight.”
A quick glance at the clock showed that she still had time to catch the last train to Ponyville. With a sigh she collected her ever present study materials and headed for the Canterlot train station.
Walking down the familiar halls of the Canterlot castle to her old room proved to be uneventful, at least Spike always stuck to her schedule.
“Spike you don’t have to keep shelving the books, looks like Princess Luna wants to send us to ponyville. I guess they are in need of a local librarian, and tutor. Also. Apparently, we don’t have to bring anything, Princess Luna is making sure we have everything we need, when we get to Golden Oaks.” She said floating the scroll over to him in her magic.
Struck with the realization that he could skip out on an afternoon of chores and cleaning for a long train ride and a nap sounded like the best thing ever to the young drake. It's not that Twilight treated him bad or anything after all he loved cleaning and organizing, plus he felt like he was hording knowledge thanks to his draconic nature; However, her study binges left a feeling of annoyance when he had to clean up after her.
“Awesome, we get to be great keepers of knowledge! The masses will flock to us in droves for a taste of the written word. Duty bound to serve in a great fortress of learning!” Turning she grinned at her causing a small laugh and an easy smile to cross her muzzle.
“You always know how to make me smile Spike, thank you. Now let's get going we might have enough time to grab lunch on the way.” Trotting through the halls of Canterlot Castle, and seeing all of the different paintings and tapestries brought a feeling of nostalgia to the mare, nostalgia that was almost immediately replaced with a feeling of indignation. What gave Celestia the right to dictate the future? or for that matter why suppress history? Was Princess Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon something completely different? So many questions!
The walk through Canterlot did not provide the answer to Twilight's internal questions which seemed to frustrate her further, as lunch at Doughnut Joe’s usually helped her de-stress. After purchasing her ticket and boarding the train, the two of them found their seats. Rummaging through her saddlebags Twilight pulled out a notebook along with her copy of Equestrian history reading more into the founding of Equestria.
However, if one were to pay attention, the farther back in pony history you go, the more muddled things become. Most historians today would argue that it was simply a matter of poor record keeping, or the roaming nature of the three tribes' pre-unification, or even because of the Discordian Era. Most ponies, including Twilight herself, accepted that as fact. After all, it’s the same history that every stallion, mare, and foal are taught. Even Hearth's Warming Eve stories tell of the unification. However, if one looks closely enough, they begin to see the cracks, how everything seems to fit together seamlessly, how Celestia and Luna came to power. The takeover of Harmony and the stagnation of a species came to be a form of control. She did her best to keep her thoughts out of her “notes”, after all the last thing she wanted was to raise suspicion. Ponies who ask too many questions tend to not like the “answers” they find. Suppressing a shudder at the dark implications of her [former] mentor she returned to her study.
Twilight was just finishing and closing her book when the train pulled into Ponyville station. Stretching a bit, she looked around with a small smile, disembarking the train with a sleeping Spike on her back. It was late so not many ponies were out, and she made her way quickly to the large tree house that served as the town library. Entering the small library Twilight breathed in the familiar scents of parchment and ink, and thought she might just get used to this new place. A small rumble in her stomach reminded her that she needed to eat something, deciding that a simple sandwich would suffice she turned towards the kitchen, then remembered the other half of her Sandwich from lunch still in her saddlebags. After tucking Spike into bed upstairs she sat down at the study table with all her materials and snack, glancing at the clock on the wall she still had about 2 hours till midnight.
Soon enough Twilight slipped on a dark cloak and walked outside. After making sure no one was around, she lit her horn and cast a detection spell that let her sense the life forms around her. When she found only Spike’s sleeping signature, she teleported off to the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Arriving at the front steps of the ruined and ancient castle Twilight, took a moment to take a deep breath, then walked inside the ruins. After wandering the ruined halls, she came across what looked to be what was once a gorgeous mosaic with what seemed to be the three tribes as well as another bat type, and Princess Luna herself. Sadly, it looked as if someone had taken great pains to de-face the lunar princess and the bat ponies. With a little more exploring she came across what looked to be broken sets of Lunar armor and an unfamiliar flag. Further examination revealed it to be a battle banner with a stylized crescent moon surrounded by an ancient Equestrian motto: De cineribus surgemus. Vivat nox.
Stepping from the shadows Princess Luna made her presence known, “it says ‘From the ashes we will rise. Long live the night’. My Legions were rather fervent in their mottos and devotion to our ideas of freedom.”
Spinning around in surprise Twilight faced the Lunar Princess with a look of panic, “Oh please don’t tell me I lost track of time and I'm late!”
A look of amusement crossed the Princess’s face easing twilights anxiety before turning serious, "Good night to you Twilight, we have much to discuss. However, I must ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to walk down this path? Once you begin you will not be able to turn back."
"I am sure Princess. You once told me that the truth is the most important thing even if it hurts."
Luna nodded, "Then follow me, I have a story to tell you."
Luna led them deeper into the room past all the rotting tomes and decaying furniture. At the back wall she tapped a particular brick, which ever so slightly depressed inward as a portion of the wall shifted and opened to reveal a chamber beyond.
“This is my old room. My war room, where I planned my rebellion against my sister’s so-called Harmony. Where I tried to right the wrongs of history.”
“So Celestia altered history and you went to war over it?” asked Twilight.
“On the contrary, she began this war. My sister is not as kind and benevolent as ponykind has been led to believe. The Equestria you know, that she designed, was built upon the deaths of countless ponies with one goal in mind. Perfection. That is her obsession, and any creature that did not meet that expectation was cast out and exiled to what is now the Badlands. One of these you may know. The Threstals.”
It took a moment of thought before Twilight said, “Bat Ponies?”
“Yes. How dare she judge ponies on their appearance and nature. She painted them as bad omens. I chose to stand for them and gave them a place. Soon many others saw the acceptance and love I strove to cultivate and joined us. Not long after I took my ponies and made our own kingdom, Equestria divided. Outraged, my sister declared us traitors to Harmony, claiming that I’d been corrupted by dark magic in order to justify the conflict. I rebelled and fought back, not out of something so trivial and petty as jealousy over ‘whose time of day was better’, but outrage over the injustices she inflicted upon me and other ponies.”
“And then she trapped you in the moon....”
“Indeed. She was afraid to kill me due to my connection with the moon, that my death would disrupt the Harmony she so carefully built around her. After banishing me, she crushed the leaderless “Lunar Rebellion”, razing the land where my fortress and capitol once stood in a great cleansing. It is her Solar Empire that created the Badlands, that rendered the southern half of Equestria nearly uninhabitable. I watched from the moon as she dropped the power of the sun on my ponies and burned them alive. All in the name of Harmony,” Luna spat.
Twilight was reeling from these revelations, but managed to keep her composure. Another moment of thought, and she said, “Her censorship of history. She did it believing that it would keep another rebellion from happening.”
“Precisely. And her efforts shall be in vain.” Luna took a deep breath. “This is why I asked you here tonight, Twilight Sparkle. You know the truth, and if you wish for the rest of the world to see that, then will you join me in stopping the lies?”
With a fiery gaze, lavender eyes looked in pools of cyan desperate for a chance to do what is right, and answered with firm determination, “De cineribus surgemus. Vivat nox.”
Twilight’s echo of the Lunar Legion war cry resounded throughout the dilapidated war room, empty save for her and Luna. A single candle illuminated them in the inner sanctum of the castle. The princess began to pace around the room.
“If we are to do this Twilight,” said Luna, “then you must first learn history, the true history. Now tell me, what do you know of the founding of Equestria?”
The young unicorn began to recite what she knew, as if reading from a history book. “Equestria was founded two thousand years ago during the Great Unification of the three pony tribes. It is said that during a time of turmoil that the disharmonious spirits of the ponies brought about the Wendigo's freezing of the land. Only working together were the ponies of old able to defeat them, which ushered in a new era of peace for which Equestria was founded.”
Laughter, loud and full, greeted the unicorn for her answer, causing her ears to wilt and her face to flush red in embarrassment. Luna’s slip into old Equish did not help.
“Pray tell thou jest, Twilight Sparkle!” When she noticed the look on her face however, she stopped.
“Thou art not jesting, are you? Sister hath truly buried the past in a mountain of lies and deceit? It is of no matter; I will be happy to give you the true history of Equestria.” Seeing the sparkle of happiness and hunger for forbidden knowledge in her new student’s eyes sent a delicious tingle down Luna’s spine. “After all, how often will anypony get a chance to learn about the founding from a warrior whom was there.”
The past was a troubled time, ponies were not as they are now. Before the great cities and towns that we know today, we instead had many feudal territories whereupon collections of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi gathered for protection from the harsh wilds. It was in these groups that we find the formation of the land that we now call Equestria.
Many of these territories fought over food or other resources, occasionally even other ponies. These various warring factions constantly searched for ways to turn the tide in their favor. This is what initially pushed the development of magic, as well as the ingenuity of science and engineering. Anything they could use to overpower or overcome the obstacle that was their enemy. Eventually the drive and advancement in the magical field grew and War Mages were born. War Mages were tasked with not only being a keeper of knowledge on all thing arcane, but to also further advance and push the boundaries of Magic.
My sister and I began training to be War Mages under the guidance of a unicorn you may have heard of, Starswirl. He was... an interesting teacher, and very much a father figure to Celestia and I. He had a dry sense of humor and loved to talk in riddles, and he had a way of making you find the answer to any question you had.
We learned much over the years, and received a proper education in all things arcane, even assisting in his experiments. It was during one of these experiments that he attempted to make it easier for the unicorns to move the sun and moon. A noble pursuit with a bitter end. We found ourselves anchored to the two celestial bodies, twisting our forms into something more. This had the side effect of releasing a tremendous amount of Chaotic energy. Starswirl tried in vain to contain the magic and was transformed into the being you know today as Discord.
Driven mad by the Chaotic energies and with nearly limitless power, he turned on us and the ponies he swore to protect. It was here that my sister and I seized power and united the pony tribes into the kingdom of Equestria. It was also here, I believe, that something snapped in Celestia’s mind at the betrayal of her mentor. She began to see any form of Chaos, and by extension anything that differed from ‘normal’ ponykind, as evil. She purged records, rewrote history, all in an effort to prevent something like this from happening again.
As the years went on and Harmony’s influence spread, those that did not ‘conform’ to the ideas of purity were ostracized or outcast, including the Threstials. At some point, either due to their reclusive and nocturnal nature or simple fear of creatures in the wilds, they were seen as a ‘bad omen’. A Threstial born into a family was seen as a curse rather than a blessing. With myself being the princess of the night, I felt it was my duty to look after them, so I used my power and influence to adopt any and all Threstials and give them a purpose. Tis how I earned the title of Night Mother when I formed the Lunar Guard.
For a while that worked and seemed to soothe society’s fear and mistrust of the Threstial race. Eventually because so many Threstials were flocking to me for protection, I made the decision to form a reservation of sorts and founded Hallow Shades. Soon though it wasn’t just Threstials pouring into Hallow Shades, but ponies from all walks of life that just wanted to be able to be themselves away from the persecution of the ‘Sun Sworn’.
The Sun Sworn were ponies devoted to Celestia. Ponies that worship the very ground she walks on. Eventually they began to surround Celestia swaying her decisions in the favor of their kind, blinding her to the truth of the atrocities they themselves were committing, all in her glorious name.
It was around this time that I finally approached Celestia with ideas and reforms in an attempt to quell the civil unrest that was boiling in the streets. However, rather than listen to her own flesh and blood, she dismissed my concerns, saying they were unfounded and that everything would work out. For a short time I even believed her. Oh, how foolish I was.
Choosing to listen to the Sun Sworn advisors over the counsel of her own sister, my future pleas for peace and stability fell upon deaf ears. At the same time the Threstial population that had suffered abuses and been treated like second class citizens had enough, and they fought back. They burned Sun Sworn temples and killed many of the high-ranking clergy that were ordering the purges.
Enraged by the audacity of the ‘Lunar scum,’ Celestia’s advisors hid many facts from her, instead whispering words of treason in her ears. She ordered the attack of Hallow Shades, something the Sun Sworn were more than happy to carry out with great zeal. That night 2,800 of the 10,000 Hallow Shades residents were executed in the most brutal fashion. Foals were ripped from mothers' arms and thrown from the city walls. Entire families were burned alive in their homes. I was visiting the city when the attack started. Not knowing Celestia had ordered this atrocity, I raised the Lunar Guard to repel the attackers. Most of Celestia’s forces were destroyed and the ones that weren't fled into the nearby forest.
By the next morning any remaining survivors of her forces had made it back to her to deliver the news of a slaughter. I of course was overseeing the damages to Hallow Shades and could not be there to find out what exactly was said to her. However, I can be almost certain that it was not the truth. After three days I returned to the Castle of the Two Sisters to inform Celestia of what had transpired. I was instead met with force and declared a traitor to Equestria and Harmony. That is how the Lunar Rebellion started. Word spread like wildfire and soon the country was divided, and I was given the moniker Nightmare Moon.
The wars lasted for 14 years and decimated the country. The 9th Lunar Legion, who’s banner you saw earlier this evening, were strong in their resolve, but even they couldn’t hold out against the Solar army. They fell in a final desperate attack on the Castle of the Two Sisters that I ordered in an attempt to make my sister see reason. Obviously, I lost and was subsequently banished to the moon for a thousand years.
Without me there to protect them, the rest of the 12 Legions went into hiding but were pursued relentlessly. Forced into living in the shadows, they would pass down their loyalties, honor, and skills to the next generation, patiently awaiting the return of the Night Mother and the Lunar Republic.
Looking across the table in the waning flame of that single candle, Twilight couldn’t help but sit in silence, her mind moving at a break neck pace as she tried to process just how far and deep her former mentor’s web of lies spread. The thought made her feel sick with righteous indignation.
“Princess... How can she justify it all? It just doesn't make sense. How can she be so cruel in the name of Harmony? Doesn't it go against everything it stands for?” She almost had a pleading tone to her voice.
“Twilight my dear, you know naught of the true nature of Harmony. In order to truly understand it, one must also understand Chaos and the balance between the two. And there is only one I know that has mastered Chaos....”
“Discord.”
“Yes. His body may be trapped in stone, but his power cannot be fully contained. One can never fully control Chaos, a mistake my sister continues to make. Discord can project his consciousness from his physical form, and has since met and been befriended by a young pegasus living in Ponyville. A gentle soul named Fluttershy. Perhaps you should consider visiting them during one of their tea parties.”
“For now though, I believe I have given you a great many things to think about, and a direction in which to pursue the hidden truth. Take great caution Twilight Sparkle. When somepony tries to erase history, they usually do not react well to it being uncovered. I will return here in a fortnight to discuss your findings and to bring further study materials. If you are to help in this endeavor, you shall need to round out your education in magic. Prepare yourself, for you shall be the first new War Mage in nearly a thousand years.”
With this Luna stood and walked out, leaving Twilight alone. She sat in silence there for a time, listening to the creaks of the old castle and the distant sounds of the forest nearby. The words of the Night Mother swirled in her mind, eventually solidifying into a single purpose and determination that swelled within her. Her horn began to glow, and in a moment, the dying candle was snuffed out.
Author's Note
More horse words in my own odd universe, hope y'all enjoy! ~<3
