The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Celestial Monkey Stylist, moving with the perfect grace and the solemnity of a philosopher, pours his soup down the waiter’s pants.

…

Shimmer awoke to a pleasant scent, and found that a servant standing by her bed with a tray loaded with a mix of steamed kelp, coconut and shellfish: “Good morning, Lady Shimmer. Lord Sullen Hoof had this prepared for you, and Lord Cash is awaiting you in the front lobby”

Rubbing her eyes, Shimmer looked at the young stallion, then at the food: “Ok this… this I can get used to”

Quickly devouring the meal, and finding it absolutely heavenly, Shimmer looked around: “So… what’s the fastest way down to where Cash is?”

“You previously preferred going out via an open window in the form of a small bird – waiting fo the elevator usually bored you” the servant dutifully noted.

Looking around and spotting a window that had been opened already, Shimmer nodded: “Thank you”

Leaping out of the window in the form of a seagull, Shimmer gently glided down in a spiral pattern towards the front entrance of the hospital manse.

The great entrance had a lot of traffic: There were ponies going in the middle towards the emergency room, there were some elderly ponies going in to the left for appointments with doctors and there were ponies going in on the right towards the pharmacy section to buy or pick up medicine. Cash stood in the middle, surrounded by half a dozen managerial looking ponies, most of which were taking notes or handing Cash scrolls to sign.

Approaching the mass of ponies, Cash quickly perked up: “Ah, there you are – just a moment”

With a flurry of his silvery brush, his golden caste mark lighting up brightly, Cash added a few lightning-quick notes and comments to the documents before him and signed a dozen more, waving the ponies around off and giving Shimmer his undivided attention: “Perfect – how was breakfast?”

“It was good – for freshwater fare… your kelp tastes oddly sweet” Shimmer replied, unaware that Cash was projecting confidence into her via a subtle charm meant to alleviate any awkwardness or shyness.

Satisfied that Shimmer looked refreshed and ready, Cash first directed her attention to a pillar across the road from the front entrance of the manse: “Do you know what this is?”

As the duo approached the pillar several small pods loaded with cargo arrived, and others reminiscent a bit of stagecoach carriages, but without anyone pulling them around… instead the pods and carriages seemed to latch on to and get carrier off by beams of light that came from a glowing sphere above the pillar. Shimmer had to admit that she had no idea what she was looking at: “…but it’s some kind of transport system, for ponies and cargo?”

“Yup. It’s a light rail system. Come, we’ll take one to the harbour” Cash said, inviting Shimmer into a carriage. The attendant at the pillar waved them in and inside Cash showed the lunar how to operate the crystal display and controls. The destinations were neatly labelled in the local tongue, letting Shimmer punch in the instructions for the harbour pillar. There was a jolt as the carriage latched on to the light rails and floated up into the air, accelerating at a comfortable pace.

Cash was quick to point out the various parts of Sunhill to Shimmer as they moved through the city, talking about the alchemical works, the blacksmith square, the big foundry, medicine lane, the underground warehouse entrance, and once they arrived at the harbour Cash regaled her about the magical cranes that allowed for speedy cargo on- and off-loading: “We’re not quite at first age levels of productivity yet, but we’re getting there. Speaker has personally trained nearly every craftspony in the city, to the point that we have almost nothing but masters – we’re earning a fair bit of money taxing the schools that many of them have set up on their own, many ponies from beyond Sunhill coming here to learn from us – but it’s still an uphill struggle to get merchants to package their goods in large enough crates to fully exploit our cranes”

“This is amazing… half a year ago the fanciest anything I knew of where the drift-netting techniques the elders in my tribe taught us, but now I’m flying in a pod on a beam of light through a city that smells of pine all the time” Shimmer marvelled as they rode the light rail to another part of the city.

From what Shimmer could gather, chiefly based on the painted and glass framed map of the city’s light rail system on display at the pillar, then the rail network was set up in big circles in and around around the city, with several connections set around the manse. It was a bit like a wheel within a wheel with spokes, with four stops encircling the manse as the central hub of it all.

“The really cool thing is that over in the artifice district we’re cranking out pillars and gemstones cut for anchor spheres, so we can spread the rail network. We’ve also helped Lookshy get their own light rail system back in working order, and now we’re making pillars to connect Sunhill and Looksy, which would make Sunhill a trade hub almost on par with Nexus… and you won’t believe the bids we’ve gotten to have our network extended to other neighbouring kingdoms” Cash said, his eyes gleaming with golden essence in sheer anticipation.

The implications of Cash’s light rail schemes were a bit beyond Shimmer’s understanding, but she remembered Nexus… or at least parts of it: “Right, and Nexus is an enemy, right?”

“No. Nexus is a trade hub. Its full of greedy and vindictive merchants who think we owe them money – which we most certainly do not - but they have been funding a lot of raiders, mercenaries and bandits who have harassed us, tried to blockade the canals that come up to us from the yellow river… but we’ve countered them, and if you recall what Heath Rose said on the evening of your arrival here, then those foolish merchants will give up on us in but a few short years”

Their rail pod slowed down as it neared the southern manse pillar, slowly floating down to the ground and untethering itself from the light rail, allowing the two to exit. Shimmer looked on as the pod floated back up and rejoined the network: “Who controls these things? How do they do that on their own?”

“You’re a lot better off asking Speaker about that – I think they work on their own, but I know we have a maintenance hub in the eastern part of the city” Cash said, gesturing towards the hospital manse.

The two walked towards the manse, when suddenly a pony came galloping from behind them, her angry scream muffled by the knife in her mouth as she tried to stab Cash in the back.

To Shimmer’s surprise then Cash’s exquisitely luxurious blue silken jacket turned the blade as if it was armor plating, leaving the mare looking somewhat confused. Guards quickly rushed her, pinning her to the ground.

It had happened so fast – Shimmer didn’t even to react – but Cash seemed to have chosen not to react, at least not until the mare was pinned to the ground. He then trotted up to her, his caste mark flaring as he withdrew a purse that rattled with coin from a pocket and gave it to her: “This should be enough to get your family out of Nexus. Have them sent here. There will be honest work for all you, and the guild will not be able to collect any debt you owe them here”

Shimmer looked at Cash with roughly the same level of confusion in her eyes that the mare on the ground had. Cash gestured for the guards to release the would-be assassin – she was even given back the knife. With that done, Cash walked off: “Come on Shimmer, Speaker is waiting for you”

Shaking her head in disbelief, Shimmer had to gallop briefly to catch up to Cash and his swift stride: “What just happened?!”

“The guild has run out of professional assassins to send after us. We are very good at catching those, so now the guild uses ponies who are in more debt than they can ever pay and turns them into would-be killers. They tell them to kill me in exchange for having their debt erased. With my charms I could see it in her eyes. I also used a charm to make sure that she’d actually do what I told her, but once she gets her family here there will be work for her”

Ok, that much made sense – but still, Shimmer found herself incredulous: “She tried to kill you – most places punish attempted murder”

“Yes, but we don’t bother wasting money and guards on prisons here. Trust me, the guild has tried flooding Sunhill with thieves to burden our courts and jails – but we’ve found it much more efficient to just round them up and use charms to instil in them regret, a strong and honest work ethic, and a desire to do penance. After that they join our workforce as honest labourers or leave as honest ponies to seek their fortunes elsewhere” Cash said, speaking with a casual candour that quite thoroughly impressed upon Shimmer that this had been something that the circle had chosen to do after much careful deliberation and debate.

Shimmer shook her head: “That’s… that’s amazing”

“Between me and Sully, then we have a wide suite of charms to figure out what makes a pony do what it does. Like with you for example, you practically radiate uncertainty. You’re afraid that you’re not good enough to be of any use to the circle here – and it’s spiced up with a hint of wondering if you should just return to the west to the ponies you know there” Cash casually stated, as he trotted towards the hospital manse.

The expression of horror on Shimmer’s face, with Cash having just laid her innermost secrets bare – despite no other ponies being in earshot, was palpable. Cash quickly followed it up: “We all had it like that at some point. There was a time when I was useless in combat, nearly got killed several times. You even saved my life on quite a few occasions, so I owe you that much. It takes time to learn these things, but with Speaker’s education charms I’m sure you’ll catch up in no time. Fire Orchid is having the same problem, you could probably train with her if you asked”

Entering the hospital via a staff entrance, Cash told Shimmer how to find Speaker and then left to resume his own work. She certainly had plenty to think about as she stalked the halls of the manse.

Listening carefully, Shimmer tried to home in on Speaker. Cash had told her to find him by finding the joyous crying and singing. After a little thought, Shimmer found that such directions probably made sense: Having been gone from Sunhill for almost two seasons, they were bound to have plenty of patients who had ailments beyond what the ordinary doctors could fix – and back at Admiral Sand’s desert hideout there had been much joyous crying and singing as Speaker had healed everyone.

“Lord Bright!” Shimmer cried out, as she found him in a hallway as he had just left the foal ward, which true to form was full of singing of foals and their families, celebrating the miraculous recovery of their children.

With his long fine beard and kind smile, Speaker raised a hoof to beckon Shimmer to halt: “Ah, good to see you – but hold on”

Speaker used his charm to rinse off the blood and gore on his hooves, his unshorn fetlocks caked in all manner of nasty looking and smelling goop from his last patient. Shimmer smiled: “Tough case Lord Bright?”

“No, not really – just… leaky. A multiple compound fracture, partially gangrenous, patient had gone septic. Poor soul had five different colors of goop coming out of him, not counting blood” Speaker explained with a somewhat pained expression, but he equally smiled, which told Shimmer that the patient had survived.

“So… now what’s on your schedule Lord Bright?” Shimmer wondered.

Pointing towards a door down the hall, Speaker explained that he still had three wards with adult patients to clear out: “So… we should be done in an hour or so”

That didn’t quite add up to Shimmer, but once they got to the first ward and Speaker began his work, Shimmer quickly revised her estimate: With mere glances, the softest of touch, or gentle words – all of them infused with ample essence, Speaker breathed life into the dying, had amputated limbs growing back, purged bodies of poison and disease and brought hope to the hopeless.

In mere minutes there were dozens of ponies jumping about in joy as family members who had been at death’s door were up and about again – and by the end of the hour all the wards were full of empty beds, many of them soaked in tears of joy.

His work done; Speaker didn’t linger. Shimmer followed him to his office, absolutely blown away by how fast he had performed his medical miracles: “How were you able to use that much essence, so quickly Lord Bright? You should have run out halfway through the first ward…”

“We’re in a powerful manse – it restores plenty of essence to me, plus I wear its hearthstone, and quite a few ponies who have been healed by me include me in their prayers at night. I get a lot of essence to work with here, ludicrous amounts really” Speaker casually explained, as if it was nothing special.

Speaker just barely managed to float up a scroll and start to unroll it, when Shimmer swatted it aside: “Then what am I doing here Lord Bright?”

“Philosophically, or are you asking for specific duties?” Speaker wondered, looking very much as if he wasn’t sure what she was asking about.

Her eyes glaring daggers at Speaker, Shimmer leaned in over his desk: “You can heal others like no-ponies’ business Lord Bright. Cash seemed to have the businesses around here just making money out of thin air and Sunrise fights better than a heavily armed dawn caste solar despite clearly not being a warrior – what do you need me for? I can’t do anything that any one of you can’t do leagues better!?”

“We used to feel the same when looking at you– when we all first met you were the elder with powers greater than any of us, able to match each of us at any task. You’ll catch up, with my training charms you’ll…” Speaker said, only for his gaze to grow distant all of a sudden.

Her brows furrowing, Shimmer wasn’t quite sure why Speaker had suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Suddenly, in a blur of motion, Speaker made for the elevator: “Come quickly, I need to train you!”

“What? Yes, but… why are you galloping all of a sudden Lord Bright?” Shimmer cried out, stomping her hoof in frustration.

Turning on a dime, Speaker darted back and grabbed Shimmer, his face one of wonder and urgency: “The Terrestrial Edification Program! I need to remember it!”

Her inner conflict between demanding clarification and simply submitting to her bond between Speaker and her exaltation lasted only a split second – chiefly because Shimmer reasoned that she could get an explanation while in the elevator.

Indeed, while going down to ground level Speaker started going off about this would change everything: “It’s the final apotheosis of the educational charm set I know. It will let me teach mortal ponies how to enlighten their essence! We can have the whole city enlightened… we could have… oh…”

Ok, the idea of having a city full of enlightened ponies – that would probably change a few things. Shimmer could still remember, quite clearly, how much easier it got grabbing things when she could just use her essence to float things around instead of having to grab stuff with her mouth, or balance on three hooves to use the fourth to work a tool. A city full of ponies with enlightened essence… that was bound to grab someone’s attention: “Hold on, won’t that bring the mother of all wyld hunts down on us Lord Bright?”

“Nah, the immaculates stopped sending wyld hunts after us a long time ago – after we got their grandmaster killed and humiliated the top leader of the hunt they’ve had all kinds of trouble mounting any kind of hunt against us” Speaker said in passing, as he sped out of the manse.

A few minutes later the duo arrived at a place where the sign out front read “House of strength” – and inside it revealed itself as a gym. This made Shimmer wonder exactly what kind of ‘education’ Speaker was thinking about, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t there to teach, but to question some of the ponies training: A group of egghead-looking ponies who were lifting iron-capped wooden logs up and down, while also reading books resting on strategically placed lecterns.

“Lord Speaker, what can we do for you?” one of them said as the duo was noticed, Shimmer taking note of her not being the only one to address Speaker that way.

Speaker nodded to the pony: “As you were – I need to know how quickly all of the foals in grade six and seven can be gathered at the grand Amphitheatre”

“In a few hours – why?” the pony replied.

Shimmer didn’t find the conversation all that interesting – expect that retort, that this pony dared question Speaker… it made part of her want to rip the stallion’s head off – but Speaker was smiling… and calm… so it was ok? But weren’t all these ponies their subjects? They shouldn’t be able to second guess their exalted lords, or least not be allowed… right? That was how Sage had said that solars ruled.

“Perfect, I’ve sent the messages – Shimmer, please come with me” Speaker said, leaving the establishment.

Keeping apace, Shimmer simply had to ask: “Hold on – who was that pony, and why was it ok for him to question you Lord Bright?”

“He’s the pony in charge of our grade schools – and of course he can ask, all our subjects can, otherwise we might end up doing something stupid” Speaker said cheerfully, heading towards the nearest light-rail pillar.

A quick ride on the light-rail, the duo arrived in the city’s entertainment district. Buskers at every street corner filled the area with music, and colorful parlours, theatres, tea and coffee houses were everywhere. The biggest feature was the grand amphitheatre: Like every other structure it looked as if the stone structure had grown out of the grown, with large leaf-painted rain covers that could be drawn over the stage and the audience seats if needed.

What struck Shimmer was how big it was: “Just how many ponies can be seated here Lord Bright?”

“The whole city – we made this place for large public announcements and debates” Speaker said with a grand gesture.

“Debates, Lord Bright?”

“Of course. We’re not a dictatorship. Cash wants to train our administration to be able to run this place without us being here – he’d probably say something about how the ponies here desire to be under our leadership because they recognize the good we’ve done… and honestly, when everyone learns what we’re about to be able to offer, every pony in creation will want to be our subjects… but we don’t want that kind of blind obedience” Speaker explained as he gestured at the theatre maintenance staff.

In just a few hours the theatre was dusted off and made ready – and the foals began arriving in droves shortly thereafter. Shimmer had never seen so many foals in one place, hell she’d never seen this many pones in one place… and yet part of her urged her to be calm. It felt right. They were clearly there to listen, and during the setup Speaker had explained that the point of it all was to give a charm-enhanced lesson to all of the children… and her. Sage might have taught her to read, that she could understand the old scripture in the depths, but she knew little less of the lore of creation, something she dearly needed for future reference.

While noisy at first, Speaker quickly called attention to himself and everyone in the theatre fell silent almost instantly, even the youngest of the foals. Shimmer found a spot to sit and listened intensely as Speaker began to teach all whole list of topics like math and geography, about the various nations of the hundred kingdoms and their crests or livery colors. By late afternoon Shimmer’s head was swimming, straining to absorb and process all the information Speaker had dished out.

“And remember: Meditate on what I have told you for a week to make sure it sinks in and sticks with you. There’ll be a test in two weeks administered by your teachers, and all who pass it will be off from school for the rest of the year” Speaker announced, before stepping down from the stage and motioning for Shimmer to come with him.

Shimmer, heeding Speaker’s instructions, meditating deeply on what she had learned – and as the days passed the new information did become easier to parse and figure out. At the end of the week Shimmer realized that it had taken Sage several weeks just to teach her to read, but now she had absorbed and internalized what amounted to probably a month’s worth of private tutoring in just a single afternoon… and so had all those other foals.

Galloping out of her chambers, Shimmer sought Speaker to tell him that her lesson had finally come to fruition. At his office she was told by his elderly secretary that Speaker was at Fire Orchid’s training grounds, probably sparring. Shimmer was out the window in the form of a seagull in the blink of an eye, the old mare secretary simply shrugging and closed the window after Shimmer.

Having travelled with Speaker, Shimmer knew his scent well enough, so tracking that was quite easy. This let Shimmer home in on what turned out to be a sand-covered courtyard in the middle of what looked like a somewhat fortified apartment building. Speaker was down in the courtyard, observing Fire Orchid sparring with a group of other burly looking ponies-at-arms, tossing them around left and right.

“Ah Shimmer, perfect, just the pony I need – Fire Orchid, if you would?” Speaker said, sitting on the side-lines and observing the sparring quite thoroughly.

Shimmer quickly gestured for Fire Orchid to pause: “Hold on, what’s going on Lord Bright? I just wanted to say tell Speaker that the lesson he gave last week finally made sense to me”

Fire Orchid sized Shimmer up: “He wants to see me teach you how to wrestle – but I’ll need to see you fight first, to see how good you are”

“Ok… and why does he want to see you teach me?” Shimmer wondered, as she began circling Fire Orchid, while the ponies at arms cleared away.

With a somewhat meanspirited chuckle, Fire Orchid shrugged: “Well, you are a tribal… so no formal combat training. I know how eastern tribals fight, so I’m guessing Speaker just wants to see if you’re good enough”

“You know how tribals fight? Really?” Shimmer said, sending a few weary looks over at Speaker who simply looked on silently.

Fire Orchid reared up and dropped into what was clearly some kind of fighting stance: “I spent the last several years of my life as a mercenary out far east, killing tribals who were raiding guild plantations – trust me, I know how your kind fights”

Shimmers eyes went wide. Was this the dark past she had been told Fire Orchid had? She certainly didn’t seem all that conflicted about it – which only went to piss of the lunar who began shifting into her warform.

“There we go – even looks like your old warform, how about that” Fire Orchid commented, though by her tone her words sounded decidedly mocking.

With all three eyes of her warform trained on the pony before her, Shimmer’s feathers ruffled down her sides in waves as her massive vaguely pony-shaped bird form solidified, though the instant her form was no longer shifting its feathers began to melt together into massive bone-shell segments, while her talons began to extend – all the while she circled Fire Orchid.

The ponies at arms who had previously sparred with Fire Ochid began taking bets, which Speaker found quite silly: The result of bout was already given – but he couldn’t see any other way for it to play out. This was a lesson Shimmer had to learn the hard way.

Shimmer lunged at Fire Orchid with a wild swipe, the solar pony expertly parrying the deadly blow with her bare hoof, the lunar’s knife-sized claws sparking against the solar’s essence-hardened hide and hooves. Fire Orchid returned the favour with a powerful blow, but Shimmer’s three eyes meant that she saw it coming a mile away, letting her dart back a little to dodge the blow effortlessly.

Fire Orchid then leapt at Shimmer, going from a standing position to bounding high into the air, a rear-hoof raised for a powerful downward buck. Shimmer unfurled her wings, enhancing her manoeuvrability while conjuring her essence webbing all around her: Fire Orchid somehow managed to twist and weave through the webbing blasting at her, though it meant missing Shimmer by a wide margin as she came down.

Briefly looking a tad distraught at how Fire Orchid had dodged all her webbing, Shimmer was caught off guard as the pony dodged under the warformed lunar and delivered a series of swift but potent blows to her belly. Jumping into the air, Shimmer tried to grab Fire Orchid with all four of her limbs, but again this was parried – and as Shimmer came down, she couldn’t twist out of the way for Fire Orchid’s blow.

One smashed wall and several bits of crushed furniture later, Shimmer found herself digging her way out the apartment building, feeling a bit dizzy. Her ears were ringing, and she was seeing six of everything: “What happened…”

“Fire Orchid put you to bed, through the wall… and another bed” Speaker noted, helping her out of the rubble.

Shaking her head, Shimmer looked out at the sand-covered courtyard. Fire Orchid stood in the centre of it, smiling.

Once out and up on all four again, Shimmer took stock of her loss: “It was over so quickly…”

“It was over before it even began” Fire Orchid noted with a smug look.

Dusting herself off with a ripple of essence, Shimmer looked at Fire Orchid in disbelief: “You’re full of shit”

Speaker gestured for Shimmer to calm down: “Now now – how about you just listen to her, she might know something you don’t”

Taking a deep breath and steeling herself, chiefly to not make a fool of herself in front of Speaker, Shimmer nodded and approached Fire Orchid. What followed was a surprisingly enlightening conversation, not about fighting techniques, but about the very art of war: “…and that’s why I taunted you with the comments about having worked for the guild killing tribals. I don’t like what I did, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use it. I took your focus away from fighting, and once that happened you weren’t thinking clearly. All fighting, whether its one-on-one, or a grand battle, is ultimately about deception – I tricked you, and that meant I won”

Shimmer would probably have preferred being able to see a bit more anguish in Fire Orchid’s eyes, but she had to respect the mare for her skill and knowledge. She also noted that Fire Orchid’s teaching methods were delightfully practical, calling in the ponies-at-arms she had sparred with earlier to demonstrate how one best organized small squads of soldiers and how to best use mixed-weapons tactics. Speaker in turn silently observed the lesson, though from how his smile broadened then Shimmer suspected that he had finally figured out whatever he had been looking for.

That evening Speaker called for a gathering of the council of lords. Atop the Sunhill manse the circle met, and Shimmer found her solar mate beaming with pride and joy: “Everyone, the day has come!”

“You’ve finally decided to stop wearing that faded old uniform and fix that ye-ye ass hair-cut of yours?” Cash joked, Sully chuckling from the other end of the table, and Fire Orchid drawing a wide grin.

Sunrise, dour as usual, plainly inquired if Speaker was talking about his improved education charm. Speaker nodded fervently: “Yes – but the lesson takes three weeks to sink in if I’ve understood the essence patterns right. Cash, can we put the whole city in lockdown for that long? Sully, how are our food stores?”

Cash quickly consulted some of the scrolls of the big table between them: “No chance. We get ships coming in almost every day, they need to be serviced – plus the guards and patrols watching for raiders, and there’s the hospital’s minimum staff requirements”

Speaker’s mood took an abrupt dive, but Cash quickly added: “…mind you, we’ve been planning for this. A little under two thirds of Sunhill can be set up for this, but the rest will be needed to run the city and distribute meals for too busy to cook. We should be able to have everything set up in a few days”

It thus came to be that the next day at noon Speaker used the Sunhill manse hearthstone to broadcast a great magical image of himself across the city, announcing the grand plan – though he didn’t say what was going to be taught. The whole city was abuzz in mere seconds, as everyone seemed well aware that for so many ponies to be called to the great amphitheatre then it had to be of great import.

By Cash’s plan then most households had at least one or two ponies who weren’t called in, who in turn were tasked to maintain the households and help the others. Much of the city’s industry ground to a halt, and the Sunhill hospital executed its emergency staff protocol in order to briefly operate at far fewer numbers, though knowing that Speaker would be there to support all wards did make things easier.

On the day of the grand lesson, as the light-rails were thick with pods coming in from all over the city heading to the entertainment district, Shimmer flew overhead in the form of a seagull. It was just so many ponies in one place… not just thousands, but almost ten thousand. If not for Speaker’s previous lesson on math, she feared that she might not even have been able to comprehend such a number.

Shimmer also observed various delegations and foreign observers. There were Lookshyans in their civilian uniforms up on a theatre balcony booth, and in another were ponies from Great Forks who had the look of god-blood in them. There were others that Shimmer couldn’t quite recognize, but as Speaker had made clear, then all foreigners in the city who could spare three weeks to digest the lesson were free to join in, provided that there was room. A lot of sailor ponies had shown up on that account, some simply looking curious, other having a look on their face that seemed to hint that they had figured that whatever was being taught had to be valuable.

The lesson itself started off with Speaker striking his singing staff to the stone floor of the stage. It made not the sound of a wooden staff striking stone – it instead of rang from every stone surface in the entire building, calling absolute attention to Speaker: “Most of you good ponies here followed us from Nexus, and many of you have seen us shed blood both with and for you. On this day you will get the first of the many planned rewards we have for you all. Everyone else who’s here are just lucky – now please pay attention”

With her essence sight charm, Shimmer marvelled as Speaker spoke more than words. With essence he made images and diagrams appear, but even they had invisible essence subtly woven into them, which imbued the images with profound meaning.

Of course, what surprised Shimmer the most was the quiet. No pony spoke, no pony made noise: Everyone was absolutely spellbound by the information Speaker was imparting… and no wonder… for Shimmer knew damn well that most mortal ponies barely even dared dream of ever attaining enlightened essence. Such was a gift usually only reserved for the exalted, for those chosen by the gods.

As the lesson concluded Speaker very quickly left, namely by reaching towards the skies and igniting his ruby pinions. He flew from the theatre on wings of golden fire, leaving the crowd silent and awestruck, sans the few with enough wherewithal to applaud him ringing out the sounds of their hooves clapping together in the theatre.

Shimmer followed suit, in her warform – that she might have the strength to carry both her own weight and Speaker’s with her wings, as well as actually having wings – the lunar inquired: “So… now what?”

“Now we find Cash and get him to fly us to Lookshy. I have an old promise I need to fulfil there, and I want to get that done before our enemies realize that we’ve just shut down most of the city for three weeks”