Author's Note

This started off as a self-contained short for Spoopyjupi's "A Spark For Us" Twilight Sparkle Fanzine: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/343b25f1c5.html#page/1. But I really liked it and decided to turn it into a fic. As I am intermittent at best when it comes to working on these things, who knows if it will ever amount to much, but for now I'm enjoying writing it.

Prol. - What Harmony Endures in the Burning Hearts of the Broken

Fall came late to Canterlot that year, but the lingering summer had been harsh. The oppressive heat was unkind to crops and creatures alike, and even the ageless and undying could do little to dispel the punishing rays of the sun. And so, most of those who possessed wealth or power remained inside behind their cool marble walls for months on end, safely tucked away from the discontented precariat and nature alike. The Empress of Equestria was no exception.

Ponies had begun to worry and whisper. Why did the summer linger so? Why did this heatwave not end? Was the Empress displeased with them in some way? After all, it was she who marshaled the sun and the moon across the sky. It was she who ushered in the seasons and who pulled the yoke of the world so that all things progressed through the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

Those who were wise paid no heed to these whispers, and those who were foolish at least only voiced such thoughts far from listening ears and under the cover of darkness, but still, such rumors have a way of seeping through even the smallest cracks and spreading far and wide on the gentlest of winds.

On this day, in the cavernous throne room of the Canterlot Palace, Twilight Sparkle, Eternal and Benevolent, held court. A normally rare event, but something that was becoming more frequent as of late, much to the distress of her councilors and the aristocracy at large. But it was not she who had called the court to session this time. No, something else had brought them all together, something unusual, something that was truly rare within the confines of Equestria’s borders.

Today, they gathered to judge a murderer.

The young pegasus sat on the cold marble floor at the foot of the stairs ascending to the Empress’ dazzling throne and was neither shackled nor escorted by any guards. The curtains were pulled shut over the throne room’s vaulted windows so that the only light available–a massive crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling above the Empress and the accused–bathed the pegasus’ in a soft spotlight.

Many of those gathered thought that they had never seen a pony look so small and helpless in their lives, but they were all standing along the walls at a distance from the criminal, and so they could not see the fire in her eyes as she stared up at the Empress nor the set of her tense and defiant jaw.

In contrast to the illuminated pegasus, the Empress was cast in shadow by the curving back of her throne so that only the glint and shimmer of the lavish golden jewelry she was draped in and the glow of her dark, cyan-speckled eyes were clearly visible.

“Sundancer,” spoke the Empress, and her voice was clear and pure like the chiming of winter bells. It did not boom, nor was it filled with anger. There were no attempts at authority or intimidation in her tone, but even the ponies nearest to the door, far from the throne, could hear her clearly, as if the sound came from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“My little pony, I am told you are a killer,” she said. “I am told you struck down one of my guards when he attempted to stop you from committing a crime. I would hear from you if this is true.”

Sundancer glared up at her Empress, at the unknowable ancient immortal being that seemed more a force of nature than a living creature, but she had ever only feared a handful of things in her whole life, and trumped-up Alicorn witches didn’t make the list.

Sundancer was not a large or powerful pony by any means. As a child she had often been taunted for her small stature, and though her light frame made flying easier, she had never been considered by any pony who met her physically intimidating. Her pale cream coat, her soft and vibrant multicolored mane, and the shimmering golden sun that was her cutie-mark all seemed inviting and kind at first glance.

She sneered at the Empress and spat on the floor before answering.

“It is true,” she said loudly, so all could hear, though her voice was smothered by the scandalized protests and condemnations that arose from those gathered when her spit hit the floor. The audacity, the foolishness, the disrespect! Anger surged in the hearts of those in the crowd, and each pony’s anger fed their neighbors so that they found themselves nearly frenzied in their calls for Sundancer to be punished.

But the Empress said nothing. She waited, looking into Sundancer’s bright and angry eyes, and when the clamoring of the crowd failed to die down, she raised a hoof for silence.

Not all who were yelling saw the gesture, as their focus was turned to Sundancer, but it did not matter. Their voices were stolen from them because the Empress willed it to be so, and the quiet that filled the throne room was louder than any noise that had come before it.

“Why?” she asked. A simple question spoken without judgment, as if she was just curious and nothing more.

“Does it matter?” Sundancer said, voice dripping with venom.

“Perhaps it does,” the Empress answered, “and perhaps it doesn’t. How am I to know if you will not tell me?”

A sudden rush of wind blew through the throne room with a force and chill that startled Sundancer and made the gathered nobility cry out in fear and alarm. The dim light penetrating the drawn curtains was snuffed out entirely, and the world outside the spotlight Sundancer was sitting in disappeared, so it seemed like only she and the Empress remained in a still and quiet void.

When the wind died down and silence fell once more, the Empress stood from her throne and stepped down from her dais. When she came into the light, it revealed a terrible beauty so great it almost hurt to look at her. Sunrises and sunsets played in her mane and her pinions, and stars shone and twinkled in her eyes and her coat. She was so laden with an abundance of golden chains set with opulent, shimmering diamonds that each step she took was followed by a soft jingle.

Despite all of her courage and anger, Sundancer felt herself shrink back from the tall entity as she sat down within the chandelier’s spotlight. But she caught herself and stood up straight, struggling to meet the Empress’ gaze head on.

“Why?” she asked again, and so near to the Empress, Sundancer felt the power of her question, tugging at her like the undercurrent of the sea, coaxing her to answer and to answer with the truth.

“I… I needed the food,” she heard herself saying, and hated how weak and small she sounded. “My daughter is sick and hungry, and the heat has destroyed most of this year’s crops… and rotted what few pastures the earth ponies have left. I’d heard there was food in the city, that if you came to Canterlot, there was plenty to go around.”

“Could you not have paid for it instead of stealing it?” Again, the Empress’ voice was even and curious and without judgment, but still, the simmering anger in Sundancer’s heart was stoked into a raging inferno by the question.

“With what money, Empress? I have nothing! None of us do. What work is there for a Pegasus when the weather no longer listens? What labor is there for anypony when the very land rebels and turns against us? I steal because I must, and when your guard grabbed me and beat me for trying to survive, for trying to feed my child, I did what I had to. If you will not defend us, if you will not care for us and feed us, then we will defend ourselves. I will not let my daughter starve!”

She realized she was shouting and felt the burning threat of tears in her eyes, but she did not care. For Willow Wind, she would do anything, go anywhere and fight whoever stood in her way, even if that somepony was the Empress of Equestria. She prayed to the sun and the moon that the Empress would not strike her down for her insolence and leave Willow an orphan, but what else could she do? She would not go meekly to a cell or the gallows.

A note rang softly in the stillness that followed her outburst, as if an instrument had struck a chord that lingered and circled the two of them. The Empress looked down at her with her deep and endless eyes, encircled by soft flames that never faltered, and Sunburst felt that if she did not stand her ground, she would quickly be swallowed by and drown in those eyes

Then the Empress parted her lips, and her words were quieter still, barely more than a whisper.

“There is a hatred that purifies the heart,” she said, and though it almost sounded as if the Empress was hesitating, the words had the quality of a song or a poem. “The anger of the better against the baser part, against the false and wicked, against the tyrant’s sword…” She trailed off and looked up over Sundancer’s head at something the pegasus was blind to see, then she sighed, and Sundancer thought that if it was possible for the endless and undying to look tired, in that moment, the Empress certainly did.

Of course, it was not within Sundancer’s power to know or understand what it was the Empress saw or thought when she looked at her, nor was the Empress fully aware and privy to the vagaries of her own mind. When Sundancer spoke, when she looked the Empress in the eyes, Twilight Sparkle felt she could almost remember something important from ages long gone by, from a time that had passed into memory and eventually myth. An age she herself could not clearly recall.

She saw flashes of orange and pink and blue, and her mind lingered on the images of butterflies and diamonds. She thought she heard the faint echo of laughter from somewhere just out of sight, and the scent of apples and hay seemed to linger in the air, teasing her nose before vanishing and leaving her wondering if it had ever really been there at all.

For the briefest of seconds, she saw above this little pony’s head a star burning brightly in a dark and callous void, and the heat it sent forth wrapped her in a comfort and care so tender it threatened to make the Empress weep. Twilight Sparkle could not remember from where she came or if she had ever had a family, but she imagined–hoped–that this was what a mother’s embrace might feel like.

To Sundancer though, all of this was hidden. She saw before her only the cold and terrifying Empress, eternal and omnipotent, and who among the laity had knowledge to comprehend the expressions of something so distantly removed from any normal and mortal pony?

“I am going to have to punish you,” the Empress said, suddenly sitting on her throne once more. The light returned to the throne room with a startling suddenness, yet all the gathered aristocrats behaved as if nothing unusual at all had just occurred, nodding to one another that what the Empress said was just and right. Sundancer, feeling as if an immense force had just been lifted from her throat, inhaled deeply and tried her best not to tremble.

“You show no remorse for your actions. In fact, you seem proud and defiant, and you have expressed a disdain for me and all that I stand for.” The gathered murmured approval, and when Sundancer looked them in the eyes, she saw a hunger there, a desire to dole out hurt that had little to do with justice and everything to do with her lowly stature and their own perceived moral authority.

She sneered at them and hissed like a wounded animal, surprising herself as much as she surprised them.

“But,” the Empress said, and the word was followed by an immediate stillness and tension. But what? Sundancer wondered, and in this, she and everypony else there was of one mind. But what?

“I was… moved,” the Empress said, and this time the hesitation in her words was unmistakable. The Empress did not hesitate. She did not change her mind or make concessions. She was absolute. Everyone knew this. The Empress was absolute.

“…moved,” she continued, “by your daughter’s plight. I would not leave her without care nor rob her of her mother if I could avoid it, which I can. Your punishment will be to serve me until the end of your days. You will tend to my every need and be near me at all times, and what wages you would have earned doing this work of your own volition will be split between the family of the dead guard and your daughter, who will take up residence here within my palace.”

Sundancer could almost hear the nobles choking on their own disbelief. Not a pony among them was still looking at her, having all turned their stunned expressions on the Empress. Sundancer could scarcely believe it herself. This wasn’t a punishment. This was salvation. For her and her daughter, at least.

As if reading her mind, the Empress eyes narrowed.

“Lest you believe this will be anything but a punishment for you, understand that you will be working from the minute I raise the sun until the moment I allow it to set, and should I have need of you at night, I will call upon you whenever I so desire. I will assign to you the most difficult and backbreaking tasks I can conceive of and will continue to do so until you shuffle off this mortal coil. For you, a lifetime may seem long, but I promise you that it is but a fleeting moment to me, and so do not think that I will fail to give you the attention a murderer deserves.”

Sundancer could do nothing but nod. If being indentured to the Empress meant Willow Wind was fed and cared for, she would do it gladly a hundred times over. Neither Sundancer nor anypony else present that day knew that the plight of Sundancer’s daughter had meant very little to the Empress. Instead, it was the colors and sensations that had flashed through her mind as she spoke to Sundancer that had captivated her so.

She could not send the young pegasus away nor condemn her to death, for if there was yet a sliver of Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship, left in the Empress’ heart, it was simply this: curiosity.