The Powers That Be

Freedom is the most tenuous of ideas.  The might of a thousand foes cannot break it, yet a single word can shatter it like crystal.  It exists in the mind.  It cannot be taken by breaking the body, but only by breaking the mind.  But once it is lost, there may be no recovering it.

Excerpt from A Treatise on Freedom and Oppression - Demequus of Pegasoniki, 365 B.C.E.

Celestia held her breath for what seemed like the millionth time that day as Luna focused her gaze on the ledge and leapt.  The ascent up the cliff face had been long and tense.  The pair had made their way between outcroppings and ledges, flapping where they could and climbing where they couldn’t.  Not for the first time, Celestia swore silently at their lack of flight prowess.

Luna launched into a series of powerful flaps, lifting herself awkwardly up to the safe landing above, and Celestia finally let out her breath in a rush as Luna touched down safely beside her.  She hesitated, looking back along the span of her own wings, pondering the strange heritage that gave them both so much trouble.

While their large wingspans were impressive, the oversized wings were awkward and tended to require a lot of strength to keep steady when maneuvering.  The bodies that gave them the great strength of an earth pony also meant that they were larger than a normal pegasus, even a stallion, and they outweighed any pegasus by more than half.  All of this combined made flying very difficult.  The twins had managed to learn how to glide fairly early on with their father’s help, but sustained flight was still quite a ways beyond them.

Celestia said a silent prayer of thanks for their abundant stamina before pushing off for what would be the last ascent.  Her whole body seemed to move with the motion of her wings, maximizing the lift.  Just twenty hooves, she realized, trying desperately to keep her flaps regular as she climbed, knowing that any panicking would disrupt her rhythm and possibly send her back down to the ground to try again tomorrow.  Ten.  Another fierce flap set her back muscles burning, but she had to ignore it just a little longer.  Five.  She stretched her hooves out, gritting her teeth as her wings pummeled the air.

“Ha!” she cried in triumph as her hooves caught the rim, and she levered herself up.  She allowed herself a few deep breaths before turning back and extending a hoof back down to assist Luna.  In a matter of moments, they grabbed onto each other, and Luna made it up to stand next to her sister yet again.

Celestia and Luna stared out at the landscape.  For the first time in their lives, they could see beyond the walled confines of their canyon home.  While the valley consisted of mere acres of land, the world suddenly went on forever.

Behind them, the mountain towered majestically, an intimidating spire standing alone on the landscape.  The slight crevice on the side that hid their foalhood home vanished alongside the massive bulk of the peak, hiding in plain sight on the land’s most prominent feature.  In front of them, the ground sloped away towards the foothills and stretched beyond sight, past the curvature of the world.  The slowly dropping sun painted the world in hues of gold and scarlet, coloring forests, plains, and hills across the visible landscape.

The sisters’ breath caught in their throats, and they couldn’t help but feel very, very small.

“Luna,” Celestia breathed in the stillness, “it’s—I mean, wow…  Can you even imagine what’s out there?”

Luna took a deep breath.  “Everything,” she said dreamily.

Celestia jumped as Luna suddenly let out an echoing whoop of joy and took off, her wings flapping hard to keep her aloft.  “Race you down!” she yelled.  Celestia couldn’t help but grin, her younger sister’s infectious enthusiasm pushing her into a gallop before she leapt into the air.

The alicorns twisted around each other, jockeying for position as they dodged over and between scrub brush and rock outcroppings.  The steep slope of the ground allowed them to glide easily as they raced, exulting in their newfound freedom as their laughter resonated across the rocky terrain.

“Come on, Sister,” Luna taunted between gasping breaths, her tail whipping in the wind right at the end of Celestia’s nose.  “Having trouble keeping up?”

Celestia clamped her teeth down into Luna’s tail and tugged her back, rolling to the side for a clear line of flight.  “Sorry, Lu, turns out I’m a little tired after pulling you up a cliff all day,” she teased, sticking her tongue out.

“Oh, dear sister,” Luna gasped, “that was a mistake!”  Touching down on an outcropping for the barest of moments, Luna pounced off the rock face and flapped hard, throwing herself into a streamlined dive down the mountain, passing her sister just as the two made it to the forest line.  They both touched down amongst the trees, Luna prancing proudly as she gloated between gasping breaths.  “Haha!  I—gotcha.  Ha.  Phew.  You’re too slow, Tia.”

Unable to respond, Celestia simply collapsed next to a small brook and drank deeply.  Luna joined her, and the two slaked their thirst in the stream and regained their breath after the day’s exertion.  The sisters sat in the shade of the forest canopy, in awe of the sights around them.

“This is so beautiful,” Luna observed quietly.

“And so peaceful,” Celestia agreed.  “Everything is so muffled here, so quiet.  Back home it seemed like your hooffalls would echo off the walls no matter what, but I can hardly hear anything in all these trees.”

Luna wriggled happily on the ground.  “Mmmmm,” she purred, “the grass here is so much softer than it was back home.”

Celestia settled herself, resting her head on her hooves.  “Not a bad first day, huh, little sister?”

“Not a bad day at all, big sister,” Luna responded, stifling a large yawn.

The peacefulness of the glade was all-encompassing, and it wasn’t long before the two alicorns drifted off into a happy, restful sleep.

“Oh, Celestia, please tell me you brought some food…”

Celestia raised her head groggily, blinking against the morning light filtering through the treetops.  “Lu…?”

Luna dropped her saddlebags and walked over to paw through Celestia’s.  “Hey!” Celestia exclaimed, finally waking up as she reached over to slap at Luna’s hooves.

The younger alicorn sat back on her haunches and scowled.  “Tia.  Food.  Did you bring any?”

With a huge yawn, Celestia shook out her mane and pulled her saddlebags over.  She dug out a sack of oats and tossed them across to her sister.

“Oh, thank Harmony!”  Luna dove into the breakfast, chewing happily.

“Well, you were in such a hurry to leave you didn’t even think to pack any food, so mother wouldn’t let me leave without as much as I could carry.”  Celestia dug out a small sack of her own oats and began to eat.

“Well, the worst that would happen would just be having to forage.  It’s not like we haven’t eaten grass before.”

“True, but that gets old fast.”

Luna nodded, muttering incomprehensibly around her mouthful of breakfast.

The oats were perfectly prepared, rolled at home and dosed with cinnamon and a touch of sugar, with dried fruit mixed in.  It was the perfect thing to give a touch of home in unfamiliar circumstances.

Halfway to another mouthful, Luna stopped, tearing up slightly.

“Mmm, I hope we can remember how to make these when—”  Celestia paused, noticing her sister’s face.  “Lu, you okay?”

The younger sister sniffed, staring at the sack of oats.  “This is all really happening, isn’t it?  I mean, we’re gone now.  No more home.  We’ve really left it all behind.”

Celestia leaned over and gave Luna a gentle nuzzle.  “Not at all.  We take home with us, Sister.”

Luna smiled and went back to finishing the last of her breakfast.  “And would be that everything from here out could taste as good as this,” she muttered.

“Well,” Celestia said after they had eaten, “do you think we should get going?  There’s a lot of world left to see.”

Luna smiled.  “Let’s go.”

The sisters walked through the woods for hours, stopping every so often to look at odd plants or to try to spot unfamiliar birds.  The entire journey was an exercise in fascination, whether over the way the light played off the new types of trees or simply over how different the air felt.

“I feel like I could just drink the air down here, it’s so—”

“Stop,” Luna interrupted with a raised hoof, bringing them both to a halt.  “Do you smell that?”  They both sniffed at the air curiously.  “It smells like smoke,” Luna observed.

Celestia frowned a bit.  “It smells… bad.  Not like a cooking fire.”

Luna tested the wind with a wingtip.  “I think it’s coming from that direction,” she said, pointing to the south.  “Let’s see what’s over there.”

They walked for several minutes, becoming increasingly worried as the smell grew stronger and more actinic.  It was definitely smoke, but there was something mixed in it, something cloying and bitter but unidentifiable until they came to the edge of the forest and saw the first of the houses.

It was a small village, and it was completely destroyed.

Some buildings were still smoldering, letting off acrid smoke as the thatching and wood flared into dust.  A few of the former homes lay scattered across the ground, blown apart into stones and splinters.  Any structures still standing had doors kicked in or were simply sliced in half.  Luna stared intently at a small home that appeared to have had a hole blown completely through the wall before it had caught fire.  Without looking back, she called to her sister.  “Tia, what do you think did this?”

Celestia’s voice came back, bewildered.  “I was just about to ask you the same thing…”

Luna turned to see an entire home standing upside down, casually balancing on the point of its roof as though nothing were wrong with the obvious violation of physics.  The sisters stared at the sight, baffled.  Luna began to walk around the upended house.  “It’s... impossible.  There’s nothing holding it up,” she said, awed.  “A whole team of unicorns couldn’t balance an entire building like this.”

Suddenly Luna’s voice rang out to her sister.  “Celestia!  Come here!”

Celestia raced over towards her sister, stopping suddenly as she felt the sickening smell hit her nose full force.  Luna looked back at her, an odd sadness in her eyes.  Celestia walked slowly over, looking into the wall of the destroyed home next door to the architectural oddity.  The smell was overpowering.

Celestia finally identified the scent.  It was the scent of death.

Inside the home lay four bodies, each one mangled and still.  A middle-aged earth pony mare lay almost protectively in front of a trio of younger ponies barely out of foalhood.  The bodies of the youths were sprawled in the corner as if they had been backed into it before being murdered.

“Do you see it?” Luna asked, her voice low and mournful.

Celestia fought to keep her breakfast from coming up, covering her nose with a hoof.  “I see them, Lu.”

Her sister shook her head emphatically.  “Not that.  Do you see what it shows?  These ponies weren’t killed with magic.”  Celestia’s eyes widened, and she looked again, closer this time.  The bodies all carried dreadful wounds, and blood pooled all around them, soaked into the wooden slats of the floor.  Luna’s face hardened and her voice grew sharper.  “These were killed with a blade of some kind, I’m sure of it.  They were killed violently and cruelly, backed into a corner, scared for their lives.”

Celestia finally had to turn away.  She galloped away from the building before falling to her knees, panting for air and trying to keep hysterical tears from flowing.  “Why—how…  Who could do such a thing?  Who could do all of this?”

Luna walked to her side, her gaze as cold and hard as ice.  “I don’t know.”

“We do.”

Luna spun to the sound of the voice, wings flared as she stood defensively in front of Celestia.  They found a short brown earth pony watching them from the edge of the trees.  He made no move, but there was something about his demeanor, his expression.  It wasn’t aggressive or fearful, but there was a visible hardness in his eyes that they had not seen before.  “So it’s true…” he muttered.

Luna snorted.  “And who are you?”

“A fair question to return, don’t you think?”  His expression began to soften into something more relaxed.  “After all, we were here first.  We know you aren’t from here, alicorns.  We saw you enter the woods.  We’ve been keeping track of you.”

The sisters’ eyes widened.  “You were watching?” Luna gasped as Celestia climbed back to her hooves beside her.

“These woods are ours.  We’re the few who managed to escape from things like this,” he said, waving a hoof idly at the destruction around them.

Luna growled as Celestia paled.  “Things…” Celestia muttered, her eyes fixing intently on the stallion’s.  “You mean to tell me that this has happened before?  As in, more than once?”

He cocked his head to the side slightly, giving them an odd look.  “Many times, in fact.  How could you not know that?” he asked, confusion coloring his features.  “I think you need to follow me,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.  “There is much you should know.”

Luna and Celestia followed the stallion through the woods, saying nothing.  From time to time, they caught glimpses of other ponies watching from between trees and bushes.  Luna instinctively pressed closer to her sister, shivering from the air of nervous energy all around them.

Just as Celestia was convinced the forest would go on forever, they came to a clearing.  Immediately facing the alicorns was a rough semicircle of ponies with expressions ranging from curiosity to caution.

One unicorn stepped forward, his expression carefully neutral.  “I take it your task didn’t go well, Burnt Umber.”

The earth pony stallion shook his head.  “There were no survivors.  Steel Wing was as ruthless as ever.  The only ponies nearby were these two, who apparently seem to know nothing of the world.”

The unicorn bowed his head slightly, letting out a soft sigh.  “Another tragic loss.”  He looked back up, meeting the sisters’ gazes.  “So, it appears our scouts aren’t crazy after all.  Alicorns.”  He stepped forward.  “My name is Bright Spark, and I suppose I would be the de facto leader of this group.  Please, come with me.”  He beckoned them with a hoof.

The sisters began to follow Bright Spark through the encampment.  Signs of habitation were everywhere, with cooking areas and tents scattered about the perimeter, beneath the cover of the trees.  “Burnt Umber mentioned that you didn’t seem to know much about the world.  Where are you from?”

“We’re from up th—” Celestia began, before receiving an elbow in the side from her sibling.

“Remember, Sister, caution.”  Luna turned back to the unicorn.  “We’ve been fairly isolated,” she said flatly.

Bright Spark nodded.  “Fair enough.  Well, the long and short of it is that Discord is still around and causing no end of misery for Equestria.  Everypony lives in fear of him.  He wields chaos like a sword, and the only thing more tempestuous than his powers is his moods.  Any sighting of him may bring a merely irritating diversion just as easily as it may bring death and destruction on a truly terrifying scale.  I’ve even heard it said that he once appeared to a pony just to debate him in some concept or another.”

Their guide stopped and looked out over the camp.  “No matter how precocious he may seem, though, Discord is nothing short of a tyrant and a murderer.  What you see here is a mere remnant, a hooffull of survivors among the scores of the dead in his wake.”

“But… why?” Celestia asked.

Bright Spark shrugged.  “Nopony knows.  It may be that Discord is playing a larger game, but it may very well be that the inside of him is just as unfathomable as the outside image.  Discord himself is a draconequus, after all.”

Luna’s face scrunched in confusion.  “And what is that?”

The unicorn shuddered slightly.  “He’s an amalgam of creatures.  Goat, pony, dragon, lizard—all combined into a creature that shouldn’t exist, but does regardless.  He draws his power from chaos, and his reign seems determined to ensure that he never runs out.  And as if he ever would, he has a lieutenant.”

“Two draconequuses?” Celestia gasped.

“No.  It’s a pony.”

The sisters stood, stunned.  “What kind of pony would side with—with what we saw back at that village?”

“Oh, I have no doubt that Steel Wing was the one who caused what you saw—or at least part of it.”

Luna shook her head emphatically.  “No.  No, I can’t believe that.”

Bright Spark shook his head sadly.  “I’m afraid it’s true.  Steel Wing’s nature is born out of cruelty.  He has no conscience.  He sided with Discord in order to cause as much suffering as he possibly could.  He is responsible for those who died from mortal wounds.  Few have survived his attacks, but all who have bear the marks forever,” the unicorn said softly, nodding meaningfully at one passing pegasus.

The red pelt of the pegasus was dreadfully marred.  Half of his right wing was missing, and huge scars traced down the length of his side, nearly bisecting his cutie mark.  The alicorns could feel their stomachs turn thinking about what the pegasus had been through.

“He is far from the only one like that here, but some would say his physical scars are easier to bear than the emotional ones we all bear.  Every pony in this camp has lost loved ones, family, friends.”

Luna wiped a small tear away from her eye.  “So, why are you all here?  Certainly he can find you, can’t he?”

Bright Spark smiled, putting a hoof on a nearby tree.  “Even in these dark times, it seems Harmony is with us.”  He nodded his head, beckoning the sisters to follow him.  “It’s hard to describe, but this forest has sheltered us.  Discord’s magic seems to have no effect here, but for what reason we do not know.  We keep our exact location secret and move often so that Steel Wing can’t find us, and we survive as best we can.”

He turned to them and gestured towards a small tent.  “I know you have questions, and we will try to give you answers, but before that, there’s somepony who would like to meet you.  In fact, she’s wanted to meet you for some time now.”

The twins gave each other an uncertain look and entered the tent.

“You summoned me, Lord Discord?”

Lounging casually on a throne made of glassy onyx, the draconequus smiled.  “Ah, Steel, my main man.  Pegasus.  Whatever.  Nice work on that village, by the way—I love your style,” he said with a dark chuckle.  “Anyway, it seems there’s been a bit of a development, or perhaps more of an occurrence.”  He pondered for a moment before shaking his head in irritation.  “Bah, either way, I find that there’s something out there I simply must know about.”

Before the throne, a massive pegasus remained bowed.  His black pelt rippled with muscle, and his wings were gilded in metal that shone in the room’s firelight.  “What has chaos shown you, my master?”

“It seems we could have a little bit of trouble in our future.  Alicorn-shaped trouble, in fact.”

The pegasus lifted an eyebrow skeptically.  “Alicorn, my lord?”

Discord sat up, inspecting a clawtip before wriggling it between his teeth.  “Quite so.  I have seen many possible futures, Steel, and in every one of them I see two alicorns.  They are real, they are alive, they are important, and I want to know why.”

He leaned forward, eyes glittering malevolently.  His voice dropped to a threatening purr.  “Bring them to me.”