Peacekeeper

Iron Side watched from the corner of the room as Rarity critiqued the sketch artist incessantly. Maybe it was overkill to do the drawings in an interrogation room. The room was small, with a low hanging ceiling that, supposedly, made ponies feel constrained and more willing to talk. Splotches of dried blood painted the walls on all sides, and a trained nose could pick out which ones were the freshest. What stained the walls was nothing compared to the floor though. It was red, sticky, and made Iron want to bathe in hoof sanitizer. It certainly was a soul crushing room, which was why Rarity seemed so out of place. She was like marshmallow in a chamber of death.

“Marshmallows actually sound pretty good,” he thought to himself. He made a mental note to get some before the end of the day. Maybe Armor’d like some too; she’d eat anything that didn’t have cucumbers. The last waiter that gave her cucumbers in a salad nearly pissed himself in fear; once they gave two free beers though, she let it slide.

Nowadays, drinking was all she did. Right now she was supposed to be in this room with him and Rarity, but she’d ditched them to hide in her room. “Solaris said not to kill her, and I’m making sure I don’t snap,” she’d justified before leaving. It was a smartass way to see things, but it made sense. Better to isolate yourself than spend all day with something that pisses you off.

That’s probably why Armor hid in her room all the time. Everything pissed her off.

“Alright,” the sketch artist sighed and turned to him. “We’ve got the thieves and the jewels. Anything else?” To keep Rarity and her friends a secret, they’d put out the word that they were thieves who’d broken into the castle. They were to be brought to Canterlot unharmed, or there would be no reward.

The Peacekeeper opposite him, Spiral Bound, if Iron remembered correctly, took the drawings and left the room. He was a good stallion, a decent poker player, and had a weird fascination with flowers. Armor liked him simply because he never talked. Iron hated that about him; being stuck in a room with him was always incredibly awkward.

Spiral, as silent as ever, waited for the other three to exit, and locked the door. Without a word, he escorted the artist away, leaving Rarity and Iron with the other two Peacekeepers. “Let’s take her to the guest room,” Iron said from the back.

With machine precision, the guards moved Rarity along in silence. She felt inclined to strike up a conversation, but as they turned a corner, the paintings along the walls left her speechless. The first mural showed a large, black cloud looming over four creatures atop a barren hill. A ring of razor sharp teeth hung from the cloud, and one blood red eye stared down at her. The eye followed her as she walked past, and she did her best to ignore it. While the eye disgusted her, the creatures below filled her with awe.

Directly under the ring of teeth was a figure, composed entirely of pink pedals, raising her arm upward in defiance. A black werewolf, decorated with red markings, howled on her left along with a white and blue one on her right. The fourth creature was one Rarity recognized. Lyra Heartstring called them humans, and this one had magic.

A ring of fire swirled around the human as her eyes glowed white. It was beautiful, which only made a painting further on that much more jarring. The white werewolf had the woman pinned to the ground, snarling, as countless humans burned in the background. “They tell a story,” Iron told her.

“Is it one I’d care to here?” Rarity asked with mild disgust. The image of that savage animal attacking something so elegant appalled her.

“Stop for a second, guys” he ordered, and the two Peacekeepers in front went still. Oddly, they never looked back; it was as if they were frozen in place. “C’mon,” he said and beckoned her to the first painting. “You might as well learn some stories to tell your friends back home.”

“Oh, very well,” she sighed and walked to the armored pegasus’s side. “What’s this one about?”

“Lemurians believe that there are multiple planes of existence. There’s the physical world, our- my world, and the spirit world. Long before ponies existed, there was the Kingdom of Heaven, ruled by Eve,” he gestured to the flowered woman in the center. “It was how you’d imagine heaven- peaceful, blissful, all-in-all wonderful. But everything changed when the Blight appeared. The Blight spread across the Kingdom, consuming everything in its path, and all attempts to fight it failed miserably.

“In one last, desperate attempt, Eve created three beings: Lo, Kai, and Eleanor. Together, the four managed to fight it back and force it into a prison called Hell.” He pointed to the painting to his left, which showed the four forcing the cloud into a wooden archway. Rarity barely had time to take the picture in before Iron had moved on. “After the fight, the three gods were made the protectors of Heaven. Each god was given a race of followers from the physical world- Lo and Kai led the guardians, and Eleanor led the mages.” A third picture painted the werewolves above twelve humans, six in shining metal armor, and six in dark blue cloaks. To the right of was Eleanor with twelve humans clothed in tattered brown garments.

“For years they raised their subjects, teaching them everything they knew, and things were good. But then,” he said, pointing to the fourth picture, “the three devised a plan to overthrow Eve and take control. To them, she was a weakling that hid behind her forces, so why should she be in power, right? They threw her into Hell and ruled together for eons, but Eleanor became obsessed with the Blight. It wasn’t enough to keep something so evil imprisoned. She wanted it gone. With her magic, she discovered a way to kill a god- permanently. In secret, she forged a sword and presented it to Kai, expecting him to be overjoyed.

“They could destroy the Blight once and for all, but the weapon appalled Kai.” He moved to the last picture. “The weapon was too powerful, so he destroyed it and threw Eleanor in Hell, but he didn’t stop there. If Eleanor could make it, why not her mages? Kai ordered his Guardians to hunt down every mage on Heaven and Earth and cast them into Hell.”

“That’s horrible,” Rarity said in disgust. How could somebody curse an entire race for the actions of one? How could somebody be so vile and cruel? Furthermore, why would anybody want to believe such a deplorable story?

“It was necessary.” Iron didn’t say it coldly, or rudely, but as a simple truth. “She’d created a weapon that could destroy the very essence of something, and if power like that fell into the wrong hands, or hooves, or whatever-”

“But it’s wrong to punish those who had no part in the act,” Rarity argued. “Simply because they could recreate the sword doesn’t mean they would. Eleanor only wanted to help and Kai-”

“It’s not a matter of right and wrong,” Iron said and beckoned her up a spiraling staircase. The other Peacekeepers followed behind them. “It’s a matter of the greater good.”

“There’s always a right and wrong.”

“Really? I torture a colt and murder him. Would I be cruel and wrong?”

“That would be an understatement!”

“What if by torturing that colt and murdering him, I could save the lives of thousands? Would I still be cruel or wrong?”

Rarity was sickened by the logic.

“Plus that isn’t the whole story,” he said with a smile. That didn’t seem like much to smile about, but Rarity shrugged nonetheless. Maybe it had a happy ending.

“Go ahead,” Rarity unenthusiastically permitted. “Does Kai have a change of heart and set the mages free?”

“Well, I can’t tell you that without going over Lo,” he told her as he held the door to her room open. He positioned his fellow Peacekeepers outside and locked the door behind him. Rarity listened as she explored every crevasse of the magnificent bedroom. Blue and red sheets of lavish silk hung over a king-size bed, white as new. Curtains of the same colors parted to the sides of an arched window. Rarity could see all of Canterlot through the glass, a view which would bring her world’s to shame.

Were it not for the large yellow feather clinging to the window, she would have admired the city longer. It was a color she knew to be that of Fluttershy, and this made her worry. Fluttershy wanted to speak to her, but she was too scared to show herself. What possible reason could somepony, even Fluttershy, find to fear such welcoming ponies? The only reason she could think of was that thug, Shining Armor. It was an insult to Twilight’s valiant brother that such a brutish mare shared his name.

Nevertheless, it would no doubt be easier to speak with Fluttershy alone, but how? Iron Side had been ordered to look after her, and the ponies here seemed highly disciplined; a request for privacy would be turned down without hesitation.

Rarity moved to interrupt, feigning a sudden illness, but the story Iron wove commanded her attention. The legend told that after the three gods overthrew Eve, Kai and Lo became increasingly at odds with one another. Eleanor did her best to appease their rivalry, but in the end, the Guardian Order descended into a civil war. The First Holy War, as it was called, revolved around the idea of freedom. Kai saw the humans as tools to be used, even after death brought them permanently to the Kingdom. Guardians held power beyond measure, and to let such power run free and unregulated would be disastrous. Lo, however, believed the humans had earned their freedom for serving them in the mortal world, and many guardians agreed. Under Kai, a guardian was a soldier from birth to the end of existence, and such a gross infringement of a soul’s rights infuriated Lo.

When the war began, Eleanor begrudgingly took Kai’s side; not out of love, but principle. Eleanor, like Kai, believed that the good of the Kingdom came before the rights of the humans, guardian and mage alike. It pained her to watch as Kai cast her brother, and all under him, into the eternal void of Hell.

These gods of theirs hardly seemed worthy of worship. They were so cold and calculating, not caring for anything other than the greater good. What use was the greater good if it meant living in a world of agony and fear? This argument burned within Rarity, but if she was going to get time alone, she’d have no choice but to stifle it. “Well,” she said with a cough, “that certainly was...interesting.”

“What, you thought I was done?” he asked enthusiastically. Storytelling seemed to be a hobby of his, or perhaps he simply enjoyed the sound of his own voice. “I’m not even close to the end-”

“And I look forward to hearing it, but right now I have a rather…personal matter to attend to.”

Iron cocked an eyebrow. “What kind of personal matter?”

“If I told you that, then it wouldn’t a personal matter, now would it? All I ask is for a few minutes of privacy- five at the most- to attend to it.”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “That could be dangerous.”

“You’ll be outside only a short while, and if I hear anything remotely suspicious, I’ll scream loud enough to deafen my assailant. Now I do beg of you, please give me my privacy. Please,” she whimpered.

Iron wrinkled his nose in thought and gave a reluctant sigh. “If you even think you hear something-”

“I’ll scream immediately.”

“Five minutes,” he said sternly and closed the door. Wasting no time, Rarity hurried to unlatch the windowsill. The feather that blew inside as she stuck her head out was of no concern to her.

“Fluttershy,” she whispered. “Fluttershy, where are you?”

“Up here,” a nervous voice called from above. Rarity craned her head upward and gave it an uncomfortable twist. Two large blue eyes stared down at her, but the pegasus refused to move. “Darling, what are you doing up there? Come down.”

“It isn’t safe,” she muttered.

“Whatever do you mean, ‘isn’t safe?’ The ponies here are trying to help us-”

“No they’re not!” Fluttershy cut in hurriedly. “I heard Solaris talking and he doesn’t want to help us, he wants the Elements of Harmony to fight a war.”

Rarity knew better than to question her dear friend’s warning, but the news still confused her. “That’s impossible. The Elements of Harmony aren’t for violence; it goes against everything they stand for-”

Without warning, the door swung open and Iron rushed in. “I heard voices,” he barked. The pegasus shoved Rarity aside and flew outside; Rarity’s eyes widened in horror at the sight of the pink feather on the floor. Another Peacekeeper levitated a rifle at Rarity’s legs. The slightest movement and her kneecaps would be blown out, and from the look on the Peacekeeper’s face, he was hoping she would move.

Hieroglyphics…that's all Rarity's notebook was filled with. Solaris feverishly flipped back and forth between pages, constantly rereading and backtracking. The back of his neck burned hotter and hotter with every second. None of the data or calculations made sense, and the footnotes and explanations accompanying every page were of little help. Whoever had written this had no intention of sharing it with others, and this only frustrated Solaris further. This was an ability beyond measure, thought for eons to be impossible, and six ponies had done it, but how, and why? Why didn’t they want to share this with anyone else?

Only one reason came to Solaris: power.

Rarity had crossed Canterlot’s teleportation barrier with ease; if the remnants of the New Lunar Republic found the mastermind of Rarity’s group, no pony in the Empire would be safe. With the swing of a horn, an army could bypass any defense and obliterate him and his subjects. It was imperative that he master this ability before everything he’d worked to build was destroyed. “If that’s supposed to…then how the hell does-”

“Your highness?” a Peacekeeper called.

“WHAT!” Solaris boomed. A fire spell came to mind as he glared at the pony that had barged in. He had given specific orders not to be disturbed while he read the notebook. If not for the shivering white and purple mare at his steps, he would have scorched the three Peacekeepers beside her. “What do you want?” he said calmly.

One of the Peacekeepers kept a rifle aimed at Rarity’s back, and the unicorn to his left was too nervous to move. The third, a black pegasus with faded grey armor stepped forward. “We caught Rarity speaking to someone outside her window,” he said fearlessly. He motioned to the scared unicorn. “Show him.” The unicorn took a deep breath and floated a yellow feather towards Solaris. “The feather color matches Rarity’s description of the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy, and Rarity’s refusing to tell us where she is.”

Solaris took the feather with his magic and stuck it in his mouth. “That’s definitely a pegasus,” he muttered. He withdrew the feather and tossed it aside. “Leave us,” he told the Peacekeepers. The three bowed in unison and exited the room, leaving Rarity to answer Solaris’ wrath.

Unlike the regal and welcoming atmosphere of Princess Celestia’s throne room, the walls around her felt constricting and threatening. The room itself dwarfed any in Canterlot Castle, possibly fitting over two hundred ponies, but it was barren and lifeless. A blood red carpet ran from the entrance to the golden, diamond encrusted throne seating Solaris. The Emperor himself was a stark contrast to the Princess she knew and loved. Solaris’ mane carried the same flowing colors as Celestia’s, but his had been cut and shaped till all that remained was a thick patch of hair atop his white head. The golden crown he wore matched his throne and shined brilliantly, but where Celestia’s tiara was regal yet restrained, Solaris’ crown was over-the-top and ill-fitting.

Solaris himself was little to behold as well. He was larger than Celestia, but thin and hunched over with dark black bags under his eyes. He looked less an Emperor and more a deranged shut-in. “Why would you betray me like this.” His voice was quiet, but trembled with restrained fury.

“I’ve not betrayed you,” Rarity defended.

“Really?” he asked and rose to his feet. Anger crept into his voice with every word as he continued. “You deliberately withheld the whereabouts of the Element of Kindness, and now you refuse to reveal where she went. You’ve hindered our search and you’ve most certainly betrayed me!”

All respect Rarity had for the alicorn was gone; now she saw him for what he truly was: a paranoid tyrant. “Well why are you so eager to find her?” she shouted.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Fluttershy’s afraid of you. She said you wanted the Elements of Harmony for yourself.”

“I have taken you into my home, given you my protection, and offered to find the Elements of Harmony for you!” he snarled. “Where the fuck do you get off accusing me of being selfish!?”

“That isn’t an answer, Solaris.”

“I am your Emperor and you shall address me properly you insolent whelp!” he boomed in his royal Canterlot voice.

“You are nothing but a foal with a throne!” Rarity shouted back and walked to the door.

“Where are going? Get back here!” he demanded. “I’m the only hope you have of getting home!”

“I’ll take my chances on my own.” The thought of leaving her Element and Twilight’s journal with somepony so unstable was unsettling, but she couldn’t stand to be in his presence any longer.

With a loud pop, Solaris appeared in her way and backed her to the throne. “If you were any other pony, I’d have you whipped for your disrespect.”

Rarity planted her hooves firmly and stared into his glassy, soulless eyes. “I’m not afraid of bullies like you.”

Solaris struck Rarity across the face, making her collapse with a pained yelp. His magic tightened around her throat as he lifted her into the air. He leaned down and savored the sounds of her airless gasps. “When I’m through with you,” he whispered in her ear, “you’ll do more than fear me.”