The Ascent: To Liberate a Kingdom

Chapter Eight: The Driving Force

“You’ve been quite a handful, Celestia. It seems you know more about my abilities than I suspected.” said The Archon. “It isn’t enough though, is it?”

“Why are you doing this Archon? You have to have a reason.”

“You’re right, Sun Goddess. I do. But to fill you in on my motivation, I must first tell you how I came to be here.”

“I was born in a small hamlet to the west; my family were poor to begin with, but these petty wars that you and Chrysalis started always took its toll on us. We were never prospering. The two armies would use our homes as a battleground, and would leave them in tatters when the fighting was over. We would always recover, though, and were perpetually forced to rebuild from the devastation left by your conflicts.” The Archon took a deep breath. “Now comes the part that changed me. There was one such clash between your two kingdoms that took a particular toll; your forces collided on a field a few miles away from our homes, and some soldiers clad in golden armour came by our hamlet. My father went out to meet them, and told them that they couldn’t establish a camp on out lands. He quarrelled with the leader, who commanded that his troops murder him. As far as the General was concerned, our family was a traitor to Equestria.”

“Where are you going with this Archon?” questioned Celestia.

“In time, Celestia. You wanted to hear my motivation? Here it is.” The Archon again breathed heavily. “My family and I watched from our windows as the troops slit his throat and torched our house.”

Celestia looked towards the ground. She felt ashamed that this had happened. War Crimes were something that she took very seriously.

“Only me and my younger sister made it out, Celestia. We hid for a while, and returned after the war had ended. With nowhere else to go we built a small shack from the rubble of our destroyed home. I put my sister’s safety as my prime concern. After a few years, I was able to successfully scavenge what we needed from the endless supply of battlefields. I felt it was all for the best though. I was able to feed us both enough.”

Celestia was thinking. There was no way she could remove the blade in her leg.

“One fateful day, about three years later, I went out to scavenge. I found a good haul, and was especially chipper on my way home. When I got back...” The Archon paused.

“When you got back?” Celestia asked.

“When I got back... she was lying peacefully in bed. I tried to wake her, but couldn’t. She had written a note detailing a disease she was suffering with. She neglected to tell me about it, and it claimed her life that day. She said in the note that she had no way to procure any medicine for it. I was distraught. It sent me over the edge.”

“I’m sorry, Archon.” replied a genuinely compassionate Celestia.

“I resolved to sell everything I had found and spent what I earned on a scholarship at the University of Manehattan. I always did have a knack for magic.” The Archon gritted his teeth. “But I was thrown out a few years after that.”

Celestia remained silent.

“Apparently you couldn’t test on human subjects. They kicked me out without trial. I hated them. I hated everything. I broke in one night and stole every forbidden textbook I could. I poured my heart and soul into learning their secrets and mastering magic. Eventually, I did.” He lowered his tone. “After that, I had nothing left to do. I was haunted by nightmares of my sister, of the day my family were killed, and of troubles that I had endured. My hatred fuelled my studies, and it soon consumed me.” He looked at the distant horizon; the sun was beginning to rise. “I went back into the University and murdered every single person in there. Women, Children, the Elderly. Everything.”

“Monstrous...” added Celestia. “The police never found out who killed those people.”

The Archon turned to face her. “I knew sorrow. I knew fear. I knew pain. Those feelings were my friends.”

“And you ask me why I am here, right now, destroying Equestria. I’ll tell you why. I’m here because I want the world to experience what I’ve experienced – Anger, Sadness, Fear – I want them to feel it and scream ‘Why Me!?’ And I’ll tell them why. I’ll tell them that they cannot ever truly understand one another until they’ve experienced the same fears. Until they’ve felt the same sadness. Until they’ve been consumed by the same anger that I’d once been consumed by.”

“You’re insane.” moaned Celestia. “Why didn’t you just accept that life throws these things at you? Everyone has to feel these things at some point. It’s something we all must deal with.”

“Cease your words!” spat The Archon. “You speak of matters that you do not truly understand. Have you seen your family burned in front of your eyes? Or a parent murdered right in front of you? How about witnessing something eat away at a loved one, as you sit idly by, powerless to stop it!?” The Archon regained his composure. “Do you see where I’m heading with this, Celestia?”

“No.”

“I’m trying to tell you that this ‘disaster’ could all have been avoided if you’d have stopped this pointless warring. My dream is rooted only in the past. I am standing here because I will stop all wars. I will have everyone live in fear of my power. They will get along because if they don’t, I will destroy them. That is the peace that I wish to create.”

“That isn’t a true peace!”

“Exactly. It isn’t. A true peace is folly. It can’t happen. It’s everyone’s nature to fight. Wars are fought because ponies like you and Chrysalis demand it, for whatever reason. You want money? You start a war. Land? Start a war. Ideals? Start a fucking war!”

“We fight to protect our loved ones. The changelings only want to invade so that they can feed themselves!”

“Do they?” The Archon responded instantly. “Have you experienced changeling life, Celestia? They invade because, back in the Changeling Kingdom, there is no living space. They are overpopulated because they are an expansive species. How would you feel if everyone denied you the right to even exist?”

“They don’t... It’s not...”

“You don’t have an answer, do you? What about the Crystal Empire?”

“What about them?”

“You like them, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“But you don’t like Sombra?”

“No.”

“Of course you don’t. You and your sister decided that the best way to protect the Crystal Empire would be by removing Sombra from power.”

“It was our only course of action.”

“Sure. But you went about it the wrong way.”

“War was the only option. There was no way he would let us march into the heart of his empire and destroy him.”

“Okay. But think about what happened between your declaration of war and your banishment of Sombra.”

“What are you getting at?”

“He forced thousands of his Slaves to enlist. Slaves that wouldn’t dare lift a finger against Equestria. But what did your armies do? They cut a bloody swathe right through their ranks and you didn’t even permanently defeat Sombra.”

Celestia remained silent.

“Love breeds Hate. Neither one of those two things can exist without the other. If you love something, you want to protect it. To do that, you must hate the thing that wants to harm it, don’t you agree?”

Celestia was speechless. Everything The Archon had said was probably true. She had been a horrible leader. A Tyrant.

“No response? Pathetic. I can’t wait for you to die. But right now...”

“No!” cried Celestia as The Archon dropped Twilight’s unconscious body from the Tower. Celestia was released from the dagger’s grip, and The Archon levitated her over to him. Watch as your little prodigy plummets to her doom. He cackled madly. Seconds felt like hours to Celestia as the little pony fell down the Tower. She was metres from the floor before something broke her fall.

Princess Luna struggled to keep Twilight on her back; she wasn’t awake to balance herself, so Luna had to control the little filly’s body as well as her own.

“What is this!?” roared The Archon.

Celestia couldn’t contain her emotions. She shed tears of happiness as a fully armoured Luna ascended the Tower and landed on the opposite side of the pavilion. She fired a bolt from her horn at The Archon causing him to drop Celestia; who was soon under the influence of Luna’s levitation. The Princess of the Moon lifted her elder sister over and set her down next to Twilight. Celestia got back up and took her position next to her younger sister. They had positioned themselves in front of Twilight. The Archon rejoined his compatriots and they grouped together tightly.

“You’ve done well my sister. From below the situation appeared a lot worse.”

“What else were you doing, aside from armouring yourself?”

“I went to double check on the resistances.”

“And?”

“They aren’t doing too well.”

Celestia sighed. There was nothing either of them could do to help them right now.

“I see you managed to take out The Mender. That makes things a lot simpler.” remarked Luna.

“Simpler yes, but no less difficult.”

“Indeed. But it’s four against two now. The numbers are beginning to edge in our favour.”

The Archon interrupted their conversation. “I hate to interrupt your little conference over there Ladies. You’ve done enough damage.”

“The same could be said for you.” retorted Luna. “Prepare to face the combined might of Day and Night!”