Author's Notes:

The Usual Disclaimer:

The following is a work of parody, and is protected as Fair Use under section 17 U.S. Code § 107 of US Copyright Law. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all affiliated characters are property of Hasbro Inc.

I own nothing. All characters, settings and other belong to their respective owners. This is purely a fan-work with no intent towards profit, slander or harm towards the characters, settings or other, or their respective owners. If the respective owners feel that this fan-work in any way, shape or form threatens or besmirches their property, please let me know so that it be can be removed asap.

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Apologies that this one took so long to get out. Ended up with a partial slipped disc from work and have been stuck in a lot of pain. I've restarted work doing the Night Shift now, so instead of 6am-4pm, I'm now doing 4pm-2am shifts. It's been a helluva trip trying to completely flip my sleeping patterns around like this and re-learn how to lift and get up and down from vertical to horizontal positions.

Hope the chapter holds up to all your expectations, and the next one should be done in about one-two weeks from now, just need to go back, spell-check and polish it from the disjointed mess I wrote in the middle of a series of back-spasms.

CHAPTER 75

Celestia sighed one of her ‘public’ sighs, long centuries of practice meaning that to the average viewer, the action was little more than a slightly deeper breath, and tried to ignore the staring. Her two Guards, picked by Dawn Ray for their even more stoic than regulations required attitudes, remained at her side like two very lifelike statues, the Earth Pony seemingly carved of dark granite, the Pegasus of a silvery metal, but every so often they twitched towards their weapons as the locals went about their inane business.

Somehow, against all odds, Twilight Sparkle had arranged for the pickup point to be right smack-dab in the middle of a series of undocumented farms run by a dozen large, interconnected families of Ponies who also happened to be under the sway of the Sisterhood. Who had been patrolling the borders of ‘their land’ for several days now after one of their own had caught sight of Celestia and her Guards flying towards Ponyville a few days ago when Sunset had arrived in her full Succupony glory and had taken the vision of their ‘Goddess’ on the warpath as a sign to mobilize themselves into a militia.

Terrific. Celestia grunted in the privacy of her own mind as she kept a placid and welcoming smile on her face as the assembled farm-ponies looked on at her with worshipful expressions, a rare few bold individuals even risking coming closer to deposit platters of food at her hooves before backing away, eyes fixed on the ground as they did so.

Tellingly, the actual ‘Sister’ had chosen to not show her face, since Celestia’s long history of having to deal with the troublesome cult had taught her that any Sister who came to hold a measure of social power would inevitably be driven by the religious teachings of the cult and the power-schemes of the Sisters themselves to adopt a leadership role within their community, eventually socially strangling any opposition so as to be the sole individual within the group who would be allowed to make decisions in times of crisis or unusual circumstances and would always be the one who spoke first to outsiders or others of importance who came to visit their ‘flock’.

And given that the Sisterhood had built their entire crazy cult around supposed teachings from Celestia herself, that their members were chosen by visions 'received' from the Solar Princess in their childhoods which would in-turn grant them a level of social dominance amongst the poor schmucks they suckered into their Cult in the first place … it would look very odd to the flock for the Sister to not be seen cosying up to the Princess of the Sun. And yet here Celestia stood, alone but for her two Royal Guards, with not a single other Pony coming over to try and engage with her except for a pair of young Colts whom at first whom had simply stared at her starry-eyed for several minutes before remembering their ‘manners’, bowed low and praised her name and then retreated at top speed to gather the rest of their families.

So where is the parasite that fills their minds with the Sisterhood’s poison? Celestia seethed at the puzzle, for it was a distraction she did not need right now, not with Twilight’s trust in her at rock-bottom and the all-important Ascension bearing down upon them all. If Twilight twisted in nature due to her doubts and anger towards Celestia, an eternity spent with her beloved student existing purely to oppose Celestia in all things was not only possible, but horribly plausible.

The only other reason that Celestia felt the Sister could be absent from such a ‘momentous’ occasion was that either the Sister was well aware that a face-to-face meeting with Celestia infront of her own flock would end with the Sister either losing control of her minions and being driven out of her home, or being the target of a lynch-mob of outraged ex-followers.

Celestia’s musings were spared from a further turn to the bitter as a tiny foal, barely old enough to probably know how to speak if Celestia was able to guess, or at least if it was eating normally, although farm-ponies who lived ‘off-grid’ under the Sisterhood’s guidance could either be eating very well, at which point Celestia was about to have an encounter with the biggest toddler she’d ever seen, or was severely under-nourished and was probably stunted.

“Kh-can I have a fuh-feather?” A tiny little voice squeaked out as the little green earth pony stopped a good three body-lengths from Celestia, trembling with either excitement or fear, and Celestia felt her heart melt. Foals had always been a weakness of hers …

“Of course, little one. But first …” Celestia’s horn lit up with her magic, grasping the foal and bringing it over to her, where Celestia lifted a leg up to hold the little foal and wrapped a wing around it, nuzzling it on the crown of it’s head.

For a moment the foal was frozen in place, before with a noise somewhere between a hiccup and a whimper, the little darling collapsed against Celestia and nuzzled into her fur, tiny little hooves kneading at Celestia’s foreleg, and an honest smile found itself in the rare position of Celestia’s muzzle. Looking up from her ‘captive’, Celestia noted that most of the assembled Ponies were torn between looking shocked and envious of the bold little foal now trying to apparently bury itself into Celestia’s wing with happy little squeaks.

At least these poor sods haven’t been brainwashed into the whole angle that I am some vengeful, puritanical Goddess threatening calamity and eternal damnation if they don’t live according to the Sisterhood’s ‘scripture’.

The rare moment of simple joy, holding the foal who quivered with excitement, like a certain pair of fillies once had, two fillies who could not have been more different from one another, Celestia thought sadly, lasted only a short while before her eyes caught sight of a trail of steam and smoke in the distance, while the more bolder ponies shuffled forwards and, at Celestia’s urgings, seated themselves with her and began to share small-talk and news of the region with her, although she noted with some concern they shied away from talking about their actual community.

If I’m judging the distance right, the train won’t be here for at least another twenty minutes. Plenty of time to hopefully get these Ponies to tell me more about the Sisterhood presence in this region. This is awfully close to Ponyville, and I don’t recall there being many settlements this close to the Everfree Forest …

And hopefully, the presence of all these Ponies could delay a potentially-outraged Twilight from exploding in Celestia’s face until they were all safely in Canterlot and Celestia had a chance to explain herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna tried in vain to not grin at the scene Twilight and her friends made, specifically a blue sloth that clung to the underside of Fluttershy’s neck and ever-so-slowly complained about this being ‘too far’ and ‘not cool’ as Twilight merely rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the ponderous hitch-hiker.

Then again, being turned into a sloth was probably the cruelest form of non-lethal torture the speed-obsessed Pegasus could be made to endure by a friend, the Princess of the Moon surmised, as the party disembarked from the train … and into chaos. Rather than abandoned, the train depo was bustling with Ponies, notably her damned sister, wearing a significant portion of her Regalia no less, sitting in the middle of it all with two Royal Guards at her side, and an entire herd of earth ponies gathered around her, obviously deferential to the ‘Goddess’ in their midst and burdened with offerings of food.

No, stop. This is not the old days, and you know Ponies will always put out a spread when royalty comes to visit, there’s no malice in your sister getting stuffed with treats by the adoration-struck locals. Luna mentally turned and smote the green-eyed monster clinging to the back of her mind square in the soft-parts. And the fact that she’s here at all instead of plotting circles around the Nobles in Canterlot either means something bad has happened … or something really bad has happened.

“The Bearers!” “Hail Princess Luna! Hail Princess Twilight!” and similar cries rose up from the crowd, and now the train-bound crew found themselves being offered dishes and having starry-eyed Ponies gazing at them. It was rather embarrassing even now, especially without any warning, but Luna noticed all of the Bearers, especially Fluttershy and the world’s fasted sloth, seemed to take the sudden burst of attention with open surprise and alarm. Foals and small children were lifted into the air to get a better look at their heroes, and more than once Luna caught sight of a pony making the old gesture of obedience, from the old days of the Unification, which at once both appeased a part of Luna’s ego and chilled her to the core.

The last time I saw Ponies making that symbol was before the Bloody Horn Rebellion …

“Luna, all of you, over here, please.” Celestia’s voice was clear, friendly … and firm, even as her face was set into a pleasant, approachable mask. “We’ve a short time to be had here, and then I will teleport us to Canterlot.”

Luna sighed and trotted over, only to freeze after a few paces when she realized that only she had made the move, and looking back, found herself torn between laughter at the expressions on the Bearers’ faces and guilt that she felt such amusement. They might have seen pictures on the news and in the papers of Celestia wearing her Regalia, but nothing truly prepared a Mortal for seeing an Immortal in their Regalia in the flesh, after all.

Of course, they know Celestia only as the gentle, pacifistic leader of their country. The legacy of our younger days was obscured to avoid stirring up troublesome ‘patriotic’ groups that might want to expand Equestria’s territory without our consent. Luna mused, realizing that seeing her teacher garbed for battle in armor made of condensed divine power was probably rather unsettling for Twilight. I wonder just how scared Twilight would be if she saw Celestia in her full Regalia? Her precious mentor covered from snout to tail in golden armor and spikes? Or me, for that matter? Celestia’s Regalia is heavy plate designed for front-line combat, mine is mostly scale-mail and light plate … what would Twilight’s Regalia look like? If the Powers have any mercy, it won’t be the hideous mess that Cadence’s is…

“Puh-Princess?” Applejack spluttered, looking like she had just been stunned as her eyes trailed up and down her armored Princess.

“Yes, dear Applejack, it is me. We have a few hours until the … visitor to Canterlot is due. I thought it wise to come and pick you up personally rather than risk the usual Canterlot problems delaying you.” Celestia said, smiling pleasantly, although her gaze locked onto Luna, and a faint glimmer of magic whisked around her horn.

Sister, I apologise for the intrusion, but we will have to delay here for a while. These Ponies claim to be of the Sisterhood’s ilk, and while we must get Twilight and the Bearers to Canterlot, I am very concerned to find a Sisterhood community this close to Ponyville, and not mentioned by any of our Agents.

“Come then, we’ve had a long train-ride, and a few minutes of rest with these fine Ponies would do us all some good.” Luna said out loud, offering her best ‘at ease’ smile to the Bearers, as she cast a similar spell back at her sister. This had better be good, Cellie, Twilight is most upset at all the madness that has come her way and you know how she gets about historical inaccuracies. Can we not just … leave this to our Agents?

I want to find out who this Sister is. Either she shows up and we can put a face to our mysterious cult-leader in this region or she doesn’t and we can plant the seed of truth in the minds of these Ponies. Celestia sent back, her expression shifting smoothly to the Bearers, and Twilight, as they hesitantly walked over and were greeted with hugs by the Solar Princess, Twilight’s expression twisting from anger to happiness and then a curious tinge of guilt as her mentor held her close under a wing … and refused to let go. We can’t just allow a cult as insidious as the Sisterhood to set down roots near a town full of as many influential beings as Ponyville without keeping an eye on the proceedings, not with Twilight’s Ascension still in such an early, and fragile, stage. I am going to have to bring Twilight into this conversation in a minute to keep her in the loop, now that she’s on her way to becoming the newest protector of Equis. I need her to understand a … a great many things before her Ascension finishes.

Sister, be aware that Twilight is already under the mental protection of four of the Elements, and has two Rogue Elements trapped inside her mind, with Magic apparently already having tried to fuse itself to her while she was in a uniquely vulernable situation as a Ascending Immortal. Luna warned quickly as Celestia’s horn flickered with magic again. We have no way of knowing if the Sending spell will be blocked by their efforts, or if we might weaken the barriers against Generosity and Magic!

Huh-whu-who?

Believe me, my dear Lu-lu, I would never allow harm to come to Twilight … and I may have been studying Elementals and their abilities for, oh, about a thousand years after the Elements betrayed me and sent you to the moon instead of purging your mind of the Nightmare Spirit’s influence.

A fourth voice entered the fray, competing with the panicked spluttering of Twilight, one familiar to Luna as Honesty made itself known.

Lady Moon, Lady Sun, we swear to you that we, that is the Elements of Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter and Kindness, have never attempted to betray you. You should know well that Magic has always has total control over how our power as Elements, if not Elementals, is expressed, and Generosity’s current … maliciousness is something we’ve never seen our sibling express before.

Be that as it may, did you really have to go dark for over a thousand years? My sister lost to my own foolishness and the machinations of my own court, surrounded by simpering sycophants and parasites as I spent centuries trying to repair the damage and keep pushing the Tribes towards civilisation and away from their specist, tribalist tendencies? And not a single one of you could even so much as offer a mental pat on my shoulder or let me know that I hadn’t obliterated my sister inspite of her Immortality or banished her from this layer of reality altogether? Celestia’s thoughts actually started giving off the impression of heat, to the point Luna noticed herself beginning to sweat, and Twilight looked flushed. Even the Elements appeared affected, Kindness wobbling in place and the two Elements she wore as ornaments wiggling frantically in their settings. Do you have any idea of how alone I felt, the unrelenting horror and self-loathing, the guilt triggering endless flashbacks to what I had to do to my own Tribe plaguing me day and night for centuries? How hard it was to move forward with everyone and everything I trusted torn from my grasp and no way to know exactly what had happened until the Powers themselves finally noticed my distress and decided to take pity on me, granting me a vision of my sister, trapped in stasis on the surface of the moon, and a warning that I had to leave her alone for centuries yet to come, all alone and trapped just outside of my reach with that Nightmare clawing away at her mind?

Princess? Twilight’s voice sounded less panicked now, but Luna could pick up more than a little trace of shock, frustration and guilt. W-what is this, what is happening?

With a deep mental breath, Celestia turned, still talking in the physical world to the ponies around her, and gave Twilight a searching look. My apologies for the abruptness and not asking your permission for this, Twilight, but you need to be brought up to speed, and quickly it seems, on a great many things before the Mother of Stones arrives. Thus, I have brought you into a meeting of the minds, as it were, where Luna and I can brief you, privately, on matters most Mortals are better off not knowing about. Oh, and Honesty invited itself along as well.

Wait, isn’t this a Sending spell? We should just be hearing the words we’re speaking, not direct telepathy! Twilight remained silent in the real world, but her ears had begun to twitch and a by-now familiar tic appeared to be working its magic at the corner of her mouth.

It is a form of magic that only Magi of the Fourth Circle or their leader are taught, Twilight, for obvious reasons. Undetectable telepathic magic that allows one to bring in other minds to the connection at will? I don’t believe I need to go on about how dangerous such magic can be without the proper training and safeguards. Celestia replied, her body giving Twilight a short twitch-like hug with the wing draped over Twilight’s body as their mental conversation continued. Now, as much as I dearly wish to grab you all, teleport us to Canterlot and help you all pace circles into my lovely imported Saddle Arabian rugs, these Ponies are all members of a Sisterhood Cult, and I hope to encounter their leader before we leave. I am very concerned that a Sisterhood cell has sprung up so close to you and none of my Royal Agents knew about it.

Uhm, at the risk of being petty, are you sure they’re worth their wages? No insult to Snowflake, Derpy or the others, but … they’ve kind of sat on their plots while the girls and I have been flung head-first into danger time and time again. I get that they don’t have combat training, but still … Twilight’s thoughts were tinged with equal amounts of bitterness and, again, guilt. She obviously felt terrible about throwing shade on Ponies she had come to like and respect long before learning of their status as Royal Agents.

The Ponyville Agents have done their jobs to the best of their ability, you have no idea how many would-be assassins or kidnappings they have foiled in the past few years related to you and your friends, Twilight. No, my ire is reserved for the Royal Agents of Canterlot who apparently need my hoof up their plots in quite an urgent manner if a blacklisted cult like the Sisterhood has been able to encroach on your territory without any warning.

ASSASSINS? Twilight mentally screamed, while the tic in her face began to rapidly increase in force to the point it almost looked like Twilight was furiously chewing on something.

Sister, how can somepony who has ruled wisely for thousands of years be so bad at breaking the news gently to one who is already on edge? Luna mentally face-hooved as she walked over to Twilight and Celestia and took up position on Twilight’s other side … and hopefully hid the expression of utter horror that had taken up residence on her lover’s face from the assembled ponies around them.

You said Twilight wishes to know the truth … and so she shall. All of it. No more veils of half-truths, no more hidden state secrets, no more obfuscations or omissions.

Princesses, while my siblings and I can shield Twilight’s mind from the Rogue Elements, it would be unwise to make the Pillar any more unstable than she is right now! Even a single gap in our defences due to her emotions interfering with our work could provide Magic with the opening it needs to draw upon Twilight’s own Wellspring, let alone the energies of the Powers that are being drawn into her form as we speak! Honesty’s voice came with a tinge of dire concern, and a familiar soothing hum that Luna recognized as the astral ‘backwash’ of harmonic powers being used. Please, I beg you all, let us table this discussion until after the Mother of Stones can safely remove my treacherous kin from the Pillar, and then you may discuss whatever you wish!

Celestia gave a mental snort of annoyance before ‘speaking’, even as her physical form continued on a pleasant stream of chatter with the Ponies who surrounded them. There will be no secrets between us before you return to Ponyville, Twilight. The very thought that you feel I would maliciously manipulate you hurts more than you know, but I understand that, to your eyes, I must seem quite the villain right now.

Not a villain, just … you always spoke to me about the necessity of honesty and telling the truth no matter what, and then all of this comes out of nowhere, right after you turned me into a Princess? It’s kind of hard to keep the memory of you as everything I ever aspired to be straight when I suddenly start learning you’ve been editing history and suppressing knowledge about the Innate Magics from the Ponies of Equestria!

I never suppressed that knowledge, not of the Innate Magics at least. After the Bloody Horn rebellion, the schools that taught the skills to master Innate Magic began to withdraw from society for fear of their teachings being used to re-start the Age of Wandering by ambitious specists. Celestia explained, her feathered wing patting Twilight’s side comfortingly as her student began to hyperventilate from stress. At their request, I allowed knowledge of the schools’ locations to gradually fade from the public eye, but the schools are still running and keep the knowledge alive. They take in a few hundred students every decade, and many of those end up as my Royal Agents or discreetly slipped into my Royal Guards. Your own father is a student of the Empty Horn-Style School, Twilight.

My father is a WHAT?

The fact he never told you is part of the binding oath all the Innate Masters swear upon entering the school, which binds them by ancient, powerful magics to never reveal the locations of the schools to the uninitiated. He can teach most of what he knows, of course, the original Masters had the foresight to understand cataclysm, rebellion and misfortune could strike at them even with all the safeguards we enabled and they allowed loopholes to allow their students to pass on the teachings to worthy individuals should the need arise.

Princesses, please, we can already feel Magic and Generosity straining against their bonds. Sever the connection now, or we will be forced to do so to keep them contained in the back of the Pillar’s mind! Honesty’s mental ‘voice’ held a tinge of panic now, and with a deep sigh that echoed through all their minds, Celestia withdrew her presence, leaving both Luna and Twilight feeling cold and somehow lonely for a brief moment.

“Princess, ah’ve been meanin’ to ask ‘bout mah little sister … Applebloom an’ the rest o’ the Crusaders kinda got themselves into a pickle …” Luna snapped back to the conversation, noting that the mental communion had lasted perhaps tens of seconds, with the rest of the bearers still bearing the signs of Celestia’s infamous hugging technique and still crowded around their armored liege.

“I am well aware of what happened to the Crusaders, make no mistake, dear Applejack. If Twilight is, by some miracle, unable to reverse the spell that Sweetie Belle cast, I will endeavour to lean on the Neighponese ambassador to allow her access to the Grand Sage Weeaboo.” Celestia leaned down to nuzzle Applejack affectionately on-top of the head, an act that sent the orange farm-mare to grateful spluttering and more than a hint of pink cheeks. “However, unless Fluttershy has brought a very lost friend from the Everfree, I don’t remember any blue sloths being native to this part of the world.”

“Aaaah … ahaha, yes, you see Rainbow was calling me a nerd, so I kind of got her back by polymorphing her into a sloth.” Twilight stammered, eyes wide with nervousness and panic as she nodded to the blue sloth that was now clinging to the underside of Fluttershy’s neck, trying in vain to hide behind the long pink mane of the shy Pegasus. “I should probably change her back soon, right?”

“Oh, a few more minutes won’t hurt. Besides, I would rather her not be zipping around all over the place as I am performing a long-range multi-being teleport, you of all Ponies should know how hard it is for Rainbow Dash to stay still for longer than a minute or two.” Celestia said, pulling back to give a mischievous grin to the sloth, who slowly peeked out from behind Fluttershy’s mane, poked it’s tongue out at the Princess of the Sun, and then returned equally slowly to it’s ineffective hiding-spot.

Further discussion seemed to come to a halt as a cheer rang out from the assembled farm-ponies at the sight of a rickety covered wagon being drawn towards the station by two large, strapping mares whose build and size almost rivalled that of the Earth Pony Royal Guard who was attending Celestia, the cheering quickly resolving into shouting for ‘Sister Comfrey” to hurry.

“Ah, so the Sister is finally revealed?” Luna whispered to Celestia, and Twilight who was stuck in-between the two Princesses, as the wagon came to a slow stop, the two sweat-covered mares who were pulling it quickly and efficiently unshackling themselves and then hurrying to the back of the wagon, one pulling aside the plain white cloth and the other helping the Sister down out of the wagon.

And she needed all the help she could get.

Luna had known old ponies before. She was Immortal, after all, and seeing the fresh face of a young pony gradually morph into a face lined by years, cares and fears was no longer something that troubled her, although she still felt concern for the loss of a friend. Granny Smith was perhaps the oldest Pony Luna had met since her return, but this Sister … so old that whatever colour she might have been once had long since faded to a ethereal silvery-white colour, her mane and tail thin wisps of even paler shades of her coat and her horn was thin, brittle and completely without a protective layer of velvet, the curling spiral of horn a pale, ugly yellow.

But what struck Luna more than anything was the look of pure and unadulterated joy that shone forth from the ancient crone’s face as, half-carried between her two attendants, Sister Comfrey approached the Princesses.

“Oh … oh no.” Luna winced as she heard the heart-break in Celestia’s voice, and the feeling of Twilight’s muzzle pomf-ing into Luna’s chest-fur as the smaller alicorn swivelled her head from princess to princess in an effort to understand why her teacher would sound so distressed.

“Behold, Twilight, the cruellest blow the shysters who lead and sustain this infernal cult can deliver to beings such as us.” Luna dropped her voice to the lowest whisper she could, lowering her head so her muzzle was right by Twilight’s ear.

As Twilight turned her confused gaze to Luna, the Princess of the Moon gave her lover a sad, soft smile.

“The true believer.”