"An Unfortunate Discovery! Betrayal By Family!?

Today, Queen Celestia has learned of the unfortunate fate of a proud, retired Royal Guard Veteran named Stone Edge. Stone Edge had served a strong military career and retired nine years before Luna’s return; he was put into some kind of forever sleep by his own kin! Top medical experts are studying his case even now, attempting to resolve the curse done by his own brother.

That’s right, his own brother Rockwell did this to him; it is suspected that he is a terrorist earth pony allied with the PHL or the so-called “Equestrian Resistance” cells (this writer suspects the Knights of Luna or, as some claim them to also be known as, the so-called “Lunar Republic”), a member that has been masquerading as some kind of simple Earth Pony!

What is more shocking is his odd ability to do magic. A unicorn without a horn practically! Nopony is entirely sure how to reproduce this effect, though it is rumored that earth ponies in the PHL are experimenting with the use of zebra magic. Perhaps this could be an offshoot? This paper promises to cover the details of his examination as the story develops."
Written by Featherpen of Canterlot Times.

"THE EMPIRE IS NOT EQUESTRIA. THE QUEEN IS NOT CELESTIA. THE EMPIRE IS NOT YOUR HOME. DON’T INSULT US BY CLAIMING THAT THE ONLY CHANGES HAVE BEEN FOR THE BETTER - REFUSE HER RULE. RESIST HER. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT OF SELF AND MIND!"
Foal Mountain Partisans graffiti.

"Decades ago, when you lived in Equestria, you would meet your friends and family out in the open. You would cavort in the sunlight and smile, and there was plenty. Now, you are a newfoal. Indoctrinated to follow the Empire unquestioningly. Treated as disposable parts in a machine to crush humanity. Made to turn against friends and family that we once loved. We are mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed bullshit. Given the bare minimum to get Equestria working. You’re indignant, ain’t you? Protesting that you aren’t? No, you’re protesting that you are, and need me to justify you. You are near-unthinking. You know only Queen Celestia’s propaganda, but you do not know that humans of the Stampede Fleet and others rescue drowning ponies from the sea. You know the HLF, but you do not know the PHL. You know the work of Kraber in the HLF, but not his capacity to love and befriend his fellow pony in the PHL. You know the HLF massacres, but you do not know the potion-bombings at birthday parties and other places. You know harmony only as it applies to your fellow pony, not your fellow zebra, minotaur, griffon, or what have you. You once knew harmony. You are a newfoal, and will be one soon, perhaps tomorrow. Newfoals do not know harmony. They know hegemony. They know obedience. They do not know questions. You are forgetting these things, aren’t you? Even as you read this? Ask.

Ask.

ASK! Ask yourself before it is too late and you’re just a newfoal with a cutie mark. Ask those who know what Equestria used to mean! Ask! Ask before what few that can answer are gone, and Celestia makes her own rules. In ten years, Equestria will all be newfoals. You will be a newfoal. You will hate this poster. You will hate your neighbor, hate the different. The un-Equestrian. You will never dream of fighting Celestia. You will not believe that it is possible, that you even should. But you must. You have no options. We are late enough that there is no time left!"
The Mare in Blue, an unknown radio operator known for somehow hacking the totem-prole network. The Mare in Blue’s identity, gender, species, and location is unknown, though Twilight Sparkle has suggested that there could be multiple Mares in Blue.

"You grew up in Equestria--
all was warmth, hope and light.
What happened to Equestria?
Gone--ponies and your voice.
If you know what happened,
then here's your time to fight.
Resist the Queen and Newfoals
stand up for Equestria, justice and right.
Make a difference--
STAND UP. RESIST."
A poster of the different races in Equestria, including Changelings, Reindeer, Minotaurs and Dragons with the words above. There is a male Zebra in the center giving a stare of sorts.

Shivering from the cold gust of wind, Inkwell looked around the field; the questions still hot on his mind though, where the hay was he? How did Rockwell get ahold of that crystal? And was all this in his head… or did he actually get physically sent here?

'Is this some kind of dream?’ Inkwell thought, seeing a bare mountain top that was nearby. However, what occurred next would cause any of his questions to pale in comparison.

"Hello there," a rather familiar voice, without it being gruff or spending time calling him a Pinhead, greeted. "I take it you're the chronicler that I have been left for, young Inkwell?"

The unicorn turned to see Rockwell there… but he seemed to be different, at peace, which was something that Inkwell possibly could’ve seen if Equestria was… right; the way it was supposed to be, instead of this ever waking nightmare that was kept together through propaganda, lies and terror.

“To answer your question beforehoof, I am a duplicate of your cellmate,” the figure clarified. “Really, I’m just a construct not entirely unlike that of the totem-proles, though rather less messy. My purpose is to gather and record information, while also answering any questions given by certain creatures. I contain all of his memories; everything he knew from up to ten minutes ago are within me; you can ask me any question that comes to your mind and I will do my best to answer them.”

This… this could be very useful, Inkwell realized. He could learn and get the answers behind his cellmate and that pegasus mare… and the other questions that had been going through his mind.

“How did Rockwell get this thing?” he asked right off the bat.

“During his medical testing he swindled it from the laboratories,” the imprint of Rockwell answered.

“What… what does it do? Besides holding you, I mean,” Inkwell said.

“Its original purpose was to… detect his magic; that mockery of Twilight Sparkle has been trying to find and drain it from him,” the Imprint explained, his face having no emotion. “Similar attempts have been done to the pegasus Soundstorm for an amount of time. Right now they’re almost back to full strength.”

“You’re just raising even more questions,” Inkwell sighed. “What do you mean by ‘mockery of Twilight Sparkle’? I don’t know her personally, but I’ve heard that she normally was a nice pony, at least before the war. What happened to her and the Elements of Harmony exactly?”

“Queen Celestia created magical homunculi, like formless golems, to take over the minds and bodies of the Elements,” it said. “I am assuming that she wanted Elements that would be more amenable to what she was planning them for. Or possibly Elements that could brute-force their way into activating what she defines as Harmony… I’m genuinely uncertain.”

“...What?” Inkwell asked flatly.

The imprint repeated itself and clarified, “The Elements’ bearers were corrupted; they are not in control over their own bodies. They are little more than puppets driven by avatars of the Tyrant’s will. The real Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are still inside, trapped in their own minds, powerlessly watching as they do all manners of atrocities. They were likely present as Twilight undertook the potion trials.”

“They’re… they’re still conscious?” Inkwell breathed, remembering how he’d been puppet-walked to the hooves of Queen Celestia. But to have something inside your head, your agency lost, committing terrible- “Wait, what was that? Potion trials?”

“Yes,” the imprint said. “Of course they happened. Tested it on captured humans.” Seeing the look on Inkwell’s face, the Imprint grew confused and hastily added, “You don’t just release a product with huge health benefits with no testing! You have to see if they work first; that would be poor foresight.”

“That testing must have been horrific,” Inkwell breathed.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” the Imprint dismissed.

“Wait, you’re an imprint made to answer questions. Can’t you-”

“You DON’T,” the imprint repeated with emphasis, “want to know. Believe me, you would go mad with grief and rage, unable to sleep or eat for the longest time. It will haunt your nightmares for the rest of your days. No description I can provide will ever be adequate enough to describe the horrors the real Twilight Sparkle was forced to witness.”

“Okay,” Inkwell simply responded, flinching slightly. He asked the next question, “How come you know about the… Potion Trials?”

He choked that out as if he had some bile in his throat.

“I know because Rockwell knows,” the Imprint answered as a matter of fact.

“How does he know?”

“Because when Queen Celestia used the Bag of Tirek on Rockwell, he saw everything: the Potion Trials, the homunculi, the fate of the Elements’ bearers, and even saw Luna’s ultimate fate,” the Imprint explained. “I cannot tell you in detail about the trials, or even the condition of the Elements because I have safeguards programed into me that only the real Rockwell can override. He made them to, quote “keep the Pinhead from seeing horrible things that no pony should ever be forced to witness, as if the colt had enough nightmares already,” end quote,” it finished, his voice turning much like the way Rockwell’s would with a gruff tone when he did the quote.

“Besides,” the Imprint shivered, “in a sense, I don’t quite have emotions. But the trials, the state of the Elements, the spellwork inside the newfoals’ ‘minds’ keeping them bound to the mad Tyrant’s will… they frighten me.”

That hit Inkwell like a punch to the jaw. If a technically emotionless spirit of intellect with little directive other than ‘learn, record and answer questions’ was so horrified at something that it refused to discuss it, that was… disturbing, to say the least.

Besides, he remembered what he’d learned about the newfoals, all the stuff he’d seen in Hoofington. If there’d been failed tests of the potion, he didn’t want to know how they’d turned out. Then Inkwell’s train of thought stopped when he realized another question of grave importance.

“What is this…” Inkwell gulped, “Bag of Tirek?” Even though he’d never heard of this thing before, he didn’t like the sense of dread that overcame him. Something about this Bag of Tirek sounded utterly terrible and sent a shiver of fear down his spine.

“The Bag of Tirek...” At that moment the Imprint shivered again, which couldn’t be good. “The Bag of Tirek is an artifact that was uncovered in the Galloping Sea by an unwitting young mare on a little scuba diving trip. She really should have just left it buried and instead practiced her instrument. But it turned the poor filly into its pawn, wormed its way into her mind and then blanked itself out, greasing just the right hooves to make sure it got itself to Celestia. The Bag is the root to all of this; it is the reason why Celestia turned into the Solar Tyrant and has been launching this campaign of xenocide against the humans.”

“Who uncovered it?” Inkwell asked. He couldn’t let go of the feeling of utter unease building up in the pit of his gut.

The Imprint sighed and asked back, “You promise to never reveal her identity, Inkwell? Because I promise you that you won’t like the answer.”

“Why?”

“It would be irony at its finest… and worst. The one mare who found that bag would become its greatest enemy, and never know that she instigated all of this.”

Inkwell was silent for a moment, trying to put these clues together… and then his eyes widened as he felt like a bag of bricks, an anvil, a piano, a skyliner and a mountain all came crashing down on him at once.

“Lyra Heartstrings?!” Inkwell asked in complete shock, nearly screaming. “She found that thing?! It’s all because of her?!”

It was all too much to take in, preposterous even. Celestia driven mad by some artifact of doom, which was uncovered by a mare known for her interest in humans and considered the worst traitor to Equestria? It was the greatest irony indeed.

The Imprint replied somewhat hastily, “In Miss Lyra’s defense, there was no way she could have ever known. Like I’ve said, the Bag wormed its way into her mind, turned her into its pawn to make sure it would get a perfect tool in Celestia to subjugate ponykind and enslave humanity.”

“Okay then, I won’t say anything on that… besides, it wouldn’t do any good for anyone. Anyway, I have to ask: just what… is this Bag of Tirek?” Inkwell asked. “I do remember reading about this being called Tirek in some books about the Dream Valley conspiracy. I always thought it was a silly story, but seeing how often legend turns out to be fact in Equestria, I guess I assumed wrong, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did Inkwell,” the Imprint said. “Tirek is something far more horrible than anything you can imagine. It can safely be said that he is pure evil incarnate. He comes from a time before the Princesses, long before even The Truce of the Three Tribes. The bag carries a fragment of his soul and powers, and it is using Celestia as its tool to carry Tirek’s will out, which is to enslave all living beings under his rule. I can say with absolute certainty that if he succeeds in defeating the humans and turns them into his slaves, he’ll be going after another world and repeat the process all over again, and the next one after, and just keep going on…”

Inkwell shivered and added, “I heard the rumors… about spreading the ‘harmony’ to others untouched. But then… why go after the humans first?”

“You remember what the Dream Valley books have said, right?” the Imprint asked back.

Inkwell tried to dig around in his memories about the subject, but came up with nothing. The Imprint sensed this.

“While the Princesses were battling against Discord, a number of ponies escaped from Equestria to find refuge in the land of Dream Valley. But they had the misfortune of crossing paths with Tirek, who had set up his base of operations there. So a lone pony set out to find help, and she found it in the form of a single human girl. A very brave and determined girl, who took on the task to stop Tirek before he could attack Equestria while it was still weakened from the battle between Discord and the Princesses. We have that girl to thank for us being here today in fact,” the Imprint said, a small smile tugging at his lips.

The pieces came together as Inkwell breathed, “I see now… Tirek is attacking the humans as revenge because that one single human defeated him over a thousand years ago. Sweet Luna…”

The young unicorn sighed, head reeling from all these revelations. He finally found his voice again; time to get some light on his Cellmate.

“So, how did this all begin for Rockwell?”

The Imprint began to answer. “Rockwell could feel the Bag’s presence. The oldest earth ponies are most in tune with the land, and he felt it the moment its influence started to infect our world, he felt it in the newfoals… it made him sick. Everytime he saw one of them, he saw only something that was both dead and suffering. It didn’t help that his wife had him sit down with a few in Canterlot once.”

That threw Inkwell for another loop.

“Rockwell had a wife? A family?” Inkwell asked. “He did blabber about a daughter, but I just thought he was crazy or had a bit too much of that moonshine.”

“That is because he is trying to protect them by keeping them a secret,” the imprint answered. “His daughter is away, in the human world, seeing it slowly die… she’s in one of the conquered areas behind the barrier. His wife is also hidden; with their daughter last time he checked. He wanted them to be as far away from the Bag of Tirek as possible.”

“Wow, that’s definitely rough,” Inkwell said, sympathy swelling in his heart for the crabby old stallion. No doubt Rockwell’s ill temper was a result of worrying about his family’s safety.

“Indeed. And Discord only knows what the Geis had done to his brother,” the imprint finished explaining, a tear coming from its eye… showing that even though it was just a construct, it knew what Rockwell felt and how he would physically react.

“Geis?” Inkwell asked, the term familiar to his unicorn magics education. “What Geis? Is that…. is that why nopony seems to question the existence of newfoals?”

“Here is a better question: why did Captain Shining Armor disown his wife, Princess Cadance, and destroy everything containing her likeness in their former home? Why have the Guards not even questioned or wondered about what they were doing?” The construct pointed out.

“The answer is that they can’t. All of the Guards that swore their oath, retired or active, are under the control of a Geis that Queen Celestia put them under. Rockwell’s younger brother, Stone Edge, is a retired guard, he’s been that way for the past decade with grandfoals that… unfortunately have to live in this world,” the Imprint finished, another tear coming to its eye. “He’s trying to keep them from joining the army, having them work in the factories or whatever. But Celestia’s magically enforced patriotism is making it hard for them… Stone Edge’s fate shows that.”

“I… I had no idea,” Inkwell choked out, tears coming to his own eyes as his thoughts began to drift towards those ponies that had, in hindsight, been lucky enough to get out of this manure hole when they still could. Many of them probably had family members in the Royal Guard; so many families torn apart…

Inkwell continued, “She… I’m guessing it’s like your idea of why she did that thing with the Elements. They’d be unlikely to all agree, so she made guards that would agree without question. But… how did Rockwell come in contact with the Bag then?”

“He came in contact with it twice. The first time was in Canterlot; his wife, Jonica Jonagold, was a part of that P.E.T.N. organization because of her kind nature. She wanted to have a dinner with the organization. They were assigned a seat with a Newfoal family of three - a mare and her two foals…” the Imprint stopped, his words dying in his throat for a moment, as if it was trying not to vomit in its mouth. “Rockwell agreed to it, even though it made him uneasy, but that time when he saw the children…”

The Imprint stopped again, shuddering before continuing on, “He didn’t throw up his lunch thankfully when he saw them… only when he went to the bathroom and in private. He saw the Bag, around Queen Celestia’s neck because she was the one that approved of the dinner for the P.E.T.N.’s propaganda… and for some reason Rockwell was the only one who could see it and when he saw the thing, he didn’t sleep for the rest of the week, because he wasn’t sure if it looked back when he looked at it.”

“What did he do after he saw it?” Inkwell asked. “Try to come up with some harebrained scheme to get it off? Join the PHL?”

“... You really are a pinheaded colt,” the Imprint reacted dryly, “Your optimism and light hearted nature really shows. I’ll ask you another question - do you remember what you saw him doing that one night?”

“Trying to lift a pillar with magic?” Inkwell replied.

“But he’s an Earth Pony, a mining, boulder destroying, rock lifting Earth Pony… they can’t do magic like unicorns can,” the Imprint pointed out.

Inkwell couldn’t help but to remember his cellmate’s cutie mark, a pickaxe with runes inscribed on it… that had to mean something, his reporter sense tingled.

“... He had runes on his cutie mark, so… he’s been working on magic for a long time,” Inkwell said. “But how?! How’s that possible?!”

“You’re a unicorn that lived in a land that once had Dragons, Reindeer that could fly, Minotaurs and more. I think an Earth pony that can do more than just being strong and attuned to the land is something possible,” the Imprint once again said dryly. “He had reached his full potential, which made him some sort of unicorn without a horn… or, to be a bit dramatic, THE earth pony. And as I said earlier, his younger brother is a retired Royal Guard for the past ten years; you would be amazed at how a sixty-six year old stallion looks even though his body is still thirty-two to the naked eye. Also, pegasi can fly and mold the weather, unicorns have phenomenal cosmic powers… it’d be silly if ‘encouraging plants to grow’ was the only thing earth ponies could do.”

“Hmmm. In retrospect, I guess that makes sense,” Inkwell admitted. “How did he learn to do that, though? I won’t lie, I’m confused.”

“Do you know how important some events can be? Well, there was an explosion of sorts that caused a rockslide which would’ve buried him had his ‘True Potential’ hadn’t been awoken that day,” the Imprint explained. “Soundstorm herself had also underwent a similar event and she had awoken her true potential too. She may not be the ‘Fastest Flyer’ in all of Equestria… but she can manipulate the sound barrier in ways nopony else can.”

That was interesting… but wait, what about the other time Rockwell saw the Bag of Tirek? And why didn’t he try to stop it… or join the PHL? Why did he simply… do nothing?

“Well, I can understand why he tried to keep that under wraps,” Inkwell said. “But not how he ended up here. If they were so powerful, how’d they get here? And how did Twilight find out? Why’s he treated like a normal prisoner?”

“Well, here’s my answer - remember what I said earlier about Rockwell’s younger brother Stone Edge?” the Imprint asked.

“Did he betray him?”

“No, not directly anyway,” the Imprint answered, “they were visiting; Rockwell, his wife and daughter. It was a family reunion, for the Rocks, Stones and the like… even some of the Pies were there. Rockwell was having a nightmare one night, where he saw a horrible creature going after the Royal Guard… all of them, retired or not, and it was sucking them dry like a Vampire Fruit Bat before hooking itself into their corpses, turning them into appendages of itself. His brother’s screams woke him up; Stone Edge was suffering from something and kept saying that it was “gonna get me, gonna kill me” again and again, and no matter what ‘Earth Pony’ method they tried couldn’t wake him up... so Rockwell had everyone leave the room, and he used his magic to go in and stop it from taking his brother from him,” the Imprint said, tears welling in his eyes. “It was bittersweet - he stopped the Geis from influencing Stone Edge... but it left him in a comatose state; not moving, not speaking... just lying there, asleep. Almost like he was dead, but not like the Newfoals.”

"...That can’t have looked good to his family,” Inkwell noted.

“It didn’t. They thought what Rockwell tried to do failed and the thing that Stone Edge was screaming about in his nightmares got to him and rendered him comatose,” the Imprint nodded. “Only his wife knows about what he did; as for the indirect betrayal… well, Queen Celestia one day saw that her Geis was incomplete. There was somepony that slipped through the cracks and she tracked down Stone Edge’s room in the hospital. She thankfully let him be, but sent Twilight, some Royal Guards and… Stalwart Heart.”

The imprint said the last name with a special disgust before continuing, “They followed rumors of an ‘earth pony doing unicorn magic’ and came upon Rockwell… thankfully, he knew they would come one day. So he sent his family off to ‘see the new world’ while he stayed at home to work; it was an obvious excuse you can tell.”

“And thus, he ended up here, in prison,” Inkwell nodded with understanding. “Do I want to know what they did to him here?”

“Well, I can tell you one thing you’re missing from that, Chronicler,” the construct said, “His second time meeting with the Bag of Tirek. They brought him to the Queen herself, like they did with you; they were down some Guards but… it’s to be expected. She wanted to know why Stone Edge was comatose and more about the ‘rumors’. He didn’t say anything, just kept telling them that he was just a simple earth pony that lived in the mountains. *sigh* Unfortunately she didn’t buy it and decided to use the Bag of Tirek to... get the answers from him.”

It shivered once more, looking like it was getting physically ill.

“What happened when Celestia used the Bag on Rockwell?”

“I am able to show you what happened to Rockwell when he saw the Bag the second time. Do you want to see it?” the Imprint asked.

“Yes, I do,” Inkwell answered with determination. “I’m a reporter at heart, after all.”

The Imprint nodded, quickly adding, “This will not be easy, Inkwell. What you are about to see is very unsettling and truly evil stuff that even the most hardened soul would have trouble handling. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?”

Even though it was technically an emotionless construct, Inkwell could hear the concern in the Imprint’s voice. He nodded, letting it know he wouldn’t back down. The Imprint’s eyes then began to glow white; at that moment there was a bright flash that temporarily blinded Inkwell, causing him to shield his eyes though that didn’t do much.

Inkwell opened his eyes to find himself back in a familiar setting - the Canterlot Castle’s throne room, and as his eyes drifted over, he got a terrifying case of deja vu... this felt just like what happened to him. The sun was streaming through the stained glass windows of the Elements’ accomplishments, from purifying Nightmare Moon, their vanquishing of Discord, and then... some of the ponies taking over human cities and ‘bestowing’ the ‘gift’ of ponification, one with a human woman kneeling before Celestia with a smile on her face. He saw the same cold, dark, merciless hard purple eyes of Queen Celestia. Inkwell vaguely remembered her eyes before the war; they’d been the color of a sunset, though now... they reminded him of a bruise, somehow. Around her neck was a bag of some kind (likely Tirek’s Bag) and next to her were the Elements along with a navy blue unicorn. Given his blank flank and glassy eyes, as well as how close he was to Twilight, Inkwell quickly recognized the newfoal as Stalwart Heart.

“My Queen,” Twilight said as she and Stalwart bowed their heads before Celestia, touching their horns to the floor before Twilight got up, and gave her mentor a nuzzle. “We have apprehended the so-called ‘Unicorn Without a Horn’.”

“Ah told you, Ah’m just a simple earth pony that mines alone in the mountains!” Rockwell protested.

“Yet you murdered a company of Royal Guards, most of which were saved souls. Now why would one of my little ponies have to resort to so much violence and bloodshed?” she asked, her voice sounding like one of concern and sadness, yet dripping with an almost rotten overripe sweetness.

“Because they’re wrong,” Rockwell defiantly spat, “besides, unlike them fancy Canterlot folk and other pinheads, I’d appreciate getting notified that the Element of Magic, a bucking nzambi and some Royal Guards were coming to take me against my will from my home when I haven’t done any crimes... in the past half hour.”

Inkwell saw that this was like the grizzled old stallion that others claimed have done multiple things to get incarcerated… but it was a bit off now that he had learned so much about him.

“Past half hour?!” Stalwart asked, his eyebrows shooting up. His expression was so exaggerated, as though his surprise wasn’t genuine. Not that it shocked Inkwell; the only thing newfoals could feel was that hollow mockery of happiness the potion shoved into their brains.

“Yeah, haven’t you nzambi heard about me? Name’s Rockwell, Ah’m the Earth Pony that killed a stallion with just this left hoof!” Rockwell declared, holding up his left hoof like it was a weapon. “So what’s this about? Ya’ll think Ah’m some kind of Pinhead without a horn? Even though Ah’m an Earth Pony like them?” he asked them as he pointed to Pinkie Pie and Applejack.

“I know what I saw,” Stalwart said stubbornly, almost childishly, Twilight Sparkle stroking his back with one hoof as if he was a favorite pet. Which he very well might have been. “You... used... magic. Earth ponies can’t do that!”

“And your mother was a human; bet she’s really proud of how you are now, you bucking nzambi pinhead!” Rockwell retorted, smirking smugly at Stalwart Heart’s indignation.

He then turned to Queen Celestia, asking “So your majesty, can Ah go now? Ah’d like to rob the First National Hoofington Bank again before the week is over. You honestly can’t believe this thing,” he waved a hoof in Stalwart Heart’s general direction as if dismissing him, “given how he’s a bucking nzambi pinhead.”

Inkwell watched on, knowing he couldn't do anything. It looked like past-Rockwell was either insane or was trying to trick everyone into thinking he was some kind of bad motherbucker. He almost admired Rockwell’s style... if not for the fact that he knew from experience that he was playing with fire here, mouthing off to Queen Celestia and disagreeing with her.

And he was right; for Celestia clearly wasn’t amused in the slightest and scowled at the cocky earth pony.

“They are my loyal subjects, ponies like everypony else,” Celestia said, and Inkwell had a strange feeling as he looked at her. There was a feeling that something was inside of her, moving around under her fur like a live animal in a bag, just waiting to burst out. A sense that something was near its breaking point, just ready to snap.

“They are helpful, hardworking, happy, loyal, and honest... perhaps even better subjects than ponies such as you! You could learn much from them.”

Rockwell gave off a simple huff.

“Oh yeah, Ah can learn so much from the humans. They probably got a lot of culture to them, Ah wonder if they got special equipment to detail with mining and rock breaking. Probably make things easier for beginners, and little foals growing up on a Rock Farm... wouldn't you say Pinkamena Diane Pie?” Rockwell asked the party pony. “Your sister Maud ran away to Earth; can’t say Ah blame her, she was probably trying to find some decent rocks before that pink barrier kills everything.”

He was practically on a roll before seeing the look on Celestia’s face and having it all register in his mind. “Oh wait, you mean the BUCKING nzambi earlier, didn’t you, Princess?” He gave off a quick laugh, before turning to Stalwart Heart, saying, “You hear that? She’s talking about you! Her majesty thinks Ah could learn from a BUCKING NZAMBI PINHEAD; isn’t that funny?” He laughed again as if someone told him the most hilarious joke ever.

Inkwell mentally face-hoofed. This... would not end well.

The Elements stared at Rockwell, practically trembling in rage. Inkwell abruptly had a feeling that whatever it was under Celestia’s skin was pulsing even harder and faster now. Almost hungrily.

“You’d best learn your manners and apologize, my disrespectful little pony,” Celestia hissed, her voice on the edge of snapping. “I think your wife Jonica wouldn’t like how you’re acting right now.”

“Oh yeah? How would you know? She took my daughter and left, couldn’t keep up with the pace anymore Ah guess… she must be somewhere on Earth. Tartarus if Ah know… even if that was a threat,” he said with a glare at the Queen, trying to stare her down.

‘Ah am going to die,’ Rockwell’s voice (his inner thoughts most likely) whispered into Inkwell’s ears. ‘Ah am going to bucking die at the hooves of a Tyrant, a ruler that was once kind… and Ah’m bucking scared. But Ah ain’t gonna let them be happy about this or see me cry while Ah’m still alive, no siree. Ah’m gonna stand up tall like a stallion, not cower like that colt Ah used to be… especially not for somepony that did nothing for us.’

Rockwell then began to be held in place by a combined stasis spell; this was being done by Stalwart Heart, Twilight, and Rarity at the same time. He noticed this and asks, “So, this is it? Ah’m gonna get butchered because Ah spoke up and it’s gonna be by the Elements of Harmony and a nzambi pinhead?”

“No… I’m going to loosen that tongue of yours,” Celestia answered darkly, her horn glowing as she held up the bag that was around her neck; there was a dark magic pulsing from it like a disembodied heart of darkness; it even had veins on it too.

And like that, Rockwell’s facade cracked. He knew he was doomed, but that was… this was an unknown.

“What… what is that thing?!” he demanded, eyes widened with a mixture of fear and disgust. Inkwell could tell that the earth pony was clearly recalling the ‘experience’ he had when and after he saw it the first time.

“This will fix your attitude, Rockwell,” Celestia declared, opening the bag and unleashing a dark foul black-purple colored magic that surged forward like a hungry snake. Rockwell screamed as it swirled around him and, in a disturbing fashion, caressed him, ruffled against his fur and overall crept over him like some un-Equestrian appendage. It wasn’t quite water or wind or slime, it was… something else altogether. Something wrong. He could hear a multitude of voices, one deep and guttural, another suspiciously like Princess Celestia, some like the Elements, as it cascaded over him. He saw…

Oh Luna, what he saw!

Sights of human cities burning, malformed and warped dreamlike visions of destruction. A rainbow obliterating a centaur. Years passing in the blink of an eye. Untold devastation, alicorns falling left and right.

He screamed. “THE BUCK IS THIS?!” Rockwell demanded before the magic found his mouth and started to force itself in, choking him. At that moment things… changed.

Inkwell watched on in fascination and fear as Rockwell’s eyes glowed an orange color, his cutie mark also glowing… the Elements, Stalwart Heart and Queen Celestia were all dumbfounded by this; Rockwell gave out a yell that was choked but Inkwell could still hear it.

Then, an orange light crept over the dark magic, consuming it and quickly racing over to its source, the bag… and when it did, there was a flash of orange light.

Inkwell shielded his eyes, though this wasn’t as bright as the earlier one. Inkwell opened his eyes in time to watch as Rockwell practically split into a number of ghostly forms away from his body and each one went into certain Elements and into Queen Celestia… and Inkwell could feel a multiplitude of conversations going on at once. The young unicorn could only follow so much details.

“What… is this?” a voice sounding like Rockwell’s asked.

The first voice sounded like Twilight Sparkle’s, although it was incredibly desperate in its tone. “Please, you have to stop this madness! Kill the Elements of Harmony! It’s the only way to end everyone’s suffering!”

“Oh, Granny… Big Mac… Applebloom… AH’M SO SORRY!!” Applejack’s voice sobbed out in utter despair.

“Spike… Sweetie Belle… I’m so pathetic, I couldn’t protect either of you…” Rarity's voice choked out.

“IT’S NOT A SMILE!” Pinkie Pie's voice shrieked. "They are not… it is not… I’M NOT MAKING THEM SMILE!”

They flashed by so quickly that Inkwell nearly missed them. He couldn’t see what Rockwell was seeing, but the raw emotion, the despair and sadness in their voices hit him right his heart. What the queen did to her faithful student and her friends was so twisted, so utterly depraved that Inkwell couldn’t find any words to describe it.

He couldn’t lie, being enslaved by Sombra would’ve been a paradise compared to this.

And then… Inkwell blacked out.

Inkwell soon recovered to find that Rockwell was still standing with glowing orange eyes and cutie mark, Stalwart Heart was passed out on the ground, the Elements had collapsed and Queen Celestia was down and but was still awake… the bag itself was shut somehow.

The young chronicler watched as Rockwell’s glassy eyed expression started to shift, his left eye twitching before his eyes and cutie mark stopped glowing. He stood there, frozen, before one emotion started to take shape on his features. Pure, unadulterated horror.

His eyes went wide before collapsing to the ground, using his forelegs to support himself before vomiting out the same black gunk that Inkwell saw him do that night when he did magic.

Queen Celestia glared at the horrified Earth Pony, and demands with venom in her voice. “What did you do?” she snarled.

Rockwell looked at her, his mind racing with just about everything he had experienced in what felt like hours but merely minutes in reality, he stumbled to his back and tried to crawl away from Celestia as she started to stand once again.

“Wha-what the buck are you?! Wha-” he stopped as more black bile came from his mouth once more. Rockwell coughed it out; shaking and sweating.

The Earth Pony lifted his left hoof to Celestia as she approached, “Stay away!” he screamed, willing for something to happen… however nothing occurred, frightening Rockwell even more.

“M-my magic!” Rockwell cried out, trying again and again for his magic to work; yet nothing occurred as Celestia’s horn glowed. His body levitated before her through telekinesis.

“My little earth pony,” she began with that honeyed sweetness to her voice that bordered on sickening, “You’re going to tell me everything you know, in due time that is; none have resisted the call to greater harmony before, so why you?”

“Ah…” He had no words, simply paralyzed and powerless as more things came to mind; memories and experiences, most not his own, yet they latched onto him when he returned to his body.

“Mommy! It hurts!” the human child cried out from pain as the failed batch of potion mutilated his body, all the while his mother cried for her son. The cries of the other test subjects, some of horror, others cursing Twilight to the deepest pits of hell, rang through the dark and dingy dungeon. And yet, she continued to dispassionately go about with her experiments, dragging the next subject out to receive another defective batch of potion.

“You’re the real traitor here, Bloom! It’s all for the greater herd and family! Ah oughta take you over to Earth and really show ya what Ah’m fightin’ for!” Applejack snarled at her younger sister, Granny Smith’s casket already lowered into the ground underneath. Before they could come to blows, Carrot Top and Caramel took Applebloom away to the house, leaving Big Mac and those two twin unicorn stallions behind to deal with Applejack.

“Spike! I promise you they will never change me! Never!” Rarity screamed as she was dragged away forcibly from the downed drake by Royal Guards.

“Guess what, it’s pinata time!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully shouted as several human children gathered around to start hitting the, unknowingly laced with potion, pinata. The mother of the birthday twins sat nearby, laughing at first… before her joy turned to screams of outrage at the sight of the purple liquid drenching her children and the other guests. But before she and the other parents could do anything, they were quickly subdued, bottles full of the serum being crammed into their mouths… by humans, all willingly collaborating with this travesty.

“You are nothing before me,” a voice of pure evil said to him, its eyes narrowed at the terrified Rockwell who took a step back. “Nothing.” Its claws began to reach out to grab him.

“What? No quips? No cute remarks?” Queen Celestia asked with regards to Rockwell’s lack of mouthing.

“Ah... you crazy whorse... or whatever you are!” he whimpered, short of breath, “You ain't Celestia! You... oh Luna, why?!”

“Hmmm, still having that tone of yours… well then, perhaps you could use time working after all… Rockwell,” Celestia said, before electrocuting the Earth Pony; the other Elements and Stalwart Heart starting to awaken and recover from that event to the sound of Rockwell crying out in great pain, though unfortunately for him, the torment wouldn’t end there.

Inkwell was simply flabbergasted by how broken Rockwell was, and at how much of an ordeal he had gone through…

It just... it was too much for anypony to go through!

And then scene simply faded away, bringing Inkwell back into the grassy field. The Imprint looked at him with sadness and said, “Now you know. After that, Rockwell was taken from Canterlot to the prison camp, sentenced to always receive the medical ‘check-ups’ to either put him under control or to take his magic from him. The reason why the other prisoners respect him so much is because despite always getting put in medical, he always came back. It helped that he isn't afraid to talk back at the Head Warden and always did the hard labor he was assigned with no trouble; no matter what happened to him.”

Inkwell was breathless. He could only utter, “Wow, that’s heavy..."

"Indeed."

"So... what about that pegasus then? Soundstorm was her name, right?" Inkwell asked.

The Imprint nodded before answering, "She's much like Rockwell; a pony that unlocked her true potential. She is in this prison camp due to being the organizer of the Cloudsdale protest from two years ago."

"But didn't that end up in a big riot that required the Royal Guards to put down?” Inkwell asked.

“And who told you that? The newspaper from Canterlot? You saw what they said about you, remember?” The Imprint pointed out, “It’s all propaganda; the truth is different. It was simply a peaceful protest of a few pegasi questioning the militarization and actions both Equestria and Celestia had been undertaking since the Crystal Empire returned. Unfortunately, circumstances are a horrific thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shortly before that day… Lyra Heartstrings announced her creation of the Ponies for Human Life; due to how close they are, Celestia decided that they were connected and decided to put one down beforehoof,” the Imprint states, “And even then, the protesters didn’t even start the fight; the brutality of the Guards, Lightning Dust and the Homunculus in Rainbow Dash made them try to defend themselves… Soundstorm herself tried to escape, but going against two flyers that could push past the sound barrier ended as well as you could expect. She was forced down and into the ground.”

Inkwell sighed, his mind no longer reeling; just tired. All of these secrets holding even more secrets, the lies and brainwashing and propaganda. He felt so stupid he hadn’t realized it sooner.

The Imprint apparently could sense this and it put its hoof over Inkwell’s barrel in a reassuring gesture. “Now, now, Inkwell, you shouldn’t mentally beat yourself up about this. You were every bit a victim as well; brainwashed instead of genuinely educated. Besides, it would do you no good to hate yourself over things beyond your own control.”

Inkwell adjusted his glasses, feeling a bit better with that. “I guess you’re right.”

The Imprint smiled and said, “Now then, it is time for you to return; this story has only begun, and remember that I’ve served my purpose. You know what you must do, young Chronicler.”

Inkwell felt his head hurt sharply for a second, like his mind was being ripped out of his head, the world constructed within the crystal collapsing, the Imprint’s body broke apart with a warm smile on his muzzle...

...and then he blacked out.

Inkwell awoke, feeling utterly shaken and his fur drenched in cold sweat. He felt like he’d gone on a mental twister, his brain trying to process all this new information.

His heart went out to Rockwell, to the Elements of Harmony, and even (bucking A, he couldn’t believe he was admitting this) Celestia herself. The old stallion had seen some things that no soul should see and had lost just about everything and everypony near and dear to him. And the latter were nothing but puppets being used by an evil so foul and depraved that it would never stop… not until everything good in the world was dead and buried in its own darkness.

He looked at the orange crystal in his hoof, knowing what he had to do. He quickly checked to make sure no one was around to hear it, and with a quick and hard stomp, he shattered the crystal.

He felt awful, knowing the Imprint in there was now lost, but Rockwell’s orders needed to be followed. No one could afford this happening upon the wrong hooves.

Inkwell then turned to the notebook, quill and inkwell… Soundstorm asked him if he would be their Chronicler and... well, he was a reporter at heart after all.

He quickly got to work writing down what he had learned/experienced from the imprint of his cellmate had shown him… by Luna, they were going to get the truth, some way, somehow they were gonna get it! Even if Equestria had accepted it and grown to love it, someone deserved to know.

It took some time, but he finished it. He quickly bound the notebook up and hid it away underneath a floorboard, praying to Luna, and to the humans’ deities that no one would find it.

He tried to lie down in his cot again to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another rough day of digging and mining and he needed to be well rested for it.

He really had to get the buck out of this manure hole.

Author's Notes:

And thus the first Arc draws to a close, I wish to thank everyone for reading my piece of the Spectrum-Verse and before anyone asks, yes I had to retread things that were already known due to Inkwell not knowing anything. But, with that out of the way next time we will begin the transition from Prints to Melodies; see you next time for the Interlude… also keep your eyes peeled, you may see Rockwell’s travels through the mindscapes soon enough along with other things… maybe.