Prophet

Princess Celestia swept down the stairs of the deepest, darkest dungeon in Canterlot’s Royal Castle. Flanked by two guards, both armed with batons, she clip-clopped down the winding staircases. They passed more than a few prisoners that tried to make grabs for her feathers, each getting shocked into submission. Forms were signed, passwords were exchanged, and locks were undone.

“Nice to see you, Princess,” said the final guardian of the ‘elite’ cells. The ‘F’ block held but one prisoner, and needed several keys to unseal. Leaning gingerly, the white alicorn allowed her crown to be plucked off of her head by the jail-keeper. The muscled pegasus stallion turned, pressing the rising towers of the headpiece into a series of slots. No other crown would do, only hers. The gears began to turn, and a steel door several inches thick began to slide to one side. “Be safe,” he said gruffily, returning her crown with great reverence.

“Thank you,” Celestia murmured. “I’ll go alone from here, gentlecolts. Please be comfortable until I return,” she bade. Her two guards nodded, and the jailer gestured toward a rickety table and a dusty old set of cards. They nodded their thanks as the Princess vanished slowly beyond the threshold into the darkest deep.

Taking a firefly lantern from a waiting hook, the alicorn walked the narrow path. The tunnel wormed about, into the very heart of Mount Canterlot. Taking a deep breath, Celestia paused at the final door and lifted a hoof. She knocked three times.

“Come in, Celestia,” a soft voice said. “You’re earlier than you expected. I’m sorry you didn’t sit to enjoy the whole opera because of me. You normally really enjoy music.” It was a statement, not a question.

Celestia’s neutral frown softened a bit, and she sighed. The alicorn didn’t question why it knew how her evening had gone. Turning the knob and opening the polished wooden door, she emerged into the cell. “Good evening,” Celestia said. “I’ve come to ask—”

“Questions, questions, always questions.” said a creature sitting in the corner. There were no windows for light, but a few perched candles and a grated hearth were enough to light the room lightly. “How about you ask how my day went now and then, huhm?” It rose to its impressive height, turning towards Celestia with a rather bitter smirk. The Princess wasn’t used to being eye to eye with anypony, but it was an exception.

“How was your day?” Celestia asked, sitting when it gestured for her.

“Well I’ve been in a dungeon all day, you see. So not much going on. Heh!” it coughed twice, then leaned on an old bookshelf. “But where are my manners, I’m in the presence of royalty!” It walked forward quickly and easily, bending at the waist to bow. Bizarre for a creature with such tender feet and posture. (That was how they’d captured it, it couldn’t walk across a gravel road without injuring itself!) “You only visit when you want something, so let’s hear it.” It sat across from her, half-orange and half-black because of the firelight.

“One of your prophecies came to pass yesterday,” Celestia said wearily.

“I know,” it said, “But for the sake of having someone to talk to, why don’t you tell me about it.” It reached intrusively, stroking Celestia’s mane. The Princess fought a shudder, but did not move. The ugly thing seemed to find an inner peace when petting somepony. She’d even sent braver soldiers in to visit it, so it could pet them and remain calm. Well, calm and sane. Each stallion or mare came back rattled and was forced to sign a non-disclosure contract. Some under pain of gelding or permenant memory-wiping. The things it would tell them sometimes! Horrors!

“A purple little unicorn filly conjured a dragon out of its egg for her academy entrance exam,” Celestia said. “But her magic swirled out of control and it grew enormous. Purple and green… greatly deformed, just like you said.”

“Mhm?” The creature nodded, still running its intrusive fingers through her ever-flowing mane. “Twilight Twinkle, er, Sparkle,” it seemed to be confirming things to itself. “Anything else you’d like to tell me?”

“I’m worried,” Celestia confessed a bit, cocking her head when two fingers pinched one of her ears and rubbed coarsely at the fur on either side of it.

“Of course you are. You’re a ruler,” it said with a snort. “There’s a lot of big stuff coming up in the next fifteen years or so.”

“Will Luna ever return? Surely my spell won’t last forever, even augmented by the Elements of Harmony?” Celestia blurted before she could stop herself. “Is that what Twilight is going to do? Bring my sister back? It’s been almost a thousand years!”

“To know the future is to change it,” it paused for a moment, then chuckled darkly, “My little pony.” Celestia frowned at its cryptic answers, shuffling her wings about to push the stroking hand away.

“Will you tell me nothing else?” Celestia asked softly. “If you say Twilight is to be the tipping point of Equestria’s history, for good or ill, I must know more!”

“Twilight will be the most important thing that has ever happened to your little ten-town nation,” it said mysteriously. “If I told you everything, that would ruin the fun of finding it all out.”

“You’re worse than Discord.”

“Oh please, if I was worse than him we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” it stood, gesturing to the thick door and the tunnel beyond. “You wouldn’t even have a sister if I’d had my way. You’d have been Queen Celestia!”

“Don’t say such things! I love my sister!” Celestia snapped, jumping to her hooves. She quickly caught herself and winced, for the red-maned monster laughed at her. Taking a deep breath and collecting herself, she sighed. “What will you tell me, then?”

“What makes you think I have anything to say?”

“Why would I be here if I didn’t have questions for you to answer?”

“What makes you think I’ll answer them?”

“I came for a reason and you know what it is. Don’t talk paradoxes at me.”

“I’ll talk all I want, it’s all I’m allowed to do anymore,” it gestured miserably to its surroundings. The fluffy cot sat in a lonely corner, and the tally-marks on the wall were like a twisted maze that covered the whole far wall. The bookshelf and the art supplies were all it really had down here. Much more than that was too dangerous. IT was too dangerous.

Celestia sat in silence for a long time, waiting for the eventual set of demands to come about. Prophecy, even from a prisoner like it, was not free. Sure, she could starve the creature, have it tortured for information or something of that ilk… but it was not Celestia’s way. Imprisonment, yes, but not harm. There was a line. “So, what’ll you give me?” it said rudely, leaning on the hearth and folding its arms at her.

“What do you want, aside from your freedom?” Celestia made sure to amend the question.

“How about a cell with a window?” it said. “It might be nice to see the sun now and then. Feel the breeze. Hear ponies singing.” It stared at one of the blank walls, turning to touch it and stroke the cold stone. “It’s so lonely down here…” it whispered.

“You know I can’t. You’re very dangerous. Too dangerous to move to another location without magic.” Celestia said. “What else?”

“How about a playmate?” it said innocently. Celestia made a face. “Not like that you pervert,” it groaned. “Send a soldier in to play checkers, or talk, or even just look at me. A deaf-mute would be good company at this point.”

“And condemn a pony to a life of secrecy and non-existence?”

“You’ve done it before,” it said savagely. “With Sombra. And Princess Luna. None of your little ponies know Nightmare Moon was your sister. Or that you even have a sister. You let her pass into myth so ponies wouldn’t worry about you doing such things to THEM—given you did it to your own flesh and blood. You do like your thousand-year prison sentences, don’t you?”

Celestia went hot in the face, but had no biting comeback. Her patience was starting to run out. Then a scarlet line of realization went across her mind. “Luna will have been gone one thousand years… fifteen years from now.” Celestia smirked a bit. “Thank you for the hint! My sister’s return is imminent—and I would wager it’s because of Twilight Sparkle!”

The creature scowled at her angrily, not having meant to drop such information for the princess. “Touche,” it admitted softly, flipping its scarlet mane with a grump to not look at her. Celestia smiled despite herself. The verbal fencing was nothing if not revealing sometimes. “What else do you want to know?”

Celestia stood and went over it, leaning gingerly into its line of sight, “What else would you give me for free? We were negotiating for something else, I believe.” It refused to look at her, having lost this particular round of arguing. Celestia batted her eyes and it flicked her on the nose sharply. “Owch!”

“You’re cute, but not that cute,” it said bitterly, turning from her. “If you’re going to keep me here forever, you could at the very least send me a friend now and then. Friendship is magic, after all.” It gave a short, hollow laugh.

“I agree, but I’m afraid of what you might tell them.”

“You want to put tape over my mouth?”

“I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“You are hurting me!” it snapped. “I haven’t seen the sun in years! I’ve not had meat to eat in ages! I’m lonely and pissed off and you won’t give an inch!” it shouted angrily, turning and thrusting a finger into her nose. Celestia back-peddled a little. “You want to know the future, Celestia?! Fine!” It came forward and grabbed the alicorn by the mane. Celestia shrieked, an arc of magic firing wildly from her horn. It bounced off the prisoner like rubber, striking the ceiling and sending a few stones to rain to the floor with the sound of a gunshot. Hoof-steps came galloping up the hallway, shouts and cursing echoing up the passage. The prisoner pulled Celestia forcefully to her knees, making her shriek like a feral horse. Through clenched teeth it whispered to her, “You will be struck down, in a sheer show of power, at a wedding. In front of everypony that loves and respects you. Struck. Down.”

Ice pumped through Celestia’s veins as her eyes widened. “Wh---what?!” she gaped. She was an alicorn! No force was powerful enough to kill she who brought the dawn! Who could possibly-?! The door crashed open, flying off its hinges as the final guard of the prison block bucked it in.

Two guards-ponies rushed the monster with a shout. It went down hard, crashing into the bookcase behind it. Celestia’s mane was released and books rained all around the creature. It moaned softly, slumping a little and nursing a bruised head.

Celestia was herded out by the three panicked guards, the thick-armored one pulling up the rear and walking backward with his shield. Out, out, out of the accursed hallway they trekked with their Princess. It watched them go, giving the day princess a savage grin as she went. It touched the back of its head to check for blood, and the last it saw of Celestia’s face was a rattled expression of fear.

Outside, the huge metallic door was rushed closed and firmly locked. The guards fussed over Celestia, checking her over for injuries and even hugging her like foals. That had been a close one! “Guard?” the alicorn asked when she finally got her voice back.

“Yes, your highness?” he asked, still panting. “Want me to go in there and punish it?” he begged angrily, gesturing to a round mace that was leaning against the wall. “It should know better than to mare-handle a princess!”

“No, no don’t,” Celestia said, staring down the hallway with a haunted expression. “Reseal the room as per protocol. Have its firewood restocked as well, it’s running low.” She pawed at her abused mane a few times before it caught the ethereal winds again. This seemed to help her gather her dignity. “I’ll be sending you a list of things to bring to the prisoner’s cell.”

“Things?” he asked with a frown.

“We’ll need to replace all of its books with new ones. Replenish its art supplies. Bring it a puzzle or two. Living in such conditions can try one’s sanity, after all,” Celestia took a few more cleansing breathes, finally standing to her full height.

“But it attacked you! Shouldn’t we at least punish it?!” he demanded.

“It’s just restless. You are to double up on your petting time appointments. If nopony volunteers, you are to switch to a draft.” Celestia commanded while one of her two guards touched her cheek a few times with a cool wet rag. “Tell them to bring board games or other safe activities with them from now on. Anypony that refuses their turn will answer to me directly,” she bade.

“Er, yes. Yes, your highness,” the guard bowed low, submissive to the crown and her rather frowny face. Celestia thanked him and returned the firefly lantern to its waiting hook. “See you again soon?” It came out like a question.

“Not for a few months!” shouted the creature from far back in the hallway.

“Quiet, you beast!” he kicked the thick door with his back hoof.

“I’ll see you when the time comes, Lt. Sentry.” Celestia bade the middle-aged stallion with a practiced, feminine smile. “Until then, don’t talk to it anymore.”

“Yes your highness,” he said again, bowing.

Celestia left without another word.