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Celestia Founding of Equestria

by Dan_s Comments

Chapter 2: 2) Man-Creature

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Man-Creature

They reappeared in what looked like a barn that had been halfway converted into a diner. There were tables and benches to sit at. Straw covered the floor, and there were buckets of hay to munch on in each booth. Celestia was glad to see her sister, and the girl, had arrived safely, and seemed as nonplused about the place as she was.

"Maybe the Library of Celano?" the man-creature suggested.

And they were inside an almost-normal looking library. Except the scale of the place was immense. Shelves towered over them by hundreds of feet. The rows of books continued on to the horizon. And the impression she'd gotten as she arrived was that the place was as wide as it was long.

Fortunately, there were furnishings scaled for their size, although some items Celestia wasn't sure if they were alien chairs or abstract art. Most of the things were plain, unadorned and serviceable. "This seems better." She looked at Luna, who shrugged. They found a table slightly off the beaten track, and sat down. Celestia noted there seemed to be no other patrons who could be seen or heard. I wonder if the man-creature suggested this place because it was essentially abandoned, Celestia wondered.

The negotiations were surprisingly civilized. Once it was determined that the clay-figure, and Beatrice had reached the most important part of the accord without discord, only the details remained. After several hours of cordially delving through minutia, Celestia called respite, for although Beatrice and the clay-figure seemed indefatigable, Luna and the man-creature had moved a ways away and gone to sleep. Luna had stripped off her armor and was curled around his back with wings and legs, making her look a little like an overcoat. Celestia noted the crescent moon cutie mark on her sister's flank and wondered about that.

She took the opportunity to remove her own armor and stretch. The weight hadn't seemed extreme, but it felt good not being burdened at all. She also looked at the sun cutie-mark recently arrived on her own flank. She smiled at that, and brought the little 'sun' she still held closer to it, to feel the pleasant resonance between the two. Now is Luna going to have to create a moon to match me? she wondered and chuckled. I'm getting used to the idea that these people are basically discussing how they are going to remove and replace my eyes. But do I have a choice in the matter? Do I actually trust that I will be 'better' after the operation? Have I become so jaded, so quickly, that this doesn't bother me? Or have the blows come so fast that I cannot react to this as I would in normal circumstances? She glanced at the others. And who here would I ask about 'normal' anyway?

"I wish I could talk to Cheerilee about this," she said quietly.

Celestia took a moment during her stretching to look around at the library, and to search for one of the things that had caught her eye during the deliberations. When she'd seen one of them at first, she'd thought it was a crystal spiderweb. Later it had looked like a bat, then another time it looked like a monkey. I want to get a good look at one, and figure out whether they are that complicated a shape, or whether they change depending on if they are in flight unburdened, in-flight carrying a book, or simply climbing the shelves.

She turned to the clay-figure, who had approached her, while Beatrice had curled up around Luna as Luna had curled up around the man-creature. "I beg pardon, I have not asked your name in all this time. You seem to know mine, and Luna's," Celestia said. She was a bit worried that she'd grown used to the creature in the time she'd dealt with him. Her instincts still squalled a warning at its presence, but she could ignore them.

"My name you have heard, else I wouldn't have appeared," the clay-figure said, "But one that can be pronounced, 'Eye-Lord' would be the simplest."

"And him?" Celestia asked, "He's been scrupulous not to reveal his own, nor ask us ours."

"Some fools believe names have power over the owners," the clay-figure said.

"Do they?" Celestia said, "Names represent who you are, and I've heard that dark forces can be summoned by their true name."

"Only if you are not changing throughout life. While a true name would give you power, that one changes so fast his true name would be different in the time it took to drop a book from the height of the shelf tops. What he is called, also changes. But Trickster is what I name him," the clay-figure said, "I name you Celestia, and your sister Luna because my eyes are very grivwalt, even that name gives no power over you, but him -." The clay figure shook his head. "Even I cannot see where he begins and ends."

Celestia nodded. "I have been trying to examine my eyes to compare them with Beatrice's, and I cannot fathom what grivwalt is."

The clay-figure actually chuckled, although it sounded like something it had learned rather than a natural response. "It is not merely appearance, nor clarity, but the mind and spirit that drives the gaze. It is more than 'seeing deeply' in time, space or the spirit. It is more than seeing what must be, and what could be. If we had a week, I could take you to books here that would barely scratch the surface. No spell can fully duplicate it, and if I take your physical eyes, the eyes I replace them with would soon be as grivwalt as those I removed, although the removed eyes would retain their full potency. It is that I study, for the idea of an attribute that is both imbued and intrinsic fascinates me."

Celestia nodded, understanding the words, and that a huge concept lay just beneath them, and that the clay figure understood only a little better than she did. So even as ancient and mighty as he is, there is still a lesson to be learned, she thought.

"So, you would take them as I slept, and the new ones would not have the aura that his have?" Celestia said.

Again the chuckle. "It is not the eyes that give him the aura you fear. It is his heart. He was born of mortals, as were you, but he is more like what I am, and what you will be, than most mortals. You both have a long, hard travel through your lives. But neither of you will give up, you will always see a path forward. Grivwalt. But whether you will take that path is more about your beliefs, than your ability."

The idea that she could become as ruthless as the man-creature frightened Celestia more than the clay-figure's presence had. She looked at the books to distract her from the thought. Most were the style she was familiar with: leather-bound folios. There were coveys with scrolls, metal plaques, clay tablets, and some things she didn't recognize: jars of dark fluid with something moving about within them, hats or circlets in boxes, glowing crystals, and strange, small rectangular solids with a metal fitting at one end.

As she ambled, staying in sight of the sleeping group, she was aware that more than just the clay-figure watched her. More than the librarians too, she thought, as she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye. A figure, in armor, not too dissimilar to the man-creature. But where he's straight lines from arm pits to hips, that one was shaped more like an hourglass. Is it a danger, or just curious? She trotted back as nonchalantly as she could, trying not to glance back to were she'd spotted the creature. She could no longer feel it, but she had the premonition it would be back.

"Beatrice's mother," the clay-figure said, "Or close enough."

Celestia didn't ask how it knew what she was doing. "So, the Trickster's wife?"

The clay-figure paused, standing stock still.

I guess the thinking pose wasn't part of the curriculum, she thought.

"No. Whether they couple or not is immaterial, it has no biological effect on Beatrice's genesis," the clay-figure said, "The Bright Ones are machines. Cogs in the great wheel of existence, which uses them to move. They are generally pure in and of themselves, to do what they are required to do. Even the fallen ones, for they have taken themselves as their all and one, and they are truly empty."

Celestia nodded, barely understanding, but eager to learn more. At least when it's explained it all, I can go back at put it together, Celestia thought.

"Beatrice was an - not imperfection, but occlusion in the mother, a piece of something else, small, but fully formed. The mother was a warrior, pure and focused. The occlusion was an artist, a distraction from the battlefield, viewing the sky or a flower for a moment, before continuing with the slaughter."

"I can do that without affecting me," Celestia said.

"You are a mortal. What you are changes moment to moment. I can do such with difficulty, the Bright Ones, not at all. The mother went mad, not fell as those who rebel and think they're free, but lost her center entirely," the clay-figure said.

"Because she suddenly had two," Celestia said as she ignored the squadron of eyes that watched her reaction to the story. She shook off the nagging feeling she was being 'weighed' and nodded.

"The Trickster found her in a ravaged plain. Surrounded by the remains of foes who thought she couldn't fight and their vengeance would be simple. Even in her state, she could not kill a helpless foe, for he quite ostentatiously put off his weapons, and quite a show it was. Instead she grappled with him, to force defense. But he grappled with her mind and being, separating the occlusion from her, not to shatter either, but to create two, whole and sane beings," the clay-figure said, "When their sanity returned, mother and daughter saw what they had done to their rescuer and whisked him away to healing."

"So he was there for her creation, and the time he was in her spirit, he raised her as an adult?" Celestia said.

"The Bright Ones are born complete, adults as you say, they have no period of growing into themselves. They instantly are," the clay-figure said, "That is not to say that he did not greatly influence both of them."

Celestia raised an eyebrow, realized the clay-figure wouldn't understand the subtle gesture, then asked, "Can you elaborate?"

"I can," the man creature said as he approached.

I didn't hear his approach, she thought as she looked him over, But I didn't react as I would towards a foe. I guess I'm getting used to this. In the background Luna and Beatrice were cuddling.

"When you go mind to mind with one of the Bright Ones, my race calls them 'messengers', you face the reflected glory of The Almighty. Every petty, evil, and unworthy thing you've ever done in your life is paraded before you and you feel the weight of it. Even complete sociopaths aren't immune. Without someone providing context that stealing cookies taught you stealth that you later used to save a dozen people, that beating up the local bully set him on the road to recovery, or that lying to someone who made you nervous was completely justified, I could have never been able to complete the separation into two, complete and integrated beings. Every pain or shame laid bear before someone and minutely examined, and still being willing to help them. That had a profound effect on both of them."

"You are full of contradictions," Celestia said.

"I don't believe in the convention that you must always be kind in the short run. I'd rather painfully pull a splinter today, instead of cut off an infected finger with full anesthesia tomorrow," the man-creature said, he faced them, "Have you negotiated the exchange?"

"For Celestia and Luna, I have already enlisted Beatrice's help in crafting the replacements," the clay-figure said, "Your plan was a sound one, and I am grateful."

"You're welcome. No charge, this was happenstance that turned in your favor," the man-creature said, "Sometimes life isn't fair. In your favor." He smiled at Celestia. "Remember, negotiate well. All the enhancements you wish."

"And I wanted to change the color," Celestia said, "To magenta."

"What's wrong with the green you've got?" the man-creature said.

"I've always thought they looked odd, and in photographs, they look very strange," Celestia admitted, "I think Luna wants a color change as well. She never liked her 'mud brown' eye color."

The man-creature shrugged. "I always liked my blue."

"Yours are very pretty," Celestia said, "I just want a change."

Celestia noted that Luna and Beatrice were exchanging knowing looks. She frowned that they were making more of this than it deserved.

"The details are nearly set," the clay-figure said, "But this is not the right setting."

"Whatever you say about him, patient health is very important to him," the man-creature said.

"What happened to those that, uh, couldn't regenerate their eyes?" Celestia asked.

"They nearly all survived," the man-creature said and returned to the table..

Celestia decided she didn't want to follow that train of thought.

The last negotiations went smoothly, until Beatrice insisted on one more lesson for the clay-figure. Celestia had been too shocked to immediately shoot down the idea.

The clay-figure had taken a less bulky form, and despite all her instincts, Celestia managed to hold still.

"That's good," Beatrice said, "Just like that."

"It is a strange experience," the clay-figure said as he raised the curry comb and tenderly ran it through Celestia's coat. "A strange way of thinking."

The clay-figure's aura of weirdness/wrongness had diminished to almost nothing. There was something 'off' about him, but his odd appearance let you explain it away. He was also giving her the gentlest currying she could remember. Celestia couldn't quite relax into a puddle, but was not going to bolt at the contact. She smirked as Luna looked at the whole process longingly.

"You can go next," Celestia told her, "If you ask politely."

Luna wasn't sure what to make of that.

The currying was refreshing, and despite the very bizarre company, Celestia felt as if the terror and despair of her captivity were fading. The question now is, how do we get home? she thought.

Luna was less sanguine about the job, but contented herself by laying her head in the man-creature's lap and letting the currying relax her almost to sleep. Beatrice seemed to be 'grading' the clay-figure's progress. Celestia was not the only one to think so.

"This will have an effect on learning your skill? Or is this the Trickster's influence?" the clay-figure asked.

"A little of both," Beatrice said, "You need the training, and they need the currying, so I combined them. The Trickster's challenge is to do several things at once, so others who only understand one thread get all confused about the tapestry. But if you knew all the threads, it would make perfect sense."

The clay-figure glanced over at Celestia. "I find that less than comforting, and you?"

"I'm stuck here for a while longer," she said, "I am just trying to enjoy the ride."

The clay-figure considered, then nodded.

Transitioning to the clay-figure's lab and surgery was less jarring than expected. A simple table set amid a small, open space. No tools or implements were apparent anywhere. And no walls, just a transition from bright light to deep black marked the boundaries. The less thought about the unseen floor and invisible ceiling the better.

"If you seek instrumentalities," the clay-figure said at it became a simple cylinder, "I am all that is required. The rest of you vacate the room. Celestia will be asleep, but you shall be disturbed by the operation."

The man-creature led Luna out.

"Sleep," the clay-figure now cylinder told her. She wasn't awake to hear if it echoed or not.
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Waking, Celestia felt no different. She did note that her horn ring was missing, and the room's lights were quite low. She heard a noise and felt Luna snuggle up against her. She draped a wing over her sister and let regular sleep take her.

After what seemed like an instant, she was instantly aware of Luna up and awake.

"They are magenta!" Luna told her right in her face, then stared at Celestia's wing, "And the microscopic setting works too!"

Celestia snickered at her sister's unbridled enthusiasm. She was seeing all in black and white, and very spotty. She tried to look harder, and the room snapped into full brightness. She blinked a few times, then relaxed and the room dimmed tremendously. "The low-light works as well, as if you hadn't noticed."

Luna paused and stared at her. "What are you - oh, that is strange," she said and looked around, "I wanted to try everything out, I didn't even notice."

Celestia laughed at her sister playing with her new 'toy'. She concentrated and found the low-light and telescopic settings worked perfectly. Aside from the padded table they had awakened on, there was nothing in the room besides the door. "Stay in here at least a day to let your eyes become accustomed to their new condition. Outside is too bright for you, Trickster'," she read the note on the door at 20 paces.

Luna stopped, stared and mouthed the same words. "That's amazing!" she said.

The pair tested all the advantages their upgraded eyes offered, even looking soulfully sad at each other. Neither could tell the difference from their old eyes, other than the color.

The knock on the door brought them out of their game. "Enter," Celestia said.

The man-creature entered, carrying a large tray of various foods. Oatmeal, fresh bread, a few cupcakes, and some cheese. "There's been a problem," the man-creature said as he set the tray on the table, "We did a search for your homeland, and we can't find it. That'll delay sending you home until we can return Beatrice to her people. They'll know where it is, and the Lord of Eyes will make a few inquiries."

"Is it that hard to find?" Luna asked. Celestia took the opportunity to eat both chocolate cupcakes.

"Among the near infinite number of universes and multiverses? Very hard, but with two fairly powerful citizen of one as a guide, it should be like searching for a steel needle in a haystack with a magnet. Tedious, but not impossible. Both of us came up empty."

Luna noted the depletion of cupcakes and pouted at Celestia. Celestia looked back as she serenely munched a loaf of bread. Luna nosed the nearly empty plate of cupcakes towards the man-creature, and pouted with all her might.

"Yes, there's one left. I'm sorry, the light's too dim to make it out, but there was one raspberry-filled with cream topping, and two chocolate with chocolate frosting, if you don't like raspberry -"

The third cupcake fell to an alicorn. "Raspberry?" Celestia said mournfully as Luna chewed, grinned, and tasted.

"I suspected someone would scarf down the two, best appearing, so I made the leftover really special," the man-creature said, "A little lesson that your eyes won't solve all your problems. King Solomon would have cut them all in half and shared each."

Celestia stuck her tongue out at him. Luna giggled. The man-creature shrugged.

"Anyway, you've got about six hours in darkness, then we'll start bringing the light levels up. I'd advise you not to light your horn, the brightness will be painful, even with your eyes closed. I've already contacted Beatrice's people, and they are eager to have her back, especially after whom she just taught."

"It can't have been very long, how did she teach him all her secrets in a few days?" Celestia asked.

"They have a way of transferring information that is more efficient than ours, and it would likely harm us if we tried to receive it. Also, it's been four hours we've been here. The operation only took 10 minutes."

Celestia stared in disbelief as the man-creature withdrew. She saw him feel for the door handle, but he was able to get it, and close the door behind him without too much trouble. The idea they were in such total darkness, and their home was elusive, chased around in her head with the idea that so complicated a piece of work could be done so effortlessly.
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The gradual brightening of the room had accompanied a general darkening of the alicorns' spirits. The man-creature reported that Beatrice's people couldn't find our homeland. He's promised to contact some 'friends in the Far Marches' to see what they knew, Celestia thought, But he wasn't hopeful, and neither am I. How can you lose an entire universe?

"Do you think we've come from so far away that they can't find our home?" Luna asked the question that had been plaguing Celestia's thoughts.

"Considering the talk about infinite multiverses, it is possible," Celestia admitted, "Or unlike what they've said about universes being huge things, if our is small, maybe it's especially hard to find." Celestia accepted the grateful nuzzle from her sister and wondered about the possibility she'd proposed.

We've barely explored the whole planet, and stars were living things. I suppose they're in close orbit. So, a one star-system universe? And if the sun and the moon really do orbit the planet, then it's even smaller. But small enough if could be lost, or perhaps just unfindable? I can't imagine that. With the amount of magic there, it should glow like a beacon, even if it is a dust mote.

The door opened. The man-creature entered, looking perplexed. He looked at the two alicorns and tried to put his thoughts into words. "I found someone who knew not your world, but Tambelon, which is associated with it."

"It is!" Celestia said happily. For once, happy about the existence of that dark place.

"I called in a few favors, and went and looked for Tambelon, figuring I'd find your homeland from there," he said and his expression became apologetic.

"It wasn't there, was it?" Luna blurted out the question Celestia had been dreading.

"It not only wasn't there. It's never been there," the man-creature said, while Celestia and Luna exchanged frightened looks, "The whole thread that should lead up to it is gone," the man-creature said. He walked towards them, and scratched Luna behind the ears to raise her spirits, and to let him focus on something other than this disquieting mystery, "There are powers that can erase entire continua, that's their job, but this didn't have that feel. Something is going on here, something big, and until we know the rules, we shouldn't go poking around."

"But our home!" Luna insisted, and nuzzled him. He waved Celestia over and began scratching behind their ears, one hand to each.

The pleasant experience of nails stimulating the area around her ears put Celestia in a less worried mood.

"The problem is, the source I used is absolutely reliable, for it to be wrong, you'd have to believe someone managed the change and either concealed it, or did it soon before I asked it, or soon after. The collection of people who could do the former are very rare, and they would guard the secret jealously, for fear that their enemies would move against them in their time of weakness. If it's the latter, the list is much shorter, and honestly, they wouldn't care who found out, because no one will mess with them."

"Why would someone, of any power rank do such a thing?" Celestia asked, fighting through the almost soporific effect of the scratching.

"I can only guess that Tambelon became of interest to someone, and they did something. In that case, it's good news. Because then they'll return your home as soon as they've extracted Tambelon," he said, his voice soothing, his manner more positive, then he stiffened ever-so-slightly, trying to hide his worry. "If it's some other reason, then nothing can be guessed at. I had a plan involving Beatrice, which I thought would get some very big wheels turning. But this dwarfs anything I've ever heard of. This makes my wheels look like the gears of a watch, when the walls of the room start moving."

"What should we do?" Luna asked. Then she leaned into the renewed scratching.

"First, don't lose hope, it may resolve itself shortly. Second, if it doesn't, you're both still on contract to deliver Beatrice to her people, so you've got something to do while it resolves itself. Third, both Beatrice and I have friends. You can resettle with them until we can get an answer about this."

Celestia disengaged herself from his hand, and looked into his eyes. His disturbing alienness was an odd comfort. He was alien because he regularly traveled paths unknown and terrifying to her, and he might serve as expert guide in this unknown. "What if they erased everything, will they come after us next?"

He cupped Celestia chin. "If they were planning to do that, they'd've hired me to do it, and I've heard not even a peep," he told her, and scratched her chin, "So don't worry. Besides with both the Eye Lord and Beatrice as people with a personal interest in you, such a thing would have to be done formally. Or done by someone who wouldn't have left you alive when they took the whole place. Beings at that level don't leave loose ends by accident, it's either intentional, or they aren't loose ends."

Celestia was comforted not at all by that revelation.

"In any case, we'll be with Beatrice's people in a few hours, and they'll be able to give you more details," he assured her.

Celestia nodded, and enjoyed the scratching. But in the back of her mind she wondered, How large a game have we been pulled into?
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Celestia hadn't expected to see the Eye Lord as they departed, and she wasn't disappointed. She and Luna had changed back into their battle armor, including their depowered horn rings and the man-creature had a fair number of weapons prepared in case they were intercepted on their jaunt. What was there and unexpected was a large box, which Luna raced to. Wrapping, a rather tasteful bow, and ribbon flew in all directions. The man-creature recovered the bow and fitted it in Beatrice's hair. He kept the ribbon himself.

The silver glow that added its light to the golden glow of Celestia's returned sun had Luna pronking happily. "He gave me a moon! He gave me a moon!" She stopped and stared into the distance, then started pronking happily. "And I can see through it!"

Celestia glanced at her sun, tried and failed to 'see through it' and stepped back to enjoy Luna's happiness.

After a while, the man-creature cleared his throat. They assumed a defensive formation.

The four of them vanished from the spare chamber of dull gray that seemed to have no walls, and reappeared in an equally spare chamber of brilliant, glowing white that also appeared to have no walls, but one filled with abominations that filled her with dread. Despite their powerful armor, she and Luna closed in on the man-creature as the least terrifying creature in the room, save Beatrice who walked towards the horrifying assembly without fear or hesitation.

"Be not afraid," the man-creature said, and began scratching the pair behind their ears, "For I bring you glad tidings of great joy. The prodigal shall be welcomed back with open arms."

"These are the Bright Ones?" Celestia asked, "They seem so . . . " She trailed off, sensing a comparison to the 'Eye Lord' would not be well received.

"Yes," the man-creature said, and reached up to release the horn ring on Celestia and Luna. "There, you have fulfilled your contract admirably. You don't want to be here for the next phase." He pointed. "There's a door over there, a 'waiting room', for this reception hall." His voice grew serious. "Whatever you do, don't look at the light. Shut your eyes, look away, cover you face, cast a blinding spell, whatever it takes."

He turned back to the assembled abominations. "They are not part of this, and have done nothing to warrant your attention," the man-creature called.

"That is our judgment, and not yours," one of the ever-changing shapes replied, unlike an amoeba, it remained a geometric and symmetric shape, but it always had sharply pointed apexes.

That's a cruel one, Celestia thought, And haughty. There's more going on here than I suspect, than any of them suspect. She gathered Luna under her wing and approached the wall of creatures between her and the doorway. It was difficult to pick out the doorway from the nearly invisible glowing walls, the uniformity of the glow masking the walls' existence. The creatures gave ground, so Celestia advanced with a shivering Luna under her wing. Their sun and moon seemed such pitiful things in the light of the room and the terror of the inhabitants. Celestia looked directly at none of them, but kept putting one hoof in front of the other.

"That is your payment, not what you wished, but it has been agreed that is more than fair compensation," the Haughty One said.

"You just change your side of the bargain?" the man-creature said, "Even you need to keep your Word of Honor."

Celestia thought she heard The Capitals, and the creatures around her grew nervous.

"So, I'll take nothing, save for the knowledge that Malduwarkin cannot be trusted," the man-creature said, "But Beatrice gave her word that she would find Celestia and Luna's home. And Beatrice's word is good."

She didn't look back, but could practically hear the teeth grinding. She walked on, but swivelled her ears back to listen.

"Their world is no more."

Celestia froze. All her courage and purpose, all her hopes and dreams, all died at that instant. She wanted to shout that it was a lie. She wanted to shout that Cheerilee, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Toola-Roola did nothing to deserve such a fate. She wanted to curl up on the floor and cry at the loss of not only everyone she knew, but everything she knew.

"What could they possibly have done to deserve such a sanction?" the man-creature asked, sounding nearly as shocked as Celestia felt.

"Yours is not to question!" the Haughty One replied.

"I think if you check the charter, it's very much in my purview," the man-creature said, in a far more reasonable tone than Haughty had used, "And if you don't know, there's no shame in admitting it."

Celestia took some comfort in the man-creature scoring points off one who had talked about the extermination of a group of harmless creatures, friends of Celestia and Luna, with such disdain. It hit Celestia that she'd never be able to show her new cutie-mark to Starsong and Sweetie Belle. For some reason that hurt worse and anything she could imagine. She nearly stumbled when she thought that, but Beatrice was there, and supported her.

"Lean on me," her friend told her, "Things are going to get bad from here."

"My home is gone," Luna said, "How can they get worse?"

"Malduwarkin is going to show the Trickster who's boss," Beatrice said, "And we dare not intervene, and you shouldn't even look at the light."

"Why?" Celestia asked, "What's so dangerous about the light?"

"What the Trickster suffered to birth me, he will now face without my mother's support," Beatrice said, "If he has fallen to darkness, he will not survive a mere glimpse, but if he walks an unseen path, it will be merely be unpleasant."

"So a short glimpse," Celestia said as she and Luna entered the room. Beatrice closed a curtain across the door.

Celestia was thunderstruck when the man-creature began singing of all things. A song about the redemption of a lost soul. 'Was blind, but now I see' struck her as particularly apropos. He continued singing as the curtain lit from the scatter of whatever light Haughty was using. The song stumbled, but the man-creature held onto the melody doggedly, as if throwing the meaning of the song back in the face of the creature 'testing' him. Celestia faced the curtain, but Beatrice blocked her.

The voice stumbled again, and when the man-creature picked up the song, it was more of a chant. Celestia glanced at Luna who'd moved up to support her. "A glimpse?" Celestia asked Beatrice who had started glancing over her shoulder.

The chant stumbled, and the man-creature tried to start again, but couldn't. He stumbled over the words, mumbled some of them, but doggedly continued. But the defiance had become pathetic.

Celestia crowded Beatrice, forcing her back. "That isn't a glimpse, and this is going beyond a quick check. What is she doing?"

The voice faded, and the light went on.

"Is this what you are?" Celestia shouted to those outside the room, "You make a deal, break your word then torture the one you cheated? How are you any better than others like the Eye-Lord. A bargain struck was a bargain made, and he tried to be a congenial host!"

Celestia ignored Beatrice shaking her head, and shoved her aside as she closed her eyes and marched into the hall. The light on her made her feel small and insignificant, but she faced toward it. She stumbled over a pile of something and regained her hooves. "Is this the truth of the Bright Ones, you only let those who praise you escape?"

"Enough Malduwarkin!" a voice near Celestia called, "We agreed to let you test him. This exceeds a 'test'. If you're vengeance has consumed you, then you must be purged, not him."

The light vanished immediately. Celestia opened her eyes and saw the man-creature. He was naked, what Celestia had stumbled over was a pile of weapons, armor and clothing. The two wing-covered humanoid figures who'd been pinning the man-creature pinned upright and facing Haughty fell away, literally, they let go of him and collapsed quivering on the floor. Celestia had seen a dying bird once, a cat or something had crippled it without killing it. The two figures on the floor twitched and squirmed the same way. The man-creature descended with a good deal more dignity, bending at the knees and slowly lowering himself to the ground.

I can't find any compassion for them, she thought as she stepped around in front of him and sat down. His skin was ashen and his breathing was rapid. He didn't seem to be looking at her, looking at where Haughty had been. Celestia looked into his eyes which seemed all pupil. Slowly he focused on her.

"Have you gotten alternate accommodations?" he asked, slurring the words slightly, " 'm afraid things have soured a bit."

Celestia felt like crying as she gathered him in, feeling the cold of his skin against her wings as she surrounded him. "You're going into shock," she told him, "Relax, we'll see to you. You should lie down."

"Never get up again," he said as Luna laid down behind him and rested against his back. Her wings covered his legs.

"All right we'll let you sit. You're safe," Luna assured him.

"You're safe," Celestia said, and was gladdened when he smiled slightly.

"Do I call you bad names?" he practically whispered as he leaned back against Luna. "Measure the mountain of skulls to prevent an ocean of blood," he said, "Found the scales still favor me, and I hated it. Seems I passed, again." Staring upward he said, "There are no stars here. If it's infinite, shouldn't there be stars?" He signed and closed his eyes.

Celestia rested her neck against his, feeling for a pulse. The initial stab of fear ebbed as she felt it. She didn't know what was too fast or too slow, but it was slowing and becoming stronger.

Beatrice and several others approached. Only Beatrice was even vaguely humanoid. Celestia was too angry to be afraid any more. She was beyond the incandescent rage such a betrayal should have elicited. She looked at the others, and they shied back. She smiled at them, disconcerting them more. "Light should be a force that illuminates, warms and loves, not just burns," she said quietly, "But are you merely the punishment squad?"

"Malduwarkin lied to us," a cloud of sparkles told her, she recognized it as the voice who'd called out Malduwarkin earlier, "Not an excuse, but an explanation. To deceive another is surprising enough we were stunned by it."

"People lie all the time," Luna said, "Even animals can deceive."

"To use tactics is one thing, to say one thing plainly, and it is false, is completely different," Beatrice said, "Even I couldn't believe it was happening, and I've dealt with the Trickster shading meanings until the cows came home."

Celestia relented. "We need you to get him someplace warm, and safe."

The cloud of sparkles resolved itself into a human figure. "I have a place. It will not be the first time I have sheltered him thus."

"You're Beatrice's mother," Celestia realized as she lit her horn and lifted the man-creature onto her back.

Luna collected the pile of belongings, and draped her wing across him.

"A truer statement would be I was her conjoined twin," the woman said. Celestia recognized her from the glimpse at the library. Celestia nodded, and they reappeared in a home like what Celestia was familiar with, except it had no divisions. No separate rooms, no hung curtains, not even privacy screens.

The woman looked around the place in consternation. "Well, if this is what you two are comfortable with," she said.

"Us?" Luna asked, opening a chest at the foot of the bed, she found it empty and began stacking his weapons and equipment within.

"We don't use 'homes' and he's retreated so far I can't use him as a template," the woman said, "I'm Matilda by the way."

"Celestia."

"Luna."

Celestia laid the man in the bed at one corner of the dwelling. "Luna," she began.

"Sister, I'm not teasing you, but you're larger, and warmer than I am," Luna said, "You should do it."

Celestia saw no mirth in the others, and suspected time was important. She climbed into the bed and listened to it groan alarmingly. Luna and Matilda wrapped her in blankets once she'd wrapped herself around the man. His coldness lulled her into an uneasy sleep. Her dreams were plagued with endless vistas of being alone. Alone in a forest, in a castle, in desert, walking along a road. I have my sister, why would I be alone? she wondered, Unless his nightmares are lapping over onto mine. She would ask that when he woke up.
-----------------------------------

She didn't have to ask. She felt her sister's influence over the dream, and realized she was sharing, at least partially, his dreams. The place was a mountain meadow, warm sun and a cool breeze. Pleasant as it was, there was not another animal in sight, and no evidence of their passage. No game trails, no trodden paths, nothing. She munched some of the clover and found he'd gotten that exactly right. She then trotted through the grass and wild flowers. Occasionally glancing up at the high cirrus, the only clouds in the achingly beautiful sky. She tried to fly into it, but found her magic much diminished. Although she could run like the wind, and enjoyed doing so.

This is fun, but I must get to the source of his nightmares, she reminded herself and used what little magic she had to find him.

He was lying on a rock that seemed perfectly shaped for the purpose, wearing a very conservative suit and tie that Rainbow Dash would have called 'tastefully understated'. He had a briefcase by his side and a hat pulled over his face.

What horrors await under that hat? she wondered and she tippy-hoffed toward him. She froze as he called out.

"I don't know who you are, but please leave a message and go away. I'm on vacation. And damned well-deserved too," he said. No scream of anguish, no plea, just a statement of one weary of the grind.

Celestia covered her mouth with both fore-hooves and both wings to stifle her giggles. Nightmares? Being alone like this is paradise to him. This is a good dream.

She moved away, marked where the rock was and began capering through the meadow. Eating as much clover as she wished. Eating just the blossoms of the wildflowers, not the stems. Chasing milkweed seeds around the meadow.
-----------------------------------

All to quickly, it ended. She woke to her sister's face and her look of concern. "How is he?" Luna said.

"Resting," she said, as she slipped out so Luna could slip in without collapsing the bed, "He's enjoying the calm solitude. Frankly, I think he needs it."

Luna looked at her quizzically, ponies didn't like solitude. But she nodded, accepting that he was a very alien creature.

I can't imagine explaining to her that I sometimes want to be away from the other ponies, Celestia thought as she stretched. She glanced down and found Luna snuggled against him indescribably adorable. I envy her ability to just accept people and things. I guess I'm too suspicious and want to know the whys and wherefores too much. She glanced at Beatrice and Matilda in the kitchen area. Speaking of wanting to know the whys and wherefores, she thought as she trotted over to them.

"I think I need some answers, if I'm going to help you out of the mess you've found yourself in," she told them.

Both women looked uncomfortable about being called out that way, but Celestia was beyond caring.

"First," Beatrice said, "While what Luna feels is what we term romantic love, yours, and ours, is a deeper thing. Finding a part of yourself you didn't know you'd been without. While he infuriates you at times, you still would put what's best for him above what's best for yourself, and fully expect he would do the same."

Celestia nodded. That's a relief, she thought, I thought that whatever I felt would have to be for a husband. I guess we can be 'just friends'. Although that's hardly what I meant. Interesting that they think that is what is of paramount importance.

Matilda glanced at Beatrice, then at Celestia. "That is only true from Beatrice's point of view. While she fervently believes it is true, it is not entirely . . . factual," Matilda said.

I swear, I think the woman's embarrassed, Celestia thought as she watched the pair wrestle with their unease, I think they need to say it, to get it out in the open. Celestia smiled, nodded, silently urging them to continue.

" 'Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God (bene Elohim) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.'," Matilda said, "It wasn't just our males falling for the human females, it just that was what was recorded. The reason he calls me the mother and Beatrice the daughter - is I am more like Luna, and your feelings mirror Beatrice's."

"Have you been 'taken wife'?" Celestia asked.

"Yes," Matilda said, "You've felt it, and seen it. A warrior spirit. What you think of as tricks, I see as paths to victory, even if that path is the honorable surrender or armistice. I wanted that. I wanted that directed at me. Not at the tip of a sword by an enemy, but as a person, by a friend . It is lust, but not for physical appearance, but the mind and spirit behind it."

"Grivwalt," Celestia whispered, "To look someone in the eye and know them, who they are and who they will be."

"That's part of it," Matilda said, "Part is also to find a mirror of your own, let's call it soul. A soul mate. Someone who can instantly understand you. Part of the coupling is finding parts of ourselves we didn't know were there, and have someone there to help you through the revelation." Matilda stopped, apparently too embarrassed to go on.

"It is true, that when he separated us, I imprinted on him," Beatrice said, "But he isn't as closely aligned with me, so I'm immune. Matilda found an imperfect representation of all she hoped to be, and a chance to explore and discover that part of herself." Beatrice indicated Luna snuggling with him. "Your sister is more simpatico with him, and Matilda. Where as you and I don't mesh with each other or him as well."

"I love my sister," Celestia said.

"And I love both Matilda, and him, but it is a more removed love than the romantic and even sexual feelings Luna and Matilda have," Beatrice replied, "And don't assume that a being can have only one kind of love. Luna no doubt has the same feelings as you, but she also has the addition of eros to your 'brotherly' love, philia."

Celestia sat and considered. "So you were smitten with him, and your sister-daughter was not," Celestia said. She fidgeted as she sought the words that would cover the situation, and neither embarrass nor offend the party. It seemed a very tricky subject, likewise it would be a tricky one with Luna as well. "Does he reciprocate? Or is it just a dream?" Celestia asked.

"We are shape-shifters," Matilda said.

So is Luna, to an extent, Celestia thought but hid her concern beneath a mask of unease.

"Biological compatibility is not that difficult," Matilda admitted.

So I do have cause for concern, Celestia thought as she stood, breaking the conversation, Time to change the subject.

"So what is going on here? Who are you and what do you want?" Celestia asked as she began searching the cabinets for tea and a kettle. She was a bit disturbed to find them exactly where she would have put them.

Idiot, they said this was my template, of course it is laid out for me, she thought and went to a closet and removed a folding table and chairs, so they could sit and have tea. While I interrogate them, she thought.

"First, we aren't like you," Matilda said, "We are fixed, born complete and perfect as we are. We are 'alive' and grow, by discovering more about ourselves, refining who we are."

"Hence the problem of having opposite tensions in one being. A mortal could accept a warrior and an artist in one being, even admire them for it, but we can't," Beatrice added.

"Mortals also discover themselves as they grow, but they change as they age, physically and mentally. They also add things to themselves. If I was a warrior, I could study to be an artist," Celestia said.

"True, that's one of the reasons we have such trouble with those like the Eye Lord. They don't rediscover themselves, they add thing only. New skills, new abilities, even entirely new beings are collected, examined, and devoured. It is an uncomfortable concept. The best of them can direct their assimilation along carefully controlled lines. But the Eye Lord still collects others' eyes to consume that part of them that he desires. If you were to question him, he would have a good knowledge of who and what you are."

Celestia started, not horrified, but thunderstruck. "He's been feeding him a selected diet of people!" she said, "People to fill him with what we would consider 'civilizing' aspects and experience." She looked back at the sleeping form cuddled against Luna. "That sneaky bastard, it's brilliant, in a totally underhanded way."

"I think you just hit on the largest element of his personality," Matilda said and gave a short laugh, "And why the others 'employ' him, rather than enslave him. The audacity of thinking he can outsmart them, yet he brings them a string of exactly what they do need. Making them better, stronger and more everything of what they wish to be, without influences that would draw them to the darker aspects."

"Like Malduwarkin," Celestia said, leaving the accusation to hang in the air as she got up and verified the tea was ready. She poured three cups and returned to the two Bright Ones dealing with the effect of Celestia's revelation. "Better to rip open a pus-filled sore and expose it for cleaning and proper healing, than let it fester. I suspect that there are a lot more 'occlusions' among your people than you are comfortable admitting. Being only one thing entirely, doesn't seem like a long-term strategy that would be employed."

"So you've heard that," Matilda said. She stared into the teacup, trying to buy time to come up with the answers, or that the tea would reveal them. She decided and drank the cup in one gulp. "All this dances around your real question, of why your world was destroyed."

Beatrice rolled her eyes. "Ever the diplomat," she said.

"My diplomacy is generally conducted at the tip of a sword. Life or death does not give vast stretches of time. The point is, it wasn't Tambelon, but your world that was cause for the removal. We've been talking about growth, and yours didn't. You and Luna were saved because you still possessed the potential for growth, although what anyone has plans for, I have no idea."

"Why, it wasn't hurting anyone," Celestia said.

"The Eye Lord and his type are gardeners, they tend and care for all existence under rules that are unfathomable to us," Beatrice said, "I know it's not strictly true, but the correct explanation would take weeks."

"I too have mastered metaphor and simile at the Trickster's knee," Matilda said, "Our kind, and our way omits shading the truth. We can be wrong, but we don't lie, generally. Information is shared entirely, or denied totally. Malduwarkin's ability to fib is a dangerous discovery. The ability to tell fanciful stories to explain things simply, is a rare skill among our people. I shudder to think from whom Malduwarkin learned it."

Beatrice nodded to Matilda, then looked back at Celestia. "To go back to gardening, a beautiful rose bush is a weed in a corn field. Likewise a healthy corn stalk is a weed in a rose garden. Whatever merits your home might have had, it was a weed in the context of where it was," Beatrice said.

"And what gives them the right to decide such things?" Celestia asked.

"The All-Mighty gives them the right and the sacred charge to do so," Matilda said, "What the exact orders were, you would have to ask the Eye Lord, or let the Trickster investigate from whence the order came. And order it would have to be, never has there been a 'save them, scrap the rest' order."

So that's why he found us, Celestia thought, Something set him on the path. But why? What were they hoping to gain? Does he even know we were the target, and Beatrice merely the path to us?

"Why not just transplant the corn to a corn field, the rose bush to the rose garden. My world to where it should be?" Celestia looked at the faces grown ashen as the Trickster's had been. "What is it? And no 'fanciful stories to explain things simply', the truth, the whole truth."

"It was tried, ages ago," Matilda said, glanced at Beatrice who nodded, "The Others began banding together to save some of the worlds they were to prune, and nurturing them so they could be replanted. To so change their binding was a blasphemy to us. We protested, they told us to mind our own business. Calls to the All-Mighty were met with the most cryptic replies."

"We did not at the time realize we were both being tested for our ability to grow. In looking outward for stability, we failed to look inward for the necessity to change," Beatrice said, "The change was exactly what you suggested, and just as beneficial and beneficent, but we could not see that, at the time. Now we have much cause to regret and be ashamed."

"We found the repository, moved it into a realm where we were much stronger than the Others, and locked it in place there," Matilda said.

"Our failing was to understand that without both of us to act as custodians, another gained control of the nursery, and began selling off the potential of these continua to those neither we, nor the Others would wish to have them," Beatrice said, "The creature who rules that realm has been able to 'adjust' it, so neither our powers, nor the Others reigns supreme there, and we have had no orders to mass in battle array to retake the place."

"Then someone else should go," Celestia said firmly.

"You just stepped into what he calls 'The Great Work'," Beatrice said, smiling after the downcast expressions she and Matilda had been wearing. "That's been a bit of an obsession of his for quite some time. But it's impossible, the creature that now controls the place is too powerful."

Celestia had a feeling that the Trickster had a way of compensating for that. "I suspect that whatever he agreed to be paid to rescue Beatrice, and was cheated out of by your people, was a key to that plan."

Matilda shook her head. "Malduwarkin -"

"Was not gainsayed by any of your people when he accused her of cheating him. And cheat him you did," Celestia said.

Matilda and Beatrice exchanged worried glances.

"If you only keep your agreements when they are agreeable to you, or when forced by superior firepower, then you will soon find people unwilling to deal with you," Celestia added.

I shouldn't enjoy watching them squirm, Celestia thought, But he kept every agreement he made with us, and is evidently an honorable deal maker. If these are supposed to be the forces of light, they shouldn't have such a cavalier attitude towards their word.

She put a hoof to her chin and 'observed', "I have a suspicion that he has plenty of contacts, and if he casually mentions to them how you all cheated him, the effects will get back to even your leaders. I have the sneaking suspicion that even those who would parse and analyze his every word, because they are enemies, would trust the overall message and seek its truthfulness. Not the best message to be sending out."

The pair squirmed like their chairs were burning hot. Neither dared look at Celestia, and they even shied away from looking at each other.

Celestia finished her tea and laid down beside the bed to rest. The floor was warm, and the rugs thick and soft. After all she'd been through, she found sleep easily achieved.

The room she found herself in was obviously a dream, his, and oddly similar to the Eye-Lord's surgery, save that the man-creature sat in the center on a chair that seemed to hang in midair. Screens of scrolling text floated before him, illuminating his features. She watched his eyes flicker from screen to screen, and bits of the selected text appeared on another screen down beside his knees. She remained silent and outside the range where he would react, and just watched as a fantastic amount of data scrolled in front of him, was sifted and then most rejected.

"Wondering what I'm doing?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the screens.

"Actually, yes," Celestia admitted as she walked across the non-visible floor to stand beside him.

"You didn't think I was the master of the situation without studying, did you?" he asked and chuckled, "I got reports of the vampire pack that held Beatrice, and their approximate location and strength. I'd researched the armorer and hotel from earlier trips, and of course I knew the Eye-Lord's obsession, and how to get Beatrice to teach him."

"All from this?" Celestia asked, scanned a few pages, but none of it was about a world she knew.

"All from sessions like this," he said and stopped the scrolling of the screen to look at her. "For example, that," he said and pointed to the details on the screen. "Effective invulnerability, but notice what's not mentioned?"

Celestia read, then reread the text. "I guess I'm not as good as you at reading this."

"It's more a question of reading between the lines," he said, " 'Most', 'almost all', 'outside physical and magical attacks', yet not one mention if the wielder is invulnerable to the item itself."

Celestia stared as she reread. The conclusion is brilliant, but there's nothing to directly support it, Celestia thought, But not one word to deny it, despite all the instances cited.

"I think you're right," she admitted.

"So we have the method, or at least the method that should be applied first, to beating a seemingly invulnerable opponent. If you're dealing with an experienced foe, never give them a break," he told her.

"No knightly chivalry?" she asked.

He reached over to scratch her behind the ears. She accepted his attentions. "If you were going to be chivalrous, they would have arranged for it before the fight started," he replied, "I've been challenged to duels before, and if the person is willing to fight with blunt weapons to submission, or accept first blood, then I'll agree. If it is a fight to the death, there are only the quick and the dead, no rules."

The view changed and they were surrounded by a spiderweb of different colors. Where lines met were names. "The second thing to know, is the web of relationships. Enemies, allies, friends and antagonists."

"Aren't enemies and antagonists, and allies and friends, the same?" Celestia asked.

"No," he told her, "Enemies and friends are personal, allies and antagonists are professional/factional. It is entirely possible to have an enemy, someone you can't stand, who is also an ally. The most dangerous are the antagonist friends: people separated by faction rather than personality or preference."

"Why would they be any more dangerous?" Celestia asked as she stared at the web and began discerning the patterns.

"Because if you fight one, then his friend on your side will assist, until you do something that offends them. Then suddenly you've got an enemy antagonist for you, on your team. Ironically, if you can take out the opponent without offending your side, or better let the antagonist friend spirit their opposite number and a small cadre away, you have someone whose loyalty to you personally goes through the roof. Especially, if backstabbing is the way things are done on their side. To learn something so intimate, and to use it to help them does things to their thinking. A couple of my best generals were in that state. I 'killed' both of them, and their entire immediate families."

Celestia gasped.

"So it appeared. I actually set them up a long way away from their original homelands," he said, "Two, most cooperative and loyal commanders I could have wished for," he said. He gestured at the web. "This also lets you see the real, inner workings and relationships. What everyone assumes is the nexus, is really only the most traveled, not the strongest vortex."

"That one is," Celestia pointed a knot of particularly think skeins, "The one everyone assumes is the center is weak."

"Correct. Lots of connections, easily broken, but that one has fewer, but vastly stronger," he said of the web arrangement, then he pointed at a cluster of knots that seemed to be entirely enemies and antagonists. "That's our apparent target. Hit them, and the ripples will go to the target we want."

"None of them like each other, why are they so tightly woven?" Celestia said.

"Because they don't trust anyone, and better to have your enemies close enough to watch. Plus, if they were separated, they could be picked off one at a time," he said, "I don't think they're expecting to face a full force, head-on assault."

"They seem very powerful," Celestia said.

"So am I," he replied.

Celestia shivered at his tone.

The terrifying creature was instantly replaced with the serious teacher. "The next thing to consider in developing a plan is 'what state do I want to be on the way out?' High energy, high altitude, on the deck, sneaking out, trudging out obviously defeated, or something else? You start the plan from the end point, which is your exit, not seizing the prize. Because having the prize doesn't mean you keep it. Getting the prize safely back home is the sign of a good plan."

"Since you aren't going to escape with the prize, why does that matter?" Celestia asked, a little off-center by his swings of who he was and what he projected he was

That's part of the lesson too, to seem one thing, when you can be all things, she realized.

Then she cocked her head. "Or is this a trick to seize what you really want, and are willing to throw what everyone else wants away?"

"It is," he said and gave her a scolding smile, "Don't get tied up in 'nice to haves' when you can walk away with the real prize. And the semblance of victory is always a 'nice to have'. If someone beats the crap out of you, hands you what you were really after, and throws you out the door, you've won. Only a fool insists that every victory has to look like a victory, letting the foe hand you the occasional defeat, even playing into their hands to get them what you want is a viable strategy."

"You've been using terms that you understand, 'nice to have' as if I understand them," Celestia said.

"Sorry, the terminology is so ingrained I use it reflexively. What you want out of a plan are 'must haves', 'good to haves' and, 'nice to haves', they are the true victory conditions, the icing on the cake, and things that you would like, but can live without and still call it a victory."

"Okay," Celestia said, fitting in the terms to the previous conversation.

"When you formulate a plan, get the 'must haves' clear in your head, and separated from the 'good to haves'. Those are the things you want, and you never let your opponents know they are: what you're really after. That's what 'nice to haves' are for, things you would logically want, but you can afford to lose them. Always have a few, and they should be something you actually want, because there may be someone who busts their tail to get them, and real gratitude is a whole lot more satisfying that faked gratitude."

"But your own team should know your 'must haves', shouldn't they?" Celestia asked.

"Only your innermost circle. You can let the rank and file know, but never let them know they are your 'must haves'. You gratitude for accomplishing any secondary mission should be enough that they'll try for it anyway," he told her.

"That's horrible!" Celestia sdaid.

"It's info security. Knowledge is power, if they know what you want, they can concentrate their best there. If they aren't sure, they may leave the prize open and unguarded," he countered, "Take my operations with you. Beatrice was a 'must have', you and Luna were a 'nice to have', but after rescuing Beatrice, returning her to her people was only a 'good to have'. Getting her to teach the Eye-Lord was a 'must have'."

Celestia shook her head as it was spinning. "So you'd let someone appear to have beaten you, if you still get what you want?" Celestia asked, and watched his face, to catch any of the nuances she'd been picking up, indicating trickery.

What she saw instead was a sincere smile. "You were asking about chivalry. If someone has been honorable, played the game straight, and has not put the boot in too much on an opponent who's down, I'll let them 'win', and I'll slink off with the prize. They get the reputation for having beaten me, and I get what I was after."

She frowned, rustled then settled her wings and considered him. "It seems sordid," Celestia said.

"That's because you're thinking in terms of the zero-sum game. One side has to win, and one side has to lose. But there are also positive-sum games, where both sides can win, and negative-sum games where both sides can lose," he said as he sat back. "The problem with only knowing the zero-sum game is that an underhanded person can point to the enemy and say 'look they're winning!' and the implication is that you must be losing, when in fact you might be winning more than they are. The other side of the same lying con is they'll say 'the other side is losing', making the implication that you're winning, when you could be losing worse than they are. As long as someone has you convinced that your happiness is based on what's happening to the other side, you're their puppet. They can get you to react in their best interest, and not yours. If they say, 'he just won a bar of silver', you're supposed to ignore the basket of bars of gold you just won, and think you've lost. Or if someone takes a quarter of their bar of silver, thus 'losing it' you're supposed to ignore them taking half your bars of gold."

"I see the point, so you play the positive-sum game, the negative-sum game and the zero-sum game, as long as you wind up with what you really want," Celestia said, "What if they have something very valuable, but cheap to them, and you have something valuable to them, that's cheap to you?"

"It's called arbitrage," he said, "If you have a clever partner to broker the deal, you can make it seem that your opposite number 'ripped off the dupe', while both of you came out ahead. That's the point. Information is the deadliest weapon on the battlefield. If you know and they don't, you've won."

"That balances their power?" Celestia asked, waving a hoof at the web.

"Yes, I know about them, but they know nothing about me," he said, and looked at Celestia, "I think you and Luna might enjoy tagging along. Some bad people to destroy, and a young life to save."

Celestia considered. "I don't think I'll approve of terminating someone's life, but I can support the rescue."

"Then let me call up a few facts about the ones we'll be taking on," he told her, and the screens were back.

Celestia felt her stomach churning as she read the creatures' history, and she was nauseated when she read their plans. "I still don't support taking someone's life, but banishing them into the outermost darkness would be welcome."

"If you don't deal with these things permanently, they have a very bad habit of coming back at a time of their choosing," he said, "Throwing something in a can is just saying 'it's somebody else's problem'. It's one of the few things I hate about Tolkien. If people had done their jobs, a whole lot would have been easier. The whole 'I'm so good, I can't understand evil' business should have been a big clue that the nincompoop wasn't the right leader for a war."

His words stung her deeply and her anger welled up. "What would you have me do?" Celestia asked sharply.

"Employ someone like me," he told her and gestured at the screens, "And it seems interesting, you are willing to ignore someone who does something like this, yet are furious about someone holding many of your own principles, who merely disagrees with you about their defense. Have you considered running for Congress?" He vanished, leaving Celestia alone with his rebuke and her unresolved anger.

Luna woke her. "They left," she explained, "There were some - harsh words exchanged. It seems the removal of our home was authorized. And it quote, 'Was as if a child's fantasy, crafted by those who know nothing of children', unquote. Tambelon was swept away almost as an afterthought. It seems odd that they would hate something that would be paradise, and a true enemy like Grogar received barely a nod." Luna shook her head. "What kind of monsters are we dealing with?"

Celestia frowned at that, but hugged her sister anyway. "We have each other. We'll always have each other."

Luna hugged her back and they stood that way a while.

"I checked his temperature before I woke you," Luna said.

Rectally, I hope, Celestia thought, No that's wrong. He hasn't said anything deserving that, but what of redemption and seeing the error of your ways?

"He is out of danger, and is just resting." Luna opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. "Sorry, I don't want to explain Norwegian Blues. Let's just say he has some rather bizarre mental defenses, and leave it at that."

Celestia nodded, and considered their path forward, with no home, no family, and no prospects or knowledge of the 'outside world' they would be spending the rest of their lives in.

Matilda later visited when the Trickster woke up, even offered relocation, but Luna was adamant about accompanying him on his next mission. Celestia took the offer under advisement.

"Do you know what he was studying?" Celestia asked as they sat sipping tea.

Luna rested her forelegs on the table as she considered. "A very dark place, with monsters fighting over the remnants of a race much like his own. He called it a 'hunting preserve', and once I understood what that was, I think it is a good description." Luna shuddered. "I think rescuing one of the ones who might overthrow the hunters, parasites really, should be a goal we can be proud of. Our magic will be very strong there, and our armor even stronger."

"You want to go and fight?" Celestia asked.

"Maybe it is selfish, but after my captivity, I want to prevent someone else from suffering the same fate at the same pitiless hands."

I can't argue with that, Celestia thought, But did he show her the enemy we face, or just the one we're trying to save. Even in his dreams he spins webs. Light and gossamer, until enough has accumulated.

"I see that face," Luna said, "What troubles you?"

"Greater wheels than the ones we see," Celestia admitted, "He said something about setting large wheels in motion. Matilda and Beatrice talked about 'the Great Work', and suddenly our home is gone, erased? Coincidence, or did something fundamental get changed by tinkering at the edges?"

"You're starting to sound like him," Luna teased, " 'Give me a firm place to stand, and a lever can move the world.' Now you're looking for all the other levers around."

Celestia nodded. "Perhaps I am. Maybe I am looking for a way to make things better. But our home was perfect, and now it's gone. What does that say about achieving perfection?"

"That you haven't and only think you have," Luna replied, "Anything can be improved, it just may take a lot of work to do so. Asymptotes, you approach a value ever more slowly but you never reach it. If you stop and say 'good enough' that's a choice, but if you start thinking you have achieved that value, it's a lie."

Celestia nodded.

Next Chapter: 3) Trickster Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 31 Minutes
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