Artemis Sparkshower

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Specialist Artemis Sparkshower wasn’t sure what she should be doing. For a place without any weather at all, things sure were complicated underneath Canterlot Mountain! It seemed like there were an awful lot of rules to follow down there, and Sergeant Ebonshield really only gave her the tiniest sunshower of briefings about them.

For example: this magical musician batpony to whom she’d just been introduced. Sergeant Ebonshield bowed to him a little bit; did that mean she should, too, now that he'd introduced himself?

Before Artemis could glance over at Honour for what she’d hoped would be a reassuring look, Ignacio barked out a loud order. "Now: prostrate yourselves before me, Equestrian dust! Jou are in the presence of an Eclipse, one of the Red Umbras of the Children of the Stars! Show me the respect which I am due!"

Artemis instinctively started to lower her neck, but she glanced left and right and saw no pony else doing it. Then she saw Ebonshield give a very quick, dismissive head-shake. The Balladeer of Ghosts stood there, his forehooves still spread out, his upper lip twitching, and ears flicking -- Artemis got the impression that he was squinting underneath his mask, too.

A few awkward moments passed in silence, before the crippled batpony colt twisted his head towards Ebonshield. "I heard nothing. I should at least have heard the pegasus in all that noisy armor. Are they bowing?"

‘Hey, my bronze plate was extremely well-lubricated this morning! It doesn't get any quieter than this!’

The sergeant sighed before replying. "They are not bowing to you, Ignacio."

With a snort, he lowered his forelegs and settled himself back on his crutch. "Hmph! Jou should have told them that down here, they must bow to anypony to whom jou also bowed."

"I did."

Ignacio perked up. "Ah? Then if jou did truly bow to me, why do they not do so now?"

Ebonshield sighed again, a smile creeping onto her face. "Because I told them not to."

At this, he started to sneer and grumble, but she continued. "And also because they can tell the difference between somepony to whom I bow out of necessity, and somepony to whom I bow out of courtesy and respect."

That statement seemed to soften the grouchy old magical musician's attitude a bit.

"Hrmm." He huffed outwards from his nose, then brushed it with a forehoof. "... Very well, then. I suppose that will be sufficient for me."

Scrunching up his lip once more, he lifted his crutch and quickly poked it in Ebonshield's direction. "But jou, Pureza! Jou hav' some 'splainin' to do! You do jour comrades and jour B-I-P no good to teach them only half-truths and the información incompleta! They will all too easily get into the trouble down here otherwise."

Replacing the crutch once more, he grumbled incoherently, facing down at the sand.

Sergeant Ebonshield gave him a polite head-bow. "I will try to rectify the deficiencies in their knowledge, Ignacio."

‘Uh…’

As much as Artemis would like to know a bit more about what was going on, she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. Frowning, she cleared her throat, raised one hoof to lift her visor, and spoke up. "But... won't that make your brother even more upset with you? If he's already complaining about what you've told us? You don't have to keep going if it's going to cause trouble."

She caught a rueful look from Ebonshield before Ignacio piped up again. "The pegasus speaks! She makes the noises other than the flutterings of the wings and the clatterings of the metal!" He grinned and continued. "Ehehe, I was beginning to think that perhaps jou were a mute. But to answer jour question, trouble is precisely that which Marcos intends to cause. This is no matter to him if the accusations he speaks are true." Ignacio shook his head, and the red tassels bounced and fluttered. "He knows that Pureza has the permission to share this information. And there is no great secret; whatever she has shared with jou, I am sure, is known to all Children, and should be freely given to those whom we have taken into our confidence."

Ebonshield nodded and looked Artemis in the eyes. "Please understand, Specialist Sparkshower: Marcos does not speak against me, his elder sister. He speaks against the whole entirety of this situation. I am merely the symbol that he can point to as he tries to deny the truth."

Almost at the same time, all four non-batponies -- including the one non-pony! -- said the exact same thing.

"What truth?"
"What truth?"
"What truth?"
"What truth?"

There was a moment of reflection and exchanged glances at the sudden quadruple-outburst, and Ignacio had time to chortle. "¡Jaja! Jou have brought an entire chorus with jou, Pureza."

Ebonshield sighed, then collected herself before answering. "The truth which Princess Luna has already shared with you: that the Children of the Stars have spent the last thousand years preparing to conquer Equestria. And that this is a conquest which now will come never."

She sighed again, slumping at the shoulders. "This is not a simple transition, even for the most open-minded of us. And the Mother-of-Stars, for all her holy intentions and all her divine strength, struggles greatly to bring the Children to embrace this new state of affairs. Ponies like my brother, Marcos, refuse to abandon the Crusader ideology -- an ideology which until two years ago was orthodoxy."

The Balladeer of Ghosts curled his lip up and grunted out an interjection. "And he is not alone. Jou have already met València, and she is but the least of his allies..." He trailed off, and neither of the two batponies seemed to know just what to say next.

That's when Corporal Bound spoke up. "Okay, then. Sergeant, let's get some quick basics down so there's no more surprises, then we can do some training, leave, and talk about the rest back 'upstairs' -- where it's safer."

Ebonshield nodded. "A wise suggestion, Corporal. Let me begin with social rules--Just a moment."

Realizing she was still standing on stilts from the three daggers extended from their mounts on her legs, she reached down her left forehoof and gave a quick tug on her left hind leg to retract its blade. With her hind hooves now evenly planted in the sand, she reared up and in a quick motion pulled back her twin forehoof-blade springs as well, the silvery metal appliances returning to their loaded positions with a satisfying 'click'. Then she lifted her head and called out to the two arena-attendants, who were still perched at the edge of the raised pit, watching the proceedings.

"... ¡Carto! ¡Águila! ..."

The instant she barked out their names, they scrambled up and hustled over towards their group. Once they were close enough she didn’t have to shout, the sergeant continued.

"Find the blade I launched and return her to me, then groom the sand and bring up two of each kind of target."

The young colt & mare wasted no time and gave her a hasty bow, before taking to the air and scrambling off to work.

"¡Sí, Siete!"
"¡Sí, Siete!"

Artemis heard the clinking of armour which wasn’t her own, and found the Royal Engineer twisting his head to watch the two young ponies go.

"Sergeant, I think I've got everyone here sorted into their 'phase' except those two. How about you tell me who they are, and then I'll see if I can regurgitate what you told me about your society."

‘So she really did tell him more than she told me!’

‘Well, he is the Very Important Pony, after all.’

And there hadn't been very much time to prepare, what with Artemis and Lily having been out on the town.

Ebonshield smiled warmly at Anonymous. "Certainly, Great Lord. Carto and Águila are initiates under my tutelage in the School of the Shining Stellar Dance."

Anonymous pulled the helmet up off his head. "So they're members of the 'Star' Phase, then?"

The Sergeant coyly turned her head sideways and looked off. "Not quite; children do not have a Phase. Assuming that they successfully complete their initiation and are apprenticed, then they will be Stars."

Artemis wasn’t really sure she understood any of that, but she looked hopefully up at her VIP, waiting for the explanation.

Anonymous nodded. "Makes sense..."

Holding up one hand with five fingers, he started to count them off. "Okay, so the gist of it is that batpony society has five classes, or Phases. At the top are the priests, brokers, and diplomats, the Lunars. Next are the warriors like Sergeant Ebonshield, the Stars. After that are skilled tradespeople and artists, like the other musicians in the outer ring, the Rocks."

He was temporarily interrupted by an irate grumble from Ignacio. "Skilled! Pah!"

Without missing a beat, the Royal Engineer continued. "Below them are common laborers, the Dust. Finally, there are the outcasts and those who work in ritually unclean professions, the Shadows."

Lowering his hand, he glanced between the four ponies of his bodyguard quaternion. "The whole 'Phase' system exists across the feudal houses of the moon, but you're not born into a Phase as you would be in the sense of being noble- or common-born in Equestria, you're bid on by representatives from each phase within your House, based on your performance in a public school. So your parentage doesn't matter -- or at least, if things are done impartially, it shouldn't."

‘Okay…’

That was a lot to take in at once, but it was not so dissimilar from Equestrian society -- from ancient Equestrian society, in particular -- that it was completely incomprehensible. And the batponies had been split off from Equestria in ancient times, so it made sense. It sure explained the sergeant's insistence on bowing to anyone she had to bow to -- those would be the batpony priests who outranked her!

Ignacio grinned and chuckled, leaning over towards Ebonshield. "Oho! Jes, I like this one very much. He sees even through the lies that jou did not tell, jes?"

‘Lies?’

Before Ebonshield could reply, Anonymous stared quizzically at the Balladeer. "And then there's you, O Balladeer of Ghosts..."

All eyes turned to the blind batpony, who grinned widely. "Ah, jes, there is me, ehehe."

Holding one finger up, Anonymous narrowed his eyes and licked his lips. "I don't know how one gets to be an Eclipse, but if I had to guess what you are -- you're the sorcerers."

The crooked-tooth smile got even bigger. "Ohohohoho!" Ignacio gave a small bow. "...Jou are correct, and I will share with jou now the circumstances of our existence..."

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Suggested background music: Justin Bell - 'Conquest,' from 'Tyranny' [2016]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poVXGnOdyn8

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Inhaling deeply and suddenly becoming grim-faced, he turned his head up to a nonexistent sky. Well, nonexistent unless you count the painted one on the ceiling. And it had a couple of new holes in it.

"All these things that jou have said are true, but there is an exception singular. When a child of the stars is born while the moon is bathed in the red light of the eclipse, this child will never be Shadow, Dust, Rock, Star, or Lunar. Such a child is inevitably... malformed..."

Licking his lips, a wry smile crept back onto his face, and he emitted a dry cackle. "... ehe -- or at least, malformed for any purpose other than the one which is now open to them -- the learning of the magic. A child of the eclipse may be born blind, mute, deaf, wingless, with warped limbs or a deformed body, with teeth that cannot chew or a jaw that cannot close, with a nose that cannot breathe or a tongue that cannot taste..."

Morose, he shook his head. "... Or some combination of all -- and always, always, without the ability to have children of their own."

‘Gosh, that's awful!’

Even Lily seemed to think so, and she blurted out. "You mean batponies can only cast spells if they give up... give up all that?"

With a sinister grin, Ignacio turned to face her direction. "Jes, exactly this! And jou, unicorn? What have jou given up for jour magic?"

‘What a bizarre question!’

Glamerspear scrunched up her nose. "Whaddya mean? I haven't given up anything!"

Chuckling, Ignacio nodded. "Ooohohoho, jes you have. One thing I have learned with certainty, unicorn, is this: we all give up something to be what we are. For the price of my magic, I have paid in many ways. But to be a unicorn, jou have also paid a price."

He gestured a forehoof vaguely in Artemis’ direction, then at Honour and Anonymous. "Jou do not have the wings of a pegasus, or the physique of an earth pony, or the... I don't know what he has, but whatever makes the tall one what he is. All these things are denied to jou, just as many things are denied to me."

‘That's…’

It almost made sense, but Artemis still exchanged weird glances with Lily, who tried to rebut him.

"But... I mean, it would be great to have all three, sure, but compared to what you had to give up, I barely paid anything at all!"

That elicited another chuckle from the old mage. "Ehehe. No, no, unicorn -- jou have paid just as much as I have. Where jou have been given natural strength in magic from jour horn, which is far beyond my own, by the way, jou have also been held back, for jou are blinded to things which cannot be accomplished by raw power alone."

Grinning, he adjusted himself on his crutch. "Which is not to say that every price once paid, cannot sometimes be traded for other things. Perhaps jou may find the skill to learn my technique -- I am curious to find out -- and so jou will overcome this weakness of jours, in exchange for something else -- such as the suspicions of jour comrades for jour strange magic, ehehe! But for me, I must content myself with my crutch to lessen the burden of my crippled limbs."

'...What? Did he just basically say that Lily's horn makes it so easy for her to cast simple spells, she’d find it difficult to learn complicated ones?'

Artemis could almost understand that. Although she’d trained hard to wear her heavy armor, her maneuverability had suffered, and even without her plate on, she wasn’t as agile as many pegasi. And if she were to take the time to train back up in that, what would she be giving up from not continuing to work in armor instead?

It was still a strange philosophy that this Balladeer of Ghosts was proposing.

‘And, hey -- isn't there another counterexample?’

"But what about an alicorn, like the Princesses?"

Ignacio turned towards the pegasus, grinning out of the corner of his mouth. "Ah, jes, the immortal alicornios, sister-goddesses of the Madre-de-Estrellas..."

He shook his head. "I cannot know what they sacrificed to become what they are, or what they still sacrifice, but I think that this must be a heavy price indeed."

He sniffed the air aimlessly. "I have not the eyes to see, but I have felt the burden which lies on the Great Mother while in her presence."

Ignacio's dark, strangely sincere words dug deep into her, and she could tell from the morose looks on her companions' faces that they'd wormed their way into them, as well.

He almost made Artemis believe that the Princesses were somehow suffering for what they are, and she didn’t like to think of Princess Luna -- or Princess Celestia and Princess Cadenza either -- being discomforted in any way. They're the best ponies in Equestria! The kindest, the most generous, the strongest and the smartest!

And they help everypony!

It just wouldn't be right if they had to somehow suffer for all the good they do.

While Artemis, Honour, and Lily ruminated on the strange magician's odd wisdom, Anonymous spoke up again. "Getting back to society, though... Ebonshield paid you respect, but on a personal level. And it doesn't appear that you're obligated to treat her as a superior, either."

Ignacio grit his crooked yellow teeth. "To be an Eclipse is not to be at the top of the mountain, nor the bottom of the mountain, nor anywhere inside or on the slopes, but to float beside." Licking his lips, he settled himself again on his wooden crutch. "No House can mistreat their sorcerers and expect to thrive, or even to survive. The Moon, she is a harsh mistress, and she can be tamed only with the aid of magic."

Shrugging his shoulders, he continued. "But this strength without the authority is not unique only to the Red Umbras. All of the phases must grovel to their betters, jes, but the Stars cannot wage war if the Dust refuse them food or the Rocks refuse them armaments. One cannot fight on an empty belly and with empty hooves, after all, ehehe! Always there is an amount uncertain of the tension between the Phases of a House, and sometimes even across the Houses, when a guild feels their members have been maltreated by superiors."

He cocked his head sideways, smirking. "Jou see now how things are not so simple, and how the Estelar has done jou a disservice by allowing jou to come in here with a picture incomplete?" Ignacio grinned blindly towards Ebonshield. "But I do not begrudge Pureza; not easy to explain things to outsiders when jou have been on the inside for all jour life. I have the advantage that the Eclipse have always been a little more outside than the rest."

One of the batpony initiates -- Carto, the colt -- came scurrying up towards their group, Ebonshield's shiny silvery-metal dagger in his mouth. He reverently placed it down on the sand before her.

"Your blade, mistress!"

Ebonshield seized it and began to re-attach it to her hind leg launcher.

‘Sure is a funny gimmick!’

"Muy bien, Carto."

As the young colt scurried off, Artemis heard the movement of plate armor again, and Anonymous took a half-step forwards. "Would you mind if I had a look at that before you put it away, Sergeant?"

She looked up, a quizzical look on her face, and he smiled in reply. "I'm a little curious about the blade which did in my black-sand doppelgänger earlier."

Removing it from the device, she lifted it up towards him. "Certainly, Great Lord. Only, please to be most careful -- the cutting edges and the tip will still be very sharp."

"Of course."

The Royal Engineer took the blade from her forehoof and stepped back to look it over, then Ignacio shuffled his hooves and grumbled. "We have wasted much time with all this talking. And jour brother will know jou are here -- València will have send him word as soon as you passed her outpost."

Ebonshield turned to the old mage, frowning. "It is almost ten in the morning; nearly everypony is asleep now. And even if he knows, what would Marcos do about this? Attacking me or confronting me now would not suit his purposes."

The Balladeer of Ghosts raised his head up, and seems to crane his head to hear something off in the distance. "I am not so much worried about what Marcos would do..."

He swiveled his head again, and the armored specialist saw his ears perk up and then twitch.

Ebonshield started to look concerned, and then Artemis picked out a noise as well...

Slow hoofsteps, echoing in from the entrance hallway...

A lot of them!

The Balladeer of Ghosts groaned out what sounded like a curse. "...¡Ay-ay-ay, bastarda madre de sombras! Here she is, that snake!"

The sergeant's face went pale, and she hissed out loud, staring up at the entranceway. "Everyone, make ready! The pony to whom we all must bow -- this is her arrival!"

Quickly fixing each of them -- and the two initiates -- in her gaze, she was about to continue, when she was interrupted by a loud cry coming from just beyond the Grand Hall of Stars' entrance.

"Make way! Make way for the Reverend Mother Superior!"

Next Chapter: Chapter 74 Estimated time remaining: 22 Hours, 60 Minutes