Post by Virga on Dec 8, 2012 21:38:44 GMT -5
Place: Mt. Everfree Fane.
Cast: Luna, Virga
Time: Night.
----
VIRGA
Silence reigned this ancient abode, the long way from the magicked stone littered with pegasi plumage, numerous papers in rarely spoken Old Equish, a few crates of artifacts from the olden days, and even an alicorn's horn among them. Virga had been busy over the last few weeks, perhaps months with something important and something that had left his home in quite the unclean condition. Today oil lamps hung from the ceiling and tables covered in papers filled with the rare Old Kryss (of the empire) surrounded the Heart of Ice, whose back remained firm to the entry. It had all gone awry. His ruffled fur and stripped plumage were a sign. He could not fly. Not at all, a pegasi without feathers.
LUNA
Luna steps out of the shadows, not metaphorically or even in the usual 'stepped out of a shadowy spot' sense. Shadows creep out of a corner into a mass, and Luna walks out of that mass into the room, in one of her quieter forms of teleportation. Not that silver shoes on a stone floor are in any way silent. "We are not used to being summoned," she announces as her hooves clink, clink, clink. "Yet we see thou could not come to us. What is thy purpose, Heart of Ice?"
VIRGA
Virga flexed what was left of his wings, but it wasn't much. What he endured was painful in multiple ways, but one in particular was the worst. The pegasus's ears swiveled back when he heard the voice but he didn't turn around just yet. "Long ago, I fell into the Palace. We didn't agree on things," he said. "Yet...because of how life has continued since then, I've requested you here for what I've to say will affect not only you, not only your Sister, but also the pony closest to my heart."
LUNA
Luna raises one eyebrow, which is the only sign of emotion in the princess. Still as a statue, head high, wings folded, she watches you, answering in an even tone, "For thy sake we would listen. For Firefly's sake we are rapt. Speak."
VIRGA
He still didn't turn around just yet, his singly remnants tight to his back. The tone in his voice was that of a broken pony who defied his own failure and still trudged on. "The magic that brought me forward was an attempt to save me that went awry," he said. "Upon the reactivation of the Crystal Heart, its side effects manifested." And finally, he turned to face Princess Luna. Virga's eyes had crystalized, as had his mane, and most of his legs, an abnormal luster that held more kin in curse and disease than champions and imperial pride. "I must confess, Princess, the spell which brought me here was deeply saturated in chaos and discordian magic. The Empire being lost prevented it from following through. But now, it eats me. I've tried everything. And I'm afraid that everything also led to a disaster. The Mirror Pool. It should be destroyed."
LUNA
Luna is impassive, but at least not totally still at this revelation. Her face turns slightly and her bluegreen eyes flick from crystal transformation to crystal transformation. "We are concerned with thy health, but thou speak as though there is danger to our ponies. Our lives as protectors are second to theirs as the protected. Report upon this danger, that we may act."
VIRGA
"The danger is if any pony malevolent enough ever uses that Mirror Pool," Virga said as he hoofed to the collection of magical items. His gait suffered and his body shuddered, reduced to a strength-deprived echo of his former self. He nudged the alicorn horn with his nose. "An elderly alicorn raised me in the frozen arctic, one Umbello, a master of soul magics and the dead. It is only by his lessons that I prevented the disaster from spreading." And then he turned to directly face Luna. "The last resort to reverse or cure this malady was to employee a time staff, reverse my condition, duplicate, and commit a transferral of soul into my duplicate using what I learned from Umbello. What came out of that pool was more terrifying than any consortium of Pinkie Pies. It copied all of my own malice, hate, anger, and warrior spirit from the days in which I fought King Sombra during his take over. Back then, I was stronger. I defeated my clone not without loss. The young pegasus, Peddiga, who became my pupil and willing servant in the Palace suffered grave injury. I lost my wings protecting her. She recovers in one of these other rooms. Firefly, though…I worry for her and that worry extend to you. This thing that does this to my body is killing me."
LUNA
Luna is still for several seconds, thinking. Then she gives her head a shake, starlit mane billowing behind her neck as she waves her horn at the crystalized sections of your partially transformed body. "We thank thee for thy concern over the mirror pool. If few know how to dispel them, the illusions it creates are as deadly as reality. We know well how dangerous a caricature can be. That threat is not immediate, however. The danger to thy health is. In extremis, yes, we can pull thee from thy body and into another, but that is an ill option indeed. How well do these crystalized portions of thee function? Thou do not seem blind."
VIRGA
"I am full-sighted," he answered, coming to sit before her. "I function normally, but I always feel my strength withering. If you recall the condition I was in during the Bloom Doll Incident, when Celestia and I found each other in Whitetail, I was much weaker than I should have been even after a week of flying all over Equestria searching for her. The chipping of my hooves that started, part of it too. The blue flame you saw at Night Court--this curse is affecting me so strongly because I am half Windigo. It's trying to subdue this half, penalizing what of me is Storm Pegasus."
LUNA
Luna growls faintly in the back of her throat. She finally moves, walking in slow steps around behind you, circling you as she regards the crystal growths. Her voice moves from 'impassive' to 'grim' as she observes, "That is a cursed generation indeed, and little surprise it would slay the offspring. It is reacting to the love that emanates now from the Crystal Kingdom. The windigo that thrives on hate will kill thee to shut it out. Truly, even a draconequis does not have so conflicted a nature." As she arcs back around in front, she grunts in frustration and concludes, "The true cure would be one of emotion, bringing harmony to these disparate elements. We fear that is useless advice, as thou we told thee to make a road by picking up a mountain and moving it aside."
VIRGA
Virga sat perfectly still. Luna's description of what was happening was the first and only plausible detailing likely to be correct out of any. "I have long since calmed that half of me," he said, "but it is my Windigo half that enables me to handle a proud pegasus like Firefly. All my successes have been in its wielding. The fear and oppression, the domineering sense of hopelessness when I amplify my ice works is the inner Windigo. I control it, but ever since this started its known only terror." He lowered his head, staring at Luna. "After being hunted by Sombra's minions for so long, I've started to live again in Equestria, now this. I…can't think of any other possible means to remedy this--what you say and what I've tried."
LUNA
Luna uncurls a wing, waving the tip in a seemingly random direction. "And Firefly is both cure and further poison, for it is love the Windigo fears most. We could seal out the power of the Crystal Empire, but that would seal thee off from all Harmony. Thy body might recover, but thy soul would fester into something abominable." She stomps one forehoof in frustration, and growls, "We see no certain ways out, here. Even transferring thee to a new body... thou ARE the windigo. The new body would be slower to corrupt, but the conflict would remain."
VIRGA
"Thus, my fear, Luna," Virga said. He didn't call her Princess or Your Highness now. If one wanted an appropriate title, it would be friend. "She is bound to you," he said. "And you've seen what happened to her when we believed our duties would keep us apart, how it affected her. If I perish…I fear how it will affect her, thus affect you." His head raised a little, but this was still a very damning issue. "All this started because my mother, a Storm Pegasus, found a Windigo who displayed other emotions than ill will. Yet, it consumed her. The pregnancy of me is what ultimately killed her. Umbello would have an answer if he still lived. I tried his sciomancy several times with the implements he left behind, but he's far beyond their reach."
LUNA
Luna gets very quiet at that, staring at nothing as the seconds drag on. "I will not have Firefly's life shortened further." Turning sharply to face you, she extends a wing, pointing the pinion at the tip at your nose. "We shall return thee to the palace. Celestia may be able to slow the curse, for she is far better at such things than I. Thou deserve better than to be taken into our service by pity, but thou and Firefly must serve together, now. Thy belief is that thou have mastered the windigo, but still it struggles against love. Only Firefly, a love chosen rather than inflicted, can teach it not to rebel. If I fear, as seems likely, thou shall not survive..." She flashes her teeth in a grimace of repulsion, and concludes, "I shall place thy body in stasis while anchoring thy spirit and magic to a shell. Firefly has been through that experience. It is not a cure, but it might provide time to bring Harmony to thyself."
VIRGA
"I'd not consider pity the reason you'd take me into service," Virga answered. This condition seemed permanent, even if slowed or treated. It wouldn't be the way for something like him, to require constant care and maintenance." His eyes focused on the pinion at his nose. "Celestia and I do not share the bond you and Firefly do. It has caused me issue. I do what I can for her, yet still I feel distant, cut off." Where did that come from? Somewhere. He told Firefly that same thing after the Bloom Doll Incident. "Cut…you see I have no feathers now. My copy used my old wing-stripper technique…never saw that coming. The day I'd suffer my own attack." Stasis didn't sound too bad, though part of him wondered why try more when in the end it was likely he wouldn't survive. Why prolong it? "I admit I rushed into the Mirror Pool, but not because of desperation to my own condition. While visiting Nettleglum, seeking her counsel on if she knew of anything, the Zebra Dr. Tejene ultimate me 4 days until he marched to Canterlot to bring my condition aware. I was far from ready to deal with the Mirror Pool because he walked into a task he shouldn't."
LUNA
Luna waves her wing again, this time broadly, in dismissal. "Feathers regrow. An earth pony witch can regrow them swiftly. They are the least of thy concerns. We shall speak to Firefly and to Celestia. Thy place is with thy beloved now, for whatever time remains." She twists her head, looking around the ancient hall, and asks, "Have thou aught to gather ere I take thee back to my chambers? My bed is thine and hers now. I rarely used it in any case. Take what thou need swiftly, that Firefly cannot be sent to fetch."
VIRGA
Virga hauled himself up and carefully eyed everything here. "These are just calculations," he said, "And implements. They'll be safe here. Less I make its location known, a pony cannot find this place." He briefly stepped away from Luna to shuffled a few things around his own, old throne. "I told you this first because…to honest…I am now sure how to tell Firefly this. I spoke nothing of it to the Palace maids or Courts as I did not wish to worry them if I found the remedy." A quill on the table barely whisked into an ink bottle and wrote. It was mere wind manipulation, not unicorn level magic. "Peddiga will find this and know when to return. The Mirror Pool…gave her nightmares. It is in this hall she doesn't have them. I am ready when you are ready."
LUNA
Luna nods. "Come, then," she orders. Not that you're given much choice. She steps up, pivots, and her wing sweeps out, closing over you like a mother hen's. A flash of blue light... and you're dropped lightly onto Luna's own bed.
Cast: Luna, Virga
Time: Night.
----
VIRGA
Silence reigned this ancient abode, the long way from the magicked stone littered with pegasi plumage, numerous papers in rarely spoken Old Equish, a few crates of artifacts from the olden days, and even an alicorn's horn among them. Virga had been busy over the last few weeks, perhaps months with something important and something that had left his home in quite the unclean condition. Today oil lamps hung from the ceiling and tables covered in papers filled with the rare Old Kryss (of the empire) surrounded the Heart of Ice, whose back remained firm to the entry. It had all gone awry. His ruffled fur and stripped plumage were a sign. He could not fly. Not at all, a pegasi without feathers.
LUNA
Luna steps out of the shadows, not metaphorically or even in the usual 'stepped out of a shadowy spot' sense. Shadows creep out of a corner into a mass, and Luna walks out of that mass into the room, in one of her quieter forms of teleportation. Not that silver shoes on a stone floor are in any way silent. "We are not used to being summoned," she announces as her hooves clink, clink, clink. "Yet we see thou could not come to us. What is thy purpose, Heart of Ice?"
VIRGA
Virga flexed what was left of his wings, but it wasn't much. What he endured was painful in multiple ways, but one in particular was the worst. The pegasus's ears swiveled back when he heard the voice but he didn't turn around just yet. "Long ago, I fell into the Palace. We didn't agree on things," he said. "Yet...because of how life has continued since then, I've requested you here for what I've to say will affect not only you, not only your Sister, but also the pony closest to my heart."
LUNA
Luna raises one eyebrow, which is the only sign of emotion in the princess. Still as a statue, head high, wings folded, she watches you, answering in an even tone, "For thy sake we would listen. For Firefly's sake we are rapt. Speak."
VIRGA
He still didn't turn around just yet, his singly remnants tight to his back. The tone in his voice was that of a broken pony who defied his own failure and still trudged on. "The magic that brought me forward was an attempt to save me that went awry," he said. "Upon the reactivation of the Crystal Heart, its side effects manifested." And finally, he turned to face Princess Luna. Virga's eyes had crystalized, as had his mane, and most of his legs, an abnormal luster that held more kin in curse and disease than champions and imperial pride. "I must confess, Princess, the spell which brought me here was deeply saturated in chaos and discordian magic. The Empire being lost prevented it from following through. But now, it eats me. I've tried everything. And I'm afraid that everything also led to a disaster. The Mirror Pool. It should be destroyed."
LUNA
Luna is impassive, but at least not totally still at this revelation. Her face turns slightly and her bluegreen eyes flick from crystal transformation to crystal transformation. "We are concerned with thy health, but thou speak as though there is danger to our ponies. Our lives as protectors are second to theirs as the protected. Report upon this danger, that we may act."
VIRGA
"The danger is if any pony malevolent enough ever uses that Mirror Pool," Virga said as he hoofed to the collection of magical items. His gait suffered and his body shuddered, reduced to a strength-deprived echo of his former self. He nudged the alicorn horn with his nose. "An elderly alicorn raised me in the frozen arctic, one Umbello, a master of soul magics and the dead. It is only by his lessons that I prevented the disaster from spreading." And then he turned to directly face Luna. "The last resort to reverse or cure this malady was to employee a time staff, reverse my condition, duplicate, and commit a transferral of soul into my duplicate using what I learned from Umbello. What came out of that pool was more terrifying than any consortium of Pinkie Pies. It copied all of my own malice, hate, anger, and warrior spirit from the days in which I fought King Sombra during his take over. Back then, I was stronger. I defeated my clone not without loss. The young pegasus, Peddiga, who became my pupil and willing servant in the Palace suffered grave injury. I lost my wings protecting her. She recovers in one of these other rooms. Firefly, though…I worry for her and that worry extend to you. This thing that does this to my body is killing me."
LUNA
Luna is still for several seconds, thinking. Then she gives her head a shake, starlit mane billowing behind her neck as she waves her horn at the crystalized sections of your partially transformed body. "We thank thee for thy concern over the mirror pool. If few know how to dispel them, the illusions it creates are as deadly as reality. We know well how dangerous a caricature can be. That threat is not immediate, however. The danger to thy health is. In extremis, yes, we can pull thee from thy body and into another, but that is an ill option indeed. How well do these crystalized portions of thee function? Thou do not seem blind."
VIRGA
"I am full-sighted," he answered, coming to sit before her. "I function normally, but I always feel my strength withering. If you recall the condition I was in during the Bloom Doll Incident, when Celestia and I found each other in Whitetail, I was much weaker than I should have been even after a week of flying all over Equestria searching for her. The chipping of my hooves that started, part of it too. The blue flame you saw at Night Court--this curse is affecting me so strongly because I am half Windigo. It's trying to subdue this half, penalizing what of me is Storm Pegasus."
LUNA
Luna growls faintly in the back of her throat. She finally moves, walking in slow steps around behind you, circling you as she regards the crystal growths. Her voice moves from 'impassive' to 'grim' as she observes, "That is a cursed generation indeed, and little surprise it would slay the offspring. It is reacting to the love that emanates now from the Crystal Kingdom. The windigo that thrives on hate will kill thee to shut it out. Truly, even a draconequis does not have so conflicted a nature." As she arcs back around in front, she grunts in frustration and concludes, "The true cure would be one of emotion, bringing harmony to these disparate elements. We fear that is useless advice, as thou we told thee to make a road by picking up a mountain and moving it aside."
VIRGA
Virga sat perfectly still. Luna's description of what was happening was the first and only plausible detailing likely to be correct out of any. "I have long since calmed that half of me," he said, "but it is my Windigo half that enables me to handle a proud pegasus like Firefly. All my successes have been in its wielding. The fear and oppression, the domineering sense of hopelessness when I amplify my ice works is the inner Windigo. I control it, but ever since this started its known only terror." He lowered his head, staring at Luna. "After being hunted by Sombra's minions for so long, I've started to live again in Equestria, now this. I…can't think of any other possible means to remedy this--what you say and what I've tried."
LUNA
Luna uncurls a wing, waving the tip in a seemingly random direction. "And Firefly is both cure and further poison, for it is love the Windigo fears most. We could seal out the power of the Crystal Empire, but that would seal thee off from all Harmony. Thy body might recover, but thy soul would fester into something abominable." She stomps one forehoof in frustration, and growls, "We see no certain ways out, here. Even transferring thee to a new body... thou ARE the windigo. The new body would be slower to corrupt, but the conflict would remain."
VIRGA
"Thus, my fear, Luna," Virga said. He didn't call her Princess or Your Highness now. If one wanted an appropriate title, it would be friend. "She is bound to you," he said. "And you've seen what happened to her when we believed our duties would keep us apart, how it affected her. If I perish…I fear how it will affect her, thus affect you." His head raised a little, but this was still a very damning issue. "All this started because my mother, a Storm Pegasus, found a Windigo who displayed other emotions than ill will. Yet, it consumed her. The pregnancy of me is what ultimately killed her. Umbello would have an answer if he still lived. I tried his sciomancy several times with the implements he left behind, but he's far beyond their reach."
LUNA
Luna gets very quiet at that, staring at nothing as the seconds drag on. "I will not have Firefly's life shortened further." Turning sharply to face you, she extends a wing, pointing the pinion at the tip at your nose. "We shall return thee to the palace. Celestia may be able to slow the curse, for she is far better at such things than I. Thou deserve better than to be taken into our service by pity, but thou and Firefly must serve together, now. Thy belief is that thou have mastered the windigo, but still it struggles against love. Only Firefly, a love chosen rather than inflicted, can teach it not to rebel. If I fear, as seems likely, thou shall not survive..." She flashes her teeth in a grimace of repulsion, and concludes, "I shall place thy body in stasis while anchoring thy spirit and magic to a shell. Firefly has been through that experience. It is not a cure, but it might provide time to bring Harmony to thyself."
VIRGA
"I'd not consider pity the reason you'd take me into service," Virga answered. This condition seemed permanent, even if slowed or treated. It wouldn't be the way for something like him, to require constant care and maintenance." His eyes focused on the pinion at his nose. "Celestia and I do not share the bond you and Firefly do. It has caused me issue. I do what I can for her, yet still I feel distant, cut off." Where did that come from? Somewhere. He told Firefly that same thing after the Bloom Doll Incident. "Cut…you see I have no feathers now. My copy used my old wing-stripper technique…never saw that coming. The day I'd suffer my own attack." Stasis didn't sound too bad, though part of him wondered why try more when in the end it was likely he wouldn't survive. Why prolong it? "I admit I rushed into the Mirror Pool, but not because of desperation to my own condition. While visiting Nettleglum, seeking her counsel on if she knew of anything, the Zebra Dr. Tejene ultimate me 4 days until he marched to Canterlot to bring my condition aware. I was far from ready to deal with the Mirror Pool because he walked into a task he shouldn't."
LUNA
Luna waves her wing again, this time broadly, in dismissal. "Feathers regrow. An earth pony witch can regrow them swiftly. They are the least of thy concerns. We shall speak to Firefly and to Celestia. Thy place is with thy beloved now, for whatever time remains." She twists her head, looking around the ancient hall, and asks, "Have thou aught to gather ere I take thee back to my chambers? My bed is thine and hers now. I rarely used it in any case. Take what thou need swiftly, that Firefly cannot be sent to fetch."
VIRGA
Virga hauled himself up and carefully eyed everything here. "These are just calculations," he said, "And implements. They'll be safe here. Less I make its location known, a pony cannot find this place." He briefly stepped away from Luna to shuffled a few things around his own, old throne. "I told you this first because…to honest…I am now sure how to tell Firefly this. I spoke nothing of it to the Palace maids or Courts as I did not wish to worry them if I found the remedy." A quill on the table barely whisked into an ink bottle and wrote. It was mere wind manipulation, not unicorn level magic. "Peddiga will find this and know when to return. The Mirror Pool…gave her nightmares. It is in this hall she doesn't have them. I am ready when you are ready."
LUNA
Luna nods. "Come, then," she orders. Not that you're given much choice. She steps up, pivots, and her wing sweeps out, closing over you like a mother hen's. A flash of blue light... and you're dropped lightly onto Luna's own bed.
