Post by Solar Solstice on May 25, 2013 14:14:43 GMT -5
EDIT: Now with italics!
((This is part of the Discord mini-TP started by Medley and Discord here: equestriamuck.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=logs&action=display&thread=558 ))
*NOTE*: May be subject to canon lapse!
"What do you mean Twilight's not here?" said Rainbow Dash, hovering by the library's entrance with notable impatience. "She's always here. I mean: she lives here!"
"I'm real sorry, Rainbow!" Spike replied, scratching his head with his tiny claws in dismay. "Twilight's been out on Princess business a lot, lately, so I've had to hold the fort here. She did leave me these great crystal treats from the Crystal Empire, though!" To demonstrate, he lifted up a particularly delectable sapphire, allowing the pegasus to admire its crystalline refractions before popping the whole thing into his big baby-dragon maw. "Mmm...ooh, those smooth facets, the crisp...oh, right, you wanted to talk to Twilight!" He grinned with embarassment, a little fleck of sapphire stuck between his teeth.
Rainbow Dash sighed in resignation. "It's all good. I think I know somepony else I can ask."
Spike scratched at his teeth to dislodge the stray bit of gem. "Huh? What do you need to ask about, anyway?"
The multi-coloured mare hovers slowly towards the window, looking out at the ponies milling about on the town square with some solemnity. "It's....for a friend."
A friend...but how much of a friend? Rainbow had been asking that a lot lately, mostly to herself. She'd known Medley for years now, almost as long as she'd known Fluttershy, so they should be pretty tight, right? She thought that they were, especially after how much they'd hung out in flight school. All the hijinks, all the adventures...tight.
That was before she moved to Ponyville, before she'd met Applejack and Rarity and all the rest. Then Twilight came, and the Elements, and everything else. She'd grown and changed as a pony, more than she thought she ever would, and sometimes knowing that was pretty great considering all that she'd been through. It was kind of a mystery to her, though: even now she couldn't totally understand what was different about herself. All she had was a feeling that she was, and that, despite all her denials, that something was also different about her relationship with Medley. Maybe it was that trip to Manehattan that gave it away, or maybe before that, when they played some stormball together in the Cloudosseum that one time.
Or maybe it had been that way all along and she hadn't wanted to admit it.
Yet despite every conceivable misgiving or sentiment of unease she was determined to, no, obsessed with rescuing her old friend from Discord's clutches. Her feelings were not important compared to the fate of her friend. Her perspective narrowed to a singular point ahead of her, swift and incalculable wind pushing her along her flight path, past Ponyville, past the Purple Hills where her home was, past the teahouse and all those other places until Canterlot's royal palace loomed larger than life right on front of her, beckoning, swallowing her up its in irisdescence. The balcony to the Royal Court was clean-swept as always for visitors, and as she alighted a unicorn servant immedietely trotted over and offered a drink. "No thanks," she said, brushing past the servant impatiently and heading into the throne room.
Celestia wasn't doing audiences right now, and Virga wasn't around, either. Must be a slow day, she figured. She didn't need to see the Princesses right now, so she took a turn and headed out of the throne room and into the big vestibule that served as the waiting room. There were a bunch of servants here, dressed in fancy clothes that Rainbow was pretty sure went out of style a couple of centuries ago. Not that she knew anything about 'style' per se. "Hey, guys!" she called out to a group of three chatting in one corner.
"Oh, hey Rainbow," said the nearest mareservant, not haven't even finished turning around as she did so. Seems like they all knew Rainbow by now. "You looking for Princess Celestia?"
"Actually," said Rainbow, "I was wondering if I could talk to Nightshade."
A grim silence suddenly fell upon the room. One servant gasped; several made a quick exit out into the hallways. "You...you want to talk to her?" said the mare-servant, looking at Rainbow incredulously.
Rainbow blinked. "Uh...yeah. Why, is something wrong?"
The mare-servant glanced aside, hoping for some backup from her companions, but they had conveniently backed out. "Well...er....do you have an appointment? She usually doesn't take...uhh..." She stared like a frightened doe as Rainbow gave her that look of aggressive impatience that the pegamare was so skilled at displaying. "But I'm sure she wouldn't mind at all! Follow me!" The poor mareservant turned about and leads Rainbow along with a tentative, shaky gait.
Rainbow was quite confused by all this hub-bub. Nightshade couldn't be that scary, could she? I mean, these ponies had to work with Luna and sometimes Nettleglum, and she thought they were way scarier (well...maybe not Nettie. She was just weird). She kept quiet as she was led down the long hallway, beyond the academic wing and the barracks and all the other parts of the palace she was familiar with until they turned a corner and started down into one of the oldest parts of the complex, where the finely-carved marble walls gave way to bare stone brick and grimy plaster. "Hey...isn't this place where Princess Platinum-"
"Her office is right there!" the mareservant said, her already testy voice having reached the height of nervousness. She was pointing at an open doorway that had a thick violet curtain over the entrance. "Here I'll...you go in first."
Rainbow stepped past the frazzled mare and into the room beyond. Turns out this was just a vestibule of some kind, with a decorative suit of armor and a coat rack taking up the space ahead of her and a large, slightly open double-door to her left. Something was really odd about that armour. Maybe it was because it didn't have an Equestrian design. Maybe it was the fact that the shadows it was casting were much larger than should be physically possible.
"M...Miss Nightshade!" The mareservant called out. "There's somepony here to see you. It's-"
"Yes...I know that Rainbow Dash is here for me," said a voice, low, feminine, and cold. "Do let her in."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. Wow, she was pretty good at this. The mareservant was having a small fit, though, judging from her contorted visage. "Uh...you gonna be OK, miss?" the pegamare inquired, a bit concerned.
"I'm totally fine!" said the mareservant, who didn't appear even partially fine. "I shouldn't get in the way of your meeting because it's important so ta-ta!" The servant backed away through the curtain with a goofy smile still on her face. A few seconds later the sound of cantering could be heard distinctly.
Rainbow tilted her head. "Weird," she uttered, before stepping through the door. The office beyond was, contrary to her impressions so far, quite cozy and opulent. A lush, exotic carpet covered a large portion of the floor. Fancy paintings adorned each wall on the side, and a large bookshelf filled to the brim with advanced magickal tomes dominated one corner. At the other corner was a small-ish file cabinet; Rainbow suspected that it contained more space than appeared on the outside.
The most interesting feature, of course, was straight ahead. Sitting at a low, oval desk was a unicorn of uncanny delicacy. Her dark violet fur and platinum-blonde mane were striking enough, but there was something about the way she looked that was...unusual, as if she was more unicorn-y than a unicorn should be. Nightshade stood up and gave Rainbow Dash a respectful bow. "Ah, Miss Dash, a pleasure to see you," she said, in a way that struck Rainbow as being very cultured. "I hear that you wish to request some...advice?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Uh...yeah, actually, I wanted to ask about...about dealing with Discord."
Nightshade straightened her posture, her eyes regarding Rainbow Dash with meticulous care. Somehow the air seemed to grow heavier, and the shadows longer...actually, the shadows were longer. "...And why, pray tell, do you wish to know such a thing?"
Rainbow swallowed nervously. Was she gonna get in trouble for asking around about such things? She was reminded of the time she asked the palace librarians about the history of the Princesses and Sombra, and all she got was weird stares and counsel to come back later (a thinly veiled attempt to make her drop the matter that even she was able to detect). "It's...it's a long story." So Rainbow spilled it all: her friend Medley's musical career, how she suddenly dropped it, the appearance of Heart Shooter, how Medley was Heart Shooter and Discord's involvement, everything. "...and that's why I wanna know about Discord!" she finishes, taking several breaths to recover herself.
Nightshade said nothing, made no action as she carefully listened. By the end of Rainbow's tale she has assumed a seated position and placed her cloven hooves (wait, Rainbow thought, did unicorns usually have hooves like that?) together in a contemplative posture. "...I see," Nightshade said, nodding as fragments of knowledge came together into a cohesive whole within her mind. "We have been having difficulties in our oversight of Discord's activity, as of late, and this gives a good explanation as to why."
Rainbow Dash looked at Nightshade quizzically. "Wait...are you the one who's in charge of like...spies and stuff?" That would explain why the servants were so nervous around Nightshade! Well, and the fact that she never seemed to smile or, in fact, express much emotion to begin with.
Nightshade maintained those expectations magnificently by merely tapping her hooves a little as Rainbow asked her question, not appearing upset or even surprised by the bold inquiry. "Not exactly," Nightshade said. "That portfolio appears to have drifted into my influence by, it appears, some historical accident." Whatever that means. "Now, as to the matter of Discord..." She paused, glancing to her side a moment, the side where the filing cabinet was, her brow gaining a bit of weight. "There is only so much that even somepony in my position is aware of. The story of Discord's origins is, I am afraid, the subject of relatively extreme measures of secrecy that, I surmise, even the Princess Twilight is not privileged to access. But there is much that is known, nevertheless." She sat upright again, looking at Rainbow with a piercing, didactic gaze, the kind that you would get from a reclusive sage in the corner of a tavern somewhere on the frontier. "It seems that Discord's magic relies entirely upon subversion for its effects, on contradiction and nonsense. He cannot directly create something that we would consider ordered and practical, and I suspect that this may be the one real limitation of his power. The one constant seems to be his desires: you might have noticed his obsession with sweets, particularly chocolate."
"Tell me about it," Rainbow Dash said sardonically, rolling her eyes. She still remembered Pinkie's too-long chocolate milk obsession after the first time they defeated Discord. "Right, so what Discord wants, he gets, but he can't really...make anything really nice. Maybe. Uhh..." Rainbow had to repeat that to herself a few more times; Nightshade seemed to have this way with words that rivaled Twilight's eggheadedness. "But...he has to want something nice? I mean, I know he's gotta want to stay Flutters- oh!" Suddenly it all clicked in: her haphazard plan, the friends she'd brought into her scheme, Nightshade's insights into Discord. She had something more than a bunch of improvised scraps of a plan now! "Hey, you really are the second b- well, I guess you are the best magician now that Twi's ascended, heh." She made that trademark guilty-grin that she's perfected over many uses.
Nightshade just looked at Rainbow with a terribly blank expression. "I should warn you, Rainbow, that much of what I said is merely educated speculation. Discord may yet have hidden secrets of which we are unaware... just as we all do, don't we, Ourania of Skyrocuse?"
Rainbow's jaw dropped as Nightshade addressed her with that name. "Wh...wha..." she spluttered, her mental defences suddenly overthrown by a single phrase. "How did y... how could you have..." The pegasus came to a sickening realization: Nightshade knew everything about her, her past, her secrets, her family heritage that she had shared with nopony, not even Fluttershy. The room seemed to shrink around her, the shadows creeping up the walls and blocking out the light from the window, the angles of every corner sharp and painful, as if something was boring into her brain and extracting all her hidden fears. She backed away instinctively, her breathing accelerating. "Are you...some kind of..."
"Monster?" Nightshade finished, entirely unmoved by Rainbow's panic, or it seems. "You wouldn't be the first to say such of my kind." She relaxed her posture significantly, leaning back and letting her body take some of the sun's heat from the window. The room seemed brighter, almost like all the shadows were withdrawing. "Consider this, Rainbow Dash: if I was up to no good I would have been banished a year ago when I first came to the Palace. Equestria is my home, as it is yours."
It took some time for Rainbow to calm herself fully, but in the meantime she had transitioned from fright to defiance. "Just as long as we're clear about who's the real defender of Equestria in here," she said roughly, leaning on her forelegs in a show of assertiveness. "I sure hope you don't play around with your friends' secrets, too!"
Nightshade's expression showed uncharacteristic transparency in response, the very beginnings of a frown barely detectable on her face. "...I do not have many friends," she admits, "but I will do whatever it takes to ensure their safety and wellbeing, as do you, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow's ears drooped, taken aback by this commonality between the two of them. "Yeah..." she uttered, comprehending the pathos of her own plight. "I know."
((This is part of the Discord mini-TP started by Medley and Discord here: equestriamuck.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=logs&action=display&thread=558 ))
*NOTE*: May be subject to canon lapse!
"What do you mean Twilight's not here?" said Rainbow Dash, hovering by the library's entrance with notable impatience. "She's always here. I mean: she lives here!"
"I'm real sorry, Rainbow!" Spike replied, scratching his head with his tiny claws in dismay. "Twilight's been out on Princess business a lot, lately, so I've had to hold the fort here. She did leave me these great crystal treats from the Crystal Empire, though!" To demonstrate, he lifted up a particularly delectable sapphire, allowing the pegasus to admire its crystalline refractions before popping the whole thing into his big baby-dragon maw. "Mmm...ooh, those smooth facets, the crisp...oh, right, you wanted to talk to Twilight!" He grinned with embarassment, a little fleck of sapphire stuck between his teeth.
Rainbow Dash sighed in resignation. "It's all good. I think I know somepony else I can ask."
Spike scratched at his teeth to dislodge the stray bit of gem. "Huh? What do you need to ask about, anyway?"
The multi-coloured mare hovers slowly towards the window, looking out at the ponies milling about on the town square with some solemnity. "It's....for a friend."
A friend...but how much of a friend? Rainbow had been asking that a lot lately, mostly to herself. She'd known Medley for years now, almost as long as she'd known Fluttershy, so they should be pretty tight, right? She thought that they were, especially after how much they'd hung out in flight school. All the hijinks, all the adventures...tight.
That was before she moved to Ponyville, before she'd met Applejack and Rarity and all the rest. Then Twilight came, and the Elements, and everything else. She'd grown and changed as a pony, more than she thought she ever would, and sometimes knowing that was pretty great considering all that she'd been through. It was kind of a mystery to her, though: even now she couldn't totally understand what was different about herself. All she had was a feeling that she was, and that, despite all her denials, that something was also different about her relationship with Medley. Maybe it was that trip to Manehattan that gave it away, or maybe before that, when they played some stormball together in the Cloudosseum that one time.
Or maybe it had been that way all along and she hadn't wanted to admit it.
Yet despite every conceivable misgiving or sentiment of unease she was determined to, no, obsessed with rescuing her old friend from Discord's clutches. Her feelings were not important compared to the fate of her friend. Her perspective narrowed to a singular point ahead of her, swift and incalculable wind pushing her along her flight path, past Ponyville, past the Purple Hills where her home was, past the teahouse and all those other places until Canterlot's royal palace loomed larger than life right on front of her, beckoning, swallowing her up its in irisdescence. The balcony to the Royal Court was clean-swept as always for visitors, and as she alighted a unicorn servant immedietely trotted over and offered a drink. "No thanks," she said, brushing past the servant impatiently and heading into the throne room.
Celestia wasn't doing audiences right now, and Virga wasn't around, either. Must be a slow day, she figured. She didn't need to see the Princesses right now, so she took a turn and headed out of the throne room and into the big vestibule that served as the waiting room. There were a bunch of servants here, dressed in fancy clothes that Rainbow was pretty sure went out of style a couple of centuries ago. Not that she knew anything about 'style' per se. "Hey, guys!" she called out to a group of three chatting in one corner.
"Oh, hey Rainbow," said the nearest mareservant, not haven't even finished turning around as she did so. Seems like they all knew Rainbow by now. "You looking for Princess Celestia?"
"Actually," said Rainbow, "I was wondering if I could talk to Nightshade."
A grim silence suddenly fell upon the room. One servant gasped; several made a quick exit out into the hallways. "You...you want to talk to her?" said the mare-servant, looking at Rainbow incredulously.
Rainbow blinked. "Uh...yeah. Why, is something wrong?"
The mare-servant glanced aside, hoping for some backup from her companions, but they had conveniently backed out. "Well...er....do you have an appointment? She usually doesn't take...uhh..." She stared like a frightened doe as Rainbow gave her that look of aggressive impatience that the pegamare was so skilled at displaying. "But I'm sure she wouldn't mind at all! Follow me!" The poor mareservant turned about and leads Rainbow along with a tentative, shaky gait.
Rainbow was quite confused by all this hub-bub. Nightshade couldn't be that scary, could she? I mean, these ponies had to work with Luna and sometimes Nettleglum, and she thought they were way scarier (well...maybe not Nettie. She was just weird). She kept quiet as she was led down the long hallway, beyond the academic wing and the barracks and all the other parts of the palace she was familiar with until they turned a corner and started down into one of the oldest parts of the complex, where the finely-carved marble walls gave way to bare stone brick and grimy plaster. "Hey...isn't this place where Princess Platinum-"
"Her office is right there!" the mareservant said, her already testy voice having reached the height of nervousness. She was pointing at an open doorway that had a thick violet curtain over the entrance. "Here I'll...you go in first."
Rainbow stepped past the frazzled mare and into the room beyond. Turns out this was just a vestibule of some kind, with a decorative suit of armor and a coat rack taking up the space ahead of her and a large, slightly open double-door to her left. Something was really odd about that armour. Maybe it was because it didn't have an Equestrian design. Maybe it was the fact that the shadows it was casting were much larger than should be physically possible.
"M...Miss Nightshade!" The mareservant called out. "There's somepony here to see you. It's-"
"Yes...I know that Rainbow Dash is here for me," said a voice, low, feminine, and cold. "Do let her in."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. Wow, she was pretty good at this. The mareservant was having a small fit, though, judging from her contorted visage. "Uh...you gonna be OK, miss?" the pegamare inquired, a bit concerned.
"I'm totally fine!" said the mareservant, who didn't appear even partially fine. "I shouldn't get in the way of your meeting because it's important so ta-ta!" The servant backed away through the curtain with a goofy smile still on her face. A few seconds later the sound of cantering could be heard distinctly.
Rainbow tilted her head. "Weird," she uttered, before stepping through the door. The office beyond was, contrary to her impressions so far, quite cozy and opulent. A lush, exotic carpet covered a large portion of the floor. Fancy paintings adorned each wall on the side, and a large bookshelf filled to the brim with advanced magickal tomes dominated one corner. At the other corner was a small-ish file cabinet; Rainbow suspected that it contained more space than appeared on the outside.
The most interesting feature, of course, was straight ahead. Sitting at a low, oval desk was a unicorn of uncanny delicacy. Her dark violet fur and platinum-blonde mane were striking enough, but there was something about the way she looked that was...unusual, as if she was more unicorn-y than a unicorn should be. Nightshade stood up and gave Rainbow Dash a respectful bow. "Ah, Miss Dash, a pleasure to see you," she said, in a way that struck Rainbow as being very cultured. "I hear that you wish to request some...advice?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Uh...yeah, actually, I wanted to ask about...about dealing with Discord."
Nightshade straightened her posture, her eyes regarding Rainbow Dash with meticulous care. Somehow the air seemed to grow heavier, and the shadows longer...actually, the shadows were longer. "...And why, pray tell, do you wish to know such a thing?"
Rainbow swallowed nervously. Was she gonna get in trouble for asking around about such things? She was reminded of the time she asked the palace librarians about the history of the Princesses and Sombra, and all she got was weird stares and counsel to come back later (a thinly veiled attempt to make her drop the matter that even she was able to detect). "It's...it's a long story." So Rainbow spilled it all: her friend Medley's musical career, how she suddenly dropped it, the appearance of Heart Shooter, how Medley was Heart Shooter and Discord's involvement, everything. "...and that's why I wanna know about Discord!" she finishes, taking several breaths to recover herself.
Nightshade said nothing, made no action as she carefully listened. By the end of Rainbow's tale she has assumed a seated position and placed her cloven hooves (wait, Rainbow thought, did unicorns usually have hooves like that?) together in a contemplative posture. "...I see," Nightshade said, nodding as fragments of knowledge came together into a cohesive whole within her mind. "We have been having difficulties in our oversight of Discord's activity, as of late, and this gives a good explanation as to why."
Rainbow Dash looked at Nightshade quizzically. "Wait...are you the one who's in charge of like...spies and stuff?" That would explain why the servants were so nervous around Nightshade! Well, and the fact that she never seemed to smile or, in fact, express much emotion to begin with.
Nightshade maintained those expectations magnificently by merely tapping her hooves a little as Rainbow asked her question, not appearing upset or even surprised by the bold inquiry. "Not exactly," Nightshade said. "That portfolio appears to have drifted into my influence by, it appears, some historical accident." Whatever that means. "Now, as to the matter of Discord..." She paused, glancing to her side a moment, the side where the filing cabinet was, her brow gaining a bit of weight. "There is only so much that even somepony in my position is aware of. The story of Discord's origins is, I am afraid, the subject of relatively extreme measures of secrecy that, I surmise, even the Princess Twilight is not privileged to access. But there is much that is known, nevertheless." She sat upright again, looking at Rainbow with a piercing, didactic gaze, the kind that you would get from a reclusive sage in the corner of a tavern somewhere on the frontier. "It seems that Discord's magic relies entirely upon subversion for its effects, on contradiction and nonsense. He cannot directly create something that we would consider ordered and practical, and I suspect that this may be the one real limitation of his power. The one constant seems to be his desires: you might have noticed his obsession with sweets, particularly chocolate."
"Tell me about it," Rainbow Dash said sardonically, rolling her eyes. She still remembered Pinkie's too-long chocolate milk obsession after the first time they defeated Discord. "Right, so what Discord wants, he gets, but he can't really...make anything really nice. Maybe. Uhh..." Rainbow had to repeat that to herself a few more times; Nightshade seemed to have this way with words that rivaled Twilight's eggheadedness. "But...he has to want something nice? I mean, I know he's gotta want to stay Flutters- oh!" Suddenly it all clicked in: her haphazard plan, the friends she'd brought into her scheme, Nightshade's insights into Discord. She had something more than a bunch of improvised scraps of a plan now! "Hey, you really are the second b- well, I guess you are the best magician now that Twi's ascended, heh." She made that trademark guilty-grin that she's perfected over many uses.
Nightshade just looked at Rainbow with a terribly blank expression. "I should warn you, Rainbow, that much of what I said is merely educated speculation. Discord may yet have hidden secrets of which we are unaware... just as we all do, don't we, Ourania of Skyrocuse?"
Rainbow's jaw dropped as Nightshade addressed her with that name. "Wh...wha..." she spluttered, her mental defences suddenly overthrown by a single phrase. "How did y... how could you have..." The pegasus came to a sickening realization: Nightshade knew everything about her, her past, her secrets, her family heritage that she had shared with nopony, not even Fluttershy. The room seemed to shrink around her, the shadows creeping up the walls and blocking out the light from the window, the angles of every corner sharp and painful, as if something was boring into her brain and extracting all her hidden fears. She backed away instinctively, her breathing accelerating. "Are you...some kind of..."
"Monster?" Nightshade finished, entirely unmoved by Rainbow's panic, or it seems. "You wouldn't be the first to say such of my kind." She relaxed her posture significantly, leaning back and letting her body take some of the sun's heat from the window. The room seemed brighter, almost like all the shadows were withdrawing. "Consider this, Rainbow Dash: if I was up to no good I would have been banished a year ago when I first came to the Palace. Equestria is my home, as it is yours."
It took some time for Rainbow to calm herself fully, but in the meantime she had transitioned from fright to defiance. "Just as long as we're clear about who's the real defender of Equestria in here," she said roughly, leaning on her forelegs in a show of assertiveness. "I sure hope you don't play around with your friends' secrets, too!"
Nightshade's expression showed uncharacteristic transparency in response, the very beginnings of a frown barely detectable on her face. "...I do not have many friends," she admits, "but I will do whatever it takes to ensure their safety and wellbeing, as do you, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow's ears drooped, taken aback by this commonality between the two of them. "Yeah..." she uttered, comprehending the pathos of her own plight. "I know."