If they're going to be raiding the cult remnants in the next couple of turns, I don't think that'd be necessary. FR is one of the rituals that are self-evident once you know what the Lores are and have seen the two-circle ritual configuration.
Btw, the subversion cycle goes
Just woke up, so pardon the slow response. But, in order...
2: Yes. Venerable Ro had the right of it. I believe there is a curse that is actual and present places on Axe, but that it is sustained by the belief, and exacerbated by Axe. A scab that she keeps picking at, so. To speak.
That her chain is made of Heart doesn't actually translate into "there will be a Heart obstacle in the Sacrament". The chain is what she wants the Frangiclave for, after all.
Commissioner, we have found a peculiar document in the Changeling's Lair, it appears to be some Eldritch ritual! Who knows what horror they were hoping to unleash?
Ah, almost forgot that.
I read it in portuguese pronounciation, so I am not sure how to vocalize it in written english.
Thank you kindly! I actually learned something right now.
From the top of my head, none. I really envision Knowledge application being used on them. But ask me again when it's relevant (as in, during a planning phase)
Thank you! I will correct all of those later when I am less tired.
Moth, I would think. Yes.
Try and find out
DoA is very unhelpful. But that unhelpfulness can be weaponized.
@OurLadyOfWires As helpful as you could be while still leaving me no closer to understandingBasically "Bíédê" is how I read it. But I, uh, don't know how to explain it to you without vocalizing it
Biedde was said to have operated in France, so I think that language would be a bit better for trying to figure out the pronounciation.@OurLadyOfWires As helpful as you could be while still leaving me no closer to understanding
(Bee-ay-deh?)
But no worries, it's not a big deal and I appreciate the attempt. Though if any Portuguese speakers or linguists can clarify, let me know!
Meet | Fine and Dandy |
| "Will you help her?" | |
| "Yes, I will." | |
| "Just like that?" | |
| "I would help her in any universe. Because I'm her friend." | |
| In her stories, everything turns out alright in the end. Reality is not as kind. It is messy and complicated. Isn't that right, --- ? A unicorn without a horn opens her eyes to an empty ceiling awash in merciless light. To be so bright already... she had overslept again. Some bits of her felt guilty about that, as if she was dishonoring the memory of Spike. Most of her didn't care. It was difficult to care about anything nowadays. ...the bed was cold. She felt both listless and exhausted. Empty, or perhaps hollow. As if everything that made her 'her' had been emptied and scooped out, and everything that remained was just a hollow shell. The world felt the same, as if all of its colors had been bled out of it. Like another hollow shell. ...words weren't working. She just wanted to sleep and never wake up. Sleeping isn't the problem. The dreams are. In her restless dreams she sees -- Firmly and carefully, she pulls her mind away from that line of thought. Whatever happened, has happened. There's no point thinking about what-ifs. Too many times she had indulged herself and fell into an even worse slump. She is still alive. She has to eat, she has to drink, she has to sleep. Her throat hurts. She'll take care of that later. Let her lie here for a little while more. Just a bit longer. She turns her head to the side instead, but finds only an empty table and empty chairs. A huff of breath escapes her nostrils. Whoever impersonated her didn't do a very good job. Dust was already gathering upon it, but she still couldn't bring herself to get up. Later. Just... maybe later. The rest of her room is, objectively, a mess. The shelves haven't been dusted. Books sit in dusty piles, unused and unmoved. Her floor is filled with dust, and the curtains have been drawn since she can remember. But she still can't bring herself to clean it. She just feels tired, all the time. There's nobody around to clean it up and nobody around to badger her into cleaning it up. Sometimes it feels like she's an island on a sea, and everything was just going on without her. She no longer broke out into song. She just tried hard not to cry. Sleep beckoned out to her again (a world without hurt) but if its this bright already, she shouldn't. She needs to eat something and drink something, at least. Keep her body healthy. Although she didn't really care, Spike would be sad. Princess Celestia would be... Princess Celestia might just not care. But Spike... Her nose sours. Abruptly her temper erupts. Why did Luna have to die? Why did the changelings have to destroy everything? Why did Celestia leave her alone to waste away? Most of all, why is she still so useless?!! She reaches out to smash something, anything, into the floor. But nothing happens. Ah. That's right. Twilight Sparkle doesn't have a horn. What use is a Unicorn without a horn? Can Twilight Sparkle really call herself Twilight Sparkle without her magic? Just as suddenly as it arrived, the anger drains out of her. She gets up instead and then nearly falls off the bed when the ground shudders. The alarm clock jumps and falls at her hooves, coincidentally at an angle for her to read. ...what? For a moment, she can only stare in incomprehension, because the clock states it's in the middle of the night. She looks up to where even the drawn curtains can hardly block out the light. Huh? Did Princess Celestia - ? No, that's impossible. But her current condition - ? For a moment, her brain kicks back into gear. It's familiar how quickly she gets back into the groove, like a river finding its way back into the sea, spilling into familiar canyons. It makes her nauseated. It makes her want to puke. And some of the canyons aren't familiar. Not since - She presses her back against the wall, closing her eyes for a temporary relieve of oblivion, trying to stem the tide of thoughts. But the light. It spills. It spreads. It illuminates. The ground shakes again. If this was one of her adventure books, this would be a call to adventure. But... but she can't. Not anymore. Not without her horn, not without anyone to call upon (can she even call them her friends?), not without... But she will never see or hear Spike again. And no missive from Princess Celestia comes. Yet, the light... it is still so bright. It reminds her of... it reminds her of before everything started to go wrong. When everything started to go wrong. Her mind goes numb. It goes foggy. Isn't it better to stare in silence than think about that again? Better to just not think... to just drift away? To just run away from all of her problems? Do you really want to hurt again? ... But some part of her refuses. Slowly, she pulls herself together and heads for the door. Each movement, each step, feels like an ordeal. At once, part of her wants to break out into a sprint and another part of her wants to go back to bed. But more importantly, most of her wants to open the door. Which she does, coming up face-to-face with Fluttershy, of all ponies, her hoof raised and about to knock. She blinks. "Fluttershy? What's going on?" "You need to come with us, Twilight," Fluttershy says. "There's a monster at the Velvet Estate and I think... I think only Harmony can defeat it." Velvet. Velvet again. She can still remember seeing her face in that dark room, telling her that she was sorry, and that her friends would come for her. But in the end, that didn't happen, did it? It was Velvet again. Always Velvet. But even that thought can't really spark any embers in her chest. She just feels even more wrung out. "I'm not going to help, Fluttershy." In response, Fluttershy simply looks at her. Softly. Gently. Kindly. It feels a bit like burning, but even that can't really overcome the exhaustion she feels. Instead, she tries to communicate her feelings, her doubts, and that relentless exhaustion to Fluttershy without saying a word. Suddenly, it feels like there's a lump in her throat. "I can't." She forces out. "Look at me!" Fluttershy does. "How am I supposed to do anything? How am I supposed to be a bearer of Harmony if I can't even use magic! How am I to - " - to her horror, she can feel her eyes burning - " - to believe in friendship? When I don't even have any friends?!" And Fluttershy... Fluttershy doesn't say anything. Fluttershy doesn't even say anything. She continues, "I don't have Spike, Princess Celestia doesn't care about me, and, and...! And none of you ever come to visit!" She takes a step forward and yells hoarsely, "tell me! How am I supposed to believe in Friendship and Harmony???!!!!!" The silence that follows is deafening. "Whatever is happening, I don't care." She lies. "I'm too sick and tired to deal with anything. Esquestria can rot and burn to death for all I care. Just... leave me alone." She retreats backwards and closes the door. Then, shuddering, she collapses to the floor and cries. Dear Celestia, I'm such a mess, aren't I? But no... even Celestia doesn't care about me anymore. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, if you're out there... Spike... "Oh, Harmony. What am I supposed to do?" As her prayer softly dispersed, a solemn silence settled over her surroundings like a blanket of snow. For a moment that could have been anywhen between a second and forever, she was left with the bliss of being alone, even from her own thoughts. As if punctuating that question, there's a knock on the door. She raises her head to look at it, slowly. Just as she was wondering if she had misheard, there's a second knock. Then a third. Hurriedly, she wipes away her tears and slams open the door. "I told you – " On the other side was Pinkie Pie. "Hiiii!!!!!!!" She waved. "Can we come in? I brought a friend." "You're not here to convince me to go and help?" "No? Why would I do that?" Befuddled, she let them in. "Nice place!" Pinkie remarked, unfolding a large rug on the floor. "We'll just give him some time to set up." "Some time to set up what?" She coughed, trying to clear her throat. "Why, to let you see Spike again, of course!" Her motions slowed, disbelieving, as Pinkie rattled on. "Took me a few favors, and I had to part with some of my shiny things, but..." "Hold on, Pinkie. Let me see if I'm hearing you right," she said, stepping a bit closer. "You're letting me see Spike again? How?" The 'he's dead' sat unspoken like a, well, like a giant purple dragon in the middle of the room. "Why, through the power of friendship, of course! And umm..." Pinkie began, tapping her hoof on her chin. "I don't really get it myself, but I can tell you a story about it!" She side-eyed the other pony in the room, who was doing something to the windows that was somehow preventing the light from coming in. "Please." "Okay! So, imagine that there's a cat in a box." She nodded. "And we put a little bottle of manticore poison in there." "Pinkie, this isn't helping my concerns." "I'm getting there! Ok, so that poison bottle has a fifty-fifty chance of tipping over. Like a coin flip. So..." She drew the question out. "What happens to the cat when you close the box?" "It dies?" "Nope! It's either dead or alive!" The voice that chimes in sounds deeply eccentric, exceptionally so, as if the words zig-zag and zip around in the air. "No, that's wrong again." The other pony comes up alongside them, casting another cursory glance around the house. "It's - " " - both," Twilight Sparkle finished, straightening up a little as her worldview shifted to fit this new enlightenment. "It is both dead and alive until the box is opened. An uncertainty principle, a paradox space, a coin flipping infinitely in a vacuum." "Exactly," said the friend of Pinkie Pie. "And what we, or rather I, have just done, is close every entrance in your house, except for the front door. And when I've done that, your house will be - ?" "A closed box." "That's right. Wow, you got that Wasn't quickly! You have a knack for this. In fact, Pinkie, I think I may like your friend even more than I do you." "WHAT?!" Pinkie gasped in faux outrage. "How dare you! Why, I oughta - " "Why are you doing this?" At her blink of confusion, she clarified, "why are you... helping me, Pinkie?" Pinkie Pie smiled at her. "Why, because I'm your friend, of course!" "Really?" "Really, really. It's alright, Twilight. I just noticed that you haven't really been laughing a lot, lately. Which is kind of sad! So I took it upon myself to fix that!" "I guess you would know." Pinkie Pie reached out and took her hoof and said, softer, "it's going to be fine. I can promise you that." "Promise?" "Cross my heart." "Ok. Thank you... friend." Pinkie Pie smiled and closed the door, which was then sealed. She breathed, then breathed a little more. When she turned around, she saw a pattern of three concentric circles placed on an eye-searingly pink rug in the middle of her living room (or perhaps, it was the pattern itself that was eye-watering). Her furniture and books and shelves had already been moved to one side. "Okay," she breathed again, "so what do I do now?" | |
| "Are you ready?" | |
| "Ready." | |
| "Okay then, here goes!" | |
| As if in answer, a rose-tinted light washes over the room. | The clock face freezes in motion and begins to glow a golden light until it can't be read. |
| Then a glimmering circular portal resolves in the middle of the room. Its insides are somewhat blurry, as if being viewed through a foggy translucent mirror. But she doesn't really care for that, does she? "Hey, Twilight." Spike says. "I came to see you." He's larger than she remembers. "Hi," she said, not really knowing how to answer. Instead, she reached out… and felt her hooves press against a blank barrier. Her face fell. "Sorry," Spike apologised. "Neither of us can cross over. We can only talk, and even then, not for a lot of time because the air will run out." What was the point of even doing this, then? Some of her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Spike apologized again. "Don't do that. Don't apologize. This was my fault, from the beginning," she said. "I don't think it is." Spike denied. "It was just… bad luck, that's all. You wanted to believe in Princess Celestia, didn't you?" "Not if the cost was you! Not if the cost was so much. If it was just me that suffered, maybe – but not you! Why did I have to lose you?" To her horror, she can feel tears spilling out over her face, but it feels so very distant, like a puppeteer observing their puppet yet still has to speak around the lump in her throat. "I couldn't save you; I brought you there but I couldn't save you. I really fucked it up this time." She dissolved into messy sobbing. "Sorry, I just – I just. I couldn't save you, Spike! I'm so sorry!" "Hey, hey, it's okay," he said. "I'm sorry too." "I told you to stop apologizing (hic). It's not your fault." "But it's not your fault too, remember? It was an accident. We didn't know what was going to happen. We were all just trying to do the right thing." "But the right thing cost you! And I – " She started sobbing even harder. "And I pushed away all my friends, because it hurt so much, and I - ! I don't know! I just feel like a very bad pony! And a very bad friend to you!" Something in Spike's voice firms. "If you were a bad friend for taking me with you, then I was a bad friend for not stopping you." "What – no, Spike! I brought you there!" "And? I should have stopped you, right?" Sharply, he gestured. "If you bringing me there made you a bad friend, then I also am a bad friend to you, for not stopping you there, for not raising my suspicions about that letter… for not wanting to break your heart." "But Spike, you didn't know!" "And you didn't know either! So we're both bad friends!" She didn't know how to answer that. Finally, Spike said, "but we're still friends. Twilight Sparkle, you're still my friend. I would help you in every universe." "Even after I hurt you?" "Even then. Despite everything that has happened, I'm still your friend." She looked down for a while. Laying on the barrier like this, she could almost imagine his warmth permeating through the cold. "I've missed you." "I miss you too." Outside, a song is starting. 'Take the children and yourself, and hide out in the cellar.' The Cutie Mark Crusaders huddle closely together, hiding under several blankets. Sweetie Belle closes her eyes and presses her hooves together, praying. 'By now, the fighting will be close at hand.' At Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack lifts her hoof, feeling the way the earth shakes, the trees quiver, and her barrels of apples jump. Her eyes narrow. 'Don't believe the church and state, and everything they tell you.' Beyond Reproach is yelling and directing the evacuation, holding his Luna Bureau badge tightly in the air. 'Believe in me! I'm with the high command!' 'Can you hear me?' In a flash of rainbow light, Rainbow Dash alights to meet with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie outside the library. 'Can you hear me running, can you hear my calling you?' 'Can you help me?' And finally, a unicorn without a horn is looking at her friend, even as the ground shudders once more. 'Can you hear me? Can you hear me running! Can you hear me running – can you hear my calling you?' For a moment, silence descended again, so heavy that she could hear her own heart pounding. Spike begins, "the city doesn't know what's coming, she doesn't feel the heat." She raises her head. "The city won't know what hit her, what knocks her out into the streets." Her voice joins in, "the city is thinking that it's over, and she's already fast asleep. So I'm breaking out of here tonight." A wordless yell of defiance. "I have to be ready!" "Can I really do this?" She asks. "Twilight Sparkle, if you put your brilliant mind to it, you can do anything." He offers. "Plus or minus the power of friendship." She begins again, "we're given what we need, only the chance to survive." Spike joins in: "Even then it's a coin toss, a roll of the dice." She yells back, "there's got to be something better! Something that feels more alive." "So you're breaking out of here tonight?" "I'm breaking out of here!" "You've got to feel it girl! Feel the wind pick up!" Spike yells. As if on cue, a gust of wind rustles through the pages. "It feels like something's got to change!" She returns, "there's no use putting wings to a job if all the wills are stuck!" The wind picks up even further in her cottage, as if in howling. "But there's something wrong here!" The song echoes. "Like this whole city wants to scream, but no one makes a sound! You've got to feel it breaking!" Her teeth grits. "So I'm going to find out what it is! And I'm going to tear it down!" A lull. Spike solemnly nods at her, then smiles. "The ending's running heavy, we don't have time for goodbyes." At her step forward, he shakes his head and professes, "you know you can't come with me, though I see that look in your eyes." "..." He smirks. "So just kiss me fast, 'cause we don't have time to lose." "Oh my Sun, Spike - " "If you leave the light on, I'll come back for you." She nods back. "When everything is said and done, I swear I'm going to make it right." "So I'm breaking out of here tonight!" She reaffirms to herself, looking down at her hooves. "So I'm breaking out of here tonight!" The 'echoes' join in, "so I'm breaking out of here tonight!" The door slams open and Twilight Sparkle steps out, singing, "I'm breaking out of here tonight!" "I'm so tired of giving up, I'm so tired of giving in." She says to her friends. "You wake up knowing things should change, not knowing where to begin. This city won't say where she's going and she won't speak of where she's been. So I'm breaking out of here tonight." They chorus: "Break out." And all around them, they can hear the ponies of Ponyville, and maybe even all of the ponies of Esquestria, coming together to chorus: "don't turn your back on the city!" Their voices rising, they sing again, "oooooh - ! Don't turn your back on the city!" Silky Stream and Soft Sweeps, running in the darkness, collide into the light and into the Cutie Crusaders. 'Say a prayer for all the children still sleeping!" Stormchaser ducks under a blow. 'Say a prayer for all the fathers who still remember.' Selene and Velvet Covers and Celestia tag team Her Lady of Wires. 'Say a prayer for all the girls who learned to stand up!' And in an open box, Spike closes his eyes, smiling, as the portal fades away. 'Say a prayer for all the boys who won't surrender!' Now, as the entirety of the Mane 6 run together with Twilight Sparkle at the head, she admits, "sometimes I just want to strive until the streets run out, wanted to burn until there's nothing left to burn and burn." Then, she turns her head to the side, to her friends, and tacks on, "but this city's waiting for a better day. When I get back there'll be hell to pay! BUT IF I'M THE ONLY ONE STANDING, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID TO FAIL!!" "I'm breaking out of here tonight!" They yell together. "I feel a fever coming on – leaving me out of control!" "And I have nothing but this steady – for reals there's been nothing of the city, or the rodeo!" The song thunders on before them and around them as they harmonize. "If you can hear my voice outside these walls!" 'If you can hear me!' "If you can hear me singing out – this message tonight!" 'Wooah!' "Then break the silence, send a signal back!" 'If you can hear me!' "I'm coming, all I need is a little guiding light!" Then, dawn breaks on the horizon, the golden glow of Princess Celestia now unmistakably there with the yellow light. "If you can hear me! Don't turn your back on the city!" And as their voices reach her, she disengages to look back in all of her winged glory. They call out, "break the silence send a signal back!" When she doesn't, they call out again, "don't turn your back on the city! Break the silence, send a signal back!" And this time, Princess Celestia of Esquestria flares. It's like coming home. Twilight Sparkle grins. "I'm coming, all I need is a little guiding light!" "Don't turn your back on the city!" They echo and she yells triumphantly. "Don't turn your back on the city!" She calls out with all her might: "I'm coming! All I need is a little guiding light!" 'If you can hear me! If you can hear me! If you can HEAR ME!" Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of Magic, with her friends and Harmony, exults: "Don't turn your back on the city!" Sometimes, all it takes is a spark to get a fire going. |
So it's something like Bí -> Bee (like the animal), éd is pronunced like the first two letters in edit, while the ê is hard to describe but it's like a soft eh but much more nasal.