Episode 1: Tragedy
Celestia always cries. On the inside when she sends them to war, and on the outside as well when she learns of their deaths.
Her subjects don't know this. Some have faith this is the truth, but many others only doubt that an immortal goddess would ever care to know the pain of her mortal subordinates. In turn, they care not to know the pain of their immortal regent. Princess Celestia knows this, and is saddened. Princess Luna knows this as well, but neither she or Celestia judge these doubters, for their skepticism is neutral by itself, and their callousness is an unfortunate consequence from being brought up without love. Hate and jealousy inspired by doubt, Celestia and Luna know from firsthand experience that these things are not just poison to the souls of the mortal, but also to the souls of the immortal. The tale of Nightmare Moon serves as testimony to this…
However, now begins a tale of far greater tragedy...a story of a war between ponies and devils that supposedly claimed the lives of only a few ponies and was won by a team of great heroes in the end. The edited version makes for a comforting bedtime story for all the young children, but for all the grown-ups who actually lived the story, it makes for an endless nightmare...
It all started one night in Canterlot, in the house of the family of a royal guard, his wife, and daughter…
The family was asleep. Princess Luna, who was keeping watch of their dreams, was happy to see the dreams of the daughter, Valentine, a pink-maned foal with purple and white hair. She saw that in her dreams, she was drawing a picture of her with her mom and dad and showing it to her parents, who loved it and put it on the fridge. The wife, Jill, a burgundy-maned mare with cobalt blue hair was having a dream of a similar nature that pleased Luna. In it, she was having a picnic with her husband and daughter, smiling and nuzzling her husband as they both watched their daughter go out to play in the fields. Luna chuckled affectionately.
"I love how even I, an immortal goddess, can find these simple things that bind mortal ponies together fascinating…" she thought with a smile on her face.
But Luna's smile quickly faded when she entered the dream of the husband, Vincent…
It began as the same dream she would see every night. Vincent would just be standing watch inside the throne room of Celestia's palace with a look of apathy on his face. The sun outside would grow lower and lower until finally, it would be time for Luna to raise the moon. Every time up until now, the dream would immediately cut to black right after the sun had finished going down and the time for Vincent's shift to end had come. But this time, after the sun had gone down all the way, the dream kept going. Vincent left the throne room, his look of apathy becoming a look of anger and hatred. Luna became very worried when she saw a demonic figure materialize by Vincent's side and begin whispering to him…
"So you've finally had enough, I can see. Once I have your soul, you'll finally be free of the chains that make you a prisoner to false love…"
Luna gulped, her fear growing greater as she saw the demon and Vincent both vanish before her eyes.
"He left his own dream…" she thought worriedly as she looked around at the still intact world of the dream. "But the dream is still going. That can only mean…"
That's right, Luna. This is your dream now.
Luna gasped upon hearing those words whispered in her mind.
"That voice…" Luna said. "No...this can't be!"
Luna desperately tried to escape the dreamscape by creating a portal with her magic and jumping through it, but to no avail. She only came out of another portal that appeared in the dreamscape.
"NO!" Luna cried as she then tried using her magic to forcefully end the dream, but that failed as well. She was trapped, and she knew why…
"ANSWER ME HIGHER GODS," shouted Luna as she lifted her head up, "WHY ARE YOU SO CRUEL THAT YOU ROB EVEN OTHER GODS OF A CHANCE TO PROTECT THEIR OWN?!"
Oh Luna...you know this to be a rhetorical question. The greater gods above me know not cruelty or clemency in affairs such as this. Lives that must be taken in order for their plans to succeed are just that. And though we shall not force our beliefs upon you, we must ask you not to do so either. Just as we allow you and your sister to stunt the growth of the land you rule by coddling your subjects, we only ask for you to allow us to make the sacrifices necessary for all in both your land and the world beyond to live in peace.
"GUH!" Luna exclaimed through tears, stamping her hooves on the floor. She was crying now…
"I never wanted it to be this way...how much must we endure?"
I'll take that as you humbly acquiescing to your fate. Now then, the few minutes we've been here in the dreamscape have been equivalent to quite a few hours in the real world. The night is over now. You may go end this dream now by doing in this dream what you methodically do in real life, aside from monitoring dreams, obviously. Just know that you won't wake up right away, heh heh.
Knowing what she meant, Luna turned to look outside one of the windows in the palace halls and saw the moon hanging in the night sky. If the one speaking to her was telling the truth, it would mean the time had come for her to lower the moon and provide room for her sister to raise the sun. With this in mind, Luna was better able to fight the painful tears in her eyes.
"The good regent knows…" Luna told herself in her mind. "Duty comes before all else...my sorrow is secondary...please fallen ones, know I mean no insult…"
Casting her magic, Luna caused the moon to descend. As the dream began to melt away into darkness, Luna heard the voice of the one who had spoken to her in the dream one final time…
Good work on fulfilling both of your other duties. Managing the night and abetting Death…
Luna growled in extreme anger.
"FUCK YOU!" she shouted in response to the taunt as she woke up in bed late that morning. It was 11:00 AM, five hours after the sun had come up.
"Um…" a royal guard, a pegasus with a coat of white fur, who stood beside her bed went. "Is everything alright, Your Highness?"
Luna then turned to face the guard, looking furious. She would've been embarrassed had she not been so overwhelmed with anger.
"No…" she replied to his question. "An innocent family has been destroyed...and I could do NOTHING!"
The guard was taken aback.
"You...you already know about Vincent?" he asked.
Luna was also surprised.
"You...know as well?" she asked.
"As does Princess Celestia, who has already been told." the guard replied. "Not wishing to disturb your slumber, we laid in wait for your awakening before relaying the tragic news to you..."
"Taking advantage of their politeness…" Luna thought in frustration.
"Simply asking, Your Majesty, how did you know?" the guard asked.
"I knew what had happened because of…"
Luna hesitated to finish her answer. She remembered that she and Celestia had agreed to not talk to their subjects about the greater gods if avoidable, as to not involve them in their personal troubles.
"...a dream I had that was like a vision of the future. It felt very real, like I was actually there, thus my outburst. I am sorry. The dream only gave me a glimpse of what would happen though, so please, if it's not too hard on you, could you tell me the details of what transpired with Vincent and his family?"
The guard then took off his helmet, revealing he had dark blue hair with white streaks, and bowed his head in respect as tears came out of his eyes.
"To the great dismay of all of us…" he began, his body shaking from the sadness he fought to bear. "The bodies of his wife and child were found early this morning...dead...in their own home...Vincent murdered them…"
Despite all the mental preparation Luna had given herself, the blow to her heart was heavy. She donned a look of utter disbelief as if she had never experienced a tragedy such as this before.
"How do you know it was Vincent?" Luna asked solemnly, knowing full well the answer would be the coffin's final nail. There was no running from the truth…
"Because outside the house…" the guard continued. "...the guards who went to investigate...found Vincent there waiting for them. They reported that he told them...that he was the one who did it. He even detailed exactly how he killed them. First, he woke up his wife. He lied to her that he was sorry he hadn't been spending as much time with her and their daughter, then pretended that he was in the mood for making love to her. He waited until she got into a romantic pose…before brandishing his sword before her...and beheading her…"
Luna began to hyperventilate.
"Go on…" she said, her intense rage building.
"He then went downstairs, his wife's severed head in hoof, to wake up his daughter. As she awoke, he dangled his wife's head right in front of her face...wanting it to be the first thing she would see when she opened her eyes. He laughed as he heard her shriek as loud as her lungs would allow before slitting her throat…"
Luna clenched her front hooves, now shaking with anger.
"How did the investigators react to all this?" she asked.
"They were absolutely terrified...and furious. They bellowed, "You are not Vincent! You are a terrible demon! For murdering his loved ones and traumatizing their spirits beyond repair using his body, forever desecrating his name...we will ensure you will not go unpunished in the least!", to which he replied, "I'd only hope. Since I'm in a good mood right now, I'll let you two live in exchange for delivering Celestia and Luna a message. Tell them that this is only Act I of the play. Now that the antagonist has been introduced, the fun may begin. Using the body of this feeble small-time subordinate of theirs, I'm going to lead an army of demons against this pitiful land. Let them know that many shall be slaughtered in the name of Numdust, the true lord of the dead! Ha ha ha ha ha!" and following that, he disappeared without a trace."
"The true lord of the dead…" Luna pondered in her mind, remembering the jeer she received about "abetting Death". "No...DAMN IT! They are still not satisfied...absolutely heartless..."
"Is that all the investigators told you?" she asked. "You omitted nothing, correct?"
"One part of that recap did feel off…" Luna thought.
"Yes…" the guard replied. "Forgive me lord, though I know we have much to prepare for, I want to talk some more…is that alright with you?"
"Of course." Luna responded, empathizing with the despondent guard. "I did not intend for this conversation to end simply because duty had called. You are not a mere courier to me...you are a friend who has come to me with a troubled spirit, and I wish to help ease the burden on your heart…"
It was then that the guard shed tears...of joy. He held out his forelegs and Luna held out hers as he came close to her and she embraced him.
"You have no reason to care about me…" he told her. "Any guard could have told you this and it would have made no difference. You have no reason to even know my name…"
"Do not speak to me this way…" Luna replied. "I do not see you as this world does in its cruelty. Please, tell me your name…"
"Ricard." the guard answered.
"Ricard…" Luna said, being reminded of something. "Hold on, I've seen you before. You're not one of my men or...her's, but my sister's. You're with the Jaeger Raid, the highest-ranked squad in Canterlot before the Nightbringers. How is it that you come to me acting so humble?"
"Because…" Ricard replied. "I'm not proud of myself. I foolishly thought that being a Jaeger would make me feel more important, help me realize a greater sense of purpose, but all it's done is lead me to realize that I'm just a herald who's taken more lives than most others."
"No, that's not true…" Luna told him, consoling him as she hugged him tighter. "My sister made you a Jaeger because she saw something in you...she sees something in every herald, even the lowest ranked of her royal guards…"
"I'd love to believe that…" Ricard responded sadly. "But no matter how I look at it, status means nothing at the grave. No one cares whether you're a noble or a peasant once you're gone, they say, but it goes even deeper. Unless you're declared a hero, no one cares who you were on the inside once you've died in battle. Memory of any and all good you've done vanishes without a trace. You're just a number and, hopefully, a name. At both the memorial service and in the records, all that matters is the casualty count…"
Luna hugged Ricard even tighter.
"You are not the first soldier who's come to me telling me something such as this…" Luna said, teary-eyed. "And yet I still cry every time. Please forgive me for some of the sadness I feel right now being selfish."
"Selfish?" Ricard asked, confused. "How so?"
"Some of this sadness comes from the guilt I feel…" Luna explained. "...remembering how narcissistic I used to be. Only thinking about how I was being overshadowed by my sister while our men were out there bleeding and dying while being seen as objects. But I also weep for you and every one of our men who has been brainwashed by this disgusting poison they've been force-fed. Please know these tears are for us both..."
Ricard's tears ceased. Something began to dawn on him he once thought impossible...
"You care…" he said. "It's not true what they say...you actually care about us…"
It was then that Ricard smiled and said…
"Thank you. You don't even know how happy it makes me knowing that I have a bond with the ones I fight for. I'll talk to you soon after I join Princess Celestia and my fellow Jaegers for our strategy meeting. Farewell..."
Luna smiled back at Ricard as he put his helmet back on and left her room, but it wasn't long after he left that she laid back down in her bed, nervous.
"Calm down…" she thought. "I did the right thing in telling him the truth. If this leads the gods to take him sooner, then that is their action alone. To live being caught in the lie of inward shame is worse than death anyways…"
Luna continued to muse…
"Strategy meeting…" she said in her mind. "He mentioned an army of demons...and if they're already preparing to go to battle, it's clearly not a bluff. How is this all happening so quickly? Did the gods have this whole thing planned out ahead of time?"
Of course. Numdust has been building his devil army for quite some time. And it's with our help that you never even noticed…
"What?!" Luna asked, shocked.
Did you really think Vincent was the first pony to offer Numdust his soul? Remember that you can only see other ponies' dreams Luna, not their hearts. Dreams don't always have to be reflections of the heart. And even at that, innocent, happy dreams are incredibly easy for us gods to doctor.
"You faked their dreams?!" Luna shouted angrily. "How long have you been doing this?! How many souls have you ruined?!"
Only for a month. We must say, it wasn't difficult for us to find 300 ponies who were bored with their everyday lives and had grown tired of waiting for a god to make things better for them, to the point where even a devil was good enough for them…
"Three hundred ponies?!" an outraged Luna cried. "You may as well have destroyed three hundred thousand ponies!"
Oh, give me a break. Even you and your sister would sacrifice three hundred ponies to save three hundred thousand. And regarding the war that's about to go down, I'm sure you'll be quite pleased to hear that the casualty count is planned to be very low, despite Numdust's boasts.
"When will you learn that it's not the numbers that matter?!" Luna screamed. "It's the way you treat our subjects like tools to be thrown away that is outright DESPICABLE!"
Like we've already alluded to, it's not about being cruel or kind. But if we have to be either cruel or kind, or heaven forbid both, as part of our duty, we will be.
"What is the purpose of this war anyways?" Luna asked. "Why does this all need to happen?"
To foster hope for this generation that has long been deprived of it. This war will give birth to new heroes, essential role models for the youths of today. This is what I've been told.
Upon being told this, Luna actually began growing calmer.
I know what you're sensing...and you're right. Ricard is one of the new heroes, along with the rest of the Jaeger Raid squad.
"...Even if you are telling me the full truth, this in no way changes my stance." Luna said firmly. "I will make sure that every soul you have hurt will be given comfort, starting with Vincent's family…"
Good luck with that. Until next time…
After saying that, the god who was speaking to Luna left her mind. Such was the way that gods of a higher level would communicate with lesser gods, through telepathy.
"At least now I have more reason to believe that Ricard will be safe." Luna told herself in her mind as she got out of bed. "But that does not mean I can rest easy. Even before the war begins, I must provide aid to the spirits of the broken…"
It was then that Luna departed her bedroom, setting course for Vincent's house. As she left, the god who had spoken to her earlier began talking in their own mind…
Good work, Luna. We knew Act 1 was well suited for your character in this story about Celestia and her heralds. Now the focus may shift…
Inside Celestia's throne room, there stood the remaining members of the Jaeger squad, Gordon, the lieutenant, and Leo, the captain. Gordon was a unicorn who had blonde hair, Leo was an earth pony who had orange hair, and both had white coats just like Ricard. Leo also wore a necklace that had a ring adorned with the gray emblem of a lion attached to the string. Princess Celestia, sitting on her throne, was waiting for Ricard along with the other Jaegers. The god smiled as they saw Ricard ready to enter the throne room.
It's a good thing only I know what will make this meeting unique…
Ricard pushed open the doors to the throne room to meet his ruler and comrades...