As the group advanced towards the surface, a pony stepped into view. He was slender of limb and pale of fur and mane. His features seemed somehow unfinished, smoothed over. "You have done well, and performed as the mistress has demanded."
Twilight and Rainbow quickly adopted fighting stances as Twilight raised a brow, "Mistress?"
He nodded softly, "Oh, yes. You are now great and amazing heroes. You have saved the pathetic Lashtada's people. Look at them." He raised a hoof to point at the two smallest ponies. "But you are late. So late. Even visitors from another world must know they alone will never restore Lashtada's children."
Soft huffed, stomping a hoof and clenching a fist at the stallion, "Why can't they, if that's what they want?"
He laughed, a short sound. "Two mares won't do that, and their souls are broken. No, you were not called here for any trium--"
The orc captive stepped forward, "Shut your mouth and get out of our way! We are leaving." He hefted up his pick axe, "Or are you another boulder in our way?"
Rainbow advanced to his side, "I like the cut of this guy. You heard him, buzz off!"
The smooth-featured stallion stepped out of the way, allowing the group to proceed. "You are witnesses to Her victory, nothing more."
Lex kept his eyes firmly on the newcomer as the group warily moved past him. "It's clear that you, or some associate of yours, were the one who told them about this place," he said, not even noticing that he still referred to the group as "them" rather than "us." "What was your purpose in doing so? For that matter, who are you and who is this 'Mistress' of yours?"
As he spoke, Lex silently called on his circlet again. It had already expended its ability to fuel a small number of spells for the day, but it could still let him see the ebb and flow of magic.
The unknown male chuckled softly, "Do you not know us? Our mistress only wishes that you chronicle the end of Lashtada's brood. It is a kindness on her part that they will spend their final days in freedom, though it is doubtful they will appreciate it." He perked an ear, "I must go." He faded from sight, though Lex could feel the magic that shrouded him. He fled off into the tunnels as new steps quickly approached the party.
A small squadron of six gem gnolls stepped into view with weapons at ready, but hesitated at the large gathering of ponies and freed slaves.
Twilight stomped a hoof as electricity gathered around her horn, "We're leaving, stand aside."
Sonata advanced alongside her, "Like, she's totally serious. She can blast you all with barely a thought, and that big guy," She gestured towards the orc, "looks like he wants to fight anyway. Buzz off, as Rainbow would say."
Turning his attention from the mysterious figure, Lex let Sombra's power make his eyes glow once again as he faced the more immediate threat. "Stand down or die. There is no third option." Hopefully they'd take the first choice, as he had very little power left that could be easily recovered.
Not liking the odds presented, the gnolls fled into the maze of tunnels, each taking a different direction and almost instantly lost to sight.
Spike raised a claw, "We should get going. They'll tell their friends about us, and I doubt the next group will be that small." The others seemed to agree and they hastened into a jog towards the surface. They could see the light ahead and jogging turned into a full run.
They emerged into the warm embrace of the sun to see gnolls around the bodies of their fallen. These gnolls shrank back at the sight of them. One of them frowned at the group, "Go away. We are tending to the dead. You've done enough harm."
Lex's lip curled at the implication, but didn't bother to reply. The need to withdraw was far more urgent. "If we hurry, we might be able to make it back to Yi Sheng by nightfall," he murmured softly. He hoped he was correct; orienteering had never been one of his strong points.
Twilight looked away from the gnolls, "If I had another chariot, maybe. Let's get away from these caves and find a safe place to camp."
As they began their hike away from the caves, the human moved aside Twilight, "You're the leader, right? Nice job with those gnolls."
Twilight perked an ear, then it began to sag, "I shouldn't be proud of murder."
The human shrugged, "It's a harsh world. Their deaths means we get to walk free instead of dying alone and miserable in those caves of theirs."
The orc nodded in agreement, "They have wronged, and faced quick justice for it. What fault can be found in that? You have my thanks."
Applejack interceded with a nervous smile, "Well thanks to both o' y'all. We should focus on th' walking part for now. Twilight has a lot on her mind, but she don't mean nothing by it." When they distanced themselves a little, Applejack moved in to nudge Twilight, "You alright, sugarcube?"
Twilight shook her head, "They were wrong, but they were still people. We killed them. They had families."
Rainbow landed on the other side of Twilight, "Pfft, so? Didn't you hear tall, gray, and spooky? They killed all the little ponies and you don't see them getting all teary about it."
Spike sided with Twilight, "Just because they're bad doesn't make it alright for us to be bad."
Soft wobbled a hand, "It's done. We shouldn't be happy we had to kill them, but we shouldn't beat ourselves up about it. We did good today. Besides, they were plenty ready to kill us."
Lex nodded. "It's tragic when violence is necessary, but they brought it on themselves. We were justified in being here because we were attempting to undertake an action that was to the benefit of others. By taking up arms against us, they declared themselves to be in the wrong, and thus the blame for what happened rests solely with them." He frowned as he regarded Twilight. How could such a smart pony not understand basic moral philosophy?
Sonata tilted her head at Lex, "That made enough sense." She walked alongside Lex without prompting or many words spoken, glancing in his direction once in a while. The group hiked until the sun began to sink dangerously low.
Applejack looked up at it, "Still kinda hard ta imagine it doing that without Celestia 'round, or Luna ta raise th' moon afterwards."
Twilight turned her gaze to the sky, "They have their own Sun Queen here, but she doesn't live with ponies. I don't know where she lives, to be honest."
Soft made an expensive gesture, "The gods live in their own realms. They can look on Everglow, but most can't enter it very often." When Twilight looked at her curiously, Soft blushed, "I've been studying. I'm not going to be an oracle that doesn't know anything! I wish we still had Lashtada's book though..."
Soft moved over to walk alongside one of the small ponies, "Do you know anything about Lashtada?"
The short legged pony tilted her head at Soft, "What?"
The other short pony shook her head, "We know how to mine. Are you going to take us to a new mine?"
Scowling, Lex moved to interpose himself between Soft Mane and the short-legged ponies. "What do you think you're doing?"
Soft looked quite surprised at Lex's sudden movement, "Asking them about their god?" she offered, "Mine too, as of not that long ago. What's wrong with that?"
"We just rescued them from an indeterminate period of slave labor and who knows what other cruelty they suffered," Lex's eyes narrowed as he regarded the pony satyr. "These ponies need help readjusting to civilized society. They need to know that they'll have a place to live and food to eat and a government that cares about them and looks after their best interests. They do not need to be proselytized at. Especially not about the Goddess of Debauchery or whatever she is."
Soft turned red, a red of anger, not shame, "You're just full of acid, aren't you? It's no wonder you don't have any friends."
Sonata slipped between Lex and Soft, "He has at least one. Calm down, both of you. I'm sure Soft was trying to be nice, and Lex is just looking out for the totally tiny ponies. We're on the same side."
"My side is the side that wants to do things to benefit ponies, not deities," spat Lex. Pointedly turning away from Soft, he directed his attention to the smaller ponies, who had shied away during the exchange of harsh words. "We're taking you to Yi Sheng. Once we get there, I'm sure that Queen Iliana's government will have provisions to help you transition into new, more fulfilling lives."
He paused for a moment, then added in a softer tone. "You don't have to suffer anymore."
The small ponies looked between the larger ones and the half pony, uncertain. "Is Yi Sheng the new mine?" one asked.
The human from earlier shook his head, "They were born in the mines, near as I've seen. They were there before me. There used to be a few more of them. Couldn't even say if they know what the world is like that's not a mine."
Spike called out to the others, "Here!" He had found a viable camp site and was already working to clear debris and set up for the evening. The rest arrived shortly after him. The orc and human had some camping experience they put to work, while the small ponies found a place to curl on each other and fell asleep instantly.
Lex, following his usual pattern, moved slightly apart from the rest and started setting up his own tent. He cast a dark look at Soft Mane before moving inside to settle down for the night.
Sonata flopped down beside Lex, watching him work as she spoke, "Stop looking at her that way. She barely even knows what she is." She rolled her eyes, "Besides, she isn't bothering the little ponies. We did good, right? Let's not end the day on a downer."
Applejack settled in beside Twi as the camp fire was started up, "Say, Twi, can we go over some more magic?"
Twilight perked up, "Of course!" She patted the ground in front of herself, and AJ shuffled over to it. The two quickly began to discuss magical techniques, an activity that brought a bright smile to Twilight's face.
Lex paused, a tent flap open as he considered Sonata's words. Today had been one of the most promising days he'd had since coming to Everglow. Not only had they saved two groups of ponies, as well as other races, from danger, but he had managed to achieve a breakthrough in deciphering the value systems of less logical ponies. Speaking of which...
"Sonata," he turned to face her. "When we get back to Yi Sheng, we should go on a date." Parallel lines of investigation would advance his research considerably faster.
Sonata flashed a bright smile, "Sure thing!" As soon as the flap closed, she bounced to her hooves and galloped over to Soft Mane, nudging her with a hoof, "He asked me out!"
Soft blinked, "Who?"
Sonata pointed at Lex's tent, "When we get back to town! He totally asked, and I said yes!" She looked excited, and yet nervous, "I wish Pinkie was here, I bet she'd have all kinds of advice."
Soft snorted, biting back an unkind statement as she looked at Sonata's innocently excited face. She forced a smile, "Just be yourself. Find something to wear that isn't a bathing suit too. Either you'll hit it off, or you won't."
Sonata wrapped her forelegs around Soft, squeezing her, "You're the best!"
That should be "Sonata's words," since she's not the most recent female mentioned prior to that sentence.
5768358 Fixed! I'd ask what you thought but you were kinda there for most of it.
Kiera is the goddess of painful love, while Lashtada is just love?
If that's the case, five bits says Kiera's the one behind the rescue, and ten says she's the Nightmare Moon to Lashtada's Celestia. After all, who wants to worship painful love, when you can worship love without the downside?
5768376 Her name is Kara. She is a goddess of love and shapeshifters. She is the Chrysalis to Lashtada's Cadance, if we have to compare, but in Everglow, Lashtada was the big loser.
5768381
I was pretty sure you'd typed "painful love" in there somewhere.
Eh, doesn't really matter.
Edit: Ah, it was someone else in the comments here.
5768401 She sees little wrong with manipulative love.
5768408
Edited the previous post with a link to what gave me the idea in the first place.
Even so, though, a lot of your comments and replies make me think my analogy could be accurate, assuming that variation of Nightmare Moon were to make careful, passive-aggressive moves rather than flat out assault.
Huh. Lex actually showed some Equinity.
And I think Kara needs to invest in some +int gear. Considering the sheer number of options available to repopulate their race, that girl has to be eating paint chips.
5768507 It goes a bit deeper than 'Yes you could make a bunch of things that look like short legs'. Their culture has been utterly wiped clean. Returning two broken shells that were born to several generations of slavery means nothing to that. Even if, say, someone polymorphed into a male short leg and got real busy with them, their society is dead. There are no texts to even try to piece it back together from. It is gone.
Magic can't solve everything.
5768515
Planeshift to Lastada's domain, let her love them to health. And introduce them to some of her remaining Petitioners. Strangely, they're cross fertile with the living. And can be made more so.
Eventually she can rebuild her race, shaping the culture directly.
5768589 Lashtada has nothing but herself, and she's lucky to have that. She was but a shadow, forgotten by the realm, until some uppity planar travellers braved her dungeon and hauled her back into existence. Now she has a tenuous thread tying herself to Everglow through Soft Mane. Her bind to Equestria is stronger, which doesn't make her as happy as it should be, as appreciated as Cadance's efforts are.
5768603
Breed demigods?
5768613 That... would do nothing to restore short leg society, and that is why Kara is gloating. The goddess of love and community has lost all her loved children and their community. The victory is just too sweet, the failure too deep to not rub it directly in Lashtada's face.
Kara can be very mean.
5768613 To put a happier note on things, in a Ponyfinder game I'm running, we're set far closer to the start of the pony empire, and they saved the short legs before they had to endure generations of misery. Lashtada was never banished as a result, and they established a happy commune in the town of Turves, where they live alongside the other pony tribes. It was the crowning moment of the campaign. Most of them are now playing short leg adventurers about twenty years later.
5768623
As long as Lashtada remembers their culture, their way of life can be recreated. Heck, people are currently recreating 'lost' cultures without the help and knowledge of a Goddess.
Breed some Weiner Ponies and indoctrinate them from an early age. Information, which is what allows a culture to exist in the first place, is really hard to permanently kill. Especially when a Weiner Pony God is busy remembering it.
So I'm really failing to see the problem. As long as Lashtada remembers the culture, it remains viable. You just have to raise the baby Weiner Ponies in the right environment. While some will opt out, you'll still have a population/community that follows the customs and ways of their ancestors. For whatever thats worth.
5768638
Weiner Ponies. They're called Weiner Ponies now.
5768515 Sure it can. Legend Lore.
5768694 Legend lore does not seem applicable.
5768704 How is it not? If nothing else their culture would be in the shadow of legends about Lashtada, who's a *god*. But I think a race that was wiped out would be legendary in its own right.
5768728 Sure, but with having nothing to work off of, Legend Lore would provide sketchy information at best. The best possible outcome is it directing you towards some lonely book somewhere that somepony did write, likely not a short legger, as an outside witness to their way of life.
5768735 It explicitly does not require that the information still exist in any form.
5768747
I like this orc. No monologues for you, dopplepony.
Ah, but the gnolls were taking actions that benefited others as well. They were defending their homes, their families, and their property. Sure, they were harming others for those benefits, but it cannot be denied that the party did the same thing. The thing about such a simplistic code of morals is that it's easily turned on its head. When two acts for a greater good come into conflict, which good is the greatest?
As for the littler ponies, Lex may be concerned about the vital necessities, but Soft Mane is concerned with something higher up the hierarchy of needs: culture. And the culture of these ponies seems to have been utterly destroyed. Not irrevocably; that's what divination is for. But if these really are the last members of the subspecies, then it won't matter. Still, I have a faint suspicion that Kara's desire to gloat over the extinction of her foe's patron race will ultimately backfire. We'll see.
This was a messy fight against the typo menace:
Isn't it Yi Sheng? There's more than one instance of this in the chapter.
Apostrophes are not spaces. "Both o' y'all" will work.
5768753 All fixed!
5768750 I was thinking they have a direct connection due to Lashtada's oracle and the two survivors. Or, they could go to the former site of the village -- being in the place gives the most complete level of information.
5768765 Where is that? Nopony in the group knows.
5768767 The Queen knows! But I didn't mean for them to cast it right now, I mean eventually if for some reason they wanted to rebuild the former culture as a project. Which I wouldn't bother with unless it was important to Lashtada and I was Soft Mane.
5768753
No, they were taking actions that benefitted themselves, at the direct cost of others; that isn't the same. That's what Lex would say, at least.
Ponies aren't property; any claim to righteousness they had was undercut by their slave-taking.
It can absolutely be denied. The gnolls were harming others voluntarily to make life more convenient for themselves. The party was harming others out of necessity to free those that were being exploited and were unable to defend themselves. Saying "I'm fighting to free those in bondage" can't be equated to "I'm fighting to keep our slaves in chains" simply by attempting to reduce each to "but both are still fighting for what you want."
It's not simplistic; rather, it was simply a brief presentation. Believe me, I could have had Lex go into much greater detail on his moral philosophy, but that seemed like it'd be narratively burdensome.
That said, the reason that the "greater good" is called greater is that it serves more people, rather than less - fighting to free ponies is more good than fighting to keep them in bondage.
5768847
Oh, I don't think the gnolls were actually in the right. I just like playing devil's advocate.
5768899 Oh, I know. I was just playing along (does that make me God's advocate?).
That said, if somepony wanted to bring that up within the context of the story, it would absolutely make Lex's day, because then he'd get to go on at length and in great detail about how and why he's right and they're wrong.
5768750 One of the weaknesses of the Pathfinder system is that there are no unsolvable problems. Impossible just takes longer (or costs more).
5768767
Well, one could cast Legend Lore once to find some ancient book written by an outsider... then again, with the book, to find the location of the old village... then again, at the site of the old village, to find out more... though by now, there's probably a new village on that site, complicating things...
It's a long, slow process, but not as long and slow as most other options.
If you want all of us readers to be upset about the fate of the short legs, you'll have to build them up some. All we know about them so far is that they're short. The two that were just rescued were pretty miserable, but not more than any other slave. (Maybe less, since they didn't know what they were missing)
5768984 To be fair, we do know that they're more miserable than the other slaves. The human and the orc have some fight in them, and are clearly looking forward to getting back to the better society that they remember being a part of. The short-legged ponies have made it clear (and the human slave told us) that they have never known anything but life as slaves, and can't imagine doing anything but toiling in a mine.
5769038 They would not be more miserable than the other slaves. Their plight is worse, but they don't know that; they have been slaves their whole lives. They would suffer from their daily hardships, but they don't understand the freedom they lost because they never even tasted it. It will be really hard to give them a normal life now, because they don't know what to do without orders. Hope works both ways: It helps you wait for a good result, but it also makes you hate the current misery all the more.
5769105 I disagree. Being miserable for so long that you can't imagine not being miserable is not better than being miserable but able to imagine better conditions. Having no hope for a better future is not better than having hopes that are currently unfulfilled.
This is especially true for their current situation, because now that they have cause to hope - having been freed - they're unable to appreciate it. They have good reason to imagine a better future for themselves now, and are unable to do so specifically because they've been miserable longer than other slaves. Their prolonged misery has compounded over time, and is robbing them of the joy and hope that they should by all rights be feeling now.
5769133
What hope? They can't go back to what the short legs used to be and all they know how to do is mine. They'll most likely end up doing the same job for someone else until they die.
5769157 That's a presumption. Leaving aside the issues of cultural identity, they can hope that they'll find some other line of work that will allow them to have a greater quality of life. Even if they continue mining, a legitimate mining operation will pay them, as will almost certainly not work them as long or as hard. That's presuming that they won't find somepony sympathetic to their situation to try and help them realize that they can aspire to better things, and work to aid them in that regard.
If you can't agree that not being slaves any longer should give them reason to have hope for the future, I suspect that we'll simply need to agree to disagree.
Gnolls are glad it wasnt an experienced squad of adventurers coming in to strip mine the place.
Given theres only two females left, if there isnt a potion of True Breed and Fertility, then theres going to be a whole collection of travels and research needed to discover it. And pay for it. etc.
Need a small place on a hill on the edge of town where the shortlegs can spend their days digging in the cellar. Trying to force their minds into society at this stage would be even worse than me. At least I just have a silent fit.
As previous posts have said, it's time to put the Divination school of spells to work. Soft Mane has a direct connection to Lashtada, and the last remaining survivors of her people. While probably now capable of it herself, the group could attempt to pay for some Divinations, Communes, and Legend Lores to get the ball rolling on getting Lashy her old job back. It won't be easy, cheap, or quick, but it's well within the realm of possible, even without any actual knowledge to go on.
I wouldn't be surprised if that orc (and posibly even the human) show back up sometime later to help the party out in some way. It seems like things would work out to let that happen often enough in most other games (given that the GM even remembers the NPCs). In games I run, I like to throw little things like this in to help show the group that sometimes, the reward for doing the righteous thing isn't always measured in money piles ("Hey, remember that slave you freed from the evil gnolls way back at level 5? Well, the shop that has the one, single, stupidly expensive key item you need now that you're level 15 and have to save the world right now just so happens to be owned by a guy that happens to remember a group of adventurers that saved his life...").
You accidentally a word or two in your authors note
Should be we've lost a lot of good men
This guy reminds me of drow, actually. That it's an underground scene just compounds this.
I wonder what the name for drow-ponies would be ?
5770691 Man down!
Sight is supposed to be site
6721643 No matter how long a chapter is published, new typos can be found.
Yisheng.
5768753 In all the Ponyfinder sourcebooks I've read, it's spelled Yisheng.
6721649 that's so true
IDK how this one was not found and i find it to be quite humerus.
reajusting ... oh its right. this language gets stupider every second, THIS FUCKING LAN---
iron Thought Knead Wednesday Jeopardy February Receipt Island Asthma Colonel Hors d'oeuvres Zucchini
what do all of these words have common, and its not their letters
I think it should be "ta raise th' moon" even filtered through AJ talking.
AJ, you do remember that Luna wasn't raising the moon until a few years ago, right? Shouldn't be that much of a stretch. (Mocking for being a silly pony. Actually seems reasonably written that she's grown so used to it that it feels like it's always been that way.)
8084692 Fix'd!