22nd New Dream [Live from Stalliongrad]

[ponycure_dream]

...is this on? It's quite cold and I'm not sure!

Ah, listen, can we have a little bit of help here? Ako and I found this large book and, well... we have no idea what's going on in it. But, what makes this so odd is that there are things smudged out, pages torn... and there's this big huge block of text followed by nothing. It's like everything stopped here!

Problem is... we don't know how to read any of this!

So, um... little bit of help?

Comments

[ponycure_dream]

Kinda-sorta randomly, actually.

[superstylishsquid]

Huh. Well, we might as well check the pages around the missing ones, just in case they were torn out deliberately.

[ponycure_dream]

Alright.

[With that, she pops open the book once more. Let's see what's inside...]

TOTALLY NOT LATE EVER

[ponymeisters]

[Well, there are pages missing, but they are random.

As for the remaining contents...well, they are treason trials. Hundreds of them, of a myriad of ponies. As it turns out, this isn't just any court record. This particular set of records are from trials held by Alicantor himself, as transcribed by a random, unknown recorder.

The last trial written takes up a fourth of the entire book, as mentioned before. Whoever it was on trial, it had been a very long and arduous process.]

[superstylishsquid]

It looks like these are records of treason trials. And the last one is ridiculously long.

[ponycure_dream]

Treason?! All of these are that? What about the last one?

[ponymeisters]

[If you guessed that the last trial was for treason!....you're absolutely right. The last trial record is long, and to the letter, detailing the trial of one Aristrotle for treason, for siring the oracle who predicted doom, for disagreeing with the emperor, for jaywalking while eating a croissant...

The indictment list alone is five pages long. Hopefully unicorn horns didn't get magical carpal tunnel, because ow.]

[superstylishsquid]

Somepony named...Aristrotle. Talk about mixing up your cultural references. He was accused of siring an oracle who foretold doom, disagreeing with the emperor, jaywalking while eating a croissant...you get the idea.

*He can't help but wonder if there's arson and murder on one of those pages...*

[ponycure_dream]

[Nozomi can't help but cock an eye in surprise.]

All of that? It sounds like... like he was trying to do something good and was punished for it!

[superstylishsquid]

That's how it goes sometimes. A ruler lets power go to their head, start acting like tyrants and get rid of anyone who tries to get in their way. I've seen it before.

Though the last time, the rulers were pretty heavily corrupted by proximity to a hellgate.

[ponycure_dream]

[And Nozomi gets a flash of realization]

...like Zemekis back in Mayfield. And if it happened then...

[superstylishsquid]

...It could happen in other places, too. Civilizations don't tend to fall to ruin without being conquered without something happening, after all.

[ponycure_dream]

...you think it could happen here?

[superstylishsquid]

Is it that hard to believe? This world does have its own dark powers.