Something strange was going on in Ursa.

On a normal evening, the faint shimmer of green and blue from the strange auroras above danced across the snow. The only sounds, generally, were the rush of wind through the mountains and the calls of the mountain birds.

Today, the light seemed dimmer than usual, and the birds had mostly fallen silent. Perhaps this was heralding something? Or maybe whoever had arranged what happened next simply took advantage of this unusually quiet darkness.

A bright, white light illuminated the broad flank of Ursa Major, lit from the mouth of one of the smooth-sided tunnels far below. Sounds--replicated perfectly by dozens of scattered, Mothered Echoing Grays--accompanied the scenes that began to appear in the light in a play of complex, subtle shadows.

It was Movie Night with Mother!

---

Any Gembounds--Order or otherwise--watching would be treated to a sudden blaring of rat-impersonated music that echoed throughout Ursa: loudly attention-grabbing, with horns and quick, if repetitive, strings. Somewhere in the middle, a Gray choked a little and coughed, but otherwise the music was remarkably lifelike. To this music, the Gembounds would see images of a beautiful city: spires and towers of bright crystal glass arranged in a neat grid around flowing canals and sparkling fountains. Pale creatures of many shapes--swathed in gold and red--wandered the streets, and the Grays now mimicked the sound of passing conversations, the hum of not quite intelligible voices.

The movie shining across the mountainside now showed a familiar sight: twisted, spined beasts of Chaos gathering on a hillside, shadowed by towering trees. The music shifted to become dramatic, ominous, threading with a hum of tension. Though the beasts were slavering, snapping at the air, clawing the dirt, they held themselves in check: a larger monster was approaching, his jet black hide billowing smoke. "READY YOURSELVES," he growled to them. "IT IS ALMOST TIME TO WIPE THESE FORCES OF 'JUSTICE' and 'PEACE' AWAY IN TIDES OF BLOOD! WHEN I GIVE THE COMMAND, WE WILL UNLEASH HAVOC ON THIS WORLD!"

A few gasps of horror were loudly imitated as it was shown that the monster of Chaos were only loosely assembled, rather than in lines and in formation.

A title across the bottom of the mountain, all in capital letters (for any who could read), read:

THE EVIL OF CHAOS

This quickly shifted to...

---

THE LOVE OF DRONES

The scene shifted, to quiet, suspenseful music, a repetitious chord of high-pitched strings. A strange, smallish creature--pale and large-eyed, with many symmetrical legs--was crouched with a large, gelatinous object in it hand. The object was marked, and he read it like a page--perhaps a message--to another, slightly larger and less bug-eyed friend before it. "They've reached Morissirom," he lamented.

The larger creature clicked its mandibles. "I've told you, Drem Drone Seven-Two-One, you are not a soldier. You are like me, a courier. I know you are troubled, but leave the fighting to the others."

"How can I? When I carry this news each day--how can I ignore it, Alm Drone Four-Five-Six? HOW?" it demanded. Its companion tipped its head downward, silent. (The drama of the scene was only slightly broken by how long it took them to say their full numbered names.)

"I'm sorry..." said Drem Drone; "I have to do this." It rushed forward, and the two drones clung to one another in an embrace.

"Make sure you come home," the other whispered into Drem Drone's shoulder. "Make sure you come home... for our children." The music swelled into something horribly saccharine-sweet, intended to be deeply tear-jerking.

---

CHAOS AND ORDER IS EVIL AND GOOD

The scene shifted again: to a line of pale soldiers marching in remarkably neat rows, the rows themselves formed into vast squares. The viewpoint swept in, zooming in on one specific soldier: the courier, Drem Drone, its mouthparts shifting nervously and its bug eyes surveying the landscape.

Sad music changed to sinister again as the view panned back out, now showing a hillside overlooking the battalions. Two huge monsters of Chaos were there, drooling and grinning. "Let's slaughter them all!" hissed the first.

"Yesss... but why?" the second asked, though it was already prowling forward, unable to contain itself.

"Because it will be FUN!" the first cackled, and the two rushed down toward the army.

The next few moments were confused madness: the orderly lines struggling to maintain as the far smaller soldiers heroically battled the two massive Chaos beasts. The view zoomed on horrified and courageous faces, on one soldier throwing another out of the way to safety at the cost of its own life, at a dozen Drones hacking away at a massive Chaos beast that was flinging bodies left and right.

In the end, only our hero Drem was left standing: around it were scattered a multitude of corpses of the dead, and two smoking bodies of massive Valkhounds.

---

ORDER IS ONLY RIGHT

The next half hour of movie was spent depicting Drem carefully lining up the bodies of the dead in ceremonial fashion, folding each one's limbs across its chest. While probably baffling to non-Ordered characters, this was a scene that would seem dutiful and grimly necessary to those of Order: and by the time the scene faded out, the view was panning back to show hundreds of them neatly lined up once more.

---

THE FALL OF MORISSIROM

The next scene found Drem Drone, carrying far too many weapons scavenged from the dead (piled up on it back as though he were a particularly spiky hedgehog), cresting the hill that overlooked the city of crystal and glass. It looked down at the dirt, and the scene showed all the clawmarks the beasts of Chaos had torn into the earth. Then it looked out, and any viewers would be treated to a tragic view (set to terribly tragic music once again): the crystal spires smashed and shattered, the glass lying in broken, stained shards across the roads. The canals had been filthied with blood, and bodies lay strewn about haphazardly.

Drone Drem looked down, took a breath, and began the journey down toward the city.

---

ONE DRONE'S COURAGE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Drem Drone crept through the ruins of the city. The suns were setting, so that twin beams of blood red and orange-pink filtered through the once-beautiful shattered spires. its feet crunched on the glass, sometimes, and it froze up; the sad music took on notes of suspense.

In the distance, the voice of the General from the first scenes was heard: "THEN WE WILL MOVE ON TO THE PORT CITY, AND AFTER THAT, THIS WORLD WILL BE OURS. AND NONE OF THESE WRETCHED BEINGS WILL STOP US!"

The camera zoomed in on Drem Drone, and showed it horror turning to determination.

A montage began to play: our hero gathering up maps from the ruins, scavenging materials, quickly laying out its equipment in a makeshift, sandbagged base. This set of scenes took quite some time, and the music as it set traps throughout the city was jubilant and exciting!

Eventually it made its way back outside, and the scene shifted to show the Valkhounds leaving the city. Behind them, Drem Drone's voice rang out. "LEAVING SO SOON? ARE YOU TOO AFRAID TO FIGHT THE HEROES OF ORDER!?" The close-up of it face showed fear but also bravery.

The head of the General snapped back around, its fifteen glowing eyes narrowing.

---

EVIL NEVER TRIUMPHS

The culminating fight scene took twenty minutes and was an epic battle of choreography. Drem Drone raced through the shattered streets, leading the Valkhound General over traps that it then triggered: flaming patches of oil, falling piles of glass, an explosion of what looked like burning flour. Each time the General seemed likely to turn away, Drem heroically challenged it: and the beast was shown chaotically snarling, slavering, clawing its way through the rubble even as it grew more and more injured. "You've got no control over yourself, do you, CHAOS beast?!" Drem Drone taunted at one point. "You have no CHOICE but to follow me--and die!"

And so it seemed: the culmination of the fight showed the entire Chaos army rushing in after their General, piling into a building after Drem Drone... only to show Drem waiting for them within, a single detonator in its hand. The Valkhounds skidded to a halt as he confronted them. "We all die... so that this place can be put back in Order once again. I have no regrets, monsters. Do you..?"

The resulting explosion took up half of the Ursa Major mountainside, and might've seemed real for just a moment, should one have forgotten it was just a film.

---

ORDER WILL ALWAYS PERSEVERE

The final twenty minutes of film, set to surging and triumphant horn music, showed the city being rebuilt: Alm Drone, with two children at its side, gazed down in bittersweet pride as tower after tower was lined back up. Again, an odd amount of time was spent showing everything being put back into neat and proper order--but maybe that's just how Mother (and her maker) liked it.

---

"COME BACK NEXT TIME

The movie faded, but surely there would be more of these films. Everyone needed heroes, after all.

Those sworn to Order deserved some of their own.

@Jinyi (in case they'd want to distribute Dontas for this movie? popcorn is important)

It had been neither light nor silence that drew the foal to this place-- merely curiosity. The turning of Sylas's first cycle had seen his trembling, awkward movements replaced with an exuberant trot, yet wonder still often seized him, as swift and strong as it had when he first emerged. His first days — so few, so innocent — had stretched before him, long and lovely, but had done little to snuff out that innate spark of curiosity. Every moment spent marveling this world given to him was precious.

The light and silence were intriguing, though, all the same.

He nickers inquisitively, only to reel back from the symphony that responds, ears laying flat. The sound itself is hardly offensive. In fact, it rings as strangely melodious, and the foal recovers rather quickly from his surprise. How fortunate-- for in short order, the images began to appear, lifelike and enchanting, and he does not wish to miss a single one.

Awestruck, the foal willingly comes under this strange illusion's thrall. It is not merely a song. A story, perhaps? Oh-- a show! Unable to contain his paroxysms of joy, Sylas canters, skips, and leaps, whinnying in excitement as the images twist into something more complex. Though his life had thus far been short and simple, he just knew he would never behold such amazement ever again.

The music retreats, and soft voices advance. The colt stills, though he is no less exuberant-- rather, he is determined to not to misplace a single sound or motion. Without looking away, he settles down on the cave floor to enjoy the spectacle; although, he cannot quite manage to relax completely, and he continues to occasionally tremble in pure anticipation.

Elsewhere—a little more distant from the show—a deer paused, taken by surprise by the sudden, loud music.

Very loud. Marrow's not sure a soul in Ursa would miss a sound like that. Nor the bright, illusory magic that soon followed, painting the mountainside with color. The spirals of the illusory city catch her eye; the distant hum of music, the murmur of voices, make her yearn for something she didn't know she needed.

The caves are quiet, as they always are. The most Gembound she's ever seen in one place are... probably the Bonebound, in Canis. She's always watched them from a distance; a certain kind of shyness kept her from approaching. Surely their business is their own, and her business is her own, and she is quite content with being alone.

Still, the city takes her fancy in a way few things have before, and that alone is enough to get Marrow to settle down to watch.

The ensuing movie is nothing less than fascinating. She cannot imagine the sheer magical power it must have taken to enact such scenes—and such violence portrayed! Such death! It's eye-catching. The scene where the drone lines up bodies in narrow rows, one at a time, makes her breath catch.

She knows nothing of either side, of either society—this 'chaos', this 'order'. Both kinds of creatures are nothing less than alien to her. To Marrow, these two sides are nothing less than fiction, or, at best, far-away fairy tales.

But she did like the movie.

When it becomes clear there is no more to be played, Marrow stands up, shakes off the loose layer of snow that's collected on her reddish coat, and continues onward to other things.

;exit

Jinyi was seated somewhere in the glacier valley, a half-circle of Donta bags arranged neatly with him at its center. The shape was rather like how an outer row of orchestra musicians might be seated, but the bags were also some six feet apart from each other--for any who wished to remain socially distanced while watching the movie, of course. Jinyi understood (through Mother's gentle guidance) that not all might be so bold as to sit right next to a stranger.

Which was why, of course, there were other clusters of Dontas scattered throughout Ursa, available for snacking during Movie Night, but the Drone did hope someone bold enough might come along.

Movies were always better with company, after all.

Especially heroic tragedies, like this one--oh, how holographic tears streamed down his face as Drem Drone dutifully reordered the bodies of the dead! Oh, how his painted features twisted with emotion at its last stand against the towering Valkhound army! Pale, segmented fingers clenched into a fist that Jinyi held to his chest, the contours of his expression blurring as his chromatophores struggled to keep up with the amount of tears his sheer emotion demanded. The manager's shoulders shook slightly.

Such courage! Such sacrifice!