//------------------------------// // 10 - Sorrow // Story: Limits of the Horizon // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// At some point over the following minutes, Twilight and her son ended up back inside her apartment sitting on a small couch; though Twilight refused to stop clinging to him, as if she let him go, even for an instant, she would lose him again and never get him back. Through endless rows of tears shed on both their parts, she tried to explain, constantly infuriated by her own lack of answers. She tried to explain to him her blackout, what it was like to go to bed one night and wake up two years later; the gaping hole that had haunted her life ever since, her inability to ever get close to any stallion, the revelation Shining Armor had given her, the ruined village and the grave of Zohan. Obtrillion listened to all of it, silently and ravenously devouring every word, regardless of their taste. “And that’s what I was doing in the city, waiting for my brother to be alone so I could ask him what happened.” Obtrillion nodded slowly, his eyes still filling with tears; “I had… truly hoped that you would be able to tell me about father." Twilight hugged her son tightly, “I wish I could.” “And you’ve never been able to fall in love with any stallion since?” Twilight shook her head, tears still brimming from her eyes, “Figures.” He said flatly. “What do you mean?” “If someone loses the person they love, it will usually be a while before they can love again, but if they remember it they can work through the pain and eventually move on. But if that pain is being held down by a mind block, you can never work through it and you can never move on. It also explains your heightened desire for children after your family erased your memory. You had recently given birth and the maternal instinct to care for a child was frozen in your subconscious.” “Then… everything that I’ve felt has been because of what they did to me?” Obtrillion nodded, “No, there has to be another explanation.” “I don’t make mistakes, and my special talent is for mind magic.” “What?” Obtrillion indicated his cuti-mark, “I’m a telepath.” “But… telepaths are extinct. The royal alicorns have marginal abilities for mind magic, but it hasn’t been anyone’s special talent since before the solar war.” Obtrillion nodded sheepishly, with an eager smile, “Except for me.” Twilight felt her heart began beating faster, her breathing quickening; it wasn’t scholarly excitement, wanting to study a almost dead branch of magic it was… pride, “What can you do?” Obtrillion paused for a moment, wrapped one hoof around her shoulder, “Don’t say anything, just think; why would Celestia block your memories of having me? What were you doing before your blackout started?” Twilight paused; The Manehatten Project was meant to be classified, along with the Everfree War, but they were far enough from Equestria that it shouldn’t matter and this was her son. Even still, there was so much to tell that it was hard to know where to begi- “You were working for Celestia, weren’t you; on something important;” Said Obtrillion suddenly, startling Twilight “, you… were one of her star pupils; you were doing something even she couldn’t.” Obtrillion broke into a wide grin, “I knew you were going to be smart!” But then his face fell “It was urgent, wasn’t it? Celestia needed this thing quickly or else risked losing her kingdom.” Twilight nodded against her will, “Then it’s obvious what happened, isn’t it?” “…No.” “Think about it.” Obtrillion urged, “When mares are pregnant or have young foals their mental capacity is dramatically reduced; not to mention the drain on your time having an infant or spending time with father. If we were slowing you down, Celestia would-” “NO!” Twilight insisted; angry at Obtrillion for what he was suggesting and furious at the world because what he was saying almost made sense. “I would have split my time between you and The Manehatten Project; I could have done both!” “But what if you weren’t working fast enough? What if Celestia realized you wouldn’t finish in time if you were caring for an infant son, and told you to give me to someone else to take care of until you finished. What if you refused and ran away with father to his home, and then Celestia sent soldiers to bring you back and then father and his family got in the way? It would explain every-” “No! Celestia would never do that!” Obtrillion looked at her blankly, “You really believe that don’t you?” “I know so.” Obtrillion shook his head sadly, “Celestia's a politician, they’re all the same.” “That’s not true.” “Then explain my existence. Explain the letter.” “…I can’t.” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................... A javelin streaked towards Shining Armor’s face. There was no warning, no reason, and no error in its trajectory as though it the javelin itself had been crafted for this moment. Shining Armor saw it a second before it would have been too late and summoned a shield, deflecting the javelin like it was twig. Shining Armor glanced skywards, tracing its backwards trajectory to a flat rooftop and the face of a zebra just as it disappeared from view. Shining Armor teleported to the rooftop, and caught the assassin firmly in his telekinesis as he tried to jump to the next rooftop. In a blur, the stallion drew a small knife and tried to slash his own throat but again Shining Armor was faster and flicked the blade harmlessly away. Shining Armor tightened his grip and spun the assassin to face him, his mind buzzing with possibilities as to this stallions motives and possible connection to the buffalo invasion; then he saw that face. He remembered that face. He remembered those eyes, burning with hatred that would blot out the sun. He remembered that burn on the left side of his body; and he remembered the scream of a colt, that he would never ever forget. “You.” Whimpered Shining Armor. “Me.” Responded the zebra, his voice dripping with despair and hatred. Shining Armor felt like his chest was turning to stone, he felt his grip on the zebra loosen and a moment later the zebra managed to spit at him, splattering unnoticed against his chest. Spike, and a dozen Sun Guards poured onto the rooftop, but seeing he had things under control they waited for orders which he never gave. Of all the scenarios Shining Armor had imagined for this reunion, he hadn’t imagined this. He improvised. He loosened his grip on all but the colts legs, giving him freedom of movement but not to run; “… you just tried to kill me; swear you will never do it again and I will let you go free.” “No.” “Please, just walk away.” “You murdered my family.” Shining Armor asked again, almost begging, but the stallion still refused. Shining Armor caught himself; right now five hundred Equestrian citizens were missing, here was a diversion that could take the rest of his life to resolve. Soon he would deal with this; but now he needed to put this personal problem on hold. Shining Armor wrote out a message to Cadance and had Spike send it to Canterlot. He then called Mute Wind, his most senior pegasi commander, and one of the few that had been with Shining Armor for long enough to recognize the stallion. After quickly going through the bags he produced a quartet of shackles, a bag full of money a few other sundries and a packet of sleeping tablets. Spike belched out a rather large package and Shining Armor added it to the bundle. “Find a hotel and lay low for a while. The package is for the prisoner. The tablets will take him out for ten hours, give them to him when you need to sleep or leave for any reason; you are to be with him every minute he is conscious. As much as you possibly can, treat him well.” Mute Wind took his dues and began to get ready to lead the prisoner away, whose breathing had significantly intensified showing he was trying to hide internal terror. He hid it behind sarcasm, “I don’t suppose I could see Twilight, could I?” Shining Armor paused, to say yes would be to do everything he wanted, everything he feared, and everything he was sworn never to do. “No; but please believe me, I am so, so, sorry for what happened.” The stallion spat again before being hauled away by Mute Wind. As they left it occurred to Shining Armor. He never even knew this zebra’s name. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................... Twilight’s mind was spinning with questions; this was nothing new to her, for most of her life her mind had been constantly active seeking answers to every question that presented itself; this was nothing like that. The questions she used to wonder about history or magic or higher mathematics, she pursued for the joy of the hunt; and finding them only brought her joy if those answers led on to more questions. No final aim was in mind, and ninety-five percent of the time, there was nothing at stake in learning the answer except satisfying a burning curiosity. If she reached a dead end she would be disappointed only a moment and then distract herself with another set of questions. This was different, Twilight had to know who Zohan was, what Celestia had done, what had happened during her blackout, and who her son was today. Those answers would have to wait. Twilight didn’t understand why; but within an hour after arriving, Obtrillion told her that it was time to leave. He was slightly vague, but said they’d waited too long already, that the midday rush of Timbucktoo would be over soon, and they needed to move to a safe place while the streets were still crowded and it was easier to slip by unnoticed. Twilight packed her belongings; Obtrillion withdrew a brown hooded cloak from his saddlebags and asked her to follow him. Twilight followed; blindly, she did not understand what was happening, but Obtrillion promised that once they got to a ‘safe place’ he would explain everything and Twilight would have followed him to the ends of the earth if he kept that promise. They didn’t speak as they traveled, Twilight’s eyes never leaving her son who bobbed along underneath his cloak like any school child walking down the road with his mom. A school child who had needed to make his mother promise that under no circumstances was she to say his name in public. As midday ended, the streets cleared as the city returned to work, Obtrillion and Twilight arrived along the eastern wall of the city in a narrow corridor surrounded by high roof buildings. Obtrillion used his magic to unlock a door at the base of a guard house behind which was a flight of steps leading down into pitch blackness. Possibilities of the tunnels mysteries blew through Twilight’s mind; catacombs, sewers, a den of robbers, Obtrillion held the door open for her and she descended without a moment’s hesitation. Obtrillion locked the door behind them and then hornlit the way forwards, deeper and deeper into the recesses of the tunnels as the temperature plummeted to approach freezing. Above, below and to both sides came the roaring hum of pipes gurgling, choking, gasping, spitting and guzzling gargantuan amounts of water; Twilight sniffed the air for sewerage but- “These pipes channel clean drinking up to the city.” explained Obtrillion, After endless minutes of bursting silence, Obtrillion turned down a narrow ally way deep in the inner organs of the city, and stopped where two large pipes intersected before turning to Twilight. “This is it.” Chapter Eleven >>> Legacy of Hell/center]