//------------------------------// // Chapter Five - Passing time // Story: The Mare of the Stars // by XYZDreadnought //------------------------------// I sit upside down on my bed, staring across the room at nothing in particular, counting seconds until something vaguely interesting happens. It is the second night I have shared supper with the princesses, although nothing particularly happened of note, and I left no more irritated than usual. Cherry, my maid (never thought I’d have one of those), stands fidgeting by the door, clearly made uncomfortable by the silence and my inactivity. I’m not sure why she is just standing there to be honest, maybe she is waiting for some sort of direction from me. Eventually it seems the silence is too much for her and she sits on her haunches and claps her hooves. “So!” she says. “So what?” I counter. “Ehh?” comes her rebuttal. “So I see.” I declare… god I’m bored. “Umm, I was just going to ask… err, what was I going to ask?, Oh um, would you care for a drink? Tea? Coffee? A hot cocoa maybe?” I ponder this question, clearly a difficult philosophical conundrum… yup, still bored. “Sure, wouldn’t mind a cocoa,” I say, couldn’t hurt. I guess since I have a maid might as well use her. She gives a quick bow. “Won’t be a moment, Prin… La... Ma’a… Miss.” She scurries out to cover her embarrassment. ‘At least she’s moe,’ I think, before returning to my mind to the important task of boredom. Over the centuries after I had literally scoured every square centimeter of the Everfree castle and half a kilometer of the surrounding woodland, I had managed to refine boredom into an art form, the simple act of doing nothing and privately whining about it. Didn’t make it any less tedious though. By the time Cherry comes back, I have reached sixty eight stars on the ceiling, and am thankful for the distraction. I drop off the bed onto my hands, perform a short handstand, before dropping to my feet. I walk over to the coffee table, where Cherry sets down the mug, I sit down on one of the big poofy armchairs and pick it up. I look down at the brown liquid, it’s a lot darker than I remember hot chocolate being. I shrug and take a sip. Cherry waits for Mare’s verdict, but she has simply frozen on the spot, cup to mouth. From where Cherry is standing she can’t see her expression. “Err, is everything alright?” Cherry asks nervously, Mare just sits there, unmoving. Cherry starts to worry. Why isn’t she doing anything? Is there too much cocoa? Not enough sugar? Too hot maybe? Too cold? She is just about to voice her concern when Mare looks up and opens the eyes Cherry didn’t notice were closed. And they sparkle. The air sparkles. She sparkles. Painted across her face is an expression of pure bliss. And it is absolutely adorable. Cherry almost collapses on the spot ‘It's just... too… cute!’ she thinks, mentally clutching her chest, ’can’t breathe… too sparkly!’ Nevertheless, Cherry is quite disappointed when Mare runs out of cocoa, and her chocolate fueled nirvana. Mare pulls herself out of her stupor and gives a half hearted cough when she notices Cherry’s doe-eyed staring. “That was... okay.” Mare mumbles, looking embarrassed. ’Ack! How did I not notice how cute she is?’ Cherry squees internally, ’This is suddenly the best job ever!’ Out loud she says. “Well, this is one of the simpler ways to make hot chocolate, I didn’t have the supplies to make a really good one, this one was mostly cocoa, sugar… She is suddenly grabbed by her frilly apron and pulled into directly facing Mare, who wears an expression of pure disbelief. “You can make them better?!” Luna stares at the empty desk in her new study, the little work she had is already decorating her ‘out’ tray (‘What a novel little system these modern ponies had come up with’), and sighs. She understands that her sister is trying to ease her into her duties, both new and old, but she has the distinct feeling she can handle more than that, maybe tomorrow at breakfast she should mention this and perhaps get this ball rolling a little faster. (’It's not as if I can’t handle a little hard work.’) For now though, she has nothing to do, it seems like a good enough time to check on their young ward. Luna steps out onto her balcony, and sighting the western watchtower, takes flight. ’Maybe this is why my workload is so light, so I can have plenty of time to spend with young Mare?’ she thinks. It's not unlikely. Celestia usually had several layers to everything she did, the more time she has to plan the more complex her planning becomes. Luna’s thoughts then drift to the young maid caught up in the middle of this. She wonders how she is holding up. From what she has gathered from Missus Smith and her sister, Mare is an incredibly difficult pony… person to deal with. Luna wonders if she is coping alright, and if that speech last night was a bit too much to handle. Luna hopes she hasn’t dumped too much responsibility on the young mare (not ‘Mare’ obviously, why does her name have to be so confusing?) She lands gently on the balcony and knocks thrice on the door. “Come in,” comes Mare’s voice through the door. Luna steps into the tower, looking for its young occupant, and finds her sitting in one of the armchairs around the coffee table, looking… oddly flustered if Luna is any judge. Her arms are crossed, she is pouting up a storm, and her cheeks are flushed with embarrassment… This is new. “Mare… are you well?” Luna says gently. “Oh, hey Luna,” says Mare, not looking her in the eye, “Didn’t know it was you, what brings you to this neck of the woods?” “Well I had finished my work for the evening and decided to see how you were acclimating to your new surroundings.” says Luna, “But you seem uncomfortable, is something the matter?” “...’m fine,” she mumbles unconvincingly. “There, you’ve seen, no need to worry, don’t let me keep you.” Luna frowns. “Mare, you may not know me well, but I assure you I am far from foolish. What is wrong?” Mare seems to hunch in further and starts glowering at nothing in particular, as she isn’t looking Luna in the eye, but remains adamantly silent. At this moment, Cherry walks in… And she is positively glowing. Luna can do naught but stare as the nervous maid from yesterday has seemly been replaced with a smiling cheery mare, holding a steaming mug and without a an apparent care in the world. “Oh hello Princess, excuse me for interrupting,” she says with a slight curtsy before walking to Mare, “Here’s that refill you asked for.” “...Thank you,” she mumbles, taking the mug. Cherry then takes several steps back, sits on her haunches, and starts watching expectantly. Mare doesn’t start drinking immediately, in fact, she seems to get even more embarrassed. “...Do you have to stand there like that? Isn’t there anything else you could do?” says Mare. Luna isn’t sure if it is directed at herself or Cherry. Cherry’s response is to flop her ears and droop slightly, as if she is a puppy that has been kicked. “Oh, fine!” says Mare irritably, for the first time raising her voice above a mumble since Luna has seen her this evening. She takes a sip from the mug. Luna watches the display from afar as the glittering starts, Cherry makes a barely repressed “squee!”, and all Luna can do is wonder, just how did they manage to wrap each other around their hooves/hands without even noticing. Next evening... “So Mare, have you been managing to keep yourself busy?” Celestia asks over supper as she dips a potato wedge into some sour cream. I come down from the cloud nine that my blueberry muffin had delivered me to to consider the question. I shrug. “Define busy.” Celestia tilts her head. “I suppose what I mean to say is have you been finding ways to amuse yourself?” “Nope,” I say, taking another bite of muffin. Celestia frowns. “Why not, is something the matter?” I shrug. “I haven’t been ‘busy’ as you put it for over 800 years, why would now be any different? Boredom is my default state of being.” “I have been meaning to ask you about that,” says Luna, “When I visited yesterday, you simply sat around doing nothing for the majority of the time, did you do anything after I left?” “Nope.” “Do you literally just spend all night doing nothing?” Celestia says incredulously. “Pretty much, jumping on the bed kinda got boring on the first night, it was too soft to get any spring,” I say dismissively, savouring the last bite of my muffin. “But surely there are better ways of spending your time than that,” says Luna, “like hobbies or the such.” “What kind of hobbies can you have when you spent centuries alone in a dilapidated castle?” Celestia blanches, but Luna presses on undeterred. “But you are not alone in a castle anymore, I’m sure with the resources we have at our disposal we can find something to occupy your time.” I freeze at Luna’s words, that hadn’t even occurred to me until now, I can actually do something proactive about my boredom… But what? Luna went on. “Surely Mare, you must have some idea on what you might like to do, some skills or pastimes you might remember.” I try to really think about it, there must be something… “Hey whatcha drawin? ...Hey is that me? Wow Sweetie, you're getting pretty good at this, aren’t you?” “Again? Didn’t I take you to the arcade on Monday? ...Oh alright, give me a sec.” “You sewed this all by yourself? Wowzers, you did an amazing job, you look so cute!” “Mare are you alright?” Celestia’s concerned voice breaks me from my thoughts. “Huh? What… Oh, I’m fine, just spaced out for a minute,” I say. Celestia gives me a pained look. “Mare... you’re crying.” I brought my hand up to my cheek, I hadn’t even noticed until now. I rub my face with my sleeve to clear up the excess moisture. “... I think I used to draw alot… and play games… and I’m good at sewing… I made this costume from some old clothing in the attic,” I say quietly. Celestia opens her mouth to speak, reconsiders what she is about to say, and instead nods her head. “I’m not sure about the last two for tonight, but I think I can acquire some art equipment for you, would you like that?” “I think I would,” I say. “Excuse me, I think I’ll go for a little walk.” I vanish and walk away. I then walk back, reappear and grab the last muffin on my plate. “And I’m taking my muffin.” ‘Wow, I am really out of practice.’ I think this bitterly, as I erase half the drawing. I guess sitting around doing bugger all for centuries has a way of blunting your edge. ‘Let’s see… if I just…’ I think, starting again. “Umm, can I move now? My neck is getting stiff,” says Cherry, standing stock still in front of me. I look up and raise my eyebrow. “I finished your picture 10 minutes ago.” Cherry sags in both relief and frustration. “You could have said!” she whines. I shrug, before continuing to sketch. After Cherry recovers somewhat, she shyly approaches. “Can… can I see?” I roll my eyes before lifting the last page I was working on and tearing it out and handing it to Cherry to look at. She scans the image silently. “Wow, this is really pretty…” she says quietly. “Its pretty easy when you have a live reference,” I say, before looking at my current piece critically, groaning, and reaching for the eraser again. Curiosity overpowers Cherry’s need to keep a polite distance, and she leans over my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” “Everything,” I say looking down at the human sketch. “I just can’t get the proportions right. It just keeps looking wrong.” “Well, maybe I can get some reference books-” “I kind of doubt you can get human reference books,” I say, cutting Cherry off. “Human?” asks Cherry. “What I am… or was… I still look like one at least,” I say. “Oh… Well what about using yourself as a reference then?” I roll my eyes. “Now how am I supposed to do…” I stop mid sentence, now there's an idea. “Say, have you got a camera by any chance?” Tomorrow night… Celestia and Luna are worried. When Mare came to supper, she simply ordered toast, ran off with two buttered slices clasped in her teeth as soon as it arrived, and jumped out of the window on her way back to the tower. She was in a hurry, but for what? “What do you think has gotten into her?” says Luna, on their way to the tower after they had finished their supper. “I don’t know,” says Celestia. “You don’t think she is in trouble is she?” says Luna. “I don’t think so…” says Celestia, pondering Mare’s demeanor. “She seemed… enthusiastic.” “Seemed more like impatience to me,” says Luna. “Could be,” says Celestia as the alicorns touch down on the balcony. Celestia is about to knock when a flash appears through the stained glass of the door, followed by the voices of Mare and Cherry. "How did that one look?" "Let me see... yup this is a keeper." "Good, how much more can we take?" "We've still got about... half a roll, just go easy, this is my mom's camera." "Okay ten more then, how's this?" "Umm... isn't that a bit suggestive?" Celestia practically barged through the door. Cherry sits frozen behind a camera tripod in shock at Celestia's sudden appearance, with a small pile of photographs sitting beside her. But what really catches Celestia’s attention, is that Mare is standing in the middle of the room in nothing but her underwear and what is indeed a rather suggestive pose, which she loses when she notices Celestia's entrance, instead putting her hand on her waist and and giving Celestia a lopsided look, as if waiting for her to speak. Celestia takes a really deep breath. “I’m not going to jump to conclusions, I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation for this, although my mind positively boggles trying to think of one, please do not prove me wrong.” “What does it look like?” says Mare, a very knowing smirk on her face. “I’m keeping myself busy.” While Celestia does some breathing exercises, Luna appeals to somepony more reasonable. “Cherry, can you please explain?” Cherry looks slightly confused. “Well, Mare needed some reference for humans for her drawing, and since she didn’t have any reference material, she decided to use herself as one.” Celestia breathes a sigh of relief. “Pfft, buzzkill,” says Mare, pouting. Celestia levels her a glare. “So you do know what this looks like.” “Of course, that's what made it funny,” says Mare, giggling. Celestia couldn’t do anything but sigh. “While I am happy to see you doing better, I’m not sure how I feel about your new perverse sense of humour.” “I’ve always been like this, you’ve just never noticed,” says Mare. “Don’t you feel the least bit ashamed?” asks Luna. “Too young for shame,” Mare says proudly, with both hands on her hips and the most genuine grin they’ve seen on her to date. “I’ve always been told that kids shouldn’t waste their time feeling things like shame or guilt, they should be too busy having fun, leave the worries and regrets to when you grow up. Never apologise for being a child.” Despite the situation, Celestia couldn’t help but smile at the childishness of the gesture. “An interesting bit of wisdom, to be sure.” “Umm…” Cherry interjects quietly, looking quite lost. “What exactly is going on?” Before anyone else can do anything, Mare walks over and puts an arm around Cherry’s shoulder. “Well you see Cherry, there is this little thing called child pornography-” “MARE!” It takes quite a while to calm down Cherry after that revelation. One day Celestia vows to find out just how ten year old Mare got such a dirty mind, because it certainly wasn’t from her. In the Castle in the everfree… In the room of Nightmare Moon’s defeat, pale starlight shines upon the worn stones. To all who might observe, nothing would seem amiss. But those who might peer closer would find something very, very wrong. For in the darkest shadows, an even deeper darkness stirs. It does not know what it is. It was once something, but that part was sent away, all it has left is darkness. Darkness, and perhaps something else. Not so much a memory, but an Impression, an impression of a mind it had briefly inhabited, before light had stripped it away. It was a sad mind, a lonely mind, it had lost many things. There was bitterness there as well, anger directed at nothing, maybe even at itself. But it was not a whole mind, some was missing, fragments… The darkness is not whole either. The darkness wants to be whole. Maybe two parts can become whole. The darkness set out, to find the mind that will make it whole. Mare.