//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Archives and Alicorns // Story: Pearlwort, Unintentional Villain // by Halira //------------------------------// We returned yet again to the waiting room after the Alicorns left. Shock was still my overall feeling. I was shocked that it had ended so abruptly, shocked that I was suddenly subject to some level of respect from my tribe, and shocked by the revelations about my own nature. Starlight Glimmer didn't seem shocked by the events, she seemed smug. "That played out beautifully. I impressed myself with that performance," she congratulated herself. "Everything went according to plan." "According to plan?" Sunset snapped at her. "How was that all according to plan? You brought on a panic attack for Pearl, and you also put her eating a corpse on display for the world to see." "Pfft," Starlight waved off the questioning. "I didn't fully plan for the eating part, but the rest was planned, and that one unplanned item likely only made things better on the Thestral front." "Do you mean you knew that they were going to bring up the incident with the diamond dog?" Hot Sticks asked her. "Of course," Starlight smiled. "Where do you think they even found out about it? I made some arrangements for that information to find its way to Hard Case, minus any details other than Pearl killed a diamond dog that she didn't technically have to kill. His case was so weak he jumped at the one thing that he felt could demonize Pearl." "And you don't think it did?" Sunset asked her crossly. "No," Starlight said simply. "Yes, she is still a scary Thestral to the public, but she is one that can be exonerated for defending ponies, which earns at least grudging respect. Further the display of the incident is just the push we needed to get Brush Fire to repent. I knew I tagged him correctly as the pony who would do it. And the word will spread out to all the Thestral communities as well. Pearl should have no further problems from her tribe. This entire thing played out by script." "And making Pearl break down in a panic attack in the middle of court?" Biblo demanded with anger. "Regretable, but necessary," Starlight said while looking Biblo in the eyes. "I did not enjoy that, but it accomplished two things. First, we had to show the memory to make this an unquestionable case. We would have had to do something completely off script otherwise. The second reason is it earned her sympathy from the ponies of Harmony. You can't watch a pony get raped, and then watch that pony still going through trauma, and not feel at least a little kinder towords her, not if you have any heart at all," she paused for a moment and looked us all over. "Let me tell you something," she continued. "This whole trial? It was a farce, it was nothing but a stunt. It was a public relation campaign on Pearl's behalf, and for those like her. If it wasn't for Twilight sitting up there presiding over the trial, some pony would have called us out for how much of a farce it was. The only question going in was whether Brush Fire would do as I thought he would." "It was also a power grab," Sunset said with annoyance. "You stand to gain a lot personally from this. New followers from ponies who see you as actively helping ponies, after they have seen you defend your worshipers. Possibly more Thestrals as well, you did put on a good show of defense of the Thestral tribe. You Greater Alicorns and your constant need to turn everything into a power struggle." Starlight was not pleased with having been called out. She gritted her teeth and glared at Sunset. She seemed to forget the rest of us were there for the moment, the only other pony in the room as far as she seemed concerned was Sunset. "I care about my little ponies," she growled at Sunset. "Yes, I do try to further my position, it helps me better support the ponies who look to me. I have responsibilities to them, something you have never cared about." "I help ponies all the time, and I do it without having to worry about how much influence I will gain or lose in the process, Greater," Sunset growled back. "Oh, it must be nice!" Starlight picked up her forehooves and shook them mockingly at Sunset. "You have no idea what kinds of pressure my job puts me under. Do you think I like playing this game? Of course not! But I need to do what I can to advance the needs of the ponies that look up to me. But a Lesser wouldn't understand that.." Starlight's eyes went wide as she realized what she had just said, and she brought her forehooves up to cover her mouth. Sunset just facehooved, and shook her head. Sunset was yet another lesser Alicorn in disguise. Add that to my list of surprises for the day. I actually felt betrayed, this meant the whole outcast Thestral look was a disguise, likely one to play to my sympathy. Biblo and I looked on in shock, Hot Sticks looked surprised, but not shocked. He must have suspected it, but not been certain. "You just can't help saying and doing things impulsively can you?" Sunset said sadly to her. "Six thousand years and you are still as much an impulsive mess as you were when you were just another Unicorn." "I'll take your word on it. I don't spend much time learning about my past from Pinkie Pie," Starlight replied, looking a little crestfallen. "Sorry to have blown your cover, for what it is worth." "Done is done," Sunset sighed with lowered ears. "Not the worst thing you have ever done to me." "I have no idea what you are talking about," Starlight said with full innocence. "I have never done anything to you." "You once tricked me into taking your place for fifty years," Sunset glared as she spoke. "You said that it would be fun to try to pretend to be one another for a day, then you took off, leaving me having to pretend to be you for half a century. I had to have your own guard hunt you down so I could drag you back by your tail." Okay, I thought it before, but Alicorns are crazy. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Starlight said, sounding like she was happily reminiscing. "That was a good few years." "Not to interrupt," Hot Sticks interrupted. "But the rest of us are still sitting here, and while the conversation is fascinating. We would like some personal explanation." Hot Sticks had just stood up to a pair of Alicorns, he was getting braver. "You have my apologies," Sunset said to the three of us. "I rarely take my Alicorn form and prefer to be treated as just another pony. I admit I chose this form, in part, to gain a little bit of trust, and that was duplicitous of me. The other reason I chose this form was it just felt like it would be a fun form to have for a while, and I hadn't gone Thestral in a long time." "So is Sunset even your real name?" Biblo questioned her. "Sunset is really my name," Sunset said with a smile. "However, it is Sunset Shimmer, not Golden Sunset. I have always preferred to go by Sunset." "And what kind of specialty do you have?" I asked, still trying to figure out how I should feel about this, or if I should be treating her differently. "Glad you asked," Sunset smiled. "Glimglam here," Starlight rolled her eyes in response to the nickname, "and I are kind of representative of the same main thing, we are both empathy driven. We might not have the exact same powers, and we have very different personalities, but we ultimately are both driven by empathy. She has more than once tried to drop the job of Alicorn of Empathy on me." "I'd only be taking a vacation," Starlight whined. Having an Alicorn actually whining was another thing that I would add to the list of weird things I never thought I would see for today. "Every pony needs a break now and then." "As I already pointed out, you took off for fifty years last time, Miss I-Have-Responsibilities," Sunset said flatly. "What is fifty years when you live as long as we have lived?" Starlight justified herself. "And as I also already pointed out, I had to drag you back by your tail," Sunset said with the same flat voice. The fact these two were squabbling like foals was kind of surreal. This is not how a pony imagined Alicorns to behave. I wondered if they were putting on an act now to put us at ease, as putting on acts seemed to be a common Alicorn occurance, or if I was just seeing what Alicorns were like when they weren't acting. "You are really behaving differently than when I met you, Starlight," I commented. "Well, you are more or less a member of our immortal club now," Starlight replied. "Partial members at least, you two aren't Alicorns. We are all going to be around until the planet someday just goes POOF so might as well get used to being casual with one another. I am not going to try to act like a divine being in private with another immortal. I have to play that game enough with normal ponies." "I suppose no real harm is done in you revealing me," Sunset confessed with a sigh. "I would have had to reveal what I was sooner or later. I would have preferred to do it on my own terms, but what's done is done," Sunset then lowered her head as she looked towards the three of us who were not Alicorns. "I do want to be your friend, and to help you as I said. I hope you still want to have me with you. I was hoping to stick around you for a few years." "A few years?" I asked with surprise. "So, you were intending on keeping with us after we leave Harmony?" "If you let me," Sunset replied earnestly. "I am in need of another identity again, and I like this one, and I haven't set down new roots yet. Traveling with all of you would be fun, I would get to introduce you around to some of the Lessers, and there are a few other immortal beings out there who aren't Alicorns either. Plus, we really do need to work on Biblo's control of her empathic abilities, and getting you more emotionally fortified." Biblo jumped several pony lengths and grabbed Sunset up in a massive hug, taking the disguised Alicorn completely off guard. Sunset just sat and blinked for a moment as the Crystal Pony squeezed her, then she smiled and hugged her in return. Biblo had already wanted her to come with us, and it didn't seem like the fact that Sunset was actually an Alicorn upset her much. She had already made herself clear she wanted to get me and Biblo trained so we didn't worry Alicorns. There was one detail of what she said that caught my ear though. "Other immortals who aren't Alicorns?" I asked, feeling a little less unique. "There are other immortal ponies running around who aren't Alicorns?" "Well, ponies and other races," Sunset said. "I know most of them personally, though there are a few who are so secluded I haven't ever met them." "There are always some that will end up immortal," Starlight rejoined the conversation. "Alicorns have no monopoly on immortality. There are different reasons for each of them having immortality, random magic accidents for the most part. We rarely have any problems with any of them, but we keep watch on them. There have been incidents one would go off the deep end, and would have to be dealt with, but they are rare. I don't know the exact number of immortals there are off the top of my head, but there are a lot of them, dozens." "Actually, you will likely be meeting one of them very soon," Sunset injected. "If we are going to be storing that memory away for later use, it is going to end up in the archives, which means we are giving it over into Patina's care." "I'm not looking forward to that," Starlight muttered. "Patina is likely going to yell at me as much as Paleo already did concerning Expedition, and I won't have any answers for her. She'll blame me for it just like her clone did, mark my words. Maybe I will get lucky and she will be too focused on her wedding plans to have heard." "She is getting married again?" Sunset asked with astonishment. "It has only been about a century since the last time. She still has direct offspring still living from the last husband." "Um, who is Patina?" I interjected before they got caught up in conversation again. "Paleo's other half," Sunset replied. "Wait, so she is married to Paleo, and she is getting married again?" Biblo asked with confusion. "No," Starlight laughed. "Patina and Paleo are kind of the same pony, except they aren't. Patina Paleo was an Earth Pony paleontologist and archaeologist thousands of years ago. She stumbled upon a magic mirror in one of her digs, and it brought her reflection to life. They started off perfect duplicates of one another, would say everything at the same time, mirror each other's every action, and there was no telling them apart. We never really did figure out which of the two was original and which was the reflection. Anyway, they eventually got to where they lived different lives, each took one half of their name. Paleo eventually ascended to Alicorn, Patina didn't, but when Paleo ascended Patina became immortal too, as a result." "The only other odd thing about Patina is she has no reflection, neither does Paleo," Sunset added. "Don't ever bring a mirror around Patina, it really annoys her." "So, can we go meet her now?" Biblo said excitedly, practically bouncing in place. "The trial is over, so we can get to helping Pearl. Let's go meet her so we can give her the bad memory!" Starlight and Sunset exchanged an unreadable look. Sunset gave a shrug of her hooves. "Are we that eager?" Starlight asked. "Pearl, are you really ready to have me in your head again so soon after the trial? You can take a day or two to recover." It had been an exhausting day, but I was as eager as Biblo. I wanted this done and over with. If I was barely able to stand, and in extreme physical pain, I would still be eager to get this done as soon as possible. No sane pony would agree to hold on to such memories one moment longer than they had to. "I want to get on with my life," I replied earnestly. "If you are willing to get this over with now, I'm ready. Make it all go away, please." "Just remember that I have told you before about things not fixing all your problems," Starlight replied with a firm gaze fixed upon me. "I don't regret my decision then, and I won't regret my decision now," I replied with a steady voice. Biblo came up and hugged me tightly as I spoke. "Alright then," Starlight replied, "Let's go to the archive and meet with Patina. The archive will give us some privacy for this." "The archives are highly restricted," she said to Hot Sticks. "They can go in, but that is more what you would call a perk from being immortals. I can't justify your presence to Patina, so you will need to wait elsewhere." "I am a little disappointed," Hot Sticks replied back while getting back to his hooves, and started making his way to the door."You won't hear me complain too much though. I still don't entirely agree with what is going to happen, but haven't come up with any good objections. I will head back to Meadowbrook's temple and await every pony there. Please be careful with them." "See you soon Ducky!" Biblo cheerfully waved goodbye to him. He ignored Biblo's latest nickname for him and waved us all goodbye, before exiting out the door and shutting it behind him. "Alright," Starlight said, bringing attention back to herself as she went towards the other door. "Let's get to moving then. There are a lot of hallways and doors to go through to get to the archive. It really isn't that far, but there isn't a straight path to it through the Tree, so we will be walking for about an hour. I'll teleport us part of the way once we exit this room, but can only take us so far due to the warding throughout the Tree." We filed out of the room in a line with Starlight at the lead and Sunset at the rear. Starlight led us back out into the now empty courtroom, and when we all reached the center she removed my cutie mark again, placing it in the now familiar jar, and initiated a teleport. When the flash of the teleport ended we were in a long hallway that curved off in each direction. The walls were a smooth blue for the most part, punctuated with pillars of the same bluish-purple crystals rising from floor to ceiling along the walls. The floor was carpeted in one seemingly never ending red carpet. Massive green doors, all identical, were placed every few pony lengths along the hallway on each side. Both directions down the hall looked identical. It was strangely creepy, and made me feel claustrophobic. As we took a moment to orient ourselves from the teleport, Biblo gave me another hug and brushed my mane with a hoof. She likely knew, before touching me, how this place made me feel. "This way," Starlight motioned towards one of our two possible directions, not counting the untold number of doors. She set off at a light trot, with my cutie mark still floating in a jar along with her as she walked, and the rest of us followed after. "How do you even know which way is which?" I asked, trying to keep my nervousness from my voice. "Six thousand years of living here," Starlight gave reply back. "I have had time to learn my way around." "She likely doesn't remember it," Sunset chimed in. "But from what Pinkie Pie says, Starlight got lost here a lot back in the early days, and this place was only a small fraction of its current size then. There are buildings out in the city now that are bigger than it was then." "Does this place actually grow like a tree?" Biblo asked curiously. "Not steadily," Starlight replied back to her, eyes still focussed on the path ahead as she trotted. "It has gone through growth spurts, none in a long time, but when it did, it increased in size suddenly. It grows to meet its needs. If some more of the Lessers decided to join us here, then I would guess it would grow more to give them branches. Couldn't tell you for sure, Twilight might, but I don't really know the details of how it works." She then stopped and opened one of the green doors, inside was no room, but instead a spiral staircase. The stairs spiraled upwards to the right, and downward to the left. Starlight led us down the stairs to the left. "How far down does the Tree go?" I asked. Having it just now occur to me that the Tree might have a root system. "Suprisingly, not far," Starlight replied back as she passed a landing for the next floor and continued on to the next. "We aren't actually going down into the underground though. I teleported us more than halfway up the trunk. Many of these central floors of the Tree are warded against teleportation, so I just took us to the closest one to where we want to go." The staircase ended on the next floor with another of the green doors. Starlight led us through into a hallway that looked exactly the same as the hallway we started in. We continued in silence for a while after that. Down seemingly identical hallways and staircases. Occasionally, Starlight would go up a staircase instead of down, but that was the only variation in our journey. There wasn't any decoration anywhere. The claustrophobia this place induced kept getting worse for me, and I could tell it was starting to get to Biblo as well. Starlight and Sunset seemed unperturbed by the endless sameness of the inner Tree. Starlight finally brought us to a halt in the middle of one of the hallways. I had no idea how much time had passed since we started walking, it might have been an hour, it could have been multiple, my sense of time was as disoriented as my sense of direction. "We are here," Starlight said. "We will do some quick introductions with Patina, and then do what we need to do. Thankfully we won't have to walk all the way back. The teleport block only blocks ponies from teleporting into, or near, the archive, not ponies teleporting out." That was a relief, I really didn't want to deal with that walk again. Starlight opened up one of the green doors and led us within. As we followed her in we were beheld a thankfully massive room. The room abandoned the blues and purples of the rest of the tree, in favor of golds and reds. There were shelves made of wood and stone two stories high stretching in all directions, all stuffed with books, scrolls, and various objects. The dimensions of the room were massive, and while I could see the walls far to the right and left of us, I couldn't see where the room ended going forward. It was also several stories high. The door that we entered was the only door visible, but the room extended far enough to the sides that it seemed that the other doors of the hall should certainly lead into this room as well. Either they were fake doors, or the Tree had rooms that defied basic rules of physical space. Directly in front of us was an area with three tables, all covered with books and scrolls. The center most of those tables sat a teal earth pony mare, with a darker teal mane. She was reading a book rather intently, and appeared no older than me, despite a set of reading glasses on her muzzle. She didn't show any signs she had taken notice of our entrance. In a section further back was Pinkie Pie digging through books. "Petunia, you have guests," Starlight spoke to the pony as a mother might when waking her foal playfully. "I wish you wouldn't call me that," the pony said looking up from her reading with a hint of annoyance. "I haven't used that name since I was a filly. I don't even like that kind of flower, they taste disgusting. Call me Patina, not Petunia." "I have to have some way of having fun with you," Starlight replied with a smile. "You can be such a crotchety old mare." "I am sixteen years younger than you," Patina replied flatly. "If I am old and crotchety, what does that make you?" "Old and crazy," Sunset chimed in, earning a laugh from Patina, and a grimace from Starlight. Sunset took the lead, and motioned towards me and Biblo. "We have some new additions to our list of immortals for you to meet, Patina." "More than one?" Patina looked at us with interest, noticing the two of us for the first time. "That is unusual. It is usually a new one every few centuries, or even millennia, two at once hasn't happened since the early days." She came forward from around her table to meet us. She definitely didn't look old, she could have been any earth pony mare my age. She was no taller than me, and didn't give off the strong magical presence that an Alicorn would. The only thing that stood out about her appearance was her cutie mark, the same bones that represented Paleo. She was what Paleo had looked like before becoming an Alicorn, and her mundane appearance was somehow disappointing. "A Thestral and a Crystal Pony," she observed. "Night Shine and Day Shade will be thrilled they aren't the only immortals of their respective tribes anymore. Though I hope you two don't have similar circumstances as those two, vampires make me nervous. I am Patina, if you hadn't caught that, and who are you two?" "I'm Bibulous Bottom, Biblo for short, Bibulous Bottom takes too long to say," Biblo said gleefully, taking the lead in introductions. She gestured to me and continued. "And this is my fiancee Pearlwort, but everypony calls her Pearl. I am pretty sure we aren't vampires, I didn't even know that vampires are a real thing." "My cutie mark causes me to heal fast," I said, pointing a hoof at my mark still suspended in Starlight's magic. "It apparently makes me immortal too. Biblo absorbs my magic like a sponge and she gains the same abilities." "So why do you have it unattached?" Patina asked dubviously. "I doubt it is doing that floating along in Starlight's magic." "That brings us to why we came here," Starlight said, retaking control of the conversation. "Pearl's cutie mark also blocks magic being used directly on her, for some reason Biblo, thankfully, doesn't absorb that trait as well. We need to do some mind magic on these two, and we will be removing, and storing away here, a memory from Pearl. Consentually of course." "Okay, I see," Patina said as she looked closely at my mark. "Let's get you something to store it away in then." "Yeah, a focus stone should do," Starlight said with a nods. "Excuse me, but what is Pinkie Pie doing?" I asked curiously as I watched the Pink Alicorn toss another book aside in obvious frustration. "Oh her? Researching ancient contract law of all things. Been muttering on and off about some rotten contract she signed way back. Some goat is calling her on it from what I gathered," Patina tisked. "Goats are notorious for getting nasty about contracts, I don't envy her. Maybe I can help her out with it," Starlight said. "She made it clear to me that she really doesn't want any help or advice. My best guess is she is embarrassed to have a goat have her by the tail. I signed a contract with a Goat once for letting her have tourist trade rights on a site I was excavating. I needed the money to keep digging, the damn nanny had tourists stepping all over my dig site while I still had work to do. I'll never work with a Goat again, Minotaurs are almost as bad, and they tend to work side by side with Goats. I am glad that Goats even get on Pinkie's nerves to tell the truth," Patina laughed. "Well, good luck to her with that I guess. Can you get that stone for us now?" Starlight asked with a bemused glance at the clearly unhappy Element of Laughter, who was completely engrossed in her search. "Fusey!" Patina called out loudly towards the endless bookshelves. "Bring Mommy a focus stone, please!" "I think I will stand a few steps back, if you don't mind," Sunset nickered. "That thing makes me nervous to be around." "There is nothing wrong with Fusey," Patina said defensively. "My late husband, Gear Spin, made Fusey for me, and I tell you again that I am not getting rid of him." "That thing is a automated fusion bomb," Sunset growled back. "If you knew what that actually meant, you wouldn't want it around you either." What looked like an extremely shiny trashcan, with arms and wheels, came out from among the bookshelves. It was carrying a round grey and white striped stone. It rolled up to Patina and offered her the stone, which she took in her teeth. She then patted the rolling cylinder affectionately, before the thing took off again to wherever it came from. Sunset shivered nervously as it went. "One focus stone perfect for storing a few hours of memory," Patina said after giving the little stone over to Starlight with a smile, as Starlight grabbed it with her magic. "Let's get this done then," Starlight said as she motioned me and Biblo to come over to her. "I would actually recommend snuggling up close to one another. The two of you touching will make it easier for me to transfer over the traits you asked to be shared." Biblo and I did as directed. We both laid down and curled up close to one another, resting our heads on each other's flanks. "I am starting now," Starlight informed us. "You shouldn't feel a thing." Starlight's horn lit up and got extremely bright. Then suddenly the light just vanished. "All done!" Starlight said happily. "That went smoothly. How are you two feeling?" All done? Nothing had happened. She had just lit her horn up and then unlit it. I didn't feel any different. "Um, that was kind of quick wasn't it?" Biblo said, echoing my thoughts. "No," Sunset said, she had somehow gotten over to one of the tables in that little bit of time. Patina and Pinkie Pie had vanished as well. "Starlight was at that for an hour, it was kind of boring to watch really. Be thankful you were in a trance for all of it." An hour? I didn't remember blacking out or anything. It felt like only a few seconds had passed. Only one way to find out if it had worked though. I took a deep breath and tried to remember the day that I was supposed to forget. I remembered wanting to forget it, and I remembered all the panic that I had about it afterward, but I couldn't recall what had happened. It was like someone had told me about it, not something I had experienced. I could remember that day up to the point that I first spotted the Lunar Guard in the sky, but the next thing after that was waking up in Meadowbrook's temple. I couldn't even remember seeing it played back again during the trial. I knew it happened, but the memory of it wasn't there. "Is it gone?" Biblo asked me hopefully. I nodded the affirmative, it certainly seemed so. Then she got an extremely lusty look on her face as she looked at me. It made me feel hot in my nether regions. "Just one other thing to check on then," she said playfully as she advanced her muzzle towards me. The warmth became a burning ache. Sunset cleared her throat to distract us towards her. "From the look on your face, and the way you are quivering in your hindquarters let's assume that worked," Sunset said with amusement. "You two can explore all of those feelings when you get privacy. I am not a lecher, and prefer not to see all that. Wait and get a room." "Oh poo!" Biblo huffed with disappointment, crossing her foreleg in front of her. I felt like doing the same.