//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: The Maid // by Dinkledash //------------------------------// Giacolto rose before his princess. "Apologies, your highness, but circumstances changed. One of the staff, a filly, was injured fetching some sort of herbal remedy for somepony in the manor and she was in need of a lift. So I needed to get my cart, and, well..." He shrugged. "Party pony." "You can't party pony your way out of this, Giacolto! We'll have a talk later." She looked up at the cart. "Where is this filly anyway? Did she run off? I hope I didn't frighten her away!" Celestia was looking directly at Clementine, who appeared to be petrified. "Ah, ah, um... your highness? She's right there." Giacolto waved his hoof at the cart. Celestia turned to him. "This is NOT the time for one of your jests! Or songs, or pranks or any of that nonsense!" Giacolto was startled, looking between his sovereign and the terrified maid. "I received a letter that a carrier on the Pegasus Express noted bore Lady Rubymane's seal. She dropped her other mail off at her next stop and came straight to Canterlot and gave it to Chief Postmaster Gullfeather Goosedown, who brought it straight to the throneroom. I was hoping it was Rubymane announcing her extremely extended period of mourning had ended, but instead it was a DPC from one of her maids." The party pony's eyebrows shot up and he glanced back at Clementine who was still frozen in place. "LOOKETH NOT AT THY CART, THOU BOGLE, AND LISTEN!" The Royal Canterlot Voice, used at close range, was both acoustically unpleasant and a strong magical compulsion. The stallion immediately complied, giving her his full attention, a grimace on his face. "AS WE WERE SAYING... *ahem* as I was saying before you rudely looked away, it was just a few lines, so I read it all before I realized who it was from. Some maid named Clementine, which is also a bit of a mystery, but I digress." She started pacing as she was speaking, obviously rather agitated. "She claimed that her lady was refusing to eat, that she wanted to be left alone to die, and wanted my advice. As you can imagine, when I found out that one of my oldest living friends is trying to commit slow, painful suicide, I dropped everything and came here. I didn't wait for the chariot; they'll be along in a few hours. I used a teleport chain instead." Giacolto tried making some noises but Celestia's Voice had rendered him incapable of doing anything but listening. He couldn't even turn his eye from her. "I teleported to her Library as soon as I was in range and found her barricaded inside with furniture! I have no idea how the servants were getting food into her, but there was a tray with some dishes, one of which had been dumped on the floor. She was sitting at her window, just crying. She looks positively skeletal, Giacolto." Celestia's voice had gotten softer as emotion took hold. "This maid, whoever she is, was right to contact me. There is black magic at play here." Giacolto was trying desperately to squirm, but couldn't manage. The princess continued, to her captive audience, "I was able to speak with Ruby, but she was quite adamant that she was done with this world, and what is really odd is that she has no idea who this Clementine is. There's a spell here, a memory spell of some kind, and it's locked her mind. The thing that is really strange is it almost looks like she's the one who cast it. This is my Ruby-booby, there must be some mistake!" Tears that had been brimming on her lower eyelids broke free and spilled down her cheeks as she sobbed, embracing the paralyzed jester. She held him for a moment, then backed away. "Aren't you going to hug me back, or say something? Oh. Sorry." She closed her eyes and the compulsion faded. "Now is not the time for merriment, my friend." "Your highness, I am being serious. Giacolto giuramento! That maid, Clementine, is sitting right there on the seat of my cart, terrified out of her wits. You really can't see her?" Celestia frowned, then her mouth opened. "There is somepony there! But it's really hard to make her out!" "Hard to make her out? She's a pure white unicorn filly with a gold mane and tail, wearing a cream colored traveling frock. It's high noon." Celestia squinted. "Come here, child, I promise I won't bite. You are in no trouble. You did right, though in the future you should be careful not to misuse the seal of a noble pony on letters sent through the Royal Mail. Do you have any idea what the penalty is?" Clementine climbed down the side of the cart and slowly walked towards the Princess, limping only slightly; the bandage had helped stabilize her pastern and the liniment had numbed the pain. Don't speak first, answer any questions. She made a shaky curtsy, looked down and said, "Y-your highness, T-Title 8, Chapter 72, S-subchapter 1288, Part 1, Subpart k: The misrepresentation of p-personal mail using official s-seals shall result in a punishment not to exceed 5 years imprisonment and a fine of five thousand bits." "Really?" Celestia blinked. "That seems rather harsh!" She squinted at Clementine, her head moving around, then seemed to lose focus. She looked at Giacolto in surprise. "What are you doing here? Is that your idea of low key, Court Jester?" Giacolto's jaw dropped as he stared at Celestia in amazement. "I take it you're surprised to see me too. I must say it's somewhat of a relief not to hear a stream of endless nonsense coming from that mouth for once, but I'm glad you're here anyway. There's a serious situation with my friend, Rubymane. One of her maids wrote a letter to..." "Wrote a letter to you," interrupted Giacolto, "wherein she claimed that her lady was trying to refuse to eat, that she wanted to be left alone to die, and asking for your advice. When you found out that one of your friends was trying to commit suicide, you immediately came here using a teleport chain instead of your chariot." Now it was Celestia's turn to stare, slackjawed, at her jester. "How... how could you possibly know that?" "Because you told me that yourself, your highness, not two minutes ago." "I... I did?" She blinked. "This isn't one of your tricks, is it?" "Highness, is there a unicorn to your left, kneeling in front of you?" She turned and searched for a moment. "Oh! How odd! Yes, a gray filly with a kind of brown...ish? Mane. Where did you come from, child?" Clementine started to reply but Giacolto interrupted her. "Highness! Cloud Eight Protocol!" Celestia gasped and vanished in a flash of light. Clementine turned to the party pony, confused and dazed from the afterimages. "What? Why did you-" Giacolto was moving very quickly, circling. He reached behind his back and pulled out what appeared to be a cream pie. "I'm sorry, but I don't know who or what you are, and I can't take any chances with the Princess!" Suddenly, the pie was sailing straight at her, so she instinctively closed her eyes. It splattered her right in the face, covering her horn, mane and the front of her body in thick, sticky white filling. "HEY!" She wiped her eyes clear to glare at Giacolto, but her was no longer there. She whirled, but it was too late; he was already behind her, pulling a hood down over her eyes and lifting her like a sack of struggling potatoes. She screamed, but it was muffled. Why is he doing this? I trusted him! I'm such a foal! She could knew she was being carried somewhere and in a few seconds felt the hard boards of the wagon under her side. She kicked out but he was much stronger and easily tied her with some rope he must have had stowed. Then he lifted the hood quickly. "You OK?" She was so angry she wanted to spit in his eye. She saw that she had been put in the back of the cart, where the was apparently a small door. There were sacks, boxes and barrels back there along with a variety of cloth, poles, and other odds and ends. She looked into his eyes, his green, beautiful, treacherous eyes that were pretending to show concern. "You said you weren't like them. You're just like them." Rage smouldered in her heart. He looked stricken, but said nothing, just tugged down the hood and cinched it under her chin. She screamed and squirmed and cried and then she heard the door close. The wagon started to roll; it felt like it was going uphill, away from the village and the manor, towards the market town. You wanted to see Stablesboro, well here's your chance. She was so angry, she screamed uselessly into the hood until her throat hurt. I'm being foalnapped again! The rational part of her brain reminded her that she wasn't being dragged into a filthy den in the woods by two thugs, she was being foalnapped properly by a gentlepony with a cart that smells of baked goods, who works for Princess Celestia and isn't that interesting, but her emotions were having none of it. Then she felt no fear at all. She was watching a covered wagon rolling along a road, being pulled by an earth pony, a silvery moon lighting the scene, stars blazing on a cloudless night. The pony looked around as he pulled his wagon, determination on his face. He was a handsome sort of stallion, a bit on the small side perhaps, but well proportioned with a glossy, healthy deep red coat, wearing a tan vest. Green eyes looked around the landscape over distant mountains, rugged hills, and thick pine forests that spread out in a broad valley. He stopped, looked up at the moon, scratched his head, and then reached into his thick, sandy mane, pulling a folded map from out somewhere in its depths. He squinted at the map in the luminescence, looked around once more, and exclaimed, "I know I should have taken that left turn at Appleloosa!" He sighed and started pulling forward again. For miles and miles he slogged up the track, muttering about country roads. A dark form passed overheard and he looked up. Dragon! Deathworm hovered twenty feet above him, a menacing silhouette, the mighty coils of his night-black body almost reaching the ground. "Ah, good, I've been looking for you." The bass voice rumbled and rebounded from the hills around them. "I'll take that cart, if you please, and your cargo." The stallion's shock and horror turned to anger. "You'll take her over my dead body, dragon!" The dragon shrugged. "I suppose that is an acceptable arrangement." His jaws opened and he started to bend towards the hapless pony when out of nowhere a dun mare with long tawny mane dropped from the sky, landing on his head and driving him into the ground. "OW! Them scales a yours are harder than Chineighs calculus, ya overgrown ophidian!" The gray-brown mare rolled off the head of the groaning dragon and stood up, then reached down to help the dragon raise his head, which he cradled in two great claws. "Hollyhock? What are you doing here? This is Chapter 19! Oh, my head... and wait a second, calculus? Ophidian!? That doesn't seem quite right coming from you, does it?" "No, no, no, you refugee from Medusa's bouffant, this here is Chapter 14 and I just fell in that there trap door in the castle. Wait. Where'd that castle go? Why's it nighttime?" She looked around, confused. "And what's a bouffant?" "It doesn't matter, I suppose, we just need to get that unicorn away from that fellow with the cart." "What unicorn?" "You know, the one who's always watching us, who laughs at our jokes, gets excited during our fight scenes, gets scared when one of us is in danger... you know, her!" "Oh." Hollyhock scratched her head. "Ya'll realize she ain't s'posed ta actually be in the story with us, don't ya?" "Indeed, that's the issue I'm trying to resolve. That earth pony has her in the cart." Deathworm indicated the location with his claw. "What earth pony, and what cart?" Deathworm's jaw dropped as he turned to look at the empty road. "I am going to eat that pony!" Deathworm started moving forward on his claws, with Hollyhock running to keep up. "Ah thought you was a-done eatin' ponies back in Chapter 3!" she called. "Maybe it's cheat day!" he growled back at her. Meanwhile, the red stallion raced with his cart back where he had come from, galloping down the track while bangs and bumps came from the inside of his covered cart. "Sorry! My bad!" he cried out as he hit a particularly deep pothole. He wasn't quite sure where he was running but he hoped he would know it when he saw it. He came to a sudden stop. Before him on the road was an alicorn princess with a coat of purest alabaster, had it not been spattered with mud, a fabulous crown of white gold decorated with garnet and obsidian sitting lopsided upon a mane like shimmering samite, golden and silver hairs which would have been flowing and sparkling in the moonlit breeze, had they not been dripping with sweat. Eyes of beaten copper glared at him as she leaned forward in the traces of her own cart, at the back of which was a black metal cage, a white unicorn stallion in a rather foppish outfit, slumped within. "Out of my way, peasant!" She stopped herself, blinked, then sighed, and looked at him more mildly. "My apologies, goodcolt, but I am about on my last nerve here. There wouldn't happen to be an active volcano about, would there?" The earth pony made a sketchy bow. "No, your highness, but there is a dragon after me." A small smile appeared on the alicorn's face. "That might do!" Then her face fell as Deathworm and Hollyhock rounded the corner. "Not you! This is Chapter 30! The rescue isn't until Chapter 32!" She unhitched herself from her cart as the earth pony stallion did the same with his, grimly preparing to fight to the end. "I am going to EAT that stallion!" The dragon galloped towards the hapless cartpony until the princess interposed herself, raising a hoof. "You know, if you're going to go off your diet and have a yen for stallion..." she motioned towards the cage. The dragon stopped his charge and sat back on his haunches, tilting his head at her. "But I kind of like him. Besides, he's supposed to be in the story. This pony is not. And he's taken HER prisoner." The dragon paused for a moment. "And I say, Everheart, that seems rather uncharacteristically bloodthirsty of you." "You have no idea what the last fifty pages have been like. And HER who?" "The unicorn who has been observing us and reacting to our characters and the events of the story." Hollyhock held a hoof to her mouth, suddenly embarrassed, her cheeks reddening. The alicorn's eyes widened. "Hollyhock, sweetheart, have you been studying?" She dimpled. "You don't have to change, darling. I think you're perfect. I don't care what they'll say at court about your accent; I'll banish the lot of them." Deathworm and Hollyhock stared at Everheart in utter shock. "Forsooth, your highness? What sayest thou? Erm... say what now?" The dragon just looked from one to the other and back again. "Don't you remember, honey, Chapter 27? The walk on that road in the moonlight on a warm summer evening, we accidentally brushed our flanks against one another, the awkward blushing silence between us..." Everheart slowly walked to the astonished Hollyhock, and reached up to stroke her mane with her hoof. "I told you about the awful curse I was under, forced by my father's political ambitions to marry a stallion I did not love, bound to him with powerful enchantments, and then we..." the dirty, sweaty alicorn leaned forward, her breath hot on the earth mare's cheek, when Hollyhock backed up, startled, and tripped over her hooves, collapsing on the ground. "Your highness, I'm still on Chapter 14, and I'm not certain that this is at all appropriate for the Young Reader's Section." "I think it's pretty hot, actually," commented Deathworm to the earth pony stallion, who nodded in quiet agreement. "Can't you see what's happening? We're losing the plot!" The voice came from the cage where the bedraggled Prince Silverhoof was standing on shaky legs. "How are you even conscious?" The princess didn't even begin to hide her disappointment. Silverhoof waved his hoof at the sky. "Look! Look what's happening!" The others all looked up. A band of starlit sky appeared to be peeling away, revealing a cloudy gray nothingness that both drew and repelled the eye. They all gasped, but the earth stallion shouted, "The interface!" "Yes!" Silverhoof cried out. "The Bindings are coming undone!" "The interface?" Hollyhock held onto Princess Everheart in fear, feeling oddly comforted in her embrace. "It's the space between realities, my love! And how does an earth pony know about it?" She looked at the carter with an accusatory glare. "Party pony!" He looked down from the terrifying sight in the sky to the prince in his cage, who seemed to have at least some idea what was happening. "What do we do?" "You have to get her out of here! What did you do to her?" "I... uh... well, I had a good reason!" the party pony stammered. "WHAT! DID! YOU! DO!?" A loud wind had whipped up and was blowing dust everywhere as the sky started to come apart. A distant mountain range shuddered as it began to crumble. "I foalnapped her! She's in the cart!" "What else!? Did you drug her? Hit her on the head?" "No! I wouldn't! I just, well, tied her up with a bag over her head!" He blushed. "I know that doesn't exactly sound good, but..." "WHAT KIND OF BAG?" The bars on the cage flew apart and the Prince broke free, running to the party pony. "A nullcloth bag! She's a unicorn, and I had to neutralize her; what else could I use?" The prince shook his hoof in the party pony's face. "That's torn it! She's not ready yet! She still needs to be protected! You," the prince poked the earth pony in the chest, "must protect her now! Our time in this place is over!" "I don't understand!" The earth pony was just barely beginning to piece things together. "Get her out of the cart!" The unicorn shoved him to get him moving. The earth stallion ran to the cart and pulled open the door while the rest of the characters looked around them as reality itself came unhinged. He reached in and dragged the tied form from inside. He thought it was strange that she seemed heavier and bigger than before, but quickly undid her bindings and stood her up. Somehow, her frock had burst at the seams, perhaps torn by her struggles to free herself from her bindings. Even the bandage on her leg was shredded, though he noted she appeared uninjured as well. "The hood! Take the hood off, you foal!" The stallion untied the cinch of the hood and pulled it off her head. Then he stared. The world was coming apart all around him, mountains were falling, trees being ripped up into the air by tornadoes, the oceans boiling, and none of it mattered. Nothing mattered in this astounding moment. His world collapsed into a single dimension as he beheld the young mare before him, terrified by the sudden chaos and noise, confused, and impossibly lovely. Her mane whipped in the wind like a waterfall made of gold filigree. Every line of her snow white face was exquisite, from her delicate nostrils to her supple, arched neck, to the small, alert, well pointed ears with a perfect hint of pink pinnae. Her eyes were a startling ultramarine, a deeper, richer blue than any he'd ever se... He was smacked from the side by Prince Silverhoof and reality came roaring back. "You have to break the spell and get her out of here before everything comes apart of you'll both be caught in the interface!" Her wavy auriferous mane blew almost straight in the howling gale, the tatters of her yellow frock carried off into the nothingness by an exceptional gust. "How?" A strip of land near them heaved up and disintegrated, causing Clementine to scream in sheer terror. His heart was pounding in his ears. I am Giacolto, and we are in Clementine's mind! "Her horn coffle, the ring, it's made of annamannatite! Take it off! And tell her... tell Clémence, that her papa and her mama loved her very much!" The earth pony turned his head to look at Silverhoof, who appeared to be coming apart a bit himself as the wind whipped him about, and nodded solemnly. He saw the black metal ring that encircled her long, symmetrically spiraled ivory horn. He stuffed the anti-magic bag into a pocket in his vest and reached up with both hooves to lift the ring from her horn. She stiffened as the coffle was removed, and her horn glowed with golden power as she looked up at him. Still, the roaring, shrinking world around them fell apart. Giacolto turned to Silverhoof, seeing now that there were strips of interface showing through his flesh, a sad smile on his face. "We're still here!" Giacolto shouted over the hurricane. "She can't let us go!" Hollyhock shouted back. Clémence was looking at Silverhoof, Deathworm, Hollyhock and Everheart as oblivion closed in on them, her eyes bright with tears. "We're just characters in a story, darlin'! Ya'll have ta let us go or you'll be smithereened with us!" She shook her head in despair. "No! I love all of you!" "We aren't real!" Everheart's crown slowly shattered and her mane and tail dissolved into metallic fragments that faded into the gray wind. "You're real to me!" Clementine's voice was full of heartache and grief. "You! Party pony!" Deathworm boomed. "Give her something else to think about! Something real!" His scales shredded in a long line around the sinuous coils of his body. Giacolto turned his back on the madness and looked into eyes that seemed to be made of liquid lapis. He moved closer to her, his heart racing, impending doom, desperate hope and his sudden, exhilarating infatuation combining to create an intimacy he never dreamt of. She stopped looking at the others and locked her eyes in response to his ardent gaze. They were already close, so when he leaned forward, their lips met. Her eyes widened, then closed along with his. Softly at first, lightly, but then with urgency as the maelstrom closed in on them, their senses intermingled in unabashed oneness, an almost innocent lust. He took her in a desperate embrace and crushed her to him, convinced that this was the end, that in this last moment, this was his one chance to embrace love, that if she was to be taken by oblivion, he would go with her, and be with her in that long, final instant, somehow completed. She responded hungrily, years of repressed sexuality suddenly released at the same time as her physical and magical development, the age spell having been peeled away by her confinement in the anti-magic bag along with the other enchantments woven about her. Her tongue quested for his as her hooves dug into his back with sudden passion. Heat flushed in her face as she gasped, astonishing new sensations shocking her body, and she pulled back, short of breath, cheeks bright red, her astonishing blue eyes open, almost swallowing him whole and drowning him in their liquid depths. His desire, his need, his absolute devotion were hers as he regarded her in the quiet forest glade, dappled sunlight filtering to glint on the metallic fairy gold of her luxurious mane and phenomenal tail. His eyes traced all the graceful lines of her lithe, lissom, shuddering, nude body, returning to her elegant, inexpressibly perfect face, her mouth half open, her head tilted down causing her eyes to tilt up, allowing a small amount of white to show under her singular irises. He experienced a need he never imagined was possible as he stepped forward to close the gap that had opened, to once again establish their eternal embrace before he lost her and everything else, not that anything else mattered. She stepped back in response,the soft sound made by her hoof landing in the moist grass being the only noise he heard. She was still flushed, but wasn't looking at him anymore. She was looking around at a green forest glen, feeling the warmth of a summer afternoon sun scattering through the treetops around them, and in a moment so did he. The world wasn't coming to an end, they were not going to be torn into shreds of nothingness in the space between realities, birds were chirping and that he would have a lifetime to be head over hooves in love with this amazing mare. "Clémence! You did it! We made it back!" "Clémence? Who? Where... what happened?" She looked like she was trying her hardest to remember something, her brow wrinkling with concentration, then her striking blue eyes snapped on him, widening in shock and realization. "You foalnapped me!" "Um, well, uh, yes but..." "What else did you do? What was all that, a spell? Some kind of potion? Were you kissing me!?" Her delightful face was flushed but now it was with anger, all intimacy and warmth chased away by a raging fire of indignation blossoming in her heart. "Darling, I'm so-" He felt a sudden urge to grovel. "DON'T YOU 'DARLING' ME! I feel so weird right now! Did you put your tongue in my mouth, you pervert?! I'm just a filly!" Disgust filled her, not just at his actions, but at her own foolishness for trusting this... stallion! "Um, uh, well no, you're really n-" "You were going to ravish me, weren't you!?" It was Giacolto's turn to flush angrily now. He had just saved her life, after all. Well, maybe after putting her in peril, but still, one must put one's hoof down when somepony is just being unfair, even if you are hopelessly besotted. "In my opinion, it seemed like it was going to be a rather MUTUAL ravishment!" She blinked in shock, outrage and hurt all but blinding her. "HOW DARE YOU!" She lowered her head and golden fire exploded off her horn, striking Giacolto straight in the chest. He was hurled back thirty feet into the woods, small trees snapping as his tumbling body crashed through them until he struck a thick bole and dropped to the ground. He groaned, then was still. Clementine was stunned. She gazed up at her horn, no longer a gray inert, stubby thing, but a spiraled white lance, blazing like the sun. Her mane fluttered in a light breeze and she caught it with her white, delicate hoof, mouth agape. She craned her neck around and looked at her body, no longer that of an awkward mouse of a filly, but of a slender, well formed, silken coated, and quite nude white mare just past adolescence, the sort one might see painted on the cover of a particularly fanciful romantic novel, with her mane and tail artfully covering at least some of her torso for modesty's sake. There was too much happening all at the same time. Too many changes. Her sense of self was in tatters as her mind adjusted not merely to the removal of spells that had been blocking and even altering her memories, but to actual physical growth and reorganization, and the establishment of the brain mass specific to unicorns that permitted mental power to be channeled through her newly awoken horn. I can cast magic! Wonder and delight started to grow in her. And it stopped, crashing down into horror and fear that clutched at her heart like a griffin's claw. "Giacolto! What have I done?!" She dashed to the tree he had struck and looked down at him, lying unmoving on his side, his eyes closed, a thin line of smoke rising from his charred particolor costume. "Giacolto? Giacolto!" She shook him, his sandy mane spreading limply over the ground out of his ridiculous hat as her hooves rolled him on his back. She pulled away the domino mask and looked at his face, peaceful, still. "Oh no, oh Giacolto, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She bent to cradle his head and cried in despair, holding it to her chest. I've killed another pony! Another pony? The spell that Rubymane cast on her had been dispelled as well, and out of the chaos of images, she pulled the faces of the cruel Shivershanks and the brutal Plowneck, of the strange dream in which they fought with Prince Silverhoof and she took his sword and coldly stabbed them. But it wasn't really her, it was just a character in the story. But however it happened, she had wanted that character to kill those characters, and the real ponies were stone dead on the floor of their hut when she came back to the real world. She remembered Lady Rubymane swearing they wouldn't steal her childhood as her eyes glowed green, black streams of magic pouring from her horn to reach into her mind and alter her memories. The black magic Princess Celestia was talking about! It was Lady Rubymane's! She cast it to protect me from myself! Oh no! How many lives have I ruined? Dreadful realization filled her with shame and grief. I'm a monster! Her tears fell on the stallion, the kind, gentle clown who only kissed her to take her away from that mad whirlwind of destruction the story spell had become. Who only foalnapped her because he was protecting his princess from a monster. She bent, and kissed his lips gently. "My darling, I am so sorry." She sniffed and wiped the tears away, images and memories still fragmented, her self shattered as she backed away from the party pony, her head low, her throat tight. Looking down, she saw her reflection in a puddle. A noble unicorn looked up at her, the epitome of classical beauty. She stamped her foot in the puddle angrily, spattering herself with mud. Monster! She looked around, tearful and thoughtful. I must be gone before I ruin any more lives, before I kill anypony else! But I can't run naked on the road like some foal. She went to Giacolto's wagon and looked in the bags, trunks, various boxes and sacks, rooting around for several minutes until she found a dark cloak, then tied it on. She didn't trust her magic, so she used her hooves. I'd probably set the wagon on fire if I tried telekinesis. She also found a set of saddlebags and quite a surprising amount of food. I shall have to eat at some point, I suppose. Another minute of searching revealed a small purse with about 40 bits in it, and she took it with no small degree of guilt. I shall need coin for ferries. Here I am, looting my victim's belongings. An auspicious start to my new career. She found a curious case as well. When she opened it, the top had a mirror on the inside. Shelves unfolded, revealing pigments, brushes, oils, pencils and dyes, and in the bottom were fake noses and wigs and a bottle of spirit gum. His makeup kit! She took this and made some room in one of the saddlebags, placing it inside. It seemed a bit odd that all that food and the makeup kit managed to fit inside such small bags, but she didn't give it much thought. She threw the bags across her back and cinched under her firm belly, finally draping the cloak over them, then trotted over to look at Giacolto one last time. There was a rosebush to her left, and she plucked one of the roses from it, placing it on his chest between his hooves as a small token of reverence. "I could have loved you, Giacolto. You made me laugh harder than anypony ever. And that kiss... I don't even know how to describe it. And look what I've done to you." Her voice was bitter. "I'm not fit company for anypony. I'm a murderess, a destroyer. A monster. So I'll go where the monsters go, and be with my own kind." And with that she slowly turned and walked west, the atlas of Equestria in her mind. Keep the Camelhump Mountains on your right until you get to the Neighagra River, then between Rambling Rock Ridge and the legendary haunted ruins. Right into the heart of Everfree. The setting sun was painting the library a delicate shade of pink as dusk settled on the manor. Princess Celestia and Lady Rubymane sat drinking tea, eating cake, and having a rather heartfelt discussion. The madness of despair and grief had left Rubymane quite suddenly three hours ago, and she was making up for her earlier hunger strike with gusto, matching the princess cake for cake, that being no mean feat. "So let me get this straight, Booby. This is the second time you cast black magic. The first time, you cast it on yourself to forget your own grief, and naturally that worked so well you figured you could do the same for Clementine to help her forget about killing those two thugs in the woods?" "I know! I know, it was amazingly stupid. But I was still under the effects of the first spell. Which of course is still my fault so it's no excuse. Not everypony can be perfect and wise and rational as you, Moo-Moo." The old unicorn frowned and savagely took out her frustration on the cake suspended in front of her, washing it down with another sip of tea. "When you dispelled them... I'm so ashamed of myself." I didn't dispell them, and I don't know who did. "Well, it's not all your fault. Ten years? I should have checked up on you long before this." Celestia sipped, hiding a small smile behind the teacup as she remembered her escapades as Cowlestia the Udderly Magnificent, after a magical prank backfired seventy years ago. Not every detail of her life made it into the Royal Annals, and a good thing too! "You have been a little busy with the fallout from the Prench Revolution, dealing with les émigrés, trying to keep us safe from the Directorate, spies, blockades, raids, conspiracies, assassination attempts..." "Well, no good excuses for either of us, then. All is forgiven?" Celestia raised her cup, surrounded by a pale golden nimbus. Rubymane raised her cup in response, the red glow mixing with the gold. "All is forgotten." She went to sip and stopped, her eyes widening. "Maybe we should amend that particular toast." Celestia choked on her tea, then put it down, using her magic to pick up a napkin and blotting up some spilled tea. "Mind your carpets, dear." "Where is Clementine anyway? I really need to apologize to that filly. To think she's been taking care of me all these months while I'm moaning and groaning and throwing dishes!" Rubymane shook her head. "That child has a real brain under her poll and sweet as a sugarlump too! That spell on her though... it's so powerful! That's another reason I'm glad you're here, Moo-Moo, I need you to find out what's going on there. It's a powerful glamour, obviously cast by an archmage, or perhaps several of them. And I doubt it's Equestrian. Seems rather odd that it only works on unicorns as well." Rubymane reached for a pastry. "And alicorns. She's... she's fine, Booby. I have my best pony looking after her. He's taking her to a safehouse in the market town where she can be examined in a nullmagic environment before we remove the spell." Rubyman raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think you should remove it? I barely know what it does; I certainly don't know why it does it. There may be a very good reason for it. I got the impression it was purely protective in nature. Don't you need more time for research? And why take her up to Saddleboro? She may have a had a few accidental side effects like that kitchen fire, but that filly's harmless and good natured." Celestia looked out the window, worry showing on her face. "I really should have heard from him by now, Ruby. He has a Vox Procul and I was expecting him to send me the all clear an hour ago." She fidgeted with a small amulet that hung down from her crown near her ear. Rubymane glowered. "If something has happened to her..." Celestia frowned back. "She was carrying a powerful spell of unknown origin that would have let her walk right up to me, unseen! It's not just for my protection; it's for the realm. What happens to the celestial order without me? Do you really want to see the unicorn wars starting up again, Ruby? Do you want crop failures and droughts and all the other horrors?" Rubymane's glare softened. "I know. I know. I just can't believe there's any evil in that child! All she wants to do is learn all there is to learn and be kind while she's doing it." She looked away, closing her eyes, a tear rolling down one cheek. "She reminds me so much of Softmane at her age, now that I let myself think about it." "Well, Giacolto is my best agent. Sometimes he solves problems using unorthodox methods. He's not always on time, but things always seem to work out. And there's usually a party involved. I'm probably just worrying about nothing." The library door, which had been cleared of its barricade, burst open, and Giacolto walked in, looking like the last survivor of a desperate battle. "Your highness, we have a problem."