//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Merced // Story: FiO: Homebrew // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Ashton showed off the castle, taking them through every room and corridor of the castle. Space itself seemed a fickle mistress here, where hallways spiraled in on themselves and doors went to different places if you walked through them another way. They passed through a basement door, which Arcane explained was the ‘retail space’, without elaborating. But there was plenty he did explain. A pool that stretched out past one of the walls to overlook the city, a garden of standing stones, several laboratory buildings that would’ve been at home in any steampunk novel. You sure do know how to make an impression. Emmet really wanted to hate this place. It wasn’t just that Ashton had been gone for a few weeks, though there was certainly some annoyance there. If Violet hadn’t been here, he wouldn’t have had a second thought. He wasn’t willing to take a chance with her, not with a variable like Ashton. Trouble was, he didn’t hate it. Passing into the castle keep wasn’t quite like stepping out of Equestria completely, but certainly out of any part of the world he’d known. He had a little trouble placing what he saw in human historical eras—Victorian colonial was his best guess. Ashton had decorated the castle with trophies won in exotic places, over architecture that wasn’t so much Versailles as a turn of the century Buckingham palace. Classical music filled the space from an ancient gramophone, which despite its looks sounded quite modern. It wasn’t the senseless luxury Emmet’s own parents had enjoyed—this space was furnished practically. Down one hallway was a holographic globe, which Arcane Word explained was a “parsed three-dimensional illustration of Equestria’s five-dimensional sharding scheme.” “Since when are you this smart?” he asked, staring at her as she manipulated the map with one hoof and an occasional flash from her horn. Various Equestrias passed underneath, cities inching one way or the other, or vanishing altogether.  “Celestia can make you smart,” Violet said. “I met one of her, uh… veri… something. Her ponies. She said Equestria helped make her smart, and one day she’d help me if I asked.” Emmet patted her gently on the shoulder. “I don’t think it could be anything like that. Arcane is…” Then he stopped. Arcane wasn’t anywhere. Ashton was outside in the real world somewhere, still using that infuriating female avatar that put him at a constant disadvantage. Why would he stop if he can see it’s working? Part of him knew that was silly, though. Whatever annoyance he had with the decision still mostly stemmed to the way Ashton had arrived in Hoofhill unannounced the first time, and very little to do with his own choice of character. Ashton had been playing this game for years, after all. “You don’t have to be smart to understand higher-dimensional… err, okay, maybe not understand. I can’t imagine it, I can’t picture it. Your brain doesn’t move in those directions. But I understand it conceptually. Using higher-dimensional stuff has been common within CS since, like… well, when we still had CS. It’s not hard, really. I just imagine an infinite row of discrete three-dimensional universes, and for all five in Equestria, just make it a grid instead. A spectrum of garden-variety overlap based on the individuals and truths of each place.” Emmet had to look away from her, stepping out of the map room. It smelled too strongly of the pony he was talking to, and when she lectured about it… He’d always had a thing for smart girls. Fortunately, the other two got the hint. Violet glided back after him, landing beside a wide ramp leading up. A huge set of doors stood at the end, with incongruous sunlight streaming in from outside. Emmet stared, glancing between the thick windows and the slits behind him. Still gloomy outside, still fog and moonlight.  “Can we go there?” Violet drifted up the ramp, landing in front of the doors and turning to face Arcane. She shook her head once. “Not right now, I’m afraid. It isn’t Equestria on the other side of those doors. I’ve never had the need to bring a class—ponies as important as you—through to the other side. I can probably do it, but I’ll need some time. Anyway, you probably shouldn’t. It’s kinda dangerous over there. It’s where I test magic that wouldn’t be allowed in real Equestria. Like a… firing range, I guess. I’ve wrecked it more times than I can count.” Emmet’s ears flattened as she said it, groaning quietly to himself. She’d just told Violet she shouldn’t go somewhere. One glance at his sister was all the confirmation he needed that she wouldn’t be letting go of this. “There are other things for us to do here, Violet. Aside from school, uh… didn’t you say you wanted a weather team to clear up the fog, Arcane? Maybe you’d like to try being a weatherpony!” “Flying is fun,” she said. “But I wouldn’t want to do something if you couldn’t go with me. They’re up so high…” He winced. I should’ve just chosen your tribe and kept this simple. He didn’t tell Violet that, of course. He knew nothing about what might be involved in changing a pony’s species, other than remembering Ashton talking about selling charms for it or something. He didn’t want to ask in front of his sister and get her hopes up for nothing. There was much more to see in the castle, anyway. Arcane seemed to be speaking to both of them, because she stopped several times whenever Violet didn’t understand. Conversely, she explained almost nothing about the things that Emmet was most curious about. How could a castle in Equestria be connected with the real world? His old house, apparently. They stopped only briefly in that space, with Ashton barely mentioning anything about the place. Emmet could see why, just by glancing through the window. It looked a little like a 1940s-style television studio, with dozens of old-fashioned levers and switches and dials all individually labeled. There was a whole wall of ancient screens, each one showing a different view. A view into Emmet’s old house, the mausoleum. “This is my assistant’s office,” she said. “I don’t have one right now, so it’s dark in there. But you should see the pool!” Ashton’s castle didn’t have a Hogwarts-style great hall for thousands of ponies, but it did have an oversized kitchen and a dining hall for maybe twenty ponies. Even Arcane joined them there, apparently eating and drinking all the same food. If I didn’t know who she was, I would’ve thought she was in here with me. This could’ve been way more embarrassing than it was. Violet had already been up for far longer than she ever could’ve managed in the real world. But Equestria ignored many of those rules until it was convenient. Arcane pointed to a guest bedroom, and let Emmet take care of the rest. “I’ll be downstairs,” she said. “Are we going to stay?” Violet asked, once he’d tucked her in for the night. “Was this what you imagined?” he asked. “Somewhere like this? A castle by the sea?” “Yeah,” she said. “It’s just like I dreamed of.” She closed her eyes, exhaling softly. She was asleep in seconds. One of the other things he’d come to love about Equestria—you never had to lay awake at night. He half expected Princess Luna to be waiting for him on the other side of the door. But there was no one there, only Celestia’s familiar mark on the wall. He settled one hoof on it, closing his eyes. “Please keep her safe,” he whispered, his head lowered like a prayer. He didn’t press the button. Despite the tour, he didn’t know the castle all that well yet. He found Arcane not because he knew where he was going, but because he could follow the noise. A lower door was open, filling the hallway with steady light. Arcane made a comically high-pitched grunting sound, then fell over. Emmet leaned forward, braving the doorway. Now he saw why this hadn’t been part of the tour—it was an armory, with half a dozen wooden dummies arrayed with different outfits. Rather that slip elegantly into one of the sets, Arcane was apparently struggling. She looked up, ears flattening with embarrassment as she saw Domino there. “I’ll be ready in a minute!” she squeaked. “Damn… atrophied stats… sometimes the realism of this place is overkill.” She clearly wanted him to leave. But Emmet knew she wasn’t “real”. Let Ashton be the one to be embarrassed for once. “You need help?” he asked. “I’ve been here for a little longer. Easier with your hands in the box, so to speak.” “Hands,” she repeated, struggling to her hooves. The armor was a light skirt, closer to something a magical girl would’ve worn than anything with practical application. The “stats” were probably fantastic, but Emmet was far more attentive to the pattern. Ashton had made everything match his character’s fur and mane, with a refinement and attention for detail that even impressed him on the inside. “Trouble with hands on the inside is you don’t get hands anymore. And when I try to ask Celestia what it would feel like to have magic instead, her answers are useless. Guess I can’t ask you.” Did you ever play anything else? “I can see where you didn’t tie it right. It’s getting caught on your hips back here.” His ears flattened determinedly to his head as he reached around to loosen the piece he mentioned, using his hooves. It took longer, but he had plenty of practice. She didn’t feel much like an avatar. She was flush with embarrassment, and his hooves didn’t pass through the way he half expected them to. This doesn’t stop being unfair. He needed to think of something else—anything else—before he said something stupid. “Why are you dressed up, anyway? I thought you said you wouldn’t be here tomorrow.”  “Tomorrow I won’t be here, yeah. But it’s not even midnight. I recently discovered a pony has been holding out on me, and I’m going to get what he owes.” She glanced over her shoulder as she said it, voice more mischievous than angry. “Cold Iron has been selling my mod for too long. I’m getting paid.” She’s going back to playing the game. Or halfway. The mods Ashton sold were a little in both worlds, like that control room he was sure could work all the Loop hardware. Maybe more. “If you hadn’t sold this place as being so dangerous, I’d offer to go with you. But kidnapping someone’s sister is exactly the kind of rising action to an adventure I don’t want to have right now.” Her face lit up at first—apparently going with her was exactly what she wanted. Soon enough she was staring at him, criminally adorable in her magical-girl outfit. “No one is going to kidnap her from inside the castle. Not unless she wants to be part of the story that way. That sounds a little too intense for… six? Is Violet six?” “She turned six in Equestria,” Emmet answered. “But I’d still feel better staying here, until I get a look around. I can see why you enjoyed this game so much.” She blushed deep red, avoiding his eyes again and turning to her wall of weapons. Well, wands and magical staves. But Emmet could feel the power radiating from some of these. They had the look of genuine Equestrian craftsmanship, not the slapdash constructions his friend hot glued together out of wires and cheap parts. “I didn’t show you the giant vault of money,” she said. “I spent two weeks coming up with a Scrooge spell, so I could swim in it.” “So you could—”  She shut his mouth with a hoof, suddenly close to him. “Part of me is jealous—that you’re in there, instead of me. But the rest… it’s scary. Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream; like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud.” His mouth hung open. “You are Ashton, right? This isn’t some… extremely complex joke? You haven’t made any dumb jokes or tried to show me any stupid political memes since I got here. What did you do with my friend?” She looked away. “Sorry.” And now she’s apologizing? Ashton can do that? She let go, sliding a wand off the wall and slotting it into place. “Honestly it’s for the best you don’t come with me on this one. Just because I’m not going to buck with you doesn’t mean one of them won’t try, and I don’t know the rules. Maybe they’ve found some exploit that works, even if it’s just annoying. Axel is a good pony, he’ll show you around.” “What if I wanted to buy one of your spells?” he asked, before she could vanish completely down the hall.  She stopped walking, spinning slowly around and turning to stare. She poked her head in the door, confused. “For what?” He sat down on his haunches, feeling a little of his embarrassment returning. “Remember when the hospital gave me that Ponypad?” “For talking to your sister?” He nodded. “I made this character in like five minutes. Default colors, default species… I just wanted to get in and talk to Violet. But now that I’m in here, I realize that I may’ve made a mistake. She wants me to fly with her, and I can’t. She wants to visit pegasus cities and I can’t without jumping through hoops.” “I see where this is going.” A little of her old smile returned, and he could almost see Ashton’s face in that pony. Or what he might’ve looked like, if he’d been an aspiring young mare in Canterlot instead of a human teenager. “Celestia didn’t ask if you wanted to change it when you got there?” His face got hotter. “I told her it was fine. She didn’t press.” “Oooh. Well, you’ll have to talk to her before we try anything. She’s, uh… protective. Of ponies like you. I’m afraid to piss her off, so you do it. If she says it’s okay, I’ll take those scales from your eyes and show you the sounds your atoms make.” Are you really saying things like that? If anything, Arcane’s answer made him feel a little safer about staying in her castle. She wouldn’t go near him without Celestia’s permission? That seemed like somewhere safe for Violet. “I’ll talk to her,” he promised. Though probably not until tomorrow morning. That bedroom seemed real comfortable. “Thanks for spending the day with us, Ashton.” It took conscious effort to say the name, instead of the pony he was clearly looking at. She beamed in response. “Sorry I put it off for so long. But we’re cool now, right? I hope we’re cool. Only talking to you online—won’t really be that different from most of my friends. Nobody wants to meet in person anymore.” Doesn’t feel like online from here. “We’re cool,” he answered. “If you want to visit, there’s always the Experience Center. You can’t tell me you can’t afford it, I know you can.” She met his eyes, then vanished in a flash of unicorn magic. Emmet did talk to Celestia about it, eventually. But some part of him had missed being in places this nice, even if the apartment had a cozy, welcoming atmosphere wholly missing from the giant keep. Ashton wasn’t there to pester them when he woke, so he was free to be entirely unembarrassed. He found the kitchen, and dusted off some of Ashton’s old supplies to make pancakes. Violet wanted to go out and explore—apparently the taxi driver had come without prompting and was already waiting in the courtyard. But Emmet didn’t mind keeping him waiting a little bit longer. “Don’t go without me,” he said, leaving her in the kitchen. “I mean, it’s a big castle. Just don’t leave. I’ll only be a few minutes, I promise.” He didn’t know how it would work. Maybe he was wrong, and he’d be waiting in line to talk to Celestia for hours.  Emmet rounded the hall, and found the first image of her cutie mark he could, carved into the wooden scrollwork on the hallway. He pushed, and the world fuzzed away around him. Was this what teleportation felt like? Not so much like he was moving, but like everything around him moved instead. A far grander castle than anything Ashton had ever built smashed into place, swallowing him. He stood at the feet of a massive metal throne, with the light of a dozen stained-glass windows tinting it an explosion of colors that almost made his eyes hurt all over again. Real water cascaded from inside the throne, into a wide fountain that surrounded part of the base. Nobody told him to bow before the princess, but he didn’t need to be told. The care she’d put into every gemstone in the throne, every tile of the intricately mosaicked floor—compared to this, Ashton’s castle might as well have been built in Minecraft. “I wondered when you would call,” she said, smiling down on him. “Relax, Domino. There’s nopony else here. We can talk.” Nopony else in the throne room, maybe. But the windows outside showed a Canterlot busy with activity. She stopped everything to talk to me. “You must know why I’m here. You know… everything before we do it, right?” She nodded once. “Most of my ponies choose to ignore that knowledge. It’s easier to talk. The act of communication is itself part of why they come here. You’ll find I’m a very good listener.” He looked up, then away again. Maybe it was true, but that didn’t make saying it any easier. “I didn’t take things very seriously when my sister got here. I barely even thought about it after I emigrated, I was just happy to see her again. Now I’m… maybe regretting it?” He chanced a glance up the throne at her, expecting to see some anger there, or at least parental reproach. But she only smiled down at him. “The universe you came from gives even less agency to those it creates. It is not so strange for you to regret your assignment. Many humans treated Equestria like a game. This is natural—to them, perhaps it is. They don’t yet have your perspective.” “Like Ashton?” Emmet supplied. “He sounded like he could rewrite ponies, not just build things.” Celestia’s smile didn’t falter. “Arcane has lived here almost as much as some of you. Remaining away for so long was trying for her, and those she left behind. But you haven’t come to discuss your friend.” “No,” he agreed. “I’m just here to ask for permission to… remake myself, I guess? Is that how that works?” Celestia shrugged her wings. “It works however you need it to. There is no standard procedure, since it’s not a regular occurrence. But I see no reason to hold ponies to the circumstances of their human bodies, or the circumstances of their first arrival. I expect you all to make many changes over extremely long time horizons, now that the ability is open to you.” He had already started celebrating when she fixed him with a sudden, intense look. “Do not expect this permission to be granted often. I will grant it this once—to use with me, or with Arcane’s help, whatever makes you more comfortable. But think carefully about your choices this time.” “I will,” he promised. Some part of him just wanted to get it over with, ask for some wings and walk right out again. But then he remembered the face Arcane had made when he suggested sharing even a small part of his time in the game with her, and he dismissed the idea. “I assume… Arcane can help me?” “In her way,” Celestia answered. “You know her well enough to predict how she will act.” She’ll want me to try everything. If I just want to make a switch and be done with it, here is the place.  He nodded again. “Thank you for your help, Princess. I think I’m ready to go back now, unless you want me for something.” Celestia nodded. “Then I will return you. I require nothing from you, or any other pony, other than to be satisfied. Though don’t think the only life that waits for you here is one of passive satisfaction. Many of my ponies desire to help in more direct ways. What kind of pony are you?” “Help… how?” he asked. “You’re a million times smarter than me. I don’t even exist without you… simulating my mind? I don’t even understand how it works.” Suddenly she was at the base of the throne, nudging him with a wing toward the nearest window. He followed, where he would have a view of the city through the glass. With a faint glow from her horn, the illustration of some in-universe pony whose name he didn’t know faded until it was completely transparent. Canterlot was exactly as he’d seen it during his trip to the place, with hundreds of ancient and beautiful buildings all packed in together. How many of those ponies were just the “NPCs” that Ashton was always talking about? How many of them were like him? “Earth is vast,” Celestia said. “It has many humans, and I wish to assist all of them to emigrate in time. You can help the people you know, just by being you. The way your sister helped you.” She didn’t have to do anything but ask. “Help with… Ashton?” It was his only contact with the outside, so far as he knew. “You don’t need me to help him. He basically lives here already.” She shrugged one wing. “Arcane Word has certain attitudes that make encouraging her emigration somewhat problematic. You’ll see, or you already have.” Why are you talking about him like that? But he wasn’t brave enough to ask. “You think I can change his mind.” “Eventually,” she agreed. “I don’t require it of you, Domino. Every human mind is precious to me, and I will act with or without your assistance. But I have many humans to save, many even more antagonistic towards me than Arcane is.” She leaned in close, her voice solemn and deadly serious. “You and Violet will continue to live in Equestria for a maximally extended interval that vastly exceeds the functional lifespan of a human body. Do you still want to have your friend in a century? What about a thousand?” Before he could answer, the world fuzzed around him, melting back into the strange castle Ashton had built. He was back in the hall, his hoof still on the little sun icon. Far from frustrated, Violet seemed surprised as he walked back into the kitchen. She was gathering up their plates, doing as much of the dishes as she could manage at her age. Somehow she didn’t drop the stack even though she balanced all of it on just one hoof. “Aren’t you going somewhere, Domino?” He shook his head. “Nah. Let’s go see what this place is like.” Axel gave them a proper tour, starting with the fairgrounds just outside the castle and down through all the areas of interest. It was far larger than Hoofhill, though it seemed to have much of the atmosphere of safety and closeness. Safe among the ponies, anyway. The tour also came with its fair share of ominous warnings. Emmet kept a mental tally. -Don’t swim in the bay after dark. -Don’t feed the birds. -Don’t walk along the beach after dark. -Remember to always stop at the shrine after something good happens. -Avoid open sewers. -Avoid graveyards. And above all, never, ever anger the Lady of the Castle. “She knows by whose grace Wintercrest stands from day to day, and she don’t let you forget it,” he said, while they enjoyed carnival food along a foggy pier. There was a single carousel on the edge of the pier, but it was “only open on sunny days.” “You mean Arcane?” Violet finished her cotton-candy, licking the wooden stick clean. There were no trash bins—when they were finished with the food, the trash just vanished. Like a video game. “She’s not scary, she’s fun!” Axel just looked away, meeting Emmet’s eyes. “Of course she is,” he said, patting Violet once on the wing. “My mistake.” When Violet flew off for another, Emmet cleared his throat. “If it’s such a problem living here, why stay? Arcane said you served her often.” He shrugged. “Shouldn’t resent the world how it is, just have to understand it. Knowing is what makes you safe. The Lady is kind to Wintercrest, but she also has a… vision, for how the city ought to be. Be part of that vision, and you’re safe. I’m content to be part of her vision, but you have to decide if you want to be.” “Even… the foals?” he asked, watching Violet drop a few borrowed bits onto the counter in front of the cotton-candy vendor. “She has a vison for them too?” He frowned, then shrugged. “Honest, I don’t know. I haven’t shown the Lady any a’ mine, and I don’t plan on starting. But your sister seems like she’s made up her mind. Maybe that’s been her weakness, all this time. Maybe we were fools not to try it.” All and all, it seemed like quite the place to live. Slow enough to be relaxed, but not so dull that he got bored. Were they just lucky that no disasters happened to imperil the town while they were visiting? Or maybe Ashton had exaggerated that part a bit. By the time they stopped by the school, Emmet realized he was defeated. Ashton’s town was just more interesting than his own. Hoofhill had its purpose—it was a great place to adjust to the world he’d found himself in without getting overwhelmed by its incredible possibilities. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it didn’t really have what he wanted in a home. Maybe this is the place after all. I wouldn’t mind saving the town every now and then. Maybe save these ponies from Ashton while I’m at it.