//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: The Witch of Canterlot // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// I had to concentrate really hard to do it, but I managed to pour myself another glass. It required the kind of care and caution one might use to repair a watch, even the tiniest motion threatening to throw everything off-balance. “I got you this time,” I mumbled, with a smile. I’d only spilled a little onto the bar. A towel came down to wipe it off, and it wasn’t my hoof holding it. “I shoulda known you’d be here,” Arch said. She sat down next to me. “You know, you look like Tartarus, sister. You ever think of taking a day off?” “I don’t really have a job to call off,” I reminded her. “Huh. Seems to me like you’re making a profession out of being depressed. I bet the pay’s awful.” “No benefits either,” I mumbled. I picked up the glass and downed it. “At least I found one good thing.” “What’s that?” I held up the dusty bottle. It still had a few shots of something at the bottom. It was green and I still couldn’t read the label. “I was wondering where Celestia got this stuff. I donno what it is, but it’s the strongest thing I’ve ever had to drink. It even worked for Luna!” I giggled. “I got Celestia’s little sister drunk, and she’s prolly thinking up all sorts of ways to disown me!” Arch turned the bottle over in her hooves, reading. “Hm. Apples. Well, mostly apples anyhow. I don’t know if you’re supposed to drink this or use it to clean the good silver.” “There is no good silver,” I mumbled. “I was supposed to come here to get it and I’m even messing that up!” Arch sighed and reached down, helping me sit up straight. She put the bottle down where I couldn’t see it. “I don’t say this very often to ponies, but I think you’ve had too much to drink,” Arch said. “I’ve only seen ponies drown themselves like this when they want to forget. I’d know. Done it a lot myself over the years.” “I want to forget my whole life,” I groaned. “Think it’s too late to change my name and move to another country instead of going back to Equestria? I bet I could call myself, like, Morning Glow or Summer Day or big stupid unicorn who messes everything up, since names are supposed to mean something.” Arch patted me on the back. “You know what?” she said. “Let me get you a coffee. You like coffee, right?” She stepped behind the bar without asking and started moving things around. I shoved my empty glass down the bar where it wasn’t in the way and put my head down. “Everypony likes coffee,” I mumbled. “Even Celestia. She just drinks tea because it calms her down.” “Too many cups makes her jittery, right?” Arch asked. “Lots of ponies got that problem. You look so jittery you’re ready to jump out of your hooves, but I bet it ain’t from coffee.” “I told Shahrazad what happened in Canterlot. Then I kind of left. I figured I should give her some space after she found out she’d asked to marry one of the biggest jerks and losers of all time.” “Funny, you don’t look like a loser. You look like a pony who knows more about magic than just about anypony alive, who beat a champion fighter at his own game even when there was cheating going on, and who takes out assassins left and right like they’re nothin’! Those ain’t things a loser does.” “Then you didn’t hear about what happened in Canterlot,” I sighed. “I heard enough.” Arch shrugged. “They couldn’t hide everything with the sun and moon going all wackadoodle. Some spirit of chaos got released, messed with a bunch of ponies. I’m gonna make an educated guess you’re one of the ponies he played with.” I took a deep breath. Arch held up a hoof to stop me. “I don’t need to know the details,” Arch said, her voice low. “Whatever happened, that wasn’t you.” “It was me. That’s the problem.” Arch hummed to herself, and put two cups of coffee up on the bartop. “Drink this. It’s an old Abyssinian style of making coffee, it’ll help you sober up.” I took a sip. There was a weird fluffy cream on top, and oily, thick espresso at the bottom. Arch took the other cup. “It’s sort of a whipped egg cream,” she explained. “Good stuff, especially for a hangover.” “I don’t have a hangover.” “Not yet, sister. Give it some time and I’m sure you’ll have one for the history books.” Arch smirked. “You know, I was serious about you not being yourself. We’ve been working together a bit and I consider you a friend, and I ain’t got many of those. There are things you should know.” “Like what?” I asked. Arch scratched her chin, grimacing. “Ponies… they’re different when they’re in a bad place. If it’s bad enough, you blame the times instead of the people involved. This was a while ago. A long time before I came here. There were pegasus warlords and earth pony raiders tearing everything up trying to prove who was better, fighting over anything that seemed worth fighting for. I was busy tryin’ not to starve.” “Pegasus warlords?” I frowned. “Where was this, exactly?” Arch waved me off. “That part ain’t important. It wasn’t important enough to even have a name anyhow. I came across this small earth pony town in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t much mind me, and I helped them out with a little bit of magic. We were all supposed to be getting along anyway, right?” I shrugged. “Well, one day, everypony starts acting crazy. Starts out with little things. Ponies lose their tempers over bumpin’ into each other or makin’ small mistakes anypony would make. Now normally, you’d think ponies would shrug it off or apologize because, hey, things happen! But not now. Everything turns into a grudge. Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Real bad times, my friend.” “And you were in the middle of it?” I asked. “I sure was! Didn’t want to be there, but where was I supposed to go? Takes me too long to figure on that it was magic being used on us, and by then, those three things showed up. Big monsters, size of houses, flyin’ around and singin' and suckin’ up the bad mojo we were makin’. And when they did show up, the ponies in town were too busy rioting and trying to stab each other over spilling cider or givin’ somepony the side-eye.” “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening,” I said. “Like I said, it was a while back. Before your time. Me, I won’t ever forget it, because I wasn’t able to do anything about it. In the end, my old teacher had to show up and take care of it. I was right there the whole time, and those monsters were able to do whatever they wanted.” Arch shook her head and downed the rest of her coffee. “I did some things I can’t take back. Thing is, it wasn’t me. It was those Sirens. They’re the ones to blame.” “But I wasn’t forced to do anything,” I said. “I just…” “Hey, look here.” Arch tapped her hoof on the bar. “Don’t look down like you’re afraid to meet anypony’s eyes. Whatever you did because of Discord, it ain’t on you. It’s good that you care, it’s not even wrong to be ashamed, but what you gotta do is learn from it. What I learned is that a pony like me, I can’t sit back on my heels and do nothing. When I tried to retire, I let ponies down.” “Is that why you stole those wishes?” I asked. “Yeah. Somethin’ like that.” Arch smiled sadly. “You know it’s all complicated here. What I’m doin, and what you might wanna think about doin’, is thinking about how to protect ponies. Here and back in Equestria. And watch out for the ponies around you, cause they might not be what they seem.” “Oh, I’m sure you know all about that,” I snorted. “This coffee is starting to work, because I’ve sobered up enough to remember where I’ve heard the word Siren before. They were monsters.” Arch nodded. “Darn right they were.” “Monsters that went away over a thousand years ago,” I continued. “Banished by Starswirl the Bearded. And there haven’t been pegasus warlords or earth pony raiders since Hearth’s Warming. You’re just full of horseapples and telling me stories from a history book.” Arch laughed. “You really are sobering up if you’re that sharp!” “You ever going to tell me the truth?” I asked. “Filly, I trust you more than just about anyone else alive,” Arch said, despite the fact that I didn’t even know her real name. Either she trusted me more than I thought or else she didn’t trust anypony much at all. “Not an answer,” I noted. “Neither is this, but it’s more important.” She reached into her robes and put a small silver box between us. I recoiled from it, almost falling out of my chair. “You still have that thing?” I hissed. “You saw what happened with the last one.” Arch nodded. “Yeah. I saw.” She sighed. “Didn’t go so good, did it?” “I wouldn’t describe zombies rising from the dead as having gone well, no,” I said. “I don’t even know why I did it. It was stupid!” “Empathy isn’t stupid. Makes you do stupid things sometimes, but that’s love for you.” Arch spun the box around. “You’ve seen how the king doles out wishes, yeah? For a while I thought it was because he didn’t want nobody gettin’ too strong and changin’ the game on him.” “And what do you think now?” I asked. Arch smiled. “Oh, I still think the same thing, but now I sort of sympathize. How many of these would it take to bring Saddle Arabia down?” She laughed. “I bet that’s not a question you can find out aside from the hard way, and nobody wants that.” I took a deep breath. “I’m surprised you haven’t used it yourself. That’s a lot of power in your hooves.” “Lot of power for anyone’s hooves.” Arch touched the top of the box and scrunched her snout. “Nah. Even if the Aretic order wasn’t stomping down on anypony who might make a wish, well, I think there are two kinds of ponies.” “Are you being tribalist to earth ponies or pegasi?” I asked. Arch chuckled. “I mean that some ponies would do anything to get what they want, pay any price. Those kind of ponies probably don’t even need wishes. They’ll put in the work and grant their wish themselves. The other kind of pony, they just sort of float. Their wishes are just dreams and never get more real than that.” “What about ponies that gave up on their dreams?” I muttered. “Point is, I’m not the right pony for this box,” Arch sighed. “I’d know if I was. These things, they got a way of going where they need to go.” “You think that grieving mother is where it needed to go?” I snapped. “That didn’t have to happen!” “You’re saying that because it was in your hooves when it went bad. Look, I’m gonna level with ya. I would bet my own grandmare that I’ve heard this thing whispering to me. I’m not supposed to hang onto it. I’m definitely not supposed to look inside.” “Sell it,” I suggested. “You could get rich.” “Nah. Here.” She slid the box across the bar. I don’t know if I was just too slow or if I was afraid to touch it, but it fell off the slick top and landed right at my hooves. The top cracked open. I was in Canterlot. I think I was in Canterlot. It felt like it, the same way you just know things in a dream. All it would have taken was one close look around to be sure, but I was too busy staring at what was right in front of me. It was a mirror. Not just any mirror. The mirror that’d haunted me for years. The mirror that had ruined my life. The reflection in it was me, and at the same time it wasn’t me. It was the same one I’d seen a long time ago. She had wings. That part I think you already knew. Everypony who knows anything about me knows that. If there’s anything I’m famous or infamous for, it’s that I’d do anything to earn a pair of wings. She had a crown. I’d worn one myself a few times. The one in Canterlot that Discord had given me had been uncomfortable. The little gold laurel I’d gotten fighting in the Forge I got by hurting ponies. The way the me in the mirror looked, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. It fit her. She looked like the kind of pony who deserved to lead. The thing I was really jealous of wasn’t the crown, and it wasn’t the wings. It was the smile. She was happy. She didn’t have the whole world weighing down on her shoulders. Her mane and coat were so bright and colorful they practically glowed. I couldn’t see the room around me, or her. It was just dark, and the dark whispered. “You poor creature. You have hurt so much, haven’t you?” I couldn’t look away. “You’ve suffered, and in your pain you’ve made others suffer with you. You can become what you were always meant to be, if you just reach out and take it.” My copy reached out, her hoof passing through the mirror, the surface rippling like water. She offered me a perfectly hooficured, perfectly clean hoof. It was the kind of hoof that a pony only got when they didn’t have to wash blood from it. When they’d made the right decisions instead of the wrong ones. “I am not your enemy,” she said. “You’re not my friend, either,” I whispered. I slammed the box shut, the pale light from inside vanishing. Cold sweat poured from me like somepony had thrown a bucket of icewater over my head. “What was that?” Arch asked. I looked up at her and glared. “You did that on purpose!” “I didn’t!” She backed up a step. “Sorry. I’ve just never seen that before.” “Never seen what?” I asked. Had she seen the same thing I did? Had she been out there in the darkness? “I’ve never seen anypony put one of those boxes down without making a wish,” she said, like it should have been obvious. “It wasn’t something I wanted,” I said. “It wasn’t something you wanted anymore,” Arch corrected. “I think I’ve just about got the shape of it. That was some kinda old wish hanging around you like a shroud. Something you used to want so much nothing else could ever compare.” “More like a baby blanket I outgrew than a shroud,” I said. “What I saw… it was something I wanted as a foal.” “Those wishes can be awful strong. Strong enough to last a lifetime,” Arch muttered. “So what happened? It’s not just something you outgrew, is it? You got hurt real bad chasing after the wish yourself, and now you’re afraid to even hope for it…” I threw the empty coffee cup at her. “You don’t know anything about me!” I snapped. “Okay!” Arch sighed, taking another step back. “I guess I should’ve expected you’d be in a bad mood. Bad moods are sort of all you can manage in your state.” “In my state?” “Never mind,” Arch shrugged. “Look, I get you don’t trust me, so why don’t you just keep that?” She nodded to the box. “I know you don’t like it, but that’s probably for the best. You just proved you’re strong enough that you can’t be tempted by this thing.” “I don’t want it.” “Exactly! That’s why you’re the best pony to keep it!” Arch rubbed her hooves together. “If you don’t like it, you can always leave it there for somepony else to find. It’d be a shame if some foal found it.” “A foal wouldn’t be looking around the floor of a bar.” “No, just very responsible adults like yourself,” Arch agreed. She walked out from behind the bar, strolling casually to the doorway. “Why don’t you sleep on it?” I decided to do just that. I needed some sleep. I could have gotten it in the palace, but going up those stairs was just not on my to-do list after the beating I’d been taking all day. Neither my body nor my emotions were ready for it. Thankfully I had other options. I think the ponies at the embassy were surprised when I showed up, but they didn’t try to stop me from finding my way to a guest room and collapsing into one of the beds. It smelled like Equestria. It was comforting. It’s what I really needed. A taste of the home I left behind. I guess talking about Canterlot really let a lot of emotions roil in my subconscious, because when I did finally settle down enough to dream, I was in Canterlot again. Not in the mirror room, thank the stars for small favors. I was on a balcony, one that didn’t exist, looking down at the throne room. Nopony there noticed me, and Celestia was going over paperwork. I recognized it as what I’d signed. She was undoing everything I’d done and explaining to the ponies there about every mistake I’d made. Apologizing for me, but also condemning my behavior. “I see you aren’t having a pleasant dream,” said a mare at my side. She hadn’t been there a moment ago but that was fine. “She’s finally getting around to fixing the famine I caused when I asked for coffee instead of tea,” I explained. “That caused a famine?” the mare asked. “With Celestia missing and word getting out that the new leader of Equestria preferred coffee, the tea plantations all went bankrupt,” I said. “It caused a famine because of complicated subsidy laws.” “Interesting,” the mare said. “And this all happened within a day or two?” I groaned. “The only thing I’m good at is causing disasters.” “Most bad dreams I deal with are more exciting than this,” Luna said. “I find it difficult to believe that somepony who spends their time blasting monsters finds paperwork to be so troubling.” I turned to look at Luna. “So is this like that dream I had the other night where you were…?” “Hm?” Luna tilted her head. “Which dream was that?” “Oh, um, uh…” I coughed. “Nothing.” “I see.” She smiled knowingly. “Nothing at all, then. Perhaps part of the reason I’ve had trouble finding you is that my own dreams are so similar.” “...They are?” I wondered if she had dreams where I was the big spoon. She was a much larger mare than I was, but it wouldn’t be the first time two ponies made it work when-- “I’ve had too many dreams about Celestia fixing my mistakes,” she specified. Not the kind of dream I’d been thinking of for a moment, then. I was glad I hadn’t asked for details. “Ever since I came back, I’ve felt like a ruler without subjects,” she said. “Ponies don’t need me.” “What?” I frowned up at her. “What are you talking about?” “Equestria survived a thousand years without me,” Luna noted. “They didn’t even have the memory of me. Oh, I can offer them some solace in their dreams they wouldn’t have otherwise, but touching a few lives every night does not make me the savior of Equestria.” “But you do help those ponies, right?” I asked. “And it’s something Celestia can’t do. Just because they suffered for a thousand years doesn’t mean you’re not helping. I mean, the pony who invented the lightbulb wasn’t a failure just because ponies already had candles.” “Even if you’re right, there are so many I can’t help, or reject me.” Luna shook her head. “The worst feeling is knowing that what haunts them in dreams is only a shadow of the real world. Giving a foal one night of restful sleep will not make them stop worrying about their parents yelling at each other. A pony who is in debt may be glad his creditors don’t follow him into his dreams but it doesn’t make the bills go away.” “So you just help them sleep and leave them alone?” I asked. “Of course not. I try to find them in the waking world and send them aid.” “Then you’re not doing nothing. You’re saving ponies that nopony else even knows are in trouble.” I smiled at her. “I bet there are a bunch of ponies that you’ve helped that nopony else could have. Even if it’s only a few it makes the effort worth it, right?” Luna nodded. “It does,” she agreed quietly. “And you’ve done the same. Saved ponies who wouldn’t have been saved by another. Speaking of which, Ruby Drop has been having nightmares about you.” “I scared her,” I whispered. “She is scared for you, not of you,” Luna corrected. “She wants you to come back. She thinks she did something wrong and drove you away. The two of you are fixated on your own guilt.” “I can’t come back right now,” I said. “Ah, yes,” Luna snorted with laughter. “I’ve heard some details. Is it true that you’ve somehow found yourself engaged to Princess Shahrazad?” “Sort of.” Even in a dream I couldn’t stop myself from blushing. Luna raised an eyebrow. “I did not know you were such a ‘swinger’ as the kids say.” “Well first, the kids don’t say that, but also I’m not. It was supposed to be a reward for saving her life from assassins. I kind of walked into it like a blind pony finding a brick wall the hard way.” “I was not aware that ponies were often tricked into marriage with royalty. I feel as though I have missed out. Is there some particular snare that is used, or does one simply leave a trail of bait and await a suitor?” “If the other pony is stupid enough, apparently all you need is a sob story,” I groaned. “She’s the second or third most confusing mare I’ve ever met.” “I assume you put yourself at the top of the list.” “No, just another pony I met here,” I said. “I probably should be in first place, though. I don’t even understand me, and I am me!” “Most ponies don’t understand themselves,” Luna said. “But whatever is going on, you should know this. You are worthy of the love of a Princess. Of loving and being loved by another.” “No. It’s just a trick. She wanted me to keep her safe from assassins, but… I’m starting to think she really just wanted to use me for something. I don’t understand her game.” I shook my head. “She’s playing me and I can’t even figure out why.” “All rulers play the same game,” Luna said. “The game is simple. Stay in power. Get more power. Once you have the power, use it. Some rulers are benevolent. My sister spent a thousand years forging peace on the threat that if she was displeased the sun would not rise.” “What? She’s never threatened that!” “Not in a very long time, no.” Luna looked directly at me. “Are you safe?” “That’s a very broad question.” “So no, then,” she said. “What can I do to help?” “You could peek into her dreams and tell me if she actually hired assassins herself, or if her uncle did it, or if it’s a third party entirely,” I said. “But if she did hire them, why is she blaming her uncle when she’s the next in line for the throne anyway? What’s the point of keeping me close if there’s no real danger? And what in Tartarus is going on with the wishes?” “I cannot simply interrogate her,” Luna apologized. “It would be against the oaths I have sworn to protect the dreaming.” “Great,” I sighed. “Then could you… tell Celestia and Ruby and everypony else that I’m sorry?” I swallowed. “I messed up. A lot. And then I ran away.” “You can tell them yourself when you come back,” Luna said. “But I will let them know you are safe, and that you regret what you did. You should know that it was not entirely your fault. Discord can alter the mind of a pony, and I can still sense the traces of his magic on you.” “It doesn’t matter. I still did it.” “I understand,” Luna said. “We must part. You are beginning to wake. I will tell the others I have managed to send you a message, and try to keep Twilight Sparkle from taking the next ship to Saddle Arabia. I believe she has something of a small crush on you.” “What?” “It makes me somewhat jealous,” Luna said. She leaned in closer, her lips close to mine and-- I woke up. Sunlight streamed through the window. “Horseapples,” I groaned. “You know, you could try leaving a note or something,” Flash Sentry sighed. “I figured someone in the embassy would tell you,” I lied. “And I asked you to watch Shahrazad anyway. I don’t need protecting.” “You need somepony sane telling you when you’re making a bad decision,” Flash said. “I don’t trust anyone in that palace to do it. There are more maids spying on each other and passing notes than there are actually cleaning anything.” “I’m more worried about knives than notebooks,” I said. “Paperwork can cause far more damage,” Vuvuzela mumbled. “Speaking of which, you are dripping clotted cream everywhere.” I looked down at my breakfast. It wasn’t anything special - scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam - but Vuvuzela didn’t seem to like that I was eating at what was supposed to be a worktable and was covered in documents. I cast a quick spell to clean the parchment I’d dripped on and picked it up to look. “Aren’t these details on the treaty?” I asked. “What happened to just signing everything and smiling for the camera?” “It pays to be diligent,” Vuvuzela said. “I don’t anticipate any problems but the exact wording of the treaty is important. Since the signing is now supposed to happen after your wedding, I need to ensure that it won’t have any effect on the clauses.” “I guess if I did sign it then, I’d be doing it as a member of the Saddle Arabian royal family instead of an Equestrian diplomat,” I considered. “There’s probably some kind of weird citizenship rules involved.” “Indeed,” Vuvuzela agreed. “Thankfully, this was a well-written document. The key point is that regardless of your status, you will be serving in an officially recognized capacity as a representative of Equestria. I suspect it doesn’t matter who signs this treaty as long as both Saddle Arabia and Equestria agree it was signed properly.” “Celestia’s been writing these things for a thousand years,” I shrugged. “She’s probably got a lot of practice getting the legalities right.” “Princess Celestia owes that part of her success to the work of the Equestrian Civil Service,” Vuvuzela corrected. “Though I suppose you are correct that they’ve had a thousand years of working around disasters to practice writing boilerplate that could stop a crossbow bolt.” I hefted the stack of papers. “I think you’re literal about that. If we made a few copies of this we could have Flash wear it as grammatically-correct armor.” “Not if I wanted to fly anywhere,” Lieutenant Sentry put in. I started flipping through some of the supplementary information. There was stuff here Cadance hadn’t had on the boat. “Say, is there anything about the silver coming from the moon?” I asked. “Shahrazad told me an old legend about it. I was wondering if there’s any truth behind it.” Vuvuzela made a sound in the back of his throat that I couldn’t interpret. I wasn’t sure if he was annoyed or interested. “I’m not even sure how we would begin to prove that.” “I guess you could ask Princess Luna,” Flash suggested. “I mean, it’ll be a few weeks before you get a letter back, but she’s the only pony who’s actually been to the moon, right?” I snorted. “I think asking her about the moon is a really good way to advance your career, if you don’t mind spending the next twenty years patrolling the border with Yakyakistan.” Flash swallowed. “It’s sort of a touchy subject, huh?” I shrugged and flipped through the pages. “She hasn’t even told me all that much. I think it was sort of like a dream. You wake up and all the details start to fade and all you’re left with is the feeling of it…” Something in the documents caught my eye. “Wait, every year until the mines closed, the amount of silver increased.” I frowned. “Even in the very last year of operation they note the discovery of a new vein. Why would they bother closing it if production was going up?” Vuvuzela sat back. “I’m not sure. It was something I was looking into as well. I had assumed at first that it had to do with devaluation of the base metal. Their currency is traded on a silver standard, but if anything they have been having a currency shortage.” “What?” I asked, confused. “Saddle Arabia has few exports,” Vuvuzela explained. “They import quite a bit. Even with the luxury goods that are sold, their currency is leaving the country. Economically, there are some puzzling issues, though they don’t make any of the numbers public.” I nodded slowly. I already had one corner piece Vuvuzela didn’t. They were doing something with wishes. “Whatever the reason was, it was kept a state secret,” Vuvuzela said. “The details are suppressed but it seems miners were killed in some kind of accident. There have been rumors about poisonous gas, cave-ins, and of course the usual tall tales about monsters.” “Did they try and blame it all on diamond dogs?” I asked. “I see you’re familiar with the usual direction these things go,” Vuvuzela said. “I guess it could have been sealed after an accident, but then to just leave it for so many years?” I shifted in my seat. Something uncomfortable pressed against my side. Without thinking, I took the silver box out and put it on the table, trying to sit more comfortably. “I hold some stock with the rumors that the royal family was involved,” Vuvuzela continued. “It was right around the time of some kind of purge or hunt, and… what is that? A jewelry box?” I glanced at it. I could see the way it drew his eye. “It was a gift,” I said. A gift made of silver, holding a wish. Silver that could have come from a mine that was sealed off by the royal family. A royal family that used wishes. My train of thought crashed from one station to another and my jaw dropped at the weight of the revelation. “Where did it come from?” Flash asked, slowly reaching for it. I grabbed it before he could touch it. “I didn’t know before, but I’m starting to figure it out,” I said. “A silver mine would be a perfect vault for something you need to store in a silver cage, wouldn’t it? One entrance, solid rock walls, silver in the walls themselves to make absolutely sure…” I shook my head. “No wonder they sealed it off! They must be using it as a giant storehouse!” I tossed the papers down, and Vuvuzela looked at me like I was crazy. “A storehouse for what?” he asked. “Something a lot more valuable than silver,” I said.