//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 
// Story: The Witch of Canterlot 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

I should have been running off to action. Every bone in my body was screaming for me to launch into an adventure, start throwing spells around, and blast something until I had answers and had kicked open enough doors to find one with a solution hiding on the other side.
But I couldn’t.
“Are you comfortable, your highness?”
“I was until you tried getting that title to fit,” I said. “I think it’s a few sizes too big.”
I looked up at the attendant. There were a few working on me, and I felt sorry for how little they actually had to work with. My cloak was carefully folded off to the side along with my saddlebags, and they were trying to decide how to put a dress together around me. The leader was a mare old enough to be my mother (and by that I mean maybe twenty or thirty years older than me, not old enough to be Celestia) and seemed as unshakable as a rock.
“Would ‘My Lady’ be acceptable?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said. “I’d prefer my name but I get the impression you’d be even less comfortable with that than I am with being compared to royalty.”
“Thank you for considering my needs, My Lady,” she said, bowing her head and watching the maids working to fit a sleeve on the partly-completed dress. “We also hope that the color and patterns are acceptable.”
“It’s good,” I agreed. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at it, so I was lying through my teeth. “I’ve been told purple goes well with my coat.”
“It does, My Lady,” the attendant agreed. “A dark shade works pleasingly as a contrast with your pale coat.”
“I probably need to spend more time outside without a black cloak on,” I admitted. “It’ll be nice having a new dress. I didn’t bring any with me, and I haven’t had a private fitting in… well, probably not as long as most ponies, but if I don’t know if it’ll happen again.”
“I am sure my lady will be fitted for many dresses,” the attendant said. “Princess Shahrazad has a dress for every occasion.”
“Does she?” I asked, smiling. “Let me guess. She says once she’s been seen with a dress in public she can’t wear it again because ponies will think she can’t afford a new dress.”
“That has been one excuse Princess Shahrazad has used,” the attendant said, leaning in to speak more quietly.
“I have seen her closet,” the seamstress at my flank whispered. “She even keeps the dresses she had as a filly! She never throws them away!”
“Maybe it’s less about the dress and more about the memories,” I suggested. “I’ve had a few things like that. Of course, for me it was more like a trophy cabinet.” I sighed. “It was about the idea that I’d gotten Celestia to give me something. Ugh, I was such an awful pony…”
“The fact you are disgusted by your own past actions suggests you have learned something since then,” the attendant said. “Perhaps you won’t be as terrible of an influence on the Princess as the rumors suggested.”
“Oh no, the rumors are definitely right,” I snorted. “I’ll probably have her doing crimes and getting arrested before the end of the week.”
“Then we should make you presentable for your inevitable arrest,” the attendant said. They clapped their hooves, and mares to either side of me who’d been waiting for the signal closed in like Thestralian hookbirds.
I’m not going to try and play cool and tell you I stoically allowed myself to be primped and preened. There was just no way for me to fight back. They had the grace of a Wonderbolts team, and enough coordination and speed to disassemble a train on the move and put it back together without even slowing it down.
If they’d been assassins I’d have been helplessly overmatched because they turned aside any attempt to fight back with manebrushes and makeup. I was left coughing in a cloud of blush before they peeled away with a final spritz of perfume.
“Was that really necessary?” I groaned.
The attendant clapped her hooves. “Why don’t you tell us?”
At her signal, a mirror was wheeled out in front of me. Again, I was completely out of cool and very stoically flinched and would have run if I didn’t freeze up instead.
The mare in the mirror didn’t look like me. They’d pulled my mane back into a bun, leaving a few swirling bangs to frame my face. The dress was off-white and a few shades of blue that I didn’t have words for but I knew Rarity would have swooned over. The cut was asymmetrical, hanging mostly over one shoulder and leaving the other free to reveal a tight, long sleeve, almost like a formal military uniform crossed with a ballroom dress.
“Do you like it?” Shahrazad asked. I looked up past my own shoulder in the mirror. She was standing in the doorway with a small smile.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a dress sewn together while I was wearing it.”
“It’s more common than you would think,” Shahrazad said, walking up to me and using the mirror to adjust her tiara. “Many dresses are designed to be worn only once, so buttons and zippers are rather unneeded. Instead, they are supposed to be torn from the wearer in a fit of passion!”
“Is this that kind of dress?” I asked.
“Mmm. If only.” Shahrazad sighed sadly. “Unfortunately I see a line of buttons. I suspect it can be removed in more pedestrian fashion.”
“That’s not so bad. I might want to wear it more than once.”
“Good. It wouldn’t do to ruin it before I can show off your real beauty to my ponies,” Shahrazad said. She reached over to take my hoof, squeezing lightly. “You look like royalty. Save perhaps for a crown, but one will be arranged before long.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. I reached out to touch my reflection. “It’s funny, I used to see a view like this pretty often.”
“Back when you lived in Canterlot, yes?” Shahrazad asked. “The first time. I confess I did look into your past and it seems you once had a taste for the finer things.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “I still do, but I always end up feeling guilty about it. Mom-- um, I mean, Princess Celestia says I need to learn to enjoy them again.”
“As always, the advice of a Princess is correct,” Princess Shahrazad said. “I would know as my own advice is also always right. There is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself when nopony else is suffering because of it. You having an extra serving of dessert does not mean you are taking it out of the hooves of a starving orphaned foal.”
“I know. And even at my worst, I wasn’t as bad as somepony like Blueblood.” I paused. “Huh. I really never was that bad. Even when I was under all that stress from Discord.”
“Naturally. You are driven to be heroic. I think if a pony dangled a quest to find the lost shards of Princess Amore in front of you, you would spend months trying to find bits of crystallized pony without even questioning it.”
“It’s the kind of bad habit that you get when you live on your own,” I said. “I mean, I wasn’t totally alone. There was Zecora, and then I started meeting ponies in Ponyville. The point is that I had to learn to do things for myself. It puts you in the mindset of seeing a problem and wanting to stamp down on it, you know?”
Shahrazad laughed a little. “I’m glad that you’re here, then. There are a great many problems that need to be fixed, and sometimes I worry that nothing will be done about them.”
“I can think of a few things,” Sunset agreed.
“You, however, do not need to be fixed.” Shahrazad smiled. “You are strong, brilliant, and beautiful. Whatever you see in the mirror should reflect that instead of what you fear to see in yourself.”
“Easier said than done,” I sighed.
“Most things are, aside from apologies.” Shahrazad stepped closer. “There is another matter I wish to speak to you about. It is… delicate.”
The attendant bowed and left, along with the servants. Shahrazad waited for us to be alone before she continued.
“My uncle might be making his final move,” she said. “It may be nothing, or it may be everything. According to my sources, he has been seen treading the secret paths that will take him to the silver mines. This may seem like nothing at all, but in truth--”
“Wishes,” I said, cutting her off. She blinked in surprise. I adjusted my mane, making her wait a moment. It was what Celestia always did to me when I was trying to make a big reveal, and it felt nice to do it to somepony else. I waited until she’d almost composed herself before continuing. “I figured out a while ago that you were using the mine for that purpose. All the silver in the rocks made it a natural place to do it, right? And that’s also why you couldn’t let it be mined out.”
“...I wasn’t aware you knew,” Shahrazad said.
“I’m not that far behind,” I said. “Were you ever going to tell me yourself?”
“I was just about to!” Shahrazad protested.
“Only under duress. If your uncle wasn’t going there right now you wouldn’t. Am I right?”
“...It’s the royal family’s most closely guarded secret,” Shahrazad said, quietly. “There are things your Princess Celestia wouldn’t want known, either, yes?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m not holding it against you. I’ve got other questions, and I want answers while you help me get this dress off without ripping it, because it really is nice and I kinda want to wear it later.”
Shahrazad nodded and began assisting me with the clasps. I really needed the help. I couldn’t see all of them in the mirror.
“First, why did he wait until now?” I asked.
“I think you scare him,” Shahrazad said. “He believes you are going to move if he does not. He believes you lust for power and authority, the same power and authority that could be his if not for certain obstacles.”
“Those obstacles being you and your father?”
“Indeed.”
“Why does he think a coup would succeed? Celestia always taught me that power isn’t just a throne. It’s the will of the people. They have to allow you to be in charge or you have nothing.”
“Wishes are the only thing keeping Saddle Arabia alive. They will follow him because they have no choice. Anypony who holds the throne cannot be opposed because it would be suicide.”
“Great,” I sighed, stepping out of the dress, finally. “And he’s going down there, to what, make a wish to put himself in power?”
“I don’t know, but going there at all…” Shahrazad bit her lip. “I am worried.”
I took a deep breath and levitated the dress over to the side, putting it down carefully. “You want me to stop him.”
“Nopony else can,” Shahrazad said. “He is part of the royal family, my love. To expect one of our subjects to stand against him…”
“I’m starting to think that’s not a very healthy attitude. I’ll go, but I can’t do this alone. I need help. How many other ponies know about the mine?”





“Anyway, I figure since you hate me, you’re the most trustworthy pony here,” I said. “I’d take Flash but I feel like you don’t want Equestrian soldiers going into your secret mine full of wishes.”
Sirocco Mandala closed her eyes and rubbed her nose. “I want to say I don’t hate you but you make it extraordinarily difficult.” Her office was exactly what I expected. It was spartan to the point of being little more than a bare chamber with a desk in the corner. There was hardly even any paperwork, and nothing at all for comfort.
“How about you thank me for bringing this to your attention?” I suggested.
“Thank you,” Sirocco said. “For causing trouble and putting it in my lap.”
“I’m going to pretend you’re thanking me and not just sarcastically stating what I’m asking you to do,” I said, winking. “But seriously, I don’t want to do this alone. Also I don’t know where the mines are, and apparently Shahrazad isn’t clear on it either.”
“No, it’s a secret held only by the Aretic Order and the crown. Prince Balthazar shouldn’t have been able to find the location either,” Sirocco said. “Only the current ruler is allowed to know the location.”
“...What would have happened when the mines were re-opened?” I asked. “Because at least some ponies would have to know about the location…”
“The mine being opened is something I directly advised against,” Sirocco snapped. “I suspect either Shahrazad or Balthazar pushed for it specifically to get the location.”
“Cool, so you suspect them both too,” I said, nodding. “That’s good. But can we maybe speed this up? He’s supposedly already on the way and I’d really like to nip this in the bud instead of facing whatever terror he unleashes.”
Sirocco stood up. “I hate to admit you’re right. I don’t have time to debate this with you, and unfortunately… well, I’ll explain on the way. We have a bit of a walk.”
“Great!” I said. “So where’s the mine? My bet is directly below the throne room.”
“That would be incredibly unwise,” Sirocco muttered. “You have noticed this castle is a bulwark, haven’t you? It’s the wall keeping the last great city of Saddle Arabia safe. Why would we lock ourselves in with something so dangerous?”
“You mean it’s outside the wall? But then…”
“We’ll be going there as well. Here.” She pulled open a wardrobe and threw a cloak and facemask at me. “You’ll want this. If there’s a sandstorm you will want eye protection and a filter to breathe. I apologize it’s not all in black.”
“I’ll manage,” I said. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“I’m left with no choice,” Sirocco said. “Don’t thank me.”





I wasn’t sure what I expected. I’d heard descriptions of the Saddle Arabian desert, but it wasn’t anything like this. I’d seen the San Palamino desert, and that was beautiful desolation. This was just… a wasteland. It felt ruined and drained.
We walked along a path that Sirocco apparently knew purely from memory, moving from one landmark to another.
“These used to be streets,” Sirocco said, over the wind. “A manor there. A store there.” She stopped in front of a ruined statue sticking crookedly out of the sand, just four legs broken off at the knee standing proud and supporting nothing, the details washed away by centuries of blowing grit.
I swept some of the sand off the base, revealing a faint inscription.
“I think I can translate this,” I muttered. “Hero of the Great Hunt, Slayer of Djinn. The name is too faint to read.”
“All the stories of heroism and sacrifice are lost,” Sirocco said. “Made secret and then forgotten. The royal family barely even knows why we hunted the djinn down. They know in the abstract, yes, but they’ve made wishes safe, tamed, and they forget the bad times. The Aretic Order doesn’t forget.”
“You’d think all those loose wishes would have given them some kind of clue,” I said.
“Mm.” Sirocco nodded. “I spoke to the king about it myself. He refused to even consider stopping their use, despite the obvious dangers. Safety measures are only safe until somepony finds a way to break them. I am told you, for example, are an expert at such.”
“I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but yes, I am,” I said.
Sirocco shook her head and led me down another winding path between dunes, passing pillars and broken slabs of carved stone.
“The miners lived here, back when there was mining,” she said. “We’re close.”
“Great,” I sighed. “It’s hard to breathe through this mask.”
“It’s harder to breathe without it,” she cautioned. “The sand is extremely fine. It can get into your stomach, your lungs, until your insides are choked with it.”
“That sounds like a bad time.”
“If you take off the mask, it would be extremely painful.” Sirocco stopped in front of the first standing structure I’d seen. “Here.”
“It looks like a bank,” I said. It had those high ceilings, thick walls, and not a lot of windows or doors. I’d say it looked like a fortress but it had that sense of gravitas that only comes with a lot of money instead of military might.
“It was a precious metal mine,” Sirocco noted. “It was important to have control over the ore. It was built to hold off an army of rioting ponies.”
“Guess that explains why it lasted this long, but I was expecting something a little more…” We stepped inside, and without the glare of the sun and sand I was able to see and was shocked into silence. There were bones scattered everywhere. Skeletons in uniforms surrounding a ramp down blocked by iron bars.
“A little more what?” Sirocco asked.
“What the buck happened here?” I whispered.
“...A failure,” Sirocco muttered. “The Aretic Order’s greatest failure. I don’t want to speak of it.”
I took a deep breath. “This has something to do with the wishes.”
“I can’t go further. I swore an oath.” Sirocco sighed. “The seals have all been broken, so you should be able to get in without trouble.”
“You can’t go further?” I asked. “But-- that’s why I brought you here!”
“I’m sorry,” Sirocco said. “Even bringing you here is against what I’ve sworn. Going down there, though…” she shook her head.
“Great. Thanks for the directions, I guess. You could have just said walk a mile out into the desert, hang a left and look for the only building.” I rolled my eyes.
“You’re sarcastic of course, but what I can do is watch your back. No one will be able to surprise you without getting past me.” Sirocco nodded to the ramp. “If you fail, I will keep him from escaping.”
“It sounds like you’re sort of counting on me failing.”
“I’m counting on you to be able to do things I can’t,” Sirocco said, quietly. “I’m bound by oath and tradition. You’re free in ways I can’t be. You can go down into those mines and exterminate the evil once and for all.”
I looked at her. There wasn’t sharp guile or a mask. Just old hurt. Older than I could imagine. Surrounded by all those bones, bound by those oaths, I could almost feel it too. I could have made a snippy comment at her or tried to convince her to do it, but I knew what it was like to feel cornered.
“Okay,” I said. I put a hoof on her shoulder. “I’ll make sure things are settled. I know what promises are like.”





To be honest? Never been in a mine before. I’ve got no idea what’s normal and what isn’t. I was vaguely aware that there were usually mine carts, and rails, and they put wooden beams up as supports, but I’d never really learned about them except in the vaguest terms.
“If I make it back to Equestria alive, I’m never going on a mission anywhere alone by myself ever again,” I mumbled. “I should have forced her to let me take Flash with me. At least then I’d have backup and not just ‘oh no I have to wait outside, good luck in the scary abandoned mine where somepony is probably waiting to kill you.’”
At least there only seemed to be one obvious way to go. My sense of direction wasn’t great, but I suspected it was generally back in the direction of the palace. If so, though, why wouldn’t they have another entrance to make it easier to get wishes in and out of storage? If it had been up to me, I’d have collapsed this whole tunnel and had the door to the vault where I could see it.
The floor of the mine was fetlock-deep in grey sand with a strange weight to it, like it had been made of lead and cold iron. I could mostly keep myself on top of it, but it made for unsteady walking, especially since I was worried about falling into a pit.
Something occurred to me after way too long.
“Wait, there should be hoofprints…” Only one way in and one way out, right? So if Balthazar was really already here, why hadn’t he left a trail?
I stopped and considered making my way back. If he wasn’t here yet I could intercept him with Sirocco and let her take all the credit for whatever happened. And when I say credit, I mean blame because there’s no way attacking a member of the royal family was going to end with me getting another parade.
While I was thinking of how to avoid being accused of treason, the whole cavern shook around me, vibrating like I was in a pipe organ. The sand around my hooves crept and crawled and started moving, and my own hoofsteps vanished like ripples in a stream.
“This feels familiar,” I muttered. I watched the sand, and it started flowing, moving like a slow stream down, and if it didn’t take a sharp corner I might have thought it was just going downhill.
I followed it. There weren’t a lot of choices anyway, but it felt like the right thing to do. And what do you know? It was exactly the right thing to do. I turned the next corner and saw light at the end, a flickering orange flame that proved to be a lantern.
“Hey,” I said, to the pony holding it.
Balthazar turned, not surprised at all.
“I knew it,” he said. “So you really are here.”
“I have a bad habit of meddling,” I admitted.
“Indeed. And now you’ve violated Saddle Arabia’s most private sanctuary.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bold way thing to say when you got here first.”
“I am a member of the Royal Family. I have the right to be here.” Balthazar took a step back and drew a slim sword. I’m not sure why ponies here loved swords so much when they were awkward to use with hooves. At least spears made sense - earth ponies could put a lot of force into them when they charged. Swords were only really good with a lot of training and, frankly, the kind of grip you got with magic instead of hooves.
“You’ve probably heard the rumors,” I shrugged mildly. “There are ponies who are afraid of ‘No Trespassing’ signs, but I’m not one of them.”
I stepped closer. We were still far away enough from each other that I was well out of reach of the sword. And that’s when things went wrong.
The ground shifted under my hooves in a way I was newly familiar with.
“Oh, not this again!” I shouted, as walls rose up around me, formed out of the silvery sand. Somehow, the dust managed to shift tone and even subtly change its color, becoming like a grainy monochromatic photo. “It’s just like the Arena!”
Balthazar watched the sand move, and I could tell he was caught off-guard just as much as I was. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t doing it. Especially since when everything snapped into focus, I knew it was something he’d never have been able to recreate.
“What is this?” He muttered.
We were standing in the blackened, burned-out remains of a wooden structure that had very recently been the subject of a major structural fire. The building seemed huge, with doorways that loomed twice as tall as they had in reality.
“It’s part of Canterlot,” I said, my throat dry.
“Why is everything so big?” He asked, stepping around a fallen, singed chair bigger than he was.
“That’s just how it seems when you’re a foal,” I said. “You remember everything being bigger than it is, because you don’t grow up in your memories.”
“I’m sure there’s a tragic explanation for all this,” Balthazar said. “In other circumstances, I’d sit down with you and try to talk about this, but I fear the fate of my nation and its ponies are at stake.” He started circling to my side, testing each step before committing to it, like he was worried the floor might give out under him.
“We’ll chat after I’ve dragged you out--” Something grabbed my hoof before I could say something clever.
I glanced down, and bones were wrapped around my fetlock, a grinning skull pulling itself out of the sand and ashes, some of the grit clinging to it like a shroud.
“Great. Necromancy,” I muttered, kicking myself free before it could get a better hold and hopping back a step. “Don’t you have any respect for the… dead?”
I turned to Balthazar, and he was trying to free himself from two more skeletons that had grabbed his robes and had a much better grip on him. He swung his sword down and decapitated one, though it almost immediately started to reform.
There wasn’t a lot of time to think, so I blasted the second one.
“Not yours?” I asked.
“No,” he said, backing away quickly. More skeletons rose up, all twitching and monochrome, covered in shifting black dust that swirled around the frame of their bones like thick ebon oil, looking at one moment like burned foals and another like members of the Aretic order.
“Can I suggest a temporary truce until we can debate killing each other in peace?” I asked.
He nodded. “Agreed. Neither of us is looking forward to being consumed by the undead.” Balthazar batted away a lunge from another skeleton, and I threw a wave of force at them that tossed the skeletons into the wall. The bones slid to the ground and immediately started to reform, limbs snapping back into place like they were drawn by magnets.
“This could be a problem,” I said. “They don’t want to stay down.”
“Isn’t that normal for the undead?” Balthazar asked. “I apologize if it’s a stupid question. Before you came to Saddle Arabia my days were wonderfully free of having to deal with horrors like this.”
That got a laugh out of me. “That’s like blaming the maid for messing up your room just because they’re always there when your bed is unmade.”
“Some maids moonlight as thieves,” he countered. “Is there any way out of here? Running might be a better option than staying.”
“...Yeah. This way!” I charged for the doorway, knocking a skeleton away with my shoulder on the way through. I still knew the layout like the back of my hoof. Even running away from my problems was second nature.
The front door was closed, which would have been a problem for me as a foal. As an adult, doors were a suggestion for polite ponies to stay out. I wasn’t feeling particularly polite.
“Knock knock!” I blasted the doors apart, and they half-shattered like wood and half-crumbled like sand, like it wasn’t able to keep up with what I was doing.
Balthazar ran through after me, and we were on Canterlot’s streets. Sort of.
“This place wouldn’t have manifested that building unless you had lingering regrets!” Balthazar yelled. “It’s trying to make you wish for something, to change things!”
“It’s been ages since I thought about that place,” I said. I stopped, looking around. “We’ve got a minute before they catch up. I don’t know why you decided to come down here and steal wishes, but it’s stupid and we should just leave. If we can find a way out.”
“Me? Steal wishes?” Balthazar looked offended. “I came here to stop you from stealing wishes! My sources have proven you’re the one who’s been giving them out, and I needed to stop you before you used them for yourself!”
“What? I mean, you’re not entirely wrong but-- I didn’t steal them!” I paused. “You know, there’s no version of the truth that’s going to make me seem like both a good and smart pony in this.”
“Bold of you to assume you’re either.”
“Ha ha, laugh it up,” I muttered.
“There’s no laughs to be had. My niece came to me in tears and told me you forced her to tell you where the wishes were kept!” Balthazar turned his sword to me, looked me in the eyes, and the tip drooped. “And I begin to suspect you have a similar story.”
“She told me you sent the assassins after her,” I said. “And today she came to me and said I had to rush down here and stop you.”
“And the Arena?” Balthazar asked. “You replaced my champion’s sword with a deadly double, and poisoned Shahrazad’s with something you were conveniently immune to.”
“She begged me to take his place after you poisoned him, and your champion smuggled in a sword to try and murder me.” I said, without much force behind it. “I’m starting to think both of us are bucking idiots.”
“Oh, I am with you on that,” Balthazar agreed. 
“Neither of us want to be here?” I asked.
“Neither of us,” he agreed. “It’s absurdly dangerous.”
“I’ve got an idea,” I said. “If this is made from my memories, maybe we need to go where I felt happiest and safest.”
The undead lurched out of the shadows, closing in on us.
“And that is?” Balthazar asked, moving his sword to point it at the real enemy.
“The palace. It has to be.” I looked around. Part of the fake skyline changed, one spire brightening like polished silver while the rest tarnished. “That way!”
We started running through the streets, the cobbles shifting underhoof. It was like going on a treadmill, and the more we ran, the further away it seemed. Just when I was about to give up, we turned onto a wide street and there it was, the castle gates right ahead of me. I could just see something in the highest tower, a white mare, catching the light.
“Watch out!” Balthazar yelled.
The floor gave out. There was a terrible sensation of falling, and then I hit the sand hard, and it closed over me, rushing like a river. I could feel myself being swept along helplessly by the current. A rock hit my bad leg and I would have cried out if I could breathe with the grit crushing my ribs.
Somewhere between a second and an eternity later, the rushing quicksand spat me up on a monochrome and forested shore.
“Even your old regrets are dangerous to be around,” Balthazar muttered, coughing. “I think I swallowed about ten pounds of sand.”
“That was--” I coughed, trying to catch my breath. “--That was the time I nearly drowned. It was a really bad week.”
He helped me up. I looked at my leg, fearing the worst. I half-expected it to be broken again. Thankfully it just seemed tender.
“Try to make your other regrets about something less deadly,” Balthazar suggested. “Perhaps some overdue library books?”
“Why aren’t we seeing any of your shameful greatest hits?” I asked.
“Yours must be considerably more… tasty,” Balthazar said. “For lack of a better word.”
“I don’t like the implications of that,” I said. I limped through the treeline. In reality it would have just kept going into the Everfree, but here it opened up into the streets of Ponyville like a bad dream.
“Watch out,” Balthazar said, pointing.
Six skeletons stepped onto the street.
“Of course it’s them,” I whispered. Each of the skeletons was shrouded in a translucent face I knew well. My best friends. Twilight. Rarity. Rainbow Dash, Applejack. Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie. Some of the ponies I’d disappointed the most. “This place is really determined to piss me off.”
“Enemies of yours?” Balthazar asked.
“No. Friends. I wronged them, and ran away instead of facing up to it because they were heroes and I wasn’t.” I swallowed. “I just screw things up when I try to help. Like this whole mess.”
“If it helps, I forgive you for this mess as it appears we were both deliberately misled.”
“The technical term is ‘played like a darn fiddle,’” I said.
The only way out was through. I grabbed the spectre of Pinkie Pie and threw it at Dash, both of them collapsing into dust. They might have looked like my friends, or at least like a bad photocopy of them, but I knew it wasn’t them.
“Should I…?” Balthazar asked.
“No,” I said, pulling the others into one mass using a gravity spell before detonating it and sending their bones flying. “I got it.”
The streets of Ponyville started to fade. Buildings collapsed into dust.
“That must be the end of it,” Balthazar said, looking around. “I think when it created that river it drew us deeper into the cavern. This isn’t the same room we walked into.”
“No,” I agreed. “This is deeper, and…” He was staring past my shoulder. There was something behind me. I could feel it creeping on my back.
I turned slowly. Massive chains, each link as big as my head and forged out of pure silver, formed a web that stretched hundreds of feet, from wall to wall.
Impossibly, Ruby Drop was there. She was a foal. She was half my size. The chains shouldn’t have been able to wrap around her legs, around her neck, binding her in place so tight that she couldn’t move. They should have been comically large. I could feel the whole thing pulling at my senses like an optical illusion.
She smiled.
“You’re not my friend,” I said.
“I am not your enemy, either,” Ruby whispered.
“Balthazar?” I asked. “What are you seeing?”
“A great beast,” he said. “A dragon, shrouded in fire and smoke.”
“That’s not what I see,” I said, not elaborating. “It must be some kind of illusion.”
“You see what you expect to see,” Ruby explained. “You saw your friends. Your past. You expected your greatest regret to show up as some final challenge against your temperance. And here I am.”
“I don’t regret Ruby,” I said.
“No. But there is great want there. Enough that I can taste the pain. Pain I could satisfy if you would just wish for it. But… you won’t.” She looked disappointed. “I could be your salvation, Sunset Shimmer. I could make your friends forgive you. For anything! For everything! They could love you forever.”
“I don’t need your help,” I said. “They’re my friends. I know if I go back and apologize they’ll forgive me.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” she -- it -- said. “I can feel that pain inside you.”
“I believe in them,” I said, quietly. “I’ve been really stupid about a lot of things, but they’re the ponies I can really count on. No deal.”
“It’s ironic,” it said, its eyes glowing. “You were able to get through the barrier because you outgrew so many of your old desires, and now that you’re in front of me you have no wishes you cannot grant yourself.”
“Oh, it isn’t ironic,” said a familiar voice behind me. “It’s just as planned.”
Arch stepped out of the shadows.
“Hey, sister,” she said, waving to me. “Let me tell you, this whole mess was a little bit of a gambit on my part but you really pulled through in the end. Truth is I couldn’t have done it without you!” She smiled and shook her head. “Good work, kid.”