Behind the door, Aurelia let herself sink to the floor, knees bending and head dropping into her palms.
“Will you take care of my students, Aurelia? They are yet young, and they have need of a guardian. An older sister, perhaps?” He didn’t look away from his spellbooks, plucking objects carefully off of his cluttered shelves and fitting them into a stuffed saddlebag as if nothing was wrong.
In.
“But they-”
Out.
The fifteen-year-old didn’t get a chance to protest before being interrupted again, “I know you don’t like them, and perhaps I was too forward with the sibling notion, but promise me you’ll at least keep an eye on their antics? Try your best to keep the property damage to a minimum?”
In.
”If those petty, selfish foals want to act stupid and foolish, then I say let them!” Aurelia scoffed, rubbing her eyes furiously and very pointedly avoiding the disappointed gaze of the stallion, “Or.. if you really want to keep an eye on them, stay! Do it yourself!” She faltered suddenly, trembling silently and letting her bangs fall over her eyes, “Please. Father, stay. You don’t have to- to... Just don’t go. P-Please.”
He had to stay. He had to. Even if it meant staying for his students instead of staying for her. He loved them, didn’t he? He wouldn’t leave them behind all alone without anypony.
Unlike her.
Out.
She heard the sounds of a struggle outside. She felt the presence of Magic being flung around. She felt the cloak around her wings flicker and fail.
She heard Luna crying her name.
“Lula? Luna! What... What are you doing? ...LUNA!”
In.
“How... How could you?” Her chest clenched. “...Why?”
Out.
She heard her familiar’s sharp yowl. She heard the clang of spears. She heard the clack of heavy boots against her stone path.
Luna cried her name.
“What... What did you just say?” Her head whipped around to the moon she was currently studying, eyes wide, breaths speeding up as she suddenly saw the strange new craters in a horribly different light.
Aurelia gasped out a sob and her body shook silently. Magic swirled around her, a friend, it heeded her, it wished to help.
“No- LORELEI!”
It couldn’t.
“Come back... Any of you. C-Come back.” She didn’t see how any of this was fair.
She felt Magic flood her being instead, filling the alicorn’s wellspring to the brim and settling over her skin like a familiar cloak, providing all the comfort it could. Safe. Warm. Loving.
Aurelia wondered when she’d inevitably lose it too. And just upon that thought, she felt a strange reassurance, spoken not in the form of words. More of a sensation than anything.
It told her that it would never leave her.
But that was what all of them said.
The witch stared at the wooden planks below numbly as seconds ticked by. She had no idea how long she sat there. It felt like years.
She heard one of the guards telling the others to get their ‘Princess’ to safety. She felt them pass the wards again. She felt their wellsprings further. She felt their souls go.
His hand tilted her chin, her glistening amethyst eyes forced to meet his wizened, ever-serious ones. “He must be stopped, you know this.” She moved to look away again, but was stopped as the stallion brushed a stray bang away from her face, a rare display of parental love dancing between all the creases painting his features. “Promise me, Aurelia, please.” Silence. “Not even for me?
In.
”They don’t even know I exist- I’d just bring misfortune upon them or something- I- I-I...” She screwed her eyes shut. Why should she? Why should she? He wouldn’t stay for her, so why should she-
Out.
“...I-I promise.”
Aurelia started and looked down as Elvira squirmed into her lap, rubbing herself all over the small space and rolling onto her back, fluffy stomach in the air. The witch smiled faintly and sniffed. She uncurled a bit, running the quivering digits of one hand through the feline’s fur - occasionally knotting it a bit - with her other wiping at her face.
“Done already, Vira?” Aurelia croaked out with a small quiver in her voice. She received an affirming mew as her familiar rolled over and stood on her back legs, paws on her chest and head nuzzling her chin. “Thank you.” She whispered, bringing her knees tighter against her chest, pressing Elvira closer.
She tilted her face up and sighed, the top of her head pressing to the door as her eyes slipped shut.
“...Well, I love the night.” She would not allow hesitance to color her words now of all times.
...She would be lying to say she succeeded.
As expected, the young weeping mare froze, inhaling a sharp breath as she whipped around, horn ablaze. “Show thyself!”
In.
“For so long, We wished only for one to look upon my masterpiece the same way they looked upon that of my sister’s... What thou had said earlier... twas truth?”
“It... It was.”
Out.
“W-Why?” She blnked, mind blank all of a sudden. “I think... I just wanted somepony to talk to. Perhaps that was why I spoke out to you this time.”
How long had it been? She was so very tired. The warmth of Magic coddled her and Elvira’s comforting presence was a soothing balm against a burn, but still those were temporary. She knew they were.
She was so very tired of it all.
Luna should have stayed in her little castle. Who did she think she was? Who was she to come and go as she pleased? Who was she to come after all this time, when Aurelia had finally gotten everything under control?
Who was she to come to demand favors from her? Who was she to act as if they were still tight friends in a simpler time?
”I love you too, Lula.”
Who was... W-Who was she to...
“Ray?” The navy alicorn pursed her lips, shut her eyes, and leaned into the embrace, sighing contentedly. “I wish my sister was more like you.”
Aurelia didn’t care about Lunetta.
“Then tis but fair that We keep coming back!”
She looked up from her reflection in the water, eyes widening.
“Really?”
“This, We promise.”
Aurelia had nothing stopping her from just staying away. There was no reason she should have to help.
“...I-I promise.”
No reason at all.
“Next time, if you’re ever in trouble again, come to me. I promise you’ll always be safe here.” She said seriously, a dark shadow crossing her face only briefly before she pursed her lips at her friend’s good-natured eye roll.
Her teeth grit.
This same old song and dance. Every. Single. Time. Well, they always did say hindsight was twenty-twenty.
And yet...
Finally, with a heavy sigh, she picked herself off of the floor, catching a certain startled feline just in time as she let her eyes flutter open.
She was just tired. So very tired of it all.
Magic squeezed her in a tight embrace. Supportive, caring, just there... “Help me pack, Vira. I... have a feeling that this will take a while.”
So why couldn’t she just let things go? It had been... so long.
The witch told herself that she was not doing it for them. Because she didn’t care for anypony anymore.
And she didn’t. That was truth.
The stories, myths, and exaggerations of her kind varied in every culture, every race. Some told of mental magics, some told of limitless magical prowess, some weaved tales of an irresistible charm - a sweet glamour of innocence drawing poor creatures in, like a spider’s web - and others claimed deals with the demons Tartarus themselves.
Some were true, some were false. But only the witches themselves knew the truth - it was perhaps what made them so dangerous.
Only a rare few of these stayed constant, one of which being that-
-Witches could lie, and they could be convincing too.