It was a cold, hard and snowy day, near the edge of Equestria's Eastern border. I was boarding a train to, what I thought would be the old ruin of "Our Town", or simply, the town with no name. It had existed for years, with me, Twi, AJ, Flutters, Pinks, and Rares all coming in to investigate a few months ago. We found a series of lies and deceits in the upper part of the municipal government, and exposed it to the people, who began packing, yet none of them accepted my invitation to see the town again today. I stepped off the cold metal train, with the conductor looking at me with a strange look. What I found was surprising, and warranted a different look.
There was nothing for miles but an old house, that very old town hall we broke into, seeing piles of loot and paint for "The mayor without a cutie-mark" to hoard. It turned out she had a cutie-mark, and that she was a corrupt son of a bitch to her townsfolk, or at least, that was what I thought happened, based on what we found that day. As I turned my head, there was a farm of grass and other basic supplements for an isolated, mountain stay. But, it still felt strange. The grass wasn't wilting, but staying up, vibrant and green. I walked further, sighing, but then feeling a quaver down my spine while I processed at what I saw. It was clear someone was living by themselves, miles from anyone. But who? Did Celestia force them to do this? No, she didn't even know about it, and she was too good of a pony to do that. Did Twilight? Absolutely not, I concluded sharply. My wings fluttered between a nervous excitement and pure pity, swinging up and down, indecisive of where they wanted to stay. I wondered if the weather was ever regulated this far out from people, for a moment.
Then, my steps quickened as I heard sobbing. Then, I heard the definition of the sobbing. It was a mare's voice, yes, but it was sharp and low. Whether because of some feeling of chivalry that was... probably kinda sexist and over-bearing or just a feeling of duty, I started running, my wings folding inwards. My steps were clearly audible, a clamor of clopping, and since no one else was there with me, I didn't want or need to look behind. I saw her face. Damn, it was beautiful, her light, smoothed purple contrasting the teal, toothpaste like streak across the middle of her mane, which looked muted and eclipsed by her dark purple streaks, which seemed more intense. I saw she had a bit of blush, and a bit of lip-stick. It was pretty hard to realize who this was, until her eyes looked at mine. They were those faded-near blue-purples that signified the middle of the night. They glistened from her face, as I looked down for a moment.
It was the mare with no mark. I walked closer, now hesitant that she was faking it, but she seemed to change her face to a brooding intimidating one, confusing me far more. Did she want to make me think that she was a bad pony? I thought. I wondered what would happen if I stepped closer, the scraggle not being something I cared for at that moment. I walked closer, testing her and myself, her face shifting, trying to make me guess what she was. But, I thought I knew. She was sad. I finally got to the door, and knocked. There was a moment, where I could hear her breathing behind the door, stuttering to think about what to do.
I simply waited, now conscious of my own, and begging to breathe manually for a moment. The rocky mountains, which housed the house of the material, this dried wood, I could not tell the type of because I was neither a farmer nor a mare who understood grey wood very well, showed their rounded, hoof-made look to them.
It seemed as if whoever built this, simply stacked the logs for her. But why would that be so? She had hundreds of bits to herself, so she could simply order materials from the neighboring towns, like Sun city or Railroad town. Time was at a standstill for me as I took it all in. The smell of the wood was faint, but echoed of the ash of the mountain, and I stood there, hooves away from everything, simply feeling the air. My breathing continued, my lungs moved up and down slowly as it finally opened. It was slow, the door creaking as if it had no oil in the hinges, which I saw were made of something that made any modern blacksmith barf in his mouth, with it twisting and turning, seeming to fail to understand how a hinge should be square-shaped. With every other part twisting at slight angles looking incredibly unprofessional, even to me, a weather-pony by trade. But, it kept moving, as the room inside seemed dark enough that she may have thought it night at this time.
The other mare finally spoke after moments of silence.
"Why do you come here? Are you coming back to seize what I took?"
Her face drowned in a furrow as she moved her face as the dripping of a tear fell onto the wood.
"I...." I paused, my mouth agape as I seemed to form an o with my jaw, and then quickly snapped it down, creating a small, rough noise as I continued to speak. "I... don't know, anymore." I finally said.
“The mare with no mark” was not quick to respond as she kept the door there, the wind bouncing off my fur. She breathed. I did so as well. It was quiet for another moment, as my eyes started to adjust to the interior, with more brownish logs down on the floor, from what I could tell, and that ash-like smell going away after a moment.
"I mean, This just seems pathetic. If I were you... I'd move...No, don't take me for that kinda pony. Uh... well.... what have you been doing?" I asked, apprehension filling me as I began to shirk away from her for a moment. She moved her tongue slightly outwards, as she began to speak, her hooves pointing in my general direction as she began to speak again.
"Well, I've been reading what little I had left to read.", she finished, seeming to try to find the right balance between a lie and the truth as my eyes opened up further to the near darkness she put herself in. There was a candle, perhaps one of the last she had left, counting down, hour by hour as a book stood in front of her. Now, it smelt like wax and the walls and windows came to my eye, the yellow light building around me as I exited the blue light, finally trotting in. The door shut softly as I sat down, my eyes quickly darting.
I saw every trinket, bauble, and doubloon was in place, from a snow-globe with a mare dancing in it, next to her book, to a broken off arrowhead with something inscribed in Zebrish... or is it Zebraconi, I never remembered the name of it back in high school. But, I saw the bits, just sitting there, collecting dust. I started to wonder, with a frown probably coming to my face as I squirmed my head, which felt almost annoying for a moment as I sat down on the floor. My teeth ground for a moment, as I began to think. Why would she keep this to herself? To hoard? To remember? To hide? But what from, though? Canterlot? Celestia? Twilight? ...Someone like me?
The room had a cold air to it, feeling perhaps three degrees colder. I shivered. Her eyes tensed at me. "Do I scare you?" She said, her voice and shoulders moving down together, seemingly accepting that I was here now.
"Well, not really. It's just cold in here.", I said, my body vibrating.
Her horn shone a light blue as she began chanting in ancient Ponish. I heard her, and smiled, the verse was the chant I learned in school while studying basic Ancient. "Lorum," She began, "Lantun", she continued, "Londo," "Lindi" "Lantun" "Verstummm...." "KERSTO!" She ended, surprising me. The chant normally does not end like that, yet, the room seemed so much warmer and brighter. I breathed, smiling. She didn't seem like how she was months prior. Words placed themselves into my mind,
"WHY! WHY! EVERYONE WAS UNDER MY CONTROL! THEY KNEW IT! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THEM LEAVE ME!?"
She had said then as we left her line of sight on this mountainous frontier months ago. I thought about that now, as we stood in silence, each of us struggling to find words to say, mouths opening and closing like little telegrams bouncing back and forth.
"So... What's your name?" I asked. I had never asked for her’s, or even heard someone say other than the mare with no mark as her name. Otherwise, they’d just say Mayor.
"Oh, me? I'm Starlight Glimmer. Uh... Your's?" She asked, still looking apprehensive.
"I'm Rainbow Dash." I responded, my eyes looking down toward her foreleg, which was bouncing nervously.
That brought no relief to the silence as I looked around more. the wood was a light brown, perhaps... what is it, I thought. Oak? It was probably some common tree like that, but the inside seemed... far, far less intimidating than the outside. I tried to look again, my eyes squinting for anything new, but only found another, green book. It was gigantic, maybe a few thousand pages long, with a quill next to it. I breathed, and looked at her one last time before speaking. In the light, her features were even more beautiful, with the light reflecting off her eyes to reveal a faint, faint glow of my own hair, a brilliant spiral of rainbow, meshing and melding with each color at the follicles. Her fur was gentle, and smooth as it rolled down her body, which was surprising, because from what I could tell, she had no way to bathe.
Unless, perhaps, she was a mage. I looked toward her flank, which she saw, and blushed for it, and saw the mark, something I hadn't bothered looking at before which showed a star of a bright pink, almost the same color as Twilight's flank, with a deeper teal than her mane that flew above it, as a trail, along with a second, seeming to show a burning as something cooled off. I then, finally, spoke. I spoke with a sadness and a curiosity I did not know I possessed at that moment. "What's with the green book?"
At first, her body quivered slightly, as she moved her backleg onto her other back leg as she began to try to recline. "Well, it's the manifesto." She said, with a quavering confidence.