“Alicorns can appear from nowhere. This is called ascension. The best-known case is Twilight Sparkle, the final ruler of Equestria. A mere unicorn, she gained wings and doubled her height. Cadance, her sister-in-law, was reportedly once a pegasus. Rumors said Luna and Celestia were reborn as earth ponies, unicorns or pegassai, even thestrals many times. Rubbish of course. Records say Luna was freed of a nightmare spirit by the elements of harmony following a fantastical thousand-year exile in the moon. She was said to be a tiny alicorn upon her return, but her height returned the following year. It is troubling that Iconography worldwide shows the silhouette of an alicorn that is no longer present.”
—Pena “On the Origins of Ponies*(*and Others) and Magic”
Rizi woke from dreaming of blue dragons. ‘Strange’ she thought. She was feeling… good, but strange. She didn't know any blue dragons. Certainly, none so small and demanding. In her dream the blue dragon had claimed to be Dragon Lord. Her friend and hero Scorcher was Dragon Lord now. So brave, she sighed internally. She remembered the blue dragon had whooped laughing as Rizi told her Scorcher was Dragon Lord. “Finally!” The blue dragon shrieked with joy. “He’s awake!”
“Of course, he’s awake, he sent me. I am on a journey to Canterlot.” Rizi said.
“You’ll find nothing in Canterlot. You have to go on to Maretime Bay.” the blue said.
The blue asked what kind of dragon she was. She denied being a dragon at all and insisted she was just a kobold. The blue got a sour look on her face then.
The blue said she thought that way once upon a time but that things looked different now.
“Enough talking yourself down. As Applejack would say, that's stinking’ thinking.” The blue dragoness said. “I need a noble dragon in the waking world as my knight and champion. You’re here and so you’re it. I call, claim and dub you.” Then she took the Bloodstone Scepter in both claws and bashed Rizi right on top of her head. There was a sound like a mirror shattering and Rizi awoke alone. She felt strange. She felt good but her nose was bleeding a bit. It bled all morning long.
She tried meditating to find the dragon again, but perhaps the dragon had had its say as her thoughts remained quiet, even if her eyesight seemed a little bluer than normal for a while.
Rizi had never heard of “Maretime Bay”. Usually, she couldn't recall her dreams. Certainly not with such clarity. She did her business, repacked, and had a quick snack before setting out again.
The road had now descended till it reached the foothills of the mountains. There were the occasional ruins of structures here and there. A wall between overgrown fields, or the foundation of a farmhouse or mill. Evidence of cultivation in the distant past and overgrown drainage ditches.
The land became flatter and the view wider. Before long the road became two lanes wide and then two lanes wide on each side divided. She ate a lunch of berries and dried meat at an intersection where a side road came in. These became gradually more frequent, first on the left side than on the right. A few small ones crossed the road.
An hour later she smelled and then saw some thin smoke in the bright light blue sky ahead of her. She came to a small hill and thought she could just barely see a small white building with smoke rising from it far in the distance, to the left of the road. Taking a sip from her canteen she walked slowly forward. It lay straight ahead.
Rizi soon came to the largest intersection yet. Her four-lane road and another met in a great circle. But that was not the most surprising thing. There was a signpost in the center of the circle. It was as tall as a dragon. And it had four arms. The one pointing at her read “The Dragon Lands 42”, the one pointing to the right read “Griffonstone 245”, the one pointing to the left read “Lost Lagoon 232” and the one pointing straight ahead read “Celestial Sea, Port to Equestria 21.”
The sign was freshly painted. Rizi reached out to touch one of a few small white drips. Her finger claw came away with the white smear. She stared at the sign for a long moment. “Too easy,” she said.
Just then Rizi felt very un-kobold like. Her eyesight again seemed to take on a slight blue hue and she heard the distant sound of breaking glass. The thought ‘But so very dragon-like.’ came unbidden to her mind. She stood for a moment at the sign and road thinking about inner dragons and Dragon Lords.
Shrugging, she left the signpost behind and continued her hike.
She supposed it didn’t matter if no conflict arose between real dragons and dream ones. The kobolds oath had been given to all dragons. Might was right for dragons. For Dragon Lords? She supposed the same rule applied.
The wind was from the west and there was salt on it. Clouds had begun to blow in from the sea. A canter farther on, she came to the top of another low hill.
The source of the smoke was at last revealed. There was a lot with a neat front yard and a sign in front of a nice large white glass fronted building whose windows faced the setting sun. Smoke was rising from a chimney. “Taem Alhayaa” the sign read. The letters swam when she stared at them. Maybe the bright sun was getting to her. The smoke smelled of delicious cooking. The sturdy wood building had a stone foundation, large windows and looked like it had been built recently.
Rizi walked warily forward, but there was no sign of anyone. As she drew closer, she noticed that the large windows had curtains. Chairs and tables could be seen in the glass. The light was now directly behind her, and it was hard to see through the windows which reflected the trees and fields behind her. But there was a large white rectangle prominently in the corner next to two double glass doors. It read simply “Open”, but the word stung her eyes when she stared at it. Clouds were gathering ahead on the road.
‘Now what?’ she thought. Again, she felt strange. Not bad, just like an animal stretching after confinement in a cage. There was a tinkle of shifting glass from what sounded like it was inside her own skull. Her tongue ran along her pointed teeth inside her mouth. Her tail swished with uncertainty. She scratched her back with her horns.
Commerce and stores were not unknown to her. Kobolds often had and kept small stands on fair days. They traded fruit and jellies for meat and things like toys and small tools. But a whole building devoted to selling things was a novel idea, like something from a story. Who would open a business here, in the middle of nothing?
Shrugging, Rizi dusted herself off, straightened her gear and walked to the door. She was an envoy of the Dragon Lord and wanted to make a good impression with whoever was here.
She knocked on the door. There was no answer. She pushed on the door, but it did not move. Sheepishly she observed the hinges swung outward and the door swung easily out at a gentle pull of the double handles.
The shop or whatever it was, was empty. Tables with checkered cloth surrounded by chairs were here and there. A counter was in front of her with stools and a large silver machine with lots of buttons. A small bell sat next to a sign that said, “ring for service.”
Rizi hopped up onto the counter. The stool was made for larger creatures, but kobolds were used to making do with oversized furniture and climbing was easy.
With mild trepidation she reached her clawed hand out and rang the bell which made a pleasant “ding!” noise.
At once she heard a rustling from the back beyond a door, and a pretty happy voice cried out “One moment, be right with you!”
The doors parted and a purple female creature walked in. Rizi knew what a pony was. She’d seen pictures on the walls at home and decorating old art and coins. She was pony shaped. Mostly. Much larger than any pony she had expected. It had a pony’s face, and enormous purple and grey wings like those of a pegasus, but larger. She had the tail and claws of a cat and wore a beautiful white garment of silk open at the side and was adorned with gold jewelry and an intricate golden headdress. Her head nearly reached the ceiling. She was very purple, and had bright yellow cat eyes, the size of a melon. She smiled down at Rizi and said in a pleasant tone “Welcome to Taem Alhayaa”.
Rizi was used to dragons, so the sharp carnivore teeth long as her arms weren’t too frightening, but the bulk of the creature, its sheer size, its sudden appearance, and its proximity made Rizi glad she had peed back at the crossroads.
After an awkward moment, Rizi said “uh, Hello.” She shook her head momentarily and said, “I mean hello, my name is Rizi”. She shook herself again. She sounded all wrong to herself. Again, there was a sensation of broken glass tumbling into shadows.
The large creature continued to smile. “Well hello Rizi, I am Horsemarket, and welcome to Taem Alhayaa, the best and only restaurant on the *betweenness* of Canterlot and Dragonholme.” Rizi was unsure, but the words weren’t quite lining up the way she expected them to. “What can I *serve* you?”
“Rizi is unsure what a restaurant is?” Again, Rizi’s words sound strange in her ears.
“Oh, it's a place where *creatures* prepare and sell food to other *creatures*. Sort of like a food cart?” Horsemarket explained.
“You look uncomfortable. Are you uncomfortable? It's the spell isn’t it. It's the spell. I’m out of practice. It's been a while. I’ve been sleeping and just woke up. Then again lots of things are waking up all over! Wakey, wakey, eggs, and bakey, no mistakey, time has come to meet the day!
“Be a while before I can go home to Somnambula though! Nobody there. Bet you beat me to it!” The large creature leaned back and laughed into the ceiling.
Whatever Horsemarket was she sounded friendly. “Rizi asks what sort of a spell?” She couldn’t shake the feeling of strangeness.
Horsemarket smiled. “Oh, a translation spell. I don’t speak your language and you don’t speak mine. Nobody speaks mine anymore and I can’t be bothered to learn theirs. It makes rhyming difficult, and I'm never sure if I have the meter right or not. Maybe I should learn after all! Ha-ha!
“Still, though this is a restaurant, or it will be again soon, I'll be leaving it here for some creature, I’m sure. But in the meantime, it's mine. I’m the waitress and cook and you are a hungry traveler off on a great adventure! Something across the sea unless I miss my guess?”
“Well yes, Rizi is on a journey.” There, that was better. She was getting the hang of - whatever this was.
“Don’t tell me yet! Oh er, do tell me? but frame it as a question, like a game, do you like games? I do. My favorite games are riddles. Do you know what a riddle is?”
Rizi nodded. She knew what riddles were. Her clutch mates would pose them to each other on long nights after a hard day’s work serving the dragons. Some of the riddles were very old. Some were said to have been from before there were kobolds, or even dragons. Rizi smiled at Horsemarket and answered her question with a question:
“What question,
and answer,
whatever am I?”
“A riddle!” she exclaimed, clapping her paws, and jumping her front and rear into the air to land l with a joyous double thump that rattled the building. “Oh, I love that one! And you answered my question with a riddle! Oh my, oh aren’t you a cleaver creature? I knew I liked you from the moment I saw you!”
“I'm so excited. Despite the circumstances. Um, never mind that. It's been so long. Oh, can you, do it? Can you make why and where you’re going a question?”
“Journey to ponies to ask magic why?”
“Oh, and you answered another question with a riddle here and answered mine again. What fun! So, you’re off to see the ponies to ask why magic is back right?”
Rizi nodded. Horsemarket squealed and did a little dance in place. The windows rattled.
“Oh, but you are such a small thing to go so far from home. Your home I mean not mine. The ponies are all right next to my home now of course. Well not right next to, but pretty close, a short flight for me, a day’s walk for you maybe?”
“You must be hungry. We have lots of good things to eat. Well good for you I mean. A bit bland and tame for me, but then again, most creatures find a sphynx’s diet distressing. That's what I am, a sphynx. Have you ever heard of a sphynx?”
Rizi shook her head.
“Well, I’m not surprised. Most creatures haven’t. I’m the only one now and for a long time.” Horsemarket twirled around in a circle each way, flapping her wings, swishing her tail, and showing herself off.
“I ask questions,
my answers are turns,
only the right path brings wisdom,
all others reach the end of the road.
What am I?
“A Sphynx, Rizi guesses, is you?
“So right! Yes, it's me. But you should never guess with a sphynx. Guessing with sphinxes stinkses! That's a good way to get eaten right up. A sphynx is what you get when a pony and a griffon find true love and their offspring ascend. Do you know about ascension?”
Rizi shook her head.
“Well, you know what an alicorn is?”
Rizi nodded. She had at least heard of the big, winged unicorn princesses known as alicorns.
“Right, an alicorn is like every type of pony but bigger, buffer and better in every way. In a way they are like dragons. They live forever unless killed, and sometimes even then! Or in another way they are like Nightmares, or like the equal and opposite of Nightmares. You know what a Nightmare is sweetie?”
“Tyrant monsters of deepest darkness and shadow?”
Horsemarket frowned. “And we were doing so well. Let's not throw around terms like monster okay honey?”
Rizi nodded. Horsemarket smiled again.
“Well Nightmares possess vast dark powers, can manipulate matter at will, use energy beams, move things with their mind. So basically, what alicorns do, and, possession, but only of willing hosts. Unless you invite them in, they can’t do much. They will whisper at you and pester you to do things you wanted to do anyway. That sort of thing, right?” She looked over her shoulder at the shadow behind her. “Right. Well, an alicorn is like that. Except for the possession unless you count self-possession. Being self-possessed oneself I mean, like an alicorn, which I certainly do. Count that, I mean.”
“Now I’ve flown right past my point, which I mean is that beings like ponies or dragons, they can ascend. It's like accessing more of your soul. More of what makes you, you. By becoming more one can transcend one's present limitations and do more than others can. And for an alicorn that means protecting and leading others, nurturing them, defending them, and helping them grow. And for a pony this happens all at once. Bam you're an alicorn. Sphinxes are like that too, some others. Dragons, though, they grow into it gradually. Does it feel that way for you? Do you feel it, yourself growing larger, becoming more, limitations falling away?”
“Rizi is kobold, not dragon, yes?”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” The Sphinx regarded Rizi for a moment. “But what I do know is that you gave me several good riddles, and I owe you a nice hot meal and a place to stay for the night. Does that sound alright to you? The roads down here aren’t safe for travelers at night.”
“Sounds good to Rizi, yes please.”
“So polite. You tell Scorch and Smolder I said so. Now wait right here. I’ll only be a moment.”
Calling from the back she said “All we have to drink is apple juice. I haven’t had the time for cider and magicking it up never tastes right.” And then more quietly as if to herself “Shut up, I’m getting to it.” Rizi got the impression someone else was in the back, a helper maybe? There were some whispered words she could not make out. She shivered and her spines stood up a bit. The shadows were lengthening now.
But a few moments later, Horsemarket returned with a plate and Rizi was once more at ease. Upon the dish was a large, dressed rabbit with cornbread, barley soup and a big slice of what she called Pecan pie.
Rizi called it delicious. She stuffed herself and made happy noises as she ate. Horsemarket turned so her broad back faced the lizard.
“My, it's been a while since I’ve seen anyone eat with such gusto. Of course, most of those knew they might be on the menu next, like that rabbit. I suppose that might upset one's appetite. I’m not watching because I might get hungry, and then things might get… unpleasant. I prefer to keep things light. All finished, dear? Let me take that for you. Ok there you go.”
“You've been a polite guest and have gotten rather ahead in our game. There's something I know, and you need to. But I can’t just tell you, that's against the rules, and no matter how much I like you little one, we all have to obey our fundamental nature. Dragons need to hoard treasures, alicorns protect ponies and sphinxes ask questions.”
Rizi looked up at the Sphinx. She suddenly seemed to fill the entire room.
“I’ll ask a question. Then I’ll leave for my home and so will you. But if you answer right, it won’t be together, but you’ll go in the morning, ok little one?
Rizi looked at Horsemarket’s claws and teeth. She started to worry. But then Rizi saw the cat-like eyes of the Sphinx had a twinkle in them. That twinkle reminded her of the look in the eyes of the glowing orange and white dream alicorn, and Rizi relaxed.
Life was full of uncertainty, and Horsemarket had been nothing but helpful so far. She had been friendly, kind, honest, generous and was trying to be true to what she was. Rizi couldn’t find any fault with any of that, even if what she was, was a bit scary.
“Rizi knows Horsemarket trying to help Rizi. Good friend to have, go ask question.”
“Oh my, you mean that? Friend. You do mean it. That's clear. Oh, oh my. I guess the magic really is back. Just, oh wow.”
Rizi nodded at the Sphinx.
“Well wow, are you sure? I could go rummage around in the back, get some more pie and you could slip out the door while I'm gone. No question asked, no harm no foul?”
Rizi got the feeling the Sphinx was very lonely. “You ask, Rizi answer, eat pie together.”
Horsemarket’s eye twitched. Horsemarket turned her head and looked at her shadow behind her. Rizi felt her spines stand up at once. She was just a little bit afraid. The shadow had eyes of a darker blackness. “You said she was just like all the others. But she’s not. She’s not. I did what you made me do. I got in her path, made her go through me. I won't ask her that. I won't, it's not fair, and it's not up to you. I’m Horsemarket the Sphinx and I’ll ask what I want! You don’t control me!”
Rizi saw the shadow expand and then fade. It became less black somehow. Rizi swallowed. The room seemed emptier.
Horsemarket looked at Rizi. She had a sad expression.
“You saw - all that?”
Rizi nodded.
Horsemarket broke into tears and crumbled onto the floor in front of Rizi. “It doesn’t matter. You know what it is. I know. We named it tonight, but to even address it is to give it power and it has none. Not yet. I think it's alone. I think it's the last. I’d pray it is if I could pray at all. It's been with me for so long. Haunting me, making me come here. Making me do all this. I’m sorry Rizi. But I must still ask you. I must still tell you. You understand?” Tears rolled down her great face. She sobbed into her paws.
Rizi hopped down, rubbed the neck of the great creature, looked into her golden eyes, nodded, and smiled. “Just ask.” she said, feeling her orange eyes shift a bit blue. A shadow lifted as if another piece of a mirror had fallen out of a frame.
Horsemarket gathered herself and sat up. She still looked at the floor and not at Rizi.
“It will be so angry at me. Asking this instead of what it wants. But it will be so worth it.”
“Okay, okay Rizi, here goes, good luck.”
“What costs nothing but is worth everything?”
“Weighs nothing but can last a lifetime?”
“No one alone can ever own it.”
“But two or more can share it?”
Rizi smiled and gave her answer.
The second pie slice was even better shared.