The room Dr. Qhorin lead me into looked like an archive, filled with rows of filing cabinets, with one window opposite the door overlooking the alley between buildings. The window was the only light source, but with the sun about to set any minute now, it was very dim. While examining the room, I noticed a candelabrum at a desk, hidden behind a few rows of cabinets. It had slots for five candles, but only three of them were occupied, which I lit with a small fire spell I learned from Twilight.
"So," I say, walking back towards the window, lit candle stand in tow. "Now that we're all tucked away from prying ears, what's this earth shattering secret of yours?"
"I expect you to hold up your side of this little bargain." He said, following me away from the door. I rolled my eyes at his distrust.
"Yes, yes. I'll even outline an experiment you can perform yourself, so you can corroborate what I tell you." He nodded, placated, but remained silent for several seconds, staring into the candle flames.
"The truth of the matter is," he finally began. "We don't hate you ponies... not really. Your all so happy and friendly, it's almost sickening. Your just a convenient surrogate for Celestia." The name left his lips like a swear, but I had to interject when he failed to say the other name.
"...And Luna? I assume."
"No," he said, surprising me. "We may have hated her too in the past, but she's been all but forgotten over the last thousand years. Until last summer, it was generally believed that Celestia hadn't sealed her away at all, but killed her outright."
"Wait, wait, wait... You knew that she was supposed to be sealed away in the moon?"
"Heheheh..." He chuckled. "That's one of the things we actually dislike about you ponies. You forget, or maybe even erase, all of the bad things from your own history. The Reign of Discord, the Longest Day, the northern secession, the conquest and destruction of the Crystal Empire, even the banishment of your own princess Luna. You forgot about all of it."
"Wait a sec, what does some dragon hoedown have to do with our history? Did Equestria's southern border extend a lot farther before than it does now, or something?" He sent me a confused look.
"...Dragon... hoedown..?"
"Yeah... that was just the first word that popped into my head. I mean the dragon war that liquidized the Gorgons, and torched the Badlands."
"Oh... so that's the newest theory... I guess it makes sense. After all, what other than dragon fire could render half a continent into a flat, lifeless plain..." There was an inflection to his voice that indicated there was something else.
Something, other than a thousand dragons breathing fire, that can melt thousands of square miles of land... He couldn't possibly be implying... "Why is it, exactly, that you hate Celestia..?" He blinked in surprise.
"I didn't think you'd come to that conclusion on your own."
"No, no, no, that's just... I can't picture her doing something like that, she's too... nice, and caring, and-"
"To you, she is," he interrupts. "Why do you think it was called the Longest Day."
"I don't know, because it felt really long?"
"No... because it literally was." He said, looking down at me, before leaning back against a few cabinets, making himself comfortable for the long story ahead. "It was about eighteen hundred years ago, Celestia and Luna had just defeated Discord, and established their rule over Equestria. They wanted to create a peaceful utopia for their subjects, but Discord had ruled for almost two hundred years before them. The madness he wrought was sown deep into the land, and they needed time to fix it. Time they couldn't get, while having to worry about external threats to their subjects.
You may not have noticed, but the rest of the world isn't as peaceful as Equestria. We have wars, we have hunger, everyone wants what their neighbors have, and it was even worse back then. With no standing army, the defense of Equestria fell almost solely on the two of them, but they were busy trying to bring harmony back to the land, and they couldn't always be there for their subjects. So, after a time, Celestia issued a threat to the rest of the world: 'do not attack Equestria, or else.'"
"...Or else she'd destroy them..."
"According to the history books, she never actually said that. She just let the threat hang, to be filled in by the imagination, and it worked. They were the Gods of the Sun and the Moon, who'd want to be the focus of their anger? They had nearly a century of uninterrupted peace, but that's where the Gorgons come in. They were a warrior culture, constantly fighting and raiding, both each other and our ancestors. But, as Equestria grew, and became more and more prosperous, that wealth became an irresistible target.
One day, they stopped resisting the urge and attacked. Their raiding parties ravaged Equestria's southern border for days, pillaging every settlement they came across. They killed hundreds, and burned entire cities to the ground, with little resistance from the ponies, who'd gone their whole lives without ever needing to fight before. Eventually they finished their raids, and headed back home, loaded down with all the riches they'd taken... and Celestia made good on her threat. Documentation states that, on that morning, the sun rose up and went straight into the noon position, where it began to shine brighter than it ever had before. The next thing our ancestors knew, everything north of us was on fire.
For five days, the land burned, until there was nothing left to burn, and the sun never moved. That night, when the sun finally set, the molten rock lit the sky, like a dawn rising in the north. The entire region, every hill and mountain, they were boiled down, and flowed together, becoming the flat, barren plain we now call the Badlands."
"...And the world just let that stand!? You just let her get away with genocide!?" I was more surprised than outraged, a threat that powerful would have united the whole world against it in my world. He just scoffed at me.
"There's not much we could have done about it, even had we cared. They were our enemies as well, and they were made example of. It was a message to the rest of the world that her threat was not idle. Besides, why poke a sleeping dragon?"
“So she’s just been, what? Holding the world hostage ever since?”
“Well I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” he said with a shrug. ”She makes no demands, and asks no tribute… But no one wants to be the first to see if her threat still stands. As a consequence, most nations tend to treat their dealings with Equestria with kid gloves.”
"Wait a sec... If she's so powerful, why the hell did she let the Gorgons raid Equestria in the first place? Couldn't she have just stopped them before they had destroyed multiple cities?"
"Celestia's wrath may be powerful, but it's also broad. If she unleashed her power within her own country, she'd destroy it." The light from outside abruptly disappeared, signaling the sunset, and leaving us with only the candle light. "Besides," he said, shrugging, "she was probably busy purging more of Discord's influence at the time, and just didn't know about it until later. Powerful as she may be, she isn't omniscient. In any case, that event resulted in the founding of your Royal Guard, if I remember correctly."
"Now, hold on... you keep bringing up 'Discord's influence', what are you talking about? When Discord was beaten last week, everything he did was instantly undone by the Elements, so what was there to purge?"
"As I said, Discord had ruled for two centuries the first time around, as opposed to less than a day. The Elements just weren't able to remove such deep seeded effects, at the same time as they defeated him. As for the purging itself, I don't know any of the details into that, but I do know that Celestia and Luna never finished."
"Never finished?" I could tell by the way he moved his head, that he was rolling his eyes at me.
"Yes. Didn't you ever wonder why the Everfree forest was so different to the rest of Equestria? Why pagasi can't command it's weather, and earth ponies can't tame it's land? It's the last bastion of Discord's old influence, the only remaining patch of the kingdom over which he ruled. But, after Celestia had to fight her sister, she just never finished the job for some reason." There was a pause, where I contemplated what I'd just heard, and where he was probably just waiting for another question. "...Alright, that's enough story time. It's time for your end of this deal."
"Yeah, yeah, alright... Well this," I said while forming the illusion of a basic atomic model. "Is what an atom more or less looks like. As you can see, it's not an indivisible sphere, but composed of..." I spent a while teaching him about protons, neutrons, and electrons. About the strong nuclear force that holds atoms together, even explaining the basics of vsepr theory. Eventually I outlined the Rutherford Experiment for him, so he could perform it himself someday and 'discover' the atomic nucleus, and that atoms are mostly empty space.
It's a sword of damocles... I thought, walking down the stairs. They hate Celestia because she represents a real and constant threat to their whole civilization, but since she's beyond their reach, they direct their hate at her citizens instead. I reached the ground floor, continuing down the hall towards the lobby doors. And the Everfree... I hadn’t even given it any thought before... I opened the door to the lobby, and saw Silver laying down on a bench, waiting for me. She looked up at the sound of the door.
"Hey, how did it go?" She asked, getting off the bench. "You were up there for a while."
"It went fine," I tell her, walking to the door. "I was just chatting it up with a fellow scientist for a while after the meeting. Sorry I made you wait."
"It's alright," she says, waving it off as we exit the building. "It gave me a chance to relax after all the running around we did."
"*sigh*... I wish we could have found her..." I say, still feeling bad about snapping the way I did.
"Hey, come on now!" She says, lightly punching my shoulder, "no sadness. She'll come around sooner or later, we just need to get your mind off it. What happened in the meeting, did they try to rough you up at all? What kind of things did you talk about with that Doctor guy?"
"It went fine, they didn't try anything, they just want me to keep this whole thing a secret. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be interested in what the two of us talked about."
"Hey!" She exclaimed, flapping her wings and wrapping a foreleg around my neck, putting me in a headlock while she floated next to me. "Are you insulting my intelligence!" She says, starting to noogie me.
"Hey! Get off me!" I shout, struggling, to no avail, against her grip.
"I can so understand all your sciency speak!" The noogie continues.
"Dammit, would you stop already! Ah! Get off!"
"Hahaha, never!" She shouts, now laughing as she continues.
I started struggling even harder, wrenching my whole body this way and that, trying to get her off. She just laughed at my efforts, now riding on my back like a bucking bronco. Eventually, her hysterics got the better of her. Losing her grip on my neck, she was catapulted into the air and flew down the street. She caught herself with her wings before hitting the ground, and gently glided back towards me, still giggling.
"Hehehe... Wasn't that fun?" She asks, landing in front of me. I just grumble, running a hoof through my mane several times, trying to get rid of the staticy balloon look it now had. I wasn't going to admit it, but it had been a little exhilarating... "So come on, start talking. It's either that, or round two!" She says in a teasing tone while unfurling her wings again.
"Fine, geeze..." I say as we start walking again. "We mostly just talked about chemistry and electrons."
"What's 'electrons'?"
The rest of the walk was spent pretty much repeating the conversation I'd had with Qhorin, but with more interruptions as she asked me to repeat things. Clearly most of it was going over her head, but I didn't mind though. I liked talking about these things because, aside from earlier today, I never had the opportunity to since coming here, and it was nice to know I hadn't forgotten any of it. Silver seemed to be enjoying the impromptu chemistry lesson as well. It was probably because I loved this subject. I remembered that classes were always more fun when the professor was really into the subject matter.
We were outside town now, in the space between the city and the camp. It wasn't too long a walk, like with the mining town, just a hundred meters or so. I was teaching Silver about electrophilic aromatic substitutions, when she asked me a question I hadn't anticipated.
"Hey Cotton, I've been wondering... If you like chemistry so much, why did you quit?"
"I didn't quit, remember? I got fired, I told you that."
"Well, yeah..." She said facing down, and trailing off for a second before looking back up. "But you could have applied for a job somewhere else… the way you told it, you never even tried. You just stayed in Ponyville, chopping wood and learning spells from Twilight... Why would you abandon something you love?"
I stayed silent for several seconds, thinking, not only how I would answer, but what the answer actually was.
"...I guess I..." The chemistry I know hasn't even been invented yet. "Never really thought about it..." If I got a job as a scientist, I'd become famous for 'inventing' several new fields of chemistry. "It was something new, a break from my usual life." Besides, I haven't found anything chemistry can do that magic can't do better. "I could study magic, instead of science for a while, and I guess I just... got used to the new life."
We bid each other a good night and separated when we got to the camps perimeter, leaving me to my thoughts.
I really never gave any thought to abandoning my old life..? I guess not... Now that I'm thinking about it, I never even tried to look up any spells for dimensional travel. The thought of going home just hasn’t crossed my mind... I haven't even spared a thought as to how my parents and sister might have taken my disappearance...
I made a pass by one of the food wagons and picked up a dinner to go as I kept walking.
I wonder if I'll ever get to see them again?
Wow, I thought, rolling over. That was the most restful sleep I've had in a while. I rolled onto my back and just stared at the ceiling for a while, not wanting to actually get up just yet. After a few seconds of staring, I noticed something. Why is it so bright out? I contemplated this for about a minute, before the stupidly obvious answer smacked me in the face.
"Aw, crap!" I exclaim, jumping to my hooves. I am super late! Running out of the wagon, I make a B-line for the meeting place. No, I'm at least an hour late already. There's no way she would just stay there waiting for me. This in mind, I redirect myself towards Diamond's trailer. I hope she's there right now.
When I arrived, I was heartened to see there were no ponies standing guard. I'd learned over the last few days, that Diamond only has others stand guard when she isn't in. I trotted up to her door, raised my hoof for a knock, and paused, the thought of just what kind of shock therapy I was walking into sending a tingle up my spine.
*knock knock*
"You may enter," came her voice from beyond the door. Taking a few deep breaths to steel myself for the upcoming encounter, I opened the door and stepped inside. It looked the same as the last time I was there, only the glowing crystal in the ceiling was brighter. Diamond was near the back, focusing on something on the bed, her back to the door, and an open cabinet on the left wall. She started turning, giving me a glimpse of something glowing blue on the bed. "Cotton," she said, surprised, shifting to take the object out of my sight. "I wasn't expecting you today."
"I'm sorry I was late," I begin, speaking quickly, "I slept in and-" My brain finally caught up with her words. Wait... wasn't? "You... weren't?"
"No... Did I not tell you?" She asked, taking on a more relaxed posture. "Your lessons are over."
"Over..? But it's only been two days..." I trailed off, dejectedly. I really liked learning from her.
"And they were very productive days,” she said with a nod. “I've taught you how to form and break both visual, and auditory illusions, and you've demonstrated an acceptable level of skill in both areas."
"But I've only learned sight and sound. Isn't there-"
"Is that not enough?" Came her voice from behind me. I turned my head to see the fake Diamond she'd placed behind me before looking back at the real her... or at least, I would have. When I turned back around I was suddenly outside. No longer in the arid climate of Minotaria, but in a field of green grass, one lone oak tree standing tall at it's center. It was night, with a bright, full moon overhead, and the sound of crickets in the air. "Sight and sound are powerful things," she said, walking past me and up to the tree, laying down beneath it's leaves.
"But it's only sight and sound," I say, dragging my hoof through the 'grass', and feeling the texture of the carpet in her home. "There are three more senses to cover."
"Illusionary magic is a rare thing in the world," She says, looking up at the moon. "Few advances have been made since it's inception." The tree began to morph, lengthening and twisting. Soon enough it became a large, wooden, chinese dragon, flying in lazy circles above the field. "It's mainly been used over the years as a story telling supplement, a way to entertain the children. Turning old stories into something they could see and hear for themselves."
"So there's nothing more you can teach me then..?" I say, saddened by the idea.
"Hmph," she scoffs. "I didn't say that..." She trails off as the dragon lets out a roar and dives at me, mouth open wide. Using what she taught me, I dismiss the illusion with a flare of my own magic, bringing me back to the inside of Diamond's trailer. "There are many things I could teach you," she says from her position in front of the bed. "However, if you want to manipulate the remaining three senses," she shrugs while turning around, "you'll just have to create that magic yourself."
Make it myself... It was a very enticing prospect. Making my own magic... Oh the fun has so been doubled...
Diamond proceeded to take the object off her bed and float it into the open cabinet. When she did so, however, It gave me a better look at the very familiar looking crystal.
"What's that?"
"Oh, this?" She replies nonchalantly, pausing it in the air before putting it back. "It's just an old family heirloom."
"It looks like the Crystal Heart, but smaller." This causes her to blink in surprise.
"You know about the Crystal Heart..?" She asks, one eyebrow raised in confusion.
Aw, thats right... no one's supposed to know shit about the Crystal Empire anymore... "Well... just a bit. I more know of it, than about it." She nods at that, apparently convinced, as she closes the cabinet. "...Did that come from the Crystal Empire?"
"Yes." She answered, motioning for me to follow, as she walked passed me and outside.
"Wow, that thing is old," I say, closing the door behind me. "Still looks brand new, you must take really good care of it."
"Yes," she answered, in a reverent tone, "it's very important to me."
*scritch scritch scritch* Called out the sound of quill on paper from where I lay within my wagon, as I started writing out the process for synthesizing TNT onto the paper floating in front of me.
Not long after my conversation with Diamond, we separated. She continued on to another magic class, and I went to eat the breakfast I'd skipped in my slight panic. Once finished, I took my last two bits and bought a manila envelope and some paper from an office supply store, before coming back to start working.
*scritch scritch scritch* -With fuming nitric acid. Add a small amount of concentrated sulfuric acid catalyst to start the reaction- *rustle* Looking up from my work, I saw Silver walk in through the flap.
“Hey, whatcha doin’ in here, all alone?”
“Working," I say, indicating the paper. "I need to have this thing done before eight tonight.”
“Why eight?” She asks, walking around to get a better look at the paper.
“Because that’s when we’re making the exchange.” She remained quiet after that, watching over my shoulder as I continued to write. -Once the reaction is complete, neutralize the remaining acid with sodium hydroxide, and isolate the step one product by-
“What are these shapes and letters with all the little arrows and dots?” She asks, pointing a hoof to the left half of the paper where said shapes reside.
“Those are the chemical structures I was telling you about last night. The shapes are the carbon skeleton, and the letters are the other atoms involved. The arrows and dots are the electron flow diagrams, they show how the reactions actually occur.”
“…And other scientists can read this?” She questions.
"Yeah... or at least, they should." *shrug* "If not, I guess I'll just have to charge them a little extra to teach them." I respond with a grin.
"Say," she starts, rubbing a thoughtful hoof against her chin, "how much are you getting for this anyway?"
"We settled on fifteen hundred."
"Fiftee- wow," she said, strangely surprised by the number. "You're just rollin' in it now, aren't you?"
"Well I wouldn't say that," I reply, putting the paper down and standing up to face her. "Fifteen hundred's not a whole lot, all things considered."
"Not a lot?!" She exclaims, wide eyed at the prospect. "What are you planning on doing with it, buying your own village!"
"Heh... somethin' like that." She just gave me a bewildered look while working her mouth, trying and failing to say something. I just rolled my eyes. "Well I'm not going to literally buy a village, that'd be dumb. I'll just buy a bunch of land we can build one on."
"...We..?" She tentatively asked.
"Hmm..." I eyed her critically, wondering if I should tell her or not. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course!" She says with confidence, while shifting to stand a little taller.
"Are you sure? I don't want word of this getting around. Can you keep a secret, even from your friends?"
"Yes, I totally can!" She replied exuberantly, though her tone was less confident now.
"Alright..." I nodded, accepting her word. "Well... this is for you." I say, indicating the unfinished paper.
"M-me!?" She stammered, slack-jawed, as her wings flared and she raised a disbelieving hoof to her chest.
"Well y'know, you as in, all of you. You, Diamond, Star... everypony."
"...Why?" She asked, suddenly much calmer.
"Well, a few days back I was talking with some other ponies about what happened in Zabrica. I got the impression that you all wanted a place that you could call home, and when I asked Diamond about it, she confirmed my thoughts. So I figured that-"
"No!" She interrupted, eyes narrowed at me. "Why would you do this for us?" She reiterated. "You said yourself that you don't give to charity, so what are you expecting to get out of us for doing this?" She questioned, voice and stance filled with distrust.
"Uh, nothing..?" What's with the aggression? Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given what happened the last time someone offered them a home... "I'm just trying to repay you all for everything you've done for me."
“Repaying us?” She asked, eyebrow raised, her distrust giving way to confusion as her stance began to relax. “You want to build us a village, for letting you stay with us for a week?” Skepticism was thick in her tone, though I was quick to correct her mistake.
“No. I don’t know anything about construction, so I won’t be building squat, I’ll just be paying for it. And you’ve done a lot more for me than just letting me stay with you. Yeah you’ve given me free food, a whole wagon of my own to sleep in, and Diamond’s been teaching me some kick ass magic, but by finding me and taking care of my unconscious body, you also saved my life. Which is worth quite a lot to me.”
“So you’re going to just, buy us a bunch of land somewhere?” She asked with a very serious expression.
“Somewhere in Equestria, yes.”
“So that we can build a village?” With that same look.
“That’s the plan.”
“…”
“…”
“Cotton…” she said, looking down. “This is just…” She sounded like she was about to cry, and I internally dreaded that I’d overstepped some kind of cultural boundary. “Just, wonderful!” Suddenly she rushed forward and hugged me.
“Oof!” I struggled not to be pushed back by the impact, as I didn’t want to risk hitting the ink jar and ruining the work I’d gotten done.
“Oh, thank you, thank you! You have no idea what this means to us!” She cried into my chest. “This is just so- *gasp*” She jolted like she’d been shocked. “But wha- what if-” She nervously stammered, releasing the hug and backing away from me. “What if they don’t like us? What if they don’t want us?” She questioned, the anxiety from past experience coming to the surface.
“Hey, don’t worry,” I tell her, moving forward to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “The ponies in Equestria are very accepting, they’ll love you guys.”
“You really think so?” She asked, hope ringing in her voice, as she became visibly less distraught.
“I know so. Trust me, you’ll fit right in,” I reply, giving her shoulder a pat.
"Oh Cotton," she said, giving me another hug. "This is just amazing!" She continued, breaking away from the hug to prance around in a circle, all smiles. I liked seeing her that way. It felt... good, knowing that I made her so happy. "I'm so excited!" She sang, making for the exit. "I need to go tell-"
"Hold it!" I called, grabbing her with my magic before she could leave. "I want this to remain a secret, remember?"
"But this is so great," she replied, as I turned her around before setting her back down. "Why would you want to keep it secret?"
"Because there are logistical problems. Once I have the money, I'll need to approach Celestia for permission to build a new village, not to mention getting you all registered as citizens of Equestria. Then we'll have to find a suitable location to actually build it, and we'll need to run train tracks in in order to transport building materials. A lot of planning and preparation goes into the founding of a new settlement, and any number of things could go wrong along the way. I don't want to get everypony's hopes up, just for the whole thing to fall through in the end."
"Will she say no?" Silver asked, leaning in.
"Well, probably not, but-"
"Is there no available land?" She continued, tilting her head downward while maintaining eye contact.
"There's lots of land, that was kinda the point-"
"Well then what's the problem?" She said, springing back into an upright position. "If nothing will go wrong, than-"
"Because! If something can go wrong, it will. You can never rule out the possibility of failure."
"But-"
"Please Silver," I plead, placing my hooves on her shoulders. "Can you just do this? For me?"
"Well... okay," she replied, looking downcast that she couldn't share the news.
"Thank you," I say, giving her a brief hug before letting go. "Well, I need to get back at it, so... I'll see you later."
"Alright, see you later," She said with a smile before practically skipping her way out.
"*sigh* Where was I?" I think aloud, laying back down and picking up the quill and paper. Dipping the quill, I resume my work.
*scritch scritch scritch*
*-donggg donggg donggg donggg* Concluded the local clock tower’s hourly jingle, indicating it was four O’clock.
*slap!* …Damn, still no reaction… I think, watching the subject of my experiment briefly look around for the source of the sound, and showing no indication of feeling the slap to the behind that should have come with it.
I had finished writing the synthesis for TNT about an hour and a half ago, and placed it into the manila envelope for safe keeping. I was carrying the envelope with me, a slightly annoying task given my lack of saddle bags, but I didn’t trust leaving it unattended. Any number of unforeseen things could happen, like curious kids trying to eat it, or the minotaurs sending someone to steal it. Anyway, I had several hours to kill, and was currently using them attempting to manipulate the remaining three senses. I was sitting on a bench on the side of the street, just a few buildings from an intersection. It was in the more crowded downtown area of the city, where I could use random passerby’s as test subjects without them noticing me. My hypothesis had been that, I may be able to use the principles behind visual and auditory illusions to access the other senses.
I wasn’t having any luck in the endeavor.
*sigh* I guess trial and error just isn’t going to work here, I conclude, thinking back on all my failed attempts.
Because a successful manipulation of the other senses isn’t something that can be directly observed, I knew whatever I did would need to cause an immediate reaction from my subject. To this end, I started out by trying to make certain individuals catch whiff of a really eggy fart. In the end, all of my attempts either resulted in nothing happening, or in the victim being made to see a green haze floating near their heads like in a cartoon. None of them gave any indication of having smelled anything, little own something repulsive.
After that, I tried to make them taste horrible things, like sour milk, and raw beef. No reactions.
I then moved on to my current activity, trying to make them feel things. Mainly slaps and pinches to the behinds of passing mares, and occasionally to the minotaurs too. Still no luck.
I’ll need to do some research into developing original spells when I get back to Equestria. Getting up, I was about to move on and find something else to do for the rest of the day, when I saw her.
She was trotting innocently along on the far side of the street, taking in the sights and blending in with the crowd. Well, trying to at least. Her plain brown coat and black mane stands out quite a bit among the more… exuberant colors that most ponies tend to have.
“Star…” I said under my breath, in disbelief that, after all the time I spent looking for her, I’d just run into her after already giving up. I picked the envelope up off the bench and stepped out into the street. I wanted to move closer to her, to stealthily approach through the crowd without her noticing, so she wouldn’t run away. Unfortunately, at that moment, as if she’d heard me say her name, Star turned her head my way.
Her eyes widened as we made eye contact for a few brief seconds, before she turned and ducked into an alley.
Shit, I thought, running across the street as fast as I could while needing to dodge around pedestrians. I wanted to call out to her, ask her to stop, but I really didn’t want to yell out across a crowded street and make everyone think I was some nutter chasing his ex around.
After what seemed like hours, I finally broke through the crowds and dashed into the alley after her. Unable to see her, I thought she’d already gotten to the other street, when a flash of green drew my attention to a split in the alley. There was a T-intersection of alleys between the buildings.
“Star, wait!” I yelled, hoping against hope that that wasn’t the flash of a teleport.
Turning the corner I was greeted by an empty alley leading to the end of the block. Bursting out of the alley, I stop and try to determine which direction she went. Stretching as tall as I could go, I frantically look back and forth through the crowd for anything brown, but was unable to find her.
Fuck. Continuing my search, though quickly loosing hope, I spot a mare doing some window shopping right next to the alley exit. “Excuse me, Miss..?” I ask for her attention. The lime green mare turns towards me, brushing a loose strand of her bright red mane out of her face.
“Uh, yeah?” She nervously asks, with a hint of a southern accent.
“Did you see a unicorn run by here? She has a brown coat, black mane?”
“No, ah… ah don’t recall seein’ nopony like that.” She replied, looking around as if she might find the pony in question standing nearby.
*sigh* Dammit. That flash must have been- *blink* Is that..? “Well, thanks anyway I guess. You have a nice day,” I say with a friendly smile. She reciprocates my farewell, and I move out into the busy street, walking away from her. Moving on a diagonal, I make my way across the street, walking through the door of some shop or other. Quickly I turn back around to peer out through the corner of the window. She had just turned away from the shop window, which I now noticed was a candy shop.
Quickly thinking up a disguise, I ready my horn, and with a small magical exertion, I was a red earth pony with a dark blue mane and a bullseye cutie mark. Giving myself a once-over, I frown at the floating envelope. It would be very bothersome for my target to see an earth pony using magic. Thinking quickly, I pull several hairs from my tail, and transfigure them into a string, using it to turn the envelope into a bulcky necklace. I walked back and moved to open the door, placing a hoof over the handle.
"Is there anything you need help finding sir?" Asked a female voice. Turning my head, I saw a minotaur in some kind of fancy dress, and noticed the racks of clothing in the store.
"No, just browsing," I tell her before leaving. Looking down the street, I quickly pick the earth pony out of the crowd. What are the odds, I wonder... Discreetly I begin to follow after her, of there being another pony in this city, with that same necklace..?
Augh! Why won't you change!
For several hours I had been following her around the city, occasionally changing disguises to prevent suspicion. I followed her through streets, through alleys, into stores of every kind, it felt like we had to have circumnavigated the whole city at least once... but she never changed.
I can't believe it. I cannot believe that I just wasted my whole day stalking some random stranger. I refuse to believe that I'm that crazy.
She turned into another alley up ahead, and I hoped for something to happen. It was getting late, the sun was getting lower and the shadows would be darker. The perfect opportunity for her to change into a different pony for a while...
Carefully peaking around the corner, I was again disappointed to find her the same.
As I waited for her to reach the end of the alley, so I could follow without the risk of her turning around, I could hear a clock tower start up it's jingle. Counting the dongs, I checked the time. ...Five... six... seven... seven O'clock. *sigh* Damn. The exchange is at eight, and I definitely don't want to be late for that... Begrudgingly I turned around, exceedingly despondent that I'd just wasted an entire day on nothing.
As I walked away, however, I was unable to see that she let out a sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from her forehead.
"Hhhhhuh... hahhh..." Today was a good day. I think to myself, standing on the porch of the police station in the waning sunlight, taking in a deep breath of fresh air, and weighing fifteen hundred bits more than when I went in.
The exchange went over smoothly, with me handing over the envelope, and them handing over a saddle bag filled with what looked like rolls of quarters. I performed a scanning spell to ensure that all of it was real, and then answered a few questions from Qhorin. It was all very professional, with even the Colonel acting civil throughout. I even told them that toluene could be most plentifully aquired by distilling it from crude oil, which they could import from Saddle Arabia. As a sort of 'thank you' for not trying to make things difficult for me.
After a while of walking through the streets on my way back to the camp, I suddenly became aware that I was smiling. I just felt... lighter, in spite of the heavy saddle bags wieghing me down. I had a schedule now... I've always liked that. Having a plan, knowing what I was going to do tomorrow, before I actually got to that point. With this money, the next few weeks of my life are planned out.
Tomorrow, I'll catch the train to Equestria, switching trains at the Appaloosa train station. There, I'll continue on to Ponyville, tell Pinkie about my trip, and weather a welcome back party, I narrate to myself, now outside the city. The next day, I'll visit the mayor, and inquire as to how purchasing land actually works in Equestria, and ask if there's some kind of map of available land. The rest of that day will be set aside for researching the available locations...
Not long after entering the camp, I notice several ponies looking at me very un-subtly.
Hmm, probably just curious about the clinking sounds in my saddle bags... Anyway, the next day, I'll compose a letter to the Equestrian government, and either send it to the castle by mail, or ask Spike if he'd send it for me, depending on whether or not I'll need to contact Celestia at all. Then, depending on which of those situations arise, I might have several days to kill, which I'll spend doing some R and D on my new illusion spells...
The closer I got to my wagon, the thicker the crowd of staring ponies became, some even running off and bringing back more.
Okay, what in the hell? I questioned, getting a major 'it's a trap!' vibe from the numerous onlookers.
Finally, I arrived at my wagon, where I saw Silver waiting for me, and I immediately knew what had happened.
"Hey... Cotton, uh, how'd it go? Heh heh, heh..." She asked, ending in an unconvincing laugh that failed to remove the displeased look from my face.
"Fine," I said, displeasure clear in my voice, though that didn't discourage the ensuing cheers of joy at the news. "I guess you're not as good at keeping secrets as you claimed..." I more stated than asked, once the noise had calmed down a bit.
"This isn't my fault, I swear!" She claimed, motioning to the crowd. "I only told like, two ponies! Verin," she called, pointing into the crowd. "Who did you tell, I told you it was a secret!" She yelled accusingly to the stallion.
"Don't look at me, I only told-"
What followed was an extended, quote unquote, 'finger pointing' session. Aparently, everyone who was told, and then told to keep it a secret, 'only told' a few close friends, and it just dominoed from there until everyone knew.
"Oh, Christ..." I muttered, walking inside and plopping the saddle bags off to one side. I didn't even get to drop onto the sleeping matt before the sounds of partying started up. As if that wasn't bad enough, they started poking their heads in and thanking me every now and again.
I hated the attention, and being thanked for something I hadn't done yet made me queasy. The whole situation was just heaping unwanted pressure onto my mind at the thought of disappointing everyone if I failed.
God... This is why I didn't want anyone to know... I thought, feeling miserable.
*rustle*
Fuck, not another one...
"Um... Cotton..?"
"*gasp* Star!" I jumped up so fast I made myself dizzy for a second, but when I turned around, it really was her. "..!" There was so much I wanted to say to her, but it all got stuck in my throat like a four lane pile up of the vocal cords, and I just stared at her, while she stared at the floor.
"...Cotton," she began, breaking the stalemate, "I'm sorry for-"
"No!" I interupted, coming over and giving her a hug. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I was the one that went overboard and-"
"But I do!" She shouted back, pushing us out of the hug. "I was insulting you, and called you a profiteer! I didn't know that it was for-"
"I still should have taken your feelings more seriously! I didn't have to sell them a weapon, it could have been anything else, like the Haber Process, or-"
"Ahem!" A voice interupted. Turning towards the entrance, there was a grey coated stallion standing there. He looked to be the same one that gaurds Diamond's trailer. "Cotton, Our Lady would like a word," he stated.
Looking between him and Star, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to stay with her for a while-
"...Go on Cotton," Star said, seeing my hesitation. "I'll wait here. You shouldn't keep her waiting," she finished, giving me an encouraging push towards the exit.
"Well... alright," I hesitently say. "I'll be back soon," I tell her with a smile. She smiles back, and waves as I leave. Once outside, I noticed that the sun had set at some point. "So what does she want?" I ask, once we're a distance from the wagon.
"I was only told that she want's to speak with you," he said without looking back.
She must have something to say about my plan. If everyone else knows, than there's no reason she wouldn't...
I knew something was up as soon as the trailer came into view. If she was in, normally there would be no gaurds, but there were four stallions at attention around Diamond's home.
What's with the security detail? Walking up to the door, the guard opened it, and motioned me in.
The interior was only dimly lit, adding to the bad vibe I was getting. Completing the picture of bad news was Diamond, laying on her bed, eyes narrowed at me.
"You, uh... wanted to see me?"
"Yes. I'm very disappointed in you Cotton... Do you know why..?"
"Disappointed? Why-"
"Because!" She violently interuptes, getting off her bed. "We've talked about this before, just a few days ago," she continued, walking up to me, and looking much taller than the last time I saw her. "And I clearly remember telling you to drop the subject!" She punctuated with a stomp to the floor.
"I know, but-"
"Yet here you are!" She again interupts, with another stomp. "Carrying on, scheming behind my back!" She accuses, bending her neck down to look me right in the eye.
"It's not scheming!" I shout, patience with her yelling lost. "You all want a home, I can give you one! Why is that so bad!"
"A home," she replies, rising back to her full hight. "Pah! You've no idea just how cruel your promises are, how high you raise their hopes, just to crush them down again!" She asserts, voice filled with a cold contempt, that slowly built back up into rage.
"If I don't know, then enlighten me! Why are you so against this?"
"Our true home was destroyed long ago, there is no other place for us."
"The hell kind of reasoning is that? So you just don't want to find a place where they can be happy? Or do you just not care?" That was aparently the wrong thing to say.
"How dare you!!!" She screamed, her voice taking on a strange, warbling quality.
I just barely registered the glow of her horn before I was lifted off my hooves and rammed against the wall, knocking a painting and several candles to the floor. She was on me in an instant, with a foreleg tucked under my chin, pinning me even more tightly to the wall, and her forehead pressed right against mine, our horns scraping against eachother.
"My subjects mean everything to me! They are what I live for! Who are you, to accuse me of not caring! Their happiness is more important to me than anything! I just..!" Her voice hitched, as she held back a sob, the anger and adrenaline dredging up old emotions. "I just... I don't want to see them harmed again..." she trailed off, letting me sink limply to the floor.
I had only half heard her tirade, and was only distantly aware that the guards had burst in at some point. I just sat there, in the awkward position in which I crumpled when she released me, staring up into her eyes.
Her green eyes.
We just stared at eachother for several seconds. Eventually, she tilted her head slightly, perhaps wondering why I seemed so spaced out.
"My Queen," the closest guard spoke, gaining her attention. "Your eyes..."
Realization flashed across her face, before hardening into a stern expression. She blinked, and her eyes became blue again, and as she turned her gaze back on me, I only had time for one thought.
Oh shit.