//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Twists, Truths, and Traps // Story: Amongst the Trees // by TopHatsAndTea //------------------------------// Chapter 5 - Twists, Truths and Traps Luna sighed as she alighted upon her balcony once more, her hooves barely making a sound despite the marble underfoot. Barely an hour previous, she had been in the presence of Jack, the strange ape-like creature now dwelling in the Everfree. She knew not what to make of the creature precisely; certainly, it- no, he, Luna thought, could play the violin masterfully, and it seemed that he had no ill wishes towards her ponies, but... Shaking such thoughts away, Luna trotted off into the castle. Even in the middle of the night, Canterlot Castle was awake, as servants tended to the rooms that had been used during the day, and supplicants made their way to the throne room for Luna’s Night Court (1). Luna had no intentions in interfering with their affairs this night though. There was only one pony she needed to speak to, and Luna knew she would be waiting to hear her news of the human in the forest. Fortunately for Luna, her sister’s room was not too far from her own, and in mere moments she arrived before its’ doors. Knock knock knock... Celestia snorted, jerking upright at her writing desk. She had tried to wait up for her sister, but having fallen back into the habit of sleeping at night again after so many years having to stay up most of the day, having odd naps here and there, made it near-impossible to stay awake whenever she desired to, and left her feeling bleary-headed after. Steeling herself, Celestia sat upright, calling out. “Come in!” Luna softly pushed the door open, slipping her way into the room, a pensive look on her face. One look at her sister, however, made her grin. “Oh, Tia, I did not realise just how much you love your sleep.” Celestia blinked, playing innocent. “Sleep? I’ve been up since you left, trying to get some of our paperwork done.” Tia waved a hoof dismissively. Luna snickered. “In duplicate it seems, dear sister.” “Hm?” Luna pointed to her sister’s face, grinning. “Let’s see... gnitnuh rof dnal fo stcart retaerg rof stseuqer s’ainoffirG htiw enil ni... in line with Griffonia’s requests for greater tracts of land for hunting...” she giggled. “Thine fur has made a perfect blotting of the original document, Tia.” Celestia swivelled around, surprised, to check in her mirror. True to Luna’s words, lines of text now graced the sun goddess’ cheek, from where her head must have rested on the still-moist ink. With a small curse, Celestia magically siphoned the ink off her fur. It had unfortunately dried out too much to reuse immediately, but Celestia stored the powder left in a spare inkwell, resolving to use it another time. She rounded on her giggling sister, a serious look on her face. “Come, Luna, you know now is not the time for jokes. What was it like, this creature?” Luna’s cheerful exterior fell away, leaving a frown on her brow. “Well... it was just as Spike told thee; a bipedal being, ape-like in appearance with little fur on its body save the top of its head, fully clothed... and could play the violin beautifully.” Luna smiled at the memory. “Oddly, it seems to have entered into an alliance with the Timberwolves, and-” “The Timberwolves?” Luna tutted, gazing down her muzzle at Tia. “Yes, if you would let me continue, sister... “Besides his outward appearance, his character seems quite flawless, if only by my brief conversation with him and the emotion behind his music. He claims no ill intent upon any in our land, though he is reluctant to communicate with our ponies. This makes my conclusion all the more concerning, dear sister...” A slight frown graced Luna’s brow. Tia waited patiently for her conclusion. Luna, however, stayed silent. “...Well? What is your conclusion, Luna?” Tia probed, her own face mirroring her sister’s frown. After a few drawn out seconds, Luna spoke again. “I fear that I can sense our mother’s hoof in all of this, Tia.” Celestia gasped softly. “Luna, you’re not saying...” Luna nodded. “Yes, I am. I think she has chosen.” The two sat in ponderous silence, as if time had stood still. Beyond the castle’s walls, the world continued. At the edge of the everfree, the following morning... “Come on, dude, all it takes is a step at a time...” Jack muttered to himself. For a good half-hour, he had been trying to convince himself to go back to town. Slung across his back was his violin case, as it gave him some reassurance to have it close. Behind him, Rowan laid tiredly, his wooden muzzle resting in his paws. Rowan growled, Jack looked back questioningly. “Why, what happens then?” With a Thwock! of wood on wood, Rowan’s paw collided with his brow. “Oh...” Jack nodded. Then frowned. “Wait, so the apples contain a combination of lunar magic and your own?” “Then... what keeps the picked apples from vanishing like the rest? And how do you get any magical energy from them otherwise? Surely any magic left would be your own?” Jack queried. Rowan, on the other hand, simply chuckled. Jack groaned under his breath at this less-than-satisfactory answer, turning back towards Ponyville, steeling himself once more. Just one step at a time... Before Jack could take another step though, his concentration was broken by Rowan, whose ears twitched most audibly (2). Jack sighed, partly out of irritation, but with relief too; he had been dreading just how the ponies would react to his presence. “What is it?” Rowan slowly rose up onto his paws, clearly thinking. <...You are set in your desire to make amends with pony-kind, correct?> “Yeah, why?” and with that, Rowan started off into the forest, though keeping to the edge. Wondering what precisely was going on, Jack turned, padding after his friend. Wandering through the trees, Jack kept an ear out for whatever Rowan had reacted to. Barely a minute into their walk, he was rewarded as a soft tone came lilting through the forest, barely audible, but enough for Jack to catch. As the song grew in volume as they moved closer to its source, Jack muttered to Rowan, “Someone singing? How’s this going to help me?” Much to Jack’s annoyance, Rowan just chuckled again. Elsewhere in the forest... “Remind me again why it was necessary for me to come to this vile place and trudge through all this mud?” Blueblood moaned angrily, trying to keep his sullied hooves as far away from himself as possible, a feat that Truly couldn’t help but grin at. “Because, Milord, I have some doubt that I’d be able to subdue the creature alone.” Truly muttered, pushing his way through the underbrush. “That and the fact that I’m not the one who’s going to be casting the control spell.” Blueblood snorted, skirting around a muddy puddle. “Hmph. Good enough, I suppose. I do wonder though why on earth Starswirl ever thought creating such a spell would benefit ponydom.” Truly sighed out of exasperation. “If you really want the history lesson...” “Mmyes, I rather think that would be good.” “Well then I’ll tell you.” Truly took a deep breath. “Starswirl the Bearded, great as he was, was just another unicorn like you or I, and mortality took its toll on his mind... and his family. “The true madness in his mind made itself known after the death of his wife and long-time mage-lab partner, Crystal Shimmer. Where many were saddened by her loss, Starswirl outwardly showed no emotion, save for when he thought no-pony was around. He took to throwing fitful rages, but would snap back to cold, calm and collected outward behaviour as soon as he suspected another’s eyes on him. “Most frightening though, were the sounds that now came from his laboratory. Many claimed they could hear screams of tortured ponies within the walls, and even Celestia was not blind to the fact some of the more powerful unicorns had started to disappear from the general populace. “Eventually, she confronted him, only to find the student she had once taught long since gone from the mind of the pony that stood before her. All that remained was a shell, a husk of a mind, with one goal in mind; the resurrection of his beloved.” Truly paused, his voice cracking slightly. “This goal had not been completed, but Starswirl had already done many unspeakable things to reach the stage he had. As suspected, he had been kidnapping the most powerful unicorns he could find, and cast the spell you will be using over them, to use their magical energy in his research. Those that he failed to subjugate laid broken, gibbering wrecks, but still useful as Starswirl discovered how to drain their magic. Some, he even kept alive as thaumic condensers and generators, draining them constantly. All this, Celestia saw and was disgusted by it. Before the day ended, Starswirl had been imprisoned in the deepest branch of the Castle dungeon and all his experiments had been wiped from existence, save for the book we have; try as she might, Celestia could not bring herself to wipe his notes from existence, for some of the things he had discovered were actually beneficial to ponydom, albeit that they had been discovered using, and used upon, those poor souls he had used for magic sources. Thus, she did the only thing she could do; sealing it within the Canterlot archives with a nigh-constant Guard-watch.” Truly’s tone lowered further still. “And that is where it has lain until I managed to take it without them noticing. I’m half-tempted to burn the book myself, if it weren’t for the fact we need it.” Blueblood released a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “That. Was. Dreadful. Though there is one thing that I don’t understand; if Auntie tried to get rid of all his experiments, how do we know any of what happened?” Truly glanced back, surprised yet again. I should really give him more credit... “Look at the book’s cover, Sir, and tell me what you see.” Blueblood pulled a disgusted face as he levitated the book out of Truly’s saddlebag, staring at it intently. “...I don’t understand, what am I meant to be seeing here? All there is on it is a lot of patterns and a gem embedded in the middle.” “That gem,” Truly explained, “Is one of the many magical batteries Starswirl made. Coupled with the spell woven into the pattern, Starswirl enchanted that book so it would write itself using whatever was said. Look in the last few pages.” Blueblood flipped them open and began to read. “Enough of this Starswirl! This has gone on far enough!” “How can you say that, Celestia, I’m so close to bringing by darling Crystal back!” *stomp* “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for her, for the two of us! We will be together again, just you wait and see!” “Don’t you feel any remorse for those ponies you killed in the process, Starswirl?” “THEY ARE NOT MY CRYSTAL!” Blueblood looked up, a grim look on his face. “I...see.” Truly nodded. “Yeah... it’s actually kind of amazing that his love for her was that strong, even if what he did was so wrong.” He snorted. “Heh, that rhymed...” That earned him a glare from Blueblood. “How can you joke around when we’re talking of such things? What he did was despicable!” Truly glared back. “Don’t forget just what it is we’re about to do, Blueblood, and all for your petty revenge against those mares.” Blueblood’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like your tone. He and I are nothing alike.” “Mm, you’re right...” Truly muttered under his breath, so that Blueblood couldn’t hear, “he had love as an excuse for his actions.” Back with Jack... Eventually, the edge of the forest gave way to a large clearing, narrowly bordered by the trees of the forest, but filled with a vast swathe of various flowers, herbs and berry bushes. Jack’s gaze, however, was not drawn to any of this. His eyes were drawn to the pink-maned pegasus in the middle of the clearing, singing to a crowd of critters, with a beatific smile gracing her muzzle. Jack dimly recognised her as one of the ponies from whom he had fled from before, but that thought was instantly shunted to the back of his brain, his ears clamouring for control. As quietly as a wooden wolf could, Rowan lowered himself down onto his haunches once more. Rowan nodded his head toward the Pegasus. Jack nodded, but clearly hadn’t been paying attention to the words of his wooden friend. All his attention was still on the brightly-coloured pegasus hovering before him. Finishing her song with a happy sigh, Fluttershy lowered herself to the ground amidst the various applauses of her animal friends, from her dear Angel’s frantic foot-stomping to Mr Bearsley’s slow, thudding paw-slapping. She bowed, blushing a little. “Oh, thank you my friends...” Fluttershy spent a few moments thanking her animal friends, as they started off to do whatever it is animals do. Soon enough, Fluttershy was alone in the clearing, a wide smile gracing her face. Clap.Clap. Clap. Fluttershy froze. All her animal friends had left, hadn’t they? Slowly, she wheeled around. Standing before her, just at the edge of the forest, was the creature that had ambled into town only a few days before. It was clapping, but that wasn’t what caught her attention the most. It was the broad smile on its face, and the moistness around its eyes. Carefully, cautiously, it began to move closer to her. Fluttershy found herself doing likewise, caught between fascination with this new animal, and cautiousness over how it had dealt with Rainbow Dash in order to escape. “That...” Fluttershy stiffened as it spoke, though she didn’t flee; the tone it used was soft, careful, and Fluttershy found herself calmed by it a little too. “That was beautiful.” Inadvertently, she found herself blushing, and hid behind her fringe. “Uhm... th-thanks...” Slowly it brought a paw towards her. “I’m Jack.” “ ‘m Fluttershy...” Jack tilted his head. “Sorry, didn’t catch that.” “ ‘m Fluttershy.” “Flutter...shy?” Nod. Fluttershy brought her hoof up haltingly to meet Jack’s paw. Gently, he shook her hoof, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy.” His expression turned a little sheepish. “Sorry I ran away before, but... I panicked a bit. New place, weird creatures I didn’t recognise that could talk...” he blinked, then slapped one paw into its face. “Ugh, pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?” Fluttershy frowned gently, confused. “What do you mean?” “I mean, that from my point of view, you were the weird talking creatures, when from your point of view I’M the weird one,” He explained, lowering himself to the ground with a grunt, shifting to rest on his back, placing an odd box he had been carrying on the ground reverentially. Fluttershy opted to just sit next to him. “O-oh, I see. I suppose so. N-not that you’re weird, w-well, you’re different, but I just... Oh, I’m so sorry!” Fluttershy panicked, only to freeze as Jack softly placed a finger over her lips, smiling. “Shh... I know what you meant to say, it’s alright.” He chuckled. “and it’s nice to see you’re so friendly around me. I was half-expecting to get chased again.” “You were?” She asked, surprised. “Well, yeah. I mean, I’m not normal to all you ponies, and I... well, I guess I attacked one of your friends to escape. Sorry about that, by the way.” Jack looked down. “Oh, don’t worry, she’s fine. Rainbow thought it was pretty awesome what you did, actually.” Fluttershy giggled. Jack laughed with her. “She did? Wow, that’s a surprise.” For a few moments, the two sat in silence. “...That really was beautiful singing, by the way.” Fluttershy blushed again. “Thanks. Do you sing?” Jack chuckled. “From time to time. I prefer playing my violin.” “You have a violin? But, where did you get it from?” Fluttershy queried, confused. Jack grinned. “I brought it with me from home.” And with that, he started to explain his situation. Throughout the story, Fluttershy remained silent, save for a small exclamation when the timberwolves were mentioned. Once Jack was done she sat in thought, just as quiet as she had been before. Eventually, she spoke up. “So, the reason the timberwolves attacked us... was just to scare us away from their food? Why didn’t they say anything before?” Jack pondered this for a moment, fiddling with the fastener on his violin case. “Maybe they didn’t feel that the cost of magic to talk to your minds outweighed the cost of any magic they used up to chase you? Or maybe they just didn’t feel they could trust ponies.” With practiced ease, he cracked open the case, taking the violin out, setting it to his shoulder and starting to play. “...Thanks again, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy looked around. “For what?” Jack laughed softly. “For not freaking out.” Side by side, the two sat in piece, violin music wafting through the air, just enjoying the peace of the day. Jack smiled wistfully as he waved after Fluttershy. The animal caretaker eventually had to leave to feed the animals she kept at her house, but she had promised to come and talk again sometime, giving a hoof movement with it Jack found both curious and amusing. Jack stretched, cracking his joints as he did so. It had been nice to just sit and enjoy the afternoon with another... well, another being. Scooping up his violin and case, Jack looked around. He half-expected Rowan to still be sitting in the treeline, where he’d left off. Unsurprisingly though, Rowan had left. Presumably to help gather more apples, Jack thought. Ah well, I’m not too far from a zap apple patch, they’ll probably be there... Before Jack could get more than a few meters into the undergrowth, however, the sound of rustling leaves made him pause. “Rowan? That you?” He called out. For a few moments, nothing but silence reigned in the forest. Jack shrugged, and resumed his passage through the forest. Still, something made him feel uneasy. Rustlerustlerustle... Jack stopped. There it was again... Slowly, he crouched down, lowering his centre of gravity, preparing to defend from anything. Of course, it does help if the “anything” doesn’t have magic. Jack’s world span as a copper-coloured cloud of magic hoisted him into the air. Disoriented, he cried out, only for his mouth to be slammed shut by the caster. That didn’t stop Jack from thrashing around and trying to shout for Rowan though. “You heard what they were talking about, this thing’s got an alliance with the Timberwolves. There’ll be no time for the spell if they’re looking for it, so we’ve got to get back to Canterlot now!” A second, more snobby sounding voice groaned at this. “You mean there was no point to lugging this book along with us?” “I don't know why you're complaining about it, I was the one carrying it!" The first voice snapped. "We've no time for this Sir, we’ve got to go now before the wolves come for this thing. Either you take the beast from me and I teleport us, or I keep hold of it and you teleport us.” “Ugh, very well, but you’d better make sure that thing stays silent. We don't want anypony hearing us...” In one wrenching moment of magical manipulation, the three figures disappeared from the forest in a flash of light. The only traces there had been anything there before were a few muddy hoofprints, a violin case, and a violin, smashed asunder as the abductors had moved in. Once again, silence reigned in the forest... (1) Cancelled this night, of course. Luna was every bit as capable as her sister, but not knowing quite what she would experience in the forest had prompted her to free up the rest of the night, just in case. (2) Well, if your ears were composed of wood, twigs and leaves, they’d rustle and make noise when they moved too.