//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: The Root of the Problem // Story: Past, Present, and Future // by Bpkyle777 //------------------------------// After I cracked and ordered us all some cake, we sat and ate in silence. I have never been the biggest fan of chocolate, but however those ponies in the kitchen made this, it was beyond delicious. Thoughts of ordering a few more pieces crossed my mind before I shook my head. No, don’t get distracted! We need to figure out what to do about Sesame. I glanced down at my half-eaten slice of cake and with great trepidation I sat it down on the table so I could think. Now I know why Tia enjoys dessert so much. I tried to think of what our next move would be, but with all that’s happened recently, I suddenly realized that my mind was a mess. I stepped over to the edge of the room and sat down, facing the center. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and my entire demeanor began to change. A few months ago, I had found a meditation technique that would let me clear my head and organize my thoughts. Anytime I went into concentration mode like this, I kept my playful side in check and took everything seriously. The current situation pretty much demanded it right now. The haze in my mind had only just begun to clear when an annoying voice sounded across the room. “You gonna finish that?” I inwardly groaned as I cracked an eye open to see Smith pointing at my plate from the balcony. With a sigh, I shook my head and levitated it over to him, closing my eyes again. I tried to block the sound of him assaulting the half-eaten cake as I took a few more deep breaths. My mindscape was once again coming into focus until somepony else spoke up. “I assume the lesson is done for today?” Trixie asked. Sighing, I opened my eyes. This is why ponies meditate in solitude. “Unfortunately, yes, but we’ll pick it back up some other time. Right now, we need to focus on Sesame and the Nightmare.” Trixie nodded in understanding. “Hopefully we can have something useful for when Celestia returns.” I rarely used Celestia’s full name, unless I was talking with unfamiliar ponies or concentrating. This was obviously the latter. “We have a few hours until she gets back,” I said while glancing at the clock, “so I want to have as much cleaned up as possible for her when she returns.” My attention turned to the still un-ethereal alicorn. “What do you recommend we do with her?” I motioned my head at the bed. Recognizing my shift in demeanor, Luna lit her horn and, with a flash, returned to her full ethereal state. “We are not entirely certain,” she shook her head sadly. “She was under the influence of a powerful being that even We couldst not fight. We think our best course of action at the moment wouldst be to attempt to awaken her.” Nodding in agreement, I approached the edge of the bed where the pink mare was currently lying. I put a hoof to her shoulder and attempted to rouse her. “Sesame. Sesame, wake up.” I gently shook her until I heard her groan and she cracked an eye open. “Just… just five more minutes.” Sesame closed her eyes again and rolled over. She put a hoof out, feeling the bed and the soft blankets. Reluctantly, she slowly sat up and looked down at the bed in confusion. “This isn’t my bed,” she mumbled. After taking a moment to wake up, she shook her head and looked around, inspecting each piece of furniture and window until her eyes locked on the Princess. “P-Princess Luna!” she gasped as she tumbled out of the bed, nearly falling on her face. “I-I’m so sorry!” she bowed. Her voice when she wasn’t yelling was soft, almost like Fluttershy’s. “I don’t know why I was-” Sesame cut herself off when she felt Luna’s hoof on her shoulder. “It is alright, my little pony,” Luna said as gently as she could. “Please, rise.” Sesame did so and immediately noticed the rest of us nearby. She seemed afraid. Well, I would be to if I was in her horseshoes. “Tell Us, Sesame Seed, what dost thou remember last?” “U-um,” She thought about it for a moment, avoiding making eye contact with anypony. “I-I was… m-making breakfast f-for you…” She trailed off, almost visibly shaking. I stepped up next to her and gently put a wing around her. “Don’t worry,” I said softly. “You’re not in any trouble. Just relax.” Sesame flinched when my wing touched her, but she eventually calmed down a bit and smiled at me. “W-well, I was in the kitchen making your meal while my boss and a few others were trying to kick somepony out for making a mess.” She didn’t notice the glares most of us shot at Smith, who was lying against the barrier with a hoof on his stomach and a huge grin on his face. “Once we finished, Chef Lebouge and one of the maids left to deliver it. Umm…” She looked away again in thought. “I don’t… The rest is a little blurry for some reason.” “Take your time,” Luna said. “We are aware of how disorienting this must be.” Sesame sat there in thought for a few minutes before her eyes gradually grew and she looked at each of us in panic. “I… Why did I do that? I-I’m so sorry!” She was getting tense again as panic crept into her voice. “I yelled at everypony! I-I would never do that normally. Oh, I’m such a horrible mare! I didn’t m-mean any of those things I said!” Sesame was bowing now. “P-please don’t take my job! T-this is all I have! I’ll d-do anything to make it up to everypony…” Her voice trailed off. I couldn’t see her face since it was pressed into the ground, but I heard her sniffle. “P-please…” she said almost inaudibly. “I’m sorry…” The pink mare sniffed a few more times before Luna quietly approached her. Sesame froze when Luna did the last thing she expected. She hugged her. Sesame Seed gasped in surprise when Luna used her magic to quickly bring her up for a hug. Things remained silent for a few minutes before Luna decided to slowly release Sesame. “Do not fret, my little pony,” she nearly whispered to the pony sitting in front of her. “Thine actions were not thine own. Thou hadst no control over them.” “B-but I-” Luna quickly shushed her. “We are aware of what you did, and We must apologize for them.” Sesame tilted her head in confusion. “It was Our curse that was thrust upon thee.” Must… resist… snicker…“We want thee to know that We have always appreciated thine work here at the castle. So much so that We have specifically requested thine services once or twice.” Sesame’s cheeks turned a deeper pink. “But it is not only thine culinary skills that We appreciate.” Sesame looked up at the Alicorn questioningly. Luna smiled warmly at her. “After our return two years ago, the majority of pony kind was fearful of Us. Thou were one of the few that showed no fear of Us and treated us accordingly, and for that, We thank you.” Luna gently bowed her head in appreciation. This actually made Sesame giggle. “Your highness, I-I was only doing my job. Aside from the way you speak and the unnecessary use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, you seemed just like any other pony, so I saw no reason to treat you any differently than I would Princess Celestia.” I grinned to myself. This is turning out better than I expected. Luna beamed at this. “And for these very reasons, despite what has happened today, We hereby promote thee to Our personal chef!” “R-Really?!” Sesame gasped. She looked at the ground and started idly tracing her hoof around. “E-Even after all those mean things I said to everypony?” “Certainly,” Luna nodded. “We know thou did not mean those things. And besides,” Luna smirked at her, “what are friends for?” “F-Friends?” Sesame bowed her head in respect. “Princess Luna, I’m honored!” “Please, call Us Luna,” she said, lifting Sesame’s head back up with a hoof. “Oh! O-Of course, Pri- uh, Luna.” Sesame smiled sheepishly. I let a few relaxing moments pass before putting my serious face back on and speaking up. “As wonderful as this turned out, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut in here.” I frowned slightly and looked at Sesame. “Right now the whole castle, if not the entirety of Equestria, may be in danger, and we need your cooperation to help fix it.” The pink mare started looking a little frightened but nodded regardless. “What you experienced was the Nightmare,” I explained, “an ancient darkness that preys on the insecurity of ponies, no matter how small, and amplifies them beyond the pony’s control. Aside from this, we know very little about it, and since you were the last one affected by it, I want to get as much information from you as possible.” Sesame nodded, a bit more resolute. “The way I see it, we currently have two options. The first is you tell me everything you can about this morning in as excruciating detail as possible. Everything from what you were doing, to what you said, to even the very thoughts that crossed your mind.” “U-Um, I’m not sure I can do that,” Sesame said shyly, rubbing her head. “Everything after breakfast is still rather blurry.” She looked at me and tilted her head. “Um, not to be rude or anything, but… Who are you?” “It is alright, Sesame,” Luna said. “This is Blast Shield, an old friend of Ours.” “Oh, okay. Um…” She looked back at me. “W-What’s the second option?” “The second option…” I shook my head, “you may not like. It is that, using Luna as a focal point, you let me enter your memories and watch what happened for myself. Unfortunately, that also means you will have to relive everything from this morning. I understand if you do not wish to do this.” Sesame looked understandably frightened at this and glanced at Luna. “This is thy decision,” Luna said. “Thou dost not have to help if thou dost not wish to. We will, however, say that We trust Blast with Our life. Both me and my sister.” Putting a hoof to her chin, Sesame mulled over her decision. After a few moments, she slowly sat up, looking determined, and nodded. “Okay, I-I’ll do it.” “Are you absolutely sure?” I asked. “This will not be pleasant.” She took a staggered breath. “Y-Yes. They are my memories, so I would probably relive them in some way or another, so why not now when I can help everypony?” I smiled and nodded at her before facing Luna. “You also have a choice in this. Since I need to use you as a focal point, you have the ability to watch as well. Whether or not you do so is up to you.” “As much as We would not like to watch, We feel it is Our duty to do so,” Luna said. “We can confirm if what affected Sesame Seed is indeed the Nightmare.” “Alright,” I nodded, “let’s get this show on the road.” I looked at Trixie and Smith. “Can you two make sure we’re not interrupted?” Trixie nodded and trotted to the front door. Smith was still lying against the barrier and just waved a hoof to show he heard me. My hoof lit up as I placed it on Luna’s side, while she charged her horn for the appropriate spell. “Just relax and focus your mind on this morning when you were making breakfast,” Luna instructed Sesame. She nodded and Luna lowered her horn to touch Sesame’s head. After I finished wiping my station, I stood back and smiled at the sight of a clean kitchen. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long as an order appeared in front of me at that moment. Picking it up and looking it over, I found it was a decent sized order that needed to be delivered to Princess Luna’s room. “Chef, we’ve got an order from the Princess!” I called to the other side of the kitchen where most of the others were resupplying shelves. “Alright, Sesame,” I heard Chef Lebouge call back as he peaked around the corner. “Could you get started on it? We’ll be right there to help in a moment.” “Sure thing,” I nodded and started pulling out the appropriate pans and ingredients. A yellow unicorn with a light red mane levitated the order to where he was standing a couple meters away. “Hehe, this is a lot, even for the Princess,” Quick Whisk snickered. “You think she wants to pig out this morning?” I smirked at him and shoved him playfully. “Don’t make fun of the princess.” I giggled. “Though it’s either that… or somepony spent the night with her,” I winked. “Ooo, scandalous!” He joked. *CRASH* “Eep!” I jumped, nearly dropping the eggs I was holding, and turned around to find the source of the noise. “Hey! What are you doing in here?” I heard Lebouge call out. I could just make out a black tail from around the corner. “Sorry about that!” a new voice said. “My name’s Smith. I’m just a friend of the Princesses’ checking out the kitchen,” he said, almost playfully. “I don’t care who you are! You’re not allowed back here without permission!” Lebouge yelled. Whisk sighed. “I should probably go help them out. You can get started, right?” I nodded and Whisk trotted around the corner, leaving me to start cooking. Ignoring the sounds around the corner, I went back to prepping the Princess’ breakfast. It’s always something, isn’t it? I stopped for a moment to think about that. Almost all of them find some excuse to stop working. I tried to shake that out of my head. We don’t want somepony destroying the kitchen though, do we? *Crash* *clatter* “Hey get away from that!” I continued cooking and started looking around for our supply of salt. But it’s not just now. They’ll use anything to get out of cooking. I guess that was true. Just last week, half the staff left saying they were needed to deliver a single box the western kitchen. I mean, it shouldn’t take more than two unicorns to do that, right? I rolled my eyes when I found the salt in the wrong place, again. “Cool! How does this thing work?” *Beep beep* “WHOA WHOA! Careful with that! You want to blow us to smithereens?!” “Agh, I need to focus,” I said to myself. Blocking my mind from anything other than the task at hoof, I continued cooking. When I was about three-quarters done, I heard the new pony yipe causing me to jerk my head in his direction. “Oh dear, I hope he’s okay…” I mumbled. “Now we’ve got you!” the Chef called out. A few moments later I saw the Chef, Whisk and two other kitchen workers carrying a struggling grey Pegasus out the door. “And stay out!” Lebouge called as he slammed the kitchen door shut again. Chef Lebouge and Whisk trotted over to me. “Sorry about that,” the Chef said. “Some ponies just don’t know when to… leave.” He stopped when he saw everything I had prepared so far. “Wow, you work quick. Let’s help you finish.” After they washed up, Whisk and Lebouge helped me assemble the last few things on the order and put them on trays for delivery. Lebouge flagged down a maid outside the kitchen to help him deliver the food. “Phew,” Whisk wiped his brow. …Anger… What? You didn’t do anything to help me, you lazy little- “That Pegasus is tougher than he looks,” Whisk said. I squeaked when I realized that was why he was tired and I felt bad about that mean thought that had just gone through my head. “Sesame? Are you okay?” he asked. “Y-yeah,” I stammered. “J-just a dumb thought.” “Alright then,” he said. “Let me know if we get any more orders.” I nodded as he walked off. “Why would I think something like that?” I mumbled to myself. I turned back to my station to see it in shambles again and sighed. Why didn’t he stay and help? Well, it was my station, and I’m the one who made most of the mess. But he could’ve been a gentlecolt and offered to help anyways. I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience though. Gathering some clean rags, I proceeded to clean up the food spots and put the dishes in the sink to be cleaned later. No, inconvenient is when you have to do most of the cooking, then be left to clean up by yourself. …Doubt… I… I guess he could have helped a little. I sighed and stopped for a moment, before smiling to myself. I kinda like him, though, so I don’t mind too much. I hummed to myself as I continued cleaning. I wonder if he likes me back. I wiped off the countertop and threw away the eggshells from earlier. Of course he doesn’t! You’re not much to look at, plus you make the least amount of bits in the castle. Stopping again, I felt my eyes water a little. “No,” I shook my head. “It’s only because I’m new here. And Whisk has always been nice to me.” Nearly three years is new?! “Well, compared to the rest of the kitchen staff-” Compared to the rest of the kitchen staff, you have done nearly twenty years worth of work. “B-but it wouldn’t be fair if-” If what? You got paid for doing your job correctly? I didn’t respond to that thought. I didn’t know how to… … They don’t care about you. Those stuck up royals just want to be pigs and ignore the hard work behind it! “Yeah, they don’t care,” I angrily mumbled to myself… … …Rage… … Tell them what you really think! “I will not calm down!” I yelled at the Chef. “I work harder than anypony in here and rarely do I get recognized for it!” “Please, Sesame, just listen!” “No! I’m done listening!” I stormed off to the highest authority to resign… … …Hate… … I gasped as I fell backward, panting, while I tried to wrap my head around everything I just saw and felt. Rubbing a hoof on my hurting head, I saw Sesame shaking on the ground with Luna’s wing wrapped around her. Luna herself looked like she had just been crying and I saw Smith coming to comfort her. “W-wait…” I said, trying to sit up, “H-how did…” I turned some more until I saw Celestia and Light standing next to Trixie in the doorway. “When did you get here?” “About fifteen minutes ago,” Celestia said, helping me up. I still had a hoof to my head though. “According to Trixie, you three have been like that for almost an hour. I also dropped the shield for a moment to let Smith-” “Augh!” I nearly collapsed to the floor from the migraine I had. I-it’s… Why didn’t see it before!? “Zack!” Celestia gasped, holding me up. “I’m fine, Celestia,” I said through grit teeth. “We need to go.” I feel so stupid now! “Go? Go where?” Luna asked. “Not important,” I started limping towards the door, one hoof still rubbing my head, “but we’re in more trouble than we thought. It’s not safe here anymore.” “What do you mean?” Celestia asked. I turned around to Luna, who was between Smith and Sesame at the moment. “What affected Sesame was Nightmare, correct?” I asked. Luna looked downward, almost pained at the memory, but lightly nodded. I turned back to the doorway. “Then I know what’s happening, and it ain’t pretty.” Before I could get out the door, it slammed shut in a golden glow. “Zack, tell us what’s going on!” Celestia called out. I growled as I slumped against the door, the pain in my head getting to an extreme. “Don’t you ponies get it?!” I spat, causing everypony to flinch. “Tell me, when did Luna start behaving irrationally a thousand years ago?” “Uh, about a year after we banished King Sombra,” Celestia hesitantly said. “Why?” “Nnng!” I rubbed my head some more. “You don’t think it’s a little strange how Luna never doubted herself before then? And how the Nightmare just vanished from her when the Elements of Harmony cleansed her, but reappeared right when Sombra, Smith, and I showed up? I didn’t realize it myself until I felt the hatred the Nightmare poured into Sesame Seed. Agh.” My head felt like it would explode at any moment and I was lying on the ground, but I had to press on. For Equestria. “Whatever this Nightmare is,” I panted, “it’s a part of Sombra. Whether a literal piece or just a spell, I can’t tell, but we need to do something before Sombra- AUGH!” I couldn’t speak anymore. I could barely think. The pain was just too much. Celestia quickly trotted next to me to help but stopped when a loud laugh echoed through the room. “Ha ha ha ha. It’s about time somepony got it,” a deep voice echoed. Everypony but me was looking around for the source, Celestia and Luna with their horns charged and ready to fight. “I was afraid I would have to spell it out to you simpletons.” “Sombra!” Luna yelled. “Yes, my dear? Oh, don’t worry. I don’t plan on hurting your little ponies. At least not yet.” There was a flash of light and Sesame and Lightwing were gone. I grit my teeth even more. It was hard to focus. “Oh my,” Sombra said in faux worry, “Poor Zack is in pain. LET’S SEE WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THAT!” Instantly my vision faded as my head fell to the ground.