//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Deep Within // Story: Brother Against Sister // by CartsBeforeHorses //------------------------------// The mid-afternoon sun beat down on the clearing in the Everfree Forest in which Zecora’s hut stood. Inside, Pumpkin Cake and Zecora sat in the living room. Zecora sat at a desk, mixing up another potion. Pumpkin lay on the couch reading a book. For the past six months, Pumpkin Cake had lived with Zecora, helping her out with her potions in exchange for magical education. Zecora now had a pony to help her out with grabbing herbs, leaves, berries, and other ingredients that she needed in her brews, and twelve-year-old Pumpkin Cake now had a magic teacher. Pumpkin Cake had learned a few more useful spells since Zecora had started training her. She could now use her horn as a source of light, and could teleport short distances. Though she was still lacking in telekinesis compared to other unicorns her age, she had improved since Zecora had started teaching her. She could use a few dowsing and locating spells, which came in handy when searching for potion ingredients. She had also gotten much better at her intangibility spell, which she’d spent most of her time training. She could now cast it for more time and on larger objects. As for Zecora’s potions, they were all quite useful. Since Zecora and Pumpkin lived alone, they had no access to medicines, vitamins, or other remedies. They both relied on her alchemical knowledge to keep themselves healthy. Zecora also was quite generous with her brews, and every now and then a pony would wander into the forest hurt or injured and asking for a cure, which she was happy to provide. Zecora busily attended to her alchemy, using a pestle and mortar to grind up ingredients, where she mixed them into a small vial on her desk. This particular potion had taken her several hours to decant and properly mix. The ingredients had taken weeks to gather. The potion was quite useful: one sip could cure any ailment from the common cold to the pony pox, from the trots to cancer. Bubbles fizzled in the bright purple mixture as Zecora stirred it with a stirring stick. She glanced over at her potion book. Her eyes widened. “Oh dear. It seems I don’t have all I need here.” Pumpkin Cake glanced up from her book, placing it down on the couch. “What’s the matter, Zecora?” she asked. “Pumpkin Cake, I have something for you to do. I need another ingredient for my brew.” “What is it?” “The potion needs a special dreg: the shell of a manticore’s egg.” Pumpkin blinked. “I didn’t know that manticores laid eggs.” Zecora nodded, still stirring the potion. “There is a mother manticore living in a cave. She’s due north of here, only three miles away.” “Alright, let’s go,” said Pumpkin Cake, walking over to grab her jacket. Zecora held up her hoof. “I cannot go with you, I’m afraid. This potion requires me to stay. If I do not stir and stir until I add the eggs, then this entire potion will separate and go to waste. Now make haste.” Zecora pointed towards her potion ingredient book. Pumpkin glanced at it and saw what Zecora meant: if the potion was not constantly stirred, it would separate out into its component parts once more, like oil floating to the top of water. And as the bright red letters on the page warned, the potion ingredients could not be reused once this happened. Given that it had already required several rare ingredients, Zecora had a sense of urgency. Pumpkin Cake raised her eyebrow. “Why didn’t we just get this ingredient before you started mixing the potion?” “It must have slipped my mind. The other ingredients took so long to find. This one, though, will be a cinch. Just don’t find yourself in a pinch.” “I’ll go find the egg,” Pumpkin said. She put on her jacket, and left the door of the hut. “Be careful out there,” said Zecora. “Wait until the mother manticore has left her lair. Then, sneak in and grab the eggs from there. Try to be back before the night hour, or else this potion will go sour.” Pumpkin Cake nodded and walked out the door. Pumpkin Cake was still a bit nervous about going off into the Everfree Forest alone, though nowhere near as scared as the first time that she did it. By now, she was experienced enough to venture out into the forest alone, and Zecora had already accompanied her on many errands to make sure that she could handle herself. Pumpkin Cake walked due north for several kilometers, navigating through the thickets and bushes. About half an hour later, she came across a small stream about ten meters across. It was too deep to wade in, but she found some fallen boulders to skip across on. When Pumpkin Cake got to the far side of the river, she realized that she’d forgotten her saddlebags. She debated whether or not she should go back to get them. However, she didn’t want to waste the time. The potion needed the eggs as soon as possible, or else it would be worthless. All she needed was to pick up a few eggs, anyway. She could easily carry them in her magic rather than saddlebags. As soon as she thought that she was near the manticore’s den, she powered up her horn. It glowed a dim blue, lighting up the shady forest floor beneath the thick canopy. She was using a location spell; with it, she would know the eggs’ general area. Her horn’s glow increased in intensity as she walked further north. A few minutes later, her horn was glowing quite brightly as she made her way to a steep hill. She meandered around, wading through tall grass, ferns, and bushes as she finally reached her destination: a large cave in the hillside. She figured that this must be the manticore’s den. Her horn hadn’t glowed this brightly during her entire journey, and this was the only cave around. Pumpkin Cake glanced inside the cave, her horn still glowing. The mother manticore was sleeping, its snores loudly echoing. Pumpkin Cake figured she’d just wait for the manticore to wake up and leave its den. It couldn’t take that long, could it? She walked a few meters away from the cave entrance and hid behind a bush, patiently waiting. An hour later, Pumpkin Cake could still hear snoring. The sun was just barely above the western horizon. In an hour, it would be nightfall. Manticores weren’t nocturnal, Pumpkin recalled from Zecora’s teachings, so it would probably sleep there for the rest of the night. If she wanted to get the eggs, she’d have to go in now. She walked over to the cave entrance, her hooves trembling slightly. Though she could shield herself from all harm with her intangibility spell, the spell still had its limits. She was far from invincible. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the dark cave, her horn lighting the way. She set her hooves down on the ground slowly and carefully, making sure not to make a sound. Suddenly, she heard a loud roar. She glanced around and saw the mother manticore, who had woken from its slumber. The beast bared its claws, standing on its hind legs. It towered high above her, nearly reaching the ceiling of the cave. Pumpkin Cake cast her intangibility spell on herself, phasing out. The manticore pounced on her glowing body, but stood up quite confused to discover that it had not hit the mark. The manticore swatted at Pumpkin with a paw, but to no avail. Pumpkin Cake glanced around for any sign of the manticore eggs. She discovered that the cave actually extended deep within the hill side. She couldn’t even see the back wall of it. So, she pressed onward. Unfortunately, Pumpkin could only move very slowly while intangible. As Zecora had taught her, intangibility magic was a subset of levitation magic, except rather than simply take the weight from an object to allow it to rise into the air, an intangibility spell took the mass from an object as well, allowing it to both rise into the air and pass through other objects. This is why she didn’t simply fall through the ground while intangible: gravity was not acting on her. However, this meant that in order to move, she had to use her levitation magic to push herself forward, and she was quite unskilled at this. She crept forward slowly, her magic slowly pushing her phased body across the ground like a slowly floating specter. The manticore’s inner feline kicked in, and it chased after the glowing blue Pumpkin Cake with the same tenacity—and futility—of a cat chasing a shadow. The manticore swatted at the air and pounced on the ground, but didn’t catch her. After three minutes, Pumpkin Cake finally eyed three eggs, about twenty meters away, sitting inside a large straw nest. However, she realized that she was reaching the limit of her intangibility spell, and it soon would wear off before she could get there, and the manticore would catch her. Thinking quickly, she waited until the manticore was crouched in a pouncing position. Then, right as it was about to pounce, she briefly returned to being solid, only to dodge the manticore as it pounced onto the ground. Now able to run, she dashed over to the eggs. She tried to pick them all up with her magic, but found that they were far heavier than she had thought. They must’ve weighed as much as an anvil. Her already tired horn strained just to pick up a single egg. Suddenly, the beast darted across the cave, leaping in the air as it pounced. Pumpkin Cake cast her intangibility spell on herself once more, and the beast passed through her… but hit the eggs, smashing them into pieces. Pumpkin Cake’s heart skipped a beat. Now what would she do? Oh, right. The egg shells are all I need, she realized. Duh. She returned to being solid, frantically grabbing the egg shells with her magic. She would have to hurry when she left, because she couldn’t levitate other objects while intangible; she’d have to be solid to bring the eggshells back. If only she’d remembered her saddlebags! The manticore got back up onto its feet, angrily eyeing its destroyed eggs and the shells floating away. Pumpkin Cake turned and ran, galloping out the front door of the cave as fast as her legs would carry her, the manticore in hot pursuit. As she ran, she saw the river in front of her, then glanced behind her. The beast was gaining on her, and would be closing in on her in mere moments! With great effort, she summoned up as much of her remaining magical energy as she could muster. She could feel the manticore’s hot breath on her flank as she disappeared in a bright flash of light, leaving the beast without its prey. She reappeared on the other side of the river, her teleport successful. The manticore roared loudly at her, but did not attempt to cross the river. Breathing a sigh of relief, Pumpkin Cake sat down for a few moments to regain her stamina and magical energy. This had by far been the most dangerous mission she’d been on. Other times, she’d simply had to retrieve things like phoenix feathers or poison joke plants. On some of the escapades, she hadn’t even had to use her magic at all. This was entirely different, though. She’d just barely escaped with her life. She missed the days when the simplest errands she had to run were just going to the cellar to retrieve flour, sugar, or eggs (regular chicken eggs, that is) for some pastry her parents were baking. She missed her parents’ baked treats, cakes, and pies. She missed her parents. Their smiles. Their voices. Everything about them… she missed her brother... She felt a knot at the pit of her stomach. She felt tears welling up. “No,” she whispered quietly. A blue glow enveloped her, and as she phased out of existence, she felt nothing. In the same way that her spell numbed her to physical pain, it seemed to numb her to sadness as well. She wasn’t sure how it worked, or even if it was anything beyond a placebo effect. All she knew was that it worked, and that was good enough for her. She’d been numb to the grief of losing her parents when she was on Sweet Apple Acres. She supposed that the full gravity of it had yet to sink in at that time. She had cried a few times, but hadn’t felt much beyond that. After she escaped, though, she’d begun to feel it a bit more every day. Zecora had filled the hole in her heart somewhat, but as kind and loving as she was, the zebra could never replace her parents or brother. Then, one day, about five months ago, she was reminded of her parents once more. One of Zecora’s potions had a very similar odor to the smell of the Cakes’ signature croissants. Then, as now, she had welled up with tears. She had gazed deep within herself and saw the void left by her parents and brother… and it terrified her. Almost instinctively, she cast her intangibility spell, and just as her body vanished, so too did her grief. Though it was only temporary, she had used this method to avoid sobbing or crying out at the memory of her parents whenever the memories resurfaced. It had yet to fail her, though she found herself having to rely on this method more and more as time passed. Her sadness would eventually catch up with her, and she knew it. A few minutes passed. Phasing back into reality once more, and with her pain once again put off for later, she ventured back to Zecora’s hut. Pumpkin knew what she was doing wasn’t healthy. She knew she’d eventually have to feel her grief. She knew she couldn’t hide from it forever. But she’d delay it as long as she could.