The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings
The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings
At the end of the flashing lightning and rumbling thunder, Cocoon’s mind is still again. We are still standing before the iron door, but there is a major difference in the scenery. The walls and ceiling, originally dispersed about the mindscape have melded together along golden seams. I’m no longer bound to a wall and I’m able to move around. The iron door stands shut tight with Discord lain out on his back before it. He starts to get up too, rubbing his head and looking around.
“What in blazes happened out there? This is… this is!” Discord hops to his feet and begins to panic, swiveling around to take in the ivory walls and columns now in whole form. “Something mended the chaos of his mind, but that shouldn’t be possible! How did this come about?”
“Your own thirst for power brought his upon you.”
Discord and I take note of the figure that has appeared literally out of nowhere. It’s Cocoon, or rather Cooper, standing before us in some kind of white suit. His usual, disheveled appearance isn’t about him. For once his mane looks combed and his beard is trimmed.
“Cooper?” I ask, still shaken up from everything that just happened.
“Just a projection of his subconscious, but yes, it is I,” Cooper responds. He gestures out with his left arm to a door that wasn’t around previously. “It is time for you two to go.”
“That’s it?” Discord says with a snarl, marching up to Cocoon’s projection. “You’re just going to say something cryptic and boot us out? Give me one good reason I should leave!” Discord pouts as he crosses his arm. He stares Cooper down, tapping his foot impatiently while the stoic projection stares through him.
“Animus and I have been united once more.”
Discord’s expression nearly drops right off his face. He tugs at his collar and starts to chuckle nervously. Discord, the all-powerful avatar of chaos, starts inching towards the exit.
“Well, congratulations on that! I’m sure your memories will be fully healed in no time at all then! Glad I could help you out with that… but I really must be going now.” Discord crosses in front of the projection and stops. He tenses up and winces, waiting for something that never comes. After a few anticlimactic seconds, he takes another cautious step. With one hand on the doorknob, he glances at the projection. “… That’s really it then? You’re just letting me go?”
“I have my reasons.” The projection sounds completely uninterested in what’s been going on. “Besides, I know letting you off the hook is a more effective way of bothering you than getting revenge.”
“… Fine, you got me there,” Discord grumbles, opening the door up. Behind it is black nothingness, deeper and darker than any shade I’ve ever seen. Discord puts one foot in and waves good-bye to the projection. “I guess you win again, Beardy. This is probably the last we’ll be seeing of one another. Don’t you have any sentimental parting words for me? C’mon, you’re not really just going to boot me out the door like this are you?”
“You are a contemptible pile of mismatched offal and if it were in my power I would have permanently destroyed you the first chance I got,” Cooper says, his expression unchanging. He doesn’t even spare his nemesis a parting glance. “Goodbye Discord. Eternal misery is too good for you.”
“Oh, stop it. I’m just going to miss you more now.” Discord laughs, even as the darkness behind the door swallows him. As he is absorbed back into nothingness, he turns to face the specter of Cooper. “I never got a chance to ask, but I do wonder if you find solace in your sacrifice. From what I’ve heard about the bitter, old Starswirl I don’t think you do despite the big game you talk.” He cackles to himself while his neck begins to depart from Cooper’s mind.
“What is he talking about?” I ask, interrupting Discord’s speech. Neither party answers. Cooper just keeps on staring straight ahead and Discord continues to laugh as hard as he can. “What ‘sacrifice’ is he talking about?”
“Don’t feel bad, Beardy!” Discord calls, his head finally disappearing into the doorway. Before the glow of his eyes fade into blackness, he issues one final declaration: “Your only mistake was caring about someone other than yourself!”
With that, the door slams shut and Discord is gone. Now I’m alone with Cooper, or rather the projection of Cooper’s subconscious. Unlike the coyote from before, this one is stable and whole. It seems safe to say that Cooper’s mind is fixed, at least for the time being. The fracture lines are still laced with golden light, meaning the damage isn’t repaired. I can’t say I know much on the subject, but I hope they heal up soon.
“You must go as well, Chrysalis.” Cooper opens up the door Discord left out of again, but this time there is no darkness outside of it. Instead, I can see the barred off room. For some reason, it’s empty; however, there are more important matters to attend to.
“Cooper, are you really just going to let Discord go?” I ask the projection. “After all he’s done to you?”
“Yes. Discord is not the true enemy.”
“Huh? Not the true enemy?” I think when Cooper got his memories back, he forgot a few key things. “Discord summons humans to Equestria! He summoned that changeling that got you captured. And need I remind you he trashed your memory and tried to get you to destroy Equestria!”
“You are mistaken on only one account, but allow me to enlighten you.” Cooper shuts the door, but he promptly reopens it. Behind it I can see a memory being played out, so I take a few steps closer and watch the scene unfold. Up in what seems to be an observatory tower, a greying Starswirl the Bearded is staring out at the night sky. His horn flickers and the stars move and shift to his whim. He works in peace, concentrating on the work before him.
“Dearest Mentor!” The peace is suddenly shattered by a young Luna bursting into the room. Starswirl’s horn sparks suddenly, causing a star to shoot across the sky unprompted. The two ponies stand fixed in silence while a low rumble is heard off in the distance. Starswirl shoots Luna a harsh look, but the young alicorn just smiles sweetly.
“Is there something amiss, Princess?” the old wizard asks, looking back out the window and returning to his work. “I am preoccupied at the moment.”
“What are you busied with?” Luna asks just as innocently as she can. Starswirl can only sigh in defeat, even if it seems a little preemptive to me. Perhaps he knows that there is no denying the young Princess the answer to her curiosity.
“Star patterns.”
“You are making star patterns without me?” Luna exclaims, rocking the tower with her loud voice. “Mentor, please allow me to join you! I am excellent at star patterns!”
“Yes, yes, I am aware of this, Luna.” Starswirl shifts over so Luna can sit next to him and look out the window. The little Princess eagerly agrees, setting herself next to her beloved teacher.
“I can assist you, mentor!” Luna declares, looking extremely sure of herself. “Is your arrangement to bring fortune, a safe journey, or sweet dreams?”
“Why, you wound me, Luna,” Starswirl says, clutching one of his hooves to his heart. “You think your old mentor would be sitting up here by himself practicing such simple star patterns? Surely you’re not mistaking me with some half-baked wizard for I am the pony who pioneered modern star patterns.”
“Ah! I meant no disrespect, wise mentor!” Luna seems genuinely worried that she may have insulted Starswirl, but I don’t think she realizes she’s being toyed with. “Obviously you are arranging the stars to increase the power in the land’s ley lines so you may perform some incredible feat of magic later! No… you are sending an omen to some far off pony to save him from danger!”
“Perhaps you should take a look at my arrangement and tell me what it will do,” Starswirl says. He lights his horn, causing a far-off star to flash briefly. Luna concentrates on this star, lighting her own horn. The alicorn Princess looked confident, but after a short while her face twisted into pure concentration. As time went on, even that expression faded into confusion mingled with frustration.
“M-mentor… this … this… this is… complex!” Luna shouts as loud as she can on the last word, nearly rattling the stars out of arrangement. “What could possibly be the meaning of this pattern?”
“Yes, it is a rather complicated one I’ve been working on for quite some time now,” Starswirl says, staring up at the golden stars shining in the sky. “It is very important to me, so I make sure to use only my best and brightest stars.”
“I am curious about this pattern, mentor!” Luna shouts directly into Starswirl’s ear, who looks like he is used to this sort of treatment. “Had I the ability to move your stars, I would assist you!”
“No need my eager student. This pattern is complete. Why, I first arranged it in the sky a short while after meeting you and your sister.” Starswirl smiles down at the Princess beside him. “Thank you for the offer.”
“If it is done, what effect does it have on the world below?” Luna asks, her eyes glimmering brighter than the stars outside with all the possibilities. “You must tell me!”
Starswirl looks back out the window, but with a look verging on sorrow on his face. He is fighting back his emotions before his student, and I can only wonder why. With firm resolve and an even voice, he goes on to explain.
“This pattern is a guide,” he says, his tone careful and even. “It is a guidepost those who are lost. They resist the path home and if they arrive home unguided many will pine for the way back. They’ve been filled with a new hope here, but they believe that if they return home they will lose their hope. I have made this pattern they might return home with that hope in their hearts still.”
“Lost? Hope?” Luna didn’t appear to quite understand, but she could tell her mentor was very serious right now. She went back to being silent, allowing Starswirl to keep going.
“Hope and comfort are just things we feel. In the end, we don’t need to understand why we feel them. This path guides them on a path of forgetting, so they arrive home with the hope they needed to find at home all along. This changes a dire situation into a ray of hope. These stars will shine where they sit even long after I’m gone. Even though they will never lead me home, their presence brings me the same comfort.”
“You speak as if this is not your home, Mentor.” Luna sidles up closer to Starswirl and leans on him. “You aren’t planning on leaving, are you?”
I swear I hear Starswirl’s breath skip for a moment, like he was about to cry; however, he just laughs and rubs Luna’s head. He puts up a brave front in the face of something he is obviously incredibly afraid of.
“No, I am here to stay.”
The door closes, sealing the tender scene back into its piece of the past. While I can’t say I know exactly what all of that meant, I can tell exactly what Cooper wanted me to understand from this.
“Even though you found a safe way home for everyone else, you can’t go back.”
“Yes, this is the unfortunate truth of my condition,” the projection says, not showing the pain on his face. “I am the sacrificial lamb, whether I wish to accept that fate or not. Discord abducted humans through their souls, but my entire being was transferred to Equestria. I can’t go back the way I came like they do.”
“There is absolutely no way for you to return home?” I ask, but I don’t know why. If he knew a way home, he wouldn’t have said there was no way home.
“There is one way,” Cooper says, much to my surprise. “But it is completely unfeasible.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I were to restore myself to natural human form, I could send myself back to my world via a similar ceremony that brought me here in the first place. I thought the Elements of Harmony might have this power, but I found that to be untrue. There was nothing unharmonious about my unicorn form, so there was no effect. There needs to be a far more vast discrepancy between my human soul and vessel body for the Elements of Harmony to change me.”
“You’re a changeling now, aren’t you? That could be enough of a difference!” A slow shake of Cooper’s head tells me that my theory is just wishful thinking.
“It is a step in the right direction, but not far enough,” he explains. “I would need to be something like a monster from Tartarus for the Elements of Harmony to have the desired effect upon me. As I am now, the Elements would just turn me to stone as with Discord.”
“Alright, so what does all of this have to do with Discord not being the enemy?” I ask, trying to get back to the topic at hand. It’s a bit insensitive given the nature of the information I’ve just learned, but I doubt this stiff projection will mind.
“Discord is no longer a threat to my home. Anybody he brings here will return home while the joys of life in Equestria hang like pleasant dreams in their minds. Discord lashed out at me only in his bitterness for our past transgressions against one another, but he is not my main concern.”
“But he wiped your memory and turned you into a changeling!” I remind him. “You’re not going to let him just get away with that, are you?”
“That is where you’re mistaken.”
I don’t understand what Cooper is saying. There aren’t any other beings besides Discord in Equestria with the power to do something as intricate and complicated as a calculated memory wipe. Celestia and Luna might be able to do it, but that still leaves the matter of Cocoon being a changeling. I don’t think they have that sort of power.
“If it wasn’t Discord, then who did it?” I wait for the answer, but Cooper’s projection hesitates. I would assume he is thinking, but I doubt he does that. The pause frightens me, but his starting to speak scares me more.
“Think about it, Chrysalis. Why would Discord resurrect me in a wiped state so very long after my death as Starswirl? Furthermore he had been sealed away, so he wouldn’t have been able to anyway. It never made sense for the culprit to be him all along. No, Discord merely seized an opportunity created by the original memory wiper’s blunder.
“When you think about it, there is only one pony who could do this to me. Just ask yourself, who had access to Starswirl’s advanced magic? Who could gather the energy needed to perform such an extensive and powerful spell? Who has the means to create changeling royalty? Who would be glad to resurrect a version of me without knowledge of myself?”
…
“I… I guess that would be… Mother Mantis…”
“Correct.”
“But, wait! That doesn’t answer everything!” I blurt out. My mind twinges a bit and I feel fuzzy, but it only lasts a moment. It is probably nothing. “Why would Mother Mantis want you to wake up all alone? If she wanted to be with you, wouldn’t she have resurrected as well?”
“The answers will come soon enough,” Cooper says, opening the doorway to the outside again. “For now we have important business to attend to. Corrupted Starswirl has summoned a swarm to attack Canterlot. I need you to go now and intercept them!”
“What?! Why didn’t you say so in the first place!” I shout at the apparition as I head for the door. “We could have just as easily talked about all of this outside your head!”
“Forgive me,” Cooper says, his face finally changing a bit. “The situation out here is getting heated and my mind is still a bit of a mess. It has taken me a little while to reconnect my consciousness with my restored subconscious. Go stop the swarm, please! If they arrive, I’m afraid we will have a very difficult time from here on out.”
“Right!” I shout, hopping through the door. “Just take care of yourself until I get back!” The world of Cooper, Starswirl, and Cocoon’s mind fades behind me in a flash of white. Before I fully return to reality, I hear one last thing.
“Stay safe, dear friend.”
“Cocoon! What is the meaning of this?” The words fly from Luna’s mouth, breaking the silence after Sweet Tea’s limp body falls to the ground. I’m surprised she can talk because everypony else is speechless. Summit and I can only stare on in confusion while Celestia grits her teeth and glares at… well… who? Cocoon? Starswirl? Someone else entirely?
“I apologize,” he says, dropping his dagger to the ground and facing us. The weapon shatters into golden dust the moment it hits the ground. With open arms, he approaches us. He must have some kind of explanation, some reason for what he’s done. I wait to hear it. “I didn’t mean for you to see that.”
“Your deceit knows no boundaries, does it?” Luna asks, but she isn’t looking for an answer. Out of all of us, she seems to know best where she stands. “You attack our home. You tarnish the name of our mentor. You kill an innocent pony! I can scarcely imagine a creature more sinister than you.”
“Scarcely, huh? So there is still hope.” Cocoon’s sick sense of humor is definitely present, but I still can’t believe the person before us is evil. He needs to explain himself. Why doesn’t he explain himself?
“Why did you kill her, Cocoon?” I shout, unbidden. “That goes against everything you believe, right? Why would you keep her from going home?” It’s a cold, cold night out tonight, but it’s Cocoon who has put the chill into the air. As a changeling king, he would flee in the face of danger. As a mad wizard, he talked big until he had to turn tail. As an all-powerful master of the arcane, he doesn’t look like he will yield. Even if he is on our side somehow, he is still the most dangerous iteration of Cocoon to date.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t divulge why I had to do what I did,” Cocoon tells us. “I will not lie to you, but neither can I tell the truth. This is a secret Sweet Tea has taken to her grave, and I will too.”
“If it’s about that, just explain yourself! We can’t help you if you’re our enemy!” I implore him, but his mind seems made up. It is possible that he made it up long, long ago before we even met. Starswirl the Bearded may keep far more secrets than King Cocoon ever did.
“You know too much as it stands. If you pursue the issue, you can share your fate with Sweet Tea.”
Honesty is out of the question, so kindness is off the table. Cocoon has drawn his battle lines, lines he will not tolerate even his allies crossing. Rather, Cocoon has no allies; he is all on his own now. That’s what happens when you bite the hoof that feeds you.
“I’ve heard all I need to,” Celestia says, stepping forward. “I didn’t take the threat of your existence seriously enough, Cocoon. In your short rule, you’ve caused us more trouble than any other changeling monarch in history! This is now the second time I’ve paid the price for underestimating a changeling, and it’ll be a dark day before I allow a third!”
“Fighting me is a mistake, Princesses,” Cocoon warns them. “If you leave me to go about my business here, King Cocoon will be a name that plagues you no more; however, I can only foresee more strife if you engage me now. If a promise of peace doesn’t sway your decision, then allow me to remind you that a duel between us will not be a case of students surpassing their mentor.”
“Drop the Starswirl act, Cocoon. You’re growing more insane by the day,” Luna says, stepping up to engage the thing she considers her mentor’s impersonator. “He was an upstanding wizard and you are a stain on the face of Equestria. I don’t know how you marred the heavens with your magic, but I will prevent any further transgressions by silencing you here.”
“I am of one mind with my sister on this issue.” Celestia joins her sister and confronts Cocoon right on the line of battle. Both alicorns light their horns and flair their wings. “I can’t even begin to wonder what you believe you’re going to gain from posing as our teacher; however, Starswirl taught us to defend our home until the bitter end, so if you’re who you claim to be you can’t hold this against us. We will defend Equestria from all who threaten her, and that means you.”
“Very well, let us take the matter of my being Starswirl or not off the board. What you are proposing to fight against is unlike anything you’ve ever come across.” Cocoon extends his hand, gathering energy into it. He focuses it into a single ball, which he divides into two smaller balls. He divides those balls as well, and he keeps doing so until they are almost too many to count and too small to see. “Changeling Armor synthesizes with a changeling’s magical pathways, opening them up further and allowing the wearer to bypass many magic consuming detours. Internal and external magical flow not only increase in speed but also in efficiency. By attaching a source of energy other than my own body for the armor to feed on, I have undermined its greatest weakness. The armor now supplements my own energy, forging a symbiotic relationship rather than a parasitic one. In one fell swoop, I have increased my magical capacity, magical control, and magical output to levels on roughly par with your own.”
“It’s still two on one, Cocoon,” Luna says to him. “You might be powerful, but you’re not even ‘roughly’ equipped to take on two alicorns.”
“Ah, but I have yet to showcase my defensive capabilities.” Cocoon clenches his hand, dispelling the tiny specks of magic surrounding it. “Armor is armor, my dear princesses. The high rate of power traveling through this suit of armor makes it nearly impossible to harm my actual body. Go ahead and throw a building at me. I won’t even feel it, and I’ve already told you why it is within my power to toss it right back to you. Can your crowns protect you like this armor protects me?”
I can see the Princesses faltering a little. Cocoon has always been a tough customer, but he’s in excellent form today. He broke into Canterlot, fought off the Royal Guards with an army of shadows, and made himself a souped-up suit of armor. If I was in their shoes, I think I might back down. Then again, what could he want with all that power?
“However, you don’t need to worry,” Cocoon says all of a sudden, as if he’s interested in being friendly. “I wouldn’t dream of harming my brightest students. If you choose to fight me, I will merely use it is a stage to demonstrate that I am indeed Starswirl the Bearded.”
“Then perform!” With that warning, Luna fires a bolt of energy right at Cocoon. The moment it explodes on him feels like the exact some moment it was shot. The whole thing is over so quickly I can hardly believe it.
“Strange…”
Yeah, I shouldn’t have believed it.
“You always listened so well, Luna. If you want to hurt me, you’ve got to really mean it.” Cocoon stands in the smoke unharmed. Actually, it looks like he got his ego hurt a little; he was probably hoping for a grander attack to start things out. “Would you like to take a shot, Celes-”
Cocoon doesn’t finish offering Celestia her free shot before she takes it. She’s a faster draw than even Luna, blasting Cocoon with a solid beam of energy. Even after the beam of solar energy strikes and explodes, she keeps on firing. She keeps it up for so long I’m afraid she’s going to hurt herself. After a solid number of seconds, she finally lets up, allowing the smoke to clear.
“Come now, the point of this exercise is to try magic that isn’t so pedestrian.” Cocoon is still around, looking as unimpressed as ever. “Look, I’ll write this off as you simply testing my defensive capabilities, so show me some real magic.”
Celestia and Luna look completely flabbergasted. Both of them seem to be at a loss for what to do in this situation. I’m beginning to lose faith that we can fight Cocoon like this.
“Fine, I see a demonstration is in order. Watch closely.” Cocoon points a finger skyward. There is a flash of energy the nearly blinds me and then I see it floating above Cocoon’s finger: a star. In less than a second, he’s pulled off a spell that took him a lot more time and effort to pull off. “From my bestseller ‘Starswirl’s Guide to Using the Arcane to Crush your Enemies and Impress your Friends Volume Three’, it’s Arcane Shooting Star!”
Bracing for the impact would have done us little good. Cocoon missed the Princesses by such a small margin he must have done it on purpose. The star flew past us, into the castle, and exploded with a tremendous burst of light and force. We all turn to see the destruction left in its wake, and it is absolute.
“I like that spell’s name because not only is a shooting star a thing but it’s literally a star specifically for shooting.”
I do hope Cocoon and Starswirl are the same person because it would be terrible to know it’s possible for two ponies to have the same terrible sense of humor.
“Anyone can read a book, Cocoon,” Luna says in response, regaining her composure. For some reason, she looks leagues more confident than before. “That’s hardly proof that you’re Starswirl.”
“Now that you’ve shown your hand, we know how to deal with you,” Celestia says, also looking far more confident. “As we suspected, you’ve got a strange fixation on arcane magic. Starswirl was the same, but his level of skill made it practical for him. All you need to make a star is an over-abundance of energy and a little instruction. I’m sorry Cocoon, but making stars was a parlor trick for Starswirl the Bearded.”
“Oh?” Cocoon actually sounds impressed now, which I’m not sure is a good thing. “So you were just testing me. I see I’ll have to step up my game, but it is now your turn to try and impress me.”
“You’ll regret giving us a free shot after this!” Luna shouts. “Ready sister?”
“Always!”
In what I’m sure is a rare sight, the Royal Sisters touch horns and combine their magic. The light they put out is greater than anything Cocoon has provided thus far, throwing multicolored rays all about the battlefield. From the point their horns are touching, a tendon of energy lashes out. Cocoon actually raises an arm in defense, but the tendon just wraps around it. Once he is in its grasp, it wraps around the rest of his body and fully restrains him.
“My, my! This is a new trick,” he says, but the attack isn’t through with him yet. The tendril whips upwards and tosses Cocoon high into the air. He just keeps going, up and up until we can’t even see him anymore. Back down in Equestria, the two sisters separate their glowing horns and face opposite directions. Swiftly and suddenly, they whip their horns towards each other, crossing them and making the sky flash with magical energy.
Up in the sky, many twinkling lights can be seen coming into existence that are not stars. They get bigger and bigger until they are at last identifiable as large, flaming meteors. All of them converge and crash onto a single point, which I can only assume was where Cocoon was. Even after all the talking he did about his armor, I doubt he could make it through all of that.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Luna says with a satisfied smile, putting on a pair of sunglasses to watch the small chunks of meteor and Cocoon burn as they fell. The display whole display was impressive to say the least, but for some reason it didn’t feel quite right to me. I kept watching the firestorm.
On piece of debris seemed to refuse to fizzle out as it fell. It fell and fell and just kept burning, and it seemed to be coming our way. As it got closer, I became fairly certain it was headed right towards us. In fact, it’s flight pattern seemed to curve right at us. We all watched as the ball of fire came to a graceful, skidding halt in front of us. With a golden flash, the flames were doused, revealing the thing clapping its hands hiding underneath.
“Now that was pretty impressive.”
I don’t think any of us can believe he’s still alive. I can’t even think of how he’s still alive. Nothing should have made it out alive of that attack. The Princesses look like they’re looking at a ghost, and part of me wishes we were. Cocoon is back, however, and he is applauding our attempt to kill him.
“Those were antimage restraints of the highest caliber, very impressive. Falling from so high would’ve been incredibly painful even for me, but the meteors were an inspired addition too. That’s the kind of ingenuity that makes me proud that I’m your teacher. Top notch sorcery ladies. You’ve gotten your point across: arcane magic isn’t all there is.”
“How did you survive?” Celestia asks, her astonishment clear from her voice. “There’s no way you could have escaped.”
“I didn’t escape,” Cocoon says very plainly. “I was served on a silver platter, no doubt about that. Those meteors surprised me so much I almost didn’t have time to defend myself.”
“How could you have defended yourself? You should’ve been completely silenced!” Luna shouted, casting her sunglasses aside and stamping on them.
“How many times have I said this: silencing only disrupts external magical flow. I couldn’t throw up a shield to defend myself or shoot lasers to destroy the meteors, but I had all my internal tools to draw upon. Normally this is pointless, but for me the area between my body and my armor counts as external space. I just covered myself in superhot flames and melted the meteors before they touched me. You may want to consider enhancing the magical bindings so they don’t disappear after your target has been allegedly crushed by space rock.”
“Don’t you dare try to lecture us!” Luna shouts, no doubt fed up with having the impersonator of her old mentor trying to actually mentor her. She lights her horn and with a single flash a bomb with a lit fuse appears in Cocoon’s hands.
“Now this… not so inspired.”
With another flash a metal safe appears with Cocoon clearly visible through the open door. Luna magics the door shut and spins the dial on the front, locking it in place. After a second or two, the safe rattles and jumps a few feet in the air. After landing and smoking a little, the safe poofs away. Cocoon is still standing there, his hands outstretched and holding the detonated bomb. Other having his entire front side covered in ash, he appears to be unscathed.
“Please tell me you’re going to drop an anvil on me next,” Cocoon says. He heaves a heavy sigh before crossing his arms and shaking his head disapprovingly at Luna. “Or will it be a piano first and then an anvil? You were doing so well, don’t hold out on me now.”
“We’ve yet to see any truly impressive display from you,” Celestia says. “Weren’t you supposed to prove to us that you are beyond a doubt the tried and true Starswirl?”
“Sounds like an invitation to me.” Cocoon surrounds himself with magic and then pulls it off, removing all the ash from his body. The ash stays in a concentrated ball in front of Cocoon, which he promptly fires right at Luna. She ducks, allowing it to pass harmlessly over her head. She sticks her tongue out to taunt Cocoon, but with a wave of his hand he boomerangs the ball into the back of her head. The ash explodes out and covers her. It’s a real shame that her mouth was open.
“Alright, so you two want infallible proof?” Cocoon asks, gathering energy in his hands in preparation for some spell. “How about a little unpublished magic? The kind of stuff I thought was too dangerous for normal ponies to wield? There’s quite a bit of it to choose from, but I believe I know one that really leaves an impact! From the depths of the Forbidden Arcacol, this is Arcane Black Surge!”
Cocoon’s hands sound like a thunderclap has he rams them together, generating such a massive gust of wind we all have to brace ourselves to keep from sliding back. The wind is the least of our concerns, as pitch black smoke clouds erupt out of Cocoon’s hands as well. Before we can get out of the way, we’re all encased in boiling, sightless darkness. The smoke pushes out the air little by little. First it is hard to breathe, then it is painful, and finally impossible. All there is to breathe is soot and poison. There is no calling for help or searching for a way out. Between the burning and absence of air, I can feel my will to live slipping away. I can feel myself blacking out, all the while cursing the existence of forbidden magic.
Then a miracle occurs. The smoke disappears and with one breath I fill my lungs with clean air. A few more seconds in there, and I know it would have been game over. I cough to clear the pollution from my lungs while I listen to the Princesses and Summit do the same. True to his word, Cocoon has spared us.
“I hope you’ve learned a lesson from all of this,” he says, standing over us with his arms crossed. He sounds angry now, frustrated that he had to dangle us over the edge and pull us back over. He has displayed is power again while simultaneously keeping his promise of mercy. The ball is in our corner.
“Okay, that was pretty good,” Luna says, getting back on her hooves. “But it doesn’t prove anything, Cocoon. You can’t prove that spell is within the Forbidden Arcacol.”
“Ah… well… no, I suppose I couldn’t without defeating the purpose of there even being a Forbidden Arcacol,” Cocoon says, scratching his chin with a finger. He puzzled a little longer before giving up. “Trust me, it’s in there.”
“What in blazes is the Forbidden Arcacol?” Summit asks, being the only non-magic user around right now. It isn’t exactly common knowledge, but among circles of mages these things get talked about sometimes.
“The Forbidden Arcane Collection,” Celestia speaks the full, proper name of the book in question. “A heavy guarded book written in a coded language of Starswirl’s design. Hundreds of arcane spells of destructive or devious nature are written inside. He did not wish these spells to be lost to time, but he also didn’t want them being misused. He decided if they were every truly needed, the virtuous of Equestria could take the time to interpret the book. The world has been peaceful, so the book has never been opened.
“Now Cocoon, just because you whip out this unknown, powerful spell doesn’t mean it is in the Forbidden Arcacol. There is also the possibility that you decoded it somehow. If you could perform the spells, it would certainly be in your interest.”
“Oh come now Celestia!” Cocoon stamps his foot and shouts at us. “Why would I go through the trouble of decoding the Forbidden Arcacol just to nearly kill you with and then spare you? If I wanted you out of the picture or meant you any real harm, I would have dozens of better ways up my sleeves! The fact of the matter is that it just doesn’t make sense for me to be pretending!”
“No Cocoon, you’re wrong,” Celestia says. She marches up to him, forcing him to back up from her. “You only need us to believe it would make no sense. You must have something to gain by fooling us. Maybe we don’t know what it us, but that hardly matters. The fact is, we don’t have any reason to trust you. You could not kill us with every spell in the Forbidden Arcacol and it wouldn’t make a difference.”
Cocoon backs up some more and stares at the ground. He’s struggling in earnest to do something, that much is clear. There are so many conflicting signals that it’s impossible to gauge what he’s up to. When it all comes down it it, Celestia is right: Cocoon can’t be trusted. His history of hiding the truth is too extensive. If he wants to be believed, he’ll have to start with far less wild claims.
“… I suppose you have a point,” Cocoon says, perhaps finally seeing reason. “The history of King Cocoon doesn’t really merit me a second chance, does it? Ah… if only you were like faithful Animus, coming just when his father calls him…”
“… Animus?”
Luna and Celestia share a glance, and I can see hope reflected in their eyes. They turn to us quickly and speak urgently.
“Did Cocoon truly call down a star he called Animus?” Celestia asks. “Please, this is very important.”
“Summit told us that was the case, but we need to be absolutely certain. If it’s true, we might have a chance of stopping Cocoon right here and now,” Luna says. The Princesses stare at us and suddenly the fate of Equestria might just sit in our hooves. We have to be certain now. There is no room for second guessing.
“He definitely talked at length about a star called Animus,” Summit tells them.
“He shouted that name at the sky and a star certainly fell down and transformed him,” I say to the group. “Before and after the transformation, he kept talking about it. He could be bluffing, but if we’re going with the theory that he’s gone through a lot of trouble to be authentic…”
“Then we’ve got one shot at this.”
Celestia and Luna turn back to Cocoon, who is still staring at the ground and talking to himself.
“You’re wise to put your faith in Animus, Cocoon,” Luna says, her horn charging as her eyes start glowing. Next to her, Celestia does the same. “He really does come when he is called!”
Before Cocoon can put two and two together, the Princesses’ horns fire out bolts of energy. He lifts his arms in defense again, but the bolts don’t strike him. Instead, they burn the air around him, carving runic circles all about him. In a heartbeat, Cocoon finds himself trapped inside the floating circles of some advanced magic. He slams a hand against them, but they don’t budge. He fires magic, but it fizzles out at the box’s boundries.
“No… no… anything but this!” Cocoon cries in despair. “You mustn’t do this! I’ve been so focused on battle, I’ve yet to fully repair my mind! Extract Animus now and this will have been a zero sum game! King Cocoon will return! ”
“That sounds like a threat, doesn’t it Celestia?”
“Whatever you are biding time for, the clock has run out on,” Celestia says. “After this, there will be no more mercy. You’ve nowhere left to run and nopony to turn to…”
Celestia stops when she realizes she is having to yell over a strange buzzing sound rising from the distance. It only takes one look out at the horizon to see what’s coming.
“Changeling swarm!” Luna shouts. Even Cocoon spins around to look at the approaching cloud of bugs at his back. For whatever reason, he falls to his knees.
“But… if they’re here… that means,” he says just barely loud enough for me to hear. Still on his knees, he spins around and put his hands against the walls of his cage. “Chrysalis! What has happened to Chrysalis?”
Once again, something isn’t right. Cocoon should be celebrating. Even if we take Animus away from him, his swarm has arrived and he’s got the advantage again. Now he’s suddenly concerned about Chrysalis?
“Princess Celestia!” I can’t believe I’m about to do this. “Maybe we should let him go.”
“That is not an option,” she says, but I can’t blame her. It’s not that she doesn’t trust me, but she sure as anything doesn’t trust Cocoon. Now that he’s right where she wants him, his fate is sealed.
“No, you must set me free!” Cocoon yells at us, sounding so genuinely distraught that I feel justified in believing him. “If I lose my memories again, I doubt I will turn the swarm back. Please, just let me turn away the swarm and I will willingly submit to being a prisoner!”
“Please, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, let him go!” I continue to plead with them. “Whoever he claims to be or whatever lie he is telling us today, I assure you he is not our enemy! Free him, and I will accept all responsibility if anything goes awry!”
“No she will not,” Summit says, stepping up between me and Celestia. He puts a wing between me and the Princess and turns to her. “The blame will fall on me, your majesties. Let Cocoon free.”
Both Princesses stare us for what feels like an eternity, their eyes still glowing and their spell still holding. They look at each other, staying silent all the while. With the swarm growing closer and closer, I wish they would make a decision.
The cage fades around Cocoon, setting him free once again.
“Thank you! I promise, you have made the right decision!” he calls to us as he runs for the edge of the observatory. He jumps off, even though I explicitly remember him saying on one or two occasions that he is incapable of flight. That doesn’t seem to be the case, however, as he simply floats off towards the swarm. Celestia and Luna take off after him, flying at a safe distance behind.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Summit says, picking me off the ground and flying after them too. This isn’t my first flight, but I’m still not very gung-ho about this whole being hundreds of feet off the ground thing. I trust Summitplunge, but I’m still scared out of my wits. It doesn’t help that I’m frightened that we just set a monster free.
The swarm is dangerously close now, but Cocoon bursts ahead of us to meet them. He stops short of them and throws his arms out wide.
“Halt!”
All at once, the entire swarm stops moving forward. This is either very good or very bad. The next words out of his mouth will determine everything. This is either were we get betrayed or we find salvation. I haven’t the slightest idea which way this will go.
“This is an absolute order to be carried out immediately directly from your monarch!” Cocoon shouts at the changelings, his arms still outstretched. “Return to The Hive. The order to attack is being revoked.”
Without one word of protest or moment of hesitation, an entire swarm of changelings turns around and goes back the way it came. I can hardly believe it, but I’m glad it’s true. Once again, Cocoon has pulled us back from over the edge of oblivion. We all watch as the swarm gets farther and farther away until they are just a distant, dark cloud.
“Okay… that was too close,” Summit says, with a few forced chuckles. “I’m not entirely certain how much fun being responsible for Canterlot’s destruction would be.”
“You were real brave,” I tell him, stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. He blushes, of course, and chuckles some more.
“W-wait! Stop!”
Cocoon’s sudden shouting brings us back to reality. We worry that he’s yelling at his swarm, but once we see the spell box around him we know what he’s worried about.
“I submit, but you must not separate me from Animus!” Cocoon pleads once again. “If we part, I will lose all my memories again! King Cocoon will return!”
“Celestia, what’s the meaning of this?” Summit asks, turning us towards the Princesses. They are powered up again, with stern expressions on their faces. “This isn’t what we agreed on!”
“We never said we would not remove Animus if we freed him,” Celestia says, no compassion in her voice. “Swarm or no swarm, he is a threat as he is now.”
“Please, you’ve got to listen to him!” I tell them. “I remember he said something… something about his memories coming back after he transformed. After that, he stopped attacking us! In the forest, Cocoon complained constantly of feeling like he was missing memories!”
“That’s right!” Summit says, backing me up. “Look, he told us a lot of things while we were in the forest. If you knew what we knew, you might understand why he has to keep things secret. If you trust him, you won’t have to fear him!”
“I hear your pleas, my subjects. Perhaps there are truths in the shadows we cannot see,” Celestia says. She turns to Cocoon. “However, our choice is to neither trust nor fear him.”
As Animus was ripped from Cocoon’s body, he yelled something nopony could hear.
“Poor Cooper, fate has been unkind to you.”
I am standing before a mirror, but my reflection is speaking while I’m quite. The odd thing is, my reflection is my old, human self while I am in this changeling body.
“Don’t you mean, unkind to us?” I ask myself, but my reflection just shakes its head. I have no idea what is going on.
“My time here is short, Cooper,” my reflection tells me. I’m suddenly very aware that there is no mirror and we are just floating in white space. There are other things floating here too. Floating hallways and doors being ripped apart by golden sparks. “We are forgetting once again.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Did I remember something?”
“I remembered everything.”
“Don’t you mean we remembered everything?” I ask, but once again my reflection just shakes his head.
“No, you represent the portion of memories that will resurface when we regain consciousness.” He can say that, but it doesn’t make any sense. “I didn’t have time to fully repair our memories, so I am using what little moments we have to recover some key things.”
“Like what?” I ask, eager to remember anything I can. “Please, tell me!”
“First, some smaller details of our past,” he says to me. “Before we were King Cocoon of the Changelings, we were Starswirl the Bearded.”
“What?! How? Why? And if I was why-”
“Please, time is short. I must tell you what you need to know for the next step.”
I stop asking questions and shut my mouth, resolved to just listen.
“As Starswirl the Bearded, you have a strong connection to stars and starlight. To that effect, you can utilize the power of the stars. Unfortunately, the knowledge of how to use your old stars is lost to you; however, the star you created as King Cocoon, Draco, will listen to your calls. It is small, but it should be enough.
“There is a book in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Library called The Forbidden Arcane Collection, The Forbidden Arcacol. It is full of spells you created, which means you will remember them upon simply reading the text of the book. The book is heavily encrypted so ponies cannot read it, but you should have no trouble. Go there and read the book for you may require the use of exceptional combat magic in the near future.
“Before that, I am transferring the memory of the spell Reverse Memory Wipe. Despite the name, you cannot use it to restore your own memories. Go back to the mirror and look for Chrysalis, and if you find her use the spell on her.”
“W-wait,” I say. I can’t help but interrupt here. “I didn’t wipe her memories. What’s the point of that?”
“That will become clear once you’ve done it.” It seems what my reflection can tell me really is limited. If I needed to know, he would have explicitly told me. I’ve gotta trust… well, myself I guess.
“Continuing on, this next piece of information is very sensitive. For the people who have been brought here by Discord, the only way they can return is through death. Their souls were brought here through a tear Discord maintains, so when they lose their body in Equestria they just go back the way they came. Due to your efforts, their memories will fade into what feels like a dull dream upon returning. In this way, they return safe and sound. You on the other hand will not return home if you die… so don’t die.”
I think that last part went without saying, but this is comforting information. This means I didn’t actually kill Sparrow, I sent him home! That’s good news for sure!
“Now you’re probably wondering why you’re a special case. My last gift to you before I depart is a very important memory. More specifically, this is the memory of how you actually ended up in Equestria. Before I show you this I am inclined to warn you… this memory is not pleasant.”
“Lay it on me… uh, me!” I tell my reflection. “Good or bad I need to remember!”
“I knew I would understand,” I say to myself. “Just remember, I will wake up after I’m done viewing this.”
My own reflection disappears as the surface of the mirror is replaced by a door. I grab the knob and pull the door open. In that instant, I begin to relive the most important day of my life.
I can’t find Roger and now it is raining. The weather is rather appropriate, but who gives a shrimp about proper weather in real life? Just let it be a partly cloudy night. Partly cloudy can be depressing too.
I used to say “I can’t believe Roger ran off again,” but now I don’t bother. I technically don’t have to be the one to track him down. I could call campus safety and they’d bring out the SUVs and drive around looking for him. On the other hand, I forgot my phone. I’m starting to get worried. I’m seriously worried this time. It’s been too long and his car isn’t in the parking lot. I checked twice.
Now I’m running back towards the dorm just so I can check if he is back in the room. I know the answer is no, but I might as well grab my raincoat and my phone. I kind of feel like I’m about to be a father as the words “this is it, this is gonna be the one” keep replaying in my brain. Ever since Olivia… left, I’ve been afraid this might happen. Heck, I’ve been warned this might happened. Roger has been taking the stuff she said before it happened way too seriously these days. He’s slipping away and I’m running around in the rain complaining about it because that’s the only thing that keeps me from panicking.
I get to the dorm, and low and behold Carmen is standing outside. Even in the rain she is hanging out under the awning to smoke. I gotta give that girl some credit, even if she does piss me off.
“Hey, Carmen!” I call to her, trying to get her attention. She looks up at me, but she doesn’t say anything. Perhaps running around in the rain like a madman isn’t enough to tip her off that the situation calls for a little urgency.
“What?” She says, taking her cigarette out of her mouth briefly to spare a word for me. I’m not sure whether I’m happy or sad she hasn’t broken out the sarcasm yet.
“Have you… seen Roger?” I ask her, out of breath from running around. She takes another drag of her cigarette, the smoke from which is not making this needing oxygen thing a lot of fun.
“He literally just drove past.”
“Please tell me you’re serious.”
“No, I’m not lying, jerkwad.” She blows smoke in my face. I fan it away while she takes precious time out of her night to talk to me. “It was his truck and him in the driver’s seat. He drove past before you came running up. He didn’t park in the lot out front, but he’s on campus. You can call off the search party.”
“I hadn’t called it on yet,” I tell her. I leave out the part where I forgot my phone. “God! That guy needs to tell me before he disappears.”
“You’re way too uptight,” Carmen says, not that I asked her. “He’s a big boy and can take care of himself. I think it’s been long enough that we’re out of the danger zone.”
“… You think so?” I ask, to which I get a nod in return. “So I guess that means you’ve been holding up okay?”
“Whoa? Concern for little old me?” she says, cracking a smile. “Don’t hurt yourself, cowboy.”
“Hey, I’m trying to be nice!” I raise my voice in a kind of not-nice way, but I swear she started it. “I mean… it’s good that you’re doing fine. I am happy that you are alright.”
“Thank you, Cooper,” she says. I don’t think she has ever used my name before. It feels weird. “So what about you?”
“What about me?”
“So how about how are you doing?” she asks out of the blue.
“What about me? I wasn’t t-”
“No, Cooper, don’t even try.” Carmen is serious all of a sudden and I feel like I’m in a corner for some reason. “If you wanna real-talk right now, we gotta talk about you. Olivia was your friend for like ever, right? Before she knew Roger and way before she knew me. I’m not a psychologist, but I know what a coping mechanism is and your habit of chasing Roger around is for sure one. When are you going to confront your feelings about this? You can fight Roger’s demons until the sun comes up, but that doesn’t mean you’ve conquered your own.”
“Shut up.”
Carmen is right, and I know it. I mourned her death properly, that much I know is true, but I know that I haven’t really sorted out how I feel about the circumstances surrounding her death. No… that’s not quite right. I know how I feel… I just… I just…
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because… because it’s not right.”
“What… what’s not right?” Carmen asks, but I stay silent.
“Hey, hey, look at me.” She grabs my shirt and tugs me towards her. She knocks the ash of the end of her cigarette outside the awning and puts it back in her mouth. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, you can tell me. I have an incredibly low opinion of you, so it won’t hurt me. It does a lot of good to hear yourself just say it.”
By all logic, I should just tear my arm away and go look for Roger. Rather, if I want to keep avoiding this conversation that is what I should do. It’s not like I can do it forever. As long as I live, Olivia will have done what she did and people will ask me how I feel about that. I’ll test the waters, I guess. I’ll tell Carmen and I’ll see what happens.
“To be honest,” I start, but it’s hard. My throat kinda hurts. “I feel cheated, in a sense. It’s like, she just decided it would be okay if she just left forever without consulting the rest of us. I think it’s wrong to say I hate her for it, but I think I do. I don’t understand, so I’m angry. I want to honor her memory and remember the good things though, so I just tend to Roger’s wounds. He needs more help than I do, so I give it to him. I’m not sure how to move beyond what I’m feeling… I don’t know how to forgive her.”
With that, it’s all out in the open. I wait for Carmen to say something, but she is silent. She watches me and says nothing and I have no idea whether it is because she has nothing to say or because she needs to think about it. Either way, I’m failing to see the benefits of bearing all right now. Saying how I feel makes me feel terrible.
“I guess… I can get where you’re coming from.” Carmen says the last thing I expect her to. She doesn’t look particularly moved or touched, but when does she ever? I should be grateful she even graced my confession with a response, an empathetic one to boot. “You wish she had said something to you, that way you could have at least let your opinion be heard, right? You’re her good friend, so you thought she would consider your feelings before making such a big decision.”
“Yeah… yeah, that’s it exactly!” She does get it! She does get where I’m coming from! “And it’s not just me! It’s you and Roger and her parents and everyone and all the rest! If she just let us know or if I could have just read the signs enough to have known to say something… maybe things would be different. In the end… I’m mad at myself too. Did I not make it clear that if she stayed here, she would’ve had my support no matter what? Was I a good enough friend? What should I have done?”
I realize I’m crying right now and also that Carmen is hugging me. When I try to figure out why I realize I am also hugging her. This is kinda confusing, but now I’m starting to feel what she was talking about. It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I still feel angry, guilty, and sad, but that will only change in time. Now is when I start to move on.
“Man… this sucks,” I say, sniffing back a few tears. We break our hug and I wipe my eyes. “No one should have to go through this.”
“Amen to that,” Carmen says, laughing a bit in what I think is her attempt to lighten the mood.
“If it were within my power, I’d prevent it from happening again,” I tell her, completely serious. “I know it won’t bring her back, but then I’d be able to forgive myself.”
“If that’s the case, you’ll never forgive yourself.” Carmen is pretty smart, or something. In reality, I guess I’ve never really talked to her like this. It’s actually kind of nice. “But hey, you don’t need to forgive anyone tonight. Time heals all wounds and all the jazz.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I tell her, which I’m sure she’s happy to hear. “Thanks a lot.”
“Like I said, don’t hurt yourself, cowboy,” she says, lighting up another cigarette for herself. “You’d better say something in character before I actually start to like you.”
“You should quit smoking.”
“Mmm… close, but that’s showing concern for me.” She takes a deep drag of her cigarette. “And no.”
“It decreases your lifespan,” I tell her.
“Yeah, well, so does worrying.”
“Now who’s showing concern for who?” I ask, but she just wiggles her eyebrows at me. I have no idea what that means, but I laugh anyway. She laughs too.
“Ah, speak of the devil,” she says, looking out into the rain. “There goes Roger.”
I look out where she is looking. Roger is walking off the campus with a big bag over his back. It’s hard to tell from this far away, but he looks like he’s been rolling in the mud.
“What is he up to?” I ask, not to anyone in particular.
“Cooper.”
I look over at Carmen. She’s got this look on her face like she is incredibly worried and then it suddenly hits me why: Something is way off.
“I’m going to go catch up with him. Can you call campus safety?”
“Sure, just be careful,” she says, and she’s still so freaked out she’s freaking me out.
“Hey, stop showing so much concern for me,” I tell her in a kind of weird attempt to reassure her. “I’ll be right back to tell you Roger is just being Roger, so stick around, alright?”
Carmen makes a strained attempt to smile.
“I’ll keep the sexual tension right where it is.”
With the weirdest sendoff I’ve ever received, I follow after Roger in the rain. I don’t know what he’s carrying around, but he’s a strong guy so I don’t doubt he can move quickly with it in tow. I take off after him just as quick as I can, and that’s pretty quick if I do say so myself.
Of course, it’s dark and rainy and I’ve got no idea where Roger has gotten off to. I can only follow what seems to be the logical path to take. This leads me away from campus and towards the park, but he’s still nowhere to be seen. I keep going into the woods and I start calling after him.
He doesn’t respond, but I catch a glimpse of his red jacket moving between the trees. I kick it in and go after him, determined to figure out whatever it is he’s after. I’m getting to the bottom of this tonight.
When I find him, he’s huddled under some forgotten gazebo on the side of a trail in desperate need of care. The five concrete pillars of the structure are lit up with candlelight, and someone has scrawled something on each of them in different colors of chalk. I’m willing to bet that someone is Roger. He stands in the middle, staring at me wide eyed and holding the bag at his side.
“Hey man… whatcha up to?” I’m gonna be honest here… I’ve never really been good with this kind of thing. It’s only become a part of my daily life fairly recently, so cut me some slack. I’m scared out of my wits this time. There’s Roger weird, and then there’s this.
“Coops… I’m glad you’re here,” he says to me. I can’t tell if that’s rain on his face or if he’s been crying. “I thought I might have to do this alone.”
“Do what alone?” My eyes flick to the bag and then back to him. It’s a big bag and it looks heavy, soaked with rain and covered in dirt. “What’s in the bag?”
“Oh… this?” He looks down at what he’s carrying. He opens up the top and peers inside. “You wanna see?”
I can’t nod or shake my head, but Roger goes ahead and reaches inside. He grunts and struggles with the damp bag, having trouble removing whatever he’s put in there. Eventually he just gets frustrated and hoists if over his head. The bag is overturned, and out of the top falls… falls…
…
A saddle.
“Roger? … God! What the hell, man?! You scared me to death!”
“What? It’s just a saddle,” he says, like it isn’t a huge deal. I guess a saddle is no big deal, even though I have no idea why he has one or where he got it. Judging by the sketchy means of transportation and abundance of dirt, theft might be involved.
“Dude, if you’ve got a saddle in your bag and I ask ‘what’s in the bag,’ just say ‘a saddle, that’s what.’ Don’t be all weird about it!” I yell at him, both because I’m glad it really is just a saddle and because I’m still scared half to death over all of this. “Honestly, dude…”
Roger may not be listening to me. He has cast aside the sack and set the saddle in the middle of the gazebo’s concrete floor. It doesn’t lay flat because of the flaps, but Roger sits down on it anyway with his legs spread out awkwardly. It stops raining rather suddenly and he pats the back of the saddle.
“Room for one more!”
Now we are both sitting on this saddle and I’m sure we look absolutely ridiculous. I take a look another look around the gazebo as we sit in silence. In the candlelight, I can make out the images Roger has no doubt drawn on the pillars: an apple, a butterfly, a diamond, a balloon, and a lightning bolt. Had I noticed what they were sooner, I probably wouldn’t have assumed he was about to perform some satanic ritual. This seems more like a ritual to summon a five year old girl.
“Hmm… maybe it isn’t that simple,” Roger says out of the blue. “I’m sure it would have happened by now.”
“We’re waiting for something?” I ask him. I can’t even begin to image what he is expecting to happen.
“I was sure if I did this I could go where Olivia went.”
“Roger…” This is painful. My good friend is lost in his delusions and I can’t do a darn thing. He disbelieved Olivia just as much as I did when she first started talking about another world, but I guess believing her claims is a sort of coping mechanism for Roger. He’s even gone so far as to search for stories of similar experiences. I don’t doubt he’s lying when he says he thought this would work, but whoever told him it would is a terrible person. “How about… we just go back now?”
“No, no, no.” Roger dismisses the idea of giving up pretty easily. He sounds optimistic, for once. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to humor him for one night, let him get it out of his system. Once it’s all out in the open air, I think we’ll be able to work through it. “We just need… something more! That’s it! We gotta let the world know we wanna change tracks!”
“Okay… how?” I ask him. “What is all this anyway?” I need to get him talking. Talking is good.
“People who have been where Olivia went said there are these overriding powers in that world,” Roger says to me. “Even though they’re separate, they all work towards peace and harmony. The Elements are Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty. They say the people there who exemplify these traits are protected underneath them.”
“So… you want to ask the Elements to bring you to that world?” I ask him. He nods, and even though this is completely ridiculous it makes sense in a way. “Okay… then ask them… I guess.”
“Oh Elements of another world, take me away!” Roger shouts with such power that when the saddle shifts I actually hang on for dear life. We don’t go anywhere because that would be absolutely bonkers. The craziness aside, this is probably the most innocuous pagan ritual I’ve ever heard of. Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty? Heck, I’m down to summon those.
“Maybe you should yell louder.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Roger crosses his arms and pouts a bit. I doubt he’s done trying yet, but I’m not making any more suggestions. He’s the expert here and I respect his authority. “… Laugh it up… that’s it!”
“What’s it?” I ask. “We have to laugh to open the portal up?”
“No, remember what I said about the Elements?” Roger says, turning to me. “In that world, the people are protected by them because they exemplify them. If we provide examples of how one of us represents the elements, they should listen to us!”
This sounds more like something we did during circle up in Kindergarten than a ritual to open up a portal, but who’s complaining? Roger puts on his serious face and turns forward.
“Listen to me, Elements! My friend Cooper fits all your Elements!” he shouts a the gazebo pillars. The sounds echoes as it tends to do in these structures.
“Why am I the example?” I ask, but Roger just shushes me.
“Now look here Elements!”
I must say the vernacular of this ritual is certainly stunning.
“Cooper is honest because whenever the cafeteria lady asks him if he got water or Sprite, he says Sprite even though they charge him for it.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely a saint. Different dimension here we come…”
“Shh, I’m doing the talking!” Roger is completely serious here, even though it just keeps climbing on the wacky scale. Besides, his speech sounds a lot like an elementary school kid’s writing.
“Cooper is kind because he doesn’t just hold the door open for pretty girls. He holds them open for anyone coming by, and he keeps holding it too! Cooper is generous because whenever he has cafeteria credit left over at the end of the month, he buys people who’re out of credit meals!”
“It doesn’t count as generosity if I don’t need it,” I tell him, but he’s so far into this that there is no point in stopping him. He’s determined, more so than ever today.
“He is laughter-y because even though I’ve been really distraught for a while he always comes around and cheers me up. He’s got a weird sense of humor, but he’s always trying to make us laugh even when we don’t want to. We need to though, so he does it.”
I’ve got nothing to say this time. If that’s how he really feels, I’m touched. It isn’t like I do it on purpose. I just feel better if we can find something to laugh about at the end of the day, that’s it. It’s not a selfless thing, really.
“And most of all, Cooper is loyal! Did you know he was friends with Olivia since they were kids? He stuck with her through thick and thin and they were best friends! She told me all about it! He’d stick his neck out for his friends anytime, no doubt. He does it for me all the time…”
“Roger…”
His voice fades a bit and he starts sobbing. I want to say something like “thanks” or “of course I’ll be there for you buddy”, but I get this feeling he’s going to keep going. He’s got something else to say.
“He’s been such a good friend to me, through all of this. He hurts too, but he’s more concerned about my hurt than his own. After hearing all of that, I bet you Elements just wish he was born into your world and not ours. Nope, he belongs to us, you see. That’s the magic of it. In this world without magic, he’s really, really magical.”
The saddle jerks a bit under us.
“Cooper, sit still or this won’t work,” Roger says with and added sniffle on the end.
“Hey, I’ve been sitting here listening. I didn’t mo-”
The saddle jostles so violently under us that we both grab on for dear life. The saddle keeps rocking under us and rising up unbidden. I start to panic as Roger starts to cheer.
“Uh… Rooooger?!”
“It’s wooorking!” Roger yells as the wind picks up around us. The candles blow out, but the drawings on the wall light up different colors. Now I’m no expert on portal opening rituals, but I think Roger has actually done it! On one hand, I’m rather intrigued by all of this, and on the other I am losing my cool faster than a peguin in the Sahara!
The saddle reaches its apex just shy of the ceiling before turning down and pointing us towards the floor of the gazebo. Before I can even imagine being splattered against the concrete, a sixth drawing appears in light on the ground: a star. When it is complete, it lights up like the sun and shine on us.
“Here we go!”
“Roger, this isn’t a good idea!”
“Heeeere we goooo!”
We go. We fly down into the star, and as we sink into it I can feel everything change.