On the far end of the concourse the crowd of buzzing Dryponies swarmed around the lakeside. Amidst their chattery clutter they left a spacious hole where stood Willow Wise, James, and Poppy. They were giving their chief and the mysterious stranger some respectful yet curious breathing room. Broken Oak waited next to the water, and close by were the guards watching over Fluttershy. The entire event simmered with gloomy anticipation until finally the other prisoners were brought down and marched through the crowd to join their pegasus friend.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were shoved forward by a sizable squad of ill-tempered guards who were keeping the resistant ponies in line. The two carried themselves along sluggish and slow, if only to spite the ponies who were so harshly directing them with unnecessary and forceful hooves.
In contrast, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were lead along by only the two jail guards, who had come down from the cell with them. They watched and guided their two charges protectively; whenever some other Drypony came to join their escort, they would wave off the help. They insisted on handling the task alone, quite intently noticing how Applejack and Rainbow Dash were being treated by their comrades.
Even how the two jail guards carried themselves was unlike the other Dryponies. The others were so full of nasty repugnance and haughty pride, but these two guards had some measure of embarrassment in their attitudes. Maybe they were ashamed that one of their prisoners had recently escaped from right under their noses; Broken Oak certainly looked them over with great disappointment. However, that didn't quite seem to be the whole of it...
A single guard carried poor Spike, riding on his back. Since being recaptured, the dragon had been bound like a mummy; he was wrapped practically head to toe in vines. Arms were more securely tied up, legs were glued together, vines were so far up his face it blinded him, and even his tail was bundled up in there somewhere. There was little more he could do than wiggle like a worm.
Twilight was pushed along last by a group of leery and trustless guards who were almost afraid she would fling deadly spells about at any moment. She was as attentive as ever: she observed the attitudes of Broken Oak and his guards, studied the loathing stares of the crowd, noticed the strange change about Willow Wise, and saw James was still free and unharmed. She took it all in, desperately working to figure out a plan, although she remained calm and collected on the outside.
While the guards brought the prisoners together, balled them up tightly, and surrounded them, Twilight looked past her captors and met her eyes with James'. Through his, he communicated only doubt and despair. But she saw something more. Despite Rainbow Dash's misgivings, she saw that he had been fighting for the right thing this whole time. That he hadn't been passive or selfish. However, he seemed like he was running out of steam now. Every corner turned had been a new dead end. He didn't know how he could interfere with whatever was about to happen.
Rainbow Dash looked over at the man too, the reddish color of her eyes deepening. She saw him standing free and idle alongside Willow Wise. He hung out with the villains, accomplished nothing, and wasn't interceding when her friends were being handled and harassed. She despised him.
The crowd started to settle into a hushed silence as the guards finally got the prisoners fully together and secured. Broken Oak approached the captives and hardly even took a moment to think before he decided whom he wanted to start with. He hooked Twilight about her neck with his hoof and dragged her violently away from her protesting friends. The crowd's spirit ignited instantly and they roared with pleasure. The rough stallion aggressively flung her down onto her knees at the very edge of the water and lined his hoof up behind her head.
"Answer!" he demanded, spewing out the word with callous vitriol. "What is the wicked Sun's plan?!"
Twilight looked like she had a straightforward answer ready to go; an honest admission to there being no malicious plan, no deceitful scheme, or anything of that sort. But she didn't say anything. She knew it would be a pointless plea; that the savage, stubborn stallion wouldn't accept that truth. More than that, though, was that she had a contrary reaction to his barbaric behavior, similar in a way to how James did; she didn't even want to dignify his hostility with a response. She wasn't going to play his game.
"Answer!" Broken Oak screamed again. He shoved her head down into the water and held her under, much to the enthralled delight of the crowd.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash immediately tried to break through their guards, shouting angrily at Broken Oak. As they struggled and cried out with impassioned energy, it required more and more guards to keep them at bay. Drypony after Drypony was drained away from the sidelines or from watching the others in order to hold the two back. Applejack in particular drew the most guards; she was a superpony torrent of unstoppable fury.
James was horrified by the torturous turn that the interrogation had taken. He immediately turned to Willow Wise and begged, "Stop this! Please!"
The old mare watched it all quietly, buried under her beliefs even as stains of uncomfortable doubt spread into them. Out of the side of her mouth she responded dimly, surrendering all responsibility, "This is Broken Oak's investigation now..."
"Do you even realize what you're doing?!" the man contested, distraught. "You don't need to interrogate them like this! You can just ASK THEM what you want to know! Honestly and openly! You haven't even tried that yet and you've jumped straight to... to this insanity!"
Words came out of the slack-jawed Willow Wise automatically, without any thought or conviction, "They... they might lie about-"
"Well they won't!" He was practically screaming his desperate pleas. Not that the crowd would have heard him over their own enthused hollering at the grisly display before them. "I know that they won't if you talk to them and treat them with respect! And even if you don't believe me on that yet, you never even tried that route! Why won't you even try?!"
She stood still and silent, with eyes that never tore away from Broken Oak. Her body strained to maintain her posture, besieged by unspoken uncertainties and questionable regrets.
Poppy moaned while she watched everything uncomfortably. She had been so thrilled and gleeful to see Broken Oak deliver an aggressive lesson to Rainbow Dash earlier but suddenly, this time around, it wasn't exciting anymore. The ponies they had captured had grown a little bit beyond being formless enemies. They were a little bit more individual; more special; more real. Friends of a friend. This just seemed pointlessly cruel. Worse was that she loved Broken Oak. He was a mentor and essentially a brother to her. It hurt to see him like this.
The powerful stallion dunked Twilight several times. He screamed harsh questions and threats between each submersion, demanding details of nonexistent plans or probing for weaknesses in the wicked Sun's schemes. However he never got a single answer, so he only threw her under and held her down deeper and longer. The crowd soaked it all up at first but as progress became thin they grew impatient, boggled by how even Broken Oak's might couldn't extract anything from the unicorn.
Applejack grew more and more impatient too. She had over half a dozen guards on her who were trying to hold her back. Some had hooves around her neck, others were on the ground valiantly clinging to her limbs; they were like living balls and chains locked onto the furious farm pony. She practically dragged them along as she tried to pull herself towards her friend in need. Her mouth was firing off angry statements at Broken Oak endlessly; a cannon with no shortage of fuses and ammo. She nearly overcame the noise of the crowd by herself as she blared, "You get your hooves offa her, varmint! You just wait 'til I get to you! Don't you even-! Oh no, OH NO! You're gonna wish you hadn't done that! Do it again! DO IT AGAIN, I DARE YOU! I'm gonna buck you so hard you'll be droppin' apples for weeks!"
Several of the guards had to pry themselves off the now quiet and still Rainbow Dash in order to tend to Applejack. The pegasus had realized she wasn't going to make any progress and had ceased struggling, saving her strength. She stared at Broken Oak harshly enough to burn a hole through him, but then she gave a worse look towards James. A bitter, nearly hateful glance. There he was: still standing next to Willow Wise, barely even watching what was going on, probably barely even caring, and doing absolutely nothing. What a wasted friendship.
Twilight came up again and gasped for breath as the water ran down her chin and soaked mane. Broken Oak continued with his verbal abuse, howling pointless questions that she had no intention of answering and blasting vile threats that would never move her. She tried to hold her eyes open, fighting against the remnant water that leaked into them and blurred her vision with a stinging sensation. Her clouded gaze crossed over her supportive friends who were locked helplessly in a sea of guards. She felt their agonized worry. Further back, her bleary vision focused on James standing besides Willow Wise. His shoulders were down, his head was low, his eyes were lost, and his body was shuddering and stiff all at once. He was at the end of his rope. He was powerless to act against Broken Oak and the crowd like they were now. Their fervor would keep them from being convinced; he'd compromise himself in a senseless sacrifice if he tried to get in the way. There was no more that he could do. Which meant...
"Who will be coming after you?!" Broken Oak shouted gruffly, pressing his hoof into her head and shaking her.
Twilight turned towards the stallion and he halted his interrogation in surprise, caught by how something had changed in her eyes. Some determined stoicism welled up in her and poured freely out of them. Unyielding, unbroken, and stronger than anything he could throw at her, there was in her a complete mastery of defiance and control that he could never touch. For once, she spoke to him. She was powerfully stern, fleetingly polite, and left no room for misinterpretation. She merely asked, direct and forward, "May I speak with Willow Wise, please?"
Broken Oak shook off his stunned expression quickly, refusing to believe that his great strength was less than that of some Sun-witch. "No!" he snarled as he threw her head into the water again. He pressed her in further and longer than any of his previous efforts.
But there were no surfacing bubbles of a desperately held breath slowly leaking air this time. No shaking struggle in her body. Just a still patience. When he finally pulled her up, she was gagging, coughing, and heaving the excess water from her lungs, but she still asked again, in exactly the same fashion as before, "May I speak with Willow Wise, please?"
"ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" Once more, she was under the water. Deeper, longer.
And once more, no panic; no struggle. She came up soaked to the bone, mane in complete disarray, with labored breaths, but she asked again unfailingly, "May I speak with Willow Wise, please?"
Broken Oak pounded the earth, his fury sending a rippling wave across the lake. He threw his face right up against hers and spat at her, "You will do nothing but stay under that water until you choose to answer! And if not...," he squinted evilly and whispered, "... then I'll take one of your friends under next."
Twilight's eyes suddenly burst open despite the stinging wetness that stained them red, and she punctured him with her stare as she responded slowly, laced with an almost threatening undercurrent, "No you won't. You're only doing this to me because I'm letting you."
The ire exploded out of the already angry and frustrated stallion. "You think you can get free of me?!" he barked into her face.
"Would you like me to show you?" she questioned ominously.
His fiery snort blasted her soggy mane back. "I'd like to see you try!"
"Well, remember, YOU ASKED."
Broken Oak stood there smugly, chortling to himself as the gem of Twilight's horn-cap lit up brightly, her magic held back by its hungry power. The unicorn closed her eyes, groaned, and exerted herself. The sweat poured down her face and mingled with the fresh lake water. Slowly the stallion's cockiness slipped away as the gem grew brighter, and brighter, and brighter, until it was blindingly painful to look at; a green sun captured in a crystal.
Then, in a perfectly quiet moment, it suddenly shattered. The many falling and dancing shards rang like bells as an unbounded purple light blazed through the forest.
The metal spiral encasing her horn shredded down the center and blasted off into the air. Broken Oak pulled back aghast, wiping the crystal dust from his stupefied face, stunned like a bear who couldn't frighten a meek pegasus. Twilight rose up, standing tall on her hooves, weak from the intense magical effort, but free.
Suddenly coming to himself, the furious stallion tried to rush into her and tackle her to the ground, but Twilight froze him instantly. She picked him up, floated him out over the water, and then let him crash down into the lake with a crushing splash, like a calving glacier dropping a mountain of ice into the water.
Several ponies in the crowd gave terrified shouts, as if a caged monster chained up for a cheeky public display had just gotten loose. Frightened by the horrifying display of magic, some backed up in fear. Others even ran for it, ducking behind tree or bush.
A whole host of guards broke away from the other prisoners, intent on bringing the rampaging unicorn down. The Branch Dancers leapt up into the air and the rest rushed forwards, all trying to crash into her before she could devastate them with her sinister magic.
Gritting her teeth, Twilight pushed herself to her limit, straining against the magic-eating crystals of the forest. Her horn lit up and cast its light out like nets at the scrambling Drypony guards, seizing them one by one. It stopped the last airborne pony just as he was inches away from knocking the unicorn to the ground. Once she had a solid hold on them all, she flung them out over the water. They whirled and spun through the air before they plunged into the lake.
"Alright!" Rainbow Dash cheered. She shoved the lone guard who had stayed on watch over her down to the ground. The wild pegasus moved to knock a guard away from Applejack but, just as she got her bucking legs ready, she was encased in magic; locked down. "Hey! What gives?" she turned and shouted at Twilight.
The unicorn breathed heavily, her knees wobbled, and in an increasing unsteadiness she desperately begged her friend, "No! Stay right there! Please..."
Rainbow Dash groaned with unbelievably frustrated amazement. Even when she got what she wanted, she didn't get what she wanted! Though she was ignorant of Twilight's plan, she made sure her face clearly registered her disapproval of whatever it was. But as always, there was something about her intelligent friend... something that knew what was right, somehow. The pegasus stared dully for a moment, then nodded her frowning face in promise and submitted to loyal resignation.
Most of the last few guard decided that the witch was the bigger threat and abandoned the other prisoners, surging towards Twilight. A few more guards even appeared out of the branches, sailing out of the trees in an attempt to bring her down. With concentrated effort, the unicorn lit up her horn again and disappeared in a flash of light and smoke. The rushing guards all slammed into each other, leaving behind a pile of Dryponies on the forest floor.
Twilight reappeared in front of Willow Wise, giving the startled old mare quite a gasping fright. All of the purple pony's exhausting efforts were eating away at her though. By the way she held herself together, she almost seemed injured. She had a hard time standing up straight and every last corner of her body ached. Her mind pounded inside her skull and all of her senses were dimming as she struggled to even stay conscious.
But still, she managed to bow her head down slightly before Willow Wise, lake water sliding off her tangled mane, and she pleaded earnestly, "Lady Willow, if you would please just give me-"
A single Drypony guard came flying out of the trees, clasping a fresh horn-cap in her mouth.
With the last reserves of her energy, Twilight seized her assailant, pried the horn-cap loose, and flung the surprised Branch Dancer back into the trees.
The unicorn continued as if she hadn't been interrupted, "-just give me the chance to speak with you about all this, I would be glad to help clear up any confusion! We don't have to solve things this way, fighting against each other." She wobbled, slowly losing her balance and shaking her head as an exhausted delirium took hold of her. Picking her unfocused eyes up and trying to meet Willow Wise's eyes directly, she prayed, "I don't know everything that has lead to all this but I know that there are better solutions than us struggling with each other until somepony does something they regret!"
She tried to bring the horn-cap over to herself and it bounced chaotically through the air, barely under control. At last she managed to mostly line it up over her horn and she let it drop. It slid into place and the gem on the top faintly lit up with the now paltry amount of magic she was putting out. Reaching an unsteady hoof up, she flipped the lock on the cap into place, pinching herself.
"Please..." she weakly begged Willow Wise one last time before she tumbled over, collapsing onto her side.
Drypony guards were upon her instantly. They swarmed her, unnecessarily restraining her every limb and piling on top of her until they realized that she hardly qualified as conscious, let alone capable of fighting back. They picked her up but had to hold her standing themselves since she couldn't anymore.
A waterlogged Broken Oak came storming over, drops falling off him like rain as he shook himself furiously. "Filthy witch!" he muttered angrily as he stomped right up to a practically incoherent Twilight. His hoof raised up, blazing with rage.
"Broken Oak!" Willow Wise cried with renewed authority.
To the surprise of the old mare, and even the guards standing there, the stallion snapped back with equal and contentious authority, "Lady Willow-!"
"She's subdued, Broken Oak!"
"She can break free! We should-"
"Look at her!" the old mare directed, trying to maintain control. "She can't even stand on her own anymore. She's exhausted herself with her efforts. She won't be able to break free again for quite awhile, which gives us time to decide how to handle her."
The old mare looked upon her weakened enemy strangely. It rattled her inside. But not only that... at the same time she found herself suddenly unable to match eyes with her guard captain. She kept nervously repositioning her hooves under Broken Oak's extremely outraged stare. "It is clear now that your interrogation wasn't going to produce any answers," she tentatively insisted. "Just keep her under watch for the time being. I must... I must weigh these matters."
"Lady Willow-!" Broken Oak heaved in protest again. His eyes darted between his chief, the witch, and the Walking Desert, clearly suspecting a corruptive influence; the foul tricks of the wicked Sun at play.
Willow Wise tried to assert herself before him but how badly she had been shaken was becoming more evident to everypony. There was squeaking strain in her voice as she said, "Things are clearly more serious than we had previously guessed if she's able to exercise such power here, in the very heart of our forest. Just keep her under watch, captain!" The old mare tried to make her order sound like one that was faithfully given; full of expected trust and a belief that it would be met with the greatest devotion. However, the tone she injected made it come off sounding more like she had referred to him dismissively by rank instead of name. "There will be a time to act but until then we must continue to act cautiously. I... I need some time to think!" She immediately whirled about and stepped away, trying not to give the smoldering, contentious stallion a second look.
James stared at the fragile, drained Twilight as she hung between the guards like a crumpled, soggy rag left out to dry. He was shocked by how much she had given of herself, and only to ask Willow Wise for an audience! But he quickly realized that, like the Princess to the man, she very intentionally hadn't forced her way upon the old mare. Despite having had the power to press her will upon things, the magic might to dominate through force, she had instead left the free choice in the hooves of Willow Wise.
He turned and followed the old mare without a word, freshly determined to make use of the chance the unicorn had fought for.
Poppy picked up immediately after him. When he caught her following him, he thought for a moment and then stopped her. "Watch my friends, please?" he asked, as he eyed the brutish Broken Oak cautiously.
Catching the seriousness of his request, but also moved by his implicit faith, she nodded and turned back around.
Broken Oak slammed the ground with such anger that even the guards around him pulled back with fright, nearly dropping Twilight. "Take her to the others!" he ordered in disgust. "Gather them up to be imprisoned again!"
The old mare moved briskly, especially for her age. She zoomed across the concourse, went up the ramp, and passed into the palace hollow.
James followed at a distance behind her, moving at a slower pace. When he finally reached the top of the ramp and looked in through the archway, he saw her standing sullenly before one of the many shelves adorned with depictions of Prideheart, right next to the ringed gathering space. Carefully and quietly, he walked over and sat down on one of the floor seats near her. She was so sad and afraid in a way, he thought. He watched her as she looked up to the paintings and figurines of her hero, begging silently for them to give her an answer.
He let her have a few more quiet moments before he intruded softly, "Do you see now? Do you see where this could all lead if something doesn't change?"
She didn't respond at first. But looking sideways into her eyes he could see the fear reflected in them. He could see how thoroughly spooked she had been by what she had witnessed; the first time in her long, long life that she had ever seen such a display of magic.
And he could surprisingly sympathize. He had never seen Twilight unleash such force before either. Something was strange, though. He had, in fact, seen more spectacular magic. His books had talked of the sun and the moon being the magic of Princesses. But it was hard for him personally to separate fact from metaphor there. He had watched pegasi put together a storm which had rained down over a village for hours. But that had been so ordinarily handled and so by the numbers that it had been robbed of any sense of spectacle besides that which he had imbued in it himself. Here, Twilight hadn't done much more than blow her top and toss a few ponies into the water, but it had been a magic that was so much more visceral and gut-wrenching in it's violent force than anything he had yet seen.
Humans had built for themselves weapons that could destroy the world several times over. But after a few horrifying, regretful uses, people had rarely ever used them again. They hadn't wanted to because they had been at least somewhat capable of understanding the sheer, uncontainable destructive power of such weapons; power beyond the human capacity to properly and responsibly maintain. Maybe it wasn't so different here, in a way. Maybe that somehow contributed to the way Equestria was. That there was a bottle of magical terror that could be opened but no pony wanted to be the one to open it.
Willow Wise suddenly whispered in deep, agitated awe, "That power... the power of the curse... I had always known... from Prideheart's fall... but I... I never imagined it was so..." Her teeth chattered a little as she swallowed but didn't continue.
"Twilight doesn't want to act like that," James opined. "That's why she hadn't until now. She tried to talk with you before but you wouldn't hear it, so she had no choice. She had no other way to ask you for an audience."
The old mare gazed upon her figurines for a moment longer in nervous thought before her lips curled in a frown and she looked at the man. She mulled sourly, "So, even if all your claims are true, she is still here to bury us under her hoof with her magic. To force a submission from us to her ways."
"Lady Willow, no. She didn't force you to speak with her. She asked you to!" maintained James. "She definitely could've tried to force you but she pleaded with you to instead. She left you the choice."
To prove her point, Willow Wise dimly snorted, "And if I choose not to? She'd have 'no other way' but to 'ask' again, is that right?" She sighed and turned back to her figurines, reaching a hoof up to one of them and nudging it in place slightly. With dismal hopelessness, she moaned, "... To wield her magic against us again and again until we surrender to her desires."
"No...," James tried to resist her foreboding prediction. But she may have been right. What would Twilight do if the Dryponies continued to be obstinate against peace? He attempted to rationalize, "She wants you to choose to speak with her because... because... what would be the point of forcing you to? What would it mean if you didn't choose it for yourself? She wants there to be a real dialogue for peace and if you don't feel that for yourself it's not going to have any meaning." His words were like an echo; a reminder of something the Princess had told him. He reiterated, "Even if she has the power to force you to act a certain way, she can't make you feel a certain way. So it's important that you choose it for yourself."
Willow Wise studied the whittled figurine in her hoof. Prideheart, majestic and strong in wooden form, noble and independent even as a statue, great and heroic as every story that they had ever recited about him. Her eyes sparkled with dreams. "Choose our own path...," she mumbled.
"That's what I'm saying, yeah. You have to choose for yourself," the man endorsed, "just... don't make it this isolated one you've been walking all this time. Make a new path. One that includes the world, instead of shutting it out." He shook his head and pleaded, "Please, you have to see that this old path, no matter how 'Prideheart strong' you are, will inevitably only unleash more of what you just saw."
Grappling with everything being said, the old mare resistantly and vainly hoped, "It takes... great power to overcome the crystals so spectacularly. There are- there are only a few... enemies who could do it... so, maybe... we can still-"
James stood up, exasperated, and he moaned loudly, "Lady Willow, that's not the point! It doesn't matter how many or how few! The point is that there are some who could regardless! The point is... the point is: why? WHY?" He had to rub his face and catch his breath. Closing his eyes and pinching his nose, he tried to explain, "Why, if all your paranoia of Princess Celestia were true, would she wait this long? Now you've seen that she could have and would have moved on you centuries ago. Why now? Why with this oddball group of ponies who are clearly the WORST possible choice for a search and destroy mission?"
He sat back down and shook his head again. "There are no ponies out there who WANT to use magic like that against you."
"But they will if they have to...?" Willow Wise coolly stated. "... And we have to defend ourselves..."
"Oh, defend. Defend!" James quipped with small, bitter sarcasm. "Did you see what Broken Oak was doing to Twilight out there? She just defended herself. And you'll just defend yourselves from her, and Princess Celestia, and-" He groaned. "I'm all for defending yourselves when you actually have to, but the two sides of this conflict will just keep 'defending themselves' against each other into oblivion. THAT'S why this is a battle that shouldn't take place. That's why it doesn't need to."
"But we don't truly want to fight; we only will if we have to," Willow Wise asserted quietly. "The only thing we truly want is to escape. To be free of the curse of magic, and of the wicked Sun forever."
"Equestria is a magical world, Lady Willow. That's not in the cards," the man expressed sadly.
She suddenly turned and pointed at him. "No, it must be real," she insisted. "Your special gift... Your freedom from the curse..."
"Special? No, I'm not special," he contended. "Everybody is like that where I'm from. There's no magic at all."
The old mare's face lit up with an open, wishing smile, and her eyes gave off a happy, eager glow, like a young foal's. James immediately realized he had said something he shouldn't have.
"N-now wait just a minute!" he tried to protest.
"Despite all your objections, you are the one!" There was a resurgence of her latent dreams; a resurrection of her single-minded attachment to the old stories. It was like all her recent thoughts and progress had been flushed away at the single chance to bring that fantasy to life again. "Somewhere, there is a paradise for-"
"No! Listen to me! My home is not what you think it is!" He was frantic, and even hurt. The words bled out of him. "I think it's a great place, despite everything, but it's not a paradise. It's not some mystical land of no magic, and it's not a place for you... no more than Equestria has been a place for me..." His own strength quickly started waning as he thought about it. He didn't want to go into this here... not now... please...
Still, the old mare tried to carry on, claiming, "There may be challenges for us there, yes, but our destiny is to be challenged! That fight is preferable still to one against the wicked Sun! If we could just-"
His voice was weak and shaky. "Lady Willow, it doesn't matter. I couldn't lead you there anyway; there's no way back. I wish there was! I'd go back in a heartbeat!" He had to pull back for a second and rub his eyes vigorously. He was somber and wistful, then furious with himself for feeling sad and it only forced his fingers against his eyes harder. "I don't want to be here," he admitted quietly. There was a sudden flash in his mind of colored smiles. A distant calling of bright voices, echoing with warmth. He abruptly repeated himself with a slight addendum, "I don't want to be here, against my will."
As if his own glum outlook could somehow infect her, the old mare tried to encourage him, "Don't abandon your destiny!"
"Oh, destiny abandoned me," he griped in response before he waved his hand to wipe away his ridiculous feelings and senseless rambling. Taking a deep breath to clear himself, he locked eyes with Willow Wise and told her seriously, "There's no way back and I wouldn't lead you there if there was."
The wishful joy slowly seeped from the old mare's face, replaced piece by piece with a grim, upset resentment. But as she stared at James, as his feelings transmitted through the air to her, an honest belief started to appear in her too. Suddenly, the ongoing excuse factory shut down and she just... accepted.
Steadily she turned away from the man, her attention drifting back towards the many different Pridehearts. James sat up straight and tried to recollect himself. Together, they indulged in the brief silence.
"If true escape from the wicked Sun is not possible," Willow Wise at last spoke up, her tone dreary, "then being left in peace here in Heartwood is all we have in order to be free of her and the curse of magic."
"It only lasted for a time," he reminded her. "It's not sustainable anymore. You can't choose that."
"Fighting for that is better than falling under the yolk of the Sun again," she said.
"That's not-!" James snapped before securing himself. She was still partially caught up in the same bad story. He restarted more plainly, "She doesn't want to make servants out of you."
Willow Wise grumbled, halfway accepting of the man's position, but she still complained, "Again even if your claims are true, she failed Prideheart! His suffering was her responsibility! We cannot-! How could we abide such an evil? How could we live alongside that, letting it pass?"
Her blocking started to draw out his anger. Not because it was wearing on his patience. He had seen enough now to understand that the Dryponies weren't innocent victims anymore; they weren't blame free. She was apparently lacking a mirror. "Then seek an explanation and an apology from her!" he harshly begged. "She made a mistake! You have too! Are you really any different from her?"
The old mare reeled back with insult. "Yes!" she strenuously professed.
She was quite taken aback when he instantly and gravely replied, "No! No you aren't!" He flung his hand out here and there, gesturing at invisible offenses, and enumerated, "Stealing food from Hamestown; keeping food from the animals; ambushing travelers and throwing them into prison on unfounded, unchecked suspicion alone... Broken Oak was TORTURING Twilight!" He spat a hot breath.
Then there was a sudden chill about him and he froze up. Something dark and cold came back to him. "The legend of Unicorn Spring Forest," he whispered. "There's no unicorns here... but Prideheart was one. No unicorns... ANYMORE. They say- they say that unicorn foals were found abandoned at the edge of the forest." He looked up at Willow Wise, nearly terrified, and asked in a tone half for confirmation and half for accusation, "You... abandoned babies to the wild?"
The same coldness in him spread to her. She didn't have any words. But her face immediately recognized what he was talking about.
"Oh my God, you did!" he gasped lowly. He choked up. The beginning trickles of tears pushed their way into the corners of his eyes. The horror of it was just too unbelievable for here. For Equestria.
"You hated magic so much that you left innocent unicorn foals to DIE," he blankly stated, as if speaking the words might help him come to terms with the abominable abhorrence of what had happened. Something painful and foul tugged at him. It wasn't hate. It was tragedy. Soreness from the deep cuts of Prideheart's tragedy, compounding and compounding and compounding. He sadly asked of Willow Wise, "How can you accuse the Princess' mistake of evil when you've made just as evil of a mistake?"
The old mare stared at him for a moment before she stepped forward, walking right past him. She stopped before the large pot of crystals that sat in the wall like a hearth and she then sat down quietly in slumbering thought. The crystals' soft, glimmering light washed over her like the glow of a warm fire, her eyes burying themselves deep into the shimmering gems.
James stood himself up and rushed over to the palace entrance, desperate for fresh air to push down the vomiting feeling that was boiling in his stomach. He rubbed his sleeve across his eyes and steadied his breathing as he leaned against the archway. But as he cleaned the last dabs of wetness out of his eyes, something out in the concourse caught his attention.
Far down by the lake, his friends were gathered again. Twilight was sitting on the ground resting, with her legs folded under herself. She was clearly still weary; her head bobbed and dangled as she kept nearly nodding off. Applejack sat right next to her, holding her close and tending to her with motherly concern. The others (save Spike, still unfortunately incapacitated by vines) formed a small perimeter about them, mostly lead by a stalwart Rainbow Dash.
Despite the standoff-ish appearance of the group, it wasn't as bad as it looked. They were just keeping a watch. Most of the Drypony guards who were there formed a broad half-circle around them and didn't close in, seemingly content that the problem was 'contained.' Or more realistically, the Dryponies were too frightened by Twilight's recent magical display to dare to get any closer than they were.
The only two guards who got any nearer were the jail guards. They appeared utterly comfortably being virtually right next to the watchful Rainbow Dash, who tolerated them agreeably in return.
Broken Oak was engaged in some kind of nasty disagreement with the two jail guards. Even as far as the opposite side of the concourse, the hoarse rhythm of his shouting was cleanly distinguishable. He was flailing his hoof up towards the trees and angrily insisting that the prisoners be brought back to their cell.
However, with proper deferring respect, and maybe a little embarrassment, the jail guards seemed to disagree. They apparently wanted to let Twilight rest quietly for a time. What they were arguing specifically couldn't be made out; they weren't anywhere close to being a rage-filled shouter like Broken Oak was. It was doubtful that they were appealing to the surly stallion's underdeveloped sense of mercy. Maybe they made an argument of theoretical security; that they'd have to carry the diminished Twilight up to the cell, which presented a risky chance for her friends to pull something nefarious. Whatever points they were making, their ultimate goal was clear: let the unicorn rest.
It didn't sit well with the stallion's explosive temper. He might have gone overboard if it wasn't for Poppy. The little filly suddenly approached him and spoke to him soothingly. Whatever she had said to him apparently limited his fury enough to get him to reluctantly agree to allow Twilight a few minutes of rest. He barked a few more stern orders and even gave some more through quaking stamps and ear-piercing whistles, and then he stomped off madly into the forest.
After he went, Poppy raced off somewhere only to shortly return with a pail. She quickly went to the lakeside and swished her bucket through the water, catching a heavy gallon or two. She carried the refreshing payload as close to Twilight as she dared, leaving it on the ground and nudging it just a bit further with her nose before she turned around and bolted off to a safe distance.
Rainbow Dash gave the little squirt an odd look but then shrugged. She retrieved the pail and set it down before Twilight, and Applejack immediately helped the tired unicorn sate her thirst, guiding her with encouraging whispers. The friendly Drypony guards looked about at the rest of their further out compatriots, making sure none of them had a mind to interfere.
It was an amazing sight. These Drypony strangers defended and cared for their supposed enemies...
Behind James, Willow Wise suddenly spoke up. Her voice felt faint and distant, like she was speaking across the annals of time. "The purging of the cursed ones- of... of the unicorns..." Her voice drifted in and out almost at random. "The history is recorded in song to keep the memory, like all our history... but we don't sing it often. Prideheart's battle... his struggle... is full of glory; a grand memory worth celebrating. But the purge... the separation of the infants... the wailings of mothers... the lamentations of fathers... that is not glory. It is not a proud memory.
"But... but... the foals WERE cared for," she stated truly. As grim as she was on the topic, there were no shades of doubt to her assertion. "We cared for them until scouts could find passing travelers and we made sure the foals were picked up."
James' eyes opened wide. He looked back and forth several times between the old mare and the guards surrounding his friends.
Ponies.
Ready-to-fight, magic-abhorring, prisoner-taking, food-stealing, fanatically anti-Princess ponies. But STILL PONIES.
A Princess with the will to lead by compassionate example, even at risk. A student who labored to be a helpful friend to a stranger despite the sometimes dramatic differences and the uphill struggle it often was. A frightened tailor who gave, and gave, and gave again. A leery and suspicious flyer whose loyalty and trust, even when steeped in doubt, was enough to carry her through. A kind, compassionate, and courageous caretaker who stood against anything, no matter how perilous, for the sake of even the littlest (or most ferocious) creature. A passionate farmer who had an honest business dispute with an admittedly grouchy tinkerer but who still wanted to part at the end of the day as friends. A... completely crazy... stupendously eccentric... pink... well, she was always friendly irregardless and that was what was important.
And now, an elderly mare who was so deeply bothered by an old story because it reminded her of the greatest tragedy of her kind. He had accused the Dryponies of nothing short of murdering the most defenseless of all. But they hadn't. And even though they hadn't, what they HAD DONE still bothered this old mare just as much. Devastated, heartbroken parents who had felt culturally compelled to reluctantly entrust their children to strangers. Children that they then must have loved truly despite having been conduits of the very thing that they had professed to hate.
Love stronger than hate.
Harmony.
It was all hitting the man so fast. He stood stunned for a moment before he suddenly rushed to Willow Wise's side and knelt down.
"Lady Willow," he gasped, almost out of breath, the sheer exhilaration practically consuming him. "Listen, Prideheart does have a great legacy. He fought a freaking dragon to save Equestria because Princess Celestia either wouldn't or couldn't. He's a hero! But then he made a mistake. He RAN AWAY. That's the part of his legacy that you celebrate the most! His fear! The great Drypony destiny that you believe in is to emulate that; to run away like he did."
The old mare didn't understand was he was getting it. She was also partially offended by how he was going about it. "He had to escape the Sun," she said.
"No, listen, let me finish," James continued, still nearly choking on his own breaths. The words just poured out of him like a waterfall. "He stood up against the dragon, and he could have stood up against the Princess too if the fight for it was in him. But the fight wasn't in him. He ran because he wasn't trying to escape her. He was trying to escape HIS PAIN. That battle against the dragon cost him; it wounded him; body, mind, soul. And he ran from his pain. That's what you're celebrating the most! Not his great heroism! That he ran away only to die unceremoniously in the forest!"
Willow Wise was silent for a moment before she turned her still eyes back upon the glittering crystals. "... He didn't die here," she revealed in a barely audible wisp of a voice.
"What?"
"One day... one day, in his later years, he got up and left. He didn't discuss it with any of the other elders. He made no mention of anything to anypony. He just... walked out of Heartwood one day, never to return. We..." She halted her tale for a moment to deliberately choose a word. "... believe... that he had finished preparing us for our Drypony destiny and was leaving us to it."
James took his own look into the crystals. Whether there was something magical or insightful about their soft rainbow light or not, he came to a quick realization. "Christ... Lady Willow... he ran away AGAIN."
She looked up at him. Not with belief. Not with doubt. Not with offense. Only with an unfeeling pain.
"Listen," the man elaborated, "he was a hero. I really mean that. He deserves every last bit of honor that gets sent his way and then some, for holding off that dragon. But with the pain he took in that fight, with those scars still fresh, he made a stupid choice. He made a stupid, rash, sudden choice. He shut out the world and ran off to let it fade away. To let HIMSELF fade away, instead of finding the healing he needed.
"I think... I think that after he was here in Heartwood for a time... after he had the time to really process everything... he came to REGRET his decision. He regretted leaving. But he never found healing so he couldn't go back. And then... then he saw what was going on here. The culture that was building up around him, the destiny and the dream you were all preparing and making bigger and grander, all of it growing beyond his ability to control. He saw all that... and I think he was ashamed. He ran away again, in shame."
James held his head low. Again, he felt like crying. "I think he deserved better than that. I wish he had found healing." He weakly begged the Drypony chief, "Don't celebrate his pain."
It was a long minute, ticking away eternally, that they were both there, staring into the crystal light in silence.
"... It's hard...," Willow Wise suddenly spoke.
James looked up at her.
"... It's hard... holding on to a passionate conviction all your life. Carrying it intensely, always... like a heavy weight... that you never set down. It IS a weight. I'm so old... and so tired... Broken Oak, he... he's young and in the greatest throes of that passion. Carrying the weight gives him strength. It builds him up. It gives him the traction; the push back that he needs to test himself against the world. But in time... it will sap even his great strength too. I... no more for me... I am so old... so tired... so ready for rest..."
Tears started forming in her eyes, and the radiant light of the crystals colored them like rainbows. "... I just want my little Dryponies to be safe..."
Immediately James picked up one of her hooves and held in gently in his hand, patting his other on top. "I want that too," he said to her, "and I am telling you, I HONESTLY BELIEVE that the best chance for that is through reconciliation, not struggle. I'm not asking you to throw away who you are. Or to destroy all of this Drypony identity that you've built for yourselves. Or to reject Prideheart and his heroism. You don't have to come out of this forest groveling before the Princess. Just, as a start, open your eyes and look at other possibilities seriously."
Thinking of his pony friends, he tenderly suggested, "Maybe, as a simple beginning, take up Twilight's offer and speak openly with her, or start an honest dialogue with the frontiersponies about solving your animal problem."
However, the old mare was distraught and she wept, "But... Prideheart's legacy... all these centuries... what has it all been for?"
"Don't fall into that trap," James encouraged her. "That trap of too much already been sacrificed. No. It's not too late. It's only too late if you give up." He set down her hoof and looked at her directly. "If you can find peace for the Dryponies, then Prideheart's legacy will STILL be a great legacy. If you can find safety for them, even in friendship and forgiveness with Princess Celestia, then your Drypony destiny will STILL be complete."
Willow Wise gazed into the crystal light once more, letting it dance across her face for several silent moments. Steadily, her chin dipped and her head slunk down.
"... It IS too late..."