//------------------------------//
// Act 2 | Take Five 
// Story: Daughter of the First Reign 
// by LegionPothIX 
//------------------------------//

Another day had passed since the Queen's order was given. That evening had been spent planing a thorough, but inconspicuous route through the city; which meant an evening of supervised play for Treeling. The day following they began their journey around the capital and, because she was still uncertain what her part was, Treeling was made to feel like a dog on a leash. It was something that Nurse Clarity could relate doubly to. 

She had spent the last few days trying not to think about it. Trying to forget the life she never lived. However spending the night after it happened, in the cell where it happened, had made that impossible. She couldn't function the day after, and was lucky that Sombra had taken such a keen interest; but now, with her orders from the Queen, she had no choice but to face it.

It had been less than a handful of days since Treeling had forced herself upon Nurse Clarity, and now she was being forced to drag all that comes with that experience around with her– in addition to doing the same to others. Not the same. She had been asked to listen to the emotions of others, not the memories, but trying to distinguish the two acts felt like saying just the tip.

Worse still was that the memories injected into her mind had not faded in the slightest, instead, they wrote themselves into her history and left her mind raw. Her fillyhood became muddled with the events and emotions of another's. She could feel herself drawing on them as if they were her own, much like how she imagined the filly to be doing as a consequence of what she did to her, and she was sickened by the very thought of it.

Given what she now knew of the filly it was not surprising as the type magic she used did exactly the same to her. Permanent memories. She tried to rationalize her actions as creating context. However the reality was that by introducing ideas that did not exist, nor could be scarcely imagined, she forever changed the nature the filly. She had thrust adulthood onto a mind that had not and would now never have the opportunity to naturally ease into it. As a medical professional—sworn to do no harm—she hated herself for it.

She glanced down to the filly quite certain that she must feel the same about her. Treeling however looked back up at her nonchalantly with a hint of boredom. Crystal Clarity considered that Treeling may simply be in denial, that this was how the world worked... that bad ponies do bad things for no reason and get away with it. Though, C.C. knew that it wasn't and that there may still be time to fix this. Time enough still to teach the filly of the beauty found in the Crystal Empire.

To take a moment's respite the pair stopped at an outdoor restaurant. After placing the order for her and her companion, C.C. turned to Treeling to ask: "Take a look around. What do you see?" Confused by the question the filly started to remove her tablet before she was stopped by the mare who had asked, when she explained: "No, just look for a moment, really look."

After a moment of surveying the scene she started pointing to things seemingly at random. A pony here, a building there, a flower pot in the distance, and even the nearby tables. Nurse Clarity shook her head. "Look deeper," she encouraged. All day yesterday and all day today there had been but one spell that had been constantly being used around Treeling. The filly closed her eyes and concentrated on the deeper introspective look that Nurse Clarity had on her face whenever she cast the spell before she recreated it with her own face.

Watching such a peaceful look overcome the face of a war weary filly was a strange sensation for Crystal Clarity. A feeling made stranger by the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Treeling's coat and mane ruffled—revealing the gilt of her coat associated with her casting—as she tore spell traces out of the mare.

The nurse swayed with the pull. She could feel a weight being lifted from her shoulders, as well as her strength being drained away, during the moments preceding the filly opening her eyes. Then there was only apprehension as the filly looked through her. 

The primal child surveyed the scene once more with a sense of calm unbefitting her brutalized appearance. She took it all in again through the lens of emotion magic. While as not technically difficult as mind magic Nurse Clarity knew that it took a certain level of emotional control to not become lost in the throes of other's passions. It was a level of discipline that the filly clearly lacked as evident by her change in expression when inspecting other's auras. The other ponies’ feelings flowed into Treeling and were shown in her eyes by a diffusion of color in her pupils.

Though it was worrisome to see the constant tonal shifts the nurse didn't panic until they started to blend into a chromatic shine; like that seen in a bubble of soap... Treeling was going to be washed away if C.C. did nothing. Her own panic added a dark ring to the already overflowing eyes of the near catatonic filly. Reacting on borrowed instinct the mare leaped out of her chair with charged horn and connected to the filly's.

A memory that they both relied on filled their conjoined minds. 
A glint of moonlight peered through cracks in her eyelids as the filly lie half asleep in mother's mouth. Before the armies came. Birds were nestling in mother’s leaves, occasionally stirring in the night, and furry woodland creatures congregated with the filly. Before the hunger set in. There was only peace that came with the soothing push and pull of air in her lungs. Before the magic awakened. It was a simpler time... 
Before the memory faded.

Several minutes passed as onlookers stared uncomfortably at the mare who was standing on the outdoor patio table horn-locked with a filly who was coming down off a panic attack. The waitress returned with the food and tapped the mare on the hip. "Excuse me ma'am. You're freaking out the guests."

"I'm sorry miss. My–" Crystal Clarity said, "I mean, the child has special needs." The correction came with an awkward smile and an indication toward her paper hat as though it were some form of nursing certification. While she explained Treeling committed pictures to her slate, nimbly moving the chalk with her pursed lips, and with not so much as a quiver from the experience.

Since the child was no worse for the wear the waitress left without incident. Though Nurse Clarity thought that Treeling's ability to process emotions spoke more to her internal savage nature; rather than any quantification of maturity. For the child the feelings simply left as quickly as they had come, and in this way C.C. was jealous of Treeling. Her heart sank in shame in that moment. Jealousy is such an ugly feeling.

After she was done drawing Treeling tapped Nurse Clarity's hoof to call her back from being lost in thought. She pointed to a stallion enjoying the morning newspaper and then tapped the board. A picture of a cat cleaning itself was drawn where her hoof rested. The annotation of peaceably going through the daily routine was an interesting one to Nurse Clarity because it both demonstrated the effectiveness of her conditioning and also indicated that the filly could still be familiar with many such ideas without such reprogramming. Several similar such images were seen where various plants and animals indicated emotions. Some of the imagery came from the conditioning such as a potted plant, and some from personal experience, such as a squirrel sitting on the filly's nose while curiously feeling her horn. 

The associations that the filly drew forced the mare to question if the invasive process of filling her mind with context images was even necessary and, while she considered this, the filly continued going through images. All the images filled a single collage except for one which was set off to the side.

Treeling slowly lifted her hoof to gently press it against Nurse Clarity's nose. She then lowered it with equal care to the picture that stood as the board's outcast emotion. It had been represented by a personal experience that they had magically shared. A filly portrayed to be strangled to death by a razor-toothed vine with an ominous aura surrounding them both. An aura not present in the nurse's own memory of the event. The event itself had a great deal of connotation for the filly, and they both knew it, but C.C. was left to wonder if Treeling's abilities were still evolving with every new spell she drew into herself. Since Treeling didn't rightly know herself there was no way for Nurse Clarity to know either.

After they finished eating they moved on to continue their task and there was a distinct difference in Treeling's level of expressiveness as she reached out emotionally to those they interacted with. Though there was no gilt in her coat, which would suggest that it wasn't a force of magic, there was still a great deal they didn't know about this filly. The psychiatrist noted that such a sudden and radical personality shift was not healthy.


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