//------------------------------// // The Mightiest Mare Appears in Tartarus // Story: The Witch of the Everfree // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// There was good news and bad news. The good news was that I was alive (somehow), after a long drop into freezing cold water, horrible pain, and blacking out as I fought to keep my head above water. The bad news, aside from the aforementioned pain, near-drowning, and freezing temperatures, was that I was lost. I tried to stand up and discovered worse news as a wave of pain almost made me pass out again. I looked down at my right foreleg. It was twisted and crooked, already swollen, with bruises discoloring my skin. I wasn’t a doctor, but I was pretty sure it was broken. Not to the point where bones were tearing through my skin, but badly enough that I wasn’t going to be putting weight on it, which meant my pace was now reduced to how quickly I could hobble on three legs. “I should have just given up,” I mumbled. My heart skipped a beat. They were still after me. That they hadn’t found me while I was unconscious was nothing short of a miracle. I didn’t like to think I was only free because of luck. I got away from the river bank as quickly as possible, which wasn’t all that quick at all. It gave me plenty of time to look around, though. I was on the outskirts of some forest. That was good, actually. A forest would make it almost impossible to spot me from the air. I could find plenty of food and water and- A jolt of pain from my broken leg made me almost topple. I wasn’t too proud to admit that I didn’t have a very high pain tolerance. “I could just… let them find me,” I mumbled. Talking was helping the pain. “They have to be looking after I did that. I can start a fire, and send up a flare and…” and then what? My voice trailed off to nothing as my thoughts whirled. If they found me I’d be dragged back to Canterlot, put in a hospital to recover, and then if I was lucky Celestia would tell me how stupid and disappointing I was. And that’s if I was lucky. More likely, I’d be put under a strict guard and never allowed any real freedom again. I couldn’t live like that, stuck in some safe and boring life and kept away from anything that might help me improve myself. I’d die first. I leaned against a tree, wiping sweat from my brow. The pain and stress were taking a toll, but there was something about the pain that was helping me focus. That or... I was going into shock. Maybe both. I’d never hurt myself this badly before. The closest I’d come was when I’d burned myself with pyromancy, but that had only been a few blisters. Nothing like the sharp pain of a broken limb. I looked into the forest. It was dark, and from here at the outskirts, it seemed endless. I stumbled in, feeling like prey walking into a predator’s den. Which is exactly what I was, even if I didn’t know it yet. “Well, at least this is a little more comfortable…” I groaned. I’d found a dry cave to take shelter in, and had heated a few rocks until they were almost glowing red hot to provide some heat. I couldn’t risk open flame, not while ponies were searching for me. I’d already left the river bank far behind. I’d been a mile into the forest before I’d even considered erasing my tracks. Maybe the rain would help wash away my mistakes. It had rolled in after I’d entered the forest, forcing me to find shelter quickly. I had already been soaked from near-drowning in the river, and with how tired and injured I was, I would be lucky if I didn’t end up getting seriously ill. I looked out of the cave into the woods. I’d grown up in Canterlot, and I was used to gardens, not forests. I couldn’t believe how overgrown it all was, dense and jumbled. It was the perfect place to hide. I was already starting to make plans about how to improve my current shelter when I heard movement in the undergrowth. It was my first lesson about the forest. If there was shelter, something was using it. The other animals had kept away because they were smart enough to know not to walk into a monster’s lair, so I was officially stupider than the squirrels currently running for cover. A manticore stepped into the clearing before the cave. It was the first time I’d seen a real one. The pictures I’d seen really didn’t do them justice. They’d looked more like slightly-odd cats in most beastiaries, but in the real world they were, in a word, terrifying. Especially to an already-wounded mare. Wounded, but not helpless. I was Sunset Shimmer, the strongest unicorn in Equestria, and I wasn’t going to let something like a stupid manticore stop me. I admittedly hadn’t had a lot of training in how to deal with wild animals, but I was sure I could handle it. I stood up on three shaking legs, picked up one of the hot rocks with my magic, and threw it into the monster’s face. I was pretty sure that hitting a manticore in the nose helped establish dominance. The manticore roared and charged at me, its muzzle burned where the rock had struck it. It didn’t look cowed or like it had any respect for my obvious power. Come to think of it, maybe I was confusing manticores and landsharks. I sort of froze up at that point. I blame Celestia for that. She’d made me work hard to get away from a habit of just blasting things that scared or annoyed me, so now when I really needed it, I found myself hesitating. The manticore didn’t have etiquette lessons or reservations about hurting others. It batted me away with a huge paw, its claws leaving deep, bleeding cuts across my shoulder and chest. The good thing was that the shock meant I wasn’t passing out from pain and blood loss yet. The bad thing was that I was in shock and probably about to get killed and eaten by a monster. I threw a firebolt at it, and the charging monster shied back from the open flame. “You’re not going to take me down that easily,” I panted, out of breath and shaking from the cold and pain. “Do you know who I am? I’m Sunset Shimmer! I burned down half of a stone castle! I threw myself out of a train because I don’t let ponies tell me what to do! I blew up my professors on purpose as part of my mid-term! You’re just a stupid monster and you don’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus against me!” It was less than impressed. I tried to teleport away as it lunged, and my spell failed as it reacted more quickly than I did, a stinger sinking into my flank. My back hooves went numb almost instantly, and I collapsed in a heap. I’d gone from three good legs to one. This just wasn’t my day. What was worse was that manticores liked to play with their food. It batted me away with a claw, my good leg taking most of the hit, though a line of pain opened from my jaw almost all the way to my eye as it caught my face with the tip of a talon. I flipped in the air, coming down hard enough on my broken leg that everything went white for a moment from the pain. At this point, I had two obvious choices. Try to escape, though teleportation was my only option for moving at all, or try to find some way to defend myself. I took pride in always finding a third option. A teleport wouldn’t get me far away enough to keep it from finding me. A shield spell would eventually fail and I’d just be buying time. Option three was that I blew both of us up with a fireball. It sounded crazy, sure, but I was more or less fireproof thanks to some permanent enchantments I’d bound to myself, and I was pretty sure the manticore wasn’t. “Choke on this,” I spat, the cut on my face stinging as I spoke. I put all of my power into one spell and just let it explode, aiming for the ground between us instead of bothering with trying to hit the agile predator directly. Fire magic was my favorite subject, and learning it had taught me a lot about power. There were four basic elemental types - earth, air, fire, and water. Fire was at a disadvantage against all of the others. Sand will put out a flame. Candles get blown out. A bucket of water douses a campfire. But give a fire spell enough power, and you can melt steel, boil water, and it will eat up the air and leave it stagnant. To master fire, you had to master putting force behind your actions. No fire mage could afford half-measures, and so I’d learned to leverage my special talent to blow away my problems with brute force. Brute force saved my life this time. The heat turned the rain into steam and boiled the muddy ground until it was dry. The manticore exploded into flames as its coat caught on fire and was blown back into the rock wall of the cave we’d been fighting over, collapsing in a heap too still to be alive. I was fine, of course. Like I said, fireproof. It was the first time I’d killed anything, intentionally or not. I tried to stand, but my back legs refused to work, and my only good leg in front was covered in deep lacerations. I slumped over, exhausted. At least I was warm now, with the steam and residual heat making the clearing sauna-like. As blackness overtook me, I heard the brush moving behind me. If I had the strength, I would have cursed the last bestiary I read for saying manticores were solitary predators and being wrong. I closed my eyes and fell limp, unable to keep fighting. Waking up after that was a surprise in and of itself. I had expected to be eaten, but instead I was… well, I was in a bed. And not a hospital bed. It took a few minutes for me to come to my senses, and I was left with a pounding headache, but I was pretty sure hospitals had fewer ceremonial masks on the walls, and usually had antiseptic and tile instead of cauldrons and mysterious bottles. “You are lucky to be alive. I was afraid you would not revive.” I sat up quickly as I heard a pony with an odd accent speaking. I turned to look, and blinked in surprise. A young zebra, probably only as old as I was. “Oh, um… Sawubona, Sanusi,” I said, trying to remember the formal greetings for meeting a shaman. I’d only met Zebrican ambassadors once before, though Celestia had made sure I was prepared to be respectful to them. And I was. She’d bugged me about being nicer to the other students at the School for Gifted Unicorns, but she never seemed to appreciate that I was nice when it counted - to ponies who had authority and mattered. It wasn’t my fault most of the students at the school were useless layabouts who couldn’t even be counted on to do their homework. “It has been some time since I have heard the language of my homeland.” She smiled and came closer, checking the bandages wrapped around my hooves. “It is good to find another pony I can understand.” “I guess you must have found me in the woods,” I mumbled. “Thanks.” “It was nothing.” She checked my front hooves. “This is badly broken and will need a sling.” “Trust me, I know.” I laughed a little. “And I can feel my back hooves, so I guess that means you had an antidote to its venom…” I looked around. “Where are we? I didn’t know there were any shamans in Equestria.” “I am far from my tribe, to learn what kind of plants here to prescribe.” She gestured around the room at the bottled samples. “In the Everfree there are many kinds of herb, and I am studying them to find the most superb.” “The Everfree?” I sputtered. “We’re in the Everfree?! No wonder I ran into a manticore. This place is crawling with monsters.” “There are many kinds of creature dire, but you seemed to have scared them away with your fire.” She trotted over to her cauldron and stirred it before using a ladle to pour some of the contents into a cup, giving it to me. I looked down at the brown liquid and sniffed. “Tea?” I asked, amused. “I don’t think most witches use their cauldrons to make a spot of tea for cold mornings.” “Those witches would be fools to not make the best use of their tools.” She poured herself a cup as well, sipping at it. After she’d had some, I felt safe enough to drink it myself. Not that I was worried about it being poison or anything - it would be silly to save my life and then kill me later. I was just feeling paranoid after everything that’d happened to me lately. “My name’s Sunset Shimmer,” I sighed. “Zecora is what I go by. And I am a shaman, as you imply.” “I’m sorry for troubling you like this. As soon as I’m able to walk I’ll be out of your mane.” She nodded. “Your broken leg needs to be set. Ponyville Hospital is where you should get.” “No!” I yelled. “I’m not-” I groaned and laid back, putting the tea down. “I’m not going into town. I can’t let anypony know I’m here.” I looked at Zecora with a sudden fear. “I’m not a criminal or anything-” Technically. I was pretty sure I had to be convicted first. “I just… I have personal reasons.” “Then you shall stay here until you are well,” she said, without missing a beat. “And no other pony will I tell.” “That’s… more than I deserve,” I said quietly. “Thank you. How can I repay you?” “For now focus on getting rest. Recovering fully will pay be back the best.” She smiled. Zecora was probably the only reason I survived. I don’t just mean from the injuries, either. Sure, in theory a forest was full of food for ponies who knew how to find it, but I wasn’t a pony who knew how to find it. While I recovered, she taught me what plants were good for eating and which ones would kill me so dead even scavengers would leave my corpse alone. In return, as soon as I was well enough to join her on her expeditions into the deeper parts of the Everfree, I went with her and blasted just about every monster we found. She wasn’t entirely happy with it, but turning problems into craters was my favorite way to deal with stress, even if my math teachers hadn’t liked it much. Not to say I wasn’t a genius at magical theory and complex equations, I just really hated trigonometry. I also finally had the time to look over my few possessions. I’d been lucky. My saddlebags were almost entirely waterproof, and my books had been enchanted against the minor damage of what water and dirt had gotten through. Even my clothing was more or less intact, and the thick black cloak served well to keep the briars and unpredictable rain of the Everfree at bay. I’m not too proud to admit that it also helped me hide the scars. The wounds I’d gotten from the manticore had scarred badly despite Zecora’s help. When she told me how close I’d come to dying from them, I had a few more panic attacks right in a row. “What are you planning on doing?” Zecora asked. It had been a few weeks since she’d found me. I’d healed enough that I didn’t need bandages except across my shoulder where the cuts were deepest. “Every night you sit there rueing.” “I don’t know,” I admitted, shrugging and ignoring the tightness in my healing shoulder. “I was just… running away from a bad situation. One that was partly my fault. I didn’t have a real plan. I was just going to get as far away as I could and then… well, then figure things out.” “You have certainly gotten far away, though the price was one you didn’t expect to pay.” Zecora stirred the smaller cauldron that contained our dinner. She was a far better cook than I. I’d learned how to make food, but I was used to doing it in the castle’s well-stocked kitchens. Out here in the forest, almost everything I made turned to bland boiled mush. Zecora’s food was far better for both of us. “No kidding,” I snorted. “Why did you run, even when you were so close to being undone?” It was the most blunt she’d been about asking why I’d shown up in the forest. I knew she didn’t mind me being there, for the most part. I think she appreciated having some company. I had to admit it was nice having, well, a friend. Or something close to it. Hey, like I said, I showed respect to ponies who were worthy of it. She was definitely worthy of respect. Anypony who could both save my life and cook qualified. “It’s not exactly…” I tried to find the words. “I guess the truth is that it’s mostly my fault. I’m not a very good pony.” I sighed. Zecora waited for me to continue, not saying anything. “I was Princess Celestia’s personal student for eight years. I had a magical flare in the orphanage where I grew up and almost leveled the place. She taught me to control my magic, and she pretty much had to do it herself, since I was stronger than any of the professors at the school even when I was a filly. “I really…” I shuddered as I took a deep breath. “I really miss it. She was like a mother to me.” I fought back tears, mostly successfully. “I used to think she saw me as a daughter, but the older I got the more I realized just how much she was holding back from me.” “What do you mean? She is quite open from what I have seen.” I took hold of the spoon Zecora was using and stirred the food absently. “Wrong. She hides almost everything about herself. I can count on my hooves the number of times I’ve seen her without her serene little mask on.” I looked up at the leaky roof, sighing. One of those times she’d been banishing me from the castle. “She’s… she talks about making friends, but all she does is manipulate ponies! Every day, I saw how she’d use little white lies and half-truths to get what she wanted. Ponies thought she was just trying to teach them a lesson, but I saw what it really was. She doesn’t really care about anypony. They’re just pieces on a chessboard to her.” I was quiet for a few minutes. “I think that’s how I started to see ponies, too. Looking at them more for how I could use them instead of who they were. I mean, you learn a lot from your parents. No matter what she said, I could see the truth. She kept everypony at a distance, she manipulated them, she didn’t have any real friends - and in turn she was powerful, loved, the ruler of Equestria!” The spoon bent as my magic started to flare up. I took a deep breath to calm down and unbent it as best I could, leaving the handle crooked. “You wished to be like your surrogate mother,” Zecora guessed. “And this led to friction between one another.” “Yeah, that’s putting it mildly,” I snorted. “She was manipulating me too, you know? I could see it, once I’d learned how she did things. She’d dangle half-lessons out in front of me and expect me to learn the rest myself, because she wanted me to go through the motions instead of just telling me the answer. It forced me to be self-motivated if I wanted to keep up with her. And I learned a lot! It just wasn’t because of her. It was because of me. MY motivations. MY drive and desire. My passion!” My voice got louder and louder until I was yelling at the top of my lungs. “All she was good for was… was reminding me that there was still more to learn. She was more like an index or suggested reading guide. She’d only teach me something practical a few times a year, and even then it was only when she didn’t want me experimenting without supervision. Like teleportation. If you don’t learn the spell correctly you end up missing parts when you teleport.” I sighed. “Then she shows me a mirror with some kind of enchantment on it. I saw myself with wings and a crown, like I was an alicorn. Like I was really her daughter. And then Cadance shows up and...” I bit my lip, refusing to cry. Zecora waited for me to continue. She was remarkably patient. That, or I’d finally gotten my monologuing skills high enough that ponies wouldn’t try to interrupt me. Great news if I ever decided to turn evil and needed to make a villainous speech before putting my enemies in an easily escapable deathtrap. What? I happen to like the Bearer Bond: Secret Agent series. Some of the techniques I’d used to try and evade the guards in Canterlot had come from reading those books. I was surprised they’d worked in the real world. “I got desperate,” I admitted. “She adopted Cadance and wouldn't talk to me about what I saw. She said she would ‘when I was ready’. But if that was the case, why show it to me? Why not wait? So I thought this was just another test. Something I had to study and learn on my own. I scoured the archives for clues, and they all pointed in the same direction. The forbidden section. As Celestia’s student, I had access to it, though I was supposed to get permission from Celestia first. I knew she’d just tell me I had to wait, so I went in without that permission.” “If there was such a forbidden book, why did she keep it where anypony could look?” Zecora asked. “She didn’t believe in destroying books,” I explained. “It was something Starswirl the bearded told her. ‘Once you start burning books, you’ll be burning ponies next.’ She took it to heart.” I scratched at the scar on my jaw. Zecora gently batted my hoof away. My bad habits at scratching my wounds were one reason they’d scarred so much. “Sorry. Anyway, I cracked open a bunch of books looking for what I needed, including ones on dark magic. That’s part of the danger of being so driven and, well, easily distracted. I like learning new spells.” Zecora started laughing. I raised an eyebrow. She shook her head. “Once you called me a witch. That you’re the one who knows dark magic I find quite rich.” “I haven’t used them!” I protested. “I just know the theory.” And with a near-photographic memory I totally could use them if I had to. I just didn’t look forward to it. I was already persona non-Grata in Equestria. The last thing I needed to do was end up as a maleficarum as well. “But the librarian got Celestia, and well… she was angry.” That was an understatement, but she hadn’t banished me to the moon or anything, so maybe furious was too strong a word. “I sort of started yelling at her,” I admitted. “I found a book that described in some very vague terms how a regular pony could become an alicorn. It wasn’t nearly enough for me to do it myself, but Celestia was an alicorn already, so she had to know how to do it. I wanted her to give me wings. She kicked me out for disobeying her, disrespecting her, and breaking the rules.” “She must have kicked you quite hard, if you got all the way to my yard.” She started ladling out the roasted roots, which had browned well in the oil she’d pressed out of some otherwise-inedible seeds and mixed with finely sliced herbs and green onions. “That was mostly my fault. There were guards following me around.” I frowned at the memory. “I don’t know why. They were probably making sure I wasn’t going to break into the castle. Maybe Celestia was worried I’d throw a tantrum and burn down half of Canterlot.” I looked down. “Or she could have been kind enough to make sure I was going to be okay, and had trusted ponies looking out for me. I don’t know.” I levitated a chunk of tuber into my mouth, chewing sullenly. “I don’t care, either. Whatever reason she had, I wasn’t going to play by her rules. If she wants me out of her life, than she doesn’t get to stick around and be part of mine!” I grit my teeth in anger. “I got away from them. Almost. They managed to catch up to me when I was leaving the city by train. We were going over a bridge at the time and… I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was being spiteful and stupid. I teleported out and fell into the river. It’s how I broke my leg.” I held up the slightly twisted leg. It hadn’t healed correctly, as Zecora had warned me. I was going to walk with a limp for the rest of my life. “That is quite a tale,” Zecora said. “Certainly better than the one I had imagined where you were running from an abusive male.” I snorted with laughter. “Please. I’d have blown a pony like that into giblets if they laid a hoof on me.” “Much as you did every other beast,” Zecora agreed. “Your magic is certainly strong, at least.” “Of course it is! I’m the strongest unicorn alive!” I reared up dramatically. It just made Zecora laugh. I huffed and ate my dinner. She laughed again as I tried to keep frowning, and I lost it, joining her in mirth. It was the first time I’d felt happy since Celestia had thrown me out.