There was snickering as Tarnished Teapot entered the kitchen. He felt his cheeks begin to burn as the scent of strong coffee filled his nose. His mother, Pinny Lane, was already sitting at the breakfast table, a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.
“Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie both did the same thing to Igneous and I when we were first married. Now I see what was so funny,” Cloudy said as she gave Tarnish a wry smile. Leaning over her coffee cup, she began to chuckle.
Tarnish saw a cup of tea had been left out for him. He wasn’t certain that he needed to drink it here at home where his magic was stabilised, but he was fond of the flavour. He went to the table and sat down, his eyes darting in Cloudy’s direction as he sat.
“I missed you while you were gone, Tarnish,” Cloudy said in a low voice. She looked over at Pinny Lane for a moment and then turned back to Tarnish. “Thankfully, your mother has agreed to share you.”
“Did you sleep well?” Pinny asked, hardly able to contain her snickering as she spoke.
There was no way that Tarnished Teapot was even going to dignify that with a response. He had clung to Maud for the past few hours while trying not to slide out of the narrow single bed. There had been very little sleep—Maud however, had slept like a stone. Maud was still sleeping.
“Igneous plans to go after a new bed today. We are worried if it will fit in Maud’s room. She has that darkroom set up, reduces the available space quite a bit,” Cloudy said as she gestured at a crockery full of oatmeal. “I’m very worried that my little Maudlin is still upset about what was said last night… I feel bad. I also feel that by saying it, I slighted your character. For that, I am sorry, Tarnish.”
“I’m not upset,” Tarnish replied in a raspy voice, saying something for the first time.
“I was very, very afraid though. Colts will say and do all kinds of things to win the heart of some filly… or in Maud’s case, some mare.” Cloudy Quartz’s face became solemn and she peered over the edges of her glasses at Tarnish. “Igneous kept telling me not to worry. He said that you had made a few mistakes, but that you were a good colt. He insisted that you would do the right thing.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Tarnish slumped down in his chair, not certain if he was in the mood to eat.
“I wanted to believe Igneous, but Tarnish, I hope you understand… Maud was my firstborn. She was and still is my whole world.” Cloudy’s eyes were wide and each blink was slow.
Still not knowing what to say, Tarnish nodded and hoped that it would be enough to satisfy Cloudy Quartz. He lifted up his teacup with his telekinesis and then, following a nagging sensation in his brain, he looked down at his amulet. Pale blue with a faint throbbing light. Head down, Tarnish stared at his amulet, pondering the complexity of his existence.
“And now little Marble is stumbling into love… this is all too much too soon.” Cloudy heaved a sigh and shook her head.
“Marble?” Tarnish asked, looking up from his amulet.
“She finally worked up enough nerve to talk to the Gaunt’s colt, Sonneur.” Cloudy blinked and shook her head. “Now she is all giddy and can’t pay attention to anything.”
Limping along the dirt trail, Tarnish made his way through the Haunted Wood, heading for the field of poison joke. He had departed from the house while Maud was in the shower. He needed time alone, time to think, time to clear his head.
Yawning, Tarnish continued along the dirt path, feeling sleepy in the hours just past dawn. He had slipped out of the house without telling anypony and then had slipped away from the farm. He had his saddlebags, a few snacks, a bottle of Princess Pop, one of his books, and a mind full of questions.
Try as he might, he just didn’t know how he felt having his mother back in his life. Just like that, everything was fixed and the past was supposed be forgotten. All of those years of hurt. All the pain, all the suffering, the feelings of rejection, the feeling of abandonment.
It was all too much to bear and Tarnished Teapot needed to sort out his thoughts.
The grove of poison joke was a peaceful, secluded place. The augites still vibrated. The flowers that Tarnish had picked just a few days ago had already grown back and the ground of the grove was covered in a lush carpet of blue flowers.
A little lizard startled Tarnish, he thought that not much could live here in this place, what few things lived in the Haunted Woods were mutated beyond belief. He watched the scurrying lizard, catching a good look at it as it passed close. He realised that it was made of stone. It didn’t just have skin that looked like stone, but it was stone. He could hear the sound of stone scraping stone as it slunk over a vibrating augite.
He thought about catching it for study, but then came to the conclusion that he didn’t have the heart. Just like he didn’t have the cruelty within him to be angry with his mother now that things had been fixed. Sitting down, Tarnish sighed and then looked at his amulet.
Having a sudden idea, Tarnish pulled his amulet from his neck. It was a pale glowing blue at the moment, meaning stable magic. Overcome with curiousity, Tarnish placed his amulet upon one of the vibrating augites.
It remained blue.
Frowning, brows furrowing, Tarnish began backing away from his amulet, leaving it upon the augite. Several steps away, he saw the sapphire begin to change colour, becoming darker. Tarnish stepped forwards, and the sapphire went back to being blue.
“Huh,” Tarnish gasped to himself.
Turning, he limped away from the amulet, walking to the very outer edges of the grove. Turning around, he saw that the amulet was now black, glowing with a strange, otherworldly blackish-purple light. Frightened, Tarnished Teapot felt his balls shrivel from fear.
“This grove is the magical equivalent of the toxic waste dumps just outside of Baltimare,” Tarnish said to himself as he started forwards to retrieve his amulet. He realised that he had just performed a scientific experiment, something with awe-inspiring results.
The trees here were a little twisted, but by all sense of reason they should be dead, or at least warped beyond all recognition. The Haunted Wood’s trees were warped and these trees right here at the nexus should be the most twisted. He tried to recall what Maud had said about this place, and had a hazy recollection that it was a class three thaumaturgical hazard. It made ponies sick.
Distracted from his own thoughts, forgetting everything that had been troubling his mind, he looked down at the poison joke. Was the poison joke really containing the worst of the magic? This whole place might be dead otherwise. He picked up his amulet with his telekinesis and slipped it over his head and down his neck. It was glowing a soft, comforting shade of blue again.
Tangible results. Simple science. Tarnish began to form conclusions in his mind from what he had observed and what he knew. His magic formed an island, with the strongest effect in the middle and getting weaker farther out, until stabilization was lost completely. At least, that was the conclusion that Tarnish reached. Tarnish had one final thought. Might the Haunted Wood restore itself if poison joke was planted in other places?
He didn’t think about this for very long, another thought entering into his mind. Could a unicorn with a powerful connection to the earth and a knack for plants still be a unicorn? What was a unicorn anyway? A pony with mystical, magical powers. Tarnish supposed he had those, but they were weak. He had natural powers. He began to question his own nature.
Sitting down on the ground, he pulled his book out of his saddlebags and began to read.
“My husband, the naturalist,” Maud said as she looked at Tarnish sitting in the middle of the poison joke grove. A small lizard was sitting on Tarnish’s head, basking in the sun. The lizard, a strange looking thing, appeared as though it was made of rock.
“Hi Maud.”
Maud began to move forwards, walking through the soft blue flowers. A part of her longed to lounge upon the augites. “You left the house in a hurry. Everypony was worried about you.” Maud sat down next to Tarnish and looked at the stony looking lizard sitting on Tarnish’s head. “You made a friend.”
“He’s made of stone. I checked. I didn’t believe it, but he is in fact, made of rock. And he eats poison joke flowers. I don’t know if he is sunning himself or if he is perhaps enjoying my magic,” Tarnish said as he lifted his eyes from his book. “I had to get out of the house. I needed time to clear my head and sort things out.”
Reaching into her saddlebags, Maud pulled out her camera. Holding it between her two front hooves, she lifted it up, peered through the sight, and snapped a picture of the lizard sitting on Tarnish’s head. After a few seconds, she snapped another, and then then another. The lizard’s tail was wrapped around Tarnish’s ear.
It had skin that looked like a collection of fine pebbles of all colours. White, brown, grey, black, and two eyes that looked like emeralds. Tiny claws were clinging to Tarnish’s mane. Maud snapped another photo.
“Your friend is really fascinating,” Maud said as she lowered her camera. She leaned closer, her eyes narrowing, her ears jutting forwards. Her snoot was now an inch away from the little lizard, which turned its head to look at her. “He’s made of rock. I can see him breathing. It reminds me of a cragodile, but this one is smaller and a whole lot nicer than the cragodile I met.”
“Hey Maud, I’m glad you brought the camera. I discovered something… maybe you can snap photos of it. I bet that Twilight Sparkle will be interested. You should see what happens to my amulet when I take it off and leave it sitting on one of those augites in the middle of the grove and then move away from it,” Tarnish said to Maud.