Divine Move

by Ice Star


八 (Children Are Evil)

I don't know why I did what I did, but I ended up falling asleep on the mountain outcropping of all places. Worst of all the sun is up, trying to burn out my eyes.

It's too damn early for this. I should still be asleep.

It's too damn early for everything.

It doesn't matter now, I'm awake when I'm awake. Bloody stupid sunlight. I get up and pick a few leaves out of my mane before slinging my saddlebags across my back. I'm no sundial but I can do the job of one very well, thank you very much. It's just another thing I've learned since I've got to tell time somehow.

I don't need any annoying mechanical device to tell me it's still too early to be doing anything. Even the Purple Plebeian was able to realize I'm not diurnal. I'm not even sure if I need to sleep since I'm no normal equine and I've gotten away with such things before.

Leaning forward a bit, I am able to glimpse Canterlot if I peer below. For a city I don't possess an extreme hatred for it is awfully crowded but that won't matter since this works in my favor.

A rather peculiar rumor happened to be overheard by none other than a certain rather magnificent and arrogant unicorn. It concerned some kind of amulet that was brought to a village sometime before I truly re-appeared. It was no ordinary amulet either. All I have to go off of is that the village is within a few days of Canterlot and that it messed with the mind of the unicorn who wielded it.

I have to get to that amulet. Somepony in this city must know of it so I'll just have to go back and see what else I can find out.

A few spells later and Phobos is at my side, my cloak has turned brown for the sake of a disguise, and I now resemble the same unicorn as I did on the train here.

I really need to find a fitting name to assume for when I'm like this. I'm quite partial to Wild Card but something I didn't come up with off the top of my head is preferable.

I want to find that dreaded amulet before anypony else does because so far nothing about it sounds good. I'll do this without talking to anypony either because it's still too early, especially to be associating with peasants. The Right-Honourable Lord Sombra, Duke of Nothing is above such trivial matters.

...

Canterlot is best at night when ponies have the decency to stay indoors where I won't be sickened at the sight of them. It's almost clever for lowly beings such as them. However since it's only about noon or so there are ponies everywhere.

The stone streets are overwhelmed with the sound of hooves, mindless conversation, and a few vendors. The only things safe from the onslaught of ponies swarming the ground are the lamp posts and buildings of white, gold, and purple that rise from the ground.

I don't think I'll try figuring out anything here. There are too many possibilities that things are going to go wrong, and by wrong I mean that some air head is going to annoy me to the point of anger. Asking around for an amulet that may corrupt the minds of ponies is not the best idea either. Even if I did want to waste my time creating a plethora of disguises along with marks to go with each I'd still have to come up with a spell to disguise my voice for each and every one. While only a few ponies know my voice there's still no proof that somepony won't recognize me... somehow... and then once that happens I'll have an annoying mob.

After all what could be better than getting attention? Having every single pony know your name and face memorized.

What could be greater than being unjustly hated by millions who don't even know you? Surely, being blamed for the deaths of hundreds even though it wasn't your fault is everypony's dream?

Who wants to have their name stolen from them and flaunted by their worst enemy like a trophy? Who wants to be sealed away knowing that the sick confinement that they experienced there was the closest they had to true freedom?

Who wants to be everypony's scapegoat, everypony's demon? Do you want your face to be known by all because surely you don't have a story that ever mattered, after all you aren't even considered to be alive? Yes, who wants attention? Who wants to be thrust into the future to be given the faintest chance of happiness possible, torn between the mess I inherited and the few things I ever wanted?

After all, isn't attention what I always wanted?

No.

It was merely inevitable.

...

My thoughts are interrupted by a voice behind me. At first that is all I know, I do not know who the voice could belong to except that it is nopony I know. I've turned quite a few streets since arriving in Canterlot, going from tavern to tavern skillfully asking for any news about this trinket.

I turn to face whoever that is that dares to pester me, and find that instead of some drunken fool staring at me with bleary eyes I am looking down at a young pegasus colt with a bright green coat, shock white mane, and a nervous tic. He has saddlebags of his own and they are overstuffed with various materials that I cannot distinguish from one another.

What is a foal who is probably no more than ten years old doing in this district of the city?

The afternoon sun shines down through the roofs and the colt twitches slightly. He doesn't look scared, in fact he smiles.

I just hope this foal doesn't turn out to be a sociopath like the last one I had the misfortune of dealing with.