Persona: Innocent Wish

by Trismegistus

Chapter 13: We are a Trio

“Marigold! Come down stairs, I have a surprise for you!” Tonic had tried to get Marigold to leave her room for two days with little success. Except for Summer Breeze, she was the most affected by the loss of Autumn Tail. “Arata, would you mind talking to her? She seems to listen to you.”

“Yeah, I’ll go call her.” Arata had been the only pony that Marigold would talk to over the past few days. It had helped that he witnessed Autumn Tail’s death, for some reason this experience allowed Marigold to confide in him. She had told him many stories of their friendship, and how she had stood up to everypony’s bullying.

“Marigold, can I come in?” Arata asked knocking on the door.

“Yes,” She whimpered. Arata opened the door to find Marigold laying on the floor staring at a flower that Camphor had picked for her.

“You should come down, I think what your dad has will really cheer you up.” Arata said, extending a hoof to the filly.

They walked downstairs in silence until barking caught Marigold’s attention.

“Is that a puppy?” She asked, showing a hint of excitement.

Arata didn’t answer, instead he watched as she grew more excited. As they rounded the corner to the front door, Arata saw her face light up as she saw the little dog at Tonic’s feet. This was the first expression of happiness Arata had seen since Autumn Tail had passed.

“He’s all yours Marigold, just promise you’ll walk him and take care of him,” Tonic announced as she ran up to her new companion.

“I promise!” She said starting to pet it. The dog had short grey fur, pointed ears, and a tail that curled up. “Does he have a name?”

“Not yet,” Tonic smiled seeing the joy in his daughter, “What do you want to call him?”

“Um,” She paused in thought, “I don’t know. Camphor!” She called to her brother who had yet to join the family. Although he showed it less than anypony else, Camphor was fairly effected by the death of the filly. Instead of being his normal relaxed self he had seemed excited, and full of energy. For the past few days he had been going around town helping the ponies with anything he could. Arata recognized this as the same coping mechanism that he had used when he feared that the lake was really Nippony. For the most part Arata had kept to himself; occasionally he would try to cheer Marigold up, realizing that she had lost much more than he had.

“What’s up sis?” Camphor called as he walked down the stairs.

“Look at who dad brought home!” Marigold squeaked.

“Whoa, look at this guy,” Camphor said making his way to the dog. Opposed to his normal drawl, Camphor seemed to talk at a normal speed.

“What should we name him?” Marigold asked.

“I don’t know,” Camphor offered one of the flowers in his hair to the dog, who seemed confused by the gesture. “Got any ideas little man?”

“There was a dog that lived in my town when I was growing up, his name was Koromaru,” Arata said joining the group petting the dog.

“Kor-o-maru?” She looked at the dog “Do you like that name?” The dog barked and licked her cheek. “Daddy! His name is Koromaru.”

“He’s a smart little guy,” Tonic smiled. “Now I just have to find a way to explain all of this to your mother when she gets back.” Panacea had been visiting her sister in Phillydelphia for the past week and had yet to hear about everything that had transpired in Foalsdale. “That reminds me, Camphor, there’s a town meeting tonight. Could you watch Marigold and Koromaru for me? Arata I hear your going to be part of the E.W.E.F’s presentation on what happened.” Camphor nodded, but Arata looked very concerned.

“Nopony told me about that…” Arata trailed off, he was nowhere ready to talk about his failure in front of the town. “I have to go. I’ll see you at the meeting.” With that, Arata sprinted off to the camp.

…

“I’m sorry Penzance. I just don’t think I’m ready to go up in front of everypony about this.” Arata sighed.

“I don’t expect you to be, Arata,” Penzance responded, trying his best to keep a reassuring attitude. “I was hoping that the three of you wouldn’t need to part of this, but the mayor thinks that it is for the best.”

“Do Blaze and Vox know about this?” Arata added.

“They do, they are preparing for it as we speak.” Penzance walked over to the table in the center of his tent, and signaled for Arata to join him. “I received a letter from Shining Armor. Both he and the princess are too busy at the moment to come deal with the situation here. They have; however, dispatched Ivory Shield to help arbitrate the situation, and to let everypony know that Celestia is aware of what has happened. She will arrive soon, which is why the meeting is happening tonight.”

“What exactly will we be expected to talk about?” Arata asked.

“You three will need to field the questions anypony happens to ask.” Penzance frowned. “I know it isn’t fair to you, but hopefully this meeting will put the issue to rest.”

“Okay, I’ll go find the others and make sure we are all on the same page,” Arata turned and left without another word.

…

Arata found Vox sitting alone in her tent. She informed him that Blaze had gone into town to check out books from the library.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you the other day. I talked it over with Blaze this morning. He didn’t really tell me anything I haven’t already heard from him, but it was still helpful.” Vox was adjusting some new piece of Equipment that Arata hadn’t seen before.

“It’s okay, I talked to Blaze too. It helped me put everything into perspective.” Arata said, deciding not to ask questions about the device.

“Yeah, he has a habit of doing that. It’s one of the reasons I was able to open up to him. I’m sure you’ve noticed there aren’t many ponies that I am open with. It’s pretty much just Blaze and Penzance, and I guess you too now.” Vox’s mood hadn’t made many improvements over the past few days.

“Oh, thank you,” Arata responded, slightly surprised to hear that Vox trusted him when he felt he was still distant from her.

“What do you think about everything that’s going on?” Vox asked.

“I don’t know what to think. I’ve seen how some of the ponies in town are taking everything, and the more I think about it the harder it is to lie to them about everything that’s happened here,” Arata admitted.

“Finally! Somepony who agrees with me. I was worried that I would be the only one with a conscience at tonight’s meeting,” Vox seemed a bit relieved by this.

“Did you plan to do something at the meeting?” Arata asked, worried that Vox may act out at the meeting.

“No. Of course not, as much as I may disagree with Penzance, I would ever do anything to hurt him. He’s like a father to me.” Vox assured Arata.

“What do you mean?” Arata asked. He sensed that Blaze and Vox had more of a connection to Penzance than other ponies around the camp, but he couldn’t see Penzance as a father figure.

“I don’t really like to talk about it, but I guess I can trust you.” She paused and went over to a case of her belongings. Using her magic, she levitated a small picture from the box over to Arata.

A bit confused Arata looked at the picture. There were two blue ponies both a similar color to Vox, one was a male Unicorn, the other a female earth pony. The Unicorn was levitating a baby, which Arata assumed was Vox.

“That’s the only thing I know about my parents. I spent most of my life in an orphanage in Canterlot. When I was old enough they suggested I enroll in Princess Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorns. No pony had seen magic like mine before and it scared a lot of them. The adults tried not to show it, but for a long time I didn’t have great control over my powers and the ponies around me noticed…”

“Could they tell you were reading their minds?” Arata asked.

“Not exactly, I would randomly read a ponies mind and at that time I wasn’t good enough at it to know the difference between what I heard there, and what was spoken. Part of why I didn’t really develop ‘pony skills’ is that if I wanted to know something, I could just look for myself.” Vox frowned, remembering the pain her powers had brought her. “There were also times when ponies would hear voices at night, the rumor spread that the orphanage was haunted. That mostly happened when I was asleep though, so there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

“Did you make it into the school?” Arata asked.

“I did, it is what introduced me to Penzance.” Vox said. “Penzance would visit the school from time to time trying to either find ponies for the guard or towards the end, the E.W.E.F. I got to know him pretty well over time, he seemed fond of me. Even though I would sometimes lose control of my power around him, he was patient and didn’t judge me for it. Over time, and with the blessings of the caretakers at the orphanage and a few of my teachers, I became his adopted daughter. I don’t talk about it much because I don’t want to be treated differently around camp, but that’s the truth.”

“I had no idea,” Arata said slightly shocked.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, it just didn’t seem important.” Vox apologized. “I hope you understand why I’m disappointed with him now. It’s hard to see the ponies you love do things that you feel are wrong.”

“Have you talked to Penzance yet?” Arata asked.

“Kind of,” Vox sighed, “He’s honestly been too busy with this situation to listen to what I have to say. I can’t blame him for that, but it makes me feel even more powerless.”

“Well hey, maybe you don’t have a lot of power on your own, but we’re a team, and we have power together,” Arata took a serious tone, “Let’s talk to Blaze. We shouldn’t do something as important as this if we aren’t on the same page.”

Vox smiled for the first time in days, and followed Arata out of the tent.

…

While Arata and Vox had been talking, Blaze had returned to his tent and had begun to read the books he borrowed from the library. He didn’t seem surprised when Vox and Arata entered the tent, and was more than happy to listen to them.

“Blaze,” Arata announced, “I think it’s important that we are all in agreement on what we do at the meeting tonight. We are a team after all.”

“I agree,” Blaze said, “As long as we’re not agreeing to tell everypony the truth. That would be too dangerous.”

“But isn’t lying to them also dangerous?” Vox interjected. “They won’t know that the lake is dangerous this way.”

Blaze paused to consider this for a moment. “You have a point, but I think the timberwolf cover up will keep most ponies out of the swamps for a while. Not many ponies even knew about the lake before we came here.” Blaze shifted his focus to Arata momentarily, “We still aren’t sure what exactly we’re dealing with in the lake either. We shouldn’t scare everypony with those stories until we can give them some assurance that we know what we’re doing.”

“I guess you’re right,” Vox sighed, “But I still feel bad lying.”

“No pony ever said this would be easy,” Arata smiled, trying to reassure her. “Maybe you could do something to help them feel safer?”

“I could probably use a mix of magic and a radio to make some kind of early warning device in case anypony goes near the lake. We could tell them it would stop--” Vox paused and with a slightly pained expression finished her thought, “--Anymore drownings.”

“Good idea,” Blaze smiled, “We could also say it would act as an early warning system for timberwolves, and it can tell us if anypony is actually by the lake so we can go in after them.”

“I have one problem with that idea,” Arata added, “It’s not like we can get to the lake quickly if somepony wanders out there.”

“I can set up a series of sensors,” Vox replied, “That way, we can gauge how far away they are from the lake, and that should give us enough time to either catch them, or save them.”

Arata could feel the bond between the E.W.E.F. team growing stronger. It was starting to feel like they had a direction and purpose, to protect anypony unlucky enough to fall into the lake, and to make amends for their past failure.

…

“But what if it we’re your child!” Tonic shouted towards Penzance and the Mayor who stood center stage in city hall. For the most part the meeting had gone smoothly. Everypony seemed to accept the story about timberwolves, and they just attributed the accident to the dangers of the swamp. Tonic and a hoof full of other ponies decided that this wasn’t enough and that there had to be some ‘justice’ for what happened. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we get a little more than an apology for this.”

“Tonic,” Responded the mayor, “I understand what you want, but we have to keep in mind that accidents happen. The E.W.E.F. has already detailed their plan for better security tonight, and everypony thought it was a good idea. Penzance has even agreed to speak with the children about the dangers of exploration to avoid a similar incident. Nopony here is a criminal.”

“If anypony should be blaming the E.W.E.F. it’s me. She was my child,” Summer Breeze’s soft voice called out from a corner of the stage. “But I don’t, because it wasn’t their fault. I should face justice more than they should.” Tonic sat back down. It appeared the words of Autumn Tail’s mother had persuaded him that he may be wrong. Arata, Blaze, and Vox felt uneasy as the pony they had lied to had now come to their defense.

Ivory Shield had been standing with the Arata, Blaze, and Vox for the entire meeting, but waited until this moment to speak.

“As the official envoy of Princess Celestia, It is my job to determine if anypony is at fault for what has happened. After listening to the accounts of every party involved, and the discourse at this meeting, I find that the E.W.E.F. is not at fault. What happened is, sadly, a part of life.” There was a long silence after her announcement, followed by the mayor calling the meeting to a close.

“Arata,” Tonic called after most of the ponies had exited the building. “I just want you to know that I hold none of this against you, Vox, Blaze, or Penzance. I just want to see somepony take responsibility for this. Things like this don’t just happen in Equestria.”

Arata didn’t know how to respond. If Tonic had known the truth then he would have somepony to blame. Part of Arata agreed with Tonic, he needed to step forward and take responsibility for his failure, but that would only make the situation worse.

“I’m going to head back home; do you want to come with me?” Tonic asked.

“I should probably stay here a bit longer.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure there’s some food out for you when you get back,” Tonic replied.

“Thanks,” Arata mindlessly muttered returning to his friends.

“Excuse me,” Summer Breeze called as Arata turned around. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

Arata turned to speak with the mare, something he had been dreading for some time, “Of course.”

“I just wanted to thank you for all that you’ve done. I didn’t realize it at first but you four risked so much to save her, and even though you didn’t; I really appreciate everything you did,” She began to tear up but smiled in spite of this. “Some other time I’d like to talk to you about what happened at the lake, if that would be okay with you.”

“Sure, and thank you for defending us earlier,” Arata smiled in return.

“I own the flower shop, please come by whenever you have a chance.” She smiled one more time before finally leaving.

A faint voice rang out in his mind, ‘Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Tower Arcana.’

Before he had time to reflect on the evening, Arata was summoned by Ivory Shield to discuss what would be happening from this point on.

“As I said earlier the E.W.E.F. is not at fault for this; however, that doesn’t mean there will be no changes. I have been asked to join the E.W.E.F. and to ensure that there will be no more incidents like this. This will also help put the fears of the local ponies at ease. Are there any objections to this?” Her eyes darted around the circle of ponies. “Good, I look forward to working with you again sir,” She saluted Penzance and exited the building.

Every pony went their separate ways that night. Two days later a funeral was held, and slowly the town reverted to its normal self.

Comments

[NitroTHedgehog]

Koromaru from P3?
Morgana from P5?
What's next, Teddy from P4? Aegis?

Still good though