20th: Fractured Inner World
The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings
“What are you doing?”
I finish scrawling my message in the rock and turn to Chrysalis. Our current position is just below Canterlot where our little group has made a temporary camp. If it were up to me, we would don disguises and head into Canterlot at once, but Gulletswatch is in charge today. He has insisted on waiting, so wait we will. In the meantime, I couldn’t help but put up a signpost for humans.
“Just leaving a message kind of like the one I ordered the changelings to put up around Equestria,” I tell her. “It’s just kinda general stuff: where they are, what this place is if they didn’t know, who I am, and making sure they know I can help them get home.” We stand with our backs to the setting sun, casting warped, gangly shadows onto the side of the mountain.
“What if they don’t want to come home?” Chrysalis’s question is one I’ve been trying to avoid, but not one I didn’t consider. I would like to, if I can, discourage anybody from having that kind of thought.
“I made it clear that we need to go home.” I put my hand against the rock and retrace my own words of warning. “I don’t want to believe that somebody would actually ask to come here and stay forever. I certainly didn’t.” At least, I don’t think I did. There is static clogging the answers to all the questions I have. All I know is that I had some foreknowledge of Equestria before I woke up as a changeling, but the reason is all fuzzy now. If Discord is my only chance to clear up these mysteries, I have little choice but to trust him.
There is one silver lining to all of this: Prince Mangle. Gulletswatch can’t say for sure if the wayward prince is alive or dead, but it is clear he knew I was coming and that Discord was somehow involved. Beyond this, however, Gulletswatch has been strangely tight lipped. He won’t explain why his unit was virtually wiped out or where Mangle went after he issued this order. He just says that if we want answers, we have to go along with the plan Mangle has set up for us.
“So you do understand where they’re coming from?” Chrysalis asks me, making me remember the conversation at hand.
“They’re escaping from reality. The truth of the matter is they should be heading home, but for some reason everyone thinks they can just go on living here like nothing has happened.”
“What, was your life back home so perfect that you wouldn’t trade it for anything?” The question catches me off guard. I hesitate to answer, but only because trying to remember my life back home causes bursts of static in my head. Despite whatever it is I can’t remember, I know my answer.
“Nobody’s life is perfect, and I’m no exception; however, it was my life and I worked hard on it. I can’t just throw away the people I knew or the dreams I had,” I tell her. “Am I really supposed to believe that there is a person who wouldn’t be missed if they dropped off the map? Is there really someone who could abandon everything they know without once looking back?” I’m sure I’m right. For me, it’s argument that puts the nails in the coffin. I can’t believe even Chrysalis is going to grill me on this.
“You really don’t understand the appeal of a fresh start?” Chrysalis stares me dead in the eyes while a stray wind brushes against the cliff face. “Maybe you’re not wrong, but they’re not wrong either.”
“Someone has to be wrong,” I remind her.
“It’s not a matter of fact, just a matter of opinion,” she says to me. Her eyes are still locked on mine. It seems nostalgic, but in a painful sense. I can’t place the reason. “Have you ever considered just settling down and trying to make the best of your situation?”
“No.” I can tell by her face that the bluntness of my answer doesn’t satisfy her. “The best I can do with this situation is to try and find a way out of it. If I could have it just the way I wanted, not a soul in Equestria would know I was even here.”
“It’s a little late for that.” She makes no attempt at hiding her contempt for my decisions. By now our conversation has attracted the attention of the others. Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub make like they aren’t listening when I throw them a glare. Bragback and Hellwire wisely do the same. Swerve keeps looking on, but there’s not much I can do about that.
“But it’s never too late to go home.” Once again I’m certain that I’ve ended the conversation and a prevailing silence seems to confirm my belief; however, Chrysalis has one more thing to say.
“What if there is no way home?”
I have to stop and wonder where all of this is coming from all of a sudden. It’s certainly nice that she’s so concerned about my predicament, but she hardly seems empathetic. In essence, she’s telling me to give up. In essence, she’s saying…
“What if this is your home now?”
“This is not home,” I tell her, maintaining our unyielding eye contact. “There has to be a way home.”
“Stop kidding yourself!” she shouts, flittering her wings and flying up to my level. “I think you realized that if there was a way home, you’d of found it already! Somepony would have found it already!”
“You can’t say that for sure!” I can feel myself getting hot as my blood starts pumping faster, but I don’t shout. I’m not shouting yet. “Every other fool is content to stay trapped here, so they never looked! I’m looking and I’m going to find it one day!”
“And what if that day never comes?” she asks me. “What if you’re just supposed to live your life here, but instead you squander it all chasing something that doesn’t even exist? What then? Who will be the fool then?”
“At least I will have tried to get out! Besides, what do you care? You don’t get to decide if I leave or not.”
“I’m just concerned about you.”
“Oh, is that so?” I don’t believe her for a second. “If you were really concerned, you’d be helping me look for a way back.”
“That’s what I’m doing, aren’t I? We’re here in Canterlot just like you wanted looking for your stupid thing that Discord told you to find and Mangle seemed to know you’d want!” she shouts back at me. I’m not sure where she gets off being so angry all of a sudden. Everything was just peachy a couple of moments ago. What the hell happened?
“Well thanks for showing up!” Now I’m shouting too. “Now that you’re here, maybe you could stop trying to tell me what to do and just be supportive for once!”
“Oh, like I haven’t been supportive?” Chrysalis extends the shouting match, which I realize will evolve into pettiness rather quickly. Honestly, I’m too fed up and angry to care that this whole argument is becoming rather silly. “If it weren’t for my support, you wouldn’t know a darned thing about this world you seem so ready to leave behind! And I’m sooooo sorry that I ever tried to direct who obviously has it so together! Really? You’re so focused on that impossible goal of yours that you stumble over every little bump in the road.”
“Well, what do you want me to say Chrysalis?” I turn out towards the edge, gesturing towards the entirety of Equestria that sits stretched out before us. I shout out my declarations for anypony to hear. “Yeah, I really don’t care too much what happens to the changelings in the end! Once I get home, it will never affect me ever again! And sure, maybe life in Equestria wouldn’t be so bad! Between all the murder and wanton destruction, there’ve some pretty swell moments; however, I think I’ve amassed enough guilt for one trip to Equestria. I’d rather go home, where the people actually care about me and I don’t have to be a literal parasite on the face of the planet so survive!”
“If you don’t care about us, why should we care about you?” Chrysalis screams.
“Don’t even act like you really cared about me! You only kept me around because I was useful to you! You just looked out for yourself!”
“And so did you!”
“Yeah, I did!”
My voice echoes against the cliff face and the forest beyond. Now we’re done, and we both know it. Our working relationship has been a ticking timebomb all along, and maybe even I didn’t realize it. Relationships built upon utility tend to shatter when one party realizes they’re being used and they’re only being used. There is no chance for promotion between the changelings and me. There is not deeper bond I can share with Chrysalis. I was their king of convenience and they were readily disposable for me. Chrysalis is wrong when she says we can both be right, but we sure as anything can both be wrong.
“Ahem.” Gulletswatch is back from wherever he up and went, shuffling his hooves a couple feet behind Chrysalis. “Everything is ready for us to enter Canterlot.” It is still uncomfortably quiet. Even after all we’ve said, I suppose we’re still going through with this.
“Mind telling us how you plan on doing that now?” I ask him. Gulletswatch has been pretty taciturn thus far. Each time we ask him to elaborate, he always says the same thing.
“I was left with very specific instructions.”
“And what were those instructions?” It’s like trying to get blood from a stone. We don’t even know if Mangle’s supposed plan is gonna work. Heck, we don’t even really know that Mangle has anything to do with this. I can only believe that he left me some odd set of instructions because I find it even harder to believe that some random changeling would blindly lead us into Canterlot.
“We will proceed into the city gates to our final destination in the guise of the Elements of Harmony,” Gulletswatch says as if it were the simplest matter.
“Even if we look like the Elements of Harmony, we’re walking into a deathtrap,” I tell him. “They’ll pick our façade apart in seconds. Surely the ponies here know where the Elements of Harmony are supposed to be.”
“The Elements are currently in Canterlot.” Gulletswatch has all kinds of interesting news.
“And you still think this is a good idea?” I just have to ask, especially considering how stupid this plan is looking right now.
“I was left with ve-”
“Skip it!”
“As you wish, your majesty.” Gulletswatch doesn’t know that I’m one more piece of bad news away from tearing off his wings and tossing him off this cliff. “Mangle told me we would never get far using impersonation. Confusion is our ally in this endeavor. We will enter the castle as the Elements of Harmony and then we will launch an attack in disguise.”
“And what then? If we attack them, they’ll attack us,” I say, pointing out the obvious flaw in Gulletswatch’s logic; however, I’d be lying if I said I’m not interested in hearing where he’s going with this.
“Our attack will be a hit-and-run. Once news gets out that the Elements of Harmony are somewhere in the castle attacking, we can go anywhere we want disguised as soldiers.”
I’m honestly pretty surprised that this plan sounds just crazy enough to work. Hats off to Prince Mangle for having the smarts to cook that one up. I suppose he did study under Chrysalis who came up with a pretty okay plan to take over Canterlot.
“His majesty and his subjects will disguise themselves as the Elements. Her majesty can take whatever form she finds appropriate for the situation,” Gulletswatch tells us, starting to shift himself.
The rest of us cue off him. I concentrate and shift into Twilight Sparkle, which only seems appropriate. I turn behind me and watch Bloodbuzz morph into Applejack while Plundergrub fixes his own cocky smirk on Rainbow Dash’s mouth. Hellwire becomes a convincing Rarity while Bragback looks a little too stoic for Fluttershy. Swerve, by some cosmic force, decides he shall be Pinkie Pie. He looks so pleased with his choice that his disguise fits perfectly. Once they’re all finished, I turn my attention back to Gulletswatch. He now has the appearance of a unicorn who is vaguely familiar to me. The azure coat and gray mane don’t ring any big bells, but for some reason I believe I’ve seen him before.
“What form are you taking?” I ask, both to satisfy my curiosity and find out why he himself isn’t changing into one of the Elements of Harmony.
“Recently the Elements have solicited the assistance of this unicorn,” Gulletswatch explains to me, even though it does little to answer my most pressing question; however, Hellwire has more to say about him. “I will be playing his part.”
“You were busy during the time of the investigation, your majesty, but we have reason to believe this unicorn is a rogue changeling.”
“Is that so?” In my mind I think back to Quarterholm. I believe there was tale of a changeling in Ponyville around that time. Lou told me that same changeling set Sweet Tea free. Something tells me this unicorn and that changeling are one and the same. “What kind of ‘assistance’ have they ‘solicited’ from him?” I don’t know what would make a changeling go rogue, but I’d to know exactly what he’s been up to. I’ve seen what just one changeling can do, and frankly I’m not impressed. What could the Elements of Harmony want from just a lowly changeling?
“He has been providing information about your location.”
Well, I guess there’s that.
“I’m telling you, he’s coming here right now!”
“And I say you’re talking crazy.” Honestly, King Cocoon wouldn’t march on Canterlot. He might be an idiot, but he’s not suicidal. Actually… he kind of is a suicidal idiot, but even so he shouldn’t have any interest in coming to Canterlot. “It’s been a long day for me, so why don’t you just rejoin your friends and get out of my mane.”
“Put your prejudice aside for just a second and listen to me!”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong little changeling. I might hate your guts, no matter how much the Elements of Harmony trust you, but today my decision is not based off of a mistrust of you.” This time I choose to trust Cocoon. He may have burned me, but now he’s saved me too. You might know where he is, but I know where he stands.
Make no mistake: King Cocoon of the Changelings is still my enemy. I’m head of the anti-changeling forces and he is a changeling. We play on different teams, in more ways than one it seems. If he does cause trouble, he will have broken our fragile bond of trust and I will put him down. That’s how this mare plays.
“Look, blame whatever you want, but I’m not taking this up with Shining Armor or any of the Princesses. If I find out you went behind my back to bother them, I’m going to have trouble trusting you in the future.”
Besides, even if Cocoon is planning on visiting Canterlot, I don’t want anything to do with it. For all we know, he’s going to sneak in and out without bothering anypony. He just wants to go home, so maybe he thinks there is some piece of knowledge in Canterlot Library or buried underneath the castle that will help him. I say let him have it. It wouldn’t do anypony in Equestria any favors. If we step in and stop him, it will be a whole big ordeal. He’ll fight back, the Royal Guards will get involved, and it will just be one huge mess as we chase him out of the city. He might even come back with a whole swarm of changelings if he’s really convinced Canterlot has something he needs.
Okay, so maybe Cocoon is coming to Canterlot. Even so, the situation is what we make of it.
“Trust me in the future? Since when have you ever trusted me?” our resident rouge changeling says. “You don’t know how dangerous Cocoon is! No, you do know but for some reason you’re ignoring it! How can you just ignore him? What happened in the Everfree?”
“That information is only for ears higher up than yours.” Summit and I have already been debriefed on the Everfree incident. We left out a lot of specific details, but the long and short was we begrudgingly worked together with Cocoon to get out of the forest and he escaped afterwards. The Princesses had a lot more questions, but they let us go to rest for a while. I’m sure they’re curious about how Cocoon put a star in the sky. “Anyway, if you knew where Cocoon was you should have told the Princesses so they could come rescue us from the forest.”
“I did tell them! Did you already forget about the dragon?”
“Yeah, the one Cocoon killed for us,” I remind him. “Right now, our enemy has been more useful to me than you. It’s embarrassing, quite frankly.”
“You’re hiding something, and I want to know what it is.”
“Fat chance, fly boy.”
We just keep staring each other down in the hallway. For a changeling, he sure is smart. I mean, if Cocoon is their monarch, the rest of them can’t be all that intelligent. This changeling has bugged me from day one, but his willingness to comply has made him untouchable to me. I thought he might be in league with Cocoon, but that doesn’t seem true anymore. Even if he is on our side, I don’t trust him. Can a changeling really disobey his king?
“Louise!”
I turn my head to see a familiar mare trotting through the hallway towards me.
“Sweet Tea?”
The southern belle trips and smacks her head on the floor on her way to me. Despite everything she’s been through, there are things that just won’t change. Anyway, I didn’t think she would be in Canterlot right now.
“Fancy seeing you here.” I help her up back onto her hooves. “What brings you Canterlot?”
“Ah guess y’all didn’t hear, being trapped ‘n all,” she says, nursing her forehead. “After the airship got attacked, the rescue team brought us to Canterlot. We could have gotten on the train back to Appleloosa, but I wanted to make sure you ‘n Summitplunge made it back okay. We were all mighty worried about y’all. I’ve been meaning to come see you ever since you got back, but you were in the infirmary then with the Princesses. I was gettin’ afraid I wouldn’t catch you.”
“Well, you found me,” I tell her, giving her a reassuring pat on the back. “And me and Summit are in one piece… two different pieces I mean… as in, we’re not the same piece!” Not that I would mind being in one piece with him…
“Ah’m glad to hear y’all are okay,” she says, but then her expression turns cold. I know what’s coming next. “What about Cocoon?”
“That’s what I’m here about,” our changeling friend says, interrupting our conversation. “He’s coming here, I can feel it.”
“What, he’s comin’ here?” Sweet Tea goes into a panic. “What’re we standin’ ‘round fer? We gotta go warn everypony!”
“Calm down there, Sweet Tea.” Great, this is exactly what I needed. That was sarcasm, by the way. “After spending a week with him in the forest, I understand how he works a lot better. If he is coming, which we don’t know for sure, it isn’t to attack us. The best course of action is to just keep calm.”
“If he’s not goin’ to attack us, this is our chance to take ‘im out, right?” She says, much to my surprise. I didn’t take her as the kind to launch a preemptive strike. “You know how dangerous he is. We can’t just let him run free and do as he pleases.”
“We aren’t,” I tell the both of them. “Don’t mistake our inaction for compliance. We’re not going to throw the first punch if we don’t have to. He might want to avoid a fight today, but that doesn’t mean he won’t if we start one.”
“This here’s the heart of Canterlot! There ain’t no way he could win!”
“Cocoon is unpredictable. Attacking him might even be exactly what he wants us to do. Ever think of that?” It’s a long shot, but I need to get these two to drop the subject.
“He’s close now… really close,” the changeling says. He looks panicked, which in turn panics Sweet Tea. “He’s almost to the gates… I can tell…”
“There’s no way Cocoon is going to walk in the front door of the castle.”
“He must be in disguise!” Sweet Tea argues, but even that is a questionable statement.
“Not just anypony can walk right into the castle. The guards know to stop any suspic-”
“He’s inside.”
“Huh?”
For some reason, the changeling is freaking out more and more. He can’t be serious, can he? Cocoon can’t just be waltzing right into the castle. That would be insane.
“Nopony is stopping him! He’s… he’s never been this close to me before! He’s coming right towards us!”
The three of us turn to watch the end of the corridor where this hallway intersects the main hall. Sure enough, we can hear several hoofsteps coming towards us. We wait with baited breath to see who or what comes around the corner. The changeling and Sweet Tea get behind me, anticipating the coming danger. I hold my ground as the first pony comes into view.
“… It’s just your friends, you stupid changeling!” I yell at the bug cowering behind me. Two heads poke out from behind me to watch the Elements of Harmony proceed past.
“But… I can feel him, he’s walking past us!” the changeling says, but he’s not seeing the situation as it is.
“He’d have to be an idiot to try and pull of masquerading as the Elements of Harmony. It’s just your friends looking for you, no doubt.” I point a hoof as the ponies drift past, but then I notice something wrong. At the tail end of the group is a male unicorn that I recognize. The others must see what I see because they fall silent until he leaves our field of vision.
“That… that was me!”
“You’ve got to be-”
Before I can finish that thought, an explosion rocks the air.
“This is unbelievable! We’re actually under attack by changelings!” I shout, getting our changeling and Sweet Tea back on their hooves. I grab the changeling and look him dead in the eye. “Find the actual Elements of Harmony. We need to know where the real deal is in order to identify the clones!”
“R-right!” He runs off back down the corridor hopefully as fast as he can. I turn back to Sweet Tea.
“Come with me. We’ve got to go tell the Princesses what’s going on.”
Sweet Tea doesn’t argue. She just picks herself up and runs after me. All the while, I’m just wondering what Cocoon is up to. This isn’t an attack, I’m sure of that. Six changelings and their King are no match for the entire Royal Army. He’s got something different in mind, but it’s hard to say what. He’s going to make a mess to get at it, so I guess my job is to make sure it’s a small mess. For the time being, we head towards the throne room.
We are surrounded by guards who are running around and looking for us, but the last thing they would expect is for us to be guard running around and looking for ourselves. Of course, or true objective is something different. As we follow Gulletswatch down into the depths of the castle, I notice there are less and less guards around.
The journey is silent and quick. With little commotion, we arrive at a boarded off room in the basement of Canterlot Castle.
“So, this is the place?” I ask Gulletswatch, who nods at me. I give the word so Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub take off the barricades on the door. We open the door for the first time in what must be decades. The hinges squeak so loudly I’m afraid somepony will hear us, but nopony comes. This corner of the castle must have been long forgotten.
We shut ourselves inside and shift back into our normal forms. We light our horns so we can see, but the room isn’t much to look at. It’s just a lot of crates covered with tarps. I know we’re looking for a mirror, so it must be hidden in here somewhere.
“So, where is it, Gulletswatch?” I ask our guidepony. So far his “very specific instructions” have been accurate. There is no doubt that Mangle was intimate with the layout of Canterlot Castle. This is entirely possible if he helped orchestrate the whole thing. I can’t be bothered to ask Chrysalis about it right now.
“It is in here somewhere,” he says. “I was only told that the mirror is tall and cracked.”
“Like this one?” Swerve shouts from the corner of the room. We immediately gather around what appears to be just your average, broken mirror. It’s just discarded junk like everything else in here.
“I swear, if Discord is messing with me…”
With nothing to go on but a riddle and a lack of faith in Discord, I get in front of the mirror and stare into it. All I see is myself and the cracks in the mirror. The others stand back, except for Chrysalis. She squats in front of me and stares too. Don’t ask me why.
“Do you need to say the magic words or something?” she asks me, but I don’t know any better than she does. Discord just promised to give me some answers if I managed to get this far, but so far I don’t see him honoring his side of the deal. At any rate, magic words are as good as a plan as anything.
“Discord is a butt.”
“How’s about you say that to my face?”
All I remember after hearing that is the reflection of Chrysalis and I staring catatonic into the mirror. After that, it just fades to black for me.
“…ke up…. Wake u… Hey, wakey wakey! I’m not above hitting a little girl!”
I don’t know who is shouting, but it isn’t Cocoon. It sounds more like Discord. If he’s the reason my head hurts and my body feels funny, I will murder him. I am not in the mood to be trifled with today. Very carefully I open my eyes up, but the room has suddenly a lot brighter. Once my eyes adjust, I see an odd creature looking down at me.
“Well good morning sunshine.”
The creature is talking to me with Discord’s voice, tipping its silk hat down at me. Then again, the white beard, huge eyebrows, and yellow eyes are far too reminiscent of Discord. Aside from the hat affixed with a blue feather, the rest of his get-up is so mismatched it can only be classified as high fashion. On second thought… I think this is Discord.
“I know, I’m quite the sight aren’t I?” he says, stroking his beard with a gloved hand. “I kind of wondered what I would look like if I were a human.”
“Why are you a human?” I ask him, still lying on the ground. I feel so funny.
“I’m not the only one,” he says reaching down and grabbing my… arm? He lifts it so I can see. I’ve got a thin, pale arm attached to my body. I use what little motor control I have to yank it away and examine it closer. I’ve not only got one arm, but I’ve got two of them with hands on the ends. I look down the rest of my body, most of which is covered with a plain, white dress. I’ve got pale little legs and feet too.
“W-what’s going on here?”
“Hey, Cocoon’s mind Cocoon’s rules.” Discord says. He grabs my hand again and pulls me up onto my feet. I wobble a little at first, but I’m surprisingly stable. I take a few experimental steps, none of which cause me to fall flat on my face.
“So… we’re in Cocoon’s mind?” I feel like I’m asking a lot of questions, but it isn’t like I don’t have any reason to understand what’s going on.
“Yep!” Discord says, throwing his arms up and causing a rain of confetti to shower down. “I meant to come alone, but I don’t mind the company.”
“You in Cocoon’s mind alone?” I shudder at the thought. “It’s a good thing I’m here to keep tabs on you.”
“You stop me? How funny. Chrysalis, you wouldn’t stand a chance against me outside of Cocoon’s brain. In addition, you’re powerless in here.” Discord snaps his fingers, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. When he reappears, his head and hands are screwed on backwards. “I, on the other hand, have free reign… sort of. It is my mirror.”
“What’re you planning, Discord?”
“Me? Why, I just want Cocoon to remember what he’s forgotten!” Discord says as his body parts twist back into place. “That’s all I’m here to do: make him remember!”
“You can do that?”
“Stop asking questions and just follow me.” Discord grabs my hand and starts pulling me behind him. “I meant to enter near the right memory, but I hadn’t factored in your coming with me. We could be incredibly off base. We’ll have to navigate our way there.”
I don’t know how anypony or anyone could navigate through this mess. This whole place is just chunks of hallways and doors floating about in space. It looks like it might have been a whole structure at one point, but something tore it apart. It is unclear if there is any logic to the layout anymore. After looking at this, it’s little wonder that Cocoon is having trouble remembering things.
“Alright, let’s get a bearing on where we are right now,” Discord says, taking me to a freestanding door on the platform we landed on. He grabs the knob and opens it up, revealing more than just empty space behind it.
“Give us the ball!”
The scene looks like a playground filled with small humans, children probably. A solitary boy grips a red ball while a group of larger looking kids stands over him. The ringleader, a rough looking girl with blonde hair, appears to be the ringleader.
“No, I got it first!”
“Discord, are these Cooper’s memories?”
“Really, you need me to clarify that? Isn’t it obvious? Shuttup and watch.”
“You better hand it over, or I’ll sock you!” the girl threatens, holding up a fist to make sure it’s clear she means business. The boy with the ball cowers a bit, faltering. It would have been noble if he held on to the ball in the face of these bullies, but he’s just a kid. Casting his eyes down, he hands the ball over to the girl.
“Just leave me alone, Olivia,” the boy says as the girl who is called Olivia takes the ball. She turns and leaves, bringing her gang with her. One of them knocks the poor body down before chasing after the group.
“Jeez, poor Cocoon…”
“Really, he seems fine to me,” Discord says.
“He is not fine! He’s crying!” I say, pointing to the boy who had the ball taken away.
“Yeah, that kid is crying, but that isn’t Cocoon… or Cooper as he is called on Earth,” Discord says, much to my surprise. “Cooper is the scrawny one in the green shirt.”
I look at the kid Discord is pointing at, the one who was tagging along with Olivia’s little gang. As he plays a game of catch with his friends, he doesn’t seem conflicted at all about what has transpired.
“He hasn’t changed much… has he?”
“Hard to say,” Discord says, shutting the door on this memory.
“So… can Cocoon, er, Cooper remember that?” I ask, still fuzzy on how this whole process works. Discord just shrugs, moving on down the broken corridor.
“Hard to say. He might remember all of it, he might remember some of it, or he might not remember it at all. To find out, we’d have to delve deeper into that door. For our intents and purposes, we’re going to stay on this level for now.” Discord keeps rambling as I run to catch up with him, jumping over debris to get to the next part of the corridor. “From what I can tell, he seems to have forgotten who Olivia is.”
“Is she important?”
“You are just full of questions today!” Discord says, stepping in front of another door. “Shall we take a look?”
He opens up the door, revealing a scene inhabited by slightly older versions of Olivia and Cooper. I’m no expert on human aging, but they still look pretty young. I’ve seen enough schools in Equestria to know that they’re in a classroom, surrounded by other kids. Olivia is leaning over the back of her chair, talking to Cooper sitting behind her.
“Whatcha reading there, Coops?”
“Spiderman.” Cooper seems very into his reading, although I have no idea what a Spiderman is or does. It’s probably a human thing.
“Let me see!” Olivia reaches out her hand expectantly, but Cooper doesn’t move to give it to her.
“I’m reading it.”
“Fine, then will you loan it to me afterwards?” she asks, retracting her hand. Cooper flips the page and glances up at her.
“Promise you won’t fold up the corners like last time. If you do it again, I won’t loan you anymore.”
“I said I was sorry!” Olivia seems genuinely remorseful, which is big change from the last memory I saw her in. I think that maybe she’s changed since then, but then she sticks her foot out and trips some boy walking past. He yells at her but she just tells him to watch where he is going. I can’t get a read on this kid.
“Fine, you can see it when I’m done,” Cooper says, flipping the page again.
“When will that be?”
“I dunno.”
“Well, be quick about it!” Olivia says. She turns back and sits in her chair, but not for long. In seconds, she has turned back around to bother Cooper once more. “Hey, do you think it would be cool to be Spiderman?”
“Huh?” Cooper looks up from his reading at his friend. He’s got a weird look on his face.
“Like, would being part bug be cool?”
Cooper looks down at his book and seems to think for a second. For a child, he’s got quite the introspective look on his face. I’m actually interested in hearing his answer. He looks back up at Olivia and smiles.
“No, bugs are stupid. I’d rather be a wizard!”
“Yeah, bugs are lame. I’d rather be like Superman and fly around!”
Discord shuts the door as the two humans laugh together.
“You hear that? Wizards are better than bugs!” Discord says, snickering to himself. He walks off again, but he walks backwards so he can mock me.
“Well, he didn’t get his wish, did he?” I point out the irony of the situation.
“Hmm… I wonder.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, nothing. In good time, Chrysalis,” Discord says, not that I can fathom why.
“Anyway, I still don’t see how Olivia is important. They’re just friends, aren’t they?”
We come to a large gap between two platforms. Discord strides right up to it and jumps across like gravity isn’t a thing here. I approach and peer over the edge. I don’t even want to know what happens if I fall into the white abyss below.
“Friends are important, aren’t they?” Discord fires my own question back at me. “At any rate, there is a coyote behind you.”
“What?” I turn around and see that there is indeed a coyote behind me. I’ve barely got time to react before the snarling beast jumps up and bears its fangs. I topple over backwards, but when the coyote touches me it suddenly fades and disappears. With that episode suddenly over, I’m faced with the new problem of falling into the void below.
“Call me Ishmael!”
Something snags the back of my dress and keeps me from falling. After a brief pause, I can feel myself rising up to the platform where Discord is. I rise up and up until I am suspended in front of Discord from the end of his fishing pole.
“Oh, it’s just a little shrimp,” he says. “Maybe I should throw it back.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Eh, gotta feed my family somehow.” Discord snaps, poofing the fishing rod away which causes me to fall flat on my face. I get back up with every intention to kill Discord, but he is already skipping merrily down the broken corridor. All I can do is trudge after him, and onto the next door.
“So… care to explain the coyote?”
“Cooper’s mind, Cooper’s rules,” Discord says for the second time. “Gallivanting through somepony’s mind isn’t supposed to be a walk in the park. His subconscious might attack us with projections to try and get us to leave, but his memories are so scattered he can’t muster up a good offensive. We might see some frightening things, but none of them can hurt us.”
“Unless we get knocked over the edge.”
“Yeah, there is that.” Discord just shrugs and stops in front of another door. “Anyway, navigating through a broken mindscape isn’t easy. We’re going to have to stop every once and a while to make sure we’re still going chronological.”
“Is there another way to go?”
“Have you ever considered not asking questions?” Discord is trying to get on my nerves now. “Just be quiet and enjoy the show. I believe we’ve moved a little farther ahead.” Discord opens up the door.
“Hit ‘em!”
One human punches another right in the gut. The scene looks like a park once again, but there are hardly any humans around. I don’t recognize the human getting hit, the one holding him still, or the one doing the hitting, but I can see Olivia and Cooper standing by idly.
“Hit him again,” Olivia orders. She looks older, a lot older. Not exactly adults or teenagers, but a bit before that I guess. “For such a smart guy, he sure is having trouble learning his lesson.”
The smart guy gets hit again in the stomach, and it sounds like it hurts. The other kid lets him go, letting him crumple up on the ground. I can’t say for sure how humans operate, but these one seem to be treating Olivia like their Queen. I wonder if they were all hatched from the same hive. She gets up and stands over the human that is being punished.
“You know what happens to snitches. I know you know, so why do you keep tattling?” she says, lifting up her foot. She stamps on his back, soliciting a groan from the poor fellow. For such a young Queen, she’s good at exercising her authority. “We’ll just have to show you how serious we are. Cooper.”
“Hmm?” Cooper doesn’t seem to have been paying much attention. He has been whispering with some other guy in the group this whole time.
“How about you put that orange belt to good use?” she asks, but Cooper isn’t even wearing a belt. “Break his arm.”
“I’m not gonna do that.” Cooper doesn’t sound pleased at all with being told what to do with his belt, or maybe he’s angry because he doesn’t have it with him. I can’t tell. “I’m not going to disgrace my rank by hurting someone who can’t defend themselves. Just let him go, Olivia.”
“Hey, don’t act all high and mighty, Cooper!” one of the group members yell at him. “You’re in a Judo class with a bunch of toddlers. Don’t talk about ‘disgracing your rank.’ Sheesh.”
“Other kids from our school go to that class, man,” Cooper says, turning on the person who is supposed to be his friend all of a sudden. “If I break his arm, I’ll get in trouble with Sensei. Besides, it just isn’t right to do anyway. Don’t act like it is.”
“He’s not gonna snitch if you break his arm, Cooper!”
“Yeah, don’t be a wuss.”
The group keeps egging him on, and even though I’m still kind of lost I understand this much: Cooper doesn’t want to participate in this punishment.
“The kids in school aren’t actually afraid of you all,” Cooper says, mainly to the guys around him. “They just hate your guts.”
“Stop bein’ a wuss.”
“Yeah, stop being a wuss!” Discord shouts, not that anyone can hear him.
“This was cute in third grade or whatever, but this isn’t elementary school anymore. McMiddleton agrees with me.” Cooper points back to the kid he had been whispering to earlier.
“McMiddleton is a wuss!” Discord shouts before the other boys can.
“Fine, you and McMiddleton and get out of here!” Olivia shouts at the two offending boys, casting them out of the swarm. This seems unwise, since the swarm was already so small to begin with. Cooper and the McMiddleton boy do leave, leaving the others to continue the punishment.
“Cooper, what are we gonna do?” McMiddleton asks his friend as they continue to walk away, not looking back. “We should have told them we were the ones who went to Mr. Baxter.”
“We go back and talk to him tomorrow morning,” Cooper says. “It’s too bad someone else has to pay for it, but eventually those guys will learn they can’t just do this stuff without getting in trouble. It isn’t right.”
The door closes on the scene once again and we march on.
“Seems like Cooper has had a change of heart all of a sudden,” I say, trying to make some conversation. “Does it have something to do with wearing orange belts?”
“He’s growing up,” Discord says, very plainly. “Human society likes to impart morals on their young to get them to behave a certain way.”
“Sounds like what ponies do.”
“Basically,” Discord says, scratching the back of his head. “I prefer brainwashing. It produces much more interesting results.”
I’m still not sure I can trust Discord, but I’m not sure what I can do to stop him. He knows his way around and he’s got all the power right now. I’m just along for the ride. The more and more I think about it, the less I think I can trust him.
“Oh… I think we went a little farther than I intended,” Discord says, stopping in front of another door. “Time to make sure we’re on track again.”
“Do we need to watch the whole memory?” I ask. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to just take a quick peek and then move on?”
“Those who know nothing of mindscape navigation should remain silent.”
I want to protest, but Discord opens up the door before I can.
“Just subtly hint at the fact that I love him!”
We’ve come across an interesting scene.
It’s a school again, even though Cooper and Olivia now look significantly older. Olivia appears much more feminine than before and Cooper has started developing that all too familiar beard on his chin. They’re teenagers for sure now, and they probably have been for a while.
“I’m not your messenger,” Cooper says, his voice leagues lower than it was in the previous memory. “And ‘love’ isn’t something to be subtly hinted at. I mean… I don’t even know what you want me to say. Do I tell him-”
“Tell him nothing!” Olivia shouts
“That makes my job easier,” Cooper says, picking up a bag and strapping it to his back. “I’ll see both of you in Chemistry. Did you do the homework?”
“I did it this time!” Olivia pauses for a second. “Wait, are you going to say anything to him?”
“You said not to.” Cooper walks away, while Olivia keeps calling after him. He looks annoyed, to say the least, but not unhappy. He walks into the largest school building I’ve ever seen with a massive number of other human teens. He makes his way through the teeming mass with practiced movement to finally arrive at a mostly empty room. Cooper takes a seat next to a powerful looking human. The guy is wearing a red jacket and reading some kind of book. I wonder if it is a Spiderman.
“What’s up Roger?”
“Nothing but the sky. How’re you Coops? Any news?”
“Olivia is in love with you,” he says out of the blue. I’m not sure how the dynamics of relationships work in the world of humans, but this seems highly irregular.
“Ah… yeah, that’s good news!” Roger says, looking a lot more interested in his book all of a sudden. “Don’t tell her, okay. You didn’t tell her that-”
“As per your request, I haven’t said I word. I mean, if I did this whole situation would become significantly less complicated. You’d better not just tell her what’s on your mind. She’ll tell you she likes you, you’ll start going out, you’ll get married, make babies, and you’ll die together in the back of a taxi cab. God forbid you die in the back of a taxi cab.”
“Why a taxi cab?”
“Dunno. It’s your life, dude.” Cooper heaves a huge sigh. “God, you two are impossible.”
“You say that, but you haven’t told her either!” Roger says, even though he explicitly said not to earlier. The look on Cooper’s face tells me he is thinking the exact same thing.
“You told me not to tell her, so I’m not. Don’t ask me to break the promise you made me keep,” Cooper says. “Speaking of which, remember that I promised Olivia not to tell you either. I only told you because you got down on your knees and begged to know what she thought of you. It isn’t like I’m not sympathetic to your plight, I’m just morally obligated not to do anything.”
“Jeez, you’re no help.” Roger closes his book and lays face first on his desk. “I should have known better than to go to you for help. The only girl you can talk to is Olivia.”
“That isn’t true. I talk to girls all the time.” Cooper pokes his friend in the shoulder in some attempt to rouse him. “There’s like a shrimp-ton on the Cross Country team. I talk to them all the time.”
“But you can’t talk to Sydney Birch.”
“I can’t talk to her because I don’t have any classes with her!” Cooper has suddenly become very nervous. He picks up his own book and pretends he cares what is written on the first page he opens up to.
“No, you can’t talk to her because she’s your Goddess.”
“Who’s Cooper’s Goddess?” a guy sitting behind the two asks, leaning in.
“I swear to God, you better not say a word, Roger!” Cooper threatens his friend then turns to the guy behind him. “All you need to know is that Roger is in love with Olivia.”
“Wha-duuuuude!”
“Everyone knows that Cooper,” the third guys says. “I want to know who you have a crush on. Who is the lady who is tempting Cooper to crawl out of his cocoon and blossom into a beautiful butterfly?”
“Sydney Birch.”
“I will murder you, Roger.”
“Cooper, Roger, McMiddleton!” another human, who is obviously the teacher, yells at the three boys. “Settle down before I throw your butts in detention so fast you’ll all get rug burn!”
Another door closes on yet another of Cooper’s memory.
“Humans have such strange names.” I can’t think of anything else to say about this memory. Seems pointless, not that any of these seem to be leading anywhere. “Is Cooper’s entire life this boring?”
“Trust me, all this is going somewhere,” Discord says, leading on through the mindscape. “You don’t know it, but there is a common thread in these events.”
“It’s time you tell me what you’re really after, Discord.”
“What I’m really after?” Discord just laughs, not even turning back to look at me. “I already told you: I’m going to make him remember.”
“Yeah, but remember what?” I ask him, despite how much he seems to hate questions. “If he’s forgotten Olivia, who else from his world has he forgotten? Why would he forget them anyway?”
“Questions, questions, questions!” Discord growls and comes to a halt. He turns around and leans into me. “If you must know, he was made to forget all about dear Olivia and Roger. The reason why? They are the reasons he came to Equestria in the first place.”
“Huh?”
“See, you don’t have enough information,” Discord says, moving forward through the mindscape. He stops in front of another door and puts a hand on the knob. “Just pay attention, alright?”
Without another word, Discord opens the door on another scene.
“So you’re not going to come down, Cooper?” Olivia asks, sitting across from our bearded hero at a picnic bench. Roger is next to her with his arm around her shoulders, something even I can tell is a sign of affection. Much time seems to have passed, enough for Olivia and Roger to become an item. Cooper, however, sits alone on his side of the bench.
“No, my folks want me to come home. I haven’t seen them since the semester started, so I really want to pay them a visit,” Cooper says. He leans back a bit, looking up at the sky. It’s a clear sky all around, a perfect day if you ask me. Judging by the buds on the trees, these humans wrapped up winter recently.
“C’mon Cooper, it’s spring break!” Roger says. “You were just at your folks’ for Christmas. It’s our first Spring Break as college students, so we should live it up! Don’t tell me you don’t want to come because we said we were going to invite Carmen.”
“As much as I hate her, I promise that isn’t why.”
“C’mon Cooper, you don’t hate her,” Olivia says, smiling deviously at him. “I remember you saying you thought she was pretty cute when you first saw her.”
“Then I met her and found out she’s a sadistic witch who constantly smells like a burnt down house,” Cooper replies, plugging his nose for dramatic effect. “Besides, Smoky the She-Bear is gonna turn you guys down. I’m sorry Olivia, but your roommate is a fun-sponge.”
“It’s a shame you two don’t get along,” Olivia says, leaning into Roger. “You’d really hit it off if you could only get past the first hurdles.”
“Well, that isn’t going to happen,” Roger says. He reaches across and fiddles with Cooper’s wild beard, which doesn’t amuse Cooper. “Cooper will never shave and Carmen will never quit smoking. They are just two ships passing in the night, I’m afraid.”
“Speaking of ships, don’t you have Biology in five minutes?” Olivia says, unwrapping herself from Roger.
“What does Biology have to do with ships?”
“Nothing, but you’re going to be late.”
“… Crap!” Roger grabs his belongings and dashes off. He turns around, however, and returns. He gives Olivia a quick kiss and then runs off again. Cooper and Olivia watch him until he can’t be seen anymore.
“You two are too lovey-dovey. It is painful,” Cooper says, clenching his stomach. Olivia just laughs, but Cooper growls at her. “Shuttup, I hate you both.”
“Now I know you don’t mean that,” Olivia says, still laughing. “Don’t worry Cooper, one day love will come for you.”
“Yippie. Is it one day yet?”
“Cheer up, Cooper.” Olivia reaches over and takes his hand. “The waiting is worth it. I know I couldn’t imagine a life without Roger. Love is a powerful thing.”
“Amen to that,” I say, but the door slams shut on that memory. It wasn’t like they could hear me anyway.
“I wouldn’t be so sure, dear Chrysalis,” Discord says. We start walking again. “This is where the story gets very interesting.”
“How do you know what happens next?”
“This is the point in the story where I come into the picture.” Discord leads me on, past rows and rows of doors of unrelated memories. These are the things that make Cooper and Cocoon who they are, or rather they should. It’s hard to believe he could forget his friends who were beside him all through his life. How has forgetting changed him? What else has he forgotten?
We aren’t on great terms right now, Cooper and I. We’ve finally come to the point where we’re tired of having competing desires. Part of me wants to say I understand him a bit better, but I won’t. I’m not going to forgive him just because I’m taking a stroll through his mind.
“Alright, this is a good place to check up.” Discord stop in front of another door. I’m getting a little too comfortable here, falling into this routine of walking then watching. If I have to keep this up for much longer, I’ll go crazy.
Discord opens up the door.
I don’t know where this place is. Cooper is alone, standing in an empty room staring out the window. He doesn’t move or speak. He stands so still he could be counted among the room’s meager furnishings. The sun is setting and Cooper just watches. The silence breaks when a girl walks into the room.
“Was that everything?” she asks. Cooper nods. “Cool… thanks for helping out.”
“I had to help. You don’t have to thank me,” he says, his voice quiet. Neither party says anything for a few seconds. “How’re you feeling?”
“… Still shaken up. You?”
“I’m just worried about you and Roger right now.” Cooper walks to the window and puts his hands on the sill. He cranes his neck to look up at the darkening sky. “Last time I saw her, she was standing here staring at the sky.”
“She did that a lot after… after everything started.” The girl speaks even quieter than Cooper. “What even started? I still can’t wrap my head around it. She’s fine one day and then the next it’s like she’s someone else entirely.”
“Nobody knows,” Cooper replies, giving up on looking out the window. “But the things she would say… it’s like she woke from a really vivid dream, convinced it was real. I have never felt so distant from her.”
“I know. She got so quiet, like she didn’t even know us anymore,” the girl says, shuffling her feet. “Whenever I asked her about it, she just said I wouldn’t understand. I guess I never will.”
“I want to know why this happened.” Cooper visibly tenses up. He clenches his fists and stares at the ground. “She treats us like strangers all of a sudden, she just stares at the sky no matter where we go, and then all this happens. It only took a day.”
The talking ceases. It’s obviously hard for them to make conversation. Even though they haven’t said it out loud, it’s very clear what has happened. The door closes on this scene, still quiet on the inside.
“Olivia died, didn’t she?” I ask Discord. Despite what we’ve seen, he’s already moving on, but I run after him as always. “You said you factor into this somehow. Tell me what happened between the memories.”
“Hmm… ‘It only took a day,’” Discord says to himself, sounding somewhat pleased. “Olivia is no more at this point, that much is true. She brought an end to her life in that world, leaving Cooper and his friends to wonder why.”
“And what does he mean by ‘It only took a day?’”
“For them, Olivia’s change in personality was sudden and jarring. Olivia, however, had a lifetime in Equestria to experience the change,” Discord says, revealing his role in all of this. “Well, Equestria didn’t depress her. No, she absolutely loved it here. It was having to return that crushed her.”
“But she doesn’t tell anybody.” Things are starting to come together now.
“Not straight up, but she says enough. Cooper wasn’t the only one who couldn’t let the circumstances around her death go. As you will see, finding the answer becomes more of an adventure than he bargains for…”
We are in front of another door now, but somehow this one seems different. The doors from before were tall and rectangular, but this one is short and curved at the top. It’s painted a tame shade of blue and the nob has been replaced with a handle. Something tells me I’m in for a big surprise on the other side.
“Hmm… I hope we’re still on track. It gets harder to follow for a little while.” Discord grabs the handle and yanks the door open. “Nope, this is definitely the right way!”
“Ladies and Gentleme-*cough*-colts! Prepare for the spectacle of a lifetime!”
Up on a ramshackle stage, there stand three unicorns. One is a large, brown stallion with a short cropped red mane and the other is an attractive white mare who looks like royalty. The third is a thin stallion with an orange beard, who is familiar for obvious reasons.
“Is that Cooper?”
“He doesn’t go by that right now.” Discord pulls a tub of popcorn out from behind his back. “Now shh! This is a good one!”
The mare steps forward on the stage and addresses the crowd.
“Presenting the greatest wizards of all time, Soulrock and-”
“You!” In the crowd of onlookers, a stallion starts shouting at the ponies on stage. He points an accusing hoof at the pony version of Cooper and proceeds to call him out. “You have made an offense against House Brightstar, the most prestigious house east of the Everfree!”
Cooper looks over at his companions.
“Did I do something like that?”
“You called us House Blightstar!” the stallion in the crowd shouts, marching up to the stage. He climbs on up with some difficulty while Cooper and his friends get into a huddle.
“I told you that the other unicorns around here are very sensitive! I told you like a million times! I know you two aren’t really from the neighborhood… but I told you a million times,” the mare says, glaring at Cooper.
“I said it as a joke,” Cooper replies. “I didn’t know puns were a punishable offense.”
“In our world, they can be,” the mare says with an added groan. “Now Mr. Frou-Frou over there is probably going to challenge you to a Magic Duel.”
“Magic Duel?” The pony named Soulrock parrots the mare, a smile spreading across his face. “That sounds right up your alley!”
“Should we charge extra for this?” Cooper asks. The mare looks like she is going to scold him, but she stops and actually considers it. After some thought, she resigns with a sigh.
“Look, just don’t mess this up. I’m going to go collect some bets.”
“How long do you intend to keep me waiting, cur?” the insulted pony asks, standing at the other end of the stage. The other three unicorns eyeball him for a second before huddling back up.
“He’s got the tiniest moustache I’ve ever seen. I can totally take him,” Cooper says.
“Don’t lose because we are not refunding this ponies.”
“I’ll worry about the magic, you worry about flaunting your… whatever it is ponies have a fetish for,” Cooper says, sending the mare off with a wave of his hoof. She rolls her eyes and jumps from the stage along with Soulrock. Cooper turns to the offended unicorn. “Alrighty knickerbockers, you got a problem with me?”
“I am Sir Polaris of House Brightstar! You would be wise to address me as such unless you wish for a more strict punishment!” Polaris says in his screechy voice.
“What is my punishment exactly?” Cooper asks.
“I shall embarrass you as you have embarrassed House Brightstar!” Polaris levitates a hoofkerchief out of his pocket and throws it on the ground between them. “I demand a duel!”
“I’m cool with that.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean… I accept your challenge!” Cooper imitates Polaris’s voice, much to the crowd’s amusement. Polaris, however, looks more steamed than before.
“You will not be so confident after I’ve thrashed you!” Polaris lights his horn and points it at Cooper. “Draw!”
Polaris fires into the air between him and Cooper, making the air explode in a frenzy of fireworks. There are blues, greens, and reds of all colors lighting up the stage like a second sun. Golden sparks fall down from grand explosions and dazzling helixes erupt out the sides. The display is very impressive, especially for an opening act. After the lights fade and smoke clears, Cooper can be seen looking very unimpressed.
“Is that really the best you can do?” he says, suppressing laughter.
“I beg your pardon?” Polaris snaps.
“That was flashy and all, but I think you can do way better.”
“You’ve yet to prove you can do any better!” Polaris shouts. “Now draw!”
“I feel kind of bad about this, but if you insist.” Cooper’s horn flashes gold momentarily, releasing a single spark. It falls onto the stage and fizzles out, much to everypony’s confusion.
“Aaaaiiiiieeeee!” On the other side of the stage where nopony was looking, Polaris’s tail has suddenly burst into flames. He sits down on the stage and scoots around, which amuses the crowd to no end. They cheer while Cooper smiles big and bows repeatedly for them.
“You brute! You savage! You vagabond! House Brightstar will hear of this outrage!” Polaris shouts as he heads for the hills, his rear end still in flames.
“When you get where you’re going, tell them Starswirl sent you!”
“Starswirl?!” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Where does he get off calling himself that?”
“At the right stop, dear Chrysalis,” Discord responds. “He’s the genuine article.”
I can only watch in disbelief as Cooper and Soulrock put on a magic show for the crowd, assisted by their “lovely assistant.” At the end there is applause, bowing, and packing up. We sit through the whole show, which seems to pass in an instant for me. Who would believe that King Cocoon was Starswirl the Bearded in a past life? How is that even possible?
The group retires to a hotel for the night, counting their coin and getting some rest. The two stallions are about to go to bed when their assistant shows up.
“Starswirl, we need to talk,” she says, hanging in the doorway. “Can I come in?”
“If you say we gotta talk, sure thing,” he says. The assistant walks in and sits down while Starswirl closes the door behind her. “What about?”
Without one word of warning, the assistant flashes green and transforms. When she finishes, I find myself staring at a changeling royal. My jaw nearly drops clear past the floor, but neither Starswirl or Soulrock look even remotely surprised. In fact, they don’t react at all! They just go on talking!
“It’s about how you treated that unicorn noble.”
“I set him on fire,” Starswirl says as if everypony had forgotten the little display. “If you’re worried about more coming after me, I’ll just set them on fire too.”
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen, you blockhead,” the changeling says, shaking her head in disappointment. “I guess this is my fault for not explaining a Magical Duel more properly to you.”
“What do you mean?” he asks, but even I know what the problem is.
“A Magic Duel isn’t a fight, Starswirl. It’s just a display, a show of magic. You can use magic on each other, but the idea isn’t to cause injury. In essence, you broke the rules.”
“Yeah, but I won.”
The changeling buries her face in her hooves and mutters a few things to herself.
“Aaaanyway, they’re gonna send more unicorns after you. The first time you just made a pun about them, so I think you can imagine what they’re going to try and do now that you’ve assaulted one of them. You can’t just set them all on fire.”
“You’re right… I should figure out how to freeze ponies…”
“Starswirl!”
“Mantis!”
“Stop that!”
Cooper keeps chuckling to himself along with Soulrock, but the third party is not amused.
“The Unicorn Houses hold the power in Equestria. Not only do they have large, supportive networks within themselves, but they have Discord supporting them in Canterlot. If you plan on fighting against everypony they send after you, you’ll be up against every unicorn alive. If your goal is to get back home, this isn’t the way to do it. Don’t fight a battle that isn’t even relevant to you.”
“But isn’t it relevant?” Starswirl says, taking a serious stand. “You said the ponies all arrived in Equestria in order to live united under one banner, but if you look around that isn’t what’s going on. The unicorns are firmly seated on top and everypony just accepts that. The pegasi and earth ponies willingly sit on lower rungs of the ladder, but the hegemony must come to an end. If that means somepony has to take the unicorns down a peg, then it may as well be me. Besides, this is the road that leads me to Discord. I’ve got a bone to pick with him, whoever or whatever he is.”
“… Fine, if you feel so strongly about it you can get yourself killed,” she says, sitting back down. “But at least believe me when I say that you’ll need to be able to do more than set ponies on fire or freeze them. I can’t speak for the unicorns out there, but I hear Discord’s magic is so powerful it distorts reality. Rumor has it he isn’t even a unicorn, but something different entirely.”
“Well I’m not a unicorn either.” Starswirl get up on his hind hooves and balances there for a few seconds. “I am a man! And so is Soulrock! And you’re not a unicorn either! There is a smell of destiny about our fated confrontation with Discord!”
“Has he always been like this?” the changeling asks Soulrock.
“As long as I’ve known him.”
Once again, the door closes.
“You’re telling me that not only was Cooper Starswirl the Bearded, but he was friends with a changeling ruler?” I ask, needing a great deal of clarification. “Why did you bring him here? What possible reason could you have?”
“Hey, hey, I wasn’t the one who brought him here,” Discord tells me, but I’m reluctant to believe him. “He found his own way in.”
“That seems unlikely,” I say to him. “If humans knew how to come here, wouldn’t there be more of them? Wouldn’t their existence not be a secret?”
“Disbelieve all you want, but I assure you I wouldn’t joke about this.” Discord seems serious for once, but that alone isn’t enough. I listen to what he has to say with careful consideration. “I just drag human’s souls into this world and affix them to suitable bodies, but Cooper marched in the door body and all.”
“But he was a unicorn.”
“There are things even I can’t explain,” Discord tells me. “But that isn’t any concern of yours though, is it? No, you want to know more about the changeling.”
He’s got me there.
“Who was she?” I ask. “And why was she hanging around those two?”
“That, dear Chrysalis, was the exalted Mother Mantis.”
“What?!”
“She is in her formative Princess Mantis years, of course. You know how that time goes for you young changelings. You wander around a bit, then your ruler dies for some reason, so you return to the hive and take the throne. She’s still in that first stage.”
“But why hang around those two?” I ask once again. That’s the mystifying part, really. When I was outside The Hive, I never stuck to one place very long. I don’t remember much about it, really. It was uneventful and boring.
“That’s was her choice, and she stuck with it for her own reasons. I can’t say why, seeing as I’ve never invaded her mind.” Discord just laughs to himself, but I just wonder if he realizes he just said something fishy. “Well, we do learn something later down the road. This might be the last stop before we get where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
Once again I don’t have time to question him for we have arrived at the next door. He grabs the handle and opens it up, revealing another piece of the past.
“Is that so, Mantis?” Starswirl asks. He looks a bit older than before, but not by much. Perhaps time just hasn’t been kind to him in Equestria. He looks tired. “That’s unfortunate. I think it will be a lonely road without you.”
“Yes… well, my duty to the changelings comes first,” Mantis replies like a true Queen would. “… Although, I could be persuaded to stay.”
The sun is setting on their hilltop looking out onto the Everfree Forest. I can’t tell why they are here, but right now they are exchanging good-byes. At least, one of them is.
“If your turn on the throne has come, I won’t keep you from it. You have your duty, and I have mine,” he says. “I decided a while back that I would face Discord alone anyway. That is just the way it will have to be. I wish you all the best luck.”
“… Don’t…”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Don’t be so cruel to me.”
Starswirl lifts an eyebrow. I can’t read what’s happening either, but Mantis looks like she is about to cry.
“This is supposed to be the part where you beg me to stay by your side,” she says, stepping towards Starswirl. “This is supposed to be the teary-eyed good-bye.”
“W-well, it isn’t like we’ll never see each other again,” Starswirl says, trying to comfort her. “Once all this is over, we’ll get together and say, ‘This is just like the old times.’” He laughs, but Mantis just stares at him, tears forming in her eyes.
“What is it that I have to do? What do I have to say? I can’t figure you out!” She begins to yell at him. “I’m leaving and you’re not even bothered by it.”
“Mantis, that isn’t true,” Starswirl says, doing his best to keep calm. “I’m sad to see you go, really. I guess I’m bad at showing it.”
“I’m not leaving,” she says all of a sudden. “I lied. I don’t have to go back.”
“O-oh… okay. That’s good? I mean, what?” Starswirl can’t find the right words to say now. “Mantis, you’re acting really strange. Is something the matter? You call me out here and won’t say why, then you say you have to take the throne, and now you’re saying you’re lying? What is this about? You know you can tell me if something is wrong.”
“I know I can! Don’t you see, that’s the problem!” Mantis chokes back a sob and fights on more passionately than before. “I’ll come to you with a problem and you’ll laugh like it’s nothing but I get angry so you get serious because you care about me and it is. Just. So. Frustrating. I know what’s going on, but it’s like I’m the only one. Are you going to make me say it first? Is that your game?”
“What are you talking about, Mantis?” Starswirl puts a hoof on her shoulder. “You’re starting to scare me, talking like that. What’s wrong? Please, tell me.”
“I love you!”
The hill goes completely silent as the pair just stare at one another. Mantis smiles sweetly while Starswirl’s mouth hangs open.
“I love you, oh how I’ve loved you, Starswirl,” she says, smiling and crying at the same time. “I thought love was weakness, but I wouldn’t stand so tall or be so proud if I didn’t love you. Your confidence, your resolve, and even your sense of humor, the funny way you sing… goodness, I’ve grown so accustomed to the way you sing. Sometimes you break into song when it’s completely inappropriate, and those are fond memories of mine. I remember all the times you made me angry or sad, the times you cheered me up and helped me along, and I will never forget the time we’ve spent together. I’ll never forget you… how could I? You’re so strange and full of quirks, and I love them all. I love you… and I know you love me.” She takes two steps towards him, but he takes four steps back.
“… Look, Mantis I-”
“No, don’t even try.” Mantis glowers at him. “I can feel it, Starswirl. You think you can hide it, but why do you hide it? Even now you’re going to carry on like this? I’ve never felt such strong emotions, not for or from anypony. I just want to hear you say it, please!”
She waits with tears flowing down her cheeks for an answer. Starswirl hesitates, avoiding eye contact by looking at the ground. It isn’t hard to tell what he is thinking, but he doesn’t want to say it. I can’t say I blame him.
“I care for you, Mantis.”
“… No…”
“You are a dear and close friend of mine.”
“No.”
“I don’t doubt the sincerity of your feelings, and I don’t doubt that mine are any less sincere.”
“No… no.”
“However…”
“Please don’t say it…”
“It isn’t appropriate for our relationship to take on a romantic nature.”
“…”
“I never imagined this would happen… I’m sorry.”
The sun drops out of the sky in a nearly comical fashion in the distance. Neither Starswirl nor Mantis speak up, but what can they say? Now everything is out in the open, but what has it come to?
“I… I think I will go back to The Hive,” Mantis says, backing away from Starswirl. They don’t look at each other. “… But… can I know… just tell me why…”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Starswirl asks. “I don’t belong here. I’m going to leave, Mantis. When I know how, I will leave this place in a heartbeat. That’s all there is to it. I’ve never thought of putting down roots here.”
“… What if there is no way home?”
“There is. I wouldn’t be the first one.”
“Right… that’s right,” Mantis says, taking a few more steps back. “You will have what you want. Starswirl will take what he wants then leave. He will go home. Starswirl the Visitor.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Starswirl says, but Mantis shakes her head.
“It isn’t right just because you say it is.”
“It isn’t wrong just because you don’t like it.”
“Then what is it?” Mantis asks.
“It’s right.”
The hinges squeak as the door slowly closes itself. Even if he can’t remember so much about himself, Cocoon or Cooper or Starswirl hasn’t changed. He’s got one goal in mind and nothing else really matters to him.
“So that’s the legacy of Mother Mantis, our exalted Queen,” I say to myself. I always looked up to her. I wanted to be like her: powerful. If she was good friends with Starswirl the Bearded, she must have picked up a few tricks along the way. What I wouldn’t give to be inside her mind. It feels strange to think, but I can’t say why.
“Yes, turns out she was just a huge xenophile.” Discord laughs at his own joke, moving on faster than before. He said earlier we were very close to the final destination. I guess I’m about to find out why we’re here in the first place. “And that Starswirl the Bearded sure isn’t one himself, more of a xenophobe really. Of course, he had his silly morals and a desire to help ponies out, but he really needed to get past that. It wasn’t healthy for our relationship.”
Discord stops. Before us is a door of a different kind: a door made of iron. It rattles every so often as shadows seem to seep out from under it.
“What in the world is that?”
“Hold this.”
Discord hands me a brick. Before I can riddle out why he has done this, he dumps liquid grout on my feet. Faster than physically possible, Discord lays brick after brick until he’s successfully built me into a wall.
“Are you serious! Let me out of here!” I shout at him, but he just admires his handiwork with a sly smile. “I knew you were up to no good!”
“Well, I knew that you knew!” Discord replies, opening up the iron door. I can’t see what is happening behind it, but it sounds like one heck of a commotion. “You see, Starswirl does come and face me. We traded blows, fired some spells, shared a few insults. It was a pretty standard affair, but I begrudgingly admit that I underestimated him. Before the final blow was struck, I twoh-*cough* I played a little trick on him. You see, I don’t really like killing ponies or turning them to stone. I prefer to attach a few strings and watch them dance like a puppet! Oh, what a wonderful puppet he was! The greatest wizard of all time, working for me! Why, I had to go on a recruiting spree just to collect servants who could be on par with him. Even I like a little organization… bwha-ha-ha! That was a joke! It was still complete chaos!”
Discord steps into the memory itself, letting it suck him in. He stands on the other side of the door looking back and smiling at me.
“It’s time to give fair Equestria a little blast from the past.”
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Well, this chapter was very confusing but I will chalk most of that up with me being VERY sleepy at the moment. there was a lot of stuff to wrap around but my suspicion that cocoon was starswirl being confirmed was really satisfying. called it. though i think others did before me though hehe.
is it discord or someone else or him and others messing with lives like that? why?! bringing people back and forth between worlds over and over, possible reincarnation between worlds. this is getting too big for my brain. gunna sleep now...
This story gets odder by the chapter. Perhaps it would be less confusing if you added more formatting cues (line breaks, italics, etc.) to indicate what is going on, like italics on memories to distinguish past and present. Also, you need to make it clearer on who is speaking.
Well the POV switching with no cues made this chapter very confusing, I didnt know whos eyes we were seeing through much less what the hell was going on till i read closer and saw chrysallis. Although this is an interesting take on starswril and why discord hates his guts.
Was there any foreshadowing to this? I do not think is an asspull, but it is certainly close.
So was it starswirl who populated the sky with stars? Draco and his brethren?
I figured this out a while ago. Good to see that my suspicions were correct.
All the clues were there: Previous knowledge on magic and a crazy devotion to just knowing there was a way back. He has the experience deep down in his subconscious.
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3702027
that explosion isn't big enough.
3715419 correct
Every chapter of this story makes me even more disgusted with the protagonist. I cant wait for the next update and hopefully a finally where he gets what he deserves.
Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes! I knew it!
Knew he was Starswirl! And the thing with Mantis was a bit surprisingly honestly, but the whole circus thing?
It was priceless!
"You can't just go around setting ponies on fire!"
"You're right, I need to learn how to freeze them too..."
Best part hands (or is it hooves at this point?) down.
This story is gold.
So Starswirl had a red beard at first. And he's the one who taught Luna how to make stars in the sky. I can't wait for the next one.
“Nobody’s life is perfect, and I’m no exception;
however, it was my life and I worked hard on it. I
can’t just throw away the people I knew or the
dreams I had,” I tell her. “Am I really supposed to
believe that there is a person who wouldn’t be
missed if they dropped off the map? Is there
really someone who could abandon everything
they know without once looking back?”
Me.
I utterly despise Sweet Tea. I do not care if her life on Earth was shit, she is a selfish, race-betraying, egocentric, paranoid bitch. If I had a chance to save her, I wouldn't lift a finger.
*Ahem*. Sorry about the rant, good chapter overall.
3715419 Eternal light huh
dailyfx.com/forex_forum/attachments/gbp-jpy-pairs/264755d1386065750-gbp-jpy-pairs-h1-2013-brain-exe.png
Ehh... He actually hasn't done that much looking... Mostly just abducting former humans, derping out in the woods, and living the glamorous changeling life...
*Spoilerssss from chapter 20~ Don't read if you don't need!*
Is this story slice of life? 'Cause I tell you, reading this is like reading a slice of my life right now.