The Name of Our Mistakes

by ObabScribbler

22. Solitude

Luna stared down at the sleeping mare in her bed. She didn’t understand what had happened to her last night. Strangely, neither did she care. Whenever she tried to think too hard about it, it was as if some wonderful wave of indifference washed over her. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime her mind was entirely clear. All doubt, all qualms, all ridiculous sensitivity was gone; borne away by the dark clarity that had blossomed out of her heart. She could see Celestia’s ultimate goal but also the ways to circumvent it. She remembered why she had asked around and sought out a hedgewitch in the first place, and could now look upon this one as she was always supposed to have looked upon her. Everything was clear to her now. Even the unanticipated meddling of Clover the Clever no longer worried her. All that meant was that the hedgewitch’s role would come sooner than she had originally planned.

Luna’s horn ignited with magic. She closed her eyes and delved into the dreams of the sleeping mare. As she had hoped, Posy was dreaming of her. It made it much easier for her to slip in unnoticed and replace the dream version with her astral self.

The dream was actually quite boring, though she was gladdened to find it set at night. Luna sat on the steps of a painted wooden wagon, a fire crackling in the centre of the clearing in which it was parked. Posy tended a pewter teapot hanging on a complicated trellis above the flames, protecting her hoof with some sort of crocheted sock. She poured the teapot into a wooden mug and brought it over.

“Here, love,” she said tenderly. “Hot sweet tea. The best thing for a night like this.”

“There are other things a night like this is good for!” called a voice from across the clearing.

Another wagon was parked there. In fact, several formed a rough circle around the campfire. On most steps ponies sat in ones and twos, chatting and laughing easily. There was a family atmosphere, though few of the ponies looked anything alike save for one thing: they were all female.

“Ah, stow it, Gingerbread!” one of the single ponies shouted at the mare who had spoken, her bright red mane stark against her white fur. “Leave Posy be. Thou art but jealous.”

“And thou art not, Paradise?” laughed another mare as she climbed the steps to her wagon. She was yellow and looked a lot like Posy, save for her rump mark and the wings on her back. Her mane and tail varied between green and white hair bound into dozens of tiny braids tipped with beads. “Thou doth but wish thou couldst also live one of thy stories and run off with the beautiful princess for a happily ever after.”

“Thou canst also stow it, Masquerade!” the white mare chuckled. “We all wish for a true love. ‘Tis natural we should be envious when one of us finds hers.”

Posy’s cheeks flushed. “Auntie Masquerade and Paradise mean no harm,” she whispered to Luna.

“Auntie?” Luna echoed. No wonder there was a resemblance.

“My mother’s sister,” Posy explained. “Though I have not seen her since I was but a foal. ‘Tis strange to see her now. I had thought her clean on the other side of Equestria, talking to badgers, or bears, or some other creatures.” She smiled. “But ‘tis a good kind of strange. I have missed her. I have missed all of this, though I had not realised how much, and am glad to share it with thee now.”

They watched as a pair of bats flitted above them, catching insects. Posy leaned her head against Luna and sighed happily.

“Thy night is more beautiful than ever,” she murmured.

Gratified, Luna shifted. Dream logic made it easier for her to ask what needed to be asked without Posy growing suspicious. “Posy, art thou familiar with poisons and their natural cures?”

“I know of them.”

“Wouldst thou be able to mix them?”

“My mother did teach me how.”

“Wouldst thou mix them for me?”

Posy’s dream self looked up at Luna, frowning. “Wherefore would I need to do such a thing?”

“In case I am ever poisoned, as you thought I was last night.”

“Last night?” Posy’s dream self frowned deeper. Luna realised this reference to time did not fit the internal logic of the dream world. She cursed the irrationality of dreams that let some things be acceptable and others not. “Uh, last week. Dost thou recall how I was, uh, bitten by a snake and thou didst provide me with the correct antidote?”

“I …” Posy frowned but her expression cleared as the dream filled in the gaps. “Yes, I do indeed recall that. I was mightily afeared that thou wouldst perish. I know not what I wouldst do without thee, my Luna.”

Her Luna? Such impenitence. “Verily, wouldst thou mix a batch?”

“Wherefore wouldst thou require poison? Surely only the antidote –”

Luna sighed harshly. Evidently this was not going to go as smoothly as she had hoped. She would have to resort to a clumsier method. It would be just as effective, if less watertight. Ponies who had been forcibly hypnotised in their dreams to conduct tasks in real life were not as a reliable as those convinced to do it of what they thought was their own free will. Yet Posy’s obvious feelings towards her may cover that eventuality. As planned, her love had made her receptive to Luna accessing her dreams and willing to agree to what Luna asked when her natural sense of right and wrong might otherwise have stopped her from performing the task she had been chosen for. A little dream hypnosis would simply push her over the edge.

Luna gripped the face of Posy’s dream self and turned it towards her. She stared hard into Posy’s large pink eyes, which grew even larger as Luna’s horn glowed and she began the enchantment. The mug tumbled from Posy’s hoof as she fell under Luna’s spell for the second, more literal time, and the dream warped around them like a painting dropped in a puddle.

“What poison in thy repertoire is swift-acting once administered?” Luna demanded.

“Hemlock … Nightshade … snake venom … the toxin of a scorpion’s tail …” Posy listed mindlessly.

“Which of those are undetectable to physician’s tests?”

“Physicians are clever, especially unicorns. They may detect all these and more.”

Luna cursed inwardly. “What poison exists that may evade their most stringent tests?”

“None alone in nature, though there are blends that may evade them.”

“Know thee of these and how to make them?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Canst thou locate the ingredients necessary within the castle walls?”

“Nay. They grow wild and are not easy to find for those unknowing of their effectiveness. These are not secrets a hedgewitch shares beyond her family line. She learns them so she knows how to cure them, but simply knowing how to poison is the quickest way to the gallows. Nopony is apt to question why thou doth possess such knowledge, just worry that thou doth know it.”

“But thou doth know it,” Luna insisted.

“Yes,” Posy said without hesitation. “The plants known as Bridal Tears, Cacophony, Rotten Heliotrope and Devil’s Bell-Drop. Mixed with care, these may do as thy wish, and the juice of a Blinding Nettle doth render them undetectable even after death.”

“Good girl. Here is what thou art to do ...”

When she was finished Luna pulled herself out of the dream. In the real world Posy had nuzzled close and latched onto her foreleg, hugging it close as a foal might a comforting blanket. Luna gazed at what should have been a sweet scene and felt nothing. She was a little surprised at herself. Hadn’t she, too, felt the stirrings of emotion the last time she and Posy met? When she had first taken her to bed and realised the extent of her innocence, had she not begun to have misgivings over what she planned for the little earth pony with love in her eyes?

Apparently not.

Luna extracted her foreleg and settled back on her pillows. She was sharing her bed with a pony who adored her and yet she was completely alone.

Comments

[Argentyros]

And so the mental line has been crossed. It's weird going into a story like this one where it was clear from the start the point of the story and its general endpoint, and yet on some level you still hope it doesn't happen.

[Sunlight Rays]

Oh... this is the Nightmare's doing, isn't it? It's taken Luna's love for Posy and twisted it into exploitation and indifference. This is not going to end well, either for Posy or for Luna...

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

I am feeling a mixture of and . Sad and horrified for Luna and Posy, horrified and angry at the Nightmare.