Chapter 44: Generosity
Celestia passed through the entrance to her sister's chambers, then quietly closed the door behind her.
“She sleeps?” asked her sister's fool.
“Yes,” answered Celestia, “though that is not YOUR business.”
“It is exactly my business,” said the dark, gray pony. “My employer ordered me to stay until she fell asleep. Now that she has, I may take my leave.”
“Please do," Celestia said to the pony who had brought so much trouble to her kingdom in the past year.
Riddle chuckled as he trotted down the palace hall.
Celestia did not follow him.
Just before the gray pony reached the end of the hallway, he turned to face her. “In retrospect, I'm glad I have as much experience as I do," he said with a clearly false smile. It was a twisted, bitter thing – like the pony himself. "When I decided to gift my memory to your sister, I did not expect anything in return. I did it only as practice to help my mind go to the thought of generosity more easily."
What?
"So, as I said, I am glad I have experience with the ephemeral nature of gratitude. Otherwise I might have been surprised in the face of fleeting, or in this case, nonexistent thanks."
Like a buck to the face.
That was often what it felt like when talking to Riddle Tome. Most of the time, he was to blame. This time...
"In the future," continued that cynical, empty voice, "I shall be careful ONLY to do good deeds when they are guaranteed to further my own agenda.”
This time, Celestia realized she fully deserved to feel awful.
The pony did not genuflect before fully turning around the corner. He clearly did not think she deserved any reverence whatsoever. She probably didn't.
“Mystery Book, wait,” said Celestia, appearing before him in a teleport. “I... I apologize. I should not have been short with you. You have done more for me and my sister this night than I could repay in a lifetime."
Like granting her deepest desire for the last thousand and one years: the desire to complete her song. Until this morning, she had thought the unfinished lyrics were the reason she hadn't brought it up with Luna. That had been a lie, a self-deception. She had simply been afraid.
But that is in the past now. Thanks to her sister's fool, her song is complete, and it has nothing to do with the change in lyrics. Her song is complete because her sister has finally heard it. And it's all thanks to Riddle Tome, who helped without even expecting anything in return...
Though he could be lying about that. Celestia never was the Element of Honesty, and she knows this pony is not trustworthy. But the way he put it... the manner in which he described his outlook on generosity... led her to believe he was being straightforward. And it's her responsibility to defend her former element, if not herself.
"Please know that generosity will always be welcomed and thanked," said the Element's once-bearer. "I only knew that you did not genuinely feel it in your actions, and that colored my perceptions." Is this how Luna feels about his truthful deceptions? "Even if it was a whim," she conceded, "even if you did not feel the charity, you gave my sister the greatest birthday gift that you could have given her, that anypony could have given her, and you expected nothing in return." It was, factually speaking, a generous act. If that was the only way the pony before her could be generous, she would gladly take it. "Please, allow me to repay you."
Riddle's eyebrows rose. "How do you intend to do that?" he asked. "Do you know me well enough to know what I want?"
"I know you have been researching magical artifacts," Celestia replied. She'd kept a close eye on her guard's reports of him. "If you are looking for something in particular, you need only ask."
Riddle's eyebrows rose even higher. "Truly?" he asked, the skepticism clear in his voice.
Celestia immediately hesitated. "I... must emphasize that I am only promising to provide information. If I have it. Describe what you seek, and I will say what I know. But I cannot guarantee I will help you acquire what you are looking for, especially if it is a dark artifact..." she trailed off.
"It is not," said Riddle. "It is neither light nor dark. It's surprisingly neutral, though it is said to possess a moral orientation. Given the existence of the Elements of Harmony, there are probably many artifacts with that property in Eqeustria, so I doubt it's as unique as... nevermind. I expect the only aspect of my quarry that Equestrian scholars might find unique would be the power of creating and accessing other realms of existence. Although perhaps its power over reflections will also prove rare."
Celestia's breath caught involuntarily.
"I see you might be familiar with the it," Riddle observed.
Celestia chided herself internally.
"But that could just be wishful thinking on my part," Riddle said, pessimism clear in his voice, as if preparing himself for yet another disappointment after a long string of failures. "Before I go into further detail, would you mind offering your thoughts so far? What artifacts can access other realms of existence that you know about?"
There was a pause.
Celestia did not speak.
"I see you are debating whether to give me the knowledge you promised to provide." Riddle made a deliberate show of sighing. "Why must you alicorns insist on making promises you cannot keep?"
Until then, Celestia might have thought that any change in topic would have been appreciated. Now that the topic has changed, she wished it hadn't.
Her first instinct was to defend herself and her element against the unjust attack, but...
"Say what you will about me," she said, choosing instead- "but do not imply my sister has broken a promise!" -to defend Luna.
"She didn't tell you?" Mr. Tome inquired in an amused voice. "She attempted to observe my student's dreams after promising she never would. She almost lost my services for that. She went so far as to offer me nobility in order to settle the debt she incurred for violating my employment conditions."
"That is not the same as breaking a true promise," Celestia replied hotly. "She did tell me. She did not promise that she would never look into his or your dreams." And although Celestia knew the next part would sound like an excuse to him, she said it anyway. "Luna thought of it like a contract, not a promise, and she valued your student's life more than she valued that contract. Even if she had not thought she was being clever, she still would have done it. Being forced to make the choice tore at her, but she made the right one. She knew that she could lose your employment. She knew she could lose you. She took that risk anyway. For Silver's sake, and Twilight's sake, and your sake."
"My sake?" he asked in a slightly incredulous tone. "How could her violation of my terms have been done for my sake?"
"Losing Silver would have hurt you," she said simply. "Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not."
Riddle scoffed. "I do not. And Mr. Silver was in no danger of being lost."
"She did not know that. She only knew he'd been taken by a phoenix."
He flicked a hoof. "Irrelevant. And all of that does not change the facts of the matter. She did betray a promise. You will not distract me from my original claim."
"She violated the conditions of a contract," Celestia corrected. "And she did it in a way that was a natural reaction to you. You did similar rule-bending up until then, and after then, and you will continue to bend our rules, and now you complain that you rubbed off on her. She responded to you in kind. The promise she broke was not unconditional. It was not understood by her to be the unbreakable kind, done between true friends. Like your Vow, I suppose, though of course true friends do not need ritual magic. That is the kind of promise she has never broken, in all her life."
"Even as Nightmare Moon?"
"Even as Nightmare Moon," Celestia confirmed.
Riddle's eyebrows rose.
"Though that was not Luna and you know it."
The thestral paused, tilting his head and seeming to think about her words for a moment. But then he shrugged, as if to say her entire argument didn't matter. "Even if I did accept all that," Riddle said, "she recently made what you would call a true promise to me. It is only a matter of time until she breaks it. Now," he said without transition. "Will you keep yours?"
There was an uncomfortable, indignant pause on Celestia's end, and an irritated pause on the other.
Then Riddle seemed to chuckle his annoyance away. "I suppose you are less of a contradiction when it comes to broken promises. You were never the Element of Honesty, after all. Only Kindness and Generosity and Friendship," said the pony who has never had a single ounce of any of the three for all the time she's known him. "Which often require regular lies to maintain," he added spitefully. Then, twisting the barb further with heavy sarcasm, he continued. "Thank you, by the way, for your kind and generous 'promise' of magical information. The mere words were greatly appreciated."
Why did conversations with Riddle Tome always have to go this way?
"I will keep my promise," Celestia stated, "so long as you do not abuse the knowledge I share. I am not hesitant for my sake."
Riddle shook his head. "Our separate understandings of 'abused knowledge' aside," he said disdainfully, "your initial promise to me was not conditional. Speak now or break it."
...
With a heavy sense of reluctance, and even heavier internal chiding, Celestia spoke.
She described the artifact whose records had been purged from existence by her orders.
She described the magic mirror, ancient and powerful, housed in the bowels of Canterlot castle (though she did not tell Riddle its location), leading to another world parallel to this one: a world of humans and high schools. A world that Riddle could break, that any magical being could break if they meant ill. She didn't tell him that either. The world had felt fragile on her last visit, even if it was advanced in certain ways.
Riddle asked for the name of the human planet, if she knew it.
He asked for the name of the human country.
He asked what the humans looked like.
He asked if she had detected any magic when she'd been there. (He'd somehow picked up on the fact that she'd visited the world from the way she described it.)
As far as she could tell from his questions, the thestral didn't know anything about Canterlot High.
He asked a few other questions about the mirror itself.
No, it was not fixed in place.
No, it did not float in the air.
No, there are no runes writ upon its backside.
No, nopony had ever tried to destroy it.
No! She didn't care what his reasons were, he would not test its fragility. She shall say no more if that is his intention.
No, she didn't believe that he would sooner cut off his own hoof than see damage to the mirror.
(Little did she know it would regrow.)
No. Even if she did believe him, she did not appreciate the question. He will not speak of harming it again, he will not think of harming it again, and if he does she will not help him.
All in all, it was not a fun conversation. Just like all the other ones she has ever had with Riddle Tome. Only worse, which was also just like all the other conversations she had with him, because every conversation always feels like the worst one.
In the end, "No, nopony knows who originally made the mirror," was the only thing that eased the thestral's ever-growing frown. As far as anypony knew, including herself, it has been around as long as recorded history, ever since Celestia first discovered it.
On the plus side, none of his questions supported her suspicion: namely, it no longer seemed likely that Riddle came from the human world she had visited.
Him being a former human would have explained a few things, like his casual attitude (in conversation) towards eating the flesh of fellow mammals, and his unusually dexterous hooves, and maybe even his accent. It would also explain...
The best way she could put it was his 'aura'. He had an atmosphere of being a predator, though it wasn't anything magical. He did not have the demeanor of a pony, a 'herd animal' as the gryphons and some scholars put it. Riddle being a thestral didn't explain his nature because his behavior was well beyond the limits that the thestral species pushed into predator territory. Thestrals are still, at the end of the day, ponies. His behaviours were more human/gryphon/dragon than pony. And him being a predator had nothing to do with dietary tendencies or adult desires either. Her sister assured her that he's done nothing seriously criminal (beyond stealing a library book when the library was closed) and that he's surprisingly celibate. It's just that he's...
Dangerous.
That was the best way she could describe him, if she had to choose a single word. Being born a human could have explained all that, with a bad enough upbringing. However...
"That does not sound like the right mirror," Riddle said after a time.
Celestia felt a wave of relief.
"Still, I should check just in case."
Celestia felt a wave of apprehension.
"Do you know where it is?"
There was another pause as Celestia debated-
"I see that you do," Riddle observed. "Given that you've used it, and that I've found no mention in the library, I suspect it's a national secret of some kind. Probably kept somewhere in this castle, if it leads to a muggle equivalent of this particular city."
Muggle?
"Will you allow me to look upon it?"
"Not without direct supervision of the crown," Celestia declared. If this was going to happen – and now that Riddle knew about the mirror, it would happen – she was going to set some ground rules. "And you must promise to my sister that you will not attempt to damage it or the worlds it contains, on punishment of imprisonment, followed by banishment from Equestria. She will gauge your honesty, and only then shall you be allowed a supervised visit."
"If I must be supervised when looking upon the mirror," Riddle said before she could establish any more rules, "it shall also be your sister, and she alone, who supervises me."
"You do not get to make that decision."
"Not even if I swear that I have no intention of visiting the realm you described, or interacting with it in any way?" Riddle interjected. "I believe that is your concern above all else."
"You... would swear that?"
He nodded easily. "I can honestly say that I have no interest in a realm of humans with vibrant hair colors, especially if it is simply a parallel to this realm. At the moment, I only wish to see the mirror's outer appearance. You even said that it isn't active at the moment. What's the harm?"
Celestia paused. "If that is all you intend, I will consider your request. But I fully intend to be nearby in case something goes wrong."
"I do not mind if you stand outside the room like a guard might," Riddle remarked. "I was referring to immediate supervision."
"You can see the mirror from outside the room," she informed him.
"That would be the problem," he sighed. "I also have no intention of having my image reflected until I am more certain about the mirror's nature."
"The mirror is not facing the room's entrance," she pointed out.
That caused Riddle to pause. "Has the mirror ever been known to move of its own accord?"
"No."
"Is it strictly impossible for the mirror to turn and face me if, say, I opened the door to the chamber housing it?"
"Yes."
"And you would not force it to face me if I stood in the doorway?"
"Heavens no!"
"You would make absolutely certain that didn't happen?"
"Yes..." Celestia said warily.
Riddle stared at her for a long moment.
"In that case... I think I would not mind your direct supervision if it meant we went soon. At the moment, seeing its backside should be sufficient for my purposes. I do not need nor do I want to go anywhere near it. Not yet. Its outer appearance should allow me to know if I am barking up the wrong tree. Unless you've already decided to rescind your offer of official supervision?"
She shook her head. "No. If that is all you wish, we could go right now. We needn't even pass through the wards. But what happens when you inevitably decide to go further than the room's entrance?"
"I only consent to the company of Princess Luna," he answered at once. "If you must be nearby, you will stand outside and not eavesdrop. Contractually or not, unconditional promises or not, at least she has motive to keep my past a secret should she learn more of it."
Celestia didn't know if she should take that statement at face value. She'd thought he wanted Luna instead of Celestia because her sister was (until earlier that night) not as strong as her, and thus more easily overpowered by some kind of surprise attack.
That could still be true. Riddle might not have noticed Luna's new mane and power in the dark of her chambers... but he probably did. A desire for privacy made more sense.
So far, she hadn't considered allowing Luna to supervise him because (a) it wasn't his place to demand it and (b) she didn't trust his motives. She still didn't trust his motives, and it still wasn't his place to demand anything involving the mirror (aside from already-promised information), but his requested supervision might bring her sister joy, and so Celestia would consider it.
"We shall see," she said, keeping all her other thoughts to herself. She would ask her sister in the evening. "Come," she said to him with a head gesture. "We may as well get this over with. It goes without saying that any hostile magics- no. Any magic at all will result in sanctions."
"I understand," he said easily as he followed.
"Good."
"Your subjects will not miss you?" he asked as he trotted alongside her. "Ponyville is not expecting you for their Summer Sun Celebration this year?"
"I scheduled no public appearances today," said Celestia. "I intended to spend the morning with my sister, and that is already done. The bright morning of Summer Sun can just as easily be done from here." Her horn glowed golden for a brief moment. Then a great, distant cheer arose, muffled by many layers of walls. "There."
Riddle gave a dry chuckle. "How ceremonious."
Celestia did not respond as she led him to a flight of stairs.
“By the by,” said Riddle in a conversational tone as they descended a stone tunnel carved into the mountain. “Have you ever heard of an eclipse?”
“An eclipse?" the princess asked. "I know the word, of course, but I have never heard it used as a noun.”
Riddle nodded. "If your sister brings it up with you, know that she is not attempting to encroach on your territory. She would simply be conveying a suggestion of mine."
Knowing the suggestion came from him made her more apprehensive, not less. "What suggestion?" she asked dubiously.
"That the ponies of Equestria be introduced to a natural phenomenon which is common outside these borders, but has, I suspect, only happened once since the two of you gained control over the day-night cycle."
"And that phenomenon is...?" Celestia asked warily.
"An eclipse is the astronomical event of a sun, moon, and planet forming a straight line in space. If the moon is in the middle of that line, it casts a shadow on the planet and is called a solar eclipse. If the planet sits in the middle, casting a shadow on the moon, it is a lunar eclipse."
The argument ignited by this claim lasted until their arrival at a great vault ended it. Well, his "If nothing else, remember that it was my suggestion, not your sister's; let's leave it at that," ended the argument. Again, coming from him made it worse, not better.
The guards in front of the thick enchanted metal saluted their monarch. "Princess," one of them said. "You aren't scheduled to see the vault today."
"I am not," she acknowledged. "Perform your standard checks. I will explain afterward."
What followed was a long series of security charms that, Riddle noted, did not check for polyjuice, small animagi, the Deathly Hallows, or metamorphmagi. Although on second thought, one of them might work on a metamorphmagus. He'd have to experiment once he got back.
It was an esoteric spell mentioned in the royal library, but he hadn't encountered anypony using it until today. The spell description says that it dispels an active changeling disguise. It warned that it did not detect changelings. But the scroll failed to describe what changelings were, and he found no other references to them. It was entirely possible that Celestia didn't know either. It might just be a security spell passed down by her predecessors, with nobody knowing why it was still done.
When they both passed inspection (though Riddle only passed once he took off his cloak and glasses), Celestia spoke. "Riddle Tome, alicorn and noble, is here to look upon the contents of this vault. Neither of us shall enter, so please maintain all wards to their full effect. As I'm sure Captain Armor has thoroughly explained, neither of you are to look inside. Look at us and our surroundings. Make sure the wards are not disturbed when the door is opened."
The guards nodded, their horns glowing with magic that took many minutes to play out.
Riddle was almost made nervous by all the protections guarding the vault.
Almost.
He'd broken into Gringotts vaults before, and he could break into this one too.
Even still, if the mirror is inside, arranging for himself and Mr. Silver and Ms. Memory to stand before it without royal permission might have proven difficult. If he'd been less cautious.
Thankfully, he hasn't revealed apparition yet.
He could clearly perceive an anti-portkey ward around the vault. He has revealed portkeys, even going so far as to explain how to make them to Twilight Sparkle, and Celestia has already implemented the counter-ward in key locations, it seems. Just as he'd intended. He gave the appearance of openness to conceal his true method of travel.
There were no anti-apparition wards around the vault, so getting in would be as simple as seeing the interior, then biding his time for an opportune moment. Celestia might detect intrusion if something did suddenly appear inside the room, but her own anti-teleportation and anti-phoenix wards would delay her long enough for the mirror's process to complete.
On the other hoof, he could just enter the normal way, with normal supervision. That was probably the better route in any case. He just needed to know if he should.
The door slowly swung open, revealing...
Silver finished conceptualising his master escape plan after a long night of theorising. He'd have to go to bed soon, and possibly use his time turner for six hours of sleep so he could avoid any uncomfortable questions about why he'd pulled an all-nighter when Twilight had told him to go to sleep.
A thestral appeared before him just as he was about to spin the glass.
The Silver of six months ago would have jumped in alarm. The Silver of today already had his expression schooled by the habit of constantly-maintained, Perfect Occlumency. If his practice to achieve that ability hadn't involved Professor Tome randomly appearing out of nowhere, even in the privacy of this very room, at odd hours of the day and night, he MIGHT have reacted poorly. He might have given himself away. But his outer personality was that of an innocent, frustrated Silver Wing.
A rump part of his brain, his true self, was very nervous, wondering if and how, in the name of Azathoth, could Mr. Tome have possibly guessed that he intended to...
"Mr. Silver," said Mr. Tome. "I have located the mirror. We will be visiting it tomorrow when my shift begins, so adjust your sleep cycle accordingly. We shall have much to do when we get back. And do not to use your spimster wicket; you might need the hours, if reality decides that this whole ordeal has reset your allotted spins to six, instead of the remaining one you had when trapped."
"Uh-" said Silver, his thoughts jumbled by the words. Of course Mr. Tome would find the mirror the moment Silver thought of a way around it. "I was just about to spin it, but I can push myself to stay awake a bit longer, then sleep until your shift starts. I'll need an excuse-"
"I will send Twilight Sparkle a note that you wished to spend the rest of the holiday with me," he said. "Is Ms. Memory in her room as well?"
"Yeah. Why?"
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I wonder whether Sunset exists in this universe or not.
Nice to see someone taking security at least half seriously?
3DES is Raman crypto? In fact, wat would happen if you had to hack through loads of security, only the last layer would eventually accept all values as correct, except only the actual correct value wouldnt trigger the stasis field? Likes a lock that accepts all keys, but only the correct key doesnt trigger the boobytrap?
11200488
Hmm, maybe. That sort of thing is why, in his internal narration, Riddle considers the best option to be supervised visitation.
"of gratitude."
Normally, either could not, or did not.
But, I suppose, you might want to really emphasize both :-).
Do not use. Or do not decide to use.
11200298
Even if Sunset existed, the differences between this mirror, and the EqG mirror, are such that she probably did NOT go through there.
1. This Celestia has used it; my memory is that the EqG pony Celestia said she never went through it.
2. Again, my memory says that StarSwirl made the mirror, and that it was how the Sirens were banished into another realm. Not "Pre-Celestia".
3. The EqG mirror was in the throne room of Canterlot castle (I had to check the wiki on this) so that if Sunset came back through, Celestia would be able to greet her. It was later moved to the Crystal Empire for ... well, plot reasons, I guess?
4. While the mirror *now* leads to Canterlot Highschool, that does not mean that the whole world is teenagers and high schools, only that there is one "fragment" of the world that is that setup. (Hmm ... RPG setting idea).
5. Oddly, this made me realize something. It's been a year now. That's about how long it took for Twilight's Friendship lessons to result in her alicornization (all three seasons, 52 episodes, fit into a single year, and that "weekly friendship report" also times to a single year). And if EqG takes place shortly after her coronation, then this is about when we should have seen Sunset come through.
I mean ... would Celestia decide to move the mirror, to hide it from Riddle Tome, only to have Sunset come through as a result in the new location? :-)
Equestria
Perhaps the Mirror's are two different things?
A gateway within a gateway?
Or just one mirror transporting someone like a plane would and they just take another to travel further?