How I Became My Mother

by Halira

Chapter 5: Unicorn Games

Haven had never been in the woods before or even seen the woods, and according to Argyle, she still hadn't. The scenery could have fooled her. This was precisely what she imagined the woods to be like.

There were trees and bushes everywhere. She couldn't walk more than a dozen ponylengths without coming up to another tree or bush. None of them were as big or tall as the big one they had camped under or the dead one by the now-destroyed bridge, but there were so many. The whole place smelled… she wasn't sure what it smelled like— musky, perhaps? All kinds of animals could be living in those things, and she was wary of them.

Argyle's eyes were glued to the ground, and she had no idea how he wasn't running into plant life.

"How much further is it to Bridlewood?" she asked, sidestepping a suspicious tuft of tall grass.

He looked up and looked around. "I'm not sure. Old maps aren't the most accurate."

Great, so they had no clue. "Why are you looking at the ground?"

He went back to his examination of the ground. "We are in the ruins of the town of Brightwater. I'm trying to see if I can find anything interesting."

She looked to her left— trees and bushes. She looked to her right— more trees and bushes. There were no buildings, or remains of walls, or anything that would denote this as where a town stood. Maybe she was wrong about Argyle, and perhaps all earth ponies were crazy.

"This is the middle of the woods; there's nothing here," she informed him.

He looked at her and shook his head. He then pointed at the grass and smiled. "I'm standing on the foundation of an old building. See how the grass doesn't grow as high here, and the area like that is rectangular in shape? That's because the roots can't reach as deep due to hitting stone. There are other spots like this all around us."

She looked around again. Now that he had pointed out what to look for, it was impossible not to see it. The foundations of buildings were all around them, some with trees growing out of them.

"It's not much to look at," she observed. "Why was this place abandoned?"

"I'm not sure. It was an old earth pony farming village," Argyle explained and dug at one of the foundations with his hoof.

Haven lowered her ears as she continued looking around at the town that had been gone so long not even a wall stood. "Earth pony cities, unicorn cities, pegasus cities… it seems like old Equestria was already divided before the tribes started fighting. Don't you think? It's like the symptoms were there long before it happened."

Argyle looked up, and his ears folded as he looked around. "You could have a point. I think that's the way it was settled, and the tribes' specializations led to enforce it further, but that could have been a foundation built on sand."

She thought about it. "It would need strong leadership to hold it together. Twilight Sparkle entrusting leadership to each of the tribal leaders may have been what brought about the fall in that case. All it would take is one of them working against the others, and the center wouldn't be able to hold, not when there were already problems under the surface that had never been resolved."

Argyle walked over to a bush and started digging through its branches. "That's a possible theory, but we don't know that for sure. That's part of why these old places need to be studied, so we can find out the truth of the matter instead of making assumptions that could be completely wrong, no matter how reasonable they may seem. I could propose equally plausible-sounding theories, but until we find evidence, there's no way of knowing for sure."

She smiled. She hadn't been wrong about Argyle. He had a level head and plenty of wisdom. Phyllis might be a fool, but Argyle proved that earth ponies weren't all dumb brutes. She wished she was half as wise as him. It was too bad he was an earth pony, and the court would have an uproar if he showed up at the palace. Argyle would have made a better advisor than any of the ponies advising her mother now.

"I found something! The pedestal a statue used to sit upon," Argyle said with an excited gasp as he uprooted the bush he had been digging through.

She walked over to him, dodging as bits of shrubbery were tossed her way. "That's nice, but the statue is gone. This isn't getting us to Bridlewood."

He kept uncovering the pedestal. "These are ideal locations for time capsules. Something might still be here."

"Oh, maybe I can…" she trailed off. What could she do? She wasn't going to dig in the dirt, and she didn't think she was strong enough to help pull the bush out. She briefly considered moving some of his debris out of the way, but what was it really in the way of?

Instead, she moved to where she was in no danger of being pelted with branches or dirt and waited for him to finish.

It took a few minutes, but the stallion dug up an iron box. She came close as he opened it, revealing relics not seen for untold centuries.

"Toys," she said flatly as he pulled out one of six dolls from the box. There were some books and other things, but the toys stood out the most.

Argyle held a purple pony with wings and horn up high. "Not merely toys. This is Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the best physical representations of them I have ever seen, and in perfect condition!"

"Uh-huh," she said absently and turned her eyes to the other toys. There were two pegasi, two earth ponies, and two unicorns. "I guess this is more evidence that the tribes used to get along. I can't imagine foals playing with smiling toys representing other tribes."

He nodded, carefully placing the Twilight Sparkle doll back down into the box. "This alone makes the entire trip worth it. There's even a hard-to-find depiction of Starlight Glimmer. This is great! I don't want to damage anything, so I'll leave them all in the box for now and bring it home with me."

"No, you won't. You'll be giving that to us. This is unicorn territory."

Haven and Argyle turned to see bulky three unicorn stallions wearing heavy-looking saddlebags advancing menacingly towards them. The two hastily backed away, and Argyle tucked the box into his saddlebag.

Haven flicked her tail. "I'm sorry, Mister Unicorns, sirs, but I believe this territory doesn't belong to any tribe. Argyle here is something of an archaeologist you see, and—"

The leader, a large brown stallion with a darker brown mane, stepped forward. "We are right outside of Bridlewood. This is unicorn territory, and your kinds aren't welcome here."

She narrowed her eyes. "We aren't doing anypony any harm. Actually, I was hoping to come see your lovely home and maybe get to know your—"

A slightly younger stallion with grey fur and a white mane, but just as bulky in size, stepped next to his buddy. "Big peaceful talk from somepony that we caught stealing from us."

She took a deep breath. "As I was saying, Argyle is an archaeologist, and most of these artifacts depict non-unicorns. However, if you contest his claim for them, despite not realizing they were here till now, perhaps we could work out some sort of diplomatic arrangement. That's what civilized ponies would do, wouldn't they? And you are civilized ponies, aren't you?"

The third, a dark green stallion with a dark blue mane, grimaced. "Are you implying we aren't as civilized as you? That we aren't as good as some pampered-looking priss?"

"Well, you do live in the woods," she muttered without thinking and instantly covered her mouth, regretting the utterance.

"She does! She thinks she's better than us!" the leader exclaimed.

She stepped back. "I beg your forgiveness. That was highly insensitive of me, and I'm ashamed those words left my mouth. Let's start over. We are willing to negotiate. Surely something can be worked out. These items would mean the world to my friend here, and I would very much like to visit your village. You see Argyle and me spending time together; that should show we are open to working with other tribes, right?"

The leader smirked. "I think we're being very diplomatic about this. You don't see us using our horns on you and forcing you to do what we want, do you?"

She gulped. That was something to be glad about. She had no desire to be mind-controlled.

"That shows we can all be diplomatic. Surely that also means there is something we can work out," she said with a smile, spreading her wings graciously and bowing slightly.

Their leader pulled his cohorts into a tight huddle, and they began whispering to get her, occasionally looking towards her and Argyle.

Argyle came close to her and whispered, "I think they are intimidated by us. See how they keep their distance?"

She frowned. "Perhaps not. I mean, why give up their advantage? They can strike at us from a distance, and we can't do anything about it. Getting close to us only serves to give us a chance the fight back if it comes to that."

"I guess," Argyle replied. He seemed doubtful.

The stallions finished their private meeting, and their leader turned towards her with a smile. "How about this, we play a friendly little game, and if you win, you get to come to Bridlewood. If we win, we take that box and all its contents."

"What kind of game?" Haven asked.

The stallions took their bags off, and each pulled out a large amphora, each a plain brown with a large opening on top covered with a massive cork plug, and each identical to the others.

The leader pointed to the one he had taken out. "It's simple. We'll put something in one of the jars and mix them up. You must determine which jar has the item— a shell game, only with jars. We'll play three rounds, and you only need to win one. Those are decent odds, don't you think?"

"We can use something from that box, just one item, something distinct," one of the other stallions suggested.

The grey stallion nodded. "Just to be clear, no matter what, we do get to keep whatever you choose to use. Consider it the price of playing the game."

Haven turned and reached into the box with her wings, pulling out one of the unicorn figurines.

Argyle put a hoof on her wing. "Wait! Let me get a good look at her mark first. I don't have any records of what Starlight Glimmer's mark was, and you're about to give her away."

She resisted rolling her eyes. That would be an entirely unfair gesture. Argyle could have rejected this whole idea and refused to give up the toy. He certainly had a right to, and she hadn't even consulted him before putting giving away his finding. That he wasn't objecting was a sign that he too wanted to make things work with the unicorns. If things went well, and they made it to Bridlewood, she would reveal her identity and try to open formal relations with the unicorns.

Argyle hurriedly drew the mark in his notebook as the unicorns looked on impatiently. Once it was done, she held it out to them. "Here you are."

"Walk it out to about halfway between us and set it on the ground," the unicorn leader instructed.

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Why don't you just levitate it to yourself?"

The three unicorns went silent and looked at one another.

The leader turned and smiled. "We're being diplomatic, remember? We don't use our horns; you don't steal our luminescence."

"I don't do what now?" she asked in confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't have any interest in taking your… whatever that word was or anything else."

"We'll see," their leader said in a grim tone. "Just do as instructed."

This seemed needless, but she wasn't going to argue. She walked halfway towards them, placed the figure on the ground, and backed away to where she'd been. Their leader came forward, picked up the figure, and carried it back to the jars. The three unicorns then rehuddled around the jars, blocking the view of what they were doing. After about a minute, they each took a jar and set them out in a row.

"Two guesses to figure out which one it is in. Whenever you're ready," their leader announced.

She considered each of the jars. There was no discernable difference between them, and she hadn't heard anything when they had moved the jars in place. The one in the middle had moved the least, so it had the least chance of making noise; she pointed at that one.

The unicorn leader turned it upside down and shook it. Nothing came out. He set it down, right side up. They went into a new hurdle and exchanged jars so rapidly she couldn't keep track of which jar she had just chosen by the time they put them back in a row.

"One guess down, two to go," the leader said with a smirk.

She grimaced and pointed to the one on the right. The silver unicorn lifted that jar and shook it in the same manner as the first. Nothing came out.

They didn't go through the same process again; instead, pulling the jar she had just chosen aside. "We'll give you a fifty-fifty chance for your last guess. Two jars left, which one is it in?" their leader asked.

She was still clueless about which one. She turned towards Argyle. "Which one do you think?"

Argyle shook his head. "I don't know."

Haven sighed. "Me either. You pick. I've had bad luck so far. Maybe you'll do better."

Argyle was dripping sweat as he looked back and forth between the two jars.

"Hurry up, earth pony; we don't have all day," the unicorn leader jeered.

Argyle closed his eyes and pointed. "That one, on the left."

The unicorn in front of it smiled a wicked grin, turned the jar upside down, and shook. Nothing came out.

"Aww, too bad," their leader said with false sympathy. "I was hoping you could pull it off, but it seems you weren't lucky today. Now, hoof over that box and get out of our territory!"

Argyle looked like somepony had just bucked him in the face and dejectedly reached for the box.

"Show us the figurine first," Haven said, staring at the last jar.

The three unicorns closed ranks again. "We don't need to. You lost, and you aren't getting it back. You wouldn't have gotten it back if you won. That was the agreement."

"I want proof everything was fair," Haven asserted.

The unicorn leader stiffened. "Are you calling us cheats?"

She narrowed her brow. "If you aren't willing to prove you ran an honest game."

"We don't have to prove anything to you," the unicorn snarled.

She didn't think; she picked up a rock and hurled it at the remaining jar. The throw was one of the most impressive she'd ever done because it struck the jar dead center with enough force that the jar shattered.

"That pegasus destroyed our property!" the silver unicorn shouted in outrage.

Her eyes were on the remains of the jar and the conspicuous absence of the figurine.

"Cheats! Don't give them anything, Argyle!" Haven commanded.

Their leader stepped forward menacingly and lowered his horn towards them. "Destroy our property? We'll get you for that!"

Argyle hastily put the box in his saddlebag then nudged her. "I think it is time for us to go."

Her eyes widened as the other two unicorns joined their leader and aimed their horns threateningly at her. "I think you're right."

The two took off, running towards the river, not looking back to see if they were being pursued.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Oh boy that was not cool what they did so it looks like Argyle and Haven found the location where the figurines are buried which that's pretty weird why were they were buried but in good condition but then the unicorns came in and basically told him to get out but Argyle what the last figurine and the unicorns would play the game but apparently they cheated but they didn't want to resolve any violence so Argyle and Haven make a hasty retreat again that is not cool what they did I wonder how this will work out guess we'll find out next time by the way Happy New Year's

[Evil Paladin]

Ah, classic cups/shell game ran by a con artist.
The ball was in non of the cups to begin with.

Also, nice explanation for why Sunny didn't have Starlight Glimmer.
To be fair to the movie, Starlight wasn't an element of harmony.