The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

ch20 Generosity

As the other three of Twilight’s companions heaved the princess of the night onto a plush burgundy couch, Twilight sat at a small tea table with Rarity looking at her with discontent. The two unicorn's expressions slightly conveyed their differing emotions at the mere presence of seeing the other. Twilight stared at the bourgeois marble-white unicorn as she poured her tea slowly into a cup looking like she was unpleased with seeing the mere existence of the Element of Generosity in front of her.

Meanwhile, Rarity had a calm smile that also had her drowsiness shown through the bags under her eyes as she smiled weakly at her discontent friend. The two other mares could read what their facial expressions conveyed. But Rairty had an eyebrow raised, not knowing the context behind why Twilight seemed so disdained for one of her friends. It seemed odd and quite new to them. But Thorax, he could taste their emotions. It certainly did give him a better understanding of their disharmony. It certainly wasn’t romantic feelings, obviously, but rather seemed like Twilight seemed offended by some violation of friendship. The fashionista had slightly crossed a line Twilight had established beforehand.

Twilight’s eyes wandered around the clothing store, looking at all the fancy dresses and outfits hoofmade tirelessly and passionately like the clothes themselves were sculptures made of cloth. Then her eyes narrowed and focused back on the mare before her. Obviously, Rarity could feel the disappointment coming off the Element of Magic’s stern look and slouched posture.

“So Twilight, uh, how have things been going? I know you’re not in the happiest of moods, especially seeing me. I know what I’m doing is considered taboo, and I’m trying not to cross too far into that line of things and I know you care much about him too and I can tell you’re searching for him. Just, forgive me. I can tell you’re in some trouble. Here have some cinnamon tea, I made it myself with Sweetie Bell.” Rarity nudged over the small delicate teacup to Twilight with a sympathetic look in her eyes that had a sense of hospitality and understanding.

In response to the off of the tea, Twilight lifted her hoof and gently nudged it back and sighed softly as her eyes focused on the steam coming off the water. “Rarity, I just don’t want you around Spike. You don’t seem like you really understand that he is learning his boundaries.”

Rarity smiled and lowered into a frown of guilt as the topic of the conversation finally settled in. “Twilight, you and I both understand that dragons when they, as you put it, reach adulthood, which frankly dear I view as a nonexistent social form of status and expectation, it takes longer for them to reach it. They live longer, they have multiple stages of life, unlike us ponies. Our age and social normative age of -well eighteen seems small compared to theirs. Not saying that dating an infant, of all things, is good.”

“Why the fuck are you still hanging out with him and giving him this fucking attention?” Twilight’s fist slammed into the teacup, shattering it, and spilled the sizzling tea onto the expensive tablecloth. It soaked into the cloth made the skin on Twilight sting in pain. She seemed to ignore it.

Thorax sat his flank down as he tasted the differing emotions that the two elements gave off in simultaneous reaction to each other's response, as if they themselves were two atoms colliding and bouncing off each other creating sparks that the changeling could feel, which made him feel tense on the inside.

Meanwhile, Applejack and Fluttershy had left the room as the long moment of silence continued while Rarity internally sulked. “Twilight I was never prepared for the life of independence and living on my own free volition. I have always expected some mythical stallion of flawless beauty to wander into my life like some romance novel, but my young mind was stupid. Harmony has an unfair side-effect that all creatures must endure. Some stallions exploited me just to take out their pain and suffering or to fuel their narcissistic self-gratification. Why, by princess platinum’s vomit I even ignored some fillies and colts that needed a hoof lent to like I did. Even as I stand at this age of mine I feel like I’m below. Why I’m friends with you Twilight is because I can tell you view yourself in the same manner. You don’t seem content with this idea either and from the conversations I’ve had with you in the past, you seemed to only have differentiations of your past years compared to now. And I don’t feel any emotions for Spike but I am merely trying to make him feel the affection I so desperately dreamed of receiving when I was younger. There will be no other dragons in this town, there’s a bunch of incapabilities with this stepbrother of yours with all the other mares and stallions in this town. You can not expect him to get it on with a different species or to understand the “adult norms” of Equestrian culture.” Rarity ended sternly on the last part as some slight tears ran down her eyes of the taboo she was trying to justify or at least redefine what her age meant.

Twilight growled and smacked Rarity across the face with her hoof. Then with a glow of her horn she shoved Rarity down to the ground with a snarl. “Ok Rarity I get your perspective, but what matters now is that he’s missing! I don’t care about your personal age regression or how you view yourself. You are my friend but Spike has to learn. Heck, most likely he will do what I did! Meaning he will try both options of each common gender and realize they aren’t worth it and that maybe being by yourself is a good enough option. Have you ever considered that your good intentions to make him feel good would make him feel like he’s being lied and manipulated? I can’t believe I’m even going on such a debate on this when we have some extradimensional thing, this tall fucker stalking us, teasing us, and sending its brainwashed subordinates after us! It’s trying to kill us! I want Spike back. He is the closest thing I have to family, besides my older brother who is now distant from me. And now Spike, who reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger, is now missing. Do you get what I’m saying!” Twilight’s barrage ended with her heaving her nostril breath into Rarity’s teary eyes.

Thorax had always hated seeing stuff like this happen and he, as a changeling, had a hard time dealing with the differences that ponies had with changelings mentally. Usually, changeling broods reached adulthood in two weeks, which made Thorax find the concept of a childhood lasting years very strange. He understood where Rarity was coming from. If what she was doing was not so ethically correct, he could tell she was a mare in pain and he didn’t know what to do. After all it wasn’t his problem, it was theirs to deal with.

After about fifteen minutes the two unicorns seemed to calm down. Twilight just laid on the floor feeling just as tired as Rarity. “Twilight, are you saying that the legend of the Tallmare is true?” Rarity rasped as her baggy bloodshot eyes gazed up at the decorated ceiling that was decorated in little paint murals that looked like flowers.

“Sadly, indeed I am. It’s not been a good effect on my psyche but this thing certainly exists and it’s affected Luna.” Twilight chuckled as she smiled at her own anguish with a humorous outlook on her morbid experience.

“I can help if you want, Twilight. If you need my generosity it will help you. After all, I am the one who took the photo of “Jeff” as the papers call him. And I’m not afraid to fight off whatever you’ve been facing. After all, what was it that Star Swirl said, you quoted?”

“Friendship is magic and in everything you can think of, spiritual, arcane, ritual, personal, and political.” Twilight quoted thinking back to the many theses of harmony that Star Swirl had written back when he was alive and in ancient Equestria. Still Twilight questioned his methodology. The scientific method combined with the magical understanding of harmonic flow had really changed how Twilight saw magic worked. Most of the current understanding of how ponies came into existence is solely based on the fact that harmony guided many different species as they are now. Unicorns and alicorns are the byproduct of magical interference. Even now she was questioning it. Whatever that hound thing was had hinted at things and the understanding of what the Tallmare was and what her sibling is. This showed her that maybe the understanding of the metaphysical arts is understanding that which is below the surface. She knew it would be likely that this knowledge would show itself as her journey into the unknown continued.

---

The group of 4 mares, 1 Alicorn, and the changeling walked around the boutique as the sun's rays of light seeped through the windows, lighting up the lightless lounge that they slept in. Twilight and Thorax were sitting at the kitchen table while looking outside at the forest in the distance, reminding themselves about the thing that still haunted them. They still felt on edge as both of them shared the same concern that this derailment of this journey only put them at risk of being steps behind the entity. Personally Twilight didn't really care about the argument that happened the night before, or she did in a sense but that was not important to her in the current moment. She wanted Spike back with her, she hadn't really paid attention to the emotions that she buried in the back of her head until now. Someone she felt linked with had been taken away, severed from her life as if an organ had been removed from her body. The worse thing was that the thing and the ponies that took him were now a threat to her life as well as her stepbrother's. Did she feel fear?: yes she did. Did her mind tell her to push onwards with rage?: It did as well.

Thorax took a long sip of the tea Rairty gave him and looked back at Twilight solemnly as sunlight refracted in his fly-like eyes. "Sooooo do you have an idea of our next course of action? Im asking because you seem to be the one in charge of our little investigation, well besides Luna."

"No fucking clue, I'm curious about how many ponies are this hivemind that the Tallmare created. Then again I don't know what is up with Vinly, she seems like a special case, and quite the abnormal creepy one. I just can't answer those questions because yet again, we are at a dead end." Twilight was visibly lost when it came to deciding what they should do next. She felt exhausted, mentally drained and clueless.

Rarity then abruptly scooted one of the chairs that sat in the middle of them and sat down."May I suggest something to you Twilight? I know I'm not as knowledgeable about your current dilemma as you, but it's just a suggestion. Do you know about that cave in the Everfree near the waterfall that has cave paintings that dated back way before the sisters? I had been hearing some gossip about that cave, I know it's connected to an unexplored cave system and the local gossip I've been listing surrounds something, strange about that cave. Ponies have been telling me that there is some group of ponies seen just, staring at the waterfall, from the stall that told me about it he said that were looking down from a hill, they were hard to make out at such a distance but they were there. Now I usually just see this as some crazy tall tale told for attention, but from what you have told me it sounds like this may be more than a tale. Does this hold any potential importance to the problem you had been dealing with?" Her tone was blunt and she obviously hinted that she wanted to be involved. Rarity felt sure this tidbit was of importance In helping her friend, and possibly earning back her respect.

Twilight knew of the mixed reputation of the cave, its historical and archeological importance, as well the local legends that surround it. If the cave was unexplored then it must mean some importance on what the Silnet queen is, but how much?