Archmage: Square One

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Chapter 18: The Apple Falls from the Tree

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I stared at nothing again, but couldn't seem to do a thing to stop the spinning in my head. The near-death experience, hospital stay, and emergency mane styling still had me reeling... but asking that of me? Now? After everything else I'd been through?

Needless to say, I had my complaints, and had requested a private audience of them shortly afterwards, away from the prying eyes and ears of both my friends and the multitude of officers roaming the area.

”What do you MEAN you still need me to go into the Timberwolf territory?” My eyes flitted about the well furnished but small conference room, though with three princesses standing before me, the room felt more like the tiniest of closets. Cadance, Luna, and Celestia looked back with worried looks of their own. I could tell part of their worry was with Twilight, who was still outside the shield fighting off Io in one skirmish after another. At least the city didn’t have to deal with his massive bulk smashing itself into the ancient enchantments. Tiamat’s prolonged fire blasts were taxing the spells as it were.

“We mean—” Celestia let out an exasperated sigh “—that we need you to carry on with your original mission. It's clear that Io and the others were hiding in the Timberwolves' territory, waiting for the right time to strike. Twilight’s barrier threw a wrench in their plans for a short while, but as you can tell, Io managed to supersede that with… well, brute force. We still need to know what it is that’s going on up there, and why.”

“We understand you just went through a lot...” Luna spoke next, her tone concerned. “Truly, it pains us to ask anything more of you. But you and Basil are the most capable unicorns we have at the moment. Every other one is tasked with maintaining the enchantments protecting the city, and Twilight is too busy to leave to Canterlot for reinforcements. To be perfectly honest, I doubt any reinforcements could even reach the city without being destroyed by one of the Great Serpents.”

"Well, with options like those..." I looked at the three of them, their faces conveying concern and sympathy equally. “So, right back into the jaws of the wolf then?”

Cadance had been the next one to speak. "Your friends and family are still terribly worried about you, as are we. If we must send you out into danger once more, it will not be without a chance to rest and recuperate. Luna, Celestia, and I can handle the serpents if they attempt to break in again. Twilight is keeping them occupied and away from the city for now, and we know from experience she can go for weeks – months, even – without tiring.”

I let my eyes flicker to Luna at that, but Cadance continued.

“So, Star Caster, please take as much time as you feel you need. Three days, five—"

“One.” I had cut her off, squaring my shoulders opposite the three. “Give me one day. And I have a condition:”

The princesses blinked at me expectantly, and I had to remind myself to breathe.

“Goldy comes with me."

Now, I found myself on the far side of a ‘recuperation’ session with the same golden-colored pegasus, who was snoring peacefully in the other room. I stood in the bathroom, looking at my haggard expression. Maybe it had been the few days I’d spent in the hospital (or week, or however long it had been,) or maybe it was even the aftermath of the hoof-full of orgasms I’d suffered at the hooves and tongue of an overly-eager partner, but I felt…

Older.

I was still a young unicorn. In many ways, I felt like a filly trying to wear my daddy's shoes on my hooves... and yet, looking into the eyes of the mare in the mirror, I saw somepony else. I had a new mane, new scars, and even a few new bags under my eyes. The Star Caster in the mirror looked like a mare well into her forties, if not older. And she looked tired, worn out, depleted.

That notion did not sit well with me. I ran the faucet and splashed water on my face, relishing the chill that came with it. After the hospital and its stuffy warmth, a little bit of cool felt good. If nothing else, the splash of cold made me a bit more eager to jump in the shower and indulge in a more thorough cool down. Maybe it was the faucet that woke her, but Goldy’s snoring stopped, and she slipped into the bathroom behind me.

“Can’t sleep?” She asked, nudging my flank.

“Something like that. Though after the hospital, I think I can survive one sleepless night.”

“Maybe...” She chuckled, nuzzling into my cutie mark lovingly. “...or maybe I just didn’t tire you out enough.”

“Oh trust me, there was plenty of that.” I groaned, slowly pushing my haunches back a little. Goldy's touch made me hunger for another helping of her gorgeous body, but the wafting scent of last carnal romp hit my nose like a hammer, reminding me how badly the both of us needed that shower.

But even more than that, a niggling doubt had taken hold in the back of my mind, a persistent reminder that I wasn’t the only one putting myself in harm’s way again. Basil was going with me, and I didn’t feel the desire to leave Goldy behind while I waded face-first into danger once more.

’So what if she weighs you down, Star? She has every right to stand beside you as Basil does; perhaps even more. Basil means a lot to you, but the love of your life is right behind you, and you know she won't want to let you go alone either. Yes, you’re young; yes, you’re foolish. But even if she puts herself at risk to stand beside you, that’s her call and not yours, is it not?’

Whatever heated passions had boiled to a head died almost immediately. I turned to Goldy, seeking her eyes with my own. It seemed she sensed the seriousness of the situation, as her lips stopped caressing my flank, and instead pressed into a thin line.

“They asked you to go back out there.”

I flinched and let my ears droop. “There really isn’t slipping anything past you, is there?”

“You’re easier to read than Daring Do, Star.” Goldy smiled and kissed my cheek. “You realize I’m coming with you this time, right?”

“I had halfway hoped you wouldn’t say that.” I sighed and slowly wrapped my hooves around her. “This isn’t going to be some picnic in the woods, Goldy. We’re walking into real danger here, the kind that most ponies don’t come home from.”

“All the more reason to take me with you.” Goldy’s voice was somber, her tone serious, but her words reminded me of something cliché, out of a novel or something. “Home is where the heart is, and if my heart’s with you, then there too is home. I don’t care if it’s right here in this bathroom or caught in the middle of a million timberwolves.” She wrapped her own hooves around me, returning the embrace. She squeezed me like a drowning pony clings to flotsam, as if I were her last hope in the tumultuous sea of our crazy lives.

“I’m not going to emerge from hiding only to find you nearly dead. Not again. Not ever.” She choked, her chest trembling. “If you go out, I’m going right by your side.”

I couldn’t say anything to her. Who possibly could? Maybe one of the princesses, with thousands of years of knowledge, could have found some wisdom; some infinitesimal parcel of knowledge to impart to a loved one that would give them hope…

But I am a hopeless mare, in love with somepony equally so.

So I held her, and together we cried.

“Heavens help me, Star, I canNOT allow this!” Basil stalked back and forth, alternately glaring at the sky and us, snorting and grumbling in between outbursts like the one he just finished.

So far, this had gone just about how I expected it to, and if I wanted it to end at some point, I would have to get a word in edge-wise.

“It’s just too dangerous! She has no means of defending herself—“

“Aside from the wings.” Goldy muttered defensively.

“—shut up, and Star, you KNOW what we’re walking into!”

“I know, I do.” I sighed, standing between the two of them like a mediator. “But this is neither the time nor the place for an in-depth analysis of pegasi and unicorn combat capabilities… Goldy is coming with us, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner we can resolve this dissonance between the two of you.”

“Ah uh.” Basil lifted his hooves, balking immediately. “That ‘dissonance’ isn’t anything that can be resolved in a fucking afternoon, Star! Sure, given a few years and more alcohol than any retail store provides, I might be able to come to grips with what happened. Maybe.” He pointed a hoof at her, quivering visibly. “But I am not walking into the heart of Timberwolf territory with a whore of an Apple family member clinging to my tail the whole way.”

“For the last time, my contract didn’t—”

“Say what you want, it ain’t the first time an Apple has lied to me.” Basil shot back, a snarl curling the corner of his lip upwards. “He told me he didn’t have that part in his contract either. And yet, there I was, with a fifteen hundred bit debt hanging over my head and Apple enforcers breathing down my neck.”

“And you really think—”

“That you’re gonna do the same thing to Star?” Basil snarled, stepping forward. I felt my defenses rise, almost on their own. I didn't know how deadly Basil could be in a real fight, but we had traded more than enough blows in sparring runs that I knew I could at least hold him off if things got out of control. Basil seemed to sense my tension, since he backed off a little, but the anger was still in his voice.

“Look, Goldy, I know you feel you need to come with us, that leaving Star and I alone outside of the city without you is just plain unacceptable. But you need to be rational, Goldy… I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how dangerous these creatures are; you saw for yourself what they did to Star, not to mention the dozens of guards and civilians who lost their lives out there.”

He opened his eyes and leveled them at Goldy. Gone was the anger, the rage, the contempt. Now his was a face of calm, cool calculation.

It was the sort of look only a pupil of Twilight could wear that smoothly.

“Call me foolish, call me an idiot—” I started, only to be interrupted by Basil.

“You’re an idiot.”

“… har har. I understand the risks, Basil. I’m well aware that my life is forfeit the moment we set hoof outside of that wall.” Goldy stepped forwards, not threateningly, but with a confidence borne of an acute sense of self-worth. “Have you ever been in love, Basil?”

The question threw Basil off-guard. I saw him blink once, twice, three times, evaporating the cool pretense he’d had just a moment prior. She had disarmed him with a single question; simple yet profound, and heavy enough to break his mental masks in one stroke. I could see the war raging behind his eyes already. A war that, if I were a smart mare, would have me abandon whatever line of questioning I’d been pursuing and seek shelter behind the nearest solid obstacle. Preferably a mountain. Anger, envy, fear, desire, nostalgia, and everything in between washed over his face like a storm, but in its wake, only one thing was left.

Resignation.

Basil hung his head with a sigh, his voice quivering as he answered. “Once.”

“Then you know—”

“That you’d go to the very ends of Equestria for Star. That'd you'd readily face even impossible odds, in the hope that you'd see her smile, or feel her touch, one last time. I know that you’d climb mountains, dive to the deepest sea, take a million arrows, and do it all with a grin on your face because you’re helplessly, hopelessly, maybe even finally in love. I get it. I do.”

He pulled in a deep breath, but it wasn’t like any other. With it came magic, a kind that I hadn’t felt before. I watched, mystified (and a little threatened) as Basil’s coat– no, his entire body began to change. It started at his hooves, slowly building up as it consumed more and more of his legs. Goldy and I both took a step back, our eyes wide at the sudden and mystifying transition happening before us.

It was a flame, green in hue, almost unmistakable from the color of his coat. But I saw it gain definition as it washed over him, leaving in its wake a shiny, black carapace.

Basil wasn’t Basil at all.

He was a changeling.

I had only seen them in pictures and diagrams, and heard one mystifying story from Twilight while she and I had dabbled in love magic. Basil was a member of the parasitic race of bug-like doppelgangers that hadn’t been seen in Equestria for years upon years; millennia, even. Not since their queen had been banished long, long ago.

Needless to say, both Goldy and I were stunned. Basil’s insect eyes shifted from one of us to the other, and he slowly lowered himself to his haunches. Everything, from the diaphanous wings to the holes in his legs, was as I had pictured it in my head. But he didn’t have an expression of malice, as they had been depicted in comics and novels, or even the dead, vacant expression of the medical textbooks and their grotesque dissection attempts. His expression was almost blank, as if the transformation of his skin had also stripped him of all but the tears still welling in his eyes.

“I think I, of all creatures in Equestria, would know what it is to love somepony.”

“But…” Goldy’s eyes were wide, and I could see her quivering. “Changelings just… feed off of love, right? You guys don’t—”

“A regular changeling would, yes.. But, I’m no ‘regular’ changeling. Sure, I still need love to live, and I get it. Just ask Cobalt. But let me ask you this,” Basil stood, stepping towards us carefully. To my shame, I did nothing to stop the chill of paranoia from crawling up and down my spine, chilling me to the bone for a moment.

“What happens when a changeling feels love? And I don’t mean the misplaced, misguided love we used to feed off of, where you impersonate somepony beloved, and feed off of that… I mean, what happens when a pony loves you not for the pony you’re disguised as...” Basil flashed back in a whoosh of green flame. “but as the pony you actually are.” With another whoosh, the changeling came back, the tears still clinging to his eyes.

“Wait, you mean that—”

“Haybale actually loved me for me. Not Jetstream, or Glister, or any other pony I’ve impersonated or created over the years. No, Haybale actually loved me.” The tears came in force then, streaming down the changeling’s face. He sniffled, dropping back to his haunches and lowering his face. “I know he did,” Basil choked. “It felt so real. I wasn’t a normal changeling after him, I really wasn’t… I had magic – real magic – and you know I do. Even disguised, I can cast any spell a unicorn can. I… I was as close to a pony as any one of us had ever been. What else could it have been?”

“I don’t doubt he loved you, Basil.” I said softly, taking a tentative step towards him. “But… I get the feeling you’re not telling us everything.”

“I’m not.” Basil sniffled, shaking his head. “Honestly, it was never his fault at all. It was his controller. They found us together one day, called him into their office. The very next day, six goons were after me with a bill for 'past-due dalliances'."

“Don’t tell me.” Goldy cut in then, her face pale. “They sent Bronco Bullwhip after you?”

“And the whole Acquisitions division.”

“So that was you!” Goldy shot up, her jaw hanging open. She backed away from him, her wings spread wide and twitching. I knew that was a bad sign, that she was ready to fly away at a moment’s notice. “You did that, twelve years ago! You were the one who—”

“Goldy,” I stepped towards her, concern on my face. “Goldy, what happened?”

“Star, he… he…”

“Tell her.” Basil choked. He sobbed several times, drawing a shaky breath before re-asserting himself. “Tell her what I did.”

“Star, he murdered the entire acquisitions division!”

“It’s true.” Celestia sighed, slowly letting the scroll she had been reading roll shut. I stood at the threshold of her office, having just burst in with three guards and Cadance on my tail. Celestia waved them off and ushered me inside. Still breathing heavily, I let the door close behind me and took the lone chair opposite Celestia’s desk in her makeshift office. “I’m guessing Twilight never told you the story, did she?”

“What story?” I asked, still reeling from Basil's revelation. "From what I've seen so far, this seems more nightmare than story."

“Well, I suppose it would, given that you don’t know the whole ordeal. Have a seat, Star Caster, this may take a while.” Celestia waited for me to get comfortable before beginning.

"It starts hundreds of years ago, when Equestria looked almost entirely different than it does now. Back then, Appleoosa was little more than a settlement surrounded by desert and nomadic Buffaloes, and the city you know as Ponyville was a small, quiet farm community. Twilight made her home there, but Ponyville was also the ancestral home of the Apple family, and one of Twilight's closest friends, Applejack. She was an honest, upstanding mare, and as you know, an element of harmony."

Celestia let out a sigh that fell into a small chuckle. "Honestly, she'd buck a few heads backwards if she saw what happened top her family, her farm, her town." She shook her head before continuing.

“Times changed. We soon found ourselves on the brink of a famine. Mind you, this was several hundred years after Twilight’s ascension, and well after any member of the Apple family could call themselves her friend. One of the first lessons we princesses learn is that times change, even in as little as a decade, let alone a few centuries. As luck would have it, a very intelligent pair of twins was born to the Apple family. One, by the name of Appleseed, was a brilliant unicorn with a hoof for greenery and all things floral. The other, a devious Earth Pony named Gold Digger, had a penchant for under-hoofed schemes and get-rich-quick shticks.

“We were fortunate enough that both siblings were alive at the same time. Gold Digger had discovered his own namesake in the creek bed, and wanted to excavate to see if he could find more ore underneath the family’s farm. At the same time, Appleseed had found a way to cultivate arid deserts, using a rather unique brand of nature magic. The family and the four of us came to an agreement, that for the betterment of Equestria, Appleseed would be given all the support and funding he needed to begin cultivating the Appleoosan desert. In exchange, Gold Digger agreed to excavate his family's farm in Ponyville in order to speed the repayment process and ensure we didn't entirely run out of funds to keep food flowing.

“As luck would have it, both brothers struck a relative gold mine. Well, one was more literal, but still… Appleseed's spell worked incredibly fast and was easy to replicate; in four years we had not only avoided a crippling famine, but we had turned a desert into the richest source of food we had ever seen. For his part, Gold Digger struck a massive vein of gold and seemingly endless amounts of gems and other valuable ores. Between the incredible crops and the trading windfall, Equestria was more well-off than either myself or Luna can ever recall.

A ghost of a frown passed Celestia’s features.

“I should have stopped him when I had the chance. If I’d have known that Gold Digger’s legacy would have compounded on itself, I’d have called an end to it long, long ago.” She heaved a world-weary sigh, pinching the bridge of her muzzle as her eyes clenched shut

“Gold Digger’s children weren’t satisfied with what they had. Once they inherited the farm upon their father's death, they began to siphon valuables off of their income, and use those to leverage favors and land from their neighbors. It began with the Carrots’ farm, then soon after the Rose’s plantation, the Berry’s vineyard, and even the outlying houses in and around Ponyville. Before we could really stop them, they had managed to convince the mayor to resign the deed for the city to them and retire to Horseshoe Bay a wealthy stallion. In a short ten years’ time, Ponyville had been literally bought out from beneath its residents.

“Soon after, they began demolishing the entire town to make way for further mining, and the market was flooded with their gold and gems. Twilight reverse-engineered a dragon digestion spell to make some types of gems useful as a edible garnish, but that did little to stem the tide of riches coming from the ground. But they were making more and more gold and jewelry, and soon began to expand their operations. They began building banks, taking out contracts for work across Equestria. There were even rumors of them hiring killers to murder influential business competitors. All of it was baseless slander and completely untraceable, mind you, but still…

“Within fifty years, the Apple family had displaced both the Fancy Pants Conglomerate and Filthy Rich himself as the most powerful and influential family in Equestria. Their legacy lasts on today, even though the crown had to intervene to prevent them from an all-out monopoly. They’ve been limited to their rock farm in Ponyville, the strip mine, and whatever labor and management contracts they can get. They lease prospectors like Golden Nugget to their competitors for a small retainer, all on command of the crown. If we didn’t keep a close eye on their business dealings, I have no doubt in my mind that they'd be ripping this castle from the mountainside this very moment, searching for yet more gold.”

“… And the prostitution?” I honestly thought I’d have more questions at the end of the story, but Celestia had covered most of it rather well. I could see how a big, heartless company like that could do the things they did. Being as new to Equestrian law as any first-year paralegal student, though, I’d need a little more clarification. “How is that legal under any circumstance, especially in a contract?”

“That’s… a touchy subject.” Celestia sighed. "When the Apples began their rise to prominence, the idea of binding contracts was still new to Equestria. One of their lawyers, a pegasus by the name of Loophole, found ways to jam any nefarious terms desired into a contract packed with jargon and prose far more complex than anypony could hope to understand. It took a decade for her ruse to be discovered, and Twilight very nearly banished her to Tartarus for the damage she had wrought on countless ponies' lives. It was out of this injustice that the Clarity Mandate was born."

“I’ve read about this before.” I interjected, suddenly struck with understanding. “Any contract made between any two parties needs to be written in terms perfectly understandable by even a child.”

“Correct.” Celestia beamed at me. “And to this day, the Apples have abided by that mandate, if only to avoid incurring the wrath of Twilight once more. Yet when one door closed on them, the Apples bucked open another one. They simplified their contracts, but they also made them confidential. Only the parties involved saw them, which meant they could go back to putting anything they wanted in there, just in simpler terms than before.

By including a clause about prostitution and all sexual activities being retroactively billable, they could still garner favor, albeit through more… under-hoofed means. Now they could keep the bits flowing by twisting the legs of every one-night stand, devoted relationship, and star-crossed lover who ever took one of their contractors between the sheets.

And the Acquisitions Bureau became their enforcers.

“And this was allowed?” I gaped, bewildered that such an act hadn’t been stopped ages ago.

“It’s all in the paperwork.” Celestia snorted and rubbed her temples with her hooves. I could tell the Apples had been a headache for a long, long while. “It’s not uncommon practice for many ponies to ask their partners if they’re contractors for the Apple family, right alongside the first drinks bought or the first rug cut. Even then, the Acquisitions Bureau still gets a few dozen cases a year, with either voluntary payment or involuntary garnishment. They’re usually civil about it, wrapping their victims in red tape and court dates, but every so often a more firm touch is needed for them to get their bits. Enter Heather’s predecessor, Bronco Bullwhip.”

“Basil’s victim.”

“He wasn’t Basil when that happened, but yes, Bullwhip ran afoul of Twilight’s student… Him and six of his operatives, in a Stalliongrad bar. Twilight heard of the disturbance first, and upon investigation, had a rather eye-opening revelation about the Apple family’s tactics. She took the changeling under her wing, curious about his development from a mindless, love-sucking drone into a heartbroken and potent mage. Today, ‘Basil’ stays as he is, and has found a new love in cooking. Not to say he isn’t good at what he does, he wouldn’t be here in Trottingham if he weren’t. But I trust in Twilight completely, and I’m willing to vouch for Basil. He may hate the Apple family, but he is not as violent as he was that night.” Celestia smiled at me genuinely, lifting her hooves and letting them drop.

“Does that answer your questions?”

“And then some. Thank you, princess.” I stood and bowed to her, moving towards the door. I had to have another long talk with Basil and Goldy after this, and I had a feeling I knew how to get them to trust one another. Or at least tolerate the other long enough to make it through whatever challenge awaited us out there.

“Star Caster?” Celestia stopped me just as I began to open the door.

“Yes, Princess?” I turned back to her.

“You said you would only need one day, and your time is waning. I understand if you need to take another day to prepare, but I am curious how your preparations for the mission are coming along?”

“Aah, I’m sorry, but I do think I’m going to need one more day before we’re ready to leave.” I opened the door, determination on my face. “I’m going to need a spa pony.”