Chapter Five

Pinkie stuck out her tongue in concentration, surveyed the dungeon one last time, and rolled.

I leaned over, did some mental math, and nodded. "You've got the devil's luck, Miss Pie- you anticipate a collapse of the cave's roof and successfully lead your party around it."

"Those dark lords always hire shoddy contractors!" said the mare.

"And they never let their minions unionize," said Crazy Dan, checking the stats of his earth pony paladin again. A busy weekend had seen three new races added to our game- mostly written out in one of my spare notebooks.

A book on native Equestrian fauna had made for a healthy addition to the monster manual, too.

"Twilight the barbarian is upset," said my favorite purple mare, who had really enjoyed the roleplaying aspect. "She thinks we ought to fight the rocks. She is strong!"

"Yes she is," said Jill, chuckling. "I want to do a dungeoneering check- those inscriptions sounded ominous."

A half-successful check had the party learning that the dungeon was older than its current master, and had once been a temple to the god Kord. That had Linda excited- her paladin was a worshiper of him. I had my fingers crossed- for as much as my job was to challenge the players in the most brutal ways possible, she'd be getting some useful loot if she were clever during the next game session.

"And that's the night, I think," I announced. "Anybody staying for movie night?"

"For Miyazaki?" said Linda. "Count me in. I want my animes."

"Daisy, we're moving out."

The earth pony spat at some sort of leaf which, well, it looked pretty damn close to good old cannabis, and quirked her brow. She slid on the cart harness long before I'd reached her side, and only then asked the question.

"No luck, witch?" she asked.

"Nothing!" I shouted, kicking a nearby log. "What wasn't stolen, they burned. They burned books!" My wings ruffled under my cloak. I needed to go for a flight soon- clear my head and maybe throw some lightning around. That always made me feel better.

"Some things just end up lost, witch." The mare looked up, then further up, at the crumbling tower. Wizards, of course, love towers. It was only common sense. "Somepony you knew?" asked Daisy.

"That place has been abandoned for decades, Daisy," I said, irritation leaking out of my tone. She didn't so much as blink. "Mare, I'm not even forty!"

'Until next week,' I stupidly reminded myself.

"I figured it was a witch thing," said the earth pony with a shrug. "You know, eatin' babies keeps you young." This time, she couldn't hide her smile.

"I hate that rumor!" I stomped, reducing the earlier log into two, smaller logs. It had started out rotten though, so that was less impressive than it sounded. "I've never eaten babies! I never will! You've seen me eat dinner, Daisy. You've watched me, right?"

"Amazing what the chef's presentation can do. My uncle makes a cake that looks like a house, you know." Her ears flicked thoughtfully. "You know, if the house was cake-shaped."

"...Potato-shaped babies," I muttered.

"They're sorta shaped like potatoes to begin with, to be fair," said Daisy, trying to sound like she was trying to be sympathetic. The bitch.

"What do I pay you for, Daisy?" I asked.

"To pull the cart, Lady Tham'ra," said Daisy. "And next you'll say, 'but I don't pay you for sass'. And that's right, you don't. The sass is for free."

"But I don't pay you for..." I swallowed, and her words caught up with me. "Oh. Oh god, I've turned into my mother. I might cry."

"There, there," said Daisy, who was still enjoying herself far too much.

We were back on track soon enough. The cart had been an addition I made... about eight years ago. From when I first started seriously collecting lore. Many Bags were ridiculously expensive, rare, and only worked in specific situations because of their limitations. A cart charmed for toughness and lightness, though? Much easier. Easy enough to manage on my own, as a matter of fact.

Daisy was the second assistant I'd had in that time. She was getting paid ridiculously well, and would probably end up going back to her family in a couple months with enough to help her herd open their own farmstead. I got transportation and conversation, which kept me free to run around and less likely to go crazy, respectively.

"Where to next, my lady?" asked Daisy the morning after my failed attempt to raid a forgotten unicorn's tower.

I sighed over my bowl of greens. We'd have to stop at a town, soon, for travel bread and cheeses, and other necessities. But after that...

I flipped open my latest spare journal and backtracked over a few months' worth of notes. "...Here. Right. Magical scrying pool just past Trotting Wattsville. We'll stop for goodies and hit up the pool."

"Looking to do some scrying?" asked Daisy. Like Erma had, and like my first assistant Rumbler had, Daisy had picked up the concepts of magic well enough to talk about it with some confidence. Just because you can't use it, obviously didn't mean you had to treat it as something supernatural.

All joking aside- magic was a thing, and it could be understood. It was natural, just... a weird kind of natural. Like jellyfish.

Daisy was probably one of the most educated earth ponies, or ponies, of this era, period, simply because I couldn't help but obsessively pour facts into anybody I met for more than five minutes at a time.

"Maybe," I said. Honestly, scrying was one of many branches of magic that I had never bothered with. There was only so much I could do, when I was always on the move. Sure, I'd read about it, but theory and practice were two very different things. I didn't have a Twilight Sparkle on hand to pull miracles out of her butt.

As nice as that would be.

"Honestly," I said, "If the Mirror of the Moon Goddess wasn't reputed to be as powerful as it was, I probably wouldn't bother. That's the point of artifacts- they're a way of covering a handicap, or amplifying something you already have. I've got no practice in this field, so I need as big a boost as I can."

I'd escalate my attempts, of course. Space, then time, then time and space.

"Sounds good," said Daisy. "Um, how are we for funds, if we're resupplying?"

"Well, we've still got your pay on hand," I said, in case she was worried on that account.

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Don't be dense, Witch."

"Don't call me dense! I am a powerful, vengeful magic user! Ponies all over fear my name and think I eat babies!" I growled.

"Do you need a hug?" she asked me.

"...Not right now," I muttered, kicking sand onto our cooking fire. "But you're right, we need travel funds. So... we're taking the Seabringer road!"

"The one with all the bandits?" asked Daisy. "With a nice-looking cart with just two little ponies pulling it, without any visible weapons?" I nodded eagerly, and she sighed. "Well, alright then. Still, I feel sort of bad for them whenever we pull this."

"It's a public service," I assured her. "Which we're benefiting from. That makes us generous and clever!"

486 A.M. -Fourteenth day of the second medial summer

Twenty years, more or less, away from Earth. Soon I'll have been a pegasus as long as I've been a human. It's almost laughable to call a couple years 'soon', but then the time has been passing quickly. How long do pegasi live? I can only guess I was twenty-five in body when I switched over, but who knows? I know that the tribe is so militaristic these days that death by disease or violence is by far so common that 'maximum lifespan' is a debatable variable.

I'm still learning. Always am, I guess. All that and no cutie mark, too! I'm probably -ha- doing it wrong, but then my current journey takes precedence. My only journey, really. Ever since Oak and Heather, I've lost the motivation to settle for a normal life. I didn't think the idea had occurred to me before stumbling across them, but then life tends to surprise you.

Heather. I only learned what 'Hayli' meant months after scaring off that flock of pegasi, fifteen years ago. I was in a field, and some pony I didn't know was complaining about catching his hooves on all the 'Hayli'. I broke out in tears, like some madwoman -madmare- when I figured out my once-daughter's name. I had eight months with those two.

I've said it before- this land is a mess of dead end fairy tales. It's steeped in mysticism and secrets, and here I am thinking I can pull together enough fragments to make some sort of useful, complete something or other.

And to what end? Where am I trying to go? What do I do if I find out there's no going anywhere?

This place is chaos, among which are small pockets of fragile happiness.

Short-lived, and fragile.

-Tamara Jessica Whittle

"This is... less than optimal," I said, staring into the depths of the Lunar Arcadium.

"Why?" asked Daisy. "This is great! I've never met seaponies, before!"

I stared at the stupid, stupid pony, and sighed. Reaching into the cart, I pulled out a large paper board and a stick of graphite. On it, I wrote in big letters, 'Not Explosive!'. Then, seeing some of the hippocampi watching us curiously, I added, 'Not A Challenge!'.

There was a muttered, 'Aw, shucks,' from behind us. But I knew how to deal with this. In fact, parking so close to the entrance might work to our advantage.

"You, there!" I said, bearing down on one of the seaponies who was wearing a sufficiently fancy hat. That, I was pretty certain, meant status.

"Who, me?" she -I went by the voice- said, gesturing innocently to herself with one fin.

"Yes," I said, stopping at the lip of the pool. "I am the witch, Tham'ra! If I return to find-"

"Your cart is safe, oh great witch!" said the mare with a grin.

I went on and ignored the interruption, "Then I will teach you how to add colors to your explosions, in the way of the naga shamans!"

Her faux-innocent look, which I was certain held madness and the desire to see the world burn, disappeared and was replaced with honest interest. "Promise?" she asked.

"Promise," I said, and waggled my hood. She waggled her hat back at me, and the deal was sealed.

I went back to Daisy, who looked highly amused, and took in the whole of the Arcadium. It was a massive, mostly underground complex. The outside had been carved meticulously in certain places, giving the impression that the Roman senate itself had been half-buried in natural stone. It was... beautiful. Some group had put such care as to make a mathematically perfect monument to mystery itself.

There were no records, not even a mention in the myths, of just who had built it. Other groups and species had dwelt there since. Earth pony druids, naga mystics, a unicorn war party looking for shelter... and now seaponies. God damn it.

Seaponies were the one race I'd describe as, literally, insane. How a water-dwelling species earned such a love for fire and explosions boggled the fuck out of my mind. Clever, cheerful, and responding to every situation with the maximum amount of force. Every species that had met them stayed the hell away forever after, while every species who hadn't met them assumed that the buggers were harmless.

The Lunar Arcadium was historically concerned with the moon and the element of water- that the seaponies had moved in pointed to there being actual waterways connecting to the monument's deep pools. I was more than a bit impressed that the place was still standing and not at all on fire- that the place was full of non-flammable water wouldn't have stopped even a single determined seapony, let alone a colony full of them.

"Come on, Daisy. Are you at all religious?" I asked, making conversation as we disappeared into the Lunarium's arches, surrounded by cheerful, watchful, mad seaponies.

"Not really," the mare admitted. "I spare harvest for the earth mother, of course. And thanks for letting me visit home last month for the festival-"

"Of course," I said, waving her off. Heaven knows I hadn't been able to celebrate any of my old holidays. Buddhists liked Christmas too!

"But no, not as such," said Daisy.

"Try praying anyway, just in case. This is about to get weird," I told her, leading the way.

I pulled back the hood of my cloak. It was a new one -which was to say, I'd ended up destroying over a dozen of the things what with one thing and another, and it comfortably covered my wings, blank flank, and lack of a horn. I could be from any tribe, to the casual observer. I'd already heard more rumors about how the 'witch' had sacrificed her own cutie mark -her own destiny- to gain dark powers. Flattering and worrying in equal amounts.

The interior was unbearably ancient, yet still in good shape. Channels and pools of water were everywhere, and so we gained a curious entourage of seaponies. I saw a small school of foals and, being stupidly unable to help myself, cast spell number nine: the Illusive Illusion. The fillies began chasing luminescent, floating flowers and giggling all the way.

That, of course, just drew more seaponies. Soon I was handing out illusionary flowers like a politician that had gone kissing hands and shaking babies.

"I need to snag a stallion," moaned Daisy. "Lightning Quartz told me she's on the lookout for somepony nice to join the household. With luck, we'll be ready to start something come next year's first heat."

"Kids are pretty great," I said, musing on how I'd sworn off reproducing back when I was a teenager. I'd already gone sterile, as a human, and figured I'd always be okay with that. Now I had my grand crusade, and held off on the idea of settling for entirely different reasons. "You're a good mare, with a very lucky family," I told Daisy. "And that includes the future members, alright?"

"Sappiest evil witch, walking right here," said Daisy. I did the brave, adult thing and blew a raspberry- substantially dirtier in pony culture than for humans. Daisy nearly tripped over herself.

"Pardon me, witch?" called a seapony. She wore the fanciest hat yet, so she was obviously someone of great importance to this little colony. "What do you seek in our humble caves?" she asked.

I turned to her and bowed. I tugged on my hood, then tugged it back off, to show deference. The school of seaponies around us went quiet- they were getting a show.

"I'm looking for the Mirror of the Moon Goddess. I hope to use it to find some lost friends, and if not, then to add to my own magic lore. The moon will be full, tonight, and I beg you let me put the pool to peaceful use," I said, keeping eye contact.

"Fascinating!" the mare declared, clapping her fins together excitedly. "This is a wonderful safe place, good for minding foals-" And their young, I figured, were the only things they wouldn't explode, which explained this place's good condition, "-and reflecting on the mysteries of our ancestors. May we watch this great magic of yours?"

I grinned, a bit. "I can't promise that I'll manage magic of any sort, but you are welcome to watch. Mind you, you might see some queer happenings."

"Dear witch, weird is our watchword!" the elder declared, to the cheers and enjoyment of the rest of the school. "But first, since moonrise is several hours away, would you care to provide more of those marvelous flowers?"

Practicing magic for the sake of practicing magic, and making people happy? This time, my smile grew until it nearly hurt.

"I think I can do better than a few mere flowers, lady seapony."

Our escort had turned much more enthusiastic when we continued some time later, leading us ever deeper into the depths of the world. The Arcadium was well-lit by its inhabitants -I imagined the fire soothed the crazier half of their brains- but it brightened into a soft, magnificent glow that drew the eye to a magnificent, still mirror made of water. Too still.

"Does nobody swim in there?" I asked.

The mare from earlier, Algae Crescent, shook her head. "No, never. We know what waters aren't meant to be touched. It would do no harm to us, but we might very well do harm to it, if you follow my meaning."

"I follow you," I said, and began pacing around the pool. It was beautiful. More than the stonework which was crafted to funnel the environment's natural magic into the waters, more than the great oculus above which encircled the full moon, the place seethed with enchantments. I didn't recognize the feel of the spells, or the structures that had held them in place over the centuries.

Most importantly, I could feel that they were still potent.

"This..." I drew out the word happily. "This should do nicely." I whirled in place and began marching for the platform.

The grand entrance, which we had come through, led straight onto a stone path that led out over the water. It was completely unsupported, so as not to ruin the pool's symmetry. I carefully stepped onto it, less out of fear that it would crumble than that I might miss something important.

Most magic was about intent and feel. Only the unicorns, of all the tribes and races of the known world, wielded magic close to the manner in which I did. My spells demanded strict definition- the Lunar Pool would demand desire. On the plus side, my hunch had been correct- I wouldn't need any more knowledge of scrying than I already did. The Pool would provide the means.

"Witch, is there anything we can do to help?" called Algae. Daisy had settled next to the elder's pool, where the two of them were the first among the many watchers.

I started to answer in the negative, but then... "If you'd like to start chanting, that would actually be pretty awesome," I called back. "Nothing in particular, just make it nice and mystical. Hum if you're tone-deaf."

Daisy planted a hoof onto her face, but Algae grinned in appreciation of my fine sense of style. "Never a seapony born who couldn't sing, witch! You'll get your chanting!"

And lo, there was a full choral background of noise, reverberating throughout the chamber and filling the air with cryptic beauty. My very skin shook with the vocal force. The pool, though, didn't. As a simple test, I flared my wings and swept them over the surface. The ripples flattened out faster than I could form them.

Even inactive, the magic was potent enough to effect the real world. 'Perfect.'

I reached out with intent, and only with intent, and made myself the very focus of the chamber. I spoke clearly, and performed the first test. Scrying was a thing primarily of the present, then of the past, and distantly of the future. I had a lot of power at my disposal, just then, so I went in order.

"Myself," I ordered, intoned, and cast my eyes downward.

Then there was no water- there was only an image of a barren, wet rock landscape, at the lip of which was a small cart. My cart. Right below me was the oculus, and the pool through that, and myself there, staring into the pool, which showed the oculus, through which was the pool, through which-

I forced my eyes shut- the magic forced an intensity to your awareness, trying hard enough to please you that the normal optical illusions became all-consuming. On the brighter side- the first test had worked.

I released the first command, and next tried, because I couldn't not...

"Heather."

I was viewing the past, now. Not the distant past, but some point within the last decade. Far beneath my hooves, there appeared a meadow. In it was a trio of ponies, braiding grasses together in the custom of those adorning their loved ones with special little symbols, spelled out in the language of flowers. There was a chestnut-colored mare laughing, and she bore a cutie mark now, and-

I released the image, and swallowed. Second test, a success.

"Earth."

Nothing. The last image had faded, but I was only left with my own mirror image.

"Earth. My family. My friends?"

Third test, a failure. Whatever distance separated myself from there, it was too great. Or maybe the humans I had known and loved were dead, but even then I should have seen their pasts!

'Fine. Okay. I will calm down, because I am not done yet, and I have to do this so I can not let myself stop.'

I would try something more specific. A target closer, in both time and space, with whom I was familiar.

"Twilight Sparkle."

There was no smooth transition, this time. I felt the change immediately- outside magic was pouring in like somebody had placed us at the base of a great vortex.

The waters shook, frothed, and rose as if somebody were shaping gravity like clay.

This wasn't supposed to be happening. Nowhere in the structure of this place's enchantments was there even a hint that the pool should, or could do this.

I considered turning tail and running, but my own damnable curiosity and the hope that I could somehow contain any more violent reactions kept my hooves glued in place. I grit my teeth, and felt the hairs rising all along my back.

And then...

And then the water stilled. It was still vertical, a wall of liquid that defied physics and common sense, but it became mirror-smooth once again. Before I knew it, the reflection was gone, replaced by something entirely different.

There was a room beyond that mirror surface, magnified two times over and with such perfect clarity that I might have thought I could take flight and set my hooves down on that warm, sandstone floor.

I raised my hoof, waved, and said, "Hello, Twilight."

The alicorn stared. She was clearly in the middle of a ritual. She was looking at me, and so clearly that was a scrying ritual of her very own. Two people glancing through two windows, on two trains, passing one another on parallel tracks by sheer coincidence. She stood in a corona of her own magical energy, jaw dropped as she stared at me. I decided to take that as a compliment.

"Hi!" I said again. I waved at the other ponies, too. Her five friends, who I'd come to know to greater or lesser lengths during their visits those years ago. Beyond them stood Equestria's two diarchs, similarly staring.

"Um, say something? Anything?" I tried. Rainbow Dash's mouth was moving, but there was no sound.

There was no sound. The pool was a strictly visual medium! And I... was a pony. Damn. The only thing I shared with my past self was the color of my mane, which... didn't make for the best clue ever, what with the hooves and all.

It would be shaky, I knew, given how I was already the center of a more powerful spell than I could ever have managed on my own, but I spread my wings and began inscribing my magic in the air. The Illusive Illusion, weak and shaky, still managed to form in front of me. It had to have been something unmistakable, which Twilight and I would have in common, and which would hint as to my identity.

An uneven, half translucent twenty-sided die appeared. I pointed desperately.

"Come on, Sparkle, read my fuzzy lips!"

Pinkie got it first, I think. Or maybe she just thought the spell was nifty, because she began hopping and singing mutely. I threw off my cloak completely, to make sure they got a good look at me. The better the target image, the easier it was to scry.

I was still waving hard enough to strain my foreleg, and I think my eyes were a little wet. For whatever reason, I was caught off-guard when the image shuddered. It wouldn't be long, now, I felt.

"Good-bye!" I enunciated as clearly as I could. "Good-bye, please be safe!"

Luna and Celestia were actively casting at Twilight's ritual components, now, even though the purple alicorn was losing the magical thread despite her obvious efforts. They looked... frantic. Had my contacting them been dangerous? Was I, contrary to my own expectations, doing harm in the temporal sense? Obviously, things had gone weird enough on my end... and if they were in danger?

I waved once more, and released the enchantment.

Metric tons of water fell back into place, in much the same way as you would have expected- moisture painted over every surface. I cracked my eyes opened, only to find my face covered with sodden mane hair. I couldn't have been more soaked if I had jumped into the pool myself. I turned back toward the entrance. Seaponies were just now appearing back above the surfaces of their own pools, peering to see that the danger had passed. Daisy was blinking away a faceful of sacred water.

"How did it go!?" she called as I slowly approached.

"It... went," I replied. "I'm going to say we broke even, here."

Algae Quartz lifted herself to the lip of her channel and peered at the central pool. "How is the artifact faring, witch?" she asked.

It was a good question. I pushed aside the more immediate sensations of being wet and heavy, and felt out the enchantments that had so recently wrapped around my form.

"The magic is weak," I said, squinting distractedly. "But still there. It should be restored naturally in a few seasons. This whole place is built to refill itself." I glanced back at the pool and its diminished water table. "In every sense of the word."

"Excellent!" said Algae, clapping. "I believe this calls for a song and a feast! How do you feel about seaweed and fish?"

"I feel very good about both those things," I said, a soft grin creeping over my lips. "I think we should celebrate, yeah. Though I think Daisy will skip on the fish."

"They wriggle!" said the earth pony mare.

"They're like mobile vegetables," I said dismissively. "Have some seaweed." I turned back to Algae. "And I think I promised to teach one of your own ponies the joys of copper and magnesium."

I took it back- seaponies were my kind of people.

I reclined in a wide, shallow pool of water. I didn't get the opportunity to swim, much, and this definitely seemed the place to do it. The seaponies rarely ventured on dry land, awkward as it was for their biology. Daisy was happily dog-paddling a short distance away. From what I remembered, she had mentioned growing up by a river. Ponies didn't tend to swim unless they grew up near water- it was harder for them to learn than it was for humans.

My belly full, and my mind reassured but the brief, live image of some of my friends, I felt myself turning introspective. I stood and trotted, knee-deep in fresh water, until I reached the drop-off that led further into the Arcadium's deeper channels. I looked at my reflection.

"Daisy?" I called.

"Yes, lady?" she asked, pushing her mane out of her face.

"Tell me honestly, because this is for science. How old do I look to you?"

There was a long, thoughtful moment, before the mare replied, "Not very old at all. Young even. If I were to guess, that isn't out of some special effort on your part?"

"Not hardly," I said, wearing a small, self-deprecating smirk. "I worry. I wonder if I might not be young for a very long time. There was... there was a spell, you see, back before I was in any way the witch I am now. Way back. My being in these lands was just one unforeseen side effect. I wonder what else I might have done to myself, in my haste."

'You know at least some of what you did,' I mused. 'It's been over a decade since you could sign 'live long and prosper', for instance.'

"Some would consider that a good thing," said Daisy, who I could tell was filing away our conversation under 'weird stuff the witch sometimes babbles'.

"A long life is a blessing, for those who share it with their loved ones. One minute out of millions, I saw my friends. I was all but there."

"You had your chance," said Daisy. "You might have another, yet."

My reflection stirred. A tiny seapony colt was floating in place, just beneath the water. There was a big gap where his front teeth should have been, grinning up at me. I playfully snapped at him, and he disappeared in a trail of laughing bubbles.

Then, it appeared, he began rounding up reinforcements.

"Ah, witch?" asked Daisy. I gestured for her to go ahead, so she asked, "Those ponies. Some of them were..." she lifted her hooves and gestured vaguely at both her sides and forehead. "They were beautiful. I've never seen the like! What were they?"

All I did to answer her was grin, before turning back and diving into the channel's depths. My wings propelled me like fins, chasing the mad, aqueous ponies that lived purely in the moment and wanted to play 'tag' with me.

"Lady Tham'ra, I'm impressed! You were down there ages," said Daisy, as she pulled us toward our next destination. "You held your breath for quite a long time. Did the seaponies want something of you?"

I stared straight ahead, not daring to meet the mare's eyes. "Yes... they wanted things. Very, business. Things. We're on our way to the Greenheart Grotto, aren't we?"

"As you requested, lady witch. Are you alright? You seem flushed. Perhaps the water was a touch too cold?"

"I was very warm," I mumbled, and shook myself. I had been almost certain I'd been pulled into some sort of native, seapony dance. A very close dance. A dance with five partners, all circling each other and touching one another oh-so-fleetingly.

"I... am going to review the naga dictionary," I declared, turning toward the cart's narrow door.

"My lady? There are no naga at the Grotto, are there?" asked Daisy.

"Just in case!" I said. "Long lists of words. And definitions. Dry, dry paper. Yes."

Hours later, and I still felt far too wet.

"Now, she is most definitely mad, but it is a harmless madness."

"Are you certain? She seems so... normal."

"Don't let appearances fool you! Magic has addled her- the lack of a horn has disrupted her body's humors, causing the brain to overheat."

"Damn it, Daisy, I can hear you!" I shouted from on top of the cart. The mare stared back at me for a long moment, nodded pleasantly, and went back to warning her cousin about the rigors of his new job.

Grumbling, I returned to my notes. This particular bunch wasn't full of spell lore, or history, or myths of any sort- honestly, it was mostly gossip. Rumors traveled as fast as trade routes, and sometimes faster. The new unicorn monarch, King Bullion, had just been crowned. He was basically a child, but even still there hadn't been a hint of squabbling from the various mage nobles. His mother had apparently trained him well. Already, three duchesses had disappeared under 'mysterious circumstances'. Really, it was business as usual for the unicorns.

Commander Squall had been spear-shaking as usual, calling for higher conscription rates at this 'blatant act of aggression'. Of course, for pegasi, everything up to and including bringing in firewood for the winter counted as an act of aggression. The old stallion was old, senile, and still capable of flinging around storms with his own four hooves. An interesting combination.

The only difference in the pattern was how these two tribes were acting with more cohesion than usual. The earth parliament and their speaker, Madame Wormwood, were due to meet at the Winter's End festival, and... and I was beginning to see a pattern to it. Ponies of every tribe had existed in tiny family groups for ages. They survived by being mostly unobtrusive in a valley known for being stupidly lethal. Large groups attracted larger dangers.

But if the signs were as clear as I thought they were, then they might be aiming to skip that whole intermediate, 'look at this smorgasbord we made for you monsters' stage and straight to something larger still than that. No single tribe had ever been unified, not once in known history, and now it was looking like all three might be doing just that.

"The world is changing," I said, musing out loud. Changing into what, though, I couldn't imagine. Three new political forces, dead center in this strange little subcontinent, and all of the old kingdoms that had surrounded them were crumbling at the same time.

The aurochs had been at war with each other for almost a decade, now. The naga were reduced to small, traveling groups after the southeastern coast had become a feeding ground for feral wyverns. The other races wouldn't be able to pull together long enough to fill in the land's ongoing power vacuum, so that left... ponies.

"My lady witch?"

I rolled until my head could hang over the side of the cart. I blinked down at the young stallion. "Yes, Thorny? You ready to go? Your sister has abandoned us?"

"Yes, ma'am, I mean, no! I mean..." he coughed. "Daisy has gone on, yes. We are ready to move at your word. It is only, she mentioned..."

"Yes?" I asked, stretching my neck that much further down.

"She mentioned that you are addl- er, atypical," said Thorny, working himself around the unfamiliar word. "That is to say..."

"I don't care that you're a stallion, boyo," I told him. "I'm not going to tell you to get back in the kitchen- I don't have a kitchen. She said your mom was the traditional type, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." He looked over his shoulder, as if wary of being chased.

I sighed. Pony society- proof that either sex could fuck things up. "Get yourself hitched up, then. It's onward to adventure, danger, hardships and a tidy wage."

Thorny grinned up at me, showing the family resemblance to Daisy. "Yes, ma'am!" It wasn't long before we were trundling away from the western marshes. Nonplussed, I floated down to trot at his side.

"You seem excited. I did mention the hardships, right?" I asked.

"That you did," said Thorny. Still, ridiculously cheerful.

"And the dangers. And I'll be training you hard. If you don't pick up at least two new dialects this year, I'll see myself damned."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I mean it- I will dock your pay if you can't curse out pegasi in their own language, hear me?" I asked.

Now he was doing his best to look professional and hide his smile. "Yes, lady Tham'ra."

"And you better learn to write! Daisy said you couldn't write. I will teach you or you will suffer!"

Later on that night, the stupid pony up and hugged me.

I'd show him, trying to appreciate independence and a decent education like that!