Molimentum

If she knew one thing, then it was that the world was a very large place. Old scriptures said that the dragons once called it the greatest gem, and she couldn’t agree more. Even as she walked the way towards Canterlot, with the sun slowly starting to creep up from behind the horizon and the cool wind moving her blue cape around. Looking over the cliffs and the vast green lands beyond almost made her forget the purpose for her arrival.

Viridian’s circumstances were her own. As such, she was fully aware that forgetting them could have dangerous consequences. The world needn’t linger and although she enjoyed the rising sun as much as any pony, the truth of the matter was that the city awaited her and the princess needed her. It was only that thought that made her stop in her tracks and a shiver ran down her spine. Why did she have to be the one to dream of this?

Viridian let her eyes remain fixed on a forest far away. Maybe she should just leave her duty and go in the opposite direction? She had never been a pony of importance, nor a pony who wanted to do important things. All she had ever wanted was live in that little hut in the old Everfree, spending her evenings by the pond in the crystal cave and her days walking through the ancient woods, letting the trees whisper and the beasts sing. Her life had been her own until this point and all that had ever mattered to her had been the next morrow.

The ponies of Ponyville had always referred to her as wood’s witch and had always treated her as a nuisance. She had arrived in Ponyville years ago, when the world was still filled with browns and greys and ponies seemed to enjoy hurting each other. Her parents had died, one in the last griffon war, the other during a robbery, but she had survived and decided to become a witch, to help others via magic. Since magic hadn’t been available back then she had gone into the oldest forest, hoping it would hold the secrets she’d needed to unlock.

She continued on, following one of the narrow paths which made the quickest way to Canterlot. If the train wouldn’t still be broken she would have taken that one instead, but fate hadn’t been so kind and she had walked all the way until here. The wind was harsh and her cloak was pressing against her left, as the other half brushed the mountain. Viridian didn’t enjoy it half as much as when it rustled through the leaves of her forest, but she still enjoyed the feeling it had on her mane. A strand was always hanging in front of her face nowadays, its teal color reminding her how nowadays her horn was more than just decoration.

She wasn’t just some mad pony who hid away in the forest, she was Viridian, a unicorn, a true witch and a pony who had seen the future.

And yet I can’t bring myself to hurry, she thought, moving one leg at a time, always careful. She knew she was afraid, but by this point it was far too early to say why exactly that was so. She wouldn’t have come to begin with, if that filly hadn’t talked her. Harmony had come back and now there could be no bad ending. There would be no more pain, no more losses. The princess would save all of them and that meant that Viridian had to save the princess.

She tried to move quicker, but found her legs to heavy, her heart to weak. Changing the future wasn’t easily done for a pony who had always hoped to catch glimpses of it and had always failed.

The path led past the cliffs until the roofs of Canterlot greeted her in the distance, with the sun moving higher and higher. The way grew steeper and then led into a larger road, sided by the fields of green and at their end stood the gate that warded the city. It was colorful enough to make her halt yet again.

She had spent eight years of her life in the forest, wandering under the branches and the looking at the bones of magical creatures that had long since left the world. Viridian had built her own in the Everfree, had farmed her own crops and had only ever talked to herself. Most ponyvillians knew her as a shadow and only a few times had she dared to wander back into civilisation. The memories weren’t good ones either, but she had made friends. Cheerilee and Miss Smith, for example.

In the end, it had always been the forest who called her back and right now she heard that call again. It was her own fear of these ponies. Viridian didn’t quite know what to do, but decided to move on anyway, thinking about that orange filly who had become her reason to be brave.

Only as she strutted through the gates did she understand what ponies had meant when they had called Ponyville ‘small’. There were ponies walking around everywhere and it would have taken more of an effort to stand out than to blend in. So she took the cord of her cloak between her teeth and fastened it before she moved on, telling herself that it was fine. She didn’t need to talk to anypony anyway.

She found merchants praising their wares on the main street and some guards clad in beautiful armor walk by her, greeting even her, a stranger, with kind smiles. She heard laughter coming from somewhere afar, spotting a large group of fillies and colts along an adult. At first she thought it a school, but the cloaks the little ones wore told a different tale. They were from the Canterlot Orphanage and they all looked as they were having the time of their lives. A baker was talking with a florist, wide smiles adorned their faces.

This wasn’t the same sort of city she had left, and the ponies that had lived here before seemed to have left, exchanged with nicer ones. It wasn’t something she found bad. In fact she found it wonderful since it made it all actually worth protecting. Just looking at it all made her wonder why she had questioned her resolve to begin with. Yes, she could do it like this.

While everypony around Viridian seemed as alive as they could be, she remained quiet and her eyes were fixed on the towers of the castle. The unicorn was following the signs in hipes that they would lead her closer to her goal. The city turned out to be a maze however. One alley led into another which somehow led back to the main street or another corner where she had been before. By the end she wasn’t even sure whether the ponies responsible for constructing this mess of a town had put any thought into it or not.

She ended up close to a sweets shop somewhere in the town, she didn’t even bother wondering where exactly she had ended up, and simply seated herself on a bench by the edge of the street. She took a deep breath and waited, looking at the sky. A part of her wanted to ask some stranger about directions, another part was far too scared to do that. Viridian had always hated interacting with other ponies and years of isolation hadn’t helped much.

So she decided to keep quiet, at least until she noted that a golden filly with a red mane had seated herself by her side. This one looked as if she had just run across the entire country. Somehow the sight seemed like a deja-vu to the mare. She just couldn’t remember why.

“Are you alright?” Viridian asked the tiny one, who in turn looked to her.

“Y-yeah,” the filly answered and even a stranger like Viridian could tell that it was a lie. “I’m just. . . Doing errands.”

The mare tried to give a smile. “I’m Viridian.”

“Sunset Shimmer.”

A pause.

One moment she had hated herself for stumbling through this conversation and the very next she stared wide eyed at the filly. The red mane with the yellow streaks, the pale coat, even her eyes. There was no Cutie Mark on the filly’s hip, but that didn’t matter. Viridian knew her, she had appeared in a vision and might well be the key to saving the princess. Viridian tried to remember the visions, tried to figure out the words she needed to say. Knowing the future enabled one to change it, she knew, but the actions leading towards change were often the hardest.

In the end she settled with herself nodding. If she wanted to get this right, she needed to take any approach that wouldn’t land her in the asylum. Being a seer was hard, but she was smart enough to play her cards right. “Might you be on your way to the Princess Twilight,” she said.

She had seen Sunset Shimmer, though as an older teen, robbing a bank. Still, she was linked to Twilight, for she had a talent that was directly linked to magic as only the fewest were. That’s what Viridian intended to play into.

“I heard she was looking for unicorns to teach magic to.”

Sunset looked at her for a moment. “Not really,” she said, but clearly her mind was working. That was all Viridian intended to do, forcing things might only hurt her cause later on.

“That’s sad,” she told the filly because of that. “Could you at least show me the way to the castle?”