Sins of the Mother

“Hey… So, uhm…” I muttered, sitting on the side of the bed. Octavia laid on her side behind me, playing with my mane affectionately. “Look, I’m sorry that I.. Uhm…”

“Oh it’s nothing to worry about. You did wonderfully for your first time.” Tavia replied with a sigh, her voice indicating a contented smile.

“Thanks, but I was talking about this next part… The part that neither of us are going to be very fond of…” I replied, sliding down off the mattress to gather up a set of clothing that Octavia had mistakenly kept from an ex-coltfriend. It mostly consisted of a blank, dark red set of saddlebags and a weather resistant cloak.

“Oh, you mean you’re still leaving… after last night?” Tavia’s voice dropped into utter disappointment.

“Yeah… I still have plenty to do and as much as I want to, I can’t stay.” I replied, lifting the packs onto my back before covering everything with the cloak.

“But what if-”

“No, I can’t have you come with me. Again, despite how much I want you too. I can’t guarantee your safety if you did join me and I couldn’t tell you how long we’d be gone or if we’d ever return here.” I shook my head, my heart sinking at Octavia’s pouting.

“You- you mean you don’t know if you’ll ever return here? To me?” Tavia whispered in shock.

“I don’t know. I’m mostly just going to start off in a direction and see where I end up, see what I learn.” I sat back on my ass and ran a hoof through my mane.

“Weren’t you going to confront your mother? Wouldn’t you just be aiming for Canterlot?”

“Logically yes. I first want to explore the rest of Equestria first, learn everything I can. I don’t want to approach mother unprepared. I have to learn the ways of the world before I go speak to it’s government.”

“Oh. I see.” Octavia said as she rolled off the bed and approached me. I stood and let her nuzzle against me, and I her, before she pulled back just enough to come back in and plant a kiss on my nose. I brought our noses down and bumped out foreheads together in return before breaking away and turning to exit the room.

“Look, I may not be able to help you but i’ve got a friend who’s going to be hopping a train out to Applewood today. See if you can get to the train station in time and join her. Tell her I sent you and she should be more than happy to have you join her.” Octavia announced with a heavy sigh as she dug around in a coin purse on her dresser. “This should cover the ticket.” she added, pulling a couple of bits from the pocket to drop them into my right saddlebag.

“Thanks, Tavi. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me so far.” I smiled back to her gift and let her lead me down the hallway and down the stairs to the front door.

“I know, I just wish you could stay longer.” Tavi sighed in defeat, sitting at the foot of the stairs.

“Hmm…” I let my mind start roaming through my magical repertoire before a spell struck my mind. “If you can find me a piece of paper, I’ll inscribe it with a spell that will allow us to speak over long distances instantly.”

“You can do that?” Octavia looked up at me in confusion and hope. I nodded and she zipped off into the study to collect a page of paper and a quill/inkpot combination. “How?”

“Well, you may not like it but it is dark magic. Not completely black magic, so there should be minimal risk of corruption.” I explained, setting everything down before me. Closing my eyes I concentrated on the spell and rather than cast it, let the red light of my horn flare out to seek the page before engraving the page with a circular spell network.

“So how’s it work?” Octavia asked once I’d finished and held the page up to examine it. Setting the page before Octavia, I instructed her on it’s use.

“Simply place your hoof on the seal, think of who you want to talk too and it should make the connection. Keep in mind that it only works for creatures of magic who either have that seal or know the spell. A random unicorn won’t receive the call if they don’t know the seal network.”

“Like this?” Octavia inquired, setting a hoof on the center of the seal before shutting her eyes and probably think about me. Did it work?

Indeed it did. You’ll hear everything I say directly in your mind and the same goes for me. I replied mentally, simply watching the mare before me in silence as she jumped a bit at the suddenness.

Oh, that’s quite amazing. Now, you said it was dark magic, so there’s a minimal chance of corruption. what exactly is corruption in the first place? Octavia inquired, now looking back up at me in silence.

“Most of the time it takes the form of a blackening of the skin and fur. The victim would experience strange mood swings and would find their thought processes becoming gradually more and more violent or destructive.” I explained verbally, magically lifting Octavia’s hoof off the seal before whisking it off into the study to sit on her desk.

“So how do I prevent contamination?” Octavia replied, watching the page float off before turning back to me.

“Best way, don’t use dark magic.” I shrugged casually. “But if you have to use it, use it in small doses. It’ll minimize the amount of exposure you get to it. That being said, we won’t be able to have long, drawn out conversations through the seal.”

“Aww, and I was hoping to try ‘seal sex’ with you tonight.” Octavia smirked and I rolled my eyes and grinned.

“Yeah, sorry no. Would we try that, we’d both risk heavy contamination. An hour of using the seal equates to about point five percent of your total body being contaminated. Our best bet would be to only talk in bursts of about fifteen minutes or so with an hour break between; that would mean it would take us about eight and a half years to reach a mild contamination level.” I explained, finding myself having sat down on the floor again.

“What if it was a thirty minute conversation with fifteen minute break?” Octavia asked, settling down on her stomach.

“Then it’d take significantly less time to contaminate our bodies. But, i’m sorry that I can’t stay and prolong my visit.” I announced, standing up against. Octavia did the same and stood once more with a pout.

“Aww, and here I was hoping to delay you long enough that you wouldn’t have to leave.”

“I know, and again, i’m sorry.” I replied, once again nuzzling against her neck. “I really want to stay now but I can’t. At least now we have a method of contact.”

“I know,” Tavi sighed in disappointment. “Then I suppose this is goodbye?”

“Only for a while. Who knows when we’ll see each other again.” I replied, pulling away as I magically opened the door. Turning away from my new lover, I stepped past the threshold to the outside world and looked back as Octavia waved me off.

Turning onto the street, I followed signs towards my first destination: the train station.

~~~

“I completely forgot to ask who Tavi’s friend was, I have no idea who i’m looking for…” I sighed as my eyes wandered over the ponies boarding and disembarking the train.

My eyes settled on the bright blue head of a white unicorn with equally bright purple shades on and the strangest device over their ears.

“They seem… DJ-ish I suppose.” I mumbled to myself and took off at a trot towards the pony. My approach seemed to have caught the attention of the pony as she turned to stare in my direction until I slid to a halt. “Excuse me, would you happen to know an Octavia Melody?” I inquired hopefully.

The mare nodded with a smile, lifting her sunglasses up to look straight at me with large cerise eyes.

“My name is Eclissi, I’m a… uhm… well I’m a friend of Octavia and she suggested I tag along with you to Applewood, if you don’t mind?” I asked hopefully. The mare merely shrugged and nodded towards the train before walking off again with her ticket being pulled from her bag. In a bout of confusion, I galloped to the ticket vendor and purchased a similar ticket before galloping back to meet up with the white mare.

Taking a seat next to her, I slid my bags under the bench and took a seat. “So, you know my name, what’s yours?” I asked, trying to make conversation. The mare simply looked at me as though bemused at my question, which only confused me more. “What?”

The mare opened her mouth and pointed into her throat before closing and placing her hooves against her throat.

“I don’t follow…” I mumbled as the train lurched forwards and we took off. “I wonder how this thing works… There weren’t very many books on the subject on the moon…”

Now it was the mare’s turn to look at me in confusion, as though i’d said something completely unbelievable. “Oh, right. I’m the son of… Princess Luna I believe she’s called now. I was born and grew up on the moon while she was Nightmare Moon and only appeared a couple days ago.” I whispered in explanation. As far as I knew, there were still ponies looking for me for my crimes.

A raised eyebrow had the mare look at me in surprise as I shrugged, “There wasn’t a lot to do up there beyond read and practice all three main forms of magic; light, dark and black. But don’t worry, I have no ill intentions for anyone here on this train…”

The mare’s raised eyebrow turned into one of, ‘On this train? You mean there’s somepony out there you are going to use it on?’

“Yeah, my mother who forgot about me on the moon for the last five years. I’ll teach her what it means to be forgotten in isolation. Again…” I hissed, lying down to curl up next to the mare.

“No, Vinyl, I’m not overreacting.” I replied to her question. Then I shot up as I realised something. “Wait, how’d I know what your name is and what questions you asked?” Vinyl shrugged and looked up at the glasses on her forehead, just beneath her horn.

“You used magic to plant information in my head? Wait…” I narrowed my eyes at the DJ and fired up my horn in a darker red than normal. Can you hear this?

Holy shit, someone who knows the spell! Vinyl’s eyes shot wide open in shock, as did my own. For the longest time i’ve had to use a modified version of this spell to plant ideas and thoughts into ponies’ minds in order to speak! You weren’t kidding when you said you studied dark and black magics!

No, I really wasn’t. I replied mentally. Now, let’s start over and try to keep this short. Why can’t you speak verbally?

Vocal chords didn’t develop. I’m permanently mute and no amount of magic can help me. Trust me, all the best medical unicorns have tried. Vinyl replied with a silent sigh, laying down on the bench next to me. So how do you know Tavi?

She rescued me from a group of cultists trying to kill me because i’m the only male alicorn on the planet. I replied, lifting my cloak a bit to reveal my bound wings. I’ve been clipped so I can’t use them and I have to keep them tied or they just flop around.

Really? Wow, that sucks. I can’t imagine what that’d be like. Vinyl shook her head in disbelief. Would probably be like if I had my horn broken or otherwise damaged.

It’s mostly exactly the same, actually. I closed my eyes and tried to let the train lull me into a sort of wakeful sleep. So anyways, I escape from the cultists and collapse on the street from blood loss and epinephrine withdrawal. I wake up in Tavi’s house under her care with my wounds stitched and bound. Of course, i’m thinking i’m such a big hot-shot that I don’t need her help and I try to escape.

What happened?

Well, I… uhm… slaughtered the cultists to escape and when I broke out of the house, there was a squad of Royal Guard investigating. They saw me and I took off with them chasing me. I explained uneasily.

Wait, hold on. You were the one who slaughtered that house of ponies? Dude! you only left like, two of them alive! Vinyl kicked me in the side, making not only my existing bruise pulse painfully but also added another one. The only reason i’m not going to turn you in is as a favour to Octavia!

Well, I appreciate that. Imagine if you had to tell her that you sent her lover to prison. I replied as I tried to recover from the kicking.

Wait, what? Vinyl almost exploded off the seat, standing just ahead of me in shock. You’re her what now?

She and I went on a date and spent the night together. Simple. I replied with another shrug, the pain in my side finally dying off.

Damn, I know i’ve always been bugging her about finding a coltfriend… But an alicorn prince? I’ve really gotta step up my game now! Vinyl backed down and returned to her seat to curl back up again.

Well, I wouldn’t say “alicorn prince” since i’m as of yet uncrowned. Call me the uncrowned Prince if you want. I thought back at her. Oh, we’re reaching the fifteen minute mark of this conversation. If we wish to refrain from corrupting ourselves, we’d best take an hour break.

Alright fine. It was nice talking to you, Eclissi. Vinyl smiled and turned to face the wall and nap. I did the same and let myself get lulled to sleep by the train.