The Riddle

“... if we had some way of extending a pony’s endurance, that might be extremely valuable for us. Something that would allow somepony to go on, beyond her normal limits. If you could do that, I promise that we would only use it in case of an emergency.” Twilight took a breath, deciding to leave it at that. “Can you help us with that, Zecora?”

Perhaps she was imagining it, but the zebra’s eyes seemed narrower than normal. Twilight also noticed that she threw a look at one of her shelves before she responded.

“What you ask truly puts my skills to the test – it’s been long since I’ve heard such a request. I do have to ask, before I say more, just what do you need such a potion for?”

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. But I can promise that it’s not to hurt anyone. Um...” She gave herself a push. “A few weeks ago, Rainbow Dash nearly died from exhaustion. We’re hoping to avoid it, but we might run into a similar situation... again. In that case, having such a potion might save her life. That’s the only way we would use it. ... Do you trust me, Zecora?”

“... I got her to agree, but she said she needs some ingredients which she doesn’t have in stock. Do you think you can get those...?”

With a slight frown, Rarity took the paper Twilight offered into her telekinesis. Her frown deepened as her eyes went down the list, which only consisted of four items.

“Digestive juice of a hydra,” she read. “...” She gave Twilight a blank stare.

“Zecora said that’s the key ingredient. It’s definitely necessary.”

Rarity shook her head, looking back at the list.

“I could get the other ones, I suppose, but whether any store even has this-”

“It’s not unheard of in potion making. It should exist somewhere in Canterlot.”

Rarity nodded slowly. “Very well then, I will see what I can do.”

“If you can’t get that one,” Twilight added, “don’t bother with the rest.”

“I see. Ahem – if I may – why are you asking me of all ponies?”

“I thought you’d be the best mare for the job,” Twilight simply said, which was the truth. “But if you don’t want to do it-”

“I said no such thing. I will help you, I’m just wondering – I suppose I see why you aren’t asking the princess directly, but what about your brother?”

“Mh...” Twilight made. “Um. ... Well, I could ask Shining, but, he... I think he’d find the request... weird. He’s good in dealing with royalty and stuff – you know, with that kind of culture – but the alchemy scene is a lot more shady, from what I know. ... plus, he did kinda just have his wife replaced by an evil changeling queen without noticing.”

“I... see.” Rarity gave a light cough and a smirk. “Alright then, darling, say no more – I shall do my best to get your digestive juice. ... that is, do say more, because I think there is still an unanswered prerequisite for me acquiring this item.”

“I have money.” With a click, the saddle bag she had brought opened up, revealing an inconspicuous-looking bag. “This is probably way more than you’ll need, so I’ll trust you to be economical.”

“May I?”

Twilight nodded, and Rarity untied the rope, but not without throwing a look around first, as if she were afraid that somepony was peeking through a window. Twilight had, of course, chosen a time where the boutique was not opened to customers.

Her eyes widened as she revealed the bag’s contents. Hastily, she tied it back up, but kept it hovering beside her for a few additional moments, during which her gaze slowly trailed the room.

“Could you give me a moment, dear, so I can put this into an adequate place? Ahm, if I say ‘adequate’, I mean ‘one Sweetie Belle won’t be looking at’.”

Twilight nodded, and Rarity disappeared, taking the bag with her.

“Not to be intrusive,” she said as she returned, “but where do you have this many bits from?”

“Celestia has given me more than I need, every month, for twelve years. I just put it aside.”

Rarity didn’t ask how much, even though Twilight wouldn’t have minded sharing the number. It wasn’t that high; the reason why her savings had grown to this amount was just what she had said: twelve years was a long time.

“You can spend some of it, by the way,” she added. “I don’t mind if you book a nice hotel for your stay. Just be reasonable.”

Rarity gave an earnest nod. “I will. You have my word.” Then she took a deep breath. “Your decision is made?”

Twilight nodded. “I have to do what they want. I have to. After Canterlot, I...”

“‘They’? Who are ‘they’?”

“They. The... phoenixes. The... thing.”

“The thing?” Rarity echoed. “What thing?”

“I... I... look. Look. You know how they do what we want? You focus on something, and they do it for you? As long as you don’t verbalize it?”

“Yes. That was the result of the experiments you did. You told us about them.”

“Right. Well, that doesn’t fit with killing Chrysalis, does it? Or the dragon king?”

“Which is still just a theory.”

“Yes, but I would bet all the money I just gave you that it happened. I’ve gone over the history books. The dragon king wasn’t just big and powerful, he was actually smart. And he had built a fortress – you should read up on it, it’s impressive. Anyway, it was secure. It was really, really secure. And he was murdered, just like that. You have to bend over backward to explain it in any other way. But...” She took a moment to order her thoughts. “...you’re right – I don’t know that it’s true, so it’s wrong to count it as evidence. That’s basic science. But you know what else is basic science? A theory is good if it makes correct predictions. Before things happen. And that’s what my theory did. What happened to Chrysalis is exactly the kind of thing that I think happened to the dragon king. You were there. You actually saw it, unlike me.”

“Yes, I did. What’s your point, Twilight?”

“My point – I was getting to that. Hold on. I did more experiments since. To test my ‘phoenixes are intrinsically good’ theory. What if I tried to get Peewee to do something bad? Like, drop a rock on somepony? Well, I tried that.”

“And?”

“And he did. I had him drop a small rock on Rainbow Dash, who volunteered. But, of course, she just dodged it. So I tried it while she was napping. She actually agreed to that, too. And he also did it. But, again, it didn’t really hit her, because I was right there, and after I saw that Peewee complied, I caught the thing before it hit her. Well, for a while, that was it. The experiment was a success, it falsified the hypothesis. Except... well, not really. Because it wasn’t actually hurting anypony, right? I was always going to catch the rock before it hits Rainbow. So I still hadn’t done the real test. Well, you can guess where this is going. First, I chose somepony who wasn’t volunteering – which is wrong, I know, but I had no choice! It had to be wrong in order to work! ... second, I got one of these things that you can wrap around your horn that suppresses your magic. I put it on, got to my subject while she was asleep, not knowing anything, and I wished as hard as I could that Peewee would drop that damn rock on her head-”

“-and he didn’t do it,” Rarity finished for her.

“Yup. Of course,” she added, “it wasn’t big enough to really be dangerous. But it would have hurt. That seems to have been enough.”

“I see...” Rarity’s gaze flickered a bit, then her body seemed to straighten. “Well,” she said, “I don’t believe I disagree with you anymore. You seem to have been on the right track all along. I’m, ah, sorry for doubting you.”

“What?” Twilight said reflectively. “Rarity, don’t apologize for that! You questioning me has been helpful. I should have to justify myself if I do risky things. Besides, things could have gone differently. Remember when you got me to get help from another mare before contacting Peewee for the first time? That was me being reckless and you being responsible. And that it turned out to be fine doesn’t change that.”

Rarity nodded, accepting the compliment. “Well then, this proves they are good at heart. Or, perhaps, ‘prove’ is too strong a term, but it certainly is a hint. Although... I suppose we can’t rule out the possibility that he merely tricked you.”

Twilight nodded. “It’s possible... I don’t believe it.”

“Why not?”

“Maybe I’m naive,” Twilight said vaguely, “but I don’t think they are even capable of lying. Peewee only talked to me after we discovered the tower. And Philomena never really did anything, not until Luna and I were beaten by Chrysalis. It seems like they aren’t intelligent, most of the time, only when it’s important, really important, something changes. Usually, they just do what the ponies around them want.”

“Alright,” Rarity said, “just give me the full picture. What do you believe, at this point?”

“One of the first things Celestia wrote to me was that the difference between a phoenix and an alicorn is greater than the difference between an alicorn and a fly,” Twilight began, her tone making it rather clear that she had an answer prepared. “By every metric we have – granted, most of them aren’t good, but still – they are so much more magical than any other creature, it’s absurd. And magic does this thing that no-one understands, where if you put enough energy into it, it just gets creative, by itself. I think phoenixes have so much magic that their magic just takes over sometimes. Maybe it’s literally taking control of them. Maybe it makes them smarter for a short amount of time. Maybe what it’s like to be a phoenix is what it’s like to be dreaming. Maybe when they get smarter, that’s when they wake up. I don’t know how it works, but what I’m saying is just that they so different, just so different, that we shouldn’t expect them to even know what deception is until we do. But also...” Twilight made a pause, and when she continued, there was far more tension in her voice. “... we don’t know what the tower is, right? But whatever it is, it’s important enough that he told me to destroy it. Well, and the phoenixes killed the dragon king, I think, and they killed Chrysalis, presumably both for the greater good. If that’s how they think... or operate... then, well...”

“But if you’re dead,” Rarity responded quietly, “you can’t help them anymore.”

“Yeah. If he kills Rainbow or me, that won’t make us go back in there. But...” She looked up in time to see Rarity’s eyes widen. “... it would work, you know?” she whispered. “If Fluttershy were dead tomorrow, it would make me hate him, sure, but I would go back into the tower. What else could I do? It’s like you said. A one percent chance isn’t small when it comes to one of our lives.”

Rarity nodded slowly. “Well,” she eventually said, “good luck, dear.”

“Thanks.”

For a while, none of them said anything. Then, Rarity cleared her throat.

“Out of curiosity... whom did you do the experiment with? The one where you couldn’t ask for permission?”

“Oh. Applejack.” Twilight gave a sheepish smile and a shrug. “She always takes naps under trees...”

“We are going,” Twilight said to Peewee, who of course showed no intention of responding. “See here,” she nonetheless continued, summoning a rolled-up scroll from her desk. “This is my checklist. We weren’t so well prepared last time, clearly, but this time, we’re taking things up a notch.”

Most importantly, they’d actually have their luggage this time, she added to herself. At least she was optimistic that her plans regarding this obstacle would prove to be effective.

“Section one,” she began, reading from the top of the list, “water, food. Section two. Compass. Will a compass work?” That was a question which she had asked herself several times by now and which her understanding of borrowed space didn’t answer. As of now, her best guess was ‘probably not.’ But it certainly was worth a try.

“Candles. Lighter. Spare lighter, in case the lighter stops working. Charged crystals. Red marker. Spare red marker. Blue marker. Spare blue marker.” Whether they’d be bold enough to actually use those, she didn’t know. “Section three. Sleeping pills, anti-sleeping pills. Painkillers. Section four. Phial of dragon fire. Yeah, I actually own one of those. Pretty great, isn’t it? Owe Cadence for that one...” Her voice trailed off as she thought back to how she had acquired this particular item, so many years ago. “... and Zecora’s potion.” What they had cut from last time where clothes, they took too much space, and for all of its problems, the tower really hadn’t been cold.

“What do you think? Did we forget something? I hope not.” Peewee sat still on her desk, not responding. Twilight focused on the wish that he would come and take a look at her list, causing him to flap his wings and fly over to sit down onto her shoulder, having a clear view of what she had written – of course, presumably without comprehending it.

“See?” she murmured nonetheless, a chill running down her spine. “We’re going for it.” She took a deep breath, rolling the list back together. “So don’t kill Rarity, alright?”

Dear Diary,

this isn’t right. None of the girls has noticed how afraid I am, but here it is. I don’t even keep a diary. Why I am telling you this? Who am I telling this? Myself? This is stupid. I’m going to burn this once I’m done. Maybe.

I don’t tend to remember my dreams. But now I do. It visits me every night in my sleep. It’s started a few days after Canterlot.

No one should see the swarm. I don’t care if this is the least scientific thing I’ve ever said. No one should see the swarm. This is not normal. This is not okay. It scared me when I saw it, but not like this. It was fine afterward. Before Canterlot, everything was okay.

And then the nightmares have come. You know how life gets smaller when you grow older? You begin to understand things and that’s how everything shrinks. A trip isn’t an adventure anymore, it’s a thing you plan and then do and then it’s over. Days are 24 hours long and you always have a sense of where you are. This is gone. All of my safety is gone. The princess isn’t in on this. She has no clue what is in the tower. Probably not even that the tower exists.

Maybe it was a mistake to write this down. It doesn’t seem to help. I don’t know.

Is there life beyond the plane? On a different plane, with a different sun and moon? Another species? So far away that we will never see each other? And if they are, are phoenixes there, too? Is there a tower like this one?

Are they magic itself? Are they the reason Equestria exists? Did they create Celestia and Luna? Did they create life on the plane? DId they create the plane itself? Did they create the sun and moon?

A few nights ago I dreamt that I was trapped on the moon. Not metaphorically, not asleep, but actually trapped, alone and afraid and cold and there was the SWARM. The SWARM from the tower. the SWARM and it still looked kind of like dust and kind of like insects. and it lasted so long it’s not normal for dreams to be this long. and I woke up and I was still afraid after that.

you know that the word nightmare comes from princess Luna? she is the nightmare. she was the mare who visited ponies’ dreams at night. but she wasn’t there. why not? i know she pays more attention to us six than most ponies. i’ve never had a scarier dream in my life and she wasn’t there. the dreams should have spoiled the secret.

also it’s her moon that the tower is borrowing from

but I know that this has nothing to do with Luna. I would bet my life on it right now that Luna has no idea the tower exists. this is not Nightmare Moons doing. Nightmare Moon wanted to keep Equestria in eternal night and rule. not drive her subjects into insanity. the SWARM is unnatural, it is something that does not belong here. it is so much scarier than Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis or Discord. it all feels like child’s play now. maybe it was all childs play, if we are the children and the phoenixes are out there making sure that we don’t do anything too stupid. and if we do than they go fix it.

the phoenixes could kill Discord in a heartbeat if they wanted to. I know they could. but they didn’t and that means that he wasn’t important enough. the being who beat both princesses and could play with the sun and moon like toys wasn’t worth it. why should he be, we dealt with him in a day.

but the tower is. the tower is real. the tower matters. I have no idea why the phoenix needs us to help but so it is.

the phoenix wants the tower dead. and the SWARM. it must want the SWARM dead too. I don’t know how but it does.

I’m going to take this letter out and burn it and then take a sleeping pill.