Full Circle - Mauti Damu
Mauti stepped slowly and carefully through the underbrush of the Everfree Forest. It was clear why Ponykind found the place so hostile- or rather, why the forest found Ponykind so distasteful. The entire forest was alive, like a single, massive organism. Mauti closed her eyes and slid her hooves sensuously along the trunk of the nearest tree. She could feel the very pulse of the forest beneath her hooves, a visceral, primal flow of magic that the ponies were too arrogant to acknowledge. Or perhaps, too fearful. It didn't matter, not really. For Mauti, a stroll through the forest, guided only by her own desire and the forest's innate magic, was a deep, almost visceral pleasure, a rush of feeling for which words are incapable of describing, filling her mind and body even as it connected her to the life of the forest- and to all life within it.
And in that connection, Mauti could infuse the forest with her innermost desire. The
one thing, above all else, that drove her every action, that consumed her every thought and dream. To return to a homeland, cleansed of all but her own people, her own blood. And with her entire family and tribe dead and dust, there was only
one way to truly repopulate her ancestral home, without
corrupting it with the crippling
weakness of the ponies she loathed with every fiber of her being. It had taken the better part of a year to find somepony who knew of the old legend, and a good two weeks to coerce it out of him.
coerce, not torture- Mauti was not so stupid as to believe torture produced viable information. Torturing somepony only made them tell what they thought you wanted to hear, not what they
knew. The only way to get at
that was to make them
want to tell you. And this
particular legend, of magics far older than any pony, was only known to the oldest lineages, those among ponykind whose blood traced back beyond the warring pony tribes. And even
that was not enough, only
unicorns- the creatures Mauti hated most of all- possessed knowledge of magic. She had to find a unicorn, from an old family, who knew of the primal forces that ruled Equestria when Celestia was no more than the word used to describe the sky beyond it. Imagine her surprise when, after
months of research, of interrogating friend and foe alike, she came to discover that she had known this unicorn- the son of a long line of unicorns- the entire time. Flame Mane, as it turned out, was her best lead.
She had tried bribing him- a potion that would regrow his horn, in exchange for what he know of the old stories. When that had failed, he tried bartering- giving him back his horn, and the pile of gems that had paid his wife's ransom- even though in so doing she had made an enemy of the only male on the planet she had ever held feelings for. Tide had nearly killed her when he found out- as it was, he threw her (literally, in this case) off his ship. With nowhere to go and no allies, Mauti was moved by desperation to try surrendering to him- approaching Flame Mane, head low, and turning herself in as a prisoner. She had seen for herself that even griffons who turned on their own kind were treated as honored allies. Unfortunately, Flame was still upset that she had decidedly crashed his wedding. No, emprisonment alone would not turn his head. She offered him tactical information- names of Council members, names of traitorous ponies, maps, battle plans, she had even gone so far as to use her skills to help deliver his firstborn.
That had proven to be his weakness. He no longer saw her as an enemy, but as a
friend. Mauti still spent most of her time imprisoned, but from her cell, she could talk to Flame- she told him sob stories of her home and tribe, she regaled him with tales of battles against all manner of nightmarish creatures in the pursuit of totems and materials for her magic. She listened with a seemingly-sympathetic ear as he told her of his own family, the struggles he had been through, and the hopes and dreams he held for the future.
It was infuriatingly slow work, earning this stallion's trust. Anypony else, and Mauti could have simply seduced them into spilling their guts, then spilled their blood and left. But
noooo, not
this stallion. He bristled whenever her voice turned even a sliver towards sultry, his hackles raised whenever the subject of physicality came up, entire
days of effort earning his trust could be wiped away with a poorly chosen phrase. No, sex alone was clearly not going to be enough. Not this time. It didn't seem like Flame truly
wanted anything... until Mauti discovered that his little daughter was ill, in a way that not even blood magic could mitigate. That meant that he
did want something, after all...
"A pity nopony remembers where the Mirror Pond is," Mauti said, feigning concern.
"My people had a legend- on the banks of the Mirror Pond grew a flower that could grant the greatest desire of whomever consumed it- but it only grew on the mirrored side of the pond. To get it, one had to become duplicated. One copy would get its deepest, fondest wish, the other would remain in the world on the other side of the mirror, watching helplessly, as the first copy achieved everything they both could want. My people believed that the Mirror Pond was a reflection of a whole other world, the contact point between this twin realm and our own, and to duplicate oneself was to drag the twin from that realm into our own. To get this flower, then, would mean switching places with the twin from the other world- while they lived your life and reaped the benefits of all your deepest desires, you would remain in the twin world, helpless to do anything but watch somepony else get everything you most want," Mauti told him.
"Some said it was just a story, meant to teach us of the folly of wasting time wishing for things instead of appreciating what we have. But I believe this flower exists. I heard ponies, and even some zebras, claim that they had seen it. If I only knew where to look," she added, slumping against the bars of her cell forlornly.
She looked at Flame from the corner of her eye. His face was rife with conflicting emotions0 he was clearly waging a war within himself between his desire to cure his foal, and his desire to see Mauti behind bars. As she knew it would, the side wanting to cure his daughter won out.
"I've... I've heard my uncles mention something like that, once, when I was young. They thought it was in the Everfree Forest- but, nopony in their right mind would set hoof in there. It's dangerous- there's all sorts of hostile beasts and massive monsters. It's like, the forest itself is just one big monster," he said, his voice trailing off a bit. Mauti stomped her hoof to get him to snap back to reality. She could feel it, she was close now, and didn't want any more delays.
"There was a rhyme, too... hang on. It was something about vines... "Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find, a pond beyond the most twisted of vines. That's the first part of the rhyme, the only part that says where it is. The rest goes 'And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared.' I think that means it only works on females? I don't know, since nopony ever actually found it. I guess that's not much to go on.""Not anything to go on, really. I'm stuck in here, remember? Not that you really need me. I bet you can navigate a massive hostile forest filled with gigantic magical pony-eating beasts just fine on your own," Mauti said, miffed. Flame hesitated- clearly torn about releasing her. But his desire for this magical cure overcame his apprehension, and a moment later, his telekinesis grabbed the lock on her cell door, fitted a key into it, and let her out of her cell. Mauti smiled broadly at him as she approached him. He smiled back, and turned around to lead her out. About halfway through, he must have realized how stupid it was to turn his back to her- but it was too late. Mauti sprang at him like a spring-loaded tiger, easily easily wrapping herself around his body and pulling her forelegs tight against his throat.
"I really must thank you, Flame. I'd begun to lose hope that the Mirror Pond even existed. I'd have felt quite the fool then, spending six months locked in here surrounded by pony filth, all for nothing," she said, whispering in his ear. He struggled at first, but grew weaker in her arms as he slipped towards unconsciousness. Mauti had no desire to kill him, not yet. She leaned in close, a hair's breadth from his ear, for her parting gift to him.
"Oh, and there was never an enchanted flower that can grant wishes, not even in the Mirror Pond. Like everything else to leave my lips these last few months, it was a lie, calculated to get you to lower your guard and trust me," she said, before slowly teasing the rim of his ear with her tongue.
"We shall see each other soon, dear Flame. And when we do, I want you to remember this betrayal- I want to see the hate in your eyes. I want to see what strength you have, as all you have shown me was your frailty." With that parting shot, she squeezed a little harder, felt Flame go limp, and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.
Compared to spending six months in a jail cell trying to get Flame to trust her, the Everfree was a piece of cake. The forest gladly guided her to the place she sought, her will sent out into the forest, and its very life energies sent back into
her, showing her exactly where to go. A large boulder stood in her way when finally the Mirror Pond lay in reach, but it was no match for some enchanted blood and a little bit more patience. Finally, Mauti trotted down the winding path, towards the Mirror Pond itself. The words came to her easily as she gazed into her own fierce red eyes.
"And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!" she said, plunging into the pool. A split second later, a pair of striped hooves pulled her out of the pool, grinning at her with the same glint of madness it its bright red eyes as
she had worn since her family had died. It really
was the only way to repopulate her homeland with the people who rightly belonged there- since she was the only one left, she would have to be the only one there. The only being Mauti could ever
truly love, after all, was herself.