Special Illumination

by ponichaeism

CHAPTER XLI: The Courser of True Love (Never Did Run Smooth)

When Clover reached the end of the rough trail winding up the rocky side of Bothrin Tor like a jagged scar, she broke through the top of the mist and knew how a bird must feel as it takes to wing and soars above the clouds. The rocky road was no less rough than it had been that afternoon, but despite the hard miles and the weight of the colt on her back, somehow the journey didn't feel like a chore. In fact, she didn't even feel tired or worn out at all.

Well, actually she felt very tired, but it didn't seem to bother her as much.

Clover climbed atop the last rock in the chain of rocks that served as a natural staircase of sorts and hauled them both up to the hilltop. She trudged over the thin layer of dirt and dust atop the hard stone hill, which floated in the churning mist flowing around its rocky shores like an ocean around an island. When she reached the center, she dropped to her knees, ignoring the sharp rocks littering the top digging into her skin, and let Junior climb off.

"Thanks," he said as he lay on the ground beside her. "I mean that. I couldn't have done it without you."

Clover attempted a smile, but she was too busy panting for breath to keep it going for long. "No....problem...." she said.

Beside her, Junior craned his head back and gazed up at the blanket of stars covering the world with awe and wonder in his eyes, which were just as starry.

"It's hard to think it's all moving, like Starswirl said," Clover said. "Seems like everything's just standing still, doesn't it?"

"I've had enough standing still," Junior replied, "so's be kind and pardon me if I'd like to think I'm going somewhere."

"I never said it was a bad thing everything's moving. It just doesn't seem like it's happening."

She looked at the distant mountains, and the fog rolling off their slopes and through the sprawl of the dark green forest. Although it blanketed most of the trees, every so often, when the mist eddied, she spotted the pointy top of a pine poking above the sea. She wondered if the real sea was as eerily beautiful as this one was.

"My father said there weren't a thing more devious and despicable than a unicorn," Junior said abruptly, "but then he goes and gives your father a job. I can't figure out if he likes y'all or hates you."

Thinking of her own father, Clover said, "Maybe both. Starswirl, he says everything's got to be balanced. So maybe your papa does both at the same time."

"Sounds mighty strange, loving and hating at the same time."

"It's not hate, not really. Ponies only hate because they love something else too much, and they're scared it'll go away."

"Is that another thing your Starswirl said?"

"Yeah. He says a lot of things like that."

"These legs of mine, I hate them, but now that I think on it, I hate them so much because I loved to run. So I reckon there's some truth to it." He looked up at the sky, drank the wonderment for a few seconds, then asked, "How about you? What do you hate?"

"Golden Vein," Clover spat. "She's so mean."

"So what do you love, then?"

Clover stared up at the spread of the glittering sky too while she thought long and hard about what she loved that Golden Vein was taking away from her. Finally, she settled on, "I love not being hated."

"I don't hate you," Junior said softly.

Clover pretended she saw something very interesting in the distance while a blush glowed in her cheeks.

"I wonder what my father hates and loves about unicorns?" Junior asked.

Just then, the mist spilled over the top of the tor and sent wispy tendrils crawling over the dirt towards them. As the fog inched closer, upswirls lifted into the sky and started to conceal the stars.

"Aw," Junior murmured.

"It was pretty while it lasted," Clover said. "Should we go?"

"We just got here," Junior replied, as if it was obvious. "Maybe the fog will go away soon enough."

While the fog thickened around them, Clover looked over at him and asked, "What do we do until then?"

Junior smiled one of his sly smirks, although this one was warmer and wider than most. "Oh, I can think of a few things."

And then, before she could puzzle out what he meant, he leaned in close. Startled by the suddenness, she almost pushed him away. Then, when he kissed her, she realized what was happening. She thought she heard galloping hooves in the distance, but realized it was her heart pounding in her ears. She was scared, but not in a way she'd ever been scared before. It was a good kind of scared, like the moment after leaping off a cliff and hanging in mid-air above a swimming hole for one fleeting moment before gravity to pulled her back down. She kissed him back so hard he lost his balance, toppled backwards, and fell to the dirt.

"Oops," she said, covering her mouth with her forelegs. "Are you alright, Junior?"

"I'm just fine." He gave her a slight smile.

"Give me a few minutes and you might reconsider."

Clover's heart froze, and all of a sudden she felt the bad kind of scared. The cold and gleeful voice had come from behind her, but she didn't dare turn around. To turn around would be to admit that the voice was really there, and not just a trick of her mind. She wasn't going to do that, because it didn't exist. Sure, the eyes of the colt in front of her were the size of dinner plates, but still, she convinced herself that could be from anything. There was nopony behind her.

"You foolish filly, did you think I couldn't follow you up here?"

Clover squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to ignore it, because it wasn't there. Her body shook and shuddered with the cold.

"Too scared to face me, Clover?"

"You're not there," she moaned.

"Oh, but I am!" he whispered in her ear.

Terrified, she spun in a circle, only to see nothing around her but the swirling fog rippling across the lonely tor and Junior, desperately clawing at the ground to push himself to his hooves, like his back legs would work if he only concentrated hard enough.

"You're a naughty little filly, Clover," he whispered in her ear from right behind her, "sneaking up here with a colt."

"Y-you ain't my papa!" she called, sounding braver than she felt.

The voice whispered from the mist, "No, I'm not. But if I were, I would be so disappointed in you, Clover. It's every parent's nightmare to have useless, disobedient, good-for-nothing foal, isn't it?"

She thought she glimpsed a dark shape moving behind the sheets of fog. Gritting her teeth, she tried to work some magic with her horn to protect herself and Junior, but no matter how hard she concentrated, only a few pathetic sparks sputtered from her horn and dissipated as they fell to the ground.

"Useless little filly, where's your magic gone to?" The voice of Nightshade the Enchanter cackled from everywhere at once.

"D-does it know you?!" Junior stammered.

Clover thought she felt more than the wind brush against her cheek, but she couldn't turn, she was so consumed by terror.

"Oh, she knows me better than she thinks," Nightshade said. "Then again, you might, too."

"W-what do you want?!" Clover cried.

"All in good time. I won't hurt you....yet," Nightshade said from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Him, on the other hoof...."

Clover's eyes flicked to Junior laying crippled on the dusty tor, and before she could stop herself, she thought, Good! As long as it's not me! Then a wave of shame and revulsion coursed through her, mingling with the terror and fear. She could barely control herself. All her pony instincts, the same instincts that had so readily given up Junior Plenty in her stead, they were all screaming at her to bolt and run away, and it was only out of concern for Junior that she stopped herself, but she couldn't rein herself in for much longer.

"Clover...." Junior whispered, his voice choked.

As sweat and tears strung her eyes, she moaned loudly and shook her head as much as she could with her tensed neck muscles. Her knees shook and her legs ached to start moving. And then one layer of the fog parted, and the burning shadow shape of Nightshade the Enchanter stepped forward.

"Face me if you dare," he said, cackling.

Clover screamed in terror, turned, and bolted away. She ignored the path and jumped off the nearest edge, not minding the painful shock in her knees as she landed or the unsteady and steep hillside that she barely managed to right herself on. She ran away into the mist and the night, and when the shame started to creep through her, the overwhelming relief was there to keep it at bay.