Southwind Stories

Dear diary,

I lied. To an inquiry board, no less. About a felony. I can’t say I feel great about it.

The cover story worked well enough. I told them I’d arrived in time, subdued Azl and stopped him before he could get the artifact. That part was true enough,after a fashion. I did keep him from getting it. As far as Equestria is concerned, it’s buried in that temple somewhere, where the Sphinx left it. It’s not though. I took it with me. Somehow it didn’t feel safe to leave it behind. I still don’t know what it is, but I think Kite does. I’d rather keep it with her than in a hole somewhere, there’s no telling who was watching us.

Tezza removed the venom from my blood before I transformed. I have that now, too, in a little glass jar. According to her, it’s already maturated.  All I have to do is drink it, and the process will complete itself. She told me to hang onto it, “In case of emergency.”  I know better. She just wants the temptation of it near by so that, someday, in some moment of weakness, I’ll try it. Just for the experience. She knows I collect experiences. It’s a pretty transparent ploy. I should frankly get rid of it, I know how dangerous it is.

I haven’t yet, though.  In case of emergency.

The bugger of it all is, I can list a dozen different reasons why I lied that all make perfect sense. I didn’t want to draw attention to Malachite, for instance. She’s already considered an alien presence in Equestria and I don’t want her on record as something “dangerous.” She grew another tail after this thing. I have no idea why or how, or what specifically caused it, but it happened. That might be excuse enough alone for somepony to try and take her away “for observation.” I don’t want to add more fuel to that fire. The fewer times she’s mentioned in an official report, the better.

And there was no harm done with Tezza, either. Trying to make a vivid pony is a serious crime, she’d be looking at a substantial sentence if she were convicted. But she wasn’t being malicious. Azl was, and he’s going to pay for it. I was cured before anything bad happened, and Azl’s grip on his own vivid pony expired when he wasn’t able to renew her venom. No harm, no foul, the problem is over and there’s no point in dragging out new ones.

I know the real reason, though.

It’s because I made the pony choice. Because I believe in the pony choice. In Equestria, the pony choice works. Here, that’s what we do. We have faith, and we have trust, and it makes amazing things happen. Here, I can bet the safety of our whole nation on my friendship with somepony, and I’ll get a medal for it. But it’s not the only choice. Tezza made the coatl choice. She weighed her options and picked the greatest strategic advantage she could find with the highest chance of protecting the most people from the greatest threat, at the least cost. That I didn’t volunteer is not an aspect of that decision; I was a necessary factor in an equation designed to save lives, I don’t get the option to refuse.

Equestria would send her to prison for that. There wouldn’t even be an appeal.

I can’t.

I understand it. I even agree with it. And I’m not supposed to. It’s not the pony way.

I lied, because I made the pony choice, and for the life of me, I think I chose wrong. I bet Equestria on luck, and even though it worked, I don’t want to be celebrated for that. I believe in Equestria, more than any pony I know. I love our people, I follow our traditions, I celebrate our culture. But I think, maybe, running into Tezza again reminded me just how native I went while in her homeland, and this trial, my fake story, has made me realize that I made my choices because I recognized their validity. There is a part of me that belongs to Equestria, but somewhere deep inside, there’s a part of me that belongs to that jungle too. Those people. Equestria would have me feel ashamed of that part. I don’t.

It’s funny, I haven’t spoken the coatl language in months before this little incident. Came back just like that. Accent is a little messy though.

For a creature with no feet, Teza had always had a remarkable ability to put hers in her mouth. I didn’t hold it against her; it was the only tell she had that she actually cared about someone. Our relationship didn’t end for lack of feelings for each other. It ended because of conflicted feelings about the rest of the world. There are three prerequisites to greatness, my dad used to say: ambition, intelligence, and compassion. Teza had the first two in excess, and was nearly devoid of the third. Nearly. Not completely.

The other coatl’s name was Azl, and his scale was skewed even further. Teza told me that as she had shadowed him, looking for ‘the artifact’ herself, she’d watched him become more and more ruthless in his pursuit. Making the Vivid pony was one thing, but killing a Sphinx…

They are not a plentiful creature. They don’t take kindly to losing their own. Nothing kills a Sphinx unless it has nothing to lose, or a very, very impressive trump. Teza hadn’t originally thought this trinket she was seeking was really all that potent. Apparently we were both mistaken.

Somehow, I think Malachite knew. She hadn’t let me touch it, and she gave it to the biggest, strongest entity she could find to keep it safe. Its difficult to tell what she’s thinking about now.

When the sphinx died, she didn’t have the artifact with her. Azl wouldn’t have bothered attacking me if he already had the thing. I certainly don’t have it, which means the Sphinx stashed it somewhere. I fly over these forests regularly, and I know most of the landmarks. There is a temple with cyclopean architecture, a veritable golden fortress, that is said to be cursed sphinxcraft left over from a time where their influence was wider than it is now. Its the only place I could think of in Equestria with any connection to the species, and it seemed like the best place to start looking.

I can almost hear the ticking clock in my veins.

The real problem with vivid venom is it feels amazing. Even the hard parts of it feel amazing. At least, to the right ponies. The vomiting rainbows, the shuddering, the sweat, it feels like fire dancing on your skin. Its intoxicating, and extremely addictive. A lot of the food in the Serpent lands have similar properties, and the feeling is familiar. Nostalgic. I’ve missed it. I’ve missed the heat and the passion and the pain and the color. I almost hate how much I’ve missed it, because it makes it hard to prioritize properly. For instance, I know there’s a very cunning snake and a vivid pony waiting for me at the end of this flight. I know if I’m late, I’m going to become one myself and he’ll have two under his control. I know I’m no match for the one that’s already there.

But I also know that its almost certain to take too long to get help, and, somehow, I survived an attack that should have killed me. So I’m going after him anyway. Because he needs to be stopped before he can get what he’s after, and he needs to pay for what he’s done, and that vivid pony needs to be released, and I need to be rid of his influence.