There were two girls inside Everfree Castle’s entrance hall.
The first one’s attire simply consisted of a plain black robe and dress shoes. The other wore a white button shirt with a red cravat and blue wristbands, a blue and white mini skirt with blue stockings, and red pumps. The first girl’s eyes were brown, while the second’s were blue. Both girls had long, brown hair.
In the first girl’s hand was a long, pointed stick, while the other held a book. They stood against opposite walls from each other, facing each other with fierce determination in their eyes.
The second girl opened up her book, giving it a quick read before raising her hand. A vortex opened above the first girl’s head, and she looked up to see a rock about as big as her come through. That one was quickly followed by several more, tumbling out of the summoning vortex in a lethal shower.
The first girl smiled, and raised her wand. “Wingardium Leviosa!” she called with a swish and a flick.
All at once, every single rock halted its fall, as if gravity itself had been stripped away from each one. There they hovered in midair, unmoving, while the first girl casually walked out from underneath them, keeping her wand pointed at them all the while. Once she was a safe distance away, she turned around and retracted her wand. Gravity once again took hold, and all the rocks loudly tumbled to the floor, kicking up ancient dust as they piled atop each other before settling down.
She turned to the second girl and gave her a coy little smile as she playfully tapped her wand against her shoulder.
The second girl sighed before returning her own, more exhausted smile. “I shouldn’t hold back, should I, Hermione?” she asked.
Hermione stopped tapping, and nodded. “If you’d be so kind, Charlotte.”
Charlotte nodded herself, her expression turning confident. “Then here goes.” She gave her book another quick glance, before raising her hand again.
A shape began taking form in the air between them. It was humanoid in stature, but as more details filled themselves in, it was quickly apparent that it wasn’t— anymore, at least. A skeleton, animated as if it was still fully sapient, emerged between them. Despite its eye sockets being empty, its gaze still fixated on Hermione as it reached to its chest and broke away one of its ribs.
Hermione could only stare in mixed confusion and horror at the macabre display, wondering what exactly her opponent was getting at by summoning such a pathetic adversary, while also fighting to hold back a surge of vomit at the sight of it breaking itself apart. The skeleton chucked its rib at her, to which she ducked, letting it sail over her head and shatter against the wall behind her.
“Wha–?” Before Hermione could say anything more, she found yet another bone hurtling towards her. She sidestepped out of the way, raising her wand at the skeleton. “Petrificus Totalus!”
Instantly the skeleton’s body went rock stiff, its bony hands slapping against its sides and its feet coming together. It then fell backwards, shattering apart upon impact with the floor and scattering all of its bones, only for them all to fade away as the spell was undone.
Charlotte turned a page in her spellbook.
Hermione raised her wand again. “Expelliarmus!”
Charlotte’s eyes widened in surprise as her spellbook was blasted out of her hand, sailing through the air before landing open a fair distance away, near the ajar front door of the castle. Blinking, she turned back to Hermione, only to find her wand pointed at her. Hermione grinned slightly as she began closing the distance between them.
“I must say, you are a worthy duel opponent,” she remarked. Her tone was devoid of sarcasm, but still had a playful air to it. She finally closed the distance between them, and poked Charlotte’s chest with her wand. “But raw power isn’t enough to win a magic duel.”
Charlotte nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “But…” The corners of her mouth lifted as she flitted her gaze over Hermione’s shoulder.
Hermione noticed this, and made to turn around. “What are you–?”
Click
Hermione froze. Even after all she’d been through in the world of magic, she still recognized — and feared — that sound. The circular, metallic touch against the back of her neck reaffirmed her conclusion.
She lowered her wand.
Charlotte’s smile grew bigger. “... I never got famous for solely relying on power.”
“... You summoned the skeleton to distract me so you could cast another summoning spell, didn’t you?”
“Mhmm.” Charlotte stepped around her, bading that Hermione look back.
Hermione turned her head, slowly, since the exact nature of the summoning spell was unknown to her, and she didn’t want to risk setting off the gun. Holding the gun to her neck was another skeleton, this one dressed in purple robes. Charlotte waved her hand, to which the skeleton pointed the gun away from her and fired at the ceiling, before it disappeared in the same manner as the first summoned skeleton.
It was then that Hermione realized she was holding her breath. Letting it out, she turned fully around, watching as Charlotte went to retrieve her spellbook. “You have some interesting magic at your disposal,” she said. “Magic as overwhelming as yours just doesn’t exist where I’m from.”
“Yours is pretty interesting, too,” Charlotte replied. She reached down and picked up her spellbook, wiping off some dust before she tucked it under her arm and turned back to Hermione. “Yours seems to be purposed more for utility than combat. I’d describe it as finessed, whereas mine is more bombastic.”
“I agree,” Hermione said, nodding. “Clearly, we’re not from the same realm of existence.”
“Clearly,” Charlotte agreed. “Any ideas why?”
Hermione tapped her chin, thinking for a while over all the gathered evidence they had regarding their situation, which admittedly wasn’t much. One moment she was on her way to class at Hogwarts, the next she was in a run down shell of a castle. Charlotte’s own story was shockingly similar to her own, and the fact that she’d come from Dracula’s castle was solid confirmation that the two girls hailed from different planes of existence.
As to how or why they’d gotten there, she couldn’t say. Anything she came up with was only theory, as everything about their current situation went beyond her understanding of magic. She could only come up with one, seemingly ludicrous explanation for what was going on, but anything was better than nothing.
“Well, seeing how we’re both from different dimensions, it’s only fair to assume that something beyond the borders of existence itself pulled us from our respective realities and brought us here. For what purpose, however, I don’t have a clue.”
Charlotte pondered that for a moment before nodding. “That makes sense, I suppose.” She turned her head around, really taking in the decrepit state of the castle for the first time since arriving. Wherever they were, it was most likely long abandoned. “We should probably go outside and get the lay of the land. Maybe see if there’s anyone else around here.”
“Good idea,” Hermione agreed.
The two girls made their way toward the front double doors, pushing them open and stepping outside. Looking around, the first thing they noticed was the large ravine separating the castle grounds from a dark, quite menacing-looking forest on the other side. A rope bridge crossed over, but the side closest to them was severed and likely hanging somewhere far below.
Suddenly, a shape emerged from the treeline across the ravine. Both girls turned to see what it was, wand and spellbook at the ready. They were both quite shocked when the shape turned out to be a purple equine creature. A horn protruded from its head, and its mane was a two tone of pink and dark violet. Its eyes were purple and almost extraordinarily large.
The creature stopped as it took notice of Hermione and Charlotte. No one moved for a good while, waiting for the other side to speak first, all while the two humans whispered to each other.
“Is that a unicorn?” Charlotte mused.
“It certainly bears close resemblance,” Hermione replied. She wrinkled her brow. “But the unicorns I know of aren’t as small or colorful as this thing. Or sapient, which this one looks to be.”
“It doesn’t look particularly hostile, at least.”
“Maybe…”
Suddenly, the unicorn smiled and shouted, “Hello!”
Temporarily shaken, the girls regained their composure and waved back. “Hello!” Charlotte answered back.
“You girls alright over there!?” The unicorn asked.
“We’re okay!” Hermione answered cheerily, although internally she was feeling slightly weirded out to be talking to a creature which was not sapient back home.
“Gimme a sec! I’ll be right over there!”
The unicorn’s horn lit up and, in a flash of light, she disappeared, only to reappear in another flash just a few feet between the girls, making them jump a little.
“Wow! So you can teleport?” Charlotte said.
The unicorn nodded. “And more.” She sat down on her rump and held out a forehoof to each of them. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you both.”
Charlotte and Hermione both accepted a hoof and introduced themselves.
“So, I imagine you’re both confused about where you are and what’s happening?” Twilight asked.
“We think we have a basic idea,” Charlotte said, and proceeded to explain her and Hermione’s theory regarding what was happening.
By the end of her explanation, Twilight’s stunned expression told them they were very much right. Both girls felt a surge of pride in having used their brains to good effect.
“That’s… right.” Twilight pressed a hoof against her head, seemingly overwhelmed by their intelligence. “Wow, you two are really smart.”
“I’m not called ‘the brightest witch of my age’ for nothing, after all,” Hermione said proudly.
“Still, I should fill you in on the details so you’re up to speed.” Twilight lit up her horn and stepped closer to them, gesturing for them to bend their heads.
Charlotte looked at her horn with interest. “Some sort of memory transference spell, I’m assuming?”
Twilight nodded.
“I’ve never heard of a simple spell being able to transfer memories,” Hermione said, also taking interest in Twilight’s horn. Already, she was proving to be more interesting than the unicorns in the Dark Forest back at Hogwarts. “But I do know a charm to take them away.”
Twilight touched her horn to Hermione and Charlotte’s foreheads one at a time. Once the memory transfer was complete, their expressions turned to mixed ones of awe and sympathy. After everything the group had gone through, Twilight figured it was only natural that these very clearly studious girls would be interested to learn more about all the various people they’d met. She wished she could do just that, but there just wasn’t any time to sit down and learn more about each other when the literal omnipresent threat of danger existed. But, knowing herself, the original Twilight was more than likely doing exactly that right then.
“So, you’re actually a copy of the original ‘Twilight Sparkle’, huh?” Charlotte said.
Twilight nodded again. “Mhmm.”
“That’d sure come in handy,” Charlotte mused. Having an entire legion of identical copies of herself to aid in the fight against Dracula would make things appreciably easier. Having someone to discuss the applications of quantum magic theory to basic utilities would be nice too, since she wouldn’t have to explain the definition of every word with more than two syllables, unlike a certain friend of hers back home.
“So, shall we get go–” Twilight cut herself off as her ear flicked.
“Is something wrong, Twilight?” Hermione asked, genuinely worried.
Twilight turned her head around a few times, before settling her gaze around the corner of the castle’s front wall. She took a combat stance, lighting her horn. “There’s someone else here with us,” she whispered.
Hermione and Charlotte followed Twilight’s gaze. Nodding their understanding, they drew out their wand and spellbook, respectively. Together, the group of three slowly made their way toward the corner, being extra careful with their steps so as to not alert whatever was hiding from them.
They pressed against the front wall, and Twilight edged closer to the corner. She drew in a deep, relaxing breath, and poked her head around.
Nothing was there. Just a few bushes.
Hermione and Charlotte poked their heads around as well. “There’s nothing here,” Charlotte said.
Twilight looked downcast for a moment. “Yeah, maybe I’m just hearing things.”
“But, aren’t horses supposed to have, like, super advanced hearing or something?”
The girls all blinked at the very masculine voice coming from above their heads. Their gazes shot upward, only to find a very red, very inhuman face staring back down at them.
“... Hello,” Twilight said, cautiously.
“And a very merry konnichiwa to you too, Starbutt,” the figure replied.
“Well, I—hey!” Twilight shot him an indignant glare.
“Oh, I'm going super easy with the insults. This fic's rated Mature, and my vocabulary is like a beautiful rainbow of colors, so don't get me riled up.”
“... What?”
The figure stepped back away from the wall, stretching his hands over his head and popping some loose joints back into place. The three girls turned to get their first good look at the newcomer, who was a fair bit taller than all of them; probably in his mid to late twenties. He wore a full red and black bodysuit, with white covers over his eyes. A couple of gun holsters were strapped to the suit, along with two sheaths fastened to his back holding twin katana blades.
A long, almost awkward silence stretched between everyone as the girls watched the newcomer casually stretch and inspect his katanas. Collectively, they felt uneasy around him, perhaps due to the fact that he had appeared out of nowhere, as well as his previous weird choice of words. His guns and blades less so.
At last, the newcomer turned and appeared to regard the girls with idle curiosity. “So, what’s a couple of pretty little girls and a mutant freakazoid unicorn like yourselves doing here, anyway?” he asked.
“Hey!” Charlotte shouted. “I am not a girl.”
The man looked bemused. “Says the sixteen-year old.”
“I am a lady!”
“Sure, sure you are not.”
Charlotte held up her spellbook, ready to cast a spell, only for Hermione to put a hand up to stop her. Begrudgingly, Charlotte lowered her spellbook.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked the man.
The man shrugged. “Wade Wilson. The Merc with the Mouth. Deadpool. Take your pick, horse lady.”
“I am a pony.”
“What’s the difference?”
Twilight looked indignant. “There’s a big difference. First of all, ponies are–” Twilight cut herself off when the man started mockingly flapping his hand, and she snorted.
“Listen, Deadpool,” Hermione started, stepping forward, “we’re in an incredible situation that could see us die at any given moment if we don’t work together. Now’s not the time to be insulting each other, so please stop.”
Deadpool let out a short, sarcastic laugh and slapped his knee. “Die!? Haha, right, good one.” He followed up with a longer bout of laughing, before he settled down and returned Hermione’s bemused glare with his own, hardened gaze. “I know your type, little girlie. You think you know everything about everything. You don’t. You take every chance you can to flaunt your intelligence about things you do know, and keep quiet about anything you don’t.” He stalked right up to Hermione and locked eyes with her. “Do you know what I’m capable of, missy? What I can do to you and anyone who gives me shit? Go on, tell me.”
Hermione said nothing, continuing to lock gazes with Deadpool. Her hand gripped tight around her wand, her knuckles whitening. Twilight and Charlotte got ready to restrain her, as much as the small voices in their minds kept telling them to sit back and enjoy the show.
“Fine, tell me why you’re better than us,” Hermione finally said.
Deadpool clapped his hands. “Even better, I’ll show you.” He then pulled a gun out of his holster, making everyone instinctively take a step back, unsure what he was going to do. But they were all utterly shocked when Deadpool put the gun against his neck and pulled the trigger, splattering flecks of blood across the grass in front of him.
All three girls stood petrified, horrified by the suicidal display. Any and all annoyance they felt was instantly gone, replaced by concern for Deadpool’s well-being. That concern turned to confusion when he remained standing upright, without a single sign of distress or agony at having shot himself.
Deadpool then put his gun back in its holster and proceeded to turn to the side, affording all three girls a full frontal view of the gunshot wound in his neck. They felt bile rise up in their throats when they saw the wound closing itself up before their naked eyes; regenerative tissue. As if to further disgust them, Deadpool stuck a finger into the wound and jiggled it, making ‘bidibidibidi’ noises.
“Oh god…” Charlotte turned around and threw up a little onto the grass.
“Now that that’s settled,” Deadpool started, pulling his finger out of the wound just as it finished closing up, and turned to the girls, “it looks like the author’s put us in a bit of a predicament, doesn’t it?”
Twilight arched a brow. “Say that again?”
“So horses don’t have super advanced hearing?”
“No, you just said…” Twilight took a deep, relaxing breath. Clearly, Deadpool was one of ‘those’ kinds of people. Better to just ignore the random nonsense he spouted, lest she lose her sanity. “Never mind. Listen, we’re now involved in something incredibly dangerous, and we need to band together if we all want to…” she paused, considering her choice of words in light of Deadpool’s earlier demonstration, “... come out of it completely unharmed.”
“I E not me.”
Hermione crossed her arms. “Totally barbaric.”
“I heard that Lil’ Miss Know-it-all!”
“Anyway,” Twilight said, hoping to defuse any more forthcoming arguing, “I can very easily show you all of what’s happening if you’ll let me touch my horn to your head.” She lit her horn and began approaching him.
Deadpool held up his hand, to which Twilight stopped. “Hold on, let me guess,” he started. He then began ticking off points with his fingers. “There’s some big bad guy; he wants to take over the world; and only the chosen alliance of heroic heroes can stop him. That it?”
“Actually no,” Twilight replied.
“Oh, well then–” Deadpool lowered his head “–zap away horse lady, or whatever you’re gonna do.”
“I keep telling you, I’m not– oh, forget it.”
She closed the distance between them and touched her horn to Deadpool’s forehead. The expected silence from him as his mind processed the new information followed. But only for about two seconds.
“Wow, this author is in waaaaay over his head here.”
“Might you please explain to us what you’re talking about with that?” Charlotte asked, having recovered from her vomiting. “And what’s a ‘fanfic’?”
Deadpool appeared to ignore her, instead turning around with one hand on his hips and the other scratching his chin. “Times New Roman isn’t really my style…”
“Hey, listen to me!”
Deadpool continued staring off into space for several seconds. Annoyance showed clear across all three girls’ faces at Deadpool’s total disinterest to their questions. The three of them silently collectively decided to ignore his random ramblings.
Finally, Deadpool turned back to the girls, and for once, seemed to regard them with actual, genuine interest. “So you’re all good guys, right?”
They all blinked.
“... Yeah,” Twilight said. “If you wanna put it in such simple terms, we are.”
“Okay then!” Deadpool clapped his hands together. “Seeing as how I’m stuck here and can kick the ass of anything and everything that looks at me funny, let’s go and help out the group before they all get torn to pieces!”
All three girls smiled wide. “Of course,” Twilight said. “Just gimme a sec, and…” She lit her horn, and in a flash, all four of them disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the ravine.
Hermione, Charlotte, and Deadpool all felt dizzy for a few seconds afterward. Teleportation sickness always got better with repeat trips, but Twilight figured walking the rest of the way would be preferable.
“Whoa,” Hermione said, rubbing the spots from her eyes. “That was… something.”
“Interesting,” Charlotte said, similarly temporarily blinded.
“That’d better not leave any sparkle rainbow whatever on my suit.” Deadpool inspected himself all over, like he was checking for signs of some kind of disease.
“Let’s get a move on, then,” Twilight said as she turned toward the Everfree Forest. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
“Good thing the chapter’s about to end,” Deadpool said, sighing. “‘Cause otherwise I’d die of boredom. And then you’d all be doomed because what do you have to defend yourselves with? Magic? Stupid! There’s nothing that a few well aimed bullets can’t solve. Except cancer. And world hunger. Wouldn’t that be something? Being able to solve all the world’s problems with guns. Of course, a lot of people already think that way, but not me! I’m only in the business to get my revenge on that one little slimeball who tricked me and any of his little idiot minions that try to get in my way…”
“Please tell me one of you has a spell to shut him up,” Charlotte whispered to Hermione and Twilight.
“I could if I wanted to,” Twilight whispered back, “but consider it a sacrifice so as to not provoke him into using his guns on us.”
“As much as I want him to shut up as well,” Hermione said, “I have to agree with Twilight.”
Charlotte sighed. “I really hope my nerves can endure the journey.”