Trixie had gathered her 2 minions to show off her new powers. She could make any illusion she wanted, teleport, levitate heavy objects with seemingly no effort and even transfigure objects with a snap of her fingers. Her dream of being a stage magician was closer than ever before, but she just could not get it right. Oh, her friends were telling her it was amazing, but that's why they were her friends; they were toadies. But she knew it wasn't right because every time she tried to summon up the bravado and confidence she had used for most of her life, it just drained away, she had to actively think to talk in 3rd person now. That had been a reflex for over 3 years! Had that demon done something to her? Her memories of what happened after she took his hand were fuzzy. She knew about getting her magic, but had something else happened? She was about to pull her hair out when they heard a knock on the door.
Lavender jumped up and answered only to stare at the strange guy. He looked very professional, but something seemed off. Oh, there it was. He had ram horns!? Trixie barged up to him. She had not her usual bravado, but she had plenty of anger. "You - what did you do to me? I can't perform like this!"
Murphy just looked at her for a moment "Hi. Name's Murphy. You know, the guy you made a deal with and forgot to set the price. What?! Did you think I was going to do just give something to you? That's not how this works, young lady. Be glad I only took some personality quirks and not your ability to feel pain or something equally as lethal."
Trixie tried to scowl at him, it looked more like a pout "But I need those to be a good magician. There has to be some way we can fix this?"
Murphy just pinched his nose "Fine. Give me something in exchange for the magic and something to put your emotions back to normal and we'll be square. Keep in mind it has to be equal to what you got in order to count."-
After watching her fumble for an answer for a while, Murphy sighed-"Look how about this I will give you back the personality quirks, but in exchange they won't work unless you're performing. Sound fair?"
Trixie half extended her arm before pulling back "Wait. Why should I trust that you'll keep your word?"
This was the wrong thing to say as, the next moment, all 3 of the girls were having trouble breathing or standing. The room was filled with such an oppressive feeling rage, interlaced with so much raw desire to kill that Fuchsia lost control of her bladder.
Murphy was sheathing "Never accuse me of lying! I am a devil! We ALWAYS keep our word! Just make sure you keep yours or you won't like the outcome"- The next instant the pressure disappeared and he was back to smiling- "Now then the deal?"
Trixie took his hand in a with a slight shake in her arm, once that had been cleared up he continued "Now, as for paying for your magic I don't mind using an installment plan."
Lavender's head tilted to the side "Uh come again?'
"I'm willing to let you pay in installments for the magic. You two can get in on this deal to if you want."- After some deliberation, the 3 agreed to the plan. After all, how bad could the payments be if they were in chunks? "Great. here's a simple contract."
Trixie read through the whole thing VERY carefully (even looking over the fine print with a powerful magnifying glass). Suddenly her personality shift was very helpful (in that she could think much more logically). Everything seemed in order until she got the point of what they would pay in "How are we supposed to gather negative emotions?"
Murphy snapped his fingers and summoned an arm band with - an equal sign? "Just wear one of these and walk around it will soak up the negativity around you and send it to me. I'll visit on occasion and give you something extra if you gather a high amount in a month. So what do you say?"
The 3 looked at one another for a moment before answering "Where do we sign?" Murphy could only grin. Things were looking up for him for the first time in a long time.
Back in Equestria
Molly, Moon and Shimmy were sitting in their temporary room, reevaluating their opinion of their hostess. Moon spoke up first "Okay, you two agree that that mare is just as scary as Murphy. Right?" They both nodded, but Molly was in some kind of daze.
Due to Murphy going to the human world, he needed someone to watch them. Thus, they were staying with Love Tap, Button and Gibson. While they got along well with Button and Love Tap was okay, Gibson had annoyed them, to the point they locked him in a room with Molly for an hour. When Love Tap found them and saw the condition Gibson was in, they got a lecture that made the boss's normal punishment seem heavenly. After that, they had been on their best behavior (which was still bad) They had learned that the late father of their 2 new playmates (things) had died due to an accident at work involving an electrical surge. Murphy was not going to have a happy reunion with his friend when he got back because Hellfire had cracked during the lecture and let slip his power of causality to try and get her to back off, leading to their current fear of her.
Molly blinked out of her daze "I hope he comes home soon. I want to see these two fight. It should be entertaining." and with that happy thought, the girls enacted their plan to cause some head aches wherever Murphy had run off to.
Human world: Pie household
The girls were trying to enjoy their slumber party when the house was shaken by a massive sneeze by the sound of it. The next moment there was a knock on the door, when they opened it they almost melted at the sight of a little girl in yellow pajamas holding a rabbit plushy. Only Twilight and Sunset were unaffected. Twilight just pinched her nose before talking "Hi Molly. When did you get here?"
Molly just smiled cutely for about 5 minutes. She stopped the moment she saw Sunset, who Twilight finally noticed seemed to be going through a mental shutdown. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused her body was shifting from side to side on reflex and she was just staring at the girl-"SUNNY!"
The next moment, the girls felt a breeze and turned to see that the girl had tackle hugged Sunset. They thought it was cute until they saw the look of utter despair on Sunsets face. Sunset's brain had started to go numb on reflex the moment she recognized that pink terror. She had come to this world to get away from that thing (and gain the power to defeat it). With dawning horror she realized the arsenic cherry on this well disguised cow pie. "She's young now. She can get away with anything. If she's caught, anyone older then her will be blamed and she'll be put in therapy before going on to the next victim. I'm dead!"
The next moment, 2 other girls ran in and started yanking on Molly.
"Damn she's dug in like a tick. Get off my food source, you greedy bimbo".
One of the two newest girls was red skinned wearing a black and red night gown (Rarity was horrified at the near overdose of red)
"Sister, let go of her. You can have fun later."
The other was jet black wearing a navy blue set of footie pajamas which looked adorable. The look was ruined by her angry scowl however.
5 minutes later, they had managed to finally pry Molly and Sunset apart after Moon used her knowledge of Molly's tickle spot to make her give up. Twilight retook control of the situation right after she made sure Sunset was coherent. "Okay, what are you 3 even doing here? We have enough problems with your 'parent' here as it is."
The humans in the room were just confused. After watching the girls pull Twilight off to the side (most likely to ask why she was interrogating children), Sunset noticed that one of the girls who was not the pink terror had sat next to her, before she could start talking the girl hugged her. It was nice and confusing. "Uh thanks but why are you hugging me?"
The kid gave her a deadpan look "Am I really that hard to recognize bacon-head?"
With that she went back to hugging her big sister/mother.
Sunset's eyes widened. She knew that voice all too well. After all, it had been bothering her since she came to this world, it had been her only companion - especially after her failed attempt at gaining magic. She had never told anyone about the voice and one of the reasons she was so distraught after the rainbow was because she lost her oldest friend and was forced to see everything she had done wrong. She knew now that her 'friend' had been encouraging her actions but it was hard to stay mad at someone who had been there for you for several years. No mater what happened, she had been there. Sunset scooped Hellfire up into a tighter embrace and just sat there. Demon or not, she could not just ignore this part of herself any longer.
Meanwhile, Twilight had been explaining her behavior to the girls. So far, it was not going well. As much as they believed that Murphy was a danger, it was hard for them to think the same of 3 little girls. Then they felt it, something in the room was radiating heat. when they turned around they watched in fascination (and slight terror) as the girl which was hugging Sunset started to grow. In less then a minute, she had reached the same size as Sunset, where she thankfully stopped. Sunset on the other hand started to grow a bit herself. By the time she stopped, she had gone from looking 16-17 years old to looking around 30!
Sunset let go of her counterpart to see the girls staring at her (when had they gotten shorter?). She quickly realized something had changed after looking at herself in the mirror and doing a quick mental calculation she realized what had happened before turning to the girls with a sheepish grin. "I have some explaining to do, right?" Her only answer was a group of confused nods. This was going to be very awkward.