Some Time Ago
The milk tasted sour. This much they could not deny. If the accuser was to be believed, then it was sour straight from the cow.
There was some due process. One cow was taken for a day, given only the sweetest grass to eat, then milked with the inquisitor as a witness.
Perhaps they should have asked that the milking barrel be checked prior to milking. Somepony could have contaminated it with vinegar. The milk was still sour.
The inquisitor turned to the cow and asked the animal to repeat its testimony.
Daisy saw the cow give a nervous look at her farmer. Lily saw the farmer give a nervous look towards the wealthy landowner, to which all new she was deep in debt. Spoiled Milk, the land owner, had the same look of bitter disdain upon her muzzle that she always did.
“I saw them in the fields sir inquisitor. I saw Lily Valley, Daisy, and Roseluck. They were dancing in the fields, the night the milk started to sour. And they wore no clothing sir.”
There was a collective gasp at the words ‘they wore no clothing.’
The inquisitor turned towards the flower ponies. “And what say you three.”
“Sir, we cut through the fields because it was a short-cut home.” Daisy explained. “Also, there’s no curfew, but ponies talk when a filly is out so late.”
“What about the dancing?”
“It was more like frolicking sir,” Roseluck offered. “We were just happy that night, and being a little playful.”
“And what sort of games had you been playing that left you in such a mood.” The inquisitor smirked. “What could any good pious mare be doing at such an unholy hour?”
The flower ponies looked at one another. They didn’t speak, yet their expressions spoke volumes to one another. Lily wanted to tell the truth. Daisy agreed they should, and Roseluck was just embarrassed. Lily gave a glance to a certain pony, who seemed nervous that they might speak.
In an unusual show of perceptiveness, the inquisitor caught the glance. When Daisy opened her muzzle to speak, the inquisitor shut them down.
“Further testimony shall not be necessary. No doubt you would only slander these good people with your vile lies.”
Lily was taken aback. Daisy tried to raise her voice, but the inquisitor out-bellowed her.
“Lily Valley, Daisy, Roseluck - you three have been accused of witchcraft. There will be one final test before you are drowned. You shall be locked in an underground vault for no less then thirty days. There will be no food or water, so if you survive, then we will know for certain that the dark ones magic sustains you.”
Roseluck pounded a stone against the wall, trying desperately to chisel her way out.
Lily screamed and sobbed. She couldn’t believe it. They really convicted them.
Daisy would take a step or two, then lick her hoof and feel around. She figured there had to be an opening somewhere, or the three of them would had suffocated by now.
Suddenly a wall opened to reveal a secret passage. The passage was lit with torches, and seemed to go on for a great distance.
They saw the shadow first. It was a shadow shaped like none other they three ponies had ever seen before. It had scales, and clawed appendages. It walked on two legs, and at one point it turned its head and opened its beak, revealing fangs. These fangs looked mighty, like they could tear through meat, pony meat.
Finally having enough light to see one another, the three flower ponies huddled together, trembling with fear.
Then a small purple dragon only slightly larger then a cat stepped through.
“Hi. I’m spike.”
Lily fainted.
“Boy-Oh-Boy, Midnight is gonna be glad to meet the three of you.”
The dragon was peppy and energetic. It was not easy to keep up with him while carrying Lily.
Were they really headed for the castle of Midnight Sparkle?
Midnight Sparkle was sort of an ambassador for the part of Equestria ruled by Nightmare Moon, and so she had a diplomatic immunity. Of course she wasn’t known to do anything remotely diplomatic.
“We haven’t had any witches in the castle since granny apple passed away.”
“We’re not witches,” Came a half asleep voice.
The dragons ears twitched.
Daisy quickly covered Lily’s muzzle with her hoof. “Don’t mind her. She’s just,… uh,… being modest.”
The dragon thought for a moment as they moved up steps on a steeper part of the secret passageway. “Oh I get it. I do have some idea what its like outside the castle. You would have to practice in secret, and you’ve probably had a really hard time finding grimoires to study from.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Here let me show you something.”
Spike pulled out a golden key. He led them towards two doors, then jumped several times trying to reach the lock.
All of a sudden, Spike was lifted into the air. To everyones surprise, Lily helped the dragon by letting him get up upon her back. He opened the door.
There was a wall of wood on the other side of the door, and Spike pulled a latch to trigger a mechanism which caused the wall to slide aside.
The three were bombarded with a pleasant musty smell. Roseluck closed her eyes for a second. As she slowly opened them she saw stacks upon stacks of books. The secret passage was hidden behind a bookshelf in a massive library.
“Some of these we buy in underground markets. Others we rescue from book burnings. this is why Midnight lives in Equestria. She’s trying to save all this knowledge from being lost”
Roseluck turned around, and read a few titles off the shelf.
“Are these all books on the occult?”
“No! There are books on pretty much everything.”
“This is Midnight Sparkles library. Are we really allowed to be here?”
“Sure you are! Midnights out a town for a month or two. We keep it secret whenever she leaves so that the town-ponies don’t siege the castle. Anyway, she gave me express orders what to do if the inquisitor actually catches any witches. She would never let any ‘witch’ come to harm, especially not so close to her own castle.”
The word witches loomed in their minds. This dragon was protecting them because they were supposed to be ‘witches.’
“Hey, I bet you girls have never seen a library as awesome as this one before. Why don’t I give you some time to check it out while I make dinner?”
Lily was about to say something, when Daisy stuck her hoof in the pink mares mouth again. “That would be great.”
“Oh, we should cook for you,” Roseluck offered.
“Thanks, but I need to stay in practice. Cooking is one of my jobs around here and we haven’t had any company for a while. It’s been just me and Glimmer.”
The dragon turned to leave, then stopped seeming to think of something.
“By the way, be careful around Glimmer. She’s nice, but lock your doors at night, or she might try to borrow some of your organs.”
Lily fainted.
“Does she do that a lot?”
“Uh… she has low blood pressure.” Daisy lied.
“Okay girls what now.”
They three mares were facing quite the conundrum. If they returned to Ponyville then the town ponies would no doubt assume the dark one aided their escape; which was at least tangentially true. However, they couldn’t stay.
In truth, they could probably fool the dragon, who seemed almost desperate for companionship and attention. The problem was Midnight Sparkle. Whenever she returned, she would no doubt see that they were not witches.
“Maybe we can steal a stage coach, and run to Canterlot.”
“Steal from Midnight Sparkle! Are you insane!”
Roseluck quickly dropped the idea.
“Well, do you want to live here?”
“I don’t know. The dragon seems sweet.” Daisy offered. “Local legends reported him as a fire breathing behemoth, if they were this far off about him, then who knows what Sparkle would actually be like.
“He’s nice to us because he thinks we’re witches, which is totally backwards from the rest of our world.”
Through all this exchange, Lily said nothing. Her nose was stuck in a book, and she seemed genuinely engrossed in the material.
“Are you actually reading that?” Daisy spoke in a raised voice.
Lily smiled and showed her the cover: ‘1001 magical uses for the common Lily.’
“Look at page fifteen.”
“I don’t want to look.”
“Don’t be a baby Daisy, just look.”
“It’s a potion to relieve hoof-aches.”
“My mother had hoof ache, and Lilies are the cure. I have a Lily cutie mark and I didn’t even know this. I could have helped her.”
“But then you’d be a witch.”
Lily ignored that last remark. “Come look at this,” she said. “There are whole shelves of books about flowers. How to make potions, perfumes, and incenses with magical properties. We’re flower ponies Daisy. Why didn’t we even know how much potential flowers have; how much potential we have?”
“It’s witchcraft Lily.”
“Then lets be witches.”
Both Roseluck and Daisy gasped at that statement, but Lily wouldn’t relent. She poked her nose in to one book then another. Reciting things that they could do.
“Make fruit grow out of season.”
“Slow our aging.”
“Fly.”
That night they dinned on beef wellington. Lily fainted at the sight of it, which Spike was now used to and didn’t take personally. Roseluck tried to say that ponies don’t eat meat, but Daisy stuck a hoof in her mouth to stop her.
Starlight Glimmer also sat at the table. Daisy tried to work up the nerve to ask why she had a bone saw next to her utensils.
After sculpting a dragon with her mashed potatoes, Roseluck noticed Spike watching her expectantly. She grabbed a bite of the beef wellington with her fork, and slowly, almost fearfully brought it up to her mouth. After pausing a little too long, she broke the tension by tossing the food into her mouth. She took one bite then two, then her eyes shot open in surprise. “It’s so good,” she said.
That night spike showed them to a room that was bigger then their former cottage. It wasn’t particularly well kept, like most of the castle, it needed a good dusting. The bed, however, was huge and soft and perfect.
Lily carried with her her a stack of books, and even Daisy and Roseluck had each borrowed one or two for appearances at least. It was still debatable if they were going to read them or not.
Thirty-One Days Later
A massive crowd stood behind the grand inquisitor. With some caution he unlatched the lock on the underground vault. Before opening the door, he turned to the ponies and gave a little speech. He talked of how their work was good, of how even if they were not witches, those mares were clearly sinful. And now the truth was to be unveiled.
The vault door was stone and it took three stallions pulling a winch to move it. As he opened the door merely a crack, the nozzle of a perfume bottle pointed out and sprayed the inquisitor right in the face.
The inquisitor reached for his throat, coughing and wheezing. His wheezing changing into an oink and a squeal as his once noble pony snout morphed into something else. Soon he had the face of a hog, and it did not stop there.
The three stallions stopped pulling at the winch, yet the door to the vault continued to open as if all on its own.
When it was full open the three flower mares stood proudly for all the populace to see. They clearly had not starved to death; in fact Roseluck’s flank may have grown slightly larger.
All stood motionless wondering what the three were going to do next. Lily lifted up a perfume bottle. Daisy had ruins and occult markings drawn in red ochre upon her own body, and cliche as it was, Roseluck hovered upon a broomstick.
All was silent, anticipation was high, then at last one made a sound. There was a giggle, which grew into a laugh.
Sometimes events unfold in different ways from mirror universe to mirror universe, yet they do parallel one another none-the-less. Hence forth, this night was known to all of Equestria as Nightmare Night.