Twilight Sparkle found out about the Game while having lunch with Morgan.
Morgan had been hard to reach lately. Twilight would text her or call, and Morgan would take five hours to reply. Twilight knew that Morgan hated seeing the notifications on her phone, she hated leaving them there for any longer than five minutes. It was some OCD habit of Morgan’s.
She was just getting worried when Morgan asked to go out for lunch.
They were actually having a decent lunch. Morgan had let Twilight pick the restaurant, which was the first sign that something was up. Twilight found a place (something called ‘vegan’ was the closest thing Twilight could find to Equestrian cuisine). Until Morgan looked down at her watch.
“Twilight, this was great. Really.” Morgan threw her Infinity Bag over her shoulder. She smirked at Twilight in Morgan’s patented ‘I’m about to get away with something you won’t understand’ way. “Gotta fly.”
Before Twilight could ask anything, the door to the restaurant was slammed open. Twilight had been facing away from it, so she whirled around in her seat.
“What’s going on?” Twilight asked.
She saw Darcy standing in the door, purple eyes bright with madness and the grin to match.
Darcy pointed a finger at Twilight. “You book loving whore! You let her get away!”
“Let who get away? Morgan what is she-” Twilight turned back to face her friend, only to see Morgan’s chair empty. There was no sign of the Queen ever having been there. “But...?”
“Dammit! I almost won!” Darcy looked down at her watch, ignoring the other confused patrons at the restaurant. “There’s still time. It’s only the fifteenth. Got fifteen more days to find her. I will find her, Chuck dammit!”
Thus Twilight was introduced to Hide N Seek.
==HNS==
The origins had been explained to Twilight by Darcy, who frantically searched for her sister.
“You know Morgue and me didn’t have a childhood.” Darcy explained. She was tracing a road on a map. “There wasn’t time to play games. I was too busy hiding the fact that I could kill people with my pinky, and Morgue was keeping other people from seeing that too. Or that she was immortal. Urgh!”
Darcy crinkled the map up, tossing it aside. She kicked at it only to hit air.
“Useless piece of crap!”
Twilight stepped closer to Darcy. “Are you trying a tracking spell?”
“Yes!” Darcy raged, still kicking air.
“Wouldn’t Morgan have prepared something for that?” Twilight asked. She screamed as Darcy appeared behind her back.
“She would! You are exactly right!” Darcy cackled madly. “Except it’s so obvious that she would do that! She wouldn’t expect me to do that because obviously I would expect her to not be obvious! It’s genius!”
“...what?”
“It’s too obvious for a tracking spell to work, so Morgue will never think I’d do it, so it’s the obvious choice!” Darcy reasoned.
Twilight blinked. “But...you just tried it.”
“No I was using a tracker.” Darcy admitted. “This is a tracking spell.”
“Don’t humans need crystals for their tracking spells?” Twilight asked. She remembered reading it in one of the books of human magic she had found. There weren’t many that were authentic. Those Harry Potter books held some knowledge. Morgan had downloaded the more accurate tomes from the Internet. “Or a wand? Some kind of focus?”
Darcy was silent for a long moment. Twilight took a step back. When Darcy was silent, it meant she was about to grab a knife.
Instead, Darcy walked over to her own bag. She pulled a wand from it (Twilight had a distant memory of Morgan and Darcy coming home with wands, only one sister managing to get their wand to work at Home) before pointing it at the crumbled piece of paper.
Twilight watched as Darcy cast the spell.
“Not one word.” Darcy warned Twilight.
==HNS==
Darcy said her sister was hiding in some dingy bar in Montana.
They got their faster than Twilight expected. Darcy dragged Twilight along to the bar, warning her to keep her mouth shut.
“If Morgan suspects were close, she’ll bail.”
Twilight wasn’t assured by that. Then again, nothing Darcy did assured her of anything.
“Ha!” Darcy shouted loudly. “Found ya, sis!”
The Morgan onstage smiled. Twilight knew instantly that this wasn’t Morgan. Morgan didn’t have a smile so like a shark’s. “Did you?” She asked.
Darcy’s grin faltered.
In a blaze of blue fire, Morgan disappeared. Sitting on the stool was a woman with red chitin hair, long dragonfly wings, and dressed in black/red leather. Her eyes were a red harlequin.
“Queen Thorne.” Twilight curtsied, an instinct now.
Thorne bowed her head to Twilight. “Princess Twilight. Are you playing this game with them?”
“No. Wait it’s a game?!” Twilight’s jaw dropped.
Darcy’s phone rang. She answered. “The fuck do you want?” She asked.
Morgan’s laugh came over the line.
“I said, what do you want?”
“You...you seriously thought a tracking spell would work? It’s too obvious.”
Darcy ground her teeth.
Twilight took the phone out of Darcy’s hand. The assassin let her. Twilight pressed speaker. “Morgan, what’s going on?”
“It’s June.” Morgan answered.
“Yes but why are you hiding? Why is Thorne here?”
Morgan started to laugh. “Was it Thorne, though?”
Darcy snarled. “It was your authordamn husband, wasn’t it?!”
Morgan was laughing. This crazed laugh, that you heard when you got away with a cookie before your mother noticed.
“Son of a BITCH!” Darcy stomped her foot. “You CUNT!”
Morgan hung up, still laughing.
==HNS==
“I still don’t understand this...game.” Twilight asked.
Darcy was swallowing down a bottle of (what Twilight thought was) whiskey. She was glaring at the spot where Not-Thorne had been. Apparently, Morgan had left the bottle for Darcy to add insult to injury.
“What’s not to get? I lose.” Darcy complained. “Been losing for twenty years, it’s not gonna change soon.”
“Losing at what?” Twilight asked. Every conversation she had with the Spencer sisters made her want to pull out her hair. Or set herself on fire (again), it was a thin line. “All you’ve done is search for Morgan and fail!”
Darcy gulped down more of the maybe-whiskey. She put it down on the table with a loud thud. She aimed a finger gun at Twilight. “Exactly.”
Twilight’s hands inched up towards her scalp.
“I spend the entire month of June chasing Morgan.” Darcy shrugged. “Some years, anyway. Thorax was searching last year. We’re both failures. Hazza...or whatev’r.” She gulped down another swig of the whiskey.
“You’ve been searching for a year? But I saw you two at that birthday party!” Twilight argued.
Darcy scoffed. “Yeah. In May.”
“What does that have to do with it? What, you can only search in June?” Twilight asked, skeptical.
Darcy was about to drink again. She stopped the bottle close to her mouth, glancing over at Twilight with a side eye. “You’ve never played Hide and Seek, have you?”
The question surprised Twilight. Darcy never asked things in soft voice. She was always flippant. Her limbs would move in exaggeration. Twilight wasn’t used to a Darcy that would ask a question with concern. This whole thing was getting more and more bizarre by the minute!
As for the question itself, Darcy was right. Twilight had seen the other foals playing in Magic Kindergarten. Twilight and Moondancer never played with them, too concerned with studying. Whenever Twilight tried to play, her magic was too strong to play the game right. She’d use the magic to lift up bushes or the occasional foal, and get yelled at for ‘cheating’. She’d throw the ball too far, be too slow, took the rules too seriously. Foals stopped asking her to play. Younger Twilight didn’t mind, more studying time for her.
Older Twilight, who understood friendship, looked back with an aching heart.
“There wasn’t time. I had to study.” She told Darcy.
The assassin was staring at Twilight that told the unicorn that Darcy understood better than anyone.
“I would always stab the basketball.” Darcy admitted. “Well, they said Morgue couldn’t play because she was fat and slow. I’d take the balls post-game, pop it, and leave it for the other kids to find. As for tag...Morgan and I were always on the run from cops and shit. We were too good at getting the kids, in hide and seek too. They stopped playing with us.” Darcy shrugged. “Didn’t matter. The games I played involved finding people to kill, and Morgue was keeping me from being arrested or locked up.”
“Isn’t being arrested the same thing as being locked up?” Twilight asked after a brief pause.
“Not that kind of locked up.” Darcy corrected.
Twilight winced. She suddenly remembered the story she’d been told of the night the Andersons died. They had locked Darcy away in a mental institution. It had been their last act as Darcy’s parents.
“Fuck now I’m thinking ‘bout Emily and George. I’m gonna finish the bottle.”
“Is it healthy to drink that much whiskey?” Twilight asked.
Darcy shrugged. “Wouldn’t be, if this was whiskey.” She downed the rest of the bottle.
==HNS==
Their next stop was someplace called Lawrence, Kansas.
“Thorax’s life was shit too.” Darcy randomly revealed. They were walking along the street. “Changeling Hive’s aren’t exactly good for childhoods.”
“Thorax is less hostile than his hive-siblings.” Twilight commented.
Darcy nodded. “We started the Game a couple decades ago. Morgue says her kids made her play with them, and she had fun. They roped me in. Before long, it was just me and Morgue playing. We added rules and shit. Thorax found out, Morgue dragged him in too. Decided it was too much fun to stop. So we decided every June, no matter what world we’re in and what timeline you’re following, if it’s someone’s June we play Hide and Seek.”
“Someone’s June?”
“I’m in January right now.” Darcy replied. “Morgue is too, I think. But on Earth it’s June, so we play. Thorax is...whenever Thorax is. I don’t know. It’s like fucking homework, keeping track of their year.”
Twilight winced. “Sounds chaotic.”
Darcy smiled. For the first time since this whole thing started, or since Twilight met her, it was genuine. “It is, yeah.”
Twilight was hesitant to admit. She actually liked that smile on Darcy.
“What about Thorax?” Twilight asked.
“I said I don’t know what month-”
“I mean, why aren’t you trying to find him?” Twilight clarified. Darcy paused. “Do you have to find Morgan first?”
“...not really first...” Darcy scuffed her shoe on the floor. “...just...she’s a bitch. She should be found first.”
“So let’s find Thorax!” Twilight decided. “We saw him earlier, at the bar right?”
“...yeah.”
“Then it should be easy to find him now!”
Darcy stared at Twilight. She was doing the ‘thousand yard stare’. Twilight was sure drool was going to come out of Darcy’s mouth.
“...alright, Canterlot. We’ll do it your way.”
==HNS==
They found Thorax two days later.
He was hiding in Lawrence, Kansas. Apparently there was a burrito place there that he liked. Darcy wouldn’t stop muttering about the Winchesters as they walked. Twilight didn’t mind. Honestly the faster Twilight found the others, the faster she would get her answers.
Thorax wasn’t even hiding, according to Darcy. Apparently he was caving in.
They found him sitting in a wide open clearing. He was just laying there on a towel, in his natural form. He was staring up at the sky.
Twilight walked forward to him. Darcy threw her arm in front of Twilight.
“This is too easy.” Darcy cautioned.
Twilight had to admit, she had a point. “But haven’t we found him?”
“Until we know it’s actually Thorax, then no.” Darcy answered. “Remember Thorne in that bar? She turned out to be Thorax. I technically found Thorax, but I didn’t know it was him so it didn’t count.”
Twilight hated this game.
Darcy lowered her arm. She took a step forward. “Are you Thorax C. Stardust?” She called out.
The changeling raised his hoof up high. “Confirmed.”
“Prove it.” Darcy challenged.
“I got this form from sleeping with your sister.” He deadpanned.
“It’s him.” Darcy informed Twilight. She ran up to her brother-in-law. Twilight followed.
She got close to Thorax. The changeling was disbondant on the grass, eyes following the clouds.
“Thorax, why are you in your changeling form? What if the humans notice?” Twilight asked.
Thorax sighed. “Morgan put a barrier around it. Humans won’t see me.” He sunk lower against the grass. “Mocking me to the very end.”
Darcy made a noise of sympathy, which shocked Twilight would didn’t know Darcy knew about sympathy. “Betrayed you after you helped her?”
Thorax nodded.
“Gotcha, dude.” Darcy held out her hand.
Thorax raised his hoof to meet.
They bumped.
“Found you.” Darcy spoke formally.
Thorax sighed. He changed back to a more normal human form- this one a ginger male with dark blue eyes. “The barrier only lasted as long as I stayed hidden from you. Morgan knows you Caught me.”
“Sounds like a barrier Morgue would put up.” Darcy remarked. She elbowed Twilight. “We’ll get her though.”
“We say that every time, and every time we’re wrong.” Thorax reminded.
Darcy grinned to show off her teeth. “Because we’re idiots.” She pushed Twilight forward. “But we’ve got a genius.”
==HNS==
Darcy and Thorax blinked at her.
Twilight blinked back.
“Where did I lose you?” Twilight asked.
“Around the point where we got banished to a prison.” Darcy remarked.
Thorax elbowed her. “She meant about her plan.”
“Oh.” Darcy shrugged.
Thorax laughed at her. He turned back to Twilight. “The plan is workable. We just can’t believe we let this giant loophole stand without correction.”
“It was like...an unspoken one.” Darcy admitted. “We never did it because we’re not dicks.”
Twilight winced. “No. That’s not the point of this plan.”
“Where did you lose yourself?” Darcy asked. “That plan has you-”
“I know what it says. I also know it’s one of the few things that would make Morgan forget about self-preservation.”
Darcy chuckled, like a mad woman. “She’s gonna be so mad.”
“Furious.” Thorax added, grinning just as wide as Darcy.
“Murderous.”
“I’ll be surprised if we make it to next week.”
“She has to leave us alive, we’re going to OUAT next week.”
“She’ll kill us when we get there.”
“Meh. I’m fine with spending the rest of my life.” Darcy boasted. She turned to Twilight. “Operation Breakout is a go.”
Twilight beamed.
==HNS==
Twilight screamed.
“No!” Darcy shouted. “Shit fuck- fuck- FUCK!” She ran over to where she knew they hid a med bag. She ran back to Twilight’s side. “Crap-cakes on a stick. Canterlot, can you hear me?!”
Twilight wheezed.
Darcy swore again.
They were in Morgan’s office. They had planned to meet there, to lure Morgan in for a trap. Thorax was going to tell Morgan he’d been Caught, that he was going to the Centre to watch the kids. Twilight was certain that when Morgan heard about her kids, she’d want to see them too. She’d follow Thorax home. There wasn’t a chance Darcy would be there.
Everything was going perfect.
It had blown up in their faces...literally.
They’d planned to hide in Morgan’s office, wait for her to come home. Twilight would greet Morgan from her office chair, Darcy would hide behind the door. Thorax would be walking her inside the building.
The obvious thing to remember Morgan was a paranoid woman with good reason. She’d left a trap on her office chair. She had secrets she didn’t want getting out (like which smut five were her favorite or what really happened at that one Christmas party).
This is a long winged way of saying Morgan’s chair was rigged up to stab whoever sat there for more than thirty seconds without her permission.
Twilight was in it for thirty-five.
Darcy growled. She grabbed her phone, calling Thorax.
“Hey Killyjoy. What’s up? Aren’t you still chasing Star?”
“Not now! Twilight’s hurt!” Darcy snapped.
“What? What do you mean, Twilight’s hurt?” Thorax asked, in a concerned rush.
“Exactly what you think dumbass!” Darcy snapped. “Her up here and-”
“What the hell did you do?!” Morgan’s voice came over the line.
Darcy swore. “Thorax!”
“I took the phone. What do you mean Twilight’s hurt!”
“She sat in your murder chair from Saw!” Darcy explained, angrily. She was putting a patch on Twilight’s back. It was just fair enough down her back that it wasn’t on her wings. “Dammit why do you even have that?!”
“WHAT?! She wasn’t supposed to- it wasn’t meant- Author Dammit!”
The phone call ended.
Darcy tossed her phone aside.
Twilight’s eyes were fluttering.
“Hey, hey, hey! Stay with me, Canterlot! Morgue’s on her way! She’ll send Thorax for medical, and will be here right away.”
Twilight fluttered her eyes again. She was going lax against Darcy’s lap.
The door was thrown open. A panicked Morgan ran inside. Her eyes immediately went to where Darcy and Twilight were huddled.
“TWILIGHT!” Morgan screamed. She rushed to Twilight’s side. “Why are her eyes-”
“She’s going into shock!” Darcy answered. “Move back!”
“This is my fault.” Morgan breathed out, sitting back on her thighs. “This is my fault! I- I didn’t tell Twilight about the knife! It was suppose to keep out people like Logan. Not her.”
Darcy put a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“Caught you.”
Morgan gawked.
Twilight sat up, all pain gone from her expression. She put her hand on Morgan’s shoulder.
Morgan’s eyes went further wide. “Wha...”
“Morgan I helped you make that chair.” Twilight reminded. “I knew if you heard someone had been hurt at your home-because of something of yours- you’d come running.”
Her friend continued to stare.
Darcy laughed. “Sister, you got played!”
==HNS==
“The game’s really easy, Sparkle of Twilight.” Morgan began. She gestured to a poster behind her. “Rule One: Don’t get Caught.”
“Why is ‘caught’ capitalized?” Twilight asked, nervously.
“If you get caught, you lose.” Darcy answered. She was twirling a knife between her fingers. “First to get Caught at our Hide N Seek, gets punished. The punishment is decided by the others.”
Twilight gulped. She didn’t like that idea.
“Yeah I know.” Darcy nodded her head over to Morgan. “She’s the only one to never get caught.”
Morgan shrugged. “I’m a crazy motherfucker. What’re you gonna do?”
Twilight watched this was anxiety rising in her chest. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Thorax must’ve sensed her emotions. He came up to her side, giving her a quick bump on the elbow. “It’s okay, Twilight. This game gets intense for us.” He looked up to the list of Rules that they’d agreed on. “These are just the given Rules. Starry knows all the bylaws for this game.”
“There are more Rules?” Twilight asked. She didn’t think this game was that complicated.
Morgan stepped back in. “Rule 2: No Home base. There’s no special place you can go to hide from the game. If I’m Seeker, and I see you, then you’re Caught. Other players can interact, if only so long as I don’t catch them. The only exceptions to this rule are: any female players give birth, life/death emergency, or new child.”
“We adopt.” Thorax explained to Twilight, who was about to ask why ‘giving birth’ and ‘new child’ were different exceptions.
“Rule 3: Cheating is allowed. That means other players can tell the Seeker where others are, and the others are allowed to have different hiding spaces if they think the Seeker is close.” Morgan explained. “Or, the Seeker can use creative means to find the other players. Tracking spells, regular trackers, outsiders. Anything is fair game. Makes the game more fun.”
Twilight gulped. Already, her mind was coming up with the reasons why this rule was important. Cheating never sat well with Twilight. Still, if the other three would cheat (the sisters more than Thorax) than Twilight would play dirty too.
“Last one. Rule 4.” Morgan tapped the rule with her pointer finger. “The Game lasts from midnight Eastern Standard Time June 1st to 11:59 PM Eastern on June 30th. I didn’t think I needed to explain this, until I realized someone could exploit it if I didn’t specify, or maybe say the game started on sunrise June 1st because I didn’t say when on June 1st.”
Twilight turned her eyes to Darcy. The assassin was picking at her nails innocently. “What?”
Morgan and Thorax chuckled.
“It was one time! And it worked!” Darcy reminded them.
“Those are the Rules. Any questions?” Morgan asked Twilight.
Twilight swallowed. “N-no.”
“Then get ready, Sparkle of Twilight.” Morgan cautioned with a mischievous smile. “Because the game starts at midnight. None of us are safe. Except me, I’m the Starting Seeker this year.”