//------------------------------// // Mr. Sandman // Story: My Little Bizarre Adventure: The Midnight Riders // by Lemon Lime Light //------------------------------// In the center of the Crystal Map floated a small black orb, a few stray pieces of dust slowly being drawn into it. A small hissing noise filled the silent air, all while the dark orb remained aloft several inches above the table. Around said orb were two pairs of eyes, one opened wide and the other slightly lidded. “Dash this is… this is!!!” Gasping, Twilight reached forward, slowly pressing a scientific instrument against it. The jaws of the vernier caliper disappeared into the tiny orb before Twilight pulled them back out, “Dash this is incredible!” Sighing, Dash rolled her eyes and leaned back into her chair, huffing slightly, “Twilight, it’s a vacuum. It’s really cool when I do stuff with it, but you’ve done nothing but stare at it for five minutes!” “Oh Dash, you don’t understand!” Twilight slowly lifted a piece of paper up to it, watching as it was sucked into it with a little squee, “Dash this is something science hasn’t been able to achieve...ever! This isn’t like what you think of when you think of a vacuum cleaner! This is a full on perfect self-sustaining vacuum!” Groaning, Dash leaned her head into the side of her chair. After dealing with the foal and his… lollipop, Dash had told Rarity to go to look over their sisters while she went back to deal with Twilight. After the typical lecture on her being too reckless with her Stand, Dash had gotten fed up and shown Twilight what her newly discovered ability was. That was a mistake, for that alone had caused Twilight to go full egghead on her! “Okay, okay! Dash, let me explain!” Still observing it, Twilight waved her finger for Dash to move it closer to her, “A vacuum is a point at which there is no matter in a point mass! Or, well, if the pressure is so low that particles don’t actually interact with each other but, that’s besides the point!” Twilight slowly held her hand in front of the orb, letting it get sucked towards it before almost giggling with joy, “Do you understand how… how impossible it is to remove all matter from a particular point in space?! Even with the most advanced magical spells we have, we’ve not even come closer to achieving a 20% vacuum yet!” Sighing, Dash leaned forward, “Did I tell you how I created a tornado with these? That’s way cooler than learning how they work.” “Your Stand has found a way to extract all matter from a point and inserted what equates to a controllable mass of pure nothingness!” Twilight leaned closer to observe it, “Vacuums are literally unachievable by anything we have today! The only perfect vacuum we know of is Space, and even at points there’s evidence to prove it isn’t! “And you can fully control its location through the application of Stand energy! According to the application of Bernoulli’s theorems, somehow you’re also managing to bypass decreasing the pressure in a spot without causing an increase in particle velocity! Assuming that your Stand is treating this like a particle that is!” Magically enhancing her vision, Twilight grinned, “Well, whatever it is, it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!” “Twilight…” Dash spoke up halfheartedly; after Twilight got started, trying to stop her was impossible. “But you also said that somehow the actual fluid was sucked into these vacuums… which is perplexing…” Twilight leaned back, “And you’re able to cancel them at will. If these were true vacuums then whatever goo you were talking about would just be drawn onto it and get stuck to them…” Pausing, Twilight thought for a moment, “Dash, are you sure the foal’s attack was sucked into the vacuum?” “Uhm, yeah!” Dash rotated so she was perpendicular to her chair, her knees over the armrest, “And Rarity’s strings, Rarity was able to pull one of her dog’s needles out after she threw it into the thing!” “Hmm…” Pausing, Twilight stared at the vacuum, “Dash, do you need to have your Stand consciously controlling the vacuum in order to keep it manifested?” “Huh?” Dash thought, “Well. no I don’t think so. I mean, that one vacuum I had protecting me in the air was still there when I completely forgot about it. So I guess not.” “Then…” Grinning, Twilight suddenly formed a magical box the vacuum was now trapped in, pulling it up close to herself, “I need to study this! I have to study this, this could be the answer to so many questions!! Eheh!!!” While Twilight squeed in scientific delight, Dash sighed and slowly lifted herself up, “Well… if you’re that interested in it, keep it. Right now I need to go and get a shower.” Cocking her head, Twilight’s gaze looked the mare up and down, “Huh? I thought you said you got all of Candy Coated Fury off of you…” “I did,” Dash grimaced, “But I got hit with the moneyshot… I need to go and wash my face and forget about that.” ~~~ Studying Dash’s vacuums had, unfortunately, been inconclusive. While running tests on the strange occurance of science, the vacuum had not yielded any results outside of proving what Dash had already done. The frustration had set in after being unable to determine anything about the vacum’s point mass or internal forces, and soon enough it’d turn into a hatred for the thing. Hatred for being unable to discover the unknown! Dash had been using some of the showers in the castle, and thus for those few hours Twilight had been fine. After Dash had done some practicing and hung out with Spike, she’d finally told Twilight she was going home. After a few seconds of Dash darting off, the vacuum that Twilight had been studying vanished. Given how fast she’d recorded Dash before, it seemed that the vacuum only stayed manifested if it was within… roughly 100 meters of Dash? Either way, the sudden loss of her variable had caused Twilight’s frustration to hit a peak. After a few minutes of calming down, Twilight had finally decided to take a break from her studies and go to rest. She’d gone upstairs and started to change her clothes, a shower and a few books on the mind. It was during her attempt to rest that she’d gotten a call from Fluttershy. Of course, Twilight had wished Fluttershy had relayed this information to her earlier. Of course, it would have been very relevant at the time and helped her in getting closer to solving this Stand mystery. But she had learned that bringing up things like that wouldn’t do anypony any good over her years. It would just make them feel bad, which is not something she wanted to actively strive for. Especially with Fluttershy. So, instead, Twilight was just grateful that Fluttershy had remembered that in all of Discord’s strange, enigmatic warnings, one of them had been to go to his favorite jazz club in Fillydelphia should she ever need to find him. Twilight was grateful for that information, as finding Discord would hopefully give her some much needed answers. What she wasn’t grateful for was the caveat that only Fluttershy would be able to find him. Apparently Discord somehow remained hidden while partying it up like this, and nopony else would be able to recognize him. That meant that Twilight couldn’t just travel to Fillydelphia herself to find Discord. No, she had to take Fluttershy with her, as she was the only pony whom Discord would reveal himself to. And in turn, this had led to the two friends sitting side by side on the Ponyville Express, chugging their way along to the city. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate her company, far from it. If asked, one would be hard pressed to find a single pony who would be adverse to spending time with Fluttershy. She was just that pleasant a pony to be around! But it was the fact that Twilight and her friends were in constant danger of being attacked by evil and/or brainwashed Stand users that made the princess so reluctant to bring along her friend. Had it just been herself, Twilight would have been more than capable of handling any attackers. She was well versed enough in combat to take on any Stand User, especially if they had only just been given the ability recently. However, with the addition of Fluttershy, somepony who was not capable of defending herself from a Stand user, Twilight’s trek suddenly became a lot harder. Her attention would have to be split between defending both herself and her companion at the same time. If her focus wasn’t at one hundred percent for even a second, there was a very real chance one or both of them could end up seriously hurt. On top of that, Twilight had no idea as to what or who would be coming for them. Pinkie had been attacked in her favorite club, Rarity in the Spa she spent so much precious time in and even Dash had first encountered Death Leopard in the middle of the streets. Now Twilight had decided to confine the two of them on a train, a relatively unfamiliar environment, and given herself the handicap of having to also bring along another pony to protect.Thankfully, her royal privileges gave herself and Fluttershy a car to themselves. What had originally been intended by Twilight to be a short, simple trip where she would stay constantly vigilant and defend herself if need arose, had now transformed into a game of chess where every move she made needed to be calculated at least three steps in advance. When deciding even the simplest actions, the risk associated with it must be taken into account. Obviously, Fluttershy’s safety was the number one concern with anything. But Twilight’s own safety was a top priority as well. At first thought, staying in large crowds when they moved would maximize their safety, as normally crowds were one of the best ways to not get attacked in public. But Twilight quickly realized that fact was flawed in this scenario. The main reasons staying in large crowds would protect you from attackers under normal circumstances was because firstly, any and all chances of the attacker’s identity being hidden are minimized.  Secondly, there is a high chance that the crowd will retaliate and defend the victim. Both of these points, however, were rendered moot when the fact that the attack was from a Stand User. Since a Stand can’t be seen by the majority, the element of stealth would come a lot easier. Stand Users are also capable of overpowering even the best examples of physicality in ponies. Plus, given that the Stand User attacking them would be hypnotized by an evil cultist, or even an evil cultist themselves, there was the real possibility that members the crowd which the two of them were taking refuge in would be collateral casualties of the assault. It was taking into account all these factors that made every moment of their train ride a stressful situation for Twilight. In fact, it took her thirty minutes of risk assessment before she even decided that they would take the train to Fillydelphia. “Uh, Twilight?” Fluttershy suddenly spoke, “Is, everything alright?” Having been startled from her massive thought train chugging aimlessly about her head, the purple alicorn perked up and blinked as reality came back to her, “Huh? Oh, I’m, I’m fine, Fluttreshy. I’m just, thinking right now…” It didn’t take nearly as much analysis for Fluttershy to see how much stress Twilight was under right now. As a friend, and as she feared, likely the reason for a lot of that stress, Fluttershy felt it was her duty to ease at least some of it by keeping Twilight calm and preoccupied. “Twilight, I think you need to relax. I mean, if somepony were to try and attack us on this train, they probably would have done it by now.” Her fingers drumming on her thigh, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, “That’s, most likely right,” Twilight accepted. “But, we always have to be vigilant. If anything goes wrong, I’m not sure I’ll be able to…” “You’ll do fine Twilight,” Fluttershy grabbed both of Twilight’s hands and held them tightly, looking into her eyes with a warm, reassuring smile. “You’ve always done a great job at everything you do.” Fluttershy’s infectious energy seeped into Twilight, causing her to smile for a long moment, “I’m... glad you have so much confidence in me Fluttershy,” Twilight pulled her hands back with a sigh, “But I think the problem is, I don’t know if I have that much confidence in myself.” “You don’t?” Fluttershy leaned forward slightly, giving Twilight an inquisitive gaze, “But, why wouldn't you be confident? You’re one of the strongest ponies I know, Twilight. If anypony on this train should be confident, it’s you.” Once again, Twilight found herself smiling, “W-Well thank you Fluttershy but, I just don’t. Not in myself, and definitely not in my Stand.” “But why?” Fluttershy led the mare on, continuing to stay close to her for Twilight’s comfort. The train rocked over over a few bumps in the brief moment of silence between Fluttershy asking her question and Twilight answering. “I...I don’t have the same mastery of my Stand as I do, in other fields of magic..” Twilight wasn’t even looking at Fluttershy at this point. Instead, her gaze was directed at her own feet. “I told Dash this but, until recently I hadn’t manifested my Stand in over two years. I only brought it out when I saw Dash panicking so badly. But there’s more to it than that. Up until that point, I could count the times that I’ve actually used my Stand on my fingers.” “Really?” Fluttershy continued to lead on, still smiling for Twilight. “Really. Before Dash, I had only seen two other Stands before in my entire life! My own, and Princess Celestia’s. Vanilla Twilight, it’s the very definition of awe inspiring! The power to engulf all in flames, then rebirth it in its original form! It alone could return a barren wasteland back into a lush place! I even remember the day that she showed me.” Sensing that Twilight wanted to go on, Fluttershy scooted a tad bit closer and leaned in, “What happened the day she showed you Vanilla Twilight?” Looking nostalgic, Twilight’s gaze deepened, “Celestia took me to a tree that had withered in the main garden. I think I was, maybe twelve at the time? She told me about how the tree had been a place where it was said couples would meet to fall in love all the time. I got so sad, I asked she if she planned to plant another one when it died. Celestia then told me she had another way of doing it, and suddenly the entire tree caught fire with brilliant blue and yellow flames! When it subsided, the tree looked like it’d been planted the day before, just a tiny seedling in the ground!” “At first, I thought it was magic! I mean, it was incredible! I asked her what had just happened, and she told me about how she had something called Vanilla Twilight let her return something to its original state, and that the ‘original state’ had been the seedling that she and Luna had planted together. To demonstrate even more, she tipped over a flower pot and then used the same thing again, and there it was! Right back to normal!” “Now imagine, with that as the only thing you can compare to, finding out about your own Stand. Imagine finding out that your Stand’s power is, ink.” Twilight chuckled hollowly as she gripped the seat. “Having reincarnation at your disposal, versus being able to make hard shapes. Now that I’d had that emasculation in the back of my mind, I really stopped caring about Stands. I mean, to me a Stand was just, a weapon. So, I saw no reason to ever practice with it or learn anything more about it beyond what I already discovered with Princess Celestia.” “Do you remember the night we met, Fluttershy?” Twilight suddenly asked, meeting her gaze for the first time in her story. Nodding her head, Fluttershy looked up for a moment, “I remember, it was your first day in Ponyville and Nightmare Moon came back! It was scary and nerve-wracking! But you helped us figure out how we could beat her!” Blushing again, Twilight rubbed her arm, “Well, when I went to challenge her on my own, for a brief moment, I considered using Night Wish against her. But, images of Vanilla Twilight filled my mind. I didn’t even know what Dark Side of the Moon did then, and I still don’t! But, if it was anything like the Stand that belonged to its user’s sister, I would likely have been dead on the spot if I had forced her hand in drawing it. So, I didn’t. I didn’t because I had no faith in my own Stand.” “Now, that very same Stand I have no faith in, I have to use it to keep you, and the rest of my friends safe! Me, the one who’s teaching you all about Stands, the one who’s known what a Stand is from the very start, isn’t confident in her Stand at all!” Twilight buried her hands in her face and tired her best to keep herself from exploding in frustration. During all of her rant, Fluttershy had kept a hold on Twilight’s hand. As Twilight buried her face away, Fluttershy was forced to pull her hands away, looking over her now angered friend. Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy scooted closer, pressing her shoulder up against Twilight’s own and putting a hand on Twilight’s back. “Can I say something?” Fluttershy cooed, “Even if you didn’t use Night Wish on Nightmare Moon, you still managed to save us by showing us the Elements of Harmony. And even without Night Wish, you still managed to help us defeat Discord, Chrysalis, and even that big meanie Sombra!” Fluttershy rubbed her hand back and forth, “None of us even knew you had a Stand up until recently, but we all still saw you as an amazing pony.” Her anger starting to simmer rather than boil, Twilight kept her face in her hands, Fluttershy pressed on, “And even if you think Night Wish isn’t that great, I think it sounds amazing. You brought it out to help calm Dash down, and you succeeded in it too. Doesn’t that mean you used your Stand in a way that helped a pony?” “Well, technically I brought it out because Dash was going to hurt herself if she didn’t calm down…” Twilight muttered. “I think the problem is you’re trying to compare yourself to other ponies,” Fluttershy continued, “And because of that, you’re feeling like your Stand doesn’t mean anything. But, if you were meant to compare your Stand to somepony else, wouldn't you both have the same Stand? I mean, I can’t compare my rabbits to my chipmunks just because they’re both cute. Just because they’re both cute, doesn’t mean they’re anything alike. So, if you can’t compare your Stand to others, why should you feel upset about it?” “Because Rainbow’s is so much more amazing and does stuff that can’t be achieved with normal magic! Perfect vacuums, literally no internal resistance and sustaining itself under its own forces...and....and…” Twilight stopped her rambling and complaining, looking up at her friend. “Shouldn’t I be the one telling you these things? Isn’t that what I normally do.” Fluttershy had succeeded and bringing at least a chuckle to her princess friend. “I think the problem is that you’re too stressed out,” Fluttershy suggested. “When I’m stressed out, a nice cup of coffee helps me relax.” She got up on her knees and looked out the window. They had just entered Fillydelphia. The club that was their destination was at the other end of the city. If they went straight there, they would go through two more stops, then have to change trains, arriving at their destination in about twenty minutes. According to Twilight’s miles of forethought that is. If they decided to leave the train early and make a quick pit stop, then that would probably add, at most, an hour onto the trip. “If I may, here’s what I suggest we do.” Fluttershy stood up as the train came to a stop. She reached down and offered to take Twilight’s hand. “We should get going off the train and take a break. We’re going to get lunch before heading to the club.” Twilight started to talk, but Fluttershy interrupted her. “I, uhm, don’t know much about ponies but, I know about bullies. If somepony really was following us, then they would either have attacked us by now, or would be waiting for us at the end of the line. So if anything, this would help us avoid them, right?” Twilight wanted to find any reason to protest this. But with any alternative she thought of, she found that she would create another  reason to protest that as well. She came to the conclusion that she was just simply looking for a reason to protest anything because she was so unsure of what to do. Thus, Twilight found herself accepting her traveling companion’s offer and getting off the train before they originally intended too: “Alright, but let’s try not to take too long.” Once out of the train station, the two of them wandered around the city streets until they found an outdoor cafe in the middle of a plaza. Neither of them had been there before, but the found the scene to be friendly enough. It was decently populated by friendly staff and patrons alike. Within ten minutes they were at a seat and had two cups of coffee ordered. “Do you wanna order anything to eat, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, her warm inviting smile never leaving her face. Picking up her menu, Twilight gazed over the options. Daisy sandwiches, salads, fruit trays, some scones and biscuits, a few pastries, as well a few exotic offerings like wolfsbone and yakilaf. Despite normally being one to dig in the second she got the chance, Twilight’s stomach disagreed with her. “No thanks…” Twilight sighed, putting the menu down, “I don’t see anything. I’ll just stick to the coffee for now.” Despite Fluttershy’s consolations and assurances that everything would turn out fine for the two of them, Twilight was still constantly on edge. She knew that she had no reason to be; Fluttershy’s reasoning and logic was perfectly sound. There was almost no way at this point that somepony could have been following the two of them. In spite of this knowledge in her mind, however, Twilight was still being constantly vigilant of her surroundings. Even if she was irrationally paranoid, Twilight had to admit Fluttershy was doing a great job at quelling her delusions. The Pegasus was casually talking about settling territorial disputes between two animals without it breaking down into violence. Twilight found her knowledge on diplomacy tactics commendable if not impressive. In fact, Twilight felt that she should have been taking notes. Fluttershy was so busy talking that she didn’t notice when the waitress brought the coffee they ordered. Twilight took both cups from her tray and set her friend’s down in front of her as she held her own by the handle and listened to Fluttershy describe the needs of a bear vs the needs of a wolf. Twilight nodded along and put the cup up to her lips. As soon as she did, however, she instantly froze. Back when she had first become a princess, Twilight still had a rather romanticized image in her mind about what the life of a princess entailed. No doubt this view was fueled many a fantasy novels she had read in her foalhood. As she learned more and more about being royalty, she discovered many of her preconceptions to be false. Before that, however, she believed that she would be the target of many assassination attempts. In order to combat this, Twilight had trained herself to detect dozens of unique poisons by sight, taste, and scent. As it turned out, this had not been pointless. Twilight was still in a paranoid state of hypervigilance. As a result, she had a charm cast on herself that heightened her senses, specifically that of smell and taste. Said charm allowed her to instantly detect a very distinct aroma mixed in with her coffee. “Fluttershy, no!” Twilight cried as she swatted Fluttershy’s drink out of her hand mere second before she drank from it, much to the would be drinker’s shock. “It’s poisoned!” The cup of tainted coffee fell to ground and shattered upon the pavement, “Poison!?” Fluttershy gasped. “Are you sure?” “Positive,” Twilight picked up her cup and sniffed it again. “That is undoubtedly Midnight Mandrake I smell. Normal Mandrake forcefully crossbred with Nightshade via Earth Pony magic. The resulting plant, when ingested, will cause the victim to be too drowsy to realize that their organs are shutting down one by one.” She focused and cast a spell to boil both the coffee in her cup and the puddle of the stuff spilled all over the ground in order to neutralize the poison. “Do...do you think it’s the work of…” Fluttershy paused and leaned in to whisper, “..a Stand?” She had started to bite her nails nervously as Twilight’s worries turned out to be true. “It’s hard to say,” Twilight’s eyes darted all around the plaza. Everypony looked normal, only a few had noticed her knocking the cup on the ground. “Unless the Stand’s ability is specifically to create poisons or manipulate plants in some way, I doubt that the poisoning itself is the power of a Stand. Still, we need to be on guard.” Twilight stood up and defensively stood in front of Fluttershy. She was her responsibility to protect.  Not just because she was the only way that the princess could meet with Discord, but also because she was one of her closest friends. Poor Fluttershy was defenseless and had become the target of this would be assassin through no fault of her own. If anything, it was mainly Twilight’s fault. Twilight had to think. Even if this had just been a random assassination attempt, it was important to take in the details around her. There were roughly ten ponies sitting around the exterior of the cafe, and even more inside. There were 8 tables, each with roughly two ponies at them. Six ponies were having drinks, five of them had food. They were evenly spread across the eating area; none were clustered in a way that would be suspicious. “Nopony else seems to be drinking coffee at the moment,” Twilight observed. “So I can’t say whether only our cups specifically were poisoned or if the entire pot it they were poured from was. Regardless, I think we should start investigating the kitchen.” Twilight pointed to a door at the south end of the plaza marked “Employee’s Only.” “Stay back, but don’t wander off,” Twilight ordered. Standing up slowly, Twilight walked slowly towards the door. She couldn't start a panic, and running straight at the door would stir the crowd. Once she got to the door, Twilight cast a glance over her shoulder, making sure nopony was watching her. Then, with all the tension of a bomb defusal, the princess reached for the doorknob and turned it. To her surprise, however, the door swung wide open. It had already been opened. As soon as the pair of mares walked inside, they were greeted by the sight of every worker in the small kitchen lying on the floor unconscious. Fluttershy gasped and ran past Twilight, instinctually running forward to make sure that they were okay. To her relief, they were merely knocked out and no serious harm was done to them. Lying on the ground in the center of the three unconscious workers were two notecards. While Fluttershy was busy checking their pulses, Twilight picked up the left most notecard and overturned it. Written on the side that was previously facing the floor was a clear, concise command written in equally concise handwriting. “Set off a Mandrake bomb in the cafe kitchen.” Already Twilight was trying to make sense of what she was seeing and forming theories in her mind about what was going on. These cooks were put to sleep by Mandrake vapors it seemed. And it was thanks to Twilight’s enhanced sense of scent that they avoided assassination via Midnight Mandrake. Was this some sort of Mandrake-based Stand they were dealing with? But why the notecard displaying what had happened? “Twilight,” Fluttershy turend, “I, I think they’re alright. But, we need to get them out of here!” “Agreed,” Twilight looked around, slowly looking down towards the nearest down pegasus, “But be careful, we could be under attack right now…” Before Twilight could bend down to pick up the second card, her superior sense of smell detected something else. Gas. She smelled it when she came in the room, but thought nothing of it. After all, it was a kitchen, it was expected to smell gas coming from the stoves. But now she had realized just how much gas she was smelling. Way too much for simple cooking and boiling. In haste she read the second card. “Break all of the gas valves to the cafe kitchen stoves on their highest  setting” It didn’t take long for the danger this message presented to register in her mind. Immediately Twilight went to grab Fluttershy and drag her out of the room. That very second, however, she heard the door shut. A panicked sprint and a few desperate pushes and pulls on the door revealed that it had been been barred shut from the outside. Pivoting around urgently, Twilight scanned the room for any potential firestarters. The flames of the stoves were already on a low burn and steadily growing. All of the knobs that controlled the flow of gas to the burner had been torn off. Twilight held out her hand and attempted to attempted to forcefully turn off the gas using her magic. But to her dismay, whatever had broken the gas knobs had done so in such a way that rendered turning what was left of the knob useless. Since cutting off the flow of gas was out of the picture, the next course of action Twilight thought to take was to find any way of forcing as much gas as possible out of  the room. She held up her pointer finger and let a stream of bright purple aura emanate into the air. The idea was that Twilight could use this to track the air flow in the room and find a point where it is escaping. At first, the aura seemed to be going towards the door, suggesting that all of the air in the room was leaving through the crack underneath. But a few inches away from the door, it stopped. A closer examination revealed that somepony had put a seal at in all of the door’s cracks. The magical aura stayed in the room now, signalling that every possible way of evicting the gas had been cut off. Not only that, but now there would no longer be any fresh air coming in the room. The stoves’ flames were steadily burning out the remaining oxygen, leaving Twilight, Fluttershy, and the unconscious cooks with not much time before they all suffocated to death. Grabbing one of the two notecards and a wooden spoon, Twilight began communicating to Fluttershy the situation they were in. She used the spoon as a makeshift pen by dipping it in the pot coffee and writing with it on the blank side of the notecard. “Gas. No way out. Don’t talk. Breathe slow.” Almost immediately Fluttershy understood what her princess friend was trying to communicate. She took spoon and wrote reply underneath her message. “Use magic, break door?” “Too sturdy. Too much effort.” “Teleport?” For a moment, Twilight considered it. There were a few problems though; she wasn’t familiar enough with the area outside to Teleport, and the energy required to teleport herself, Fluttershy and the cooks would be far too great. And doing it one at a time was out of the question due to time restraints. Twilight shook her head. “Stand?” Twilight looked at the brown writing, then up to her friend. She would have lectured the Pegasus about how a life or death situation was not the time at all to try and force her to have the confidence she was previously missing if they weren’t in a life or death situation. Though, the coffee spoon writing did hold a valid point. She would be a fool to not consider Night Wish in as a valid option just because she had no faith in it. As opposed to her regular magic, Night Wish’s ink constructs required very little active mental effort to maintain. Which meant that they would would serve as an effective means of plugging the gas pipes. Since she was not so petty as to not use her Stand on the pure principle that she thought it to be inferior, Twilight conjured Night Wish and its quill into existence. A thin layer of ink wrapped itself around the heads of each gas pipe, forming an airtight seal that prevented any more gas from seeping into the room. In addition, the flames on the stoves cut out since their fuel source had been halted. Now the only thing depleting the small room’s oxygen supply was the slow, steady breathing of the two conscious mares and the three unconscious cooks. Now that she was fully exploring it as an option, Twilight considered Night Wish in how she was going to deal with the door problem. Like she had communicated to Fluttershy, using normal magic to solve this problem would have taken too much energy, probably causing her to fall unconscious in their environment which was constantly losing breathable air. Lifting something on it’s own wasn’t a problem. While weight did factor in a little, Twilight could feasibly left anything within reason using magic. The problem stemmed from the fact that the door was attached to something. Using magic to break things took a lot of effort. Night Wish wouldn’t fare any better in destroying the door. Teleporting was still out of the option, especially if she had to keep Night Wish active now to stop the gas flow. She had to get the door down… However, Twilight soon realized that destroying the door wasn’t the solution she should have been working towards. What was keeping the door on the wall and making it hard for her to move? The hinges that attach it to the wall in the first place. Now attempting to rip those off magically would cause the same problem. And unscrewing the hinges via magic was so difficult that it wasn’t even worth trying. Telekinesis was good for broad tasks, not fine details. On the contrary, that was what Night Wish was about. She controlled it’s form and movements down to the finest, most minute details. In terms of a battle prowest, 2 Minutes to Midnight far outclassed it. But, in terms of utility, Twilight could do a lot of is put her mind to it. With some quick wrist movements, Twilight shaped Night Wish’s ink into a series of small screwdrivers. One screwdriver for each screw of the door hinges. Simultaneously, they unscrewed the hinges and detached the door from the frame. Now no longer attached to the from, Twilight was very easily able to move the door aside with magic, opening the door and letting fresh, breathable air in. Almost immediately she bolted outwards and started to take deep breaths of sweet oxygen. She saw Fluttershy trying drag one of the cooks out and used telekinesis to move all three of them out for her, propping them up against the outside wall. The Friendship Princess and her companion darted their way back into the crowd on the former’s order. This was in order to hide from the enemy user, who was could very much have still been watching them. Just before they did so, however, Twilight was able to see another notecard laying on the ground in front the previously barred door. “Use calk to seal the kitchen door shut.” When they were hidden among the crowd, Twilight put her fingers to her temples and tried to come up with conclusive facts in her head. By this point they were obviously dealing with an enemy Stand, because otherwise everything that was done so far would have been noticed by the cafe goers. They were all just going about their day as if regicide was not being attempted around them. This Stand’s ability was as of now unknown to Twilight. All she did know was that wherever it was, it left behind notecards with concise commands written on it. But how did that factor into the poison and sleeping gas? And why wasn’t the Stand’s user nearby either? All her knowledge about Stands was being challenged here. She pressed her fingers into her forehead and clenched her jaw tightly. Why couldn’t she figure this out? “Gas valves, kitchen door, midnight mandrake..” Shaking her head, Twilight rubbed her temples hard, “Notecards with orders on them, enemy Stand…” Setting her jaw, Twilight ground her teeth together, “What’s going on, what’s going on?!” “Twilight,” Fluttershy took her friend’s forearms and gripped them tightly, forcing the Alicorn to look directly at her. “Calm down and focus. I know this is stressful, but panicking isn’t going to do us any good. Right now we need to get to Discord. Absolutely nopony will be able to touch us when we’re with him,” Giving Fluttershy a long look, Twilight slowly nodded, “You’re, you’re right,” Twilight exhaled. “Let’s get out of this plaza and to the streets. We’ll hail a cab and hopefully get lost in traffic.” Twilight pulled Fluttershy close behind her and kept vigilant as the two of them walked out of the cafe plaza. The only way out of the, baring through the buildings that connected them, was through a narrow alleyway. This fact, as well as the dangers it brought, didn’t dawn on Twilight until she and Fluttershy were halfway through it. This realization lead to a momentary lapse in Twilight’s judgement. One just long enough for her to step on a thin tripwire. Her foot snapped it, causing a simple bucket trap to spring. Two buckets fell overtop of Twilight and Fluttershy, drenching them in a some sort of liquid. “Is this…” Fluttershy sniffed a little, a familiar scent touching her nostrils from the liquid. She’d used it with medicine and helping give bland food some flavor for some of her more stubborn animals, “Lemon juice? And... lime juice too?” On the ground in front of the two was yet another note card. Reading it proved to be a little difficult because it too was soaked. The ink was running, but Twilight could just make out the command. “Using the trip wire and the juice buckets, rig a trap that will spill the buckets on the head of whoever trips it.” More mysterious commands. The only useful thing this card revealed is that it was in fact lemon lime juice spilled on them. But what did that have to do with anything? Was it to entice them to drink it because it was poisoned? Surely the assassin couldn’t be underestimating their intelligence that much. From the rooftops above them Twilight and Fluttershy heard the sound of a large object being rolled. Instantly their eyes darted upwards, and that’s when Twilight finally saw it. The enemy Stand. At first, it didn’t even look like a Stand. Rather, it seemed like a gray pony, with a completely grayscale color for its mane and hair. As it started to turn, however, it became apparent it was not some pony; the figure had no face. The gray faceless figure moved, and as Twilight narrowed her eyes, she could see that the ‘skin’ of the figure seemed to have small wave patterns flowing across it. It moved slowly, and combined with the strange waves moving across its body, the figure seemed almost like some sort of ghostly apparition. The Stand seemed to be wheeling a large flood lamp on the roof. Both it and the lamp were too high up to be in Night Wish’s effective range. All Twilight could do was observe what it was doing. She noticed that the lamp’s light bulb was a strange color. It almost looked like, it was an ultraviolet light. “Ultraviolet light?” Twilight muttered, unfurling her wings, “Lemon lime juice? Lemons, limes...citrus…Citrus?” The princess’s eyes widened to double their size as she connected the dots in her head. “No no no no no no no!” But she had finished the puzzle just too late, before the Stand turned the light on. At the speed of light, Twilight and Fluttershy suddenly felt their skin start to sizzle and burn. The juice on their bodies wasn’t boiling. It was their very skin itself. It felt like their skin was being sizzled away in a hot skillet. It felt like the worse case of poison ivy and sunburn the two had ever gotten combined and tripled in pain. Fighting her body’s natural urge to curl up into a fetal position, Twilight manifested Night Wish and created an opaque dome of ink around them. “W-what’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, sitting down in the ground and panting heavily as she wrapped her arms around her body. Her skin was a bright red and were almost to the point of blistering. The mare’s body trembled heavily as to got to her knees, curling herself up to protect herself from anymore harmful rays. “Phytophotodermatitis,” Twilight said, heating up the inside of the dome with her magic so that they’d dry off, “It’s a chemical reaction that makes your skin react and burn quicker in ultraviolet light. The chemical required is found in citrus fruits. We learned about it in Celestia’s Academy for some science projects…” Bending down to check Fluttreshy for anything serious, the mare grimanced as her own skin stung from the movement, “D-Don’t worry, I used Night Wish’s ink to make a dome around us, blocking us from the lamps.” Non-Stand Users couldn’t see Night Wish’s ink, so Twilight needed to clarify what was going on. “What are we going to do?” Fluttershy winced as Twilight’s hand moved over the major sunburn she was just given. She was looking at Twilight for answers, like most ponies did when something was going wrong. Looking around, Twilight realized that it wasn’t just one UV light that was shining on them; there were 3 of them, each pointed strategically to cover the entire alleyway. The two mares were pinned down! The pain coursing through her limbs was preventing her from focusing her magic, and to use it, she’d have to drop Night Wish. Flying would take too much effort, and wouldn’t protect Fluttershy. And despite having the juice dried off, a good deal had gotten soaked into their skin. “I-I don’t know,” Twilight fell to her knees and put her hands over her face. “This is just what I was afraid of. I can’t think of a way out of this. My Stand is useless here! If I had 2 Minutes to Midnight, I could break those lamps in an instant. If I had Ta-Dah I could teleport much quicker and easier than with my magic to turn them off. If I had Diamond Dogs I could sew the ground tiles to our skin to shield us. If I had Bangarang I could blow the lamps away. If I had Slippery When Wet I could make a mist of the ground to dampen the light. But all I have is my Night Wish! Night Wish can't do any of those things!” “Twilight!” Once again, Fluttershy had to be the voice of reason for Twilight in her endless doubting. “Stop it, this isn’t helping. You’re making yourself more upset than you have to be. I know what that feels like. I know that you just want to point out every little flaw you have and make yourself feel worse and worse because it’s much easier than trying to work your way back up. But that’s not what we need right now! Stop focusing on what’s wrong and focus on what’s right. I want you to stop telling me what Night Wish can’t do and tell me what it can! You have magic, what makes Night Wish different from that?” “Fluttershy,” Twilight looked up from her hands. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t think this will…” “We’re not going to get out of this situation until you figure away out of it,” Fluttershy interjected sternly. “So tell me.” “Fine,” Twilight sighed and sat down in a more relaxed position. “I’ve explained to you that Night Wish’s ability is to command a mass of ink how I see fit, hardening it when I please. When I was still putting thought into how it worked, I came to the conclusion that I’m not moving it like I would with normal telekinesis.” “You see when a unicorn is first learning telekinesis, it’s almost instinctual that we think of it like a new appendage. When you see our auras wrapping around something we’re lifting, we’re actually feeling it in a sense and using that aura to manipulate it. Think of it like a hand, only it can wrap around the whole thing. I could accomplish the same effect as Night Wish like this by enveloping ink in an aura. But that would be like lifting with your back, inefficient and way too exhausting. Plus it would be hard to get the level of fine control I have with it.” “So that lead me to theorize that instead of moving the whole mass at once, Night Wish is instead moving every single individual atom of the ink. And it’s actual body, it has a body by the way, it’s not just ink, is there to streamline the process for me and only make me handle what I need to. I would explain why I can move harden the ink and manipulate it with such precision. And theoretically, I could phase the ink through solid objects if I had enough focus. But I’d lose line of sight and not know what I was doing afterwards.” “Alright,” Fluttershy was remaining calm and stoic through Twilight’s explanation on how her Stand worked. “Now why can’t you do anything about the lights with Night Wish?” “Because they’re too high up. Night Wish only has a limited range in which it’s able to influence its ink.” “What happens if it leaves that range?” Fluttershy was not letting up and letting Twilight defeat herself. “If it somehow gets forced out of Night Wish’s sphere of influence through some outside force,” Twilight tried to recall the experiments she did with it. “Then I believe that the ink will return to the main mass whenever it loses velocity or after five seconds. Whatever comes first.” “So you can use it outside of its range.” Fluttershy was beginning to think of a solution to their problem. She hoped she was leading Twilight on the path to figuring one out as well. “You just have to force it. How did you use it to get us out of the kitchen?” “I partitioned off some of the ink and turned it into screwdrivers to unscrew the door from its hinges.” Twilight explain. “It’s probably the one thing Night Wish is good for: making tools.” Twilight jolted up. Gears turned in her head. “So?” Fluttershy leaned in, “Can you make something to get us out of this?” Twilight pursed her lips, “If… If I can make a tool to force ink to the lamp, then I could break it and stop the ultraviolet light.” She walked over to the edge of the dome and used magic to peer through the ink. The lamp was there, and it would be easy enough to get a shot. “But, how would I make the firing mechanism? I couldn’t make a string with Night Wish’s ink, it can only get sturdy solid. But, magic can!” Already Twilight was going to work with Night Wish. She shaped the ink into a black crossbow and a single bolt. For the string, Twilight made a purple aura, stretched as thin as possible. Everything was in place, now she just needed to execute her plan. “I’m going to take down the dome,” Twilight announced, taking careful aim with her ink crossbow. “If all goes right, we’ll only a few seconds of pain. You ready?” Fluttershy nodded and Twilight acted as fast as she could. The dome disappeared, and Twilight snapped the magic string forward. As the two mares seared in pain, the bolt flew through the air and struck right in the center of the lamp. It sparked for a second, before shutting off and finally freeing the friends from this trap. A large section of they alleyway was freed from the oppressive lighting. As the two mares dove into the now safe area, Twilight took in deep breaths as the magic string disappeared and the ink she had used began to reform into a single mass underneath Night Wish’s cloak. She was getting closer to solving this predicament, the princess could feel it. She had seen the Stand now. And after seeing it, however briefly, Twilight had put the pieces together now to figure out exactly what this Stand’s ability was. “I need to figure this out!” Twilight opened her wings again, “I’m going to find out more about this Stand!” To confirm her theory, Twilight took off from where she was Standing towards the rooftop where the shattered UV Lamp was. Right on the ground next to it was yet another notecard. If her theory was correct, Twilight should already have a general idea of what the card would say. But just to put the final nail in that coffin, she picked it up and read it. “Shine the ultraviolet flood lamps on the juice when the bucket trap is tripped.” Odd jobs, that’s what this Stand’s ability was. It would accomplish any task given to it as long as it was submitted in writing. From the way the commands had been worded, it most likely could only accomplish a single objective with per order. It also needed to be provided with any items involved in the task, given that the preposition “the” was used instead of “a.” “I’m done with this,” Twilight announced as Fluttershy landed on the rooftop behind her. “I’m going to finish this Fluttershy. I’ve figured out this Stand’s ability, At this point, we could probably just run, but I think that’s exactly what this enemy wants us to do. They’ve plotted our every move, or had someone do it for them. To defeat them, we need to do something they would never expect me to do.” “What would that be?” Fluttershy inquired, growing nervous at Twilight’s attitude shift. “Charge right for them!” Twilight left Fluttershy with very little time to process what she said before taking to the air above the cafe plaza. The key to defeating this Stand was to catch it before it acted and stop it. Now that she had seen it, Twilight would be able to look for it more easily. It didn’t take much effort at all to spot it. It was Standing on the roof of the cafe it had previously trapped Twilight and Fluttershy in. It was setting up another industrial device. This time, it appeared to be a fan spraying, one used for large fields of crops. Twilight got the feeling that this wasn’t going to have a payload of water or pesticides however. Once she had landed right next to device, Twilight wasted no time in assaulting the enemy Stand with her own. She used Nightwish to draw the tightest series of interlocking chain links she could around its limbs and then solidified them. With its arms and legs bound, Twilight’s hope was that the Stand would no longer be able to be threat. That soon turned out not to be the case. Without breaking a sweat or even showing any signs of effort, the Stand broke out of the chains. This caused Twilight to recoil in shock, as even 2 Minutes to Midnight took at least some effort to break her ink bindings. The Stand seemed to be ignoring Twilight as it bent over to pick up a bucket of what Twilight didn’t need enhanced scent to know was Midnight Mandrake. The enemy intended to mist it all over the crowded cafe! In an attempt to kill the both of them? Or just as a means of causing mass chaos? Regardless of their intentions, Twilight knew that she could not let them go through. She used every last ounce of ink she could to form a barrier between the Stand and the fan sprayer. For a moment, the Stand paused. It eyed the wall curiously, before setting the bucket down and placing the palms of its hands on its surface. Slowly its fingers dug through the wall, which by Twilight’s own accounts should have been as hard as solid steel. Then, as if it were made of paper, the Stand ripped the wall in half and tossed both halfs away. It picked up the bucket and casually began to load the machine with the noxious liquid. The princess cried out as she attempted to use telepathy to force the poison from being inserted, but some outside force was seemingly preventing her from doing so. Twilight concluded that whatever order this Stand was following, absolutely nothing would be able to stop it from completing that order. In a last ditch attempting at preventing an act of chemical terrorism, Twilight used Night Wish to create a flurry of sharpened ink arrows and drove them all into the Stand’s body with as much force as she possibly could manage. But each one merely just bounced off of its body, the Stand not even registering what was going on as it reached down and flipped the switch to turn the machine one. While Twilight felt despair overtake her yet again, the Stand disappeared into a cloud of smoke, leaving the notecard used to submit its order on the ground where it once stood. There was no time to feel hopeless, however. Twilight knew she couldn’t afford that. Too many lives were at stake. Using her magic, she formed a magical membrane around the fan where the mist was being emitted from. Like a balloon, the membrane expanded as the liquid poison was sprayed out into it. It took all of Twilight’s concentration to keep it from bursting while the heavy air blowing out. Once the last of the mist had been spat out, Twilight turned the fan off and returned all of the collected liquid into the bucket. Exhausted from the mental stress she was just put through, Twilight sat down on the edge of the building as she collected herself. She figured this must have been the Stand user’s plan all along. None of the assassination attempts so far had been that effective on their own. But they were just coming one after another with no signs of slowing down or stopping. Sooner or later Twilight felt that she might die from exhaustion if this keeps up. While looking over the crowd below, Twilight knew that she needed to end this quick to prevent that from becoming the case. Fighting the Stand itself was impossible, as she had just discovered. Her only option was to locate the user and subdue them. But how? Nopony stood out here, it was obvious they were blending in. And with such a huge array of foreign faces in this city, trying to find one would be impossible. Twilight paused. Foreign faces. That was right, her and Fluttershy were in a place that they normally weren’t. It would make sense that the vast majority of faces here wouldn’t be recognized by them. However, the assassin who was targeting them followed them here from Ponyville. It was also extremely likely that this assassin was one of the town’s citizens being mind controlled. So in a sea of faces that she didn’t know, one she did should stick out like a sore thumb. The Stand user would have to be close by if it was giving this Stand orders. If she could just pick out a familiar face in the area... There! Sitting towards the bottom left corner of the cafe was somepony Twilight knew well: Golden Harvest, ponyville’s premiere botanist. She’s made it well know in the past that she prefers the soil fields of the country to the concrete ones of the city. That, and given the fact that nearly all of the assassination attempts were specifically plant based, meant that there was no doubt about it. Golden Harvest was the enemy Stand user. But still, Twilight didn’t want to do anything brashly. Being brash is what gotten her into more horrible situations in her life than she could count. Golden could just happen to be here enjoying herself. It could have just been a coincidence that she was here at the exact same time as Twilight and Fluttershy when they were getting attacked by an enemy Stand user. All of the pieces fit so well together though! Too well for this to be pure coincidence. Twilight growled as more complications arose. She decided it would be better to confront Golden nonviolently at first than to risk falsely attacking somepony. From what Twilight had observed about the Stand, she wouldn’t be able to immediately retaliate with it if it truly did belong to Golden Harvest. Calmly, Twilight teleported to the ground on the other side of the plaza and made her way over to the table where Golden Harvest was sitting. “Golden Harvest!” Twilight said, acting surprised to see her. She tried to hide the fact that she was constantly looking all around her for signs of the enemy Stand. “It’s such a surprise to see you here! What are you doing in Fillydelphia?” As Twilight teleported in front of her, Harvest’s eyes widened. The mare flung backwards in her chair, scrambling to pull herself back up as she looked up to Twilight, “G-Gah! Princess Twilight! You scared me!” Blushing apologetically, Twilight took a step forward, her legs wobbling under her, “Heh, sorry about that! I just saw you out here and I wanted to say hello!” Staring at Twilight for a moment, Harvest nodded, “Well… hello! What brings you out to Manehatten, Twilight?” Internally thinking of all the options, Twilight decided to go with something plausible enough, “Oh, I’m here visiting some friends! Princess of Friendship and all!” Harvest smiled warmly, “Well that’s good!” Her hands moved down into her lap, “I’m surprised I ran into you! I had to come here to pick up some stuff for my business, I don’t stay too long.” “I am too!” Twilight smiled back, “It’s a big city! Kinda weird I bumped into such a familiar face so quickly!” “Yeah… it really is!” Harvest twitched, “Well, I should leave you to your lunch!” “Nonesense!” Twilight’s gaze followed Harvest’s hands, “I’d love to sit down with you for a few bites! I’m in to rusaaahhh!” Twilight had noticed that Harvest’s arms were strangely behind her back most of the time they had been talking. Feigning a fall, Twilight hit the table, knocking it into Garden. As she looked up, she heard something hit the ground. A pen. With a quick motion, she looked darted her head around the botanist's side and saw that she had been slowly writing on a notecard this entire time. As soon as she realized that her her suspicions were be true, Twilight attempted to grab it from her hands and attempt stop Harvest from issuing another command to her Stand, but she felt a sharp prick in the arm. “Why did you have to go and do that?” Harvest asked, pulling a needle back. Twilight’s whole arm fell numb, unable to be moved. With a swift motion, Harvest pricked Twilight’s other arm and it fell to a similar effect. “Things could have gone so much easier for us.” Twilight attempted to back up, but her legs and wings soon fell to the same fate. “Now I have to use more Nightshade to have our fun.” In rage, Twilight’s horn lit up and her aura wrapped around Golden. But she didn’t look afraid or like she was in any danger at all. Instead, she looked rather smug about the whole situation. Nopony in the plaza seemed to notice what was going on either. They were all just enjoying their lunches or finishing them up. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Golden told the princess with a grin. Between the fingers of her right hand was a notecard with a finished order on it. “All I have to do is call my Stand and that’s it.” Twilight focused on the card and read text written on it. “Serve the wolfsbane to a random patron inside the plaza.” “That’s right princess,” Golden smirked as she saw Twilight’s gaze return, “I’m sure you’ve seen it by now. My Mr. Sandman is unstoppable. Once he has his order, absolutely nothing will stop him from carrying it out. Of course I can’t make specific people the target of its requests, or else you two would be dead by now. I have to get creative. And so far, it’s been working.” “I can’t control who will get it, but it’s likely you won’t be able to save them when they do.” Golden laughed. “It’ll be a big enough dose to kill them within a minute. So if you don’t want to be responsible for a random pony’s death, I would suggest letting go of me.” “Why,” Twilight asked while not complying Golden’s orders. “Why are you doing this? What could they possibly be offering you that would make this worth it?” “Why?!” Golden growled. “You know exactly why! The changes you’re going to make to Ponyville’s market, the restrictions you’re going to put on it, will completely kill my business! If I don’t kill you now, I won’t be able sell my plants ever again! Someponies have lives outside of ‘friendship’ you know!” Arguing that this was all lies would be pointless. Twilight knew that at this point. Whatever spell the cultists put them under caused the lies that were put in the victim's head to be nearly unbreakable. Reason was completely out of the equation. Sighing in defeat, Twilight released her telekinetic grip on Golden Harvest. “Why thank you for being so civil.” Golden complimented as she straightened herself in her chair. “Now it’ll be so much easier to break your spirit! Mr. Sandman!” “Wait, NO!” Twilight’s eyes showed desperation was they widened as much they could. But it was too late. Golden Harvest’s Stand suddenly materialized in front of her before wordlessly taking the notecard from her hand and disappearing. Now that the order was put into motion, there was no stopping it. A pony was now going to die, and there was nothing Princess Twilight could do to stop it. “After this, I’ll have Mr. Sandman go out and get Fluttershy for me. Then I can take you both out with one fell swoop.” The mare grinned, “I’m suprised you even fell for the tripwire. Even I thought that wasn’t going to work! I had at least three more traps planned for you, and… and…” When Golden Harvest turned to look at the princess, to the Earth Pony’s shock, the Alicorn was laughing. She had burst out laughing seemingly in a fit of madness. She had found something so funny that in this situation she couldn’t help but laugh. “Stop it!” Golden Harvest demanded. “Why are you laughing? What is going on?!” “I’m sorry,” Twilight said through her laughter. “I forgot that you don’t have a hearing charm on you like I do, so you aren’t hearing this. Here, I’ll put it on you so you can hear this for yourself.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, and suddenly, Golden could hear a lot better than she normally could. She could pick up on nearly every conversation in the plaza. One in particular stood out to her. “...And when I turn around this plate of wolfsbone is sitting on my table! I didn’t order this! Was it brought to me by mistake? Did somebody just not want it and dump it on me?” “You see?” Twilight laughed even harder. “I actually can’t believe that worked! It was probably the dumbest, most long shot plan I had ever come up with, and it worked!” “What are you talking about? What did you do?!” “When I was grabbing you with my magic, I also used it to move my wrist,” Twilight used her magic to move her numb arm from behind her back and show that Night Wish’s quill was in her hand, and that her wrist was making writing motions. When Golden Harvest looked behind her, the form of Night Wish was floating there. It had been there this whole time. “And did the simplest thing. I changed the a in “wolfsbane” to an o.” “W-what?!” Harvest stared at Twilight in disbelief, “You did what?!” “A common Gryphon lunch.” Twilight’s voice switched to a cocky lecture. “Pork, beef, and chicken jerky all seasoned and rolled into a big log of meat. Commonly referred to as wolfsbone. I saw it on the menu when I was ordering my drink. I’m so lucky that wolfsbane was your poison of choice. If it was anything else, I don’t think I would been able to do anything as stupid as that.” Golden Harvest was completely speechless. As Twilight had said, it was a completely stupid counter, but it had saved somepony’s life. And she looked so smug about it! In a fit of rage, she turned and rewrote the order again. This time, she had wrote it in all capitals so that it could not be altered again. She summoned Mr. Sandman and gave it the order. “There!” She shouted. “Now there’s nothing you could possibly do about that!” But when Harvest looked back at Twilight, her grin still persisted. “What now?!” “Look at the table,” Twilight simply instructed. When Golden Harvest turned around, the pile of notecards she was using had one with writing on the top of it. The writing was the exact order she had just written and thought she had given to her Stand. “B-but, then what did I give to Mr. Sandman?! It would only go if I actually give it an order!” She darted up from her chair and took Twilight by the collar. “Tell me! What did you do?!” “Changing an a to an o wasn’t the only thing I wrote with Night Wish,” Twilight explained. “While you weren’t looking, I wrote a different order on the bottom notecard. Then, at the last second, I used my magic to swap them. Here’s what I wrote:“ “Go to the limits of Fillydelphia and inscribe the first 604,800 digits of pi in the soil with no less than a second between each number being written.” “You said it yourself, nothing can stop Mr. Sandman once an order has been given. So I’m going to assume that includes you as well, right? If so, then that means you will not be able to use your Stand for the next week!” “You…” Golden’s eyes glowed red with fury. She tightened her grip and moved it to Twilight’s throat, putting the needle up against it, “You think you’re so clever, I’ll kill you! I’ll stop you right here and right now! I got enough left here to paralyze your goddamn throat! I’ll help everypony! I’ll…” “Golden Harvest!” Fluttershy shouted as she landed right in front of her. “Stop it, right now.” She grabbed Golden by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “You need to calm down. They’re all lies. They’re feeding you nothing but lies. Just calm down and think rationally. Calm down.” “Fluttershy!” Jerking her needle upwards, the mare aimed it at Fluttershy’s arm, “Don’t get any closer! I got enough Mandrake here to stop your heart!” As the needle came towards Fluttershy’s arm, Fluttershy’s gaze stared into Harvest’s eyes. The mare’s needle stayed in midair as Fluttershy gazed even harder into her eyes. “Calm down, Harvest.” Fluttershy spoke calmly, “Somepony has been telling you lies. You’re going to be fine. Put the needle down, and listen to me and Twilight.” Slowly, Golden’s grip on Twilight’s neck loosened. As it did, Twilight saw a wristband form on Golden Harvest’s wrist and instantly shatter. The needle in her hand dropped, hitting the table with a little bit of the liquid dripping out of it. Gasping, Twilight quickly sat up. Slowly, Harvest stumbled backwards, falling back into her chair as her eyes dilated. After a few moments, the mare looked around, “W...What’s… Fluttershy?” Harvest rubbed her head, “I… what’s going on? I got on a train to Manehatten… but… I was… coming after you two?” Turning, Twilight slowly panted, “Fluttershy, what did you do?” Her cheeks turning red, the mare rubbed her arm, “I-I used the Stare. I’ve never had to use it that fast though… but, you were in danger, and Harvest was…” Sucking in a breath, Fluttershy turned, “Come on, Harvest. Let’s get you someplace comfy and talk.”