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// Chapter 1: The Book 
// Story: The Wiccan Demon 
// by Steven1992 
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Sounds of glass bottles rattling and wooden doors opening and closing can be heard as I frantically trotted around our home finding the last ingredient my mother needed for a remedy that cures scale rashes Spike was currently having. Though despite her clear instructions and the name of said ingredient, I couldn’t find it.

“Are you sure we have some, Mother?” I asked now unsure if she was telling the truth. “Cause I’ve looked everywhere.”

My mother, Rowyn, was too busy focusing on the small brewing stand making absolute certainty she does the mixing and measuring correctly. She has had her fair share of mishaps and screw-ups, some of which had resulted in at worse, an explosion.

“Yes, I’m sure. Have you checked the cabinets in the dining room?” She asked not looking at me, in her motherly tone I’ve grown to love and appreciate hearing.

“Yeah. I even checked the kitchen cabinets, living room cabinets and also your room, just in case.” I pointed out knowing full well she was gonna ask about the other rooms.

She didn’t reply as she stopped what she was doing to think. “That’s odd. I know a bought a fresh batch.” She said to herself. “Hmm. Did you check the refrigerator by any chance?”

I raised an eyebrow, slightly confused at her suggestion. “Nooo, Why?” Then it dawned on me. “Oh.” I trotted into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

As I thought, a bag of fresh mushroom stems from the Macintosh Hills was sitting in the door frame. I opened the bag, took one stem out, closed the bag and put it back, closed the door and walked back to my mother.

“Why were the mushroom stems in the fridge? As far as I know none of us like mushrooms.” I asked while handing the stem to my mother who used her magic to grab it while resuming her concoction mixing.

“I don’t know to be honest. I guess I just put them in there on instinct. Considering mushrooms need to be refrigerated.” She used her magic to pick up a knife and carefully cut a small piece of the stem.

She then added the stem into the mix, handed me the stem and started stirring the potion. I walked into the kitchen to put the stem back in the bag and came back. My mother was looking from her notes to the potion and nodded when she was certain it was right.

“Alright. One potion for scale rashes, all done. Here,” She handed me the potion which was a small glass bottle. “Remember to tell Twilight; only one drop per rash or three if it’s a big rash.”

“And how big would the rash need to be?” I asked knowing Twilight would ask me.

“About 4 inches in diameter.” She answered.

“Got it. So when I make the delivery, will I need to return?” I asked, curious to know.

“Nope. Unless you want to, of course.” She giggled. “Why do you- Oh.” She started asking before stopping and giving me a snarky smile. “You’re going on a date with Pinkie Pie today, aren’t you?”

I blushed a bit, which was hard to see but my mother knew me well enough to know I was. “Y-Yes. Is that a problem?” I asked already knowing the answer.

“Of course not, my son. Why would that ever be a problem? Now go and make your delivery quickly. So you can spend extra time with that energic sweetie.” My mother smiled.

She liked Pinkie since Pinkie reminded her of me when I was little. Pinkie and I have been dating for nearly a year now. My mother sees Pinkie as a real sweetheart. Very hyperactive, intrusive sometimes, but certainly a real sweetheart since she always has good intentions.

“And what will you do for the rest of the day?” I asked with general curiosity.

“Hmm.” She took a glance around the house. “Maybe I’ll clean up a bit. I believe I can find things that need to be organized.” She then looked at me. “So you have no excuse to stay here any longer or come back till tonight. Now go.” She waved her hoof to the door in a playful manner.

“Alright.” I walked to the door and opened it before turning back to my mother. “I love you, Mom,” I said sticking to my motto.

She smiled warmly. “I love you too, my son.”

With that, I closed the door behind me and left.




Rowyn took several minutes to look around and figure out what she could organize or clean. Aside from the items and ingredients, Sarius pushed around by accident, there was really nothing. That is until her hoof bumped into what felt like metal in the north-western corner of the living room. She looked down to see a trap door hatch. She forgot the house has a basement. 

Curious she used her magic to try and open the hatch with little result. She tried pulling harder, even adding more magic power to it, still, it didn’t budge. She then decided to check the trap door with a spell and see if it was locked magically. There was a spell of sealing, albeit a minor one. She assumed Circe made the magical lock before she left for the crystal empire. Rowyn easily dispelled the seal and was able to easily open the door now. Being a mother, she was instinctively curious about what her daughter was trying to hide down here and so she descended the stairs.

The basement was obviously dark, thankfully it wasn’t large. With a simple light spell, the entire basement was illuminated and the sight wasn’t what she expected from her daughter who was the last one in here supposedly. Dozens of scrap notes littered the floor and the nearby table, with what looked like a really old book on it. The first thing Rowyn did was use her magic to pick up and stack the notes together then putting them on the table.

Her attention was then turned to the book. It seemed like a typical tome, mind you it was rather large for a tome. The front cover reads “Tome of Ancient Equestrian Magic with Apothecary and Alchemy”.

“That’s interesting,” Rowyn said to herself. “I never thought Circe would indulge in Ancient magic. But then again she does take after me.” She giggled.

When Rowyn said that, she couldn’t help but get curious about the contents of the book. But she looked at the thick stack of notes next to her, most likely written by her daughter. The notes certainly seemed they were important enough for Circe to write. Rowyn stood there for a couple of minutes thinking to herself. She could read the notes and possibly be warned not to read the book, but her curiosity was reaching its peak. If there’s one thing Rowyn hated most about herself it’s her uncontrollable curiosity. Since as the saying goes ‘Curiosity kills the cat’.

Not able to ignore her curiosity anymore she picked the book up with her magic. “Well, I don’t think there’s any harm in just reading the first page.”