Twilight Sparkle of Terra frowned in deep concentration, as she sat over the papers strewn out on her tabletop. From her front, from behind, left and from the right, even at her own table. The entire room was filled with one sound, the same sound everywhere. It was the sweet melody of pen against paper, the scratching and scribbling, where ink met its destination. Twilight reveled in this atmosphere, when everybody was to themselves and focused on the task in front of them. Her mind, usually working in three seperate directions without tearing itself apart, now aimed at one single thing. Her vast intellect rapidly remembering, formulating, repeating and checking every single ounce of what she had learned, writen down or otherwise seen. Her right hand, holding the mighty pen, was in constant movement, simply copying what her head had prepared mere seconds ago onto the sheets.
It was Wednesday, roughly a week after the ‘adventure‘ at Camp Everfree. They were writing a major test in science, something that ruffled a few feathers by certain people. Twilight however did not care, in fact right now she did not even really think.
Twilight Sparkle was in her element, a machine that was working its way through ply wood with a jackhammer operating on nitro. And it would have needed exactly that to break through her forcefield of concentration.
Unfortunately for the only being in this room, NOT currently occupied, they had no access to such tools.
“Uuuuurghhh! How long do we need to be hereeee! Those idiots calling themselves teachers should already know that you don’t need to even be here, damnit!“ That certain and very, VERY bored person had been complaining since ten minutes after the beginning of the test. Which was only twenty minutes ago.
The only reason why nobody had thought of stopping her angry rant was that… well…
Nobody really knew she even existed. Except Twilight, she knew. She would say she knew too well.
Fact was, this very pissed being was only visible to her and hearable to her. And that ever since Twilight had fallen asleep during the ride back home, after her time at Everfree Camp was over. When she had woken up, there the ghost was, and there Twilights martyrium had begun.
Her name was Midnight Sparkle, even though Twilight had only bestowed the first name upon her haunting aquaintance. Midnight had added the family name by herself, if only to spite her ‘host‘ as she put it.
Who was Midnight? That would depend on who you asked.
To some (reading: only Midnight), she represented a more cunning, smarter, stronger, sexier and overall better version of Twilight.
To everybody else, Midnight was the sorta-demon that Twilight had become at the Friendship Games, filled and driven towards megalomania by all the absorbed magic, and super hot. It should be noted that the last statement was shared by only a part of the student body (from both schools) and only when Twilight or the Rainbooms couldn’t hear it.
To Twilight Sparkle however, Midnight represented only one thing.
Torture.
Ever since Midnight had become real, or as real as she could get at the moment, she had taken it upon herself to hunt down and destroy every single nerve in Twilights brain. And she succeeded.
Why the young student had not snapped already?
Well, personaly she blamed a healthy mix of friendship and the mindset she had learned in Crystal Prep. Which was to “Ignore everything they say to you and just keep going on in ignorance.“ Surprisngly, it had worked. Maybe it was due to the fact that her personal ghost had only bitched around and about things, also at the start she had spared no breath to remind Twilight just how pathetic the girl was in comparision to herself. But when Twilight resorted to ignore her, that had slowly stopped.
Still, Twilight could hear her unwilling companion.
Learning and taking notes had become difficult when someone was berating other students over the tiniest things, even though they could never hear that certain someone. Making conversation with her friends was a rather strenious task when someone spent the entire break insulting every single person and thing in the cafeteria, without the need to take a breath. Some of her nights had been turned to restless hours and wasted time and energy, just because SOMEONE thought screaming heavy metal at 0:17 would be fun.
But now?
Now, Twilight felt at peace, solving one task after another.
If she had heard the state her counterpart was in, she might have felt satisfaction.
But alas, she did not hear anything.
After the test was finally over, the students made their way towards the cafeteria. Twilight joined her friends about halfway. Having finished the test in only 36 minutes and exactly 42 seconds, she had spent the rest of her time in the library with reading.
Now, the Rainbooms were happily eating and conversing about ever-changing topics. Very much to the dismay of Twilight Sparkle’s unfortunate companion.
Floating over the table of the group she tried to think of something to do. Which proved harder than she thought. The problem wasn’t in getting the idea, that she exceled at, but getting the motivation to act on them.
It hadn’t been that long since she had started haunting the purple nerd, but somehow she had already lost most the fun and almost all ideas. In the last days, she had resorted to simply complaining about everything. About the teachers, students, Twily’s friends and even her family.
But that was not really fun.
Midnight sighed. She was every bit the genius Twilight was. Yet, somehow it was so frustrating and difficult to think about what she should do.
So deep in thought and generally indifferent to her surroundings, Midnight never saw the red blurr rushing ftowards her. Atleast until said figure jumped up to her, grabbed her by the arm, and continued to fly upwards and through the ceiling.
The purple ghost was too shocked to even say something. Rapidly blinking, she eventually took her assailant into her vision, only to remain speechless.
The person in front of her had indeed red skin. She also sported two rather big demonic wings, which looked more feral unlike the pair Midnight had herself.
Two black eyes with light-blueish irises stared at her, a mouth spread in a mad, but also hopeful, grin which revealed two rows of sharp teeth. The hair was the only thing familar to Midnight. She would remember such a combination of gold and deep red anywhere, even though here they seemed a tad more wild.
“Ooooh, I am SO happy! Never more shall I be alone to myself! This… is the dawn of something new,“ the being said, breaking the silence. She seemed to get more and more giddy as she talked. “Now nothing will stop us, WE WILL-“
“EXCUSE me! Could you please tell me who the hell you are?!“
The being blinked several times, before giving Midnight a sheepish grin.
“Sorry. I’m just really excited. Ever since the camp I had a sneeking suspision that you were still there. And over the last days I was proven right! I could see you! The great Midnight Sparkle, still here, just like me. I had to get into contact with you.“
“Okay,“ Midnight said whilst trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “But who are you? You remind me of Sunset Shimmer, are you her own personal demon? A presence she can not rid herself of? What does she call you?“
The red demon nodded energetically until she heard the last question. Then she immediately lost her manic grin and… either Midnight’s eyes deceived her or she was actually blushing. “Well… I never really got a name per se[/]. Students just called me She-demon… if even… and Sunset never gave me one so… yeah…“
Again an akward silence stretched between them, Sunset’s demon nervously shuffling on the spot while Midnight was starting to think in two seperate directions.
“Ah yes, your host told about her actions at that school event. Interesting, but no matter,“ She said. “Such trivial issues may be discussed later. For now, other matters need attention. Namely, what was your plan? I take it your state of existence is similar if not the same to mine, so what did you drag me here for, outside of earshot of both our vessels?“
“Geez, you really are just like I remembered. But alright.“ In response Midnight just raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, so, yeah I think we are the same in terms of what we are. As you noticed, we can see, hear and touch eachother.“ The red devil continued, her mouth slowly returning to her maniac-like grin. “We also have the two girls with the greatest potential for magic and power as our hosts, as you put it. So I believe we should work together, possess their bodies, shatter their minds and regain our true forms. Then we can conquer this world and do whatever we want.“ Now excitement was simply written on her face, her eyes wide and her grin wider. “So what do you say, partner?!“
Midnight did not say anything. She just frowned and stared at the red hand that was stretched towards her. Eventually she gave her response, although her expression didn’t change. In fact it appeared to be more somber.
“I… honestly, I don’t think this is such a good idea.“
The demon in front of her gave her a look of disbelief. “Wha- Really?“
“Yeah.“ Midnight floated passed her partner, only now taking in the room they were in. Although, there wasn’t really a whole lot of interesting things here. Just another classroom. Nevertheless, she sat down on one of the tables and set her eyes on the other being again.
“Let me be clear here, I think its good that we know eachother now. But what you’re planning? It… there is not really a point.“ The demon cocked her head, but did not interrupt her. “Even if we win here, on the other side are more powerful opponents. And this little friendship group that our hosts are part of will do anything to defeat us. You have seen more of their exploits, you should know that we can’t just stop them.“
Another moment of silence filled the room, as Sunset’s evil ghost walked over to her compatriat and sat down besides her. Both of them stayed like this for several minutes before one spoke up.
“So, what do we do now, hm? What is our goal, our purpose, if we won’t try to break them? Because I would not know what else to do.“
The demon jumped slightly as she felt an arm draped over her shoulder. Looking to the purple devil besides her she was surprised to see two eyes filled with determination staring right at her.
“I said that trying a takeover is not a good idea right now. I did not say that we could not torment them in any way we can.“
It was good that no one could see them. Otherwise, the sight might have given people goosebumps so strong their muscles would completely freeze up. Two non-human looking, winged figures, with fanged grins almost as wide as their heads, eyes filled with cruel excitement.
“In fact, I would love to propose a little, arrangement. What do think, Bloody Sunrise?“
Mathematics was a rather easy subject for Sunset. After all she had been tought by Princess Celestia herself, also thaumic theory was way more complex than this. Sure, it had taken some time for her to adjust to how things worked in this world, but more than three years later she was pretty well attuned.
The lesson dragged on and on, ten minutes, twenty, twenty five.
Now if you divide everything with four, A will be standing alone on the right side. So now we can take this equation and put it into this one here to find out the value of B. That would be… wait. I thought I put my eraser right here on the table.
Sunset knew she was very well within the time limit the teacher had given them for the excercise, so she sat down her pencil and rifled through her pencil case. When she found nothing, she started to go through her bag, checking every pocket down to the ground. Yet, still nothing.
Now this was weird. Sunset was really sure she had her eraser today, she had used it earlier in this very lesson. She closed her eyes and began a little breathing exercise.
When she opened them again, she leaned to the right and took a look under her table, then did the same on the left side. Still nothing.
As she pondered where in Tartarus it could have gone, Sunset’s eyes fell on her table again. Or rather the familiar eraser, that sat in the exact center, like it had never moved at all.
Only that she had never put it down in the center.
Alright, that is certainly weird.
Cautiously, Sunset reached her hand towards it. As her fingers were only millimeters away from the small rubbery utensil, said utensil moved. Not a whole lot but just enough to not be picked up.
Two cyan eyes bored into the rebellious piece of pencil destroyer. Again five amber fingers moved to pick it up, this time spreading out to hold it from all sides.
This time the damned thing moved even earlier and to the right. The hand followed of course. And the eraser just slided down south on the table.
Thump.
In the usual dead silence a classroom had when the students were working on something, which was not as silent like when they had a test, the sound of a hand clapping on a table seemed exessivly loud.
Sunset did not move an inch as her eyes darted around her peripheral. Weirdly not a lot of people seemed to notice, or care.
“Sunset?“ The amber girl was maybe, a bit, startled when the person right next to her spoke. Yet she immediately caught herself, came up with a convincing lie and turned to face them.
“Sorry Rarity, my eraser almost slipped out of my hand. I kinda moved on reflex.“ She also said it loud enough so that most students would hear it, just so this would be done.
As the class continued to do their assignment, Sunset carefully glanced under her hand that was still pressing onto the spot where it had hit the table.
Nothing.
She looked to her right.
It should not be possible for an eraser to move as fast as her’s just had. They should also not be able to convey to you that, if they had a face, they would give you the smuggest of grins possible.
The pony turned human, the young girl who had tried to enslave an entire highschool and later saved said school from the exact same fate, who had endured three months of torment and attempted takeovers by an evil spirit before said spirit had decided to finally leave her body, would. Not. Lose. To a Celestia-Damned Eraser.
HER ERASER.
Now both hands moved in simultaneously. In the ensuing game of cat and mouse, even though she tried to not attract more attention to herself, Sunset should have had the advantage. She was smart, she had a fast mind and more importantly she had enough practice with her hands to use them expertly.
But still her enemy was always one slide ahead of her. It took her several minutes until she had it finally cornered between both hands.
Flup.
That was, until it simply went straight into the sleeve of her jacket.
“Excuse me please, Teach. I’ll be in the bathroom for just a bit.“
Whatever would happen there, Sunset thought as she rushed out of the class, she would tell nobody. Ever.
“More than half a fucking year I have haunted her. Half a year and now, NOW I figure out that we can move fuckin‘ objects?“
Midnight just chuckled. The two demons were floating in an empty classroom, which was conveniently between the two rooms were both of their coutnerparts currently had their lessons.
“Don’t take it too hard, I mean I learned on my own and out of pure curiosity. Until now, who should have briefed you on all your abilities? Now one thing I wanted to ask you.“ Sunglow just nodded, despite the frustration she felt fully satisfied by her recent actions.
“You mentioned possession earlier. I must admit I never attempted it, did you?“
“Urgh, yes I did. Wasn’t much success with Sunny Shims though. She isn’t an expert in mental stuff but so am I. I bet your Twily would be a lot easier.“
Midnight rubbed her chin thoughtfully. A plan was forming in her mind. Noticing this, Sunglow gave her friend a playful grin.
“What are you thinking in there Nighty? Suddenly considering a hostile takeover?“
Midnight simply gave a serious glare in return. “First, don’t call me ‘Nighty‘. Second, no. Third of all, Think of all the things we could do if we take hold of their bodies. Look, I will try to teach you a few things I know. Maybe… maybe we could practice at one of the other students.“
In that moment the bell began to ring, signaling the end of the current lesson. This also meant that the two devils would have to move with their vessels.
“Look, we will talk this over tomorrow during lunch ok?“
Sunglow smiled at her purple partner in crime. “Sure! You can count on me, until tomorrow!“ With that she disappeared, returning to the body of Sunset Shimmer.
Midnight remained for a moment before doing the same. It felt great to have someone to talk to, atleast someone who thought the same as you.
Libraries were one if the best things in the world. Twilight thought so and that meant something.
What was not to like? They were silent, usually comfortable, and most importantly: filled with books.
The purple book worm sat at one of the many reading tables, currently enwrapped with a thin example, one about advanced biology.
Flipping through the pages, only skimming their contents to verify the information residing in her brain, Twilight allowed her conscious to wonder about and think.
Her personal demon had lessened its activity over the day before. It seemed it may have run it’s course now, with no steam left in it’s tank.
Twilight didn’t know where the spirit went when she could not see it. It could not move too far away from her, that she had already deduced, among other things because it had complained about this very often.
But if she were to be honest, Twilight did not care the slightest bit.
This was peace and she enjoyed it.
Maybe it would not last, yet this was what made this special.
Twilight smiled slightly.
Silence was bliss.
“BOOOH!“
“HaaHhahaahhhahaHahha!“ It was a good thing that, as spectral ghosts or whatever, they did not need any air. “HahhdHadhahahaha, woHOhoHwoHoWohwO!“ Very fortunate indeed, otherwise one certain red demonic entity would have already died of its mad cackling. “S-sh-hahHAhaHAhahAhAHa T-that bwaheehe THAT was her face?! R-reallyy?!“
To be fair, the grimasse the purple, winged angel of doom and magic had just made had been very entertaining indeed. And now that it had been shared, said dark angel could join in the cackling of her newest partner.
It felt almost as good as the deed she had just described.
“Yeah-hahehehahee. And she sat there. Just sat there, completely still you know? Like a stupid lizard trying to play dead before a snake. And-hihi, and then the librarian comes to her, worried and upset at the same time and asks: ‘Please don’t make any noises here. Is everything okay?‘ And she just snapps to her, eyes like plates. Y’know what she said?“
Sunrise was trying to form an answer. Emphasis on tried. It took her a few minutes.
“Wha-what?“ She finally brought out.
“NOTHING! She just staaaaared at her, like little poor Cherri had burned down the entirety of Alexandria, right in front of her eyes.“ Another wave of bursting laughter overcame them. This time, both did not even attempt to stop and say anything until every little cackle had run its course.
In other words they were laughing for seven or so minutes straight. Only after that, finally, they came down from the high the demons had been riding.
“What do we do now?“ Sunrise asked, a few straggling giggles escaping inbetween her words.
“Well, if I am correct, which I am of course, we should have twenty-three point four-eight or so minutes before our counterparts seperate for the day. So, we could try and use this time effectively. Any ideas?“ The last sentence was rather rhetoric. Of course, both entities already had many ideas. Enough time had been used earlier to discuss all sorts of ways to approach their goal, many devious, malicious and downright evil. And this brought two very wide smiles on two very evil faces.
Said goal?
To make the lifes of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, absolutely horrible.
They would not actually hurt them, no. They would simply drive them mad.
And they would have fun with it.
Some would consider it overkill, or just straight unecessary, to lock ones eraser in ones lunchbox like it was a max-security prison.
Some people did not have an eraser that had decided to rebell against it's Master. First by not being where it should have been. Second, having the audacity of resisting apprehension and arrest by sliding away from her hands. And finally, the stupid little rubber had made the ultimate crime. It had slipped into Sunset's clothing and rampaged up and down her body.
If she could forget this particular sensation, she would speak a prayer to Celestia herself.
Anyhow, because of this little accident, Sunset had been very cautious when dealing with her writing utensils. So far none of them had gotten any more ideas from their erasing brother. Yet.
Better be overly cautious and prepared than being caught on your wrong hoof, foot, whatever.
Snapp!
Five amber fingers surged foward like harpoons at a wale, forcing themselves around the offending object and restraining it in their combined hold. One of the pencils that had been lying on the table, awaiting its next use, had moved on its own. But this time Sunset had been vigilant and put down the attempt immediately.
Nobody in the classroom had looked up at the small commotion, so that was good. She didn't really want to deal with another person asking her if everything was alright.
For good measure, Sunset put all of her utensils not currently in use back into her pencil case and zipped it closed. There would be no escape and thus no further signs of resistance from them. And for the next few minutes, it appeared as if the red-haired girl would be proven right.
But then, something inside of the case began to move. It was not very noticable at first, until it picked up and up on furiosity. The entire thing started to spasm and convulse, like someone had put a swarm of ravenous Parasprites inside of it.
It reminded Sunset vaguely of a horror movie. But while it was certainly weird, it was certainly not that horrific.
Her resolve slowly began to waver, as the screaming started.
It was coming out of her pencil case, for all of the impossibility , she was sure of atleast that. Then, the pencil case began emitting smoke, from the inside.
The screaming changed. Where at first it had sounded like mad, animalistic screeches, now it sounded more like actual people, their voices full of desperation. If her eyes did not betray her, and Sunset was already suspicious of them, an orange-ish glow shone through the fabric, like a fire.
The shrieking became louder and louder, the things inside the pencil case moving more and more violently against its walls. That was too much for Sunset, she could not endure this any longer.
With one hearty motion, she took it and all but threw it into her school bag, closing it immediately after. She breathed a sigh of relief, the maddening sounds that had slowly drilled into her mind had finally stopped. Sunset was still recollecting herself after this very, very nightmarish episode, so she did not spot the faint cloud seeping out of her bag.
She also did not notice it forming up in front of her, as she went back to what she had originally been doing, not even as it shaped itself into the frame of a female, humanoid figure. More and more details became apparent, such as a skeleton-like face which was framed by long strands of faint gold and red. Two black voids where it's eyes should have been and a torn dress that once might have even been angelic, alongside two skeletal remains of wings that completed the haunted look.
Still, Sunset did not notice the ghost in front of her. That seemed to offend it quite a bit, although it's face was rather difficult to define. Then it looked to its... her side, nodded and then, she began to dance.
If a still ghostly image had not managed to grasp Sunset's attention, a moving one certainly did. The elegant dance that she performed, although there seemed nothing and nobody to dance with, also gave the amber girl a very good look at all sides of her.
In hindsight, Sunset wasn't sure what gave her more of an icy feeling along her spine. The resemblance of the ghost to herself, or the pair of dead wings and the dress, both of which seemed similar to the ones she had at the Friendship Games.
So she simply sat there, watching with wide eyes as the dance seemed to come to a climax. Then, as the ghost moved towards the classroom door in a flurry of motions and turns, a second figure seemed to form, right in the arms Sunset's dead doppelganger. The girl couldn't make out a lot, just the outline consisting of a dark dust of some sort. And then, both were gone, just like that.
Sunset stared after them for who knows how long, before eventually returning her wide gaze towards her desk again. Then she resumed working on her assignment with slow, almost sluggish movements.
Her hands were shaking.
"That was fun! Seriously, I don't think I've felt so much enjoyment since ever!" Midnight Sparkle exclaimed excitedly. Both demons were currently in the hallway that connected the classrooms their charges were in, just floating about.
Sunrise grinned in satisfaction. "I know right?! Imagine how it is for me, I had to endure her stupid friendship is great, look at me, friendship, friendship, FRIENDSHIP-thing for several months. Anytime I tried something then, the remains of that stupid friendship-magic blocked me out immediately. But now?" She cackled wickedly.
"Now I am stronger than ever, and together, it is even better!"
They high-fived.
"Wanna hit my host next? We could try to do the same thing with her, see how she reacts." Midnight asked with the tone someone would suggest going to a coffee shop to their friends.
"Of course. But, not to be insulting your ideas here, maybe we should try... a different approach. Something more, harder, shall we say."
“Twilight Sparkle? Is something the matter?“
The purple said nothing, probably since she did not hear the teacher asking her a question. This was not, however, because she was again engrossed in a book or a test.
This time, her mind, usually so carefully managed and ever working, was having a serious case of total anarchy.
To the outside, Twilight was staring at and through her table, her pen gripped hardly in her hand.
On the inside, her self-conscious was attempting to run damage control and peacekeeping measures on all of her seperate brain-sections.
The simple cause for this had been… five minutes. Which would forever live in infamy.
Five minutes of continued assault upon her mind, in every sense she had.
This unprecedented violation of her mind had left her central intelligence organ in ruins, also as established in total chaos, but primarily in still burning ruins.
And to add literal insult to massive injury:
Her ears, who had somehow made it through the cacaphonic fire the enemy had unleashed on her, reported sound. Sound that just reeked of the enemy.
Taunting,
humiliating,
maddening,
endless,
fucking,
LAUGHTER!
THE END?
OH, THEY WOULD WISH!
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!