//------------------------------// // Chapter 19. One more step. // Story: Final Corruption // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// It was an exhausting journey down to the castle. The small caravan of ponies had to creep along, encumbered by their possessions and wounds, needing to keep a lookout for monsters or pursuers from Equestria. They walked all night without stopping and still it took them four days to reach their destination. When they finally got to the ruins of the castle, Twilight felt as though she was sitting down for the first time in her life. Her body ached, but not in an overly bad way. Everypony’s wounds still hadn’t healed entirely, they hadn’t gotten proper rest, but they could finally relax a little. Somehow Pinkie Pie and Applebloom found the energy to spend the first day running through the empty castle, but Twilight and the rest spent it lying around. Everypony was still too exhausted to unpack anything but sleeping bags and pillows. Their chain of carts and saddlebags circled the immense great hall. The entire group, both Rarity’s gang and the Apples were camped out in that first, massive room. This castle wasn’t a tenth as big as Canterlot Castle, but that still left it at an enormous size. You could have fit Twilight and Applejack’s house inside this one room alone! The place was just too dang big. It went on and on with empty room after empty hall. The magic protecting the place was still active, so they didn’t need to worry about running into monsters. But trees had torn into parts of the castle, so not all of it was safe to explore. Besides this room and the basement, Twilight had seen little of what would be her home for either a week or three months, depending on what Applejack decided to do. And there didn’t seem to be a lot of good options for her at this point. Down in the basement were huge crates filled with ‘emergency provision bars’. Applejack and her brother were the only ponies in the group who had to eat these and that was a good thing because, according to her, they were completely disgusting. That was hardly surprising, considering they were a few hundred years old. Those things were invented long ago. They didn’t absorb dark magic and they had a shelf life of two thousand years, making them just about the only thing a daywalker could live off of in the forest. And, as was boldly printed on the cover of the box, ‘you can technically live off them’. They contained just enough nutrients that you could eat these exclusively for years. But the word ‘technically’ was warranted. Applejack tried to overcome the hideously dried-out nutritional bar by drinking a huge tankard of water. But at this point, the dark water of the forest was all she could get. To Twilight, that stuff was the smoothest water she ever drank, but Applejack described it as slimy and acidic. It was barely drinkable to her, but she could drink it. Clearly, this was not a place she’d be comfortable in for very long. Equestria was far from safe now. And her only other option… But for Twilight, at least, this place was hardly that bad! Once you were a vampire, nearly every plant in the forest was edible. If Twilight got hungry, she could just walk outside, grab anything and it would taste great. Her fangs were only half-formed and were back to growing at a slow rate, but they were still there. They made eating things like grass, which needed to be chewed extensively, more difficult, but eating fruit became a whole lot easier. It was so easy to tear into them now. And they really did taste incredible, better than any fruit Twilight could have named a year ago. There was one fruit with a thick shell-like a coconut. That one looked like it was specifically designed to be eaten by bat ponies. You could stab straight through the shell with your fangs and drink the juices like, well, a vampire. Sadly, Twilight’s fangs were still too short to pierce through, but they were getting just a tiny bit longer each day. That was going to be her metric for the last part of the change. She’d bite into one each day and see how close she got to biting all the way through. When she could finally suck its juice out like Rarity could, her transformation would be complete. But there was something else she was looking for right now, just outside the castle. There was no way to make coffee out here, but the leaves of a tree that grew not far from the castle could be used to make an extra-strong tea that was almost as good. Already Twilight was getting a bit better at making it. She had to rube the leaves between two rocks to make abrasions, then dip them into a pot of boiling water to make the tea. That first part took a lot of effort, but it was worth it and soon Twilight was going back inside with a pot of tea. Rarity was lying on top of a pile of sleeping bags, Dash lying at her side with a wing draped over her. Rarity opened her eyes and looked up at Twilight but didn’t lift her head. Since she started living with her, Twilight learned that Rarity had a shortlist of weaknesses. One of them was that she was not a ‘morning’ pony. Rarity needed at least a half-hour after waking up just to get out of bed. Then she’d need at least a half-hour after that before she once again become her perky, cuddly, bossy, lovable self. Until then she was just bossy. Trying to talk to her now would be met with a disapproving grumble. Thankfully, everypony already knew what Rarity wanted so talking was unnecessary. She demanded one of them stay in bed with her until she got up herself, that coffee and breakfast be brought to her and that nopony say anything to her until she was finished. Dash, in no real condition to be up and running around, had been on cuddle duty for the past half hour or so as Rarity struggled to get up. Twilight brought the cup of forest tea and set it in front of Rarity. Rarity muttered something that was likely a thank you and took the mug. Twilight tried drinking a cup of it too, but it was far more bitter than coffee. She needed to find something to sweeten it with. Twilight noticed two sets of brightly glowing eyes dashing across the balcony that overlooked the great hall. And that was one more pair than anypony hoped to see when they got here. “Another one!” Pinkie’s voice came echoing from the second floor. She meant another mattress. She and Applebloom were going through the castle collecting all of them. The two of them shoved the mattress down the stairs, letting it tumble down onto a pile of moldy and petrified mattresses and pillows near the bottom of the stairs. They’d already gotten a sizable pile of them. “Twilight,” Rarity muttered harshly. “Can you please tell them that those mattresses are disgusting, and we’ll have nothing to do with them?” “Um.” Twilight looked up at Pinkie, sure Pinkie and her excellent hearing already picked that up. “Rarity says-!” “Oh, come on!” Pinkie yelled down at her. “There’s gotta be some spell you know that can clean them up! Think of how cool it’d be if we piled them all at the bottom of the stairs and did like, mattress sledding!” “I wanna do mattress sledding!” Applebloom agreed with her quickly. “You’re not doing any such thing!” Applejack, who’d just come back from the basement with another pile of boxes, was the one who scolded them this time. “Just 'cause we’re enemies of the state don’t mean I’m gonna let you turn into some delinquent.” “Oh come on, Sis!” Applebloom called down to her. “We’re outlaws now! Shouldn’t I get to be just a little bit of a delinquent?” “No!” “Ah shucks.” “And tell Pinkie she needs to wash her hooves before coming back down here.” Rarity finally sat up with significant effort. “This place is filthy enough as it is.” “Rarity says-“ “Okay, okay!” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Applebloom. Let’s go wash our little hoovesies for Princess Rarity.” “Alright, uh-!” Applebloom looked up at Pinkie. “What was your name again?” “Pinkie Pie!” And the two of them scampered off somewhere. Every time Twilight saw Applebloom’s eyes glowing in the darkness, she felt a twinge of defeat. What disturbed her about that question wasn’t just that Applebloom had asked Pinkie her name two or three times a day since they started, but that Applebloom knew Pinkie’s name before that whole incident. She was experiencing memory loss as Rarity warned on the way here. Despite going as fast as they could, despite trying to move them even during the day, they hadn’t been fast enough to stop Applebloom from getting to the point of no return. The fog hadn’t dissipated as quickly as they’d hoped and now Applebloom’s fur was back to yellow in Twilight’s eyes. Applebloom was already a bat pony, she even had small, stunted wings. She couldn’t fly yet, they had to grow more and it’d take a long time to learn after that. It didn’t look like she knew what to do with them half the time, letting them just hang around or jutting them out at weird angles. Twilight wondered how jarring it must be to suddenly have a new pair of limbs. At least an unexpected pair of wings was something Twilight would never have to deal with. Applebloom’s brother, at least, would have a chance to back if he wanted it. But he was physically altered too, still had ear tufts for now. Applejack was the only one with no visible difference in her. She looked up at her sister with the most fear and pity of all. “You said she’s going to get better right?” Applejack asked. “I know it’s gonna take longer than my lifetime, but- I’m still not sure how worried about this I should be.” Rarity sucked up her grogginess to try and take this seriously. “All bat pony foals are very slow learners, that much is natural.” Rarity nodded. “But it is a lot worse in ponies who change instead of being born that way. She’s going to be having ‘amnesia fits’ for the next decade or two. But none of the memory loss is permanent, it always comes back in a few days, and by the time she’s an adult, they’ll be gone. But it’s hardly anything the ponies in Hallow Hold don’t know how to handle.” “Right.” Applejack nodded, trying to take solace in that. “There’s that school she can go to… if I let her?” “And more. Our foals are more fragile for much longer than yours so we’re even more protective of them. Trust me, in Hallow Hold you can clap your hooves and have twenty ponies lined up to help Applebloom,” said Rarity. “School is a different down there and I don’t just mean not watching the same movie a million times. You take one subject a day, rotating between twenty of them a month. I know it sounds strange, but it really is the best way for them to learn anything.” “Twenty subjects a month?” Applejack asked. “Ain’t that a bit much considering her uh, condition.” “Learning goes slow for them either way,” said Rarity. “As far as her intelligence goes, this is a good thing in the long run. When she does finally finish school, Applebloom will not only be overall her mental issues but she’ll have vastly more knowledge and skills than a daywalker could ever hope to attain in their lifetime. But she will need help getting there.” Applejack relaxed a little, at the assurance, but not much. “Maybe I don’t have any choice but to send her down there to be with…” Applejack hesitated to say it. “Her own kind. But- I got no idea what I’m supposed to do with myself. If I try to go with her like this, I’m gonna die.” “You have a few options, of course!” Rarity held out her hoof. “You could stay here forever. You could get an alias and try to live somewhere in Equestria, hoping none of this ever catches up with you. Or…” “I could turn myself into a monster too.” Applejack hung her head. “And take your offer.” “Well even then, it’s not your only option. Maybe you could change by yourself and wander south to the Cavern Grove without me. But I’ll tell you something about how things work in Lunarel, in our nation. Families are organized around a, let’s say, ‘head vampire’, not too different than what you see with the four of us though usually bigger. Ponies who don’t have a head vampire they’re loyal to are called rogues. It’s not easy for you to get ahead down there unless an older vampire takes you under her wing.” “But there are other vampires like you? And I could convince one of them to let us into their… family or whatever?” “Of course! But I can’t say what they’ll ask in return. Only that all of them would ask for something.” Applejack grew silent once more. She silently thought about things a lot recently. Eventually, she scrapped her hoof against the ground three times, swallowed, and looked up at Rarity. “And if I do take your offer?” Applejack asked. “What exactly would I have to do?” “Well I could have Dashie here teach you how to fight for real.” Rarity looked over at Dash. “You have some potential. But I suppose you’d be like my maid if I can’t find a better job for you to have down there. Don’t you think Applejack would look cute in a maid outfit, Twilight?” Twilight wasn’t sure which type of ‘cute’ Rarity meant. Applejack wasn’t bad-looking, but she was a lot bulkier than Rarity or Dash. Maybe Applejack wasn’t exactly Twilight’s type. “Maybe a little?” Twilight rubbed her mane. It felt weird now that her spikes were deflating from lack of hair care products. “Alright.” Applejack scratched the back of her head, suddenly embarrassed about something. “I just wanna make sure. I wouldn’t have to, well you know.” “What? You still think I eat ponies?” Rarity raised her eyebrow. “It’s not that.” Applejack shook her head. “I meant the- well I can tell you have Twilight and Dash, uh- I ain’t into mares is what I’m saying!” Rarity laughed. “Well I’ve heard that one before.” Rarity pulled Twilight close. “I’m not asking you to be a sex slave. I never told you to do anything you weren’t absolutely ecstatic about, did I Twilight?” Rarity gently bit down on Twilight’s ear. That was something she’d started doing once Twilight got her ear tufts. And it was something Twilight enjoyed a bit too much. One of the little details about the transformation that never got mentioned was that ear tufts were like a sexy thing. They served no biological function outside of showing how healthy you were, were specifically there to attract mates. And Twilight learned this the hard way, by being attracted straight to them. Even now she had to be careful to not get caught staring longingly at Rarity’s ears. And Twilight’s ear tufts were the largest in the group, which meant… Well Rarity certainly appreciated them. She suddenly loved biting down on Twilight’s ears. The only reason Twilight didn’t take this opportunity to escalate things with Rarity was that Applejack was watching, and Applejack still had that knee-jerk reaction towards any display of physical affection. “Now don’t get me wrong.” Applejack held up her hooves. “I appreciate everything you did for me and my kin and I take back every bad thing I ever said about the three of you. But I still can’t approve of the way y’all are always cursing and hugging and whatnot and… well I don’t know what to make of all this. I have no idea what I’m supposed to believe in anymore.” “Bleh. That kind of thinking is what got you burned in the first place, Daywalker.” Dash thrust her hoof out in Applejack’s dimension. “It’s like I told Sparks, like I tell everypony. You should be thinking about what matters to you instead.” And Applejack did think about it for a moment, silently, before looking back upstairs. Her answer to that question, at least, was obvious enough that even Twilight would be her life on it. “I just need a little more time to think, alright?” Applejack waited for Rarity to nod in approval before going back down to the basement in search of more supplies. Rarity yawned before turning back to her newest fledgling. “Twilight.” “Right boss!” Twilight got up, already knowing Rarity wanted some warm water. Already Rarity was combing her hair and quickly switched over to washing her face as soon as Twilight brought the bucket over. Rarity, once she fully woke up, would call describe her morning self as a ‘hideous freak’, but Twilight thought she looked cute in a way, with her frazzled mane and fur. “There!” Rarity stretched out her legs and finally got out of bed. “Much better! Now what were we up to again?” Rarity tapped her chin as she looked over the disheveled room. Rubble, cracks, dirt, and plants were everywhere. “Hrm.” Rarity gave the corners of the room, buried in cobwebs, the same critical frown she gave her clothes whenever she went to sowing. “We really must clean this place, but then again that’s a waste of our energy if Applejack says no. How do you think we should give her, Twilight?” “We should give her a least a week, I suppose,” said Twilight. “You think she’ll take your offer, though?” “Oh, you still doubt me?” Rarity’s smile was confident enough. “Twilight, you should know that if I want somepony to like me then it’s hardly up to them anymore. Yes, I’m sure by the end of the week I’ll get Applejack to swear her loyalty to me. The real question is how long until she becomes a delinquent.” Though it still seemed like a long shot, there was something oddly tempting in imagining Applejack becoming a vampire and turning just as corrupt as Twilight and the rest. Rarity always used to say that the purest ponies were the most satisfying to corrupt and Twilight understood the feeling now. Those stories were undoubtedly true that vampires lived to spread their corrupting influence. Twilight felt it, wondered how Rarity even resisted the urge to go after Applejack this long. Though maybe Twilight’s emotions were still wild. “But that seems like it’d be a lot harder than it would with most ponies,” said Twilight. “I can hardly imagine her dressing like a punk or eating candy.” “Yes, well the same could have been said about you,” Rarity teased. “Hey! All I needed was to be broken out of a lifetime of borderline brainwashing and- yeah, okay I see your point.” “I think this little incident destroyed Applejack’s worldview well enough,” said Rarity. “This was probably the only thing that could have gotten her to reconsider the way she looks at things, but it happened. The rest is easy.” “Ready?!” Pinkie called from the top of the balcony. “Yeah!” Applebloom called after her. Pinkie jumped off the balcony and spread her wings, gliding down to the ground with Applebloom on her back. “See?” Pinkie flared her wings out. “Wings are one of the upsides of all this!” Applebloom flared out her wings or at least tried to. It’d be more accurate to say she flailed them about helplessly before giving up on whatever she’d been trying to do. “There’s tons of upsides, kiddo!” Pinkie promised. “You’re gonna love Hallow Hold! We got giant chickens you can ride around on and a monorail and a movie theater that plays actual movies and telephones and a waterslide and, and-“ “I’m pretty sure I asked this before but-“ Applebloom rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed. “I’m not the only pony down there’s who’s stuck like this, right? There’s other kids in this place we’re going?” “Ah heck yeah!” Pinkie cheered. “There’s a bunch of kiddos for you to make friends within Hallow Hold. You got Scootaloo and Dinky Hooves and uh, Rumble! Technically those guys are in their 40’s, but that’s like 12 in bat pony years. And they were all born as vampires so they’d probably love to meet somepony like you! You’ll be their friend in no time.” “Do they have their cutie marks yet?” Applebloom asked. “Not last time I was there.” “Huh! Didn’t have any ponies my age without cutie marks around Ponyville, so maybe this is an upgrade.” Applebloom thought to herself. “Maybe we could all look for our cutie marks together! I could start a program for acquiring cutie marks. The Cutie Mark Acquisition Program! Course, I’ll think of a better name by then.” Applejack came back up the stairs shortly after, dragging a surprisingly unpetrified mattress with her. “Hey look what I found!” Applejack called out to the others. “This one’s just fine!” Applebloom shrank away from Applejack, hiding behind Rarity yet again. She quickly realized this was rude, had only done it on reflex, and came out from hiding with her head hung down apologetically. Applebloom wasn’t exactly helping with her sister’s depression. Rarity was the biggest source of dark magic around and so the kid was drawn to her like a magnet, ended up following her around like a lost puppy all day, and could only part from her by following Pinkie or Dash around instead. That was another major difference of bat pony foals- they stayed clingy towards adults much longer and were far more afraid of being alone. They had to survive a lot longer as children so they were more reluctant to leave the company of other bat ponies. But to Applejack, it must have felt like Rarity had stolen even her little sister away on some level. Not that Twilight could blame Applebloom. Even now Twilight had trouble dealing with her new instincts. For a filly, that had to be even harder. Applejack, meanwhile, was the one who looked like a monster now. Looking into her dim, non-glowing eyes was like looking into the eyes of a corpse. The light magic inside her felt and smelled acidic. It all added up to this unsettling feeling. Applebloom tried hard to overcome her fear of her siblings, but she was forcing herself to go over to them, and never lasted long before she had to retreat to the comfort of Rarity and the darkness. “Guess what, sis!” Applebloom tried to be brave and make up for cowering a moment ago, but still had to cling to Rarity. “There are other ponies down in other castles who are in the same boat as me. And they ain’t got their cutie marks yet, either! So I won’t be the only one in my class without a cutie mark anymore. That’s good, right?” This had to be the fifth time Applejack heard this ‘good news’, but for her sister’s sake, she acted like this was the first and smiled. “Well that’s swell but we ain’t a hundred percent sure where we’re going just yet,” said Applejack. “Come on, Sis! What’s even option B? We stay in this castle eating emergency pro-whatever bars for the next sixty years and die?” Applebloom asked. “There ain’t nowhere else for us to go but some crazy vampire castle.” “You’re gonna be twelve for another decade, so there ain’t no hurry.” “There is a little bit of a hurry,” Rarity pointed out. “I’m not staying here forever, Applejack. I’ll give you a week or two to decide if you want to accept your rightful place as my vassal and if not- well you won’t see me for a few years.” “Well if you’re staying up here can you at least let me go with Lady Rarity?” Applebloom looked up at Rarity. “I’m gonna go crazy if I’m stuck here with just you and Big Mac! I gotta be with other fillies and go to a vampire school, you know?” Applejack, if she stayed as she was, wasn’t even going to live long enough to raise Applebloom to adulthood. And it was clear Applebloom didn’t learn the same way she used to anymore. Applejack clearly cared a lot about Applebloom, but there just wasn’t any way she could help her sister, not here and not the way she was now. But desperate and hopeless as it was, her sister was the one thing Applejack had left. “I ain’t gonna make you go anywhere without me,” Applejack said. “And I know this Hallow Hold is likely the only good place for you to be, so…” Applejack braced herself and turned to Rarity. “Rarity. Applejack took her hat off bowed her head. “I… accept.” “Hm.” Rarity frowned a little tapped her cheek. “Lovely, but that’s not quite good enough. If you want me to take you in, you’ll have to be a bit more convincing. Bow down and swear your loyalty to me and then I’ll accept you.” Applejack met Rarity’s eyes but kept her frown. Then she bowed down to Rarity. “I swear the loyalty of me and my kin to you,” Applejack said. “From now on, my family serves you. I apologize for everything my family has done. You win.” “Of course! I always win. But look at it this way.” Rarity knelt in front of Applejack. “If you’re on my side then that means from now on you always win too! It’s all uphill from here, I promise.” Then Rarity moved her hoof under Applejack’s chin and lifted her muzzle off the floor. “Now stand up. Now that you’re my servant, you’re above such humiliation. Why, this is something to be proud of!” “Yeah!” Dash chimed in. “You’ve been getting screwed over your whole life. You should be happy that’s finally over with!” Applejack stood up, relieved that Rarity left it at that. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be proud of this.” Applejack put her hat on. “But if you keep your word, I’ll keep mine.” “I can’t give you your farm back just now, but I promise one day you’ll have your land back,” Rarity promised. “But you do know what you have to do if you’re coming to Hallow Hold with us?” “I do.” Applejack nodded and turned to give Applebloom a serious look. “Applebloom, if you’re stuck like this- then I’ll be stuck like this too. I ain’t ever gonna turn my back on you, even if I have to follow you into the dark.” “You really are the best sister, Applejack!” Applebloom started tearing up with admiration at her big sister. Applebloom overcame her instincts long enough to run over to Applejack and the two of them nuzzled the air instead of one another. Twilight felt bad that they were still so socially conditioned that neither of them hugged, though. “But I still ain’t gonna run around cursing or nothing.” Applejack turned back to Rarity, determined to be defiant about something. “That’s fine!” Rarity smiled. “I’d be just as bad as those daywalkers if I made you do anything like that.” “So what do I gotta do now?” Applejack asked. “You already know how to change, Applejack,” said Rarity. Rarity held out her hoof in Dash’s direction. “Ah, geez.” Dash ran off somewhere. It took her a few minutes to go find a cup, a piece of fruit, and some water, but Rarity waited there with her hoof out the whole while. Finally, Dash returned and squeezed a small amount of juice into the cup before handing it to Rarity. Rarity carefully studied the amount, then poured some water in and swirled it around. “This will make you pass out,” Rarity warned, holding the cup out to Applejack. “And you probably won’t get to go back. This is the point of no return, my friend.” “No.” Applejack took the cup from Rarity. “The point of no return was back in Ponyville and I got pushed over it.” Applejack sat down on the mattress and gave one last look to her sister. She held it in her hooves for what felt like a long time, starring down at the clear liquid like she was bracing to jump into ice-cold water. Then she held her breath and gulped down as much of it as she could. Applejack very nearly finished before coughing and gagging. She dropped the glass and began breathing in and out heavily, her eyes turning red and tearing up. She fell limp onto the mattress and held out another second before passing out. Watching all of this gave Applebloom the courage to overcome her instinctual fear of daywalkers and run over to her sister. “She’s okay, right?” Applebloom looked up at Rarity. Rarity nodded. “She’ll be sick for a few days like you were, but she’ll get better,” Rarity promised. “Once she starts changing, we can head down to the Cavern Grove and you can make all your new little friends.” Applebloom tried to sit down next to her sleeping sister. It didn’t take long for her face to sour and she began to shift uncomfortably. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore and ran back to Rarity. She looked so ashamed at that, at not being able to even sit next to her sister right now. “Rarity!” Applebloom looked up at her, afraid. “I don’t wanna feel this way around my sister, but-! I just feel so-!” “It’s not your fault.” Rarity stroked her mane. “And it will go away soon. I’m sure Applejack understands, she’s going through a lot for you. Big sisters care a lot about their little sisters, you know.” “Thanks.” Applebloom nodded. “You’re a lot nicer than everypony says. I swear my loyalty to you too, Lady Rarity! When I grow up, I’ll be a total badass like you all are, right? And then- well I’ll do cool stuff like you, too! You’ll be real happy I’m on your side.” “Time is on your side now. I don’t doubt you’ll be a ‘badass’ one day, no.” Rarity gave Applebloom a reassuring pat on the head, something that gave Applebloom a tense shiver. “But you have a lot of training until then, so let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Pinkie, would you mind watching her for a minute? I’m still not entirely awake yet.” “Come on!” Pinkie jumped in front of Applebloom. “Let’s play smash all the windows and break all the stuff!” “Smashing windows?” Applebloom looked back at her unconscious sister. “That sounds like something my sister would never let me do. So- yeah! I’m a hundred percent in!” “Haha!” Pinkie patted Applebloom on the back. “You’re fun, kiddo! You stick close to your auntie Pinkie Pie! ” Then Pinkie lead what was likely a budding delinquent off into the other room. “My, that child has a lot of spirit, doesn’t she?” Rarity sighed. “She’s almost as clingy as you are.” “Well I have the same problem Applebloom has. Your dark magic is sucking me in too.” “Oh? And are you certain that’s the only thing attracting you to me?” Rarity flicked her ear a few times. Twilight blushed and wondered why ear tufts were suddenly this hot. “You know it’s still hard for me to control myself.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably in place. “If you’re still trying to ‘control yourself’ then I haven’t taught you well enough.” Rarity turned her nose up just a little. “But if you want me to stop taking advantage of you just say so.” And if she was being honest with herself, Twilight did want Rarity to take advantage of her. Twilight looked at that painfully fuzzy ear and couldn’t resist any longer. She took a step forward and bit down on Rarity’s ear. Rarity made a satisfied little sound of approval and for that one second, this whole adventure was worth it. She kissed Twilight on the cheek, prompting Twilight to let go of her ear and then the two of them kissed on the lips. Rarity held Twilight close for a short time before finally pulling back. “Well at least I’ll have plenty of receptive mares around for our stay here.” Rarity looked towards the door of the castle. “We just need to make sure there aren’t any Apples around when we’re having fun. We have two down. But where is their brother, anyway?” “I think he’s out chopping wood or something?” Dash guessed. “That’s something stallions do, right? I can go find him.” Dash tried to get up once again, but this time stumbled. She tried to carry on despite that, but it was clear her limp was back. “Oh no, no.” Rarity levitated Rainbow Dash over to herself. “You’ve done more than your share for today. I shouldn’t have made you get out of bed at all.” Rarity let go of Twilight and hugged Dash instead, gently stroking the Dash’s embarrassment towards her injuries away. And it wasn’t long before Dash’s tension melted away. Twilight watched Rarity hold Dash in much the same way the two of them had embraced just moments ago. She still wasn’t sure what her relationship with Dash was and it only got more confusing over time. Back when she was jealous of Dash getting Rarity’s attention things were painful but made sense. Then she moved to being numb to it and now… Twilight felt it was almost inevitable that she was going to ‘try’ something with Rainbow Dash eventually. They’d agreed that it was okay to cheat with Rainbow Dash, though it wasn’t something Twilight thought she’d ever take advantage of at first. But now she felt that dark temptation, the same sort she’d felt all through the past year, pulling her towards Dash. And Twilight had only ever given in to it before. The two of them didn’t spend much time kissing before Rarity carried Dash over to the mattress where Applejack was and tucked Dash in next to the earth pony. “I really do want to keep you out of these fights and spoil you.” “I like fighting,” said Dash. “It’s the only way I can make new friends like you said.” “You never fought me and we’re friends,” Twilight pointed out. “Yeah? Well don’t tempt me, Sparks, cause I could totally take you even like this.” “You’re not fighting anything any time soon,” Rarity said sternly like it was an order. “If it really comes down to it, I’ll fight Twilight for you so the two of you can be friends.” “What?!” Twilight quickly ran over to her side. “Rarity, I can’t possibly beat you! I don’t have enough training!” “Then be happy we’re on the same side,” said Rarity. “And be happy my Dashie does everything I tell her to, otherwise she absolutely would have beaten you up by now!” “For you, Rarity, anything. Everything.” Dash held her hoof out to Rarity. “And I’m glad to take it.” Rarity held Dash’s hoof with her own. “But for now you can serve me by taking a break.” “I do everything you tell me to, boss.” Dash laid her head down and closed her eyes. Rarity let her go back to sleep and stepped away from the bed. And then Twilight and Rarity were alone. “But what are we are we going to do for three months?” Rarity looked over the disheveled castle. “Being stuck here won’t be any fun at all.” Twilight knew what she wanted to do right now but decided to save that till later. “This place isn’t so bad.” Twilight looked around. “Just needs a bit of cleaning.” “Not so bad. Tut!” Rarity puffed out one of her cheeks. “No electricity, no plumbing, no theaters, no coffee, no society at all! We forgot to bring a projector with us, and the radio doesn’t pick anything up down here. How am I supposed to deal with such dreadful conditions? Twilight, comfort me!” Rarity pretended to faint in Twilight’s direction, allowing Twilight to catch her. “There, there.” Twilight nuzzled Rarity’s neck, unsure of what else to do. “You still have like fifty ponies to wait on you. And I snagged a couple dozen books from the vault on the way out. Maybe we could set up a book club.” “That’s a start,” Rarity muttered, then pouted. “But we were just a few days away from you taking me out on a romantic date! But there’s hardly anywhere down here for you to take me to. And now I have to wait months before we get to Hallow Hold to go on a date with you.” “Maybe I could still take you out on a date here?” Twilight suggested. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere expensive anyway since, well, now I have zero money.” “Really now?” Rarity got back up. “So where were you going to take me then?” “I was just going to take you out to the lake,” said Twilight. “That is a nice spot. And whatever were you going to do with me there?” “Nothing like that! I thought we could just do some stargazing?” Twilight rubbed the back of her head. She thought after standing up to Sunset Shimmer and a dreadstalker she’d never get nervous again, but this was getting up there with those two! The idea sounded incredibly stupid the moment she said it out loud. “You’re the one always teaching me new things, so I thought maybe if I found an obscure enough topic… maybe I could like, you know, teach you something?” Rarity smiled at the idea. “You think I don’t know anything about the stars now?” Rarity went right back to teasing. Of course Rarity would know about constellations! She was like three hundred years old! It’d be a long time before Twilight’s knowledge base could match hers! “Well I do know some really obscure facts!” Twilight didn’t give up just yet. “You know me, the more obscure a piece of information, the more I want it!” “Well now! How about we make a game of this? I’ll give you one reward for each time you tell me something I don’t know.” Twilight’s twisted, delinquent mind was already imagining the sort of ‘reward’ Rarity would give her. “There’s probably some nice balcony we can go sit on.” Rarity tapped her cheek, thinking the idea over. “But then we can hardly go up there until we know what parts of this castle are stable. I suppose the next best bet is that little clearing outside. We could have a nice view of the stars there! Come along!” Rarity beckoned Twilight to follow her and started out of the door. “Dash was right.” Twilight helplessly followed after her. “You really do just take control over everything.” “Like that’s a bad thing!” Rarity turned around to face Twilight. “Tell me you adore how bossy I am!” “I love how bossy you are, Rarity.” Twilight nuzzled Rarity’s nose. And it was absolutely true. “There!” Rarity gave Twilight’s nose a quick flick before turning to lead her outside once more. “All better!” They didn’t have to travel far. Just a little outside the castle was a tree that looked like it’d been struck by lightning long ago. That left behind a large gap in the branches for a clear view of the sky. It was late autumn now and all the leaves were falling off besides. Even to her new eyes, the stars looked largely the same. It was true that they were far away enough from Equestria now that there was no light pollution, that Twilight could see the full night sky for the first time. But that was hardly the reason Twilight felt awe towards it. No, she was certain it was some new instinct, something that changed inside of herself that she could look at the sky once again with amazement. And it felt all the better with Rarity sitting next to her. Twilight tried to think of the most obscure fact she could about the sky. She scanned the sky, looking for her target. It was easy to find because it was the only green star. “So! That constellation is Verdis Draconis, the green dragon.” Twilight pointed up at the constellation. “These ten stars make up the head and then just three more for the rest of the body. But it’s called the green dragon because of that star right there, where the ‘eye’ is supposed to be. That’s Verdis, the only green star in the sky. I’ll assume you knew that, but do you know why it’s green?” “Because it’s not green,” said Rarity. “It’s just an optical illusion.” Maybe Twilight had underestimated Rarity! But she still had one level of obscurity left. “But do you know why the yaks think it’s green?” Twilight asked. “Hm?” Rarity looked over at Twilight with curiosity, giving the other mare confidence to go on. “You see,” Twilight began to explain, “in their culture, well they’re total racial supremacists who believe only yaks can be correct about things. That’s why they never accepted all this stuff about planets revolving around stars, because if a yak didn’t discover it, it can’t be right in their minds.” “My, I wonder why their civilization crumbled so long ago,” said Rarity. “In their mythology,” Twilight continued, “our entire planet is inside a giant snow globe like we’re all under a massive glass dome. And every night, the great yak throws his coat over the dome and goes to sleep. But Loki poked little holes inside his coat, so the stars are actually pinpricks of daylight getting through. And that green star? That’s Loki’s green eye, peeking in on us while the great yak is asleep. They never look at Verdis because if you make eye contact with Loki, then you invite him to come to you.” And of course, Rarity kept fearlessly looking up at the alleged eye of Loki. “Good work!” Rarity turned back to Twilight with a smile. “That is something I didn’t know. You’ll get your reward a little later.” Twilight blushed, a little proud she’d gotten it on her first try. Even though it probably wasn’t that hard. “But that still doesn’t answer the question, does it?” Rarity asked. “You merely moved it a step so now the question is why does Loki have green eyes?” “Um! Because chaos magic is green? No! It’s just colored that way in textbooks, uh-!” Rarity giggled at Twilight’s attempt to actually answer the question. “I am curious where you found that one,” said Rarity. “Were you reading about yaks?” “Shiny- my brother I mean. He used to be really into this fantasy pretend game, but you needed at least three ponies to play it and he only had one friend, so he’d always make me play with them. He’d always look up weird stuff like that and make it part of the game. He used to dress up like a, uh-“ Twilight noticed Rarity was staring at her with a particularly pensive look. “Uh. What?” Twilight pointed to herself. “It’s just you’ve never mentioned your family before.” Rarity smiled. “All this time and I don’t have your backstory, either!” Twilight hung her head. She certainly felt like Rarity had the right to know. If they were going to start dating, she’d have to hear about this eventually. But Rarity was right this was the first time Twilight dared to talk about them. The subject always seemed so frightening and terrible, but Twilight was braver now, death didn’t seem so close and she wasn’t’ alone. “I was coming home for Hearth’s Warming break,” said Twilight. “They were going to pick me up at the train station. I waited there for six hours before…” Twilight grew silent again. She really didn’t think this was going to help, felt more like this was something she was forcing herself through. Thankfully, Rarity wasn’t the type to force you to do something just because you were ‘supposed’ to. “We don’t have to talk about that part, Twilight!” Rarity waved her hoof. “You were telling me about some costume he used to wear?” “Well…” An idea popped into Twilight’s head. It was terrifying but at the same time, she felt safe enough, here with Rarity, that she felt she might have just enough courage to go through with it. “Maybe.” Twilight offered Rarity a smile that likely didn’t do much to hide her fear. “Maybe I can show you?” Rarity nodded gently and Twilight trotted off to the nearby carts, containing her few remaining possessions. Buried at the very bottom was the one box Twilight had never unpacked. Holding it once more didn’t fill her with the same sense of hopeless dread she’d once had. Here, in the dark, Twilight wasn’t alone anymore, wasn’t just waiting to die and perhaps never would be again. Twilight sat down next to Rarity once again. And she opened the box.