//------------------------------// // Familiar // Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// This was the best day of Dash’s life! Years of being ‘cringe’ had finally paid off and now Dash was living the dream once again! The two of them played four games in a row so far. Dash won all of them up to this point, but Twilight was improving rapidly. This latest game was close! Twilight had gotten rid of Dash’s strangling vines and now had twelve wolves out on her side of the field! Normally, you could only attack a target once per turn, but Twilight had a mist wolf equipped with a hero flag right now. Every wolf could attack Dash’s champion next turn, taking out the pumpkin king in one turn. The mist wolf, the one with the flag, was a ‘stealth’ summon too, meaning Dash couldn’t target it with normal attacks! With one card left in her hand, it was very unlikely she could take it down next turn, let alone all of Twilight’s wolves. On the flip side, Dash still had her pumpkin catapult. If she had a summon, she could bypass all of Twilight’s defenses and attack her alpha wolf directly. It only had 500 power left too, meaning nearly any summon could end this game in her favor. Sadly, Dash did not have one in her hand right now. “Statistically speaking you’re more likely to win.” Twilight frowned at her hand. “I can calculate that your chances of the next card being a summon is one in three. But I can’t destroy your greed o'lantern this turn, which means you’ll draw two next turn. That gives you about a fifty-six percent chance of drawing a summon card and winning.” “Sure," said Dash. “But for me a fifty-six percent chance is more like a one percent chance because of my bad luck.” “That doesn’t make any sense,” said Twilight. “That’s not how chance works.” “You try having my luck for a day and tell me that’s not how chance works.” Rainbow Dash had horrible luck! She just had to believe in Celestia, have faith! Like in the cartoon! She slowly drew her first card. Pumpkin Spice Latte. Not a summon. Having faith didn’t help. Maybe she needed to believe in math instead? Twilight said she had about a one in two chance. Or was it only one in three again? Though there was this thing with three goats behind doors where if you kill the first goat you were more likely to— No! She was overthinking this! She just had to draw the card. Pumpkin Head! Bizarrely the only monster in this deck that did not have a pumpkin for a head, was more of a ghoul, but still! “Heh!” Dash covered one of her eyes with a hoof and slammed the card down with the other, just like the colt in the cartoon. “Hate to dash your rainbows, Twilight, but I summon Pumpkin Head and with my pumpkin catapult—!” “I already know what that does.” “Gah! You ruined my big anime moment! Anyway, fire!” Dash pointed forward and her ghoul was launched from the catapult right at the alpha. It hit! Both exploded! That glorious victory sign, written in golden letters surrounded by illusory fireworks appeared over Dash’s head! At long last, she was the summon champion again! “Yeah!” Dash flew up, doing a single flip in the air. “Now who’s completely invincible?! Boom! Wrecked, poned, annihilated, and—!” Dash stopped and quickly sat back down. She learned this one when she was fourteen! The first time she played this game she crushed her opponent and rubbed it in too hard, leaving them to never want to play this game with her ever again. “But you’re doing good for your first time playing this game,” said Dash. “I never managed to convince a lot of ponies to play this game with me, but all of them totally suck when they do. Getting this close against the world champion is pretty impressive.” “I just need to do more math.” Twilight turned her deck upside down and spread the cards out wide, looking over each of them intently like she was trying to solve a math puzzle. “This game involves a lot more statistical calculations than I would have expected from someone like you.” Dash didn’t know if that was a compliment. “But you can admit this game is totally awesome, right?” Dash asked. “Just like I said.” Twilight puffed one of her cheeks out, but didn’t answer. Dash assumed that was Twilight for ‘yes, but I’m too embarrassed to admit it’. “Well if you want I can give you some advice.” Dash leaned back in her chair, holding a hoof out all magnanimous like. “I hate to bring it up every five minutes, but I am the six time world champion.” “You’re also an idiot,” Twilight reminded her. “I want to figure this out myself. This is like a scientific puzzle. We’re not stopping until I beat you.” Dash couldn’t help but laugh. Twilight looked up at Dash. “Sorry, this is just like in the show,” said Dash. “You’re like Billionaire Blade.” “I don’t know who that is,” said Twilight. “Or is it a what?” “There was a cartoon based on this game,” Dash explained. “One of the characters, Billionaire Blade, is like the most powerful pony in the world but he can’t beat the main character, who’s like some farmer, in a single match no matter how hard he tries. It drives the guy totally insane.” “What?” Twilight looked up from her cards, or math equation rather. “Cartoon? Like that slide show but the picture dances around for your amusement,” Dash explained. “They had one of ponies playing this game.” “You’d watch somepony else doing this?” Twilight asked. “It was totally on the eighth, but in a funny kind of way. Everypony in the cartoon got their head stamped with their rank of how good they were at the card game. The ponies who win a lot get to live in mansions and the ponies who sucked were sent to the slums where they work 80 hours a week and starve,” said Dash. “Pegging their card game as inexplicably creating a dystopia was kind of a weird marketing move in retrospect. Maybe that’s why it failed.” “What?” Twilight blanked out halfway through that explanation. “Oh, right. I forgot you don’t know anything,” said Dash. “Like, imagine a bunch of rusty sheds, dirty water, slimy ground, and no food. That’s where they make you live if you suck at the card game.” “They do? But who’s ‘they’?” Twilight asked. “I guess the government was doing it.” “The what?” “Like.” Dash tried to think of a good way to explain it. “Like all of us in the town decided there are some things we don’t want other ponies to do, like stealing. When they do it all of us gang up and beat that pony up! That’s called ‘the law’. The government is whoever decides what the law is. See?” “I think so.” Twilight considered it. “And you’re saying ponies who lose at this card game get beaten up and thrown in a pile of trash?” “No, no! This was a work of fiction! Fiction is an openly fraudulent story that—" “I know what fiction is.” “It’s not like I can assume that. You didn’t know what a lake was till I showed up.” With a ‘hmph’ Twilight went back to her cards, trying to figure out a better strategy for the next game. Dash shuffled her own deck while she waited for Twilight. It was like three in the morning but it’d been forever since she got to hang out with anypony like this. It was great! Dash would litearlly keep playing with Twilight till one of them fainted. Twilight eventually shuffled her own deck, but she still looked lost in thought about something. “What happens to Billionaire Blade?” Twilight drew her hand. “Does he win?” “Oh! Eventually gets so depressed he can’t beat this one guy in a card game that he kills himself!” “What?” Twilight looked up from her hand. “Yeah, he sets it up so that if he loses his final card game it will cause an asteroid to crash into him, killing him instantly and a million other ponies. Heroic Hectare shows up and still beats him at the card game knowing that it will result in countless deaths. Cause like ‘you gotta be the best and buy more cards’!” “But that’s completely insane,” said Twilight. “Even for one of you ponies.” “Yeah I know! You got no idea how seriously the people in that cartoon take this card game. One pegasus cuts her wings off to save a single card, declaring cards are more important than body parts. People prioritize buying new cards over food to the point they literally starve to death. There’s an ancient order of super-powerful wizards that devoted centuries to guarding a single piece of cardboard. I don’t know what they did after they gave it away. Maybe they guarded a stick?” Twilight clearly found one of those examples ridiculous enough to be amusing. She giggled ever so slightly. “Ah!” Dash leaned over the table and pointed at Twilight. “See? Now you’re smiling!” Twilight was shocked by the realization, looked suddenly afraid. “Oh! Sorry.” Twilight stopped it and looked down at the floor, her smile gone. “Did you just apologize for smiling?” Dash asked. “I know I should take this more seriously.” Twilight played one of her wolves. “I mean, you don’t have to. It’s just a game.” Twilight was silently, overly seriously, looking down at her hand, clearly no longer having fun. Maybe Dash should just let Twilight win before she pulled a Billionaire Blade? Though she might get angry about that too. Before Dash could decide, Twilight put her hand face down on the table and got up to leave. “I’m going to bed and you’re turning back into an owl!” Twilight cast the spell to turn Dash back into an owl. As Dash struggled to regain her balance and perch somewhere, Twilight ran over to the stairs. But just as she was about to go upstairs, she turned back. “But we can do this again tomorrow.” Then Twilight ran out of sight for real. Eh! Totally worth it. Dash got to play Summoner Knights again so that was all that mattered. She flew over to the little blanket nest she made on the couch and nestled down. Maybe she’d get some sleep tonight. And maybe Twilight would be nicer to her from now on. One week since she got here. They played at least one game of Summoner Knights a day for the past week, meaning Dash got to be a pony for at least an hour a day. Though after that night with Sawmill, Dash suddenly had a lot more perks in her captivity. Every day she got to be a pony for longer and longer. If she hooted three times, Twilight would turn her back for long enough to say something. Also, Twilight talked to Dash constantly now, instead of trying to ignore her. Usually Dash was an owl for this and usually it all went over her head, but Twilight always filled in the blanks, was a master of making things up for Dash to have said. Furthermore Dash felt like she was on the edge of learning something about magic. Right now, the two of them were playing yet another game. It’d look like, to most ponies, that Dash was about to win the 21st game in a row. She had a whole slew of summons out and Twilight had nothing. But both of them were familiar with the werewolf deck now and both of them knew Twilight was on the verge of getting a win condition out. “Don’t get too cocky,” said Twilight. “My wolf’s curse is still activated meaning every one of your summons counts as a werewolf as well. The blue moon is shining and if I draw the right card it’ll be the harbinger of your doom." Even though Dash was losing, she nodded approvingly. After a week, through the peer pressure of repeatedly doing it herself, she’d gotten Twilight to start narrating her actions. No doubt Twilight thought it was the normal thing to do at this point. Twilight drew her card and from the look on her face Dash immediately knew that Twilight had drawn the exact card she needed. “I won!” Twilight slammed her card down on the table, too excited to go through with the lengthy explanation. All of Dash’s summons piled on the pumpkin king and the victory sign flared up on Twilight’s side. “I actually won! Finally! I did it!” Dash had never seen Twilight so happy before! Twilight pronked around the room in celebration. Really, she couldn’t even be slightly upset about her own loss. “No!” Dash yelled a long no and fell backward in her chair on purpose, just like they did in the show. “Wait!” Twilight jumped up on the table and looked down at Dash with genuine concern. “You’re not really upset that I beat you, are you?” “No, I was being dramatic.” Dash deadpanned, then rose. “Like in the cartoon?” “Oh! right!” Twilight blushed. “But that means I’m the world champion now, right?!” Twilight was so excited about winning she was bouncing up and down just a little. “Twilight, you’re 1 in 20,” said Dash. “That hardly makes you the world champion.” “Then we’ll just keep going till it’s 21 to 20!” Twilight declared. “That’s fine with me.” Dash put the cards back together. “But you’re not a real master till you’ve built your own deck.” “For the last time, you can't trick me into letting you leave that easily.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “But what if I can make my own Summoner Knights cards? Yeah! And my cards could be even better because they could have a million attack power!” “Twilight, that’s like something ten-year-olds do,” said Dash. “The making everything overpowered part I mean. If you can actually make holographic cards that’d be awesome.” “Right! I could do one like in the show. Like, uh, those fish ponies you were telling me about.” Twilight tried to create an illusion of one. Not only did it not look like a merpony, but it didn’t look like anything an adult would draw. It was an incredibly crude and unrealistic illusion that made Dash raise an eyebrow at Twilight. “Look, I’m not good at designing things or creating illusions from my imagination, okay?” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, see it’d be easier to just go get my cards,” said Dash. “Come on, it’d take like ten seconds.” “Or it can take zero seconds by just not going there.” Twilight’s voice was stern. “We’ll just make our own cards. We don’t need outsiders.” “Why are you so scared to go anywhere?” Dash asked. She’d been waiting for a moment like this, when Twilight was in a good mood, to ask her something that’d normally make her clam up. “Did that wizard who raised you force you to stay in the house and punish you if you went out or something?” “He didn’t force me to stay inside, exactly. I just never had time to go outside as a kid,” said Twilight. “If you think I spend too much time training now, you should have seen me when I was younger. As a child, my master made me train seventeen hours a day non-stop. When I was little I wasn’t strong enough to take it so I’d literally faint all the time and he’d have to throw ice water in my face or inject me with a stimulant just to keep me working.” Twilight chuckled like she was remembering good times. “Okay, so you’re saying the pony who trained you was an abusive maniac,” said Dash. “Abuse?” “Normal ponies don’t inject their kids with stuff,” said Dash. “My dad was a total asshole and even he never drugged me. Well, as far as I know.” Actually, he did give her a beer when Dash was like ten if that counted. “Well maybe if he injected you with a stim pack every now and then you wouldn’t be so weak!” Twilight turned her nose up like she was offended on the guy’s behalf. “You don’t gotta defend the guy,” said Dash. “He’s clearly dead and also a jerk. A dead jerk! It’s got nothing to do with you.” “He was a powerful wizard and a genius worthy of respect, unlike you who are a complete idiot!” “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t,” said Dash. “What could possibly be worth doing all that to some kid for? What even are you working this hard for?” “That’s none of your business!” Twilight turned Dash back into an owl. “I think you’ve done enough talking for today.” Defeated once more, Dash perched on Twilight’s back. Twilight stayed angry for a half hour or so, but before long she was back to happily explaining what she was doing to Dash. Apparently, it was making some kind of golem out of clay. That was the balance with Twilight. It was easy to get her to drone on and on, but she shut up quickly about things too. Maybe if Dash just kept her talking little by little… she was going to be here a while anyway. Three weeks in. Dash sat on Twilight’s back as Twilight trotted back and forth in front of her army of ravens. They weren’t real ravens, not yet anyway, but crude clay sculptures of ravens arranged in a ten by ten square. She cast the spell and all the sculptures crumbled away. In their place stood a hundred phantom ravens that looked much more like real ravens only ethereal and silver. They changed one more time, taking on an extra layer of opaque light that finally made them look like the genuine thing. Twilight clapped her hooves, and they all flew off in different directions. “These ravens will scout the forest for miles around,” Twilight explained, she was in the habit of explaining everything to Dash now. “Not only that, but they can use magic to disorient or even freeze any pony they run into if I decide it’s necessary. Nothing will be able to sneak up on me now.” In just three weeks, this place had become a total death trap. The ring of trees that formed the border between Twilight’s lawn were enchanted to grab any trespassers. Two of the fish living in the river were turned into terrifying fish monsters that now guarded the north. Twilight constructed fifty clay golems who were currently seeped into the earth but would come out if anypony got close. A row of swords enchanted with a ‘dancing blade’ spell rested against the house. The windows and doors were enchanted so that if anypony but Twilight or Dash came through them they’d be teleported out of the forest entirely. The place was surrounded by an invisibility illusion, another magic barrier, and a fog that made ponies who breathed it disoriented and forgetful. You’d need an army to break into her house at this point, even if Twilight just sat there and did nothing. Maybe this was bad, but at least Dash didn’t have to worry about another monster wandering in at random. She could rest easy outside now, though Twilight insisted she slept inside and had even made Dash her own bed. Dash hooted. Twilight cast the spell to turn her back. This time, Dash hopped off Twilight and landed smoothly. She’d been turned back and forth enough that she could do it with style now. “This is a lot of monsters. You’re not trying to like, take over the world or something, are you?” Dash had to ask. “Take over the world?” Twilight asked. “What does that mean?” “Never mind.” Dash didn’t want to give her any ideas. “Though I’m starting to get curious why nothing else has shown up. Like didn’t Pinkie say she was going to invite me to her Halloween party or something? I know it’s still three weeks from now, but she’s gotta notice I’m missing eventually, right?” “Oh!” Twilight shifted her eyes. “I’m sure she and Rarity just forgot, you know? Haha! That’s just how outsiders are.” “Okay. What did you do?” Dash raised an eyebrow. “Huh?! I—" Twilight cleared her throat, even she knew she was way too obvious most of the time. “Well, those objects I gave them had a slight mind control kind of effect? Maybe? Just a slight one that distracts them every time they try to think about you. Just enough to delay them.” “You do know that there’s going to be trouble when she finally realizes you kidnapped me, right?” “There’s going to be trouble no matter what I do!” Twilight shot back. “I just need to buy time to get ready for it.” Twilight stepped closer to Rainbow Dash. “Though maybe you could tell them you were here on your own free will if she ever does come back?” Twilight asked, hopeful. Truth be told, Dash did forget she was being kidnapped sometimes. “Well if you take off the spell keeping me here then I’ll be staying on my own free will,” Dash suggested. “You won’t run away?” Twilight gave her a rather pathetic look. “I promise.” Dash put her hoof on her heart. “You’re the only pony willing to play Summoner Knights with me. I gotta come back for that if nothing else.” Twilight trotted back and forth for a minute, clearly making a painful decision. “No! You’re lying!” Twilight shook her head, ending the conversation. “Come on! We’re going into the woods and then we can make jack-o'-lanterns like you wanted.” Twilight ran off to the woods, expecting Dash to follow. Dash was getting closer but was still far away from this meta win condition. For now, she just sighed and followed Twilight. The witch stood at the edge of the forest, never daring to go in without Rainbow Dash and at least one of her monsters. The clay golem she took this time looked like a pony without a face or any real defining features, crafted roughly out of clay. A few fangs stuck out of its body here and there. The golem came out of the ground only to seep back in once it got close to the two ponies. It’d follow them underground. The two of them were following the river east today, a bit further than Twilight had gone before. Ever since seeing the lake Twilight had been slowly peeking out of her little hole more and more. Today, Twilight didn’t seem particularly afraid of anything. Dash was in the middle of explaining how the telephone worked, to the best of her knowledge, when something caught Twilight’s eyes. It was interesting enough that Twilight gasped and ran after it. She lay down on the ground, carefully studying something on the ground. It appeared to be a normal mushroom to Dash, but then again Dash knew nothing. “Is that like, the one true mushroom that will end the world?” Dash guessed. “No,” said Twilight. “I’ve just never seen this type of mushroom before! I had no idea there were species I wasn’t aware of. Why did he leave this one out?” “There’s probably tons of plants you’ve never heard of.” Dash reminded her. “I have to study it!” Twilight plucked the mushroom. “And then start farming it if it has any useful properties! Come on!” Twilight ran back to her house excitedly. Dash knew she’d get pulled if she didn’t run too. Twilight led Dash to her cellar, which was not directly attached to her house. Instead, a cellar door by a tree on the edge of her lawn led into a small cavern that acted as an extra, detached basement. Dash had never been invited in before and had nowhere near enough stupidity to barge into a witch’s cellar without good cause. “Does this mean I’m allowed in your cellar now?” Dash leaned over Twilight’s shoulder to look inside. “I never stopped you from coming down here.” Twilight walked down the stairs. “Look, I’ve already been lit on fire twice and had one of my legs melt off.” Dash kicked that one to reconfirm that it was still there before following her down. “And I consider that lucky. I’m not going anywhere in your house when you’re not around.” “This place is perfectly safe.” Twilight got to the bottom of the stairs. “It’s just mushrooms and roots down here.” The room looked more like a natural cavern than part of a house. A stream of water ran down the middle of the stone corridor. The walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in countless different mushrooms and roots. Dash could see a mushroom of every color. Some of them had spots, some of them had fur, a few even had little spikes. Then there were a dozen types of roots sticking out of the stone walls, covering them in scraggly fibers. “Oh!” Twilight raised a hoof. “Now that I think about it, actually a few of these mushrooms will instantly kill you if you touch them so be careful.” “Um.” Dash froze in place. There had to be two hundred types of mushrooms in this cavern. “Can I get a hint which mushroom it is?” “It’s the trigglecap and the duskleshroom,” Twilight said. “Oh, right. Of course.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Thanks for that useful information.” “No problem!” Dash just stood perfectly still. This was why she didn’t touch any of Twilight’s stuff anymore. Twilight planted her new mushroom in a corner, then, after thinking for a minute, decided to get something while she was down here. She went up to the group of huge, seven-foot-tall mushrooms and tore off a chunk of the cap about the size of her head. One of those things that made less sense as Dash thought about it was coming to mind now. Twilight had a dozen types of squash, a hundred herbs, a hundred mushrooms, five types of fruit, and all sorts of other plants growing on her lawn. There was more biodiversity in this one little patch of land than in the rest of the forest! “How’d you get all these seeds if you’ve never left your house?” Dash asked. “The garden was here as far back as I can remember,” said Twilight. “I think my master was the one who set it up.” Dash was intensely curious about Twilight’s past now. There was a risky balance with that subject, though. Twilight would start blurting out details of it easily enough, but if she ever realized she was giving away too much she’d immediately shut up. You had to go into these questions from the side, so Dash waited for now. “Was he your dad or something?” Dash asked. “Cause otherwise how did you get here without going anywhere else?” “I was here as long as I can remember. I think he just took me from my parents or something,” Twilight said casually enough. “Wait! So you were kidnapped?” “Well, I wouldn’t phrase it like that. But like I said I’m immune to curses and have incredible magic potential,” Twilight said proudly, somehow proud of the fact that she was chosen to be kidnapped. “Of course he’d want to take me as his student.” “Immune to curses?” Dash asked. “Why’s that important?” “Because— wait! No!” Twilight jabbed her hoof against Dash’s chest. “Stop trying to meddle in affairs that don’t concern you!” Twilight turned to leave, notably without turning Dash into an owl. “But I like affairs that don’t concern me.” Dash ran after her. “Well I don’t like affairs that don’t concern you.” Twilight thought about what she just said. “Or something!” “Ha! See?” Dash decided to roll with it. “Subconsciously you want me to be involved in your affairs because we’re friends now, right?” Twilight puffed out her cheek and blushed. “You’re lucky we have to go carve jack-o’-lanterns or you’d be an owl right now.” Twilight trotted up the cellar stairs in a huff. She hadn’t turned Dash into an owl this time! This was progress! Six weeks past and now it was Halloween. Pinkie never showed up, but it was okay. Dash was going to have her own Halloween thing with Twilight. Actually, this was probably better than going to some big party where she didn’t know any other ponies or spending it alone like she usually did. The house was surrounded by no fewer than two hundred jack-o’-lanterns. About fifty of them were early attempts by Twilight and didn’t look so hot but she figured it out eventually. They had a whole list of things to do tonight. Maybe a lot of it was kid’s stuff, but then it was still Twilight’s first time doing any of it. First thing was first, though, the one thing they had to do before sundown. After finding out Twilight had never seen an aerial view of the forest, being too scared to take a look, Dash offered to take her up. “You’re supposed to do something scary on Halloween,” Dash reminded her as Twilight began to look nervous at the last moment. “It’s part of the fun.” “Well, why aren’t we doing anything that scares you then?” Twilight asked. “Because nothing scares me!” Dash shrugged with pride. “Well nothing scares me either,” said Twilight. “I’m just deeply concerned and unnerved. You’re sure nopony will see us?” “If we’re invisible?” Dash asked. “Probably not.” Twilight sighed, then braced herself, nodding to show Dash that she was ready. Dash grabbed her around the barrel and flew her up. The view wasn’t that great in Dash’s opinion, but Twilight was stunned by it momentarily. You could see a good distance from this high up. There was Twilight Lake, which they’d been to a few times before but looked different from above. You could see the entire forest and Ghastly Gorge, which the river eventually fell into, though Twilight hadn’t walked nearly far enough to see the waterfall. You could see the houses of two different towns towards the south and even Canter Mountain far off in the distance, wrapped in a low hanging cloud. There were even a few castles no doubt inhabited by mad scientists deeper into a forest and another clearing where cultists just might gather at night. That last one was a place to avoid. Dash tried flying just a little higher so they could see the edge of Crater Cemetery too, or at least the edge of where it affected. The mysterious ghost that lived there was so powerful that everything within twenty miles of the place was covered in permafrost despite it being fairly far south. From this distance, all you could see were a few glaciers popping up. At least one of these had to be something Twilight hadn’t seen before, but she was twisting her head around so much Dash couldn’t tell what she was gawking at right now. “See, there’s Ponyville down there.” Dash turned Twilight towards it, then to the next town over. “Then there’s Gorgeville.” “So there really was more than one town?” Twilight looked at the gorge separating the two towns, wondering if they counted as one or two. “What’s the big hole in the ground? I don’t get why you’d dig a huge hole between the two towns.” “Nopony dug that. They just show up by themselves 'cause of erosion,” said Dash. “And that big rock?” Twilight pointed to the mountain. “Mountain,” said Dash. “From uh, reverse erosion.” “I see.” Dash hoped Twilight wouldn’t fact check her on that later. For almost an hour they stayed up there without talking too much other than Twilight quizzing Dash’s geography and geology and insisting that they stay up another five minutes every time Dash offered her to go down. “You know, I could just fly you over there,” Dash offered. “Anywhere but where that ice is, anyway.” “What? No!” Twilight tensed up a little at the idea of going too far away. “Let’s go back down.” Dash flew Twilight down, who jumped out of Dash’s grip when they got close. She trotted away, trembling slightly, growing quieter than normal. “You okay?” Dash asked. “The world is just so much bigger than I assumed it was.” Twilight pressed her hat down. “Even that one town— I was just picturing like twenty buildings but there had to have been hundreds.” “Yeah,” said Dash. “And that’s just one of like a million. Not even one of the big ones.” “I just don’t get why I was never told about any of this stuff.” Twilight looked down at the ground. “I almost feel lied to.” “Some adults are just selfish jerks,” said Dash. “I mean, I get we’re adults now too but still! My parents were kind of the same, only caring about themselves.” “Did your parents not tell you anything either?” Twilight asked. It was actually the first time she’d directly asked about Dash’s past. “Nothing like that. But my mom bailed on me before I could meet her, and my dad was always drunk. Even when he was there, he kind of wasn’t.” Dash looked out into the woods. “I kind of always felt like I was alone until recently.” “Recently?” Twilight stepped close. Suddenly she was right next to Rainbow Dash. “Well you know!” Dash turned away. “You’re the only one that’ll play these stupid games with me! My point is you don’t gotta stay here doing nothing forever.” “Hey, I’m not doing nothing! I’ve accomplished things,” Twilight huffed, but this time she didn’t immediately put up a barrier. She nervously scrapped her hoof across the ground a few times before looking up at Dash. “I could show you something.” “Yeah?” Dash stepped forward, suddenly very interested, forgetting everything else. She’d kind of been waiting for something like this for the better part of two months now. Twilight put her hat on and took out her book. She closed her eyes and began chanting, something Dash knew was needed for more powerful spells. Something else she recognized was Twilight’s body glowing entirely instead of just her horn, which happened when Twilight went full force. The world grew dark, becoming night from Dash’s point of view so that she could see the stars. The stars turned red all at once then, slowly, they began to bleed. As though the stars were countless puncture wounds in the sky, red trickled down from them. “Um, Twilight?” Dash looked up at the sky as the world grew darker and the air heavier. “Am I gonna die? Twilight?” Then everything went back to normal. “There!” Twilight opened her eyes, smiling happily at her achievement, whatever it had been. “Well that was cool.” Dash looked around. “But it appears like nothing happened.” “That’s the point.” Twilight gave a smug nod. “Huh?” “I’ve created ‘true void’, something my master sought after for centuries before dying!” Twilight took a step forward, excited. “It is pure distilled nothingness. Not just a vacuum, but truly nothing! No time, no space, no laws of physics, no matter or energy at all!” “But there’s nothing there,” said Dash. “I see nothing.” “Yeah, that’s what I just said.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “So, you’ve accomplished literally nothing?!” Dash threw up her hooves. “No! I mean— that’s one way to phrase it, but you’re being misleading. This is incredibly important because of the infinite potential pure nothingness has,” said Twilight. “No laws of physics exist in the zero space it metaphorically occupies. You see, it explains the unexplainable true chaos of the outer gods, potentially even why laws of physics exist in the first place.” “It does?” “True void means true chaos because it’s devoid of rules, they’re non-existent. And true chaos isn’t stable,” Twilight explained. “It can create anything which means creating order that destroys itself is inevitable. Nothingness can’t exist, it has to create reality. That’s what this experiment proves. My master really wanted to show that was the case.” “So, you guys just spent a couple of hundred years trying to do some science experiment?” Dash asked. “Well yeah, he just didn’t like the idea of something being unexplainable,” said Twilight. “I think just creating this and learning what is likely the origin of reality itself is impressive enough, but this is also the first step to controlling the void as the outer gods did. There are a few things you can maybe do with it eventually.” “Was there something this guy was going to do with it?” Dash asked. “Maybe.” Twilight’s mode switched to reserved mode, the unicorn turning away and quickly going back inside. “But that’s not important. I decided I wasn’t interested in that part of it.” “You’re still not going to tell me everything?” Dash asked. “No! Besides, didn’t you want to do Halloween stuff?” Twilight held the door open for her. “I guess I did.” Dash shrugged. That was good enough for now. Rainbow Dash was curled up in a ball on her pile of blankets next to the cauldron fast asleep. Being a mere mortal, Dash didn’t have the same energy as Twilight and would often fall asleep quickly after needing to ‘rest her eyes’ when doing something with Twilight for a long time. It’d been so long that Twilight had forgotten that it was comforting just to have another pony around. It felt nice just sitting next to her. All of this was conflicting. Twilight really did enjoy all these games Dash was distracting her with, but deep down she knew it really was just a distraction. Was it really okay to be goofing off this much? Then there was the fact that Twilight hadn’t meant to reveal as much as she already had to Rainbow Dash. There really did seem to be some part of her that was just desperate to talk like Dash said. Dash had successfully replaced Smarty Pants as the pony Twilight bounced her ideas off of. She knew Dash understood more of her lecturing than the pegasus let on. Dash clearly knew enough about Twilight’s things to find a way to escape if she tried, thanks to Twilight’s stupidly loose tongue. Yet Dash hadn’t even tried to run away in nearly two months. What was Twilight supposed to do about her? Obviously, this wasn’t something she could bounce off of Dash so she had to go back to her original source of conversation. Twilight went outside and found her scarecrow, the closest thing to a real friend she had. “What am I going to do, Smarty Pants?” Twilight asked her scarecrow. Twilight wanted Rainbow Dash to stay here now, but Dash was still the enemy. Twilight wished the pegasus was on her side instead of on that of those stupid outsiders. Maybe eventually Rainbow Dash would declare that she didn’t ever want to leave? Because she was having too much fun? Twilight would let her stay even after she unleashed her curse on the world if Dash asked. “Maybe I can give her lots of presents until she loves me and wants to stay?” Twilight suggested. Smarty Pants reminded her what happened last time Twilight tried that. She reminded Twilight that everypony always seemed friendly at first but betrayed her in the end. Rainbow Dash was only pretending to be nice to escape. Ponies only ever pretended to be nice and even then only to get things. “No, this is the opposite of last time,” said Twilight. “Flash came here acting nice from the start but became hostile later. Rainbow Dash was hostile but became friendly. You see? Completely different.” Smarty Pants seemed to think Twilight was clutching at straws. “Haha. Very funny.” Twilight buried her face in her hoof. Smarty Pants clearly didn’t think Rainbow Dash could be trusted. Deep down Dash hated Twilight and would always resent her for trapping her here. “Does she hate me?” Twilight pulled down her hat to cover her face. “I mean, she did call me evil and say I should be destroyed that one time, but maybe holding her captive changed her mind? She hasn’t called me evil in a long time.” Smarty Pants reminded Twilight that just because someone didn’t act like they hated her didn’t mean they didn’t secretly hate her. There was no way to ever know if someone secretly hated her. Dash wasn’t a mindless construct like Smarty Pants after all, only mindless constructs could be trusted. “Okay, now I think you’re just being jealous. I know I haven’t talked to you very much since she got here,” said Twilight. “But you know, Rainbow Dash says you’re just a delusion brought on by, and I quote, ‘schizophrenia or maybe multiple personality disorder, I don’t actually know the difference’.” Smarty Pants tried being all philosophical, asking Twilight how she was sure she wasn’t the delusion. Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Can you take this seriously?” Twilight asked. “There has to be some way to get everything I want. Or at least most of what I want.” Smarty Pants suggested brainwashing Rainbow Dash or transforming her into something more obedient, but Twilight just shook her head. There had to be a better way to control Rainbow Dash that wouldn’t compromise her as a person. “Maybe I just have to give her what she really wants. My mistake was assuming Flash cared about me specifically, so I won’t assume that again,” said Twilight. “Right? Flash didn’t actually want me, he wanted power. I can assume Dash doesn’t want to be friends with me, she specifically said that she was here to stop my potentially dangerous magics from getting out, right?” Smarty agreed. “So, we just let her do that! I’ll let Rainbow Dash stay here and spend the rest of her life guarding my house. I can teach her to use magic on some level and she’s really good at finding loopholes and the like, so she’d be good at this job. No offense, but she’s a lot smarter than you so I’m sure nothing else would go missing anymore. Of course, she’d agree to that, right?” Smarty Pants just said that it would inevitably fail. Any attempt to talk to other ponies would always fail. “You’re always so negative. This is why I talk to Rainbow Dash now.” Twilight turned her back on Smarty Pants. Maybe Dash was right. What started as a way of talking her ideas out with herself got a little out of control? Twilight at least should have created a less contrarian persona to talk to. Now Twilight needed to sort through things on her own because of that stupid pegasus. Maybe if Dash became loyal to her, Twilight could more comfortably bounce ideas off that featherbrain instead. Upgrading from straw to feathers, why not? Twilight trotted back inside and sat down next to the sleeping Rainbow Dash. Dash would never think of an idea that clever, so Twilight would need to make the offer herself. She raised a trembling hoof to try and give Dash a shake. She held it over Rainbow Dash, too nervous to grab her and wake her up. Of course, she wouldn’t agree to that. Not right now anyway. Twilight had to make her like this place better first, make it so Dash would be tempted to stay forever. Twilight had endless magical powers! There was no end to the options of things Twilight could tempt her with. Twilight dismissed the current contents of her cauldron to begin on something else, a present for Rainbow Dash. She stopped briefly as she got to the edge of the cauldron. Smarty Pants did have a point. The last time she tried using her magic to impress somepony— No! Flash was just using Twilight, saw her as nothing but a wish machine. More importantly he was smart. But Rainbow Dash was stupid! She was too stupidly honest to do the same. Two months. It’d been 64 days exactly since Twilight had kidnapped Dash. At this point, it was more of a mandatory sleepover. Dash hadn’t been an owl in a week and Twilight trusted her to go wherever now. Honestly, it’d been so long since Dash paid rent that being kidnapped was a perk at this point. If Twilight released her right now Dash would come crawling back later that day asking to be kidnapped again. Whenever she got out of this, she was totally going to mooch off of Twilight till she could get back on her feet. In some ways, maybe Dash was complicit in whatever schemes Twilight had (though Dash was no longer sure that she did have a scheme). She knew just a tiny bit about potions and cooking now, enough to do some of the more mindless work for her. Dash was back down in that mushroom covered cellar, but now she knew enough to not be terrified of the place, knowing which mushrooms were the deadly ones. Really this place wasn’t so bad once you knew what would and wouldn’t kill you instantly. She walked down the middle, through the shallow stream of water to go tear off the cap of the big mushrooms. She put it on her head and carried it out by wearing it as a hat. Stepping out, she immediately felt the late autumn wind on her now wet hooves. It was getting cold and soon it’d be winter. Next week was a holiday, the Feast of Leaves. It wasn’t too hard to convince Twilight to take a day off here and there anymore so it wouldn’t be too hard to convince her to celebrate it. This would be the first time Rainbow Dash wasn’t completely alone on a holiday in maybe five years. She was tempted to stay here until Hearth’s Warming eve just for that, or at least to come back. It’d be the best Hearth’s Warming Eve ever! Dash started humming a little wintery tune to herself. Twilight’s house was nice and warm, heated by a second cauldron over a roaring fire. The heating cauldron rumbled slightly, the lid popping off now and again to let off a bit of steam to keep the room from drying out. Dash went up to the magic cauldron in the center of the room. She swiped left, left, down, down, left and the cooking pot appeared. She threw the mushroom in, then went to the shelf to get that blue stuff with the name she could never remember. Just a drop of it in the pot was all you needed, and it filled with a liquid that looked like water but wasn’t. Now she just had to stoke the flames and start boiling this. Twilight came in from the other room, bells jingling. Dash honestly had no idea what the witch had been doing today. “Hey, Twilight.” Dash dried her hooves off in the fire. “It got cold all of a sudden. I just started with dinner, though, so don’t get your hopes up.” “Thanks, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight sat next to her and smiled. “You’ve been a lot of help in the past couple of weeks.” Dash had been cooking food for her and helping her gather seeds from all her plants, she meant. But Twilight kept sitting next to her quietly, saying nothing. “Uh, you’re welcome.” Dash looked back to the pot. Then she looked back at Twilight, who was still awkwardly sitting there. “Actually!” Twilight took off her out and took a pendant out of it. “You’ve been helping me so much that I decided to reward you with a present!” The chain was made of those pink fibers, which Dash now recognized as mind fibers. Dash held the necklace and could immediately feel that this wasn’t just Twilight’s attempt at helping Dash dress in style. There was some mysterious magic coming from it, welling up in Dash’s head, giving her a slight pressure headache. “It’s like the one I gave Rarity, like a spellbook but on a much smaller scale,” said Twilight. “Those books can give you mastery over ten thousand spells, but this one just gives you two, each capable of being used with wings. The first one will allow you to turn back and forth from an owl whenever you want!” “Really? That was one of the big ways you were keeping me under your hoof,” Dash said. “You’re not worried I might abuse it?” “Well the magnetic barrier is what’s really keeping you from escaping and you haven’t been annoying lately, so I’ll give you the ability to talk back,” Twilight said, smiling like she was being all magnanimous. Truth be told, Dash had been treating these last few weeks as something of a vacation. Maybe it was wrong to have gotten so absorbed with playing Summoner Knights with Twilight to the point her enemy was starting to cozy up to her and give her presents. But then maybe Twilight becoming cozy with her was the only way to actually get out of here. Twilight did just grant her some of her freedom back. Eh, screw it! Being friendly with Twilight was working out so far. Who cared if it was the right thing to do? “And what does the second one do?” Dash looked back at her gift. “It’s the murder spell.” “The murder spell?!” Dash looked up from the pendant to Twilight. “You’re giving me access to the murder spell?!” “Yes?” Twilight tilted her head. “I thought it’d be useful to you.” “You seriously not worried about giving me the murder spell?” Dash refused to believe it could ever be this easy. “You’re not remotely concerned I’m going to cast it on you?” “You can only cast this spell on yourself,” said Twilight. “I can only cast the—" Dash couldn’t even say it out loud. “You know what? It’ll be faster if I just put the dang thing on and see.” Dash put the necklace on. Briefly, she thought this might have been a trick. Dash’s head never exploded before, but she was fairly certain she knew exactly what it felt like now. A thunderclap of pain and the room spinning faster than a tornado sent Dash falling to the ground. But it was over in a second. When the pain vanished, something became crystal clear to Rainbow Dash. “Oh!” Dash slapped her forehead. “Oh, I get it. It’s like a murder of crows.” The ‘murder’ spell turned you into a murder of crows! Approximately twenty. And Dash could do that now? “Because you keep getting yourself into danger, this is a great spell to have,” Twilight explained. “It’s extremely difficult to kill a pony who can turn into twenty birds and fly off in every direction.” Dash stepped out of the house and spread her wings, feeling the magic coursing through them, conducting it in a way she’d never thought possible before. She knew with complete certainty that she could cast this spell now, even with wings. Still, until she tested it out it was hard to believe. There was still some part of her disconnected from the foreign idea. Casting spells with wings was like writing with a paint roller. It could technically be done, and Dash felt somewhere deep she knew how, but it wasn’t easy. Dash opened her wings and let the magic flow out through them. There was a burst of feathers and then Dash was falling backward, a crow surrounded by other crows. From her perspective, she was just one crow. Dash didn’t need any further explanation on how the spell worked. She felt like this was her jam, like this was something she’d been practicing for years. Each crow, each instance of Dash, thought by herself and there was no real way to communicate between them. Whichever Rainbow Crow decided it was a good idea to change back first was the one they would all remerge into, appearing where that crow was. Once back to normal, Dash would have the memories of every crow she’d turned into. The trick, she inexplicably knew, was to have a game plan before you turned into a bunch of crows. Say, think in advance that if you’re a crow in the back row you’ll fly off somewhere safe while the crows further up make daring reconnaissance moves. Dash, the crow that Dash currently was, was the one closest to the bottom of the cluster. In the preset routines Twilight came up with, and Dash now knew, that was always the one that hung back and played it safe in case something happened to all the other crows. Only one crow needed to survive for Dash to live. Dash perched on Twilight’s back as she watched all the other instances of herself fly freely around the clearing. Then she jumped off Twilight and turned back, all the other crows crumbling into a few feathers. But they all lived on as part of Dash, the memories of every single surviving crow coming back to her. But then Dash got an awesome idea! One Twilight never even seemed to think of. She turned into a crow, the bottom one hanging back while all the others flew forward and swarmed around a tree. Then she turned back into a pony and then into crows a second time, repeating the same maneuver. It wasn’t too draining. Dash could easily do that like ten times before running out of magic! “What are you doing?” Twilight asked. “Oh, nothing.” Dash turned back to a pony one more time, then clutched the pendant. “But this spell is amazing! I can already think of a billion cool things to do with it! Can I only use it when I’m wearing the pendant?” “Right now, you can only use these spells when you’re wearing the pendant,” said Twilight. “If you keep using the spell over and over again, though, you’ll start to remember how to do it even without the pendant. Eventually, you won’t need it at all. Of course, there’s a point where your brain just can’t store any more spells which is why these books are necessary in the first place.” Twilight took out her spellbook, levitating it at her side. “You see, being good pays off,” Twilight said. “This book contains over one hundred thousand spells. If you obey me, I can give you even more powers.” “Hey, wait!” Dash turned to Twilight. “Is this the part where you try to tempt me with power?” “What? No!” Twilight took a step back, shifted her eyes, then stepped forward again. “But are you tempted? Out of curiosity.” Dash thought about it. Having magic powers was pretty great. She was ever so slightly less useless now, which felt good. “A little,” Dash admitted with a shrug. “Great! I was actually thinking maybe you should be, like, my familiar.” Twilight looked away but scrapped the ground with her hoof. “Like you just stay here and devote the rest of your life to serving me and protecting my stuff. It’s the logical decision to be on my side since I’m the most powerful and I’m sure you want to take responsibility for exposing me like this by defending my stuff. I’ll just assume the answer is yes since that’s the only choice that makes sense.” “Wait, wait. You’re just going to assume I’ve sworn my loyalty to you?” Dash asked. “Yep!” Twilight lifted her head and marched away. She got to a chest on the side of her house and from it took out a second witch hat, one without bells. Before Dash could protest, Twilight shoved the hat down hard on her head. “There! Now you’re a witch too! We’re officially on the same side!” “Hold up!” Dash pulled up her hat so she could see again. “And you said dressing like a witch was illegal in town,” Twilight reminded her. “And that if you do something illegal everypony will gang up and beat you down. So now you’re implicated in my crimes and can never return, leaving you no option but to join me.” “I don’t think—" “Now that that’s taken care of, I’ll need you to patrol the area twice a day with the spell I just gave you. Plus, I want you to divulge all the secrets and potential threats of the outside world so that we can think of ways to counter all of them and protect our house.” Dash had no idea what to do in this situation. She could pretend to be Twilight’s minion to learn all of her secrets and stuff. Or maybe she could just be Twilight’s minion for real. Being the toady of the most powerful being in the world did put you above ninety-nine percent of all other ponies. If Twilight actually took over the world eventually would it even be that bad? The current government already kind of sucked. “Well?” Twilight looked back, tapping her hoof impatiently. “I gave you an order.” “Yeah, sure why not.” Dash shrugged. Might as well play along for now. “I guess if society didn’t want me to sell out to an evil witch, they should have paid me better, right? But does this mean I’m not kidnapped anymore? And I can go wherever?” “What?” The look of surprise showed Twilight hadn’t considered that part yet. “No! I mean, you’re officially not kidnapped anymore, but you’re going to stay here forever anyway because that’s what we agreed to.” “I don’t remember that part of the contract.” Dash took the witch hat off. “Heck, I don’t remember the contract at all! There’s no point in me having all these magical powers if I’m just stuck here forever.” “Stuck here? This place is way better than the outside because you have me here. What can you get on the outside that I can’t get you here?” Twilight puffed her cheek out in frustration like she was offended at the idea it was even possible. “The rest of my cards for one.” Dash pointed back to the house. That was one thing Dash knew for a fact Twilight really wanted to see. The witch glowered, unable to think of a good counter to that. “It’ll take me like two hours,” Dash promised. “I’ll just go get them and come right back here; I promise! And then you’ll be able to trust me. If I’m going to be your minion you gotta be able to trust me, right?” “No, you’d just leave forever!” Twilight put her hoof down. “I’m not going to ditch you. But given my luck, it's a sure thing I’m going to run into some horrible monster on the way back that’s going to kidnap me and then you’ll assume I just decided to bail and there’ll be all this freaking drama and—" Dash realized this plan probably wouldn’t work out. “Actually! I have a better idea. How about you come with me? Then you can just blow up whatever we run into.” “What?! Leave?! Into the town?!” Twilight was afraid again, just like she’d been when wandering out of her clearing for the first time. “I dunno.” “And you can make sure I don’t bail on you.” “But what if something attacks and I’m not around?” Twilight asked. “I have lots of dangerous things here and I can’t leave them alone!” “We can get back here in time if your ravens see anything,” Dash assured her. “We’re not that far away. You stopped being scared of going into the forest, right? It’ll be the same with town.” Twilight tapped her hoof on the ground, nervously thinking about her situation. “Okay.” Twilight turned around. “I’ll go with you to get the cards, but you have to agree to be my minion.” “I thought I already did.” Dash raised her eyebrow. “Well, yeah! But again! Out loud this time.” “Okay, fine.” Dash put her witch hat back on. “I’ll be your familiar or whatever if you go back to town with me.” Twilight stood nervously at the edge of the clearing, frozen again for the first time in maybe a month, silently deliberating on the best course of action. “Okay,” Twilight said softly. “But only for a minute! And you can’t talk to anyone without my permission since you’re my familiar now.” “Yeah, sure.” Dash bowed her head. “I swear my loyalty to you. But we can’t wear this stuff into town, okay?” And that was how Dash became an evil witch, but you had to go where the money was, right? She knew she was on the cusp of turning all of this around. "Alright. Then I'll take off the magnetic force spell." Twilight closed her eyes and broke the spell on Dash. For a moment, she watched Dash nervously like she was expecting the pegasus to bolt right then, but began to relax when Dash stayed.