Dash picked up the file on this mission, reading it over fervently. Capturing Trixie was worth two million bits. Recovering a book of shadows paid another million. Bringing in Applejack alive was another quarter of a million. That was over three million bits altogether!
Just doing this one mission was enough to become rich and famous and if Dash did like ten of these with Twilight…
Of course, there was also a reason the reward was so high. This would be near-certain death if Dash didn’t have Twilight with her.
“That’s odd.” Twilight narrowed her eyes, curious about something she saw in Trixie’s picture.
“What is?” Derpy looked back at it.
“Her hat has five bells on it.” Twilight walked back to the part of the wall with the pictures of the other known witches. “All of them do.”
“Well yeah?” Derpy tilted her head, curious. “That’s what the witch costume looks like. Even I know that.”
“So all of them have five bells on their hats?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah? Oh!” Derpy shook her head. “I know when a witch starts training another one, they have less, but when they complete their witch training it’s five. Right?”
“What about— about that pony?” Twilight pointed up at her picture.
“Huh?” Derpy squinted at it, quickly realizing what Twilight meant. “Oh! She has seven! I never even noticed that. You must be some kind of genius. But what the crow does that mean?”
“It means none of the others consider themselves masters.” Twilight crossed her forelegs, closed her eyes, and went back into deep thought. “But why? Nothing is stopping any of them from declaring themselves masters. There’s a lot of things that don’t make any sense at all.”
“Yeah! Almost like…” Derpy leaned forward, waiting like this was a detective novel and Twilight was about to reveal the killer.
Twilight kept her eyes closed, wisely thinking to herself instead of revealing even more.
“Almost like!” Derpy repeated it.
But Twilight still didn’t give any answers.
“Oh.” Derpy shrugged at Dash. “Am I the only one who thought she was about to do a big reveal?”
“I still don’t get why Flash Bang wants this Applejack pony,” Dash changed the subject.
“There were a few recent incidents,” said Derpy. “Trixie’s been all kinds of active lately. But the important one was when she showed up at an auction house about a month ago to steal a sock.”
“A sock?” Dash looked up from the mission list. “Why were they auctioning off a sock?”
“It belonged to Twilight Sparkle,” said Derpy. “Trixie’s a big collector of Twilight memorabilia. She’s been stealing lots and lots of artifacts connected to Twilight.”
“What? That’s gross!” Twilight cringed at the idea somepony was buying her clothes. “And those socks were—!”
Twilight quickly caught herself.
“Worth lots of money. Or something, right?” Twilight coughed. “So like how dare she steal them!”
“Oh yeah, Twilight’s stuff is worth crazy money even if it’s worthless,” said Derpy. “I heard this one saddle that used to belong to her sold at auction for over a million bits last year. Can you believe that? Who has that kind of money?”
Twilight was suddenly standing very still, blushing heavily, and bit her lip. But like a champ, she managed to just nod and let it go for now.
A lucrative business model popped into Dash’s head, but she quickly dismissed the idea.
Still, her socks and a saddle? One of those two was a pervert.
“Important thing is she revealed her whole plan to kidnap a bunch of werewolves, even going as far as to say her base was in the Festering Scar.” Derpy took out a piece of paper. “She said and I quote ‘I don’t even care if you know what my plans are! What are you going to do about it? Nothing.’ And to be fair the security guard did do nothing unless you count crying.”
“Collecting werewolves?” Dash asked.
“Applejack and likely all the ponies in the caravan were infected,” said Derpy.
Suddenly, Dash felt like she’d dodged a bullet. Lycanthropy wasn’t something you wanted to get.
“What’s a werewolf?” Twilight asked.
“How do you not know what a werewolf is?” Derpy asked.
“Because I was neglected as a child?” Twilight reminded her.
“Silver grew up on the pirate coast.” Dash leaned forward and whispered to Derpy, pretending it was a sensitive secret. “Her life was all kinds of messed up.”
“Oh, now I feel bad.” Derpy rubbed the back of her head. “Werewolves are like a disease that makes you go crazy and turn into a monster sometimes. It was really bad when Dash and I were kids, but Flash Bang got rid of most of them. They all live out in the Everfree now.”
“And what’s she doing with a bunch of werewolves?” Dash asked.
“A transformation ritual,” said Derpy. “See, Trixie has two gimmicks. The first one is she collects Twilight’s old stuff. The second is like, well Trixie isn’t just a witch, she’s also a powerful psychic. She did that thing where you bit down on a live wire to nearly kill yourself.”
“Come on! That worked for her?!” Dash rolled her eyes.
“But it gets worse! She’s not just half psychic and half-witch but also half-vampire!”
“What?” Dash tilted her head. Derpy continued before she could point out the mathematical error.
“Yeah! So really the only way you could kill her is to destroy her heart. Not even decapitation could kill her otherwise. But that’s not all. She’s half-robot too.”
“Couldn’t you just say she’s a cyborg?” Dash asked.
“We know Trixie had her left ribcage replaced with an arcanium plate.” Derpy pointed at her rib. “So, getting at her heart is virtually impossible. She probably has more implants than just that, though. Trixie’s also half-mad scientist with her mind expanded by gazing upon the outer gods!”
Dash tried to think of how many halves they were already up to.
“And then on top of that, she’s half mutant! She used super radiation to twist her DNA and that gave her super-fast healing powers on top of all that other stuff.”
This was just getting ridiculous now!
“That’s like, what, six halves?!” Derpy tried counting to six on one hoof. “That adds up to three-hundred percent power! She’s a serious opponent for anypony. If Trixie becomes half-werewolf too then it’d be even sillier! Nopony would even take me seriously explaining this anymore.”
“But why would you want to be a werewolf?” Dash asked. “Isn’t that like trying to get rabies or something? Having a debilitating disease would make her less dangerous.”
“Not a werewolf.” Derpy shook her head. “A were-Ursa major!”
“What?!”
“What’s a—"
“That’s the largest land animal,” said Dash, “but a lot! Even dragons are puny compared to an ursa major. One could step on you and you wouldn’t even notice.”
“Yeah! Imagine an ursa major that’s also undead and a psychic robot that can cast spells! An ursa major’s already like a thing you need an army or another giant monster to take down! She’d be nearly unstoppable.”
“And she needs this Applejack specifically?” Twilight asked. “Is she somehow different than all the other werewolves?”
“Applejack’s been chosen by a god called The Darklord,” said Derpy. “Her miracle is that she can enter into the shadow realm and Trixie needs to do that to complete her ritual. If nopony can retrieve Applejack in the next week, well she’s already getting a small army together to storm the Festering Scar!”
It sounded like it’d be a lot easier to deal with Trixie sooner rather than later. An army going into the Festering Scar would mean a lot of casualties too. They had to avoid both of those things if they could.
“I think maybe we should change the plan,” Dash said to Twilight. “It sounds like we need to go after Trixie as soon as we can.”
“I agree,” said Twilight. “From what I read just now she has volume two. That’s the one with all the hyper spells in it. That’s one of the two we’d want to get back as soon as we can.”
“You want to sign up to be part of Flash Bang’s invasion force?” Derpy asked.
“No.” Dash waved the thought away and started to the door. “We’re uh— don’t worry about it.”
“Wait!” Derpy flew over the counter and into Dash’s way. “You’re not seriously planning to try and get Applejack back yourself, are you?”
“Don’t worry.” Dash hit her chin then lifted it. “I got a plan.”
“I know you do crazy stuff all the time, but this is different!” Derpy stepped forward with genuine concern. “Trixie would slaughter you, annihilate you, and obliterate you in that order! It wouldn’t even be close. This isn’t like who would win in a fight between an anteater and a million ants. It’s like who would win between an ant and a million anteaters.”
“Yeah, thanks but I’ll be fine.” Dash tried to brush past her, but Derpy got in her way.
“No! I’m worried that your plans are getting more and more self-destructive!” Derpy pleaded with her. “I’m being mean as like an intervention, but can you name even one of your plans that’s ever worked?”
Dash bit her tongue and looked to the side, unable to answer.
“See?” Derpy put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “Don’t go marching off into ever more certain death! You have so much to live for! Like, uh—“
Derpy drew a blank, staying silent long enough for Dash’s eye to twitch in indignation.
“Like your new best friend!” Derpy pointed to Twilight, then herself. “And me! I’m your friend, right? See? That’s two friends!”
“Tch!” Dash knocked Derpy’s hooves off her. “Let’s go, Silver.”
The two of them left, Derpy still giving Dash a worried and apologetic look. Dash was determined to prove she wasn’t useless. Sure, most of her plans didn’t work out but she finally had a serious shot now! Who wouldn’t turn that down?
Twilight grumbled to herself as they walked back into the woods, muttering things hateful things about her ex-boyfriend and wondering how they even kept that sock preserved for six hundred years.
Eventually, they were a safe enough distance away to speak frankly again. Dash brought Twilight to the place she’d first met Applejack hoping that Twilight could cast that aetheric imprinting spell and just follow Trixie back to her hidden base. Something nagged on her mind before that, though.
“Hey, I am curious if that bell thing you mentioned before is important,” said Dash.
“Oh. I’m not sure yet,” said Twilight. “It just seems so strange to me. You said once the other witches fight over my old spellbooks, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, why aren’t they creating their own?” Twilight asked. “It wouldn’t be that hard to copy The Book of Shadows. That coupled with the fact that none of them consider themselves masters… suggests that creating mind fiber is a lost art. Maybe even more than that is.”
“So?” Dash asked. “It’s an advantage if you’re the only one who knows how to do that, isn’t it?”
“I suppose,” said Twilight. “It just seems odd to me that everything else in the world has been growing so rapidly, but everything I hear about the witches suggests they’ve become significantly weaker the past few centuries. Why is that?”
“If that’s true, I got no clue.” Dash shrugged. “Maybe you’ll figure it out when we meet Trixie.”
They arrived at the place where the fight between Trixie and Applejack must have taken place. All of Applejack’s belongings were gone, but there were still signs of a battle. The nearby trees had been cleared out as well and there visible fissures in the ground.
“This is where I saw Applejack just before Trixie showed up.” Dash walked over to the right spot. “It was September 13th, likely just before midnight. I doubt there’s much here that the others didn’t already find, but you can use that aether spell to get information, right? We know Trixie was here at the time I mentioned.”
“Wasn’t that months ago?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t seriously think aether imprints last that long, do you?”
“Well now I don’t.”
“I can go back twelve hours ago at best,” said Twilight. “Furthermore, it’s a destructive process. Of the twelve accessible hours, I only get one shot lasting a minute or two of it all before the aether in the area becomes scattered and unreadable.”
“Well, there goes that plan.” Dash shrugged.
“You’re not wrong to think I could track her with magic. I just need to find a place she’s been to more recently.”
“That auction house was like a hundred miles in the wrong direction.” Dash looked at her copy of the information, as well as a map she’d picked up. “The Festering Scar’s to the south of here a good sixty miles. That takes a day already and we only have maybe a week.”
“How big is that place?” Twilight asked. “It can’t be too hard to find her house. It’d be large if she has a lot of ponies there.”
“Pretty big,” said Dash. “I’m just guessing but maybe it’s somewhere between fifty and a hundred miles long and, I dunno, ten or twenty deep? And it’s full of creatures and ponies who aren’t going to be friendly. Searching that place isn’t going to be easy.”
“Why is the world so big?” Twilight sighed “It should have just been one or maybe two towns like I thought. Oh well. You said ponies are living there besides Trixie, right? Maybe one of them’s seen her more recently?”
“From the sound of it, Trixie isn’t a quiet neighbor,” Dash admitted. “But the friendliest ponies nearby are in the Everfree Forest, just to the north of the scar.”
“Oh, wait! I read about that place a little!” Twilight started reciting like she was reading from a book. “The Everfree Forest is a low-key outlaw zone just south of where we live. It’s a loose connection of cultist compounds, mad science groups, and small free-cities harboring ponies banished from Equestria. However, Equestria has an unspoken ceasefire with the ponies who live there, and the two forces generally leave the other alone.”
That certainly sounded like something a book would say.
“It’s technically part of Equestria, actually,” said Dash. “But yeah. That’s where the less extreme criminals and outcasts live. Rarity lives on the north edge of it, a couple of miles south of your house. According to this map, Oaken Field is on the southern edge, just a few miles from the Festering Scar.”
“So we go to Oaken Field and ask around there?” Twilight asked.
“I dunno if it’s as easy as walking in. They don’t like normal ponies.” Dash shook her head. “That’d be like one of them walking into Ponyville. You’re not supposed to cross the line. Heck, Rarity outright attacked me and Pinkie when we went to her house the first time. And before you say it, witches are hated by everyone and are welcome nowhere.”
“So if we go there, we have to pretend to be part of a cult or something?” Twilight asked.
“Right. But I’m not sure of a good way to go about that. It’s not like I have any underworld connections who can get me in.” Dash shook her head in defeat. Then suddenly she remembered and lifted her head back up. “Oh wait! Don’t I have one?”
“Do you?” Twilight asked.
“I do! Sort of. Remember Rarity? I guess we don’t know each other very well, but that’s the best connection I have! It’s worth a shot.”
“And she already knows about me,” said Twilight. “I’ve been thinking about talking to her ever since we started this plan regardless.”
“Might be best to leave Fluttershy home unless we know if Rarity is cool with ghosts,” said Dash. “Shouldn’t be too hard to find Rarity’s house again. I think.”
Dash was pretty sure she remembered the way.
“Sweetiebot!” Rarity called out to her 9000 unit. “Turn off the perpetual thunderstorm machine! We shan’t be needing it to create a drab atmosphere to match the darkness in my soul any longer!”
The machine turned off and the rain that had pelted the castle non-stop for eight years finally died down. Silence, at long last. No rumbling thunder or howling wind! She could finally open a window up without the wind throwing her back.
For the first time, Rarity threw open one of her curtains, then shrieked and recoiled at how bright the sun was.
“Gah!” Rarity collapsed onto the floor as the light burned her eyes. “Is that really what the sun is like? It was so much nicer in my memories!”
The lack of rain noises was unsettling too. Rarity wasn’t sure if she was ready to give it up just yet.
“Okay, maybe let’s not open all the blinds just yet.” Rarity closed the one she opened most of the way. “I’m still not ready for pure, unfiltered sunlight!”
Peeking out her window with a squinted eye, she could see her lawn was terribly overgrown now. Those fly-traps were absolutely enormous and strangled every last inch of it. Maybe she could do a bit of landscaping now that her time was about to be freed up.
She was so giddy about today that she could hardly wait to finish her long, hard labor. There was an endlessly long list of things she wanted to do with her sister after today. Just a little bit more. Just one last operation! She knew it would be a success.
“Happy days are here again!” Rarity danced and twirled her way up through her relatively sunny castle to the room where Sweetie Belle and her new body were waiting.
The room was a shrine to her sister. The whole castle was, yes, but this room in particular. All the walls were surrounded by portraits of Sweetie Belle had commissioned through the years.
In the center of the room was the tube with Sweetie Belle’s brain still floating inside an orange liquid these eight long years later. The base of the tube was surrounded by a field of flowers her robots changed daily. The last picture taken of Sweetie Belle rested at the front of the base, with a candle on either side.
To the left of the bed was what would be her new body, a modified Sweetiebot 9000, lying on Sweetie Belle’s old bed, her favorite stuffed rabbit placed beside her. Rarity finished building that body nearly three years ago and it had been soundly sleeping there, waiting to wake up for so long.
The biggest difference between this and the other Sweetiebot 9000 was the life support system, appearing as an open skull awaiting a brain and as two currently hollow tubes on either side of her back, just below the withers. That was something Rarity had only just finished.
Only a little bit longer now and all of Rarity’s hard work would finally pay off! Rarity spent so many long days of painful longing in this room. She’d gone from so hopelessly far away to so painfully close. But now, at long last, she was finally close enough to let herself hope.
“Sister Rarity!” Sweetiebot 9000 came in with a purple zombie clone of Sweetie Belle. “I have completed the mission!”
“Hugs.” The mindless zombie drooled.
Rarity injected the Sweetie zombie clone with a liquid, and it began to melt back down into purple goo.
“No need to worry!” Rarity assured the melting zombie with a smile. “You’ll live on as my sister’s new nervous system.”
Rarity poured the resulting goop into one of the cylinders on either side of Sweetie Belle’s new body. She looked over at the projector to see that the gaps for the nervous system were filling out just as planned. They were forming into real nervous tissue, genetically identical to Sweetie Belle’s, and integrating perfectly with the machine thanks to the spell Twilight gave her.
“Yes! Yes!” If Rarity’s smile got any wider her head would have fallen off. “Everything is going so perfectly!”
“Big sister,” said Sweetiebot. “What are we going to do after Sweetie Belle is repaired?”
“Hm?” Rarity turned around, surprised at the question. “Why we live happily ever after, of course!”
“How does one do that?” Sweetiebot asked.
“Oh, I don’t know! You go watch a movie or to the beach— actually no! I’m never going to the beach again. Maybe like a nice mountain vacation.”
“But I will go on this vacation and annihilate the mountains along with you, yes?” Sweetiebot asked.
“I wouldn’t word it like that, but sure.” Rarity knelt next to the empty shell of a body to go back to work. “I suppose I do have a bit more work even after she’s repaired, though. What with building an army and eventually the 10K model.”
“I love you, big sister,” Sweetiebot said.
“Yes, yes.” Rarity hit the button that began draining the tank containing her sister’s brain. “But we have important work to do today. We can talk about vacations later.”
Rarity needed her full concentration. She put her mask on, not wanting Sweetie to see her scar first thing. Yet there was a feeling she was forgetting something important as she turned to her tools.
“Oh! I nearly forgot.” Rarity turned back to her robot. “I did need to talk to you about something first. It’s just, well the two of you look nearly identical and ‘Sweetiebot’ sounds awfully similar to ‘Sweetie Belle’. If I just say ‘Sweetie’ it will get confusing fast, won’t it?”
“I will not be confused,” Sweetiebot insisted.
“Well, I will.” Rarity beckoned Sweetiebot to come over. “I’m not throwing you out or anything, I was just thinking of giving you a proper name. I came up with one I like last night. We can call you Saccharin Belle. Do you see? It’s an artificial sweetener so it’s very fitting, no?”
“I can have a name?” Sweetiebot’s eyes opened as wide as they could. “Am I worthy of such a thing, big sister Rarity?”
“Even if you weren’t it’d be a matter of convenience.” Rarity moved to where she’d put her small supply of spray paint. “I’d like to give you both a makeover as well, but I’m afraid color is the only option for now. What colors would you like to be? Keep in mind I’m vetoing anything that doesn’t match.”
Saccharin decided she wanted to be white like the other two Belle sisters. It wasn’t a request Rarity could bear to say no to, but at least they agreed to make her hair red and black.
Sweetie Belle was spray painted white, the hunks of metal meant to resemble her mane and tail also painted the appropriate colors. Finally, Rarity changed Saccharin’s eyes to glow blue, reserving the green color for Sweetie Belle herself. It took hours, but Rarity finally got it all down perfect, just like her little sister deserved.
Rarity stepped back and inspected the two of them lying side by side. They were identical outside of color, maybe a little more similar than was ideal, and the two tubes of green liquid by Sweetie Belle’s soon-to-be withers. It was enough to immediately tell them apart, which was the important thing.
Everything was in place now! She just needed to install the brain.
Rarity slowly placed Sweetie Belle’s brain into its new skull and attached the wires that would keep it alive for the next few hours. Her first task was to surgically attach it to the spinal cord and nervous system that had wrapped itself all through the new body already.
That was the longest and most painstaking part. Wiring the nerves just right took hours. Saccharin stood by quietly the whole time, at some point jumping up on top of the tank that contained Sweetie Belle just moments ago to watch the whole thing from above.
When it was finally done, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and moved on to the next part. Using the pendant Twilight had given her, Rarity cast the living metal spell. The internal metal became softer and integrated itself with the brain. Normally, a robotic body would be too harsh for organs to survive in for more than a few days. This spell would make homeostasis easy and maintainable indefinitely.
Finally, the brain was in and integrated. Rarity closed the gap in the skull and filled the cylinders on her back with a green fluid. To keep her organic components alive, they needed to be refilled with nutritional slime every month or so.
Then came the very last step— jolting Sweetie Belle out of the coma Rarity induced years ago. She didn’t want to subject her little sister to years of being blind and disembodied in a jar, so she made sure Sweetie Belle was ‘asleep’ the whole time.
Rarity hooked a wire up to either side of Sweetie Belle’s new neck and let the electricity rip through the wires. The blast of sparks was enough to blind Rarity and throw her across the room, blowing the two wires back out.
Rarity looked up from the floor at Sweetie Belle, unharmed by the burst.
The two green eyes on the robot opened and the now complete robot looked around the room with intelligence and a bit of fear at the unfamiliar location.
“Huh?” Sweetie Belle’s voice came through the robot. Her ears pinned themselves down and she took a step back looking at the strange room. “Where am I?”
Sweetie Belle relaxed a little when she saw Rarity on the floor.
“Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked her first words in nearly a decade. “Is that you? Where are we? Why are you wearing that mask?”
“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity’s vision of her sister blurred with tears. “You’re alive!”
Rarity ran over and tried to tackle Sweetie to the ground in a hug. Sweetie was now nearly invincible and thus could not be knocked over by anything but a heavyweight wrestler, but that didn’t stop Rarity from repeatedly, mercilessly hugging her.
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle nodded. “I am! Thanks for noticing? Um. Wait. Why do you look so old?”
“Ahem.” Rarity let go of Sweetie Belle and took a step back, clearing her throat with a cough as she tried to let go of such a rude comment. “I’ll have you know I’m only twenty-four. Technically you’re twenty years old now yourself, but we’re going to tell everypony you’re twelve because I don’t want any creepers following you around.”
“What? No, I am twelve for real and you’re about to turn sixteen.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “You’re having that big party in like…”
Sweetie Belle thought to herself, trying to remember how far away Rarity’s 16th birthday was.
“Sweetie, it’s been eight years since the accident.” Rarity put a hoof on Sweetie’s shoulder. “The year is 1355.”
“Accident?”
Sweetie Belle was only just now beginning to realize something was off about her body.
“Wait! My leg is all metallic!” Sweetie Belle held it up for inspection. “Did my leg fall off? And now I have a prosthetic leg! Wait! My other leg too? All of my legs?”
Sweetie Belle walked in a circle looking herself over.
“And I have a prosthetic barrel? And a prosthetic tail? And a prosthetic head?!” Sweetie Belle grabbed her head, feeling its metallic smoothness. “I don’t even have a mouth! How am I talking? Am I a hundred percent prosthetics now?! Can you do that?! Can you be entirely prosthetic?!”
“You were badly injured.” Rarity walked up and put a hoof on her sister’s cheek. “Your brain was the only thing I was able to save. I had to put it inside this robot to keep you alive.”
“They can do that?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“No, they couldn’t,” said Rarity. “I’ve spent all this time locked away in here working with single-minded determination to bring you back, Sweetie Belle! I’ve had to consort with outer gods and witches— give up my sanity and any chance at a normal life, all to bring you back!”
“You were so unwilling to let go of me that you spent eight years delving into the forbidden depths of madness to claw me back from the dead and keep me alive against the natural order?!” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Well.” Rarity rubbed the back of her head. The thought that Sweetie Belle might not appreciate what Rarity had done never occurred to her. “Yes?”
Sweetie only looked at Rarity for two blinks, what felt like a long time.
“Wow! You really do love me!” Sweetie Belle jumped forward and hugged Rarity. “You’re the best sister ever, Rarity! And I always wanted to be a robot!”
Rarity laughed in relief, hugging Sweetie Belle in return and spinning her around once. An infinite amount of pressure had just vanished. A single revolution was all she could manage, seeing as Sweetie Belle was much heavier now. Sweetie Belle reached out a hoof to feel Rarity’s fur.
“This is amazing! I can even still feel your fur!”
“Yes.” Rarity nodded with pride. “I knew I couldn’t bring you back unless your body was suitable. Scent is the only thing completely lacking. But I’m still working on that one and let’s be honest that’s the most vulgar and gauche of the senses.”
“But what happened to me?” Sweetie Belle asked. “It must have been really bad to have lost my entire body.”
“Do you not remember at all?” Rarity asked. “That day on the beach?”
“The beach?” Sweetie looked up at the ceiling. “Oh! I remember now. A little.”
Sweetie Belle nodded.
“I remember seeing that thing come out of the ocean. One of those mouth tentacles came out and hit me. Then I was flying through the air and saw my body getting pulled into the water. I remember realizing I got my head cut off and was like ‘that can’t be good’. Then I was thinking it should hurt way more than it did and then… I think I blacked out after that.”
“Yes. You were decapitated. The only reason you survived was that your head landed in a cooler full of ice.”
“That makes scientific sense,” said Sweetie. “Even I know ice makes you unable to die. For ten million years, even!”
“Yes, but you’re safe now.” Rarity hugged Sweetie again. “You can stay with me for as long as you want. Though I’m afraid it’s just you and me now.”
“And me,” Saccharin added. The other robot jumped down from her perch, landing with a metallic clang before walking up to Sweetie Belle.
“Yes,” Rarity agreed. “It’s just you me and our army of robots. I suppose there’s also the mad science league. But other than that, it’s just you and me.”
“Sorry, but who is this?” Sweetie Belle gave Saccharin a poke.
“This is Sweetiebot 9000 or Saccharin Belle. She’s my ultimate creation and the prototype for the body I created for you. And before you ask, yes, she is fully intelligent and essentially a real pony. Why I’ve been treating her like a third sister in our family.”
“Yes! I am the little sister now!” Saccharin leaned forward, pressing her muzzle against Sweetie Belle’s. “You are the middle child. Nothing you can do will change this!”
“I am?” Sweetie Belle thought about that for a moment before deciding it was great. “That means I’m a big sister now! And I get to tell you you’re not old enough to do things!”
“Wait.” Saccharin shook her head and stepped back. “No! This has backfired.”
“You’re not old enough to have things backfire on you, Saccharin,” Sweetie Belle said in stern imitation of Rarity.
“I do not understand this comment!”
“You’ll understand when you’re older and more mature.” Sweetie Belle gave her a condescending pat on the head.
“I am more mature than you!” Saccharin insisted. Her eyes turned red. “I can kill without hesitation! You are still too childless to slaughter without remorse or mercy!”
“No, no. You’re not old enough to kill without hesitation.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Now go do your homework and then I’ll come play with you.”
“You would play with me?” Saccharin’s eyes turned blue again as she tilted her head. “Even the game of flamethrower tag which our big sister has declared too uncivilized and fiery to condescend herself to?”
“Yes.” Sweetie Belle kept her head up high. “You are my little sister now. But only after your homework is done.”
“Rarity.” Saccharin turned to Rarity. “I require homework to complete.”
“You’re a robot, you don’t have homework,” said Rarity. “But you’re both immune to fire so I don’t see anything wrong with that game.”
“Whoa! I’m immune to fire?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Oh, you’re immune to nearly everything. And that’s not all! I’ve also built several more robots for you.” Rarity clapped her hooves and the remaining Sweetiebot 8000s, five in all, stepped forward in unison. “These are the Sweetiebot 8000s. You can control them with your mind, and they’ll protect you! Of course, they aren’t nearly as strong as you or Saccharin. Also, they aren’t intelligent so don’t feel bad if one breaks.”
“Huh?” Sweetie Belle stepped forward to inspect them. “They all look like me? Like all of your robots”
“Yes! I have a few older models still kicking around too.” Rarity beckoned in the slightly bulkier 7000s came forward next. They numbered twenty. “But this is only phase one, Sweetie Belle! Next, I’m going to build an army of one thousand 8k’s, so you’ll have your own army to protect you at all times! Then I’ll upgrade you and Saccharin even further into the 10k, adult forms with a softer, furry exterior, enhanced sensors, and even more advanced weaponry! None will be able to defy you!”
“Well, I guess nopony wants to be defied, right?” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “So that’s probably a good thing.”
“Yes! I wanted to make sure you never got hurt again,” Rarity said proudly. She ran back to Sweetie Belle's side and put a hoof on her precious sister’s cheek. “You mean far too much to me! I need to do everything I can to keep you safe.”
“But do they all have to look like my twins?” Sweetie Belle looked around the room, just now noticing the dozens of pictures of her hanging all over the room. “Or my bazillionuplets? It’s kind of creepy how much of me is around here. You went all-in on the whole ‘me’ theme.”
The doorbell rang, but Rarity ignored it. This was the worst possible time for visitors.
“Well maybe I got just a little obsessed,” said Rarity. “But you don’t know how hard it was to deal with losing everything! You were my entire life for the past few years.”
“Yeah, but now that I’m back you can build non-me robots, right?” Sweetie asked. “And stop being so crazy obsessed?”
The bell rang again.
“Saccharin! Can you go destroy whoever’s interrupting our happy moment?” Rarity waved her hoof, sending her off.
“I cannot do this, big sister Rarity,” said Saccharin. “This contradicts a previous order.”
“What do you mean?”
“The source of your annoyance is Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, whom you told me not to destroy.”
“Really? What are they doing here?” Rarity asked herself.
“Am I supposed to know who they are?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“No, no. But they helped me fix you.” Rarity stood up and groaned. “I suppose we should go see what they want.”
“Can I come meet your friends?” Sweetie Belle asked. “All my old friends probably have jobs by now.”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure if I’d call them ‘friends’ but I don’t see why not.” Rarity got up and moved towards the stairs. “Just try not to be rude.”
Really! These uncivilized Equestrians showing up in person without IM-ing her first. Maybe she couldn’t expect them to have internet access but still!
It did strike Rarity as uncouth to make one promise to never speak to you again and then show up uninvited a short while later. But she tried to banish the thought. She did owe a lot to those two.
She made her to the first floor and opened the enormous front door. There were the two of them in front of the setting sun, just as she remembered them. Notably, they had mud on their hooves from her admittedly muddy lawn. Couldn’t they have flown here?
“Hey! You opened the door this time!” Dash opened her forelegs. “Does that mean we can come in?”
“No, no!” Rarity shielded herself from their filth. “You can’t just barge into my house without disinfecting first! Saccharin!”
Saccharin walked up to them and activated one of her weapons. It was a weapon against germs! She sprayed the two barbarians with disinfectant, enough to make them cough a little. The coughing was how you knew it was working.
“And take one of these.” Rarity reached into her coat pocket and pulled out two antibiotic pills. “To disinfect your insides. I don’t want you getting me sick.”
“Yeesh. Are all mad scientists this germophobic?” Dash swallowed her pill.
“The good ones of course. I suppose the Mad Science Association deals in flesh golems, and you know how that gets.” Rarity stuck her tongue out in disgust. “We don’t talk to them when it can be helped. The Mad Science League sticks with robots. Much cleaner. And we never meet in person save the occasional convention.”
Rarity gave Dash’s hooves one last spray of disinfectant. The pegasus rolled her eyes and started flying, taking the hint.
“I’m surprised to see you here, though.” Rarity looked over Twilight. “Don’t get me wrong. You helped me with my sister, so you’re welcome here any time. However, you made me specifically agree to never speak with you again. It made me think perhaps you wouldn’t be visiting me any time soon.”
“There are some things we wanted to talk to you about.” Twilight rubbed the last of the mud off her hooves. “I have another offer for you, but it might take a minute.”
An offer? Rarity’s first instinct was that Twilight wanted her own robot. That was the main thing Rarity had to offer. There would almost certainly be something Twilight would have that’d be a fair trade for one of the 8000s too.
“Certainly I’d be willing to trade with you of all ponies,” said Rarity. “But can't you come back in a few days? I just reunited with my sister.”
“Yeah, maybe I don't understand cause I'm an only child," said Dash, "but this mission is kind of time critical."
“You completed that project to put a pony’s brain in a robot?” Twilight stepped forward to try and determine which robot was the right one.
“Yeah! I’m right here!” Sweetie Belle ran out from behind Rarity, eager to meet them. “Look! I can talk with no mouth!”
“So I take it your plan to use the living metal spell worked.” Twilight immediately knelt down to admire Rarity’s work.
Rarity forgot her attempt to shoo the two of them away, suddenly flattered by Twilight.
“This must be a nutritional slime.” Twilight looked at the nutrition cylinders on Sweetie’s side. “I am curious how you administer it and deal with waste.”
“Ah, yes. Well it’s a simple matter of—“
“Rarity! You’re not just going to talk about boring stuff nopony cares about, are you?” Sweetie Belle groaned. “Can’t you just introduce us like a normal pony?”
“Yes. Well this is Rainbow Dash.” Rarity gestured to the pegasus. “And this is.”
Rarity hesitated to introduce Twilight, unsure how her sister would react to a witch.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight.
“Uh!” Sweetie’s eyes took on a look of sudden concern. “You’re named after that witch?”
“Well—“ Twilight looked away.
Sweetie was clearly smart enough to take the hint.
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle ran behind her sister. “When you said you consorted with witches, I thought you meant you stole stuff from one of them, not that one would be coming over! Witches are really mean, right? Shouldn’t we be hiding.”
“Sweetie, Twilight isn’t a bad witch though,” Rarity promised her.
“Huh?” Sweetie tilted her head, unable to believe such a thing.
“These two saved your life,” said Rarity. “You should thank them.”
“Y-yeah! Thanks!” Sweetie forced her eyes into a smile, but was clearly tense and uncomfortable, her ears pinned down tight.
“Well I would love to collaborate with you some more, but I think Sweetie Belle should have some time to adjust before meeting anypony too strange,” said Rarity.
“Yes.” Twilight turned away from Sweetie Belle and cleared her throat. “Well this sort of thing is what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.
“I have a proposition,” said Twilight. “I realized that the technology of the rest of the world is advancing much faster than I would have thought possible. I believe I might not be able to ignore the outside world much longer, so instead, I’ll have to deal with it.”
“You’re not planning on taking over the world, are you?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Because that’s not actually—"
“Nah, we already went over that,” said Dash.
“You’re the only one of your kind that knows about me,” said Twilight. “I admit that your order knows certain things that I don’t. If you’re willing to ally with me, I’d be willing to exchange information with you.”
“Exchange information?” Rarity hoped she didn’t look too desperate, but the thought did get her blood flowing with excitement. “I have no doubt there would be so many amazing things we could do together! Why I can’t even imagine all of the possibilities yet!”
“And how would the rest of the uh—” Dash took a second to try and remember whether Rarity was with the league or association “—League? React to Twilight trying a deal with them?”
“Well let’s see.” Rarity ran through each of the members in her head. Of all of them, there was one major hurdle to such an alliance. “Our mysterious leader would be very unlikely to accept anything of the sort. Knowing him, I’m quite certain he’d attempt to steal from you even if you made the same sort of offer. It being brash and foolish, suicidal even, would only make him want to do it more. I have no confidence in my ability to convince him not to fight you.”
“Great, so with him in charge, the Mad Science League is also on the list of likely enemies.” Dash turned her hooves up with a sigh. “I’m in way over my head, aren’t I?”
“I thought of that too,” Twilight said. “How hard would it be for you to become the leader of whatever order you’re part of?”
“You want me to become the lead scientist?” Rarity asked.
“I figure if you’re the leader of the Mad Science League it would neutralize them as a threat,” said Twilight. “Is it possible?”
“Well.” Rarity rocked her ergonomic office chair as far back as it would go, considering it for a moment before swinging back. “Now that I think about it, if you were helping me that wouldn’t be very hard at all! Our leader is primarily chosen by who’s the most innovative you see. If I collaborate with you, why I could become the lead scientist at the next Madcon! I’m already near the top of the list thanks to Saccharin and now Sweetie Belle.”
“And you are willing to take over your organization, right?” Dash asked.
“Oh, but of course! Now that my sister is alive again, I suppose making her ever more invincible and gaining clout among civilized ponies is what I should aim for. That’s not the issue, however.” Rarity straightened herself out. “I’m not sure if there’s a polite way to say this, but witches are the most hated ponies in the world; unwelcome anywhere. If I ally with you, I’d be surrounded by enemies, wouldn’t I? And people are more likely to go after a witch’s lackeys and allies than the witch herself.”
“Huh? Wait they are?” Dash pointed to herself.
“But of course,” said Rarity. “Say there’s a neighbor you hate, but they’re too powerful for you to hurt. You can’t do anything to them, but you can kick their dog when they’re not around, yes?"
Perhaps that thought hadn’t occurred to Dash just yet. She looked suddenly nervous and rubbed the back of her neck.
“Though of course, you are the strongest ally I could ever hope to have. I’m sure I could accomplish incredible things if I worked with you. It’s just a question of whether the risk is worth it.” Rarity closed her eyes and hummed to herself. “Hm. What to do, what to do?”
“Um. Rarity?” Sweetie Belle tapped her with her metallic hoof. “I know you said she wasn’t mean, but aren’t witches one of the reasons there’s so much danger in the world in the first place? You can’t be thinking about helping one.”
“Sweetie, you owe your life to Twilight,” said Rarity. “You really shouldn’t dismiss her like that.”
“No, she’s right.” Twilight lowered her hat. “The more I hear, the more I realize that the other witches have turned their backs on the way. I don’t blame you for hating us.”
Twilight straightened her hat and stood up.
“But that’s why I’m doing this. I’m either going to get the order to go back to its old way or destroy it. If it’s necessary, then I’m going to defeat every other witch and destroy all the other spellbooks. If nopony else can respect the power of witchcraft, then they don’t deserve to have it.”
Rarity and Sweetie Belle were both momentarily speechless at such a bold idea. The thought of defeating every other witch just seemed so distant and impossible in Rarity’s mind she never even would have considered attempting such a thing.
“Yes, this plan involves destruction.” Saccharin nodded. “I can grasp it in my mind.”
“Destroy all the witches?” Sweetie Belle asked. “But isn’t that impossible? Wasn’t there a saying about how taxes and witches are the two sure things in life? They’re just too strong.”
“Yeah, but we have Twilight on our side,” said Dash. “If anypony can beat them all it’s her.”
Sweetie Belle looked up at Twilight without any real fear for the first time.
“If you really could defeat all the witches, why that would be a world-changing event,” Rarity admitted. “But surely you realize what you’re trying to do isn’t remotely easy. Let’s assume you can even beat two or three of them at a time. There are still more witches than that and more than witches that will come after you. You can’t expect the odds to be even that much in your favor.”
“I know. Apparently, I have a lot of enemies I’ve never even heard of,” said Twilight. “I understand if you don’t want to help, but I’m going to try and get rid of as many threats as possible. That’s why I want to reach out to you. The more ponies I get on my side the easier it will be. I just need to get momentum first. I need someone willing to go along with this early on.”
Rarity looked down at Sweetie Belle. As nice as the heroics sounded, it was her sister she needed to think of first and foremost. The question was what would keep her the safest. Surely walking such a risky path was too much to subject her to.
A world without any witches but Twilight, though? Surely that would be safer not just for her but for everypony.
And really, what kind of mad scientist would she be if she didn’t chase after such a bold vision?
“Alright.” Rarity reached her hoof across the table to grab Twilight’s. “I’ll take your offer.”