Pinkie blinked twice.
“Who?”
“Aria Blaze?” Aria jumped off the phone booth.
“Who?”
“I tried to kill you on multiple occasions!” Aria planted her face in a hoof.
“That doesn’t narrow it down as much as you might hope.” Pinkie shrugged. “Oh wait! Are you that banshee from when I met Dash?”
“I’m not here to fight,” said Aria. “Listen. Last time we met? I was being controlled. I’ve been under the effects of what amounts to mind control for a long time. Those chains you broke were created by a specter and reduced me to her slave.”
“You do feel less malicious this time.” Pinkie moved her hoof around Aria’s doll, feeling the aura. It wasn’t anything like before. And like she said, all those chains from last time had since vanished. “I don’t sense any urge to kill me at all! You’re really not mad about the whole Adagio incident anymore?”
Aria scowled and looked at the ground. Pinkie did feel anger welling up in her again.
“Oh, I’m angrier than I’ve ever been,” said Aria. “The difference is I can see clearly now. That last attack broke the chains enslaving me and allowed me to think for myself again. I realize my true enemy is the ruler of Crater Cemetery. Pretending to be somepony she’s not… she’s been screwing us over since before the three of us were even born.”
Aria closed her eyes and grew silent. Through her aura, Pinkie could understand the ghost’s feelings all too well. Beneath those eyes she was seething, but not at all towards Pinkie as promised.
Sometimes Pinkie wished everypony had an aura. It’d cut back on the number of misunderstandings in the world. Though everypony seemed so nervous about a world like that for some reason.
“Yeah, she’s the reason Adagio died. She’s the reason for all of this. Why our parents, our entire family is gone. Our clan failed because of her, and now all the ghostlands are desolate and devoid of hope,” said Aria. “If anything, I should be thanking you for helping me remember this.”
“Aw! Well you didn’t have to come out here just to say thanks,” said Pinkie.
“I didn’t.” Aria shook her head. “I wanted to make you an offer. I have another sister named Sonata Dusk who’s still under that monster’s control. If I’m not mistaken, she came to you claiming to be a journalist who wanted to meet Fluttershy? Well, the Sunny Side Gazette is controlled by Crater Cemetery. She’s been ordered to ‘neutralize’ Fluttershy.”
So they were right to be suspicious this time!
“How do you know about Fluttershy, though?” Pinkie asked. “We were careful not to ever mention her name.”
“Oh, I know a lot more than you’d expect.” Aria looked off to the side. “I want you to ambush Sonata during the ‘interview’. You can use the spirit bomb to break the chains and free her like you did me. In exchange, I’ll–”
“You got it!” Pinkie reached her hoof out, ready to take the deal. “I’ll bust her out no problem!”
Aria jumped back at Pinkie’s outstretched hoof. You’d think Pinkie had thrown a punch at her or something. She looked down at the hoof, then back to Pinkie in total shock.
“What?” Aria was surprisingly hesitant to agree to her own terms. “Pinkie, I didn’t even tell you what I’m offering in return!”
“Haha! Silly, Aria!” Pinkie pressed up against her side. “Freeing the slaves is its own reward! You don’t have to give me anything. I got too much money anyway.”
Aria pushed Pinkie aside and stood back.
“You’re too damn nice.” Aria shook her head a little too hard. “How am I even supposed to react to this?”
“You could smile cause I’m gonna help Sonata!” Pinkie traced the corners of her mouth upward as she went into a smile herself.
Aria growled. Pinkie took a step back.
“Do you have any idea how much power our enemy wields?! There’s no way to–” Aria caught herself. Her scowl vanished and she dipped back into aloofness. “Well. I thought it was completely hopeless. Going against her was something I couldn’t even consider. If anything, I was tempted to go crawling back just to make sure nothing bad happened to Sonata. That’s what I would have done. But then I heard that your little group defeated two witches in such a short time. I thought something like that was impossible too.”
Pinkie could hardly contain her smile. She pressed her cheek up to Aria’s, who locked up and frowned in turn.
“So you’re saying we filled you with hope?” Pinkie nuzzled her. “We melted your icy heart and restored your optimism? And now you think nothing is impossible?”
Aria kept her jaw shut tight and stared forward, unblinking.
“I did not say any of that,” Aria growled through her teeth. “But I want you to take my reward whether you want it or not. It’s something I want you to have.”
“Oh?” Pinkie wondered if it might be a pair of earrings that’d look better on her.
“I know far more than you realize,” said Aria. “For example, The Sunny Gazette isn’t the only newspaper they control. There are eleven other psyops organizations. I can name all of them. I can draw you maps, tell you names, show you all of their hideouts, detail every major ghost and specter, tell you all of their powers, and more. There’s an important secret my mist– our enemy is hiding. I’m one of the few ponies who know it. Believe me when I say you want to hear everything I have to say.”
Pinkie’s eyes went wide at the offer. The SA didn’t even know the name of what was commonly referred to as ‘The Crater Cemetery Ghost’. There’d just been so much bad blood between ghosts and the living that even ghosts who hated Crater Cemetery wouldn’t say a word on the matter.
A leak this big would be giganterific! What if Aria even knew her unfinished business? That was often the greatest weakness of any ghost.
“But if you hate, uh, whoever this much why don’t you just tell me everything now? Cause who knows what will happen later. You can trust me to help your sister either way.”
Aria bit her lip and looked down, ears flat.
“Sonata,” said Aria. “If I tell you, they’ll know. A certain somepony will throw a temper tantrum and… they’ll kill Sonata. Adagio and our parents are all dead because of that bitch. I can’t – I can’t let her take everyone from me. No matter how stupid Sonata is, she’s the only family I have left. She’s the only chance I have left to–”
Aria shut her eyes tight as her breathing grew heavy. Pinkie didn’t know if that doll could cry, but Aria fought against them possible or not.
Just as Pinkie opened her mouth to say something to comfort her, Aria spoke again.
“At the same time,” Aria added, “she knows Sonata is the only collateral she has over me. If Sonata dies, I have no reason to be silent anymore. Honestly, I almost feel like her sending my sister out on a mission like this is just her dangling Sonata in front of me– threatening me, reminding me she could send her on a suicide mission at any moment. So that’s how it is. I need you to get Sonata for me before I can talk.”
Aria turned back to Pinkie and blinked in surprise. Pinkie’s eyes watered as she looked at Aria intently.
“What?” Aria asked.
“That’s such a sad story!” Pinkie jumped forward and grabbed Aria in a hug. “I want to help you two even more now!”
“Gah!” Aria struggled harder to get Pinkie off this time. “Listen, we’re not friends, okay! I don’t care about you, and you have no reason to care what happens to me!”
“Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I care about another pony whose sister is in trouble?”
Aria looked down through her muzzle at Pinkie, unable to understand.
“Look! Just forget it.” Aria grumbled. “It’s not good for me to be around you too long. The more I stay the worse the need to freeze your blood becomes. I don’t want you thinking ghosts and predeads can be friends. This will tell you where to meet me.”
Aria handed Pinkie a card, then turned to leave without another word.
“Alright! Goodbye!” Pinkie waved to her as she walked away. “But we’re gonna be friends, okay?”
Pinkie’s words didn’t slow her for a second.
Rarity had yet to make up her mind as to whether that whole episode ended in victory or defeat.
The Bloodstorm Cartel certainly lost more than she had, with both Arachnado and Brilliant Gear, as well as a few less important agents, all being detained by either Equestria or Oaken Field. Rarity had successfully rallied the Mad Science League behind her and convinced them to go along with her long-term goals.
Finding themselves under threat from Screwball, her mad science friends had a fire lit underneath them now. A rush of activity erupted around her, and the wave of confidence crested into a mandate that would see it all directed however Rarity wished for now.
Ponies rushed about, both within and without the castle. They moved vital equipment to the castle grounds. They worked hard to repair their own robots and set up production for far more. They did everything they could to prepare for another attack, for war with the Bloodstorm Cartel. Soon Rarity would have the ability to construct a small army of robots.
Rarity watched it all from the top of the stairs, at the height of her power. Yet she knew this throne was still nothing but an unbalanced chair teetering atop a tower of poorly made furniture. Yes, she stood high, but she had a long way to fall and no foothold yet.
For now, Rarity and Kerfuffle’s castles would be the only two positions the Mad Science League would fortify. The stress test Screwball provided for them showed the previous model relied far too much on stalling until Twilight came in to save them. They hadn’t taken things seriously enough yet.
Rarity also needed to find a way to make Saccharine a new body. She could potentially just use a modified 8200 but making another 9200 would be far more difficult. Repairing Saccharine’s chassis alone would be a significant challenge, but Rarity could do it.
She had to run around playing diplomat now, too. The factions of the Everfree would be choosing neutrality or support between MSL or the Bloodstorm Cartel in the coming fight.
And then…
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle pestered her again. “How long until Saccharine has a new body?”
“Soon,” said Rarity. “There are just one or two things I have to do first. I need to get these ponies to accept Twilight… then I have to talk to Moondancer and try to get her to side with us over the Bloodstorm Cartel. If we can get her protection–”
“Huh?” Sweetie Belle looked up at her with wide-eyed ignorance. “Why would they side with the bad buys instead?”
“Believe it or now, the Bloodstorm Cartel is the only way for a lot of them to get certain resources,” said Rarity. “Equestria has all manner of trade embargos place on Oaken Field, leaving them with few options. The cartel is more than eager to fill those gaps and make ponies down here dependent on them.”
“So Oaken Field is going to attack us too?!”
“No, no,” Rarity quickly corrected her. “It’s not like Moondancer and the necromancers living in Oaken Field want to live with Screwball throttling their necks. I think whether they side with us or against us depends on my ability to convince them that it’s possible to break away from the cartel.”
Even with her expression a bit harder to read as a robot, Rarity had little trouble telling when Sweetie Belle got anxious. She also knew the best remedy was to give her sister some way to help, something to do.
“Why don’t you go help Applejack down in the forge?” Rarity put a hoof on her cheek. “We’ll be able to get Saccharine online much faster with your help.”
Sweetie Belle lowered her head and grumbled. Doubtless, she knew what Rarity was doing, but accepted it either way.
“Alright.” Sweetie turned to leave.
Before the relief of having even a single, very minor, problem taken care of, another one came rushing at Rarity headlong.
“Rarity!” Coco came running into the room, a piece of paper in her mouth. She skidded to a halt and took it out, needing to pant for a moment before speaking. “Rarity! The Bloodstorm Cartel just posted this in Oaken Field!”
Coco handed her the paper.
By decree of Queen Screwball of the Pirate Coast, the Bloodstorm Cartel is placing a bounty, to be paid out in gold, silver, and land from Screwball’s domain, on the ponies listed below. The full bounty will be paid out for any of them captured alive or one-half if their body is produced and verified.
What followed were pictures of several familiar ponies and their corresponding bounty. The only thing that surprised Rarity was the prices.
Silverstorm – 1 bit
Pinkie Pie – 1,000 bits
Sweetie Belle – 500,000 bits
Fluttershy – 1 million bits
Rarity Belle – 2 million bits
Derpy Hooves – 10 million bits
Coco Pommel – 50 million bits
Rainbow T. Dash – 1 billion bits
Screwball also promised a reward for the identification of a ‘masked pony’. The pony in question was Applejack wearing one of Rarity’s masks and cloaks.
And they had posted this in Oaken Field. In public. It revealed far too much information to far too many ponies.
“Why am I second highest on the list?!” Coco started to hyperventilate, barely getting her words out. “Why am I on the list at all?! I’m not worth fifty million bits! I’m not even worth five bits!”
“If I had to guess,” said Rarity, “this list is in reverse order of how difficult she believes it would be to kill each of us. Screwball wants to mentally damage Twilight by picking off the weakest of us first.”
The reward was so much higher for Rainbow Dash than any of the others. Screwball truly had identified the best target if crushing Twilight’s spirits were her main goal. Already, Twilight had become a bit unhinged… yet Rarity pitied anypony foolish enough to attack Dash at this exact moment with Twilight ready and clinging.
The question was whether somepony just looking at this list would make the same conclusions Rarity had. Most would likely assume Silverstorm being worth one bit was a slight or that Dash had insulted her in some way or even that Dash was seen as the true threat.
“Rarity!” Coco whined.
“We kept you safe from Screwball before and we can do it again.” Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. “With Twilight on our side, we can’t possibly lose.”
Fancy Pants, who had been annoying Rarity all day on the subject, watched them nearby. He decided now was a suitable time to prod her again.
“Yes, about this ‘Twilight’ pony.” Fancy Pants came up to Rarity. “We still haven’t gotten to vet this witch claiming to be Twilight Sparkle.”
Rarity did trust the ponies that remained by her side. A leak from them was unlikely but could be devastating. Keeping their confidence as high as possible was a vital priority.
“Very well.” Rarity nodded. “Those two have been far too reclusive since the fight, I admit. I’ll drag them out here for you whatever it takes.”
In the pocket dimension beneath Twilight’s treehouse, Twilight watched Dash’s continued training. Twilight nervously bit her lip, knowing this couldn’t possibly go fast enough. Trixie remained bored and distant, looking at Dash as she would a toddler failing to spell their name for hours. Applebloom had long passed the point she was willing to push herself to and wandered off to find something to drink.
Rainbow Dash lay collapsed on the floor. There was some success to be sure. She’d gotten far more spins on her makarakarn than ever before. It wasn’t really that she’d gotten much better in just two days, but that she held out so much longer through sheer grit and determination.
Twilight could see a fire lit beneath Rainbow Dash, unlike anything she’d gotten from the mare before. In truth, Twilight hadn’t taken this training seriously up until now either. Familiars weren’t supposed to go out to the store or play games or do anything but train.
When Rainbow Dash’s mind got too scattered by the makarakarn, she’d work on extending her magic control. When her wings were too exhausted to lift her off the ground, it’d be time for strength training. And by the time she could barely lift her legs, she’d just barely be able to go back to the makarakarn.
That was how things were supposed to be. She only feared it was too late now.
Twilight’s heart had yet to slow since the encounter with Screwball. She hadn’t been nervous about any opponent in so long, not since Starswirl’s last moments.
Had Twilight known how dangerous the world was, she would have insisted Rainbow Dash trained non-stop for another ten or twenty years before even entertaining the idea of going outside.
Twilight and Trixie watched as Rainbow Dash just barely pushed past one hundred spins. Soon she’d be done with this device. Soon, Twilight would be able to give her access to many more spells via mind fibers.
The real problem was that Twilight had been too negligent on everything else. Maybe in a few weeks like this, Dash would be versatile enough to destroy any normal opponent… but no normal opponent would be coming after her. Dash didn’t have the raw power to go after the strongest fighters the world had to offer, against the ponies that would try to take her.
And did they even have that long?
“Isn’t it a little late for this?” Trixie asked Twilight. “She has to push through this to become like a witch, but this training will leave her completely exhausted. She’ll be even more vulnerable.”
“I know, I know.” Twilight trotted back and forth thinking to herself. “There must be some way for her to get stronger faster. Just strong enough to deal with Screwball’s lackeys. Oh! What if she did that thing you did? We can turn her into a werewolf or a vampire or–”
“She’ll be banished from Equestria for either of those,” said Trixie. “Super radiation rarely gives you superpowers. She could always bite down on the wire, but that one can kill you.”
“Right.” Twilight ran through options in her head. She knew plenty of enchantments and transformation spells. The problem with that was Twilight would already have to be around to cast them on Dash. Dash still couldn’t cast them to the point where she’d be able compete at this level herself.
Most of the other options were all illegal, come to think of it. Why did Equestria have to be so unreasonable?! They banned everything that could protect Rainbow Dash.
There was one other option. Twilight could give Rainbow Dash a magical artifact to protect her. There was one that could propel her to Screwball or Trixie’s level before the morning light.
She still had one of the two alicorn feathers left, the one around Scootaloo’s neck. She could forge another element of harmony. She created the element of magic with Starswirl’s help, but she knew she could forge another alone. Twilight could make even make one specifically for Rainbow Dash, to ensure she’d be compatible with it.
The warning from her mentor came back to her. An element created for a specific pony made them their greatest possible self, but not necessarily their best. To Starswirl that meant supreme competency, a pony that could perform any miracle could twist reality beyond what was rational, and to whom there were no mysteries.
The element of magic had done as promised. Yet even as the bearer of that warning…
Twilight did wonder what the maximally great Rainbow Dash would be like. Certainly not a pony that could die easily. Yet given how poorly things turned out with the element of magic perhaps it wouldn’t be worth the risk.
Besides, Rainbow Dash took too much of a liking to Scootaloo. She would rather put herself in danger than take away the feather protecting that filly.
A less extreme option, instead, would be something like the second most powerful artifact Twilight had ever created. The Spear of Longinus, sadly, could not be repossessed legally due to what was known as a ‘statute of limitations'. Also, she had technically given that one as a gift to Flash…
And just like that Twilight found herself cringing at the thought. That hadn’t turned out well, either!
Twilight bit her lip.
No! It would be different this time. Those two were completely different. Yes, they were both slightly dim but passionate pegasi who encourage Twilight to set aside her studies to look into different things, but–
No, no, no! Flash would have jumped at the chance to create an element of harmony specifically for him, even if it meant screwing that Scootaloo filly over. Twilight didn’t doubt that any more than she doubted that Rainbow Dash would reject the idea.
At least… Twilight assumed that was what Dash would do.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight teleported to her side. “If you could obtain ultimate power by killing Scootaloo, would you do it?”
Dash coughed and sputtered, falling onto her haunches. The question left her stunned.
“Uh!” She glanced to the side with a wall-eyed expression. Twilight’s heart leaped! She wasn’t seriously considering that, was she? “Does ‘ultimate power’ include the ability to bring Scootaloo back to life immediately afterward?”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Dash hadn’t been entertaining the idea.
“No.”
“Then no?” Dash tilted her head. “Twilight, are we talking about demon summoning? Cause I like to think I’m pretty liberal with all this monster stuff but even I got a line.”
“Don’t worry. That was just a whacky hypothetical.” Twilight forced a laugh. Anyway, Dash had passed the ‘don’t kill Scootaloo’ test. She was worthy after all. “I’ve decided to create a powerful magical artifact for you like Longinus.
“You can make me a weapon like Longinus?” Dash stared at her in awe.
“I literally made that exact spear, yes.” Twilight nodded.
“Oh, yeah! That’d be–” Dash got too excited and started to wheeze. She needed to pace her words after that. “Pretty. Cool. Thanks.”
“I could also weave mind fibers into whatever I end up making.” Twilight nodded to herself. “You can likely handle a lot more of it now.”
“Maybe I can get like a tornado spell?” Dash’s eagerness overtook her exhaustion, though not enough for her to stand up straight. “Or the explosion spell this time? I don’t have anything that’s, you know, offensive.”
There was kind of a reason for that. Maybe Dash forgot.
“I was thinking more about spells that will keep you safe.” Twilight kept her smile soft. “You can likely handle simple teleportation and certain types of portals. Like the one where you use a portal to divert incoming attacks! Then the elemental resonance spell should be easy enough. And a few summoning spells so you’ll have a distraction while you escape!”
“Escape?” Dash blinked.
“Obviously, the best strategy would be for you to retreat back to my side as soon as possible and let me deal with any enemies,” said Twilight. “And if you’re by my side, you can still be useful by being a kind of distraction! You’d be a nearly impossible target even if you can’t fight back.”
Twilight could give Rainbow Dash a spell that shot a giant fireball or whatever, but it wouldn’t be of any use at this level. Twilight knew how hard she had to hit that Arachnado pony to harm him. Dash wasn’t strong enough to seriously damage a pony like that… let alone one significantly stronger like Screwball or who else knew what was out there.
“But what if I can’t get to your side?” Dash asked.
“You’re never going to be away from my side again!” Twilight stomped her hoof. “Don’t you get it? This is exactly what we were warned about!
“Eh?”
“You’re only in danger when you’re alone. When you’re not with me, remember? It’s because somepony will find the coin and use it to destroy you if I’m not here to protect you.” Twilight put one hoof on Dash’s shoulder and the other on her heart.
The fire in Dash’s eyes went out and she glanced down at the floor. Twilight frowned as well, unsure if she had said something wrong.
Certainly, everything she said made logical sense. Rainbow Dash wasn’t making any counterarguments.
“Twilight!” Rarity appeared in the summoning circle. “I think you’ve delayed long enough. My ponies want to speak with you, and they won’t wait much longer.”
“Oh, geeze!” Twilight staggered back. “Can’t we have another few minutes? Just until Rainbow Dash recovers?”
Twilight gestured to Dash who, upon trying to stand up, nearly puked.
“I already told you, if we let Rainbow Dash do all the talking they might get the wrong impression,” said Rarity. “Rainbow Dash will just have to wait here because we do have to go now. The opinion of these ponies is too important for us to leave them feeling slighted.”
Twilight stood perfectly still, her mind reeling for an excuse to get out of this. She knew she should go, but that didn’t make her want to on any level.
“Hey!” Dash smiled at her. “These ponies are going to be sympathetic to you. You’re starting easy, right?”
“Right.” Twilight nodded. Just the tiniest reassurance from Rainbow Dash always went such a long way.
Twilight had no idea how she could even function in this world without Dash sometimes. She had to do everything she could to keep her safe, even this…
“Okay. You just keep training,” said Twilight. “I’ll… I’ll probably be back.”
“And what do I do?” Trixie asked. “I’ve been waiting for you to teach me stuff for days!”
“Okay, fine! You want me to give you something to do?” Twilight pointed to Rainbow Dash. “Stop hating Dash. You need to conquer your emotions before you can use magic responsibly.”
“Stop hating–?! How am I supposed to do that?”
“I don’t know! Figure it out!”
Twilight sighed and looked at the summoning circle, braced herself, and pushed on to the other side.
Trixie’s boredom approached amusement as Rainbow Dash threw herself back into it with even greater fervor than before. She didn’t push herself to 101 before giving herself license to puke this time. She made it to 110, 120, then just a little more.
There really wasn’t much point in pushing past 100 with a makarakarn, but Trixie decided she’d feel bad telling Dash this much. Technically, that pegasus was at the point where she’d earn her first bell. That is, she was past the easiest part.
Applebloom came back over with a juice box. She wore a brimmed hat with a single bell strapped to it, having reached this level some time ago without any serious effort.
“Oh, wow!” Applebloom sat down next to Trixie to watch. “Is she still going at it?
“Yes.” Trixie narrowed her eyes at Dash. Sure, technically it was Twilight who beat her up, but Trixie found all of her resentment focused squarely on that pegasus she doted over. “It seems the Rainbow Dash has the exact opposite problem you do.”
“What do you mean?” Applebloom asked.
“How do I put this?” Trixie folded her forelegs and watched Dash continue to fight her pointless battle. “You’re a genius who will immediately learn anything I try to teach you, yet you have no motivation to work like this. Rainbow Dash is a complete idiot, but even knowing that she’ll continue to struggle even if it’s completely hopeless.”
Trixie deadpanned in the Pegasus’s direction, still unsure how she was supposed to do as Twilight ordered.
“If we could somehow combine the two of you, then Rainbloom would have the potential to be a witch, at least,” said Trixie. “Frankly, I don’t think either of you can make it to three bells, let alone five.”
Or seven, which Trixie herself might never achieve. To achieve the seventh bell and become a master, you needed a master witch (of whom Twilight was the only one) to acknowledge you as their equal and grant you peerage. That seemed increasingly unlikely as time wore on.
“I see.” Applebloom watched Dash with a less stern look. “But you got to five, I think? So you’re saying you’re a genius and you can work non-stop?”
“I certainly put in a lot of effort for the witch training.” Trixie looked down at her hoof. She’d oft worn it to a nub and seen it bleed only to push on even further. “Sixteen-hour days for years. My childhood was nothing else.”
But Trixie wondered about that second part, about being a genius. She’d always thought as much. Her whole life, learning had been so easy for Trixie. She thought herself vastly more intelligent than the common worms that crawled about the earth.
Yet a true genius wouldn’t have wasted all those years stuck in a mind trap. She would have realized the road she was on wouldn’t lead her to what she wanted. Now she was stuck in a TCU, wearing a leash like a total idiot. A pony working for a fast food restaurant was smarter than her.
“I sure as heck don’t got that kinda motivation.” Applebloom’s comment snapped her out of her concentration. “How did you manage that? Is there any way I can become, I dunno, half that motivated?”
Trixie hardly wanted to answer, even knowing the reason.
Applebloom had her family and she had that robot friend… she wasn’t alone with her hatred of everyone. She couldn’t boil in anger and come out like hardened leather because somepony would always pull her out.
Trixie indulged in that excuse. Yeah, she never had somepony to snap her out of it. She could devote herself entirely to magic because there was nothing else to devote herself to.
“Hello?” Applebloom waved her hoof in front of Trixie’s face. “What do I gotta do to be all motivated?”
“Don’t take this training too seriously.” Trixie turned away from her.
“Huh?” Applebloom blinked. “Isn’t that the opposite of–”
“Just get out of here,” Trixie said it more harshly than she’d meant to. “Your sister doesn’t want you hanging around me and she’s right. You’re not a witch. You’ll never be a witch. You don’t belong here, and I won’t waste my time teaching you anything. Leave.”
Predictably, Applebloom left in a huff soon after that, but it was fine.
Something Dash said echoed in her head as the filly left. ‘If you hate it so much, why would you want others to feel that way?’ Or something like that. It was for the best. Trixie felt like she’d done somepony else a favor for once.
Why had Trixie even given her that test, to begin with?
Trixie turned again to Rainbow Dash. That was the exact difference Trixie meant between the two of them. Dash wouldn’t have left. If she thought Trixie had something important to teach her she would have stayed long past the point it ceased being a good idea. Trixie could insult her all day long and it’d be useless.
But why? Rainbow Dash had everything. Twilight herself loved Dash. The public still loved her, she had all these ponies around. She wasn’t alone. She didn’t have any anger.
“I don’t get you.” Trixie raised her head high.
Dash tried getting up and looking at her. She’d become temporarily cross-eyed, joining that grey friend of hers.
“Uh. Thanks?” Dash struggled to control just one of her eyes.
“Tch. What I mean is why are you even trying with this?” Trixie asked. “You have ponies in your life. You have everything. Twilight will destroy the entire Bloodstorm Cartel without you and you can’t ever catch up to her. So why are you acting like–?”
Trixie didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t know where the desperation she recognized came from.
“Is that what you’d do?” Dash asked.
“As if I could!” Trixie scoffed. “We’re nothing alike! I was alone my whole life. My parents took me to some carnival just so they could abandon me there and I was relieved that I never had to see them again. My life hardly went uphill from there. My master was the only one who paid any attention to me or told me I was anything else but worthless and she was an abusive, sociopathic murderer. I never had anyone that I could rely on. I had no choice but to be determined.”
“Hey! Do you think I was just born like this?” Disoriented, Dash struggled to so much as put a hoof on her chest. “It’s not like I had anypony I could rely on growing up, either.”
Trixie blinked. She’d never once considered something like that a possibility. It seemed so clear Dash was privileged.
“No choice?” Dash sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I was so desperate to prove myself to anyone. I don’t know even know what I did, but something finally seems to have gone right and I’m not going to give it up. I’m not going to use Twilight or go back to be worthless no matter what!”
“Your parents weren’t around either?” Trixie asked.
“I don’t even remember my mother,” said Dash. “My dad might as well have not existed. You know, I didn’t even know what ‘drunk’ was back then. I just thought adults got super weird when the sun went down so I never trusted any of them.”
“And you didn’t resent everypony?” Trixie asked. “You’re saying they all mistreated you as much as they did me? But you never hated anypony?”
Trixie couldn’t believe such a thing. At least, she didn’t want to believe those feelings were something unique to her.
“I don’t think anypony believed in me,” said Dash. “And yeah… I guess maybe I did resent them all for a while.”
Dash looked at Trixie as if for the first time but quickly averted her gaze.
“I guess, if I’m gonna be fair, I don’t know what would have happened if I ran into some witch who wanted to feed my anger for her own purposes.”
Trixie smirked, then laughed, feeling a rush of freedom.
“How is that funny?”
“No, no! I… I used to think the same thing. About adults getting weird after sunset. There’s so much stuff that didn’t even click with me until I was almost twenty.” Trixie shook her head. “I take it you don’t drink either?”
“No way. It’s annoying how everypony always wants to know why. Like I need a reason.”
“Ha! Well I got the super-regeneration excuse. Alcohol doesn’t even affect me.”
“I need to come up with something like that.”
Dang it! Trixie didn’t even mean to… but at the moment she didn’t hate Dash.
At least, enough to give her the same advice she gave to Applebloom.
“I think maybe you should stop for now,” said Trixie. “The makarakarn doesn’t actually help you after you get to a hundred spins, you know.”
Twilight swallowed hard. She sat at the top of the stairs, overlooking a small crowd of ponies below. Rarity stood close by for support. Twilight knew just a few of their names. Fancy Pants, Coco, Kerfuffle… and even those three were effectively strangers to her.
This was it! Her biggest challenge yet.
She’d gotten used to talking to other ponies. Even being surrounded by them no longer filled her with the same paranoid stress it once had. But here, she had to give an account of herself.
If she couldn’t convince these ponies to trust her, she’d never be able to convince anypony. Though it seemed calm and not one of them could hope to harm Twilight, her life with Rainbow Dash was on the line.
Twilight struggled to think of what to say, even after rehearsing her talking points with Rarity. She hesitated too long and a pony in the group below spoke before her.
“Let me first say,” Fancy pants spoke, “whatever else is true, you ended a great many curses set upon us and have eliminated two dangerous witches. For that, you have my thanks.”
“Uh! Thank you!” Twilight never knew how to respond to compliments. “Or. You’re welcome?”
“But I do have questions. You claim to be the last master witch?” Fancy asked. “Which means also that you’re the one who created the Book of Shadows? And the curse of undeath was also your doing?”
Okay! Twilight could answer that much.
“I didn’t create that curse, but I did make the Book of Shadows.” Twilight nodded. “But I never used them against any of you. My only intention is to destroy the other spellbooks and this new corrupted order of witches. That includes Screwball! I know I can defeat her if we ever fought.”
“And why did you wait until now to do this?” Fancy asked. “Surely you could have accomplished as much over a hundred years ago, were you so inclined.”
“Something about the lunar calendar aligning with the solar one? Rainbow Dash broke the curse and I was forced to go outside.” Twilight hung her head down low, recalling the train of events. “I didn’t want to reemerge. At first, I was just worried the rest of the world might catch up to me. After seeing the outside world for myself… I had no idea they were making you suffer this much. I vastly underestimated the number of ponies alive. I apologize for that much.”
For a moment, Fancy Pants paused to consider it rather than pressing forward. For a moment, Twilight grew an ounce of confidence. Then Twilight was reminded there were plenty of other ponies in the group.
“Yes!” A stallion with glasses raised his hoof. “But how did the other witches get your spellbooks in the first place? Aren’t you the one who granted them these weapons?”
“No!” Twilight’s voice had more certainty in it than anything else she’d said so far. “I… those were stolen from me.”
“Stolen by whom, exactly?” Another pony in the crowd asked.
“I doubt you’ve ever heard of him, but his name was Flash Sentry. I guess he–”
Twilight paused, seeing just how scandalized that name left the crowd. Did she already mess up?!
“Twilight, darling,” Rarity pulled her aside. “What did this ‘Flash Sentry’ look like?”
“A blue-haired pegasus?” Twilight pointed to herself. “I guess he kinda looked like Flash Bang. I really should have realized they were related sooner. It seems so obvious now.”
“Flash Bang’s ancestral namesake?” Rarity stared at Twilight incredulous. “He’s the one who caused the curse of undeath and stole the spellbooks?”
“Huh? Yeah.” Twilight nodded and took a step back. She couldn’t possibly fathom why this was getting such a strong reaction. The crowd was even more restless now. “I don’t see why that’s important, though.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Twilight, don’t you get this?” Rarity tapped her forehead with a hoof and shook her head. “Flash Bang’s family has been in power in Equestria for generations. And a large part of that is the reputation they’ve built around the lineage stemming from the ‘hero’ Flash Sentry. If you have dirt like this on them…”
“Uh. Huh.” Twilight blinked. She looked down at the crowd, then back to Rarity. “Then what?”
“Twilight, you can severely damage the reputation of one of the elite four whenever you want,” said Rarity.
“So it’s a good thing?” Twilight blinked.
“This is certainly quite the card to have.” Rarity let go of her and stepped forward to address the crowd. “Do you not all see how much opportunity she presents to us? Twilight here is our only real chance to defeat the Bloodstorm Cartel in this coming conflict. She can push our robotic research forward faster than ever before. She and Rainbow Dash are our best allies inside Equestria as well.”
Rarity gave Twilight a look that made her feel as though she were forgetting something.
“Oh!” Twilight recalled one of her talking points. “Yes. I believe that much of Equestrian law is unreasonable to you all. Rainbow Dash wants to change the system, to make it fairer to outsiders. If you support me, then I promise to do as much as I can to make that happen.”
Twilight ran her eyes over the crowd. She hated when there were this many ponies around. It was so hard to get a general sense of their reaction to her. She didn’t see anypony snarling or cringing or anything like that.
She decided to instead focus in on one of them. She read a book that suggested talking to a single pony in a crowd at a time would make it easier. Her target was Fancy Pants, the most vocal of them so far. He was still frowning and deep in thought. Neither the best nor the worst reaction.
“I believe Spatial Tear promised something similar with Manehattan and Toxco,” Fancy said. “In the end, she was merely using their greed against them in an attempt to end civilization itself. How can we be so sure you aren’t going after the other witches merely to eliminate competition? So that none could oppose you? To put all of Equestria and ponydom under your unchallenged hoof?”
Twilight floundered trying to think up a response to this accusation. She couldn’t prove she wasn’t secretly evil!
Thankfully, Rarity was there to step up for her.
“You’ve seen her in interviews and you see her now.” Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s back. “Does she strike you as a ruthless tactician? Does she look like the sort of pony who wants to rule over Equestria? That even could if she wanted to?”
At long last, Twilight’s social anxiety paid off as murmurs of agreement went through the room.
“Yes.” Fancy Pants also rubbed his chin in consideration. “I suppose a suitably cunning conqueror would have thought to use Flash Bang’s lineage against her. Yet you were sincerely oblivious. There’s also the fact that you’ve turned over the spellbooks, rather than trying to keep them for yourself.”
“Um! Yes. I don’t understand any of this,” Twilight said with a lot more confidence than anything prior in the speech. “I don’t think I would make a great ruler. I intend to leave that to ponies like Rarity.”
Twilight spared Rarity a look and got a nod in return. A few of the pre-written lines came back to Twilight. One of them felt sincere enough in the moment to use without it sounding canned.
“What I understand is magic. I see the problems that witchcraft has created. I also see the opportunities that working together will open. If you stand by my side, we can fix these problems together. Please. I want to be your friend.” Twilight closed her eyes and bowed her head.
Twilight’s ears perked up at the sound of hooves. She opened her eyes back up to find a few of the ponies below applauding that line! Not all of them, not even half, but enough to make Twilight’s heart swell. She looked through the crowd, finding far less skepticism than when she started. She was pulling this off!
Twilight went back to Fancy Pants as soon as she could. Sadly, he remained reserved even now.
“Can I, then, have your assurance that you will never personally take a high political position?” Fancy Pants asked. “That you will never try to usurp Rarity or try to take control of the Everfree or pirate coast yourself?”
“I think I can?” Twilight turned to Rarity for her approval. It sounded reasonable, but Twilight never knew when she was walking into a trap with these political things.
Rarity smiled and gave her a slight nod.
“Um! Yes!”
Twilight hadn’t even thought ahead that far, but her pathetic display was at last enough to assuage Fancy’s fears and get a slight, if bemused, smile on his face.
“Very well.” He bowed his head. “Then I will trust you and Rarity for now.”
If Twilight had turned him around… maybe she could do this after all.
“Thank you!” Twilight smiled, tears in her eyes. “That’s all I ask.”
Things, it seemed, were finally looking up!
“This is horrible, Rainbow Dash!” Shouted Derpy.
“This is exactly what I was worried about,” said Twilight. “Do you get it now? I can’t let you out of my sight.
Twilight and Derpy both grabbed her from either direction. Their equal but opposite shaking had a neutralizing effect, at least.
“Just let me look at the darn thing already!” Dash snatched it out of Derpy’s mouth to look over the wanted poster.
Dash could feel the weight of the paper all too literally in her hooves. Such an intense day of training rendered even a simple task like this difficult. The words seemed reluctant to be read, almost moved about on the page. At least Twilight took over leash duty for now.
As much as Twilight wanted her to keep training non-stop forever, Dash did, unfortunately, have other things to do. Frankly, Dash didn’t think she could do any more than this.
Maybe Dash could be useful on some level with Twilight’s help. If anything, she wanted to go through with this training just to keep her mind off darker thoughts, to help her forget.
“If you’re not going to use Twilight’s clinginess, can I have it?” Derpy asked, peering over Dash’s shoulder. “Twilight, if you want to creepily follow me around everywhere at every waking moment I’m okay with it.”
At least Derpy seemed to be warming up to her.
Dash blinked a few times, trying to be certain she’d read this correctly. Letters were difficult things at the moment.
“A billion?! Does she even have that kind of money?!” Dash saw a picture of Screwball sitting on a throne made out of gold bars and stacks of cash.
The fine print said that half of the prize money would be paid in the form of a land grant, one of the islands Screwball controlled. At that point, you probably had to leave the country anyway.
“I guess maybe she does.”
The corners of Dash’s mouth turned up. Her nerves had been so frayed these past few days but seeing such a huge bounty made her smile. Somepony seriously thought she was that big of a threat.
Twilight had only been given one bit? But why?
Screwball thought she was her sister so maybe she wanted to save Twilight for herself?
“Rainbow Dash! Why are you smiling?!” Derpy pulled the paper down. “We’re in a lot of trouble! Not only are we gonna have to fight off assassins, but worse! We gotta fight off lawyers! This is gonna be in the news! Sunset and Flash Bang both wanna have a word with you and also the police already showed up but Slade got them to go away.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that second part.” Dash had at least seen this coming to an extent, even before the wanted posters went up. Her association with a mad scientist would be public knowledge soon. “How many phone calls did I get in the past five hours?”
“Four hundred and sixteen,” said Derpy. “Somepony’s going to show up at the door soon, I bet! They aren’t going to wait much longer.”
“You’re probably right, but…” Dash rubbed her eyes. “Well, that’s why our lawyer’s here. Let me go talk to him first.”
Pinkie was already waiting for Dash, along with their lawyer, sitting on either side of one of Dash’s couches.
“Dashie!” Pinkie waved over to her. She was eating nuts. Dash neither knew nor cared whose fridge they came out of. “Did you think about freeing Sonata Dusk like I said?”
Dash fell onto the couch and looked up at the ceiling. Before her cage got rattled like this she wouldn’t have hesitated. Yet now… she was starting to worry about biting off more than she could chew.
“Barely?” Dash fell onto the couch.
“We have to focus on taking out Screwball!” Twilight’s eyes remained laser focused on some invisible point. “She’s the threat right now! She’s literally trying to kill Rainbow Dash at this exact moment! And before you say anything, I looked it up and Screwball has slaves too. And she does all kinds of horrible things. And she has that mirror I need to get rid of the curse of undeath, in case you’ve forgotten. So if you do the math, it’s more moral to devote our time to her.”
“Twilight’s kinda got a point,” Dash said. “I know this is important to Fluttershy and the other ghosts, but ponies have been freaking out about Crater Cemetery since before I was born. That specter never seems to do anything, though! We don’t even know her name. How do we even know it’s a ‘she’, anyway?”
“Oh, she’s done a lot of evil things,” said Pinkie. “You just don’t hear about it cause Crater Cemetery only goes after undead. But she’s destroyed all of the old ghost cities. She’s killed and or enslaved oodles.”
“I guess.” Dash rested her head on the arm of the couch. “I’m not trying to dismiss this or anything. It’s just – maybe we can deal with the witches first before adding another fifty enemies to our list? We gotta think of a way to do this that won’t knock over another beehive. She seems okay with sitting in her little crater for now.”
“But it won’t take long!” Pinkie objected. “And it’s just freeing one tiny little ghost. It’s not like Aria’s leak will be so humungous that it’ll set off a chain reaction leading to the Crater Cemetery specter going ballistic and start throwing asteroids at us left and right!”
All eyes turned to Pinkie Pie and every mouth remained shut as the all the ponies in the room now saw that exact scenario as inevitable.
“We can do it.” Dash closed her eyes. “Just maybe try to think of ways to keep the heat down beforehand?"
For now, Dash could only hope all this stuff with Sonata didn’t escalate things on that any further.
“Alright. Lay it on me, lawyer pony.” Dash sat up and turned to her lawyer. She probably should have cared more about this legal trouble than she did. “How screwed am I?”
The ‘good lawyer’ Pinkie mentioned ages ago turned out to be her nephew. Though it was hard to think of him as such. At present, the middle-aged stallion looked old enough to be Pinkie’s uncle instead.
Not only that, but Slade Pie bore little resemblance to her. Various shades of grey covered his well-kept coat and mane. He had such a serious look on his face, always keeping his focus on some document. Were they really related?
“Believe it or not, this isn’t nearly the worst thing my aunt has done,” he said. “You’re lucky you weren’t here for that time she summoned a hedonism demon.”
“Gak!” Pinkie fumbled with her jar of nuts. “That octopus-head guy was a consenting adult!”
“I established that in a court of law, yes.” Slade straightened his glasses. “I’ll have little difficulty keeping the two of you out of trouble and from searching your home any time soon. There simply isn’t enough evidence that you’ve done anything but share a room with her as part of your mission to capture Trixie.”
“Okay.” Dash let out a sigh of relief, glad to know she was good on one front. “So we’re good, yeah?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Slade adjusted his glasses before going back to filling out the forms. “You are untouchable in this situation, but Rarity has a long list of crimes. Performing an illegal surgery without a license, criminal use of mad science, the creation of artificial general intelligence… Now that she’s linked to you, I imagine anypony who wants to punish you will go after her instead.”
Generally, the ponies who lived in the Everfree were considered as not worth going after. There were worse threats to consider on any given day and marching an army into the forest meant a small war would break out, as Dash had personally seen.
Rarity, it seemed, might have been pushed just over the ‘worth it’ line. Those above and below the law both had bounties on her. The only question was which side would go after her first.
“So even with that insane reward on my head, Rarity’s the one in trouble?” Dash asked. “Everypony thinks I’m invincible right now, don’t they?”
Yeah, for all Twilight’s worries almost few ponies would be coming after Dash yet. Not unless they knew the truth.
“And the whole me being an ancient witch thing?” Twilight asked. “I don’t know how these magic ‘court’ powers work, but can you dispel that, too?”
“I’m afraid we would have to resort to ‘extra-legal means’, as Aunt Pinkie likes to phrase it, to resolve that particular issue,” said Slade. “I’d imagine you’re in a fairly good position for the moment regarding that. As far as public opinion goes, I’d be most worried about Starlight Glimmer getting involved.”
Pinkie stopped chewing her nuts.
Then there was a knock on the door. Dash sighed and buried her face in a throw pillow. If that was seriously Starlight herself…
Derpy went to answer but Dash stopped her and went personally instead.
It wasn’t Starlight herself, but Dash’s first impression was that she was under arrest right now. Night Glider, with her disturbingly wide smile, stood inches in front of Dash. Behind her were two rows of ten armored pegasi, standing resolute and at attention.
At least her lawyer was already here.
“Hi, Rainbow Dash!” Night Glider sounded way too chipper. “President Starlight Glimmer wants to talk to you and your friend. Like right now.”
“Um.” Dash looked back into the house, then to Night Glider. “A lot of ponies want to speak to me right now.”
“I’m pretty sure the president’s orders trump everypony else’s.”
“I’m a little busy.”
“Mmm! I’m afraid this is a direct order from the president regarding S-level material.” Night glider tilted her head, keeping the smile. “You’re not allowed to say no to this. We want Silverstorm to come too.”
Dang it! Dash forgot Starlight could assign her missions and stuff. At least it didn’t sound like she was under arrest.
“Uh.” Dash backed up into her house a few steps. “Lawyer guy? Can I say no to this?”
“Technically, as a member of the SA, you are required to obey an order like this, less you become AWL.” Slade came out soon afterward. He looked over to Twilight. “I could likely you out of this, at least.”
“No!” Twilight shook her head. “If Rainbow Dash is going then I have to go too!”
At least Dash wouldn’t have to face her alone. They’d need to bring Trixie with them, too.
“You don’t need to worry!” Night Glider’s expression was always unreadable, stuck being that fake smile. “President Starlight will only keep you for a little while.”
Night Glider gestured to their destination. An airship off in the distance but still in sight loomed just under the clouds on the other side of the river.