//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 Revised // Story: Of Innocence Lost // by Lunafan1k //------------------------------// The next morning brought with it the fresh smells of spring; the rain that lasted all through the night worked its magic in rejuvenating the land. The earth was able to soak up most of the water, leaving a moist residue across the ground. The various dips and holes in the roads of Ponyville made themselves known as they held puddles of water. One particularly large puddle showed evidence of a wheeled device losing control and tragically crashing. A small purple filly unicorn sporting a blond mane and tail examined the odd puddle, confounded as to what could have caused such a disturbance. She was soon caught up in indecision as to what she should do next, either attempt to fix the mud so it dries properly or act like the filly she was and leap into the mud. She finally came to a conclusion: water was fun, mud was water and dirt, ergo mud was fun. She bent down into a pouncing position but before she could commence the fun times her mother called out to her. “Muffin! I’m done with this section, let’s get going!” Ditzy called to her daughter. “Okay!” Dinky called back as she scampered over to walk with her mother, the mud puddle now forgotten. Today was Saturday, a day enjoyed by both mother and daughter as the one day a week Ditzy was able to spend the most time with Dinky as she brought her along on her routes. Because they spent the time casually walking and chatting from house to house instead of flying like she did every weekday, the mail took much longer to deliver. However, Saturday was notorious for being a slow day for mail anyway and she simply took the opportunity to spend more time with her beloved daughter. Unknown to either, they were gaining the attention of a single filly looking out the window of the boutique they had just passed. Sweetie was awoken earlier than she wanted, the sun glaring through the open curtains of her window. She had gotten up to close them with the intention of returning to sleep immediately after. Once she got to the window she stopped and looked out at the pair of blond haired ponies. Her mind slowly woke up as the story she heard last night between Cheerilee and her big sister slowly played through her mind. …he found her up there just wallowing in misery … she grabbed Dinky and left her husband in the middle of the night … did it for Dinky … a heavy drinker … violent … she was hospitalized … threatened to beat her and Dinky … She shook her head as she came to a decision: she will befriend Dinky and offer her any support she or her mother needs, regardless if Scootaloo and Applebloom didn’t want to. She was sure that if she shared the details about Dinky they would join her in her cause, but stuff like that was not meant to be shared openly. She closed the curtains and returned to her bed. Too awake to return to sleep, she began drawing up plans on how she should approach Dinky later in the day, and the possibility of practicing her summoning spell. Two and a half hours later, the sun was well over the horizon and called for the attention of Scootaloo and Applebloom. As one they began to murmur and yawn, rubbing the sleep from their eyes as they began to fully awaken. “Wow Sweetie, yer up already?” Applebloom asked, noticing her friend on the other side of the large bed with a notebook open in front of her. “What’cha doen?” “Oh, well, you know the mail mare’s daughter?” Sweetie Belle said as she closed the notebook, sliding it under her pillow for later. “Um, Dinky?” “Yeah,” Sweetie nodded, “I think she should join our group for crusading. If not, I was thinking we could be friends anyway.” “Uh-uh, no way to both.” Scootaloo disagreed almost immediately, much to the shock of her friends. “She’s like, a little kid. It would be totally uncool.” “Uncool how?” Applebloom asked skeptically. “Like, you know the awesome crusading we do?” her friends nodded, “she’s too young to handle that kind of stuff. Plus, we would have to redo every crusade we’ve been on to help her find her cutie mark. And as for just hanging out, she will probably just want to play with dolls or something. That makes her uncool.” Sweetie was miffed that her friend would say something so cruel, she was about to retaliate when he remembered that Scootaloo didn’t know about certain details and decided to let it drop for the better. “Well ah think outright refusen like that is plain rude, Scoots.” Applebloom said, “But, then again, ah don’t really have time to be playen with dolls an stuff all the time. Sweetie, ah’ll be friends with her too, but to an extent. Does she even have any friends right now?” “I don’t know,” admitted Sweetie, “the only time I see her is when she’s going to afternoon class, and usually she’s always with Ditzy.” “Well if you want to hang out with a little kid, that’s fine with me. I was actually planning on working on a few tricks to show to Rainbow Dash today anyway, so I’ll see you later.” Scootaloo said, departing the bedroom and leaving her mess behind. Sweetie sighed and with Applebloom’s help they made quick work of the clean up as they heard Scootaloo reving her wings in the distance. “Ahm sorry Sweetie, but ah got ta help Applejack out in the south field this morning. Ah would like ta help ya but ya know…” Applebloom trailed off. “Oh it’s fine, I’m sure if I just spoke to her she might want to play or something.” Sweetie said reassuringly. With a final farewell Applebloom left for the farm while Sweetie went to check in with Rarity. She opened the door to Rarity’s bedroom and found the bed already made, so she headed downstairs. In the main room of the boutique, she once more heard muffled voices. She followed the sound to the basement once again, this time to find Rarity and Cheerilee complaining. “Cheerilee, remind me to never drink that much ever again. Passing out in one’s own basement like a drunk is very unbecoming of a lady, not to mention this hangover…” Rarity said. “Oohh… I hear that. I’m just glad it’s a weekend. Trying to teach a bunch of screaming kids with a hangover is pure hell.” Cheerilee agreed. Sweetie pushed the door open and let herself in, “We’re not that bad, are we Miss Cheerilee?” she asked innocently. “Heard that did you?” she chuckled, “Well, it’s not every day, but there are times when your classmates drive me up a wall. Don’t tell anypony I said that, the last thing I need is more irate parents breathing down my neck about their innocent foals.” She sighed. “Speaking of, I need to deal with Filthy and Scrooge on Monday.” “Like I said last night, come with me to Twilight’s this afternoon when I get another book for Sweetie.” Rarity said. “I think I’ll do just that. Oh, and Sweetie, if you don’t feel up to it you don’t have to submit your report right away if you need the extra time.” “Thanks Miss Cheerilee, but I should be able to get it done working with the crusaders.” She turned to Rarity, “Sis? Can I go out and play? I want to go to the park for a bit.” “You sure you’re up for it?” Rarity asked, checking on Sweetie’s black and blue eye. The swelling had gone down a lot from the night before, but it still looked painful. “Yeah, I should be alright. I can always come home if it gets bad though.” Rarity sighed in defeat, she wanted to protect her sister but she couldn’t keep her locked up in the house either. “Well, okay then. But if you see those dreadful ponies I don’t want you to say or do anything, and if they keep giving you trouble come and find me or Twilight and we will get them straightened out.” “Okay, I will, bye Rarity! Bye Miss Cheerilee!” Sweetie called as she headed back upstairs to her room. She went to her closet and grabbed her saddlebags, then turned to her bed. She reached under the pillow and grabbed her notebook. After securing it in her bag she felt a light chill, almost like a touch. She turned and looked back into her room, the book was there, under her bed. She smiled as she grabbed it and slipped it into her bags as well. She then went downstairs and made her way outside into the sunshine. She quickly trotted to the Ponyville Post Office, Ditzy should be just about finished with her routes for the day and hoped to catch her. As she made it to the office she glanced inside through the window, the lights were off and not a soul was to be found. Thinking she was just a might bit early, she settled on simply waiting for them to show up. Half an hour later there was still no sign of them. With a sigh of defeat Sweetie picked herself up and headed a few blocks away to the park. She walked to the far side on the boarder of White Tail Woods. She glanced around nervously to make sure she wouldn’t be spotted. “Okay, Let’s see what this spell does.” She muttered to herself. She set her bags down and opened one of the flaps. Inside she saw the apparently battered cover of her spell book. She opened the book to one of the marked pages and looked it over. The page detailed the complex matrix of a summon spell for the Imp Guide. She memorized it as best she could and squeezed her eyes shut before she began to channel the magic into the spell matrix. Her horn was covered in a black and blue aura as streams of energy flew up from a magic circle at her hooves. The streams met directly over her head and formed a large black orb. After about a minute of channeling magic, the orb collapsed into itself with a flash of light. “AAAKKAAAGGRRRUUACK!!” Sweetie almost jumped out of her hide at the sudden sound. It was high in pitch yet very throaty at the same time. She quickly spun to her left where she saw the strangest sight she had ever laid eyes upon, and she had witnessed Discord first hoof. Upon taking in the appearance of the creature she summoned, she instantly began to regret doing so. It was a small, bipedal thing with long arms that touched the ground when it slouched. The legs of the creature were rather short in proportion to the body and ended in three clawed toes. At the end of the arms were four clawed fingers, and on top of the shoulders sat a head that was far too small. Its beady eyes cast about in a flurry, taking in its surroundings quickly. On either side of its head was a pair of very large, fin-like ears. The imp spun and faced Sweetie Belle, “OOOHHHHH!!!! The fucking tiny horsy GAH!! About fucking time!” Sweetie couldn’t tell if it was screaming at her or if it was just the voice of the creature. Either way, it was definitely not from Equestria, as nopony spoke such foul language. “U-umm… my name is Sweetie Belle…” She started, perhaps speaking with it will calm it down. “NEAHAHA!! Horse thing has stupid name!! OORRAACCK!!” the imp cried out in laughter and another odd screech. It paused for a moment as it seemed to consider her. “Yes… You are the one I was watching.” “So, your name is Aznip? And when were you watching me? I just summoned you!” Sweetie Belle said in confusion. “Aznip bound to Master’s book, yes. This book,” He motioned toward the Necronomicon on the ground between them, “created by Master thousands of years ago. Contains every spell ever created throughout time it does. Master looking for a way to achieve true immortality, but dream was never realized. On Master’s deathbed, Master bound me to this book. I am now guardian, looking to find another like Master to achieve his greatest work.” “So, you think I’m the one that will discover the secret to immortality?” Aznip shrugged. “You find my book, read it, and it no consume you. HA!! This make Aznip excited! Yes! BAHA!!” “Consume? It can eat ponies?!” She panicked. “No not eat, stupid, consume! Drive mad with power!” He explained. “So there were other ponies that tried your book?” Sweetie asked. “Hmmm… Yes. Last one was night princess, young fool thought to control darkness within book, but it no work like that. New Master need to be special in different way. But now you, you may be the one yet, but we shall see.” “Okay, well what do I need to do?” Sweetie asked, but before she could get an answer they were interrupted by a scream off in the woods. “What was that?” Suddenly a small purple filly burst through the bushes and ran toward Sweetie, crying for help. Aznip cast a shroud over his body, becoming invisible to all but Sweetie. Thirty minutes earlier Ditzy and Dinky were making their way back to the post office, they had finished with the routes for the day and decided to take a detour to Sugar Cube Corner, where they each got a blueberry muffin. They passed a dark alley as they laughed and giggled, not seeing a dark figure lunge out at them. In an instant they were both knocked out cold with a swift kick to the back of their heads. The figure drug them back into the alley and loaded their unconscious forms into a cart and covered them with hay. After a moment he hitched himself to the cart and trotted through town. He was an unassuming earth brown with a darker brown mane; the image on his rump was that of a bale of hay. He got onto the path that lead to Baltimare and began the trek through White Tail Woods. They were just passing the midway point when Dinky woke up with a headache. She glanced around curiously until her eyes fell upon a grey hoof not covered very well. Fear gripped the filly’s chest as she carefully dug out more of the pony. Soon she uncovered her mother’s head and began to panic as shock and instinct took over. She quickly jumped off the cart and bolted in a random direction, screaming at the top of her lungs all the way. The stallion pulling the cart noticed too late, and by the time he had unhitched himself he had lost track of the filly. He heard her scream again in the distance and began to chase after her at full speed. He quickly reached the clearing that was the Ponyville Park and leapt over the last bush before he dug his hooves into the ground to skid to a stop. Before him was his target and another, slightly older filly. “Step aside and you won’t get hurt.” He told Sweetie Belle. Instead she stood defiantly, attempting to obscure Dinky from his glare. “Look kid, I’m on a tight schedule to get that filly to Baltimare. Her father is paying a handsome amount of money and I have no problem beating the snot out of some kid that didn’t know what was good for her.” He said with a grin. He twisted his neck, several of the vertebrae popping as he slowly advanced towards Sweetie. Sweetie continued to stand her ground as her horn flashed and the light soaked into her hide. “S-Stay back!” Sweetie warned him. He laughed as he rushed her and clobbered her in the head. Sweetie grunted in pain, even with the defensive spell active the pain from the blow was quite sharp. She cleared her head with a shake, and looked up at the assaulting pony. He was surprised and confused, no filly should be able to keep standing after that attack. Sweetie took this opportunity to charge her horn, and then basted a ball of light into his eyes. He roared in pain as the brightness burned his retinas. “Come on!” Sweetie yelled to Dinky. She nodded and followed closely behind as they hid in the woods. The stallion raked his face with his hooves trying to pry off the spell, drawing blood from his nose as it broke under his flailing. Fortunately for him, the spell faded quickly. He panted as he cast his bloodshot eyes around the area, the glaring spots making it nearly impossible to see. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, when he opened them again the spots were much smaller, his eyes beginning to readjust. He then galloped off into the woods searching for his escaped prey. Luckily he was able to track their hoof prints in the soggy ground. Soon he caught up to them, he wasn’t far behind. He put on a burst of speed and leapt, landing on top of Dinky as she cried out in pain and surprise. Sweetie Belle skidded to a halt as she spun around, the thug was now holding dinky against the ground with a knife to her throat. “Now, you fucking bitch, get the fuck over here or I gut her!” He demanded. She glanced around fearfully, spotting Aznip not far from the thug. “Aznip? I don’t think I can take this guy…” she said, an edge of fear entering her voice. “Of course little horse! BAHAHA!!!” Aznip dropped his invisibility ward and burst into flames, startling the attacker and causing him to backpedal in a startled panic. Aznip ran toward the dull earth pony and latched onto his back. From there he reached forward and began to claw the eyes out of the attacker as he screamed in pain. Blood was running down his face and muzzle from the numerous gouges in his face. He reared up and fell backwards, landing on Aznip, causing him to lose his grip. The earth pony quickly got back onto his hooves and ran, searching for safety with his one good eye. His other had been gouged out during the assault and was now a string of flesh dangling out of the empty socket. Blinking more blood out of his remaining eye, he found what he was looking for: The path back through the woods. Aznip saw his prey attempting to escape and wouldn’t allow it to happen. He channeled his magic into his claws and the space between them ignited. With a battle cry he tossed the ball of fire at the fleeing pony. The pony turned sharply into the woods, the fireball turning as well and quickly approaching the stallion. He tried weaving between the trees, either in confused terror or to try to shake his pursuer, but to no avail. The fireball continued unabated, fazing through trees, bushes, and wildlife without causing harm and finally striking the stallion on his rump. The fireball exploded in a torrent of flames, engulfing the pony as he screamed in pain. The inferno quickly abated, but the fire seemed to stick to the stallion as he rolled around in the dirt, nothing was able to put out the fire. Soon he stopped screaming and thrashing altogether as he succumbed to the bitter embrace of death as nothing more than charred meat. Sweetie Belle, Aznip, and Dinky followed the sounds of the tormented screaming and found the burnt remains not far from the main road. Sweetie knew it was the thug’s body, and that she had a hoof in his death. The shock was nullified partly because it just looked like a pile of charcoal, and in part is that if she hadn’t defended herself and Dinky they would both be kidnapped, or worse. They stood over the remains, Dinky was already in shock from the thought of her mother being dead, and barely reacted to the sight before her. Instead she focused her attention on Aznip. “Who are you?” She asked. “This is Aznip, he’s my new magic teacher.” Aznip rolled his eyes but remained silent. Dinky’s stare began to bore into him, moisture collecting in her eyes as recent events began to crash down upon her. “D-Did you save us?” She asked. Aznip regarded her for a moment, then stretched to his full height to look at her at eye level. “Yes.” To the surprise of both Sweetie and Aznip, Dinky bounded forward and embraced him in a tight hug. “Oh thank you, thank you! I-I-I just don’t know what’s going on!” Sweetie walked forward and wrapped an arm around her withers, “I don’t know the full story either, but I’m just glad you weren’t hurt.” Dinky glanced up at Sweetie Belle and noticed a large lump forming on the side of her head. “Oh no! are you okay?!” She asked. Sweetie reached up and tenderly touched the lump with a wince. “Yeah, he got me pretty good though. I’ll be alright.” Aznip looked indifferent as he moved to stand over the corpse and pulled something wispy out of the remains and into a gem. “What… What was that?” Asked Sweetie, curious yet disgusted at the same time. “His soul. Use it to restore energy once I back in own realm. You learn about soon enough.” “Muffin?! Muffin!!” They each turned toward the sound of somepony calling out in fright. “Mommy!!” Dinky yelled and took off down the path toward the sound of her mother. Sweetie followed closely behind with Aznip, who was once again cloaked in invisibility. Soon they came upon a wonderful sight, Dinky had leaped into her mother, tears of joy and relief streaming down both of their faces as they held each other tightly. After a few minutes Ditzy hoisted her daughter onto her back, Dinky continuing to cry and snuggle into her mane. Ditzy approached Sweetie Belle, “Did you save my muffin?” before she could answer Sweetie was swept up into a tight embrace as more tears from the pegusus soaked into her coat. “Thank you, thank you so much! I-I don’t know what I would have done otherwise, thank you!” “You’re welcome; I was just in the right place I guess.” Sweetie said modestly. Suddenly they were interrupted by a blue blur with a rainbow trail. “What’s going on, is everypony alright?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a slight panic. “I saw a fire and came as soon as I warned the town. Sweetie Belle? What are you doing here?” “Well, I was in the park when…” Sweetie explained the events that took place, leaving details about Aznip out and saying she simply cast a spell in shock that resulted in the fireball and death of the assailant. “… and then we heard Ditzy calling out and now we’re here.” She finished. During her recount other ponies began to show up, first was Twilight and the rest of the gang along with several town guards and fire ponies. Then several other ponies came out that were just curious or wanted to assist the others in some way. Ditzy and Dinky were both rushed to the hospital to be treated for concussions while Twilight wrote up a report to send to the princess. The police took Sweetie with them, infuriating Rarity as well as every pony in the area as they declared her a hero. The charred remains of the body were scooped into trash bags to be taken to the morgue and to be hopefully identified. Soon after at the local guard station, Sweetie was reduced to tears as she was harshly lectured about the dangers of attempting too strong of a magical spell. “I-I’m so sorry!” she wailed, “I just didn’t want him to hurt her! I-I overheard my s-sister and M-Miss Cheerilee talking about her father, and I don’t know what happened!” One of the guards strode up and gently rubbed her back. “Shh shh, there there. We know you didn’t meant to, but it’s still the fact that you are able to pull off such advanced magic at a young age. You need to be careful from now on so that you don’t accidently hurt anypony else. Also, we are well aware of Dinky’s situation, and we need to thank you for stepping in when you did.” Sweetie nodded as she dried her eyes on her hoof, “So, I can go now?” she sniffed. “Yes you are free to go home, we just wanted you to understand the dangers involved with powerful magic.” Soon she was led outside by the guard, and they even gave her a sticker of the guard’s insignia. Outside she was reunited with Rarity, and together everypony headed to the hospital to check up on Ditzy and Dinky, Aznip not far behind, his invisible presence felt by none. One hour ago, Canterlot Luna was once more encased in massive amounts of books. However, instead of the usual tax and law books she was now surrounded with everything dealing with the occults that have popped up through the ages. She was able to study in peace for the last day, learning much but finding nothing of use. It was at this time she was visited by her sister, Celestia. “Oh? Court is over already?” Luna observed as she marked her page and set the book aside. “Indeed. I was just finishing up when I got a letter from Twilight, and it would appear that there are some shady operations going on with the local government.” Celestia said as she levitated the scroll to Luna. “Oh-ho, a scandal, this shall be most entertaining!” Luna said with an excited grin, anything to break the monotony of dry research. “Not so much of a scandal as a legal monopoly playing through various loop holes in the local government. According to Twilight a pair of local owners of some multi-million bit businesses are supplying funding to the local school and the teacher is feeling threatened should she take action against said millionaire’s daughters. Until recently, the actions of their daughters, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, have been harassing the students. However, yesterday they physically attacked the little sister of Rarity, the Element of Generosity.” Luna raised an eyebrow, this was serious indeed. “The teacher, a one Miss Cheerilee, suspended them for three weeks and is now facing threats of the school being shut down and impending unemployment. When looked into further, the reason the government is doing nothing is basically because they are owned and operated by the two families. Twilight has suggested I step in and remove them from power, but to do so would be against my own laws. If ponies saw me breaking my own rules they would think I felt I was above them, and I don’t need riots right now. “However, I did find something that should make everypony happy. The element bearers, along with their families, have been put under protection by the guard stationed in the town. They don’t know this of course, but we don’t need them kidnapped or blackmailed right before another threat befalls Equestria. Anyway, since Sweetie Belle falls into that category by being an immediate family member we can proceed with legal actions to financially and politically destroy both of the families, thus returning the wealth to the population and removing their dominance over Ponyville.” Celestia finished with applause from her sister. “Well played dear sister, when shall we commence the punishment?” Luna asked gleefully. Anypony who threatened her saviors and their families deserved the full punishment of the law. “I will start the paperwork in the morning, I still need you to continue the research.” Luna let out an exaggerated sigh, “But this is getting us nowhere!” she whined. Just then they were interrupted as a waft of smoke flew up to Celestia and condensed into a scroll. “Oh, another letter?” Celestia asked as she unraveled the scroll and read its contents. As she read her eyes grew wide and her jaw hung open. “Celly? What is it?” Luna asked, concerned. Celestia read the scroll over once more before giving it to Luna. “Looks like things in Ponyville are escalating fairly quickly. An attempted double kidnapping and attempted murder by an unknown assailant, who was then killed in self-defense by none other than Sweetie Belle with a panic-driven bolt of magic?” Celestia was at a loss for words, she had heard of these rare occasions but to have them happen so close to home and with a filly no less? “Indeed.” Luna thought for a moment. “Perhaps we should have Twilight watch over the filly so she could learn to control her power?” “Hmm, that may be an excellent idea! I’ll let Twilight know and see if she can set aside some time each day to teach her some control. Who knows? The poor filly may actually get her cutie mark this way.”