//------------------------------//
// Witches 10: Witches in Space 
// Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight 
// by Epsilon-Delta 
//------------------------------//

“Alright!” Twilight stepped in front of her whiteboard. She insisted on bringing everypony over to her house, presently in Rarity’s backyard, where her whiteboard was situated. “I’ve gathered you all here for a meeting of the, uh–”

Twilight looked over the group of misfits she’d gathered around herself. All of them could barely fit in the room, given how cramped Twilight’s treehouse was and that Twilight owned nothing to sit on save her bed and the couch.

Said couch was overloaded with the three fillies plus Applejack and Rarity hanging halfway off the end of the thing. Pinkie sat perched on the head like a cat. Then squeezed in on the floor below them were Dash, Derpy, and Trixie on her leash.

Fluttershy looked the most comfortable submerged halfway underground. Having no physical body meant never having to squeeze in anywhere. Though her bear did lay off to the side.

“What is our faction called again?” Twilight asked.

“I thought we were called Team Twilight,” said Fluttershy. “Because the last time we did this you said I was your minion now and I didn’t have anything better to do.”

“Oh, yeah! I remember that!” Twilight smiled and wrote that on the board. “Yes. I suppose technically all of you are my minions now.”

“I never agreed to be your minion.” Derpy raised a hoof.

“Do you have anything better to do?” Twilight pointed the marker at her.

“Uh.” Derpy’s good eye went to each corner of the room before settling on the floor. “No.”

“Heh! Works every time.” Twilight popped the top off her marker and turned back to the board to underline the title of their meeting. “We’re going to try and get to the bottom of whatever the deal with Starlight Glimmer is!”

Dash wasn’t sure how successful they’d be in deducing that. She felt like they didn’t have enough information. Maybe once everypony (mostly Twilight) shared what they knew things would become clearer than mud.

“Derpy!” Twilight pointed the marker in her direction. “You’re my newest minion so you go first. What did you learn from your research on her?”

“Oh! Uh.” Derpy took out her paper. “So when Starlight was thirteen, year 1336, she ran away from home. According to the police report, she went missing for almost a year before coming back. And when she did, she started a school club that eventually grew into her religion.”

Twilight wrote these dates diligently on the whiteboard, starting a timeline of events.

“That’s the same year Nightglider said she went to the outer realm,” Dash noted. “So is that true, then? And she ran away from home over a B-?”

Dash really hoped she had a better backstory than that.

“And you suspect,” Rarity interjected, swirling her hoof, “that being in the outer realm so long inspired her to create an element of harmony? I suppose that is one way to learn the secret, though she would have needed some knowledge of it, to begin with.”

“Nah, see that’s what they want us to believe.” Dash rolled her head back to look up at Rarity. “No way somepony like Starlight would write down what actually happened. How do we know somepony else didn’t make It and she just picked it up? That’s what my money’s on.”

“Or what if Starlight is secretly a witch as well?” Rarity looked up at the ceiling. “If Sunset Shimmer can do it, why not another?”

“I’d know!” Trixie interrupted with an offended huff. “We keep tabs on one another to an extent. I even know who Eclipse’s new protégée is. I seriously doubt anypony with even more knowledge of witchcraft than me was just hiding off to the side.”

“They would need to be on the level of a master witch,” Twilight noted. “The last master besides me died some three hundred years ago. And we know that Starlight’s element had to have been created less than six hundred years ago.”

“Hold up!” Dash cut her off. “How do we know it’s less than six hundred years old?”

“Thanks to the element of magic,” Twilight answered. “That’s how I know about the other two so well. When you put one of them on, you become aware of all the others. I only saw those two and the remaining feathers, which means her element couldn’t possibly have existed back then.”

Twilight finished marking the years 759-1066 (upon Trixie specifying the latter date) as a possible creation timeframe for the element.

“So can we get the actual story about all the elements and stuff now?” Dash asked. “You keep bringing it up, but I’ve never heard the whole story. The rest of us need to know all these details!”

“I don’t think the details are important.” Twilight turned back to her board too quickly. She pressed the marker against the whiteboard but couldn’t think of anything to write.

“Gah! You keep saying that!” Dash stood up. “The whole reason we’re here is to compare notes. So spit it out already. We need the whole story.”

Twilight’s marker trailed down the board. Seeing Twilight divert her eyes and bite her lip made Dash soften her tone.

“Twilight.” Dash put a hoof on her shoulder. “I get that you don’t like remembering those days, but this is important. You can’t skirt around whatever happened any longer.”

With her ears down flat, Twilight scanned the crowd. She passed by each of them, confirming her trust in each one. Her gaze only lingered on Derpy. Dash shot Derpy a harsh look, forcing her to panic.

“Don’t worry about me!” Derpy waved her hooves in desperation. “I spent my whole childhood not judging Rainbow Dash! I’m really good at it!”

“Hey!” Dash flared her wings up.

But before she could say more, Twilight spoke, breaking up the fight.

“Okay, fine,” Twilight relented.

She trotted off to the side of the room, leaving her board and figures behind. She needed another moment to brace herself before speaking.

“My master was a stallion named Starswirl, as Trixie suspected,” said Twilight. “He never really went into details, but I could tell he isolated himself from even the other witches because he had some disdain for the way they conducted themselves and didn’t want me to be tainted by their ideals. A lot of old conversations only made sense after I spoke with Trixie.”

Trixie gave a smug little nod as though her part had been at all on purpose.

Twilight began with a crude drawing of a piece of jewelry – the element of magic. “Starswirl wanted to go beyond what the other witches could obtain. So he created the element of magic with my help when I was still young. It granted him power far beyond what I have even now. Yet- Well the artifact was born of his desire to obtain even greater power, beyond the limits of what any mortal pony could achieve. So the element of magic is full of avarice and hunger. It pushed him forward, to take the next step and become an alicorn.

“Of course, Starswirl wasn’t satisfied with the thought of ascending beyond reality. He wanted a way to become a god in this world. The only thing that had ever created such a god, of course, was the true void through which the Queen of Light was eventually born. That’s why the two of us studied true void in the first place… as a means of alternate ascension. As a way to become a god without detaching from the mortal world.”

Just hearing this much, Dash’s head was already ablaze with possibilities. She didn’t want to interrupt, but the urge got the better of her.

“But if Starlight can create true void… isn’t that what she’s doing, too?” Dash asked.

Twilight dismissed the idea with a stomp of her hoof.

“No, no. I spent centuries meticulously studying true void. After thinking about it, I’m convinced that wasn’t really true void since it behaves nothing like… well nothing. Starlight must have created some form of proto-void. And I’m the only pony who’s ever seen true void so I’m the only one who could have noticed her ‘miracle’ was just a cheap knockoff.”

Twilight started scribbling and crossing out words on her board, muttering about needing a name for Starlight’s imitation. Eventually, she wrote down ‘vulgar void’ and her face lit up as she circled that one.

“But if she has something similar to true void,” said Rarity, “then it stands to reason she’s attempting to do something similar to your own plan, yes?”

“Starswirl’s plan,” said Twilight. “But yes. It wouldn’t go the same way, but given how disastrous Starswril’s attempts were maybe that’s a good thing. For Starlight, I mean.”

Twilight looked down at the ground, deep in thought again.

“I still have no idea how Starswirl screwed up the ascension spell so badly.” Twilight shook her head. “He was even smarter than me! And he had the element of magic helping him so how could he have failed?”

“I think perhaps you’re simply idolizing the pony who raised you,” Rarity suggested.

Twilight blinked, considering that possibility for the first time.

“So.” Dash slowly raised her voice, letting the word linger for a moment before asking what she knew would be one of the awkward parts. “What specifically happened to Starswirl?”

“Bearing the element of harmony… it changed Starswirl in a lot of ways. He used to be so rational and reserved, but the lust for power made him increasingly unhinged and erratic. I’ll admit he tried to cast the ascension spell before our research was complete.”

Now Dash was wondering if bearing her own element had altered Starlight in any way. Maybe it didn’t matter in the end.

“He didn’t turn into anything like an alicorn.” Twilight took a deep breath, then turned to the others. She held back on saying something but carried on nonetheless. “He went out of control as the true void collapsed into true chaos. I suppose in one last moment of clarity, he realized his existence would throw the world into chaos if the transformation was complete. He helped me banish him to the outer realm and because I technically defeated him, he acknowledged me as a master witch mere moments before vanishing forever.”

Twilight grabbed one of her bells. Dash knew a little about the witching hierarchy now. The seventh bell was the one that marked you as a master and was granted only when another master witch acknowledged you as their equal.

“So that’s the truth.” Twilight clutched the bell. “I killed the pony who raised me. Worse, even!”

“Oh, no.” Fluttershy put her hoof over her mouth and came up fully above ground. “Poor Twilight! That must have been so hard on you. Seeing the only pony you care about having to…”

Twilight shook her head.

"That’s not even the thing!” Twilight let go of her bell. “I… the reason I felt bad about it was only because I was embarrassed about messing up so badly and you’d be angry at me for creating something so dangerous. I only recently started feeling bad about what happened to Starswirl. I’m not sure why.”

“Ah, Twilight!” Dash got up and rushed to hug Twilight, locking her neck against the unicorn’s. “You gotta blame yourself for what happened hundreds of years ago! You’re doing everything you can to help now. No one can rightfully say you’re in the wrong.”

“But Starswirl. I barely even cared when I threw him into a realm of unyielding chaos to die! I didn’t cry even once.”

Rarity got up next to hug Twilight from the other side.

“Twilight,” said Rarity, “this simply means you’re more mature now. You don’t need to be embarrassed about something like that.”

“No! But… I know what you’ll all say, but I’m embarrassed about caring now.” Twilight kept her eyes on the ground. “It’s just still hard not to let go of all of my old teachings. I want to be more like you. I decided that the philosophy of the old ways is wrong, so I shouldn’t feel like this anymore.”

“Yeah, I wish it worked that way.” Dash pulled back to look Twilight in the eyes. “That kind of thing takes years to get over.”

“I guess.” Twilight trembled. “Thanks for not… I dunno. Doing something mean.”

Twilight was still shaken by having to confess that much, but she’d feel a lot better later, Dash was sure. The witch returned to her whiteboard, eager to turn the conversation away and alleviate her exposed nerve.

“Then I guess you want to know about Flash, too! Guh! At least I still don’t care about him. The stupid element of harmony decided he was, I dunno, enough of a megalomaniac that it lent him some of its power. Like an idiot, I told him what happened to Starswirl and he apparently thought it was a good idea to stick his dick in the same beehive! He screwed up the spell even worse, I destroyed the element of magic to keep the curse of undeath from getting more horrible than it was and I should have destroyed Flash too!”

Twilight underlined the date 759.

“This is the last time I used the element of magic. I saw the other two back then, so I know a little about them. But Starlight’s wasn’t one so it didn’t exist at that date.”

“So what did you see about them?” Dash asked.

“Starlight told you the truth about the element of laughter,” said Twilight. “It’s absurdly judgemental and borderline sociopathic. It can’t feel any negative emotions so it can’t feel bad about anything it ever does. It could be incredibly dangerous if the wrong pony gave it the wrong suggestion. Though I guess being unable to care about the suffering of anypony else means it's mostly content to sit around and play stupid pranks on random ponies all day. That was the impression I got.”

“That would explain why we’ve never heard of it,” said Rarity.

“And the other one?” Dash asked.

“I guess I’d describe it as… robotic?” Twilight struggled for the word.

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle snapped at her.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Twilight put a hoof up in her defense. “I mean, it’s like super unemotional and unfeeling and logical.”

“But that’s what I thought you mean!”

“Oh. Then sorry.” Twilight bowed her head. “It wasn’t as… social as the other one. I don’t know what it can do as its powers were sealed away. It’d be difficult to release it from its prison.”

“So these things are like people that you can talk to?” Dash asked.

“They’re overly judgmental and won’t even talk to most people,” said Twilight. “But yes.”

That didn’t give Dash much information, but it was better than going in blind.

“I was also able to confirm the existence of the remaining feathers.” Twilight drew eight quick pictograms of feathers on the board. “There were three left, which was the number I expected.”

“Why would we expect there to be three?” Dash asked.

“There were eight to begin with and five were used.” Twilight clicked her tongue. “This is very basic math.”

“And we knew there were eight because?” Dash tilted her head.

“Oh!” Applebloom raised her hoof. “The Queen of Light gave one of her feathers to each of her seven sons.”

“But that’s seven.” Dash shook her head. “I’m not a math wizard, but isn’t seven not eight?”

“That’s because The Darklord tricked his mom!” Applebloom excitedly went on reciting a story she must have heard a million times. “He hid his in the darkness he created and said he didn’t get one.”

“And that tricked the most powerful god of them all?” Dash asked.

“Well!” Applebloom wanted to answer but her confidence faltered, so she deferred to her older sister.

“That was the first lie ever told,” said Applejack. “So nopony could have possibly seen it coming. Mind you, not even secrets and the like existed until then.”

“Hm.” Twilight tapped her marker to her lower lip, turning to Applejack. “It seems your family’s understanding of things is similar to ours. That’s the same story I was told.”

“Same here,” Trixie added.

“I reckon that’s cause it’s the truth,” said Applejack.

“And everypony knows all of this?” Twilight turned to the more normal of them.

Fluttershy shook her head. Dash had heard plenty of things about the alicorns, but never that tale.

“I’ve heard hundreds of contradictory claims about the mythic era,” said Rarity. “I have no reason to prefer one over the others.”

“I can confirm it to an extent,” said Twilight. “Because the number of feathers tracks with the information.”

Twilight turned to the board and crossed two of her pictograms out right away.

“The eldest and youngest sons, the Radiant Champion and The Darklord, used theirs to create the first two ponies. That would have been Golden Feather and Star Feather.”

Twilight crossed two more out.

“Then those two created the elements of Laughter and Honesty respectively. Golden Feather gave three of them to the witches. Of which, I used one to create the Element of Magic and the other is right there.” Twilight pointed at Scootaloo’s necklace. “So then there’s only two more… Though I’m not sure what became of them.”

Trixie and Applejack both spoke at once to offer a suggestion, interrupting one another.

“You can go first,” Trixie offered with too much magnanimity. “I’m trying to be humble and all that.”

“Thanks? Well, The Darklord gave one of them to the royal family,” said Applejack. “The extra, eighth one, I mean. I know that much. I reckon they still have it.”

“The royal family?” Rarity deadpanned in Applejack’s direction. “All of them were killed in the revolution. I’m sure even Twilight knows that much by now.”

“Not the Maximus Solaris family,” said Applejack. “The other royal family. The Noctilucent Melodious family.”

That got Rarity to sit up with a curious look. Dash never heard of them, either.

“All ponies are descended from Golden Feather,” Applejack explained. “But only this one clan has Star Feather’s blood. They used to be The Darklord’s servants before turning their backs on him. They still have his feather, though. Granny Smith’s grandpa tried getting it back one time, but that was the last we saw of them. No idea where they are now.”

“And let me guess, Starlight is secretly from their family?” Dash asked.

“Well, it ain’t impossible,” Applejack figured, “but they’ve always been pegasi and picky about who they marry to keep it that way. The family name is Noctilucent and all.”

“Eh?”

“Noctilucent is a type of cloud,” Rarity explained.

“Oh, right.” Dash pretended to know that, then covered it up with another suggestion. “Or what if she stole it from them?!”

“I doubt a normal thirteen-year-old would have been able to pull that off,” said Applejack. “They had all kinds of forbidden magic and artifacts made by The Darklord. Maybe after she got back from the outer realm it could have happened.”

Trixie cleared her throat, unable to wait any longer.

“Well the feather I know about could have been found by a normal thirteen-year-old,” Trixie bragged, for some reason, in the face of her earlier declaration. “Cadence had one. Or maybe it was Sombra? At any rate, that feather disappeared around the time of our little civil war. It was supposedly there at the time. We scoured the Festering Scar afterward but never found the thing. I bet it was sitting in the swamp this whole time. Any idiot, no matter how teenaged, could have picked it up if they got lucky.”

“Uh!” Derpy raised her hoof. “But Starlight lived eight hundred miles from the Festering Scar at the time.”

That had to be the one! It all made sense to Dash, now!

“There were like seven or eight master witches present at that time, yeah?” Dash asked. “And that feather disappeared around then? Well, what if one of them made it around then? Because they knew a fight was about to occur.”

Twilight tapped her marker against her lip a few times, considering the idea.

“If that’s the case, Starlight wouldn’t have even needed to find it,” Twilight said. “That one would have found her instead!”

Twilight hastily scribbled down a possible timeline of events.

Twilight created the element of magic some six hundred years ago. That battle and the potential creation of Starlight’s element were three hundred years ago. Then Starlight started her middle school ‘club’ eighteen years ago.

“So if she actually became one with the element back then,” Twilight circled that last event. “That would explain all of her ‘miracles’. Or at least how she was able to survive the outer realm for any period, if she even went there.”

Twilight circled one of the feathers.

“I really think this is the most likely scenario! Trixie! What attribute would Cadance, Sombra, or any of the other master witches alive at the time have imbued the element with?”

“I don’t know.” Trixie struggled to think of something. “Crystals? Slaves? Stairs? The joke is Sombra talks a lot about those in his writing.”

“The stairs.” Twilight took that last one, of all things, seriously. “And she has the power to climb infinitely? Wait, no. That'd be stupid.”

Twilight continued on that fruitless course, trying out different words seemingly chosen at random.

It was Scootaloo speaking up who broke snapped her out of it.

“You’re forgetting about something.” Scootaloo pointed to her head. “Starlight has a billion alicorn feathers! Or maybe a hundred. Somewhere between those. Can’t she make as many of these things as she wants?”

“Those aren’t the same as a willingly given feather,” said Twilight. “They won’t work.”

“Unless she finds a way to make an element of disharmony with them.” Scootaloo spread her wings. “That’s what would happen in a comic book.”

“She’s got to be doing something with those,” Dash agreed.

“Starlight wouldn’t have had access to them until earlier this year,” Derpy pointed out. “They were stored in Area 5X, and Starlight only just became president.”

“Though,” Rarity added, “she might have kept a few to research on so she’d be ready to use them all once she became president.”

Twilight tapped her foot as she thought through all of these points.

“Actually.” Twilight lifted her head once more. “Now that I think about it, we might be able to see those feathers as well if we touch the element of laughter. Maybe that will give us a clue?”

“Wait.” Dash shook her head. “Doesn’t this also mean we’ll be able to us it to look at Starlight’s element directly?”

“Probably!”

Dash frowned. She’d actually gotten the idea as soon as Twilight mentioned this power. But she couldn’t get excited about it.

“That’s gotta be a trap then, right?” Dash asked. “Starlight wouldn’t just give us the ability to see all of her secrets, would she? I mean, all this was her idea in the first place! She’s gotta want us to spy on her or something.”

Dash wracked her brain trying to think of what Starlight could possibly want from all this. She didn’t expect them to know about the element’s spying ability so that was probably part of the trick.

“Oh!” Dash got it! “What if she wants us to spy on something else! Like… other than her? For some reason?”

Maybe that idea wasn’t that brilliant after all.

“Either way,” said Rarity. “Wouldn’t Sunset Shimmer have already seen everything there is to be seen? She’s been carrying that element for some time now.”

“Oh yeah!” Dash let out a sigh of relief. There was a way to sidestep all of these problems that Starlight wouldn’t have seen coming. “That all plays into my plan perfectly anyway.”

“Which plan was this?” Rarity asked.

Dash grabbed Scootaloo off the couch and held her up.

“We ask Sunset Shimmer about stuff and if we don’t like her answer, Scootaloo can just reset the timeline or however that works.”

“Oh, yeah! I could do that!” Scootaloo eagerly offered her services. “I’m pretty good at redoing conversations.”

“See?” Dash smirked. “We can safely get information out of her that way!”

“Her power doesn’t affect the whole world,” Rarity warned. “If you try to spy on Starlight and that goes wrong–”

“We won’t do anything like that until we know we’re safe,” Dash promised.

“I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to follow through with this at all. I don’t think we have much time left to further our aims,” said Rarity. “Twilight, there are already rumors that you’re secretly a witch. We have too many ponies in on the secret. I wouldn’t be surprised if several outsiders already know your true identity. Starlight will turn against us very soon, either way, so don’t be in a hurry to appease her.”

“But.” Twilight paused, having taken going on this mission for granted until just recently. “Then what should we do?”

“We need to defeat Screwball immediately,” said Rarity. “We can only hold off whatever Equestrian forces line up against us if our backs are against the Everfree. Defeating her would reduce the risk of assassinations and make sure this area is firmly on our side.”

Twilight nodded. It didn’t take much for her to go after Screwball.

“Um.” Fluttershy raised her hoof. “I know this is a bit personal, but maybe we should have Twilight fight the ghost of Crater Cemetery instead? We don’t know where Screwball is, but that one’s always inside the crater. We wouldn’t want a ghost that powerful running around during the big fighting and all the ghosts would be eternally grateful to us. That’d be a good thing, right?”

And now Twilight was pulled in that direction. She stammered trying to decide which rabbit to chase.

“Before any of that, we need to get Sunset Shimmer on our side!” Dash made her case. “That’s the easiest mission and the one with the biggest payoff. Plus, we’d be able to find out about whatever the heck Starlight is doing.”

“That has to be some manner of trap,” Rarity said. “Starlight has to know about the connection the elements have to one another. She won’t just let you see her element for no reason.”

“We don’t know where Screwball even is right now,” Dash protested. “We can’t just defeat her whenever we like. But Sunset is already supposed to come to pick Trixie up tomorrow. Besides, we can’t lose with that mission.”

“You can always lose.”

“I think we should let Twilight decide,” Fluttershy said. “She’s the one who’s doing most of the work.”

Twilight panicked as she realized that the decision was ultimately hers, being their trump card.

“Uh!” Twilight’s ears fell flat, she looked between the three ponies, torn by their suggestions. “We’ll go with Rainbow Dash’s plan first!”

Twilight could hardly swallow the visible disappointment in Fluttershy and Rarity.

“But I’ll still do your thing too.” Twilight whipped her head back and forth between them. “Eventually!”

“Oh, I hope I don’t sound ungrateful,” said Fluttershy. “You’ve already helped us all so much.”

Twilight let out a sigh. Dash knew exactly how she felt. Things were getting a little out of control, way too much was going on at once.

But with just one or two more victories, Dash was sure things could be under hoof!









Down in their room, Applejack and Applebloom had finished setting up the ritual altar. Applejack sat in the middle of a blue circle drawn on the castle floor. Applebloom stood outside the circle with a blue candle on either side of her. She looked adorable with the oversized reptilian skull she wore as a helmet, the eye sockets lining up with her own.

They performed similar rituals regularly for purely religious reasons and so it wouldn’t raise much suspicion even if somepony walked in. But this was more than mere religion.

Applejack needed to contact The Darklord. Things were becoming increasingly dissimilar to the original plan. She needed to know for certain if the Element of Laughter was more than a red herring.

“I feel bad about lying to everypony.” Applebloom lifted her skull helmet.

“We’re not lying to them,” said Applejack.

“But we ain’t telling them everything, either.”

“We said we wouldn’t when we first met up,” said Applejack. “They know that already. It’s why they didn’t press us for more than we were willing to share.”

“I guess.” Applebloom lowered the skull back down. “I still don’t want anything bad to happen to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They’re all going to accept what we’re doing in the end, right? They’ll side with us?”

“I can’t be sure yet,” said Applejack. “But I understand how you feel. I don’t want anything bad to happen to the ponies who took us in, either. And if The Darklord doesn’t feel the same he’d have to know we feel that way, at least. That’s why I’m talking to him.”

“Okay, I guess.”

“You remember the chant?”

“I ain’t a foal.”

Applejack nodded, then closed her eyes in meditation.

“Sorok Torok Norishte!” Applebloom held a hoof out and began the chant.

Her sister did it right this time! Though maybe Applejack shouldn’t be so surprised. Applebloom had only messed it up the first two times. But she’d always be a little filly in her mind.

Applejack didn’t leave the castle, but merely entered the shadow realm version of it. In the darkness of their windowless room, Applejack could see nearly everything perfectly, including her sister.

Applebloom stood up in a trance. Darkness swirled around the filly and her shadow took on the form of The Darklord. In the real world, she would still appear as her normal self, speaking to nothing, but here she had the imposing likeness of Applejack’s god.

Standing in defiance of all his devastating wounds and gashes made him look only more invincible. Unchained, he had a build that dwarfed even Big Mac. Applejack was a mere filly in size compared to him and he couldn’t help but look down at her with that one red eye.

His oversized frame and heavy armor made his relatively small wings look even less impressive. He’d been plucked of all his feathers long ago was the cause, leaving behind something of a metallic skeleton.

“You’re worried about the element of laughter becoming active,” he said.

“Will it really lend its power to somepony soon?” Applejack asked.

“I think it likely it will lend a pony all of its power,” said The Darklord. “But she wouldn’t be able to defeat Starlight alone. The bearer of the element of laughter couldn’t lose so long as she maintains hope she can defeat Starlight. Starlight couldn’t lose so long as her followers believe she will win. Things would escalate until the world was destroyed without the fight concluding or one of them gave up. It would be Laughter who would choose to surrender. So at the end that makes no difference, you see.”

So that was partially true.

“It’s not Screwball, is it?” Applejack asked.

“The pink one.”

That took Applejack a moment to figure, seeing as Screwball was pink herself.

“Wait. Pinkie?”

The Darklord tilted his head like Applejack had just asked him to confirm that the sun was hot.

“Oh, I thought that was painfully obvious. I hope I didn’t spoil anything.” He shook his head. “Best to let everypony else make their own assumptions for now. She might not make the reach this end if you tell her.”

Well at least that one thread was relatively benign.

Applejack swallowed, ready to ask her real question.

“I want to know something,” said Applejack. “Things aren’t going like you said they would a while ago. You didn’t mention anything about Twilight getting involved in any of this until Starlight forced her to. Did you seriously get blindsided by Rainbow Dash dragging her out?”

“I truly did not predict Rainbow Dash’s actions,” said The Darklord.

“Seriously?” Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Was that two different calender trick really so fantastical that even you couldn’t think of it?”

“With only one eye, my ability to predict the future has been severely limited.” He flicked his remaining eye about. “Depth perception and all that. I’ve been wrong no less than three times in the past thousand years alone. I can hardly even see the future at all without… reflecting my gaze off another entity with similar abilities. But such a view is then tainted by their biases and perceptions.

“My chosen mirror did not see it fit to use their clairvoyance on one so mundane as that pegasus. They have no care for those with insignificant magical abilities and could not possibly imagine such a pony derailing machinations they’ve spent six hundred years on. The only way to compensate would have been to individual sift through every individual like inspecting every grain of sand. So I couldn’t see Rainbow Dash as having any effect on the future either.

“However, I did suppose there was a two to three percent possibility of such an event unfolding. I had alternate routes planned out, unlike them. I suppose they’ve been raging this whole time, but I am unconcerned. I have ensured the path did not change much and I believe I can see the end of things already.”

So Rainbow Dash did change the future?

Applejack knew she’d be scolded for phrasing it as such. There was no set-in-stone destiny and the power of prophecy was merely the art of using massive amounts of information to create astonishingly accurate predictions.

Yet, these prophecies were usually so accurate that it was hard to not see this as changing the future, or as an insignificant event. So rare was it that he got a prediction of any weight wrong that Forbidden Fruit beating him at a mere guessing game impressed him enough to recruit Applejack’s family in the first place.

Was Rainbow Dash’s influence inconsequential? Or was it different when he wasn’t looking at you directly?

“Are you sure about your predictions now?” Applejack asked. “I’m guessing you will think we’ll win. I want to know what’s going to happen to all the ponies I’m living with now. Is Twilight’s fate any different?”

“It’s all too predictable.” He looked up toward the ceiling. “You give a pony a dilemma and they’ll inevitably try to walk straight between the two horns charging at them, assuming some grand advantage to a middle path,” said The Darklord. “That’s why I’m weary of that Rainbow one. She’s the sort the Element of Laughter would speak to, who ignores the horns altogether and wanders off with little concern.”

He lifted a hoof and looked upon it.

“But she isn’t the one who will make the important choice. Twilight Sparkle will refuse her two horrible options and face me to find a third option. Just like Golden Feather, she will be unable to touch me. Just like her ancestor, she will think of the absolute perfect solution for her third and final question. She will say to me ‘what will be your exact position in ten seconds?’ – the same question Golden Feather tried to us. The perfect strategy executed by one who has obtained the greatest strength a mortal can possess.”

The Darklord stomped his hoof back down on the ground.

“Yet it won’t be enough. And she will die.”

Even back then, that three questions thing had been a poetic trap laid out. He’d seen through everything that far ahead. It would be nearly impossible for Twilight to avoid the future he had just laid out. And though it would be better than what she’d originally get, it didn’t sit well with Applejack.

But nearly impossible wasn’t impossible. Rainbow Dash had already broken from the path with some fruity calendar nonsense.

“Is there no other way? What if I explain things to her? What if I tell her not to ask that question?” Applejack asked.

The Darklord laughed and looked back down at Applejack.

“Did she inspire you?” The Darklord asked. “Yes, that’s one of the more significant changes. That sort of thing is contagious.”

“My question?”

“You would merely be the one to give her the idea to ask that question,” he said. “You cannot possibly convince her to take one of the horns she’d be faced with. She cannot surpass Golden Feather in strength nor think of a better question, that would be to exceed perfection. She will try to fight me to keep everything and die in the miasma.”

Applejack doubted she could convince Twilight to accept either choice. She’d do the foolish thing and Applejack couldn’t blame her cause she’d do the foolish thing in Twilight’s situation too.

The Darklord entering the real world for even a short time would have serious ramifications and Twilight would be the one to pay the steepest cost.

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think any of the others among those who took you in will die. I can save the rest of them once I’m free.”

“I suppose it does.” Applejack lowered her hat. “But it still doesn’t sit right with me.”

“And you’ll look for a middle ground?” The Darklord gazed disapprovingly upon her.

She’d been around him long enough to know that he didn’t disapprove of her trying to change the future. He just didn’t like her doing the very thing he’d called predictable moments ago. Taking some middle path would change nothing and he said it without so many words.

“Of course, if there’s a middle ground,” The Darklord tilted his head to see her with less disdain, “that must mean you have two options. You could allow Twilight to die or face obliteration yourself.”

Applejack knew what he meant by the other option. To become one who could change the future in the full gaze of the gods, she’d have to become more like them. She would need to take up the element of honesty.

Though none in the Apple family had ever gotten close to such a feat.

“Well, I suppose I am different from a normal pony in my own way.” Applejack at least smiled. “I’m the type to just take one of the horns and get it over with. I don’t want my destiny to just be leading Twilight to her death. If Rainbow Dash can change things, then maybe I can too.”

“Yes, that’s why I chose you. But if you’re getting too excited, I knew you were going to say exactly that from the moment Rainbow Dash broke that curse.”









Dash emerged from the bathroom later that night to find Twilight already lying prone on their bed, her muzzle in one of her many books. Their bedroom was very quickly turning into a small library.

Trixie slept on a cot off to the side of the room, already deep in slumber. She slept on her back like a barbarian and snored. Though Dash was already used to that much.

Dash jumped onto the bed, sitting down next to Twilight. Twilight had seemingly gotten used to Dash’s presence enough to not even look up from her book.

They started doing this because Twilight had been unnerved at the thought of sleeping surrounded by thousands of other ponies. But that fear had subsided by now.

Twilight no longer looked at every passing stranger with a sense of suspicion. She didn’t wake up five times a night to ask Dash what the normal nightly noises of the town were. Dash had turned her relatively normal.

And she probably didn’t need Dash so much anymore.

Part of her knew the right thing to do was to ask Twilight if she was ready to go sleep in her own bed. Yet most of Dash didn’t want to do the right thing.

Sleeping alone sucked, Dash learned. Sleeping next to Twilight felt a million times better. There was something so soothing and right about it. Even if Twilight woke her up twice a night it’d still be worth it. Though five was still a bit excessive.

She didn’t want to go back to having her own bed. And if she asked Twilight about it, Twilight might decide she was ready to start sleeping by herself again, and then–

It was easy to just not ask the question.

Twilight glanced up at Dash, then back to her book.

Was Dash taking advantage of her?

No! Twilight was older than all of Dash’s grandparents combined! If anything Dash was the one being taken advantage of. Yeah!

Twilight glanced up at Dash a second time.

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked. “You’re staring at me.”

“I was trying to read that book, too!” Flustered, Dash flared out her wings.

Twilight frowned, puffing out a cheek.

“Okay! I, uh.” Dash had to do it! She had to ask if Twilight was ready to sleep in her own bed again. Something in the pit of her stomach didn’t want her to ask that question, though! Something that seemed to have control of her mouth at the moment. Dash had no choice but to compromise with her gut. “I was just thinking about how much better you’ve gotten around other ponies in under a year.”

“Has it really been less than a year since we met?” Twilight looked up at the ceiling.

“Yeah. It’ll be a year on September 13th,” said Dash. “Though I guess we weren’t really friends until, like… the first time you threw me a bug when I was stuck as an owl. That’s when I changed my mind.”

Twilight frowned as she gazed at some distant point.

“A year must be nothing to you, huh?” Dash rubbed the back of her head. She was at least brave enough to bring up another one of her points. “Hey! Is it weird being around ponies so much younger than you? I mean, you’re literally thirty times my age. You must see me as a newborn or something.”

“No.” Twilight came back to the present, shaking her head. “That’s not how I feel at all.”

Dash tilted her head, not sure what she meant.

“I feel like I’m frozen in time all of a sudden.” Twilight sat up. “Years and decades went by so fast when I spent all of my time training and developing spells. I have barely any memories from those hundreds of years. It’s just major breakthroughs every so often that I can recall.”

Twilight turned to Dash.

“But then you showed up and suddenly it’s like I’ve spent half my life with you. I don’t feel like I’m six hundred, I feel like a few years were most of my life! All of my memories are from the short time I’ve been with other ponies. And the only things I look back on without regret are… memories of you.”

Twilight sniffed. Her eyes misted over.

All that time and she only had good memories from the last few months?

Strangely, Dash could relate. Her life had been such a constant trainwreck of failure until she met Twilight.

“Ah. Twi.” Dash scooted up next to Twilight and put a wing over her. “You don’t gotta worry about whatever happened in the past. You can begin living your life starting from here.”

Twilight got a little weepy and sought comfort by burying her muzzle against Dash’s neck. Dash raised her head with pride. Suddenly, all those doubts she’d been feeling recently floated away as she felt Twilight’s warm breath against her neck.

“Yeah! Once we have more free time we’ll make all kinds of memories together! Like–” Dash’s mind sputtered trying to think of places to take Twilight. “We can go to every beach in Equestria! And I can take you to movies and fancy restaurants and uh…”

Dash realized she’d been suggesting dating trips. Thankfully, Twilight probably wasn’t culturally literate enough to notice.

“And a boat ride?” No! That was a romantic thing too. “Arcades! And stuff. I dunno. There’s like a billion things I wanna do with you, Twilight! Your life won’t suck anymore, cause I’ll make it fun! I’ll never let you go back to living alone like that.”

Dash watched with a smile as Twilight’s mood lifted.

Maybe. Maybe Dash could just ask Twilight if she wanted to live with her like, indefinently? And just keep sharing a bedroom? That’d be better than the question she first thought of!

She nearly got the confidence. Then Twilight’s mood dropped, her ears falling flat again, and the lightning faded.

“I know. That’s why I can’t let you out of my sight! I have to find a way to keep you safe!” Twilight pulled back and rubbed her temples. “I should have thought about ponies going after you to get to me before I started all this! I was so stupid back then!”

“Twilight, I’m not helpless!” A twinge of annoyance broke through Dash’s feeling of pride. “I–”

It was true. Her life was a trainwreck up until she met Twilight. Twilight was what turned it around… it was all her, just Dash’s attachment to her.

Twilight watched Dash’s drooping expression with concern, probably misinterpreting it.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Twilight pressed her muzzle against Dash’s neck, giving her a desperately apologetic nuzzle. “I’m so sorry! I need you! I’m, uh, emotionally dependent on you!”

A normal pony would have phrased that better, but it was endearing when Twilight did it. Dash briefly smiled before her brain went back to work.

Was that why Dash had conflicting feelings about Twilight growing out of her emotional dependency on her? Because if Twilight wasn’t dependent on her and could stand on all four hooves… what did Dash have?

“Do you forgive me?” Twilight kept her muzzle pressed against Dash’s wither as she looked up with puppy dog eyes. Dash could feel Twilight’s breath against her side.

Forgive her for what? Dash didn’t even know.

“Yeah!” Dash forced herself to smile.

She didn’t know what she just forgave Twilight for, but it sure made the unicorn happy, who nuzzled her with more enthusiasm this time.

Dash looked back ahead, her fake smile drifting away. A minute later, Twilight was frowning as she watched Dash’s face with concern resurfacing. Even a pony like Twilight could see through her!

Who invented facial expressions anyway?! Was it The Darklord?! Was this somehow Applejack’s fault, then? It was an invasion of privacy is what it was!

Dash needed more time to think about this or she’d say something stupid and mess things up like always! And then Twilight might run away screaming and never want to talk to her again! And without Twilight, Dash would be back to being a total loser!

She needed to find some way to explain things without Twilight misunderstanding and getting upset!

“I–” Dash was drawing a blank here! She was too nervous about hurting Twilight’s feelings!

Then the door burst open and Scootaloo came charging in.

“Hey!” Scootaloo jumped up on the bed with them. “Can I sleep in your bed again? Since I’m gonna be here tomorrow morning, anyway?”

Rainbow Dash let a sigh of relief. She owed Scootaloo one.

“Oh, wait. Were you two like?” Scootaloo looked back and forth between them, noting Twilight’s muzzle pressed against Dash, a mischievous smile on her face. “Are you two gonna get married or something?”

Rainbow Dash no longer owed Scootaloo one!

“Married?” Twilight repeated the word slowly. “Oh, wait! I read about that. It’s a form of political alliance, right?”

“A what?” Scootaloo took her turn to be confused.

“Like a ruler trades one of their offspring for the offspring of another ruler as an incentive to cooperate or to merge two provinces into a single entity.”

“What?” Scootaloo cringed at Twilight’s explanation. “I didn’t get any of that, but I’m pretty sure you’re wrong. Marriage is like when two ponies love each other and promise to stay together forever and start a family!”

Twilight hummed and put a hoof on her chin, giving the concept serious thought.

“And!” Scootaloo’s smile flashed to Rainbow Dash. “They totally adopt an orphan sometimes?”

“Guh!” Flustered, Dash rubbed the back of her head. This was getting way too awkward and “Look, kid. There’s a fifty-fifty chance I’m going to end up overthrowing the government. If I do, I’ll totally declare myself your legal guardian, okay?”

“Really?!”

“Yeah!” Dash flared her wings out and smiled. “Why not? And sure, you can sleep here tonight. Why not? Let’s, uh, all get to sleep so we’ll be ready for tomorrow, okay?”

“Wow! You’re the best, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo flapped her little wings in excitement, then quickly burrowed under the blankets between the two of them.

Dash lowered her head, resting her chin on the pillow next to Scootaloo, and then the three of them were laying barrel to barrel.

She really tried to take her own advice, but her thoughts of Twilight wouldn’t let her mind quiet, nor could she bring herself to see tomorrow’s events as more pressing. Somehow, Dash would need to figure out her increasingly confused feelings before talking to Twilight about this again.

For now, she’d just leave the question unasked and Twilight on the other end of the bed.









Snap Allgood sipped some of his expensive gold-tips tea as he watched Ponytown from aboard his private Airship. Not one officially registered in his name, that much would be too obvious for such a stealthy affair.

It wasn’t exactly the most luxurious place in the world to spend these past few days in, but his mission was of absolute vital importance.

“Sir!” The head technician ran onto the bridge and saluted Allgood. “Alicorn magic was detected! We were able to triangulate the position of Subject Two. She’s indeed at Rainbow Dash’s house as the tip suggested.”

So it seemed the tip he’d gotten was true after all.

Of all the places Subject Two could have ended up… it was like she insisted on going to the most troublesome place out of some childish revenge tantrum.

“Of course,” said the technician, “her appearance near Rarity’s castle means the two locations must be linked by a portal or something similar. If we take this information to President Starlight–”

“We’re the ones who would get in trouble.” Snap sipped his tea. “Starlight can forgive malice but never incompetence. I was given fifty million a year and advanced equipment to contain Subject Two in a remote location. If Rainbow Dash simply keeps her here, in a normal house in the middle of a city, for this long without incident…”

How did she even manage that much? Subject Two was an insufferable cretin who refused to cooperate no matter how reasonable Snap had been.

Perhaps they had some form of magic of which Snap had no knowledge. The thought that some lower-class harlot who literally grew up in a cave, if stories were to be believed, had access to better technology than all of Snap’s money could afford.

He felt a flood of anger whenever he thought about it. Those two might as well be trying to steal from him. They jeopardized the chance at godhood Starlight had offered him. What if instead she turned around and made the same offer to these two instead?

“Then how are we going to proceed, exactly?” he asked. “Extracting Subject Two would be exceedingly difficult”

“We don’t need to take her back just yet,” said Snap. “We need this pony’s decision to keep her in a highly populated area to appear as the height of irresponsibility. If an incident won’t happen by itself, then we’ll create one.”

Snap turned and trotted over to his ultimate weapon and greatest hope. Near the center of the ship stood a device. Inside a clear glass container floated a single red gemstone, its light flickering violently as it rumbled as though threatening to explode.

This rested atop the control console and the main mechanism itself.

Of course, it always paid to have extra aces up your sleeves. These past seven years, Allgood had spent hundreds of millions on this particular trump card. If that incompetent caretaker hadn’t been so soft-hearted and used this on Subject Two when she’d first escaped, this problem wouldn’t be happening at all.

Well, Subject Two wouldn’t have any weak-willed caretakers this time. Being too kind had been his mistake the first time around.

“Activate the device the next time she uses her powers in this area.”