//------------------------------// // Parasees // Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// The moment Scootaloo started screaming, Lightning Dust shrouded herself in lightning and moved at once. Her body crackled with low-intensity electricity, just enough to give her a bluish sheen. She charged in, intent on stabbing Scootaloo with the injector. Though Twilight had been against it at first, the situation had gotten significantly worse. Twilight decided to let her try and put Scootaloo out before the black feather regained its bearings. The syringe emptied itself into Scootaloo. For a moment, it appeared to work. She stopped screaming, at least. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she went slack-jawed, drool dripping from her lips. Lightning Dust watched this with a furrowed brow. That wasn’t the reaction she expected. “Hey, Allgood.” Lightning Dust put her hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t think that drug worked. What’s plan B?” “What do you mean it didn’t work?!” A deep male voice came from the other side of her device. Was this Allgood? “She’s already snapping out of it.” Lightning Dust watched Scootaloo as her eyes began rolling back to their normal position. “If you don’t have a plan B I may have to use lethal force here.” “What?!” Three voices shouted at her at once, one of which, to Twilight’s surprise was Allgood. “Subject 2 is too valuable!” Allgood shouted at her. “You cannot kill her!” “I’m here to fight monsters, not make you money. So you got an idea or not?” Lightning Dust asked. He hesitated long enough for Lightning Dust to take it as a no. Lightning Dust surrounded herself with electricity again and moved to strike Scootaloo in the head with more than enough force to kill a normal pony. Before Twilight could intervene, Scootaloo recovered and destroyed the immediate area, with walls and floor around her crumbling into nothing. It would have taken off Lightning Dust’s entire leg, were her reflexes not supernaturally fast. She pulled back in the same fraction of a second Scootaloo launched her attack. Twilight was briefly impressed until she notice the motion was a bit too robotic and that Lightning Dust’s expression changed with a delayed response. Twilight recognized the technique. She had a spell to similar effect. Lightning Dust was using electricity to override her nervous system, stimulating her muscles into pre-set dodge routines faster than her brain would have managed to react. Only the trigger remained unknown to Twilight. This pegasus might have had some weak psychic abilities herself. Meanwhile, Scootaloo was swelling up with a cowl of black energy around her, ready to fire off an attack that would destroy the entire school. Her expression became unhinged, her eyes nearly bugging out and turning worryingly red as she ground her teeth together. Twilight needed to break the two of them up. She teleported in between them. She attempted a powerful sleep spell on Scootaloo and lashed a chain out at Lightning Dust, intending to bind her. The sleep spell almost worked. Scootaloo began staggering about, but not asleep. With speed no pony could match, the lightning jerked Dust’s body, making her summersault out of the way. True to her theory, there was a slight delay between the dodge and Lightning Dust’s look of surprise. That reflex was too fast for Twilight to hit her with anything but a spell that destroyed the whole area. Of course, this trick wouldn’t last against Twilight for long. There could only be so many pre-made dodge routines. Once Twilight had seen enough of them, she could easily strike with an undodgeable attack. The only problem was that Twilight didn’t have the two or three minutes she’d need to exhaust such a defense. “You’re attacking me?!” Lightning Dust took a step back and scoffed. “That freak is going to kill thousands if I don’t take her out first.” “I’m not going to let you kill her!” Twilight lowered her head defensively. “I can still salvage this but attacking her will only make things worse!” Twilight kept an eye on Scootaloo, trying to figure out what was going on over there at the same time. She had to analyze two opponents at once! A direct sleep spell might be ineffective if two agents were controlling her body. Couple that with whatever was attacking her potentially forcing her back awake and– “Is that a challenge?” Lightning Dust got in her face. “What?” Twilight blinked. “No! Something is making her act like this. You could help us find–” “Maybe you don’t get it, but I’m here to fight a tough monster.” Lightning Dust pointed at Scootaloo, and claw blades made of electricity appeared over her hoof. “I was fine with you doing whatever when that thing wasn’t fighting back, but I’m not giving up my chance now.” “Are you serious?” Twilight gawked at her in disbelief. “She’s a little girl!” “Little girls are some of the scariest, most dangerous mother fuckers on the planet. Now get out of my way.” Lightning Dust tried to fly around Twilight to get a direct punch in on a still-recovering Scootaloo. Twilight moved to put a shield around the filly. Though she managed far in advance, it didn’t matter. A runic hammer came swinging towards Lightning Dust. She dodged it in the same robotic fashion, leaving yet another hole in the floor. The nearby wall finally collapsed, leaving the outside visible. Twilight expected the whole structure would start crumbling soon. It was soon followed by the thrust of a spear, the swing of a sword, and a jab of a dagger. Lightning Dust’s body flung itself about, deftly maneuvering through the labyrinth of attacks. Lightning Dust’s conscious mind caught up a second into the assault. Twilight saw her smile right before a slender sword nicked her on the cheek. She let that one through. “Maybe you can settle for fighting me?” Moonlight drew her weapons to her side as Lightning Dust landed down the hall. “Tch! You realize this is assault, yeah?” Lightning Dust rubbed the small wound and smirked at the idea. “I’m not the one breaking the law here. I’m perfectly justified to make the call to kill a monster in this situation. But you’re not allowed to attack other S-rankers because you disagree with their methods. Heh! And now that you hit me, whatever I do to you is self-defense.” From what Twilight read, she was probably right. “Don’t concern yourself with this,” said Moonlight Raven. “It’ll minimize the infighting if only one of us attacks her. She can’t claim self-defense against you yet. You focus on the girl. I’ll try to keep this one off your back so you can concentrate.” “But are we going to start–” “I fight with Flash Bang’s cronies all the time. Don’t worry about it.” Though she’d just met this mare, Twilight already assumed Raven knew what she was doing. The political dimension was certainly Twilight’s greatest weakness for now. For now, she nodded and turned her attention back to Scootaloo, now twitching at odd angles and clenching her teeth. Behind her came the sounds of a minor struggle, nothing but exploratory swings for now. Both halves of her must have been awake and fighting for control, Twilight decided. “Alright. We’re both going this time.” Twilight opened the Z-gate to the mountains again. “Scootaloo, if you can hear me, come through the portal.” Scootaloo took two shaking steps toward the portal. They were both awake! Twilight grabbed Scootaloo with her magic and tried pulling the filly through the portal. But just as she got close, the black energy surrounded her once again and the portal shattered. Perhaps without meaning to, Scootaloo collapsed the Z-gate! She noticed the black energy blowing off Scootaloo, meaning even the black feather had likely lost control of its magic. The direction of the wind effect changed constantly, keying Twilight into the fact that she was being attacked from multiple directions. If it had been just one, Twilight could pinpoint it easily enough. The glowing white feather on Scootaloo’s neck was the only thing keeping her alive, even. Its light flared in and out like a lightbulb ready to explode. Twilight knew it was bearing the brunt of the force on both ends. The good news was that Twilight doubted the white feather could be destroyed by whatever was happening. The bad news was that its magic, Twilight realized, was constantly healing Scootaloo. It kept her alive but forced her into consciousness, meaning merely putting Scootaloo out or under mind control would be too difficult. And she couldn’t take it off or Scootaloo would die immediately. The filly clutched her head and fell onto the ground, screaming and kicking her hind legs. Twilight didn’t like it, but she had no better option now! She had to knock Scootaloo out hard enough that she wouldn’t recover for a day or two. Only then could the filly be safely evacuated. It’d only become increasingly difficult to do this precisely enough. And she was clearly already in terrible pain besides. If the parasite saw her moving to cast a spell, it would decide she was a threat, so Twilight needed to strike with an off-the-cuff jab. Twilight teleported behind her and shot a needle of arcane energy at the back of Scootaloo’s neck. The needle vanished and Scootaloo craned her head around in an unnatural way to look at Twilight. No! Twilight recognized her problem immediately. She hadn’t hit hard enough and hesitated too much to strike at Scootaloo. Trixie’s criticism of her echoed in Twilight’s mind. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to strike even Trixie or Minute with an actual, full-force attack. Against a pony she was so close to, the problem was far worse! Scootaloo focused on Twilight, but before it could try and strike her, she stumbled again, looking as though she were about to puke. Then she teleported in an explosion once more. Twilight needed to follow. “Alright!” She heard Lightning Dust shout behind her. “We can escalate this if you want!” Lightning Dust took out a short gun with a wide barrel. Instead of pointing it at Twilight, she shot the round straight into the air, enough of the building now destroyed for her to get a clear shot at the sky. Moonlight Raven reacted to this with far more concern than was due to most guns. Lightning Dust fired it off before they were in melee again. It streamed with purple smoke and exploded harmlessly in the middle of dead air, sparks from the explosion spread out wide into a star pattern. Twilight had seen something similar, a ‘firework’, nothing more than decoration. Twilight didn’t have time to figure out what that could mean. She chased after Scootaloo instead. Spitfire remained above the fray, splitting her attention between the two main points of interest while Fleetfoot finished intercepting the missiles. At last, a sign of the true threat appeared. The flare system was something everypony was taught in elementary school. By law, every classroom and home had a set of color-coded flares. Red meant to come in for an immediate rescue, blue that the area was dangerous, and you had to approach with caution, and white, that the situation was hopeless and you should leave them to die. Purple was not one of the standard colors. It was illegal for anypony but high-ranking slayers or military ponies to have them. The ones that sputtered into little stars like this were in the employ only of S-rank or above ponies. It signaled that an S-rank pony was declaring an S-level threat was about to emerge. All normal ponies needed to evacuate while those rank A or above needed to assemble to fight. Generally, the only ‘worse’ signal you could give was the white-star flare that meant the situation was so grave even the S rankers should evacuate. The town sirens began to wail within seconds of the flare going off. Ponies had already been running for shelter for some time, but the movement began to swell. Pegasi from the military, psychic’s guild, and SA were already assembling in the air, moving into their meeting points. Spitfire’s first instinct was that it meant Screwball herself was here. That’d be one hell of a ballsy move. With everypony here, she’d be sure to lose, though such a fight in Ponytown would mean the destruction would be extreme. Then she saw something welling up in the sky. A spiraling spear of blackness launched down towards the ground from one figure. A second intercepted the attack with its own. A sphere of black collided with the pillar and both exploded into a white light. It’d be some time until the noise reached Spitfire. Spitfire squinted, able to make out one of the two as Silverstorm. The other had to be the monster in question. Silverstorm was already engaging it. She was the strongest fighter they had, and Spitfire might only interrupt if she charged in there blindly. Instead, she decided to go to the school, where the flare had been fired from, for more information, trusting the unicorn to hold the threat off for the time being. She got close only to find fighting down here as well! Her assumption that it was the Bloodstorm Cartel fighting Lightning Dust proved overly optimistic. She saw the flurry of a dozen enchanted weapons swirling across the schoolyard, chasing what appeared to be a sentient bolt of lightning. Already she knew the two ponies who were fighting and cringed. Spitfire wasn’t sure of her ability to give either of them orders. Moonlight Raven was one of Sunset’s dogs and saw Spitfire as a brutal authoritarian to heroically defy, as she did anypony associated with Flash Bang. Lightning Dust was part of the same faction, but despised anypony but Flash Bang or the president herself giving her orders. The situation had already gotten worse by the time Spitfire got close enough to see them. Eight more pegasi had joined the fight. She couldn’t identify exactly which ones were on which side as lightning, fire and wind shot across the school grounds. Spitfire enveloped herself in flames and crashed into the ground between Raven and Lightning Dust, announcing her presence with an eruption of flames. The explosion got them to quiet for a moment while Spitfire straightened up. “What do you all think you’re doing?!” Spitfire barked at Lightning Dust mostly. “I was trying to stop that monster when she attacked me.” Lightning Dust pointed proudly to the small nick on her face. “I’m trying to stop her from making this worse,” said Raven. “The pony up there is Scootaloo if you’re up to date with your classified intel. Aggression causes her condition to worsen. I’m trying to keep her off Silverstorm’s back so she can solve the problem. She’s likely the only one who can.” “Spitfire, that thing could kill tens of thousands if even one attack gets through.” Lightning Dust stepped forward. “Are you seriously going to put the life of a single freak before the entire town?! I have armor that resists her magic and I’m fast enough to get a lethal blow in on her before she can react!” “It’s unlikely she’ll get a major attack in with all of us here,” Raven argued. “And she’s the only one of her kind. Her death could be a critical loss that may cost us far more than ten thousand lives.” “She may have already killed somepony for all we know,” Lightning Dust shot back. “How many normal lives are you willing to sacrifice to keep one of your freakshows going for ‘science’ or whatever, huh?” Unfortunately, they both brought up good points. This would be a lot easier if Lightning Dust were just being completely unreasonable. Spitfire closed her eyes, unsure of the correct course of action. She used to be so much sure of herself. A younger, more hotheaded Spitfire likely would have tried to ‘save everypony’, including the filly responsible for it all. But she was far less confident in such reckless optimism now. As always, when struck by a situation like this, she instead defaulted to the proper chain of procedures for handling the situation. “Under the articles of engagement, lethal force is justified in this situation.” Spitfire recited it with her eyes closed. “Lightning Dust isn’t wrong to attempt to go for a kill. Too much is at risk to–” “To hell with your procedures.” Raven summoned her weapons to her side. A group of five pegasi had gathered behind her by now. Spitfire saw even more behind herself. The tension was raising to the point Spitfire couldn’t stop it, only redirect it. Then Sunset Shimmer came walking into the scene. Things were either about to resolve or get a lot worse. Spitfire knew the ponies on her side wouldn’t be able to overcome her if things went ugly. “As the highest-ranking pony here, I’m ordering all of you to stand down,” said Sunset. “Silverstorm and I will handle this matter. The rest of you can stay here.” “As if!” Lightning Dust stepped forward. “I only take orders from Flash Bang! I’m the only one who can stop her in time, and I will! Are the rest of you willing to lay down your lives for some monster just because Sunset doesn’t want to get her prissy hooves dirty?!” The crowd was on lightning Dust’s side. There was going to be a fight either way. “I’m sorry,” Spitfire said calmly. “But in a situation like this where the extreme loss of life is possible, protocol takes priority. We need to eliminate the threat and your orders–” “When did you become so robotically obsessed with rules?” Sunset asked. “You’re seriously going to kill her when I’m telling you it isn’t necessary?” “I grew up, alright!” Spitfire stepped forward with more emotion than she’d meant to leak through. All the fighting didn’t get through to her. But this? Her heart was racing. “I’m not some idealistic filly anymore who thinks you never have to make sacrifices! And I won’t let you endanger the entire city just because you haven’t grown up yet!” Sunset Shimmer frowned. This hadn’t been the first time they’d clashed. Still, she had to try. She had to give Lightning Dust the chance to protect Ponytown. She charged forward at Sunset, landing in front of her with an explosion. Spitfire knew she couldn’t win, but it was just enough for Lightning Dust to blast off and out of sight. Sunset turned to Lightning Dust, but Spitfire grabbed from behind, demanding her attention. Dash ran through the streets, dragging Trixie behind her. She dragged the element of laughter along for the ride, too, keeping it around her neck. The thing had gotten so hot she needed her leather jacket to wear it without burning herself. At least it didn’t seem to mind her wearing it for now. Though she missed seeing it herself, Dash heard enough yelling on the streets to pick up that somepony shot off a purple flare. There’d be no covering this incident up. Siren’s wailed. Ponies ran wild through the streets, some darting for shelter, others for the evacuation trams. They ran in every direction but Dash’s, leaving her to go against the flow of traffic. Dash still wasn’t even sure where she was going! She lost track of the ponies taking Derpy. At least the explosions in the sky let her know where Scootaloo was but approaching her would be difficult enough. She wasn’t even clear if the element of laughter intended to give her any more help. Its last comment boiled down to ‘figure it out’. She might be on her own from here. “Look!” Dash grabbed the necklace. “If you give me just one more go, I’ll tell Pinkie all of your jokes were hilarious! Even the ones I didn’t get! Come on!” A clash of spells exploded in the sky as Scootaloo and Twilight clashed. Dash winced at the sight, pained on their behalf. Trixie was bemused at best at Dash’s reaction. “Oh, please. You don’t seriously think that’s as hard as she can hit, do you?” Trixie blew her mane out from her eyes “Rainbow Dash. If there’s a secret release code for this getup, now would be a great time to do it.” Dash turned to Trixie. “My life has been nothing but fighting, I can tell you exactly what’s going on up there.” Trixie looked up at the scene. “She’s hesitating too much. She’s too attached to the Scootaloo to hit her. This is the one place I can be more effective. That part of me is dead. I could easily punch a small child with absolutely zero hesitation. If you let me out of this, I could teleport up there, knock her out, and come back down before anypony even notices.” She wasn’t wrong and maybe Dash would have let her out had some secret code existed. But she also realized that was a short-sighted solution, one that would sacrifice so much in the long term. “I know what you’re going to say.” Trixie turned away. “99.9% of the time, hitting a foal is a bad thing or whatever. I get that. But this is the rare situation where it’s the moral thing to do! “It’s not that. The entire thing you’re trying to learn is that violence isn’t the solution to every problem,” said Dash. “And yet I see a lot of violence going on.” “And is the violence making things better or worse?” Dash asked, getting only a frown from Trixie. “What I need to do is reach Scootaloo. And the rest of these knuckleheads.” “Oh very well.” Trixie bowed, keeping her eyes locked on Dash’s. “Then show me how the great Rainbow Dash resolves this with friendship or whatever. I’m not going anywhere.” Not without Dash, anyway. Dash carried Trixie up to the top of a roof and set her in stationary mode. She said that but didn’t even have a plan yet. She wracked her brain going over everything she’d seen in the element of laughter’s throne room, everything she could know that Twilight couldn’t. One image came to her mind and Dash knew her course of action at last. That thing was stupid and over-reactive, but it was also just a scared animal in pain. One that… Dash flew up towards Scootaloo’s location. The parasite threw them into the air so fast it took Scootaloo a moment to realize where they even were. They weren’t flying, neither had the skill for that, but falling from a great height, far above the school. It flailed her eyes about wildly, locking onto the mall. There! Scootaloo realized in horror it was about to hit one of the densest areas possible! Before she could even try to stop it, another wave of blackness overtook her. When her vision blurred back into recognition, it was already hurling one of those black pillars down at the mall. This one was massive! It seemed to never get smaller no matter how far away it flew. But something else collided with it as it hurtled to the ground! Then Scootaloo’s vision blurred again. When she regained sight, that blackness merely hung suspended in the air or perhaps falling much more slowly now. A blue glow surrounded her, something Scootaloo needed a second to realize was a shield. For a moment, the pain faded. Twilight was here, standing nearby. They were still falling, the entire getup. Twilight stood on the bottom of her falling shield walking forward slowly to counter its spin. Scootaloo fell at the perfect rate to keep her in the dead center of the sphere. “I’m not sure if that worked,” said Twilight. “Can you understand me again?” “I.” Scootaloo winced. “Twilight, it still hurts! I can’t control myself!” “Scootaloo, I’m going to try and hit you just hard enough to knock you out. I’ll teleport you away afterward. Do you understand? Just try to keep it under control for a few seconds. That was the best plan Scootaloo could think of. And yet she felt outvoted. It was just smart enough to understand that Twilight was going to hit them, but not smart enough to understand why that might be a good idea. It’d just hurt them more, it thought. Just let Twilight hit us! Scootaloo begged the parasite in her head. Already, she felt it pulling away control of her own body! It was the part of her brain that controlled those functions, she understood now, it was nearly impossible to fight against it. “No! It’ll be like going to sleep!” Scootaloo yelled out loud. “If you let her hit us now, we’ll get better!” “No! It’ll be like going to sleep!” Scootaloo yelled out loud. “If you let her hit us now, we’ll get better!” Another wave of pain. Scootaloo’s vision blurred. The shield was gone now! Or perhaps it had been stopped from existing in the first place. That stupid thing had attacked once again. Scootaloo looked around, only to have her head snap forward again. She couldn’t spot Twilight now, but another pony was circling toward her. The parasite had already welled up, aiming for an attack at the immediate threat, always the most immediate threat. And now that was the pegasus from before, Lightning Dust. She had a contingent of other pegasi following her that were quickly picked off by Twilight, shoving them through portals to evacuate them. Lightning Dust alone managed to dodge out of the way and spiral toward Scootaloo. In its lizard-level understanding of things, the parasite had instead decided that Lightning Dust was the one responsible for all this. And now it was going to fire off the biggest attack yet right at her, with no concern for all the houses even further below. “Stop this!” Scootaloo shouted at herself. “You’re making things worse. Even if you kill her, it’ll just cause more problems in the future!” It didn’t understand whatever Scootaloo was getting at! It couldn’t understand things like that. It only understood that they were in pain! “Just trust me!” Scootaloo shouted. It didn’t! It was about to fire! Lightning Dust charged in as fast as she could, hoping to kill Scootaloo before she could do it. With the massive ball of darkness behind her, Scootaloo couldn’t exactly think she was making the wrong decision. Another pegasus moved between her and Lightning Dust. Against the blue sky, Scootaloo could only make out her rainbow mane. Scootaloo heard the voice but couldn’t possibly make out the words! No! Rainbow Dash was the last pony Scootaloo wanted to hurt! But she was right in the way! With the last feeble bits of her willpower, Scootaloo tried to pull away once more. Despite having no strength left, she finally managed. She finally pulled her hoof back and the darkness faded away as she let go of the magic. Yet it wasn’t because Scootaloo’s feeble attempts had finally overcome the other half of her brain. It was because there was no resistance at all. It hesitated?! Scootaloo’s eyes went wide. “You don’t want to hurt her either?” Never had she considered it capable of such a thing. Had it slowly picked up on her emotions over these past few months and grown to care about Rainbow Dash too? She could hardly see it the same way after that. Even with all this horrible pain, it managed to restrain itself for the sake of Rainbow Dash. She realized, at least, how she could keep it under control. Lightning Dust had been taken off guard enough by Rainbow Dash flying in the way for Twilight to finally grab her and throw her through a portal. Nothing was stopping her now. “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo called out. “It won’t hurt you!” Dash nodded, trusting her without hesitation. She flew forward and grabbed Scootaloo in a tight hug that Scootaloo could barely feel between her head pounding so badly. Another wave of pain and Scootaloo blacked out a second time. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could last like this. While she’d been out, her body had begun to kick and struggle. Yet still, even now, the parasite couldn’t bring itself to attack Rainbow Dash. It struggled even harder to keep down its instinct to attack. It searched for some other way to destroy. “Scootaloo, I know it’s hard but you can’t fight against it,” said Dash. “It wants to help us, it just doesn’t understand how.” Scootaloo… finally understood it. Its primary goal wasn’t to destroy, nor even to protect itself. Not anymore. It cared about Rainbow Dash. And it cared about her. It didn’t understand, but it wanted to be friends. Maybe it had been a monster. Maybe it had ruined her life. But it didn’t have to be that way. So even if she still hated it and it wasn’t fair… “Please. I’ll trust you first,” said Scootaloo. “Show me where it’s coming from and this will stop. But we need to let Rainbow Dash do this.” It believed her this time. It believed Rainbow Dash would keep them safe. Scootaloo resolved to do what had repulsed her. She needed to give it a name. What it wanted to be. What it should be. Her Guardian. The change was instant! It was like a wall between the two of them had been lifted now, like a missing part of her brain had been reconnected. Scootaloo could see everything Guardian could. The magic that had been invisible to her was crystal clear, as were all of her motivations. Guardian showed her where the attack was coming from. Or rather, Scootaloo knew. It seemed almost strange to make that distinction now, like whether Scootaloo was seeing it herself or if her eyes were showing it to her. Once again, as in the throne room, she could hear Guardian’s thoughts. But now they weren’t erratic and full of hate. She no longer felt the solution to every problem was destruction but protection. The protection of Scootaloo and of Rainbow Dash… and the awareness of her other self was slowly expanding to understand there was more even than that. Or rather, it had access to the full understanding Scootaloo did. With perfect synchronization, so that it was hard to tell which one of them was even doing it, they managed to push through even this attack to warp reality. Scootaloo changed their location. Her, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight appeared down in the mall, in a storage closet. There she could see the device– two metal discs, one floating atop the other with a crystal keeping both of them in position. Though Scootaloo could scarcely get a better look than that. She understood why Guardian didn’t want to get close to this thing now! Even in her current state, Scootaloo couldn’t move! She couldn’t use her magic or anything this close to it! She felt her body going limp in Dash’s grasp. But the others seemed to know what to do. “Interesting.” Twilight knelt to examine it. “Hurry up and smash it!” Dash scolded her. “I don’t know if Scootaloo has a lot of time left.” “Right.” Twilight straightened up. She ripped the crystal out from the center of the device. The top and bottom half collapsed onto one another. Immediately relief! Scootaloo gasped for air! She hadn’t even realized she stopped breathing for a second there. And yet through it all, she never once lost connection with Guardian. Not even close up could that thing split them apart now. Guardian had already spotted the next one and brought them toward its location. Allgood poured himself a shot of whiskey from the most expensive bottle at hoof. He doubted even that much could steady him as things continued to spiral out of control. After Lightning Dust betrayed him and took out most of his other agents in the region, he felt all he could do was wait for the increasingly bad news. “All three of our devices have been destroyed!” The engineer called out. Subject Two had simply shrugged off everything he could throw at her and had already recovered with almost zero damage to the city save one building! Even if Allgood could blame the Bloodstorm Cartel for the attack in the first place, his only part in resolving the crisis had been sending Lightning Dust in who started a fight! There was no possibility Starlight could accept such a turn of events. “What the crow is going on down there?!” He gritted his teeth as he look down at the spot Subject Two had to be. That magic near the end had been nothing like he’d seen before. What the crow had happened?! Allgood took another shot of whiskey. He needed to remain calm, and think of some way he could at least lessen the blow. He hadn’t gotten to the top of the business world simply through inheritance as his rival Filthy Rich seemed to think. Allgood was a genius! Yes. He always figured out a way out of these situations before and today would be no different. He just needed a few minutes to– “Actually, I was hoping you’d be the one to tell me what was going on.” Snap stumbled back from the ledge at the sound of that voice. President Starlight Glimmer stood personally before him, two of her elite guards by her side. They too wore black robes with green trim, but with a pattern reminiscent of thorns rather than the flowering vines Starlight wore. How long had she been here?! “I was informed Scootaloo had escaped and somehow came all the way out to Ponytown.” Starlight grabbed the bottle of ten-thousand-bit whiskey from Allgood. She gave it an unenthusiastic look before tossing it off the side of the airship. “And it appears you failed to contain the issue yourself. It’s a good thing Rainbow Dash and Silverstorm were around to clean up your mess, I suppose?” “They are the reason she’s here in the first place!” Snap jumped on the one thread he still had any grasp over. “You know how fragile Rainbow Dash’s heart is! She abducted Subject Two shortly after she broke out of the facility and brought her to live here of all places, irresponsibly believing she could treat the subject like a normal filly. That was the most–” Starlight held up her hoof to cut him off. “Are you sure that’s what happened?” Starlight asked. “Things seem to have calmed down. Why don’t we go talk to them so there aren’t any misunderstandings? Like right now.” Starlight’s magic grabbed him before he could protest. They arrived at the final device, off on a mountainside on the other side of the river. It looked as though a battle had been fought here not long ago. That blue pegasus, Fleetfoot, was there pinning down another pony. Around them were dismantled artillery and craters from blasts. Already, the assault on her body had subsided so much and her connection with Guardian had grown so greatly that Scootaloo felt she could at last deal with this one herself. She knew Twilight could easily destroy it, but it felt like such a relief to knock the crystal out of the device herself with the magic she could at last control so well. Finally, all the buzzing and aching died down. The white, blurry tides of pain and unconsciousness stopped washing over her. But the absence of the pain left exhaustion to quickly overtake her. Scootaloo realized that may have been the only thing keeping her awake this whole time. She’d never felt the strength of her other self directly so she’d never realized she could get tired. Being so deeply connected to it meant she could see the bottom of those vast depths of magic Guardian possessed. It was deep, but not endless. The most ironic part was if Twilight had blocked maybe five more attacks like that, Scootaloo was pretty sure she would have just run out of juice and fainted anyway. But this was a better outcome. She let out a sigh and fell back, Dash catching her. “Are you okay?” Dash asked. “I… honestly, I’ve never felt this good before.” Scootaloo let out a single laugh. “I’m so tired but… I feel like I’m actually in control of my own body for the first time in my life! I feel like I don’t even need this thing anymore.” Scootaloo put a hoof over the white feather around her neck. She felt as though its magic had been exhausted too. “Maybe we should leave it on anyway.” Twilight frowned down at the ground. “At least I can finally clean this up now.” Scootaloo noticed another crack in the ground had formed where she’d smashed the last device! One that Twilight went to work slowly closing up. There was still one more visible in the sky over Ponytown. Probably a few more besides that. She hadn’t meant to. Neither part of her, that is. It just seemed like such an easy way to travel. Maybe it’d take some time before Scootaloo had actual control of her powers. At least it seemed Twilight would be able to fix those. But so many ponies had seen all that. “Dash?” Fleetfoot asked. “You got any idea what happened?” “This was some kind of attack by the Bloodstorm Cartel.” Dash held Scootaloo possessively close. “The worst of it is over, though.” “I knew you two wouldn’t have any trouble with whatever was going on. Well, I got the rocket guy, at least.” Fleetfoot pulled the stallion up. “Just give me a minute to tie him up.” Dash watched Fleetfoot struggle to pull him to the side before talking to Scootaloo in a more hushed voice. “But did you do it?” Dash asked her. “Did you ‘connect’ with it or whatever that thing was talking about?” “It’s hard to explain,” said Scootaloo. If she went back in time, she doubted she could have convinced herself from yesterday what this was like. “I don’t feel like we’re two people. I feel like – like Guardian… like that parasite is just part of my body now or something. She’s not just something attached to me. She’s like my other self.” Like just then, Scootaloo felt another of her kind present. Making the distinction between whether it was her or Guardian seeing it would be like saying whether it was her eyes or Scootaloo herself that saw things. “I think Starlight Glimmer is about to show up,” said Scootaloo. But Scootaloo only bought them a few seconds to prepare. Starlight came down around the bend with a few of her guards in tow. She had one more pony with her, a large stallion she practically dragged along by the ear. Snap Allgood! Even in her ascended state, Scootaloo could only see that guy with terror. She quickly backed up, tucking herself beneath Dash’s legs as a much younger filly would. At least she no longer needed to assure Guardian now wasn’t the time to attack. She seemed to finally understand and trust Scootaloo. The area was getting crowded. Several other ponies had landed in the area besides just them! Starlight glanced from Scootaloo to Twilight to the nearly vanished crack. “Are you having trouble with that magic?” Starlight smiled too widely. “Let me help you.” Starlight closed her eyes and her horn glowed. The blackness of the crack vanished instantly in a glimmer of light. Not just that, but the large hole welling up in the distance as well. “That should take care of all of it,” said Starlight. “I don’t blame you for struggling. That is some of the most difficult magic to deal with.” Her own ponies seemed almost in awe of her. The normal slayers looked deeply impressed as well. Twilight spared her only a suspicious look. Scootaloo supposed she was the only other one who understood what just happened. Starlight used the same sort of magic Scootaloo had unlocked. It was odd seeing her, like seeing another pony for the first time. Looking at Starlight filled Scootaloo with that such an odd feeling of kinship, but also anxiety. This might be it! Starlight might be here to take her back to Area 5X. Twilight and Dash both moved between her and Starlight. Guardian got on edge, but Scootaloo was able to calm her with no effort at all. They trusted each other now. Before Starlight said anything further, there was a flash of light. Scootaloo hardly even realized what happened, a small battle had taken place. Lightning Dust landed near Scootaloo, perhaps still intent on killing her. Twilight had launched an attack just fast enough to knock off a few feathers. Then, during that lightning dodge technique she did, Starlight grabbed her with magic and slammed the side of the pegasus’ head into the ground hard enough to crack the rocky mountainside. Lightning Dust winced but recovered, save for the fact that Starlight kept her there. Scootaloo supposed even now she couldn’t keep up with the speed of ponies like that! “Lightning Dust, I would strongly prefer it if you went home now.” Starlight kept her eyes heavy on her. Lightning Dust looked for a moment like she might protest, but Starlight increased the pressure. “Yes, ma’am.” Lightning Dust had to avert her gaze. Starlight lifted her grip and Lightning Dust got out of there as quickly as possible. Starlight next moved her eyes to one of the armored pegasi who’d followed her here. “You. Tell the others that I’m here and the situation has been resolved. I won’t tolerate any further infighting from this point forward. I’m going to have a short conversation here. If I need to personally break up any fights afterward, the consequences will be severe.” “Yes, Madam President!” The pegasus saluted her. Starlight nodded to her guards and they went off to do the same. “You should take your captive in, then see if there are any more snakes to pursue,” Starlight ordered Fleetfoot, who nodded and sped off with the few remaining ponies. Now it was just them, Allgood and Starlight. Starlight turned to Scootaloo. She knew instinctually she couldn’t match this pony. Both halves of her were mere children while Starlight was an adult on both accounts. She could see that now. The president tried to smile to calm Scootaloo and leaned down to be at eye level with her. “Scootaloo,” Starlight’s voice lost all of its harshness. Maybe too much. Starlight was talking to Scootaloo like she was five. “I know this wasn’t your fault, but I’d like to know why you were outside the facility to begin with. Can you please tell me? I promise I’ll believe you.” Scootaloo turned to Dash who gave her a reassuring nod. “I, uh, ran away.” Scootaloo lowered her head, still worried she might be on the verge of trouble. “I hated it there. But if you let me stay with Rainbow Dash instead, I swear I won’t run away again! I’ll be good this time.” Starlight hummed and lifted her head back to adult level, to Allgood’s level. “And was your security so incompetent that she managed to break through it on the first try?” Starlight asked. “Or did she attempt to escape multiple times and you failed to address such an obvious issue?” Allgood and Starlight locked eyes, the former frowning as the tension between them grew. It didn’t seem like he was going to answer. “It took me about six tries.” Scootaloo scrapped her hoof across the ground, though she still couldn’t see why that mattered. “Thank you, Scootaloo.” Starlight kept her eyes on Allgood. “I gave you some fifty million bits a year to contain Scootaloo and even with all these experts you still can’t manage it?” “Subject two is an extremely–” “I don’t want to hear another excuse like that,” said Starlight. “Lilymoon is vastly more powerful and unstable and I’ve had little trouble with her. She’s never tried to run away, let alone succeeded. And more importantly, you were unable to resolve this incident yourself. Rainbow Dash seems to have been doing a better job than you on both counts without any support at all.” Dash jumped on the prompt, grabbing Scootaloo and bringing her close to a hug. “Yeah! We had zero problems until The Bloodstorm Cartel attack.” Dash smiled. “I’m assuming they could have just as easily attacked your ‘facility’ or whatever. And then what would you do without us anywhere nearby?” “Exactly. It seems I could have just given her to Rainbow Dash and accomplished more with less money,” said Starlight. “Yeah.” Dash chuckled. “I mean, fifty million a year? I’d do it for five!” Dash glanced down at Scootaloo. “Or free!” Dash quickly corrected herself. “But I mean, you know, if you want to give me a few million a year.” “That sounds fine with me.” With her eyes closed, Starlight trotted past Allgood. “Then I’m making Rainbow Dash Scootaloo’s new legal guardian. I’m afraid you aren’t allowed to decline this offer if you don’t want trouble, Dash. Your actions volunteered you for it. Though any expenses related to caring for her will be covered.” Scootaloo’s ears perked up. Did she hear that right? She’d been so certain this would lead to her being taken back to Area 5X or that there’d be a shootout between Starlight and Twilight over this. But for Starlight to make her and Dash family? And to get to stay here legally?! She didn’t dare allow herself to believe this was happening just yet! She held her trembling breath. “Starlight!” Allgood stepped forward. “You can’t seriously give them such a charge after the destruction caused by them improperly containing–” “Let me make this clear. I don’t care if Rainbow Dash broke into the facility, kicked you in the balls, and kidnapped Scootaloo. Scootaloo was your ward until just now.” Starlight placed her hoof on Allgood’s chest. From the look on his face, you’d think it was a bomb. “You are the one responsible if she runs away and takes up residence in unsafe conditions. I’ll be reviewing every government contract you have to assess if you’re competent enough to warrant them. And I’ll be sending a serious audit to your facilities to see what criminal charges need to be brought up. Do you understand?” Allgood scowled but for once he’d been shut up. Seeing him this humiliated was the most beautiful thing Scootaloo had ever seen before. “I suspect you’ll want to contact your lawyers.” Starlight turned her back to him. “You can accept my decision and leave or I can detain you right now.” Allgood shot Dash a deathly look, promising revenge without a word spoken. Sadly, he didn’t choose to openly defy Starlight. “I’ll see you in court, then.” Allgood sulked away with whatever dignity he could salvage. And then he was gone. He was really gone! But the best part was still burning in her mind, doubt that Starlight had said what she had moments ago. “So,” Scootaloo, at last, dared to speak to Starlight. “So I’m really– Dash is my legal guardian now?” “You said you wouldn’t attempt to escape if Rainbow Dash was your caregiver, yes?” Starlight asked Scootaloo. Scootaloo shook her head as rapidly as possible as she clung to Dash. This was happening! Or was it? She still couldn’t believe it! “Yes! I love Rainbow Dash! I’ll never run away again!” Scootaloo grabbed onto Dash. “I won’t even complain anymore!” Starlight smiled and laughed. It was a fake smile and a fake laugh, but still! “Then of course. I don’t want you to be constantly trying to rebel,” said Starlight. “I’ll make it official as soon as I get back to area 5X.” Scootaloo looked up at Dash, only now allowing herself to feel anything. “Then. Does this mean you’re my mom now?” “Uh.” Dash knitted her brows uncertain of the title. “I mean, I’m eleven years older than you. I think that’s a big close for me to be your mom.” “Oh.” Scootaloo lowered her head, her ears falling flat. She knew she’d gone too far with that. Admittedly, the idea seemed a little strange to her as well. “But I’m still legally family now!” Dash grabbed Scootaloo tight to try and salvage the situation. “Maybe instead of Mom, you can call me your aunt or big sister or something?” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both had sisters more than a decade older than themselves, too, so the idea had immediate appeal to Scootaloo. She’d fit in even more with her new friends! Heck, this was technically almost exactly the same as that fantasy she’d wished she could force on everypony when she first met Dash! Only now she could get it without any brainwashing! “Yes!” Scootaloo buried her face in Dash's chest. She could barely speak between the sobs. “I! I want to! To be your sister!” It was too much! Scootaloo finally had an actual family now… somepony who would seriously care about her. She couldn’t imagine anything better. So maybe she did cry. A lot. She wanted to look cool, but she cried hysterically into Dash’s chest. Everything felt like it was finally over! “It’s okay.” Dash nuzzled her mane. “I want to be your sister, too.” Dash held her new sister for what felt like too long, waiting for her to stop crying. “Now, Rainbow Dash. I do hope you realize that next time you’ll be the one held responsible for any destruction that Scootaloo causes,” said Starlight. “I don’t care if somepony else kidnaps her. I’ll expect you to not allow that to happen in the first place. As her legal guardian, you’ll effectively be her parent from now on. Taking care of her, in general, will be up to you. I won’t require you to ‘lock her up’ but from now on she’ll need to be housed in a low-population area. You may want to buy a second home.” “I’ll take it,” Dash said without hesitation. As much as she wanted to focus on the sentimentality, there was still a serious threat out there. “One more thing!” Dash called out to Twilight. “The Bloodstorm Cartel sent out some mercenaries to kidnap me. They only got Derpy and Pinkie was chasing them, but–” “We’ll take care of that in just a moment.” Starlight’s eyes felt straight to the necklace around Dash’s neck, to the element of laughter. “But we have the matter of your mission to discuss before Sunset Shimmer returns. I should have expected nothing less of you. To steal that away from Sunset Shimmer while capitalizing on all this chaos.” Dash glanced down at it herself. Had she stolen it?! Or did this count as kidnapping? Dash had a surprisingly positive track record when it came to kidnapping so hopefully the latter. She still hadn’t even decided if she should take it away from Sunset or if Sunset was the bad guy! Starlight held out a hoof as though expecting Dash to fork it over. There was no time left to make a decision! What Dash wouldn’t give for a minute or two to think! As if taking her up on the offer, time froze again. To Dash’s relief, everypony froze in place again. Meaning… Pyrite Feather flew down from the sky. “Hey! I did the thing again! You promised you’d tell Pinkie that all of my jokes are hilarious now, yeah?” “I didn’t mean it like–” “Then you should have been more specific, dummy.” Pyrite stuck her tongue out at Dash. “Besides! I totally helped you. Say thank you.” Pyrite lifted her head and pointed at the ground as if expecting Dash to bow to her. Sadly, she did kind of have a point here. Things turned out great with Scootaloo and it was all thanks to this complete asshole somehow. So Dash was willing to meet her halfway. “Alright. Thank you.” Dash bowed her head. “You helped Scootaloo out a lot. So I guess you aren’t the worst thing I’ve ever talked to.” “There, was that so hard?” Pyrite hummed as she trotted over to the frozen Starlight and put a foreleg around her. “Besides. Don’t you want to spy on Starlight the glimmer next? I’m keeping my part of the non-agreement we didn’t have and giving you one more go.” “Uh.” Dash looked over to Scootaloo, frozen but perfectly fine. “Well, I guess I might as well at this point, right?” “Right!” Pyrite leaned up against Starlight. “So then, since she’s just like me–” Starlight’s body became animated! “Please don’t compare the two of us.” Starlight smacked Pyrite away, sending her tumbling. She held her head high to look down at Pyrite. “You’re just a broken child who failed to grow up. I can’t even allow you to exist.” “Oh no!” Laughter kicked her hind legs and laughed. “That’d hurt my feelings. If I had any!” Starlight turned to Dash, ignoring her for now. “Um.” Dash took a step back. She hoped this wasn’t about to go bad. “This isn’t what it looks like! She was just helping me with Scootaloo.” “You needn’t worry. I was expecting you to use her power to have a look around. I won’t even interfere with what you’re attempting to do, only explain.” Starlight smiled and stepped forward. “There are layers behind everything I do. Nothing I said before was untrue, but there are things I wanted you to see on your own, without my influence so that you could understand without needing to trust me.” “Understand?” Starlight looked over to Scootaloo, seemingly frozen in time, then to Twilight. Her horn glowed and both of them came back to life. The accelerate mind spell had been cast on all of them, now. “Yes.” Starlight closed her eyes. “Scootaloo’s appearance was unforeseen, but fortunate nonetheless. Perhaps it was fate that she’d be here on this day and achieve completion just in time.” “I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” Dash shook her head. “Very well, let me explain. You see, the god of our religion, Cosmos, and I are the same entity. We have become one. Complete.”