//------------------------------// // 8. The Witch of Midnight // Story: The Scrolls of Harmony I: Dawnguard // by Sadie //------------------------------// A mosquito found the end of its life between a small patch of exposed skin, and a purple hoof. The sensation wasn’t so bothersome; it was the concept that rattled Twilight right down to her boots. A bloodsucker, biting into her neck. It was the mere night before that she had endured a similar experience, only to be left dying by the attackers. For the most part, she had only heard muffled explanations from Trixie as she somehow breathed life back into her body, lying cold on the empty streets of Baltimare. Ironic, considering Trixie herself was dead in a way. “Nasty bloodsucker.” Twilight bit down firmly on her lips. Trixie was positioned on the other side of the small campfire, Spring Heart having run off to satisfy her tastes. The remark, while usually innocent, carried a very strong resonance with Trixie. “Sorry, reflex. I really didn’t mean to offend you with that...” Trixie waved her hoof to assure her that apologies weren’t necessary. Her red eyes danced in the dull light of the fire. “You have every right to be squeamish. And I have been called far worse things anyway. You don’t have to apologize because you think I may be offended by something you say in passing.” They were both close to midnight in time, and the town of Midnight itself. At night, the Hayseed Swamps practically came alive with buzzing insects of all kinds, and the less pleasant sounds of larger creatures. Twilight could still recall the look on Spring’s face when they reached the border of the swamp itself. Terror. Given that the Baltimare guardhouse had been slaughtered, there had been little choice about continuing on. There was nopony to ask to back them up when approaching what was left of Midnight. “Still...” Twilight’s neck burned as she tried to speak. It wasn’t the act that caused the sensation, more the thought behind what had happened. Two sharp teeth penetrating her neck. “When you said you were undead, I figured that you were some sort of Daedra, and you could just stay alive by magic. I didn’t think that your kind... physically drained life from other ponies.” The piercing gaze from Trixie caused her to shuffle again. It wasn’t a look of offence, or even inquiry. It wasn’t something Twilight could make sense of. “I wouldn’t consider them my kind. They may be higher than the ones who have lost their minds, but they are far below what I would consider my true kind. They would never feed so rashly.” She brushed a bit of mud off her boot. The mere way that she spoke of it scared Twilight. She literally brushed off the killing of other ponies as something ‘rash’. Her trust in the ancient pony had been badly shaken following the attack. And yet again, she felt sick at the thought of Spring running around in search of somepony to feed on. While there bandits enough around, Trixie herself had said that the wild pony was one of the lesser kind. Would she really make the extra effort to feed off a pony that would gladly kill for a few bits? Almost by uncanny coincidence, Spring made her return. There was a mostly dry path from the main road to their camping spot, but the splash of her hooves was still loud enough for Twilight to hear. “I thought undead were supposed to be super stealthy.” As Spring stumbled into the small light of the fire, her hooves barely covered in swamp mud, she glared at Twilight. “Hey, I’m not exactly the stealthy type myself, but at least I take it slow to try and avoid telling them where we are. They do have better hearing and sight than normal ponies after all. You should know more about that than me in fact.” Trixie’s stand at that moment was a clear call for calm. “Twilight, we want them to think that we do not know how to traverse the swamp, and will turn back. And Spring is the only one who knows these swamps well; she knows what she is doing. You must trust in her judgement.” She sat down again, watching both the young Dawnguard and Spring glare at each other for a while afterwards. Eventually the mood settled down as the night grew long. Despite her best efforts, it was a challenge for Twilight to let herself sleep. The other two didn’t need to, as she had seen before, and that only unnerved her more. * It was mid-morning when Twilight woke. Smouldering wood, mixed with wet ash and the more typical swamp smell all rushed into her nose when she inhaled. “Ugh.” A fly buzzed past her nose. As she moved to swat it, she found herself touching muzzles with Trixie. “Um... I thought you didn’t have to sleep.” Trixie’s eyes flicked open. The bright amber glow of her eyes reminded Twilight of exactly what she was sleeping beside. And yet, she still restrained herself from recoiling away. Trixie stood up. “You looked cold.” That was all she said about the matter. She brushed a bit of mud off her boots. “Spring went ahead again to check out the town. She’s a little more settled now, if not apprehensive. I don’t blame her.” Twilight pulled herself up. Her crossbow and sword were in good condition, if not a little better. Upon picking up both, she could see signs that they had been finely polished. The crossbow strings in particular had been retuned. “I also took the time to do some fine tuning to the mechanical system. Spent a bit of time learning about the rock ponies when I was young. They knew a thing or two about crossbows.” Time and time again, Twilight was surprised by the endless things that Trixie said and did. Taking the time to fine-tune a weapon that was in essence, designed to kill ponies of her kind. “Apparently they have a forge in town; you should probably repair some of the worst of the damage I’ve found in your armour. If what you’ve heard about the fate of my home is true, then it would be advisable to be ready.” Twilight looked at the pieces Celestia had imbued for her. They didn’t bear any visible signs of damage, but Trixie probably had a way of seeing things she couldn’t. And she had no reason to lie. “Whatever you say then.” It was then that she finally stood up. Both places in which she had bitten began to itch almost immediately, only the more recent example did she scratch at. The scars on her neck had quickly become a reminder to herself about how dangerous Trixie potentially was. The trek down the overgrown road wasn’t as difficult as it was disturbing. Along the way, they had to pass around an abandoned carriage, where a solitary foal’s doll sat. It rattled Twilight’s nerves to think about the story behind it. The path itself from there on grew from a mess of weeds and grass, to an infestation of thick, pungent smelling vines. Each step brought the challenge of putting weight down without sliding around the network of slippery green. It was at the edge of the town that they found Spring Heart, frozen in place. Neither magic or the vines themselves held her in place. From the clear shock embedded in her face, the scene before them was not what she had been expecting at all. Every single building was buried in a thick layer of green, a layer that didn’t stop until it ran into the swamp water itself. Such a sight was beyond anything Twilight had ever read about during her studies. “I don’t recognize this sort of magic...” Trixie produced a small dagger from her belt, using it to remove one of the vines for examination. “It’s... new. And I don’t mean fresh. The magic is just... so young, and pure. Somepony must’ve created the spell causing this only a few hundred years ago.” Spring was too lost in the sight before her, all of Twilight’s attempts to regain her attention quickly failed. She didn’t want to consider what Trixie was implying. Ponies with the magical capacity to weave their own spells had died out before Celestia’s ascension. Those that hadn’t... From one of the wooden paths leading into the town, an elderly pony approached at a very slow pace. Unlike the trio, she seemed to be having no trouble with navigating the green netting. “Always late with the pruning...” Spring’s trance broke long enough for her to catch sight of the pony, and breathe in heavily. It didn’t slow the approach. “Always late with the tea...” Twilight drew her crossbow on instinct, keeping it at the ready for the time being. “Always late with the sweet rolls.” Trixie’s eyes narrowed. The elderly pony turned away from the trio when she entered the main marketplace. Twilight caught a glimpse of the cutie mark: a flower falling on its side. “Always late... to act.” A cloud passed over the sun, casting the town in a grey light. Something surged through Twilight, causing her magic to falter slightly. Everything about the town was wrong. “I could have been beautiful again, young and free.” The pony turned back to face them. Where the face of an elderly had been, a twisted expression of wrinkled malice remained. “If it weren’t for ponies like you!” A bolt of lightning broke from the sky without warning, striking the ground between the pony and Twilight. In a progressive wave, the vines rose up into a writhing mass of green tendrils. At that moment, she exchanged her crossbow for the sword. “I hope you know some ancient gardening tricks, Trixie.” The first swing severed the nearest vines, already poised to attack with barbs growing from the tips. Behind them, she could hear more breaking free of the ground. The witch wasn’t fazed in the least. “I planned my moment of rebirth for years! And if it weren’t for the meddling of that bastard gardener, it would have worked! And now Spring, you have joined the very kind who ruined it all!” A group of much larger vines burst from beneath the stone marketplace to lift the witch high into the air. Lightning strikes began to land all around Twilight, causing Trixie and Spring to flee for cover. She was too stunned by how fast things had changed to move. You do not belong with these creatures, Dawnguard. We can work together, to fight our common enemy. Magical forces wrapped around Twilight, pulling her high up into the air until she was opposite the witch. Her mind flew through training exercises, lessons on identifying potential threats. The one before her was one of the worst. “You’re... you’re a Glenmoril Witch. Why would you want to work with the Dawnguard?” The voice again penetrated into her mind. We are not so dissimilar. We kill undead. You simply do it in the name of Celestia. I do it for much greater purposes. Twilight struggled against the magical bonds again. If the witch hated undead, then Trixie and Spring were almost certainly about to be killed. “It doesn’t matter if our purposes are the same. The way we fulfil those purposes is more important. That’s what the Dawnguard have always believed!” Two lightning bolts came dangerously close to cooking her alive. This time, the witch spoke with a loud, horrific voice. “You have already betrayed your beliefs, by letting those creatures live! I am giving you the chance to help stop a dark force that will consume Equestria if it continues!” Twilight closed her eyes for a brief moment. This time, a different voice entered her head. Twilight, this is one of the choices you must make. Balance must be maintained, and you must follow through with this decision. There will be no turning back. A bright flash of red struck the base of the vine mass, bringing both Twilight and the witch falling to the ruined marketplace again. Trails of black smoke were wafting off Trixie’s horn, still glowing from the intense blast produced. With her magic, she picked up Twilight’s sword, pointing the sharp tip at the witch’s throat. “I haven’t been around in thousands of years. But the fact that ponies like you exist...” There was blood seeping from the base of her horn. For a moment, she clenched her teeth very firmly. “Doesn’t surprise me.” Twilight found the sword being passed into her magical grasp. The summoned storm had died out, letting the sun bask over the ruins once more. In front of her, the old pony known as Tumble Flower trembled in her beaten state. It had been a short battle, but a very frightening one nonetheless. “I wasn’t going to kill any of the townsponies. Just, borrow a bit of their life so I could continue my work. And it was all ruined, because of blood sucking rats...” The sword lowered. Twilight couldn’t summon up the mental will to do anything to her. Seeing an old pony reduced to such a pathetic state was taking a heavy toll. “Go to Canterlot, tell them what happened here, and offer your help to the Dawnguard. But I’m taking these two home, because I don’t kill ponies just because they happen to be different.” She turned away without another action, looking at both ponies now in front of her. There was a large scorch mark on the side of Spring’s armour, but otherwise she seemed alright. Trixie on the other hand still had bleeding around her horn. “I haven’t used powerful magic in thousands of years; my body must still be weak.” She was about to lift her hoof up to touch the rivulet of blood trickling past her eye, when she stepped back. “Twilight!” Twilight turned back to see Tumble Flower about to stab her in the neck with a green, jagged dagger. In the rush, her sword swung back around. Even with her eyes closed for a split second, she knew that the way her grip jerked was the sign of hitting Tumble’s body with the blade. Moments later, she opened her eyes to find a bleeding stump where her head had been. The shocked expression of the Glenmoril witch stared back at her from the direction it had rolled in. Her bloody sword dropped to the vines in shock. “I... I didn’t want to kill her.” There was a small amount of blood splattered on her armour pieces. After all that, she had just outright beheaded an elderly pony, witch or otherwise. A hoof shook her out of the horror. Trixie. “It was a reflex. I did not want to see her die either. But we have to accept that she wanted to kill you, and you defended yourself.” Twilight shook free of the hold. It felt wrong, despite the fact that killing Tumble Flower saved Trixie and Spring. It was, different from shooting the ponies outside the sarcophagus in the back. She didn’t have to look at their horrified faces, lying in a growing pool of blood. Spring picked up the head, taking a moment to look at it. “Tea Tree and I did the gardening here. We often cut back the vines around her house... He always believed that she was throwing out trash that helped them grow. I didn’t, and now it turns out that he was exactly right.” Her twisted horn began to glow red. Through some sort of odd magic, the head shrunk down until it was small enough to fit into her pouch. “Well, the Glenmoril coven is pretty powerful. At the very least, returning it to them may mean something.” The sheer coldness of what Spring said made Twilight shudder. Just like that, the one pony who knew Tumble Flower in some way had shrugged off all emotion of what had happened. Whether it was something undead could do or not, she didn’t have that ability. “Let’s just get out of here.” She took a moment to think. “Is there a boat we can take? It would be almost certainly faster to sail down the coast, and hoof the rest of the way along the border.” There was a nod from Spring before she began making her way towards the eastern part of town. With ease, she pulled open the door to a boathouse, facing out towards the mangroves. A single small craft lay inside on a launch. “We never got the chance to sail away. Luckily it hasn’t been in the water, careening would take too long.” Twilight took the initiative and pushed the boat down into the murky water with her hooves. Trixie and Spring got in, taking opposite ends of the boat. “I only know what I’ve studied about sailing, so it may be a little rough getting out onto the open sea. Just bear with me.” Twilight carefully stepped down and found a comfortable spot between the oars. With magic, the boat began to drift out into the brown waters, quiet as the ruined town behind them.