//------------------------------// // Old Friends: New Problems // Story: My Little Death Note // by Caberea //------------------------------// She sounded mad even to herself. When had these ambitions become hers, when had she been so hungry for power? She thought briefly on it and decided that it was not her being power-hungry, but rather that there was nopony else who would do it. What other pony would be willing to sacrifice their time, their lives, even their souls for the betterment of Equestria. Certainly not Celestia; where had she been when they had fought Nightmare Moon or Discord? It wasn’t as if Luna could take on the role either, when she wasn’t being socially awkward she was either locked up at Canterlot castle or struggling with her own inner demons. No, only she could take up the role of goddess for this new world. But first she would have to eradicate those who would defile her perfect world. But how was she to do it, she could hardly wonder out into the new area of Ponyville and expect to get picked up by some sleazy colt. Not only was that unlikely to work, but it would be awful to go through such an experience again, and even the stupidest of them would begin to see a pattern. “Old man, if you truly are the maker of the Death Note’s then surely it wouldn’t be out of your power to tell me the names of every criminal in this town.” The old man smirked, though Twilight had no idea how it was physically possible for a bunch of bones to do that. Then again, The Old Man didn’t seem to have much of a care for the reality most ponies had come to realize. He was a living skeleton with a multitude of supernatural abilities that could be performed without any hint of magical use. On top of that he was a god of death, something used to frighten foals and generally considered a myth, yet here he was with a look that reminded her of a filly who knew something their parent’s didn’t. “Certainly it wouldn’t be out of my power, it’s simply a matter of it being out of my interests.” “You’re kidding me. Earlier today you were trying your hardest to convince me to use the Death Note, and now that I’m willingly asking you to help me use it, you’re just going to sit back and do nothing?” “We’ll what does it serve me to tell you their names? You may not have noticed it but you are currently in possession of my Death Note, my only Death Note I’ll have you know. Personally I would quite like to have it back, but since you’ve shown me you’re not willing to relinquish it, I’ll simply have to make another for myself. It will take a rather large amount of souls passing from this world through natural means before I can fashion myself a new one, so I believe you’ll find no reason as to why I should help you. At least not until I have my new one.” She had to admit, The Old Man had a way with words that really didn’t leave much room for argument. “So let me get this straight, until you’ve gotten a new Death Note for yourself, you won’t willingly tell me the names of anypony?” “That would be correct and, as you seem so quick to forget, you’d also need their face, otherwise it’s useless.” The situation really did look rather hopeless. Here she was, a pony with the power to change the future for all of Equestria for the better, yet the rules of her own weapon stopped her. Then it occurred to her, a way she could distribute justice without even leaving the house. The newspaper always had something about criminals and various other disasters. Her effect on the world would be slow and small, but soon they would realize that there was someone watching them. The guilty would suffer for what they had done, and those who had committed smaller crimes would be deterred from that path. The paper would not only give her new victims to erase from the face of Equestria, but it would spread the news of their fates for her. “Who were you talking to Twilight?” Spike stood atop the stairs leading to the basement, looking very worried for her. She had no idea what connections the dragon would draw between her talking to herself and Star, and to tell the truth she didn’t really care. But it wouldn’t do her any good to have him worrying about her, and it was with an effort that she stopped herself hiding the Death Note behind her back. Doing so would have only drawn suspicion to it, and she wasn’t willing to entrust Spike with knowledge of the Death Note. But she had to figure out a way to get him out of here, without seeming as if he was unwanted there. She hated herself for what she said next. “Nopony, I was just thinking about us going to see our friends, with all the excitement that’s happened we haven’t seen any of them other than Pinkie.” No! That was all wrong. What excitement? And why oh why had she suggested going to their friends? She had been trying to avoid that since they had gotten there, why had she even thought of it, let alone said it? “I guess you’re right.” His face melted into a stupid smile “And it’ll be great to see Rarity again.” Okay, this was fine, she could handle it. All she had to do was go along with it, she could hide the Death Note somewhere and wait till later to write in it. She would need to be patient if she wanted to avoid being found out. “Come on then lover boy; let’s see how they’ve gotten on these past few years.” As she trotted out through the door with Spike she made sure to levitate the book out behind her while Spike’s back was turned, putting it away in a book shelf, filed correctly away in its proper place, assuming that the original owner was its writer. It wouldn’t do to break the order she had so painstakingly achieved before she found the notebook; and if there was anything that made a book stand out, it was incorrect filing. Not that Star would be likely to notice either way. If only that pony cared for books even half as much as she did her mother than she might have been able to run the library satisfactorily while she was gone. She felt sorry for the pony, the moment the Death Note was in place in the bookshelf she realized that she had only earlier tried to kill the mare, and her mother was dead too. She should have apologized to Star, or said something to comfort her, but she couldn’t do that without revealing what she had done, and the Death Note. She abruptly decided that she would get something for Star. She had accumulated quite a lot of bits while at Canterlot, mainly through either of the princess giving her some funds for a night on the town which would never happen. As she thought about her time at Canterlot, she realized just how right Celestia had been to send her here. She had become almost as antisocial as she had been when she came to Ponyville for the first time. Maybe it would do her some good to see her friends. Even if some of them were busy she was sure that she would be able to have a chat with them sometime. Memories came flooding back to her of the time she had spent together with them, almost bringing joyous tears to her eyes. So what if she had been gone for three years? She was back in Ponyville now, back where she belonged, and she was going to make the most of it. “Twilight, is something wrong?” “It’s nothing Spike; let’s go see our friends.” -------------------------------------- If Ponyville hadn’t changed so much she would have headed off for Fluttershy’s, she doubted the shy yellow Pegasus would ever be too busy not to see her friends. She might have to take care of some of her animal friends first, but that wouldn’t take too long, and it would at least prove some comfort to Spike if the others weren’t available. However, as it stood, Ponyville had changed, and quite drastically; in particular in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. It seemed nearly impossible to believe that the farm could still exist with so many of the new buildings around, and that would also have explained the lack of contact from Applejack. If something had happened to the apple family, if they had lost the farm somehow, then what would they do. She both wanted to get there as soon as possible to see if the farm still stood, but at the same time hated the thought of what she might find. It was with those two thoughts waging in her mind that she reached the once wide plains of Sweet Apple Acres. It wasn’t gone, for which Twilight was grateful, but it was nothing compared to what it once was. “Sweet Apple Acre” would have been a more appropriate name for it. She was sure that when she had been here all those years ago there had been a far greater crop, and that the barn hadn’t looked so run down. She could literally count the trees now, though they were at least near the hundreds. She was just as torn about seeing Applejack as she had been about seeing the farm. There was really no way she could just ignore the state of the place and act as if everything was as usual. What would Applejack think about her lack of communication? Pinkie Pie had just shrugged it off and acted like she’d never left, but then again, that was Pinkie Pie. Applejack was a different story, and so she decided that it would be better if she let Applejack talk about it if she so decided. She could only hope that Applejack had retained her lesson about pride better then she had remembered her friendship reports. As she raised a hoof to knock on the door it swung open suddenly, and she wished Pinkie Pie had been there to warn her of it. A door to the face wasn’t really the best way to start a conversation between old friends, all things considered, but a mare had to do with what she had. Standing in the doorway was Applejack, looking both rushed and slow at the same time. As if she knew she needed to be somewhere fast, but just couldn’t remember where. Despite her looks, she didn’t waste a moment in greeting Twilight back. “Welcome back Twi, excuse the state of things round here, as you might have seen things haven’t been going well lately here.” Twilight wasn’t really sure how to reply to such a casual greeting. She had really expected something a bit more worried, a bit more rushed, so she was grateful when Spike replied, albeit without any tact. “What’s happened to the farm?” Applejack sighed and motioned for the two of them to come inside. Looking around the house, she could see just how downhill things had gone for the Apple’s. There was little other than the essentials and a couple items of basic comfort. To an outsider it wouldn’t seem like much had changed, and initially that was what it seemed to Twilight, but as memories of the place came back to her, she noticed that the house had taken on a different feel. Before when she went here she got the feeling of choice simplicity, that the Apple’s chose to live simply and that was why the farm was that way. Now it seemed as if they had simply run out of any other options. As they reached the dining room, Twilight noticed two simple stools placed at the table. Something seemed off about that to Twilight, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on what it was. Applejack took a seat at one of them, before realizing there wasn’t enough for the both of them and getting back up. Feeling it would be wrong to take advantage of her friends’ small comforts in their current state, Twilight remained standing as Applejack told her story. “This all started ‘bout a year ago, when a bunch of big wigs from Canterlot figured it would be a good idea to fancy up Ponyville. It was alright at first, when it was just a couple of high-end shops, but then they started to want to make houses like them too. The place just kept on getting more crowded and eventually they started expanding Ponyville, or at least the fancy part of it. Speaking of the fancy part of Ponyville, they don’t seem to give a flying feather for anypony but themselves. When they started to expand they figured that the other ponies would just move to some other place, but we can’t do that Twi, we need the farm. It’s where we all grew up, and it’s all we’ve got, so we’re not gonna just let them take it.” Spike then seemed to forget who the story was about. “So why is the farm like it is now then?” Twilight shot Spike a look, but Applejack didn’t seem to take any offence to it. “Things started to get legal, the Canterlot ponies at the head of the development brought out some contracts to the land. Apparently, Granny Smith never made an official legal claim to the land, and doing so now would be completely useless, due to some fine print legality or somethin. It was all we could do to use the bits we had to buy up all that we could of our own farm. All the rest of it has been cleared for some of those new buildings. But that ain’t the worst of it, not by a long shot.” Applejack’s eyes started to water as she continued on. “Applebloom got her cutie mark while you were gone Twi, turns out she had a real talent for buildin’ stuff. We were all overjoyed when she got it, her especially so, but things got real bad when those Canterlot ponies came. They poured so many bits into the construction that everything else just stopped; she had to take a job building the same buildings that destroyed the rest of the farm. It must ‘ave been heartbreaking for the poor filly, but things just kept on getting worse for her an’ us.” “With those new buildings in town came a bunch of new ponies, in particular one couple, a unicorn mare and earth pony stallion. When they saw Applebloom they claimed that she was there filly, that she had been stolen from them when she was just a foal. Then things started to get really technical, and a bunch of things to do with DNA or some kinda technological nonsense were brought out. They told this whole tale about how she had been taken from them right after birth and said that if anything could prove it, it was those technological gadgets. That if the tests proved positive there was no doubt that Applebloom was theirs.” “I don’t know what they did to make it happen; I’d figure that something so confusing sounding would have to at least be able to be right at what it does. Twilight, they’ve taken Applebloom; The tests were positive, and according to a bunch of legal papers they waved in our faces, there’s no way we can get her back.”