//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Twilight Sparkle // Story: Sympathy For The Devil // by Closer-To-The-Sun //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Twilight Sparkle Back inside the shop, Applebloom and Morning Star were chatting. “I can’t believe this happened. To me. I’m the supreme ruler of all that is evil and unholy, and I get one of my items returned to me,” Morning Star was in disgusted disbelief, “This is insanity!” “It’s okay, Mr. Morning Star. I’m sure a lot of ponies struggled with their first business,” Applebloom tried to cheer him up. “This isn’t my first business! I’ve been around for millennia creating evil and bring down the righteous! I was a general of a legion of unholy warriors, ruled empires with an iron hoof, was ruthless with my dealings, corrupting souls, created a company called Comcast, and ushering in the end times! And this….pony has the nerve to return something to my store?! How dare she!” “It’s jus’ one thing, ah’m sure you’ll get more customers,” Applebloom insisted. “That’s not the point!” Morning Star brusted out before he took a few deep breaths to calm down. “This is just frustrating though,” he raised his hoof up into the air and something seemed to materialize right above it in a flash of flames. It was a wooden sign, to which he gave to Applebloom, “Be a dear and hang this up high enough so everypony can see it when they come in?” “Okay,” Applebloom replied before she looked at the sign. It smelt of sulfur and it read: ‘No Refunds or Exchanges’. While Applebloom started to look for a ladder or a stool to use to start her task, the front door opened, causing the bell to ring. A purple alicorn looked around at all of the towering shelves of goods. She seemed oblivious to the two ponies in the back. “By Celestia’s grace, this shop has so much to it….” she commented. She then looked around, “Excuse me? Shopkeep?” Seemingly as if he was summoned to the mare’s side, Morning Star appeared, “Good morning. How can I help you?” There was a creepy and unsettling demeanor about him and how he was able to just appear near her. “Gah!” she was taken back by Morning Star’s sudden appearance. She did her best to not bump into any shelves or anything of the sort. “Sorry, heh heh, you startled me. I just happened to be out shopping and I saw your store. Is it new, by chance?” With a slightly evil grin on his face, Morning Star replied, “Indeed we are, just opened up this week. And it means all of Equestria that you are visiting us, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “H-How did you know my name?” “Who doesn’t know Equestria’s newest member to the royal pantheon? Why, you’re practically a celebrity,” the stallion explained, putting a limb around Twilight, slowly leading her through his store. “And you, I’m sure you’re looking for something amongst my goods, correct?” Twilight was a bit bashful and sheepish, “Heh, well, I don’t know. I just came in to browse.” “Nonsense! I can’t let the princess leave my store empty hooved!” Morning Star insisted. As she was being led through the store, something did catch Twilight’s eye: a small, patchwork doll. She stopped to take a closer look, “What is this?” she picked it up to examine it more closely. Morning Star seemed very happy that the doll caught Twilight’s attention, “Ah, that is a very old doll I acquired sometime ago. I don’t remember much about it, but as you can tell, it was well-loved by it’s previous owners. But there is some rumors about this doll, strange rumors.” Twilight looked at the doll. It was a doll that was in the shape of an earth pony, made from a soft, brown material. Its mane was black yarn and had black button eyes that seemed to be loosely attached. It wore what seemed to be a sailor’s outfit, which was a little dirty, but well put together. “He reminds me of my old doll, Smarty Pants,” Twilight softly spoke to herself. “Would you like the doll, Princess?” “I couldn’t, I mean, I don’t know how much you’re selling it fo-“ “I’ll be happy to give it to you free of charge,” Morning Star added. “Really?” “Anything for the new princess.” Twilight was overjoyed, “Oh, thank you very much, sir! I’ll be sure to stop by your shop again!” Taking her new doll, she quickly left out of the store, leaving Morning Star and Applebloom alone in the store again. The stallion started to laugh softly to himself, “So begins another twisted tale of fate.” While Morning Star was cackling to himself, Applebloom trotted up next to him. She tugged at his black coat, “Mr. Morning Star, the sign is up.” She pointed up to the wooden sign, which hung from taxidermy of the head of a horrific and supposed mythical creature. “Wha-What? Why would you hang the sign from the head of the Ördög? Do you know how hard those things are find? They keep shapeshifting on you!” Morning Star shouted. “What was ah supposed ta do? Ya didn’t give me a hammer an’ nails!” ---- Later than evening, Twilight was at her castle home. Curled up by her fireplace, she was reading a book with her new doll. The fire was slowly dying down on it’s own as her assistant, Spike, entered in. The dragon yawned, “It’s getting late, Twilight, you gonna get some sleep?” “Yeah, it a bit, almost done with this chapter,” she replied, looking back at her book. Spike was about to walk out, but he couldn’t help but look at the new doll that Twilight had gotten earlier that day. “Are you taking that thing to bed, too?” “Who, you mean Letta?” “Is that what you named it?” Spike sounded surprised about the naming of the doll. Twilight gave the doll a hug, “Of course, every doll deserves a name.” “Well, do keep that thing away from me, it’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Spike commented as he left the room. He visibly shivered as he added, “It’s just so weird….” Twilight shouted back at Spike, “Oh, grow up, Spike. There is nothing creepy or weird about Letta. She is just like Smarty Pants.” About ten minutes later, Twilight had extinguished the flames in the fireplace and retired to bed, leaving the doll on the chair that the two were reading on earlier. The entire castle was dark and quite. Only Luna’s moon from outside lit up the rooms and hallways. The doll looked as if was seated properly in the chair, albeit slouching with bad posture. However, in the darkness of the study, the mannequin moved slightly. After a few jerky movements, the doll started to walk on its own. It hopped down from the chair and started to walk on the floor of the study. A voice came from it, something that could be likened to a fiend that was muffled in its howling. “Kill,” was the only thing it said. It was possessed by some otherworldly force. Slowly, it moved through the castle. First through the study. Then the hallway. All along the way, it kept repeating the same word over and over. “Kill. Kill. Kill.” It had one thing on its mind. As it was crossing the main room of the castle, it climbed up onto the table. It used the platform as a vantage point to see where it should go to complete its task. “Kill.” It continued its mantra as it saw the stairway. At the top, it was certain he would find Spike and Twilight. He started to move toward the stairs, it was stopped by an open book. It looked down at the pages. It was odd, the creature had never seen such an object opened before, however it was absolutely fascinated by it. It started to read the open pages, and then another, and the next. The doll was captivated by the knowledge that was held within the book’s page. “Kill,” it spoke again. Whether it meant it as its task or for something else is unknown. It seems its vocabulary is quite limited. ---- The next day, Applebloom was early to work and Morning Star was happy to see that his store was finally looking cleaner. The two of them had finally started to make Tchort’s Trinkets look far more presentable, mostly by dusting around and cleaning the cobwebs out from the piles. “This place is lookin’ a lot better,” Applebloom mused. “That it does, that it does. I certainly am grateful that you became my assistant around the shop, Applebloom,” Morning Star agreed as he dusted away some clutter. “By the way, ah meant ta ask ya, what did ya give Ms. Twilight yesterday? Some doll?” Morning Star stopped his dusting and folded his front limbs, smirking, “Oh, it was more than just a doll. It’s the doll with the soul of an angry demon. Its goal is to kill its owners.” He laughed evilly as he explained. “It can do more than just walk and talk, dear filly. That doll is capable of being very destructive, bring an entire town down to its knees if it so wishes.” “Why would ya give that ta her?! She’s a princess!” Applebloom cried out in concern. “Applebloom, when will you understand that I’m evil and don’t really care what I do to the inhabitants of your world?” Morning Star rolled his eyes as he explained himself. “But….But….”the filly stuttered. The stallion sighed, “Look, it’s not anything personal. My goal is to create evil and misfortune where I go. And since the ‘big guy’,” Morning Star used air quotes, “has no authority here, I figured I could cause a little fire and brimstone on your world. Don’t worry, I promise nothing will happen to you or your family while I’m here.” While Applebloom wanted to say something to object, he was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. It was the same purple pony that entered yesterday. “Hello!” she smiled to both Morning Star and Applebloom. “Oh, hello, princess,” the stallion seemed very surprised that she was alive, much less smiling happily, “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Twilight, who had a saddlebag on her back, opened it up and pulled out the doll she got yesterday, “I just want to come by and personally thank you for giving me little Letta here!” “You what?” Morning Star’s jaw dropped. “Letta?” Applebloom quietly commented to herself, “That’s a weird name….” “Yup! As it turns out, Letta came to life last night and started reading one of my books! She’s just like Smarty Pants, except that she’s even better since she can move and help me study. And she just loves learning too! I found her reading through my books this morning and taking notes! It was just the cutest thing ever!” “It….loves learning?” Morning Star had a slight twitch in his right eye. “The only thing is that she keeps saying the same word over and over again.” Letta, who had been in Twilight’s hooves this whole time, started flailing around. It looked as if the doll was trying to reach out to Morning Star and Applebloom to attack them. “Kill! Kill!” it shouted at them. This caused both of them to reel away in fear. “Such a limited vocabulary, well I can teach you far more words than that, Letta,” Twilight stated before turning her attention to the ponies in front of her, “Anyway, I wanted to thank you personally before I take my new favorite doll to the Canterlot Library! Have a good day!” With such a cheerful goodbye and Letta repeating the only word it knew a few more times, Twilight left the two ponies alone again in the store. The two were dumbfounded in silence for about a minute before Morning Star finally said something. “Why does this keep happening?” he pondered aloud. “At least she likes it!” Applebloom smiled. “I don’t want to hear it. Go….I don’t know, go polish the jars of eyeballs in the back,” he ordered Applebloom. As she went to go do her task, he shouted an addendum, “And don’t break them. If those eye balls get loose, they start to roll away and it’s….it’s just a hassle.”