Foul Plans
“What did you do?!” Starlight demanded as she stomped towards Trixie. She had teleported out of her block prison once the cultists had departed. She walked with a limp, though she ignored it as her face contorted through different emotions.
Trixie’s heart lurched as she watched her limp. “Starlight, are you okay?”
“Of course I'm not okay!” Starlight winced and needed a moment to recover. “They just took Flurry! And you just gave her away!”
“To save you!” Trixie shot back. “I didn’t want to do it, but what other choice did I have?”
“Running and not giving them Flurry! Like I told you! I promised Twilight I’d take care of Flurry, and giving her away to some crazy senior citizen cultists is the exact opposite of that! Do you have any idea what—” Starlight’s tirade was stopped as she winced in pain, causing her to hold her side.
“I know, but we need to get help.” Trixie grimaced as she looked Starlight over. “And get you to a doctor.”
Starlight slapped her hooves aside, staring out after where the cultists had flown. “No! I need to go after them!”
“You can barely even stand!”
Starlight whirled on her, shooting an angry glare her way. “Like Flurry stands a better chance all on her own?!”
Trixie shook her head. She felt horrible about what had happened, but going off half-cocked wasn’t going to help. “Of course not, but we can't beat them! Do you have any plan at all for how to beat the warlocks who just trounced you?”
Starlight scowled, unable to meet her gaze. “Considering how most of my plans usually go, I think winging it might work out better for me. Planning was never my thing, anyways—things seem to work better when I just go with my instincts.”
That lack of a plan did not make Trixie feel better. “We need to go get ... guards or something.”
Starlight’s ear twitched. “Oh, so you think I can't handle it, is that it?”
Trixie let out an exasperated groan. “You objectively can't! They beat the tar out of you, and they would've killed you if I didn't give them Flurry!”
Starlight’s hoof shot to her chest. “I said I was going to take care of Flurry! I promised Twilight. Do you even care?!”
“Of course I care!” Trixie shot back. “But we can't handle this on our own! We need help! Here's a plan: let's go back to the palace, write a letter, and have Spike send it to Celestia. Within a few hours we can have a company of guards and actual magi here to take care of the problem that's too big for us.”
“We might not have a few hours.” Starlight tried to storm off, but she winced and sat, having to take several deep breaths as she recovered. “That isn’t going to work. Spike isn’t even in town right now, so we can’t send a message to Celestia and Luna as quickly as we like, half the guard is down with feather flu, and Shining and Cadance aren’t even in town.” She rolled her eyes. “And it’s not like the Royal Guard is all that effective anyways. All we have is us, Trixie. This needs to be us.”
It was all Trixie could do not throw up her arms in exasperation. “So what is your plan? You can barely walk right now, much less fight. There’s no way you can beat them.”
Starlight growled and forced herself back to her hooves, nearly falling over before righting herself. She started stomping in the direction the cultists had flown off in. “I'll figure something out. We don't need to beat them, just get Flurry back.”
“Oh for the love of—” Trixie started following after her as she tried to think of a way to keep Starlight from getting herself killed. “That's going to be hard to do without beating them, don’t you think?”
“I know their tricks now.”
“And they know yours.” Trixie inserted herself in front of Starlight to make her stop. “Starlight, this is too dangerous. If we try to do this on our own, we'll die and nobody will even know Flurry's in trouble until it’s too late.”
“Then you get help!” Starlight snapped. “I'll go try and help Flurry in the meantime.”
Trixie shook her head. “You don’t even know where they took Flurry.”
A blue column of light suddenly shot out from within the depths of the Everfree Forest, lighting the darkness.
“Pretty sure that’s them.” Starlight’s horn lighted as she prepared a spell. “Do what you need to, Trixie. I’m going to do the same.” With that Starlight teleported, leaving Trixie alone.
Trixie proceeded to scream several unflattering things about her fillyfriend and stomp around in a storm. Once that was done, she was left alone with her thoughts. She couldn’t just do nothing, but she wasn’t sure what she could do. It was only a matter of time until Starlight did something reckless, and she had a big head start over her. She could go looking for the Guard and any other help she could find, but they were liable to be far far, far too late to help Starlight... and Flurry.
Trixie hunched her shoulders in shame over the memory of giving the foal over to the cultists. It was a panicked decision made on the spot. She hadn’t wanted Starlight to get hurt, and...
Trixie felt like a coward. She wasn’t a fighter. This ‘save the world’ stuff wasn’t for her. She just wanted to do her shows, collect the adulations and coin of ponies, and spend some well deserved time relaxing with her fillyfriend. Not any of this latest insanity. And now all of that was threatened. If only she knew what the right answer was.
Trixie sighed. “Trixie is probably going to regret this.” She scooped up Whammy and ran after Starlight.
It wasn’t hard for Trixie to decide she had arrived at the right place when she got to the Castle of the Two Sisters deep within the Everfree Forest. Several explosions, the roars of something utterly inequine, and the crash of stone smashing against stone echoed from its depths. Unless some other angry fillyfriend and group of cultists just so happened to be fighting that night, it was safe to say who was duking it out inside the old, half-ruined castle.
Trixie sighed as she stopped in front of the main gate. “What am I even doing here?” she chided herself. But she still forced herself forward. She’d come too far to stop now, or so she told herself.
She cast an invisibility spell on herself as she headed through the castle, trying to avoid the raging battle going on inside. She wasn’t going to be much good in a big fight like that, but she might be able to get Flurry out of this madness. Eventually she found who she was looking for in what Trixie guessed was an observatory. Much of the roof had collapsed, revealing the night sky, and half the pillars circling the room had also fallen to the ravages of time.
The center of the floor had been cleared away, and a magic circle drawn on the floor with chalk. Asparagus was walking around the circle to make sure the various arcane sigils had been drawn correctly while July Blaze looked on from her wheelchair. Flurry was bawling in the middle of it, occasionally sneezing or coughing as she lay on the floor. Trixie crept forward to hide behind a pillar as she tried to figure out what she should do.
There was a shake from an explosion that caused several small chunks of mortar to fall across the circle. Asparagus scowled and carefully used a small broom to sweep away the debris. “I really wish they would pipe down a bit. This work isn't easy, and it's almost midnight.” She looked up at the night sky to judge the time. “Daggoth ain't gonna be happy if this gets messed up.”
July waved the issue away. “Oh Daggoth's a big softy, in a big ugly demon-y kinda way. It’ll be fine.”
Asparagus huffed. “Yes, well, I'd prefer not to take any chances.”
Flurry started coughing, and Trixie noticed that several of her feathers had fallen out.
“What did they do to her?!” Trixie hissed under her breath. Righteous indignation welled up within Trixie at the sight of Flurry lying there defenseless. But what to do? She didn’t know if she could even get Flurry away from the both of them, but she was determined to try anyways.
Asparagus started stepping towards Flurry, but stopped herself just short of the circle’s edge. “Oh, it's okay. It's almost over, little one.”
“Bah.” July spat on the floor. “Nothing that won't be made irrelevant by a little demon possession, hehehe. But now you’ve messed up some of the sigils over there.” She pointed to a section of the circle.
“I did?” Asparagus’ face screwed up with confusion as she examined the spot in question. “I don’t see it.”
“You messed it up while sweeping you dunderhead,” July insisted. “Check the book and you’ll see.”
Asparagus grumbled and picked up a bag lying against a pillar and pulled out a book. “Let’s see...” She was in the middle of thumbing through the pages when suddenly a wall of fire encircled her, trapping her against the pillar. Her eyes widened as she stepped as far away as she could from the fire. “What’s happening?!”
Trixie wondered that as well, even though she saw where the fire had come from.
“Finally!” July finished casting her spell before hopping out of her chair and stretching her back. “I was worried I’d never get you out of the way in time.”
Asparagus blinked. “July?! What're you doing?”
“Completing the ritual for myself, you doofus.” July stepped up to the circle and started pouring her magic into it, making the chalk lines glow with power. “I'm tired of getting old and my horn not being what it used to be. Don't think I didn't notice how Frosty and the rest of ya were plottin' against me just 'cause I’m not as spry as I used to be.”
Asparagus bit her lip, her gaze shifting around to try and find some way out of her predicament. “Well, yes, the apprentices are always supposed to replace the master someday.”
“Poppycock, I say!” July spat on the floor. “I’m not ready to step aside, and with Daggoth’s blessing from completing this ritual for him I’ll be back in my prime. That’ll let me turn the tables on you traitorous lot, just like I’ve been planning all this time.”
“Y-you've been pretending to be senile for ten years?!”
July laughed. “Yep! Fooled the lot of ya.” She rubbed her hooves together. “I'll be the only pony here to get the payout from Daggoth now that there’s nopony to get in the way.”
Having seen enough of these crazy cultists’ internal politics, Trixie cast a ventriloquism spell to project her voice all about the chamber. “Trixie thinks you missed one!”
“Wha? Who’s there?” July looked around for the hidden Trixie. “You followed your fillyfriend, did ya?”
“Yes. And for my next trick, I'm going to save Flurry Heart.”
July snickered before breaking out into a hearty laugh. “You?! A two-bit showpony? Don't make me laugh. Oh wait, I already have—here, let this old mare have another go.” She laughed some more.
There was a burst of smoke, and Trixie appeared before July. “Trixie is at her best when challenged.”
“So what's your plan? You wanna throw down with me? I ain't the spry thing I used to be, but I'm pretty sure I can still smear you across the wall.” Wild flames shot from July’s horn and immolated Trixie—or at least the illusionary copy Trixie had created to distract the elderly cultist. Given Trixie could feel the intense heat all the way from where she was hiding, she was profoundly glad she hadn’t placed herself in front of the crazy pyromaniac warlock.
Trixie once again used ventriloquism to throw July off. “Please, you think a little spell like that can defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie?!” She created another illusionary copy of herself that stepped out from behind a pillar with a confident grin.
July threw a fireball at the copy, causing half the observatory to briefly burst into flames. “Close counts for horseshoes and fireballs, missy.”
Trixie had another illusion appear behind July. “A pity your aim’s getting so bad in your old age. The ravages of time must be really hard on you.”
“Shut up!” July sneered as she tossed another fireball to destroy the latest illusion, but she winced afterwards and started rubbing her horn. “You thinking to play games with me?!”
“No, just practicing the first rule of stage magic: misdirection.” Trixie tossed a dozen of her smoke bombs out into the chamber, and once the room burst into blue smoke, created a dozen illusions of herself.
“No you don't!” July shot more bursts of flame, each becoming weaker as her horn caused her greater pain with each shot.
But the smoke and illusion were all a distraction. Trixie took Whammy and turned the plushie into a physical copy of Flurry with a transformation spell. Under the cover of all the smoke she levitated out the lookalike and switched it with the real Flurry right out from under the nose of the infuriated warlock.
“Gotcha!” Trixie said quietly as she look Flurry, the foal coughed and whined pitifully as she hugged her rescuer. “I know, but Trixie needs you to be quiet while we get out of here.”
Trixie tossed out the last of her smoke bombs to block July’s line of sight, cast an invisibility spell over Flurry, and ran for it. By the time she was making her escape the castle was in even greater ruins than before thanks to the ongoing battle. Trixie found herself struggling to find an exit that hadn’t been blocked off by rubble or the fighting warlocks. She was still running when Starlight teleported right in front of her, and she ran right into her, causing her invisibility spell to fail.
Starlight blinked as she recovered. She was even more beat up than when Trixie had last seen her, now covered in more bruises and scrapes, her mane a mess, and dust covering much of her. “Trixie?! You’ve got Flurry?!”
Trixie grinned as she presented the foal. “As if there was ever any doubt.”
“You’re amazing!” Starlight gave her a quick kiss. “Now let’s get out of here. I’m starting to suspect I’m ramming my head against a brick wall fighting those two warlocks.” She scowled. “Do you have any idea how annoying it is to fight an enemy that keeps instantly regenerating? And that blockhead is really getting on my nerves.”
“You can tell Trixie all about it when we get out of here,” Trixie said. “In the meantime, how about we concentrate on running?”
“Right, this way.” Starlight lead the way to the main gate of the castle.
They had almost reached the exit when there was an earthquake powerful enough to nearly knock them off their hooves. Shards of blue crystal shot up from under the ground to block the doorway. They came to a halt before they could run into the blockage, and backpedaled as a fissure opened up in the ground. A piercing white light shot through the crack, and the Spirit of Harmony levitated up from the fissure, its eyes glowing with a pure white light.
It was also glaring right at Trixie. “You have deceived us!”
Starlight eeped, awkwardly placing herself between Trixie and the angry spirit. “Trixie, I don't think it's happy to see us.”
Trixie gave the spirit a smile she wasn’t at all feeling. “Um ... Trixie ran into some complications.”
“Lies!” the spirit declared as it levitated towards them.
Starlight slowly backed up with the others. Her horn lighted, but Trixie could tell that her fillyfriend was running on fumes by this point. “Why did you lie to something so powerful and terrifying?!”
“One, Trixie thought she was being clever!” Trixie insisted. “Two, technically Trixie didn't lie! She didn’t say when she was going to bring Flurry back, just eventually.”
“I don't think she cares about technicalities!”
The Spirit of Harmony’s eyes narrowed. “You know your deception!”
“The warlocks got in the way!” Trixie said, hugging Flurry tight. “It’s not Trixie’s fault!”
“What's going on here?!” Frosty ran into the main hall alongside the monstrous form of Spring. She stopped to glare at the floating Spirit of Harmony. “And who’s that supposed to be?”
“Don’t let them get away!” July hobbled through another doorway with Asparagus at her heels. “They have the foal! And look what they did to our Lord Daggoth!”
She held up Whammy, now back in its normal snail-ish form. From within it screamed a deep, dark, and enraged voice. “Why am I trapped inside of a toy snail?! You fools! What have you done to me?! Were my instructions not clear?! You incompetents!”
Asparagus glowered at July. “Well this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t betrayed us at the last moment like you did. We could have shared all the power Daggoth was going to gift us with, but nooo, you had to selfishly try and hog it all for yourself.”
July glared back at her. “Not now, Asparagus.”
“So it’s treason then.” Frosty stomped up in front of July. “I should have known better than to let you hang around. Now look, you’ve screwed the pooch.”
Spring cleared her throat. “Well I think—”
“No! This is your fault!”
“Perhaps we should—”
The cultists broke out into an argument between themselves, all of them yelling but nopony listening. If there had been a viable exit, Trixie would have snuck out with Flurry and Starlight, but as it was they were trapped between a bunch of angry warlocks and an equally angry and even more terrifying elemental spirit.
Thankfully for them, the Disciples of Daggoth had attracted the attention of the Spirit of Harmony. It floated past the trio to address the cultists. “You do not have friendship in your hearts. You bicker and hate, and do not seek harmony. You should do better.”
“Oh shut up, whoever you are!” Frosty spat. “Who’re you to judge us?” She summoned another one of her blocks, ready to throw it. “Now get out of my face before I give you a—”
She never got to finish her threat, for the Spirit of Harmony shot a white beam that struck Frosty dead-center and froze her in a solid crystal block. The other cultists momentarily froze almost as still as their compatriot.
“Get that thing!” July called, the group now temporarily unified against a mutual threat. “Kill it and take the foal!”
Spring roared and barreled at the spirit. The spirit’s response was to merely wave its hoof, causing a wave of sparkling magic to strike the abomination. The monster’s flesh washed away like so much putrified water, pooling and immediately evaporating all in one big splash, leaving a shivering Spring standing in the middle of the hall.
Spring looked around in confusion. “Wh-What hap—“ She didn’t finish her question before she was also sealed up in a crystal prison.
“Oh no you don’t!” July roared. Her horn glowed nearly blindingly bright, and a great fire burst from her horn. It washed over the Spirit of Harmony, but when the flames dissipated, it floated passively as though nothing had happened. It fired another beam of magic and sealed July up in another block of crystal.
Seeing how the winds of fate had turned, Asparagus raised her arms. “I surrender!”
“Your surrender is accepted.” Asparagus was promptly added to the collection of crystal bound prisoners.
Trixie and Starlight watched on with open-mouthed amazement. Eventually Trixie recovered enough to speak. “Trixie isn’t sure if we should be relieved or even more scared.”
The spirit turned around to face them, its furious glowing eyes focused on Trixie. “You deceived us!”
Trixie screamed as the two fillyfriends embraced one another in fright, Flurry protectively held between them. “More scared! Definitely more scared!”
The spirit flew until it hovered over them. “For your deception you shall be punished!”
Starlight gulped. “Trixie, whatever happens, I want you to know I love you.”
Trixie squeezed her. “I love you too.”
The punishment fell, and Trixie was bapped on the nose.
“Ow!”
“You have been gravely punished for your transgression!” The spirit declared with grave severity. “Do not do this again or you will receive similar punishment!” The spirit then dropped to the floor, the glow fading from its eyes as it returned to its typical bland, emotionless smile.
Starlight raised her eyebrows. “Wait, that’s it?”
“Owowowow! Don’t encourage it!” Trixie rubbed her muzzle. “That hurt. It hit me in just the right place to make that really sting.”
“I guess it could have been—“ Starlight’s eyes widened as she realized she was about to talk Trixie into a worse punishment. “I mean, wow, what a totally just punishment for lying! Yep, I can suuure say that was exactly what Trixie deserved for what she did, and nothing else needs to be done to her like be frozen in crystal for the rest of eternity.”
Trixie shot a sour glower at Starlight. “Thanks for your support, Starlight.”
They were drawn out of the conversation when Flurry coughed and a couple more of her feathers fell out.
“The child must be purified,” the spirit said, returning to what it knew.
“Um.” Trixie held Flurry to her chest as Starlight stepped between her and the mono-focused spirit. “Trixie won't let you hurt Flurry Heart.”
“The child must be purified.”
Trixie growled protectively. “What does that even mean?!”
“This.” The Spirit of Harmony teleported Flurry into its arms, and before either of her caretakers could do anything it pecked Flurry’s forehead. Flurry flashed with a bright light, and when it faded her nose was no longer red, her cough was seemingly gone, and her feathers were back to normal. The spirit then gave Flurry back to Starlight without ceremony. “The child has been purified.”
Starlight blinked twice. “Wait, what?”
Trixie had enough of the spirit’s mysterious ways. “For the love of Luna, just explain! Is that so hard?!”
“She had an impurity within her,” the spirit said. “I have removed the impurity.”
As Flurry cooed and poked Trixie’s nose the pieces of the puzzle came together for her. “Wait ... she had feather flu? Is that what this was all about?!”
“Yes.”
Starlight’s eye twitched. “So let me get this straight: you scared us, we went running all through town, and got into a huge fight with a cult of warlocks because you only wanted to cure Flurry of feather flu, and we could have avoided this whole mess if we’d just let you do that?!”
“Yes.”
Trixie covered Flurry’s ears. “Why the flying feathering BUCK didn't you just say so?!”
The spirit was somehow unfazed by the burning, righteous anger confronting it. “I did. The child needed to be purified.”
Starlight groaned as she rubbed her brow. “If it's that easy for you to cure feather flu why didn't you do it for Twilight and avoid this whole mess?!”
The spirit blinked owlishly. “The Bearer of the Element of Friendship is not a child.”
Starlight covered her face with her hooves. “I don't believe this. I just can’t believe this. I don’t want to believe this. This is insane!”
Trixie groaned. “‘Flurry is sick and I can cure her.’ That's all you had to say! Can’t you do something so simple?!”
The Spirit of Harmony’s head tilted to the side. “The child needs to be purified. Give her to me.”
Trixie’s scream echoed throughout the castle.
Starlight glowered at the spirit. “You know, for the being Spirit of Friendship and Harmony, you sure do suck at communication.”
“What’s that behind your ear, Flurry?” Trixie asked as she reached behind the foal’s ear. “Well lookie here! It’s a shiny bit!” She turned her hoof to reveal the bit she had ‘magically’ pulled from behind her ear. Flurry gasped and then clapped as she squealed happily.
Starlight chuckled as she watched from the castle library couch. “You’ve done that at least a dozen times now, and she still loves it.”
“She knows what she likes,” Trixie said. “Not that I mind. Trixie always wanted to perform in front of a royal audience. Even if this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“Well as long as she’s happy.” Starlight let out a relieved sigh. “She really calmed down once she got cured of her feather flu. I should have known something was up with all the wild magic she was firing off.”
Trixie bit back the more scathing comment that first came to mind. “It’s alright. Everything seems to be fine now.” She switched to doing some of her card tricks, shuffling and flipping cards around with skill and dexterity as her captivated audience watched. “Everything is fine, right? Trixie hasn’t seen that crazy spirit since it cured Flurry, though she’s still worried about the warlocks.”
“You don’t need to worry. The Royal Guard has them under lock and key.” Starlight snorted. “They were still frozen in that crystal when they captured them. The magi think that magic will fade to release them. Eventually. Someday. Probably. Either way, given the law doesn’t exactly smile on ponies kidnapping royal foals, and with how old they are, I doubt we’ll ever have to worry about that crazy bunch again.”
“That’s a relief.” Trixie picked up Flurry to cradle her. “With any luck this cute little foal won’t have to deal with anything crazy until ... at least high school. Trixie will be honest, there’s no way this kid is going to have a normal life given her family.”
“You said it.” Starlight groaned as she shifted positions on the couch. “Just be careful about what you say around Twilight or Flurry’s parents.”
“Be careful about saying what around me?” Twilight strolled into the library, looking perfectly normal and a long way away from being half-dead like when Trixie last saw her. Her alicorn physiology made Trixie just a little bit jealous. She would like to get a cold and not have to deal with little pains like sniffles for the next week afterwards.
Starlight scrambled to get to her hooves. “Oh, hey Twilight! You’re looking a lot better. We were just talking about ... um, well it isn’t anything important.”
“Uh-huh.” Twilight stared at Starlight before shrugging. “Well, I’m at least feeling a lot better. All I needed was some rest and some orange juice, and I’m ready to get back at it.” She smiled as she picked up Flurry. “And hello there! How are you doing? Did Starlight and Trixie take good care of you?”
Flurry babbled happily as she nuzzled her aunt.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Twilight nuzzles her niece in return before returning her focus to the others. “I hope she wasn’t too much a hooffull.”
“Oh, not a problem at all.” Starlight waved it off. “No more than any foal. We were happy to take care of her. Right Trixie?”
Trixie’s first instinct was to object to the idea, but upon seeing Flurry’s happy little smile a very different response came to her lips. “There wasn’t anything the Great and Maternal Trixie couldn’t take care of.”
“Thank you both. I was pretty out of it there for a while.” Twilight smiled at Starlight. “It’s nice to know I can depend on you for stuff like this.”
Starlight’s chest swelled. “You can count on me.”
“Sure looks like it.” Twilight bounced Flurry in place before her tone took on a darker edge. “So how did that hole get blown in the castle wall?”
Starlight coughed. “Um, well, you see...”
“Zappa!” Flurry called out.
Twilight raised her eyebrows. “Zappa?”
Starlight’s eyes widened. “No! Don’t—“
Flurry shot a beam of magic that blasted a hoof-sized hole into the wall. Twilight shot a scathing glower in Starlight’s direction.
Starlight’s ears flattened. “Okay, I can explain.” She searched for a way to positively spin the destruction she’d caused within the castle, but completely failed. “It’s all my fault.”
Twilight sighed. “We’ll talk about that later. Right now I’ve got a hundred and one things to catch up with, and this at least isn’t immediately on fire ... I hope. You don’t know of anything actually being on fire, do you?”
Starlight vigorously shook her head. “Nope! Absolutely not. Just, um...” She chuckled in a way she didn’t feel. “There was a little warlock issue, but we took care of it!”
Twilight stared at her for a long moment. “You know what, how about we just sit down and talk about everything that happened so that I don't get any wrong ideas? Want to sit down for dinner later?” She looked between the two of them. “Assuming you two don’t have any plans.”
Trixie spoke first. “Trixie was planning on having a date with her fillyfriend, but...” She watched as Flurry chewed on her aunt’s mane and smiled. “Trixie wouldn’t mind helping out around here if you like. We’ve come to like this cute little foal.” She tickled under Flurry’s chin, making her squeal and laugh.
“How about Trixie and I get some lunch, and then we can come back and straighten everything out?” Starlight suggested. “That’ll give you some time to deal with whatever you need to, and the both of us will have some time to recharge after having taken care of Flurry for a while.”
“That works for me.” Twilight picked up Whammy and turned to go, but she stopped when she examined the plushie. “Hey, why is there a silence spell on—”
She removed the silence spell on Whammy and was met with the furious howls of Daggoth the Destroyer. “Your doom shall be my pleasure! Rivers of tears shall be wept at your torment! I shall make you suffer for ages for the humiliations I have—”
Twilight quickly recast the silence spell on Whammy and rubbed her ear. “Okay, mind explaining that?”
Starlight smiled apologetically. “Whammy kinda got possessed by a demon.”
“It might be best to explain it over dinner.” Trixie shrugged. “It was a long day, but nothing Trixie couldn’t handle, naturally.”
Twilight let out a long sigh. “Fine. I’ll just add an exorcism to everything else I need to do over the next few hours. See you two later.” She started to go, but stopped at the doorway. “And thanks, Starlight. I really do appreciate the help.”
Starlight waved. “Sure thing, Twilight, you know you can depend on me.”
Once Twilight was gone, Starlight sighed and slumped down onto the couch. “Well that sure was something.”
Trixie sat next to her and rubbed her shoulders. “That it was. But Trixie thinks it turned out alright in the end.”
“Yeah, it did.” Starlight leaned against her. “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“What’s a fillyfriend for?” Trixie pecked her cheek. “Trixie was happy to help.”
“I’ll make it up to you later.” Starlight nuzzled her. “I do owe you a date after canceling our last one.”
“I’m sure you’re good for it.” Trixie smiled. “Beside, Flurry is a cute foal... once you get over the weirdness.”
“You can say that again,” Starlight said with a sigh. “Still, it was kinda fun taking care of her, and I’m looking forward to helping Twilight out once we get cleaned up and have lunch.”
“Trixie would agree.” Trixie chuckled. “I want to see how she’ll react to some of my more elaborate and grand tricks.”
“Always the showmare. But you know...” Starlight started rubbing Trixie’s belly. “We could have our own foal someday.”
Trixie reacted quite naturally to this proposal. “Eeep!”
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Deliberately picking a fight against the Embodiment of Harmony...these cultists won the Darwin Award of the year by a wide margin.
Heh, read through the whole thing and I was greatly amused. I had a good idea what I was in for and wasn't disappointed. Twilight and the others really need to confront the Spirit of Harmony on its communication issues.
You know, since Trixie's going to be a bigger part of Ponyville life, it probably wouldn't hurt for her to get in some advanced magical defense lessons. It may not be her thing, but she's bound to end up in more situations like these. Luck favors the prepared, after all.
Enjoyed it!
Cultists... just because a bunch of people get together doesn't mean they're gonna do anything smart. One dumb idea multiplied by 20 dumbasses equals a pretty big fuck up.
They seriously never learn. The winningverse especially has an abundance of history for in universe characters to draw on as examples of what not to do when they start a cult, yet the exact same mistakes keep on repeating. These people don't read much, do they? Seriously, a crazy plot twist would be for all of the cultists to actually genuinely be working together with no double crossing for once. Don't they know that they need to do the betraying after the big dangerous ritual? Otherwise it'll get fucked up for everyone.
Bah, don't mind me. Tldr; cults dumb, story good, especially the spirit of harmony twist.
I'm not too sure that's wise.
I agree, but you may not have that time.
Understandable.
OH yeah.
Feather Flu?
Of course.
She is successfully playing games with you.
NICE.
Clever girl.
I imagine.
Ah, you finally get it.
HAH! Get fucked.
Oho!
Nice.
Give it a moment.
Scared.
That's it? You smacked her snout?
Oh. You, couldn't have said so in the first place?
... You're a moron. Then again, you're not used to having a "body" to directly interact with ponies so, non abstract thought may go over your head.
No kidding.
Hopefully.
I would hardly call you maternal, but sure.
Demon possession due to botched ritual.
Daaaw.
Understandable.
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But these mares were old, experienced and powerful. One may think natural selection would count in the cultist bussiness.
Spoken like a true Senate.
Fun story. Part of me hopes Daggoth is never exorcised from Whammy, and he is doomed to years of being cuddled and chewed on by the world’s most deadly baby.
Aw, don't worry Trixie! Yours won't be an alicorn, which means no zappa, and no cultists! Way easier.
But the filly would be so cute
(and a walking drama magnet, probably). She can be Flurry's best friend! Think of all the hi-jinks and adventures they could get up to together! 
9697240 In their defense, the cultists didn't actually know who they were threatening ...
When Trixie is the voice of reason and restraint, you know you've gone off the deep end.
Poor Daggoth just can't win, can he?
I would love to know how Harmony responded to that. Hopefully this will give it something to think about, to whatever degree it can at this stage of its mental development.
Huh. Looking at it that way, this was one heck of a playdate for Flurry.
Marvelous silliness all around. Thank you for one heck of a farce.
Heh, I really liked this one
Unfazed
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Beware of any old person in a profession where most people die young.
Another day, another ignoble fate for Daggoth. I almost feel sorry for him at this point.
So, was all this a prequel to Flurrygeddon, or alternate timeline? Neither story references each other, and they both seem to deal with the same base concept, so I'm not entirely sure. Seems like a different set of cultists, at least. And speaking of, it probably wasn't intentional, but I did get a laugh out of the fact that one of the cultists was named Frosty Morning, so thank you for that.
Overall, a fun little adventure. Probably my favourite of all your comedies so far (aside from Great Snowball War, obviously).
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History is often one long play of people often making the same mistakes over and over again. As for cultists, often the reasons they join these cults (desires for power, to have their deepest wishes granted often at the harm of others, etc.) often results in them being a bit backstabby, in addition to other issues. Many of them have probably even prospered from betrayals in the past, just sometimes they're done in the wrong circumstances or against the wrong people.
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Thanks for catching that typo. Darn homophones...
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). And it is a different set of cultists. Alas for Flurry, many a cultist wishes to use her for their schemes. It's hard being a royal alicorn heir like that.
This is technically a sequel to Flurrygeddon, at least timewise. I didn't have a bunch of references due to wanting to let this story have a low bar for entry (I gotta publish an gateway drug into the Winningverse every now and again, after all
9707741
Good to know, thanks.
Communication. It's so important...
Pity Daggoth was in something they didn't need back, else he'd be best put into whatever the equivilent of the SCP Equestria has and left to howl...
(Come on, you know they have to have something somewhere, even if it's just a vault or something...)
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That's the Sealed Repository in the Winningverse. They seal away all the nasty things they capture there.
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Figured they'd be one.
(I was reading a story recently about something of a similar bend, but I couldn't recall if one had been mentioned in the Winningverse specifically.)
Honestly, in spite of all the reasons Trixie's plan won't work, it's still probably a better plan than running off half-cocked.
Just go beat them with clever stage magic, Trixie, power versus their power isn't working in this situation.
Ahh, the long con. I expect this is pretty familiar to a snake oil salespony like Trixie.
Nice! Exactly the sort of thing that I was imagining.
Oops.
Fantastic.
It's very helpful of the cultists to show up and demonstrate to the Spirit that they really did interfere.
It truly knows what it is doing.
Yep, I knew that it was just trying to cure Flurry’s Feather Flu.
Yeah, that's pretty reasonable.
High school is really optimistic.
You know, a decade as Flurry’s favorite toy might do wonders for Daggoth's attitude.
That was a pretty fun story.
This was amazing!
Why did I ever stop reading the winningverse?!
Now that I actually play DnD as well I see so many more references too.
That ending. Was the cutest fucking thing i've ever seen.