Chapter 10. The invitation
Twilight sat silently as Pinkie painted her face to look more like a skull, putting black rings around her eyes, extending her mouth with a black line, and putting vertical lines all along her extended mouth. It Twilight feel like she was about to commit some dark ritual.
The forest loomed just ahead, Rarity sitting just in front of it, smiling warmly at Twilight with glasses off. The Everfree Forest never looked brighter and Rarity’s eyes never more welcoming. But still Twilight couldn’t feel anything but dread when the forest was this close.
Twilight shuddered like she was waiting in line to go on the world’s largest, fastest rollercoaster, only Twilight would have felt less nervous about that. Statistically speaking, rollercoasters were actually very safe. The forest not so much.
“And you’re sure this skeleton makeup doesn’t have some kind of deeper significance?” Twilight asked. Wearing a skeleton mask did not make her feel better.
“Ha! Deeper significance!” Pinkie rolled her eyes at the idea. “Do you even know me?”
“Alright!” Dash landed behind Rarity, back from checking the nearby area. “Nopony is watching. We can go in any time you want.”
Twilight breathed in and out slowly, trying to calm herself down before her heart exploded.
“You’re so very close.” Rarity trotted backward a few steps until she was just a little way into the woods.
“Fun times are this way!” Pinkie bounded after her and stopped by Rarity’s side.
“Better not chicken out after all this!” Dash jabbed her hoof at Twilight as she strolled into the woods at a leisurely pace.
Now Twilight was alone, looking at the three of them together in the woods. Rarity and Pinkie smiled wide, excited about Twilight coming to join them. Dash was more pensive, like she still wasn’t sure if Twilight would actually come. Maybe seeing three delinquents in the woods would normally be an unnerving sight, but Twilight was basically one of them already. She looked exactly like they did.
This was it. This was the final, ultimate act of rebellion against her old life. There would be no going back once she stepped inside. And that might just possibly be literal if they really were vampires. But Twilight decided long ago that she’d rather be stuck in the forest with them than stuck out here with the daywalkers.
“Just a few more steps.” Rarity beckoned with her hoof. “And you’ll be one of us."
And just then, Twilight wanted this more than anything in the world.
“Okay.” Twilight breathed in and out deeply a few times. “I can do this. I can…”
Twilight closed her eyes tight and held her breath. Before her brain could tell her ‘no’ another thousand times, Twilight ran forward as fast as she could. She ran and ran and then-
Rarity grabbed her tail with her magic and pulled back. Twilight stumbled to a stop.
“Almost hit a tree,” said Rarity. “But you did technically make it.”
“I did?” Twilight’s whole body was tense, but she forced herself to open her eyes and looked around. There was darkness and trees in every direction. She was actually inside the Everfree! “I can’t- I can’t believe I actually did that!”
It felt like she’d just narrowly avoided death. Twilight started laughing. Then she fell to her haunches and began laughing harder! Pinkie sat down next to Twilight and began laughing just as hysterically.
“I don’t know why we’re laughing!” Pinkie shouted through the tears of laughter.
“I don’t-“ Twilight caught her breath. “I don’t either.”
Twilight finally started to calm down and have a look around. It was far brighter in here than Twilight ever would have imagined, almost like she could see better inside the forest than back in town. There weren’t any unfamiliar plants showing up just yet, though she could tell she needed to be careful of those black, thorny vines she’d seen near the edge of the forest.
Twilight took maybe one step ahead of Rarity and Dash rushed forward, blocking Twilight’s path with her wing.
“Don’t wander off yourself or get ahead of us, Sparks,” said Dash. “You’re green.”
“Right.” Twilight moved to the back of the group.
“No!” Dash got behind Twilight and pushed her forward. “Not in the back either. That makes them think you’re like, the weak sickly one of the herd. You stay in the middle.”
“Middle, right.” Twilight was certain that’s where she wanted to be anyway. “You’re sure this isn’t incredibly insanely dangerous though?”
“Sure it’s dangerous!” Pinkie sounded excited about that.
“But we’re more dangerous.” Dash hit her chest. “Nothing’s gonna buck with us.”
“But there is something,” said Rarity. “I want you to promise me that until I permit you to do otherwise, you’ll never come out here without me. Do you understand? Not for any emergency, not with some daywalker, not even with one of these two. Only with me.”
“I promise,” Twilight said. “I’d be way too scared anyway.”
“But you won’t be for long, so remember,” said Rarity. “And you have to remember that the deeper you go the more dangerous it gets. There’s a lake a little way from here, I’ll take you past it one day but for now, you shouldn’t go anywhere near it. Then, well you still have the instincts of a daywalker but remember that light doesn’t make you safe here. Don’t light any fires or your horn unless you must. And don’t think this place is safer in the day. It’s worse if anything.”
Twilight nodded in agreement.
“Good.” Rarity started trotting into the woods, bringing the others with her. “Then we can start with our little game.”
“Game?” Twilight tried to keep her very specific spot in the line. “You said you'd tell me all of your secrets if I followed you out here, right? You're not gonna go back on that, are you?"
"Telling you all my secrets would take too long! And you'd have to follow me to bed for some of those." Rarity winked. "But the important ones, yes. You'll know for sure if we're vampires by midnight. But I thought maybe we could start a bit slow if you don't mind. I'm sure you're curious about what we do when we come out here, yes?"
"Yes." Twilight nodded. "You always just said you could only tell me if I was your accomplice, so I'm guessing it's pretty illegal?"
"Most illegal thing you've done yet, Sparks," said Dash. "Sides coming out here."
“Then what is it?”
“Just another minute of suspense.” Rarity pointed down the road a ways. “I can show you at the end of the next street.”
There really was a street, too. It was torn up by roots and overrun by plants, but Twilight could tell a road used to be right where they were walking.
Twilight felt a bit embarrassed that she wasn’t expecting it, but the fact that there were buildings all over the place did take her by surprise. It made sense, it wasn’t like all these houses would just instantly dissolve the second the forest overtook them, but the idea of buildings being in the woods simply felt like a paradox in Twilight’s mind.
A lot of them were in fairly good shape too, enough so that you could probably live in them were it not for the obvious dangers. Though for every standing house, there was one partially or fully destroyed. Twilight could tell it was the trees growing up that were responsible for knocking these houses down. If one of those large trees grew next to a house, then it got torn in half by it at the least. She even saw one house that had been lifted straight up into the air by a tree that grew under it.
“Do you want a history lesson?” Rarity asked when she noticed Twilight looking at the buildings. “There used to be a South Ponyville as well as a north and east one. We’re in South Ponyville now. The one you know used to be North Ponyville, but the others are gone now so they don’t bother with the north part any longer. But one day it will become like its sister towns, like this.”
“Yeah. It’s kind of depressing, isn’t it?” Twilight looked at one of the abandoned buildings, just now remembering that it used to be somepony’s home. “I mean, how far is it going to go? You don’t honestly think the whole world will be like this one day, do you?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure we don’t have anything to worry about.” Rarity gave Rainbow Dash one of her slick smiles.
Dash laughed at some joke Twilight struggled to get.
“Yeah! Haha!” Twilight made herself laugh. “That’ll be like a hundred years from now so who cares? Screw the future ponies, right?”
Dash came up from behind and smacked Twilight on the back of her head.
“Don’t laugh if you don’t get the joke, dork,” said Dash.
“Don’t feel bad, Twitwi.” Pinkie dropped her pace enough to fall back until she was next to Twilight. “I’ll tell you why I laugh at the destruction!”
Pinkie didn’t stay consistently in front of behind Twilight as they walked. Instead, she made slow circles around the group.
“Sometimes,” said Pinkie, “the dorkwalkers leave all sorts of neat stuff behind when they run away screaming to Canterlot! So now it’s like a bucking treasure hunt! It’s great for us that everything is so abandoned!”
“Oh!” Twilight was pretty sure she figured out the mystery. “Is that what we’re doing? Do you come out here to scavenge for valuable crap?”
“You probably could make more money doing this than working at your current job,” said Rarity. “But I hardly need any more money. I do it for the fun of it. For the adventure! Though there is one thing, in particular, I look for out here.”
Rarity gestured to a large building at the end of the street they were walking down.
Twilight needed to wait until she was a bit closer to realize what it was. They were headed towards the remains of a bank. It looked like the huge tree next to it destroyed the roof of it and took down two of the walls in the process. But a good deal of it was still standing.
The others lead her right up to what used to be the door.
“Wait.” Twilight stopped. “It’s not- are you saying they left all the money in the bank behind and… and that’s why you’re rich?”
“Twilight.” Dash took off her glasses. “Do you honestly think that happened?”
“No.”
“Good.” Dash put her glasses back on.
“Well I like your imagination, Twitwi!” Pinkie pressed against Twilight briefly before moving into the bank.
“But,” Dash stopped where the door used to be and pointed down, “they did leave the gigantic bucking vault. Guess they’re hard to move.”
Twilight followed them inside if it still counted as inside. A large part of the floor was torn up, letting you see the basement. She couldn’t tell if her gang were the ones who tore up the floor, but she was pretty sure they were responsible for a wooden ramp that lead down into the basement.
And at the other end of that ramp was the door to the vault they just mentioned.
“One other thing they left.” Rarity started down the ramp to the vault. “The bank manager was so stupid that he wrote the combination for this vault down and taped it under his desk. Goes to show you they always put the best pony in charge. Anyway, he left that behind so now this vault is mine.”
Twilight watched as Rarity turned the dial of the vault back and forth, the vault making heavy clunking sounds each time.
“This is your last chance to guess.” Rarity put her hoof on the handle of the vault and looked back at Twilight. “Do you know what’s inside?”
“A million dead bodies,” Twilight said without hesitation and they all laughed at that.
“Close.” Rarity laughed. “Very close!”
Rarity slowly pulled the vault open. Twilight’s eyes opened wide with wonder as soon as she realized what was inside.
It was filled with books and movies! The inside of the vault was huge, but it still felt cramped from all the books, tapes, and rolls of film stacked on top of one another. Twilight couldn’t help but trot inside and read a few of the titles of the books. She didn’t recognize any of them, which made her certain these were all banned content.
This was more than she’d ever hoped to have seen in her lifetime. Maybe they did have a literal ton of these!
“This is incredible!” Twilight spun around, taking it all in.
“This is the main treasure I look for,” said Rarity. “It isn’t uncommon at all for there to be banned books or movies in somepony’s house. Some of these might be the only copy left. I suppose if they ever repeal the bans, a lot of these will become valuable and I’ll be even richer. But for the most part, I want to preserve it all.”
“That’s actually really cool of you,” said Twilight, though she knew most ponies from Canterlot would disagree. “If you ask me, anyway. I’m surprised you found so many.”
“It’s not all from this one town,” said Rarity. “I like moving around a lot, remember?”
“Right.” Sometimes Twilight did worry Rarity might move to some town she couldn’t possibly afford to live in, which was any town but Ponyville. That was one of her bigger fears. In her mind, Twilight had already rehearsed a desperate plea for Rarity to take her with her to wherever.
“So you wanna play treasure hunt with us?” Pinkie asked.
“Absolutely.” Twilight quickly came out of her depression. “That sounds great.”
“Then follow me,” said Rarity.
Rarity closed the vault behind Twilight and they started up the ramp, Dash already waiting at the top, looking out into the town.
“Maybe you should stay down there for a minute,” Dash flicked her wing out in warning.
“Huh?” Twilight couldn’t help but come up just enough to peek out at what the problem was.
There was a crowd out in the streets now, turning it into a stream of glowing red eyes. It took Twilight a moment to realize what they were, but she was certain they were all jackalopes. She’d seen them before, but only one at a time. She had no idea they ran around in big groups like this at all. There had to be hundreds of them!
“That- that-“ Twilight backed up slowly, further underground. “That is a lot of jackalopes! Should we hide in the vault?”
Most of them kept a distance from the group of ponies. One, in particular, was far larger than any jackalope Twilight had ever seen, nearly the size of a pony. It was a black one with gnarled horns and it came close to the ponies. It kept its eyes on Twilight and Twilight alone, hissing at her as it circled around like it was looking for an opening to pounce at Twilight. It must have been able to tell that she was the only one who was afraid of it. The others didn’t seem concerned at all.
With no fear at all, Pinkie jumped at the head jackalope and hissed right in its face. The jackalope broke immediately, jumping back then running away into the dark.
Pinkie turned and ran into the crowd next, jumping right towards the center of the group and hissing loudly. She jumped around, hissing at any of them that didn’t run fast enough until they all cleared out.
“There!” Pinkie pronked back to the other ponies victoriously. “Nothing to worry about from some lame little bunnies.”
“See? Nothing to worry about.” Dash rubbed Twilight’s mane. “But don’t go trying that crap on your own. Just let us take care of anything that shows up for now. Retardation kills, Sparks.”
“Y-yeah. I think I prefer it that way.” Twilight nodded.
The incident seemed weird to her. Even normal jackalopes didn’t run that easily and Applejack warned Twilight against charging at them like this. But maybe her friends just knew more about the forest than Applejack did. Afterall, they did come in here while Applejack never had.
They had to go a little bit deeper into the forest before they found any houses that the gang hadn’t ‘hit’ yet, but not too far.
Rarity had a simple detection spell that could point them in the right direction, though already Twilight could tell it had a high false-positive rate. The first house had a whole bookshelf filled with books, but none of them were banned. They threw that bookshelf outside and looked around a little more, but there really wasn’t much else there but moldy furniture and rusty cutlery.
In the second house, Rarity’s spell looked like it was set off by a pile of clothes on the top floor. They were adorned with jewels, most of which were nearly worthless but one or two were worth maybe a hundred bits each by Rarity’s estimate. She let Twilight keep them for herself.
In the third house, they finally found a reel of film! Though it was unmarked, so they wouldn’t know what was on it until later.
Every once in a while, Twilight would see a monster she didn’t recognize. But when she did it would always slink away to some crack or freeze in place to watch the ponies very careful, no doubt worried that they’d see it if it moved.
It was slowly dawning on Twilight that the monsters were scared of them. Twilight could scarcely imagine why. Maybe all those years of sending out expedition parties left the weaker monsters traumatized by ponies or something.
Slowly, Twilight started to shake less and less. This place wasn’t nearly as terrifying as all her years of nightmares made her think. At least, when she was with others.
They couldn’t seem to find anything valuable in the fourth house they went to, but Rarity and the others weren’t giving up that easy.
“See.” Dash kept taking a step forward, then tapping on the floor. “Ponies burry crap under their floorboards all the time. But you can learn to hear when something’s hidden.”
“Yeah! This is great!” Pinkie agreed. She was busy doing the same, but with the walls. “All the best stuff's in the walls, Twitwi!”
“Think I found it!” Dash announced.
She beckoned Twilight over. Twilight listened as Dash stomped on one floorboard, then the other, and really could hear the difference.
“You wanna dig it up, Sparks?” Dash took a crowbar out of her saddlebag. “We’ll let you keep whatever it is!”
Twilight took it in her mouth and placed it under the floor, her magic was far too weak these days to pry anything open. It didn’t take as much effort to tear the board off as she would have thought. Maybe because it was already taken off once before.
And there was something in the resulting hole. It was a black, wooden box. The words ‘do not open’ were written on the top of it in red.
“Bwahaha!” Dash laughed so hard she had to wipe a tear from her eye. “This is priceless. Could we have found something better on your first time out?”
“I bet it’s haunted,” Pinkie whispered to Twilight. “I bet if you open it, the ghost of a masked murder is gonna show up and chase us through the forest! That happens all the time, Twilight.”
“Masked murderers happen maybe sometimes,” said Twilight. “But ghosts never do.”
“Well then!” Pinkie jumped up onto a nearby couch. “I guess that means you can open it and keep the curse for yourself!
“Go ahead, Twilight.” Rarity flicked her hoof to hurry her along. “Everything out here is ours, now.”
For a moment, Twilight really did expect to find a murder weapon or something in the box.
She slowly undid the latches and opened the box.
And it slowly became apparent to Twilight…
That these were a bunch of lewd magazines.
“Um,” Twilight wasn’t sure how to break the news to her friends.
“Hello,” a soft, but unfamiliar voice said behind Twilight.
The voice shook Twilight hard enough that she slammed the box shut and spun around in a panic.
There was another pony here now! This could be very bad! The new pony was just sitting on the windowsill calmly, which made it hard to stay so scared. It was a yellow pegasus…
“Wait. I remember you. You’re, uh Fluttershy.” A few memories came back, then Twilight jumped back to her hooves in panic and pointed at Fluttershy. “Wait, no. That’s a bad thing! She’s a narc! She’s got a platinum card and could kill all of us with a single move then throw our dead bodies in jail and-“
“Relax.” Dash calmly waved away Twilight’s panic. None of the others seemed at all worried about this situation. “Fluttershy’s chill.”
“Huh?” Twilight relaxed a second time.
“It’s true.” Fluttershy nodded. “I mean, I could kill you all instantly, but that’d be rude. I won’t tell anypony you came out here, Twilight.”
“But aren’t you a platinum card?” Twilight asked. “Isn’t arresting us your job?”
“The way I see things.” Fluttershy put her hoof on her chin. “Equestria has its laws, but the forest has its own laws. If we were in Equestria, I’d have to arrest you. But here in the forest, none of those laws matter.”
“Really? But then that means you’d never arrest anypony for coming out here?” Twilight asked.
“I suppose,” said Fluttershy. “but if Rarity brought you out here, then this is her responsibility. I'm curious what Rarity brought you out here to do, exactly.”
Fluttershy gave Twilight a piercing look. Rarity glanced up and to the left briefly, she wanted Twilight to play dumb. It occurred to Twilight that Fluttershy must know whatever secrets the forest had as well. Twilight had zero understanding of the situation, but she did trust Rarity.
"We were going through old houses looking for stuff ponies left behind." One of the things Twilight learned from Rarity was that the easy way to lie was to say something true.
"Oh, alright." Fluttershy sighed. "But if Rarity tries to make you do anything you don't want to, remember you can come to me and I'll give her a talking to, okay?"
"Uh! Okay?" Twilight half knew what Fluttershy meant, anyway. "Thanks?"
"Can I come to you if I get peer pressured, Mom?" Pinkie pressed up against Fluttershy.
"You're a good girl, Pinkie." Fluttershy patted Pinkie on the head. "But I'm not your mom."
“Wait, what? Did you just call her mom?" Twilight squinted at the two of them. "So you all clearly know each other, right?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie hugged Fluttershy tightly. "Fluttershy's our mom!"
"No." Fluttershy sighed but didn't fight against the hug.
“She’s the friend we mentioned before.” Dash walked over to Fluttershy’s side. “The one who got to the center of the forest. Well, almost.”
“Wow- really?!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “You got all the way there?! I assumed you were some kind of badass, but that’s impressive!”
“Oh, it’s not that big a deal.” Fluttershy rubbed the back of her head. “A few others have gotten there too.”
“So you finished your thing?” Dash asked.
“Oh, yes. Everything went very well,” said Fluttershy. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Then you’re moving back into town?” Pinkie asked.
“Yes.” Fluttershy nuzzled the top of Pinkie’s head. “I’ll be here for a while.”
“Yay!” Pinkie buried her face into Fluttershy’s chest.
Meanwhile, Twilight was still scratching her head over all this, surprised they’d be friends with an authority figure. If Fluttershy was hugging them, she had to be some kind of degenerate too. Maybe even a secret vampire or whatever?
“But.” Fluttershy moved Pinkie away. “I am a little surprised that Rarity took you out here, Twilight. You didn’t seem like the type to join a gang when I met you. I hope you’re not just following Rarity because you’re lonely.”
“Twilight is absolutely our type, she just needed to get rid of some baggage before she could be her true, delinquent self.” Rarity held Twilight with one foreleg and flicked the other at Fluttershy, which was how she ‘sicced’ Twilight at somepony. “Twilight, tell Fluttershy what you think about our society and its morals.”
“Uh-“ Twilight still wasn’t sure how good an idea saying this stuff in front of a platinum card was.
“I understand.” Fluttershy patted Twilight on the shoulder. “I have lots of dissent training. One second of hesitation is all I need to know everything you’re thinking. I can tell I was wrong about you. But Rarity, you’re getting a lot of ponies lately. How big is your gang going to get?”
“If I see a pony I like, I make them mine,” said Rarity. “I’ll know when I’m satisfied.”
“I don’t mind you having lots of friends, but you like going to such dangerous places.” Fluttershy looked back towards where the town was. "You have to take responsibility for whatever happens."
“We know what we’re doing,” said Dash.
“Knowing what you’re doing can be dangerous too. You’re too young to know how much things can change. You have to accept that you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Alright.” Rarity walked over to Fluttershy and rested her muzzle against Fluttershy, putting one foreleg around her. “If we ever get into any trouble. We’ll come straight to you.”
“Thank you.” Fluttershy nuzzled her back.
“Excuse me?” Twilight raised a hoof. “I’m getting some mixed messages about whether you’re okay with me coming out here.”
“Hm?” Fluttershy turned to Twilight like she was just remembering the unicorn was there. “Oh no. It’s perfectly okay for you to be here, too. I’m glad that you found some friends. But like I said, the forest has its own rules and if you’re going to be coming here you need to follow them.”
“I already told her the rules.” Rarity sighed.
“You should never, ever come out here without your friends. It'd be best to let me know before coming out here,” Fluttershy went on anyway. “The forest will be totally different if you come out here alone. Don’t try making any unnecessary lights and don’t forget that it’s actually worse during the day. And you shouldn’t go past where the lake is. It’s too dangerous after that point. Maybe eventually you’ll be ready to. I can tell when you are.”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve done this,” said Rarity, “I can tell when she’s ready.”
“You should probably come ask me first anyway,” Fluttershy whispered in Twilight’s ear.
"Fluttershy, I'm an adult now," said Rarity.
"I know." Fluttershy tapped her hooves together. "But still."
“Do you two like-“ Twilight looked from one to the other. “Are you related or something? I really feel like you’re related.”
“I suppose you could say that,” said Rarity.
“I used to watch Rarity when she was little,” said Fluttershy, “and she lived with me for a while after her parents died. She's almost like a daughter to me. I guess maybe I’m still a little overprotective.”
“I’m not a scared little filly anymore,” said Rarity. “Though I suppose I have you to thank for that, so I won’t get angry.”
Fluttershy smiled warmly at that.
"Just don't forget I'm around if there's anything you need," said Fluttershy. "That means you too, Twilight. If you're in Rarity's gang I feel a little responsible for you too."
"Don't worry!" Pinkie pressed up against Fluttershy yet again. "I will absolutely think of something to need and come straight to you, Mom!"
“You’re a good girl Pinkie.” Fluttershy patted Pinkie on the head. “You should come visit me later, Twilight. But I have to go now.”
Fluttershy waved goodbye and flew out the window again. Pinkie ran after her, waving enthusiastically.
“Guess it’s good she’ll be around,” said Dash. “But hey, what was in that bucking box, Sparks?”
“Eh. Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
Dash looked into the box and started laughing hysterically.
“Oh man, this pony was a bucking weirdo too!” She looked through them one by one. “Wish I could have met them. We gonna preserve these, Rares?”
“Maybe if we find a second safe.” Rarity dismissed the magazine. “What time is it?”
It was still an hour until midnight. They probably had enough time to go through a whole bunch of houses like this.
“Rarity, I’m getting hungry now!” Pinkie announced. “Can we eat soon or-?”
“Ah, crap.” Twilight realized her mistake. She loaded her bags with like, weapons and stuff, but- “I just realized I probably should have brought something to eat, shouldn’t I? I dunno if any of you will maybe share with me?”
Pinkie looked at Rarity, silently asking permission for something. Rarity nodded, granting it to Pinkie’s delight.
“We don’t usually bring any food either!” Pinkie ran over to one of the nearby trees and bucked it a few times to make some of the fruit on it fall. “Cause there’s already food here!”
“Pinkie!” Twilight reached out to grab the fruit from her, but Pinkie was already holding one with her mouth. “Everything in the forest is incredibly poisonous! You can’t-!”
“Hm?” Pinkie kept the fruit in her mouth and tilted her head.
“Oh.” Twilight sat down. “They were bucking lying about that too.”
Pinkie nodded cheerfully before biting down on the fruit, taking her first bite, then laughed once it was down. At least now Twilight would know for sure if it was poison in a little bit. Pinkie certainly seemed fine and continued to eat the fruit without a problem. Twilight, meanwhile, tried to process this new reality.
“How could nopony notice you can eat these fruits, though?” Twilight asked. “Even if they were lied to that- that shouldn’t be enough!”
“This one’s called a ghost apple.” Dash got another one off the tree to show Twilight. “It’s not poisonous, exactly. But the flavor is, uh. Let’s just say you gotta get used to it, huh? It's safe if you just lick it, but don't actually bite in yet."
It looked closest to an apple, only a bit bigger and blue. It was a little squishy too, though Twilight had no idea if it was supposed to be. If the others were eating this, then she didn’t see why she couldn’t.
Rainbow Dash leaned up against Twilight and smiled a bit too much. Pinkie was giddy with excitement, covering her massive smile with both hooves. Even Rarity looked like she was eagerly waiting for Twilight to try.
“This isn’t the-?” Twilight looked at each of them very carefully.
The fruit of eternal youth immediately came to mind. The three of them were wither smiling because they were excited about offering her eternal youth or because they were about to laugh hysterically at Twilight for thinking the fruit of eternal life existed in the first place.
“Is this the what, Twitwi?” Pinkie could barely contain her excitement.
“This better not be some kind of prank!” Twilight glared at Dash.
“Here, look.” Dash took the one she'd just given Twilight, rubbed the fruit against her chest, then took a bite of it. She chewed and then swallowed hard enough for Twilight to see. She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue at Twilight so there was no question she swallowed it. “Just try licking it to start! It won't turn you into a vampire or anything.”
She still felt like this was some kind of prank but couldn’t think of what it could possibly be. She looked over at Pinkie who was happily eating another one of them. She decided to pick a fresh one off the tree herself just in case.
“Okay.” Twilight kept her eye on Dash as she slowly pressed her tongue against the fruit.
It tasted like a bag of bricks being slammed into Twilight’s face. She didn’t even know this level of disgust could exist! Every muscle in her face tensed up and spasmed as she choked and coughed. Twilight spit it out as soon as she regained control and kept spitting repeatedly to try and get the taste out.
And that was just from licking it!
“Bwahaha!”
Dash and Pinkie practically fell over with laughter, even Rarity was giggling madly.
“Ah. Here.” Dash slapped Twilight on the back and handed her a bottle of water.
Twilight drank the water as fast as she could, spitting out the last bit of it.
“How could you possibly eat that?!" Twilight coughed.
"It takes some training." Dash grabbed another one and bit into it, effortlessly. "But we can show you how to eat one if you want."
“So you’re eating fruit from the forest.” Twilight gave the fruit a far more suspicious look. “And you’re trying to get me to eat Everfree fruits too. This sounds a little too familiar."
And they were all snickering, waiting for her to say it, that this was exactly what the vampires from earth pony folklore did. Here Twilight was, still a virgin, lured out into the woods and being offered fruits from the forest.
The legends said that if she refused to eat the fruit and become one of them, then they’d eat her instead.
“Go ahead and ask,” Rarity invited Twilight. “I think it’s time. I promised you an answer.”
Twilight nodded. This was it.
“Is this the fruit of eternal youth?” Twilight asked. “Are you vampires?”
Rarity smiled and trotted closer.
“Well, perhaps there’s a little truth to that story,” said Rarity, “but there’s no fruit of eternal youth per se. The secret I can show you isn’t a matter of which fruit to eat, but how to eat it. If you bit into one of these, you’d die on the spot. But do you know why?”
“Mostly because of the dark magic,” said Twilight. “All the plants absorb dark magic which is extremely poisonous to ponies. Or at least that’s what I was told.”
“That’s true. But what if I told you there was a way to become resistant to dark magic?” Rarity asked. “Would you believe me?”
Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie, happily devouring another one of these death apples. That was compelling evidence of Rarity’s claim right there.
“But how?” Twilight asked.
“You build it up over time through exposure,” said Rarity.
“Yeah!” Dash landed next to her. “You ever wonder why they don’t just send some pegasus to fly over the forest and land in the center. It’s cause you’d melt inside the mist if you get there too fast. You gotta take it nice and slow through the woods, letting the dark magic sink in, if you wanna get there.”
“Believe it or not, everypony in Ponyville has some slight resistance to it.” Rarity trotted over to Pinkie Pie and began stroking her mane. “Just being so close to the forest exposes you to a lot of dark magic. But if you begin eating these fruits in just the right way, you can build up significant resistance to dark magic, become nearly immune to it.”
“There’s one catch,” said Dash, “You can’t be immune to both light and dark magic, Sparks. One is always gonna kill you. If you become too attuned to dark magic, say enough to go to the center of the forest, then going out of the forest makes you burn up like a monster. You'd need a gas mask just to breath the air near Canterlot instead.”
“Okay. So it is pretty similar to those stories,” said Twilight. This was already a lot to take in, but Twilight couldn’t help but feel this was only the tip. “If you eat enough fruit you become immune to their poison but can’t leave the forest without getting burned.”
Already Twilight had been given a major, world-changing secret. If this was true then her understanding of magic had been woefully incomplete until now!
And yet there was more to those stories Twilight had heard, and the three of them were still waiting expectantly, smiling as though waiting for Twilight to ask the important part.
"Does it do anything else?" Twilight's heart was racing. "Does it transform you?"
Rarity took off her glasses and gave two flicks of them at Pinkie. Twilight recognized this signal, the one to hold somepony. Pinkie bounded over and gave Twilight a tight hug, tight enough that Twilight wouldn't be able to escape.
"Uh! What exactly are you-?!" Twilight didn't try struggling just yet. She tried reading the others' faces to see if she was in any danger. They didn't look malicious, at least.
"Just so you can't run away!" Pinkie was overly chipper about it. "Oh, that probably sounds bad. It's for your own good!"
"Then-?"
"Yes, all three of us have been transformed." Rarity opened her forelegs wide. "This is what I looked like before I started eating these fruits, it's only a disguise. Would you like to see what we really look like?"
Twilight tried to calm her racing heart by reminding herself that these were her friends. Though deep-down Twilight wished she already was whatever they were, being different felt dangerous.
“R-right.” Twilight nodded slowly. More than anything she wanted to be a hundred percent sure this was all for real. If they really could do some kind of transformation magic, there'd be no denying it anymore. “Then- I want to see what you really look like.”
“Close your eyes for a moment," said Rarity.
Twilight closed her eyes, but that wasn’t good enough for Pinkie who put her hooves over Twilight’s eyes. It might have been necessary, because shortly after Twilight heard something sizzling and the urge to look was too great.
“No peeking.” Pinkie held her hooves tightly in place and hummed for a few more seconds, then pulled them off again, instead holding Twilight in a tight hug once more. “Okay! Now you can look.”
Twilight slowly opened one eye to peek. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were both changed. Their slitted eyes glowed brightly in the darkness, almost as though they were giving off light. Their coats were somewhat thicker now, especially around their ears which now ended with thick tufts, making them look ever so slightly larger. Rarity’s colors remained the same, but Dash’s mane was decidedly less rainbow now, with one white section and the rest being several different shades of blue. Her fur was darker now, closer to purple.
Then of course there were the fangs, long, deadly sharp, and just inches away from Twilight.
Twilight let out a yelp and tried to back away in fear, but Pinkie held her too tight, keeping her there, surrounded. Twilight fought back the urge to scream. Normally when she got scared of something, she hid behind the gang, but what the buck was she supposed to do when they were the thing she feared?!
“Psh!” Dash laughed like nothing was wrong. “You don’t gotta be so scared, dork. We’re you’re friends. You’re safer here with us than out there with the other daywalkers.”
“She’s right.” Rarity sat upright and spread her forelegs wide like she was welcoming Twilight. “The forest welcomes you! You’re with me. Nothing will harm you.”
“Y-yeah!” Twilight nodded but didn’t dare blink. “Yeah! Right! We’re friends and stuff! And- and friends don’t eat each other! R-right?!”
“Exactly,” Rarity spoke softly, like Twilight was a scared little animal. “There’s no reason to be afraid of your friends.”
“I mean! I- it’s understandable I’d be scared!” Twilight stumbled over her words, not sure what she was supposed to say. “I was just shocked and- hehe. I’m sure you- you’re not mad about- “
“Of course not.” Rarity ran her muzzle against Twilight’s neck, nuzzling her gently, allowing her fangs to rub ever so gently against Twilight. “I was scared when I saw a vampire for the first time, too. I just want you to relax.”
Twilight tensed up at Rarity’s touch for the first time in a long time. The fangs touching her sent a chill through her body but surviving them unharmed did a lot to calm Twilight’s nerves. It was that feeling you got after you saw the monster in the movie for the first time.
They were right. These were her friends. If they were going to hurt her, it would have already happened. They were her friends. She could trust them.
Twilight kept telling herself that, breathing in and out until she could look at them without much fear.
“Okay.” Twilight exhaled. “Okay. I think I’m almost okay now, but- “
Dash noticed Twilight looking at her wings and unfurled one of them to let her get a look. They were like bat wings now, no feathers anywhere in sight.
There was no question anymore. If they could do transformation magic then-
“You really are vampires?” Twilight reached her trembling hoof out towards Rarity, slowly like she might shatter and vanish back into fantasy.
“Well,” Rarity slowly took Twilight hoof into her own without vanishing. “I should warn you most of us don’t like being called that. It’s a derogatory term. But you know how I adore derogatory terms. Mud pony, airhead, bone head, daywalker. It simply wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t call myself a vampire. I want you to call us that.”
“Heh.” Twilight tried to smile. “So- so you’re a rebel even among vampires?”
“You got that right!” Dash laughed. “You know how punk it is for us to live in a house on your side? Most of those try-hards, they never leave the forest.”
All of them laughed, Twilight by far the loudest, needing to put far more effort into hers. Twilight swallowed and her nervous laugh ended. There were still one or two things she needed to know before she could relax here.
“And which type of vampire are you?” Twilight didn’t dare move without the answer. “You don’t eat ponies or drink blood, do you?”
“I certainly never did,” said Rarity.
“You know what we eat,” said Dash. “What’s the only stuff you ever seen us eating?”
“Lots of sugar and fruits,” said Twilight. “Like in that book Applejack gave me. But then- Applejack was right all along?! You’re Everfree vampires! Like from her book. Like from those stories!”
“Yeah.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Don’t think that means buck. Applejack knows barely anything about us. Like, imagine for a second the only book somepony read about you was written by your worst bucking enemy.”
“I guess that’s fair.” Or at least, Twilight wanted to believe it was. “But was the Rarity in that journal you? It said you slaughtered Applewood’s entire expedition force, like thirty ponies. That’s- not true is it?”
“Yes, I’ve seen that journal before.” Rarity leaned back against the wall and looked out into the forest. “First, I want you to know Rainbow Dash and Pinkie weren’t even born yet, it was just me. And you know, I was nice to that colt. His entire group would have died of starvation and sickness if we hadn’t helped them. And I offered him immortality on top of that. Then he turns around and writes his diary to imply that I’m some sort of mass murderer. The Apple family has a long history getting under my skin, lying about us and me.”
“Then you didn’t slaughter him?”
“There was one of those huge castles to the south of where we were. His commander wanted them to leave and go turn it into an expedition base. And I swear I tried to warn him that other vampires were living there, but he and his ego decided he could just kick them out. He started a fight with this second group of vampires, and he died because of it. I had nothing to do with that battle. I wasn’t even there.”
That could have been true. There was no way to know what really happened. Rarity’s story technically didn’t contradict the other version, as far as Twilight could remember. Twilight wanted to believe Rarity’s version of events. She wanted Rarity to be the good guy.
She let herself believe it for now. But she would check it!
If she got out of here, that was.
“I won’t pretend every vampire is a good pony, but the only ones I take responsibility for are myself and these two.” Rarity gestured at the other two, then held her hoof out to Twilight. “And you if you want it.”
“Then-“ Twilight’s ears perked up. “I get to be one of you too? I can turn into a vampire?”
“Hm! Get to.” Rarity smiled in a way that had to be meant to show off her fangs. “I like how enthusiastic you are. I changed both of them and I so badly want to change you too. Did you mean it when you said you wanted it too?”
“I- sort of. I mean, you live forever, right? You’re almost three hundred years old?”
“319, actually.” Rarity nodded. “And there are vampires who are over a thousand years old and look younger than I do. We don’t age. I’m not sure if there is any limit to how long we can choose to live. You want to live that long, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I already thought about that a lot,” said Twilight. “I read all the pro-mortality arguments. But I feel like nothing any of them say matters compared to the fact that I just don’t want to die, that death and getting old scares me. I do want eternal youth! Especially if you have it too.”
“See, you ain’t so stupid, Sparks,” said Dash. “You’d have to be completely retarded to say no to this.”
“Do I really have to decide right now?” Twilight looked from Dash on her left to Pinkie on her right. “I feel a little pressured. I still don’t know enough.”
“You can’t decide right now,” said Dash. “The transformation takes bucking forever. Years!”
“She’s right,” said Rarity. “It’s mere exposure to dark magic that changes you and we radiate it out like unicorns used to radiate light magic. Simply staying around us so long has already made you slightly more like us. I think deep down you know you’ve already changed. You can see in the dark better than a pony should be able to. The darkness is comforting, rather than frightening and you don’t like the feeling of the sun anymore.”
Twilight nodded. Everything Rarity mentioned was only very slight, to the point Twilight wasn’t sure if it was all in her head. But there was one other thing that had crossed the line into suspicion.
“And I can feel dark magic?” Twilight asked.
“You’re smart.” Rarity smiled. “And talented to start feeling it so soon. I really want to finish what I started with you. But if you want to leave, I won’t come after you or anything like that. You can leave at any time and have your normal life and your normal death. I’ll even tell you this- light magic turns you back. If you ever want to go back to the way you were all you need to do is stay out in the sun and avoid sources of dark magic like us and the forest. You’d go back to not needing sunglasses and being blind in the dark.”
“So does that mean it’s possible for you three to turn back into uh,” Twilight realized she didn’t know the correct terms yet. “daywalkers?”
“Hypothetically,” said Rarity. “But there isn’t enough light magic left to do it. There is a point where you wouldn’t be able to turn back, but that’s almost two years from now. You’ll know when you’re getting close. You’ll know everything before then.”
“I have so many more questions.” Now that Twilight was calming down, they were flooding into her mind. “How many of you are there? Where do they live? Where did you come from? How much do you really know about the forest? Why doesn’t everypony know about this? Can you use dark magic for spells? Can you-?”
“That’s all I’m saying for now.” Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s mouth to hush her. “There’s something I want from you before I start telling you more, something to prove you really want to become one of us and join the gang for real and forever. If I’m telling you all this early, I want you to start actively trying to become a vampire.”
Rarity lifted one of the ghost apples with her magic.
This was that part of the story. The part where the hero said no to their fruit and the vampires stopped being so friendly. It was a lot more intimidating, knowing how horrible they tasted.
“You see, there’s only so far you can change without actually eating the fruits of the Everfree Forest,” said Rarity. “You’re already close to the limit. You won’t ever grow fangs or ear tufts without it. You won’t stop aging completely or be able to use dark magic. There’s no specific fruit you have to eat, but if you do want to transform you need to eat some type.”
“I’m not sure if I could eat a bite of that to save my life.” Twilight shuddered just looking at the fruit, remembering the taste of it. “Though I’m not saying no!”
“You don’t actually have to eat one of them yet.” Rarity tossed the fruit over to Rainbow Dash.
Dash held the ghost apple over a cup she must have gotten from inside the house and squeezed it, getting a small amount of juice out of it. She handed the cup, not even a tenth full, to Rarity who studied the amount, then poured another water bottle into the cup, diluting the juice.
“This will probably make you pass out.” Rarity held the cup out to Twilight. “You'll be sick tomorrow, but it won’t hurt much.”
“It’s easier if you hold your nose!” Pinkie suggested.
Twilight looked down at the cup. There was one thing she couldn’t get out of her mind.
“I just need to know something.” Twilight looked up at Rarity. “If hypothetically I said no- and I’m only asking! Not saying no! But if I did you like… you wouldn’t kill more or anything, right?”
“That craps just bucking propaganda made up by our enemies,” said Dash. “You’re smart enough to see through propaganda now, right?”
“I just won’t tell you anymore if you don’t want to go further,” said Rarity. “If you want to wait until tomorrow or next week to drink this, that’s fine with me. And this is the closest thing to a threat I have for you. If you go around telling our secrets, well I’ll hardly kill you, but the three of us are going to disappear and you won’t ever see us again, not until you’re old and senile.”
Twilight had to admit she didn’t like the thought of that, of missing her chance at this. She briefly imagined herself old and seeing them again, some new pony taking her place as the fourth gang member. It was a painful thought; one she didn’t want to ever be real.
She looked back at the cup. Between Pinkie and Applejack, Twilight heard so many stories where the protagonist was in this exact same position, being tempted by their mysterious friend to join them in the darkness. Every time they’d always heroically hold their heads up high and deny the temptation.
And every single time Twilight thought they were bucking idiots.
“Yes.” Twilight took the cup. “Yes, I want to be a vampire!”
Twilight held her nose with her magic and drank the juice as fast as she could while Pinkie and Dash cheered. She barely tasted it on the way down, thinking briefly she was okay when the last of it was swallowed. But then she exhaled and it was like death itself was coming out of her nostrils.
Numbness wasn't enough to describe the feeling that quickly radiated out of her chest. It was more like Twilight's body was being cast into oblivion. Her eyes felt like they were the only part of her that still existed and they burned and watered until the world was just a blur of colors.
Twilight wasn't sure if she was sitting up or not anymore, would have fallen were Pinkie not holding her. Pinkie noticed her going limp and slowly lowered her to the floor. Already Twilight’s energy was completely gone, her entire body too heavy to move an inch.
“Aw.” Pinkie lied down next to Twilight and began to slowly pet her. “There, there. Sleepy Twilights.”
They kept talking but Twilight was too wiped out to listen. And then she was asleep.
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10183685
Well maybe they have a 'Celestian alternative' for O&O where you fight enemies by praying to Celestia and stuff.
I'm gonna go read the other book now!
Relief that the big spoopy forest doesn't autokill you I guess.
Hey, are the elements of harmony a thing in this universe?
Sweet, treehouse.
The first thing that would happen would be a bank run.
Twilight, they're your friends, they aren't gonna drop you like a piece of hot garbage, give them some credit.
Bunnies with deer antlers?! WE'RE DOOMED! DOOMED I TELL YOU! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!
Bring it on buttercup!
Okay, no, that is a big deal. False modesty doesn't become you Fluttershy. Being able to accomplish something like that does set you apart from the others. The humility comes in not treating others as lesser for not being able to.
Fluttershy? HEY FLUTTERSHY! THESE GOONS ARE TELLING LIES ABOUT YOU!
10184194
So basically O&O but you can only play as a cleric, got it.
nice work
10184685
32% chance.
The more I hear about this Equestria... It sounds like a crossover between The soviet union and Ohio, I would hate to live there, but damn have you come up with good lore!
As someone who read the original fic, I say you have developed tons as a writer. I am glad the characters are very much the same, but the dialogue and the pacing and overall storytelling has improved.
I also remember the big twist about Fluttershy and now they meet her inside the FOREST? Hmmmmmm... To quote Pinkie, "SUSPICIOUS!"
the frank approves.
Is it bad that I've already read, and then reread this? It's just so good of a book.
That right there is wisdom. Being too sure you know something can be even more dangerous than not knowing, because someone who knows they don't know can be flexible.
10196824
The only true understanding, is the understanding that there is so much you do not understand.
...or, y'know, some other deja-vudu crap like that... Maybe...
I'll go sit in the corner. Which corner is it again?
10184685
Hey! That’s no ordinary Jackalop! That’s the most foul, cruel, and foul-tempered rodent you ever set you eyes on!
10185514
Of all the specific places you could pick, you chose Ohio. Laughing my ass off, why Ohio?
Reading this feels like reading a Made in Abyss: Equestria edition. Far from a bad thing though. The rules of the Everfree and the sickness from advancing too fast is just as fascinating.
So, it was dark magic, not "passive magic" and Rarity lied that Twiggles can learn to use it?