Chapter 13. The fastest way to make friends
Twilight felt the tip of her ear. There was a little bit of fuzz there!
Ear tufts were the first physical change and started growing as soon as you began eating Everfree fruits. During her ‘sick week’, they’d gotten much larger than this, maybe a quarter the size of the rest of the gang’s. But once she was well enough to go out again, Twilight had to cut them off.
Twilight found herself excited at the idea of growing ear tufts. She loved checking every morning to see them getting bigger each day. She wanted to let it grow out again, to see what she looked like with them fully grown. But obviously, Twilight couldn’t run around town like that and the others weren’t willing to share their disguise with her just yet, apparently Fluttershy would ‘chew their ears off’ if they showed her before a few months passed. So Twilight had to trim the tufts once or twice a day.
But every day it was growing back faster, the little tuft of fur getting just a little longer each morning she checked. It grew so much faster than normal fur, faster than normal hair even. It was almost like it resented getting cut off and was fighting back for control of Twilight’s ears.
Twilight would happily let them get as fuzzy as they wanted if she could. Rarity always said the bigger they got, the cuter Twilight became.
And tonight Twilight was going to meet Fluttershy for the first time without any pretenses, knowing Fluttershy was a vampire and Twilight was a fledgling. There was a lot to be intimidated about, seeing as Twilight was trying to date what was her daughter and move into what was Fluttershy’s nation.
But at least Rarity would be with her for that.
While she waited for Rarity to get back with Fluttershy, Twilight read through one of Rarity’s books on dark magic. Studying this was her new full-time job. She got fired from the bottling factory, and not without reason as her constant complaining about the system had already lead to several strikes, but she was back on track to her dream job which more than made up for it.
Dash was on the couch opposite Twilight, lying on her back and reading a magazine. Twilight looked up from her book and carefully looked over Rainbow Dash. Only recently, after making out with Rarity a few times, did Twilight finally start to appreciate something.
Twilight really was attracted to mares.
It was like Twilight just had this massive wall of cognitive bias and Rarity was the only one sexy enough to breakthrough. But now that wall was largely gone, that jerk of shame and resistance from her feelings towards other mares was more easily overcome. And slowly something began to dawn on Twilight.
Rainbow Dash was cute in that way. She wasn’t as good as Rarity, but her cute little muzzle, her tail, her flank. Twilight did feel a certain attraction to her in a way she just never had for stallions.
Slowly Twilight was coming to realize she wasn’t just slightly gay, but totally gay.
“You see something you like, Sparks?” Dash peeked out from behind her magazine.
“Huh?!” Twilight just realize she’d been staring at Dash’s flank for a bit too long. “Ah, crap! Sorry! I’m just coming to terms with the fact that I’m, you know, a lesbian.”
“Hey! Stare all you want.” Dash went back to her magazine. “You’re just cool enough that I take it as a compliment. You wanna make out for a while till the others get back? I’m bored.”
Dash asked it in such a casual way like she was asking to watch a movie or something.
“Uh! No thanks!” Twilight doubted Rarity would have any issue with that, but Twilight still didn’t feel the same way about Dash as she did Rarity. Even if Dash was attractive, Twilight didn’t feel the same need to get more intimate with her. “I’m a little confused at how you can be so nonchalant about it.”
“It’s just a fun thing to do.” Dash shrugged. “I dunno why everypony thinks it needs to be this mystical thing. I think it’s just another way society tries to buck with you.”
Twilight still didn’t think she understood. She was sure of what her relationship with Pinkie and Rarity was, but Dash confused her on several levels. Dash didn’t seem at all upset about the fact that Twilight was going on a date with Rarity. It didn’t feel like they were competing for anything.
She decided to test the waters a little.
“You’ve been with Rarity for like sixty years, right?” Twilight asked. “You’d have to know where she’d want to go on a date, right?”
“The boss just automatically takes control of everything,” said Dash. “Don’t even bother planning stuff. That’s what I’d do.”
That was some very Rainbow Dash advice.
“You’re not jealous that she’s my, um… marefriend?” Twilight still got a mix of fear and giddy excitement from saying the word. “Cause you seem like you like her a lot!”
“Yeah, I like Rarity a lot.” Dash put down the magazine and sat up, suddenly taking this more seriously. “I swore an oath to devote my life to serving Rarity. That thing where we got Rarity’s cutie mark on the back of our jackets? Well that comes from an old airhead thing. You start wearing somepony’s cutie mark when you pledge your life to them. I started wearing a cape with her cutie mark on it, then Pinkie started copying me cause she thought my cape looked cool and then Rarity just made it a thing. That’s my relation to Rarity, total devotion in whatever way she wants.”
That was something Twilight did understand a bit better. She knew pegasi took loyalty very seriously and this swearing yourself to somepony was part of their culture. But that was something that rarely happened, and Twilight knew for a fact that Dash wouldn’t just do something ‘because culture’. If anything, being part of her culture was a strike against something.
“Can I ask what made you decide to pledge your life to Rarity?” Twilight asked. “Is it just cause she’s that hot?”
“Rarity’s the first pony who treated my life like it has any value.” Dash crossed her forelegs and closed her eyes. “You know, I basically killed myself for Equestria and the Wonderbolts but they never saw me as anything but a disposable pawn. Meanwhile, I literally tried to kill Rarity and she still acts like my life matters. That’s why she gets my loyalty.”
“Wait! You tried to kill Rarity?”
“I said we fought! I was like some kind of ninja, you know. They sent me to kill ponies and I was stupid enough to think that meant I had to do it. And I’m eternally grateful Rarity mopped the floor with me.” Dash quickly changed the subject. “Hey, if you ever want to be sexy, sexy you should come train with me sometime. If you learned ninja skills and dark magic, you could probably be pretty tough. You get a little toned and I’d totally have sex with you!”
“Guh!” Twilight blushed. Rarity always talked in innuendo at least! “No, I think I should just focus on dark magic for now! Thanks.”
And now Twilight was suddenly hoping Fluttershy would show up. She turned to her book, trying hard not to think of anything lewd. Her mind really was getting perverted!
Before she could regain enough concentration to start reading again, the door opened. And suddenly Twilight got nervous again and wished she was back to her awkward conversation with Dash.
The door opened, Rarity and Fluttershy came in. Twilight sat up at attention, nervous about meeting Fluttershy for the first time since learning she was the ruler of the vampires.
Fluttershy stayed standing, looking Twilight over carefully. Rarity came right up to Twilight, sat down next to her, and wrapped a foreleg around her marefriend.
“And here she is.” Rarity showed Twilight to Fluttershy. “My newest fledgling.”
“Hello?”
Twilight still had no idea whether this was more like a ‘meet the parents’ or an ‘interview for a dark order’ kind of scenario.
The other assured Twilight she didn’t actually need Fluttershy’s approval for anything but getting her blessing to become one of them was a good idea anyway. Apparently, the other vampires were generally suspicious of newcomers who didn’t have Fluttershy’s approval.
Pinkie, noticing the door open, rushed out of her room to greet them.
“Mom!” Pinkie spread her wings and flew down to the living room. “Hi, Mom!”
Twilight still wasn’t entirely used to having a white Pinkie Pie around. Her change was the most jarring and the one she saw the most often. But right now Twilight was thankful to Pinkie for taking the spotlight off her.
“Hello, Pinkie.” Fluttershy set her down. “Before I forget, since you’re all here, I’ve been warning ponies about this. I think a really big dark storm is coming out of the forest in maybe a week. It’s either going to be a D5 or D6, so you should start getting ready now.”
“Oh, wow! Storm party!” Pinkie cheered. “Are you gonna stay here with us for it?”
One thing Twilight hadn’t seen since coming to Ponyville was a dark storm. It was something she’d been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Pegasi couldn’t get dark storms under control because the clouds were too toxic to them, making them the biggest storms of all. And a D6 was as high as it got, meaning Twilight was going straight to the deep end on this one.
“Well at least we don’t have to worry about dark water, right?” Twilight asked. “I’d assume it doesn’t burn or poison vampires.”
“Excuse me?” Fluttershy’s ears twitched and she gave Twilight a serious look.
“Um.” Twilight honestly wasn’t sure what part of that Fluttershy took issue with. She was already messing this up. “It’s not that unreasonable to assume it wouldn’t burn you. Us?”
Fluttershy was still unamused.
“Rarity!” Fluttershy sighed. “Have you been running around telling everypony we’re vampires again?”
“We are vampires, yes.” Rarity nodded. “Exactly like in the legends.”
“No.” Fluttershy shook her head and turned to Twilight. “Twilight, the correct term is ‘bat pony’. Or if you want to be more specific, the tribe Rarity belongs to is called ‘thestrals’. That’s the one you’d turn into. We’re not vampire versions of the other tribes, we’re two distinct tribes. It’s funny. Back in the day, we’d argued about whether to call ourselves bat ponies or thestrals but then we discovered there are two dark tribes so we could just go with both.”
Twilight felt a sudden sense of relief that it wasn’t something more serious.
“Rarity did explain about it being two additional tribes, but I guess knowing the PC terms is good.”
“That’s the normal term,” said Fluttershy. “The PC term is batmorphic bodied individual or BBI. Though I don’t know anypony who actually says that. 'Vampire' is like a slur and it gives ponies the wrong impression about us.”
“Well you know,” said Twilight, “I’m not really in favor of enshrining words and giving them the power to hurt us in the first place.”
Rarity nodded approvingly.
“You really are Rarity’s fledgling.” Fluttershy flapped a wing at Dash, who made room for her on the couch across from Twilight. Pinkie sat down right next to Fluttershy, leaning against her affectionately. “I’m a little surprised to see you with another fledgling already, though.”
“Fluttershy,” said Rarity, “I specifically told you I was coming here to make another fledgling for myself.”
“You also said you’d be here for a few years. I thought you’d wait a while for Pinkie to grow before taking a second fledgling. Having two fledglings up here is putting yourself at a lot of risk.”
“Pinkie isn’t a fledgling anymore,” said Rarity. “She’s fully transformed and she doesn’t need me to babysit her. She got miles into the woods without a scratch, she can take care of herself.”
“Yes, but Pinkie is also a very special child who needs lots of love,” Fluttershy said as Pinkie continued to nuzzle.
“Yeah, it’s true!” Pinkie finally pulled back and nodded in agreement. “If I don’t get loved I’ll feel bad. Oh! But watch this, Mom! I got way better at flying since you left.”
Pinkie jumped off the couch, spread her wings, and gave them a flap. Her form was shaky and she threw way too much wind into the room, but she did fly up to the balcony.
“Very good, Pinkie.” Fluttershy clapped her hooves together. “But you’re still a fledgling.”
“Aw.”
“And I think you should have waited longer to offer this to Twilight.” Fluttershy turned back to Rarity. “You could have just kept her as a friend for a few more years before trying to make her one of us.”
“Twilight is smart.” Rarity tapped Twilight’s head. “I wouldn’t have been able to lead her around for years. She would have gotten too curious and done something brash looking for the truth. I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to make Twilight mine just because it’s a little dangerous.”
Fluttershy considered it for a moment before finally relenting.
“I understand.” Fluttershy bowed her head. “I suppose I’ve done silly things because I liked an Equestrian too much, too.”
“Are we really in that much danger?” Twilight butted in. “I feel like I’ve been in less danger ever since I started changing.”
“Relatively speaking, you’re very fragile,” said Fluttershy. “Unicorns reproduce very quickly compared to us, but as individuals, you’re much weaker than a thestral. You still don’t have the strength or resistance to darkness a thestral does and you don’t have decades of experience and knowledge. Rarity and Rainbow Dash need to protect you until you get stronger.”
“I understand I wouldn’t be that good in a fight, but also I’ve never had to fight anything yet. So it kind of balances out?” Twilight suggested.
“True.” Fluttershy nodded. “But, well the big danger here is you, Twilight.”
“Me?” Twilight pointed at herself. “But I’m not doing anything!”
“Not now, but sometimes fledglings change their mind or get tempted to start sharing our secrets. If you do try to tell on us, well Equestria might try to make you disappear and the four of us will be in trouble too.”
“I won’t do anything like that!” Twilight put her hoof on her chest. “I’m a hundred percent committed to Rarity and my gang! I’d never do anything to betray you guys!”
“You see?” Rarity leaned against Twilight. “Twilight’s loyal to me, just like the other two.”
“Hm.” Fluttershy nodded. “Can I ask why you want to become one of us?”
That was an easy question.
“I want eternal youth, I want to be with Rarity and the rest of my friends, I want to get away from this authoritarian country, I want to see the forest, I want to learn dark magic and become a mage, I want-“
“I see.” Fluttershy waved her hoof for Twilight to stop. “I believe you. I get worried when ponies only give me one reason. I think you’re making the right decision. You do realize that if you go through with it, you won’t belong here any longer, but to the forest. Ponyville is much easier to live in than the rest of Equestria for us.”
“I kind of hate this country anyway! I already don’t feel like I belong here.” Twilight put her hoof on her heart. “I want to go somewhere else!”
This answer wasn’t as endearing to Fluttershy as Twilight expected it to be. Fluttershy looked a little disappointed, sad.
“Alright. I recognize you as one of my children and grant you the blessing of Luna. You have my permission to come to our lands. You’ll be welcomed whenever you come.” Fluttershy lifted her head and opened her eyes. “I can only give my blessing to so many ponies each year because of the truce, so I hope you appreciate it.”
“Yay!” Pinkie stamped her hooves up on the balcony. “Now Fluttershy is your mom too! Which makes us sisters!”
“Pinkie,” Fluttershy said calmly, “when I call you my child I don’t mean it that literally.”
“But you let Rarity call you mom,” Pinkie objected. “And Sunshine and Moonlight too!”
“I’m Sunshine and Moonlight’s actual biological mother.” Fluttershy held her hoof out towards Rarity. “And I adopted Rarity when she was little. So I am actually their mom.”
It was still a little hard to think of Fluttershy as Rarity’s mom. They looked almost the same age. And it would have been even weirder with her older daughters. The twins Pinkie just mentioned were only twenty-something years younger than Fluttershy which, when you were pushing a thousand, meant Fluttershy was only two percent older than them.
“That was easier than I thought it’d be!” Twilight declared, relieved. “I was worried I’d have to do some kind of test, you know?”
“Well I can tell Rarity likes you a lot,” said Fluttershy. “Rarity barely talked about anything other than you since I came back. And I want her to be happy.”
“Really?” Twilight looked at Rarity with a sudden swell of affection.
“And she says you asked her to go on a date to the cracker shack? You know what happens there, right?” Fluttershy looked to the side like she was about to tell a secret. “They put way too much salt in everything so they can overcharge you for drinks. I’m not sure why you think that’s a good place to take my daughter.”
“No I didn’t-“ Twilight sighed. “I didn’t ask her out yet, but I will in three days. I just need somewhere better than that?”
“I see,” Fluttershy was already back to looking unimpressed. “Do you think you want to get married? Do you want foals? Would you rather have your own or adopt? Bat pony foals are a lot of work.”
“Mom.” Rarity sighed.
“Foals?! We haven’t even gone on a single date yet! And don’t I have like a hundred years to think about that now?” Twilight thought about that for a second. “Wait, do vampires-?”
“Bat ponies.”
“Do bat ponies hit menopause?”
“Hypothetically,” said Fluttershy. “But we’re only fertile once every ten years and it’d take maybe ten million years. I supposed you do have a while.”
“There? See!” Twilight nodded. “So we don’t gotta talk about this now.”
“So you’ve never even thought about whether you want foals?” Fluttershy tilted her head. “Are you the type to not plan ahead? I hope you’re not planning on mooching off Rarity for the rest of your life. We already have Pinkie doing that.”
“Yeah, and I got that covered.” Pinkie landed behind Fluttershy and nodded.
“I have plans!” Twilight put her hooves over her chest defensively. “I’m training to be a dark mage.”
“Twilight is extremely talented,” Rarity spoke up in her favor. “She just needs time to learn and I have no doubt she’ll excel as a mage.”
“I was always near the top of my class at the academy!” Twilight nodded eagerly, wanting to establish that she could be a responsible partner. “I would have been the top if we didn’t have a terrible system where getting snitching didn’t give you credit.”
“You do realize that you’d have to train for decades,” said Fluttershy. “There are thestral mages that have hundreds of years of practice.”
“Rarity mentioned that,” said Twilight. “But practicing magic for thirty years sounds great to me!”
Fluttershy leaned back against the couch and hummed for a moment.
“Well, the fact that you’re running around again after just a month is very impressive,” Fluttershy admitted. “If what Rarity says is true, you might have the highest affinity to dark magic I’ve ever seen, and I know pretty much everypony. My oldest daughter, Moonlight Raven, is the top thestral mage. She might like to meet with you.”
“Really?” Twilight never had serious connections before, but now she suddenly had an in with the top mage of wherever she was going. Having nepotism work in her favorite felt great.
“My twins are extraordinarily talented mages. Moonlight is always looking for interesting ponies like you. She’s very dedicated to our mission so you really should go see her. You might be able to help us plunge the world into everlasting darkness. Yay.”
“Uh!” It wasn’t every day you heard somepony just come out and say something like that so casually. “I’m not a hundred percent sure I want to do that, though?”
“You’re not?” Fluttershy tilted her head. “Why not? Didn’t Rarity tell you about Luna?”
“Yeah, but. Well it sounds bad?” Twilight looked over at Rarity for support. “Eternal night, I mean.”
“Everlasting darkness is the best possible thing for the world right now.” Fluttershy leaned forward with a seriousness that was often reserved for religion and novels you thought were way deeper than they actually were. “The perfect will of our princess is to vanquish the light and let the forest consume the whole planet so that she can rule supreme for ten thousand years and create a perfect world of darkness.”
“You’re scaring her, Mother.” Rarity interrupted. “You’re going to make her think all of us are this cavalier about it.”
“Oh, alright.” Fluttershy bowed her head. “Rarity and her little friends aren’t as devout as me. As the queen of the forest, I promise you that you’re free to believe whatever silly, non-alicorn religion you want, Twilight. I can understand why maybe you wouldn’t want to worship the divine sisters right now. Given, you know, things.”
It was a relief to hear queen herself that she’d be freer where she was going. And that freedom was enough for Twilight’s curiosity to win out over her disdain for authority.
“I kind of want to hear her sales pitch for eternal night.” Twilight turned to Rarity. “If you don’t mind.”
“I hardly want to discourage your curiosity.” Rarity shrugged. “But keep in mind I don’t agree with her on everything.”
Twilight looked back at Fluttershy who’s eyes were positively sparkling at Twilight, smiling in eager anticipation of getting to preach to her. Maybe Twilight should have tried to get Fluttershy points by going straight to this.
“You see, Twilight,” Fluttershy began, “nature isn’t static. Things change and flow in cycles. Every day the world cycles between day and night. The darkness gives way to light and then the light goes back to darkness. That’s how the world should be, a beautiful harmony between the two, between the divine alicorns.”
“But if you get rid of the sun, won’t your beautiful cycle thing end?” Twilight asked. “Don’t we still need the sun? Or at least most living things do.”
“Of course we don’t need the sun,” said Fluttershy. “The sun wasn’t around during the age of fire and the dragons and kirins were perfectly happy without it. And there was still a cycle of light and darkness. I don’t know if Rarity told you, but there is a sort of dark sun, called the moon. It was around in the age of fire and it will be here in the age of darkness. Everfree plants with thrive under it. The new day will be when the moon is out and the cycle will remain.”
“Wait, the second sun existed back then?” That was news to Twilight. Her whole life she’d been under the impression that life was sustained by all the volcanoes and lava fissures that existed back then. “Does that mean there was a third alicorn back then? Or was it the one that’s asleep now? Luna?”
“You’re very clever, Twilight!” Fluttershy smiled warmly. “Yes, our dark princess ruled over the age of fire before turning the world over to Celestia at the start of the present age. And before that was a time you’ll rarely hear about today, the age of mist, where Celestia ruled and the sun existed. Celestia happily turned over her rule to her sister at the start of the age of fire. The world has been alternating between ages of darkness and light since the beginning, it is the perfect will of our princesses.”
“Just because it’s their will doesn’t mean it’s right.” Twilight shook her head. “I mean, Celestia is clearly insane. Isn’t she your enemy or something? Why would you want to follow her will?”
“Of course Celestia’s not my enemy! I have nothing but absolute admiration for her!” Fluttershy looked briefly horrified at the question before turning back to Rarity annoyed. “Were you telling her that Celestia’s the bad guy?”
“How can you expect me not to say bad things about her?” Rarity shook her head. “I despise our authoritarian government. Everypony here has a story about how this civilization she’s created wronged us including you.”
“That’s not her fault! Celestia barely does anything anymore,” said Fluttershy. “She’s too sick to run the government full time. I’ve been to see her, and she just sits in her room eating potato chips and watching cartoons most of the time. They still do whatever she asks, but Starlight Glimmer is the one making most of these terrible decisions. Oh, or is it Luster Dawn now?”
“Isn’t Luster Dawn like 9?” Twilight asked. “I doubt she’s running the government.”
Though, given the insanity of this year so far, a super-genius blank flank taking control of the government wouldn’t even phase Twilight.
“Oh, that’s right.” Fluttershy gave herself a slight bonk on the head. “Sorry. Maybe you’ll understand when you’re my age, but Equestrian families begin to blur together a little. It gets hard to tell parents from their kids because they just come and go so fast.”
That was an interesting fact to consider. Twilight wondered how old until that started happening if maybe Rarity fell into the same trap.
“I still say Celestia is responsible,” said Rarity. “She has unlimited magical and political power. Starlight has to do anything Celestia says and the masses will always go along with her will. She’s the one who put that family in power and she made countless decisions up until this point. She can’t be sitting on top of all that and claim no responsibility.”
“She’s just not herself! The Celestia I remember would never do anything wrong.”
While the two of them argued about politics, Twilight mulled Fluttershy’s story over in her head. She’d been trained now to try and find flaws in people’s stories.
“Hey, hold on!” Twilight raised her hoof. “You said you’ve seen Celestia, like in person? But we’re supposed to instantly vaporize in her presence because she has too much light magic.
“Oh, I did vaporize.” Fluttershy nodded.
“Huh?” Twilight looked at Rarity who nodded, promising her this was for real. “What?”
“I have absolute immortality.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and spread out her wings and foreleg. “There’s absolutely no way to kill me. Even if I completely vaporize, I can just reconstitute my body from the ether. When I talk to Celestia I get a few words in between vaporization. I can go anywhere without getting hurt.”
“What?” Twilight blinked. “But what?! Why do you get absolute immortality while the rest of us just get normal immortality?”
“It was kind of a limited-time offer.” Fluttershy rubbed the back of her head. “Celestia is the one who granted it to me before the great battle. She knew this might happen and wanted to make it so she couldn’t turn around and kill me afterward. Oh! Twilight, did you know that even Princess Celestia wants there to be eternal night?”
“She did? She does?” Twilight leaned forward, getting more curious by the second. “But I thought she hated us!”
“She does, currently, yes. But before the great battle, she warned me she’d go insane and sent me on the mission to wake up her sister and bring about the age of darkness! She wanted Luna to take control of the world from her.”
“That’s news to me.” Twilight thought of the implications of that. It still wasn’t clear if Twilight could trust even a more sane Princess Celestia. But if it was true that even she saw her age ending as a good thing…
“If you want, I can show you more, but it’ll be easier to explain once you’re asleep,” Fluttershy offered.
“Like you’re gonna stand over me all night and repeat ‘Celestia is perfect’ over and over?” Twilight guessed.
“No.” Fluttershy laughed. “Luna gave me a special power too. You’ll see it tonight. I’ll show you that Luna is the greatest and perfect pony who ever existed. She absolutely deserves to rule the world and be worshipped.”
“This isn’t like a brainwashing thing, is it?” Twilight asked Rarity.
“Do it seem like she’s brainwashed me?” Rarity asked. “I don’t share her optimism that Luna is going to be this perfect goddess.”
“I understand why you might think that.” Fluttershy bowed her head sadly. “But maybe that’s enough politics for now. I am glad you’ve made a family for yourself. And you did a great job with Rainbow Dash's rehabilitation. It’s nice to see that she’s no longer a, uh, maniac.”
Rainbow Dash, who’d been lying over the side of the couch, completely disinterested in all this up until, now let out a groan.
“Yeesh! I’m sorry already!” Dash rolled her eyes. “Is my undying loyalty to your daughter not enough?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to compliment you.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and put her hooves together. “It’s good that you’re at peace now. Not everypony can turn their life around like this.”
“I still think I’m getting a little too soft cause of you guys,” said Dash.
“Aw, but I love soft Rainbow Dash!” Rarity winked at her. “Tough Rainbow Dash never cuddled with me at night.”
“This is soft Rainbow Dash?” Twilight leaned over to look at Dash. “But you’re already so tough. What the heck was tough Rainbow Dash like.”
“Stupid,” said Dash. “I needed to have some sense beaten into me.”
“Dashie was quite the battle maniac back then,” Rarity teased. “Back then she’d take any excuse to get into a fight. The fact that she hasn’t beaten you up yet is a testament to how far she’s come. The two of us fought all the time, even after we became friends. How many of our fights did you win again?”
“That’s misleading!” Dash quickly sat up again, interested in the conversation now that they were talking about fighting. “I never fought you uninjured or without Fluttershy or somepony else around!”
“Well then we can fight right now to settle this,” Rarity teased. “More serious than our little play fights, but not an actual death match.”
“What- no!” Dash blushed and turned away. “My code of honor demands I never raise a hoof against you ever again.”
“What code of honor?” Rarity asked.
“The one I just made up right now!”
“How very convenient for you.”
“It’s okay, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy patted her on the head like a little filly. “I think it’s great you’re going soft. Though I’m still counting on you to protect the others. Actually, maybe you should move in with the rest of your family, Twilight. Just to be safe.”
“I haven’t slept at my house in over a month,” said Twilight. “Though I supposed I could officially move in?”
“I do like keeping you close,” said Rarity. “So I’m more than fine with Fluttershy’s request.”
“Maybe I’ll go back there today and pack up the last of my stuff,” said Twilight.
Twilight needed to run a few errands for the others during the day anyway since she was the only one who could go out at day.
“I can pick up the leather for you while I’m out,” Twilight offered.
“You’ve been on this ‘punk’ think for a long time.” Fluttershy looked over Rarity’s outfit. “A lot longer than your other phases. It’s good to see you’re getting back into fashion, though.”
“Huh?” Twilight’s ears perked up. “Did Rarity not used to dress like this?”
“Oh! Rarity’s been through a bunch of ‘aesthetic phases’,” said Fluttershy. “When she was a filly she used to dress up like her big sister Moonlight. She’d always paint her face up, wear a big skull thing over her head, and put on necromancer robes. Then she went through a phase where she was really into big poofy dresses with lots of frills and then-“
“Mom.” Rarity sighed then spread her forelegs wide. “This one’s not a phase! It’s who I really am!”
Something about Rarity in frilly dresses amused Twilight to no end.
“Did she go through any phases after that?” Twilight asked to Rarity’s dismay.
“Well after that I guess she decided that she really liked gemstones,” Fluttershy began to explain.
Rarity sighed again.
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It was getting late in the day and Twilight had finished packing all of her things over an hour ago, but it’d still be a while before it was Dark enough for Dash to come help move it. She’d gone into town to finish up an errand or two and was on her way back to her house.
Ever since she’d started wearing her Blue Diamond jacket, the air around Twilight was different. Everypony she passed regarded her with a certain level of fear or respect. Most ponies were quick to get out of her way. The creepers had long since learned not to call after Twilight. But the more delinquent types would
Already Twilight felt different than the rest of them, but she didn’t really look down on everypony else the way she did a few months ago. She saw them all with pity more than anything else. These ponies were still stuck in the system, still had to get old. They weren’t free, but Twilight couldn’t free them either.
As she got closer to her house, she looked up at the sky, wishing it were cloudier.
Sunlight wasn’t painful yet, not as long as she kept her glasses on, but it didn’t feel good either. Twilight understood what Pinkie meant when she called it ‘gross’ all the time. The warmth of the sun felt slimy, dirty, made Twilight feel like she needed a bath. She wondered if she’d have time to take one last bath in this place.
And that slimy feeling reminded her of her neighbor and Twilight looked down the hill at Sweet Apple Acres. Not that she thought Applejack was slimy in a metaphorical sense, but her farm was far more literally a pit of slime at this point.
It’d actually been a while since Twilight had come back to her own house last so today was the first time she’d seen it in a while. The deterioration since last Twilight came here was significant. It was no longer a few blighted trees among the healthy ones, but a few healthy ones that stuck out among the blight.
Half the trees were dead, drooping, and purple, while nearly half the rest had collapsed into piles of mush. There were parts of it that looked like a march overrun with purple algae. Even up here Twilight could smell the blight, though to her changing nose the smell wasn’t as bad. It smelt maybe like a pile of dead leaves.
And this was before the coming dark storm hit. After the storm, Applejack might not even be able to stay in her house for a while and it’d be easy for the forest to spread across and cover her farm in just a year or two afterward.
Having no harvest was the least of Applejack’s problems at this point. Clearing out all this blight and planting all the trees back would cost an enormous amount and who would give her a loan to plant a new orchard right next to the Everfree? Canterlot wrote this place off a long time ago, so there’d be no relief from them.
Of course, this also meant Twilight’s house was now next to a field of blight which was going to drive down the value of her house. Nopony was gonna buy it now, but thankfully Twilight had a rich marefriend, so she wasn’t too worried.
More than anything else, she just felt bad for Applejack on a lot of fronts.
Twilight felt a little more in control of herself now, was a bit embarrassed about how she used to run around yelling her lectures at ponies.
Applejack had been told her whole life vampires were evil, came out of the woods, and did stuff like this. Rarity was doubtless the first vampire she met and it was hardly like Rarity did much to change her opinion on her kind.
You’re told your whole life vampires are evil, then one shows up and starts mocking you, calling you a mud pony, playing those vampire games Twilight and the other played. Then your land gets hit by a terrible blight right afterwards. Twilight could understand, on some level, what Applejack’s problem was.
Just like Twilight, she’d been lied to her, been run through the same propaganda machine to a lesser extent. It wasn’t long ago that Twilight shared all of Applejack’s state-mandated opinions and she only ever got out because Rarity helped her.
Twilight realized this might be the last chance for her to see Applejack. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to, had no idea how Applejack would react to seeing Twilight wearing a Blue Diamond jacket.
Either way, Twilight did see Applejack near the edge of her farm. Even though this was clearly a lost cause, Applejack was still out there fighting up till this late in the day trying to hack the vines that were strangling her remaining apple trees.
Her little sister was there too. Twilight had only met the other two Apples a few times and it took her a moment to remember that the kid’s name was Applebloom.
Applejack was cutting through the vines and throwing them on the ground while Applebloom threw them into an already nearly full cart.
“Ah, come on, Sis!” Applebloom complained as she picked up a cut vine and threw it into the cart. “Twist gets to watch movies! This one ain’t bad at all. It’s about a puppy who never does anything wrong. I promise!”
“Now didn’t they teach you in school why you’re not supposed to be watching those?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah, like a million times!” Applebloom rolled her eyes and started reciting from the PSA. “’When you watch a movie, information violently assaults your mind, strangling your eyes and ears in a vicious grip. There is simply no way for you to catch all of the influences, blah blah blah’. But come on! How negatively influenced can I get from watching just one movie about one lost puppy? I mean, the ponies in Canterlot are supposed to be way smarter than the delinquents and I gotta watch their movie a billion times for it to sink in.”
Suddenly, Twilight felt a swell of empathy for Applejack’s little sister. This whole line of reasoning against movies was ridiculous, but Twilight remembered saying the same thing not long ago.
“First of all,” said Applejack, “don’t go talking like that in public.”
“Yeah, I know.” Applebloom sighed.
“And second, Granny Smith always used to say better safe than sorry,” said Applejack. “I was never allowed to watch movies growing up either. You don’t want to turn out like-“
Twilight didn’t get to hear if she was Applejack’s go-to example of a delinquent because the two earth ponies saw her a second later and stopped.
Applebloom quickly got behind her sister, while Applejack just looked like she was out of bucks to give, looking at Twilight pensively.
“Isn’t that Twilight?” Applebloom asked her sister in a hushed voice. “Did the vampires turn her? Is she coming to eat us? Do we gotta fight her?”
“I’m sure there ain’t gonna be any problems.” Applejack said to her sister. “You go on home. It’s getting late anyway.”
Applebloom backed up slowly, clearly terrified of Twilight, before running off home. To be fair, if ten-year-old Twilight saw her current self she’d have run away too.
“Is there gonna be trouble?” Applejack gave Twilight a weary look.
“Nah.” Twilight turned away. “I was just getting some stuff from my house.”
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Applejack said casually enough.
“Yeah, I haven’t been around. I’m moving in with Rarity,” said Twilight. “I’m mostly just here to get the last of my stuff. Hey, if you want my house you can have it for like a hundred bits.”
“Thanks, but that’s kind of out of my price range.” Applejack managed a weak smile. “You still working at that bottling place?”
“No, I quite. I found a new uh, career opportunity.” Obviously, Twilight couldn’t tell Applejack that she was once again an aspiring mage. Though she wouldn’t blame Applejack for thinking she was part of the black market now.
“Yeah.” Applejack gave one last whack of her machete at the base of a vine before stopping and leaving it there. “I might need one of those myself soon.”
Twilight watched Applejack silently hack away at the vines, with a lack of passion, like the only reason she was even trying was that she was supposed to do.
She wished there was something she could say, but she wasn’t allowed to tell anypony the secrets of the forest.
“You know, we’re probably not going to be here much longer.” Twilight thought that might be good news, anyway. Surely just that wasn’t crossing the line. “Rarity’s getting bored of this place. She’s moving to another city soon and I’m going with her. Once we’re gone, that’s a twenty percent drop in the degeneracy of this town, right?”
Six months ago, Applejack certainly would have warned Twilight against following Rarity to some mysterious place. She likely would have expressed some disdain for Twilight moving in with Rarity, too. But there seemed to be a light missing inside Applejack right now.
Applejack dropped the machete and sighed.
“You’ll be here longer than me, then.” Applejack bowed her head. “I’m losing the farm. I only got maybe one month left here. Then I don’t know.”
Twilight had only really been friends with Applejack for a few months before becoming her enemy by association. But even with just that the thought of her losing her farm just felt wrong. Staying here was the one thing Applejack wanted.
And where did you even go after Ponyville?
“Did they tell you the truth yet?” Applejack looked over at Twilight with an almost desperate look. “Are they causing this blight? Do you know anything about it or how to stop it? I’ll do whatever you want if you make it stop! I don’t want to be the one who failed after twenty generations of us living here.”
There was a lot Twilight could hypothetically tell Applejack. Twilight knew that the amount of dark magic that radiated off her gang was insignificant compared to the flood that came from the forest unless you were close by. If the three of them had been working and living on her farm this whole time, they could have melted a few trees but from the other side of town, this wasn’t possible.
She could tell Applejack that it wasn’t that Rarity was causing a flood of dark magic, but that the increased amount of dark magic was what let her move in here. She could explain that monsters were shy or afraid of vampires and that the Blue Diamonds being here made monster attacks less frequent. She could say that vampires don’t eat ponies or maybe even go into Fluttershy’s religion and explain that they (arguable) weren’t truly against Celestia’s will.
Perhaps even more important was that Twilight did know a way to save Applejack’s farm, in a sense. If Applejack built up a resistance to dark magic, she could easily stay on her land forever and just move to farm some other kind of fruit. Though maybe it would be hard to convince her to go through with that.
But it was frustrating because Twilight couldn’t tell her any of this. Even if Applejack technically already knew they were vampires, telling her something she didn’t know might risk everything. She had little doubt Rarity wouldn’t just ditch her over something minor, but Twilight wanted to be worthy of the trust Rarity was giving her.
“Look, Pinkie really does have phantasmagorical mitochondria,” Twilight technically told the truth. “None of us have anything to do with this blight. There’s no such thing as vampires, okay? I would have noticed by now.”
Applejack just stared down at the ground.
“They’re still leading you on, huh?” Applejack sat down and reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small pendant which she began to look over wistfully. Twilight noticed there were a few magical artifacts in the bag, including a blood dagger. Cuts from those could stay open for months. And yet it was the pendant Applejack held up when she noticed Twilight’s concern. “Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna use this. It’s too expensive for me to break. I gotta sell this stuff. You know, my family spent over three hundred years collecting this stuff and I’m such a screw up I gotta lose it all in one day.”
Twilight felt like she was stuck in a cage. So much to say, but unable to say any of it. She needed to somehow get Applejack to talk to the others, preferable Fluttershy, but there wasn’t an easy way to do that.
“Hey, why don’t you come to one of our parties?” Twilight offered. “You’ll see Rarity’s not so bad once you get past the fact that you two are mortal enemies.”
Applejack looked at Twilight like she was seeing that spikey mane for the first time.
“They won’t mess with you if I ask them not to!” Twilight offered. “The whole intimidating vampire thing is just a game we like to play; we’re not really like that. You can get free pizza and we can talk about like, economic disparity, how the system uses and discards ponies and uh, maybe other stuff?”
“Other stuff?”
“Maybe.”
Twilight imagined she’d already hinted at too much.
“Rarity’s been horrible to me from the start,” said Applejack. “My parents, my grandma, all of my ancestors, they’ve been warning me about her and her kind my whole life! And they were right.
“Well what about all the other times in your books where Rarity showed up and there wasn’t a blight?” Twilight pointed out. “Just because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean one caused the other.”
Applejack listened silently. She was listening, at least. Twilight sat down next to her.
“You know, there’s this thing in horror movies-“
“Horror movies? I don’t think they’re allowed to make those anymore.”
“Well yeah, but they still exist. See, they don’t let you see the monster because it stops being scary once you see it. If there were vampires, they wouldn’t be as scary once you saw them up close. We’re just delinquents, but I suppose we’re kind of the monsters of society, so the same logic applies.”
Applejack thought about it for a long time, turning the pendant over in her hooves.
“Maybe.” Applejack put the pendant away.
Twilight imagined Applejack thought Rarity was the only one who could help her with this blight. And she wasn’t too far off.
Twilight looked back up the hill and saw her friends were already there. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were knocking on the door to her house. Of course, Twilight disrupted the winds of dark magic, so Rarity quickly noticed Twilight was actually at the bottom of the hill.
“Ah, geez! I gotta go.” Twilight got up. “I’ll uh-“
Rainbow Dash was way too fast for anypony’s good and got to the bottom of the hill instantly. She immediately stepped in front of Twilight, defensively spreading her wings.
“We don’t want to listen to your bucking lectures, mud pony.” Dash started circling Applejack.
Applejack’s sorrow flared up into anger at that.
“Just tell me this. Are you causing this blight?” Applejack got up and stared Dash right in the eyes.
“Well I’d say no either way.” Dash stepped forward to glare at her up close. “So who the buck knows, dweeb?”
“Don’t say that!” Twilight called out to Dash. “She’s already desperate enough.”
“Come on, Sparks.” Dash turned to Twilight and hit her own chest. “Appledork ain’t a real threat. We got nothing to worry about.”
Twilight sighed. That wasn’t what she meant.
“And what do we have here?” Rarity came trotting down a moment later. “You weren’t bothering my Twilight, were you?”
Twilight flicked her left ear to signal to Rarity there was something she needed to say in secret.
“Let’s just leave.” Rarity made the signal and Dash started backing off. “We’re busy.”
“Hey!” Applejack called after her. “You all keep talking about how much you hate lies and accusing Equestria of being the ones doing the brainwashing, but what about you? You’re lying to Twilight about what you are! If you were her friends, you wouldn’t be trying to trick her like this!”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Dash shrugged as she backed away. “But also buck you.”
“If they ain’t gonna show you the truth, then I will!” Applejack hesitated for a second, then reached into her bag and pulled something out.
It was that pendant from before and a vial of holy water! Twilight’s ability to sense light magic must have been degrading badly for her to have not noticed that.
Applejack pressed the vial up against the pendant she was fiddling with before.
“Hold on!”
But before anypony could react, the pendant absorbed the light magic, coming back to life and taking on a golden luster. It exploded and let out a flash of light that blinded Twilight even with her sunglasses on.
When it was gone, the holy water was half drained and the pendant was shattered, but it had done what it was supposed to. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were in their true forms.
Or nearly, at least. While they were both full bat pony, ear tufts, and everything, parts of their disguise remained. The color was dripping off Dash’s mane like wet paint and steam was coming off both.
Rarity spat something orange out of her mouth and stretched her jaw to give her suddenly reformed fangs room. Dash, meanwhile, seemed to have accidentally swallowed whatever that orange stuff was and was presently coughing it back up.
Seeing their transformation magic was one of the things they were still waiting until later to show Twilight, so this was the first time Twilight had gotten to see beyond that particular curtain and found herself transfixed for a moment.
While the two of them were stunned, Applejack charged to Twilight’s side and stepped in front of her protectively.
“You see?!” Applejack pointed to them. “I was right! They are vampires! And every book I have says vampires corrupt land and eat ponies! If they were lying to you about this, what else were they lying to you about?”
Twilight needed to end this fast!
She grabbed the vial of holy water from Applejack and threw it hard against one of the trees, shattering it. The water gave off an acidic odor and all the vines near where it landed quickly withered and died, but the magic was quickly lost.
Applejack looked at Twilight in stunned horror as Twilight slowly trotted back over to Rarity’s side, Rarity laughing in amusement.
“Yeah, I knew they were vampires for a while now.” Twilight stopped next to Rarity, who pulled her in close, affectionately. “And I’m fine with it. Sorry?”
“You think the jacket would have been enough.” Rarity smiled, showing off her fangs. “Twilight belongs to me now. I guess that’s another thing your family has failed at.”
Given what Twilight knew, that was a lower blow than Rarity would normally go.
“Rarity.” Twilight got a curious look from Rarity.
“What did I tell you would happen if you tried something like this again, Dweeb?” Dash started trotting around to Applejack’s side, wings spread, and head lowered like she was about to pounce.
“Hey, hold on Dash!” Twilight tried to stop Dash before this went any further. She did manage to get Dash’s attention, but Applejack made one more mistake and it all fell apart.
Terrified, Applejack stepped back and reached into her bag. Twilight had no idea what magical artifact she was reaching for and never got to find out. Dash lunged at her and kicked the bag out of the way. Applejack fought back, trying to shove Dash out of the way, but Dash easily blocked and punched her hard in the face.
And then the two of them broke out into a fight.
There was a disparity in the fighting skills of the two of them. Rainbow Dash had decades of experience on top her of elite training while Applejack was a farmer. Applejack quickly went on the defensive before failing at even that and got pummeled to the ground by Dash in the blink of an eye.
Applejack was on the ground, bleeding with Dash sitting on her back and pushing her muzzle to the ground with one hoof.
“Don’t try to get back up!” Dash barked at her. “I could’ve killed you just now! Do you get that?”
“Now, now, there’s no need for that.” Rarity waved for Dash to let up a little and started trotting around Applejack, starting her good cop routine. “But the fact remains that you’ve come at us twice now. What am I going to do with you?”
Twilight knew for a fact that Rarity wasn’t going to kill Applejack, but Applejack looked up in terror, clearly expecting the worst. Twilight had no idea how Rarity intended to ‘deal’ with things, but she had to say something.
“Rarity, she was trying to help me,” Twilight said to Rarity.
Rarity looked at Twilight with a little frown, listening but unhappy.
There was no doubt in Twilight’s mind whose side she would be on if it came down to it, but she didn’t want it to come down to it just yet. Leaving things like this felt wrong.
“She thought I was being brainwashed and tricked by you,” Twilight explained. “She was just trying to show me the truth. Applejack’s been told we’re evil her whole life so why would she expect anything else? Maybe we can ‘deal’ with her by just explaining everything to her? I used to be almost as bad and that worked on me.”
“What?” Dash asked. “You want us to give this dork a third chance? Seriously?”
“Did you ever give her a first chance?” Twilight asked. “That’s not rhetorical even. I wasn’t here for that part.”
“I’m well past the third chance with her,” said Rarity. “The Apple family has been horrible to me ever since I was a child. They’ve assaulted me, killed ponies I know, stolen from me, told lies about me. I’ve already given their family dozens of chances despite all that but they never change. Why would I have given her a chance?”
“But now you’re blaming her for stuff her ancestors did!” Twilight pointed out. “That’s not fair, is it? You have a predisposed bias towards Applejack because of her family. But you can’t blame her for it, she was lied to by them too.”
Rarity stood in defiance of Twilight’s argument, looking down at Applejack with disdain.
“You’re the one who taught me about bias! And this is a thing that can happen in vampires, right? You should be able to see this!”
Rarity’s disdain slowly faltered until she sighed and shook her head.
“I’m becoming like Mom, aren’t I?” Rarity tapped her forehead pensively. “They do start blurring together. Thank you for pointing that out, Twilight. I think you’re right. In my mind, it was hard to remember that Applejack wasn’t her grandmother, but I shouldn’t have treated her like she was.”
“Huh?” Dash’s disbelief bordered on disgust at all this. “What are you two doing?! Rarity, she literally just attacked you!”
“You said you attacked Rarity a ton of times,” Twilight pointed out. “You tried to kill her even, but you changed! You just needed somepony to help you, and so did I. Applejack’s just another product of the system, too! But she’s not going to change if nopony helps her.”
“That was different!” Dash shot back. “Not everypony wants to change and I was- stupid. Guh!”
Rainbow Dash got off Applejack but kept an eye on her.
This was actually working!
“Okay. Fine! But we still gotta do something about this idiot,” said Dash. “It’s not like you just let me off the hook and I suddenly decided to stop going after you. What if she attacks us again?”
Rarity considered it for a moment. Applejack kept trembling, not daring to get back up.
“I do admit I was blaming you for something you didn’t do,” said Rarity. “I apologize. I’ll make you an offer like the one I gave to Dashie here.”
Rarity trotted over and knelt down to look Applejack in the eye.
“I can give you a job. Bow down and swear your loyalty to me,” she said, “and I’ll save your farm. You could be like my vassal, and I’ll make sure your family stays on this land forever. Nopony else is going to help you, because nopony else cares. But I always did like the idea of our little feud ending with one of you becoming loyal to me.”
Twilight looked down at Applejack, hoping she’d somehow say yes to that. But Applejack just remained on the ground, broken. Dash, meanwhile, watched her, her look slowly becoming more sympathetic.
“You know, I was in the same position you’re in once,” said Dash. “Handing your pride over to Rarity really isn’t bad at all. It hurts at first, but it’ll grow back.”
“Rarity is really nice,” Twilight said. “You should at least talk to her about this!”
Applejack slowly sat up. She looked out at her blighted farm then, painfully, at Rarity. Twilight could tell that the temptation was almost painful for her. Applejack closed her eyes tight like she was trying to block out the temptation.
In the end, she stayed silent for too long.
“Well I won’t judge you for your decision.” Rarity signaled to the others that they were just going to leave. “I’m too proud for my own good, too. I would have done the same.”
Twilight still felt uneasy about this exchange but began to follow. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Wait!” Applejack called after them. They turned around to see Applejack standing again. “I- can I think about it?”
“Of course!” Rarity smiled, satisfied. “We can talk about this later. You know where to find us. But come at night.”
Applejack turned to slink back home while the Blue Diamonds began to sneak off towards their own, cutting through the forest so they couldn’t be seen.
They didn’t talk a lot on the way back. Twilight wasn’t sure how to feel about that exchange.
It was a step in the right direction, at least. And Twilight felt like she did well. But it still didn’t feel like much of a victory.
When they got back, Twilight found that Fluttershy was still there. She and Pinkie were on a couch playing some card game.
“You’re finally back!” Pinkie announced. “We were getting worried! Getting all sunny and gross out there.”
Fluttershy turned to them with a smile at first but immediately noticed signs Dash had been in a fight.
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy got up with a little frown. “Did you just get in a fight? And right after I praised how civilized you were now.”
“Hey! I was literally attacked!” Dash hit her own chest. “When you’re in a town with a high crime rate, you gotta defend yourself sometimes, okay?”
“Oh my.” Fluttershy sighed before turning to Rarity. “Is this something I need to take care of?”
“No, I already did,” said Rarity. “But there is something I should tell you about. Apparently one of those beetle things went on a rampage straight towards the center of town today. It killed several ponies before burning up.”
“Really.” Fluttershy thought about that for a moment. “It’s still too early for the dark storm to let it get that far. Maybe I underestimated how big it’s going to be.”
“Hold on, you already said it’d be a D6,” said Twilight. “Can they even get bigger than that?”
“It’s never happened before, but I suppose hypothetically it could go all the way up to D8,” said Fluttershy. “I think I should go check again. If it is bigger than I thought, we might have to evacuate Ponyville for a few days. I’ll be back soon.”
Fluttershy trotted over to the door.
“Stay.” Fluttershy pointed at Dash like she was a dog and trotted back outside. “I don’t want the four of you getting in any trouble while I’m out.”
“Goodbye, Mom!” Pinkie waved at Fluttershy as she closed the door. “Thanks for giving us permission to get in trouble when you get back!”
But as soon as Fluttershy was gone, Pinkie turned towards the others.
“But wait!” Pinkie flew over to Rainbow Dash and started looking over her. “Who did we get into a fight with? Did the Screaming Skulls come back? Did some mysterious vampire DJ show up and we had to establish dominance over her?!”
Pinkie used her nose and that was the clue she needed.
“Oh!” Pinkie realized what happened. “You fought Applejack without me? You know it’s been so long since we’ve seen her, I forgot she even existed! Did you break her legs?”
“She’s fine. And it wasn’t much of a fight.” Dash flew up on the balcony, suddenly looking distant. “I can tell she only ever fights monsters. Maybe I could have gone easier on her.”
“If it makes you feel better, this is soft compared to how you used to be,” said Rarity. “You didn’t even knock out any teeth.”
“You and Twilight are the ones being too soft,” said Dash. “I can kind of understand wanting to make peace with her, but if you offer her a job, she’s gonna be around way too often. And she’s still gonna be annoying even if she chills out.”
“Ah, but didn’t you used to tell me all the time that getting into a fight with somepony was the fastest way to become friends with her?” Rarity asked. “Maybe now that you’ve fought Applejack the two of you will become friends. That seems to be how it works with you.”
“Not always!” Dash turned away like she was trying to think of a significant exception but couldn’t. “Just remember, even if she takes your offer, she’s gonna turn on us the second things start looking down.”
“Oh, I know. But I am good at getting other ponies to like me. I changed you and Twilight’s minds fast enough. Perhaps Applejack will be less stubborn than her ancestors. I really should have tried this from the start, instead of holding a grudge.” Rarity gave Twilight a nuzzle. “Thank you again, Twilight.”
“Thanks.” Twilight felt a sudden surge of pride at Rarity’s praise. Maybe this would work out. “You taught me so many flaws in my thinking that I’d never be able to repay you.”
“Besides, the more pure a pony is the more satisfying it is to see them become corrupted.” Rarity ran her hoof over the spikes of Twilight’s mane.
Twilight still doubted Applejack would become a delinquent, trying to picture her as one was hard. But at the same time, like Rarity just said, the thought of her falling did have a certain allure to it.
“I’m more concerned about what’s happening downtown right now. If Fluttershy’s concerned it’s usually something bad.” Dash pulled back a curtain to check outside. “I think we should all stay in the same room today and sleep in shifts. Maybe I should get my stuff out.”
“We don’t normally have anything to fear from monsters or dark magic,” said Rarity. “Though I hardly want to turn down an excuse to have Twilight in bed with me.”
“If that’s what you want, Boss!” Twilight nodded, eager for an excuse as well.
“I’m glad to see you’ve changed your mind about this.”
“Well of course I’d want to,” said Twilight. Suddenly her heart was beating faster, and she forgot everything but Rarity and her need to feel closer to her. “I read Smooth Move’s Guide to Attraction where he outlines 63 metrics in determining the attractiveness of a mare and using this metric I can conclude that you are objectively beautiful!”
“Objectively!” Rarity leaned in close and fluttered her eyelashes. “I don’t think anypony has ever used that one before. You must like me a lot to be such a little flirt.”
Twilight had an entire list of items to flirt at Rarity with! Flirting with Rarity had to be her favorite thing to do right now, maybe even more than doing magic. Rarity always got really into it too.
“I have lots of metrics proving you’re the best, most attractive pony around too!” Twilight promised her.
“I’m hardly opposed to listening to that sort of thing.” Rarity pressed her muzzle against Twilight’s and the two of them were looking into one another’s eyes.
Twilight felt like she could finally stare as deep into Rarity’s eyes as she wanted, get lost in the emotion of it. That alone was worth everything Twilight had gone through.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go sharpen my claw blades.” Dash waved the two of them off and trotted into the other room.
________________________________
The entire gang was in Rarity’s bed, but technically they weren’t all sleeping together. Twilight was still awake on Dash’s insistence at least one of them would be all day. She’d have to wait just a little longer to see Fluttershy’s mystery power.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash were asleep side by side at the part of the bed you were supposed to sleep in. Pinkie was sprawled out wide across the middle, lying on top of both, and Twilight sat at the foot of the bed, leaning against Pinkie’s head as she read a book.
Twilight, so to speak, was the night owl of the group. The three of them always got tired at around the same time, eight in the morning, and fell asleep quickly after that. No doubt it was some instinct, some modified circadian rhythm they all had, and that Twilight would have soon too.
But for now, she could easily stay up untill noon, or reverse midnight as Pinkie called it. Reading all the new books she had access to compelled her to stay up late reading. She knew it was mere impatience because there was no longer any time limit to get all her reading done. Twilight could live long enough to finish all the books in that vault and far, far more!
Pinkie muttered something in her sleep and started twitching. She moved around a lot when she was dreaming. Twilight gave her a scratch behind the ear and the twitching stopped. She wondered if something like that could affect somepony’s dreams.
And you know, if Twilight didn’t age anymore, she could spend years studying that. She could study everything! Forever!
Twilight smiled and looked over at the clock. She was supposed to wake Dash up in fifteen minutes and then it’d be her turn to sleep.
She decided to get a glass of water before waking Dash up and going to bed, so she got up and trotted downstairs.
Every day her new home looked brighter and brighter, despite being just as dark as ever. Twilight sincerely preferred the dark now, was glad the curtains kept it pitch black.
She got her water and was on her way back to the stairs when there was a knock on the door. Whoever it was, was knocking hard.
The rule for answering the door during the day was don’t. Most ponies knew by now not to bother coming here during the day.
But they did keep knocking repeatedly. It could be the police, they showed up to blame the Blue Diamonds for something every so often. Or maybe Applejack made her decision already? Twilight decided to at least peek outside and looked out through the peephole.
Twilight would have imagined the worst-case scenario, until just now, as being an angry mob made up of the entire town accompanied by hundreds of armed police officers. But no. That hypothetical army would have been preferable to who Twilight saw, made Twilight wish it had been just that.
Just on the other side of the door, standing in front of a group of royal guards, was the strongest unicorn and most talented mage in the world, the champion of Equestria, Twilight’s former idol, the student of Princess Celestia herself.
Sunset Shimmer!
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Oh crap! That is going to be a problem!
Oh shit.
Oh dear....
"I was wondering if you have a moment to talk about our Lord and saviour Princess Celestia"
Is that a reference to the third version of Corruption? Or rather where it appeared to be going at first
Well Shit...
Oh... Is Vinyl gonna show up as a fringe vampire? Oh! And Bon Bon, sorry Special Agent Sweetie Drops, is actually a Starlight Glimmer loyal Inquisitor! And they're both in a secret relationship! Please tell me that's the case, cause if it's not... I may have a story idea for myself.
Edit: Also, just because I want to be able to have proof of an "I knew it!" moment down the line, I just want to call out a theory now that Sunset Shimmer is Moonlight Raven's disguise. Makes some sense: Fluttershy is clearly close enough to the powers that be to have a Platinum card as well as be granted a magical audience with Princess Celestia, so it goes without saying her natural born daughters would be given a similar level of respect. Plus, light magic is so weak that you can't transport, but you can with dark magic, and Sunset Shimmer can transport, so...
If I'm right, next chapter is going to be FUN!
If I'm wrong, next chapter is going to be FUN!
10195365
Neither of those characters are going to actually appear, so you do whatever you want.
10195258
A little, yes. Though Vynl is the second most likely pony to be a vampire after Fluttershy.
Though I thought I was the only one who actually read the third version.
10195399
I liked the third, though I must admit I only read the other three this weekend after finding this story in the feature box.
Oh no i did not see that coming
welp time to shoop de woop and nope the fuck out
Oh my, this is going to get very intense very soon
I'm guessing not just adorable noms either.
That's great for the vampires sure, but fuck everyone else I guess?
Yeah, I can buy that.
Yeah, how many other phases did you say that?
Awww geez, poor Applejack. :(
You got a warrant?
10195566
Yeah, I probably should have put Fluttershys opinion on what happens to everyone else in this chapter but you will get to hear that eventually.
I smell some "Color out of Space" here
nice work
"Sorry but we aren't taking solicitors right now."
I sense a huge Dark Souls vibe here.
10196184
I'm actually not familiar with the plot of Dark Souls so any similarity is purely coincidental there.
Welp,
Now's the time to RUN FOR IIIIT!!!!!
10196414
Prolonging the "Age Of Fire", which was started by gods and is now burning out, is a mission given to the protagonist in the introduction of Dark Souls 1.
10251818
It was a coincidence I swear!
Aww, why's Glimmy have to be a bad guy
Impressive that she managed to squeeze that in before vaporization.
Leaves?
11569862
Because Starlight is the bad guy.
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