Chapter 5
The distant sounds of growls, thumps, and general clatter grew louder as Twilight, Fluttershy, Sunset, Applejack, and Trixie approached the doors of the Canterlot High library. A particularly loud bang made Trixie jump.
“Are we sure we want to do this?” she whispered.
“We have no choice,” Twilight said firmly. “Whatever is up on this roof could be the source of this spell, or even the person behind it. We need to investigate.”
“Ah’m ready fer anything.” Applejack drew one of her revolvers and spun the barrel.
Twilight eyed the gun and frowned. “We can’t be sure that shooting them is safe. Do it as an extreme last resort, and only to wound.”
Applejack frowned. “Shootin’ to wound ain’t much mah style.”
“If you want your reward, you’ll learn,” Twilight replied. “We don’t know to what extent our weapons can harm, so we do not kill anything in here. Is that clear?”
“...Fine.” Applejack nodded. “But let’s move fast then so we don’t need to worry about it.”
“Agreed,” Sunset said.
The group reached the doors to the library. Twilight took a breath. “Here we go.”
She pushed the doors to the library open. And stopped in her tracks.
The library was full of monsters. Everything Twilight could imagine was here - vampires, werewolves, mummies, gargoyles, demons, zombies, and various kinds of animals. And, surprisingly enough, they were fighting other costumed students. Wizards, witches, superheroes, and various kinds of military or fantasy warriors were engaged in battle, some with each other as much as the monsters.
Some of the creatures turned to her and began coming at her. A girl in an army uniform holding a rifle looked at them, raised her weapon and fired. The monsters moving toward Twilight shrieked and fell to the ground. As Twilight watched in horror, the creatures twitched and began to stand up.
“Civilians should evac now!” The soldier yelled, firing at the monsters more. “Whatever these things are, conventional weapons have little effect!”
“Good news for me,” Applejack said with a grin.
Twilight shook her head. “Come on, we have to get to the roof!” She ran around the rising monsters and headed for one of the staircases. A boxer punched out a zombie and glanced at Twilight and her friends as they passed. On the stairs, a winged bird woman looked down at them and screeched. A bolt of pink magic from behind Twilight struck its wings and it fell down. The girls stepped over the monster and gathered at the top of the stairs.
Twilight looked around. “Sunset, where’s the roof access?”
“Here!” Sunset led the way through the bookshelves, stepping over an unconscious witch and a vampire laying on the floor. At the end of the shelves the aisle circling the skylight was lined with study tables. Sunset stopped at the closest one and pointed above it. “Someone break these windows!”
“Yes ma’am.” Applejack aimed and fired and the glass shattered. Sunset tore one of her gloves off and bundled it in her other hand to brush the broken glass out of the window frame.
“Watch your step!” She pulled herself into the broken window and tumbled outside. Twilight stepped onto the desk and looked outside. Sunset was just below eye level outside and moved out of the way. Twilight pulled herself through and rolled forward.
The chilly night air briefly made her shiver as she looked around the roof. “See anything?”
“Nope.”
Twilight looked back at the window as Applejack slid through feet first. Beside her, Fluttershy simply walked through the wall. “Now what?”
Twilight thought and snapped her fingers. “You guys still feeling a pull?”
“Uh…” Applejack thought. “Kinda.”
Sunset pointed. “That way!”
In the window, Trixie wiggled her cape through first before pushing her body through, landing on her stomach and grunting. She pushed herself up as the group ran in the direction Sunset pointed and followed.
As they circled around the skylight, Twilight gasped.
On the roof, near the front of the school, was a small book glowing bright pink.
“That must be it!” She called. She looked back at the others.
Sunset nodded as she reached her. “Yup, looks like it.”
Twilight saw her arm move quickly and then felt the wind get knocked out of her. Sunset tore her elbow back and Twilight collapsed to her knees, clutching her stomach.
The others stopped around Twilight as Sunset knelt and picked up the book. “Excuse me, Princess.”
Twilight gaped and inhaled rapidly as she caught her breath. “Sunset?”
Applejack scowled. “What the hell are you doin’?”
“Taking the Equestrian magic.” Sunset laughed lowly, the book’s aura gleaming in her eyes. “With the powers of this book, imagine what I can do in Equestria on Nightmare Night!”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she pushed herself up. “Seriously?”
“Why else do you think I came with you all this way?” Sunset snorted. “You lot are too gullible for your own good.”
Applejack held out her revolver. “You no-good backstabbing varmint!”
“Backstabbing?” Sunset looked at Applejack. “My offer is still on the table. Once I rule Equestria, I can give you anything you want for helping me take my rightful place as Princess.”
Twilight watched as Applejack thought and brought her arm back. “Applejack…”
“A deal’s a deal.” Applejack grabbed her other revolver and turned to point one each at Twilight and Trixie. “I’d throw that wand away if I were you, missy.”
Trixie gasped and clutched her wand to her chest. “Trixie would never throw away her wand! It is her most valued possession, worth more than her life!”
Applejack pulled back the hammer of her revolver. “Is that a fact?”
“No, nevermind.” Trixie tossed the wand away and slid behind Twilight.
“Thank you, Applejack.” Sunset laughed.
There was a loud clatter a distance away and the group turned their heads in its direction. A group of monsters had battered down one of the maintenance doors to the roof and were coming towards them.
“Up there, too!” Fluttershy pointed to the skylight - more monsters were following their lead and smashing windows to climb out.
Twilight glared and looked her way. “Sunset, we don’t have any more time! We need that book to restore all the students!”
“That’s your problem now. I’m going to be going home.” Sunset lifted the book and smirked. “Oh, but don’t think I won’t leave you with a parting gift, Princess. You can be my test subject as I try out my new powers!”
With a triumphant sneer, Sunset flipped the book open and looked down at it, reading.
Her expression fell. “What?”
The other four waited. Sunset rapidly flipped through the book, growing more confused and angry with each page. “Is this a joke?”
“What is it?” Twilight asked.
“So I can prove I am the best, give me the knowledge to pass my chemistry test.” Sunset scoffed. “This garbage isn’t Equestrian magic! It reads like some schmuck’s stage play lines!” She snapped the book shut and looked it over more closely. “This isn’t even a spellbook!”
“What?”
Sunset angrily threw the book away. “I don’t believe it! I’ve wasted my time!”
Twilight ran to the book and picked it up. It was glowing with magic, but other than that it was a normal notebook, not any different from what could be purchased in the school library. She opened it and saw several pages with hand-written spells in pen. Indeed, they were all poor attempts at writing rhyming verses, but some didn’t rhyme properly and others had lines of wildly varying length.
“This isn’t the source of the spell?” Fluttershy asked from behind her.
“One way to be sure.” Twilight gripped her geode and held her hand toward the book. It lit up purple, and with a clench of her hand, the book tore in two. Twilight let it drop to the ground and watched the pink magic in it fade away.
“Nope!” Fluttershy squeaked.
Twilight looked over her shoulder and saw the monster horde still advancing. “No? Then what could it be?”
“I don’t know!” Sunset snapped.
“Ah suggest we come up with ideas,” Applejack muttered, stepping back.
The five girls backed up to the edge of the roof as the horde cut off their escape, slowly shuffling toward them.
Trixie had retrieved her wand and snapped it back and forth, knocking a few of them back. “We need to get out of here, now!”
“And go where?” Sunset asked. “These things will kill us!”
Twilight thought. “No, they won’t… except for Pinkie, they’ve never hurt us unless we confront them. So why are they still coming to us?”
“Who cares?” Trixie cried, firing another shot.
“I care, because we need to figure out how to turn them back!” Twilight yelled. “And if they weren’t after that fake spellbook, then what was drawing them up here?”
“The book did have magic,” Sunset said. “Maybe it’s just not the original source of it.”
“So someone was using it to focus the spell?” Fluttershy asked. “Which means whoever did this is still out there!”
Applejack grunted. “Then let’s get out of here and find ‘em!”
As the girls argued, Twilight’s mind raced. Why are they attacking us? If they were being drawn to the magic, shouldn’t they be going for another source of it? Maybe we’re the source they’re after. Our geodes? But that makes no sense, they’ve never actively attacked us unless we attacked them first. And they didn’t even go for any of us any time we’ve seen them. In fact, the only one I even remember them attacking is…
Twilight raised her head. She looked up at the monsters, barely feet away from her. Except they weren’t coming for her, or even looking at her. They were ignoring her and heading towards something to her left.
“No… it can’t be…”
Fluttershy looked at her. “What is it?”
Twilight turned her head. “Trixie.”
Wand firing, Trixie paused and turned her eyes. “Er, yes?”
“Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
“Um… no?”
“Trixie…”
“Trixie is in just as much danger as the rest of you!” She fired another magic blast at a zombie that reached its hand for her. “She has nothing more to say.”
Twilight reached into her skirt pocket. “Fine then. Don’t say a thing.” Hand emerging and gripping Sunset’s geode, Twilight grabbed Trixie’s wrist.
The geode lit up red and Twilight’s eyes glowed.
Standing on a street corner, Trixie sighed and looked at the handful of coins and a single dollar bill in her top hat. “Better than last time.” She reached to her bag on the table and began to put her magic supplies away.
As she reached for her wand, a wisp of pink light swirled down from the sky and touched the wand, lighting it up. Trixie gasped and grabbed it, looking it over as it hummed with new power.
“Ooo…” Trixie touched a finger to the tip of the wand and grinned.
Twilight snatched her hand back. “TRIXIE!”
“You saw nothing!” Trixie backed away from her. “The spell could be messing with your powers, making you see fake memories!”
Trixie’s wand lit up in a purple aura and was tugged out of her hands. “Hey!”
Twilight looked at the monsters and raised her hand to move the wand into the air. The monsters stopped moving and all looked away from Trixie, eyes locked on the wand. Twilight waved the object around, moving it side to side; the monsters turned their heads in unison to keep watching it.
“She did this?” Sunset asked.
“It’s her wand. It's been infused with Equestrian magic.” Twilight levitated the wand into her hand.
Trixie crossed her arms and tossed her hair. “You can’t prove anything.”
“Yes, I can.” Twilight gripped the wand in both hands and snapped it in two.
A shockwave of pink magic burst out from the point the wand broke, washing over the school. In its wake the monsters on the roof shuddered and collapsed, sparkles falling around them. Pointed and furry ears faded, fangs retracted, rotting and discolored flesh turned to normal.
Twilight watched the wand light up bright pink that quickly faded.
“Whoa…” Behind her, Sunset sat down, holding her head. “Um… did that just happen?”
Fluttershy put a hand on her shoulder and gasped happily. “I’m not a ghost anymore!”
Applejack examined the orange plug in her guns. “Everythin’ back to normal…”
Twilight glared at Trixie and crossed her arms.
“I think we need to go have a chat with Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna.”
“I didn’t think it’d be too bad!” Trixie shrank back in her small chair under the withering gaze of nine sets of eyes. “Trixie willed the spell to make it so no one could hurt anyone or be hurt, and it worked, right?”
“Lucky for you,” Luna grated. “What if someone had been hurt?”
“Trixie could have helped them!” she insisted. “You really have no idea how versatile that wand was once I figured out how to use a spellbook as a focus. It did my homework, it wrote a doctor’s note to get me out of gym, it made me smart enough to pass tests…” Trixie trailed off as she noticed the group glaring. She gulped and huddled deeper into her chair. “Trixie thinks she should stop talking now.”
“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all night,” Rainbow growled.
Rarity shook her head. “So, your wand was randomly infused with Equestrian magic, and you decided to use it to cheat on your classes before coming up with this huge Halloween prank?”
“I thought it would be fun!” Trixie protested. “I thought we’d all end up like Sunset or Rainbow, you know? We’re all still ourselves but we’re like real vampires and knights and stuff. It’d be cool!” She winced. “Trixie may not have thought things through well enough…”
Applejack snorted. “Ya think?”
“I woke up tied up in a closet with a really bad headache!” Pinkie shouted. “And the only thing I can remember from when I was transformed is the taste of lukewarm pasta and watery sauce! Watery sauce! What kind of caterer-”
Pinkie kept talking as Rainbow put a hand over her mouth.
“But everything’s okay now, right?” Trixie gave a small smile. “I mean, you said no one was really hurt.”
“And everyone made a mess around the school,” Fluttershy said.
“Oh, yeah. That.” Trixie rubbed her neck. “Okay, like I said, maybe I didn’t think this through.” She looked between them. “But, really, I thought it would be fun! And we had fun, didn’t we?” She grinned. “Trixie never thought she’d get to go on an epic magical adventure with you! Even if it was to stop the thing I caused.”
Celestia looked at Twilight and Sunset. “You girls were the one who stopped this. I don’t remember much of it myself. How bad was it?”
The two girls shared a look. Sunset shrugged. “Relatively speaking, is this even the worst thing that’s happened this semester?”
“Not any worse than getting a luxury liner stranded at sea.” Twilight glared over Sunset’s shoulder.
“I said I was sorry about that!” Rainbow protested.
“And she at least tried to make sure no one was in serious danger,” Sunset added.
Twilight nodded. “True… in hindsight, it could have been much worse. And we’ve had much worse.”
Celestia sighed and pinched her nose. “It says something about the state of my career that a student using magic to turn everyone into their costumes is considered a ‘minor’ disruption these days.” She lowered her hand. “Trixie?”
“Yes,” Trixie said meekly.
“Two months detention. And you will redo every homework assignment and test you claim this magic helped you with.”
Trixie nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And, you are going to clean up every inch of this school, top to bottom.”
Trixie’s jaw dropped. “Alone!?”
“Tomorrow is the weekend, you have the time to spare,” Celestia said. “But you’ll be starting tonight. I’ll call your father and tell him to expect you home by ten. You’ll spend the time until then cleaning.”
Pinkie waved her hand. “Oo, we can help her!”
The others all looked at her.
“What? Isn’t this the part where we all forgive her, hug her, and she’s our friend now and we love her?”
“Speak for yourself,” Applejack muttered.
Trixie pursed her lip and widened her eyes. “Are you really going to abandon Trixie in her darkest hour of need?”
The seven all looked at each other, expressions shifting. Rainbow groaned. “Fine! But I sleep in on Saturdays, so I ain’t getting here until like, lunch time! And maybe after!”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “I guess we could swing by and lend a hand… maybe…”
“Yay!” Trixie jumped up and spread her arms. “It’s like Pinkie Pie said, we’re all friends now! Group hug!”
No one moved.
Trixie pulled her arms back. “Okay, we’re not there yet. Trixie will work on that.”
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10506904
Funny you should say that.
In Dash's defense, that wasn't even mostly her fault.
In any case, brilliant conclusion tying everything together. Thank you for a wonderful seasonal pile of hijinks.
Uh... Sorry to say this but your ending was a big letdown to me. I thought the one who cause it to be a person who wanted a True Halloween of fright as some people made it too adorable and cuddly, along with healthy snacks and toothbrushes as treats.
GODDAMMIT TRIXIE
Darn it Trixie…
That was fun.
Famous last words for the guilty.
Should have known it was Trixie who caused it, I thought for sure it was Discord from Equestria behind it all. Still a very good story, I really enjoyed it from start to finish.
Finding out this was all caused by trixie I didn't see coming. Thought it was from Twilight's magic tbh.
Not a bad story overall.
Oh, and there's also the tiny fact that you violated the minds of every student and brainwashed them all, filling their brains with all sorts of foreign and unpleasant thoughts and giving them either the terror of (as far as they knew) being about to lose their lives or the evil of wanting to take them. That and, as Luna pointed out, the fact no one got seriously hurt was far more by luck than judgment, since just because they couldn't hurt one another with their new forms doesn't mean they couldn't have in other ways, as shown by the very real blunt objects Sunset was smacking people with and the very real broken glass they needed to deal with to get to the roof, along with the multitudinous other ways to hurt people that the average building has for those with both the resourcefulness and will to use them. So, you know, there's that.
Still, I do have to thank you for actually having there be some consequences for the instigator and not going for the "No one could get physically hurt, so that makes mass brainwashing, destruction of property and general mayhem okay and fun!" approach - I will admit, I had some fear that was going to be the case. And, well, even ignoring the problems with the attitude of "They're no longer a direct threat therefore instant friendship, everything is fixed and anything so much as a slap on the wrist would be heinous" and factoring in that the instigator wasn't malicious, merely colossally incompetent, the fact is they did cause a lot of trouble and undoubtedly caused a bit of minor mental trauma at the very least. If nothing else, considering how much Sunset's tried to distance herself from how she used to be, being forcibly plunged back into the worst of that mindset must have been the stuff of nightmares for her, if only retroactively.
Still, a very solid story, all told - amusing, clever, actually kind of suspenseful in places and with an ending that manages to be satisfying without feeling either overly lenient and mawkish or vindictive and unsympathetic. Particular props for Derpy's contribution - not just her being a great thinker, and a non-obvious one at that, but in her actually arguing as he likely might have: by asking questions to get people to think - a low-key application of the Socratic method. Also to the suggestion of using Sunset's powers to clue her in - didn't work, but a very good thought and one that failed for a believable reason.
Only two real quibbles, really. Firstly, a minor one: I think you could have done a lot more with Rarity, particularly as a scientist. Not, admittedly, one with a directly relevant portfolio, but still, I think there was some unused potential in her and her guise.
And secondly, maybe I'm being dense, but... why exactly wasn't Twilight affected mentally by the spell? I mean, I wasn't sure if she was actually going as a superhero or as her Equestrian self when it was established. - again, probably just me being dim - but either way, she should have been just as subsumed by her costume as anyone else. Fluttershy was also a bit odd, since becoming a "witch" or a "knight" is no less of a transformation than becoming a ghost, but those roles were just as mentally overwhelming as most others. Though, that said, maybe the spell just had a lesser effect on her because her "costume" was so slapdash? Either way, could probably have used some explanation.
Still, both those points are easily ignorable and the story overall was extremely entertaining. Very well done.
10510038
Thank you for the praise.
For Rarity, agreed. I made her some sort of scientist because I wanted to do something unique with her, but the type of scientist I went with really had not much to contribute that I could think of. I regret it.
Fluttershy and Twilight, they were still "them" in their costumes, Fluttershy was a ghost but still Fluttershy, so she retained her own personality, and Twilight was herself too. If you think of it in terms of "Sunset became what she would be as a Princess" or "Applejack became what she would be as a cowboy outlaw", it makes sense.
10471908
Once again I am left with the desire for a proper crossover between B:tVS and EqG.
Le sigh
Great story.
10507305
Ironic, then. I did like the ending, because I couldn't think of any potential instigator, mentioned or new, who could be knowingly and competently pulling that effect off, working like that, and still have any motive beyond "do it just because". Being able to just throw away all those qualifiers was a relief. Wondered a bit at Twilight's pushing so hard on Occam's Razor as to constantly specify "Equestrian magic", but it's probably Tuesday, ergo magic must be leaking (and the school's in trouble).
My basic problem with this particular plotline is that I find the general nature of costume as a cue to rotate rarely utilized portions of one's personality to the surface fascinating enough that I want to overanalyze just what's going on, why, and map out internal consistencies... To the detriment of this serving any actual plot, in fact mostly generating obstacles the plot must then navigate, which is why I've never considered trying to write something like this personally. I can accept a lot of background characters remaining so, at least under the grounds that to the extent somebody's wearing a stock mass-produced costume they're symbolically letting somebody else (including but not limited to the spellcaster) define them, and neither carefully nor gently. (Wearing a costume made for you by another has its own issues.) It's slightly harder to buy that a spell fundamentally oriented towards enhancing individualism and inhibiting group mentality and the enforcement of social norms would lead to widespread mass behaviour - unless connected either to the intent or underlying nature of the spell. Equestrian magic, okay, easy answer there.
Can sympathize with Trixie here. I've spent a considerable amount of time considering all the various ways that concept could produce unexpected results, or go wrong due to mistaken underlying assumptions in the methodology - for that matter, the number of ways my deliberately attending that sort of party might personally and badly backfire even after granting a greater lack of negligence or malice in the setup than I think I could personally ever guarantee - but if you could actually pull it off, ending up with everybody happy, socializing and having fun while technically in possession of more of their faculties than daily life permits, there would be a Halloween party for the ages. Wouldn't be surprised to find the punch bowl on the hypothetical refreshment table was actually the Grail.
Thanks for writing this. I've seen MLP approaches before, but none that really held together past the cute setup point.