Cultists 2: Reloaded
Pumpkin catapult. Unstable growth. Life harvest. Screaming Scarecrow. Massive jack-o’-lantern.
This was the second time in a row Dash got the best possible hand. If Dash could have picked five cards to start with this would be it. There was an almost one hundred percent chance to win this game on the second turn just like last time.
The problem… this was the exact same starting hand she drew last time. Dash wasn’t some math wizard, but the chances of this happening twice in a row were less than one percent. And twice in a row had to be one in a billion or something.
That was too low. What if Moondancer started to think Dash was cheating? Heck, Dash was starting to think she was cheating! Somepony must have cast a luck spell on her or something like that. It was the only explanation.
Winning was important, but she needed to play dumb or it’d look too suspicious.
Instead of doing the best possible move, Dash played life harvest and massive jack-o’-lanterns. She sacrificed most of her champion’s life to bring out a massive tank. That’d buy her time to pretend to be struggling, at least.
Unlike what would happen in the TV show, Moondancer didn’t run an undead kind of deck. She had sea monsters. Dash’s side of the field was a pumpkin patch and Moondancer’s murky water. Moondancer needed a moment to think about her move.
Dash looked around to see an ever-increasing number of ponies in the room. A bunch of chosen ones were trickling in. They were mostly druids like Rarity promised before. At least, they were ponies dressed like druids incorporating plenty of leaves and antlers into their outfits.
Two of them stood out in particular. One was an attractive stallion with white fur, blonde hair, and a perfect smile who leaned over Moondancer’s shoulder the whole game. He carried a blade at his side that was way too big to use in normal combat.
The old druid looked like she was at least a hundred years old and not the good kind of one hundred where you’re ageless. She was crouched over, leaning on a staff, only able to keep one of her eyes open at a time.
“So are you winning?” The stallion looked over the field.
“It’s the first turn,” Moondancer said.
Little did Moondancer know, she was losing horribly already.
Moondancer played a leviathan, though you couldn’t see it under the water. Dash hated sea monsters. You couldn’t see the cool monsters most of the time and that was lame.
“Though I am curious about something.” Moondancer ended her turn.
“Hm?” Dash drew a lantern ghost and played it. Nothing suspicious about that.
“I assume you’re another group trying to retrieve Applejack,” said Moondancer. “Are you after the reward?”
“Well.” Dash wasn’t sure how close to the truth she could get.
“We’re not after the money,” Twilight covered for her. “We’re after Trixie. We have business with her.”
“You mean you want revenge for something,” Moondancer said.
“Who doesn’t want revenge against Trixie, huh?” the blonde-haired guy asked. “Anypony here not want revenge?”
All the other chosen ones grumbled in agreement.
“Trixie burned down the great Yorda tree,” said one of the high-druids.
“And the great York tree is dying because of her influence!” another of them complained. “Just because she thinks York bees are annoying.”
“And the great Yalva tree cannot bloom thanks to her poison,” said a third. “She’s like an arborcidal maniac!”
“Yeah. And Trixie smashed the champion blade, the exa-saber, the omniblade, and threw holy claymore down a well.” The blonde held up his sheathed blade. “My god says this is the last legendary sword of evil’s bane I’m gonna get so I can’t go anywhere near that place.”
“Whoa! You have a legendary sword?” Dash leaned to one side to look at it. “I always wanted one of those!”
“Yep. I’m the wielder of the radiant blade, my namesake!” Radiant Blade took out a sword that shone too brightly to see what the dang thing looked like. “It’s my destiny to stop Demon Summoner from ending the world.”
“What? Then where the heck were you an hour ago?” Dash asked.
“Oh, I can never outright defeat Demon Summoner,” he said. “See, there’s this other guy who’s destined to stop me from stopping Demon Summoner. No matter how hard I try to defeat him, that other guy will always show up and stop me. No point in trying until yet another chosen one shows up who’s destined to stop him from stopping me from… stopping Demon Summoner. See?”
“That’s a pretty convoluted destiny you got there,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Most destinies are underwhelming,” said Moondancer.
“Yeah, you think my thing is lame?” Radiant Blade looked over at the elderly druid. “Hey, Grandma! Tell them what miracle you were given!”
The elderly pony looked like she’d just been asked to run a marathon, but she did reluctantly speak up.
“I was given the miracle to make food incorruptible,” she said. “It won’t go bad for—“
“So, wait. Like a refrigerator?” Dash asked.
“Yes, like a refrigerator!” The ancient druid groaned and clutched her staff, but quickly composed herself. “Look, it was an unexplainable miracle at the time, okay? The whole chosen one thing used to be a lot easier. Way back when all it took to prove you were a divine agent was to cast a simple sticks to snakes spell. All the ponies would say, ‘whoa! They just turned that stick into a snake,’ and bow down because there’s no way to explain that.
“But then technology started to progress and ponies started learning more about magic and suddenly turning sticks into snakes wasn’t enough anymore. The gods had to keep upping the ante, coming up with ever more impossible miracles. The chosen ones had to turn rivers to blood, summon volcanoes, or swarms of locusts to impress everypony. Eventually, they settled on the whole ‘resurrect yourself from the dead’ trick, which was very impressive for a while.”
The ancient druid glared deathly at the necromancer.
“I regret nothing.” Moondancer played her gangster dolphins.
“But anyway.” The elderly druid sighed. “After that was ruined by science there wasn’t much that could top it. So then the gods had to move from things that were scientifically impossible to philosophically impossible things. Now you have to create a square circle or Starlight has that true void thing going on.”
“And me?” Radiant Blade pointed at himself. “I’m a married bachelor.”
“What?” Dash asked. “But that’s not possible, is it?”
“Exactly!” Radiant Blade gave a toothy smile. “No way you can explain that. That’s how you know I was sent by the gods.”
“We just have to hope philosophy continues at a snail's pace,” said the druid. “If some philosopher ever figures that one out, we’re done for this time.”
Dash looked over the board. She could literally win on any turn, but each one she wasted was a chance to get messed up. She decided to finish this in two turns.
“So if all of you guys hate Trixie so much why are you all just sitting here?” Dash asked. “You got all these miracle powers, right? Why aren’t you fighting her?”
“I tried that once,” said Moondancer. “I thought I got far, but Trixie was just toying with me the whole time. I ended up dying. In a manner of speaking that is.”
Moondancer pointed to her undead eye.
“Have you not read Trixie's ludicrous character sheet?” Moondancer asked. “She’s like something out of a twelve-year-old’s power fantasy fanfic. As someone who used to write those all the time, let me tell you there’s no possible way we can take her. I can tell you from experience none of us stand a chance against her.”
“That’s not true,” Twilight spoke up. “We’re going to defeat her and undo all the terrible things she did. I’ll make sure she never hurts anypony ever again.”
That got laughs from a few of the ponies. Twilight looked around, flustered and confused at being laughed at.
“Nopony can stand up to the witches,” said Moondancer. “All we can do is be happy that she’s not worse than she is.”
“Yeah? Well you’re just a bunch of defeatists!” Dash stood up for Twilight. “At least we’re going to try and change things.”
“I’ve seen that kind of confidence before,” Moondancer warned. “It’s not my job to stop you from doing something stupid, but I do have a request if you’re going down there.”
“And what’s that?” Dash asked.
“Applejack is a respected member of the community. Don’t do anything reckless that might put her in danger. She’s important to us, so it’s of the highest priority she not be harmed in whatever fight you start.”
“It is?” Radiant Blade asked. “She never seemed that important to me.”
“Well I respect her,” said Moondancer. “I can’t give you as much reward money, but I’d like you to bring her to me instead so I know she’s safe.”
“I’ve never even seen you two together.” Radiant Blade shook his head and walked off somewhere.
“I mean, I guess we could do that.” Dash shrugged.
She supposed saving an important figure in the community would get them some clout. And that was exactly what they were after. And they were gonna make bank off this mission either way.
Dash looked down at the board. She had all the pieces to win the same way as last time now but had gotten them all out slower than last time so it wasn’t suspicious anymore.
She played unstable growth, the massive pumpkin doubled in size. Next, she played the pumpkin catapult and used it to fire the now colossal jack-o’-lanterns directly at Moondancer’s champion.
Moondancer tried to block it with a water wall trap card, but Dash revealed her screaming scarecrow had been her card hidden in the fog. Its ability destroyed Moondancer’s trap, allowing the attack to go off. The massive pumpkin hit her champion, the kaiju whale, with enough force to end the game.
“Impressive. I can see why you’re the champion in Equestria.”
“Yeah, well. You know!” Dash gave a cocky smile.
She didn’t know the actual reason at all!
“So you’ll come with us to show us the way to Trixie’s castle now?” Twilight asked.
“I’m not going down there myself,” said Moondancer. “My advice is still that you don’t either, but I do need to keep my word so take this.”
Moondancer got up and walked over to a cabinet. From it, she produced a skull with a spiral design carved onto the top of its forehead. Moondancer handed the skull to Dash, who examined it. She hoped this thing was porcelain or something.
“This is the skull of the most annoying zebra who ever lived. Zavigator,” Moondancer explained.
Dash fumbled the skull, nearly dropping it.
“Why do you own an actual skull?” Dash gave Zavigator’s skull an uneasy look.
“I own thousands of skulls.”
“Right. Silly me.”
“Anyway, That skull still possesses its former owner’s uncanny ability to navigate through any terrain. Furthermore, Zavigator knows everything I do about Trixie’s castle and will bring you down there, through her grounds, and into her castle. After that, you’re on your own. Just press that spiral to turn it on.”
Dash and Twilight looked at one another and nodded with confidence. This was perfect! They had a clear path in now.
“There is one terrible drawback, however,” Moondancer’s voice grew foreboding.
“Ah, crud! It’s one of those,” Dash muttered to herself.
“You see, Zavigator is—” Moondancer adjusted her glasses as she searched for the right word “—annoying. The skull will constantly nag and annoy you the moment you activate it. It’s a little too eager to give you directions, you see.”
“Oh.” Dash turned to Twilight. “We can live with that."
“You say that now.” Moondancer sat back down. “I think I’ve delayed my business as much as I can. Maybe we can speak again when things cool down. If you’re still alive. Then again, if you die that might not be a problem either.”
Well, Dash got what she came for. She thanked Moondancer one last time and headed out to find Rarity again.
Back in the closet!
Rarity was already back in the room. Rarity’s mask was different now. It looked more like a masquerade mask now, made of black cloth with a few feathers.
“Hey.” Dash came in. “Did you find anything useful?”
“Oh yes, well about that.” Rarity smiled a bit too much and shrank away.
“You didn’t find anything, did you?” Dash asked.
“Well you see, my mask got stolen and with the scar, I can’t possibly be seen! You understand, yes?” Rarity offered an apologetic smile.
“How long could it have possibly taken you to get a new mask?” Dash asked.
“It took me two hours just to find the feathers.” Rarity turned her head with a humph. “Yes, there were some yellow ones I found straightaway but they clashed with the aesthetic I was going for.”
“I guess staring at an outer god for too long does this to you, huh?” Dash looked over at Twilight.
“Oh no, she was always like this,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Well lucky for you we got disturbingly lucky.” Dash took out the skull. “Allegedly, this thing can guide us all the way down there.”
“Isn’t that a tad too convenient?” Rarity eyed it suspiciously.
“Yeah, that sums up my day.” Dash nodded. “Something fishy is going on, but I can’t figure out what. Do you think somepony with luck-distortion powers has been following me around?”
“Probability distortion is a real type of magic, so that’s possible,” said Twilight. “But if that is the case, they seem to only be helping us for now. We don’t really have time to go hunting them down besides.”
“Yes, and it would be easier to find them once fewer ponies are around besides,” Rarity added.
“So we’re just gonna have to wait on that one?” Dash shook her head. “Well it’s not like I have any clues on how to solve this so whatever.”
“It’s only eight.” Twilight looked at the clock. “But we need to get to sleep early. I think we should leave around four in the morning.”
“Wait. I don’t have to sleep if I’m a robot now, right?” Sweetie Belle asked with hope.
“No, your brain will overheat if you stay awake too long,” said Rarity. “You still need sleep.”
“Aw, shoot.”
“My brain is flame resistant,” said Saccharin. “I shall face the night alone.”
Now the only problem was where to sleep. Dash looked down at the sleeping mat. Coco was already asleep, somehow. That didn’t leave a lot of room for the rest of them.
They all somehow managed to fit, with Rarity Twilight and Coco all squeezing together on the one and Dash curling up into a ball at the bottom.
“Though getting to sleep won’t be easy sleeping when we’re this cramped,” Rarity complained.
“Nah, the best part about living with a witch is the sleep spell.” Rainbow Dash lifted her head. “Hit me!”
Twilight cast the spell and Dash fell asleep instantly.
At some point, Dash woke up in the middle of the night. Twilight was standing next to her as she looked out the window.
“You see? The power is out except for that section of the city.” Twilight pointed out to the west, where there was still one tree, and a few houses near its base light up brightly. “Remember that.”
Dash must have just woken up or something. She wasn’t thinking straight. Twilight’s words only vaguely registered in her mind.
“There’s one more thing I need to show you, or you’ll screw everything up and talking to you would have been a complete waste of my time,” said Twilight. “We have to be there at 9:32 PM.”
“A waste of time?” Dash asked. “Are you angry about something?”
“This has nothing to do with that.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Just follow me. 9:32 PM is when you have to be there. Remember that. You have to bring that witch with you when you do it for real or it won’t work.”
Then Dash was following Twilight out of the closet, then the guest room, and into the hall. They turned left and went up the stairs. Dash remembered she hadn’t been up this way before.
“That’s something you’ll remember.” Twilight pointed to a bust of some unfamiliar unicorn Dash had never seen before. It was some old stallion with an oddly knotted horn.
Just beyond that bust was a turret with three windows. Twilight pushed one of them open and walked out onto the branch just below the window. In the back of her mind, Dash thought this whole thing was strange, but she followed Twilight out without thinking too much. Her mind was sleepy.
“You have to use this window,” she said. “You might be spotted somewhere else.”
Twilight jumped off the branch, down to one just below, then once more to a third branch. Dash simply flew down to the same branch instead of hopping around.
“You can come down here without being seen because the power’s out.” Twilight opened a window leading somewhere on the floor below where they started. “There are two ponies in this next room, but they got terribly drunk, so you won’t wake them up.”
Sure enough, two green ponies were sleeping in this room. The more remarkable of the two looked like he’d crashed into a pile of his luggage and was sleeping covered in clothes and suitcases, lying on his back and snoring loudly. His friend was on his side, on a sleeping bag at least, drooling onto his pillow.
“Just peek out the door before opening it.” Twilight opened the door a crack and peeked out into the hall. “If anyone comes, they’ll come from this direction.”
Twilight threw open the door, clearly not even concerned if anypony was trying to find them, and moved to open the door directly across the hallway. The final room was a cozy study.
The only thing that said ‘necromancer’ about it was the fireplace. The front of it was shaped like a skull, mouth wide open and eyes cut out so that the fire made it look like both were glowing.
“And finally, here. Remember, you have to be in this room at 9:32 PM,” Twilight reminded her. “Don’t let anyone see you. You won’t come to the right conclusion unless you’re here at 9:32 PM. Do you understand?”
Dash felt more awake now like a fog had been lifted from her mind. She felt groggy like she’d just woken up. This whole thing seemed so weird now that her head was clearer.
“Hold on.” Dash rubbed her eyes. “Why are we breaking into random parts of Moondancer’s house?”
“There’s a conclusion I want you to reach,” said Twilight. “If you don’t, you’re useless to me and I won’t help you again. I’ll have to get rid of you and find some other pony. You don’t want that.”
“Useless to you? Come on!” Dash flared her wings out. “You’re being weird. And also a jerk. Can’t you just tell me whatever ‘conclusion’ you want me to reach?”
“I could just tell you what I’m getting at, yes,” said Twilight. “But it’s unlikely you’ll just do whatever I ask. I need to show you evidence that will make you conclude what I want you to. You’ll be more likely to do what I want if you decide to do it without me directly telling you to. And that evidence is in this room at—"
“9:32. Yeah, I got it.” Dash sighed. “What time is it anyway?”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Twilight. “You can’t sleep until you come here at 9:32 PM. Now wake up.”
Dash sat up. Her heart was racing. She knew she had a nightmare but couldn’t for the life of her remember that last part which scared her so bad. Whatever it was had just been a dream, at any rate.
Saccharin, who never slept, was the only other one awake. The robot watched Dash suspiciously with her eyes glowing in the dark but didn’t move to attack.
It was probably a good idea to go back to sleep straight away, but that jolt left Dash wide awake. She felt like she’d just chugged a gallon of coffee.
She rubbed her eyes and tried to look up at the clock. It was much darker than before, too dark to see the clock as there was no longer any light coming in through the window. She got up and crawled over to the window. Her suspicion was confirmed when she saw virtually no lights in any of the nearby houses.
This part of the city had been hit by a power outage. It looked like the western edge of the city was the only part of it with power still.
Dash rubbed her eyes groggily. Something about this seemed familiar.
“Wait.”
Wasn’t that exactly what happened in her dream? She was remembering details of it now. There was a power outage and the view from her window looked exactly like this!
“Hey, Saccharin.” Dash turned back to the robot. “When did the power go out.”
“Seven minutes ago.”
“And I wasn’t sleepwalking or anything, right?”
“No.”
So there was no way she’d seen this view before, yet it was exactly like in her dream.
Dash’s first thought was that she’d been attacked by a dream eater. If that was the case, she had nothing to worry about. They only got one chance to kill you then you were safe for life.
But as she recalled more and more of her dream, it began to feel like something else had been after her. Instead of trying to kill her, her dream told her to be at that place at nine-thirty. How much time did that give her?
She needed to light a candle to check the time. 11:00 PM. Looked like she couldn’t do as her dream commanded even if she wanted to.
“Guess the joke's on you, hypothetical being that probably doesn’t even exist.” Dash shook her head and trotted back to bed.
The only problem was she was wide awake right now and full of energy. Trying to fall asleep like this wouldn’t work. She decided to try walking around a bit. Moondancer’s house should be relatively safe, she thought. They were selling drinks and stuff downstairs.
She silently slipped out of the room and into the hall. As she did, the last part of her dream came back to her. Twilight said, ‘You can’t go to sleep until you figure it out’? Or something like that.
Dash felt like that might be true at the moment. Turning to her left, she saw those stairs leading up into the darkness.
Dash knew for a fact she’d never been up to the fourth floor. If that statue she saw in her dream was there…
Not wanting to be seen, Dash blew out her candle and fluttered silently up the pitch-black stairs. After getting to the top, she could just barely see again from the slightest amount of light coming in through the window. There were three windows, long and arranged in a circle as though they were part of a turret. Just like in her dream.
There was a small bust on either side of the windows. Dash grabbed the one to the left, the one she remembered, and carried it to the window to get a look at it. It was the exact same elderly pony with that exact same horn!
That confirmed it to her. That dream really had been a vision sent to her by something. Something that wanted her to go to that one room, without being seen, by 9:32.
But the time had already passed. It wasn’t like she was going to hang around until 9:32 PM tomorrow. Going back in time was even less possible.
“Or is it?!” Dash’s eyes lit up with inspiration and she clapped her forehooves together.
Dash glided down the stairs, checked once to make sure nopony saw her, then went back to the closet as calmly as possible.
“Twilight!” Dash whispered harshly as she began shaking the witch. “Twilight there’s something we gotta do!”
As they were right next to one another, Dash accidentally woke up Rarity as well. Both mares groaned and got up, still too asleep to comprehend
“Huh? Are we being attacked?” Twilight rubbed her eyes. “Again?”
“I had a dream,” said Dash. “Where like you told me I needed to break into this random room.”
“You know dreams are just…” Twilight yawned. “Those are hallucinations you have because—"
“No, but see I saw the fourth floor in the dream even though I’ve never been up there. Also, it predicted the power was about to go out,” said Dash. “This wasn’t a normal dream.”
“Those were probably just dream eaters trying to kill you.” Rarity yawned and lay back down. “They only get one shot, so nothing to worry about.”
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a dream eater,” said Dash. “Something happened in the other room at 9:32 that they wanted me to see. And if we use that aetheric imprinting spell we can see it.”
“Most of the things that contact you in your dreams want to murder you.” Rarity lifted a hoof and waved it about.
“Whoever it was said they were helping me,” said Dash. “Don’t you think it’s suspicious how incredibly lucky we got today? I’m starting to think there really is some kind of spirit following us around. They have the luck injection ability or something! I mean, everypony wants Trixie dead so maybe dream guy does too.”
“Oh, bother.” Rarity pushed herself back up. “Just because somepony wants to help you doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to accept their help. Especially if it’s coming from a god of any sort.”
“I guess,” Dash admitted. Back in school, they were taught to always ‘just say no’ to gods. But that was the same advice they gave in those anti-drug classes and those were bull. “But do we really want to risk ticking one off? It sounded like they were going to get mad at me if I didn’t look. I say we should at least take a peek. Where’s the harm in that?”
“We could always use more information,” said Twilight. “I’ll go see what it is.”
Twilight got out of bed.
“Somepony’s never heard the term ‘info hazard’ before.” Rarity gave a ‘tut’. “But very well! If you must go, I’ll come with you. I at least have some experience with this sort of thing.”
Rarity got up as well.
“Cool.” Dash walked back to the door. “But they said we shouldn’t be seen going in there. They showed me how to get in without being noticed.”
Dash led them up the stairs, then out onto the branch. They moved two branches forward and into the room with the drunk ponies. The two green ponies were the same ones as in her dream. The only difference was one of them had rolled over onto his back.
With zero doubt this was for real now, Dash poked the door open and peeked outside. There weren’t any refugees on this floor, so it was less crowded. When she was sure there was nopony else nearby, the three of them rushed into the adjacent room and closed the door behind them.
Once again, Dash stood in that same study as before, books surrounding them. That skull-shaped fireplace was across from her, but no fire was lit now so the room was dark. Twilight instead lit the room with her horn.
“I like this room.” Twilight looked up at all the books. “You know, Moondancer’s not such a bad pony. She lives in a tree, likes mushrooms, has lots of books, knows a lot about magic—"
“So basically, she’s a clone of you,” said Dash.
“What’s a clone?”
“Never mind that. We should cast that spell before anypony comes in here,” said Dash. “It was nine thirty-two.”
Twilight bowed her head and cast the spell. Fire returned to the fireplace and now the room was lit up like before. Moondancer was sitting in the big chair, but there was another pony in the room standing across from her.
When they saw who it was, who had been here mere hours before, Rarity gasped and Dash leaped back, wings splayed in surprise. Dash stared in disbelief, having trouble accepting who the second was. It was the last pony she’d ever expected to see talking to Moondancer, especially here.
Flash Bang.
“What is she doing here?!” Rarity pointed an accusing hoof at Flash Bang. “How could Moondancer let such an uncouth—"
“Quiet,” Twilight warned. She took out a piece of paper to start writing down what they were saying. “I can only do this once. We have to listen.”
The other two nodded and looked at Flash Bang.
Flash Bang was surprisingly short in person, maybe halfway between Pinkie and Dash in height. Yet she stood proud and with an arrogant look like she owned the place, like she was above the rest of the world.
“As far as ponies who are immune to curses.” Flash Bang kept her nose lifted and off to the side, purposely avoiding eye contact with Moondancer like such a thing was beneath her. “There is one other option, though they appear to be dying at the moment. We can’t count on them being alive during the next blood moon. This sort of pony is too rare for us to possibly find a third in under a year.”
“I can bring people back from the dead,” Moondancer reminded her. “Sometimes. Under the right circumstances, that might not be a problem.”
Flash Bang closed her eyes, utterly disgusted at the idea, but restrained herself.
“That won’t work,” Flash Bang spoke carefully, restrained. “Nor will your other plan. We can’t risk Applejack dying. How do you not understand that yet? You’d better not suggest anything reckless again.”
Applejack?
Dash was slowly putting the pieces of this conversation together. Did this mean Applejack was immune to curses? She remembered Twilight saying that was the case for herself, so it was clearly possible.
She glanced over at Twilight, who was suddenly watching this conversation with much more focus.
“Honestly, what you’re doing is just as reckless.” Moondancer sighed. “Giving Trixie everything she needs to become a were-ursa major? Do you really not think there are enough dangerous monsters down here? What are you going to do if she finishes in time?”
“I need some excuse to go and retrieve her,” said Flash Bang. “If I rushed off to rescue some nameless idiot from a witch, what would Starlight think? She’d know there was something special about Applejack. She’d figure out she was immune to curses. From that, she’d realize we know what she’s up to and we’re acting against her.”
“And sending so many ponies out to try and retrieve her,” Moondancer went on with her complaint. “Bringing a literal army into this only increases the chance of somepony noticing.”
“There’s maybe twelve ponies outside this room that even know you can be immune to curses,” said Flash Bang. “The few that do know it’s so rare there’d be no point in even checking. If some hapless idiot saves us some trouble that’s only a good thing.”
Dash frowned. It was never a good sign when the person you were working for called you a hapless idiot.
“And believe me, if it’s between Starlight learning the truth and fighting an ursa major I’ll gladly take the bear,” said Flash Bang. “We need to appear disinterested as possible. We need a smokescreen. As long as everypony thinks we’re after her to stop that ritual we’ll be safe. Besides, anypony except for Applejack down here is an acceptable casualty.”
“That didn’t answer my main question,” said Moondancer. “Do you have any plan for dealing with Trixie if she becomes an ursa major?”
“Of course. Better, it plays into my hoof as well. We simply—"
Twilight let out a breath like she’d been holding it in this whole time. The image broke apart and they were in a dark room once more.
“Sorry,” said Twilight. “The aether in this area broke apart. We won’t be able to use that spell here again for a while.”
“I still can’t believe Moondancer would consort with such a ruffian,” Rarity grumbled to herself. “I know she’s a barbarian herself, but really!”
“You guys got that part, right?” Dash looked at the others in turn. “They said Flash Bang ‘gave Trixie everything she needed’ for that ritual. Like she— she gave Trixie the idea to become a were-ursa major and set her up to do it just so she’d have an excuse to come down here and beat her up.”
“It would appear so,” said Rarity.
“But that’s like entrapment or something! I know cause that’s how my dad got out of jail that one time. So what that spirit wanted to show us was that— that Flash Bang is a total jerkwad!” Dash pointed a hoof at the spot where Flash Bang had stood. “Case closed.”
“Everypony already knew that,” said Rarity.
“I didn’t.”
“You’re missing the point, Dash.” Twilight came forth with her conclusion next. “The important information is that Applejack is immune to curses. That trait is incredibly rare. That pegasus is right I wouldn’t have even bothered to check had I not heard this.”
“Huh, you’re right.” Dash nodded, accepting the idea. “But what does that mean to us?”
“Nothing. Which is why we know that’s not the right conclusion,” said Rarity. “If the information we got wouldn’t change our actions, then your spirit wouldn’t have shown it to us, that’s how this works. I say the important takeaway is that Flash Bang wants to use Applejack to do… something or other. Something nefarious, I’d say.”
“How does that change what we’d do?” Dash asked. “You think we should report this to Starlight? I mean, we’d need actual evidence for that.”
“I’m sure they’re hoping for us to stop Flash Bang for some reason.” Rarity shook her head. “Maybe you should bring Applejack to Starlight directly to end whatever madness that madmare has planned.”
“Starlight?” Twilight ears moved back, suddenly offended. “Wait. Isn’t that the pony who was lying about true void?”
“Yeah,” said Dash. “But she’s also the president, so…”
“I barely understand what a president is,” said Twilight. “But if she’s lying about the nature of true void she must be evil! How do we know Starlight Glimmer isn’t attempting to complete some evil plot and these two are trying to stop her? Huh?”
“I can assure you if either of them is up to no good it’s Flash Bang,” Rarity said dully.
“Hold on,” said Dash. “I think Twilight has a point!”
Rarity gave Dash a curious look.
“Think about it!” Dash raised a hoof. “If this was a cartoon, we’d rat out Flash Bang to Starlight only to find out she was trying to stop Starlight from blowing up the planet or something! I’ve seen it a million times!”
“Is that seriously your argument?” Rarity deadpanned at Dash.
“I got more!” Dash put her hooves up defensively. “Flash Bang hates Moondancer even behind closed doors. Like a lot! So they wouldn’t be working together unless something important was happening. Right?”
“I suppose,” Rarity admitted with reluctance. “I’ll admit we can’t tell at the moment which of them would be better to sabotage if that’s even necessary. If we’re taking stock of the situation, this may be all about some dispute over salt prices or some such nonsense and we’re merely assuming it’s a terrible plot.”
“I still don’t like Starlight, but we really should wait until we have more information to take action,” Twilight agreed.
“Yeah, but we gotta decide what to do with Applejack, right?” Dash reminded them. “She’s important for, well, something. So after we beat up Trixie do we turn her in or not? And to who? We can’t bring her to Moondancer like we promised since she’s in on this.”
“The solution for that is simple,” said Twilight. “We just have to kidnap Applejack.”
“What?” Dash asked.
“I’ll turn her into an owl and cast a magnetic spell on her to make it so she can’t escape,” said Twilight. “We’ll decide what to do with her at a later date when we have more information.”
“Seriously?”
“What?” Twilight gave her an annoyed look. “That plan has never failed me before.”
“Is that necessary?” Dash asked. “We could figure this all out tonight if we just run over to Moondancer and ask her point-blank about this.”
“Yes. Well let’s not forget that Moondancer can stomp a hoof and have everyone and everything in this town trying to murder us.” Rarity leaned up against the window and pointed down at the crowded streets. “And at the moment that’s a lot of people. We need to keep our mouths shut until we’re out of town. No one here would take our word over hers.”
“Yeesh!” Dash groaned. “Why didn’t whatever it was just tell me what Flash Bang was planning instead of being all vague? Or at least tell me who the bad guy was.”
“That is a good question, actually,” said Twilight.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Rarity tapped her hair curl. “They showed you the information that would get you to do what they wanted you to do. No more, no less.”
“Right!” Dash nodded, realizing that was exactly what was happening. “So, uh— what did we conclude again?”
“Weren’t you paying attention?” Twilight asked. “We concluded that we needed to keep Applejack hidden for now. Assuming whoever’s behind this is intelligent, their goal must be to keep Applejack hidden from both Flash Bang and Starlight. Only by not telling us who the ‘bad guy’ is or what they’re planning would we decide to do that.”
“Yes, I think we’ve come to the correct conclusion now.” Rarity nodded. “That’s what they want us to do and I suppose it’s what we’re going to do given we’ve no better option.”
“Do we know what kind of creature sent me that dream?” Dash asked. “Maybe it was that Darklord guy? And he’s trying to help out his minion?”
“There’s no way to know that for now,” said Rarity. “But that is a good guess.”
“I think we should get out of here for now.” Twilight poked the door open and checked. “We’ve already stayed too long.”
The others nodded in silent agreement. They went back across the hall and out onto the branches again. This time, Dash had to carry Rarity back up to the fourth story.
A nagging feeling of disappointment followed Dash as they made their way back. She wished they’d been able to figure out more on that conspiracy. No matter how much she racked her brain over that conversation, she just couldn’t think of a good way to make ground.
Just as they came in through the window, the power came back on. As if the lights came back on in Dash’s head, she came to realize that there was a way to get closer to the truth!
“Oh, wait! Pinkie!” Dash blurted out, then covered her mouth as the others glared at her. “Think about it. She knows both of those ponies personally. I bet she could tell us, uh, something! Or help us figure things out.”
“We do need to tell Pinkie about our plan eventually,” Twilight admitted. “But we have too little time to go looking for her right now. We’ll ask her after we defeat Trixie.”
“Nah, I got her phone number. We can call her. I know they have payphones just outside,” said Dash. “Though maybe it’ll look suspicious if she gets a call from this town?”
“That’s no problem at all.” Rarity frisked her hair. “These phones are pathetically simple compared to the technology I’m used to. I can make the call untraceable. Let me show you.”
They headed outside and down the street a little bit to where the payphones were. There was a line for them, even at this hour, because there was a line for everything right now.
After some impatient waiting, they finally got to the phone booth.
Rarity picked up the phone and the dial tone came from the other side. Instead of pressing any buttons, Rarity whistled a steady note into the receiver. A few seconds of that made the dial tone end, then Rarity whistled at several pitches in quick succession before handing it back to Dash.
The phone was ringing!
“Wait. You can do that?”
After two rings, it stopped but an answering machine picked up on the other side. It was Pinkie the elder’s voice and Dash was so used to her squeaky teenage voice she didn’t realize it was the right pony at first.
“I’m telling you,” said Pinkie, “these answering machine gizmos are destroying the fabric of society by—"
“Auntie, please,” a vaguely familiar voice said. “Whoever this is just leave a message, please. Thank you.”
Beep.
“Hey, Pinkie,” said Dash. “We got like a, I dunno, eight out of ten situation going on? Anyway, we need to talk to you in person. I’m sure you already know where I am and will suddenly show up out of nowhere whenever you feel like it, so uh, just do that. Thanks.”
Dash hung up.
“Wasn’t there,” said Dash. “Guess we’ll try again tomorrow before heading out.”
“Finally we go back to sleep,” said Rarity. “Just so we’re clear I can’t be expected to be at one hundred percent without a full eight hours!”
Twilight was going to be doing most of the work anyway. Dash looked up at the moon as they went back inside. Tomorrow is going to be an even busier day.
It was near midnight as Applejack lay on the bed in her dungeon, finally about to get some sleep.
All the other werewolves, and there were a lot, were kept in a smaller building next to the keep. Applejack alone was singled out for her special ability. She alone was kept locked up in Trixie’s dungeon most of the time.
Thankfully, the dungeon was relatively comfortable. Applejack had plenty of room. All the cells in the dungeon were open with only the door leading up to the second floor and the windows being barred up and locked. One cell was made into a bedroom, with an actual bed, another into a small kitchen, and one into a bathroom. It also came with four jack-o'-lanterns, arranged so that one was always watching Applejack no matter where she went.
It wouldn’t have been too terrible, but Applejack felt like she was being unintentionally tortured. The only pony she talked to on any given day was Trixie and frankly Applejack would have preferred solitary confinement over that.
A loud bang coming from directly above was enough to get Applejack to sit up out of curiosity. It was unlikely to be a rescuer, but it might be something important. It sounded like an awful lot of commotion was going on upstairs.
Applejack went up the short staircase and pressed her ear against the heavy door to freedom. It was Trixie’s voice on the other end, yelling at somepony. Applejack just got a few words here and there, things like ‘where’ and ‘find it’, giving her the impression Trixie was knocking things over looking for something.
Either way, Trixie was angry. Whether that was good news or bad news for Applejack remained to be seen.
She heard hooves coming and backed up, going all the way down into her bedroom cell. She got out of the way just in time as Trixie threw open the door in a huff a moment later, smacking it right into where Applejack’s head would have been.
The witch came stomping down the stairs, holding her hat on tight. Trotting just behind her was a suit of armor, minus the helmet.
By now, Applejack knew that thing was a dullahan, an unusual sort of ghost. Once she found that out, the reason jack-o'-lanterns were everywhere became clear to her. Though they had no head and couldn’t see normally, dullahans did have the ability to see through jack-o'-lanterns, among other things. That thing had eyes everywhere in this place.
“You had one freaking job!” Trixie yelled at her dullahan as she came into the dungeon. “Okay, or maybe you have one hundred and twenty-seven jobs but this was one of them!”
The dullahan shrugged, but couldn’t defend itself without a head. Applejack figured a headless ghost was just about the only thing Trixie could get along with. Apparently, even that had its limits.
Trixie let out a long sigh, tapping her hooves a few times, then turned her anger to Applejack.
“Okay.” Trixie sat down in front of Applejack, glaring at her none too pleased. “I’m only going to ask this once. Do you have the lucky coin?”
Without waiting for an answer, the dullahan put the jack-o'-lantern on where its head should be and started tearing up the place.
“The what?” Applejack blinked.
“You know what I’m talking about!” Trixie stomped her hoof. “Don’t play dumb with me! You’re The Darklord’s chosen one, aren’t you? If I know everything he made so do you!”
Mention of The Darklord brought realization to Applejack. She did know a nearly complete list of all of his creations. There was only one coin he made. At least, only one with any magical powers.
“Hold up. You have that coin?” Applejack asked.
“Well, I did.” Trixie glared at Applejack. “But now I can’t find it anywhere! Did you take it somehow? This is the only place I haven’t checked.”
“I don’t have it,” said Applejack. “Never touched the thing and hopefully never will.”
Trixie looked at her Dullahan who already exhausted most of the hiding places in the dungeon.
“It could be on her person,” said Trixie.
“I’m not even wearing any clothes. Where would I hide it?”
“I can think of three possible answers for that, but I’m not saying what they are.” Trixie cast a spell. It must have had something to do with magnetism because the metal chains all floated briefly before falling back to the ground. “Guess not. Maybe I should be thankful for that.”
“Why do you even want to find it? You know that coin doesn’t create luck, right?” Applejack asked. “It borrows luck from the future.”
From Applejack’s understanding, the more unlikely the good luck you gave yourself with it, the more unlikely the bad luck you’d have to pay up with later.
“Where I’m going I won’t need luck anymore!” Trixie went up on her hind legs and laughed. “I decided that’s the trick. You use the coin to make yourself more powerful that way you can deal with whatever bad luck comes later.”
Then Trixie turned to one side and started reciting her plots, as if to herself, yet again. If she wasn’t so ridiculously strong, she never would have made it this far.
“The first time I used it was for my near-death experience to ensure I got psychic powers,” said Trixie. “Then I used it when exposing myself to super radiation to make sure I got superpowers instead of just tentacles for eyes like most ponies get.”
Applejack just sighed and tapped her hoof impatiently. Already she knew there was nothing she could do in this situation but sit and listen to whatever exposition Trixie would throw at her.
For somepony who hated everypony, she sure talked a lot. Trixie would loudly announce everything she was planning, even if it was just how she was going to cook dinner that night. Any attempt to interrupt her would just result in Applejack getting shut up.
“And then there’s you! You’re a little too perfect for my plans, aren’t you?” Trixie asked. “Finding a pony with all of your traits would have taken decades without that coin.”
“You used the coin just to find somepony who could get you into the shadow realm?” Applejack raised her brow. “You know, you’d have saved trouble by just asking around in town. They all know I can do that.”
“Oh, wait! You don’t know what’s special about you, do you?” Trixie laughed. “Well, I normally like spouting off all of my plans to other ponies just so they can see how astoundingly confident I am but I think I’ll keep that one a surprise. Let’s just say we’re going to be meeting a special somepony next.”
Applejack still didn’t know what Trixie was talking about, but if the trait she was looking for was on the order of one in a million, then Trixie unwittingly signed herself up for some cosmic levels of ironic bad luck later on. Course, that didn’t mean it’d be in the next few days so Applejack couldn’t get her hopes up.
“Oh, well!” Trixie shrugged. “I suppose losing that coin was the first stroke of bad luck, meaning I just need to watch out for two more. Still, that means the worst possible pony is going to find that coin, doesn’t it? That is how I found it, after all. So if it’s not you, Flash Bang must have the coin.”
“Hold up. Did you say something about Flash Bang?” Applejack felt her hair standing up.
“Oh, that’s right!” Trixie smiled at Applejack with that sinister smile. “Flash Bang is coming to defeat the evil witch and ‘rescue’ you. Though I doubt that’s good news to you.”
Trixie was right that wasn’t good news. Everypony knew Flash Bang hated werewolves more than anything else, and she hated anything else plenty good already. Worse yet, she’d taken down an enormous list of threats, was one of the strongest and most tactical ponies out there.
Against somepony like that, dumb luck was your only hope. If Flash Bang wanted to find Applejack’s family, then her having that coin would mean escape was nearly impossible. No, they’d be smart enough to not use it. Though that assumed anypony in their group even knew what it was or noticed picking it up.
“Incidentally,” Trixie said, looking down at her own hoof, “I’m moving the schedule ahead a bit. I’m giving you four hours before we start. You won’t get to eat or drink again for a while after that. But once this is over, I’ll let everypony but you go just like you wanted.”
Trixie summoned four small pies and a pitcher of water on the ground in front of Applejack before she and the dullahan turned to leave.
“Hold up!” Applejack called after her. “You’re not going to let me sleep first? It’s almost midnight and you didn’t exactly let me go to bed early.”
“I said you have four hours.” Trixie left and shut the door behind her.
“Might as well get some rest,” Applejack muttered to herself. What followed was going to be dangerous, especially if Trixie was pushing things forward before they were ready.
Applejack looked down at the pies, giving them a poke. Pumpkin pies. It was always pumpkins.
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10840972
Well then I guess I'll update faster.
Is the rest of the text meant to be bolded or was that just from that voicemail thingo?
Either way, great update, can’t wait for more!
Great story! Bit of a formatting issue with the bit after the phone call, it is all bolded?
The players are appearing, we have Flash Bang opposing Starlight. Starlight up to something. Trixie is just a pawn... and whoever the mystery person feeding Dash info in her dreams. That we know of. So far. Very interesting...
10841502
10841530
I noticed the bolding issue shortly after posting it, but thanks.
Somebody forgot to close the BOLD TAG after the BEEP
That's why this story doesn't have a romance tag yet.
I freaking wish.
I knew that coin would have drawbacks. This doesn't bode well for Dash's future.
Oh man, I,love how this is progressing
10841687
Maybe the coin decided to draw good luck from her past?
10841914
Oh, that would make a lot of sense! I mean, it would raise a lot of questions about the nature of time and fate, but it would be preferable to things going catastrophically wrong in the future, because that's the last thing they need, and would explain why things haven't been too bad for her lately.
10841914 10841921
What, like she found it tails when others found it heads? It would make a lot of sense really for a _coin_ from outer gods to have two modes like that.
Redundant extra word. Please delete.
10841914
I rather like this idea to be honest. Because gods don't really care for causality.
I do confess, I suspected that what was happening was that Trixie put some kind of curse on herself so that if someone with an actual item of Twilight Sparkle's actually wanted to find her, things would fall into place to ensure that person made it to her in as quick a manner as possible.
10841921
10841986
She could also hav been another chosen one whose destiny is
"Her past is her future and as her future passes, her past is now."
This chapter made me realize that you haven't written what the power ceiling is for this universe
The absolute void was twi's mentors goal and twi can accomplish that. Starlight claims she can and has convinced everyone she can.
But two power brokers are opposing her and something has noticed rainbow who apparently has an artifact of the kidnapped patron god.
They could both be up to no good
And how many times have you used that plan?
Ahhh Trixie, thinking you're oh so clever, only to completely underestimate the danger of taking luck from your future self
Especially when you consider that all that luck can come from one single moment in the future
Ooooohh, it's possible that she wants to meet Twilight and has figured out that Twilight probably use curses to remain hidden
Oh ho ho yeah, combine that with every other instance of luck she's taken from her future self (which probably took more than she realized) and it's quite likely that she'll lose a lot of her power
Hmm. A possible alicorn manipulating dreams. No, can't think of anyone who might fit that description.
In any case, this is certainly leading to an interesting confrontation, especially if the bad luck hits both sides simultaneously. (Though the idea that Dash has been pulling from her past is certainly intriguing...) And I'm sure Flash Bang will be happy to trample over whoever survives when the dust clears.
Whatever happens, this definitely won't be settled with card games. More's the pity.
4 Jack O' Lanterns, 4 pies, and 4 hours left? Trixie seems to have a thing for the number 4, doesn't she know it's an unlucky number?
Is the implication that Trixie has been stealing all of Rainbow Dashes good luck for years? Yikes, this just got personal.
When is the chapter coming out
When is it
10860900
It might take some time.
I have fallen in love with this story. Added to my read list. Looking forward to the next update!
Ever heard of the Scarlet King
10868078
I haven't read very much SCP stuff.
When is the chapter
10876855
If you want a progress report the fight between Twilight and Trixie is done, but the part before that isn't.
How much do you know about Scp Universe
You know the basic stuff
When is the chapter coming out
10893927
I've actually been making a lot of progress recently. Probably in the next few days.
When is the new Chapter coming
When
Oh dear. It appears ponies might have their own version of the Foundation. That is moderately terrifying.
You know, of all the things I'm coming to expect from this story, phreaking was not one of them.
Lol, love the Project Horizon reference.
This is feeling like a big rubber band winding up...
11041351
I actually haven't read Project Horizons yet.
It is on my list, though.
Something tells me the Darklord is involved. Yep, I was right, this is going to be good
Oh no
Great chapter!
xD math wizard jaja
Yeah!! jaja
jaja how I love her