The Day My Life Ended

by Authora97

Chapter Thirty-One: Darcy Anderson (Revised)

A loud horn blared in her face. Twilight jumped, flailing, and falling to the floor. Morgan chuckled. Wait, no, that’s not Morgan. It’s Darcy. The eyes are so different. Not just color, but just...Morgan was never cruel like this. The way Darcy laughed was different. Everything about it sounded the same as Morgan, with a vicious streak. It reminded Twilight of Queen Chrysalis’ laugh, or the laugh of Discord.

Darcy straightened up, smirking down at Twilight. “Goooooood morning, Canterlot!” She grabbed Twilight by the elbow to haul her to her feet. “Don’t you love waking up early-”

“Yes. To study.”

“So you can prepare your body to fight!” Darcy cheered. Twilight slumped, only Darcy kept the grip on her elbow. “Hours and hours spent twisting and preparing your body until you are an ultimate killing machine!”

Twilight yelped. “Killing?!”

“Hahaha, what? Hahaha. No. No.” Darcy let Twilight go. She held up her hands, smiling and dramatically rolling her eyes. “No! Murder is bad. I would never kill anyone. Anypony! That. That’s wrong. Nah, we’re training you...be thieves. It’s great. Different. Spicy.”

That’s the biggest lie Twilight has ever heard in her life. “Morgan said you killed her.”

“Morgan also said she was a unicorn named Raspberry.” Darcy countered. She clapped her hands. “PONIES! UP AND AT ‘EM!”

Rainbow groaned. “You’re the worst. Come on, we can sleep in!”

Darcy smirked wide and thin. “I’m from Chicago. NOBODY SLEEPS IN!” She kicked Rainbow’s bed. “Sleeping in. Sleeping in! When I miss my train and have to tread in snow to get anywhere, I will blame you. Geez.”

“You alright?” Applejack asked. She tucked her mane back into the ponytail, putting her hat back on. “Yer kinda...loud.”

Darcy laughed. She hopped over to the next one. Spike complained as his sleeping bag was ripped away.

“Aren’t you also still healing?” Twilight asked.

Darcy laughed again. “It only hurts when I slow down. Adrenaline! Gets the blood pumping. My skin is vibrating. That’s normal.” She sniffed her nose, wiping it on her black sleeve. “Wow it’s cold here. LET’S START RUNNING!”

Pinkie hopped up from her sleeping bag. “YES!!” She went for a high five. Darcy slapped her hand. “WOOHOO!”

We slept outside tonight, tucked away in the trees of the neighborhood. The sun hadn’t even risen yet. Our sleeping bags were gifts from Darcy. We didn’t think too hard on where they came from.

Applejack bumped Rarity. “Come on, you heard her. Time to get up.”

Rarity stretched her arms, rubbing her eyes. “Alright. Let me fix my mane-”

“NO TIME!” Darcy ran over. She hoisted Rarity up. Rarity yelped. “I’m not letting you do your hair. Or your makeup. Why?”

Rarity frowned. “Well it’s morning. I need to look fashionable if we’re exercising.”

Darcy frowned back, only further confused. “Rarity you don’t have any makeup.”

Rarity laughed. “Yes I do. I’ve had it the past few days.”

“Morgan had makeup. In her bag. Do you see her bag?” Darcy asked.

Rarity blinked. She looked around. Then, she gasped, and fell to her knees. “This-! This is- This is the worst possible thing!”

Darcy chuckled. She held her side, bending over to laugh. “You are so funny! I need to go to high school in two hours, a man is planning to kill all of you, and you’re crying over makeup! Oh, oh I forgot how funny you Equestrians are!”

“Okay. So where are we running?” Applejack asked.

“The whole neighborhood and back!” Darcy stated. She walked over to the last sleeping bag, skipping over a large dead branch. “So start running.”

Rainbow Dash yawned. She stretched, flopping back on her sleeping bag. “I’m already in top physical shape.”

A knife whizzed by. It cut off the top point of her hair. Strands of red and orange floated to the ground. Rainbow gawked at them, freezing.

Darcy smiled. “Run.”

Run.”

==DMLE==

The last sleeping bag sat unoccupied. Darcy found the occupant hidden nearby.

Darcy stood beneath a tree. The Spencer house had a large patch of woods behind it, and a large pond. The trees were mostly dead. Lilac stood out- a bright spot of purple and blue amongst dead brown and gray.

Lilac had her back against the trunk. She stared at a bird’s nest. The seven year old was deep in thought, biting her lip.

Darcy nodded back at the house. “I have some fish for breakfast.” She tried to see how to follow her up. Most of the branches were brittle, made worse by the cold snap. Lilac found the lucky few to help her up. “The girls have all gone. The others haven’t woken up yet. We can eat in peace.”

The girl hadn’t spoken.

Darcy sighed. Her head rolled back, letting her stolen black hair fall. “Kid, come on.”

“The fish. Where did you get it?” Lilac asked.

“The neighbors! They never even noticed I was there.” Darcy replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance. Old people have the worst security systems. She’d been breaking into that house in particular for years.

“Like stealing?” Lilac mused.

“Yep!”

“Mom says don’t steal and get caught, and not to steal from ponies that need it more than you.” Lilac said. She curled on herself, hugging to her knees.

“It’s a fish from their fridge. They had no use for it.” Darcy lied.

Lilac hummed. “Oh. That’s alright then.” She stayed in the tree.

Darcy put a hand on her hip. “I’m not a waitress. I won’t bring the food to you.” A beat. “The birds aren’t even here to eat it.”

Lilac crawled closer. The branch bounced. “Can birds come back to their nests, when they leave?”

Darcy squinted at her. She didn’t fucking know that. “Yeah?”

Lilac hummed. “Okay.” She climbed down. Her foot slipped on a branch. Darcy dived. Lilac caught herself on another branch.

Darcy relaxed. Why did she stress? Everything was fine. The kid was a natural.

Lilac dusted off her clothes. “When do the birds come back?”

Darcy considered it. “Spring.”

“When’s that?”

“Three months?” Darcy tried.

Lilac frowned. A hard, big frown. Her chin wobbled. Her eyes went big. “When does mom come back?”

Darcy wished she knew. It’s been over an hour, usually the amount of time Morgan stayed gone. The rules of her powers are so weird. Now they’re in different bodies. What’s that mean for them? For Morgan coming back?

Her powers are complex but still based in magic. Darcy needed to think about it. She did her best thinking when planning a murder. She also knows her sister would never leave Darcy to her own devices forever. The ponies needed a way home. Darcy didn’t even trust herself to get them there, spell or not. Morgan has a plan for coming home. Darcy doesn’t know it yet.

She can’t leave the kid without an answer. “Listen. Morgan’s smart. She’ll be back as soon as she can.”

Lilac kept wobbling her lip. She looked at Darcy, up to her head and down to her boots.

That’s not fair. Darcy hated crying kids. She’s glad she never was one. “I was gonna-”

“I just want fish.” Lilac walked past Darcy without another look. “Do my grandparents still hate me? Or is the food outside?”

Darcy grimaced. She coughed, swallowing down bile. Lilac continued walking to the house. Darcy needed to stab something. A fish would have to be enough, until Morgan came back.

==DMLE==

Rainbow Dash came back first. She was still jogging in place, cartwheeling on the driveway. She cheered.

Darcy, now wearing a pair of mirrored sunglasses, watched with indifference. “Do it again. Faster.”

Dash scoffed. “I can run this whole place in ten seconds-”

“I didn’t ask.” Darcy replied. “Run, and keeping running until the last of your friends comes back.”

Dash dropped her jaw. “What- you mean I have to wait for RARITY?!”

Darcy nodded.

“That’s- That’s-”

“Come on, Dash, how many laps can you run around your friends?” Darcy asked. “Bet Rarity will reach the neighborhood sign before you reach ten.”

Dash ground her teeth. “I can do more than ten! I’ll do twenty!” Darcy raised an eyebrow. “No, thirty! I can do thirty!” More indifference from Darcy. Dash growled. “You know what?! I’ll show you by running FIFTY!” She ran off.

Darcy nodded, smirking when Dash was out of sight.

Lilac came up to her side. She held a fork, a cooked fish dangling from it. “Why’d you do that? Ms Dash is already plenty fast.”

“Ask more questions and you’ll run them with her.” Darcy warned. Lilac squeaked, coughing. Darcy slapped her back. Lilac’s throat cleared. “I’m joking. She needs to be kept occupied. This way, she’s watching Rarity’s speed. I can figure out Rarity’s by how many laps Dash does before Rarity.”

Lilac frowned. “Why do you need to know how fast Ms Rarity can run?”

Darcy grinned. She lowered the sunglasses. “Your mom and I had a bet going. I’m gonna win.”

Lilac giggled. She bit into the fish again.

“MORGAN!”

Lilac gasped. “Grandma!”

“She’s not your grandma.” Darcy repeated. She pushed the sunglasses back up her nose.

“It’s too cloudy for sunglasses.” Lilac pointed out.

Darcy huffed. “Yet I am still wearing them. MA! What do you mean? I don’t go to school today.” Darcy waved her arm. “Kid, hide.”

Lilac saluted, running off to hide by the side of the house. Just in time, as Mrs Spencer walked out the front door. “Don’t speak to me that way. No one can stay at the house to watch you and take care of you. You’re coming to school to catch up on your schoolwork.”

Darcy raised an eyebrow. It didn’t have the effect on Mrs Spencer like it did on Dash. Darcy’s eye twitched behind the glasses. “All my work is in my notebook, and I can email everything else from here.” She pulled out a phone, typing away to email the correct documents to teachers.

Mrs Spencer only chuckled. “Cute. But you didn’t do your Spanish-”

“No necesito estudiar español, estoy evitando que la gente mate a mi sobrina.” Darcy replied.

Mrs Spencer blinked that time. “What?”

“I don’t need to study Spanish.” Darcy replied. She tucked the phone back away. “I’d like to change language courses. And I can’t have homework in that course until it’s been reassigned. I’ll take the weekend to think about it.”

Mrs Spencer continued to blink. “You’re fluent in Spanish? Wha- Whe- For how long?”

Darcy shrugged. She studied it mostly ‘cause some Spanish horror films were better than American ones. Captions were great but sometimes they blocked the gory stuff. “Last week.”

Mrs Spencer adjusted her purse. “O-okay. Umm. Yes. I’ll start rearranging things for that class. Are you sure you don’t know what new course you want now?”

“No.” Darcy replied. “Languages are hard, Mom, I gotta think about what’s best for my future. You know?”

Mrs Spencer sniffled. Darcy inwardly recoiled. Outward, she curled her hands into fists. “Sorry- I’m just so proud of you for finally taking your school work seriously. This year started out so rough, and the past week has been the worst for our family. I’ve been praying for this for you every day. I knew those doctors were wrong when they called you crazy.”

Darcy calculated. It’s not about how fast Rainbow Dash can truly be, or how long Rarity will take running two miles. Nope. This is to see just how fast she can steal Mrs Spencer’s car keys. Then, jamming them in her eyes.

Mrs Spencer brushed her hand on her cheek. “Well head on in. I’ll explain everything to your father. Your brothers will be out soon.”

Darcy didn’t give a shit. She wanted the house empty now. She nodded tightly at Mrs Spencer, walking to the door. Morgan’s brother did indeed come out the door. Darcy purposely bumped his arm.

Derek glared. He rubbed his arm. “Mom, Morgan’s going back inside.”

Mrs Spencer waved the question away. “She’s staying home today. She got all her work done, and is selecting a new language course!”

Derek gawked, then glared at Darcy. Darcy grinned shark teeth. Derek burrowed his eyebrows. “I know you’re faking.”

This kid was always the annoying one. Darcy only ever met him in passing, and he’s a nerdy loser. “Mom won’t believe you.” Darcy taunted.

Derek huffed. “The glasses look stupid.” He stormed off the car.

Darcy waved her fingers. Suddenly, the day was less annoying. The younger two brothers scurried off to the car. Darcy waited until the car was leaving the driveway before dropping the smile.

“Hey kid, come on. Your mom had some stuff in her room and I need to check it.” Darcy said.

Lilac tiptoed out from her hiding spot. She rubbed her arms together, crossed over her chest. “Aunt Killjoy?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we really gonna do schoolwork today?” Lilac asked.

Darcy snorted. “Hell no. Morgan does all her schoolwork crazy early- like back during Christmas early. We’re getting these ponies into shape. That way, when your mom comes back, she has less to stress about. Got it?”

Lilac straightened up. She nodded, looking determined to complete a task. “How can I help?”

Darcy grinned. She ruffled Lilac’s hair. “Just being you is more than enough. But, help me get some stuff together. These girls need to work on the 5 D’s.”

Lilac tilted her head. “Five D’s?”

Darcy patted her back, then raised her arm high. “Dodge!”

She scooped Lilac up in her arms. Lilac burst out laughing. Darcy ran inside while spinning her niece.

“DUCK!” Darcy swerved, barely avoiding hitting Lilac against a wall. “DIP!” She dipped Lilac down, picking her up before she hit the ground. Lilac laughed again. “Dive! And then, DODGE!”

Darcy leapt up. She and Lilac landed on the family couch. Lilac groaned from being landed on, then laughed with her aunt. The kid was okay, for a little bit. That’s enough. Darcy hated when kids cried, especially this one. She could train Lilac to defend herself, and protect Morgan’s friends, but Darcy knows it’s only a temporary measure until her sister comes back herself.

Where the fuck are you up to, Morgue?