Chapter 1: The

I woke up, feeling cold. I opened my eyes to search for my blanket but found that it was too dark to see.

That was unusual. The streetlights outside should have been putting some light into my room. Were they off? Or did I forget to open my eyes?

I tried opening my eyes but could not feel them. I tried moving but felt nothing. Was I experiencing sleep paralysis?

Suddenly, there was light. I was blinded for a moment but my eyes adjusted. I was... in a field? It looked like a field but it seemed off. I couldn't tell what it was but something was off. Were there eyes in the grass?

A black liquid-y mass started gathering in a spot in front of me, taking along with it all the eyes in the grass. I tried running, like a normal person would, but found that I was stuck in my place. I couldn't even close my eyes.

The slime had now come together to make a weird blob of eyes and other things that I could not describe.

"YOU ARE MINE YOU WILL FIND THE KEY YOU WILL DELIVER I WILL PUT YOU IN A VESSEL YOU WILL WAKE SOON" it said all of a sudden. As soon as it was finished, the world around me became black once again. Was I going back to sleep?

A drop of water fell on my nose. I was looking up at the sky. A second drop fell to my right eye, only for my glasses to stop it.

I was lying in a field, with the sound of the wind blowing and the smell of rain and the feeling that you get right before a huge storm.

I was wearing something that felt like a raincoat. And something that felt like hair under my back, and my rear end, and everywhere else. I tried looking down at myself but was stopped by the sharp pain of someone tugging on the hair on my head.

Another drop fell on my nose, bringing my attention to it, and allowing me to notice that something was off about me.

My nose was a lot more longer than I remembered and was now covered in white fur. More drops fell around me and on me. The drizzling was starting to turn into rain.

I rolled over and discovered that my hair was a lot longer and that my limbs ended in stumps and that I was wearing a dark green raincoat. A part of me told me that I should have been freaking out but strangely, I wasn't. In fact, the weird limbs felt almost normal.

I stared at my new but familiar appendage for a moment and tried to figure out what it was called. An answer came into my mind from a memory of a class that I... did not take?

The memory was of me sitting in a first grade class, learning basic anatomy but strangely it wasn't human anatomy but rather, it was a multitude of creatures. Griffin, changeling, pony were the main ones from the class and if I was right, I was a pony and had hooves and not hands and feet

What was going on?

Confusion slowly took me along with a smudge of dread.

Was this a dream?

The rain that was increasing in intensity by the minute felt too real for this to be a dream.

I looked around to gather more information about my situation. I was lying atop a hill that was surrounded by trees on all sides. In the distance, a tower rose above the foliage but I couldn't tell what it was due to my rather poor eyesight. Beyond that, there was an enormous mountain that stood alone. On its side was a fortress of some sort. A meter from me was a bag.

Where was I? Was I somewhere in Europe? Why was I a pony? Was I dreaming?

No answers came for those questions unfortunately. I decided that my best option would be to explore.

I got up on four legs that ended in black hooves and not human appendages and walked over to the bag with unexpected ease. The knowledge of how to move as a pony was like second nature to me even though I remembered that I was a human.

I picked up the bag with one... front leg... arm? I'll just call it arm since that's easy. It was a simple brown drawstring bag that didn't have any markings. A dark green aura surrounded the strings and I ope-

A dark green aura? Just as I noticed it, it went away. I only had a vague hint that I had made that aura appear. I focused on the bag and once again, the aura appeared, surrounding it completely this time instead of being just on the strings.

I suddenly staggered as a sharp pain went through my head. More memories flooded in and I suddenly knew what the aura was.

It was magic, that I made, through my horn. But I didn't have a horn, I was a human!

No, I wasn't human, I was a- a unicorn. I had been a unicorn my entire life!

...What was going on?

The rain kept pouring harder and harder as I sat there like an idiot, trying to figure out my memories. I was brought out from my effort by a black mass materializing from the ground in front of me. It was the same one I had seen in my weird dream! Or was it a dream?

First, it took the shape of a tall unicorn with wings. An alicorn. Then, it started growing eyes all over itself. All that took a second but I was sure that the sight would stay in my memory forever.

After its transformation was complete, all the eyes on its head focused on me, making me a bit scared.

"WE ARE HERE" it said in a indescribable voice that came from everywhere around me. "YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED BUT YOU REQUIRE WISDOM FOLLOW ME" it continued and started... sliding towards the tower I had seen in the distance.

I stood there for a moment, trying to take this all in before realizing that it moved surprisingly fast for something that was sliding on grass. I picked up the bag and quickly joined it in its walk through the forest.

"GOOD YOU ARE OBEDIENT YOU WILL SUCCEED IF YOU REMAIN SO" it commented as I trailed behind it. We were soon within the forest. I finally came up with a question.

"What do yo-", I tried asking before realizing that I did not sound like myself. My voice was feminine. That combined with the long hair made me come to the conclusion that I was female now. Hadn't I been a male?

A massive headache, the likes of which I have never had before, suddenly came to me. It was so great that I staggered and stopped where I was, hooves to my forehead, trying to contain the pain.

The thing I had been following stopped for me and seemed to analyse me as if my head nearly exploding due to pain was a mild oddity.

"YOU DO NOT ASSIMILATE WITH YOUR VESSEL WELL NOW BUT IT WILL BE RIGHT SOON" it said as it extended a dark, watery appendage to my forehead. As it touched, my body started moving on its own, getting up and continuing to follow the thing.

While the feeling of the appendage and the lack of control over myself was concerning, I didn't protest much as the headache started subsiding, as if the thing had done something.

I, unfortunately, did not get to ask my questions and could not until the thing let me go.

The rain has only gotten stronger as time went on and it the sky became darker. I guessed that the thing and I had been walking for an hour towards the tower thingy in the distance.

Even though I had been thoroughly bored the entire walk, I was also able to come up with all the questions that I wanted to ask. Another thing I had figured out was my memories. I had two sets of memories, one of my human life and one of this pony that was my 'vessel' according to the thing.

I, however, was convinced that the vessel was just an alternate universe me. Most of the memories matched up almost perfectly, bar the differences in physical body, the world and natural phenomenon. The human world where I was had no magic or different species but here, it was the opposite, with multiple species/races and magic being commonplace. The only other places they differed was the most recent ones. The last memory of my human life was me going to sleep. Here, it continued for a bit longer. I had apparently left my home in Manehatten to go live elsewhere with me eventually ending up here. Another important detail was a magical incident a few years back that changed the vessel's gender. It was quite fascinating, comparing two different worlds through my memories, and disappointing to learn that it was much the same.

The thing and I came to a halt.

"YOU WILL CONTINUE ON YOUR OWN FIND THE HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE SETTLEMENT AND PURCHASE IT USING THE CURRENCY IN YOUR BAG" it said as it faced a dirt path that we had come across. The appendage that had been on my forehead the entire time came off, and I suddenly was in control of myself again. The first thing I felt was the mud on my hooves, and the second was exhaustion, as if I had just ran a marathon.

"ONCE YOU REACH THE DWELLING MAKE THE SYMBOL FROM YOUR MEMORY FOR US TO SPEAK AGAIN", the thing said as it started melting.

"Why can't you come with me?", I asked.

"THE INFLUENCE OF CHAOS ENDS AT THE FOREST IF I MOVE FURTHER I WILL BE SEEN" it answered before completely melting into a puddle which then disappeared into the shadow of a tree. I was alone now. I guessed that I had to keep moving and did so, taking the dirt path out of the forest.

I came across a town or a village, judging by the thatched roofs of the houses that I could see. The streets were lit up by streetlights that looked like they came from the Victorian era. No one was outside, the rain and the dark being responsible.

I didn't see many signs that could help me find my way to the house that the thing had told me about but I had a feeling that it'd be on the other side of the town. I started walking, the cobblestones paths in the village being a welcome relief from the mud I had been on previously. At what I guessed was the town center, I found a building shaped like cake or something and guessed that it was a bakery. Another building I came across was a round one that resembled that one attraction that was at every fair, the one that goes round. It had a light on so maybe someone was up at this time of the night.

As I reached the edge of town, the paths became mud once more and the foliage became somewhat thicker, not as thick as in the forest earlier but still a lot. I followed the dirt path and soon I came across a house. It was a two storied brick house with dull brown walls and the roof seemed to be an even darker brown. There were four windows on the front side, all of their curtains drawn so I couldn't see inside. A single "For Sale" sign decorated the tiny but overgrown front lawn. It seemed I had come where I had to.

I walked up to the bare front porch which was illuminated by a lamp on top of the door. I hesitated for a second before knocking on the door. I heard some rapid footsteps inside and the door swung open revealing a green coloured Pegasus stallion who wore a dark raincoat. He seemed to be a bit tired.

"You're the buyer, right?", he asked.

From what the thing had said earlier, I replied, "Yes."

The stallion seemed happy to hear that and gestured for me to follow him inside. I left my raincoat on the coat hanger next to the door and closed the door behind me.

Inside, I was in a hallway that ended in a staircase. To the left was the entrance to a moderately sized kitchen, and two other doors further down the hall that were closed, and to my right was a larger entrance to the living room. The pegasus had went there and took a seat on a old red sofa. In front of the sofa was a low table, on which were a few papers that I expected to be legal documents. Other than that there was a second sofa, in the same red colour and arranged to be in a L formation with other sofa, a fireplace, a gray rug, and glass doors that led to the backyard.

I took a seat on the second sofa, after which the stallion slid the papers on the table towards me along with a pen.

"You'll have to sign here, here, here, and here. Once that is done, you can make the payment. The quicker it is, the quicker I can get away from here", he said as he pointed to some dotted lines where I had to sign. I quickly skimmed over the documents, seeing that they were two copies of a proof of sale and a registration form. I signed those quickly, and the Pegasus took one of the former.

"And now, the money", he said, a bit impatiently.

I opened my bag and saw that it had an ID card, some papers and pictures, a folded up jacket, and two smaller bags that made the telltale sound of coins. I took the larger of the two and handed it to the pegasus, who quickly counted the coins in it before putting it in a pocket in his coat .

"Here are the keys, enjoy your new home I guess. Make sure to submit the registration form at the town hall to the mayor", he said as he took out a bundle of keys from a coat pocket and put it on the table. I couldn't reply as he got up and left, leaving me alone.

I had a few moments to process things. I had bought a house. It might've been cursed or something, judging by how the pegasus wanted to leave so bad, but it was my own.

Things were off to a seemingly good start, but I knew better than to celebrate early. I still had to draw the symbol that the thing had told me to. That could wait, however, as I wanted to look around.

With the keys in my hoof, I set off to my first location, the kitchen. It has an electric stove and an empty fridge. I moved on to the door that came after the kitchen. I tried the handle and found it unlocked. The door swung open to reveal a laundry room. An old looking washing machine and dryer were opposite to the door. The only other thing of interest was a green laundry basket.

I moved onto the second door and found it to be the entrance to the bathroom. I then made my way to the stairs, and spotted a door on the side of the stairs. I decided to check that afterwards and went upstairs, only to find that none of the steps were of the same size after almost tripping on them.

Upstairs, the lights were off. I fumbled for a light switch in the dark for a moment before remembering that I can use my horn to cast a light.

I focused a bit and cast the horn light, which was a lighter green than my normal magic colour. I found a light switch and flipped it, only for nothing to happen. I tried it a few more times and confirmed that a light bulb needed replacing.

It wasn't that much of an issue since I could make my horn light brighter, which I did. In the light, I could see that I was in a hall that was decorated with an empty bookshelf, a patterned circular rug, and a clock which, if correct, showed that it was currently midnight.

Other than that, there was a hallway towards the right (if one was oriented according to the main entrance), on the opposite end of the hall. I followed it and found a light switch that worked and lit up that hallway for me.

There were two more doors along the hallway on one side and windows, that faced the path I came from, on the other.

I tried the handle of the first door and found it locked. I tried the keys one by one and found the right key. The door opened to a bedroom which had a desk, a chair, a window that faced the backyard, a night table, and a bed with a mattress. I moved to the second room, which only had a bed and a night table.

So far, nothing seemed off to me, making me question why the pegasus wanted to leave quickly. That one door below the stairs was still unopened, however, and might give me an answer.

I made my way downstairs and unlocked the door, which opened into a staircase leading into a dark void that was the basement. A light switch next to the door solved the problem as a suprisingly bright yellow light lit up the staircase. I went down the stairs and found the basement to be littered with random boxes. I wanted to check them but a twitch of my nose told me that it was too dusty to explore right now. I didn't want to deal with the dust, knowing the state it reduced me to, and put off opening the boxes for later.

I went back to the bathroom, washing off the dirt on my legs in the bathtub and drying them off. I also decided take a look in the mirror.

I took a look on the mirror and then wished I hadn't. Despite being in a different body, the face was all too familiar. The left eye that didn't open as much as the right, the slight offset of the jaw to the left, the dull expression, all made my face quite ugly. The colours were new, however. I was mostly gray but had a white snout, a white underbelly, and white fur on the lower part of all my legs, making them resemble socks. There were brown patches of fur all over me, including on the left side of my face. My hair was still black and my hooves were black as well. I noticed something on my flank and turned to look at it. I saw a picture of a brown book with a cog on it. A memory told me that it was my talent mark that denoted what I was good at.

I didn't linger in the bathroom much longer and went back to the living room. I took out the rest of the stuff in the bag and put it on the table except for the jacket which I left on one of the sofas.

I had to draw the symbol now and luckily, I had one sheet of paper and the black pen the pegasus had left behind. I started drawing the symbol as I remembered it, a circle with a triangle within along with some weird symbols that resembled animals.

I waited for a few moments and nothing happened. I waited longer and still nothing happened. I felt the room becoming colder, probably due to the rain outside, and took the jacket. It was black, one size too large for me, had a zipper, and was fluffy on the inside, which was basically the perfect jacket for me. Another feature was ear pockets on the hoodie which would keep my now large ears comfortable.

I waited for what seemed to be an hour and just as I started drifting off to sleep, something happened.

The markings on the paper glowed for a bit before the paper burnt up and a dark blob rose from the ashes. It grew in size quickly and was once again an alicorn shaped black mass. This time, however, instead of being covered in eyes, it had coloured dots all over that made it resemble the night sky, only a lot more vibrant, which I thought was pretty cool.

"YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN ACQUIRING THE DWELLING VERY GOOD THE SYMBOL HAS BEEN BURNT AS WELL MORE GOOD HAS THERE BEEN DIFFICULTY?" it asked.

"None so far," I answered before asking my own question, "Why'd I have to make the symbol though, couldn't you just appear like you did earlier?"

"THE MARK IS AN ANCHOR IN YOUR REALITY THAT I CAN USE AS A BEACON AND A WATCHER FOR THIS DWELLING NO OTHER BEING FROM BEYOND CAN INFILTRATE THIS PLACE TO GAIN CONTROL OF YOU" it explained. I understood it as the thing placing some protection charm on my house so others like him couldn't get me. I had a new question though.

"If they can't get me in here, what stops them from getting me when I go outside?", I asked.

"THAT IS WHY I HAVE MANIFESTED NOW FORTUNATELY THE INFLUENCE OF CHAOS IS ENOUGH FOR THE PROCEDURE "

"What pro-", I tried asking but was cut off as the thing jumped at me and tackled me on to the sofa. It deformed from its shape somewhat to hold me down on the sofa as I tried to resist for a second. The dark blob that made up its head deformed and then completely covered mine. The next second, I became still. The thing was so warm and friendly, I wanted to help it, do what it wanted me to. Information entered my head about how to avoid the void things, protection spells against eldritch leeches, how to avoid temptation that other slime used, what would happen if I told anyone about this all. I felt light headed, something was being done to me. I didn't resist.

"IT IS FINISHED", the thing proclaimed as it reformed back into its alicorn shape and got off me. I tried getting up but my legs failed me and I fell to the floor. I was so exhausted for some reason.

The thing picked me up and put me on the sofa.

"I SEE THAT YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR PREVIOUS WORLD YOUR PURPOSE AND YOUR VESSEL AND I WILL ANSWER NOW THAT THE PROCEDURE IS FINISHED" it said.

I took a breath, still suffering from the sudden exhaustion, before asking, "What happened to where I came from?"

The thing was silent for a second before answering in a tone of triumph, "YOUR WORLD WAS BURNT AWAY IN THE AFTERMATH OF ITS GUARDIAN BEING KILLED"

"What?"

"I WILL EXPLAIN, YOUR WORLD WAS A LOWER EXISTENCE THAT EXISTS WITHIN MY WORLD SIMILAR TO A TERRARIUM, EACH OF THESE LOWER EXISTENCES HAS A GUARDIAN TO PREVENT INTRUSION BY OUTSIDERS, AN ARMY OF GREAT STRENGTH GATHERED AT THE GATE TO YOUR WORLD AND FOUGHT ITS GUARDIAN ULTIMATELY DESTROYING IT AND MAKING IT DISCHARGE ALL ITS ENERGY, THE DISCHARGE BURNT YOUR WORLD AND DESTROYED IT WHILE DISRUPTING THOSE CLOSE TO IT, I TOOK YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE MOLTEN WRECK OF YOUR PLANET AND PUT YOU INTO A VESSEL I MADE FOR YOU IN THIS WORLD"

I think I understood the general idea of what happened. Strangely, I didn't care that my world had been destroyed.

"Is the... vessel uhh... your creation or did you put me into someone else, because I have two sets of memories?", I asked.

"THE VESSEL IS MY CREATION I MOLDED IT WHILE THIS WORLD WAS STILL BEING AFFECTED BY THE FALLOUT OF THE GUARDIAN'S DEATH, THE VESSEL IS A PERFECT-", The thing stopped, and I felt that it was unhappy, before continuing, "ALMOST PERFECT ANALOGUE OF YOU IN THIS WORLD ,YOUR MEMORIES OF YOUR PREVIOUS WORLD STAY BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERWRITE THEM WITH NEW ONES

YOU HAVE NOTICED THERE IS A FAULT WITH YOUR VESSEL, AN INCIDENT WITH NATIVE FLORA HAD CHANGED ITS BIOLOGICAL MAKE DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PREFERRED BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE, HOWEVER THERE ARE PRIMITIVE PROCEDURES YOU CAN UNDERGO IN YOUR WORLD IF YOU WISH TO"

I thought about that for a moment. I could undergo surgery and hormone therapy, like the thing said, l to go back to being male. However, if I was correct, it would be very time consuming, hard, and costly, and I did not like doing things that could be described using those three words unless I got something great in return. Plus, I didn't need to do it.

"You said something about me having to find a key, could you tell me more about it?", I asked, remembering the thing talking about a key.

"THE KEY IS AN OBJECT OF GREAT POWER BUT THOSE THAT DESIRE IT CANNOT FIND IT I DESIRE THE KEY BUT YOU DO NOT YOU WILL FIND IT FOR ME THE KEY HAS NO CONSTANT SHAPE IN YOUR WORLD HOWEVER AND WILL BE HARD TO GET", it answered.

"What if I couldn't find it?", I asked, a bit nervously.

"YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS BINDED TO A CELL BY THE PROCEDURE, SHOULD YOU FAIL TO FIND IT IN THIS LIFETIME I WILL MAKE ANOTHER VESSEL AND PUT YOU IN IT", it answered coolly, as if turning me into a lich is no big deal.

"I MUST DEPART NOW FROM THE PHYSICAL PLANE OF THIS REALITY AS THE SUN GROWS SUSPICIOUS IF YOU WISH TO SPEAK TO ME YOU HAVE TO WAIT SEVEN DAYS AND I WILL BE THERE, REMEMBER TO KEEP EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS CONFIDENTIAL SHOULD AN OUTSIDER KNOW ABOUT OUR CONNECTION MY PLAN WILL BE COMPROMISED", it said suddenly, stopping me from asking more questions.

In a flash, it- no, Voth was gone, leaving me alone in the house. I... didn't know what to do.

I just hope things turn out fine.

Chapter 2: Getting started

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The clock ticked as the rain started to slow. I lay on the bed in the first room in the upstairs hall. I had turned my hoodie into a makeshift blanket/sleeping bag by curling up in it and had tried to go to sleep. I, however, could not go to sleep.

I was tired but not sleepy, which kinda sucked. I guess it was the lack of a blanket and pillow or maybe the fact that I had my life changed completely an hour ago.

Sleep eluded me for too long and lying in bed till sunrise wasn't something I wanted to do. I got out of bed and decided that I'll trying cleaning the house.

I went around the house, trying to find something that I could clean but found that everything was fine except the basement but since I didn't have a broom or a mask, I couldn't clean it. I had nothing to do and I did not like that much.

Five minutes of thinking later, I decided that I would take a walk around town. I went downstairs and opened the front door, just to see how hard the rain was. The rain was a lot less harder than earlier but the wind had picked up and was very cold. My back end was not protected by some clothing like my front and I felt like the wind had nearly frozen it. I quickly shut the door and put on my raincoat on top of the jacket I was already wearing. I also decided to take the coin bag I had, just in case I found some 24/7 store. With that, I opened the front door once again.

This time, the wind was not as bad as the raincoat offered some protection. I locked the door behind me as I left my house and put the keys in one of the raincoat's pockets before heading off towards the town.

I came to a fork in the path that I hadn't seen earlier. The middle path lead to the town center. The others, I did not know. After much deliberation, I took the path that went right.

The path lead through a slightly forested area which seemed peaceful. There were only two houses, a brick one that resembled mine and had a 'For Sale' sign as well, and a cottage that seemed like it came out of a fairy tale. Like seriously, it even had a little bridge that went over a stream in front of the house.

The path continued for a bit before turning towards the town center. I followed it and found myself at the town center once again. The rain had become a drizzle by now.

At the town center, I took a random path that lead to a bridge. On the other side, I could see a park, where I went next. There wasn't much in the park. A statue of an alicorn, some benches, and a set of swings were the only things there.

I took a seat at the bench and watched as the rain stopped and the clouds cleared, revealing the night sky. It was not like what I expected. Instead of just a dozen stars here and there, the entire sky was filled with them. I had lived in urban areas for most of my life so this was new to me. Another new thing was the moon. It was close to being a full moon and it had dark patches that resembled a unicorn's head.

As I sat there, the sky started to become lighter. The sun was rising. Had it really been four hours or was the clock in my home wrong?

I started on my way back and this time, the town center had signs of life. The cake shaped building had its light on and I guessed that it was opening soon.

By the time I reached home, the sun was over the horizon. I left my raincoat at the coat hanger and went upstairs to check if the clock was wrong. The clock was, indeed, wrong, as it was showing the current time to be 3 AM. I took it off the wall and adjusted it to be around six. Once that was done, I left the house and went back to the town. I had to get some cleaning supplies, food, bedsheets, and utensils.

I counted the bits in my coin bag as I walked down the path and found I had exactly 5000 bits(the currency of Equestria) made up of 100 bit coins. Unfortunately, I was too engrossed with the bits to notice a rainbow blur approaching me rapidly.

"Out of the way!", was all the warning I got as the blur zipped right in front of me and into a bush. I jumped back and dropped the coin bag, spilling all the bits on to the ground. I had to stop myself from immediately trying to pick up the coins and instead, I turned to the bush where the blur crashed.

A blue mare with rainbow hair stepped out of the bushes, leaves and sticks all over her mane and tail. She shook them off before addressing me.

"Hey, are you fine?", she asked immediately.

"Y-yeah," I replied, "What about you?"

"Oh, me? I'm fine, just went a little off course while practicing flying.", she answered, not particularly shaken after her crash as if it happens regularly to her.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. Are you new here?" she asked after realising that I'm new to the town.

"Yeah, I came here a few hours back," I answered shyly.

"Well, I'm Rainbow Dash. Let me help you with those bits," she said, picking up the coins and putting them in the bag, which she then handed to me.

"You're welcome... uhh I don't think I got your name," she said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

"My name's Anya," I said, recalling what the ID had on it.

"Well, Ann-ya, I'll see ya later!", she said as she took off into the sky.

I watched her fly off for a moment before I started counting how many coins were in the bag. Thankfully, the mare hadn't stolen any and I had all fifty coins.

I continued to the town center and by the time I reached, it was busy. One street had stalls that sold produce, some stores were opening, and ponies were going around buying stuff or going to work.

I was a bit lost, but my stomach told me that I should get food first. The bakery was still closed so I wandered around for a bit before finding a restaurant.

I entered the restaurant and almost immediately, an orange pegasus with red hair who wore an apron greeted me.

"Welcome to the Sunny Hill restaurant! Please take a seat, someone will be there with you soon."

I took a seat at a table in the corner of the building. There was a menu already on the table, which I looked through. I decided that I'd have a vegetable sandwich and a coffee.

A waiter came and took my order, leaving me alone at my table. I observed some of the other customers present for a minute, not finding anything particularly interesting.

Eventually, the orange pegasus from earlier came with my order. She placed my order on the table and I thanked her but she didn't leave immediately.

"I hope your visit you Ponyville is nice, especially the Summer Sun Celebration.", she said.

"The what?", I asked, not knowing what the celebration was. The mare was a bit confused but answered my question.

"The Summer Sun Celebration, I thought it was on the news that princess Celestia had chosen Ponyville as the place where the celebration would take place this year," she explained. It didn't really answer my question of what the celebration was about but it gave me some information. I didn't inquire about what exactly the celebration was about but I guessed that these guys worshipped the sun.

"I uhh haven't really kept up with the news in some time, so, uhh thanks for telling me," I replied, making up a decent excuse. The mare seemed to understand and left me to my sandwich.

I finished my sandwich quickly, and moved onto the coffee when a white unicorn mare with purple hair that was styled in a really curly manner. She had makeup on as well and so I guessed that she was going somewhere after getting food. She had a talent mark of three gems.

From the way the staff greeted her, I guessed she was a regular. She took a seat at a table close to mine. She glanced at me but I was quick on my reaction and made it seem like I was just minding my own business. She, however, did a double take as she saw me. I knew that it wasn't because I was staring at her but something else. She stared at me for several long moments, making me a bit uncomfortable.

Some more moments of getting stared at later, I decided that I wanted to leave. I called a waiter over to get my bill, which was 15 bits. I, very unfortunately, only had 100 bit coins which made my stay longer as the waiter went to go get some change.

In the corner of my eye, I could see the mare had got up from her seat and was approaching me. I didn't really want to talk to her for some reason but I currently had no choice.

"Hello there, miss," she greeted in a posh voice. "I have to say that you look marvelous in that jacket."

Oh... that was it?

"Thanks," I replied, trying to sound happy about the compliment even though I found it weird to go out of your way to compliment a stranger.

"Would it be appropriate if I asked you where you purchased it from?", she then asked. I thought about it and realised that I didn't have an answer other than 'an eldritch being gave it to me'.

"It's fine if you ask that question but the problem is that I uh don't remember where I got it," I replied.

"Well, that's fine I suppose," the mare replied, a bit disappointed, before continuing, "I assume you have come to Ponyville for the celebration."

"No, I have moved here," I replied bluntly.

"Oh! It's nice to know that someone new is living in Ponyville. My name is Rarity, what's yours?", she asked with a smile.

"My name is Anya," I replied, feeling a bit more comfortable than before.

"So, Ann-ya, did I pronounce that right?"

"It's Anya."

"Aanya."

"Yeah, that's good. So, what were you going to ask?"

"I was going to ask if you have met Pinkie yet?", she asked.

"No, I haven't met her. Is there anything that I should know about her?", I asked, waiting to know who this Pinkie was.

"Well, all I have you say is that she gets... excited about news ponies in town and she tends to throw parties about it. That's all you need to know," she answered.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Rarity," I thanked her despite her vagueness.

"You're welcome. I must leave now, can't let my breakfast get cold." With that, she was gone. She seemed nice, warning me about Pinkie, whoever that was.

The waiter came with my change in a minute, and I left the restaurant. Outside, it was still busy, just not as much as earlier. I searched for a general store and found one named "Barnyard Bargains". I entered the store and found that it wasn't particularly busy. I looked around for a broom, cleaning cloths, a mop, a bucket, a floor-cleaning solution, and a few other things. I found it all, but it all seemed to be on the expensive side. I didn't complain too much about it and bought it all. On my way out, I saw a sign saying the store was hiring. It reminded me that I'd need to get a job soon, unless Voth was gonna magic me some money, like a lovecraftian sugar daddy.

I made my way home with the supplies, and just as I entered, I remembered that I had forgotten to buy a mask. I didn't want to go out again, so I decided to risk cleaning the basement without a mask. I went downstairs with a broom and dust pan and set them aside.

First, I had to deal with the boxes. There were seven of them, and I started with the one closest to the stairs. It was medium-sized and had its flaps shut in a way where they all overlapped each other. I opened it and found a set of cups. They were white with blue patterns decorating them, and there were six of them in total. I set that box aside and moved on to the next.

The next box was small and had two books in it. One was about runes, and the other was something about 'block magic'. I set it aside as well.

The third box just had magazines in it, none of which seemed important to me. I'd have to throw them away later.

The fourth box was small as well. I opened it and found a wooden box that resembled a treasure chest. I tried opening it but it was locked shut. I picked it up and it felt heavy, meaning it had something in it. I put it on the table in the basement.

There fifth box had a hammer, two screwdrivers, an adjustable wrench, and random screws and nails.

The sixth has a book about shadowmancy which sounded very edgy to me, and the seventh had four adventure books that starred a character named 'Daring Do', and I guessed that it'd be something similar to Indiana Jones.

I put all the valuable stuff on the table and folded up the boxes. Now for the hard part. I grabbed the broom and started sweeping all the dust being careful not to kick it up in the air. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and soon my eyes were starting to water as I started sneezing. After that, I finished the sweeping at a much faster pace because I couldn't do anything to reverse the effects dust had on me.

At last, the basement was clean, and I could rest. Or so I thought. I heard knocking at my door. I went upstairs to check who it was but found only a letter on my doorstep. It was a bright pink colour with a lot of glitter on it. I opened the letter and saw a note that simply said, "Be there at Sugarcube Corner by 2, we'll be waiting for you!" The letter was signed by a Pinkie Pie, who I guessed was throwing a party like Rarity had said. I went upstairs and checked the clock the showed that it was only 8 AM.

I was tired and ready to go sleep at this point but knowing me, I'd probably miss the party due to oversleeping. However, I didn't have anything to occupy my time, other than taking a bath. There was shopping as well but I want really in the mood to go spend more money. I thought some more and remembered that I had to submit that one form at the town hall.

I checked on the table in the living room and found it there as I had left it. I picked it up in my magic and left my house. I expected that submitting the form would be an easy task.

With the form, I left the house again. The walk back to the town center was uneventful and with some help from signs, I found the town hall nearby. It was a cylindrical building that reminded of that other building. There was a notice board outside which was empty at the moment. I entered the building and found that it was empty. A door with the label 'mayor' to the side caught my eye and I guessed that's where I had to go.

I knocked on the door and heard a "come in" from inside. I opened the door and saw a tan coloured mare with grey hair sitting at a table signing some papers. She wrote reading glasses and a tie thingie.

"Hello there, how can I help you?", she said as she looked up at me with a friendly smile.

"I was told to submit this form here," I replied as I levitated the form into her table. She took it and checked it before looking back up and speaking.

"Ah, you've just moved in. Welcome to Ponyville, miss... Anya Khan. Did I get that right?"

"Yeah, you got it," I answered. She smiled at that before continuing.

"Well, Anya, I hope you find Ponyville a nice place. I'm Mayor Mare, the mayor of this town.

Now, you've filled out all the necessary details, so, I can add you to the town registry later. However, I've got to ask you a question," she said, looking at a paper that had a list on it and continuing, "I'm sure you know that Ponyville is hosting the Summer Sun Celebration this year, and I'd like to know if you want to volunteer with setting it up since we have a shortage of volunteers for a few things, that is if you aren't busy."

I thought about it and figured it'd be a good opportunity to blend in and get a positive reputation.

"Yeah, I'll volunteer," I answered. Mayor Mare was happy to hear that.

"Do you want to help with any particular task?" she asked she passed the paper with the list to me.

"I don't really have a problem with anything," I said after skimming over the list.

"Great! I'll have you help with the ahh... decorations. You'll have to go to Rarity as she is in charge of that, she'll tell you what to do," she said, mentioning the mare I met earlier today.

"Okay, thanks mayor," I said as I left the office. A clock on the wall shows that the time was 8:30. There was still a lot of time till the party. I guessed that I could go find Rarity or maybe do some shopping. I could really have some chai about now.

Now that I think about it, I should probably go shopping for chai ingredients. I could talk to Rarity later.

With that, I left the town hall and looked around for some store other than Barnyard Bargains. I found one named 'Wind's convenience'. I entered and could tell it was completely different from Barnyard Bargains. This store was similar to a supermarket while the other seemed locally owned. The difference reflected in the prices as well, with things being cheaper here.

I got milk, some ginger, sugar, a pack of noodles, a few carrots, peas, tea powder, and some utensils as well. With all that, I headed home and went to the kitchen where I put all the stuff where it should be.

Now for chai, I filled up a kettle with water and set it to boil on the stove. As it was hearing up, I crushed up the ginger and put it in the kettle along with some tea powder and sugar. Once it was boiling, I put in the milk and let it simmer for a few minutes. After that I turned the stove off and looked around for a cup before remembering that I had six in the basement. I got them upstairs and cleaned one quickly and poured some chai in it.

It smelled nice but I had to wait for it to cool a little before I could taste it. I figured that I'd read one of the magic books I had found. I got all the upstairs and picked the one about runes. I opened it to the first page and started reading. I took a sip of the chai as I did and burnt my tongue.

It was 12 noon.

I had read the first quarter of the book and found it quite interesting. A rune, in its simplest form, was basically a carving with magic and intent stored in it. It was also very inefficient in the simplest form, as magic didn't have proper pathways to flow through. After that, the book started explaining standard runes that are used almost universally. It was sort of like programming, something I was really into.

I had to stop reading though since it was noon and the party was in two hours and I had to get ready. I went upstairs and got a towel I had got earlier and went to the bathroom.

The bathtub had a shower, and I intended to take a quick shower. Unfortunately, it took a while because I was having trouble with my mane and tail. Like seriously, my Mane was so long it dragged on the ground. After the shower, I had trouble drying them as the towel was too wet to do so properly. I applied some hair oil, brushed my mane, and then started braiding it into a basic three-stand braid.

Once that was done, I looked myself over and felt that I looked decent. Getting ready, however, had taken more than an hour and I had about fifteen minutes left to get to the bakery. I didn't wear my jacket as it was warm outside now.

I left the house and walked to the bakery. The town center was a lot less busy than before. The bakery was a different story though. I knew that there would be a party but I didn't expect so many ponies to show up, like it wasn't even my birthday, I had literally just moved in.

Inside the bakery, there were about fifty ponies, all waiting for me to arrive along with a sign that said "Welcome to Ponyville Anya!" and plenty of food.

A pink pony with pink hair came up to me. Her hair was messy and she seemed very excited to see me.

"Hey there, Anya! It's so nice to see you. So nice that I threw a party! For you! Let the party begin!" she said very rapidly, giving me only a few moments to comprehend what she said. The party began when she said to start it and immediately she brought me to a table with some ponies. I would have tried to stop her, but she was simply too fast, and before I knew it, I was sitting down at some table.

I looked at the ponies at the table and recognised two of them, Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who were sitting opposite of one another. I didn't recognise the two other ponies though.

"Hey Ann-ya, nice to see you here," Rainbow said, eating some chips. I was going to reply but Rarity cut me off.

"Now, Rainbow, I know you aren't one for hygiene but talking while eating is disgusting, besides that, you pronounced Aanya's name wrong." Rarity chided Rainbow.

"Now now, it ain't good tah start fightin' at a party, 'specially when the guest o' honour is here," the third point, am orange earth pony with a blond mane and stetson said, stopping the argument, before addressing me, "Pleasure to meet ya Anya, name's Applejack."

"Nice to meet you as well, Applejack," I replied. The other mare at the table, a dark pink earth pony with lighter pink hair, also greeted me, "Hello there Anya, I'm Cheerilee. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you guys as well," I replied. All of us sat in silence for a few moments before Applejack spoke again.

"Say Anya, Ah'm curious to know why ya moved tah Ponyville when there's lot o' other bigger towns out there," Applejack said.

"The house was cheap, and I needed my own place," I responded quickly.

"Huh, I don't know any place that was being sold in Ponyville," Rainbow said, this time without having a mouthful of food.

"There's a house close to the forest. I live there," I said hoping they'd know the one.

"The brown brick house? You live there?!" Rainbow asked being clearly shocked.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, a bit confused before remembering how the pegasus who sold me the house wanted to leave it as quickly as possible. Was my house haunted?

"That house is cursed!", Rainbow stated dramatically, "Everypony that ever lived in that house has left within a few months because they kept getting into accidents, not getting sleep, or even shadowy figures haunting them!"

Well, at least it wasn't just haunted.

"Okay." I replied apathetically, giving my honest reaction to that information.

Before Rainbow could continue, I remembered that the mayor had told me to go talk to Rarity about helping with the decorations.

"Hey Rarity, I had went to the mayor some time back and volunteered to help with decoration for the celebration and she told me to come talk to you."

"Oh! You'll be helping with decoration? Well, I'll tell you that it'll be a great time doing that. Come to the town hall tomorrow around nine, we'll be staying from there," Rarity said. Now, I had a plan for tomorrow.

It was then that the pink pony returned. She carried a plate with a slice of chocolate cake on it. She put the parts in front of me at the table before asking loudly, "How have you been enjoying your party so far?"

If had only been like five minutes since I came here and as a result, I didn't really have an answer. Plus, I don't really like parties. However, making an answer up was always an option.

"It's been going good so far," I answered. I could see Applejack narrow her eyes a bit from the corner of my eye.

"That's good! I'm Pinkie Pie by the way, the premier pink party pony of Ponyville!!" She responded and then continued with a very large smile, "How's the cake?"

I hadn't taken a view of the cake yet but after the pink pony prompted, I took one. It was a lot better than I expected. It was sweet but not so much that it was bad, while the amount of frosting was perfect.

"It's pretty good," I responded, taking another bite.

"Of course it is, the Cakes made it! They make the best cakes and pastries and desserts and cookies and all other sweet things in all of Equestria. Look! They're over there, I'll go tell them that you liked the cake," she said pointing at two ponies across the room before leaving us again.

"Ya know Anya, ya don't have tah lie to her 'bout liking the party, she won't take any offence." Applejack started, calling me out on my made up answer.

"Well, it's not like I don't like the party, it's just that I'm not really used to someone throwing a party for just moving into town. Besides, it'd be kinda rude to say I didn't like it," I replied, justifying myself.

"She has a point, Applejack," Cheerilee said, "I didn't like it much either when I moved into town and Pinkie immediately the a party but I could at least appreciate the sentiment."

Applejack was a bit miffed but accepted the response. I guessed she was big about being honest.

The five of us sat in silence for a minute, eating whatever we had on our plates before Rarity spoke up.

"Well, Anya, I've got to ask you, how do you manage to make yourself look so simple but so pretty?" She asked.

"Huh?" I responded, having no idea what she was talking about.

"You do not even need to use make-up to heads turn." Rarity continued as she gestured to a table where a group of stallions kept sneaking looks towards our table, and from how Rarity was talking, I guessed they were looking at me.

I, having no experience as an attractive woman, or as an attractive person in general, was greatly confused. Accordingly, I asked, "I look pretty?"

It was Rarity's turn to be confused.

"Of course, you do. Why would even question it?" Rarity responded. I didn't really say anything and just looked down at my food. Rarity didn't really take my silence as an answer.

"I might have only met you today but I can say that you need to be more confident with yourself." She advised.

I nodded, not wanting to continue this discussion any longer.

"Heh, you remind me of Fluttershy. You should probably meet her sometime." Rainbow said.

Princess Celestia paced around in her room, clearly worried. The celebration was in a week but so was her sister's return. Her student had proven herself to be dependable but she was still worried for her, knowing that she was putting Twilight in danger because she was not a good sister.

Besides that, a massive amount of energy had hit their world. She did not know what had happened in the outer reality but assumed it had been a great disaster. There was no real effect on her world but she still has a feeling that something had changed, that something would come and change the course of the future.

She only hoped it would be for the good of everyone.

Chapter 3: 'Neigh'bour

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The sun was starting to set.

My first day in town had gone pretty good. I was wandering around town, just passing time and finding cool new places. One of the places I had found was a library, and believe it or not, it was carved into a huge tree. I couldn't go inside since it was closed due to lacking a librarian. The irony of a library in a tree aside, a job as a librarian was interesting to me. I'd get to spend my time in a quiet place with many books, which would be a suitable substitute for the Internet, which, unfortunately, has not been invented yet in this world.

Another thing was the number of times someone told me I looked pretty. It was weird, but it... felt nice. I don't really think that anyone had called me pretty or complimented me in general when I was a male, but I figured it wouldn't last long once they got to know me better and realized that I'm dumb as shit.

As I turned a corner, I bumped into someone since I was too busy with my thoughts to hear them. We both fell backward, but it sounded like they dropped some stuff.

"Sorry 'bout that, didn't see where I was going," said the mare I bumped into. She was a light brown pegasus with dark brown hair. She had a talent mark of a rainbow-coloured wing. The most interesting part about her appearance was that her forelegs ended in paws like a cat and not hooves. She also had cat-like eyes and long whiskers. I got back up and offered a hoof to help her up but she was busy searching for something on the ground.

"Don't move; I dropped my glasses," she said as she felt around for them on the ground. I looked down and saw that her glasses were at my hooves. They were round, thin-framed, flimsy looking, and seemed too large for the head.

"I found them," I informed her as I picked them up and handed them to her. She quickly snatched them and put them on, then looked around her to see what she had dropped. I also looked and saw many art supplies and an open saddlebag. The pegasus got up and started gathering her stuff, or at least tried to. She was rather clumsy, dropping things she had just picked up.

"You need help with that?" I asked, feeling bad for causing this.

"Oh yes, I do, " she replied as she dropped a bunch of pens she had just picked up.

I focused my magic, lifted almost all the supplies off the ground, and put them in the bag as nearly as possible. It was tedious since I had to keep track of so many small items, but I managed to do it. The mare picked up the remaining stuff and stuffed it in the bag before putting it on her back.

"Thanks for that; I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, but how can you when the sky is so beautiful." She said, looking towards the sunset. I looked where she was looking and saw that some clouds were in front of the sun in a really cool looking shape and were coloured golden by the sunlight. Indeed, it looked beautiful.

"You can't get views like this in Canterlot." She added, which prompted me to ask a question.

"You came here for the celebration?" I asked before realizing that it was rather dumb to ask who would come with art supplies for the celebration.

The mare, however, didn't think my question was dumb and answered, "Oh no, I came here searching for inspiration. You see, I'm uhh... umm, actually, never mind." She started explaining before cutting herself off. "I shouldn't waste your time or mine with my ramblings, sorry."

She turned to leave before turning back shyly and asking sheepishly, "Do you know which way is Evergreen Street?"

I thought about it and then remembered that my house was on that street.

"I can take you there." I offered since I was bad at giving directions and also because I wanted an excuse to continue talking to her.

"You don't need to; I know you probably have something to do, " she said, trying to politely decline my offer even though I sensed that she'd be happy if I led her there.

"Nah, I don't have anything going on, so I can take you there if you want me to," I said.

"Oh, then, thanks! I'll follow you." She said, happy to accept my offer.

"Okay, come with me," I said as I started walking. She stuck by my side as we walked.

"I'm Feather Brush, by the way, but you can call me Feather, or Brush." She said, giving me her name.

"I'm Anya; it's nice to meet you, Feather." I replied, "So, you were talking about trying to find inspiration earlier but stopped. What exactly were you trying to say?"

She seemed slightly surprised but answered, "As you can tell, I'm an artist. I'm pretty good at it, but I never really felt like my work was good."

"How exactly?"

"My work feels bland to me. It's just portraits, scenery, or something else that's unoriginal. I want to make something that's not the same old thing or unoriginal. I want to make something that I can feel good about." She explained to me. I couldn't really relate as I wasn't that much into art, but I understood that she wanted to do something new.

"So, you want to do something new?" I asked to make sure that I understood correctly while also sounding like I wanted to help.

"You could put it that way, yes, but it's not like I want to make a new style or something; I just want to make something that I'd like." She clarified, "Imagine this: you're a great artist, but you can only make portraits of nobility or a painting of some landscape when you really just want to do something else. I want to find out what that something else is."

I nodded in understanding. She knew that she wanted to do something other than what people told her, and I related to that somewhat. The difference was that she was a lot more determined to find out what she wanted to do.

In the time we were talking, we had come up to the street.

"Here we are," I announced looking at the empty street. I could see that one house and the path that lead to my home.

"This is... a lot more emptier than I imagined," Brush said as she looked around and saw we were by ourselves, "My uncle had told me that I'd have a neighbour but I see no other house here."

"That is because the other house is down that path," I said pointing to said path. "And I assume that's where you'll be staying." I added looking at the house.

"Yeah, that'll be my place," she said before turning to me, "I have a question though."

"Go ahead, ask."

"Do you happen to be my neighbour?" She asked a bit suspiciously.

"Yeah, I am." I answered, slightly confused by her sudden change in behaviour.

"And did you move in recently?" She asked even more suspicious.

"Yeah, I moved in today at like, the in the morning." I answered, a bit weirded out by Brush's tone.

"And we you paid by someone to move here and watch me?" She asked in a hostile tone.

"Umm... what?" I asked, totally confused.

"Answer me, yes or no?" She said ignoring my confusion.

"No, I moved here on my own, no one paid me to move here to stalk you," I answered truthfully. She scrutinised my expression for a moment before calming down and taking a deep breath.

"Sorry about that, I just wanted to be sure." She said calmly.

"Sure about what?" I asked, wanting to know what got her so worked up. She looked down at the ground in thought before answering.

"Let's just say that my parents don't really like me doing stuff without them knowing." She explained.

"So, your saying that you were scared that I might be hired by your parents to spy on you?"

"...yeah, they've done something similar before." She answered sadly.

"That's messed up," I noted, quite horrified, before asking, "What made you think that I'd be spying on you?"

"Well, you seemed a bit too friendly for a stranger." She answered before looking around and changing the topic, "It's getting dark, I should get this stuff to my house and then the rest of my stuff at the station."

I could see that she didn't want to continue that conversation and respected her wishes. I, however, decided that I wanted to help her.

"I could help you with getting that stuff from the station." I offered. Her mood improved at that.

"Thanks for that but I have to get this stuff home first," she said as she set off to her house at a brisk pace. I followed her till the entrance. The house was very similar to mine, the difference being that this one was painted white and had a brownish-red roof. I waited outside as Brush went in and dropped off the bag. She was back outside in a minute.

"That's done. Let's get the rest," she said. I nodded and we started making our way back to town.

"Anya, if you won't mind me asking, why did you come to ponyville?" Brush asked as we wanted, clearly not keen to have a silent walk.

"After I left home, I kinda just moved around from place to place and eventually I came to ponyville and found a cheap house that I liked." I answered, leaving it all the bad details that I thankfully didn't have to experience in real-time.

"Did you come from another country?" She continued.

"Yeah, I came from South Asia," I answered.

"That explains the accent," she said, pointing out my accent that I didn't realise I had. "What's was it like over there?"

"Well, the area I came from was pretty hot and humid all the time which kinda sucked, especially in the summer. Besides that, it was pretty normal," I summarised. "What about Canterlot, what is it like there?"

"Ugh, don't get me started. The population is mostly unicorns and a lot of them seen to think they're superior for some reason and since I'm a pegasus, they'd be mean to me. Besides that, it looks nice and the weather is also great but it's pretty bland in other aspects if you ask me," she answered in a mini rant. I was a bit taken aback by her saying that the people there are somewhat racist but didn't say anything about it.

We were pretty close to the station now and the sun was almost completely below the horizon. The station was deserted but had some lights on. There were two suitcases next to a bench and I figured that they belonged to Brush. One was almost as big as Brush while the other was half the first's size.

Brush went ahead to pick up the larger suitcase. She, however, could not. She tried grabbing it and flying but that didn't work either.

"I can get that for you if you're having trouble," I said. She didn't respond and kept trying to pick up the suitcase and fly. This, unfortunately, led to the handle breaking off which sent Brush flying upwards to the roof and hitting her head. I watched as she did so and then rushed to help her after she landed on the ground.

"You fine?" I asked knowing damn well that she probably wasn't fine. She was rubbing the spot where she hit her head as she got up.

"I don't think I can pick that up," she responded as she took a seat at one of the benches to recover from her physical exertion. I turned to the suitcase and thought how I'd pick it up. I tried with my magic and found that I barely moved it. I guess I had to be physical with it.

With a great amount of effort, and some help of my magic, I managed to pick it up and balance it on my back.

"Iss mey patthar bhare hua hai kya?(Is this filled with stones?)" I said under my breath as I struggled with the weight of the suitcase.

"What did you say?" Brush asked as she got hold of the other suitcase.

"I said let's go," I lied. Brush led the way as we both made the journey back to her house. It was harder on me since I carried the weight of the world(suitcase) on my back but we made it. By the time we reached her home, the sun had gone down entirely.

She opened the front door and held it open as I brought the large suitcase inside. I was ready to just drop it at this point. With some help from Brush, I got the suitcase off my back. I was really tired at this point and needed a breather.

Brush noticed this and said,"Why don't you stay for a bit? I could get some coffee in a bit."

"Sure," I replied, accepting the offer.

"Great! Why don't you head to the living room while I get something," she said as she went off to the kitchen. I went to the living room and plopped myself down on one of the sofas. It was tempting to lie down and rest but I stayed seated and looked around.

The layout of the house seemed the same to mine, or at least the ground floor did. There was, however, an overall different feel to this house for some reason. It felt more homely, like something a happy family of four or five would live in, while my house felt more uninviting like the house that an old weird man would live in. I guessed it was the proximity to the forest.

A minute later, Brush entered the room with two cups of coffee.

"I think I forgot to say this earlier but thanks a lot for helping me out today," she thanked me as she gave me one of the cups and took a seat next to me. The cup had milk coffee which I liked. I took a sip and found that the code was a bit too sweet for me but it was fine since I didn't really tell her what kind of coffee I wanted.

"Is it good?" Brush asked as she stopped on her own cup.

"Yeah, it's good," I answered.

We say in silence drinking or coffee when Brush started,"So, how is the town?"

"It's fine so far. Nothing out of the ordinary, except a pony named Pinkie throwing a party over me moving in. I guess that she'll throw you a party as well," I answered.

"Is the party a good one or a bad one?" Brush asked.

"Depends on you really. If you like snacks and music and lots of ponies then it'll be a good one. I can say that the food will be good for sure. Plus, Pinkie is pretty friendly."

I then asked her a question.

"So, what kind of art do you make? Like the uh style you go for when you make something."

"Well, I make realistic stuff almost all of the time. I could probably show you something later when I make something.

What about you, you ever made any art?"

"If doodles in a notebook during class count then yes, I have made art, but it wasn't anything great," I said remembering all the stickmen I'd draw during the long boring lessons of school when I was younger. I grew out of it though after my marks started going down. "Other than that, there was mostly stuff I made in art class."

"Ooh, you took an art class during school?"

"Well, art class was mandatory back where I came from until 10th grade so, I didn't really 'take' it and honestly, they sucked during middle school. For 11th and 12th, though, I did take art classes and they were pretty great. I made some cool drawings and paintings but couldn't really keep them," I answered, a bit sad towards the end.

"Why couldn't you keep them?"

"My parents didn't think they were great and got rid of them," I answered. Brush seemed annoyed and even a bit angry at that.

"Some ponies just can't appreciate art," she said. I nodded in agreement and continued sipping my coffee. My coffee was finished in a minute.

"I guess I'll be leaving now, it was nice talking to you," I said.

"It was nice talking to you too, Anya," Brush said as she took my empty cup and took it to the kitchen. I made my way to the front door and after bidding farewell to Brush, I left for my home.

It was still about 8'o clock and since I slept late, I had quite a lot of time on my hooves. I guess I could read one of the Daring Do books I had.

Chapter 4: Treasure!

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I woke up with a start, completely disoriented. I couldn't tell what the time was since the curtains to my room's window were drawn and I didn't have an alarm clock. The light in my room wasn't on either, leaving me in the dark.

I tried getting off my bed to open the curtains but found that I was too comfortable to get up. Instead, I tried reaching out and moving the curtain to take a peek outside but didn't realise that it was out of my reach and instead of opening the curtain, I fell out of bed.

I lay on the floor, mostly awake now, thinking about how stupid I was before attempting to get up. Unfortunetly, I had stepped on my hair when I tried to stand up and consequently, pulled it real hard. I was fully awake now and trying not to cry from the pain of pulling off a bunch of hair off my head. I opened the curtain and saw that it was dark outside.

I looked at my bed and thought about going back to sleep but decided that I would check the time first. I left my bedroom and went down to the hall where the clock was. It showed the time to be about 4:30 AM. I only had one thing to do today and that was helping out Rarity with decorations in the afternoon.

I could go back to sleep some more, which is exactly what I tried to do.

I went back to my room and crawled into bed and closed my eyes. In a minute, I was almost asleep but then, I heard someone shout my name angrily. I jolted, going from lying down peacefully to sitting upright in just a moment. The resulting rush of blood to my head made me go back down though. I lay in bed, trying to figure out who called my name but then I remembered that I lived alone.

I was disappointed in myself for ruining my morning and sleep by imaging sounds, like who does that?

I got up, for real this time, and headed downstairs. It was now that I got the biggest shock of the day. My vision was blurry, as it usually is just after waking up, and because of that, I did not see that I missed a step on the stairs.

End result: I fell down the stairs.

Fortunately, I was close to the bottom so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, I still got hurt and was now in a bad mood. I continued with my morning routine of brushing my teeth, washing my face, brushing my hair, etc. after that. Nothing too out of the ordinary about me doing stuff while in a bad mood. Just another morning of highschool, except that I was free from that hell.

One all that was done, I had to deal with breakfast. I had noodles in the pantry and leftover chai from yesterday, wich would suffice for a meal. I quickly got to cooking and soon, I had a bowl of plain noodles and a cup of chai. I ate it at my pace, which was rather slow, and was done with it. The sun was still just rising over the horizon.

There was still so much time left to the afternoon or even the time of the morning when almost everyone was awake. I had a lot of free time. Free time that I was not used to in the slightest. Even though high school was hell, it atleast gave me something to occupy my time with. Besides that, the internet was always there for me, ready to show me what ever I wanted to see and help me waste my time.

But now, I had none of that. I only had my thoughts now... Or did I? I remembered the books I had and how they could keep me distracted from my thoughts. With that, I went to the tune book I had left in the living room table. It was where I had left it, still opened and kept upside down to stay on the page I had left it at. I picked it up and began reading again; the descriptions of common runes a lot more appealing than doing nothing.

I read it all till I reached the pages that had example runes. From my experience with programming, which was very similar to these runes, I knew that the best way to learn, for me at least, was to learn all the important stuff like keywords and then just mess around with it. I looked out the living room window and saw that it was still pretty early, like around 6 or 7 AM. I could practice runes for an hour or more if I wanted to pass time.

There was a sight problem. I didn't have papers that I could use, or any other writing utensil other than a black ball point pen. All the excitement I had started to leave me.

What should I do? I asked myself. Most of the stores wouldn't be open till 8 AM but by that time, I would have lost whatever motivation I had. What if I check the basement again to see if I missed something? Yes, I will do that.

I went down to the basement, hoping I'd find something to write with or some paper I could draw the runes on. It was the same as yesterday except that despite there being ventilation, the air felt stale. I guessed that the place needed a fan and made a point to get one to put in here. Besides that, the place was as I had left it and the rational part of me accepted that there was nothing I could do now. There was still an irrational part though, and it told me to check again. Maybe I had missed something when I opened the boxes and then cleaned the place, it suggested.

I checked around again. The boxes that I had folded and kept aside were still empty, there was nothing on the floor or in the corners. There was still the table which had the magazine stack by it and the locked box and tools on it. The table also had an oversized table cloth on it and that gave me the idea that maybe there was something underneath it.

I raised the table cloth and found that there was indeed something underneath the table. Two things actually. The two things were two identical looking metal chests that were locked. The chests looked old and when I pulled them out from under the table, I found that they were heavy as well.

Now, I had three locked boxes in my house and zero keys. I tried looking for a key under the table but found none.

However, there was one key on the table and it was shaped like a hammer, had the same make as a hammer, and had the power of a hammer as well, because it was a hammer. I could try using the back end of the hammer to force open the small, weak looking lock on the smaller wooden box but the locks on the metal chests looked a lot more tough. I looked for some other weakness for a minute and realised that the latches on the chests were attached to the chests with screws and I had screwdrivers with me.

Now, I had all three keys with me. I started with the small wooden box, using the hammer to force the lock open. The lock broke as expected and I took it off. I opened the lid and was met with the sight of gems. A lot of gems. I picked up a orange one and inspected it in the light. I didn't know if it was real since I hadn't ever interacted with precious stones but my feelings told me one thing: I'm rich.

I spent the next few minutes laying out all the contents of the the treasure box onto the table and identifying what I had. I had rubies, emeralds, sapphires, amethyst, orange thingies, two diamonds, a large white crystal, and a 100g bar of silver.

It's clear that I'm rich. Or was I? Someone might come here someday and ask for their box full of treasure that they left behind. I couldn't be sure that it was mine, meaning that I wasn't rich. I was still happy though.

I moved onto one of the metal chest, using the flathead screwdriver to remove the screws on the latch. It sounds a lot easier than it was since the screw was in really tight. With quite a lot of effort, I unscrewed the two screws holding the latch to the lid. I opened the box and found a lot of old yellow papers. I picked one up and found it blank. I moved aside the papers to see what else was there in the chest that gave it is weight and found a cardboard box beneath the papers. I picked it up and found it to be heavy. I opened it quickly, finding crumpled newspaper. I moved the crumpled papers aside and found a large piece of glass. I pulled it out and realised that it was not glass at all. It was a fucking huge diamond! I was even more excited now even though this treasure trove was probably someone else's.

Besides the huge diamond, there were a lot of old yellow papers in the chest, which I stacked on the table, and an actual key. I tried the key on the lock of the second chest since it fit and surprisingly, it unlocked.

I opened the second chest with enthusiasm and found... dumbbells. There were two labelled five kilograms and another that was ten kilograms. Nothing else was in the chest. The third chest was a lot less cooler than what I expected.

I remembered my original purpose for coming down in the basement and picked up one of the yellow papers, leaving everything else behind back in the boxes, and went back upstairs.

Once upstairs, I got my pen and a paper and sat down at the living room table. I decided that a light emitting rune would be a good start and got to work drawing.

First, I had to make an enclosed boundary that would contain the rune. I drew a circle, which was the most efficient shape for a rune's boundary since it allows magic to flow through it the easiest. I drew a smaller circle within the larger one, close to the top, and connected both using a line. Within the smaller circle, I drew an 'I' that represented the part of the rune that absorbed ambient magic to power the rune. After that, I drew a second circle on the opposite side of the first. Within that circle, I drew another circle that had a thick outline and a 'L' in it that showed that the output was light.

As soon as I finished, the rune started glowing a dull white. It s brightness depended on the material the rune was drawn on and the thing used to draw it. Pen and paper were obviously not great choices but they worked. The rune would keep glowing until the ink or the paper degraded or the rune's outer circle is broken. Since the ink and paper were actively interacting with magic, they would degrade a lot faster, probably in a day or two.

I left it at the table, pleased with myself, and moved on to making a different rune.

The time was around 10 AM.

A dozen papers with runes lay on the table. Some were torn since I hadn't made switch elements and had only one way to turn them off which was breaking the rune boundary. There were also a dozen more papers on the floor, all of which were covered in failed runes, and had to be thrown away.

My takeaway from my experiments was that sharp turns were not as good at conducting magic as gentle turns, that runes were pretty useful, and that I should get a new pen since the one I had had ran out of ink.

I didn't have much to do now and decided that I'd go and get some shopping done since I needed to get a lightbulb, pens, and maybe a fan as well along with other stuff. With that decided, I got my money bag and left my house to get the stuff.

Chapter 5: The Fifth

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The town hall was quiet, which was a good thing for Rarity. There would be no one to disturb her as she worked on the decorations and unleashed her artistic genius on the building.

She had laid out all the streamers, banners, and lights on a table and all she needed now was a spark of inspiration. She insisted the hall carefully, looking for anything that would inspire her.

Unfortunately, she was disturbed by the main door behind opened and a pony entering.

"Hi Rarity."

"Hi Rarity," I said as I entered the turn hall just on time. It looked like she was going to begin with the decorations. Shopping has taken time but I had everything I needed but I also was starting to get low on money. Now that I was here, I could help out Rarity and then go talk to Mayor Mare about the job at the library.

"Hello, Anya, you're just on time, I was about to begin," she said with a smile as she picked up a banner in her magic. "Could you hang this outside by the door?"

I nodded and took the banner in my magic and took it outside. It was a banner that read 'welcome' and had the image of the sun as the background. I found a nail sticking out the wall next to the door and hung it there. One that was done, I went back inside. Rarity had gotten busy, placing banners with sun symbols on the walls.

"Yo, Rarity, I hung the thing," I informed her.

"That's great! Could you get me the step-ladder, it should be in that room," she said pointing to a door to side. I obliged and returned with the ladder.

"Set out up here, I'll go get more banners," she said as she pointed to a spot on the floor next to a pillar and then she handed me a few banners and a roll of tape, "While I do that, put these up, please."

I didn't get to say 'okay' as she walked back to the table and started picking up different banners. I looked back at the wall and the ladder. I could try putting up the banners by using my magic, which is what I did. However, it was a lot more difficult than I thought, and I ended up putting the banner a bit too far from the previous one that Rarity placed, and ruined the look of it.

I took it off, and went up the ladder to place it again. I got it the second time since I could judge the distance between the banners more accurately from on top of the ladder but Rarity would be the judge of that.

Speaking of Rarity, she was back with more banners. She set them down on the floor before looking up to judge the banner I placed.

"That's pretty good but could you move it a bit to the right?"

I did as she said, moving the banner slightly to the right.

"A bit mor- no, wait, that's too much. Move it back a bit to the left."

I, again, did what she said, just a bit more slowly so that Rarity could tell me when to stop. She, however, told me I went too far again. This continued for a minute.

"I think it's better if I put those up and you pass me the banners,"Rarity said finally. I was happy to do that since Rarity had standards for placing banners that I could not meet. I came down the ladder and let her go up to place the banners. She placed the one I had been struggling with in the exact spot as I had placed it just before getting down the ladder and that really annoyed me.

"Could you hand me the red banner?" She requested. I looked at the pile on the floor and saw that there were three different reds. One was a darker maroon, one was lighter, while the last was in between those two. I picked up the latter and handed it to Rarity.

Unfortunately, I didn't pick the right colour.

"Not this one, I want one that has a lighter red," she said, a tiny smidge of annoyance in her voice. I have her the one she wanted and then we moved on to the next banner.

This was going to take a while.

The afternoon had passed slowly. Decorating the town hall had taken over two hours and I did not like any of those two hours. Rarity, despite her good nature and politeness, sucked to worked with due to her extreme attention to detail. She would make a fuss about a banner not meeting her colour requirement or not being the same size as the rest, even when the differences were imperceivable to me or anyone else for the matter. It was very annoying for the both of us.

Thankfully, that was now over and I could now go bac- no, I still had to talk to the mayor. I was still in the town hall, so, that was easy to do. I knocked on the door to the office and heard a 'come in'. I went inside and saw that Mayor Mare was reading some document.

She put it down and asked me, "Are the decorations finished?"

"Yeah, Mayor," I answered, and then continued, "I came to ask about something else though."

"Go on."

"Its about the library. The sign there said to go ask at the town hall if you want to be the librarian."

"Ah yes, the library. Well, you're in luck since nopony has applied as of now. I have to warn you though that you'll have to be there six days a week from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon everyday until we get more workers. In addition, there will be events hosted there ocassionally and you'll have to help out with them. It'll be school events mostly. Besides that, the salary will be twenty five bits an hour. Is that good with you?"

"That's cool with me."

"Great! You can come to the library tomorrow morning at eight and meet me there. I'll explain you some of the policies and then get you the job."

" 'Kay, thanks mayor!" and with that, I left the office. I wouldn't have to worry much about money now. I had the rest of the day free and decided to go see how Brush was doing.

Almost everything had been going so well so far and I was in a better mood than I think I had ever been. I still remained cautious since I knew from experience that something would come along eventually and make stuff go downhill.

I arrived at Brush's house and saw that she was in the front lawn with an easel, a canvas and a brush in her mouth. She looked really focused on whatever she was painting. I didn't interrupt her and watched as she painted expertly using the brush and her wingtips. She was painting a house that looked quite a lot like hers. It had a forest in the background along with the sun setting.

I could only describe the painting as beautiful, even if it was not finished yet. Brush painted for another minute and looked like she was done. She then turned around to see me.

"Hi, Anya!"

"Hey, Brush. Cool painting."

"Thanks, I was just painting the sunset. Is there any reason why you're here?"

"Ya, just came to see how you're doing."

"Oh, I've been doing great so far! "

"That's good."

"... So, how do you think it looks?"

"They painting looks cool but I'll have to get a bit close to make out the details."

"Sure, go ahead!"

I moved closer and inspected the painting and made out... eyes on the forest and a weird shadow thing in one of the windows.

"Woah, I see those eyes and that goober in the window."

Brush was happy to hear that but did a double take when I described the window shadow monster as a 'goober'.

"Doesn't the shadow thing seem creepy to you?"

"Yeah, it's pretty weird but not really creepy, for me at least."

"Oh... I guess that's understandable. I think this is my first time trying to make something like that."

"Eh, don't worry, you'll get better at it. I'll leave you to it. Bye."

"Bye."

And with that final interaction, I asked back home.

Chapter 6: B_ok :)

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The sun had rizzen.

...

You know what, I'm not trying that joke again. So, anyway, the sun had risen and I was eating breakfast, which consisted of two cups of chai and toast. The time was around seven and I still had an hour till I had to be at the library. I, however, still needed to brush my mane and tail since I slept like rotisserie chicken. I kinda missed having short hair and thought about going to a barber, but since I could manage my hair to an acceptable degree, I did not. Besides, I'm pretty sure that it'd cost like fifty bits to get just a god horrendous cut and I was too much of a stingy little bitch to do that.

I finished my breakfast and was about to go brush my hair when a knock came from my door. I turned to go to the front door but then the knock came again, this time from behind me. I realised that something was knocking on my back door. I went through the living room and to the sliding glass door at the end of it. I pulled the curtains aside and saw a bird flying off, and I guessed that it was the one that was knocking.

I, however, noticed something else.

The backyard was... wild. There was a lot of tall, dead grass and lots of other weeds, beyond which was a tall wooden fence. I just stared at the backyard which I had neglected and even forgotten about, thinking how I would deal with it. I couldn't leave it in its current state but trying to fix it would be hard and time consuming and maybe even expensive. I closed the curtains and turned back to go brush my hair, letting this become a problem for future me.

I proceeded to struggle with my hair for ten minutes and then another five minutes braiding them. Once that was over, I left my house and went down the path to Ponyville. The streets weren't as crowded as yesterday since today was a Saturday and most ponies didn't have to go to work early in the morning. I was an exception since I had a library to go to.

Some more walking later and I was at the library. Let's hope this goes well.

I walked in and looked around for a bit before spotting Mayor Mare and greeting her.

"Hey, Mayor."

"Hello there, Anya. I see that you're here early. Why don't we get started?"

"Sure."

"So, this is the Golden Oaks library, Ponyville's only library. It might not seem like much but this is one of the most important places in town. If you take the job, you'll have to help organize certain social events or school visits, and since there is nopony as of yet applying for a job in the library, you might be doing that all alone. Do you think you can handle that?"

I thought for a moment and replied, "Yeah, I'll manage."

Mayor Mare was happy to hear that.

"That's good to hear! Now, I'll just show you around the library and then let you manage it. I'll be back in two hours and see how you're doing and if you're doing good, you'll get the job."

I was slightly alarmed that I would be diving right in to the job but kept quiet.

"So, anyway, as you can see, we're in the main part of the library right now. If you go upstairs," Mayor Mare said pointing to a set of stairs, "You'll find a little home area. It's there since the previous librarian actually lived here. I'll give you the keys to that area if you get the job.

That door over there leads to the basement. It's there for storage but you'll also find a photocopy machine in there."

Mayor Mare then turned to the main desk where ponies would check out their books and pointed at a curious looking off-white coloured box, grinning to herself thinking about something.

"Now, for the most important thing in here. Do you know what that is?"

I went closer and looked over it just for a moment before answering non-chalantly, "It's a computer."

Mayor Mare sent disappointed for a second but resumed talking.

"Yes, it is. You'll be using that to check out books and keep records. I assume you know how to work with computers but I'll still warn you to be careful with it since it's pretty expensive. The previous librarian made a program that should help you keep track of the books and check them out. If you have a problem with it, there's a manual in one of the drawers."

Suddenly, the doors burst open and a grey pegasus mailmare crashed into the library. She ignored any wounds she may have recieved and got up. She spotted the mayor and pulled an important looking letter with a red wax seal from her bag.

I watched as the mayor's calm expression morphed into one of worry.

"Sorry for ending this early but this is important. I'll leave you here to manage the library as a test. I'll be back in about three hours, not two."

And with that, she and the grey mare were gone, leaving me alone. I didn't really expect being put at the job as a test but whatever. I took a seat at the main desk, thinking about what I should do now. There was an open/closed sign at the main door that I would have to flip but I should probably get familiarised with the place before doing that. I took a short walk through the library, noting how tall the bookcases were, probably due to the fact that the only way to expand was to go up. Other than that, there was a sitting area in the center with a cool looking wooden unicorn statue.

Once that walk was done, I returned to the desk. There was the computer, which looked like a stereotypical old computer from the human world. It was two boxes stacked on one another, the lower being the CPU and keyboard while the upper was a small but bulky CRT monitor. There was no mouse but that was fine since I was decent at using just the keyboard to do stuff, all thanks to how loud mice are.

On the right of the computer was a calendar, and an empty pen stand. To the left was a clock, a call bell, and a file which held a dozen borrowing cards along with a note saying that the fee for returning overdue books was... fifteen bits. That seemed quite unreasonable if you ask me. I checked the cards and saw that a lot of them were overdue, probably because there library must have been closed for an extended period of time.

I then rummaged through the drawers, finding a black pen, some pencils, and two manuals. One was for the computer while the other was for the program on it.

Next to my desk was the box where books would be returned. It had a slot on one side and a door on the opposite side of that, which I opened. Inside was a large basket which was empty.

I closed the box and switched on the computer. It took a minute to boot up, after which it displayed a command line. I read through the manual for the library program and inputted 'library' into the command line as the manual instructed.

The screen went completely blank followed by two options in white coloured text appearing. The first said 'Book Database' while the second said 'check out/return'. It was easy to guess what either would do.

With my familiarisation over, I made my way to the main door and flipped the sign. The library was officially open. I went back to my desk and sat patiently, waiting for someone.

I didn't have to wait long.

A brown earth pony with a darker brown mane and an hourglass talent mark entered the library, literally two minutes after I opened it. He had a thick book on his back. He waved at me and I waved back.

"Hi, I came to return this book," he said as he approached my desk.

"Sure, let me get that," I said, taking the book in my magic and bringing it over to me. The book was an encyclopaedia. I found the card for it and put it in the book and then entered its code on the computer to mark it as returned.

"There we go."

"So, is there a late fee that I have to pay?"

"Nah, you're good."

"Thanks!"

With that, the stallion left the library. Few more minutes passed, letting me put the book back on its shelf, and then an orange pegasus filly entered. She didn't wave or anything and just ran straight to some section of the library that was outside my view. She reappeared at the main sitting area at the center of the library and from what I could see, she had some book about flight.

Some more time passed, the only sounds in the library coming from the computer's cooling fan, and the filly occasionally turning a page. A normal pony may have started getting bored but I was, to put it simply, built different and appreciated the quiet. Two minutes later, though, my monkey zoomer brain wanted something to do.

I thought about what I could do and remembered that I had been put into this world to get a key and not just goof off. Voth had told me that I should look for some historical artefact since the key would shapeshift, and now that I was in a library with plenty of history books, I could begin my search.

I left my desk and went to the history section, picking up books that looked relevant till I had a stack of eleven. I returned to my desk and started skimming through the first one, looking for any mention of some mysterious artefact that had eldritch powers and might be lost. I was, unfortunately, interrupted by a familiar looking rainbow pony entering the library.

She held a book under one of her wings and looked around nervously for some reason, as if someone was going to jump her or something. She spotted me and braced herself. I pretended to not see that. She wanted to to my desk and greeted me.

"Yo, Anya. You're the new librarian, congrats on that. Anyways, I came to uhh return this book." She said nervously while glancing around, a contrast from how confident she seemed when I met her art the party.

I took the book wordlessly and saw that it was a Daring Do book. I marked it as returned and then spoke.

"So, is there something wrong?"

"What?! No, nothing's wrong! Everything's good!"

"You seem pretty nervous. Is someone following you or something?"

"What? No, I'm not being followed... Okay, look, you look like you can keep a secret and what I'm gonna tell is top secret. No one must know.

I don't want someone to see that I'm an egghead."

All that build up had made me very curious but now, I was just confused, baffled even.

"What do you mean 'egghead'?"

"Y'know, a nerd. If they see me with a book they'll call me an egghead."

I had to resist the urge to ask Rainbow if she was stupid since she was genuinely concerned about that and I knew how it felt to have your worries be dismissed like they were nothing.

"Well, reading books doesn't make you an egghead instantly, as far as I remember. Besides that, you're reading a story book, not something about theoretical physics or something."

"That won't stop them from calling me an egghead, though. Look, I know you're new here and don't know this but I'm supposed to be like the cool pony. You get what I mean?"

If it weren't for her expression, I would have thought she was trolling me.

"...This isn't highschool. If you want to read a book, you can. Nobody is gonna make fuss about reading books except for like, actual real life losers, and the thing about them is that everyone ignores them. You'll still be the 'cool pony' while also doing what you want to if you just ignored them."

Rainbow seemed to consider those words and her expression suddenly changed to one of a pony who had attained enlightenment.

"I get it," she whispered to herself. She lost her nervousness and was one again confident.

"Thank you for telling me that, Anya! You're a real one. Have a good day." She thanked me and then left. I sat there, thinking about how dumb the whole thing was but at least Rainbow was happy.

I returned to my desk and continued my research, finding out mostly cool but useless information.

Three hours had passed and so far, not much has happened. Ponies had come to the library mostly to return books, and the filly had left, checking out the book she had been reading. Besides that, I had went through about twenty books of which only two were of some interest. One was called "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide" and the other was called "Mysterious Artefacts of Equestrian History". Presently, I was reading through the latter when the library doors opened.

Mayor Mare walked in, at the time she had promised. She came to my desk after seeing that we were alone.

"So, how have things gone so far?" She asked.

"Well, nothing's on fire so that's pretty good," I joked. The mayor chuckled at that before taking a more serious expression.

"Well, everything seems to have gone good, so, I can say congrats on getting the job. There is something else more important, though.

As you know, we'll be hosting the Summer Sun Celebration this year and so, we're having a pony from Canterlot come here and inspect all the preparations. That pony will be staying in the upstairs area of the library, so, I expect this place to be at its best. Besides that, you'll have to give these keys to her and take them when she leaves. That is all, I'll let you continue working now." She said, giving me a bunch of keys. She left after that.

I was left alone once again. I would have to check the library for any faults or whatever, before the pony from Canterlot arrived. I checked the calendar and saw that I had three days between today and Wednesday when the celebration was. Wednesday was also the day Voth would be back.

I hoped that I had something to show Voth by then.

Chapter 7: If it's going too good then it will go bad

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Today was Sunday.

The average person would be happy until the afternoon when they realise that tomorrow is Monday. However, I was below average and didn't like the day from the moment I woke up and wished it was Monday already. I lay in bed, tangled up in my blanket, watching as it slowly became 5 AM on my new alarm clock that I got yesterday after working at the library. I hated how the human brain (or pony brain, I had no idea and had to ask Voth) would just make you wake up at 4 AM on the days when you had nothing to do while letting you oversleep on every day when you had something important in the morning.

I pulled my pillow from under my head and put it on my side and hugged it. I closed my eyes and buried my face in the pillow, happy to go to sleep again. I almost did but then I heard someone shout my name. In an instant, I was sitting up and just as quickly, my vision went dark and I lost control of my body. This combined with me being tangled in the blanket led me to falling off my bed. The cold wooden floor met my body and knocked the wind out of me. I had a coughing fit as I struggled to get back my breath and at the end, I lay on the floor on the verge of crying, all because I imagined sounds.

I felt extremely stupid for getting so worked up over something like this but a part of me just wanted to feel bad and cry about it like a huge crybaby. The rational part won and I didn't make a fool of myself.

I got back onto my bed and curled up around the pillow, wishing that today was over already as a sinking feeling grew in me.

Sundays were always bad.

I stayed in my bed for another ten minutes but sleep did not come to me. I could not stay idle for long and got out of bed and went about my morning routine. After all that, I sat at the table in the kitchen table, thinking how I would pass my time till sunrise. My thoughts kept going back to me falling off the bed and almost crying, with special emphasis on the last part. That combined with the sinking feeling had just made my mood worse.

Why the hell was I getting so worked up over something so insignificant?

I could not answer my own question and suddenly, the kitchen around me felt confining. I left the kitchen and moved to the living room but that didn't help either. What was wrong with me? I had to get outside. I did just that and I was soon on the path to town. The sinking feeling did not go away and just became worse. I wanted to run but I did not know where to and from what. I just kept walking till I reached the crossroads. In the distance, I could see Brush's house and that the lights were on. I continued walking straight, not wanting to bother her with my stupid problem. The moon's light made large shadows on the ground.

I tried telling myself that everything was fine and that there was nothing wrong or anything that I was forgetting but I could not convince myself. The irrational part of me just kept telling me that nothing was fine and that I was abducted from my home and put in an alien world with an alien body and that everyone I cared for was dead and that I could not trust Voth and that I absolutely needed to panic and that everything would go wrong and th-

The shadows around me moved.

Primal instincts that had been passed down from when ponies were prey and when humans weren't yet apex predators told me that there was something hunting me. I was scared. Scared more than I had ever been in my life. I couldn't run; the thing was in the shadows and was ready to pounce.

After what seemed like an eternity, something crawled out of the shadows. It was dark but not as in colour; it was like the void between stars. It had a shape similar to a deer or a moose except that the horns were limbs of various kinds and the face was just a huge mouth. Innumerable eyes were placed on its chest and they all were observing me with a predatory gaze.

The mouth opened, revealing long white teeth. Instead of pouncing, it spoke.

"HeLLo ThErE." It started in a voice that seemed like it was mimicking a person. "I HaVE aN OffER fOR yOU. OneThAT yoU CaNnOT RefUSe."

I could not take my eyes off it nor could I run.

"i KnoW yOuR liTtle sEcREt. YoUR DeAL WitH tHat ScUm, VOTH. If yOu GivE mE ThE KEy, I'Ll GivE YoU AnyThINg YoU WaNt."

"G- go away." I managed to say.

"HMMMMM, VeRY WelL tHEn, FAILURE. I SHouLd HavE ExpECTed thIs. In YoUR EnTiRE ExiStENcE, YoU HavE NEVER mAdE A RiGHt DeCISioN aND iT iSN'T a SURPRISE ThAT YOU FAILED nOW aS Well." it said. Normally, I would have just ignored these kind of taunts somewhat but this time the words stung bad.

"You hAve faILed your stuDies, yOuR frIeNds, yOUr faMiLy, AND EVERYTHING, and yOu KNOW yOu dON't DESERVE a seCoNd chANcE. HOWEVER, I WilL GiVe You ONE CHANCE tO FIx THIS MisTake. If YoU FaIl, tHE CONSEQUENCES wIlL Be PAINFUL," it threatened. The loser part of my brain, the one that just wanted to be weak all the time and just submit wanted to just accept the thing's offer and be done with this. The other part would not stand this. I had a deal with Voth and knew that he was definitely more trustworthy than whatever this thing was. However, I knew the thing would attack me if I declined. What could I do? A memory came to me, one about Voth telling me that they could not enter Ponyville because there was no influence of chaos to hide him from the guardian of the world. I was in Ponyville, and therefore, there shouldn't have been a way for the thing to hide.

"G-get lost!" I said with a sudden burst of courage. I followed it up with a blast of magic from my horn. The green projectile sailed through the air and hit the thing on its chest, doing nothing but anger it.

"THIS WILL BE THE FINAL MISTAKE YOU EVER MAKE IN YOUR PATHETIC FAILURE OF A LIFE," it said in an loud angry voice before it started making a big red ball of flames above its head using its horns made of limbs. I tried taking a step back but the thing extended one of its legs and held me in place. The leg ended in ten long fingers that held me by my throat. The touch was cold and I felt as if it was draining me of warmth.

Just as the thing was about to shoot the ball of flame, it folded like cloth. Its mouth opened and a loud wet gurgle came out. Red fluid that writhed started flowing from its eyes and mouth and everywhere from its body. Some of the fluid shot out and hit my forelegs and the right half of my face. The ball of flame fell down on to the thing and in a second it was gone, only a severed limb and a patch of burnt and red grass to show it was there. I didnt care about that; there was the thing's leg still holding onto my throat and the fluid on my legs and face that was crawling around. Worst of all, the fluid was bursting into flames as it crawled on me.

I got the fluid off me without much struggle and threw it away on the patch of burnt grass where it continued burning for another few seconds before finally disappearing. I swore the thing cursed at me as it disappeared. I still had the leg holding on my throat though. I tried pulling it off but it's grip became stronger, depriving me of air. I continued trying to pull it off but the grip just became stronger. At last, my desperation for air gave me a burst of strength and I was able to pull the damned thing off and throw it away from me. It did not move after that.

I was left alone at the crossroads and immediately, I fell down on the ground, feeling absolutely exhausted and absolutely horrible. My forelegs and my face hurt bad where the fluid had landed and I couldn't open my right eye, leaving me effectively blind. I was struggling to get back my breath and started coughing badly. My strong side and courage were fading away and now I just curled up and cried like a loser.

I did not notice the sound of wings flapping behind me as a result.

"Anya, are you okay?" asked the familiar voice of Brush.

The last thing I wanted right now was for somebody to see me in this state, but now, Brush had. I did not respond and just tried burying my head in my hooves, wishing that I wasn't in this situation. To make the situation worse, Brush touched me on one of my forelegs. She was probably trying to console me or whatever but I absolutely did not want to be touched by someone or even be in someone's presence. She, of course, didn't know that and continued with the touch. She seemed to be inspecting my forelegs, seeing how the fluid had burnt and blackened them.

She gasped and then I felt myself being picked up. I tried to break free from her grip around my body as she lifted me into the air but I was too weak to do that and just managed to make my glasses slide off my face.

My exhaustion finally started getting to me and I stopped trying to break free from her hold. My vision started going dark just as we reached here house. By the time she opened the door, I was unconscious.

Chapter 8: A Good friend

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The world around me was dark. Things ran around in the darkness, speaking gibberish as they did. I lay there curled up in a ball, knowing that they were talking bad things about me.

I felt something poke me on the back of my head and turned to face it.

I laid on a bed with a mattress that was too hard and a blanket that was uncomfortable. I found it difficult to breath and I laid on my back as well. I could hear some noise to my right but couldn't tell what it was. I tried opening my eyes but found that I could only open my left. My right was covered in some fabric along with the right side of my face. The room was a bit too bright and I had to wait a minute for my eye to adjust to the light.

I tried looking around to see where I was but my vision was too blurry to tell me anything. I tried reaching for my glasses but my foreleg hurt too much to do that. I couldn't really do anything since I felt too lethargic and so, I just lay in the bed.

Why was I here?

I tried remembering but only got a few bits. I remembered being scared and then being picked up against my will.

I looked to my right where the noise was coming from and saw nothing that I could make out. The noise then faded to silence which then morphed into the loud ringing sound that would come whenever it was quiet for too long. I waited for what seemed like an hour for something to happen. Eventually, I heard a door opening and the sound of hooves on tile. I turned my head to face the origin of the sound and saw a white blur in front of a vaguely door shaped brown blur.

"Where am I?" I managed to ask.

"You're at the Ponyville hospital, Ms Anya. Your friend brought you here a few hours back after you were attacked by a monster from the Everfree," replied a feminine voice that originated from the white blur. "How do you feel right now?"

"Tired. Uncomfortable."

"Hmm, don't worry, you'll be let out soon." And with that, the white blur left the room.

I was left alone again and this time, the wait felt longer. In the time, I was able to remember the events of the morning, unfortunately. I wished that I could forget the thing or what it had said. The door opened once more and this time, the white blur returned along with another blur that was white and yellow coloured.

"Good morning, Miss Khan. I'm Doctor Greymare. I'll be removing those bandages from your head and check the injury so please stay still," said the brown and white blur named Doctor Greymare as he made his way to the side of the bed, letting me make out the shape of a yellow coloured pony who seemed to be wearing a white coat. He reached over with his foreleg and undid the bandages on my head.

"Hmmm, looks fine so far for magical burns," he said as he looked over my face, "Could you open your eye?"

I tried to open it but it stung too bad for me to do it for longer than like, two seconds. The doctor seemed to be satisfied with that though.

"Looks like you'll be needing an eye checkup for that."

He then moved on to removing the bandages on my forelegs. Even though he did it slowly, it hurt a lot. He finally removed them, exposing my forelegs to the air, which made them sting. I could make out red blurs on the white of my forelegs and I could sense that the other ponies in the room thought it looked bad.

"This looks worse than expected. Seems like the magic in the burns is still active," the doctor said. I felt and saw my forelegs being enveloped in a blue aura. It felt warm and somewhat soothing and the pain from them subsided, leaving only a dull ache. The red blurs gradually became smaller as well, until I couldn't make them out. The aura disappeared and the other white blur, who I guessed was a nurse, put new bandages on my forelegs.

"So, miss, do you think you could walk? Because that eye needs to be checked out and then we have to get your magic system checked up as well."

I wordlessly got up from the bed, happy to leave its uncomfortable touch even though I was tired, and gingerly stepped on the ground. I wobbled a bit at first but I could stand properly.

"Ah, that's good to see. Nurse Redheart will lead you to the places you have to be," he said as he pointed to the other pony. I nodded in acknowledgement and turned to face her.

She opened the door behind her and said, "This way, miss."

I walked out into a hallway that smelt of disinfectant and tailed the nurse. As we walked, the nurse asked me asked a question.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly attacked you?"

I took a good ten seconds before answering, "Don't know what it's called and it probably doesn't have a name either, so, I'll name it Ugly shitface."

The nurse giggled at my completely serious answer and said, "Most ponies are usually too afraid to even talk about monsters from the forest, let alone insult them."

We went down a floor and to a room that felt familiar to me. It wasn't particularly large and it housed a bunch of machines used for eye tests, like the one that had the picture of the balloon or the other one where the doctor shines a light in your eye to see defects or something.

"Nice to see you here, Redheart. This the patient?" said the voice of an older woman. An orange pony emerged from behind one of the machines. "Why don't you go take a seat there, miss. I'll be with you in a second," she said to me, pointing to a seat in front of the machine that they use to point light in your eye and see what's wrong. I did as she said and she was there with me in a moment after talking with the nurse in hushed tones about something.

"Okay then. I'll need you to rest your chin on this and look straight ahead," she said as she cleaned off the thing where I was supposed to put my head with a sanitizing wipe. I rested my chin on it, ignoring the smell of the chemicals from the wipe, and looked straight ahead. The mare took the seat opposite of me and turned on the machine's light.

"Good, now, could you open your right eye for a moment. I know it hurts so I'll be quick." she said as she got the light in position. I did as she said, managing to open my right eye and hold it open for the ten seconds she looked at it until she turned the light off and went to a shelf to get something. I shut my right eye, which had started to burn quite a bit, tempting me to rub it. I, of couse, didn't since it would make my hoof dirty and probably make my eye's condition worse.

The mare returned, carrying a small box in her hoof.

"Your eye look pretty messed up, but it'll be fine if you use these eye drops at least once a day. If any problems happen, you should come back right away. Anyway, you can go now." she said to me as she wrote down something on a paper and handed the eye drops to the nurse.

The nurse led me out of the room and to the room right across from the one we were in. There were machines here as well but they looked like... like they came out of a mad scientist's basement.

"Hello there. You look a lot better than when you came in," said a voice right next to me all of a sudden. I turned and saw that there was a light purple pony there. "Sorry if I surprised you. Could you take a seat over there, I have to run some tests."

I turned to look at the seat he pointed at and saw what seemed to be a cross between those things at at a beauty parlor, the ones that go over your head, and an electric chair. I didn't question it and took a seat. The pony pulled down the helmet thing onto my head and went over to some other machine and watched as it printed papers. After about a minute, he came back to me and pulled the thing off my head.

"Your magic seems to be doing fine, can't say that about a lot of ponies who've encountered magical monsters. Anyway, you're free to go. Have a good day."

The nurse and I left the room and she led me back upstairs to the room I had woken up in.

"Stay here while I get the doctor. If he gives the okay then you'll be free to leave," she said as she left me in the room. I took a seat on one of the two chairs in the room and waited for them. A question was brewing in my mind. How bad was my condition when Brush got me here?

The doctor came in alone. He held a clipboard in his magic with some papers on it.

"So, Miss Khan, everything seems to be well for you and I can say that you can be discharged," he informed me.

"I have a question."

"Ask away."

"How bad was it when my friend got me in here?"

"Hmmm, well, to put it simply, it was rather bad. There were magical burns on your face and forelegs, and your magic had been drained. Pretty common thing that the monsters from the Everfree do, so, you don't have to worry much except for the scars. It could have been worse but your friend got you here pretty quick."

"...okay. So, do I have to make a payment?"

"You don't have to worry about that. Most of your expenses are covered by the Everfree injury policy, and whatever was remaining got paid for by your friend. Pretty nice, isn't it? Now, you'll have to sign this form and we'll discharge you."

It was 1 PM and I stepped out of the hospital. The doctor had instructed me to not remove the bandages around my forelegs till Wednesday since they hadn't healed properly yet. I was happy that I didn't have to change them because they had special medical magic in them. I had two goals right now. The first was to find my glasses and the second was to go and thank Brush for helping me out.

I started on my walk back home, significantly slower than I would travel since I only had my left eye to 'see' with and didn't want to run into something. I didn't know which way I had to go and so, I picked a path and started following it, hoping to get somewhere familiar. As I walked through town, I felt the stares of several people and heard some hushed whispers. I started feeling rather uncomfortable and quickened my pace somewhat.

I reached the town center which close to the hospital and from there, I was back onto the path to my home. I was able to get back to my original speed, allowing my lungs to recover from the extremely exhausting act of walking faster than usual. I put aside the criticism of my poor physical health as I reached the crossroads where I had been attacked. There was still the burnt grass but the severed limb was gone meaning that someone had cleaned it up. I turned to head to Brush's home even though my legs ached with the effort.

Once at her door, I had to stop and catch my breath and hold back a cough that I knew would not be good. I knocked on the door lightly. It took only a few seconds for the door to open. Brush stood in front of me for a second and just as I was about to thank her, she pulled me into a very... friendly hug, nearly crushing me with strength that seemed unnatural for someone as small as her. Aside from the getting crushed part, it felt... nice knowing that someone cared that much about my health.

"Thank Faust you're okay!" she said as she let me go. I immediately broke down into a coughing fit, showing clear signs of not being as okay as she had thought. She pulled me in and closed the door behind me.

"I'll go get some water for you," She said and in a moment, she as back with a glass of water. I drank it all quickly and the cough subsided somewhat. As I tried to give the glass back to her, I caught her staring at me.

"Everything all right?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah! It's just... why are you keeping your right eye closed?" she asked, clearly deflecting from what her original statement was going to be.

"Hurts too much to open it right now. Should be fine in a few days. Anything else?"

"I uh I have your glasses. Found them where you dropped them. Let me go get them; you can go take a seat in the living room," and with that, she went upstairs a bit hurriedly. I was getting a tiny bit annoyed at how she kept avoiding saying what was on her mind. I went to the living room and took a seat on one of the couches, happy to get some rest from walking.

Brush came back with my glasses and handed them over to me. I put them on and my vision became so much better. Just kidding, my left eye was terrible as it was and the glasses only made it slightly better. That combined with my right eye being out of order made me effectively blind.

"So, Brush, what were you gonna say earlier?"

"...I think it might be mean if I said that and I don't want to be mean to a friend."

"It's fine if you say it, I won't think bad of you."

"Okay... the scar on your face looks pretty bad."

As I had told her, I wasn't offended or angry or whatever, but I was a bit surprised. I hadn't seen a mirror since like, the day I came to Equestria, let alone today, and was a bit confused. Hadn't the doctor said that the injury on my face healed pretty good? Were the ponies in town staring at me for that?

I probably looked unhappy as I said this and Brush, who couldn't read minds, probably thought that I was angry.

"Sorry if that made you angry." she said as she looked away sadly. I... felt bad for making her sad like that.

"I'm not angry at you. Just a bit... surprised I guess. By the way, do you have a mirror, I haven't really seen how it looks," I said, trying to sound as neutral as possible. Her mood improved upon hearing that I wasn't angry and she left to get a mirror. She was back in a minute with a handheld mirror and I tried taking it in my magic only for my horn to give off a few sparks and then give me a mild headache. Brush looked concerned but I just took the mirror with my hoof and looked at my reflection.

On the left side of my face was the brown patch of fur around my left eye like the last time I had checked. On the right side, there was a new group of patches of dark grey fur that looked quite gnarly. It was mostly centered around my right eye.

"It might look bad but you're still pretty," Brush said, trying to make the situation a bit better.

"I mean, I kinda look like a racoon now," I joked, not knowing any appropriate way to talk about getting a scar.

"What?" Brush said, clearly not expecting that I'd joke.

"I mean, racoons have white snouts, dark patches around their eyes, and are grey coloured and I have all of those." I explained even though Brush probably wanted an explanation about why I joked.

"Aren't you sad that you look like that now?"

"Not really. I might look ugly now but the truth is that I didn't look any better earlier."

"You can't just say that about yourself, it's wrong!"

I wanted to argue about how it was fine but stopped myself since that would involve revealing some pretty sensitive information that Brush didn't need to be burdened with. I just nodded, pretending to agree. Brush, however, didn't stop there. She got closer and pulled me into a hug. On one hand, I did not agree to the physical contact, on the other, the gesture did not feel hollow like the ones I had in the past and I could see that Brush was genuinely upset by my self-deprecating comments. I allowed the hug and made a note to be nice to myself while Brush is around.

She pulled back from the hug and then switched the topic of our conversation.

"So, how was the hospital?"

"It was fine. They checked me up after I woke up and the doctor told me to rest and keep these bandages on till Wednesday. Other than that, I also got some... eye drops..." I stopped talking, realizing that I had forgotten said eye drops at the hospital.

"What's wrong, Anya?"

"I forgot the eye drops at the hospital like-" I cut myself off before calling myself an idiot, almost forgetting that I literally made a note to not do that out loud in front of Brush. It was hard to be as stupid as I was.

"Like, now, I have to go back and get them," I continued in an annoyed voice, expertly covering up my slip up.

"If you don't mind, I could go get them," Brush offered. While I appreciated Brush's generosity, I was annoyed at how she had no qualms helping me even when I should have dealt with the problem that was caused by my own stupidity.

"You've already got me to the hospital, AND paid the bill. You don't need to do more," I politely declined.

"Oh come on, Anya, anybody would have done that and you're literally my first friend in Ponyville. I can do that much. Besides, I only had to pay two hundred bits."

Brush was determined to help me out, and I knew that there was no point trying to argue with stubborn people.

"Fine, you can go but not right away." I yielded. Brush was happy to hear that.

"So, do you want anything to drink? Actually, have you eaten anything since morning?"

I shook my head no.

"Well then, why don't you stay for lunch?"

Brush was stubborn and a bit too happy to help with anything but she was a good friend indeed.

Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th

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A ray of light left the sun at light speed, it's destination unknown. It travelled very fast through the cold void, away from its source. It traveled until it entered the atmosphere of a planet that looked like a pretty blue marble. It continued traveling, its destination still unknown. It moved over great forests and mountains, cities and villages, and in the end, it found itself landing in a little town. There, it went through the window of a little house a bit far from the others and finally landed on the my closed eyes like the absolute dipshit it was.

Tuesday morning was not particularly bad but not great either. I turned in my bed to get my face out of the light and continue my sleep. The pillow that I had curled up around came with me and I pulled the blanket over myself, all to make myself more comfortable and I succeeded at that. I wouldn't be going back to sleep though, not if my alarm clock had something to say about that.

The alarm blared and kept me from falling asleep. I stayed in bed instead of just turning it off, thinking if I should get up now or be late to whatever the thing Mayor Mare had called me for. I remembered that it was something about somebody from Canterlot coming to check our preparations for the festival and I figured that it was unfortunately more important than my sleep. Plus, she had been nice and given me Monday off to recover from my injuries, and now that my right eye was decently healed, I decied that I was fine enough. I got out of bed, turned off the alarm, and took my glasses which I carefully balanced on my back since I didn't have any pockets to put them in until I had washed my face.

I went through my morning routine but today, I took a good look at myself in the bathroom mirror. I looked fine save for the scar on my face and the bandages on my forelegs. There was no way I could cover those up though, not unless I wanted to wear my jacket in hot weather. I left the bathroom and headed over to the kitchen to eat my breakfast of cereal and milk. The cereal was one of those healthy ones and not the sugary ones since it seemed like all Equestrian food had a lot more sugar than normal added to it. I wasn't really complaining but it kinda sucked eating more than three sugary things a day.

By the time I was done, it was seven and if I guessed correctly, there would be a lot of activity in town due to the influx of people coming to celebrate the sun. The actual festival would start tomorrow before sunup and since Mayor Mare gave me the important job of helping out the Canterlot official, I'd probably have a busy day and night.

Without wasting any more time, I took the library keys and left my house and headed for the library. On the way, I saw a lot more ponies than what I had expected to see at seven in the morning even with the celebration. I guessed that Equestria was home to quite a large population of morning people, especially with the princess being a living sun goddess.

I reached the library without much problem and unlocked the doors. Everything was as I had left it on Saturday, except for a bit of dust here and there. There was a broom in the basement which I used to sweep it all away. As I finished, the doors to the library opened as Mayor Mare came in.

"Ah, Anya, it's good to see you here! I'll be quick since I have other duties," she said as she looked behind her. Another pony entered the library. She was a dark blue with purple hair and bat wings at her sides. She wore purple coloured armour and carried a sword at her side.

"Anya, this is Lunar guard Night Bloom. She's been sent here to ensure the safety of the princess's protege, Twilight Sparkle, who'll be checking on our preparations. Just show Twilight Sparkle to her room upstairs, and give her this paper. It has everything that she'll need to check but you just stay with her to help her out. Again, sorry for asking you to do this on such a short notice but I know you'll manage. Also, try not to talk about the incident," She said, whispering the last part as she handed me a scroll. The incident was me getting attacked, of course. "I'll be leaving you to it now, Twilight should be here by in fifteen minutes. Have a good day!"

And with the, the mayor left, leaving me and the bay pony in the library. A few moments of awkward silence followed until Bloom spoke up.

"Permission to ask a question," She said, addressing me like a superior.

"In not your boss, you don't have to ask for permission."

Bloom visibly relaxed and then asked in a much more casual tone, "What's the incident that the mayor was taking about? Something crawled out of the Everfree and killed a child?" She said the last part as a very unfunny joke, evident from her tone.

"Oh yeah, a monster came out of the forest and killed like, a billion orphans for fun," I replied sarcastically, not finding the joke to be funny. Bloom was quiet for a second, probably processing my unfunny response, allowing me to continue making it worse.

"It's not like they can go cry about it to their parents," I added, knowing damn well that the joke was low quality and overused, not that those reasons ever stopped me from being unfunny.

Bloom, however, guffawed as she found the joke to be funny.

"I gotta write that one down," she said catching her breath. "So, anyway, it's nice to meet you, Aanya. Not many ponies with thick skins our there."

"Nice to meet you as well, Bloom."

"We should probably get going if we want to recieve Miss Twilight, and maybe you could tell me about 'the incident' on the way."

"Sure, let's go."

We left the the library, which I locked on the way out, and were on our way to the place where Bloom said Twilight would be dropped off. I made a note to myself to find a more convenient way to carry stuff other than carrying it in my magic.

"So, if I were to guess, I'd say you were involved in the incident. Am I right?" Bloom said as we walked through the crowds of ponies who seemed to part like the sea did for that one guy.

"Yeah, I got attacked by something from the forest and it gave me these scars," I answered, pointing at my face and forelegs.

"Magical burns, huh, well, at least it blends in with your colour scheme, unlike that one guy I know, he looked like hell but he had a hell of a story to tell, so, that went well I guess."

"Yeah."

"What did the monster look like? Was it big? Was it shadowy? Did it look like a totally cool thing to kill?" She asked with a sort of creepy excitement.

"It looked like a really large moose or something except that it's head was just a mouth and it's horns looked like all sorts of legs and it had eyes on its chest. Unfortunately, you can't hook up with it since it killed itself by dropping a huge ball of magic on itself. Only a foreleg left of it," I answered, adding in the last part due to how excited she seemed about the thing even though it tried killing me, or doing something worse. Bloom sputtered and blushed in embarrassment, probably realising that her excitement was weird.

"I won't judge though, not my business." I added, getting a laugh this time.

"Heh, you got a side job as a comedian or something?"

"No, not really. Anyway, you ever meet Miss Twilight?"

"Yeah, served as her guard plenty of times. She might seem rude and uncaring but it's not because she's got the Canterlot attitude. It's 'cuz she's too busy with her books to care. She also has very high standards, so, don't be surprised if she gets upset over something small."

"Sounds fun."

"Here we are, and look, they're coming as well. Just in time."

We were at a small clearing just outside the town square and I looked at the direction she was looking at and saw a golden chariot pulled by two golden armoured pegasuses(pegasi?) coming in for a landing. Bloom put on a serious expression and stance as the chariot landed and stopped in front of us. On the chariot was a purple unicorn with dark blue hair that had a pink stripe going through it. I imagined her to be somewhat old, like somewhere in her 30's but no, she looked like she hadn't even hit her 20's, or even got out of high school. At first, it was a bit hard for 24 year old me to accept that I'd be the assistant of someone that young. Then I remembered that she's probably an actual genius since she's the princess' protege and that I was too much of a retard to have a right to say anything.

She got off the chariot along with a... a wingless dragon? I knew there was a word for those guys but didn't remeber it. He was small and purple and had green spikes. The interesting part about him was that he held a clipboard and pen. He thanked the pegasus guard as they took off and went in the direction of Canterlot.

"Hello, Night Bloom." Twilight said, trying to hide that she was frustrated about something. She then turned to me and said, "And you are?"

"Hello, I'm Anya," I said. I didn't really know why but the way I said it felt embarrassing. Twilight was quiet for a few seconds.

"So, where is Mayor Mare?" she asked.

"Something urgent came up and she asked me to fill in for her," I answered. I remembered that I had a scroll in my magic, I levitated it to my hoof and offered it her as I said, "This paper has a list of all the stuff you need to check out. I'm here to show you your accomodations and also if you need help or anything."

"I think I'll get the work done first," she replied as she took the paper and handed it to the dragon who put it on the clipboard. "So, what's the first thing, Spike?"

"Banquet preparations," he answered, his excitement a stark contrast to Twilight, "Let's go!"

He started to waddle away but stopped and turned to me.

"So, uhh, where is Sweet Apple Acres?" he asked sheepishly. All eyes turned to me since I was the only town resident among us.

I... did not actually know. I would have said so but that'd be embarrassing, meaning that I had to improvise.

"Yeah, just follow me," I said, lying to the little guy while also hoping that street signs would save my dumbass. I lead the way to the town square, where I stopped for a second to see the signs. Thankfully, there was one that showed the path to Sweet Apple Acres. I led the group down that path, the scenery transforming from town to tree farm quickly. There were apple trees on either side of the road, all in somewhat straight lines, and I could see a barn coming up ahead of us.

"... at least she doesn't make small talk," I heard Twilight whisper.

"I think she heard you," Spike said at a normal-ish volume.

I remembered that I had ears that swivel and move around now and that they are also important and easy giveaways for body language and to see what you're listening to. I had to make conscious effort to move my ears back to their normal position and it was pretty annoying but from what I knew, I was part of a tiny portion of the pony population who could move their ears consciously and I liked that since I could control my body language better.

We reached the barn and it seemed pretty busy. There were quite a lot of ponies milling about even though I was pretty sure that no part of the celebration was here.

Twilight went ahead and asked one of the ponies about Applejack, the pony incharge of the banquet. Said pony disappeared into the crows and reemerged with Applejack.

"Howdy there, Anya, nice ta see ya!" she greeted me. I was going to reply but Twilight beat me to it.

"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'm here to check on the preparations for food."

"Oh, we're ready alright, wanta sample some?"

Spike seemed really excited at that prospect.

"Ah no, thanks for the offer but we hav-"

A bell started ringing and all the ponies who were milling around suddenly dropped what they were doing and ran to a bunch of tables.

"Oh! Look at that, soup's on. Why dontcha join me an' mah family fer brunch, all four of y'all!"

Our reactions differed at the offer. Twilight looked annoyed and nervous, Spike was excited and practically drooling, Bloom seemed surprised at first but looked interested, and I was fine with it since I didn't really have a filling breakfast.

"As I was saying, thanks for the offer but we have important work to do," Twilight restated, ruining the moods of basically everyone. It was so bad that some of the ponies, Applejack's family members, stopped what they were doing to stare in disbelief at Twilight. A little filly came forward and spoke.

"Can you stay? For ten minutes?" she asked very sadly while making that one face, the one where the eyes go all big and sparkly. I didn't even know that ponies could do that. Twilight looked conflicted. On one hand, she had to finish her job. On the other was this little girl begging for us to stay for ten minutes.

I, however, knew that the ten minutes would, in fact, be an hour, if I went by past experiences.

"We'll be back in some time, then we won't have to stay for just ten minutes," I said before Twilight could make the decision.

"Promise?" asked the little girl. I looked back at my group who all nodded, accepting the compromise.

"Yeah, promise."

"Okay..." the filly said as she went back, not completely satisfied, but so was life.

" 'Kay then, Applejack, we'll be back soon," I said to Applejack, indicating that we were going. She nodded and waved us goodbye. We left the farm and were back on our path to Ponyville.

As we walked back, Twilight struck up a conversation.

"How you handled that was admirable, I was about to say yes to staying," she complimented,

"What could I say, I'm a master at negotiations," I replied jokingly.

"It was just a filly..." Twilight muttered as the joke went high over her head and landed on the moon.

"Twilight, it was a joke," said Spike. Twilight's expression changed from the mildly annoyed one she had since I met her to one that looked slightly embarrassed.

"So, what is next?" she said, quickly changing the topic.

"Well, we have weather, decorations, and music left."

"We should probably get the decorations part done. Anya, lead the way."

I did as I was told and we made out way to the Town Hall where the main part of the celebration was going to take place. The streets leading up to it had looked pretty good and I knew it'd be the same story in the hall after what I and Rarity had done for it. We entered the hall, and it looked great. There was a slight issue, however. Rarity had took down all the decorations we had done together and put up new ones. I was annoyed to put it simply, but now was not the time to throw tantrums.

Rarity was perched up on a ladder, putting up what I hoped to be finishing touches.

"We have to find a Miss Rarity," said Spike as he looked at the clipboard. He looked up from it and saw Rarity and I swear I'm not trying to be weird, but Spike seemed to actually fall in love on first sight. Like bro, what the hell, you're a kid, Spike, what are you trying to cook in that head of yours???

"There's Rarity," I said pointing to her.

"Hello, Mis-"

"Wait just a second, dear," she said as she finished what she was doing and got off the ladder. "How can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Twilight and I'm here to check on the decorations."

"Ah, dear, as you can see, it is almost finished. Just one more ribbon to go."

She then noticed me standing there menacingly and looking at her blankly. Sweat formed on her brow and she became visibly nervous.

"Oh, h-hello, Anya. Sorry that I redid the decorations without informing you."

I stayed quiet for a few moments that would be very uncomfortable for her if I went by her expression.

"Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, can we? At least the decorations look better," I said, not particularly angry, as I turned around, "Let's go get the weather sorted out."

Rarity didn't get a chance to respond since I left the hall. The three others followed as well.

"So, where can we find Rainbow Dash?" asked Spike. He turned to look at the sky and continued, "She seems to be slacking."

I looked at the sky as well and found it to be mostly clear and what could be described as pleasant. Just a few random clouds floating here and there. I focused on those and saw that they were a lot closer to the ground than they should be.

"Looks fine by me but you're the expert. Let's go find Dash," I said as I took a step forward. Fortunately, I did not need to go far since Rainbow came to me. Unfortunately, she was riding a storm cloud and she came right at me with it. The cloud impacted me, or rather, the ground I was standing on and it immediately exploded into a lot of water. I found myself underwater for a second before the water all fell to the ground, making a small puddle around me.

"Woah, Anya, are you fine?" I heard Rainbow ask with alarm. I couldn't really see her since my wet hair, which I remembered to be in a braid, now covered my face.

"What the heck, Rainbow?" I said, clearly unamused at the sudden bath.

"Sorry, Anya, I was just dealing with some rogue clouds blowing in from the Everfree and this one just went crazy! At least you're fine."

A cool breeze blew over us and for all the fur I had, I shivered a bit.

"Whatever, just talk to Twilight here. I'll go get myself dried," I said as I moved my hair out of my face. Through my water covered glasses, I could see the apologetic face of Rainbow, the unamused expression of Twilight, Spike trying not to laugh, and a smile on Bloom's face.

"Hey, I can help you with that, just stand still!"

I didn't really get to say anything as Rainbow started flying in circles around me real fast. Fast enough to make a mini tornado that acted like a blow dryer. Very ingenious. However, when she stopped, my hair had a mane style that looked horrendous. Spike started laughing while the rest were trying real hard to not laugh. At least I was dry.

"Ahem, so, anyway, Miss Rainbow, I'll need you to clear the sky over Ponyville entirely," Twilight said. Rainbow saluted and flew up with a very high speed. I started fixing my mane the best I could with just my magic and hooves. In the ten seconds it took to do that, Rainbow was down on the ground, standing with her chest puffed up and a proud smile on her face.

"See, I did that in ten seconds flat!"

"Yeah, thanks, Rainbow. Anyway, what's next, Spike?" I said.

"We have music which is being handled by a Fluttershy. You know where she is?" Spike answered. I didn't know who that was or where she was and that kinda sucked.

"Oh, I know where she is! She's at that one clearing near her house, practising with her birds. I'd take you there but I think it's best for us to not interrupt her," said Rainbow, "So, what are you guys doing?"

"Ooh, we were invited to brunch at the Sweet Apple Acres! We're going there now!" answered Spike excitedly.

"Why don't I join you guys, it'll be great, I tell you."

All the while, none of them noticed Twilight's expression become a really annoyed one.

The sun was setting as I walked back to the library along with the three new guys. Bloom had dropped her serious attitude somewhat and was chatting with Spike while Twilight seemed to seething and malding quietly at the back of the group. I doubt she'd say what was bothering her, though, but I respected that.

We reached the library's gates and I unlocked the doors letting us in.

"Ready to hit the hay, Twi?" said Spike as he yawned.

"You can go sleep, I have work to do," replied Twilight. She then turned to Bloom and nodded, conveying some secret message. Bloom understood and left the library.

"Where'd she go?" I asked.

"She'll be standing guard. Could you give the keys to the rooms upstairs to Spike?"

I complied and gave those keys to him, leaving me with only the keys for all the downstairs areas. He went up the stairs, probably to the bedroom to sleep.

"One more thing, Anya," said Twilight. I was ready to go home but I listened. Twilight hesitated a bit before continuing, "I will need help on something with you.

Do you know about the story of Nightmare Moon?"

"No, I don't."

"You don't? Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is that I need books that have anything about the 'two sisters', ot 'Nightmare Moon'. Can you help with that?"

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 10: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt1(rewritten)

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I was bothered, dehydrated, unhappy, not in my lane, unfocused, and withering.

If Rarity was bad to work with then Twilight was hell.

For the past few hours, I had been helping Twilight research on Nightmare Moon, and by that, I mean I was finding whatever books she asked me to, and not only did she ask for books almost completely unrelated to the topic but she also made sure to read them end to end. Like, what the hell is she thinking? Is she stupid? Or am I stupid?

I offered to help her find relevant books and at least make the process more streamlined with my knowledge on how to finish long essays with decent quality hours before the deadline but no, she wanted to do it solo since 'I might miss something important'. I was just wasting time, getting bossed around, which I absolutely hated but put up with for some godforsaken reason. I couldn't even make shitty jokes to cope with this since this whole thing was supposed to be formal. The library which had been open and free now felt like a stuffy prison where I couldn't breathe.

"Yo,Twilight, I'm going out to get some fresh air," I announced for the fifth time, having been told that I was 'needed' the last four times. Twilight didn't react as she was too busy reading some book about folklore and how it evolves. I took that as an 'okay' and went outside. The air outside was cool and the stars were a welcome sight. The full moon was high up in the sky and a lot better to look at than the ceiling of the library.

"All good in there?" I heard Bloom ask. She stood guard next to the door and her voice was a welcome break from Twilight's noises of mumbling and page turning.

"Twilight has been 'researching' about a Nightmare Moon for the past... how many hours it's been, in perhaps the most inefficient way possible because 'it might be a security threat' and honestly, I feel like I'm gonna blow up or something if I stay in there any longer," I ranted.

"Nightmare Moon, as in the old bedtime story?"

"Yeah, that one."

"I mean, I know she's a bit weird but she's usually onto something, especially when she starts going solo. Probably not this time though. I'd say you cut her some slack, she's not really a social type; I heard that she's been into super hardcore studies since she was like twelve or something."

I was still unhappy, but I did think about how Twilight might be seeing the situation, and then I felt bad about my overreaction. She was an absolute genius even if she was eccentric and hard to work with, and she wasn't just doing what she was to annoy me. I really should try to not be a childish bitch yapping about things like this.

"Anyway, you guys should start packing up the nerd stuff since the celebration's starting in like an hour and the princess will be at the town hall in thirty minutes to get a final progress check from Twilight. Plus, I doubt that something from a bedtime story will come out and attack someone, and even if it did, we've got security."

I went back inside and to the central sitting place where Twilight was moving onto another book.

"Yo, Twilight," I said, getting her attention. She looked at me with this annoying face that I absolutely hat- no, I was going to be nice, not a bitch. "The princess is gonna be here in thirty minutes, so, we gotta start putting all this back."

Her expression morphed immediately from the annoying one to one that looked desperate.

"But I'm so close to getting the evidence I need! When the princess hears it, she won't just tell me that I'm 'looking too much into an old mare's tale' like last time and actually see it for the threat it is!"

From the way she spoke, she was genuinely concerned about the safety of the event and the princess, even though said threat was from a children's story. However, Twilight had other stuff to be done.

"I understand, but the princess will be here soon and she'll be looking for a 'final progress check' thing. I assume you know what that is?"

"..."

"...Are you fin-"

"I totally forgot the check! Oh my faust, if I don't get that done then she'll send me to magic kindergarten, or she'll banish me, or maybe she'll banish me to magic kindergarten. But she needs to hear about Nightmare Moon even if she doesn't believe me. Oh my faust, what do I do?! What do I do?! What do I do?!"

In front of me, Twilight descended into what seemed to be a panic attack. I didn't really know that she was that stressed but I had a rough idea from experience that she was probably feeling real bad right now. I could ask myself later whether she was overreacting or if the princess was that bad. Right now, I had to calm her down.

"Hey hey hey, Twilight! Listen to me, I'll need you to stop and breathe for a second, you understand?" I said, remembering tht telling someone to breathe was usually a good first step. Twilight did just that, visibly becoming better. I, however, had to improvise from that point since I didn't know any other steps.

"Okay, so, what's the things that less important among the two? I can finish that for you or at least help you finish it," I said, going for the root of the problem.

"Less important? Both are important, I have to do both!"

"Okay, umm, what will take less time to finish?"

"The check since I just have to go and find all those ponies in charge of the things we checked yesterday and make sure that they're still checked but how will I find them so quickly?!"

"Okay, look, Twilight, I know that it is important to you but you'll have to stop the research in some time. I can go out and find those ponies. Once you're finished here, you could go check on Applejack and maybe Rarity and then we can meet up at the townhall. You got that?" I said, offering a compromise.

Twilight considered this and nodded her head quickly. I didn't wait any longer and headed out to get the job done.

"What's the hurry?" asked Bloom as I exited the building.

"Gotta finish the checks for Twilight quickly," I answered as I fast walked to go and find Rainbow Dash.

As I walked around, the town started gaining more life as ponies started waking up to see the princess raise the sun. Unfortunately, I did have to look for long to find Rainbow. She was flying with a yellow pegasus.

"Hey, Rainbow!" I half-shouted, getting her attention. She noticed and came down to the ground with the yellow pegasus following her.

"What's up, Anya?"

"Just came here to finish a final check thing. You good on the weather?"

"Yeah, the weather's good, just finished clearing a few clouds earlier."

"That's good to hear, now I gotta go check on the music. You know where... the pony in charge of that is?"

"Yup, she's right here and she's got the music covered."

"Ah, great! Gotta go now, see you guys!"

"See ya!"

That was great, I got two down already and it had only been about fifteen minutes. Now, I had to go to the town hall and check on Rarity. However, the universe probably wanted to mess with me, and a large number of ponies came out of seemingly nowhere to block my path to the town hall. Another ten minutes of weaving through traffic later, I was at the town hall.

I entered and saw Rarity inspecting the decorations.

"Yo, Rarity, are the decorations good?" I asked, surprising her a bit.

"Oh, hello, Anya! Didn't hear you coming in since I was busy ensuring that the decorations were perfect."

"Okay, so, are the decorations perfect?"

"Well, yes, I do believe so."

"That's good. Now, I just have to wait for Twilight."

I sat down on floor, my tail serving as a cushion that separated my butt from the cold floor, and took a deep breath after all the fast-walking around that was so very taxing on my unathletic slob of a body and my low quality lungs.

"So... are you still angry with me?" asked Rarity, interrupting my rest. I had to think for a moment to figure out that she was talking about yesterday.

"Wasn't angry in the first place, just mildly annoyed."

"That's... good to hear."

The door opened behind me and I turned to see Twilight running in with a half-asleep Spike on her back, a paper and quill in her magic, and Bloom flying behind her.

"She's here! Is everything checked?" Twilight asked as she skidded to a stop in front of me, with Bloom landing beside here.

"Yeah," I answered. Twilight started scribbling some stuff down on the paper and looked absolutely relieved. She pulled me into a very tight hug, probably as a way to say 'thank you for getting my work finished right before the deadline', but the fact that she didn't ask me first and that she was sweating, led to me pushing her away quickly. She didn't seem to care, however, and continued scribbling stuff on her paper.

Rarity suddenly spoke as if she just woke up or something, "Wait, the princess is here already?! Oh no, I got carried away with my work. Oh, do I look presentable?"

"Yeah, you do," I replied, a slight bit annoyed that she asked that even though she always looked like she was ready for high society crap. But then, her reaction was justified since she was meeting the princess who happened to be an immortal goddess.

Rarity, however, seemingly wanted to fret about something, or maybe she was just worried about others like a normal fucking person and not whatever warped idea I had for one, and turned her attention to me.

"But what about you, Anya? Those bandages look hideous and your hair look awful and your glasses and that scar! You can't show yourself like that!"

I knew Rarity was just concerned, but as much as I wanted to believe that I was some superior sigma creature that took criticism in stride, I was not, and those words hurt.

"Wait, you have bandages and a scar?" asked Twilight as she looked up from her paper, totally confused. To be fair, the bandages and the scar blended in with my colour somewhat. She continued, "I thought you just looked ug-"

Twilight caught herself and coughed in her hoof, clearly used to being blunt with people, and tried to salvage the situation by pretending that she was going to say anything but ugly. I knew better and took some offence. It was one thing to know you're ugly but another thing to have someone just say it to your face.

All the attention, the negative attention, was starting to make me uncomfortable and I no longer wanted to be seen or heard and I wanted to be alone or with someone who was a friend.

"I think I'll just go for now," I said as I turned to leave, leaving Twilight sputtering. I was not fortunate, however. The doors opened and six ponies in golden armour walked in. Two were unicorns, two were pegasuses, and two were Earth ponies. All of them looked alike with blue hair and white fur, and each of them carried a spear. They stood in two lines of threes on either side of the door.

Followed by them was perhaps the tallest pony I had seen. She had bright white fur and a tricoloured mane that flowed unnaturally and looked more like smoke than actual hair. She had large wings and a long horn, and she wore a crown and some other jewelry.

Rarity and Twilight bowed, and I did as well. Twilight got up quickly and ran to the princess, almost dropping Spike who had fallen asleep on her back.

"Princess!" she almost shouted in greeting.

"Ah, my dear student Twilight, how has Ponyville been? Made any new friends?" the princess asked in a motherly voice.

"Ponyville has been okay. I've come to tell you that the preparations for the celebration are in order."

"That's good to hear," the princess said as she looked at the decorations in the town hall, inadvertently making Rarity quite nervous. "I must say, these decorations are marvelous." Rarity quietly breathed a sigh of relief and then became visibly excited.

"Oh, Rarity did them," Twilight said pointing to Rarity.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Miss Rarity. As I said, your work is marvelous and I'm glad you have done the decorations for this year's celebration," she said in a friendly tone and with a smile.

"Thank you, princess, it was my pleasure," said Rarity, somehow keeping her voice steady despite all her excitement.

The princess then turned to me. She was large and imposing and very powerful and I did not like that very much. I became nervous under her piercing gaze, questioning if she would somehow find out some secret about me. What if she finds out that I'm sent here by some eldritch thing?

I had to physically stop my ears and tail and whatever stupid body language things the pony body had from making me look like I had something to hide. Instead, I appeared normal or at least I hope I did.

"And who may you be?" asked the princess in the same friendly voice and the same smile that she spoke to Rarity with.

"Namaste, princess, I'm Anya," I said, reverting to default settings like an idiot.

"Yeah, Anya helped me with checking the preparations since the mayor was unavailable," added Twilight.

"Well, Anya, I'm thankful that you helped my student," said the princess before she turned and spoke to Twilight, "Speaking of the mayor, where is she?"

As if on cue, the mayor entered the town hall clearly in a hurry. She slowed down upon seeing the princess and put on a smile.

"Well, I believe that I have work to do. I'll see you all the celebration," said the princess, giving us the message to leave. I was happy to do so, and left the building. Unfortunately, by the way Twilight's hoofsteps sounded as I left, I could tell she was going to catch up to me and try to apologize. I didn't want anymore conversation with her for now and made my move, walking on to the increasingly crowded streets and disappearing among the people.

It was a few minutes of manoeuvering around, making sure no one bumped into me or anything, and I was out of the town square. The transition from bustling crowds to a relatively empty street was quick, allowing me to go find a bench to sit on. I did exactly that since I didn't want to stand out for staying at home during the celebration.

In the peace and quiet, I could finally rest, allowing the emotion from Twilight's comment, her 'research', and the brief talk with the princess die down until I was at my natural neutral state.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a very well defined dark figure slither out of a shadow. My first reaction should have been me putting a safe distance between me and it but strangely, I didn't, even though the memory of being attacked by something that crawled out of a shadow was still fresh for me. It was almost as if I knew it to be friendly... Was it Voth?

The shadow became larger and crawled onto the bench, taking a seat right next to me. In the next few seconds, it took on the familiar form of a dark alicorn with eyes all over.

Voth had returned.

The eyes all scanned me, in a way that was probably a lot more invasive than what the princess's might have done but I had no negative reaction. After a few seconds of looking me up and down, Voth spoke.

"WHAT. DID. IT. LOOK. LIKE?" Voth asked in a voice that simmered with rage. I was a bit scared at that but answered, knowing that he wanted to kill whatever attacked me in Sunday.

"Lik-"

"SPEAK IN YOUR MIND FOR I CAN HEAR YOU THERE"

'It was a dark moose thing with eyes on its chest and only a mouth on its head. It had antlers that were made out of all sorts of legs,' I answered in my mind. I could feel Voth mulling over the answer, probably trying to identify the assailant.

A movement caught my eye and I turned my head to it. A light green unicorn was coming my way. I almost panicked at the thought that she saw Voth but she continued on past me without even looking at us.

"REMEMBER THAT THEY DO NOT SEE ME OR HEAR ME FOR I AM IN YOUR MIND ONLY AND RIGHT NOW I HAVE MADE SURE THEY CANNOT PAY ATTENTION TO YOU" said Voth, making me feel dumb about panicking, because after all, Voth was in my head and not in the physical world and probably smarter than me in the way a human is smarter to an ant.

Suddenly, Voth's wing wrapped around me, pulling me into a wing hug. Voth then put one of their forelegs to the right side of my face, primarily on my scar. I, despite being pretty calm now compared to earlier, did not want to be touched and tried moving away. A sense of calm filled me, however, and the touch felt warm and friendly. I leaned too much into Voth and almost fell through since Voth did not exist in the physical world to have me lean on them. Voth moved onto inspecting my forelegs and I could feel their touch under my bandages.

'Why can I feel you even though you're not in the physical world?' I asked.

"I HAVE STIMULATED THE NERVES IN THOSE AREAS OF YOUR BODY WHERE MY ILLUSION TOUCHES IT SO THAT YOU FEEL A FRIENDLY TOUCH THAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER," answered Voth without much emotion as they were still inspecting my forelegs. I'm pretty sure that I should have felt a bit bad that the friendliness was artificial but didn't for some reason, not that I should have felt bad in the first place considering that Voth was rather nice even if they didn't care much.

'Why am I so calm around you?'

"I HAVE PLACED BLOCKS ON YOUR EMOTION TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT FEEL NEGATIVELY ABOUT MY ACTIONS OR ME AND SO THAT YOU DO NOT FEEL TOO STRONGLY AND INTEGRATE WITH YOUR NEW ENVIRONMENT BETTER I WILL BE REMOVING SOME OF THE LATTER BLOCKS TO LET YOU FINISH INTEGRATING COMPLETELY"

'Why only some?'

"YOUR VESSEL'S SURVIVAL INSTINCTS AND PAST EXPERIENCES HAVE CREATED AN INFERIOR SECOND MIND THAT HAS LARGELY TRIED TO IMPEDE YOU THE BLOCKS WILL MAKE SURE THAT THE HUMAN MIND STAYS DOMINANT OVER THE PONY AND THAT YOU CAN KEEP WORKING"

Voth left my forelegs and spoke in a much more authoritative voice.

"YOU HAVE KILLED THE PARASITE THAT ATTACKED YOU AND I AM PROUD OF THAT HOWEVER YOU DISPLAYED FEAR AND CONSIDERED LETTING OUR DEAL BE KNOWN BY A STRANGER I WILL PLACE SPECIAL BLOCKS ON YOUR MEMORY TO ENSURE THAT YOU CANNOT REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT OUR DEAL IF SOMEONE TRIES INVESTIGATING IT AT ALL

NEXT YOU SHOULD AVOID INTERACTION WITH THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN IF YOU CAN SHE KNOWS OF MY KIND'S EXISTENCE AND WILL KILL ANYONE SHE SUSPECTS TO BE UNDER ONE OF OUR'S CONTROL OR IN A DEAL WITH ONE OF US IF SHE FINDS OUT ABOUT OUR DEAL SHE WILL KILL ME AND YOU

HOWEVER YOU WILL HAVE TO INTERACT WITH HER AGAIN IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS DUE TO AN EVENT"

'You mean the celebration?'

"I AM TALKING ABOUT THE RETURN OF HER SISTER THE PRINCESS OF THE MOON SHE HAD BEEN BANISHED TO YOUR CURRENT PLANET'S MOON ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO AND IS RETURNING AS WE SPEAK IN THE NEXT HOUR SHE WILL BE BACK AND I WILL NEED YOU TO DO EXACTLY AS I SAY AND INTERACT WITH HER AND CAST THIS SPELL ON HER"

At that, my head hurt and the image of a rune entered my head. I... couldn't really describe it in words other than 'scribbles', like it was something some made while panicking. Voth's form started dissolving as well.

"NOW GO THE CELEBRATION IS STARTING I WILL BE RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE"

Now, I just didn't have to mess up.

Chapter 11: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt2(rewritten)

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I walked back to the town hall and watched as a steady stream of people entered it.

'Should I go in now?'

"GO IN TOWARDS THE END TO STAY CLOSE TO THE EXIT FOR ESCAPE"

I waited for the people to enter and as the last few people were going in, I joined them. Once inside, I could see that the town hall was absolutely packed and that exiting it would take a lot of time for most of the people in there. I was not among them, however, and didn't have to worry about that.

'Will she be dangerous?'

"SHE WILL IGNORE ALL THOSE IN THE CROWD UNLESS THEY GIVE HER REASON NOT TO."

The noise in the hall died down as the Mayor walked onto the stage. The celebration was beginning.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" the mayor announced and the audience errupted into cheers.

"BE PREPARED TO LEAVE AND DO SO WHEN I TELL YOU"

"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria...

...Princess Celestia!"

A spotlight focused on a balcony thing above the stage that had its curtains drawn. The curtains opened and out stepped... no one. People started whispering as the seconds dragged on and the princess did not show up.

"She's gone!" cried out one of the princess' guards as she emerged from the balcony. The people were starting to grow restless and nervous. As much as I wanted to leave the area and avoid any potential stampede, I did not as Voth would not allow me.

A few cries came from the crowd close to the stage as a glowing blue cloud of smoke that resembled the night sky, only if it was a lighter blue, appeared. Mayor Mare stepped back from the smoke as it collected on the stage and started taking the shape of a pony.

"THE NIGHT PRINCESS IS HERE" announced Voth in my head.

Cackling filled the air as the smoke flashed a bright white and left a dark alicorn in its place. She was already pretty tall and being on the stage made her appear even larger, making the crowd shrink back from the stage. The alicorn stopped cackling and observed the crowd for a moment, her starry smoky mane fluttering in the still air. The tension was palpable.

"Oh my dear subjects, it has been so long since I have last seen your sun loving faces," said the alicorn in a malicious and scornful voice, almost as if she was angry on every last person in the crowd.

"What did you do to our princess?!" I heard the shout of Rainbow from somewhere in the crowd.

I could sense the alicorn's mood worsen at that question.

"Why, is my crown not royal enough for you? Have you all forgotten who I am, just like all those years ago? Do you not remember the stories?!" She questioned with increasing volume and anger.

"I know who you are!", I heard Twilight shout, "You're the mare in the moon — Nightmare Moon!"

"And do you know why I am here?"

"..."

"Very well then," Nightmare Moon responded darkly as her horn started glowing with magic, "Remeber this day, people, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!"

"Seize her!" commanded the mayor. At that, the guards attacked, only to be knocked away as Nightmare Moon cast lightning on them. She turned back into the smoke, which then started exiting the town hall from every exit it could find, scaring the people in the building as it did. The soldiers tried to catch it but could only watch as it left.

"LEAVE NOW AND HEAD TOWARDS YOUR DWELLING" commanded Voth. I did as he said, quickly leaving just as the crowd in the building started going crazy.

'What do I do?' I asked Voth as I jogged towards my home.

"YOU FIND HER AND CAST THE SPELL ON HER THE SPELL WILL APPEAR TO BE A MAGICAL BLAST OF POOR QUALITY TO ALL BUT YOU AND ME"

'What does it do?'

"THE NIGHT PRINCESS HAD MADE A DEAL WITH A CREATURE LIKE ME AND THE SPELL WILL REVEAL THEIR LOCATION TO ME AND ALLOW ME TO DISPOSE OF THEM"

'Why do you need to do that?'

"I NEED A PLACE TO HIDE AND THEIR CORPSE WILL BE PERFECT IT WILL ALSO WEAKEN THE PRINCESS AND LET YOU ESCAPE"

I wanted to ask what Voth was hiding from but at that moment, I ran into Brush who seemed to hurrying to the town.

"Oh, Anya! Tell me I didn't miss the start of the celebration!" she said, totally oblivious to the current situation.

"DISTRACT HER"

"Worse. Something bad happened. Go to the town and help whoever you can," I instructed her as I turned to continue on my journey.

"What abou-"

"I'll be right back, you go."

I didn't give Brush time to reply as I turned back and continued. She listened to my instructions and flew straight to town. I continued till I reached my home.

"Where now?" I asked out loud by accident.

"KEEP MOVING DOWN THE STREET AND GO THROUGH THE FOREST THERE IS A CASTLE WHERE THE NIGHT PRINCESS IS"

I did as Voth said, continuing down the street till I reached the end and faced the forest. I stopped for a moment, hesitating as I looked at the dark trees in front of me. Voth did not like that one bit.

"YOU SHOW HESITATION YOU SHOW FEAR," said Voth in a tone that made his annoyance clear.

My head hurt as he finished, but suddenly, the forest did not seem as scary as it did earlier and I cringed at how I hesitated earlier. I cast a light spell and moved on, stepping past the boundry.

"KEEP GOING FORWARD TILL YOU REACH A RIVER"

'Can't you come into the physical world now that I'm in the forest?'

"THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED THE GUARDIAN MONITORS THE PHYSICAL WORLD MORE CLOSELY EVER SINCE YOUR ENCOUNTER"

'Shame.'

I slowed down to a walk to catch my breath from all the jogging. I could feel the eyes of many things looking at me but I did not feel scared for they were just animals or bugs. I kept going till I came across the river like Voth told me I would. It did not flow very fast and with a single step in it, I could say that it reached halfway up my legs. It was a bit wide, however. I stepped into the cold water, and started crossing the river slowly so that I did not slip.

I was three-quarters of the way through when the water started becoming turbulent. I almost slipped as I hurried to dry land but it was well worth it because as soon as I crossed the river, it turned into something that you could not cross without a bridge. My tail and hair did get wet though and that was rather annoying.

The forest ahead was thicker and I kinda cringed thinking about how my hair would be catching quite a lot of stuff. I kept going despite that, my only respite being an area that had a lot of dead trees and looked pretty creepy but was otherwise okay.

I eventually reached a ravine and on the other side were the ruins of a great castle.

'We are here,' I announced, 'However, there is no bridge.'

"JUMP ACROSS," commanded Voth, "THERE IS A PART WHERE THE DISTANCE IS SHORT ENOUGH."

I looked around for that part and found it. It, however, was still a pretty large jump. A very tiny piece of me told me to go find some other way to get across but the large majority trusted Voth and believed I could jump across.

I took one last look at the gap and then got into position to sprint and jump.

I took a deep breath and broke into a sprint. The gap rapidly approached and just at what I hoped was the right moment, I jumped. It wasn't anything like in the movies where they show it like its cool and easy; it was terrifying. The ground on the other side came closer and closer but I would not be landing on it. I instead hit the wall of the ravine, only my upper body actually reaching the ground. Without caring about how much my chest hurt or how hard it was to breathe, I pulled myself up and away from the ravine.

"GET UP THE PRINCESS IS INSIDE" said Voth. I took another few moments to catch my breath and got back up and started moving again. I didn't have much problem finding an entrance, which was just a huge hole in the wall, and entered the ruins. I was in a dark hallway with only my horn light to show me where I could go. I also picked up some sound. I could not tell what it was but it was coming from down the hallway.

I slowly and easily crept down the hall, making no sound as I moved. The noise I heard became more like a conversation, only that there was only one person speaking. I reached the doorway at the end and peeked to see Nightmare Moon. She looked like she was talking, or rather, bargaining with the air in front of her.

"I have returned now, and you promised me power for when I did!

...

What do you mean you altered the deal?! That isn't fair!

...

I swear if you don't take that back now, I'll KILL you!"

"CAST THE SPELL."

I ignored whatever she was saying and focused on the spell. My horn lit up with bright green magic, making just enough noise for Nightmare Moon to notice. I cast the spell and a small green ball of magic sailed across the air. The alicorn turned to face it but she was too slow and the ball of mgic impacted her left foreleg, doing absolutely nothing and dissipating.

"I WILL RETURN RUN NOW"

I felt Voth leave my mind but that didn't matter. What mattered was that the alicorn had seen me. I tried moving but I felt light headed all of a sudden and found myself in front of the alicorn. Did she teleport me?

I wasn't the one asking questions, though.

"And what do you think you're doing here, eavesdropping on my conversation?" Nightmare Moon asked as she got very close to my face.

"There's... someone else here?" I replied, doing my best to sound oblivious.

"No, there isn't," said Nightmare Moon after a moment of deliberation. She then got out of my face and back to towering over me. "So, you have been sent by Celestia to stop me?" she asked with some mirth, probably at how I, a pathetic little creature in comparison to her, had supposedly been sent by princess Celestia to pick a fight with her.

"N- no, I came here by myself," I answered, technically telling the truth. Nightmare Moon laughed at that answer. Her laugh was a weird one; she sounded like she was both amused and angry, like she was at the end of her rope.

"And what did you —" she looked to the spot of air she was talking to earlier before turning back to me "— hope to accomplish with that pathetic magic blast, other than annoying me?"

I didn't give an answer, hoping that she would see me as stupid instead of working towards a goal.

"Hmph, nothing it seems," she turned and walked a few steps before turning back, looking like a maniac. "Let me tell you something, little pony, when I'm done purging the influence of my sister from this world, everybody will LOVE the night!"

I knew that in the story, Nightmare Moon wanted to make the night last forever and I had doubted that was her goal since said story was almost a thousand years old, but now that I was face to face with Nightmare Moon, I began rethinking my earlier assumption.

"You'll actually stop the sun from being in the sky, like forever?" I asked, just to make sure that I wasn't being dumb.

"YES! And it will be glorious!" she answered full of confidence.

A dumb person might have laughed at that or called her stupid, and then be instantly obliterated but I was not that dumb. I knew that I should probably try to stop her since I kinda lived on this planet and didn't want to die, at least before I get Voth the thing he wants. I didn't have Voth to help me out, nor did I possess any fighting skills other than going ape on the enemy but I doubt that would work here. Running away was out of the question as well. I thought about what to do and then it came to me. I could potentially talk to her and calm her down. As crazy as that sounded, I might be able to since I had prior experience in doing the whole 'calm down crazy people' and I could try it now.

"I don't think that's a good idea, or even necessary," I began. Almost immediately, Nightmare Moon sent a death glare my way but I continued anyway since it was too late to turn back. "I mean, like, you wanted people to love the night, right?"

"Where are you trying to go with this?" asked Nightmare Moon angrily.

"Well, there's like a lot of people who like the night," I stated, ignoring her question.

"If that is so, then tell me why those ponies in the town were terrified of me?", Nightmare Moon asked as if she didn't just zap onto a stage in front of a crowd of easily scared ponies and declare that their beloved princess was gone forever and that it would be night forever like a stereotypical villain.

"It's on you really, you came in like a big smoke thing and then did things that scared them all, like just declaring that their princess is gone forever."

"So, you're saying that I should have just stayed away and wallowed in my night all by myself and let Celestia get all the adoration of our- no, my subjects?"

I had backed myself into a corner and had to come up with something quick.

"Well, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that maybe you should try to make yourself seem better in their eyes since they've had her for the last thousand years, and a thousand years is enough time to make a bias."

"I will be the one DECIDING if I want to look good or not, little pony. I will not be taking your 'suggestions'."

I had to hold back from saying 'well, go fuck yourself then' and make an actual response to that. Fortunately for me, I heard the familiar voice of Voth in my head.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY DID YOU NOT RUN?" Voth asked, clearly stressed and angry.

'Couldn't run, she saw me instantly. Could you help me talk her out of putting the moon in the sky permanently?' I answered, trying to look like I was thinking on the outside.

"SHE IS STILL UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HER DEALER AND IS ACTING IRRATIONAL AS A RESULT TALKING HER OUT OF IT WILL BE HARD"

'I can't do anything else.'

"... TRY TO PROVOKE HER INTO THINKING OF THE RAMIFICATIONS OF STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION BUT DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE OF PEOPLE SHE IS FANATICAL ABOUT STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION SINCE SHE BELIEVES THAT SHE WILL RECIEVE POSITIVE ATTENTION FOR IT I WILL DEAL WITH THINGS ON MY END"

"Okay, let's not talk about the emotional stuff and instead, we can discuss the impacts of stopping the planet's rotation," I said to Nightmare Moon, who looked more annoyed than angry at this point.

"I have told you already, I will not be taking suggestions from a sun-loving fool like you."

"Well, you sent Princess Celestia to wherever and I guess that I'm now your subject since you're the new ruler, and it's not that I'm biased against the night or something," I continued, getting her attention.

"What do you want to say?"

"Okay, so, I don't think you've kept up with modern scientific discoveries but I'm sure you know that plants only grow in the sunlight. Well, those plants can't really grow under the moon's light and that would not be great for your future subjects," I said, addressing the easiest to understand problem. Nightmare Moon, thankfully, did not look like she was about to blow me to bits, and actually looked taken aback at that.

"W- well, I'll have my mages create new plants that grow under the moonlight!" she answered. It was impossible not to compare the answer to some idiot kid on the playground say 'well actually, I have an everything shield'.

"Second point, the sun gives off heat that keeps the temperature on this planet livable for us. If that gets stuck to one side of the planet, this side will probably freeze.

Like imagine that you do the whole 'make it night forever'. Your subjects, both those who love you or hate you, will die. Do you want that to happen?", I continued, ignoring her 'solution' and moving onto more side effects of forever night along with some emotional stuff mixed in.

Nightmare Moon had gone from mildly intrigued to looking like she was having a very rude revelation. She was clearly trying to make an argument to disprove but she knew that I was right. It looked like I was winning.

"Do I look FOOLISH enough to believe your LIES?!", she shouted back angrily all of a sudden, a stark contrast to her expression earlier.

"HER DEALER IS INFLUENCING HER THOUGHTS EVEN MORE I WILL BE BACK AFTER I AM DONE KILLING IT DO NOT DIE", Voth announced before leaving me again.

"Look, I understand somewhat that you don't want to accept that but even if you don't, you'll still have people who will hate you and call you a monster for forcing the night on them."

"I'll purge them all!"

"But then you'll just be a bad person."

"Gahh! Shut up!"

I felt magic around my neck and before I could do anything, I was being choked midair as Nightmare Moon came close to me and shouted with tears forming in her eyes, "I'm not a bad pony! I just want the LOVE that SHE always got! All the APPRECIATION that I DESERVE! I won't be DENI-"

She stopped as she did a double take at me being held up in the air by her magic and getting choked. She dropped me and looked horrified. I lay on the floor, coughing and trying to catch my breath.

"I HAVE KILLED THE THING", I heard Voth say as he returned, "FINISH THIS TALK."

As angry as I was from being choked, I had to finish this whole thing. I looked over to Nightmare Moon who had sat down and was looking at her hooves with a horrified expression. Tears were running down her face and she looked pretty miserable. Voth seemed to have done most of the work for me.

"I'm a horrible pony, a monster," Nightmare Moon said to no one in particular.

"You're misguided, not any of that," I said, making her give me a bewildered look. "If you go back and apologize or something, they'll probably forgi-"

A bolt of purple magic sailed through the air and hit Nightmare Moon in the back, sending her sprawling to the ground. I looked to where it had come from and saw Twilight and the five ponies we had to talk to earlier.

"Anya! We're gonna save you!" I heard Rainbow shout as she flew straight to me. She couldn't reach me, however, as a red blast of magic hit her and threw here back into the other ponies. Nightmare Moon had got back up and she looked furious.

"You did all this, just to waste my time!", she said to me, absolutely filled with anger. I don't know what caused her to come to that conclusion or to have such a reaction but I had to either calm her down or run.

"No! I neve-", I tried arguing only to be cut off by a purple beam of magic hitting the spot between us two.

"Anya! Run!" shouted Twilight.

I didn't run and tried to say something but I was stopped by Voth coming back and saying, "THE DEALER HAS POSSESSED HER YOU HAVE TO LEAVE IT IS GO-"

Voth's voice was cut off. It was too late to run now. I was picked up by my neck once more and could only watch as Nightmare Moon transformed. Her eyes turned black and her flowing mane and tail seemed to become a black fire.

"YoU WiLl ReGReT ThIs!", she shouted in a voice that was familiar to me. A shield formed around me and I was dropped into a bubble prison.

"Girls, distract her!" Twilight ordered as she ran to some weird sculpture thing with stone orbs. I wanted to shout at them to stop fighting but it was too late. Nightmare Moon was possessed by whatever the hell her dealer was and I was stuck in a bubble a bit too small to hold me.

Four of the five ponies charged at Nightmare Moon without any apparent strategy and as expected, they were shot at with blasts of nasty looking magic. Fortunately, they dodged or found cover, and continued their attack. Rainbow flew above the possessed alicorn and dived, hitting her on the head. It was to no avail, and Rainbow found herself being thrown away. Applejack charged at Nightmare Moon next and was thrown away just like Rainbow.

"I dO NoT hAvE TiME fOr ThiS," said the THING that possessed Nightmare Moon, annoyed at ponies' attempts to stop them. She charged her horn and shot a beam towards Twilight. Twilight didn't dodge in time and disappeared along with the orbs she was fiddling with. She then teleported both herself and me.

We reappeared in some far away part of the castle ruins. Some distance away was Twilight who was looking around to see where she was. The THING stood on a raised platform with the orbs on the floor around her and me in the prison bubble behind her.

"You'll never win! The night cannot replace the day!" Twilight declared. The THING simply laughed.

"I dO NoT CARE fOr WhEtHEr It iS DaY oR niGhT, aLl I nEeD Is ThIs pLaNEt To DIE," the THING said, catching both me and Twilight off guard.

"What?" Twilight asked.

"ThIS PonY, NigHTmArE MoOn, is BuT a TOOL FoR ME tO EnD aLl RESISTANCE On ThIs PlAneT AnD CoNSuME iT's POWER," the THING continued, explaining its motive.

Twilight seemed horrified at that revelation but steeled herself and charged.

"W- well, you're not going to win!", she shouted as she charged up her horn and charged at the THING like an absolute idiot. The THING smiled, revealing a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and charged at her. Just before they collided, Twilight cast a spell and teleported to where the orbs were. She desperately tried to do something with those orbs and did not notice the THING sneak up to her.

"ThE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY ArE GONE! I DeStrOyed ThEM AlL tHoSe YeARs aGo WheN tHe PrIncESs oF ThE SuN BaNIshEd heR sIsTer. It iS OVER fOr YoU!" The THING said, followed by it rearing up to presumably crush Twilight under its hooves. Twilight jumped out of the way, fortunately, but when the THING stomped, it released a shockwave that broke the orbs that were presumably the elements of harmony that would be used to defeat the THING.

Twilight looked devastated at that and honestly, I didn't feel great when I saw that. The THING seemed to be filled with joy and it transformed even more. It's wings grew larger, it's legs longer and thinner, and it's jaw unhinged revealing its terrible teeth.

"YoUr TuRN, NoW," it said as it looked to me. Despite the fear blocks Voth had placed on me, I felt terrified. The bubble around me started to fade away as the THING approached, opening its mouth wider to maul me. Twilight saw this and shot a magical blast at the THING's head, annoying it. It turned to Twilight, scaring her even more. I would have run but the bubble was still there.

"WeLl, It LoOks LiKe YoU'Re MoRe EAGER tO DIE!" it said before lunging at her. Twilight teleported away to a door at the far end of the hall we were in. The door opened behind her and the five ponies came in. She looked at them and turned back to the THING that was now crawling to the six like a really fucked up spider thing.

"You were wrong, monster! The elements aren't gone!" Twilight said confidently as the wind started to pick up.

"YoUr DeLUsIoNs WiLl NoT SaVE yOu!"

"That's where you're wrong. The spirits of the elements are right here!"

A white light started forming around the six, making the THING pause for a moment. Twilight continued her speech.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty! Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... kindness! Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... laughter! Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... generosity! And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty! The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."

"YoU ARe StiLl INCOMPLETE!"

"Oh, no, we're not incomplete, because there is a spark in us all that makes us, us. The spark of... magic!"

The white light around them grew in intensity along with the wind. The THING lunged for Twilight but was violently thrown back, making it hit my bubble, which was basically a wall since it didn't move.

A rainbow coloured beam shot out from the white light and raced towards the THING. It tried to get out of the way but it was too slow. The beam hit it and it let out a demonic screech of pain and agony. I had to turn my eyes away because of how bright it was.

There was a flash of orange, and I was suddenly pressed to the side of my bubble by some force, and the bubble was now covered in cracks and holes. I could only watch as a free-standing wall approached me with rapidly increasing speed. I was falling. Very fast.

Was this the end?

Chapter [this number sucks]: Blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly tears. (rewritten)

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The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that everything hurt. A slight breeze blew and the right side of my body was in a lot of pain. I tried moving to shield it in some way but thay just made everything pain even more. I managed to sit up and lean back on to a wall but I was exhausted by that act.

What made this happen?

My ears were ringing and I hadn't opened my eyes yet, so, I couldn't tell what was around me either, and honestly, I didn't care about what was around me. I just wanted the pain to end. However, it did not go away like I wanted, meaning that I should try to get help. I cracked open my eyes and found my vision to be very blurry. Was I missing my glasses?

I put a hoof to my face and found that I was indeed missing my glasses. I didn't really know why my ears were ringing but I had a faint idea that it had something to do with an explosion.

Despite my blurry vision, I could still see a few things. I was in some open area with a stone floor, the sun was rising, and most importantly, someone was there with me. A pony was lying on the floor a small distance in front of me, their dark blue fur contrasting with the grey floor. I couldn't make out any other details though.

I tried speaking up to ask them what happened but I had a coughing fit instead, making me aware of the amount of dust in the air. Each cough sent jolts of pain down my body and I almost collapsed back to the floor. I did, however, get the pony's attention.

"Wh... what's... happen-", I managed to whisper between taking breaths before I was suddenly, and painfully, pushed into the wall behind me. I felt my chest get compressed to a degree that made it impossible to breath for a second but it went back to normal after that. I almost had another coughing fit but managed to control it somewhat, letting me focus on what pushed me into the wall.

It was the pony. She had latched onto me in a one-sided hug and buried her face in my chest. Now that she was closer, I could see that she had long light blue hair and wings that looked to be in bad condition. Above all, she was crying and saying something. My ears were still ringing, however, and I couldn't tell what she was saying.

What I could tell was that she was not having a great time, kinda like me. I managed to wrap my forelegs around her to return the hug and maybe provide some comfort but it seemed to have no effect. I couldn't hold my head up any longer and let it rest on hers.

I hoped that help came soon.

Princess Celestia finally conjured a portal out of the pocket dimension that Nightmare Moon had trapped her in. The locks had been impossible to break just a few minutes ago but now they had broken, signalling the defeat of Nightmare Moon at the hands of her student, Twilight, and the success of her plan.

She stepped through the portal and out of the pocket dimension, letting it collapse behind her. She was in one of the towers in the ruins of the Everfree Castle. Twilight was there with a group of five other ponies, the element bearers. They did not pay attention to her, however, and were staring at a writihing black mass ahead of them. It made all manners of unnatural sounds that seemed to either be laughter or screams of pain.

The princess recognised one of the screams. It was her sister.

The THING got up to all six of its legs and spread out its five wings. A head emerged from the central body on a long thin neck. The head had innumerable eyes and a large jaw that opened into a dark abyss lined with red teeth. It grew horns made out of forelegs and arms of various creatures. When it was done transforming, it stood tall above all in the room, and let out a horrible sound.

"We MeEt AgAIn, PrINcEsS Of THe SuN," it greeted. The ponies turned around and saw the princess walk up to them and stand by them, her expression one of barely controlled anger.

"So it seems, monster," the princess replied angrily. "Return my sister."

"wHy ShOUlD i? ThIs iS My ONLY HiDInG pLaCE," it said as it started approaching her. The ponies around her took a few steps back, prompting her to charge up an offensive spell in her horn.

"Ah aH ah, PrInCeSS, YoU WoULdn'T waNt SOMEONE tO HURT yOuR Oh sO BELOVED SistEr," it chided as it stopped moving. It's main body started to part and revealed a patch of light blue fur underneath the dark fleshy exterior. Celestia hesitated and discharged her horn.

"What do you want?" Celestia finally asked the question she dreaded to hear an answer for.

"mY tRuE FoRM haS BeEn AtTaCkeD By an UpsTaRt aNd Is CuRrEnTLy InDisPOsEd oF. i WANT POWER tO ReGaIN CoNtROl oF iT aNd MAYBE, In ReTuRN, i WilL lEavE tHiS pLaNeT AlONe. I'Ll eVeN GivE yOu tHe IDENTITY oF aN AgENt. oH HoW APPETISING tHeY LoOked, oH hoW MucH i WANT tO CRUSH THEM," it said with a terrible smile on its face.

Celestia almost agreed to the deal. She could get back her sister AND the identity of an agent of the eldritch beings, who'd have to be eliminated before they caused widespread destruction or facilitated an incursion. However, she knew that the THING wouldn't make such a generous sounding deal unless it had something to gain, and as far as she knew, it would not be a good thing for her to let the THING get anything.

"Not even in your dreams, monster," she said, declining the offer.

"VeRY WeLl ThEN," it said as its smile became a frown, "hOw AbOuT, ThE LIFE oF yOuR SISTER fOr ThE POWER i NEED."

Celestia knew she had to do something quick to save her sister. Fortunately, she didn't have to. The THING suddenly fell to the ground as if its legs had snapped. It let out a screech of pain that made the ponies cover their ears. The THING started crawling towards her as it slowly melted, becoming more and more of a primitive slime thing until it was finally turned to ash which the wind carried away.

It left behind a light blue alicorn on the floor, who was coming to. Celestia rushed to her to check for any injuries and also out of the joy she felt. The blue alicorn was confused and sat still as Celestia lookeed her over. Her mane wasn't waving in an unseen wind like hers, her leathery bat wings were not in any condition to fly, and she was a lot smaller than Celestia remembered, but otherwise, she was healthy.

Celestia pulled the blue alicorn into a crushing hug and said, "Luna! How I missed you my dear sister!"

Luna returned the hug, happy to see her sister as well, but pulled away.

"Nightmare Moon, where is she?" she asked Celestia. Celestia looked to the element bearers, confused. Shouldn't Nightmare Moon have been destroyed?

"Celestia, we have to find her fast."

I didn't know how much time had passed. I was facing the sunrise and had a clear line of sight with it, and I had to close my eyes to shield them from the sun's rays. If I were to guess, it was probably somewhere around six in the morning. The pain had subsided a little bit but I was tired and the only thing keeping me awake was the still crying pegasus. Even though I hadn't check over my injuries, I was starting to feel that the pegasus probably needed help before me.

I would have tried talking to her but my ears were still ringing and I was starting to suspect that the explosion from when the beam hit the THING had given me ear damage. Or maybe I needed more time since it had probably been only, at most, ten minutes since I woke up.

I was disturbed from my thoughts by the ground vibrating all of a sudden, followed by the pegasus increasing the strength of her hold on me. I opened my eyes and saw two figures in front of me. One was the tall and easily recognisable form of princess Celestia while the other was a shorter blue one. The princess approached me, looking real angry, making me question if she knew I worked for Voth.

The princess said something to which I responded, "Can't hear you, my ears a' ringing."

The other pony came forward, revealing herself to be a... an alicorn? She had bat wings and a horn, but I knew that there were only two alicorns, and that she could be a pegacorn. Her horn glowed a dark blue and I suddenly became aware of all the sound around me.

"Could you let Nightmare Moon go?" the blue alicorn asked.

"Nightmare Moon? Where?" I asked, totally confused. Wasn't she destroyed by the rainbow beam?

"Please excuse me," Princess Celestia said in a voice that indicated that she was really angry but trying to hide it. The pegasus was suddenly covered in a golden aura and pulled away from me. The pegasus held onto me, dragging me along.

"Tia!" the blue alicorn shouted, making the princess stop whatever she was trying to do, letting the pegasus and me fall onto the floor. The blue alicorn then came close and spoke.

"The mare in your arms is Nightmare Moon. We need you to let her go so we can help her."

I looked down at the pegasus(?) and moved the hair on her forehead with my magic, revealing a stump where a horn used to be. I involuntarily shuddered at the sight. Nightmare Moon held onto me even tighter and shook her head no, as if she were scared to go with the alicorns.

I didn't really know what to do.

"Hey, uhh Nightmare Moon, I think you should go with them," I whispered to her to try and coax her to go with them. It didn't work but I was persistent. On the fifth time, she let me go and immediately hid behind the blue alicorn to not be seen by the princess. I couldn't help but feel bad for her even though she was going to end the world by mistake.

Now that she wasn't latched onto me, I looked down at myself to assess my injuries. At first, I was a bit confused about why a rather large portion of the right side of my body was a dull red colour but then, I realised that it was blood. My blood. As if on cue, the pain came back to me and I finaly fell flat on the floor.

My vision went dark almost as soon as that happened.

Chapter 13: Hospital :/

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I heard a beeping sound to my right. I was on a bed, laying on my back and under a blanket that was too thin. I would have complained, but it was warm, like that kind of right temperature that feels like bliss. I tried shifting to lie more comfortably on my side and immediately regretted it as pain shot through me. Whatever drowsiness I had in me was gone with that attempted movement, leaving me laying on the bed waiting for the pain to fade away.

I opened my eyes and looked around. The room was mostly dark with a soft yellow light coming from a light fixture next to one of the two doors the room had. There was a window with its curtains drawn and the lack of sunlight told me that it was night. There was a small table next to my bed. I was hooked up to a IV thing and a machine that was monitoring my heart rate.

There were a lot of bandages on me, some on my body, some on my legs. Most of them were on the right side though and I was a bit confused about why it was that way. Then, I remembered the explosion. It must have been shrapnel or something that got me since I had turned away from it and put the right side of myself towards it.

Well, that doesn't really matter much now that I was in a hospital room once again. I didn't really know what to do. Maybe if I see that nurse or doctor I had the first time around, I could make a joke about me being back. Heh, look at me, thinking about making jokes about something that might be serious. I quietly laughed at that but it turned into a cough almost immediately.

I lay in the bed for a few more minutes, slowly nodding off. The door opened, making me close my eyes instinctively. I heard the quiet sound of hooves on tile approaching me. They stopped by my bed and I heard the sound of pen on paper. I cracked open my eyes and was blinded for a second by the light coming in from the open door. My eyes adjusted and I saw nurse Redheart. She was inspecting the heart rate monitor and the IV bag. She wrote down something on a paper on her clipboard and set the pen down on the table. She turned to leave the room, reading whatever she wrote before stopping.

"Where did I keep the pen?" she asked herself in a low voice as she checked if it was beneath one of the papers on the clipboard.

"It's on the table," I said as loud as I could, which wasn't much more than a whisper. It did get her attention though and made her jump a little in surprise. In hindsight, that was totally unnecessary but then, it was a bit funny and didn't cause any harm.

The nurse turned around and looked at me, not looking particularly amused but not unhappy either.

"It's nice to see that you're awake, though I'd have appreciated it if you made me aware of that earlier," she said as she came back to the side of the bed. "Say, you wouldn't mind answering some questions?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied.

"So, how do you feel right now?" she began.

"Eh, it hurts when I try moving too much, and it's kinda hard to breathe but everything else seems fine," I answered.

"Mhm, so, do you happen to have any relatives that happen to be griffons or any other races that have high heart rates? I'm asking that since your resting heart rate is a lot higher than it should be and we don't have much on your medical records," she continued. I had to dig through my vessel's memories for that one.

"Yeah, my na- my uh grandfather on my mother's side was a griffon. Other than that I don't know."

"Okay. Moving on, have you ever had to use inhalers in the past?"

"Yeah, many times."

"Hmmm, okay," and with that, it seemed the nurse was finished. She wrote some stuff down but then put it down on the table.

"I have another question though. It's not related to medical things," she said.

"What is it?" I asked, a bit confused. The nurse looked like she was finding the right way to ask the question, making me a bit nervous about what she may ask.

"Did... did you really talk Nightmare Moon out of her plan for eternal night?" she asked. "I'm just curious since princess Celestia said that a pony had done that in her address to the townspeople but she hadn't named anyone."

"What else did she say?" I asked, curious about the what the princess had said, since I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to know the true nature of a lot of the things that happened there.

"She thanked and rewarded the element bearers for freeing her sister, princess Luna, from the control of some dark magic demon and then talked about how a pony had saved Nightmare Moon from the darkness as well. That's about it."

"Yeah, that was me, and if you ask me, it went pretty well," I answered her initial question, still a bit surprised that I managed to pull that off, but then, Voth had done most of the work and I was just there to finish it.

"I don't think it went 'well' as you are saying," she pointed out, gesturing to me.

"It went well until she got possessed or something," I clarified, "I was able to convince her that it'd be a bad idea but then Twilight and her friends came in and started blasting. That and dark magic being pretty bad for you, probably did that."

"I still don't get how a dark magic demon can just appear and take control of an alicorn."

"Eh, it's easy to understand. Dark magic is like a... like a stream of sewage water that also has a lot of power in it. If you drink from it, it won't matter who you are, you will become powerful, but other stuff will get in and infect you and make you die or whatever."

"And you decided to go up against that kind of power?"

"Yeah, you could say that.

So, what happened to Nightmare Moon? The last thing I remember was that she was crying a lot."

"She was brought here for a brief period of time but I'll be honest, I thought it was some other alicorn. She was completely different from what she was when she was at the town hall. Last I heard was that she's going to Canterlot along with the princesses and element bearers."

We stayed in silence for a minute before I spoke up again.

"So, I may have forgot to ask this but how long have I been here?"

"You've been here since seven in the morning and now it's around 10 PM," she answered. "Besides the princess's address, you didn't miss much. Although, there was a pony who came to see you earlier but we had to turn her away. Her name was Feather Brush, do you know her?"

"Yeah, that's my friend. She's probably worried since I dipped on her and ran into the forest.

By the way, when do I get out?"

"In a few days. Till then, you'll have rest and after that, you'll try to stay out of trouble."

"Aw, but I like talking to you," I joked. The nurse rolled her eyes at that.

"I'd rather have you talk to me when you're fine than when you're in a hospital bed. It's getting late now, I'll be going. It was nice talking to you, Anya."

"Nice talking to you as well, nurse Redheart."

At least my hospital stay wasn't going to be particularly dull like I imagined.

Chapter 14: Saturday with the besties(concerned friend and a new colleague who may not like me)

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I was in a field. The grass was tall and yellow, there were trees in the distance, the sky was a dark brown colour and no stars were in the sky. A warm breeze was blowing through the area as well, and it was quiet besides the sound of the breeze and trees swaying in it. It was calm.

I was laying the grass, not knowing why I was there and not doing much but I was content with just laying there in the warmth. A lantern was there on the ground next to me, giving off light and warmth. The area around me was lit up in the soft yellow glow of the lantern. Everything outside of that area was dark but I was certain that there was nothing out there. It was peaceful.

Something moved in the darkness, catching my eye. The breeze did not feel as warm anymore. I continued watching as something came towards me out of the darkness slowly, the warmth of the breeze and lantern dissipating the closer it got.

Finally, it entered the light, revealing itself to be a dark mushy looking thing covered in eyes and in the shape of an alicorn. It didn't seem scary or anything but it was weird. It took me a second to remember the only other thing that resembled it.

"Voth, what are you doing here?" I asked. I hadn't seen Voth for the three days I had been in the hospital and since I left... I didn't remember leaving the hospital, let alone how I came here. I suddenly became aware that the grass beneath me felt more like cloth than grass. What was going on?

"YOU ARE DREAMING," Voth said as he came closer and 'sat down' next to me. Him sitting down was less him moving the limbs of her mushy form and more of the mushy form just transforming to look like it was sitting, much like how water shifts to fill different containers.

"Dreaming? So, I'm still in the hospital?" I asked.

"YES YOU ARE"

I looked at the lantern that was there next to me. It only gave off light now that I knew I was dreaming. I didn't really know what to do, so, I imagined that it was levitating and as I had expected, the thing started floating a meter above the ground. I didn't feel particularly fascinated and was in fact, a bit disappointed by how the comfy dream I was having became nothing.

"So, why were you gone for the last few days?" I asked.

"I WAS SETTING UP THE CORPSE OF THE THING FOR ME TO HIDE IN AND PAYING THOSE WHO HELPED ME KILL IT"

"So, you bough eldritch mercenaries to kill that THING and it took you like three days to give them their money?"

"GIVING MONEY WOULD BE FASTER AND EASIER BUT WE DO NOT HAVE MONEY WE ONLY HAVE ENERGY THIS BRINGS ME TO THE REASON I AM HERE IN YOUR DREAM

I HAVE FOUND A CLUE FOR THE KEY IN THE CORPSE"

Ah, the key, the thing Voth sent me to find in Equestria. Looks like they found clues before I did and now that Voth told me that energy was like money for his kind, the key felt less like an actual key to something and more like an eldritch stack of cash that I had to go get him. It was like a person making an ant go retrieve a thousand rupee note lost in the drain.

"What did you find?" I asked.

"AN ARTEFACT CALLED 'GROGAR'S BELL' MAY BE IT"

"Okay, Grogar's bell. Guess I'll have to look for that."

"I HAVE COME FOR ANOTHER THING AS WELL

I WISH FOR YOU TO STOP PUTTING YOURSELF IN DANGER LIKE YOU HAD EARLIER"

I almost thought that Voth was concerned about me.

"IF YOU KEEP DAMAGING YOUR VESSEL YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BE UNABLE TO RETRIEVE THE KEY AND I WILL HAVE TO MAKE YOU A NEW VESSEL WHICH TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND ENERGY"

I should really stop thinking that Voth's nice every time he says something nice. He only cared as long as I was working for him. My mood worsened a tiny bit at that thought.

"Anything else?"

"NO"

"So, you'll be going now?"

"NO I HAVE NO REASON TO RIGHT NOW"

Okay, I guess. I turned back to look at the field I was in. It was no longer peaceful or warm like it was earlier and I doubt that I could make it like that again. Suddenly, Voth's from shifted so that he was laying down next to me. He draped one of his large fleshy wings over me and it was warm again.

"YOU WILL BE WAKING IN TWO HOURS I WILL NOT BE THERE FOR SOME TIME AFTER THAT" Voth said with a hint of disinterest in his voice, as if he wasn't really looking forward to doing nothing for the next two hours. I was happy though since it was warm again.

"Say, what'd you do to Nightmare Moon? She was completely changed the last time I saw her."

"I KILLED THE THING SHE MADE A DEAL WITH AND THAT RELEASED HER FROM THAT THING'S INFLUENCE FOR LONG ENOUGH SO THAT SHE UNDERSTOOD YOUR ARGUMENTS AGAINST STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION

I DID NOT DO ANYTHING BUT LET HER BE FREE FOR LONG ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF HER ACTIONS YOU ARE THE ONE WHO EXPLAINED TO HER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SHE DID WHAT SHE WANTED TO AND THAT REVELATION COMBINED WITH THE DISTRESS A MIND FEELS AFTER POSSESSION MADE HER CHANGE"

I lay there, taking in the fact that I had been a part of the metaphorical straw that broke Nightmare Moon's back. I actually felt a tiny bit bad about it, because even though she wanted to do something bad, she didn't actually know the scale of how bad it would be.

Whatever, I guess. I returned to relaxing under Voth's wing.

I woke up feeling well rested. There was no beeping sound or IV thing in the room since I didn't need it. Light was coming in through the windows and it looked like it was nine in the morning. My back was a bit sore with all the sleeping on my back. I sat up in my bed, stretching a little. Most of the bandages I had three days ago were gone and the ones I still had, mostly on my legs, would be gone today.

My stay at the hospital was mostly just staying bed and getting bandages, covered in what I called 'healing goo', placed on my wounds but besides that, they had done some tests to find out why I was having problems with breathing and it turns out I have asthma. Who would've guessed what the streets could do to a bozo such as myself.

Right now, I just had to wait for a nurse to come and get me checked before I could go, which did take not long.

Nurse Redheart came in the room. She had her clipboard, and some other things as well.

"Good morning, Anya. How are you feeling?" She greeted.

"I'm feeling pretty good, nurse Redheart," I responded with a smile.

"That's great to hear," she said as she put her clipboard on the table and brought the other things she had, a glasses case and an inhaler. She handed me the case first. "Here are your new glasses."

I opened the case and pulled out my new glasses, which had thick black plastic frames like my old ones, but also large circular lenses, which I did not like much, but that was on me since I didn't tell them my preferences when they took me down to the eye doctor and got my prescription to get me new glasses. Other than that, the lenses were pristine and not scratched up.

I put them on and my vision improved significantly, for the most part. It felt a bit funky at first, but it'd take, at most, a day for me to adjust to the new glasses.

"Are those fine for you?" asked the nurse.

"Yeah, they're good."

"Moving on, let's get those bandages removed."

She removed the bandages slowly, revealing the almost completely healed tissue under it.

"Looks like your legs have all healed up as well, but that doesn't mean you can go running around doing things that are taxing on your body right away."

"Aww man, guess I can't go to the five-hundred ton anvil and pick it up."

Nurse Redheart just rolled her eyes at the joke.

"Anyway, this inhaler should help with your breathing issues and I'm sure you know how to use it," she continued, giving me the inhaler. "Now, we can go get you checked out."

I stepped out onto the street, my inhaler and the case for my glasses in my magic. I didn't have much to do except get home and maybe rest, and so, I began my not very long walk home. There weren't many people on the path I took and they didn't really notice me either which was great.

That changed when I was on the street back to my home.

"Anya!" I heard the familiar voice of Brush call out from behind me as I was reaching the crossroads. I stopped and turned to find the pony flying towards me with two bags. I didn't get to say 'hi' or anything as she landed right in front of me and pulled me into a hug. I tried resisting at first but let it be.

"Hey, Brush, nice to see you," I greeted, not really reflecting her enthusiasm at meeting a friend.

"It's nice to see you as well, but first, one thing,", she returned my greeting before putting on an expression that was a lot more angry, and as much as I don't want to admit it, I did shrink back a bit at that.

"What in the name of Faust were you thinking?!", she began. I was confused about what she was talking about but she continued, "Like why would you just go into the Everfree when you tell me that you'll be coming back in a minute and then go and fight an alicorn of all things?!"

Oh, this was about that. I guess she could be upset about that since I did lie about being back in a minute. But then, I did save the world, or at least helped save it.

"Okay, Brush, I'm uhh I uh apologise for that, but could you like, not be that worked up since I'm fine, mostly, and I don't want to see you angry," I responded, trying to calm her down. It worked, and she was back to her normal nice and friendly self that I liked.

"Sorry about that, I was just worried," she apologised for her earlier outburst.

"No problem, but there isn't much to be worried about."

"What do you mean 'not much to be worried about'? You literally looked like you were going to die when the princess brought you back to town!"

I didnt try arguing further since I wanted to be nice to her, and so, I just nodded in agreement.

"Say, what are you doing right now?"

"I'm going home. What about you?"

"Just coming back from grocery shopping. Do you want to come over for lunch?"

I considered the offer. I was hungry, yes, but I didn't really feel like imposing on her but she would probably insist on it till I accepted. I guess I could do something nice for her later in return.

"Sure."

Lunch had gone fine. It was mostly us making idle talk with Brush leading the conversation, telling me about how she had been busy painting cool stuff and then showing me the aforementioned paintings. We were in the living room when someone knocked on the door.

"Wait a second, I'll go see who it is," she said as she left to go check who it was. She came back a minute later, not looking too happy. "It's Mayor Mare, she's looking for you."

I nodded and followed her out of the house, where Mayor Mare was. She looked tired but was happy to see me.

"Ah, Anya, it's good to see you on your hooves," she greeted me.

"Good to see you as well, mayor. What is it that you called me for?" I said, getting straight to the point.

"Why don't you walk with me. I'll tell you on the way."

I could tell that it was something important that she wanted to discuss. I bid Brush goodbye and walked with the mayor.

"So, what is it?"

"It's about the princess's student, Twilight Sparkle. The princess has mandated that Twilight should stay in our town and learn more about magic."

"So?"

"So, the town is compelled to provide her a house and a job."

"So, she'll be staying in the library?"

"Yes, she will. She's also taking up a job at the library."

"Okay, what do I have to do?"

"Well, she and the rest of the element bearers would be returning from Canterlot today in some time, and I'd like you to tell Twilight what she'll have to do at the library since I have some work to do, mainly improving the town's security. That reminds me, thank you for helping save the princess. That was truly a brave thing to do."

"Thanks, mayor. Anyway, how long till they're back?"

"An hour or so."

"I'll wait in the library then."

"Yeah, you should. Once you're done instructing Twilight, you can go back to your home and rest."

" 'Kay, boss."

The hour of waiting would be long, and since I was alone until Twilight came, I decided to go do some research on Grogar's bell. Unfortunately, I did not find much relevant information about it. According to the books I read, it's a legendary magical artefact that some guy named Grogar used to steal magic and rule Equestria in the very distant past. It was then stolen by a unicron named Gusty the great and hidden away on top of a mountain named Mt. Everhoof behind powerful magic. The location might have been useful but there was no Mt. Everhoof on any of the maps I checked, and without any description of its surroundings or physical features, I couldn't guess its location either.

I did find out about another artefact that was simply called 'the key'. It did not have any description other than it holding a great amount of power that could only be wielded by those who know everything about it. Paradoxically, it could only be found and used by those who cared little for it. All this sounded a lot more like the thing Voth wanted me to find and fortunately, its last known location was an abandoned fort somewhere in the Everfree forest. If I wanted to find it, all I needed to do was get a map of abandoned fortresses in the Everfree.

That would have to wait though.

The door to the library opened and in came Twilight Sparkle and her dragon, Spike, who was carrying two bags larger than him with unnatural ease. What did bro do to get that strong? That question would probably go unanswered.

"Greetings, Twilight and Spike," I greeted and then immediately cringed at how stupidly formal that sounded. They didn't seem to care, however.

"Hi, miss Anya! Guess what?" said Spike, clearly excited about something. I knew that it was probably him moving to Ponyville along with Twilight. A small part of me, however, thought for some reason that he was going to say 'chicken butt'.

"What?" I asked, knowing that he's probably going to talk about moving to Ponyville.

"Chicken butt."

"Spike! Stop making jokes, we're in a professional setting! Why don't you go and put our stuff upstairs" Twilight reprimanded him quietly before turning back to me and smiling nervously. "Sorry about that, he's just a child."

Spike walked off with the bags, unhappy that he was reprimanded over a joke. Twilight was a lot more different around me now, probably since I was her colleague/boss, and honestly, it was kinda weird to have someone treat me like I was their boss.

"No need to be that formal, or formal at all, we're in a library," I said, quoting the words of that one chad librarian who worked at my highschool. I kinda missed his positivity.

"Oh, uh, that's fine, I guess," Twilight said, less nervous than earlier. She then changed the topic, "So, are you fine now? Nightmare Moon had hurt you quite bad."

"It wasnt Nightmare Moon from what I understand but yes, I'm fine now. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Oh, yeah. I was told that you'd be showing me how to run this place."

"Ya, I will. Anyway, you probably know the basics of putting the books where they are supposed to be on the shelves so we can skip that and go to the other important bits," I began. Twilight summoned a paper and quill and looked at me, ready to take notes. I questioned the usefulness of that since I wouldn't take long or explain something complex but whatever floats her boat, I guess.

"Okay, so, first important bit: we don't do late fees here unless it's like late for more than a month but even then, don't try to exceed ten bits. As for the second, this is it," I said as I walked to the front desk and pointed at the computer. I switched it on to show her what she'll have to use.

"So, we use a computer here to keep track of all the books?" Twilight asked in a voice that seemed... disrespectful to the computer specifically. "Excuse my choice of words but that sounds rather dumb."

"Why do you think it's 'dumb'?" I asked her.

"Well, I've tried to used a computer in the past and it seems that none of them actually work like they advertise," she began, "And they're not great for keeping track of books compared to physical records."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Twilight, but I can tell you that this guy hasn't failed me once," I defended the computer, knowing that Twilight was just tech illiterate. "Maybe the problem is the user, since a machine like this is only as smart as its user. Or maybe the machine spirit dislikes you."

I said the first part as an insult and the last part as a joke. I doubt that she would get the reference but I hoped that she would understand it was a joke based on my tone.

"The what dislikes me?" she asked, clearly not getting that it was a joke.

"Eh, nothing. Anyway, come here so I can show you the programs," I said, brushing off her question. She did as she was told and was at the desk in a moment, her paper and quill still with her.

"Anyway, basic usage etiquette, make sure to turn it off when the library closes, don't try hitting it if something goes wrong, just call me instead but if you don't feel like doing that then you can turn it off and on because that usually fixes whatever the problem is. If the problem stays then call me for sure. Other than that, don't go messing around with the code, not without me around at least.

If I'm not there then you can use the manuals. One is for the computer, the other is for the library program. Both are in the
top drawer of the desk. I'm sure you can figure out how to use the program."

"Actually, could you guide me through it once, just to be sure," she said as she finished writing what I assumed to be everything that I had said.

"Sure. To start, type 'library' in the prompt," I instructed as I moved to let Twilight access the keyboard. She began typing in the very annoying manner of looking through the entire keyboard to find they key. That would have been fine but she did that for every single letter, including the 'r's. I didn't say anything at that, staying patient because after all, they didn't have very many computers in this world.

"Okay, now what?" she asked.

"Press the 'enter' key."

Twilight did as instructed; the computer did not. It instead displayed an error message before turning off quickly.

"Is that supposed to happen?" asked Twilight, seemingly unaware that this was very clearly not supposed to happen.

"Nope, could you turn it back on and try again," I said, cutting her some slack over her tech illiteracy. She turned it back on and after it was booted up, she typed in 'library' again, this time significantly faster than earlier. She did that and just like the previous attempt, the computer shut off.

"Hmmm, Twilight, could you move and let me try," I said, surprised that it just refused to work when she was using it. I turned it on and inputted 'library' and this time, it worked just fine.

"That's weird. Anyway, it shows you two options now," I said as I moved aside to let her see them. "Database is to check if we do or do not have a book while check out and return is to update the database when someone checks out or returns a book."

"So, if I want to use one of the options then I'll have to just type the option into the prompt?"

"Yeah, that's one way but you'll have to type it exactly as it is written. The other is typing the number next to the option."

"Zero for database, one for check out. Got that," she said as she typed the number zero into the prompt. The computer's screen did not change when she pressed the enter key and ten seconds later, it was clear that it froze.

"Stupid thing isn't working," Twilight muttered, frustrated at how it refused to work.

"Try apologising to it," I suggested, not as a joke.

"Might as well," Twilight muttered with an eyeroll, then in a loud voice full of sarcasm, she said, "I'm sorry mister or miss computer for calling you stupid and dumb."

Twilight was clearly not expecting it to work but lo and behold, the computer unfroze and displayed the table with the list of books and the number of copies that were available out of how many there are in the library. Twilight was shocked at that while I just smiled.

"Looks like the machine spirit is happy with you now, and you know how to deal with it."

"What in the name of Faust is the machine spirit?!"

"You'll figure that out the more you work with the computer. Anyway, I'll be going, see you later, probably in a few hours. Have fun."

And with that, I left the library to go back and continue my talk with Brush.

Chapter 15: Creature of the Night

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I sat at the kitchen table, silently eating my breakfast that consisted of three pieces of toast and a cup of chai. I was thinking about how I'd spend my time today since I actually did not have anything to do, which I hated, and free time was just too... alien to me. I thought about practicing runes but I had no idea on what I would do, nor any motivation for that. The Daring Do books weren't an option either since they weren't my thing. Going to the library and doing my research on abandoned fortresses in the Everfree wasn't an option either since it was likely that Twilight would be there and it would be hard to make an excuse as to why I'm looking for locations of fortresses in the Everfree.

I was in this... this hell of middle ground where I wanted to do something but either couldn't or didn't want to, and I couldn't escape it easily now. I once had the internet and its sweet but unhealthy embrace to save me, but now, I didn't even have anything like a computer to occupy my time with.

Is this how the ipad babies feel when their ipads are taken away?

I didn't really think much about that question and instead thought about some other, more mundane things that I could do, like drawing. Actually, now that I think about it, drawing is the only thing I could do, unless I suddenly felt like I wanted to do runes ~~or maybe fix the backyard~~.

I finished my breakfast and headed down to the basement to get a sheet of paper and a black pen. I sat down at the basement table with my supllies and touched the pen to the paper. I thought of what I would draw and came up with no ideas. Not to worry, an idea would come in some time.

Ten minutes later, I had only one decent idea and I was too frustrated with myself to come up with one that was better. I began drawing and messed up almost immediately by drawing the first shape too small. Nothing to worry about though, I can just cover it up.

I continued drawing, even when the image I drew started deviating from what I had imagined, even when I kept making dumb mistakes.

The image ended up looking like one of those drawings made by people with mental illness, the ones where it's scribbles but the scribbles make an image by making an area look dark compared to the background, except that I didn't draw something that conveyed any emotion. What I had drawn was an underwater scene. There was a large pillar in the foreground and a few more in the background, each becoming more and more faint to show distance. Somewhere in the middle was a trio of what I imagined to be an enormous whale thing that looked more like a shark but with weird whiskers that were actually the result of me covering up a mistake. The trio were not in the center though and it left the left half of the image looking empty, so, I added a submarine there and it was about as big as one of the shark things. I messed up its propellor and it ended up looking very goofy.

Overall, the image was decent at best if the observer somehow missed all the mistakes I had made in it, but that didn't matter much. What mattered to me was that finishing it did not make me feel good in any way and in fact, made my mood worse. That would have been acceptable if the image had taken like four hours to make but it had only take twenty minutes, meaning that I still had so much free time left AND I felt bad.

'Way to go, idiot, you made yourself sad,' I thought bitterly as I walked back upstairs to lie down on a couch. It sucked that I always felt nervous when I was doing nothing and had nothing to keep me occupied, and it was the kind of nervous that made you feel like your heart was sinking and you wanted to throw up. I lay on the couch, fidgeting till I could up with something to do other than immerse myself in my thoughts. I came up with nothing.

I got up from the couch, deciding that I'd spend my time fixing up the backyard. It was better than having thoughts.

The sun was high in the sky and I was tired. The backyard was a lot more clean now that I had removed most of the ugly looking stuff. The grass still needed to be cut and there was one really thorny bush in one of the corners that I couldn't remove but otherwise, it was pretty much done. My hooves were scratched up and dirty, and I was feeling disgusting with all the sweat on me making my fur damp. It was all worth it though since I no longer felt as bad as I had earlier.

I stepped back in my house, leaving the back door open so that the air inside could circulate. I went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. I stepped in after the water was lukewarm and damn did it feel good. I had what was probably the most relaxing shower I ever had. I spent a lot longer than I needed to but at the end, I actually felt nice. After I dried myself off, I was back at the couch, this time feeling better.

There was a pleasant breeze in the room and it was at a nice warm temperature. That combined with my tiredness, compelled me to take a small nap, which I did.

I woke up with a start. I was thirsty, had no idea what the time was, and disoriented. The spot on my right arm where I had rested my head had the imprint of my glasses' leg on them, and my right cheek was damp with drool. I got up into a sitting position and looked around. The room was darker than what it had been before I took my 'small' nap, and the back door was still open.

I used my magic to close the back door and turn the lights on. The living room was as it was and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I looked down at the floor as I got off the couch and found that there was something out of the ordinary. There wa a large thing on the floor. It was a mish-mash of brown, black, white, green, pink, and blue, and it looked a bit fucked up to me. It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was and it seemed a lot less fucked up when I realised what it was.

It was a moth, a really large one. It was flipped over, trying to right itself. I reached down and picked it up in my hoof, noting its non-negligible weight. The moth tried flying away and when it could not, it started making a loud squeaking sound.

"Quiet, bug, I'm helping you," I said to it as I turned it to face me. It seemed to have understood that I was not eating it or anything and stopped squeaking loudly or trying to fly away. Now that it wasn't struggling, I could take a better look at it. The moth's most prominent feature was its size, like its body without its wings was definitely as big as a chihuahua, maybe even bigger. Other than that, its body was mainly white with some patches of brown, while its wings resembled a used paint palette with all the splatters of bright pink, blue, black, and green, and it kinda reminded me of those frogs that had very bright colours that signified that they were poisonous. Besides its colouring and size, it was also fluffy all over, like a weird flying sheep.

I set it down on the table, where it started messing with its feathery antennae with its tiny little front legs. I observed it as it did, noting how its all black eyes looked devoid of any intelligence or thought. It also looked like I could pet it. I put my right hoof in front of it and watched as it stopped messing around with its antennae, which it then brushed against my hoof. It started crawling up my arm in a spiral pattern and squeaking as well, just not as loudly as before. However, since it was so large and had even larger wings, it wasn't long before I had to stop it to keep its wings from hitting my face.

I pulled it off my right arm and held it against me like one would hold a puppy against their body. The moth didn't really seem to care about that and stayed still in my arms, or so I thought. I noticed a weird tugging on my fur, close to where I held the moth. I had to crane my neck over the bug to see what it was doing.

What I saw confused me. The moth was... chewing on my fur? That's what it looked like to me, at least. Don't these guys only eat liquid stuff with a straw thingie in their mouth? Whatever it was, I didn't stop it since it looked rather cute and didn't hurt me. It continued chewing on my fur as I moved my left hoof to pet the thing. I pulled the thing close into an actual hug, making sure not to do it too hard lest I crush it. The moth didn't care and continued chewing.

Soon enough,I pulled it off my arm and walked over to the backdoor with it. I set it down on the floor and opened the backdoor.

"Okay, that was cool, you can go back now," I said to it.

The unthinking bug stared ahead at my backyard for a good ten seconds before taking off and hitting my face and then crawling onto my right arm where it continued chewing on my fur. I pried it off and set it down outside on the grass. The bug finally understood what I was trying to tell it, and flew off into the forest.

I turned around and closed the backdoor behind me with my magic and returned to the couch to hopefully continue my nap.

Chapter 16: Mnoday

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When I came to the library at 7:30 in the morning, I had expected Twilight to be up, and the library to be clean and tidy.

However, when I entered, I found that my expectations were too high. Stacks of books littered the floor and Twilight was sleeping on the floor among the stacks.

I had only one question. What had she done? Everything was fine Saturday evening when I checked on how she was doing and now on Monday, the library looked like a storm came through.

"Oh, hi, miss Anya," I heard Spike say from the stairs. I looked over and saw that he was coming downstairs with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Yo, Spike. Could you tell me what happened here?"

"Yeah. So, Twilight wanted to read all the books in the library," he said casually, as if Twilight did that every now and then, "but then halfway through, she tells me that the library's book organisation is terrible and that it needs to be fixed. She started yesterday evening and I guess she just fell asleep here. Can't blame her though with all the meetings and talking to journalists at Canterlot that kept her from sleeping peacefully."

I nodded, not really caring about the answer. What I cared about was how I'd get this place cleaned up in the next thirty minutes, before the library opened.

"I can help you with cleaning this all up," he offered, probably after seeing how I looked at the mess.

"Thanks, Spike, but shouldn't we wake Twilight up first?" I said, pointing to the purple unicorn lying on the floor as she was happily drooling on on some paper.

"Trust me when I say this but she won't be waking up for another eight hours or so for any reason at all," Spike said as he set down his cup on the front desk, "You take her upstairs, I'll get started on this."

I nodded and looked down at Twilight. I tried picking her up with my magic but I was not magically strong enough for that, and I may or may not have dropped her from a height of about fifteen centimeters. She didn't wake up despite the fall that may or may not have been my fault. I then carefully picked her up physically and placed her on my back, noting how she was heavier than she looked, not that I couldn't carry her.

I carried her upstairs into a living room which only had a round table. There were four doorways as well beside the one I came in from. One was obviously a kitchen, evident by the fact that there was no door and I could see what was in the room. The other three, I had no idea. I picked one of the three at random and found that it was a bedroom. I didn't waste much time looking around and just dumped Twilight on the bed and left.

Downstairs, Spike had started putting back books in their respective shelves and had made a surprising amount of progress for a little kid. I joined him in the task, picking up a stack of books in my magic and my hooves and putting them back where they belong.

"Hey, miss Anya, I have a question," Spike said as he started putting away the last stack of books.

"Go ahead, ask," I responded, not particularly interested since I was preoccupied with my own stack of books to put back.

"I don't mean this in a bad way but you don't seem to have any reaction to me," he continued, getting my attention since I didn't understand what he was trying to say.

"Elaborate."

"I mean like, you don't really seem to care that I'm a dragon with a unicorn elder sister, or that I'm a dragon in the first place. Most of the ponies in Ponyville were more curious than afraid of me but you don't seem to care. I've got to ask you why is that so?"

I was a bit dumbfounded by that question and it took me a few moments to come up with a response.

"So, you're saying that you're curious about how I just treat you like any other person and want to know why I do that?" I managed to ask, hoping that he'd make himself slightly more clear.

"Kinda, I guess," he answered as he went to lean on the front desk and finish his coffee.

"Well, that's the normal thing to do, or at least I hope it is," I said, hoping that would answer his question.

"That's true, I guess, but you aren't curious in like, any way at all."

"Well, I guess that's because I had a friend and a couple classmates who were dragons, when I was in school and that kinda let me know what dragons can do," I continued, remembering one of my vessel's classmates in, like, seventh grade.

Spike's curiousity was piqued at the mention of another dragon.

"Ooo, you had a friend who was a dragon? What were they like? Were they cool?" Spike asked with the excitement of a child opening up a gift box, and I found that weird since, like, why would someone be that interested about someone just because of their rac-

A thought came into my mind, and I had a potential explanation to why he was that excited.

"So, you have not met many dragons, have you?" I asked as I finished putting away the last of the books.

"No, not really. There aren't any dragons in Canterlot, or many other creature besides unicorns, and they weren't really nice to me all the time," Spike answered sadly, confirming my suspicions that he always felt alone being in a city known for being composed of mostly unicorns. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry about him.

"Well, how do I say this? Okay, so, my dragon friend, Arjun, was a uhh... well, he was not exactly a good influence for a seventh grader," I said, unintentionally making Spike sad at the fact that the only other dragon he just learnt about sucked. I continued with my answer, hoping to make Spike feel not as bad, "But, he was there when you needed him and he never did anything really bad and that's what mattered."

I was successful in making Spike happy again with that last bit.

"Could you tell me more about him?" he asked, hoping I would tell him more. I was happy to tell him more but I had to check the time to see how much more before I had to open the library.

"Sure, just let me look at the time," I said as I moved to go see the time on the clock on the fornt desk. Spike beat me to it though.

"It's 7:59... I guess I'll come back later," he announced sadly as he started making his way back to the stairs.

"Don't leave yet Spike," I said as I went to go unlock the main doors. He stopped, letting me continue, "I do have to manage the library by myself since Twilight's out BUT that doesn't mean that you have to go or that you can't talk to me. It's not like I'm busy all the time."

Spike was eager to talk and brought a stool to the desk as I took a seat. I couldn't help but feel a bit good about how happy Spike was.

It was almost five in the afternoon, just another twenty minutes till the library closed. There weren't many people coming in today, letting me and Spike talk for almost an hour. Spike was happy with how 'nice' I was to him, even though I was just being normal, and he spent the rest of the time helping around the library, which was nice of him.

The talk had made my mood worse though since it made me go through memories of times with my few friends and made me miss them and wish that I could have kept in touch with them. Unfortunately, there was no internet for me to do that, or to scroll through to forget how I was feeling. Strangely though, I didn't miss my firends from my original world at all and instead only missed those from this one. Another one of Voth's mind magic things, I guess.

Anyway, since there weren't many people coming in today, I got some reserch done on the mysterious 'the key'. I had asked Spike to gather some books that could tell me about abandoned fortresses in the Everfree forest under the guise of random curiosity, you know the kind of curiosity that makes you open up a random wikipedia page and then just open whatever links there are. He gathered twelve books and gave them to me, and I read through all of them.

From what I had learnt, there were almost twenty ruins scattered in the forest ranging from minor forts to the Everfree castle and exploring them would not only be time consuming but also suspicious for some rando like myself. However, I was able to get detailed histories on each of the ruins, from which I found the time period periods during which they were abandoned. That combined with 'the key' being last seen four hundred years ago let me narrow down my search to two forts.

One was near a town south of Ponyville called Dodge and that ruin had been restored and turned into a museum, and there were no mentions of 'the key', meaning that it had to be in the other fort. The other fort was rather close to Ponyville, meaning that going to it would be easy. The downside was that there was no reason to go there, for me at least considering that said fort was rumored to also have some other powerful stuff hidden in it. If someone knew I went there, it would raise a lot of questions that could not be answered with 'I went exploring for fun'.

On the positive side of things, I had come one step closer to finding the thing for Voth, which was pretty good.

Now that my research was over, I got up to go put the books back, along with the other books that were returned today. It did not take very long to do that and I was back at my desk, waiting for it to be five. There was no one in the library right now except me since Spike had went upstairs sometime back and not returned yet. I felt like I could take a nap but that was since I was just sitting and doing nothing.

The library doors opened and a familiar purple-pink mare, Cheerilee — if I remembered her name correctly — walked in. She held in one arm a file that seemed to be bursting with papers. She set the file down on my desk and turned to greet me in a tired voice.

"Hey, Anya."

"Yo," I returned the greeting as I came back to my desk. "What's with the file?"

"About that," Cheerilee began as she took a seat on the stool Spike had left at the desk, "Next week Monday, the students coming to the library to pick out the books they'll be writing reports on, and since you're the head librarian, I'll be needing your help on that."

"...Oh shit, you're a teacher?" I asked, almost completely ignoring whatever she said.

"Oh, sorry but I kinda forgot you haven't been in the loop with the whole celebration thing and being in the hospital," she said, realising that I knew absolutely nothing about what she was talking about. "So, anyway, I'm the teacher at the Ponyville school and we're supposed to coordinate for this."

"Okay, I got that part but I'll need some context on the other stuff, like the uh the kinds of books you want me to put aside, you know, like the genre and stuff."

"I want them to get books on other cultures from around the world since that's what they've learning about," Cheerilee said as she opened the file and pulled out a sheet and handed it to me, "Sorry that I couldn't get to you earlier about this. The sheet has all the details about what the students should be doing. It should help you out."

"Okay. I'll get some books set aside by Monday. Anything else?"

"No, not re-"

The door to the library opened and the air in the room suddenly became very still. Whatever positive vibe that was in the air disappeared all together and was replaced with one that made your heart sink or the kind of feeling I got whenever I heard keys jingling at a door.

An older pink mare with purple hair walked in. She wore a fancy looking shirt and a lot of expensive looking jewelry, and most prominantly, a smile that one would find on the face of someone who stirs shit up for fun. She radiated an aura of a person that you would not like in any way or even want to be around. Unfortunately, she was coming our way.

"Hello there, Cheerilee," said the mare in a voice full of scorn that was grating, and it wasn't her tone or anything but just the sound of her voice that was grating.

"Hello there, Miss Rich, pleasure seeing you here," Cheerilee responded with a lie, trying her best to sound like she was happy.

The mare, Miss Rich, then turned to me and glared at me for a second before speaking, "And you must be Miss Khan?"

She didn't give me an opportunity to answer the question and kept speaking, this time to both me and Cheerilee, "I'll keep this short. Cheerilee, Miss Khan, there will be a meeting at the town hall tomorrow at four and both of you are needed there."

At that moment, Spike came downstairs and ran up to me, looking worried. Miss Rich seemed to recoil at the very sight of the little guy and looked like she was going to say something. Spike beat her to it though.

He beckoned me to bend down to his level, and then he whispered in myear, "Twilight's awake and she is not happy that we ruined all her organising work."

"Okay, just go back upstairs and try to calm her down," I whispered back to him. He nodded and ran back upstairs.

"Anyway, what's the meeting about?" Cheerilee asked Miss Rich now that Spike was gone.

"I'm not sure but it's something to do with money," Miss Rich answered as she turned to leave.

Right before she left, she added. "Hopefully it's more funding for security." Then she said in a voice that was barely audible as she left, "Can't believe that they let freaks in this town."

She probably was saying that last part to herself but both I and Cheerilee heard it. The library was silent for a moment before Cheerilee spoke.

"By Faust, I hate that mare," Cheerilee said as she shook her head, probably disappointed that Miss Rich could speak.

"Same and I literally just met her," I said, before moving onto more pressing matters. "So, what's the whole meeting thing?"

"I guess Mayor Mare forgot to tell you, or maybe she was busy with preparations for the celebration, but I'll tell you. So, there are meetings every month with all the important ponies in town like head librarian, weather team leader, some businessponies, and unfortunately, Spoiled Rich, the EEA member. It's mostly about how to spend the town budget or organising events. You'll be there since you're the head librarian, and I'll be there since I'm the only pony in town actually related to the teaching profession."

"So, you're the only person in town related to teaching?"

"Not really, since Spoiled Rich is part of the Equestrian Education Authority, but if she were to disappear tomorrow, nothing would change with how education is handled in our town.

Anyway, I've got to go now. See you tomorrow, Anya."

"Bye."

I was left alone for a few moments before I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and by how they sounded, I could tell the Twilight was coming downstairs and she was clearly annoyed. I turned to face her as she neared the desk.

"Good afternoon, or eveni-" I tried saying but was cut off by Twilight, who looked like she just woke up.

"I understand that you had to put all the books back but you will help me get them rearranged now," she declared with a stomp of her hoof, as if she was trying to intimidate me.

"Yo Twiggles," I started, making her stagger at the nickname I just gave her. She was going to tell me to not call her that but I continued, "Could you get me a bunch of books about other cultures set aside since Cheerilee needs them."

"First of all, never call me that ever again," she began angrily before calming down and continuing, "Second, who's Cheerilee?"

"The town's only teacher. She needs the books set aside since the students are going to do a report thing," I answered and then handed her the paper Cheerilee gave me.

"We'll do that while we're rearranging the books," she stated as she read over the paper.

"About the whole rearranging thing," I said, making Twilight glare at me. "I haven't really eaten since morning and I may be a bit hungry right now. And also, is it really important to rearrange the whole library since everything seems fine to me."

"That's where you're wrong! The books are not placed optimally!", she argued, seemingly not caring that I had needs such as eating food.

"Counterpoint: no one else has complained about the books not being placed optimally so far, so, this may be a you problem," I replied, not eager to postpone my lunch/dinner. Despite that, she looked like she wanted to argue and that really annoyed me. I continued, hoping to make her understand that rearranging was unnecessary, "Plus, the people are very likely to have gotten used to how everything is arranged and it would suck if it all changed without warning."

It took a few long moments but Twilight eventually understood my point and lowered her head in defeat.

"Sorry about that, I just haven't woken up properly," she apologised for her behaviour.

I stayed silent for a moment and then made a joke in a voice very clearly mimicking a shitty manager, "Apology not accepted. As head librarian and your boss, I'm cutting your pay by ten thousand bits."

Twilight didn't get the joke at first and cried, "What? You're joking, right?!"

"Yeah, I am. Anyway, see you tomorrow, Twiggles."

With that, I left the library to go home and make myself something to eat. I could really go for a subway sandwich right now.

Chapter 17: Super crazy meeting

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"Hey, Anya, what are you doing?" asked Twilight as she peered over my shoulder to see what I was reading.

"Reading," I replied, not paying much attention to her as I continued reading the book on shadowmancy.

"Shadowmancy? I thought that dark magic is prohibited," she said, a lot more suspicious of me after realising that I was reading about shadowmancy.

"It's not dark magic. Plus, most dark magic is only prohibited if you are using it to hurt someone or something like an animal, except if you are part of the military," I clarified the legality in a slightly harsh tone, trying to make it obvious I wanted her to not disturb me. Immediately after that, I pretended to clear my throat to make it seem like that tone wasn't on purpose since I wasn't really planning on being mean.

"Still, it's very suspicious that you're reading on that, or that you know that law," Twilight said, continuing to pester me.

"Aw man, looks like detective Twinkle Sprinkle has caught on to my true motives of learning shadow magic to uhh... to uh scare children and steal their candy like a uh totally evil person," I said out loud with extremely heavy sarcasm and even an over the top villain voice. I then proceeded to berate myself mentally over how cringe that was.

"Hmph, has anypony ever told you how annoying you are?" Twilight huffed as she looked away.

"Yup, the voices in my head tell me that all the time."

"...I'll ignore that," she said, finally letting me read in peace, or so I thought. "By the way, that meeting you told me to remind you about is in half an hour."

"Thanks for the reminder, Twilight," I said, mildly annoyed that it was already time. I had just got to the part with all the spells and runes, and I wanted that fun stuff after the long ass explanations about shadows in a magical sense. I put the shadowmancy book in the saddlebag I had bought since the drawstring bag looked goofy as hell and I didn't want to carry it around. The bag was a plain but spacious thing that could fulfill my needs now that I couldn't wear a jacket all the time.

I left the library without saying bye or anything and headed straight for the town hall.

I arrived at the town hall ten minutes before the meeting started and quickly found the room where the meeting was. The room was not particularly well decorated with it only having a long rectangle table with chairs, and some framed pictures and newspapers on the walls. There was a small group of ponies as well, among whom was Cheerilee.

"Hey, Anya," Cheerilee greeted, "Come take a seat."

I took a seat left of her and the chatter in the room quieted down and I was very suddenly in the spotlight. There were three other ponies in the room and they seemed interested at the new face among them. There was an old green stallion with brown hair sitting next to me. He wore a black stetson, and a brown vest on which there was a gold star badge that read 'sheriff'. He was the first to speak to me.

"It's mighty nice ta see a new face here. What's yer name, pretty lady?" he asked in a friendly voice with a smile.

"My name's Anya Khan; I'm the uh head librarian. It's nice to meet you as well," I replied shyly.

"An' I'm Sheriff Steel, head o' the Ponyville police," the sheriff introduced himself. A few moments of awkward silence followed and the sheriff turned to speak to the two other ponies on the other side of the table, "C'mon guys, don' be shy an' introduce yerselves."

At the sheriff's encouragement, the next pony, a light purple bat pony with dark purple hair introduced herself, "I'm Wind, owner of Wind's convenience."

"And I'm Bolt, captain of Ponyville's weather team until the end of next week," said the old looking yellow pegasus with red hair as he leaned back in his chair, not seeming to be happy to be here.

After the introductions, everyone broke off into their own little conversations about their work and previous week while I just sat there and waited. The door to the room opened and Mayor Mare walked in, followed by Spoiled Rich, and... the yellow pegasus that was one of the element bearers, I think her name had 'shy' in it. The mayor took a seat at the head of the table while Spoiled Rich took the one on the other end. Shy took a seat next to the sheriff.

"Good afternoon everypony," started Mayor Mare as she took a seat at the head of table, "I'm sure you're all wondering why this meeting is taking place earlier than usual but I assure you that the matter is important.

To put it simply, Ponyville is expecting quite a lot of ponies to settle here in the next few months thanks to Princess Luna's positive words about our town and so, I propose a renovation of the eastern side of the town where most of the immigrants are expected to move to."

I had been to the area that the mayor was talking about and I can tell you that that place felt like an entirely different town with how few people lived there and how bad it seemed. Even without the whole 'people will live there', it needed a fixing.

"However, we'll have to redirect funds from certain places to do so," the mayor added. Almost everyone in here seemed cool with the idea. Everyone except Spoiled Rich.

"And where will the funds be pulled from?" she asked in that annoying voice of hers that made me want to cave her skull in.

"I'm thinking that we could pull some funds from the amount that is spent to maintain other parts of the town, especially the northern parts, temporarily of course," the mayor answered.

"So, you're suggesting that we deprive the orderly parts of our town of funds so that we may direct them to ponies who will increase the crime rate?"

"Wha-"

"I know that most of these ponies are coming from Canterlot's lower districts, the place famous for its crime rate! If we welcome them in our town then they'll ruin it completely!" Spoiled Rich cut off the mayor as she started going off on a rant that I did not pay attention to as I opted to tune her out. The rest of the ponies looked like they were done with her with the exception of Wind who looked hurt at those words.

"Yo, Cheerilee, what's she going crazy about?" I whispered to Cheerilee.

"She doesn't like anybody who isn't stuck up like her and gets very argumentative if somebody disagrees with her," Cheerilee whispered back to me, "And now she's going to tell us about how Ponyville will be improved if they dumped more money in the richer part of town where she lives."

Unfortunately, Spoiled Rich saw us and maybe a heard a small part about what Cheerilee said. She glared at us before asking obnoxiously, "And what are you two talking about?"

Cheerilee looked scared and avoided eye contact with the mare, probably since Spoiled Rich was her boss or something. I was more annoyed than scared and decided to try taking Spoiled Rich down a notch or a hundred.

"Nothing much, she was telling me some basic points of your plan," I began with a lie. She of course doubted me but didn't say anything about that.

"Well, I'd rather not be interrupted when I just get to explaining it," she huffed before she opened her mouth to tell us about said plan.

"Could you summarise your plan by the way," I requested, interrupting her, "It'd be great if you did since we can come to an agreement quickly if you did that."

The whole 'end this quickly' was a half truth since I did want this to end quickly but not because I cared about speed or anything, but rather, I didn't want to be around that mare for any longer. The other ponies in the room seem to have their spirits lifted at my interruption and subsequent request for Miss RIch to hurry up and that was enough evidence for me to conclude that no one liked her.

"Hmph, if you say so," Spoiled Rich said with a slight grimace before she composed herself ans spoke, "I do not support the wastage of money on outsiders who will reduce the quality of life of this town, and instead support putting money where it should go, the northern part of town."

"Okay, cool," I said, almost doing a thumbs up before remembering that I had a hoof. Unfortunately for her, I continued, "By the way, what are the benefits of 'putting the money where it should go' as you put it?"

She gasped a little, probably at my audacity to ask that question, but answered it quickly, "To use the money as the needs of the older residents of the town dictate!"

She clearly expected that that would be the end of the argument but little did she know, it was not.

"Don't the old people get a pension or something to help them out? Why'd they need more money?" I asked pretending to be curious when I was actually undermining her point and also potentially insulting her by refering to her as 'old'. The sheriff meanwhile, who was probably the oldest in the room, looked like he was having a hard time not laughing. I continued, making an actual point this time, "Plus, shouldn't the money be put in like uh town square or something and not that specific area since most people are going to go to the town square more often?"

I didn't stop with my argument.

"And if we go by the mayor's plan, wouldn't it increase property values or something? Like, I might not be the most knowledgeable on economics but that seems pretty obvious."

"And since that area is close to the town square and all the businesses of Ponyville, ponies moving in would boost the local economy," Mayor Mare added.

Clearly, this was too much facts and logic for Spoiled Rich as she then said angrily, "It still does not change the fact that those ponies are criminals!"

She realised what she said and covered her mouth immediately but it was too late. No one in the room was happy to hear her, myself included. She had opened a can of worms and she knew it.

"Ah, uh, sorry about my outbu-", she tried saying to salvage what she could but I cut her off, more than happy to make her eat the can of worms she opened.

"I guess you have some reservations about the whole 'outsider' thing but let me clear it up for you using some basic logic. So, as you said earlier, the lower districts of Canterlot where most of these people will come from are crime infested and shitty places filled with shitty people, and I guess that might be true," I started, earning a mean look from Wind. I guess she was from said place.

"However, most normal people wouldn't want to live in a place full of crime, and will try to move out, and that basically means that most people coming over will be normal people, but if that doesn't convince you, we could look at it from the perspective of money.

You see, most poor people can't really move away from their bad situations because they don't have enough money and they're the same poor people that you assume to be criminals and such. Now, if the property values here are boosted due to a renovation then most of those properties won't be bought by those people," I continued. Rich's argument was thoroughly destroyed, in my eyes at least.

Unfortunately, she had a trick up her sleeve. "Most of those ponies are bat ponies! Freaks who stay awake at night! They could break into someone's house easily when everyone's asleep!"

Ah yes, good ol' racism, the ender of all civilised arguments.

This time, the sheriff spoke up with thinly veiled anger, "Well, that's what me an' mah deputies are there for, an' if them bat ponies are awake an' out at night then we can hire bat ponies to keep the law durin' that time o' the day."

He drove the final nail in the coffin that held Spoiled Rich's argument and damn was it satisfying.

"...You think you can lecture me?!" Spoiled Rich shouted all of a sudden as she got off her chair. "I won't be talked down to by a mud pony or a terrorist freak!"

She stormed out of the room, leaving us all in silence. Everyone was shocked at what she had said at the end but were overall relieved that she was gone. Except Mayor Mare, she was holding her head in her hooves and silently mumbling something to herself.

"Mayor, are you fine?" asked Bolt.

"Oh no, I'm not fine at all!" the mayor shouted, making us all confused. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's gone but she also has a lot of friends from the rich part of town, and knowing how she'll spin this whole tale- oh, this is not going to be good if they do something in protest."

Even when we won, we lost.

I couldn't stand that.

"We're in the right, though," I pointed out.

"That's true, but it still won't stop some ponies from being how they are," Mayor Mare said as she started to get off her chair, "Whatever, I'll deal with th-"

The door to the room opened and a old and tired looking stallion came in. He was brown with dark hair that was starting to gray. He wore a suit collar thing with a tie and he looked rather annoyed.

"A-ah, Mister Rich! What a surprise seeing you here!" the mayor tried greeting as she put on a smile.

"There's no need to sugarcoat anything; I'd like to know what happened here," Mister Rich said in a tired voice as he took the seat where Spoiled Rich was sitting earlier.

"Yer wife called me a mudpony, and miss Khan a terrorist," the sheriff said immediately, not trying to be hostile to the stallion. Mister Rich looked disappointed upon hearing that and sighed before he spoke again.

"I apologise for my wife's words and behaviour," he said as he sat up straight, "It won't be happening again. You can expect me to be present in all the meetings from now on instead of sending her.

And for your policy, I'll be supporting it."

With that, he left, probably to go talk to Spoiled Rich. Mayor Mare calmed down somewhat and continued the meeting for another five or so minutes, mostly discussing how she'll pull some money from the library for extra security expenditure. I was fine with that since it was temporary.

The meeting ended after that and I went back home to go eat dinner and sleep. Pretty anticlimatic if you ask me but such is life.

Chapter 18: "I am one with the shadows" -me after one (1) prank using shadows

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Shadow magic was this really weird and tedious thing that I could do with some proficiency. You didn't really control shadows since they are an absence of light, which is something that exists, but what you could control was the magic in the shadow and small particles in the air that you could arrange into shapes that would cast the shadows you needed. Magic had this property where it was both a wave and a particle, much like light, except that it had some other attributes, one of which was photoactivity i.e. it behaved differently in the dark that when it is in the light and this was integral to shadowmancy.

To even begin your career as a shadow mage, you needed to learn a incantation that, while stupid in my objectively right opinion, was necessary to get the degree of control one needed to move around tiny particles in the air. Once you got that down, you could move onto the actual good stuff, like making a funky little shadow guy, much like I was doing right now.

You could do other stuff as well, such as making a three dimensional shadow by making a light proof shell out of particles, turning that into a golem using shadow runes, and then making a shadow portal to enter the shadow dimension and deploy the shadow golem in the house of someone you don't like. Unfortunately, you couldn't really use shadows to physically harm someone like I had imagined, unless you scare them into falling down the stairs, and the learning curve was a cliff when it came to the stuff that wasn't just making shadow puppets. Plus, some of it was illegal, like entering the shadow dimension.

But all that's beside the point. Right now, the important thing was making sure that I had a decent hiding spot. I had woken up very early thanks to a nightmare and I couldn't really go to sleep after that. I figured that I'd just spend the two hours I had before work on practising shadowmancy and I had figured out the 'making a shadow using dust in the air' part and that was when I had this really cool idea.

I was going to prank Twilight.

I had no real reason to prank her specifically, or to prank someone at all, but where was the fun in that? Twilight was the unfortunate person since she was the only other person I thought of, other Brush who got a pass since she's my good friend. I had then set out to the library at like 5:50 in the morning, hoping to get there before Twilight woke up.

The library was still closed and there were no lights on in the building, meaning that I was on time. I unlocked the door and slipped in without making any noise. I had turned on the lights and then hidden myself among the many bookshelves of the library. All I had to do was wait for Twilight to come downstairs.

That wait was only five minutes.

Twilight was coming downstairs, looking like she just got up judging by how her eyes were barely open and how her mane and tail looked like bushes.

"Anya, are you here?" she called out as she walked to the front desk, looking more awake with every passing moment. She hadn't seen or heard me ducking from one bookshelf to another and now was my time to strike. I said the incantation for control in my mind and a slight ache in my horn later, I was able to feel all the particles in the air with my magic. My horn lit up and the particles started moving.

The lights in the library made Twilight's shadow appear in front of her and that was perfect. The particles gathered up between her and the ceiling light into an almost invisible cloud, casting a shadow on her back. Twilight was none the wiser and continued looking over the front desk, trying to find clues about whether or not I was in the library.

Her shadow started growing visibly and within a second, she was aware of it.

"What the?" she said as she tried stepping back from her shadow unsuccessfully. When I was happy with how big the shadow was, I moved onto the second part of my plan. The invisible particle cloud started shifting at my command, making it look like Twilight's shadow started morphing. Twilight charged up her her horn, probably to attack the shadow. The shadow morphed, getting a large body with four wings, one pair bat like, the other bird like. On top of the body sat a head with two circles of light for eyes.

It wasn't as scary as it was in my head but Twilight was definitely terrified.

"What do you want?!" she shouted at the shadow. I started the last phase of my plan and started moving a lot more particles to start making a three dimensional shape. It took a good ten seconds to do that and each second, Twilight grew more and more scared.

When she was about to repeat herself, the shadow sprung forth, leaving the wall and jumping into three dimensions, or atleast tried to. It wasn't a really great looking transition since you need at least three lights, one for the x-axis, one for the y, and the last for the z, to make a proper three dimensional thing, and I only had one light on the ceiling. However, that worked in my favour as it made the shadow look a lot more like a big scary pile of darkness.

Twilight jumped back with a yelp as the shadow moved too fast for her to run away from, and enveloped her completely except for her head. I then used my magic to turn off the light, and cut all the magic from the shadow monster, making it look like the shadows had consumed Twilight. She screamed like a little filly and I giggled at my successful prank.

Now all I had to do was leave the library under the cover of darkness. I took one step, and suddenly, the lights were back on. The library doors were wide open and Rainbow Dash was there, looking as if she were ready to fight. Twilight was laying on the ground, covering her head with her hooves, and I was just frozen there next to a bookshelf mid walk. We all looked at each other for one second.

"What happened?!" Rainbow asked, her voice full of concern. "I heard Twilight scream."

The mare in question was no longer cowering on the floor and instead stomping to me, looking furious.

"What did you do?" she asked in a really angry voice as she got really close to my face. It took me a moment to formulate an answer that'd get me out of trouble.

"I pranked you," I said since I couldn't get out of this one. Twilight was less angry and more annoyed now while Rainbow seemed interested.

"How'd you prank her, Anya?" Rainbow asked, getting out of her fighting stance.

"She used shadowmancy to make a monster thing," Twilight huffed. Rainbow probably didn't know anything about shadowmancy and probably decided that I was doing something evil since shadow monster sounded evil.

"What the heck, Anya, you summoned a shadow monster?" she said pointing an accusatory hoof to me.

"Nuh uh, I made a shadow that looked like a monster," I defended myself before giving a demonstration, "Like this."

A shadow appeared on the wall next to us, looking much like what I had made to scare Twilight. Rainbow jumped back at that, making Twilight rolled her eyes, but she took a closer look at the shadow on the wall.

"Huh, this does look scary, not that I was scared," Rainbow said, before a smile formed on her face, "But I gotta admit, this thing is pretty good for a prank. How'd you make it?"

"I did the control incantation in my head, which gives me the ability to move around small particles in the air, which I then arrange into shapes in front of lights, which makes them cast a shadow while not being seen by anyone meaning, there isn't any shadow monster but rather, just a normal shadow that looks like a monster," I explained. Rainbow definitely lost interest halfway through but was still impressed.

"And this is for scaring me," Twilight said with a devious smile as she teleported a rolled up newspaper and smacked me in the head with it.

It was a decent start to a Wednesday.

Chapter 19: Not all nightmares are made equal

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I woke up from a nightmare at around three in the morning. All I could remember was that it was about a test that had gone terribly but that was enough to kick me out of my dreams and into the waking world with tears in my eyes. I... I tried real hard to not cry, since it was a stupid thing to do because I couldn't fix the root cause of it, and there was no one to cry to, and even if there was someone, they wouldn't care, and if they don't care, why should I? After all, the nightmare was about some retarded test given to me by some retarded 'school' more than five years ago and I should be over that by now.

But of course, that didn't me from being a crybaby bitch and crying for two minutes, like, get over it you dumb bitch, it was a dream of all things.

After my two minute long moment of weakness, I made a mental note to not do that again, and got out of bed. I washed my face and made some chai. While the chai was getting finished, I went to lie down in the living room for a minute.

I hadn't even got to the sofa when I heard something hit my back door with an audible thump. I went to investigate and pulled aside the curtains of the back door. Strangely, there wasn't any forest wildlife in my backyard like I had expected. Another thump sounded, making me jump a little and then look down. It was a large moth- no, it was the large moth that I had in my house a few days back. The bug took flight, hitting my door once again as it tried to enter. Clearly, it could not comprehend clear glass. I opened the door, and this time, instead of flying into the glass door, it flew into my leg.

I picked it up in one hoof and looked it in the eye, admiring how cute and dumb it looked. The moth just wiggled its legs in the air and squeaked loudly in what I assumed to be protest. Seeing that improved my mood somewhat. I tucked the bug under my left arm as if it were a plushie and went to check on the chai.

Maybe I can show the moth to someone.

That'd be later though. Right now, I still had quite a lot of time until work. Fortunately, my chai was finished and I had a cute bug to accompany me till then.

I poured a cup of chai out and took it to the living room where I set it on the table to cool a bit. I lay down on the couch with the moth in my arms. The bug seemed to have accepted its fate as a huggable creature and rest in my arms, not doing much.

I was about to nuzzle it when a dark liquid-y thing started to come out of the couch. I sat upright as the stuff gathered up and took the familiar shape of an alicorn with eyes all over.

"Hey, Voth," I greeted. There was some important stuff I had to tell him.

"YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY," Voth said, getting straight to the point.

"Yeah, so, Grogar's bell was kinda a dead end since I couldn't find much on it," I started, and I could feel that Voth wasn't too happy to hear that. "However, I did find an artefact that might be the thing we're looking for and I might have a location for it."

"EXPLAIN."

"So, there's a thing called 'the key' which is described as being extremely powerful but it can only be found by those who don't want it, which is basically the same as the thing you wanted me to find. I know where it might be, I just need a good excuse to go there since its in an abandoned fort that no one should go to."

"GOOD YOU HAVE WORKED FAST FOR A LOWER BEING," Voth said with what seemed to be happiness, while I was choosing between being offended or being flattered. I chose the latter since Voth probably doesn't mean 'lower being' in a bad way. "HOWEVER I STILL NEED YOU TO FIND ME GROGAR'S BELL DUE TO ITS RELATION TO MY KIND IF YOU FIND IT I WILL GIVE YOU ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION."

That sounded... decent, I guess. I didn't really want anything but the deal sounded decent to me. I mean, when I give him 'the key', I only get my freedom from him, and even though he was good, I wanted some more stuff other than that.

"I'll try to do that," I said, "What would you give me in compensation?"

"THAT IS UP TO YOU TO DECIDE." Well, that was vague.

"Uhh, that's cool but I don't really know what I can get. Could you give me a list?" I asked, hoping her would elaborate.

"I CAN GIVE YOU SOME POWER AND INFORMATION ON CERTAIN ARTEFACTS THAT I KNOW OF BUT DO NOT HAVE USE OF." Not as vague but still vague.

"That's... less than expected... or does 'power' mean more than just, like, strength?"

"POWER MEANS STRENGTH BUT THAT POWER IS NOT LIMITED TO A SINGLE OUTPUT WITH THE POWER YOU CAN SUMMON CREATURES FOR YOU, GAIN MAGICAL PROFICIENCY, INTERACT WITH MY WORLD AND SO ON FOR INSTANCE YOU CAN USE THE POWER TO TELL HOW THE CREATURE IN YOUR ARMS IS FEELING," Voth elaborated, seemingly happy to share knowledge.

"Really? What's he feeling like right now?" I asked as I pet the moth.

"HE IS IN COMFORT," Voth replied.

"Hmmm, okay... So, if I understood correctly, the power you'd give me is like, good for everything."

"IT WILL NOT TRANSLATE INTO PHYSICAL STRENGTH UNLESS YOU USE IT FOR BIOMANCY AND INCREASE THE STRENGTH YOUR FLESH," Voth said, clearing any confusion I had, but also name-dropping something that sounded cool.

"What's biomancy?"

"IT IS THE MAGIC WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO GAIN CONTROL OVER LIVING ORGANISMS AND ALTER THEM OR MAKE THEM OBEY YOUR COMMANDS," Voth answered, as he started to melt back into the sofa. "I AM GOING NOW, CALL ME WHEN YOU FIND THE KEY."

And with that, Voth was gone, leaving me alone... not really, I had the moth with me. I picked up the cup of chai in my magic and took a sip, burning my tongue.

I walked into the library, whose door was unlocked, probably by Twilight. However, she wasn't anywhere to be seen. I guess she was having breakfast upstairs. I left my saddlebags by my chair at the front desk, and with the moth on my arm, I went up the stairs.

I knocked on the door at the end of the stairs since it was Twilight's home now and I didn't want to accidentally break in. The door opened for a moment and Spike stepped out before he closed the door behind him.

"Hi, Anya, if you're looking for Twilight, you'll have to wait," he said immediately. He was going to continue but was interrupted by the moth on my arm squeaking. "What... what is that?"

"It's a really big moth," I answered before moving my arm closer to him to let him see the moth up close, "Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah, kinda cool for a bug, don't think Twilight would like it," Spike said as he poked at said bug before he continued, "Why don't you go downstairs and wait for Twilight. She has a uhh she's in a meeting with the princess."

"The princess? Princess Celestia is here?" I asked, remembering Voth's advice on avoiding the sun princess.

"Yeah, it's her. Anyway, I'll see you in a bit. Try to act... normal when the princess comes downstairs since she doesn't really like ponies being nervous of her," he said as he opened the door and slipped back inside before closing it.

I took a deep breath before turning around and heading down. There was still at least half an hour before the library opened and I didn't have much to do till then. I sat at my desk and set down the moth next to the computer, where it just crawled around slowly.

I wanted to try and find stuff about biomancy but I had a feeling that it was some type of dark magic and with the princess upstairs, I was not going to take any risk. I opted to sit in my chair and watch the moth crawl all over the computer instead. I spent the next minute like that.

I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and turned my head to investigate. I saw a black coloured pony with midnight blue hair coming down the stairs as if they were sneaking. I recognised her. It was Nightmare Moon. She looked my way as she got off the stairs and the next moment, I felt myself being hugged.

Nightmare had crossed the small distance between the stairs and the desk in a moment and pulled me into a hug. It was so fast that I couldn't really react to it. I did notice that she seemed very weak. Her wings still looked bad and her horn, despite having grown back halfway, still wasn't in any position to do magic.

"Oh my Faust! I thought I'd never see you again!" She said, very excited and happy to see me for some reason. I hugged her back, unsure of what to say or do.

"Hi, Nightmare Moon," I said, finally coming up with some words.

"Hi, uh I don't think I know your name, I never really go to ask you that night, or maybe I did and forgot it," she said very fast as she pulled away from me. "So, what's your name?"

"My name is Anya," I answered, "So, why are you here?"

"Oh! The princes- I mean, princess Celestia wanted to talk to the element of magic, Twilight, about something and she told me that I have to come with her as well, and I remembered that there's the nice pony in this town and that I could go find her but guess what she did," she answered all in one breath. If I were to guess, the 'nice pony' was me but I couldn't be sure.

"What?" I asked, not wanting to say my answer out loud just in case.

"She found me!" she answered excitedly as she hugged me once again, nuzzling my chest. I was starting to feel that something was off about her. She was too different from the last time I saw her and that was less than ten days ago. Was she hiding her feelings?

"Say, do you know why the princess is here, like, the reason why she's talking with Twilight?" I asked her. She went very still at that question, making me a bit worried.

She looked up at my face before looking back down and burying her face in my chest fluff. Her happy facade had disappeared, showing how she truly felt.

"I- I... don't wan-," she said shakily as she hesitated before finally caving in, "Celestia wants to leave me under Twilight's watch be- because I'm not welcome at the castle and becaus- because I'm not a good pony."

I could tell that she was crying when my chest fur started feeling wet, and that sucked since I didn't want her to cry. I run a hoof through her hair and pat her back for some time before saying something.

"Look, you aren't a bad pony, you were just... misguided earlier," I began.

"B- but I hurt you and others," she said, trying to counter me, making me a bit sad.

"And now you regret that. If you were a bad pony, would you do that?" I asked rhetorically. She stayed silent after that, her crying slowly subsiding. I hoped that she had seen my point and stayed quiet because of that and not because she didn't want to argue with me.

I pulled away from the hug, making her confused and a bit scared but I knew what I was doing.

"Wanna see something cool?" I asked her as I reached for the moth that had perched itself on top of the computer. Nightmare nodded a bit hesitantly.

"Here," I said as I picked up the moth and held it out to Nightmare so that she could see it. She was curious at first but when she saw it up close, I swear I saw stars in her eyes. She wordlessly took the bug from me, letting me check the time. There were still another fifteen minutes till eight. I pushed the power button on the computer and turned back to see what Nightmare was doing with the moth.

The scene was admittedly cute, with Nightmare hugging the oversized bug with a smile on her face, while said bug seemed to have no reaction whatsoever. It was good to know that her mood had improved.

Of course, like all good things, it wasn't meant to last.

There was the sound of a door slamming coming from upstairs. Nightmare seemed to teleport with how fast she moved, putting me in between herself and the source of the noise, the princess of the sun coming downstairs. If that wasn't good enough, she looked like she wanted to go into rage mode.

She saw me and nightmare who had tried her best to hide behind me and my chair, and walked straight to us. She put on a neutral expression as she neared us but the fact that she was almost stomping gave away how she felt.

She stopped in front of my desk and greeted me with a very flat sounding voice, "Good morning, Miss Khan. I would like to know what you and her were doing here."

"We uhh we weren't doing much, just chatting," I answered, trying hard not to be intimated by the princess. Nightmare didn't say anything and continued cowering behind me. The princess raised an eyebrow at that, as if she didn't believe me.

"Nightmare Moon," she said, make Nightmare slowly walk out from her hiding spot behind me. Nightmare had a all too familiar terrified expression, like she knew that it was over for her. The princess continued, "I had told you NOT to go anywhere without my permission and an escort. It is a matter of security that you said you understood."

'Whose security?' I thought, seeing how hostile the princess was to Nightmare for something thiss small.

The princess stayed silent, letting the tension grow, which made Nightmare's mood worse, and I knew that she was doing that on purpose.

"May I speak, princess?" I said, breaking the silence. The princess might have had her reasons to be hostile to Nightmare but she was overdoing it.

"I understand that you want to criticise my harshness but it is necessary that you understand the security issue that is her sneaking away for whatever reason," the princess said, assuming that I didn't know that stuff.

"Okay, sneaking away is bad, I agree with that, but she came downstairs to just talk to me, and not like, do anything bad," I countered. "Plus, she stayed in the library and isn't much of a threat."

"I do not believe I said that she was a threat," the princess said, technically telling the truth to counter my last point. Most people would just go along with it, but, I was not most people.

"Counterpoint: It was implied and said implication could only be missed if you were like, completely stupid," I argued back. The princess hummed at that, seemingly thinking.

"...I suppose you may have a point," she said to me before turning to Nightmare and saying sternly, "Do not leave this building."

She turned and left, going back upstairs. We both just sat where we were for a few moments, hearing the footsteps recede. Nightmare Moon then jumped onto me and hugged me, all while thanking me and stuff. I was just astonished that I managed to argue with the princess, and win.

Nightmare and me had talked for like, ten minutes, and it was mostly her telling me about how much Canterlot sucked and how she didn't want to be there and that Celestia was always angry at her for no reason. I listened to her vent, nodding and stuff since I didn't want to see her sad for whatever reason.

I had to stop her for a moment though with the time being almost eight.

"Yo, Nightmare, I'll be back in a second," I said, interrupting the story she was telling me about some guy named 'Fancy Pants' and how he accidentally switched up Nightmare and Luna.

"Huh, where are you going?" she asked, sitting up from her spot on the floor where she had layed in a loafing position like a cat.

"Gotta turn the sign at the door," I answered. Nightmare looked unsure and unhappy that I was gong away. even if it was for just a moment.

It took me a few seconds and like I had said, I was back at my chair. Nightmare still seemed upset that I had left her for some time.

"Okay, I'm back, you can continue your story," I said. Nightmare went back to loafing and was about to open her mouth when we heard the upstairs door open. We both turned to look at who was coming down.

Princess Celestia was coming downstairs with Twilight close behind her. Neither of them looked particularly happy, which made Nightmare upset. I got out of my chair and put a hoof on her shoulder to bring some comfort to her.

"I think I have to go now," Nightmare whispered to me sadly.

She got up, ready to go when the princess teleported a ring thing and placed it on Nightmare's broken horn, making her confused. The ring was a magic suppression device.

"I've decided that staying in Ponyville for some time will be better for you. You'll be staying under Twilight's supervision and I expect you to behave," the princess said to Nightmare as she left the library.

Nightmare stood silently, processing Celestia's words before a large smile fitness on her face.

"I'm staying here," she whispered excitedly as she looked to me.

"Yes, you are," interrupted Twilight in a very annoying voice as she teleported herself a scroll, "However, there will be some rules that you'll have to follow and there will be consequences if you don't."

It broke my heart a little seeing Nightmare go from almost exploding due to happiness to looking nervous and scared.

"Hey, Twilight," I said, interrupting her before she could start reading out all the rules, earning a glare from her in return.

"As for you, I don't want you to go arguing with the princess or encouraging bad behavi-", she didn't get to finish as I picked up the moth that Nightmare had left on the desk and brought it close to her, making her take a step back.

"Woe be upon ye," I said as I gently threw the moth at her. The moth, not wanting to fall, took flight and landed on Twilight's face.

The scream that followed was the second loudest thing after Nightmare's and mine laughter.

Chapter 20: Icecream with the girlies RUINED by terrible evil unicorn

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I sat at my desk waiting for it to be five. There weren't many people in the library now, just me, Nightmare, Spike, and Twilight, who was still seething in rage after I threw a bug at her face in the morning. Not that I was too worried about that.

Nightmare had talked a lot and was in a pretty happy mood. I was still skeptical though since I didn't believe that she could have changed so much in just under two weeks. Or maybe I was being stupid. Whatever the case, I was too curious to not ask her. Fortunately, she hadn't left my side the entire day and if I had to guess, she'll probably want to follow me home.

"Yo, Nightmare, I have a question that you may not like," I said, announcing to the ex-villain who was sitting by me and playing with the moth. I should really give the moth a name, maybe something after how a pattern on its wings looked.

Nightmare looked to me, her smile a bit smaller now. "What... what is it?" she asked with a little fear in her voice.

"Okay, so, you remember how you were on the day of the celebration," I said, avoiding saying anything about whatever she tried to do since tht would make her sad. Nightmare nodded, her smile now gone, but I continued, "And if you look at now, its like your a completely different person. I don't really think its my place to ask this but I'm a bit worried about you, so, like, how'd you change that fast?

It's fine if you don't want to answer, I just want to make sure that you're fine."

Nightmare looked both relieved and uncomfortable. She looked around us before leaning in close to me.

"I... I know that it seems strange how far I changed but... but I just don't want to be like that, full of hate and anger all the time. Even though I was under the negative influence of that thi- that dark magic demon and angry and hateful, I was still conscious enough to hurt people.

I don't want to be like that again.

I just want to be loved, and no one likes me at all if I behave like how I did on that day. Being nice is better even if I don't want to be nice all the time," she answered nervously, as if she were scared that I'd not believe her or something.

"Hmm, okay, so you're not having any problems, right?"

"I guess I'm just... sad that everyone is still scared of me in some way, even though they're completely right about me not being good," she answered, ending on a very sad note. Ah, fuck, I've messed shit up once again and now I feel bad.

"Okay, number one, you're completely wrong about you being a bad person," I started, making her look up at me with how confident I sounded with my completely true and correct claim. I looked at the clock and saw it was five and continued," Second, the library's about to close, so, why don't you come with me? We could go get some icecream or something and maybe, if you're fine with it, I could introduce you to one of my friends since you'd probably get bored of talking to me."

Nightmare mulled it over before nodding her head slowly.

"Kay, let's go then," I said as I got up from my chair and put on my saddlebags. NIghtmare followed me, her speed not affected by the fact that she was holding the moth in her left arm. We were out of the library whose doors I locked on the way out and on the streets of Ponyville. Ther weren't many people outside at the time and those that were outside didn't seem to notice NIghtmare.

One of them did notice me though.

"Hey, Anya!" I heard the familiar voice of Brush call out from my right. Nightmare almost instinctively moved to my left as the brown cat-pony came up to me. She wordlessly pulled me into a hug which was how she seemed to greet me.

"Hi, Brush, how are you today?" I said, returning the hug. Brush pulled away and was about to start talking when she saw Nightmare next to me. She wasn't scared or anything, just curious in contrast to Nightmare who was nervous.

"I'm feeling well, how about you?" she replied, not taking her eyes off of Nightmare, who started to grow uncomfortable.

"Pretty good," I answered before I made my next move.

"Okay, so, Nightmare, this is Brush, and Brush, this is Nightmare," I said, introducing them to one another while hoping that this didn't go to shit.

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Brush greeted happily, either not recognising Nightmare or just not being scared of her. Probably the former.

"Hello," Nightmare replied, not as nervous as earlier.

Brush then turned to me and asked, "What are you doing right now?"

"We're getting icecream or something," I answered before an idea came to my head. "Wanna come with us?"

"I'd love to!" Brush answered with a grin. Her positivity was clearing rubbing off onto Nightmare who was becoming less nervous by the second.

"Okay then, let's go," I said leading the two.

We wandered around for a bit, ultimately stopping at Wind's Convenience and buying some cone icecreams. Brush got butterscotch almost instantly while I looked for chocolate chocolate chip, which I was unable to find. I took mint chocolate chip instead and got vanilla for Nightmare who clearly knew nothing about icecream. I paid for it all since I was the only one carrying money.

We were presently just walking with no clear destination in mind.

"I'll pay you back for this later," Brush said as she hovered close to the ground and removed her butterscotch icecream from its wrapping.

"No need for that," I replied as I unwrapped my own icecream that I held in my magic.

"Can we find some place to sit down?" Nightmare said as she held her own icecream in her hoof, not having magic to open it, nor having flight with her damaged wings to hover like Brush and open it. That, along the moth crawling around on her mane, made us look around for somewhere to sit.

"There's a bench," Brush said as she pointed to a bench next to a fountain. We three headed over there and sat down. I was in the middle with Brush to my right and Nightmare to my left. Once we were seated, Nightmare pulled off the moth on her head.

"Foul creature, you should not do that again," she said to it as she looked it in the eye and scolded it for being a menace to her mane. The moth didn't seem to care. Nightmare then handed the moth to me or tried to, only for the bug to take flight and land in my unbraided mane. I wasn't bothered by it that much.

"So, Nightmare, are you new in Ponyville? Or are you just visiting?" Brush asked after she took a lick of her icecream.

"Uhm, I'm not new here but I am visiting," Nightmare answered a bit nervously as she unwrapped her icecream. I didn't say anything and took a bite out of my own.

"Did you just bite your icecream?" Brush asked me, clearly not knowing the true extent of my weirdness. Nightmare, who didn't know what icecream was, also took a bite out of her icecream at that moment and regretted it almost instantly. I'm pretty sure she got both sensitive teeth and brain freeze, a truly terrible duo.

"How do you eat this thing?" NIghtmare asked, a hoof to her forehead as she tried to nurse it from the brain freeze.

"Slowly. You don't bite it like I do," I answered with a small smile as I took another bite.

"Hey, Nightmare, you said you were visiting. Where are you coming from?" Brush asked.

Nightmare carefully licked her icecream this time, but not carefully enough to stop her nose from getting some vanilla on it. She put on a very serious face but the vanilla on her nose clashed with it hilariously.

"You do not seem to know me," Nightmare said, bringing a small frown to Brush's face, probably since it sounded like she was being narcissistic. Nightmare didn't notice that and continued, "I... I am Nightmare Moon."

The next few seconds were very tense, for Nightmare at least. Brush seemed to be deep in thought before she responded, "You're THE Nightmare Moon?"

"...yes," Nightmare replied, seeming to regret her earlier decision since she thought that Brush would get scared. I wanted to take control of the conversation but I waited to see how it would play out.

"That's... fine, I suppose," Brush finally said after several moments, making Nightmare look relieved. "Anya, do you happen to have any other surprises today?"

"Ya, surprise bug blast," I replied jokingly before I picked up the moth from my hair and held it up close to Brush. In doing this, I removed most of the tension from the atmosphere. Brush wasn't scared of the big like Twilight and in fact, she seemed to be happy to see the bug up close.

"What a cutie," Brush said as she poked the insect, making it squeak. "So, Nightmare Moon, is it fine if I just call you Moon?"

Nightmare nodded, letting Brush continue, "So, did princess Celestia forgive you that easily even though you tr-"

I put a hoof on Brush's shoulder and shook my head, silently conveying the message to not directly mention that. Brush seemed to understand.

"Not really, Lu- princess Luna had to convince her," Nightmare answered, shifting in her seat a bit, "Even then, I had a lot of 'escorts' assigned to me while I was in Canterlot. Here, I just have to answer to the element of magic, Twilight."

I didn't really believe that Celestia would leave Nightmare like that and thought that there would be a couple of people following her around. That idea made me look around. There weren't many people around us, and those that were there didn't look particularly sus. Except for that one mare with a blue and pink mane who seemed to have been staring at us until I looked her direction... or maybe I'm just overthinking it and that mare was probably staring at us since Nightmare Moon's here with us and not because she's a spy. I should stop being so brain-dead.

"Anya, do you want to come over to my place for dinner?" Brush asked me, pulling me out of my dumb thoughts. "And you can come as well if you want, Moon."

Huh, this was going a lot better than I expected and Brush was pretty nice to Nightmare. Everything was going well...

Not for long, unfortunately, but you see, that is the way of life.

"Hey!" I heard Twilight shout angrily. All the of us looked to our front where Twilight's voice has come from. There we saw Twilight advancing towards us very angrily with five ponies in tow. Brush was confused, Nightmare was a bit intimidated, while I was neutral.

"What's up, Twilight," I said, greeting her causally as she stopped right in front of us.

"What's up?!" she said angrily as she pointed an accusatory hoof at me, "You got Nightmare out of the library WITHOUT my permission! Princess Celestia has given me a duty to watch over her and you can't just do things like this!"

"Sounds like you need to cool down, why don't you have some icecream?" I replied as I took another bite out of my icecream.

Twilight was greatly angered by my suggestion.

"Cool down?!" Twilight started, but I immediately cut her off.

"Twilight, we're having icecream, not killing someone. There's no need to be that angry, unless you just want to ruin the mood," I said, increasing the volume of my voice a bit more than normal.

"I'll come back to the library," Nightmare said as she got up from her seat sadly. Unfortunately, Twilight was still angry.

"And you!", she said as she jabbed a hoof into Nightmare's chest, making her drop her icecream. Brush got up at that and I could see claws coming out of her paws, making it clear that she was angry at how Twilight behaved. She wanted to say something but I beat her to it and I was a lot more angry than she was.

"Hey hey hey, Twilight," I said, stopping her from going off on Nightmare. She turned to me to say something but I continued, "Could you like, stop?"

I hoped that she'd get the idea that she should clam down.

"Stop what? Being responsible?" she replied obnoxiously, clearly not getting the message.

"Stop being a... a dingus," I clarified, being a lot more direct than my previous attempt while avoiding calling her a bitch. "Like, being responsible is cool and all but you're blowing up over Nightmare going out for icecream and look at what you did now, you made her drop it."

I pointed at the dropped cone in front of Nightmare who looked sad. Twilight's anger started to fade.

I continued, my clarification becoming a lecture, "Like, what do you even get out of being this angry over her not telling you everything she's doing? Nightmare was going to go back to the library and tell you what she's gonna be out with us and I understand that she should have done that earlier but you just came out here and started shouting and going crazy, like, who does that?"

By the end of my lecture, Twilight looked somewhat sorry about what she did.

"Look, I've just not been having a good day and I want to finish this," Twilight said, frustrated.

"Sorry, I have to go," Nightmare said dejectedly as she turned to go back to the library. Twilight followed her, leaving me and Brush alone.

We were quiet for a bit until Brush spoke up, "You handled that a lot better than I would have."

"I was so close to calling her a slur," I said, "Guess we won't be having that dinner today."

Twilight walked into the library, right behind Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon didn't say anything and went upstairs, leaving Twilight downstairs to her own thoughts, which were currently centered on what happened some time back and how she had been.

Despite knowing that she'd be in the right when she marched the villain back to the library, she doubted that she had gone about the best way of doing it.

It was necessary to be harsh knowing what Nightmare Moon was capable of and what might happen if princess Celestia were to find out that she had let said villain out of her sight for even a moment but now that Twilight thought about the situation, she felt that she had been too harsh.

Nightmare Moon was incapable of magic or flight as of now, and she was just one letter away from being sent back to Canterlot and getting thrown into a dungeon forever, giving Twilight an enormous amount of power over her. Nightmare knew that as well and considering how much she hated being in the dungeon, she'd do her best to avoid it. If she went out for icecream, then she'd have thought it out pretty well.

The more Twilight thought about the whole thing, the more it seemed like she had overreacted, and despite how much she hated it, she had to admit that she was in the wrong this one time.

Perhaps it was the fact that Nightmare had gone out with Anya and her other friend with the cat paws without telling her, or maybe it was that she was still upset over having an over-sized bug thrown at her face. Whatever it was, it didn't matter much. She had been unkind to Nightmare, a terrible thing to do for an element bearer who was supposed to be looked up to.

"Spike!" Twilight called out. Spike came soon, letting Twilight instruct him to gather up the rest of the elements of harmony. They needed to be informed about Nightmare Moon's stay in Ponyville, and maybe she could use their help to try and apologise to Nightmare.

Chapter 21: Angery >:(

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I woke up at around seven in the morning feeling very tired. I mean, most of the time, I'm tired when I wake up but this day, I woke up a lot more tired than usual. As a result of my tiredness, I stayed in bed, appreciating how cosy I was under my blanket while debating by if I could be late to work by five or so minutes.

In the end, I pulled myself out of bed after ten minutes and made my way downstairs. I went about my morning routine except for braiding my mane since that would take quite some time and I could just put it over my back to stop it from dragging on the ground. By the time I was done, it was already 7:30.

I made myself a quick breakfast composed of toast, which I then quickly ate. I put on my saddlebags that I had left by the kitchen table and left my house. Today was Saturday and I looked forward to spending time with Brush and Nightmare after I'm done at the library.

I arrived at the library about ten minutes before eight. Twilight wasn't there downstairs and that was pretty weird at first until I remembered that she mentioned that she only worked on the weekdays. If I were to guess, she's probably sleeping in today, since even the strongest couldn't resist the allure of five more minutes.

Or so I thought.

Not even two minutes of me coming to the library and the door opened loudly, followed by Twilight coming in. I... I wasn't really happy to see her since the memory of what she did yesterday was still fresh in my mind, and I was the type of loser to hold grudges. At least I didn't call it 'remembering facts'.

"Hey, b-," I stopped myself from calling her a bitch, and continued, "Do you know where Nightmare is?"

Another thing I forgot to mention was the fact that Nightmare wasn't there when I entered the library. I had chalked it up to her having a nocturnal sleep schedule since that's what a ex-queen of the night would probably have.

Twilight stopped walking as she just noticed me. It took her a moment to process what I asked her, if I were to go by her facial expressions. Once she processed it though, her ears folded back and she started twiddling with her hooves. It was obvious something was wrong.

"Hey, Anya," she said, trying to sound as casual as possible. I wasn't convinced though, since her eyes were darting around here and there, telling me that she did not want to talk to me about that. "Nightmare Moon... uhh..."

Twilight stopped twiddling her hooves and took a deep breath before answering, "Nightmare Moon had to go back to Canterlot yesterday night."

"And... and was it because of something urgent coming up?" I asked, my mood a lot worse than before she had given her answer, or before she had come in.

"...No, she was sent back because..." Twilight paused, kneading the ground with her hooves, clearly nervous. She kept quiet for a few moments before finally answering, "Because princess Celestia ordered her to return."

Twilight was hiding something for sure but I wasn't interested in that right now.

"Okay," I said as I looked at the clock. It was already 7:53 and if I went out to do what I have to, it'd take me a while to come back. "Could you manage the library for a bit, I have something important to do."

"What is it?" Twilight asked, not looking too unhappy to do what I asked her to.

"Gotta tell my friend to cancel something, I'll take fifteen minutes at most."

"Okay, I'll handle things here."

Good. I turned to leave and I walked out, I saw that Twilight was going to say something. I didn't stop to listen and went on my way.

Finding Brush was not too hard; she was at her home like I expected, if I were to go by the fact that the windows were open and I could smell something good cooking. I knocked at the door and waited. In a few seconds, the door opened and Brush was standing there, wearing a pink apron that was lightly stained.

"Good morning, Anya!" Brush said as she stepped forward to hug me. She stopped though when she saw my face, which I imagined was twisted in a scowl. "What happened? Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, remember that dinner we wanted to have with Nightmare?" I asked. Brush nodded, her smile replaced with a worried expression. "Yeah, that has to be cancelled since Nightmare was taken back to Canterlot."

"What? Why?"

"No idea, but I guess that Twilight probably had something to do with it. I'll tell you later if I find something."

Brush's worried expression was replaced with a scowl as well. It sucked seeing her angry or sad but it would happen eventually and I'd rather have it now than later.

"I have to go, got work to do at the library, see you around five," I said as I turned to go. Brush didn't say anything but muttered a goodbye to me.

The walk back to the library was uneventful and I got back to the library in less than fifteen minutes like I had said I would. I stepped into the library only to find it empty. No one was there, not even Twilight even though she had said that she'd manage the library for the ten or so minutes I was gone. Whatever, I guess.

I sat down at my desk and started up the computer. I wasn't in a great mood and Twilight was one of the major reasons why it was so. I'd have to question her about what she was hiding from me when she came back. Right now, I had to focus on looking normal and not like an angry shit.

An hour passed and nothing much had happened. There were a few kids in the library sometime earlier and Spike had come downstairs to ask me if I knew where Twilight was but besides that, it was boring. The boredom, combined with my tiredness and hunger after an insufficient breakfast, made me a bit cranky. I was just waiting for the clock to strike five so I could go home and have lunch and go to sleep.

And the fact that Twilight had just disappeared to wherever was just aggravating me more and more as time passed. I didn't have much to do as well to pass time and that sucked even more.

Today was just a terrible day.

And then, finally after what felt like ages, singing happened.

The library for other and Mayor Mare came in. I forced my face into a neutral expression and straightened my ears into a normal position and sat up straight as she approached my desk with a casual demeanor.

"Hey, boss," I said in greeting to appear relaxed.

"Hello, Anya," she returned with a smile. "Just came in here to see how you were doing since I've got some free time today."

"I'm doing fine, not much is going on today," I replied with a wave of my hoof.

"And what about Twilight, how has she been doing?" She continued, inadvertently making me frown. She noticed that and added, "I hope you're not bothered by her having a shorter work week than you."

"That doesn't really bother me," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I'll be for real with you, she's... she's rather unlikable. It's not that she's bad at work, it's just that she's lacking in other traits."

"Hmm, I suppose this has something to do with yesterday, doesn't it?" She said as she sat down and her expression became a neutral one. I raised an eyebrow since I hadn't told her anything about what I did yesterday. She then added after seeing my raised eyebrow, "Word gets around town when an element of harmony shouts at an ex-villain in public."

"Eh, should have expected that," I said with an eye roll. "But it's not that, at least not the entire reason."

The mayor tilted her head and said, "Then what is it?"

"So, you probably know that Nightmare came here yesterday morning to stay with Twilight for some time because princess Celestia ordered it," I began. The mayor nodded, letting me continue, "Well, me, Nightmare, and my friend had planned to have dinner and then the whole 'Twilight gets angry over icecream' thing happens. So, we figured we'd postpone it to today but BAM, Nightmare's gone back to Canterlot like, last night, and I think Twilight had something to do with that."

"That's unfortunate," she said with a nod.

"That and her insistance on being formal all the time," I added.

"Hmm, but other than that, she is generally fine to work with?"

"Yeah."

"That's good to hear -" The mayor stood up, "- I think that she'll mellow out a bit in time, after all, she's been a princess's student for quite a long time and has been put at rather high standards if I were to guess."

I nodded in acknowledgement of that. The mayor then turned to leave, saying a goodbye as she left.

Once again, I was alone in the library but now, I had some stuff to think about. Maybe I was being a bit too cold towards Twilight...

The door opened, snapping me out of my thoughts. I caught a glimpse of the clock and saw that ten minutes had passed. I guess I zoned out. I looked towards the door and saw that Twilight was coming in along with five other people, the elements of harmony, and another person... or was she an element as well? Yeah, she probably was since there are six elements.

I wanted to pull aside Twilight to tell her that I'm disappointed that she just left the library like that, and also to ask her what she was hiding from me earlier but I'd have to wait since she's probably hanging out with those guys and I didn't want to butt in. I, however, didn't stop myself from getting a bit angry that she left the library to go to her friends.

However, Twilight approached my desk while her friends stayed at the door.

"Hey hey, Twiggles," I said as I leaned back in my chair. "Hope that you had some fun with your friends while you were gone."

Her expression went from semi-happy to guilty in a second with her ears pinned down and her shaking a bit. "I'm sorry about that."

"Okay," I replied after a moment of silence, figuring that pushing this issue further would just be a waste of time. Twilight was surprised that I let it go easier than she expected.

"What? That's it? You're forgiving me just like that?"

"Yeah, I am. Won't do my throat any good shouting at you for something you already understand now."

Twilight remained stumped for a few moments before tilting her head and asking, "What about Nightmare Moon? Are you not angry about that?"

"Not much, but if you want otherwise then I can do that," I replied, annoyed that she still didn't understand that I'm not angry.

Twilight didn't understand still and continued, "But I was the one who sent the letter that made princess Celestia order Nightmare back to Canterlot."

"Look, if you WANT me to be angry at you, just keep pestering me like you are right now. I guarantee that I'll call you a dumb bitch, you dumb bitch," I finally said as I sat up straight in my chair, annoyed that she was that dumb, and angry that she was the reason why Nightmare was sent back. However, the mood instantly soured at me calling Twilight a bitch. I heard several murmurs of disapproval.

"That was uncalled for!" Rarity shouted as she pointed a hoof at me. The rest of them seemed to be in varying levels of agreement.

"Probably," I said as I nodded my head. I raised a hoof, however, and continued, "However, counterpoint: I don't like her."

"That don't mean ya can jus' go an' call anyone anything you want," Applejack countered with a frown on her face.

"Counterpoint: I can," I countered her counter with a raised hoof and a small smile on my face. She just grumbled at my defiance.

Twilight, whose mouth had been agape in shock, finally came to and said angrily, "What did you call me?!"

"I called you a 'dumb bitch' since you were being really annoying about me not being angry," I answered, making sure to do the air quotes with my hooves since Twilight would probably miss it otherwise.

Twilight was not amused.

Thankfully, the door opened, saving me from the coming argument. The five ponies at the door moved aside, making way so that... Brush could come in. Yeah, it was Brush, and she looked pissed.

"Hey, Brush," I said in greeting.

"Hello, Anya," she said to me with a forced smile as she looked at Twilight with anger. "You know why Nightmare was sent back?"

"Yeah, she did it," I answered immediately and pointed to Twilight, much to her displeasure. Brush's claws ame out of her paws. Everyone noticed that. Brush didn't say anything but glared at her, making Twilight cower a bit.

"I came to say that you should come over to my place later like we had planned," Brush lied. I knew damn well that she was here to get angry at Twilight at first and I wished that she expressed her anger in the form of words and not just glares.

"Okay, cool, I'll be there," I replied. Brush nodded and left without saying a word.

"Happy now that someone's angry at you?" I said to Twilight as she watched Brush leave. "Good luck apologising to her; she doesn't like when anyone interferes with her plans."

It was quiet for some time.

"What was all that about?" Spike asked from the stairs where he stood with a cup of coffee.

After a long day, it was finally five and I could leave. I got off my chair and stretched a little before putting on my saddlebags. I switched off the computer at my desk and headed for the door with the keys for it in my magic.

"Hey, Anya!" Twilight called out from behind me. I turned to see her rushing down the stairs, and almost tripping in the process. She stopped right in front of me with a nervous smile on her face. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Tag along to where?" I asked as my eyes narrowed a bit at the request and how friendly she seemed about it.

"To Brush's place, of course!" she answered as if it were obvious and something to be happy about. However, I wasn't happy to hear that since I thought that Twilight would just make it worse. Twilight saw my face and then added quickly, "To apologise about what I did! I don't want to interrupt you guys."

I grunted and turned back to the door. "Fine, I guess."

"Okay! Wait here a second, I'll be right back!"

I waited as she ran back up the stairs and then came back down with a paper and a pen in her magic. I secretly hoped that she tripped on the stairs so that Brush wouldn't have to talk to her but my prayers were in vain.

"Let's go," Twilight said expectantly. I grumbled a bit and opened the door and walked through, holding it open even though I didn't want to. I led the way while Twilight followed me.

I hoped that the walk would be quiet.

"Hey, Anya, I have a question," Twilight said, immediately killing my hope. "What's the best way for me to apologise to Brush?"

"No idea, I haven't done anything to make her as angry as you have," I answered. She scribbled down something on her paper very loudly.

"Oh... Is there anything she likes?" she continued.

"Art, food, not being annoyed, lunch with friends, et cetera," I replied with some exasperation. Again, she wrote something down on the paper.

"That isn't really helping me," she said as she looked over her notes.

"Cool."

We didn't talk much after that and continued walking. Eventually, we came to the crossroads. I took the path to Brush's house while Twilight stopped there for a second. She was probably having second thoughts or something. She resumed walking but didn't try to close the gap between us.

I stopped at the house's door. I could smell something delicious inside and considering that I didn't have lunch, I was eager to go in. I knocked at the door and a few moments later, Brush opened it. She would have hugged me but she saw that Twilight was there a few steps behind me.

"Why are you here?" Brush asked Twilight, making her give a nervous smile.

"I uhh I wanted to apologise for ruining your dinner," Twilight answered while rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. Brush wasn't impressed or anything. She wordlessly grabbed my hoof and pulled me in before shutting the door rather loudly.

Guess that Twilight wasn't getting to apologise today.

Chapter 22: Little green pony (from outer space???)

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I don't really know when I woke up but when I did, I woke up screaming and crying on the floor, all thanks to a bunch of memories of school. For a while, I was on lying there, hugging my pillow and blanket and whatever, just crying. I hadn't slept like a baby but I sure had woken up like one.

I don't know how much time I spent losing it on the floor but eventually, someone came to snap me out of it.

"STOP," the command came in the familiar voice of Voth and suddenly, I wasn't sad anymore. I just felt... numb.

I pulled my head away from my blanket I had buried it in and looked up. My vision was blurry but I could make out that Voth was sitting next to me. I rubbed away the tears from my eyes, making my vision somewhat clearer, allowing me to see that Voth was looking down at me.

"Voth, why are you here?"

"I HAVE COME TO INFORM YOU ABOUT AN ASSASSIN," Voth answered he lay down next to me and draped a wing over me, giving me a warm feeling, "AND TO STOP YOU FROM AN EXTREMELY INTENSE EMOTIONAL OUTBURST RIGHT NOW."

"There's... an assassin? After me?" I asked, ignoring how Voth seemed more concerned about me crying.

"YES BUT THAT IT A TRIVIAL THING TO DEAL WITH ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS KILL THEM," Voth replied, "YOUR EMOTIONAL OUTBURST IS NOT TRIVIAL DUE TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE YOUR EMOTION CAN BE SENSED BY THOSE LIKE ME AND THEY WILL WORK TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT WHICH I CANNOT ALLOW

HOWEVER I CANNOT PLACE BLOCKS ON YOUR EMOTIONS UNLESS I WISH TO ATTRACT ATTENTION TO YOU IN YOUR WORLD I ADVISE YOU TO CONTROL YOURSELF OR CALL ME IF YOU CANNOT."

"Okay, I guess..." I said, still weirded out by how much Voth cared about me being sad but I guessed that it made sense. I then remembered that he said something about an assassin. "What about the assassin? Can you tell me more about them"

"THE ASSASSIN IS AN AGENT LIKE YOURSELF EXCEPT THAT INSTEAD OF BEING SENT TO RETRIEVE AN ARTEFACT THEY ARE SENT TO EXTRACT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ME FROM YOU AND THEN DISPOSE OF YOU."

"How do you know that?"

"THE BEING THAT SENT THEM DOES NOT CARE FOR STEALTH BEYOND WHAT IS NECESSARY TO BYPASS THE GUARDIAN AND I BELIEVE THAT THEY WANT TO SCARE US BEFORE KILLING US."

"Who is it?"

"WHEN YOU HELPED KILLED NIGHTMARE MOON'S DEALER I HAD TOLD YOU THAT I NEEDED THE DEALER'S CORPSE TO HIDE MYSELF FROM ANOTHER BEING THE BEING IS THE ONE THAT SENT THE ASSASSIN NOW THAT THEY CANNOT FIND ME."

"So, the assassin's close by or something? How powerful are they?"

"I AM UNAWARE OF THEIR LOCATION AT THIS MOMENT BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIGHT AGAINST THEM."

Well, that was reassuring after learning that some eldritch thing out there hates my guts and sent an assassin to kill me.

"I ADVISE YOU TO PREPARE TO DEFEND YOURSELF I AM LEAVING NOW TO FIND THE BEING."

And with that, Voth was gone, leaving me alone on the floor. I lay there for sometime before getting up and putting my blanket and pillow back onto the bed. Today was Sunday, which was bad enough, and then I had a bad start to the day, which made it worse, and now there was someone out to kill me.

This day just couldn't get better.

I sat at the kitchen table, sipping on a cup of chai as I tried my best to read the book about biomany I got from the library. Unfortunately, the weight of knowing that someone's coming to kill me weighed down on my mind too much. I set my cup down on the table next to a kitchen knife I had picked out to defend myself with.

I would have prefered having a gun, or a metal pipe or some other weapon but this was what I had at the moment, unless I took off a curtain rod. I could do that, but then if I had to go outside, an easily concealed knife is a better option. Plus, it's a kitchen knife, a common appliance, and no one would get really suspicious about me having it with me. If I did get attacked though, I'll have to kill since the assassin could just go blab about being an agent sent to kill me, another agent, and that wouldn't be good considering that the government will then kill me, and I don't have much hope of fighting them off.

Staying at home is probably better. There'd be no witnesses at the very least.

I continued flipping through the book on biomancy, skipping all the boring stuff like ethics and sanctity of life and whatever crap, and continuing to the interesting stuff, like one procedure where you put blood in an egg and did some rather simple magic to make a new creature. One important thing I did learn was that biomancy beyond the beginner level needed a licence.

I closed the book and leaned back in my chair. If I wanted to do any biomancy, I'd need some equipment and right now, the only reason I had to do biomancy was just my own curiousity. Maybe I could make a little guy, but for what? To have it defend me? I guess that'd be great considering that I have a higher than average chance of being attacked. Maybe I could make a gun with magic or something for self-defense? No, that's a bad idea. Guns are great weapons and knowing how people are at their best, someone here would copy my idea and before you know it, there's an arms race and magic being real would just make it worse.

I picked up my cup of chai and sipped on it, clearing away all the thoughts I had. I'd have to get equipment if I actually wanted to do any of that and until then, there was no reason to worry myself with stuff that was still in the realm of science fiction for this world.

My cup was empty in like, thirty seconds, and I got out of my chair to go pour myself another cup. I was halfway between the table and the stove when I heard what was perhaps the most bloodcurdling scream coming from outside. It was the kind that tells you that someone's in extreme pain or unimaginable fear. To top it off, it sounded like a child.

I left the cup on the counter and made my way outside to find out where the scream came from. Of course, I didn't know but I had an idea that it was somewhere in the forest close to my house.

"Hey!" I called out as loud as I could, "Where are you?!"

There wasn't any answer. I kept my ears perked up as I kept looking around. An idea came to my mind.

'Voth!' I called out in my mind and not a moment later, Voth was there in my head. I didn't wait for her to say anything and continued, 'I need you help. Someone screamed somewhere around here, can you see if you can find them?'

Voth simply said, "THEY ARE CLOSE BY IN THE FOREST TO YOUR LEFT IF YOU GET CLOSER I CAN TELL YOU THEIR POSITION."

I did as he said and entered the forest, walking in a straight line until Voth told me to turn a bit to my right. I kept going and came across a gruesome sight.

There was a filly with wings and a horn, a pegacorn, lying on the ground next to a tree in a pool of blood, and there was a lone timberwolf staring her down. The filly looked terrified and was trying in vain to crawl away from the animal. I didn't wait any further and shot a blast of magic at the timberwolf. The green bolt flew fast and hit the beast in its side, exploding on contact and sending it a meter or two away from the filly.

The timberwolf didn't seem to care about the hole I gave it and turned to face me, growling as it did. I wasn't deterred in any way since I knew one weakness of the timberwolf: It was alone.

I picked up a large rock from the ground with my magic and threw it at the wolf to give me a bit of time. The wolf was hit in the head, disorientating it and allowing me to continue flinging more stuff its way. The timberwolf started backing away but I wasn't done yet. I charged up another bolt of magic in my horn and shot it at the thing. It couldn't dodge it in time and was hit.

Instead of a simple concussive bolt, I had shot a fire bolt, making it immediately catch fire. The beast howled in pain as the fire spread quickly through its body and in a few moments, it lay on the ground, burning away like a campfire. I didn't care about it any further and rushed to the filly.

The filly's condition was terrible. Her right wing was mangled and losing a lot of blood while her body was covered in scratches, cuts, and bruises. She had closed her eyes and was crying silently to herself.

"You're safe now," I said to her as I thought about what I could do to stop the bleeding.

'Voth, do you know any healing spells?' I shouted in my head. Voth was quiet for a few tense moments.

"THIS IS THE ASSASSIN," Voth said instead, making me freeze for a moment.

'She's a child,' I said to him as I looked down at the filly who had now curled up and was trying to hide herself in her mane. I knew that Voth wasn't joking but it was hard to believe she could hurt me.

"AND SHE IS HERE TO KILL YOU YOU MUST DISPOSE OF HER," Voth countered, not a hint of care in his voice. "LEAVE HER OUT HERE AND SHE WILL BLEED TO DEATH IN A FEW MINUTES OR YOU CAN USE A SPELL TO END HER NOW

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO KILL HER I CAN TAKE CONTROL OF YOU TO DO IT."

'But-' I was conflicted. I was fine with killing someone but this was just wrong; she was not only a kid but also mortally wounded. There had to be some way for me to convince Voth to spare her. Thankfully, an idea came to me.

'What if we free her from her master?' I pitched. Voth remained silence, letting me continue, 'Like, she could tell you where her master is hiding so you can kill him. You can do that right?'

"IT IS POSSIBLE BUT IT WILL BE HARD," Voth said after a few tense moments, giving me some hope. After another few moments, he continued, "HOWEVER SHE MAY TRY TO KILL YOU REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT HER MASTER CONTROLS HER."

Whatever hope I had disappeared at that moment but I still thought that he'd say otherwise.

"YOU MAY SAVE HER BUT YOU WILL DISPOSE OF HER IF SHE TRIES TO CAUSE YOU HARM.

YOU HAVE TO TAKE HER TO A HOSPITAL SINCE YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE HEALING SPELLS I KNOW."

That answer was perhaps the best thing I had heard all day. I didn't have any first-aid stuff at my home, and I doubt that the filly is going to be fine with anything but a hospital visit. I gently picked up the filly and placed her on my back. She wrapped her forelegs around my neck almost immediately, letting me start run as fast as I could without dropping her. I had a few minutes at most to get to the hospital.

I had to be fast.

Chapter 23: Concern (rewritten)

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Darkness.

There was only darkness.

It didn't know where it was or why it was but it was content with the darkness. The peaceful, warm, and quiet darkness. There were a few echos every now and then but it ignored all that for it wanted to remain content.

Suddenly, there was pain. Unimaginable pain. It could not cry out as it pained from everywhere. There was a message to the pain, a warning. A warning against failure. It had failed. It was so close but it had failed, all thanks to its incompetence. It was sad and scared and in pain and it deserves it no matter how much it hated it.

Its master hated it, rightfully so, for it had failed. Its master told it to not fail a second time for if when master returned to see failure, it would be purged of anything good, anything comfortable, and filled with pain and only pain. It could not whimper, not scream, not cry, not curl up, nothing. It could only fear.

The darkness and the quiet was dissipating. There was a sound, a rythmic sound that went 'beep' every few seconds. The darkness was replaced with a deep red. It could feel something under it, something on its arm, and something on its body.

Suddenly, there was light, bright painful light, for a few eternal moments. It screamed in its mind with confusion until it remembered. It had opened its eyes. Its beautiful, seeing eyes that master gave it despite it being wretched and disgusting and a failure undeserving of anything good. It closed its eyes, freeing itself from the torment of the light and letting it return to the beautiful darkness that only came because master allowed it.

There were so, so many sensations all around it; all gifts from its master, all that could be taken away at the first hint of failure. There was hearing, there was smell, the was touch, there was taste, there was Fear.

It opened its eyes once more, the light being far too merciful than it should be to a thing like it. It looked around, seeing beautiful things, all thanks to master's generosity.

It lay on a bed in a room with mostly white walls that were decorated with pictures of happy little things. There was a machine that made the melodious tube with the beep every few seconds. It knew the medicine had a band and it had the name at the tip of its tongue but it could not remember. Master had said that it would be allowed to remember if it succeeded in eliminating master's enemy.

It looked down at itself and saw it was covered with ugly dark green coloured fur and had brown hair that sprouted out of its head. It didn't need a mirror to know that it was hideous and the fact that its master cared for it spoke volumes about his kindness.

A section of the wall that was painted brown swung inside, a door, it remembered... Why was it happy? The door opening meant that someone had come inside the room, someone who migh- no, who will try to harm it. As far as it knew, only master would never harm it ever in any way for anything.

It watched as a fat pink pony with purple and white hair waddled into the room with a thing- a notepad, in her hoof. It could feel fear along with a hint of disgust at the sight of the ugly rotund thing and how her body stretched and moved and squished in oh so many horrible ways that made it seem like her skin was going to break apart and let even uglier things spill out.

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. However, the pony approached the bed it lay on. It wanted to run away but the best it could do was shy away a little bit, making it loathe how pathetic and weak it was.

"Hey there, how are you feeling?" the pony asked, her voice full of sweetness and kindness and gentleness and love, but master had educated it about the dangers that these creatures pose with their siren calls. It remained silent but the fear on its face gave the pony her answer.

"Okay," the pony said, her voice just as sweet and kind, as she wrote something down on the notepad. She continued, "What is your name?"

It would have remained silent but its master had told it that this question was important and that it had to answer. However, it did not trust itself with making an answer without the guidance of its master. Master wasn't there though, and it would have to work without master.

"M- my name," it croaked in a voice that was high in pitch and grating. However, it took a few moments to think what it would answer next. It had a name, it knew, but master had taken it away when master took its memories and so, it could not give that name as an answer. Thinking harder, it found that it had only one answer and that answer came from one of the very few memories that master had left it with, a fuzzy memory from a long time ago.

"My name is... Anonymous," it answered. The pony seemed shocked at the name but it, now Anonymous, ignored the shock for the pony was not even a lowly beast in front of the brilliance of its, now her, master and she had no right to even think, let alone say out loud, that 'Anonymous' was a bad name.

"Your name is Anonymous, as in, that's what it is?" the pony questioned, her voice kind and worried. Anonymous nodded wordlessly. The pony processed that and accepted it, like she should have the first time, and wrote down something else on her notepad.

"Do you know where your parents are?" she asked as she continued her interrogation. Anonymous would have remained silent but Anonymous's head hurt upon hearing that question. There were a few flashes in Anonymous's head and those flashes were memories of pain and fear. The most prominent was of a hand coming down to hit Anonymous. Anonymous's master was kind for taking away those memories. However, the flashes were enough to bring tears to Anonymous's eyes.

The pony saw the tears in Anonymous's eyes and tried to reach out to Anonymous. Anonymous, with the memories of pain still fresh in her mind, shrunk away from the hoof as fast as she could, giving the pony a clear message to stay away.

The pony understood the message and took her hoof back, looking pained as she did. Surely, her pain was false and a trick to guilt Anonymous.

"You must be hungry," the pony said to change the subject. She wrote down more stuff on her notepad before continuing, "I'll get your lunch in half an hour."

With that, she turned around and left the room, letting Anonymous breathe a sigh of relief. She had much to do and she couldn't let these ponies get in her way.

Nurse Sweetheart exited the room which held the filly that had been brought in yesterday. So far, she had nothing good to say.

First of all, the filly had lied about her name and that was because she was terrified. Sweetheart didn't know what she was terrified of but it couldn't be something good. Next, the filly's reaction to being asked if she knew where her parents were and how she reacted when the nurse tried to comfort her made the case more concerning.

The fact that she had been found in the forest, and that there had been no missing reports made about a teenage green pegacorn filly pointed to one thing in Sweetheart's mind.

The filly had probably run away from a home where she was not missed or she was abandoned.

The nurse shook her head and continued to doctor Greymane to tell him of the filly's status. Whatever the case, the filly needed help.

Chapter 24: Two ponies work in a library and talk sometimes

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Twilight woke up feeling well rested. She got out of her bed quietly as Spike was still asleep and stretched a bit. She took a look at the alarm clock next to her bed and found that its hands weren't moving. That was strange. She pulled back the curtains of the bedroom window, expecting it to just before sunrise. She was rudely surprised by the sun being up in the sky and the streets down below being crowded as they would be on Monday morning.

It took her a second to realise that she had woken up late.

She rushed to the bathroom to wash her face and make herself look presentable, waking up Spike in the process.

"What's the bug deal?" Spike asked crankily as he turned in his bed, ready to go back to sleep.

"I'm late!" Twilight answered, not seeing that Spike had already fallen asleep.

Twilight entered her bathroom and quickly washed her face and dried it. She didn't bother with brushing her mane and just used magic to make it look presentable. She'd have to be back in ten minutes to properly brush her mane. She made her way to the door to the stairs and opened it, the quiet in her home being replaced by the quiet murmur of a class.

Today was the day when the teacher, miss Cheerilee, got her class to pick out books for a project and Twilight had totally forgotten. This was foolish on her part, she noted with distress as she made her way down the stairs. The teacher and her class were around the central sitting area, listening to the teacher about what sort of books they should pick for the project and other details and whatever.

Twilight was more interested in coming up with a reason as to why she was late despite her quite literally living where she worked. The reason, that started feeling more like an excuse after Twilight realised there was nothing to blame but her lack of responsibility, had to be good for her weird colleague and grumpy boss, Anya, and with how their last interaction had gone on Saturday, Anya was more likely going to be the grumpy boss and not the weird colleague.

Speaking of Anya, she was sitting at the front desk like she did most of the time. She also looked quite tired and was a lot more slouched than she would be 'normally' (A pony developing a slouch was already a very rare thing and Anya's slouch was a lot worse than anything Twilight had seen). Ignoring how her boss looked, Twilight approached the front desk.

Anya didn't react like Twilight expected. In fact, she didn't react at all besides a simple raised hoof in what was probably a wave.

"I'm sorry that I'm late," Twilight started, her voice full of guilt, "It was my own fault."

"Cool," Anya whispered in response instead of the angry reprimanding Twilight expected. Take wa a bit taken aback by the casual response but then she noticed that Anya was struggling to breathe and was shaking a little bit.

"Are you fine?" Twilight asked, concerned now that she was sure that Anya won't be calling her stuff.

Anya opened her mouth to respond but coughed really hard instead, and looked as though she was going to hack her lungs out. After she stopped coughing and steadied herself, Anya said, her voice slightly above a whisper but dripping with sarcasm, "I'm doing fucking great, can't wait to cough my useless piece of shit lungs out onto the floor."

Twilight probably would have said something about how she had cussed, especially when there were foals nearby, but didn't since she didn't want to worsen Anya's already bad day.

"You know, I think that you should leave and go rest since you aren't doing too great," Twilight suggested, looking eager to help. "I can handle things here."

"You look like shit as well, as if you got out of bed a minute ago," Anya responded, meeting Twilight's kindness with grumpiness, much to Twilight's shock. Twilight would have said something mean back but Anya was right. Twilight knew that she looked terrible and that she had gotten out of bed less than five minutes ago. Anya then added, "Go make yourself look decent and then come back."

Twilight grumbled and turned to go back upstairs and make herself presentable.

"And be careful with the book," Twilight said to the two unicorn colts who she had helped with finding the book they'll be using for their project.

The colts joined the rest of the foals in reading their books. They'd be leaving in sometime with their books, making Twilight secretly wish that Cheerilee hadn't given them such a project. Twilight loved books and she knew that more than a few of the books that had been taken would be returned damaged, and that fact hurt her.

She cleared her head from the images of book harm she had imagined and made her way to the front desk to see how Anya was doing, and maybe strike a friendly conversation with her.

Anya was at her desk, looking tired and still coughing every now and then.

"Hey, Anya," Twilight began as she say down next to Anya, "How are you feeling right now?"

"I think I want to cave my skull in," Anya answered with a sigh, as if self-harm were a trivial matter. "Or maybe I want some sleep. Either way is fine since I don't have to be awake."

"Anya, you can't just say things like that!" Twilight responded, shocked at how casually Anya said that she wanted to hurt herself.

"Okay, cool, you can go now," Anya responded with a cough. Twilight suddenly understood that Anya was trying to stop her from making conversation.

"Go where?" Twilight asked as she controlled her frustration. "I know you're trying to avoid talking to me but I just want a friendly conversation."

Anya looked annoyed at how Twilight wouldn't leave her alone. She leaned back in her chair and asked with a sigh, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I-" Twilight began only to realise she didn't know what to talk about. She quickly thought of something and said, "How did you get your cough? You looked fine on Saturday."

Anya turned to face Twilight. Twilight watched as Anya formed an answer in her head and how still Anya was as she did that. Ponies would normally have some body movement but Anya just didn't. No flick of the tail, no ear movement, and her face seemed to have no emotion on it. How had Twilight not noticed the strangeness as much?

"So, yesterday morning, I found a badly injured kid in the forest and brought them to the hospital, I'm sure you heard about that," Anya started. Twilight did know since she had heard from various ponies about how Anya had saved a filly from bleeding out. Anya continued, "And getting her to the hospital had a lot of running involved and to put it simply, I'm not built for that kind of physical exertion and now I suffer the consequences of that."

"You did save a life though."

"Never said I regretted that. Just hate how weak my lungs are."

Twilight was going to continue, happy to see how easy it was to get Anya to talk. Unfortuantely, she was interrupted by the class suddenly appearing at the desk.

"I'll talk later. Got work to do," Anya said as she turned to check out the books that the class had.

Twilight was disappointed that their talk was cut short but happy to have had it nonetheless. Perhaps she could learn something about friendship from the talk and write back to princess Celestia about it.

Dear princess Celestia,

It has been an eventful week here in Pontville and I'm happy to say that I've learnt something about friendship. Sometimes, somepony might not warm up to you due to your or their actions but so it takes is some communication to fix things up. I learnt this after a somewhat short but rather pleasant talk with somepony I had a strained relation with.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 25: Escalation and resolution

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In the early hours of Tuesday morning, right before sunrise, a blue coloured carriage pulled by the night guards of princess Luna landed in front of the Ponyville hospital. The aforementioned princess stepped out of the carriage. She had grown back to her original size and had a mane that flowed much like her sister's, and honestly, she would have looked just as beautiful if it weren't for the grim expression on her face.

It had been ages since the world had seen a case like this and princess Luna intended to solve it without bloodshed. Her sister had advised against it and told her that all agents were dangerous things who only deserved death. Luna wasn't convinced at all, especially when said 'dangerous thing' was a child, a scared child.

Her visit was under the pretense of wanting to help the child with her terrible nightmares and help identify her but she had come to free the child from the eldritch monster that enslaved her.

The princess walked through the hospital, a nurse leading her and her guards to the room where the filly was. It didn't take long until they were there at the door to the poor filly's room.

"I've woken her up for the visit and explained her that you're here to help with her nightmares but she may still be nervous in your presence, princess," the nurse said as the princess moved to open the door. The princess nodded and slowly opened the door.

Inside, it was dark with the lights being off. The window was open and the curtains were pulled back, letting in a breeze and some moonlight. The pipe that should have connected an IV fluid bag to the filly was cut and the filly was nowhere to be seen.

"She's... gone," the nurse said, stating the obvious but Luna couldn't blame her. It wasn't everyday that fillies ran away from the hospital.

The princess had a new problem now, however: the filly had disappeared.

"Find her and bring her back," Luna gave the order to her guards, who then leapt into action. Luna hoped that the filly wouldn't be the murderous scum that Celestia warned her of.

'Anonymous' walked down the moonlit path, planning on how she would murder her master's enemy.

A rock to the head would be quick but rather painless, and in her mind, that was unacceptable for any enemy of her master.

Stabbing the eyes would be far more painful, and she could then strangle the blinded enemy, making them suffer as they die. It would be an appropriate way to die for scum like that. Plus, she had something to stab eyes with: the needle the ponies at hospital had jammed in her right foreleg to pump fluids into her. It had been a pain to chew through the pipe that connected her to the IV bag but it wouldn't be as hard to pull out the needle.

She stopped and tried using her hooves to pull out the needle but she could not gather enough strength in her pathetic limb to pull it out. Failure. She tried focusing her magic in her horn but her horn just gave off a few pathetic sparks. More failure. She reached down to the end of the pipe that was still attached to the needle and bit down on it slowly with fear in her mind. It would pain this way but she deserved the pain for her precious failures, for every failure was an offense against master.

She pulled her head back as far as she could, yanking the pipe, and the needle came out. So did a lot of blood and a short scream of pain.

Anonymous shut up, cursing herself for screaming and the blasted princess of the night for deciding to visit her.

Her enemy had been scheduled to visit her late in the day, around afternoon because Anonymous had spoken to no-one after her first interaction with the fat nurse, and that would have been such an easy kill with the enemy walking into the the beast's den quite literally. But no, the princess just had to ruin everything.

Thankfully, master had come and told her to run away before the princess came and where the enemy was. Master has also told it that the princesses were enemies and that she was free to go after them after killing master's first enemy. She would probably do that.

She held the needle in her left foreleg and continued on her path, slower than before and with a trail of blood behind her. The forest became thicker around the path once she walked past the crossroads and the increased tree cover made it rather dark, but she continued walking, ignoring whatever fear she felt.

Several minutes of walking, she reached her destination. It was a plain but ominous looking house. It blended in well with the forest thanks to its dark colours, and Anonymous couldn't help but feel as though it was watching her like a predator would watch its prey.

She shook her head, clearing away the silly though. What was so scary about it? Nothing, that's what. It was just dark and she was a coward and a fool with far too much imagination. She had work to do and it would be done.

She walked up to the door, and looked around on the ground in front of it. The key would be there, her master had told her, under some rock. She found it quickly and put it into the door's lock.

Immediately, the forest around her silenced, making her pause. An apex predator must have been close by. She turned the key and the door swung open. She let herself in and closed the door behind her as quietly as she could but unfortunately, the door creaked loudly as she closed it.

Anonymous hoped that she hadn't woken up her enemy with the sound.

She took a step forward and the floor creaked loudly beneath it. She took another, trying to be careful this time about not making noise but the floor creaked louder. She stopped and swiveled her ears around, trying to hear if she had woken up her target but she heard no sound and felt as though the sound around her had been muted.

She took a few more steps forward to the stairs and with each step, the floor creaked louder and she stopped several times to hear if something had moved upstairs.

Suddenly, all her fur stood on its end and she felt as if something was right behind her.

She turned around, her needle raised to stab whatever she saw. Behind her was her target. She towered over Anonymous and looked like a shadow in the dark hallway. She raised a hoof and Anonymous instinctively cowered, her fear beating her need to please her master for a second. Just a second.

Anonymous tried to move her hoof with the needle to stab her target but her target had taken hold of it and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't free herself. Her target charged up her horn, making Anonymous try harder. She stretched out her wings desire one being hurt from two days ago and tried taking to the air to free herself but her target was quick and had already used her free hoof to grab onto one of her wings, stopping her from flying.

The whole murder had gone south. Anonymous tried to free herself from the hold of her target but found herself too weak to do anything. She might have been able to do damage if she had the element of surprise but clearly, she didn't.

The target charged up her horn once again and Anonymous found that her only weapon, the needle, was pulled away from her and thrown away. Anonymous tried kicking and flailing her hooves but it didn't help her much. The target charged up her horn, taking longer this time. Was she charging up a spell that would kill her?

Anonymous didn't want to die. She tried even harder to get away from the target, getting a few punches on her but ultimately, she couldn't free herself. The target brought her horn close to Anonymous's head and the next thing Anonymous knows is that the world is dark.

I looked down at the filly as I let go of her and slowly lay her on the floor. She had somehow managed to make the floor creak, and then not notice me coming up behind her until the last moment and even then, she hadn't been able to put up much of a fight. I had put her to sleep with a knock-out spell that Voth had given me and it had taken effect immediately.

"NOW CAST THE SPELL YOU HAD CAST ON NIGHTMARE MOON," Voth instructed to me. I did as he said, letting him continue, "I WILL RETURN AFTER FREEING THE CHILD FROM THE MASTER MASTER IF THE CHILD WAKES UP BEFORE I RETURN ASSUME THAT SHE IS STILL UNDER THEIR INFLUENCE AND PUT HER BACK TO SLEEP."

Voth was gone after that, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be long till Voth was done with the hard part and back with good news.

I walked into the kitchen, turning on the lights in the hall and the kitchen as I did, to get a first aid kit that I had gotten yesterday after my cough had subsided. The filly was bleeding at her right arm and seeing how she was armed with a IV needle with part of a pipe attached, I guessed that she had ripped the needle out of her arm. I cleaned off the blood with a tissue and some antiseptic liquid and wrapped a bandage around the wound, stopping the bleeding. There was still blood on the floor that I'd have to clean.

In that much, Voth was back. "THE CHILD IS FREED NOW," he announced the good news. "HOWEVER, THERE REMAIN ISSUES."

'What issues?' I asked in my mind knowing that Voth could hear my thoughts.

"FIRST THE CHILD WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET THE NIGHT PRINCESS SOME TIME BACK AND THE PRINCESS KNOWS THAT THE CHILD IS AN AGENT," Voth started, giving out what I hoped to be the worst news first. "THE PRINCESS WILL HAVE GUARDS SEARCHING FOR THE CHILD SO YOU SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE HER BACK TO THE HOSPITAL TO AVOID ANY SUSPICION

I WILL REPLACE THE CHILD'S MEMORIES SO THAT SHE SAYS HER GOAL IN THIS WORLD WAS TO KILL ANYONE SHE SAW AND NOT TO ASSASSINATE ANOTHER AGENT."

'So, I just have to act dumb. Got that. Everything else is fine?'

"YES EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE."

The filly on the floor groaned, making me look down at her. She sat up straight, holding her head as she did. She opened her eyes and froze when she saw me, making me a bit concerned.

'Is she alright?'

"SHE MAY BE DISTRESSED RIGHT NOW SINCE SHE CAN NOW PROPERLY COMPREHEND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HER," Voth said, "SHE WAS RIPPED OUT FROM HER WORLD AND PUT IN A NEW ONE AND THAT ALONE COULD MAKE HER DEPRESSED

THAT COMBINED WITH THE FACT THAT SHE WAS SENT TO MURDER SOMEONE AND HOW HER MASTER REMOVED SOME OF HER MEMORIES PERMANENTLY AND THEN RESTRUCTURED HER MIND SO THAT SHE WORSHIPS HIM IS PROBABLY MAKING HER REACT LIKE THAT."

Well, that sucked.

The filly snuck a look to the main door as she continued staring at me with fear. I had a feeling that she was scared of me and wanted to run.

"Hey, are you feeling fine?" I asked her, sounding as nice as I could. The filly had her ears pinned down before I even began, as if she expected me to shout at her. However, after I was done, she looked at me with confusion.

She looked like she wanted to say something to me, probably ask me why I was being nice despite her attempt at my life, or maybe she wanted to say sorry. She looked down at the ground in thought, her ears slowly drooping. Was she going to cry?

Tears fell down onto the floor and before I knew it, the filly was crying. The weight of being ripped from wherever she came from and then being enslaved and dropped into another world by an eldritch monster to kill someone was too much for her. I pulled the filly into a hug, where she continued crying. I pat her head and back and let her cry, doing the least I could to help her through what was probably the worst day of her life.

"What's your name?" I asked her after crying died down somewhat. She didn't answer immediately though. I loved down at her and saw how troubled she looked.

"I- I don't know," she responded sadly. "It had a 'n' and a 'e' in it, I think. It's NOT Anonymous but I think it was similar in some way."

"Hmm, do you want me to guess so that you can remember?" I asked her, thinking that I might cheer her up. She nodded her head in agreement, not looking really happy.

'Voth, can you find out her name?'

"NO THAT MEMORY HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM HER MIND IT WAS SIMILAR TO YOURS THOUGH."

It seemed that I actually had to guess.

Princess Luna flew close to the ground, two lunar guards right behind her. They followed a trail of blood on a path into the forest, all hoping that the filly hadn't gotten far, while the princess also hoped that the filly hadn't hurt somepony. They flew past a crossroads and continued following the path till they reached a house.

There was a light on inside and that illuminated the path in front of the house, letting the ponies see that the trail of blood went into the house.

Luna stepped up to the door and tried opening it, only to find it locked. However, she did hear some noise inside. The door was unlocked with a click and it opened a little, letting Luna look inside.

There was a familiar mare sitting in the hallway beyond the door but that was not what Luna was focused on. She was focused on the green filly crying in the mare's arms. Luna raised a hoof, signalling her guards to stay outside and guard while she went inside and closed the door behind her.

One inside, she quietly say down on the ground next to the mare, and asked, "How is she?"

The mare, who didn't seem to be intimidated by the princess in any way, just shrugged as she looked down at the crying filly and answered, "Physically, she's okay. Can't say the same about anything else."

"Anonymous," Luna said a bit forcefully, making the filly stop crying and look at her. It pained Luna that she couldn't just pull the fully into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be fine but she had to ask the filly an important question. "Do you hear someone in your head?"

The filly didn't answer her and just turned back to the unicorn mare and buried her face in her chest. It took a second for Luna to realise that the filly was scared of her and when she did realise, she was pained greatly. At least, she could tell that the filly wasn't under the control of the eldritch since they would always suppress fear in their agents.

Luna still had a duty to do, however. She cast a sleep spell on the filly and in a minute, she was asleep.

"I'll have to take her away since she was taken control of by a malevolent magical entity," Luna said to the unicorn, both lying and telling the truth since the knowledge of the existence of the eldritch was not the unicorn's business. The unicorn nodded in understanding.

"I know you," Luna continued, changing the subject of their conversation since she didn't want to disturb the sleeping filly yet. "I healed your ears after... that night, and you were the only other one to be kind to her that day. What is your name?"

"Anya Khan, princess," the unicorn, Anya, responded. Luna had heard that name before.

"And tell me this, Anya. Did she try attacking you?" Luna asked as she gestured to the filly.

"Yeah, she tried attacking me with a needle that I think she ripped out from her arm," Anya responded, pointing to a bloody needle in the corner next to the door and then to a bandaged wound on the filly's right foreleg. "I used a knockout spell on her after disarming her and she's just been miserable since she woke up."

Well, that was interesting. She'd have to investigate that later.

"Did she tell you her name?"

"No, she doesn't remember it. We tried guessing her name to cheer her up but didn't come up with anything. She did like 'Nemo' though and asked me to call her that."

Luna looked down at the filly. The poor thing didn't even know her name. At least, she had found one she liked.

"It is time for me to go," Luna said as she stood up. Anya nodded and let go of the filly, who was covered in a blue aura as Luna picked her up in her magic. Luna placed her on her back, balancing her between her bat wings so that the filly wouldn't fall off during the flight to the hospital.

She turned back to Anya one last time as she opened the door to leave, and said, "You are a kind one. I thank you for taking care of the filly. I wish you a good day."

Anya nodded, and waved goodbye to the princess.

After that, Luna had flew back to the hospital with the filly. There, the filly was put back in her room to continue healing her wing and whatever injuries she sustained today.

Luna, on the other hand, was going back to Canterlot and she had a lot to tell her sister.

Chapter 26: Birds

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Thursdays were always so... ehh.

Not much happened meaning you were bored most of the day, and since it was close to Friday but not exactly it meaning you were just spending the day waiting for Friday. I didn't have such a privilege since I worked six days a week and due to how boring Thursday was, I figured that I'd do something.

I had bought six chicken eggs yesterday but not for consumption. Instead, they were for biomancy. Today, I had bought the other thing I needed: a plastic tub. It wasn't very big but if I tried, I could probably fit myself in it but that's beside the point.

I had etched a energy collection and distribution rune onto the bottom of the tub so that when it was filled with water, it would automatically increase the amount of magic in th water. I did this since the book on biomancy told me to and that I'd use this setup for making fleshy stuff and said fleshy stuff needed a lot of magic.

The tub was currently in the corner of the basement, waiting to be filled, but I'll do that when I have to. Right now, I had to master some basic biomancy. I sat at the basement table and looked at the thing I'd be using to practice basic biomancy: a random plant I uprooted from my backyard and put into a pot.

What was my goal? No idea, the book just told me to feel my way through and make the plant do stuff so that I get a feel for bending living matter to my will. What stuff do I make the plant do? Don't know but I guessed that making it grow was one thing. I had gone a bit overboard though.

The plant was thoroughly abused by my magic as I had spent the last hour, I think it had been that much time, just randomly messing with the small magic pools it had. There were flowers blooming on one side while the other was dead branches that had grown to be in the shape of a cube. I did make it grow, that's for sure, but I had to pour a lot of my magic into the plant to do it since the plant didn't use its own magic like the lazy sun-bathing never-moving scum it was. That magic was 'locked away' behind the barrier of 'not worth the effort to get out' and a small part of it was bound to the plant's cells as well.

While this seemed bad at first glance, it was actually a good thing that it was locked up in the cells. The magic acted like little guiding stones that I could use to tell me where stuff is and what it is useful for, like for example, some of the magic pointed at the small, almost invisible, but important pool of magic that was in its roots. That pool of magic could be used to make the plant do basically everything it was capable of but its best use was to make the plant grow in size. Other magic pools were there as well in its branches, flowers, and leaves, and they were more specialised than the magic pool in the roots and had a narrow range of functions to match.

I finished off my experimentation on the plant by making it grow a bunch of branches that were shaped like a dozen little birds. Once the branches were grown, I gave the plant the order to kill those branches and it did exactly that, letting me break the small wooden birds off. They were fragile but looked cool as hell to make up for that.

I closed the book on biomancy and left it on the table while picking up the potted plant and the wooden birds and taking them upstairs. Once upstairs, I put the plant outside, noting that my experiments had taken up more time than I expected with the sun having went down the horizon by now.

I didn't really know what I could do with the birds but they'd definitely be something cool to gift, or sell, to someone. Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone in Ponyville sells these kinds of woodcrafts, but then, I think I was the only one in Ponyville who knew biomancy. Or shadowmancy. Or how to make a coilgun.

'Hmm, do I look too much like an enjoyer of the dark arts?' I asked myself since these combination of skills looked pretty suspicious. But then, it was perfectly legal to know all those things until a certain level, after which I 'd need a license for it to be perfectly legal.

I think I'm worrying too much about this stuff. If I don't do anything morally wrong with my magic, in public at least, I'll be alright.

Now, back to the wooden birds. I put them on the living room table standing up straight, and thought about what I'd do with them since I didn't really need decor for my house, and even if I did use them, I'd use at most six, leaving me with another six. I didn't want to leave them in some box or throw them away either. I think I could give them to someone.

Yeah, I'll give them to someone, probably Brush, and when I have go to the hospital tomorrow to meet the filly, Nemo, I could give one to her.

I couldn't get much sleep on Thursday night, just like the last two days. I think I had only slept like, five hours in the last three days, and that reflected on my mood at work.

"Hey, Anya," Twilight said as I looked at the clock which showed the time to be 3:51 in the afternoon. I'd have to leave at four today since they wanted me at the hospital. I didn't say anything to Twilight and she took it as a cue to continue.

"Are you alright?" she asked, prompting me to look at her. She seemed worried for some reason. "You haven't spoken to anyone in the last two hours."

"Okay, and?" I asked, a bit irritated since I had done my work perfectly fine and therefore, me not speaking was a non-issue.

"I don't really think it's my place to say this, but I know that something is bothering you," she said, stating the obvious without knowing what it was. I was being bothered, that's right, but by what? By Twilight.

"No shit, Twilight, I am being bothered right now," I said, making sure that the sarcasm in my voice was clearer than day. Twilight understood that I was saying that she was bothering me but instead of just leaving me alone like a normal person would have, she continued talking.

"And something else is making you irritated as well," she pointed out. Then, she sat down and said in friendly manner, "And I'd like to help you with it, like a friend."

"Okay, Twinkle Sprinkle, there's some things you need to know. Number one, I don't want to be friends with you," I started with a raised hoof, making her deflate instantly at those last words. I would have felt bad normally, but Twilight was just the right kind of annoying that made me not care.

"Number two, I'll tell you what's bothering me, besides you, since you'll just bother me even more otherwise," I continued, making Twilight look up. "I'll have to go at four since the guys at the hospital called me becuase Nemo-"

"The filly that you saved on Sunday? Didn't princess Luna try talking to her?" Twilight interrupted me, and then realising that she interrupted me, she said with a sheepish smile, "You can continue."

"As I was saying, they called me because Nemo wants to meet with me, and that's what's bothering me."

"You're nervous about talking to that filly?" Twilight asked, her eyes widening a little as she probably thought that she found the problem.

"No, Twilight! I'm thinking about what I'd say to her," I replied, leaving out the part where I knew that Nemo was from another world. I'd have to talk to her without making her explicitly say that she's from another world since I didn't know whether or not the princesses knew that as well, and considering that all agents are killed, I doubt that the princesses know, and I'd like to keep it that way for Nemo's sake.

"Oh... I don't think I can help you with that," Twilight said, deflating once more with sadness. We sat in akward silence until she spoke up, "Also..."

"Also what?"

"I was looking for a book that was checked out a few days ago," she said nervously as she started moving her hooves around nervously.

"What book?" I asked.

"A book on... biomancy, Biomancy Basics was its name," she answered as though she admitted to commiting a crime. "Do you know when it will be returned? I'm asking since I'm... interested in learning about that subject."

"Why're you talking about it like its illegal?" I asked, ignoring her question.

"It's dark magic," she answered in a whisper as she looked around to see if someone heard us. That was really annoying for some reason.

"OoOoOo, The dark arts, so scary, I'm literally shitting and pissing myself out of fear right now," I replied with mock fear, making it abundantly clear that I didn't think about 'dark' magic the same way as her. I then said with real seriousness, "Look, Twiggles, 'dark' magic isn't anything like you think, and even if it was, it's perfectly legal to do."

Twilight who had been shocked silent by me mocking her finally got her words and said with, "B- but it can be used for evil things!"

"And so can 'light' magic," I countered with a raised hoof. "Like, I can just launch a fireball at you right now and cook your meat to perfection while killing you, and then eat your cooked corpse. And that's all light magic, y'know."

My example was terrible, as I could tell from how Twilight looked at me with some fear, but it got the point across, somewhat.

"Anyway, you gotta wait another few days till that book comes back since I'm using it right now," I said, answering her earlier question.

"You're learning biomancy?!" she asked, as if it were a big shock. I was just annoyed.

"Yeah, you'll be doing it as well," I answered.

"I wanted to just like, read it over, not actually do it! I don't even think I can do it!"

"The hell does that mean?"

Twilight probably would have looked less shocked if she had stuck a fork in an outlet. "Don't you know about magical affinity?"

At my confused silence, she shifted into 'uhm actually' nerd mode and continued, "It determines a unicorn's magical abilities, specifically the kind of magic they can do. For example, I can only do magic that has the attributes of light magic."

"Okay, cool, thanks for the infodump but I don't care," I said, thoroughly annoyed by her behaviour. "If you want the biomancy book, you'll have to wait. I'm not doing anything illegal if that's what you're trying to imply."

"I wasn't implying that!" she protested. "I just- I was just surprised that you did that kind of magic."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said, ignoring her protests. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was 3:56. Time for me to go. "Anyway, I gotta go."

I picked up my saddlebags and put them on quickly. I think I might have dropped something as I did but whatever, I had places to be and not much time, especially for Twilight's annoying questions.

The walk to the hospital wasn't really eventful, though I did meet Pinkie on the way. Well, I 'met' her if you consider her running up to me and giving me a wrapped cupcake and then running off as a meeting. I wasn't in the mood for eating and put the cupcake in my bag and continued till the hospital.

At the hospital, the receptionist called over a nurse, Nurse Sweetheart, to take me to Nemo.

"Hello, miss Anya," the nurse greeted me with a friendly smile. "Ano- Nemo is waiting for you."

"Kay, let's go then," I replied.

The nurse led me to a room on the ground floor. She didn't let me in immediately though.

"Before I let you in, I'll have to ask you to tell me anything important she tells you, like where she lived, who her parents are, anything of that sort," she said to me in a serious tone. "Even if it sounds like she is lying, that information is important, for her sake."

"Okay," I responded simply, not really understanding why she wanted that stuff at first. Then, I realised that someone, probably the princesses, suspected that Nemo was an agent and just wanted evidence for some reason. I'd have to consult with Voth to be sure though.

The nuse opened the door, letting me in. The room looked rather cozy for a hospital room with there being a round blue carpet on the floor and some random toys and plushies in the corner in a box. That was juxtaposed by the many spells and runes and whatnot on the window and the door behind me and how I could feel their power. All this made it more clear that they didn't want Nemo to go anywhere.

Speaking of Nemo, she was lying on her bed and looking at the door from under the blanket. The nurse closed the door behind me and the next second, Nemo jumped out of bed and rushed to me looking overjoyed to see me. She hugged me immediately, not knowing that she was poking me with her horn that had a magic suppression ring on it.

"Hi Nemo," I said to her as I returned the hug. Nemo nuzzled me in return instead of saying anything but that was alright. I continued, "I've got something you might like."

Nemo backed up and looked at me inquisitively at that. I opened my saddlebags with my magic but Nemo didn't seem to like that for some reason. I stopped using my magic and instead fished out the things I got with my hooves. In no time, there were four little wooden birds in my hooves.

"You like them?" I asked Nemo. Nemo stared at the birds before looking at me.

"A- are they for... me?" she asked me as she absent-mindedly reached out for them.

"Yep, you can take one, or all of them. Just be careful with holding them since they're fragile," I answered, letting Nemo take the ones she wanted. She took two of them and held one in each of her front hooves as if they were the most treasured things ever, and she placed them on table next to her bed. She then turned to walk over to the carpet and sit in front of a paper that had something drawn on it. She looked at me expectantly and pawed at the ground next to her. It took me a moment to realise tht she wanted me there sitting next to her.

I walked over and sat next to her. She leaned onto me and picked up the paper and pointed to the drawing on it. It was a picture of a... I don't know what it was. It was a big ugly blob of red, brown, black, and green with a lot of pointy blue legs coming out of it on all side, like it was some really messed up starfish.

"I saw him yesterday night in my dream," Nemo said sadly as she droped the picture and leaned more into me.

"Who is he?" I asked as I put an arm around her. It was clear that she didn't like whatever she had drawn, and I guessed that it was something similar to Voth.

"M- m-" she tried answering but she was too scared to do so.

"He controlled you, didn't he?" I asked as I pulled her into a hug. Nemo nodded in response, letting me continue, "Well, he can't hurt you now."

"H- he wanted me t- to ki-" she tried saying but I stopped her.

"He wanted that, but you didn't," I said to her before she could say out loud something that would send her to tears. Thankfully, she didn't cry and just remained quiet.

"How was it where you lived earlier?" I asked, changing the topic of the conversation to something that I hoped would be better. Unfortunately, it wasn't better as I could tell by how my chest had become wet with her tears.

"M- mother and f- fa- father were me- mean to me," she said as she tried controlling her crying. "They- they always said th- that I was a- a mista-"

"Now, now, you don't have to talk about bad stuff if it hurts you," I said, interrupting her from her description of her parents. In my mind, I wished that I could just find them and strangle them. "I was talking about the uh good parts, were there good parts?"

"I- I liked it when it rained sometimes," she said as she wiped her tears from her face. "I- it rained very little where I lived and I wanted to play in the rain but they never- never let me outside because it was dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"M- my uncle said that- that godless monsters had dropped bombs and- and they made the rain bad and black, and tha- that we should be grateful for living in mountains b- because no one came there. I- I saw one of the bombs go off once," she answered as she looked down at the floor. She probably didn't know much about those bombs but I knew that it was nukes. You learnt that shit in history class when they went over the second and third world wars, and with all the global tension in my previous world, it wasn't hard to get people telling you what nukes would do to you if you aren't in proper shelter. Fortunately, I never had to live through nuclear war or fallout, but I couldn't say the same for Nemo who was there for it in person.

"Will I g- go to hell?" she asked sadly and all of a sudden, bringing me out of my thoughts so fast that it would have given me whiplash.

"What? No, you won't! Why'd you ask that?" I said, really confused to say the least.

"T- the priest said t-that girls like me should- that we should do everything our parents sa- said and stay at ho- home because god sa- said so," she said before she started crying again. I tried stopping her but she continued louder than earlier, "I ran away! I- I didn't lsiten and ran!"

Ripped away from her world that probably had a large-scale nuclear war, mind controlled to try and kill someone, and abused by what I assumed was a cult; Nemo just had it terrible all the time and I felt bad for her. She didn't continue talking any more and just cried for sometime. Eventually, she stopped but she was clearly tired from all the emotion.

"Hey, Nemo," I said, getting her attention. She looked up at me, her face stained with tears. I reached into my bag and pulled out the cupcake that Pinkie had given me. It was chocolate covered in white frosting and some sprinkles and had a little 'for Anya' note on it that I hadn't seen earlier. I pulled off the note an stuffed it back into the bag. "You want a cupcake?"

Nemo looked confused but happy to see the cupcake and when I asked her if she wanted it, she looked happier. She nodded and took the cupcake. For a moment, she just stared at it to appreciate its beauty. The next moment, she took a bite out of it and the next, she had all of it in her mouth and was chewing away happily, her earlier sadness forgotten.

It was nice seeing her happy again but it wasn't for long unfortunately. The door opened and nurse Sweetheart was there.

"It's Nemo's lunchtime now, you'll have to come with me," she said to me. Nemo wasn't happy to hear that at all but she didn't try stopping me from going. I gave her a smile as I left. Once outside, the nurse closed the door and led me down the hall back to the reception area.

"So, did she tell you anything?" she asked.

"She doesn't know where she came from. Her parents didn't like her and she ran away from home, and I think she might have been in a cult of some sorts," I answered with a frown. The nurse didn't seem too surprised at any of that information.

"Well, thank you for that information," she said with a sad expression on her face. "We'll call you back if Nemo asks us to."

With that, I was back on my way home. The day had been decent for a thursday for sure but it definitely wasn't great. Maybe I could make some cool little wooden things for Nemo.

Yeah, I think I'll do that. She'll be happy to have those.

Chapter 27: Magic Show

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I woke up to the blaring of my alarm. I looked over at it and saw that it was seven in the morning already. Hadn't it been like, four AM just ten minutes ago?

I wanted to sleep some more but today was friday, meaning that I had to suffer the consequences of me not sleeping properly last night. Or the night before. Or the one before that. I don't think I've had proper sleep the entire week.

I got out of my blanket cocoon and onto the floor and stretched a bit before I went onto go through my morning routine. Unfortunately, I was sluggish while I did so and as a result, I didn't have the time to eat breakfast or anything and had to leave for work with an empty stomach.

The walk to work was uneventful and I wished that the entire rest of the day would be like that since I was too tired to deal with anything.

Twilight wasn't there in the library when I came in but I didn't care much. I just went over to my desk and sat down in my chair and turned on the computer. There were still ten or so minutes till the library opened and unfortunately, I couldn't take a nap till then.

It was almost five when Twilight had come in to the library sweating like she had run a marathon. Behind her was Spike, who had a fake looking moustache on his face for some reason.

"But Twi, you gotta admit that some of the stuff you can do is impressive!" Spike said to Twilight as he stopped by my desk. "Hey, Anya, does my moustache look cool? I want an honest answer."

"It looks kinda fake," I answered honestly, much to Spike's disappointment.

"See, I told you that my magic isn't that impressive," Twilight said to Spike as she came up behind him. "Now hold still."

She zapped him in the face with her magic and the moustache was gone. Spike looked somewhat sad at that but good sadness didn't last long. He looked up at me and said, "Hey, Anya, don't you think that Twilight is great at magic? Because she thinks she isn't."

"Twilight's the student of princess Celestia, so, she's probably good at it," I replied, stating the obvious.

Twilight, of course, just rubbed the back of her head and said while blushing a bit, "Oh, that's... something, yes, but it doesn't equate to the ability to do magic good; it shows that I am very good at studies."

"Okay," I replied, not disagreeing with Twilight since I didn't want to start an argument. I continued then, switching the subject, "By the way, where were you?"

"What are you talking about? Today's saturday; I don't have to work today," Twilight said, her eyebrows furrowed as she was clearly confused at my question.

"Today's friday," I said simply. For a moment, I had thought that I had messed up the days somehow but it was more likely that Twilight messed up the days.

"It is?" Spike said with surprise before his demeanor changed to that of someone who was annoyed at some discovery. "I knew that something was wrong this morning! I bet it was Pinkie, or maybe Rainbow, who pranked us by changing the calendars in here!"

Twilight looked horrified at the revelation that today was actually friday. Her ears were pinned down and she froze up and she looked a bit sick. "I- I missed work?"

"Yeah but not a big deal though," I said casually, which stopped Twilight from being as horrified. "There wasn't much done today."

"B- but I missed a day! Do you know how terrible that looks!" she almost shouted, as if it were the most important thing in the entire world.

"Twiggles, no one will care that you missed one day at work," I said, giving her much needed common sense. Twilight was not convinced, however, and so, I figured some evidence would be nice. "Like, some guy I had to work with didn't come into work for like, an entire week once and guess what? No one cared ever. If someone does care then it'll be a good thing since you know to avoid them."

"Yeah, Twi, you gotta chill," Spike added, "It's not like princess Celestia is going to banish you for that."

The very next moment, princess Celestia didn't burst into the library and yell that Twilight was getting banished for missing a day of work but it would have been pretty funny if that happened.

"Y'know, why don't we go check out that magic show? It'll be great!" Spike suggested to Twilight. "Might help you relax a bit as well."

I didn't really care much about their conversation and looked over at the clock. It was 5:01 PM, meaning that I shoud start closing the library. I got out of my chair and pushed the power button on the computer before putting on my saddlebags.

"Oh, Anya, you're coming with us?" Spike asked as I finished doing all that.

"I'll be for real with you, I have not eaten anything since dinner yesterday and I feel like I'm gonna take a bite out of someone, probably Twilight since I don't like her," I answered with a glance to Twilight towards the end, before suppressing a yawn. "If I don't drop and fall asleep first."

"Hey!" Twilight said, not understanding that I had made a joke. I could probably start a moon base with how all my jokes just went over her head. Heh, that's a good one, I'll probably use it later.

"Soooo, you're coming?" Spike asked, ignoring Twilight.

"K, sure, I'll get something to eat as well," I answered. I didn't have much going on and I didn't feel like doing anything today, so, I might as well just see what this 'magic show' thing is because I was curious about how'd you have a magic show in a world where magic was real.

Spike led me and Twilight through the streets of Ponyville to the park, all while making plenty of conversation with Twilight. It was mostly Spike saying that Twilight was good at magic and Twilight disagreeing. I didn't speak much and just walked behind them with the sandwich I got on the way. Once we reached the park, we saw a small crowd gathered up in front of a fancy carriage. We stopped somewhere at the back of the crowd.

"Do you think that the showpony will ask someone to challenge them?" Spike asked to no one in particular. "Or maybe volunteer for a trick. Ooh, I'd love to volunteer!"

"I think that they might challenge someone since it is customary for them to do so," Twilight answered with a hoof under her chin. "You remember when we saw that one showpony in Canterlot? The one who could escape any lock?"

"The Great Hoofdini? Yeah, he was great!" Spike replied excitedly as he remembered something. He then added, "But not as great as you."

"Oh, come on, Spike!" Twilight replied with a slight blush, "I'm not that great."

"Show's starting," I said, interrupting yet another conversation about Twilight being good at magic or not.

The carriage had started shaking a bit as a loud voice announced, "Come all! Come all! Come and witness the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

As the announcement came, a stage unfolded out of the carriage with a lot of cool looking fireworks going off. It was looking pretty impressive already. A puff of pink smoke appeared on the stage and quickly dissipated to reveal a blue coated unicorn, Trixie, who wore a starry cape and wizard hat.

While the crowd applauded her spectacular entrance, I stared at her with my mouth slightly agape. Something had awoken in me at the sight of the pretty mare- no, wait, this wasn't the place for being a weirdo. I shook my head clear of the thoughts and made myself look normal so that no-one knew I was smitten by the showpony. I think Twilight might have seen me staring though but it was nothing a bit of gaslighting couldn't fix.

"Man, she's flashy," Spike noted as a second round of fireworks went off.

"My, how boastful!" I heard Rarity say from behind us. I turned my head and saw Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack coming over to us. All of them seemed to be in agreement with Rarity.

"Nothing wrong with showing off your talent," Twilight said to them without turning to face them as they stopped to stand to her right.

"Hey Twi," Rainbow replied to her. She then saw me standing to Twilight's left and her face scrunched up in disdain. "Oh, you're here."

"Hey hey Rainbow," I said, not really giving a shit about her tone since I was still looking at Trixie, and still somewhat mesmerised by her.

"Y'know, I haven't forgotten what you called Twi," she continued with an angry tone.

"Uh huh," I replied as I started staring once again at the showpony on stage as she did her tricks oh so gracefully.

"And honestly, I think you should keep your distance from us."

"Mhm."

"...Are you ignoring me?"

"Uh huh."

"Rainbow, there's no need to be upset about something that's in the past now," Twilight interrupted, pulling me out of my thoughtless staring and mumbling. It took me a few moments to realise that I had lost focus on whatever Rainbow was saying earlier and now that I processed it, I was irritated. I considered calling Rainbow some sort of slur but decided against it since I didn't need more enemies. Twilight continued, "Additionally, I thought about it and realised that I might have been a little bit of a... the thing Anya called me. It was mean, yes, but we're alright now. Isn't that right, Anya?"

"Yeah yeah," I said, not paying much attention since I was busy simping over Trixie and how gracefully she did her magic, even if it was somewhat simple stuff and at times, overly flashy...

Why am I simping over someone I have literally no chance with? Or even any relation with? She is a travelling magician and I'm some random loser with no life beyond work or serving my eldritch master. Any interest I had in the showpony died instantly as I snapped back to reality and realised how weird I was acting along with the unintended side effect of feeling bad.

"She's too busy ogling that boastful loser on stage to answer your question," Rainbow said loudly in frustration, attracting some attention from the crowd towards us. I didn't express my anger and just quietly started putting some distance between me and the group.

"What's there to even see? It's just some cheap palor tricks performed by someone with a matchingly cheap wardrobe," Rarity said as she looked at Trixie, particularly her outfit, with thinly veiled disgust. I disagreed with Rarity since I thought robes and big wizard hats were rad as fuck in my humble yet objectively right opinion.

"An' she's mighty loud about it," Applejack added her own criticism.

"Girls, why don't we just enjoy the sho-" Twilight tried suggesting but was cut off by none other than Trixie.

"Well, well, well, it seems that there are some naysayers in the audience," the showpony said with a hint of mirth and some annoyance as she pointed a hoof in the direction of Twilight and her friends. The crowd parted like the sea did for that one dude, and I was quick to join them since I didn't want to be in the negative spotlight. Trixie continued speaking, her tone shifting to one of someone who wanted a challenge, "Who dares to question my magical abilities? Do you think that you can challenge me?"

"Yeah, sure do," Rainbow said loudly. She flew upto Trixie and hovered in front of her and asked, "What even makes you so 'great' and 'powerful' anyway, huh?"

"Heh, clearly, you do not know that I, the great and powerful Trixie, have magic strong enough to vanquish an Ursa Minor!" Trixie answered proudly with her head held high. Her horn glew and there were blue outlines of images floating above her depicting a bear and Trixie. The images were made in the same way I made runes in the air by concentrating magic and honsetly, her use of magic was pretty interesting. The images started moving and she narrated, "The ponies of Hoofington had been harrased by an Ursa Minor for many weeks before I came and when I did, I used my awesome magics and drove it back to its cave in the Everfree forest!"

The images had moved accordingly, showing Trixie cast a spell on the starry bear many times larger than her followed by the bear turning and running away. The crowd cheered as Trixie finished her story, some kids started cheering for her extra loudly, and more importantly, Rainbow looked a lot less confident than she did earlier.

Rainbow backed off and regrouped with her friends, who all seemed to have a noticeable dislike of Trixie now.

"that story's gotta be fake.Twilight, you gotta go up there and show her who's b-" Spike said to Twilight only to be cut off as Twilight picked him up and took him a bit away from the crowd to tell him something that I didn't hear.

"Well, citizens of Ponyville, I hereby challenge you to try and outperform me! Any takers? Anyone who wishes to challenge me?" Trixie announced meanwhile. She pointed a hoof at Rainbow, making her shrink a little, and said, "How about you? You were itching to disprove my powers!"

"Ye know what? I'm taking up tha' challenge!" Applejack shouted, looking really annoyed. She whispered something to Rainbow and stepped forward to go to the stage. Rainbow flew off and returned in the time it took Applejack to get on to the stage. She handed a rope to Applejack and rejoined the audience.

"I'll let you start," Trixie said to Applejack, starting the challenge.

Applejack held the rope in her mouth and started spinning it around, revealing it to be a lasso. She proceeded to jump through the spinning loop, as if it were a mere jump rope, a couple of time before she somehow put the end of the lasso on her tail. More astonishingly, she was able to continue using the lasso like that. She did a couple more tricks which were much like her first ones before she ended her performance. The crowd, which had been watching quietly, erupted into cheers for Applejack.

"Very impressive, I must admit," Trixie acknowledged before she shot the lasso on the stage with a spell. "But not as impressive as this!"

The lasso started moving on its own, much like a snake, and I could see where this was going to go. Applejack would be tied up by her own lasso. The rope slowly coiled around Applejack, making sure to distract her with its weird snake-like movements as it did and as I expected, the rope coiled up around Applejack's legs and tied itself. Predictably, she fell down since her center of mass had a hard time staying on top of her base.

The crowd which had cheered for Applejack now laughed at her but such was the nature of people; they liked a good show.

Trixie untied Applejack, letting her return to Rainbow's side with her pride seriously damaged. Watching her friend come back crestfallen had made Rainbow angry and she was clearly ready to challenge Trixie next.

"Yo, Rainbow, don't try it," I warned her but she just snorted and ignored me and took flight, landing on the stage.

"Hmm, it seems that the naysayer is back. Are you ready to be beaten?" Trixie said out loud, making the pegasus even angrier. She said something that wasn't audible to me and took off into the sky. She rapidly gained altitude and punched through a bunch of clouds before coming back down the way she went up. When she landed, a bunch of rain fell on her, making a temporary rainbow on top of her as the sunlight was refracted through the drops.

The crowd once again cheered, and more importantly, Trixie seemed somewhat troubled, as though she didn't know how to top Rainbow's trick.

Then, the clouds that Rainbow had punched through were covered in the unicorn's pink magical aura. The clouds came together to form an almost black cloud that looked like it was ready to just burst like a water balloon. Trixie levitated the cloud do that it was above Rainbow and the next moment, the pegasus was given an unplanned shower. It was a bit ironic since Rainbow had done something similar to me.

Anyway, the crowd laughed once again, this time on Rainbow who had been thoroughly humiliated. Said humiliated pony flew back to her friends and just grumbled under her breath.

"Anya," I heard Spike call out. I turned around and saw that Spike was on his knees as if he were begging. Behind him was an embarrassed looking Twilight. Spike continued, "You've gotta do something! We can't let Trixie get away with humiliating Rainbow Dash or Applejack just like that."

I just looked at him with surprise and asked, "Why not Twilight? Or Rarity? Or anyone else?"

"I have no interest in being humiliated in front of a crowd, or to be humiliated at all," Rarity objected to her participation quickly.

"And I'll feel like I'm a showoff," Twilight added, explaining why she didn't want to challenge Trixie.

"Bruh, I don't want to go on stage," I protested as all of them just suddenly wanted me to go and try beat Trixie without even considering my opinion. I didn't want to go up there and be made a fool of. I didn't even want to go there anyway!

"You there with the glasses," I heard Trixie say, making me turn around. Trixie had singled me out, which sucked real hard since I was the center of attention of the entire crowd. "Do you dare to challenge me?"

There were numerous eyes looking at me, and quite a few of them silently told me that I should go up there.

"Please Anya, you gotta show her!" Spike pleaded from behind me.

"Ah hate ta say this but good luck for when you go up there," Applejack quietly said to me without looking at me.

"Well, are you?" Trixie asked impatiently.

I made a decision under all the pressure. A dumb one.

"O- okay, I'm coming," I said accepting the challenge. There were a few cheers around me but I was panicking internally too much to care. One question was on my mind and it was How do I beat Trixie?

I slowly made my way to the stage, thinking about what I could do. The air runes? No, Trixie could beat those easily. Shadowmancy? No, I'd scare everyone and the sun is not in a good position. Biomancy? Maybe, but would it be impressive if I made a plant grow really fast?

Yeah, no, fuck this shit, I'm gonna ~~cheat~~ get help.

'Voth! I need help, I shouted in mind. Voth was there in a moment, letting me continue, 'Do you know any spells that would look really impressive to a crowd AND not be one upped by Trixie?

"I DO," Voth said, giving me some hope but all that hope died when Voth continued, "HOWEVER YOU CANNOT USE MOST OF THEM YET FOR YOU ARE TOO WEAK."

'What about the ones I can do? I asked frantically as I stepped up onto the stage.

"I AM INPUTTING THEM INTO YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW," Voth answered. My head hurt a little after he said that but the sudden input of knowledge was more relieving than painful.

"Same as before, you start first," Trixie said as I stopped in front of her.

"Okay then," I replied, a lot more confident than I was earlier.

My horn lit up and I help my hoof up. A glowing disc of green magic appeared on it and it formed into a rune. Trixie raised an eyebrow at the simple llokingthing but I continued by 'throwing' the rune into the air. Of course, it was all my magic that did the work but I had to look cool while doing it. The rune went up into the air, glowing brighter as it gained altitude and when it was about ten meters above us, it 'broke' apart into a bunch of little flames and bits of green magic and they looked quite similar to fireflies as they came back to the ground.

I had cleverly made it look like the rune (which actually did nothing) made all the flashy stuff appear when it was actually me conjuring tiny fireballs and balls of magical light. It wasn't magically intensive but it was demanding with how many things I had to keep track of. Most of the tiny magical ball lights ended up dissipating as they got close to the ground since I couldn't track them against the mostly green ground and since most of the stuff as already gone, I stopped the tiny fireballs as well.

Of course, the crowd was mesmerised by the display and when it ended, they cheered for me. I was a bit taken aback by the cheering but I kept myself steady.

Trixie looked on, only mildly impressed by my trick. "It's rather impressive how you could keep track of those many lights but it's nothing against what I can do!"

She reared up on her and her horn glowed brightly for a second before it shot a spell towards the sky. The spell was much like a rocket, making a whistling sound as it gained altitude before it exploded, leaving a blue pattern in the shape of Trixie's talent mark. Her trick was clearly a lot more impressive than mine, as evident by the crowd's 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs'. The jump in expected quality and subsequently, the difficulty, was discouraging but I didn't give up just yet.

Now, it was my turn again and I figured that I should try something with biomancy and my new ability to conjure balls of magical light. It took me a moment to plan out what I wanted to do and that was enough for Trixie to say, "What is it, are you afraid that you're too weak to beat Trixie's magic?"

"Nuh uh," came my reply as my horn lit up. I focused on the magic of a random weed that was underneath the stage and I willed it to grow. It took a few seconds for the weed to start growing but when it did start, it grew fast. It might have looked like I was doing nothing until the weed grew tall enough to peek through the small gaps in the floor of the stage. Trixie looked alarmed as the plant started growing outwards instead of upwards and stepped back a bit, giving me space to continue rapidly growing the plant. There was so much magic put into the plant that it actually started giving off some firefly-like lights as piece of it started breaking off and burning up, but that worked to my advantage as it gave me free light effects.

The thing was starting to slow down its growth as it assumed the shape of a long candleholder with three legs. Once it took that shape, it rapidly turned from green to brown as it died because of me reducing the amount of my magic flowing into it. Making the thing was exhausting but I still had something to do. In the final moments of the plant's life, I made it mold a rune onto its top and once it was done, a ball of white magic appeared on top of it. In the end, there was a really cool and organic looking candleholder holding a ball of white magical light on stage. I was pretty exhausted as well.

"Pretty cool, right?" I said with a coug, noting that I probably shouldn't do this much magic yet. Trixie looked at the decoration with a slacked jaw, clearly impressed by my plant-o-mancy. In the crowd, I could hear plenty of whispers that seemed vaguely positive and questioning as well. Trixie face shifted as she probably started thinking real hard about how she could one-up my best. The whispers in the crowd grew the longer she remained silent.

Finally, she tipped her hat and spoke, "Well, it seems I've been bested. There's not many people who can claim to have done that."

The crowd broke into cheers as Trixie admitted defeat. I was thankful that she didn't do another trick because I didn't have the strength to do another trick. It was great as well, having all these people cheer for me (even though I might have had some help but that wasn't something they needed to know).

"Say, what's your name?" Trixie asked over the cheering of the crowd as she came up to me.

"Anya," I answered.

"Well, Anya, I hope that you stay for a bit. The show will be ending in a few minutes and I'd like to talk to you after that," she continued, making me a bit worried. What did she want to talk about? "And what of the light you made?" She asked, pointing to the ball-of-magical-light-holder.

"I dunno, you can keep it if you want but its probably very flammable," I replied, pulling the light-holder from its place and making it break off from the dead plant under the stage. I stepped off the stage, leaving the light-holder next to it, and went back to the back of the crowd, letting Trixie continue her show.

"Woah, what was that?" Spike asked me as I came back to the spot where I was standing.

"Basic biomancy along with some runes and fireballs and light spells," I answered. "Still pretty tiring though. I'd probably have been laughed off the stage if Trixie didn't admit defeat."

"She just went easy on you," Rainbow said, probably salty about how I beat Trixie, who had beat her.

"Now, Rainbow, you and I both saw that Trixie did not go easy on Anya, so don't say that," Twilight said to Rainbow before she turned to me. "That was impressive, Anya."

"The light holder could use some work on its looks though," Rarity said before quickly adding, "Not that it wasn't impressive."

"Yep, Ah'd buy that thing if it were fer sale," Applejack added.

"Thanks guys," I said. "By the way, does anyone have something to eat? Doing those tricks made me hungry."

The show went for a bit longer than I expected but I was not the one running it, so, whatever. I was busy eating a second sandwich through most of it anyway. When it ended, I stayed back like Trixie asked me to but so did some random kids. I had to wait some more as the kids had gotten to Trixie first and were asking her all sorts of questions about her exploits and whatnot.

Once they were done with their questions, Trixie called me over.

"Now, Anya, I've got to ask you this," she began as she adjusted her hat. "What was the magic you used when you did your second trick?"

"Oh, that was some basic biomancy along with runes and some light spells mixed in to make whatever I thought looked cool at the time," I answered non-chalantly. "It was rather exhausting to perform though."

"Biomancy? You have a book on that subject?" she continued, looking somewhat surprised at the mention of said magic.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Well, it is hard to find books that instruct on the... less light-sided parts of magic. Would it be appropriate if I borrow that book? It would help me get some new tricks for my show," she said, shedding some light on some knowledge that I felt like I should have known.

"It's library property, you'll have to go borrow it from there and then return it," I answered, making Trixie a bit discouraged. I continued though, "However, there are no rules against copying it all in a notebook if you do that. I'll get you the book and you can get it back to me at the library when you're done with it."

"Thank you, Anya," she said with a smile. "I suppose I could give you something in return, especially with that decoration you gave me for free."

My curiosity was piqued at the mention of something I could get. "What is it?"

"It's a book on magical constructs that I haven't been able to find use for. Let me go get it," Trixie answered as she went into her carriage. There were some sounds of rummaging and Trixie was out with a old looking book in her magic. She presented it to me, letting me see that it had no title or anything. "I got it from an old pony on one of my previous shows. If you couldn't use it then maybe it'll find a place in the town library. Whatever the case, it'll certainly be better than just collecting dust in my wagon."

She let me take the book. I opened it to a random page and saw that it was something about magically charged gems. I closed the book and said, "Looks interesting. Thanks for this, I'll get you your book in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll be waiting," Trixie said as she moved onto folding up the stage with her magic.

Now, I just had to go and get the book from my home, which is what I went on to do. As I walked, I noticed that I was feeling pretty nice. Guess the day had gone pretty good for a friday.

In Equestria

by ARandomLonelyDude

Chapter 1: The

Chapter 2: Getting started

Chapter 3: 'Neigh'bour

Chapter 4: Treasure!

Chapter 5: The Fifth

Chapter 6: B_ok :)

Chapter 7: If it's going too good then it will go bad

Chapter 8: A Good friend

Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th

Chapter 10: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt1(rewritten)

Chapter 11: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt2(rewritten)

Chapter [this number sucks]: Blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly tears. (rewritten)

Chapter 13: Hospital :/

Chapter 14: Saturday with the besties(concerned friend and a new colleague who may not like me)

Chapter 15: Creature of the Night

Chapter 16: Mnoday

Chapter 17: Super crazy meeting

Chapter 18: "I am one with the shadows" -me after one (1) prank using shadows

Chapter 19: Not all nightmares are made equal

Chapter 20: Icecream with the girlies RUINED by terrible evil unicorn

Chapter 21: Angery >:(

Chapter 22: Little green pony (from outer space???)

Chapter 23: Concern (rewritten)

Chapter 24: Two ponies work in a library and talk sometimes

Chapter 25: Escalation and resolution

Chapter 26: Birds

Chapter 27: Magic Show