Violet Magica - The Arrow of Light

Information was plenty for Violet. Through all her past experiences she gathered every bit she needed in her head to plan out her steps accordingly.

Thus, on a certain to-be-fateful night, Violet snuck to the Daybreak residence and awaited her turn outside of Rose's window.

Though it took a few hours, Violet finally spied Kiubee trying to make his way to Rose's window. Time Lock! Time Release! Only a sad sack of red was left.

Violet appeared right next to Rose's window, and opened it from the outside with a bit of help from her magic. Inside, a timid Rose flinched in her seat as she was working on her homework.

“Wha– who are y– What are you doing here?”

Violet tossed the corpse of Kiubee aside outside of Rose's vision. “I'm sorry for scaring you like this. But I have an important message to you: if anyone comes to you and offers you a miracle, deny it with all your heart. Such a wonder does not exist.” Violet tensed up at those words.

With a dumbfounded stare, Rose managed a hesitant nod.

“That is all.” With a heavy body Violet closed the window and turned away.

For the rest of the night, Violet held a close eye on the Daybreak residence and struck down the handful of additional Kiubees that tried to reach Rose. After some time, they must have realized it was futile.

***

Despite her information however, the actual events to take place remained uncertain—to some degree. Violet assured herself that each new beginning was an opportunity for the world to throw its dice anew. But knowing the nature of the dice, Violet would prepare accordingly.

As such, she scouted the lair of another witch fairly soon after it formed. Some swift movements later she found herself at the core.

One would expect the witches to lead the attack on the sorceresses, once they are in their lair's core, warping reality around them, using their malformed bodies as weapons, orchestrating a firework of malefic magic. It would almost be a shame to deny the witches their right to live out their malice in combat... almost.

Even the description of the ensuing fight—if one could even call it that—would have taken longer than the fight itself took. With that, Violet already found herself out of the core and back in reality again, only to twist her head around to face a certain someone.

“I was wondering if I might find you here, Spirit.” Violet found herself next to the central fountain of the park in the evening, her body facing it, but her head turned sideways to look at Amber, who approached her from the side right as the barrier finished crumbling.

Amber would want to approach Violet to congratulate her on a witch well executed, a Grief Seed well earned, and maybe she could have introduced herself and gotten Violet to join up with her, yet this time she was inevitably hesitant, with a visibly tensed up body.

“I'm sorry about this, Spirit. I know you would have really liked to hunt this witch and bring it to justice. Trust me, I know that. And yet, I will have to ask you to refrain from doing exactly that until, let's say, the next month?” Violet finally turned her body around as well.

“What exactly is this you are trying to do here? Do you want to challenge me?” Amber didn't waste a second to put on her aura of confidence.

“No no, not at all. I'm just offering you... a vacation... of sorts. Here, you can even have the Grief Seed I found.” Violet tossed over the Grief Seed of the witch that had just evaporated. “I have no need for these right now. So go ahead and use this to get through the month. You could even last multiple months with that one Grief Seed I assume, as long as you don't fight any witches.”

Amber's stare fixated directly on Violet's eyes, as if to win superiority by making her blink. She also tensed up her voice and moved into a more aggressive stance. “Tell me, right now! What are you trying to pull here? Why would I sit back and stop hunting witches for a month? Because you told me to? How do I even know you aren't trying to pull my hoof here?”

Violet still had to focus herself on not backing down and struggling under pressure. No time for that. “I am... trying to make sure you don't get in my way. All I am asking for, is for you to lie low for a month and not interfere with my witch hunts. That is all.” Violet internally kicked herself for not thinking about her words for this eventual encounter more carefully.

“Interfere with you? So you are one of them after all... You feign a deal to take this city for yourself? Hoard all the future Grief Seeds? Maybe even let some familiars go to make more witches? Take your time with them so they can grow fatter? Is that what you want to accomplish here? I have seen your kind. You abuse the witches as fodder without thinking about the horrible things they are doing!”

Violet felt a burst of anger well up inside her and she tried her hardest to suppress it. “Can you listen to yourself for a second? You are a lost cause...” “I am giving you one final chance. Please, Spirit, make the right choice to let this day end happy yet.”

“I have made up my mind. I will continue hunting for witches to protect this city and the ponies in it, for I do not see that same desire in your eyes. You have the look of someone who stopped caring.”

Violet took a deep breath to bury her anger deeper. Yet her reaction remained clear. “Last time you were able to take my face with you through time, so I truly, truly hope you can take these words with you until the next time we meet: you truly are the champion of justice you wanted to be; in the flesh. However, in order to create that champion you have lost every bit of your sanity. You are a champion of justice, and nothing more. As soon as that facade crumbles, the time-bomb nested in your brain will explode and take everyone around you with you into the abyss. I cannot let that happen.” Time Lock!

Violet moved up to the now frozen Amber and leaned in on her ear. “And one last thing. I might not care about anyone else in this city right now, but there is one I care for. And even if I can't save those ponies, I will save her.” With these last words, Violet produced her gun and located Amber's Soul Gem.

Time Release! A sudden bang later, Amber's body hit the floor.

Violet didn't experience remorse or sadness. Only relief.

***

Up on the hill overlooking Kamino High, Violet took her rest. Gazing from the hill to the crowds of students leaving for their homes, Violet watched over Rose and her friends.

“At this point it has become impossible for me to not save you.” Violet whispered to herself. Something she had done multiple times now since the last time she woke up in that hospital bed. “I have given up too much and made efforts too great to fail.”

For a split-second Violet thought about going back early this time to try to recruit Amber. Within only a moment, Violet stomped the ground with her hoof. “Damn you Spirit! Why did you betray us? I will never forgive you for making the embodiment of hope stop believing in herself!”

With Rose leaving Violet's field of view, she instead turned her eyes to the sky. A blazing sun amid light flecks of clouds, separated by the ever burning blue that slowly gave in to orange.

The wind around Violet, the air in her lungs, the blood flowing through her veins, the sensation of grass straddling her, it was all genuine. “I am still here. Despite everything, I am still here... I didn't go mad like Spirit did. I still know what I must do.”

Violet dropped back and let the grass catch her. “No matter how many times it takes. Be it this time, the next time, or any other chance I get... Some day I will make it through this, together with Rose...”

Nature embraced Violet, holding her close and telling her that no matter the storm, she would find a safe haven. Telling her that no matter the hardships, everything would be alright soon. Nature was such a liar.

***

Inevitably, the bright and cheerful sky gave way to an amalgam of storms, to herald in the coming of Walpurgisnacht.

That dreaded day crept up on Violet every time she gathered the courage to try again. This was no different. Once again Violet stood gazing towards the point in the sky where Walpurgisnacht was showing itself, while ponies around her fled to safety.

“It will become reality, for sure, our future.” Violet readied herself and produced a number of various weapons she procured from a military site at the other end of Bluegrass. With enough opportunity to prepare, a strategy like this was formed.

One weapon was able to fire high velocity bullets from a high distance, another fired an explosive device at the enemy, yet another fired an insane amount of bullets per second to rain destruction on anything it pointed at. Not the most elegant weapons for a sorceress capable of magic, but it was her only real line of offense she was capable of, since her innate weakness caused her to go without any magical offense.

Walpurgisnacht just barely finished making her entrance from the skies, when Violet was already using magic-propelled jumps to fly into range.

The witch's maniacal laughter embraced Violet, who was unleashing a hail of steel and fire upon it. One weapon after another was fired at the witch's head, creating a cacophony of thundering sounds, yet the witch's cackle trumped it all.

Violet frantically scanned the tissue she was firing at in the split-second pauses between shots. Damage was nonexistent. No matter how hard she fired at the target in front of her, no matter how tough and fast the steel was crashing into it, no matter how explosive and hot the fire that engulfed it was, not a single scratch or weakness could be seen.

Violet's previously composed face burst into a visage of hot temper. She let out a defiant scream that broke her voice in pieces as she went to charge into the Walpurgisnacht's head.

As she reached the head, she pulled out her gun. Landing on her giant target—which up until this point passed its time with nothing but laughter at Violet's efforts—she fired one shot after another directly at the writhing tissue. No use.

Her screams turned into pained grunts as she stopped firing and instead used her gun as a bludgeon to smash away at the witch. “I'm not done yet.” Time Lock!

Violet's sudden burst of temper almost made her forget a powerful weapon of hers. She pulled out every single bomb she currently possessed and placed all of them as close as possible to each other on the spot she had been smashing with her gun. Time Release!

Certainly this was the grandest explosion Violet had seen with her own two eyes. Partly because she was just a few meters away from it. Getting away was not of importance anymore.

Shielding her eyes from the blast, Violet could not see the sudden incoming attack from the witch. Spears formed of pure magic were flung at Violet from thin air, hitting her directly and throwing her off-balance from her sustained flight. Unable to recover, Violet slammed into the ground below her after a fall of about thirty meters.

Obviously such an attack with such a fall would kill a pony. But Violet was far past that. She didn't even need to check herself for injuries or take a step back to defend herself from further attacks, all she cared about was her success. And so she gazed up at the spot she had placed the bombs at. No damage.

Violet hadn't even noticed she had already formed a layer of tears on her eyes as she stood up and cursed the sky.

Only a second later, another set of spears hurtled towards Violet and kicked her around like a ragdoll. As she got up to fight on, she noticed a figure in the distance. It was Rose.

“No, why have you come here...” Violet whispered to herself. She tried to jump towards her, but yet another attack knocked her away.

Over towards the center of the park, Rose stood watching the Walpurgisnacht, with Kiubee next to him. “No, this can't be, such a terrible thing...” Rose stuttered.

“And yet you have the power to stop it.” Kiubee said. “Just tell me if you want to unlock that power.”

Violet could barely notice that Kiubee was talking to Rose. “No! Don't listen to him! Rose!” Violet shouted from deep within, yet her warning could not reach Rose's ears. “Don't let it end like this again... I am so close...” Violet's words drifted off into a solemn whisper.

“I don't want to fail like this again...” Violet glanced at her Soul Gem. Darkness swirled within it. Her body was broken in many different spots. Yet she still tried to crawl towards Rose. She still yearned to make it over to her, to tell her how much she needed her to be there for her.

What followed, was the worst possible sight for Violet's eyes. The light of hope shined from within Rose and transformed her, Soul Gem in her horn.

The fight ended quickly.

***

Amid the ruins and the pools formed by rainfalls, Violet sat in a solemn pose, unwavering, staring at a spot on the ground in front of her. Her hair formed waves as the wind rushed through it. Around her, everything laid broken. In the distance, something stood like a tower of black.

“Even I wasn't quite sure, but she actually managed to defeat the witch in one single attack” Kiubee said, standing close to Violet. “Of course, such an immense outburst of energy was too much for her to handle and so she had to become a witch immediately. Well, at least we managed to collect a massive amount of energy from this.”

The tower of black was a witch. Rose's witch. More grand than anything ponies could ever build, a size on par with even the Walpurgisnacht. It wasn't hiding in a barrier anymore.

“Well, it seems like you will have to find a way to get rid of that witch over there now. I am already calling some sorceresses from the neighboring city to clean up. Hey, maybe some of those will turn as well.”

Violet remained unchanging. Her eyes had dried up, and the wind slowly let her hair fall down. It was now swinging back and forth on the side of her head. To anyone watching, she would have looked like a corpse.

“Hey, you are listening, are you?”

“This isn't my battlefield.” Violet finally opened her mouth. She slowly stood up and walked away from the witch.

“Hey, are you–” Though Kiubee's voice never changed tone, he still came across as surprised.

Yet Violet didn't answer. She kept walking through the pools of water and crossing the ruins, as every thought in her mind evaporated until only one purpose remained.

With this, her TCD spun.

***

Violet had stopped counting. Days passed, weeks passed, a month was reset and everything began anew. How many times had she tried finding a way out of this maze again? It didn't matter.

Rushing from one end of the maze to the other, Violet encountered a vast set of possibilities across many worlds. Every time something would change, something would be different, no matter how big or small, something new that hadn't happened before, an event that had never been encountered. And yet, they all ended the same.

The TCD had spun many times, enough for it to now screech when turning. It didn't matter.

She saw all the different ways her friends could turn out. Azure could be stopped from making a pact but would become heartbroken over the loss of Slate and be rendered useless. If she made a pact she could be stopped from turning, but only sometimes. Her fighting abilities were useless anyway.

Crimson would sometimes not appear at all, and when she did it was difficult to stop her from self-destructing by getting caught up in the lives of the sorceresses of Kamino, especially that of Azure. Despite her fighting capability, her inability to use powerful offensive magic also equaled an inability to be a threat to Walpurgisnacht, yet she could still provide support and drag some of it's attention away from Violet. Her best attempts usually involved her fighting Walpurgisnacht with Crimson.

Amber was a ticking time-bomb every single time. Her timer was set to go off at different times each attempt, yet whenever it did go off, the only way to stop her was to put her down. And even though she wouldn't want to admit it, Violet felt a glimpse of satisfaction each time she did.

Interestingly enough, in some rare cases, one pony or another could remember seeing Violet's face, but could not remember anything else about her. This was another oddity of her time-travel, but it was a useless one.

There were also attempts to seek help from neighboring cities, yet she found no other Sorceress she could trust, or even had the power and strength to aid her, physically, magically, or mentally. She also thought that maybe at some point a new Sorceress would show her face, one that had the perfect type of magic to beat the Walpurgisnacht with her, but Violet knew better than to hope for miracles.

Even if all her friends could help her, victory might not be within reach. All of it did not matter.

Violet shut out everything that was telling her these things, because for her there was only one truth: Rose could be saved. As long as this truth existed, she would not stop.

As long as she had hope, Rose could be saved.