Of Innocence Lost

Chapters

Chapter 1 Revised
Chapter 2 Revised
Chapter 3 Revised
Chapter 4 Revised
Chapter 5 Revised
Chapter 6
Chapter 6.5: Diamond Tiara
Chapter 7: Discovery
Chapter 8: A Talent Revealed
Revisions Underway!
Chapter 7.5

Chapter 1 Revised

Author's Note

Original chapter can be found here.

Change log:
added more depth to Dusk's betrayal and his time in the everfree. if he was so deep how was he unharmed that entire time? so i had the wild life fuck him up. that was the largest change.

then all throughout the chapter i tweaked a few things here and there to better coincide with what is overall a better plot

Chapter 1 Revised

Canterlot, 567 C.R. (Celestia’s Reign)

“Find him! Find him no matter the cost and throw him in the dungeons! Do what you have to just bring me the book!” Celestia ordered the large platoon of guards from her position on the throne. She had just received word that the forbidden book, a monstrosity of spells most foul, had been stolen from its chest by a mysterious stallion that was last seen running towards the forest below Canterlot.

“Captain! Send word to the outposts on the far end of the forest; send search parties to root him out!” The pegasus guard quickly saluted before flying off to deliver the message. “I want unicorn and earth ponies to form groups of seven and fan out though the forest leaving no stone un-turned. Pegasi battalions, you’re with me scanning the forest from above, now let’s go!” Celestia ordered.

Her guards carried out her will with precision as she made her way to the forefront of the battalion. Once her troops were ready, she took off into the night, her sister’s visage watching her from her prison on the moon.

The stallion was deep within the Everfree Forest, further than anypony had gone before. Well, anypony that had ever come back alive, that is. The suffocating darkness pressed in from all around him while Nightmare Moon’s prison cast a red glow through the tree tops, twisting his perception of what he did see into horrifying monstrosities.

He was looking for a place to hide the book amongst the trees, looking over his shoulder almost constantly. He was glad though, otherwise he might not of seen the wolf prowling not far behind him. He turned to face the wolf, his horn alight with a brilliant glow. But his thoughts were interrupted by more growls, he turned his head left, then right, before risking a glance behind himself.

He was surrounded, he counted six closing him in and who knows how many more waiting in the brush. He quickly charged his magic and blasted the wolf in front of him, reducing it to splinters. Two wolves on either side took this as an opportunity to charge towards him, successfully taking him by surprise. One bit into his right shoulder, he jerked and flailed, causing the other wolf to miss its target, getting his ear instead of his neck.

The stallion screamed in pain as his left ear was torn from his body, a strip of flesh peeling away from his face as the ear was torn away. In a desperate attempt the stallion twisted around and bit into the first wolf’s neck, causing it to release him with a pained yowl. He made to turn and flee, but found his way blocked by the wolf still in the process of pulling himself back together.

Bleeding profusely and in agonizing pain, he realized he had two options: be eaten by these wolves and never realize his dream, or risk an emergency teleport which may either kill or maim him, but has the better chance of survival.

Needless to say, his decision was already made for him. He lit up his horn in a quick flash, blinding and disorienting the wolves to buy him time. He picked a random direction, charged his horn, and vanished with a burst of energy. By the time the wolves recovered, the pony had fled. They sniffed the surrounding area but the trail was dead, their prey had gotten away. The forest reverberated with the sound of angered howls, alerting several of the pegasi guards.

The forest light up with a flash, followed by a howl of pain. He glanced over himself and to his horror, his emergency jump came with a sacrifice. His left hind leg had materialized inside a tree stump. He strained against it carefully, but it was no use, the stump and his leg had fused together permanently.

In the end it was of little matter to the stallion, as long as he hid the book and managed to retrieve it sometime in the future. He looked back at his leg; the stump was halfway between his knee and his flank. His horn lit up, a similar aura circling his leg about an inch above the stump. He took a deep breath, another, and a third, closed his eyes, and- “Damnit!” He whimpered.

He let out a breath as his magic faded, sweat drenching his brow and burning his open wound on his face. “Damnit, I have to or its all for nothing!” he said to himself, riling up his bravery. His horn glowed and the aura returned to his leg. “Come on… I can do this, I can do this!” the aura faded. “Shit!”

“Okay, Okay, I’ll distract myself.” He lit his aura around his leg once again. “What’s that over there? Where?!” He whipped his head to the opposite side as he sent the command to his magic: contract. The circle of magic restricted on itself, crushing bone and severing flesh as it contracted around his leg.

There was a ‘SNAP!’ as his leg was suddenly severed, the breath left the stallion as though he was kicked in the gut, so great was the pain. His three remaining legs shaking beneath him as he screamed silently, air not having the chance to enter his lungs.

He was about to pass out before he heaved a lungful of air and let it out in an instant, hyperventilating as the shock hit his system. “H-h-have…H-have t-to…” he muttered as his mind tried to work around the shock. He unbuckled an extra strap from his saddlebag, his magic fading in and out but managing to continue grasping it. He wrapped it around the bleeding remains of his leg and pulled it tight, forcing himself to work through the renewed agony flaring in his leg as he hastily wrapped the belt tightly.

When he finished, he allowed himself to collapse on his good side. He lay there, focusing on breathing and nothing more as he stared ahead into the forest. Then he saw it, sitting right in front of him. The exposed roots! He pulled himself up to his remaining hooves, the job still needed to be done.

He hobbled into a small circle of trees with a number of exposed roots. He shrugged off his saddlebags and spilled their contents onto the ground. His magic was sporadic as he picked up one of the books, a seemingly random book containing various theories by Starswirl the Bearded, then forced the pages to separate from the binding. He carefully set the two parts aside and moved on to the second book. This was the book he had spent the better part of four years researching its existence, and then hatching a plan to retrieve it in hopes of expanding his knowledge of forbidden magic.

He took a moment to appreciate the book, its magic granting it immortality, in a way. He gave the pages within a firm tug, meaning to swap the covers, but the pages stayed intact. He channeled hos magic over the pages and tried again, with more force. Suddenly the book was wrenched from his grap.

“KYEAAAK! Shitty dirty horse thing! You dare harm masters book?!” A high pitched voice cried out.

“I only do so to protect it!” He called out to the voice. There was a moment’s pause as the book floated a few feet into the air. The cover opened and the pages flipped past from left to right, the words and teachings now lost to all those unworthy of its greatness.

“Stupid horse! Filthy animal! You think to learn of Master’s teachings!? You shall never know them! Not you, not anything, not ever! KYAHAHA!!” The book slammed shut with an echoing boom, shaking the leaves from several surrounding trees. Deep purple magic began to swirl around it, then blasted the pieces of Starswirl’s book. The pages insert themselves into the cover and a powerful illusion transformed the book into its likeness, while the talking book illusioned itself to look like Starswirl’s book.

“You’ll be discovered with that one, and be put to death! RWAA!! Now, be gone! Hobble away and die you pathetic creature!” The book spun in place, the earth beneath it opening up into a large crater. The book lowered itself into the hollowed space, roots coming to life and twisting around the book as the dirt closed up over itself. Several trees in the area were pulled together by their roots, fusing them into a single massive tree that would withstand the sands of time.

He stood there and gaped openly, the painful throb of his leg the only measurement of time. His dream, his goals he had worked so hard for, those he had deceived all his life with the hopes of one day mastering the most powerful magic in existence, crushed. Denied by none other than the book itself as it insulted him, and he was broken.

“There he is!”

“Seize him!”

Princess Celestia heard the shouts from below and to the left of her where she saw a number of her guards descend through the tree tops. She quickly followed in their wake and alighted onto the ground as her guards surrounded the suspect with leveled spears and horns aglow.

She found him, sobbing and bleeding, a leg missing and one side of his face nearly torn off. The princess reeled back in shock. In an instant she cast a light onto the dark figure, a gasp escaping her lips as the pony was identified. “Dusk, my student, what in the wide wide world of Equestria happened to you? What would drive you to betray me?” Her head was swirling from the confusion. What would her faithful student want with, and sacrifice so much for, the very tool that turned her own sister into a monster?

“Betray you?” Dusk responded, rage rising in his voice as he fought back his despair. “Yes… Yes I did. I lied, from day one. Ever since I learned about that book, the moment I got my cutie mark, I knew it was my destiny to wield its power. I did everything I could to get to this point, and for what?! To be betrayed by the book itself!”

The princess said nothing, instead turning her gaze to the book laying not too far from them. From this distance she could feel the dark magic of the book as the grass around it withered and died. “You are a fool then, wasting your talents in such a pointless endeavor, and look where you are now, bleeding and broken. To see you as you really are, all I can think is the waste of time and effort, time and effort that would have bettered some other colt or filly as they embraced their future careers.” Celestia said, the pain and heartache she felt for this betrayal forcing her to hide behind a mask of indifference.

Duck could only laugh for a moment and he shakily stood on his remaining limbs, his vision swimming in and out of focus as the blood loss and shock was taking its toll. “You were the bigger fool, all I had to do was say a few choice words and you were like putty to be molded to my desires. You sicken me.”

“Guards,” Celestia said, “Take him into custody, he will stand trial for his crimes.”

Several guards cautiously trotted forward, raising their spears as they prepared a magic damper and restraints. Dust took this as a chance to escape for a moment longer, to show as much resistance as he could while he was able. His sudden movements frightened one of the newer recruits, causing him to lower his spear defensively.

Dusk, in his haste, stumbled on his three legs, causing him to fall to the side. A new pain suddenly pierced through him. He looked toward the left only to stare into the eyes of a young guard, whose spear he had accidentally gored himself with. His breathing became ragged and he soon succumbed to the darkness, his death quick due to being speared through the heart.

Celestia watched her pupil accidently spear himself and go limp as life left his body. She blinked back a tear as she bent forward to open a bag at her hooves. She used a stick to slide a book bound in pony hide with a five point star enclosed within a circle burned into the cover inside the bag with a visible shudder. She whispered a final farewell to her late student, and then ordered for his body to be taken to the morgue.

She teleported to the Library Archives in the castle, where she placed the book in the corner on a pedestal, then summoned a number of bars to keep anypony from approaching it. As an added measure, she cast a vast multitude of detection and anti-magic spells around the cage to prevent any tampering and for her to be notified of any tampering should it occur.

Canterlot, 989 C.R.

The princess watched as the small purple filly bounced around with glee. This was the first time she was allowed access to the archives. The small bundle of boundless energy raced from shelf to shelf as she tried to take in every detail as fast as she could.

She looked at the immaculate windows, the detailed carvings on the bookshelves, and the various odds and ends placed on the display tables. She looked at the various tools used by ponies long forgotten and saw how they lived their lives based on the tools they left behind.

She eventually managed to get back into the less used area of the archives. The layers of dust on the floor were broken by her hooves and marked her progress to a section near the far wall. She stopped her examination of the shelves as something caught her eye. She turned to see a set of bars, behind which stood a pedestal. Too short to see the top, she grabbed a large number of random books and built a small staircase up to the bars.

She nodded as she looked over her hoofwork and made the assent. At the top, she reared up and braced her hooves on the two bars framing her head as she gazed upon a book, and not just any book. This book was special in a way she couldn’t fathom.

“Mysterious, isn’t it?” The filly yelped in terror and was sent tumbling to the floor in an avalanche of books. She poked her little head out of the top of the pile and gazed up at the sound of soft laughter. “Oh Twilight, my faithful student, you never cease to amaze me.”

Twilight blushed in embarrassment as she pulled herself from the pile. “I’m sorry Princess. I was just looking at that book. What’s so special about it?”

“That is a very dangerous book, Twilight.” The princess answered with a suppressed sigh. “I keep it here away from the prying eyes of ponies and protected by spells, for their own safety and the safety of others around them.”

“How do you know it’s dangerous? Did you read it? If it's dangerous did you try to destroy it?” asked Twilight, ever the innocent student.

“No, no. I never opened the cover. But someone I loved long ago did, and it changed them for the worse, and drove another to madness. The book is able to resist all forms of destruction, which forced me to lock it up here.” Princess Celestia let the silence wash over them.

Twilight no doubt had more questions. Questions she was too young to hear the answers to. Fortunately, Celestia knew how to distract Twilight and steer her away effectively. “You know, I heard the kitchen’s just got a fresh shipment of a new type of ice cream and they need a little pony taste test it.” Twilight’s eyes widened and seemed to light up. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find such a filly willing to eat some ice cream, would you?”

“Oh! Oh! Me!” Twilight bounced up and down in excitement. “I want to test it!”

“Oh? And why is that?” Celestia asked with a smirk as she started making her way back to the entrance.

Twilight stopped bouncing and frowned in thought for a moment before resuming her display of joy. “Because you’re the best teacher in the world and because I will write a full report on everything about the ice cream!”

An unbidden memory flashed through her mind. The memory was of the tragic end of her last personal student, and how it had all be nothing but lies. She pushed the thought away with a forced laugh, no, Twilight is different, one deserving of my teachings and respect. “That’s not what I was hoping to hear my dear Twilight, but I suppose it will do.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” Twilight chanted as she bounced out of the main gate to the archives.

Ponyville, Books and Branches Library, 02 T.S.R. (Two Sisters’ Reign)

“Special delivery!” An excited voice called though the door. Spike ran to the entrance, tripped, and slammed into the door before he managed to open it. He was greeted with a pair of golden eyes, sliding slightly off center as he looked at the Mail Mare.

“Morning, Ditzy, what have you got for us?” Spike greeted.

“A box!” Ditzy replied enthusiastically with a wide grin as Spike continued to look at her.

“Okay, where is it?” Spike asked after a moment of awkward silence. Ditzy frowned and looked lost and perturbed for a moment.

“Where is what?” She asked in confusion.

“The box.” Spike replied calmly. This was not the first incident.

“The box?” She asked.

“Yes Ditzy, the box you were supposed to deliver, where is it?” Spike asked with a sigh.

“Oh!” Her eyes lit up. “That box, I remember now!” Another pause in the conversation washed over them.

“It’s at the main office because it’s too big for you to carry, isn’t it?” Spike guessed.

“What’s too big to carry?” Spike shook his head.

“Nothing Ditzy.” He said. “Thank you, here’s a muffin for you today.” Spike grabbed one off the nearby table that didn’t have a bite out of it and gave it to the Mail Mare. She visibly brightened and gave him a tight hug of thanks before flying off to the next stop in her route. Shaking his head, Spike turned back inside the library where he saw Twilight descending the stairs with a yawn.

“Who was that Spike?” She asked hazily.

“The Mail Mare. We got a big box at the office that I need to go pick up. You want me to put it on the table when I get back?”

“No, I’m not going to look at it right away. Put it somewhere so I can get to it later. It’s just a bunch of replacement books I ordered for the damaged ones. We seem to have a lot of damaged books now that I think about it.” Twilight trailed off in thought, seeming to stare at the opposite wall.

“Well if you would stop throwing them all over the floor for me to pick up they wouldn’t get damaged.” Spike muttered.

“What was that?” Twilight asked as she came back to reality.

“Oh, umm…” Spike's eyes shifted nervously a moment, “I asked if I could just put the box in the basement, you know, until you need it?” Spike relaxed at the cleverness of the cover-up, until he saw Twilight’s bewildered expression. “Twilight? You okay?”

Twilight looked at him like he was insane. “We haven’t cleaned the basement since that time I tried to figure out Pinkie…”

It was Spike’s turn to look bewildered, “Are you serious? That was over a year and a half ago! What kept us from it?”

“I- well, I think I just kept getting side tracked and it slipped my mind.” Twilight admitted after a brief moment of denial.

“Want to help me clean it?”

“No.” Spike laughed at the mixed expression of anger and confusion on Twilight’s face. “I’m just messing around Twi, of course I will. But you go first; I’m not too enthusiastic about the mess.” Spike walked to the back edge of the main room of the library and stopped before one of the book shelves. He bent down and grasped metal ring that sat even with the floor boards. With a grunt Spike pulled open a trapdoor, revealing a set of stairs descending into the darkness.

“Spike go run to the post office, I want assess the damage before we get too excited.” Twilight said as she gathered a number of candles and cleaning materials and made her way downstairs.

“Sure Twi, I’ll be back before you know, so don’t have too much fun without me.” He said as he departed. Twilight’s excited giggles prevented his playful jab from reaching her ears.

Twilight heard the door slam shut as she made her descent into the basement, a lit candle her only source of light. Once she made it to the landing a few feet down, she beheld the wonders of the mistreated basement. To put more accurately, the intricate designs of the many, many cobwebs now hanging from the ceiling. Twilight lit up her horn and cast a detecting spell for any insects or rodents, mainly spiders, bats, and snakes. She visibly shivered at the thought. To her immense relief there were none and the webs were merely the remains of a long dead infestation.

Twilight stared at the work before her, she was only expecting several layers of dust at most! Where did all the spiders come from in the first place, where did they go?! Are they in the attic? Under her bed? Twilight began to panic at the implications an infestation of this magnitude would cause. Thoughts of structural integrity and life insurance flashing through her mind before she shook her head, knocking the thoughts away.

“No, Twilight, I’m not having a mental breakdown over a few spider webs. Granted, few being enough to hide most of the ceiling and walls but that’s Future Twilight’s problem!” She raised her head in determination, she was going to clean up this mess if it took her the rest of the day!

She set the cleaning materials against the wall and armed herself. She used the wooden handle of a broom to twist around the more concentrated clumps of web, turning it into something that looked like inedible cotton candy. Once that was done, she set about dusting the walls and ceiling. Halfway along the second wall Twilight felt a breeze caress her mane.

She looked closely at the wall where she felt the breeze and tapped, and tapped it. the section of the wall suddenly fell to the floor, eliciting a small ‘eep!’ of surprise from Twilgiht. In its place was a dense tangle of roots, looking closer she saw they were wrapped around something. Curiosity getting the best of her, she used her magic to push the roots aside, allowing her to remove what appeared to be a book.

She turned it over and was barely able to read the mostly eroded cover, “Starswirl the Bearded, the History of Magic.” She read aloud. She jumped again at the sound of the library door being slammed once again. She was about to investigate when Spike poked his head through the trap door.

“I’m back! Where do you want them?” he asked as he admired her handy work. "Nice job with the cleaning, if I’m not careful I might be out of a job,” He chuckled.

“I doubt I’m as good as my Number One Assistant.” She giggled. “Just put them over there in the corner for now, I need to see if I already have a copy of this book I found.”

“I thought you cleaned up all the books down here last time.” Spike said as he looked around once more, placing the large box near the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh, this was in a tangle of roots that got exposed when a part of the wall fell apart. I’m going to have to talk with Big Mac and see if he can fix it and check for any infestations.” She shuddered again, “Anyway, start cleaning that wall and work around. I’ll be back in a sec.” She said as she headed up to the main library.

Twilight walked to the bookshelf dedicated to history and magic related history. After a quick search she found an exact, newer version of the book she found. She was about to head back downstairs when she heard a knock on the door. Upon answering it she was met by Rarity.

“Twilight, there you are. I was wondering if you could help Sweetie Belle with something?” She asked.

“Sure, I’d be glad to help. What does she need?” Twilight asked, slightly curious about why Rarity was acting so cautious.

“Well, you see Twilight, she and her friends need to write a history paper for school, and they need a book to research from.” Twilight nodded in understanding. To let those three possess a book at the same time meant either permanent damage or the absolute destruction of her beloved research material.

“So I was wondering,” Rarity continued, “If you by chance had a history book that you no longer needed that they could use without fear of it being damaged too much?” Twilight was just about to say that she didn’t have any when she remembered what she found a few moments ago that was still grasped in her magic.

“Actually, I found this one in my basement this morning and I have a perfectly good copy already, so she and her friends can have this one indefinitely.” Twilight smiled as Rarity beamed at her.

“Oh thank you, Twilight, you are such a great friend. We should attend a spa date soon, how about next Thursday? My treat of course.” Rarity said as she took the book in her own magic and placed it in her saddle bag.

Twilight mentally shuffled around her schedule and made room for the afternoon spa date. “Sure, it’s not a problem. I’ll see you there!”

“Ta ta, darling!” Rarity called in a sing-song voice as she cantered away from the library. Twilight closed the door behind her and went back to cleaning her disheveled basement.

Rarity was halfway to her boutique when she heard the telltale signs of the crusaders, namely Scootaloo’s buzzing wings as she pulled her friends in a wagon. With a glance at the clock tower, she confirmed that the morning class had, indeed, been let out for the day.

The buzzing grew louder as they approached at high speed before stopping in front of Rarity in a cloud of dust. “Girls! Do watch what you are doing! You almost got me dirty!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, “Yeah yeah, whatever.”

“Did you get us a book to use?” asked Sweetie Belle from her spot in the wagon.

“As a matter of fact I did,” Rarity levitated the book out of her bag and into the wagon. “Twilight said that you three can keep this one because she has a second copy. Be sure to thank her if you see her.”

“We will, thank you, sis!” Sweetie Belle called as Scootaloo revved her wings and took off down the street.

Not long after that, the Crusaders made their way to their club house with their new book in tow. Eager to get started on their report and see if they can get a cutie mark related to history, they opened the cover to the first page. They looked on in confusion as the front page seemed to swim before their eyes, a slight whisper and malicious laugh on the wind. The fillies blinked and shook their heads. Their eyes must have been playing tricks on them, the title was written clear as day.

“What’s a Ne-Neck... ah can't even say that word.” Applebloom said as she failed to read the strange text.

“I don’t know. I’m not the dictionary here. Sweetie Belle, you got any ideas?” Scootaloo asked.

“No, and the term dictionary is offensive, I prefer the term encyclopedia,” Sweetie said with a giggle, “But it says it’s called the Necronomicon, and it sounds like a lot more fun than some boring old history book. Let’s see what it says!” And together they turned to the next page.

Chapter 2 Revised

The Crusaders looked at the pages in confusion. The very words seemed to swim before their eyes and not a word could be read. They flipped through several pages to the center of the book and encountered the same situation; even what was obviously a drawing of a complicated spell was lost to them.

“The hay is this supposed to be?” Scootaloo asked in bewilderment.

“Ah don’t know. Sweetie, flip back to the beginning and see if there’s a guide er somethen.” Applebloom suggested.

“Okay.” Sweetie said as she flipped to the first page with the books title. “Let’s see…” She scanned the words towards the bottom of the page and read the fine print out loud for her friends to hear, “‘Contained within this tome-’”

“What tomb? I didn’t see any zombie ponies.” Scootaloo interrupted as she looked around skeptically.

“Not that type of tomb, you dodo! It’s talking about this book.” Sweetie explained impatiently.

“Why would ya store a dead pony in a book?” Applebloom asked, her head beginning to spin at the thought of a dead pony hidden among the pages.

Sweetie Belle face-hooved hard enough to leave a small bruise. “There is no dead pony!” Her outburst silenced her friends, allowing her to clear her throat and continue, “‘Contained within this book is a complete… a complete…’” Sweetie stumbled upon a word she didn’t know, but got the context of it. “Basically it’s a list of spells from really easy to like the princess’s level.”

“Wow…” Applebloom and Scootaloo awed.

“So why can’t we read it?” Asked Scootaloo.

“Well, it says something about a spell that makes it so it can only be read by ponies it thinks are worthy, and even then it keeps the stronger ones ‘locked away’ until the one that is worthy is strong enough for it. The author of this really thought of everything.”

“That’s lame. You should be able to just skip to the good stuff.” Scootaloo pouted.

“Well, are ya worthy er whatever?” Applebloom asked Sweetie Belle.

“I don’t know, hold on…” Sweetie Belle began flipping through the book a page at a time, looking intently for anything she could read. Soon enough she gasped in delight at a page she was able to read. “I found something!” She called to her friends in glee.

“Well go on, what’s it say?” Applebloom encouraged.

“Okay, let’s see… It says ‘The following section details the use and knowledge to those who are worthy, Alteration Magic. These spells manipulate the physical world and its natural properties. Spells included in this section are of a defensive type with several utility spells such as Water Breathing, Telekinesis, and Paralysis.’” Sweetie finished reading in awe. Not only did the magic of the book find her worthy, but she was going to finally learn to use her magic!

“That sounds amazing!”

“Totally awesome! What’s the first trick?”

“Trick?!” Sweetie gasped in false shock as she smiled at her friends and did her best impersonation of Twilight, “Magic is no trick! It is a scientific study!” The three burst into great guffaws of laughter. Once Sweetie was able to breathe properly again, she picked up the book once more. “Let’s see… It looks like I can only read the first spell, by the description it’s something like a unicorn lighting up their horn. Give me a second.”

Sweetie Belle looked over the mechanics of the spell a few more times, making sure she had memorized every detail of the spell. She set the book off to the side and took a wide stance with her eyes squeezed shut tightly and furrowed her brow in concentration. After a few seconds of nothing happening she grunted as she redoubled her efforts. She was rewarded with a spark popping off the tip of her horn before she collapsed in exhaustion.

“I can’t do it!” Sweetie cried out in despair. “I thought that because the book let me read it, I could do it!”

“Hmm…” Applebloom rubbed her chin with a hoof in thought. “Maybe ya’ll tried too hard?” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo gave her a confused look. “Okay ah don’t know much about magic, but ah got to thinken about the time ah helped Big Mac plow the north field. At first ah couldn’t do it and ah thought it was be’cause ah wasn’t strong enough. No matter how hard ah pulled, the plow didn’t budge. But then Big Mac said it was the way ya pulled, not how hard ya pulled. He showed me how and when ah tried, the plow moved like it was nothen!”

“So, you think it might be something to do with how I’m casting it?” Sweetie asked.

“Well it was just a thought.”

“Thanks, Applebloom. I’m going to ask Rarity about it tonight.”

After another long day of crusading, the sun was setting over the trees in the forest to the west as Luna’s moon was beginning to peek over the distant mountains in the east, signaling the end of the day’s crusading. After saying their farewells and breaking off in the direction of each of their homes, Sweetie opened the door to her sister’s house and workplace.

“Rarity, I’m back.” She called as she closed the door and cleaned her hooves on the mat.

“Oh good evening Sweetie, you’re just in time for dinner. Come in and set the table will you?” Rarity asked as she poked her head in from the kitchen.

Sweetie trotted happily into the kitchen. Time spent with Rarity was something she always looked forward to, and after the Sisterhood Social, the times together became something special. In no time at all she set the table while her sister procured a pair of bowls. By the smell, they were having vegetable stew. Not the most luxurious meal, but Sweetie loved it.

Rarity carried the bowls over to the table in the grip of her magic and set them down on the plates to catch any spill should one of them eat unladylike. Sweetie watched with anticipation as Rarity eyed her work at setting the table and noticed one of her eyes twitch. She had knowingly set the spoons on the wrong side of the plate. Seeing her sister’s inner turmoil with her OCD was always a treat.

“Good job…” Rarity’s eye twitched again. “Setting the table Sweetie…”

“Thank you sis! I memorized it exactly the way you wanted it!”

“Eh hehe… Let’s dig in shall we?” As Sweetie lifted her bowl to her muzzle and began to sloppily slurp down the mixture, Rarity quickly moved the spoons to their proper places. As a side thought she placed an extra mound of napkins in front of Sweetie in an effort to contain the inevitable mess.

“How did the paper go?” Rarity asked as she sipped the soup off the spoon daintily.

Sweetie set the bowl down, “Not very good-” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Rarity pressed.

Sweetie never wanted to tell her sister or Twilight that she was given a spell book of advanced magic by mistake. She thought that they would take it away from her. So thinking quickly, she thought up a clever lie. “Well, the cover was pretty beat up, but the pages were even worse. The ink was all smudged and made the pages stick together, so we decided to just go crusading.” Sweetie smiled inwardly, the best part about a clever lie was the amount of truth actually told.

“Hm, well I’m sorry about that, I’ll have to stop by Twilight’s and get you girls a different one. So how was crusading?” Rarity asked in an effort to keep talking about her sister.

“No such luck. Oh but I did try some magic!” Sweetie said excitedly.

“Oh, wonderful! How did you do?” Rarity asked, excitement creeping into her voice as well. A unicorn’s first spell was akin to speaking for the first time. It’s such a proud experience.

“Well, I tried to light up my horn, but I just got a spark. Applebloom thought it might be that I’m trying too hard and there is some technique to casting a spell.” Rarity pondered for a moment before clearing the table with a bit of magic and focusing her attention on her sister.

“Okay Sweetie, try this.” Rarity moved into the main room of the boutique with her sister in tow and sat on her haunches, Sweetie did the same across from her. “Close your eyes and relax. Visualize yourself in the middle of a field on a beautiful day. See the clouds in the sky, floating in the vast expanse of crystal clear blue. See the grass, so much grass, see all the blades as they reach to the sky and feel it growing beneath your hooves. Feel the wind over your coat and in your mane, watch as the wind bends the blades of grass in a gentle sway. Now add some flowers to the field. It doesn’t matter what kind. Smell the fragrance of the flowers wafting on the wind and completely relax. Now, visualize yourself performing the spell in the field. Feel the magic seem to come from the ground, through your hooves, up your legs, and into your back. From there, guide it forward to your horn. Take all the time you need. Now, move it from your horn and into the spell. The spell knows what to do, just let it take its shape.”

Finished with explaining her technique, the fashionista watched in excitement as her sister was about to perform her first spell, a simple light spell by the look of it. Sweetie Belle’s horn began to glow a soft white, the same color as her coat. The glow began to condense at the end of her horn into a small pale ball. It slowly grew as Sweetie carefully fed it more magic. It stopped growing when it was the size of a ball slightly smaller than a baseball.

Realizing that was the limit of the spell, Rarity said softly, “Okay, Sweetie, now… release the hold.”

Sweetie took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes as she cut off the flow of magic. She watched in glee and fascination as the ball of light slowly floated toward the ceiling, where it remained suspended and cast a soft glow over the room.

“Oh my goodness, Sweetie Belle!” Rarity swept her sister up in a big hug and they danced around in a circle. “Congratulations with your first spell! Mom and dad are going to be so happy!” She squealed.

“Thanks sis! But, do I have to do all that every time I cast a spell? It seems a little excessive.”

“Oh no, of course not! Magic is hard at first and you need the right mindset. But once you start casting spells regularly, it’s like wiggling your nose.” Rarity wiggled her nose at her for emphasis, gaining a laugh at the silly face. They were interrupted when the magical light orb slowly dropped to the floor with a small sizzle as the magic dispersed. Once it hit the floor it disappeared with a small ‘pop!’

“Although, now that I think about it, a unicorn usually just lights up their horn,” Rarity lit up her own horn like a light, “I haven’t heard about that type of light spell though. Where did you learn it? From one of Twilight’s books?”

“Umm, no. I think I just messed up the spell.” Sweetie said as she looked around embarrassed.

“Oh there’s no shame in that. Who knows, it just might have something to do with your special talent!” Rarity encouraged. Sweetie Belle visibly brightened at that prospect. “Now, you’ve had a very eventful day and I think it’s time for you to go to bed.”

“Okay…” Sweetie said with false sadness as she turned and headed upstairs. Inside she was full of energy and excitement; she had cast her first spell! The book she got was the real deal, and she was determined to learn all she could from its mysterious pages.

Rarity watched her sister half walk, half skip up the stairs to her bedroom. She turned back toward the kitchen with a smile and set about putting the rest of the soup in sealed containers and placed them in the fridge for leftover night.

A few minutes later, she was finished with cleaning the dishes, and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. When she reached the top she heard excited giggling from her sister’s room. Getting a closer look, she saw the soft light of an orb similar to the one before radiating out from under the door. Rarity smiled to herself and let her sister have her fun as she turned in for the night.

Sweetie wanted to see just how far she could push her new ability, so she began casting orb after orb with reckless abandon. Soon, just as her sister said, her casting speed was increasing greatly. Now she was able to cast up a second orb before the first one fizzled away. Soon her entire room was light up with about a dozen orbs of light.

“Wonder if I can make it even brighter?” She said to herself. She took a moment to rest, beginning to feel magical fatigue for the first time in her life. Eventually the last orb fizzled away like the others, casting her room in darkness.

Sweetie readied herself and stood on her bed, her eyes closed in concentration as she focused on the feeling of magic within her. This time, instead of putting a portion of her magic into the spell, she overpowered it, pouring in as much energy as she could.

Her eyes opened in panic, she could feel it, the spell was going to fail and blast the energy out into the room, causing some damage and possibly even hurting herself. Just as she braced for the backlash, she felt something touch her forehead at the base of her horn.

Her eyes widened, she understood what was happening and how to channel the extra power into a spell grid designed for the extra amount. She abandoned the original grid for the stronger one, the magic becoming more stable as it was handled properly. Once she finished feeding it through the grid, she released it.

The result was magnificent, the orb of magic was huge, almost as big as her! The orb shot up to the ceiling and pressed against it, like it was trying to get higher but the ceiling didn’t budge. Instead it rained down rays of light comparable to the sun itself.

Sweetie stared up at it in awe, the bright light not affecting her. She studied the spell matrix weaved into the orb, captivated by its beauty. She was suddenly overcome with fatigue, her eyes drooping as she let out a yawn. She mustered the last of her energy and snuggled under the covers, the light of her spell unhindered her sleep as she slipped into the realm of dreams.

A shadow crept out from under her bed. It rose into a standing position at the bedside, forming a short, lanky figure. It raised its appendage and made a ‘snap!’ The orb of light dissipated, casting the room in darkness once again.

The shadow’s form solidified in the darkness, revealing a green imp. It chuckled quietly to itself as it observed the sleeping unicorn. It reached out and placed a hand at the base of her horn, and reached into her pools of magic.

There he saw, this unicorn was indeed different than others of its kind. The magic was still pure, untainted by the forms of magic incompatible with the spell book. The imp thought to itself, perhaps this one may indeed carry on the old master’s legacy and not fall victim to madness like so many others. Great things could be accomplished, both evil and benign, but great none the less.

A soft laugh echoed through the room as the imp dissolved back into the darkness and faded away. A moment later the door opened, Rarity stuck her head into the room to tell Sweetie to go to sleep. She paused, Sweetie was sleeping. Rarity shrugged and closed the door, then headed back to her own room for the night.

Canterlot Archives, 02 TSR, same time

Princess Luna, overseer of the night, was once more surrounded by many mounds of books in the back section of the archives. Tonight, she was researching the tax system, something that was implemented a few decades after her banishment, and was now something she wished was written in a way she understood.

She had spent the last few hours reading a single book, ‘Taxes for Dummies,’ and was still unable to wrap her head around the system. ‘everypony pays a bit of tax for everything they buy, the store pays tax on top of the tax of their items, then when a pony gets paid there are taxes removed, and at the end of the year if you haven’t paid enough taxes you pay even more taxes! This is ludicris!’

She looked up as her candle suddenly flickered. Glancing around quickly, she saw nothing that would create the small breeze to flicker the flame. Rolling her eyes at her foolishness, she went back to reading.

“Making any sense of the tax codes?” Luna shrieked loud enough to shake the dust from the ceiling as she half jumped, half flew backwards into a book shelf, knocking all the books to the floor and burying herself in the process.

“TIA!!!” Luna yelled in rage as she stood quickly, throwing books helter skelter across the library. “What hast we told thee about thy shenanigans?!”

“Lulu, you’re slipping up again.” Celestia said calmly as she watched her sister with great amusement.

Luna huffed in aggravation before she said in a calmer tone, “Sister, what have I told you about your pranks?”

“Pranks? Me, the princess of the land, bringer of the sun each and every day? Are you suggesting I commit such acts against my dear beloved sister? For shame, Lulu.” Celestia feigned innocence and posed dramatically against the bookshelves.

“Oh stop it, Tia!” Luna burst into a fit of giggles at her sister’s antics. “Just be ready for when I enact my revenge.” Luna looked around at the books that were strewn everywhere, “But I think we should probably clean these up first.”

With that, the sisters set about cleaning up the books, which took almost no time at all with the help of their magic. Luna decided to search the other rows for any stray books when she set her eyes upon something that made her blood run ice-cold. “Tia!” She called to her sister. “I’m all for light hearted pranks, but this is low, even for you!” Luna let the fear and betrayal she felt enter her voice.

“Lulu? What’s…” Celestia trailed off as she saw her sister staring with pure hatred at a pedestal behind a cage. “Oh…”

“‘Oh!’ Is that all thou canst sayeth?! ‘OH!’??” Luna turned on her sister, the hurt clearly expressed on her pained face as her speech slipped into Royal Canterlot again.

“No, Lulu, this is not a prank.” She explained, “The book was stolen from its chest over four hundred years ago by my last personal student. I don’t know what he intended to do with the book, but we managed to surround him in the Everfree Forest. We found him, maimed and barely alive, the book not far from him. He tried to evade my guards but accidentally fell sideways, impaling himself on the spear of a young recruit. Anyway, I made haste back to the castle and placed the book here and surrounded it with a great many spells to keep it safe from our ponies.”

Luna looked deep into her sister’s eyes and detected nothing but the truth. “Did thou open the cover?”

“N-no, of course not. I feared it would consume me as it did you all those years ago.”

Luna shook her head sadly, “Tia, it takes more than just looking at the pages for that to happen. But if what thou-you, has said is true, then I fear for the safety of all our ponies.”

“Lulu, I don’t understand.”

“Tia, you know the book is indestructible, right?” Celestia nodded, “Then why are the pages in that book worn and yellowed with age while the binding is coming undone?”

Celestia rushed past her sister to get a good look at the book, and true to her word, the pages were a sickly yellow and seemed to sag as the binding was letting go of its hold to the cover. “You don’t think…” She trailed off.

“Sister, did your student have time to make an impressive duplicate?” Luna asked quickly.

“… I don’t know.” Celestia replied in shock.

“Release the seals.”

“W-What??”

“Sister, release the seals. We need to verify if this book is a fake. If it is indeed a fake then the most dangerous book ever written has been in pony hooves for over four hundred years. I don’t want to think about it, but it is possible that an underground militia has been forged from the book’s powers.” Silence fell over the two as they imagined the worst possible scenarios involving the book. “Open it!” Luna said urgently.

Celestia focused on her magic, her horn glowing like the sun for a moment before an audible ‘click!’ echoed through the archives. The barriers fell and the bars themselves slid down into the floor. Luna summoned a ruler into the air in front of her and cautiously used it to open the cover of the book. Not knowing what to expect, they closed their eyes and braced themselves for a blast of black magic.

After a minute of that not happening, they opened their eyes and beheld the pages of a dusty old book, the ink was faded terribly which rendered it illegible. They released the breath they were holding in a relieved sigh before quickly sucking it back in with panic.

“Tia! We have to warn-” Celestia covered Luna’s muzzle with a hoof, silencing her.

“No! We can’t let everypony know about this! It will start widespread panic throughout Equestria and beyond!” Celestia explained in a hushed whisper.

“Then what do you propose we do?” Luna asked, mimicking her sister’s hushed tone.

“We will do nothing that will raise any suspicion. I will continue on with my duties as princess of the land while you study as you have been, except I want you to look into any and all cults that have existed in the past thousand years. Find the locations of their hideouts, ritual places, meet ups, everything. Report to me your findings and dispatch several of your guard to look for evidence of the book. Questions?”

Luna shook her head, “No sister, but we wish to begin immediately.”

Chapter 3 Revised

Sweetie Belle awoke to a sharp pain in her side. She stifled a groan and rolled away from the nuisance, but to no avail. Just as she felt herself drift off into a blissful sleep the sharp pain returned, followed by a demanding voice.

“Sweetie Belle, wake up! You are going to be late for school!” Suddenly images of school, her teacher, and her classmates flashed through her head, forcing her groggy mind into some state of consciousness. Rarity noticed her slowly coming to and promptly opened the curtains, allowing the bright early morning rays of sunlight to burn themselves into Sweetie’s retinas. She cried out in pain and in her flailing managed to tumble off the edge of her bed with a dull thud.

“Ow! Why did you do that, Rarity!?” demanded the now wide awake Sweetie Belle as she rubbed her temples. The sudden amount of bright light made her head pound in ways previously unknown.

“Well, to wake you up, of course.” Rarity saw her sister was in more pain than should have been brought on by a bright light. “Sweetie, Are you okay?”

“I don’t know, but it’s like those migraines you keep telling me about. If this is a migraine then I have no idea how to say how sorry I am to have caused you to suffer like this…” She trailed off as she buried her head in her sheets in a vain effort to ward off the pain.

“Well in that case, come down stairs. I have a remedy for such things. One cannot imagine living with you and not having an antidote.” Sweetie shot her a glare before wincing in pain. “Oh come now, you know I didn’t mean it like that. Besides, I saw you practicing your spell last night and this is just probably from using too much magic before you got used to it. Now hurry up so we can get you to school.”

Rarity left Sweetie Belle on the floor moaning in pain as the sunlight beamed in unabated. After a few more seconds of the relentless onslaught, she decided to head downstairs, more to get out of the path of the abusive light than to prepare for school. With a grunt of pain, she was stumbling through the hall like a drunken pony.

After managing to walk a small distance using the wall for support she came across her greatest obstacle of the day: a flight of stairs. She warily approached and looked down them, intimidated. She paused and the gears in her head sputtered to life as she thought about her situation as best as she could. The best scenario was obviously that she would walk down them just fine. But given the fact she could hardly stand, let alone walk, she was most likely to fall forward onto her face and tumble down like a slinky.

In a moment of brilliance, she came up with another idea. She turned around with her back towards the stairs and lay down on her belly. Using her fore hooves, she pushed herself backwards down the stairs. If her head didn’t feel like it was about to explode she would have giggled at the strange sensation of the steps slowly moving up her body. In no time at all, she reached the bottom and decided to lay there for a moment and catch her breath, regardless if gravity did all the work.

Rarity trotted over from the kitchen and saw her sister sprawled out on the floor. With a dramatic gasp, Rarity hoisted her sister into the air and carried her into the kitchen and set her down at the table. “Well it seems you stressed your magic more than I thought. It’s going to need more than a simple aspirin to get rid of that.”

Rarity began to dig around in her cupboards while Sweetie laid her head on the table and pressed her hooves into her temples. A second later, Rarity placed a pill and a small glass with a brown liquid in front of her. Looking around she noticed Rarity with a similar glass of brown liquid.

“What’s this…?” She asked painfully.

“It’s medicine dearie, but it tastes absolutely awful until you get used to it. So simply swallow the pill and the medicine in one gulp and get it over with.” Rarity lifted her own glass and downed the liquid in an instant. After she swallowed she gasped and shook her head fiercely before looking at Sweetie with a smile.

Sweetie was never one to doubt her sister, and seeing her drink hers, she felt confident the drink wasn’t as bad as Rarity made it out to be. She placed the pill in her mouth and in a swift motion as she saw her sister carry out; she splashed the entire glass into her mouth.

“Sweetie you need to swallow it quickly!” Rarity told her in a rush.

Sweetie Belle was about to question why when she felt it; a burning sensation that felt like a small sunburn. She quickly gulped it down, the burning sensation intensified into a massive inferno as it trailed down into her stomach and burned like the heart of Celestia’s sun.

She gasped a deep breath in an effort to cool the sensitive flesh of her mouth and throat. Unfortunately this caused the pain to instantly double, sending her into a coughing fit. Suddenly she felt the sour taste of a lime being shoved into her mouth, she slowly chewed up the lime, the juices cooling her throat as they trailed down to her stomach. The juices instantly negated the effects of the raging inferno, turning it into a warm glow that spread throughout her body and dulled her migraine to nothing but a memory.

She turned to her sister who had a huge grin on her face, and seemed to be swimming in and out of focus. “Wow sis, what the hay was that stuff?”

“Do you feel better now?” Rarity asked, ignoring the question.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good. That was some potion.” Sweetie said as she cuddled against her chair, curling into a comfortable ball.

“Well… It wasn’t a potion.” Sweetie raised a confused eyebrow as she sat up. “So… How did you like your first taste of whiskey?”

“I- w-wha… Huh?!” Sweetie Belle stuttered in bewilderment.

“Whiskey is best known for alleviating migraines caused by over use of magic, and to help restore your magical reserves. So why I had you drink a glass just now was not only to help you through your pain and get some magic back, but it’s also a tradition in the family. When I cast my first spell, mom and dad gave me a shot of whiskey in almost the same way. When I became of age I got into the habit of starting my days with a shot. Sewing all those dresses and designs does put me under a lot of strain. But you know what they say, ‘A shot a day keeps the migraine away!’” She said as she finished butting the bottle in the cupboard.

Rarity then returned to the table and placed a plate of the most foul things in existence in front of her. Sweetie would rather risk being burned alive by all the whiskey in Equestria than suffer through what was on that plate. Almost immediately, she pushed the offending monstrosity away from her before she was chided by Rarity. “Sweetie Belle! You will eat your beans or so help me!”

“But why do I have to? I hate them!”

“They are full of protein and will quickly restore your energy! I will not have a drunk for a sister so you had better learn to like beans! Besides, you want to show off your new spell to your friends today right?” Sweetie nodded. “Then eat your beans and you won’t embarrass yourself in front of your entire class.” Sweetie seemed to have a steeled resolve and refused to give in. Rarity quickly changed tactics, “I would hate to see what Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would say if they found out that you can’t do magic without completely exhausting yourself.”

Without another word Sweetie Belle devoured the plate of beans, barely taking the time to chew before swallowing. She was wrong about beans being the worst thing in Equestria. The two bullies at school took that title with pride. She was willing to put her distaste for beans aside if it meant rubbing their faces in the dirt, figuratively of course. She downed the beans’ aftertaste with a tall glass of water. With her mind cured and the warm fire still burning comfortably in her belly she headed outside to face the new day.

The new day quickly turned out to be just an ordinary day exactly like all the other days. Sweetie Belle had arrived to class not a minute too soon to the snickers and taunts of her bitter rivals. She was planning on only showing her friends her feat of magic in the privacy of their club house, but a better situation presented itself. The weather team was covering Ponyville with dark rain clouds for the scheduled downpour this afternoon and the darkness would be perfect for showing off her new spell.

The school bell eventually rang, signaling the beginning of recess. Sweetie followed her friends outside, where she was confronted by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon before she could show her magic.

“Oh look, it’s the Blank Flank Club.” Diamond Tiara said snottily.

“Oh, can we be members too?” asked Silver Spoon sarcastically. “Oh wait, that’s right, we have a special talent.” The bullies laughed at Sweetie Belle and her friends’ blank flanked-ness.

The fire within Sweetie Belle rose slightly, weather it was the whiskey or pride in her magic, she didn’t know. Putting up with these two on a daily basis was becoming tiresome, and today she was going to put an end to their abuse.

“Wow really?!” She said in mock excitement. “I wish I was able to wear a tiara imbedded with diamonds all the time! It must be really hard to sleep with it digging into your head though. Oh, no it wouldn’t, you would need something in there in the first place to feel uncomfortable.”

The entire class around Sweetie Belle had their mouths hanging open and eyes wide in shock. Nopony has ever said anything like that to Diamond Tiara before. Silver Spoon was about to retaliate but Sweetie beat her to the punch.

“And you,” She rounded on her, “you must feel so special to have been spoon fed your entire life. Now that I think of it, I’ve never seen you eat anything. Your special talent must be to run home to daddy and have him feed you like a newborn foal, which is fitting because you will never amount to anything other than daddy’s little snot.”

“W-who do you think you are to speak to us like this?!” Demanded an irate Diamond Tiara.

“Obviously somepony with far greater raw talent than either of you,” Sweetie stated coolly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Talent? You can’t even do magic, and don’t get me started on the Pegasus that can’t fly or the inbred redneck!” Diamond Tiara responded angrily.

Sweetie smirked. This was exactly the response she wanted to hear. She focused her magic into the stronger grid matrix she discovered last night, the result was a large bright ball of condensed magic the size of a filly forming at the tip of her horn. Sweetie smile, all that practice the night before really paid off, she hardly felt the strain against her magic! With a flick of her mind she released the spell.

The orb shot up to hover just below the cloud layer, then seemed to explode. The light that began to shine down was as harsh and bright in intensity as the sun itself, blinding all those unfortunate to have been watching it with the exception of Sweetie Belle as it lit up the playground brighter than a midsummer day.

Cheerilee was at her desk when the entire classroom seemed to light up brightly. She quickly ran to the window to see what the cause was, where she saw the students in the playground looking in awe at and cheering Sweetie Belle for the feat of magic. At that moment she couldn't have been more proud of her student as she returned to her paperwork with a smile.

With a winning grin, Sweetie faced her foes still rubbing the blinding light from their eyes. “And that’s without even a cutie mark.” She said smugly as she turned toward the playground.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were still in a rage at Sweetie’s words and blamed her for trying to blind them with some light spell. Needless to say, they both ran crying to Miss Cheerilee and filled her in on what Sweetie said to them, being careful to sound like they were innocent victims in the affair.

Outside, the class was in awe at both the way she took care of the bullies and the display of magic. None were more enthusiastic than her closest friends as the orb fizzled away after expending all of its energy.

“Wow sweetie that was amazing!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Yea! Was ah right with my guess that ya was tryen too hard?”

“Yep! I asked my sister and she taught me how to focus it really easily!” She was about to delve into more details on how she was able to focus her magic when a strict voice called across the playground.

“Sweetie Belle, get in here now!” Sweetie flinched at the tone of Miss Cheerilee’s voice, but turned around and headed into the school house with dignity.

Inside she saw Miss Cheerilee standing in front of her desk with the two bullies sitting on the floor in front of her. When Sweetie Belle entered the room their heads turned to her. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had smug looks of satisfaction that they got her in trouble, while Cheerilee wore a frown of disappointment.

“Sit down.” She motioned toward the spot to the right of Diamond Tiara. Sweetie Belle let a small smile form on her lips, she knew what was coming and was more than ready as she sat within Diamond Tiara’s personal bubble.

“Get away from me you blan-”

“Quiet!” Miss Cheerilee said with firm authority, shutting up Diamond Tiara in an instant. She then focused her attention on Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie, these two told me that you said Diamond Tiara was basically brainless and that Silver Spoon is spoon fed like a foal by her father and that both had no real talent. Is this true?”

Sweetie heaved an exaggerated sigh and looked Miss Cheerilee right in the eyes. “Yes Miss Cheerilee, it’s true.” Miss Cheerilee was about to demand her to apologize, but Sweetie wasn’t done talking. “Diamond Tiara is brainless and Silver Spoon is spoon fed like a foal by her father, and both of them have no real talent.” She shook her head sadly.

Had Cheerilee been less experienced with teaching, she would have burst out into fits of laughter. She had seen the way they bullied the others, but her funding for the school as well as her livelihood was under the hooves of both of their parents, and any action taken against their fillies would have dire consequences.

But as luck would have it, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon became outraged at the insult and leapt at Sweetie with the intent to do physical harm, one of them landed a solid blow to one of Sweetie’s eyes before Miss Cheerilee was able to restrain them both.

Sweetie panicked, she’s never been in a fight before. She tried to remember what Scootaloo told her about hoof to hoof combat but drew a blank. Instead she laid there and simply did her best to cover her face as Diamond Tiara wailed on her relentlessly. Her eye was sore and her nose flared with pain as it too took a blow. Luckily her arms took the brunt of the damage, only a few blows landed against her upper chest.

“Stop this at once!” When her words failed to dissuade their efforts to beat up Sweetie Belle she resorted to grabbing them by their ears and simply throwing them out the front door to the school house. “Go home, now! I don’t want to see you back here. You are suspended for the next three weeks and tell your parents to expect a very harsh letter from me tonight!” Her announcement was punctuated by slamming the door hard enough to crack the window.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon picked themselves up from the dirt and blew a raspberry at the school house, then turned around and walked away with their noses in the air as all the children in the playground watched on in shock.

Sweetie Belle was still in front of Miss Cheerilee’s desk nursing her shiny black eye, blood flowed freely down onto her chest, not sporting a few bruises. She expected them to yell at her and get detention, not beat on her like this. She sniffed as another tear rolled down her cheek, she hated violence. Sure she would rough house with her friends, but they never hurt each other. She sniffed again as she heard the door to the classroom open up and Miss Cheerilee walked in with a somber expression on her face.

“I am so sorry I wasn’t able to stop them. Do you think you’re going to be okay?” She asked softly as she knelt down in front of Sweetie belle, who only nodded with another sniff. “Let’s get you cleaned up then I’ll take you home. Are you staying with your parents or your sister right now?”

“Rar-,” she sniffed, “Rarity.”

“Okay, come on.” Cheerilee led Sweetie into the faculty room and grabbed a first aid kit from the shelf. Nothing was said as she held a rag to Sweetie’s nose, using another to clean off the blood staining her coat.

“There, that should do for now. I’ll walk you home.” And together they slowly made their way out of the school house. As they passed the playground Miss Cheerilee noticed the attention of her students. She used her body to block Sweetie from their preying eyes as she announced, “I’m letting class out for the rest of the day. You can stay and play or head home if you want.” She noticed Scootaloo and Applebloom running towards her and cut them off before they could say anything. “You two can come, she needs her friends and family right now, I will explain everything at Rarity’s.”

The walk her sister’s was thankfully uneventful, save for the prying eyes of her friends. She buried her face into Miss Cheerilee’s coat the entire distance to her sister’s boutique, luckily her nose had slowed its bleeding and didn’t get any on Cheerilee. They stopped in front of the door and knocked firmly.

“It’s open~!” Rarity sang from inside. Without further delay Miss Cheerilee opened the door and led them inside to see Rarity comparing various colors before a half dressed mannequin. Once she picked a satisfactory color she draped the fabric over the dress in progress and turned to face her guests.

“Oh my goodness, Sweetie Belle what happened?!” She exclaimed as she took in the sight of her sister’s condition. She quickly ran to the kitchen and emerged a second later with an ice pack in tow. Sweetie took it and whimpered a ‘thanks’ before heading up to her room, her friends giving their support as they helped her along.

“Cheerilee, I demand to know who is responsible so I can do very unladylike things to them and their family.” Cheerilee was more than a little frightened at the inferno of rage in Rarity’s eyes as she glared at her with murderous intent.

“Rarity, why don’t we go into the kitchen and talk over some tea before we do anything rash.” Cheerilee suggested as calmly as she could.

“I do believe rash actions have already taken place.” Rarity responded coldly, but reluctantly led the way into the kitchen. It was there that Cheerilee confided in her friend about the events that transpired and her predicament with Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s parents as well as her inability to act openly against them in fear of losing her livelihood.

“Well that is something not to be taken lightly.” Rarity commented as she finished her third cup of tea. “When I visit Twilight today about getting another history book I’ll have her see if she can do anything about it. I think if she convinces the Princess to take over the funding for the school you should be in the clear.”

“Thank you, and that reminds me, Sweetie doesn’t have to turn in the history report if she doesn’t feel up to it. After what happened today I think she would want a break.” Cheerilee said as she sipped at her tea.

“I’ll let her know, but I think in the end she will want to do it because she will be working on it with her friends.” Cheerilee nodded at Rarity’s understanding.

Upstairs Applebloom and Scootaloo were doing their best to comfort their friend. “You should have said something! I would have rushed in there and beat them both up good for what they did!” Scootaloo than began delving into details of a largely epic battle with the fate of Equestria somehow in the balance.

“Uh, Scootaloo, ah think yer over do’en it a bit. Ah really don’t think princess Celestia’s life will be in yer hooves are you rescue her from Discord. Besides, ah think we should let Miss Cheerilee handle this. Ah don’t wanna get in trouble fer fighten. Mah sis would have mah hide,” Applebloom said with a shudder, and then she turned to Sweetie, “What do ya think?”

Sweetie nodded toward Applebloom, a wad of cloth jutting out her nose. “I don’t want to see anyone else get hurt…”

“Well, alright then, but this is seriously twenty percent uncooler.” Scootaloo said sadly.

“That’s not a word.” Applebloom stated, earning a glare from Scootaloo. “So what should we do today?”

“I don’t know, I don’t feel like going out for a while…” Sweetie said as she shifted the ice pack over her swollen eye. By the way it looked, it would be swollen shut for the next few days.

“I know!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she jumped to her hooves. “How about I go to the club house and get some things so we can plan our next adventures to get our cutie marks!” Her idea was seconded by a nod from Sweetie Belle and a cheer from Applebloom.

Without delay Scootaloo ran from the boutique. On her way to the club house she took a slight detour to the school house to pick up her scooter and wagon. With a burst of speed provided by her wings, she was able to arrive at the club house in record time, or ‘in ten seconds flat’ she would later tell her friends.

She ran into the club house and rushed around, collecting an assortment of crayons and a stack of paper. She was about to make her way back to her friends when something caught her eye. She gave another scan of the club house and spotted it, the mysterious book from which Sweetie Belle learned her first spell. Without a second thought she loaded the book and the gathered materials into her wagon and sped back towards the boutique as the first drops of rain began to fall.

Chapter 4 Revised

The rain fell slowly at first, drop by drop. Soon enough individual droplets of water merged into a torrential downpour. Water ran off the thatched roofs of every building in Ponyville like a cascading waterfall. The residents of the town had quickly taken refuge, those still out in the rain became instantly soaked, and hurried along their path towards shelter. One of these unlucky individuals was a small pegasus filly blazing through quickly forming puddles of both mud and water on her trusty scooter.

Scootaloo was quickly approaching the boutique currently providing shelter to her friends, seeing the quickly closing distance she put on a burst of speed. Had she kept going slightly slower she would have noticed the rather deep mud hole in the center of the road. Because of her carelessness and urgency to get someplace dry, she ran right into the center of the mud. The mud was like a living trap as it grabbed and pulled at the wheels of the scooter, causing it to lose balance and throw Scootaloo into the sticky puddle, the red wagon not far behind.

Scootaloo warily picked herself up and cast her eyes about to survey the damage. Her scooter was sticking up out of the mud at an odd angle while the wagon had completely flipped over, dumping the contents into the mud. With a sigh she set about removing the scooter and wagon from the mud and set them up on a relativity firm part of the road. With the wagon set upright and reconnected to the scooter she returned to the mud puddle and attempted to gather the spilled contents.

The crayons were beginning to melt and mix with the mud. The stack of paper she brought had not only been strewn about, but the water had turned every sheet into a sloppy paste. Not wanting to leave a mess for somepony to blame on her, even if it was her fault, she gathered up the destroyed materials and loaded them back into the wagon. After a bit of searching she found Sweetie’s spell book and tossed it into the wagon with the rest of the destroyed items. With a heavy heart Scootaloo continued on her way to the Boutique.

After a five minute walk of shame that seemed to last several eternities she finally stumbled onto the welcome mat before the door of the boutique. With a final sigh she opened the door and let herself inside.

“I’m back, everypony.” She called as she made her way to the center of the front room.

“Oh good, for a moment I thought you-” Rarity cut herself off with a piercing scream and lost consciousness shortly afterward. She had heard Scootaloo announce her return and left the kitchen to greet her, as is proper of a lady. However, once she witnessed the thick trail of mud leading from her beautiful, custom designed door, across her immaculate, sparkly floor that had been polished to a mirror-like shine to a Scootaloo covered in thick globs of mud, her brain was unable to handle the trauma and had shut down.

“Rarity, are you alright? I heard you scream.” Cheerilee said as she left the kitchen to investigate the disturbance. Her eyes quickly settled upon her friend, sprawled out on the floor and a single hoof twitching.

“I-is she alright?” Scootaloo asked fearfully as Cheerilee checked on Rarity.

“She’s fine, just fainted is all, for real this time.” She said with a small chuckle. “I wonder what…oh.” Cheerilee regarded Scootaloo’s mess and put two and two together. “You should probably clean yourself and this room before Rarity wakes up. She’s upset enough as it is and I don’t think you want to see her truly furious.”

Scootaloo hung her head and made for the nearest bathroom, tracking mud the entire way. Cheerilee hoisted Rarity over her back and went to a side room that housed a large red velvet sofa and laid Rarity upon it, propping her head on a pillow.

Scootaloo was able to shower the mud off her coat and out of her mane with relative ease. After toweling herself dry in an effort to not destroy the bathroom as well, she cleaned up what mess she tracked into the bathroom and slowly made her way to the main room. The further she cleaned the thicker the mud became as she closed in on the front door.

“Maybe I should get Applebloom to help me,” she said to herself, “no, I don’t want to force my mistake onto them.” She heaved another sigh and continued to wipe away the mud with a few rags.

After twenty minutes of hard labor she turned to examine the nearly spotless room. The wagon had been an issue, so instead of cleaning it and her scooter she simply set them outside for the rain to clean. Her ears perked at the sudden sound of an angry voice coming from the adjacent room.

“No Cheerilee! I need to see the damage to my immaculate house!” Rarity cried out as she kicked the door open with enough force to scare Scootaloo half to death. “You! What have you… done?” She trailed off as she looked about the room and noticed the much less muddy floor. “Oh, you cleaned. Well I guess I don’t get to stay mad at you as long as I was hoping… wait. What’s that pile of muddy rags in the bucket?” she motioned toward Scootaloo’s cleaning bucket by the front door.

“Oh, those are the rags I used to clean up my mess.” Scootaloo proclaimed proudly, pleased of her job well done.

“And where, exactly, did you get them?” Rarity asked slowly as she carefully approached the bucket.

Scootaloo’s good feelings were quickly being replaced with doubt and anxiety, “Umm, the bathroom?”

Rarity picked up a single rag in her magic and glared at it for a moment. She let it drop back into the bucket and continued boring into the wall with a glare that would give Fluttershy’s stare a run for its bits.

“You mean to tell me, that you used my highest quality SILK hoof towels to clean up MUD?” Rarity said as calmly as she could, a few words screamed out in rage, but calm none the less.

“Umm, yes?” Scootaloo risked in response. She watched as Rarity began to shudder violently, fear gripping Scootaloo’s heart. Then just as suddenly as it started, the shuddering stopped. Rarity heaved a huge sigh and spun around with a pleasant smile.

“Well, in that case I should get these cleaned, hm?” Rarity said cheerfully with a small twitch in her eye. She levitated the bucket of once pristine hoof towels behind her and went straight toward the laundry room. She closed the door softly behind her.

“What was that?” Scootaloo asked Cheerilee. Before she got a response a blood curdling battle cry rocked the foundation of the boutique.

“Scootaloo, I think it’s best if you go upstairs with your friends. Don’t worry about me, I know how to handle Rarity.” Cheerilee said softly. Scootaloo watched as she calmly walked to the door Rarity went through and closed it softly behind her. A second later another feral battle cry shook the building, this one from Cheerilee.

Not wanting to test the Fates, Scootaloo quickly dashed outside and retrieved the spell book from the wagon. The rain had done a fine job removing the mud from the book as well as the wagon and scooter. She wiped her hooves off as she stepped back inside. She didn’t dare dirty Rarity’s floor again, especially after she had spent so much time cleaning it.

She hastily made her way across the front room toward the staircase, the spell book held firmly in her teeth. She was certain that the book, after being doused in rain and dumped in mud, would be completely useless. She didn’t want to tell Sweetie that she had inadvertently destroyed something that made her so happy, but keeping it a secret would only make it worse. If somepony accidently destroyed her scooter she would be mad for sure, but she would be even madder so if they lied to her about it.

At the top of the stairs she took a left and followed the sound of giggling to Sweetie’s room. She nudged the door open and quietly stepped inside.

“So then what happened?” Sweetie Belle asked Applebloom with a giggle.

“She was really mad, ah aint never seen Miss Cheerilee so angry. After she threw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to the dirt, she-”

“She banished them from school! It was so great!” Scootaloo interrupted, announcing her presence to her friends.

“They weren’t banished! They were suspended!” Applebloom said hotly.

“Which basically means they were banished.” Scootaloo concluded. Applebloom huffed in annoyance.

“Anyway, what kept ya? Sweetie thinks you tracked in mud and used the fancy rags to clean it.” Scootaloo was shocked at the accuracy of the statement. She could only stand there slack jawed staring at Applebloom.

Sweetie burst into a fit of giggles, obviously feeling better, “I only know because I did the same thing last week, she went into the basement and yelled for hours.” The girls shared another laugh.

“Oh yea, did you get the stuff?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo once they all calmed down.

“Well, sort of,” She said rubbing the back of her head with a fore hoof, “I crashed in a mud puddle and ruined everything.” She reached behind her and pulled out Sweetie’s spell book. “I’m sorry, I thought you might want to look at it some more so I brought it. I didn’t think it would rain that hard, I’m sorry.” She set it on the bed next to Sweetie.

Her eyes were beginning to tear up, this book has caused her some pain, but more importantly, it taught her the first spell she could ever cast. She opened the surprisingly dry cover, expecting the pages within to be stuck together and the ink running all over. What happened instead was that she was greeted with crisp, clean, dry pages in the same condition as the day before. It looked like the book was nowhere near a rain storm, let alone a puddle of mud.

She glanced at Scootaloo, “You sure you dropped this in mud?” She presented the crisp pages to Scootaloo, her jaw falling open with an audible pop. Sweetie enjoyed another laugh at Scootaloo before turning the book back towards her. She flipped through to a random page then gasped in excitement.

“What is it Sweetie?” Applebloom asked.

“The book, It’s letting me learn another spell!” she frantically flipped through the book, seemingly marking random pages. “No, not one, two!” she squee’d in excitement.

“Awesome!” Scootaloo said, shaking herself out of her stupor. “Are they even cooler that the ball of light?”

“I’d say, listen! ‘Alteration Spell: Oakhide. Increases the caster’s natural resistance to all physical damage by forty percent.’ And this one,” she flipped several pages to another part she marked, “it’s another type of magic. ‘Conjuration. The spells listed in this section allows the caster to raise the dead, summon multi-dimensional creatures from the Void, summon weapons of pure energy, and trap souls of thy enemies in gems to draw power from.’”

Scootaloo and Applebloom shared a glance. “Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, “don’t those spells seem kind of…”

“Evil?” Applebloom finished.

“Well, the raising the dead and the weapons part does sound bad, but I am curious about the summoning though.” She glanced at the page as she read something to herself. “Actually, the summoning is the only one it’s letting me read. It says ‘Summon Imp Guide: Imp will protect the caster as well as provide additional guidance on the path of the Necromancer.’ Huh.”

“Sweetie, I really don’t think we should summon monsters, they could be dangerous. Not that I’m scared or anything.”

“For once I agree with Scootaloo.” Applebloom said, “ah really don’t think summoning things from inter-di-what’s-its is a good idea.”

“Alright fine, I won’t summon any inter-dimensional beings.” At least not now, but I really want to see what they are. Sweetie thought before continuing, “Can I try the Oakhide spell?”

“That one sounds fine to me.” Scootaloo said.

“Okay, Scoot, since the spell says it reduced damage, can you punch me on my hoof? Not too hard though.”

“What, now?” she asked.

“Please, I want to do a before and after thing to see if it works.” Sweetie Belle begged as she held out a hoof and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Well, if you want me too…” Scootaloo smacked the extended hoof with a moderate amount of force, causing her to recoil with a small whimper. “Sorry, did I get you too hard?”

Sweetie shook her head, “No, I’m alright. Let me cast the spell really quick.” She looked over the details of the spell one last time before she closed her eyes. Once again she imagined herself out in the middle of a beautiful field. In a matter of moments she felt the magic’s energy course though her body, from there she focused it into her horn and molded it into the spell matrix. Her horn flashed brilliantly, the light seeming to completely engulf her body before being absorbed into her hide.

“Ok, let’s try that.” Sweetie said, holding her hoof out to Scootaloo once more. “Try and hit it as hard as you did last time.” Once more Scootaloo smacked her hoof, this time barely earning a reaction. “Neat! I barely felt that!”

“No way, that’s totally awesome!” Scootaloo exclaimed, overflowing with excitement. Without thinking she reared back and punched Sweetie Belle on the shoulder as hard as she could and knocked her to the ground. “Oh no!” She began to panic, thinking she seriously injured her friend. “Are you okay? Please be okay!”

Sweetie moaned as she got back on her hooves, seemingly no worse for wear. “Okay, that one I felt. It was about as hard as you hit my hoof before the spell actually.” Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief.

“Huh. Ya think ah should buck ya?” Applebloom suggested. Sweetie’s eyes widened in horror, she had seen firsthoof just how hard that filly could buck.

“Um, let’s not and say we did, agreed?” Sweetie pleaded.

“Okay, ah was jus messen anyway.” Applebloom replied with a giggle.

Sweetie sighed in relief, “It’s getting late, if I got permission from Rarity, do you think you guys will be able to sleep over?” she asked as she let the spell fade.

“Not to mention it’s still raining pretty bad, I don’t think we have a choice but to stay over.” Scootaloo observed.

“Ahm sure Applejack will be alright with it, she knows whenever ahm not at the farm ahm with you gals.”

“Okay, I’ll head down and ask her. Hopefully she’s calmed down a bit.”

Sweetie Belle trotted out of her room and into the hall, where she struggled to navigate with her one good eye. She made her way to the stairs and did not hesitate to walk down them as she did that morning. At the main floor she followed the sounds of a pair of ponies talking and giggling. She followed the sound into the washroom in the basement, where she found Rarity and Cheerilee reminiscing about school days of long past.

“Oh, remember that goofy tie Big Mac wore to prom?” Rarity giggled at the memory, the blush on her face a clear indication of a few too many drinks, if the empty wine bottle between the two mares was any indication. “He looked absolutely ridiculous!” Sweetie paused at the door, listening in.

“I know!” Cheerilee agreed, also having downed several glasses herself. “He was so skinny and lanky back then. If ponies knew he would eventually grow into his frame, he no doubt would have been one of the more popular students.”

Rarity let out a small sigh, “I don’t know. I might have asked him out if he wore a decent tie, but back in those days I was foolishly waiting for my prince charming. Uhg, if I only knew about his attitude before the Gala I might have actually had a good time there.”

“I’m not sure about your prince, but I do know a secret about Big Mac…” Cheerilee trailed off, earning the immediate curiosity of Rarity.

“Oh this has to be good, is it about his doll collection? Is he really a colt-cuddler like the rumors say?” Rarity asked, leaning forward in earnest.

“No, nothing like that.” Cheerilee waved a hoof dismissively, “and he is straight. Do you remember when Sweetie and her friends drugged Mac and I with a love poison?” Sweetie folded her ears bac in embarrassment.

“How could I forget? You two were simply ridiculous with your silly pet names and constantly reminding everypony that you two were special some-ponies.”

“Yes, well, after the incident I was walking back to town with Big Mac. At first he was apologizing for Applebloom’s antics. Eventually he somehow got the idea that not wanting to be my special some-pony would hurt my feelings. That’s when he told me about his blossoming relationship with the mail mare.”

“Really? Mac and Derpy? I never would have guessed.” Rarity said in complete shock. “Oh, how did they meet, I simply must know!”

“Actually she prefers the name Ditzy. Apparently Big Mac is usually out in the fields as the sun rises, right around when Ditzy is making her morning rounds. Anyway, one morning he heard one of his trees crying. When he went to look he found her up there just wallowing in misery. He asked her what was wrong but she just flew off in a hurry.

“A few days later she came back and apologized for running off on him like that. Apparently a few years ago she grabbed Dinky and left her husband in the middle of the night and came to Ponyville. Mac said she did it for Dinky, her husband’s a CEO of some company and he started drinking when the business started taking a turn for the worst. But after she got pregnant began to drink more and more, and was turning more violent each night.

“One day he went as far as to beat her so bad she was hospitalized for a few days, the result of the abuse is her miss-aligned eyes. Her friend, Carrot Top, got wind of what happened and convinced her to come to Ponyville. Now, after five years, her ex-husband found out where she was living and began harassing her to go back to him, practically begging and sending expensive gifts.

“When she refused he turned violent and threatened to beat her and Dinky for abandoning him, even going as far as to get the courts to give him custody of Dinky. He’s got money so that can’t be too far from the truth. She confided all of this in Big Mac as a way to vent her frustrations and anger. Since then he made his presence known to her ex-husband and scared him pretty good, hasn’t harassed her since. As for why he was doing nothing for Hearts and Hooves day, Ditzy had a full schedule with the influx in mail, so they were planning a picnic later in the week.”

Rarity was silent for a few moments as she processed all the information. At the same time, Sweetie was mulling over what she heard on the other side of the door. She had no idea that Dinky had such a hard time. She was about two years younger than Sweetie, but she was considering inviting her into the Crusaders, not only to help find her a cutie mark, but to be there for her as friends in case things went bad again.

“I… I never knew Derp- I mean, Ditzy had it so rough. It’s a real eye opener.” Rarity remarked sadly, no longer tipsy due to the sobering story.

“It is. You wouldn’t think it, but there are a lot of ponies in situations like that all over.”

Sensing a break in the conversation, Sweetie opened the door and greeted them with a beaming smile in an effort to appear as though she wasn’t standing outside listening for the last five minutes. It was super effective.

“Hey Rarity, I was wondering if Scootaloo and Applebloom could stay over tonight because of the storm?” she asked.

“Oh of course it’s fine Sweetie. Just make sure Scootaloo is properly cleaned of mud before hoof, okay?” Rarity cringed at the thought of having her sheets and blankets coated in mud.

Sweetie rolled her eyes, “She was clean when she came up to my room a bit ago.” She turned to head back upstairs, “Thanks Rarity, we’ll see you in the morning!” she called out as the door shut behind her.

Once back in her room she found Scootaloo and Applebloom setting up the board game Monopoly. As usual Scootaloo had chosen the scooter and Applebloom was arguing that it was her turn with the scooter.

“Yer always the scooter, ah think ah should have it as my piece every now an then!”

“I’m always the scooter because I have a scooter, and it’s my lucky piece.”

“It’s alright Applebloom, at least you’re not always the thimble or the iron.” Sweetie jumped in, startling the two out of their heated argument.

“Yea, but still. A wheel barrel? Seriously?” Sweetie and Scootaloo laughed at their friend’s distaste in her usual game piece.

They quickly set up the game and passed out the play bits. As they played into the late hours of the night, the book with the mysterious ability to escape all damage seemed to watch Sweetie from afar, as though deep in thought.

Chapter 5 Revised

The next morning brought with it the fresh smells of spring; the rain that lasted all through the night worked its magic in rejuvenating the land. The earth was able to soak up most of the water, leaving a moist residue across the ground. The various dips and holes in the roads of Ponyville made themselves known as they held puddles of water. One particularly large puddle showed evidence of a wheeled device losing control and tragically crashing.

A small purple filly unicorn sporting a blond mane and tail examined the odd puddle, confounded as to what could have caused such a disturbance. She was soon caught up in indecision as to what she should do next, either attempt to fix the mud so it dries properly or act like the filly she was and leap into the mud.

She finally came to a conclusion: water was fun, mud was water and dirt, ergo mud was fun. She bent down into a pouncing position but before she could commence the fun times her mother called out to her.

“Muffin! I’m done with this section, let’s get going!” Ditzy called to her daughter.

“Okay!” Dinky called back as she scampered over to walk with her mother, the mud puddle now forgotten. Today was Saturday, a day enjoyed by both mother and daughter as the one day a week Ditzy was able to spend the most time with Dinky as she brought her along on her routes.

Because they spent the time casually walking and chatting from house to house instead of flying like she did every weekday, the mail took much longer to deliver. However, Saturday was notorious for being a slow day for mail anyway and she simply took the opportunity to spend more time with her beloved daughter.

Unknown to either, they were gaining the attention of a single filly looking out the window of the boutique they had just passed. Sweetie was awoken earlier than she wanted, the sun glaring through the open curtains of her window. She had gotten up to close them with the intention of returning to sleep immediately after. Once she got to the window she stopped and looked out at the pair of blond haired ponies.

Her mind slowly woke up as the story she heard last night between Cheerilee and her big sister slowly played through her mind. …he found her up there just wallowing in misery … she grabbed Dinky and left her husband in the middle of the night … did it for Dinky … a heavy drinker … violent … she was hospitalized … threatened to beat her and Dinky …

She shook her head as she came to a decision: she will befriend Dinky and offer her any support she or her mother needs, regardless if Scootaloo and Applebloom didn’t want to. She was sure that if she shared the details about Dinky they would join her in her cause, but stuff like that was not meant to be shared openly.

She closed the curtains and returned to her bed. Too awake to return to sleep, she began drawing up plans on how she should approach Dinky later in the day, and the possibility of practicing her summoning spell.

Two and a half hours later, the sun was well over the horizon and called for the attention of Scootaloo and Applebloom. As one they began to murmur and yawn, rubbing the sleep from their eyes as they began to fully awaken.

“Wow Sweetie, yer up already?” Applebloom asked, noticing her friend on the other side of the large bed with a notebook open in front of her. “What’cha doen?”

“Oh, well, you know the mail mare’s daughter?” Sweetie Belle said as she closed the notebook, sliding it under her pillow for later.

“Um, Dinky?”

“Yeah,” Sweetie nodded, “I think she should join our group for crusading. If not, I was thinking we could be friends anyway.”

“Uh-uh, no way to both.” Scootaloo disagreed almost immediately, much to the shock of her friends. “She’s like, a little kid. It would be totally uncool.”

“Uncool how?” Applebloom asked skeptically.

“Like, you know the awesome crusading we do?” her friends nodded, “she’s too young to handle that kind of stuff. Plus, we would have to redo every crusade we’ve been on to help her find her cutie mark. And as for just hanging out, she will probably just want to play with dolls or something. That makes her uncool.”

Sweetie was miffed that her friend would say something so cruel, she was about to retaliate when he remembered that Scootaloo didn’t know about certain details and decided to let it drop for the better.

“Well ah think outright refusen like that is plain rude, Scoots.” Applebloom said, “But, then again, ah don’t really have time to be playen with dolls an stuff all the time. Sweetie, ah’ll be friends with her too, but to an extent. Does she even have any friends right now?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Sweetie, “the only time I see her is when she’s going to afternoon class, and usually she’s always with Ditzy.”

“Well if you want to hang out with a little kid, that’s fine with me. I was actually planning on working on a few tricks to show to Rainbow Dash today anyway, so I’ll see you later.” Scootaloo said, departing the bedroom and leaving her mess behind. Sweetie sighed and with Applebloom’s help they made quick work of the clean up as they heard Scootaloo reving her wings in the distance.

“Ahm sorry Sweetie, but ah got ta help Applejack out in the south field this morning. Ah would like ta help ya but ya know…” Applebloom trailed off.

“Oh it’s fine, I’m sure if I just spoke to her she might want to play or something.” Sweetie said reassuringly.

With a final farewell Applebloom left for the farm while Sweetie went to check in with Rarity. She opened the door to Rarity’s bedroom and found the bed already made, so she headed downstairs. In the main room of the boutique, she once more heard muffled voices. She followed the sound to the basement once again, this time to find Rarity and Cheerilee complaining.

“Cheerilee, remind me to never drink that much ever again. Passing out in one’s own basement like a drunk is very unbecoming of a lady, not to mention this hangover…” Rarity said.

“Oohh… I hear that. I’m just glad it’s a weekend. Trying to teach a bunch of screaming kids with a hangover is pure hell.” Cheerilee agreed.

Sweetie pushed the door open and let herself in, “We’re not that bad, are we Miss Cheerilee?” she asked innocently.

“Heard that did you?” she chuckled, “Well, it’s not every day, but there are times when your classmates drive me up a wall. Don’t tell anypony I said that, the last thing I need is more irate parents breathing down my neck about their innocent foals.” She sighed. “Speaking of, I need to deal with Filthy and Scrooge on Monday.”

“Like I said last night, come with me to Twilight’s this afternoon when I get another book for Sweetie.” Rarity said.

“I think I’ll do just that. Oh, and Sweetie, if you don’t feel up to it you don’t have to submit your report right away if you need the extra time.”

“Thanks Miss Cheerilee, but I should be able to get it done working with the crusaders.” She turned to Rarity, “Sis? Can I go out and play? I want to go to the park for a bit.”

“You sure you’re up for it?” Rarity asked, checking on Sweetie’s black and blue eye. The swelling had gone down a lot from the night before, but it still looked painful.

“Yeah, I should be alright. I can always come home if it gets bad though.”

Rarity sighed in defeat, she wanted to protect her sister but she couldn’t keep her locked up in the house either. “Well, okay then. But if you see those dreadful ponies I don’t want you to say or do anything, and if they keep giving you trouble come and find me or Twilight and we will get them straightened out.”

“Okay, I will, bye Rarity! Bye Miss Cheerilee!” Sweetie called as she headed back upstairs to her room. She went to her closet and grabbed her saddlebags, then turned to her bed. She reached under the pillow and grabbed her notebook. After securing it in her bag she felt a light chill, almost like a touch. She turned and looked back into her room, the book was there, under her bed. She smiled as she grabbed it and slipped it into her bags as well. She then went downstairs and made her way outside into the sunshine.

She quickly trotted to the Ponyville Post Office, Ditzy should be just about finished with her routes for the day and hoped to catch her. As she made it to the office she glanced inside through the window, the lights were off and not a soul was to be found. Thinking she was just a might bit early, she settled on simply waiting for them to show up.

Half an hour later there was still no sign of them. With a sigh of defeat Sweetie picked herself up and headed a few blocks away to the park. She walked to the far side on the boarder of White Tail Woods. She glanced around nervously to make sure she wouldn’t be spotted.

“Okay, Let’s see what this spell does.” She muttered to herself. She set her bags down and opened one of the flaps. Inside she saw the apparently battered cover of her spell book. She opened the book to one of the marked pages and looked it over.

The page detailed the complex matrix of a summon spell for the Imp Guide. She memorized it as best she could and squeezed her eyes shut before she began to channel the magic into the spell matrix.

Her horn was covered in a black and blue aura as streams of energy flew up from a magic circle at her hooves. The streams met directly over her head and formed a large black orb. After about a minute of channeling magic, the orb collapsed into itself with a flash of light.

“AAAKKAAAGGRRRUUACK!!” Sweetie almost jumped out of her hide at the sudden sound. It was high in pitch yet very throaty at the same time.

She quickly spun to her left where she saw the strangest sight she had ever laid eyes upon, and she had witnessed Discord first hoof. Upon taking in the appearance of the creature she summoned, she instantly began to regret doing so. It was a small, bipedal thing with long arms that touched the ground when it slouched. The legs of the creature were rather short in proportion to the body and ended in three clawed toes. At the end of the arms were four clawed fingers, and on top of the shoulders sat a head that was far too small. Its beady eyes cast about in a flurry, taking in its surroundings quickly. On either side of its head was a pair of very large, fin-like ears.

The imp spun and faced Sweetie Belle, “OOOHHHHH!!!! The fucking tiny horsy GAH!! About fucking time!” Sweetie couldn’t tell if it was screaming at her or if it was just the voice of the creature. Either way, it was definitely not from Equestria, as nopony spoke such foul language.

“U-umm… my name is Sweetie Belle…” She started, perhaps speaking with it will calm it down.

“NEAHAHA!! Horse thing has stupid name!! OORRAACCK!!” the imp cried out in laughter and another odd screech. It paused for a moment as it seemed to consider her. “Yes… You are the one I was watching.”

“So, your name is Aznip? And when were you watching me? I just summoned you!” Sweetie Belle said in confusion.

“Aznip bound to Master’s book, yes. This book,” He motioned toward the Necronomicon on the ground between them, “created by Master thousands of years ago. Contains every spell ever created throughout time it does. Master looking for a way to achieve true immortality, but dream was never realized. On Master’s deathbed, Master bound me to this book. I am now guardian, looking to find another like Master to achieve his greatest work.”

“So, you think I’m the one that will discover the secret to immortality?” Aznip shrugged.

“You find my book, read it, and it no consume you. HA!! This make Aznip excited! Yes! BAHA!!”

“Consume? It can eat ponies?!” She panicked.

“No not eat, stupid, consume! Drive mad with power!” He explained.

“So there were other ponies that tried your book?” Sweetie asked.

“Hmmm… Yes. Last one was night princess, young fool thought to control darkness within book, but it no work like that. New Master need to be special in different way. But now you, you may be the one yet, but we shall see.”

“Okay, well what do I need to do?” Sweetie asked, but before she could get an answer they were interrupted by a scream off in the woods. “What was that?” Suddenly a small purple filly burst through the bushes and ran toward Sweetie, crying for help. Aznip cast a shroud over his body, becoming invisible to all but Sweetie.

Thirty minutes earlier

Ditzy and Dinky were making their way back to the post office, they had finished with the routes for the day and decided to take a detour to Sugar Cube Corner, where they each got a blueberry muffin. They passed a dark alley as they laughed and giggled, not seeing a dark figure lunge out at them. In an instant they were both knocked out cold with a swift kick to the back of their heads.

The figure drug them back into the alley and loaded their unconscious forms into a cart and covered them with hay. After a moment he hitched himself to the cart and trotted through town. He was an unassuming earth brown with a darker brown mane; the image on his rump was that of a bale of hay. He got onto the path that lead to Baltimare and began the trek through White Tail Woods.

They were just passing the midway point when Dinky woke up with a headache. She glanced around curiously until her eyes fell upon a grey hoof not covered very well. Fear gripped the filly’s chest as she carefully dug out more of the pony. Soon she uncovered her mother’s head and began to panic as shock and instinct took over. She quickly jumped off the cart and bolted in a random direction, screaming at the top of her lungs all the way.

The stallion pulling the cart noticed too late, and by the time he had unhitched himself he had lost track of the filly. He heard her scream again in the distance and began to chase after her at full speed. He quickly reached the clearing that was the Ponyville Park and leapt over the last bush before he dug his hooves into the ground to skid to a stop. Before him was his target and another, slightly older filly.

“Step aside and you won’t get hurt.” He told Sweetie Belle. Instead she stood defiantly, attempting to obscure Dinky from his glare. “Look kid, I’m on a tight schedule to get that filly to Baltimare. Her father is paying a handsome amount of money and I have no problem beating the snot out of some kid that didn’t know what was good for her.” He said with a grin. He twisted his neck, several of the vertebrae popping as he slowly advanced towards Sweetie.

Sweetie continued to stand her ground as her horn flashed and the light soaked into her hide.

“S-Stay back!” Sweetie warned him. He laughed as he rushed her and clobbered her in the head. Sweetie grunted in pain, even with the defensive spell active the pain from the blow was quite sharp.

She cleared her head with a shake, and looked up at the assaulting pony. He was surprised and confused, no filly should be able to keep standing after that attack.

Sweetie took this opportunity to charge her horn, and then basted a ball of light into his eyes. He roared in pain as the brightness burned his retinas.

“Come on!” Sweetie yelled to Dinky. She nodded and followed closely behind as they hid in the woods.

The stallion raked his face with his hooves trying to pry off the spell, drawing blood from his nose as it broke under his flailing. Fortunately for him, the spell faded quickly. He panted as he cast his bloodshot eyes around the area, the glaring spots making it nearly impossible to see. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, when he opened them again the spots were much smaller, his eyes beginning to readjust.

He then galloped off into the woods searching for his escaped prey. Luckily he was able to track their hoof prints in the soggy ground. Soon he caught up to them, he wasn’t far behind. He put on a burst of speed and leapt, landing on top of Dinky as she cried out in pain and surprise.

Sweetie Belle skidded to a halt as she spun around, the thug was now holding dinky against the ground with a knife to her throat.

“Now, you fucking bitch, get the fuck over here or I gut her!” He demanded.

She glanced around fearfully, spotting Aznip not far from the thug. “Aznip? I don’t think I can take this guy…” she said, an edge of fear entering her voice.

“Of course little horse! BAHAHA!!!” Aznip dropped his invisibility ward and burst into flames, startling the attacker and causing him to backpedal in a startled panic.

Aznip ran toward the dull earth pony and latched onto his back. From there he reached forward and began to claw the eyes out of the attacker as he screamed in pain. Blood was running down his face and muzzle from the numerous gouges in his face. He reared up and fell backwards, landing on Aznip, causing him to lose his grip.

The earth pony quickly got back onto his hooves and ran, searching for safety with his one good eye. His other had been gouged out during the assault and was now a string of flesh dangling out of the empty socket. Blinking more blood out of his remaining eye, he found what he was looking for: The path back through the woods.

Aznip saw his prey attempting to escape and wouldn’t allow it to happen. He channeled his magic into his claws and the space between them ignited. With a battle cry he tossed the ball of fire at the fleeing pony. The pony turned sharply into the woods, the fireball turning as well and quickly approaching the stallion. He tried weaving between the trees, either in confused terror or to try to shake his pursuer, but to no avail.

The fireball continued unabated, fazing through trees, bushes, and wildlife without causing harm and finally striking the stallion on his rump. The fireball exploded in a torrent of flames, engulfing the pony as he screamed in pain. The inferno quickly abated, but the fire seemed to stick to the stallion as he rolled around in the dirt, nothing was able to put out the fire. Soon he stopped screaming and thrashing altogether as he succumbed to the bitter embrace of death as nothing more than charred meat.

Sweetie Belle, Aznip, and Dinky followed the sounds of the tormented screaming and found the burnt remains not far from the main road. Sweetie knew it was the thug’s body, and that she had a hoof in his death. The shock was nullified partly because it just looked like a pile of charcoal, and in part is that if she hadn’t defended herself and Dinky they would both be kidnapped, or worse.

They stood over the remains, Dinky was already in shock from the thought of her mother being dead, and barely reacted to the sight before her. Instead she focused her attention on Aznip.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“This is Aznip, he’s my new magic teacher.” Aznip rolled his eyes but remained silent. Dinky’s stare began to bore into him, moisture collecting in her eyes as recent events began to crash down upon her.

“D-Did you save us?” She asked.

Aznip regarded her for a moment, then stretched to his full height to look at her at eye level. “Yes.”

To the surprise of both Sweetie and Aznip, Dinky bounded forward and embraced him in a tight hug. “Oh thank you, thank you! I-I-I just don’t know what’s going on!”

Sweetie walked forward and wrapped an arm around her withers, “I don’t know the full story either, but I’m just glad you weren’t hurt.”

Dinky glanced up at Sweetie Belle and noticed a large lump forming on the side of her head. “Oh no! are you okay?!” She asked.

Sweetie reached up and tenderly touched the lump with a wince. “Yeah, he got me pretty good though. I’ll be alright.”

Aznip looked indifferent as he moved to stand over the corpse and pulled something wispy out of the remains and into a gem.

“What… What was that?” Asked Sweetie, curious yet disgusted at the same time.

“His soul. Use it to restore energy once I back in own realm. You learn about soon enough.”

“Muffin?! Muffin!!” They each turned toward the sound of somepony calling out in fright.

“Mommy!!” Dinky yelled and took off down the path toward the sound of her mother.

Sweetie followed closely behind with Aznip, who was once again cloaked in invisibility. Soon they came upon a wonderful sight, Dinky had leaped into her mother, tears of joy and relief streaming down both of their faces as they held each other tightly. After a few minutes Ditzy hoisted her daughter onto her back, Dinky continuing to cry and snuggle into her mane.

Ditzy approached Sweetie Belle, “Did you save my muffin?” before she could answer Sweetie was swept up into a tight embrace as more tears from the pegusus soaked into her coat. “Thank you, thank you so much! I-I don’t know what I would have done otherwise, thank you!”

“You’re welcome; I was just in the right place I guess.” Sweetie said modestly. Suddenly they were interrupted by a blue blur with a rainbow trail.

“What’s going on, is everypony alright?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a slight panic. “I saw a fire and came as soon as I warned the town. Sweetie Belle? What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was in the park when…” Sweetie explained the events that took place, leaving details about Aznip out and saying she simply cast a spell in shock that resulted in the fireball and death of the assailant. “… and then we heard Ditzy calling out and now we’re here.” She finished.

During her recount other ponies began to show up, first was Twilight and the rest of the gang along with several town guards and fire ponies. Then several other ponies came out that were just curious or wanted to assist the others in some way.

Ditzy and Dinky were both rushed to the hospital to be treated for concussions while Twilight wrote up a report to send to the princess. The police took Sweetie with them, infuriating Rarity as well as every pony in the area as they declared her a hero. The charred remains of the body were scooped into trash bags to be taken to the morgue and to be hopefully identified.

Soon after at the local guard station, Sweetie was reduced to tears as she was harshly lectured about the dangers of attempting too strong of a magical spell.

“I-I’m so sorry!” she wailed, “I just didn’t want him to hurt her! I-I overheard my s-sister and M-Miss Cheerilee talking about her father, and I don’t know what happened!”

One of the guards strode up and gently rubbed her back. “Shh shh, there there. We know you didn’t meant to, but it’s still the fact that you are able to pull off such advanced magic at a young age. You need to be careful from now on so that you don’t accidently hurt anypony else. Also, we are well aware of Dinky’s situation, and we need to thank you for stepping in when you did.”

Sweetie nodded as she dried her eyes on her hoof, “So, I can go now?” she sniffed.

“Yes you are free to go home, we just wanted you to understand the dangers involved with powerful magic.” Soon she was led outside by the guard, and they even gave her a sticker of the guard’s insignia. Outside she was reunited with Rarity, and together everypony headed to the hospital to check up on Ditzy and Dinky, Aznip not far behind, his invisible presence felt by none.

One hour ago, Canterlot

Luna was once more encased in massive amounts of books. However, instead of the usual tax and law books she was now surrounded with everything dealing with the occults that have popped up through the ages. She was able to study in peace for the last day, learning much but finding nothing of use. It was at this time she was visited by her sister, Celestia.

“Oh? Court is over already?” Luna observed as she marked her page and set the book aside.

“Indeed. I was just finishing up when I got a letter from Twilight, and it would appear that there are some shady operations going on with the local government.” Celestia said as she levitated the scroll to Luna.

“Oh-ho, a scandal, this shall be most entertaining!” Luna said with an excited grin, anything to break the monotony of dry research.

“Not so much of a scandal as a legal monopoly playing through various loop holes in the local government. According to Twilight a pair of local owners of some multi-million bit businesses are supplying funding to the local school and the teacher is feeling threatened should she take action against said millionaire’s daughters. Until recently, the actions of their daughters, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, have been harassing the students. However, yesterday they physically attacked the little sister of Rarity, the Element of Generosity.” Luna raised an eyebrow, this was serious indeed.

“The teacher, a one Miss Cheerilee, suspended them for three weeks and is now facing threats of the school being shut down and impending unemployment. When looked into further, the reason the government is doing nothing is basically because they are owned and operated by the two families. Twilight has suggested I step in and remove them from power, but to do so would be against my own laws. If ponies saw me breaking my own rules they would think I felt I was above them, and I don’t need riots right now.

“However, I did find something that should make everypony happy. The element bearers, along with their families, have been put under protection by the guard stationed in the town. They don’t know this of course, but we don’t need them kidnapped or blackmailed right before another threat befalls Equestria. Anyway, since Sweetie Belle falls into that category by being an immediate family member we can proceed with legal actions to financially and politically destroy both of the families, thus returning the wealth to the population and removing their dominance over Ponyville.” Celestia finished with applause from her sister.

“Well played dear sister, when shall we commence the punishment?” Luna asked gleefully. Anypony who threatened her saviors and their families deserved the full punishment of the law.

“I will start the paperwork in the morning, I still need you to continue the research.”

Luna let out an exaggerated sigh, “But this is getting us nowhere!” she whined. Just then they were interrupted as a waft of smoke flew up to Celestia and condensed into a scroll.

“Oh, another letter?” Celestia asked as she unraveled the scroll and read its contents. As she read her eyes grew wide and her jaw hung open.

“Celly? What is it?” Luna asked, concerned. Celestia read the scroll over once more before giving it to Luna.

“Looks like things in Ponyville are escalating fairly quickly. An attempted double kidnapping and attempted murder by an unknown assailant, who was then killed in self-defense by none other than Sweetie Belle with a panic-driven bolt of magic?” Celestia was at a loss for words, she had heard of these rare occasions but to have them happen so close to home and with a filly no less?

“Indeed.” Luna thought for a moment. “Perhaps we should have Twilight watch over the filly so she could learn to control her power?”

“Hmm, that may be an excellent idea! I’ll let Twilight know and see if she can set aside some time each day to teach her some control. Who knows? The poor filly may actually get her cutie mark this way.”

Chapter 6

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6.5: Diamond Tiara

A/N: I shortened Diamond Tiara to DT because her full name is a bitch to read and write. Makes sense, because she is a bitch.

Diamond Tiara was unable to do anything but lay there on the ground, holding her hoof in pain. She watched as Sweetie Belle, a blank flank in the same class as her, spoke down to her. Then, the blank flank cast some sort of weird spell on her, a spell that no doubt failed because it didn’t do anything.

She was told to run as a bit of advice. What kind of advice is that? Diamond Tiara glared daggers at Sweetie Belle, who after taking two punches to the face had nothing to show for it. She slowly got to her hooves, favoring her right foreleg as she continued to glare and wishing hateful things on the one responsible for ruining her life.

As she was mentally screaming in anger, she noticed a slight shimmer under one of the many trees leading to Sweet Apple Acres. Looking closer, she felt a feeling of pure dread and foreboding, forcing her to look away. She closed her eyes and took several deep, calming breaths. Mustering up her courage she looked back at the tree, however there was nothing odd to be felt about it.

Grunting in anger she spun around and headed back into town, towards her home. Along the way she crossed paths with another filly in her class, Twist. Diamond Tiara hated Twist with every fiber of her being. She had no idea why, but the lisp, the pitch of her voice grating on her eardrums, and her obsession with being a teacher’s pet just made her blood boil. Add the fact that DT was in a very bad mood looking to blow some steam on an easy target and that made for a non-friendly confrontation.

“Hey Sickie Twistie!” DT really didn’t have a mean name for Twist, but in the end it was the sneer that made it a mean name. “Who said you can cross in front of me? I don’t want your gross lisp germs!”

“Oh, uh, hey DT…” Twist said carefully.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me! I asked you a question and you’re going to answer or suffer the consequences!” Her hoof was sore, but that wasn’t going to stop her from passing up the last chance she’s going to get to beat the snot out of an ugly filly.

“I-I wasn’t—I didn’t mean-!”

“Shut it! You came out here thinking it would be funny to spread your sickly disease and filth all over me!”

“N-no!” Twist was now on the ground, crying, her hooves over her head in an effort to protect herself. DT saw this and was filled with pride, pride that she could turn a usually happy and carefree filly into a sniveling mess.

“I told you to answer me!” She yelled, bringing her good hoof down upon Twist’s head just hard enough to hurt and get her point across. Twist yowled, actually yowled like she was a cat! This alone brought DT an almost euphoric pleasure. Here she was, asserting her dominance over someone who should be treated like trash, and it felt good.

“Next time I ask something, I want you to answer! Got it?” Twist nodded and as quickly as she could she ran down the street with tears streaming down her face. DT smiled as she ran off like a bawling foal, her eyes following her movement as she crossed in front of an alley.

So intent on Twist, she didn’t see what was lurking in the shadows of that alley, but she sure as hell felt it. The fur all over her body instantly stood on end, her throat dried and her tongue swelled as a strong tingling feeling ran down her spine, through her legs, and to her hooves. She quickly looked closer at the alley, yet she was unable to see whatever was lurking in the shadows.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the feeling was gone. She blinked in confusion before very warily turning back down the road, fully intent on returning home. Moving at a brisk trot, she was out in front of her house in seemingly no time at all. She glanced around quickly, looking for any sign of the thing in the shadows. To her great relief she neither saw nor felt its presence.

She made her way through the front gate of her estate and upon approaching the house she saw a rather disturbing sight. Her father and mother were yelling at each other while tearing down all the photos from the walls and piling them out in the backyard.

“Mommy? Daddy? What’s going on?” DT said, once more pretending to be the perfect daughter. What she didn’t expect was for her parents to round on her with pure hatred.

“What’s going on?! Because of that shit you pulled in school my life is ruined! My family have disowned us and we have been cast out of our own home! And not just us, the Silver family got royally screwed over alongside us! You are lucky I am even allowing you to pack up a single suitcase of shit you want to keep, you got one hour and whatever is not in the suitcase will be burned out back!”

Her father never yelled at her or got mad at her in her entire life. Seeing him this way and having that anger directed at her broke her heart. She was crying harder than Twist was just a few minutes prior. Was this the torment she inflicted on others? She didn’t enjoy it at all. Besides, those other ponies she picked on deserved to feel this way, not her. She didn’t deserve this.

She ran up the stairs to her bedroom on the third floor as fast as her little legs could carry her. Once she was inside she slammed the door shut behind her and ran to her bed. She took a flying leap and landed in the softness of the blankets where she continued to cry her eyes out.

After a few minutes her tears finally let up. She pulled herself up on her bed and gazed out the window and froze with fear. She could see it, the thing that seemed to follow her around. It was on the roof of a building a few blocks away. At first it would appear to simply be a well-dressed pony, but this pony was tall, far taller than it should have been. It had no tail, no mane, and no FACE.

As if it knew that she saw it, it turned its head in her direction and seemed to gaze into her very soul. As she kept staring, unable to break eye contact, it seemed to grow taller and stretch several tendrils from its back. It reached out to her, tried to grab her, yet she could only look on in horror as her impending doom swiftly approached.

A loud crash in the hall right outside her door made her jump a foot in the air and spin around, breaking eye contact with the monster. Fearing impending doom, she whipped right back around again, but the monster was gone. The door was thrown open by her father a moment later.

“Did… did you even start packing?! I knew you were worthless but this is just ridiculous, you can’t even follow a simple order! ‘Pack your shit’ and here you are just staring out the window!” He stormed to her closet and threw the doors open and grabbed a suitcase and then threw it violently onto her bed.

He returned to the closet and pulled out several dresses, some ripping and tearing. “You want to keep these?” he asked forcibly, to which DT nodded. “Too bad, these have been claimed by Ponyville. How about these?” he shoved her jewelry box under her nose, then pulled it away. “Nope, not yours either. These were bought from Ponyville with Ponyville’s money!” he yelled, throwing the beautiful box against the wall, shattering it to pieces. “Grab some blankets to keep warm and pack them, that’s all you are allowed to bring.” He stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him.

Diamond Tiara was staring at the floor between her hooves, fresh tears falling from her eyes to pool on the floor. She hated this, hated her father, hated those blank flanks and everypony else she could think of. She wished the pain would go away, that she could have her old life back, where she was on top and treating others like they deserved.

She arched her head back with the intent of cursing the heavens themselves, but her breath caught in her throat. Staring down at her from her ceiling was the head of the same faceless pony from before. Its legs were stretched up to the ceiling into a swarming black mass of tentacles, from which its neck was stretched out to the center of her ceiling.

She let out an earth shattering scream and bolted to the door as fast as she could, she turned the knob and pulled, it didn’t open. She tried again, twisting the knob the other way, the door remained shut. She spun around and screamed again, it was even closer now, almost able to grab her. Seeing no other option, she dove to the side and ran toward the opposite wall. Filled with pure terror, she reared up and began beating on the window and crying for help.

Seeing that help was much farther away than the monster in her room, she picked up a larger chunk of her jewelry box and threw it through the window. Seeing her ticket to freedom, she leaped out the open window, away from the monster in her room.

Her parents were outside, piling on more fuel to feed the upcoming fire when they heard their daughter’s screams. Thinking she was just throwing a tantrum they ignored her. That was until her window was shattered and a piece of her jewelry box smashed at their hooves amidst the glass. To their horror, when they looked up they saw her leap from the broken window, a small smile forming on her lips as she fell.

With a sickening crunch, she landed head first on the cement, splattering her parents with her blood and brain matter.

Chapter 7: Discovery

You think you know me? A light blue unicorn mare with an hourglass cutie mark thought to herself, You don’t know anything. The mare seemed to wander aimlessly though the park near the White Tail Woods as she smiled at passerby, seemingly without a care in the world. Ignorance is your downfall; your grains of sand are running low.

The mare stopped at a seemingly random spot, and then casually looked around for anypony watching. Confirming her privacy, she lit up her horn with a soft glow the color of her coat. What will you do, I wonder, she thought as she picked up two similar magical signatures, both saturated with dark magic, what will you do, as the last grain of sand drops?

Her private monologue was interrupted by a throaty scream, one born of true horror and trauma. Natural pony instincts kicking in, the mare quickly joined a crowed running through town. Soon enough they were able to feast their eyes on a very uncommon sight: a mother and father weeping over the disfigured form of their daughter.

The mare used to be an investigator for scenes such as these; unfortunately her new career forbade any actions that risk ponies asking too many questions. But, as the mare soon found out, old habits die hard. Her horn was once again glowing with a soft color. She quickly caught herself and cut off the flow of magic, but not before realizing a faint magical signature leaked from the poor filly. With another slight burst of magic she was able to match it to one of the signatures from the park. She found evidence, all she needed now was to match the signatures with the suspect and the case was closed.

As casually as she could, she backed away from the scene, leaving the crowd of ponies to look on in horror. The mare lit her horn, there were more interesting things going on than a lone mare lighting her horn for no apparent reason, so her cover remained secure. She was able to see the faint trail of magic that seemed to leak off of the filly. She was able to follow the trail through town to the road that lead to Sweet Apple Acres.

As she approached she heard the tell-tale sign of the Cutie-Mark Crusaders quickly approaching. Seeing her chance to investigate a suspect, the mare walked out to the center of the road and with another quick spell was able to match the magical signatures she discovered to Sweetie Belle. The mare was horrified; the report had her as a suspect for simply being near the scene of the crime, but to suddenly discover that she was the murderer?

The realization made the mare freeze up on the spot. She had taken down countless murderers, assassins, and just plain crooks, but never was a filly involved. The situation was far beyond her control. She knew from both her training and personal experience that hesitation was the sure-fire way to a quick death, but to kill a seemingly innocent filly?

“Hey Colgate, what are you doing standing there in the middle of the road?” Scootaloo asked as she slowed to a stop in front of the mare.

“Oh, I uh… Just realized something that I forgot! Well I better go take care of the thing I was just realizing I forgot about… ehehe…” Colgate said as she smiled widely, her eyes shifting back and forth as sweat cascaded down her face.

“Um, are you feeling alright, Miss Colgate?” Sweetie Belle asked. Her voice made Colgate even more nervous for a moment before she turned and fled from the trio.

Colgate ran as fast as her legs could carry her back to her house. She ran inside and slammed the door, leaning against it for a moment to catch her breath. She peeked out the spy hole to see if she was followed, she wasn’t. With a heavy sigh she turned to her fireplace and turned a knob on the side. It burst to life immediately with angry red flames. Her horn glowed once more as the image of Princess Luna appeared in the flames.

“This better be important, this line is reserved to emergencies only, it’s not a spy network if somepony discovered this secret, Agent Colgate.” Luna’s voice echoed though her mind.

“I have found and identified the target, Your Majesty.” Colgate said nervously.

“So, is it truly little Sweetie Belle as my sister fears or is there a second party?” Asked Luna, Colgate looked away from the image in the fireplace. “It really is Sweetie Belle, isn’t it? By Faust, how could this happen?”

Colgate cleared her throat to regain some composure, “The signatures at both murder scenes matched with the filly Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry Your Majesty, but I could not bring myself to believe such a child possessed the book. Living here in Ponyville for as long as I have has shown me how sweet and innocent she is to the world around her and I… I couldn’t…” Colgate broke off as she was wreaked by a sob. She was stuck between two places she never thought she would end up. She never failed an assignment, but could never bring herself to believe a child was solely responsible for the murder of two ponies.

“Two murders?” The image of Luna asked.

“Sorry,” Colgate sniffed in an effort to calm herself before continuing, “The second murder was a filly by the name of Diamond Tiara. The scene looks like she committed suicide by leaping out of her third story bedroom window. However, after a quick examination of the body I discovered a dark spell with the same signature as one of the two I found in the park.”

“You know crime scene investigation is to be left to the local guard.” Luna said sternly.

“I-I know, I’m sorry, I just started going through the motions before I could stop myself. But after I made the discovery of the spell encasing the corpse, I followed the trail to the road to Sweet Apple Acres where I stumbled upon Sweetie Belle and her friends. I was able to make the final connection of undeniable proof that she was the murderer.” Colgate said, tears forming in her eyes once more.

“You said two signatures in the park, what was the other one?” Luna asked after a moment of thought.

“It was like Sweetie brought the second one into existence out of thin air. It was similar to Sweetie Belle’s signature but far darker and more evil feeling.” Colgate said, bringing up the copy of the signatures her horn took.

“Based on what I did as Nightmare Moon, Sweetie summoned a demon from the pits of hell themselves, no doubt to kill the pony after Dinky. Due to this change of events, I want you to keep an eye on her, and if you can, retrieve the book from her possession in any way possible. If we’re lucky then she shouldn’t know too many spells. If we fail to end this now she will grow infinitely stronger until she is able to throw the entire world into war. I’ll give you one day to retrieve the book, then my sister and I will be forced to intervene to take the book by force if we need to.”

She rubbed the tears from her eyes and glared at the image of the princess with a fierce determination, “Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll complete the mission.”

Author's Note

Did you think I gave up on this story because I put out a bunch of random stuff since the last chapter? Normally you would be right, but not today! I had some things come up and was trying to deal with them and other thoughts were plaguing my imagination. Fear not faithful readers, the true story has just begun.

Edit 3 march: changed the image in the fireplace from Celestia to an unknown "Queen"

Edit 5 May: Sorry, i could not for the life of me get this to work out the way i wanted, so i changed the figure in the fireplace to Princess Luna. I was thinking of doing Chrysalis and have her go after the book for her own devises, but it would throw off what i wanted to do really badly, also no sequel with that route. I plan on getting this story finished by the end of the week so expect updates!

Chapter 8: A Talent Revealed

“The hay was all that about?” Scootaloo asked as Colgate made her swift departure. She turned to regard her friends, both of whom wore the same bewildered expression. She turned back around and shook her head; things were just as odd as always. She revved her wings and took off down the street, headed for the park to test another crazy idea for a cutie mark.

However, thoughts of cutie marks quickly turned to thoughts of confusion as they neared what appeared to be a giant mob gathered around Diamond Tiara’s mansion. Scootaloo decided to get a closer look, so she guided the scooter and trailing wagon to the front of the crowd. What they saw would change their lives.

Filthy Rich and his wife were crying out as though in great pain, a bloody mess of bone and fur grasped tightly in their hooves. The crusaders could only fit two and two together just as the rest of the crowd did: the grey, bloody mess of fur was what was left of Diamond Tiara.

Sweetie Belle could only look on in pure horror. Had her curse done this? Had she killed another pony? A dark part of her mind told her that DT got what she deserved, even if it was a bit over the top. She shook those thoughts out of her head, she wanted answers and she knew just where to get them.

She turned away from the crowd and ran home, her friends not far behind her. She sprinted into the boutique and seemed to fly past the victory party her sister was throwing. She ran up the stairs and around the corner to her room, where she began frantically searching for the book of spells.

“Sweetie Belle, are ya okay?” Applebloom asked as she and Scootaloo finally caught up to the frantic unicorn. “Ya just took off on us. Ah know it was ah frightful thing, disgusting too, but we should be together tah help us get through this. Ah know she wasn’t the nicest pony, but Ah really don’t think she deserved that.” Sweetie Belle seemed to ignore her as she continued to turn her room inside out. “Sweetie? Y’all listenen to me?”

“Come on, where is it?! I just had it!” Sweetie grumbled in frustration, seemingly oblivious to those around her.

“What? The book?” Scootaloo asked as she pulled the book out from under the bed.

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” Sweetie Belle practically screamed, ripping the book out of Scootaloo’s hooves. She set it on the floor behind her, blocking it from view.

“Hey! What gives? I was only trying to help!” Scootaloo yelled back, both hurt and angered at Sweetie’s actions.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t think anypony should be messing with the book…”

“Sweetie? What aren’t y’all tellen us?” inquired Applebloom.

Sweetie Belle looked around the room, a strained expression upon her muzzle as though she were debating something of dire importance. After a few minutes she let out a strained sigh, “It was me…”

“Um… what?”

“It was me, I am responsible for what happened to Diamond Tiara.” Sweetie Belle said, looking at them for the first time. Her eyes were red and puffy, tears flowing down her muzzle as the effects of her spell hit home once again. “She… She jumped me when I was on my way to the club house. I-I used some of my new spells to not get hurt when she tried to beat me up. B-But before that… I learned a new spell… a curse.” She took their stunned silence as a queue to continue, “The curse was a mental instability spell, I thought it would just scare her really bad… not drive her to that…”

All three were silent for a time, Scootaloo and Applebloom unmoving while Sweetie glanced nervously back and forth between them. As the minutes passed, Sweetie began to shuffle nervously where she sat.

“What now?” Applebloom suddenly asked.

“Huh?” Sweetie responded intellectually.

“You just committed and confessed to a murder, Sweetie Belle, you learned and used spells from a book that ah now see as pure evil. What’s tah stop ya from going further? If ah have ta get that book away from you to protect not only those around you, but you as well, will it be given up peacefully or am ah gonna have ta take it by force?” Applebloom leveled a steel-like glare at Sweetie, who felt hefself shrinking under the intensity.

“B-but what if it hurts you?” Sweetie mumbled, just loud enough to hear.

“Y’all forget, Twilight is right downstairs.” Applebloom turned to Scootaloo, who had remained oddly quiet during the exchange. “Go and get Twilight, Don’t say anything about what just happened, they need to hear it from Sweetie.”

“We already did.” The three fillies gasped in shock, there in the doorway stood a furious Twilight, Rarity draped across her back in a dead faint, and Cheerilee staring in complete shock.

“Now hand over the book, I will turn it into Celestia for her to destroy, and your cooperation and testimony should lighten your punishment. If not, then as Applebloom put it, I will have to use force.”

Sweetie Belle slowly nodded, then reached around behind her to retrieve the book. However, it was gone. “Huh? Where-”

“Sweetie Belle! You will hoof over the book this instant or Celestia help me-!”

“But it was right here!” Sweetie Belle pleaded, but to no avail. She saw Twilight’s horn glow, a moment later she found herself in the middle of the street. She had somehow cast the damage reduction spell, preventing her from taking too much damage from being thrown through the wall of the boutique. There was a bright flash of light as Twilight appeared in front of her, sans Rarity.

“You will hand over the book this instant or I will take you down and drag you to Canterlot and lock you in a dungeon myself!” Twilight’s horn glowed brighter as she gripped Sweetie Belle in her magic. But something was wrong, her grip kept failing, like she was trying to hold onto a bar of soap in the shower. Sweetie slipped out of the aura holding her and fell to the ground, she had some minor scuffs but was none the worse for the wear.

“Twilight, please, I don’t know where the book went! I set it behind me when Scootaloo grabbed it! I swear! You have to believe me! I don’t want to fight you…” Sweetie pleaded, but she readied her defenses just in case.

Twilight was just about to unleash another attack, but a blue mare swatted her horn to interrupt the spell. Twilight glared at the interfering pony.

“You will cease all hostile actions at once, I am secret agent Minty Fresh, code name Colgate.” She said, flashing her badge. “I am under direct orders from Princess Luna to retrieve the book, which I have here in my possession. I will also be taking Sweetie Belle into custody for questioning.”

She turned around to regard the filly in question. “Sweetie, drop your spells and come with me peacefully, and I promise things won’t get ugly. Refuse, and I can’t make that promise.”

Sweetie looked at her nervously, she was in way over her head and didn’t want to think about what might happen. She released a breath she didn’t know she was holding and dropped her spells before sedately walking up to ‘Colgate.’

Agent Fresh pulled a ring from the Null Space and placed it on Sweetie’s horn. It instantly contracted and held tightly, inhibiting any and all magic. “Now, come with me to the train station, the next train to Canterlot leaves soon.”

“That won’t be necessary, Agent Fresh.” They all turned to see the princesses standing behind them. “We will take the book from here.” Luna said, teleporting the book off of Agent Fresh’s back. “And I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, little one. The punishment for any type of murder in Equestria is death, but being as you were caught up in events beyond your control, we will lighten the punishment.”

Celestia stepped forward, “For the murder of two ponies, one but a filly like yourself, the sentence shall be life without magic. I will take your horn from your head so you may learn from this, and hopefully not prove to be entirely corrupted by the black magics within the book of darkness. Does anyone disagree with this punishment?” She asked the few ponies in attendance.

“I do.” Several gasps were heard as heads swiveled to see Rarity, no longer in a dead faint and seething with barely suppressed rage. “That book, be it evil or not, gave my sister a chance at magic she never had. Years ago, when our parents took her to the doctor for a checkup, it was discovered that Sweetie Belle would never be able to use her magic because she had an abnormal growth in her brain, in her brain! We looked into surgery, but anything we found had a 90% chance of further damaging her brain, possibly rendering her a vegetable.”

She looked at her younger sister, tears in her eyes, “I’m sorry we kept this from you Sweetie, we thought it best if you didn’t know until you were older. When you cast the light spell the other day, I couldn’t help but think the doctors were wrong, that you could perform magic and that you were just a late bloomer. But if this book is the one responsible for bestowing the gift of magic onto you, then I say learn it all, find your true talent in the dark arts and use them to make this world a better place. I know you can do it-” Rarity was cut off as a spear lodged into her throat, thrown from on high.

“Alright, hand over the book of darkness or we kill each and every one of you lame-o ponies and your widdle pwincess!” A mocking voice demanded from high above. Above them millions of griffons began to blot out the sky, but what concerned the ponies the most, even more so than trying to help Rarity, was a little filly screaming out in pain. Her screams were matched by thousands of others as shadows darker than the night itself erupted around her, filling her with power to seek vengeance upon those that would dare harm her sister.

She glared upward at the griffon that threw the spear, a dark circle of magical runes sprung to life beneath her hooves, and a cutie mark of an enclosed five pointed star flashed into existence upon her flank, “From the land of the living, I call upon thee in the land of the dead, to unleash thy fury of thunder.”

Author's Note

To be continued in the sequel, The Pursuit of Vengeance!

Also, I figured out why i couldn't write for shit, it was because I wasn't writing on my laptop! i just wrote everything and more i had for the ending of this fic in about two hours, it was so easy i feel stupid that it took that long to realize my fingers missed my laptop keyboard. A macbook pro was my first computer i wrote on, so it makes sense in a way.

Over 9k internets to whomever knows what the spell incantation is from, no cheating!

Afternote, the original plan was for her to fight Celestia and for Rarity to get killed by accident, then have Sweetie run away to the everfree to complete her training. But as it came out that she was terrified of the book I decided she was going to turn herself in.

As for the griffons, I mentioned in the first chapter that they were readying for war. For them to be able to take on the princesses, I decided that *Spoiler alert!* they would develop a means to withstand their magic and empower themselves, then sweetie becomes and anti-hero as she enacts her vengeance upon the griffons.

I decided to split the story for a few reasons, the change in plot was the main reason while the next part is going to be larger and more epic.

As for how sweetie was able to cast magic if she was never able to, the book's magic has different properties and has magic that follows different rules, like the spell circle that gathers energy through it instead of the horn, but requires an incantation to help focus the energy. So she can still cast with an inhibitor but in a different way unknown to Equestria.

As for the spell itself, consider it like a Limit break from final fantasy where the emotional surge just triggers it.

Revisions Underway!

Hey all! Thanks for your support in my work, specifically this one. ever since i "completed" it I've felt it wasnt what it was supposed to be, yet turned a blind eye and moved on.

I wish to correct that, I feel I had something special going on here and I fucked it up, its not fair to you guys and so I'm setting things straight.

If you enjoyed the original story, I will be posting google doc links at the head of each chapter as well as a change log of whats different.

as you may notice, chapter 1 is already revised with over 2000 words of revised material and general tweaks.

keep an eye out for future updates!

Chapter 7.5

If you haven't already, please re-read the previous chapter's ending as I have once again changed the plot.

“Sister!” Princess Luna called as she charged from her chambers to the throne room. “Sister I bring news most grave!” She yelled as she burst into the throne room.

Princess Celestia looked up from Prince Blueblood, who was once again demanding action against a maid that bumped into him. Celestia smiled at the interruption of Blueblood’s endless drivel, “Ah, sister, do come in. Blueblood, you are dismissed.”

“But Auntie, I still have forty five minutes!” Blueblood whined.

“And I’m sure we can discuss it more after the matter my sister has brought up.” Celestia said calmly, watching Blueblood strut out of the court room.

“I still don’t know why we simply don’t flog him before his peers. It would be a just punishment for his attitude towards others.” Luna said with a sigh.

“You know why we can’t do that. But while I am grateful for the interruption, what is this grave news that you bring me?” She said, giving a nod to her guards to leave them in peace.

Luna waited for the remaining guards to close the door behind them, “The current owner of the book of darkness,” Luna paused, forcing Celestia to lean forward in anticipation, “Rarity’s younger sister, Sweetie Belle.”

“So it is true… what all have you found?” Luna filled her in on what her spy in Ponyville had uncovered. “A second murder? And one of the ones responsible for the fight at her school no less. Luna, if this second case was an act of revenge…”

“Then there is another filly whose life is in grave danger…” Luna finished as the implications dawned on her.

“There is no time to waste, we must make haste to Ponyville at one!” They both announced before teleporting to their chambers to prepare for what may lie ahead.

Author's Note

I think I'm just going to go with short segments until I get back into writing. hope that's okay.